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[
"Spice Girls",
"Girl power",
"What was Girl power?",
"phrase \"girl power\" put a name to a social phenomenon, but the slogan was met with mixed reactions.",
"What were the reactions it was met with?",
"message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women, and it emphasised the importance of strong and loyal friendship among females.",
"Did anyone dislike the message?",
"some critics dismissed it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic, while others took issue with the emphasis on physical appearance,",
"What was the appearance issue?",
"concerned about the potential impact on self-conscious and/or impressionable youngsters.",
"Around what year was girl power of influence?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_fe6b19634b6e4d3fa1e9cb3ceb5cbec3_0 | What else did you find interesting in this section? | 6 | Along with Girl power, what else did you find interesting in Spice Girls section? | Spice Girls | The phrase "girl power" put a name to a social phenomenon, but the slogan was met with mixed reactions. The phrase was a label for the particular facet of post classical neo-feminist empowerment embraced by the band: that a sensual, feminine appearance and equality between the sexes need not be mutually exclusive. This concept was by no means original in the pop world: both Madonna and Bananarama had employed similar outlooks. The phrase itself had also appeared in a few songs by British girl groups and bands since at least 1987; most notably, it was the name of British pop duo Shampoo's 1996 single and album, later credited by Halliwell as the inspiration for the Spice Girls' mantra. However, it was not until the emergence of the Spice Girls in 1996 with "Wannabe", that the concept of "girl power" exploded onto the common consciousness. The phrase was regularly uttered by all five members--although most closely associated with Halliwell--and was often delivered with a peace sign. The slogan also featured on official Spice Girls merchandise and on some of the outfits the group members wore. The Spice Girls' version was distinctive. Its message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women, and it emphasised the importance of strong and loyal friendship among females. In all, the focused, consistent presentation of "girl power" formed the centrepiece of their appeal as a band. Some commentators credit the Spice Girls with reinvigorating mainstream feminism--popularized as "girl power"--in the 1990s, with their mantra serving as a gateway to feminism for their young fans. On the other hand, some critics dismissed it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic, while others took issue with the emphasis on physical appearance, concerned about the potential impact on self-conscious and/or impressionable youngsters. Regardless, the phrase became a cultural phenomenon, adopted as the mantra for millions of girls and even making it into the Oxford English Dictionary. In summation of the concept, author Ryan Dawson said, "The Spice Girls changed British culture enough for Girl Power to now seem completely unremarkable." The Spice Girls' debut single "Wannabe" has been hailed as an "iconic girl power anthem". In 2016, the United Nations' Global Goals "#WhatIReallyReallyWant" campaign filmed a global remake of the original music video for "Wannabe" to highlight gender inequality issues faced by women across the world. The video, which was launched on YouTube and ran in movie theatres internationally, featured British girl group M.O, Canadian "viral sensation" Taylor Hatala, Nigerian-British singer Seyi Shay and Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez lip-syncing to the song in various locations around the world. In response to the remake, Beckham said, "How fabulous is it that after 20 years the legacy of the Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?" At the 43rd People's Choice Awards in January 2017, American actress Blake Lively dedicated her "Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress" award to "girl power" in her acceptance speech, and credited the Spice Girls, saying: "What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were, and that was my first introduction into girl power." CANNOTANSWER | "What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were, | The Spice Girls are a British girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Melanie Brown, also known as Mel B ("Scary Spice"); Melanie Chisholm, or Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"); Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"); Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"); and Victoria Beckham ("Posh Spice"). With their "girl power" mantra, they redefined the girl-group concept by targeting a young female fanbase. They led the teen pop resurgence of the 1990s, were a major part of the Cool Britannia era, and became pop culture icons of the decade.
The group formed through auditions held by managers Bob and Chris Herbert, who wanted to create a girl group to compete with the British boy bands popular at the time. They signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single "Wannabe" in 1996, which reached number one on the charts of 37 countries. Their debut album, Spice (1996), sold more than 23 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album by a female group in history. The follow-up, Spiceworld (1997) sold more than 14 million copies worldwide. Both albums encapsulated the group's dance-pop style and message of female empowerment, with vocal and songwriting contributions shared equally by the members. In 1997, a film starring the Spice Girls, Spice World, was released; it was a commercial success but received poor reviews.
In May 1998, Halliwell left the Spice Girls, citing exhaustion and creative differences. Forever (2000), the only Spice Girls album without Halliwell, achieved weaker sales. At the end of 2000, the Spice Girls entered a hiatus to concentrate on their solo careers. They reunited for two concert tours, the Return of the Spice Girls (2007–2008) and Spice World (2019), both of which won the Billboard Live Music Award for highest-grossing engagements. Viva Forever!, a musical based on the Spice Girls' music, opened in 2012; it was a critical and commercial failure and closed in 2013.
Measures of the Spice Girls' success include international record sales, iconic symbolism such as Halliwell's Union Jack dress, a major motion picture, Spice World (1997), and the highest-grossing concert tours by an all-female group from 2000 to 2020. Under the guidance of their mentor and manager Simon Fuller, their endorsement deals and merchandise made them one of most successful marketing engines ever, with a global gross income estimated at $500–800 million by May 1998. Their media exposure, according to Music Week writer Paul Gorman, helped usher in an era of celebrity obsession in pop culture.
The Spice Girls have sold 100 million records worldwide, making them the bestselling girl group of all time, one of the bestselling artists, and the most successful British pop act since the Beatles. They received five Brit Awards, three American Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, three MTV Europe Music Awards and one MTV Video Music Award. In 2000, they became the youngest recipients of the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. According to Rolling Stone journalist and biographer David Sinclair, they were the most widely recognised group since the Beatles.
Band history
1994–1996: Formation and early years
In the early 1990s, Bob and Chris Herbert, the father-and-son duo of Heart Management, decided to create a girl group to compete with the boy bands who dominated UK pop music at the time. Together with financier Chic Murphy, they envisioned an act comprising "five strikingly different girls" who would each appeal to a different audience. In February 1994, Heart Management placed an advertisement in the trade paper The Stage asking for singers to audition for an all-female pop band at London's Danceworks studios. Approximately 400 women attended the audition on 4 March 1994. They were placed in groups of 10 and danced a routine to "Stay" by Eternal, followed by solo auditions in which they performed songs of their choice.
After several weeks of deliberation, Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm and Michelle Stephenson were among a dozen or so women who advanced to a second round of auditions in April. Chisholm missed the second audition after coming down with tonsillitis. Despite missing the first round of auditions, Geri Halliwell persuaded the Herberts to let her attend the second. A week after the second audition, Adams, Brown, Halliwell and Stephenson were asked to attend a recall at Nomis Studios in Shepherd's Bush, performing "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" on their own and as a group. Chisholm was also invited as a last-minute replacement for another finalist. The five women were selected for a band initially named "Touch".
The group moved into a three-bedroom house in Maidenhead, Berkshire, and spent most of 1994 practising songs written for them by Bob Herbert's long-time associates John Thirkell and Erwin Keiles. According to Stephenson, the material they were given was "very, very young pop", and none were later used by the Spice Girls. During these first months, the group worked on demos at South Hill Park Recording Studios in Bracknell with producer and studio owner Michael Sparkes and songwriter and arranger Tim Hawes. They were also tasked with choreographing their own dance routines, which they worked on at Trinity Studios in Knaphill, near Woking, Surrey. A few months into the training, Stephenson was fired for a perceived lack of commitment. Heart Management turned to the group's vocal coach, Pepi Lemer, to find a replacement. After Lemer's first recommendation declined the offer, Lemer recommended her former pupil, Emma Bunton, who auditioned for the Herberts and joined as the fifth member.
As their training continued, the group performed small showcases for a few of Heart Management's associates. On one such performance, the group added a rap section they had written to one of Thirkell and Keiles' songs. Keiles was furious with the changes and insisted they learn to write songs properly. The group began professional songwriting lessons; during one session, they wrote a song called "Sugar and Spice" with Hawes, which inspired them to change their band name to "Spice".
By late 1994, the group felt insecure as they still did not have an official contract with Heart Management, and were frustrated with the management team's direction. They persuaded Herbert to set up a showcase performance for the group in front of industry writers, producers and A&R men in December 1994 at the Nomis Studios, where they received an "overwhelmingly positive" reaction. The Herberts quickly set about creating a binding contract for them. Encouraged by the reaction they had received at the Nomis showcase, all five members refused to sign the contracts on legal advice from, among others, Adams's father. The following month, in January, the group began songwriting sessions with Richard Stannard, whom they had impressed at the showcase, and his partner Matt Rowe. It was during these sessions that the songs "Wannabe" and "2 Become 1" were written.
In March 1995, the group parted from Heart Management due to their frustration with the company's unwillingness to listen to their visions and ideas. To ensure they kept control of their own work, they allegedly stole the master recordings of their discography from the management offices. The next day, the group tracked down Sheffield-based songwriter Eliot Kennedy, who had been present at the Nomis showcase, and persuaded him to work with them. Through contacts they had made at the showcase, they were also introduced to record producers Absolute. With Kennedy and Absolute's help, the group spent the next several weeks writing and recording demos for the majority of the songs that would be released on their debut album, including "Say You'll Be There" and "Who Do You Think You Are". Their demos caught the attention of Simon Fuller of 19 Entertainment, who signed them to his management company in May 1995.
By this point, industry buzz around the Spice Girls had grown significantly and the major record labels in London and Los Angeles were keen to sign them. After a bidding war, they signed a five-album deal with Virgin Records in July 1995. Fuller took them on an extensive promotional tour in Los Angeles, where they met with studio executives in the hopes of securing film and television opportunities. Their name was also changed to "Spice Girls" as a rapper was already using the name "Spice". The new name was chosen because the group noticed industry people often referred to them derisively as "the 'Spice' girls". The group continued to write and record tracks for their debut album.
1996–1997: Spice and breakthrough
On 7 July 1996, the Spice Girls released their debut single "Wannabe" in the United Kingdom. In the weeks before the release, the music video for "Wannabe" received a trial airing on music channel The Box. The video was an instant hit, and was aired up to seventy times a week at its peak. After the video was released, the Spice Girls had their first live broadcast TV slot on LWT's Surprise Surprise. Earlier in May, the group had conducted their first music press interview with Paul Gorman, the contributing editor of trade paper Music Week, at Virgin Records' Paris headquarters. His piece recognised that the Spice Girls were about to institute a change in the charts away from Britpop and towards out-and-out pop. He wrote: "JUST WHEN BOYS with guitars threaten to rule pop life—Damon's all over Smash Hits, Ash are big in Big! and Liam can't move for tabloid frenzy—an all-girl, in-yer-face pop group have arrived with enough sass to burst that rockist bubble." "Wannabe" entered the UK Singles Chart at number three before moving up to number one the following week and staying there for seven weeks. The song proved to be a global hit, hitting number one in 37 countries, including four consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, and becoming not only the biggest-selling debut single by an all-female group but also the biggest-selling single by an all-female group of all time.
Riding a wave of publicity and hype, the group released their next singles in the UK and Europe; in October "Say You'll Be There" was released topping the charts at number one for two weeks. "2 Become 1" was released in December, becoming their first Christmas number one and selling 462,000 copies in its first week, making it the fastest-selling single of the year. The two tracks continued the group's remarkable sales, giving them three of the top five biggest-selling songs of 1996 in the UK. In November 1996, the Spice Girls released their debut album Spice in Europe. The success was unprecedented and drew comparisons to Beatlemania, leading the press to dub it "Spicemania" and the group the "Fab Five". In seven weeks Spice had sold 1.8 million copies in Britain alone, making the Spice Girls the fastest-selling British act since the Beatles. In total, the album sold over 3 million copies in Britain, the biggest-selling album of all time in the UK by a female group, certified 10× Platinum, and peaked at number one for fifteen non-consecutive weeks. In Europe the album became the biggest-selling album of 1997 and was certified 8× Platinum by the IFPI for sales in excess of 8 million copies.
That same month, the Spice Girls attracted a crowd of 500,000 when they switched on the Christmas lights in Oxford Street, London. At the same time, Simon Fuller started to set up multi-million dollar sponsorship deals for the Spice Girls with Pepsi, Walkers, Impulse, Cadbury and Polaroid. The group ended 1996 winning three trophies at the Smash Hits awards at the London Arena, including best video for "Say You'll Be There". In January 1997, "Wannabe" was released in the United States. The single proved to be a catalyst in helping the Spice Girls break into the notoriously difficult US market when it debuted on the Hot 100 Chart at number eleven. At the time, this was the highest-ever debut by a non-American act, beating the previous record held by the Beatles for "I Want to Hold Your Hand", and the joint highest entry for a debut act alongside Alanis Morissette's "Ironic". "Wannabe" reached number one in the US for four weeks. In February, Spice was released in the US, and became the biggest-selling album of 1997 in the US, peaking at number one, and was certified 7× Platinum by the RIAA for sales in excess of 7.4 million copies. The album was also included in the Top 100 Albums of All Time list by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) based on US sales. In total, the album sold over 23 million copies worldwide becoming the biggest-selling album in pop music history by an all-female group.
Later that month, the Spice Girls performed "Who Do You Think You Are" to open the 1997 Brit Awards, with Geri Halliwell wearing a Union Jack mini-dress that became one of pop history's most famed outfits. At the ceremony, the group won two Brit Awards; Best British Video for "Say You'll Be There" and Best British Single for "Wannabe". In March 1997, a double A-side of "Mama"/"Who Do You Think You Are" was released in Europe, the last from Spice, which once again saw them at number one, making the Spice Girls the first group since the Jackson 5 to have four consecutive number one hits.
Girl Power!, the Spice Girls' first book and manifesto was launched later that month at the Virgin Megastore. It sold out its initial print run of 200,000 copies within a day, and was eventually translated into more than 20 languages. In April, One Hour of Girl Power was released; it sold 500,000 copies in the UK between April and June to become the best-selling pop video ever, and was eventually certified 13x Platinum. In May, Spice World, a film starring the group, was announced by the Spice Girls at the Cannes Film Festival. The group also performed their first live UK show for the Prince's Trust benefit concert. At the show, they breached royal protocol when Brown and then Halliwell planted kisses on Prince Charles' cheeks and pinched his bottom, causing controversy. That same month, Virgin released Spice Girls Present... The Best Girl Power Album... Ever!, a multi-artist compilation album compiled by the group. The album peaked at number two on the UK Compilation Chart and was certified Gold by the BPI. At the Ivor Novello Awards, the group won International Hit of the Year and Best-Selling British Single awards for "Wannabe".
Spice World began filming in June and wrapped in August. The film was to be set to the songs from the group's second studio album, but no songs had been written when filming began. The group thus had to do all the songwriting and recording at the same time as they were filming Spice World, resulting in a grueling schedule that left them exhausted. Among the songs that were written during this period was "Stop", the lyrics for which cover the group's frustrations with being overworked by their management. In September, the Spice Girls performed "Say You'll Be There" at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and won Best Dance Video for "Wannabe". The MTV Awards came five days after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, with tributes paid to her throughout the ceremony. Chisholm stated, "We'd like to dedicate this award to Princess Diana, who is a great loss to our country." At the 1997 Billboard Music Awards, the group won four awards for New Artist of the Year, Billboard Hot 100 Singles Group of the Year, Billboard 200 Group of the Year and Billboard 200 Album of the Year for Spice.
1997–1998: Groundbreaking success, Spiceworld and Halliwell's departure
In October 1997, the Spice Girls released the first single from Spiceworld, "Spice Up Your Life". It entered the UK Singles Chart at number one, making it the group's fifth consecutive number-one single. That same month, the group performed their first live major concert to 40,000 fans in Istanbul, Turkey. Later, they launched the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal, then travelled to South Africa to meet Nelson Mandela, who announced, "These are my heroes." In November, the Spice Girls released their second album, Spiceworld. It set a new record for the fastest-selling album when it shipped seven million copies over the course of two weeks. Gaining favourable reviews, the album went on to sell over 10 million copies in Europe, Canada, and the United States combined, and 14 million copies worldwide. Criticised in the United States for releasing the album just nine months after their debut there, which gave the group two simultaneous Top 10 albums in the Billboard album charts, and suffering from over-exposure at home, the Spice Girls began to experience a media backlash. The group was criticised for the number of sponsorship deals signed—over twenty in total—and they began to witness diminishing international chart positions. Nevertheless, the Spice Girls remained the biggest-selling pop group of both 1997 and 1998.
On 7 November 1997, the group performed "Spice Up Your Life" at the MTV Europe Music Awards, and won the Best Group award. The morning of the performance, the Spice Girls had also fired their manager Simon Fuller and took over the running of the group themselves. To ensure a smooth transition, Halliwell allegedly stole a mobile phone from Fuller's assistant that contained the group's upcoming schedule and Fuller's business contacts. The firing was front-page news around the world. Many commentators speculated that Fuller had been the true mastermind behind the group, and that this was the moment when the band lost their impetus and direction. Later that month, the Spice Girls became the first pop group to host ITV's An Audience with...; their show was watched by 11.8 million viewers in the UK, one fifth of the country's population. In December 1997, the second single from Spiceworld, "Too Much", was released, becoming the group's second Christmas number one and their sixth consecutive number-one single in the UK. December also saw the group launch their film Spice World. The world premiere at the Empire Theatre in Leicester Square was attended by celebrities including Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry. The film was a commercial success but received poor reviews. The group ended 1997 as the year's most played artist on American radio.
In January 1998, the Spice Girls attended the US premiere of Spice World at the Mann's Chinese Theatre. At the 1998 American Music Awards a few days later, the group won the awards for Favorite Album, Favorite New Artist and Favorite Group in the pop/rock category. In February, they won a special award for overseas success at the 1998 Brit Awards, with combined sales of over 45 million albums and singles worldwide. That night, the group performed their next single, "Stop", their first not to reach number one in United Kingdom, entering at number two. In early 1998, the Spice Girls embarked on the Spiceworld Tour, starting in Dublin, Ireland, on 24 February 1998 before moving to mainland Europe and North America, and then returning to the United Kingdom for two gigs at Wembley Stadium. Later that year, the Spice Girls were invited to sing on the official England World Cup song "(How Does It Feel to Be) On Top of the World", the last song recorded with Halliwell until 2007.
On 31 May 1998, Halliwell announced her departure from the Spice Girls through her solicitor. The announcement was preceded by days of frenzied press speculation after Halliwell missed two concerts in Norway and was absent from the group's performance on The National Lottery Draws. Halliwell first cited creative differences, then later said that she was suffering from exhaustion and disillusionment, although rumours of a power struggle with Brown as the reason for her departure were circulated by the press. Halliwell's departure from the group shocked fans and became one of the biggest entertainment news stories of the year, making news headlines the world over. The four remaining members were adamant that the group would carry on. The North American leg of the Spiceworld Tour went on as planned, beginning in West Palm Beach, Florida, on 15 June, and grossing $60 million over 40 sold-out performances. The tour was accompanied by a documentary film titled Spice Girls in America: A Tour Story. "Viva Forever" was the last single released from Spiceworld and gave the group their seventh number one in the United Kingdom. The video for the single was made before Halliwell's departure and features all five members in stop-motion animated form.
1998–2000: Forever and hiatus
While on tour in the United States, the group continued to write and record new material, releasing a new song, "Goodbye", before Christmas in 1998. The song was seen as a tribute to Geri Halliwell, although parts of it had originally been written when Halliwell was still a part of the group, and when it topped the UK Singles Chart it became their third consecutive Christmas number one—equalling the record previously set by the Beatles. In November, Bunton and Chisholm appeared at the 1998 MTV Europe Music Awards without their other bandmates, accepting two awards on behalf of the Spice Girls for Best Pop Act and Best Group. That same year, Brown and Adams announced they were both pregnant. Brown was married to dancer Jimmy Gulzer and became known as Mel G for a brief period; she gave birth to daughter Phoenix Chi in February 1999. Adams gave birth a month after to son Brooklyn, whose father was then Manchester United footballer David Beckham; later that year, she married Beckham in a highly publicised wedding in Ireland.
From 1998 onwards, the Spice Girls began to pursue solo careers and by the following year, Brown, Bunton, Chisholm, and former member Halliwell, had all released music as solo artists. The group returned to the studio in August 1999 after an eight-month recording break to start work on their third and last studio album. The album's sound was initially more pop-influenced, similar to their first two albums, and included production from Eliot Kennedy. The album's sound took a mature direction when American producers like Rodney Jerkins, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis came on board to collaborate with the group. In December 1999, the Spice Girls embarked on a UK-only tour, Christmas in Spiceworld, in London and Manchester, during which they showcased new songs from the third album. Earlier in the year, the group also recorded the song "My Strongest Suit" for Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida, a concept album which would later go on to become the musical Aida. The group performed again at the 2000 Brit Awards in March, where they received the Lifetime Achievement award. Despite being at the event, Halliwell did not join her former bandmates on stage.
In November 2000, the group released Forever; sporting a new edgier R&B sound, the album received a lukewarm response from critics. In the US, the album peaked at number thirty-nine on the Billboard 200 albums chart. In the UK, the album was released the same week as Westlife's Coast to Coast album and the chart battle was widely reported by the media, with Westlife winning the battle and reaching number one, leaving the Spice Girls at number two. The lead single from Forever, the double A-side "Holler"/"Let Love Lead the Way", became the group's ninth number one single in the UK. However, the song failed to break onto the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart stateside, instead peaking at number seven on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, and at number thirty-one on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The only major performance of the lead single by the group came at the 2000 MTV Europe Music Awards in November. In total, Forever achieved only a fraction of the success of its two best-selling predecessors, selling four million copies. The Spice Girls ceased all promotional activities for the album in December 2000, as they began an indefinite hiatus to concentrate on their solo careers. Publicly, they insisted that the group was not splitting.
2007–2008: Return of the Spice Girls and Greatest Hits
On 28 June 2007, the Spice Girls, including Halliwell, held a press conference at the O2 Arena revealing their intention to reunite for a worldwide concert tour titled the Return of the Spice Girls. The plan to re-form had long been speculated by the media, with previous attempts by the organisers of Live 8 and Concert for Diana to reunite the group as a five-piece falling through. Each member of the group was reportedly paid £10 million ($20 million) to do the reunion tour. Giving You Everything, an official documentary film about the reunion, was directed by Bob Smeaton and first aired on Australia's Fox8 on 16 December 2007, followed by BBC One in the UK on 31 December.
Ticket sales for the first London date of the Return of the Spice Girls tour sold out in 38 seconds. It was reported that over one million people signed up in the UK alone and over five million worldwide for the ticket ballot on the band's official website. Sixteen additional dates in London were added, all selling out within one minute. In the United States, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Jose shows also sold out, prompting additional dates to be added. It was announced that the Spice Girls would be playing dates in Chicago and Detroit and Boston, as well as additional dates in New York to keep up with the demand. The tour opened in Vancouver on 2 December 2007, with group performing to an audience of 15,000 people, singing twenty songs and changing outfits a total of eight times. Along with the tour sellout, the Spice Girls licensed their name and image to Tesco's UK supermarket chain.
The group's comeback single, "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)", was announced as the official Children in Need charity single for 2007 and was released 5 November. The first public appearance on stage by the Spice Girls occurred at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, where they performed two songs, 1998 single "Stop" and the lead single from their greatest hits album, "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)". The show was filmed by CBS on 15 November 2007 for broadcast on 4 December 2007. They also performed both songs live for the BBC Children in Need telethon on 16 November 2007 from Los Angeles. The release of "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)" peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart, making it the group's lowest-charting British single to date. The album peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart. On 1 February 2008, it was announced that due to personal and family commitments their tour would come to an end in Toronto on 26 February 2008, meaning that tour dates in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Cape Town and Buenos Aires were cancelled.
Overall, the 47-date tour was the highest-grossing concert act of 2007–2008, measured as the twelve months ending in April 2008. It produced some $107.2 million in ticket sales and merchandising, with sponsorship and ad deals bringing the total to $200 million. The tour's 17-night sellout stand at the O2 Arena in London was the highest-grossing engagement of the year, netting £16.5 million (US$33 million) and drawing an audience of 256,647, winning the 2008 Billboard Touring Award for Top Boxscore. The group's comeback also netted them several other awards, including the Capital Music Icon Award, the Glamour Award for Best Band, and the Vodafone Live Music Award for Best Live Return, the last of which saw them beat out acts such as Led Zeppelin and the Sex Pistols.
2010–2012: Viva Forever! and London Olympics
At the 2010 Brit Awards, the Spice Girls received a special award for "Best Performance of the 30th Year". The award was for their 1997 Brit Awards performance of "Wannabe" and "Who Do You Think You Are", and was accepted by Halliwell and Brown on behalf of the group.
That year, the group collaborated with Fuller, Judy Craymer and Jennifer Saunders to develop a Spice Girls stage musical, Viva Forever!. Similar to the ABBA musical Mamma Mia!, Viva Forever! used the group's music to create an original story. In June 2012, to promote the musical, the Spice Girls reunited for a press conference at the St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, where music video for "Wannabe" was filmed exactly sixteen years earlier. Viva Forever! premiered at the West End's Piccadilly Theatre in December 2012, with all five Spice Girls in attendance. To promote the musical, the group appeared in the documentary Spice Girls' Story: Viva Forever!, which aired on 24 December 2012 on ITV1. Viva Forever! was panned by critics and closed after seven months, with a loss of at least £5 million.
In August 2012, the Spice Girls reunited to perform a medley of "Wannabe" and "Spice Up Your Life" at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony. Their performance received acclaim, and became the most tweeted moment of the Olympics with over 116,000 tweets per minute on Twitter.
2016–present: Spice World tour and Spice25
On 8 July 2016, Brown, Bunton and Halliwell released a video celebrating the 20th anniversary of "Wannabe" and teased news from them as a three-piece. Beckham and Chisholm opted not to take part but gave the project their blessing. A new song from the three-piece, "Song for Her", was leaked online a few months later in November. The reunion project was cancelled due to Halliwell's pregnancy.
On 24 May 2019, the Spice Girls began the Spice World – 2019 Tour of the UK and Ireland at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland. Beckham declined to join due to commitments regarding her fashion business. Each of the four participating members was reportedly paid £12 million for the tour. The tour concluded with three concerts at London's Wembley Stadium, with the last taking place on 15 June 2019. Over 13 dates, the tour produced 700,000 spectators and earned $78.2 million in ticket sales. The three-night sellout stand at Wembley Stadium was the highest-grossing engagement of the year, drawing an audience of 221,971 and winning the 2019 Billboard Live Music Award for Top Boxscore. Despite sound problems in the early concerts, Anna Nicholson in The Guardian wrote, "As nostalgia tours go, this could hardly have been bettered."
Alongside the tour, the group teamed up with the children's book franchise Mr. Men to create derivative products such as books, cups, bags and coasters. On 13 June 2019, it was reported that Paramount Animation had greenlit an animated Spice Girls film with old and new songs. The project will be produced by Simon Fuller and written by Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith. A director has not been announced.
To mark the 25th anniversary of "Wannabe", an EP was released in July 2021 that included previously unreleased demos. On 29 October, the Spice Girls released Spice25, a deluxe reissue of Spice featuring previously unreleased demos and remixes. The deluxe release saw the album reenter the UK Albums Chart at number five, number three on the UK Official Vinyl Albums Chart Top 40 and number four on the UK Official Physical Albums Chart.
Artistry
Musical style
According to Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the Spice Girls "used dance-pop as a musical base, but they infused the music with a fiercely independent, feminist stance that was equal parts Madonna, post-riot grrrl alternative rock feminism, and a co-opting of the good-times-all-the-time stance of England's new lad culture." Their songs incorporated a variety of genres, which Halliwell described as a "melding" of the group members' eclectic musical tastes, but otherwise kept to mainstream pop conventions. Chisholm said: "We all had different artists that we loved. Madonna was a big influence and TLC; we watched a lot of their videos." A regular collaborator on the group's first two albums was the production duo known as Absolute, made up of Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins. Absolute initially found it difficult to work with the group as the duo was heavily into R&B music at the time, while the Spice Girls according to Wilson were "always very poptastic". Wilson said of the group's musical output: "Their sound was actually not getting R&B quite right."
In his biography of the band, Wannabe: How the Spice Girls Reinvented Pop Fame (2004), Rolling Stone journalist David Sinclair said that the "undeniable artistry" of the group's songs had been overlooked. He said the Spice Girls "instinctively had an ear for a catchy tune" without resorting to the "formula balladry and bland modulations" of 90s boy bands Westlife and Boyzone. He praised their "more sophisticated" second album, Spiceworld, saying: "Peppered with personality, and each conveying a distinctive musical flavour and lyrical theme, these are songs which couldn't sound less 'manufactured,' and which, in several cases, transcend the pop genre altogether."
Lyrical themes
The Spice Girls' lyrics promote female empowerment and solidarity. Given the young age of their target audience, Lucy Jones of The Independent said the Spice Girls' songs were subversive for their time: "The lyrics were active rather than passive: taking, grabbing, laying it down – all the things little girls were taught never to do. 'Stop right now, thank you very much'. 'Who do you think you are?' 'I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want'." Musicologist Nicola Dibben cited "Say You'll Be There" as an example of how the Spice Girls inverted traditional gender roles in their lyrics, depicting a man who has fallen in love and displays too much emotion and a woman who remains independent and in control. The Spice Girls emphasised the importance of sisterhood over romance songs such as "Wannabe", and embraced safe sex in "2 Become 1".
Lauren Bravo, author of What Would the Spice Girls Do?: How the Girl Power Generation Grew Up (2018), found that even when the Spice Girls sang about romance, the message was "cheerfully non-committal", in contrast to the songs about breakups and unrequited love other pop stars were singing at the time. Writing for Bustle, Taylor Ferber praised the female-driven lyrics as ahead of their time, citing the inclusivity and optimism of songs such as "Spice Up Your Life" and the sex-positivity of "Last Time Lover" and "Naked". Ferber concluded: "Between all of their songs about friendship, sex, romance, and living life, a central theme in almost all Spice Girls music was loving yourself first."
Vocal arrangements
Unlike prior pop vocal groups, the Spice Girls shared vocals, rather than having a lead vocalist supported by others. The group did not want any one member to be considered the lead singer, and so each song was divided into one or two lines each, before all five voices harmonised in the chorus. The group faced criticism as this meant that no one voice could stand out, but Sinclair concluded that it "was actually a clever device to ensure that they gained the maximum impact and mileage from their all-in-it-together girl-gang image".
The Spice Girls' former vocal coach, Pepi Lemer, described their individual voices as distinct and easy distinguish, citing the "lightness" of Bunton's voice and the "soulful sound" of Brown's and Chisholm's. Biographer Sean Smith cited Chisholm as the vocalist the group could not do without. Sinclair noted that while Chisholm's ad libs are a distinctive feature of certain Spice Girls songs, the difference in the amount of time her voice was featured over any other member was negligible.
While vocal time was distributed equally, musicologist Nicola Dibben found that there was an "interesting inequality" in the way that vocal styles were distributed within the group, which she felt conformed to certain stereotypes associated with race and socioeconomic background. According to Dibben, most of the declamatory style of singing in the group's singles were performed by Brown, the only black member, and Chisholm, whom Dibben classified as white working class; this was in contrast to the more lyrical sections allotted to Beckham, whom Dibben classified as white middle class.
Songwriting
The Spice Girls did not play instruments, but co-wrote all of their songs. According to their frequent collaborator Richard Stannard, they had two approaches to songwriting: ballads were written in a traditional way with the group sitting around a piano, while songs such as "Wannabe" were the result of tapping into their "mad" energy. Eliot Kennedy, another regular co-writer, said that songwriting sessions with the Spice Girls were "very quick and short". He described his experience working with them:
What I said to them was, "Look, I've got a chorus—check this out." And I'd sing them the chorus and the melody—no lyrics or anything—and straight away five pads and pencils came out and they were throwing lines at us. Ten minutes later, the song was written. Then you go through and refine it. Then later, as you were recording it you might change a few things here and there. But pretty much it was a real quick process. They were confident in what they were doing, throwing it out there.
Absolute's Paul Wilson recalled an experience whereby he and Watkins were responsible for writing the backing track and the group would then write the lyrics. Watkins added: "I wasn't an 18-year-old girl. They always had this weird ability to come up with phrases that you'd never heard of." He said the members would create dance routines at the same time as writing songs, and that they "They knew what they wanted to write about, right from day one. You couldn't force your musical ideas upon them."
From the onset, the Spice Girls established a strict 50–50 split of the publishing royalties between them and their songwriting collaborators. As with their vocal arrangements, they were also adamant on maintaining parity between themselves in the songwriting credits. Sinclair said:
The deal between themselves was a strict five-way split on their share of the songwriting royalties on all songs irrespective of what any one member of the group had (or had not) contributed to any particular song. Apart from ease of administration, this was also a symbolic expression of the unity which was so much part and parcel of the Spice philosophy.
Sinclair identified Halliwell as a major source of ideas for the Spice Girls' songs, including many of the concepts and starting points for the group's songs. Tim Hawes, who worked with the group when they were starting out, said Halliwell's strength was in writing lyrics and pop hooks, and estimated that she was responsible for 60–70% of the lyrics in the songs he worked on. The group's collaborators credit the other members of the group as being more active than Halliwell in constructing the melodies and harmonies of their songs. Matt Rowe, who wrote several songs with the Spice Girls, agreed that Halliwell was particularly good when it came to writing lyrics and credits the lyrics for "Viva Forever" to her. He felt that all five members had contributed equally to the songwriting.
Cultural impact and legacy
Pop music resurgence and girl group boom
The Spice Girls broke onto the music scene at a time when alternative rock, hip-hop and R&B dominated global music charts. In the group's first ever interview in May 1996, Halliwell told Music Week: "We want to bring some of the glamour back to pop, like Madonna had when we were growing up. Pop is about fantasy and escapism, but there's so much bullshit around at the moment." The modern pop phenomenon that the Spice Girls created by targeting early members of Generation Y was credited with changing the music landscape by reviving the pop music genre, bringing about the global wave of late-1990s and early-2000s teen pop acts such as the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and NSYNC.
The Spice Girls have also been credited with paving the way for the girl groups and female pop singers that have come after them. Unlike previous girl groups such as the Andrews Sisters whose target market was male record buyers, the Spice Girls redefined the girl group concept by going after a young female fanbase instead. In the UK, they are further credited for disrupting the then male-dominated pop music scene. Prior to the Spice Girls, girl groups such as Bananarama have had hit singles in the UK but their album sales were generally underwhelming. The accepted wisdom within the British music industry at the time was that an all-girl pop group would not work because both girls and boys would find the concept too threatening. Teen magazines such as Smash Hits and Top of the Pops initially refused to feature the Spice Girls on the assumption that a girl group would not appeal to their female readership. The massive commercial breakthrough of the Spice Girls turned the tide, leading to an unprecedented boom of new girl groups in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
As managers and record labels scrambled to find the next Spice Girls, around 20 new girl groups were launched in the UK in 1999, followed by another 35 the next year. Groups that emerged during this period include All Saints, B*Witched, Atomic Kitten, Girl Thing, Girls@Play, Girls Aloud and the Sugababes, all hoping to emulate the Spice Girls' success. Outside of the UK and Ireland, girl groups such as New Zealand's TrueBliss, Australia's Bardot, Germany's No Angels, US's Cheetah Girls, as well as South Korea's Baby Vox and f(x) were also modelled after the Spice Girls.
Twenty-first-century girl groups continue to cite the Spice Girls as a major source of influence, including the Pussycat Dolls, 2NE1, Girls' Generation, Little Mix, Fifth Harmony, and Haim. Solo female artists who have been similarly influenced by the group include Jess Glynne, Foxes, Alexandra Burke, Charli XCX, Rita Ora, Billie Eilish, and Beyoncé. During her 2005 "Reflections" concert series, Filipina superstar Regine Velasquez performed a medley of five Spice Girls songs as a tribute to the band she says were a major influence on her music. Danish singer-songwriter MØ decided to pursue music after watching the Spice Girls on TV as a child, saying in a 2014 interview: "I have them and only them to thank—or to blame—for becoming a singer." 15-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Adele credits the Spice Girls as a major influence in regard to her love and passion for music, stating that "they made me what I am today".
Girl power
"Girl power" was a label for the particular facet of feminist empowerment embraced by the band, emphasising female confidence, individuality and the value of female friendship. The Spice Girls' particular approach to "girl power" was seen as a boisterous, independent, and sex-positive response to "lad culture." The phrase was regularly espoused by all five members—although most closely associated with Halliwell—and was often delivered with a peace sign. The "girl power" slogan was originally coined by US punk band Bikini Kill in 1991 and subsequently appeared in a few songs in the early and mid-1990s; most notably, it was the title of British pop duo Shampoo's 1996 single which Halliwell later said was her introduction to the phrase. Although the term did not originate with them, it was not until the emergence of the Spice Girls in 1996 that "girl power" exploded onto the mainstream consciousness. According to Chisholm, the band were inspired to champion this cause as a result of the sexism they encountered when they were first starting out in the music business. Industry insiders credit Halliwell as being the author of the group's "girl power" manifesto, while Halliwell herself once spoke of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher as being "the pioneer of our ideology."
In all, the focused, consistent presentation of "girl power" formed the centrepiece of their appeal as a band. The Spice Girls' brand of postfeminism was distinctive and its message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women; by being politically neutral, it did not alienate consumers with different allegiances. Virgin's director of press Robert Sandall explained the novelty of the group: "There had never been a group of girls who were addressing themselves specifically to a female audience before." Similarly, John Harlow of The Sunday Times believed it was this "loyal[ty] to their sex" that set the Spice Girls apart from their predecessors, enabling them to win over young female fans where previous girl groups had struggled. While "girl power" put a name to a social phenomenon, it was met with mixed reactions. Some commentators credit the Spice Girls with reinvigorating mainstream feminism—popularised as "girl power"—in the 1990s, with their mantra serving as a gateway to feminism for their young fans. Conversely, critics dismiss it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic and accuse the group of commercialising the social movement. Regardless, "girl power" became a cultural phenomenon, adopted as the mantra for millions of girls and even making it into the Oxford English Dictionary.
In summation of the concept, author Ryan Dawson said, "The Spice Girls changed British culture enough for Girl Power to now seem completely unremarkable."
In keeping with their "girl power" manifesto, the Spice Girls' songs have been praised for their "genuinely empowering messages about friendship and sisterhood," which set them apart from the typical love songs their pop contemporaries were singing. Billboard magazine said their lyrics "demonstrated real, noncompetitive female friendship," adding that the messages the Spice Girls imparted have held up well compared to the lyrics sung by later girl groups such as the Pussycat Dolls. The group's debut single "Wannabe" has been hailed as an "iconic girl power anthem". In 2016, the United Nations launched their #WhatIReallyReallyWant Global Goals campaign by filming a remake of the "Wannabe" music video to highlight gender inequality issues faced by women across the world. The video, which premiered on YouTube and ran in movie theatres internationally, featured British girl group M.O, Canadian "viral sensation" Taylor Hatala, Nigerian-British singer Seyi Shay and Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez lip-syncing to the song in various locations around the world. In response to the remake, Beckham said, "How fabulous is it that after 20 years the legacy of the Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?"
At the 43rd People's Choice Awards in 2017, Blake Lively dedicated her "Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress" award to "girl power" in her acceptance speech; she credited the Spice Girls, saying: "What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were, and that was my first introduction into girl power." In 2018, Rolling Stone named the Spice Girls' "girl power" ethos on The Millennial 100, a list of 100 people, music, cultural touchstones and movements that have shaped the Millennial generation. Writing in 2019 about the group's influence on what she called the "Spice Girls Generation", Caity Weaver of The New York Times concluded, "Marketing ploy or not, 'Girl power' had become a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Cool Britannia
The term "Cool Britannia" became prominent in the media in the 1990s and represented the new political and social climate that was emerging with the advances made by New Labour and the new British prime minister Tony Blair. Coming out of a period of 18 years of Conservative government, Tony Blair and New Labour were seen as young, cool and appealing, a driving force in giving Britain a feeling of euphoria and optimism.
Although by no means responsible for the onset of "Cool Britannia", the arrival of the Spice Girls added to the new image and re-branding of Britain, and underlined the growing world popularity of British, rather than American, pop music. This fact was underlined at the 1997 Brit Awards; the group won two awards but it was Halliwell's iconic red, white and blue Union Jack mini-dress that appeared in media coverage around the world, becoming an enduring image of "Cool Britannia". The Spice Girls were identified as part of another British Invasion of the US, and in 2016, Time acknowledged the Spice Girls as "arguably the most recognisable face" of "Cool Britannia".
Image, nicknames and fashion trends
The Spice Girls' image was deliberately aimed at young girls, an audience of formidable size and potential. Instrumental to their range of appeal within this demographic was their five distinct personalities and styles, which encouraged fans to identify with one member or another. This rejection of a homogeneous group identity was a stark departure from previous groups such as the Beatles and the Supremes, and the Spice Girls model has since been used to style other pop groups such as One Direction.
The band's image was inadvertently bolstered by the nicknames bestowed on them by the British press. After a lunch with the Spice Girls in the wake of "Wannabes release, Peter Loraine, the then-editor of Top of the Pops magazine, and his editorial staff decided to devise nicknames for each member of the group based on their personalities. Loraine explained, "In the magazine we used silly language and came up with nicknames all the time so it came naturally to give them names that would be used by the magazine and its readers; it was never meant to be adopted globally." Shortly after using the nicknames in a magazine feature on the group, Loraine received calls from other British media outlets requesting permission to use them, and before long the nicknames were synonymous with the Spice Girls. Jennifer Cawthron, one of the magazine's staff writers, explained how the nicknames were chosen:
Victoria was 'Posh Spice', because she was wearing a Gucci-style mini dress and seemed pouty and reserved. Emma wore pigtails and sucked a lollipop, so obviously she was 'Baby Spice'. Mel C spent the whole time leaping around in her tracksuit, so we called her 'Sporty Spice'. I named Mel B 'Scary Spice' because she was so shouty. And Geri was 'Ginger Spice', simply because of her hair. Not much thought went into that one.
In a 2020 interview, Chisholm explained that the Spice Girls' image came about unintentionally when, after initially trying to coordinate their outfits as was expected of girl groups at the time, the group decided to just dress in their own individual styles. According to Chisholm, they "never thought too much more of it" until after "Wannabe" was released and the press gave them their nicknames. The group embraced the nicknames and grew into caricatures of themselves, which Chisholm said was "like a protection mechanism because it was like putting on this armour of being this, this character, rather than it actually being you."
Each Spice Girl adopted a distinct, over-the-top trademark style that served as an extension of her public persona.
Victoria Beckham (née Adams): As Posh Spice, she was known for her choppy brunette bob cut, reserved attitude, signature pout and form-fitting designer outfits (often a little black dress).
Melanie Brown: As Scary Spice, she was known for her "in-your-face" attitude, "loud" Leeds accent, pierced tongue and bold manner of dress (which often consisted of leopard-print outfits).
Emma Bunton: As Baby Spice, she was the youngest member of the group, wore her long blonde hair in pigtails, wore pastel (particularly pink) babydoll dresses and platform sneakers, had an innocent smile and a girly girl personality.
Melanie Chisholm: As Sporty Spice, she usually wore a tracksuit paired with athletic shoes, wore her long dark hair in a high ponytail, and sported tattoos coupled with a tough-girl attitude. She also showcased her athletic abilities on stage, such as by performing back handsprings and high kicks.
Geri Halliwell: As Ginger Spice, she was known for her bright red hair, feistiness, "glammed-up sex appeal" and flamboyant stage outfits. She was also identified by the media and those who worked with the Spice Girls as the leader of the group.
The Spice Girls are considered style icons of the 1990s; their image and styles becoming inextricably tied to the band's identity. They are credited with setting 1990s fashion trends such as Buffalo platform shoes and double bun hairstyles. Their styles have inspired other celebrities including Katy Perry, Charli XCX, and Bollywood actress Anushka Ranjan. Lady Gaga performed as Emma Bunton (Baby Spice) in high school talent shows and Emma Stone chose "Emma" name inspired by Emma Bunton after she previously use name Riley Stone. The group have also been noted for the memorable outfits they have worn, the most iconic being Halliwell's Union Jack dress from the 1997 Brit Awards. The dress was sold at a charity auction to the Las Vegas Hard Rock Cafe for £41,320, giving Halliwell the Guinness World Record at that time for the most expensive piece of pop star clothing ever sold.
Commercialisation and celebrity culture
At the height of Spicemania, the Spice Girls were involved in a prolific marketing phenomenon. Under the guidance of their mentor and manager Simon Fuller, they advertised for an unprecedented number of brands and became the most merchandised group in music history. The group were also a frequent feature of the global press. As a result, said biographer David Sinclair, "So great was the daily bombardment of Spice images and Spice product that it quickly became oppressive even to people who were well disposed towards the group." This was parodied in the video for their song "Spice Up Your Life", which depicts a futuristic dystopian city covered in billboards and adverts featuring the group. Similarly, the North American leg of their 1998 Spiceworld Tour introduced a whole new concert revenue stream when it became the first time advertising was used in a pop concert. Overall, the Spice Girls' earnings in the 1990s were on par with that of a medium-sized corporation thanks in large part to their marketing endeavours, with their global gross income estimated at $500–800 million by May 1998.
In his analysis of the group's enduring influence on 21st-century popular culture, John Mckie of the BBC observed that while other stars had used brand endorsements in the past, "the Spice brand was the first to propel the success of the band". Christopher Barrett and Ben Cardew of Music Week credited Fuller's "ground-breaking" strategy of marketing the Spice Girls as a brand with revolutionising the pop music industry, "paving the way for everything from The White Stripes cameras to U2 iPods and Girls Aloud phones." Barrett further noted that pop music and brand synergy have become inextricably linked in the modern music industry, which he attributed to the "remarkable" impact of the Spice Girls. The Guardians Sylvia Patterson also wrote of what she called the group's true legacy: "[T]hey were the original pioneers of the band as brand, of pop as a ruthless marketing ruse, of the merchandising and sponsorship deals that have dominated commercial pop ever since."
The mainstream media embraced the Spice Girls at the peak of their success. The group received regular international press coverage and were constantly followed by paparazzi. Paul Gorman of Music Week said of the media interest in the Spice Girls in the late 1990s: "They inaugurated the era of cheesy celebrity obsession which pertains today. There is lineage from them to the Kardashianisation not only of the music industry, but the wider culture." The Irish Independent Tanya Sweeney agreed that "[t]he vapidity of paparazzi culture could probably be traced back to the Spice Girls' naked ambitions", while Mckie predicted that, "[f]or all that modern stars from Katy Perry to Lionel Messi exploit brand endorsements and attract tabloid coverage, the scale of the Spice Girls' breakthrough in 1996 is unlikely to be repeated—at least not by a music act."
1990s and gay icons
The Spice Girls have been labelled the biggest pop phenomenon of the 1990s due to the international record sales, iconic symbolism, global cultural influence and apparent omnipresence they held during the decade. The group appeared on the cover of the July 1997 edition of Rolling Stone accompanied with the headline, "Spice Girls Conquer the World". At the 2000 Brit Awards, the group received the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award in honour of their success in the global music scene in the 1990s. The iconic symbolism of the Spice Girls in the 1990s is partly attributed to their era-defining outfits, the most notable being the Union Jack dress that Halliwell wore at the 1997 Brit Awards. The dress has achieved iconic status, becoming one of the most prominent symbols of 1990s pop culture. The status of the Spice Girls as 1990s pop culture icons is also attributed to their vast marketing efforts and willingness to be a part of a media-driven world. Their unprecedented appearances in adverts and the media solidified the group as a phenomenon—an icon of the decade and for British music.
A study conducted by the British Council in 2000 found that the Spice Girls were the second-best-known Britons internationally—only behind then-Prime Minister Tony Blair—and the best-known Britons in Asia. The group were featured in VH1's I Love the '90s and the sequel I Love the '90s: Part Deux; the series covered cultural moments from 1990s with the Spice Girls' rise to fame representing the year 1997, while Halliwell quitting the group represented 1998. In 2006, ten years after the release of their debut single, the Spice Girls were voted the biggest cultural icons of the 1990s with 80 per cent of the votes in a UK poll of 1,000 people carried out for the board game Trivial Pursuit, stating that "Girl Power" defined the decade. The Spice Girls also ranked number ten in the E! TV special, The 101 Reasons the '90s Ruled.
Some sources, especially those in the United Kingdom, regard the Spice Girls as gay icons. In a 2007 UK survey of more than 5,000 gay men and women, Beckham placed 12th and Halliwell placed 43rd in a ranking of the top 50 gay icons. Halliwell was the recipient of the Honorary Gay Award at the 2016 Attitude Awards and Chisholm was given the "Celebrity Ally" award at the 2021 British LGBT Awards, held in London in August. In a 2005 interview, Bunton attributed their large gay following to the group's fun-loving nature, open-mindedness and their love of fashion and dressing up. The LGBTQ magazine Gay Times credits the Spice Girls as having been "ferocious advocates of the community" throughout their whole career. According to Bunton, the LGBTQ community was a big influence on the group's music. A desire to be more inclusive also led the group to change the lyrics in "2 Become 1"; the lyric "Any deal that we endeavour/boys and girls feel good together" appears in their debut album but was changed to "Once again if we endeavour/love will bring us back together" for the single and music video release.
Portrayal in the media
The Spice Girls became media icons in Great Britain and a regular feature of the British press. During the peak of their worldwide fame in 1997, the paparazzi were constantly seen following them everywhere to obtain stories and gossip about the group, such as a supposed affair between Emma Bunton and manager Simon Fuller, or constant split rumours which became fodder for numerous tabloids. Rumours of in-fighting and conflicts within the group also made headlines, with the rumours suggesting that Geri Halliwell and Melanie Brown in particular were fighting to be the leader of the group. Brown, who later admitted that she used to be a "bitch" to Halliwell, said the problems had stayed in the past. The rumours reached their height when the Spice Girls dismissed their manager Simon Fuller during the power struggles, with Fuller reportedly receiving a £10 million severance cheque to keep quiet about the details of his sacking. Months later, in May 1998, Halliwell would leave the band amid rumours of a falling out with Brown; the news of Halliwell's departure was covered as a major news story by media around the world, and became one of the biggest entertainment news stories of the decade.
In February 1997 at the Brit Awards, Halliwell's Union Jack dress from the Spice Girls' live performance made all the front pages the next day. During the ceremony, Halliwell's breasts were exposed twice, causing controversy. In the same year, nude glamour shots of Halliwell taken earlier in her career were released, causing some scandal.
The stories of their encounters with other celebrities also became fodder for the press; for example, in May 1997, at The Prince's Trust 21st-anniversary concert, Brown and Halliwell breached royal protocol when they planted kisses on Prince Charles's cheeks, leaving it covered with lipstick, and later, Halliwell told him "you're very sexy" and also pinched his bottom. In November, the British royal family were considered fans of the Spice Girls, including The Prince of Wales and his sons Prince William and Prince Harry. That month, South African President Nelson Mandela said: "These are my heroes. This is one of the greatest moments in my life" in an encounter organised by Prince Charles, who said, "It is the second greatest moment in my life, the first time I met them was the greatest". Prince Charles would later send Halliwell a personal letter "with lots of love" when he heard that she had quit the Spice Girls. In 1998 the video game magazine Nintendo Power created The More Annoying Than the Spice Girls Award, adding: "What could possibly have been more annoying in 1997 than the Spice Girls, you ask?".
Victoria Adams started dating football player David Beckham in late 1997 after they had met at a charity football match. The couple announced their engagement in 1998 and were dubbed "Posh and Becks" by the media, becoming a cultural phenomenon in their own right.
Other brand ventures
Film
The group made their film debut in Spice World with director Bob Spiers. Meant to accompany their sophomore album, the style and content of the movie was in the same vein as the Beatles' films in the 1960s such as A Hard Day's Night. The light-hearted comedy, intended to capture the spirit of the Spice Girls, featured a plethora of stars including Richard E. Grant, Alan Cumming, Roger Moore, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Elton John, Richard O'Brien, Bob Hoskins, Jennifer Saunders, Elvis Costello and Meat Loaf.
Spice World was released in December 1997 and proved to be a hit at the box office, taking in over $100 million worldwide. Despite being a commercial success, the film was widely panned by critics; the movie was nominated for seven awards at the 1999 Golden Raspberry Awards where the Spice Girls collectively won the award for "Worst Actress". Considered a cult classic, several critics have reevaluated the film more positively in the years following its initial release. Since 2014, the Spice Bus, which was driven by Meat Loaf in the film, has been on permanent display at the Island Harbour Marina on the Isle of Wight, England.
Television
The Spice Girls have hosted and starred in various television specials. In November 1997, they became the first pop group to host ITV's An Audience with...; their show featured an all-female audience and was watched by 11.8 million viewers in the UK, one fifth of the country's population. The group hosted the Christmas Day edition of Top of the Pops on BBC One in 1996. The following year, a special Christmas Eve edition of the BBC series was dedicated to them, titled "Spice Girls on Top of the Pops". The group have also starred in numerous MTV television specials, including Spice Girls: Girl Power A–Z and MTV Ultrasound, Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice. Their concerts have also been broadcast in various countries: Girl Power! Live in Istanbul (1997) was broadcast on ITV, Showtime, and Fox Family Channel; Spiceworld Tour (1998) was broadcast on Sky Box Office; and Christmas in Spiceworld (1999) was broadcast on Sky One and Fox Kids, among others.
The group have starred in television commercials for brands such as Pepsi, Polaroid, Walkers, Impulse and Tesco. They have also released a few official documentary films, including Spice Girls in America: A Tour Story (1999) and Giving You Everything (2007). Making-of documentaries for their film Spice World were broadcast on Channel 5 and MTV. The Spice Girls have been the subject of numerous unofficial documentary films, commissioned and produced by individuals independent of the group, including Raw Spice (2001) and Seven Days That Shook the Spice Girls (2002). The group have had episodes dedicated to them in several music biography series, including VH1's Behind the Music, E! True Hollywood Story and MTV's BioRhythm.
Merchandise and sponsorship deals
In the late 1990s, the Spice Girls were involved in a prolific marketing phenomenon that saw them become the most merchandised group in music history. They negotiated lucrative endorsement deals with numerous brands, including Pepsi, Asda, Cadbury and Target, which led to accusations of overexposure and "selling out". The group was estimated to have earned over £300 million ($500 million) from their marketing endeavours in 1997 alone. Their subsequent reunion concert tours saw the Spice Girls launch new sponsorship and advertising campaigns with the likes of Tesco and Victoria's Secret in 2007, and Walkers and Mr. Men in 2019.
Viva Forever!
Viva Forever! is a jukebox musical written by Jennifer Saunders, produced by Judy Craymer and directed by Paul Garrington. Based on the songs of the Spice Girls, the musical ran at the Piccadilly Theatre in the West End from 11 December 2012 to 29 June 2013.
Career records and achievements
As a group, the Spice Girls have received a number of notable awards, including five Brit Awards, three American Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, three MTV Europe Music Awards, one MTV Video Music Award and three World Music Awards. They have also been recognised for their songwriting achievements with two Ivor Novello Awards. In 2000, they received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, making them the youngest recipients of the Lifetime Achievement award whose previous winners include Elton John, the Beatles and Queen.
The Spice Girls are the biggest-selling British act of the 1990s, having comfortably outsold all of their peers including Oasis and the Prodigy. They are, by some estimates, the biggest-selling girl group of all time. They have sold 100 million records worldwide, achieving certified sales of 13 million albums in Europe, 14 million records in the US and 2.4 million in Canada. The group achieved the highest-charting debut for a UK group on the Billboard Hot 100 at number five with "Say You'll Be There". They are also the first British band since the Rolling Stones in 1975 to have two top-ten albums in the US Billboard 200 albums chart at the same time (Spice and Spiceworld). In addition to this, the Spice Girls also achieved the highest-ever annual earnings by an all-female group with an income of £29.6 million (approximately US$49 million) in 1998. In 1999, they ranked sixth in Forbes''' inaugural Celebrity 100 Power Ranking, which made them the highest-ranking musicians.
They produced a total of nine number one singles in the UK—tied with ABBA behind Take That (eleven), The Shadows (twelve), Madonna (thirteen), Westlife (fourteen), Cliff Richard (fourteen), the Beatles (seventeen) and Elvis Presley (twenty-one). The group had three consecutive Christmas number-one singles in the UK ("2 Become 1", 1996; "Too Much", 1997; "Goodbye", 1998); they only share this record with the Beatles and LadBaby. Their first single, "Wannabe", is the most successful song released by an all-female group. Debuting on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart at number eleven, it is also the highest-ever-charting debut by a British band in the US, beating the previous record held by the Beatles for "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and the joint highest entry for a debut act, tying with Alanis Morissette.Spice is the 18th-biggest-selling album of all time in the UK with over 3 million copies sold, and topped the charts for 15 non-consecutive weeks, the most by a female group in the UK. It is also the biggest-selling album of all time by a girl group, with sales of over 23 million copies worldwide. Spiceworld shipped 7 million copies in just two weeks, including 1.4 million in Britain alone—the largest-ever shipment of an album over 14 days. They are also the first act (and so far only female act) to have their first six singles ("Wannabe", "Say You'll Be There", "2 Become 1", "Mama"/"Who Do You Think You Are", "Spice Up Your Life" and "Too Much") make number one on the UK charts. Their run was broken by "Stop", which peaked at number two in March 1998.
The Spice Girls have the highest-grossing concert tours by an all-female group across two decades (2000–2020), grossing nearly $150 million in ticket sales across 58 shows. They are also the most-merchandised group in music history. Their Spice Girls dolls are the best-selling celebrity dolls of all time with sales of over 11 million; the dolls were the second-best-selling toy, behind the Teletubbies, of 1998 in the US according to the trade publication Playthings. Their film, Spice World, broke the record for the highest-ever weekend debut on Super Bowl weekend (25 January 1998) in the US, with box office sales of $10,527,222. Spice World topped the UK video charts on its first week of release, selling over 55,000 copies on its first day in stores and 270,000 copies in the first week."'Spiceworld' To Shake Up U.K. Vid Chart?". Billboard. 28 May 1998. Retrieved 14 March 2006.
In popular culture
In February 1997, the "Sugar Lumps", a satirical version of the Spice Girls played by Kathy Burke, Dawn French, Llewella Gideon, Lulu and Jennifer Saunders, filmed a video for British charity Comic Relief. The video starts with the Sugar Lumps as schoolgirls who really want to become pop stars like the Spice Girls, and ends with them joining the group on stage, while dancing and lip-syncing the song "Who Do You Think You Are". The Sugar Lumps later joined the Spice Girls during their live performance of the song on Comic Relief's telethon Red Nose Day event in March 1997. In January 1998, a fight between animated versions of the Spice Girls and pop band Hanson was the headlining matchup in MTV's claymation parody Celebrity Deathmatch Deathbowl '98 special that aired during the Super Bowl XXXII halftime. The episode became the highest-rated special in the network's history and MTV turned the concept into a full-fledged television series soon after.
In March 2013, the Glee characters Brittany (Heather Morris), Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz), Marley (Melissa Benoist), Kitty (Becca Tobin) and Unique (Alex Newell) dressed up as the Spice Girls and performed the song "Wannabe" on the 17th episode of the fourth season of the show. In April 2016, the Italian variety show Laura & Paola on Rai 1 featured the hosts, Grammy Award-winning singer Laura Pausini and actress Paola Cortellesi, and their guests, Francesca Michielin, Margherita Buy and Claudia Gerini, dressed up as the Spice Girls to perform a medley of Spice Girls songs as part of a 20th-anniversary tribute to the band. In December 2016, the episode "Who Needs Josh When You Have a Girl Group?" of the musical comedy-drama series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend featured cast members Rachel Bloom, Gabrielle Ruiz and Vella Lovell performing an original song titled "Friendtopia", a parody of the Spice Girls' songs and "girl power" philosophy. Rapper Aminé's 2017 single "Spice Girl" is a reference to the group, and the song's music video includes an appearance by Brown. Other songs that reference the Spice Girls include "Grigio Girls" by Lady Gaga, "My Name Is" by Eminem, "Polka Power!" (a reference to "Girl Power") by "Weird Al" Yankovic, "Playinwitme" by Kyle and Kehlani, "Kinky" by Kesha, and "Spicy" by Diplo, Herve Pagez and Charli XCX.
In the late 1990s, Spice Girls parodies appeared in various American sketch comedy shows including Saturday Night Live (SNL), Mad TV and All That. A January 1998 episode of SNL featured cast members, including guest host Sarah Michelle Gellar, impersonating the Spice Girls for two "An Important Message About ..." sketches. In September 1998, the show once again featured cast members, including guest host Cameron Diaz, impersonating the Spice Girls for a sketch titled "A Message from the Spice Girls". Nickelodeon's All That had recurring sketches with the fictional boy band "The Spice Boys", featuring cast members Nick Cannon as "Sweaty Spice", Kenan Thompson as "Spice Cube", Danny Tamberelli as "Hairy Spice", Josh Server as "Mumbly Spice", and a skeleton prop as "Dead Spice".
Parodies of the Spice Girls have also appeared in major advertising campaigns. In 1997, Jack in the Box, an American fast-food chain restaurant, sought to capitalise on "Spice mania" in America by launching a national television campaign using a fictional girl group called the Spicy Crispy Chicks (a take off of the Spice Girls) to promote the new Spicy Crispy Sandwich. The Spicy Crispy Chicks concept was used as a model for another successful advertising campaign called the 'Meaty Cheesy Boys'.*
At the 1998 Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show, one of the Spicy Crispy Chicks commercials won the top award for humour. In 2001, prints adverts featuring a parody of the Spice Girls, along with other British music icons consisting of the Beatles, Elton John, Freddie Mercury and the Rolling Stones, were used in the Eurostar national advertising campaign in France. The campaign won the award for Best Outdoor Campaign at the French advertising CDA awards. In September 2016, an Apple Music advert premiered during the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards that featured comedian James Corden dressed up as various music icons including all five of the Spice Girls.
Other notable groups of people have been labelled as some variation of a play-on-words on the Spice Girls' name as an allusion to the band. In 1997, the term "Spice Boys" emerged in the British media as a term coined to characterise the "pop star" antics and lifestyles off the pitch of a group of Liverpool F.C. footballers that includes Jamie Redknapp, David James, Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler and Jason McAteer. The label has stuck with these footballers ever since, with John Scales, one of the so-called Spice Boys, admitting in 2015 that, "We're the Spice Boys and it's something we have to accept because it will never change." In the Philippines, the "Spice Boys" tag was given to a group of young Congressmen of the House of Representatives who initiated the impeachment of President Joseph Estrada in 2001. The Australian/British string quartet Bond were dubbed by the international press as the "Spice Girls of classical music" during their launch in 2000 due to their "sexy" image and classical crossover music that incorporated elements of pop and dance music. A spokeswoman for the quartet said in response to the comparisons, "In fact, they are much better looking than the Spice Girls. But we don't welcome comparisons. The Bond girls are proper musicians; they have paid their dues." The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) doubles team of Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova, two-time Grand Slam and two-time WTA Finals Doubles champions, dubbed themselves the "Spice Girls of tennis" in 1999. Hingis and Kournikova, along with fellow WTA players Venus and Serena Williams, were also labelled the "Spice Girls of tennis", then later the "Spite Girls", by the media in the late 1990s due to their youthfulness, popularity and brashness.
Wax sculptures of the Spice Girls are currently on display at the famed Madame Tussaud's New York wax museum. The sculptures of the Spice Girls (sans Halliwell) were first unveiled in December 1999, making them the first pop band to be modelled as a group since the Beatles in 1964 at the time. A sculpture of Halliwell was later made in 2002, and was eventually displayed with the other Spice Girls' sculptures after Halliwell reunited with the band in 2007. Since 2008, Spiceworld: The Exhibition, a travelling exhibition of around 5,000 Spice Girls memorabilia and merchandise, has been shown in museums across the UK. The Spice Girls Exhibition, a collection of over 1,000 Spice Girls items owned by Alan Smith-Allison, was held at the Trakasol Cultural Centre in Limassol Marina, Cyprus in the summer of 2016. Wannabe 1996–2016: A Spice Girls Art Exhibition, an exhibition of Spice Girls-inspired art, was held at The Ballery in Berlin in 2016 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the group's debut single, "Wannabe".
Discography
Spice (1996)
Spiceworld (1997)
Forever'' (2000)
Concerts
Girl Power! Live in Istanbul (1997)
Spiceworld Tour (1998)
Christmas in Spiceworld Tour (1999)
The Return of the Spice Girls Tour (2007–08)
Spice World – 2019 Tour (2019)
Members
Victoria Beckham (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012)
Melanie Brown (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Emma Bunton (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Melanie Chisholm (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2018–present)
Geri Halliwell (1994–1998, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Timeline
Publications
Books
Magazines
See also
List of best-selling girl groups
List of awards received by the Spice Girls
Notes
References
Citations
Book references
External links
1994 establishments in England
1994 establishments in the United Kingdom
Brit Award winners
MTV Europe Music Award winners
English pop girl groups
English dance music groups
Dance-pop groups
Teen pop groups
Feminist musicians
Ivor Novello Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Musical groups established in 1994
Musical groups disestablished in 2000
Musical groups reestablished in 2007
Musical groups disestablished in 2008
Musical groups reestablished in 2018
Musical groups from London
Virgin Records artists
World Music Awards winners
English pop music groups
Golden Raspberry Award winners | true | [
"a TEN Talk (originally 10Talk) is a short presentation on a topic of the speaker's choosing given at a BarCamp type conference. It derives from a TED Talk and originated at the 2012 RefreshCache v4 developer conference (now defunct) in Gilbert, Arizona during the open floor demo time with a description of \"Fast paced 10 minute presentations by the you and the other leaders among us.\" Since the term was still somewhat new at the time, a \"What is a Ten-Talk?\" page was created on the RefreshCache site with the following abbreviated description so potential Ten-Talk presenters would know exactly what was expected of them:\n \n A Ten-Talk is a fast-paced, ten minute POLISHED presentation on an interesting topic that you think will appeal to the Church IT / Web Developer audiences.\n \n Here are some examples of Ten-Talk topics:\n (1) Have you implemented something at your church that has been a radical success or epic failure? We can learn from either of these!\n (2) Do you have an inspirational message that can lead others to action? Even better if you can share how this message inspired you to action and then show us what you did.\n (3) Have you spent time researching and understanding something in the world of ministry software or Church IT? Maybe you are an expert in [redacted]. Present this to the Church IT Network /RefreshCache community and share what you know. Your research may help another church find the solution to a problem they are facing, or save them the trouble of doing all the research you just did by realizing it won't work for them.\n\nIt was later adopted at the national Church IT Round Table conference held in February 2013 in Phoenix, Arizona when the two events began to intermingle and used again in 2014 at the Peoria, Illinois event where it was re-described as \"10Talks (or TEN-Talks) are 10 minute, fast paced talks on a topic. These are perfect sessions for raising awareness about a topic, tool, or idea that you think your peers should know.\"\n\nIts use outside of CITRT conferences is thought to begin with the WLAN professionals summit in February 2014.\n\nReferences\n\nPresentation",
"Modron is an adventure for fantasy role-playing games published by Judges Guild in 1978.\n\nPlot summary\nModron is a scenario describing the village of Modron and a nearby underwater adventure, each with a large map. It includes both village and underwater encounters.\n\nModron is a water goddess whose city was somehow preserved in a battle between her worshippers and the worshippers of her rival god, Proteus. Proteus' people's homes were destroyed, but a new city was built on top of the ruins. Explorers in the city can find a myriad of wealth and adventures. Several characters are sketchily described for the players, if they choose to use them.\n\nPublication history\nModron was written by Bob Bledsaw and Gary Adams, and was published by Judges Guild in 1978 as a 16-page digest-sized book with a blue cover and two large maps. Judges Guild published a second edition in 1980.\n\nA listing of cumulative sales from 1981 shows that Modron sold over 15,000 units.\n\nReception\nElisabeth Barrington reviewed Modron in The Space Gamer No. 30. Barrington commented that \"The graphics on the maps are excellent. The ideas presented in the background are interesting and novel, to some extent. Clarity is the key word in this module. Whatever is described is organized and easy to read.\" However, she added \"BUT there is not much described. In each room or place the characters go, the DM must quickly invent a few things to flesh out the descriptions given in the booklet. There are people in the places, and a couple of items, and that is all that is given. No room descriptions, no special traps or interesting things that happen unless you make them up as you go along; just a person or monster and some items. There are some bad typos in the booklet, making things a little hard to figure out at times, but the great organization of the book makes up for that one little problem.\" Barrington concludes her review by saying, \"If you are the type of DM who wants the bare minimum provided for your campaign, this is for you. But you might find that [the price] is a little high to pay for descriptions of people. It is fun to play, and there are some new things to find, but I do not think it is worth the price.\"\n\nWilliam Fawcett reviewed Modron in The Dragon #44. Fawcett commented that \"This set is inexpensive and has some good expansions of ideas mentioned, but not detailed, in earlier Guild products. Modron could be easily included in a campaign that included nothing else from the Guild.\"\n\nReviews\n Different Worlds #8 (Jun 1980)\n\nReferences\n\nJudges Guild fantasy role-playing game adventures"
]
|
[
"Spice Girls",
"Girl power",
"What was Girl power?",
"phrase \"girl power\" put a name to a social phenomenon, but the slogan was met with mixed reactions.",
"What were the reactions it was met with?",
"message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women, and it emphasised the importance of strong and loyal friendship among females.",
"Did anyone dislike the message?",
"some critics dismissed it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic, while others took issue with the emphasis on physical appearance,",
"What was the appearance issue?",
"concerned about the potential impact on self-conscious and/or impressionable youngsters.",
"Around what year was girl power of influence?",
"I don't know.",
"What else did you find interesting in this section?",
"\"What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were,"
]
| C_fe6b19634b6e4d3fa1e9cb3ceb5cbec3_0 | What types of things made them so unique? | 7 | What types of things made Spice Girls so unique? | Spice Girls | The phrase "girl power" put a name to a social phenomenon, but the slogan was met with mixed reactions. The phrase was a label for the particular facet of post classical neo-feminist empowerment embraced by the band: that a sensual, feminine appearance and equality between the sexes need not be mutually exclusive. This concept was by no means original in the pop world: both Madonna and Bananarama had employed similar outlooks. The phrase itself had also appeared in a few songs by British girl groups and bands since at least 1987; most notably, it was the name of British pop duo Shampoo's 1996 single and album, later credited by Halliwell as the inspiration for the Spice Girls' mantra. However, it was not until the emergence of the Spice Girls in 1996 with "Wannabe", that the concept of "girl power" exploded onto the common consciousness. The phrase was regularly uttered by all five members--although most closely associated with Halliwell--and was often delivered with a peace sign. The slogan also featured on official Spice Girls merchandise and on some of the outfits the group members wore. The Spice Girls' version was distinctive. Its message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women, and it emphasised the importance of strong and loyal friendship among females. In all, the focused, consistent presentation of "girl power" formed the centrepiece of their appeal as a band. Some commentators credit the Spice Girls with reinvigorating mainstream feminism--popularized as "girl power"--in the 1990s, with their mantra serving as a gateway to feminism for their young fans. On the other hand, some critics dismissed it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic, while others took issue with the emphasis on physical appearance, concerned about the potential impact on self-conscious and/or impressionable youngsters. Regardless, the phrase became a cultural phenomenon, adopted as the mantra for millions of girls and even making it into the Oxford English Dictionary. In summation of the concept, author Ryan Dawson said, "The Spice Girls changed British culture enough for Girl Power to now seem completely unremarkable." The Spice Girls' debut single "Wannabe" has been hailed as an "iconic girl power anthem". In 2016, the United Nations' Global Goals "#WhatIReallyReallyWant" campaign filmed a global remake of the original music video for "Wannabe" to highlight gender inequality issues faced by women across the world. The video, which was launched on YouTube and ran in movie theatres internationally, featured British girl group M.O, Canadian "viral sensation" Taylor Hatala, Nigerian-British singer Seyi Shay and Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez lip-syncing to the song in various locations around the world. In response to the remake, Beckham said, "How fabulous is it that after 20 years the legacy of the Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?" At the 43rd People's Choice Awards in January 2017, American actress Blake Lively dedicated her "Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress" award to "girl power" in her acceptance speech, and credited the Spice Girls, saying: "What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were, and that was my first introduction into girl power." CANNOTANSWER | Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?" | The Spice Girls are a British girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Melanie Brown, also known as Mel B ("Scary Spice"); Melanie Chisholm, or Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"); Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"); Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"); and Victoria Beckham ("Posh Spice"). With their "girl power" mantra, they redefined the girl-group concept by targeting a young female fanbase. They led the teen pop resurgence of the 1990s, were a major part of the Cool Britannia era, and became pop culture icons of the decade.
The group formed through auditions held by managers Bob and Chris Herbert, who wanted to create a girl group to compete with the British boy bands popular at the time. They signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single "Wannabe" in 1996, which reached number one on the charts of 37 countries. Their debut album, Spice (1996), sold more than 23 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album by a female group in history. The follow-up, Spiceworld (1997) sold more than 14 million copies worldwide. Both albums encapsulated the group's dance-pop style and message of female empowerment, with vocal and songwriting contributions shared equally by the members. In 1997, a film starring the Spice Girls, Spice World, was released; it was a commercial success but received poor reviews.
In May 1998, Halliwell left the Spice Girls, citing exhaustion and creative differences. Forever (2000), the only Spice Girls album without Halliwell, achieved weaker sales. At the end of 2000, the Spice Girls entered a hiatus to concentrate on their solo careers. They reunited for two concert tours, the Return of the Spice Girls (2007–2008) and Spice World (2019), both of which won the Billboard Live Music Award for highest-grossing engagements. Viva Forever!, a musical based on the Spice Girls' music, opened in 2012; it was a critical and commercial failure and closed in 2013.
Measures of the Spice Girls' success include international record sales, iconic symbolism such as Halliwell's Union Jack dress, a major motion picture, Spice World (1997), and the highest-grossing concert tours by an all-female group from 2000 to 2020. Under the guidance of their mentor and manager Simon Fuller, their endorsement deals and merchandise made them one of most successful marketing engines ever, with a global gross income estimated at $500–800 million by May 1998. Their media exposure, according to Music Week writer Paul Gorman, helped usher in an era of celebrity obsession in pop culture.
The Spice Girls have sold 100 million records worldwide, making them the bestselling girl group of all time, one of the bestselling artists, and the most successful British pop act since the Beatles. They received five Brit Awards, three American Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, three MTV Europe Music Awards and one MTV Video Music Award. In 2000, they became the youngest recipients of the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. According to Rolling Stone journalist and biographer David Sinclair, they were the most widely recognised group since the Beatles.
Band history
1994–1996: Formation and early years
In the early 1990s, Bob and Chris Herbert, the father-and-son duo of Heart Management, decided to create a girl group to compete with the boy bands who dominated UK pop music at the time. Together with financier Chic Murphy, they envisioned an act comprising "five strikingly different girls" who would each appeal to a different audience. In February 1994, Heart Management placed an advertisement in the trade paper The Stage asking for singers to audition for an all-female pop band at London's Danceworks studios. Approximately 400 women attended the audition on 4 March 1994. They were placed in groups of 10 and danced a routine to "Stay" by Eternal, followed by solo auditions in which they performed songs of their choice.
After several weeks of deliberation, Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm and Michelle Stephenson were among a dozen or so women who advanced to a second round of auditions in April. Chisholm missed the second audition after coming down with tonsillitis. Despite missing the first round of auditions, Geri Halliwell persuaded the Herberts to let her attend the second. A week after the second audition, Adams, Brown, Halliwell and Stephenson were asked to attend a recall at Nomis Studios in Shepherd's Bush, performing "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" on their own and as a group. Chisholm was also invited as a last-minute replacement for another finalist. The five women were selected for a band initially named "Touch".
The group moved into a three-bedroom house in Maidenhead, Berkshire, and spent most of 1994 practising songs written for them by Bob Herbert's long-time associates John Thirkell and Erwin Keiles. According to Stephenson, the material they were given was "very, very young pop", and none were later used by the Spice Girls. During these first months, the group worked on demos at South Hill Park Recording Studios in Bracknell with producer and studio owner Michael Sparkes and songwriter and arranger Tim Hawes. They were also tasked with choreographing their own dance routines, which they worked on at Trinity Studios in Knaphill, near Woking, Surrey. A few months into the training, Stephenson was fired for a perceived lack of commitment. Heart Management turned to the group's vocal coach, Pepi Lemer, to find a replacement. After Lemer's first recommendation declined the offer, Lemer recommended her former pupil, Emma Bunton, who auditioned for the Herberts and joined as the fifth member.
As their training continued, the group performed small showcases for a few of Heart Management's associates. On one such performance, the group added a rap section they had written to one of Thirkell and Keiles' songs. Keiles was furious with the changes and insisted they learn to write songs properly. The group began professional songwriting lessons; during one session, they wrote a song called "Sugar and Spice" with Hawes, which inspired them to change their band name to "Spice".
By late 1994, the group felt insecure as they still did not have an official contract with Heart Management, and were frustrated with the management team's direction. They persuaded Herbert to set up a showcase performance for the group in front of industry writers, producers and A&R men in December 1994 at the Nomis Studios, where they received an "overwhelmingly positive" reaction. The Herberts quickly set about creating a binding contract for them. Encouraged by the reaction they had received at the Nomis showcase, all five members refused to sign the contracts on legal advice from, among others, Adams's father. The following month, in January, the group began songwriting sessions with Richard Stannard, whom they had impressed at the showcase, and his partner Matt Rowe. It was during these sessions that the songs "Wannabe" and "2 Become 1" were written.
In March 1995, the group parted from Heart Management due to their frustration with the company's unwillingness to listen to their visions and ideas. To ensure they kept control of their own work, they allegedly stole the master recordings of their discography from the management offices. The next day, the group tracked down Sheffield-based songwriter Eliot Kennedy, who had been present at the Nomis showcase, and persuaded him to work with them. Through contacts they had made at the showcase, they were also introduced to record producers Absolute. With Kennedy and Absolute's help, the group spent the next several weeks writing and recording demos for the majority of the songs that would be released on their debut album, including "Say You'll Be There" and "Who Do You Think You Are". Their demos caught the attention of Simon Fuller of 19 Entertainment, who signed them to his management company in May 1995.
By this point, industry buzz around the Spice Girls had grown significantly and the major record labels in London and Los Angeles were keen to sign them. After a bidding war, they signed a five-album deal with Virgin Records in July 1995. Fuller took them on an extensive promotional tour in Los Angeles, where they met with studio executives in the hopes of securing film and television opportunities. Their name was also changed to "Spice Girls" as a rapper was already using the name "Spice". The new name was chosen because the group noticed industry people often referred to them derisively as "the 'Spice' girls". The group continued to write and record tracks for their debut album.
1996–1997: Spice and breakthrough
On 7 July 1996, the Spice Girls released their debut single "Wannabe" in the United Kingdom. In the weeks before the release, the music video for "Wannabe" received a trial airing on music channel The Box. The video was an instant hit, and was aired up to seventy times a week at its peak. After the video was released, the Spice Girls had their first live broadcast TV slot on LWT's Surprise Surprise. Earlier in May, the group had conducted their first music press interview with Paul Gorman, the contributing editor of trade paper Music Week, at Virgin Records' Paris headquarters. His piece recognised that the Spice Girls were about to institute a change in the charts away from Britpop and towards out-and-out pop. He wrote: "JUST WHEN BOYS with guitars threaten to rule pop life—Damon's all over Smash Hits, Ash are big in Big! and Liam can't move for tabloid frenzy—an all-girl, in-yer-face pop group have arrived with enough sass to burst that rockist bubble." "Wannabe" entered the UK Singles Chart at number three before moving up to number one the following week and staying there for seven weeks. The song proved to be a global hit, hitting number one in 37 countries, including four consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, and becoming not only the biggest-selling debut single by an all-female group but also the biggest-selling single by an all-female group of all time.
Riding a wave of publicity and hype, the group released their next singles in the UK and Europe; in October "Say You'll Be There" was released topping the charts at number one for two weeks. "2 Become 1" was released in December, becoming their first Christmas number one and selling 462,000 copies in its first week, making it the fastest-selling single of the year. The two tracks continued the group's remarkable sales, giving them three of the top five biggest-selling songs of 1996 in the UK. In November 1996, the Spice Girls released their debut album Spice in Europe. The success was unprecedented and drew comparisons to Beatlemania, leading the press to dub it "Spicemania" and the group the "Fab Five". In seven weeks Spice had sold 1.8 million copies in Britain alone, making the Spice Girls the fastest-selling British act since the Beatles. In total, the album sold over 3 million copies in Britain, the biggest-selling album of all time in the UK by a female group, certified 10× Platinum, and peaked at number one for fifteen non-consecutive weeks. In Europe the album became the biggest-selling album of 1997 and was certified 8× Platinum by the IFPI for sales in excess of 8 million copies.
That same month, the Spice Girls attracted a crowd of 500,000 when they switched on the Christmas lights in Oxford Street, London. At the same time, Simon Fuller started to set up multi-million dollar sponsorship deals for the Spice Girls with Pepsi, Walkers, Impulse, Cadbury and Polaroid. The group ended 1996 winning three trophies at the Smash Hits awards at the London Arena, including best video for "Say You'll Be There". In January 1997, "Wannabe" was released in the United States. The single proved to be a catalyst in helping the Spice Girls break into the notoriously difficult US market when it debuted on the Hot 100 Chart at number eleven. At the time, this was the highest-ever debut by a non-American act, beating the previous record held by the Beatles for "I Want to Hold Your Hand", and the joint highest entry for a debut act alongside Alanis Morissette's "Ironic". "Wannabe" reached number one in the US for four weeks. In February, Spice was released in the US, and became the biggest-selling album of 1997 in the US, peaking at number one, and was certified 7× Platinum by the RIAA for sales in excess of 7.4 million copies. The album was also included in the Top 100 Albums of All Time list by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) based on US sales. In total, the album sold over 23 million copies worldwide becoming the biggest-selling album in pop music history by an all-female group.
Later that month, the Spice Girls performed "Who Do You Think You Are" to open the 1997 Brit Awards, with Geri Halliwell wearing a Union Jack mini-dress that became one of pop history's most famed outfits. At the ceremony, the group won two Brit Awards; Best British Video for "Say You'll Be There" and Best British Single for "Wannabe". In March 1997, a double A-side of "Mama"/"Who Do You Think You Are" was released in Europe, the last from Spice, which once again saw them at number one, making the Spice Girls the first group since the Jackson 5 to have four consecutive number one hits.
Girl Power!, the Spice Girls' first book and manifesto was launched later that month at the Virgin Megastore. It sold out its initial print run of 200,000 copies within a day, and was eventually translated into more than 20 languages. In April, One Hour of Girl Power was released; it sold 500,000 copies in the UK between April and June to become the best-selling pop video ever, and was eventually certified 13x Platinum. In May, Spice World, a film starring the group, was announced by the Spice Girls at the Cannes Film Festival. The group also performed their first live UK show for the Prince's Trust benefit concert. At the show, they breached royal protocol when Brown and then Halliwell planted kisses on Prince Charles' cheeks and pinched his bottom, causing controversy. That same month, Virgin released Spice Girls Present... The Best Girl Power Album... Ever!, a multi-artist compilation album compiled by the group. The album peaked at number two on the UK Compilation Chart and was certified Gold by the BPI. At the Ivor Novello Awards, the group won International Hit of the Year and Best-Selling British Single awards for "Wannabe".
Spice World began filming in June and wrapped in August. The film was to be set to the songs from the group's second studio album, but no songs had been written when filming began. The group thus had to do all the songwriting and recording at the same time as they were filming Spice World, resulting in a grueling schedule that left them exhausted. Among the songs that were written during this period was "Stop", the lyrics for which cover the group's frustrations with being overworked by their management. In September, the Spice Girls performed "Say You'll Be There" at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and won Best Dance Video for "Wannabe". The MTV Awards came five days after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, with tributes paid to her throughout the ceremony. Chisholm stated, "We'd like to dedicate this award to Princess Diana, who is a great loss to our country." At the 1997 Billboard Music Awards, the group won four awards for New Artist of the Year, Billboard Hot 100 Singles Group of the Year, Billboard 200 Group of the Year and Billboard 200 Album of the Year for Spice.
1997–1998: Groundbreaking success, Spiceworld and Halliwell's departure
In October 1997, the Spice Girls released the first single from Spiceworld, "Spice Up Your Life". It entered the UK Singles Chart at number one, making it the group's fifth consecutive number-one single. That same month, the group performed their first live major concert to 40,000 fans in Istanbul, Turkey. Later, they launched the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal, then travelled to South Africa to meet Nelson Mandela, who announced, "These are my heroes." In November, the Spice Girls released their second album, Spiceworld. It set a new record for the fastest-selling album when it shipped seven million copies over the course of two weeks. Gaining favourable reviews, the album went on to sell over 10 million copies in Europe, Canada, and the United States combined, and 14 million copies worldwide. Criticised in the United States for releasing the album just nine months after their debut there, which gave the group two simultaneous Top 10 albums in the Billboard album charts, and suffering from over-exposure at home, the Spice Girls began to experience a media backlash. The group was criticised for the number of sponsorship deals signed—over twenty in total—and they began to witness diminishing international chart positions. Nevertheless, the Spice Girls remained the biggest-selling pop group of both 1997 and 1998.
On 7 November 1997, the group performed "Spice Up Your Life" at the MTV Europe Music Awards, and won the Best Group award. The morning of the performance, the Spice Girls had also fired their manager Simon Fuller and took over the running of the group themselves. To ensure a smooth transition, Halliwell allegedly stole a mobile phone from Fuller's assistant that contained the group's upcoming schedule and Fuller's business contacts. The firing was front-page news around the world. Many commentators speculated that Fuller had been the true mastermind behind the group, and that this was the moment when the band lost their impetus and direction. Later that month, the Spice Girls became the first pop group to host ITV's An Audience with...; their show was watched by 11.8 million viewers in the UK, one fifth of the country's population. In December 1997, the second single from Spiceworld, "Too Much", was released, becoming the group's second Christmas number one and their sixth consecutive number-one single in the UK. December also saw the group launch their film Spice World. The world premiere at the Empire Theatre in Leicester Square was attended by celebrities including Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry. The film was a commercial success but received poor reviews. The group ended 1997 as the year's most played artist on American radio.
In January 1998, the Spice Girls attended the US premiere of Spice World at the Mann's Chinese Theatre. At the 1998 American Music Awards a few days later, the group won the awards for Favorite Album, Favorite New Artist and Favorite Group in the pop/rock category. In February, they won a special award for overseas success at the 1998 Brit Awards, with combined sales of over 45 million albums and singles worldwide. That night, the group performed their next single, "Stop", their first not to reach number one in United Kingdom, entering at number two. In early 1998, the Spice Girls embarked on the Spiceworld Tour, starting in Dublin, Ireland, on 24 February 1998 before moving to mainland Europe and North America, and then returning to the United Kingdom for two gigs at Wembley Stadium. Later that year, the Spice Girls were invited to sing on the official England World Cup song "(How Does It Feel to Be) On Top of the World", the last song recorded with Halliwell until 2007.
On 31 May 1998, Halliwell announced her departure from the Spice Girls through her solicitor. The announcement was preceded by days of frenzied press speculation after Halliwell missed two concerts in Norway and was absent from the group's performance on The National Lottery Draws. Halliwell first cited creative differences, then later said that she was suffering from exhaustion and disillusionment, although rumours of a power struggle with Brown as the reason for her departure were circulated by the press. Halliwell's departure from the group shocked fans and became one of the biggest entertainment news stories of the year, making news headlines the world over. The four remaining members were adamant that the group would carry on. The North American leg of the Spiceworld Tour went on as planned, beginning in West Palm Beach, Florida, on 15 June, and grossing $60 million over 40 sold-out performances. The tour was accompanied by a documentary film titled Spice Girls in America: A Tour Story. "Viva Forever" was the last single released from Spiceworld and gave the group their seventh number one in the United Kingdom. The video for the single was made before Halliwell's departure and features all five members in stop-motion animated form.
1998–2000: Forever and hiatus
While on tour in the United States, the group continued to write and record new material, releasing a new song, "Goodbye", before Christmas in 1998. The song was seen as a tribute to Geri Halliwell, although parts of it had originally been written when Halliwell was still a part of the group, and when it topped the UK Singles Chart it became their third consecutive Christmas number one—equalling the record previously set by the Beatles. In November, Bunton and Chisholm appeared at the 1998 MTV Europe Music Awards without their other bandmates, accepting two awards on behalf of the Spice Girls for Best Pop Act and Best Group. That same year, Brown and Adams announced they were both pregnant. Brown was married to dancer Jimmy Gulzer and became known as Mel G for a brief period; she gave birth to daughter Phoenix Chi in February 1999. Adams gave birth a month after to son Brooklyn, whose father was then Manchester United footballer David Beckham; later that year, she married Beckham in a highly publicised wedding in Ireland.
From 1998 onwards, the Spice Girls began to pursue solo careers and by the following year, Brown, Bunton, Chisholm, and former member Halliwell, had all released music as solo artists. The group returned to the studio in August 1999 after an eight-month recording break to start work on their third and last studio album. The album's sound was initially more pop-influenced, similar to their first two albums, and included production from Eliot Kennedy. The album's sound took a mature direction when American producers like Rodney Jerkins, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis came on board to collaborate with the group. In December 1999, the Spice Girls embarked on a UK-only tour, Christmas in Spiceworld, in London and Manchester, during which they showcased new songs from the third album. Earlier in the year, the group also recorded the song "My Strongest Suit" for Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida, a concept album which would later go on to become the musical Aida. The group performed again at the 2000 Brit Awards in March, where they received the Lifetime Achievement award. Despite being at the event, Halliwell did not join her former bandmates on stage.
In November 2000, the group released Forever; sporting a new edgier R&B sound, the album received a lukewarm response from critics. In the US, the album peaked at number thirty-nine on the Billboard 200 albums chart. In the UK, the album was released the same week as Westlife's Coast to Coast album and the chart battle was widely reported by the media, with Westlife winning the battle and reaching number one, leaving the Spice Girls at number two. The lead single from Forever, the double A-side "Holler"/"Let Love Lead the Way", became the group's ninth number one single in the UK. However, the song failed to break onto the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart stateside, instead peaking at number seven on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, and at number thirty-one on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The only major performance of the lead single by the group came at the 2000 MTV Europe Music Awards in November. In total, Forever achieved only a fraction of the success of its two best-selling predecessors, selling four million copies. The Spice Girls ceased all promotional activities for the album in December 2000, as they began an indefinite hiatus to concentrate on their solo careers. Publicly, they insisted that the group was not splitting.
2007–2008: Return of the Spice Girls and Greatest Hits
On 28 June 2007, the Spice Girls, including Halliwell, held a press conference at the O2 Arena revealing their intention to reunite for a worldwide concert tour titled the Return of the Spice Girls. The plan to re-form had long been speculated by the media, with previous attempts by the organisers of Live 8 and Concert for Diana to reunite the group as a five-piece falling through. Each member of the group was reportedly paid £10 million ($20 million) to do the reunion tour. Giving You Everything, an official documentary film about the reunion, was directed by Bob Smeaton and first aired on Australia's Fox8 on 16 December 2007, followed by BBC One in the UK on 31 December.
Ticket sales for the first London date of the Return of the Spice Girls tour sold out in 38 seconds. It was reported that over one million people signed up in the UK alone and over five million worldwide for the ticket ballot on the band's official website. Sixteen additional dates in London were added, all selling out within one minute. In the United States, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Jose shows also sold out, prompting additional dates to be added. It was announced that the Spice Girls would be playing dates in Chicago and Detroit and Boston, as well as additional dates in New York to keep up with the demand. The tour opened in Vancouver on 2 December 2007, with group performing to an audience of 15,000 people, singing twenty songs and changing outfits a total of eight times. Along with the tour sellout, the Spice Girls licensed their name and image to Tesco's UK supermarket chain.
The group's comeback single, "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)", was announced as the official Children in Need charity single for 2007 and was released 5 November. The first public appearance on stage by the Spice Girls occurred at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, where they performed two songs, 1998 single "Stop" and the lead single from their greatest hits album, "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)". The show was filmed by CBS on 15 November 2007 for broadcast on 4 December 2007. They also performed both songs live for the BBC Children in Need telethon on 16 November 2007 from Los Angeles. The release of "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)" peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart, making it the group's lowest-charting British single to date. The album peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart. On 1 February 2008, it was announced that due to personal and family commitments their tour would come to an end in Toronto on 26 February 2008, meaning that tour dates in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Cape Town and Buenos Aires were cancelled.
Overall, the 47-date tour was the highest-grossing concert act of 2007–2008, measured as the twelve months ending in April 2008. It produced some $107.2 million in ticket sales and merchandising, with sponsorship and ad deals bringing the total to $200 million. The tour's 17-night sellout stand at the O2 Arena in London was the highest-grossing engagement of the year, netting £16.5 million (US$33 million) and drawing an audience of 256,647, winning the 2008 Billboard Touring Award for Top Boxscore. The group's comeback also netted them several other awards, including the Capital Music Icon Award, the Glamour Award for Best Band, and the Vodafone Live Music Award for Best Live Return, the last of which saw them beat out acts such as Led Zeppelin and the Sex Pistols.
2010–2012: Viva Forever! and London Olympics
At the 2010 Brit Awards, the Spice Girls received a special award for "Best Performance of the 30th Year". The award was for their 1997 Brit Awards performance of "Wannabe" and "Who Do You Think You Are", and was accepted by Halliwell and Brown on behalf of the group.
That year, the group collaborated with Fuller, Judy Craymer and Jennifer Saunders to develop a Spice Girls stage musical, Viva Forever!. Similar to the ABBA musical Mamma Mia!, Viva Forever! used the group's music to create an original story. In June 2012, to promote the musical, the Spice Girls reunited for a press conference at the St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, where music video for "Wannabe" was filmed exactly sixteen years earlier. Viva Forever! premiered at the West End's Piccadilly Theatre in December 2012, with all five Spice Girls in attendance. To promote the musical, the group appeared in the documentary Spice Girls' Story: Viva Forever!, which aired on 24 December 2012 on ITV1. Viva Forever! was panned by critics and closed after seven months, with a loss of at least £5 million.
In August 2012, the Spice Girls reunited to perform a medley of "Wannabe" and "Spice Up Your Life" at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony. Their performance received acclaim, and became the most tweeted moment of the Olympics with over 116,000 tweets per minute on Twitter.
2016–present: Spice World tour and Spice25
On 8 July 2016, Brown, Bunton and Halliwell released a video celebrating the 20th anniversary of "Wannabe" and teased news from them as a three-piece. Beckham and Chisholm opted not to take part but gave the project their blessing. A new song from the three-piece, "Song for Her", was leaked online a few months later in November. The reunion project was cancelled due to Halliwell's pregnancy.
On 24 May 2019, the Spice Girls began the Spice World – 2019 Tour of the UK and Ireland at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland. Beckham declined to join due to commitments regarding her fashion business. Each of the four participating members was reportedly paid £12 million for the tour. The tour concluded with three concerts at London's Wembley Stadium, with the last taking place on 15 June 2019. Over 13 dates, the tour produced 700,000 spectators and earned $78.2 million in ticket sales. The three-night sellout stand at Wembley Stadium was the highest-grossing engagement of the year, drawing an audience of 221,971 and winning the 2019 Billboard Live Music Award for Top Boxscore. Despite sound problems in the early concerts, Anna Nicholson in The Guardian wrote, "As nostalgia tours go, this could hardly have been bettered."
Alongside the tour, the group teamed up with the children's book franchise Mr. Men to create derivative products such as books, cups, bags and coasters. On 13 June 2019, it was reported that Paramount Animation had greenlit an animated Spice Girls film with old and new songs. The project will be produced by Simon Fuller and written by Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith. A director has not been announced.
To mark the 25th anniversary of "Wannabe", an EP was released in July 2021 that included previously unreleased demos. On 29 October, the Spice Girls released Spice25, a deluxe reissue of Spice featuring previously unreleased demos and remixes. The deluxe release saw the album reenter the UK Albums Chart at number five, number three on the UK Official Vinyl Albums Chart Top 40 and number four on the UK Official Physical Albums Chart.
Artistry
Musical style
According to Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the Spice Girls "used dance-pop as a musical base, but they infused the music with a fiercely independent, feminist stance that was equal parts Madonna, post-riot grrrl alternative rock feminism, and a co-opting of the good-times-all-the-time stance of England's new lad culture." Their songs incorporated a variety of genres, which Halliwell described as a "melding" of the group members' eclectic musical tastes, but otherwise kept to mainstream pop conventions. Chisholm said: "We all had different artists that we loved. Madonna was a big influence and TLC; we watched a lot of their videos." A regular collaborator on the group's first two albums was the production duo known as Absolute, made up of Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins. Absolute initially found it difficult to work with the group as the duo was heavily into R&B music at the time, while the Spice Girls according to Wilson were "always very poptastic". Wilson said of the group's musical output: "Their sound was actually not getting R&B quite right."
In his biography of the band, Wannabe: How the Spice Girls Reinvented Pop Fame (2004), Rolling Stone journalist David Sinclair said that the "undeniable artistry" of the group's songs had been overlooked. He said the Spice Girls "instinctively had an ear for a catchy tune" without resorting to the "formula balladry and bland modulations" of 90s boy bands Westlife and Boyzone. He praised their "more sophisticated" second album, Spiceworld, saying: "Peppered with personality, and each conveying a distinctive musical flavour and lyrical theme, these are songs which couldn't sound less 'manufactured,' and which, in several cases, transcend the pop genre altogether."
Lyrical themes
The Spice Girls' lyrics promote female empowerment and solidarity. Given the young age of their target audience, Lucy Jones of The Independent said the Spice Girls' songs were subversive for their time: "The lyrics were active rather than passive: taking, grabbing, laying it down – all the things little girls were taught never to do. 'Stop right now, thank you very much'. 'Who do you think you are?' 'I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want'." Musicologist Nicola Dibben cited "Say You'll Be There" as an example of how the Spice Girls inverted traditional gender roles in their lyrics, depicting a man who has fallen in love and displays too much emotion and a woman who remains independent and in control. The Spice Girls emphasised the importance of sisterhood over romance songs such as "Wannabe", and embraced safe sex in "2 Become 1".
Lauren Bravo, author of What Would the Spice Girls Do?: How the Girl Power Generation Grew Up (2018), found that even when the Spice Girls sang about romance, the message was "cheerfully non-committal", in contrast to the songs about breakups and unrequited love other pop stars were singing at the time. Writing for Bustle, Taylor Ferber praised the female-driven lyrics as ahead of their time, citing the inclusivity and optimism of songs such as "Spice Up Your Life" and the sex-positivity of "Last Time Lover" and "Naked". Ferber concluded: "Between all of their songs about friendship, sex, romance, and living life, a central theme in almost all Spice Girls music was loving yourself first."
Vocal arrangements
Unlike prior pop vocal groups, the Spice Girls shared vocals, rather than having a lead vocalist supported by others. The group did not want any one member to be considered the lead singer, and so each song was divided into one or two lines each, before all five voices harmonised in the chorus. The group faced criticism as this meant that no one voice could stand out, but Sinclair concluded that it "was actually a clever device to ensure that they gained the maximum impact and mileage from their all-in-it-together girl-gang image".
The Spice Girls' former vocal coach, Pepi Lemer, described their individual voices as distinct and easy distinguish, citing the "lightness" of Bunton's voice and the "soulful sound" of Brown's and Chisholm's. Biographer Sean Smith cited Chisholm as the vocalist the group could not do without. Sinclair noted that while Chisholm's ad libs are a distinctive feature of certain Spice Girls songs, the difference in the amount of time her voice was featured over any other member was negligible.
While vocal time was distributed equally, musicologist Nicola Dibben found that there was an "interesting inequality" in the way that vocal styles were distributed within the group, which she felt conformed to certain stereotypes associated with race and socioeconomic background. According to Dibben, most of the declamatory style of singing in the group's singles were performed by Brown, the only black member, and Chisholm, whom Dibben classified as white working class; this was in contrast to the more lyrical sections allotted to Beckham, whom Dibben classified as white middle class.
Songwriting
The Spice Girls did not play instruments, but co-wrote all of their songs. According to their frequent collaborator Richard Stannard, they had two approaches to songwriting: ballads were written in a traditional way with the group sitting around a piano, while songs such as "Wannabe" were the result of tapping into their "mad" energy. Eliot Kennedy, another regular co-writer, said that songwriting sessions with the Spice Girls were "very quick and short". He described his experience working with them:
What I said to them was, "Look, I've got a chorus—check this out." And I'd sing them the chorus and the melody—no lyrics or anything—and straight away five pads and pencils came out and they were throwing lines at us. Ten minutes later, the song was written. Then you go through and refine it. Then later, as you were recording it you might change a few things here and there. But pretty much it was a real quick process. They were confident in what they were doing, throwing it out there.
Absolute's Paul Wilson recalled an experience whereby he and Watkins were responsible for writing the backing track and the group would then write the lyrics. Watkins added: "I wasn't an 18-year-old girl. They always had this weird ability to come up with phrases that you'd never heard of." He said the members would create dance routines at the same time as writing songs, and that they "They knew what they wanted to write about, right from day one. You couldn't force your musical ideas upon them."
From the onset, the Spice Girls established a strict 50–50 split of the publishing royalties between them and their songwriting collaborators. As with their vocal arrangements, they were also adamant on maintaining parity between themselves in the songwriting credits. Sinclair said:
The deal between themselves was a strict five-way split on their share of the songwriting royalties on all songs irrespective of what any one member of the group had (or had not) contributed to any particular song. Apart from ease of administration, this was also a symbolic expression of the unity which was so much part and parcel of the Spice philosophy.
Sinclair identified Halliwell as a major source of ideas for the Spice Girls' songs, including many of the concepts and starting points for the group's songs. Tim Hawes, who worked with the group when they were starting out, said Halliwell's strength was in writing lyrics and pop hooks, and estimated that she was responsible for 60–70% of the lyrics in the songs he worked on. The group's collaborators credit the other members of the group as being more active than Halliwell in constructing the melodies and harmonies of their songs. Matt Rowe, who wrote several songs with the Spice Girls, agreed that Halliwell was particularly good when it came to writing lyrics and credits the lyrics for "Viva Forever" to her. He felt that all five members had contributed equally to the songwriting.
Cultural impact and legacy
Pop music resurgence and girl group boom
The Spice Girls broke onto the music scene at a time when alternative rock, hip-hop and R&B dominated global music charts. In the group's first ever interview in May 1996, Halliwell told Music Week: "We want to bring some of the glamour back to pop, like Madonna had when we were growing up. Pop is about fantasy and escapism, but there's so much bullshit around at the moment." The modern pop phenomenon that the Spice Girls created by targeting early members of Generation Y was credited with changing the music landscape by reviving the pop music genre, bringing about the global wave of late-1990s and early-2000s teen pop acts such as the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and NSYNC.
The Spice Girls have also been credited with paving the way for the girl groups and female pop singers that have come after them. Unlike previous girl groups such as the Andrews Sisters whose target market was male record buyers, the Spice Girls redefined the girl group concept by going after a young female fanbase instead. In the UK, they are further credited for disrupting the then male-dominated pop music scene. Prior to the Spice Girls, girl groups such as Bananarama have had hit singles in the UK but their album sales were generally underwhelming. The accepted wisdom within the British music industry at the time was that an all-girl pop group would not work because both girls and boys would find the concept too threatening. Teen magazines such as Smash Hits and Top of the Pops initially refused to feature the Spice Girls on the assumption that a girl group would not appeal to their female readership. The massive commercial breakthrough of the Spice Girls turned the tide, leading to an unprecedented boom of new girl groups in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
As managers and record labels scrambled to find the next Spice Girls, around 20 new girl groups were launched in the UK in 1999, followed by another 35 the next year. Groups that emerged during this period include All Saints, B*Witched, Atomic Kitten, Girl Thing, Girls@Play, Girls Aloud and the Sugababes, all hoping to emulate the Spice Girls' success. Outside of the UK and Ireland, girl groups such as New Zealand's TrueBliss, Australia's Bardot, Germany's No Angels, US's Cheetah Girls, as well as South Korea's Baby Vox and f(x) were also modelled after the Spice Girls.
Twenty-first-century girl groups continue to cite the Spice Girls as a major source of influence, including the Pussycat Dolls, 2NE1, Girls' Generation, Little Mix, Fifth Harmony, and Haim. Solo female artists who have been similarly influenced by the group include Jess Glynne, Foxes, Alexandra Burke, Charli XCX, Rita Ora, Billie Eilish, and Beyoncé. During her 2005 "Reflections" concert series, Filipina superstar Regine Velasquez performed a medley of five Spice Girls songs as a tribute to the band she says were a major influence on her music. Danish singer-songwriter MØ decided to pursue music after watching the Spice Girls on TV as a child, saying in a 2014 interview: "I have them and only them to thank—or to blame—for becoming a singer." 15-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Adele credits the Spice Girls as a major influence in regard to her love and passion for music, stating that "they made me what I am today".
Girl power
"Girl power" was a label for the particular facet of feminist empowerment embraced by the band, emphasising female confidence, individuality and the value of female friendship. The Spice Girls' particular approach to "girl power" was seen as a boisterous, independent, and sex-positive response to "lad culture." The phrase was regularly espoused by all five members—although most closely associated with Halliwell—and was often delivered with a peace sign. The "girl power" slogan was originally coined by US punk band Bikini Kill in 1991 and subsequently appeared in a few songs in the early and mid-1990s; most notably, it was the title of British pop duo Shampoo's 1996 single which Halliwell later said was her introduction to the phrase. Although the term did not originate with them, it was not until the emergence of the Spice Girls in 1996 that "girl power" exploded onto the mainstream consciousness. According to Chisholm, the band were inspired to champion this cause as a result of the sexism they encountered when they were first starting out in the music business. Industry insiders credit Halliwell as being the author of the group's "girl power" manifesto, while Halliwell herself once spoke of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher as being "the pioneer of our ideology."
In all, the focused, consistent presentation of "girl power" formed the centrepiece of their appeal as a band. The Spice Girls' brand of postfeminism was distinctive and its message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women; by being politically neutral, it did not alienate consumers with different allegiances. Virgin's director of press Robert Sandall explained the novelty of the group: "There had never been a group of girls who were addressing themselves specifically to a female audience before." Similarly, John Harlow of The Sunday Times believed it was this "loyal[ty] to their sex" that set the Spice Girls apart from their predecessors, enabling them to win over young female fans where previous girl groups had struggled. While "girl power" put a name to a social phenomenon, it was met with mixed reactions. Some commentators credit the Spice Girls with reinvigorating mainstream feminism—popularised as "girl power"—in the 1990s, with their mantra serving as a gateway to feminism for their young fans. Conversely, critics dismiss it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic and accuse the group of commercialising the social movement. Regardless, "girl power" became a cultural phenomenon, adopted as the mantra for millions of girls and even making it into the Oxford English Dictionary.
In summation of the concept, author Ryan Dawson said, "The Spice Girls changed British culture enough for Girl Power to now seem completely unremarkable."
In keeping with their "girl power" manifesto, the Spice Girls' songs have been praised for their "genuinely empowering messages about friendship and sisterhood," which set them apart from the typical love songs their pop contemporaries were singing. Billboard magazine said their lyrics "demonstrated real, noncompetitive female friendship," adding that the messages the Spice Girls imparted have held up well compared to the lyrics sung by later girl groups such as the Pussycat Dolls. The group's debut single "Wannabe" has been hailed as an "iconic girl power anthem". In 2016, the United Nations launched their #WhatIReallyReallyWant Global Goals campaign by filming a remake of the "Wannabe" music video to highlight gender inequality issues faced by women across the world. The video, which premiered on YouTube and ran in movie theatres internationally, featured British girl group M.O, Canadian "viral sensation" Taylor Hatala, Nigerian-British singer Seyi Shay and Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez lip-syncing to the song in various locations around the world. In response to the remake, Beckham said, "How fabulous is it that after 20 years the legacy of the Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?"
At the 43rd People's Choice Awards in 2017, Blake Lively dedicated her "Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress" award to "girl power" in her acceptance speech; she credited the Spice Girls, saying: "What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were, and that was my first introduction into girl power." In 2018, Rolling Stone named the Spice Girls' "girl power" ethos on The Millennial 100, a list of 100 people, music, cultural touchstones and movements that have shaped the Millennial generation. Writing in 2019 about the group's influence on what she called the "Spice Girls Generation", Caity Weaver of The New York Times concluded, "Marketing ploy or not, 'Girl power' had become a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Cool Britannia
The term "Cool Britannia" became prominent in the media in the 1990s and represented the new political and social climate that was emerging with the advances made by New Labour and the new British prime minister Tony Blair. Coming out of a period of 18 years of Conservative government, Tony Blair and New Labour were seen as young, cool and appealing, a driving force in giving Britain a feeling of euphoria and optimism.
Although by no means responsible for the onset of "Cool Britannia", the arrival of the Spice Girls added to the new image and re-branding of Britain, and underlined the growing world popularity of British, rather than American, pop music. This fact was underlined at the 1997 Brit Awards; the group won two awards but it was Halliwell's iconic red, white and blue Union Jack mini-dress that appeared in media coverage around the world, becoming an enduring image of "Cool Britannia". The Spice Girls were identified as part of another British Invasion of the US, and in 2016, Time acknowledged the Spice Girls as "arguably the most recognisable face" of "Cool Britannia".
Image, nicknames and fashion trends
The Spice Girls' image was deliberately aimed at young girls, an audience of formidable size and potential. Instrumental to their range of appeal within this demographic was their five distinct personalities and styles, which encouraged fans to identify with one member or another. This rejection of a homogeneous group identity was a stark departure from previous groups such as the Beatles and the Supremes, and the Spice Girls model has since been used to style other pop groups such as One Direction.
The band's image was inadvertently bolstered by the nicknames bestowed on them by the British press. After a lunch with the Spice Girls in the wake of "Wannabes release, Peter Loraine, the then-editor of Top of the Pops magazine, and his editorial staff decided to devise nicknames for each member of the group based on their personalities. Loraine explained, "In the magazine we used silly language and came up with nicknames all the time so it came naturally to give them names that would be used by the magazine and its readers; it was never meant to be adopted globally." Shortly after using the nicknames in a magazine feature on the group, Loraine received calls from other British media outlets requesting permission to use them, and before long the nicknames were synonymous with the Spice Girls. Jennifer Cawthron, one of the magazine's staff writers, explained how the nicknames were chosen:
Victoria was 'Posh Spice', because she was wearing a Gucci-style mini dress and seemed pouty and reserved. Emma wore pigtails and sucked a lollipop, so obviously she was 'Baby Spice'. Mel C spent the whole time leaping around in her tracksuit, so we called her 'Sporty Spice'. I named Mel B 'Scary Spice' because she was so shouty. And Geri was 'Ginger Spice', simply because of her hair. Not much thought went into that one.
In a 2020 interview, Chisholm explained that the Spice Girls' image came about unintentionally when, after initially trying to coordinate their outfits as was expected of girl groups at the time, the group decided to just dress in their own individual styles. According to Chisholm, they "never thought too much more of it" until after "Wannabe" was released and the press gave them their nicknames. The group embraced the nicknames and grew into caricatures of themselves, which Chisholm said was "like a protection mechanism because it was like putting on this armour of being this, this character, rather than it actually being you."
Each Spice Girl adopted a distinct, over-the-top trademark style that served as an extension of her public persona.
Victoria Beckham (née Adams): As Posh Spice, she was known for her choppy brunette bob cut, reserved attitude, signature pout and form-fitting designer outfits (often a little black dress).
Melanie Brown: As Scary Spice, she was known for her "in-your-face" attitude, "loud" Leeds accent, pierced tongue and bold manner of dress (which often consisted of leopard-print outfits).
Emma Bunton: As Baby Spice, she was the youngest member of the group, wore her long blonde hair in pigtails, wore pastel (particularly pink) babydoll dresses and platform sneakers, had an innocent smile and a girly girl personality.
Melanie Chisholm: As Sporty Spice, she usually wore a tracksuit paired with athletic shoes, wore her long dark hair in a high ponytail, and sported tattoos coupled with a tough-girl attitude. She also showcased her athletic abilities on stage, such as by performing back handsprings and high kicks.
Geri Halliwell: As Ginger Spice, she was known for her bright red hair, feistiness, "glammed-up sex appeal" and flamboyant stage outfits. She was also identified by the media and those who worked with the Spice Girls as the leader of the group.
The Spice Girls are considered style icons of the 1990s; their image and styles becoming inextricably tied to the band's identity. They are credited with setting 1990s fashion trends such as Buffalo platform shoes and double bun hairstyles. Their styles have inspired other celebrities including Katy Perry, Charli XCX, and Bollywood actress Anushka Ranjan. Lady Gaga performed as Emma Bunton (Baby Spice) in high school talent shows and Emma Stone chose "Emma" name inspired by Emma Bunton after she previously use name Riley Stone. The group have also been noted for the memorable outfits they have worn, the most iconic being Halliwell's Union Jack dress from the 1997 Brit Awards. The dress was sold at a charity auction to the Las Vegas Hard Rock Cafe for £41,320, giving Halliwell the Guinness World Record at that time for the most expensive piece of pop star clothing ever sold.
Commercialisation and celebrity culture
At the height of Spicemania, the Spice Girls were involved in a prolific marketing phenomenon. Under the guidance of their mentor and manager Simon Fuller, they advertised for an unprecedented number of brands and became the most merchandised group in music history. The group were also a frequent feature of the global press. As a result, said biographer David Sinclair, "So great was the daily bombardment of Spice images and Spice product that it quickly became oppressive even to people who were well disposed towards the group." This was parodied in the video for their song "Spice Up Your Life", which depicts a futuristic dystopian city covered in billboards and adverts featuring the group. Similarly, the North American leg of their 1998 Spiceworld Tour introduced a whole new concert revenue stream when it became the first time advertising was used in a pop concert. Overall, the Spice Girls' earnings in the 1990s were on par with that of a medium-sized corporation thanks in large part to their marketing endeavours, with their global gross income estimated at $500–800 million by May 1998.
In his analysis of the group's enduring influence on 21st-century popular culture, John Mckie of the BBC observed that while other stars had used brand endorsements in the past, "the Spice brand was the first to propel the success of the band". Christopher Barrett and Ben Cardew of Music Week credited Fuller's "ground-breaking" strategy of marketing the Spice Girls as a brand with revolutionising the pop music industry, "paving the way for everything from The White Stripes cameras to U2 iPods and Girls Aloud phones." Barrett further noted that pop music and brand synergy have become inextricably linked in the modern music industry, which he attributed to the "remarkable" impact of the Spice Girls. The Guardians Sylvia Patterson also wrote of what she called the group's true legacy: "[T]hey were the original pioneers of the band as brand, of pop as a ruthless marketing ruse, of the merchandising and sponsorship deals that have dominated commercial pop ever since."
The mainstream media embraced the Spice Girls at the peak of their success. The group received regular international press coverage and were constantly followed by paparazzi. Paul Gorman of Music Week said of the media interest in the Spice Girls in the late 1990s: "They inaugurated the era of cheesy celebrity obsession which pertains today. There is lineage from them to the Kardashianisation not only of the music industry, but the wider culture." The Irish Independent Tanya Sweeney agreed that "[t]he vapidity of paparazzi culture could probably be traced back to the Spice Girls' naked ambitions", while Mckie predicted that, "[f]or all that modern stars from Katy Perry to Lionel Messi exploit brand endorsements and attract tabloid coverage, the scale of the Spice Girls' breakthrough in 1996 is unlikely to be repeated—at least not by a music act."
1990s and gay icons
The Spice Girls have been labelled the biggest pop phenomenon of the 1990s due to the international record sales, iconic symbolism, global cultural influence and apparent omnipresence they held during the decade. The group appeared on the cover of the July 1997 edition of Rolling Stone accompanied with the headline, "Spice Girls Conquer the World". At the 2000 Brit Awards, the group received the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award in honour of their success in the global music scene in the 1990s. The iconic symbolism of the Spice Girls in the 1990s is partly attributed to their era-defining outfits, the most notable being the Union Jack dress that Halliwell wore at the 1997 Brit Awards. The dress has achieved iconic status, becoming one of the most prominent symbols of 1990s pop culture. The status of the Spice Girls as 1990s pop culture icons is also attributed to their vast marketing efforts and willingness to be a part of a media-driven world. Their unprecedented appearances in adverts and the media solidified the group as a phenomenon—an icon of the decade and for British music.
A study conducted by the British Council in 2000 found that the Spice Girls were the second-best-known Britons internationally—only behind then-Prime Minister Tony Blair—and the best-known Britons in Asia. The group were featured in VH1's I Love the '90s and the sequel I Love the '90s: Part Deux; the series covered cultural moments from 1990s with the Spice Girls' rise to fame representing the year 1997, while Halliwell quitting the group represented 1998. In 2006, ten years after the release of their debut single, the Spice Girls were voted the biggest cultural icons of the 1990s with 80 per cent of the votes in a UK poll of 1,000 people carried out for the board game Trivial Pursuit, stating that "Girl Power" defined the decade. The Spice Girls also ranked number ten in the E! TV special, The 101 Reasons the '90s Ruled.
Some sources, especially those in the United Kingdom, regard the Spice Girls as gay icons. In a 2007 UK survey of more than 5,000 gay men and women, Beckham placed 12th and Halliwell placed 43rd in a ranking of the top 50 gay icons. Halliwell was the recipient of the Honorary Gay Award at the 2016 Attitude Awards and Chisholm was given the "Celebrity Ally" award at the 2021 British LGBT Awards, held in London in August. In a 2005 interview, Bunton attributed their large gay following to the group's fun-loving nature, open-mindedness and their love of fashion and dressing up. The LGBTQ magazine Gay Times credits the Spice Girls as having been "ferocious advocates of the community" throughout their whole career. According to Bunton, the LGBTQ community was a big influence on the group's music. A desire to be more inclusive also led the group to change the lyrics in "2 Become 1"; the lyric "Any deal that we endeavour/boys and girls feel good together" appears in their debut album but was changed to "Once again if we endeavour/love will bring us back together" for the single and music video release.
Portrayal in the media
The Spice Girls became media icons in Great Britain and a regular feature of the British press. During the peak of their worldwide fame in 1997, the paparazzi were constantly seen following them everywhere to obtain stories and gossip about the group, such as a supposed affair between Emma Bunton and manager Simon Fuller, or constant split rumours which became fodder for numerous tabloids. Rumours of in-fighting and conflicts within the group also made headlines, with the rumours suggesting that Geri Halliwell and Melanie Brown in particular were fighting to be the leader of the group. Brown, who later admitted that she used to be a "bitch" to Halliwell, said the problems had stayed in the past. The rumours reached their height when the Spice Girls dismissed their manager Simon Fuller during the power struggles, with Fuller reportedly receiving a £10 million severance cheque to keep quiet about the details of his sacking. Months later, in May 1998, Halliwell would leave the band amid rumours of a falling out with Brown; the news of Halliwell's departure was covered as a major news story by media around the world, and became one of the biggest entertainment news stories of the decade.
In February 1997 at the Brit Awards, Halliwell's Union Jack dress from the Spice Girls' live performance made all the front pages the next day. During the ceremony, Halliwell's breasts were exposed twice, causing controversy. In the same year, nude glamour shots of Halliwell taken earlier in her career were released, causing some scandal.
The stories of their encounters with other celebrities also became fodder for the press; for example, in May 1997, at The Prince's Trust 21st-anniversary concert, Brown and Halliwell breached royal protocol when they planted kisses on Prince Charles's cheeks, leaving it covered with lipstick, and later, Halliwell told him "you're very sexy" and also pinched his bottom. In November, the British royal family were considered fans of the Spice Girls, including The Prince of Wales and his sons Prince William and Prince Harry. That month, South African President Nelson Mandela said: "These are my heroes. This is one of the greatest moments in my life" in an encounter organised by Prince Charles, who said, "It is the second greatest moment in my life, the first time I met them was the greatest". Prince Charles would later send Halliwell a personal letter "with lots of love" when he heard that she had quit the Spice Girls. In 1998 the video game magazine Nintendo Power created The More Annoying Than the Spice Girls Award, adding: "What could possibly have been more annoying in 1997 than the Spice Girls, you ask?".
Victoria Adams started dating football player David Beckham in late 1997 after they had met at a charity football match. The couple announced their engagement in 1998 and were dubbed "Posh and Becks" by the media, becoming a cultural phenomenon in their own right.
Other brand ventures
Film
The group made their film debut in Spice World with director Bob Spiers. Meant to accompany their sophomore album, the style and content of the movie was in the same vein as the Beatles' films in the 1960s such as A Hard Day's Night. The light-hearted comedy, intended to capture the spirit of the Spice Girls, featured a plethora of stars including Richard E. Grant, Alan Cumming, Roger Moore, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Elton John, Richard O'Brien, Bob Hoskins, Jennifer Saunders, Elvis Costello and Meat Loaf.
Spice World was released in December 1997 and proved to be a hit at the box office, taking in over $100 million worldwide. Despite being a commercial success, the film was widely panned by critics; the movie was nominated for seven awards at the 1999 Golden Raspberry Awards where the Spice Girls collectively won the award for "Worst Actress". Considered a cult classic, several critics have reevaluated the film more positively in the years following its initial release. Since 2014, the Spice Bus, which was driven by Meat Loaf in the film, has been on permanent display at the Island Harbour Marina on the Isle of Wight, England.
Television
The Spice Girls have hosted and starred in various television specials. In November 1997, they became the first pop group to host ITV's An Audience with...; their show featured an all-female audience and was watched by 11.8 million viewers in the UK, one fifth of the country's population. The group hosted the Christmas Day edition of Top of the Pops on BBC One in 1996. The following year, a special Christmas Eve edition of the BBC series was dedicated to them, titled "Spice Girls on Top of the Pops". The group have also starred in numerous MTV television specials, including Spice Girls: Girl Power A–Z and MTV Ultrasound, Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice. Their concerts have also been broadcast in various countries: Girl Power! Live in Istanbul (1997) was broadcast on ITV, Showtime, and Fox Family Channel; Spiceworld Tour (1998) was broadcast on Sky Box Office; and Christmas in Spiceworld (1999) was broadcast on Sky One and Fox Kids, among others.
The group have starred in television commercials for brands such as Pepsi, Polaroid, Walkers, Impulse and Tesco. They have also released a few official documentary films, including Spice Girls in America: A Tour Story (1999) and Giving You Everything (2007). Making-of documentaries for their film Spice World were broadcast on Channel 5 and MTV. The Spice Girls have been the subject of numerous unofficial documentary films, commissioned and produced by individuals independent of the group, including Raw Spice (2001) and Seven Days That Shook the Spice Girls (2002). The group have had episodes dedicated to them in several music biography series, including VH1's Behind the Music, E! True Hollywood Story and MTV's BioRhythm.
Merchandise and sponsorship deals
In the late 1990s, the Spice Girls were involved in a prolific marketing phenomenon that saw them become the most merchandised group in music history. They negotiated lucrative endorsement deals with numerous brands, including Pepsi, Asda, Cadbury and Target, which led to accusations of overexposure and "selling out". The group was estimated to have earned over £300 million ($500 million) from their marketing endeavours in 1997 alone. Their subsequent reunion concert tours saw the Spice Girls launch new sponsorship and advertising campaigns with the likes of Tesco and Victoria's Secret in 2007, and Walkers and Mr. Men in 2019.
Viva Forever!
Viva Forever! is a jukebox musical written by Jennifer Saunders, produced by Judy Craymer and directed by Paul Garrington. Based on the songs of the Spice Girls, the musical ran at the Piccadilly Theatre in the West End from 11 December 2012 to 29 June 2013.
Career records and achievements
As a group, the Spice Girls have received a number of notable awards, including five Brit Awards, three American Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, three MTV Europe Music Awards, one MTV Video Music Award and three World Music Awards. They have also been recognised for their songwriting achievements with two Ivor Novello Awards. In 2000, they received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, making them the youngest recipients of the Lifetime Achievement award whose previous winners include Elton John, the Beatles and Queen.
The Spice Girls are the biggest-selling British act of the 1990s, having comfortably outsold all of their peers including Oasis and the Prodigy. They are, by some estimates, the biggest-selling girl group of all time. They have sold 100 million records worldwide, achieving certified sales of 13 million albums in Europe, 14 million records in the US and 2.4 million in Canada. The group achieved the highest-charting debut for a UK group on the Billboard Hot 100 at number five with "Say You'll Be There". They are also the first British band since the Rolling Stones in 1975 to have two top-ten albums in the US Billboard 200 albums chart at the same time (Spice and Spiceworld). In addition to this, the Spice Girls also achieved the highest-ever annual earnings by an all-female group with an income of £29.6 million (approximately US$49 million) in 1998. In 1999, they ranked sixth in Forbes''' inaugural Celebrity 100 Power Ranking, which made them the highest-ranking musicians.
They produced a total of nine number one singles in the UK—tied with ABBA behind Take That (eleven), The Shadows (twelve), Madonna (thirteen), Westlife (fourteen), Cliff Richard (fourteen), the Beatles (seventeen) and Elvis Presley (twenty-one). The group had three consecutive Christmas number-one singles in the UK ("2 Become 1", 1996; "Too Much", 1997; "Goodbye", 1998); they only share this record with the Beatles and LadBaby. Their first single, "Wannabe", is the most successful song released by an all-female group. Debuting on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart at number eleven, it is also the highest-ever-charting debut by a British band in the US, beating the previous record held by the Beatles for "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and the joint highest entry for a debut act, tying with Alanis Morissette.Spice is the 18th-biggest-selling album of all time in the UK with over 3 million copies sold, and topped the charts for 15 non-consecutive weeks, the most by a female group in the UK. It is also the biggest-selling album of all time by a girl group, with sales of over 23 million copies worldwide. Spiceworld shipped 7 million copies in just two weeks, including 1.4 million in Britain alone—the largest-ever shipment of an album over 14 days. They are also the first act (and so far only female act) to have their first six singles ("Wannabe", "Say You'll Be There", "2 Become 1", "Mama"/"Who Do You Think You Are", "Spice Up Your Life" and "Too Much") make number one on the UK charts. Their run was broken by "Stop", which peaked at number two in March 1998.
The Spice Girls have the highest-grossing concert tours by an all-female group across two decades (2000–2020), grossing nearly $150 million in ticket sales across 58 shows. They are also the most-merchandised group in music history. Their Spice Girls dolls are the best-selling celebrity dolls of all time with sales of over 11 million; the dolls were the second-best-selling toy, behind the Teletubbies, of 1998 in the US according to the trade publication Playthings. Their film, Spice World, broke the record for the highest-ever weekend debut on Super Bowl weekend (25 January 1998) in the US, with box office sales of $10,527,222. Spice World topped the UK video charts on its first week of release, selling over 55,000 copies on its first day in stores and 270,000 copies in the first week."'Spiceworld' To Shake Up U.K. Vid Chart?". Billboard. 28 May 1998. Retrieved 14 March 2006.
In popular culture
In February 1997, the "Sugar Lumps", a satirical version of the Spice Girls played by Kathy Burke, Dawn French, Llewella Gideon, Lulu and Jennifer Saunders, filmed a video for British charity Comic Relief. The video starts with the Sugar Lumps as schoolgirls who really want to become pop stars like the Spice Girls, and ends with them joining the group on stage, while dancing and lip-syncing the song "Who Do You Think You Are". The Sugar Lumps later joined the Spice Girls during their live performance of the song on Comic Relief's telethon Red Nose Day event in March 1997. In January 1998, a fight between animated versions of the Spice Girls and pop band Hanson was the headlining matchup in MTV's claymation parody Celebrity Deathmatch Deathbowl '98 special that aired during the Super Bowl XXXII halftime. The episode became the highest-rated special in the network's history and MTV turned the concept into a full-fledged television series soon after.
In March 2013, the Glee characters Brittany (Heather Morris), Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz), Marley (Melissa Benoist), Kitty (Becca Tobin) and Unique (Alex Newell) dressed up as the Spice Girls and performed the song "Wannabe" on the 17th episode of the fourth season of the show. In April 2016, the Italian variety show Laura & Paola on Rai 1 featured the hosts, Grammy Award-winning singer Laura Pausini and actress Paola Cortellesi, and their guests, Francesca Michielin, Margherita Buy and Claudia Gerini, dressed up as the Spice Girls to perform a medley of Spice Girls songs as part of a 20th-anniversary tribute to the band. In December 2016, the episode "Who Needs Josh When You Have a Girl Group?" of the musical comedy-drama series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend featured cast members Rachel Bloom, Gabrielle Ruiz and Vella Lovell performing an original song titled "Friendtopia", a parody of the Spice Girls' songs and "girl power" philosophy. Rapper Aminé's 2017 single "Spice Girl" is a reference to the group, and the song's music video includes an appearance by Brown. Other songs that reference the Spice Girls include "Grigio Girls" by Lady Gaga, "My Name Is" by Eminem, "Polka Power!" (a reference to "Girl Power") by "Weird Al" Yankovic, "Playinwitme" by Kyle and Kehlani, "Kinky" by Kesha, and "Spicy" by Diplo, Herve Pagez and Charli XCX.
In the late 1990s, Spice Girls parodies appeared in various American sketch comedy shows including Saturday Night Live (SNL), Mad TV and All That. A January 1998 episode of SNL featured cast members, including guest host Sarah Michelle Gellar, impersonating the Spice Girls for two "An Important Message About ..." sketches. In September 1998, the show once again featured cast members, including guest host Cameron Diaz, impersonating the Spice Girls for a sketch titled "A Message from the Spice Girls". Nickelodeon's All That had recurring sketches with the fictional boy band "The Spice Boys", featuring cast members Nick Cannon as "Sweaty Spice", Kenan Thompson as "Spice Cube", Danny Tamberelli as "Hairy Spice", Josh Server as "Mumbly Spice", and a skeleton prop as "Dead Spice".
Parodies of the Spice Girls have also appeared in major advertising campaigns. In 1997, Jack in the Box, an American fast-food chain restaurant, sought to capitalise on "Spice mania" in America by launching a national television campaign using a fictional girl group called the Spicy Crispy Chicks (a take off of the Spice Girls) to promote the new Spicy Crispy Sandwich. The Spicy Crispy Chicks concept was used as a model for another successful advertising campaign called the 'Meaty Cheesy Boys'.*
At the 1998 Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show, one of the Spicy Crispy Chicks commercials won the top award for humour. In 2001, prints adverts featuring a parody of the Spice Girls, along with other British music icons consisting of the Beatles, Elton John, Freddie Mercury and the Rolling Stones, were used in the Eurostar national advertising campaign in France. The campaign won the award for Best Outdoor Campaign at the French advertising CDA awards. In September 2016, an Apple Music advert premiered during the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards that featured comedian James Corden dressed up as various music icons including all five of the Spice Girls.
Other notable groups of people have been labelled as some variation of a play-on-words on the Spice Girls' name as an allusion to the band. In 1997, the term "Spice Boys" emerged in the British media as a term coined to characterise the "pop star" antics and lifestyles off the pitch of a group of Liverpool F.C. footballers that includes Jamie Redknapp, David James, Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler and Jason McAteer. The label has stuck with these footballers ever since, with John Scales, one of the so-called Spice Boys, admitting in 2015 that, "We're the Spice Boys and it's something we have to accept because it will never change." In the Philippines, the "Spice Boys" tag was given to a group of young Congressmen of the House of Representatives who initiated the impeachment of President Joseph Estrada in 2001. The Australian/British string quartet Bond were dubbed by the international press as the "Spice Girls of classical music" during their launch in 2000 due to their "sexy" image and classical crossover music that incorporated elements of pop and dance music. A spokeswoman for the quartet said in response to the comparisons, "In fact, they are much better looking than the Spice Girls. But we don't welcome comparisons. The Bond girls are proper musicians; they have paid their dues." The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) doubles team of Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova, two-time Grand Slam and two-time WTA Finals Doubles champions, dubbed themselves the "Spice Girls of tennis" in 1999. Hingis and Kournikova, along with fellow WTA players Venus and Serena Williams, were also labelled the "Spice Girls of tennis", then later the "Spite Girls", by the media in the late 1990s due to their youthfulness, popularity and brashness.
Wax sculptures of the Spice Girls are currently on display at the famed Madame Tussaud's New York wax museum. The sculptures of the Spice Girls (sans Halliwell) were first unveiled in December 1999, making them the first pop band to be modelled as a group since the Beatles in 1964 at the time. A sculpture of Halliwell was later made in 2002, and was eventually displayed with the other Spice Girls' sculptures after Halliwell reunited with the band in 2007. Since 2008, Spiceworld: The Exhibition, a travelling exhibition of around 5,000 Spice Girls memorabilia and merchandise, has been shown in museums across the UK. The Spice Girls Exhibition, a collection of over 1,000 Spice Girls items owned by Alan Smith-Allison, was held at the Trakasol Cultural Centre in Limassol Marina, Cyprus in the summer of 2016. Wannabe 1996–2016: A Spice Girls Art Exhibition, an exhibition of Spice Girls-inspired art, was held at The Ballery in Berlin in 2016 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the group's debut single, "Wannabe".
Discography
Spice (1996)
Spiceworld (1997)
Forever'' (2000)
Concerts
Girl Power! Live in Istanbul (1997)
Spiceworld Tour (1998)
Christmas in Spiceworld Tour (1999)
The Return of the Spice Girls Tour (2007–08)
Spice World – 2019 Tour (2019)
Members
Victoria Beckham (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012)
Melanie Brown (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Emma Bunton (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Melanie Chisholm (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2018–present)
Geri Halliwell (1994–1998, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Timeline
Publications
Books
Magazines
See also
List of best-selling girl groups
List of awards received by the Spice Girls
Notes
References
Citations
Book references
External links
1994 establishments in England
1994 establishments in the United Kingdom
Brit Award winners
MTV Europe Music Award winners
English pop girl groups
English dance music groups
Dance-pop groups
Teen pop groups
Feminist musicians
Ivor Novello Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Musical groups established in 1994
Musical groups disestablished in 2000
Musical groups reestablished in 2007
Musical groups disestablished in 2008
Musical groups reestablished in 2018
Musical groups from London
Virgin Records artists
World Music Awards winners
English pop music groups
Golden Raspberry Award winners | true | [
"A commodity chain is a process used by firms to gather resources, transform them into goods or commodities, and finally, distribute them to consumers. It is a series of links connecting the many places of production and distribution and resulting in a commodity that is then exchanged on the world market. In short, it is the connected path from which a good travels from producers to consumers. Commodity chains can be unique depending on the product types or the types of markets. Different stages of a commodity chain can also involve different economic sectors or be handled by the same business.\n\nA number of commentators have remarked that in the Internet age commodity chains are becoming increasingly more transparent. The Wikichains.org project has adopted the same wiki technology used by Wikipedia in order to help make commodity chains more transparent. \"They are a network of labour and production processes whose end result is a finished commodity\". William Jones Esq.\n\nA commodity chain demonstrates that each link of an extended chain of production and consumption links between resource producers and suppliers, various manufacturers, traders and shippers, wholesalers, and retailers. Rather than a linear chain, a circuit-board is a better metaphor for this concept because things are interconnected in so many ways, not just a mere straight line. This source explains global commodity chains in depth.\n\nNotes \n\nSupply chain management",
"Matthew 12:34 is the 34th verse in the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.\n\nContent\nIn the original Greek according to Westcott-Hort for this verse is:\nΓεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν, πῶς δύνασθε ἀγαθὰ λαλεῖν, πονηροὶ ὄντες; Ἐκ γὰρ τοῦ περισσεύματος τῆς καρδίας τὸ στόμα λαλεῖ. \n\nIn the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:\nO generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.\n\nThe New International Version translates the passage as:\nYou brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.\n\nAnalysis\nChrist here calls the Pharisees vipers, because they spoke viperous words and calumnies, trying to defame Christ and cut Him off. It is said they had hearts of vipers, since they were full of the poison of envy, pride, hatred and malice against Christ. Thus from what is in one's heart one speaks. So when the mind and the will are full of goodness and charity, one says good and loving things. However, if someone is in the gall of malice and envy, they will speak words of gall and envy and bitterness.\n\nCommentary from the Church Fathers\nChrysostom: \"But as speaking not for Himself but for the Holy Spirit, He accordingly rebukes them, saying, Generation of vipers, how can ye being evil speak good things? This is both a rebuke of them, and a proof in their own characters of those things which had been said. As though He had said, So ye being corrupt trees cannot bring forth good fruit. I do not wonder then that you thus speak, for you are ill nourished of ill parentage, and have an evil mind. And observe He said not, How can ye speak good things, seeing ye are a generation of vipers? for these two are not connected together; but He said, How can ye being evil speak good things? He calls them generation of vipers, because they made boast of their forefathers; in order therefore to cut off this their pride, He shuts them out of the race of Abraham, assigning them a parentage corresponding to their characters.\"\n\nRabanus Maurus: \"Or the words, Generation of vipers, may be taken as signifying children, or imitators of the Devil, because they had wilfully spoken against good works, which is of the Devil, and thence follows, Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. That man speaks out of the abundance of the heart who is not ignorant with what intention his words are uttered; and to declare his meaning more openly He adds, A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things. The treasure of the heart is the intention of the thoughts, by which the Judge judges that work which is produced, so that sometimes though the outward work that is shown seem great, yet because of the carelessness of a cold heart, they receive a little reward from the Lord.\"\n\nChrysostom: \"Herein also He shows His Godhead as knowing the hidden things of the heart; for not for words only, yea but for evil thoughts also they shall receive punishment. For it is the order of nature that the store of the wickedness which abounds within should be poured forth in words through the mouth. Thus when you shall hear any speaking evil, you must infer that his wickedness is more than what his words express; for what is uttered without is but the overflowing of that within; which was a sharp rebuke to them. For if that which was spoken by them were so evil, consider how evil must be the root from whence it sprung. And this happens naturally; for oftentimes the hesitating tongue does not suddenly pour forth all its evil, while the heart, to which none other is privy, begets whatsoever evil it will, without fear; for it has little fear of God. But when the multitude of the evils which are within is increased, the things which had been hidden then burst forth through the mouth. This is that He says, Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOther translations of Matthew 12:34 at BibleHub\n\n12:34"
]
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"Spice Girls",
"Girl power",
"What was Girl power?",
"phrase \"girl power\" put a name to a social phenomenon, but the slogan was met with mixed reactions.",
"What were the reactions it was met with?",
"message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women, and it emphasised the importance of strong and loyal friendship among females.",
"Did anyone dislike the message?",
"some critics dismissed it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic, while others took issue with the emphasis on physical appearance,",
"What was the appearance issue?",
"concerned about the potential impact on self-conscious and/or impressionable youngsters.",
"Around what year was girl power of influence?",
"I don't know.",
"What else did you find interesting in this section?",
"\"What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were,",
"What types of things made them so unique?",
"Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?\""
]
| C_fe6b19634b6e4d3fa1e9cb3ceb5cbec3_0 | What else did you find interesting in this section? | 8 | In addition to Girl power what else did you find interesting in Spice Girls section? | Spice Girls | The phrase "girl power" put a name to a social phenomenon, but the slogan was met with mixed reactions. The phrase was a label for the particular facet of post classical neo-feminist empowerment embraced by the band: that a sensual, feminine appearance and equality between the sexes need not be mutually exclusive. This concept was by no means original in the pop world: both Madonna and Bananarama had employed similar outlooks. The phrase itself had also appeared in a few songs by British girl groups and bands since at least 1987; most notably, it was the name of British pop duo Shampoo's 1996 single and album, later credited by Halliwell as the inspiration for the Spice Girls' mantra. However, it was not until the emergence of the Spice Girls in 1996 with "Wannabe", that the concept of "girl power" exploded onto the common consciousness. The phrase was regularly uttered by all five members--although most closely associated with Halliwell--and was often delivered with a peace sign. The slogan also featured on official Spice Girls merchandise and on some of the outfits the group members wore. The Spice Girls' version was distinctive. Its message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women, and it emphasised the importance of strong and loyal friendship among females. In all, the focused, consistent presentation of "girl power" formed the centrepiece of their appeal as a band. Some commentators credit the Spice Girls with reinvigorating mainstream feminism--popularized as "girl power"--in the 1990s, with their mantra serving as a gateway to feminism for their young fans. On the other hand, some critics dismissed it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic, while others took issue with the emphasis on physical appearance, concerned about the potential impact on self-conscious and/or impressionable youngsters. Regardless, the phrase became a cultural phenomenon, adopted as the mantra for millions of girls and even making it into the Oxford English Dictionary. In summation of the concept, author Ryan Dawson said, "The Spice Girls changed British culture enough for Girl Power to now seem completely unremarkable." The Spice Girls' debut single "Wannabe" has been hailed as an "iconic girl power anthem". In 2016, the United Nations' Global Goals "#WhatIReallyReallyWant" campaign filmed a global remake of the original music video for "Wannabe" to highlight gender inequality issues faced by women across the world. The video, which was launched on YouTube and ran in movie theatres internationally, featured British girl group M.O, Canadian "viral sensation" Taylor Hatala, Nigerian-British singer Seyi Shay and Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez lip-syncing to the song in various locations around the world. In response to the remake, Beckham said, "How fabulous is it that after 20 years the legacy of the Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?" At the 43rd People's Choice Awards in January 2017, American actress Blake Lively dedicated her "Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress" award to "girl power" in her acceptance speech, and credited the Spice Girls, saying: "What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were, and that was my first introduction into girl power." CANNOTANSWER | "What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were, | The Spice Girls are a British girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Melanie Brown, also known as Mel B ("Scary Spice"); Melanie Chisholm, or Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"); Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"); Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"); and Victoria Beckham ("Posh Spice"). With their "girl power" mantra, they redefined the girl-group concept by targeting a young female fanbase. They led the teen pop resurgence of the 1990s, were a major part of the Cool Britannia era, and became pop culture icons of the decade.
The group formed through auditions held by managers Bob and Chris Herbert, who wanted to create a girl group to compete with the British boy bands popular at the time. They signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single "Wannabe" in 1996, which reached number one on the charts of 37 countries. Their debut album, Spice (1996), sold more than 23 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album by a female group in history. The follow-up, Spiceworld (1997) sold more than 14 million copies worldwide. Both albums encapsulated the group's dance-pop style and message of female empowerment, with vocal and songwriting contributions shared equally by the members. In 1997, a film starring the Spice Girls, Spice World, was released; it was a commercial success but received poor reviews.
In May 1998, Halliwell left the Spice Girls, citing exhaustion and creative differences. Forever (2000), the only Spice Girls album without Halliwell, achieved weaker sales. At the end of 2000, the Spice Girls entered a hiatus to concentrate on their solo careers. They reunited for two concert tours, the Return of the Spice Girls (2007–2008) and Spice World (2019), both of which won the Billboard Live Music Award for highest-grossing engagements. Viva Forever!, a musical based on the Spice Girls' music, opened in 2012; it was a critical and commercial failure and closed in 2013.
Measures of the Spice Girls' success include international record sales, iconic symbolism such as Halliwell's Union Jack dress, a major motion picture, Spice World (1997), and the highest-grossing concert tours by an all-female group from 2000 to 2020. Under the guidance of their mentor and manager Simon Fuller, their endorsement deals and merchandise made them one of most successful marketing engines ever, with a global gross income estimated at $500–800 million by May 1998. Their media exposure, according to Music Week writer Paul Gorman, helped usher in an era of celebrity obsession in pop culture.
The Spice Girls have sold 100 million records worldwide, making them the bestselling girl group of all time, one of the bestselling artists, and the most successful British pop act since the Beatles. They received five Brit Awards, three American Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, three MTV Europe Music Awards and one MTV Video Music Award. In 2000, they became the youngest recipients of the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. According to Rolling Stone journalist and biographer David Sinclair, they were the most widely recognised group since the Beatles.
Band history
1994–1996: Formation and early years
In the early 1990s, Bob and Chris Herbert, the father-and-son duo of Heart Management, decided to create a girl group to compete with the boy bands who dominated UK pop music at the time. Together with financier Chic Murphy, they envisioned an act comprising "five strikingly different girls" who would each appeal to a different audience. In February 1994, Heart Management placed an advertisement in the trade paper The Stage asking for singers to audition for an all-female pop band at London's Danceworks studios. Approximately 400 women attended the audition on 4 March 1994. They were placed in groups of 10 and danced a routine to "Stay" by Eternal, followed by solo auditions in which they performed songs of their choice.
After several weeks of deliberation, Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm and Michelle Stephenson were among a dozen or so women who advanced to a second round of auditions in April. Chisholm missed the second audition after coming down with tonsillitis. Despite missing the first round of auditions, Geri Halliwell persuaded the Herberts to let her attend the second. A week after the second audition, Adams, Brown, Halliwell and Stephenson were asked to attend a recall at Nomis Studios in Shepherd's Bush, performing "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" on their own and as a group. Chisholm was also invited as a last-minute replacement for another finalist. The five women were selected for a band initially named "Touch".
The group moved into a three-bedroom house in Maidenhead, Berkshire, and spent most of 1994 practising songs written for them by Bob Herbert's long-time associates John Thirkell and Erwin Keiles. According to Stephenson, the material they were given was "very, very young pop", and none were later used by the Spice Girls. During these first months, the group worked on demos at South Hill Park Recording Studios in Bracknell with producer and studio owner Michael Sparkes and songwriter and arranger Tim Hawes. They were also tasked with choreographing their own dance routines, which they worked on at Trinity Studios in Knaphill, near Woking, Surrey. A few months into the training, Stephenson was fired for a perceived lack of commitment. Heart Management turned to the group's vocal coach, Pepi Lemer, to find a replacement. After Lemer's first recommendation declined the offer, Lemer recommended her former pupil, Emma Bunton, who auditioned for the Herberts and joined as the fifth member.
As their training continued, the group performed small showcases for a few of Heart Management's associates. On one such performance, the group added a rap section they had written to one of Thirkell and Keiles' songs. Keiles was furious with the changes and insisted they learn to write songs properly. The group began professional songwriting lessons; during one session, they wrote a song called "Sugar and Spice" with Hawes, which inspired them to change their band name to "Spice".
By late 1994, the group felt insecure as they still did not have an official contract with Heart Management, and were frustrated with the management team's direction. They persuaded Herbert to set up a showcase performance for the group in front of industry writers, producers and A&R men in December 1994 at the Nomis Studios, where they received an "overwhelmingly positive" reaction. The Herberts quickly set about creating a binding contract for them. Encouraged by the reaction they had received at the Nomis showcase, all five members refused to sign the contracts on legal advice from, among others, Adams's father. The following month, in January, the group began songwriting sessions with Richard Stannard, whom they had impressed at the showcase, and his partner Matt Rowe. It was during these sessions that the songs "Wannabe" and "2 Become 1" were written.
In March 1995, the group parted from Heart Management due to their frustration with the company's unwillingness to listen to their visions and ideas. To ensure they kept control of their own work, they allegedly stole the master recordings of their discography from the management offices. The next day, the group tracked down Sheffield-based songwriter Eliot Kennedy, who had been present at the Nomis showcase, and persuaded him to work with them. Through contacts they had made at the showcase, they were also introduced to record producers Absolute. With Kennedy and Absolute's help, the group spent the next several weeks writing and recording demos for the majority of the songs that would be released on their debut album, including "Say You'll Be There" and "Who Do You Think You Are". Their demos caught the attention of Simon Fuller of 19 Entertainment, who signed them to his management company in May 1995.
By this point, industry buzz around the Spice Girls had grown significantly and the major record labels in London and Los Angeles were keen to sign them. After a bidding war, they signed a five-album deal with Virgin Records in July 1995. Fuller took them on an extensive promotional tour in Los Angeles, where they met with studio executives in the hopes of securing film and television opportunities. Their name was also changed to "Spice Girls" as a rapper was already using the name "Spice". The new name was chosen because the group noticed industry people often referred to them derisively as "the 'Spice' girls". The group continued to write and record tracks for their debut album.
1996–1997: Spice and breakthrough
On 7 July 1996, the Spice Girls released their debut single "Wannabe" in the United Kingdom. In the weeks before the release, the music video for "Wannabe" received a trial airing on music channel The Box. The video was an instant hit, and was aired up to seventy times a week at its peak. After the video was released, the Spice Girls had their first live broadcast TV slot on LWT's Surprise Surprise. Earlier in May, the group had conducted their first music press interview with Paul Gorman, the contributing editor of trade paper Music Week, at Virgin Records' Paris headquarters. His piece recognised that the Spice Girls were about to institute a change in the charts away from Britpop and towards out-and-out pop. He wrote: "JUST WHEN BOYS with guitars threaten to rule pop life—Damon's all over Smash Hits, Ash are big in Big! and Liam can't move for tabloid frenzy—an all-girl, in-yer-face pop group have arrived with enough sass to burst that rockist bubble." "Wannabe" entered the UK Singles Chart at number three before moving up to number one the following week and staying there for seven weeks. The song proved to be a global hit, hitting number one in 37 countries, including four consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, and becoming not only the biggest-selling debut single by an all-female group but also the biggest-selling single by an all-female group of all time.
Riding a wave of publicity and hype, the group released their next singles in the UK and Europe; in October "Say You'll Be There" was released topping the charts at number one for two weeks. "2 Become 1" was released in December, becoming their first Christmas number one and selling 462,000 copies in its first week, making it the fastest-selling single of the year. The two tracks continued the group's remarkable sales, giving them three of the top five biggest-selling songs of 1996 in the UK. In November 1996, the Spice Girls released their debut album Spice in Europe. The success was unprecedented and drew comparisons to Beatlemania, leading the press to dub it "Spicemania" and the group the "Fab Five". In seven weeks Spice had sold 1.8 million copies in Britain alone, making the Spice Girls the fastest-selling British act since the Beatles. In total, the album sold over 3 million copies in Britain, the biggest-selling album of all time in the UK by a female group, certified 10× Platinum, and peaked at number one for fifteen non-consecutive weeks. In Europe the album became the biggest-selling album of 1997 and was certified 8× Platinum by the IFPI for sales in excess of 8 million copies.
That same month, the Spice Girls attracted a crowd of 500,000 when they switched on the Christmas lights in Oxford Street, London. At the same time, Simon Fuller started to set up multi-million dollar sponsorship deals for the Spice Girls with Pepsi, Walkers, Impulse, Cadbury and Polaroid. The group ended 1996 winning three trophies at the Smash Hits awards at the London Arena, including best video for "Say You'll Be There". In January 1997, "Wannabe" was released in the United States. The single proved to be a catalyst in helping the Spice Girls break into the notoriously difficult US market when it debuted on the Hot 100 Chart at number eleven. At the time, this was the highest-ever debut by a non-American act, beating the previous record held by the Beatles for "I Want to Hold Your Hand", and the joint highest entry for a debut act alongside Alanis Morissette's "Ironic". "Wannabe" reached number one in the US for four weeks. In February, Spice was released in the US, and became the biggest-selling album of 1997 in the US, peaking at number one, and was certified 7× Platinum by the RIAA for sales in excess of 7.4 million copies. The album was also included in the Top 100 Albums of All Time list by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) based on US sales. In total, the album sold over 23 million copies worldwide becoming the biggest-selling album in pop music history by an all-female group.
Later that month, the Spice Girls performed "Who Do You Think You Are" to open the 1997 Brit Awards, with Geri Halliwell wearing a Union Jack mini-dress that became one of pop history's most famed outfits. At the ceremony, the group won two Brit Awards; Best British Video for "Say You'll Be There" and Best British Single for "Wannabe". In March 1997, a double A-side of "Mama"/"Who Do You Think You Are" was released in Europe, the last from Spice, which once again saw them at number one, making the Spice Girls the first group since the Jackson 5 to have four consecutive number one hits.
Girl Power!, the Spice Girls' first book and manifesto was launched later that month at the Virgin Megastore. It sold out its initial print run of 200,000 copies within a day, and was eventually translated into more than 20 languages. In April, One Hour of Girl Power was released; it sold 500,000 copies in the UK between April and June to become the best-selling pop video ever, and was eventually certified 13x Platinum. In May, Spice World, a film starring the group, was announced by the Spice Girls at the Cannes Film Festival. The group also performed their first live UK show for the Prince's Trust benefit concert. At the show, they breached royal protocol when Brown and then Halliwell planted kisses on Prince Charles' cheeks and pinched his bottom, causing controversy. That same month, Virgin released Spice Girls Present... The Best Girl Power Album... Ever!, a multi-artist compilation album compiled by the group. The album peaked at number two on the UK Compilation Chart and was certified Gold by the BPI. At the Ivor Novello Awards, the group won International Hit of the Year and Best-Selling British Single awards for "Wannabe".
