Scott Walker, experimental pop hero, dies aged 76

Dick Dale, the Inventor of Surf Rock, Was a Lebanese-American Kid from Boston

Dale’s work was directly and mightily informed by the Arabic music that he listened to as a child. “My music comes from the rhythm of Arab songs,” Dale told the journalist George Baramki Azar, in 1998. “The darbukkah, along with the wailing style of Arab singing, especially the way they use the throat, creates a very powerful force.”

Dale was left-handed, and he preferred to play a custom-made Fender Stratocaster guitar at an indecent volume. (After he exploded enough amplifiers, Fender also made him a custom amplifier—the Dick Dale Dual Showman.) His version of “Misirlou” is gorgeously belligerent. Though it feels deeply American—it is so heavy with the energy of teen-agers, hot rods, and wide suburban boulevards—“Misirlou” is in fact an eastern Mediterranean folk song. The earliest recorded version is Greek, from 1927, and it was performed in a style known as rebetiko, itself a complex mélange of Orthodox chanting, indigenous Greek music, and the Ottoman songs that took root in Greek cities during the occupation. (A few years back, I spent some time travelling through Greece for a Times Magazine story about indigenous-Greek folk music; when I heard “Misirlou” playing from a 78-r.p.m. record on a gramophone on the outskirts of Athens—a later, slower version, recorded by an extraordinary oud player named Anton Abdelahad—I nearly choked on my cup of wine.)

 Coaxial wrote:
 

He lived in Rancho Mirage.

 R_P wrote:
 

He lived in 29 Palms.

Dick Dale, Surf Rock Icon, Dead at 81

 miamizsun wrote: 
He was the glue that held so many of those songs together...A true legends in his own time and a good human being to boot.Thank you, sir, for your service to mankind.

 Proclivities wrote: 
rip hal

was with the west coast wrecking crew

there's somewhat of an east coast version of the same thing

The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, also known as the Swampers, is a group of American studio musicians playing soul, R&B, rock and roll and country, based in the city of Muscle Shoals, Alabama. They have appeared on more than 500 recordings, including 75 gold and platinum hits. Originally the house band at Rick Hall's FAME Studios, the group went on to found their own competing business, the famed Muscle Shoals Sound Studios. The group was inducted into the Nashville-based Musicians Hall of Fame in 2008 and into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1995, "as four of the finest studio musicians in the world", also receiving the Lifework Award in 2008.

 Proclivities wrote:
 

That's an amazing record... what a great collection of songs and sounds.  His work with S&G was sublime in many ways. 

Hal Blaine, 'Most Recorded Drummer In History,' Dies At 90

Hal Blaine, the studio drummer who lent his signature sounds and structure to scores of Grammy-winning and chart-topping songs — from Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin to the Byrds and the Beach Boys — died Monday at the age of 90....

...Blaine was the drummer on 6 consecutive Grammy Records of the Year (and this has to be a record that will never be matched): Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass in 1966 for “A Taste of Honey,” Frank Sinatra in 1967 for "Strangers in the Night,” The 5th Dimension in 1968 for "Up, Up and Away,” Simon & Garfunkel in 1969 for “Mrs. Robinson,” The 5th Dimension in 1970 for "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In,” and Simon & Garfunkel in 1971 for "”Bridge over Troubled Water.”

 Proclivities wrote:
  
 


I saw Don with Marti Jones ca 1988 and he did a sort of review of the scene, talking about all the sharing of ideas and techniques they did in the old days (lol 6 years earlier). By then, Don and Marti had a drum machine... just a little box on the stage, they put a fake nose and glasses on it... That was the same show where, talking about how the industry can throw anyone a curve ball, Marti admitted that her A&R people had tried to get her to record Walk Like an Egyptian, but she couldn't see the point in it.

 R_P wrote:
 
Yes, I should've said the "'80s jangle pop sound".

 Proclivities wrote:
 
I think that title should go to The Byrds.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote:
 
Easter co-produced the first few REM records, one with Don Dixon - they're often considered the progenitors of the "jangle-pop" sound.   The two bands were probably playing  the same clubs in the Southeast-college-town circuit in those early days.

 Proclivities wrote:
 

Damn I used to play that loud. I never knew her name but you can sure hear REM in everything they do. Or vice versa, I guess is what I'm trying to say.

A local musician, Sara Romweber has passed away.  Excellent, energetic drummer who played with Mitch Easter in Let's Active in the 1980s and more recently with her brother, guitar hero Dexter Romweber.

 Coaxial wrote:
 

 Antigone wrote: 

ptooey wrote:

Dang indeed. Back in the '90s their music was fuel for a lot of late nights.

 R_P wrote:
 

Dang.