On this day in 1944, the great singer and songwriter Barry White was born. Above all, he created great sounding music that generally transcends any particular genres, although I guess we would have to classify his work as generally soul. Added to his music was his amazing bass-baritone voice. I still listen to him a lot.

He was born in Galveston, Texas. And in his teens, he became involved with gangs and ended up serving four months in jail for stealing car tires. There is a story that may be true that he heard Elvis Presley on the radio while in jail and it changed his life. Regardless, after getting out of jail, he started performing music. In fact, he was in a band that released a single when he was only 16 years old. He went on to work for Del-Fi Records, developing talent, writing songs, and eventually producing. One of the acts he discovered was Love Unlimited — a trio of female singers, kind of like The Supremes.

A couple of years later, he was developing music for a male singer. As a result, he put together a three song demo tape with himself singing. People at 20th Century Records (where he had moved to a couple of years before) loved what he had done and convinced him to record an album that became, I’ve Got So Much to Give. And the rest really is history. He went on to earn over a hundred gold records world wide.

Here is a very unusual (but still great) version of his top-ten hit “Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up”:

Happy birthday Barry White!

The great singer and songwriter Roger Waters is 71 today. He is best known as the longtime front-man for the band Pink Floyd. And toward the end of tenure with the band, he pretty much took it over. The last album he did with them, The Final Cut, is better thought of as the first Roger Waters solo album.

At this point, I find Waters’ work generally a bit too much. But there is no question of his genius. His best work was the middle period of Pink Floyd when the other members of the band were able to dilute his excesses. His best work is found on Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. By the time of Animals, it was clear that things were getting out of hand. And The Wall, which is a brilliant album, signaled the end of Pink Floyd as a collaboration. At that point, Waters’ work was too personal and it was right that David Gilmour took over the band and Waters went on to solo work.

I haven’t paid that much attention to his solo work. It is quite good but I feel like I’ve gotten as much out of Waters as I can. And now some of his clichés drive me crazy. The biggest example is his tendency to jump from very quiet sections to very loud sections. Although things like Jesus Christ Superstar have been called rock operas, Waters work is really the only thing I know of that I think deserves the term. That’s high praise coming from me. But I am rarely in the mood.

Here is the video from the title track from Roger Waters’ first official solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. It is a great example of everything that is good and bad about Waters. I especially think it is a weak concept of a man having a vaguely contiguous series of nightmares. But it does show how he can manage to create an interesting album with the thinnest of ideas. The album also features some of the best work I’ve ever heard by Eric Clapton.

Happy birthday Roger Waters!

On this day in 1939, the great singer-songwriter John Stewart was born. He is probably best known for writing The Monkees’ number one hit “Daydream Believer.” But he was also in the Kingston Trio through most of the 1960s. After that, he had a successful solo career, which culminated in 1979’s Bombs Away Dream Babies and the top ten hit “Gold.”

Many years ago, while I was in the process of flunking out of college, John Stewart came to my campus. He gave a lecture about nothing in particular and everything in general: his life, songwriting, cars, women, performing. This was only a few years after “Gold,” so it was surprising that not many more than a hundred people were in attendance. I had something else that I had to get to, so I knew that I was going to have to slip out of the lecture half-way through. Stewart did not allow me to do this unnoticed, however. He cheerfully chided me for missing his pearls of wisdom.

After I was done with my thing and he was done with his thing, we happened to run into each other. He remembered me: it had only been two hours and I was, after all, the guy who walked out on him. We walked to his car, which, if I remember correctly was some piece of junk. I don’t remember what we talked about, but I do remember two things he told me. First, he said, never listen to what your friends and family tell you about your work. He said, everyone told him that he sucked — until he sold his first hit and made $50,000 on it (in the late 1950s, I think); people who don’t know you are the only ones who can really see your talent. The second thing he told me was that art was whatever the hell you make it. He had an example: “Happiness is a Warm Gun.” It is just four song fragments pasted together. By traditional standards, it’s a piece of garbage; but as we all know, it is a masterpiece.

Here is Stewart from that time, doing “You Can’t Go Back to Kansas”:

Happy birthday John Stewart!

Part of this article taken from John Stewart and Jules Shear.

On this day in 1892, the great French composer Darius Milhaud was born. He was a member of Les Six — the six French composers of the early 20th century that I have such a love of. And of them, Milhaud is probably the most charming. He integrated traditional melodies into his work. And although most jokes that composers put into their works are subtle, Milhaud is kind of like the Charlie Chaplin of composers.

In addition to everything else, Milhaud composed at a furious pace. I’ve only heard a small faction of his work. But I quite enjoy it all. His speed was not an indication of a lack of quality. You will see this if you bother to listen to the music I’ve embedded below. I really encourage you to do so. Unlike most modern composers, his work is lyrical and fun.

He was also a major music teacher during the last century. In 1940, he and his family were forced to flee France because he was nominally Jewish. He ended up at Mills College, which is just down the road from me. Leave it to a French man to end up at a woman’s college! But the school did accept men in its graduate program, which is where he taught such luminaries as Dave Brubeck, Philip Glass, and Burt Bacharach. Apparently, Milhaud once told Bacharach, “Don’t be afraid of writing something people can remember and whistle. Don’t ever feel discomfited by a melody.”

And speaking of melodies, here is Milhaud’s Le Boeuf sur le Toit (“The Bull on the Roof”), which is based upon music he heard in Brazil while working there. It has very lively counterpoint with polytonal harmonies that often come crashing together for great effect.

I can’t find a live performance of it, but if you want to hear something really charming, check out his Suite per Violino, Clarinetto e Pianoforte. He wrote it in 1939. Imagine: the Nazis would have killed the man who wrote this. In addition to just being evil they had no sense of beauty and the joy that it creates.

In 1922, Milhaud first visited the United States and got to hear his first “real jazz” in New York. This led to his composition, La Création du Monde (“The Creation of the World”). It is a wonderful piece, but all things considered, not one of my favorites. But it is an important piece. If you are only going to listen to one piece, I’d pick one of the two above.

Happy birthday Darius Milhaud!

On this day in 1934, the great blues guitarist Freddie King was born. He was raised in Dallas but his family moved to Chicago when he was a teenager. As a result of this, he developed a style that combined the distinct music associated with those areas. By the time he was 18, he was playing semi-professionally. By his early twenties, he was playing with people like Hound Dog Taylor and the legendary Willie Dixon. It was through his connection with Dixon that he got a record contract. (The establishment felt he sang too much like BB King — not an invalid criticism.)

In 1960, he signed with Federal Records where he broke out. His first single was “Have You Ever Loved a Woman.” It was actually the B-side, “You’ve Got to Love Her with a Feeling,” that got more radio play. But I prefer the A-side. Here he is ten years later performing it live:

In 1961, King had a bona fide Top-40 hit with “Hide Away.” It is an upbeat instrumental. It too was originally a B-Side. Here he is performing it live — pretty much as it is on the original single but faster.

King’s career was marked by almost constant touring. The stress of this and his bad “Bloody Mary” diet resulted in his death of pancreatitis at the age of only 42. But he left us a lot of great music. It’s well worth check out. He was one of the greats.

Happy birthday Freddie King!