Spice World began filming in June and wrapped in August. The film was to be set to the songs from the group's second studio album, but no songs had been written when filming began. The group thus had to do all the songwriting and recording at the same time as they were filming Spice World, resulting in a grueling schedule that left them exhausted. Among the songs that were written during this period was "Stop", the lyrics for which cover the group's frustrations with being overworked by their management. In September, the Spice Girls performed "Say You'll Be There" at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and won Best Dance Video for "Wannabe". The MTV Awards came five days after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, with tributes paid to her throughout the ceremony. Chisholm stated, "We'd like to dedicate this award to Princess Diana, who is a great loss to our country." At the 1997 Billboard Music Awards, the group won four awards for New Artist of the Year, Billboard Hot 100 Singles Group of the Year, Billboard 200 Group of the Year and Billboard 200 Album of the Year for Spice.
1997–1998: Groundbreaking success, Spiceworld and Halliwell's departure
In October 1997, the Spice Girls released the first single from Spiceworld, "Spice Up Your Life". It entered the UK Singles Chart at number one, making it the group's fifth consecutive number-one single. That same month, the group performed their first live major concert to 40,000 fans in Istanbul, Turkey. Later, they launched the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal, then travelled to South Africa to meet Nelson Mandela, who announced, "These are my heroes." In November, the Spice Girls released their second album, Spiceworld. It set a new record for the fastest-selling album when it shipped seven million copies over the course of two weeks. Gaining favourable reviews, the album went on to sell over 10 million copies in Europe, Canada, and the United States combined, and 14 million copies worldwide. Criticised in the United States for releasing the album just nine months after their debut there, which gave the group two simultaneous Top 10 albums in the Billboard album charts, and suffering from over-exposure at home, the Spice Girls began to experience a media backlash. The group was criticised for the number of sponsorship deals signed—over twenty in total—and they began to witness diminishing international chart positions. Nevertheless, the Spice Girls remained the biggest-selling pop group of both 1997 and 1998.
On 7 November 1997, the group performed "Spice Up Your Life" at the MTV Europe Music Awards, and won the Best Group award. The morning of the performance, the Spice Girls had also fired their manager Simon Fuller and took over the running of the group themselves. To ensure a smooth transition, Halliwell allegedly stole a mobile phone from Fuller's assistant that contained the group's upcoming schedule and Fuller's business contacts. The firing was front-page news around the world. Many commentators speculated that Fuller had been the true mastermind behind the group, and that this was the moment when the band lost their impetus and direction. Later that month, the Spice Girls became the first pop group to host ITV's An Audience with...; their show was watched by 11.8 million viewers in the UK, one fifth of the country's population. In December 1997, the second single from Spiceworld, "Too Much", was released, becoming the group's second Christmas number one and their sixth consecutive number-one single in the UK. December also saw the group launch their film Spice World. The world premiere at the Empire Theatre in Leicester Square was attended by celebrities including Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry. The film was a commercial success but received poor reviews. The group ended 1997 as the year's most played artist on American radio.
In January 1998, the Spice Girls attended the US premiere of Spice World at the Mann's Chinese Theatre. At the 1998 American Music Awards a few days later, the group won the awards for Favorite Album, Favorite New Artist and Favorite Group in the pop/rock category. In February, they won a special award for overseas success at the 1998 Brit Awards, with combined sales of over 45 million albums and singles worldwide. That night, the group performed their next single, "Stop", their first not to reach number one in United Kingdom, entering at number two. In early 1998, the Spice Girls embarked on the Spiceworld Tour, starting in Dublin, Ireland, on 24 February 1998 before moving to mainland Europe and North America, and then returning to the United Kingdom for two gigs at Wembley Stadium. Later that year, the Spice Girls were invited to sing on the official England World Cup song "(How Does It Feel to Be) On Top of the World", the last song recorded with Halliwell until 2007.
On 31 May 1998, Halliwell announced her departure from the Spice Girls through her solicitor. The announcement was preceded by days of frenzied press speculation after Halliwell missed two concerts in Norway and was absent from the group's performance on The National Lottery Draws. Halliwell first cited creative differences, then later said that she was suffering from exhaustion and disillusionment, although rumours of a power struggle with Brown as the reason for her departure were circulated by the press. Halliwell's departure from the group shocked fans and became one of the biggest entertainment news stories of the year, making news headlines the world over. The four remaining members were adamant that the group would carry on. The North American leg of the Spiceworld Tour went on as planned, beginning in West Palm Beach, Florida, on 15 June, and grossing $60 million over 40 sold-out performances. The tour was accompanied by a documentary film titled Spice Girls in America: A Tour Story. "Viva Forever" was the last single released from Spiceworld and gave the group their seventh number one in the United Kingdom. The video for the single was made before Halliwell's departure and features all five members in stop-motion animated form.
1998–2000: Forever and hiatus
While on tour in the United States, the group continued to write and record new material, releasing a new song, "Goodbye", before Christmas in 1998. The song was seen as a tribute to Geri Halliwell, although parts of it had originally been written when Halliwell was still a part of the group, and when it topped the UK Singles Chart it became their third consecutive Christmas number one—equalling the record previously set by the Beatles. In November, Bunton and Chisholm appeared at the 1998 MTV Europe Music Awards without their other bandmates, accepting two awards on behalf of the Spice Girls for Best Pop Act and Best Group. That same year, Brown and Adams announced they were both pregnant. Brown was married to dancer Jimmy Gulzer and became known as Mel G for a brief period; she gave birth to daughter Phoenix Chi in February 1999. Adams gave birth a month after to son Brooklyn, whose father was then Manchester United footballer David Beckham; later that year, she married Beckham in a highly publicised wedding in Ireland.
From 1998 onwards, the Spice Girls began to pursue solo careers and by the following year, Brown, Bunton, Chisholm, and former member Halliwell, had all released music as solo artists. The group returned to the studio in August 1999 after an eight-month recording break to start work on their third and last studio album. The album's sound was initially more pop-influenced, similar to their first two albums, and included production from Eliot Kennedy. The album's sound took a mature direction when American producers like Rodney Jerkins, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis came on board to collaborate with the group. In December 1999, the Spice Girls embarked on a UK-only tour, Christmas in Spiceworld, in London and Manchester, during which they showcased new songs from the third album. Earlier in the year, the group also recorded the song "My Strongest Suit" for Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida, a concept album which would later go on to become the musical Aida. The group performed again at the 2000 Brit Awards in March, where they received the Lifetime Achievement award. Despite being at the event, Halliwell did not join her former bandmates on stage.
In November 2000, the group released Forever; sporting a new edgier R&B sound, the album received a lukewarm response from critics. In the US, the album peaked at number thirty-nine on the Billboard 200 albums chart. In the UK, the album was released the same week as Westlife's Coast to Coast album and the chart battle was widely reported by the media, with Westlife winning the battle and reaching number one, leaving the Spice Girls at number two. The lead single from Forever, the double A-side "Holler"/"Let Love Lead the Way", became the group's ninth number one single in the UK. However, the song failed to break onto the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart stateside, instead peaking at number seven on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, and at number thirty-one on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The only major performance of the lead single by the group came at the 2000 MTV Europe Music Awards in November. In total, Forever achieved only a fraction of the success of its two best-selling predecessors, selling four million copies. The Spice Girls ceased all promotional activities for the album in December 2000, as they began an indefinite hiatus to concentrate on their solo careers. Publicly, they insisted that the group was not splitting.
2007–2008: Return of the Spice Girls and Greatest Hits
On 28 June 2007, the Spice Girls, including Halliwell, held a press conference at the O2 Arena revealing their intention to reunite for a worldwide concert tour titled the Return of the Spice Girls. The plan to re-form had long been speculated by the media, with previous attempts by the organisers of Live 8 and Concert for Diana to reunite the group as a five-piece falling through. Each member of the group was reportedly paid £10 million ($20 million) to do the reunion tour. Giving You Everything, an official documentary film about the reunion, was directed by Bob Smeaton and first aired on Australia's Fox8 on 16 December 2007, followed by BBC One in the UK on 31 December.
Ticket sales for the first London date of the Return of the Spice Girls tour sold out in 38 seconds. It was reported that over one million people signed up in the UK alone and over five million worldwide for the ticket ballot on the band's official website. Sixteen additional dates in London were added, all selling out within one minute. In the United States, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Jose shows also sold out, prompting additional dates to be added. It was announced that the Spice Girls would be playing dates in Chicago and Detroit and Boston, as well as additional dates in New York to keep up with the demand. The tour opened in Vancouver on 2 December 2007, with group performing to an audience of 15,000 people, singing twenty songs and changing outfits a total of eight times. Along with the tour sellout, the Spice Girls licensed their name and image to Tesco's UK supermarket chain.
The group's comeback single, "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)", was announced as the official Children in Need charity single for 2007 and was released 5 November. The first public appearance on stage by the Spice Girls occurred at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, where they performed two songs, 1998 single "Stop" and the lead single from their greatest hits album, "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)". The show was filmed by CBS on 15 November 2007 for broadcast on 4 December 2007. They also performed both songs live for the BBC Children in Need telethon on 16 November 2007 from Los Angeles. The release of "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)" peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart, making it the group's lowest-charting British single to date. The album peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart. On 1 February 2008, it was announced that due to personal and family commitments their tour would come to an end in Toronto on 26 February 2008, meaning that tour dates in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Cape Town and Buenos Aires were cancelled.
Overall, the 47-date tour was the highest-grossing concert act of 2007–2008, measured as the twelve months ending in April 2008. It produced some $107.2 million in ticket sales and merchandising, with sponsorship and ad deals bringing the total to $200 million. The tour's 17-night sellout stand at the O2 Arena in London was the highest-grossing engagement of the year, netting £16.5 million (US$33 million) and drawing an audience of 256,647, winning the 2008 Billboard Touring Award for Top Boxscore. The group's comeback also netted them several other awards, including the Capital Music Icon Award, the Glamour Award for Best Band, and the Vodafone Live Music Award for Best Live Return, the last of which saw them beat out acts such as Led Zeppelin and the Sex Pistols.
2010–2012: Viva Forever! and London Olympics
At the 2010 Brit Awards, the Spice Girls received a special award for "Best Performance of the 30th Year". The award was for their 1997 Brit Awards performance of "Wannabe" and "Who Do You Think You Are", and was accepted by Halliwell and Brown on behalf of the group.
That year, the group collaborated with Fuller, Judy Craymer and Jennifer Saunders to develop a Spice Girls stage musical, Viva Forever!. Similar to the ABBA musical Mamma Mia!, Viva Forever! used the group's music to create an original story. In June 2012, to promote the musical, the Spice Girls reunited for a press conference at the St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, where music video for "Wannabe" was filmed exactly sixteen years earlier. Viva Forever! premiered at the West End's Piccadilly Theatre in December 2012, with all five Spice Girls in attendance. To promote the musical, the group appeared in the documentary Spice Girls' Story: Viva Forever!, which aired on 24 December 2012 on ITV1. Viva Forever! was panned by critics and closed after seven months, with a loss of at least £5 million.
In August 2012, the Spice Girls reunited to perform a medley of "Wannabe" and "Spice Up Your Life" at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony. Their performance received acclaim, and became the most tweeted moment of the Olympics with over 116,000 tweets per minute on Twitter.
2016–present: Spice World tour and Spice25
On 8 July 2016, Brown, Bunton and Halliwell released a video celebrating the 20th anniversary of "Wannabe" and teased news from them as a three-piece. Beckham and Chisholm opted not to take part but gave the project their blessing. A new song from the three-piece, "Song for Her", was leaked online a few months later in November. The reunion project was cancelled due to Halliwell's pregnancy.
On 24 May 2019, the Spice Girls began the Spice World – 2019 Tour of the UK and Ireland at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland. Beckham declined to join due to commitments regarding her fashion business. Each of the four participating members was reportedly paid £12 million for the tour. The tour concluded with three concerts at London's Wembley Stadium, with the last taking place on 15 June 2019. Over 13 dates, the tour produced 700,000 spectators and earned $78.2 million in ticket sales. The three-night sellout stand at Wembley Stadium was the highest-grossing engagement of the year, drawing an audience of 221,971 and winning the 2019 Billboard Live Music Award for Top Boxscore. Despite sound problems in the early concerts, Anna Nicholson in The Guardian wrote, "As nostalgia tours go, this could hardly have been bettered."
Alongside the tour, the group teamed up with the children's book franchise Mr. Men to create derivative products such as books, cups, bags and coasters. On 13 June 2019, it was reported that Paramount Animation had greenlit an animated Spice Girls film with old and new songs. The project will be produced by Simon Fuller and written by Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith. A director has not been announced.
To mark the 25th anniversary of "Wannabe", an EP was released in July 2021 that included previously unreleased demos. On 29 October, the Spice Girls released Spice25, a deluxe reissue of Spice featuring previously unreleased demos and remixes. The deluxe release saw the album reenter the UK Albums Chart at number five, number three on the UK Official Vinyl Albums Chart Top 40 and number four on the UK Official Physical Albums Chart.
Artistry
Musical style
According to Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the Spice Girls "used dance-pop as a musical base, but they infused the music with a fiercely independent, feminist stance that was equal parts Madonna, post-riot grrrl alternative rock feminism, and a co-opting of the good-times-all-the-time stance of England's new lad culture." Their songs incorporated a variety of genres, which Halliwell described as a "melding" of the group members' eclectic musical tastes, but otherwise kept to mainstream pop conventions. Chisholm said: "We all had different artists that we loved. Madonna was a big influence and TLC; we watched a lot of their videos." A regular collaborator on the group's first two albums was the production duo known as Absolute, made up of Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins. Absolute initially found it difficult to work with the group as the duo was heavily into R&B music at the time, while the Spice Girls according to Wilson were "always very poptastic". Wilson said of the group's musical output: "Their sound was actually not getting R&B quite right."
In his biography of the band, Wannabe: How the Spice Girls Reinvented Pop Fame (2004), Rolling Stone journalist David Sinclair said that the "undeniable artistry" of the group's songs had been overlooked. He said the Spice Girls "instinctively had an ear for a catchy tune" without resorting to the "formula balladry and bland modulations" of 90s boy bands Westlife and Boyzone. He praised their "more sophisticated" second album, Spiceworld, saying: "Peppered with personality, and each conveying a distinctive musical flavour and lyrical theme, these are songs which couldn't sound less 'manufactured,' and which, in several cases, transcend the pop genre altogether."
Lyrical themes
The Spice Girls' lyrics promote female empowerment and solidarity. Given the young age of their target audience, Lucy Jones of The Independent said the Spice Girls' songs were subversive for their time: "The lyrics were active rather than passive: taking, grabbing, laying it down – all the things little girls were taught never to do. 'Stop right now, thank you very much'. 'Who do you think you are?' 'I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want'." Musicologist Nicola Dibben cited "Say You'll Be There" as an example of how the Spice Girls inverted traditional gender roles in their lyrics, depicting a man who has fallen in love and displays too much emotion and a woman who remains independent and in control. The Spice Girls emphasised the importance of sisterhood over romance songs such as "Wannabe", and embraced safe sex in "2 Become 1".
Lauren Bravo, author of What Would the Spice Girls Do?: How the Girl Power Generation Grew Up (2018), found that even when the Spice Girls sang about romance, the message was "cheerfully non-committal", in contrast to the songs about breakups and unrequited love other pop stars were singing at the time. Writing for Bustle, Taylor Ferber praised the female-driven lyrics as ahead of their time, citing the inclusivity and optimism of songs such as "Spice Up Your Life" and the sex-positivity of "Last Time Lover" and "Naked". Ferber concluded: "Between all of their songs about friendship, sex, romance, and living life, a central theme in almost all Spice Girls music was loving yourself first."
Vocal arrangements
Unlike prior pop vocal groups, the Spice Girls shared vocals, rather than having a lead vocalist supported by others. The group did not want any one member to be considered the lead singer, and so each song was divided into one or two lines each, before all five voices harmonised in the chorus. The group faced criticism as this meant that no one voice could stand out, but Sinclair concluded that it "was actually a clever device to ensure that they gained the maximum impact and mileage from their all-in-it-together girl-gang image".
The Spice Girls' former vocal coach, Pepi Lemer, described their individual voices as distinct and easy distinguish, citing the "lightness" of Bunton's voice and the "soulful sound" of Brown's and Chisholm's. Biographer Sean Smith cited Chisholm as the vocalist the group could not do without. Sinclair noted that while Chisholm's ad libs are a distinctive feature of certain Spice Girls songs, the difference in the amount of time her voice was featured over any other member was negligible.
While vocal time was distributed equally, musicologist Nicola Dibben found that there was an "interesting inequality" in the way that vocal styles were distributed within the group, which she felt conformed to certain stereotypes associated with race and socioeconomic background. According to Dibben, most of the declamatory style of singing in the group's singles were performed by Brown, the only black member, and Chisholm, whom Dibben classified as white working class; this was in contrast to the more lyrical sections allotted to Beckham, whom Dibben classified as white middle class.
Songwriting
The Spice Girls did not play instruments, but co-wrote all of their songs. According to their frequent collaborator Richard Stannard, they had two approaches to songwriting: ballads were written in a traditional way with the group sitting around a piano, while songs such as "Wannabe" were the result of tapping into their "mad" energy. Eliot Kennedy, another regular co-writer, said that songwriting sessions with the Spice Girls were "very quick and short". He described his experience working with them:
What I said to them was, "Look, I've got a chorus—check this out." And I'd sing them the chorus and the melody—no lyrics or anything—and straight away five pads and pencils came out and they were throwing lines at us. Ten minutes later, the song was written. Then you go through and refine it. Then later, as you were recording it you might change a few things here and there. But pretty much it was a real quick process. They were confident in what they were doing, throwing it out there.
Absolute's Paul Wilson recalled an experience whereby he and Watkins were responsible for writing the backing track and the group would then write the lyrics. Watkins added: "I wasn't an 18-year-old girl. They always had this weird ability to come up with phrases that you'd never heard of." He said the members would create dance routines at the same time as writing songs, and that they "They knew what they wanted to write about, right from day one. You couldn't force your musical ideas upon them."
From the onset, the Spice Girls established a strict 50–50 split of the publishing royalties between them and their songwriting collaborators. As with their vocal arrangements, they were also adamant on maintaining parity between themselves in the songwriting credits. Sinclair said:
The deal between themselves was a strict five-way split on their share of the songwriting royalties on all songs irrespective of what any one member of the group had (or had not) contributed to any particular song. Apart from ease of administration, this was also a symbolic expression of the unity which was so much part and parcel of the Spice philosophy.
Sinclair identified Halliwell as a major source of ideas for the Spice Girls' songs, including many of the concepts and starting points for the group's songs. Tim Hawes, who worked with the group when they were starting out, said Halliwell's strength was in writing lyrics and pop hooks, and estimated that she was responsible for 60–70% of the lyrics in the songs he worked on. The group's collaborators credit the other members of the group as being more active than Halliwell in constructing the melodies and harmonies of their songs. Matt Rowe, who wrote several songs with the Spice Girls, agreed that Halliwell was particularly good when it came to writing lyrics and credits the lyrics for "Viva Forever" to her. He felt that all five members had contributed equally to the songwriting.
Cultural impact and legacy
Pop music resurgence and girl group boom
The Spice Girls broke onto the music scene at a time when alternative rock, hip-hop and R&B dominated global music charts. In the group's first ever interview in May 1996, Halliwell told Music Week: "We want to bring some of the glamour back to pop, like Madonna had when we were growing up. Pop is about fantasy and escapism, but there's so much bullshit around at the moment." The modern pop phenomenon that the Spice Girls created by targeting early members of Generation Y was credited with changing the music landscape by reviving the pop music genre, bringing about the global wave of late-1990s and early-2000s teen pop acts such as the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and NSYNC.
The Spice Girls have also been credited with paving the way for the girl groups and female pop singers that have come after them. Unlike previous girl groups such as the Andrews Sisters whose target market was male record buyers, the Spice Girls redefined the girl group concept by going after a young female fanbase instead. In the UK, they are further credited for disrupting the then male-dominated pop music scene. Prior to the Spice Girls, girl groups such as Bananarama have had hit singles in the UK but their album sales were generally underwhelming. The accepted wisdom within the British music industry at the time was that an all-girl pop group would not work because both girls and boys would find the concept too threatening. Teen magazines such as Smash Hits and Top of the Pops initially refused to feature the Spice Girls on the assumption that a girl group would not appeal to their female readership. The massive commercial breakthrough of the Spice Girls turned the tide, leading to an unprecedented boom of new girl groups in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
As managers and record labels scrambled to find the next Spice Girls, around 20 new girl groups were launched in the UK in 1999, followed by another 35 the next year. Groups that emerged during this period include All Saints, B*Witched, Atomic Kitten, Girl Thing, Girls@Play, Girls Aloud and the Sugababes, all hoping to emulate the Spice Girls' success. Outside of the UK and Ireland, girl groups such as New Zealand's TrueBliss, Australia's Bardot, Germany's No Angels, US's Cheetah Girls, as well as South Korea's Baby Vox and f(x) were also modelled after the Spice Girls.
Twenty-first-century girl groups continue to cite the Spice Girls as a major source of influence, including the Pussycat Dolls, 2NE1, Girls' Generation, Little Mix, Fifth Harmony, and Haim. Solo female artists who have been similarly influenced by the group include Jess Glynne, Foxes, Alexandra Burke, Charli XCX, Rita Ora, Billie Eilish, and Beyoncé. During her 2005 "Reflections" concert series, Filipina superstar Regine Velasquez performed a medley of five Spice Girls songs as a tribute to the band she says were a major influence on her music. Danish singer-songwriter MØ decided to pursue music after watching the Spice Girls on TV as a child, saying in a 2014 interview: "I have them and only them to thank—or to blame—for becoming a singer." 15-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Adele credits the Spice Girls as a major influence in regard to her love and passion for music, stating that "they made me what I am today".
Girl power
"Girl power" was a label for the particular facet of feminist empowerment embraced by the band, emphasising female confidence, individuality and the value of female friendship. The Spice Girls' particular approach to "girl power" was seen as a boisterous, independent, and sex-positive response to "lad culture." The phrase was regularly espoused by all five members—although most closely associated with Halliwell—and was often delivered with a peace sign. The "girl power" slogan was originally coined by US punk band Bikini Kill in 1991 and subsequently appeared in a few songs in the early and mid-1990s; most notably, it was the title of British pop duo Shampoo's 1996 single which Halliwell later said was her introduction to the phrase. Although the term did not originate with them, it was not until the emergence of the Spice Girls in 1996 that "girl power" exploded onto the mainstream consciousness. According to Chisholm, the band were inspired to champion this cause as a result of the sexism they encountered when they were first starting out in the music business. Industry insiders credit Halliwell as being the author of the group's "girl power" manifesto, while Halliwell herself once spoke of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher as being "the pioneer of our ideology."
In all, the focused, consistent presentation of "girl power" formed the centrepiece of their appeal as a band. The Spice Girls' brand of postfeminism was distinctive and its message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women; by being politically neutral, it did not alienate consumers with different allegiances. Virgin's director of press Robert Sandall explained the novelty of the group: "There had never been a group of girls who were addressing themselves specifically to a female audience before." Similarly, John Harlow of The Sunday Times believed it was this "loyal[ty] to their sex" that set the Spice Girls apart from their predecessors, enabling them to win over young female fans where previous girl groups had struggled. While "girl power" put a name to a social phenomenon, it was met with mixed reactions. Some commentators credit the Spice Girls with reinvigorating mainstream feminism—popularised as "girl power"—in the 1990s, with their mantra serving as a gateway to feminism for their young fans. Conversely, critics dismiss it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic and accuse the group of commercialising the social movement. Regardless, "girl power" became a cultural phenomenon, adopted as the mantra for millions of girls and even making it into the Oxford English Dictionary.
In summation of the concept, author Ryan Dawson said, "The Spice Girls changed British culture enough for Girl Power to now seem completely unremarkable."
In keeping with their "girl power" manifesto, the Spice Girls' songs have been praised for their "genuinely empowering messages about friendship and sisterhood," which set them apart from the typical love songs their pop contemporaries were singing. Billboard magazine said their lyrics "demonstrated real, noncompetitive female friendship," adding that the messages the Spice Girls imparted have held up well compared to the lyrics sung by later girl groups such as the Pussycat Dolls. The group's debut single "Wannabe" has been hailed as an "iconic girl power anthem". In 2016, the United Nations launched their #WhatIReallyReallyWant Global Goals campaign by filming a remake of the "Wannabe" music video to highlight gender inequality issues faced by women across the world. The video, which premiered on YouTube and ran in movie theatres internationally, featured British girl group M.O, Canadian "viral sensation" Taylor Hatala, Nigerian-British singer Seyi Shay and Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez lip-syncing to the song in various locations around the world. In response to the remake, Beckham said, "How fabulous is it that after 20 years the legacy of the Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?"
At the 43rd People's Choice Awards in 2017, Blake Lively dedicated her "Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress" award to "girl power" in her acceptance speech; she credited the Spice Girls, saying: "What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were, and that was my first introduction into girl power." In 2018, Rolling Stone named the Spice Girls' "girl power" ethos on The Millennial 100, a list of 100 people, music, cultural touchstones and movements that have shaped the Millennial generation. Writing in 2019 about the group's influence on what she called the "Spice Girls Generation", Caity Weaver of The New York Times concluded, "Marketing ploy or not, 'Girl power' had become a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Cool Britannia
The term "Cool Britannia" became prominent in the media in the 1990s and represented the new political and social climate that was emerging with the advances made by New Labour and the new British prime minister Tony Blair. Coming out of a period of 18 years of Conservative government, Tony Blair and New Labour were seen as young, cool and appealing, a driving force in giving Britain a feeling of euphoria and optimism.
Although by no means responsible for the onset of "Cool Britannia", the arrival of the Spice Girls added to the new image and re-branding of Britain, and underlined the growing world popularity of British, rather than American, pop music. This fact was underlined at the 1997 Brit Awards; the group won two awards but it was Halliwell's iconic red, white and blue Union Jack mini-dress that appeared in media coverage around the world, becoming an enduring image of "Cool Britannia". The Spice Girls were identified as part of another British Invasion of the US, and in 2016, Time acknowledged the Spice Girls as "arguably the most recognisable face" of "Cool Britannia".
Image, nicknames and fashion trends
The Spice Girls' image was deliberately aimed at young girls, an audience of formidable size and potential. Instrumental to their range of appeal within this demographic was their five distinct personalities and styles, which encouraged fans to identify with one member or another. This rejection of a homogeneous group identity was a stark departure from previous groups such as the Beatles and the Supremes, and the Spice Girls model has since been used to style other pop groups such as One Direction.
The band's image was inadvertently bolstered by the nicknames bestowed on them by the British press. After a lunch with the Spice Girls in the wake of "Wannabes release, Peter Loraine, the then-editor of Top of the Pops magazine, and his editorial staff decided to devise nicknames for each member of the group based on their personalities. Loraine explained, "In the magazine we used silly language and came up with nicknames all the time so it came naturally to give them names that would be used by the magazine and its readers; it was never meant to be adopted globally." Shortly after using the nicknames in a magazine feature on the group, Loraine received calls from other British media outlets requesting permission to use them, and before long the nicknames were synonymous with the Spice Girls. Jennifer Cawthron, one of the magazine's staff writers, explained how the nicknames were chosen:
Victoria was 'Posh Spice', because she was wearing a Gucci-style mini dress and seemed pouty and reserved. Emma wore pigtails and sucked a lollipop, so obviously she was 'Baby Spice'. Mel C spent the whole time leaping around in her tracksuit, so we called her 'Sporty Spice'. I named Mel B 'Scary Spice' because she was so shouty. And Geri was 'Ginger Spice', simply because of her hair. Not much thought went into that one.
In a 2020 interview, Chisholm explained that the Spice Girls' image came about unintentionally when, after initially trying to coordinate their outfits as was expected of girl groups at the time, the group decided to just dress in their own individual styles. According to Chisholm, they "never thought too much more of it" until after "Wannabe" was released and the press gave them their nicknames. The group embraced the nicknames and grew into caricatures of themselves, which Chisholm said was "like a protection mechanism because it was like putting on this armour of being this, this character, rather than it actually being you."
Each Spice Girl adopted a distinct, over-the-top trademark style that served as an extension of her public persona.
Victoria Beckham (née Adams): As Posh Spice, she was known for her choppy brunette bob cut, reserved attitude, signature pout and form-fitting designer outfits (often a little black dress).
Melanie Brown: As Scary Spice, she was known for her "in-your-face" attitude, "loud" Leeds accent, pierced tongue and bold manner of dress (which often consisted of leopard-print outfits).
Emma Bunton: As Baby Spice, she was the youngest member of the group, wore her long blonde hair in pigtails, wore pastel (particularly pink) babydoll dresses and platform sneakers, had an innocent smile and a girly girl personality.
Melanie Chisholm: As Sporty Spice, she usually wore a tracksuit paired with athletic shoes, wore her long dark hair in a high ponytail, and sported tattoos coupled with a tough-girl attitude. She also showcased her athletic abilities on stage, such as by performing back handsprings and high kicks.
Geri Halliwell: As Ginger Spice, she was known for her bright red hair, feistiness, "glammed-up sex appeal" and flamboyant stage outfits. She was also identified by the media and those who worked with the Spice Girls as the leader of the group.
The Spice Girls are considered style icons of the 1990s; their image and styles becoming inextricably tied to the band's identity. They are credited with setting 1990s fashion trends such as Buffalo platform shoes and double bun hairstyles. Their styles have inspired other celebrities including Katy Perry, Charli XCX, and Bollywood actress Anushka Ranjan. Lady Gaga performed as Emma Bunton (Baby Spice) in high school talent shows and Emma Stone chose "Emma" name inspired by Emma Bunton after she previously use name Riley Stone. The group have also been noted for the memorable outfits they have worn, the most iconic being Halliwell's Union Jack dress from the 1997 Brit Awards. The dress was sold at a charity auction to the Las Vegas Hard Rock Cafe for £41,320, giving Halliwell the Guinness World Record at that time for the most expensive piece of pop star clothing ever sold.
Commercialisation and celebrity culture
At the height of Spicemania, the Spice Girls were involved in a prolific marketing phenomenon. Under the guidance of their mentor and manager Simon Fuller, they advertised for an unprecedented number of brands and became the most merchandised group in music history. The group were also a frequent feature of the global press. As a result, said biographer David Sinclair, "So great was the daily bombardment of Spice images and Spice product that it quickly became oppressive even to people who were well disposed towards the group." This was parodied in the video for their song "Spice Up Your Life", which depicts a futuristic dystopian city covered in billboards and adverts featuring the group. Similarly, the North American leg of their 1998 Spiceworld Tour introduced a whole new concert revenue stream when it became the first time advertising was used in a pop concert. Overall, the Spice Girls' earnings in the 1990s were on par with that of a medium-sized corporation thanks in large part to their marketing endeavours, with their global gross income estimated at $500–800 million by May 1998.
In his analysis of the group's enduring influence on 21st-century popular culture, John Mckie of the BBC observed that while other stars had used brand endorsements in the past, "the Spice brand was the first to propel the success of the band". Christopher Barrett and Ben Cardew of Music Week credited Fuller's "ground-breaking" strategy of marketing the Spice Girls as a brand with revolutionising the pop music industry, "paving the way for everything from The White Stripes cameras to U2 iPods and Girls Aloud phones." Barrett further noted that pop music and brand synergy have become inextricably linked in the modern music industry, which he attributed to the "remarkable" impact of the Spice Girls. The Guardians Sylvia Patterson also wrote of what she called the group's true legacy: "[T]hey were the original pioneers of the band as brand, of pop as a ruthless marketing ruse, of the merchandising and sponsorship deals that have dominated commercial pop ever since."
The mainstream media embraced the Spice Girls at the peak of their success. The group received regular international press coverage and were constantly followed by paparazzi. Paul Gorman of Music Week said of the media interest in the Spice Girls in the late 1990s: "They inaugurated the era of cheesy celebrity obsession which pertains today. There is lineage from them to the Kardashianisation not only of the music industry, but the wider culture." The Irish Independent Tanya Sweeney agreed that "[t]he vapidity of paparazzi culture could probably be traced back to the Spice Girls' naked ambitions", while Mckie predicted that, "[f]or all that modern stars from Katy Perry to Lionel Messi exploit brand endorsements and attract tabloid coverage, the scale of the Spice Girls' breakthrough in 1996 is unlikely to be repeated—at least not by a music act."
1990s and gay icons
The Spice Girls have been labelled the biggest pop phenomenon of the 1990s due to the international record sales, iconic symbolism, global cultural influence and apparent omnipresence they held during the decade. The group appeared on the cover of the July 1997 edition of Rolling Stone accompanied with the headline, "Spice Girls Conquer the World". At the 2000 Brit Awards, the group received the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award in honour of their success in the global music scene in the 1990s. The iconic symbolism of the Spice Girls in the 1990s is partly attributed to their era-defining outfits, the most notable being the Union Jack dress that Halliwell wore at the 1997 Brit Awards. The dress has achieved iconic status, becoming one of the most prominent symbols of 1990s pop culture. The status of the Spice Girls as 1990s pop culture icons is also attributed to their vast marketing efforts and willingness to be a part of a media-driven world. Their unprecedented appearances in adverts and the media solidified the group as a phenomenon—an icon of the decade and for British music.
A study conducted by the British Council in 2000 found that the Spice Girls were the second-best-known Britons internationally—only behind then-Prime Minister Tony Blair—and the best-known Britons in Asia. The group were featured in VH1's I Love the '90s and the sequel I Love the '90s: Part Deux; the series covered cultural moments from 1990s with the Spice Girls' rise to fame representing the year 1997, while Halliwell quitting the group represented 1998. In 2006, ten years after the release of their debut single, the Spice Girls were voted the biggest cultural icons of the 1990s with 80 per cent of the votes in a UK poll of 1,000 people carried out for the board game Trivial Pursuit, stating that "Girl Power" defined the decade. The Spice Girls also ranked number ten in the E! TV special, The 101 Reasons the '90s Ruled.
Some sources, especially those in the United Kingdom, regard the Spice Girls as gay icons. In a 2007 UK survey of more than 5,000 gay men and women, Beckham placed 12th and Halliwell placed 43rd in a ranking of the top 50 gay icons. Halliwell was the recipient of the Honorary Gay Award at the 2016 Attitude Awards and Chisholm was given the "Celebrity Ally" award at the 2021 British LGBT Awards, held in London in August. In a 2005 interview, Bunton attributed their large gay following to the group's fun-loving nature, open-mindedness and their love of fashion and dressing up. The LGBTQ magazine Gay Times credits the Spice Girls as having been "ferocious advocates of the community" throughout their whole career. According to Bunton, the LGBTQ community was a big influence on the group's music. A desire to be more inclusive also led the group to change the lyrics in "2 Become 1"; the lyric "Any deal that we endeavour/boys and girls feel good together" appears in their debut album but was changed to "Once again if we endeavour/love will bring us back together" for the single and music video release.
Portrayal in the media
The Spice Girls became media icons in Great Britain and a regular feature of the British press. During the peak of their worldwide fame in 1997, the paparazzi were constantly seen following them everywhere to obtain stories and gossip about the group, such as a supposed affair between Emma Bunton and manager Simon Fuller, or constant split rumours which became fodder for numerous tabloids. Rumours of in-fighting and conflicts within the group also made headlines, with the rumours suggesting that Geri Halliwell and Melanie Brown in particular were fighting to be the leader of the group. Brown, who later admitted that she used to be a "bitch" to Halliwell, said the problems had stayed in the past. The rumours reached their height when the Spice Girls dismissed their manager Simon Fuller during the power struggles, with Fuller reportedly receiving a £10 million severance cheque to keep quiet about the details of his sacking. Months later, in May 1998, Halliwell would leave the band amid rumours of a falling out with Brown; the news of Halliwell's departure was covered as a major news story by media around the world, and became one of the biggest entertainment news stories of the decade.
In February 1997 at the Brit Awards, Halliwell's Union Jack dress from the Spice Girls' live performance made all the front pages the next day. During the ceremony, Halliwell's breasts were exposed twice, causing controversy. In the same year, nude glamour shots of Halliwell taken earlier in her career were released, causing some scandal.
The stories of their encounters with other celebrities also became fodder for the press; for example, in May 1997, at The Prince's Trust 21st-anniversary concert, Brown and Halliwell breached royal protocol when they planted kisses on Prince Charles's cheeks, leaving it covered with lipstick, and later, Halliwell told him "you're very sexy" and also pinched his bottom. In November, the British royal family were considered fans of the Spice Girls, including The Prince of Wales and his sons Prince William and Prince Harry. That month, South African President Nelson Mandela said: "These are my heroes. This is one of the greatest moments in my life" in an encounter organised by Prince Charles, who said, "It is the second greatest moment in my life, the first time I met them was the greatest". Prince Charles would later send Halliwell a personal letter "with lots of love" when he heard that she had quit the Spice Girls. In 1998 the video game magazine Nintendo Power created The More Annoying Than the Spice Girls Award, adding: "What could possibly have been more annoying in 1997 than the Spice Girls, you ask?".
Victoria Adams started dating football player David Beckham in late 1997 after they had met at a charity football match. The couple announced their engagement in 1998 and were dubbed "Posh and Becks" by the media, becoming a cultural phenomenon in their own right.
Other brand ventures
Film
The group made their film debut in Spice World with director Bob Spiers. Meant to accompany their sophomore album, the style and content of the movie was in the same vein as the Beatles' films in the 1960s such as A Hard Day's Night. The light-hearted comedy, intended to capture the spirit of the Spice Girls, featured a plethora of stars including Richard E. Grant, Alan Cumming, Roger Moore, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Elton John, Richard O'Brien, Bob Hoskins, Jennifer Saunders, Elvis Costello and Meat Loaf.
Spice World was released in December 1997 and proved to be a hit at the box office, taking in over $100 million worldwide. Despite being a commercial success, the film was widely panned by critics; the movie was nominated for seven awards at the 1999 Golden Raspberry Awards where the Spice Girls collectively won the award for "Worst Actress". Considered a cult classic, several critics have reevaluated the film more positively in the years following its initial release. Since 2014, the Spice Bus, which was driven by Meat Loaf in the film, has been on permanent display at the Island Harbour Marina on the Isle of Wight, England.
Television
The Spice Girls have hosted and starred in various television specials. In November 1997, they became the first pop group to host ITV's An Audience with...; their show featured an all-female audience and was watched by 11.8 million viewers in the UK, one fifth of the country's population. The group hosted the Christmas Day edition of Top of the Pops on BBC One in 1996. The following year, a special Christmas Eve edition of the BBC series was dedicated to them, titled "Spice Girls on Top of the Pops". The group have also starred in numerous MTV television specials, including Spice Girls: Girl Power A–Z and MTV Ultrasound, Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice. Their concerts have also been broadcast in various countries: Girl Power! Live in Istanbul (1997) was broadcast on ITV, Showtime, and Fox Family Channel; Spiceworld Tour (1998) was broadcast on Sky Box Office; and Christmas in Spiceworld (1999) was broadcast on Sky One and Fox Kids, among others.
The group have starred in television commercials for brands such as Pepsi, Polaroid, Walkers, Impulse and Tesco. They have also released a few official documentary films, including Spice Girls in America: A Tour Story (1999) and Giving You Everything (2007). Making-of documentaries for their film Spice World were broadcast on Channel 5 and MTV. The Spice Girls have been the subject of numerous unofficial documentary films, commissioned and produced by individuals independent of the group, including Raw Spice (2001) and Seven Days That Shook the Spice Girls (2002). The group have had episodes dedicated to them in several music biography series, including VH1's Behind the Music, E! True Hollywood Story and MTV's BioRhythm.
Merchandise and sponsorship deals
In the late 1990s, the Spice Girls were involved in a prolific marketing phenomenon that saw them become the most merchandised group in music history. They negotiated lucrative endorsement deals with numerous brands, including Pepsi, Asda, Cadbury and Target, which led to accusations of overexposure and "selling out". The group was estimated to have earned over £300 million ($500 million) from their marketing endeavours in 1997 alone. Their subsequent reunion concert tours saw the Spice Girls launch new sponsorship and advertising campaigns with the likes of Tesco and Victoria's Secret in 2007, and Walkers and Mr. Men in 2019.
Viva Forever!
Viva Forever! is a jukebox musical written by Jennifer Saunders, produced by Judy Craymer and directed by Paul Garrington. Based on the songs of the Spice Girls, the musical ran at the Piccadilly Theatre in the West End from 11 December 2012 to 29 June 2013.
Career records and achievements
As a group, the Spice Girls have received a number of notable awards, including five Brit Awards, three American Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, three MTV Europe Music Awards, one MTV Video Music Award and three World Music Awards. They have also been recognised for their songwriting achievements with two Ivor Novello Awards. In 2000, they received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, making them the youngest recipients of the Lifetime Achievement award whose previous winners include Elton John, the Beatles and Queen.
The Spice Girls are the biggest-selling British act of the 1990s, having comfortably outsold all of their peers including Oasis and the Prodigy. They are, by some estimates, the biggest-selling girl group of all time. They have sold 100 million records worldwide, achieving certified sales of 13 million albums in Europe, 14 million records in the US and 2.4 million in Canada. The group achieved the highest-charting debut for a UK group on the Billboard Hot 100 at number five with "Say You'll Be There". They are also the first British band since the Rolling Stones in 1975 to have two top-ten albums in the US Billboard 200 albums chart at the same time (Spice and Spiceworld). In addition to this, the Spice Girls also achieved the highest-ever annual earnings by an all-female group with an income of £29.6 million (approximately US$49 million) in 1998. In 1999, they ranked sixth in Forbes''' inaugural Celebrity 100 Power Ranking, which made them the highest-ranking musicians.
They produced a total of nine number one singles in the UK—tied with ABBA behind Take That (eleven), The Shadows (twelve), Madonna (thirteen), Westlife (fourteen), Cliff Richard (fourteen), the Beatles (seventeen) and Elvis Presley (twenty-one). The group had three consecutive Christmas number-one singles in the UK ("2 Become 1", 1996; "Too Much", 1997; "Goodbye", 1998); they only share this record with the Beatles and LadBaby. Their first single, "Wannabe", is the most successful song released by an all-female group. Debuting on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart at number eleven, it is also the highest-ever-charting debut by a British band in the US, beating the previous record held by the Beatles for "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and the joint highest entry for a debut act, tying with Alanis Morissette.Spice is the 18th-biggest-selling album of all time in the UK with over 3 million copies sold, and topped the charts for 15 non-consecutive weeks, the most by a female group in the UK. It is also the biggest-selling album of all time by a girl group, with sales of over 23 million copies worldwide. Spiceworld shipped 7 million copies in just two weeks, including 1.4 million in Britain alone—the largest-ever shipment of an album over 14 days. They are also the first act (and so far only female act) to have their first six singles ("Wannabe", "Say You'll Be There", "2 Become 1", "Mama"/"Who Do You Think You Are", "Spice Up Your Life" and "Too Much") make number one on the UK charts. Their run was broken by "Stop", which peaked at number two in March 1998.
The Spice Girls have the highest-grossing concert tours by an all-female group across two decades (2000–2020), grossing nearly $150 million in ticket sales across 58 shows. They are also the most-merchandised group in music history. Their Spice Girls dolls are the best-selling celebrity dolls of all time with sales of over 11 million; the dolls were the second-best-selling toy, behind the Teletubbies, of 1998 in the US according to the trade publication Playthings. Their film, Spice World, broke the record for the highest-ever weekend debut on Super Bowl weekend (25 January 1998) in the US, with box office sales of $10,527,222. Spice World topped the UK video charts on its first week of release, selling over 55,000 copies on its first day in stores and 270,000 copies in the first week."'Spiceworld' To Shake Up U.K. Vid Chart?". Billboard. 28 May 1998. Retrieved 14 March 2006.
In popular culture
In February 1997, the "Sugar Lumps", a satirical version of the Spice Girls played by Kathy Burke, Dawn French, Llewella Gideon, Lulu and Jennifer Saunders, filmed a video for British charity Comic Relief. The video starts with the Sugar Lumps as schoolgirls who really want to become pop stars like the Spice Girls, and ends with them joining the group on stage, while dancing and lip-syncing the song "Who Do You Think You Are". The Sugar Lumps later joined the Spice Girls during their live performance of the song on Comic Relief's telethon Red Nose Day event in March 1997. In January 1998, a fight between animated versions of the Spice Girls and pop band Hanson was the headlining matchup in MTV's claymation parody Celebrity Deathmatch Deathbowl '98 special that aired during the Super Bowl XXXII halftime. The episode became the highest-rated special in the network's history and MTV turned the concept into a full-fledged television series soon after.
In March 2013, the Glee characters Brittany (Heather Morris), Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz), Marley (Melissa Benoist), Kitty (Becca Tobin) and Unique (Alex Newell) dressed up as the Spice Girls and performed the song "Wannabe" on the 17th episode of the fourth season of the show. In April 2016, the Italian variety show Laura & Paola on Rai 1 featured the hosts, Grammy Award-winning singer Laura Pausini and actress Paola Cortellesi, and their guests, Francesca Michielin, Margherita Buy and Claudia Gerini, dressed up as the Spice Girls to perform a medley of Spice Girls songs as part of a 20th-anniversary tribute to the band. In December 2016, the episode "Who Needs Josh When You Have a Girl Group?" of the musical comedy-drama series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend featured cast members Rachel Bloom, Gabrielle Ruiz and Vella Lovell performing an original song titled "Friendtopia", a parody of the Spice Girls' songs and "girl power" philosophy. Rapper Aminé's 2017 single "Spice Girl" is a reference to the group, and the song's music video includes an appearance by Brown. Other songs that reference the Spice Girls include "Grigio Girls" by Lady Gaga, "My Name Is" by Eminem, "Polka Power!" (a reference to "Girl Power") by "Weird Al" Yankovic, "Playinwitme" by Kyle and Kehlani, "Kinky" by Kesha, and "Spicy" by Diplo, Herve Pagez and Charli XCX.
In the late 1990s, Spice Girls parodies appeared in various American sketch comedy shows including Saturday Night Live (SNL), Mad TV and All That. A January 1998 episode of SNL featured cast members, including guest host Sarah Michelle Gellar, impersonating the Spice Girls for two "An Important Message About ..." sketches. In September 1998, the show once again featured cast members, including guest host Cameron Diaz, impersonating the Spice Girls for a sketch titled "A Message from the Spice Girls". Nickelodeon's All That had recurring sketches with the fictional boy band "The Spice Boys", featuring cast members Nick Cannon as "Sweaty Spice", Kenan Thompson as "Spice Cube", Danny Tamberelli as "Hairy Spice", Josh Server as "Mumbly Spice", and a skeleton prop as "Dead Spice".
Parodies of the Spice Girls have also appeared in major advertising campaigns. In 1997, Jack in the Box, an American fast-food chain restaurant, sought to capitalise on "Spice mania" in America by launching a national television campaign using a fictional girl group called the Spicy Crispy Chicks (a take off of the Spice Girls) to promote the new Spicy Crispy Sandwich. The Spicy Crispy Chicks concept was used as a model for another successful advertising campaign called the 'Meaty Cheesy Boys'.*
At the 1998 Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show, one of the Spicy Crispy Chicks commercials won the top award for humour. In 2001, prints adverts featuring a parody of the Spice Girls, along with other British music icons consisting of the Beatles, Elton John, Freddie Mercury and the Rolling Stones, were used in the Eurostar national advertising campaign in France. The campaign won the award for Best Outdoor Campaign at the French advertising CDA awards. In September 2016, an Apple Music advert premiered during the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards that featured comedian James Corden dressed up as various music icons including all five of the Spice Girls.
Other notable groups of people have been labelled as some variation of a play-on-words on the Spice Girls' name as an allusion to the band. In 1997, the term "Spice Boys" emerged in the British media as a term coined to characterise the "pop star" antics and lifestyles off the pitch of a group of Liverpool F.C. footballers that includes Jamie Redknapp, David James, Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler and Jason McAteer. The label has stuck with these footballers ever since, with John Scales, one of the so-called Spice Boys, admitting in 2015 that, "We're the Spice Boys and it's something we have to accept because it will never change." In the Philippines, the "Spice Boys" tag was given to a group of young Congressmen of the House of Representatives who initiated the impeachment of President Joseph Estrada in 2001. The Australian/British string quartet Bond were dubbed by the international press as the "Spice Girls of classical music" during their launch in 2000 due to their "sexy" image and classical crossover music that incorporated elements of pop and dance music. A spokeswoman for the quartet said in response to the comparisons, "In fact, they are much better looking than the Spice Girls. But we don't welcome comparisons. The Bond girls are proper musicians; they have paid their dues." The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) doubles team of Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova, two-time Grand Slam and two-time WTA Finals Doubles champions, dubbed themselves the "Spice Girls of tennis" in 1999. Hingis and Kournikova, along with fellow WTA players Venus and Serena Williams, were also labelled the "Spice Girls of tennis", then later the "Spite Girls", by the media in the late 1990s due to their youthfulness, popularity and brashness.
Wax sculptures of the Spice Girls are currently on display at the famed Madame Tussaud's New York wax museum. The sculptures of the Spice Girls (sans Halliwell) were first unveiled in December 1999, making them the first pop band to be modelled as a group since the Beatles in 1964 at the time. A sculpture of Halliwell was later made in 2002, and was eventually displayed with the other Spice Girls' sculptures after Halliwell reunited with the band in 2007. Since 2008, Spiceworld: The Exhibition, a travelling exhibition of around 5,000 Spice Girls memorabilia and merchandise, has been shown in museums across the UK. The Spice Girls Exhibition, a collection of over 1,000 Spice Girls items owned by Alan Smith-Allison, was held at the Trakasol Cultural Centre in Limassol Marina, Cyprus in the summer of 2016. Wannabe 1996–2016: A Spice Girls Art Exhibition, an exhibition of Spice Girls-inspired art, was held at The Ballery in Berlin in 2016 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the group's debut single, "Wannabe".
Discography
Spice (1996)
Spiceworld (1997)
Forever'' (2000)
Concerts
Girl Power! Live in Istanbul (1997)
Spiceworld Tour (1998)
Christmas in Spiceworld Tour (1999)
The Return of the Spice Girls Tour (2007–08)
Spice World – 2019 Tour (2019)
Members
Victoria Beckham (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012)
Melanie Brown (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Emma Bunton (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Melanie Chisholm (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2018–present)
Geri Halliwell (1994–1998, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Timeline
Publications
Books
Magazines
See also
List of best-selling girl groups
List of awards received by the Spice Girls
Notes
References
Citations
Book references
External links
1994 establishments in England
1994 establishments in the United Kingdom
Brit Award winners
MTV Europe Music Award winners
English pop girl groups
English dance music groups
Dance-pop groups
Teen pop groups
Feminist musicians
Ivor Novello Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Musical groups established in 1994
Musical groups disestablished in 2000
Musical groups reestablished in 2007
Musical groups disestablished in 2008
Musical groups reestablished in 2018
Musical groups from London
Virgin Records artists
World Music Awards winners
English pop music groups
Golden Raspberry Award winners | true | [
"a TEN Talk (originally 10Talk) is a short presentation on a topic of the speaker's choosing given at a BarCamp type conference. It derives from a TED Talk and originated at the 2012 RefreshCache v4 developer conference (now defunct) in Gilbert, Arizona during the open floor demo time with a description of \"Fast paced 10 minute presentations by the you and the other leaders among us.\" Since the term was still somewhat new at the time, a \"What is a Ten-Talk?\" page was created on the RefreshCache site with the following abbreviated description so potential Ten-Talk presenters would know exactly what was expected of them:\n \n A Ten-Talk is a fast-paced, ten minute POLISHED presentation on an interesting topic that you think will appeal to the Church IT / Web Developer audiences.\n \n Here are some examples of Ten-Talk topics:\n (1) Have you implemented something at your church that has been a radical success or epic failure? We can learn from either of these!\n (2) Do you have an inspirational message that can lead others to action? Even better if you can share how this message inspired you to action and then show us what you did.\n (3) Have you spent time researching and understanding something in the world of ministry software or Church IT? Maybe you are an expert in [redacted]. Present this to the Church IT Network /RefreshCache community and share what you know. Your research may help another church find the solution to a problem they are facing, or save them the trouble of doing all the research you just did by realizing it won't work for them.\n\nIt was later adopted at the national Church IT Round Table conference held in February 2013 in Phoenix, Arizona when the two events began to intermingle and used again in 2014 at the Peoria, Illinois event where it was re-described as \"10Talks (or TEN-Talks) are 10 minute, fast paced talks on a topic. These are perfect sessions for raising awareness about a topic, tool, or idea that you think your peers should know.\"\n\nIts use outside of CITRT conferences is thought to begin with the WLAN professionals summit in February 2014.\n\nReferences\n\nPresentation",
"Modron is an adventure for fantasy role-playing games published by Judges Guild in 1978.\n\nPlot summary\nModron is a scenario describing the village of Modron and a nearby underwater adventure, each with a large map. It includes both village and underwater encounters.\n\nModron is a water goddess whose city was somehow preserved in a battle between her worshippers and the worshippers of her rival god, Proteus. Proteus' people's homes were destroyed, but a new city was built on top of the ruins. Explorers in the city can find a myriad of wealth and adventures. Several characters are sketchily described for the players, if they choose to use them.\n\nPublication history\nModron was written by Bob Bledsaw and Gary Adams, and was published by Judges Guild in 1978 as a 16-page digest-sized book with a blue cover and two large maps. Judges Guild published a second edition in 1980.\n\nA listing of cumulative sales from 1981 shows that Modron sold over 15,000 units.\n\nReception\nElisabeth Barrington reviewed Modron in The Space Gamer No. 30. Barrington commented that \"The graphics on the maps are excellent. The ideas presented in the background are interesting and novel, to some extent. Clarity is the key word in this module. Whatever is described is organized and easy to read.\" However, she added \"BUT there is not much described. In each room or place the characters go, the DM must quickly invent a few things to flesh out the descriptions given in the booklet. There are people in the places, and a couple of items, and that is all that is given. No room descriptions, no special traps or interesting things that happen unless you make them up as you go along; just a person or monster and some items. There are some bad typos in the booklet, making things a little hard to figure out at times, but the great organization of the book makes up for that one little problem.\" Barrington concludes her review by saying, \"If you are the type of DM who wants the bare minimum provided for your campaign, this is for you. But you might find that [the price] is a little high to pay for descriptions of people. It is fun to play, and there are some new things to find, but I do not think it is worth the price.\"\n\nWilliam Fawcett reviewed Modron in The Dragon #44. Fawcett commented that \"This set is inexpensive and has some good expansions of ideas mentioned, but not detailed, in earlier Guild products. Modron could be easily included in a campaign that included nothing else from the Guild.\"\n\nReviews\n Different Worlds #8 (Jun 1980)\n\nReferences\n\nJudges Guild fantasy role-playing game adventures"
]
|
[
"Spice Girls",
"Girl power",
"What was Girl power?",
"phrase \"girl power\" put a name to a social phenomenon, but the slogan was met with mixed reactions.",
"What were the reactions it was met with?",
"message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women, and it emphasised the importance of strong and loyal friendship among females.",
"Did anyone dislike the message?",
"some critics dismissed it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic, while others took issue with the emphasis on physical appearance,",
"What was the appearance issue?",
"concerned about the potential impact on self-conscious and/or impressionable youngsters.",
"Around what year was girl power of influence?",
"I don't know.",
"What else did you find interesting in this section?",
"\"What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were,",
"What types of things made them so unique?",
"Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?\"",
"What else did you find interesting in this section?",
"Blake Lively dedicated her \"Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress\" award to \"girl power\" in her acceptance speech, and credited the Spice Girls, saying:"
]
| C_fe6b19634b6e4d3fa1e9cb3ceb5cbec3_0 | What did she say? | 9 | What did Blake Lively say? | Spice Girls | The phrase "girl power" put a name to a social phenomenon, but the slogan was met with mixed reactions. The phrase was a label for the particular facet of post classical neo-feminist empowerment embraced by the band: that a sensual, feminine appearance and equality between the sexes need not be mutually exclusive. This concept was by no means original in the pop world: both Madonna and Bananarama had employed similar outlooks. The phrase itself had also appeared in a few songs by British girl groups and bands since at least 1987; most notably, it was the name of British pop duo Shampoo's 1996 single and album, later credited by Halliwell as the inspiration for the Spice Girls' mantra. However, it was not until the emergence of the Spice Girls in 1996 with "Wannabe", that the concept of "girl power" exploded onto the common consciousness. The phrase was regularly uttered by all five members--although most closely associated with Halliwell--and was often delivered with a peace sign. The slogan also featured on official Spice Girls merchandise and on some of the outfits the group members wore. The Spice Girls' version was distinctive. Its message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women, and it emphasised the importance of strong and loyal friendship among females. In all, the focused, consistent presentation of "girl power" formed the centrepiece of their appeal as a band. Some commentators credit the Spice Girls with reinvigorating mainstream feminism--popularized as "girl power"--in the 1990s, with their mantra serving as a gateway to feminism for their young fans. On the other hand, some critics dismissed it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic, while others took issue with the emphasis on physical appearance, concerned about the potential impact on self-conscious and/or impressionable youngsters. Regardless, the phrase became a cultural phenomenon, adopted as the mantra for millions of girls and even making it into the Oxford English Dictionary. In summation of the concept, author Ryan Dawson said, "The Spice Girls changed British culture enough for Girl Power to now seem completely unremarkable." The Spice Girls' debut single "Wannabe" has been hailed as an "iconic girl power anthem". In 2016, the United Nations' Global Goals "#WhatIReallyReallyWant" campaign filmed a global remake of the original music video for "Wannabe" to highlight gender inequality issues faced by women across the world. The video, which was launched on YouTube and ran in movie theatres internationally, featured British girl group M.O, Canadian "viral sensation" Taylor Hatala, Nigerian-British singer Seyi Shay and Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez lip-syncing to the song in various locations around the world. In response to the remake, Beckham said, "How fabulous is it that after 20 years the legacy of the Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?" At the 43rd People's Choice Awards in January 2017, American actress Blake Lively dedicated her "Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress" award to "girl power" in her acceptance speech, and credited the Spice Girls, saying: "What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were, and that was my first introduction into girl power." CANNOTANSWER | they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were, and that was my first introduction into girl power." | The Spice Girls are a British girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Melanie Brown, also known as Mel B ("Scary Spice"); Melanie Chisholm, or Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"); Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"); Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"); and Victoria Beckham ("Posh Spice"). With their "girl power" mantra, they redefined the girl-group concept by targeting a young female fanbase. They led the teen pop resurgence of the 1990s, were a major part of the Cool Britannia era, and became pop culture icons of the decade.
The group formed through auditions held by managers Bob and Chris Herbert, who wanted to create a girl group to compete with the British boy bands popular at the time. They signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single "Wannabe" in 1996, which reached number one on the charts of 37 countries. Their debut album, Spice (1996), sold more than 23 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album by a female group in history. The follow-up, Spiceworld (1997) sold more than 14 million copies worldwide. Both albums encapsulated the group's dance-pop style and message of female empowerment, with vocal and songwriting contributions shared equally by the members. In 1997, a film starring the Spice Girls, Spice World, was released; it was a commercial success but received poor reviews.
In May 1998, Halliwell left the Spice Girls, citing exhaustion and creative differences. Forever (2000), the only Spice Girls album without Halliwell, achieved weaker sales. At the end of 2000, the Spice Girls entered a hiatus to concentrate on their solo careers. They reunited for two concert tours, the Return of the Spice Girls (2007–2008) and Spice World (2019), both of which won the Billboard Live Music Award for highest-grossing engagements. Viva Forever!, a musical based on the Spice Girls' music, opened in 2012; it was a critical and commercial failure and closed in 2013.
Measures of the Spice Girls' success include international record sales, iconic symbolism such as Halliwell's Union Jack dress, a major motion picture, Spice World (1997), and the highest-grossing concert tours by an all-female group from 2000 to 2020. Under the guidance of their mentor and manager Simon Fuller, their endorsement deals and merchandise made them one of most successful marketing engines ever, with a global gross income estimated at $500–800 million by May 1998. Their media exposure, according to Music Week writer Paul Gorman, helped usher in an era of celebrity obsession in pop culture.
The Spice Girls have sold 100 million records worldwide, making them the bestselling girl group of all time, one of the bestselling artists, and the most successful British pop act since the Beatles. They received five Brit Awards, three American Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, three MTV Europe Music Awards and one MTV Video Music Award. In 2000, they became the youngest recipients of the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. According to Rolling Stone journalist and biographer David Sinclair, they were the most widely recognised group since the Beatles.
Band history
1994–1996: Formation and early years
In the early 1990s, Bob and Chris Herbert, the father-and-son duo of Heart Management, decided to create a girl group to compete with the boy bands who dominated UK pop music at the time. Together with financier Chic Murphy, they envisioned an act comprising "five strikingly different girls" who would each appeal to a different audience. In February 1994, Heart Management placed an advertisement in the trade paper The Stage asking for singers to audition for an all-female pop band at London's Danceworks studios. Approximately 400 women attended the audition on 4 March 1994. They were placed in groups of 10 and danced a routine to "Stay" by Eternal, followed by solo auditions in which they performed songs of their choice.
After several weeks of deliberation, Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm and Michelle Stephenson were among a dozen or so women who advanced to a second round of auditions in April. Chisholm missed the second audition after coming down with tonsillitis. Despite missing the first round of auditions, Geri Halliwell persuaded the Herberts to let her attend the second. A week after the second audition, Adams, Brown, Halliwell and Stephenson were asked to attend a recall at Nomis Studios in Shepherd's Bush, performing "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" on their own and as a group. Chisholm was also invited as a last-minute replacement for another finalist. The five women were selected for a band initially named "Touch".
The group moved into a three-bedroom house in Maidenhead, Berkshire, and spent most of 1994 practising songs written for them by Bob Herbert's long-time associates John Thirkell and Erwin Keiles. According to Stephenson, the material they were given was "very, very young pop", and none were later used by the Spice Girls. During these first months, the group worked on demos at South Hill Park Recording Studios in Bracknell with producer and studio owner Michael Sparkes and songwriter and arranger Tim Hawes. They were also tasked with choreographing their own dance routines, which they worked on at Trinity Studios in Knaphill, near Woking, Surrey. A few months into the training, Stephenson was fired for a perceived lack of commitment. Heart Management turned to the group's vocal coach, Pepi Lemer, to find a replacement. After Lemer's first recommendation declined the offer, Lemer recommended her former pupil, Emma Bunton, who auditioned for the Herberts and joined as the fifth member.
As their training continued, the group performed small showcases for a few of Heart Management's associates. On one such performance, the group added a rap section they had written to one of Thirkell and Keiles' songs. Keiles was furious with the changes and insisted they learn to write songs properly. The group began professional songwriting lessons; during one session, they wrote a song called "Sugar and Spice" with Hawes, which inspired them to change their band name to "Spice".
By late 1994, the group felt insecure as they still did not have an official contract with Heart Management, and were frustrated with the management team's direction. They persuaded Herbert to set up a showcase performance for the group in front of industry writers, producers and A&R men in December 1994 at the Nomis Studios, where they received an "overwhelmingly positive" reaction. The Herberts quickly set about creating a binding contract for them. Encouraged by the reaction they had received at the Nomis showcase, all five members refused to sign the contracts on legal advice from, among others, Adams's father. The following month, in January, the group began songwriting sessions with Richard Stannard, whom they had impressed at the showcase, and his partner Matt Rowe. It was during these sessions that the songs "Wannabe" and "2 Become 1" were written.
In March 1995, the group parted from Heart Management due to their frustration with the company's unwillingness to listen to their visions and ideas. To ensure they kept control of their own work, they allegedly stole the master recordings of their discography from the management offices. The next day, the group tracked down Sheffield-based songwriter Eliot Kennedy, who had been present at the Nomis showcase, and persuaded him to work with them. Through contacts they had made at the showcase, they were also introduced to record producers Absolute. With Kennedy and Absolute's help, the group spent the next several weeks writing and recording demos for the majority of the songs that would be released on their debut album, including "Say You'll Be There" and "Who Do You Think You Are". Their demos caught the attention of Simon Fuller of 19 Entertainment, who signed them to his management company in May 1995.
By this point, industry buzz around the Spice Girls had grown significantly and the major record labels in London and Los Angeles were keen to sign them. After a bidding war, they signed a five-album deal with Virgin Records in July 1995. Fuller took them on an extensive promotional tour in Los Angeles, where they met with studio executives in the hopes of securing film and television opportunities. Their name was also changed to "Spice Girls" as a rapper was already using the name "Spice". The new name was chosen because the group noticed industry people often referred to them derisively as "the 'Spice' girls". The group continued to write and record tracks for their debut album.
1996–1997: Spice and breakthrough
On 7 July 1996, the Spice Girls released their debut single "Wannabe" in the United Kingdom. In the weeks before the release, the music video for "Wannabe" received a trial airing on music channel The Box. The video was an instant hit, and was aired up to seventy times a week at its peak. After the video was released, the Spice Girls had their first live broadcast TV slot on LWT's Surprise Surprise. Earlier in May, the group had conducted their first music press interview with Paul Gorman, the contributing editor of trade paper Music Week, at Virgin Records' Paris headquarters. His piece recognised that the Spice Girls were about to institute a change in the charts away from Britpop and towards out-and-out pop. He wrote: "JUST WHEN BOYS with guitars threaten to rule pop life—Damon's all over Smash Hits, Ash are big in Big! and Liam can't move for tabloid frenzy—an all-girl, in-yer-face pop group have arrived with enough sass to burst that rockist bubble." "Wannabe" entered the UK Singles Chart at number three before moving up to number one the following week and staying there for seven weeks. The song proved to be a global hit, hitting number one in 37 countries, including four consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, and becoming not only the biggest-selling debut single by an all-female group but also the biggest-selling single by an all-female group of all time.
Riding a wave of publicity and hype, the group released their next singles in the UK and Europe; in October "Say You'll Be There" was released topping the charts at number one for two weeks. "2 Become 1" was released in December, becoming their first Christmas number one and selling 462,000 copies in its first week, making it the fastest-selling single of the year. The two tracks continued the group's remarkable sales, giving them three of the top five biggest-selling songs of 1996 in the UK. In November 1996, the Spice Girls released their debut album Spice in Europe. The success was unprecedented and drew comparisons to Beatlemania, leading the press to dub it "Spicemania" and the group the "Fab Five". In seven weeks Spice had sold 1.8 million copies in Britain alone, making the Spice Girls the fastest-selling British act since the Beatles. In total, the album sold over 3 million copies in Britain, the biggest-selling album of all time in the UK by a female group, certified 10× Platinum, and peaked at number one for fifteen non-consecutive weeks. In Europe the album became the biggest-selling album of 1997 and was certified 8× Platinum by the IFPI for sales in excess of 8 million copies.
That same month, the Spice Girls attracted a crowd of 500,000 when they switched on the Christmas lights in Oxford Street, London. At the same time, Simon Fuller started to set up multi-million dollar sponsorship deals for the Spice Girls with Pepsi, Walkers, Impulse, Cadbury and Polaroid. The group ended 1996 winning three trophies at the Smash Hits awards at the London Arena, including best video for "Say You'll Be There". In January 1997, "Wannabe" was released in the United States. The single proved to be a catalyst in helping the Spice Girls break into the notoriously difficult US market when it debuted on the Hot 100 Chart at number eleven. At the time, this was the highest-ever debut by a non-American act, beating the previous record held by the Beatles for "I Want to Hold Your Hand", and the joint highest entry for a debut act alongside Alanis Morissette's "Ironic". "Wannabe" reached number one in the US for four weeks. In February, Spice was released in the US, and became the biggest-selling album of 1997 in the US, peaking at number one, and was certified 7× Platinum by the RIAA for sales in excess of 7.4 million copies. The album was also included in the Top 100 Albums of All Time list by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) based on US sales. In total, the album sold over 23 million copies worldwide becoming the biggest-selling album in pop music history by an all-female group.
Later that month, the Spice Girls performed "Who Do You Think You Are" to open the 1997 Brit Awards, with Geri Halliwell wearing a Union Jack mini-dress that became one of pop history's most famed outfits. At the ceremony, the group won two Brit Awards; Best British Video for "Say You'll Be There" and Best British Single for "Wannabe". In March 1997, a double A-side of "Mama"/"Who Do You Think You Are" was released in Europe, the last from Spice, which once again saw them at number one, making the Spice Girls the first group since the Jackson 5 to have four consecutive number one hits.
Girl Power!, the Spice Girls' first book and manifesto was launched later that month at the Virgin Megastore. It sold out its initial print run of 200,000 copies within a day, and was eventually translated into more than 20 languages. In April, One Hour of Girl Power was released; it sold 500,000 copies in the UK between April and June to become the best-selling pop video ever, and was eventually certified 13x Platinum. In May, Spice World, a film starring the group, was announced by the Spice Girls at the Cannes Film Festival. The group also performed their first live UK show for the Prince's Trust benefit concert. At the show, they breached royal protocol when Brown and then Halliwell planted kisses on Prince Charles' cheeks and pinched his bottom, causing controversy. That same month, Virgin released Spice Girls Present... The Best Girl Power Album... Ever!, a multi-artist compilation album compiled by the group. The album peaked at number two on the UK Compilation Chart and was certified Gold by the BPI. At the Ivor Novello Awards, the group won International Hit of the Year and Best-Selling British Single awards for "Wannabe".
Spice World began filming in June and wrapped in August. The film was to be set to the songs from the group's second studio album, but no songs had been written when filming began. The group thus had to do all the songwriting and recording at the same time as they were filming Spice World, resulting in a grueling schedule that left them exhausted. Among the songs that were written during this period was "Stop", the lyrics for which cover the group's frustrations with being overworked by their management. In September, the Spice Girls performed "Say You'll Be There" at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and won Best Dance Video for "Wannabe". The MTV Awards came five days after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, with tributes paid to her throughout the ceremony. Chisholm stated, "We'd like to dedicate this award to Princess Diana, who is a great loss to our country." At the 1997 Billboard Music Awards, the group won four awards for New Artist of the Year, Billboard Hot 100 Singles Group of the Year, Billboard 200 Group of the Year and Billboard 200 Album of the Year for Spice.
1997–1998: Groundbreaking success, Spiceworld and Halliwell's departure
In October 1997, the Spice Girls released the first single from Spiceworld, "Spice Up Your Life". It entered the UK Singles Chart at number one, making it the group's fifth consecutive number-one single. That same month, the group performed their first live major concert to 40,000 fans in Istanbul, Turkey. Later, they launched the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal, then travelled to South Africa to meet Nelson Mandela, who announced, "These are my heroes." In November, the Spice Girls released their second album, Spiceworld. It set a new record for the fastest-selling album when it shipped seven million copies over the course of two weeks. Gaining favourable reviews, the album went on to sell over 10 million copies in Europe, Canada, and the United States combined, and 14 million copies worldwide. Criticised in the United States for releasing the album just nine months after their debut there, which gave the group two simultaneous Top 10 albums in the Billboard album charts, and suffering from over-exposure at home, the Spice Girls began to experience a media backlash. The group was criticised for the number of sponsorship deals signed—over twenty in total—and they began to witness diminishing international chart positions. Nevertheless, the Spice Girls remained the biggest-selling pop group of both 1997 and 1998.
On 7 November 1997, the group performed "Spice Up Your Life" at the MTV Europe Music Awards, and won the Best Group award. The morning of the performance, the Spice Girls had also fired their manager Simon Fuller and took over the running of the group themselves. To ensure a smooth transition, Halliwell allegedly stole a mobile phone from Fuller's assistant that contained the group's upcoming schedule and Fuller's business contacts. The firing was front-page news around the world. Many commentators speculated that Fuller had been the true mastermind behind the group, and that this was the moment when the band lost their impetus and direction. Later that month, the Spice Girls became the first pop group to host ITV's An Audience with...; their show was watched by 11.8 million viewers in the UK, one fifth of the country's population. In December 1997, the second single from Spiceworld, "Too Much", was released, becoming the group's second Christmas number one and their sixth consecutive number-one single in the UK. December also saw the group launch their film Spice World. The world premiere at the Empire Theatre in Leicester Square was attended by celebrities including Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry. The film was a commercial success but received poor reviews. The group ended 1997 as the year's most played artist on American radio.
In January 1998, the Spice Girls attended the US premiere of Spice World at the Mann's Chinese Theatre. At the 1998 American Music Awards a few days later, the group won the awards for Favorite Album, Favorite New Artist and Favorite Group in the pop/rock category. In February, they won a special award for overseas success at the 1998 Brit Awards, with combined sales of over 45 million albums and singles worldwide. That night, the group performed their next single, "Stop", their first not to reach number one in United Kingdom, entering at number two. In early 1998, the Spice Girls embarked on the Spiceworld Tour, starting in Dublin, Ireland, on 24 February 1998 before moving to mainland Europe and North America, and then returning to the United Kingdom for two gigs at Wembley Stadium. Later that year, the Spice Girls were invited to sing on the official England World Cup song "(How Does It Feel to Be) On Top of the World", the last song recorded with Halliwell until 2007.
On 31 May 1998, Halliwell announced her departure from the Spice Girls through her solicitor. The announcement was preceded by days of frenzied press speculation after Halliwell missed two concerts in Norway and was absent from the group's performance on The National Lottery Draws. Halliwell first cited creative differences, then later said that she was suffering from exhaustion and disillusionment, although rumours of a power struggle with Brown as the reason for her departure were circulated by the press. Halliwell's departure from the group shocked fans and became one of the biggest entertainment news stories of the year, making news headlines the world over. The four remaining members were adamant that the group would carry on. The North American leg of the Spiceworld Tour went on as planned, beginning in West Palm Beach, Florida, on 15 June, and grossing $60 million over 40 sold-out performances. The tour was accompanied by a documentary film titled Spice Girls in America: A Tour Story. "Viva Forever" was the last single released from Spiceworld and gave the group their seventh number one in the United Kingdom. The video for the single was made before Halliwell's departure and features all five members in stop-motion animated form.
1998–2000: Forever and hiatus
While on tour in the United States, the group continued to write and record new material, releasing a new song, "Goodbye", before Christmas in 1998. The song was seen as a tribute to Geri Halliwell, although parts of it had originally been written when Halliwell was still a part of the group, and when it topped the UK Singles Chart it became their third consecutive Christmas number one—equalling the record previously set by the Beatles. In November, Bunton and Chisholm appeared at the 1998 MTV Europe Music Awards without their other bandmates, accepting two awards on behalf of the Spice Girls for Best Pop Act and Best Group. That same year, Brown and Adams announced they were both pregnant. Brown was married to dancer Jimmy Gulzer and became known as Mel G for a brief period; she gave birth to daughter Phoenix Chi in February 1999. Adams gave birth a month after to son Brooklyn, whose father was then Manchester United footballer David Beckham; later that year, she married Beckham in a highly publicised wedding in Ireland.
From 1998 onwards, the Spice Girls began to pursue solo careers and by the following year, Brown, Bunton, Chisholm, and former member Halliwell, had all released music as solo artists. The group returned to the studio in August 1999 after an eight-month recording break to start work on their third and last studio album. The album's sound was initially more pop-influenced, similar to their first two albums, and included production from Eliot Kennedy. The album's sound took a mature direction when American producers like Rodney Jerkins, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis came on board to collaborate with the group. In December 1999, the Spice Girls embarked on a UK-only tour, Christmas in Spiceworld, in London and Manchester, during which they showcased new songs from the third album. Earlier in the year, the group also recorded the song "My Strongest Suit" for Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida, a concept album which would later go on to become the musical Aida. The group performed again at the 2000 Brit Awards in March, where they received the Lifetime Achievement award. Despite being at the event, Halliwell did not join her former bandmates on stage.
In November 2000, the group released Forever; sporting a new edgier R&B sound, the album received a lukewarm response from critics. In the US, the album peaked at number thirty-nine on the Billboard 200 albums chart. In the UK, the album was released the same week as Westlife's Coast to Coast album and the chart battle was widely reported by the media, with Westlife winning the battle and reaching number one, leaving the Spice Girls at number two. The lead single from Forever, the double A-side "Holler"/"Let Love Lead the Way", became the group's ninth number one single in the UK. However, the song failed to break onto the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart stateside, instead peaking at number seven on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, and at number thirty-one on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The only major performance of the lead single by the group came at the 2000 MTV Europe Music Awards in November. In total, Forever achieved only a fraction of the success of its two best-selling predecessors, selling four million copies. The Spice Girls ceased all promotional activities for the album in December 2000, as they began an indefinite hiatus to concentrate on their solo careers. Publicly, they insisted that the group was not splitting.
2007–2008: Return of the Spice Girls and Greatest Hits
On 28 June 2007, the Spice Girls, including Halliwell, held a press conference at the O2 Arena revealing their intention to reunite for a worldwide concert tour titled the Return of the Spice Girls. The plan to re-form had long been speculated by the media, with previous attempts by the organisers of Live 8 and Concert for Diana to reunite the group as a five-piece falling through. Each member of the group was reportedly paid £10 million ($20 million) to do the reunion tour. Giving You Everything, an official documentary film about the reunion, was directed by Bob Smeaton and first aired on Australia's Fox8 on 16 December 2007, followed by BBC One in the UK on 31 December.
Ticket sales for the first London date of the Return of the Spice Girls tour sold out in 38 seconds. It was reported that over one million people signed up in the UK alone and over five million worldwide for the ticket ballot on the band's official website. Sixteen additional dates in London were added, all selling out within one minute. In the United States, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Jose shows also sold out, prompting additional dates to be added. It was announced that the Spice Girls would be playing dates in Chicago and Detroit and Boston, as well as additional dates in New York to keep up with the demand. The tour opened in Vancouver on 2 December 2007, with group performing to an audience of 15,000 people, singing twenty songs and changing outfits a total of eight times. Along with the tour sellout, the Spice Girls licensed their name and image to Tesco's UK supermarket chain.
The group's comeback single, "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)", was announced as the official Children in Need charity single for 2007 and was released 5 November. The first public appearance on stage by the Spice Girls occurred at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, where they performed two songs, 1998 single "Stop" and the lead single from their greatest hits album, "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)". The show was filmed by CBS on 15 November 2007 for broadcast on 4 December 2007. They also performed both songs live for the BBC Children in Need telethon on 16 November 2007 from Los Angeles. The release of "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)" peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart, making it the group's lowest-charting British single to date. The album peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart. On 1 February 2008, it was announced that due to personal and family commitments their tour would come to an end in Toronto on 26 February 2008, meaning that tour dates in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Cape Town and Buenos Aires were cancelled.
Overall, the 47-date tour was the highest-grossing concert act of 2007–2008, measured as the twelve months ending in April 2008. It produced some $107.2 million in ticket sales and merchandising, with sponsorship and ad deals bringing the total to $200 million. The tour's 17-night sellout stand at the O2 Arena in London was the highest-grossing engagement of the year, netting £16.5 million (US$33 million) and drawing an audience of 256,647, winning the 2008 Billboard Touring Award for Top Boxscore. The group's comeback also netted them several other awards, including the Capital Music Icon Award, the Glamour Award for Best Band, and the Vodafone Live Music Award for Best Live Return, the last of which saw them beat out acts such as Led Zeppelin and the Sex Pistols.
2010–2012: Viva Forever! and London Olympics
At the 2010 Brit Awards, the Spice Girls received a special award for "Best Performance of the 30th Year". The award was for their 1997 Brit Awards performance of "Wannabe" and "Who Do You Think You Are", and was accepted by Halliwell and Brown on behalf of the group.
That year, the group collaborated with Fuller, Judy Craymer and Jennifer Saunders to develop a Spice Girls stage musical, Viva Forever!. Similar to the ABBA musical Mamma Mia!, Viva Forever! used the group's music to create an original story. In June 2012, to promote the musical, the Spice Girls reunited for a press conference at the St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, where music video for "Wannabe" was filmed exactly sixteen years earlier. Viva Forever! premiered at the West End's Piccadilly Theatre in December 2012, with all five Spice Girls in attendance. To promote the musical, the group appeared in the documentary Spice Girls' Story: Viva Forever!, which aired on 24 December 2012 on ITV1. Viva Forever! was panned by critics and closed after seven months, with a loss of at least £5 million.
In August 2012, the Spice Girls reunited to perform a medley of "Wannabe" and "Spice Up Your Life" at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony. Their performance received acclaim, and became the most tweeted moment of the Olympics with over 116,000 tweets per minute on Twitter.
2016–present: Spice World tour and Spice25
On 8 July 2016, Brown, Bunton and Halliwell released a video celebrating the 20th anniversary of "Wannabe" and teased news from them as a three-piece. Beckham and Chisholm opted not to take part but gave the project their blessing. A new song from the three-piece, "Song for Her", was leaked online a few months later in November. The reunion project was cancelled due to Halliwell's pregnancy.
On 24 May 2019, the Spice Girls began the Spice World – 2019 Tour of the UK and Ireland at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland. Beckham declined to join due to commitments regarding her fashion business. Each of the four participating members was reportedly paid £12 million for the tour. The tour concluded with three concerts at London's Wembley Stadium, with the last taking place on 15 June 2019. Over 13 dates, the tour produced 700,000 spectators and earned $78.2 million in ticket sales. The three-night sellout stand at Wembley Stadium was the highest-grossing engagement of the year, drawing an audience of 221,971 and winning the 2019 Billboard Live Music Award for Top Boxscore. Despite sound problems in the early concerts, Anna Nicholson in The Guardian wrote, "As nostalgia tours go, this could hardly have been bettered."
Alongside the tour, the group teamed up with the children's book franchise Mr. Men to create derivative products such as books, cups, bags and coasters. On 13 June 2019, it was reported that Paramount Animation had greenlit an animated Spice Girls film with old and new songs. The project will be produced by Simon Fuller and written by Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith. A director has not been announced.
To mark the 25th anniversary of "Wannabe", an EP was released in July 2021 that included previously unreleased demos. On 29 October, the Spice Girls released Spice25, a deluxe reissue of Spice featuring previously unreleased demos and remixes. The deluxe release saw the album reenter the UK Albums Chart at number five, number three on the UK Official Vinyl Albums Chart Top 40 and number four on the UK Official Physical Albums Chart.
Artistry
Musical style
According to Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the Spice Girls "used dance-pop as a musical base, but they infused the music with a fiercely independent, feminist stance that was equal parts Madonna, post-riot grrrl alternative rock feminism, and a co-opting of the good-times-all-the-time stance of England's new lad culture." Their songs incorporated a variety of genres, which Halliwell described as a "melding" of the group members' eclectic musical tastes, but otherwise kept to mainstream pop conventions. Chisholm said: "We all had different artists that we loved. Madonna was a big influence and TLC; we watched a lot of their videos." A regular collaborator on the group's first two albums was the production duo known as Absolute, made up of Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins. Absolute initially found it difficult to work with the group as the duo was heavily into R&B music at the time, while the Spice Girls according to Wilson were "always very poptastic". Wilson said of the group's musical output: "Their sound was actually not getting R&B quite right."
In his biography of the band, Wannabe: How the Spice Girls Reinvented Pop Fame (2004), Rolling Stone journalist David Sinclair said that the "undeniable artistry" of the group's songs had been overlooked. He said the Spice Girls "instinctively had an ear for a catchy tune" without resorting to the "formula balladry and bland modulations" of 90s boy bands Westlife and Boyzone. He praised their "more sophisticated" second album, Spiceworld, saying: "Peppered with personality, and each conveying a distinctive musical flavour and lyrical theme, these are songs which couldn't sound less 'manufactured,' and which, in several cases, transcend the pop genre altogether."
Lyrical themes
The Spice Girls' lyrics promote female empowerment and solidarity. Given the young age of their target audience, Lucy Jones of The Independent said the Spice Girls' songs were subversive for their time: "The lyrics were active rather than passive: taking, grabbing, laying it down – all the things little girls were taught never to do. 'Stop right now, thank you very much'. 'Who do you think you are?' 'I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want'." Musicologist Nicola Dibben cited "Say You'll Be There" as an example of how the Spice Girls inverted traditional gender roles in their lyrics, depicting a man who has fallen in love and displays too much emotion and a woman who remains independent and in control. The Spice Girls emphasised the importance of sisterhood over romance songs such as "Wannabe", and embraced safe sex in "2 Become 1".
Lauren Bravo, author of What Would the Spice Girls Do?: How the Girl Power Generation Grew Up (2018), found that even when the Spice Girls sang about romance, the message was "cheerfully non-committal", in contrast to the songs about breakups and unrequited love other pop stars were singing at the time. Writing for Bustle, Taylor Ferber praised the female-driven lyrics as ahead of their time, citing the inclusivity and optimism of songs such as "Spice Up Your Life" and the sex-positivity of "Last Time Lover" and "Naked". Ferber concluded: "Between all of their songs about friendship, sex, romance, and living life, a central theme in almost all Spice Girls music was loving yourself first."
Vocal arrangements
Unlike prior pop vocal groups, the Spice Girls shared vocals, rather than having a lead vocalist supported by others. The group did not want any one member to be considered the lead singer, and so each song was divided into one or two lines each, before all five voices harmonised in the chorus. The group faced criticism as this meant that no one voice could stand out, but Sinclair concluded that it "was actually a clever device to ensure that they gained the maximum impact and mileage from their all-in-it-together girl-gang image".
The Spice Girls' former vocal coach, Pepi Lemer, described their individual voices as distinct and easy distinguish, citing the "lightness" of Bunton's voice and the "soulful sound" of Brown's and Chisholm's. Biographer Sean Smith cited Chisholm as the vocalist the group could not do without. Sinclair noted that while Chisholm's ad libs are a distinctive feature of certain Spice Girls songs, the difference in the amount of time her voice was featured over any other member was negligible.
While vocal time was distributed equally, musicologist Nicola Dibben found that there was an "interesting inequality" in the way that vocal styles were distributed within the group, which she felt conformed to certain stereotypes associated with race and socioeconomic background. According to Dibben, most of the declamatory style of singing in the group's singles were performed by Brown, the only black member, and Chisholm, whom Dibben classified as white working class; this was in contrast to the more lyrical sections allotted to Beckham, whom Dibben classified as white middle class.
Songwriting
The Spice Girls did not play instruments, but co-wrote all of their songs. According to their frequent collaborator Richard Stannard, they had two approaches to songwriting: ballads were written in a traditional way with the group sitting around a piano, while songs such as "Wannabe" were the result of tapping into their "mad" energy. Eliot Kennedy, another regular co-writer, said that songwriting sessions with the Spice Girls were "very quick and short". He described his experience working with them:
What I said to them was, "Look, I've got a chorus—check this out." And I'd sing them the chorus and the melody—no lyrics or anything—and straight away five pads and pencils came out and they were throwing lines at us. Ten minutes later, the song was written. Then you go through and refine it. Then later, as you were recording it you might change a few things here and there. But pretty much it was a real quick process. They were confident in what they were doing, throwing it out there.
Absolute's Paul Wilson recalled an experience whereby he and Watkins were responsible for writing the backing track and the group would then write the lyrics. Watkins added: "I wasn't an 18-year-old girl. They always had this weird ability to come up with phrases that you'd never heard of." He said the members would create dance routines at the same time as writing songs, and that they "They knew what they wanted to write about, right from day one. You couldn't force your musical ideas upon them."
From the onset, the Spice Girls established a strict 50–50 split of the publishing royalties between them and their songwriting collaborators. As with their vocal arrangements, they were also adamant on maintaining parity between themselves in the songwriting credits. Sinclair said:
The deal between themselves was a strict five-way split on their share of the songwriting royalties on all songs irrespective of what any one member of the group had (or had not) contributed to any particular song. Apart from ease of administration, this was also a symbolic expression of the unity which was so much part and parcel of the Spice philosophy.
Sinclair identified Halliwell as a major source of ideas for the Spice Girls' songs, including many of the concepts and starting points for the group's songs. Tim Hawes, who worked with the group when they were starting out, said Halliwell's strength was in writing lyrics and pop hooks, and estimated that she was responsible for 60–70% of the lyrics in the songs he worked on. The group's collaborators credit the other members of the group as being more active than Halliwell in constructing the melodies and harmonies of their songs. Matt Rowe, who wrote several songs with the Spice Girls, agreed that Halliwell was particularly good when it came to writing lyrics and credits the lyrics for "Viva Forever" to her. He felt that all five members had contributed equally to the songwriting.
Cultural impact and legacy
Pop music resurgence and girl group boom
The Spice Girls broke onto the music scene at a time when alternative rock, hip-hop and R&B dominated global music charts. In the group's first ever interview in May 1996, Halliwell told Music Week: "We want to bring some of the glamour back to pop, like Madonna had when we were growing up. Pop is about fantasy and escapism, but there's so much bullshit around at the moment." The modern pop phenomenon that the Spice Girls created by targeting early members of Generation Y was credited with changing the music landscape by reviving the pop music genre, bringing about the global wave of late-1990s and early-2000s teen pop acts such as the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and NSYNC.
The Spice Girls have also been credited with paving the way for the girl groups and female pop singers that have come after them. Unlike previous girl groups such as the Andrews Sisters whose target market was male record buyers, the Spice Girls redefined the girl group concept by going after a young female fanbase instead. In the UK, they are further credited for disrupting the then male-dominated pop music scene. Prior to the Spice Girls, girl groups such as Bananarama have had hit singles in the UK but their album sales were generally underwhelming. The accepted wisdom within the British music industry at the time was that an all-girl pop group would not work because both girls and boys would find the concept too threatening. Teen magazines such as Smash Hits and Top of the Pops initially refused to feature the Spice Girls on the assumption that a girl group would not appeal to their female readership. The massive commercial breakthrough of the Spice Girls turned the tide, leading to an unprecedented boom of new girl groups in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
As managers and record labels scrambled to find the next Spice Girls, around 20 new girl groups were launched in the UK in 1999, followed by another 35 the next year. Groups that emerged during this period include All Saints, B*Witched, Atomic Kitten, Girl Thing, Girls@Play, Girls Aloud and the Sugababes, all hoping to emulate the Spice Girls' success. Outside of the UK and Ireland, girl groups such as New Zealand's TrueBliss, Australia's Bardot, Germany's No Angels, US's Cheetah Girls, as well as South Korea's Baby Vox and f(x) were also modelled after the Spice Girls.
Twenty-first-century girl groups continue to cite the Spice Girls as a major source of influence, including the Pussycat Dolls, 2NE1, Girls' Generation, Little Mix, Fifth Harmony, and Haim. Solo female artists who have been similarly influenced by the group include Jess Glynne, Foxes, Alexandra Burke, Charli XCX, Rita Ora, Billie Eilish, and Beyoncé. During her 2005 "Reflections" concert series, Filipina superstar Regine Velasquez performed a medley of five Spice Girls songs as a tribute to the band she says were a major influence on her music. Danish singer-songwriter MØ decided to pursue music after watching the Spice Girls on TV as a child, saying in a 2014 interview: "I have them and only them to thank—or to blame—for becoming a singer." 15-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Adele credits the Spice Girls as a major influence in regard to her love and passion for music, stating that "they made me what I am today".
Girl power
"Girl power" was a label for the particular facet of feminist empowerment embraced by the band, emphasising female confidence, individuality and the value of female friendship. The Spice Girls' particular approach to "girl power" was seen as a boisterous, independent, and sex-positive response to "lad culture." The phrase was regularly espoused by all five members—although most closely associated with Halliwell—and was often delivered with a peace sign. The "girl power" slogan was originally coined by US punk band Bikini Kill in 1991 and subsequently appeared in a few songs in the early and mid-1990s; most notably, it was the title of British pop duo Shampoo's 1996 single which Halliwell later said was her introduction to the phrase. Although the term did not originate with them, it was not until the emergence of the Spice Girls in 1996 that "girl power" exploded onto the mainstream consciousness. According to Chisholm, the band were inspired to champion this cause as a result of the sexism they encountered when they were first starting out in the music business. Industry insiders credit Halliwell as being the author of the group's "girl power" manifesto, while Halliwell herself once spoke of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher as being "the pioneer of our ideology."
In all, the focused, consistent presentation of "girl power" formed the centrepiece of their appeal as a band. The Spice Girls' brand of postfeminism was distinctive and its message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women; by being politically neutral, it did not alienate consumers with different allegiances. Virgin's director of press Robert Sandall explained the novelty of the group: "There had never been a group of girls who were addressing themselves specifically to a female audience before." Similarly, John Harlow of The Sunday Times believed it was this "loyal[ty] to their sex" that set the Spice Girls apart from their predecessors, enabling them to win over young female fans where previous girl groups had struggled. While "girl power" put a name to a social phenomenon, it was met with mixed reactions. Some commentators credit the Spice Girls with reinvigorating mainstream feminism—popularised as "girl power"—in the 1990s, with their mantra serving as a gateway to feminism for their young fans. Conversely, critics dismiss it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic and accuse the group of commercialising the social movement. Regardless, "girl power" became a cultural phenomenon, adopted as the mantra for millions of girls and even making it into the Oxford English Dictionary.
In summation of the concept, author Ryan Dawson said, "The Spice Girls changed British culture enough for Girl Power to now seem completely unremarkable."
In keeping with their "girl power" manifesto, the Spice Girls' songs have been praised for their "genuinely empowering messages about friendship and sisterhood," which set them apart from the typical love songs their pop contemporaries were singing. Billboard magazine said their lyrics "demonstrated real, noncompetitive female friendship," adding that the messages the Spice Girls imparted have held up well compared to the lyrics sung by later girl groups such as the Pussycat Dolls. The group's debut single "Wannabe" has been hailed as an "iconic girl power anthem". In 2016, the United Nations launched their #WhatIReallyReallyWant Global Goals campaign by filming a remake of the "Wannabe" music video to highlight gender inequality issues faced by women across the world. The video, which premiered on YouTube and ran in movie theatres internationally, featured British girl group M.O, Canadian "viral sensation" Taylor Hatala, Nigerian-British singer Seyi Shay and Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez lip-syncing to the song in various locations around the world. In response to the remake, Beckham said, "How fabulous is it that after 20 years the legacy of the Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?"
At the 43rd People's Choice Awards in 2017, Blake Lively dedicated her "Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress" award to "girl power" in her acceptance speech; she credited the Spice Girls, saying: "What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were, and that was my first introduction into girl power." In 2018, Rolling Stone named the Spice Girls' "girl power" ethos on The Millennial 100, a list of 100 people, music, cultural touchstones and movements that have shaped the Millennial generation. Writing in 2019 about the group's influence on what she called the "Spice Girls Generation", Caity Weaver of The New York Times concluded, "Marketing ploy or not, 'Girl power' had become a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Cool Britannia
The term "Cool Britannia" became prominent in the media in the 1990s and represented the new political and social climate that was emerging with the advances made by New Labour and the new British prime minister Tony Blair. Coming out of a period of 18 years of Conservative government, Tony Blair and New Labour were seen as young, cool and appealing, a driving force in giving Britain a feeling of euphoria and optimism.
Although by no means responsible for the onset of "Cool Britannia", the arrival of the Spice Girls added to the new image and re-branding of Britain, and underlined the growing world popularity of British, rather than American, pop music. This fact was underlined at the 1997 Brit Awards; the group won two awards but it was Halliwell's iconic red, white and blue Union Jack mini-dress that appeared in media coverage around the world, becoming an enduring image of "Cool Britannia". The Spice Girls were identified as part of another British Invasion of the US, and in 2016, Time acknowledged the Spice Girls as "arguably the most recognisable face" of "Cool Britannia".
Image, nicknames and fashion trends
The Spice Girls' image was deliberately aimed at young girls, an audience of formidable size and potential. Instrumental to their range of appeal within this demographic was their five distinct personalities and styles, which encouraged fans to identify with one member or another. This rejection of a homogeneous group identity was a stark departure from previous groups such as the Beatles and the Supremes, and the Spice Girls model has since been used to style other pop groups such as One Direction.
The band's image was inadvertently bolstered by the nicknames bestowed on them by the British press. After a lunch with the Spice Girls in the wake of "Wannabes release, Peter Loraine, the then-editor of Top of the Pops magazine, and his editorial staff decided to devise nicknames for each member of the group based on their personalities. Loraine explained, "In the magazine we used silly language and came up with nicknames all the time so it came naturally to give them names that would be used by the magazine and its readers; it was never meant to be adopted globally." Shortly after using the nicknames in a magazine feature on the group, Loraine received calls from other British media outlets requesting permission to use them, and before long the nicknames were synonymous with the Spice Girls. Jennifer Cawthron, one of the magazine's staff writers, explained how the nicknames were chosen:
Victoria was 'Posh Spice', because she was wearing a Gucci-style mini dress and seemed pouty and reserved. Emma wore pigtails and sucked a lollipop, so obviously she was 'Baby Spice'. Mel C spent the whole time leaping around in her tracksuit, so we called her 'Sporty Spice'. I named Mel B 'Scary Spice' because she was so shouty. And Geri was 'Ginger Spice', simply because of her hair. Not much thought went into that one.
In a 2020 interview, Chisholm explained that the Spice Girls' image came about unintentionally when, after initially trying to coordinate their outfits as was expected of girl groups at the time, the group decided to just dress in their own individual styles. According to Chisholm, they "never thought too much more of it" until after "Wannabe" was released and the press gave them their nicknames. The group embraced the nicknames and grew into caricatures of themselves, which Chisholm said was "like a protection mechanism because it was like putting on this armour of being this, this character, rather than it actually being you."
Each Spice Girl adopted a distinct, over-the-top trademark style that served as an extension of her public persona.
Victoria Beckham (née Adams): As Posh Spice, she was known for her choppy brunette bob cut, reserved attitude, signature pout and form-fitting designer outfits (often a little black dress).
Melanie Brown: As Scary Spice, she was known for her "in-your-face" attitude, "loud" Leeds accent, pierced tongue and bold manner of dress (which often consisted of leopard-print outfits).
Emma Bunton: As Baby Spice, she was the youngest member of the group, wore her long blonde hair in pigtails, wore pastel (particularly pink) babydoll dresses and platform sneakers, had an innocent smile and a girly girl personality.
Melanie Chisholm: As Sporty Spice, she usually wore a tracksuit paired with athletic shoes, wore her long dark hair in a high ponytail, and sported tattoos coupled with a tough-girl attitude. She also showcased her athletic abilities on stage, such as by performing back handsprings and high kicks.
Geri Halliwell: As Ginger Spice, she was known for her bright red hair, feistiness, "glammed-up sex appeal" and flamboyant stage outfits. She was also identified by the media and those who worked with the Spice Girls as the leader of the group.
The Spice Girls are considered style icons of the 1990s; their image and styles becoming inextricably tied to the band's identity. They are credited with setting 1990s fashion trends such as Buffalo platform shoes and double bun hairstyles. Their styles have inspired other celebrities including Katy Perry, Charli XCX, and Bollywood actress Anushka Ranjan. Lady Gaga performed as Emma Bunton (Baby Spice) in high school talent shows and Emma Stone chose "Emma" name inspired by Emma Bunton after she previously use name Riley Stone. The group have also been noted for the memorable outfits they have worn, the most iconic being Halliwell's Union Jack dress from the 1997 Brit Awards. The dress was sold at a charity auction to the Las Vegas Hard Rock Cafe for £41,320, giving Halliwell the Guinness World Record at that time for the most expensive piece of pop star clothing ever sold.
Commercialisation and celebrity culture
At the height of Spicemania, the Spice Girls were involved in a prolific marketing phenomenon. Under the guidance of their mentor and manager Simon Fuller, they advertised for an unprecedented number of brands and became the most merchandised group in music history. The group were also a frequent feature of the global press. As a result, said biographer David Sinclair, "So great was the daily bombardment of Spice images and Spice product that it quickly became oppressive even to people who were well disposed towards the group." This was parodied in the video for their song "Spice Up Your Life", which depicts a futuristic dystopian city covered in billboards and adverts featuring the group. Similarly, the North American leg of their 1998 Spiceworld Tour introduced a whole new concert revenue stream when it became the first time advertising was used in a pop concert. Overall, the Spice Girls' earnings in the 1990s were on par with that of a medium-sized corporation thanks in large part to their marketing endeavours, with their global gross income estimated at $500–800 million by May 1998.
In his analysis of the group's enduring influence on 21st-century popular culture, John Mckie of the BBC observed that while other stars had used brand endorsements in the past, "the Spice brand was the first to propel the success of the band". Christopher Barrett and Ben Cardew of Music Week credited Fuller's "ground-breaking" strategy of marketing the Spice Girls as a brand with revolutionising the pop music industry, "paving the way for everything from The White Stripes cameras to U2 iPods and Girls Aloud phones." Barrett further noted that pop music and brand synergy have become inextricably linked in the modern music industry, which he attributed to the "remarkable" impact of the Spice Girls. The Guardians Sylvia Patterson also wrote of what she called the group's true legacy: "[T]hey were the original pioneers of the band as brand, of pop as a ruthless marketing ruse, of the merchandising and sponsorship deals that have dominated commercial pop ever since."
The mainstream media embraced the Spice Girls at the peak of their success. The group received regular international press coverage and were constantly followed by paparazzi. Paul Gorman of Music Week said of the media interest in the Spice Girls in the late 1990s: "They inaugurated the era of cheesy celebrity obsession which pertains today. There is lineage from them to the Kardashianisation not only of the music industry, but the wider culture." The Irish Independent Tanya Sweeney agreed that "[t]he vapidity of paparazzi culture could probably be traced back to the Spice Girls' naked ambitions", while Mckie predicted that, "[f]or all that modern stars from Katy Perry to Lionel Messi exploit brand endorsements and attract tabloid coverage, the scale of the Spice Girls' breakthrough in 1996 is unlikely to be repeated—at least not by a music act."
1990s and gay icons
The Spice Girls have been labelled the biggest pop phenomenon of the 1990s due to the international record sales, iconic symbolism, global cultural influence and apparent omnipresence they held during the decade. The group appeared on the cover of the July 1997 edition of Rolling Stone accompanied with the headline, "Spice Girls Conquer the World". At the 2000 Brit Awards, the group received the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award in honour of their success in the global music scene in the 1990s. The iconic symbolism of the Spice Girls in the 1990s is partly attributed to their era-defining outfits, the most notable being the Union Jack dress that Halliwell wore at the 1997 Brit Awards. The dress has achieved iconic status, becoming one of the most prominent symbols of 1990s pop culture. The status of the Spice Girls as 1990s pop culture icons is also attributed to their vast marketing efforts and willingness to be a part of a media-driven world. Their unprecedented appearances in adverts and the media solidified the group as a phenomenon—an icon of the decade and for British music.
A study conducted by the British Council in 2000 found that the Spice Girls were the second-best-known Britons internationally—only behind then-Prime Minister Tony Blair—and the best-known Britons in Asia. The group were featured in VH1's I Love the '90s and the sequel I Love the '90s: Part Deux; the series covered cultural moments from 1990s with the Spice Girls' rise to fame representing the year 1997, while Halliwell quitting the group represented 1998. In 2006, ten years after the release of their debut single, the Spice Girls were voted the biggest cultural icons of the 1990s with 80 per cent of the votes in a UK poll of 1,000 people carried out for the board game Trivial Pursuit, stating that "Girl Power" defined the decade. The Spice Girls also ranked number ten in the E! TV special, The 101 Reasons the '90s Ruled.
Some sources, especially those in the United Kingdom, regard the Spice Girls as gay icons. In a 2007 UK survey of more than 5,000 gay men and women, Beckham placed 12th and Halliwell placed 43rd in a ranking of the top 50 gay icons. Halliwell was the recipient of the Honorary Gay Award at the 2016 Attitude Awards and Chisholm was given the "Celebrity Ally" award at the 2021 British LGBT Awards, held in London in August. In a 2005 interview, Bunton attributed their large gay following to the group's fun-loving nature, open-mindedness and their love of fashion and dressing up. The LGBTQ magazine Gay Times credits the Spice Girls as having been "ferocious advocates of the community" throughout their whole career. According to Bunton, the LGBTQ community was a big influence on the group's music. A desire to be more inclusive also led the group to change the lyrics in "2 Become 1"; the lyric "Any deal that we endeavour/boys and girls feel good together" appears in their debut album but was changed to "Once again if we endeavour/love will bring us back together" for the single and music video release.
Portrayal in the media
The Spice Girls became media icons in Great Britain and a regular feature of the British press. During the peak of their worldwide fame in 1997, the paparazzi were constantly seen following them everywhere to obtain stories and gossip about the group, such as a supposed affair between Emma Bunton and manager Simon Fuller, or constant split rumours which became fodder for numerous tabloids. Rumours of in-fighting and conflicts within the group also made headlines, with the rumours suggesting that Geri Halliwell and Melanie Brown in particular were fighting to be the leader of the group. Brown, who later admitted that she used to be a "bitch" to Halliwell, said the problems had stayed in the past. The rumours reached their height when the Spice Girls dismissed their manager Simon Fuller during the power struggles, with Fuller reportedly receiving a £10 million severance cheque to keep quiet about the details of his sacking. Months later, in May 1998, Halliwell would leave the band amid rumours of a falling out with Brown; the news of Halliwell's departure was covered as a major news story by media around the world, and became one of the biggest entertainment news stories of the decade.
In February 1997 at the Brit Awards, Halliwell's Union Jack dress from the Spice Girls' live performance made all the front pages the next day. During the ceremony, Halliwell's breasts were exposed twice, causing controversy. In the same year, nude glamour shots of Halliwell taken earlier in her career were released, causing some scandal.
The stories of their encounters with other celebrities also became fodder for the press; for example, in May 1997, at The Prince's Trust 21st-anniversary concert, Brown and Halliwell breached royal protocol when they planted kisses on Prince Charles's cheeks, leaving it covered with lipstick, and later, Halliwell told him "you're very sexy" and also pinched his bottom. In November, the British royal family were considered fans of the Spice Girls, including The Prince of Wales and his sons Prince William and Prince Harry. That month, South African President Nelson Mandela said: "These are my heroes. This is one of the greatest moments in my life" in an encounter organised by Prince Charles, who said, "It is the second greatest moment in my life, the first time I met them was the greatest". Prince Charles would later send Halliwell a personal letter "with lots of love" when he heard that she had quit the Spice Girls. In 1998 the video game magazine Nintendo Power created The More Annoying Than the Spice Girls Award, adding: "What could possibly have been more annoying in 1997 than the Spice Girls, you ask?".
Victoria Adams started dating football player David Beckham in late 1997 after they had met at a charity football match. The couple announced their engagement in 1998 and were dubbed "Posh and Becks" by the media, becoming a cultural phenomenon in their own right.
Other brand ventures
Film
The group made their film debut in Spice World with director Bob Spiers. Meant to accompany their sophomore album, the style and content of the movie was in the same vein as the Beatles' films in the 1960s such as A Hard Day's Night. The light-hearted comedy, intended to capture the spirit of the Spice Girls, featured a plethora of stars including Richard E. Grant, Alan Cumming, Roger Moore, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Elton John, Richard O'Brien, Bob Hoskins, Jennifer Saunders, Elvis Costello and Meat Loaf.
Spice World was released in December 1997 and proved to be a hit at the box office, taking in over $100 million worldwide. Despite being a commercial success, the film was widely panned by critics; the movie was nominated for seven awards at the 1999 Golden Raspberry Awards where the Spice Girls collectively won the award for "Worst Actress". Considered a cult classic, several critics have reevaluated the film more positively in the years following its initial release. Since 2014, the Spice Bus, which was driven by Meat Loaf in the film, has been on permanent display at the Island Harbour Marina on the Isle of Wight, England.
Television
The Spice Girls have hosted and starred in various television specials. In November 1997, they became the first pop group to host ITV's An Audience with...; their show featured an all-female audience and was watched by 11.8 million viewers in the UK, one fifth of the country's population. The group hosted the Christmas Day edition of Top of the Pops on BBC One in 1996. The following year, a special Christmas Eve edition of the BBC series was dedicated to them, titled "Spice Girls on Top of the Pops". The group have also starred in numerous MTV television specials, including Spice Girls: Girl Power A–Z and MTV Ultrasound, Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice. Their concerts have also been broadcast in various countries: Girl Power! Live in Istanbul (1997) was broadcast on ITV, Showtime, and Fox Family Channel; Spiceworld Tour (1998) was broadcast on Sky Box Office; and Christmas in Spiceworld (1999) was broadcast on Sky One and Fox Kids, among others.
The group have starred in television commercials for brands such as Pepsi, Polaroid, Walkers, Impulse and Tesco. They have also released a few official documentary films, including Spice Girls in America: A Tour Story (1999) and Giving You Everything (2007). Making-of documentaries for their film Spice World were broadcast on Channel 5 and MTV. The Spice Girls have been the subject of numerous unofficial documentary films, commissioned and produced by individuals independent of the group, including Raw Spice (2001) and Seven Days That Shook the Spice Girls (2002). The group have had episodes dedicated to them in several music biography series, including VH1's Behind the Music, E! True Hollywood Story and MTV's BioRhythm.
Merchandise and sponsorship deals
In the late 1990s, the Spice Girls were involved in a prolific marketing phenomenon that saw them become the most merchandised group in music history. They negotiated lucrative endorsement deals with numerous brands, including Pepsi, Asda, Cadbury and Target, which led to accusations of overexposure and "selling out". The group was estimated to have earned over £300 million ($500 million) from their marketing endeavours in 1997 alone. Their subsequent reunion concert tours saw the Spice Girls launch new sponsorship and advertising campaigns with the likes of Tesco and Victoria's Secret in 2007, and Walkers and Mr. Men in 2019.
Viva Forever!
Viva Forever! is a jukebox musical written by Jennifer Saunders, produced by Judy Craymer and directed by Paul Garrington. Based on the songs of the Spice Girls, the musical ran at the Piccadilly Theatre in the West End from 11 December 2012 to 29 June 2013.
Career records and achievements
As a group, the Spice Girls have received a number of notable awards, including five Brit Awards, three American Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, three MTV Europe Music Awards, one MTV Video Music Award and three World Music Awards. They have also been recognised for their songwriting achievements with two Ivor Novello Awards. In 2000, they received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, making them the youngest recipients of the Lifetime Achievement award whose previous winners include Elton John, the Beatles and Queen.
The Spice Girls are the biggest-selling British act of the 1990s, having comfortably outsold all of their peers including Oasis and the Prodigy. They are, by some estimates, the biggest-selling girl group of all time. They have sold 100 million records worldwide, achieving certified sales of 13 million albums in Europe, 14 million records in the US and 2.4 million in Canada. The group achieved the highest-charting debut for a UK group on the Billboard Hot 100 at number five with "Say You'll Be There". They are also the first British band since the Rolling Stones in 1975 to have two top-ten albums in the US Billboard 200 albums chart at the same time (Spice and Spiceworld). In addition to this, the Spice Girls also achieved the highest-ever annual earnings by an all-female group with an income of £29.6 million (approximately US$49 million) in 1998. In 1999, they ranked sixth in Forbes''' inaugural Celebrity 100 Power Ranking, which made them the highest-ranking musicians.
They produced a total of nine number one singles in the UK—tied with ABBA behind Take That (eleven), The Shadows (twelve), Madonna (thirteen), Westlife (fourteen), Cliff Richard (fourteen), the Beatles (seventeen) and Elvis Presley (twenty-one). The group had three consecutive Christmas number-one singles in the UK ("2 Become 1", 1996; "Too Much", 1997; "Goodbye", 1998); they only share this record with the Beatles and LadBaby. Their first single, "Wannabe", is the most successful song released by an all-female group. Debuting on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart at number eleven, it is also the highest-ever-charting debut by a British band in the US, beating the previous record held by the Beatles for "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and the joint highest entry for a debut act, tying with Alanis Morissette.Spice is the 18th-biggest-selling album of all time in the UK with over 3 million copies sold, and topped the charts for 15 non-consecutive weeks, the most by a female group in the UK. It is also the biggest-selling album of all time by a girl group, with sales of over 23 million copies worldwide. Spiceworld shipped 7 million copies in just two weeks, including 1.4 million in Britain alone—the largest-ever shipment of an album over 14 days. They are also the first act (and so far only female act) to have their first six singles ("Wannabe", "Say You'll Be There", "2 Become 1", "Mama"/"Who Do You Think You Are", "Spice Up Your Life" and "Too Much") make number one on the UK charts. Their run was broken by "Stop", which peaked at number two in March 1998.
The Spice Girls have the highest-grossing concert tours by an all-female group across two decades (2000–2020), grossing nearly $150 million in ticket sales across 58 shows. They are also the most-merchandised group in music history. Their Spice Girls dolls are the best-selling celebrity dolls of all time with sales of over 11 million; the dolls were the second-best-selling toy, behind the Teletubbies, of 1998 in the US according to the trade publication Playthings. Their film, Spice World, broke the record for the highest-ever weekend debut on Super Bowl weekend (25 January 1998) in the US, with box office sales of $10,527,222. Spice World topped the UK video charts on its first week of release, selling over 55,000 copies on its first day in stores and 270,000 copies in the first week."'Spiceworld' To Shake Up U.K. Vid Chart?". Billboard. 28 May 1998. Retrieved 14 March 2006.
In popular culture
In February 1997, the "Sugar Lumps", a satirical version of the Spice Girls played by Kathy Burke, Dawn French, Llewella Gideon, Lulu and Jennifer Saunders, filmed a video for British charity Comic Relief. The video starts with the Sugar Lumps as schoolgirls who really want to become pop stars like the Spice Girls, and ends with them joining the group on stage, while dancing and lip-syncing the song "Who Do You Think You Are". The Sugar Lumps later joined the Spice Girls during their live performance of the song on Comic Relief's telethon Red Nose Day event in March 1997. In January 1998, a fight between animated versions of the Spice Girls and pop band Hanson was the headlining matchup in MTV's claymation parody Celebrity Deathmatch Deathbowl '98 special that aired during the Super Bowl XXXII halftime. The episode became the highest-rated special in the network's history and MTV turned the concept into a full-fledged television series soon after.
In March 2013, the Glee characters Brittany (Heather Morris), Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz), Marley (Melissa Benoist), Kitty (Becca Tobin) and Unique (Alex Newell) dressed up as the Spice Girls and performed the song "Wannabe" on the 17th episode of the fourth season of the show. In April 2016, the Italian variety show Laura & Paola on Rai 1 featured the hosts, Grammy Award-winning singer Laura Pausini and actress Paola Cortellesi, and their guests, Francesca Michielin, Margherita Buy and Claudia Gerini, dressed up as the Spice Girls to perform a medley of Spice Girls songs as part of a 20th-anniversary tribute to the band. In December 2016, the episode "Who Needs Josh When You Have a Girl Group?" of the musical comedy-drama series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend featured cast members Rachel Bloom, Gabrielle Ruiz and Vella Lovell performing an original song titled "Friendtopia", a parody of the Spice Girls' songs and "girl power" philosophy. Rapper Aminé's 2017 single "Spice Girl" is a reference to the group, and the song's music video includes an appearance by Brown. Other songs that reference the Spice Girls include "Grigio Girls" by Lady Gaga, "My Name Is" by Eminem, "Polka Power!" (a reference to "Girl Power") by "Weird Al" Yankovic, "Playinwitme" by Kyle and Kehlani, "Kinky" by Kesha, and "Spicy" by Diplo, Herve Pagez and Charli XCX.
In the late 1990s, Spice Girls parodies appeared in various American sketch comedy shows including Saturday Night Live (SNL), Mad TV and All That. A January 1998 episode of SNL featured cast members, including guest host Sarah Michelle Gellar, impersonating the Spice Girls for two "An Important Message About ..." sketches. In September 1998, the show once again featured cast members, including guest host Cameron Diaz, impersonating the Spice Girls for a sketch titled "A Message from the Spice Girls". Nickelodeon's All That had recurring sketches with the fictional boy band "The Spice Boys", featuring cast members Nick Cannon as "Sweaty Spice", Kenan Thompson as "Spice Cube", Danny Tamberelli as "Hairy Spice", Josh Server as "Mumbly Spice", and a skeleton prop as "Dead Spice".
Parodies of the Spice Girls have also appeared in major advertising campaigns. In 1997, Jack in the Box, an American fast-food chain restaurant, sought to capitalise on "Spice mania" in America by launching a national television campaign using a fictional girl group called the Spicy Crispy Chicks (a take off of the Spice Girls) to promote the new Spicy Crispy Sandwich. The Spicy Crispy Chicks concept was used as a model for another successful advertising campaign called the 'Meaty Cheesy Boys'.*
At the 1998 Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show, one of the Spicy Crispy Chicks commercials won the top award for humour. In 2001, prints adverts featuring a parody of the Spice Girls, along with other British music icons consisting of the Beatles, Elton John, Freddie Mercury and the Rolling Stones, were used in the Eurostar national advertising campaign in France. The campaign won the award for Best Outdoor Campaign at the French advertising CDA awards. In September 2016, an Apple Music advert premiered during the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards that featured comedian James Corden dressed up as various music icons including all five of the Spice Girls.
Other notable groups of people have been labelled as some variation of a play-on-words on the Spice Girls' name as an allusion to the band. In 1997, the term "Spice Boys" emerged in the British media as a term coined to characterise the "pop star" antics and lifestyles off the pitch of a group of Liverpool F.C. footballers that includes Jamie Redknapp, David James, Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler and Jason McAteer. The label has stuck with these footballers ever since, with John Scales, one of the so-called Spice Boys, admitting in 2015 that, "We're the Spice Boys and it's something we have to accept because it will never change." In the Philippines, the "Spice Boys" tag was given to a group of young Congressmen of the House of Representatives who initiated the impeachment of President Joseph Estrada in 2001. The Australian/British string quartet Bond were dubbed by the international press as the "Spice Girls of classical music" during their launch in 2000 due to their "sexy" image and classical crossover music that incorporated elements of pop and dance music. A spokeswoman for the quartet said in response to the comparisons, "In fact, they are much better looking than the Spice Girls. But we don't welcome comparisons. The Bond girls are proper musicians; they have paid their dues." The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) doubles team of Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova, two-time Grand Slam and two-time WTA Finals Doubles champions, dubbed themselves the "Spice Girls of tennis" in 1999. Hingis and Kournikova, along with fellow WTA players Venus and Serena Williams, were also labelled the "Spice Girls of tennis", then later the "Spite Girls", by the media in the late 1990s due to their youthfulness, popularity and brashness.
Wax sculptures of the Spice Girls are currently on display at the famed Madame Tussaud's New York wax museum. The sculptures of the Spice Girls (sans Halliwell) were first unveiled in December 1999, making them the first pop band to be modelled as a group since the Beatles in 1964 at the time. A sculpture of Halliwell was later made in 2002, and was eventually displayed with the other Spice Girls' sculptures after Halliwell reunited with the band in 2007. Since 2008, Spiceworld: The Exhibition, a travelling exhibition of around 5,000 Spice Girls memorabilia and merchandise, has been shown in museums across the UK. The Spice Girls Exhibition, a collection of over 1,000 Spice Girls items owned by Alan Smith-Allison, was held at the Trakasol Cultural Centre in Limassol Marina, Cyprus in the summer of 2016. Wannabe 1996–2016: A Spice Girls Art Exhibition, an exhibition of Spice Girls-inspired art, was held at The Ballery in Berlin in 2016 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the group's debut single, "Wannabe".
Discography
Spice (1996)
Spiceworld (1997)
Forever'' (2000)
Concerts
Girl Power! Live in Istanbul (1997)
Spiceworld Tour (1998)
Christmas in Spiceworld Tour (1999)
The Return of the Spice Girls Tour (2007–08)
Spice World – 2019 Tour (2019)
Members
Victoria Beckham (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012)
Melanie Brown (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Emma Bunton (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Melanie Chisholm (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2018–present)
Geri Halliwell (1994–1998, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Timeline
Publications
Books
Magazines
See also
List of best-selling girl groups
List of awards received by the Spice Girls
Notes
References
Citations
Book references
External links
1994 establishments in England
1994 establishments in the United Kingdom
Brit Award winners
MTV Europe Music Award winners
English pop girl groups
English dance music groups
Dance-pop groups
Teen pop groups
Feminist musicians
Ivor Novello Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Musical groups established in 1994
Musical groups disestablished in 2000
Musical groups reestablished in 2007
Musical groups disestablished in 2008
Musical groups reestablished in 2018
Musical groups from London
Virgin Records artists
World Music Awards winners
English pop music groups
Golden Raspberry Award winners | true | [
"Emel Say (1927 – 17 February 2011) was a Turkish painter. She was the daughter of painter Zehra Say and the aunt of pianist Fazıl Say.\n\nLife\nEmel Say was born in 1927. Her grandfather was a politician, who left the Committee of Union and Progress and opened a dance hall. Her mother Zehra Say was the first woman in modern Turkey to be married at an official wedding. Emel's mind was always on music. When she was fifteen, she received singing classes from Professor Carl Ebert, who had established the Ankara Conservatory. At first, Emel Say wanted to be an opera artist, but she changed her mind when she fell in love with a piece of land in Hatay, southern Turkey. She had to put her interest in music on hold when she married. Her husband Fuat Say, unlike the tolerance that Fuat Say had shown her mother Zehra, did not send Emel to school, nor was this really possible in Hatay at the time. Raising her three sons was the only thing she did until she divorced her husband when she was 30 years old.\n\nAfter her divorce, her interest in music did not come to fruition; her mother got sick, so she had to focus on getting a job and income. She started her work life as the secretary of Fuat Bezmen. She worked for him for around ten years.\n\nShe worked in the United States for about five years.\n\nWhen her mother, the famous painter Zehra Say, went into the later stages of Alzheimer's disease, she was no longer able to continue painting. Zehra made her daughter Emel promise to finish her painting Maui Adası (Island of Maui), which she had started to paint from a postcard Emel had brought back from a trip to Hawaii. She did not know how she could paint. At first, she cried but then she tried to paint and from that point on did not stop. She completed her mother's painting and it was displayed at an exhibition at the Çiçek Bar. There she was discovered by the sculptor Gürdal Duyar who at first asked what had happened to Maui Adası, and then when Emel told him that her mother had insisted she finish it, she tried at it. Duyar expressed to her that she was a natural talent and had been a painter within all along. If it was not for this reassuring encounter she may not have gone into painting at all in her life. She started painting after the age of 60.\n\nTogether with Duyar, who became a close friend of hers and other friends and family, she would often work on paintings and listen to music together late into the night. One of these nights, Duyar made a portrait for one of Fazıl's musician friends starting at midnight and finishing towards the morning as recalled by this friend of Fazıl's.\n\nArt\nShe was a student in the studio of the painter Osman Özal. She, together with the other (former) students, would meet on Wednesdays at the İzmir Art and Sculpture Museum, and work in the studio there. They became known as the \"Group Wednesday\", and held collaborative exhibitions.\n\nShe and Duyar had exhibitions at the CEP Gallery in the time period between 1977 and 1990.\n\nIn 1995, her work, along with the work of Gürdal Duyar, was exhibited in the grand opening exhibition of the Asmalımescit Art Gallery.\n\nTechnique\nShe made many miniatures. One of the techniques she often used was using two different types of paint in the same painting, acrylic and gouache.\n\nExhibitions\n Emel Say painting exhibition, Underground Art Gallery (till 20 May 1992)\n Asmalımescit Art Gallery grand opening exhibition (1995)\n Emel Say painting exhibition, Çatı Sanatevi (till 7 May 2000)\n Emel Say painting exhibition, Underground Art Gallery (till 21 May 2004)\n 9th exhibition, Çiçek Bar (till 18 December 2004)\n Mixed Exhibition of works by Osman Özals students, Dr. Selahattin Akçiçek Culture and Art Center in Konak, İzmir (till 15 April 2012) but extended?\n\nFriends and Family\nShe is proud of how her mother, Zehra Say, even after her marriage, went to school and became an art teacher, which was quite an accomplishment at that time. She is also proud of her father Fuat Say for supporting his wife, her mother. Say's uncle's grandson, Fazıl Say, did make a career of his musical talent. When talking about him, she said that he is \"A Genius!\", \"When he was just four years old, his mother had bought a small organ, like a toy... Fazıl started to play the songs on the radio with this organ. How many times could a composer the likes of him come to this Earth!\"\n\nShe became friends with the poet and writer Gülsüm Cengiz around after her time in the United States. He was visiting her and Zehra at their home and they continued in conversation late into the night, and they learned about the 1960 military coup towards the morning after someone was banging on the door and they turned on the radio.\n\nShe was also close friends with Gürdal Duyar, and they had exhibitions together.\n\nReferences\n\nSources\n\n \n\n1927 births\n2011 deaths\nTurkish women painters\n20th-century Turkish painters\n21st-century Turkish painters\n20th-century Turkish women artists\n21st-century Turkish women artists\nTurkish art",
"Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin is a 1958 studio album by Sarah Vaughan, of the music of George Gershwin.\n\nVaughan would release another all-Gershwin album, Gershwin Live!, in 1982.\n\nTrack listing\n \"Isn't It a Pity?\" – 3:53\n \"Of Thee I Sing\" – 3:10\n \"I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise\" (Buddy De Sylva, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin) – 2:39\n \"Someone to Watch over Me\" – 3:58\n \"Bidin' My Time\" – 3:01\n \"The Man I Love\" – 3:34\n \"How Long Has This Been Going On?\" – 3:58\n \"My One and Only (What Am I Gonna Do?)\" – 3:13\n \"Lorelei\" – 2:32\n \"I've Got a Crush on You\" – 4:00\n \"Summertime\" (G. Gershwin, I. Gershwin, DuBose Heyward) – 2:51\n \"Aren't You Kinda Glad We Did?\" – 3:27\n \"They All Laughed\" – 2:23\n \"Looking For a Boy\" – 3:38\n \"He Loves and She Loves\" – 3:24\n \"My Man's Gone Now\" (G. Gershwin, I. Gershwin, Heyward) – 4:22\n \"I Won't Say I Will\" (DeSylva, G. Gershwin, I. Gershwin) – 3:24\n \"A Foggy Day\" – 3:24\n \"Let's Call the Whole Thing Off\" – 2:22\n \"Things Are Looking Up\" – 3:33\n \"Do It Again\" (DeSylva, I. Gershwin) – 3:13\n \"Love Walked In\" – 3:06\n 1999 Cd reissue bonus tracks not included on the original 1958 release:\n \"Of Thee I Sing\" – 3:23\n \"Summertime\" \t\n \"Things Are Looking Up\" – 3:21\n \"I Won't Say I Will\" (Buddy DeSylva, G. Gershwin, I. Gershwin) – 0:18\n \"I Won't Say I Will\" – 3:21\n \"I Won't Say I Will\" – 1:21\n \"I Won't Say I Will\" – 2:50\n \"I Won't Say I Will\" – 7:49\n \"Of Thee I Sing\" – 1:35\n \"Of Thee I Sing\" – 2:25\n \"Of Thee I Sing\" – 2:16\n \"Of Thee I Sing\" – 4:02\n \"My One and Only (What Am I Gonna Do?)\" – 1:47\n \"My One and Only (What Am I Gonna Do?)\" – 3:11\n \"My One and Only (What Am I Gonna Do?)\" – 4:34\n\nAll songs composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, unless otherwise indicated.\n\nPersonnel \n Sarah Vaughan – vocals\n Hal Mooney – arranger\n\nReferences\n\n1958 albums\nSarah Vaughan albums\nAlbums arranged by Hal Mooney\nEmArcy Records albums\nAlbums produced by Bob Shad"
]
|
[
"Spice Girls",
"Girl power",
"What was Girl power?",
"phrase \"girl power\" put a name to a social phenomenon, but the slogan was met with mixed reactions.",
"What were the reactions it was met with?",
"message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women, and it emphasised the importance of strong and loyal friendship among females.",
"Did anyone dislike the message?",
"some critics dismissed it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic, while others took issue with the emphasis on physical appearance,",
"What was the appearance issue?",
"concerned about the potential impact on self-conscious and/or impressionable youngsters.",
"Around what year was girl power of influence?",
"I don't know.",
"What else did you find interesting in this section?",
"\"What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were,",
"What types of things made them so unique?",
"Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?\"",
"What else did you find interesting in this section?",
"Blake Lively dedicated her \"Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress\" award to \"girl power\" in her acceptance speech, and credited the Spice Girls, saying:",
"What did she say?",
"they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were, and that was my first introduction into girl power.\""
]
| C_fe6b19634b6e4d3fa1e9cb3ceb5cbec3_0 | When did that happen? | 10 | When did her introduction into girl power happen? | Spice Girls | The phrase "girl power" put a name to a social phenomenon, but the slogan was met with mixed reactions. The phrase was a label for the particular facet of post classical neo-feminist empowerment embraced by the band: that a sensual, feminine appearance and equality between the sexes need not be mutually exclusive. This concept was by no means original in the pop world: both Madonna and Bananarama had employed similar outlooks. The phrase itself had also appeared in a few songs by British girl groups and bands since at least 1987; most notably, it was the name of British pop duo Shampoo's 1996 single and album, later credited by Halliwell as the inspiration for the Spice Girls' mantra. However, it was not until the emergence of the Spice Girls in 1996 with "Wannabe", that the concept of "girl power" exploded onto the common consciousness. The phrase was regularly uttered by all five members--although most closely associated with Halliwell--and was often delivered with a peace sign. The slogan also featured on official Spice Girls merchandise and on some of the outfits the group members wore. The Spice Girls' version was distinctive. Its message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women, and it emphasised the importance of strong and loyal friendship among females. In all, the focused, consistent presentation of "girl power" formed the centrepiece of their appeal as a band. Some commentators credit the Spice Girls with reinvigorating mainstream feminism--popularized as "girl power"--in the 1990s, with their mantra serving as a gateway to feminism for their young fans. On the other hand, some critics dismissed it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic, while others took issue with the emphasis on physical appearance, concerned about the potential impact on self-conscious and/or impressionable youngsters. Regardless, the phrase became a cultural phenomenon, adopted as the mantra for millions of girls and even making it into the Oxford English Dictionary. In summation of the concept, author Ryan Dawson said, "The Spice Girls changed British culture enough for Girl Power to now seem completely unremarkable." The Spice Girls' debut single "Wannabe" has been hailed as an "iconic girl power anthem". In 2016, the United Nations' Global Goals "#WhatIReallyReallyWant" campaign filmed a global remake of the original music video for "Wannabe" to highlight gender inequality issues faced by women across the world. The video, which was launched on YouTube and ran in movie theatres internationally, featured British girl group M.O, Canadian "viral sensation" Taylor Hatala, Nigerian-British singer Seyi Shay and Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez lip-syncing to the song in various locations around the world. In response to the remake, Beckham said, "How fabulous is it that after 20 years the legacy of the Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?" At the 43rd People's Choice Awards in January 2017, American actress Blake Lively dedicated her "Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress" award to "girl power" in her acceptance speech, and credited the Spice Girls, saying: "What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were, and that was my first introduction into girl power." CANNOTANSWER | At the 43rd People's Choice Awards in January 2017, | The Spice Girls are a British girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Melanie Brown, also known as Mel B ("Scary Spice"); Melanie Chisholm, or Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"); Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"); Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"); and Victoria Beckham ("Posh Spice"). With their "girl power" mantra, they redefined the girl-group concept by targeting a young female fanbase. They led the teen pop resurgence of the 1990s, were a major part of the Cool Britannia era, and became pop culture icons of the decade.
The group formed through auditions held by managers Bob and Chris Herbert, who wanted to create a girl group to compete with the British boy bands popular at the time. They signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single "Wannabe" in 1996, which reached number one on the charts of 37 countries. Their debut album, Spice (1996), sold more than 23 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album by a female group in history. The follow-up, Spiceworld (1997) sold more than 14 million copies worldwide. Both albums encapsulated the group's dance-pop style and message of female empowerment, with vocal and songwriting contributions shared equally by the members. In 1997, a film starring the Spice Girls, Spice World, was released; it was a commercial success but received poor reviews.
In May 1998, Halliwell left the Spice Girls, citing exhaustion and creative differences. Forever (2000), the only Spice Girls album without Halliwell, achieved weaker sales. At the end of 2000, the Spice Girls entered a hiatus to concentrate on their solo careers. They reunited for two concert tours, the Return of the Spice Girls (2007–2008) and Spice World (2019), both of which won the Billboard Live Music Award for highest-grossing engagements. Viva Forever!, a musical based on the Spice Girls' music, opened in 2012; it was a critical and commercial failure and closed in 2013.
Measures of the Spice Girls' success include international record sales, iconic symbolism such as Halliwell's Union Jack dress, a major motion picture, Spice World (1997), and the highest-grossing concert tours by an all-female group from 2000 to 2020. Under the guidance of their mentor and manager Simon Fuller, their endorsement deals and merchandise made them one of most successful marketing engines ever, with a global gross income estimated at $500–800 million by May 1998. Their media exposure, according to Music Week writer Paul Gorman, helped usher in an era of celebrity obsession in pop culture.
The Spice Girls have sold 100 million records worldwide, making them the bestselling girl group of all time, one of the bestselling artists, and the most successful British pop act since the Beatles. They received five Brit Awards, three American Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, three MTV Europe Music Awards and one MTV Video Music Award. In 2000, they became the youngest recipients of the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. According to Rolling Stone journalist and biographer David Sinclair, they were the most widely recognised group since the Beatles.
Band history
1994–1996: Formation and early years
In the early 1990s, Bob and Chris Herbert, the father-and-son duo of Heart Management, decided to create a girl group to compete with the boy bands who dominated UK pop music at the time. Together with financier Chic Murphy, they envisioned an act comprising "five strikingly different girls" who would each appeal to a different audience. In February 1994, Heart Management placed an advertisement in the trade paper The Stage asking for singers to audition for an all-female pop band at London's Danceworks studios. Approximately 400 women attended the audition on 4 March 1994. They were placed in groups of 10 and danced a routine to "Stay" by Eternal, followed by solo auditions in which they performed songs of their choice.
After several weeks of deliberation, Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm and Michelle Stephenson were among a dozen or so women who advanced to a second round of auditions in April. Chisholm missed the second audition after coming down with tonsillitis. Despite missing the first round of auditions, Geri Halliwell persuaded the Herberts to let her attend the second. A week after the second audition, Adams, Brown, Halliwell and Stephenson were asked to attend a recall at Nomis Studios in Shepherd's Bush, performing "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" on their own and as a group. Chisholm was also invited as a last-minute replacement for another finalist. The five women were selected for a band initially named "Touch".
The group moved into a three-bedroom house in Maidenhead, Berkshire, and spent most of 1994 practising songs written for them by Bob Herbert's long-time associates John Thirkell and Erwin Keiles. According to Stephenson, the material they were given was "very, very young pop", and none were later used by the Spice Girls. During these first months, the group worked on demos at South Hill Park Recording Studios in Bracknell with producer and studio owner Michael Sparkes and songwriter and arranger Tim Hawes. They were also tasked with choreographing their own dance routines, which they worked on at Trinity Studios in Knaphill, near Woking, Surrey. A few months into the training, Stephenson was fired for a perceived lack of commitment. Heart Management turned to the group's vocal coach, Pepi Lemer, to find a replacement. After Lemer's first recommendation declined the offer, Lemer recommended her former pupil, Emma Bunton, who auditioned for the Herberts and joined as the fifth member.
As their training continued, the group performed small showcases for a few of Heart Management's associates. On one such performance, the group added a rap section they had written to one of Thirkell and Keiles' songs. Keiles was furious with the changes and insisted they learn to write songs properly. The group began professional songwriting lessons; during one session, they wrote a song called "Sugar and Spice" with Hawes, which inspired them to change their band name to "Spice".
By late 1994, the group felt insecure as they still did not have an official contract with Heart Management, and were frustrated with the management team's direction. They persuaded Herbert to set up a showcase performance for the group in front of industry writers, producers and A&R men in December 1994 at the Nomis Studios, where they received an "overwhelmingly positive" reaction. The Herberts quickly set about creating a binding contract for them. Encouraged by the reaction they had received at the Nomis showcase, all five members refused to sign the contracts on legal advice from, among others, Adams's father. The following month, in January, the group began songwriting sessions with Richard Stannard, whom they had impressed at the showcase, and his partner Matt Rowe. It was during these sessions that the songs "Wannabe" and "2 Become 1" were written.
In March 1995, the group parted from Heart Management due to their frustration with the company's unwillingness to listen to their visions and ideas. To ensure they kept control of their own work, they allegedly stole the master recordings of their discography from the management offices. The next day, the group tracked down Sheffield-based songwriter Eliot Kennedy, who had been present at the Nomis showcase, and persuaded him to work with them. Through contacts they had made at the showcase, they were also introduced to record producers Absolute. With Kennedy and Absolute's help, the group spent the next several weeks writing and recording demos for the majority of the songs that would be released on their debut album, including "Say You'll Be There" and "Who Do You Think You Are". Their demos caught the attention of Simon Fuller of 19 Entertainment, who signed them to his management company in May 1995.
By this point, industry buzz around the Spice Girls had grown significantly and the major record labels in London and Los Angeles were keen to sign them. After a bidding war, they signed a five-album deal with Virgin Records in July 1995. Fuller took them on an extensive promotional tour in Los Angeles, where they met with studio executives in the hopes of securing film and television opportunities. Their name was also changed to "Spice Girls" as a rapper was already using the name "Spice". The new name was chosen because the group noticed industry people often referred to them derisively as "the 'Spice' girls". The group continued to write and record tracks for their debut album.
1996–1997: Spice and breakthrough
On 7 July 1996, the Spice Girls released their debut single "Wannabe" in the United Kingdom. In the weeks before the release, the music video for "Wannabe" received a trial airing on music channel The Box. The video was an instant hit, and was aired up to seventy times a week at its peak. After the video was released, the Spice Girls had their first live broadcast TV slot on LWT's Surprise Surprise. Earlier in May, the group had conducted their first music press interview with Paul Gorman, the contributing editor of trade paper Music Week, at Virgin Records' Paris headquarters. His piece recognised that the Spice Girls were about to institute a change in the charts away from Britpop and towards out-and-out pop. He wrote: "JUST WHEN BOYS with guitars threaten to rule pop life—Damon's all over Smash Hits, Ash are big in Big! and Liam can't move for tabloid frenzy—an all-girl, in-yer-face pop group have arrived with enough sass to burst that rockist bubble." "Wannabe" entered the UK Singles Chart at number three before moving up to number one the following week and staying there for seven weeks. The song proved to be a global hit, hitting number one in 37 countries, including four consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, and becoming not only the biggest-selling debut single by an all-female group but also the biggest-selling single by an all-female group of all time.
Riding a wave of publicity and hype, the group released their next singles in the UK and Europe; in October "Say You'll Be There" was released topping the charts at number one for two weeks. "2 Become 1" was released in December, becoming their first Christmas number one and selling 462,000 copies in its first week, making it the fastest-selling single of the year. The two tracks continued the group's remarkable sales, giving them three of the top five biggest-selling songs of 1996 in the UK. In November 1996, the Spice Girls released their debut album Spice in Europe. The success was unprecedented and drew comparisons to Beatlemania, leading the press to dub it "Spicemania" and the group the "Fab Five". In seven weeks Spice had sold 1.8 million copies in Britain alone, making the Spice Girls the fastest-selling British act since the Beatles. In total, the album sold over 3 million copies in Britain, the biggest-selling album of all time in the UK by a female group, certified 10× Platinum, and peaked at number one for fifteen non-consecutive weeks. In Europe the album became the biggest-selling album of 1997 and was certified 8× Platinum by the IFPI for sales in excess of 8 million copies.
That same month, the Spice Girls attracted a crowd of 500,000 when they switched on the Christmas lights in Oxford Street, London. At the same time, Simon Fuller started to set up multi-million dollar sponsorship deals for the Spice Girls with Pepsi, Walkers, Impulse, Cadbury and Polaroid. The group ended 1996 winning three trophies at the Smash Hits awards at the London Arena, including best video for "Say You'll Be There". In January 1997, "Wannabe" was released in the United States. The single proved to be a catalyst in helping the Spice Girls break into the notoriously difficult US market when it debuted on the Hot 100 Chart at number eleven. At the time, this was the highest-ever debut by a non-American act, beating the previous record held by the Beatles for "I Want to Hold Your Hand", and the joint highest entry for a debut act alongside Alanis Morissette's "Ironic". "Wannabe" reached number one in the US for four weeks. In February, Spice was released in the US, and became the biggest-selling album of 1997 in the US, peaking at number one, and was certified 7× Platinum by the RIAA for sales in excess of 7.4 million copies. The album was also included in the Top 100 Albums of All Time list by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) based on US sales. In total, the album sold over 23 million copies worldwide becoming the biggest-selling album in pop music history by an all-female group.
Later that month, the Spice Girls performed "Who Do You Think You Are" to open the 1997 Brit Awards, with Geri Halliwell wearing a Union Jack mini-dress that became one of pop history's most famed outfits. At the ceremony, the group won two Brit Awards; Best British Video for "Say You'll Be There" and Best British Single for "Wannabe". In March 1997, a double A-side of "Mama"/"Who Do You Think You Are" was released in Europe, the last from Spice, which once again saw them at number one, making the Spice Girls the first group since the Jackson 5 to have four consecutive number one hits.
Girl Power!, the Spice Girls' first book and manifesto was launched later that month at the Virgin Megastore. It sold out its initial print run of 200,000 copies within a day, and was eventually translated into more than 20 languages. In April, One Hour of Girl Power was released; it sold 500,000 copies in the UK between April and June to become the best-selling pop video ever, and was eventually certified 13x Platinum. In May, Spice World, a film starring the group, was announced by the Spice Girls at the Cannes Film Festival. The group also performed their first live UK show for the Prince's Trust benefit concert. At the show, they breached royal protocol when Brown and then Halliwell planted kisses on Prince Charles' cheeks and pinched his bottom, causing controversy. That same month, Virgin released Spice Girls Present... The Best Girl Power Album... Ever!, a multi-artist compilation album compiled by the group. The album peaked at number two on the UK Compilation Chart and was certified Gold by the BPI. At the Ivor Novello Awards, the group won International Hit of the Year and Best-Selling British Single awards for "Wannabe".
Spice World began filming in June and wrapped in August. The film was to be set to the songs from the group's second studio album, but no songs had been written when filming began. The group thus had to do all the songwriting and recording at the same time as they were filming Spice World, resulting in a grueling schedule that left them exhausted. Among the songs that were written during this period was "Stop", the lyrics for which cover the group's frustrations with being overworked by their management. In September, the Spice Girls performed "Say You'll Be There" at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and won Best Dance Video for "Wannabe". The MTV Awards came five days after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, with tributes paid to her throughout the ceremony. Chisholm stated, "We'd like to dedicate this award to Princess Diana, who is a great loss to our country." At the 1997 Billboard Music Awards, the group won four awards for New Artist of the Year, Billboard Hot 100 Singles Group of the Year, Billboard 200 Group of the Year and Billboard 200 Album of the Year for Spice.
1997–1998: Groundbreaking success, Spiceworld and Halliwell's departure
In October 1997, the Spice Girls released the first single from Spiceworld, "Spice Up Your Life". It entered the UK Singles Chart at number one, making it the group's fifth consecutive number-one single. That same month, the group performed their first live major concert to 40,000 fans in Istanbul, Turkey. Later, they launched the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal, then travelled to South Africa to meet Nelson Mandela, who announced, "These are my heroes." In November, the Spice Girls released their second album, Spiceworld. It set a new record for the fastest-selling album when it shipped seven million copies over the course of two weeks. Gaining favourable reviews, the album went on to sell over 10 million copies in Europe, Canada, and the United States combined, and 14 million copies worldwide. Criticised in the United States for releasing the album just nine months after their debut there, which gave the group two simultaneous Top 10 albums in the Billboard album charts, and suffering from over-exposure at home, the Spice Girls began to experience a media backlash. The group was criticised for the number of sponsorship deals signed—over twenty in total—and they began to witness diminishing international chart positions. Nevertheless, the Spice Girls remained the biggest-selling pop group of both 1997 and 1998.
On 7 November 1997, the group performed "Spice Up Your Life" at the MTV Europe Music Awards, and won the Best Group award. The morning of the performance, the Spice Girls had also fired their manager Simon Fuller and took over the running of the group themselves. To ensure a smooth transition, Halliwell allegedly stole a mobile phone from Fuller's assistant that contained the group's upcoming schedule and Fuller's business contacts. The firing was front-page news around the world. Many commentators speculated that Fuller had been the true mastermind behind the group, and that this was the moment when the band lost their impetus and direction. Later that month, the Spice Girls became the first pop group to host ITV's An Audience with...; their show was watched by 11.8 million viewers in the UK, one fifth of the country's population. In December 1997, the second single from Spiceworld, "Too Much", was released, becoming the group's second Christmas number one and their sixth consecutive number-one single in the UK. December also saw the group launch their film Spice World. The world premiere at the Empire Theatre in Leicester Square was attended by celebrities including Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry. The film was a commercial success but received poor reviews. The group ended 1997 as the year's most played artist on American radio.
In January 1998, the Spice Girls attended the US premiere of Spice World at the Mann's Chinese Theatre. At the 1998 American Music Awards a few days later, the group won the awards for Favorite Album, Favorite New Artist and Favorite Group in the pop/rock category. In February, they won a special award for overseas success at the 1998 Brit Awards, with combined sales of over 45 million albums and singles worldwide. That night, the group performed their next single, "Stop", their first not to reach number one in United Kingdom, entering at number two. In early 1998, the Spice Girls embarked on the Spiceworld Tour, starting in Dublin, Ireland, on 24 February 1998 before moving to mainland Europe and North America, and then returning to the United Kingdom for two gigs at Wembley Stadium. Later that year, the Spice Girls were invited to sing on the official England World Cup song "(How Does It Feel to Be) On Top of the World", the last song recorded with Halliwell until 2007.
On 31 May 1998, Halliwell announced her departure from the Spice Girls through her solicitor. The announcement was preceded by days of frenzied press speculation after Halliwell missed two concerts in Norway and was absent from the group's performance on The National Lottery Draws. Halliwell first cited creative differences, then later said that she was suffering from exhaustion and disillusionment, although rumours of a power struggle with Brown as the reason for her departure were circulated by the press. Halliwell's departure from the group shocked fans and became one of the biggest entertainment news stories of the year, making news headlines the world over. The four remaining members were adamant that the group would carry on. The North American leg of the Spiceworld Tour went on as planned, beginning in West Palm Beach, Florida, on 15 June, and grossing $60 million over 40 sold-out performances. The tour was accompanied by a documentary film titled Spice Girls in America: A Tour Story. "Viva Forever" was the last single released from Spiceworld and gave the group their seventh number one in the United Kingdom. The video for the single was made before Halliwell's departure and features all five members in stop-motion animated form.
1998–2000: Forever and hiatus
While on tour in the United States, the group continued to write and record new material, releasing a new song, "Goodbye", before Christmas in 1998. The song was seen as a tribute to Geri Halliwell, although parts of it had originally been written when Halliwell was still a part of the group, and when it topped the UK Singles Chart it became their third consecutive Christmas number one—equalling the record previously set by the Beatles. In November, Bunton and Chisholm appeared at the 1998 MTV Europe Music Awards without their other bandmates, accepting two awards on behalf of the Spice Girls for Best Pop Act and Best Group. That same year, Brown and Adams announced they were both pregnant. Brown was married to dancer Jimmy Gulzer and became known as Mel G for a brief period; she gave birth to daughter Phoenix Chi in February 1999. Adams gave birth a month after to son Brooklyn, whose father was then Manchester United footballer David Beckham; later that year, she married Beckham in a highly publicised wedding in Ireland.
From 1998 onwards, the Spice Girls began to pursue solo careers and by the following year, Brown, Bunton, Chisholm, and former member Halliwell, had all released music as solo artists. The group returned to the studio in August 1999 after an eight-month recording break to start work on their third and last studio album. The album's sound was initially more pop-influenced, similar to their first two albums, and included production from Eliot Kennedy. The album's sound took a mature direction when American producers like Rodney Jerkins, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis came on board to collaborate with the group. In December 1999, the Spice Girls embarked on a UK-only tour, Christmas in Spiceworld, in London and Manchester, during which they showcased new songs from the third album. Earlier in the year, the group also recorded the song "My Strongest Suit" for Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida, a concept album which would later go on to become the musical Aida. The group performed again at the 2000 Brit Awards in March, where they received the Lifetime Achievement award. Despite being at the event, Halliwell did not join her former bandmates on stage.
In November 2000, the group released Forever; sporting a new edgier R&B sound, the album received a lukewarm response from critics. In the US, the album peaked at number thirty-nine on the Billboard 200 albums chart. In the UK, the album was released the same week as Westlife's Coast to Coast album and the chart battle was widely reported by the media, with Westlife winning the battle and reaching number one, leaving the Spice Girls at number two. The lead single from Forever, the double A-side "Holler"/"Let Love Lead the Way", became the group's ninth number one single in the UK. However, the song failed to break onto the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart stateside, instead peaking at number seven on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, and at number thirty-one on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The only major performance of the lead single by the group came at the 2000 MTV Europe Music Awards in November. In total, Forever achieved only a fraction of the success of its two best-selling predecessors, selling four million copies. The Spice Girls ceased all promotional activities for the album in December 2000, as they began an indefinite hiatus to concentrate on their solo careers. Publicly, they insisted that the group was not splitting.
2007–2008: Return of the Spice Girls and Greatest Hits
On 28 June 2007, the Spice Girls, including Halliwell, held a press conference at the O2 Arena revealing their intention to reunite for a worldwide concert tour titled the Return of the Spice Girls. The plan to re-form had long been speculated by the media, with previous attempts by the organisers of Live 8 and Concert for Diana to reunite the group as a five-piece falling through. Each member of the group was reportedly paid £10 million ($20 million) to do the reunion tour. Giving You Everything, an official documentary film about the reunion, was directed by Bob Smeaton and first aired on Australia's Fox8 on 16 December 2007, followed by BBC One in the UK on 31 December.
Ticket sales for the first London date of the Return of the Spice Girls tour sold out in 38 seconds. It was reported that over one million people signed up in the UK alone and over five million worldwide for the ticket ballot on the band's official website. Sixteen additional dates in London were added, all selling out within one minute. In the United States, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Jose shows also sold out, prompting additional dates to be added. It was announced that the Spice Girls would be playing dates in Chicago and Detroit and Boston, as well as additional dates in New York to keep up with the demand. The tour opened in Vancouver on 2 December 2007, with group performing to an audience of 15,000 people, singing twenty songs and changing outfits a total of eight times. Along with the tour sellout, the Spice Girls licensed their name and image to Tesco's UK supermarket chain.
The group's comeback single, "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)", was announced as the official Children in Need charity single for 2007 and was released 5 November. The first public appearance on stage by the Spice Girls occurred at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, where they performed two songs, 1998 single "Stop" and the lead single from their greatest hits album, "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)". The show was filmed by CBS on 15 November 2007 for broadcast on 4 December 2007. They also performed both songs live for the BBC Children in Need telethon on 16 November 2007 from Los Angeles. The release of "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)" peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart, making it the group's lowest-charting British single to date. The album peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart. On 1 February 2008, it was announced that due to personal and family commitments their tour would come to an end in Toronto on 26 February 2008, meaning that tour dates in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Cape Town and Buenos Aires were cancelled.
Overall, the 47-date tour was the highest-grossing concert act of 2007–2008, measured as the twelve months ending in April 2008. It produced some $107.2 million in ticket sales and merchandising, with sponsorship and ad deals bringing the total to $200 million. The tour's 17-night sellout stand at the O2 Arena in London was the highest-grossing engagement of the year, netting £16.5 million (US$33 million) and drawing an audience of 256,647, winning the 2008 Billboard Touring Award for Top Boxscore. The group's comeback also netted them several other awards, including the Capital Music Icon Award, the Glamour Award for Best Band, and the Vodafone Live Music Award for Best Live Return, the last of which saw them beat out acts such as Led Zeppelin and the Sex Pistols.
2010–2012: Viva Forever! and London Olympics
At the 2010 Brit Awards, the Spice Girls received a special award for "Best Performance of the 30th Year". The award was for their 1997 Brit Awards performance of "Wannabe" and "Who Do You Think You Are", and was accepted by Halliwell and Brown on behalf of the group.
That year, the group collaborated with Fuller, Judy Craymer and Jennifer Saunders to develop a Spice Girls stage musical, Viva Forever!. Similar to the ABBA musical Mamma Mia!, Viva Forever! used the group's music to create an original story. In June 2012, to promote the musical, the Spice Girls reunited for a press conference at the St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, where music video for "Wannabe" was filmed exactly sixteen years earlier. Viva Forever! premiered at the West End's Piccadilly Theatre in December 2012, with all five Spice Girls in attendance. To promote the musical, the group appeared in the documentary Spice Girls' Story: Viva Forever!, which aired on 24 December 2012 on ITV1. Viva Forever! was panned by critics and closed after seven months, with a loss of at least £5 million.
