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  • Tell Me Why You’re Crying My Son

    Peter, Paul and Mary onstage at the Westbury M...
    Peter Paul and Mary play NY in 2006. Image via Wikipedia

    Mary Travers, the Mary who blended her voice with Peter and Paul, has died at 72 according to published reports at CNN.com.

    Watching a world pass them by but sticking to the idealism that made them 60s favorites, PP&M were the VH1 band of their day that wanted to break on MTV but not lose their loyal listeners.   Puff (The Magic Dragon) wasn’t about anything but a child’s imaginary playmate they insisted, much like The Beatles insisted that many of their well known drug songs were simple odes about fun places.

    Back to back Grammy Awards in 1962-1963 for Best Pop Performance for If I Had A Hammer and Leaving On A Jet Plane established the trio in music’s mainstream.  They were no longer the torch bearers of Seeger’s legacy, but a musical force (much like early Kanye) that could keep a foot on each side of the road and walk straight down the center.

    The artists they influenced are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as are the artists that influenced them.   They gave voice to Bobby Zimmerman’s Blowin’ in the Wind.  They did the same thing for John Denver’s Leaving on a Jet Plane in that awkward period the Far Out guy experienced between the Chad Mitchell days and his stint as a Rocky Mountain troubadour.

    Peter Paul & Mary covered Dylan especially well.   In The Wind, the band’s third album in 1963, featured three Dylan penned tracks.  They would constantly return to Dylan covers, including I Shall Be Released and Too Much of Nothing.  Tim Hardin was another favorite songwriter to cover, as was influence Pete Seeger.

    Perhaps no better measure of the respect PP&M generated is found in the musicians credits on their albums.  Artists like Herbie Hancock grace the credits of the band’s discography.  And if Paul Stookey wanted to write songs and Peter Yarrow wanted to produce them, Mary Travers was the soaring voice cementing the two and firmly establishing the trio in pop music history.

    RIP Mary.  Day is done.

    *For those who didn’t delve too deep into the discography, the headline is the first line of Day is Done, one of Peter, Paul and Mary’s last hits.

  • Chart Chat 9/16/09: Jigga and the Fabs

    Jay-Z makes history on this week’s Billboard 200 Album Chart. “The Blueprint 3” crashes in at the #1 spot, scanning over 475,000 copies. This is Jay’s 11th chart topping album, giving him more #1 albums than any solo artist in history. More than Elvis. More than Michael Jackson. More than Billy Joel, Barbra Streisand or any artist in history than…

    …The Beatles, who make some chart noise of their own this week. Their recently reissued catalog sells a combined 650,000 copies, with 9 titles landing in the Top Twenty. Granted, none of these titles appear on the actual Billboard 200 because of their age, but they take up 9 of the Top 10 spots on Billboard’s catalog chart. “Abbey Road” is the top seller, followed by “Sgt. Pepper”, “The White Album” and “Rubber Soul”.

    Elsewhere on the chart, Raekwon and Brooks & Dunn also enter in the Top 10. It looks like Jay will hold at the #1 spot on next week’s album chart, with a battle forming for second place between British band Muse and Whitney Houston, who will see an uptick in sales thanks to her interviews on the season premiere of “Oprah”.

    …and here’s another interesting Jay fact…”Blueprint 3″ opens with 50,000 more copies than 2007’s “American Gangster” did. “Gangster” went on to sell over one million copies.

    This week’s Top 20 Albums, courtesy of Billboard & Soundscan

    1) Jay-Z “Blueprint 3”

    2) Miley Cyrus “Time of Our Lives EP”

    3) The Beatles “Abbey Road”

    4) Whitney Houston “I Look to You”

    5) The Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”

    6) Raekwon “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2”

    7) The Beatles “The Beatles (White Album)”

    8) The Beatles “Rubber Soul”

    9) Brooks & Dunn “#1s…and Then Some”

    10) The Beatles “Revolver”

    11) Trey Songz “Ready”

    12) Michael Jackson “Number Ones”

    13) Black Eyed Peas “The E.N.D.”

    14) Boys Like Girls “Love Drunk”

    15) Kings of Leon “Only by the Night”

    16) The Beatles “Help!”

    17) Taylor Swift “Fearless”

    18) The Beatles “Let it Be”

    19) The Beatles “Past Masters 1 & 2”

    20) The Beatles “Magical Mystery Tour”

  • The Kanye West Backlash

    It’s been talked about ad nauseum and Money Mike and I wrote our immediate thoughts here and here.

    Let’s quickly restate the facts.

    – Taylor Swift wins her first MTV Video Music Award.

    – Kanye West rudely interrupts her speech as a way to both direct attention to himself, and to Beyonce, who he thinks should’ve won.

    – Beyonce lets Taylor Swift join her onstage so that she can accept her award officially, since West rudely interrupted her before.

    – All pop culture hell breaks loose.

    – West apologizes.

    I’m not sure there’s ever been such a non-serious moment at such a non-serious awards show that has ever caused a stir in the media like this one.

    Kanye West might be the music version of Terrell Owens. I’ve never seen a man cause such hate and fervor just by yearning for attention. This was his “Terrell Owens runs to the star at Cowboys Stadium” moment. And it was dumb. This I agree. But should the feedback be as hateful and racist as it has been?

    Yes, I said racist. Do me a favor. Go to Google and type in the words “kanye west twitter n-word” and see what’s listed on the first page. It’s become ugly.

    I posted the same live blog that I first posted here on another website and one of the first comments talked about wanting to lynch West. How can someone who you don’t know instill such hate that you would want to lynch him? I don’t get it.

    West apologizes on The Jay Leno Show

    I’m still not 100% certain that this wasn’t some stunt concocted by MTV and Kanye West so that West and the show would dominate Twitter’s Trending Topics. I’m now convinced that Taylor Swift wasn’t in on anything, mostly based on how she’s reacted thus far.

    But for those of you who have so much hate for West and feel so badly for Swift, get over it. Swift doesn’t need the help. She’s one of the top female recording artists in the history, and her album outsold Kanye’s latest album by a 2-1 margin. She’s a breakout star who is only going to get more famous. She doesn’t need your pity.

    West clearly has some issues with his security and the fact that he’s so up and down with his persona is a bit frustrating. He’s still a talented artist, but just one who is addicted to the lime light and hopefully figures out how to not succumb to it at all opportunities.

    But let’s stay away from the hate. What he did should’ve made you roll your eyes, not call for his head.