In August 2012, the Spice Girls reunited to perform a medley of "Wannabe" and "Spice Up Your Life" at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony. Their performance received acclaim, and became the most tweeted moment of the Olympics with over 116,000 tweets per minute on Twitter.
2016–present: Spice World tour and Spice25
On 8 July 2016, Brown, Bunton and Halliwell released a video celebrating the 20th anniversary of "Wannabe" and teased news from them as a three-piece. Beckham and Chisholm opted not to take part but gave the project their blessing. A new song from the three-piece, "Song for Her", was leaked online a few months later in November. The reunion project was cancelled due to Halliwell's pregnancy.
On 24 May 2019, the Spice Girls began the Spice World – 2019 Tour of the UK and Ireland at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland. Beckham declined to join due to commitments regarding her fashion business. Each of the four participating members was reportedly paid £12 million for the tour. The tour concluded with three concerts at London's Wembley Stadium, with the last taking place on 15 June 2019. Over 13 dates, the tour produced 700,000 spectators and earned $78.2 million in ticket sales. The three-night sellout stand at Wembley Stadium was the highest-grossing engagement of the year, drawing an audience of 221,971 and winning the 2019 Billboard Live Music Award for Top Boxscore. Despite sound problems in the early concerts, Anna Nicholson in The Guardian wrote, "As nostalgia tours go, this could hardly have been bettered."
Alongside the tour, the group teamed up with the children's book franchise Mr. Men to create derivative products such as books, cups, bags and coasters. On 13 June 2019, it was reported that Paramount Animation had greenlit an animated Spice Girls film with old and new songs. The project will be produced by Simon Fuller and written by Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith. A director has not been announced.
To mark the 25th anniversary of "Wannabe", an EP was released in July 2021 that included previously unreleased demos. On 29 October, the Spice Girls released Spice25, a deluxe reissue of Spice featuring previously unreleased demos and remixes. The deluxe release saw the album reenter the UK Albums Chart at number five, number three on the UK Official Vinyl Albums Chart Top 40 and number four on the UK Official Physical Albums Chart.
Artistry
Musical style
According to Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the Spice Girls "used dance-pop as a musical base, but they infused the music with a fiercely independent, feminist stance that was equal parts Madonna, post-riot grrrl alternative rock feminism, and a co-opting of the good-times-all-the-time stance of England's new lad culture." Their songs incorporated a variety of genres, which Halliwell described as a "melding" of the group members' eclectic musical tastes, but otherwise kept to mainstream pop conventions. Chisholm said: "We all had different artists that we loved. Madonna was a big influence and TLC; we watched a lot of their videos." A regular collaborator on the group's first two albums was the production duo known as Absolute, made up of Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins. Absolute initially found it difficult to work with the group as the duo was heavily into R&B music at the time, while the Spice Girls according to Wilson were "always very poptastic". Wilson said of the group's musical output: "Their sound was actually not getting R&B quite right."
In his biography of the band, Wannabe: How the Spice Girls Reinvented Pop Fame (2004), Rolling Stone journalist David Sinclair said that the "undeniable artistry" of the group's songs had been overlooked. He said the Spice Girls "instinctively had an ear for a catchy tune" without resorting to the "formula balladry and bland modulations" of 90s boy bands Westlife and Boyzone. He praised their "more sophisticated" second album, Spiceworld, saying: "Peppered with personality, and each conveying a distinctive musical flavour and lyrical theme, these are songs which couldn't sound less 'manufactured,' and which, in several cases, transcend the pop genre altogether."
Lyrical themes
The Spice Girls' lyrics promote female empowerment and solidarity. Given the young age of their target audience, Lucy Jones of The Independent said the Spice Girls' songs were subversive for their time: "The lyrics were active rather than passive: taking, grabbing, laying it down – all the things little girls were taught never to do. 'Stop right now, thank you very much'. 'Who do you think you are?' 'I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want'." Musicologist Nicola Dibben cited "Say You'll Be There" as an example of how the Spice Girls inverted traditional gender roles in their lyrics, depicting a man who has fallen in love and displays too much emotion and a woman who remains independent and in control. The Spice Girls emphasised the importance of sisterhood over romance songs such as "Wannabe", and embraced safe sex in "2 Become 1".
Lauren Bravo, author of What Would the Spice Girls Do?: How the Girl Power Generation Grew Up (2018), found that even when the Spice Girls sang about romance, the message was "cheerfully non-committal", in contrast to the songs about breakups and unrequited love other pop stars were singing at the time. Writing for Bustle, Taylor Ferber praised the female-driven lyrics as ahead of their time, citing the inclusivity and optimism of songs such as "Spice Up Your Life" and the sex-positivity of "Last Time Lover" and "Naked". Ferber concluded: "Between all of their songs about friendship, sex, romance, and living life, a central theme in almost all Spice Girls music was loving yourself first."
Vocal arrangements
Unlike prior pop vocal groups, the Spice Girls shared vocals, rather than having a lead vocalist supported by others. The group did not want any one member to be considered the lead singer, and so each song was divided into one or two lines each, before all five voices harmonised in the chorus. The group faced criticism as this meant that no one voice could stand out, but Sinclair concluded that it "was actually a clever device to ensure that they gained the maximum impact and mileage from their all-in-it-together girl-gang image".
The Spice Girls' former vocal coach, Pepi Lemer, described their individual voices as distinct and easy distinguish, citing the "lightness" of Bunton's voice and the "soulful sound" of Brown's and Chisholm's. Biographer Sean Smith cited Chisholm as the vocalist the group could not do without. Sinclair noted that while Chisholm's ad libs are a distinctive feature of certain Spice Girls songs, the difference in the amount of time her voice was featured over any other member was negligible.
While vocal time was distributed equally, musicologist Nicola Dibben found that there was an "interesting inequality" in the way that vocal styles were distributed within the group, which she felt conformed to certain stereotypes associated with race and socioeconomic background. According to Dibben, most of the declamatory style of singing in the group's singles were performed by Brown, the only black member, and Chisholm, whom Dibben classified as white working class; this was in contrast to the more lyrical sections allotted to Beckham, whom Dibben classified as white middle class.
Songwriting
The Spice Girls did not play instruments, but co-wrote all of their songs. According to their frequent collaborator Richard Stannard, they had two approaches to songwriting: ballads were written in a traditional way with the group sitting around a piano, while songs such as "Wannabe" were the result of tapping into their "mad" energy. Eliot Kennedy, another regular co-writer, said that songwriting sessions with the Spice Girls were "very quick and short". He described his experience working with them:
What I said to them was, "Look, I've got a chorus—check this out." And I'd sing them the chorus and the melody—no lyrics or anything—and straight away five pads and pencils came out and they were throwing lines at us. Ten minutes later, the song was written. Then you go through and refine it. Then later, as you were recording it you might change a few things here and there. But pretty much it was a real quick process. They were confident in what they were doing, throwing it out there.
Absolute's Paul Wilson recalled an experience whereby he and Watkins were responsible for writing the backing track and the group would then write the lyrics. Watkins added: "I wasn't an 18-year-old girl. They always had this weird ability to come up with phrases that you'd never heard of." He said the members would create dance routines at the same time as writing songs, and that they "They knew what they wanted to write about, right from day one. You couldn't force your musical ideas upon them."
From the onset, the Spice Girls established a strict 50–50 split of the publishing royalties between them and their songwriting collaborators. As with their vocal arrangements, they were also adamant on maintaining parity between themselves in the songwriting credits. Sinclair said:
The deal between themselves was a strict five-way split on their share of the songwriting royalties on all songs irrespective of what any one member of the group had (or had not) contributed to any particular song. Apart from ease of administration, this was also a symbolic expression of the unity which was so much part and parcel of the Spice philosophy.
Sinclair identified Halliwell as a major source of ideas for the Spice Girls' songs, including many of the concepts and starting points for the group's songs. Tim Hawes, who worked with the group when they were starting out, said Halliwell's strength was in writing lyrics and pop hooks, and estimated that she was responsible for 60–70% of the lyrics in the songs he worked on. The group's collaborators credit the other members of the group as being more active than Halliwell in constructing the melodies and harmonies of their songs. Matt Rowe, who wrote several songs with the Spice Girls, agreed that Halliwell was particularly good when it came to writing lyrics and credits the lyrics for "Viva Forever" to her. He felt that all five members had contributed equally to the songwriting.
Cultural impact and legacy
Pop music resurgence and girl group boom
The Spice Girls broke onto the music scene at a time when alternative rock, hip-hop and R&B dominated global music charts. In the group's first ever interview in May 1996, Halliwell told Music Week: "We want to bring some of the glamour back to pop, like Madonna had when we were growing up. Pop is about fantasy and escapism, but there's so much bullshit around at the moment." The modern pop phenomenon that the Spice Girls created by targeting early members of Generation Y was credited with changing the music landscape by reviving the pop music genre, bringing about the global wave of late-1990s and early-2000s teen pop acts such as the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and NSYNC.
The Spice Girls have also been credited with paving the way for the girl groups and female pop singers that have come after them. Unlike previous girl groups such as the Andrews Sisters whose target market was male record buyers, the Spice Girls redefined the girl group concept by going after a young female fanbase instead. In the UK, they are further credited for disrupting the then male-dominated pop music scene. Prior to the Spice Girls, girl groups such as Bananarama have had hit singles in the UK but their album sales were generally underwhelming. The accepted wisdom within the British music industry at the time was that an all-girl pop group would not work because both girls and boys would find the concept too threatening. Teen magazines such as Smash Hits and Top of the Pops initially refused to feature the Spice Girls on the assumption that a girl group would not appeal to their female readership. The massive commercial breakthrough of the Spice Girls turned the tide, leading to an unprecedented boom of new girl groups in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
As managers and record labels scrambled to find the next Spice Girls, around 20 new girl groups were launched in the UK in 1999, followed by another 35 the next year. Groups that emerged during this period include All Saints, B*Witched, Atomic Kitten, Girl Thing, Girls@Play, Girls Aloud and the Sugababes, all hoping to emulate the Spice Girls' success. Outside of the UK and Ireland, girl groups such as New Zealand's TrueBliss, Australia's Bardot, Germany's No Angels, US's Cheetah Girls, as well as South Korea's Baby Vox and f(x) were also modelled after the Spice Girls.
Twenty-first-century girl groups continue to cite the Spice Girls as a major source of influence, including the Pussycat Dolls, 2NE1, Girls' Generation, Little Mix, Fifth Harmony, and Haim. Solo female artists who have been similarly influenced by the group include Jess Glynne, Foxes, Alexandra Burke, Charli XCX, Rita Ora, Billie Eilish, and Beyoncé. During her 2005 "Reflections" concert series, Filipina superstar Regine Velasquez performed a medley of five Spice Girls songs as a tribute to the band she says were a major influence on her music. Danish singer-songwriter MØ decided to pursue music after watching the Spice Girls on TV as a child, saying in a 2014 interview: "I have them and only them to thank—or to blame—for becoming a singer." 15-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Adele credits the Spice Girls as a major influence in regard to her love and passion for music, stating that "they made me what I am today".
Girl power
"Girl power" was a label for the particular facet of feminist empowerment embraced by the band, emphasising female confidence, individuality and the value of female friendship. The Spice Girls' particular approach to "girl power" was seen as a boisterous, independent, and sex-positive response to "lad culture." The phrase was regularly espoused by all five members—although most closely associated with Halliwell—and was often delivered with a peace sign. The "girl power" slogan was originally coined by US punk band Bikini Kill in 1991 and subsequently appeared in a few songs in the early and mid-1990s; most notably, it was the title of British pop duo Shampoo's 1996 single which Halliwell later said was her introduction to the phrase. Although the term did not originate with them, it was not until the emergence of the Spice Girls in 1996 that "girl power" exploded onto the mainstream consciousness. According to Chisholm, the band were inspired to champion this cause as a result of the sexism they encountered when they were first starting out in the music business. Industry insiders credit Halliwell as being the author of the group's "girl power" manifesto, while Halliwell herself once spoke of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher as being "the pioneer of our ideology."
In all, the focused, consistent presentation of "girl power" formed the centrepiece of their appeal as a band. The Spice Girls' brand of postfeminism was distinctive and its message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women; by being politically neutral, it did not alienate consumers with different allegiances. Virgin's director of press Robert Sandall explained the novelty of the group: "There had never been a group of girls who were addressing themselves specifically to a female audience before." Similarly, John Harlow of The Sunday Times believed it was this "loyal[ty] to their sex" that set the Spice Girls apart from their predecessors, enabling them to win over young female fans where previous girl groups had struggled. While "girl power" put a name to a social phenomenon, it was met with mixed reactions. Some commentators credit the Spice Girls with reinvigorating mainstream feminism—popularised as "girl power"—in the 1990s, with their mantra serving as a gateway to feminism for their young fans. Conversely, critics dismiss it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic and accuse the group of commercialising the social movement. Regardless, "girl power" became a cultural phenomenon, adopted as the mantra for millions of girls and even making it into the Oxford English Dictionary.
In summation of the concept, author Ryan Dawson said, "The Spice Girls changed British culture enough for Girl Power to now seem completely unremarkable."
In keeping with their "girl power" manifesto, the Spice Girls' songs have been praised for their "genuinely empowering messages about friendship and sisterhood," which set them apart from the typical love songs their pop contemporaries were singing. Billboard magazine said their lyrics "demonstrated real, noncompetitive female friendship," adding that the messages the Spice Girls imparted have held up well compared to the lyrics sung by later girl groups such as the Pussycat Dolls. The group's debut single "Wannabe" has been hailed as an "iconic girl power anthem". In 2016, the United Nations launched their #WhatIReallyReallyWant Global Goals campaign by filming a remake of the "Wannabe" music video to highlight gender inequality issues faced by women across the world. The video, which premiered on YouTube and ran in movie theatres internationally, featured British girl group M.O, Canadian "viral sensation" Taylor Hatala, Nigerian-British singer Seyi Shay and Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez lip-syncing to the song in various locations around the world. In response to the remake, Beckham said, "How fabulous is it that after 20 years the legacy of the Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?"
At the 43rd People's Choice Awards in 2017, Blake Lively dedicated her "Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress" award to "girl power" in her acceptance speech; she credited the Spice Girls, saying: "What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were, and that was my first introduction into girl power." In 2018, Rolling Stone named the Spice Girls' "girl power" ethos on The Millennial 100, a list of 100 people, music, cultural touchstones and movements that have shaped the Millennial generation. Writing in 2019 about the group's influence on what she called the "Spice Girls Generation", Caity Weaver of The New York Times concluded, "Marketing ploy or not, 'Girl power' had become a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Cool Britannia
The term "Cool Britannia" became prominent in the media in the 1990s and represented the new political and social climate that was emerging with the advances made by New Labour and the new British prime minister Tony Blair. Coming out of a period of 18 years of Conservative government, Tony Blair and New Labour were seen as young, cool and appealing, a driving force in giving Britain a feeling of euphoria and optimism.
Although by no means responsible for the onset of "Cool Britannia", the arrival of the Spice Girls added to the new image and re-branding of Britain, and underlined the growing world popularity of British, rather than American, pop music. This fact was underlined at the 1997 Brit Awards; the group won two awards but it was Halliwell's iconic red, white and blue Union Jack mini-dress that appeared in media coverage around the world, becoming an enduring image of "Cool Britannia". The Spice Girls were identified as part of another British Invasion of the US, and in 2016, Time acknowledged the Spice Girls as "arguably the most recognisable face" of "Cool Britannia".
Image, nicknames and fashion trends
The Spice Girls' image was deliberately aimed at young girls, an audience of formidable size and potential. Instrumental to their range of appeal within this demographic was their five distinct personalities and styles, which encouraged fans to identify with one member or another. This rejection of a homogeneous group identity was a stark departure from previous groups such as the Beatles and the Supremes, and the Spice Girls model has since been used to style other pop groups such as One Direction.
The band's image was inadvertently bolstered by the nicknames bestowed on them by the British press. After a lunch with the Spice Girls in the wake of "Wannabes release, Peter Loraine, the then-editor of Top of the Pops magazine, and his editorial staff decided to devise nicknames for each member of the group based on their personalities. Loraine explained, "In the magazine we used silly language and came up with nicknames all the time so it came naturally to give them names that would be used by the magazine and its readers; it was never meant to be adopted globally." Shortly after using the nicknames in a magazine feature on the group, Loraine received calls from other British media outlets requesting permission to use them, and before long the nicknames were synonymous with the Spice Girls. Jennifer Cawthron, one of the magazine's staff writers, explained how the nicknames were chosen:
Victoria was 'Posh Spice', because she was wearing a Gucci-style mini dress and seemed pouty and reserved. Emma wore pigtails and sucked a lollipop, so obviously she was 'Baby Spice'. Mel C spent the whole time leaping around in her tracksuit, so we called her 'Sporty Spice'. I named Mel B 'Scary Spice' because she was so shouty. And Geri was 'Ginger Spice', simply because of her hair. Not much thought went into that one.
In a 2020 interview, Chisholm explained that the Spice Girls' image came about unintentionally when, after initially trying to coordinate their outfits as was expected of girl groups at the time, the group decided to just dress in their own individual styles. According to Chisholm, they "never thought too much more of it" until after "Wannabe" was released and the press gave them their nicknames. The group embraced the nicknames and grew into caricatures of themselves, which Chisholm said was "like a protection mechanism because it was like putting on this armour of being this, this character, rather than it actually being you."
Each Spice Girl adopted a distinct, over-the-top trademark style that served as an extension of her public persona.
Victoria Beckham (née Adams): As Posh Spice, she was known for her choppy brunette bob cut, reserved attitude, signature pout and form-fitting designer outfits (often a little black dress).
Melanie Brown: As Scary Spice, she was known for her "in-your-face" attitude, "loud" Leeds accent, pierced tongue and bold manner of dress (which often consisted of leopard-print outfits).
Emma Bunton: As Baby Spice, she was the youngest member of the group, wore her long blonde hair in pigtails, wore pastel (particularly pink) babydoll dresses and platform sneakers, had an innocent smile and a girly girl personality.
Melanie Chisholm: As Sporty Spice, she usually wore a tracksuit paired with athletic shoes, wore her long dark hair in a high ponytail, and sported tattoos coupled with a tough-girl attitude. She also showcased her athletic abilities on stage, such as by performing back handsprings and high kicks.
Geri Halliwell: As Ginger Spice, she was known for her bright red hair, feistiness, "glammed-up sex appeal" and flamboyant stage outfits. She was also identified by the media and those who worked with the Spice Girls as the leader of the group.
The Spice Girls are considered style icons of the 1990s; their image and styles becoming inextricably tied to the band's identity. They are credited with setting 1990s fashion trends such as Buffalo platform shoes and double bun hairstyles. Their styles have inspired other celebrities including Katy Perry, Charli XCX, and Bollywood actress Anushka Ranjan. Lady Gaga performed as Emma Bunton (Baby Spice) in high school talent shows and Emma Stone chose "Emma" name inspired by Emma Bunton after she previously use name Riley Stone. The group have also been noted for the memorable outfits they have worn, the most iconic being Halliwell's Union Jack dress from the 1997 Brit Awards. The dress was sold at a charity auction to the Las Vegas Hard Rock Cafe for £41,320, giving Halliwell the Guinness World Record at that time for the most expensive piece of pop star clothing ever sold.
Commercialisation and celebrity culture
At the height of Spicemania, the Spice Girls were involved in a prolific marketing phenomenon. Under the guidance of their mentor and manager Simon Fuller, they advertised for an unprecedented number of brands and became the most merchandised group in music history. The group were also a frequent feature of the global press. As a result, said biographer David Sinclair, "So great was the daily bombardment of Spice images and Spice product that it quickly became oppressive even to people who were well disposed towards the group." This was parodied in the video for their song "Spice Up Your Life", which depicts a futuristic dystopian city covered in billboards and adverts featuring the group. Similarly, the North American leg of their 1998 Spiceworld Tour introduced a whole new concert revenue stream when it became the first time advertising was used in a pop concert. Overall, the Spice Girls' earnings in the 1990s were on par with that of a medium-sized corporation thanks in large part to their marketing endeavours, with their global gross income estimated at $500–800 million by May 1998.
In his analysis of the group's enduring influence on 21st-century popular culture, John Mckie of the BBC observed that while other stars had used brand endorsements in the past, "the Spice brand was the first to propel the success of the band". Christopher Barrett and Ben Cardew of Music Week credited Fuller's "ground-breaking" strategy of marketing the Spice Girls as a brand with revolutionising the pop music industry, "paving the way for everything from The White Stripes cameras to U2 iPods and Girls Aloud phones." Barrett further noted that pop music and brand synergy have become inextricably linked in the modern music industry, which he attributed to the "remarkable" impact of the Spice Girls. The Guardians Sylvia Patterson also wrote of what she called the group's true legacy: "[T]hey were the original pioneers of the band as brand, of pop as a ruthless marketing ruse, of the merchandising and sponsorship deals that have dominated commercial pop ever since."
The mainstream media embraced the Spice Girls at the peak of their success. The group received regular international press coverage and were constantly followed by paparazzi. Paul Gorman of Music Week said of the media interest in the Spice Girls in the late 1990s: "They inaugurated the era of cheesy celebrity obsession which pertains today. There is lineage from them to the Kardashianisation not only of the music industry, but the wider culture." The Irish Independent Tanya Sweeney agreed that "[t]he vapidity of paparazzi culture could probably be traced back to the Spice Girls' naked ambitions", while Mckie predicted that, "[f]or all that modern stars from Katy Perry to Lionel Messi exploit brand endorsements and attract tabloid coverage, the scale of the Spice Girls' breakthrough in 1996 is unlikely to be repeated—at least not by a music act."
1990s and gay icons
The Spice Girls have been labelled the biggest pop phenomenon of the 1990s due to the international record sales, iconic symbolism, global cultural influence and apparent omnipresence they held during the decade. The group appeared on the cover of the July 1997 edition of Rolling Stone accompanied with the headline, "Spice Girls Conquer the World". At the 2000 Brit Awards, the group received the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award in honour of their success in the global music scene in the 1990s. The iconic symbolism of the Spice Girls in the 1990s is partly attributed to their era-defining outfits, the most notable being the Union Jack dress that Halliwell wore at the 1997 Brit Awards. The dress has achieved iconic status, becoming one of the most prominent symbols of 1990s pop culture. The status of the Spice Girls as 1990s pop culture icons is also attributed to their vast marketing efforts and willingness to be a part of a media-driven world. Their unprecedented appearances in adverts and the media solidified the group as a phenomenon—an icon of the decade and for British music.
A study conducted by the British Council in 2000 found that the Spice Girls were the second-best-known Britons internationally—only behind then-Prime Minister Tony Blair—and the best-known Britons in Asia. The group were featured in VH1's I Love the '90s and the sequel I Love the '90s: Part Deux; the series covered cultural moments from 1990s with the Spice Girls' rise to fame representing the year 1997, while Halliwell quitting the group represented 1998. In 2006, ten years after the release of their debut single, the Spice Girls were voted the biggest cultural icons of the 1990s with 80 per cent of the votes in a UK poll of 1,000 people carried out for the board game Trivial Pursuit, stating that "Girl Power" defined the decade. The Spice Girls also ranked number ten in the E! TV special, The 101 Reasons the '90s Ruled.
Some sources, especially those in the United Kingdom, regard the Spice Girls as gay icons. In a 2007 UK survey of more than 5,000 gay men and women, Beckham placed 12th and Halliwell placed 43rd in a ranking of the top 50 gay icons. Halliwell was the recipient of the Honorary Gay Award at the 2016 Attitude Awards and Chisholm was given the "Celebrity Ally" award at the 2021 British LGBT Awards, held in London in August. In a 2005 interview, Bunton attributed their large gay following to the group's fun-loving nature, open-mindedness and their love of fashion and dressing up. The LGBTQ magazine Gay Times credits the Spice Girls as having been "ferocious advocates of the community" throughout their whole career. According to Bunton, the LGBTQ community was a big influence on the group's music. A desire to be more inclusive also led the group to change the lyrics in "2 Become 1"; the lyric "Any deal that we endeavour/boys and girls feel good together" appears in their debut album but was changed to "Once again if we endeavour/love will bring us back together" for the single and music video release.
Portrayal in the media
The Spice Girls became media icons in Great Britain and a regular feature of the British press. During the peak of their worldwide fame in 1997, the paparazzi were constantly seen following them everywhere to obtain stories and gossip about the group, such as a supposed affair between Emma Bunton and manager Simon Fuller, or constant split rumours which became fodder for numerous tabloids. Rumours of in-fighting and conflicts within the group also made headlines, with the rumours suggesting that Geri Halliwell and Melanie Brown in particular were fighting to be the leader of the group. Brown, who later admitted that she used to be a "bitch" to Halliwell, said the problems had stayed in the past. The rumours reached their height when the Spice Girls dismissed their manager Simon Fuller during the power struggles, with Fuller reportedly receiving a £10 million severance cheque to keep quiet about the details of his sacking. Months later, in May 1998, Halliwell would leave the band amid rumours of a falling out with Brown; the news of Halliwell's departure was covered as a major news story by media around the world, and became one of the biggest entertainment news stories of the decade.
In February 1997 at the Brit Awards, Halliwell's Union Jack dress from the Spice Girls' live performance made all the front pages the next day. During the ceremony, Halliwell's breasts were exposed twice, causing controversy. In the same year, nude glamour shots of Halliwell taken earlier in her career were released, causing some scandal.
The stories of their encounters with other celebrities also became fodder for the press; for example, in May 1997, at The Prince's Trust 21st-anniversary concert, Brown and Halliwell breached royal protocol when they planted kisses on Prince Charles's cheeks, leaving it covered with lipstick, and later, Halliwell told him "you're very sexy" and also pinched his bottom. In November, the British royal family were considered fans of the Spice Girls, including The Prince of Wales and his sons Prince William and Prince Harry. That month, South African President Nelson Mandela said: "These are my heroes. This is one of the greatest moments in my life" in an encounter organised by Prince Charles, who said, "It is the second greatest moment in my life, the first time I met them was the greatest". Prince Charles would later send Halliwell a personal letter "with lots of love" when he heard that she had quit the Spice Girls. In 1998 the video game magazine Nintendo Power created The More Annoying Than the Spice Girls Award, adding: "What could possibly have been more annoying in 1997 than the Spice Girls, you ask?".
Victoria Adams started dating football player David Beckham in late 1997 after they had met at a charity football match. The couple announced their engagement in 1998 and were dubbed "Posh and Becks" by the media, becoming a cultural phenomenon in their own right.
Other brand ventures
Film
The group made their film debut in Spice World with director Bob Spiers. Meant to accompany their sophomore album, the style and content of the movie was in the same vein as the Beatles' films in the 1960s such as A Hard Day's Night. The light-hearted comedy, intended to capture the spirit of the Spice Girls, featured a plethora of stars including Richard E. Grant, Alan Cumming, Roger Moore, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Elton John, Richard O'Brien, Bob Hoskins, Jennifer Saunders, Elvis Costello and Meat Loaf.
Spice World was released in December 1997 and proved to be a hit at the box office, taking in over $100 million worldwide. Despite being a commercial success, the film was widely panned by critics; the movie was nominated for seven awards at the 1999 Golden Raspberry Awards where the Spice Girls collectively won the award for "Worst Actress". Considered a cult classic, several critics have reevaluated the film more positively in the years following its initial release. Since 2014, the Spice Bus, which was driven by Meat Loaf in the film, has been on permanent display at the Island Harbour Marina on the Isle of Wight, England.
Television
The Spice Girls have hosted and starred in various television specials. In November 1997, they became the first pop group to host ITV's An Audience with...; their show featured an all-female audience and was watched by 11.8 million viewers in the UK, one fifth of the country's population. The group hosted the Christmas Day edition of Top of the Pops on BBC One in 1996. The following year, a special Christmas Eve edition of the BBC series was dedicated to them, titled "Spice Girls on Top of the Pops". The group have also starred in numerous MTV television specials, including Spice Girls: Girl Power A–Z and MTV Ultrasound, Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice. Their concerts have also been broadcast in various countries: Girl Power! Live in Istanbul (1997) was broadcast on ITV, Showtime, and Fox Family Channel; Spiceworld Tour (1998) was broadcast on Sky Box Office; and Christmas in Spiceworld (1999) was broadcast on Sky One and Fox Kids, among others.
The group have starred in television commercials for brands such as Pepsi, Polaroid, Walkers, Impulse and Tesco. They have also released a few official documentary films, including Spice Girls in America: A Tour Story (1999) and Giving You Everything (2007). Making-of documentaries for their film Spice World were broadcast on Channel 5 and MTV. The Spice Girls have been the subject of numerous unofficial documentary films, commissioned and produced by individuals independent of the group, including Raw Spice (2001) and Seven Days That Shook the Spice Girls (2002). The group have had episodes dedicated to them in several music biography series, including VH1's Behind the Music, E! True Hollywood Story and MTV's BioRhythm.
Merchandise and sponsorship deals
In the late 1990s, the Spice Girls were involved in a prolific marketing phenomenon that saw them become the most merchandised group in music history. They negotiated lucrative endorsement deals with numerous brands, including Pepsi, Asda, Cadbury and Target, which led to accusations of overexposure and "selling out". The group was estimated to have earned over £300 million ($500 million) from their marketing endeavours in 1997 alone. Their subsequent reunion concert tours saw the Spice Girls launch new sponsorship and advertising campaigns with the likes of Tesco and Victoria's Secret in 2007, and Walkers and Mr. Men in 2019.
Viva Forever!
Viva Forever! is a jukebox musical written by Jennifer Saunders, produced by Judy Craymer and directed by Paul Garrington. Based on the songs of the Spice Girls, the musical ran at the Piccadilly Theatre in the West End from 11 December 2012 to 29 June 2013.
Career records and achievements
As a group, the Spice Girls have received a number of notable awards, including five Brit Awards, three American Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, three MTV Europe Music Awards, one MTV Video Music Award and three World Music Awards. They have also been recognised for their songwriting achievements with two Ivor Novello Awards. In 2000, they received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, making them the youngest recipients of the Lifetime Achievement award whose previous winners include Elton John, the Beatles and Queen.
The Spice Girls are the biggest-selling British act of the 1990s, having comfortably outsold all of their peers including Oasis and the Prodigy. They are, by some estimates, the biggest-selling girl group of all time. They have sold 100 million records worldwide, achieving certified sales of 13 million albums in Europe, 14 million records in the US and 2.4 million in Canada. The group achieved the highest-charting debut for a UK group on the Billboard Hot 100 at number five with "Say You'll Be There". They are also the first British band since the Rolling Stones in 1975 to have two top-ten albums in the US Billboard 200 albums chart at the same time (Spice and Spiceworld). In addition to this, the Spice Girls also achieved the highest-ever annual earnings by an all-female group with an income of £29.6 million (approximately US$49 million) in 1998. In 1999, they ranked sixth in Forbes''' inaugural Celebrity 100 Power Ranking, which made them the highest-ranking musicians.
They produced a total of nine number one singles in the UK—tied with ABBA behind Take That (eleven), The Shadows (twelve), Madonna (thirteen), Westlife (fourteen), Cliff Richard (fourteen), the Beatles (seventeen) and Elvis Presley (twenty-one). The group had three consecutive Christmas number-one singles in the UK ("2 Become 1", 1996; "Too Much", 1997; "Goodbye", 1998); they only share this record with the Beatles and LadBaby. Their first single, "Wannabe", is the most successful song released by an all-female group. Debuting on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart at number eleven, it is also the highest-ever-charting debut by a British band in the US, beating the previous record held by the Beatles for "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and the joint highest entry for a debut act, tying with Alanis Morissette.Spice is the 18th-biggest-selling album of all time in the UK with over 3 million copies sold, and topped the charts for 15 non-consecutive weeks, the most by a female group in the UK. It is also the biggest-selling album of all time by a girl group, with sales of over 23 million copies worldwide. Spiceworld shipped 7 million copies in just two weeks, including 1.4 million in Britain alone—the largest-ever shipment of an album over 14 days. They are also the first act (and so far only female act) to have their first six singles ("Wannabe", "Say You'll Be There", "2 Become 1", "Mama"/"Who Do You Think You Are", "Spice Up Your Life" and "Too Much") make number one on the UK charts. Their run was broken by "Stop", which peaked at number two in March 1998.
The Spice Girls have the highest-grossing concert tours by an all-female group across two decades (2000–2020), grossing nearly $150 million in ticket sales across 58 shows. They are also the most-merchandised group in music history. Their Spice Girls dolls are the best-selling celebrity dolls of all time with sales of over 11 million; the dolls were the second-best-selling toy, behind the Teletubbies, of 1998 in the US according to the trade publication Playthings. Their film, Spice World, broke the record for the highest-ever weekend debut on Super Bowl weekend (25 January 1998) in the US, with box office sales of $10,527,222. Spice World topped the UK video charts on its first week of release, selling over 55,000 copies on its first day in stores and 270,000 copies in the first week."'Spiceworld' To Shake Up U.K. Vid Chart?". Billboard. 28 May 1998. Retrieved 14 March 2006.
In popular culture
In February 1997, the "Sugar Lumps", a satirical version of the Spice Girls played by Kathy Burke, Dawn French, Llewella Gideon, Lulu and Jennifer Saunders, filmed a video for British charity Comic Relief. The video starts with the Sugar Lumps as schoolgirls who really want to become pop stars like the Spice Girls, and ends with them joining the group on stage, while dancing and lip-syncing the song "Who Do You Think You Are". The Sugar Lumps later joined the Spice Girls during their live performance of the song on Comic Relief's telethon Red Nose Day event in March 1997. In January 1998, a fight between animated versions of the Spice Girls and pop band Hanson was the headlining matchup in MTV's claymation parody Celebrity Deathmatch Deathbowl '98 special that aired during the Super Bowl XXXII halftime. The episode became the highest-rated special in the network's history and MTV turned the concept into a full-fledged television series soon after.
In March 2013, the Glee characters Brittany (Heather Morris), Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz), Marley (Melissa Benoist), Kitty (Becca Tobin) and Unique (Alex Newell) dressed up as the Spice Girls and performed the song "Wannabe" on the 17th episode of the fourth season of the show. In April 2016, the Italian variety show Laura & Paola on Rai 1 featured the hosts, Grammy Award-winning singer Laura Pausini and actress Paola Cortellesi, and their guests, Francesca Michielin, Margherita Buy and Claudia Gerini, dressed up as the Spice Girls to perform a medley of Spice Girls songs as part of a 20th-anniversary tribute to the band. In December 2016, the episode "Who Needs Josh When You Have a Girl Group?" of the musical comedy-drama series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend featured cast members Rachel Bloom, Gabrielle Ruiz and Vella Lovell performing an original song titled "Friendtopia", a parody of the Spice Girls' songs and "girl power" philosophy. Rapper Aminé's 2017 single "Spice Girl" is a reference to the group, and the song's music video includes an appearance by Brown. Other songs that reference the Spice Girls include "Grigio Girls" by Lady Gaga, "My Name Is" by Eminem, "Polka Power!" (a reference to "Girl Power") by "Weird Al" Yankovic, "Playinwitme" by Kyle and Kehlani, "Kinky" by Kesha, and "Spicy" by Diplo, Herve Pagez and Charli XCX.
In the late 1990s, Spice Girls parodies appeared in various American sketch comedy shows including Saturday Night Live (SNL), Mad TV and All That. A January 1998 episode of SNL featured cast members, including guest host Sarah Michelle Gellar, impersonating the Spice Girls for two "An Important Message About ..." sketches. In September 1998, the show once again featured cast members, including guest host Cameron Diaz, impersonating the Spice Girls for a sketch titled "A Message from the Spice Girls". Nickelodeon's All That had recurring sketches with the fictional boy band "The Spice Boys", featuring cast members Nick Cannon as "Sweaty Spice", Kenan Thompson as "Spice Cube", Danny Tamberelli as "Hairy Spice", Josh Server as "Mumbly Spice", and a skeleton prop as "Dead Spice".
Parodies of the Spice Girls have also appeared in major advertising campaigns. In 1997, Jack in the Box, an American fast-food chain restaurant, sought to capitalise on "Spice mania" in America by launching a national television campaign using a fictional girl group called the Spicy Crispy Chicks (a take off of the Spice Girls) to promote the new Spicy Crispy Sandwich. The Spicy Crispy Chicks concept was used as a model for another successful advertising campaign called the 'Meaty Cheesy Boys'.*
At the 1998 Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show, one of the Spicy Crispy Chicks commercials won the top award for humour. In 2001, prints adverts featuring a parody of the Spice Girls, along with other British music icons consisting of the Beatles, Elton John, Freddie Mercury and the Rolling Stones, were used in the Eurostar national advertising campaign in France. The campaign won the award for Best Outdoor Campaign at the French advertising CDA awards. In September 2016, an Apple Music advert premiered during the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards that featured comedian James Corden dressed up as various music icons including all five of the Spice Girls.
Other notable groups of people have been labelled as some variation of a play-on-words on the Spice Girls' name as an allusion to the band. In 1997, the term "Spice Boys" emerged in the British media as a term coined to characterise the "pop star" antics and lifestyles off the pitch of a group of Liverpool F.C. footballers that includes Jamie Redknapp, David James, Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler and Jason McAteer. The label has stuck with these footballers ever since, with John Scales, one of the so-called Spice Boys, admitting in 2015 that, "We're the Spice Boys and it's something we have to accept because it will never change." In the Philippines, the "Spice Boys" tag was given to a group of young Congressmen of the House of Representatives who initiated the impeachment of President Joseph Estrada in 2001. The Australian/British string quartet Bond were dubbed by the international press as the "Spice Girls of classical music" during their launch in 2000 due to their "sexy" image and classical crossover music that incorporated elements of pop and dance music. A spokeswoman for the quartet said in response to the comparisons, "In fact, they are much better looking than the Spice Girls. But we don't welcome comparisons. The Bond girls are proper musicians; they have paid their dues." The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) doubles team of Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova, two-time Grand Slam and two-time WTA Finals Doubles champions, dubbed themselves the "Spice Girls of tennis" in 1999. Hingis and Kournikova, along with fellow WTA players Venus and Serena Williams, were also labelled the "Spice Girls of tennis", then later the "Spite Girls", by the media in the late 1990s due to their youthfulness, popularity and brashness.
Wax sculptures of the Spice Girls are currently on display at the famed Madame Tussaud's New York wax museum. The sculptures of the Spice Girls (sans Halliwell) were first unveiled in December 1999, making them the first pop band to be modelled as a group since the Beatles in 1964 at the time. A sculpture of Halliwell was later made in 2002, and was eventually displayed with the other Spice Girls' sculptures after Halliwell reunited with the band in 2007. Since 2008, Spiceworld: The Exhibition, a travelling exhibition of around 5,000 Spice Girls memorabilia and merchandise, has been shown in museums across the UK. The Spice Girls Exhibition, a collection of over 1,000 Spice Girls items owned by Alan Smith-Allison, was held at the Trakasol Cultural Centre in Limassol Marina, Cyprus in the summer of 2016. Wannabe 1996–2016: A Spice Girls Art Exhibition, an exhibition of Spice Girls-inspired art, was held at The Ballery in Berlin in 2016 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the group's debut single, "Wannabe".
Discography
Spice (1996)
Spiceworld (1997)
Forever'' (2000)
Concerts
Girl Power! Live in Istanbul (1997)
Spiceworld Tour (1998)
Christmas in Spiceworld Tour (1999)
The Return of the Spice Girls Tour (2007–08)
Spice World – 2019 Tour (2019)
Members
Victoria Beckham (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012)
Melanie Brown (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Emma Bunton (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Melanie Chisholm (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2018–present)
Geri Halliwell (1994–1998, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Timeline
Publications
Books
Magazines
See also
List of best-selling girl groups
List of awards received by the Spice Girls
Notes
References
Citations
Book references
External links
1994 establishments in England
1994 establishments in the United Kingdom
Brit Award winners
MTV Europe Music Award winners
English pop girl groups
English dance music groups
Dance-pop groups
Teen pop groups
Feminist musicians
Ivor Novello Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Musical groups established in 1994
Musical groups disestablished in 2000
Musical groups reestablished in 2007
Musical groups disestablished in 2008
Musical groups reestablished in 2018
Musical groups from London
Virgin Records artists
World Music Awards winners
English pop music groups
Golden Raspberry Award winners | false | [
"What Did You Think Was Going to Happen? is the debut studio album from Los Angeles band 2AM Club. It was released September 14, 2010 by RCA Records.\n\nCritical reception\n\nMatt Collar of AllMusic stated that with this album \"2AM Club reveal themselves as the best and brightest of the nu-eyed-soul set\".\n\nTrack listing\n\nOn May 31, the band released a song named \"Baseline\" that was a bonus track on What Did You Think Was Going to Happen? (sold on iTunes). It was advertised by them via Twitter, and was available for free download through a file sharing website, Hulk Share.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2010 albums\nPop rock albums by American artists",
"Subverted support is a logical fallacy of explanation which attempts to explain something that does not happen.\n\nLogical Form\nX happens because of Y (when X does not actually happen or exist)\n\nException\nThe fallacy is true if a preceding statement claims that whatever follows is true.\n\nReferences\nFormal fallacies"
]
|
[
"Spice Girls",
"Girl power",
"What was Girl power?",
"phrase \"girl power\" put a name to a social phenomenon, but the slogan was met with mixed reactions.",
"What were the reactions it was met with?",
"message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women, and it emphasised the importance of strong and loyal friendship among females.",
"Did anyone dislike the message?",
"some critics dismissed it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic, while others took issue with the emphasis on physical appearance,",
"What was the appearance issue?",
"concerned about the potential impact on self-conscious and/or impressionable youngsters.",
"Around what year was girl power of influence?",
"I don't know.",
"What else did you find interesting in this section?",
"\"What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were,",
"What types of things made them so unique?",
"Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?\"",
"What else did you find interesting in this section?",
"Blake Lively dedicated her \"Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress\" award to \"girl power\" in her acceptance speech, and credited the Spice Girls, saying:",
"What did she say?",
"they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were, and that was my first introduction into girl power.\"",
"When did that happen?",
"At the 43rd People's Choice Awards in January 2017,"
]
| C_fe6b19634b6e4d3fa1e9cb3ceb5cbec3_0 | Have they received any awards or high reviews? | 11 | Have Spice Girls received any awards or high reviews? | Spice Girls | The phrase "girl power" put a name to a social phenomenon, but the slogan was met with mixed reactions. The phrase was a label for the particular facet of post classical neo-feminist empowerment embraced by the band: that a sensual, feminine appearance and equality between the sexes need not be mutually exclusive. This concept was by no means original in the pop world: both Madonna and Bananarama had employed similar outlooks. The phrase itself had also appeared in a few songs by British girl groups and bands since at least 1987; most notably, it was the name of British pop duo Shampoo's 1996 single and album, later credited by Halliwell as the inspiration for the Spice Girls' mantra. However, it was not until the emergence of the Spice Girls in 1996 with "Wannabe", that the concept of "girl power" exploded onto the common consciousness. The phrase was regularly uttered by all five members--although most closely associated with Halliwell--and was often delivered with a peace sign. The slogan also featured on official Spice Girls merchandise and on some of the outfits the group members wore. The Spice Girls' version was distinctive. Its message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women, and it emphasised the importance of strong and loyal friendship among females. In all, the focused, consistent presentation of "girl power" formed the centrepiece of their appeal as a band. Some commentators credit the Spice Girls with reinvigorating mainstream feminism--popularized as "girl power"--in the 1990s, with their mantra serving as a gateway to feminism for their young fans. On the other hand, some critics dismissed it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic, while others took issue with the emphasis on physical appearance, concerned about the potential impact on self-conscious and/or impressionable youngsters. Regardless, the phrase became a cultural phenomenon, adopted as the mantra for millions of girls and even making it into the Oxford English Dictionary. In summation of the concept, author Ryan Dawson said, "The Spice Girls changed British culture enough for Girl Power to now seem completely unremarkable." The Spice Girls' debut single "Wannabe" has been hailed as an "iconic girl power anthem". In 2016, the United Nations' Global Goals "#WhatIReallyReallyWant" campaign filmed a global remake of the original music video for "Wannabe" to highlight gender inequality issues faced by women across the world. The video, which was launched on YouTube and ran in movie theatres internationally, featured British girl group M.O, Canadian "viral sensation" Taylor Hatala, Nigerian-British singer Seyi Shay and Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez lip-syncing to the song in various locations around the world. In response to the remake, Beckham said, "How fabulous is it that after 20 years the legacy of the Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?" At the 43rd People's Choice Awards in January 2017, American actress Blake Lively dedicated her "Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress" award to "girl power" in her acceptance speech, and credited the Spice Girls, saying: "What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were, and that was my first introduction into girl power." CANNOTANSWER | How fabulous is it that after 20 years the legacy of the Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?" | The Spice Girls are a British girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Melanie Brown, also known as Mel B ("Scary Spice"); Melanie Chisholm, or Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"); Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"); Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"); and Victoria Beckham ("Posh Spice"). With their "girl power" mantra, they redefined the girl-group concept by targeting a young female fanbase. They led the teen pop resurgence of the 1990s, were a major part of the Cool Britannia era, and became pop culture icons of the decade.
The group formed through auditions held by managers Bob and Chris Herbert, who wanted to create a girl group to compete with the British boy bands popular at the time. They signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single "Wannabe" in 1996, which reached number one on the charts of 37 countries. Their debut album, Spice (1996), sold more than 23 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album by a female group in history. The follow-up, Spiceworld (1997) sold more than 14 million copies worldwide. Both albums encapsulated the group's dance-pop style and message of female empowerment, with vocal and songwriting contributions shared equally by the members. In 1997, a film starring the Spice Girls, Spice World, was released; it was a commercial success but received poor reviews.
In May 1998, Halliwell left the Spice Girls, citing exhaustion and creative differences. Forever (2000), the only Spice Girls album without Halliwell, achieved weaker sales. At the end of 2000, the Spice Girls entered a hiatus to concentrate on their solo careers. They reunited for two concert tours, the Return of the Spice Girls (2007–2008) and Spice World (2019), both of which won the Billboard Live Music Award for highest-grossing engagements. Viva Forever!, a musical based on the Spice Girls' music, opened in 2012; it was a critical and commercial failure and closed in 2013.
Measures of the Spice Girls' success include international record sales, iconic symbolism such as Halliwell's Union Jack dress, a major motion picture, Spice World (1997), and the highest-grossing concert tours by an all-female group from 2000 to 2020. Under the guidance of their mentor and manager Simon Fuller, their endorsement deals and merchandise made them one of most successful marketing engines ever, with a global gross income estimated at $500–800 million by May 1998. Their media exposure, according to Music Week writer Paul Gorman, helped usher in an era of celebrity obsession in pop culture.
The Spice Girls have sold 100 million records worldwide, making them the bestselling girl group of all time, one of the bestselling artists, and the most successful British pop act since the Beatles. They received five Brit Awards, three American Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, three MTV Europe Music Awards and one MTV Video Music Award. In 2000, they became the youngest recipients of the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. According to Rolling Stone journalist and biographer David Sinclair, they were the most widely recognised group since the Beatles.
Band history
1994–1996: Formation and early years
In the early 1990s, Bob and Chris Herbert, the father-and-son duo of Heart Management, decided to create a girl group to compete with the boy bands who dominated UK pop music at the time. Together with financier Chic Murphy, they envisioned an act comprising "five strikingly different girls" who would each appeal to a different audience. In February 1994, Heart Management placed an advertisement in the trade paper The Stage asking for singers to audition for an all-female pop band at London's Danceworks studios. Approximately 400 women attended the audition on 4 March 1994. They were placed in groups of 10 and danced a routine to "Stay" by Eternal, followed by solo auditions in which they performed songs of their choice.
After several weeks of deliberation, Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm and Michelle Stephenson were among a dozen or so women who advanced to a second round of auditions in April. Chisholm missed the second audition after coming down with tonsillitis. Despite missing the first round of auditions, Geri Halliwell persuaded the Herberts to let her attend the second. A week after the second audition, Adams, Brown, Halliwell and Stephenson were asked to attend a recall at Nomis Studios in Shepherd's Bush, performing "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" on their own and as a group. Chisholm was also invited as a last-minute replacement for another finalist. The five women were selected for a band initially named "Touch".
The group moved into a three-bedroom house in Maidenhead, Berkshire, and spent most of 1994 practising songs written for them by Bob Herbert's long-time associates John Thirkell and Erwin Keiles. According to Stephenson, the material they were given was "very, very young pop", and none were later used by the Spice Girls. During these first months, the group worked on demos at South Hill Park Recording Studios in Bracknell with producer and studio owner Michael Sparkes and songwriter and arranger Tim Hawes. They were also tasked with choreographing their own dance routines, which they worked on at Trinity Studios in Knaphill, near Woking, Surrey. A few months into the training, Stephenson was fired for a perceived lack of commitment. Heart Management turned to the group's vocal coach, Pepi Lemer, to find a replacement. After Lemer's first recommendation declined the offer, Lemer recommended her former pupil, Emma Bunton, who auditioned for the Herberts and joined as the fifth member.
As their training continued, the group performed small showcases for a few of Heart Management's associates. On one such performance, the group added a rap section they had written to one of Thirkell and Keiles' songs. Keiles was furious with the changes and insisted they learn to write songs properly. The group began professional songwriting lessons; during one session, they wrote a song called "Sugar and Spice" with Hawes, which inspired them to change their band name to "Spice".
By late 1994, the group felt insecure as they still did not have an official contract with Heart Management, and were frustrated with the management team's direction. They persuaded Herbert to set up a showcase performance for the group in front of industry writers, producers and A&R men in December 1994 at the Nomis Studios, where they received an "overwhelmingly positive" reaction. The Herberts quickly set about creating a binding contract for them. Encouraged by the reaction they had received at the Nomis showcase, all five members refused to sign the contracts on legal advice from, among others, Adams's father. The following month, in January, the group began songwriting sessions with Richard Stannard, whom they had impressed at the showcase, and his partner Matt Rowe. It was during these sessions that the songs "Wannabe" and "2 Become 1" were written.
In March 1995, the group parted from Heart Management due to their frustration with the company's unwillingness to listen to their visions and ideas. To ensure they kept control of their own work, they allegedly stole the master recordings of their discography from the management offices. The next day, the group tracked down Sheffield-based songwriter Eliot Kennedy, who had been present at the Nomis showcase, and persuaded him to work with them. Through contacts they had made at the showcase, they were also introduced to record producers Absolute. With Kennedy and Absolute's help, the group spent the next several weeks writing and recording demos for the majority of the songs that would be released on their debut album, including "Say You'll Be There" and "Who Do You Think You Are". Their demos caught the attention of Simon Fuller of 19 Entertainment, who signed them to his management company in May 1995.
By this point, industry buzz around the Spice Girls had grown significantly and the major record labels in London and Los Angeles were keen to sign them. After a bidding war, they signed a five-album deal with Virgin Records in July 1995. Fuller took them on an extensive promotional tour in Los Angeles, where they met with studio executives in the hopes of securing film and television opportunities. Their name was also changed to "Spice Girls" as a rapper was already using the name "Spice". The new name was chosen because the group noticed industry people often referred to them derisively as "the 'Spice' girls". The group continued to write and record tracks for their debut album.
1996–1997: Spice and breakthrough
On 7 July 1996, the Spice Girls released their debut single "Wannabe" in the United Kingdom. In the weeks before the release, the music video for "Wannabe" received a trial airing on music channel The Box. The video was an instant hit, and was aired up to seventy times a week at its peak. After the video was released, the Spice Girls had their first live broadcast TV slot on LWT's Surprise Surprise. Earlier in May, the group had conducted their first music press interview with Paul Gorman, the contributing editor of trade paper Music Week, at Virgin Records' Paris headquarters. His piece recognised that the Spice Girls were about to institute a change in the charts away from Britpop and towards out-and-out pop. He wrote: "JUST WHEN BOYS with guitars threaten to rule pop life—Damon's all over Smash Hits, Ash are big in Big! and Liam can't move for tabloid frenzy—an all-girl, in-yer-face pop group have arrived with enough sass to burst that rockist bubble." "Wannabe" entered the UK Singles Chart at number three before moving up to number one the following week and staying there for seven weeks. The song proved to be a global hit, hitting number one in 37 countries, including four consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, and becoming not only the biggest-selling debut single by an all-female group but also the biggest-selling single by an all-female group of all time.
Riding a wave of publicity and hype, the group released their next singles in the UK and Europe; in October "Say You'll Be There" was released topping the charts at number one for two weeks. "2 Become 1" was released in December, becoming their first Christmas number one and selling 462,000 copies in its first week, making it the fastest-selling single of the year. The two tracks continued the group's remarkable sales, giving them three of the top five biggest-selling songs of 1996 in the UK. In November 1996, the Spice Girls released their debut album Spice in Europe. The success was unprecedented and drew comparisons to Beatlemania, leading the press to dub it "Spicemania" and the group the "Fab Five". In seven weeks Spice had sold 1.8 million copies in Britain alone, making the Spice Girls the fastest-selling British act since the Beatles. In total, the album sold over 3 million copies in Britain, the biggest-selling album of all time in the UK by a female group, certified 10× Platinum, and peaked at number one for fifteen non-consecutive weeks. In Europe the album became the biggest-selling album of 1997 and was certified 8× Platinum by the IFPI for sales in excess of 8 million copies.
That same month, the Spice Girls attracted a crowd of 500,000 when they switched on the Christmas lights in Oxford Street, London. At the same time, Simon Fuller started to set up multi-million dollar sponsorship deals for the Spice Girls with Pepsi, Walkers, Impulse, Cadbury and Polaroid. The group ended 1996 winning three trophies at the Smash Hits awards at the London Arena, including best video for "Say You'll Be There". In January 1997, "Wannabe" was released in the United States. The single proved to be a catalyst in helping the Spice Girls break into the notoriously difficult US market when it debuted on the Hot 100 Chart at number eleven. At the time, this was the highest-ever debut by a non-American act, beating the previous record held by the Beatles for "I Want to Hold Your Hand", and the joint highest entry for a debut act alongside Alanis Morissette's "Ironic". "Wannabe" reached number one in the US for four weeks. In February, Spice was released in the US, and became the biggest-selling album of 1997 in the US, peaking at number one, and was certified 7× Platinum by the RIAA for sales in excess of 7.4 million copies. The album was also included in the Top 100 Albums of All Time list by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) based on US sales. In total, the album sold over 23 million copies worldwide becoming the biggest-selling album in pop music history by an all-female group.
Later that month, the Spice Girls performed "Who Do You Think You Are" to open the 1997 Brit Awards, with Geri Halliwell wearing a Union Jack mini-dress that became one of pop history's most famed outfits. At the ceremony, the group won two Brit Awards; Best British Video for "Say You'll Be There" and Best British Single for "Wannabe". In March 1997, a double A-side of "Mama"/"Who Do You Think You Are" was released in Europe, the last from Spice, which once again saw them at number one, making the Spice Girls the first group since the Jackson 5 to have four consecutive number one hits.
Girl Power!, the Spice Girls' first book and manifesto was launched later that month at the Virgin Megastore. It sold out its initial print run of 200,000 copies within a day, and was eventually translated into more than 20 languages. In April, One Hour of Girl Power was released; it sold 500,000 copies in the UK between April and June to become the best-selling pop video ever, and was eventually certified 13x Platinum. In May, Spice World, a film starring the group, was announced by the Spice Girls at the Cannes Film Festival. The group also performed their first live UK show for the Prince's Trust benefit concert. At the show, they breached royal protocol when Brown and then Halliwell planted kisses on Prince Charles' cheeks and pinched his bottom, causing controversy. That same month, Virgin released Spice Girls Present... The Best Girl Power Album... Ever!, a multi-artist compilation album compiled by the group. The album peaked at number two on the UK Compilation Chart and was certified Gold by the BPI. At the Ivor Novello Awards, the group won International Hit of the Year and Best-Selling British Single awards for "Wannabe".
Spice World began filming in June and wrapped in August. The film was to be set to the songs from the group's second studio album, but no songs had been written when filming began. The group thus had to do all the songwriting and recording at the same time as they were filming Spice World, resulting in a grueling schedule that left them exhausted. Among the songs that were written during this period was "Stop", the lyrics for which cover the group's frustrations with being overworked by their management. In September, the Spice Girls performed "Say You'll Be There" at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and won Best Dance Video for "Wannabe". The MTV Awards came five days after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, with tributes paid to her throughout the ceremony. Chisholm stated, "We'd like to dedicate this award to Princess Diana, who is a great loss to our country." At the 1997 Billboard Music Awards, the group won four awards for New Artist of the Year, Billboard Hot 100 Singles Group of the Year, Billboard 200 Group of the Year and Billboard 200 Album of the Year for Spice.
1997–1998: Groundbreaking success, Spiceworld and Halliwell's departure
In October 1997, the Spice Girls released the first single from Spiceworld, "Spice Up Your Life". It entered the UK Singles Chart at number one, making it the group's fifth consecutive number-one single. That same month, the group performed their first live major concert to 40,000 fans in Istanbul, Turkey. Later, they launched the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal, then travelled to South Africa to meet Nelson Mandela, who announced, "These are my heroes." In November, the Spice Girls released their second album, Spiceworld. It set a new record for the fastest-selling album when it shipped seven million copies over the course of two weeks. Gaining favourable reviews, the album went on to sell over 10 million copies in Europe, Canada, and the United States combined, and 14 million copies worldwide. Criticised in the United States for releasing the album just nine months after their debut there, which gave the group two simultaneous Top 10 albums in the Billboard album charts, and suffering from over-exposure at home, the Spice Girls began to experience a media backlash. The group was criticised for the number of sponsorship deals signed—over twenty in total—and they began to witness diminishing international chart positions. Nevertheless, the Spice Girls remained the biggest-selling pop group of both 1997 and 1998.
On 7 November 1997, the group performed "Spice Up Your Life" at the MTV Europe Music Awards, and won the Best Group award. The morning of the performance, the Spice Girls had also fired their manager Simon Fuller and took over the running of the group themselves. To ensure a smooth transition, Halliwell allegedly stole a mobile phone from Fuller's assistant that contained the group's upcoming schedule and Fuller's business contacts. The firing was front-page news around the world. Many commentators speculated that Fuller had been the true mastermind behind the group, and that this was the moment when the band lost their impetus and direction. Later that month, the Spice Girls became the first pop group to host ITV's An Audience with...; their show was watched by 11.8 million viewers in the UK, one fifth of the country's population. In December 1997, the second single from Spiceworld, "Too Much", was released, becoming the group's second Christmas number one and their sixth consecutive number-one single in the UK. December also saw the group launch their film Spice World. The world premiere at the Empire Theatre in Leicester Square was attended by celebrities including Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry. The film was a commercial success but received poor reviews. The group ended 1997 as the year's most played artist on American radio.
In January 1998, the Spice Girls attended the US premiere of Spice World at the Mann's Chinese Theatre. At the 1998 American Music Awards a few days later, the group won the awards for Favorite Album, Favorite New Artist and Favorite Group in the pop/rock category. In February, they won a special award for overseas success at the 1998 Brit Awards, with combined sales of over 45 million albums and singles worldwide. That night, the group performed their next single, "Stop", their first not to reach number one in United Kingdom, entering at number two. In early 1998, the Spice Girls embarked on the Spiceworld Tour, starting in Dublin, Ireland, on 24 February 1998 before moving to mainland Europe and North America, and then returning to the United Kingdom for two gigs at Wembley Stadium. Later that year, the Spice Girls were invited to sing on the official England World Cup song "(How Does It Feel to Be) On Top of the World", the last song recorded with Halliwell until 2007.
On 31 May 1998, Halliwell announced her departure from the Spice Girls through her solicitor. The announcement was preceded by days of frenzied press speculation after Halliwell missed two concerts in Norway and was absent from the group's performance on The National Lottery Draws. Halliwell first cited creative differences, then later said that she was suffering from exhaustion and disillusionment, although rumours of a power struggle with Brown as the reason for her departure were circulated by the press. Halliwell's departure from the group shocked fans and became one of the biggest entertainment news stories of the year, making news headlines the world over. The four remaining members were adamant that the group would carry on. The North American leg of the Spiceworld Tour went on as planned, beginning in West Palm Beach, Florida, on 15 June, and grossing $60 million over 40 sold-out performances. The tour was accompanied by a documentary film titled Spice Girls in America: A Tour Story. "Viva Forever" was the last single released from Spiceworld and gave the group their seventh number one in the United Kingdom. The video for the single was made before Halliwell's departure and features all five members in stop-motion animated form.
1998–2000: Forever and hiatus
While on tour in the United States, the group continued to write and record new material, releasing a new song, "Goodbye", before Christmas in 1998. The song was seen as a tribute to Geri Halliwell, although parts of it had originally been written when Halliwell was still a part of the group, and when it topped the UK Singles Chart it became their third consecutive Christmas number one—equalling the record previously set by the Beatles. In November, Bunton and Chisholm appeared at the 1998 MTV Europe Music Awards without their other bandmates, accepting two awards on behalf of the Spice Girls for Best Pop Act and Best Group. That same year, Brown and Adams announced they were both pregnant. Brown was married to dancer Jimmy Gulzer and became known as Mel G for a brief period; she gave birth to daughter Phoenix Chi in February 1999. Adams gave birth a month after to son Brooklyn, whose father was then Manchester United footballer David Beckham; later that year, she married Beckham in a highly publicised wedding in Ireland.
From 1998 onwards, the Spice Girls began to pursue solo careers and by the following year, Brown, Bunton, Chisholm, and former member Halliwell, had all released music as solo artists. The group returned to the studio in August 1999 after an eight-month recording break to start work on their third and last studio album. The album's sound was initially more pop-influenced, similar to their first two albums, and included production from Eliot Kennedy. The album's sound took a mature direction when American producers like Rodney Jerkins, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis came on board to collaborate with the group. In December 1999, the Spice Girls embarked on a UK-only tour, Christmas in Spiceworld, in London and Manchester, during which they showcased new songs from the third album. Earlier in the year, the group also recorded the song "My Strongest Suit" for Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida, a concept album which would later go on to become the musical Aida. The group performed again at the 2000 Brit Awards in March, where they received the Lifetime Achievement award. Despite being at the event, Halliwell did not join her former bandmates on stage.
In November 2000, the group released Forever; sporting a new edgier R&B sound, the album received a lukewarm response from critics. In the US, the album peaked at number thirty-nine on the Billboard 200 albums chart. In the UK, the album was released the same week as Westlife's Coast to Coast album and the chart battle was widely reported by the media, with Westlife winning the battle and reaching number one, leaving the Spice Girls at number two. The lead single from Forever, the double A-side "Holler"/"Let Love Lead the Way", became the group's ninth number one single in the UK. However, the song failed to break onto the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart stateside, instead peaking at number seven on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, and at number thirty-one on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The only major performance of the lead single by the group came at the 2000 MTV Europe Music Awards in November. In total, Forever achieved only a fraction of the success of its two best-selling predecessors, selling four million copies. The Spice Girls ceased all promotional activities for the album in December 2000, as they began an indefinite hiatus to concentrate on their solo careers. Publicly, they insisted that the group was not splitting.
2007–2008: Return of the Spice Girls and Greatest Hits
On 28 June 2007, the Spice Girls, including Halliwell, held a press conference at the O2 Arena revealing their intention to reunite for a worldwide concert tour titled the Return of the Spice Girls. The plan to re-form had long been speculated by the media, with previous attempts by the organisers of Live 8 and Concert for Diana to reunite the group as a five-piece falling through. Each member of the group was reportedly paid £10 million ($20 million) to do the reunion tour. Giving You Everything, an official documentary film about the reunion, was directed by Bob Smeaton and first aired on Australia's Fox8 on 16 December 2007, followed by BBC One in the UK on 31 December.
Ticket sales for the first London date of the Return of the Spice Girls tour sold out in 38 seconds. It was reported that over one million people signed up in the UK alone and over five million worldwide for the ticket ballot on the band's official website. Sixteen additional dates in London were added, all selling out within one minute. In the United States, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Jose shows also sold out, prompting additional dates to be added. It was announced that the Spice Girls would be playing dates in Chicago and Detroit and Boston, as well as additional dates in New York to keep up with the demand. The tour opened in Vancouver on 2 December 2007, with group performing to an audience of 15,000 people, singing twenty songs and changing outfits a total of eight times. Along with the tour sellout, the Spice Girls licensed their name and image to Tesco's UK supermarket chain.
The group's comeback single, "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)", was announced as the official Children in Need charity single for 2007 and was released 5 November. The first public appearance on stage by the Spice Girls occurred at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, where they performed two songs, 1998 single "Stop" and the lead single from their greatest hits album, "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)". The show was filmed by CBS on 15 November 2007 for broadcast on 4 December 2007. They also performed both songs live for the BBC Children in Need telethon on 16 November 2007 from Los Angeles. The release of "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)" peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart, making it the group's lowest-charting British single to date. The album peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart. On 1 February 2008, it was announced that due to personal and family commitments their tour would come to an end in Toronto on 26 February 2008, meaning that tour dates in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Cape Town and Buenos Aires were cancelled.
Overall, the 47-date tour was the highest-grossing concert act of 2007–2008, measured as the twelve months ending in April 2008. It produced some $107.2 million in ticket sales and merchandising, with sponsorship and ad deals bringing the total to $200 million. The tour's 17-night sellout stand at the O2 Arena in London was the highest-grossing engagement of the year, netting £16.5 million (US$33 million) and drawing an audience of 256,647, winning the 2008 Billboard Touring Award for Top Boxscore. The group's comeback also netted them several other awards, including the Capital Music Icon Award, the Glamour Award for Best Band, and the Vodafone Live Music Award for Best Live Return, the last of which saw them beat out acts such as Led Zeppelin and the Sex Pistols.
2010–2012: Viva Forever! and London Olympics
At the 2010 Brit Awards, the Spice Girls received a special award for "Best Performance of the 30th Year". The award was for their 1997 Brit Awards performance of "Wannabe" and "Who Do You Think You Are", and was accepted by Halliwell and Brown on behalf of the group.
That year, the group collaborated with Fuller, Judy Craymer and Jennifer Saunders to develop a Spice Girls stage musical, Viva Forever!. Similar to the ABBA musical Mamma Mia!, Viva Forever! used the group's music to create an original story. In June 2012, to promote the musical, the Spice Girls reunited for a press conference at the St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, where music video for "Wannabe" was filmed exactly sixteen years earlier. Viva Forever! premiered at the West End's Piccadilly Theatre in December 2012, with all five Spice Girls in attendance. To promote the musical, the group appeared in the documentary Spice Girls' Story: Viva Forever!, which aired on 24 December 2012 on ITV1. Viva Forever! was panned by critics and closed after seven months, with a loss of at least £5 million.
In August 2012, the Spice Girls reunited to perform a medley of "Wannabe" and "Spice Up Your Life" at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony. Their performance received acclaim, and became the most tweeted moment of the Olympics with over 116,000 tweets per minute on Twitter.
2016–present: Spice World tour and Spice25
On 8 July 2016, Brown, Bunton and Halliwell released a video celebrating the 20th anniversary of "Wannabe" and teased news from them as a three-piece. Beckham and Chisholm opted not to take part but gave the project their blessing. A new song from the three-piece, "Song for Her", was leaked online a few months later in November. The reunion project was cancelled due to Halliwell's pregnancy.
On 24 May 2019, the Spice Girls began the Spice World – 2019 Tour of the UK and Ireland at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland. Beckham declined to join due to commitments regarding her fashion business. Each of the four participating members was reportedly paid £12 million for the tour. The tour concluded with three concerts at London's Wembley Stadium, with the last taking place on 15 June 2019. Over 13 dates, the tour produced 700,000 spectators and earned $78.2 million in ticket sales. The three-night sellout stand at Wembley Stadium was the highest-grossing engagement of the year, drawing an audience of 221,971 and winning the 2019 Billboard Live Music Award for Top Boxscore. Despite sound problems in the early concerts, Anna Nicholson in The Guardian wrote, "As nostalgia tours go, this could hardly have been bettered."
Alongside the tour, the group teamed up with the children's book franchise Mr. Men to create derivative products such as books, cups, bags and coasters. On 13 June 2019, it was reported that Paramount Animation had greenlit an animated Spice Girls film with old and new songs. The project will be produced by Simon Fuller and written by Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith. A director has not been announced.
To mark the 25th anniversary of "Wannabe", an EP was released in July 2021 that included previously unreleased demos. On 29 October, the Spice Girls released Spice25, a deluxe reissue of Spice featuring previously unreleased demos and remixes. The deluxe release saw the album reenter the UK Albums Chart at number five, number three on the UK Official Vinyl Albums Chart Top 40 and number four on the UK Official Physical Albums Chart.
Artistry
Musical style
According to Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the Spice Girls "used dance-pop as a musical base, but they infused the music with a fiercely independent, feminist stance that was equal parts Madonna, post-riot grrrl alternative rock feminism, and a co-opting of the good-times-all-the-time stance of England's new lad culture." Their songs incorporated a variety of genres, which Halliwell described as a "melding" of the group members' eclectic musical tastes, but otherwise kept to mainstream pop conventions. Chisholm said: "We all had different artists that we loved. Madonna was a big influence and TLC; we watched a lot of their videos." A regular collaborator on the group's first two albums was the production duo known as Absolute, made up of Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins. Absolute initially found it difficult to work with the group as the duo was heavily into R&B music at the time, while the Spice Girls according to Wilson were "always very poptastic". Wilson said of the group's musical output: "Their sound was actually not getting R&B quite right."
In his biography of the band, Wannabe: How the Spice Girls Reinvented Pop Fame (2004), Rolling Stone journalist David Sinclair said that the "undeniable artistry" of the group's songs had been overlooked. He said the Spice Girls "instinctively had an ear for a catchy tune" without resorting to the "formula balladry and bland modulations" of 90s boy bands Westlife and Boyzone. He praised their "more sophisticated" second album, Spiceworld, saying: "Peppered with personality, and each conveying a distinctive musical flavour and lyrical theme, these are songs which couldn't sound less 'manufactured,' and which, in several cases, transcend the pop genre altogether."
Lyrical themes
The Spice Girls' lyrics promote female empowerment and solidarity. Given the young age of their target audience, Lucy Jones of The Independent said the Spice Girls' songs were subversive for their time: "The lyrics were active rather than passive: taking, grabbing, laying it down – all the things little girls were taught never to do. 'Stop right now, thank you very much'. 'Who do you think you are?' 'I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want'." Musicologist Nicola Dibben cited "Say You'll Be There" as an example of how the Spice Girls inverted traditional gender roles in their lyrics, depicting a man who has fallen in love and displays too much emotion and a woman who remains independent and in control. The Spice Girls emphasised the importance of sisterhood over romance songs such as "Wannabe", and embraced safe sex in "2 Become 1".
Lauren Bravo, author of What Would the Spice Girls Do?: How the Girl Power Generation Grew Up (2018), found that even when the Spice Girls sang about romance, the message was "cheerfully non-committal", in contrast to the songs about breakups and unrequited love other pop stars were singing at the time. Writing for Bustle, Taylor Ferber praised the female-driven lyrics as ahead of their time, citing the inclusivity and optimism of songs such as "Spice Up Your Life" and the sex-positivity of "Last Time Lover" and "Naked". Ferber concluded: "Between all of their songs about friendship, sex, romance, and living life, a central theme in almost all Spice Girls music was loving yourself first."
Vocal arrangements
Unlike prior pop vocal groups, the Spice Girls shared vocals, rather than having a lead vocalist supported by others. The group did not want any one member to be considered the lead singer, and so each song was divided into one or two lines each, before all five voices harmonised in the chorus. The group faced criticism as this meant that no one voice could stand out, but Sinclair concluded that it "was actually a clever device to ensure that they gained the maximum impact and mileage from their all-in-it-together girl-gang image".
The Spice Girls' former vocal coach, Pepi Lemer, described their individual voices as distinct and easy distinguish, citing the "lightness" of Bunton's voice and the "soulful sound" of Brown's and Chisholm's. Biographer Sean Smith cited Chisholm as the vocalist the group could not do without. Sinclair noted that while Chisholm's ad libs are a distinctive feature of certain Spice Girls songs, the difference in the amount of time her voice was featured over any other member was negligible.
While vocal time was distributed equally, musicologist Nicola Dibben found that there was an "interesting inequality" in the way that vocal styles were distributed within the group, which she felt conformed to certain stereotypes associated with race and socioeconomic background. According to Dibben, most of the declamatory style of singing in the group's singles were performed by Brown, the only black member, and Chisholm, whom Dibben classified as white working class; this was in contrast to the more lyrical sections allotted to Beckham, whom Dibben classified as white middle class.
Songwriting
The Spice Girls did not play instruments, but co-wrote all of their songs. According to their frequent collaborator Richard Stannard, they had two approaches to songwriting: ballads were written in a traditional way with the group sitting around a piano, while songs such as "Wannabe" were the result of tapping into their "mad" energy. Eliot Kennedy, another regular co-writer, said that songwriting sessions with the Spice Girls were "very quick and short". He described his experience working with them:
What I said to them was, "Look, I've got a chorus—check this out." And I'd sing them the chorus and the melody—no lyrics or anything—and straight away five pads and pencils came out and they were throwing lines at us. Ten minutes later, the song was written. Then you go through and refine it. Then later, as you were recording it you might change a few things here and there. But pretty much it was a real quick process. They were confident in what they were doing, throwing it out there.
Absolute's Paul Wilson recalled an experience whereby he and Watkins were responsible for writing the backing track and the group would then write the lyrics. Watkins added: "I wasn't an 18-year-old girl. They always had this weird ability to come up with phrases that you'd never heard of." He said the members would create dance routines at the same time as writing songs, and that they "They knew what they wanted to write about, right from day one. You couldn't force your musical ideas upon them."
From the onset, the Spice Girls established a strict 50–50 split of the publishing royalties between them and their songwriting collaborators. As with their vocal arrangements, they were also adamant on maintaining parity between themselves in the songwriting credits. Sinclair said:
The deal between themselves was a strict five-way split on their share of the songwriting royalties on all songs irrespective of what any one member of the group had (or had not) contributed to any particular song. Apart from ease of administration, this was also a symbolic expression of the unity which was so much part and parcel of the Spice philosophy.
Sinclair identified Halliwell as a major source of ideas for the Spice Girls' songs, including many of the concepts and starting points for the group's songs. Tim Hawes, who worked with the group when they were starting out, said Halliwell's strength was in writing lyrics and pop hooks, and estimated that she was responsible for 60–70% of the lyrics in the songs he worked on. The group's collaborators credit the other members of the group as being more active than Halliwell in constructing the melodies and harmonies of their songs. Matt Rowe, who wrote several songs with the Spice Girls, agreed that Halliwell was particularly good when it came to writing lyrics and credits the lyrics for "Viva Forever" to her. He felt that all five members had contributed equally to the songwriting.
Cultural impact and legacy
Pop music resurgence and girl group boom
The Spice Girls broke onto the music scene at a time when alternative rock, hip-hop and R&B dominated global music charts. In the group's first ever interview in May 1996, Halliwell told Music Week: "We want to bring some of the glamour back to pop, like Madonna had when we were growing up. Pop is about fantasy and escapism, but there's so much bullshit around at the moment." The modern pop phenomenon that the Spice Girls created by targeting early members of Generation Y was credited with changing the music landscape by reviving the pop music genre, bringing about the global wave of late-1990s and early-2000s teen pop acts such as the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and NSYNC.
The Spice Girls have also been credited with paving the way for the girl groups and female pop singers that have come after them. Unlike previous girl groups such as the Andrews Sisters whose target market was male record buyers, the Spice Girls redefined the girl group concept by going after a young female fanbase instead. In the UK, they are further credited for disrupting the then male-dominated pop music scene. Prior to the Spice Girls, girl groups such as Bananarama have had hit singles in the UK but their album sales were generally underwhelming. The accepted wisdom within the British music industry at the time was that an all-girl pop group would not work because both girls and boys would find the concept too threatening. Teen magazines such as Smash Hits and Top of the Pops initially refused to feature the Spice Girls on the assumption that a girl group would not appeal to their female readership. The massive commercial breakthrough of the Spice Girls turned the tide, leading to an unprecedented boom of new girl groups in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
As managers and record labels scrambled to find the next Spice Girls, around 20 new girl groups were launched in the UK in 1999, followed by another 35 the next year. Groups that emerged during this period include All Saints, B*Witched, Atomic Kitten, Girl Thing, Girls@Play, Girls Aloud and the Sugababes, all hoping to emulate the Spice Girls' success. Outside of the UK and Ireland, girl groups such as New Zealand's TrueBliss, Australia's Bardot, Germany's No Angels, US's Cheetah Girls, as well as South Korea's Baby Vox and f(x) were also modelled after the Spice Girls.
Twenty-first-century girl groups continue to cite the Spice Girls as a major source of influence, including the Pussycat Dolls, 2NE1, Girls' Generation, Little Mix, Fifth Harmony, and Haim. Solo female artists who have been similarly influenced by the group include Jess Glynne, Foxes, Alexandra Burke, Charli XCX, Rita Ora, Billie Eilish, and Beyoncé. During her 2005 "Reflections" concert series, Filipina superstar Regine Velasquez performed a medley of five Spice Girls songs as a tribute to the band she says were a major influence on her music. Danish singer-songwriter MØ decided to pursue music after watching the Spice Girls on TV as a child, saying in a 2014 interview: "I have them and only them to thank—or to blame—for becoming a singer." 15-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Adele credits the Spice Girls as a major influence in regard to her love and passion for music, stating that "they made me what I am today".
Girl power
"Girl power" was a label for the particular facet of feminist empowerment embraced by the band, emphasising female confidence, individuality and the value of female friendship. The Spice Girls' particular approach to "girl power" was seen as a boisterous, independent, and sex-positive response to "lad culture." The phrase was regularly espoused by all five members—although most closely associated with Halliwell—and was often delivered with a peace sign. The "girl power" slogan was originally coined by US punk band Bikini Kill in 1991 and subsequently appeared in a few songs in the early and mid-1990s; most notably, it was the title of British pop duo Shampoo's 1996 single which Halliwell later said was her introduction to the phrase. Although the term did not originate with them, it was not until the emergence of the Spice Girls in 1996 that "girl power" exploded onto the mainstream consciousness. According to Chisholm, the band were inspired to champion this cause as a result of the sexism they encountered when they were first starting out in the music business. Industry insiders credit Halliwell as being the author of the group's "girl power" manifesto, while Halliwell herself once spoke of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher as being "the pioneer of our ideology."
In all, the focused, consistent presentation of "girl power" formed the centrepiece of their appeal as a band. The Spice Girls' brand of postfeminism was distinctive and its message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women; by being politically neutral, it did not alienate consumers with different allegiances. Virgin's director of press Robert Sandall explained the novelty of the group: "There had never been a group of girls who were addressing themselves specifically to a female audience before." Similarly, John Harlow of The Sunday Times believed it was this "loyal[ty] to their sex" that set the Spice Girls apart from their predecessors, enabling them to win over young female fans where previous girl groups had struggled. While "girl power" put a name to a social phenomenon, it was met with mixed reactions. Some commentators credit the Spice Girls with reinvigorating mainstream feminism—popularised as "girl power"—in the 1990s, with their mantra serving as a gateway to feminism for their young fans. Conversely, critics dismiss it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic and accuse the group of commercialising the social movement. Regardless, "girl power" became a cultural phenomenon, adopted as the mantra for millions of girls and even making it into the Oxford English Dictionary.
In summation of the concept, author Ryan Dawson said, "The Spice Girls changed British culture enough for Girl Power to now seem completely unremarkable."
In keeping with their "girl power" manifesto, the Spice Girls' songs have been praised for their "genuinely empowering messages about friendship and sisterhood," which set them apart from the typical love songs their pop contemporaries were singing. Billboard magazine said their lyrics "demonstrated real, noncompetitive female friendship," adding that the messages the Spice Girls imparted have held up well compared to the lyrics sung by later girl groups such as the Pussycat Dolls. The group's debut single "Wannabe" has been hailed as an "iconic girl power anthem". In 2016, the United Nations launched their #WhatIReallyReallyWant Global Goals campaign by filming a remake of the "Wannabe" music video to highlight gender inequality issues faced by women across the world. The video, which premiered on YouTube and ran in movie theatres internationally, featured British girl group M.O, Canadian "viral sensation" Taylor Hatala, Nigerian-British singer Seyi Shay and Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez lip-syncing to the song in various locations around the world. In response to the remake, Beckham said, "How fabulous is it that after 20 years the legacy of the Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?"
At the 43rd People's Choice Awards in 2017, Blake Lively dedicated her "Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress" award to "girl power" in her acceptance speech; she credited the Spice Girls, saying: "What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were, and that was my first introduction into girl power." In 2018, Rolling Stone named the Spice Girls' "girl power" ethos on The Millennial 100, a list of 100 people, music, cultural touchstones and movements that have shaped the Millennial generation. Writing in 2019 about the group's influence on what she called the "Spice Girls Generation", Caity Weaver of The New York Times concluded, "Marketing ploy or not, 'Girl power' had become a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Cool Britannia
The term "Cool Britannia" became prominent in the media in the 1990s and represented the new political and social climate that was emerging with the advances made by New Labour and the new British prime minister Tony Blair. Coming out of a period of 18 years of Conservative government, Tony Blair and New Labour were seen as young, cool and appealing, a driving force in giving Britain a feeling of euphoria and optimism.
Although by no means responsible for the onset of "Cool Britannia", the arrival of the Spice Girls added to the new image and re-branding of Britain, and underlined the growing world popularity of British, rather than American, pop music. This fact was underlined at the 1997 Brit Awards; the group won two awards but it was Halliwell's iconic red, white and blue Union Jack mini-dress that appeared in media coverage around the world, becoming an enduring image of "Cool Britannia". The Spice Girls were identified as part of another British Invasion of the US, and in 2016, Time acknowledged the Spice Girls as "arguably the most recognisable face" of "Cool Britannia".
Image, nicknames and fashion trends
The Spice Girls' image was deliberately aimed at young girls, an audience of formidable size and potential. Instrumental to their range of appeal within this demographic was their five distinct personalities and styles, which encouraged fans to identify with one member or another. This rejection of a homogeneous group identity was a stark departure from previous groups such as the Beatles and the Supremes, and the Spice Girls model has since been used to style other pop groups such as One Direction.
The band's image was inadvertently bolstered by the nicknames bestowed on them by the British press. After a lunch with the Spice Girls in the wake of "Wannabes release, Peter Loraine, the then-editor of Top of the Pops magazine, and his editorial staff decided to devise nicknames for each member of the group based on their personalities. Loraine explained, "In the magazine we used silly language and came up with nicknames all the time so it came naturally to give them names that would be used by the magazine and its readers; it was never meant to be adopted globally." Shortly after using the nicknames in a magazine feature on the group, Loraine received calls from other British media outlets requesting permission to use them, and before long the nicknames were synonymous with the Spice Girls. Jennifer Cawthron, one of the magazine's staff writers, explained how the nicknames were chosen:
Victoria was 'Posh Spice', because she was wearing a Gucci-style mini dress and seemed pouty and reserved. Emma wore pigtails and sucked a lollipop, so obviously she was 'Baby Spice'. Mel C spent the whole time leaping around in her tracksuit, so we called her 'Sporty Spice'. I named Mel B 'Scary Spice' because she was so shouty. And Geri was 'Ginger Spice', simply because of her hair. Not much thought went into that one.
In a 2020 interview, Chisholm explained that the Spice Girls' image came about unintentionally when, after initially trying to coordinate their outfits as was expected of girl groups at the time, the group decided to just dress in their own individual styles. According to Chisholm, they "never thought too much more of it" until after "Wannabe" was released and the press gave them their nicknames. The group embraced the nicknames and grew into caricatures of themselves, which Chisholm said was "like a protection mechanism because it was like putting on this armour of being this, this character, rather than it actually being you."
Each Spice Girl adopted a distinct, over-the-top trademark style that served as an extension of her public persona.
Victoria Beckham (née Adams): As Posh Spice, she was known for her choppy brunette bob cut, reserved attitude, signature pout and form-fitting designer outfits (often a little black dress).
Melanie Brown: As Scary Spice, she was known for her "in-your-face" attitude, "loud" Leeds accent, pierced tongue and bold manner of dress (which often consisted of leopard-print outfits).
Emma Bunton: As Baby Spice, she was the youngest member of the group, wore her long blonde hair in pigtails, wore pastel (particularly pink) babydoll dresses and platform sneakers, had an innocent smile and a girly girl personality.
Melanie Chisholm: As Sporty Spice, she usually wore a tracksuit paired with athletic shoes, wore her long dark hair in a high ponytail, and sported tattoos coupled with a tough-girl attitude. She also showcased her athletic abilities on stage, such as by performing back handsprings and high kicks.
Geri Halliwell: As Ginger Spice, she was known for her bright red hair, feistiness, "glammed-up sex appeal" and flamboyant stage outfits. She was also identified by the media and those who worked with the Spice Girls as the leader of the group.
The Spice Girls are considered style icons of the 1990s; their image and styles becoming inextricably tied to the band's identity. They are credited with setting 1990s fashion trends such as Buffalo platform shoes and double bun hairstyles. Their styles have inspired other celebrities including Katy Perry, Charli XCX, and Bollywood actress Anushka Ranjan. Lady Gaga performed as Emma Bunton (Baby Spice) in high school talent shows and Emma Stone chose "Emma" name inspired by Emma Bunton after she previously use name Riley Stone. The group have also been noted for the memorable outfits they have worn, the most iconic being Halliwell's Union Jack dress from the 1997 Brit Awards. The dress was sold at a charity auction to the Las Vegas Hard Rock Cafe for £41,320, giving Halliwell the Guinness World Record at that time for the most expensive piece of pop star clothing ever sold.
Commercialisation and celebrity culture
At the height of Spicemania, the Spice Girls were involved in a prolific marketing phenomenon. Under the guidance of their mentor and manager Simon Fuller, they advertised for an unprecedented number of brands and became the most merchandised group in music history. The group were also a frequent feature of the global press. As a result, said biographer David Sinclair, "So great was the daily bombardment of Spice images and Spice product that it quickly became oppressive even to people who were well disposed towards the group." This was parodied in the video for their song "Spice Up Your Life", which depicts a futuristic dystopian city covered in billboards and adverts featuring the group. Similarly, the North American leg of their 1998 Spiceworld Tour introduced a whole new concert revenue stream when it became the first time advertising was used in a pop concert. Overall, the Spice Girls' earnings in the 1990s were on par with that of a medium-sized corporation thanks in large part to their marketing endeavours, with their global gross income estimated at $500–800 million by May 1998.
In his analysis of the group's enduring influence on 21st-century popular culture, John Mckie of the BBC observed that while other stars had used brand endorsements in the past, "the Spice brand was the first to propel the success of the band". Christopher Barrett and Ben Cardew of Music Week credited Fuller's "ground-breaking" strategy of marketing the Spice Girls as a brand with revolutionising the pop music industry, "paving the way for everything from The White Stripes cameras to U2 iPods and Girls Aloud phones." Barrett further noted that pop music and brand synergy have become inextricably linked in the modern music industry, which he attributed to the "remarkable" impact of the Spice Girls. The Guardians Sylvia Patterson also wrote of what she called the group's true legacy: "[T]hey were the original pioneers of the band as brand, of pop as a ruthless marketing ruse, of the merchandising and sponsorship deals that have dominated commercial pop ever since."
The mainstream media embraced the Spice Girls at the peak of their success. The group received regular international press coverage and were constantly followed by paparazzi. Paul Gorman of Music Week said of the media interest in the Spice Girls in the late 1990s: "They inaugurated the era of cheesy celebrity obsession which pertains today. There is lineage from them to the Kardashianisation not only of the music industry, but the wider culture." The Irish Independent Tanya Sweeney agreed that "[t]he vapidity of paparazzi culture could probably be traced back to the Spice Girls' naked ambitions", while Mckie predicted that, "[f]or all that modern stars from Katy Perry to Lionel Messi exploit brand endorsements and attract tabloid coverage, the scale of the Spice Girls' breakthrough in 1996 is unlikely to be repeated—at least not by a music act."
1990s and gay icons
The Spice Girls have been labelled the biggest pop phenomenon of the 1990s due to the international record sales, iconic symbolism, global cultural influence and apparent omnipresence they held during the decade. The group appeared on the cover of the July 1997 edition of Rolling Stone accompanied with the headline, "Spice Girls Conquer the World". At the 2000 Brit Awards, the group received the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award in honour of their success in the global music scene in the 1990s. The iconic symbolism of the Spice Girls in the 1990s is partly attributed to their era-defining outfits, the most notable being the Union Jack dress that Halliwell wore at the 1997 Brit Awards. The dress has achieved iconic status, becoming one of the most prominent symbols of 1990s pop culture. The status of the Spice Girls as 1990s pop culture icons is also attributed to their vast marketing efforts and willingness to be a part of a media-driven world. Their unprecedented appearances in adverts and the media solidified the group as a phenomenon—an icon of the decade and for British music.
A study conducted by the British Council in 2000 found that the Spice Girls were the second-best-known Britons internationally—only behind then-Prime Minister Tony Blair—and the best-known Britons in Asia. The group were featured in VH1's I Love the '90s and the sequel I Love the '90s: Part Deux; the series covered cultural moments from 1990s with the Spice Girls' rise to fame representing the year 1997, while Halliwell quitting the group represented 1998. In 2006, ten years after the release of their debut single, the Spice Girls were voted the biggest cultural icons of the 1990s with 80 per cent of the votes in a UK poll of 1,000 people carried out for the board game Trivial Pursuit, stating that "Girl Power" defined the decade. The Spice Girls also ranked number ten in the E! TV special, The 101 Reasons the '90s Ruled.
Some sources, especially those in the United Kingdom, regard the Spice Girls as gay icons. In a 2007 UK survey of more than 5,000 gay men and women, Beckham placed 12th and Halliwell placed 43rd in a ranking of the top 50 gay icons. Halliwell was the recipient of the Honorary Gay Award at the 2016 Attitude Awards and Chisholm was given the "Celebrity Ally" award at the 2021 British LGBT Awards, held in London in August. In a 2005 interview, Bunton attributed their large gay following to the group's fun-loving nature, open-mindedness and their love of fashion and dressing up. The LGBTQ magazine Gay Times credits the Spice Girls as having been "ferocious advocates of the community" throughout their whole career. According to Bunton, the LGBTQ community was a big influence on the group's music. A desire to be more inclusive also led the group to change the lyrics in "2 Become 1"; the lyric "Any deal that we endeavour/boys and girls feel good together" appears in their debut album but was changed to "Once again if we endeavour/love will bring us back together" for the single and music video release.
Portrayal in the media
The Spice Girls became media icons in Great Britain and a regular feature of the British press. During the peak of their worldwide fame in 1997, the paparazzi were constantly seen following them everywhere to obtain stories and gossip about the group, such as a supposed affair between Emma Bunton and manager Simon Fuller, or constant split rumours which became fodder for numerous tabloids. Rumours of in-fighting and conflicts within the group also made headlines, with the rumours suggesting that Geri Halliwell and Melanie Brown in particular were fighting to be the leader of the group. Brown, who later admitted that she used to be a "bitch" to Halliwell, said the problems had stayed in the past. The rumours reached their height when the Spice Girls dismissed their manager Simon Fuller during the power struggles, with Fuller reportedly receiving a £10 million severance cheque to keep quiet about the details of his sacking. Months later, in May 1998, Halliwell would leave the band amid rumours of a falling out with Brown; the news of Halliwell's departure was covered as a major news story by media around the world, and became one of the biggest entertainment news stories of the decade.
In February 1997 at the Brit Awards, Halliwell's Union Jack dress from the Spice Girls' live performance made all the front pages the next day. During the ceremony, Halliwell's breasts were exposed twice, causing controversy. In the same year, nude glamour shots of Halliwell taken earlier in her career were released, causing some scandal.
The stories of their encounters with other celebrities also became fodder for the press; for example, in May 1997, at The Prince's Trust 21st-anniversary concert, Brown and Halliwell breached royal protocol when they planted kisses on Prince Charles's cheeks, leaving it covered with lipstick, and later, Halliwell told him "you're very sexy" and also pinched his bottom. In November, the British royal family were considered fans of the Spice Girls, including The Prince of Wales and his sons Prince William and Prince Harry. That month, South African President Nelson Mandela said: "These are my heroes. This is one of the greatest moments in my life" in an encounter organised by Prince Charles, who said, "It is the second greatest moment in my life, the first time I met them was the greatest". Prince Charles would later send Halliwell a personal letter "with lots of love" when he heard that she had quit the Spice Girls. In 1998 the video game magazine Nintendo Power created The More Annoying Than the Spice Girls Award, adding: "What could possibly have been more annoying in 1997 than the Spice Girls, you ask?".
Victoria Adams started dating football player David Beckham in late 1997 after they had met at a charity football match. The couple announced their engagement in 1998 and were dubbed "Posh and Becks" by the media, becoming a cultural phenomenon in their own right.
Other brand ventures
Film
The group made their film debut in Spice World with director Bob Spiers. Meant to accompany their sophomore album, the style and content of the movie was in the same vein as the Beatles' films in the 1960s such as A Hard Day's Night. The light-hearted comedy, intended to capture the spirit of the Spice Girls, featured a plethora of stars including Richard E. Grant, Alan Cumming, Roger Moore, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Elton John, Richard O'Brien, Bob Hoskins, Jennifer Saunders, Elvis Costello and Meat Loaf.
Spice World was released in December 1997 and proved to be a hit at the box office, taking in over $100 million worldwide. Despite being a commercial success, the film was widely panned by critics; the movie was nominated for seven awards at the 1999 Golden Raspberry Awards where the Spice Girls collectively won the award for "Worst Actress". Considered a cult classic, several critics have reevaluated the film more positively in the years following its initial release. Since 2014, the Spice Bus, which was driven by Meat Loaf in the film, has been on permanent display at the Island Harbour Marina on the Isle of Wight, England.
Television
The Spice Girls have hosted and starred in various television specials. In November 1997, they became the first pop group to host ITV's An Audience with...; their show featured an all-female audience and was watched by 11.8 million viewers in the UK, one fifth of the country's population. The group hosted the Christmas Day edition of Top of the Pops on BBC One in 1996. The following year, a special Christmas Eve edition of the BBC series was dedicated to them, titled "Spice Girls on Top of the Pops". The group have also starred in numerous MTV television specials, including Spice Girls: Girl Power A–Z and MTV Ultrasound, Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice. Their concerts have also been broadcast in various countries: Girl Power! Live in Istanbul (1997) was broadcast on ITV, Showtime, and Fox Family Channel; Spiceworld Tour (1998) was broadcast on Sky Box Office; and Christmas in Spiceworld (1999) was broadcast on Sky One and Fox Kids, among others.
The group have starred in television commercials for brands such as Pepsi, Polaroid, Walkers, Impulse and Tesco. They have also released a few official documentary films, including Spice Girls in America: A Tour Story (1999) and Giving You Everything (2007). Making-of documentaries for their film Spice World were broadcast on Channel 5 and MTV. The Spice Girls have been the subject of numerous unofficial documentary films, commissioned and produced by individuals independent of the group, including Raw Spice (2001) and Seven Days That Shook the Spice Girls (2002). The group have had episodes dedicated to them in several music biography series, including VH1's Behind the Music, E! True Hollywood Story and MTV's BioRhythm.
Merchandise and sponsorship deals
In the late 1990s, the Spice Girls were involved in a prolific marketing phenomenon that saw them become the most merchandised group in music history. They negotiated lucrative endorsement deals with numerous brands, including Pepsi, Asda, Cadbury and Target, which led to accusations of overexposure and "selling out". The group was estimated to have earned over £300 million ($500 million) from their marketing endeavours in 1997 alone. Their subsequent reunion concert tours saw the Spice Girls launch new sponsorship and advertising campaigns with the likes of Tesco and Victoria's Secret in 2007, and Walkers and Mr. Men in 2019.
Viva Forever!
Viva Forever! is a jukebox musical written by Jennifer Saunders, produced by Judy Craymer and directed by Paul Garrington. Based on the songs of the Spice Girls, the musical ran at the Piccadilly Theatre in the West End from 11 December 2012 to 29 June 2013.
Career records and achievements
As a group, the Spice Girls have received a number of notable awards, including five Brit Awards, three American Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, three MTV Europe Music Awards, one MTV Video Music Award and three World Music Awards. They have also been recognised for their songwriting achievements with two Ivor Novello Awards. In 2000, they received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, making them the youngest recipients of the Lifetime Achievement award whose previous winners include Elton John, the Beatles and Queen.
The Spice Girls are the biggest-selling British act of the 1990s, having comfortably outsold all of their peers including Oasis and the Prodigy. They are, by some estimates, the biggest-selling girl group of all time. They have sold 100 million records worldwide, achieving certified sales of 13 million albums in Europe, 14 million records in the US and 2.4 million in Canada. The group achieved the highest-charting debut for a UK group on the Billboard Hot 100 at number five with "Say You'll Be There". They are also the first British band since the Rolling Stones in 1975 to have two top-ten albums in the US Billboard 200 albums chart at the same time (Spice and Spiceworld). In addition to this, the Spice Girls also achieved the highest-ever annual earnings by an all-female group with an income of £29.6 million (approximately US$49 million) in 1998. In 1999, they ranked sixth in Forbes''' inaugural Celebrity 100 Power Ranking, which made them the highest-ranking musicians.
They produced a total of nine number one singles in the UK—tied with ABBA behind Take That (eleven), The Shadows (twelve), Madonna (thirteen), Westlife (fourteen), Cliff Richard (fourteen), the Beatles (seventeen) and Elvis Presley (twenty-one). The group had three consecutive Christmas number-one singles in the UK ("2 Become 1", 1996; "Too Much", 1997; "Goodbye", 1998); they only share this record with the Beatles and LadBaby. Their first single, "Wannabe", is the most successful song released by an all-female group. Debuting on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart at number eleven, it is also the highest-ever-charting debut by a British band in the US, beating the previous record held by the Beatles for "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and the joint highest entry for a debut act, tying with Alanis Morissette.Spice is the 18th-biggest-selling album of all time in the UK with over 3 million copies sold, and topped the charts for 15 non-consecutive weeks, the most by a female group in the UK. It is also the biggest-selling album of all time by a girl group, with sales of over 23 million copies worldwide. Spiceworld shipped 7 million copies in just two weeks, including 1.4 million in Britain alone—the largest-ever shipment of an album over 14 days. They are also the first act (and so far only female act) to have their first six singles ("Wannabe", "Say You'll Be There", "2 Become 1", "Mama"/"Who Do You Think You Are", "Spice Up Your Life" and "Too Much") make number one on the UK charts. Their run was broken by "Stop", which peaked at number two in March 1998.
The Spice Girls have the highest-grossing concert tours by an all-female group across two decades (2000–2020), grossing nearly $150 million in ticket sales across 58 shows. They are also the most-merchandised group in music history. Their Spice Girls dolls are the best-selling celebrity dolls of all time with sales of over 11 million; the dolls were the second-best-selling toy, behind the Teletubbies, of 1998 in the US according to the trade publication Playthings. Their film, Spice World, broke the record for the highest-ever weekend debut on Super Bowl weekend (25 January 1998) in the US, with box office sales of $10,527,222. Spice World topped the UK video charts on its first week of release, selling over 55,000 copies on its first day in stores and 270,000 copies in the first week."'Spiceworld' To Shake Up U.K. Vid Chart?". Billboard. 28 May 1998. Retrieved 14 March 2006.
In popular culture
In February 1997, the "Sugar Lumps", a satirical version of the Spice Girls played by Kathy Burke, Dawn French, Llewella Gideon, Lulu and Jennifer Saunders, filmed a video for British charity Comic Relief. The video starts with the Sugar Lumps as schoolgirls who really want to become pop stars like the Spice Girls, and ends with them joining the group on stage, while dancing and lip-syncing the song "Who Do You Think You Are". The Sugar Lumps later joined the Spice Girls during their live performance of the song on Comic Relief's telethon Red Nose Day event in March 1997. In January 1998, a fight between animated versions of the Spice Girls and pop band Hanson was the headlining matchup in MTV's claymation parody Celebrity Deathmatch Deathbowl '98 special that aired during the Super Bowl XXXII halftime. The episode became the highest-rated special in the network's history and MTV turned the concept into a full-fledged television series soon after.
In March 2013, the Glee characters Brittany (Heather Morris), Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz), Marley (Melissa Benoist), Kitty (Becca Tobin) and Unique (Alex Newell) dressed up as the Spice Girls and performed the song "Wannabe" on the 17th episode of the fourth season of the show. In April 2016, the Italian variety show Laura & Paola on Rai 1 featured the hosts, Grammy Award-winning singer Laura Pausini and actress Paola Cortellesi, and their guests, Francesca Michielin, Margherita Buy and Claudia Gerini, dressed up as the Spice Girls to perform a medley of Spice Girls songs as part of a 20th-anniversary tribute to the band. In December 2016, the episode "Who Needs Josh When You Have a Girl Group?" of the musical comedy-drama series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend featured cast members Rachel Bloom, Gabrielle Ruiz and Vella Lovell performing an original song titled "Friendtopia", a parody of the Spice Girls' songs and "girl power" philosophy. Rapper Aminé's 2017 single "Spice Girl" is a reference to the group, and the song's music video includes an appearance by Brown. Other songs that reference the Spice Girls include "Grigio Girls" by Lady Gaga, "My Name Is" by Eminem, "Polka Power!" (a reference to "Girl Power") by "Weird Al" Yankovic, "Playinwitme" by Kyle and Kehlani, "Kinky" by Kesha, and "Spicy" by Diplo, Herve Pagez and Charli XCX.
In the late 1990s, Spice Girls parodies appeared in various American sketch comedy shows including Saturday Night Live (SNL), Mad TV and All That. A January 1998 episode of SNL featured cast members, including guest host Sarah Michelle Gellar, impersonating the Spice Girls for two "An Important Message About ..." sketches. In September 1998, the show once again featured cast members, including guest host Cameron Diaz, impersonating the Spice Girls for a sketch titled "A Message from the Spice Girls". Nickelodeon's All That had recurring sketches with the fictional boy band "The Spice Boys", featuring cast members Nick Cannon as "Sweaty Spice", Kenan Thompson as "Spice Cube", Danny Tamberelli as "Hairy Spice", Josh Server as "Mumbly Spice", and a skeleton prop as "Dead Spice".
Parodies of the Spice Girls have also appeared in major advertising campaigns. In 1997, Jack in the Box, an American fast-food chain restaurant, sought to capitalise on "Spice mania" in America by launching a national television campaign using a fictional girl group called the Spicy Crispy Chicks (a take off of the Spice Girls) to promote the new Spicy Crispy Sandwich. The Spicy Crispy Chicks concept was used as a model for another successful advertising campaign called the 'Meaty Cheesy Boys'.*
At the 1998 Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show, one of the Spicy Crispy Chicks commercials won the top award for humour. In 2001, prints adverts featuring a parody of the Spice Girls, along with other British music icons consisting of the Beatles, Elton John, Freddie Mercury and the Rolling Stones, were used in the Eurostar national advertising campaign in France. The campaign won the award for Best Outdoor Campaign at the French advertising CDA awards. In September 2016, an Apple Music advert premiered during the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards that featured comedian James Corden dressed up as various music icons including all five of the Spice Girls.
Other notable groups of people have been labelled as some variation of a play-on-words on the Spice Girls' name as an allusion to the band. In 1997, the term "Spice Boys" emerged in the British media as a term coined to characterise the "pop star" antics and lifestyles off the pitch of a group of Liverpool F.C. footballers that includes Jamie Redknapp, David James, Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler and Jason McAteer. The label has stuck with these footballers ever since, with John Scales, one of the so-called Spice Boys, admitting in 2015 that, "We're the Spice Boys and it's something we have to accept because it will never change." In the Philippines, the "Spice Boys" tag was given to a group of young Congressmen of the House of Representatives who initiated the impeachment of President Joseph Estrada in 2001. The Australian/British string quartet Bond were dubbed by the international press as the "Spice Girls of classical music" during their launch in 2000 due to their "sexy" image and classical crossover music that incorporated elements of pop and dance music. A spokeswoman for the quartet said in response to the comparisons, "In fact, they are much better looking than the Spice Girls. But we don't welcome comparisons. The Bond girls are proper musicians; they have paid their dues." The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) doubles team of Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova, two-time Grand Slam and two-time WTA Finals Doubles champions, dubbed themselves the "Spice Girls of tennis" in 1999. Hingis and Kournikova, along with fellow WTA players Venus and Serena Williams, were also labelled the "Spice Girls of tennis", then later the "Spite Girls", by the media in the late 1990s due to their youthfulness, popularity and brashness.
Wax sculptures of the Spice Girls are currently on display at the famed Madame Tussaud's New York wax museum. The sculptures of the Spice Girls (sans Halliwell) were first unveiled in December 1999, making them the first pop band to be modelled as a group since the Beatles in 1964 at the time. A sculpture of Halliwell was later made in 2002, and was eventually displayed with the other Spice Girls' sculptures after Halliwell reunited with the band in 2007. Since 2008, Spiceworld: The Exhibition, a travelling exhibition of around 5,000 Spice Girls memorabilia and merchandise, has been shown in museums across the UK. The Spice Girls Exhibition, a collection of over 1,000 Spice Girls items owned by Alan Smith-Allison, was held at the Trakasol Cultural Centre in Limassol Marina, Cyprus in the summer of 2016. Wannabe 1996–2016: A Spice Girls Art Exhibition, an exhibition of Spice Girls-inspired art, was held at The Ballery in Berlin in 2016 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the group's debut single, "Wannabe".
Discography
Spice (1996)
Spiceworld (1997)
Forever'' (2000)
Concerts
Girl Power! Live in Istanbul (1997)
Spiceworld Tour (1998)
Christmas in Spiceworld Tour (1999)
The Return of the Spice Girls Tour (2007–08)
Spice World – 2019 Tour (2019)
Members
Victoria Beckham (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012)
Melanie Brown (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Emma Bunton (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Melanie Chisholm (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2018–present)
Geri Halliwell (1994–1998, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Timeline
Publications
Books
Magazines
See also
List of best-selling girl groups
List of awards received by the Spice Girls
Notes
References
Citations
Book references
External links
1994 establishments in England
1994 establishments in the United Kingdom
Brit Award winners
MTV Europe Music Award winners
English pop girl groups
English dance music groups
Dance-pop groups
Teen pop groups
Feminist musicians
Ivor Novello Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Musical groups established in 1994
Musical groups disestablished in 2000
Musical groups reestablished in 2007
Musical groups disestablished in 2008
Musical groups reestablished in 2018
Musical groups from London
Virgin Records artists
World Music Awards winners
English pop music groups
Golden Raspberry Award winners | true | [
"This is a list of science fiction films released in the 2000s. These films include core elements of science fiction, but can cross into other genres. They have been released to a cinema audience by the commercial film industry and are widely distributed with reviews by reputable critics. Collectively, the science fiction films from the 2000s have received six Academy Awards, twenty Saturn Awards, two Hugo Awards, one Nebula Award, five BAFTA awards, and six Magritte Awards. However, these films also received 17 Golden Raspberry Awards.\n\nList\n\nSee also \n\n List of science fiction films of the 2010s\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\nLists of 2000s films by genre\n2000s",
"A list of science fiction films released in the 1980s. These films include core elements of science fiction, but can cross into other genres. They have been released to a cinema audience by the commercial film industry and are widely distributed with reviews by reputable critics.\n\nCollectively, the science fiction films from the 1980s have received 14 Academy Awards, 11 Saturn Awards, six Hugo Awards, five BAFTA awards, four BSFA Awards, and one Golden Globe Award. Four of these movies were the highest-grossing films of their respective years of release. However, these films also received nine Golden Raspberry Awards.\n\nList\n\nSee also\n History of science fiction films\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\n1980s\nLists of 1980s films by genre"
]
|
[
"Joe Nieuwendyk",
"New Jersey, Toronto and Florida"
]
| C_5c75e48002524892ab32a86ac7b4fafc_0 | When was he in NEw Jersey? | 1 | When was Joe Nieuwendyk in New Jersey? | Joe Nieuwendyk | New Jersey, who had won the Stanley Cup in 2000 and reached the finals the following year, acquired Nieuwendyk for their playoff run in 2002. He scored 11 points in 14 regular season games for the Devils following the trade, but New Jersey was eliminated in the first round of the 2002 Stanley Cup playoffs by the Carolina Hurricanes. Nieuwendyk reached two offensive milestones in 2002-03. He scored his 500th career goal on January 17, 2003, against Carolina's Kevin Weekes. On February 23, he scored his 1,000th point in a win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. He and the Devils reached the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals, but Nieuwendyk suffered a hip injury in the sixth game of the Eastern Conference Final that prevented him from appearing in the championship series. The Devils defeated the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the final, capturing the franchise's third Stanley Cup. For Nieuwendyk, it was his third title with his third different team. The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Nieuwendyk to a one-year contract for the 2003-04 season. He scored 22 goals for Toronto in a season marred by abdominal and back injuries that limited him to 64 games played, and a groin injury that forced him out of the lineup for much of Toronto's second-round series loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. He signed another one-year deal for 2004-05, but the season was cancelled due to a labour dispute that was feared would mark the end of the 38-year-old Nieuwendyk's career. When NHL play resumed in 2005-06, the Florida Panthers sought to bolster their lineup with veteran players. They signed both Nieuwendyk and Roberts, who had played together in Calgary and Toronto and wanted to finish their careers together, to two-year, $4.5 million contracts. Nieuwendyk appeared in 65 games during the season, scoring 26 goals and 56 points. He appeared in 15 games in 2006-07 before chronic back pain forced him onto injured reserve. After missing 14 games, Nieuwendyk announced his retirement on December 7, 2006. CANNOTANSWER | New Jersey, who had won the Stanley Cup in 2000 and reached the finals the following year, acquired Nieuwendyk for their playoff run in 2002. | Joseph Nieuwendyk ( ; born September 10, 1966) is a Canadian former National Hockey League (NHL) player. He was a second round selection of the Calgary Flames, 27th overall, at the 1985 NHL Entry Draft and played 20 seasons for the Flames, Dallas Stars, New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Florida Panthers. He is one of only 11 players in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup with three or more different teams, winning titles with Calgary in 1989, Dallas in 1999 and New Jersey in 2003. A two-time Olympian, Nieuwendyk won a gold medal with Team Canada at the 2002 winter games. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011 and his uniform number 25 was honoured by the Flames in 2014. Joe Nieuwendyk was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2014. In 2017 Nieuwendyk was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.
An accomplished box lacrosse player, Nieuwendyk led the Whitby Warriors to the 1984 Minto Cup national junior championship before focusing exclusively on hockey. He played university hockey with the Cornell Big Red where he was a two-time All-American. He won the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL rookie of the year in 1988 after becoming only the second first-year player to score 50 goals. He was a four-time All-Star, won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy in 1995 for his leadership and humanitarian work, and was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner in 1999 as most valuable player of the postseason. Nieuwendyk played 1,257 games in his career, scoring 564 goals and 1,126 points.
Chronic back pain forced Nieuwendyk's retirement as a player in 2006. He then began a new career in management, acting first as a consultant to the general manager with the Panthers before moving onto the Maple Leafs where he was an assistant to the general manager. Nieuwendyk was the general manager of the Dallas Stars between 2009 and 2013. He most recently worked as a pro scout and advisor for the Carolina Hurricanes, until resigning his contract April 30, 2018.
Early life
Nieuwendyk was born September 10, 1966 in Oshawa, Ontario, and grew up in Whitby. He is the youngest of four children to Gordon and Joanne Nieuwendyk, who immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands in 1958. Gordon owned a car repair shop in Whitby. Joe grew up in a sporting family. His brother Gil was a box lacrosse player, while his uncle Ed Kea and cousin Jeff Beukeboom also played in the National Hockey League (NHL). His best friend growing up was future NHL teammate Gary Roberts.
He played both hockey and lacrosse growing up and the latter considered his better sport. At one point, Nieuwendyk was considered the top junior lacrosse player in Canada. He earned a spot with the Whitby Warriors junior A team at the age of 15, and was named the most valuable player of the Minto Cup tournament in 1984 when he led the Warriors to the national championship. The Ontario Lacrosse Association later named its junior A rookie of the year award after Nieuwendyk.
Playing career
College
Nieuwendyk went undrafted by any Ontario Hockey League team, and so played a season of junior B for the Pickering Panthers in 1983–84. Eligible for the 1984 NHL Entry Draft but unselected, he chose to attend Cornell University where he played hockey and lacrosse for the Big Red. He was named the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) hockey rookie of the year in 1984–85 after scoring 39 points in 23 games. At the 1985 NHL Entry Draft, the Calgary Flames selected him in the second round, 27th overall, with a pick obtained that day in a trade with the Minnesota North Stars for Kent Nilsson. The disappointment in Calgary over the trade of Nilsson resulted in some criticism of Nieuwendyk's selection, famously leading to a local newspaper to question the moves with the headline "Joe Who?"
Returning to Cornell for the 1985–86 season, Nieuwendyk chose to give up lacrosse in order to focus on hockey. He was named an ECAC first team All-Star in 1985–86 and an NCAA All-American after scoring 42 points in 21 games. In his final season at Cornell, he was named the team's most valuable player and led the ECAC in scoring with 52 points. He was again named an ECAC All-Star and NCAA All-American, and a finalist for the 1987 Hobey Baker Award.
Nieuwendyk chose to forgo his senior year in favour of turning professional. In 81 games with Cornell, Nieuwendyk scored 73 goals and 151 points, both among the highest totals in the school's history. His number 25 jersey was retired by Cornell in 2010, shared with Ken Dryden's number 1 as the first such numbers retired by the hockey team, and believed the first in any sport in the school's varsity sports history. In 2011, he was named one of the 50 greatest players in ECAC history.
Calgary Flames
Once his junior season at Cornell ended, Nieuwendyk joined the national team for five games before turning professional with the Flames. He made his NHL debut on March 10, 1987, against the Washington Capitals and scored his first NHL goal against goaltender Pete Peeters. He appeared in nine regular season games in the 1986–87 NHL season, scoring five goals and one assist, and appeared in six playoff games. Playing his first full season in 1987–88, Nieuwendyk captured the attention of the sports media by scoring 32 goals in his first 42 games to put him on a pace to surpass Mike Bossy's rookie record of 53 goals. Nieuwendyk finished two goals short of Bossy's record, but led the team with 51 goals and was the second first-year player to score at least 50 goals in one season. He played in his first NHL All-Star Game, was named to the All-Rookie Team and was voted the winner of the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL's top rookie.
Nieuwendyk again scored 51 goals in 1988–89 and marked the 100th of his career in his 144th career game. At the time, he was the third fastest player to reach the milestone, behind Bossy (129 games) and Maurice Richard (134 games), and was the third player in league history to score 50 goals in each of his first two seasons (Bossy and Wayne Gretzky). He led the league with 11 game-winning goals and set a Flames franchise record on January 11, 1989, when he scored five goals in one game against the Winnipeg Jets. Nieuwendyk appeared in his second of three-consecutive All-Star Games. In the 1989 Stanley Cup playoffs, he scored 10 goals and four assists to help the Flames win their first- and only -Stanley Cup championship in franchise history. In the clinching game against the Montreal Canadiens, Nieuwendyk set up Lanny McDonald's final NHL goal with a quick pass after receiving the puck from Håkan Loob.
A 45-goal season in 1989–90 was enough for Nieuwendyk to lead the team in goal scoring for the third consecutive season. He missed he first 11 games of the 1991–92 NHL season after suffering a knee injury during a summer evaluation camp for the 1991 Canada Cup. Nieuwendyk began the season as the 12th captain in the Flames franchise history. He was limited to 22 goals and 56 points on the season, but scored his 200th career goal on December 3, 1991, against the Detroit Red Wings. His 230th career goal, scored against the Tampa Bay Lightning on November 13, 1992, established a Flames franchise record for career goals (since broken).
Nieuwendyk entered the 1995–96 season unhappy with his contract status. Unable to come to terms with the Flames, he had gone to arbitration, and was awarded a contract worth C$1.85 million, but insisted on renegotiating the deal into a long-term contract extension. He refused an offer of a three-year, $6 million contract from the Flames, and as the dispute dragged on, chose not to join the team when the season began. He remained a holdout until December 19, 1995, when the Flames traded him to the Dallas Stars in exchange for Jarome Iginla and Corey Millen.
Dallas Stars
The Stars immediately signed Nieuwendyk to a new deal worth US$11.3 million over five years. Bob Gainey, the team's general manager, hoped that the acquisition of Nieuwendyk would help the franchise, which had relocated from Minnesota three years previous, establish its place in Dallas. Nieuwendyk scored 14 goals and 32 points in 52 games with the Stars to finish the 1995–96 season.
Nieuwendyk improved to 30 goals in 1996–97 despite missing the first month of the season with fractured rib cartilage. A 39-goal season followed, but he was again sidelined by injury after appearing in only one game of the 1998 Stanley Cup playoffs. In the opening game of the Stars' first-round series against the San Jose Sharks, he suffered a torn ACL as a result of a check by Bryan Marchment. The injury required two knee surgeries to repair and six months to heal, which caused him to miss the beginning of the 1998–99 NHL season.
He finished the regular season with 28 goals and 55 points in 67 games, and added 11 goals and 10 assists in the 1999 Stanley Cup playoffs to help the Stars win the first Stanley Cup in their franchise history. Six of his playoff goals were game winners, and he was voted the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player of the playoffs. Injuries again limited Nieuwendyk in 1999–2000. He missed ten games due to a bruised chest then suffered a separated shoulder a week after his return that kept him out of the lineup for several weeks. He played only 47 regular season games, but added 23 more in the playoffs as the Stars reached the 2000 Stanley Cup Finals. They lost the series in six games to the New Jersey Devils, however.
Nieuwendyk played in his 1,000th career game on January 20, 2002, against the Chicago Blackhawks. Two months later, on March 19, 2002, he was traded to the Devils, along with Jamie Langenbrunner, in exchange for Jason Arnott, Randy McKay and a first round selection in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft.
New Jersey, Toronto and Florida
New Jersey, who had won the Stanley Cup in 2000 and reached the finals the following year, acquired Nieuwendyk for their playoff run in 2002. He scored 11 points in 14 regular season games for the Devils following the trade, but New Jersey was eliminated in the first round of the 2002 Stanley Cup playoffs by the Carolina Hurricanes. Nieuwendyk reached two offensive milestones in 2002–03. He scored his 500th career goal on January 17, 2003, against Carolina's Kevin Weekes. On February 23, he scored his 1,000th point in a win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. He and the Devils reached the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals, but Nieuwendyk suffered a hip injury in the sixth game of the Eastern Conference Final that prevented him from appearing in the championship series. The Devils defeated the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the final, capturing the franchise's third Stanley Cup. For Nieuwendyk, it was his third title with his third different team.
The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Nieuwendyk to a one-year contract for the 2003–04 season. He scored 22 goals for Toronto in a season marred by abdominal and back injuries that limited him to 64 games played. After scoring two goals in the decisive Game 7 opening round series victory against the Ottawa Senators, a groin injury that forced him out of the lineup for much of Toronto's second-round series loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. He signed another one-year deal for 2004–05, but the season was cancelled due to a labour dispute that was feared would mark the end of the 38-year-old Nieuwendyk's career.
When NHL play resumed in 2005–06, the Florida Panthers sought to bolster their lineup with veteran players. They signed both Nieuwendyk and Roberts, who had played together in Calgary and Toronto and wanted to finish their careers together, to two-year, $4.5 million contracts. Nieuwendyk appeared in 65 games during the season, scoring 26 goals and 56 points. He appeared in 15 games in 2006–07 before chronic back pain forced him onto injured reserve. After missing 14 games, Nieuwendyk announced his retirement on December 7, 2006.
International play
As a member of the Canadian national junior team at the 1986 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, Nieuwendyk scored five goals in seven games to help Canada win a silver medal. His 12 points in the tournament tied him for third in scoring for Team Canada and fourth overall in the tournament. One year later, Nieuwendyk joined the senior national team for the Calgary Cup, a four-team exhibition tournament that served as a preview event for the 1988 Winter Olympics. He scored a goal in each of the first two games, losses to the United States and Czechoslovakia, for the Canadian team that won the bronze medal. He joined the senior team again for the 1990 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, but appeared in only one game after suffering a knee injury. He was invited to Team Canada's summer camp for the 1991 Canada Cup tournament but suffered a knee injury that caused him to miss the entire tournament.
NHL players were first allowed to participate in the Olympic ice hockey tournament in 1998. Nieuwendyk was among the players named to join Canada's "dream team". He scored two goals and three assists in six games, but was one of several Canadian players stopped by Czech goaltender Dominik Hašek in a shootout loss in the semifinals. Canada then dropped a 3–2 decision to Finland to finish fourth. Nieuwendyk played alongside Brendan Shanahan and Theoren Fleury on Canada's checking line at the 2002 Olympic tournament. He scored one goal and helped Canada win its first Olympic hockey gold medal in 50 years.
Playing style
Cliff Fletcher, who drafted him into the NHL, described Nieuwendyk as being a "pre-eminent two-way guy who had 50-goal seasons", adding that "he had a great stick around the net, he had a great shot, he saw the ice well, he could skate, he had the size – he had everything you needed to have. History has indicated that wherever he went, the team was competitive. The more that was on the line in big games, the better Joe played." He was an offensive centre in Calgary and power play specialist, able to withstand the physical punishment required to stand in front of the net and battle defencemen for the puck. He led the NHL in power play goals in 1987–88 with 31 and finished in the top ten on four other occasions. Wayne Gretzky, who also played box lacrosse in his youth, argued that the skills Nieuwendyk learned dodging opposing players in that sport aided his development as a hockey player. Nieuwendyk was regarded as a top faceoff man, a skill that Team Canada relied on during the Olympics. He was a checking-line centre at the 2002 Olympics, relied on for his defensive and faceoff abilities.
Nieuwendyk was regarded as a leader throughout his career. He was the captain of the Flames for four seasons, and his teammates in Dallas praised him as a player who would help guide the younger players as they began their careers. His presence was considered an important factor in New Jersey's 2003 Stanley Cup championship. Devils' general manager Lou Lamoriello praised his impact both on and off the ice: "Certainly (the tangibles were) the quality player he was even at that time, how good he was defensively as well as always finding a way to get big goals. It was also about how good he was on faceoffs. And the intangibles, which are really more tangible than anything, are what he brought in the locker room from leadership and unselfishness. It was obvious that when he didn't play he was still so active in his support. He's genuine in every sense of the word. He was a true team player." Nieuwendyk was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011, and his uniform number 25 was honoured by the Calgary Flames on March 7, 2014, as he was named to the organization's "Forever a Flame" program.
Management career
Remaining in hockey following the end of his playing career, Nieuwendyk joined the Florida Panthers' front office as a consultant to general manager Jacques Martin in 2007. He left the Panthers after one year to join the Maple Leafs as special assistant to general manager Cliff Fletcher in 2008. He served as assistant general manager for the silver-medal winning Canadian national team at the 2009 World Championships, and on June 1, 2009, was named general manager of the Dallas Stars. His ability to make moves was at times limited by the financial difficulty of team owner Tom Hicks. Among Nieuwendyk's decisions in his first two seasons as general manager was to allow popular former captain Mike Modano to leave the organization after 22 years with the franchise in 2010. Nieuwendyk stated such moves were difficult, as he played with Modano and considered him a friend. Nieuwendyk was released as Stars' general manager at the conclusion of the 2012–13 NHL season as team owner Tom Gaglardi stated that the team wanted to "take this organization in a different direction". On September 3, 2014, the Carolina Hurricanes announced they had hired him as a pro scout and advisor. He resigned from his position with Carolina on April 30, 2018.
Personal life
Nieuwendyk and his wife Tina have three children: daughters Tyra and Kaycee and son Jackson. In 1995, while a member of the Flames, Nieuwendyk won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy given annually to the player "who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and who has made a significant humanitarian contribution to his community". He was honoured by the league for his contributions to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), and was a spokesman and honorary chairman of the Foothills Hospital Foundation. He remained active with the SPCA after his trade to Dallas, and following the September 11 attacks, organized a charity softball game that raised $115,000 for charitable groups in the aftermath of the attack. While a member of the Maple Leafs during the lockout, he participated in a charity hockey game organized by cancer survivor and former NHL player Keith Acton that raised $30,000 for cancer and leukemia charities in southern Ontario.
Career statistics
Regular season and playoffs
International
Awards and honours
References
External links
1966 births
Living people
Calder Trophy winners
Calgary Flames captains
Calgary Flames draft picks
Calgary Flames players
Canadian ice hockey centres
Canadian lacrosse players
Canadian people of Dutch descent
Carolina Hurricanes scouts
Conn Smythe Trophy winners
Cornell Big Red men's ice hockey players
Dallas Stars executives
Dallas Stars players
Florida Panthers executives
Florida Panthers players
Hockey Hall of Fame inductees
Sportspeople from Oshawa
Sportspeople from Whitby, Ontario
Ice hockey players at the 1998 Winter Olympics
Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics
King Clancy Memorial Trophy winners
Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics
National Hockey League All-Stars
New Jersey Devils players
Olympic gold medalists for Canada
Olympic ice hockey players of Canada
Olympic medalists in ice hockey
Stanley Cup champions
Toronto Maple Leafs players
Ice hockey people from Ontario
AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans | true | [
"Aaron Dickinson Woodruff (September 12, 1762 – June 24, 1817) was the Attorney General of New Jersey from 1792 to 1811 and from 1812 to 1817.\n\nBiography\nWoodruff was born in 1762 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the oldest child of Elias and Mary Joline Woodruff. In 1779 he graduated from Princeton College as the valedictorian for his class. After serving in the American Revolutionary War, he was admitted to the bar in 1784. He served in the Electoral College and won a seat in the New Jersey General Assembly from Hunterdon County. As a legislator he was influential in having Trenton selected as the state capital in 1790.\n\nIn 1793, he was appointed New Jersey Attorney General and served in the position until 1811, when he was replaced by Andrew S. Hunter. Woodruff, who was a Federalist, was ousted by the Democratic-Republicans who had taken control of the New Jersey Legislature in that year's elections. However, when the Federalists regained control of the Legislature in 1812, they reinstated Woodruff as Attorney General.\n\nWoodruff continued to serve until his death in 1817. He died at the home of his brother-in-law in Changewater (now Warren County, New Jersey).\n\nReferences\n\n1762 births\n1817 deaths\nPoliticians from Elizabeth, New Jersey\nPeople from Hunterdon County, New Jersey\nPrinceton University alumni\nMembers of the New Jersey General Assembly\nNew Jersey Attorneys General",
"Pierre Prosper Garven was the Mayor of Bayonne, New Jersey. He was an alternate delegate to 1916 Republican National Convention for New Jersey. He was the Hudson County Prosecutor of the Pleas in 1919.\n\nBiography\nHe was born on June 9, 1872 in Bayonne, New Jersey.\n\nHe worked as a clerk for the Central Railroad of New Jersey while going to law school. He graduated and became an attorney for the railroad. Garven was very active playing tennis and baseball. In 1899, he married Mary McNaughton. Garven entered politics as a Republican and while the Democratic Party was split, he managed to get elected mayor in 1906. At age 34, he was, at the time, the youngest mayor ever elected and would serve two terms. His bid for a third term was stopped temporarily when he was defeated by Democrat John J. Cain in 1910. \n\nIn 1915, after Mayor Bert J. Daly stepped down there was a special election which Gaven won for the third time. In July 1915, Garven's involvement in the Bayonne refinery strikes of 1915–1916 was somewhat compromised by his simultaneous employment as counsel for Standard Oil of New Jersey. \n\nHe served four more years as mayor until 1919. In 1916, Garven was an alternate delegate to Republican National Convention. He was the leader of the Republican Party of Bayonne from 1906 to 1923. In 1919, Garven became the Hudson County Prosecutor of Pleas. In 1934, he became the Assistant State Attorney General for New Jersey. \n\nGarven suffered a stroke while visiting his daughters and died on October 19, 1938 in the Jersey City Medical Center. He is buried in Bayview – New York Bay Cemetery in Jersey City, New Jersey.\n\nLegacy\nGarven's son Pierre P. Garven was Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court for seven weeks in 1973, from when he took office as Chief Justice on September 1, 1973, to when he died of a stroke on October 19, 1973.\n\nReferences \n\n1872 births\n1938 deaths\nMayors of Bayonne, New Jersey\nBurials at Bayview – New York Bay Cemetery\nNew Jersey Republicans"
]
|
[
"Joe Nieuwendyk",
"New Jersey, Toronto and Florida",
"When was he in NEw Jersey?",
"New Jersey, who had won the Stanley Cup in 2000 and reached the finals the following year, acquired Nieuwendyk for their playoff run in 2002."
]
| C_5c75e48002524892ab32a86ac7b4fafc_0 | did he set any records in that game? | 2 | did Joe Nieuwendyk set any records in the 2000 Stanley Cup? | Joe Nieuwendyk | New Jersey, who had won the Stanley Cup in 2000 and reached the finals the following year, acquired Nieuwendyk for their playoff run in 2002. He scored 11 points in 14 regular season games for the Devils following the trade, but New Jersey was eliminated in the first round of the 2002 Stanley Cup playoffs by the Carolina Hurricanes. Nieuwendyk reached two offensive milestones in 2002-03. He scored his 500th career goal on January 17, 2003, against Carolina's Kevin Weekes. On February 23, he scored his 1,000th point in a win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. He and the Devils reached the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals, but Nieuwendyk suffered a hip injury in the sixth game of the Eastern Conference Final that prevented him from appearing in the championship series. The Devils defeated the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the final, capturing the franchise's third Stanley Cup. For Nieuwendyk, it was his third title with his third different team. The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Nieuwendyk to a one-year contract for the 2003-04 season. He scored 22 goals for Toronto in a season marred by abdominal and back injuries that limited him to 64 games played, and a groin injury that forced him out of the lineup for much of Toronto's second-round series loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. He signed another one-year deal for 2004-05, but the season was cancelled due to a labour dispute that was feared would mark the end of the 38-year-old Nieuwendyk's career. When NHL play resumed in 2005-06, the Florida Panthers sought to bolster their lineup with veteran players. They signed both Nieuwendyk and Roberts, who had played together in Calgary and Toronto and wanted to finish their careers together, to two-year, $4.5 million contracts. Nieuwendyk appeared in 65 games during the season, scoring 26 goals and 56 points. He appeared in 15 games in 2006-07 before chronic back pain forced him onto injured reserve. After missing 14 games, Nieuwendyk announced his retirement on December 7, 2006. CANNOTANSWER | He scored 11 points in 14 regular season games for the Devils following the trade, | Joseph Nieuwendyk ( ; born September 10, 1966) is a Canadian former National Hockey League (NHL) player. He was a second round selection of the Calgary Flames, 27th overall, at the 1985 NHL Entry Draft and played 20 seasons for the Flames, Dallas Stars, New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Florida Panthers. He is one of only 11 players in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup with three or more different teams, winning titles with Calgary in 1989, Dallas in 1999 and New Jersey in 2003. A two-time Olympian, Nieuwendyk won a gold medal with Team Canada at the 2002 winter games. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011 and his uniform number 25 was honoured by the Flames in 2014. Joe Nieuwendyk was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2014. In 2017 Nieuwendyk was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.
An accomplished box lacrosse player, Nieuwendyk led the Whitby Warriors to the 1984 Minto Cup national junior championship before focusing exclusively on hockey. He played university hockey with the Cornell Big Red where he was a two-time All-American. He won the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL rookie of the year in 1988 after becoming only the second first-year player to score 50 goals. He was a four-time All-Star, won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy in 1995 for his leadership and humanitarian work, and was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner in 1999 as most valuable player of the postseason. Nieuwendyk played 1,257 games in his career, scoring 564 goals and 1,126 points.
Chronic back pain forced Nieuwendyk's retirement as a player in 2006. He then began a new career in management, acting first as a consultant to the general manager with the Panthers before moving onto the Maple Leafs where he was an assistant to the general manager. Nieuwendyk was the general manager of the Dallas Stars between 2009 and 2013. He most recently worked as a pro scout and advisor for the Carolina Hurricanes, until resigning his contract April 30, 2018.
Early life
Nieuwendyk was born September 10, 1966 in Oshawa, Ontario, and grew up in Whitby. He is the youngest of four children to Gordon and Joanne Nieuwendyk, who immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands in 1958. Gordon owned a car repair shop in Whitby. Joe grew up in a sporting family. His brother Gil was a box lacrosse player, while his uncle Ed Kea and cousin Jeff Beukeboom also played in the National Hockey League (NHL). His best friend growing up was future NHL teammate Gary Roberts.
He played both hockey and lacrosse growing up and the latter considered his better sport. At one point, Nieuwendyk was considered the top junior lacrosse player in Canada. He earned a spot with the Whitby Warriors junior A team at the age of 15, and was named the most valuable player of the Minto Cup tournament in 1984 when he led the Warriors to the national championship. The Ontario Lacrosse Association later named its junior A rookie of the year award after Nieuwendyk.
Playing career
College
Nieuwendyk went undrafted by any Ontario Hockey League team, and so played a season of junior B for the Pickering Panthers in 1983–84. Eligible for the 1984 NHL Entry Draft but unselected, he chose to attend Cornell University where he played hockey and lacrosse for the Big Red. He was named the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) hockey rookie of the year in 1984–85 after scoring 39 points in 23 games. At the 1985 NHL Entry Draft, the Calgary Flames selected him in the second round, 27th overall, with a pick obtained that day in a trade with the Minnesota North Stars for Kent Nilsson. The disappointment in Calgary over the trade of Nilsson resulted in some criticism of Nieuwendyk's selection, famously leading to a local newspaper to question the moves with the headline "Joe Who?"
Returning to Cornell for the 1985–86 season, Nieuwendyk chose to give up lacrosse in order to focus on hockey. He was named an ECAC first team All-Star in 1985–86 and an NCAA All-American after scoring 42 points in 21 games. In his final season at Cornell, he was named the team's most valuable player and led the ECAC in scoring with 52 points. He was again named an ECAC All-Star and NCAA All-American, and a finalist for the 1987 Hobey Baker Award.
Nieuwendyk chose to forgo his senior year in favour of turning professional. In 81 games with Cornell, Nieuwendyk scored 73 goals and 151 points, both among the highest totals in the school's history. His number 25 jersey was retired by Cornell in 2010, shared with Ken Dryden's number 1 as the first such numbers retired by the hockey team, and believed the first in any sport in the school's varsity sports history. In 2011, he was named one of the 50 greatest players in ECAC history.
Calgary Flames
Once his junior season at Cornell ended, Nieuwendyk joined the national team for five games before turning professional with the Flames. He made his NHL debut on March 10, 1987, against the Washington Capitals and scored his first NHL goal against goaltender Pete Peeters. He appeared in nine regular season games in the 1986–87 NHL season, scoring five goals and one assist, and appeared in six playoff games. Playing his first full season in 1987–88, Nieuwendyk captured the attention of the sports media by scoring 32 goals in his first 42 games to put him on a pace to surpass Mike Bossy's rookie record of 53 goals. Nieuwendyk finished two goals short of Bossy's record, but led the team with 51 goals and was the second first-year player to score at least 50 goals in one season. He played in his first NHL All-Star Game, was named to the All-Rookie Team and was voted the winner of the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL's top rookie.
Nieuwendyk again scored 51 goals in 1988–89 and marked the 100th of his career in his 144th career game. At the time, he was the third fastest player to reach the milestone, behind Bossy (129 games) and Maurice Richard (134 games), and was the third player in league history to score 50 goals in each of his first two seasons (Bossy and Wayne Gretzky). He led the league with 11 game-winning goals and set a Flames franchise record on January 11, 1989, when he scored five goals in one game against the Winnipeg Jets. Nieuwendyk appeared in his second of three-consecutive All-Star Games. In the 1989 Stanley Cup playoffs, he scored 10 goals and four assists to help the Flames win their first- and only -Stanley Cup championship in franchise history. In the clinching game against the Montreal Canadiens, Nieuwendyk set up Lanny McDonald's final NHL goal with a quick pass after receiving the puck from Håkan Loob.
A 45-goal season in 1989–90 was enough for Nieuwendyk to lead the team in goal scoring for the third consecutive season. He missed he first 11 games of the 1991–92 NHL season after suffering a knee injury during a summer evaluation camp for the 1991 Canada Cup. Nieuwendyk began the season as the 12th captain in the Flames franchise history. He was limited to 22 goals and 56 points on the season, but scored his 200th career goal on December 3, 1991, against the Detroit Red Wings. His 230th career goal, scored against the Tampa Bay Lightning on November 13, 1992, established a Flames franchise record for career goals (since broken).
Nieuwendyk entered the 1995–96 season unhappy with his contract status. Unable to come to terms with the Flames, he had gone to arbitration, and was awarded a contract worth C$1.85 million, but insisted on renegotiating the deal into a long-term contract extension. He refused an offer of a three-year, $6 million contract from the Flames, and as the dispute dragged on, chose not to join the team when the season began. He remained a holdout until December 19, 1995, when the Flames traded him to the Dallas Stars in exchange for Jarome Iginla and Corey Millen.
Dallas Stars
The Stars immediately signed Nieuwendyk to a new deal worth US$11.3 million over five years. Bob Gainey, the team's general manager, hoped that the acquisition of Nieuwendyk would help the franchise, which had relocated from Minnesota three years previous, establish its place in Dallas. Nieuwendyk scored 14 goals and 32 points in 52 games with the Stars to finish the 1995–96 season.
Nieuwendyk improved to 30 goals in 1996–97 despite missing the first month of the season with fractured rib cartilage. A 39-goal season followed, but he was again sidelined by injury after appearing in only one game of the 1998 Stanley Cup playoffs. In the opening game of the Stars' first-round series against the San Jose Sharks, he suffered a torn ACL as a result of a check by Bryan Marchment. The injury required two knee surgeries to repair and six months to heal, which caused him to miss the beginning of the 1998–99 NHL season.
He finished the regular season with 28 goals and 55 points in 67 games, and added 11 goals and 10 assists in the 1999 Stanley Cup playoffs to help the Stars win the first Stanley Cup in their franchise history. Six of his playoff goals were game winners, and he was voted the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player of the playoffs. Injuries again limited Nieuwendyk in 1999–2000. He missed ten games due to a bruised chest then suffered a separated shoulder a week after his return that kept him out of the lineup for several weeks. He played only 47 regular season games, but added 23 more in the playoffs as the Stars reached the 2000 Stanley Cup Finals. They lost the series in six games to the New Jersey Devils, however.
Nieuwendyk played in his 1,000th career game on January 20, 2002, against the Chicago Blackhawks. Two months later, on March 19, 2002, he was traded to the Devils, along with Jamie Langenbrunner, in exchange for Jason Arnott, Randy McKay and a first round selection in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft.
New Jersey, Toronto and Florida
New Jersey, who had won the Stanley Cup in 2000 and reached the finals the following year, acquired Nieuwendyk for their playoff run in 2002. He scored 11 points in 14 regular season games for the Devils following the trade, but New Jersey was eliminated in the first round of the 2002 Stanley Cup playoffs by the Carolina Hurricanes. Nieuwendyk reached two offensive milestones in 2002–03. He scored his 500th career goal on January 17, 2003, against Carolina's Kevin Weekes. On February 23, he scored his 1,000th point in a win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. He and the Devils reached the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals, but Nieuwendyk suffered a hip injury in the sixth game of the Eastern Conference Final that prevented him from appearing in the championship series. The Devils defeated the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the final, capturing the franchise's third Stanley Cup. For Nieuwendyk, it was his third title with his third different team.
The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Nieuwendyk to a one-year contract for the 2003–04 season. He scored 22 goals for Toronto in a season marred by abdominal and back injuries that limited him to 64 games played. After scoring two goals in the decisive Game 7 opening round series victory against the Ottawa Senators, a groin injury that forced him out of the lineup for much of Toronto's second-round series loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. He signed another one-year deal for 2004–05, but the season was cancelled due to a labour dispute that was feared would mark the end of the 38-year-old Nieuwendyk's career.
When NHL play resumed in 2005–06, the Florida Panthers sought to bolster their lineup with veteran players. They signed both Nieuwendyk and Roberts, who had played together in Calgary and Toronto and wanted to finish their careers together, to two-year, $4.5 million contracts. Nieuwendyk appeared in 65 games during the season, scoring 26 goals and 56 points. He appeared in 15 games in 2006–07 before chronic back pain forced him onto injured reserve. After missing 14 games, Nieuwendyk announced his retirement on December 7, 2006.
International play
As a member of the Canadian national junior team at the 1986 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, Nieuwendyk scored five goals in seven games to help Canada win a silver medal. His 12 points in the tournament tied him for third in scoring for Team Canada and fourth overall in the tournament. One year later, Nieuwendyk joined the senior national team for the Calgary Cup, a four-team exhibition tournament that served as a preview event for the 1988 Winter Olympics. He scored a goal in each of the first two games, losses to the United States and Czechoslovakia, for the Canadian team that won the bronze medal. He joined the senior team again for the 1990 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, but appeared in only one game after suffering a knee injury. He was invited to Team Canada's summer camp for the 1991 Canada Cup tournament but suffered a knee injury that caused him to miss the entire tournament.
NHL players were first allowed to participate in the Olympic ice hockey tournament in 1998. Nieuwendyk was among the players named to join Canada's "dream team". He scored two goals and three assists in six games, but was one of several Canadian players stopped by Czech goaltender Dominik Hašek in a shootout loss in the semifinals. Canada then dropped a 3–2 decision to Finland to finish fourth. Nieuwendyk played alongside Brendan Shanahan and Theoren Fleury on Canada's checking line at the 2002 Olympic tournament. He scored one goal and helped Canada win its first Olympic hockey gold medal in 50 years.
Playing style
Cliff Fletcher, who drafted him into the NHL, described Nieuwendyk as being a "pre-eminent two-way guy who had 50-goal seasons", adding that "he had a great stick around the net, he had a great shot, he saw the ice well, he could skate, he had the size – he had everything you needed to have. History has indicated that wherever he went, the team was competitive. The more that was on the line in big games, the better Joe played." He was an offensive centre in Calgary and power play specialist, able to withstand the physical punishment required to stand in front of the net and battle defencemen for the puck. He led the NHL in power play goals in 1987–88 with 31 and finished in the top ten on four other occasions. Wayne Gretzky, who also played box lacrosse in his youth, argued that the skills Nieuwendyk learned dodging opposing players in that sport aided his development as a hockey player. Nieuwendyk was regarded as a top faceoff man, a skill that Team Canada relied on during the Olympics. He was a checking-line centre at the 2002 Olympics, relied on for his defensive and faceoff abilities.
Nieuwendyk was regarded as a leader throughout his career. He was the captain of the Flames for four seasons, and his teammates in Dallas praised him as a player who would help guide the younger players as they began their careers. His presence was considered an important factor in New Jersey's 2003 Stanley Cup championship. Devils' general manager Lou Lamoriello praised his impact both on and off the ice: "Certainly (the tangibles were) the quality player he was even at that time, how good he was defensively as well as always finding a way to get big goals. It was also about how good he was on faceoffs. And the intangibles, which are really more tangible than anything, are what he brought in the locker room from leadership and unselfishness. It was obvious that when he didn't play he was still so active in his support. He's genuine in every sense of the word. He was a true team player." Nieuwendyk was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011, and his uniform number 25 was honoured by the Calgary Flames on March 7, 2014, as he was named to the organization's "Forever a Flame" program.
Management career
Remaining in hockey following the end of his playing career, Nieuwendyk joined the Florida Panthers' front office as a consultant to general manager Jacques Martin in 2007. He left the Panthers after one year to join the Maple Leafs as special assistant to general manager Cliff Fletcher in 2008. He served as assistant general manager for the silver-medal winning Canadian national team at the 2009 World Championships, and on June 1, 2009, was named general manager of the Dallas Stars. His ability to make moves was at times limited by the financial difficulty of team owner Tom Hicks. Among Nieuwendyk's decisions in his first two seasons as general manager was to allow popular former captain Mike Modano to leave the organization after 22 years with the franchise in 2010. Nieuwendyk stated such moves were difficult, as he played with Modano and considered him a friend. Nieuwendyk was released as Stars' general manager at the conclusion of the 2012–13 NHL season as team owner Tom Gaglardi stated that the team wanted to "take this organization in a different direction". On September 3, 2014, the Carolina Hurricanes announced they had hired him as a pro scout and advisor. He resigned from his position with Carolina on April 30, 2018.
Personal life
Nieuwendyk and his wife Tina have three children: daughters Tyra and Kaycee and son Jackson. In 1995, while a member of the Flames, Nieuwendyk won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy given annually to the player "who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and who has made a significant humanitarian contribution to his community". He was honoured by the league for his contributions to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), and was a spokesman and honorary chairman of the Foothills Hospital Foundation. He remained active with the SPCA after his trade to Dallas, and following the September 11 attacks, organized a charity softball game that raised $115,000 for charitable groups in the aftermath of the attack. While a member of the Maple Leafs during the lockout, he participated in a charity hockey game organized by cancer survivor and former NHL player Keith Acton that raised $30,000 for cancer and leukemia charities in southern Ontario.
Career statistics
Regular season and playoffs
International
Awards and honours
References
External links
1966 births
Living people
Calder Trophy winners
Calgary Flames captains
Calgary Flames draft picks
Calgary Flames players
Canadian ice hockey centres
Canadian lacrosse players
Canadian people of Dutch descent
Carolina Hurricanes scouts
Conn Smythe Trophy winners
Cornell Big Red men's ice hockey players
Dallas Stars executives
Dallas Stars players
Florida Panthers executives
Florida Panthers players
Hockey Hall of Fame inductees
Sportspeople from Oshawa
Sportspeople from Whitby, Ontario
Ice hockey players at the 1998 Winter Olympics
Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics
King Clancy Memorial Trophy winners
Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics
National Hockey League All-Stars
New Jersey Devils players
Olympic gold medalists for Canada
Olympic ice hockey players of Canada
Olympic medalists in ice hockey
Stanley Cup champions
Toronto Maple Leafs players
Ice hockey people from Ontario
AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans | true | [
"The Nashville Sounds Minor League Baseball team has played in Nashville, Tennessee, since being established in 1978 as an expansion team of the Double-A Southern League. They moved up to Triple-A in 1985 as members of the American Association, joined the Pacific Coast League in 1998, and were placed in the Triple-A East in 2021. In the history of the franchise, numerous players and teams have set records in various statistical areas during single games, entire seasons, or their Sounds careers.\n\nOf the nine Sounds who hold the 19 career records tracked by the team, Tim Dillard holds the most, with seven. He is followed by Skeeter Barnes and Chad Hermansen, with three each; and Keith Brown, Mark Corey, Hugh Kemp, Otis Nixon, Tike Redman, and Joey Wendle, with one each. Dillard holds the most franchise records, with eight. He is followed by Jamie Werly, with six; and Steve Balboni and Skeeter Barnes, who hold four records each.\n\nCombined, the team and individual players hold 35 league records: 13 in the Southern League, one in the American Association, 16 in the Pacific Coast League, and five in the Triple-A East. Individual players hold seven Southern League, one American Association, two Pacific Coast League, and two Triple-A East Records records. The franchise set the Southern League season attendance record in 1980 and the single game attendance record in 1982. Many of the Pacific Coast League records were set on May 5–6, 2006, when the Sounds participated in a 24-inning game against the New Orleans Zephyrs, which matched the longest game, in terms of innings played, in the league's history.\n\nTable key\n\nIndividual career records\nThese are records of players who led in distinct statistical categories during their career with the Sounds.\n\nCareer batting\n\nCareer pitching\n\nIndividual single-season records\nThese are records of individual players who led in distinct statistical categories during a single season.\n\nSingle-season batting\n\nSingle-season pitching\n\nIndividual single-game records\nThese are records of individual players who led in distinct statistical categories during a single game.\n\nSingle-game batting\n\nSingle-game pitching\n\nTeam season records\nThese are records of Sounds teams with the best and worst performances in distinct statistical categories during a single season.\n\nSeason general\n\nSeason batting\n\nSeason pitching\n\nSeason fielding\n\nTeam single-game records\nThese are records of Sounds teams which led in distinct statistical categories during a single game.\n\nSingle-game batting\n\nSingle-game pitching\n\nAttendance records\n\nThese are records of attendance at Sounds home games. The team has had two home ballparks: Herschel Greer Stadium (1978–2014) and First Horizon Park (2015–present).\n\nMiscellaneous records\nThese are records of individual players and Sounds teams that do not fit into any of the preceding categories.\n\nIndividual\n\nTeam\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\nSpecific\n\nGeneral\n\nRecords",
"Andy Murray defeated the four-time defending champion Novak Djokovic in the final, 6–3, 6–4, to win the singles title at the 2016 ATP World Tour Finals. With the win, Murray attained the year-end No. 1 ranking for the first time.\n\nRoger Federer, whose season was curtailed by injury, did not qualify for the ATP year-end championships for the first time since 2001, thus ending his record streak of 14 consecutive appearances. He also fell to number 16 in the ATP rankings as a result, the first time he was ranked out of the top 10 since August 12, 2002, thus ending his streak of 734 consecutive weeks in the top 10. Rafael Nadal qualified, but withdrew due to injury. Gaël Monfils, Dominic Thiem and David Goffin (as an alternate replacing Monfils) made their debuts in the event.\n\nSeeds\n\nAlternates\n\nDraw\n\nFinals\n\nGroup John McEnroe\n{{4TeamRR-TennisWide\n|title-1=\n|title-2=RR W–L\n|title-3=Set W–L\n|title-4=Game W–L\n|title-5=Standings\n\n|seed-1=1\n|team-1-abbrev= Murray\n|team-1=\n|match-w/l-1=3–0\n|set-w/l-1=6–1 (85.7%)\n|game-w/l-1=\n|standings-1=1\n\n|seed-2=3\n|team-2-abbrev= Wawrinka \n|team-2= \n|match-w/l-2=1–2 \n|set-w/l-2=2–4 (33.3%)\n|game-w/l-2=\n|standings-2=3\n\n|seed-3=5\n|team-3-abbrev= Nishikori\n|team-3=\n|match-w/l-3=1–2\n|set-w/l-3=4–4 (50.0%) \n|game-w/l-3=\n|standings-3=2\n\n|seed-4=7\n|team-4-abbrev= Čilić \n|team-4= \n|match-w/l-4=1–2\n|set-w/l-4=2–5 (28.6%) \n|game-w/l-4= \n|standings-4=4\n\n|color-row-1=|1v2=6–4, 6–2|1v3=6–7(9–11), 6–4, 6–4|1v4=6–3, 6–2|color-row-2=|2v1=4–6, 2–6|2v3=2–6, 3–6 |2v4=7–6(7–3), 7–6(7–3)|color-row-3=|3v1=7–6(11–9), 4–6, 4–6|3v2=6–2, 6–3|3v4=6–3, 2–6, 3–6\n|color-row-4=|4v1=3–6, 2–6 |4v2=6–7(3–7), 6–7(3–7) |4v3=3–6, 6–2, 6–3}}Standings are determined by: 1. number of wins; 2. number of matches; 3. in two-players-ties, head-to-head records; 4. in three-players-ties, percentage of sets won, then percentage of games won, then head-to-head records; 5. ATP rankings.\n\nGroup Ivan Lendl\n{{4TeamRR-TennisWide\n|title-1=\n|title-2=RR W–L\n|title-3=Set W–L\n|title-4=Game W–L\n|title-5=Standings\n\n|seed-1=2\n|team-1-abbrev= Djokovic|team-1=|match-w/l-1=3–0 |set-w/l-1=6–1 (85.7%)|game-w/l-1=|standings-1=1|seed-2=4\n|team-2-abbrev= Raonic|team-2=|match-w/l-2=2–1 |set-w/l-2=4–2 (66.7%)|game-w/l-2=|standings-2=2|seed-3=69\n|team-3-abbrev= Monfils Goffin\n|team-3= David Goffin\n|match-w/l-3=0–20–1\n|set-w/l-3=1–4 (20.0%)\n|game-w/l-3=3–12 (20.0%)\n|standings-3=X4\n\n|seed-4=8\n|team-4-abbrev= Thiem\n|team-4=\n|match-w/l-4=1–2\n|set-w/l-4=3–5 (37.5%)\n|game-w/l-4=\n|standings-4=3\n\n|color-row-1=|1v2=7–6(8–6), 7–6(7–5) |1v3=6–1, 6–2(w/ Goffin) |1v4=Standings are determined by: 1. number of wins; 2. number of matches; 3. in two-players-ties, head-to-head records; 4. in three-players-ties, percentage of sets won, then percentage of games won, then head-to-head records; 5. ATP rankings.\n\nReferences\n\nMain Draw\n\nExternal links \nOfficial Website\n\nSingles"
]
|
[
"Joe Nieuwendyk",
"New Jersey, Toronto and Florida",
"When was he in NEw Jersey?",
"New Jersey, who had won the Stanley Cup in 2000 and reached the finals the following year, acquired Nieuwendyk for their playoff run in 2002.",
"did he set any records in that game?",
"He scored 11 points in 14 regular season games for the Devils following the trade,"
]
| C_5c75e48002524892ab32a86ac7b4fafc_0 | when did he go to toronoto? | 3 | when did Joe Nieuwendyk go to toronoto? | Joe Nieuwendyk | New Jersey, who had won the Stanley Cup in 2000 and reached the finals the following year, acquired Nieuwendyk for their playoff run in 2002. He scored 11 points in 14 regular season games for the Devils following the trade, but New Jersey was eliminated in the first round of the 2002 Stanley Cup playoffs by the Carolina Hurricanes. Nieuwendyk reached two offensive milestones in 2002-03. He scored his 500th career goal on January 17, 2003, against Carolina's Kevin Weekes. On February 23, he scored his 1,000th point in a win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. He and the Devils reached the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals, but Nieuwendyk suffered a hip injury in the sixth game of the Eastern Conference Final that prevented him from appearing in the championship series. The Devils defeated the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the final, capturing the franchise's third Stanley Cup. For Nieuwendyk, it was his third title with his third different team. The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Nieuwendyk to a one-year contract for the 2003-04 season. He scored 22 goals for Toronto in a season marred by abdominal and back injuries that limited him to 64 games played, and a groin injury that forced him out of the lineup for much of Toronto's second-round series loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. He signed another one-year deal for 2004-05, but the season was cancelled due to a labour dispute that was feared would mark the end of the 38-year-old Nieuwendyk's career. When NHL play resumed in 2005-06, the Florida Panthers sought to bolster their lineup with veteran players. They signed both Nieuwendyk and Roberts, who had played together in Calgary and Toronto and wanted to finish their careers together, to two-year, $4.5 million contracts. Nieuwendyk appeared in 65 games during the season, scoring 26 goals and 56 points. He appeared in 15 games in 2006-07 before chronic back pain forced him onto injured reserve. After missing 14 games, Nieuwendyk announced his retirement on December 7, 2006. CANNOTANSWER | The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Nieuwendyk to a one-year contract for the 2003-04 season. | Joseph Nieuwendyk ( ; born September 10, 1966) is a Canadian former National Hockey League (NHL) player. He was a second round selection of the Calgary Flames, 27th overall, at the 1985 NHL Entry Draft and played 20 seasons for the Flames, Dallas Stars, New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Florida Panthers. He is one of only 11 players in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup with three or more different teams, winning titles with Calgary in 1989, Dallas in 1999 and New Jersey in 2003. A two-time Olympian, Nieuwendyk won a gold medal with Team Canada at the 2002 winter games. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011 and his uniform number 25 was honoured by the Flames in 2014. Joe Nieuwendyk was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2014. In 2017 Nieuwendyk was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.
An accomplished box lacrosse player, Nieuwendyk led the Whitby Warriors to the 1984 Minto Cup national junior championship before focusing exclusively on hockey. He played university hockey with the Cornell Big Red where he was a two-time All-American. He won the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL rookie of the year in 1988 after becoming only the second first-year player to score 50 goals. He was a four-time All-Star, won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy in 1995 for his leadership and humanitarian work, and was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner in 1999 as most valuable player of the postseason. Nieuwendyk played 1,257 games in his career, scoring 564 goals and 1,126 points.
Chronic back pain forced Nieuwendyk's retirement as a player in 2006. He then began a new career in management, acting first as a consultant to the general manager with the Panthers before moving onto the Maple Leafs where he was an assistant to the general manager. Nieuwendyk was the general manager of the Dallas Stars between 2009 and 2013. He most recently worked as a pro scout and advisor for the Carolina Hurricanes, until resigning his contract April 30, 2018.
Early life
Nieuwendyk was born September 10, 1966 in Oshawa, Ontario, and grew up in Whitby. He is the youngest of four children to Gordon and Joanne Nieuwendyk, who immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands in 1958. Gordon owned a car repair shop in Whitby. Joe grew up in a sporting family. His brother Gil was a box lacrosse player, while his uncle Ed Kea and cousin Jeff Beukeboom also played in the National Hockey League (NHL). His best friend growing up was future NHL teammate Gary Roberts.
He played both hockey and lacrosse growing up and the latter considered his better sport. At one point, Nieuwendyk was considered the top junior lacrosse player in Canada. He earned a spot with the Whitby Warriors junior A team at the age of 15, and was named the most valuable player of the Minto Cup tournament in 1984 when he led the Warriors to the national championship. The Ontario Lacrosse Association later named its junior A rookie of the year award after Nieuwendyk.
Playing career
College
Nieuwendyk went undrafted by any Ontario Hockey League team, and so played a season of junior B for the Pickering Panthers in 1983–84. Eligible for the 1984 NHL Entry Draft but unselected, he chose to attend Cornell University where he played hockey and lacrosse for the Big Red. He was named the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) hockey rookie of the year in 1984–85 after scoring 39 points in 23 games. At the 1985 NHL Entry Draft, the Calgary Flames selected him in the second round, 27th overall, with a pick obtained that day in a trade with the Minnesota North Stars for Kent Nilsson. The disappointment in Calgary over the trade of Nilsson resulted in some criticism of Nieuwendyk's selection, famously leading to a local newspaper to question the moves with the headline "Joe Who?"
Returning to Cornell for the 1985–86 season, Nieuwendyk chose to give up lacrosse in order to focus on hockey. He was named an ECAC first team All-Star in 1985–86 and an NCAA All-American after scoring 42 points in 21 games. In his final season at Cornell, he was named the team's most valuable player and led the ECAC in scoring with 52 points. He was again named an ECAC All-Star and NCAA All-American, and a finalist for the 1987 Hobey Baker Award.
Nieuwendyk chose to forgo his senior year in favour of turning professional. In 81 games with Cornell, Nieuwendyk scored 73 goals and 151 points, both among the highest totals in the school's history. His number 25 jersey was retired by Cornell in 2010, shared with Ken Dryden's number 1 as the first such numbers retired by the hockey team, and believed the first in any sport in the school's varsity sports history. In 2011, he was named one of the 50 greatest players in ECAC history.
Calgary Flames
Once his junior season at Cornell ended, Nieuwendyk joined the national team for five games before turning professional with the Flames. He made his NHL debut on March 10, 1987, against the Washington Capitals and scored his first NHL goal against goaltender Pete Peeters. He appeared in nine regular season games in the 1986–87 NHL season, scoring five goals and one assist, and appeared in six playoff games. Playing his first full season in 1987–88, Nieuwendyk captured the attention of the sports media by scoring 32 goals in his first 42 games to put him on a pace to surpass Mike Bossy's rookie record of 53 goals. Nieuwendyk finished two goals short of Bossy's record, but led the team with 51 goals and was the second first-year player to score at least 50 goals in one season. He played in his first NHL All-Star Game, was named to the All-Rookie Team and was voted the winner of the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL's top rookie.
Nieuwendyk again scored 51 goals in 1988–89 and marked the 100th of his career in his 144th career game. At the time, he was the third fastest player to reach the milestone, behind Bossy (129 games) and Maurice Richard (134 games), and was the third player in league history to score 50 goals in each of his first two seasons (Bossy and Wayne Gretzky). He led the league with 11 game-winning goals and set a Flames franchise record on January 11, 1989, when he scored five goals in one game against the Winnipeg Jets. Nieuwendyk appeared in his second of three-consecutive All-Star Games. In the 1989 Stanley Cup playoffs, he scored 10 goals and four assists to help the Flames win their first- and only -Stanley Cup championship in franchise history. In the clinching game against the Montreal Canadiens, Nieuwendyk set up Lanny McDonald's final NHL goal with a quick pass after receiving the puck from Håkan Loob.
A 45-goal season in 1989–90 was enough for Nieuwendyk to lead the team in goal scoring for the third consecutive season. He missed he first 11 games of the 1991–92 NHL season after suffering a knee injury during a summer evaluation camp for the 1991 Canada Cup. Nieuwendyk began the season as the 12th captain in the Flames franchise history. He was limited to 22 goals and 56 points on the season, but scored his 200th career goal on December 3, 1991, against the Detroit Red Wings. His 230th career goal, scored against the Tampa Bay Lightning on November 13, 1992, established a Flames franchise record for career goals (since broken).
Nieuwendyk entered the 1995–96 season unhappy with his contract status. Unable to come to terms with the Flames, he had gone to arbitration, and was awarded a contract worth C$1.85 million, but insisted on renegotiating the deal into a long-term contract extension. He refused an offer of a three-year, $6 million contract from the Flames, and as the dispute dragged on, chose not to join the team when the season began. He remained a holdout until December 19, 1995, when the Flames traded him to the Dallas Stars in exchange for Jarome Iginla and Corey Millen.
Dallas Stars
The Stars immediately signed Nieuwendyk to a new deal worth US$11.3 million over five years. Bob Gainey, the team's general manager, hoped that the acquisition of Nieuwendyk would help the franchise, which had relocated from Minnesota three years previous, establish its place in Dallas. Nieuwendyk scored 14 goals and 32 points in 52 games with the Stars to finish the 1995–96 season.
Nieuwendyk improved to 30 goals in 1996–97 despite missing the first month of the season with fractured rib cartilage. A 39-goal season followed, but he was again sidelined by injury after appearing in only one game of the 1998 Stanley Cup playoffs. In the opening game of the Stars' first-round series against the San Jose Sharks, he suffered a torn ACL as a result of a check by Bryan Marchment. The injury required two knee surgeries to repair and six months to heal, which caused him to miss the beginning of the 1998–99 NHL season.
He finished the regular season with 28 goals and 55 points in 67 games, and added 11 goals and 10 assists in the 1999 Stanley Cup playoffs to help the Stars win the first Stanley Cup in their franchise history. Six of his playoff goals were game winners, and he was voted the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player of the playoffs. Injuries again limited Nieuwendyk in 1999–2000. He missed ten games due to a bruised chest then suffered a separated shoulder a week after his return that kept him out of the lineup for several weeks. He played only 47 regular season games, but added 23 more in the playoffs as the Stars reached the 2000 Stanley Cup Finals. They lost the series in six games to the New Jersey Devils, however.
Nieuwendyk played in his 1,000th career game on January 20, 2002, against the Chicago Blackhawks. Two months later, on March 19, 2002, he was traded to the Devils, along with Jamie Langenbrunner, in exchange for Jason Arnott, Randy McKay and a first round selection in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft.
New Jersey, Toronto and Florida
New Jersey, who had won the Stanley Cup in 2000 and reached the finals the following year, acquired Nieuwendyk for their playoff run in 2002. He scored 11 points in 14 regular season games for the Devils following the trade, but New Jersey was eliminated in the first round of the 2002 Stanley Cup playoffs by the Carolina Hurricanes. Nieuwendyk reached two offensive milestones in 2002–03. He scored his 500th career goal on January 17, 2003, against Carolina's Kevin Weekes. On February 23, he scored his 1,000th point in a win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. He and the Devils reached the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals, but Nieuwendyk suffered a hip injury in the sixth game of the Eastern Conference Final that prevented him from appearing in the championship series. The Devils defeated the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the final, capturing the franchise's third Stanley Cup. For Nieuwendyk, it was his third title with his third different team.
The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Nieuwendyk to a one-year contract for the 2003–04 season. He scored 22 goals for Toronto in a season marred by abdominal and back injuries that limited him to 64 games played. After scoring two goals in the decisive Game 7 opening round series victory against the Ottawa Senators, a groin injury that forced him out of the lineup for much of Toronto's second-round series loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. He signed another one-year deal for 2004–05, but the season was cancelled due to a labour dispute that was feared would mark the end of the 38-year-old Nieuwendyk's career.
When NHL play resumed in 2005–06, the Florida Panthers sought to bolster their lineup with veteran players. They signed both Nieuwendyk and Roberts, who had played together in Calgary and Toronto and wanted to finish their careers together, to two-year, $4.5 million contracts. Nieuwendyk appeared in 65 games during the season, scoring 26 goals and 56 points. He appeared in 15 games in 2006–07 before chronic back pain forced him onto injured reserve. After missing 14 games, Nieuwendyk announced his retirement on December 7, 2006.
International play
As a member of the Canadian national junior team at the 1986 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, Nieuwendyk scored five goals in seven games to help Canada win a silver medal. His 12 points in the tournament tied him for third in scoring for Team Canada and fourth overall in the tournament. One year later, Nieuwendyk joined the senior national team for the Calgary Cup, a four-team exhibition tournament that served as a preview event for the 1988 Winter Olympics. He scored a goal in each of the first two games, losses to the United States and Czechoslovakia, for the Canadian team that won the bronze medal. He joined the senior team again for the 1990 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, but appeared in only one game after suffering a knee injury. He was invited to Team Canada's summer camp for the 1991 Canada Cup tournament but suffered a knee injury that caused him to miss the entire tournament.
NHL players were first allowed to participate in the Olympic ice hockey tournament in 1998. Nieuwendyk was among the players named to join Canada's "dream team". He scored two goals and three assists in six games, but was one of several Canadian players stopped by Czech goaltender Dominik Hašek in a shootout loss in the semifinals. Canada then dropped a 3–2 decision to Finland to finish fourth. Nieuwendyk played alongside Brendan Shanahan and Theoren Fleury on Canada's checking line at the 2002 Olympic tournament. He scored one goal and helped Canada win its first Olympic hockey gold medal in 50 years.
Playing style
Cliff Fletcher, who drafted him into the NHL, described Nieuwendyk as being a "pre-eminent two-way guy who had 50-goal seasons", adding that "he had a great stick around the net, he had a great shot, he saw the ice well, he could skate, he had the size – he had everything you needed to have. History has indicated that wherever he went, the team was competitive. The more that was on the line in big games, the better Joe played." He was an offensive centre in Calgary and power play specialist, able to withstand the physical punishment required to stand in front of the net and battle defencemen for the puck. He led the NHL in power play goals in 1987–88 with 31 and finished in the top ten on four other occasions. Wayne Gretzky, who also played box lacrosse in his youth, argued that the skills Nieuwendyk learned dodging opposing players in that sport aided his development as a hockey player. Nieuwendyk was regarded as a top faceoff man, a skill that Team Canada relied on during the Olympics. He was a checking-line centre at the 2002 Olympics, relied on for his defensive and faceoff abilities.
Nieuwendyk was regarded as a leader throughout his career. He was the captain of the Flames for four seasons, and his teammates in Dallas praised him as a player who would help guide the younger players as they began their careers. His presence was considered an important factor in New Jersey's 2003 Stanley Cup championship. Devils' general manager Lou Lamoriello praised his impact both on and off the ice: "Certainly (the tangibles were) the quality player he was even at that time, how good he was defensively as well as always finding a way to get big goals. It was also about how good he was on faceoffs. And the intangibles, which are really more tangible than anything, are what he brought in the locker room from leadership and unselfishness. It was obvious that when he didn't play he was still so active in his support. He's genuine in every sense of the word. He was a true team player." Nieuwendyk was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011, and his uniform number 25 was honoured by the Calgary Flames on March 7, 2014, as he was named to the organization's "Forever a Flame" program.
Management career
Remaining in hockey following the end of his playing career, Nieuwendyk joined the Florida Panthers' front office as a consultant to general manager Jacques Martin in 2007. He left the Panthers after one year to join the Maple Leafs as special assistant to general manager Cliff Fletcher in 2008. He served as assistant general manager for the silver-medal winning Canadian national team at the 2009 World Championships, and on June 1, 2009, was named general manager of the Dallas Stars. His ability to make moves was at times limited by the financial difficulty of team owner Tom Hicks. Among Nieuwendyk's decisions in his first two seasons as general manager was to allow popular former captain Mike Modano to leave the organization after 22 years with the franchise in 2010. Nieuwendyk stated such moves were difficult, as he played with Modano and considered him a friend. Nieuwendyk was released as Stars' general manager at the conclusion of the 2012–13 NHL season as team owner Tom Gaglardi stated that the team wanted to "take this organization in a different direction". On September 3, 2014, the Carolina Hurricanes announced they had hired him as a pro scout and advisor. He resigned from his position with Carolina on April 30, 2018.
Personal life
Nieuwendyk and his wife Tina have three children: daughters Tyra and Kaycee and son Jackson. In 1995, while a member of the Flames, Nieuwendyk won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy given annually to the player "who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and who has made a significant humanitarian contribution to his community". He was honoured by the league for his contributions to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), and was a spokesman and honorary chairman of the Foothills Hospital Foundation. He remained active with the SPCA after his trade to Dallas, and following the September 11 attacks, organized a charity softball game that raised $115,000 for charitable groups in the aftermath of the attack. While a member of the Maple Leafs during the lockout, he participated in a charity hockey game organized by cancer survivor and former NHL player Keith Acton that raised $30,000 for cancer and leukemia charities in southern Ontario.
Career statistics
Regular season and playoffs
International
Awards and honours
References
External links
1966 births
Living people
Calder Trophy winners
Calgary Flames captains
Calgary Flames draft picks
Calgary Flames players
Canadian ice hockey centres
Canadian lacrosse players
Canadian people of Dutch descent
Carolina Hurricanes scouts
Conn Smythe Trophy winners
Cornell Big Red men's ice hockey players
Dallas Stars executives
Dallas Stars players
Florida Panthers executives
Florida Panthers players
Hockey Hall of Fame inductees
Sportspeople from Oshawa
Sportspeople from Whitby, Ontario
Ice hockey players at the 1998 Winter Olympics
Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics
King Clancy Memorial Trophy winners
Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics
National Hockey League All-Stars
New Jersey Devils players
Olympic gold medalists for Canada
Olympic ice hockey players of Canada
Olympic medalists in ice hockey
Stanley Cup champions
Toronto Maple Leafs players
Ice hockey people from Ontario
AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans | false | [
"In English folklore, the Apple Tree Man is the name given to the spirit of the oldest apple tree in an orchard, and in whom the fertility of the orchard is thought to reside. Tales about the Apple Tree Man were collected by the folklorist Ruth Tongue in the cider-producing county of Somerset. In one story a man offers his last mug of mulled cider to the trees in his orchard on Christmas Eve (a reflection of the custom and ritual of apple wassailing). He is rewarded by the Apple Tree Man who reveals to him the location of buried gold, more than enough to pay his rent.\n\nIn another tale a farm cat was curious to explore some fields that people avoided working because they were haunted by ghosts and witches. She set out one day and got as far as the orchard when the Apple Tree Man cautioned her to go back home, because folks were coming to pour cider for his roots and shoot guns to drive away the witches. He persuaded her not to go wandering around at night until St. Tibb's Eve, and she never did because she did not know when St. Tibb's Eve was, nor did anyone else.\n\nSee also\nApple (symbolism)\nGreen Man\nVegetation deity\nWish tree\n\nReferences\n\nEnglish folklore\nTrees in mythology\nApples\nChristmas characters",
"The habitual aspect is a form of expression connoting repetition or continuous existence of a state of affairs. In standard English, for the present time there is no special grammatical marker for the habitual; the simple present is used, as in I go there (every day). However, for past reference English uses the simple past form or either of two alternative markers: used to as in we used to go there (every Thursday), and would as in back then we would go there (every Thursday).\n\nAfrican-American Vernacular English uses be (habitual be) to indicate that performance of the verb is of a habitual nature.\n\nWould\nThe form [would + infinitive] is employed to talk about a habit or frequent action in a former time. One usually applies [would + infinitive] for the past habitual when one is telling a story about the past.\n When I was a kid, we would often have a drink after class on a Monday.\n When I lived in Romania, we would go to a little bar near our house.\n\nThe past habitual employment of would requires an accompanying indication of the time of occurrence (more specifically than simply before the present): e.g., Last year we would go there frequently, but not simply We would go there frequently.\n\nThis application of would to mark the past habitual is distinct from each of several other uses of would: as a tense marker for future of the past (after that experience we would not try it again for the next three years); as a conditional mood marker (I would do it if I could); and as an indicator of politeness (Would you open the door, please?).\n\nUsed to\nThe linguistic expression used to expresses past states or past habitual actions (usually with the implication that they are no longer so), as in, I used to eat ice cream, or a state of accustomedness, as in I am used to eating ice cream.\n\nIn the first case—the past habitual verbal form—it is followed by the infinitive (that is, the full expression consists of the verb used plus the to-infinitive). The expression used to refers to habits or frequent actions in a former time which we are not done in the present. Thus the statement I used to go to college means that the speaker formerly habitually went to college, and normally implies that this is no longer the case. Less often, this verb form is employed to identify states in the past which are no longer true. For example:\n I used to have short hair (but now I have long hair).\n He used to read (but now he doesn't read).\n They used to live in Iran (but now they live in England).\n\nThis verb form has a phonological distinction: used is pronounced , in contrast to the ordinary verb use and its past form used (as in Scissors are used to cut paper).\n\nUsed to is typically employed without a specific indication of the time of occurrence—e.g., We used to go there frequently.\n\n[Used to + infinitive] expresses the lexical verb’s habitual aspect in the past tense, and is in the indicative mood (and active voice). In informal spoken English questions or negative statements, it is treated like neither a modal nor an auxiliary verb, but as a past tense of an ordinary verb. (Though informal, especially when the \"d\" is pronounced, no direct formal equivalent exists.) Used to forms questions and negatives using did: Did he use(d) to come here? He didn't use(d) to come here. Note that some prescriptivists argue that one should employ 'use' and not 'used' when employed with did:\n Did you use to be a worker?\n Did he use to study in Germany?\n He didn't use to like cake, but he does now.\n I didn't use to want to have an expensive villa.\n\nHowever, it is more standard to ask questions and make negative forms using simple past. Used to implies the idea that something was an old habit that stopped in the past. It indicates that something was often repeated in the past, but it does not usually occur in the present. Used to can also be used to talk about past realities or generalizations which are no longer real. Both simple past and used to can refer to past habits, past facts and past generalizations; however, used to is preferred when emphasizing these forms of past repetition in positive forms. On the other hand, when forming questions or negative sentences, modern prescriptive grammar dictates that the simple past is better.\n\nThe verbal use of used to should not be confused with second case—the adjectival form—of the same expression, meaning \"familiar with, accustomed to\", as in I am used to this, we must get used to the cold.\n\n Verbal form: [used to + (verb)]\n Adjectival form: [(to be) + used to + (complement)] \n\nWhen the adjectival form is followed by a verb, the gerund is used: I am used to going to college in the mornings.\n\nI used to drink black coffee means that in the past I drank black coffee, but now I don't. Used to describes an action that did happen, but does not happen now.\n\n When I was younger I used to play with toys, but I don't any more.\n Before I passed my driving test, I used to cycle.\n I am used to something.\n I am used to drinking black coffee.\n\nIn contrast, I am used to drinking black coffee means that at first drinking black coffee was unusual, but now it has gotten familiar. [to be + used to] tells of a state of affairs that was unfamiliar, but that the speaker/writer is now accustomed to (also sometimes a state of affairs that was once hard and is now simple or easy). I am accustomed to black coffee has the same meaning.\n\n It took me a while, but now I'm used to using this new computer.\n I'm getting used to the abnormal smell in the factory.\n I'll never get used to the heat in Iraq.\n\nIn Longman Language Activator usual uses of used to are shown in the below list:\n used to do something\n there used to be\n never used to be\n didn't use to do something\n used not to do something\n\nVarieties and dialects of English\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nEnglish modal and auxiliary verbs\nGrammatical tenses\nVerb types"
]
|
[
"Joe Nieuwendyk",
"New Jersey, Toronto and Florida",
"When was he in NEw Jersey?",
"New Jersey, who had won the Stanley Cup in 2000 and reached the finals the following year, acquired Nieuwendyk for their playoff run in 2002.",
"did he set any records in that game?",
"He scored 11 points in 14 regular season games for the Devils following the trade,",
"when did he go to toronoto?",
"The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Nieuwendyk to a one-year contract for the 2003-04 season."
]
| C_5c75e48002524892ab32a86ac7b4fafc_0 | how did he play with them? | 4 | how well did Joe Nieuwendyk play with toronto? | Joe Nieuwendyk | New Jersey, who had won the Stanley Cup in 2000 and reached the finals the following year, acquired Nieuwendyk for their playoff run in 2002. He scored 11 points in 14 regular season games for the Devils following the trade, but New Jersey was eliminated in the first round of the 2002 Stanley Cup playoffs by the Carolina Hurricanes. Nieuwendyk reached two offensive milestones in 2002-03. He scored his 500th career goal on January 17, 2003, against Carolina's Kevin Weekes. On February 23, he scored his 1,000th point in a win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. He and the Devils reached the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals, but Nieuwendyk suffered a hip injury in the sixth game of the Eastern Conference Final that prevented him from appearing in the championship series. The Devils defeated the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the final, capturing the franchise's third Stanley Cup. For Nieuwendyk, it was his third title with his third different team. The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Nieuwendyk to a one-year contract for the 2003-04 season. He scored 22 goals for Toronto in a season marred by abdominal and back injuries that limited him to 64 games played, and a groin injury that forced him out of the lineup for much of Toronto's second-round series loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. He signed another one-year deal for 2004-05, but the season was cancelled due to a labour dispute that was feared would mark the end of the 38-year-old Nieuwendyk's career. When NHL play resumed in 2005-06, the Florida Panthers sought to bolster their lineup with veteran players. They signed both Nieuwendyk and Roberts, who had played together in Calgary and Toronto and wanted to finish their careers together, to two-year, $4.5 million contracts. Nieuwendyk appeared in 65 games during the season, scoring 26 goals and 56 points. He appeared in 15 games in 2006-07 before chronic back pain forced him onto injured reserve. After missing 14 games, Nieuwendyk announced his retirement on December 7, 2006. CANNOTANSWER | He scored 22 goals for Toronto in a season marred by abdominal and back injuries that limited him to 64 games played, | Joseph Nieuwendyk ( ; born September 10, 1966) is a Canadian former National Hockey League (NHL) player. He was a second round selection of the Calgary Flames, 27th overall, at the 1985 NHL Entry Draft and played 20 seasons for the Flames, Dallas Stars, New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Florida Panthers. He is one of only 11 players in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup with three or more different teams, winning titles with Calgary in 1989, Dallas in 1999 and New Jersey in 2003. A two-time Olympian, Nieuwendyk won a gold medal with Team Canada at the 2002 winter games. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011 and his uniform number 25 was honoured by the Flames in 2014. Joe Nieuwendyk was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2014. In 2017 Nieuwendyk was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.
An accomplished box lacrosse player, Nieuwendyk led the Whitby Warriors to the 1984 Minto Cup national junior championship before focusing exclusively on hockey. He played university hockey with the Cornell Big Red where he was a two-time All-American. He won the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL rookie of the year in 1988 after becoming only the second first-year player to score 50 goals. He was a four-time All-Star, won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy in 1995 for his leadership and humanitarian work, and was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner in 1999 as most valuable player of the postseason. Nieuwendyk played 1,257 games in his career, scoring 564 goals and 1,126 points.
Chronic back pain forced Nieuwendyk's retirement as a player in 2006. He then began a new career in management, acting first as a consultant to the general manager with the Panthers before moving onto the Maple Leafs where he was an assistant to the general manager. Nieuwendyk was the general manager of the Dallas Stars between 2009 and 2013. He most recently worked as a pro scout and advisor for the Carolina Hurricanes, until resigning his contract April 30, 2018.
Early life
Nieuwendyk was born September 10, 1966 in Oshawa, Ontario, and grew up in Whitby. He is the youngest of four children to Gordon and Joanne Nieuwendyk, who immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands in 1958. Gordon owned a car repair shop in Whitby. Joe grew up in a sporting family. His brother Gil was a box lacrosse player, while his uncle Ed Kea and cousin Jeff Beukeboom also played in the National Hockey League (NHL). His best friend growing up was future NHL teammate Gary Roberts.
He played both hockey and lacrosse growing up and the latter considered his better sport. At one point, Nieuwendyk was considered the top junior lacrosse player in Canada. He earned a spot with the Whitby Warriors junior A team at the age of 15, and was named the most valuable player of the Minto Cup tournament in 1984 when he led the Warriors to the national championship. The Ontario Lacrosse Association later named its junior A rookie of the year award after Nieuwendyk.
Playing career
College
Nieuwendyk went undrafted by any Ontario Hockey League team, and so played a season of junior B for the Pickering Panthers in 1983–84. Eligible for the 1984 NHL Entry Draft but unselected, he chose to attend Cornell University where he played hockey and lacrosse for the Big Red. He was named the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) hockey rookie of the year in 1984–85 after scoring 39 points in 23 games. At the 1985 NHL Entry Draft, the Calgary Flames selected him in the second round, 27th overall, with a pick obtained that day in a trade with the Minnesota North Stars for Kent Nilsson. The disappointment in Calgary over the trade of Nilsson resulted in some criticism of Nieuwendyk's selection, famously leading to a local newspaper to question the moves with the headline "Joe Who?"
Returning to Cornell for the 1985–86 season, Nieuwendyk chose to give up lacrosse in order to focus on hockey. He was named an ECAC first team All-Star in 1985–86 and an NCAA All-American after scoring 42 points in 21 games. In his final season at Cornell, he was named the team's most valuable player and led the ECAC in scoring with 52 points. He was again named an ECAC All-Star and NCAA All-American, and a finalist for the 1987 Hobey Baker Award.
Nieuwendyk chose to forgo his senior year in favour of turning professional. In 81 games with Cornell, Nieuwendyk scored 73 goals and 151 points, both among the highest totals in the school's history. His number 25 jersey was retired by Cornell in 2010, shared with Ken Dryden's number 1 as the first such numbers retired by the hockey team, and believed the first in any sport in the school's varsity sports history. In 2011, he was named one of the 50 greatest players in ECAC history.
Calgary Flames
Once his junior season at Cornell ended, Nieuwendyk joined the national team for five games before turning professional with the Flames. He made his NHL debut on March 10, 1987, against the Washington Capitals and scored his first NHL goal against goaltender Pete Peeters. He appeared in nine regular season games in the 1986–87 NHL season, scoring five goals and one assist, and appeared in six playoff games. Playing his first full season in 1987–88, Nieuwendyk captured the attention of the sports media by scoring 32 goals in his first 42 games to put him on a pace to surpass Mike Bossy's rookie record of 53 goals. Nieuwendyk finished two goals short of Bossy's record, but led the team with 51 goals and was the second first-year player to score at least 50 goals in one season. He played in his first NHL All-Star Game, was named to the All-Rookie Team and was voted the winner of the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL's top rookie.
Nieuwendyk again scored 51 goals in 1988–89 and marked the 100th of his career in his 144th career game. At the time, he was the third fastest player to reach the milestone, behind Bossy (129 games) and Maurice Richard (134 games), and was the third player in league history to score 50 goals in each of his first two seasons (Bossy and Wayne Gretzky). He led the league with 11 game-winning goals and set a Flames franchise record on January 11, 1989, when he scored five goals in one game against the Winnipeg Jets. Nieuwendyk appeared in his second of three-consecutive All-Star Games. In the 1989 Stanley Cup playoffs, he scored 10 goals and four assists to help the Flames win their first- and only -Stanley Cup championship in franchise history. In the clinching game against the Montreal Canadiens, Nieuwendyk set up Lanny McDonald's final NHL goal with a quick pass after receiving the puck from Håkan Loob.
A 45-goal season in 1989–90 was enough for Nieuwendyk to lead the team in goal scoring for the third consecutive season. He missed he first 11 games of the 1991–92 NHL season after suffering a knee injury during a summer evaluation camp for the 1991 Canada Cup. Nieuwendyk began the season as the 12th captain in the Flames franchise history. He was limited to 22 goals and 56 points on the season, but scored his 200th career goal on December 3, 1991, against the Detroit Red Wings. His 230th career goal, scored against the Tampa Bay Lightning on November 13, 1992, established a Flames franchise record for career goals (since broken).
Nieuwendyk entered the 1995–96 season unhappy with his contract status. Unable to come to terms with the Flames, he had gone to arbitration, and was awarded a contract worth C$1.85 million, but insisted on renegotiating the deal into a long-term contract extension. He refused an offer of a three-year, $6 million contract from the Flames, and as the dispute dragged on, chose not to join the team when the season began. He remained a holdout until December 19, 1995, when the Flames traded him to the Dallas Stars in exchange for Jarome Iginla and Corey Millen.
Dallas Stars
The Stars immediately signed Nieuwendyk to a new deal worth US$11.3 million over five years. Bob Gainey, the team's general manager, hoped that the acquisition of Nieuwendyk would help the franchise, which had relocated from Minnesota three years previous, establish its place in Dallas. Nieuwendyk scored 14 goals and 32 points in 52 games with the Stars to finish the 1995–96 season.
Nieuwendyk improved to 30 goals in 1996–97 despite missing the first month of the season with fractured rib cartilage. A 39-goal season followed, but he was again sidelined by injury after appearing in only one game of the 1998 Stanley Cup playoffs. In the opening game of the Stars' first-round series against the San Jose Sharks, he suffered a torn ACL as a result of a check by Bryan Marchment. The injury required two knee surgeries to repair and six months to heal, which caused him to miss the beginning of the 1998–99 NHL season.
He finished the regular season with 28 goals and 55 points in 67 games, and added 11 goals and 10 assists in the 1999 Stanley Cup playoffs to help the Stars win the first Stanley Cup in their franchise history. Six of his playoff goals were game winners, and he was voted the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player of the playoffs. Injuries again limited Nieuwendyk in 1999–2000. He missed ten games due to a bruised chest then suffered a separated shoulder a week after his return that kept him out of the lineup for several weeks. He played only 47 regular season games, but added 23 more in the playoffs as the Stars reached the 2000 Stanley Cup Finals. They lost the series in six games to the New Jersey Devils, however.
Nieuwendyk played in his 1,000th career game on January 20, 2002, against the Chicago Blackhawks. Two months later, on March 19, 2002, he was traded to the Devils, along with Jamie Langenbrunner, in exchange for Jason Arnott, Randy McKay and a first round selection in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft.
New Jersey, Toronto and Florida
New Jersey, who had won the Stanley Cup in 2000 and reached the finals the following year, acquired Nieuwendyk for their playoff run in 2002. He scored 11 points in 14 regular season games for the Devils following the trade, but New Jersey was eliminated in the first round of the 2002 Stanley Cup playoffs by the Carolina Hurricanes. Nieuwendyk reached two offensive milestones in 2002–03. He scored his 500th career goal on January 17, 2003, against Carolina's Kevin Weekes. On February 23, he scored his 1,000th point in a win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. He and the Devils reached the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals, but Nieuwendyk suffered a hip injury in the sixth game of the Eastern Conference Final that prevented him from appearing in the championship series. The Devils defeated the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the final, capturing the franchise's third Stanley Cup. For Nieuwendyk, it was his third title with his third different team.
The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Nieuwendyk to a one-year contract for the 2003–04 season. He scored 22 goals for Toronto in a season marred by abdominal and back injuries that limited him to 64 games played. After scoring two goals in the decisive Game 7 opening round series victory against the Ottawa Senators, a groin injury that forced him out of the lineup for much of Toronto's second-round series loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. He signed another one-year deal for 2004–05, but the season was cancelled due to a labour dispute that was feared would mark the end of the 38-year-old Nieuwendyk's career.
When NHL play resumed in 2005–06, the Florida Panthers sought to bolster their lineup with veteran players. They signed both Nieuwendyk and Roberts, who had played together in Calgary and Toronto and wanted to finish their careers together, to two-year, $4.5 million contracts. Nieuwendyk appeared in 65 games during the season, scoring 26 goals and 56 points. He appeared in 15 games in 2006–07 before chronic back pain forced him onto injured reserve. After missing 14 games, Nieuwendyk announced his retirement on December 7, 2006.
International play
As a member of the Canadian national junior team at the 1986 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, Nieuwendyk scored five goals in seven games to help Canada win a silver medal. His 12 points in the tournament tied him for third in scoring for Team Canada and fourth overall in the tournament. One year later, Nieuwendyk joined the senior national team for the Calgary Cup, a four-team exhibition tournament that served as a preview event for the 1988 Winter Olympics. He scored a goal in each of the first two games, losses to the United States and Czechoslovakia, for the Canadian team that won the bronze medal. He joined the senior team again for the 1990 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, but appeared in only one game after suffering a knee injury. He was invited to Team Canada's summer camp for the 1991 Canada Cup tournament but suffered a knee injury that caused him to miss the entire tournament.
NHL players were first allowed to participate in the Olympic ice hockey tournament in 1998. Nieuwendyk was among the players named to join Canada's "dream team". He scored two goals and three assists in six games, but was one of several Canadian players stopped by Czech goaltender Dominik Hašek in a shootout loss in the semifinals. Canada then dropped a 3–2 decision to Finland to finish fourth. Nieuwendyk played alongside Brendan Shanahan and Theoren Fleury on Canada's checking line at the 2002 Olympic tournament. He scored one goal and helped Canada win its first Olympic hockey gold medal in 50 years.
Playing style
Cliff Fletcher, who drafted him into the NHL, described Nieuwendyk as being a "pre-eminent two-way guy who had 50-goal seasons", adding that "he had a great stick around the net, he had a great shot, he saw the ice well, he could skate, he had the size – he had everything you needed to have. History has indicated that wherever he went, the team was competitive. The more that was on the line in big games, the better Joe played." He was an offensive centre in Calgary and power play specialist, able to withstand the physical punishment required to stand in front of the net and battle defencemen for the puck. He led the NHL in power play goals in 1987–88 with 31 and finished in the top ten on four other occasions. Wayne Gretzky, who also played box lacrosse in his youth, argued that the skills Nieuwendyk learned dodging opposing players in that sport aided his development as a hockey player. Nieuwendyk was regarded as a top faceoff man, a skill that Team Canada relied on during the Olympics. He was a checking-line centre at the 2002 Olympics, relied on for his defensive and faceoff abilities.
Nieuwendyk was regarded as a leader throughout his career. He was the captain of the Flames for four seasons, and his teammates in Dallas praised him as a player who would help guide the younger players as they began their careers. His presence was considered an important factor in New Jersey's 2003 Stanley Cup championship. Devils' general manager Lou Lamoriello praised his impact both on and off the ice: "Certainly (the tangibles were) the quality player he was even at that time, how good he was defensively as well as always finding a way to get big goals. It was also about how good he was on faceoffs. And the intangibles, which are really more tangible than anything, are what he brought in the locker room from leadership and unselfishness. It was obvious that when he didn't play he was still so active in his support. He's genuine in every sense of the word. He was a true team player." Nieuwendyk was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011, and his uniform number 25 was honoured by the Calgary Flames on March 7, 2014, as he was named to the organization's "Forever a Flame" program.
Management career
Remaining in hockey following the end of his playing career, Nieuwendyk joined the Florida Panthers' front office as a consultant to general manager Jacques Martin in 2007. He left the Panthers after one year to join the Maple Leafs as special assistant to general manager Cliff Fletcher in 2008. He served as assistant general manager for the silver-medal winning Canadian national team at the 2009 World Championships, and on June 1, 2009, was named general manager of the Dallas Stars. His ability to make moves was at times limited by the financial difficulty of team owner Tom Hicks. Among Nieuwendyk's decisions in his first two seasons as general manager was to allow popular former captain Mike Modano to leave the organization after 22 years with the franchise in 2010. Nieuwendyk stated such moves were difficult, as he played with Modano and considered him a friend. Nieuwendyk was released as Stars' general manager at the conclusion of the 2012–13 NHL season as team owner Tom Gaglardi stated that the team wanted to "take this organization in a different direction". On September 3, 2014, the Carolina Hurricanes announced they had hired him as a pro scout and advisor. He resigned from his position with Carolina on April 30, 2018.
Personal life
Nieuwendyk and his wife Tina have three children: daughters Tyra and Kaycee and son Jackson. In 1995, while a member of the Flames, Nieuwendyk won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy given annually to the player "who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and who has made a significant humanitarian contribution to his community". He was honoured by the league for his contributions to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), and was a spokesman and honorary chairman of the Foothills Hospital Foundation. He remained active with the SPCA after his trade to Dallas, and following the September 11 attacks, organized a charity softball game that raised $115,000 for charitable groups in the aftermath of the attack. While a member of the Maple Leafs during the lockout, he participated in a charity hockey game organized by cancer survivor and former NHL player Keith Acton that raised $30,000 for cancer and leukemia charities in southern Ontario.
Career statistics
Regular season and playoffs
International
Awards and honours
References
External links
1966 births
Living people
Calder Trophy winners
Calgary Flames captains
Calgary Flames draft picks
Calgary Flames players
Canadian ice hockey centres
Canadian lacrosse players
Canadian people of Dutch descent
Carolina Hurricanes scouts
Conn Smythe Trophy winners
Cornell Big Red men's ice hockey players
Dallas Stars executives
Dallas Stars players
Florida Panthers executives
Florida Panthers players
Hockey Hall of Fame inductees
Sportspeople from Oshawa
Sportspeople from Whitby, Ontario
Ice hockey players at the 1998 Winter Olympics
Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics
King Clancy Memorial Trophy winners
Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics
National Hockey League All-Stars
New Jersey Devils players
Olympic gold medalists for Canada
Olympic ice hockey players of Canada
Olympic medalists in ice hockey
Stanley Cup champions
Toronto Maple Leafs players
Ice hockey people from Ontario
AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans | false | [
"John B. Podesto, nicknamed Presto Podesto from Modesto (March 26, 1921 – November 13, 2015) was an American football quarterback and halfback who played for the St. Mary's Gaels. He was drafted in the first round (10th overall) in the 1944 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers but did not play for them. He later was signed by the Chicago Bears but did not play with them either.\n\nEarly life and education\nPodesto was born on March 26, 1921 in Modesto, California to Giovannia and Maria Podesto. He was the youngest of nine children. He attended Modesto High School and Modesto Junior College before continuing his education at Saint Mary's University and College of the Pacific. He excelled at baseball and football while at Modesto, Saint Mary's, and College of the Pacific. He played quarterback and halfback when he was in football. In 1943, under coach Amos Alonzo Stagg, Podesto was named All-American while at Pacific. While playing from 1941 to 1943, and from 1944 to 1945, Podesto entered the Marine Corps and achieved the rank of captain while in World War II.\n\nProfessional career\nPodesto was drafted with the 10th pick in the 1940 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was serving in the marines from 1944 to 1945 so he could not play with them. In 1946, he signed with the team. However, Podesto did not play with the Steelers. The next season he signed with the Chicago Bears but did not play with them, either.\n\nLater life\nAfter Podesto's sports career, he was a successful business owner. He worked with the Modesto Tallow Company for over 50 years. He died on November 13, 2015 at the age of 94. At the time of his death he had 5 children, 12 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1921 births\n2015 deaths\nSaint Mary's Gaels football players\nSaint Mary's Gaels baseball players\nPacific Tigers football players\nPacific Tigers baseball players\nPlayers of American football from California",
"Tendayi (Samaita) Gahamadze (born 3 July 1959) is a Zimbabwean artist and songwriter.\n\nBackground\nTendayi Gahamadze was born at his parents' farm in Musengezi and went to Mkwasha Primary School. He went to Moleli for secondary education.\n\nIn 1979 he left for the United Kingdom where he did his A levels and studied metallurgy from 1982 in Germany.\n\nCareer background\nTendayi Gahamadze was a member of a school choir and learnt to play instruments when he was in the UK. \nHe was fascinated by the sound of Mbira but did not expect to play the instrument. \nWhilst in Germany at a seminar in Essen he and his fellow Zimbabwean students had no option but to sing Ishe Komborera Africa in contrast with the Congolese and Latin American students who played their Rhumba and Salsa music respectively. \nOn coming back to Zimbabwe he was told that it had been prophesied that he would be a prominent mbira player. \nHe brushed it aside and wondered how at age 30 he would learn to play this instrument. \nA year later he found himself under the mentorship of spiritual leader Choshata of the Mhara Mbuya Chikonamombe totem. \nHe spent a year living with Albert and Benjamin Gobvu who were respected mbira players in Mhondoro. The assisted in the tuning of the mbiras but never attempted to play since to him it seemed far beyond his capabilities. \nChoshata recommended that Tendayi buy his own Mbira, which he did.\n\nWith this Mbira he went to another Mbira manufacturer, Seke, who made two more mbiras of the same tuning for him. \nHe left Choshata's shrine for Norton where his family was. With him now was a set of three mbiras which he could not play. \nIt just happened overnight, as it were, that he started playing the mbira without being directed by anyone. He started teaming up with different mbira players and performing with them at cultural ceremonies and gatherings. \nMagwimbe Mlambo and Wilfred Mafrika were with him in the beginning. \nHaving had some guitar band experience with college bands during his time at university Tendayi went on to buy guitar pick-ups and started manufacturing his own mbiras and electrifying them. \nHe formed the group Mbira dzeNharira which had its first recording, Rine Manyanga Hariputirwe, in 1998 which immediately topped the charts. \nTo date Mbira dzeNharira has won five musical awards.\n\nSee also\nMbira dzeNharira\nList of mbira players\nList of Zimbabwean musicians\nMbira music\nShona music\nMusic of Africa\n\nReferences\n\nZimbabwean songwriters\nLiving people\n1959 births"
]
|
[
"Joe Nieuwendyk",
"New Jersey, Toronto and Florida",
"When was he in NEw Jersey?",
"New Jersey, who had won the Stanley Cup in 2000 and reached the finals the following year, acquired Nieuwendyk for their playoff run in 2002.",
"did he set any records in that game?",
"He scored 11 points in 14 regular season games for the Devils following the trade,",
"when did he go to toronoto?",
"The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Nieuwendyk to a one-year contract for the 2003-04 season.",
"how did he play with them?",
"He scored 22 goals for Toronto in a season marred by abdominal and back injuries that limited him to 64 games played,"
]
| C_5c75e48002524892ab32a86ac7b4fafc_0 | what did he do in florida? | 5 | what did Joe Nieuwendyk do in florida? | Joe Nieuwendyk | New Jersey, who had won the Stanley Cup in 2000 and reached the finals the following year, acquired Nieuwendyk for their playoff run in 2002. He scored 11 points in 14 regular season games for the Devils following the trade, but New Jersey was eliminated in the first round of the 2002 Stanley Cup playoffs by the Carolina Hurricanes. Nieuwendyk reached two offensive milestones in 2002-03. He scored his 500th career goal on January 17, 2003, against Carolina's Kevin Weekes. On February 23, he scored his 1,000th point in a win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. He and the Devils reached the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals, but Nieuwendyk suffered a hip injury in the sixth game of the Eastern Conference Final that prevented him from appearing in the championship series. The Devils defeated the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the final, capturing the franchise's third Stanley Cup. For Nieuwendyk, it was his third title with his third different team. The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Nieuwendyk to a one-year contract for the 2003-04 season. He scored 22 goals for Toronto in a season marred by abdominal and back injuries that limited him to 64 games played, and a groin injury that forced him out of the lineup for much of Toronto's second-round series loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. He signed another one-year deal for 2004-05, but the season was cancelled due to a labour dispute that was feared would mark the end of the 38-year-old Nieuwendyk's career. When NHL play resumed in 2005-06, the Florida Panthers sought to bolster their lineup with veteran players. They signed both Nieuwendyk and Roberts, who had played together in Calgary and Toronto and wanted to finish their careers together, to two-year, $4.5 million contracts. Nieuwendyk appeared in 65 games during the season, scoring 26 goals and 56 points. He appeared in 15 games in 2006-07 before chronic back pain forced him onto injured reserve. After missing 14 games, Nieuwendyk announced his retirement on December 7, 2006. CANNOTANSWER | When NHL play resumed in 2005-06, the Florida Panthers sought to bolster their lineup with veteran players. They signed both Nieuwendyk and Roberts, | Joseph Nieuwendyk ( ; born September 10, 1966) is a Canadian former National Hockey League (NHL) player. He was a second round selection of the Calgary Flames, 27th overall, at the 1985 NHL Entry Draft and played 20 seasons for the Flames, Dallas Stars, New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Florida Panthers. He is one of only 11 players in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup with three or more different teams, winning titles with Calgary in 1989, Dallas in 1999 and New Jersey in 2003. A two-time Olympian, Nieuwendyk won a gold medal with Team Canada at the 2002 winter games. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011 and his uniform number 25 was honoured by the Flames in 2014. Joe Nieuwendyk was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2014. In 2017 Nieuwendyk was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.
An accomplished box lacrosse player, Nieuwendyk led the Whitby Warriors to the 1984 Minto Cup national junior championship before focusing exclusively on hockey. He played university hockey with the Cornell Big Red where he was a two-time All-American. He won the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL rookie of the year in 1988 after becoming only the second first-year player to score 50 goals. He was a four-time All-Star, won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy in 1995 for his leadership and humanitarian work, and was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner in 1999 as most valuable player of the postseason. Nieuwendyk played 1,257 games in his career, scoring 564 goals and 1,126 points.
Chronic back pain forced Nieuwendyk's retirement as a player in 2006. He then began a new career in management, acting first as a consultant to the general manager with the Panthers before moving onto the Maple Leafs where he was an assistant to the general manager. Nieuwendyk was the general manager of the Dallas Stars between 2009 and 2013. He most recently worked as a pro scout and advisor for the Carolina Hurricanes, until resigning his contract April 30, 2018.
Early life
Nieuwendyk was born September 10, 1966 in Oshawa, Ontario, and grew up in Whitby. He is the youngest of four children to Gordon and Joanne Nieuwendyk, who immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands in 1958. Gordon owned a car repair shop in Whitby. Joe grew up in a sporting family. His brother Gil was a box lacrosse player, while his uncle Ed Kea and cousin Jeff Beukeboom also played in the National Hockey League (NHL). His best friend growing up was future NHL teammate Gary Roberts.
He played both hockey and lacrosse growing up and the latter considered his better sport. At one point, Nieuwendyk was considered the top junior lacrosse player in Canada. He earned a spot with the Whitby Warriors junior A team at the age of 15, and was named the most valuable player of the Minto Cup tournament in 1984 when he led the Warriors to the national championship. The Ontario Lacrosse Association later named its junior A rookie of the year award after Nieuwendyk.
Playing career
College
Nieuwendyk went undrafted by any Ontario Hockey League team, and so played a season of junior B for the Pickering Panthers in 1983–84. Eligible for the 1984 NHL Entry Draft but unselected, he chose to attend Cornell University where he played hockey and lacrosse for the Big Red. He was named the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) hockey rookie of the year in 1984–85 after scoring 39 points in 23 games. At the 1985 NHL Entry Draft, the Calgary Flames selected him in the second round, 27th overall, with a pick obtained that day in a trade with the Minnesota North Stars for Kent Nilsson. The disappointment in Calgary over the trade of Nilsson resulted in some criticism of Nieuwendyk's selection, famously leading to a local newspaper to question the moves with the headline "Joe Who?"
Returning to Cornell for the 1985–86 season, Nieuwendyk chose to give up lacrosse in order to focus on hockey. He was named an ECAC first team All-Star in 1985–86 and an NCAA All-American after scoring 42 points in 21 games. In his final season at Cornell, he was named the team's most valuable player and led the ECAC in scoring with 52 points. He was again named an ECAC All-Star and NCAA All-American, and a finalist for the 1987 Hobey Baker Award.
Nieuwendyk chose to forgo his senior year in favour of turning professional. In 81 games with Cornell, Nieuwendyk scored 73 goals and 151 points, both among the highest totals in the school's history. His number 25 jersey was retired by Cornell in 2010, shared with Ken Dryden's number 1 as the first such numbers retired by the hockey team, and believed the first in any sport in the school's varsity sports history. In 2011, he was named one of the 50 greatest players in ECAC history.
Calgary Flames
Once his junior season at Cornell ended, Nieuwendyk joined the national team for five games before turning professional with the Flames. He made his NHL debut on March 10, 1987, against the Washington Capitals and scored his first NHL goal against goaltender Pete Peeters. He appeared in nine regular season games in the 1986–87 NHL season, scoring five goals and one assist, and appeared in six playoff games. Playing his first full season in 1987–88, Nieuwendyk captured the attention of the sports media by scoring 32 goals in his first 42 games to put him on a pace to surpass Mike Bossy's rookie record of 53 goals. Nieuwendyk finished two goals short of Bossy's record, but led the team with 51 goals and was the second first-year player to score at least 50 goals in one season. He played in his first NHL All-Star Game, was named to the All-Rookie Team and was voted the winner of the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL's top rookie.
Nieuwendyk again scored 51 goals in 1988–89 and marked the 100th of his career in his 144th career game. At the time, he was the third fastest player to reach the milestone, behind Bossy (129 games) and Maurice Richard (134 games), and was the third player in league history to score 50 goals in each of his first two seasons (Bossy and Wayne Gretzky). He led the league with 11 game-winning goals and set a Flames franchise record on January 11, 1989, when he scored five goals in one game against the Winnipeg Jets. Nieuwendyk appeared in his second of three-consecutive All-Star Games. In the 1989 Stanley Cup playoffs, he scored 10 goals and four assists to help the Flames win their first- and only -Stanley Cup championship in franchise history. In the clinching game against the Montreal Canadiens, Nieuwendyk set up Lanny McDonald's final NHL goal with a quick pass after receiving the puck from Håkan Loob.
A 45-goal season in 1989–90 was enough for Nieuwendyk to lead the team in goal scoring for the third consecutive season. He missed he first 11 games of the 1991–92 NHL season after suffering a knee injury during a summer evaluation camp for the 1991 Canada Cup. Nieuwendyk began the season as the 12th captain in the Flames franchise history. He was limited to 22 goals and 56 points on the season, but scored his 200th career goal on December 3, 1991, against the Detroit Red Wings. His 230th career goal, scored against the Tampa Bay Lightning on November 13, 1992, established a Flames franchise record for career goals (since broken).
Nieuwendyk entered the 1995–96 season unhappy with his contract status. Unable to come to terms with the Flames, he had gone to arbitration, and was awarded a contract worth C$1.85 million, but insisted on renegotiating the deal into a long-term contract extension. He refused an offer of a three-year, $6 million contract from the Flames, and as the dispute dragged on, chose not to join the team when the season began. He remained a holdout until December 19, 1995, when the Flames traded him to the Dallas Stars in exchange for Jarome Iginla and Corey Millen.
Dallas Stars
The Stars immediately signed Nieuwendyk to a new deal worth US$11.3 million over five years. Bob Gainey, the team's general manager, hoped that the acquisition of Nieuwendyk would help the franchise, which had relocated from Minnesota three years previous, establish its place in Dallas. Nieuwendyk scored 14 goals and 32 points in 52 games with the Stars to finish the 1995–96 season.
Nieuwendyk improved to 30 goals in 1996–97 despite missing the first month of the season with fractured rib cartilage. A 39-goal season followed, but he was again sidelined by injury after appearing in only one game of the 1998 Stanley Cup playoffs. In the opening game of the Stars' first-round series against the San Jose Sharks, he suffered a torn ACL as a result of a check by Bryan Marchment. The injury required two knee surgeries to repair and six months to heal, which caused him to miss the beginning of the 1998–99 NHL season.
He finished the regular season with 28 goals and 55 points in 67 games, and added 11 goals and 10 assists in the 1999 Stanley Cup playoffs to help the Stars win the first Stanley Cup in their franchise history. Six of his playoff goals were game winners, and he was voted the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player of the playoffs. Injuries again limited Nieuwendyk in 1999–2000. He missed ten games due to a bruised chest then suffered a separated shoulder a week after his return that kept him out of the lineup for several weeks. He played only 47 regular season games, but added 23 more in the playoffs as the Stars reached the 2000 Stanley Cup Finals. They lost the series in six games to the New Jersey Devils, however.
Nieuwendyk played in his 1,000th career game on January 20, 2002, against the Chicago Blackhawks. Two months later, on March 19, 2002, he was traded to the Devils, along with Jamie Langenbrunner, in exchange for Jason Arnott, Randy McKay and a first round selection in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft.
New Jersey, Toronto and Florida
New Jersey, who had won the Stanley Cup in 2000 and reached the finals the following year, acquired Nieuwendyk for their playoff run in 2002. He scored 11 points in 14 regular season games for the Devils following the trade, but New Jersey was eliminated in the first round of the 2002 Stanley Cup playoffs by the Carolina Hurricanes. Nieuwendyk reached two offensive milestones in 2002–03. He scored his 500th career goal on January 17, 2003, against Carolina's Kevin Weekes. On February 23, he scored his 1,000th point in a win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. He and the Devils reached the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals, but Nieuwendyk suffered a hip injury in the sixth game of the Eastern Conference Final that prevented him from appearing in the championship series. The Devils defeated the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the final, capturing the franchise's third Stanley Cup. For Nieuwendyk, it was his third title with his third different team.
The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Nieuwendyk to a one-year contract for the 2003–04 season. He scored 22 goals for Toronto in a season marred by abdominal and back injuries that limited him to 64 games played. After scoring two goals in the decisive Game 7 opening round series victory against the Ottawa Senators, a groin injury that forced him out of the lineup for much of Toronto's second-round series loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. He signed another one-year deal for 2004–05, but the season was cancelled due to a labour dispute that was feared would mark the end of the 38-year-old Nieuwendyk's career.
When NHL play resumed in 2005–06, the Florida Panthers sought to bolster their lineup with veteran players. They signed both Nieuwendyk and Roberts, who had played together in Calgary and Toronto and wanted to finish their careers together, to two-year, $4.5 million contracts. Nieuwendyk appeared in 65 games during the season, scoring 26 goals and 56 points. He appeared in 15 games in 2006–07 before chronic back pain forced him onto injured reserve. After missing 14 games, Nieuwendyk announced his retirement on December 7, 2006.
International play
As a member of the Canadian national junior team at the 1986 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, Nieuwendyk scored five goals in seven games to help Canada win a silver medal. His 12 points in the tournament tied him for third in scoring for Team Canada and fourth overall in the tournament. One year later, Nieuwendyk joined the senior national team for the Calgary Cup, a four-team exhibition tournament that served as a preview event for the 1988 Winter Olympics. He scored a goal in each of the first two games, losses to the United States and Czechoslovakia, for the Canadian team that won the bronze medal. He joined the senior team again for the 1990 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, but appeared in only one game after suffering a knee injury. He was invited to Team Canada's summer camp for the 1991 Canada Cup tournament but suffered a knee injury that caused him to miss the entire tournament.
NHL players were first allowed to participate in the Olympic ice hockey tournament in 1998. Nieuwendyk was among the players named to join Canada's "dream team". He scored two goals and three assists in six games, but was one of several Canadian players stopped by Czech goaltender Dominik Hašek in a shootout loss in the semifinals. Canada then dropped a 3–2 decision to Finland to finish fourth. Nieuwendyk played alongside Brendan Shanahan and Theoren Fleury on Canada's checking line at the 2002 Olympic tournament. He scored one goal and helped Canada win its first Olympic hockey gold medal in 50 years.
Playing style
Cliff Fletcher, who drafted him into the NHL, described Nieuwendyk as being a "pre-eminent two-way guy who had 50-goal seasons", adding that "he had a great stick around the net, he had a great shot, he saw the ice well, he could skate, he had the size – he had everything you needed to have. History has indicated that wherever he went, the team was competitive. The more that was on the line in big games, the better Joe played." He was an offensive centre in Calgary and power play specialist, able to withstand the physical punishment required to stand in front of the net and battle defencemen for the puck. He led the NHL in power play goals in 1987–88 with 31 and finished in the top ten on four other occasions. Wayne Gretzky, who also played box lacrosse in his youth, argued that the skills Nieuwendyk learned dodging opposing players in that sport aided his development as a hockey player. Nieuwendyk was regarded as a top faceoff man, a skill that Team Canada relied on during the Olympics. He was a checking-line centre at the 2002 Olympics, relied on for his defensive and faceoff abilities.
Nieuwendyk was regarded as a leader throughout his career. He was the captain of the Flames for four seasons, and his teammates in Dallas praised him as a player who would help guide the younger players as they began their careers. His presence was considered an important factor in New Jersey's 2003 Stanley Cup championship. Devils' general manager Lou Lamoriello praised his impact both on and off the ice: "Certainly (the tangibles were) the quality player he was even at that time, how good he was defensively as well as always finding a way to get big goals. It was also about how good he was on faceoffs. And the intangibles, which are really more tangible than anything, are what he brought in the locker room from leadership and unselfishness. It was obvious that when he didn't play he was still so active in his support. He's genuine in every sense of the word. He was a true team player." Nieuwendyk was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011, and his uniform number 25 was honoured by the Calgary Flames on March 7, 2014, as he was named to the organization's "Forever a Flame" program.
Management career
Remaining in hockey following the end of his playing career, Nieuwendyk joined the Florida Panthers' front office as a consultant to general manager Jacques Martin in 2007. He left the Panthers after one year to join the Maple Leafs as special assistant to general manager Cliff Fletcher in 2008. He served as assistant general manager for the silver-medal winning Canadian national team at the 2009 World Championships, and on June 1, 2009, was named general manager of the Dallas Stars. His ability to make moves was at times limited by the financial difficulty of team owner Tom Hicks. Among Nieuwendyk's decisions in his first two seasons as general manager was to allow popular former captain Mike Modano to leave the organization after 22 years with the franchise in 2010. Nieuwendyk stated such moves were difficult, as he played with Modano and considered him a friend. Nieuwendyk was released as Stars' general manager at the conclusion of the 2012–13 NHL season as team owner Tom Gaglardi stated that the team wanted to "take this organization in a different direction". On September 3, 2014, the Carolina Hurricanes announced they had hired him as a pro scout and advisor. He resigned from his position with Carolina on April 30, 2018.
Personal life
Nieuwendyk and his wife Tina have three children: daughters Tyra and Kaycee and son Jackson. In 1995, while a member of the Flames, Nieuwendyk won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy given annually to the player "who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and who has made a significant humanitarian contribution to his community". He was honoured by the league for his contributions to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), and was a spokesman and honorary chairman of the Foothills Hospital Foundation. He remained active with the SPCA after his trade to Dallas, and following the September 11 attacks, organized a charity softball game that raised $115,000 for charitable groups in the aftermath of the attack. While a member of the Maple Leafs during the lockout, he participated in a charity hockey game organized by cancer survivor and former NHL player Keith Acton that raised $30,000 for cancer and leukemia charities in southern Ontario.
Career statistics
Regular season and playoffs
International
Awards and honours
References
External links
1966 births
Living people
Calder Trophy winners
Calgary Flames captains
Calgary Flames draft picks
Calgary Flames players
Canadian ice hockey centres
Canadian lacrosse players
Canadian people of Dutch descent
Carolina Hurricanes scouts
Conn Smythe Trophy winners
Cornell Big Red men's ice hockey players
Dallas Stars executives
Dallas Stars players
Florida Panthers executives
Florida Panthers players
Hockey Hall of Fame inductees
Sportspeople from Oshawa
Sportspeople from Whitby, Ontario
Ice hockey players at the 1998 Winter Olympics
Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics
King Clancy Memorial Trophy winners
Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics
National Hockey League All-Stars
New Jersey Devils players
Olympic gold medalists for Canada
Olympic ice hockey players of Canada
Olympic medalists in ice hockey
Stanley Cup champions
Toronto Maple Leafs players
Ice hockey people from Ontario
AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans | false | [
"Neil Combee (born June 12, 1959) is a Republican politician from Florida who represented parts of northern Polk County and northwestern Osceola County in the Florida House of Representatives from 2012 to 2017.\n\nEarly life and career\nCombee was born in Lakeland and graduated from Polk State College and Florida State University. Following graduation, he worked in agribusiness and real estate.\n\nHe was elected to the Polk County Commission as a Democrat in 1988, a position to which he was re-elected in 1992, 1996, and 2000. In 2004, Combee did not seek another term on the Commission, and following the conclusion of his term in 2005, he was appointed to the Governing Board of the Southwest Florida Water Management District, where he served until 2012 when he resigned to run for the legislature.\n\nCombee was going to run for the legislature in 2010 when incumbent State Representative Kelli Stargel was planning on seeking the Florida Senate seat held by Paula Dockery, who planned on running for Governor. When Dockery dropped her gubernatorial campaign, however, Stargel instead ran for re-election, putting her on a collision course with Combee. Ultimately, Combee did not qualify for the ballot because his campaign \"wrote a qualifying check for $1,781.81, but the correct amount required was $1,781.82.\"\n\nFlorida House of Representatives\nWhen Dockery was term-limited in 2012, Stargel ran to succeed her, creating an open seat in the 39th District, and Combee once again declared his candidacy. He was unopposed in the primary election and faced Carol Castagnero, an independent candidate who had run for a number of offices unsuccessfully, in the general election. Castagnero did not present a strong challenge to Combee, and he ended up defeating her in a landslide, receiving 65% of the vote, to win his first term in the legislature.\n\nCombee sponsored legislation in 2013 that would have \"[prevented] someone who fires a warning shot or brandishes a weapon from being prosecuted under the state's stiff gun laws,\" which he had previously proposed a year prior, but had not received a vote.\n\nHe attracted controversy in 2013 when he suggested on Twitter that Barack Obama was responsible for the chemical attacks that took place in the Syrian Civil War, asking, \"Who knows? Did the White House Help Plan the Syrian Chemical Attack?\" He defended his remarks, saying, \"I think it's my place, your place and everybody's place to question what is going on here. Who do we believe?\"\n\nLater career \nCombee resigned from the House on November 24, 2017 to take a position as Florida state director of the USDA Farm Service Agency. He held that position until April 17, 2018, when he announced his campaign for Florida's 15th congressional district. Combee came in second in the 2018 Republican primary to Ross Spano, 44.1 to 33.8%.\n\nIn December 2019, Combee announced that he would run for an open seat on the Polk County Commission in 2020.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nFlorida House of Representatives - Neil Combee\n\n1959 births\nLiving people\nPeople from Lakeland, Florida\nFlorida State University alumni\nBusinesspeople from Florida\nFlorida Republicans\nMembers of the Florida House of Representatives\nPolk State College alumni\n21st-century American politicians\nUnited States Department of Agriculture officials",
"Willie James Howard (July 13, 1928 – January 2, 1944) was a 15-year-old African-American living in Live Oak, Suwannee County, Florida. He was lynched for having given Christmas cards to all his co-workers at the Van Priest Dime Store, including Cynthia Goff, a white girl, followed by a letter to her on New Year's Day.\n\nNew Year's Day letter\nThe New Year's Day letter read:\nDear Friend,\nJust a few line[s] to let you hear from me [.] I am well an[d] hope you are the same. This is what I said on that [C]hristmas card. From W. J. H. With L. [love] I hope you will understand what I mean. That is what I said[.] [N]ow please don’t get angry with me because you can never tell what may get in some body[.] I did not put it in there my self. God did[.] I can't help what he does[,] can I[?] I know you don’t think much of our kind of people but we don’t hate you all[.] [W]e want to be your all friends but you want let us [.] [P]lease don't let any body see this[.] I hope I haven't made you [mad.] [I]f I did tell me about it an[d] I will [forget] about it. I wish this was [a] northern state[.] I guess you call me fresh. Write an[d] tell me what you think of me[,] good or bad. Sincerely yours, with, [sic]\n From Y.K.W.\nFo[r] Cynthia Goff\nI love your name. I love your voice, for a S.H. [sweetheart] you are my choice.\n\nReaction to letter and death of Willie James Howard\nCynthia was offended by the card and letter, and gave them to her father A.P. \"Phil\" Goff, the Live Oak postmaster and a former state legislator.\n\nGoff, along with S.B. McCullers and Reg H. Scott, allegedly went to Willie's house and took the youth from his mother at gunpoint. They picked up Willie's father, James Howard, at the Bond-Howell Lumber Company where he worked, then drove to the Suwannee River east of Suwannee Springs, where they bound Willie by the hands and feet, and forced the youth to choose between getting shot and jumping into the Suwannee River. After his father said he could do nothing to save him, Willie jumped into the river and drowned. Goff, McCullers, and Scott signed an affidavit which stated that they had only wanted James Howard to whip his son and, rather than be whipped by his father, Willie had committed suicide by jumping into the river. James Howard also signed the affidavit, but after selling his home and moving to Orlando, he recanted. Harry T. Moore, of the NAACP, interviewed the parents. After a county grand jury failed to indict, Moore was able to get a federal investigation started, but no convictions followed. Goff, McCullers, and Scott died without having to face murder charges.\n\nAftermath\nA documentary film on the murder, Murder on the Suwannee River, was produced in 2006 by Marvin Dunn, a historian, who tried to get Charlie Crist, then attorney general and later governor of Florida, to reopen the case, but to no avail; neither was his case investigated under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. It is frequently cited as comparable to the case of Emmett Till, who was also lynched (at age 14) for allegedly making advances at a white woman at a grocery store.\n\nTameka Hobbs wrote about the lynching and three other lynchings in her 2015 book Democracy Abroad, Lynching at Home: Racial Violence in Florida.\n\nSee also\nList of unsolved murders\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\"Willie James Howard\"\n\"Willie James Howard Lynching\"\n\n1944 deaths\n1944 in Florida\n1944 murders in the United States\nHistory of Suwannee County, Florida\nJanuary 1944 events\nLynching deaths in Florida\nMale murder victims\nPeople from Live Oak, Florida\nUnsolved murders in the United States\nLynching victims in the United States\nMurdered African-American people\nPeople murdered in Florida\nCrimes in Florida\nRacially motivated violence against African Americans\nAfrican-American history between emancipation and the civil rights movement\nAnti-black racism in the United States\nAfrican-American history of Florida\nHistory of racism in Florida\nSuwannee County, Florida\nRace-related controversies in the United States"
]
|
[
"Joe Nieuwendyk",
"New Jersey, Toronto and Florida",
"When was he in NEw Jersey?",
"New Jersey, who had won the Stanley Cup in 2000 and reached the finals the following year, acquired Nieuwendyk for their playoff run in 2002.",
"did he set any records in that game?",
"He scored 11 points in 14 regular season games for the Devils following the trade,",
"when did he go to toronoto?",
"The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Nieuwendyk to a one-year contract for the 2003-04 season.",
"how did he play with them?",
"He scored 22 goals for Toronto in a season marred by abdominal and back injuries that limited him to 64 games played,",
"what did he do in florida?",
"When NHL play resumed in 2005-06, the Florida Panthers sought to bolster their lineup with veteran players. They signed both Nieuwendyk and Roberts,"
]
| C_5c75e48002524892ab32a86ac7b4fafc_0 | did he have any other injuries? | 6 | did Joe Nieuwendyk have any other injuries besides the one to his abdominal and back? | Joe Nieuwendyk | New Jersey, who had won the Stanley Cup in 2000 and reached the finals the following year, acquired Nieuwendyk for their playoff run in 2002. He scored 11 points in 14 regular season games for the Devils following the trade, but New Jersey was eliminated in the first round of the 2002 Stanley Cup playoffs by the Carolina Hurricanes. Nieuwendyk reached two offensive milestones in 2002-03. He scored his 500th career goal on January 17, 2003, against Carolina's Kevin Weekes. On February 23, he scored his 1,000th point in a win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. He and the Devils reached the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals, but Nieuwendyk suffered a hip injury in the sixth game of the Eastern Conference Final that prevented him from appearing in the championship series. The Devils defeated the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the final, capturing the franchise's third Stanley Cup. For Nieuwendyk, it was his third title with his third different team. The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Nieuwendyk to a one-year contract for the 2003-04 season. He scored 22 goals for Toronto in a season marred by abdominal and back injuries that limited him to 64 games played, and a groin injury that forced him out of the lineup for much of Toronto's second-round series loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. He signed another one-year deal for 2004-05, but the season was cancelled due to a labour dispute that was feared would mark the end of the 38-year-old Nieuwendyk's career. When NHL play resumed in 2005-06, the Florida Panthers sought to bolster their lineup with veteran players. They signed both Nieuwendyk and Roberts, who had played together in Calgary and Toronto and wanted to finish their careers together, to two-year, $4.5 million contracts. Nieuwendyk appeared in 65 games during the season, scoring 26 goals and 56 points. He appeared in 15 games in 2006-07 before chronic back pain forced him onto injured reserve. After missing 14 games, Nieuwendyk announced his retirement on December 7, 2006. CANNOTANSWER | He appeared in 15 games in 2006-07 before chronic back pain forced him onto injured reserve. | Joseph Nieuwendyk ( ; born September 10, 1966) is a Canadian former National Hockey League (NHL) player. He was a second round selection of the Calgary Flames, 27th overall, at the 1985 NHL Entry Draft and played 20 seasons for the Flames, Dallas Stars, New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Florida Panthers. He is one of only 11 players in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup with three or more different teams, winning titles with Calgary in 1989, Dallas in 1999 and New Jersey in 2003. A two-time Olympian, Nieuwendyk won a gold medal with Team Canada at the 2002 winter games. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011 and his uniform number 25 was honoured by the Flames in 2014. Joe Nieuwendyk was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2014. In 2017 Nieuwendyk was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.
An accomplished box lacrosse player, Nieuwendyk led the Whitby Warriors to the 1984 Minto Cup national junior championship before focusing exclusively on hockey. He played university hockey with the Cornell Big Red where he was a two-time All-American. He won the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL rookie of the year in 1988 after becoming only the second first-year player to score 50 goals. He was a four-time All-Star, won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy in 1995 for his leadership and humanitarian work, and was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner in 1999 as most valuable player of the postseason. Nieuwendyk played 1,257 games in his career, scoring 564 goals and 1,126 points.
Chronic back pain forced Nieuwendyk's retirement as a player in 2006. He then began a new career in management, acting first as a consultant to the general manager with the Panthers before moving onto the Maple Leafs where he was an assistant to the general manager. Nieuwendyk was the general manager of the Dallas Stars between 2009 and 2013. He most recently worked as a pro scout and advisor for the Carolina Hurricanes, until resigning his contract April 30, 2018.
Early life
Nieuwendyk was born September 10, 1966 in Oshawa, Ontario, and grew up in Whitby. He is the youngest of four children to Gordon and Joanne Nieuwendyk, who immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands in 1958. Gordon owned a car repair shop in Whitby. Joe grew up in a sporting family. His brother Gil was a box lacrosse player, while his uncle Ed Kea and cousin Jeff Beukeboom also played in the National Hockey League (NHL). His best friend growing up was future NHL teammate Gary Roberts.
He played both hockey and lacrosse growing up and the latter considered his better sport. At one point, Nieuwendyk was considered the top junior lacrosse player in Canada. He earned a spot with the Whitby Warriors junior A team at the age of 15, and was named the most valuable player of the Minto Cup tournament in 1984 when he led the Warriors to the national championship. The Ontario Lacrosse Association later named its junior A rookie of the year award after Nieuwendyk.
Playing career
College
Nieuwendyk went undrafted by any Ontario Hockey League team, and so played a season of junior B for the Pickering Panthers in 1983–84. Eligible for the 1984 NHL Entry Draft but unselected, he chose to attend Cornell University where he played hockey and lacrosse for the Big Red. He was named the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) hockey rookie of the year in 1984–85 after scoring 39 points in 23 games. At the 1985 NHL Entry Draft, the Calgary Flames selected him in the second round, 27th overall, with a pick obtained that day in a trade with the Minnesota North Stars for Kent Nilsson. The disappointment in Calgary over the trade of Nilsson resulted in some criticism of Nieuwendyk's selection, famously leading to a local newspaper to question the moves with the headline "Joe Who?"
Returning to Cornell for the 1985–86 season, Nieuwendyk chose to give up lacrosse in order to focus on hockey. He was named an ECAC first team All-Star in 1985–86 and an NCAA All-American after scoring 42 points in 21 games. In his final season at Cornell, he was named the team's most valuable player and led the ECAC in scoring with 52 points. He was again named an ECAC All-Star and NCAA All-American, and a finalist for the 1987 Hobey Baker Award.
Nieuwendyk chose to forgo his senior year in favour of turning professional. In 81 games with Cornell, Nieuwendyk scored 73 goals and 151 points, both among the highest totals in the school's history. His number 25 jersey was retired by Cornell in 2010, shared with Ken Dryden's number 1 as the first such numbers retired by the hockey team, and believed the first in any sport in the school's varsity sports history. In 2011, he was named one of the 50 greatest players in ECAC history.
Calgary Flames
Once his junior season at Cornell ended, Nieuwendyk joined the national team for five games before turning professional with the Flames. He made his NHL debut on March 10, 1987, against the Washington Capitals and scored his first NHL goal against goaltender Pete Peeters. He appeared in nine regular season games in the 1986–87 NHL season, scoring five goals and one assist, and appeared in six playoff games. Playing his first full season in 1987–88, Nieuwendyk captured the attention of the sports media by scoring 32 goals in his first 42 games to put him on a pace to surpass Mike Bossy's rookie record of 53 goals. Nieuwendyk finished two goals short of Bossy's record, but led the team with 51 goals and was the second first-year player to score at least 50 goals in one season. He played in his first NHL All-Star Game, was named to the All-Rookie Team and was voted the winner of the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL's top rookie.
Nieuwendyk again scored 51 goals in 1988–89 and marked the 100th of his career in his 144th career game. At the time, he was the third fastest player to reach the milestone, behind Bossy (129 games) and Maurice Richard (134 games), and was the third player in league history to score 50 goals in each of his first two seasons (Bossy and Wayne Gretzky). He led the league with 11 game-winning goals and set a Flames franchise record on January 11, 1989, when he scored five goals in one game against the Winnipeg Jets. Nieuwendyk appeared in his second of three-consecutive All-Star Games. In the 1989 Stanley Cup playoffs, he scored 10 goals and four assists to help the Flames win their first- and only -Stanley Cup championship in franchise history. In the clinching game against the Montreal Canadiens, Nieuwendyk set up Lanny McDonald's final NHL goal with a quick pass after receiving the puck from Håkan Loob.
A 45-goal season in 1989–90 was enough for Nieuwendyk to lead the team in goal scoring for the third consecutive season. He missed he first 11 games of the 1991–92 NHL season after suffering a knee injury during a summer evaluation camp for the 1991 Canada Cup. Nieuwendyk began the season as the 12th captain in the Flames franchise history. He was limited to 22 goals and 56 points on the season, but scored his 200th career goal on December 3, 1991, against the Detroit Red Wings. His 230th career goal, scored against the Tampa Bay Lightning on November 13, 1992, established a Flames franchise record for career goals (since broken).
Nieuwendyk entered the 1995–96 season unhappy with his contract status. Unable to come to terms with the Flames, he had gone to arbitration, and was awarded a contract worth C$1.85 million, but insisted on renegotiating the deal into a long-term contract extension. He refused an offer of a three-year, $6 million contract from the Flames, and as the dispute dragged on, chose not to join the team when the season began. He remained a holdout until December 19, 1995, when the Flames traded him to the Dallas Stars in exchange for Jarome Iginla and Corey Millen.
Dallas Stars
The Stars immediately signed Nieuwendyk to a new deal worth US$11.3 million over five years. Bob Gainey, the team's general manager, hoped that the acquisition of Nieuwendyk would help the franchise, which had relocated from Minnesota three years previous, establish its place in Dallas. Nieuwendyk scored 14 goals and 32 points in 52 games with the Stars to finish the 1995–96 season.
Nieuwendyk improved to 30 goals in 1996–97 despite missing the first month of the season with fractured rib cartilage. A 39-goal season followed, but he was again sidelined by injury after appearing in only one game of the 1998 Stanley Cup playoffs. In the opening game of the Stars' first-round series against the San Jose Sharks, he suffered a torn ACL as a result of a check by Bryan Marchment. The injury required two knee surgeries to repair and six months to heal, which caused him to miss the beginning of the 1998–99 NHL season.
He finished the regular season with 28 goals and 55 points in 67 games, and added 11 goals and 10 assists in the 1999 Stanley Cup playoffs to help the Stars win the first Stanley Cup in their franchise history. Six of his playoff goals were game winners, and he was voted the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player of the playoffs. Injuries again limited Nieuwendyk in 1999–2000. He missed ten games due to a bruised chest then suffered a separated shoulder a week after his return that kept him out of the lineup for several weeks. He played only 47 regular season games, but added 23 more in the playoffs as the Stars reached the 2000 Stanley Cup Finals. They lost the series in six games to the New Jersey Devils, however.
Nieuwendyk played in his 1,000th career game on January 20, 2002, against the Chicago Blackhawks. Two months later, on March 19, 2002, he was traded to the Devils, along with Jamie Langenbrunner, in exchange for Jason Arnott, Randy McKay and a first round selection in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft.
New Jersey, Toronto and Florida
New Jersey, who had won the Stanley Cup in 2000 and reached the finals the following year, acquired Nieuwendyk for their playoff run in 2002. He scored 11 points in 14 regular season games for the Devils following the trade, but New Jersey was eliminated in the first round of the 2002 Stanley Cup playoffs by the Carolina Hurricanes. Nieuwendyk reached two offensive milestones in 2002–03. He scored his 500th career goal on January 17, 2003, against Carolina's Kevin Weekes. On February 23, he scored his 1,000th point in a win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. He and the Devils reached the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals, but Nieuwendyk suffered a hip injury in the sixth game of the Eastern Conference Final that prevented him from appearing in the championship series. The Devils defeated the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the final, capturing the franchise's third Stanley Cup. For Nieuwendyk, it was his third title with his third different team.
The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Nieuwendyk to a one-year contract for the 2003–04 season. He scored 22 goals for Toronto in a season marred by abdominal and back injuries that limited him to 64 games played. After scoring two goals in the decisive Game 7 opening round series victory against the Ottawa Senators, a groin injury that forced him out of the lineup for much of Toronto's second-round series loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. He signed another one-year deal for 2004–05, but the season was cancelled due to a labour dispute that was feared would mark the end of the 38-year-old Nieuwendyk's career.
When NHL play resumed in 2005–06, the Florida Panthers sought to bolster their lineup with veteran players. They signed both Nieuwendyk and Roberts, who had played together in Calgary and Toronto and wanted to finish their careers together, to two-year, $4.5 million contracts. Nieuwendyk appeared in 65 games during the season, scoring 26 goals and 56 points. He appeared in 15 games in 2006–07 before chronic back pain forced him onto injured reserve. After missing 14 games, Nieuwendyk announced his retirement on December 7, 2006.
International play
As a member of the Canadian national junior team at the 1986 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, Nieuwendyk scored five goals in seven games to help Canada win a silver medal. His 12 points in the tournament tied him for third in scoring for Team Canada and fourth overall in the tournament. One year later, Nieuwendyk joined the senior national team for the Calgary Cup, a four-team exhibition tournament that served as a preview event for the 1988 Winter Olympics. He scored a goal in each of the first two games, losses to the United States and Czechoslovakia, for the Canadian team that won the bronze medal. He joined the senior team again for the 1990 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, but appeared in only one game after suffering a knee injury. He was invited to Team Canada's summer camp for the 1991 Canada Cup tournament but suffered a knee injury that caused him to miss the entire tournament.
NHL players were first allowed to participate in the Olympic ice hockey tournament in 1998. Nieuwendyk was among the players named to join Canada's "dream team". He scored two goals and three assists in six games, but was one of several Canadian players stopped by Czech goaltender Dominik Hašek in a shootout loss in the semifinals. Canada then dropped a 3–2 decision to Finland to finish fourth. Nieuwendyk played alongside Brendan Shanahan and Theoren Fleury on Canada's checking line at the 2002 Olympic tournament. He scored one goal and helped Canada win its first Olympic hockey gold medal in 50 years.
Playing style
Cliff Fletcher, who drafted him into the NHL, described Nieuwendyk as being a "pre-eminent two-way guy who had 50-goal seasons", adding that "he had a great stick around the net, he had a great shot, he saw the ice well, he could skate, he had the size – he had everything you needed to have. History has indicated that wherever he went, the team was competitive. The more that was on the line in big games, the better Joe played." He was an offensive centre in Calgary and power play specialist, able to withstand the physical punishment required to stand in front of the net and battle defencemen for the puck. He led the NHL in power play goals in 1987–88 with 31 and finished in the top ten on four other occasions. Wayne Gretzky, who also played box lacrosse in his youth, argued that the skills Nieuwendyk learned dodging opposing players in that sport aided his development as a hockey player. Nieuwendyk was regarded as a top faceoff man, a skill that Team Canada relied on during the Olympics. He was a checking-line centre at the 2002 Olympics, relied on for his defensive and faceoff abilities.
Nieuwendyk was regarded as a leader throughout his career. He was the captain of the Flames for four seasons, and his teammates in Dallas praised him as a player who would help guide the younger players as they began their careers. His presence was considered an important factor in New Jersey's 2003 Stanley Cup championship. Devils' general manager Lou Lamoriello praised his impact both on and off the ice: "Certainly (the tangibles were) the quality player he was even at that time, how good he was defensively as well as always finding a way to get big goals. It was also about how good he was on faceoffs. And the intangibles, which are really more tangible than anything, are what he brought in the locker room from leadership and unselfishness. It was obvious that when he didn't play he was still so active in his support. He's genuine in every sense of the word. He was a true team player." Nieuwendyk was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011, and his uniform number 25 was honoured by the Calgary Flames on March 7, 2014, as he was named to the organization's "Forever a Flame" program.
Management career
Remaining in hockey following the end of his playing career, Nieuwendyk joined the Florida Panthers' front office as a consultant to general manager Jacques Martin in 2007. He left the Panthers after one year to join the Maple Leafs as special assistant to general manager Cliff Fletcher in 2008. He served as assistant general manager for the silver-medal winning Canadian national team at the 2009 World Championships, and on June 1, 2009, was named general manager of the Dallas Stars. His ability to make moves was at times limited by the financial difficulty of team owner Tom Hicks. Among Nieuwendyk's decisions in his first two seasons as general manager was to allow popular former captain Mike Modano to leave the organization after 22 years with the franchise in 2010. Nieuwendyk stated such moves were difficult, as he played with Modano and considered him a friend. Nieuwendyk was released as Stars' general manager at the conclusion of the 2012–13 NHL season as team owner Tom Gaglardi stated that the team wanted to "take this organization in a different direction". On September 3, 2014, the Carolina Hurricanes announced they had hired him as a pro scout and advisor. He resigned from his position with Carolina on April 30, 2018.
Personal life
Nieuwendyk and his wife Tina have three children: daughters Tyra and Kaycee and son Jackson. In 1995, while a member of the Flames, Nieuwendyk won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy given annually to the player "who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and who has made a significant humanitarian contribution to his community". He was honoured by the league for his contributions to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), and was a spokesman and honorary chairman of the Foothills Hospital Foundation. He remained active with the SPCA after his trade to Dallas, and following the September 11 attacks, organized a charity softball game that raised $115,000 for charitable groups in the aftermath of the attack. While a member of the Maple Leafs during the lockout, he participated in a charity hockey game organized by cancer survivor and former NHL player Keith Acton that raised $30,000 for cancer and leukemia charities in southern Ontario.
Career statistics
Regular season and playoffs
International
Awards and honours
References
External links
1966 births
Living people
Calder Trophy winners
Calgary Flames captains
Calgary Flames draft picks
Calgary Flames players
Canadian ice hockey centres
Canadian lacrosse players
Canadian people of Dutch descent
Carolina Hurricanes scouts
Conn Smythe Trophy winners
Cornell Big Red men's ice hockey players
Dallas Stars executives
Dallas Stars players
Florida Panthers executives
Florida Panthers players
Hockey Hall of Fame inductees
Sportspeople from Oshawa
Sportspeople from Whitby, Ontario
Ice hockey players at the 1998 Winter Olympics
Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics
King Clancy Memorial Trophy winners
Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics
National Hockey League All-Stars
New Jersey Devils players
Olympic gold medalists for Canada
Olympic ice hockey players of Canada
Olympic medalists in ice hockey
Stanley Cup champions
Toronto Maple Leafs players
Ice hockey people from Ontario
AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans | false | [
"The kidney is injured in approximately 10 percent of all significant blunt abdominal trauma. Of those, 13 percent are sports-related when the kidney, followed by testicle, is most frequently involved. However, the most frequent cause by far is traffic collisions, followed by falls. The consequences are usually less severe than injuries involving other internal organs.\n\nSports related injury\nBlunt injuries to the kidney from helmets, shoulder pads, and knees are described in football, and in soccer, martial arts, and all-terrain vehicle crashes. A literature review of peer-reviewed articles in May 2009 demonstrated that urogenital injuries are uncommon in team and individual sports, and that most of them are low-grade injuries, cycling being the most commonly associated, followed by winter sports, horse riding and contact/collision sports. A special situation has existed in the athletic participant with a single kidney.\n\nFormerly, the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Sports Medicine and Fitness advised against such children and adolescents from participating in contact sports. Children's kidney's are prone to injury from blunt force trauma due to their size and location in a child's body. However, a study of 45,000 children with kidney injuries demonstrated no kidney loss in any contact sport. Sledding, skiing and rollerblading did, however, result in such loss. Further, data from the National Athletic Trainers' Association High School Injury Surveillance Study, an observational cohort study during the 1995–1997 academic years, have been used to compare incidence rates for sport-specific injuries to specific organs. There were over 4.4 million athlete-exposures, defined as 1 athlete participating in 1 game or practice. Student athletes incurred kidney injuries most often playing football (12 injuries) or girls' soccer (2 injuries).\n\nThe American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends a \"qualified yes\" for participation by athletes with single kidneys in contact/collision sports although some physicians remain reluctant to acquiesce.\n\nDiagnosis\nIn blunt injury, imaging is indicated if there is gross hematuria, or if the patient exhibits shock together with either gross or microscopic hematuria.\n\nInvestigation\nThe imaging modality of choice is contrast-enhanced, computed tomography (CT) which is readily available in most emergency departments of moderate or above size. Scan times have become shorter with each generation of scanners and current scans are quick and accurately demonstrate renal injuries together with associated injuries to other abdominal or retroperitoneal organs.\n\nTreatment\nUnlike ultrasound examination (FAST), CT provides anatomic and functional information that allows for accurate grading of the injury which is partly responsible for a growing trend toward conservative management (intravenous fluids, close monitoring, watchful waiting) of renal trauma. Conservative management does not apply in situations where extensive urinary extravasation or devitalized areas of renal parenchyma are found and especially if associated with injuries to other abdominal organs; these cases are complication-prone and much more likely to require surgery. That being said, a retrospective study suggests that primary conservative treatment of blunt kidney rupture seems to lead to less surgery, especially less open surgery, and less blood and renal parenchyma loss, compared to a strategy of initial surgery.\n\nSee also\n Abdominal trauma\n\nReferences\n\nInjuries of abdomen, lower back, lumbar spine and pelvis\nMedical emergencies\nTrauma types",
"A chest injury, also known as chest trauma, is any form of physical injury to the chest including the ribs, heart and lungs. Chest injuries account for 25% of all deaths from traumatic injury. Typically chest injuries are caused by blunt mechanisms such as direct, indirect, compression, contusion, deceleration, or blasts- caused by motor vehicle collisions or penetrating mechanisms such as stabbings.\n\nClassification\nChest injuries can be classified as blunt or penetrating. Blunt and penetrating injuries have different pathophysiologies and clinical courses.\n\nSpecific types of injuries include:\n Injuries to the chest wall\n Chest wall contusions or hematomas. \n Rib fractures\n Flail chest\n Sternal fractures\n Fractures of the shoulder girdle\n Pulmonary injury (injury to the lung) and injuries involving the pleural space\n Pulmonary contusion \n Pulmonary laceration\n Pneumothorax\n Hemothorax\n Hemopneumothorax\n Injury to the airways\n Tracheobronchial tear\n Cardiac injury\n Pericardial tamponade\n Myocardial contusion\n Traumatic arrest\n Hemopericardium\n Blood vessel injuries\n Traumatic aortic rupture\n Thoracic aorta injury\n Aortic dissection\n And injuries to other structures within the torso\n Esophageal injury (Boerhaave syndrome)\n Diaphragm injury\n\nDiagnosis\nMost blunt injuries are managed with relatively simple interventions like tracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation and chest tube insertion. Diagnosis of blunt injuries may be more difficult and require additional investigations such as CT scanning. Penetrating injuries often require surgery, and complex investigations are usually not needed to come to a diagnosis. Patients with penetrating trauma may deteriorate rapidly, but may also recover much faster than patients with blunt injury.\n\nSee also\n Transmediastinal gunshot wound\n Commotio thoracis\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\nMedical emergencies"
]
|
[
"Billy Corgan",
"1967-1987: Childhood and formative years"
]
| C_f7f748df004544729408cda74b466786_1 | Where did Billy grow up? | 1 | Where did Billy grow up? | Billy Corgan | William Patrick Corgan Jr. was born at Columbus Hospital in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on March 17, 1967 as the oldest son of William Corgan Sr., a blues/rock guitarist, and Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was soon remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. During this time, Corgan alleges he was subject to much physical and emotional abuse by his stepmother. Corgan also developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys would live alone with the stepmother, with both of Corgan's birth parents living separately within an hour's drive. Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his Marquardt Middle School baseball team, he collected baseball cards (amassing over 10,000) and listened to every Chicago Cubs game. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream, Illinois, he had become only an average athlete. He decided to start playing guitar when he went over to a friend's house and saw his friend's Flying V. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. Corgan, Sr. steered his son stylistically, encouraging him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support, and the younger Corgan taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. Corgan performed in a string of bands in high school, and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time. Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, he moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. Corgan performed with Wayne Static in Static's first band Deep Blue Dream, in 1987/88. CANNOTANSWER | Glendale Heights, Illinois. | William Patrick Corgan (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only permanent member of the rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. He is currently the owner and promoter of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago in 1988, the band was joined by bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Strong album sales and large-scale tours propelled the band's increasing fame in the 1990s until their break-up in 2000. Corgan started a new band called Zwan, and after their demise he released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, in 2005 and a collection of poetry, Blinking with Fists, before reforming the Smashing Pumpkins. The new version of the band, consisting of Corgan and a revolving lineup, has released and toured new albums extensively since 2007. In October 2017, Corgan released Ogilala, his first solo album in over a decade. His latest album, Cotillions, was released on November 22, 2019.
In 2011, Corgan founded Resistance Pro Wrestling. He later joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2015, becoming its president in August 2016. After leaving TNA in November 2016, he purchased the NWA in October 2017, transforming it from a brand licensing organization to a singular promotion.
Early life
William Patrick Corgan was born at Columbus Hospital in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago on March 17, 1967, the oldest son of guitarist William Corgan Sr. and his wife Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic and is of Irish descent. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. Corgan alleges that his stepmother was abusive to him, both physically and emotionally. He developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys lived alone with their stepmother, and both of his birth parents lived separately within an hour's drive.
Corgan described his father as a "drug dealing, gun-toting, musician [and] mad man". Although this had a huge negative impact on his childhood, in retrospect he respects his father as a great musician.
Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his baseball team at Marquardt Middle School, he amassed over 10,000 baseball cards and listened to every Chicago Cubs game on the radio. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School, his athletic prowess had greatly diminished. He decided to start playing guitar after seeing a Flying V when he went over to a friend's house. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. His father encouraged him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support. So he taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Van Halen, Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. He performed in a string of bands in high school and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time.
Music career
1985–1987: Early career
Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, Corgan moved to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. From 1987 to 1988, he played guitar in Chicago band Deep Blue Dream, which also featured future Static-X frontman Wayne Static. He left the band to focus on The Smashing Pumpkins.
1988–2000: The Smashing Pumpkins
Upon his return to Chicago, Corgan had already devised his next project – a band that would be called The Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan met guitarist James Iha while working in a record store, and the two began recording demos, which Corgan describes as "gloomy little goth-pop records". He met bassist D'arcy Wretzky after a local show, arguing with her about a band that had just played, The Dan Reed Network. Soon after, the Smashing Pumpkins were formed. The trio began to play together at local clubs with a drum machine for percussion. To secure a show at the Metro in Chicago, the band recruited drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, and played for the first time as a quartet on October 5, 1988.
The addition of Chamberlin drove the band in a heavier direction almost immediately. On the band's debut album, Gish (1991), the band integrated psychedelic rock and heavy metal into their sound. Gish fared better than expected, but the follow-up, Siamese Dream, released on Virgin Records in 1993, became a multi-platinum hit. The band became known for internal drama during this period, with Corgan frequently characterized in the music press as a "control freak" due to rumors that Corgan played all the guitar and bass parts on Siamese Dream (a rumor that Corgan later confirmed as true). Despite this, the album was well received by critics, and the songs "Today", "Cherub Rock", and "Disarm" became hits.
The band's 1995 follow-up effort, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, was more successful, spawning a string of hit singles. According to Jon Pareles from The New York Times, Corgan wanted to "lose himself and find himself..." in this album. The album was nominated for seven Grammy awards that year, and would eventually be certified ten times platinum in the United States. The song "1979" was Corgan's biggest hit to date, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's modern rock and mainstream rock charts. Their appearance on Saturday Night Live on November 11, 1995, to promote this material (their second appearance on the show overall) was also the television debut appearance of Corgan's shaved head, which he has maintained consistently since.
On July 12, 1996, touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin died in a Manhattan hotel room of a heroin overdose after he and Chamberlin used the drug together. Chamberlin was later arrested on a misdemeanor drug possession charge. The Smashing Pumpkins made the decision to fire Chamberlin and continue as a trio. This shakeup, coupled with Corgan going through a divorce and the death of his mother, influenced the somber mood of the band's next album, 1998's Adore. Featuring a darker, more subdued and heavily electronic sound at a time when alternative rock was declining in mainstream cachet, Adore divided both critics and fans, resulting in a significant decrease in album sales (it sold 1.3 million discs in the US).
Chamberlin was reunited with the band in 1999. In 2000, they released Machina/The Machines of God, a concept album on which the band deliberately played to their public image. Critics were again divided, and sales were lower than before; Machina is the second lowest-selling commercially released Smashing Pumpkins album to date, with U.S. sales of 583,000 units up to 2005. During the recording for Machina, Wretzky quit the band and was replaced for the upcoming tour by former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. In 2000 the band announced they would break up at the end of the year, and soon after released Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music free over the Internet. The Smashing Pumpkins played their last show on December 2, 2000, at the Cabaret Metro.
2001–2005: Zwan and solo career
Following a brief stint touring with New Order in the summer, Corgan reunited with Chamberlin to form the band Zwan with Corgan's old friend Matt Sweeney in late 2001. According to Neil Strauss of New York Times, during his few live performances with the band, Corgan says "is still a work in progress". The lineup was completed with guitarist David Pajo and bassist Paz Lenchantin. The band had two distinct incarnations, the primary approach being an upbeat rock band with a three-guitar-driven sound, the second, a folk and gospel inspired acoustic side with live strings. The quintet performed throughout 2002, and their debut album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in early 2003 to generally positive reviews. In the midst of their supporting tour for the album, mounting conflict between Corgan and Chamberlin, and the other band members led to the cancellation of the rest of the tour as the band entered an apparent hiatus, formally announcing a breakup in September 2003.
In 2004, Corgan began writing revealing autobiographical posts on his website and his MySpace page, blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins, calling Wretzky "a mean spirited drug addict," and criticizing his former Zwan bandmates' fixation with "indie cred" and calling them "filthy", opportunistic, and selfish.
On September 17, 2003, Billy presented his poetry at the Art Institute of Chicago's Rubloff Auditorium. In late 2004, Corgan published Blinking with Fists, a book of poetry. Despite mixed reviews, the book debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list. Around this time, he began posting autobiographical writings online under the title The Confessions of Billy Corgan.
Also in 2004, he began a solo music career, landing on an electronic/shoegaze/alternative rock sound for his first solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, co-produced and arranged by Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb. Released on June 21, 2005, through Reprise Records, it garnered mixed reviews from the press and only sold 69,000 copies. Corgan toured behind his solo album with a touring band that included Linda Strawberry, Brian Liesegang and Matt Walker in 2005. This tour was not as extensive as previous Smashing Pumpkins or Zwan tours. Prior to recording TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan had recorded some 72 songs inspired by Chicago history for the largely acoustic ChicagoSongs project, which have yet to be released.
2005–present: The Smashing Pumpkins revival
In 2005, Corgan took out a full-page ad in Chicago's two major newspapers (Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun-Times) revealing his desire to re-form the Smashing Pumpkins. Several days later, Jimmy Chamberlin accepted Corgan's offer for a reunion.
On April 20, 2006, the band's official website confirmed that the group was indeed reuniting. The re-formed Smashing Pumpkins went into studio for much of 2006 and early 2007, and performed its first show in seven years on May 22, 2007, with new members Ginger Pooley (bass) and Jeff Schroeder (guitar) replacing Wretzky and Iha. The new album, titled Zeitgeist, was released in the United States on July 10, 2007, and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts. Corgan and the rest of the Pumpkins toured extensively throughout 2007 and 2008, also releasing the EP American Gothic and the singles "G.L.O.W." and "Superchrist". Chamberlin left the band in March 2009, and Corgan elected to continue under the name.
In summer 2009, Corgan formed the band Spirits in the Sky to play a tribute concert to the late Sky Saxon of the Seeds. He toured with the band, composed of ex-Catherine member and "Superchrist" producer Kerry Brown, the Electric Prunes bassist Mark Tulin, Strawberry Alarm Clock keyboardist Mark Weitz, frequent Corgan collaborator Linda Strawberry, flautist Kevin Dippold, "Superchrist" violinist Ysanne Spevack, saxist Justin Norman, new Pumpkins drummer Mike Byrne, and Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, playing covers and new Pumpkins material at several clubs in California. At the end of the tour, Corgan, Byrne, Tulin, and Brown headed back to Chicago to begin work on the new Smashing Pumpkins album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The lineup at the time which included new bassist Nicole Fiorentino, toured through much of 2010, then spent 2011 recording the "album-within-an-album" Oceania and mounting tours of the United States and Europe. However, Byrne and Fiorentino would later leave the band in 2014.
In April Corgan announced a new solo record of "experimental" recordings he made in 2007, via the Smashing Pumpkins' website. The album, which he titled AEGEA was released exclusively on vinyl, with 250 copies being made. Most of those copies were sold online, and a few copies were sold at Madame Zuzu's, a tea house he owns and operates in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago. The album was released on May 15.
On July 25, 2014, Corgan announced that the tapes from his "Siddhartha" show from March 2014 were being transferred for sale, much in the vein of AEGEA. The set was expected to contain between 5 and 6 discs.
During the summer 2014, Corgan recorded The Smashing Pumpkins's tenth studio album, Monuments to an Elegy, with Tommy Lee and Jeff Schroeder. The album was released in early December 2014.
In September 2015, Corgan started a blog of vintage photographs that he himself curated, and which he called "People and Their Cars". The website also included an email listing for the blog, titled "The Red Border Club". This list was to be used for information on upcoming People and Their Cars and "Hexestential" books and merchandise, along with access to additional images.
On September 8, 2016, Corgan announced, in a Facebook live video, that he had recorded a new solo album with producer Rick Rubin, and it would consist of 12 or 13 tracks. He described work on the album as being near completion, though a release date was not given.
On August 22, 2017, he announced the solo album, giving its title as Ogilala.
On February 16, 2018, Corgan announced the Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour, a reunion tour for The Smashing Pumpkins. The lineup consists of himself, James Iha, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder. It is rumored that former bassist D'arcy Wretzky was not a part of the lineup due to unresolved tension between her and Corgan. However, she has stated that after offering her a contract, Corgan retracted it, saying that "we also have to balance the forces at play... there is no room for error." After Wretzky released text messages between her and Corgan, a feud ensued, with each party attacking each other with biting remarks.
On November 22, 2019, Corgan released his third solo album Cotillions, which he called "a labor of love". He also said, "This is absolutely an album from my heart."
Professional wrestling career
Resistance Pro Wrestling (2011–2014)
In 2011 Corgan formed a Chicago-based independent wrestling promotion called Resistance Pro. Two years later, in 2013, he starred in a commercial for Walter E. Smithe Furniture, using the platform to promote his wrestling company.
In March 2014 it was reported that Corgan was in discussions with American television channel AMC to develop an unscripted reality series about Resistance Pro. The premise being a behind-the-scenes look at the promotion as Corgan "takes over creative direction for the independent wrestling company". The show was given the green light by AMC, under the working title of "Untitled Billy Corgan Wrestling Project," the same month.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2015–2016)
In April 2015 Corgan was announced as the new Senior Producer of Creative and Talent Development for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where his role was to "develop characters and create story lines", which he has called "a dream come true". In August 2016, Corgan took over as the promotion's new president.
In November 2016 Corgan had left TNA after disputes about not being paid on time, and subsequently, Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp and Impact Ventures, parent company of TNA Impact Wrestling, announced that Anthem has provided a credit facility to TNA to fund operations.
In 2016, he loaned money to Anthem Sports & Entertainment to fund TNA, and they promised to pay him back.
On November 11, Corgan signed a settlement with Anthem – TNA and Anthem announced that they would be repaying TNA's loan from Corgan.
Newly appointed TNA/Impact Wrestling President Ed Nordholm credits the invention of and the vision behind the Matt Hardy Broken gimmick to Jeremy Borash, David Lagana and Billy Corgan. While Borash specifically had the most input into the gimmick of the three aside from Matt, the Hardy family deny that Borash was the sole person behind the gimmick.
National Wrestling Alliance (2017–present)
On May 1, 2017, it was reported that Corgan had agreed to purchase the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), including its name, rights, trademarks and championship belts. The purchase was confirmed by NWA president Bruce Tharpe later that same day. Corgan's ownership took effect on October 1, 2017.
Personal life
Mental health
For much of his life, Corgan has struggled with anxiety, depression, panic attacks, self-harm, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and suicidal ideation. He attributes these problems to the abuse he endured as a child at the hands of his father and stepmother, as well as other personal issues. He has since become an advocate for abuse support networks.
Involvement with sports
Corgan is a keen supporter of the Chicago Cubs, and an occasional commentator on the team for WXRT DJ Lin Brehmer. He has appeared at many Cubs games, occasionally throwing the ceremonial first pitch or singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". He is also a fan of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks, and became personal friends with Dennis Rodman and Chris Chelios. He is an avid professional wrestling fan, and appeared at an ECW event wielding an acoustic guitar as a weapon. In 2008, the Pumpkins song "Doomsday Clock" was used by ROH for promotional videos. On April 26, 2010, Corgan appeared on the SIRIUS Satellite Radio program Right After Wrestling with Arda Ocal to discuss his love for wrestling and the importance of unique theme songs for characters. On August 26, 2010, he took part in a storyline with AAA during a concert for MTV World Stage. As far as other entertainment, Corgan once commented that all he watches on TV are "sports and the Three Stooges". In March 2008, he was spotted in the crowd at the final day of the cricket test match between New Zealand and England.
Spiritual beliefs
Corgan accepts some parts of Catholicism. In 2009, he launched Everything From Here to There, an interfaith website that is devoted to "Mind-Body-Soul" integration. He mentions praying each morning and night to be able to see through Jesus Christ's eyes and feel with his heart. An analysis of the symbolism of Corgan's lyrics considered the blend of beliefs he has cited in various interviews, which include ideas about religion, multiple dimensions, and psychic phenomena. In an interview on the Howard Stern Show, Corgan claimed to have once had an encounter with a person who had the ability to shapeshift.
Family and romantic relationships
Corgan's mother Martha died in December 1996. The song "For Martha", from Adore, was written in her memory. In the early 2000s Corgan named his label Martha's Music after her as well. A picture of Martha as a little girl sitting on a fake moon at Riverview Park is featured on the flipside of the Siamese Dream booklet.
In 1993, Corgan married art conservator and artist Chris Fabian, his longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend. They were married at a small ceremony at his house in Wrigleyville. Corgan and Fabian separated in late 1995. Corgan filed for divorce in December 1996 on grounds of "irreconcilable differences," and the divorce was granted in 1997. Corgan refused to discuss the marriage for years, only allowing that it was "unhappy." In 2005 he described the circumstances of his marriage in depth via his personal blog.
In late 1995, Corgan started dating Ukrainian photographer Yelena Yemchuk, who later contributed to several Smashing Pumpkins videos and album art. He continued to date Yemchuk until around 2004. According to Corgan, his breakup with her contributed to the themes of his 2005 solo release TheFutureEmbrace. In 2005, Corgan dated musician Emilie Autumn for a number of months. The pair collaborated on multiple occasions during this time, with Autumn providing vocals and violin on his solo album and costume for a supporting music video.
In early 2006, Corgan moved in with Courtney Love and her daughter. According to Love, he had his own wing in her Hollywood Hills mansion. Two years later, Love criticized him publicly over his alleged refusal to attend her daughter's sweet 16 party. After they parted ways, Corgan stated in a March 2010 interview, "I have no interest in supporting [Love] in any way, shape or form. You can't throw enough things down the abyss with a person like that." Shortly after, when her band's album Nobody's Daughter was released, Corgan used Twitter to post anger-filled rants against her in reference to two songs he had written, "Samantha" and "How Dirty Girls Get Clean", which ended up on the album without his permission. Love then wrote an apology to him on her Facebook account, but the feud continued. Corgan took to Twitter to rant against her again. She responded to him on Twitter, saying, "All i am is nice about you so if you wanna be mean be mean i don't feel anything. i have too much to feel dear." In 2008, he blamed his dedication to music for what he called "a bad marriage and seven bad girlfriends in a row". The two eventually reconciled, and Love was invited to perform at Smashing Pumpkins 30th Anniversary Show.
In 2009, Corgan was linked with pop star Jessica Simpson. He started dating Australian singer Jessica Origliasso in 2010, and remained in a relationship with her until early June 2012. Origliasso blamed their split on their careers forcing them to spend too much time apart.
He began dating Chloe Mendel in 2013. She gave birth to a son named Augustus Juppiter Corgan on November 16, 2015. Their second child, a daughter named Philomena Clementine Corgan, was born on October 2, 2018.
Political beliefs
In 1998, Corgan said he had not participated in an election since 1992, when he voted for Bill Clinton.
Following the election of Barack Obama in 2008, Corgan stated: "I'm very proud of my country right now for doing the right thing." He has since said that he was disappointed with Obama's presidency, and that he lacks faith in both major political parties. In 2009, he posted a transcript of a webcast by political activist Lyndon LaRouche to the official Smashing Pumpkins forum. On March 10, 2009, Corgan testified in front of Congress on behalf of the musicFIRST Coalition. He spoke in favor of H.R. 848, the Performance Rights Act, which gives musicians and artists their share of compensation when their music is played on radio stations.
Speaking to right-wing conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones in 2016, Corgan called progressive political campaigners "social justice warriors", and compared them to Maoists, cult members, and the Ku Klux Klan; he also stated that their actions were a threat to freedom of speech. In 2018, he called himself a "free-market libertarian capitalist".
Diet
Corgan adopted a pescetarian diet in 2013, and stated in 2017 that he had begun following a vegan and gluten-free diet. In 2012, he opened a tea house in Ravinia, Highland Park called Madame Zuzu's Tea House, which closed in 2018 and reopened in downtown Highland Park in 2020.
Collaborations
In addition to performing, Corgan has produced albums for Ric Ocasek, The Frogs, and Catherine. He shared songwriting credit on several songs on Hole's 1998 album Celebrity Skin; the title track became Corgan's second No. 1 modern rock hit. He also acted as a consultant for Marilyn Manson during the recording of the album Mechanical Animals. He has produced three soundtracks for the movies Ransom (1996), Stigmata (1999) and Spun (2002) in which he appeared as a doctor.
Corgan appeared at the 1996 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremonies. He inducted one of his biggest musical influences, Pink Floyd. He played acoustic guitar during the ceremony with Pink Floyd, when they performed their song "Wish You Were Here".
In particular, Corgan guided and collaborated with three bands in the 2000s—Breaking Benjamin (during sessions for 2004's We Are Not Alone), Taproot (for Blue-Sky Research, 2005), and Sky Saxon.
In 2010, Corgan claimed co-writing credit (with ex-girlfriend Courtney Love) on at least two of the songs on Hole's final album Nobody's Daughter and tried to assert a right of approval before the album could be released. Corgan had helped develop the album during its early stages. The album was released without the writing controversy ever being litigated or publicly resolved.
Corgan appeared as a guest vocalist on the song "Loki Cat" on Jimmy Chamberlin's first solo album, Life Begins Again, and Chamberlin played drums for the song "DIA" on Corgan's solo debut, where Robert Smith from The Cure teamed up with Corgan to do a cover of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody". In 2007, Corgan provided vocals on the Scorpions' song "The Cross", on their album Humanity: Hour I. In 2010 Corgan featured on Ray Davies' album See My Friends on the album's closer, a mash-up of the Kinks songs "All Day and All of the Night" and "Destroyer". He also contributed his guitar work on "Did You Miss Me" by The Veronicas. Corgan has also collaborated with Tony Iommi, Blindside, David Bowie (singing "All the Young Dudes" with Bowie at Bowie's 50th birthday party), New Order and Marianne Faithfull.
Musical style and influences
When asked in a 1994 Rolling Stone interview about his influences, Corgan replied:
Corgan wrote six articles for Guitar World in 1995, and his solos for "Cherub Rock" and "Geek U.S.A." were included on their list of the top guitar solos of all time. AllMusic said "Starla" "proves that Corgan was one of the finest (and most underrated) rock guitarists of the '90s", while Rolling Stone called him and his Smashing Pumpkins bandmates "ruthless virtuosos". His solo for "Soma" was No. 24 on Rolling Stone'''s list of the top guitar solos. He is a fan of Eddie Van Halen and interviewed him in 1996 for Guitar World. Other guitarists Corgan rates highly include Uli Jon Roth, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Leslie West, Dimebag Darrell and Robin Trower.
His bass playing, which has featured on nearly every Smashing Pumpkins album, was influenced by post-punk figures like Peter Hook and Simon Gallup.
Corgan has praised Radiohead, saying "if they're not the best band in the world, then they're one of the best". He is also a fan of Pantera and appeared briefly in their home video 3 Watch It Go. Other favorites include Depeche Mode, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Rush, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Cure, Metallica, Slayer, Queen, Electric Light Orchestra, Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, and Spiritualized. Corgan stated in 1997 that upon hearing the U2 song "New Year's Day", at 16, "[U2] quickly became the most important band in the world to me." Corgan particularly went out of his way to praise Rush in his interview for Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, a documentary on the band, where he criticized mainstream reviewers for consciously marginalizing the band and their influence, and highlighted the fact that many of his musical peers were influenced by Rush.
He has listed his artistic influences as William S. Burroughs, Pablo Picasso, Jimi Hendrix, Jack Kerouac, and Philip K. Dick.Corgan, Billy. Twitter Q&A. October 3, 2011.
Instruments
Corgan played (during the Gish-Siamese Dream era) a customized '57 Reissue Fender Stratocaster equipped with three Fender Lace Sensor pickups (the Lace Sensor Blue in the neck position, the Lace Sensor Silver in the middle position, and the Lace Sensor Red at the bridge position). It also has a five-position pickup selector switch which he installed himself. This battered Strat became his number one guitar by default. He owned a '74 Strat that was stolen shortly after Gish was completed. Corgan was reunited with this guitar in early 2019.
Corgan also used a wide variety of guitars on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. On "Where Boys Fear to Tread", Corgan used a Les Paul Junior Reissue, and on "Tonight Tonight" he used a '72 Gibson ES-335. He is also known to use a '74 Strat which has since been painted baby blue. That guitar was used on the recordings for "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and also "Muzzle", because the heavier wood gave it the basic Strat sound with a bit more bottom.
During the recording and tour of the album Zeitgeist, Corgan used a Schecter C-1 EX baritone, finished in black with Tony Iommi signature pickups. Corgan also endorsed Reverend Guitars in his Zwan era, most notably playing a Reverend Slingshot.
In 2008 Corgan released to the market his own Fender Stratocaster. This new guitar was made to Corgan's exact specs to create his famous mid-'90s buzzsaw tone; the instrument features three DiMarzio pickups (two custom for this instrument), a string-through hardtail bridge and a satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish. When playing live, he uses both his signature Strats as well as two other Fender Strats, one in red with a white pick guard and one in silver-grey with a black pick guard; a Gibson Tony Iommi signature SG; and his Schecter C-1 (only used on the Zeitgeist song "United States").
A video called 'Stompland' on the official Smashing Pumpkins YouTube channel is informative on Corgan's choice of effects pedals. In the video he reveals an extensive collection of pedals used throughout his career with the Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan's tone is often characterized by his use of fuzz pedals, particularly vintage versions of the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
In 2016 Reverend Guitars released the BC-1 Billy Corgan signature guitar featuring Railhammer Billy Corgan signature pickups.
The Reverend Billy Corgan Signature Terz was launched at the 2018 NAMM show—an electric version of a 19th-century instrument that is played as if the guitar is capoed at the third fret, and tuned G-g standard. Corgan often uses the capo at the third fret and asked for a higher-register guitar.
Corgan is noted for having used Marshall and Diezel amps. He has also used modular preamps based on many different amps in conjunction with Mesa Boogie poweramps. The preamps were custom built by Salvation Mods.
In August 2017, Corgan sold a large collection of instruments and gear used throughout his career via music gear website Reverb.
In 2020, Billy Corgan collaborated with Brian Carstens of Carstens Amplification to produce Grace, Billy's first and only signature guitar amplifier to date.
Discography
Solo
Albums
Singles
Soundtrack work
1996: Ransom1997: First Love, Last Rites ("When I Was Born, I Was Bored")
1999: Stigmata2000: Any Given Sunday (Corgan is credited on "Be A Man" by Hole)
2002: Spun (Corgan wrote original songs for this soundtrack)
2006: "Dance of the Dead" (episode of Masters of Horror)
2007: When a Man Falls in the Forest (three previously unreleased songs)
2011: The Chicago Code (Corgan performs the opening theme, written by Robert Duncan)
2018: Rampage – "The Rage" Performed by Kid Cudi featuring vocals by Corgan (from the Smashing Pumpkins track Bullet with Butterfly Wings)
Albums featured
1991: Sparkle (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1994: Songs About Girls (by Catherine, The song "It's No Lie" is produced by Corgan)
1994: Chante Des Chanson Sur Les Filles (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1994: Sleepy EP (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1996: Guitars That Rule the World, Vol. 2: Smell the Fuzz:The Superstar Guitar Album (by Various Artists, Corgan is credited as writer and performer of "Ascendo")
1997: Starjob (by The Frogs, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1997: Troublizing (by Ric Ocasek, Corgan is credited as writer of "Asia Minor" and playing guitar on "The Next Right Moment", "Crashland Consequence", "Situation", "Fix on You" and "People We Know")
1998: Celebrity Skin (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Celebrity Skin", "Hit So Hard", "Malibu", "Dying" and "Petals")
1998: "I Belong to You" single (by Lenny Kravitz, Corgan remixed the second track "If You Can't Say No (Flunky in the attic Mix)")
1998: Mechanical Animals by Marilyn Manson, Corgan performed backing vocals on Speed of Pain, although not credited, he is thanked in the album credits.
1999: Paraphernalia (by Enuff Z'Nuff, Corgan is credited as guitarist on the song "Everything Works If You Let It")
2000: Iommi (by Tony Iommi, Corgan is credited as writer of and vocalist on "Black Oblivion")
2001: Get Ready (by New Order, Corgan is contributing voice on "Turn My Way")
2002: Kissin Time (by Marianne Faithfull, Corgan is credited as writer of "Wherever I Go", "I'm on Fire" and contributing on "Something Good")
2003: "Lights Out" single (by Lisa Marie Presley, Corgan is credited as writer of "Savior")
2004: We Are Not Alone (by Breaking Benjamin, Corgan is credited as writer of "Follow", "Forget It" and "Rain")
2004: The Essential Cheap Trick (by Cheap Trick, Corgan is playing guitar on the live recording of the track "Mandocello")
2004: About a Burning Fire (by Blindside, Corgan is playing guitar on "Hooray, It's L.A.")
2005: Life Begins Again (by Jimmy Chamberlin Complex, Corgan is contributing voice on "Loki Cat")
2005: Blue-Sky Research (by Taproot, Corgan wrote the track "Lost in the Woods" and co-wrote the tracks "Violent Seas" and "Promise")
2006: ONXRT:Live From The Archives Volume 9 (A compilation CD from the radio station 93 WXRT in Chicago features the live recording of the track "A100")
2007: Humanity: Hour I (by Scorpions, Corgan is contributing voice on "The Cross")
2010: Nobody's Daughter (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Pacific Coast Highway", "Samantha" and "Loser Dust")
2010: See My Friends (by Ray Davies, Corgan is featured in the song "All Day And All of the Night/Destroyer")
2011: Ghost on the Canvas (by Glen Campbell, Corgan is featured in the song ."There's No Me... Without You")
2014: "Did You Miss Me" (on The Veronicas by The Veronicas, guitar contributions)
2019: The Nothing (by Korn, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "You'll Never Find Me")
2019: Screamer (by Third Eye Blind, Corgan described as the "musical consigliere" of the album, and credited as co-writer of "Light It Up")
2020: Ceremony (by Phantogram, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Into Happiness" and "Love Me Now")
As part of The Smashing Pumpkins
References
External links
The Smashing Pumpkins official website
BillyCorgan.Livejournal.com – An extensive 7-year archive of Billy's journal entries, including The Confessions of Billy Corgan, solo work and the revival of the Pumpkins.
Billy Corgan collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
Poems by Billy Corgan at alittlepoetry.com Three poems from Blinking With Fists''
1967 births
Living people
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American guitarists
21st-century American singers
Alternative rock guitarists
Alternative rock singers
American alternative rock musicians
American libertarians
American bloggers
American former Christians
American male bloggers
American male guitarists
American male poets
American male singers
American male songwriters
American music video directors
American people of Irish descent
American people of Italian descent
American rock guitarists
American rock singers
American rock songwriters
Guitarists from Chicago
Impact Wrestling executives
Lead guitarists
Musicians from Chicago
People with mood disorders
People with obsessive–compulsive disorder
Professional wrestling promoters
Singers from Chicago
Songwriters from Illinois
Starchildren members
The Smashing Pumpkins members
Veganism activists
Writers from Chicago
Zwan members | true | [
"Beautiful Door is the fourth (and most recent) album by American actor and singer-songwriter Billy Bob Thornton. It was released by New Door Records in 2007.\n\nTrack listing\n \"It's Just Me\"\n \"Restin' Your Soul\"\n \"In The Day\"\n \"Beautiful Door\"\n \"I Gotta Grow Up\"\n \"Hearts Like Mine\"\n \"Carnival Girl\"\n \"Always Countin'\"\n \"Pretty People\"\n \"I Can Tell You\"\n \"Hope for Glory\"\n \"The Boy is Gone\"\n\n2007 albums\nBilly Bob Thornton albums",
"Back to Basics is a 1987 collection of Billy Bragg's first three releases: The albums Life's A Riot With Spy Vs. Spy and Brewing Up with Billy Bragg and the EP Between The Wars–all of which make their debut in the United States here. This collection did not contain any new material, but did document Billy Bragg's early \"one man and his guitar\" approach. The songs collected on this release demonstrate major recurrent themes in Bragg's work: highly critical commentary on Thatcherite Britain, laced with poetic love songs. The collection was re-released in November 1993 on the Cooking Vinyl label.\n\nTrack listing\n\"The Milkman of Human Kindness\" (Life's a Riot)\n\"To Have and To Have Not\" (Life's a Riot)\n\"Richard\" (Life's a Riot)\n\"Lovers Town Revisited\" (Life's a Riot)\n\"A New England\" (Life's a Riot)\n\"The Man in the Iron Mask\" (Life's a Riot)\n\"The Busy Girl Buys Beauty\" (Life's a Riot)\n\"It Says Here\" (Brewing Up With Billy Bragg)\n\"Love Gets Dangerous\" (Brewing Up With Billy Bragg)\n\"The Myth of Trust\" (Brewing Up With Billy Bragg)\n\"From a Vauxhall Velox\" (Brewing Up With Billy Bragg)\n\"The Saturday Boy\" (Brewing Up With Billy Bragg)\n\"Island of No Return\" (Brewing Up With Billy Bragg)\n\"St Swithin's Day\" (Brewing Up With Billy Bragg)\n\"Like Soldiers Do\" (Brewing Up With Billy Bragg)\n\"This Guitar Says Sorry\" (Brewing Up With Billy Bragg)\n\"Strange Things Happen\" (Brewing Up With Billy Bragg)\n\"A Lover Sings\" (Brewing Up With Billy Bragg)\n\"Between the Wars\" (Between The Wars)\n\"World Turned Upside Down\" (Between The Wars)\n\"Which Side Are You On?\" (Between The Wars)\n\nReferences\n\n1988 greatest hits albums\nBilly Bragg compilation albums\nCooking Vinyl compilation albums"
]
|
[
"Billy Corgan",
"1967-1987: Childhood and formative years",
"Where did Billy grow up?",
"Glendale Heights, Illinois."
]
| C_f7f748df004544729408cda74b466786_1 | Where did he attend school? | 2 | Where did Billy attend school? | Billy Corgan | William Patrick Corgan Jr. was born at Columbus Hospital in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on March 17, 1967 as the oldest son of William Corgan Sr., a blues/rock guitarist, and Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was soon remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. During this time, Corgan alleges he was subject to much physical and emotional abuse by his stepmother. Corgan also developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys would live alone with the stepmother, with both of Corgan's birth parents living separately within an hour's drive. Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his Marquardt Middle School baseball team, he collected baseball cards (amassing over 10,000) and listened to every Chicago Cubs game. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream, Illinois, he had become only an average athlete. He decided to start playing guitar when he went over to a friend's house and saw his friend's Flying V. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. Corgan, Sr. steered his son stylistically, encouraging him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support, and the younger Corgan taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. Corgan performed in a string of bands in high school, and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time. Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, he moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. Corgan performed with Wayne Static in Static's first band Deep Blue Dream, in 1987/88. CANNOTANSWER | Marquardt Middle School | William Patrick Corgan (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only permanent member of the rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. He is currently the owner and promoter of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago in 1988, the band was joined by bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Strong album sales and large-scale tours propelled the band's increasing fame in the 1990s until their break-up in 2000. Corgan started a new band called Zwan, and after their demise he released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, in 2005 and a collection of poetry, Blinking with Fists, before reforming the Smashing Pumpkins. The new version of the band, consisting of Corgan and a revolving lineup, has released and toured new albums extensively since 2007. In October 2017, Corgan released Ogilala, his first solo album in over a decade. His latest album, Cotillions, was released on November 22, 2019.
In 2011, Corgan founded Resistance Pro Wrestling. He later joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2015, becoming its president in August 2016. After leaving TNA in November 2016, he purchased the NWA in October 2017, transforming it from a brand licensing organization to a singular promotion.
Early life
William Patrick Corgan was born at Columbus Hospital in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago on March 17, 1967, the oldest son of guitarist William Corgan Sr. and his wife Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic and is of Irish descent. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. Corgan alleges that his stepmother was abusive to him, both physically and emotionally. He developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys lived alone with their stepmother, and both of his birth parents lived separately within an hour's drive.
Corgan described his father as a "drug dealing, gun-toting, musician [and] mad man". Although this had a huge negative impact on his childhood, in retrospect he respects his father as a great musician.
Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his baseball team at Marquardt Middle School, he amassed over 10,000 baseball cards and listened to every Chicago Cubs game on the radio. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School, his athletic prowess had greatly diminished. He decided to start playing guitar after seeing a Flying V when he went over to a friend's house. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. His father encouraged him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support. So he taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Van Halen, Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. He performed in a string of bands in high school and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time.
Music career
1985–1987: Early career
Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, Corgan moved to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. From 1987 to 1988, he played guitar in Chicago band Deep Blue Dream, which also featured future Static-X frontman Wayne Static. He left the band to focus on The Smashing Pumpkins.
1988–2000: The Smashing Pumpkins
Upon his return to Chicago, Corgan had already devised his next project – a band that would be called The Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan met guitarist James Iha while working in a record store, and the two began recording demos, which Corgan describes as "gloomy little goth-pop records". He met bassist D'arcy Wretzky after a local show, arguing with her about a band that had just played, The Dan Reed Network. Soon after, the Smashing Pumpkins were formed. The trio began to play together at local clubs with a drum machine for percussion. To secure a show at the Metro in Chicago, the band recruited drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, and played for the first time as a quartet on October 5, 1988.
The addition of Chamberlin drove the band in a heavier direction almost immediately. On the band's debut album, Gish (1991), the band integrated psychedelic rock and heavy metal into their sound. Gish fared better than expected, but the follow-up, Siamese Dream, released on Virgin Records in 1993, became a multi-platinum hit. The band became known for internal drama during this period, with Corgan frequently characterized in the music press as a "control freak" due to rumors that Corgan played all the guitar and bass parts on Siamese Dream (a rumor that Corgan later confirmed as true). Despite this, the album was well received by critics, and the songs "Today", "Cherub Rock", and "Disarm" became hits.
The band's 1995 follow-up effort, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, was more successful, spawning a string of hit singles. According to Jon Pareles from The New York Times, Corgan wanted to "lose himself and find himself..." in this album. The album was nominated for seven Grammy awards that year, and would eventually be certified ten times platinum in the United States. The song "1979" was Corgan's biggest hit to date, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's modern rock and mainstream rock charts. Their appearance on Saturday Night Live on November 11, 1995, to promote this material (their second appearance on the show overall) was also the television debut appearance of Corgan's shaved head, which he has maintained consistently since.
On July 12, 1996, touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin died in a Manhattan hotel room of a heroin overdose after he and Chamberlin used the drug together. Chamberlin was later arrested on a misdemeanor drug possession charge. The Smashing Pumpkins made the decision to fire Chamberlin and continue as a trio. This shakeup, coupled with Corgan going through a divorce and the death of his mother, influenced the somber mood of the band's next album, 1998's Adore. Featuring a darker, more subdued and heavily electronic sound at a time when alternative rock was declining in mainstream cachet, Adore divided both critics and fans, resulting in a significant decrease in album sales (it sold 1.3 million discs in the US).
Chamberlin was reunited with the band in 1999. In 2000, they released Machina/The Machines of God, a concept album on which the band deliberately played to their public image. Critics were again divided, and sales were lower than before; Machina is the second lowest-selling commercially released Smashing Pumpkins album to date, with U.S. sales of 583,000 units up to 2005. During the recording for Machina, Wretzky quit the band and was replaced for the upcoming tour by former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. In 2000 the band announced they would break up at the end of the year, and soon after released Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music free over the Internet. The Smashing Pumpkins played their last show on December 2, 2000, at the Cabaret Metro.
2001–2005: Zwan and solo career
Following a brief stint touring with New Order in the summer, Corgan reunited with Chamberlin to form the band Zwan with Corgan's old friend Matt Sweeney in late 2001. According to Neil Strauss of New York Times, during his few live performances with the band, Corgan says "is still a work in progress". The lineup was completed with guitarist David Pajo and bassist Paz Lenchantin. The band had two distinct incarnations, the primary approach being an upbeat rock band with a three-guitar-driven sound, the second, a folk and gospel inspired acoustic side with live strings. The quintet performed throughout 2002, and their debut album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in early 2003 to generally positive reviews. In the midst of their supporting tour for the album, mounting conflict between Corgan and Chamberlin, and the other band members led to the cancellation of the rest of the tour as the band entered an apparent hiatus, formally announcing a breakup in September 2003.
In 2004, Corgan began writing revealing autobiographical posts on his website and his MySpace page, blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins, calling Wretzky "a mean spirited drug addict," and criticizing his former Zwan bandmates' fixation with "indie cred" and calling them "filthy", opportunistic, and selfish.
On September 17, 2003, Billy presented his poetry at the Art Institute of Chicago's Rubloff Auditorium. In late 2004, Corgan published Blinking with Fists, a book of poetry. Despite mixed reviews, the book debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list. Around this time, he began posting autobiographical writings online under the title The Confessions of Billy Corgan.
Also in 2004, he began a solo music career, landing on an electronic/shoegaze/alternative rock sound for his first solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, co-produced and arranged by Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb. Released on June 21, 2005, through Reprise Records, it garnered mixed reviews from the press and only sold 69,000 copies. Corgan toured behind his solo album with a touring band that included Linda Strawberry, Brian Liesegang and Matt Walker in 2005. This tour was not as extensive as previous Smashing Pumpkins or Zwan tours. Prior to recording TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan had recorded some 72 songs inspired by Chicago history for the largely acoustic ChicagoSongs project, which have yet to be released.
2005–present: The Smashing Pumpkins revival
In 2005, Corgan took out a full-page ad in Chicago's two major newspapers (Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun-Times) revealing his desire to re-form the Smashing Pumpkins. Several days later, Jimmy Chamberlin accepted Corgan's offer for a reunion.
On April 20, 2006, the band's official website confirmed that the group was indeed reuniting. The re-formed Smashing Pumpkins went into studio for much of 2006 and early 2007, and performed its first show in seven years on May 22, 2007, with new members Ginger Pooley (bass) and Jeff Schroeder (guitar) replacing Wretzky and Iha. The new album, titled Zeitgeist, was released in the United States on July 10, 2007, and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts. Corgan and the rest of the Pumpkins toured extensively throughout 2007 and 2008, also releasing the EP American Gothic and the singles "G.L.O.W." and "Superchrist". Chamberlin left the band in March 2009, and Corgan elected to continue under the name.
In summer 2009, Corgan formed the band Spirits in the Sky to play a tribute concert to the late Sky Saxon of the Seeds. He toured with the band, composed of ex-Catherine member and "Superchrist" producer Kerry Brown, the Electric Prunes bassist Mark Tulin, Strawberry Alarm Clock keyboardist Mark Weitz, frequent Corgan collaborator Linda Strawberry, flautist Kevin Dippold, "Superchrist" violinist Ysanne Spevack, saxist Justin Norman, new Pumpkins drummer Mike Byrne, and Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, playing covers and new Pumpkins material at several clubs in California. At the end of the tour, Corgan, Byrne, Tulin, and Brown headed back to Chicago to begin work on the new Smashing Pumpkins album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The lineup at the time which included new bassist Nicole Fiorentino, toured through much of 2010, then spent 2011 recording the "album-within-an-album" Oceania and mounting tours of the United States and Europe. However, Byrne and Fiorentino would later leave the band in 2014.
In April Corgan announced a new solo record of "experimental" recordings he made in 2007, via the Smashing Pumpkins' website. The album, which he titled AEGEA was released exclusively on vinyl, with 250 copies being made. Most of those copies were sold online, and a few copies were sold at Madame Zuzu's, a tea house he owns and operates in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago. The album was released on May 15.
On July 25, 2014, Corgan announced that the tapes from his "Siddhartha" show from March 2014 were being transferred for sale, much in the vein of AEGEA. The set was expected to contain between 5 and 6 discs.
During the summer 2014, Corgan recorded The Smashing Pumpkins's tenth studio album, Monuments to an Elegy, with Tommy Lee and Jeff Schroeder. The album was released in early December 2014.
In September 2015, Corgan started a blog of vintage photographs that he himself curated, and which he called "People and Their Cars". The website also included an email listing for the blog, titled "The Red Border Club". This list was to be used for information on upcoming People and Their Cars and "Hexestential" books and merchandise, along with access to additional images.
On September 8, 2016, Corgan announced, in a Facebook live video, that he had recorded a new solo album with producer Rick Rubin, and it would consist of 12 or 13 tracks. He described work on the album as being near completion, though a release date was not given.
On August 22, 2017, he announced the solo album, giving its title as Ogilala.
On February 16, 2018, Corgan announced the Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour, a reunion tour for The Smashing Pumpkins. The lineup consists of himself, James Iha, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder. It is rumored that former bassist D'arcy Wretzky was not a part of the lineup due to unresolved tension between her and Corgan. However, she has stated that after offering her a contract, Corgan retracted it, saying that "we also have to balance the forces at play... there is no room for error." After Wretzky released text messages between her and Corgan, a feud ensued, with each party attacking each other with biting remarks.
On November 22, 2019, Corgan released his third solo album Cotillions, which he called "a labor of love". He also said, "This is absolutely an album from my heart."
Professional wrestling career
Resistance Pro Wrestling (2011–2014)
In 2011 Corgan formed a Chicago-based independent wrestling promotion called Resistance Pro. Two years later, in 2013, he starred in a commercial for Walter E. Smithe Furniture, using the platform to promote his wrestling company.
In March 2014 it was reported that Corgan was in discussions with American television channel AMC to develop an unscripted reality series about Resistance Pro. The premise being a behind-the-scenes look at the promotion as Corgan "takes over creative direction for the independent wrestling company". The show was given the green light by AMC, under the working title of "Untitled Billy Corgan Wrestling Project," the same month.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2015–2016)
In April 2015 Corgan was announced as the new Senior Producer of Creative and Talent Development for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where his role was to "develop characters and create story lines", which he has called "a dream come true". In August 2016, Corgan took over as the promotion's new president.
In November 2016 Corgan had left TNA after disputes about not being paid on time, and subsequently, Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp and Impact Ventures, parent company of TNA Impact Wrestling, announced that Anthem has provided a credit facility to TNA to fund operations.
In 2016, he loaned money to Anthem Sports & Entertainment to fund TNA, and they promised to pay him back.
On November 11, Corgan signed a settlement with Anthem – TNA and Anthem announced that they would be repaying TNA's loan from Corgan.
Newly appointed TNA/Impact Wrestling President Ed Nordholm credits the invention of and the vision behind the Matt Hardy Broken gimmick to Jeremy Borash, David Lagana and Billy Corgan. While Borash specifically had the most input into the gimmick of the three aside from Matt, the Hardy family deny that Borash was the sole person behind the gimmick.
National Wrestling Alliance (2017–present)
On May 1, 2017, it was reported that Corgan had agreed to purchase the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), including its name, rights, trademarks and championship belts. The purchase was confirmed by NWA president Bruce Tharpe later that same day. Corgan's ownership took effect on October 1, 2017.
Personal life
Mental health
For much of his life, Corgan has struggled with anxiety, depression, panic attacks, self-harm, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and suicidal ideation. He attributes these problems to the abuse he endured as a child at the hands of his father and stepmother, as well as other personal issues. He has since become an advocate for abuse support networks.
Involvement with sports
Corgan is a keen supporter of the Chicago Cubs, and an occasional commentator on the team for WXRT DJ Lin Brehmer. He has appeared at many Cubs games, occasionally throwing the ceremonial first pitch or singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". He is also a fan of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks, and became personal friends with Dennis Rodman and Chris Chelios. He is an avid professional wrestling fan, and appeared at an ECW event wielding an acoustic guitar as a weapon. In 2008, the Pumpkins song "Doomsday Clock" was used by ROH for promotional videos. On April 26, 2010, Corgan appeared on the SIRIUS Satellite Radio program Right After Wrestling with Arda Ocal to discuss his love for wrestling and the importance of unique theme songs for characters. On August 26, 2010, he took part in a storyline with AAA during a concert for MTV World Stage. As far as other entertainment, Corgan once commented that all he watches on TV are "sports and the Three Stooges". In March 2008, he was spotted in the crowd at the final day of the cricket test match between New Zealand and England.
Spiritual beliefs
Corgan accepts some parts of Catholicism. In 2009, he launched Everything From Here to There, an interfaith website that is devoted to "Mind-Body-Soul" integration. He mentions praying each morning and night to be able to see through Jesus Christ's eyes and feel with his heart. An analysis of the symbolism of Corgan's lyrics considered the blend of beliefs he has cited in various interviews, which include ideas about religion, multiple dimensions, and psychic phenomena. In an interview on the Howard Stern Show, Corgan claimed to have once had an encounter with a person who had the ability to shapeshift.
Family and romantic relationships
Corgan's mother Martha died in December 1996. The song "For Martha", from Adore, was written in her memory. In the early 2000s Corgan named his label Martha's Music after her as well. A picture of Martha as a little girl sitting on a fake moon at Riverview Park is featured on the flipside of the Siamese Dream booklet.
In 1993, Corgan married art conservator and artist Chris Fabian, his longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend. They were married at a small ceremony at his house in Wrigleyville. Corgan and Fabian separated in late 1995. Corgan filed for divorce in December 1996 on grounds of "irreconcilable differences," and the divorce was granted in 1997. Corgan refused to discuss the marriage for years, only allowing that it was "unhappy." In 2005 he described the circumstances of his marriage in depth via his personal blog.
In late 1995, Corgan started dating Ukrainian photographer Yelena Yemchuk, who later contributed to several Smashing Pumpkins videos and album art. He continued to date Yemchuk until around 2004. According to Corgan, his breakup with her contributed to the themes of his 2005 solo release TheFutureEmbrace. In 2005, Corgan dated musician Emilie Autumn for a number of months. The pair collaborated on multiple occasions during this time, with Autumn providing vocals and violin on his solo album and costume for a supporting music video.
In early 2006, Corgan moved in with Courtney Love and her daughter. According to Love, he had his own wing in her Hollywood Hills mansion. Two years later, Love criticized him publicly over his alleged refusal to attend her daughter's sweet 16 party. After they parted ways, Corgan stated in a March 2010 interview, "I have no interest in supporting [Love] in any way, shape or form. You can't throw enough things down the abyss with a person like that." Shortly after, when her band's album Nobody's Daughter was released, Corgan used Twitter to post anger-filled rants against her in reference to two songs he had written, "Samantha" and "How Dirty Girls Get Clean", which ended up on the album without his permission. Love then wrote an apology to him on her Facebook account, but the feud continued. Corgan took to Twitter to rant against her again. She responded to him on Twitter, saying, "All i am is nice about you so if you wanna be mean be mean i don't feel anything. i have too much to feel dear." In 2008, he blamed his dedication to music for what he called "a bad marriage and seven bad girlfriends in a row". The two eventually reconciled, and Love was invited to perform at Smashing Pumpkins 30th Anniversary Show.
In 2009, Corgan was linked with pop star Jessica Simpson. He started dating Australian singer Jessica Origliasso in 2010, and remained in a relationship with her until early June 2012. Origliasso blamed their split on their careers forcing them to spend too much time apart.
He began dating Chloe Mendel in 2013. She gave birth to a son named Augustus Juppiter Corgan on November 16, 2015. Their second child, a daughter named Philomena Clementine Corgan, was born on October 2, 2018.
Political beliefs
In 1998, Corgan said he had not participated in an election since 1992, when he voted for Bill Clinton.
Following the election of Barack Obama in 2008, Corgan stated: "I'm very proud of my country right now for doing the right thing." He has since said that he was disappointed with Obama's presidency, and that he lacks faith in both major political parties. In 2009, he posted a transcript of a webcast by political activist Lyndon LaRouche to the official Smashing Pumpkins forum. On March 10, 2009, Corgan testified in front of Congress on behalf of the musicFIRST Coalition. He spoke in favor of H.R. 848, the Performance Rights Act, which gives musicians and artists their share of compensation when their music is played on radio stations.
Speaking to right-wing conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones in 2016, Corgan called progressive political campaigners "social justice warriors", and compared them to Maoists, cult members, and the Ku Klux Klan; he also stated that their actions were a threat to freedom of speech. In 2018, he called himself a "free-market libertarian capitalist".
Diet
Corgan adopted a pescetarian diet in 2013, and stated in 2017 that he had begun following a vegan and gluten-free diet. In 2012, he opened a tea house in Ravinia, Highland Park called Madame Zuzu's Tea House, which closed in 2018 and reopened in downtown Highland Park in 2020.
Collaborations
In addition to performing, Corgan has produced albums for Ric Ocasek, The Frogs, and Catherine. He shared songwriting credit on several songs on Hole's 1998 album Celebrity Skin; the title track became Corgan's second No. 1 modern rock hit. He also acted as a consultant for Marilyn Manson during the recording of the album Mechanical Animals. He has produced three soundtracks for the movies Ransom (1996), Stigmata (1999) and Spun (2002) in which he appeared as a doctor.
Corgan appeared at the 1996 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremonies. He inducted one of his biggest musical influences, Pink Floyd. He played acoustic guitar during the ceremony with Pink Floyd, when they performed their song "Wish You Were Here".
In particular, Corgan guided and collaborated with three bands in the 2000s—Breaking Benjamin (during sessions for 2004's We Are Not Alone), Taproot (for Blue-Sky Research, 2005), and Sky Saxon.
In 2010, Corgan claimed co-writing credit (with ex-girlfriend Courtney Love) on at least two of the songs on Hole's final album Nobody's Daughter and tried to assert a right of approval before the album could be released. Corgan had helped develop the album during its early stages. The album was released without the writing controversy ever being litigated or publicly resolved.
Corgan appeared as a guest vocalist on the song "Loki Cat" on Jimmy Chamberlin's first solo album, Life Begins Again, and Chamberlin played drums for the song "DIA" on Corgan's solo debut, where Robert Smith from The Cure teamed up with Corgan to do a cover of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody". In 2007, Corgan provided vocals on the Scorpions' song "The Cross", on their album Humanity: Hour I. In 2010 Corgan featured on Ray Davies' album See My Friends on the album's closer, a mash-up of the Kinks songs "All Day and All of the Night" and "Destroyer". He also contributed his guitar work on "Did You Miss Me" by The Veronicas. Corgan has also collaborated with Tony Iommi, Blindside, David Bowie (singing "All the Young Dudes" with Bowie at Bowie's 50th birthday party), New Order and Marianne Faithfull.
Musical style and influences
When asked in a 1994 Rolling Stone interview about his influences, Corgan replied:
Corgan wrote six articles for Guitar World in 1995, and his solos for "Cherub Rock" and "Geek U.S.A." were included on their list of the top guitar solos of all time. AllMusic said "Starla" "proves that Corgan was one of the finest (and most underrated) rock guitarists of the '90s", while Rolling Stone called him and his Smashing Pumpkins bandmates "ruthless virtuosos". His solo for "Soma" was No. 24 on Rolling Stone'''s list of the top guitar solos. He is a fan of Eddie Van Halen and interviewed him in 1996 for Guitar World. Other guitarists Corgan rates highly include Uli Jon Roth, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Leslie West, Dimebag Darrell and Robin Trower.
His bass playing, which has featured on nearly every Smashing Pumpkins album, was influenced by post-punk figures like Peter Hook and Simon Gallup.
Corgan has praised Radiohead, saying "if they're not the best band in the world, then they're one of the best". He is also a fan of Pantera and appeared briefly in their home video 3 Watch It Go. Other favorites include Depeche Mode, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Rush, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Cure, Metallica, Slayer, Queen, Electric Light Orchestra, Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, and Spiritualized. Corgan stated in 1997 that upon hearing the U2 song "New Year's Day", at 16, "[U2] quickly became the most important band in the world to me." Corgan particularly went out of his way to praise Rush in his interview for Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, a documentary on the band, where he criticized mainstream reviewers for consciously marginalizing the band and their influence, and highlighted the fact that many of his musical peers were influenced by Rush.
He has listed his artistic influences as William S. Burroughs, Pablo Picasso, Jimi Hendrix, Jack Kerouac, and Philip K. Dick.Corgan, Billy. Twitter Q&A. October 3, 2011.
Instruments
Corgan played (during the Gish-Siamese Dream era) a customized '57 Reissue Fender Stratocaster equipped with three Fender Lace Sensor pickups (the Lace Sensor Blue in the neck position, the Lace Sensor Silver in the middle position, and the Lace Sensor Red at the bridge position). It also has a five-position pickup selector switch which he installed himself. This battered Strat became his number one guitar by default. He owned a '74 Strat that was stolen shortly after Gish was completed. Corgan was reunited with this guitar in early 2019.
Corgan also used a wide variety of guitars on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. On "Where Boys Fear to Tread", Corgan used a Les Paul Junior Reissue, and on "Tonight Tonight" he used a '72 Gibson ES-335. He is also known to use a '74 Strat which has since been painted baby blue. That guitar was used on the recordings for "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and also "Muzzle", because the heavier wood gave it the basic Strat sound with a bit more bottom.
During the recording and tour of the album Zeitgeist, Corgan used a Schecter C-1 EX baritone, finished in black with Tony Iommi signature pickups. Corgan also endorsed Reverend Guitars in his Zwan era, most notably playing a Reverend Slingshot.
In 2008 Corgan released to the market his own Fender Stratocaster. This new guitar was made to Corgan's exact specs to create his famous mid-'90s buzzsaw tone; the instrument features three DiMarzio pickups (two custom for this instrument), a string-through hardtail bridge and a satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish. When playing live, he uses both his signature Strats as well as two other Fender Strats, one in red with a white pick guard and one in silver-grey with a black pick guard; a Gibson Tony Iommi signature SG; and his Schecter C-1 (only used on the Zeitgeist song "United States").
A video called 'Stompland' on the official Smashing Pumpkins YouTube channel is informative on Corgan's choice of effects pedals. In the video he reveals an extensive collection of pedals used throughout his career with the Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan's tone is often characterized by his use of fuzz pedals, particularly vintage versions of the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
In 2016 Reverend Guitars released the BC-1 Billy Corgan signature guitar featuring Railhammer Billy Corgan signature pickups.
The Reverend Billy Corgan Signature Terz was launched at the 2018 NAMM show—an electric version of a 19th-century instrument that is played as if the guitar is capoed at the third fret, and tuned G-g standard. Corgan often uses the capo at the third fret and asked for a higher-register guitar.
Corgan is noted for having used Marshall and Diezel amps. He has also used modular preamps based on many different amps in conjunction with Mesa Boogie poweramps. The preamps were custom built by Salvation Mods.
In August 2017, Corgan sold a large collection of instruments and gear used throughout his career via music gear website Reverb.
In 2020, Billy Corgan collaborated with Brian Carstens of Carstens Amplification to produce Grace, Billy's first and only signature guitar amplifier to date.
Discography
Solo
Albums
Singles
Soundtrack work
1996: Ransom1997: First Love, Last Rites ("When I Was Born, I Was Bored")
1999: Stigmata2000: Any Given Sunday (Corgan is credited on "Be A Man" by Hole)
2002: Spun (Corgan wrote original songs for this soundtrack)
2006: "Dance of the Dead" (episode of Masters of Horror)
2007: When a Man Falls in the Forest (three previously unreleased songs)
2011: The Chicago Code (Corgan performs the opening theme, written by Robert Duncan)
2018: Rampage – "The Rage" Performed by Kid Cudi featuring vocals by Corgan (from the Smashing Pumpkins track Bullet with Butterfly Wings)
Albums featured
1991: Sparkle (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1994: Songs About Girls (by Catherine, The song "It's No Lie" is produced by Corgan)
1994: Chante Des Chanson Sur Les Filles (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1994: Sleepy EP (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1996: Guitars That Rule the World, Vol. 2: Smell the Fuzz:The Superstar Guitar Album (by Various Artists, Corgan is credited as writer and performer of "Ascendo")
1997: Starjob (by The Frogs, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1997: Troublizing (by Ric Ocasek, Corgan is credited as writer of "Asia Minor" and playing guitar on "The Next Right Moment", "Crashland Consequence", "Situation", "Fix on You" and "People We Know")
1998: Celebrity Skin (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Celebrity Skin", "Hit So Hard", "Malibu", "Dying" and "Petals")
1998: "I Belong to You" single (by Lenny Kravitz, Corgan remixed the second track "If You Can't Say No (Flunky in the attic Mix)")
1998: Mechanical Animals by Marilyn Manson, Corgan performed backing vocals on Speed of Pain, although not credited, he is thanked in the album credits.
1999: Paraphernalia (by Enuff Z'Nuff, Corgan is credited as guitarist on the song "Everything Works If You Let It")
2000: Iommi (by Tony Iommi, Corgan is credited as writer of and vocalist on "Black Oblivion")
2001: Get Ready (by New Order, Corgan is contributing voice on "Turn My Way")
2002: Kissin Time (by Marianne Faithfull, Corgan is credited as writer of "Wherever I Go", "I'm on Fire" and contributing on "Something Good")
2003: "Lights Out" single (by Lisa Marie Presley, Corgan is credited as writer of "Savior")
2004: We Are Not Alone (by Breaking Benjamin, Corgan is credited as writer of "Follow", "Forget It" and "Rain")
2004: The Essential Cheap Trick (by Cheap Trick, Corgan is playing guitar on the live recording of the track "Mandocello")
2004: About a Burning Fire (by Blindside, Corgan is playing guitar on "Hooray, It's L.A.")
2005: Life Begins Again (by Jimmy Chamberlin Complex, Corgan is contributing voice on "Loki Cat")
2005: Blue-Sky Research (by Taproot, Corgan wrote the track "Lost in the Woods" and co-wrote the tracks "Violent Seas" and "Promise")
2006: ONXRT:Live From The Archives Volume 9 (A compilation CD from the radio station 93 WXRT in Chicago features the live recording of the track "A100")
2007: Humanity: Hour I (by Scorpions, Corgan is contributing voice on "The Cross")
2010: Nobody's Daughter (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Pacific Coast Highway", "Samantha" and "Loser Dust")
2010: See My Friends (by Ray Davies, Corgan is featured in the song "All Day And All of the Night/Destroyer")
2011: Ghost on the Canvas (by Glen Campbell, Corgan is featured in the song ."There's No Me... Without You")
2014: "Did You Miss Me" (on The Veronicas by The Veronicas, guitar contributions)
2019: The Nothing (by Korn, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "You'll Never Find Me")
2019: Screamer (by Third Eye Blind, Corgan described as the "musical consigliere" of the album, and credited as co-writer of "Light It Up")
2020: Ceremony (by Phantogram, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Into Happiness" and "Love Me Now")
As part of The Smashing Pumpkins
References
External links
The Smashing Pumpkins official website
BillyCorgan.Livejournal.com – An extensive 7-year archive of Billy's journal entries, including The Confessions of Billy Corgan, solo work and the revival of the Pumpkins.
Billy Corgan collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
Poems by Billy Corgan at alittlepoetry.com Three poems from Blinking With Fists''
1967 births
Living people
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American guitarists
21st-century American singers
Alternative rock guitarists
Alternative rock singers
American alternative rock musicians
American libertarians
American bloggers
American former Christians
American male bloggers
American male guitarists
American male poets
American male singers
American male songwriters
American music video directors
American people of Irish descent
American people of Italian descent
American rock guitarists
American rock singers
American rock songwriters
Guitarists from Chicago
Impact Wrestling executives
Lead guitarists
Musicians from Chicago
People with mood disorders
People with obsessive–compulsive disorder
Professional wrestling promoters
Singers from Chicago
Songwriters from Illinois
Starchildren members
The Smashing Pumpkins members
Veganism activists
Writers from Chicago
Zwan members | true | [
"Ben Ivery Wilson (born March 9, 1939) is a former professional American football fullback in the National Football League.\n\nHigh school\nWilson attended Aldine Carver High School where he played football and was also the state champ in the shot put. While at Carver, he was a Jones scholar who was offered an academic scholarship to attend the University of Cincinnati, but he wanted to play football. Although he was an exceptional football player, he did not receive a scholarship offer from any white college in Texas because of segregation.\n\nCollege career\nThe superintendent of Wilson's high school had contacts at USC and Wilson received a scholarship to attend USC. While at USC, Wilson became the starting fullback and team captain of USC's 1962 national championship team.\n\nProfessional career\nWilson played running back for five seasons in the NFL. He was traded from the Los Angeles Rams to the Green Bay Packers prior to the 1967 season. Wilson started at fullback in Super Bowl II for Green Bay and led both teams in rushing with 62 yards in 17 carries. Late in the game he lost a contact lens on the sidelines after being tackled, and missed the rest of the game.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n NFL.com player page\n\n1939 births\nLiving people\nAmerican football running backs\nGreen Bay Packers players\nLos Angeles Rams players\nUSC Trojans football players\nPlayers of American football from Houston",
"Indiana has some of the most segregated schools in the United States. Despite laws demanding school integration since 1949, a 2017 study by the UCLA Civil Rights Project and Indiana University found that Indiana still has significant segregation in its classrooms.\n\nThe average black student in Indiana is likely to attend a school where 68% of the students are non-white. The average white student is likely to attend a school where 81% of the students are white.\n\nHistory\nIndiana became a state in 1816. In 1843 the Legislature stated that the public schools were only for white children between the ages of 5 and 21, and as a result, Quakers and communities of free Black people founded schools like Union Literary Institute for Black students to attend. In 1869, the legislature authorized separate but equal public schools for black children. In 1877, the legislature revised the law to allow black attendance at a white school if a black school was not nearby. Home rule for municipalities meant that application was uneven. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) legitimized separate but equal as policy. During the 1920's, Indiana became a major base for the Ku Klux Klan further pushing Black residents away from school districts that had a majority white population. Prominent examples of segregated high schools in Indiana in the early 20th Century were Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis (opened in 1927) and Theodore Roosevelt High School in Gary (accredited in 1930). In 1946, the Gary School Board issued a non-discriminatory policy. Because neighborhoods had different demographic characteristics, the schools there remained effectively segregated. In 1949, the state adopted language that was unambiguously in favor of integration. It was the last of the northern (non-Confederate) states to do so.\n\nAfter Brown v. Board of Education, the state still needed a legal push. Bell v. School City of Gary (1963) was the first. Three years later came Copeland v. South Bend Community School Corporation (1967). Three years after that came Banks v. Muncie Community Schools (1970). National policy came the next year in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971), which relied on the Civil Rights Act of 1964.\n\nIn the 1970s, the federal answer was court-ordered busing. In Indianapolis, busing began in 1981. The bussing requirements in Indiana however were uneven, they did not require white children to be bussed out Black schools making Black children and parents face most of the consequences of the bussing program. Busing in Indianapolis ended in 2016.\n\nDemographics\nHoosiers describe themselves as being more white than much of the rest of the country. In the 2010 Census, 84.4% reported being white, compared with 73.8 for the nation as a whole.\n\nIndiana had never been a big slave state. The 1840 Census reported three slaves and 11,262 “free colored” persons out of a population of 685,866. By 1850, no slaves were reported. That is not to say that the state was welcoming to blacks. The 1851 state constitution said, \"No Negro or mulatto shall come into or settle in the State, after the adoption of this Constitution.” In the early 20th century, mechanization of agriculture in the South stimulated immigration of blacks to large cities like Indianapolis. Migration accelerated in World War II, slowing only in the 1970s. Simultaneously, whites began to move out of the downtown areas to suburbs. \n\nLatinos were a small portion of Indiana's population prior to 1970. In any case the Census did not reliably track Latinos before the 1970 Census. The 2000 Census described 3.5% of Indiana's population as Latino. In the next decade, the state's Latino population grew at twice the national rate. In 2010, the state was 6.0% Latino. They have settled more-or-less evenly distributed across the state.\n\nSchool demographics\nThe demographics of schools in Indiana reflect the composition of the communities in which they are located. The average white student in Indiana is likely to attend a school where 81% of the students are white. The average black student is likely to attend a school where 68% of the students are non-white.\n\nStudies\nSince 1996, the relative segregation of classrooms across the United States has been studied by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard until 2007 and subsequently at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. In 2017, the Project cooperated to with Indiana University to study the conditions in the state.\n\nA 2012 UCLA study showed that Indiana had the sixth most segregated classrooms in America.\n\nSchool vouchers\nIndiana has one of the largest school voucher programs in the United States. Critics contend that vouchers contribute to school segregation. Analysis of two recent studies on vouchers garner mixed support for contributing to segregation; however, both contend that black recipients who had been in a majority-black public school used school vouchers to attend a majority-black private school.\n\nReferences \n\nEducation in Indiana\nAfrican-American history of Indiana\nSchool segregation in the United States"
]
|
[
"Billy Corgan",
"1967-1987: Childhood and formative years",
"Where did Billy grow up?",
"Glendale Heights, Illinois.",
"Where did he attend school?",
"Marquardt Middle School"
]
| C_f7f748df004544729408cda74b466786_1 | Did Billy attend college or did he just go out to start a career in music? | 3 | Did Billy attend college or immediately start a career in music? | Billy Corgan | William Patrick Corgan Jr. was born at Columbus Hospital in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on March 17, 1967 as the oldest son of William Corgan Sr., a blues/rock guitarist, and Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was soon remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. During this time, Corgan alleges he was subject to much physical and emotional abuse by his stepmother. Corgan also developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys would live alone with the stepmother, with both of Corgan's birth parents living separately within an hour's drive. Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his Marquardt Middle School baseball team, he collected baseball cards (amassing over 10,000) and listened to every Chicago Cubs game. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream, Illinois, he had become only an average athlete. He decided to start playing guitar when he went over to a friend's house and saw his friend's Flying V. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. Corgan, Sr. steered his son stylistically, encouraging him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support, and the younger Corgan taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. Corgan performed in a string of bands in high school, and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time. Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, he moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. Corgan performed with Wayne Static in Static's first band Deep Blue Dream, in 1987/88. CANNOTANSWER | Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time. | William Patrick Corgan (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only permanent member of the rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. He is currently the owner and promoter of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago in 1988, the band was joined by bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Strong album sales and large-scale tours propelled the band's increasing fame in the 1990s until their break-up in 2000. Corgan started a new band called Zwan, and after their demise he released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, in 2005 and a collection of poetry, Blinking with Fists, before reforming the Smashing Pumpkins. The new version of the band, consisting of Corgan and a revolving lineup, has released and toured new albums extensively since 2007. In October 2017, Corgan released Ogilala, his first solo album in over a decade. His latest album, Cotillions, was released on November 22, 2019.
In 2011, Corgan founded Resistance Pro Wrestling. He later joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2015, becoming its president in August 2016. After leaving TNA in November 2016, he purchased the NWA in October 2017, transforming it from a brand licensing organization to a singular promotion.
Early life
William Patrick Corgan was born at Columbus Hospital in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago on March 17, 1967, the oldest son of guitarist William Corgan Sr. and his wife Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic and is of Irish descent. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. Corgan alleges that his stepmother was abusive to him, both physically and emotionally. He developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys lived alone with their stepmother, and both of his birth parents lived separately within an hour's drive.
Corgan described his father as a "drug dealing, gun-toting, musician [and] mad man". Although this had a huge negative impact on his childhood, in retrospect he respects his father as a great musician.
Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his baseball team at Marquardt Middle School, he amassed over 10,000 baseball cards and listened to every Chicago Cubs game on the radio. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School, his athletic prowess had greatly diminished. He decided to start playing guitar after seeing a Flying V when he went over to a friend's house. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. His father encouraged him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support. So he taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Van Halen, Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. He performed in a string of bands in high school and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time.
Music career
1985–1987: Early career
Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, Corgan moved to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. From 1987 to 1988, he played guitar in Chicago band Deep Blue Dream, which also featured future Static-X frontman Wayne Static. He left the band to focus on The Smashing Pumpkins.
1988–2000: The Smashing Pumpkins
Upon his return to Chicago, Corgan had already devised his next project – a band that would be called The Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan met guitarist James Iha while working in a record store, and the two began recording demos, which Corgan describes as "gloomy little goth-pop records". He met bassist D'arcy Wretzky after a local show, arguing with her about a band that had just played, The Dan Reed Network. Soon after, the Smashing Pumpkins were formed. The trio began to play together at local clubs with a drum machine for percussion. To secure a show at the Metro in Chicago, the band recruited drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, and played for the first time as a quartet on October 5, 1988.
The addition of Chamberlin drove the band in a heavier direction almost immediately. On the band's debut album, Gish (1991), the band integrated psychedelic rock and heavy metal into their sound. Gish fared better than expected, but the follow-up, Siamese Dream, released on Virgin Records in 1993, became a multi-platinum hit. The band became known for internal drama during this period, with Corgan frequently characterized in the music press as a "control freak" due to rumors that Corgan played all the guitar and bass parts on Siamese Dream (a rumor that Corgan later confirmed as true). Despite this, the album was well received by critics, and the songs "Today", "Cherub Rock", and "Disarm" became hits.
The band's 1995 follow-up effort, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, was more successful, spawning a string of hit singles. According to Jon Pareles from The New York Times, Corgan wanted to "lose himself and find himself..." in this album. The album was nominated for seven Grammy awards that year, and would eventually be certified ten times platinum in the United States. The song "1979" was Corgan's biggest hit to date, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's modern rock and mainstream rock charts. Their appearance on Saturday Night Live on November 11, 1995, to promote this material (their second appearance on the show overall) was also the television debut appearance of Corgan's shaved head, which he has maintained consistently since.
On July 12, 1996, touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin died in a Manhattan hotel room of a heroin overdose after he and Chamberlin used the drug together. Chamberlin was later arrested on a misdemeanor drug possession charge. The Smashing Pumpkins made the decision to fire Chamberlin and continue as a trio. This shakeup, coupled with Corgan going through a divorce and the death of his mother, influenced the somber mood of the band's next album, 1998's Adore. Featuring a darker, more subdued and heavily electronic sound at a time when alternative rock was declining in mainstream cachet, Adore divided both critics and fans, resulting in a significant decrease in album sales (it sold 1.3 million discs in the US).
Chamberlin was reunited with the band in 1999. In 2000, they released Machina/The Machines of God, a concept album on which the band deliberately played to their public image. Critics were again divided, and sales were lower than before; Machina is the second lowest-selling commercially released Smashing Pumpkins album to date, with U.S. sales of 583,000 units up to 2005. During the recording for Machina, Wretzky quit the band and was replaced for the upcoming tour by former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. In 2000 the band announced they would break up at the end of the year, and soon after released Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music free over the Internet. The Smashing Pumpkins played their last show on December 2, 2000, at the Cabaret Metro.
2001–2005: Zwan and solo career
Following a brief stint touring with New Order in the summer, Corgan reunited with Chamberlin to form the band Zwan with Corgan's old friend Matt Sweeney in late 2001. According to Neil Strauss of New York Times, during his few live performances with the band, Corgan says "is still a work in progress". The lineup was completed with guitarist David Pajo and bassist Paz Lenchantin. The band had two distinct incarnations, the primary approach being an upbeat rock band with a three-guitar-driven sound, the second, a folk and gospel inspired acoustic side with live strings. The quintet performed throughout 2002, and their debut album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in early 2003 to generally positive reviews. In the midst of their supporting tour for the album, mounting conflict between Corgan and Chamberlin, and the other band members led to the cancellation of the rest of the tour as the band entered an apparent hiatus, formally announcing a breakup in September 2003.
In 2004, Corgan began writing revealing autobiographical posts on his website and his MySpace page, blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins, calling Wretzky "a mean spirited drug addict," and criticizing his former Zwan bandmates' fixation with "indie cred" and calling them "filthy", opportunistic, and selfish.
On September 17, 2003, Billy presented his poetry at the Art Institute of Chicago's Rubloff Auditorium. In late 2004, Corgan published Blinking with Fists, a book of poetry. Despite mixed reviews, the book debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list. Around this time, he began posting autobiographical writings online under the title The Confessions of Billy Corgan.
Also in 2004, he began a solo music career, landing on an electronic/shoegaze/alternative rock sound for his first solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, co-produced and arranged by Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb. Released on June 21, 2005, through Reprise Records, it garnered mixed reviews from the press and only sold 69,000 copies. Corgan toured behind his solo album with a touring band that included Linda Strawberry, Brian Liesegang and Matt Walker in 2005. This tour was not as extensive as previous Smashing Pumpkins or Zwan tours. Prior to recording TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan had recorded some 72 songs inspired by Chicago history for the largely acoustic ChicagoSongs project, which have yet to be released.
2005–present: The Smashing Pumpkins revival
In 2005, Corgan took out a full-page ad in Chicago's two major newspapers (Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun-Times) revealing his desire to re-form the Smashing Pumpkins. Several days later, Jimmy Chamberlin accepted Corgan's offer for a reunion.
On April 20, 2006, the band's official website confirmed that the group was indeed reuniting. The re-formed Smashing Pumpkins went into studio for much of 2006 and early 2007, and performed its first show in seven years on May 22, 2007, with new members Ginger Pooley (bass) and Jeff Schroeder (guitar) replacing Wretzky and Iha. The new album, titled Zeitgeist, was released in the United States on July 10, 2007, and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts. Corgan and the rest of the Pumpkins toured extensively throughout 2007 and 2008, also releasing the EP American Gothic and the singles "G.L.O.W." and "Superchrist". Chamberlin left the band in March 2009, and Corgan elected to continue under the name.
In summer 2009, Corgan formed the band Spirits in the Sky to play a tribute concert to the late Sky Saxon of the Seeds. He toured with the band, composed of ex-Catherine member and "Superchrist" producer Kerry Brown, the Electric Prunes bassist Mark Tulin, Strawberry Alarm Clock keyboardist Mark Weitz, frequent Corgan collaborator Linda Strawberry, flautist Kevin Dippold, "Superchrist" violinist Ysanne Spevack, saxist Justin Norman, new Pumpkins drummer Mike Byrne, and Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, playing covers and new Pumpkins material at several clubs in California. At the end of the tour, Corgan, Byrne, Tulin, and Brown headed back to Chicago to begin work on the new Smashing Pumpkins album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The lineup at the time which included new bassist Nicole Fiorentino, toured through much of 2010, then spent 2011 recording the "album-within-an-album" Oceania and mounting tours of the United States and Europe. However, Byrne and Fiorentino would later leave the band in 2014.
In April Corgan announced a new solo record of "experimental" recordings he made in 2007, via the Smashing Pumpkins' website. The album, which he titled AEGEA was released exclusively on vinyl, with 250 copies being made. Most of those copies were sold online, and a few copies were sold at Madame Zuzu's, a tea house he owns and operates in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago. The album was released on May 15.
On July 25, 2014, Corgan announced that the tapes from his "Siddhartha" show from March 2014 were being transferred for sale, much in the vein of AEGEA. The set was expected to contain between 5 and 6 discs.
During the summer 2014, Corgan recorded The Smashing Pumpkins's tenth studio album, Monuments to an Elegy, with Tommy Lee and Jeff Schroeder. The album was released in early December 2014.
In September 2015, Corgan started a blog of vintage photographs that he himself curated, and which he called "People and Their Cars". The website also included an email listing for the blog, titled "The Red Border Club". This list was to be used for information on upcoming People and Their Cars and "Hexestential" books and merchandise, along with access to additional images.
On September 8, 2016, Corgan announced, in a Facebook live video, that he had recorded a new solo album with producer Rick Rubin, and it would consist of 12 or 13 tracks. He described work on the album as being near completion, though a release date was not given.
On August 22, 2017, he announced the solo album, giving its title as Ogilala.
On February 16, 2018, Corgan announced the Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour, a reunion tour for The Smashing Pumpkins. The lineup consists of himself, James Iha, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder. It is rumored that former bassist D'arcy Wretzky was not a part of the lineup due to unresolved tension between her and Corgan. However, she has stated that after offering her a contract, Corgan retracted it, saying that "we also have to balance the forces at play... there is no room for error." After Wretzky released text messages between her and Corgan, a feud ensued, with each party attacking each other with biting remarks.
On November 22, 2019, Corgan released his third solo album Cotillions, which he called "a labor of love". He also said, "This is absolutely an album from my heart."
Professional wrestling career
Resistance Pro Wrestling (2011–2014)
In 2011 Corgan formed a Chicago-based independent wrestling promotion called Resistance Pro. Two years later, in 2013, he starred in a commercial for Walter E. Smithe Furniture, using the platform to promote his wrestling company.
In March 2014 it was reported that Corgan was in discussions with American television channel AMC to develop an unscripted reality series about Resistance Pro. The premise being a behind-the-scenes look at the promotion as Corgan "takes over creative direction for the independent wrestling company". The show was given the green light by AMC, under the working title of "Untitled Billy Corgan Wrestling Project," the same month.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2015–2016)
In April 2015 Corgan was announced as the new Senior Producer of Creative and Talent Development for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where his role was to "develop characters and create story lines", which he has called "a dream come true". In August 2016, Corgan took over as the promotion's new president.
In November 2016 Corgan had left TNA after disputes about not being paid on time, and subsequently, Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp and Impact Ventures, parent company of TNA Impact Wrestling, announced that Anthem has provided a credit facility to TNA to fund operations.
In 2016, he loaned money to Anthem Sports & Entertainment to fund TNA, and they promised to pay him back.
On November 11, Corgan signed a settlement with Anthem – TNA and Anthem announced that they would be repaying TNA's loan from Corgan.
Newly appointed TNA/Impact Wrestling President Ed Nordholm credits the invention of and the vision behind the Matt Hardy Broken gimmick to Jeremy Borash, David Lagana and Billy Corgan. While Borash specifically had the most input into the gimmick of the three aside from Matt, the Hardy family deny that Borash was the sole person behind the gimmick.
National Wrestling Alliance (2017–present)
On May 1, 2017, it was reported that Corgan had agreed to purchase the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), including its name, rights, trademarks and championship belts. The purchase was confirmed by NWA president Bruce Tharpe later that same day. Corgan's ownership took effect on October 1, 2017.
Personal life
Mental health
For much of his life, Corgan has struggled with anxiety, depression, panic attacks, self-harm, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and suicidal ideation. He attributes these problems to the abuse he endured as a child at the hands of his father and stepmother, as well as other personal issues. He has since become an advocate for abuse support networks.
Involvement with sports
Corgan is a keen supporter of the Chicago Cubs, and an occasional commentator on the team for WXRT DJ Lin Brehmer. He has appeared at many Cubs games, occasionally throwing the ceremonial first pitch or singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". He is also a fan of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks, and became personal friends with Dennis Rodman and Chris Chelios. He is an avid professional wrestling fan, and appeared at an ECW event wielding an acoustic guitar as a weapon. In 2008, the Pumpkins song "Doomsday Clock" was used by ROH for promotional videos. On April 26, 2010, Corgan appeared on the SIRIUS Satellite Radio program Right After Wrestling with Arda Ocal to discuss his love for wrestling and the importance of unique theme songs for characters. On August 26, 2010, he took part in a storyline with AAA during a concert for MTV World Stage. As far as other entertainment, Corgan once commented that all he watches on TV are "sports and the Three Stooges". In March 2008, he was spotted in the crowd at the final day of the cricket test match between New Zealand and England.
Spiritual beliefs
Corgan accepts some parts of Catholicism. In 2009, he launched Everything From Here to There, an interfaith website that is devoted to "Mind-Body-Soul" integration. He mentions praying each morning and night to be able to see through Jesus Christ's eyes and feel with his heart. An analysis of the symbolism of Corgan's lyrics considered the blend of beliefs he has cited in various interviews, which include ideas about religion, multiple dimensions, and psychic phenomena. In an interview on the Howard Stern Show, Corgan claimed to have once had an encounter with a person who had the ability to shapeshift.
Family and romantic relationships
Corgan's mother Martha died in December 1996. The song "For Martha", from Adore, was written in her memory. In the early 2000s Corgan named his label Martha's Music after her as well. A picture of Martha as a little girl sitting on a fake moon at Riverview Park is featured on the flipside of the Siamese Dream booklet.
In 1993, Corgan married art conservator and artist Chris Fabian, his longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend. They were married at a small ceremony at his house in Wrigleyville. Corgan and Fabian separated in late 1995. Corgan filed for divorce in December 1996 on grounds of "irreconcilable differences," and the divorce was granted in 1997. Corgan refused to discuss the marriage for years, only allowing that it was "unhappy." In 2005 he described the circumstances of his marriage in depth via his personal blog.
In late 1995, Corgan started dating Ukrainian photographer Yelena Yemchuk, who later contributed to several Smashing Pumpkins videos and album art. He continued to date Yemchuk until around 2004. According to Corgan, his breakup with her contributed to the themes of his 2005 solo release TheFutureEmbrace. In 2005, Corgan dated musician Emilie Autumn for a number of months. The pair collaborated on multiple occasions during this time, with Autumn providing vocals and violin on his solo album and costume for a supporting music video.
In early 2006, Corgan moved in with Courtney Love and her daughter. According to Love, he had his own wing in her Hollywood Hills mansion. Two years later, Love criticized him publicly over his alleged refusal to attend her daughter's sweet 16 party. After they parted ways, Corgan stated in a March 2010 interview, "I have no interest in supporting [Love] in any way, shape or form. You can't throw enough things down the abyss with a person like that." Shortly after, when her band's album Nobody's Daughter was released, Corgan used Twitter to post anger-filled rants against her in reference to two songs he had written, "Samantha" and "How Dirty Girls Get Clean", which ended up on the album without his permission. Love then wrote an apology to him on her Facebook account, but the feud continued. Corgan took to Twitter to rant against her again. She responded to him on Twitter, saying, "All i am is nice about you so if you wanna be mean be mean i don't feel anything. i have too much to feel dear." In 2008, he blamed his dedication to music for what he called "a bad marriage and seven bad girlfriends in a row". The two eventually reconciled, and Love was invited to perform at Smashing Pumpkins 30th Anniversary Show.
In 2009, Corgan was linked with pop star Jessica Simpson. He started dating Australian singer Jessica Origliasso in 2010, and remained in a relationship with her until early June 2012. Origliasso blamed their split on their careers forcing them to spend too much time apart.
He began dating Chloe Mendel in 2013. She gave birth to a son named Augustus Juppiter Corgan on November 16, 2015. Their second child, a daughter named Philomena Clementine Corgan, was born on October 2, 2018.
Political beliefs
In 1998, Corgan said he had not participated in an election since 1992, when he voted for Bill Clinton.
Following the election of Barack Obama in 2008, Corgan stated: "I'm very proud of my country right now for doing the right thing." He has since said that he was disappointed with Obama's presidency, and that he lacks faith in both major political parties. In 2009, he posted a transcript of a webcast by political activist Lyndon LaRouche to the official Smashing Pumpkins forum. On March 10, 2009, Corgan testified in front of Congress on behalf of the musicFIRST Coalition. He spoke in favor of H.R. 848, the Performance Rights Act, which gives musicians and artists their share of compensation when their music is played on radio stations.
Speaking to right-wing conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones in 2016, Corgan called progressive political campaigners "social justice warriors", and compared them to Maoists, cult members, and the Ku Klux Klan; he also stated that their actions were a threat to freedom of speech. In 2018, he called himself a "free-market libertarian capitalist".
Diet
Corgan adopted a pescetarian diet in 2013, and stated in 2017 that he had begun following a vegan and gluten-free diet. In 2012, he opened a tea house in Ravinia, Highland Park called Madame Zuzu's Tea House, which closed in 2018 and reopened in downtown Highland Park in 2020.
Collaborations
In addition to performing, Corgan has produced albums for Ric Ocasek, The Frogs, and Catherine. He shared songwriting credit on several songs on Hole's 1998 album Celebrity Skin; the title track became Corgan's second No. 1 modern rock hit. He also acted as a consultant for Marilyn Manson during the recording of the album Mechanical Animals. He has produced three soundtracks for the movies Ransom (1996), Stigmata (1999) and Spun (2002) in which he appeared as a doctor.
Corgan appeared at the 1996 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremonies. He inducted one of his biggest musical influences, Pink Floyd. He played acoustic guitar during the ceremony with Pink Floyd, when they performed their song "Wish You Were Here".
In particular, Corgan guided and collaborated with three bands in the 2000s—Breaking Benjamin (during sessions for 2004's We Are Not Alone), Taproot (for Blue-Sky Research, 2005), and Sky Saxon.
In 2010, Corgan claimed co-writing credit (with ex-girlfriend Courtney Love) on at least two of the songs on Hole's final album Nobody's Daughter and tried to assert a right of approval before the album could be released. Corgan had helped develop the album during its early stages. The album was released without the writing controversy ever being litigated or publicly resolved.
Corgan appeared as a guest vocalist on the song "Loki Cat" on Jimmy Chamberlin's first solo album, Life Begins Again, and Chamberlin played drums for the song "DIA" on Corgan's solo debut, where Robert Smith from The Cure teamed up with Corgan to do a cover of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody". In 2007, Corgan provided vocals on the Scorpions' song "The Cross", on their album Humanity: Hour I. In 2010 Corgan featured on Ray Davies' album See My Friends on the album's closer, a mash-up of the Kinks songs "All Day and All of the Night" and "Destroyer". He also contributed his guitar work on "Did You Miss Me" by The Veronicas. Corgan has also collaborated with Tony Iommi, Blindside, David Bowie (singing "All the Young Dudes" with Bowie at Bowie's 50th birthday party), New Order and Marianne Faithfull.
Musical style and influences
When asked in a 1994 Rolling Stone interview about his influences, Corgan replied:
Corgan wrote six articles for Guitar World in 1995, and his solos for "Cherub Rock" and "Geek U.S.A." were included on their list of the top guitar solos of all time. AllMusic said "Starla" "proves that Corgan was one of the finest (and most underrated) rock guitarists of the '90s", while Rolling Stone called him and his Smashing Pumpkins bandmates "ruthless virtuosos". His solo for "Soma" was No. 24 on Rolling Stone'''s list of the top guitar solos. He is a fan of Eddie Van Halen and interviewed him in 1996 for Guitar World. Other guitarists Corgan rates highly include Uli Jon Roth, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Leslie West, Dimebag Darrell and Robin Trower.
His bass playing, which has featured on nearly every Smashing Pumpkins album, was influenced by post-punk figures like Peter Hook and Simon Gallup.
Corgan has praised Radiohead, saying "if they're not the best band in the world, then they're one of the best". He is also a fan of Pantera and appeared briefly in their home video 3 Watch It Go. Other favorites include Depeche Mode, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Rush, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Cure, Metallica, Slayer, Queen, Electric Light Orchestra, Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, and Spiritualized. Corgan stated in 1997 that upon hearing the U2 song "New Year's Day", at 16, "[U2] quickly became the most important band in the world to me." Corgan particularly went out of his way to praise Rush in his interview for Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, a documentary on the band, where he criticized mainstream reviewers for consciously marginalizing the band and their influence, and highlighted the fact that many of his musical peers were influenced by Rush.
He has listed his artistic influences as William S. Burroughs, Pablo Picasso, Jimi Hendrix, Jack Kerouac, and Philip K. Dick.Corgan, Billy. Twitter Q&A. October 3, 2011.
Instruments
Corgan played (during the Gish-Siamese Dream era) a customized '57 Reissue Fender Stratocaster equipped with three Fender Lace Sensor pickups (the Lace Sensor Blue in the neck position, the Lace Sensor Silver in the middle position, and the Lace Sensor Red at the bridge position). It also has a five-position pickup selector switch which he installed himself. This battered Strat became his number one guitar by default. He owned a '74 Strat that was stolen shortly after Gish was completed. Corgan was reunited with this guitar in early 2019.
Corgan also used a wide variety of guitars on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. On "Where Boys Fear to Tread", Corgan used a Les Paul Junior Reissue, and on "Tonight Tonight" he used a '72 Gibson ES-335. He is also known to use a '74 Strat which has since been painted baby blue. That guitar was used on the recordings for "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and also "Muzzle", because the heavier wood gave it the basic Strat sound with a bit more bottom.
During the recording and tour of the album Zeitgeist, Corgan used a Schecter C-1 EX baritone, finished in black with Tony Iommi signature pickups. Corgan also endorsed Reverend Guitars in his Zwan era, most notably playing a Reverend Slingshot.
In 2008 Corgan released to the market his own Fender Stratocaster. This new guitar was made to Corgan's exact specs to create his famous mid-'90s buzzsaw tone; the instrument features three DiMarzio pickups (two custom for this instrument), a string-through hardtail bridge and a satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish. When playing live, he uses both his signature Strats as well as two other Fender Strats, one in red with a white pick guard and one in silver-grey with a black pick guard; a Gibson Tony Iommi signature SG; and his Schecter C-1 (only used on the Zeitgeist song "United States").
A video called 'Stompland' on the official Smashing Pumpkins YouTube channel is informative on Corgan's choice of effects pedals. In the video he reveals an extensive collection of pedals used throughout his career with the Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan's tone is often characterized by his use of fuzz pedals, particularly vintage versions of the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
In 2016 Reverend Guitars released the BC-1 Billy Corgan signature guitar featuring Railhammer Billy Corgan signature pickups.
The Reverend Billy Corgan Signature Terz was launched at the 2018 NAMM show—an electric version of a 19th-century instrument that is played as if the guitar is capoed at the third fret, and tuned G-g standard. Corgan often uses the capo at the third fret and asked for a higher-register guitar.
Corgan is noted for having used Marshall and Diezel amps. He has also used modular preamps based on many different amps in conjunction with Mesa Boogie poweramps. The preamps were custom built by Salvation Mods.
In August 2017, Corgan sold a large collection of instruments and gear used throughout his career via music gear website Reverb.
In 2020, Billy Corgan collaborated with Brian Carstens of Carstens Amplification to produce Grace, Billy's first and only signature guitar amplifier to date.
Discography
Solo
Albums
Singles
Soundtrack work
1996: Ransom1997: First Love, Last Rites ("When I Was Born, I Was Bored")
1999: Stigmata2000: Any Given Sunday (Corgan is credited on "Be A Man" by Hole)
2002: Spun (Corgan wrote original songs for this soundtrack)
2006: "Dance of the Dead" (episode of Masters of Horror)
2007: When a Man Falls in the Forest (three previously unreleased songs)
2011: The Chicago Code (Corgan performs the opening theme, written by Robert Duncan)
2018: Rampage – "The Rage" Performed by Kid Cudi featuring vocals by Corgan (from the Smashing Pumpkins track Bullet with Butterfly Wings)
Albums featured
1991: Sparkle (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1994: Songs About Girls (by Catherine, The song "It's No Lie" is produced by Corgan)
1994: Chante Des Chanson Sur Les Filles (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1994: Sleepy EP (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1996: Guitars That Rule the World, Vol. 2: Smell the Fuzz:The Superstar Guitar Album (by Various Artists, Corgan is credited as writer and performer of "Ascendo")
1997: Starjob (by The Frogs, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1997: Troublizing (by Ric Ocasek, Corgan is credited as writer of "Asia Minor" and playing guitar on "The Next Right Moment", "Crashland Consequence", "Situation", "Fix on You" and "People We Know")
1998: Celebrity Skin (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Celebrity Skin", "Hit So Hard", "Malibu", "Dying" and "Petals")
1998: "I Belong to You" single (by Lenny Kravitz, Corgan remixed the second track "If You Can't Say No (Flunky in the attic Mix)")
1998: Mechanical Animals by Marilyn Manson, Corgan performed backing vocals on Speed of Pain, although not credited, he is thanked in the album credits.
1999: Paraphernalia (by Enuff Z'Nuff, Corgan is credited as guitarist on the song "Everything Works If You Let It")
2000: Iommi (by Tony Iommi, Corgan is credited as writer of and vocalist on "Black Oblivion")
2001: Get Ready (by New Order, Corgan is contributing voice on "Turn My Way")
2002: Kissin Time (by Marianne Faithfull, Corgan is credited as writer of "Wherever I Go", "I'm on Fire" and contributing on "Something Good")
2003: "Lights Out" single (by Lisa Marie Presley, Corgan is credited as writer of "Savior")
2004: We Are Not Alone (by Breaking Benjamin, Corgan is credited as writer of "Follow", "Forget It" and "Rain")
2004: The Essential Cheap Trick (by Cheap Trick, Corgan is playing guitar on the live recording of the track "Mandocello")
2004: About a Burning Fire (by Blindside, Corgan is playing guitar on "Hooray, It's L.A.")
2005: Life Begins Again (by Jimmy Chamberlin Complex, Corgan is contributing voice on "Loki Cat")
2005: Blue-Sky Research (by Taproot, Corgan wrote the track "Lost in the Woods" and co-wrote the tracks "Violent Seas" and "Promise")
2006: ONXRT:Live From The Archives Volume 9 (A compilation CD from the radio station 93 WXRT in Chicago features the live recording of the track "A100")
2007: Humanity: Hour I (by Scorpions, Corgan is contributing voice on "The Cross")
2010: Nobody's Daughter (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Pacific Coast Highway", "Samantha" and "Loser Dust")
2010: See My Friends (by Ray Davies, Corgan is featured in the song "All Day And All of the Night/Destroyer")
2011: Ghost on the Canvas (by Glen Campbell, Corgan is featured in the song ."There's No Me... Without You")
2014: "Did You Miss Me" (on The Veronicas by The Veronicas, guitar contributions)
2019: The Nothing (by Korn, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "You'll Never Find Me")
2019: Screamer (by Third Eye Blind, Corgan described as the "musical consigliere" of the album, and credited as co-writer of "Light It Up")
2020: Ceremony (by Phantogram, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Into Happiness" and "Love Me Now")
As part of The Smashing Pumpkins
References
External links
The Smashing Pumpkins official website
BillyCorgan.Livejournal.com – An extensive 7-year archive of Billy's journal entries, including The Confessions of Billy Corgan, solo work and the revival of the Pumpkins.
Billy Corgan collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
Poems by Billy Corgan at alittlepoetry.com Three poems from Blinking With Fists''
1967 births
Living people
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American guitarists
21st-century American singers
Alternative rock guitarists
Alternative rock singers
American alternative rock musicians
American libertarians
American bloggers
American former Christians
American male bloggers
American male guitarists
American male poets
American male singers
American male songwriters
American music video directors
American people of Irish descent
American people of Italian descent
American rock guitarists
American rock singers
American rock songwriters
Guitarists from Chicago
Impact Wrestling executives
Lead guitarists
Musicians from Chicago
People with mood disorders
People with obsessive–compulsive disorder
Professional wrestling promoters
Singers from Chicago
Songwriters from Illinois
Starchildren members
The Smashing Pumpkins members
Veganism activists
Writers from Chicago
Zwan members | true | [
"Steven Jerome Warren (born January 22, 1978) is a former American football defensive tackle who played for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League from 2000 to 2002.\n\nCollegiate career\n\nWarren played college football for the University of Nebraska.\n\nProfessional career\n\nWarren was drafted in the 3rd round of the 2000 NFL Draft by the Green Bay Packers. He played a backup role behind Cletidus Hunt after starter Santana Dotson went out for the season with an injury. Warren was injured in a November contest against the Chicago Bears and missed the remainder of the season.\n\nAfter nursing his quadriceps injury all offseason, he was still not ready to go at the start of the season. He was placed on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list on August 28, 2001. After his six weeks on the PUP list, he was quoted as saying he was \"Ready to go\", but the Packers decided he was not ready to go and would be out the remainder of the season.\n\nIn 2002, Warren practiced during mini-camp and played most of 2002 season. He was inactive for a few contests but filled in for injured DL Billy Lyon in the Packers Wild Card loss to the Michael Vick lead Atlanta Falcons.\n\nIn 2003, Warren was tendered a minimum contract. In July, Warren failed his physical for undisclosed reasons and was placed on the PUP list in late July with a back injury. On August 6, Warren was taken off the PUP list but he was released before the start of the regular season on August 26, 2003. The Kansas City Chiefs showed interest in signing Warren after his release from the Packers but they did not sign him.\n\nReferences\n\n1978 births\nLiving people\nAmerican football defensive tackles\nGreen Bay Packers players\nNebraska Cornhuskers football players\nSportspeople from Lawton, Oklahoma\nAmerican football people from Oklahoma",
"\"Movin' Out\" is the sixth episode of the fifth season of the American musical television series Glee, and the ninety-fourth episode overall. It was written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa\nand directed by Brad Falchuk, and it aired on Fox in the United States on November 21, 2013. The episode is a tribute to the music of Billy Joel, and features seven of his songs. The episode features special guest star Tyra Banks as Bichette, the head of a modeling agency.\n\nPlot\n\nGlee club director Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) finds out that Principal Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) has organized a career fair at McKinley High, but refused to include any arts-related booths, as she believes pursuing a career in the entertainment industry will likely result in failure. Will is forced to admit that show business is a very difficult professional area, and assigns New Directions to perform songs by Billy Joel, due to his notorious struggle to reach stardom.\n\nBlaine Anderson (Darren Criss) and Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet) perform \"Movin' Out\" before traveling to New York to scout potential colleges while staying with Rachel Berry (Lea Michele), Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) and Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera). Later, at the Spotlight Diner, Kurt encourages Blaine to perform as training for his NYADA audition, and Blaine sings \"Piano Man\" to much acclaim. However, he becomes hesitant to audition for NYADA, a college purely focused on the arts, until Kurt reassures him he will find success pursuing his passion.\n\nIn Lima, Jake Puckerman (Jacob Artist) attempts to apologize to Marley Rose (Melissa Benoist) for cheating on her, but she rejects him. Angry, Jake decides to embrace his lifestyle as a womanizer and sings \"My Life\" to Marley. Noticing that Jake has hurt her, Ryder Lynn (Blake Jenner) asks Marley out, and later serenades her with \"An Innocent Man\", convincing her to accept his offer. Meanwhile, Artie Abrams (Kevin McHale) notices Becky Jackson (Lauren Potter) observing the booths of the career fair and attempts to encourage her to attend college, but is rebuffed by Sue, who wants to keep Becky safe in McKinley as her secretary. Wanting to help Becky, Artie sings \"Honesty\" to her and later takes her on a tour of the University of Cincinnati, which has a program for students with special needs. Sue consents to the idea and later encourages Becky to attend college, realizing she is ready.\n\nIn New York, Sam has a disastrous interview for a scholarship, and later confides in Rachel that he doesn't want to go to college and his dream is to become a male model. Rachel sets up a photoshoot in the loft and makes Sam a portfolio, which he submits to a prestigious modeling agent, Bichette (Tyra Banks). Although she is interested in adding him to her roster, she insists that he lose 10 pounds. Sam initially attempts to do so, but Rachel, Blaine, Kurt and Santana talk him out of it and, through a performance of \"Just the Way You Are\", convince Sam to scout other modeling agencies.\n\nIn Lima, Ryder is excited over the prospect of having a relationship with Marley, but she claims to still be recovering from her break-up with Jake and that she is not ready for a new relationship, leaving Ryder disappointed. Jake teases the two about their budding relationship and flaunts his multiple partners to Marley. Sam and Blaine return after Blaine successfully auditions for NYADA and tell Sue that she is wrong about pursuing a career in the arts. Emboldened by their success, and by ending this day, Will leads New Directions and the entire student body in a performance of \"You May Be Right\".\n\nProduction\n\nThe episode was in production during mid-October; Billy Joel's website announced the episode's air date and six songs that are set to appear in it on October 10, 2013, though ultimately a seventh song was also included.\n\nSpecial guest star, actress and former model Tyra Banks appears as Bichette, head of her own modeling agency in New York City, who interviews Sam as a potential model.\n\nRecurring characters in this episode include McKinley cheerleaders Becky Jackson (Lauren Potter) and Bree (Erinn Westbrook), and McKinley lunch lady and Marley's mother Millie Rose (Trisha Rae Stahl).\n\nSeven songs by Billy Joel are being featured in this episode: \"Movin' Out\" performed by Darren Criss and Overstreet, \"Piano Man\" sung by Criss, \"My Life\" sung by Jacob Artist, \"Honesty\" sung by Kevin McHale, \"An Innocent Man\" sung by Blake Jenner, \"You May Be Right\" performed by New Directions and \"Just the Way You Are\" performed by Criss, Overstreet, Michele, Chris Colfer and Naya Rivera.\n\nReception\n\nRatings\nThe episode was watched by 4.09 million American viewers and received an 18-49 rating/share of 1.4/4. The viewership was down from the previous episode, and tied in ratings from the previous as well. The show placed third in its timeslot and ninth for the night.\n\nIncluding DVR numbers, the episode's 18-49 rating was raised to 2.3.\n\nBilly Joel's reaction\nBilly Joel commented positively on the use of his music on the show, saying \"Honestly, I've never seen the show. I'm one of those guys who watches the History Channel, and I watch news and I watch documentaries ... but I'm very happy that my material is being done by people of that age group, and that I guess it has meaning for them.\"\n\nCritical reception\nThe episode was given moderately positive reviews from critics. Rae Votta of Billboard commented positively on the episode as a whole, but also criticized the season's pace, saying \"This episode was thoroughly enjoyable -- even the Ryder/Marley/Jake aspects featured good numbers -- but at some point Glee needs to bite the bullet and let these poor kids graduate. They can talk (and sing) all they want about moving on but eventually the bandage has to come off, painful or not.\n\nMaryAnn Sleasman of TV.com gave the episode a positive review, but issued skepticism for the show's future, saying the episode \"was definitely watchable by Glee standards (or any standards, really) but I'm beginning to fear that we've started a backslide into Glee's usual modus operandi of not giving a shit.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n \"Movin' Out\" at Fox.com\n \n\n2013 American television episodes\nGlee (season 5) episodes\nBilly Joel"
]
|
[
"Billy Corgan",
"1967-1987: Childhood and formative years",
"Where did Billy grow up?",
"Glendale Heights, Illinois.",
"Where did he attend school?",
"Marquardt Middle School",
"Did Billy attend college or did he just go out to start a career in music?",
"Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time."
]
| C_f7f748df004544729408cda74b466786_1 | Was he the only child or did he have siblings? | 4 | Was Billy the only child or did he have siblings? | Billy Corgan | William Patrick Corgan Jr. was born at Columbus Hospital in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on March 17, 1967 as the oldest son of William Corgan Sr., a blues/rock guitarist, and Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was soon remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. During this time, Corgan alleges he was subject to much physical and emotional abuse by his stepmother. Corgan also developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys would live alone with the stepmother, with both of Corgan's birth parents living separately within an hour's drive. Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his Marquardt Middle School baseball team, he collected baseball cards (amassing over 10,000) and listened to every Chicago Cubs game. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream, Illinois, he had become only an average athlete. He decided to start playing guitar when he went over to a friend's house and saw his friend's Flying V. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. Corgan, Sr. steered his son stylistically, encouraging him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support, and the younger Corgan taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. Corgan performed in a string of bands in high school, and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time. Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, he moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. Corgan performed with Wayne Static in Static's first band Deep Blue Dream, in 1987/88. CANNOTANSWER | His parents had one more son, | William Patrick Corgan (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only permanent member of the rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. He is currently the owner and promoter of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago in 1988, the band was joined by bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Strong album sales and large-scale tours propelled the band's increasing fame in the 1990s until their break-up in 2000. Corgan started a new band called Zwan, and after their demise he released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, in 2005 and a collection of poetry, Blinking with Fists, before reforming the Smashing Pumpkins. The new version of the band, consisting of Corgan and a revolving lineup, has released and toured new albums extensively since 2007. In October 2017, Corgan released Ogilala, his first solo album in over a decade. His latest album, Cotillions, was released on November 22, 2019.
In 2011, Corgan founded Resistance Pro Wrestling. He later joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2015, becoming its president in August 2016. After leaving TNA in November 2016, he purchased the NWA in October 2017, transforming it from a brand licensing organization to a singular promotion.
Early life
William Patrick Corgan was born at Columbus Hospital in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago on March 17, 1967, the oldest son of guitarist William Corgan Sr. and his wife Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic and is of Irish descent. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. Corgan alleges that his stepmother was abusive to him, both physically and emotionally. He developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys lived alone with their stepmother, and both of his birth parents lived separately within an hour's drive.
Corgan described his father as a "drug dealing, gun-toting, musician [and] mad man". Although this had a huge negative impact on his childhood, in retrospect he respects his father as a great musician.
Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his baseball team at Marquardt Middle School, he amassed over 10,000 baseball cards and listened to every Chicago Cubs game on the radio. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School, his athletic prowess had greatly diminished. He decided to start playing guitar after seeing a Flying V when he went over to a friend's house. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. His father encouraged him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support. So he taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Van Halen, Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. He performed in a string of bands in high school and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time.
Music career
1985–1987: Early career
Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, Corgan moved to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. From 1987 to 1988, he played guitar in Chicago band Deep Blue Dream, which also featured future Static-X frontman Wayne Static. He left the band to focus on The Smashing Pumpkins.
1988–2000: The Smashing Pumpkins
Upon his return to Chicago, Corgan had already devised his next project – a band that would be called The Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan met guitarist James Iha while working in a record store, and the two began recording demos, which Corgan describes as "gloomy little goth-pop records". He met bassist D'arcy Wretzky after a local show, arguing with her about a band that had just played, The Dan Reed Network. Soon after, the Smashing Pumpkins were formed. The trio began to play together at local clubs with a drum machine for percussion. To secure a show at the Metro in Chicago, the band recruited drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, and played for the first time as a quartet on October 5, 1988.
The addition of Chamberlin drove the band in a heavier direction almost immediately. On the band's debut album, Gish (1991), the band integrated psychedelic rock and heavy metal into their sound. Gish fared better than expected, but the follow-up, Siamese Dream, released on Virgin Records in 1993, became a multi-platinum hit. The band became known for internal drama during this period, with Corgan frequently characterized in the music press as a "control freak" due to rumors that Corgan played all the guitar and bass parts on Siamese Dream (a rumor that Corgan later confirmed as true). Despite this, the album was well received by critics, and the songs "Today", "Cherub Rock", and "Disarm" became hits.
The band's 1995 follow-up effort, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, was more successful, spawning a string of hit singles. According to Jon Pareles from The New York Times, Corgan wanted to "lose himself and find himself..." in this album. The album was nominated for seven Grammy awards that year, and would eventually be certified ten times platinum in the United States. The song "1979" was Corgan's biggest hit to date, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's modern rock and mainstream rock charts. Their appearance on Saturday Night Live on November 11, 1995, to promote this material (their second appearance on the show overall) was also the television debut appearance of Corgan's shaved head, which he has maintained consistently since.
On July 12, 1996, touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin died in a Manhattan hotel room of a heroin overdose after he and Chamberlin used the drug together. Chamberlin was later arrested on a misdemeanor drug possession charge. The Smashing Pumpkins made the decision to fire Chamberlin and continue as a trio. This shakeup, coupled with Corgan going through a divorce and the death of his mother, influenced the somber mood of the band's next album, 1998's Adore. Featuring a darker, more subdued and heavily electronic sound at a time when alternative rock was declining in mainstream cachet, Adore divided both critics and fans, resulting in a significant decrease in album sales (it sold 1.3 million discs in the US).
Chamberlin was reunited with the band in 1999. In 2000, they released Machina/The Machines of God, a concept album on which the band deliberately played to their public image. Critics were again divided, and sales were lower than before; Machina is the second lowest-selling commercially released Smashing Pumpkins album to date, with U.S. sales of 583,000 units up to 2005. During the recording for Machina, Wretzky quit the band and was replaced for the upcoming tour by former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. In 2000 the band announced they would break up at the end of the year, and soon after released Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music free over the Internet. The Smashing Pumpkins played their last show on December 2, 2000, at the Cabaret Metro.
2001–2005: Zwan and solo career
Following a brief stint touring with New Order in the summer, Corgan reunited with Chamberlin to form the band Zwan with Corgan's old friend Matt Sweeney in late 2001. According to Neil Strauss of New York Times, during his few live performances with the band, Corgan says "is still a work in progress". The lineup was completed with guitarist David Pajo and bassist Paz Lenchantin. The band had two distinct incarnations, the primary approach being an upbeat rock band with a three-guitar-driven sound, the second, a folk and gospel inspired acoustic side with live strings. The quintet performed throughout 2002, and their debut album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in early 2003 to generally positive reviews. In the midst of their supporting tour for the album, mounting conflict between Corgan and Chamberlin, and the other band members led to the cancellation of the rest of the tour as the band entered an apparent hiatus, formally announcing a breakup in September 2003.
In 2004, Corgan began writing revealing autobiographical posts on his website and his MySpace page, blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins, calling Wretzky "a mean spirited drug addict," and criticizing his former Zwan bandmates' fixation with "indie cred" and calling them "filthy", opportunistic, and selfish.
On September 17, 2003, Billy presented his poetry at the Art Institute of Chicago's Rubloff Auditorium. In late 2004, Corgan published Blinking with Fists, a book of poetry. Despite mixed reviews, the book debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list. Around this time, he began posting autobiographical writings online under the title The Confessions of Billy Corgan.
Also in 2004, he began a solo music career, landing on an electronic/shoegaze/alternative rock sound for his first solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, co-produced and arranged by Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb. Released on June 21, 2005, through Reprise Records, it garnered mixed reviews from the press and only sold 69,000 copies. Corgan toured behind his solo album with a touring band that included Linda Strawberry, Brian Liesegang and Matt Walker in 2005. This tour was not as extensive as previous Smashing Pumpkins or Zwan tours. Prior to recording TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan had recorded some 72 songs inspired by Chicago history for the largely acoustic ChicagoSongs project, which have yet to be released.
2005–present: The Smashing Pumpkins revival
In 2005, Corgan took out a full-page ad in Chicago's two major newspapers (Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun-Times) revealing his desire to re-form the Smashing Pumpkins. Several days later, Jimmy Chamberlin accepted Corgan's offer for a reunion.
On April 20, 2006, the band's official website confirmed that the group was indeed reuniting. The re-formed Smashing Pumpkins went into studio for much of 2006 and early 2007, and performed its first show in seven years on May 22, 2007, with new members Ginger Pooley (bass) and Jeff Schroeder (guitar) replacing Wretzky and Iha. The new album, titled Zeitgeist, was released in the United States on July 10, 2007, and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts. Corgan and the rest of the Pumpkins toured extensively throughout 2007 and 2008, also releasing the EP American Gothic and the singles "G.L.O.W." and "Superchrist". Chamberlin left the band in March 2009, and Corgan elected to continue under the name.
In summer 2009, Corgan formed the band Spirits in the Sky to play a tribute concert to the late Sky Saxon of the Seeds. He toured with the band, composed of ex-Catherine member and "Superchrist" producer Kerry Brown, the Electric Prunes bassist Mark Tulin, Strawberry Alarm Clock keyboardist Mark Weitz, frequent Corgan collaborator Linda Strawberry, flautist Kevin Dippold, "Superchrist" violinist Ysanne Spevack, saxist Justin Norman, new Pumpkins drummer Mike Byrne, and Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, playing covers and new Pumpkins material at several clubs in California. At the end of the tour, Corgan, Byrne, Tulin, and Brown headed back to Chicago to begin work on the new Smashing Pumpkins album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The lineup at the time which included new bassist Nicole Fiorentino, toured through much of 2010, then spent 2011 recording the "album-within-an-album" Oceania and mounting tours of the United States and Europe. However, Byrne and Fiorentino would later leave the band in 2014.
In April Corgan announced a new solo record of "experimental" recordings he made in 2007, via the Smashing Pumpkins' website. The album, which he titled AEGEA was released exclusively on vinyl, with 250 copies being made. Most of those copies were sold online, and a few copies were sold at Madame Zuzu's, a tea house he owns and operates in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago. The album was released on May 15.
On July 25, 2014, Corgan announced that the tapes from his "Siddhartha" show from March 2014 were being transferred for sale, much in the vein of AEGEA. The set was expected to contain between 5 and 6 discs.
During the summer 2014, Corgan recorded The Smashing Pumpkins's tenth studio album, Monuments to an Elegy, with Tommy Lee and Jeff Schroeder. The album was released in early December 2014.
In September 2015, Corgan started a blog of vintage photographs that he himself curated, and which he called "People and Their Cars". The website also included an email listing for the blog, titled "The Red Border Club". This list was to be used for information on upcoming People and Their Cars and "Hexestential" books and merchandise, along with access to additional images.
On September 8, 2016, Corgan announced, in a Facebook live video, that he had recorded a new solo album with producer Rick Rubin, and it would consist of 12 or 13 tracks. He described work on the album as being near completion, though a release date was not given.
On August 22, 2017, he announced the solo album, giving its title as Ogilala.
On February 16, 2018, Corgan announced the Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour, a reunion tour for The Smashing Pumpkins. The lineup consists of himself, James Iha, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder. It is rumored that former bassist D'arcy Wretzky was not a part of the lineup due to unresolved tension between her and Corgan. However, she has stated that after offering her a contract, Corgan retracted it, saying that "we also have to balance the forces at play... there is no room for error." After Wretzky released text messages between her and Corgan, a feud ensued, with each party attacking each other with biting remarks.
On November 22, 2019, Corgan released his third solo album Cotillions, which he called "a labor of love". He also said, "This is absolutely an album from my heart."
Professional wrestling career
Resistance Pro Wrestling (2011–2014)
In 2011 Corgan formed a Chicago-based independent wrestling promotion called Resistance Pro. Two years later, in 2013, he starred in a commercial for Walter E. Smithe Furniture, using the platform to promote his wrestling company.
In March 2014 it was reported that Corgan was in discussions with American television channel AMC to develop an unscripted reality series about Resistance Pro. The premise being a behind-the-scenes look at the promotion as Corgan "takes over creative direction for the independent wrestling company". The show was given the green light by AMC, under the working title of "Untitled Billy Corgan Wrestling Project," the same month.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2015–2016)
In April 2015 Corgan was announced as the new Senior Producer of Creative and Talent Development for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where his role was to "develop characters and create story lines", which he has called "a dream come true". In August 2016, Corgan took over as the promotion's new president.
In November 2016 Corgan had left TNA after disputes about not being paid on time, and subsequently, Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp and Impact Ventures, parent company of TNA Impact Wrestling, announced that Anthem has provided a credit facility to TNA to fund operations.
In 2016, he loaned money to Anthem Sports & Entertainment to fund TNA, and they promised to pay him back.
On November 11, Corgan signed a settlement with Anthem – TNA and Anthem announced that they would be repaying TNA's loan from Corgan.
Newly appointed TNA/Impact Wrestling President Ed Nordholm credits the invention of and the vision behind the Matt Hardy Broken gimmick to Jeremy Borash, David Lagana and Billy Corgan. While Borash specifically had the most input into the gimmick of the three aside from Matt, the Hardy family deny that Borash was the sole person behind the gimmick.
National Wrestling Alliance (2017–present)
On May 1, 2017, it was reported that Corgan had agreed to purchase the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), including its name, rights, trademarks and championship belts. The purchase was confirmed by NWA president Bruce Tharpe later that same day. Corgan's ownership took effect on October 1, 2017.
Personal life
Mental health
For much of his life, Corgan has struggled with anxiety, depression, panic attacks, self-harm, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and suicidal ideation. He attributes these problems to the abuse he endured as a child at the hands of his father and stepmother, as well as other personal issues. He has since become an advocate for abuse support networks.
Involvement with sports
Corgan is a keen supporter of the Chicago Cubs, and an occasional commentator on the team for WXRT DJ Lin Brehmer. He has appeared at many Cubs games, occasionally throwing the ceremonial first pitch or singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". He is also a fan of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks, and became personal friends with Dennis Rodman and Chris Chelios. He is an avid professional wrestling fan, and appeared at an ECW event wielding an acoustic guitar as a weapon. In 2008, the Pumpkins song "Doomsday Clock" was used by ROH for promotional videos. On April 26, 2010, Corgan appeared on the SIRIUS Satellite Radio program Right After Wrestling with Arda Ocal to discuss his love for wrestling and the importance of unique theme songs for characters. On August 26, 2010, he took part in a storyline with AAA during a concert for MTV World Stage. As far as other entertainment, Corgan once commented that all he watches on TV are "sports and the Three Stooges". In March 2008, he was spotted in the crowd at the final day of the cricket test match between New Zealand and England.
Spiritual beliefs
Corgan accepts some parts of Catholicism. In 2009, he launched Everything From Here to There, an interfaith website that is devoted to "Mind-Body-Soul" integration. He mentions praying each morning and night to be able to see through Jesus Christ's eyes and feel with his heart. An analysis of the symbolism of Corgan's lyrics considered the blend of beliefs he has cited in various interviews, which include ideas about religion, multiple dimensions, and psychic phenomena. In an interview on the Howard Stern Show, Corgan claimed to have once had an encounter with a person who had the ability to shapeshift.
Family and romantic relationships
Corgan's mother Martha died in December 1996. The song "For Martha", from Adore, was written in her memory. In the early 2000s Corgan named his label Martha's Music after her as well. A picture of Martha as a little girl sitting on a fake moon at Riverview Park is featured on the flipside of the Siamese Dream booklet.
In 1993, Corgan married art conservator and artist Chris Fabian, his longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend. They were married at a small ceremony at his house in Wrigleyville. Corgan and Fabian separated in late 1995. Corgan filed for divorce in December 1996 on grounds of "irreconcilable differences," and the divorce was granted in 1997. Corgan refused to discuss the marriage for years, only allowing that it was "unhappy." In 2005 he described the circumstances of his marriage in depth via his personal blog.
In late 1995, Corgan started dating Ukrainian photographer Yelena Yemchuk, who later contributed to several Smashing Pumpkins videos and album art. He continued to date Yemchuk until around 2004. According to Corgan, his breakup with her contributed to the themes of his 2005 solo release TheFutureEmbrace. In 2005, Corgan dated musician Emilie Autumn for a number of months. The pair collaborated on multiple occasions during this time, with Autumn providing vocals and violin on his solo album and costume for a supporting music video.
In early 2006, Corgan moved in with Courtney Love and her daughter. According to Love, he had his own wing in her Hollywood Hills mansion. Two years later, Love criticized him publicly over his alleged refusal to attend her daughter's sweet 16 party. After they parted ways, Corgan stated in a March 2010 interview, "I have no interest in supporting [Love] in any way, shape or form. You can't throw enough things down the abyss with a person like that." Shortly after, when her band's album Nobody's Daughter was released, Corgan used Twitter to post anger-filled rants against her in reference to two songs he had written, "Samantha" and "How Dirty Girls Get Clean", which ended up on the album without his permission. Love then wrote an apology to him on her Facebook account, but the feud continued. Corgan took to Twitter to rant against her again. She responded to him on Twitter, saying, "All i am is nice about you so if you wanna be mean be mean i don't feel anything. i have too much to feel dear." In 2008, he blamed his dedication to music for what he called "a bad marriage and seven bad girlfriends in a row". The two eventually reconciled, and Love was invited to perform at Smashing Pumpkins 30th Anniversary Show.
In 2009, Corgan was linked with pop star Jessica Simpson. He started dating Australian singer Jessica Origliasso in 2010, and remained in a relationship with her until early June 2012. Origliasso blamed their split on their careers forcing them to spend too much time apart.
He began dating Chloe Mendel in 2013. She gave birth to a son named Augustus Juppiter Corgan on November 16, 2015. Their second child, a daughter named Philomena Clementine Corgan, was born on October 2, 2018.
Political beliefs
In 1998, Corgan said he had not participated in an election since 1992, when he voted for Bill Clinton.
Following the election of Barack Obama in 2008, Corgan stated: "I'm very proud of my country right now for doing the right thing." He has since said that he was disappointed with Obama's presidency, and that he lacks faith in both major political parties. In 2009, he posted a transcript of a webcast by political activist Lyndon LaRouche to the official Smashing Pumpkins forum. On March 10, 2009, Corgan testified in front of Congress on behalf of the musicFIRST Coalition. He spoke in favor of H.R. 848, the Performance Rights Act, which gives musicians and artists their share of compensation when their music is played on radio stations.
Speaking to right-wing conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones in 2016, Corgan called progressive political campaigners "social justice warriors", and compared them to Maoists, cult members, and the Ku Klux Klan; he also stated that their actions were a threat to freedom of speech. In 2018, he called himself a "free-market libertarian capitalist".
Diet
Corgan adopted a pescetarian diet in 2013, and stated in 2017 that he had begun following a vegan and gluten-free diet. In 2012, he opened a tea house in Ravinia, Highland Park called Madame Zuzu's Tea House, which closed in 2018 and reopened in downtown Highland Park in 2020.
Collaborations
In addition to performing, Corgan has produced albums for Ric Ocasek, The Frogs, and Catherine. He shared songwriting credit on several songs on Hole's 1998 album Celebrity Skin; the title track became Corgan's second No. 1 modern rock hit. He also acted as a consultant for Marilyn Manson during the recording of the album Mechanical Animals. He has produced three soundtracks for the movies Ransom (1996), Stigmata (1999) and Spun (2002) in which he appeared as a doctor.
Corgan appeared at the 1996 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremonies. He inducted one of his biggest musical influences, Pink Floyd. He played acoustic guitar during the ceremony with Pink Floyd, when they performed their song "Wish You Were Here".
In particular, Corgan guided and collaborated with three bands in the 2000s—Breaking Benjamin (during sessions for 2004's We Are Not Alone), Taproot (for Blue-Sky Research, 2005), and Sky Saxon.
In 2010, Corgan claimed co-writing credit (with ex-girlfriend Courtney Love) on at least two of the songs on Hole's final album Nobody's Daughter and tried to assert a right of approval before the album could be released. Corgan had helped develop the album during its early stages. The album was released without the writing controversy ever being litigated or publicly resolved.
Corgan appeared as a guest vocalist on the song "Loki Cat" on Jimmy Chamberlin's first solo album, Life Begins Again, and Chamberlin played drums for the song "DIA" on Corgan's solo debut, where Robert Smith from The Cure teamed up with Corgan to do a cover of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody". In 2007, Corgan provided vocals on the Scorpions' song "The Cross", on their album Humanity: Hour I. In 2010 Corgan featured on Ray Davies' album See My Friends on the album's closer, a mash-up of the Kinks songs "All Day and All of the Night" and "Destroyer". He also contributed his guitar work on "Did You Miss Me" by The Veronicas. Corgan has also collaborated with Tony Iommi, Blindside, David Bowie (singing "All the Young Dudes" with Bowie at Bowie's 50th birthday party), New Order and Marianne Faithfull.
Musical style and influences
When asked in a 1994 Rolling Stone interview about his influences, Corgan replied:
Corgan wrote six articles for Guitar World in 1995, and his solos for "Cherub Rock" and "Geek U.S.A." were included on their list of the top guitar solos of all time. AllMusic said "Starla" "proves that Corgan was one of the finest (and most underrated) rock guitarists of the '90s", while Rolling Stone called him and his Smashing Pumpkins bandmates "ruthless virtuosos". His solo for "Soma" was No. 24 on Rolling Stone'''s list of the top guitar solos. He is a fan of Eddie Van Halen and interviewed him in 1996 for Guitar World. Other guitarists Corgan rates highly include Uli Jon Roth, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Leslie West, Dimebag Darrell and Robin Trower.
His bass playing, which has featured on nearly every Smashing Pumpkins album, was influenced by post-punk figures like Peter Hook and Simon Gallup.
Corgan has praised Radiohead, saying "if they're not the best band in the world, then they're one of the best". He is also a fan of Pantera and appeared briefly in their home video 3 Watch It Go. Other favorites include Depeche Mode, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Rush, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Cure, Metallica, Slayer, Queen, Electric Light Orchestra, Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, and Spiritualized. Corgan stated in 1997 that upon hearing the U2 song "New Year's Day", at 16, "[U2] quickly became the most important band in the world to me." Corgan particularly went out of his way to praise Rush in his interview for Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, a documentary on the band, where he criticized mainstream reviewers for consciously marginalizing the band and their influence, and highlighted the fact that many of his musical peers were influenced by Rush.
He has listed his artistic influences as William S. Burroughs, Pablo Picasso, Jimi Hendrix, Jack Kerouac, and Philip K. Dick.Corgan, Billy. Twitter Q&A. October 3, 2011.
Instruments
Corgan played (during the Gish-Siamese Dream era) a customized '57 Reissue Fender Stratocaster equipped with three Fender Lace Sensor pickups (the Lace Sensor Blue in the neck position, the Lace Sensor Silver in the middle position, and the Lace Sensor Red at the bridge position). It also has a five-position pickup selector switch which he installed himself. This battered Strat became his number one guitar by default. He owned a '74 Strat that was stolen shortly after Gish was completed. Corgan was reunited with this guitar in early 2019.
Corgan also used a wide variety of guitars on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. On "Where Boys Fear to Tread", Corgan used a Les Paul Junior Reissue, and on "Tonight Tonight" he used a '72 Gibson ES-335. He is also known to use a '74 Strat which has since been painted baby blue. That guitar was used on the recordings for "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and also "Muzzle", because the heavier wood gave it the basic Strat sound with a bit more bottom.
During the recording and tour of the album Zeitgeist, Corgan used a Schecter C-1 EX baritone, finished in black with Tony Iommi signature pickups. Corgan also endorsed Reverend Guitars in his Zwan era, most notably playing a Reverend Slingshot.
In 2008 Corgan released to the market his own Fender Stratocaster. This new guitar was made to Corgan's exact specs to create his famous mid-'90s buzzsaw tone; the instrument features three DiMarzio pickups (two custom for this instrument), a string-through hardtail bridge and a satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish. When playing live, he uses both his signature Strats as well as two other Fender Strats, one in red with a white pick guard and one in silver-grey with a black pick guard; a Gibson Tony Iommi signature SG; and his Schecter C-1 (only used on the Zeitgeist song "United States").
A video called 'Stompland' on the official Smashing Pumpkins YouTube channel is informative on Corgan's choice of effects pedals. In the video he reveals an extensive collection of pedals used throughout his career with the Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan's tone is often characterized by his use of fuzz pedals, particularly vintage versions of the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
In 2016 Reverend Guitars released the BC-1 Billy Corgan signature guitar featuring Railhammer Billy Corgan signature pickups.
The Reverend Billy Corgan Signature Terz was launched at the 2018 NAMM show—an electric version of a 19th-century instrument that is played as if the guitar is capoed at the third fret, and tuned G-g standard. Corgan often uses the capo at the third fret and asked for a higher-register guitar.
Corgan is noted for having used Marshall and Diezel amps. He has also used modular preamps based on many different amps in conjunction with Mesa Boogie poweramps. The preamps were custom built by Salvation Mods.
In August 2017, Corgan sold a large collection of instruments and gear used throughout his career via music gear website Reverb.
In 2020, Billy Corgan collaborated with Brian Carstens of Carstens Amplification to produce Grace, Billy's first and only signature guitar amplifier to date.
Discography
Solo
Albums
Singles
Soundtrack work
1996: Ransom1997: First Love, Last Rites ("When I Was Born, I Was Bored")
1999: Stigmata2000: Any Given Sunday (Corgan is credited on "Be A Man" by Hole)
2002: Spun (Corgan wrote original songs for this soundtrack)
2006: "Dance of the Dead" (episode of Masters of Horror)
2007: When a Man Falls in the Forest (three previously unreleased songs)
2011: The Chicago Code (Corgan performs the opening theme, written by Robert Duncan)
2018: Rampage – "The Rage" Performed by Kid Cudi featuring vocals by Corgan (from the Smashing Pumpkins track Bullet with Butterfly Wings)
Albums featured
1991: Sparkle (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1994: Songs About Girls (by Catherine, The song "It's No Lie" is produced by Corgan)
1994: Chante Des Chanson Sur Les Filles (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1994: Sleepy EP (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1996: Guitars That Rule the World, Vol. 2: Smell the Fuzz:The Superstar Guitar Album (by Various Artists, Corgan is credited as writer and performer of "Ascendo")
1997: Starjob (by The Frogs, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1997: Troublizing (by Ric Ocasek, Corgan is credited as writer of "Asia Minor" and playing guitar on "The Next Right Moment", "Crashland Consequence", "Situation", "Fix on You" and "People We Know")
1998: Celebrity Skin (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Celebrity Skin", "Hit So Hard", "Malibu", "Dying" and "Petals")
1998: "I Belong to You" single (by Lenny Kravitz, Corgan remixed the second track "If You Can't Say No (Flunky in the attic Mix)")
1998: Mechanical Animals by Marilyn Manson, Corgan performed backing vocals on Speed of Pain, although not credited, he is thanked in the album credits.
1999: Paraphernalia (by Enuff Z'Nuff, Corgan is credited as guitarist on the song "Everything Works If You Let It")
2000: Iommi (by Tony Iommi, Corgan is credited as writer of and vocalist on "Black Oblivion")
2001: Get Ready (by New Order, Corgan is contributing voice on "Turn My Way")
2002: Kissin Time (by Marianne Faithfull, Corgan is credited as writer of "Wherever I Go", "I'm on Fire" and contributing on "Something Good")
2003: "Lights Out" single (by Lisa Marie Presley, Corgan is credited as writer of "Savior")
2004: We Are Not Alone (by Breaking Benjamin, Corgan is credited as writer of "Follow", "Forget It" and "Rain")
2004: The Essential Cheap Trick (by Cheap Trick, Corgan is playing guitar on the live recording of the track "Mandocello")
2004: About a Burning Fire (by Blindside, Corgan is playing guitar on "Hooray, It's L.A.")
2005: Life Begins Again (by Jimmy Chamberlin Complex, Corgan is contributing voice on "Loki Cat")
2005: Blue-Sky Research (by Taproot, Corgan wrote the track "Lost in the Woods" and co-wrote the tracks "Violent Seas" and "Promise")
2006: ONXRT:Live From The Archives Volume 9 (A compilation CD from the radio station 93 WXRT in Chicago features the live recording of the track "A100")
2007: Humanity: Hour I (by Scorpions, Corgan is contributing voice on "The Cross")
2010: Nobody's Daughter (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Pacific Coast Highway", "Samantha" and "Loser Dust")
2010: See My Friends (by Ray Davies, Corgan is featured in the song "All Day And All of the Night/Destroyer")
2011: Ghost on the Canvas (by Glen Campbell, Corgan is featured in the song ."There's No Me... Without You")
2014: "Did You Miss Me" (on The Veronicas by The Veronicas, guitar contributions)
2019: The Nothing (by Korn, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "You'll Never Find Me")
2019: Screamer (by Third Eye Blind, Corgan described as the "musical consigliere" of the album, and credited as co-writer of "Light It Up")
2020: Ceremony (by Phantogram, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Into Happiness" and "Love Me Now")
As part of The Smashing Pumpkins
References
External links
The Smashing Pumpkins official website
BillyCorgan.Livejournal.com – An extensive 7-year archive of Billy's journal entries, including The Confessions of Billy Corgan, solo work and the revival of the Pumpkins.
Billy Corgan collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
Poems by Billy Corgan at alittlepoetry.com Three poems from Blinking With Fists''
1967 births
Living people
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American guitarists
21st-century American singers
Alternative rock guitarists
Alternative rock singers
American alternative rock musicians
American libertarians
American bloggers
American former Christians
American male bloggers
American male guitarists
American male poets
American male singers
American male songwriters
American music video directors
American people of Irish descent
American people of Italian descent
American rock guitarists
American rock singers
American rock songwriters
Guitarists from Chicago
Impact Wrestling executives
Lead guitarists
Musicians from Chicago
People with mood disorders
People with obsessive–compulsive disorder
Professional wrestling promoters
Singers from Chicago
Songwriters from Illinois
Starchildren members
The Smashing Pumpkins members
Veganism activists
Writers from Chicago
Zwan members | true | [
"Patrick Stübing (born 1977 in Leipzig, East Germany) is a German who was in an incestious relationship with his biological sister, Susan Karolewski. The relationship produced four children: Eric, Sarah, Nancy, and Sofia. Only one child, Sofia, remains with the couple. Two children suffer from severe physical and mental disabilities, and another was born with a heart condition that required a heart transplant. All three disabled children were placed in foster care.\n\nThe relationship caused additional controversy and legal action as \"vaginal intercourse between full or half siblings\" was illegal in Germany at the time.\n\nBackground\nStübing (a locksmith) is the third of eight children born into a low income family. He was fostered at age 3 due to being attacked with a knife by his alcoholic father. He was adopted by his foster parents at age 7, with whom he lived in Potsdam. His sister was born in 1984, on the day their parents' divorce was finalized. Stübing did not meet his mother and biological family until 2000 when he was 23. According to Stübing, the relationship between him and his sister became incestuous in 2001, six months after their mother died of a heart attack.\n\nKarolewski is mentally disabled, semi-literate, and was 16 at the time of giving birth to their first child in October 2001. The relationship was discovered when their first child was born. A nurse suspected Stübing was the father of his sister's child and contacted police. Upon his second conviction of incest, Stübing was sentenced to ten months in prison. He was later sentenced to two and a half years in prison for his third incest conviction. During the latter sentence, Karolewski had a relationship with an unknown man who claimed to be her boyfriend and had a child with him, which she gave up rights to after Stübing was released from prison\n\nStübing's and Karolewski's siblings and parents are dead.\n\nLegal issues\nIncest is illegal in Germany, under paragraph 173 of the legal code. Karolewski was convicted and sentenced to supervision orders because she was a minor when the sexual relationship began and because she has dependent personality disorder. Under Germany's criminal code which dates back to 1871, vaginal sex between siblings or between (grand-) parent and child is a crime, punishable by up to three years in prison. The couple's lawyer has argued that the law is \"out of date\" and \"breaches the couple's civil rights\".\n\nIn 2004, Patrick Stübing voluntarily underwent a vasectomy.\n\nIn 2005, Stübing was sentenced to 14 months in prison.\n\nThe Federal Constitutional Court of Germany upheld, on March 13, 2008, a law that makes incest a criminal offense, rejecting the appeal by Stübing.\n\nOn 12 April 2012, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Stübing's \"conviction and prison sentence for an incestuous relationship\" did not violate Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Right to respect for private and family life), as \"the German authorities had a wide margin of appreciation in confronting the issue\". Stübing requested the case for referral to the Grand Chamber, but on September 24, 2012, it was rejected and judgment has become final.\n\nIn 2014, the German Ethics Council voted in favor of allowing incest between siblings as a result of the case.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nIncestuous German pair fight case BBC News, 20 February 2007\nCouple stand by forbidden love BBC News, 7 March 2007\nSiblings Who Have Four Children Together Lose Incest Appeal Discovery, 18 March 2008\n\n1977 births\nLiving people\n21st-century German criminals\nGerman adoptees\nGerman sex offenders\nPeople convicted of incest\nPeople from Leipzig\nCriminals from Saxony",
"An only child is a person with no siblings, by birth or adoption.\n\nChildren who have half-siblings, step-siblings, or have never met their siblings, either living at the same house or at a different house - especially those who were born considerably later - may have a similar family environment to only-children, as may children who have much younger siblings from both of the same parents (generally ten or more years).\n\nOverview \nThroughout history, only-children were relatively uncommon. From around the middle of the 20th century, birth rates and average family sizes fell sharply, for a number of reasons including increasing costs of raising children and more women having their first child later in life. The proportion of families in the United States with only-children increased during the Great Depression but fell during the Post–World War II baby boom. After the Korean War ended in 1953, the South Korean government suggested citizens each have one or two children to boost economic prosperity, which resulted in significantly reduced birth rates and a larger number of only-children to the country.\n\nFrom 1979 to 2015, the one-child policy in the People's Republic of China restricted most parents to having only one child, although it was subject to local relaxations and individual circumstances (for instance when twins were conceived).\n\nFamilies may have an only child for a variety of reasons, including: personal preference, family planning, financial and emotional or physical health issues, desire to travel, stress in the family, educational advantages, late marriage, stability, focus, time constraints, fears over pregnancy, advanced age, illegitimate birth, infertility, divorce, and death of a sibling or parent. The premature death of one parent also contributed to a small percentage of marriages producing just one child until around the mid-20th century, not to mention the then-rare occurrence of divorce.\n\nOnly-children are sometimes said to be more likely to develop precocious interests (from spending more time with adults) and to feel lonely. Sometimes they compensate for the aloneness by developing a stronger relationship with themselves or developing an active fantasy life that includes imaginary friends. Children whose only siblings are much older than them sometimes report feeling like an only child.\n\nStereotypes \nIn Western countries, only-children can be the subject of a stereotype that equates them with \"spoiled brats\". G. Stanley Hall was one of the first commentators to give only-children a bad reputation when he referred to their situation as \"a disease in itself\". Even today, only-children are commonly stereotyped as \"spoiled, selfish, and bratty\". While many only-children receive a lot of attention and resources for their development, it is not clear that as a class they are overindulged or differ significantly from children with siblings. Susan Newman, a social psychologist at Rutgers University and the author of Parenting an Only Child, says that this is a myth. \"People articulate that only children are spoiled, they're aggressive, they're bossy, they're lonely, they're maladjusted\", she said. \"There have been hundreds and hundreds of research studies that show that only children are no different from their peers.\" However, differences have been found. Research involving teacher ratings of U.S. children's social and interpersonal skills has scored only-children lower in self-control and interpersonal skills. While a later study failed to find evidence this continued through middle and high school, a further study showed that deficits persisted until at least the fifth grade. Overall, most findings do not support the negative view of only-children, though there are differences. Only-children have proven through many studies that they are smarter, more autonomous, more well-behaved, and more mature than their peers.\n\nIn China, perceived behavioral problems in only-children have been called the Little Emperor Syndrome, and the lack of siblings has been blamed for a number of social ills such as materialism and crime. However, recent studies do not support these claims, and show no significant differences in personality between only-children and children in larger families. The one-child policy has also been speculated to be the underlying cause of forced abortions, female infanticide, underreporting of female births, and has been suggested as a possible cause behind China's increasing number of crimes and gender imbalance. Regardless, a 2008 survey given by the Pew Research Center reports that 76% of the Chinese population supports the policy.\n\nThe popular media often posit that it is more difficult for only-children to cooperate in a conventional family environment, as they have no competitors for the attention of their parents and other relatives. It is suggested that confusion arises about the norms of ages and roles and that a similar effect exists in understanding during relationships with other peers and youth, all throughout life. Furthermore, it is believed that many feel that their parents place extra pressure and expectations on the only child, and that often, only-children are perfectionists. Only-children are noted to have a tendency to mature faster. Some psychologists believe in the “only child syndrome”, though there is very little evidence to back it up. “Only child syndrome” is the idea that in adulthood, those who have had no siblings are more likely to have less developed social skills and antisocial tendencies that have carried on from childhood. Researchers that have debunked this belief attribute it to peer relationships as being a substitute for sibling relationships. In fact, there is more evidence in favor of only children excelling over their peers.\n\nScientific research \nA 1987 quantitative review of 141 studies on 16 different personality traits failed to support the opinion, held by theorists including Alfred Adler, that only-children are more likely to be maladjusted due to pampering. The study found no evidence of any greater prevalence of maladjustment in only-children. The only statistically significant difference discovered was that only-children possessed a higher achievement motivation, which Denise Polit and Toni Falbo attributed to their greater share of parental resources, expectations, and scrutiny exposing them to a greater degree of reward, and greater likelihood of punishment for falling short. A second analysis by the authors revealed that only-children, children with only one sibling, and first-borns in general score higher on tests of verbal ability than later-borns and children with multiple siblings.\n\nA large (n=8,689) study found no evidence for the idea that only children are more narcissistic than children with siblings.\n\nToni Falbo & Denise Polit in their research of only children, gathered 115 studies to address information and evidence for personality, intelligence, adaptability, and relationships with peers and their parents. According to their findings, only-children surpassed all others in each category except for children who were in similar circumstances to them, such as first borns. One of their biggest findings was that the parent-child relationship was positively stronger compared to those children with siblings. Due to this relationship being significantly present in an only child’s life, it correlated to developmental outcomes, showing that only-children were not at a developmental disadvantage.\n\nAccording to the Resource Dilution Model, parental resources (e.g. time to read to the child) are important in development. Because these resources are finite, children with many siblings are thought to receive fewer resources. However, the Confluence Model suggests there is an opposing effect from the benefits to the non-youngest children of tutoring younger siblings, though being tutored does not make up the reduced share of parental resources. This provides one explanation for the poorer performance on tests of ability of only-children compared to first-borns, commonly seen in the literature, though explanations such as the increased and earlier likelihood of experiencing parental separation or loss for last-born and only children have also been suggested, as this may be the cause of their very status.\n\nIn his book Maybe One, the environmental campaigner Bill McKibben argues in favor of a voluntary one-child policy on the grounds of climate change and overpopulation. He reassures the reader with a narrative constructed from interviews with researchers and writers on only-children, combined with snippets from the research literature, that this would not be harmful to child development. He argues that most cultural stereotypes are false, that there are not many differences between only-children and other children, and where there are differences, they are favorable to the only child.\n\nMost research on only-children has been quantitative and focused on the behavior of only-children and on how others, for example teachers, assess that behavior. Bernice Sorensen, in contrast, used qualitative methods in order to elicit meaning and to discover what only-children themselves understand, feel or sense about their lives that are lived without siblings. Her research showed that during their life span only children often become more aware of their only-child status and are very much affected by society's stereotype of the only-child whether or not the stereotype is true or false. She argues in her book, Only Child Experience and Adulthood, that growing up in a predominantly sibling society affects only-children and that their lack of sibling relationships can have an important effect on both the way they see themselves and others and how they interact with the world.\n\nThe latest research by Cameron et al. (2011) controls for endogeneity associated with being only-children. Parents that choose to have only one child could differ systematically in their characteristics from parents who choose to have more than one child. The paper concludes that \"those who grew up as only children as a consequence of the (one-child) policy (in China) are found to be less trusting, less trustworthy, less likely to take risks, and less competitive than if they had had siblings. They are also less optimistic, less conscientious, and more prone to neuroticism\". Furthermore, according to Professor Cameron, it was found that \"greater exposure to other children in childhood – for example, frequent interactions with cousins and/or attending childcare – was not a substitute for having siblings\".\n\nIn his book Born to Rebel, Frank Sulloway provides evidence that birth order influences the development of the \"big five personality traits\" (also known as the Five Factor Model). Sulloway suggests that firstborns and only-children are more conscientious, more socially dominant, less agreeable, and less open to new ideas compared to later-borns. However, his conclusions have been challenged by other researchers, who argue that birth order effects are weak and inconsistent. In one of the largest studies conducted on the effect of birth order on the Big Five, data from a national sample of 9,664 subjects found no association between birth order and scores on the NEO PI-R personality test. Similarly, a large study (n = 8,689) from 2020 did not find any evidence for the hypothesis that only children are more narcissistic than non-only children.\n\nSee also \n\n Cost of raising a child\n Multiple birth\n Shidu (bereavement)\n Single parent\n Sole Survivor Policy\n Two-child policy\n\nReferences \n\nFamily\nParenting\nHuman development\nChild development\nFamily planning\nSibling"
]
|
[
"Billy Corgan",
"1967-1987: Childhood and formative years",
"Where did Billy grow up?",
"Glendale Heights, Illinois.",
"Where did he attend school?",
"Marquardt Middle School",
"Did Billy attend college or did he just go out to start a career in music?",
"Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time.",
"Was he the only child or did he have siblings?",
"His parents had one more son,"
]
| C_f7f748df004544729408cda74b466786_1 | When he set to do music full time what was his first step? | 5 | When Billy started to do music full-time what was his first step? | Billy Corgan | William Patrick Corgan Jr. was born at Columbus Hospital in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on March 17, 1967 as the oldest son of William Corgan Sr., a blues/rock guitarist, and Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was soon remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. During this time, Corgan alleges he was subject to much physical and emotional abuse by his stepmother. Corgan also developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys would live alone with the stepmother, with both of Corgan's birth parents living separately within an hour's drive. Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his Marquardt Middle School baseball team, he collected baseball cards (amassing over 10,000) and listened to every Chicago Cubs game. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream, Illinois, he had become only an average athlete. He decided to start playing guitar when he went over to a friend's house and saw his friend's Flying V. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. Corgan, Sr. steered his son stylistically, encouraging him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support, and the younger Corgan taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. Corgan performed in a string of bands in high school, and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time. Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, he moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. Corgan performed with Wayne Static in Static's first band Deep Blue Dream, in 1987/88. CANNOTANSWER | Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, he moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, | William Patrick Corgan (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only permanent member of the rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. He is currently the owner and promoter of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago in 1988, the band was joined by bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Strong album sales and large-scale tours propelled the band's increasing fame in the 1990s until their break-up in 2000. Corgan started a new band called Zwan, and after their demise he released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, in 2005 and a collection of poetry, Blinking with Fists, before reforming the Smashing Pumpkins. The new version of the band, consisting of Corgan and a revolving lineup, has released and toured new albums extensively since 2007. In October 2017, Corgan released Ogilala, his first solo album in over a decade. His latest album, Cotillions, was released on November 22, 2019.
In 2011, Corgan founded Resistance Pro Wrestling. He later joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2015, becoming its president in August 2016. After leaving TNA in November 2016, he purchased the NWA in October 2017, transforming it from a brand licensing organization to a singular promotion.
Early life
William Patrick Corgan was born at Columbus Hospital in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago on March 17, 1967, the oldest son of guitarist William Corgan Sr. and his wife Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic and is of Irish descent. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. Corgan alleges that his stepmother was abusive to him, both physically and emotionally. He developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys lived alone with their stepmother, and both of his birth parents lived separately within an hour's drive.
Corgan described his father as a "drug dealing, gun-toting, musician [and] mad man". Although this had a huge negative impact on his childhood, in retrospect he respects his father as a great musician.
Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his baseball team at Marquardt Middle School, he amassed over 10,000 baseball cards and listened to every Chicago Cubs game on the radio. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School, his athletic prowess had greatly diminished. He decided to start playing guitar after seeing a Flying V when he went over to a friend's house. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. His father encouraged him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support. So he taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Van Halen, Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. He performed in a string of bands in high school and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time.
Music career
1985–1987: Early career
Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, Corgan moved to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. From 1987 to 1988, he played guitar in Chicago band Deep Blue Dream, which also featured future Static-X frontman Wayne Static. He left the band to focus on The Smashing Pumpkins.
1988–2000: The Smashing Pumpkins
Upon his return to Chicago, Corgan had already devised his next project – a band that would be called The Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan met guitarist James Iha while working in a record store, and the two began recording demos, which Corgan describes as "gloomy little goth-pop records". He met bassist D'arcy Wretzky after a local show, arguing with her about a band that had just played, The Dan Reed Network. Soon after, the Smashing Pumpkins were formed. The trio began to play together at local clubs with a drum machine for percussion. To secure a show at the Metro in Chicago, the band recruited drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, and played for the first time as a quartet on October 5, 1988.
The addition of Chamberlin drove the band in a heavier direction almost immediately. On the band's debut album, Gish (1991), the band integrated psychedelic rock and heavy metal into their sound. Gish fared better than expected, but the follow-up, Siamese Dream, released on Virgin Records in 1993, became a multi-platinum hit. The band became known for internal drama during this period, with Corgan frequently characterized in the music press as a "control freak" due to rumors that Corgan played all the guitar and bass parts on Siamese Dream (a rumor that Corgan later confirmed as true). Despite this, the album was well received by critics, and the songs "Today", "Cherub Rock", and "Disarm" became hits.
The band's 1995 follow-up effort, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, was more successful, spawning a string of hit singles. According to Jon Pareles from The New York Times, Corgan wanted to "lose himself and find himself..." in this album. The album was nominated for seven Grammy awards that year, and would eventually be certified ten times platinum in the United States. The song "1979" was Corgan's biggest hit to date, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's modern rock and mainstream rock charts. Their appearance on Saturday Night Live on November 11, 1995, to promote this material (their second appearance on the show overall) was also the television debut appearance of Corgan's shaved head, which he has maintained consistently since.
On July 12, 1996, touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin died in a Manhattan hotel room of a heroin overdose after he and Chamberlin used the drug together. Chamberlin was later arrested on a misdemeanor drug possession charge. The Smashing Pumpkins made the decision to fire Chamberlin and continue as a trio. This shakeup, coupled with Corgan going through a divorce and the death of his mother, influenced the somber mood of the band's next album, 1998's Adore. Featuring a darker, more subdued and heavily electronic sound at a time when alternative rock was declining in mainstream cachet, Adore divided both critics and fans, resulting in a significant decrease in album sales (it sold 1.3 million discs in the US).
Chamberlin was reunited with the band in 1999. In 2000, they released Machina/The Machines of God, a concept album on which the band deliberately played to their public image. Critics were again divided, and sales were lower than before; Machina is the second lowest-selling commercially released Smashing Pumpkins album to date, with U.S. sales of 583,000 units up to 2005. During the recording for Machina, Wretzky quit the band and was replaced for the upcoming tour by former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. In 2000 the band announced they would break up at the end of the year, and soon after released Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music free over the Internet. The Smashing Pumpkins played their last show on December 2, 2000, at the Cabaret Metro.
2001–2005: Zwan and solo career
Following a brief stint touring with New Order in the summer, Corgan reunited with Chamberlin to form the band Zwan with Corgan's old friend Matt Sweeney in late 2001. According to Neil Strauss of New York Times, during his few live performances with the band, Corgan says "is still a work in progress". The lineup was completed with guitarist David Pajo and bassist Paz Lenchantin. The band had two distinct incarnations, the primary approach being an upbeat rock band with a three-guitar-driven sound, the second, a folk and gospel inspired acoustic side with live strings. The quintet performed throughout 2002, and their debut album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in early 2003 to generally positive reviews. In the midst of their supporting tour for the album, mounting conflict between Corgan and Chamberlin, and the other band members led to the cancellation of the rest of the tour as the band entered an apparent hiatus, formally announcing a breakup in September 2003.
In 2004, Corgan began writing revealing autobiographical posts on his website and his MySpace page, blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins, calling Wretzky "a mean spirited drug addict," and criticizing his former Zwan bandmates' fixation with "indie cred" and calling them "filthy", opportunistic, and selfish.
On September 17, 2003, Billy presented his poetry at the Art Institute of Chicago's Rubloff Auditorium. In late 2004, Corgan published Blinking with Fists, a book of poetry. Despite mixed reviews, the book debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list. Around this time, he began posting autobiographical writings online under the title The Confessions of Billy Corgan.
Also in 2004, he began a solo music career, landing on an electronic/shoegaze/alternative rock sound for his first solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, co-produced and arranged by Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb. Released on June 21, 2005, through Reprise Records, it garnered mixed reviews from the press and only sold 69,000 copies. Corgan toured behind his solo album with a touring band that included Linda Strawberry, Brian Liesegang and Matt Walker in 2005. This tour was not as extensive as previous Smashing Pumpkins or Zwan tours. Prior to recording TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan had recorded some 72 songs inspired by Chicago history for the largely acoustic ChicagoSongs project, which have yet to be released.
2005–present: The Smashing Pumpkins revival
In 2005, Corgan took out a full-page ad in Chicago's two major newspapers (Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun-Times) revealing his desire to re-form the Smashing Pumpkins. Several days later, Jimmy Chamberlin accepted Corgan's offer for a reunion.
On April 20, 2006, the band's official website confirmed that the group was indeed reuniting. The re-formed Smashing Pumpkins went into studio for much of 2006 and early 2007, and performed its first show in seven years on May 22, 2007, with new members Ginger Pooley (bass) and Jeff Schroeder (guitar) replacing Wretzky and Iha. The new album, titled Zeitgeist, was released in the United States on July 10, 2007, and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts. Corgan and the rest of the Pumpkins toured extensively throughout 2007 and 2008, also releasing the EP American Gothic and the singles "G.L.O.W." and "Superchrist". Chamberlin left the band in March 2009, and Corgan elected to continue under the name.
In summer 2009, Corgan formed the band Spirits in the Sky to play a tribute concert to the late Sky Saxon of the Seeds. He toured with the band, composed of ex-Catherine member and "Superchrist" producer Kerry Brown, the Electric Prunes bassist Mark Tulin, Strawberry Alarm Clock keyboardist Mark Weitz, frequent Corgan collaborator Linda Strawberry, flautist Kevin Dippold, "Superchrist" violinist Ysanne Spevack, saxist Justin Norman, new Pumpkins drummer Mike Byrne, and Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, playing covers and new Pumpkins material at several clubs in California. At the end of the tour, Corgan, Byrne, Tulin, and Brown headed back to Chicago to begin work on the new Smashing Pumpkins album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The lineup at the time which included new bassist Nicole Fiorentino, toured through much of 2010, then spent 2011 recording the "album-within-an-album" Oceania and mounting tours of the United States and Europe. However, Byrne and Fiorentino would later leave the band in 2014.
In April Corgan announced a new solo record of "experimental" recordings he made in 2007, via the Smashing Pumpkins' website. The album, which he titled AEGEA was released exclusively on vinyl, with 250 copies being made. Most of those copies were sold online, and a few copies were sold at Madame Zuzu's, a tea house he owns and operates in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago. The album was released on May 15.
On July 25, 2014, Corgan announced that the tapes from his "Siddhartha" show from March 2014 were being transferred for sale, much in the vein of AEGEA. The set was expected to contain between 5 and 6 discs.
During the summer 2014, Corgan recorded The Smashing Pumpkins's tenth studio album, Monuments to an Elegy, with Tommy Lee and Jeff Schroeder. The album was released in early December 2014.
In September 2015, Corgan started a blog of vintage photographs that he himself curated, and which he called "People and Their Cars". The website also included an email listing for the blog, titled "The Red Border Club". This list was to be used for information on upcoming People and Their Cars and "Hexestential" books and merchandise, along with access to additional images.
On September 8, 2016, Corgan announced, in a Facebook live video, that he had recorded a new solo album with producer Rick Rubin, and it would consist of 12 or 13 tracks. He described work on the album as being near completion, though a release date was not given.
On August 22, 2017, he announced the solo album, giving its title as Ogilala.
On February 16, 2018, Corgan announced the Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour, a reunion tour for The Smashing Pumpkins. The lineup consists of himself, James Iha, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder. It is rumored that former bassist D'arcy Wretzky was not a part of the lineup due to unresolved tension between her and Corgan. However, she has stated that after offering her a contract, Corgan retracted it, saying that "we also have to balance the forces at play... there is no room for error." After Wretzky released text messages between her and Corgan, a feud ensued, with each party attacking each other with biting remarks.
On November 22, 2019, Corgan released his third solo album Cotillions, which he called "a labor of love". He also said, "This is absolutely an album from my heart."
Professional wrestling career
Resistance Pro Wrestling (2011–2014)
In 2011 Corgan formed a Chicago-based independent wrestling promotion called Resistance Pro. Two years later, in 2013, he starred in a commercial for Walter E. Smithe Furniture, using the platform to promote his wrestling company.
In March 2014 it was reported that Corgan was in discussions with American television channel AMC to develop an unscripted reality series about Resistance Pro. The premise being a behind-the-scenes look at the promotion as Corgan "takes over creative direction for the independent wrestling company". The show was given the green light by AMC, under the working title of "Untitled Billy Corgan Wrestling Project," the same month.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2015–2016)
In April 2015 Corgan was announced as the new Senior Producer of Creative and Talent Development for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where his role was to "develop characters and create story lines", which he has called "a dream come true". In August 2016, Corgan took over as the promotion's new president.
In November 2016 Corgan had left TNA after disputes about not being paid on time, and subsequently, Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp and Impact Ventures, parent company of TNA Impact Wrestling, announced that Anthem has provided a credit facility to TNA to fund operations.
In 2016, he loaned money to Anthem Sports & Entertainment to fund TNA, and they promised to pay him back.
On November 11, Corgan signed a settlement with Anthem – TNA and Anthem announced that they would be repaying TNA's loan from Corgan.
Newly appointed TNA/Impact Wrestling President Ed Nordholm credits the invention of and the vision behind the Matt Hardy Broken gimmick to Jeremy Borash, David Lagana and Billy Corgan. While Borash specifically had the most input into the gimmick of the three aside from Matt, the Hardy family deny that Borash was the sole person behind the gimmick.
National Wrestling Alliance (2017–present)
On May 1, 2017, it was reported that Corgan had agreed to purchase the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), including its name, rights, trademarks and championship belts. The purchase was confirmed by NWA president Bruce Tharpe later that same day. Corgan's ownership took effect on October 1, 2017.
Personal life
Mental health
For much of his life, Corgan has struggled with anxiety, depression, panic attacks, self-harm, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and suicidal ideation. He attributes these problems to the abuse he endured as a child at the hands of his father and stepmother, as well as other personal issues. He has since become an advocate for abuse support networks.
Involvement with sports
Corgan is a keen supporter of the Chicago Cubs, and an occasional commentator on the team for WXRT DJ Lin Brehmer. He has appeared at many Cubs games, occasionally throwing the ceremonial first pitch or singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". He is also a fan of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks, and became personal friends with Dennis Rodman and Chris Chelios. He is an avid professional wrestling fan, and appeared at an ECW event wielding an acoustic guitar as a weapon. In 2008, the Pumpkins song "Doomsday Clock" was used by ROH for promotional videos. On April 26, 2010, Corgan appeared on the SIRIUS Satellite Radio program Right After Wrestling with Arda Ocal to discuss his love for wrestling and the importance of unique theme songs for characters. On August 26, 2010, he took part in a storyline with AAA during a concert for MTV World Stage. As far as other entertainment, Corgan once commented that all he watches on TV are "sports and the Three Stooges". In March 2008, he was spotted in the crowd at the final day of the cricket test match between New Zealand and England.
Spiritual beliefs
Corgan accepts some parts of Catholicism. In 2009, he launched Everything From Here to There, an interfaith website that is devoted to "Mind-Body-Soul" integration. He mentions praying each morning and night to be able to see through Jesus Christ's eyes and feel with his heart. An analysis of the symbolism of Corgan's lyrics considered the blend of beliefs he has cited in various interviews, which include ideas about religion, multiple dimensions, and psychic phenomena. In an interview on the Howard Stern Show, Corgan claimed to have once had an encounter with a person who had the ability to shapeshift.
Family and romantic relationships
Corgan's mother Martha died in December 1996. The song "For Martha", from Adore, was written in her memory. In the early 2000s Corgan named his label Martha's Music after her as well. A picture of Martha as a little girl sitting on a fake moon at Riverview Park is featured on the flipside of the Siamese Dream booklet.
In 1993, Corgan married art conservator and artist Chris Fabian, his longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend. They were married at a small ceremony at his house in Wrigleyville. Corgan and Fabian separated in late 1995. Corgan filed for divorce in December 1996 on grounds of "irreconcilable differences," and the divorce was granted in 1997. Corgan refused to discuss the marriage for years, only allowing that it was "unhappy." In 2005 he described the circumstances of his marriage in depth via his personal blog.
In late 1995, Corgan started dating Ukrainian photographer Yelena Yemchuk, who later contributed to several Smashing Pumpkins videos and album art. He continued to date Yemchuk until around 2004. According to Corgan, his breakup with her contributed to the themes of his 2005 solo release TheFutureEmbrace. In 2005, Corgan dated musician Emilie Autumn for a number of months. The pair collaborated on multiple occasions during this time, with Autumn providing vocals and violin on his solo album and costume for a supporting music video.
In early 2006, Corgan moved in with Courtney Love and her daughter. According to Love, he had his own wing in her Hollywood Hills mansion. Two years later, Love criticized him publicly over his alleged refusal to attend her daughter's sweet 16 party. After they parted ways, Corgan stated in a March 2010 interview, "I have no interest in supporting [Love] in any way, shape or form. You can't throw enough things down the abyss with a person like that." Shortly after, when her band's album Nobody's Daughter was released, Corgan used Twitter to post anger-filled rants against her in reference to two songs he had written, "Samantha" and "How Dirty Girls Get Clean", which ended up on the album without his permission. Love then wrote an apology to him on her Facebook account, but the feud continued. Corgan took to Twitter to rant against her again. She responded to him on Twitter, saying, "All i am is nice about you so if you wanna be mean be mean i don't feel anything. i have too much to feel dear." In 2008, he blamed his dedication to music for what he called "a bad marriage and seven bad girlfriends in a row". The two eventually reconciled, and Love was invited to perform at Smashing Pumpkins 30th Anniversary Show.
In 2009, Corgan was linked with pop star Jessica Simpson. He started dating Australian singer Jessica Origliasso in 2010, and remained in a relationship with her until early June 2012. Origliasso blamed their split on their careers forcing them to spend too much time apart.
He began dating Chloe Mendel in 2013. She gave birth to a son named Augustus Juppiter Corgan on November 16, 2015. Their second child, a daughter named Philomena Clementine Corgan, was born on October 2, 2018.
Political beliefs
In 1998, Corgan said he had not participated in an election since 1992, when he voted for Bill Clinton.
Following the election of Barack Obama in 2008, Corgan stated: "I'm very proud of my country right now for doing the right thing." He has since said that he was disappointed with Obama's presidency, and that he lacks faith in both major political parties. In 2009, he posted a transcript of a webcast by political activist Lyndon LaRouche to the official Smashing Pumpkins forum. On March 10, 2009, Corgan testified in front of Congress on behalf of the musicFIRST Coalition. He spoke in favor of H.R. 848, the Performance Rights Act, which gives musicians and artists their share of compensation when their music is played on radio stations.
Speaking to right-wing conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones in 2016, Corgan called progressive political campaigners "social justice warriors", and compared them to Maoists, cult members, and the Ku Klux Klan; he also stated that their actions were a threat to freedom of speech. In 2018, he called himself a "free-market libertarian capitalist".
Diet
Corgan adopted a pescetarian diet in 2013, and stated in 2017 that he had begun following a vegan and gluten-free diet. In 2012, he opened a tea house in Ravinia, Highland Park called Madame Zuzu's Tea House, which closed in 2018 and reopened in downtown Highland Park in 2020.
Collaborations
In addition to performing, Corgan has produced albums for Ric Ocasek, The Frogs, and Catherine. He shared songwriting credit on several songs on Hole's 1998 album Celebrity Skin; the title track became Corgan's second No. 1 modern rock hit. He also acted as a consultant for Marilyn Manson during the recording of the album Mechanical Animals. He has produced three soundtracks for the movies Ransom (1996), Stigmata (1999) and Spun (2002) in which he appeared as a doctor.
Corgan appeared at the 1996 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremonies. He inducted one of his biggest musical influences, Pink Floyd. He played acoustic guitar during the ceremony with Pink Floyd, when they performed their song "Wish You Were Here".
In particular, Corgan guided and collaborated with three bands in the 2000s—Breaking Benjamin (during sessions for 2004's We Are Not Alone), Taproot (for Blue-Sky Research, 2005), and Sky Saxon.
In 2010, Corgan claimed co-writing credit (with ex-girlfriend Courtney Love) on at least two of the songs on Hole's final album Nobody's Daughter and tried to assert a right of approval before the album could be released. Corgan had helped develop the album during its early stages. The album was released without the writing controversy ever being litigated or publicly resolved.
Corgan appeared as a guest vocalist on the song "Loki Cat" on Jimmy Chamberlin's first solo album, Life Begins Again, and Chamberlin played drums for the song "DIA" on Corgan's solo debut, where Robert Smith from The Cure teamed up with Corgan to do a cover of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody". In 2007, Corgan provided vocals on the Scorpions' song "The Cross", on their album Humanity: Hour I. In 2010 Corgan featured on Ray Davies' album See My Friends on the album's closer, a mash-up of the Kinks songs "All Day and All of the Night" and "Destroyer". He also contributed his guitar work on "Did You Miss Me" by The Veronicas. Corgan has also collaborated with Tony Iommi, Blindside, David Bowie (singing "All the Young Dudes" with Bowie at Bowie's 50th birthday party), New Order and Marianne Faithfull.
Musical style and influences
When asked in a 1994 Rolling Stone interview about his influences, Corgan replied:
Corgan wrote six articles for Guitar World in 1995, and his solos for "Cherub Rock" and "Geek U.S.A." were included on their list of the top guitar solos of all time. AllMusic said "Starla" "proves that Corgan was one of the finest (and most underrated) rock guitarists of the '90s", while Rolling Stone called him and his Smashing Pumpkins bandmates "ruthless virtuosos". His solo for "Soma" was No. 24 on Rolling Stone'''s list of the top guitar solos. He is a fan of Eddie Van Halen and interviewed him in 1996 for Guitar World. Other guitarists Corgan rates highly include Uli Jon Roth, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Leslie West, Dimebag Darrell and Robin Trower.
His bass playing, which has featured on nearly every Smashing Pumpkins album, was influenced by post-punk figures like Peter Hook and Simon Gallup.
Corgan has praised Radiohead, saying "if they're not the best band in the world, then they're one of the best". He is also a fan of Pantera and appeared briefly in their home video 3 Watch It Go. Other favorites include Depeche Mode, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Rush, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Cure, Metallica, Slayer, Queen, Electric Light Orchestra, Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, and Spiritualized. Corgan stated in 1997 that upon hearing the U2 song "New Year's Day", at 16, "[U2] quickly became the most important band in the world to me." Corgan particularly went out of his way to praise Rush in his interview for Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, a documentary on the band, where he criticized mainstream reviewers for consciously marginalizing the band and their influence, and highlighted the fact that many of his musical peers were influenced by Rush.
He has listed his artistic influences as William S. Burroughs, Pablo Picasso, Jimi Hendrix, Jack Kerouac, and Philip K. Dick.Corgan, Billy. Twitter Q&A. October 3, 2011.
Instruments
Corgan played (during the Gish-Siamese Dream era) a customized '57 Reissue Fender Stratocaster equipped with three Fender Lace Sensor pickups (the Lace Sensor Blue in the neck position, the Lace Sensor Silver in the middle position, and the Lace Sensor Red at the bridge position). It also has a five-position pickup selector switch which he installed himself. This battered Strat became his number one guitar by default. He owned a '74 Strat that was stolen shortly after Gish was completed. Corgan was reunited with this guitar in early 2019.
Corgan also used a wide variety of guitars on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. On "Where Boys Fear to Tread", Corgan used a Les Paul Junior Reissue, and on "Tonight Tonight" he used a '72 Gibson ES-335. He is also known to use a '74 Strat which has since been painted baby blue. That guitar was used on the recordings for "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and also "Muzzle", because the heavier wood gave it the basic Strat sound with a bit more bottom.
During the recording and tour of the album Zeitgeist, Corgan used a Schecter C-1 EX baritone, finished in black with Tony Iommi signature pickups. Corgan also endorsed Reverend Guitars in his Zwan era, most notably playing a Reverend Slingshot.
In 2008 Corgan released to the market his own Fender Stratocaster. This new guitar was made to Corgan's exact specs to create his famous mid-'90s buzzsaw tone; the instrument features three DiMarzio pickups (two custom for this instrument), a string-through hardtail bridge and a satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish. When playing live, he uses both his signature Strats as well as two other Fender Strats, one in red with a white pick guard and one in silver-grey with a black pick guard; a Gibson Tony Iommi signature SG; and his Schecter C-1 (only used on the Zeitgeist song "United States").
A video called 'Stompland' on the official Smashing Pumpkins YouTube channel is informative on Corgan's choice of effects pedals. In the video he reveals an extensive collection of pedals used throughout his career with the Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan's tone is often characterized by his use of fuzz pedals, particularly vintage versions of the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
In 2016 Reverend Guitars released the BC-1 Billy Corgan signature guitar featuring Railhammer Billy Corgan signature pickups.
The Reverend Billy Corgan Signature Terz was launched at the 2018 NAMM show—an electric version of a 19th-century instrument that is played as if the guitar is capoed at the third fret, and tuned G-g standard. Corgan often uses the capo at the third fret and asked for a higher-register guitar.
Corgan is noted for having used Marshall and Diezel amps. He has also used modular preamps based on many different amps in conjunction with Mesa Boogie poweramps. The preamps were custom built by Salvation Mods.
In August 2017, Corgan sold a large collection of instruments and gear used throughout his career via music gear website Reverb.
In 2020, Billy Corgan collaborated with Brian Carstens of Carstens Amplification to produce Grace, Billy's first and only signature guitar amplifier to date.
Discography
Solo
Albums
Singles
Soundtrack work
1996: Ransom1997: First Love, Last Rites ("When I Was Born, I Was Bored")
1999: Stigmata2000: Any Given Sunday (Corgan is credited on "Be A Man" by Hole)
2002: Spun (Corgan wrote original songs for this soundtrack)
2006: "Dance of the Dead" (episode of Masters of Horror)
2007: When a Man Falls in the Forest (three previously unreleased songs)
2011: The Chicago Code (Corgan performs the opening theme, written by Robert Duncan)
2018: Rampage – "The Rage" Performed by Kid Cudi featuring vocals by Corgan (from the Smashing Pumpkins track Bullet with Butterfly Wings)
Albums featured
1991: Sparkle (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1994: Songs About Girls (by Catherine, The song "It's No Lie" is produced by Corgan)
1994: Chante Des Chanson Sur Les Filles (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1994: Sleepy EP (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1996: Guitars That Rule the World, Vol. 2: Smell the Fuzz:The Superstar Guitar Album (by Various Artists, Corgan is credited as writer and performer of "Ascendo")
1997: Starjob (by The Frogs, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1997: Troublizing (by Ric Ocasek, Corgan is credited as writer of "Asia Minor" and playing guitar on "The Next Right Moment", "Crashland Consequence", "Situation", "Fix on You" and "People We Know")
1998: Celebrity Skin (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Celebrity Skin", "Hit So Hard", "Malibu", "Dying" and "Petals")
1998: "I Belong to You" single (by Lenny Kravitz, Corgan remixed the second track "If You Can't Say No (Flunky in the attic Mix)")
1998: Mechanical Animals by Marilyn Manson, Corgan performed backing vocals on Speed of Pain, although not credited, he is thanked in the album credits.
1999: Paraphernalia (by Enuff Z'Nuff, Corgan is credited as guitarist on the song "Everything Works If You Let It")
2000: Iommi (by Tony Iommi, Corgan is credited as writer of and vocalist on "Black Oblivion")
2001: Get Ready (by New Order, Corgan is contributing voice on "Turn My Way")
2002: Kissin Time (by Marianne Faithfull, Corgan is credited as writer of "Wherever I Go", "I'm on Fire" and contributing on "Something Good")
2003: "Lights Out" single (by Lisa Marie Presley, Corgan is credited as writer of "Savior")
2004: We Are Not Alone (by Breaking Benjamin, Corgan is credited as writer of "Follow", "Forget It" and "Rain")
2004: The Essential Cheap Trick (by Cheap Trick, Corgan is playing guitar on the live recording of the track "Mandocello")
2004: About a Burning Fire (by Blindside, Corgan is playing guitar on "Hooray, It's L.A.")
2005: Life Begins Again (by Jimmy Chamberlin Complex, Corgan is contributing voice on "Loki Cat")
2005: Blue-Sky Research (by Taproot, Corgan wrote the track "Lost in the Woods" and co-wrote the tracks "Violent Seas" and "Promise")
2006: ONXRT:Live From The Archives Volume 9 (A compilation CD from the radio station 93 WXRT in Chicago features the live recording of the track "A100")
2007: Humanity: Hour I (by Scorpions, Corgan is contributing voice on "The Cross")
2010: Nobody's Daughter (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Pacific Coast Highway", "Samantha" and "Loser Dust")
2010: See My Friends (by Ray Davies, Corgan is featured in the song "All Day And All of the Night/Destroyer")
2011: Ghost on the Canvas (by Glen Campbell, Corgan is featured in the song ."There's No Me... Without You")
2014: "Did You Miss Me" (on The Veronicas by The Veronicas, guitar contributions)
2019: The Nothing (by Korn, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "You'll Never Find Me")
2019: Screamer (by Third Eye Blind, Corgan described as the "musical consigliere" of the album, and credited as co-writer of "Light It Up")
2020: Ceremony (by Phantogram, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Into Happiness" and "Love Me Now")
As part of The Smashing Pumpkins
References
External links
The Smashing Pumpkins official website
BillyCorgan.Livejournal.com – An extensive 7-year archive of Billy's journal entries, including The Confessions of Billy Corgan, solo work and the revival of the Pumpkins.
Billy Corgan collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
Poems by Billy Corgan at alittlepoetry.com Three poems from Blinking With Fists''
1967 births
Living people
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American guitarists
21st-century American singers
Alternative rock guitarists
Alternative rock singers
American alternative rock musicians
American libertarians
American bloggers
American former Christians
American male bloggers
American male guitarists
American male poets
American male singers
American male songwriters
American music video directors
American people of Irish descent
American people of Italian descent
American rock guitarists
American rock singers
American rock songwriters
Guitarists from Chicago
Impact Wrestling executives
Lead guitarists
Musicians from Chicago
People with mood disorders
People with obsessive–compulsive disorder
Professional wrestling promoters
Singers from Chicago
Songwriters from Illinois
Starchildren members
The Smashing Pumpkins members
Veganism activists
Writers from Chicago
Zwan members | false | [
"\"Too Many Times\" was the third and final single to be released by Australian pop music duo Sister2Sister.\n\nTrack listings\nAustralian CD1\n \"Too Many Times\"\n \"Too Many Times\" (2 Step Radio Mix)\n \"Too Many Times\" (Get It Up Radio Mix)\n \"My Baby\"\n \"What's a Girl to Do?\" (Urban Mix)\n\nAustralian CD2\n \"Too Many Times\"\n \"What's a Girl to Do?\" (Live on The Panel)\n \"Too Many Times\" (2 Step radio mix)\n \"What's a Girl to Do?\" (Allmighty mix)\n \"Too Many Times\" (video)\n\nCharts\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n2000 singles\nSister2Sister songs\n2000 songs",
"\"Step Back in Time\" is a song recorded by Australian singer Kylie Minogue, taken from her third studio album Rhythm of Love (1990). It was released as the album's second single on 22 October 1990, and distributed by PWL and Mushroom as a CD single, cassette tape and 12\" and 7\" singles. The track was written, arranged, and produced by Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, Pete Waterman, who are collectively known as Stock Aitken and Waterman, and was recorded in London, United Kingdom. Musically, it is a disco song that lyrically pays tribute to 1970s' culture.\n\n\"Step Back in Time\" received positive reviews from music critics. Some had selected the single as one of Minogue's best work, and many complimented the backing track and production. Commercially, the single experienced success in regions such as Australia, United Kingdom, Finland, and Ireland, whilst peaking inside the top 40 in countries like France, New Zealand, and Switzerland. However, it was only certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for physical shipments of 35,000 units.\n\nAn accompanying music video was directed by visual artist Nick Egan, which paid homage to the 1970s culture and figures. The song has been performed on seven of Minogue's concert tours, the most recent being her Summer 2019 tour. Since its release, \"Step Back in Time\" has been used in several media including an appearance in the 2013 British comic science fiction film The World's End.\n\nBackground and composition\n\"Step Back in Time\" was written, arranged, and produced by Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, Pete Waterman, who are collectively known as Stock, Aitken and Waterman. It was recorded in London, England, whilst Stock and Aitken provided instrumentation including keyboards, drums, trumpets and guitars; the song was mixed by Phil Harding and Ian Curnow. After Minogue's musical adaption to mainstream dance and disco music, particularly experimented with the predecessor single \"Better the Devil You Know\", \"Step Back in Time\" was composed as a disco song that intended to pay tribute to the 1970s culture and sound. According to Minogue's official website, the lyrical content \"paid homage to the classic songs and dance moves of the disco era.\" However, Jon Kutner, who wrote the book 1000 UK Number One Hits, labelled the sound as a \"jingly pop song\". According to the demo sheet music at Music Notes published by Universal Music Publishing Group, the song is set in E Minor and has a time signature of common time with a tempo of 126 beats per minute. During the opening sequence and first verse, it has a chord progression of Em-D-G/D-Cm7♭5-C-Bm7-Em-D-C/D-Cm7♭5-C-Bm7-Em-Em9, and Minogue's vocals span between the notes B4 and B5. In retrospect, Waterman commented that the production and completion of \"Step Back in Time\" took longer to create than expected.\n\nRelease and reception\n\nOriginally, the follow-up single, \"What Do I Have to Do?\", from Rhythm of Love was intended to be released after \"Better the Devil You Know\", but PWL executives scrapped the idea and changed it to \"Step Back in Time\". \"Step Back in Time\" was released as the album's second single on 22 October 1990, and distributed by PWL and Mushroom. A standard 12\" and 7\" vinyl was released worldwide, and featured the original recording, instrumental version and the Walkin' Rhythm mix; in the UK, the original recording was omitted. In November 1990, a CD single was issued by PWL in Japan; it was distributed worldwide that same month. In France, a special mini CD included the original recording and instrumental version, alongside a cassette tape in Australia. As part of the PWL Archives, a 10-track EP was released on iTunes Store in 2009.\n\n\"Step Back in Time\" received positive reviews from most music critics. British author and music critic Adrian Denning selected the single as the best offering on Rhythm of Love (1990), stating that he preferred it over the \"more popular 'Better the Devil You Know'.\" Denning commended the production of the song, more so complimented the backing track. Similarly, Nick Levine from Digital Spy pointed out the song as one of the better cuts from the parent album. AllMusic's Chris True, who wrote the biography of Minogue on the website, selected the track amongst some of Minogue's best work. However, in a separate review of the single, True awarded the single two stars out of five.\n\nCameron Adams from the Herald Sun placed it at number 17 on his list of the singer's best songs in honor of her 50th birthday, writing that: \"[\"Step Back in Time\"] flips the script and makes it about the love of music. 'Remember the old days/Remember the O’Jays', Kylie sang for people who weren't old enough to remember the O’Jays. Heck, Kylie herself wasn't old enough to remember the O’Jays. But this is a brilliant homage to the disco anthem — Motown meets HiNRG meets Studio 54 — and indeed may have single-handedly laid the path for Disco Kylie, a touchstone of her career to this day\". Olive Pometsey from GQ deemed it a \"three-minutes-and-seven-seconds taste of what Studio 54 might have been like if ABBA had been regulars\".\n\nCommercial performance\nCommercially, the single experienced success in regions such as Australia, United Kingdom, and Ireland. It debuted at number eight on the Australian Singles Chart, the highest debut of the chart week 2 December 1990, and peaked at number five the following week. The single was certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for physical shipments of 35,000 units in that region. It had a similar chart run on the UK Singles Chart, where it debuted at number nine, and peaked at number four the following week. It stayed inside the top 10 for three weeks, and the top 100 chart for eight weeks in total. It peaked at number four on the Irish Singles Chart, her second consecutive single to peak in that position after \"Better the Devil You Know\", and was present for six weeks in total.\n\nOutside of these regions, \"Step Back in Time\" experienced moderate success. In New Zealand, it entered at number 36 on the singles chart. It peaked at number 21 in its third week, but fell outside the top 50 the following week. It peaked at number 19 in Sweden, and fell to number 20 the following week; it was present for two charting weeks. In the Belgium region Flanders, it debuted at number 22 and reached number 11 in its third week; it stayed there for three consecutive weeks, and stayed in the top 100 chart for 10 weeks. It stayed inside the German Singles Chart for 15 weeks, peaking at number 36, and peaked at number 23 on the French Singles Chart for the same charting span as the former chart. Elsewhere, the single reached number 29 in Switzerland and 36 on the Dutch Top 40 chart.\n\nMusic video\nAn accompanying music video was directed by visual artist Nick Egan in Los Angeles, Minogue's first video to have been shot outside of Australia or United Kingdom. According to British fashion designer and Minogue's long-term friend William Baker, who contributed to writing Minogue's biography Kylie: La La La (2002), he wrote that Minogue wanted to pay homage to the 1970s culture and figures, as she believed that was the era that celebrated disco music. The video opens with Minogue putting an 8-track tape in a stereo, and moves to moments with Minogue and back-up dancers dancing near a large cityscape; intercut scenes have Minogue in a blue room wearing colourful clothing. Minogue and the back-up dancers are driving in a red Cadillac throughout Los Angeles. Another shot, which inspired by the artwork of the single, featured Minogue in a green and pink dress dancing in front of the wall of patterns and lights. Throughout the video, majority of the scenes repeat and has Minogue singing the entire track. According to British author Sean Smith, who had written a biography detailing Minogue's career, the video \"positioned Minogue as a dance artist\", but stated that the public was \"not convinced\" and attracted negative commentary upon its release.\n\nLive performances, other uses and appearances\n\n\"Step Back in Time\" has been performed on several concert tours by Minogue. The track's first appearance was during her Rhythm of Love Tour, where it was the opening number. It appeared again as the opening track to Minogue's follow-up Let's Get to It Tour, and was included on the live release that was recorded in Dublin, Ireland. Seven years later, it was included on Minogue's 1998 Intimate and Live show, where it was sung on the third segment. It was next sung during her Hits Medley section of the 2001 On a Night Like This Tour, and was included on the live DVD of the show.\n\nOn her 2005 Showgirl: The Greatest Hits Tour in London, United Kingdom, a sample of the track was sung during the performance of her 2000 single \"Spinning Around\". This act was re-vamped and was sampled again on the show's extension Showgirl: The Homecoming Tour, which was a comeback after her diagnosis of breast cancer in May 2005. For Minogue's X Tour, the song appeared during the Black Verses White segment. \"Step Back in Time\" was also performed as part of a medley on the 2012 Queen's Diamond Jubilee concert in London, United Kingdom. It was also added to the set list of 2014-15's Kiss Me Once Tour and her 2015 summer tour. Most recently, \"Step Back in Time\" was performed during Minogue's 2019 summer tour. \"Step Back in Time\" has appeared on numerous greatest hits compilation albums, throughout the years, conducted by Minogue, including Greatest Hits (1990), Ultimate Kylie (2004), K25: Time Capsule (2012) and Step Back In Time: The Definitive Collection (2019).\n\nFormats and track listings\n\nCD single\n \"Step Back in Time\" (Edit) – 3:05\n \"Step Back in Time\" (Walkin' Rhythm Mix) – 8:05\n \"Step Back in Time\" (Instrumental) – 3:30\n\n12\" vinyl\n \"Step Back in Time\" (Edit) – 3:05\n \"Step Back in Time\" (Walkin' Rhythm Mix) – 8:05\n \"Step Back in Time\" (Instrumental) – 3:30\n\nUK 12\" vinyl\n \"Step Back in Time\" (Walkin' Rhythm Mix) – 8:05\n \"Step Back in Time\" (Instrumental) – 3:30\n\nCassette single\n \"Step Back in Time\" (Edit) – 3:05\n \"Step Back in Time\" (Walkin' Rhythm Mix) – 8:05\n \"Step Back in Time\" (Instrumental) – 3:30\n\nFrench mini CD\n \"Step Back in Time\" (Edit) – 3:05\n \"Step Back in Time\" (Instrumental) – 3:30\n\nDigital EP\n \"Step Back in Time\" – 3:05\n \"Step Back in Time\" (Walkin' Rhythm Mix) – 7:58\t\n \"Step Back in Time\" (Harding/Curnow Remix) – 6:45\n \"Step Back in Time\" (Tony King Remix) – 7:28\n \"Step Back in Time\" (Original 12\" Mix) – 8:07\n \"Step Back in Time\" (7\" Instrumental) – 3:29\n \"Step Back in Time\" (Extended Instrumental) – 4:58\n \"Step Back in Time\" (Backing Track) – 3:04\n \"Secrets\" (Instrumental) – 4:05\n \"Secrets\" (Backing Track) – 4:05\n\nCredits and personnel\nCredits adapted from the CD liner notes of \"Step Back in Time\":\n\nRecording and mixing\n Recorded in London, England, and mixed at Larrabee Studios, North Hollywood, California.\n\nPersonnel\n\n Kylie Minogue – vocals, backing vocals\n Linda Taylor – backing vocals\n Mae McKenna – backing vocals\n Peter Day – engineer\n Matt Aitken – songwriting, composing, keyboards, guitar, production\n Mike Stock – songwriting, composing, keyboards, production\n\n Pete Waterman – songwriting, composing, production\n Ian Curnow – mixing\n Phil Harding – mixing\n Markus Morianz – photography\n Nick Egan – music video director, packaging design\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nCertifications\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\"Step Back in Time\" at Kylie Minogue's official website (Archived).\n\nKylie Minogue songs\nDisco songs\n1990 songs\nSong recordings produced by Stock Aitken Waterman\nMushroom Records singles\nPete Waterman Entertainment singles\n1990 singles\nSongs written by Pete Waterman\nSongs written by Matt Aitken\nSongs written by Mike Stock (musician)\nFunk songs"
]
|
[
"Billy Corgan",
"1967-1987: Childhood and formative years",
"Where did Billy grow up?",
"Glendale Heights, Illinois.",
"Where did he attend school?",
"Marquardt Middle School",
"Did Billy attend college or did he just go out to start a career in music?",
"Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time.",
"Was he the only child or did he have siblings?",
"His parents had one more son,",
"When he set to do music full time what was his first step?",
"Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, he moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band,"
]
| C_f7f748df004544729408cda74b466786_1 | What band was he in? | 6 | What was the name of Billy's band? | Billy Corgan | William Patrick Corgan Jr. was born at Columbus Hospital in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on March 17, 1967 as the oldest son of William Corgan Sr., a blues/rock guitarist, and Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was soon remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. During this time, Corgan alleges he was subject to much physical and emotional abuse by his stepmother. Corgan also developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys would live alone with the stepmother, with both of Corgan's birth parents living separately within an hour's drive. Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his Marquardt Middle School baseball team, he collected baseball cards (amassing over 10,000) and listened to every Chicago Cubs game. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream, Illinois, he had become only an average athlete. He decided to start playing guitar when he went over to a friend's house and saw his friend's Flying V. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. Corgan, Sr. steered his son stylistically, encouraging him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support, and the younger Corgan taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. Corgan performed in a string of bands in high school, and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time. Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, he moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. Corgan performed with Wayne Static in Static's first band Deep Blue Dream, in 1987/88. CANNOTANSWER | The Marked | William Patrick Corgan (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only permanent member of the rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. He is currently the owner and promoter of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago in 1988, the band was joined by bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Strong album sales and large-scale tours propelled the band's increasing fame in the 1990s until their break-up in 2000. Corgan started a new band called Zwan, and after their demise he released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, in 2005 and a collection of poetry, Blinking with Fists, before reforming the Smashing Pumpkins. The new version of the band, consisting of Corgan and a revolving lineup, has released and toured new albums extensively since 2007. In October 2017, Corgan released Ogilala, his first solo album in over a decade. His latest album, Cotillions, was released on November 22, 2019.
In 2011, Corgan founded Resistance Pro Wrestling. He later joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2015, becoming its president in August 2016. After leaving TNA in November 2016, he purchased the NWA in October 2017, transforming it from a brand licensing organization to a singular promotion.
Early life
William Patrick Corgan was born at Columbus Hospital in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago on March 17, 1967, the oldest son of guitarist William Corgan Sr. and his wife Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic and is of Irish descent. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. Corgan alleges that his stepmother was abusive to him, both physically and emotionally. He developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys lived alone with their stepmother, and both of his birth parents lived separately within an hour's drive.
Corgan described his father as a "drug dealing, gun-toting, musician [and] mad man". Although this had a huge negative impact on his childhood, in retrospect he respects his father as a great musician.
Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his baseball team at Marquardt Middle School, he amassed over 10,000 baseball cards and listened to every Chicago Cubs game on the radio. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School, his athletic prowess had greatly diminished. He decided to start playing guitar after seeing a Flying V when he went over to a friend's house. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. His father encouraged him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support. So he taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Van Halen, Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. He performed in a string of bands in high school and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time.
Music career
1985–1987: Early career
Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, Corgan moved to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. From 1987 to 1988, he played guitar in Chicago band Deep Blue Dream, which also featured future Static-X frontman Wayne Static. He left the band to focus on The Smashing Pumpkins.
1988–2000: The Smashing Pumpkins
Upon his return to Chicago, Corgan had already devised his next project – a band that would be called The Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan met guitarist James Iha while working in a record store, and the two began recording demos, which Corgan describes as "gloomy little goth-pop records". He met bassist D'arcy Wretzky after a local show, arguing with her about a band that had just played, The Dan Reed Network. Soon after, the Smashing Pumpkins were formed. The trio began to play together at local clubs with a drum machine for percussion. To secure a show at the Metro in Chicago, the band recruited drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, and played for the first time as a quartet on October 5, 1988.
The addition of Chamberlin drove the band in a heavier direction almost immediately. On the band's debut album, Gish (1991), the band integrated psychedelic rock and heavy metal into their sound. Gish fared better than expected, but the follow-up, Siamese Dream, released on Virgin Records in 1993, became a multi-platinum hit. The band became known for internal drama during this period, with Corgan frequently characterized in the music press as a "control freak" due to rumors that Corgan played all the guitar and bass parts on Siamese Dream (a rumor that Corgan later confirmed as true). Despite this, the album was well received by critics, and the songs "Today", "Cherub Rock", and "Disarm" became hits.
The band's 1995 follow-up effort, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, was more successful, spawning a string of hit singles. According to Jon Pareles from The New York Times, Corgan wanted to "lose himself and find himself..." in this album. The album was nominated for seven Grammy awards that year, and would eventually be certified ten times platinum in the United States. The song "1979" was Corgan's biggest hit to date, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's modern rock and mainstream rock charts. Their appearance on Saturday Night Live on November 11, 1995, to promote this material (their second appearance on the show overall) was also the television debut appearance of Corgan's shaved head, which he has maintained consistently since.
On July 12, 1996, touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin died in a Manhattan hotel room of a heroin overdose after he and Chamberlin used the drug together. Chamberlin was later arrested on a misdemeanor drug possession charge. The Smashing Pumpkins made the decision to fire Chamberlin and continue as a trio. This shakeup, coupled with Corgan going through a divorce and the death of his mother, influenced the somber mood of the band's next album, 1998's Adore. Featuring a darker, more subdued and heavily electronic sound at a time when alternative rock was declining in mainstream cachet, Adore divided both critics and fans, resulting in a significant decrease in album sales (it sold 1.3 million discs in the US).
Chamberlin was reunited with the band in 1999. In 2000, they released Machina/The Machines of God, a concept album on which the band deliberately played to their public image. Critics were again divided, and sales were lower than before; Machina is the second lowest-selling commercially released Smashing Pumpkins album to date, with U.S. sales of 583,000 units up to 2005. During the recording for Machina, Wretzky quit the band and was replaced for the upcoming tour by former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. In 2000 the band announced they would break up at the end of the year, and soon after released Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music free over the Internet. The Smashing Pumpkins played their last show on December 2, 2000, at the Cabaret Metro.
2001–2005: Zwan and solo career
Following a brief stint touring with New Order in the summer, Corgan reunited with Chamberlin to form the band Zwan with Corgan's old friend Matt Sweeney in late 2001. According to Neil Strauss of New York Times, during his few live performances with the band, Corgan says "is still a work in progress". The lineup was completed with guitarist David Pajo and bassist Paz Lenchantin. The band had two distinct incarnations, the primary approach being an upbeat rock band with a three-guitar-driven sound, the second, a folk and gospel inspired acoustic side with live strings. The quintet performed throughout 2002, and their debut album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in early 2003 to generally positive reviews. In the midst of their supporting tour for the album, mounting conflict between Corgan and Chamberlin, and the other band members led to the cancellation of the rest of the tour as the band entered an apparent hiatus, formally announcing a breakup in September 2003.
In 2004, Corgan began writing revealing autobiographical posts on his website and his MySpace page, blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins, calling Wretzky "a mean spirited drug addict," and criticizing his former Zwan bandmates' fixation with "indie cred" and calling them "filthy", opportunistic, and selfish.
On September 17, 2003, Billy presented his poetry at the Art Institute of Chicago's Rubloff Auditorium. In late 2004, Corgan published Blinking with Fists, a book of poetry. Despite mixed reviews, the book debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list. Around this time, he began posting autobiographical writings online under the title The Confessions of Billy Corgan.
Also in 2004, he began a solo music career, landing on an electronic/shoegaze/alternative rock sound for his first solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, co-produced and arranged by Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb. Released on June 21, 2005, through Reprise Records, it garnered mixed reviews from the press and only sold 69,000 copies. Corgan toured behind his solo album with a touring band that included Linda Strawberry, Brian Liesegang and Matt Walker in 2005. This tour was not as extensive as previous Smashing Pumpkins or Zwan tours. Prior to recording TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan had recorded some 72 songs inspired by Chicago history for the largely acoustic ChicagoSongs project, which have yet to be released.
2005–present: The Smashing Pumpkins revival
In 2005, Corgan took out a full-page ad in Chicago's two major newspapers (Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun-Times) revealing his desire to re-form the Smashing Pumpkins. Several days later, Jimmy Chamberlin accepted Corgan's offer for a reunion.
On April 20, 2006, the band's official website confirmed that the group was indeed reuniting. The re-formed Smashing Pumpkins went into studio for much of 2006 and early 2007, and performed its first show in seven years on May 22, 2007, with new members Ginger Pooley (bass) and Jeff Schroeder (guitar) replacing Wretzky and Iha. The new album, titled Zeitgeist, was released in the United States on July 10, 2007, and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts. Corgan and the rest of the Pumpkins toured extensively throughout 2007 and 2008, also releasing the EP American Gothic and the singles "G.L.O.W." and "Superchrist". Chamberlin left the band in March 2009, and Corgan elected to continue under the name.
In summer 2009, Corgan formed the band Spirits in the Sky to play a tribute concert to the late Sky Saxon of the Seeds. He toured with the band, composed of ex-Catherine member and "Superchrist" producer Kerry Brown, the Electric Prunes bassist Mark Tulin, Strawberry Alarm Clock keyboardist Mark Weitz, frequent Corgan collaborator Linda Strawberry, flautist Kevin Dippold, "Superchrist" violinist Ysanne Spevack, saxist Justin Norman, new Pumpkins drummer Mike Byrne, and Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, playing covers and new Pumpkins material at several clubs in California. At the end of the tour, Corgan, Byrne, Tulin, and Brown headed back to Chicago to begin work on the new Smashing Pumpkins album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The lineup at the time which included new bassist Nicole Fiorentino, toured through much of 2010, then spent 2011 recording the "album-within-an-album" Oceania and mounting tours of the United States and Europe. However, Byrne and Fiorentino would later leave the band in 2014.
In April Corgan announced a new solo record of "experimental" recordings he made in 2007, via the Smashing Pumpkins' website. The album, which he titled AEGEA was released exclusively on vinyl, with 250 copies being made. Most of those copies were sold online, and a few copies were sold at Madame Zuzu's, a tea house he owns and operates in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago. The album was released on May 15.
On July 25, 2014, Corgan announced that the tapes from his "Siddhartha" show from March 2014 were being transferred for sale, much in the vein of AEGEA. The set was expected to contain between 5 and 6 discs.
During the summer 2014, Corgan recorded The Smashing Pumpkins's tenth studio album, Monuments to an Elegy, with Tommy Lee and Jeff Schroeder. The album was released in early December 2014.
In September 2015, Corgan started a blog of vintage photographs that he himself curated, and which he called "People and Their Cars". The website also included an email listing for the blog, titled "The Red Border Club". This list was to be used for information on upcoming People and Their Cars and "Hexestential" books and merchandise, along with access to additional images.
On September 8, 2016, Corgan announced, in a Facebook live video, that he had recorded a new solo album with producer Rick Rubin, and it would consist of 12 or 13 tracks. He described work on the album as being near completion, though a release date was not given.
On August 22, 2017, he announced the solo album, giving its title as Ogilala.
On February 16, 2018, Corgan announced the Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour, a reunion tour for The Smashing Pumpkins. The lineup consists of himself, James Iha, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder. It is rumored that former bassist D'arcy Wretzky was not a part of the lineup due to unresolved tension between her and Corgan. However, she has stated that after offering her a contract, Corgan retracted it, saying that "we also have to balance the forces at play... there is no room for error." After Wretzky released text messages between her and Corgan, a feud ensued, with each party attacking each other with biting remarks.
On November 22, 2019, Corgan released his third solo album Cotillions, which he called "a labor of love". He also said, "This is absolutely an album from my heart."
Professional wrestling career
Resistance Pro Wrestling (2011–2014)
In 2011 Corgan formed a Chicago-based independent wrestling promotion called Resistance Pro. Two years later, in 2013, he starred in a commercial for Walter E. Smithe Furniture, using the platform to promote his wrestling company.
In March 2014 it was reported that Corgan was in discussions with American television channel AMC to develop an unscripted reality series about Resistance Pro. The premise being a behind-the-scenes look at the promotion as Corgan "takes over creative direction for the independent wrestling company". The show was given the green light by AMC, under the working title of "Untitled Billy Corgan Wrestling Project," the same month.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2015–2016)
In April 2015 Corgan was announced as the new Senior Producer of Creative and Talent Development for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where his role was to "develop characters and create story lines", which he has called "a dream come true". In August 2016, Corgan took over as the promotion's new president.
In November 2016 Corgan had left TNA after disputes about not being paid on time, and subsequently, Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp and Impact Ventures, parent company of TNA Impact Wrestling, announced that Anthem has provided a credit facility to TNA to fund operations.
In 2016, he loaned money to Anthem Sports & Entertainment to fund TNA, and they promised to pay him back.
On November 11, Corgan signed a settlement with Anthem – TNA and Anthem announced that they would be repaying TNA's loan from Corgan.
Newly appointed TNA/Impact Wrestling President Ed Nordholm credits the invention of and the vision behind the Matt Hardy Broken gimmick to Jeremy Borash, David Lagana and Billy Corgan. While Borash specifically had the most input into the gimmick of the three aside from Matt, the Hardy family deny that Borash was the sole person behind the gimmick.
National Wrestling Alliance (2017–present)
On May 1, 2017, it was reported that Corgan had agreed to purchase the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), including its name, rights, trademarks and championship belts. The purchase was confirmed by NWA president Bruce Tharpe later that same day. Corgan's ownership took effect on October 1, 2017.
Personal life
Mental health
For much of his life, Corgan has struggled with anxiety, depression, panic attacks, self-harm, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and suicidal ideation. He attributes these problems to the abuse he endured as a child at the hands of his father and stepmother, as well as other personal issues. He has since become an advocate for abuse support networks.
Involvement with sports
Corgan is a keen supporter of the Chicago Cubs, and an occasional commentator on the team for WXRT DJ Lin Brehmer. He has appeared at many Cubs games, occasionally throwing the ceremonial first pitch or singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". He is also a fan of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks, and became personal friends with Dennis Rodman and Chris Chelios. He is an avid professional wrestling fan, and appeared at an ECW event wielding an acoustic guitar as a weapon. In 2008, the Pumpkins song "Doomsday Clock" was used by ROH for promotional videos. On April 26, 2010, Corgan appeared on the SIRIUS Satellite Radio program Right After Wrestling with Arda Ocal to discuss his love for wrestling and the importance of unique theme songs for characters. On August 26, 2010, he took part in a storyline with AAA during a concert for MTV World Stage. As far as other entertainment, Corgan once commented that all he watches on TV are "sports and the Three Stooges". In March 2008, he was spotted in the crowd at the final day of the cricket test match between New Zealand and England.
Spiritual beliefs
Corgan accepts some parts of Catholicism. In 2009, he launched Everything From Here to There, an interfaith website that is devoted to "Mind-Body-Soul" integration. He mentions praying each morning and night to be able to see through Jesus Christ's eyes and feel with his heart. An analysis of the symbolism of Corgan's lyrics considered the blend of beliefs he has cited in various interviews, which include ideas about religion, multiple dimensions, and psychic phenomena. In an interview on the Howard Stern Show, Corgan claimed to have once had an encounter with a person who had the ability to shapeshift.
Family and romantic relationships
Corgan's mother Martha died in December 1996. The song "For Martha", from Adore, was written in her memory. In the early 2000s Corgan named his label Martha's Music after her as well. A picture of Martha as a little girl sitting on a fake moon at Riverview Park is featured on the flipside of the Siamese Dream booklet.
In 1993, Corgan married art conservator and artist Chris Fabian, his longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend. They were married at a small ceremony at his house in Wrigleyville. Corgan and Fabian separated in late 1995. Corgan filed for divorce in December 1996 on grounds of "irreconcilable differences," and the divorce was granted in 1997. Corgan refused to discuss the marriage for years, only allowing that it was "unhappy." In 2005 he described the circumstances of his marriage in depth via his personal blog.
In late 1995, Corgan started dating Ukrainian photographer Yelena Yemchuk, who later contributed to several Smashing Pumpkins videos and album art. He continued to date Yemchuk until around 2004. According to Corgan, his breakup with her contributed to the themes of his 2005 solo release TheFutureEmbrace. In 2005, Corgan dated musician Emilie Autumn for a number of months. The pair collaborated on multiple occasions during this time, with Autumn providing vocals and violin on his solo album and costume for a supporting music video.
In early 2006, Corgan moved in with Courtney Love and her daughter. According to Love, he had his own wing in her Hollywood Hills mansion. Two years later, Love criticized him publicly over his alleged refusal to attend her daughter's sweet 16 party. After they parted ways, Corgan stated in a March 2010 interview, "I have no interest in supporting [Love] in any way, shape or form. You can't throw enough things down the abyss with a person like that." Shortly after, when her band's album Nobody's Daughter was released, Corgan used Twitter to post anger-filled rants against her in reference to two songs he had written, "Samantha" and "How Dirty Girls Get Clean", which ended up on the album without his permission. Love then wrote an apology to him on her Facebook account, but the feud continued. Corgan took to Twitter to rant against her again. She responded to him on Twitter, saying, "All i am is nice about you so if you wanna be mean be mean i don't feel anything. i have too much to feel dear." In 2008, he blamed his dedication to music for what he called "a bad marriage and seven bad girlfriends in a row". The two eventually reconciled, and Love was invited to perform at Smashing Pumpkins 30th Anniversary Show.
In 2009, Corgan was linked with pop star Jessica Simpson. He started dating Australian singer Jessica Origliasso in 2010, and remained in a relationship with her until early June 2012. Origliasso blamed their split on their careers forcing them to spend too much time apart.
He began dating Chloe Mendel in 2013. She gave birth to a son named Augustus Juppiter Corgan on November 16, 2015. Their second child, a daughter named Philomena Clementine Corgan, was born on October 2, 2018.
Political beliefs
In 1998, Corgan said he had not participated in an election since 1992, when he voted for Bill Clinton.
Following the election of Barack Obama in 2008, Corgan stated: "I'm very proud of my country right now for doing the right thing." He has since said that he was disappointed with Obama's presidency, and that he lacks faith in both major political parties. In 2009, he posted a transcript of a webcast by political activist Lyndon LaRouche to the official Smashing Pumpkins forum. On March 10, 2009, Corgan testified in front of Congress on behalf of the musicFIRST Coalition. He spoke in favor of H.R. 848, the Performance Rights Act, which gives musicians and artists their share of compensation when their music is played on radio stations.
Speaking to right-wing conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones in 2016, Corgan called progressive political campaigners "social justice warriors", and compared them to Maoists, cult members, and the Ku Klux Klan; he also stated that their actions were a threat to freedom of speech. In 2018, he called himself a "free-market libertarian capitalist".
Diet
Corgan adopted a pescetarian diet in 2013, and stated in 2017 that he had begun following a vegan and gluten-free diet. In 2012, he opened a tea house in Ravinia, Highland Park called Madame Zuzu's Tea House, which closed in 2018 and reopened in downtown Highland Park in 2020.
Collaborations
In addition to performing, Corgan has produced albums for Ric Ocasek, The Frogs, and Catherine. He shared songwriting credit on several songs on Hole's 1998 album Celebrity Skin; the title track became Corgan's second No. 1 modern rock hit. He also acted as a consultant for Marilyn Manson during the recording of the album Mechanical Animals. He has produced three soundtracks for the movies Ransom (1996), Stigmata (1999) and Spun (2002) in which he appeared as a doctor.
Corgan appeared at the 1996 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremonies. He inducted one of his biggest musical influences, Pink Floyd. He played acoustic guitar during the ceremony with Pink Floyd, when they performed their song "Wish You Were Here".
In particular, Corgan guided and collaborated with three bands in the 2000s—Breaking Benjamin (during sessions for 2004's We Are Not Alone), Taproot (for Blue-Sky Research, 2005), and Sky Saxon.
In 2010, Corgan claimed co-writing credit (with ex-girlfriend Courtney Love) on at least two of the songs on Hole's final album Nobody's Daughter and tried to assert a right of approval before the album could be released. Corgan had helped develop the album during its early stages. The album was released without the writing controversy ever being litigated or publicly resolved.
Corgan appeared as a guest vocalist on the song "Loki Cat" on Jimmy Chamberlin's first solo album, Life Begins Again, and Chamberlin played drums for the song "DIA" on Corgan's solo debut, where Robert Smith from The Cure teamed up with Corgan to do a cover of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody". In 2007, Corgan provided vocals on the Scorpions' song "The Cross", on their album Humanity: Hour I. In 2010 Corgan featured on Ray Davies' album See My Friends on the album's closer, a mash-up of the Kinks songs "All Day and All of the Night" and "Destroyer". He also contributed his guitar work on "Did You Miss Me" by The Veronicas. Corgan has also collaborated with Tony Iommi, Blindside, David Bowie (singing "All the Young Dudes" with Bowie at Bowie's 50th birthday party), New Order and Marianne Faithfull.
Musical style and influences
When asked in a 1994 Rolling Stone interview about his influences, Corgan replied:
Corgan wrote six articles for Guitar World in 1995, and his solos for "Cherub Rock" and "Geek U.S.A." were included on their list of the top guitar solos of all time. AllMusic said "Starla" "proves that Corgan was one of the finest (and most underrated) rock guitarists of the '90s", while Rolling Stone called him and his Smashing Pumpkins bandmates "ruthless virtuosos". His solo for "Soma" was No. 24 on Rolling Stone'''s list of the top guitar solos. He is a fan of Eddie Van Halen and interviewed him in 1996 for Guitar World. Other guitarists Corgan rates highly include Uli Jon Roth, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Leslie West, Dimebag Darrell and Robin Trower.
His bass playing, which has featured on nearly every Smashing Pumpkins album, was influenced by post-punk figures like Peter Hook and Simon Gallup.
Corgan has praised Radiohead, saying "if they're not the best band in the world, then they're one of the best". He is also a fan of Pantera and appeared briefly in their home video 3 Watch It Go. Other favorites include Depeche Mode, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Rush, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Cure, Metallica, Slayer, Queen, Electric Light Orchestra, Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, and Spiritualized. Corgan stated in 1997 that upon hearing the U2 song "New Year's Day", at 16, "[U2] quickly became the most important band in the world to me." Corgan particularly went out of his way to praise Rush in his interview for Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, a documentary on the band, where he criticized mainstream reviewers for consciously marginalizing the band and their influence, and highlighted the fact that many of his musical peers were influenced by Rush.
He has listed his artistic influences as William S. Burroughs, Pablo Picasso, Jimi Hendrix, Jack Kerouac, and Philip K. Dick.Corgan, Billy. Twitter Q&A. October 3, 2011.
Instruments
Corgan played (during the Gish-Siamese Dream era) a customized '57 Reissue Fender Stratocaster equipped with three Fender Lace Sensor pickups (the Lace Sensor Blue in the neck position, the Lace Sensor Silver in the middle position, and the Lace Sensor Red at the bridge position). It also has a five-position pickup selector switch which he installed himself. This battered Strat became his number one guitar by default. He owned a '74 Strat that was stolen shortly after Gish was completed. Corgan was reunited with this guitar in early 2019.
Corgan also used a wide variety of guitars on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. On "Where Boys Fear to Tread", Corgan used a Les Paul Junior Reissue, and on "Tonight Tonight" he used a '72 Gibson ES-335. He is also known to use a '74 Strat which has since been painted baby blue. That guitar was used on the recordings for "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and also "Muzzle", because the heavier wood gave it the basic Strat sound with a bit more bottom.
During the recording and tour of the album Zeitgeist, Corgan used a Schecter C-1 EX baritone, finished in black with Tony Iommi signature pickups. Corgan also endorsed Reverend Guitars in his Zwan era, most notably playing a Reverend Slingshot.
In 2008 Corgan released to the market his own Fender Stratocaster. This new guitar was made to Corgan's exact specs to create his famous mid-'90s buzzsaw tone; the instrument features three DiMarzio pickups (two custom for this instrument), a string-through hardtail bridge and a satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish. When playing live, he uses both his signature Strats as well as two other Fender Strats, one in red with a white pick guard and one in silver-grey with a black pick guard; a Gibson Tony Iommi signature SG; and his Schecter C-1 (only used on the Zeitgeist song "United States").
A video called 'Stompland' on the official Smashing Pumpkins YouTube channel is informative on Corgan's choice of effects pedals. In the video he reveals an extensive collection of pedals used throughout his career with the Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan's tone is often characterized by his use of fuzz pedals, particularly vintage versions of the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
In 2016 Reverend Guitars released the BC-1 Billy Corgan signature guitar featuring Railhammer Billy Corgan signature pickups.
The Reverend Billy Corgan Signature Terz was launched at the 2018 NAMM show—an electric version of a 19th-century instrument that is played as if the guitar is capoed at the third fret, and tuned G-g standard. Corgan often uses the capo at the third fret and asked for a higher-register guitar.
Corgan is noted for having used Marshall and Diezel amps. He has also used modular preamps based on many different amps in conjunction with Mesa Boogie poweramps. The preamps were custom built by Salvation Mods.
In August 2017, Corgan sold a large collection of instruments and gear used throughout his career via music gear website Reverb.
In 2020, Billy Corgan collaborated with Brian Carstens of Carstens Amplification to produce Grace, Billy's first and only signature guitar amplifier to date.
Discography
Solo
Albums
Singles
Soundtrack work
1996: Ransom1997: First Love, Last Rites ("When I Was Born, I Was Bored")
1999: Stigmata2000: Any Given Sunday (Corgan is credited on "Be A Man" by Hole)
2002: Spun (Corgan wrote original songs for this soundtrack)
2006: "Dance of the Dead" (episode of Masters of Horror)
2007: When a Man Falls in the Forest (three previously unreleased songs)
2011: The Chicago Code (Corgan performs the opening theme, written by Robert Duncan)
2018: Rampage – "The Rage" Performed by Kid Cudi featuring vocals by Corgan (from the Smashing Pumpkins track Bullet with Butterfly Wings)
Albums featured
1991: Sparkle (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1994: Songs About Girls (by Catherine, The song "It's No Lie" is produced by Corgan)
1994: Chante Des Chanson Sur Les Filles (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1994: Sleepy EP (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1996: Guitars That Rule the World, Vol. 2: Smell the Fuzz:The Superstar Guitar Album (by Various Artists, Corgan is credited as writer and performer of "Ascendo")
1997: Starjob (by The Frogs, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1997: Troublizing (by Ric Ocasek, Corgan is credited as writer of "Asia Minor" and playing guitar on "The Next Right Moment", "Crashland Consequence", "Situation", "Fix on You" and "People We Know")
1998: Celebrity Skin (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Celebrity Skin", "Hit So Hard", "Malibu", "Dying" and "Petals")
1998: "I Belong to You" single (by Lenny Kravitz, Corgan remixed the second track "If You Can't Say No (Flunky in the attic Mix)")
1998: Mechanical Animals by Marilyn Manson, Corgan performed backing vocals on Speed of Pain, although not credited, he is thanked in the album credits.
1999: Paraphernalia (by Enuff Z'Nuff, Corgan is credited as guitarist on the song "Everything Works If You Let It")
2000: Iommi (by Tony Iommi, Corgan is credited as writer of and vocalist on "Black Oblivion")
2001: Get Ready (by New Order, Corgan is contributing voice on "Turn My Way")
2002: Kissin Time (by Marianne Faithfull, Corgan is credited as writer of "Wherever I Go", "I'm on Fire" and contributing on "Something Good")
2003: "Lights Out" single (by Lisa Marie Presley, Corgan is credited as writer of "Savior")
2004: We Are Not Alone (by Breaking Benjamin, Corgan is credited as writer of "Follow", "Forget It" and "Rain")
2004: The Essential Cheap Trick (by Cheap Trick, Corgan is playing guitar on the live recording of the track "Mandocello")
2004: About a Burning Fire (by Blindside, Corgan is playing guitar on "Hooray, It's L.A.")
2005: Life Begins Again (by Jimmy Chamberlin Complex, Corgan is contributing voice on "Loki Cat")
2005: Blue-Sky Research (by Taproot, Corgan wrote the track "Lost in the Woods" and co-wrote the tracks "Violent Seas" and "Promise")
2006: ONXRT:Live From The Archives Volume 9 (A compilation CD from the radio station 93 WXRT in Chicago features the live recording of the track "A100")
2007: Humanity: Hour I (by Scorpions, Corgan is contributing voice on "The Cross")
2010: Nobody's Daughter (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Pacific Coast Highway", "Samantha" and "Loser Dust")
2010: See My Friends (by Ray Davies, Corgan is featured in the song "All Day And All of the Night/Destroyer")
2011: Ghost on the Canvas (by Glen Campbell, Corgan is featured in the song ."There's No Me... Without You")
2014: "Did You Miss Me" (on The Veronicas by The Veronicas, guitar contributions)
2019: The Nothing (by Korn, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "You'll Never Find Me")
2019: Screamer (by Third Eye Blind, Corgan described as the "musical consigliere" of the album, and credited as co-writer of "Light It Up")
2020: Ceremony (by Phantogram, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Into Happiness" and "Love Me Now")
As part of The Smashing Pumpkins
References
External links
The Smashing Pumpkins official website
BillyCorgan.Livejournal.com – An extensive 7-year archive of Billy's journal entries, including The Confessions of Billy Corgan, solo work and the revival of the Pumpkins.
Billy Corgan collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
Poems by Billy Corgan at alittlepoetry.com Three poems from Blinking With Fists''
1967 births
Living people
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American guitarists
21st-century American singers
Alternative rock guitarists
Alternative rock singers
American alternative rock musicians
American libertarians
American bloggers
American former Christians
American male bloggers
American male guitarists
American male poets
American male singers
American male songwriters
American music video directors
American people of Irish descent
American people of Italian descent
American rock guitarists
American rock singers
American rock songwriters
Guitarists from Chicago
Impact Wrestling executives
Lead guitarists
Musicians from Chicago
People with mood disorders
People with obsessive–compulsive disorder
Professional wrestling promoters
Singers from Chicago
Songwriters from Illinois
Starchildren members
The Smashing Pumpkins members
Veganism activists
Writers from Chicago
Zwan members | true | [
"You and What Army was an English four-piece rock band formed in 2005, originating from Telford. It consisted of David Brown (vocals, synthesizers, sampling, turntables), Kieran Charles Smith (vocals, guitars), Jamie Hancox (bass, backing vocals) and Zak Hammond (drums, percussion) from 2008, and previously with Joseph Allen (guitar), Darren Smith (bass), and Thomas Bridgwater (drums). Although they are predominantly a rock band, they combine several different musical styles into their sound and are mainly influenced by heavy metal and electronic music.\n\nIn 2010, You And What Army played at Download Festival, T in the Park, Sonisphere, Underage Festival and Hevy Music Festival and toured with Kids in Glass Houses, and Boys Like Girls. You and What Army has also performed with Hadouken!, Chase and Status, Tempa T, My Passion, Goldie Lookin Chain, Dave McPherson, and Silent Descent.\n\nBrown runs the YouTube channel 'Boyinaband' where he has made music tutorials, skits and videos involving the band, although he now largely creates vlogs and content centred around personal interests (including music). He has also collaborated with other YouTube creators. Brown has a career as a producer, specialising in rap, electronic and metal music.\n\nSmith previously performed under the alias 12 Story Fall but now releases under his name 'Kieran Smith'. In October 2020, Smith discussed his experiences with child loss and released music dealing with this subject. He also spoke about his new role as guitarist in Alt-Pop band Bad Money.\n\nYou and What Army are also the winners of the Red Bull Bedroom Jam 2010.\n\nHistory\nThe band was formed in 2007 and performed extensively between September and December 2008, playing in bars, clubs and other small venues. They were voted second in Rocksound magazine's readers; poll for Best Live Unsigned Band. In January 2009, the band began recording their first EP, Soundtrack to the Apocalypse in Brown's home studio. The EP was produced, mixed and mastered by Brown and was released on 5 June 2009. With the EP, the band gigged throughout the summer and supported Hadouken in Wolverhampton during Hadouken's UK September/October tour.\n\nEarly in 2010, You and What Army was voted the third best unsigned act in Rock Sound magazine. You and What Army then started work on a second EP, The End of the Beginning, again recording in Brown's home studio in January and February. It was released on 26 March 2010.\n\nIn 2011, You and What Army played smaller headline shows. They returned to play Download Festival and Sonisphere Festival as well as Camden Crawl and Main Stage Osfest in Oswestry.\n\nIn 2012, the band released its EP You and What Army as both a digital release and physical copy. The MP3s were offered for free on NoiseTrade. You and What Army returned to perform at Download Festival in 2012 and released a music video, \"Into Your Eyes\", with clips from their live performance at Download festival.\n\nThe band has stopped performing live and was working on its first album, which was scheduled to be released in 2013. However, on 10 July 2014, it was announced on their Facebook page that they were on indefinite hiatus, cancelling all plans of releasing what was to be their debut album.\n\nMusical style\nYou and What Army are influenced by a variety of music genres, including rock, rap, metal, djent, and various electronic music genres such as rave, drum and bass, gabber, trance, and electro house. The band's earliest songs didn't make use of clean vocals, however, following the addition of guitarist and vocalist Kieran Smith, the band started incorporating clean vocals on some songs. The band's second EP, The End Of The Beginning, features both rapping and screamed vocals from frontman Dave Brown, as well as clean vocals from Kieran Smith. The band's self-titled EP features influences from djent metal on tracks such as \"Lucidity\" and \"Take the World by Storm\", Dave Brown describing the latter one as \"really heavy\", as well as a \"slow, less heavy\" liquid drum and bass song (\"Visionary\") featuring both Brown and Smith singing.\n\nRed Bull Bedroom Jam\nIn 2010, the band entered themselves into the 'Red Bull Bedroom Jam' 2010, an online competition where the prize was to win the chance to play at five major festivals and to be the opening act for major band on a full UK tour. In the first stage, You and What Army performed a live gig from a bedroom live on the Internet. In the second stage, they played on the Red Bull stages at Download Festival, T in the Park, Sonisphere, Underage Festival and Hevy Festival. In the final part of the competition, the band was picked by judges Andy Copping, Beckie Sugden, Charlie Simpson (Fightstar) and Darren Taylor (Rocksound editor) to compete against the two other remaining bands within the competition in another public online voting system, which they won.\n\nThe band then spent two weeks in October in the Red Bull studio in London and recorded a four track EP, produced by John Mitchell at Outhouse Studios. It was released as a cover-mount by Rocksound magazine. The band also went on tour with Kids in Glass Houses and Boys Like Girls in support of the 'Dirt' tour in November. The EP was released as RockSound's CD cover mount on 2 February and had a CD-ROM which contained the band's progress throughout the RBBJ competition. This edition of Rock Sound had a full page feature on You and What Army.\n\nBand members\n\nCurrent\n Dave Brown – vocals, synthesizers, sampling, turntables (2007–2014)\n Kieran Charles Smith – vocals, guitars (2008–2014)\n Jamie Hancox – bass guitar, backing vocals (2008–2014)\n Zak Hammond – drums, percussion (2008–2014)\n\nFormer\n Joseph Allen – guitars (2007–2008)\n Darren Smith – bass guitar (2007–2008)\n Tom Bridgwater – drums, percussion (2007–2008)\n Jamie Patterson - drums, percussion (2008)\n\nTimeline\n\nDiscography\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official Facebook page\n Official Myspace page\n Official Soundcloud page\n\nBritish alternative metal musical groups\nBritish drum and bass music groups\nEnglish electronic rock musical groups\nElectronicore musical groups\nIndustrial metal musical groups\nMusical groups established in 2007\nMusical groups disestablished in 2014\nMusical quartets",
"Bad Radio was a four-piece, American funk rock band that formed in San Diego, California in 1986. The band is most notable for having featured future Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder as its lead singer from 1988–1990. The band was a popular live band in Southern California, but never released a record on a label.\n\nHistory\nBad Radio was formed in 1986 by vocalist Keith Wood, guitarist Dave George, bassist Dave Silva, and drummer Joey Ponchetti. The music of the original incarnation of the band was influenced by Duran Duran. Between 1988 and 1990, future Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder was the vocalist. After Vedder joined Bad Radio, the band moved on to a more alternative rock sound influenced by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. During his time with the band he premiered the song \"Better Man\", which would later be recorded with Pearl Jam.\n\nIn 1989, the band released a 4-song demo tape which has been dubbed the Tower Records Demo due to it being sold locally in San Diego Tower Records stores for about a year. Later that year the band released another demo tape titled What the Funk. The demo tape was funded after winning a battle of the bands contest held by San Diego radio station 91X. The demo tape included recordings of songs titled, \"I'm Alive\", \"Homeless\", \"What the Funk\", and \"Believe You Me\".\n\nVedder's last show with the band was February 11, 1990. After Vedder left, original band vocalist Keith Wood replaced him, and the band relocated to Hollywood, where the band was joined by a new drummer, Dawn Richardson. Richardson would later join the 4 Non Blondes.\n\nBand members\n Dave George – guitar (1986–1990)\n Joey Ponchetti – drums (1986–1990)\n Dave Silva – bass (1986–1990)\n Keith Wood – vocals (1986–1988, 1990)\n Petey Bates - Keyboards (1986-1988)\n Eddie Vedder – vocals (1988–1990)\n Dawn Richardson – drums (1990)\n\nDiscography\n Tower Records Demo (1989)\n What the Funk Demo (1989)\n\nSee also\nList of alternative rock artists\n\nNotes and references\n\nAlternative rock groups from California\nMusical groups disestablished in 1990\nMusical groups established in 1986\nMusical groups from San Diego\nMusical quartets\n1986 establishments in California"
]
|
[
"Billy Corgan",
"1967-1987: Childhood and formative years",
"Where did Billy grow up?",
"Glendale Heights, Illinois.",
"Where did he attend school?",
"Marquardt Middle School",
"Did Billy attend college or did he just go out to start a career in music?",
"Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time.",
"Was he the only child or did he have siblings?",
"His parents had one more son,",
"When he set to do music full time what was his first step?",
"Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, he moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band,",
"What band was he in?",
"The Marked"
]
| C_f7f748df004544729408cda74b466786_1 | Did the band do any touring or appearances? | 7 | Did Billy's band tour or do appearances? | Billy Corgan | William Patrick Corgan Jr. was born at Columbus Hospital in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on March 17, 1967 as the oldest son of William Corgan Sr., a blues/rock guitarist, and Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was soon remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. During this time, Corgan alleges he was subject to much physical and emotional abuse by his stepmother. Corgan also developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys would live alone with the stepmother, with both of Corgan's birth parents living separately within an hour's drive. Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his Marquardt Middle School baseball team, he collected baseball cards (amassing over 10,000) and listened to every Chicago Cubs game. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream, Illinois, he had become only an average athlete. He decided to start playing guitar when he went over to a friend's house and saw his friend's Flying V. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. Corgan, Sr. steered his son stylistically, encouraging him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support, and the younger Corgan taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. Corgan performed in a string of bands in high school, and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time. Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, he moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. Corgan performed with Wayne Static in Static's first band Deep Blue Dream, in 1987/88. CANNOTANSWER | ). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; | William Patrick Corgan (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only permanent member of the rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. He is currently the owner and promoter of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago in 1988, the band was joined by bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Strong album sales and large-scale tours propelled the band's increasing fame in the 1990s until their break-up in 2000. Corgan started a new band called Zwan, and after their demise he released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, in 2005 and a collection of poetry, Blinking with Fists, before reforming the Smashing Pumpkins. The new version of the band, consisting of Corgan and a revolving lineup, has released and toured new albums extensively since 2007. In October 2017, Corgan released Ogilala, his first solo album in over a decade. His latest album, Cotillions, was released on November 22, 2019.
In 2011, Corgan founded Resistance Pro Wrestling. He later joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2015, becoming its president in August 2016. After leaving TNA in November 2016, he purchased the NWA in October 2017, transforming it from a brand licensing organization to a singular promotion.
Early life
William Patrick Corgan was born at Columbus Hospital in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago on March 17, 1967, the oldest son of guitarist William Corgan Sr. and his wife Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic and is of Irish descent. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. Corgan alleges that his stepmother was abusive to him, both physically and emotionally. He developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys lived alone with their stepmother, and both of his birth parents lived separately within an hour's drive.
Corgan described his father as a "drug dealing, gun-toting, musician [and] mad man". Although this had a huge negative impact on his childhood, in retrospect he respects his father as a great musician.
Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his baseball team at Marquardt Middle School, he amassed over 10,000 baseball cards and listened to every Chicago Cubs game on the radio. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School, his athletic prowess had greatly diminished. He decided to start playing guitar after seeing a Flying V when he went over to a friend's house. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. His father encouraged him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support. So he taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Van Halen, Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. He performed in a string of bands in high school and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time.
Music career
1985–1987: Early career
Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, Corgan moved to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. From 1987 to 1988, he played guitar in Chicago band Deep Blue Dream, which also featured future Static-X frontman Wayne Static. He left the band to focus on The Smashing Pumpkins.
1988–2000: The Smashing Pumpkins
Upon his return to Chicago, Corgan had already devised his next project – a band that would be called The Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan met guitarist James Iha while working in a record store, and the two began recording demos, which Corgan describes as "gloomy little goth-pop records". He met bassist D'arcy Wretzky after a local show, arguing with her about a band that had just played, The Dan Reed Network. Soon after, the Smashing Pumpkins were formed. The trio began to play together at local clubs with a drum machine for percussion. To secure a show at the Metro in Chicago, the band recruited drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, and played for the first time as a quartet on October 5, 1988.
The addition of Chamberlin drove the band in a heavier direction almost immediately. On the band's debut album, Gish (1991), the band integrated psychedelic rock and heavy metal into their sound. Gish fared better than expected, but the follow-up, Siamese Dream, released on Virgin Records in 1993, became a multi-platinum hit. The band became known for internal drama during this period, with Corgan frequently characterized in the music press as a "control freak" due to rumors that Corgan played all the guitar and bass parts on Siamese Dream (a rumor that Corgan later confirmed as true). Despite this, the album was well received by critics, and the songs "Today", "Cherub Rock", and "Disarm" became hits.
The band's 1995 follow-up effort, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, was more successful, spawning a string of hit singles. According to Jon Pareles from The New York Times, Corgan wanted to "lose himself and find himself..." in this album. The album was nominated for seven Grammy awards that year, and would eventually be certified ten times platinum in the United States. The song "1979" was Corgan's biggest hit to date, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's modern rock and mainstream rock charts. Their appearance on Saturday Night Live on November 11, 1995, to promote this material (their second appearance on the show overall) was also the television debut appearance of Corgan's shaved head, which he has maintained consistently since.
On July 12, 1996, touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin died in a Manhattan hotel room of a heroin overdose after he and Chamberlin used the drug together. Chamberlin was later arrested on a misdemeanor drug possession charge. The Smashing Pumpkins made the decision to fire Chamberlin and continue as a trio. This shakeup, coupled with Corgan going through a divorce and the death of his mother, influenced the somber mood of the band's next album, 1998's Adore. Featuring a darker, more subdued and heavily electronic sound at a time when alternative rock was declining in mainstream cachet, Adore divided both critics and fans, resulting in a significant decrease in album sales (it sold 1.3 million discs in the US).
Chamberlin was reunited with the band in 1999. In 2000, they released Machina/The Machines of God, a concept album on which the band deliberately played to their public image. Critics were again divided, and sales were lower than before; Machina is the second lowest-selling commercially released Smashing Pumpkins album to date, with U.S. sales of 583,000 units up to 2005. During the recording for Machina, Wretzky quit the band and was replaced for the upcoming tour by former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. In 2000 the band announced they would break up at the end of the year, and soon after released Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music free over the Internet. The Smashing Pumpkins played their last show on December 2, 2000, at the Cabaret Metro.
2001–2005: Zwan and solo career
Following a brief stint touring with New Order in the summer, Corgan reunited with Chamberlin to form the band Zwan with Corgan's old friend Matt Sweeney in late 2001. According to Neil Strauss of New York Times, during his few live performances with the band, Corgan says "is still a work in progress". The lineup was completed with guitarist David Pajo and bassist Paz Lenchantin. The band had two distinct incarnations, the primary approach being an upbeat rock band with a three-guitar-driven sound, the second, a folk and gospel inspired acoustic side with live strings. The quintet performed throughout 2002, and their debut album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in early 2003 to generally positive reviews. In the midst of their supporting tour for the album, mounting conflict between Corgan and Chamberlin, and the other band members led to the cancellation of the rest of the tour as the band entered an apparent hiatus, formally announcing a breakup in September 2003.
In 2004, Corgan began writing revealing autobiographical posts on his website and his MySpace page, blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins, calling Wretzky "a mean spirited drug addict," and criticizing his former Zwan bandmates' fixation with "indie cred" and calling them "filthy", opportunistic, and selfish.
On September 17, 2003, Billy presented his poetry at the Art Institute of Chicago's Rubloff Auditorium. In late 2004, Corgan published Blinking with Fists, a book of poetry. Despite mixed reviews, the book debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list. Around this time, he began posting autobiographical writings online under the title The Confessions of Billy Corgan.
Also in 2004, he began a solo music career, landing on an electronic/shoegaze/alternative rock sound for his first solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, co-produced and arranged by Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb. Released on June 21, 2005, through Reprise Records, it garnered mixed reviews from the press and only sold 69,000 copies. Corgan toured behind his solo album with a touring band that included Linda Strawberry, Brian Liesegang and Matt Walker in 2005. This tour was not as extensive as previous Smashing Pumpkins or Zwan tours. Prior to recording TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan had recorded some 72 songs inspired by Chicago history for the largely acoustic ChicagoSongs project, which have yet to be released.
2005–present: The Smashing Pumpkins revival
In 2005, Corgan took out a full-page ad in Chicago's two major newspapers (Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun-Times) revealing his desire to re-form the Smashing Pumpkins. Several days later, Jimmy Chamberlin accepted Corgan's offer for a reunion.
On April 20, 2006, the band's official website confirmed that the group was indeed reuniting. The re-formed Smashing Pumpkins went into studio for much of 2006 and early 2007, and performed its first show in seven years on May 22, 2007, with new members Ginger Pooley (bass) and Jeff Schroeder (guitar) replacing Wretzky and Iha. The new album, titled Zeitgeist, was released in the United States on July 10, 2007, and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts. Corgan and the rest of the Pumpkins toured extensively throughout 2007 and 2008, also releasing the EP American Gothic and the singles "G.L.O.W." and "Superchrist". Chamberlin left the band in March 2009, and Corgan elected to continue under the name.
In summer 2009, Corgan formed the band Spirits in the Sky to play a tribute concert to the late Sky Saxon of the Seeds. He toured with the band, composed of ex-Catherine member and "Superchrist" producer Kerry Brown, the Electric Prunes bassist Mark Tulin, Strawberry Alarm Clock keyboardist Mark Weitz, frequent Corgan collaborator Linda Strawberry, flautist Kevin Dippold, "Superchrist" violinist Ysanne Spevack, saxist Justin Norman, new Pumpkins drummer Mike Byrne, and Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, playing covers and new Pumpkins material at several clubs in California. At the end of the tour, Corgan, Byrne, Tulin, and Brown headed back to Chicago to begin work on the new Smashing Pumpkins album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The lineup at the time which included new bassist Nicole Fiorentino, toured through much of 2010, then spent 2011 recording the "album-within-an-album" Oceania and mounting tours of the United States and Europe. However, Byrne and Fiorentino would later leave the band in 2014.
In April Corgan announced a new solo record of "experimental" recordings he made in 2007, via the Smashing Pumpkins' website. The album, which he titled AEGEA was released exclusively on vinyl, with 250 copies being made. Most of those copies were sold online, and a few copies were sold at Madame Zuzu's, a tea house he owns and operates in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago. The album was released on May 15.
On July 25, 2014, Corgan announced that the tapes from his "Siddhartha" show from March 2014 were being transferred for sale, much in the vein of AEGEA. The set was expected to contain between 5 and 6 discs.
During the summer 2014, Corgan recorded The Smashing Pumpkins's tenth studio album, Monuments to an Elegy, with Tommy Lee and Jeff Schroeder. The album was released in early December 2014.
In September 2015, Corgan started a blog of vintage photographs that he himself curated, and which he called "People and Their Cars". The website also included an email listing for the blog, titled "The Red Border Club". This list was to be used for information on upcoming People and Their Cars and "Hexestential" books and merchandise, along with access to additional images.
On September 8, 2016, Corgan announced, in a Facebook live video, that he had recorded a new solo album with producer Rick Rubin, and it would consist of 12 or 13 tracks. He described work on the album as being near completion, though a release date was not given.
On August 22, 2017, he announced the solo album, giving its title as Ogilala.
On February 16, 2018, Corgan announced the Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour, a reunion tour for The Smashing Pumpkins. The lineup consists of himself, James Iha, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder. It is rumored that former bassist D'arcy Wretzky was not a part of the lineup due to unresolved tension between her and Corgan. However, she has stated that after offering her a contract, Corgan retracted it, saying that "we also have to balance the forces at play... there is no room for error." After Wretzky released text messages between her and Corgan, a feud ensued, with each party attacking each other with biting remarks.
On November 22, 2019, Corgan released his third solo album Cotillions, which he called "a labor of love". He also said, "This is absolutely an album from my heart."
Professional wrestling career
Resistance Pro Wrestling (2011–2014)
In 2011 Corgan formed a Chicago-based independent wrestling promotion called Resistance Pro. Two years later, in 2013, he starred in a commercial for Walter E. Smithe Furniture, using the platform to promote his wrestling company.
In March 2014 it was reported that Corgan was in discussions with American television channel AMC to develop an unscripted reality series about Resistance Pro. The premise being a behind-the-scenes look at the promotion as Corgan "takes over creative direction for the independent wrestling company". The show was given the green light by AMC, under the working title of "Untitled Billy Corgan Wrestling Project," the same month.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2015–2016)
In April 2015 Corgan was announced as the new Senior Producer of Creative and Talent Development for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where his role was to "develop characters and create story lines", which he has called "a dream come true". In August 2016, Corgan took over as the promotion's new president.
In November 2016 Corgan had left TNA after disputes about not being paid on time, and subsequently, Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp and Impact Ventures, parent company of TNA Impact Wrestling, announced that Anthem has provided a credit facility to TNA to fund operations.
In 2016, he loaned money to Anthem Sports & Entertainment to fund TNA, and they promised to pay him back.
On November 11, Corgan signed a settlement with Anthem – TNA and Anthem announced that they would be repaying TNA's loan from Corgan.
Newly appointed TNA/Impact Wrestling President Ed Nordholm credits the invention of and the vision behind the Matt Hardy Broken gimmick to Jeremy Borash, David Lagana and Billy Corgan. While Borash specifically had the most input into the gimmick of the three aside from Matt, the Hardy family deny that Borash was the sole person behind the gimmick.
National Wrestling Alliance (2017–present)
On May 1, 2017, it was reported that Corgan had agreed to purchase the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), including its name, rights, trademarks and championship belts. The purchase was confirmed by NWA president Bruce Tharpe later that same day. Corgan's ownership took effect on October 1, 2017.
Personal life
Mental health
For much of his life, Corgan has struggled with anxiety, depression, panic attacks, self-harm, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and suicidal ideation. He attributes these problems to the abuse he endured as a child at the hands of his father and stepmother, as well as other personal issues. He has since become an advocate for abuse support networks.
Involvement with sports
Corgan is a keen supporter of the Chicago Cubs, and an occasional commentator on the team for WXRT DJ Lin Brehmer. He has appeared at many Cubs games, occasionally throwing the ceremonial first pitch or singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". He is also a fan of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks, and became personal friends with Dennis Rodman and Chris Chelios. He is an avid professional wrestling fan, and appeared at an ECW event wielding an acoustic guitar as a weapon. In 2008, the Pumpkins song "Doomsday Clock" was used by ROH for promotional videos. On April 26, 2010, Corgan appeared on the SIRIUS Satellite Radio program Right After Wrestling with Arda Ocal to discuss his love for wrestling and the importance of unique theme songs for characters. On August 26, 2010, he took part in a storyline with AAA during a concert for MTV World Stage. As far as other entertainment, Corgan once commented that all he watches on TV are "sports and the Three Stooges". In March 2008, he was spotted in the crowd at the final day of the cricket test match between New Zealand and England.
Spiritual beliefs
Corgan accepts some parts of Catholicism. In 2009, he launched Everything From Here to There, an interfaith website that is devoted to "Mind-Body-Soul" integration. He mentions praying each morning and night to be able to see through Jesus Christ's eyes and feel with his heart. An analysis of the symbolism of Corgan's lyrics considered the blend of beliefs he has cited in various interviews, which include ideas about religion, multiple dimensions, and psychic phenomena. In an interview on the Howard Stern Show, Corgan claimed to have once had an encounter with a person who had the ability to shapeshift.
Family and romantic relationships
Corgan's mother Martha died in December 1996. The song "For Martha", from Adore, was written in her memory. In the early 2000s Corgan named his label Martha's Music after her as well. A picture of Martha as a little girl sitting on a fake moon at Riverview Park is featured on the flipside of the Siamese Dream booklet.
In 1993, Corgan married art conservator and artist Chris Fabian, his longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend. They were married at a small ceremony at his house in Wrigleyville. Corgan and Fabian separated in late 1995. Corgan filed for divorce in December 1996 on grounds of "irreconcilable differences," and the divorce was granted in 1997. Corgan refused to discuss the marriage for years, only allowing that it was "unhappy." In 2005 he described the circumstances of his marriage in depth via his personal blog.
In late 1995, Corgan started dating Ukrainian photographer Yelena Yemchuk, who later contributed to several Smashing Pumpkins videos and album art. He continued to date Yemchuk until around 2004. According to Corgan, his breakup with her contributed to the themes of his 2005 solo release TheFutureEmbrace. In 2005, Corgan dated musician Emilie Autumn for a number of months. The pair collaborated on multiple occasions during this time, with Autumn providing vocals and violin on his solo album and costume for a supporting music video.
In early 2006, Corgan moved in with Courtney Love and her daughter. According to Love, he had his own wing in her Hollywood Hills mansion. Two years later, Love criticized him publicly over his alleged refusal to attend her daughter's sweet 16 party. After they parted ways, Corgan stated in a March 2010 interview, "I have no interest in supporting [Love] in any way, shape or form. You can't throw enough things down the abyss with a person like that." Shortly after, when her band's album Nobody's Daughter was released, Corgan used Twitter to post anger-filled rants against her in reference to two songs he had written, "Samantha" and "How Dirty Girls Get Clean", which ended up on the album without his permission. Love then wrote an apology to him on her Facebook account, but the feud continued. Corgan took to Twitter to rant against her again. She responded to him on Twitter, saying, "All i am is nice about you so if you wanna be mean be mean i don't feel anything. i have too much to feel dear." In 2008, he blamed his dedication to music for what he called "a bad marriage and seven bad girlfriends in a row". The two eventually reconciled, and Love was invited to perform at Smashing Pumpkins 30th Anniversary Show.
In 2009, Corgan was linked with pop star Jessica Simpson. He started dating Australian singer Jessica Origliasso in 2010, and remained in a relationship with her until early June 2012. Origliasso blamed their split on their careers forcing them to spend too much time apart.
He began dating Chloe Mendel in 2013. She gave birth to a son named Augustus Juppiter Corgan on November 16, 2015. Their second child, a daughter named Philomena Clementine Corgan, was born on October 2, 2018.
Political beliefs
In 1998, Corgan said he had not participated in an election since 1992, when he voted for Bill Clinton.
Following the election of Barack Obama in 2008, Corgan stated: "I'm very proud of my country right now for doing the right thing." He has since said that he was disappointed with Obama's presidency, and that he lacks faith in both major political parties. In 2009, he posted a transcript of a webcast by political activist Lyndon LaRouche to the official Smashing Pumpkins forum. On March 10, 2009, Corgan testified in front of Congress on behalf of the musicFIRST Coalition. He spoke in favor of H.R. 848, the Performance Rights Act, which gives musicians and artists their share of compensation when their music is played on radio stations.
Speaking to right-wing conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones in 2016, Corgan called progressive political campaigners "social justice warriors", and compared them to Maoists, cult members, and the Ku Klux Klan; he also stated that their actions were a threat to freedom of speech. In 2018, he called himself a "free-market libertarian capitalist".
Diet
Corgan adopted a pescetarian diet in 2013, and stated in 2017 that he had begun following a vegan and gluten-free diet. In 2012, he opened a tea house in Ravinia, Highland Park called Madame Zuzu's Tea House, which closed in 2018 and reopened in downtown Highland Park in 2020.
Collaborations
In addition to performing, Corgan has produced albums for Ric Ocasek, The Frogs, and Catherine. He shared songwriting credit on several songs on Hole's 1998 album Celebrity Skin; the title track became Corgan's second No. 1 modern rock hit. He also acted as a consultant for Marilyn Manson during the recording of the album Mechanical Animals. He has produced three soundtracks for the movies Ransom (1996), Stigmata (1999) and Spun (2002) in which he appeared as a doctor.
Corgan appeared at the 1996 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremonies. He inducted one of his biggest musical influences, Pink Floyd. He played acoustic guitar during the ceremony with Pink Floyd, when they performed their song "Wish You Were Here".
In particular, Corgan guided and collaborated with three bands in the 2000s—Breaking Benjamin (during sessions for 2004's We Are Not Alone), Taproot (for Blue-Sky Research, 2005), and Sky Saxon.
In 2010, Corgan claimed co-writing credit (with ex-girlfriend Courtney Love) on at least two of the songs on Hole's final album Nobody's Daughter and tried to assert a right of approval before the album could be released. Corgan had helped develop the album during its early stages. The album was released without the writing controversy ever being litigated or publicly resolved.
Corgan appeared as a guest vocalist on the song "Loki Cat" on Jimmy Chamberlin's first solo album, Life Begins Again, and Chamberlin played drums for the song "DIA" on Corgan's solo debut, where Robert Smith from The Cure teamed up with Corgan to do a cover of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody". In 2007, Corgan provided vocals on the Scorpions' song "The Cross", on their album Humanity: Hour I. In 2010 Corgan featured on Ray Davies' album See My Friends on the album's closer, a mash-up of the Kinks songs "All Day and All of the Night" and "Destroyer". He also contributed his guitar work on "Did You Miss Me" by The Veronicas. Corgan has also collaborated with Tony Iommi, Blindside, David Bowie (singing "All the Young Dudes" with Bowie at Bowie's 50th birthday party), New Order and Marianne Faithfull.
Musical style and influences
When asked in a 1994 Rolling Stone interview about his influences, Corgan replied:
Corgan wrote six articles for Guitar World in 1995, and his solos for "Cherub Rock" and "Geek U.S.A." were included on their list of the top guitar solos of all time. AllMusic said "Starla" "proves that Corgan was one of the finest (and most underrated) rock guitarists of the '90s", while Rolling Stone called him and his Smashing Pumpkins bandmates "ruthless virtuosos". His solo for "Soma" was No. 24 on Rolling Stone'''s list of the top guitar solos. He is a fan of Eddie Van Halen and interviewed him in 1996 for Guitar World. Other guitarists Corgan rates highly include Uli Jon Roth, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Leslie West, Dimebag Darrell and Robin Trower.
His bass playing, which has featured on nearly every Smashing Pumpkins album, was influenced by post-punk figures like Peter Hook and Simon Gallup.
Corgan has praised Radiohead, saying "if they're not the best band in the world, then they're one of the best". He is also a fan of Pantera and appeared briefly in their home video 3 Watch It Go. Other favorites include Depeche Mode, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Rush, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Cure, Metallica, Slayer, Queen, Electric Light Orchestra, Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, and Spiritualized. Corgan stated in 1997 that upon hearing the U2 song "New Year's Day", at 16, "[U2] quickly became the most important band in the world to me." Corgan particularly went out of his way to praise Rush in his interview for Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, a documentary on the band, where he criticized mainstream reviewers for consciously marginalizing the band and their influence, and highlighted the fact that many of his musical peers were influenced by Rush.
He has listed his artistic influences as William S. Burroughs, Pablo Picasso, Jimi Hendrix, Jack Kerouac, and Philip K. Dick.Corgan, Billy. Twitter Q&A. October 3, 2011.
Instruments
Corgan played (during the Gish-Siamese Dream era) a customized '57 Reissue Fender Stratocaster equipped with three Fender Lace Sensor pickups (the Lace Sensor Blue in the neck position, the Lace Sensor Silver in the middle position, and the Lace Sensor Red at the bridge position). It also has a five-position pickup selector switch which he installed himself. This battered Strat became his number one guitar by default. He owned a '74 Strat that was stolen shortly after Gish was completed. Corgan was reunited with this guitar in early 2019.
Corgan also used a wide variety of guitars on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. On "Where Boys Fear to Tread", Corgan used a Les Paul Junior Reissue, and on "Tonight Tonight" he used a '72 Gibson ES-335. He is also known to use a '74 Strat which has since been painted baby blue. That guitar was used on the recordings for "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and also "Muzzle", because the heavier wood gave it the basic Strat sound with a bit more bottom.
During the recording and tour of the album Zeitgeist, Corgan used a Schecter C-1 EX baritone, finished in black with Tony Iommi signature pickups. Corgan also endorsed Reverend Guitars in his Zwan era, most notably playing a Reverend Slingshot.
In 2008 Corgan released to the market his own Fender Stratocaster. This new guitar was made to Corgan's exact specs to create his famous mid-'90s buzzsaw tone; the instrument features three DiMarzio pickups (two custom for this instrument), a string-through hardtail bridge and a satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish. When playing live, he uses both his signature Strats as well as two other Fender Strats, one in red with a white pick guard and one in silver-grey with a black pick guard; a Gibson Tony Iommi signature SG; and his Schecter C-1 (only used on the Zeitgeist song "United States").
A video called 'Stompland' on the official Smashing Pumpkins YouTube channel is informative on Corgan's choice of effects pedals. In the video he reveals an extensive collection of pedals used throughout his career with the Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan's tone is often characterized by his use of fuzz pedals, particularly vintage versions of the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
In 2016 Reverend Guitars released the BC-1 Billy Corgan signature guitar featuring Railhammer Billy Corgan signature pickups.
The Reverend Billy Corgan Signature Terz was launched at the 2018 NAMM show—an electric version of a 19th-century instrument that is played as if the guitar is capoed at the third fret, and tuned G-g standard. Corgan often uses the capo at the third fret and asked for a higher-register guitar.
Corgan is noted for having used Marshall and Diezel amps. He has also used modular preamps based on many different amps in conjunction with Mesa Boogie poweramps. The preamps were custom built by Salvation Mods.
In August 2017, Corgan sold a large collection of instruments and gear used throughout his career via music gear website Reverb.
In 2020, Billy Corgan collaborated with Brian Carstens of Carstens Amplification to produce Grace, Billy's first and only signature guitar amplifier to date.
Discography
Solo
Albums
Singles
Soundtrack work
1996: Ransom1997: First Love, Last Rites ("When I Was Born, I Was Bored")
1999: Stigmata2000: Any Given Sunday (Corgan is credited on "Be A Man" by Hole)
2002: Spun (Corgan wrote original songs for this soundtrack)
2006: "Dance of the Dead" (episode of Masters of Horror)
2007: When a Man Falls in the Forest (three previously unreleased songs)
2011: The Chicago Code (Corgan performs the opening theme, written by Robert Duncan)
2018: Rampage – "The Rage" Performed by Kid Cudi featuring vocals by Corgan (from the Smashing Pumpkins track Bullet with Butterfly Wings)
Albums featured
1991: Sparkle (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1994: Songs About Girls (by Catherine, The song "It's No Lie" is produced by Corgan)
1994: Chante Des Chanson Sur Les Filles (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1994: Sleepy EP (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1996: Guitars That Rule the World, Vol. 2: Smell the Fuzz:The Superstar Guitar Album (by Various Artists, Corgan is credited as writer and performer of "Ascendo")
1997: Starjob (by The Frogs, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1997: Troublizing (by Ric Ocasek, Corgan is credited as writer of "Asia Minor" and playing guitar on "The Next Right Moment", "Crashland Consequence", "Situation", "Fix on You" and "People We Know")
1998: Celebrity Skin (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Celebrity Skin", "Hit So Hard", "Malibu", "Dying" and "Petals")
1998: "I Belong to You" single (by Lenny Kravitz, Corgan remixed the second track "If You Can't Say No (Flunky in the attic Mix)")
1998: Mechanical Animals by Marilyn Manson, Corgan performed backing vocals on Speed of Pain, although not credited, he is thanked in the album credits.
1999: Paraphernalia (by Enuff Z'Nuff, Corgan is credited as guitarist on the song "Everything Works If You Let It")
2000: Iommi (by Tony Iommi, Corgan is credited as writer of and vocalist on "Black Oblivion")
2001: Get Ready (by New Order, Corgan is contributing voice on "Turn My Way")
2002: Kissin Time (by Marianne Faithfull, Corgan is credited as writer of "Wherever I Go", "I'm on Fire" and contributing on "Something Good")
2003: "Lights Out" single (by Lisa Marie Presley, Corgan is credited as writer of "Savior")
2004: We Are Not Alone (by Breaking Benjamin, Corgan is credited as writer of "Follow", "Forget It" and "Rain")
2004: The Essential Cheap Trick (by Cheap Trick, Corgan is playing guitar on the live recording of the track "Mandocello")
2004: About a Burning Fire (by Blindside, Corgan is playing guitar on "Hooray, It's L.A.")
2005: Life Begins Again (by Jimmy Chamberlin Complex, Corgan is contributing voice on "Loki Cat")
2005: Blue-Sky Research (by Taproot, Corgan wrote the track "Lost in the Woods" and co-wrote the tracks "Violent Seas" and "Promise")
2006: ONXRT:Live From The Archives Volume 9 (A compilation CD from the radio station 93 WXRT in Chicago features the live recording of the track "A100")
2007: Humanity: Hour I (by Scorpions, Corgan is contributing voice on "The Cross")
2010: Nobody's Daughter (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Pacific Coast Highway", "Samantha" and "Loser Dust")
2010: See My Friends (by Ray Davies, Corgan is featured in the song "All Day And All of the Night/Destroyer")
2011: Ghost on the Canvas (by Glen Campbell, Corgan is featured in the song ."There's No Me... Without You")
2014: "Did You Miss Me" (on The Veronicas by The Veronicas, guitar contributions)
2019: The Nothing (by Korn, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "You'll Never Find Me")
2019: Screamer (by Third Eye Blind, Corgan described as the "musical consigliere" of the album, and credited as co-writer of "Light It Up")
2020: Ceremony (by Phantogram, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Into Happiness" and "Love Me Now")
As part of The Smashing Pumpkins
References
External links
The Smashing Pumpkins official website
BillyCorgan.Livejournal.com – An extensive 7-year archive of Billy's journal entries, including The Confessions of Billy Corgan, solo work and the revival of the Pumpkins.
Billy Corgan collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
Poems by Billy Corgan at alittlepoetry.com Three poems from Blinking With Fists''
1967 births
Living people
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American guitarists
21st-century American singers
Alternative rock guitarists
Alternative rock singers
American alternative rock musicians
American libertarians
American bloggers
American former Christians
American male bloggers
American male guitarists
American male poets
American male singers
American male songwriters
American music video directors
American people of Irish descent
American people of Italian descent
American rock guitarists
American rock singers
American rock songwriters
Guitarists from Chicago
Impact Wrestling executives
Lead guitarists
Musicians from Chicago
People with mood disorders
People with obsessive–compulsive disorder
Professional wrestling promoters
Singers from Chicago
Songwriters from Illinois
Starchildren members
The Smashing Pumpkins members
Veganism activists
Writers from Chicago
Zwan members | true | [
"The Crew Of The Flying Saucer was former The Minutemen/Firehose bassist Mike Watt's second touring band, formed to continue touring behind his first solo album, 1995's Ball-Hog or Tugboat?. The band consisted of, along with Watt on bass and vocals, guitarist Nels Cline and two drummers, Vince Meghrouni and Michael Preussner. Meghrouni also doubled on saxophone. All three had played on various cuts on Ball-Hog.... \n\nIt is the first and only touring unit in which Watt used two drummers. Watt believed at the time that when devising musical arrangements, he was giving too much for one drummer to do, so he decided to try two drummers. While the experiment worked sonically (as evidenced by a fan-traded live recording of a show from the tour's Charlottesville, VA stop), after two tour legs personal tensions between the two drummers were beginning to mount. Those two tour legs were the last ones he had scheduled at the time, so there was no question of having to cancel any shows due to a personnel change or breakup. \n\nThe Crew Of The Flying Saucer appeared on the Rock for Choice album O Come All Ye Faithful: Rock for Choice performing a cover of \"The Little Drummer Boy\" entitled \"The Little Drummer Boys\". \n\nWatt did work with both Cline and Meghrouni again after the Crew Of The Flying Saucer had completed its run; Cline was the sole guitarist on Watt's second solo album Contemplating The Engine Room, and has toured and recorded with him as part of both another Watt project band, The Black Gang, and in the jazz/punk group Banyan. Meghrouni would participate in another Watt project band, The Pair Of Pliers, in 1999 and 2000.\n\nSee also\nThe Black Gang\nBanyan\nThe Pair Of Pliers\nBall-Hog or Tugboat?\n\nReferences\n\nCrew Of The Flying Saucer, The\nCrew Of The Flying Saucer, Mike Watt And The",
"Mono Band are an Irish electronic rock band created by Cranberries guitarist Noel Hogan. The group, which uses a different lead vocalist for almost every song, first appeared when Hogan's website announced the name of his new project on 9 October 2004. Mono Band's first gig was 13 March 2005 at Dolan's in Limerick. On vocals that night were Richard Walters, Alexandra Hamnede, and Fin Chambers. This was followed by a performance at the 2005 SXSW Festival in Austin, TX on 17 March.\n\nFormation \nThe band consists of Noel Hogan and various guest artists on a track-by-track basis.\n\nMono Band traces its roots back to what was intended to be The Cranberries' sixth studio album. Hogan had been working on tracks when the Cranberries announced their hiatus. Using his home studio, and then at West London's Town House Studios with Matthew Vaughan, Hogan set about exploring more electronic music of various genres. With Hogan writing, recording and producing almost all of the music for each track the moniker 'Mono Band' is rather appropriate. Guest artists include Richard Walters, Marius De Vries, Alexandra Hamnede, Kate Havnevik, Nicolas Leroux, Fin Chambers, Angie Hart, and two fellow Cranberries, Mike Hogan and Fergal Lawler.\n\nIn May 2005, Mono Band released their debut EP, Mono Band EP, shortly before releasing their first album, Mono Band.\n\nWith the touring that followed the release of their first album it became apparent that the concept of Mono Band did not translate as favourably to touring as it did to studio recording. Not every vocalist was available for every tour date, with usually two of the vocalist performing at any given show. Over the course of touring Richard Walters began to emerge as the primary vocalist. With their touring commitment completed Hogan and Walters decided to work together and formed Arkitekt. As of February 2011 there was no word on any upcoming projects by Mono Band.\n\nLine-up\nNoel Hogan - guitar, programming, backing vocals\n various guest artists on a track-by-track basis\n\nDiscography\n\nAlbums\n Mono Band (2005)\n\nEPs\n \"Mono Band EP\"\n \"Remixes\"\n\nSingles\n \"Waves\"\n \"Run Wild\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nMonoband.co.uk (archived site)\nGohan Records Hogan's label's site\n\nIrish alternative rock groups\nIrish electronic music groups\nThe Cranberries\nMusical groups established in 2004\nMusical groups disestablished in 2007\nIrish electronic rock musical groups"
]
|
[
"Billy Corgan",
"1967-1987: Childhood and formative years",
"Where did Billy grow up?",
"Glendale Heights, Illinois.",
"Where did he attend school?",
"Marquardt Middle School",
"Did Billy attend college or did he just go out to start a career in music?",
"Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time.",
"Was he the only child or did he have siblings?",
"His parents had one more son,",
"When he set to do music full time what was his first step?",
"Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, he moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band,",
"What band was he in?",
"The Marked",
"Did the band do any touring or appearances?",
"). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved;"
]
| C_f7f748df004544729408cda74b466786_1 | After the band didn't make it what was Billy next venture? | 8 | After his band didn't make it what was did Billy do for his next venture? | Billy Corgan | William Patrick Corgan Jr. was born at Columbus Hospital in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on March 17, 1967 as the oldest son of William Corgan Sr., a blues/rock guitarist, and Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was soon remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. During this time, Corgan alleges he was subject to much physical and emotional abuse by his stepmother. Corgan also developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys would live alone with the stepmother, with both of Corgan's birth parents living separately within an hour's drive. Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his Marquardt Middle School baseball team, he collected baseball cards (amassing over 10,000) and listened to every Chicago Cubs game. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream, Illinois, he had become only an average athlete. He decided to start playing guitar when he went over to a friend's house and saw his friend's Flying V. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. Corgan, Sr. steered his son stylistically, encouraging him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support, and the younger Corgan taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. Corgan performed in a string of bands in high school, and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time. Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, he moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. Corgan performed with Wayne Static in Static's first band Deep Blue Dream, in 1987/88. CANNOTANSWER | Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. | William Patrick Corgan (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only permanent member of the rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. He is currently the owner and promoter of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago in 1988, the band was joined by bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Strong album sales and large-scale tours propelled the band's increasing fame in the 1990s until their break-up in 2000. Corgan started a new band called Zwan, and after their demise he released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, in 2005 and a collection of poetry, Blinking with Fists, before reforming the Smashing Pumpkins. The new version of the band, consisting of Corgan and a revolving lineup, has released and toured new albums extensively since 2007. In October 2017, Corgan released Ogilala, his first solo album in over a decade. His latest album, Cotillions, was released on November 22, 2019.
In 2011, Corgan founded Resistance Pro Wrestling. He later joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2015, becoming its president in August 2016. After leaving TNA in November 2016, he purchased the NWA in October 2017, transforming it from a brand licensing organization to a singular promotion.
Early life
William Patrick Corgan was born at Columbus Hospital in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago on March 17, 1967, the oldest son of guitarist William Corgan Sr. and his wife Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic and is of Irish descent. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. Corgan alleges that his stepmother was abusive to him, both physically and emotionally. He developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys lived alone with their stepmother, and both of his birth parents lived separately within an hour's drive.
Corgan described his father as a "drug dealing, gun-toting, musician [and] mad man". Although this had a huge negative impact on his childhood, in retrospect he respects his father as a great musician.
Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his baseball team at Marquardt Middle School, he amassed over 10,000 baseball cards and listened to every Chicago Cubs game on the radio. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School, his athletic prowess had greatly diminished. He decided to start playing guitar after seeing a Flying V when he went over to a friend's house. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. His father encouraged him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support. So he taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Van Halen, Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. He performed in a string of bands in high school and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time.
Music career
1985–1987: Early career
Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, Corgan moved to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. From 1987 to 1988, he played guitar in Chicago band Deep Blue Dream, which also featured future Static-X frontman Wayne Static. He left the band to focus on The Smashing Pumpkins.
1988–2000: The Smashing Pumpkins
Upon his return to Chicago, Corgan had already devised his next project – a band that would be called The Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan met guitarist James Iha while working in a record store, and the two began recording demos, which Corgan describes as "gloomy little goth-pop records". He met bassist D'arcy Wretzky after a local show, arguing with her about a band that had just played, The Dan Reed Network. Soon after, the Smashing Pumpkins were formed. The trio began to play together at local clubs with a drum machine for percussion. To secure a show at the Metro in Chicago, the band recruited drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, and played for the first time as a quartet on October 5, 1988.
The addition of Chamberlin drove the band in a heavier direction almost immediately. On the band's debut album, Gish (1991), the band integrated psychedelic rock and heavy metal into their sound. Gish fared better than expected, but the follow-up, Siamese Dream, released on Virgin Records in 1993, became a multi-platinum hit. The band became known for internal drama during this period, with Corgan frequently characterized in the music press as a "control freak" due to rumors that Corgan played all the guitar and bass parts on Siamese Dream (a rumor that Corgan later confirmed as true). Despite this, the album was well received by critics, and the songs "Today", "Cherub Rock", and "Disarm" became hits.
The band's 1995 follow-up effort, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, was more successful, spawning a string of hit singles. According to Jon Pareles from The New York Times, Corgan wanted to "lose himself and find himself..." in this album. The album was nominated for seven Grammy awards that year, and would eventually be certified ten times platinum in the United States. The song "1979" was Corgan's biggest hit to date, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's modern rock and mainstream rock charts. Their appearance on Saturday Night Live on November 11, 1995, to promote this material (their second appearance on the show overall) was also the television debut appearance of Corgan's shaved head, which he has maintained consistently since.
On July 12, 1996, touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin died in a Manhattan hotel room of a heroin overdose after he and Chamberlin used the drug together. Chamberlin was later arrested on a misdemeanor drug possession charge. The Smashing Pumpkins made the decision to fire Chamberlin and continue as a trio. This shakeup, coupled with Corgan going through a divorce and the death of his mother, influenced the somber mood of the band's next album, 1998's Adore. Featuring a darker, more subdued and heavily electronic sound at a time when alternative rock was declining in mainstream cachet, Adore divided both critics and fans, resulting in a significant decrease in album sales (it sold 1.3 million discs in the US).
Chamberlin was reunited with the band in 1999. In 2000, they released Machina/The Machines of God, a concept album on which the band deliberately played to their public image. Critics were again divided, and sales were lower than before; Machina is the second lowest-selling commercially released Smashing Pumpkins album to date, with U.S. sales of 583,000 units up to 2005. During the recording for Machina, Wretzky quit the band and was replaced for the upcoming tour by former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. In 2000 the band announced they would break up at the end of the year, and soon after released Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music free over the Internet. The Smashing Pumpkins played their last show on December 2, 2000, at the Cabaret Metro.
2001–2005: Zwan and solo career
Following a brief stint touring with New Order in the summer, Corgan reunited with Chamberlin to form the band Zwan with Corgan's old friend Matt Sweeney in late 2001. According to Neil Strauss of New York Times, during his few live performances with the band, Corgan says "is still a work in progress". The lineup was completed with guitarist David Pajo and bassist Paz Lenchantin. The band had two distinct incarnations, the primary approach being an upbeat rock band with a three-guitar-driven sound, the second, a folk and gospel inspired acoustic side with live strings. The quintet performed throughout 2002, and their debut album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in early 2003 to generally positive reviews. In the midst of their supporting tour for the album, mounting conflict between Corgan and Chamberlin, and the other band members led to the cancellation of the rest of the tour as the band entered an apparent hiatus, formally announcing a breakup in September 2003.
In 2004, Corgan began writing revealing autobiographical posts on his website and his MySpace page, blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins, calling Wretzky "a mean spirited drug addict," and criticizing his former Zwan bandmates' fixation with "indie cred" and calling them "filthy", opportunistic, and selfish.
On September 17, 2003, Billy presented his poetry at the Art Institute of Chicago's Rubloff Auditorium. In late 2004, Corgan published Blinking with Fists, a book of poetry. Despite mixed reviews, the book debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list. Around this time, he began posting autobiographical writings online under the title The Confessions of Billy Corgan.
Also in 2004, he began a solo music career, landing on an electronic/shoegaze/alternative rock sound for his first solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, co-produced and arranged by Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb. Released on June 21, 2005, through Reprise Records, it garnered mixed reviews from the press and only sold 69,000 copies. Corgan toured behind his solo album with a touring band that included Linda Strawberry, Brian Liesegang and Matt Walker in 2005. This tour was not as extensive as previous Smashing Pumpkins or Zwan tours. Prior to recording TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan had recorded some 72 songs inspired by Chicago history for the largely acoustic ChicagoSongs project, which have yet to be released.
2005–present: The Smashing Pumpkins revival
In 2005, Corgan took out a full-page ad in Chicago's two major newspapers (Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun-Times) revealing his desire to re-form the Smashing Pumpkins. Several days later, Jimmy Chamberlin accepted Corgan's offer for a reunion.
On April 20, 2006, the band's official website confirmed that the group was indeed reuniting. The re-formed Smashing Pumpkins went into studio for much of 2006 and early 2007, and performed its first show in seven years on May 22, 2007, with new members Ginger Pooley (bass) and Jeff Schroeder (guitar) replacing Wretzky and Iha. The new album, titled Zeitgeist, was released in the United States on July 10, 2007, and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts. Corgan and the rest of the Pumpkins toured extensively throughout 2007 and 2008, also releasing the EP American Gothic and the singles "G.L.O.W." and "Superchrist". Chamberlin left the band in March 2009, and Corgan elected to continue under the name.
In summer 2009, Corgan formed the band Spirits in the Sky to play a tribute concert to the late Sky Saxon of the Seeds. He toured with the band, composed of ex-Catherine member and "Superchrist" producer Kerry Brown, the Electric Prunes bassist Mark Tulin, Strawberry Alarm Clock keyboardist Mark Weitz, frequent Corgan collaborator Linda Strawberry, flautist Kevin Dippold, "Superchrist" violinist Ysanne Spevack, saxist Justin Norman, new Pumpkins drummer Mike Byrne, and Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, playing covers and new Pumpkins material at several clubs in California. At the end of the tour, Corgan, Byrne, Tulin, and Brown headed back to Chicago to begin work on the new Smashing Pumpkins album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The lineup at the time which included new bassist Nicole Fiorentino, toured through much of 2010, then spent 2011 recording the "album-within-an-album" Oceania and mounting tours of the United States and Europe. However, Byrne and Fiorentino would later leave the band in 2014.
In April Corgan announced a new solo record of "experimental" recordings he made in 2007, via the Smashing Pumpkins' website. The album, which he titled AEGEA was released exclusively on vinyl, with 250 copies being made. Most of those copies were sold online, and a few copies were sold at Madame Zuzu's, a tea house he owns and operates in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago. The album was released on May 15.
On July 25, 2014, Corgan announced that the tapes from his "Siddhartha" show from March 2014 were being transferred for sale, much in the vein of AEGEA. The set was expected to contain between 5 and 6 discs.
During the summer 2014, Corgan recorded The Smashing Pumpkins's tenth studio album, Monuments to an Elegy, with Tommy Lee and Jeff Schroeder. The album was released in early December 2014.
In September 2015, Corgan started a blog of vintage photographs that he himself curated, and which he called "People and Their Cars". The website also included an email listing for the blog, titled "The Red Border Club". This list was to be used for information on upcoming People and Their Cars and "Hexestential" books and merchandise, along with access to additional images.
On September 8, 2016, Corgan announced, in a Facebook live video, that he had recorded a new solo album with producer Rick Rubin, and it would consist of 12 or 13 tracks. He described work on the album as being near completion, though a release date was not given.
On August 22, 2017, he announced the solo album, giving its title as Ogilala.
On February 16, 2018, Corgan announced the Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour, a reunion tour for The Smashing Pumpkins. The lineup consists of himself, James Iha, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder. It is rumored that former bassist D'arcy Wretzky was not a part of the lineup due to unresolved tension between her and Corgan. However, she has stated that after offering her a contract, Corgan retracted it, saying that "we also have to balance the forces at play... there is no room for error." After Wretzky released text messages between her and Corgan, a feud ensued, with each party attacking each other with biting remarks.
On November 22, 2019, Corgan released his third solo album Cotillions, which he called "a labor of love". He also said, "This is absolutely an album from my heart."
Professional wrestling career
Resistance Pro Wrestling (2011–2014)
In 2011 Corgan formed a Chicago-based independent wrestling promotion called Resistance Pro. Two years later, in 2013, he starred in a commercial for Walter E. Smithe Furniture, using the platform to promote his wrestling company.
In March 2014 it was reported that Corgan was in discussions with American television channel AMC to develop an unscripted reality series about Resistance Pro. The premise being a behind-the-scenes look at the promotion as Corgan "takes over creative direction for the independent wrestling company". The show was given the green light by AMC, under the working title of "Untitled Billy Corgan Wrestling Project," the same month.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2015–2016)
In April 2015 Corgan was announced as the new Senior Producer of Creative and Talent Development for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where his role was to "develop characters and create story lines", which he has called "a dream come true". In August 2016, Corgan took over as the promotion's new president.
In November 2016 Corgan had left TNA after disputes about not being paid on time, and subsequently, Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp and Impact Ventures, parent company of TNA Impact Wrestling, announced that Anthem has provided a credit facility to TNA to fund operations.
In 2016, he loaned money to Anthem Sports & Entertainment to fund TNA, and they promised to pay him back.
On November 11, Corgan signed a settlement with Anthem – TNA and Anthem announced that they would be repaying TNA's loan from Corgan.
Newly appointed TNA/Impact Wrestling President Ed Nordholm credits the invention of and the vision behind the Matt Hardy Broken gimmick to Jeremy Borash, David Lagana and Billy Corgan. While Borash specifically had the most input into the gimmick of the three aside from Matt, the Hardy family deny that Borash was the sole person behind the gimmick.
National Wrestling Alliance (2017–present)
On May 1, 2017, it was reported that Corgan had agreed to purchase the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), including its name, rights, trademarks and championship belts. The purchase was confirmed by NWA president Bruce Tharpe later that same day. Corgan's ownership took effect on October 1, 2017.
Personal life
Mental health
For much of his life, Corgan has struggled with anxiety, depression, panic attacks, self-harm, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and suicidal ideation. He attributes these problems to the abuse he endured as a child at the hands of his father and stepmother, as well as other personal issues. He has since become an advocate for abuse support networks.
Involvement with sports
Corgan is a keen supporter of the Chicago Cubs, and an occasional commentator on the team for WXRT DJ Lin Brehmer. He has appeared at many Cubs games, occasionally throwing the ceremonial first pitch or singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". He is also a fan of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks, and became personal friends with Dennis Rodman and Chris Chelios. He is an avid professional wrestling fan, and appeared at an ECW event wielding an acoustic guitar as a weapon. In 2008, the Pumpkins song "Doomsday Clock" was used by ROH for promotional videos. On April 26, 2010, Corgan appeared on the SIRIUS Satellite Radio program Right After Wrestling with Arda Ocal to discuss his love for wrestling and the importance of unique theme songs for characters. On August 26, 2010, he took part in a storyline with AAA during a concert for MTV World Stage. As far as other entertainment, Corgan once commented that all he watches on TV are "sports and the Three Stooges". In March 2008, he was spotted in the crowd at the final day of the cricket test match between New Zealand and England.
Spiritual beliefs
Corgan accepts some parts of Catholicism. In 2009, he launched Everything From Here to There, an interfaith website that is devoted to "Mind-Body-Soul" integration. He mentions praying each morning and night to be able to see through Jesus Christ's eyes and feel with his heart. An analysis of the symbolism of Corgan's lyrics considered the blend of beliefs he has cited in various interviews, which include ideas about religion, multiple dimensions, and psychic phenomena. In an interview on the Howard Stern Show, Corgan claimed to have once had an encounter with a person who had the ability to shapeshift.
Family and romantic relationships
Corgan's mother Martha died in December 1996. The song "For Martha", from Adore, was written in her memory. In the early 2000s Corgan named his label Martha's Music after her as well. A picture of Martha as a little girl sitting on a fake moon at Riverview Park is featured on the flipside of the Siamese Dream booklet.
In 1993, Corgan married art conservator and artist Chris Fabian, his longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend. They were married at a small ceremony at his house in Wrigleyville. Corgan and Fabian separated in late 1995. Corgan filed for divorce in December 1996 on grounds of "irreconcilable differences," and the divorce was granted in 1997. Corgan refused to discuss the marriage for years, only allowing that it was "unhappy." In 2005 he described the circumstances of his marriage in depth via his personal blog.
In late 1995, Corgan started dating Ukrainian photographer Yelena Yemchuk, who later contributed to several Smashing Pumpkins videos and album art. He continued to date Yemchuk until around 2004. According to Corgan, his breakup with her contributed to the themes of his 2005 solo release TheFutureEmbrace. In 2005, Corgan dated musician Emilie Autumn for a number of months. The pair collaborated on multiple occasions during this time, with Autumn providing vocals and violin on his solo album and costume for a supporting music video.
In early 2006, Corgan moved in with Courtney Love and her daughter. According to Love, he had his own wing in her Hollywood Hills mansion. Two years later, Love criticized him publicly over his alleged refusal to attend her daughter's sweet 16 party. After they parted ways, Corgan stated in a March 2010 interview, "I have no interest in supporting [Love] in any way, shape or form. You can't throw enough things down the abyss with a person like that." Shortly after, when her band's album Nobody's Daughter was released, Corgan used Twitter to post anger-filled rants against her in reference to two songs he had written, "Samantha" and "How Dirty Girls Get Clean", which ended up on the album without his permission. Love then wrote an apology to him on her Facebook account, but the feud continued. Corgan took to Twitter to rant against her again. She responded to him on Twitter, saying, "All i am is nice about you so if you wanna be mean be mean i don't feel anything. i have too much to feel dear." In 2008, he blamed his dedication to music for what he called "a bad marriage and seven bad girlfriends in a row". The two eventually reconciled, and Love was invited to perform at Smashing Pumpkins 30th Anniversary Show.
In 2009, Corgan was linked with pop star Jessica Simpson. He started dating Australian singer Jessica Origliasso in 2010, and remained in a relationship with her until early June 2012. Origliasso blamed their split on their careers forcing them to spend too much time apart.
He began dating Chloe Mendel in 2013. She gave birth to a son named Augustus Juppiter Corgan on November 16, 2015. Their second child, a daughter named Philomena Clementine Corgan, was born on October 2, 2018.
Political beliefs
In 1998, Corgan said he had not participated in an election since 1992, when he voted for Bill Clinton.
Following the election of Barack Obama in 2008, Corgan stated: "I'm very proud of my country right now for doing the right thing." He has since said that he was disappointed with Obama's presidency, and that he lacks faith in both major political parties. In 2009, he posted a transcript of a webcast by political activist Lyndon LaRouche to the official Smashing Pumpkins forum. On March 10, 2009, Corgan testified in front of Congress on behalf of the musicFIRST Coalition. He spoke in favor of H.R. 848, the Performance Rights Act, which gives musicians and artists their share of compensation when their music is played on radio stations.
Speaking to right-wing conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones in 2016, Corgan called progressive political campaigners "social justice warriors", and compared them to Maoists, cult members, and the Ku Klux Klan; he also stated that their actions were a threat to freedom of speech. In 2018, he called himself a "free-market libertarian capitalist".
Diet
Corgan adopted a pescetarian diet in 2013, and stated in 2017 that he had begun following a vegan and gluten-free diet. In 2012, he opened a tea house in Ravinia, Highland Park called Madame Zuzu's Tea House, which closed in 2018 and reopened in downtown Highland Park in 2020.
Collaborations
In addition to performing, Corgan has produced albums for Ric Ocasek, The Frogs, and Catherine. He shared songwriting credit on several songs on Hole's 1998 album Celebrity Skin; the title track became Corgan's second No. 1 modern rock hit. He also acted as a consultant for Marilyn Manson during the recording of the album Mechanical Animals. He has produced three soundtracks for the movies Ransom (1996), Stigmata (1999) and Spun (2002) in which he appeared as a doctor.
Corgan appeared at the 1996 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremonies. He inducted one of his biggest musical influences, Pink Floyd. He played acoustic guitar during the ceremony with Pink Floyd, when they performed their song "Wish You Were Here".
In particular, Corgan guided and collaborated with three bands in the 2000s—Breaking Benjamin (during sessions for 2004's We Are Not Alone), Taproot (for Blue-Sky Research, 2005), and Sky Saxon.
In 2010, Corgan claimed co-writing credit (with ex-girlfriend Courtney Love) on at least two of the songs on Hole's final album Nobody's Daughter and tried to assert a right of approval before the album could be released. Corgan had helped develop the album during its early stages. The album was released without the writing controversy ever being litigated or publicly resolved.
Corgan appeared as a guest vocalist on the song "Loki Cat" on Jimmy Chamberlin's first solo album, Life Begins Again, and Chamberlin played drums for the song "DIA" on Corgan's solo debut, where Robert Smith from The Cure teamed up with Corgan to do a cover of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody". In 2007, Corgan provided vocals on the Scorpions' song "The Cross", on their album Humanity: Hour I. In 2010 Corgan featured on Ray Davies' album See My Friends on the album's closer, a mash-up of the Kinks songs "All Day and All of the Night" and "Destroyer". He also contributed his guitar work on "Did You Miss Me" by The Veronicas. Corgan has also collaborated with Tony Iommi, Blindside, David Bowie (singing "All the Young Dudes" with Bowie at Bowie's 50th birthday party), New Order and Marianne Faithfull.
Musical style and influences
When asked in a 1994 Rolling Stone interview about his influences, Corgan replied:
Corgan wrote six articles for Guitar World in 1995, and his solos for "Cherub Rock" and "Geek U.S.A." were included on their list of the top guitar solos of all time. AllMusic said "Starla" "proves that Corgan was one of the finest (and most underrated) rock guitarists of the '90s", while Rolling Stone called him and his Smashing Pumpkins bandmates "ruthless virtuosos". His solo for "Soma" was No. 24 on Rolling Stone'''s list of the top guitar solos. He is a fan of Eddie Van Halen and interviewed him in 1996 for Guitar World. Other guitarists Corgan rates highly include Uli Jon Roth, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Leslie West, Dimebag Darrell and Robin Trower.
His bass playing, which has featured on nearly every Smashing Pumpkins album, was influenced by post-punk figures like Peter Hook and Simon Gallup.
Corgan has praised Radiohead, saying "if they're not the best band in the world, then they're one of the best". He is also a fan of Pantera and appeared briefly in their home video 3 Watch It Go. Other favorites include Depeche Mode, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Rush, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Cure, Metallica, Slayer, Queen, Electric Light Orchestra, Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, and Spiritualized. Corgan stated in 1997 that upon hearing the U2 song "New Year's Day", at 16, "[U2] quickly became the most important band in the world to me." Corgan particularly went out of his way to praise Rush in his interview for Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, a documentary on the band, where he criticized mainstream reviewers for consciously marginalizing the band and their influence, and highlighted the fact that many of his musical peers were influenced by Rush.
He has listed his artistic influences as William S. Burroughs, Pablo Picasso, Jimi Hendrix, Jack Kerouac, and Philip K. Dick.Corgan, Billy. Twitter Q&A. October 3, 2011.
Instruments
Corgan played (during the Gish-Siamese Dream era) a customized '57 Reissue Fender Stratocaster equipped with three Fender Lace Sensor pickups (the Lace Sensor Blue in the neck position, the Lace Sensor Silver in the middle position, and the Lace Sensor Red at the bridge position). It also has a five-position pickup selector switch which he installed himself. This battered Strat became his number one guitar by default. He owned a '74 Strat that was stolen shortly after Gish was completed. Corgan was reunited with this guitar in early 2019.
Corgan also used a wide variety of guitars on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. On "Where Boys Fear to Tread", Corgan used a Les Paul Junior Reissue, and on "Tonight Tonight" he used a '72 Gibson ES-335. He is also known to use a '74 Strat which has since been painted baby blue. That guitar was used on the recordings for "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and also "Muzzle", because the heavier wood gave it the basic Strat sound with a bit more bottom.
During the recording and tour of the album Zeitgeist, Corgan used a Schecter C-1 EX baritone, finished in black with Tony Iommi signature pickups. Corgan also endorsed Reverend Guitars in his Zwan era, most notably playing a Reverend Slingshot.
In 2008 Corgan released to the market his own Fender Stratocaster. This new guitar was made to Corgan's exact specs to create his famous mid-'90s buzzsaw tone; the instrument features three DiMarzio pickups (two custom for this instrument), a string-through hardtail bridge and a satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish. When playing live, he uses both his signature Strats as well as two other Fender Strats, one in red with a white pick guard and one in silver-grey with a black pick guard; a Gibson Tony Iommi signature SG; and his Schecter C-1 (only used on the Zeitgeist song "United States").
A video called 'Stompland' on the official Smashing Pumpkins YouTube channel is informative on Corgan's choice of effects pedals. In the video he reveals an extensive collection of pedals used throughout his career with the Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan's tone is often characterized by his use of fuzz pedals, particularly vintage versions of the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
In 2016 Reverend Guitars released the BC-1 Billy Corgan signature guitar featuring Railhammer Billy Corgan signature pickups.
The Reverend Billy Corgan Signature Terz was launched at the 2018 NAMM show—an electric version of a 19th-century instrument that is played as if the guitar is capoed at the third fret, and tuned G-g standard. Corgan often uses the capo at the third fret and asked for a higher-register guitar.
Corgan is noted for having used Marshall and Diezel amps. He has also used modular preamps based on many different amps in conjunction with Mesa Boogie poweramps. The preamps were custom built by Salvation Mods.
In August 2017, Corgan sold a large collection of instruments and gear used throughout his career via music gear website Reverb.
In 2020, Billy Corgan collaborated with Brian Carstens of Carstens Amplification to produce Grace, Billy's first and only signature guitar amplifier to date.
Discography
Solo
Albums
Singles
Soundtrack work
1996: Ransom1997: First Love, Last Rites ("When I Was Born, I Was Bored")
1999: Stigmata2000: Any Given Sunday (Corgan is credited on "Be A Man" by Hole)
2002: Spun (Corgan wrote original songs for this soundtrack)
2006: "Dance of the Dead" (episode of Masters of Horror)
2007: When a Man Falls in the Forest (three previously unreleased songs)
2011: The Chicago Code (Corgan performs the opening theme, written by Robert Duncan)
2018: Rampage – "The Rage" Performed by Kid Cudi featuring vocals by Corgan (from the Smashing Pumpkins track Bullet with Butterfly Wings)
Albums featured
1991: Sparkle (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1994: Songs About Girls (by Catherine, The song "It's No Lie" is produced by Corgan)
1994: Chante Des Chanson Sur Les Filles (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1994: Sleepy EP (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1996: Guitars That Rule the World, Vol. 2: Smell the Fuzz:The Superstar Guitar Album (by Various Artists, Corgan is credited as writer and performer of "Ascendo")
1997: Starjob (by The Frogs, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1997: Troublizing (by Ric Ocasek, Corgan is credited as writer of "Asia Minor" and playing guitar on "The Next Right Moment", "Crashland Consequence", "Situation", "Fix on You" and "People We Know")
1998: Celebrity Skin (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Celebrity Skin", "Hit So Hard", "Malibu", "Dying" and "Petals")
1998: "I Belong to You" single (by Lenny Kravitz, Corgan remixed the second track "If You Can't Say No (Flunky in the attic Mix)")
1998: Mechanical Animals by Marilyn Manson, Corgan performed backing vocals on Speed of Pain, although not credited, he is thanked in the album credits.
1999: Paraphernalia (by Enuff Z'Nuff, Corgan is credited as guitarist on the song "Everything Works If You Let It")
2000: Iommi (by Tony Iommi, Corgan is credited as writer of and vocalist on "Black Oblivion")
2001: Get Ready (by New Order, Corgan is contributing voice on "Turn My Way")
2002: Kissin Time (by Marianne Faithfull, Corgan is credited as writer of "Wherever I Go", "I'm on Fire" and contributing on "Something Good")
2003: "Lights Out" single (by Lisa Marie Presley, Corgan is credited as writer of "Savior")
2004: We Are Not Alone (by Breaking Benjamin, Corgan is credited as writer of "Follow", "Forget It" and "Rain")
2004: The Essential Cheap Trick (by Cheap Trick, Corgan is playing guitar on the live recording of the track "Mandocello")
2004: About a Burning Fire (by Blindside, Corgan is playing guitar on "Hooray, It's L.A.")
2005: Life Begins Again (by Jimmy Chamberlin Complex, Corgan is contributing voice on "Loki Cat")
2005: Blue-Sky Research (by Taproot, Corgan wrote the track "Lost in the Woods" and co-wrote the tracks "Violent Seas" and "Promise")
2006: ONXRT:Live From The Archives Volume 9 (A compilation CD from the radio station 93 WXRT in Chicago features the live recording of the track "A100")
2007: Humanity: Hour I (by Scorpions, Corgan is contributing voice on "The Cross")
2010: Nobody's Daughter (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Pacific Coast Highway", "Samantha" and "Loser Dust")
2010: See My Friends (by Ray Davies, Corgan is featured in the song "All Day And All of the Night/Destroyer")
2011: Ghost on the Canvas (by Glen Campbell, Corgan is featured in the song ."There's No Me... Without You")
2014: "Did You Miss Me" (on The Veronicas by The Veronicas, guitar contributions)
2019: The Nothing (by Korn, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "You'll Never Find Me")
2019: Screamer (by Third Eye Blind, Corgan described as the "musical consigliere" of the album, and credited as co-writer of "Light It Up")
2020: Ceremony (by Phantogram, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Into Happiness" and "Love Me Now")
As part of The Smashing Pumpkins
References
External links
The Smashing Pumpkins official website
BillyCorgan.Livejournal.com – An extensive 7-year archive of Billy's journal entries, including The Confessions of Billy Corgan, solo work and the revival of the Pumpkins.
Billy Corgan collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
Poems by Billy Corgan at alittlepoetry.com Three poems from Blinking With Fists''
1967 births
Living people
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American guitarists
21st-century American singers
Alternative rock guitarists
Alternative rock singers
American alternative rock musicians
American libertarians
American bloggers
American former Christians
American male bloggers
American male guitarists
American male poets
American male singers
American male songwriters
American music video directors
American people of Irish descent
American people of Italian descent
American rock guitarists
American rock singers
American rock songwriters
Guitarists from Chicago
Impact Wrestling executives
Lead guitarists
Musicians from Chicago
People with mood disorders
People with obsessive–compulsive disorder
Professional wrestling promoters
Singers from Chicago
Songwriters from Illinois
Starchildren members
The Smashing Pumpkins members
Veganism activists
Writers from Chicago
Zwan members | true | [
"Creme d'Cocoa was an American disco group composed of former members of The Ambassadors and The Ebonys.\n\nHistory\nThe ensemble was founded in 1978 by three members of the Ambassadors and one of The Ebonys after both groups disbanded about the same time early that year. The group's debut single was \"Do What You Feel\", followed by a full-length entitled \"Funked Up\". The band's biggest hit was 1979's \"Doin' the Dog\", which reached #30 on the Billboard R&B charts. A sophomore full-length, Nasty Street, was issued in 1980 but did not spawn any hits; a final single was issued in 1982 before the group dissolved. Appeared on Soul Train the dance show on October 27, 1979 co-starring with the great Billy Preston.Songs rendered were \"Doin The Dog & Baby Don't You Know That I Love Ya!\"\n\nDiscography\nFunked Up (Venture Records, 1978)\nNasty Street (Venture, 1980)\n\nReferences\n\nAmerican disco groups",
"Billy Breathes is the sixth studio album by American rock band Phish, released by Elektra Records on October 15, 1996. The album was credited with connecting the band, known for its jam band concerts and devoted cult following, with a more mainstream audience. The first single, \"Free\", was the band's most successful song on two Billboard rock charts, peaking at #11 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart and at #24 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks Chart. The album itself became the band's highest-charting album on the Billboard 200, where it peaked at number seven.\n\nBilly Breathes was produced by Steve Lillywhite and recorded at Bearsville Studios in Bearsville, New York between February and June 1996, following Phish's landmark fall 1995 tour. The songs \"Free\", \"Taste\", \"Cars Trucks Buses\", \"Theme from the Bottom\", \"Billy Breathes\" and \"Prince Caspian\" were debuted in concert by Phish over the course of 1995, with the remaining songs not appearing in the band's concert repertoire until after the album's release. \"Bliss\" was not played live by the band until December 30, 2018, 22 years after the release of the album.\n\nThe album and its title song were named after guitarist Trey Anastasio's daughter Isabella, who was nicknamed \"Billy\" as an infant. The album's cover is a close-up shot of bass guitar player Mike Gordon, the first time that any member of Phish had appeared on an album cover. Phish frontman Trey Anastasio recalled in a 1997 interview that the cover came together very quickly on the last day of recording.\n\nUpon release, Rolling Stone said that Billy Breathes is \"a quiet gem of an album\" that confirms Phish \"is much more than a jam band from Burlington, Vermont.\" The album was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on January 8, 1999. The album was reissued on LP by Phish's label JEMP Records for Record Store Day in 2018.\n\nRecording \nEarly song ideas came from a scuba diving trip that Trey Anastasio and Tom Marshall went on in the Cayman Islands in January 1996. They then produced a demo which was given to the other band members at the start of the Billy Breathes sessions. Other songs such as \"Free\" and \"Taste\" had already been in the band's live rotation since 1995.\n\nThe album was recorded between February and June 1996 at the now defunct Bearsville Studios in the Catskills region of New York state. Early recording started February 1, with the band intending to produce the album themselves with engineering by John Siket. The first recording project was an attempt to create a sonic \"blob\" that filled an entire reel of tape. Each band member contributed on several instruments. This idea was later abandoned but elements were used on the tracks \"Swept Away\" and \"Steep\".\n\nRough mixes of songs were made after recording for most of February and March. The band took a break from recording beginning on March 20, and each listened to the rough mixes during their time off. Rough mixes included the songs \"Free\", \"Grind\", two versions of \"Strange Design\", \"Swept Away/Steep\", \"Talk\", \"Waste\" and \"Weekly Time\". Phish performed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in April and then returned to Bearsville on May 1 to resume recording.\n\nWith the resumption of recording, Steve Lillywhite joined as producer on the recommendation of Dave Matthews. Lillywhite had never heard of Phish before he joined the Billy Breathes sessions. He reflected in February 2011:\n\n\"Phish, for me, are the musical equivalent of watching a flock of birds fly across the sky: They don't scatter every which way, but rather, they move with each other; they dip and dive, they go up and down; but at all times, they seem to have this radar, this instinct, for where the bird in front or in back of them is going. Musically, each member of Phish knows what the other is doing, which then carries over to the whole. The band can play anything, which then raises the question: Well, what should they play? With Billy Breathes, it's the closest they got to making what I would say is a good stoner album. You know what I mean: you put on the CD, you fire up a big one and you just go down that road. There hadn't been a good stoner record since Dark Side Of The Moon. Billy Breathes got close. I keep telling Trey Anastasio we can make a better one.\"\n\nAfter Lillywhite joined, many of the songs were recorded in the early morning hours. \"We did a lot of that album at five in the morning, when the sun was coming up. It kind of sounds like that, especially the stuff on side two like 'Billy Breathes' and 'Prince Caspian', 'Swept Away' all that stuff was recorded as the sun was coming up,\" said Trey in a 1997 interview. On June 6, 1996, near the end of the sessions, the band played a surprise show in the neighboring town of Woodstock at a local bar called Joyous Lake.\n\nIn a 2011 interview, Anastasio recalled his method for composing the guitar solo for the track \"Billy Breathes\":\n\nOn the song \"Billy Breathes\" there's a guitar solo I like a lot. That's a composed solo. I didn't labor over it. What I did is, I walked around the kitchen—my daughter had just been born and we were living out in the woods in Vermont. I was in my union suit, chopping wood. I was not thinking about anything, and then I just started singing [sings melody] the first four notes of the solo. I had a cassette player and I'd run over and get it recorded. Then I'd forget about it. And then the next part came. It was a lot of wearing headphones while walking around. Cassette player in my pocket. Change a diaper, go to the store, and whenever I can disconnect from whoever I'm talking to in the room, I'd put on my headphones. So the point I'm making is that it still felt like improv.\"\n\nThe song \"Strange Design\", which the band had been playing live since May 1995, was recorded during the Billy Breathes sessions but was left off the album. The band recorded several versions of the track before settling on a final version. This was later included on the Free European single CD release. Phish lyricist Tom Marshall spoke of the \"Strange Design\" outtake in 1996:\n\n\"It was scrapped at the last second. The band was touring in Europe at the time and made the painful decision there – in Italy or France I think. The album was complete and about to be mastered. \"Design\" was to be the last song on the album – after Caspian. It was a bizarre version that no one ever really got used to. It was funny though – the second they got back to the States and played it in their new acoustic setup it was as strong as ever. It just couldn't be captured in the studio for whatever reason. Cutting it was one of those great decisions – after working so long and hard on the song, sacrificing it for the good of the album took a very wide focus – as much thought went into cutting it as went into recording it.\"\n\nTrey Anastasio recalled in a 1997 interview that the cover came together very quickly on the last day of recording.\n\n\"We finished Billy Breathes and our manager kept saying, \"What are you going to do about the cover?\" So, finally, it was the LAST day, and it was, like three in the morning. They (management) said, \"We NEED a cover tomorrow.\" You know all those pictures on the back? We cut them out and stuck them on with scotch tape. Mike was on the cover he just shot a picture of himself. The whole thing took like five minutes!\" \n\nIn a 2007 interview, Tom Marshall said that Trey Anastasio thought the album cover of Mike Gordon's face ruined the entire album, a feeling Marshall himself shared as well.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel \nPhish:\nTrey Anastasio – guitars, lead vocals, co-lead vocals on \"Train Song\", art direction\nMike Gordon – bass guitar, backing vocals, co-lead vocals on \"Train Song\", cover photo, art direction\nJon Fishman – drums, backing vocals, percussion on \"Train Song\", co-lead vocals on \"Taste\", art direction\nPage McConnell – keyboards, backing vocals, art direction\n\nAdditional personnel\nDanny Clinch – photography\nChris Laidlaw – assistant engineering\nSteve Lillywhite – mixing, production\nBob Ludwig – mastering\nJon Siket – mixing, recording\nDavid Welker – painting\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nPhish's official website\nBilly Breathes at Phish.com\n\n1996 albums\nPhish albums\nAlbums produced by Steve Lillywhite\nLivePhish.com Downloads\nElektra Records albums\nRoots rock albums"
]
|
[
"Billy Corgan",
"1967-1987: Childhood and formative years",
"Where did Billy grow up?",
"Glendale Heights, Illinois.",
"Where did he attend school?",
"Marquardt Middle School",
"Did Billy attend college or did he just go out to start a career in music?",
"Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time.",
"Was he the only child or did he have siblings?",
"His parents had one more son,",
"When he set to do music full time what was his first step?",
"Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, he moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band,",
"What band was he in?",
"The Marked",
"Did the band do any touring or appearances?",
"). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved;",
"After the band didn't make it what was Billy next venture?",
"Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father."
]
| C_f7f748df004544729408cda74b466786_1 | Did he continue to write music or did he find a new band? | 9 | Did Billy continue to write music or did he find a new band? | Billy Corgan | William Patrick Corgan Jr. was born at Columbus Hospital in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on March 17, 1967 as the oldest son of William Corgan Sr., a blues/rock guitarist, and Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was soon remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. During this time, Corgan alleges he was subject to much physical and emotional abuse by his stepmother. Corgan also developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys would live alone with the stepmother, with both of Corgan's birth parents living separately within an hour's drive. Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his Marquardt Middle School baseball team, he collected baseball cards (amassing over 10,000) and listened to every Chicago Cubs game. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream, Illinois, he had become only an average athlete. He decided to start playing guitar when he went over to a friend's house and saw his friend's Flying V. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. Corgan, Sr. steered his son stylistically, encouraging him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support, and the younger Corgan taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. Corgan performed in a string of bands in high school, and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time. Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, he moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. Corgan performed with Wayne Static in Static's first band Deep Blue Dream, in 1987/88. CANNOTANSWER | Corgan performed with Wayne Static in Static's first band Deep Blue Dream, in 1987/88. | William Patrick Corgan (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only permanent member of the rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. He is currently the owner and promoter of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago in 1988, the band was joined by bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Strong album sales and large-scale tours propelled the band's increasing fame in the 1990s until their break-up in 2000. Corgan started a new band called Zwan, and after their demise he released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, in 2005 and a collection of poetry, Blinking with Fists, before reforming the Smashing Pumpkins. The new version of the band, consisting of Corgan and a revolving lineup, has released and toured new albums extensively since 2007. In October 2017, Corgan released Ogilala, his first solo album in over a decade. His latest album, Cotillions, was released on November 22, 2019.
In 2011, Corgan founded Resistance Pro Wrestling. He later joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2015, becoming its president in August 2016. After leaving TNA in November 2016, he purchased the NWA in October 2017, transforming it from a brand licensing organization to a singular promotion.
Early life
William Patrick Corgan was born at Columbus Hospital in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago on March 17, 1967, the oldest son of guitarist William Corgan Sr. and his wife Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic and is of Irish descent. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. Corgan alleges that his stepmother was abusive to him, both physically and emotionally. He developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys lived alone with their stepmother, and both of his birth parents lived separately within an hour's drive.
Corgan described his father as a "drug dealing, gun-toting, musician [and] mad man". Although this had a huge negative impact on his childhood, in retrospect he respects his father as a great musician.
Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his baseball team at Marquardt Middle School, he amassed over 10,000 baseball cards and listened to every Chicago Cubs game on the radio. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School, his athletic prowess had greatly diminished. He decided to start playing guitar after seeing a Flying V when he went over to a friend's house. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. His father encouraged him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support. So he taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Van Halen, Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. He performed in a string of bands in high school and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time.
Music career
1985–1987: Early career
Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, Corgan moved to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. From 1987 to 1988, he played guitar in Chicago band Deep Blue Dream, which also featured future Static-X frontman Wayne Static. He left the band to focus on The Smashing Pumpkins.
1988–2000: The Smashing Pumpkins
Upon his return to Chicago, Corgan had already devised his next project – a band that would be called The Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan met guitarist James Iha while working in a record store, and the two began recording demos, which Corgan describes as "gloomy little goth-pop records". He met bassist D'arcy Wretzky after a local show, arguing with her about a band that had just played, The Dan Reed Network. Soon after, the Smashing Pumpkins were formed. The trio began to play together at local clubs with a drum machine for percussion. To secure a show at the Metro in Chicago, the band recruited drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, and played for the first time as a quartet on October 5, 1988.
The addition of Chamberlin drove the band in a heavier direction almost immediately. On the band's debut album, Gish (1991), the band integrated psychedelic rock and heavy metal into their sound. Gish fared better than expected, but the follow-up, Siamese Dream, released on Virgin Records in 1993, became a multi-platinum hit. The band became known for internal drama during this period, with Corgan frequently characterized in the music press as a "control freak" due to rumors that Corgan played all the guitar and bass parts on Siamese Dream (a rumor that Corgan later confirmed as true). Despite this, the album was well received by critics, and the songs "Today", "Cherub Rock", and "Disarm" became hits.
The band's 1995 follow-up effort, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, was more successful, spawning a string of hit singles. According to Jon Pareles from The New York Times, Corgan wanted to "lose himself and find himself..." in this album. The album was nominated for seven Grammy awards that year, and would eventually be certified ten times platinum in the United States. The song "1979" was Corgan's biggest hit to date, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's modern rock and mainstream rock charts. Their appearance on Saturday Night Live on November 11, 1995, to promote this material (their second appearance on the show overall) was also the television debut appearance of Corgan's shaved head, which he has maintained consistently since.
On July 12, 1996, touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin died in a Manhattan hotel room of a heroin overdose after he and Chamberlin used the drug together. Chamberlin was later arrested on a misdemeanor drug possession charge. The Smashing Pumpkins made the decision to fire Chamberlin and continue as a trio. This shakeup, coupled with Corgan going through a divorce and the death of his mother, influenced the somber mood of the band's next album, 1998's Adore. Featuring a darker, more subdued and heavily electronic sound at a time when alternative rock was declining in mainstream cachet, Adore divided both critics and fans, resulting in a significant decrease in album sales (it sold 1.3 million discs in the US).
Chamberlin was reunited with the band in 1999. In 2000, they released Machina/The Machines of God, a concept album on which the band deliberately played to their public image. Critics were again divided, and sales were lower than before; Machina is the second lowest-selling commercially released Smashing Pumpkins album to date, with U.S. sales of 583,000 units up to 2005. During the recording for Machina, Wretzky quit the band and was replaced for the upcoming tour by former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. In 2000 the band announced they would break up at the end of the year, and soon after released Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music free over the Internet. The Smashing Pumpkins played their last show on December 2, 2000, at the Cabaret Metro.
2001–2005: Zwan and solo career
Following a brief stint touring with New Order in the summer, Corgan reunited with Chamberlin to form the band Zwan with Corgan's old friend Matt Sweeney in late 2001. According to Neil Strauss of New York Times, during his few live performances with the band, Corgan says "is still a work in progress". The lineup was completed with guitarist David Pajo and bassist Paz Lenchantin. The band had two distinct incarnations, the primary approach being an upbeat rock band with a three-guitar-driven sound, the second, a folk and gospel inspired acoustic side with live strings. The quintet performed throughout 2002, and their debut album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in early 2003 to generally positive reviews. In the midst of their supporting tour for the album, mounting conflict between Corgan and Chamberlin, and the other band members led to the cancellation of the rest of the tour as the band entered an apparent hiatus, formally announcing a breakup in September 2003.
In 2004, Corgan began writing revealing autobiographical posts on his website and his MySpace page, blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins, calling Wretzky "a mean spirited drug addict," and criticizing his former Zwan bandmates' fixation with "indie cred" and calling them "filthy", opportunistic, and selfish.
On September 17, 2003, Billy presented his poetry at the Art Institute of Chicago's Rubloff Auditorium. In late 2004, Corgan published Blinking with Fists, a book of poetry. Despite mixed reviews, the book debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list. Around this time, he began posting autobiographical writings online under the title The Confessions of Billy Corgan.
Also in 2004, he began a solo music career, landing on an electronic/shoegaze/alternative rock sound for his first solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, co-produced and arranged by Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb. Released on June 21, 2005, through Reprise Records, it garnered mixed reviews from the press and only sold 69,000 copies. Corgan toured behind his solo album with a touring band that included Linda Strawberry, Brian Liesegang and Matt Walker in 2005. This tour was not as extensive as previous Smashing Pumpkins or Zwan tours. Prior to recording TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan had recorded some 72 songs inspired by Chicago history for the largely acoustic ChicagoSongs project, which have yet to be released.
2005–present: The Smashing Pumpkins revival
In 2005, Corgan took out a full-page ad in Chicago's two major newspapers (Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun-Times) revealing his desire to re-form the Smashing Pumpkins. Several days later, Jimmy Chamberlin accepted Corgan's offer for a reunion.
On April 20, 2006, the band's official website confirmed that the group was indeed reuniting. The re-formed Smashing Pumpkins went into studio for much of 2006 and early 2007, and performed its first show in seven years on May 22, 2007, with new members Ginger Pooley (bass) and Jeff Schroeder (guitar) replacing Wretzky and Iha. The new album, titled Zeitgeist, was released in the United States on July 10, 2007, and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts. Corgan and the rest of the Pumpkins toured extensively throughout 2007 and 2008, also releasing the EP American Gothic and the singles "G.L.O.W." and "Superchrist". Chamberlin left the band in March 2009, and Corgan elected to continue under the name.
In summer 2009, Corgan formed the band Spirits in the Sky to play a tribute concert to the late Sky Saxon of the Seeds. He toured with the band, composed of ex-Catherine member and "Superchrist" producer Kerry Brown, the Electric Prunes bassist Mark Tulin, Strawberry Alarm Clock keyboardist Mark Weitz, frequent Corgan collaborator Linda Strawberry, flautist Kevin Dippold, "Superchrist" violinist Ysanne Spevack, saxist Justin Norman, new Pumpkins drummer Mike Byrne, and Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, playing covers and new Pumpkins material at several clubs in California. At the end of the tour, Corgan, Byrne, Tulin, and Brown headed back to Chicago to begin work on the new Smashing Pumpkins album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The lineup at the time which included new bassist Nicole Fiorentino, toured through much of 2010, then spent 2011 recording the "album-within-an-album" Oceania and mounting tours of the United States and Europe. However, Byrne and Fiorentino would later leave the band in 2014.
In April Corgan announced a new solo record of "experimental" recordings he made in 2007, via the Smashing Pumpkins' website. The album, which he titled AEGEA was released exclusively on vinyl, with 250 copies being made. Most of those copies were sold online, and a few copies were sold at Madame Zuzu's, a tea house he owns and operates in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago. The album was released on May 15.
On July 25, 2014, Corgan announced that the tapes from his "Siddhartha" show from March 2014 were being transferred for sale, much in the vein of AEGEA. The set was expected to contain between 5 and 6 discs.
During the summer 2014, Corgan recorded The Smashing Pumpkins's tenth studio album, Monuments to an Elegy, with Tommy Lee and Jeff Schroeder. The album was released in early December 2014.
In September 2015, Corgan started a blog of vintage photographs that he himself curated, and which he called "People and Their Cars". The website also included an email listing for the blog, titled "The Red Border Club". This list was to be used for information on upcoming People and Their Cars and "Hexestential" books and merchandise, along with access to additional images.
On September 8, 2016, Corgan announced, in a Facebook live video, that he had recorded a new solo album with producer Rick Rubin, and it would consist of 12 or 13 tracks. He described work on the album as being near completion, though a release date was not given.
On August 22, 2017, he announced the solo album, giving its title as Ogilala.
On February 16, 2018, Corgan announced the Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour, a reunion tour for The Smashing Pumpkins. The lineup consists of himself, James Iha, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder. It is rumored that former bassist D'arcy Wretzky was not a part of the lineup due to unresolved tension between her and Corgan. However, she has stated that after offering her a contract, Corgan retracted it, saying that "we also have to balance the forces at play... there is no room for error." After Wretzky released text messages between her and Corgan, a feud ensued, with each party attacking each other with biting remarks.
On November 22, 2019, Corgan released his third solo album Cotillions, which he called "a labor of love". He also said, "This is absolutely an album from my heart."
Professional wrestling career
Resistance Pro Wrestling (2011–2014)
In 2011 Corgan formed a Chicago-based independent wrestling promotion called Resistance Pro. Two years later, in 2013, he starred in a commercial for Walter E. Smithe Furniture, using the platform to promote his wrestling company.
In March 2014 it was reported that Corgan was in discussions with American television channel AMC to develop an unscripted reality series about Resistance Pro. The premise being a behind-the-scenes look at the promotion as Corgan "takes over creative direction for the independent wrestling company". The show was given the green light by AMC, under the working title of "Untitled Billy Corgan Wrestling Project," the same month.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2015–2016)
In April 2015 Corgan was announced as the new Senior Producer of Creative and Talent Development for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where his role was to "develop characters and create story lines", which he has called "a dream come true". In August 2016, Corgan took over as the promotion's new president.
In November 2016 Corgan had left TNA after disputes about not being paid on time, and subsequently, Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp and Impact Ventures, parent company of TNA Impact Wrestling, announced that Anthem has provided a credit facility to TNA to fund operations.
In 2016, he loaned money to Anthem Sports & Entertainment to fund TNA, and they promised to pay him back.
On November 11, Corgan signed a settlement with Anthem – TNA and Anthem announced that they would be repaying TNA's loan from Corgan.
Newly appointed TNA/Impact Wrestling President Ed Nordholm credits the invention of and the vision behind the Matt Hardy Broken gimmick to Jeremy Borash, David Lagana and Billy Corgan. While Borash specifically had the most input into the gimmick of the three aside from Matt, the Hardy family deny that Borash was the sole person behind the gimmick.
National Wrestling Alliance (2017–present)
On May 1, 2017, it was reported that Corgan had agreed to purchase the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), including its name, rights, trademarks and championship belts. The purchase was confirmed by NWA president Bruce Tharpe later that same day. Corgan's ownership took effect on October 1, 2017.
Personal life
Mental health
For much of his life, Corgan has struggled with anxiety, depression, panic attacks, self-harm, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and suicidal ideation. He attributes these problems to the abuse he endured as a child at the hands of his father and stepmother, as well as other personal issues. He has since become an advocate for abuse support networks.
Involvement with sports
Corgan is a keen supporter of the Chicago Cubs, and an occasional commentator on the team for WXRT DJ Lin Brehmer. He has appeared at many Cubs games, occasionally throwing the ceremonial first pitch or singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". He is also a fan of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks, and became personal friends with Dennis Rodman and Chris Chelios. He is an avid professional wrestling fan, and appeared at an ECW event wielding an acoustic guitar as a weapon. In 2008, the Pumpkins song "Doomsday Clock" was used by ROH for promotional videos. On April 26, 2010, Corgan appeared on the SIRIUS Satellite Radio program Right After Wrestling with Arda Ocal to discuss his love for wrestling and the importance of unique theme songs for characters. On August 26, 2010, he took part in a storyline with AAA during a concert for MTV World Stage. As far as other entertainment, Corgan once commented that all he watches on TV are "sports and the Three Stooges". In March 2008, he was spotted in the crowd at the final day of the cricket test match between New Zealand and England.
Spiritual beliefs
Corgan accepts some parts of Catholicism. In 2009, he launched Everything From Here to There, an interfaith website that is devoted to "Mind-Body-Soul" integration. He mentions praying each morning and night to be able to see through Jesus Christ's eyes and feel with his heart. An analysis of the symbolism of Corgan's lyrics considered the blend of beliefs he has cited in various interviews, which include ideas about religion, multiple dimensions, and psychic phenomena. In an interview on the Howard Stern Show, Corgan claimed to have once had an encounter with a person who had the ability to shapeshift.
Family and romantic relationships
Corgan's mother Martha died in December 1996. The song "For Martha", from Adore, was written in her memory. In the early 2000s Corgan named his label Martha's Music after her as well. A picture of Martha as a little girl sitting on a fake moon at Riverview Park is featured on the flipside of the Siamese Dream booklet.
In 1993, Corgan married art conservator and artist Chris Fabian, his longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend. They were married at a small ceremony at his house in Wrigleyville. Corgan and Fabian separated in late 1995. Corgan filed for divorce in December 1996 on grounds of "irreconcilable differences," and the divorce was granted in 1997. Corgan refused to discuss the marriage for years, only allowing that it was "unhappy." In 2005 he described the circumstances of his marriage in depth via his personal blog.
In late 1995, Corgan started dating Ukrainian photographer Yelena Yemchuk, who later contributed to several Smashing Pumpkins videos and album art. He continued to date Yemchuk until around 2004. According to Corgan, his breakup with her contributed to the themes of his 2005 solo release TheFutureEmbrace. In 2005, Corgan dated musician Emilie Autumn for a number of months. The pair collaborated on multiple occasions during this time, with Autumn providing vocals and violin on his solo album and costume for a supporting music video.
In early 2006, Corgan moved in with Courtney Love and her daughter. According to Love, he had his own wing in her Hollywood Hills mansion. Two years later, Love criticized him publicly over his alleged refusal to attend her daughter's sweet 16 party. After they parted ways, Corgan stated in a March 2010 interview, "I have no interest in supporting [Love] in any way, shape or form. You can't throw enough things down the abyss with a person like that." Shortly after, when her band's album Nobody's Daughter was released, Corgan used Twitter to post anger-filled rants against her in reference to two songs he had written, "Samantha" and "How Dirty Girls Get Clean", which ended up on the album without his permission. Love then wrote an apology to him on her Facebook account, but the feud continued. Corgan took to Twitter to rant against her again. She responded to him on Twitter, saying, "All i am is nice about you so if you wanna be mean be mean i don't feel anything. i have too much to feel dear." In 2008, he blamed his dedication to music for what he called "a bad marriage and seven bad girlfriends in a row". The two eventually reconciled, and Love was invited to perform at Smashing Pumpkins 30th Anniversary Show.
In 2009, Corgan was linked with pop star Jessica Simpson. He started dating Australian singer Jessica Origliasso in 2010, and remained in a relationship with her until early June 2012. Origliasso blamed their split on their careers forcing them to spend too much time apart.
He began dating Chloe Mendel in 2013. She gave birth to a son named Augustus Juppiter Corgan on November 16, 2015. Their second child, a daughter named Philomena Clementine Corgan, was born on October 2, 2018.
Political beliefs
In 1998, Corgan said he had not participated in an election since 1992, when he voted for Bill Clinton.
Following the election of Barack Obama in 2008, Corgan stated: "I'm very proud of my country right now for doing the right thing." He has since said that he was disappointed with Obama's presidency, and that he lacks faith in both major political parties. In 2009, he posted a transcript of a webcast by political activist Lyndon LaRouche to the official Smashing Pumpkins forum. On March 10, 2009, Corgan testified in front of Congress on behalf of the musicFIRST Coalition. He spoke in favor of H.R. 848, the Performance Rights Act, which gives musicians and artists their share of compensation when their music is played on radio stations.
Speaking to right-wing conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones in 2016, Corgan called progressive political campaigners "social justice warriors", and compared them to Maoists, cult members, and the Ku Klux Klan; he also stated that their actions were a threat to freedom of speech. In 2018, he called himself a "free-market libertarian capitalist".
Diet
Corgan adopted a pescetarian diet in 2013, and stated in 2017 that he had begun following a vegan and gluten-free diet. In 2012, he opened a tea house in Ravinia, Highland Park called Madame Zuzu's Tea House, which closed in 2018 and reopened in downtown Highland Park in 2020.
Collaborations
In addition to performing, Corgan has produced albums for Ric Ocasek, The Frogs, and Catherine. He shared songwriting credit on several songs on Hole's 1998 album Celebrity Skin; the title track became Corgan's second No. 1 modern rock hit. He also acted as a consultant for Marilyn Manson during the recording of the album Mechanical Animals. He has produced three soundtracks for the movies Ransom (1996), Stigmata (1999) and Spun (2002) in which he appeared as a doctor.
Corgan appeared at the 1996 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremonies. He inducted one of his biggest musical influences, Pink Floyd. He played acoustic guitar during the ceremony with Pink Floyd, when they performed their song "Wish You Were Here".
In particular, Corgan guided and collaborated with three bands in the 2000s—Breaking Benjamin (during sessions for 2004's We Are Not Alone), Taproot (for Blue-Sky Research, 2005), and Sky Saxon.
In 2010, Corgan claimed co-writing credit (with ex-girlfriend Courtney Love) on at least two of the songs on Hole's final album Nobody's Daughter and tried to assert a right of approval before the album could be released. Corgan had helped develop the album during its early stages. The album was released without the writing controversy ever being litigated or publicly resolved.
Corgan appeared as a guest vocalist on the song "Loki Cat" on Jimmy Chamberlin's first solo album, Life Begins Again, and Chamberlin played drums for the song "DIA" on Corgan's solo debut, where Robert Smith from The Cure teamed up with Corgan to do a cover of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody". In 2007, Corgan provided vocals on the Scorpions' song "The Cross", on their album Humanity: Hour I. In 2010 Corgan featured on Ray Davies' album See My Friends on the album's closer, a mash-up of the Kinks songs "All Day and All of the Night" and "Destroyer". He also contributed his guitar work on "Did You Miss Me" by The Veronicas. Corgan has also collaborated with Tony Iommi, Blindside, David Bowie (singing "All the Young Dudes" with Bowie at Bowie's 50th birthday party), New Order and Marianne Faithfull.
Musical style and influences
When asked in a 1994 Rolling Stone interview about his influences, Corgan replied:
Corgan wrote six articles for Guitar World in 1995, and his solos for "Cherub Rock" and "Geek U.S.A." were included on their list of the top guitar solos of all time. AllMusic said "Starla" "proves that Corgan was one of the finest (and most underrated) rock guitarists of the '90s", while Rolling Stone called him and his Smashing Pumpkins bandmates "ruthless virtuosos". His solo for "Soma" was No. 24 on Rolling Stone'''s list of the top guitar solos. He is a fan of Eddie Van Halen and interviewed him in 1996 for Guitar World. Other guitarists Corgan rates highly include Uli Jon Roth, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Leslie West, Dimebag Darrell and Robin Trower.
His bass playing, which has featured on nearly every Smashing Pumpkins album, was influenced by post-punk figures like Peter Hook and Simon Gallup.
Corgan has praised Radiohead, saying "if they're not the best band in the world, then they're one of the best". He is also a fan of Pantera and appeared briefly in their home video 3 Watch It Go. Other favorites include Depeche Mode, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Rush, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Cure, Metallica, Slayer, Queen, Electric Light Orchestra, Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, and Spiritualized. Corgan stated in 1997 that upon hearing the U2 song "New Year's Day", at 16, "[U2] quickly became the most important band in the world to me." Corgan particularly went out of his way to praise Rush in his interview for Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, a documentary on the band, where he criticized mainstream reviewers for consciously marginalizing the band and their influence, and highlighted the fact that many of his musical peers were influenced by Rush.
He has listed his artistic influences as William S. Burroughs, Pablo Picasso, Jimi Hendrix, Jack Kerouac, and Philip K. Dick.Corgan, Billy. Twitter Q&A. October 3, 2011.
Instruments
Corgan played (during the Gish-Siamese Dream era) a customized '57 Reissue Fender Stratocaster equipped with three Fender Lace Sensor pickups (the Lace Sensor Blue in the neck position, the Lace Sensor Silver in the middle position, and the Lace Sensor Red at the bridge position). It also has a five-position pickup selector switch which he installed himself. This battered Strat became his number one guitar by default. He owned a '74 Strat that was stolen shortly after Gish was completed. Corgan was reunited with this guitar in early 2019.
Corgan also used a wide variety of guitars on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. On "Where Boys Fear to Tread", Corgan used a Les Paul Junior Reissue, and on "Tonight Tonight" he used a '72 Gibson ES-335. He is also known to use a '74 Strat which has since been painted baby blue. That guitar was used on the recordings for "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and also "Muzzle", because the heavier wood gave it the basic Strat sound with a bit more bottom.
During the recording and tour of the album Zeitgeist, Corgan used a Schecter C-1 EX baritone, finished in black with Tony Iommi signature pickups. Corgan also endorsed Reverend Guitars in his Zwan era, most notably playing a Reverend Slingshot.
In 2008 Corgan released to the market his own Fender Stratocaster. This new guitar was made to Corgan's exact specs to create his famous mid-'90s buzzsaw tone; the instrument features three DiMarzio pickups (two custom for this instrument), a string-through hardtail bridge and a satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish. When playing live, he uses both his signature Strats as well as two other Fender Strats, one in red with a white pick guard and one in silver-grey with a black pick guard; a Gibson Tony Iommi signature SG; and his Schecter C-1 (only used on the Zeitgeist song "United States").
A video called 'Stompland' on the official Smashing Pumpkins YouTube channel is informative on Corgan's choice of effects pedals. In the video he reveals an extensive collection of pedals used throughout his career with the Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan's tone is often characterized by his use of fuzz pedals, particularly vintage versions of the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
In 2016 Reverend Guitars released the BC-1 Billy Corgan signature guitar featuring Railhammer Billy Corgan signature pickups.
The Reverend Billy Corgan Signature Terz was launched at the 2018 NAMM show—an electric version of a 19th-century instrument that is played as if the guitar is capoed at the third fret, and tuned G-g standard. Corgan often uses the capo at the third fret and asked for a higher-register guitar.
Corgan is noted for having used Marshall and Diezel amps. He has also used modular preamps based on many different amps in conjunction with Mesa Boogie poweramps. The preamps were custom built by Salvation Mods.
In August 2017, Corgan sold a large collection of instruments and gear used throughout his career via music gear website Reverb.
In 2020, Billy Corgan collaborated with Brian Carstens of Carstens Amplification to produce Grace, Billy's first and only signature guitar amplifier to date.
Discography
Solo
Albums
Singles
Soundtrack work
1996: Ransom1997: First Love, Last Rites ("When I Was Born, I Was Bored")
1999: Stigmata2000: Any Given Sunday (Corgan is credited on "Be A Man" by Hole)
2002: Spun (Corgan wrote original songs for this soundtrack)
2006: "Dance of the Dead" (episode of Masters of Horror)
2007: When a Man Falls in the Forest (three previously unreleased songs)
2011: The Chicago Code (Corgan performs the opening theme, written by Robert Duncan)
2018: Rampage – "The Rage" Performed by Kid Cudi featuring vocals by Corgan (from the Smashing Pumpkins track Bullet with Butterfly Wings)
Albums featured
1991: Sparkle (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1994: Songs About Girls (by Catherine, The song "It's No Lie" is produced by Corgan)
1994: Chante Des Chanson Sur Les Filles (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1994: Sleepy EP (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1996: Guitars That Rule the World, Vol. 2: Smell the Fuzz:The Superstar Guitar Album (by Various Artists, Corgan is credited as writer and performer of "Ascendo")
1997: Starjob (by The Frogs, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1997: Troublizing (by Ric Ocasek, Corgan is credited as writer of "Asia Minor" and playing guitar on "The Next Right Moment", "Crashland Consequence", "Situation", "Fix on You" and "People We Know")
1998: Celebrity Skin (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Celebrity Skin", "Hit So Hard", "Malibu", "Dying" and "Petals")
1998: "I Belong to You" single (by Lenny Kravitz, Corgan remixed the second track "If You Can't Say No (Flunky in the attic Mix)")
1998: Mechanical Animals by Marilyn Manson, Corgan performed backing vocals on Speed of Pain, although not credited, he is thanked in the album credits.
1999: Paraphernalia (by Enuff Z'Nuff, Corgan is credited as guitarist on the song "Everything Works If You Let It")
2000: Iommi (by Tony Iommi, Corgan is credited as writer of and vocalist on "Black Oblivion")
2001: Get Ready (by New Order, Corgan is contributing voice on "Turn My Way")
2002: Kissin Time (by Marianne Faithfull, Corgan is credited as writer of "Wherever I Go", "I'm on Fire" and contributing on "Something Good")
2003: "Lights Out" single (by Lisa Marie Presley, Corgan is credited as writer of "Savior")
2004: We Are Not Alone (by Breaking Benjamin, Corgan is credited as writer of "Follow", "Forget It" and "Rain")
2004: The Essential Cheap Trick (by Cheap Trick, Corgan is playing guitar on the live recording of the track "Mandocello")
2004: About a Burning Fire (by Blindside, Corgan is playing guitar on "Hooray, It's L.A.")
2005: Life Begins Again (by Jimmy Chamberlin Complex, Corgan is contributing voice on "Loki Cat")
2005: Blue-Sky Research (by Taproot, Corgan wrote the track "Lost in the Woods" and co-wrote the tracks "Violent Seas" and "Promise")
2006: ONXRT:Live From The Archives Volume 9 (A compilation CD from the radio station 93 WXRT in Chicago features the live recording of the track "A100")
2007: Humanity: Hour I (by Scorpions, Corgan is contributing voice on "The Cross")
2010: Nobody's Daughter (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Pacific Coast Highway", "Samantha" and "Loser Dust")
2010: See My Friends (by Ray Davies, Corgan is featured in the song "All Day And All of the Night/Destroyer")
2011: Ghost on the Canvas (by Glen Campbell, Corgan is featured in the song ."There's No Me... Without You")
2014: "Did You Miss Me" (on The Veronicas by The Veronicas, guitar contributions)
2019: The Nothing (by Korn, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "You'll Never Find Me")
2019: Screamer (by Third Eye Blind, Corgan described as the "musical consigliere" of the album, and credited as co-writer of "Light It Up")
2020: Ceremony (by Phantogram, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Into Happiness" and "Love Me Now")
As part of The Smashing Pumpkins
References
External links
The Smashing Pumpkins official website
BillyCorgan.Livejournal.com – An extensive 7-year archive of Billy's journal entries, including The Confessions of Billy Corgan, solo work and the revival of the Pumpkins.
Billy Corgan collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
Poems by Billy Corgan at alittlepoetry.com Three poems from Blinking With Fists''
1967 births
Living people
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American guitarists
21st-century American singers
Alternative rock guitarists
Alternative rock singers
American alternative rock musicians
American libertarians
American bloggers
American former Christians
American male bloggers
American male guitarists
American male poets
American male singers
American male songwriters
American music video directors
American people of Irish descent
American people of Italian descent
American rock guitarists
American rock singers
American rock songwriters
Guitarists from Chicago
Impact Wrestling executives
Lead guitarists
Musicians from Chicago
People with mood disorders
People with obsessive–compulsive disorder
Professional wrestling promoters
Singers from Chicago
Songwriters from Illinois
Starchildren members
The Smashing Pumpkins members
Veganism activists
Writers from Chicago
Zwan members | false | [
"Fabian Marley (born 27 July 1968 in Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican who was best known for his claim that Bob Marley was his father. These claims later proved to be false using DNA analysis. At the age of 12 Fabian and his mother relocated to Eastern Kingston, Jamaica. His first encounter with the music was with the Rainbow Band. While playing with the band he began working with The Skatalites. He garnered his style of music the orthodox way from mentors, Johnny Moore, Roland Alphanso, and other members from the band. After mastering the harmonica he then acquired piano skills and then later learned how to play the guitar.\n\nMusical career\nFabian was part of an upcoming band called Sounds of Rainbow. While working on their album and single they struggled from a tragic experience that led to the death of some of the band's members. Left with only Fabian, the lead drummer and the lead guitarist, the survivors of the band were forced to find new members. The result of this tragic experience led Fabian to step up to the plate and become the lead singer of the band.\n\nIn effort to continue with his music career, Fabian began recording at All Fruits Studio's, Cave Man Studio's and Afari Studio's. All the mixing and mastering was done at the Marley Estate owned Tuff Gong Recording Studios. Fabian's vision on his music came with the guidance from powerhouse producers Rohan \"Snowcone\" Fuller and Clive Hunt. Fabian's vision is to continue the work that Bob Marley started, and spreading the gospel of reggae music and unity worldwide. He continues to seek guidance from Bunny Wailer who has given him the most advice on his music career.\n\nDiscography\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n \n \n \n \n Fabian Marleys France tour write up\n Fabian Marley on Hip Hop Weekly\n\nExternal links\nSlideshow picture article on Bob Marleys 14 Children via GlobalGrind.com (Website ran by Michael Skolnik and Russell Simmons) .\nArticle on Fabian Marley Via Loopjamaica.com\ncoverage of Fabian Marleys single \"Through The Fire\"\nFabian Marley on World Star Hip Hop\n Live Interview with Bunny Wailer & Fabian Marley\nListiing of Bob Marleys Sons\n\n1968 births\nLiving people\nJamaican reggae musicians",
"Kit McClure (born 1951) is a jazz musician, bandleader of the all-female big band Kit McClure Band and founder of the Women in Jazz Project. In 2004, she started a project to revive interest in the all-female big band, International Sweethearts of Rhythm. She has been a featured player with the Barry White Orchestra and toured with Sam & Dave.\n\nEarly life\nMcClure was born on March 18, 1951 in Little Falls, New Jersey. She grew up in Little Falls, New Jersey. She began learning piano and music theory at seven. She became so skilled by age 10 that her parents made her stop, which McClure attributes to their dislike of the music business. She was allowed to continue with a different instrument, but her parents vetoed her interest in the trombone as it was not ladylike. She chose the clarinet, as it was the closest thing to the saxophone which she was more interested in. Later, she was able to convince her music teacher in high school to let her switch to trombone secretly. Her parents did find out, but she was able to continue. McClure recalls how they discouraged her from playing trombone with statements like \"No will marry you. Your lips will be so strong that you'll kiss a boy and knock his teeth out.\" At the age of 16, she began playing trombone with local bands.\n\nCollege Years \nIn 1969, she was accepted into the first class of undergraduate women at Yale University. McClure wanted to join the Yale Marching Band but was told there are no women in the marching band. She forced them to integrate the band and allow her to join. About her experience in the Yale Marching Band, McClure recalls that \"There was never a moment when I was allowed to forget that I was doing something I wasn't supposed to do.\" There, she formed an all-female jazz-rock fusion band while continuing to freelance as a trombonist and saxophonist. Graduating from Yale in 1975, she attended graduate school at Manhattan School of Music.\n\nCareer \nShe formed the Women in Jazz Project because she noticed the effects of gender discrimination in jazz, for instrumentalists in particular, even though she was able to find work herself. Her Kit McClure Band opened at The Ritz (now Webster Hall) in New York City in 1982. The band's repertoire ranges from the music of Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington to Aretha Franklin, James Brown and Beyoncé. The band's debut recording was Some Like It Hot on RedHot Records. Their second release, Burning (also on RedHot Records), was produced by Teo Macero in 1996.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOfficial Site\nWomen in Jazz\nKit McClure at Motéma Music\n\n1951 births\nLiving people\nAmerican jazz musicians\nMusicians from Jersey City, New Jersey\nPeople from Little Falls, New Jersey\nManhattan School of Music alumni\nYale University alumni\nAmerican women jazz musicians\nMotéma Music artists\n21st-century American women"
]
|
[
"Billy Corgan",
"1967-1987: Childhood and formative years",
"Where did Billy grow up?",
"Glendale Heights, Illinois.",
"Where did he attend school?",
"Marquardt Middle School",
"Did Billy attend college or did he just go out to start a career in music?",
"Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time.",
"Was he the only child or did he have siblings?",
"His parents had one more son,",
"When he set to do music full time what was his first step?",
"Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, he moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band,",
"What band was he in?",
"The Marked",
"Did the band do any touring or appearances?",
"). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved;",
"After the band didn't make it what was Billy next venture?",
"Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father.",
"Did he continue to write music or did he find a new band?",
"Corgan performed with Wayne Static in Static's first band Deep Blue Dream, in 1987/88."
]
| C_f7f748df004544729408cda74b466786_1 | What was his next role after performing with Wayne? | 10 | What was Billy's next role after performing with Deep Blue Dream? | Billy Corgan | William Patrick Corgan Jr. was born at Columbus Hospital in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on March 17, 1967 as the oldest son of William Corgan Sr., a blues/rock guitarist, and Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was soon remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. During this time, Corgan alleges he was subject to much physical and emotional abuse by his stepmother. Corgan also developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys would live alone with the stepmother, with both of Corgan's birth parents living separately within an hour's drive. Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his Marquardt Middle School baseball team, he collected baseball cards (amassing over 10,000) and listened to every Chicago Cubs game. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream, Illinois, he had become only an average athlete. He decided to start playing guitar when he went over to a friend's house and saw his friend's Flying V. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. Corgan, Sr. steered his son stylistically, encouraging him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support, and the younger Corgan taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. Corgan performed in a string of bands in high school, and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time. Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, he moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. Corgan performed with Wayne Static in Static's first band Deep Blue Dream, in 1987/88. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | William Patrick Corgan (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only permanent member of the rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. He is currently the owner and promoter of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago in 1988, the band was joined by bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Strong album sales and large-scale tours propelled the band's increasing fame in the 1990s until their break-up in 2000. Corgan started a new band called Zwan, and after their demise he released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, in 2005 and a collection of poetry, Blinking with Fists, before reforming the Smashing Pumpkins. The new version of the band, consisting of Corgan and a revolving lineup, has released and toured new albums extensively since 2007. In October 2017, Corgan released Ogilala, his first solo album in over a decade. His latest album, Cotillions, was released on November 22, 2019.
In 2011, Corgan founded Resistance Pro Wrestling. He later joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2015, becoming its president in August 2016. After leaving TNA in November 2016, he purchased the NWA in October 2017, transforming it from a brand licensing organization to a singular promotion.
Early life
William Patrick Corgan was born at Columbus Hospital in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago on March 17, 1967, the oldest son of guitarist William Corgan Sr. and his wife Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic and is of Irish descent. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. Corgan alleges that his stepmother was abusive to him, both physically and emotionally. He developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys lived alone with their stepmother, and both of his birth parents lived separately within an hour's drive.
Corgan described his father as a "drug dealing, gun-toting, musician [and] mad man". Although this had a huge negative impact on his childhood, in retrospect he respects his father as a great musician.
Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his baseball team at Marquardt Middle School, he amassed over 10,000 baseball cards and listened to every Chicago Cubs game on the radio. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School, his athletic prowess had greatly diminished. He decided to start playing guitar after seeing a Flying V when he went over to a friend's house. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. His father encouraged him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support. So he taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Van Halen, Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. He performed in a string of bands in high school and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time.
Music career
1985–1987: Early career
Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, Corgan moved to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. From 1987 to 1988, he played guitar in Chicago band Deep Blue Dream, which also featured future Static-X frontman Wayne Static. He left the band to focus on The Smashing Pumpkins.
1988–2000: The Smashing Pumpkins
Upon his return to Chicago, Corgan had already devised his next project – a band that would be called The Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan met guitarist James Iha while working in a record store, and the two began recording demos, which Corgan describes as "gloomy little goth-pop records". He met bassist D'arcy Wretzky after a local show, arguing with her about a band that had just played, The Dan Reed Network. Soon after, the Smashing Pumpkins were formed. The trio began to play together at local clubs with a drum machine for percussion. To secure a show at the Metro in Chicago, the band recruited drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, and played for the first time as a quartet on October 5, 1988.
The addition of Chamberlin drove the band in a heavier direction almost immediately. On the band's debut album, Gish (1991), the band integrated psychedelic rock and heavy metal into their sound. Gish fared better than expected, but the follow-up, Siamese Dream, released on Virgin Records in 1993, became a multi-platinum hit. The band became known for internal drama during this period, with Corgan frequently characterized in the music press as a "control freak" due to rumors that Corgan played all the guitar and bass parts on Siamese Dream (a rumor that Corgan later confirmed as true). Despite this, the album was well received by critics, and the songs "Today", "Cherub Rock", and "Disarm" became hits.
The band's 1995 follow-up effort, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, was more successful, spawning a string of hit singles. According to Jon Pareles from The New York Times, Corgan wanted to "lose himself and find himself..." in this album. The album was nominated for seven Grammy awards that year, and would eventually be certified ten times platinum in the United States. The song "1979" was Corgan's biggest hit to date, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's modern rock and mainstream rock charts. Their appearance on Saturday Night Live on November 11, 1995, to promote this material (their second appearance on the show overall) was also the television debut appearance of Corgan's shaved head, which he has maintained consistently since.
On July 12, 1996, touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin died in a Manhattan hotel room of a heroin overdose after he and Chamberlin used the drug together. Chamberlin was later arrested on a misdemeanor drug possession charge. The Smashing Pumpkins made the decision to fire Chamberlin and continue as a trio. This shakeup, coupled with Corgan going through a divorce and the death of his mother, influenced the somber mood of the band's next album, 1998's Adore. Featuring a darker, more subdued and heavily electronic sound at a time when alternative rock was declining in mainstream cachet, Adore divided both critics and fans, resulting in a significant decrease in album sales (it sold 1.3 million discs in the US).
Chamberlin was reunited with the band in 1999. In 2000, they released Machina/The Machines of God, a concept album on which the band deliberately played to their public image. Critics were again divided, and sales were lower than before; Machina is the second lowest-selling commercially released Smashing Pumpkins album to date, with U.S. sales of 583,000 units up to 2005. During the recording for Machina, Wretzky quit the band and was replaced for the upcoming tour by former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. In 2000 the band announced they would break up at the end of the year, and soon after released Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music free over the Internet. The Smashing Pumpkins played their last show on December 2, 2000, at the Cabaret Metro.
2001–2005: Zwan and solo career
Following a brief stint touring with New Order in the summer, Corgan reunited with Chamberlin to form the band Zwan with Corgan's old friend Matt Sweeney in late 2001. According to Neil Strauss of New York Times, during his few live performances with the band, Corgan says "is still a work in progress". The lineup was completed with guitarist David Pajo and bassist Paz Lenchantin. The band had two distinct incarnations, the primary approach being an upbeat rock band with a three-guitar-driven sound, the second, a folk and gospel inspired acoustic side with live strings. The quintet performed throughout 2002, and their debut album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in early 2003 to generally positive reviews. In the midst of their supporting tour for the album, mounting conflict between Corgan and Chamberlin, and the other band members led to the cancellation of the rest of the tour as the band entered an apparent hiatus, formally announcing a breakup in September 2003.
In 2004, Corgan began writing revealing autobiographical posts on his website and his MySpace page, blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins, calling Wretzky "a mean spirited drug addict," and criticizing his former Zwan bandmates' fixation with "indie cred" and calling them "filthy", opportunistic, and selfish.
On September 17, 2003, Billy presented his poetry at the Art Institute of Chicago's Rubloff Auditorium. In late 2004, Corgan published Blinking with Fists, a book of poetry. Despite mixed reviews, the book debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list. Around this time, he began posting autobiographical writings online under the title The Confessions of Billy Corgan.
Also in 2004, he began a solo music career, landing on an electronic/shoegaze/alternative rock sound for his first solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, co-produced and arranged by Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb. Released on June 21, 2005, through Reprise Records, it garnered mixed reviews from the press and only sold 69,000 copies. Corgan toured behind his solo album with a touring band that included Linda Strawberry, Brian Liesegang and Matt Walker in 2005. This tour was not as extensive as previous Smashing Pumpkins or Zwan tours. Prior to recording TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan had recorded some 72 songs inspired by Chicago history for the largely acoustic ChicagoSongs project, which have yet to be released.
2005–present: The Smashing Pumpkins revival
In 2005, Corgan took out a full-page ad in Chicago's two major newspapers (Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun-Times) revealing his desire to re-form the Smashing Pumpkins. Several days later, Jimmy Chamberlin accepted Corgan's offer for a reunion.
On April 20, 2006, the band's official website confirmed that the group was indeed reuniting. The re-formed Smashing Pumpkins went into studio for much of 2006 and early 2007, and performed its first show in seven years on May 22, 2007, with new members Ginger Pooley (bass) and Jeff Schroeder (guitar) replacing Wretzky and Iha. The new album, titled Zeitgeist, was released in the United States on July 10, 2007, and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts. Corgan and the rest of the Pumpkins toured extensively throughout 2007 and 2008, also releasing the EP American Gothic and the singles "G.L.O.W." and "Superchrist". Chamberlin left the band in March 2009, and Corgan elected to continue under the name.
In summer 2009, Corgan formed the band Spirits in the Sky to play a tribute concert to the late Sky Saxon of the Seeds. He toured with the band, composed of ex-Catherine member and "Superchrist" producer Kerry Brown, the Electric Prunes bassist Mark Tulin, Strawberry Alarm Clock keyboardist Mark Weitz, frequent Corgan collaborator Linda Strawberry, flautist Kevin Dippold, "Superchrist" violinist Ysanne Spevack, saxist Justin Norman, new Pumpkins drummer Mike Byrne, and Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, playing covers and new Pumpkins material at several clubs in California. At the end of the tour, Corgan, Byrne, Tulin, and Brown headed back to Chicago to begin work on the new Smashing Pumpkins album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The lineup at the time which included new bassist Nicole Fiorentino, toured through much of 2010, then spent 2011 recording the "album-within-an-album" Oceania and mounting tours of the United States and Europe. However, Byrne and Fiorentino would later leave the band in 2014.
In April Corgan announced a new solo record of "experimental" recordings he made in 2007, via the Smashing Pumpkins' website. The album, which he titled AEGEA was released exclusively on vinyl, with 250 copies being made. Most of those copies were sold online, and a few copies were sold at Madame Zuzu's, a tea house he owns and operates in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago. The album was released on May 15.
On July 25, 2014, Corgan announced that the tapes from his "Siddhartha" show from March 2014 were being transferred for sale, much in the vein of AEGEA. The set was expected to contain between 5 and 6 discs.
During the summer 2014, Corgan recorded The Smashing Pumpkins's tenth studio album, Monuments to an Elegy, with Tommy Lee and Jeff Schroeder. The album was released in early December 2014.
In September 2015, Corgan started a blog of vintage photographs that he himself curated, and which he called "People and Their Cars". The website also included an email listing for the blog, titled "The Red Border Club". This list was to be used for information on upcoming People and Their Cars and "Hexestential" books and merchandise, along with access to additional images.
On September 8, 2016, Corgan announced, in a Facebook live video, that he had recorded a new solo album with producer Rick Rubin, and it would consist of 12 or 13 tracks. He described work on the album as being near completion, though a release date was not given.
On August 22, 2017, he announced the solo album, giving its title as Ogilala.
On February 16, 2018, Corgan announced the Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour, a reunion tour for The Smashing Pumpkins. The lineup consists of himself, James Iha, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder. It is rumored that former bassist D'arcy Wretzky was not a part of the lineup due to unresolved tension between her and Corgan. However, she has stated that after offering her a contract, Corgan retracted it, saying that "we also have to balance the forces at play... there is no room for error." After Wretzky released text messages between her and Corgan, a feud ensued, with each party attacking each other with biting remarks.
On November 22, 2019, Corgan released his third solo album Cotillions, which he called "a labor of love". He also said, "This is absolutely an album from my heart."
Professional wrestling career
Resistance Pro Wrestling (2011–2014)
In 2011 Corgan formed a Chicago-based independent wrestling promotion called Resistance Pro. Two years later, in 2013, he starred in a commercial for Walter E. Smithe Furniture, using the platform to promote his wrestling company.
In March 2014 it was reported that Corgan was in discussions with American television channel AMC to develop an unscripted reality series about Resistance Pro. The premise being a behind-the-scenes look at the promotion as Corgan "takes over creative direction for the independent wrestling company". The show was given the green light by AMC, under the working title of "Untitled Billy Corgan Wrestling Project," the same month.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2015–2016)
In April 2015 Corgan was announced as the new Senior Producer of Creative and Talent Development for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where his role was to "develop characters and create story lines", which he has called "a dream come true". In August 2016, Corgan took over as the promotion's new president.
In November 2016 Corgan had left TNA after disputes about not being paid on time, and subsequently, Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp and Impact Ventures, parent company of TNA Impact Wrestling, announced that Anthem has provided a credit facility to TNA to fund operations.
In 2016, he loaned money to Anthem Sports & Entertainment to fund TNA, and they promised to pay him back.
On November 11, Corgan signed a settlement with Anthem – TNA and Anthem announced that they would be repaying TNA's loan from Corgan.
Newly appointed TNA/Impact Wrestling President Ed Nordholm credits the invention of and the vision behind the Matt Hardy Broken gimmick to Jeremy Borash, David Lagana and Billy Corgan. While Borash specifically had the most input into the gimmick of the three aside from Matt, the Hardy family deny that Borash was the sole person behind the gimmick.
National Wrestling Alliance (2017–present)
On May 1, 2017, it was reported that Corgan had agreed to purchase the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), including its name, rights, trademarks and championship belts. The purchase was confirmed by NWA president Bruce Tharpe later that same day. Corgan's ownership took effect on October 1, 2017.
Personal life
Mental health
For much of his life, Corgan has struggled with anxiety, depression, panic attacks, self-harm, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and suicidal ideation. He attributes these problems to the abuse he endured as a child at the hands of his father and stepmother, as well as other personal issues. He has since become an advocate for abuse support networks.
Involvement with sports
Corgan is a keen supporter of the Chicago Cubs, and an occasional commentator on the team for WXRT DJ Lin Brehmer. He has appeared at many Cubs games, occasionally throwing the ceremonial first pitch or singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". He is also a fan of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks, and became personal friends with Dennis Rodman and Chris Chelios. He is an avid professional wrestling fan, and appeared at an ECW event wielding an acoustic guitar as a weapon. In 2008, the Pumpkins song "Doomsday Clock" was used by ROH for promotional videos. On April 26, 2010, Corgan appeared on the SIRIUS Satellite Radio program Right After Wrestling with Arda Ocal to discuss his love for wrestling and the importance of unique theme songs for characters. On August 26, 2010, he took part in a storyline with AAA during a concert for MTV World Stage. As far as other entertainment, Corgan once commented that all he watches on TV are "sports and the Three Stooges". In March 2008, he was spotted in the crowd at the final day of the cricket test match between New Zealand and England.
Spiritual beliefs
Corgan accepts some parts of Catholicism. In 2009, he launched Everything From Here to There, an interfaith website that is devoted to "Mind-Body-Soul" integration. He mentions praying each morning and night to be able to see through Jesus Christ's eyes and feel with his heart. An analysis of the symbolism of Corgan's lyrics considered the blend of beliefs he has cited in various interviews, which include ideas about religion, multiple dimensions, and psychic phenomena. In an interview on the Howard Stern Show, Corgan claimed to have once had an encounter with a person who had the ability to shapeshift.
Family and romantic relationships
Corgan's mother Martha died in December 1996. The song "For Martha", from Adore, was written in her memory. In the early 2000s Corgan named his label Martha's Music after her as well. A picture of Martha as a little girl sitting on a fake moon at Riverview Park is featured on the flipside of the Siamese Dream booklet.
In 1993, Corgan married art conservator and artist Chris Fabian, his longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend. They were married at a small ceremony at his house in Wrigleyville. Corgan and Fabian separated in late 1995. Corgan filed for divorce in December 1996 on grounds of "irreconcilable differences," and the divorce was granted in 1997. Corgan refused to discuss the marriage for years, only allowing that it was "unhappy." In 2005 he described the circumstances of his marriage in depth via his personal blog.
In late 1995, Corgan started dating Ukrainian photographer Yelena Yemchuk, who later contributed to several Smashing Pumpkins videos and album art. He continued to date Yemchuk until around 2004. According to Corgan, his breakup with her contributed to the themes of his 2005 solo release TheFutureEmbrace. In 2005, Corgan dated musician Emilie Autumn for a number of months. The pair collaborated on multiple occasions during this time, with Autumn providing vocals and violin on his solo album and costume for a supporting music video.
In early 2006, Corgan moved in with Courtney Love and her daughter. According to Love, he had his own wing in her Hollywood Hills mansion. Two years later, Love criticized him publicly over his alleged refusal to attend her daughter's sweet 16 party. After they parted ways, Corgan stated in a March 2010 interview, "I have no interest in supporting [Love] in any way, shape or form. You can't throw enough things down the abyss with a person like that." Shortly after, when her band's album Nobody's Daughter was released, Corgan used Twitter to post anger-filled rants against her in reference to two songs he had written, "Samantha" and "How Dirty Girls Get Clean", which ended up on the album without his permission. Love then wrote an apology to him on her Facebook account, but the feud continued. Corgan took to Twitter to rant against her again. She responded to him on Twitter, saying, "All i am is nice about you so if you wanna be mean be mean i don't feel anything. i have too much to feel dear." In 2008, he blamed his dedication to music for what he called "a bad marriage and seven bad girlfriends in a row". The two eventually reconciled, and Love was invited to perform at Smashing Pumpkins 30th Anniversary Show.
In 2009, Corgan was linked with pop star Jessica Simpson. He started dating Australian singer Jessica Origliasso in 2010, and remained in a relationship with her until early June 2012. Origliasso blamed their split on their careers forcing them to spend too much time apart.
He began dating Chloe Mendel in 2013. She gave birth to a son named Augustus Juppiter Corgan on November 16, 2015. Their second child, a daughter named Philomena Clementine Corgan, was born on October 2, 2018.
Political beliefs
In 1998, Corgan said he had not participated in an election since 1992, when he voted for Bill Clinton.
Following the election of Barack Obama in 2008, Corgan stated: "I'm very proud of my country right now for doing the right thing." He has since said that he was disappointed with Obama's presidency, and that he lacks faith in both major political parties. In 2009, he posted a transcript of a webcast by political activist Lyndon LaRouche to the official Smashing Pumpkins forum. On March 10, 2009, Corgan testified in front of Congress on behalf of the musicFIRST Coalition. He spoke in favor of H.R. 848, the Performance Rights Act, which gives musicians and artists their share of compensation when their music is played on radio stations.
Speaking to right-wing conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones in 2016, Corgan called progressive political campaigners "social justice warriors", and compared them to Maoists, cult members, and the Ku Klux Klan; he also stated that their actions were a threat to freedom of speech. In 2018, he called himself a "free-market libertarian capitalist".
Diet
Corgan adopted a pescetarian diet in 2013, and stated in 2017 that he had begun following a vegan and gluten-free diet. In 2012, he opened a tea house in Ravinia, Highland Park called Madame Zuzu's Tea House, which closed in 2018 and reopened in downtown Highland Park in 2020.
Collaborations
In addition to performing, Corgan has produced albums for Ric Ocasek, The Frogs, and Catherine. He shared songwriting credit on several songs on Hole's 1998 album Celebrity Skin; the title track became Corgan's second No. 1 modern rock hit. He also acted as a consultant for Marilyn Manson during the recording of the album Mechanical Animals. He has produced three soundtracks for the movies Ransom (1996), Stigmata (1999) and Spun (2002) in which he appeared as a doctor.
Corgan appeared at the 1996 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremonies. He inducted one of his biggest musical influences, Pink Floyd. He played acoustic guitar during the ceremony with Pink Floyd, when they performed their song "Wish You Were Here".
In particular, Corgan guided and collaborated with three bands in the 2000s—Breaking Benjamin (during sessions for 2004's We Are Not Alone), Taproot (for Blue-Sky Research, 2005), and Sky Saxon.
In 2010, Corgan claimed co-writing credit (with ex-girlfriend Courtney Love) on at least two of the songs on Hole's final album Nobody's Daughter and tried to assert a right of approval before the album could be released. Corgan had helped develop the album during its early stages. The album was released without the writing controversy ever being litigated or publicly resolved.
Corgan appeared as a guest vocalist on the song "Loki Cat" on Jimmy Chamberlin's first solo album, Life Begins Again, and Chamberlin played drums for the song "DIA" on Corgan's solo debut, where Robert Smith from The Cure teamed up with Corgan to do a cover of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody". In 2007, Corgan provided vocals on the Scorpions' song "The Cross", on their album Humanity: Hour I. In 2010 Corgan featured on Ray Davies' album See My Friends on the album's closer, a mash-up of the Kinks songs "All Day and All of the Night" and "Destroyer". He also contributed his guitar work on "Did You Miss Me" by The Veronicas. Corgan has also collaborated with Tony Iommi, Blindside, David Bowie (singing "All the Young Dudes" with Bowie at Bowie's 50th birthday party), New Order and Marianne Faithfull.
Musical style and influences
When asked in a 1994 Rolling Stone interview about his influences, Corgan replied:
Corgan wrote six articles for Guitar World in 1995, and his solos for "Cherub Rock" and "Geek U.S.A." were included on their list of the top guitar solos of all time. AllMusic said "Starla" "proves that Corgan was one of the finest (and most underrated) rock guitarists of the '90s", while Rolling Stone called him and his Smashing Pumpkins bandmates "ruthless virtuosos". His solo for "Soma" was No. 24 on Rolling Stone'''s list of the top guitar solos. He is a fan of Eddie Van Halen and interviewed him in 1996 for Guitar World. Other guitarists Corgan rates highly include Uli Jon Roth, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Leslie West, Dimebag Darrell and Robin Trower.
His bass playing, which has featured on nearly every Smashing Pumpkins album, was influenced by post-punk figures like Peter Hook and Simon Gallup.
Corgan has praised Radiohead, saying "if they're not the best band in the world, then they're one of the best". He is also a fan of Pantera and appeared briefly in their home video 3 Watch It Go. Other favorites include Depeche Mode, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Rush, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Cure, Metallica, Slayer, Queen, Electric Light Orchestra, Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, and Spiritualized. Corgan stated in 1997 that upon hearing the U2 song "New Year's Day", at 16, "[U2] quickly became the most important band in the world to me." Corgan particularly went out of his way to praise Rush in his interview for Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, a documentary on the band, where he criticized mainstream reviewers for consciously marginalizing the band and their influence, and highlighted the fact that many of his musical peers were influenced by Rush.
He has listed his artistic influences as William S. Burroughs, Pablo Picasso, Jimi Hendrix, Jack Kerouac, and Philip K. Dick.Corgan, Billy. Twitter Q&A. October 3, 2011.
Instruments
Corgan played (during the Gish-Siamese Dream era) a customized '57 Reissue Fender Stratocaster equipped with three Fender Lace Sensor pickups (the Lace Sensor Blue in the neck position, the Lace Sensor Silver in the middle position, and the Lace Sensor Red at the bridge position). It also has a five-position pickup selector switch which he installed himself. This battered Strat became his number one guitar by default. He owned a '74 Strat that was stolen shortly after Gish was completed. Corgan was reunited with this guitar in early 2019.
Corgan also used a wide variety of guitars on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. On "Where Boys Fear to Tread", Corgan used a Les Paul Junior Reissue, and on "Tonight Tonight" he used a '72 Gibson ES-335. He is also known to use a '74 Strat which has since been painted baby blue. That guitar was used on the recordings for "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and also "Muzzle", because the heavier wood gave it the basic Strat sound with a bit more bottom.
During the recording and tour of the album Zeitgeist, Corgan used a Schecter C-1 EX baritone, finished in black with Tony Iommi signature pickups. Corgan also endorsed Reverend Guitars in his Zwan era, most notably playing a Reverend Slingshot.
In 2008 Corgan released to the market his own Fender Stratocaster. This new guitar was made to Corgan's exact specs to create his famous mid-'90s buzzsaw tone; the instrument features three DiMarzio pickups (two custom for this instrument), a string-through hardtail bridge and a satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish. When playing live, he uses both his signature Strats as well as two other Fender Strats, one in red with a white pick guard and one in silver-grey with a black pick guard; a Gibson Tony Iommi signature SG; and his Schecter C-1 (only used on the Zeitgeist song "United States").
A video called 'Stompland' on the official Smashing Pumpkins YouTube channel is informative on Corgan's choice of effects pedals. In the video he reveals an extensive collection of pedals used throughout his career with the Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan's tone is often characterized by his use of fuzz pedals, particularly vintage versions of the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
In 2016 Reverend Guitars released the BC-1 Billy Corgan signature guitar featuring Railhammer Billy Corgan signature pickups.
The Reverend Billy Corgan Signature Terz was launched at the 2018 NAMM show—an electric version of a 19th-century instrument that is played as if the guitar is capoed at the third fret, and tuned G-g standard. Corgan often uses the capo at the third fret and asked for a higher-register guitar.
Corgan is noted for having used Marshall and Diezel amps. He has also used modular preamps based on many different amps in conjunction with Mesa Boogie poweramps. The preamps were custom built by Salvation Mods.
In August 2017, Corgan sold a large collection of instruments and gear used throughout his career via music gear website Reverb.
In 2020, Billy Corgan collaborated with Brian Carstens of Carstens Amplification to produce Grace, Billy's first and only signature guitar amplifier to date.
Discography
Solo
Albums
Singles
Soundtrack work
1996: Ransom1997: First Love, Last Rites ("When I Was Born, I Was Bored")
1999: Stigmata2000: Any Given Sunday (Corgan is credited on "Be A Man" by Hole)
2002: Spun (Corgan wrote original songs for this soundtrack)
2006: "Dance of the Dead" (episode of Masters of Horror)
2007: When a Man Falls in the Forest (three previously unreleased songs)
2011: The Chicago Code (Corgan performs the opening theme, written by Robert Duncan)
2018: Rampage – "The Rage" Performed by Kid Cudi featuring vocals by Corgan (from the Smashing Pumpkins track Bullet with Butterfly Wings)
Albums featured
1991: Sparkle (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1994: Songs About Girls (by Catherine, The song "It's No Lie" is produced by Corgan)
1994: Chante Des Chanson Sur Les Filles (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1994: Sleepy EP (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1996: Guitars That Rule the World, Vol. 2: Smell the Fuzz:The Superstar Guitar Album (by Various Artists, Corgan is credited as writer and performer of "Ascendo")
1997: Starjob (by The Frogs, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1997: Troublizing (by Ric Ocasek, Corgan is credited as writer of "Asia Minor" and playing guitar on "The Next Right Moment", "Crashland Consequence", "Situation", "Fix on You" and "People We Know")
1998: Celebrity Skin (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Celebrity Skin", "Hit So Hard", "Malibu", "Dying" and "Petals")
1998: "I Belong to You" single (by Lenny Kravitz, Corgan remixed the second track "If You Can't Say No (Flunky in the attic Mix)")
1998: Mechanical Animals by Marilyn Manson, Corgan performed backing vocals on Speed of Pain, although not credited, he is thanked in the album credits.
1999: Paraphernalia (by Enuff Z'Nuff, Corgan is credited as guitarist on the song "Everything Works If You Let It")
2000: Iommi (by Tony Iommi, Corgan is credited as writer of and vocalist on "Black Oblivion")
2001: Get Ready (by New Order, Corgan is contributing voice on "Turn My Way")
2002: Kissin Time (by Marianne Faithfull, Corgan is credited as writer of "Wherever I Go", "I'm on Fire" and contributing on "Something Good")
2003: "Lights Out" single (by Lisa Marie Presley, Corgan is credited as writer of "Savior")
2004: We Are Not Alone (by Breaking Benjamin, Corgan is credited as writer of "Follow", "Forget It" and "Rain")
2004: The Essential Cheap Trick (by Cheap Trick, Corgan is playing guitar on the live recording of the track "Mandocello")
2004: About a Burning Fire (by Blindside, Corgan is playing guitar on "Hooray, It's L.A.")
2005: Life Begins Again (by Jimmy Chamberlin Complex, Corgan is contributing voice on "Loki Cat")
2005: Blue-Sky Research (by Taproot, Corgan wrote the track "Lost in the Woods" and co-wrote the tracks "Violent Seas" and "Promise")
2006: ONXRT:Live From The Archives Volume 9 (A compilation CD from the radio station 93 WXRT in Chicago features the live recording of the track "A100")
2007: Humanity: Hour I (by Scorpions, Corgan is contributing voice on "The Cross")
2010: Nobody's Daughter (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Pacific Coast Highway", "Samantha" and "Loser Dust")
2010: See My Friends (by Ray Davies, Corgan is featured in the song "All Day And All of the Night/Destroyer")
2011: Ghost on the Canvas (by Glen Campbell, Corgan is featured in the song ."There's No Me... Without You")
2014: "Did You Miss Me" (on The Veronicas by The Veronicas, guitar contributions)
2019: The Nothing (by Korn, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "You'll Never Find Me")
2019: Screamer (by Third Eye Blind, Corgan described as the "musical consigliere" of the album, and credited as co-writer of "Light It Up")
2020: Ceremony (by Phantogram, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Into Happiness" and "Love Me Now")
As part of The Smashing Pumpkins
References
External links
The Smashing Pumpkins official website
BillyCorgan.Livejournal.com – An extensive 7-year archive of Billy's journal entries, including The Confessions of Billy Corgan, solo work and the revival of the Pumpkins.
Billy Corgan collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
Poems by Billy Corgan at alittlepoetry.com Three poems from Blinking With Fists''
1967 births
Living people
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American guitarists
21st-century American singers
Alternative rock guitarists
Alternative rock singers
American alternative rock musicians
American libertarians
American bloggers
American former Christians
American male bloggers
American male guitarists
American male poets
American male singers
American male songwriters
American music video directors
American people of Irish descent
American people of Italian descent
American rock guitarists
American rock singers
American rock songwriters
Guitarists from Chicago
Impact Wrestling executives
Lead guitarists
Musicians from Chicago
People with mood disorders
People with obsessive–compulsive disorder
Professional wrestling promoters
Singers from Chicago
Songwriters from Illinois
Starchildren members
The Smashing Pumpkins members
Veganism activists
Writers from Chicago
Zwan members | false | [
"Dennis Wayne's Dancers was a New York based contemporary ballet company founded around dancer Dennis Wayne by Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Formed in the summer of 1975 after Wayne left the American Ballet Theatre, the contemporary ballet company drew on the talents of many famous dancers and received critical acclaim. The dancers came from a variety of different companies, including Joffrey Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. Known for their virtuosic skill, the company performed both ballet and modern dance works. Dennis Wayne’s Dancers presented diverse programs with pieces by a variety of choreographers; though he also presented work he choreographed himself. Dennis Wayne also danced with the Company, but did not begin appearing with them until 1986.\n\nThe original Company was disbanded in 1980 after Dennis Wayne suffered injuries in a car accident and was unable to perform. However, the company was reorganized in 1981 and received great critical acclaim. The Company toured widely, performing internationally in 64 countries. They also performed at various acclaimed venues in the United States including Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival where the Company made its world debut. In 1989 the Company disbanded after nine years.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Archive film of Dennis Wayne's Dancers performing Etudes aux Objets in 1977 at Jacob's Pillow\n\nContemporary dance companies",
"Melvin Wayne Osmond (born August 28, 1951) is the second oldest of the original Osmond Brothers singers and the fourth oldest of the nine Osmond children.\n\nLife and career\nOsmond was born in Ogden, Utah, the son of Olive May (née Davis; 1925–2004) and George Virl Osmond (1917–2007). Wayne has been performing since he was six years old. He made his national television debut on NBC's The Andy Williams Show, with brothers Alan, Merrill, and Jay. The four remained with Andy Williams for seven years.\n\nAlan, Merrill, Jay, and Wayne Osmond were also cast in nine episodes of the 1963-1964 ABC Western series, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, with Wayne in the role of young Leviticus Kissel. The series is the story of a wagon train to the American West as seen from the eyes of 12-year-old Jaime McPheeters, played by Kurt Russell, with other roles for Dan O'Herlihy, Michael Witney, and Charles Bronson.\n\nMostly a lead-guitarist and singer, Wayne Osmond can also play the flute, clarinet, saxophone, violin, banjo, piano, drums, and bagpipes.\n\nWayne Osmond with brothers Merrill and Alan wrote many of the Osmonds' hit songs during the 1970s.\n\nFamily\nOn December 13, 1974, Wayne married Kathlyn White from Bountiful, Utah, a former Miss Davis County Fair (Davis County, Utah) and Miss Utah of 1974. Wayne and Kathlyn have five children, three daughters and two sons.\nIn the 1990s, Wayne moved to Branson, Missouri, where he performed and toured with his brothers at the Osmond Family Theater, Country Tonight, Moon River Theater, and Branson Variety Theater.\n\nIn 1997, Wayne was diagnosed with a brain tumor which was successfully treated. He remains an avid aviation enthusiast. He has announced that because of health issues (including worsening hearing loss, a recurring problem in the Osmond family), he has retired and will no longer be appearing or performing with his family. His last intended appearance with them was October 13, 2018, which he mainly agreed to do for financial reasons, although he made an additional appearance with his brothers a year later as a birthday present to their sister, Marie.\n\nSee also \nList of people with brain tumors\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nWayne Osmond on Official Osmond Family website\n\n1951 births\nLiving people\nAmerican banjoists\nAmerican clarinetists\nAmerican flautists\nAmerican Latter Day Saints\nAmerican male drummers\nAmerican male guitarists\nAmerican male pianists\nAmerican male pop singers\nAmerican male saxophonists\nAmerican male television actors\nAmerican multi-instrumentalists\nAmerican rock guitarists\nAmerican rock saxophonists\nAmerican pop rock singers\nAmerican rock pianists\nAmerican rock drummers\nAmerican rock singers\nAmerican violinists\nGuitarists from Los Angeles\nGuitarists from Utah\nLead guitarists\nSongwriters from California\nBagpipe players\nMusicians from Ogden, Utah\nPeople from Branson, Missouri\nThe Osmonds members\nOsmond family (show business)\n20th-century American drummers\n20th-century American guitarists\n20th-century American pianists\n21st-century American pianists\n21st-century clarinetists\n21st-century saxophonists\n21st-century violinists\n20th-century American male musicians\n21st-century American male musicians"
]
|
[
"The Future Sound of London",
"New millennium, new sound"
]
| C_91ed719efa8743459e3be26fcb7aeabc_0 | What was going on with the group? | 1 | What was going on with the Future Sound of London group? | The Future Sound of London | After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth. Cobain gained much from the experience, realizing that music was a tool for psychic exploration and entertainment but also one for healing . The pair returned in 2002 with "The Isness", a record heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia and released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous. It was preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's track as well as new material from The Isness sessions. The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound which was inspired by Cobain's and Dougan's (separate) travels to India and immersion in spiritualism, nevertheless the majority was positive with Muzik magazine offering the album a 6/5 mark and dubbing it "...a white beam of light from heaven..." and other British publications such as The Times, The Guardian and MOJO praising the album and the band's ability to do something so completely different from what they had done before. Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland. Rumoured to be accompanied by a film of the same title, the album took The Isness' psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. The album was ignored by the press, but was received more favourably among fans than its predecessor. Unlike The Isness, which featured almost 100 musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, Alice in Ultraland featured a fairly solid band lineup throughout, which extended to live shows which the band had undertaken away from the ISDN cables from 2005 onwards. ...song form has just become too limited. And when I say 'psychedelic', it's not a reference to 60s music but to the basic outlook of a child, which we all have. I think this is the only salvation now. Dance music taught us how to use the studio in a new way, but we have to now take that knowledge and move on with it. This stuff, electronic music, is not dead. It's a process that is ongoing. We have to take hold of the past and go forward with it... CANNOTANSWER | After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth. | The Future Sound of London (often abbreviated FSOL) is a British electronic music duo composed of Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans. Described as a "boundary-pushing" electronic act by AllMusic, their work covers many areas of electronic music, such as techno, ambient, house music, trip hop, psychedelia, and dub.
During the 1990s, they released the albums Lifeforms (1994) and Dead Cities (1996) to some commercial success. The artists were fairly enigmatic in the past but have become more candid with their fanbase in recent years with social websites like Myspace, YouTube, their forum and many interviews in which Cobain almost always speaks for the pair.
History
Formation
Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans met in the mid-1980s while studying electronics at university in Manchester, England. Dougans had already been making electronic music for some time, working between Glasgow and Manchester, when the pair first began working together in various local clubs. In 1988, Dougans embarked on a project for the Stakker graphics company. The result was Stakker Humanoid, a single that went on to reach number 17 in the UK charts, becoming the first credible UK acid house tune to cross over into the mainstream. Cobain contributed to the accompanying album. A video was also produced.
In the following three years the pair produced music under a variety of aliases, releasing a plethora of singles and EPs, including the successful bleep techno singles "Q" and "Metropolis", some of which would end up on the duo's first compilation album Earthbeat in 1992. "Metropolis" was also very influential in the house scene.
FSOL
In 1991 they released their first album, Accelerator, which was followed by their single "Papua New Guinea", featuring a looping Lisa Gerrard vocal sample from Dead Can Dance's "Dawn of the Iconoclast" and a bassline from Meat Beat Manifesto's "Radio Babylon". The track has made several British "Best songs ever" polls and track specific accolades. In 1992, Virgin Records were looking for electronic bands and, after the chart success of "Papua New Guinea", quickly signed them, giving them free rein to experiment, with a reported advance payment of £75,000. With this the duo invested in a collection of Akai S1000 samplers and other equipment.
They began to play with more ambient music, resulting in the Tales of Ephidrina album of 1993, the first album to be released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias; this was well received by press and marked a distinct shift from the more techno-driven Accelerator, retaining some dance beats, but focusing more on texture, mood and sound. The album was adventurously released on Quigley, the band's own short-lived offshoot of Virgin. At this time, the band had begun experimenting with radio performance, broadcasting now legendary three-hour radio shows to Manchester's Kiss FM from their studio.
Lifeforms, ambience and the ISDN tour
"Cascade", released as a single in 1993, introduced the commercial music world to the new FSOL sound. Despite its length, clocking in at nearly forty minutes and stretched over six parts, the track made the UK top 30, and previewed what was to come. In 1994, they released Lifeforms to critical acclaim. The album featured unconventional use of percussion interspersed with ambient segments. The eponymous single from the album featured Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins on vocals. Throughout the record, familiar motifs and samples repeated themselves, sitting alongside tropical birdsong, rainfall, wind and an array of other exotic sounds, lending the album a natural, organic feel, backed up by the environmental landscapes that filled the artwork booklet. Brian Dougan's father was involved with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop which was a heavy influence in the almost musique concrète feel to Lifeforms. The album was also a top 10 hit on the UK album chart. Cobain has said that around this time that journalists would come to talk to them and one of the first things they would ask would be if they liked Brian Eno (whom they cite as an influence), to which they would laugh and say that they were about looking forward, not to the past. It was, to them, very much a new work rather than just another Eno-type ambient album.
That year, they released the limited edition album ISDN, which featured live broadcasts they had made over ISDN lines to various radio stations worldwide to promote Lifeforms, including The Kitchen, an avant-garde performance space in New York and several appearances on the late John Peel's celebrated BBC radio Sessions shows. These shows marked the evolution of the Kiss FM shows of 1992 and 1993, moving away from DJ sets and into ambient soundscapes, with previously released material performed alongside unheard tracks. One live performance to BBC Radio 1 featured Robert Fripp performing alongside the band. The released album's tone was darker and more rhythmic than Lifeforms. Cobain stated that with ISDN they had wanted to achieve something epic and grand but no matter how much technological or personal support they had (and they had everything they could have possibly wanted) they never got to truly do what they envisioned; he admits to wanting too much at this time, even though the album was successful; the 90s, for Cobain in particular, were a time of frustration and feelings of not being able to do what they wanted to, because the technology at the time didn't fit the band's ideas. The following year, the album was re-released with expanded artwork and a slightly altered track list as an unlimited pressing.
In addition to music composition, their interests have covered a number of areas including film and video, 2D and 3D computer graphics, animation in making almost all their own videos for their singles, radio broadcasting and creating their own electronic devices for sound making. They have released works under numerous aliases.
Dead Cities
The 1995 edition of John Peel Sessions featured three entirely new tracks, which took the breakbeats and chaotic sampling of ISDN away from their previous lush synthscapes and toward a new, more contemporary sound. In 1996, they released Dead Cities, which expanded upon these early demos. The new material was a mix of ambient textures and dance music. The lead single, "My Kingdom", introduced the sound, with a video featuring shots of London, and a sound suggesting a dystopian city. The album also featured the band's first collaboration with composer Max Richter, which included the big beat track "We Have Explosive" that featured manipulated samples sourced from Run DMC. Released in 1997; it was used on the Mortal Kombat: Annihilation soundtrack, and (before the single release) in 1996 on the video game WipE'out" 2097, along with the track "Landmass", which they wrote specifically for the game. Also, a remix of "Papua New Guinea" by Hybrid was later featured in the soundtrack to WipEout Fusion in 2002. "We Have Explosive" was the second single from the album, and the band's highest charting single (beating "My Kingdom" by one spot to number 12), and over the course of its five-part extended version included hints of funk, something which would be heard again when the band returned many years later.
The album was promoted by what the band described as "the fuck rock'n'roll tour" via ISDN, lasting several months and gaining much media attention by being the first band to do a world tour without leaving their studio. While 1994's tour had focused on creating soundscapes and unreleased material, the 1996 and 1997 shows were more conventional, each offering a different take on the Dead Cities experience, blending then-current tracks with occasional exclusive pieces of the time. However, the final few performances jettisoned this material for tracks from a series of unreleased sessions, containing more live sounding material, including considerable use of guitar and percussion. These "1997 sessions" were highly sought after by fans, with some tracks forming the basis of the band's psychedelic projects of the following decade, while others appeared on the From The Archives series.
New millennium
After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth. Cobain gained much from the experience, realising that music was a tool for psychic exploration and entertainment but also one for healing. The pair returned in 2002 with "The Isness", a record heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia and released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous. It was preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's track as well as new material from The Isness sessions. The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound which was inspired by Cobain's and Dougan's (separate) travels to India and immersion in spiritualism, nevertheless the majority was positive with Muzik magazine offering the album a 6/5 mark and dubbing it "...a white beam of light from heaven..." and other British publications such as The Times, The Guardian and MOJO praising the album and the band's ability to do something so completely different from what they had done before.
Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland. Rumoured to be accompanied by a film of the same title, the album took The Isness psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. The album was ignored by the press, but was received more favourably among fans than its predecessor. Unlike The Isness, which featured almost 100 musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, Alice in Ultraland featured a fairly solid band lineup throughout, which extended to live shows which the band had undertaken away from the ISDN cables from 2005 onwards.
5.1 & digital experimentation
The FSOL moniker re-appeared in 2006 with a piece entitled "A Gigantic Globular Burst Of Anti-Static", intended as an experiment in 5.1 Surround Sound and created for an exhibition at the Kinetica art museum entitled, appropriately, "Life Forms". The piece contained reworked material from their archives and newer, more abstract ambient music. The piece was coupled with a video called "Stereo Sucks", marking the band's theories on the limitations of stereo music, which was released on a DVD packaged with issue 182 of Future Music Magazine in December 2006 and on FSOL's own download site in March 2007.
They also moved into creating their own sounds when they began constructing electronic instruments, the result of which can be heard on the 2007 release Hand-Made Devices. At their website Glitch TV (where the motto is "[A] sudden interruption in sanity, continuity or programme function") they sell and explain their devices such as the "Electronic Devices Digital Interface" glitch equipment.
FSOLdigital and the Archives
In 2007, the band uploaded several archive tracks online, for the first time revealing much of their unreleased work and unveiling some of the mystery behind the band. The old FSOL material, including the previously unreleased album Environments, along with a selection of newer experiments, the 5.1 experiments and a promise of unreleased Amorphous Androgynous psychedelic material, was uploaded for sale on their online shop, FSOLdigital.com.
In early March 2008, the band released a new online album as Amorphous Androgynous entitled The Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness, which they describe as "A collection of psychedelic relics from The Amorphous Androgynous, 1967-2007". The release retains the sound of their last two psychedelic albums, while expanding on the element of funk first introduced on 2005's Alice in Ultraland. They recorded their following album, The Woodlands of Old, under the alias of their imaginary engineer Yage. Unlike the techno work recorded as Yage in 1992, this new record was darker, more trip hop and world music-oriented and featured ex-Propellerheads member Will White.
From 2008, the band showcased a series of radio broadcasts and podcasts called The Electric Brain Storms, originally on stations such as Proton Radio, PBS radio in Australia, and Frisky Radio. The remaining shows appeared on the band's official site. and SoundCloud. The shows featured electronic, krautrock, experimental and psychedelic favourites of the band mixed in with known and unknown FSOL material, including newly recorded tracks, archived pieces, and new alias recordings. Many of the new tracks appeared on the band's Environments series. Cobain has described the new music as having "the introspective, kind of euphoric sadness that was always there in the FSOL melodies".
From this point, the band have been alternating their focus between different projects. In 2008, Environments II and From the Archives Vol. 5 were released on the band's site, followed by Environments 3 and From the Archives Vol. 6 in 2010; and Environments 4 and From the Archives Vol. 7 in 2012. Whilst the Archives feature old, unreleased material, the Environments albums feature a mixture of old demos, recently completed, and new tracks.
The band have continued to use the FSOLDigital platform to release side-projects and solo work, under names such as Blackhill Transmitter, EMS : Piano, Suburban Domestic and 6 Oscillators in Remittance, as well as distributing digital releases from other artists, including Daniel Pemberton, Herd, Kettel & Secede, Neotropic, Ross Baker and Seafar; they also continue to update The Pod Room with ISDN transmissions from the 1990s.
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind
Following on from the band's 1997 DJ set of the same name, a series of Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind mix CDs were begun in 2006. The first two were released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias, subtitled "Cosmic Space Music" and "Pagan Love Vibrations", with the first taking over two years to compile, mix and gain sample clearance, both featuring the band's psychedelic influences. A third is set for release sometime in 2010, and will be more electronic, mixed by the Future Sound of London. Further mixes in the series are expected in the future, to be curated by related artists, and the band took the concept live with an eleven-hour spot at 2009's Green Man festival, to contain live bands and DJ spots.
Noel Gallagher of British rock band Oasis, after hearing the first release, became a fan and asked the band to remix the following Oasis single "Falling Down". The Amorphous Androgynous responded with a 5 part, 22-minute Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remix, which Noel liked enough to release on its own 12". Noel also invited Cobain to DJ at the afterparty for one of Oasis' gigs at Wembley Arena.
The band continue the psychedelic theme to the mixes on their podcast site The Pod Room and on February 2010s Mojo Magazine cover CD. The Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remixes grow in popularity with commissions from Paul Weller and Pop Levi, and Cobain has suggested a full album of remixes and covers will appear on their recently formed Monstrous Bubble label
On 6 July 2011 it was announced that Noel Gallagher's second solo album will be in collaboration with The Amorphous Androgynous, and is set for release in 2012. In August 2012, Gallagher mentioned in various interviews that he is considering scrapping the collaborative album with Amorphous Androgynous due to not being completely satisfied with the mixes. Two songs from the project have surfaced as B-sides to Gallagher's singles in 2012: "Shoot a Hole into the Sun" (based on Gallagher's track "If I Had a Gun...") was a B-side to the single "Dream On", and a mix of "AKA... What a Life!" featured on the B-side of "Everybody's on the Run". However, as the project is currently shelved, the group have returned to original material, releasing the first in a series of Monstrous Bubble Soundtracks, entitled The Cartel. On Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' album Chasing Yesterday, The Amorphous Androgynous are credited as Co-producers of the tracks "The Right Stuff" and "The Mexican".
Future of the band
The group continue to give updates for the Galaxial Pharmaceutical news site and forum, while largely releasing material through their FSOLDigital imprint. They remain prolific, working on multiple projects at once. As "The Future Sound of London", they currently plan to continue releasing new material as part of the Environments series; the latest releases as of June 2019 are Environment Six and 6.5 from 2016.
On 26 April 2019, the band released Yage 2019, consisting of eleven songs. The album was also released on vinyl and CD on Record Store Day that year; the latter release featured an additional two tracks. The next year another album, Cascade 2020, was released. In 2021 they released We Have Explosive 2021.
Independence
Since the millennium, FSOL took a more independent turn with their career, releasing their more psychedelic Amorphous Androgynous on an independent label, The Isness on Artful Records and Alice in Ultraland on the progressive Harvest Records (an arm of EMI). They also have their own label called Electronic Brain Violence on which off-beat electronic artists such as Oil and Simon Wells (Headstone Lane) have released EPs and singles. Simon Wells also contributed to Dead Cities on the track "Dead Cities Reprise"
Nevertheless, Virgin records still controls FSOL's back catalog and was going to release the Teachings from the Electronic Brain compilation without them, but the duo insisted on taking control of the production of the project. Cobain says that, even with Virgin, the reason they were able to do their own thing and create the music they wanted in the 1990s was because they already had some major hits under their belts such as "Papua New Guinea", "Metropolis" and "Stakker Humanoid" before joining the label.
Cobain has said that FSOL's mentality has always been about making a journey of an album rather than focusing on trying to have hit singles. He said that they had several top 40 singles (and albums) in the 90s because they had enough fans and had built up enough of a reputation to achieve these hits while still concentrating on the album rather than any potential singles during their time at Virgin.
They have been signed to Passion Records sub-label Jumpin' & Pumpin' since they started out.
Aliases
Discography
Accelerator (1991)
Lifeforms (1994)
ISDN (1994)
Dead Cities (1996)
The Isness (2002) (as Amorphous Androgynous, except in the USA)
Environments (2007)
Environments II (2008)
Environments 3 (2010)
Environments 4 (2012)
Environment Five (2014)
Environment Six (2016)
Environment 6.5 (2016)
Yage 2019 (2019)
Cascade 2020 (2020)
Chart history
Singles charts
Album charts
See also
List of ambient music artists
Max Richter
References
External links
Future Sound of London.com - official website.
an overview of their studio equipment et cetera from 1994
Acid house musicians
Braindance musicians
Breakbeat music groups
British ambient music groups
English dance music groups
English house music duos
English techno music groups
Male musical duos
Astralwerks artists
Virgin Records artists
English experimental musical groups
Harvest Records artists
Hypnotic Records artists
Rephlex Records artists
Intelligent dance musicians
Musical groups established in 1988
Musical groups from Manchester
New-age music groups
Remixers | true | [
"Renaldo \"Obie\" Benson (June 14, 1936 – July 1, 2005) was an American soul and R&B singer and songwriter. He was best known as a founding member and the bass singer of Motown group the Four Tops, which he joined in 1953 and continued to perform with for over five decades, until April 8, 2005. He also co-wrote \"What's Going On\" which became a No. 2 hit for Marvin Gaye in 1971, and which Rolling Stone rated as No. 4 on their List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time released in 2004.\n\nBiography\n\nEarly career 1954–1964\nBenson attended Northern High School in Detroit, Michigan with Lawrence Payton. The pair met Levi Stubbs and Abdul \"Duke\" Fakir while singing at a friend's birthday party in 1954 and decided to form a group called the Four Aims. Roquel Billy Davis, who was Payton's cousin, was a fifth member of the group for a time and a songwriter for the group. Davis played an instrumental role in the group being signed by Chess Records who were mainly interested in Davis' songwriting ability. The group changed their name to the Four Tops to avoid confusion with the Ames Brothers and had one single \"Kiss Me Baby\" released through Chess which failed to chart. The Four Tops left Chess although Davis stayed with the company.\n\nThe group then went to Red Top Records and Riverside Records before signing with Columbia Records where they released \"Ain't That Love\" in 1960. This record was a supper club style record and the Four Tops would sing at a number of jazz venues in the early 1960s. Benson was responsible for the Tops' choreography in the early years of the group.\n\nCareer success 1964–1990\nIn 1963 they signed with Motown, initially recording a track for Motown's Workshop Jazz label. Benson and the other members already knew Barrett Strong, as he had written songs with Davis for Jackie Wilson including \"Lonely Teardrops\". The Four Tops worked with Holland-Dozier-Holland who wrote and produced a number of soul music hits for them over the next few years, including \"I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)\" and \"Reach Out I'll Be There\" which both topped the US pop charts.\n\nBenson was on tour with the Four Tops when he witnessed a scuffle between protesters and the police in Berkeley over a disused urban lot which the protesters called People's Park. He started writing the first draft of \"What's Going On\". He worked on the song with lyricist Al Cleveland, who was renting the upstairs section of Benson's duplex.\n\nBenson wanted the Four Tops to record his song, but they refused on the grounds that it was a protest song. He approached Joan Baez to record the song while appearing on a British television show, but she declined. Finally, he approached Marvin Gaye, who liked the song, but wanted The Originals to cut a version of it.\n\nBenson eventually persuaded Gaye to record the song by offering him a cut of the royalties. Gaye added lyrics and other touches to the song, and recorded it in June 1970. Motown refused to release it at first, claiming it was uncommercial. Finally, the song was released and reached No. 2 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart, while topping the R&B chart. \"What's Going On\" is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest rock or R&B songs of all time, reaching the top 5 of the \"500 Greatest Songs of All Time\" as rated by Rolling Stone in 2004 and as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.\n\nAfter Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown in 1967, the hits became less frequent for the Four Tops. When Motown left Detroit for Los Angeles in 1972, the Four Tops signed with ABC-Dunhill, and had Top 10 pop hits with \"Keeper of the Castle\" and \"Ain't No Woman Like the One I've Got\", their first Top 10 hits since \"Bernadette\" in 1967. While the Four Tops enjoyed a number of R&B hits in the next couple of years, the hits dried up again as disco became popular.\n\nIn 1981, The Four Tops returned to the R&B charts with a No. 1 hit in \"When She Was My Girl\" on Casablanca Records. The group returned to Motown for the Motown 25 special in 1983, and recorded a couple of albums before leaving for Arista Records. Benson appeared with the rest of the Four Tops on Aretha Franklin's 1989 album Through the Storm.\n\nHall of Famer 1990–2005\nBenson was admitted as a member of the Four Tops to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. The group would be awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1997, followed by the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.\n\nUntil the death of Lawrence Payton in 1997, the Four Tops had the same membership for over forty years. Former Temptation Theo Peoples joined the group in 1998. Peoples soon became the lead vocalist, as Levi Stubbs fell ill, and Ronnie McNair took Payton's place. Benson continued to tour extensively as part of the Four Tops, spending a third of the year on tour. The group would often tour with The Temptations as part of a double bill.\n\nBenson died of lung cancer and other illnesses on July 1, 2005. His leg had been amputated earlier in 2005 due to circulation problems. He is survived by two daughters. His last performance as a Four Top was on April 8, 2005 live on the Late Show with David Letterman. Roquel Payton, the son of Lawrence Payton, replaced Benson as a member of the Four Tops with Abdul Fakir remaining as the only original member. He is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery. Media coverage of Benson's death was almost completely overshadowed by that of another R&B star, Luther Vandross, who also died on the same day.\n\nReferences\n\nNotes\n [ Allmusic.com article on Renaldo Benson]\n History of Rock article on the Four Tops\n Ben Edmonds, What's Going On?: What's Going On and the Last Days of the Motown Sound Canongate US 2003 on the recording of \"What's Going On?\"\n Rolling Stone article on \"What's Going On\" as part of its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time article\n\nObituaries\n ABC News America article on Benson's death\n Washington Post article on Benson's death\n Washington Times obituary\n Detroit News Susan Whitall's Remembrance\n Funeral Photo Gallery: Renaldo \"Obie\" Benson\n\nExternal links\n\n1936 births\n2005 deaths\nAmerican soul musicians\n20th-century African-American male singers\n21st-century African-American male singers\nFour Tops members\nAmerican basses\nDeaths from lung cancer\nBurials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Detroit, Michigan)\nAmerican rhythm and blues singers\nAmerican soul singers\nAmerican amputees\nDeaths from cancer in Michigan\nSingers from Detroit\nAmerican choreographers",
"InDRUpendence Day is the fourth studio album by American R&B group Dru Hill, released on July 27, 2010 under Kedar Entertainment Group. The album was supposed to be released on June 8, 2010, but it was pushed back. The album is the group's first release with new member, Tao, and is also their first album in eight years since their previous album, Dru World Order. The album released three singles: \"Love MD\", \"Remain Silent\" and \"Back to the Future\". \"Love MD\" is the only single that had a music video released. Despite the lack of charting singles and the fact that it was their first album in 8 years, the album was still moderately successful, reaching #30 on the Billboard 200.\n\nBackground\nThe album was confirmed in 2009 following the addition of new member Antwuan \"Tao\" Simpson in 2008 - after winning a talent contest called \"Dru Idol\" to become the group's fourth member. The group toured as a trio prior to the addition of Tao. \"Our harmony is so intricate that in order to keep the integrity of what's going on the record and still perform for the fans, it's almost impossible to do with just three people,\" Sisqo explained in an interview with MTV. \"Most of the time you have to have that three-part harmony structure while the other person is singing lead. Sometimes our harmony is so intricate, we might have to stop singing lead to make sure the integrity of the harmony is there... We didn't feel it was right to cheat the people out of that.\" \"It's a great addition Tao brings to the group,\" Jazz offered. \"His register is a little higher than normally what's been presented in the Dru Hill sound. It's just hot, man. This record is crazy.\" \"People have been accepting me in the group. You get your haters here and there, but for the most part, it's a dream,\" Tao said.\n\nSound\nThe sound for InDRUpendence Day is \"what you're used to hear from us. It's the harmonies, the melodies. We're singing about relationships,\" Nokio said. \"As businessmen and writers and producers, we made sure we tried to incorporate what's going on now without becoming what's going on right now.\"\n\nRelease and promotion\nInDRUpendence Day was released on July 27, 2010, preceded by the single \"Love MD\".\n\nListening party\nThe \"InDRUpendence Day\" album listening party was held on March 30, 2010 at Le Lupanar in New York City.\n\nReality show\nThe group's reality show \"Platinum House\" premiered on June 28, 2010 on Centric. It's about the group starting over and coming back together recording and writing music. The show focuses on their daily lives and this album.\n\nTrack listing\n\nChart history\n\nAlbum\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n2010 albums\nDru Hill albums"
]
|
[
"The Future Sound of London",
"New millennium, new sound",
"What was going on with the group?",
"After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth."
]
| C_91ed719efa8743459e3be26fcb7aeabc_0 | When did they make more music? | 2 | When did the Future Sound of London make more music? | The Future Sound of London | After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth. Cobain gained much from the experience, realizing that music was a tool for psychic exploration and entertainment but also one for healing . The pair returned in 2002 with "The Isness", a record heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia and released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous. It was preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's track as well as new material from The Isness sessions. The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound which was inspired by Cobain's and Dougan's (separate) travels to India and immersion in spiritualism, nevertheless the majority was positive with Muzik magazine offering the album a 6/5 mark and dubbing it "...a white beam of light from heaven..." and other British publications such as The Times, The Guardian and MOJO praising the album and the band's ability to do something so completely different from what they had done before. Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland. Rumoured to be accompanied by a film of the same title, the album took The Isness' psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. The album was ignored by the press, but was received more favourably among fans than its predecessor. Unlike The Isness, which featured almost 100 musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, Alice in Ultraland featured a fairly solid band lineup throughout, which extended to live shows which the band had undertaken away from the ISDN cables from 2005 onwards. ...song form has just become too limited. And when I say 'psychedelic', it's not a reference to 60s music but to the basic outlook of a child, which we all have. I think this is the only salvation now. Dance music taught us how to use the studio in a new way, but we have to now take that knowledge and move on with it. This stuff, electronic music, is not dead. It's a process that is ongoing. We have to take hold of the past and go forward with it... CANNOTANSWER | The pair returned in 2002 with "The Isness", | The Future Sound of London (often abbreviated FSOL) is a British electronic music duo composed of Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans. Described as a "boundary-pushing" electronic act by AllMusic, their work covers many areas of electronic music, such as techno, ambient, house music, trip hop, psychedelia, and dub.
During the 1990s, they released the albums Lifeforms (1994) and Dead Cities (1996) to some commercial success. The artists were fairly enigmatic in the past but have become more candid with their fanbase in recent years with social websites like Myspace, YouTube, their forum and many interviews in which Cobain almost always speaks for the pair.
History
Formation
Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans met in the mid-1980s while studying electronics at university in Manchester, England. Dougans had already been making electronic music for some time, working between Glasgow and Manchester, when the pair first began working together in various local clubs. In 1988, Dougans embarked on a project for the Stakker graphics company. The result was Stakker Humanoid, a single that went on to reach number 17 in the UK charts, becoming the first credible UK acid house tune to cross over into the mainstream. Cobain contributed to the accompanying album. A video was also produced.
In the following three years the pair produced music under a variety of aliases, releasing a plethora of singles and EPs, including the successful bleep techno singles "Q" and "Metropolis", some of which would end up on the duo's first compilation album Earthbeat in 1992. "Metropolis" was also very influential in the house scene.
FSOL
In 1991 they released their first album, Accelerator, which was followed by their single "Papua New Guinea", featuring a looping Lisa Gerrard vocal sample from Dead Can Dance's "Dawn of the Iconoclast" and a bassline from Meat Beat Manifesto's "Radio Babylon". The track has made several British "Best songs ever" polls and track specific accolades. In 1992, Virgin Records were looking for electronic bands and, after the chart success of "Papua New Guinea", quickly signed them, giving them free rein to experiment, with a reported advance payment of £75,000. With this the duo invested in a collection of Akai S1000 samplers and other equipment.
They began to play with more ambient music, resulting in the Tales of Ephidrina album of 1993, the first album to be released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias; this was well received by press and marked a distinct shift from the more techno-driven Accelerator, retaining some dance beats, but focusing more on texture, mood and sound. The album was adventurously released on Quigley, the band's own short-lived offshoot of Virgin. At this time, the band had begun experimenting with radio performance, broadcasting now legendary three-hour radio shows to Manchester's Kiss FM from their studio.
Lifeforms, ambience and the ISDN tour
"Cascade", released as a single in 1993, introduced the commercial music world to the new FSOL sound. Despite its length, clocking in at nearly forty minutes and stretched over six parts, the track made the UK top 30, and previewed what was to come. In 1994, they released Lifeforms to critical acclaim. The album featured unconventional use of percussion interspersed with ambient segments. The eponymous single from the album featured Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins on vocals. Throughout the record, familiar motifs and samples repeated themselves, sitting alongside tropical birdsong, rainfall, wind and an array of other exotic sounds, lending the album a natural, organic feel, backed up by the environmental landscapes that filled the artwork booklet. Brian Dougan's father was involved with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop which was a heavy influence in the almost musique concrète feel to Lifeforms. The album was also a top 10 hit on the UK album chart. Cobain has said that around this time that journalists would come to talk to them and one of the first things they would ask would be if they liked Brian Eno (whom they cite as an influence), to which they would laugh and say that they were about looking forward, not to the past. It was, to them, very much a new work rather than just another Eno-type ambient album.
That year, they released the limited edition album ISDN, which featured live broadcasts they had made over ISDN lines to various radio stations worldwide to promote Lifeforms, including The Kitchen, an avant-garde performance space in New York and several appearances on the late John Peel's celebrated BBC radio Sessions shows. These shows marked the evolution of the Kiss FM shows of 1992 and 1993, moving away from DJ sets and into ambient soundscapes, with previously released material performed alongside unheard tracks. One live performance to BBC Radio 1 featured Robert Fripp performing alongside the band. The released album's tone was darker and more rhythmic than Lifeforms. Cobain stated that with ISDN they had wanted to achieve something epic and grand but no matter how much technological or personal support they had (and they had everything they could have possibly wanted) they never got to truly do what they envisioned; he admits to wanting too much at this time, even though the album was successful; the 90s, for Cobain in particular, were a time of frustration and feelings of not being able to do what they wanted to, because the technology at the time didn't fit the band's ideas. The following year, the album was re-released with expanded artwork and a slightly altered track list as an unlimited pressing.
In addition to music composition, their interests have covered a number of areas including film and video, 2D and 3D computer graphics, animation in making almost all their own videos for their singles, radio broadcasting and creating their own electronic devices for sound making. They have released works under numerous aliases.
Dead Cities
The 1995 edition of John Peel Sessions featured three entirely new tracks, which took the breakbeats and chaotic sampling of ISDN away from their previous lush synthscapes and toward a new, more contemporary sound. In 1996, they released Dead Cities, which expanded upon these early demos. The new material was a mix of ambient textures and dance music. The lead single, "My Kingdom", introduced the sound, with a video featuring shots of London, and a sound suggesting a dystopian city. The album also featured the band's first collaboration with composer Max Richter, which included the big beat track "We Have Explosive" that featured manipulated samples sourced from Run DMC. Released in 1997; it was used on the Mortal Kombat: Annihilation soundtrack, and (before the single release) in 1996 on the video game WipE'out" 2097, along with the track "Landmass", which they wrote specifically for the game. Also, a remix of "Papua New Guinea" by Hybrid was later featured in the soundtrack to WipEout Fusion in 2002. "We Have Explosive" was the second single from the album, and the band's highest charting single (beating "My Kingdom" by one spot to number 12), and over the course of its five-part extended version included hints of funk, something which would be heard again when the band returned many years later.
The album was promoted by what the band described as "the fuck rock'n'roll tour" via ISDN, lasting several months and gaining much media attention by being the first band to do a world tour without leaving their studio. While 1994's tour had focused on creating soundscapes and unreleased material, the 1996 and 1997 shows were more conventional, each offering a different take on the Dead Cities experience, blending then-current tracks with occasional exclusive pieces of the time. However, the final few performances jettisoned this material for tracks from a series of unreleased sessions, containing more live sounding material, including considerable use of guitar and percussion. These "1997 sessions" were highly sought after by fans, with some tracks forming the basis of the band's psychedelic projects of the following decade, while others appeared on the From The Archives series.
New millennium
After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth. Cobain gained much from the experience, realising that music was a tool for psychic exploration and entertainment but also one for healing. The pair returned in 2002 with "The Isness", a record heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia and released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous. It was preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's track as well as new material from The Isness sessions. The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound which was inspired by Cobain's and Dougan's (separate) travels to India and immersion in spiritualism, nevertheless the majority was positive with Muzik magazine offering the album a 6/5 mark and dubbing it "...a white beam of light from heaven..." and other British publications such as The Times, The Guardian and MOJO praising the album and the band's ability to do something so completely different from what they had done before.
Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland. Rumoured to be accompanied by a film of the same title, the album took The Isness psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. The album was ignored by the press, but was received more favourably among fans than its predecessor. Unlike The Isness, which featured almost 100 musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, Alice in Ultraland featured a fairly solid band lineup throughout, which extended to live shows which the band had undertaken away from the ISDN cables from 2005 onwards.
5.1 & digital experimentation
The FSOL moniker re-appeared in 2006 with a piece entitled "A Gigantic Globular Burst Of Anti-Static", intended as an experiment in 5.1 Surround Sound and created for an exhibition at the Kinetica art museum entitled, appropriately, "Life Forms". The piece contained reworked material from their archives and newer, more abstract ambient music. The piece was coupled with a video called "Stereo Sucks", marking the band's theories on the limitations of stereo music, which was released on a DVD packaged with issue 182 of Future Music Magazine in December 2006 and on FSOL's own download site in March 2007.
They also moved into creating their own sounds when they began constructing electronic instruments, the result of which can be heard on the 2007 release Hand-Made Devices. At their website Glitch TV (where the motto is "[A] sudden interruption in sanity, continuity or programme function") they sell and explain their devices such as the "Electronic Devices Digital Interface" glitch equipment.
FSOLdigital and the Archives
In 2007, the band uploaded several archive tracks online, for the first time revealing much of their unreleased work and unveiling some of the mystery behind the band. The old FSOL material, including the previously unreleased album Environments, along with a selection of newer experiments, the 5.1 experiments and a promise of unreleased Amorphous Androgynous psychedelic material, was uploaded for sale on their online shop, FSOLdigital.com.
In early March 2008, the band released a new online album as Amorphous Androgynous entitled The Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness, which they describe as "A collection of psychedelic relics from The Amorphous Androgynous, 1967-2007". The release retains the sound of their last two psychedelic albums, while expanding on the element of funk first introduced on 2005's Alice in Ultraland. They recorded their following album, The Woodlands of Old, under the alias of their imaginary engineer Yage. Unlike the techno work recorded as Yage in 1992, this new record was darker, more trip hop and world music-oriented and featured ex-Propellerheads member Will White.
From 2008, the band showcased a series of radio broadcasts and podcasts called The Electric Brain Storms, originally on stations such as Proton Radio, PBS radio in Australia, and Frisky Radio. The remaining shows appeared on the band's official site. and SoundCloud. The shows featured electronic, krautrock, experimental and psychedelic favourites of the band mixed in with known and unknown FSOL material, including newly recorded tracks, archived pieces, and new alias recordings. Many of the new tracks appeared on the band's Environments series. Cobain has described the new music as having "the introspective, kind of euphoric sadness that was always there in the FSOL melodies".
From this point, the band have been alternating their focus between different projects. In 2008, Environments II and From the Archives Vol. 5 were released on the band's site, followed by Environments 3 and From the Archives Vol. 6 in 2010; and Environments 4 and From the Archives Vol. 7 in 2012. Whilst the Archives feature old, unreleased material, the Environments albums feature a mixture of old demos, recently completed, and new tracks.
The band have continued to use the FSOLDigital platform to release side-projects and solo work, under names such as Blackhill Transmitter, EMS : Piano, Suburban Domestic and 6 Oscillators in Remittance, as well as distributing digital releases from other artists, including Daniel Pemberton, Herd, Kettel & Secede, Neotropic, Ross Baker and Seafar; they also continue to update The Pod Room with ISDN transmissions from the 1990s.
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind
Following on from the band's 1997 DJ set of the same name, a series of Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind mix CDs were begun in 2006. The first two were released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias, subtitled "Cosmic Space Music" and "Pagan Love Vibrations", with the first taking over two years to compile, mix and gain sample clearance, both featuring the band's psychedelic influences. A third is set for release sometime in 2010, and will be more electronic, mixed by the Future Sound of London. Further mixes in the series are expected in the future, to be curated by related artists, and the band took the concept live with an eleven-hour spot at 2009's Green Man festival, to contain live bands and DJ spots.
Noel Gallagher of British rock band Oasis, after hearing the first release, became a fan and asked the band to remix the following Oasis single "Falling Down". The Amorphous Androgynous responded with a 5 part, 22-minute Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remix, which Noel liked enough to release on its own 12". Noel also invited Cobain to DJ at the afterparty for one of Oasis' gigs at Wembley Arena.
The band continue the psychedelic theme to the mixes on their podcast site The Pod Room and on February 2010s Mojo Magazine cover CD. The Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remixes grow in popularity with commissions from Paul Weller and Pop Levi, and Cobain has suggested a full album of remixes and covers will appear on their recently formed Monstrous Bubble label
On 6 July 2011 it was announced that Noel Gallagher's second solo album will be in collaboration with The Amorphous Androgynous, and is set for release in 2012. In August 2012, Gallagher mentioned in various interviews that he is considering scrapping the collaborative album with Amorphous Androgynous due to not being completely satisfied with the mixes. Two songs from the project have surfaced as B-sides to Gallagher's singles in 2012: "Shoot a Hole into the Sun" (based on Gallagher's track "If I Had a Gun...") was a B-side to the single "Dream On", and a mix of "AKA... What a Life!" featured on the B-side of "Everybody's on the Run". However, as the project is currently shelved, the group have returned to original material, releasing the first in a series of Monstrous Bubble Soundtracks, entitled The Cartel. On Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' album Chasing Yesterday, The Amorphous Androgynous are credited as Co-producers of the tracks "The Right Stuff" and "The Mexican".
Future of the band
The group continue to give updates for the Galaxial Pharmaceutical news site and forum, while largely releasing material through their FSOLDigital imprint. They remain prolific, working on multiple projects at once. As "The Future Sound of London", they currently plan to continue releasing new material as part of the Environments series; the latest releases as of June 2019 are Environment Six and 6.5 from 2016.
On 26 April 2019, the band released Yage 2019, consisting of eleven songs. The album was also released on vinyl and CD on Record Store Day that year; the latter release featured an additional two tracks. The next year another album, Cascade 2020, was released. In 2021 they released We Have Explosive 2021.
Independence
Since the millennium, FSOL took a more independent turn with their career, releasing their more psychedelic Amorphous Androgynous on an independent label, The Isness on Artful Records and Alice in Ultraland on the progressive Harvest Records (an arm of EMI). They also have their own label called Electronic Brain Violence on which off-beat electronic artists such as Oil and Simon Wells (Headstone Lane) have released EPs and singles. Simon Wells also contributed to Dead Cities on the track "Dead Cities Reprise"
Nevertheless, Virgin records still controls FSOL's back catalog and was going to release the Teachings from the Electronic Brain compilation without them, but the duo insisted on taking control of the production of the project. Cobain says that, even with Virgin, the reason they were able to do their own thing and create the music they wanted in the 1990s was because they already had some major hits under their belts such as "Papua New Guinea", "Metropolis" and "Stakker Humanoid" before joining the label.
Cobain has said that FSOL's mentality has always been about making a journey of an album rather than focusing on trying to have hit singles. He said that they had several top 40 singles (and albums) in the 90s because they had enough fans and had built up enough of a reputation to achieve these hits while still concentrating on the album rather than any potential singles during their time at Virgin.
They have been signed to Passion Records sub-label Jumpin' & Pumpin' since they started out.
Aliases
Discography
Accelerator (1991)
Lifeforms (1994)
ISDN (1994)
Dead Cities (1996)
The Isness (2002) (as Amorphous Androgynous, except in the USA)
Environments (2007)
Environments II (2008)
Environments 3 (2010)
Environments 4 (2012)
Environment Five (2014)
Environment Six (2016)
Environment 6.5 (2016)
Yage 2019 (2019)
Cascade 2020 (2020)
Chart history
Singles charts
Album charts
See also
List of ambient music artists
Max Richter
References
External links
Future Sound of London.com - official website.
an overview of their studio equipment et cetera from 1994
Acid house musicians
Braindance musicians
Breakbeat music groups
British ambient music groups
English dance music groups
English house music duos
English techno music groups
Male musical duos
Astralwerks artists
Virgin Records artists
English experimental musical groups
Harvest Records artists
Hypnotic Records artists
Rephlex Records artists
Intelligent dance musicians
Musical groups established in 1988
Musical groups from Manchester
New-age music groups
Remixers | true | [
"Chuimsae (hangul: 추임새) is a form of exclamation during Korean traditional music. The gosu drummer and the audience make exclamations such as Eolsigu! or Jalhanda! (hangul: 얼씨구, 잘한다), which mean Yippee! and Good! in Korean. The word chuimsae originates in the word dance (hangul: 추다, 추어주다) in Korean. The chuimsae connects musician and audience and creates a cheerful atmosphere. \n\nChuimsae makes performance more enjoyable. With chuimsae, the music can be more active and vivid. In pansori, a good audience should make chuimsae. While in many styles of Western music the audience's sound is considered noise, the participation of audience is important in Korean music. The musician and audience can interact with chuimsae. The chuimsae is intuitive, and audience members express their feeling, impression, and agreement while listening to music. In addition, audiences make chuimsae when they feel completely enchanted by the music. In order to use chuimsae appropriately, people should have a knowledge of Pansori and ability in making impressions.\n\nReferences\n\nPansori",
"Loveland were an English house music group, formed in 1994 by Mark Hadfield, Paul Taylor and Paul Waterman.\n\nThe group scored several dance hits in the UK in the mid-1990s, and released one album, 1995's The Wonder of Love. Rachel McFarlane was the group's 'featured' lead vocalist, and was often co-credited on their releases (as Loveland featuring Rachel McFarlane). All three of the other members did extensive work as remixers for many major artists including the likes of Kylie Minogue, Donna Summer, C+C Music Factory, Culture Beat and many more. They also run the Eastern Bloc record label which they released their records on.\n\nSingles\n\"Let the Music (Lift You Up)\" (1994) UK #16, U.S. Dance #19\n\"(Keep On) Shining/Hope (Never Give Up)\" (1994) UK #37\n\"I Need Somebody\" (1995) UK #21 \n\"Don't Make Me Wait\" (1995) UK #22\n\"The Wonder of Love\" (1995) UK #53\n\"I Need Somebody\" (remix) (1995) UK #38\n\nReferences\n\nEnglish house music groups\nEnglish electronic music groups\nMusical groups established in 1994\nBritish musical trios"
]
|
[
"The Future Sound of London",
"New millennium, new sound",
"What was going on with the group?",
"After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth.",
"When did they make more music?",
"The pair returned in 2002 with \"The Isness\","
]
| C_91ed719efa8743459e3be26fcb7aeabc_0 | How did the music sound? | 3 | How did the music from Future Sound of London sound? | The Future Sound of London | After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth. Cobain gained much from the experience, realizing that music was a tool for psychic exploration and entertainment but also one for healing . The pair returned in 2002 with "The Isness", a record heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia and released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous. It was preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's track as well as new material from The Isness sessions. The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound which was inspired by Cobain's and Dougan's (separate) travels to India and immersion in spiritualism, nevertheless the majority was positive with Muzik magazine offering the album a 6/5 mark and dubbing it "...a white beam of light from heaven..." and other British publications such as The Times, The Guardian and MOJO praising the album and the band's ability to do something so completely different from what they had done before. Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland. Rumoured to be accompanied by a film of the same title, the album took The Isness' psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. The album was ignored by the press, but was received more favourably among fans than its predecessor. Unlike The Isness, which featured almost 100 musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, Alice in Ultraland featured a fairly solid band lineup throughout, which extended to live shows which the band had undertaken away from the ISDN cables from 2005 onwards. ...song form has just become too limited. And when I say 'psychedelic', it's not a reference to 60s music but to the basic outlook of a child, which we all have. I think this is the only salvation now. Dance music taught us how to use the studio in a new way, but we have to now take that knowledge and move on with it. This stuff, electronic music, is not dead. It's a process that is ongoing. We have to take hold of the past and go forward with it... CANNOTANSWER | heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia | The Future Sound of London (often abbreviated FSOL) is a British electronic music duo composed of Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans. Described as a "boundary-pushing" electronic act by AllMusic, their work covers many areas of electronic music, such as techno, ambient, house music, trip hop, psychedelia, and dub.
During the 1990s, they released the albums Lifeforms (1994) and Dead Cities (1996) to some commercial success. The artists were fairly enigmatic in the past but have become more candid with their fanbase in recent years with social websites like Myspace, YouTube, their forum and many interviews in which Cobain almost always speaks for the pair.
History
Formation
Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans met in the mid-1980s while studying electronics at university in Manchester, England. Dougans had already been making electronic music for some time, working between Glasgow and Manchester, when the pair first began working together in various local clubs. In 1988, Dougans embarked on a project for the Stakker graphics company. The result was Stakker Humanoid, a single that went on to reach number 17 in the UK charts, becoming the first credible UK acid house tune to cross over into the mainstream. Cobain contributed to the accompanying album. A video was also produced.
In the following three years the pair produced music under a variety of aliases, releasing a plethora of singles and EPs, including the successful bleep techno singles "Q" and "Metropolis", some of which would end up on the duo's first compilation album Earthbeat in 1992. "Metropolis" was also very influential in the house scene.
FSOL
In 1991 they released their first album, Accelerator, which was followed by their single "Papua New Guinea", featuring a looping Lisa Gerrard vocal sample from Dead Can Dance's "Dawn of the Iconoclast" and a bassline from Meat Beat Manifesto's "Radio Babylon". The track has made several British "Best songs ever" polls and track specific accolades. In 1992, Virgin Records were looking for electronic bands and, after the chart success of "Papua New Guinea", quickly signed them, giving them free rein to experiment, with a reported advance payment of £75,000. With this the duo invested in a collection of Akai S1000 samplers and other equipment.
They began to play with more ambient music, resulting in the Tales of Ephidrina album of 1993, the first album to be released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias; this was well received by press and marked a distinct shift from the more techno-driven Accelerator, retaining some dance beats, but focusing more on texture, mood and sound. The album was adventurously released on Quigley, the band's own short-lived offshoot of Virgin. At this time, the band had begun experimenting with radio performance, broadcasting now legendary three-hour radio shows to Manchester's Kiss FM from their studio.
Lifeforms, ambience and the ISDN tour
"Cascade", released as a single in 1993, introduced the commercial music world to the new FSOL sound. Despite its length, clocking in at nearly forty minutes and stretched over six parts, the track made the UK top 30, and previewed what was to come. In 1994, they released Lifeforms to critical acclaim. The album featured unconventional use of percussion interspersed with ambient segments. The eponymous single from the album featured Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins on vocals. Throughout the record, familiar motifs and samples repeated themselves, sitting alongside tropical birdsong, rainfall, wind and an array of other exotic sounds, lending the album a natural, organic feel, backed up by the environmental landscapes that filled the artwork booklet. Brian Dougan's father was involved with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop which was a heavy influence in the almost musique concrète feel to Lifeforms. The album was also a top 10 hit on the UK album chart. Cobain has said that around this time that journalists would come to talk to them and one of the first things they would ask would be if they liked Brian Eno (whom they cite as an influence), to which they would laugh and say that they were about looking forward, not to the past. It was, to them, very much a new work rather than just another Eno-type ambient album.
That year, they released the limited edition album ISDN, which featured live broadcasts they had made over ISDN lines to various radio stations worldwide to promote Lifeforms, including The Kitchen, an avant-garde performance space in New York and several appearances on the late John Peel's celebrated BBC radio Sessions shows. These shows marked the evolution of the Kiss FM shows of 1992 and 1993, moving away from DJ sets and into ambient soundscapes, with previously released material performed alongside unheard tracks. One live performance to BBC Radio 1 featured Robert Fripp performing alongside the band. The released album's tone was darker and more rhythmic than Lifeforms. Cobain stated that with ISDN they had wanted to achieve something epic and grand but no matter how much technological or personal support they had (and they had everything they could have possibly wanted) they never got to truly do what they envisioned; he admits to wanting too much at this time, even though the album was successful; the 90s, for Cobain in particular, were a time of frustration and feelings of not being able to do what they wanted to, because the technology at the time didn't fit the band's ideas. The following year, the album was re-released with expanded artwork and a slightly altered track list as an unlimited pressing.
In addition to music composition, their interests have covered a number of areas including film and video, 2D and 3D computer graphics, animation in making almost all their own videos for their singles, radio broadcasting and creating their own electronic devices for sound making. They have released works under numerous aliases.
Dead Cities
The 1995 edition of John Peel Sessions featured three entirely new tracks, which took the breakbeats and chaotic sampling of ISDN away from their previous lush synthscapes and toward a new, more contemporary sound. In 1996, they released Dead Cities, which expanded upon these early demos. The new material was a mix of ambient textures and dance music. The lead single, "My Kingdom", introduced the sound, with a video featuring shots of London, and a sound suggesting a dystopian city. The album also featured the band's first collaboration with composer Max Richter, which included the big beat track "We Have Explosive" that featured manipulated samples sourced from Run DMC. Released in 1997; it was used on the Mortal Kombat: Annihilation soundtrack, and (before the single release) in 1996 on the video game WipE'out" 2097, along with the track "Landmass", which they wrote specifically for the game. Also, a remix of "Papua New Guinea" by Hybrid was later featured in the soundtrack to WipEout Fusion in 2002. "We Have Explosive" was the second single from the album, and the band's highest charting single (beating "My Kingdom" by one spot to number 12), and over the course of its five-part extended version included hints of funk, something which would be heard again when the band returned many years later.
The album was promoted by what the band described as "the fuck rock'n'roll tour" via ISDN, lasting several months and gaining much media attention by being the first band to do a world tour without leaving their studio. While 1994's tour had focused on creating soundscapes and unreleased material, the 1996 and 1997 shows were more conventional, each offering a different take on the Dead Cities experience, blending then-current tracks with occasional exclusive pieces of the time. However, the final few performances jettisoned this material for tracks from a series of unreleased sessions, containing more live sounding material, including considerable use of guitar and percussion. These "1997 sessions" were highly sought after by fans, with some tracks forming the basis of the band's psychedelic projects of the following decade, while others appeared on the From The Archives series.
New millennium
After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth. Cobain gained much from the experience, realising that music was a tool for psychic exploration and entertainment but also one for healing. The pair returned in 2002 with "The Isness", a record heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia and released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous. It was preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's track as well as new material from The Isness sessions. The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound which was inspired by Cobain's and Dougan's (separate) travels to India and immersion in spiritualism, nevertheless the majority was positive with Muzik magazine offering the album a 6/5 mark and dubbing it "...a white beam of light from heaven..." and other British publications such as The Times, The Guardian and MOJO praising the album and the band's ability to do something so completely different from what they had done before.
Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland. Rumoured to be accompanied by a film of the same title, the album took The Isness psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. The album was ignored by the press, but was received more favourably among fans than its predecessor. Unlike The Isness, which featured almost 100 musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, Alice in Ultraland featured a fairly solid band lineup throughout, which extended to live shows which the band had undertaken away from the ISDN cables from 2005 onwards.
5.1 & digital experimentation
The FSOL moniker re-appeared in 2006 with a piece entitled "A Gigantic Globular Burst Of Anti-Static", intended as an experiment in 5.1 Surround Sound and created for an exhibition at the Kinetica art museum entitled, appropriately, "Life Forms". The piece contained reworked material from their archives and newer, more abstract ambient music. The piece was coupled with a video called "Stereo Sucks", marking the band's theories on the limitations of stereo music, which was released on a DVD packaged with issue 182 of Future Music Magazine in December 2006 and on FSOL's own download site in March 2007.
They also moved into creating their own sounds when they began constructing electronic instruments, the result of which can be heard on the 2007 release Hand-Made Devices. At their website Glitch TV (where the motto is "[A] sudden interruption in sanity, continuity or programme function") they sell and explain their devices such as the "Electronic Devices Digital Interface" glitch equipment.
FSOLdigital and the Archives
In 2007, the band uploaded several archive tracks online, for the first time revealing much of their unreleased work and unveiling some of the mystery behind the band. The old FSOL material, including the previously unreleased album Environments, along with a selection of newer experiments, the 5.1 experiments and a promise of unreleased Amorphous Androgynous psychedelic material, was uploaded for sale on their online shop, FSOLdigital.com.
In early March 2008, the band released a new online album as Amorphous Androgynous entitled The Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness, which they describe as "A collection of psychedelic relics from The Amorphous Androgynous, 1967-2007". The release retains the sound of their last two psychedelic albums, while expanding on the element of funk first introduced on 2005's Alice in Ultraland. They recorded their following album, The Woodlands of Old, under the alias of their imaginary engineer Yage. Unlike the techno work recorded as Yage in 1992, this new record was darker, more trip hop and world music-oriented and featured ex-Propellerheads member Will White.
From 2008, the band showcased a series of radio broadcasts and podcasts called The Electric Brain Storms, originally on stations such as Proton Radio, PBS radio in Australia, and Frisky Radio. The remaining shows appeared on the band's official site. and SoundCloud. The shows featured electronic, krautrock, experimental and psychedelic favourites of the band mixed in with known and unknown FSOL material, including newly recorded tracks, archived pieces, and new alias recordings. Many of the new tracks appeared on the band's Environments series. Cobain has described the new music as having "the introspective, kind of euphoric sadness that was always there in the FSOL melodies".
From this point, the band have been alternating their focus between different projects. In 2008, Environments II and From the Archives Vol. 5 were released on the band's site, followed by Environments 3 and From the Archives Vol. 6 in 2010; and Environments 4 and From the Archives Vol. 7 in 2012. Whilst the Archives feature old, unreleased material, the Environments albums feature a mixture of old demos, recently completed, and new tracks.
The band have continued to use the FSOLDigital platform to release side-projects and solo work, under names such as Blackhill Transmitter, EMS : Piano, Suburban Domestic and 6 Oscillators in Remittance, as well as distributing digital releases from other artists, including Daniel Pemberton, Herd, Kettel & Secede, Neotropic, Ross Baker and Seafar; they also continue to update The Pod Room with ISDN transmissions from the 1990s.
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind
Following on from the band's 1997 DJ set of the same name, a series of Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind mix CDs were begun in 2006. The first two were released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias, subtitled "Cosmic Space Music" and "Pagan Love Vibrations", with the first taking over two years to compile, mix and gain sample clearance, both featuring the band's psychedelic influences. A third is set for release sometime in 2010, and will be more electronic, mixed by the Future Sound of London. Further mixes in the series are expected in the future, to be curated by related artists, and the band took the concept live with an eleven-hour spot at 2009's Green Man festival, to contain live bands and DJ spots.
Noel Gallagher of British rock band Oasis, after hearing the first release, became a fan and asked the band to remix the following Oasis single "Falling Down". The Amorphous Androgynous responded with a 5 part, 22-minute Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remix, which Noel liked enough to release on its own 12". Noel also invited Cobain to DJ at the afterparty for one of Oasis' gigs at Wembley Arena.
The band continue the psychedelic theme to the mixes on their podcast site The Pod Room and on February 2010s Mojo Magazine cover CD. The Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remixes grow in popularity with commissions from Paul Weller and Pop Levi, and Cobain has suggested a full album of remixes and covers will appear on their recently formed Monstrous Bubble label
On 6 July 2011 it was announced that Noel Gallagher's second solo album will be in collaboration with The Amorphous Androgynous, and is set for release in 2012. In August 2012, Gallagher mentioned in various interviews that he is considering scrapping the collaborative album with Amorphous Androgynous due to not being completely satisfied with the mixes. Two songs from the project have surfaced as B-sides to Gallagher's singles in 2012: "Shoot a Hole into the Sun" (based on Gallagher's track "If I Had a Gun...") was a B-side to the single "Dream On", and a mix of "AKA... What a Life!" featured on the B-side of "Everybody's on the Run". However, as the project is currently shelved, the group have returned to original material, releasing the first in a series of Monstrous Bubble Soundtracks, entitled The Cartel. On Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' album Chasing Yesterday, The Amorphous Androgynous are credited as Co-producers of the tracks "The Right Stuff" and "The Mexican".
Future of the band
The group continue to give updates for the Galaxial Pharmaceutical news site and forum, while largely releasing material through their FSOLDigital imprint. They remain prolific, working on multiple projects at once. As "The Future Sound of London", they currently plan to continue releasing new material as part of the Environments series; the latest releases as of June 2019 are Environment Six and 6.5 from 2016.
On 26 April 2019, the band released Yage 2019, consisting of eleven songs. The album was also released on vinyl and CD on Record Store Day that year; the latter release featured an additional two tracks. The next year another album, Cascade 2020, was released. In 2021 they released We Have Explosive 2021.
Independence
Since the millennium, FSOL took a more independent turn with their career, releasing their more psychedelic Amorphous Androgynous on an independent label, The Isness on Artful Records and Alice in Ultraland on the progressive Harvest Records (an arm of EMI). They also have their own label called Electronic Brain Violence on which off-beat electronic artists such as Oil and Simon Wells (Headstone Lane) have released EPs and singles. Simon Wells also contributed to Dead Cities on the track "Dead Cities Reprise"
Nevertheless, Virgin records still controls FSOL's back catalog and was going to release the Teachings from the Electronic Brain compilation without them, but the duo insisted on taking control of the production of the project. Cobain says that, even with Virgin, the reason they were able to do their own thing and create the music they wanted in the 1990s was because they already had some major hits under their belts such as "Papua New Guinea", "Metropolis" and "Stakker Humanoid" before joining the label.
Cobain has said that FSOL's mentality has always been about making a journey of an album rather than focusing on trying to have hit singles. He said that they had several top 40 singles (and albums) in the 90s because they had enough fans and had built up enough of a reputation to achieve these hits while still concentrating on the album rather than any potential singles during their time at Virgin.
They have been signed to Passion Records sub-label Jumpin' & Pumpin' since they started out.
Aliases
Discography
Accelerator (1991)
Lifeforms (1994)
ISDN (1994)
Dead Cities (1996)
The Isness (2002) (as Amorphous Androgynous, except in the USA)
Environments (2007)
Environments II (2008)
Environments 3 (2010)
Environments 4 (2012)
Environment Five (2014)
Environment Six (2016)
Environment 6.5 (2016)
Yage 2019 (2019)
Cascade 2020 (2020)
Chart history
Singles charts
Album charts
See also
List of ambient music artists
Max Richter
References
External links
Future Sound of London.com - official website.
an overview of their studio equipment et cetera from 1994
Acid house musicians
Braindance musicians
Breakbeat music groups
British ambient music groups
English dance music groups
English house music duos
English techno music groups
Male musical duos
Astralwerks artists
Virgin Records artists
English experimental musical groups
Harvest Records artists
Hypnotic Records artists
Rephlex Records artists
Intelligent dance musicians
Musical groups established in 1988
Musical groups from Manchester
New-age music groups
Remixers | true | [
"Greg Kot (born March 3, 1957) is an American music journalist and author. From 1990 until 2020, Kot was the rock music critic at the Chicago Tribune, where he covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and business issues. Kot co-hosts the radio program Sound Opinions, which introduces itself as \"the world's only rock 'n' roll talk show\", nationally syndicated through Chicago Public Radio, WBEZ.\n\nA native of Syracuse, New York, Kot graduated from Marquette University. Kot started his career at the Quad City Times in Davenport, Iowa in June 1978 and then joined the Chicago Tribune in 1980. He was named the paper's rock music critic in 1990, and held that job until taking a buyout from the Tribune in early 2020.\n\nKot has co-hosted the radio show Sound Opinions since its 1993 launch. The show is syndicated to about 150 radio stations nationwide and also exists as a weekly podcast. In 2020, Chicago's WBEZ terminated its production agreement with Sound Opinions, although the show will continue to be produced independently.\n\nKot's books include Wilco: Learning How to Die, Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music, and I'll Take You There: Mavis Staples, the Staple Singers and the March up Freedom's Highway. He co-authored The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones: Sound Opinions on the Great Rock 'n' Roll Rivalry (Voyageur Press) with his Sound Opinions co-host Jim DeRogatis. His music criticism and journalism has appeared in Encyclopædia Britannica, Cash: By the Editors of Rolling Stone, Harrison: A Rolling Stone tribute to George Harrison, The Trouser Press Guide to '90s Rock, The Rolling Stone Album Guide and MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. A longtime contributor to Rolling Stone, Kot has written for a dozen national publications, including Details, Blender, Entertainment Weekly, Men's Journal, Guitar World, Vibe and Request.\n\nKot lives on Chicago's Northwest Side and is a longtime youth basketball coach.\n\nBibliography\n Wilco: Learning How to Die, Broadway Books (June 15, 2004)\n Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music, Scribner (May 19, 2009)\n I’ll Take You There: Mavis Staples, the Staple Singers and the March up Freedom’s Highway, Scribner (January 21, 2014)\n\nSee also \n Album era\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n Greg Kot Story Gallery at the Chicago Tribune\n Greg Kot official website\n\n1957 births\nLiving people\nAmerican music critics\nChicago Tribune people\n21st-century American biographers\nAmerican music journalists",
"Sound Diplomacy is a global strategic consultancy specialising in music, culture and the night time economy. Founded in London in May 2013 by Shain Shapiro Ph.D. and the former UK head of Catalan! Arts Jordi Puy, the company has since expanded to have offices and operations in Barcelona, Berlin, Lafayette, London and San José.\n\nHistory \n\nSound Diplomacy launched with clients including CIMA, HootSuite, ICEC and Osheaga MEG Pro. In October 2013, Sound Diplomacy partnered with Martin Elbourne and Spanish promoter Xavi Manresa to launch a new boutique showcase in Catalonia, 'Lleida Sessions Pro'.\n\nAlso in October 2013, Sound Diplomacy reached an agreement to represent the Spanish music conference 'Bizkaia International Music Experience (BIME)' in countries such as UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Colombia and Uruguay.\nIn November 2013, Sound Diplomacy established a partnership with Nouvelle Prague, a showcase festival that takes place in Prague, Czech Republic. \n\nIn 2015, Sound Diplomacy organised the first Music Cities Convention and subsequently founded Music Cities Events. This led to the development of the concept of ‘Music Cities’ and the purposeful linking of music to cities and planning policy, which has since formed the basis of much of Sound Diplomacy’s research and work. \n\nFrom 2016 through to 2018, Sound Diplomacy worked with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation to produce a development strategy for the Cuban Music Industry, the first of its kind for the United Nations. Following this work, Havana was named a UNESCO City of Music in 2019.\n\nIn 2018, Sound Diplomacy delivered the first ever music focused panel at the United Nations World Urban Forum, outlining how music is an effective tool in delivering the UN's Strategic Development Goals. In November of the same year, a white paper co-written by Sound Diplomacy and Pro Colombia (commissioned by the United Nations World Travel Organisation) was launched at the World Travel Market in London. The white paper outlines how destinations around the world can use music tourism strategies to drive profile, visitors and associated revenues.\n\nAlso in 2018 Sound Diplomacy launched its first music audit and strategy in Huntsville, Alabama. The work inspired the recruitment of a full-time Music Officer position with the City of Huntsville and the establishment of a nine member music Board. It also confirmed the development of the ‘Huntsville Amphitheatre’ which is due to open in May 2022.\n\nIn March 2019, Sound Diplomacy announced its expansion into the United States of America with the opening of an office in New Orleans. As part of this, Sound Diplomacy was tasked with conducting an economic music impact assessment for the newly-launched New Orleans Music Economy initiative. \n\nIn September 2021, Sound Diplomacy announced its expansion into Latin America with the opening of an office in San José, Costa Rica, in partnership with real estate development and research firms PRIME and PRIME IQ. The first project in the Latin American region has been commissioned by Two Way Stadiums and UMusic Hotels.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Sound Diplomacy Website\n\nOrganizations established in 2013\nCultural promotion organizations\nEvent management companies of the United Kingdom\nCompanies based in Berlin\nCompanies based in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets\nCompanies based in Barcelona"
]
|
[
"The Future Sound of London",
"New millennium, new sound",
"What was going on with the group?",
"After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth.",
"When did they make more music?",
"The pair returned in 2002 with \"The Isness\",",
"How did the music sound?",
"heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia"
]
| C_91ed719efa8743459e3be26fcb7aeabc_0 | Did the album get rave reviews? | 4 | Did the album The Isness get rave reviews? | The Future Sound of London | After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth. Cobain gained much from the experience, realizing that music was a tool for psychic exploration and entertainment but also one for healing . The pair returned in 2002 with "The Isness", a record heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia and released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous. It was preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's track as well as new material from The Isness sessions. The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound which was inspired by Cobain's and Dougan's (separate) travels to India and immersion in spiritualism, nevertheless the majority was positive with Muzik magazine offering the album a 6/5 mark and dubbing it "...a white beam of light from heaven..." and other British publications such as The Times, The Guardian and MOJO praising the album and the band's ability to do something so completely different from what they had done before. Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland. Rumoured to be accompanied by a film of the same title, the album took The Isness' psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. The album was ignored by the press, but was received more favourably among fans than its predecessor. Unlike The Isness, which featured almost 100 musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, Alice in Ultraland featured a fairly solid band lineup throughout, which extended to live shows which the band had undertaken away from the ISDN cables from 2005 onwards. ...song form has just become too limited. And when I say 'psychedelic', it's not a reference to 60s music but to the basic outlook of a child, which we all have. I think this is the only salvation now. Dance music taught us how to use the studio in a new way, but we have to now take that knowledge and move on with it. This stuff, electronic music, is not dead. It's a process that is ongoing. We have to take hold of the past and go forward with it... CANNOTANSWER | The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound | The Future Sound of London (often abbreviated FSOL) is a British electronic music duo composed of Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans. Described as a "boundary-pushing" electronic act by AllMusic, their work covers many areas of electronic music, such as techno, ambient, house music, trip hop, psychedelia, and dub.
During the 1990s, they released the albums Lifeforms (1994) and Dead Cities (1996) to some commercial success. The artists were fairly enigmatic in the past but have become more candid with their fanbase in recent years with social websites like Myspace, YouTube, their forum and many interviews in which Cobain almost always speaks for the pair.
History
Formation
Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans met in the mid-1980s while studying electronics at university in Manchester, England. Dougans had already been making electronic music for some time, working between Glasgow and Manchester, when the pair first began working together in various local clubs. In 1988, Dougans embarked on a project for the Stakker graphics company. The result was Stakker Humanoid, a single that went on to reach number 17 in the UK charts, becoming the first credible UK acid house tune to cross over into the mainstream. Cobain contributed to the accompanying album. A video was also produced.
In the following three years the pair produced music under a variety of aliases, releasing a plethora of singles and EPs, including the successful bleep techno singles "Q" and "Metropolis", some of which would end up on the duo's first compilation album Earthbeat in 1992. "Metropolis" was also very influential in the house scene.
FSOL
In 1991 they released their first album, Accelerator, which was followed by their single "Papua New Guinea", featuring a looping Lisa Gerrard vocal sample from Dead Can Dance's "Dawn of the Iconoclast" and a bassline from Meat Beat Manifesto's "Radio Babylon". The track has made several British "Best songs ever" polls and track specific accolades. In 1992, Virgin Records were looking for electronic bands and, after the chart success of "Papua New Guinea", quickly signed them, giving them free rein to experiment, with a reported advance payment of £75,000. With this the duo invested in a collection of Akai S1000 samplers and other equipment.
They began to play with more ambient music, resulting in the Tales of Ephidrina album of 1993, the first album to be released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias; this was well received by press and marked a distinct shift from the more techno-driven Accelerator, retaining some dance beats, but focusing more on texture, mood and sound. The album was adventurously released on Quigley, the band's own short-lived offshoot of Virgin. At this time, the band had begun experimenting with radio performance, broadcasting now legendary three-hour radio shows to Manchester's Kiss FM from their studio.
Lifeforms, ambience and the ISDN tour
"Cascade", released as a single in 1993, introduced the commercial music world to the new FSOL sound. Despite its length, clocking in at nearly forty minutes and stretched over six parts, the track made the UK top 30, and previewed what was to come. In 1994, they released Lifeforms to critical acclaim. The album featured unconventional use of percussion interspersed with ambient segments. The eponymous single from the album featured Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins on vocals. Throughout the record, familiar motifs and samples repeated themselves, sitting alongside tropical birdsong, rainfall, wind and an array of other exotic sounds, lending the album a natural, organic feel, backed up by the environmental landscapes that filled the artwork booklet. Brian Dougan's father was involved with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop which was a heavy influence in the almost musique concrète feel to Lifeforms. The album was also a top 10 hit on the UK album chart. Cobain has said that around this time that journalists would come to talk to them and one of the first things they would ask would be if they liked Brian Eno (whom they cite as an influence), to which they would laugh and say that they were about looking forward, not to the past. It was, to them, very much a new work rather than just another Eno-type ambient album.
That year, they released the limited edition album ISDN, which featured live broadcasts they had made over ISDN lines to various radio stations worldwide to promote Lifeforms, including The Kitchen, an avant-garde performance space in New York and several appearances on the late John Peel's celebrated BBC radio Sessions shows. These shows marked the evolution of the Kiss FM shows of 1992 and 1993, moving away from DJ sets and into ambient soundscapes, with previously released material performed alongside unheard tracks. One live performance to BBC Radio 1 featured Robert Fripp performing alongside the band. The released album's tone was darker and more rhythmic than Lifeforms. Cobain stated that with ISDN they had wanted to achieve something epic and grand but no matter how much technological or personal support they had (and they had everything they could have possibly wanted) they never got to truly do what they envisioned; he admits to wanting too much at this time, even though the album was successful; the 90s, for Cobain in particular, were a time of frustration and feelings of not being able to do what they wanted to, because the technology at the time didn't fit the band's ideas. The following year, the album was re-released with expanded artwork and a slightly altered track list as an unlimited pressing.
In addition to music composition, their interests have covered a number of areas including film and video, 2D and 3D computer graphics, animation in making almost all their own videos for their singles, radio broadcasting and creating their own electronic devices for sound making. They have released works under numerous aliases.
Dead Cities
The 1995 edition of John Peel Sessions featured three entirely new tracks, which took the breakbeats and chaotic sampling of ISDN away from their previous lush synthscapes and toward a new, more contemporary sound. In 1996, they released Dead Cities, which expanded upon these early demos. The new material was a mix of ambient textures and dance music. The lead single, "My Kingdom", introduced the sound, with a video featuring shots of London, and a sound suggesting a dystopian city. The album also featured the band's first collaboration with composer Max Richter, which included the big beat track "We Have Explosive" that featured manipulated samples sourced from Run DMC. Released in 1997; it was used on the Mortal Kombat: Annihilation soundtrack, and (before the single release) in 1996 on the video game WipE'out" 2097, along with the track "Landmass", which they wrote specifically for the game. Also, a remix of "Papua New Guinea" by Hybrid was later featured in the soundtrack to WipEout Fusion in 2002. "We Have Explosive" was the second single from the album, and the band's highest charting single (beating "My Kingdom" by one spot to number 12), and over the course of its five-part extended version included hints of funk, something which would be heard again when the band returned many years later.
The album was promoted by what the band described as "the fuck rock'n'roll tour" via ISDN, lasting several months and gaining much media attention by being the first band to do a world tour without leaving their studio. While 1994's tour had focused on creating soundscapes and unreleased material, the 1996 and 1997 shows were more conventional, each offering a different take on the Dead Cities experience, blending then-current tracks with occasional exclusive pieces of the time. However, the final few performances jettisoned this material for tracks from a series of unreleased sessions, containing more live sounding material, including considerable use of guitar and percussion. These "1997 sessions" were highly sought after by fans, with some tracks forming the basis of the band's psychedelic projects of the following decade, while others appeared on the From The Archives series.
New millennium
After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth. Cobain gained much from the experience, realising that music was a tool for psychic exploration and entertainment but also one for healing. The pair returned in 2002 with "The Isness", a record heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia and released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous. It was preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's track as well as new material from The Isness sessions. The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound which was inspired by Cobain's and Dougan's (separate) travels to India and immersion in spiritualism, nevertheless the majority was positive with Muzik magazine offering the album a 6/5 mark and dubbing it "...a white beam of light from heaven..." and other British publications such as The Times, The Guardian and MOJO praising the album and the band's ability to do something so completely different from what they had done before.
Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland. Rumoured to be accompanied by a film of the same title, the album took The Isness psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. The album was ignored by the press, but was received more favourably among fans than its predecessor. Unlike The Isness, which featured almost 100 musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, Alice in Ultraland featured a fairly solid band lineup throughout, which extended to live shows which the band had undertaken away from the ISDN cables from 2005 onwards.
5.1 & digital experimentation
The FSOL moniker re-appeared in 2006 with a piece entitled "A Gigantic Globular Burst Of Anti-Static", intended as an experiment in 5.1 Surround Sound and created for an exhibition at the Kinetica art museum entitled, appropriately, "Life Forms". The piece contained reworked material from their archives and newer, more abstract ambient music. The piece was coupled with a video called "Stereo Sucks", marking the band's theories on the limitations of stereo music, which was released on a DVD packaged with issue 182 of Future Music Magazine in December 2006 and on FSOL's own download site in March 2007.
They also moved into creating their own sounds when they began constructing electronic instruments, the result of which can be heard on the 2007 release Hand-Made Devices. At their website Glitch TV (where the motto is "[A] sudden interruption in sanity, continuity or programme function") they sell and explain their devices such as the "Electronic Devices Digital Interface" glitch equipment.
FSOLdigital and the Archives
In 2007, the band uploaded several archive tracks online, for the first time revealing much of their unreleased work and unveiling some of the mystery behind the band. The old FSOL material, including the previously unreleased album Environments, along with a selection of newer experiments, the 5.1 experiments and a promise of unreleased Amorphous Androgynous psychedelic material, was uploaded for sale on their online shop, FSOLdigital.com.
In early March 2008, the band released a new online album as Amorphous Androgynous entitled The Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness, which they describe as "A collection of psychedelic relics from The Amorphous Androgynous, 1967-2007". The release retains the sound of their last two psychedelic albums, while expanding on the element of funk first introduced on 2005's Alice in Ultraland. They recorded their following album, The Woodlands of Old, under the alias of their imaginary engineer Yage. Unlike the techno work recorded as Yage in 1992, this new record was darker, more trip hop and world music-oriented and featured ex-Propellerheads member Will White.
From 2008, the band showcased a series of radio broadcasts and podcasts called The Electric Brain Storms, originally on stations such as Proton Radio, PBS radio in Australia, and Frisky Radio. The remaining shows appeared on the band's official site. and SoundCloud. The shows featured electronic, krautrock, experimental and psychedelic favourites of the band mixed in with known and unknown FSOL material, including newly recorded tracks, archived pieces, and new alias recordings. Many of the new tracks appeared on the band's Environments series. Cobain has described the new music as having "the introspective, kind of euphoric sadness that was always there in the FSOL melodies".
From this point, the band have been alternating their focus between different projects. In 2008, Environments II and From the Archives Vol. 5 were released on the band's site, followed by Environments 3 and From the Archives Vol. 6 in 2010; and Environments 4 and From the Archives Vol. 7 in 2012. Whilst the Archives feature old, unreleased material, the Environments albums feature a mixture of old demos, recently completed, and new tracks.
The band have continued to use the FSOLDigital platform to release side-projects and solo work, under names such as Blackhill Transmitter, EMS : Piano, Suburban Domestic and 6 Oscillators in Remittance, as well as distributing digital releases from other artists, including Daniel Pemberton, Herd, Kettel & Secede, Neotropic, Ross Baker and Seafar; they also continue to update The Pod Room with ISDN transmissions from the 1990s.
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind
Following on from the band's 1997 DJ set of the same name, a series of Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind mix CDs were begun in 2006. The first two were released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias, subtitled "Cosmic Space Music" and "Pagan Love Vibrations", with the first taking over two years to compile, mix and gain sample clearance, both featuring the band's psychedelic influences. A third is set for release sometime in 2010, and will be more electronic, mixed by the Future Sound of London. Further mixes in the series are expected in the future, to be curated by related artists, and the band took the concept live with an eleven-hour spot at 2009's Green Man festival, to contain live bands and DJ spots.
Noel Gallagher of British rock band Oasis, after hearing the first release, became a fan and asked the band to remix the following Oasis single "Falling Down". The Amorphous Androgynous responded with a 5 part, 22-minute Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remix, which Noel liked enough to release on its own 12". Noel also invited Cobain to DJ at the afterparty for one of Oasis' gigs at Wembley Arena.
The band continue the psychedelic theme to the mixes on their podcast site The Pod Room and on February 2010s Mojo Magazine cover CD. The Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remixes grow in popularity with commissions from Paul Weller and Pop Levi, and Cobain has suggested a full album of remixes and covers will appear on their recently formed Monstrous Bubble label
On 6 July 2011 it was announced that Noel Gallagher's second solo album will be in collaboration with The Amorphous Androgynous, and is set for release in 2012. In August 2012, Gallagher mentioned in various interviews that he is considering scrapping the collaborative album with Amorphous Androgynous due to not being completely satisfied with the mixes. Two songs from the project have surfaced as B-sides to Gallagher's singles in 2012: "Shoot a Hole into the Sun" (based on Gallagher's track "If I Had a Gun...") was a B-side to the single "Dream On", and a mix of "AKA... What a Life!" featured on the B-side of "Everybody's on the Run". However, as the project is currently shelved, the group have returned to original material, releasing the first in a series of Monstrous Bubble Soundtracks, entitled The Cartel. On Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' album Chasing Yesterday, The Amorphous Androgynous are credited as Co-producers of the tracks "The Right Stuff" and "The Mexican".
Future of the band
The group continue to give updates for the Galaxial Pharmaceutical news site and forum, while largely releasing material through their FSOLDigital imprint. They remain prolific, working on multiple projects at once. As "The Future Sound of London", they currently plan to continue releasing new material as part of the Environments series; the latest releases as of June 2019 are Environment Six and 6.5 from 2016.
On 26 April 2019, the band released Yage 2019, consisting of eleven songs. The album was also released on vinyl and CD on Record Store Day that year; the latter release featured an additional two tracks. The next year another album, Cascade 2020, was released. In 2021 they released We Have Explosive 2021.
Independence
Since the millennium, FSOL took a more independent turn with their career, releasing their more psychedelic Amorphous Androgynous on an independent label, The Isness on Artful Records and Alice in Ultraland on the progressive Harvest Records (an arm of EMI). They also have their own label called Electronic Brain Violence on which off-beat electronic artists such as Oil and Simon Wells (Headstone Lane) have released EPs and singles. Simon Wells also contributed to Dead Cities on the track "Dead Cities Reprise"
Nevertheless, Virgin records still controls FSOL's back catalog and was going to release the Teachings from the Electronic Brain compilation without them, but the duo insisted on taking control of the production of the project. Cobain says that, even with Virgin, the reason they were able to do their own thing and create the music they wanted in the 1990s was because they already had some major hits under their belts such as "Papua New Guinea", "Metropolis" and "Stakker Humanoid" before joining the label.
Cobain has said that FSOL's mentality has always been about making a journey of an album rather than focusing on trying to have hit singles. He said that they had several top 40 singles (and albums) in the 90s because they had enough fans and had built up enough of a reputation to achieve these hits while still concentrating on the album rather than any potential singles during their time at Virgin.
They have been signed to Passion Records sub-label Jumpin' & Pumpin' since they started out.
Aliases
Discography
Accelerator (1991)
Lifeforms (1994)
ISDN (1994)
Dead Cities (1996)
The Isness (2002) (as Amorphous Androgynous, except in the USA)
Environments (2007)
Environments II (2008)
Environments 3 (2010)
Environments 4 (2012)
Environment Five (2014)
Environment Six (2016)
Environment 6.5 (2016)
Yage 2019 (2019)
Cascade 2020 (2020)
Chart history
Singles charts
Album charts
See also
List of ambient music artists
Max Richter
References
External links
Future Sound of London.com - official website.
an overview of their studio equipment et cetera from 1994
Acid house musicians
Braindance musicians
Breakbeat music groups
British ambient music groups
English dance music groups
English house music duos
English techno music groups
Male musical duos
Astralwerks artists
Virgin Records artists
English experimental musical groups
Harvest Records artists
Hypnotic Records artists
Rephlex Records artists
Intelligent dance musicians
Musical groups established in 1988
Musical groups from Manchester
New-age music groups
Remixers | true | [
"Kylie's Non-Stop History 50+1 is a remix album by Australian singer Kylie Minogue. It was released on 1 July 1993 in Japan and in the United Kingdom in October 1993. The album contained clips of most of Minogue's songs released during her PWL period plus the Techno Rave Remix of \"Celebration\". All the tracks except \"Celebration\" (Techno Rave Remix) run into each other, creating a megamix.\n\nCritical reception\n\nThe album received favorable reviews. Chris True from All Music website praise the album for focus in Kylie's entire songs's catalog and pointing that if the public don't \"bothered looking for all the individual albums, or want to get more of your money's worth for her early work, this is the one.\"\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n1993 greatest hits albums\nAlbums produced by Stock Aitken Waterman\nKylie Minogue compilation albums\n1993 remix albums",
"Wormwood Live is a 1999 live album by the Residents. Recorded in Germany, it features the full live performance of songs from their album, Wormwood: Curious Stories from the Bible. Studio versions of the live performances were later released as Roadworms: The Berlin Sessions. This live album was released by Ralph America in a limited edition of 1200 copies.\n\nTrack listing \n In the Beginning\n Welcome to Wormwood\n Mr. Skull's Rave: 1\n How to Get a Head\n Mr. Misery\n Tent Peg in the Temple\n Mr. Skull's Rave: 2\n God's Magic Finger\n Dinah and the Unclean Skin\n Cain and Abel\n Mr. Skull's Rave: 3\n Burn Baby Burn\n Fire Fall\n King of Kings\n Skull Prayer\n Mr. Skull's Rave: 4\n Abraham\n Bridegroom of Blood\n Mr. Skull's Rave: 5\n David\n Judas Saves\n Old Time Religion (Epilogue)\n Jesus Loves Me (Exit Music)\n\nReferences\n\n1999 live albums\nThe Residents live albums"
]
|
[
"The Future Sound of London",
"New millennium, new sound",
"What was going on with the group?",
"After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth.",
"When did they make more music?",
"The pair returned in 2002 with \"The Isness\",",
"How did the music sound?",
"heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia",
"Did the album get rave reviews?",
"The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound"
]
| C_91ed719efa8743459e3be26fcb7aeabc_0 | What was different about their sound? | 5 | What was different about The Isness sound? | The Future Sound of London | After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth. Cobain gained much from the experience, realizing that music was a tool for psychic exploration and entertainment but also one for healing . The pair returned in 2002 with "The Isness", a record heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia and released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous. It was preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's track as well as new material from The Isness sessions. The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound which was inspired by Cobain's and Dougan's (separate) travels to India and immersion in spiritualism, nevertheless the majority was positive with Muzik magazine offering the album a 6/5 mark and dubbing it "...a white beam of light from heaven..." and other British publications such as The Times, The Guardian and MOJO praising the album and the band's ability to do something so completely different from what they had done before. Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland. Rumoured to be accompanied by a film of the same title, the album took The Isness' psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. The album was ignored by the press, but was received more favourably among fans than its predecessor. Unlike The Isness, which featured almost 100 musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, Alice in Ultraland featured a fairly solid band lineup throughout, which extended to live shows which the band had undertaken away from the ISDN cables from 2005 onwards. ...song form has just become too limited. And when I say 'psychedelic', it's not a reference to 60s music but to the basic outlook of a child, which we all have. I think this is the only salvation now. Dance music taught us how to use the studio in a new way, but we have to now take that knowledge and move on with it. This stuff, electronic music, is not dead. It's a process that is ongoing. We have to take hold of the past and go forward with it... CANNOTANSWER | heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia | The Future Sound of London (often abbreviated FSOL) is a British electronic music duo composed of Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans. Described as a "boundary-pushing" electronic act by AllMusic, their work covers many areas of electronic music, such as techno, ambient, house music, trip hop, psychedelia, and dub.
During the 1990s, they released the albums Lifeforms (1994) and Dead Cities (1996) to some commercial success. The artists were fairly enigmatic in the past but have become more candid with their fanbase in recent years with social websites like Myspace, YouTube, their forum and many interviews in which Cobain almost always speaks for the pair.
History
Formation
Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans met in the mid-1980s while studying electronics at university in Manchester, England. Dougans had already been making electronic music for some time, working between Glasgow and Manchester, when the pair first began working together in various local clubs. In 1988, Dougans embarked on a project for the Stakker graphics company. The result was Stakker Humanoid, a single that went on to reach number 17 in the UK charts, becoming the first credible UK acid house tune to cross over into the mainstream. Cobain contributed to the accompanying album. A video was also produced.
In the following three years the pair produced music under a variety of aliases, releasing a plethora of singles and EPs, including the successful bleep techno singles "Q" and "Metropolis", some of which would end up on the duo's first compilation album Earthbeat in 1992. "Metropolis" was also very influential in the house scene.
FSOL
In 1991 they released their first album, Accelerator, which was followed by their single "Papua New Guinea", featuring a looping Lisa Gerrard vocal sample from Dead Can Dance's "Dawn of the Iconoclast" and a bassline from Meat Beat Manifesto's "Radio Babylon". The track has made several British "Best songs ever" polls and track specific accolades. In 1992, Virgin Records were looking for electronic bands and, after the chart success of "Papua New Guinea", quickly signed them, giving them free rein to experiment, with a reported advance payment of £75,000. With this the duo invested in a collection of Akai S1000 samplers and other equipment.
They began to play with more ambient music, resulting in the Tales of Ephidrina album of 1993, the first album to be released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias; this was well received by press and marked a distinct shift from the more techno-driven Accelerator, retaining some dance beats, but focusing more on texture, mood and sound. The album was adventurously released on Quigley, the band's own short-lived offshoot of Virgin. At this time, the band had begun experimenting with radio performance, broadcasting now legendary three-hour radio shows to Manchester's Kiss FM from their studio.
Lifeforms, ambience and the ISDN tour
"Cascade", released as a single in 1993, introduced the commercial music world to the new FSOL sound. Despite its length, clocking in at nearly forty minutes and stretched over six parts, the track made the UK top 30, and previewed what was to come. In 1994, they released Lifeforms to critical acclaim. The album featured unconventional use of percussion interspersed with ambient segments. The eponymous single from the album featured Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins on vocals. Throughout the record, familiar motifs and samples repeated themselves, sitting alongside tropical birdsong, rainfall, wind and an array of other exotic sounds, lending the album a natural, organic feel, backed up by the environmental landscapes that filled the artwork booklet. Brian Dougan's father was involved with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop which was a heavy influence in the almost musique concrète feel to Lifeforms. The album was also a top 10 hit on the UK album chart. Cobain has said that around this time that journalists would come to talk to them and one of the first things they would ask would be if they liked Brian Eno (whom they cite as an influence), to which they would laugh and say that they were about looking forward, not to the past. It was, to them, very much a new work rather than just another Eno-type ambient album.
That year, they released the limited edition album ISDN, which featured live broadcasts they had made over ISDN lines to various radio stations worldwide to promote Lifeforms, including The Kitchen, an avant-garde performance space in New York and several appearances on the late John Peel's celebrated BBC radio Sessions shows. These shows marked the evolution of the Kiss FM shows of 1992 and 1993, moving away from DJ sets and into ambient soundscapes, with previously released material performed alongside unheard tracks. One live performance to BBC Radio 1 featured Robert Fripp performing alongside the band. The released album's tone was darker and more rhythmic than Lifeforms. Cobain stated that with ISDN they had wanted to achieve something epic and grand but no matter how much technological or personal support they had (and they had everything they could have possibly wanted) they never got to truly do what they envisioned; he admits to wanting too much at this time, even though the album was successful; the 90s, for Cobain in particular, were a time of frustration and feelings of not being able to do what they wanted to, because the technology at the time didn't fit the band's ideas. The following year, the album was re-released with expanded artwork and a slightly altered track list as an unlimited pressing.
In addition to music composition, their interests have covered a number of areas including film and video, 2D and 3D computer graphics, animation in making almost all their own videos for their singles, radio broadcasting and creating their own electronic devices for sound making. They have released works under numerous aliases.
Dead Cities
The 1995 edition of John Peel Sessions featured three entirely new tracks, which took the breakbeats and chaotic sampling of ISDN away from their previous lush synthscapes and toward a new, more contemporary sound. In 1996, they released Dead Cities, which expanded upon these early demos. The new material was a mix of ambient textures and dance music. The lead single, "My Kingdom", introduced the sound, with a video featuring shots of London, and a sound suggesting a dystopian city. The album also featured the band's first collaboration with composer Max Richter, which included the big beat track "We Have Explosive" that featured manipulated samples sourced from Run DMC. Released in 1997; it was used on the Mortal Kombat: Annihilation soundtrack, and (before the single release) in 1996 on the video game WipE'out" 2097, along with the track "Landmass", which they wrote specifically for the game. Also, a remix of "Papua New Guinea" by Hybrid was later featured in the soundtrack to WipEout Fusion in 2002. "We Have Explosive" was the second single from the album, and the band's highest charting single (beating "My Kingdom" by one spot to number 12), and over the course of its five-part extended version included hints of funk, something which would be heard again when the band returned many years later.
The album was promoted by what the band described as "the fuck rock'n'roll tour" via ISDN, lasting several months and gaining much media attention by being the first band to do a world tour without leaving their studio. While 1994's tour had focused on creating soundscapes and unreleased material, the 1996 and 1997 shows were more conventional, each offering a different take on the Dead Cities experience, blending then-current tracks with occasional exclusive pieces of the time. However, the final few performances jettisoned this material for tracks from a series of unreleased sessions, containing more live sounding material, including considerable use of guitar and percussion. These "1997 sessions" were highly sought after by fans, with some tracks forming the basis of the band's psychedelic projects of the following decade, while others appeared on the From The Archives series.
New millennium
After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth. Cobain gained much from the experience, realising that music was a tool for psychic exploration and entertainment but also one for healing. The pair returned in 2002 with "The Isness", a record heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia and released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous. It was preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's track as well as new material from The Isness sessions. The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound which was inspired by Cobain's and Dougan's (separate) travels to India and immersion in spiritualism, nevertheless the majority was positive with Muzik magazine offering the album a 6/5 mark and dubbing it "...a white beam of light from heaven..." and other British publications such as The Times, The Guardian and MOJO praising the album and the band's ability to do something so completely different from what they had done before.
Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland. Rumoured to be accompanied by a film of the same title, the album took The Isness psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. The album was ignored by the press, but was received more favourably among fans than its predecessor. Unlike The Isness, which featured almost 100 musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, Alice in Ultraland featured a fairly solid band lineup throughout, which extended to live shows which the band had undertaken away from the ISDN cables from 2005 onwards.
5.1 & digital experimentation
The FSOL moniker re-appeared in 2006 with a piece entitled "A Gigantic Globular Burst Of Anti-Static", intended as an experiment in 5.1 Surround Sound and created for an exhibition at the Kinetica art museum entitled, appropriately, "Life Forms". The piece contained reworked material from their archives and newer, more abstract ambient music. The piece was coupled with a video called "Stereo Sucks", marking the band's theories on the limitations of stereo music, which was released on a DVD packaged with issue 182 of Future Music Magazine in December 2006 and on FSOL's own download site in March 2007.
They also moved into creating their own sounds when they began constructing electronic instruments, the result of which can be heard on the 2007 release Hand-Made Devices. At their website Glitch TV (where the motto is "[A] sudden interruption in sanity, continuity or programme function") they sell and explain their devices such as the "Electronic Devices Digital Interface" glitch equipment.
FSOLdigital and the Archives
In 2007, the band uploaded several archive tracks online, for the first time revealing much of their unreleased work and unveiling some of the mystery behind the band. The old FSOL material, including the previously unreleased album Environments, along with a selection of newer experiments, the 5.1 experiments and a promise of unreleased Amorphous Androgynous psychedelic material, was uploaded for sale on their online shop, FSOLdigital.com.
In early March 2008, the band released a new online album as Amorphous Androgynous entitled The Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness, which they describe as "A collection of psychedelic relics from The Amorphous Androgynous, 1967-2007". The release retains the sound of their last two psychedelic albums, while expanding on the element of funk first introduced on 2005's Alice in Ultraland. They recorded their following album, The Woodlands of Old, under the alias of their imaginary engineer Yage. Unlike the techno work recorded as Yage in 1992, this new record was darker, more trip hop and world music-oriented and featured ex-Propellerheads member Will White.
From 2008, the band showcased a series of radio broadcasts and podcasts called The Electric Brain Storms, originally on stations such as Proton Radio, PBS radio in Australia, and Frisky Radio. The remaining shows appeared on the band's official site. and SoundCloud. The shows featured electronic, krautrock, experimental and psychedelic favourites of the band mixed in with known and unknown FSOL material, including newly recorded tracks, archived pieces, and new alias recordings. Many of the new tracks appeared on the band's Environments series. Cobain has described the new music as having "the introspective, kind of euphoric sadness that was always there in the FSOL melodies".
From this point, the band have been alternating their focus between different projects. In 2008, Environments II and From the Archives Vol. 5 were released on the band's site, followed by Environments 3 and From the Archives Vol. 6 in 2010; and Environments 4 and From the Archives Vol. 7 in 2012. Whilst the Archives feature old, unreleased material, the Environments albums feature a mixture of old demos, recently completed, and new tracks.
The band have continued to use the FSOLDigital platform to release side-projects and solo work, under names such as Blackhill Transmitter, EMS : Piano, Suburban Domestic and 6 Oscillators in Remittance, as well as distributing digital releases from other artists, including Daniel Pemberton, Herd, Kettel & Secede, Neotropic, Ross Baker and Seafar; they also continue to update The Pod Room with ISDN transmissions from the 1990s.
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind
Following on from the band's 1997 DJ set of the same name, a series of Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind mix CDs were begun in 2006. The first two were released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias, subtitled "Cosmic Space Music" and "Pagan Love Vibrations", with the first taking over two years to compile, mix and gain sample clearance, both featuring the band's psychedelic influences. A third is set for release sometime in 2010, and will be more electronic, mixed by the Future Sound of London. Further mixes in the series are expected in the future, to be curated by related artists, and the band took the concept live with an eleven-hour spot at 2009's Green Man festival, to contain live bands and DJ spots.
Noel Gallagher of British rock band Oasis, after hearing the first release, became a fan and asked the band to remix the following Oasis single "Falling Down". The Amorphous Androgynous responded with a 5 part, 22-minute Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remix, which Noel liked enough to release on its own 12". Noel also invited Cobain to DJ at the afterparty for one of Oasis' gigs at Wembley Arena.
The band continue the psychedelic theme to the mixes on their podcast site The Pod Room and on February 2010s Mojo Magazine cover CD. The Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remixes grow in popularity with commissions from Paul Weller and Pop Levi, and Cobain has suggested a full album of remixes and covers will appear on their recently formed Monstrous Bubble label
On 6 July 2011 it was announced that Noel Gallagher's second solo album will be in collaboration with The Amorphous Androgynous, and is set for release in 2012. In August 2012, Gallagher mentioned in various interviews that he is considering scrapping the collaborative album with Amorphous Androgynous due to not being completely satisfied with the mixes. Two songs from the project have surfaced as B-sides to Gallagher's singles in 2012: "Shoot a Hole into the Sun" (based on Gallagher's track "If I Had a Gun...") was a B-side to the single "Dream On", and a mix of "AKA... What a Life!" featured on the B-side of "Everybody's on the Run". However, as the project is currently shelved, the group have returned to original material, releasing the first in a series of Monstrous Bubble Soundtracks, entitled The Cartel. On Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' album Chasing Yesterday, The Amorphous Androgynous are credited as Co-producers of the tracks "The Right Stuff" and "The Mexican".
Future of the band
The group continue to give updates for the Galaxial Pharmaceutical news site and forum, while largely releasing material through their FSOLDigital imprint. They remain prolific, working on multiple projects at once. As "The Future Sound of London", they currently plan to continue releasing new material as part of the Environments series; the latest releases as of June 2019 are Environment Six and 6.5 from 2016.
On 26 April 2019, the band released Yage 2019, consisting of eleven songs. The album was also released on vinyl and CD on Record Store Day that year; the latter release featured an additional two tracks. The next year another album, Cascade 2020, was released. In 2021 they released We Have Explosive 2021.
Independence
Since the millennium, FSOL took a more independent turn with their career, releasing their more psychedelic Amorphous Androgynous on an independent label, The Isness on Artful Records and Alice in Ultraland on the progressive Harvest Records (an arm of EMI). They also have their own label called Electronic Brain Violence on which off-beat electronic artists such as Oil and Simon Wells (Headstone Lane) have released EPs and singles. Simon Wells also contributed to Dead Cities on the track "Dead Cities Reprise"
Nevertheless, Virgin records still controls FSOL's back catalog and was going to release the Teachings from the Electronic Brain compilation without them, but the duo insisted on taking control of the production of the project. Cobain says that, even with Virgin, the reason they were able to do their own thing and create the music they wanted in the 1990s was because they already had some major hits under their belts such as "Papua New Guinea", "Metropolis" and "Stakker Humanoid" before joining the label.
Cobain has said that FSOL's mentality has always been about making a journey of an album rather than focusing on trying to have hit singles. He said that they had several top 40 singles (and albums) in the 90s because they had enough fans and had built up enough of a reputation to achieve these hits while still concentrating on the album rather than any potential singles during their time at Virgin.
They have been signed to Passion Records sub-label Jumpin' & Pumpin' since they started out.
Aliases
Discography
Accelerator (1991)
Lifeforms (1994)
ISDN (1994)
Dead Cities (1996)
The Isness (2002) (as Amorphous Androgynous, except in the USA)
Environments (2007)
Environments II (2008)
Environments 3 (2010)
Environments 4 (2012)
Environment Five (2014)
Environment Six (2016)
Environment 6.5 (2016)
Yage 2019 (2019)
Cascade 2020 (2020)
Chart history
Singles charts
Album charts
See also
List of ambient music artists
Max Richter
References
External links
Future Sound of London.com - official website.
an overview of their studio equipment et cetera from 1994
Acid house musicians
Braindance musicians
Breakbeat music groups
British ambient music groups
English dance music groups
English house music duos
English techno music groups
Male musical duos
Astralwerks artists
Virgin Records artists
English experimental musical groups
Harvest Records artists
Hypnotic Records artists
Rephlex Records artists
Intelligent dance musicians
Musical groups established in 1988
Musical groups from Manchester
New-age music groups
Remixers | true | [
"Traces is the debut studio album of Filipino indie folk band The Ransom Collective which was released on May 20, 2017. The album contains 11 tracks featuring re-recorded versions of songs from their 2014 self-titled EP, namely: Hither, Run, Images, and Fools.\n\nSettled, the lead single, was released on April 11, 2016, and was followed by Open Road which was released on December 4, 2016. A vinyl version was released on March 27, 2018 by indie label Offshore Music.\n\nBackground \nThe band is known for its upbeat and cheerful sound, but frontman Kian Ransom states that Traces will be different as it will be darker compared to their self-titled EP. Lily and Kian also said that Traces will have a more complex sound. “More complex rhythms, transitions, and the occasional fusion of other genres...it’s always good to change it up a little. That means you’re growing as an artist,” says Kian. Traces is a testament to their maturity as musicians and complexity as songwriters, opting for a more diverse content.\n\nThe album would also be a very personal one for each of the members. Drummer Redd Claudio says, \"You’ll find that each track is based on a separate experience, it’s just narrating those experiences. That for me, shows how personal it is in that sense.\" \"[The album] is about our lives, heartbreak, the things that we celebrate, the things that we go through, happiness. Anything that we go through in our lives, that's what Traces is all about, and all the memories,\" said Jermaine.\n\nThe band was also trying to be unpredictable in their songwriting, especially with Traces. Jermaine Ochoa Peck says, \"With the music industry in general, this wave of sound is different from how it sounded before. I think we also just rode that wave. People are starting to be more open to the different sound…indie folk. It’s not only us, there’s a lot of other bands, who are also getting into this kind of music as well.\"\n\nRelease \nThe band officially released the album on May 20, 2017, and hosted an album launch at The Palace Pool Club in Bonifacio Global City with musical acts Tandems ’91, Tom’s Story, and Ourselves the Elves. Indie musician Reese Lansangan was originally scheduled to perform at the launch, but due to commitments with MCA Music's GetMusic Indie-Go, she wasn't able to join and was replaced instead by Tandems '91.\n\nTrack listing\n\nReferences\n\n2016 albums\nThe Ransom Collective albums",
"Nevermind the Living Dead is the first studio album from French indie rock band Stuck in the Sound. Released on 6 November 2006 on the Discograph label, the record was the first by the band to be commercially released. It followed their self-titled 2004 debut and included a number of songs from the previous record. It was released as a compact disc in France, and as a download in a number of other countries. The album was generally well received and has been praised in particular for its sharp melodies and punchy guitars. The record garnered comparisons to bands such as At the Drive-In and Pixies. By the band's own admission, Nevermind the Living Dead was about showing off what they could do.\n\nTrack listing\nAll songs written and composed by Stuck in the Sound.\n\nReferences\n\n2006 albums\nStuck in the Sound albums"
]
|
[
"The Future Sound of London",
"New millennium, new sound",
"What was going on with the group?",
"After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth.",
"When did they make more music?",
"The pair returned in 2002 with \"The Isness\",",
"How did the music sound?",
"heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia",
"Did the album get rave reviews?",
"The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound",
"What was different about their sound?",
"heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia"
]
| C_91ed719efa8743459e3be26fcb7aeabc_0 | Did they release any more music? | 6 | Did The Isness release any more music? | The Future Sound of London | After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth. Cobain gained much from the experience, realizing that music was a tool for psychic exploration and entertainment but also one for healing . The pair returned in 2002 with "The Isness", a record heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia and released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous. It was preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's track as well as new material from The Isness sessions. The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound which was inspired by Cobain's and Dougan's (separate) travels to India and immersion in spiritualism, nevertheless the majority was positive with Muzik magazine offering the album a 6/5 mark and dubbing it "...a white beam of light from heaven..." and other British publications such as The Times, The Guardian and MOJO praising the album and the band's ability to do something so completely different from what they had done before. Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland. Rumoured to be accompanied by a film of the same title, the album took The Isness' psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. The album was ignored by the press, but was received more favourably among fans than its predecessor. Unlike The Isness, which featured almost 100 musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, Alice in Ultraland featured a fairly solid band lineup throughout, which extended to live shows which the band had undertaken away from the ISDN cables from 2005 onwards. ...song form has just become too limited. And when I say 'psychedelic', it's not a reference to 60s music but to the basic outlook of a child, which we all have. I think this is the only salvation now. Dance music taught us how to use the studio in a new way, but we have to now take that knowledge and move on with it. This stuff, electronic music, is not dead. It's a process that is ongoing. We have to take hold of the past and go forward with it... CANNOTANSWER | Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland. | The Future Sound of London (often abbreviated FSOL) is a British electronic music duo composed of Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans. Described as a "boundary-pushing" electronic act by AllMusic, their work covers many areas of electronic music, such as techno, ambient, house music, trip hop, psychedelia, and dub.
During the 1990s, they released the albums Lifeforms (1994) and Dead Cities (1996) to some commercial success. The artists were fairly enigmatic in the past but have become more candid with their fanbase in recent years with social websites like Myspace, YouTube, their forum and many interviews in which Cobain almost always speaks for the pair.
History
Formation
Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans met in the mid-1980s while studying electronics at university in Manchester, England. Dougans had already been making electronic music for some time, working between Glasgow and Manchester, when the pair first began working together in various local clubs. In 1988, Dougans embarked on a project for the Stakker graphics company. The result was Stakker Humanoid, a single that went on to reach number 17 in the UK charts, becoming the first credible UK acid house tune to cross over into the mainstream. Cobain contributed to the accompanying album. A video was also produced.
In the following three years the pair produced music under a variety of aliases, releasing a plethora of singles and EPs, including the successful bleep techno singles "Q" and "Metropolis", some of which would end up on the duo's first compilation album Earthbeat in 1992. "Metropolis" was also very influential in the house scene.
FSOL
In 1991 they released their first album, Accelerator, which was followed by their single "Papua New Guinea", featuring a looping Lisa Gerrard vocal sample from Dead Can Dance's "Dawn of the Iconoclast" and a bassline from Meat Beat Manifesto's "Radio Babylon". The track has made several British "Best songs ever" polls and track specific accolades. In 1992, Virgin Records were looking for electronic bands and, after the chart success of "Papua New Guinea", quickly signed them, giving them free rein to experiment, with a reported advance payment of £75,000. With this the duo invested in a collection of Akai S1000 samplers and other equipment.
They began to play with more ambient music, resulting in the Tales of Ephidrina album of 1993, the first album to be released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias; this was well received by press and marked a distinct shift from the more techno-driven Accelerator, retaining some dance beats, but focusing more on texture, mood and sound. The album was adventurously released on Quigley, the band's own short-lived offshoot of Virgin. At this time, the band had begun experimenting with radio performance, broadcasting now legendary three-hour radio shows to Manchester's Kiss FM from their studio.
Lifeforms, ambience and the ISDN tour
"Cascade", released as a single in 1993, introduced the commercial music world to the new FSOL sound. Despite its length, clocking in at nearly forty minutes and stretched over six parts, the track made the UK top 30, and previewed what was to come. In 1994, they released Lifeforms to critical acclaim. The album featured unconventional use of percussion interspersed with ambient segments. The eponymous single from the album featured Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins on vocals. Throughout the record, familiar motifs and samples repeated themselves, sitting alongside tropical birdsong, rainfall, wind and an array of other exotic sounds, lending the album a natural, organic feel, backed up by the environmental landscapes that filled the artwork booklet. Brian Dougan's father was involved with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop which was a heavy influence in the almost musique concrète feel to Lifeforms. The album was also a top 10 hit on the UK album chart. Cobain has said that around this time that journalists would come to talk to them and one of the first things they would ask would be if they liked Brian Eno (whom they cite as an influence), to which they would laugh and say that they were about looking forward, not to the past. It was, to them, very much a new work rather than just another Eno-type ambient album.
That year, they released the limited edition album ISDN, which featured live broadcasts they had made over ISDN lines to various radio stations worldwide to promote Lifeforms, including The Kitchen, an avant-garde performance space in New York and several appearances on the late John Peel's celebrated BBC radio Sessions shows. These shows marked the evolution of the Kiss FM shows of 1992 and 1993, moving away from DJ sets and into ambient soundscapes, with previously released material performed alongside unheard tracks. One live performance to BBC Radio 1 featured Robert Fripp performing alongside the band. The released album's tone was darker and more rhythmic than Lifeforms. Cobain stated that with ISDN they had wanted to achieve something epic and grand but no matter how much technological or personal support they had (and they had everything they could have possibly wanted) they never got to truly do what they envisioned; he admits to wanting too much at this time, even though the album was successful; the 90s, for Cobain in particular, were a time of frustration and feelings of not being able to do what they wanted to, because the technology at the time didn't fit the band's ideas. The following year, the album was re-released with expanded artwork and a slightly altered track list as an unlimited pressing.
In addition to music composition, their interests have covered a number of areas including film and video, 2D and 3D computer graphics, animation in making almost all their own videos for their singles, radio broadcasting and creating their own electronic devices for sound making. They have released works under numerous aliases.
Dead Cities
The 1995 edition of John Peel Sessions featured three entirely new tracks, which took the breakbeats and chaotic sampling of ISDN away from their previous lush synthscapes and toward a new, more contemporary sound. In 1996, they released Dead Cities, which expanded upon these early demos. The new material was a mix of ambient textures and dance music. The lead single, "My Kingdom", introduced the sound, with a video featuring shots of London, and a sound suggesting a dystopian city. The album also featured the band's first collaboration with composer Max Richter, which included the big beat track "We Have Explosive" that featured manipulated samples sourced from Run DMC. Released in 1997; it was used on the Mortal Kombat: Annihilation soundtrack, and (before the single release) in 1996 on the video game WipE'out" 2097, along with the track "Landmass", which they wrote specifically for the game. Also, a remix of "Papua New Guinea" by Hybrid was later featured in the soundtrack to WipEout Fusion in 2002. "We Have Explosive" was the second single from the album, and the band's highest charting single (beating "My Kingdom" by one spot to number 12), and over the course of its five-part extended version included hints of funk, something which would be heard again when the band returned many years later.
The album was promoted by what the band described as "the fuck rock'n'roll tour" via ISDN, lasting several months and gaining much media attention by being the first band to do a world tour without leaving their studio. While 1994's tour had focused on creating soundscapes and unreleased material, the 1996 and 1997 shows were more conventional, each offering a different take on the Dead Cities experience, blending then-current tracks with occasional exclusive pieces of the time. However, the final few performances jettisoned this material for tracks from a series of unreleased sessions, containing more live sounding material, including considerable use of guitar and percussion. These "1997 sessions" were highly sought after by fans, with some tracks forming the basis of the band's psychedelic projects of the following decade, while others appeared on the From The Archives series.
New millennium
After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth. Cobain gained much from the experience, realising that music was a tool for psychic exploration and entertainment but also one for healing. The pair returned in 2002 with "The Isness", a record heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia and released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous. It was preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's track as well as new material from The Isness sessions. The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound which was inspired by Cobain's and Dougan's (separate) travels to India and immersion in spiritualism, nevertheless the majority was positive with Muzik magazine offering the album a 6/5 mark and dubbing it "...a white beam of light from heaven..." and other British publications such as The Times, The Guardian and MOJO praising the album and the band's ability to do something so completely different from what they had done before.
Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland. Rumoured to be accompanied by a film of the same title, the album took The Isness psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. The album was ignored by the press, but was received more favourably among fans than its predecessor. Unlike The Isness, which featured almost 100 musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, Alice in Ultraland featured a fairly solid band lineup throughout, which extended to live shows which the band had undertaken away from the ISDN cables from 2005 onwards.
5.1 & digital experimentation
The FSOL moniker re-appeared in 2006 with a piece entitled "A Gigantic Globular Burst Of Anti-Static", intended as an experiment in 5.1 Surround Sound and created for an exhibition at the Kinetica art museum entitled, appropriately, "Life Forms". The piece contained reworked material from their archives and newer, more abstract ambient music. The piece was coupled with a video called "Stereo Sucks", marking the band's theories on the limitations of stereo music, which was released on a DVD packaged with issue 182 of Future Music Magazine in December 2006 and on FSOL's own download site in March 2007.
They also moved into creating their own sounds when they began constructing electronic instruments, the result of which can be heard on the 2007 release Hand-Made Devices. At their website Glitch TV (where the motto is "[A] sudden interruption in sanity, continuity or programme function") they sell and explain their devices such as the "Electronic Devices Digital Interface" glitch equipment.
FSOLdigital and the Archives
In 2007, the band uploaded several archive tracks online, for the first time revealing much of their unreleased work and unveiling some of the mystery behind the band. The old FSOL material, including the previously unreleased album Environments, along with a selection of newer experiments, the 5.1 experiments and a promise of unreleased Amorphous Androgynous psychedelic material, was uploaded for sale on their online shop, FSOLdigital.com.
In early March 2008, the band released a new online album as Amorphous Androgynous entitled The Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness, which they describe as "A collection of psychedelic relics from The Amorphous Androgynous, 1967-2007". The release retains the sound of their last two psychedelic albums, while expanding on the element of funk first introduced on 2005's Alice in Ultraland. They recorded their following album, The Woodlands of Old, under the alias of their imaginary engineer Yage. Unlike the techno work recorded as Yage in 1992, this new record was darker, more trip hop and world music-oriented and featured ex-Propellerheads member Will White.
From 2008, the band showcased a series of radio broadcasts and podcasts called The Electric Brain Storms, originally on stations such as Proton Radio, PBS radio in Australia, and Frisky Radio. The remaining shows appeared on the band's official site. and SoundCloud. The shows featured electronic, krautrock, experimental and psychedelic favourites of the band mixed in with known and unknown FSOL material, including newly recorded tracks, archived pieces, and new alias recordings. Many of the new tracks appeared on the band's Environments series. Cobain has described the new music as having "the introspective, kind of euphoric sadness that was always there in the FSOL melodies".
From this point, the band have been alternating their focus between different projects. In 2008, Environments II and From the Archives Vol. 5 were released on the band's site, followed by Environments 3 and From the Archives Vol. 6 in 2010; and Environments 4 and From the Archives Vol. 7 in 2012. Whilst the Archives feature old, unreleased material, the Environments albums feature a mixture of old demos, recently completed, and new tracks.
The band have continued to use the FSOLDigital platform to release side-projects and solo work, under names such as Blackhill Transmitter, EMS : Piano, Suburban Domestic and 6 Oscillators in Remittance, as well as distributing digital releases from other artists, including Daniel Pemberton, Herd, Kettel & Secede, Neotropic, Ross Baker and Seafar; they also continue to update The Pod Room with ISDN transmissions from the 1990s.
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind
Following on from the band's 1997 DJ set of the same name, a series of Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind mix CDs were begun in 2006. The first two were released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias, subtitled "Cosmic Space Music" and "Pagan Love Vibrations", with the first taking over two years to compile, mix and gain sample clearance, both featuring the band's psychedelic influences. A third is set for release sometime in 2010, and will be more electronic, mixed by the Future Sound of London. Further mixes in the series are expected in the future, to be curated by related artists, and the band took the concept live with an eleven-hour spot at 2009's Green Man festival, to contain live bands and DJ spots.
Noel Gallagher of British rock band Oasis, after hearing the first release, became a fan and asked the band to remix the following Oasis single "Falling Down". The Amorphous Androgynous responded with a 5 part, 22-minute Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remix, which Noel liked enough to release on its own 12". Noel also invited Cobain to DJ at the afterparty for one of Oasis' gigs at Wembley Arena.
The band continue the psychedelic theme to the mixes on their podcast site The Pod Room and on February 2010s Mojo Magazine cover CD. The Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remixes grow in popularity with commissions from Paul Weller and Pop Levi, and Cobain has suggested a full album of remixes and covers will appear on their recently formed Monstrous Bubble label
On 6 July 2011 it was announced that Noel Gallagher's second solo album will be in collaboration with The Amorphous Androgynous, and is set for release in 2012. In August 2012, Gallagher mentioned in various interviews that he is considering scrapping the collaborative album with Amorphous Androgynous due to not being completely satisfied with the mixes. Two songs from the project have surfaced as B-sides to Gallagher's singles in 2012: "Shoot a Hole into the Sun" (based on Gallagher's track "If I Had a Gun...") was a B-side to the single "Dream On", and a mix of "AKA... What a Life!" featured on the B-side of "Everybody's on the Run". However, as the project is currently shelved, the group have returned to original material, releasing the first in a series of Monstrous Bubble Soundtracks, entitled The Cartel. On Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' album Chasing Yesterday, The Amorphous Androgynous are credited as Co-producers of the tracks "The Right Stuff" and "The Mexican".
Future of the band
The group continue to give updates for the Galaxial Pharmaceutical news site and forum, while largely releasing material through their FSOLDigital imprint. They remain prolific, working on multiple projects at once. As "The Future Sound of London", they currently plan to continue releasing new material as part of the Environments series; the latest releases as of June 2019 are Environment Six and 6.5 from 2016.
On 26 April 2019, the band released Yage 2019, consisting of eleven songs. The album was also released on vinyl and CD on Record Store Day that year; the latter release featured an additional two tracks. The next year another album, Cascade 2020, was released. In 2021 they released We Have Explosive 2021.
Independence
Since the millennium, FSOL took a more independent turn with their career, releasing their more psychedelic Amorphous Androgynous on an independent label, The Isness on Artful Records and Alice in Ultraland on the progressive Harvest Records (an arm of EMI). They also have their own label called Electronic Brain Violence on which off-beat electronic artists such as Oil and Simon Wells (Headstone Lane) have released EPs and singles. Simon Wells also contributed to Dead Cities on the track "Dead Cities Reprise"
Nevertheless, Virgin records still controls FSOL's back catalog and was going to release the Teachings from the Electronic Brain compilation without them, but the duo insisted on taking control of the production of the project. Cobain says that, even with Virgin, the reason they were able to do their own thing and create the music they wanted in the 1990s was because they already had some major hits under their belts such as "Papua New Guinea", "Metropolis" and "Stakker Humanoid" before joining the label.
Cobain has said that FSOL's mentality has always been about making a journey of an album rather than focusing on trying to have hit singles. He said that they had several top 40 singles (and albums) in the 90s because they had enough fans and had built up enough of a reputation to achieve these hits while still concentrating on the album rather than any potential singles during their time at Virgin.
They have been signed to Passion Records sub-label Jumpin' & Pumpin' since they started out.
Aliases
Discography
Accelerator (1991)
Lifeforms (1994)
ISDN (1994)
Dead Cities (1996)
The Isness (2002) (as Amorphous Androgynous, except in the USA)
Environments (2007)
Environments II (2008)
Environments 3 (2010)
Environments 4 (2012)
Environment Five (2014)
Environment Six (2016)
Environment 6.5 (2016)
Yage 2019 (2019)
Cascade 2020 (2020)
Chart history
Singles charts
Album charts
See also
List of ambient music artists
Max Richter
References
External links
Future Sound of London.com - official website.
an overview of their studio equipment et cetera from 1994
Acid house musicians
Braindance musicians
Breakbeat music groups
British ambient music groups
English dance music groups
English house music duos
English techno music groups
Male musical duos
Astralwerks artists
Virgin Records artists
English experimental musical groups
Harvest Records artists
Hypnotic Records artists
Rephlex Records artists
Intelligent dance musicians
Musical groups established in 1988
Musical groups from Manchester
New-age music groups
Remixers | true | [
"The Gurus were an American psychedelic rock band from the 1960s. They were among the first to incorporate Middle Eastern influences, maybe more than any other band of that era. The band broke up without making a large impact on the music scene of the time, although they did release two singles on United Artists Records in 1966 and 1967. Their album, The Gurus Are Hear, failed to be released in 1967, which was noted as the reason for the band splitting up.\n\nThe album was finally released in 2003.\n\nReferences\n\nAmerican psychedelic rock music groups",
"Bryan & Katie Torwalt are an American Christian music husband and wife duo from Sacramento, California who started their music recording careers in 2006. The first album, Here On Earth, was released in 2011 by Jesus Culture Music alongside Kingsway Music. It became their Billboard magazine breakthrough release. Their second album, Kingdom Come, was released by the aforementioned labels in 2013, and performed even better on the Billboard magazine charts. They released a self-titled album in 2015, Bryan & Katie Torwalt, again with the two labels mentioned earlier, although this album did not place on any Billboard magazine charts.\n\nBackground\nThe duo met for the first-time at a Bethel Ministry event in Redding, California in 2006, and they started dating, eventually getting married in 2009.\n\nMusic history\nThe husband and wife duo commenced their recording careers in 2011 with the album Here On Earth, released on September 13, 2011 by Jesus Culture Music in association with Kingsway Music. This album was their breakthrough release on the Billboard magazine charts, where it placed at No. 24 on the Christian Albums chart and No. 24 on the Heatseekers Albums chart. Their second release, Kingdom Come, was released by Jesus Culture Music alongside Kingsway Music on October 15, 2013. The album placed even better on the Billboard magazine charts, reaching No. 43 on The Billboard 200 as well as No. 3 on the Christian Albums chart and No. 5 on the Independent Albums chart. They released Bryan & Katie Torwalt with Jesus Culture Music and Kingsway Music on April 7, 2015, although this album did not place on any Billboard magazine charts.\n\nMembers\n Bryan James Torwalt (born June 14, 1985 in Canada)\n Katelin Michelle \"Katie\" Torwalt (née Horn) (born August 14, 1988 in Sonoma County, California)\n Daniel Owen Wible (born August 3, 1988 in Waco, Texas)\n Chason Tyler Ford (born June 30, 1993 in Honolulu, HI)\n\nDiscography\n\nAlbums\n\nEPs\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Cross Rhythms artist profile\n\nAmerican musical duos\nMusical groups established in 2006\nMusical groups from Sacramento, California\n2006 establishments in California"
]
|
[
"The Future Sound of London",
"New millennium, new sound",
"What was going on with the group?",
"After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth.",
"When did they make more music?",
"The pair returned in 2002 with \"The Isness\",",
"How did the music sound?",
"heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia",
"Did the album get rave reviews?",
"The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound",
"What was different about their sound?",
"heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia",
"Did they release any more music?",
"Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland."
]
| C_91ed719efa8743459e3be26fcb7aeabc_0 | How did this album sound? | 7 | How did The Isness album sound? | The Future Sound of London | After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth. Cobain gained much from the experience, realizing that music was a tool for psychic exploration and entertainment but also one for healing . The pair returned in 2002 with "The Isness", a record heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia and released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous. It was preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's track as well as new material from The Isness sessions. The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound which was inspired by Cobain's and Dougan's (separate) travels to India and immersion in spiritualism, nevertheless the majority was positive with Muzik magazine offering the album a 6/5 mark and dubbing it "...a white beam of light from heaven..." and other British publications such as The Times, The Guardian and MOJO praising the album and the band's ability to do something so completely different from what they had done before. Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland. Rumoured to be accompanied by a film of the same title, the album took The Isness' psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. The album was ignored by the press, but was received more favourably among fans than its predecessor. Unlike The Isness, which featured almost 100 musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, Alice in Ultraland featured a fairly solid band lineup throughout, which extended to live shows which the band had undertaken away from the ISDN cables from 2005 onwards. ...song form has just become too limited. And when I say 'psychedelic', it's not a reference to 60s music but to the basic outlook of a child, which we all have. I think this is the only salvation now. Dance music taught us how to use the studio in a new way, but we have to now take that knowledge and move on with it. This stuff, electronic music, is not dead. It's a process that is ongoing. We have to take hold of the past and go forward with it... CANNOTANSWER | the album took The Isness' psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. | The Future Sound of London (often abbreviated FSOL) is a British electronic music duo composed of Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans. Described as a "boundary-pushing" electronic act by AllMusic, their work covers many areas of electronic music, such as techno, ambient, house music, trip hop, psychedelia, and dub.
During the 1990s, they released the albums Lifeforms (1994) and Dead Cities (1996) to some commercial success. The artists were fairly enigmatic in the past but have become more candid with their fanbase in recent years with social websites like Myspace, YouTube, their forum and many interviews in which Cobain almost always speaks for the pair.
History
Formation
Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans met in the mid-1980s while studying electronics at university in Manchester, England. Dougans had already been making electronic music for some time, working between Glasgow and Manchester, when the pair first began working together in various local clubs. In 1988, Dougans embarked on a project for the Stakker graphics company. The result was Stakker Humanoid, a single that went on to reach number 17 in the UK charts, becoming the first credible UK acid house tune to cross over into the mainstream. Cobain contributed to the accompanying album. A video was also produced.
In the following three years the pair produced music under a variety of aliases, releasing a plethora of singles and EPs, including the successful bleep techno singles "Q" and "Metropolis", some of which would end up on the duo's first compilation album Earthbeat in 1992. "Metropolis" was also very influential in the house scene.
FSOL
In 1991 they released their first album, Accelerator, which was followed by their single "Papua New Guinea", featuring a looping Lisa Gerrard vocal sample from Dead Can Dance's "Dawn of the Iconoclast" and a bassline from Meat Beat Manifesto's "Radio Babylon". The track has made several British "Best songs ever" polls and track specific accolades. In 1992, Virgin Records were looking for electronic bands and, after the chart success of "Papua New Guinea", quickly signed them, giving them free rein to experiment, with a reported advance payment of £75,000. With this the duo invested in a collection of Akai S1000 samplers and other equipment.
They began to play with more ambient music, resulting in the Tales of Ephidrina album of 1993, the first album to be released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias; this was well received by press and marked a distinct shift from the more techno-driven Accelerator, retaining some dance beats, but focusing more on texture, mood and sound. The album was adventurously released on Quigley, the band's own short-lived offshoot of Virgin. At this time, the band had begun experimenting with radio performance, broadcasting now legendary three-hour radio shows to Manchester's Kiss FM from their studio.
Lifeforms, ambience and the ISDN tour
"Cascade", released as a single in 1993, introduced the commercial music world to the new FSOL sound. Despite its length, clocking in at nearly forty minutes and stretched over six parts, the track made the UK top 30, and previewed what was to come. In 1994, they released Lifeforms to critical acclaim. The album featured unconventional use of percussion interspersed with ambient segments. The eponymous single from the album featured Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins on vocals. Throughout the record, familiar motifs and samples repeated themselves, sitting alongside tropical birdsong, rainfall, wind and an array of other exotic sounds, lending the album a natural, organic feel, backed up by the environmental landscapes that filled the artwork booklet. Brian Dougan's father was involved with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop which was a heavy influence in the almost musique concrète feel to Lifeforms. The album was also a top 10 hit on the UK album chart. Cobain has said that around this time that journalists would come to talk to them and one of the first things they would ask would be if they liked Brian Eno (whom they cite as an influence), to which they would laugh and say that they were about looking forward, not to the past. It was, to them, very much a new work rather than just another Eno-type ambient album.
That year, they released the limited edition album ISDN, which featured live broadcasts they had made over ISDN lines to various radio stations worldwide to promote Lifeforms, including The Kitchen, an avant-garde performance space in New York and several appearances on the late John Peel's celebrated BBC radio Sessions shows. These shows marked the evolution of the Kiss FM shows of 1992 and 1993, moving away from DJ sets and into ambient soundscapes, with previously released material performed alongside unheard tracks. One live performance to BBC Radio 1 featured Robert Fripp performing alongside the band. The released album's tone was darker and more rhythmic than Lifeforms. Cobain stated that with ISDN they had wanted to achieve something epic and grand but no matter how much technological or personal support they had (and they had everything they could have possibly wanted) they never got to truly do what they envisioned; he admits to wanting too much at this time, even though the album was successful; the 90s, for Cobain in particular, were a time of frustration and feelings of not being able to do what they wanted to, because the technology at the time didn't fit the band's ideas. The following year, the album was re-released with expanded artwork and a slightly altered track list as an unlimited pressing.
In addition to music composition, their interests have covered a number of areas including film and video, 2D and 3D computer graphics, animation in making almost all their own videos for their singles, radio broadcasting and creating their own electronic devices for sound making. They have released works under numerous aliases.
Dead Cities
The 1995 edition of John Peel Sessions featured three entirely new tracks, which took the breakbeats and chaotic sampling of ISDN away from their previous lush synthscapes and toward a new, more contemporary sound. In 1996, they released Dead Cities, which expanded upon these early demos. The new material was a mix of ambient textures and dance music. The lead single, "My Kingdom", introduced the sound, with a video featuring shots of London, and a sound suggesting a dystopian city. The album also featured the band's first collaboration with composer Max Richter, which included the big beat track "We Have Explosive" that featured manipulated samples sourced from Run DMC. Released in 1997; it was used on the Mortal Kombat: Annihilation soundtrack, and (before the single release) in 1996 on the video game WipE'out" 2097, along with the track "Landmass", which they wrote specifically for the game. Also, a remix of "Papua New Guinea" by Hybrid was later featured in the soundtrack to WipEout Fusion in 2002. "We Have Explosive" was the second single from the album, and the band's highest charting single (beating "My Kingdom" by one spot to number 12), and over the course of its five-part extended version included hints of funk, something which would be heard again when the band returned many years later.
The album was promoted by what the band described as "the fuck rock'n'roll tour" via ISDN, lasting several months and gaining much media attention by being the first band to do a world tour without leaving their studio. While 1994's tour had focused on creating soundscapes and unreleased material, the 1996 and 1997 shows were more conventional, each offering a different take on the Dead Cities experience, blending then-current tracks with occasional exclusive pieces of the time. However, the final few performances jettisoned this material for tracks from a series of unreleased sessions, containing more live sounding material, including considerable use of guitar and percussion. These "1997 sessions" were highly sought after by fans, with some tracks forming the basis of the band's psychedelic projects of the following decade, while others appeared on the From The Archives series.
New millennium
After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth. Cobain gained much from the experience, realising that music was a tool for psychic exploration and entertainment but also one for healing. The pair returned in 2002 with "The Isness", a record heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia and released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous. It was preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's track as well as new material from The Isness sessions. The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound which was inspired by Cobain's and Dougan's (separate) travels to India and immersion in spiritualism, nevertheless the majority was positive with Muzik magazine offering the album a 6/5 mark and dubbing it "...a white beam of light from heaven..." and other British publications such as The Times, The Guardian and MOJO praising the album and the band's ability to do something so completely different from what they had done before.
Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland. Rumoured to be accompanied by a film of the same title, the album took The Isness psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. The album was ignored by the press, but was received more favourably among fans than its predecessor. Unlike The Isness, which featured almost 100 musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, Alice in Ultraland featured a fairly solid band lineup throughout, which extended to live shows which the band had undertaken away from the ISDN cables from 2005 onwards.
5.1 & digital experimentation
The FSOL moniker re-appeared in 2006 with a piece entitled "A Gigantic Globular Burst Of Anti-Static", intended as an experiment in 5.1 Surround Sound and created for an exhibition at the Kinetica art museum entitled, appropriately, "Life Forms". The piece contained reworked material from their archives and newer, more abstract ambient music. The piece was coupled with a video called "Stereo Sucks", marking the band's theories on the limitations of stereo music, which was released on a DVD packaged with issue 182 of Future Music Magazine in December 2006 and on FSOL's own download site in March 2007.
They also moved into creating their own sounds when they began constructing electronic instruments, the result of which can be heard on the 2007 release Hand-Made Devices. At their website Glitch TV (where the motto is "[A] sudden interruption in sanity, continuity or programme function") they sell and explain their devices such as the "Electronic Devices Digital Interface" glitch equipment.
FSOLdigital and the Archives
In 2007, the band uploaded several archive tracks online, for the first time revealing much of their unreleased work and unveiling some of the mystery behind the band. The old FSOL material, including the previously unreleased album Environments, along with a selection of newer experiments, the 5.1 experiments and a promise of unreleased Amorphous Androgynous psychedelic material, was uploaded for sale on their online shop, FSOLdigital.com.
In early March 2008, the band released a new online album as Amorphous Androgynous entitled The Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness, which they describe as "A collection of psychedelic relics from The Amorphous Androgynous, 1967-2007". The release retains the sound of their last two psychedelic albums, while expanding on the element of funk first introduced on 2005's Alice in Ultraland. They recorded their following album, The Woodlands of Old, under the alias of their imaginary engineer Yage. Unlike the techno work recorded as Yage in 1992, this new record was darker, more trip hop and world music-oriented and featured ex-Propellerheads member Will White.
From 2008, the band showcased a series of radio broadcasts and podcasts called The Electric Brain Storms, originally on stations such as Proton Radio, PBS radio in Australia, and Frisky Radio. The remaining shows appeared on the band's official site. and SoundCloud. The shows featured electronic, krautrock, experimental and psychedelic favourites of the band mixed in with known and unknown FSOL material, including newly recorded tracks, archived pieces, and new alias recordings. Many of the new tracks appeared on the band's Environments series. Cobain has described the new music as having "the introspective, kind of euphoric sadness that was always there in the FSOL melodies".
From this point, the band have been alternating their focus between different projects. In 2008, Environments II and From the Archives Vol. 5 were released on the band's site, followed by Environments 3 and From the Archives Vol. 6 in 2010; and Environments 4 and From the Archives Vol. 7 in 2012. Whilst the Archives feature old, unreleased material, the Environments albums feature a mixture of old demos, recently completed, and new tracks.
The band have continued to use the FSOLDigital platform to release side-projects and solo work, under names such as Blackhill Transmitter, EMS : Piano, Suburban Domestic and 6 Oscillators in Remittance, as well as distributing digital releases from other artists, including Daniel Pemberton, Herd, Kettel & Secede, Neotropic, Ross Baker and Seafar; they also continue to update The Pod Room with ISDN transmissions from the 1990s.
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind
Following on from the band's 1997 DJ set of the same name, a series of Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind mix CDs were begun in 2006. The first two were released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias, subtitled "Cosmic Space Music" and "Pagan Love Vibrations", with the first taking over two years to compile, mix and gain sample clearance, both featuring the band's psychedelic influences. A third is set for release sometime in 2010, and will be more electronic, mixed by the Future Sound of London. Further mixes in the series are expected in the future, to be curated by related artists, and the band took the concept live with an eleven-hour spot at 2009's Green Man festival, to contain live bands and DJ spots.
Noel Gallagher of British rock band Oasis, after hearing the first release, became a fan and asked the band to remix the following Oasis single "Falling Down". The Amorphous Androgynous responded with a 5 part, 22-minute Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remix, which Noel liked enough to release on its own 12". Noel also invited Cobain to DJ at the afterparty for one of Oasis' gigs at Wembley Arena.
The band continue the psychedelic theme to the mixes on their podcast site The Pod Room and on February 2010s Mojo Magazine cover CD. The Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remixes grow in popularity with commissions from Paul Weller and Pop Levi, and Cobain has suggested a full album of remixes and covers will appear on their recently formed Monstrous Bubble label
On 6 July 2011 it was announced that Noel Gallagher's second solo album will be in collaboration with The Amorphous Androgynous, and is set for release in 2012. In August 2012, Gallagher mentioned in various interviews that he is considering scrapping the collaborative album with Amorphous Androgynous due to not being completely satisfied with the mixes. Two songs from the project have surfaced as B-sides to Gallagher's singles in 2012: "Shoot a Hole into the Sun" (based on Gallagher's track "If I Had a Gun...") was a B-side to the single "Dream On", and a mix of "AKA... What a Life!" featured on the B-side of "Everybody's on the Run". However, as the project is currently shelved, the group have returned to original material, releasing the first in a series of Monstrous Bubble Soundtracks, entitled The Cartel. On Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' album Chasing Yesterday, The Amorphous Androgynous are credited as Co-producers of the tracks "The Right Stuff" and "The Mexican".
Future of the band
The group continue to give updates for the Galaxial Pharmaceutical news site and forum, while largely releasing material through their FSOLDigital imprint. They remain prolific, working on multiple projects at once. As "The Future Sound of London", they currently plan to continue releasing new material as part of the Environments series; the latest releases as of June 2019 are Environment Six and 6.5 from 2016.
On 26 April 2019, the band released Yage 2019, consisting of eleven songs. The album was also released on vinyl and CD on Record Store Day that year; the latter release featured an additional two tracks. The next year another album, Cascade 2020, was released. In 2021 they released We Have Explosive 2021.
Independence
Since the millennium, FSOL took a more independent turn with their career, releasing their more psychedelic Amorphous Androgynous on an independent label, The Isness on Artful Records and Alice in Ultraland on the progressive Harvest Records (an arm of EMI). They also have their own label called Electronic Brain Violence on which off-beat electronic artists such as Oil and Simon Wells (Headstone Lane) have released EPs and singles. Simon Wells also contributed to Dead Cities on the track "Dead Cities Reprise"
Nevertheless, Virgin records still controls FSOL's back catalog and was going to release the Teachings from the Electronic Brain compilation without them, but the duo insisted on taking control of the production of the project. Cobain says that, even with Virgin, the reason they were able to do their own thing and create the music they wanted in the 1990s was because they already had some major hits under their belts such as "Papua New Guinea", "Metropolis" and "Stakker Humanoid" before joining the label.
Cobain has said that FSOL's mentality has always been about making a journey of an album rather than focusing on trying to have hit singles. He said that they had several top 40 singles (and albums) in the 90s because they had enough fans and had built up enough of a reputation to achieve these hits while still concentrating on the album rather than any potential singles during their time at Virgin.
They have been signed to Passion Records sub-label Jumpin' & Pumpin' since they started out.
Aliases
Discography
Accelerator (1991)
Lifeforms (1994)
ISDN (1994)
Dead Cities (1996)
The Isness (2002) (as Amorphous Androgynous, except in the USA)
Environments (2007)
Environments II (2008)
Environments 3 (2010)
Environments 4 (2012)
Environment Five (2014)
Environment Six (2016)
Environment 6.5 (2016)
Yage 2019 (2019)
Cascade 2020 (2020)
Chart history
Singles charts
Album charts
See also
List of ambient music artists
Max Richter
References
External links
Future Sound of London.com - official website.
an overview of their studio equipment et cetera from 1994
Acid house musicians
Braindance musicians
Breakbeat music groups
British ambient music groups
English dance music groups
English house music duos
English techno music groups
Male musical duos
Astralwerks artists
Virgin Records artists
English experimental musical groups
Harvest Records artists
Hypnotic Records artists
Rephlex Records artists
Intelligent dance musicians
Musical groups established in 1988
Musical groups from Manchester
New-age music groups
Remixers | false | [
"Sound of Water is an album by Saint Etienne, released in 2000. Sound of Water was developed as Saint Etienne's ambient and trip hop statement.\n\nThe album's lead single was \"How We Used to Live,\" which was not edited down from its 9-minute running length for single release.\n\nTheir previous US release Places to Visit was clearly the beginning of this new direction. Many of the artists with whom they collaborated on that EP are present on Sound of Water.\n\nDuring the group's tenure with Sub Pop (1998–2005), Saint Etienne released many albums. Places to Visit preceded Sound of Water. In turn, the label released Interlude a year afterwards. Interlude is an album of mostly b-sides from the Sound of Water singles, as well as a couple from the Good Humor era.\n\nThe album is one of the few releases on which the band did not collaborate with Ian Catt in some way. The album was co-produced by Gerard Johnson and had arrangements by To Rococo Rot and Sean O'Hagan. It was recorded at To Rococo Rot's studio, Amber Sound, in Berlin, Germany. The band have described the recording sessions as 'working in an airless, windowless oven'. \n\n\"The Place at Dawn\" contains a sample of Magna Carta's \"Medley\", from the 1970 album Seasons.\n\nReissue\nSound Of Water was remastered and reissued as part of Heavenly Recordings/Universal's deluxe editions of the band's recordings on . The same deluxe edition was released in the United States on 30 June 2017 by PIAS Recordings. The new release features b-sides, unreleased tracks and the entire Places to Visit EP, which was previously only released in the United States and Germany.\n\nArtwork\nThe album and singles artwork were all designed by Julian Opie.\n\nTrack listing\n\nNotes\n\nDue to a mastering error on the 2009 deluxe edition of the album, the song \"Blofeld Buildings\" is longer than the original version featured on the fan-club compilation Built On Sand. The same song starts playing again at the 1:32 mark, which makes the whole track end at 6:11. The 2017 reissue of the release corrected this flaw.\n\nCredits \nSaint Etienne is:\nSarah Cracknell\nBob Stanley\nPete Wiggs\n\nAugmented by:\nGerard Johnson\nRobert Lippok\nRonald Lippok\nSean O'Hagan\nStefan Schneider\n\nB-sides\nFrom \"How We Used to Live\"\n \"Roseneck\"\n \"Red Setter\" (An alternative version of the 12\" exists with a 4:25 instrumental version of \"Red Setter\").\n \"How We Used to Live\" (Although it is not described as such, the 8:56 version on this single appears to have been remixed slightly)\n \"How We Used to Live (Dot Allison Mix)\"\n \"How We Used to Live (Aim Mix)\"\n\nFrom \"Heart Failed (In the Back of a Taxi)\"\n \"Thank You\"\n \"Bar Conscience\"\n \"Heart Failed (In the Back of a Taxi) (Two Lone Swordsmen Mix)\"\n \"Heart Failed (In the Back of a Taxi) (Futureshock Vocal Mix)\"\n \"Heart Failed (In the Back of a Taxi) (Bridge & Tunnel Mix)\"\n\nFrom \"Boy Is Crying\"\n \"Boy Is Crying (Single Mix)\" (Remixed by Lee Mullin and Mike Truman)\n \"Northwestern\"\n \"Shoot Out the Lights\"\n \"Boy Is Crying (Hybrid Mix)\"\n \"Northwestern (SI-Cut, DB Mix)\"\n \"How We Used to Live (Paul van Dyk Mix)\"\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2000 albums\nSaint Etienne (band) albums\nSub Pop albums",
"Boneyard Beach is a 1995 album by Raleigh, North Carolina band Dish, led by singer and pianist Dana Kletter, on Interscope Records. The album was produced by John Agnello at Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. Interscope's VP, Tom Whalley, told Billboard magazine that \"the high quality of songwriting in Dish and the sound of Dana's voice are two things that set this band apart.\"\n\nThe album was not a commercial success and the group's members moved on to other projects, however the album did garner favorable reviews. CMJ New Music reviewed the album saying Kletter's vocals sounded like \"tomboy version\" of Natalie Merchant, while Trouser Press described the album as offering \"elegant, haunting melodies with nary a hint of excess sugar\". Musician noted \"lush melodies and oblique lyrics\". Music Hound described the sound of Dish as adding \"rocked-up guitar and drums\" to the sound of Kletter's earlier project Blackgirls.\n\nTrack listing\n\"Headlights\" Dana Kletter\n\"Wading\" Dana Kletter / Bo Taylor\n\"Be Still\" Bo Taylor\n\"Function\" Dana Kletter\n\"Sad Figure\" Dana Kletter\n\"Disguise\" Bo Taylor\n\"Other Moon\" Dana Kletter\n\"Tears of Rage\"\n\"How Could Anyone\" Dana Kletter\n\"January Song\" Dana Kletter\n\"Odinokaya, Garmon (The Lonely Accordion)\"\n\"Mercury\" Sara Bell\n\"New Life\" Dana Kletter\n\nReferences\n\n1995 albums\nAlbums produced by John Agnello"
]
|
[
"The Future Sound of London",
"New millennium, new sound",
"What was going on with the group?",
"After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth.",
"When did they make more music?",
"The pair returned in 2002 with \"The Isness\",",
"How did the music sound?",
"heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia",
"Did the album get rave reviews?",
"The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound",
"What was different about their sound?",
"heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia",
"Did they release any more music?",
"Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland.",
"How did this album sound?",
"the album took The Isness' psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes."
]
| C_91ed719efa8743459e3be26fcb7aeabc_0 | Did people like the new album? | 8 | Did people like The Isness album? | The Future Sound of London | After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth. Cobain gained much from the experience, realizing that music was a tool for psychic exploration and entertainment but also one for healing . The pair returned in 2002 with "The Isness", a record heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia and released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous. It was preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's track as well as new material from The Isness sessions. The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound which was inspired by Cobain's and Dougan's (separate) travels to India and immersion in spiritualism, nevertheless the majority was positive with Muzik magazine offering the album a 6/5 mark and dubbing it "...a white beam of light from heaven..." and other British publications such as The Times, The Guardian and MOJO praising the album and the band's ability to do something so completely different from what they had done before. Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland. Rumoured to be accompanied by a film of the same title, the album took The Isness' psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. The album was ignored by the press, but was received more favourably among fans than its predecessor. Unlike The Isness, which featured almost 100 musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, Alice in Ultraland featured a fairly solid band lineup throughout, which extended to live shows which the band had undertaken away from the ISDN cables from 2005 onwards. ...song form has just become too limited. And when I say 'psychedelic', it's not a reference to 60s music but to the basic outlook of a child, which we all have. I think this is the only salvation now. Dance music taught us how to use the studio in a new way, but we have to now take that knowledge and move on with it. This stuff, electronic music, is not dead. It's a process that is ongoing. We have to take hold of the past and go forward with it... CANNOTANSWER | The album was ignored by the press, but was received more favourably among fans than its predecessor. | The Future Sound of London (often abbreviated FSOL) is a British electronic music duo composed of Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans. Described as a "boundary-pushing" electronic act by AllMusic, their work covers many areas of electronic music, such as techno, ambient, house music, trip hop, psychedelia, and dub.
During the 1990s, they released the albums Lifeforms (1994) and Dead Cities (1996) to some commercial success. The artists were fairly enigmatic in the past but have become more candid with their fanbase in recent years with social websites like Myspace, YouTube, their forum and many interviews in which Cobain almost always speaks for the pair.
History
Formation
Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans met in the mid-1980s while studying electronics at university in Manchester, England. Dougans had already been making electronic music for some time, working between Glasgow and Manchester, when the pair first began working together in various local clubs. In 1988, Dougans embarked on a project for the Stakker graphics company. The result was Stakker Humanoid, a single that went on to reach number 17 in the UK charts, becoming the first credible UK acid house tune to cross over into the mainstream. Cobain contributed to the accompanying album. A video was also produced.
In the following three years the pair produced music under a variety of aliases, releasing a plethora of singles and EPs, including the successful bleep techno singles "Q" and "Metropolis", some of which would end up on the duo's first compilation album Earthbeat in 1992. "Metropolis" was also very influential in the house scene.
FSOL
In 1991 they released their first album, Accelerator, which was followed by their single "Papua New Guinea", featuring a looping Lisa Gerrard vocal sample from Dead Can Dance's "Dawn of the Iconoclast" and a bassline from Meat Beat Manifesto's "Radio Babylon". The track has made several British "Best songs ever" polls and track specific accolades. In 1992, Virgin Records were looking for electronic bands and, after the chart success of "Papua New Guinea", quickly signed them, giving them free rein to experiment, with a reported advance payment of £75,000. With this the duo invested in a collection of Akai S1000 samplers and other equipment.
They began to play with more ambient music, resulting in the Tales of Ephidrina album of 1993, the first album to be released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias; this was well received by press and marked a distinct shift from the more techno-driven Accelerator, retaining some dance beats, but focusing more on texture, mood and sound. The album was adventurously released on Quigley, the band's own short-lived offshoot of Virgin. At this time, the band had begun experimenting with radio performance, broadcasting now legendary three-hour radio shows to Manchester's Kiss FM from their studio.
Lifeforms, ambience and the ISDN tour
"Cascade", released as a single in 1993, introduced the commercial music world to the new FSOL sound. Despite its length, clocking in at nearly forty minutes and stretched over six parts, the track made the UK top 30, and previewed what was to come. In 1994, they released Lifeforms to critical acclaim. The album featured unconventional use of percussion interspersed with ambient segments. The eponymous single from the album featured Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins on vocals. Throughout the record, familiar motifs and samples repeated themselves, sitting alongside tropical birdsong, rainfall, wind and an array of other exotic sounds, lending the album a natural, organic feel, backed up by the environmental landscapes that filled the artwork booklet. Brian Dougan's father was involved with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop which was a heavy influence in the almost musique concrète feel to Lifeforms. The album was also a top 10 hit on the UK album chart. Cobain has said that around this time that journalists would come to talk to them and one of the first things they would ask would be if they liked Brian Eno (whom they cite as an influence), to which they would laugh and say that they were about looking forward, not to the past. It was, to them, very much a new work rather than just another Eno-type ambient album.
That year, they released the limited edition album ISDN, which featured live broadcasts they had made over ISDN lines to various radio stations worldwide to promote Lifeforms, including The Kitchen, an avant-garde performance space in New York and several appearances on the late John Peel's celebrated BBC radio Sessions shows. These shows marked the evolution of the Kiss FM shows of 1992 and 1993, moving away from DJ sets and into ambient soundscapes, with previously released material performed alongside unheard tracks. One live performance to BBC Radio 1 featured Robert Fripp performing alongside the band. The released album's tone was darker and more rhythmic than Lifeforms. Cobain stated that with ISDN they had wanted to achieve something epic and grand but no matter how much technological or personal support they had (and they had everything they could have possibly wanted) they never got to truly do what they envisioned; he admits to wanting too much at this time, even though the album was successful; the 90s, for Cobain in particular, were a time of frustration and feelings of not being able to do what they wanted to, because the technology at the time didn't fit the band's ideas. The following year, the album was re-released with expanded artwork and a slightly altered track list as an unlimited pressing.
In addition to music composition, their interests have covered a number of areas including film and video, 2D and 3D computer graphics, animation in making almost all their own videos for their singles, radio broadcasting and creating their own electronic devices for sound making. They have released works under numerous aliases.
Dead Cities
The 1995 edition of John Peel Sessions featured three entirely new tracks, which took the breakbeats and chaotic sampling of ISDN away from their previous lush synthscapes and toward a new, more contemporary sound. In 1996, they released Dead Cities, which expanded upon these early demos. The new material was a mix of ambient textures and dance music. The lead single, "My Kingdom", introduced the sound, with a video featuring shots of London, and a sound suggesting a dystopian city. The album also featured the band's first collaboration with composer Max Richter, which included the big beat track "We Have Explosive" that featured manipulated samples sourced from Run DMC. Released in 1997; it was used on the Mortal Kombat: Annihilation soundtrack, and (before the single release) in 1996 on the video game WipE'out" 2097, along with the track "Landmass", which they wrote specifically for the game. Also, a remix of "Papua New Guinea" by Hybrid was later featured in the soundtrack to WipEout Fusion in 2002. "We Have Explosive" was the second single from the album, and the band's highest charting single (beating "My Kingdom" by one spot to number 12), and over the course of its five-part extended version included hints of funk, something which would be heard again when the band returned many years later.
The album was promoted by what the band described as "the fuck rock'n'roll tour" via ISDN, lasting several months and gaining much media attention by being the first band to do a world tour without leaving their studio. While 1994's tour had focused on creating soundscapes and unreleased material, the 1996 and 1997 shows were more conventional, each offering a different take on the Dead Cities experience, blending then-current tracks with occasional exclusive pieces of the time. However, the final few performances jettisoned this material for tracks from a series of unreleased sessions, containing more live sounding material, including considerable use of guitar and percussion. These "1997 sessions" were highly sought after by fans, with some tracks forming the basis of the band's psychedelic projects of the following decade, while others appeared on the From The Archives series.
New millennium
After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth. Cobain gained much from the experience, realising that music was a tool for psychic exploration and entertainment but also one for healing. The pair returned in 2002 with "The Isness", a record heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia and released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous. It was preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's track as well as new material from The Isness sessions. The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound which was inspired by Cobain's and Dougan's (separate) travels to India and immersion in spiritualism, nevertheless the majority was positive with Muzik magazine offering the album a 6/5 mark and dubbing it "...a white beam of light from heaven..." and other British publications such as The Times, The Guardian and MOJO praising the album and the band's ability to do something so completely different from what they had done before.
Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland. Rumoured to be accompanied by a film of the same title, the album took The Isness psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. The album was ignored by the press, but was received more favourably among fans than its predecessor. Unlike The Isness, which featured almost 100 musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, Alice in Ultraland featured a fairly solid band lineup throughout, which extended to live shows which the band had undertaken away from the ISDN cables from 2005 onwards.
5.1 & digital experimentation
The FSOL moniker re-appeared in 2006 with a piece entitled "A Gigantic Globular Burst Of Anti-Static", intended as an experiment in 5.1 Surround Sound and created for an exhibition at the Kinetica art museum entitled, appropriately, "Life Forms". The piece contained reworked material from their archives and newer, more abstract ambient music. The piece was coupled with a video called "Stereo Sucks", marking the band's theories on the limitations of stereo music, which was released on a DVD packaged with issue 182 of Future Music Magazine in December 2006 and on FSOL's own download site in March 2007.
They also moved into creating their own sounds when they began constructing electronic instruments, the result of which can be heard on the 2007 release Hand-Made Devices. At their website Glitch TV (where the motto is "[A] sudden interruption in sanity, continuity or programme function") they sell and explain their devices such as the "Electronic Devices Digital Interface" glitch equipment.
FSOLdigital and the Archives
In 2007, the band uploaded several archive tracks online, for the first time revealing much of their unreleased work and unveiling some of the mystery behind the band. The old FSOL material, including the previously unreleased album Environments, along with a selection of newer experiments, the 5.1 experiments and a promise of unreleased Amorphous Androgynous psychedelic material, was uploaded for sale on their online shop, FSOLdigital.com.
In early March 2008, the band released a new online album as Amorphous Androgynous entitled The Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness, which they describe as "A collection of psychedelic relics from The Amorphous Androgynous, 1967-2007". The release retains the sound of their last two psychedelic albums, while expanding on the element of funk first introduced on 2005's Alice in Ultraland. They recorded their following album, The Woodlands of Old, under the alias of their imaginary engineer Yage. Unlike the techno work recorded as Yage in 1992, this new record was darker, more trip hop and world music-oriented and featured ex-Propellerheads member Will White.
From 2008, the band showcased a series of radio broadcasts and podcasts called The Electric Brain Storms, originally on stations such as Proton Radio, PBS radio in Australia, and Frisky Radio. The remaining shows appeared on the band's official site. and SoundCloud. The shows featured electronic, krautrock, experimental and psychedelic favourites of the band mixed in with known and unknown FSOL material, including newly recorded tracks, archived pieces, and new alias recordings. Many of the new tracks appeared on the band's Environments series. Cobain has described the new music as having "the introspective, kind of euphoric sadness that was always there in the FSOL melodies".
From this point, the band have been alternating their focus between different projects. In 2008, Environments II and From the Archives Vol. 5 were released on the band's site, followed by Environments 3 and From the Archives Vol. 6 in 2010; and Environments 4 and From the Archives Vol. 7 in 2012. Whilst the Archives feature old, unreleased material, the Environments albums feature a mixture of old demos, recently completed, and new tracks.
The band have continued to use the FSOLDigital platform to release side-projects and solo work, under names such as Blackhill Transmitter, EMS : Piano, Suburban Domestic and 6 Oscillators in Remittance, as well as distributing digital releases from other artists, including Daniel Pemberton, Herd, Kettel & Secede, Neotropic, Ross Baker and Seafar; they also continue to update The Pod Room with ISDN transmissions from the 1990s.
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind
Following on from the band's 1997 DJ set of the same name, a series of Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind mix CDs were begun in 2006. The first two were released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias, subtitled "Cosmic Space Music" and "Pagan Love Vibrations", with the first taking over two years to compile, mix and gain sample clearance, both featuring the band's psychedelic influences. A third is set for release sometime in 2010, and will be more electronic, mixed by the Future Sound of London. Further mixes in the series are expected in the future, to be curated by related artists, and the band took the concept live with an eleven-hour spot at 2009's Green Man festival, to contain live bands and DJ spots.
Noel Gallagher of British rock band Oasis, after hearing the first release, became a fan and asked the band to remix the following Oasis single "Falling Down". The Amorphous Androgynous responded with a 5 part, 22-minute Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remix, which Noel liked enough to release on its own 12". Noel also invited Cobain to DJ at the afterparty for one of Oasis' gigs at Wembley Arena.
The band continue the psychedelic theme to the mixes on their podcast site The Pod Room and on February 2010s Mojo Magazine cover CD. The Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remixes grow in popularity with commissions from Paul Weller and Pop Levi, and Cobain has suggested a full album of remixes and covers will appear on their recently formed Monstrous Bubble label
On 6 July 2011 it was announced that Noel Gallagher's second solo album will be in collaboration with The Amorphous Androgynous, and is set for release in 2012. In August 2012, Gallagher mentioned in various interviews that he is considering scrapping the collaborative album with Amorphous Androgynous due to not being completely satisfied with the mixes. Two songs from the project have surfaced as B-sides to Gallagher's singles in 2012: "Shoot a Hole into the Sun" (based on Gallagher's track "If I Had a Gun...") was a B-side to the single "Dream On", and a mix of "AKA... What a Life!" featured on the B-side of "Everybody's on the Run". However, as the project is currently shelved, the group have returned to original material, releasing the first in a series of Monstrous Bubble Soundtracks, entitled The Cartel. On Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' album Chasing Yesterday, The Amorphous Androgynous are credited as Co-producers of the tracks "The Right Stuff" and "The Mexican".
Future of the band
The group continue to give updates for the Galaxial Pharmaceutical news site and forum, while largely releasing material through their FSOLDigital imprint. They remain prolific, working on multiple projects at once. As "The Future Sound of London", they currently plan to continue releasing new material as part of the Environments series; the latest releases as of June 2019 are Environment Six and 6.5 from 2016.
On 26 April 2019, the band released Yage 2019, consisting of eleven songs. The album was also released on vinyl and CD on Record Store Day that year; the latter release featured an additional two tracks. The next year another album, Cascade 2020, was released. In 2021 they released We Have Explosive 2021.
Independence
Since the millennium, FSOL took a more independent turn with their career, releasing their more psychedelic Amorphous Androgynous on an independent label, The Isness on Artful Records and Alice in Ultraland on the progressive Harvest Records (an arm of EMI). They also have their own label called Electronic Brain Violence on which off-beat electronic artists such as Oil and Simon Wells (Headstone Lane) have released EPs and singles. Simon Wells also contributed to Dead Cities on the track "Dead Cities Reprise"
Nevertheless, Virgin records still controls FSOL's back catalog and was going to release the Teachings from the Electronic Brain compilation without them, but the duo insisted on taking control of the production of the project. Cobain says that, even with Virgin, the reason they were able to do their own thing and create the music they wanted in the 1990s was because they already had some major hits under their belts such as "Papua New Guinea", "Metropolis" and "Stakker Humanoid" before joining the label.
Cobain has said that FSOL's mentality has always been about making a journey of an album rather than focusing on trying to have hit singles. He said that they had several top 40 singles (and albums) in the 90s because they had enough fans and had built up enough of a reputation to achieve these hits while still concentrating on the album rather than any potential singles during their time at Virgin.
They have been signed to Passion Records sub-label Jumpin' & Pumpin' since they started out.
Aliases
Discography
Accelerator (1991)
Lifeforms (1994)
ISDN (1994)
Dead Cities (1996)
The Isness (2002) (as Amorphous Androgynous, except in the USA)
Environments (2007)
Environments II (2008)
Environments 3 (2010)
Environments 4 (2012)
Environment Five (2014)
Environment Six (2016)
Environment 6.5 (2016)
Yage 2019 (2019)
Cascade 2020 (2020)
Chart history
Singles charts
Album charts
See also
List of ambient music artists
Max Richter
References
External links
Future Sound of London.com - official website.
an overview of their studio equipment et cetera from 1994
Acid house musicians
Braindance musicians
Breakbeat music groups
British ambient music groups
English dance music groups
English house music duos
English techno music groups
Male musical duos
Astralwerks artists
Virgin Records artists
English experimental musical groups
Harvest Records artists
Hypnotic Records artists
Rephlex Records artists
Intelligent dance musicians
Musical groups established in 1988
Musical groups from Manchester
New-age music groups
Remixers | true | [
"Blunt Force Trauma is the second studio album by American Brazilian metal band Cavalera Conspiracy. The album was released on March 29, 2011 through Roadrunner Records.\n\nAlbum information\nMax Cavalera has this to say about the second Cavalera Conspiracy album on blabbermouth.net:\n\"Yeah, (we) just got done (in May), so I just got back from the studio. It's finished. We recorded 15 songs, 13 being originals for the album, and then we did a Black Sabbath cover, 'Electric Funeral', that's gonna come out on a Metal Hammer compilation in Europe. And we did a Black Flag cover, a song called 'Six Pack'. We also had a collaboration with Roger from Agnostic Front — he sings on a song called 'Lynch Mob' that we did together in the studio in L.A.; he flew to L.A. to do this collaboration. I was really proud because, to me, Roger is like the godfather of New York hardcore; Agnostic Front is one of the pioneer bands of the whole New York hardcore scene, so it was like recording with a legend of hardcore. The Cavalera album is really intense; that's all I can say about it. It makes the first album sound like pop music.\"\n\nRegarding the songwriting and recording process for the new Cavalera Conspiracy album, Max said, \"I wrote a lot of the stuff and I sent it to Brazil to (Igor) in the form of a CD — like four tracks of the riffs — so that he would be familiarized with the songs by the time I got to the studio. And then I brought another CD with me, which was, like, newer songs I had just got done (writing) for the album. And everything else we did in the studio together — me and him there on the spot. I told him the idea of making a very intense album with some songs being only a minute and a half, so it's a cross (between) Minor Threat and Slayer and Cavalera Conspiracy. So the idea was really cool — Igor really liked that — and from that point on, the album just grew and song after song, every day a new song came in. And I'm really happy with it. I think people are gonna be blown away when they hear it. I think it's a pretty cool album.\"\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel\nCavalera Conspiracy\n Max Cavalera – vocals, rhythm guitar\n Igor Cavalera – drums, percussion\n Marc Rizzo – lead guitar\n Johny Chow – bass\nAdditional personnel\n Guest vocals on \"Lynch Mob\" by Roger Miret (from Agnostic Front)\n Produced by Max Cavalera\n Co-produced by Logan Mader for Dirty Icon Productions\n Recorded, mixed and mastered by Logan Mader at Undercity Studios, North Hollywood, California\nDVD Credits\n Max Cavalera - vocals, rhythm guitar\n Igor Cavalera - drums, percussion\n Marc Rizzo - lead guitar\n Johny Chow - bass\n Richie Cavalera - guest vocals on \"Black Ark\"\n Igor Cavalera, Jr. - guest drums on \"Troops of Doom\"\n Joe Duplantier - bass in \"Sanctuary\" music video\n\nCharts\n\nReferences \n\n2011 albums\nRoadrunner Records albums\nAlbums produced by Logan Mader\nCavalera Conspiracy albums",
"I Still Have a Pony is the second live comedy album by Steven Wright. The title is a play on that of Wright's previous album I Have a Pony, which was released 22 years before. The album contains the audio from his Comedy Central standup comedy special When the Leaves Blow Away. Wright claims to have come back with a new album and special because \"the people in college now weren't even born or were like five years old when I did my last HBO special.\"\n\nLike its predecessor, the album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.\n\nTrack listing \n \"Quote\" - 4:56\n \"I Met This Woman\" - 4:06\n \"The Store\" - 4:18\n \"Camera\" - 4:23\n \"The Kitten Song\" - 1:08\n \"Twin\" - 3:12\n \"Monopoly\" - 3:33\n \"Hitchhiker\" - 3:15\n \"Planetarium\" - 2:49\n \"My Grandfather\" - 3:01\n \"Shopping Carts\" - 2:16\n \"The Mumbles Song\" - 2:02\n \"Friends of Mine Song\" - 3:11\n\nReferences\n\nSteven Wright albums\nStand-up comedy albums\n2007 live albums\nComedy Central Records live albums\n2000s comedy albums"
]
|
[
"The Future Sound of London",
"New millennium, new sound",
"What was going on with the group?",
"After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth.",
"When did they make more music?",
"The pair returned in 2002 with \"The Isness\",",
"How did the music sound?",
"heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia",
"Did the album get rave reviews?",
"The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound",
"What was different about their sound?",
"heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia",
"Did they release any more music?",
"Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland.",
"How did this album sound?",
"the album took The Isness' psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes.",
"Did people like the new album?",
"The album was ignored by the press, but was received more favourably among fans than its predecessor."
]
| C_91ed719efa8743459e3be26fcb7aeabc_0 | Is there anything else interesting? | 9 | Is there anything else interesting besides the The Isness? | The Future Sound of London | After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth. Cobain gained much from the experience, realizing that music was a tool for psychic exploration and entertainment but also one for healing . The pair returned in 2002 with "The Isness", a record heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia and released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous. It was preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's track as well as new material from The Isness sessions. The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound which was inspired by Cobain's and Dougan's (separate) travels to India and immersion in spiritualism, nevertheless the majority was positive with Muzik magazine offering the album a 6/5 mark and dubbing it "...a white beam of light from heaven..." and other British publications such as The Times, The Guardian and MOJO praising the album and the band's ability to do something so completely different from what they had done before. Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland. Rumoured to be accompanied by a film of the same title, the album took The Isness' psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. The album was ignored by the press, but was received more favourably among fans than its predecessor. Unlike The Isness, which featured almost 100 musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, Alice in Ultraland featured a fairly solid band lineup throughout, which extended to live shows which the band had undertaken away from the ISDN cables from 2005 onwards. ...song form has just become too limited. And when I say 'psychedelic', it's not a reference to 60s music but to the basic outlook of a child, which we all have. I think this is the only salvation now. Dance music taught us how to use the studio in a new way, but we have to now take that knowledge and move on with it. This stuff, electronic music, is not dead. It's a process that is ongoing. We have to take hold of the past and go forward with it... CANNOTANSWER | Unlike The Isness, which featured almost 100 musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, Alice in Ultraland featured a fairly solid band lineup | The Future Sound of London (often abbreviated FSOL) is a British electronic music duo composed of Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans. Described as a "boundary-pushing" electronic act by AllMusic, their work covers many areas of electronic music, such as techno, ambient, house music, trip hop, psychedelia, and dub.
During the 1990s, they released the albums Lifeforms (1994) and Dead Cities (1996) to some commercial success. The artists were fairly enigmatic in the past but have become more candid with their fanbase in recent years with social websites like Myspace, YouTube, their forum and many interviews in which Cobain almost always speaks for the pair.
History
Formation
Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans met in the mid-1980s while studying electronics at university in Manchester, England. Dougans had already been making electronic music for some time, working between Glasgow and Manchester, when the pair first began working together in various local clubs. In 1988, Dougans embarked on a project for the Stakker graphics company. The result was Stakker Humanoid, a single that went on to reach number 17 in the UK charts, becoming the first credible UK acid house tune to cross over into the mainstream. Cobain contributed to the accompanying album. A video was also produced.
In the following three years the pair produced music under a variety of aliases, releasing a plethora of singles and EPs, including the successful bleep techno singles "Q" and "Metropolis", some of which would end up on the duo's first compilation album Earthbeat in 1992. "Metropolis" was also very influential in the house scene.
FSOL
In 1991 they released their first album, Accelerator, which was followed by their single "Papua New Guinea", featuring a looping Lisa Gerrard vocal sample from Dead Can Dance's "Dawn of the Iconoclast" and a bassline from Meat Beat Manifesto's "Radio Babylon". The track has made several British "Best songs ever" polls and track specific accolades. In 1992, Virgin Records were looking for electronic bands and, after the chart success of "Papua New Guinea", quickly signed them, giving them free rein to experiment, with a reported advance payment of £75,000. With this the duo invested in a collection of Akai S1000 samplers and other equipment.
They began to play with more ambient music, resulting in the Tales of Ephidrina album of 1993, the first album to be released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias; this was well received by press and marked a distinct shift from the more techno-driven Accelerator, retaining some dance beats, but focusing more on texture, mood and sound. The album was adventurously released on Quigley, the band's own short-lived offshoot of Virgin. At this time, the band had begun experimenting with radio performance, broadcasting now legendary three-hour radio shows to Manchester's Kiss FM from their studio.
Lifeforms, ambience and the ISDN tour
"Cascade", released as a single in 1993, introduced the commercial music world to the new FSOL sound. Despite its length, clocking in at nearly forty minutes and stretched over six parts, the track made the UK top 30, and previewed what was to come. In 1994, they released Lifeforms to critical acclaim. The album featured unconventional use of percussion interspersed with ambient segments. The eponymous single from the album featured Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins on vocals. Throughout the record, familiar motifs and samples repeated themselves, sitting alongside tropical birdsong, rainfall, wind and an array of other exotic sounds, lending the album a natural, organic feel, backed up by the environmental landscapes that filled the artwork booklet. Brian Dougan's father was involved with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop which was a heavy influence in the almost musique concrète feel to Lifeforms. The album was also a top 10 hit on the UK album chart. Cobain has said that around this time that journalists would come to talk to them and one of the first things they would ask would be if they liked Brian Eno (whom they cite as an influence), to which they would laugh and say that they were about looking forward, not to the past. It was, to them, very much a new work rather than just another Eno-type ambient album.
That year, they released the limited edition album ISDN, which featured live broadcasts they had made over ISDN lines to various radio stations worldwide to promote Lifeforms, including The Kitchen, an avant-garde performance space in New York and several appearances on the late John Peel's celebrated BBC radio Sessions shows. These shows marked the evolution of the Kiss FM shows of 1992 and 1993, moving away from DJ sets and into ambient soundscapes, with previously released material performed alongside unheard tracks. One live performance to BBC Radio 1 featured Robert Fripp performing alongside the band. The released album's tone was darker and more rhythmic than Lifeforms. Cobain stated that with ISDN they had wanted to achieve something epic and grand but no matter how much technological or personal support they had (and they had everything they could have possibly wanted) they never got to truly do what they envisioned; he admits to wanting too much at this time, even though the album was successful; the 90s, for Cobain in particular, were a time of frustration and feelings of not being able to do what they wanted to, because the technology at the time didn't fit the band's ideas. The following year, the album was re-released with expanded artwork and a slightly altered track list as an unlimited pressing.
In addition to music composition, their interests have covered a number of areas including film and video, 2D and 3D computer graphics, animation in making almost all their own videos for their singles, radio broadcasting and creating their own electronic devices for sound making. They have released works under numerous aliases.
Dead Cities
The 1995 edition of John Peel Sessions featured three entirely new tracks, which took the breakbeats and chaotic sampling of ISDN away from their previous lush synthscapes and toward a new, more contemporary sound. In 1996, they released Dead Cities, which expanded upon these early demos. The new material was a mix of ambient textures and dance music. The lead single, "My Kingdom", introduced the sound, with a video featuring shots of London, and a sound suggesting a dystopian city. The album also featured the band's first collaboration with composer Max Richter, which included the big beat track "We Have Explosive" that featured manipulated samples sourced from Run DMC. Released in 1997; it was used on the Mortal Kombat: Annihilation soundtrack, and (before the single release) in 1996 on the video game WipE'out" 2097, along with the track "Landmass", which they wrote specifically for the game. Also, a remix of "Papua New Guinea" by Hybrid was later featured in the soundtrack to WipEout Fusion in 2002. "We Have Explosive" was the second single from the album, and the band's highest charting single (beating "My Kingdom" by one spot to number 12), and over the course of its five-part extended version included hints of funk, something which would be heard again when the band returned many years later.
The album was promoted by what the band described as "the fuck rock'n'roll tour" via ISDN, lasting several months and gaining much media attention by being the first band to do a world tour without leaving their studio. While 1994's tour had focused on creating soundscapes and unreleased material, the 1996 and 1997 shows were more conventional, each offering a different take on the Dead Cities experience, blending then-current tracks with occasional exclusive pieces of the time. However, the final few performances jettisoned this material for tracks from a series of unreleased sessions, containing more live sounding material, including considerable use of guitar and percussion. These "1997 sessions" were highly sought after by fans, with some tracks forming the basis of the band's psychedelic projects of the following decade, while others appeared on the From The Archives series.
New millennium
After a four-year hiatus, rumours of mental illness began to spread which turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration of Cobain's mercury poisoning from fillings in his teeth. Cobain gained much from the experience, realising that music was a tool for psychic exploration and entertainment but also one for healing. The pair returned in 2002 with "The Isness", a record heavily influenced by 1960s and 1970s psychedelia and released under their alias Amorphous Androgynous. It was preceded by Papua New Guinea Translations, a mini album which contained a mixture of remixes of FSOL's track as well as new material from The Isness sessions. The album received mixed press due to the drastic change in sound which was inspired by Cobain's and Dougan's (separate) travels to India and immersion in spiritualism, nevertheless the majority was positive with Muzik magazine offering the album a 6/5 mark and dubbing it "...a white beam of light from heaven..." and other British publications such as The Times, The Guardian and MOJO praising the album and the band's ability to do something so completely different from what they had done before.
Three years on, they followed the album with a continuation of the Amorphous Androgynous project, Alice in Ultraland. Rumoured to be accompanied by a film of the same title, the album took The Isness psychedelic experimentation and toned it down, giving the album a singular theme and sound, and replacing the more bizarre moments with funk and ambient interludes. The album was ignored by the press, but was received more favourably among fans than its predecessor. Unlike The Isness, which featured almost 100 musicians over the course of it and the various alternative versions and remix albums, Alice in Ultraland featured a fairly solid band lineup throughout, which extended to live shows which the band had undertaken away from the ISDN cables from 2005 onwards.
5.1 & digital experimentation
The FSOL moniker re-appeared in 2006 with a piece entitled "A Gigantic Globular Burst Of Anti-Static", intended as an experiment in 5.1 Surround Sound and created for an exhibition at the Kinetica art museum entitled, appropriately, "Life Forms". The piece contained reworked material from their archives and newer, more abstract ambient music. The piece was coupled with a video called "Stereo Sucks", marking the band's theories on the limitations of stereo music, which was released on a DVD packaged with issue 182 of Future Music Magazine in December 2006 and on FSOL's own download site in March 2007.
They also moved into creating their own sounds when they began constructing electronic instruments, the result of which can be heard on the 2007 release Hand-Made Devices. At their website Glitch TV (where the motto is "[A] sudden interruption in sanity, continuity or programme function") they sell and explain their devices such as the "Electronic Devices Digital Interface" glitch equipment.
FSOLdigital and the Archives
In 2007, the band uploaded several archive tracks online, for the first time revealing much of their unreleased work and unveiling some of the mystery behind the band. The old FSOL material, including the previously unreleased album Environments, along with a selection of newer experiments, the 5.1 experiments and a promise of unreleased Amorphous Androgynous psychedelic material, was uploaded for sale on their online shop, FSOLdigital.com.
In early March 2008, the band released a new online album as Amorphous Androgynous entitled The Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness, which they describe as "A collection of psychedelic relics from The Amorphous Androgynous, 1967-2007". The release retains the sound of their last two psychedelic albums, while expanding on the element of funk first introduced on 2005's Alice in Ultraland. They recorded their following album, The Woodlands of Old, under the alias of their imaginary engineer Yage. Unlike the techno work recorded as Yage in 1992, this new record was darker, more trip hop and world music-oriented and featured ex-Propellerheads member Will White.
From 2008, the band showcased a series of radio broadcasts and podcasts called The Electric Brain Storms, originally on stations such as Proton Radio, PBS radio in Australia, and Frisky Radio. The remaining shows appeared on the band's official site. and SoundCloud. The shows featured electronic, krautrock, experimental and psychedelic favourites of the band mixed in with known and unknown FSOL material, including newly recorded tracks, archived pieces, and new alias recordings. Many of the new tracks appeared on the band's Environments series. Cobain has described the new music as having "the introspective, kind of euphoric sadness that was always there in the FSOL melodies".
From this point, the band have been alternating their focus between different projects. In 2008, Environments II and From the Archives Vol. 5 were released on the band's site, followed by Environments 3 and From the Archives Vol. 6 in 2010; and Environments 4 and From the Archives Vol. 7 in 2012. Whilst the Archives feature old, unreleased material, the Environments albums feature a mixture of old demos, recently completed, and new tracks.
The band have continued to use the FSOLDigital platform to release side-projects and solo work, under names such as Blackhill Transmitter, EMS : Piano, Suburban Domestic and 6 Oscillators in Remittance, as well as distributing digital releases from other artists, including Daniel Pemberton, Herd, Kettel & Secede, Neotropic, Ross Baker and Seafar; they also continue to update The Pod Room with ISDN transmissions from the 1990s.
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind
Following on from the band's 1997 DJ set of the same name, a series of Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind mix CDs were begun in 2006. The first two were released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias, subtitled "Cosmic Space Music" and "Pagan Love Vibrations", with the first taking over two years to compile, mix and gain sample clearance, both featuring the band's psychedelic influences. A third is set for release sometime in 2010, and will be more electronic, mixed by the Future Sound of London. Further mixes in the series are expected in the future, to be curated by related artists, and the band took the concept live with an eleven-hour spot at 2009's Green Man festival, to contain live bands and DJ spots.
Noel Gallagher of British rock band Oasis, after hearing the first release, became a fan and asked the band to remix the following Oasis single "Falling Down". The Amorphous Androgynous responded with a 5 part, 22-minute Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remix, which Noel liked enough to release on its own 12". Noel also invited Cobain to DJ at the afterparty for one of Oasis' gigs at Wembley Arena.
The band continue the psychedelic theme to the mixes on their podcast site The Pod Room and on February 2010s Mojo Magazine cover CD. The Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remixes grow in popularity with commissions from Paul Weller and Pop Levi, and Cobain has suggested a full album of remixes and covers will appear on their recently formed Monstrous Bubble label
On 6 July 2011 it was announced that Noel Gallagher's second solo album will be in collaboration with The Amorphous Androgynous, and is set for release in 2012. In August 2012, Gallagher mentioned in various interviews that he is considering scrapping the collaborative album with Amorphous Androgynous due to not being completely satisfied with the mixes. Two songs from the project have surfaced as B-sides to Gallagher's singles in 2012: "Shoot a Hole into the Sun" (based on Gallagher's track "If I Had a Gun...") was a B-side to the single "Dream On", and a mix of "AKA... What a Life!" featured on the B-side of "Everybody's on the Run". However, as the project is currently shelved, the group have returned to original material, releasing the first in a series of Monstrous Bubble Soundtracks, entitled The Cartel. On Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' album Chasing Yesterday, The Amorphous Androgynous are credited as Co-producers of the tracks "The Right Stuff" and "The Mexican".
Future of the band
The group continue to give updates for the Galaxial Pharmaceutical news site and forum, while largely releasing material through their FSOLDigital imprint. They remain prolific, working on multiple projects at once. As "The Future Sound of London", they currently plan to continue releasing new material as part of the Environments series; the latest releases as of June 2019 are Environment Six and 6.5 from 2016.
On 26 April 2019, the band released Yage 2019, consisting of eleven songs. The album was also released on vinyl and CD on Record Store Day that year; the latter release featured an additional two tracks. The next year another album, Cascade 2020, was released. In 2021 they released We Have Explosive 2021.
Independence
Since the millennium, FSOL took a more independent turn with their career, releasing their more psychedelic Amorphous Androgynous on an independent label, The Isness on Artful Records and Alice in Ultraland on the progressive Harvest Records (an arm of EMI). They also have their own label called Electronic Brain Violence on which off-beat electronic artists such as Oil and Simon Wells (Headstone Lane) have released EPs and singles. Simon Wells also contributed to Dead Cities on the track "Dead Cities Reprise"
Nevertheless, Virgin records still controls FSOL's back catalog and was going to release the Teachings from the Electronic Brain compilation without them, but the duo insisted on taking control of the production of the project. Cobain says that, even with Virgin, the reason they were able to do their own thing and create the music they wanted in the 1990s was because they already had some major hits under their belts such as "Papua New Guinea", "Metropolis" and "Stakker Humanoid" before joining the label.
Cobain has said that FSOL's mentality has always been about making a journey of an album rather than focusing on trying to have hit singles. He said that they had several top 40 singles (and albums) in the 90s because they had enough fans and had built up enough of a reputation to achieve these hits while still concentrating on the album rather than any potential singles during their time at Virgin.
They have been signed to Passion Records sub-label Jumpin' & Pumpin' since they started out.
Aliases
Discography
Accelerator (1991)
Lifeforms (1994)
ISDN (1994)
Dead Cities (1996)
The Isness (2002) (as Amorphous Androgynous, except in the USA)
Environments (2007)
Environments II (2008)
Environments 3 (2010)
Environments 4 (2012)
Environment Five (2014)
Environment Six (2016)
Environment 6.5 (2016)
Yage 2019 (2019)
Cascade 2020 (2020)
Chart history
Singles charts
Album charts
See also
List of ambient music artists
Max Richter
References
External links
Future Sound of London.com - official website.
an overview of their studio equipment et cetera from 1994
Acid house musicians
Braindance musicians
Breakbeat music groups
British ambient music groups
English dance music groups
English house music duos
English techno music groups
Male musical duos
Astralwerks artists
Virgin Records artists
English experimental musical groups
Harvest Records artists
Hypnotic Records artists
Rephlex Records artists
Intelligent dance musicians
Musical groups established in 1988
Musical groups from Manchester
New-age music groups
Remixers | true | [
"\"How Interesting: A Tiny Man\" is a 2010 science fiction/magical realism short story by American writer Harlan Ellison. It was first published in Realms of Fantasy.\n\nPlot summary\nA scientist creates a tiny man. The tiny man is initially very popular, but then draws the hatred of the world, and so the tiny man must flee, together with the scientist (who is now likewise hated, for having created the tiny man).\n\nReception\n\"How Interesting: A Tiny Man\" won the 2010 Nebula Award for Best Short Story, tied with Kij Johnson's \"Ponies\". It was Ellison's final Nebula nomination and win, of his record-setting eight nominations and three wins.\n\nTor.com calls the story \"deceptively simple\", with \"execution (that) is flawless\" and a \"Geppetto-like\" narrator, while Publishers Weekly describes it as \"memorably depict(ing) humanity's smallness of spirit\". The SF Site, however, felt it was \"contrived and less than profound\".\n\nNick Mamatas compared \"How Interesting: A Tiny Man\" negatively to Ellison's other Nebula-winning short stories, and stated that the story's two mutually exclusive endings (in one, the tiny man is killed; in the other, he becomes God) are evocative of the process of writing short stories. Ben Peek considered it to be \"more allegory than (...) anything else\", and interpreted it as being about how the media \"give(s) everyone a voice\", and also about how Ellison was treated by science fiction fandom.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nAudio version of ''How Interesting: A Tiny Man, at StarShipSofa\nHow Interesting: A Tiny Man, at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database\n\nNebula Award for Best Short Story-winning works\nShort stories by Harlan Ellison",
"In baseball, a fair ball is a batted ball that entitles the batter to attempt to reach first base. By contrast, a foul ball is a batted ball that does not entitle the batter to attempt to reach first base. Whether a batted ball is fair or foul is determined by the location of the ball at the appropriate reference point, as follows:\n\n if the ball leaves the playing field without touching anything, the point where the ball leaves the field;\n else, if the ball first lands past first or third base without touching anything, the point where the ball lands;\n else, if the ball rolls or bounces past first or third base without touching anything other than the ground, the point where the ball passes the base;\n else, if the ball touches anything other than the ground (such as an umpire, a player, or any equipment left on the field) before any of the above happens, the point of such touching;\n else (the ball comes to a rest before reaching first or third base), the point where the ball comes to a rest.\n\nIf any part of the ball is on or above fair territory at the appropriate reference point, it is fair; else it is foul. Fair territory or fair ground is defined as the area of the playing field between the two foul lines, and includes the foul lines themselves and the foul poles. However, certain exceptions exist:\n\n A ball that touches first, second, or third base is always fair.\n Under Rule 5.09(a)(7)-(8), if a batted ball touches the batter or his bat while the batter is in the batter's box and not intentionally interfering with the course of the ball, the ball is foul.\n A ball that hits the foul pole without first having touched anything else off the bat is fair.\n Ground rules may provide whether a ball hitting specific objects (e.g. roof, overhead speaker) is fair or foul.\n\nOn a fair ball, the batter attempts to reach first base or any subsequent base, runners attempt to advance and fielders try to record outs. A fair ball is considered a live ball until the ball becomes dead by leaving the field or any other method.\n\nReferences\n\nBaseball rules"
]
|
[
"Scooter Libby",
"Trial, conviction, and sentencing"
]
| C_9b3f2d9b78904bdd9a4dc0f6fa76ef2c_0 | What was he on trial for? | 1 | What was Libby on trial for? | Scooter Libby | On March 6, 2007, the jury convicted him on four of the five counts but acquitted him on count three, the second charge of making false statements when interviewed by federal agents about his conversations with Time reporter Matthew Cooper. After being questioned by the FBI in the fall of 2003 and testifying before a Federal grand jury on March 5, 2004, and again on March 24, 2004, Libby pleaded not guilty to all five counts. According to the Associated Press, David Addington, Cheney's legal counsel, described a September 2003 meeting with Libby around the time that a criminal investigation began, saying that Libby had told him, "'I just want to tell you, I didn't do it'... I didn't ask what the 'it' was.'" Libby retained attorney Ted Wells of the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to represent him. Wells had successfully defended former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy against a 30-count indictment and had also participated in the successful defense of former Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan. After Judge Reggie Walton denied Libby's motion to dismiss, the press initially reported that Libby would testify at the trial. Libby's criminal trial, United States v. Libby, began on January 16, 2007. A parade of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists testified, including Bob Woodward, Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post and Judith Miller and David E. Sanger of The New York Times. Despite earlier press reports and widespread speculation, neither Libby nor Vice President Cheney testified. The jury began deliberations on February 21, 2007. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby (first name generally given as Irv, Irve or Irving; born August 22, 1950) is an American lawyer, and former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.
From 2001 to 2005, Libby held the offices of Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs, Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States, and Assistant to the President during the administration of President George W. Bush.
In October 2005, Libby resigned from all three government positions after he was indicted on five counts by a federal grand jury concerning the investigation of the leak of the covert identity of Central Intelligence Agency officer Valerie Plame Wilson. He was subsequently convicted of four counts (one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury, and one count of making false statements), making him the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since John Poindexter, the national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan in the Iran–Contra affair.
After a failed appeal, President Bush commuted Libby's sentence of 30 months in federal prison, leaving the other parts of his sentence intact. As a consequence of his conviction in United States v. Libby, Libby's license to practice law was suspended until being reinstated in 2016. President Donald Trump fully pardoned Libby on April 13, 2018.
Personal history
Background and education
Libby was born to an affluent Jewish family in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, Irving Lewis Leibovitz, was an investment banker. His father changed his family original surname from Leibovitz to Libby.
Libby graduated from the Eaglebrook School, in Deerfield, Massachusetts, a junior boarding school, in 1965. The family lived in the Washington, D.C. region; Miami, Florida; and Connecticut prior to Libby's graduation from Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1968.
He and his elder brother, Hank, a retired tax lawyer, were the first in the family to graduate from college. Libby attended Yale University in New Haven, graduating magna cum laude in 1972. As Yale Daily News reporter Jack Mirkinson observes, "Even though he would eventually become a prominent Republican, Libby's political beginnings would not have pointed in that direction. He served as vice president of the Yale College Democrats and later campaigned for Michael Dukakis when he was running for governor of Massachusetts." According to Mirkinson: "Two particular Yale courses helped guide Libby's future endeavors. One of these was a creative writing course, which started Libby on a 20-year mission to complete a novel ... [later published as] The Apprentice ... [and] a political science class with professor and future Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. In an interview with author James Mann, Libby said Wolfowitz was one of his favorite professors, and their professional relationship did not end with the class." Wolfowitz became a significant mentor in his later professional life.
In 1975, as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, Libby received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Columbia Law School.
Marriage and family
Libby is married to Harriet Grant, whom he met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the late 1980s, while he was a partner and she an associate in the law firm then known as Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin: When he and Harriet became serious,' Dickstein partner Kenneth Simon wrote, 'she chose to leave the firm rather than maintain the awkward situation of an associate dating a partner. Libby and Grant married in the early 1990s, have a son and a daughter, and live in McLean, Virginia.
Name
Libby has been secretive about his full name. He was prosecuted as I. Lewis Libby, also known as "Scooter Libby". National Public Radio's Day to Day reported that the 1972 Yale Banner (the yearbook of Yale) gave his name as Irve Lewis Libby Jr.; it is unclear if Irve is his given name, or if it is short for Irving, as it was for his father. CBS, the BBC, and The New York Timess John Tierney have all used this spelling of his first name. The Timess Eric Schmitt spelled it Irv, though he cited a phone interview with Libby's brother, and did not clarify if he had asked for a spelling.
At times, including in the Yale Banner, and as documented in a federal directory cited by Ron Kampeas and others, Libby has used the suffix Jr. after his name. At other times, however, as listed in his federal indictment and United States v. Libby, which give his alias as Scooter Libby, there is no Jr. after Libby's name. The Columbia Alumni Association online directory lists him as I. Lewis Libby, with a first name of "I." and birth first name of "Irve".
Libby has also been secretive about the origin of his nickname Scooter. The New York Timess Eric Schmitt, citing the aforementioned interview with Libby's brother, wrote that "His nickname 'Scooter' derives from the day [his] father watched him crawling in his crib and joked, 'He's a Scooter! In a February 2002 interview on Larry King Live, King asked Libby specifically, "Where did 'Scooter' come from?"; Libby replied: "Oh, it goes way back to when I was a kid. Some people ask me if ... [crosstalk] ... as you did earlier, if it's related to Phil Rizzuto [nicknamed 'The Scooter']. I had the range but not the arm."
The Apprentice
Libby's only novel, The Apprentice, about a group of travelers stranded in northern Japan in the winter of 1903, during a smallpox epidemic in the run-up to the Russo-Japanese War, was first published in a hardback edition by Graywolf Press in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1996, and reprinted as a trade paperback by St. Martin's Thomas Dunne Books in 2002. After Libby's indictment in the CIA leak grand jury investigation in 2005, St. Martin's Press reissued The Apprentice as a mass market paperback (Griffin imprint). An allegorical meditation on the legitimacy of concealed knowledge, The Apprentice has been described as "a thriller ... that includes references to bestiality, pedophilia and rape."
Law career
After earning his J.D. from Columbia in 1975, Libby joined the firm of Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis LLP. He was admitted to the bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on October 27, 1976, and to the Bar of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals on May 19, 1978.
Libby practiced law at Schnader for six years before joining the U.S. State Department policy planning staff, at the invitation of his former Yale professor, Paul Wolfowitz, in 1981. In 1985, returning to private practice, he joined the firm then known as Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin (now Dickstein Shapiro LLP), becoming a partner in 1986 and working there until 1989, when he left to work in the U.S. Defense Department, again under his former Yale professor Paul Wolfowitz, until January 1993.
In 1993, returning to private legal practice from government, Libby became the managing partner of the Washington, D.C. office of Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander & Ferdon (formerly Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, and Alexander); in 1995, along with his Mudge Rose colleague, Leonard Garment––who had replaced John Dean as acting Special Counsel to U.S. President Richard Nixon for the last two years of his presidency dominated by Watergate, and who had hired Libby at Mudge Rose twenty years later––and three other lawyers from that firm, Libby joined the Washington, D.C. office of Dechert Price & Rhoads (now part of Dechert LLP), where he was a managing partner, a member of its litigation department, and chaired its Public Policy Practice Group. His work there was well regarded, with President Clinton recognizing Libby as one of three "distinguished Republican lawyers" who worked on the Marc Rich pardon case.
In 2001 Libby left the firm to return to work again in government, as Vice President Cheney's chief of staff.
Fugitive billionaire commodities trader Marc Rich, who, along with his business partner Pincus Green, had been indicted of tax evasion and illegal trading with Iran, and who, with Green, was ultimately pardoned by President Bill Clinton, was a client whom Leonard Garment had hired Libby to help represent around the spring of 1985, after Rich and Green had first engaged Garment. Libby stopped representing Rich in the spring of 2000; early in March 2001, at a "contentious" Congressional hearing to review Clinton's pardons, Libby testified that he thought the prosecution's case against Rich "misconstrued the facts and the law". According to Jackson Hogan, Libby's roommate at Yale University, as quoted in the already-cited U.S. News & World Report article by Walsh, He is intensely partisan ... in that if he is your counsel, he'll embrace your case and try to figure a way out of whatever noose you are ensnared in. According to a House Committee on Government Reform report, however, "The arguments made by Garment, [William Bradford] Reynolds and Libby [in their testimony] focused on the claim that the SDNY was criminalizing what should have been a civil tax case. They did not make, compile, or in any other way lay the groundwork for, or make a case for a Presidential pardon. When former President Clinton stated that they 'reviewed and advocated' 'the case for the pardons,' he suggested that they were somehow involved in arguing that Rich and Green should receive pardons. This was completely untrue". (p. 162)
Bar suspension and disbarment
Before his indictment in United States v. Libby, Libby had been a licensed lawyer, admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, although his Pennsylvania law license was inactive, and he had already been suspended from the Washington, D.C. Office of Bar Counsel (D.C. Bar) for non-payment of fees. The Chief Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals recommended disbarment upon confirmation of his conviction, which Libby had initially indicated that he would appeal. Having suspended his license to practice law on April 3, 2007, the D.C. Bar "disbarred [him] pursuant to D.C. Code § 11-2503(a)" on legal grounds of "moral turpitude", effective April 11, 2007, and recommended to the D.C. Court of Appeals his disbarment if his conviction were not overturned on appeal. On December 10, 2007, Libby's lawyers announced his decision "to drop his appeal of his conviction in the CIA leak case". On March 20, 2008, following the dropping of his appeal of his conviction, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals disbarred Libby. As a result of the Court's ruling, "Libby will lose his license to practice or appear in court in Washington until at least 2012", and, "As is standard, he will probably lose any bar membership he holds in other states"; that is, in Pennsylvania.
Government public service and political career
In 1981, after working as a lawyer in the Philadelphia firm Schnader LLP, Libby accepted the invitation of his former Yale University political science professor and mentor Paul Wolfowitz to join the U.S. State Department's policy planning staff. From 1982 to 1985, Libby served as director of special projects in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. In 1985 he received the Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service from the United States Department of Defense, and he resigned from government to enter private legal practice at Dickstein, Shapiro, and Morin. In 1989, he went to work at the Pentagon, again under Wolfowitz, as principal deputy under-secretary for strategy and resources at the U.S. Defense Department.
During the George H. W. Bush administration, Libby was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as deputy under secretary of defense for policy, serving from 1992 to 1993. In 1992 he also served as legal adviser for the House Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China. Libby co-authored the draft of the Defense Planning Guidance for the 1994–99 fiscal years (dated February 18, 1992) with Wolfowitz for Dick Cheney, who was then Secretary of Defense. In 1993 Libby received the Distinguished Service Award from the U.S. Defense Department and the Distinguished Public Service Award from the U.S. State Department before resuming private legal practice first at Mudge Rose and then at Dechert.
Libby was part of a network of neo-conservatives known as the "Vulcans"—its other members included Wolfowitz, Condoleezza Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld. While he was still a managing partner of Dechert Price & Rhoads, he was a signatory to the "Statement of Principles" of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) (a document dated June 3, 1997). He joined Wolfowitz, PNAC co-founders William Kristol, Robert Kagan, and other "Project Participants" in developing the PNAC's September 2000 report entitled, "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces, and Resources for a New Century".
After becoming Cheney's chief of staff in 2001, Libby was reportedly nicknamed "Germ Boy" at the White House, for insisting on universal smallpox vaccination. He was also nicknamed "Dick Cheney's Dick Cheney" for his close working relationship with the Vice President. Mary Matalin, who worked with Libby as an adviser to Cheney during Bush's first term, said of him "He is to the vice president what the vice president is to the president."
Libby was active in the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee of the Pentagon when it was chaired by Richard Perle during the early years of the George W. Bush administration (2001–2003). At various points in his career, Libby has also held positions with the American Bar Association, been on the advisory board of the RAND Corporation's Center for Russia and Eurasia, and been a legal adviser to the United States House of Representatives, as well as served as a consultant for the defense contractor Northrop Grumman.
Libby was also actively involved in the Bush administration's efforts to negotiate the Israeli–Palestinian "road map" for peace; for example, he participated in a series of meetings with Jewish leaders in early December 2002 and a meeting with two aides of then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in mid-April 2003, culminating in the Red Sea Summit on June 4, 2004. In their highly controversial and widely contested "Working Paper" entitled "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy", University of Chicago political science professor John J. Mearsheimer and academic dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University Stephen M. Walt argue that Libby was among the Bush administration's most "fervently pro-Israel ... officials" (20).
Awards for government service
Distinguished Service Award, United States Department of Defense, 1993
Distinguished Public Service Award, United States Department of the Navy, 1993
Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service, United States Department of State, 1985
Subsequent work experience
From January 2006 until March 7, 2007, the day after his conviction in United States v. Libby, when he resigned, Libby served as a "senior adviser" at the Hudson Institute, to "focus on issues relating to the War on Terror and the future of Asia ... offer research guidance and ... advise the institute in strategic planning." His resignation was announced by the Hudson Institute in a press release dated March 8, 2007. However, he has served as Senior Vice President of the Hudson Institute at least since 2010.
Libby also serves as a member of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense, a group that encourages and advocates changes to government policy to strengthen national biodefense. In order to address biological threats facing the nation, the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense created a 33 step initiative for the U.S. Government to implement. Headed by former Senator Joe Lieberman and former Governor Tom Ridge, the Study Panel assembled in Washington D.C. for four meetings concerning current biodefense programs. The Study Panel concluded that the federal government had little to no defense mechanisms in case of a biological event. The Study Panel's final report, The National Blueprint for Biodefense, proposes a string of solutions and recommendations for the U.S. Government to take, including items such as giving the Vice President authority over biodefense responsibilities and merging the entire biodefense budget. These solutions represent the Panel's call to action in order to increase awareness and activity for pandemic related issues.
Involvement in the Plame affair
Between 2003 and 2005, intense speculation centered on the possibility that Libby may have been the administration official who had "leaked" classified employment information about Valerie Plame, a covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent and the wife of Iraq War critic Joseph C. Wilson, to New York Times reporter Judith Miller and other reporters and later tried to hide his having done so.
In August 2005, as revealed in grand jury testimony audiotapes played during the trial and reported in many news accounts, Libby testified that he met with Judith Miller, a reporter with The New York Times, on July 8, 2003, and discussed Plame with her.
Although Libby signed a "blanket waiver" allowing journalists to discuss their conversations with him pursuant to the CIA leak grand jury investigation, Miller maintained that such a waiver did not serve to allow her to reveal her source to that grand jury; moreover, Miller argued that Libby's general waiver pertaining to all journalists could have been coerced and that she would only testify before that grand jury if given an individual waiver.
After refusing to testify about her July 2003 meeting with Libby, Judith Miller was jailed on July 7, 2005, for contempt of court. Months later, however, her new attorney, Robert Bennett, told her that she already had possessed a written, voluntary waiver from Libby all along. After Miller had served most of her sentence, Libby reiterated that he had indeed given her a "waiver" both "voluntarily and personally." He attached the following letter, which, when released publicly, became the subject of further speculation about Libby's possible motives in sending it:
As noted above, my lawyer confirmed my waiver to other reporters in just the way he did with your lawyer. Why? Because as I am sure will not be news to you, the public report of every other reporter's testimony makes clear that they did not discuss Ms. Plame's name or identity with me, or knew about her before our call.
After agreeing to testify, Miller was released on September 29, 2005, appearing before the grand jury the next day, but the charge against her was rescinded only after she testified again on October 12, 2005. For her second grand jury appearance, Miller produced a notebook from a previously undisclosed meeting with Libby on June 23, 2003, two weeks before Wilson's New York Times op-ed was published. In her account published in the Times on October 16, 2005, based on her notes, Miller reports:
... in an interview with me on June 23 [2003], Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, discussed Mr. Wilson's activities and placed blame for intelligence failures on the CIA. In later conversations with me, on July 8 and July 12 [2003], Mr. Libby, ... [at the time] Mr. Cheney's top aide, played down the importance of Mr. Wilson's mission and questioned his performance ... My notes indicate that well before Mr. Wilson published his critique, Mr. Libby told me that Mr. Wilson's wife may have worked on unconventional weapons at the CIA. ... My notes do not show that Mr. Libby identified Mr. Wilson's wife by name. Nor do they show that he described Valerie Wilson as a covert agent or "operative"...
Her notation on her July 8, 2003 meeting with Libby does contain the name "Valerie Flame ", which she added retrospectively. While Miller reveals publicly that she herself had misidentified the last name of Wilson's wife (aka "Valerie Plame") in her own marginal notes on their interview as "Flame" instead of "Plame", in her grand jury (and later trial testimony), she remained uncertain when, how, and why she arrived at that name and did not attribute it to Libby:
I was not permitted to take notes of what I told the grand jury, and my interview notes on Mr. Libby are sketchy in places. It is also difficult, more than two years later, to parse the meaning and context of phrases, of underlining and of parentheses. On one page of my interview notes, for example, I wrote the name "Valerie Flame." Yet, as I told Mr. Fitzgerald, I simply could not recall where that came from, when I wrote it or why the name was misspelled ... I testified that I did not believe the name came from Mr. Libby, in part because the notation does not appear in the same part of my notebook as the interview notes from him.
A year and a half later, a jury convicted Libby of obstruction of justice and perjury in his grand jury testimony and making false statements to federal investigators about when and how he learned that Plame was a CIA agent.
On April 13, 2018, Libby was pardoned by US President Donald Trump.
Indictment and resignation
On October 28, 2005, as a result of the CIA leak grand jury investigation, Special Counsel Fitzgerald indicted Libby on five counts: one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of making false statements when interviewed by agents of the FBI, and two counts of perjury in his testimony before the grand jury. Pursuant to the grand jury investigation, Libby had told FBI investigators that he first heard of Mrs. Wilson's CIA employment from Cheney, and then later heard it from journalist Tim Russert, and acted as if he did not have that information. The indictment alleges that statements to federal investigators and the grand jury were intentionally false, in that Libby had numerous conversations about Mrs. Wilson's CIA employment, including his conversations with Judith Miller (see above), before speaking to Russert; Russert did not tell Libby about Mrs. Wilson's CIA employment; prior to talking with such reporters, Libby knew with certainty that she was employed by the CIA; and Libby told reporters that she worked for the CIA without making any disclaimer that he was uncertain of that fact. The false statements counts in the Libby indictment charge that he intentionally made those false statements to the FBI; the perjury counts charge that he intentionally lied to the grand jury in repeating those false statements; and the obstruction of justice count charges that Libby intentionally made those false statements in order to mislead the grand jury, thus impeding Fitzgerald's grand jury investigation of the truth about the leaking of Mrs. Wilson's then-classified, covert CIA identity.
Trial, conviction, and sentencing
On March 6, 2007, the jury convicted him on four of the five counts: obstruction of justice, one count of making false statements when interviewed by agents of the FBI, and two counts of perjury. They acquitted him on count three, the second charge of making false statements when interviewed by federal agents about his conversations with Time reporter Matthew Cooper.
Libby retained attorney Ted Wells of the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to represent him. Wells had successfully defended former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy against a 30-count indictment and had also participated in the successful defense of former Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan.
After Judge Reggie Walton denied Libby's motion to dismiss, the press initially reported that Libby would testify at the trial. Libby's criminal trial, United States v. Libby, began on January 16, 2007. A parade of Pulitzer Prize–winning journalists testified, including Bob Woodward, Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post and Judith Miller and David E. Sanger of The New York Times. Despite earlier press reports and widespread speculation, neither Libby nor Vice President Cheney testified. The jury began deliberations on February 21, 2007.
Verdict
After deliberating for 10 days, the jury rendered its verdict on March 6, 2007. It convicted Libby on four of the five counts against him: two counts of perjury, one count of obstruction of justice in a grand jury investigation, and one of the two counts of making false statements to federal investigators.
After the verdict, initially, Libby's lawyers announced that he would seek a new trial, and that, if that attempt were to fail, they would appeal Libby's conviction. Libby did not speak to reporters. Libby's defense team eventually decided against seeking a new trial.
Speaking to the media outside the courtroom after the verdict, Fitzgerald said that "The jury worked very long and hard and deliberated at length ... [and] was obviously convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had lied and obstructed justice in a serious manner ... I do not expect to file any further charges." The trial confirmed that the leak came first from then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage; since Fitzgerald did not charge Armitage and did not charge anyone else, Libby's conviction effectively ended the investigation.
In his October 28, 2005, press conference about the grand jury's indictment, Fitzgerald had already explained that Libby's obstruction of justice through perjury and false statements had prevented the grand jury from determining whether the leak violated federal law.
During his media appearance outside the courtroom after the verdict in the Libby case, Fitzgerald fielded questions from the press about others involved in the Plame affair and in the CIA leak grand jury investigation, such as Armitage and Cheney, whom he had already described as under "a cloud", as already addressed in his conduct of the case and in his closing arguments in court.
Sentencing
Given current federal sentencing guidelines, which are not mandatory, the conviction could have resulted in a sentence ranging from no imprisonment to imprisonment of up to 25 years and a fine of $1,000,000; yet, as Sniffen and Apuzzo observe, "federal sentencing guidelines will probably prescribe far less." In practice, according to federal sentencing data, three-fourths of the 198 defendants found guilty of obstruction of justice in 2006 served jail time. The average length of jail time on this charge alone was 70 months.
On June 5, 2007, Judge Walton sentenced Libby to 30 months in prison and fined him $250,000, clarifying that Libby would begin his sentence immediately. According to Apuzzo and Yost, the judge also "placed him on two years probation after his prison sentence expires. There is no parole in the federal system, but Libby would be eligible for release after two years." In addition, Judge Walton required Libby to provide "400 hours of community service" during his supervised release. On June 5, 2007, after the announcement of Libby's sentencing, CNN reported that Libby still "plans to appeal the verdict".
That day, in response to the sentencing, Vice President Cheney issued a statement in Libby's defense on The White House website. The statement concluded: "Speaking as friends, we hope that our system will return a final result consistent with what we know of this fine man."
Joseph and Valerie Wilson posted their statement on Libby's sentencing in United States v. Libby on their website, "grateful that justice has been served."
Order to report to prison pending appeal of verdict
After the June 5 sentencing, Walton said he was inclined to jail Libby after the defense laid out its proposed appeal, but the judge told attorneys he was open to changing his mind"; however, on June 14, 2007, Walton ordered Libby to report to prison while his attorneys appealed the conviction. Libby's attorneys asked that the order be stayed, but Walton denied the request and told Libby that he would have 10 days to appeal the ruling. In denying Libby's request, which had questioned Fitzgerald's authority to make the charges in the first place, Walton supported Fitzgerald's authority in the case. He said: "Everyone is accountable, and if you work in the White House, and if it's perceived that somehow (you're) linked at the hip, the American public would have serious questions about the fairness of any investigation of a high-level official conducted by the attorney general." The judge was also responding to an Amicus curiae brief that he had permitted to be filed, which had not apparently convinced him to change his mind, as he subsequently denied Libby bail during his appeal. His "order grant[ing] the [legal academic] scholars permission to file their brief ..." contained a caustic footnote questioning the motivation of the legal academics and suggesting he might not give a great deal of weight to their opinion[:]
... It is an impressive show of public service when twelve prominent and distinguished current and former law professors are able to amass their collective wisdom in the course of only several days to provide their legal expertise to the court on behalf of a criminal defendant. The Court trusts that this is a reflection of these eminent academics' willingness in the future to step to the plate and provide like assistance in cases involving any of the numerous litigants, both in this Court and throughout the courts of this nation, who lack the financial means to fully and properly articulate the merits of their legal positions even in instances where failure to do so could result in monetary penalties, incarceration, or worse. The Court will certainly not hesitate to call for such assistance from these luminaries, as necessary in the interests of justice and equity, whenever similar questions arise in the cases that come before it."
Moreover, when the hearing started, "in the interest of full disclosure," Walton informed the court that he had "received a number of harassing, angry and mean-spirited phone calls and messages. Some wishing bad things on me and my family ... [T]hose types of things will have no impact ... I initially threw them away, but then there were more, some that were more hateful ... [T]hey are being kept."
New York Times reporters Neil Lewis and David Stout estimated subsequently that Libby's prison sentence could begin within "two months", explaining that
Judge Walton's decision means that the defense lawyers will probably ask a federal appeals court to block the sentence, a long-shot move. It also sharpens interest in a question being asked by Mr. Libby's supporters and critics alike: Will President Bush pardon Mr. Libby? ... So far, the president has expressed sympathy for Mr. Libby and his family but has not tipped his hand on the pardon issue. ... If the president does not pardon him, and if an appeals court refuses to second-guess Judge Walton's decision, Mr. Libby will probably be ordered to report to prison in six to eight weeks' time. Federal prison authorities will decide where. "Unless the Court of Appeals overturns my ruling, he will have to report", Judge Walton said.
Failure of Libby's appeal in order to begin prison sentence
On June 20, 2007, Libby appealed Walton's ruling in federal appeals court. The following day, Walton filed a 30-page expanded ruling, in which he explained his decision to deny Libby bail in more detail.
On July 2, 2007, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied Libby's request for a delay and release from his prison sentence, stating that Libby "has not shown that the appeal raises a substantial question under federal law that would merit letting him remain free," increasing "pressure on President George W. Bush to decide soon whether to pardon Libby ... as the former White House official's supporters have urged."
Presidential commutation
Soon after the verdict, calls for Libby to be pardoned by President George W. Bush began to appear in some newspapers; some of them were posted online by the Libby Legal Defense Trust (LLDT). U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid issued a press release about the verdict, urging Bush to pledge not to pardon Libby, and other Democratic politicians followed his lead.
Surveying "the pardon battle" and citing both pro and con publications, The Washington Post online columnist Dan Froomkin concludes that many U.S. newspapers opposed a presidential pardon for Libby. Much of this commentary obscured the fact that the clemency power provided the President with several options short of a full, unconditional pardon. In an op-ed published in The Washington Post, former federal prosecutor and conservative activist William Otis argued the sentence was too stringent and that, instead of pardoning Libby, Bush should commute his sentence.
After the sentencing, Bush stated on camera that he would "not intervene until Libby's legal team has exhausted all of its avenues of appeal ... It wouldn't be appropriate for me to discuss the case until after the legal remedies have run its course." Ultimately, less than a month later, on July 2, 2007, Bush chose Otis's 'third option' — "neither prison nor pardon" — in commuting Libby's prison sentence.
After Libby was denied bail during his appeal process on July 2, 2007, Bush commuted Libby's 30-month federal prison sentence, calling it "excessive", but he did not change the other parts of the sentence and their conditions. That presidential commutation left in place the felony conviction, the $250,000 fine, and the terms of probation. Some have criticized the move, as presidential commutations are rarely issued, but when granted they have generally occurred after the convicted person has already served a substantial portion of his or her sentence: "We can't find any cases, certainly in the last half-century, where the president commuted a sentence before it had even started to be served," said former Justice Department pardon attorney Margaret Colgate Love. Others, notably Cheney himself who argued that Libby was unfairly charged by a politically motivated prosecution, believed that the commutation fell short, as Libby would likely never practice law again.
At the time, Bush explained his "Grant of Executive Clemency" to Libby, in part, as follows:
Mr. Libby was sentenced to thirty months of prison, two years of probation, and a $250,000 fine. In making the sentencing decision, the district court rejected the advice of the probation office, which recommended a lesser sentence and the consideration of factors that could have led to a sentence of home confinement or probation.
Libby paid the required fine of "$250,400, which included a 'special assessment' of costs" that same day.
Bush's explanation was written by Fred F. Fielding, White House Counsel during the last two years of Bush's presidency. According to a Time article published six months after Bush left office, Fielding worded the commutation "in a way that would make it harder for Bush to revisit it in the future ... ; [the] language was intended to send an unmistakable message, internally as well as externally: No one is above the law." The article suggested that there was a fundamental difference between how Bush and Cheney viewed the "War on Terror", with aides close to Bush feeling that Cheney had misled the President and damaged the administration's moral character with the Plame leak.
Libby's lawyer, Theodore V. Wells, Jr. "issued a brief statement saying Mr. Libby and his family 'wished to express their gratitude for the president's decision ... We continue to believe in Mr. Libby's innocence'. ... "
Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, however, took issue with Bush's description of the sentence as 'excessive', saying it was "[i]mposed pursuant to the laws governing sentencings which occur every day throughout this country ... It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals ... [T]hat principle guided the judge during both the trial and the sentencing," Fitzgerald said.
The day after the commuting of Libby's sentence, James Rowley (Bloomberg News) reported that Bush had not ruled out pardoning Libby in the future and that Bush's press spokesman, Tony Snow, denied any political motivation in the commutation. Quoting Snow, Rowley added: The president is getting pounded on the right because he didn't do a full pardon.' If Bush were 'doing the weather-vane thing' he 'would have done something differently.
Democratic politicians' responses stressed their outrage at what they called a disgraceful abrogation of justice, and, that evening CNN reported that Representative John Conyers, Jr., Democrat of Michigan, announced that there would be a formal Congressional investigation of Bush's commutation of Libby's sentence and other presidential reprieves.
The hearing on "The Use and Misuse of Presidential Clemency Power for Executive Branch Officials" was held by the United States House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Conyers, on July 11, 2007.
Just a few days later, however, Judge Walton questioned "whether ... [Libby] will face two years of probation, as [President Bush] said he would," because the supervised release time is conditioned on Libby's serving the prison sentence, and he "directed the special prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, and ... [Libby's] lawyers to file arguments on the point. ... " "If Judge Walton does not impose any supervised release, it could undercut ... [Bush's] argument that ... Libby still faced stiff justice." That issue was resolved on July 10, 2007, clearing the way for Libby to begin serving the rest of his sentence, the supervised release and 400 hours of community service.
In response to Bush's justifications for clemency, liberal commentator Harlan J. Protass noted that in Rita v. United States, the case of a defendant convicted of perjury in front of a grand jury which had been decided two weeks earlier by the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. government had successfully argued that sentences that fall within Federal Sentencing Guidelines are presumed to be "reasonable", regardless of individual circumstances.
Reportedly outraged by Bush's commutation of Libby's prison sentence, on July 2, 2007, Wilson told CNN: "I have nothing to say to Scooter Libby ... I don't owe this administration. They owe my wife and my family an apology for having betrayed her. Scooter Libby is a traitor. Bush's action ... demonstrates that the White House is corrupt from top to bottom." He reiterated this perspective on the commutation in the House Judiciary Committee hearing on July 11, 2007, vehemently protesting that a Republican congressman was engaging in "yet a further smear of my wife's good name and my good name."
According to a USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted from July 6 to July 8, 2007, "most Americans disagree with President George W. Bush's decision to intervene" on Libby's behalf in the case.
Several months after Bush's action, Judge Walton commented publicly on it. He spoke in favor of applying the law equally, stating: "The downside [of the commutation] is there are a lot of people in America who think that justice is determined to a large degree by who you are and that what you have plays a large role in what kind of justice you receive. ... "
Bush took no further action with respect to Libby's conviction or sentence during his presidential term, despite entreaties from conservatives that he should be pardoned. Two days after their term expired, former Vice President Cheney expressed his regret that Bush had not pardoned Libby on his last day in office.
Press coverage of Libby's trial
Blogs played a prominent role in the press coverage of Libby's trial. Scott Shane, in his article "For Liberal Bloggers, Libby Trial Is Fun and Fodder", published in The New York Times on February 15, 2007, quotes Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, who wrote that the trial was "the first federal case for which independent bloggers have been given official credentials along with reporters from the traditional news media." The trial was followed in the mass media and engaged the interest of both professional legal experts and the general public. While awaiting the judge's ruling pertaining to supervised release and the "400 hours of community service that Judge Walton imposed", for example, bloggers discussed the legal issues involved in these non-commuted parts of Libby's sentence and their effects on Libby's future life experiences.
Criticism of investigation
On August 28, 2006, Christopher Hitchens asserted that Richard Armitage was the primary source of the Valerie Plame leak and that Fitzgerald knew this at the beginning of his investigation. This was supported a month later by Armitage himself, who stated that Fitzgerald had instructed him not to go public with this information. Investor's Business Daily questioned Fitzgerald's truthfulness in an editorial, stating "From top to bottom, this has been one of the most disgraceful abuses of prosecutorial power in this country's history ... The Plame case proves [Fitzgerald] can bend the truth with the proficiency of the slickest of pols."
In a September 2008 Wall Street Journal editorial, attorney Alan Dershowitz cited the "questionable investigation[s]" of Scooter Libby as evidence of the problems brought to the criminal justice process by "politically appointed and partisan attorney[s] general". In April 2015, also writing in The Wall Street Journal, Hoover Institution fellow Peter Berkowitz argued that statements by Judith Miller, in her recently published memoir, raised anew contentions that her testimony was inaccurate and that Fitzgerald's conduct as prosecutor was inappropriate.
The Wilsons' civil suit
On July 13, 2006, Joseph and Valerie Wilson filed a civil lawsuit against Libby, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and other unnamed senior White House officials (among whom they later added Richard Armitage) for their role in the public disclosure of Valerie Wilson's classified CIA status. Judge John D. Bates dismissed the Wilsons' lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds on July 19, 2007. The Wilsons appealed Bates's district-court decision the next day. Agreeing with the Bush administration, the Obama Justice Department argued that the Wilsons had no legitimate grounds to sue. Melanie Sloan, one of the Wilsons' attorneys, said: "We are deeply disappointed that the Obama administration has failed to recognize the grievous harm top Bush White House officials inflicted on Joe and Valerie Wilson. The government's position cannot be reconciled with President Obama's oft-stated commitment to once again make government officials accountable for their actions."
On June 21, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal.
Restoration of voting rights, law license, and presidential pardon
Libby's voting rights were restored on November 1, 2012 by then-Governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell. Libby was part of a larger group of individuals who had their voting rights restored by McDonnell, all of whom were non-violent offenders. Three years later, on November 3, 2016, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals granted Libby's petition for reinstatement to the D.C. Bar. On April 13, 2018, President Donald Trump pardoned Libby.
In media portrayals
David Andrews played Scooter Libby in the 2010 film Fair Game, which is about the Plame affair.
Justin Kirk played Libby in the 2018 film Vice.
See also
List of disbarments in the United States
Plame affair criminal investigation
Project for the New American Century
List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States
Notes
Citations
References
. United States Department of State, February 2005. Accessed July 8, 2007.
Bromell, Nick. "Scooter Libby and Me". The American Scholar (Phi Beta Kappa) (Winter 2007). Accessed June 8, 2007.
–––. "Scooter's Tragic Innocence: Why My Friend Scooter Libby Is Loyal to Bush, Cheney and an Arrogant Administration Whose Values Are Not His Own". Salon, January 24, 2007. Accessed June 8, 2007. (Premium content; restricted access).
Dickerson, John. "Who Is Scooter Libby? The Secretive Cheney Aide at the Heart of the CIA Leak Case". Slate, October 21, 2005. Accessed June 28, 2007.
Frankel, Max. "The Washington Back Channel". The New York Times, March 25, 2007. Accessed March 23, 2008.
Garfield, Bob. "'Former New York Times Staffer Judith Miller'". On the Media from NPR, National Public Radio, WCNY-FM, November 11, 2005. Accessed March 5, 2007. (Transcript and RealAudio link.)
"I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby". Right Web (International Relations Center). Last updated March 21, 2007. Accessed July 1, 2007.
"Indictment" in United States of America vs. I. Lewis Libby, also known as "Scooter Libby". United States Department of Justice, October 28, 2005. Accessed July 5, 2007.
Libby, Lewis. The Apprentice: A Novel. Rpt. ed. 1996; New York: Griffin, 2005. (10). (13).
Markels, Alex. "Legal Affairs: I. Lewis Libby: The Plight of a Disciplined Risk-Taker". National Public Radio, October 28, 2005. Accessed March 5, 2007.
Merritt, Jeralyn, moderator. "Verdict in the Libby Trial". Transcript. The Washington Post ("Live Online" discussion), March 6, 2007, 2:00–3:00 p.m., ET. Accessed March 6, 2007. (Duration: one hour.) N.B.: "Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties."
in "United States of America, v. I. Lewis Libby, Defendant". Criminal No. 05-394 (RBW). United States District Court for the District of Columbia, filed January 10, 2007. Accessed February 10, 2007. ["USA-v-Libby_Rules-of-Order.pdf".]
"President Commutes Libby's Sentence: Calls 30-month Term for Ex-Cheney Aide 'excessive'". Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, July 3, 2007. Accessed July 4, 2007.
. White House biography from 2004. Accessed February 10, 2007.
Waas, Murray. "Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Leak Classified Information". National Journal, February 9, 2006. Accessed March 6, 2007.
–––, ed., with Jeff Lomonaco. The United States v. I. Lewis Libby. New York: Union Square Press (imprint of Sterling Publishing), 2007. (10). (13). ("Edited & with reporting by Murray Waas" and with research assistance by Jeff Lomonaco.)
Weisman, Steven. "White House Is Pressing Israelis To Take Initiatives in Peace Talks". The New York Times, April 17, 2003. Accessed March 23, 2008.
Wilson, Joseph C. "Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson's Response to Bush Spokesman Tony Snow's Comments at Today's White House Briefing". Online posting. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), July 3, 2007. Accessed July 4, 2007. Online posting. "Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson's Response ... " and "Read more", Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust (Home page), n.d. Accessed July 8, 2007. (Concerning Bush's commutation of Libby's prison sentence.)
–––. "Statement in Response to Jury's Verdict in U.S. v. I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby" (now outdated URL). Press release. Originally posted online. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), March 6, 2007. Accessed March 6, 2007. Posted as "CREW Statement on Libby Conviction: No Man Is Above the Law." Citizens ^Blogging for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (blog), March 6, 2007. Accessed April 18, 2007. Also posted as "Wilsons' Attorney Statement in Response to Jury's Verdict in U.S. v. I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby". Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust, March 6, 2007, home page. Accessed April 18, 2007.
External links
Background on the Plame Investigation at The Washington Post.
CNN Special Reports: CIA Leak Investigation compiled by CNN Newsroom; incl. interactive timeline in Case History.
"Legal Affairs: Lewis Libby's Complete Grand Jury Testimony". Full audio clip and transcript provided by National Public Radio on npr.org,
"The Lewis Libby Case". Archive of articles concerning Libby broadcast on National Public Radio.
.
United States v. I. Lewis Libby. Photo gallery with news captions at The Washington Post.
Membership at the Council on Foreign Relations
1950 births
Jewish American attorneys
Assistants to the President of the United States
Chiefs of Staff to the Vice President of the United States
Columbia Law School alumni
Columbia University alumni
Living people
Members of the Council on Foreign Relations
Pennsylvania Democrats
Pennsylvania Republicans
People associated with the Plame affair
People from McLean, Virginia
Lawyers from New Haven, Connecticut
Lawyers from Philadelphia
Phillips Academy alumni
Reagan administration personnel
Recipients of American presidential clemency
Recipients of American presidential pardons
Yale University alumni
Hudson Institute
Conservatism in the United States | false | [
"Irene Haschke (born 16 February 1921) was a German SS camp guard within the Nazi concentration camp system during World War II, notably, at the Bergen-Belsen camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. She was born in Friedeberg, Neumark in what is now Poland.\n\nConcentration camp service and post-war trial\nHaschke worked in a textile factory until 16 August 1944, when she was recruited by the Schutzstaffel, more commonly known as the SS, and sent to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp for five weeks for training as a guard, or Aufseherin.\n\nShe was transferred to the Mährisch-Weißwasser camp, at Bílá Voda in the Sudetenland, for three weeks as SS Aufseherin. Later she returned to the textile factory for a time but was removed on 15 February 1945 and sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, arriving on 28 February 1945.\n\nShe was captured by the British Army on 15 April 1945 and ordered to bury the dead. On 17 September 1945 she was brought to trial by the British in the Bergen-Belsen trial, where the Court accused Josef Kramer and another 44 people, who worked in Auschwitz and Belsen, of war crimes. This trial was held at 30 Lindenstraße (Lime Street), in Lunenburg. On 17 November 1945 she was convicted and sentenced to 10 years for her participation in these crimes and was released on 21 December 1951, having only served five years.\n\nReferences\n\n1921 births\nPossibly living people\nFemale guards in Nazi concentration camps\nBergen-Belsen concentration camp personnel\nBelsen trial",
"William Purves (4 July 1888 – 18 September 1964) was a Scotland international rugby union player.\n\nRugby Union career\n\nAmateur career\n\nHe played for Cambridge University.\n\nHe played for London Scottish.\n\nProvincial career\n\nHe played for Anglo-Scots district against Provinces District on 26 December 1908, while still with Cambridge University.\n\nHe played for Whites Trial against Blues Trial on 6 January 1912.\n\nHe played for Blues Trial against Whites Trial on 18 January 1913.\n\nInternational career\n\nHe was capped six times for between 1912 and 1913.\n\nFamily\n\nHe was the brother of Alex Purves who was also capped for Scotland.\n\nReferences\n\nSources\n\n Bath, Richard (ed.) The Scotland Rugby Miscellany (Vision Sports Publishing Ltd, 2007 )\n\n1888 births\n1964 deaths\nScottish rugby union players\nScotland international rugby union players\nLondon Scottish F.C. players\nWhites Trial players\nBlues Trial players\nRugby union players from London\nScottish Exiles (rugby union) players\nCambridge University R.U.F.C. players"
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"Scooter Libby",
"Trial, conviction, and sentencing",
"What was he on trial for?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_9b3f2d9b78904bdd9a4dc0f6fa76ef2c_0 | When was the trial? | 2 | When was the trial? | Scooter Libby | On March 6, 2007, the jury convicted him on four of the five counts but acquitted him on count three, the second charge of making false statements when interviewed by federal agents about his conversations with Time reporter Matthew Cooper. After being questioned by the FBI in the fall of 2003 and testifying before a Federal grand jury on March 5, 2004, and again on March 24, 2004, Libby pleaded not guilty to all five counts. According to the Associated Press, David Addington, Cheney's legal counsel, described a September 2003 meeting with Libby around the time that a criminal investigation began, saying that Libby had told him, "'I just want to tell you, I didn't do it'... I didn't ask what the 'it' was.'" Libby retained attorney Ted Wells of the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to represent him. Wells had successfully defended former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy against a 30-count indictment and had also participated in the successful defense of former Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan. After Judge Reggie Walton denied Libby's motion to dismiss, the press initially reported that Libby would testify at the trial. Libby's criminal trial, United States v. Libby, began on January 16, 2007. A parade of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists testified, including Bob Woodward, Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post and Judith Miller and David E. Sanger of The New York Times. Despite earlier press reports and widespread speculation, neither Libby nor Vice President Cheney testified. The jury began deliberations on February 21, 2007. CANNOTANSWER | United States v. Libby, began on January 16, 2007. | I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby (first name generally given as Irv, Irve or Irving; born August 22, 1950) is an American lawyer, and former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.
From 2001 to 2005, Libby held the offices of Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs, Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States, and Assistant to the President during the administration of President George W. Bush.
In October 2005, Libby resigned from all three government positions after he was indicted on five counts by a federal grand jury concerning the investigation of the leak of the covert identity of Central Intelligence Agency officer Valerie Plame Wilson. He was subsequently convicted of four counts (one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury, and one count of making false statements), making him the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since John Poindexter, the national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan in the Iran–Contra affair.
After a failed appeal, President Bush commuted Libby's sentence of 30 months in federal prison, leaving the other parts of his sentence intact. As a consequence of his conviction in United States v. Libby, Libby's license to practice law was suspended until being reinstated in 2016. President Donald Trump fully pardoned Libby on April 13, 2018.
Personal history
Background and education
Libby was born to an affluent Jewish family in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, Irving Lewis Leibovitz, was an investment banker. His father changed his family original surname from Leibovitz to Libby.
Libby graduated from the Eaglebrook School, in Deerfield, Massachusetts, a junior boarding school, in 1965. The family lived in the Washington, D.C. region; Miami, Florida; and Connecticut prior to Libby's graduation from Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1968.
He and his elder brother, Hank, a retired tax lawyer, were the first in the family to graduate from college. Libby attended Yale University in New Haven, graduating magna cum laude in 1972. As Yale Daily News reporter Jack Mirkinson observes, "Even though he would eventually become a prominent Republican, Libby's political beginnings would not have pointed in that direction. He served as vice president of the Yale College Democrats and later campaigned for Michael Dukakis when he was running for governor of Massachusetts." According to Mirkinson: "Two particular Yale courses helped guide Libby's future endeavors. One of these was a creative writing course, which started Libby on a 20-year mission to complete a novel ... [later published as] The Apprentice ... [and] a political science class with professor and future Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. In an interview with author James Mann, Libby said Wolfowitz was one of his favorite professors, and their professional relationship did not end with the class." Wolfowitz became a significant mentor in his later professional life.
In 1975, as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, Libby received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Columbia Law School.
Marriage and family
Libby is married to Harriet Grant, whom he met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the late 1980s, while he was a partner and she an associate in the law firm then known as Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin: When he and Harriet became serious,' Dickstein partner Kenneth Simon wrote, 'she chose to leave the firm rather than maintain the awkward situation of an associate dating a partner. Libby and Grant married in the early 1990s, have a son and a daughter, and live in McLean, Virginia.
Name
Libby has been secretive about his full name. He was prosecuted as I. Lewis Libby, also known as "Scooter Libby". National Public Radio's Day to Day reported that the 1972 Yale Banner (the yearbook of Yale) gave his name as Irve Lewis Libby Jr.; it is unclear if Irve is his given name, or if it is short for Irving, as it was for his father. CBS, the BBC, and The New York Timess John Tierney have all used this spelling of his first name. The Timess Eric Schmitt spelled it Irv, though he cited a phone interview with Libby's brother, and did not clarify if he had asked for a spelling.
At times, including in the Yale Banner, and as documented in a federal directory cited by Ron Kampeas and others, Libby has used the suffix Jr. after his name. At other times, however, as listed in his federal indictment and United States v. Libby, which give his alias as Scooter Libby, there is no Jr. after Libby's name. The Columbia Alumni Association online directory lists him as I. Lewis Libby, with a first name of "I." and birth first name of "Irve".
Libby has also been secretive about the origin of his nickname Scooter. The New York Timess Eric Schmitt, citing the aforementioned interview with Libby's brother, wrote that "His nickname 'Scooter' derives from the day [his] father watched him crawling in his crib and joked, 'He's a Scooter! In a February 2002 interview on Larry King Live, King asked Libby specifically, "Where did 'Scooter' come from?"; Libby replied: "Oh, it goes way back to when I was a kid. Some people ask me if ... [crosstalk] ... as you did earlier, if it's related to Phil Rizzuto [nicknamed 'The Scooter']. I had the range but not the arm."
The Apprentice
Libby's only novel, The Apprentice, about a group of travelers stranded in northern Japan in the winter of 1903, during a smallpox epidemic in the run-up to the Russo-Japanese War, was first published in a hardback edition by Graywolf Press in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1996, and reprinted as a trade paperback by St. Martin's Thomas Dunne Books in 2002. After Libby's indictment in the CIA leak grand jury investigation in 2005, St. Martin's Press reissued The Apprentice as a mass market paperback (Griffin imprint). An allegorical meditation on the legitimacy of concealed knowledge, The Apprentice has been described as "a thriller ... that includes references to bestiality, pedophilia and rape."
Law career
After earning his J.D. from Columbia in 1975, Libby joined the firm of Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis LLP. He was admitted to the bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on October 27, 1976, and to the Bar of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals on May 19, 1978.
Libby practiced law at Schnader for six years before joining the U.S. State Department policy planning staff, at the invitation of his former Yale professor, Paul Wolfowitz, in 1981. In 1985, returning to private practice, he joined the firm then known as Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin (now Dickstein Shapiro LLP), becoming a partner in 1986 and working there until 1989, when he left to work in the U.S. Defense Department, again under his former Yale professor Paul Wolfowitz, until January 1993.
In 1993, returning to private legal practice from government, Libby became the managing partner of the Washington, D.C. office of Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander & Ferdon (formerly Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, and Alexander); in 1995, along with his Mudge Rose colleague, Leonard Garment––who had replaced John Dean as acting Special Counsel to U.S. President Richard Nixon for the last two years of his presidency dominated by Watergate, and who had hired Libby at Mudge Rose twenty years later––and three other lawyers from that firm, Libby joined the Washington, D.C. office of Dechert Price & Rhoads (now part of Dechert LLP), where he was a managing partner, a member of its litigation department, and chaired its Public Policy Practice Group. His work there was well regarded, with President Clinton recognizing Libby as one of three "distinguished Republican lawyers" who worked on the Marc Rich pardon case.
In 2001 Libby left the firm to return to work again in government, as Vice President Cheney's chief of staff.
Fugitive billionaire commodities trader Marc Rich, who, along with his business partner Pincus Green, had been indicted of tax evasion and illegal trading with Iran, and who, with Green, was ultimately pardoned by President Bill Clinton, was a client whom Leonard Garment had hired Libby to help represent around the spring of 1985, after Rich and Green had first engaged Garment. Libby stopped representing Rich in the spring of 2000; early in March 2001, at a "contentious" Congressional hearing to review Clinton's pardons, Libby testified that he thought the prosecution's case against Rich "misconstrued the facts and the law". According to Jackson Hogan, Libby's roommate at Yale University, as quoted in the already-cited U.S. News & World Report article by Walsh, He is intensely partisan ... in that if he is your counsel, he'll embrace your case and try to figure a way out of whatever noose you are ensnared in. According to a House Committee on Government Reform report, however, "The arguments made by Garment, [William Bradford] Reynolds and Libby [in their testimony] focused on the claim that the SDNY was criminalizing what should have been a civil tax case. They did not make, compile, or in any other way lay the groundwork for, or make a case for a Presidential pardon. When former President Clinton stated that they 'reviewed and advocated' 'the case for the pardons,' he suggested that they were somehow involved in arguing that Rich and Green should receive pardons. This was completely untrue". (p. 162)
Bar suspension and disbarment
Before his indictment in United States v. Libby, Libby had been a licensed lawyer, admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, although his Pennsylvania law license was inactive, and he had already been suspended from the Washington, D.C. Office of Bar Counsel (D.C. Bar) for non-payment of fees. The Chief Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals recommended disbarment upon confirmation of his conviction, which Libby had initially indicated that he would appeal. Having suspended his license to practice law on April 3, 2007, the D.C. Bar "disbarred [him] pursuant to D.C. Code § 11-2503(a)" on legal grounds of "moral turpitude", effective April 11, 2007, and recommended to the D.C. Court of Appeals his disbarment if his conviction were not overturned on appeal. On December 10, 2007, Libby's lawyers announced his decision "to drop his appeal of his conviction in the CIA leak case". On March 20, 2008, following the dropping of his appeal of his conviction, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals disbarred Libby. As a result of the Court's ruling, "Libby will lose his license to practice or appear in court in Washington until at least 2012", and, "As is standard, he will probably lose any bar membership he holds in other states"; that is, in Pennsylvania.
Government public service and political career
In 1981, after working as a lawyer in the Philadelphia firm Schnader LLP, Libby accepted the invitation of his former Yale University political science professor and mentor Paul Wolfowitz to join the U.S. State Department's policy planning staff. From 1982 to 1985, Libby served as director of special projects in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. In 1985 he received the Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service from the United States Department of Defense, and he resigned from government to enter private legal practice at Dickstein, Shapiro, and Morin. In 1989, he went to work at the Pentagon, again under Wolfowitz, as principal deputy under-secretary for strategy and resources at the U.S. Defense Department.
During the George H. W. Bush administration, Libby was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as deputy under secretary of defense for policy, serving from 1992 to 1993. In 1992 he also served as legal adviser for the House Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China. Libby co-authored the draft of the Defense Planning Guidance for the 1994–99 fiscal years (dated February 18, 1992) with Wolfowitz for Dick Cheney, who was then Secretary of Defense. In 1993 Libby received the Distinguished Service Award from the U.S. Defense Department and the Distinguished Public Service Award from the U.S. State Department before resuming private legal practice first at Mudge Rose and then at Dechert.
Libby was part of a network of neo-conservatives known as the "Vulcans"—its other members included Wolfowitz, Condoleezza Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld. While he was still a managing partner of Dechert Price & Rhoads, he was a signatory to the "Statement of Principles" of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) (a document dated June 3, 1997). He joined Wolfowitz, PNAC co-founders William Kristol, Robert Kagan, and other "Project Participants" in developing the PNAC's September 2000 report entitled, "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces, and Resources for a New Century".
After becoming Cheney's chief of staff in 2001, Libby was reportedly nicknamed "Germ Boy" at the White House, for insisting on universal smallpox vaccination. He was also nicknamed "Dick Cheney's Dick Cheney" for his close working relationship with the Vice President. Mary Matalin, who worked with Libby as an adviser to Cheney during Bush's first term, said of him "He is to the vice president what the vice president is to the president."
Libby was active in the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee of the Pentagon when it was chaired by Richard Perle during the early years of the George W. Bush administration (2001–2003). At various points in his career, Libby has also held positions with the American Bar Association, been on the advisory board of the RAND Corporation's Center for Russia and Eurasia, and been a legal adviser to the United States House of Representatives, as well as served as a consultant for the defense contractor Northrop Grumman.
Libby was also actively involved in the Bush administration's efforts to negotiate the Israeli–Palestinian "road map" for peace; for example, he participated in a series of meetings with Jewish leaders in early December 2002 and a meeting with two aides of then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in mid-April 2003, culminating in the Red Sea Summit on June 4, 2004. In their highly controversial and widely contested "Working Paper" entitled "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy", University of Chicago political science professor John J. Mearsheimer and academic dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University Stephen M. Walt argue that Libby was among the Bush administration's most "fervently pro-Israel ... officials" (20).
Awards for government service
Distinguished Service Award, United States Department of Defense, 1993
Distinguished Public Service Award, United States Department of the Navy, 1993
Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service, United States Department of State, 1985
Subsequent work experience
From January 2006 until March 7, 2007, the day after his conviction in United States v. Libby, when he resigned, Libby served as a "senior adviser" at the Hudson Institute, to "focus on issues relating to the War on Terror and the future of Asia ... offer research guidance and ... advise the institute in strategic planning." His resignation was announced by the Hudson Institute in a press release dated March 8, 2007. However, he has served as Senior Vice President of the Hudson Institute at least since 2010.
Libby also serves as a member of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense, a group that encourages and advocates changes to government policy to strengthen national biodefense. In order to address biological threats facing the nation, the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense created a 33 step initiative for the U.S. Government to implement. Headed by former Senator Joe Lieberman and former Governor Tom Ridge, the Study Panel assembled in Washington D.C. for four meetings concerning current biodefense programs. The Study Panel concluded that the federal government had little to no defense mechanisms in case of a biological event. The Study Panel's final report, The National Blueprint for Biodefense, proposes a string of solutions and recommendations for the U.S. Government to take, including items such as giving the Vice President authority over biodefense responsibilities and merging the entire biodefense budget. These solutions represent the Panel's call to action in order to increase awareness and activity for pandemic related issues.
Involvement in the Plame affair
Between 2003 and 2005, intense speculation centered on the possibility that Libby may have been the administration official who had "leaked" classified employment information about Valerie Plame, a covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent and the wife of Iraq War critic Joseph C. Wilson, to New York Times reporter Judith Miller and other reporters and later tried to hide his having done so.
In August 2005, as revealed in grand jury testimony audiotapes played during the trial and reported in many news accounts, Libby testified that he met with Judith Miller, a reporter with The New York Times, on July 8, 2003, and discussed Plame with her.
Although Libby signed a "blanket waiver" allowing journalists to discuss their conversations with him pursuant to the CIA leak grand jury investigation, Miller maintained that such a waiver did not serve to allow her to reveal her source to that grand jury; moreover, Miller argued that Libby's general waiver pertaining to all journalists could have been coerced and that she would only testify before that grand jury if given an individual waiver.
After refusing to testify about her July 2003 meeting with Libby, Judith Miller was jailed on July 7, 2005, for contempt of court. Months later, however, her new attorney, Robert Bennett, told her that she already had possessed a written, voluntary waiver from Libby all along. After Miller had served most of her sentence, Libby reiterated that he had indeed given her a "waiver" both "voluntarily and personally." He attached the following letter, which, when released publicly, became the subject of further speculation about Libby's possible motives in sending it:
As noted above, my lawyer confirmed my waiver to other reporters in just the way he did with your lawyer. Why? Because as I am sure will not be news to you, the public report of every other reporter's testimony makes clear that they did not discuss Ms. Plame's name or identity with me, or knew about her before our call.
After agreeing to testify, Miller was released on September 29, 2005, appearing before the grand jury the next day, but the charge against her was rescinded only after she testified again on October 12, 2005. For her second grand jury appearance, Miller produced a notebook from a previously undisclosed meeting with Libby on June 23, 2003, two weeks before Wilson's New York Times op-ed was published. In her account published in the Times on October 16, 2005, based on her notes, Miller reports:
... in an interview with me on June 23 [2003], Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, discussed Mr. Wilson's activities and placed blame for intelligence failures on the CIA. In later conversations with me, on July 8 and July 12 [2003], Mr. Libby, ... [at the time] Mr. Cheney's top aide, played down the importance of Mr. Wilson's mission and questioned his performance ... My notes indicate that well before Mr. Wilson published his critique, Mr. Libby told me that Mr. Wilson's wife may have worked on unconventional weapons at the CIA. ... My notes do not show that Mr. Libby identified Mr. Wilson's wife by name. Nor do they show that he described Valerie Wilson as a covert agent or "operative"...
Her notation on her July 8, 2003 meeting with Libby does contain the name "Valerie Flame ", which she added retrospectively. While Miller reveals publicly that she herself had misidentified the last name of Wilson's wife (aka "Valerie Plame") in her own marginal notes on their interview as "Flame" instead of "Plame", in her grand jury (and later trial testimony), she remained uncertain when, how, and why she arrived at that name and did not attribute it to Libby:
I was not permitted to take notes of what I told the grand jury, and my interview notes on Mr. Libby are sketchy in places. It is also difficult, more than two years later, to parse the meaning and context of phrases, of underlining and of parentheses. On one page of my interview notes, for example, I wrote the name "Valerie Flame." Yet, as I told Mr. Fitzgerald, I simply could not recall where that came from, when I wrote it or why the name was misspelled ... I testified that I did not believe the name came from Mr. Libby, in part because the notation does not appear in the same part of my notebook as the interview notes from him.
A year and a half later, a jury convicted Libby of obstruction of justice and perjury in his grand jury testimony and making false statements to federal investigators about when and how he learned that Plame was a CIA agent.
On April 13, 2018, Libby was pardoned by US President Donald Trump.
Indictment and resignation
On October 28, 2005, as a result of the CIA leak grand jury investigation, Special Counsel Fitzgerald indicted Libby on five counts: one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of making false statements when interviewed by agents of the FBI, and two counts of perjury in his testimony before the grand jury. Pursuant to the grand jury investigation, Libby had told FBI investigators that he first heard of Mrs. Wilson's CIA employment from Cheney, and then later heard it from journalist Tim Russert, and acted as if he did not have that information. The indictment alleges that statements to federal investigators and the grand jury were intentionally false, in that Libby had numerous conversations about Mrs. Wilson's CIA employment, including his conversations with Judith Miller (see above), before speaking to Russert; Russert did not tell Libby about Mrs. Wilson's CIA employment; prior to talking with such reporters, Libby knew with certainty that she was employed by the CIA; and Libby told reporters that she worked for the CIA without making any disclaimer that he was uncertain of that fact. The false statements counts in the Libby indictment charge that he intentionally made those false statements to the FBI; the perjury counts charge that he intentionally lied to the grand jury in repeating those false statements; and the obstruction of justice count charges that Libby intentionally made those false statements in order to mislead the grand jury, thus impeding Fitzgerald's grand jury investigation of the truth about the leaking of Mrs. Wilson's then-classified, covert CIA identity.
Trial, conviction, and sentencing
On March 6, 2007, the jury convicted him on four of the five counts: obstruction of justice, one count of making false statements when interviewed by agents of the FBI, and two counts of perjury. They acquitted him on count three, the second charge of making false statements when interviewed by federal agents about his conversations with Time reporter Matthew Cooper.
Libby retained attorney Ted Wells of the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to represent him. Wells had successfully defended former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy against a 30-count indictment and had also participated in the successful defense of former Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan.
After Judge Reggie Walton denied Libby's motion to dismiss, the press initially reported that Libby would testify at the trial. Libby's criminal trial, United States v. Libby, began on January 16, 2007. A parade of Pulitzer Prize–winning journalists testified, including Bob Woodward, Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post and Judith Miller and David E. Sanger of The New York Times. Despite earlier press reports and widespread speculation, neither Libby nor Vice President Cheney testified. The jury began deliberations on February 21, 2007.
Verdict
After deliberating for 10 days, the jury rendered its verdict on March 6, 2007. It convicted Libby on four of the five counts against him: two counts of perjury, one count of obstruction of justice in a grand jury investigation, and one of the two counts of making false statements to federal investigators.
After the verdict, initially, Libby's lawyers announced that he would seek a new trial, and that, if that attempt were to fail, they would appeal Libby's conviction. Libby did not speak to reporters. Libby's defense team eventually decided against seeking a new trial.
Speaking to the media outside the courtroom after the verdict, Fitzgerald said that "The jury worked very long and hard and deliberated at length ... [and] was obviously convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had lied and obstructed justice in a serious manner ... I do not expect to file any further charges." The trial confirmed that the leak came first from then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage; since Fitzgerald did not charge Armitage and did not charge anyone else, Libby's conviction effectively ended the investigation.
In his October 28, 2005, press conference about the grand jury's indictment, Fitzgerald had already explained that Libby's obstruction of justice through perjury and false statements had prevented the grand jury from determining whether the leak violated federal law.
During his media appearance outside the courtroom after the verdict in the Libby case, Fitzgerald fielded questions from the press about others involved in the Plame affair and in the CIA leak grand jury investigation, such as Armitage and Cheney, whom he had already described as under "a cloud", as already addressed in his conduct of the case and in his closing arguments in court.
Sentencing
Given current federal sentencing guidelines, which are not mandatory, the conviction could have resulted in a sentence ranging from no imprisonment to imprisonment of up to 25 years and a fine of $1,000,000; yet, as Sniffen and Apuzzo observe, "federal sentencing guidelines will probably prescribe far less." In practice, according to federal sentencing data, three-fourths of the 198 defendants found guilty of obstruction of justice in 2006 served jail time. The average length of jail time on this charge alone was 70 months.
On June 5, 2007, Judge Walton sentenced Libby to 30 months in prison and fined him $250,000, clarifying that Libby would begin his sentence immediately. According to Apuzzo and Yost, the judge also "placed him on two years probation after his prison sentence expires. There is no parole in the federal system, but Libby would be eligible for release after two years." In addition, Judge Walton required Libby to provide "400 hours of community service" during his supervised release. On June 5, 2007, after the announcement of Libby's sentencing, CNN reported that Libby still "plans to appeal the verdict".
That day, in response to the sentencing, Vice President Cheney issued a statement in Libby's defense on The White House website. The statement concluded: "Speaking as friends, we hope that our system will return a final result consistent with what we know of this fine man."
Joseph and Valerie Wilson posted their statement on Libby's sentencing in United States v. Libby on their website, "grateful that justice has been served."
Order to report to prison pending appeal of verdict
After the June 5 sentencing, Walton said he was inclined to jail Libby after the defense laid out its proposed appeal, but the judge told attorneys he was open to changing his mind"; however, on June 14, 2007, Walton ordered Libby to report to prison while his attorneys appealed the conviction. Libby's attorneys asked that the order be stayed, but Walton denied the request and told Libby that he would have 10 days to appeal the ruling. In denying Libby's request, which had questioned Fitzgerald's authority to make the charges in the first place, Walton supported Fitzgerald's authority in the case. He said: "Everyone is accountable, and if you work in the White House, and if it's perceived that somehow (you're) linked at the hip, the American public would have serious questions about the fairness of any investigation of a high-level official conducted by the attorney general." The judge was also responding to an Amicus curiae brief that he had permitted to be filed, which had not apparently convinced him to change his mind, as he subsequently denied Libby bail during his appeal. His "order grant[ing] the [legal academic] scholars permission to file their brief ..." contained a caustic footnote questioning the motivation of the legal academics and suggesting he might not give a great deal of weight to their opinion[:]
... It is an impressive show of public service when twelve prominent and distinguished current and former law professors are able to amass their collective wisdom in the course of only several days to provide their legal expertise to the court on behalf of a criminal defendant. The Court trusts that this is a reflection of these eminent academics' willingness in the future to step to the plate and provide like assistance in cases involving any of the numerous litigants, both in this Court and throughout the courts of this nation, who lack the financial means to fully and properly articulate the merits of their legal positions even in instances where failure to do so could result in monetary penalties, incarceration, or worse. The Court will certainly not hesitate to call for such assistance from these luminaries, as necessary in the interests of justice and equity, whenever similar questions arise in the cases that come before it."
Moreover, when the hearing started, "in the interest of full disclosure," Walton informed the court that he had "received a number of harassing, angry and mean-spirited phone calls and messages. Some wishing bad things on me and my family ... [T]hose types of things will have no impact ... I initially threw them away, but then there were more, some that were more hateful ... [T]hey are being kept."
New York Times reporters Neil Lewis and David Stout estimated subsequently that Libby's prison sentence could begin within "two months", explaining that
Judge Walton's decision means that the defense lawyers will probably ask a federal appeals court to block the sentence, a long-shot move. It also sharpens interest in a question being asked by Mr. Libby's supporters and critics alike: Will President Bush pardon Mr. Libby? ... So far, the president has expressed sympathy for Mr. Libby and his family but has not tipped his hand on the pardon issue. ... If the president does not pardon him, and if an appeals court refuses to second-guess Judge Walton's decision, Mr. Libby will probably be ordered to report to prison in six to eight weeks' time. Federal prison authorities will decide where. "Unless the Court of Appeals overturns my ruling, he will have to report", Judge Walton said.
Failure of Libby's appeal in order to begin prison sentence
On June 20, 2007, Libby appealed Walton's ruling in federal appeals court. The following day, Walton filed a 30-page expanded ruling, in which he explained his decision to deny Libby bail in more detail.
On July 2, 2007, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied Libby's request for a delay and release from his prison sentence, stating that Libby "has not shown that the appeal raises a substantial question under federal law that would merit letting him remain free," increasing "pressure on President George W. Bush to decide soon whether to pardon Libby ... as the former White House official's supporters have urged."
Presidential commutation
Soon after the verdict, calls for Libby to be pardoned by President George W. Bush began to appear in some newspapers; some of them were posted online by the Libby Legal Defense Trust (LLDT). U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid issued a press release about the verdict, urging Bush to pledge not to pardon Libby, and other Democratic politicians followed his lead.
Surveying "the pardon battle" and citing both pro and con publications, The Washington Post online columnist Dan Froomkin concludes that many U.S. newspapers opposed a presidential pardon for Libby. Much of this commentary obscured the fact that the clemency power provided the President with several options short of a full, unconditional pardon. In an op-ed published in The Washington Post, former federal prosecutor and conservative activist William Otis argued the sentence was too stringent and that, instead of pardoning Libby, Bush should commute his sentence.
After the sentencing, Bush stated on camera that he would "not intervene until Libby's legal team has exhausted all of its avenues of appeal ... It wouldn't be appropriate for me to discuss the case until after the legal remedies have run its course." Ultimately, less than a month later, on July 2, 2007, Bush chose Otis's 'third option' — "neither prison nor pardon" — in commuting Libby's prison sentence.
After Libby was denied bail during his appeal process on July 2, 2007, Bush commuted Libby's 30-month federal prison sentence, calling it "excessive", but he did not change the other parts of the sentence and their conditions. That presidential commutation left in place the felony conviction, the $250,000 fine, and the terms of probation. Some have criticized the move, as presidential commutations are rarely issued, but when granted they have generally occurred after the convicted person has already served a substantial portion of his or her sentence: "We can't find any cases, certainly in the last half-century, where the president commuted a sentence before it had even started to be served," said former Justice Department pardon attorney Margaret Colgate Love. Others, notably Cheney himself who argued that Libby was unfairly charged by a politically motivated prosecution, believed that the commutation fell short, as Libby would likely never practice law again.
At the time, Bush explained his "Grant of Executive Clemency" to Libby, in part, as follows:
Mr. Libby was sentenced to thirty months of prison, two years of probation, and a $250,000 fine. In making the sentencing decision, the district court rejected the advice of the probation office, which recommended a lesser sentence and the consideration of factors that could have led to a sentence of home confinement or probation.
Libby paid the required fine of "$250,400, which included a 'special assessment' of costs" that same day.
Bush's explanation was written by Fred F. Fielding, White House Counsel during the last two years of Bush's presidency. According to a Time article published six months after Bush left office, Fielding worded the commutation "in a way that would make it harder for Bush to revisit it in the future ... ; [the] language was intended to send an unmistakable message, internally as well as externally: No one is above the law." The article suggested that there was a fundamental difference between how Bush and Cheney viewed the "War on Terror", with aides close to Bush feeling that Cheney had misled the President and damaged the administration's moral character with the Plame leak.
Libby's lawyer, Theodore V. Wells, Jr. "issued a brief statement saying Mr. Libby and his family 'wished to express their gratitude for the president's decision ... We continue to believe in Mr. Libby's innocence'. ... "
Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, however, took issue with Bush's description of the sentence as 'excessive', saying it was "[i]mposed pursuant to the laws governing sentencings which occur every day throughout this country ... It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals ... [T]hat principle guided the judge during both the trial and the sentencing," Fitzgerald said.
The day after the commuting of Libby's sentence, James Rowley (Bloomberg News) reported that Bush had not ruled out pardoning Libby in the future and that Bush's press spokesman, Tony Snow, denied any political motivation in the commutation. Quoting Snow, Rowley added: The president is getting pounded on the right because he didn't do a full pardon.' If Bush were 'doing the weather-vane thing' he 'would have done something differently.
Democratic politicians' responses stressed their outrage at what they called a disgraceful abrogation of justice, and, that evening CNN reported that Representative John Conyers, Jr., Democrat of Michigan, announced that there would be a formal Congressional investigation of Bush's commutation of Libby's sentence and other presidential reprieves.
The hearing on "The Use and Misuse of Presidential Clemency Power for Executive Branch Officials" was held by the United States House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Conyers, on July 11, 2007.
Just a few days later, however, Judge Walton questioned "whether ... [Libby] will face two years of probation, as [President Bush] said he would," because the supervised release time is conditioned on Libby's serving the prison sentence, and he "directed the special prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, and ... [Libby's] lawyers to file arguments on the point. ... " "If Judge Walton does not impose any supervised release, it could undercut ... [Bush's] argument that ... Libby still faced stiff justice." That issue was resolved on July 10, 2007, clearing the way for Libby to begin serving the rest of his sentence, the supervised release and 400 hours of community service.
In response to Bush's justifications for clemency, liberal commentator Harlan J. Protass noted that in Rita v. United States, the case of a defendant convicted of perjury in front of a grand jury which had been decided two weeks earlier by the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. government had successfully argued that sentences that fall within Federal Sentencing Guidelines are presumed to be "reasonable", regardless of individual circumstances.
Reportedly outraged by Bush's commutation of Libby's prison sentence, on July 2, 2007, Wilson told CNN: "I have nothing to say to Scooter Libby ... I don't owe this administration. They owe my wife and my family an apology for having betrayed her. Scooter Libby is a traitor. Bush's action ... demonstrates that the White House is corrupt from top to bottom." He reiterated this perspective on the commutation in the House Judiciary Committee hearing on July 11, 2007, vehemently protesting that a Republican congressman was engaging in "yet a further smear of my wife's good name and my good name."
According to a USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted from July 6 to July 8, 2007, "most Americans disagree with President George W. Bush's decision to intervene" on Libby's behalf in the case.
Several months after Bush's action, Judge Walton commented publicly on it. He spoke in favor of applying the law equally, stating: "The downside [of the commutation] is there are a lot of people in America who think that justice is determined to a large degree by who you are and that what you have plays a large role in what kind of justice you receive. ... "
Bush took no further action with respect to Libby's conviction or sentence during his presidential term, despite entreaties from conservatives that he should be pardoned. Two days after their term expired, former Vice President Cheney expressed his regret that Bush had not pardoned Libby on his last day in office.
Press coverage of Libby's trial
Blogs played a prominent role in the press coverage of Libby's trial. Scott Shane, in his article "For Liberal Bloggers, Libby Trial Is Fun and Fodder", published in The New York Times on February 15, 2007, quotes Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, who wrote that the trial was "the first federal case for which independent bloggers have been given official credentials along with reporters from the traditional news media." The trial was followed in the mass media and engaged the interest of both professional legal experts and the general public. While awaiting the judge's ruling pertaining to supervised release and the "400 hours of community service that Judge Walton imposed", for example, bloggers discussed the legal issues involved in these non-commuted parts of Libby's sentence and their effects on Libby's future life experiences.
Criticism of investigation
On August 28, 2006, Christopher Hitchens asserted that Richard Armitage was the primary source of the Valerie Plame leak and that Fitzgerald knew this at the beginning of his investigation. This was supported a month later by Armitage himself, who stated that Fitzgerald had instructed him not to go public with this information. Investor's Business Daily questioned Fitzgerald's truthfulness in an editorial, stating "From top to bottom, this has been one of the most disgraceful abuses of prosecutorial power in this country's history ... The Plame case proves [Fitzgerald] can bend the truth with the proficiency of the slickest of pols."
In a September 2008 Wall Street Journal editorial, attorney Alan Dershowitz cited the "questionable investigation[s]" of Scooter Libby as evidence of the problems brought to the criminal justice process by "politically appointed and partisan attorney[s] general". In April 2015, also writing in The Wall Street Journal, Hoover Institution fellow Peter Berkowitz argued that statements by Judith Miller, in her recently published memoir, raised anew contentions that her testimony was inaccurate and that Fitzgerald's conduct as prosecutor was inappropriate.
The Wilsons' civil suit
On July 13, 2006, Joseph and Valerie Wilson filed a civil lawsuit against Libby, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and other unnamed senior White House officials (among whom they later added Richard Armitage) for their role in the public disclosure of Valerie Wilson's classified CIA status. Judge John D. Bates dismissed the Wilsons' lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds on July 19, 2007. The Wilsons appealed Bates's district-court decision the next day. Agreeing with the Bush administration, the Obama Justice Department argued that the Wilsons had no legitimate grounds to sue. Melanie Sloan, one of the Wilsons' attorneys, said: "We are deeply disappointed that the Obama administration has failed to recognize the grievous harm top Bush White House officials inflicted on Joe and Valerie Wilson. The government's position cannot be reconciled with President Obama's oft-stated commitment to once again make government officials accountable for their actions."
On June 21, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal.
Restoration of voting rights, law license, and presidential pardon
Libby's voting rights were restored on November 1, 2012 by then-Governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell. Libby was part of a larger group of individuals who had their voting rights restored by McDonnell, all of whom were non-violent offenders. Three years later, on November 3, 2016, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals granted Libby's petition for reinstatement to the D.C. Bar. On April 13, 2018, President Donald Trump pardoned Libby.
In media portrayals
David Andrews played Scooter Libby in the 2010 film Fair Game, which is about the Plame affair.
Justin Kirk played Libby in the 2018 film Vice.
See also
List of disbarments in the United States
Plame affair criminal investigation
Project for the New American Century
List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States
Notes
Citations
References
. United States Department of State, February 2005. Accessed July 8, 2007.
Bromell, Nick. "Scooter Libby and Me". The American Scholar (Phi Beta Kappa) (Winter 2007). Accessed June 8, 2007.
–––. "Scooter's Tragic Innocence: Why My Friend Scooter Libby Is Loyal to Bush, Cheney and an Arrogant Administration Whose Values Are Not His Own". Salon, January 24, 2007. Accessed June 8, 2007. (Premium content; restricted access).
Dickerson, John. "Who Is Scooter Libby? The Secretive Cheney Aide at the Heart of the CIA Leak Case". Slate, October 21, 2005. Accessed June 28, 2007.
Frankel, Max. "The Washington Back Channel". The New York Times, March 25, 2007. Accessed March 23, 2008.
Garfield, Bob. "'Former New York Times Staffer Judith Miller'". On the Media from NPR, National Public Radio, WCNY-FM, November 11, 2005. Accessed March 5, 2007. (Transcript and RealAudio link.)
"I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby". Right Web (International Relations Center). Last updated March 21, 2007. Accessed July 1, 2007.
"Indictment" in United States of America vs. I. Lewis Libby, also known as "Scooter Libby". United States Department of Justice, October 28, 2005. Accessed July 5, 2007.
Libby, Lewis. The Apprentice: A Novel. Rpt. ed. 1996; New York: Griffin, 2005. (10). (13).
Markels, Alex. "Legal Affairs: I. Lewis Libby: The Plight of a Disciplined Risk-Taker". National Public Radio, October 28, 2005. Accessed March 5, 2007.
Merritt, Jeralyn, moderator. "Verdict in the Libby Trial". Transcript. The Washington Post ("Live Online" discussion), March 6, 2007, 2:00–3:00 p.m., ET. Accessed March 6, 2007. (Duration: one hour.) N.B.: "Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties."
in "United States of America, v. I. Lewis Libby, Defendant". Criminal No. 05-394 (RBW). United States District Court for the District of Columbia, filed January 10, 2007. Accessed February 10, 2007. ["USA-v-Libby_Rules-of-Order.pdf".]
"President Commutes Libby's Sentence: Calls 30-month Term for Ex-Cheney Aide 'excessive'". Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, July 3, 2007. Accessed July 4, 2007.
. White House biography from 2004. Accessed February 10, 2007.
Waas, Murray. "Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Leak Classified Information". National Journal, February 9, 2006. Accessed March 6, 2007.
–––, ed., with Jeff Lomonaco. The United States v. I. Lewis Libby. New York: Union Square Press (imprint of Sterling Publishing), 2007. (10). (13). ("Edited & with reporting by Murray Waas" and with research assistance by Jeff Lomonaco.)
Weisman, Steven. "White House Is Pressing Israelis To Take Initiatives in Peace Talks". The New York Times, April 17, 2003. Accessed March 23, 2008.
Wilson, Joseph C. "Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson's Response to Bush Spokesman Tony Snow's Comments at Today's White House Briefing". Online posting. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), July 3, 2007. Accessed July 4, 2007. Online posting. "Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson's Response ... " and "Read more", Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust (Home page), n.d. Accessed July 8, 2007. (Concerning Bush's commutation of Libby's prison sentence.)
–––. "Statement in Response to Jury's Verdict in U.S. v. I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby" (now outdated URL). Press release. Originally posted online. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), March 6, 2007. Accessed March 6, 2007. Posted as "CREW Statement on Libby Conviction: No Man Is Above the Law." Citizens ^Blogging for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (blog), March 6, 2007. Accessed April 18, 2007. Also posted as "Wilsons' Attorney Statement in Response to Jury's Verdict in U.S. v. I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby". Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust, March 6, 2007, home page. Accessed April 18, 2007.
External links
Background on the Plame Investigation at The Washington Post.
CNN Special Reports: CIA Leak Investigation compiled by CNN Newsroom; incl. interactive timeline in Case History.
"Legal Affairs: Lewis Libby's Complete Grand Jury Testimony". Full audio clip and transcript provided by National Public Radio on npr.org,
"The Lewis Libby Case". Archive of articles concerning Libby broadcast on National Public Radio.
.
United States v. I. Lewis Libby. Photo gallery with news captions at The Washington Post.
Membership at the Council on Foreign Relations
1950 births
Jewish American attorneys
Assistants to the President of the United States
Chiefs of Staff to the Vice President of the United States
Columbia Law School alumni
Columbia University alumni
Living people
Members of the Council on Foreign Relations
Pennsylvania Democrats
Pennsylvania Republicans
People associated with the Plame affair
People from McLean, Virginia
Lawyers from New Haven, Connecticut
Lawyers from Philadelphia
Phillips Academy alumni
Reagan administration personnel
Recipients of American presidential clemency
Recipients of American presidential pardons
Yale University alumni
Hudson Institute
Conservatism in the United States | true | [
"Thomas Francis Collins (1886–1907) was an English drifter who was convicted and hanged for murder in Albert County, New Brunswick in 1907. The events of the murder and trials resulted in several legal firsts in Canada.\n\nBackground\nTom Collins arrived in Albert County in the fall of 1906. He found room and board with the parish priest of New Ireland, north of present day Fundy National Park. He was there about a week when the priest left on church business. When the priest returned he found the body of his housekeeper Mary Ann McAuley in the woodshed with an axe wound to the back of her head and her throat slit. Tom Collins could not be located in the area but was eventually found north of the community of St. George. He was found with a set of the priest's clothes and a pocket watch belonging to Mary Ann.\n\nTom Collins was taken into custody and questioned later that night. Collins gave his statement of what had happened that day, stating he had had an argument with Mary Ann but denying his guilt in the murder. This statement was not admitted at the first trial due to improper reading of Collins' rights.\n\nFirst trial\nThe first trial began in January 1907. The prosecutor's case was circumstantial but it received assistance when the judge gave his final instructions to the jury stating in effect that the case was fully proven. The jury took two hours to come back with a verdict of guilty and the judge immediately ordered Collins hanged. The verdict was overturned on the basis of a judicial misdirection, a first in Canadian legal history.\n\nSecond trial\nThe second trial began on June 25, 1907 with Collins himself taking the stand. The jury deliberated two days but were unable to come to a unanimous verdict, with seven in favour of innocence and five opposed. A hung jury was declared which precipitated a third trial.\n\nThird trial\nThe third trial began in the fall of 1907, presided over by the noted Daniel Lionel Hanington. The trial faced immediate trouble selecting the jury. Having had two previous trials and a media circus surrounding the case, it was difficult to find twelve impartial jurors. 120 people were examined, a record at the time, before a suitable jury was selected. Tom Collins was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged.\n\nExecution\nThere were several appeals to Ottawa and a last-minute plea to Governor General Earl Grey who, on the advice of the Privy Council, declined commutation. He was hanged by executioner John Radclive at the Albert County Jail on November 15, 1907.\n\nSee also\n Albert County Museum\n\nNotes\n\nReferences \n\n1886 births\n1907 deaths\nExecuted English people\nExecuted Canadian people\nPeople executed by Canada by hanging\nPeople from Albert County, New Brunswick",
"Mechteld ten Ham (died 25 July 1605) was an alleged Dutch witch in the city of 's-Heerenberg in the Dutch Republic.\n\nBackground \n\nThe witch trial which condemned Ten Ham took place during a period of hardship for the city, which had suffered under plundering from Spanish troops and from the plague when the witch hysteria spread. People wanted someone they could blame, and Ten Ham was a person with different habits and a different personality. She made predictions about the future and about people's health.\n\nTrial \nTen Ham herself demanded to be put on trial; it was a custom to try an alleged witch by certain \"ordeals\", and Ten Ham was convinced that the trial would prove that she was innocent. One was the ordeal of weight. Another was the ordeal of water. The ordeal of weight was often easy to pass. She wrote to a known critic of witch trials, and thus refused to go through the ordeal of weight. When she was put on trial, however, her tactic proved a miscalculation. People accused her of making animals sick, spoiling crops and destroying marriages with magic. The authorities arrested her and tortured her until she confessed.\n\nExecution \nShe was found guilty of sorcery and sentenced to be burned alive at the stake. This sentence was carried out on 25 July 1605. The last witch trials to take place in the republic were the Roermond witch trial, where 64 people were burned to death for sorcery in 1613.\n\nSee also \n Marigje Arriens\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\n17th-century executions by the Netherlands\n1605 deaths\nExecuted Dutch women\nPeople executed by the Dutch Republic\nPeople executed by the Netherlands by burning\nPeople executed for witchcraft\nPeople from Montferland\nYear of birth unknown\nWitch trials in the Netherlands"
]
|
[
"Scooter Libby",
"Trial, conviction, and sentencing",
"What was he on trial for?",
"I don't know.",
"When was the trial?",
"United States v. Libby, began on January 16, 2007."
]
| C_9b3f2d9b78904bdd9a4dc0f6fa76ef2c_0 | Who was called in to testify? | 3 | Who was called in to testify? | Scooter Libby | On March 6, 2007, the jury convicted him on four of the five counts but acquitted him on count three, the second charge of making false statements when interviewed by federal agents about his conversations with Time reporter Matthew Cooper. After being questioned by the FBI in the fall of 2003 and testifying before a Federal grand jury on March 5, 2004, and again on March 24, 2004, Libby pleaded not guilty to all five counts. According to the Associated Press, David Addington, Cheney's legal counsel, described a September 2003 meeting with Libby around the time that a criminal investigation began, saying that Libby had told him, "'I just want to tell you, I didn't do it'... I didn't ask what the 'it' was.'" Libby retained attorney Ted Wells of the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to represent him. Wells had successfully defended former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy against a 30-count indictment and had also participated in the successful defense of former Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan. After Judge Reggie Walton denied Libby's motion to dismiss, the press initially reported that Libby would testify at the trial. Libby's criminal trial, United States v. Libby, began on January 16, 2007. A parade of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists testified, including Bob Woodward, Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post and Judith Miller and David E. Sanger of The New York Times. Despite earlier press reports and widespread speculation, neither Libby nor Vice President Cheney testified. The jury began deliberations on February 21, 2007. CANNOTANSWER | Bob Woodward, Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post and Judith Miller and David E. Sanger | I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby (first name generally given as Irv, Irve or Irving; born August 22, 1950) is an American lawyer, and former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.
From 2001 to 2005, Libby held the offices of Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs, Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States, and Assistant to the President during the administration of President George W. Bush.
In October 2005, Libby resigned from all three government positions after he was indicted on five counts by a federal grand jury concerning the investigation of the leak of the covert identity of Central Intelligence Agency officer Valerie Plame Wilson. He was subsequently convicted of four counts (one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury, and one count of making false statements), making him the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since John Poindexter, the national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan in the Iran–Contra affair.
After a failed appeal, President Bush commuted Libby's sentence of 30 months in federal prison, leaving the other parts of his sentence intact. As a consequence of his conviction in United States v. Libby, Libby's license to practice law was suspended until being reinstated in 2016. President Donald Trump fully pardoned Libby on April 13, 2018.
Personal history
Background and education
Libby was born to an affluent Jewish family in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, Irving Lewis Leibovitz, was an investment banker. His father changed his family original surname from Leibovitz to Libby.
Libby graduated from the Eaglebrook School, in Deerfield, Massachusetts, a junior boarding school, in 1965. The family lived in the Washington, D.C. region; Miami, Florida; and Connecticut prior to Libby's graduation from Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1968.
He and his elder brother, Hank, a retired tax lawyer, were the first in the family to graduate from college. Libby attended Yale University in New Haven, graduating magna cum laude in 1972. As Yale Daily News reporter Jack Mirkinson observes, "Even though he would eventually become a prominent Republican, Libby's political beginnings would not have pointed in that direction. He served as vice president of the Yale College Democrats and later campaigned for Michael Dukakis when he was running for governor of Massachusetts." According to Mirkinson: "Two particular Yale courses helped guide Libby's future endeavors. One of these was a creative writing course, which started Libby on a 20-year mission to complete a novel ... [later published as] The Apprentice ... [and] a political science class with professor and future Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. In an interview with author James Mann, Libby said Wolfowitz was one of his favorite professors, and their professional relationship did not end with the class." Wolfowitz became a significant mentor in his later professional life.
In 1975, as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, Libby received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Columbia Law School.
Marriage and family
Libby is married to Harriet Grant, whom he met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the late 1980s, while he was a partner and she an associate in the law firm then known as Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin: When he and Harriet became serious,' Dickstein partner Kenneth Simon wrote, 'she chose to leave the firm rather than maintain the awkward situation of an associate dating a partner. Libby and Grant married in the early 1990s, have a son and a daughter, and live in McLean, Virginia.
Name
Libby has been secretive about his full name. He was prosecuted as I. Lewis Libby, also known as "Scooter Libby". National Public Radio's Day to Day reported that the 1972 Yale Banner (the yearbook of Yale) gave his name as Irve Lewis Libby Jr.; it is unclear if Irve is his given name, or if it is short for Irving, as it was for his father. CBS, the BBC, and The New York Timess John Tierney have all used this spelling of his first name. The Timess Eric Schmitt spelled it Irv, though he cited a phone interview with Libby's brother, and did not clarify if he had asked for a spelling.
At times, including in the Yale Banner, and as documented in a federal directory cited by Ron Kampeas and others, Libby has used the suffix Jr. after his name. At other times, however, as listed in his federal indictment and United States v. Libby, which give his alias as Scooter Libby, there is no Jr. after Libby's name. The Columbia Alumni Association online directory lists him as I. Lewis Libby, with a first name of "I." and birth first name of "Irve".
Libby has also been secretive about the origin of his nickname Scooter. The New York Timess Eric Schmitt, citing the aforementioned interview with Libby's brother, wrote that "His nickname 'Scooter' derives from the day [his] father watched him crawling in his crib and joked, 'He's a Scooter! In a February 2002 interview on Larry King Live, King asked Libby specifically, "Where did 'Scooter' come from?"; Libby replied: "Oh, it goes way back to when I was a kid. Some people ask me if ... [crosstalk] ... as you did earlier, if it's related to Phil Rizzuto [nicknamed 'The Scooter']. I had the range but not the arm."
The Apprentice
Libby's only novel, The Apprentice, about a group of travelers stranded in northern Japan in the winter of 1903, during a smallpox epidemic in the run-up to the Russo-Japanese War, was first published in a hardback edition by Graywolf Press in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1996, and reprinted as a trade paperback by St. Martin's Thomas Dunne Books in 2002. After Libby's indictment in the CIA leak grand jury investigation in 2005, St. Martin's Press reissued The Apprentice as a mass market paperback (Griffin imprint). An allegorical meditation on the legitimacy of concealed knowledge, The Apprentice has been described as "a thriller ... that includes references to bestiality, pedophilia and rape."
Law career
After earning his J.D. from Columbia in 1975, Libby joined the firm of Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis LLP. He was admitted to the bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on October 27, 1976, and to the Bar of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals on May 19, 1978.
Libby practiced law at Schnader for six years before joining the U.S. State Department policy planning staff, at the invitation of his former Yale professor, Paul Wolfowitz, in 1981. In 1985, returning to private practice, he joined the firm then known as Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin (now Dickstein Shapiro LLP), becoming a partner in 1986 and working there until 1989, when he left to work in the U.S. Defense Department, again under his former Yale professor Paul Wolfowitz, until January 1993.
In 1993, returning to private legal practice from government, Libby became the managing partner of the Washington, D.C. office of Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander & Ferdon (formerly Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, and Alexander); in 1995, along with his Mudge Rose colleague, Leonard Garment––who had replaced John Dean as acting Special Counsel to U.S. President Richard Nixon for the last two years of his presidency dominated by Watergate, and who had hired Libby at Mudge Rose twenty years later––and three other lawyers from that firm, Libby joined the Washington, D.C. office of Dechert Price & Rhoads (now part of Dechert LLP), where he was a managing partner, a member of its litigation department, and chaired its Public Policy Practice Group. His work there was well regarded, with President Clinton recognizing Libby as one of three "distinguished Republican lawyers" who worked on the Marc Rich pardon case.
In 2001 Libby left the firm to return to work again in government, as Vice President Cheney's chief of staff.
Fugitive billionaire commodities trader Marc Rich, who, along with his business partner Pincus Green, had been indicted of tax evasion and illegal trading with Iran, and who, with Green, was ultimately pardoned by President Bill Clinton, was a client whom Leonard Garment had hired Libby to help represent around the spring of 1985, after Rich and Green had first engaged Garment. Libby stopped representing Rich in the spring of 2000; early in March 2001, at a "contentious" Congressional hearing to review Clinton's pardons, Libby testified that he thought the prosecution's case against Rich "misconstrued the facts and the law". According to Jackson Hogan, Libby's roommate at Yale University, as quoted in the already-cited U.S. News & World Report article by Walsh, He is intensely partisan ... in that if he is your counsel, he'll embrace your case and try to figure a way out of whatever noose you are ensnared in. According to a House Committee on Government Reform report, however, "The arguments made by Garment, [William Bradford] Reynolds and Libby [in their testimony] focused on the claim that the SDNY was criminalizing what should have been a civil tax case. They did not make, compile, or in any other way lay the groundwork for, or make a case for a Presidential pardon. When former President Clinton stated that they 'reviewed and advocated' 'the case for the pardons,' he suggested that they were somehow involved in arguing that Rich and Green should receive pardons. This was completely untrue". (p. 162)
Bar suspension and disbarment
Before his indictment in United States v. Libby, Libby had been a licensed lawyer, admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, although his Pennsylvania law license was inactive, and he had already been suspended from the Washington, D.C. Office of Bar Counsel (D.C. Bar) for non-payment of fees. The Chief Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals recommended disbarment upon confirmation of his conviction, which Libby had initially indicated that he would appeal. Having suspended his license to practice law on April 3, 2007, the D.C. Bar "disbarred [him] pursuant to D.C. Code § 11-2503(a)" on legal grounds of "moral turpitude", effective April 11, 2007, and recommended to the D.C. Court of Appeals his disbarment if his conviction were not overturned on appeal. On December 10, 2007, Libby's lawyers announced his decision "to drop his appeal of his conviction in the CIA leak case". On March 20, 2008, following the dropping of his appeal of his conviction, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals disbarred Libby. As a result of the Court's ruling, "Libby will lose his license to practice or appear in court in Washington until at least 2012", and, "As is standard, he will probably lose any bar membership he holds in other states"; that is, in Pennsylvania.
Government public service and political career
In 1981, after working as a lawyer in the Philadelphia firm Schnader LLP, Libby accepted the invitation of his former Yale University political science professor and mentor Paul Wolfowitz to join the U.S. State Department's policy planning staff. From 1982 to 1985, Libby served as director of special projects in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. In 1985 he received the Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service from the United States Department of Defense, and he resigned from government to enter private legal practice at Dickstein, Shapiro, and Morin. In 1989, he went to work at the Pentagon, again under Wolfowitz, as principal deputy under-secretary for strategy and resources at the U.S. Defense Department.
During the George H. W. Bush administration, Libby was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as deputy under secretary of defense for policy, serving from 1992 to 1993. In 1992 he also served as legal adviser for the House Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China. Libby co-authored the draft of the Defense Planning Guidance for the 1994–99 fiscal years (dated February 18, 1992) with Wolfowitz for Dick Cheney, who was then Secretary of Defense. In 1993 Libby received the Distinguished Service Award from the U.S. Defense Department and the Distinguished Public Service Award from the U.S. State Department before resuming private legal practice first at Mudge Rose and then at Dechert.
Libby was part of a network of neo-conservatives known as the "Vulcans"—its other members included Wolfowitz, Condoleezza Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld. While he was still a managing partner of Dechert Price & Rhoads, he was a signatory to the "Statement of Principles" of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) (a document dated June 3, 1997). He joined Wolfowitz, PNAC co-founders William Kristol, Robert Kagan, and other "Project Participants" in developing the PNAC's September 2000 report entitled, "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces, and Resources for a New Century".
After becoming Cheney's chief of staff in 2001, Libby was reportedly nicknamed "Germ Boy" at the White House, for insisting on universal smallpox vaccination. He was also nicknamed "Dick Cheney's Dick Cheney" for his close working relationship with the Vice President. Mary Matalin, who worked with Libby as an adviser to Cheney during Bush's first term, said of him "He is to the vice president what the vice president is to the president."
Libby was active in the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee of the Pentagon when it was chaired by Richard Perle during the early years of the George W. Bush administration (2001–2003). At various points in his career, Libby has also held positions with the American Bar Association, been on the advisory board of the RAND Corporation's Center for Russia and Eurasia, and been a legal adviser to the United States House of Representatives, as well as served as a consultant for the defense contractor Northrop Grumman.
Libby was also actively involved in the Bush administration's efforts to negotiate the Israeli–Palestinian "road map" for peace; for example, he participated in a series of meetings with Jewish leaders in early December 2002 and a meeting with two aides of then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in mid-April 2003, culminating in the Red Sea Summit on June 4, 2004. In their highly controversial and widely contested "Working Paper" entitled "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy", University of Chicago political science professor John J. Mearsheimer and academic dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University Stephen M. Walt argue that Libby was among the Bush administration's most "fervently pro-Israel ... officials" (20).
Awards for government service
Distinguished Service Award, United States Department of Defense, 1993
Distinguished Public Service Award, United States Department of the Navy, 1993
Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service, United States Department of State, 1985
Subsequent work experience
From January 2006 until March 7, 2007, the day after his conviction in United States v. Libby, when he resigned, Libby served as a "senior adviser" at the Hudson Institute, to "focus on issues relating to the War on Terror and the future of Asia ... offer research guidance and ... advise the institute in strategic planning." His resignation was announced by the Hudson Institute in a press release dated March 8, 2007. However, he has served as Senior Vice President of the Hudson Institute at least since 2010.
Libby also serves as a member of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense, a group that encourages and advocates changes to government policy to strengthen national biodefense. In order to address biological threats facing the nation, the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense created a 33 step initiative for the U.S. Government to implement. Headed by former Senator Joe Lieberman and former Governor Tom Ridge, the Study Panel assembled in Washington D.C. for four meetings concerning current biodefense programs. The Study Panel concluded that the federal government had little to no defense mechanisms in case of a biological event. The Study Panel's final report, The National Blueprint for Biodefense, proposes a string of solutions and recommendations for the U.S. Government to take, including items such as giving the Vice President authority over biodefense responsibilities and merging the entire biodefense budget. These solutions represent the Panel's call to action in order to increase awareness and activity for pandemic related issues.
Involvement in the Plame affair
Between 2003 and 2005, intense speculation centered on the possibility that Libby may have been the administration official who had "leaked" classified employment information about Valerie Plame, a covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent and the wife of Iraq War critic Joseph C. Wilson, to New York Times reporter Judith Miller and other reporters and later tried to hide his having done so.
In August 2005, as revealed in grand jury testimony audiotapes played during the trial and reported in many news accounts, Libby testified that he met with Judith Miller, a reporter with The New York Times, on July 8, 2003, and discussed Plame with her.
Although Libby signed a "blanket waiver" allowing journalists to discuss their conversations with him pursuant to the CIA leak grand jury investigation, Miller maintained that such a waiver did not serve to allow her to reveal her source to that grand jury; moreover, Miller argued that Libby's general waiver pertaining to all journalists could have been coerced and that she would only testify before that grand jury if given an individual waiver.
After refusing to testify about her July 2003 meeting with Libby, Judith Miller was jailed on July 7, 2005, for contempt of court. Months later, however, her new attorney, Robert Bennett, told her that she already had possessed a written, voluntary waiver from Libby all along. After Miller had served most of her sentence, Libby reiterated that he had indeed given her a "waiver" both "voluntarily and personally." He attached the following letter, which, when released publicly, became the subject of further speculation about Libby's possible motives in sending it:
As noted above, my lawyer confirmed my waiver to other reporters in just the way he did with your lawyer. Why? Because as I am sure will not be news to you, the public report of every other reporter's testimony makes clear that they did not discuss Ms. Plame's name or identity with me, or knew about her before our call.
After agreeing to testify, Miller was released on September 29, 2005, appearing before the grand jury the next day, but the charge against her was rescinded only after she testified again on October 12, 2005. For her second grand jury appearance, Miller produced a notebook from a previously undisclosed meeting with Libby on June 23, 2003, two weeks before Wilson's New York Times op-ed was published. In her account published in the Times on October 16, 2005, based on her notes, Miller reports:
... in an interview with me on June 23 [2003], Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, discussed Mr. Wilson's activities and placed blame for intelligence failures on the CIA. In later conversations with me, on July 8 and July 12 [2003], Mr. Libby, ... [at the time] Mr. Cheney's top aide, played down the importance of Mr. Wilson's mission and questioned his performance ... My notes indicate that well before Mr. Wilson published his critique, Mr. Libby told me that Mr. Wilson's wife may have worked on unconventional weapons at the CIA. ... My notes do not show that Mr. Libby identified Mr. Wilson's wife by name. Nor do they show that he described Valerie Wilson as a covert agent or "operative"...
Her notation on her July 8, 2003 meeting with Libby does contain the name "Valerie Flame ", which she added retrospectively. While Miller reveals publicly that she herself had misidentified the last name of Wilson's wife (aka "Valerie Plame") in her own marginal notes on their interview as "Flame" instead of "Plame", in her grand jury (and later trial testimony), she remained uncertain when, how, and why she arrived at that name and did not attribute it to Libby:
I was not permitted to take notes of what I told the grand jury, and my interview notes on Mr. Libby are sketchy in places. It is also difficult, more than two years later, to parse the meaning and context of phrases, of underlining and of parentheses. On one page of my interview notes, for example, I wrote the name "Valerie Flame." Yet, as I told Mr. Fitzgerald, I simply could not recall where that came from, when I wrote it or why the name was misspelled ... I testified that I did not believe the name came from Mr. Libby, in part because the notation does not appear in the same part of my notebook as the interview notes from him.
A year and a half later, a jury convicted Libby of obstruction of justice and perjury in his grand jury testimony and making false statements to federal investigators about when and how he learned that Plame was a CIA agent.
On April 13, 2018, Libby was pardoned by US President Donald Trump.
Indictment and resignation
On October 28, 2005, as a result of the CIA leak grand jury investigation, Special Counsel Fitzgerald indicted Libby on five counts: one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of making false statements when interviewed by agents of the FBI, and two counts of perjury in his testimony before the grand jury. Pursuant to the grand jury investigation, Libby had told FBI investigators that he first heard of Mrs. Wilson's CIA employment from Cheney, and then later heard it from journalist Tim Russert, and acted as if he did not have that information. The indictment alleges that statements to federal investigators and the grand jury were intentionally false, in that Libby had numerous conversations about Mrs. Wilson's CIA employment, including his conversations with Judith Miller (see above), before speaking to Russert; Russert did not tell Libby about Mrs. Wilson's CIA employment; prior to talking with such reporters, Libby knew with certainty that she was employed by the CIA; and Libby told reporters that she worked for the CIA without making any disclaimer that he was uncertain of that fact. The false statements counts in the Libby indictment charge that he intentionally made those false statements to the FBI; the perjury counts charge that he intentionally lied to the grand jury in repeating those false statements; and the obstruction of justice count charges that Libby intentionally made those false statements in order to mislead the grand jury, thus impeding Fitzgerald's grand jury investigation of the truth about the leaking of Mrs. Wilson's then-classified, covert CIA identity.
Trial, conviction, and sentencing
On March 6, 2007, the jury convicted him on four of the five counts: obstruction of justice, one count of making false statements when interviewed by agents of the FBI, and two counts of perjury. They acquitted him on count three, the second charge of making false statements when interviewed by federal agents about his conversations with Time reporter Matthew Cooper.
Libby retained attorney Ted Wells of the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to represent him. Wells had successfully defended former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy against a 30-count indictment and had also participated in the successful defense of former Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan.
After Judge Reggie Walton denied Libby's motion to dismiss, the press initially reported that Libby would testify at the trial. Libby's criminal trial, United States v. Libby, began on January 16, 2007. A parade of Pulitzer Prize–winning journalists testified, including Bob Woodward, Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post and Judith Miller and David E. Sanger of The New York Times. Despite earlier press reports and widespread speculation, neither Libby nor Vice President Cheney testified. The jury began deliberations on February 21, 2007.
Verdict
After deliberating for 10 days, the jury rendered its verdict on March 6, 2007. It convicted Libby on four of the five counts against him: two counts of perjury, one count of obstruction of justice in a grand jury investigation, and one of the two counts of making false statements to federal investigators.
After the verdict, initially, Libby's lawyers announced that he would seek a new trial, and that, if that attempt were to fail, they would appeal Libby's conviction. Libby did not speak to reporters. Libby's defense team eventually decided against seeking a new trial.
Speaking to the media outside the courtroom after the verdict, Fitzgerald said that "The jury worked very long and hard and deliberated at length ... [and] was obviously convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had lied and obstructed justice in a serious manner ... I do not expect to file any further charges." The trial confirmed that the leak came first from then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage; since Fitzgerald did not charge Armitage and did not charge anyone else, Libby's conviction effectively ended the investigation.
In his October 28, 2005, press conference about the grand jury's indictment, Fitzgerald had already explained that Libby's obstruction of justice through perjury and false statements had prevented the grand jury from determining whether the leak violated federal law.
During his media appearance outside the courtroom after the verdict in the Libby case, Fitzgerald fielded questions from the press about others involved in the Plame affair and in the CIA leak grand jury investigation, such as Armitage and Cheney, whom he had already described as under "a cloud", as already addressed in his conduct of the case and in his closing arguments in court.
Sentencing
Given current federal sentencing guidelines, which are not mandatory, the conviction could have resulted in a sentence ranging from no imprisonment to imprisonment of up to 25 years and a fine of $1,000,000; yet, as Sniffen and Apuzzo observe, "federal sentencing guidelines will probably prescribe far less." In practice, according to federal sentencing data, three-fourths of the 198 defendants found guilty of obstruction of justice in 2006 served jail time. The average length of jail time on this charge alone was 70 months.
On June 5, 2007, Judge Walton sentenced Libby to 30 months in prison and fined him $250,000, clarifying that Libby would begin his sentence immediately. According to Apuzzo and Yost, the judge also "placed him on two years probation after his prison sentence expires. There is no parole in the federal system, but Libby would be eligible for release after two years." In addition, Judge Walton required Libby to provide "400 hours of community service" during his supervised release. On June 5, 2007, after the announcement of Libby's sentencing, CNN reported that Libby still "plans to appeal the verdict".
That day, in response to the sentencing, Vice President Cheney issued a statement in Libby's defense on The White House website. The statement concluded: "Speaking as friends, we hope that our system will return a final result consistent with what we know of this fine man."
Joseph and Valerie Wilson posted their statement on Libby's sentencing in United States v. Libby on their website, "grateful that justice has been served."
Order to report to prison pending appeal of verdict
After the June 5 sentencing, Walton said he was inclined to jail Libby after the defense laid out its proposed appeal, but the judge told attorneys he was open to changing his mind"; however, on June 14, 2007, Walton ordered Libby to report to prison while his attorneys appealed the conviction. Libby's attorneys asked that the order be stayed, but Walton denied the request and told Libby that he would have 10 days to appeal the ruling. In denying Libby's request, which had questioned Fitzgerald's authority to make the charges in the first place, Walton supported Fitzgerald's authority in the case. He said: "Everyone is accountable, and if you work in the White House, and if it's perceived that somehow (you're) linked at the hip, the American public would have serious questions about the fairness of any investigation of a high-level official conducted by the attorney general." The judge was also responding to an Amicus curiae brief that he had permitted to be filed, which had not apparently convinced him to change his mind, as he subsequently denied Libby bail during his appeal. His "order grant[ing] the [legal academic] scholars permission to file their brief ..." contained a caustic footnote questioning the motivation of the legal academics and suggesting he might not give a great deal of weight to their opinion[:]
... It is an impressive show of public service when twelve prominent and distinguished current and former law professors are able to amass their collective wisdom in the course of only several days to provide their legal expertise to the court on behalf of a criminal defendant. The Court trusts that this is a reflection of these eminent academics' willingness in the future to step to the plate and provide like assistance in cases involving any of the numerous litigants, both in this Court and throughout the courts of this nation, who lack the financial means to fully and properly articulate the merits of their legal positions even in instances where failure to do so could result in monetary penalties, incarceration, or worse. The Court will certainly not hesitate to call for such assistance from these luminaries, as necessary in the interests of justice and equity, whenever similar questions arise in the cases that come before it."
Moreover, when the hearing started, "in the interest of full disclosure," Walton informed the court that he had "received a number of harassing, angry and mean-spirited phone calls and messages. Some wishing bad things on me and my family ... [T]hose types of things will have no impact ... I initially threw them away, but then there were more, some that were more hateful ... [T]hey are being kept."
New York Times reporters Neil Lewis and David Stout estimated subsequently that Libby's prison sentence could begin within "two months", explaining that
Judge Walton's decision means that the defense lawyers will probably ask a federal appeals court to block the sentence, a long-shot move. It also sharpens interest in a question being asked by Mr. Libby's supporters and critics alike: Will President Bush pardon Mr. Libby? ... So far, the president has expressed sympathy for Mr. Libby and his family but has not tipped his hand on the pardon issue. ... If the president does not pardon him, and if an appeals court refuses to second-guess Judge Walton's decision, Mr. Libby will probably be ordered to report to prison in six to eight weeks' time. Federal prison authorities will decide where. "Unless the Court of Appeals overturns my ruling, he will have to report", Judge Walton said.
Failure of Libby's appeal in order to begin prison sentence
On June 20, 2007, Libby appealed Walton's ruling in federal appeals court. The following day, Walton filed a 30-page expanded ruling, in which he explained his decision to deny Libby bail in more detail.
On July 2, 2007, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied Libby's request for a delay and release from his prison sentence, stating that Libby "has not shown that the appeal raises a substantial question under federal law that would merit letting him remain free," increasing "pressure on President George W. Bush to decide soon whether to pardon Libby ... as the former White House official's supporters have urged."
Presidential commutation
Soon after the verdict, calls for Libby to be pardoned by President George W. Bush began to appear in some newspapers; some of them were posted online by the Libby Legal Defense Trust (LLDT). U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid issued a press release about the verdict, urging Bush to pledge not to pardon Libby, and other Democratic politicians followed his lead.
Surveying "the pardon battle" and citing both pro and con publications, The Washington Post online columnist Dan Froomkin concludes that many U.S. newspapers opposed a presidential pardon for Libby. Much of this commentary obscured the fact that the clemency power provided the President with several options short of a full, unconditional pardon. In an op-ed published in The Washington Post, former federal prosecutor and conservative activist William Otis argued the sentence was too stringent and that, instead of pardoning Libby, Bush should commute his sentence.
After the sentencing, Bush stated on camera that he would "not intervene until Libby's legal team has exhausted all of its avenues of appeal ... It wouldn't be appropriate for me to discuss the case until after the legal remedies have run its course." Ultimately, less than a month later, on July 2, 2007, Bush chose Otis's 'third option' — "neither prison nor pardon" — in commuting Libby's prison sentence.
After Libby was denied bail during his appeal process on July 2, 2007, Bush commuted Libby's 30-month federal prison sentence, calling it "excessive", but he did not change the other parts of the sentence and their conditions. That presidential commutation left in place the felony conviction, the $250,000 fine, and the terms of probation. Some have criticized the move, as presidential commutations are rarely issued, but when granted they have generally occurred after the convicted person has already served a substantial portion of his or her sentence: "We can't find any cases, certainly in the last half-century, where the president commuted a sentence before it had even started to be served," said former Justice Department pardon attorney Margaret Colgate Love. Others, notably Cheney himself who argued that Libby was unfairly charged by a politically motivated prosecution, believed that the commutation fell short, as Libby would likely never practice law again.
At the time, Bush explained his "Grant of Executive Clemency" to Libby, in part, as follows:
Mr. Libby was sentenced to thirty months of prison, two years of probation, and a $250,000 fine. In making the sentencing decision, the district court rejected the advice of the probation office, which recommended a lesser sentence and the consideration of factors that could have led to a sentence of home confinement or probation.
Libby paid the required fine of "$250,400, which included a 'special assessment' of costs" that same day.
Bush's explanation was written by Fred F. Fielding, White House Counsel during the last two years of Bush's presidency. According to a Time article published six months after Bush left office, Fielding worded the commutation "in a way that would make it harder for Bush to revisit it in the future ... ; [the] language was intended to send an unmistakable message, internally as well as externally: No one is above the law." The article suggested that there was a fundamental difference between how Bush and Cheney viewed the "War on Terror", with aides close to Bush feeling that Cheney had misled the President and damaged the administration's moral character with the Plame leak.
Libby's lawyer, Theodore V. Wells, Jr. "issued a brief statement saying Mr. Libby and his family 'wished to express their gratitude for the president's decision ... We continue to believe in Mr. Libby's innocence'. ... "
Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, however, took issue with Bush's description of the sentence as 'excessive', saying it was "[i]mposed pursuant to the laws governing sentencings which occur every day throughout this country ... It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals ... [T]hat principle guided the judge during both the trial and the sentencing," Fitzgerald said.
The day after the commuting of Libby's sentence, James Rowley (Bloomberg News) reported that Bush had not ruled out pardoning Libby in the future and that Bush's press spokesman, Tony Snow, denied any political motivation in the commutation. Quoting Snow, Rowley added: The president is getting pounded on the right because he didn't do a full pardon.' If Bush were 'doing the weather-vane thing' he 'would have done something differently.
Democratic politicians' responses stressed their outrage at what they called a disgraceful abrogation of justice, and, that evening CNN reported that Representative John Conyers, Jr., Democrat of Michigan, announced that there would be a formal Congressional investigation of Bush's commutation of Libby's sentence and other presidential reprieves.
The hearing on "The Use and Misuse of Presidential Clemency Power for Executive Branch Officials" was held by the United States House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Conyers, on July 11, 2007.
Just a few days later, however, Judge Walton questioned "whether ... [Libby] will face two years of probation, as [President Bush] said he would," because the supervised release time is conditioned on Libby's serving the prison sentence, and he "directed the special prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, and ... [Libby's] lawyers to file arguments on the point. ... " "If Judge Walton does not impose any supervised release, it could undercut ... [Bush's] argument that ... Libby still faced stiff justice." That issue was resolved on July 10, 2007, clearing the way for Libby to begin serving the rest of his sentence, the supervised release and 400 hours of community service.
In response to Bush's justifications for clemency, liberal commentator Harlan J. Protass noted that in Rita v. United States, the case of a defendant convicted of perjury in front of a grand jury which had been decided two weeks earlier by the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. government had successfully argued that sentences that fall within Federal Sentencing Guidelines are presumed to be "reasonable", regardless of individual circumstances.
Reportedly outraged by Bush's commutation of Libby's prison sentence, on July 2, 2007, Wilson told CNN: "I have nothing to say to Scooter Libby ... I don't owe this administration. They owe my wife and my family an apology for having betrayed her. Scooter Libby is a traitor. Bush's action ... demonstrates that the White House is corrupt from top to bottom." He reiterated this perspective on the commutation in the House Judiciary Committee hearing on July 11, 2007, vehemently protesting that a Republican congressman was engaging in "yet a further smear of my wife's good name and my good name."
According to a USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted from July 6 to July 8, 2007, "most Americans disagree with President George W. Bush's decision to intervene" on Libby's behalf in the case.
Several months after Bush's action, Judge Walton commented publicly on it. He spoke in favor of applying the law equally, stating: "The downside [of the commutation] is there are a lot of people in America who think that justice is determined to a large degree by who you are and that what you have plays a large role in what kind of justice you receive. ... "
Bush took no further action with respect to Libby's conviction or sentence during his presidential term, despite entreaties from conservatives that he should be pardoned. Two days after their term expired, former Vice President Cheney expressed his regret that Bush had not pardoned Libby on his last day in office.
Press coverage of Libby's trial
Blogs played a prominent role in the press coverage of Libby's trial. Scott Shane, in his article "For Liberal Bloggers, Libby Trial Is Fun and Fodder", published in The New York Times on February 15, 2007, quotes Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, who wrote that the trial was "the first federal case for which independent bloggers have been given official credentials along with reporters from the traditional news media." The trial was followed in the mass media and engaged the interest of both professional legal experts and the general public. While awaiting the judge's ruling pertaining to supervised release and the "400 hours of community service that Judge Walton imposed", for example, bloggers discussed the legal issues involved in these non-commuted parts of Libby's sentence and their effects on Libby's future life experiences.
Criticism of investigation
On August 28, 2006, Christopher Hitchens asserted that Richard Armitage was the primary source of the Valerie Plame leak and that Fitzgerald knew this at the beginning of his investigation. This was supported a month later by Armitage himself, who stated that Fitzgerald had instructed him not to go public with this information. Investor's Business Daily questioned Fitzgerald's truthfulness in an editorial, stating "From top to bottom, this has been one of the most disgraceful abuses of prosecutorial power in this country's history ... The Plame case proves [Fitzgerald] can bend the truth with the proficiency of the slickest of pols."
In a September 2008 Wall Street Journal editorial, attorney Alan Dershowitz cited the "questionable investigation[s]" of Scooter Libby as evidence of the problems brought to the criminal justice process by "politically appointed and partisan attorney[s] general". In April 2015, also writing in The Wall Street Journal, Hoover Institution fellow Peter Berkowitz argued that statements by Judith Miller, in her recently published memoir, raised anew contentions that her testimony was inaccurate and that Fitzgerald's conduct as prosecutor was inappropriate.
The Wilsons' civil suit
On July 13, 2006, Joseph and Valerie Wilson filed a civil lawsuit against Libby, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and other unnamed senior White House officials (among whom they later added Richard Armitage) for their role in the public disclosure of Valerie Wilson's classified CIA status. Judge John D. Bates dismissed the Wilsons' lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds on July 19, 2007. The Wilsons appealed Bates's district-court decision the next day. Agreeing with the Bush administration, the Obama Justice Department argued that the Wilsons had no legitimate grounds to sue. Melanie Sloan, one of the Wilsons' attorneys, said: "We are deeply disappointed that the Obama administration has failed to recognize the grievous harm top Bush White House officials inflicted on Joe and Valerie Wilson. The government's position cannot be reconciled with President Obama's oft-stated commitment to once again make government officials accountable for their actions."
On June 21, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal.
Restoration of voting rights, law license, and presidential pardon
Libby's voting rights were restored on November 1, 2012 by then-Governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell. Libby was part of a larger group of individuals who had their voting rights restored by McDonnell, all of whom were non-violent offenders. Three years later, on November 3, 2016, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals granted Libby's petition for reinstatement to the D.C. Bar. On April 13, 2018, President Donald Trump pardoned Libby.
In media portrayals
David Andrews played Scooter Libby in the 2010 film Fair Game, which is about the Plame affair.
Justin Kirk played Libby in the 2018 film Vice.
See also
List of disbarments in the United States
Plame affair criminal investigation
Project for the New American Century
List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States
Notes
Citations
References
. United States Department of State, February 2005. Accessed July 8, 2007.
Bromell, Nick. "Scooter Libby and Me". The American Scholar (Phi Beta Kappa) (Winter 2007). Accessed June 8, 2007.
–––. "Scooter's Tragic Innocence: Why My Friend Scooter Libby Is Loyal to Bush, Cheney and an Arrogant Administration Whose Values Are Not His Own". Salon, January 24, 2007. Accessed June 8, 2007. (Premium content; restricted access).
Dickerson, John. "Who Is Scooter Libby? The Secretive Cheney Aide at the Heart of the CIA Leak Case". Slate, October 21, 2005. Accessed June 28, 2007.
Frankel, Max. "The Washington Back Channel". The New York Times, March 25, 2007. Accessed March 23, 2008.
Garfield, Bob. "'Former New York Times Staffer Judith Miller'". On the Media from NPR, National Public Radio, WCNY-FM, November 11, 2005. Accessed March 5, 2007. (Transcript and RealAudio link.)
"I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby". Right Web (International Relations Center). Last updated March 21, 2007. Accessed July 1, 2007.
"Indictment" in United States of America vs. I. Lewis Libby, also known as "Scooter Libby". United States Department of Justice, October 28, 2005. Accessed July 5, 2007.
Libby, Lewis. The Apprentice: A Novel. Rpt. ed. 1996; New York: Griffin, 2005. (10). (13).
Markels, Alex. "Legal Affairs: I. Lewis Libby: The Plight of a Disciplined Risk-Taker". National Public Radio, October 28, 2005. Accessed March 5, 2007.
Merritt, Jeralyn, moderator. "Verdict in the Libby Trial". Transcript. The Washington Post ("Live Online" discussion), March 6, 2007, 2:00–3:00 p.m., ET. Accessed March 6, 2007. (Duration: one hour.) N.B.: "Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties."
in "United States of America, v. I. Lewis Libby, Defendant". Criminal No. 05-394 (RBW). United States District Court for the District of Columbia, filed January 10, 2007. Accessed February 10, 2007. ["USA-v-Libby_Rules-of-Order.pdf".]
"President Commutes Libby's Sentence: Calls 30-month Term for Ex-Cheney Aide 'excessive'". Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, July 3, 2007. Accessed July 4, 2007.
. White House biography from 2004. Accessed February 10, 2007.
Waas, Murray. "Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Leak Classified Information". National Journal, February 9, 2006. Accessed March 6, 2007.
–––, ed., with Jeff Lomonaco. The United States v. I. Lewis Libby. New York: Union Square Press (imprint of Sterling Publishing), 2007. (10). (13). ("Edited & with reporting by Murray Waas" and with research assistance by Jeff Lomonaco.)
Weisman, Steven. "White House Is Pressing Israelis To Take Initiatives in Peace Talks". The New York Times, April 17, 2003. Accessed March 23, 2008.
Wilson, Joseph C. "Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson's Response to Bush Spokesman Tony Snow's Comments at Today's White House Briefing". Online posting. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), July 3, 2007. Accessed July 4, 2007. Online posting. "Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson's Response ... " and "Read more", Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust (Home page), n.d. Accessed July 8, 2007. (Concerning Bush's commutation of Libby's prison sentence.)
–––. "Statement in Response to Jury's Verdict in U.S. v. I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby" (now outdated URL). Press release. Originally posted online. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), March 6, 2007. Accessed March 6, 2007. Posted as "CREW Statement on Libby Conviction: No Man Is Above the Law." Citizens ^Blogging for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (blog), March 6, 2007. Accessed April 18, 2007. Also posted as "Wilsons' Attorney Statement in Response to Jury's Verdict in U.S. v. I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby". Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust, March 6, 2007, home page. Accessed April 18, 2007.
External links
Background on the Plame Investigation at The Washington Post.
CNN Special Reports: CIA Leak Investigation compiled by CNN Newsroom; incl. interactive timeline in Case History.
"Legal Affairs: Lewis Libby's Complete Grand Jury Testimony". Full audio clip and transcript provided by National Public Radio on npr.org,
"The Lewis Libby Case". Archive of articles concerning Libby broadcast on National Public Radio.
.
United States v. I. Lewis Libby. Photo gallery with news captions at The Washington Post.
Membership at the Council on Foreign Relations
1950 births
Jewish American attorneys
Assistants to the President of the United States
Chiefs of Staff to the Vice President of the United States
Columbia Law School alumni
Columbia University alumni
Living people
Members of the Council on Foreign Relations
Pennsylvania Democrats
Pennsylvania Republicans
People associated with the Plame affair
People from McLean, Virginia
Lawyers from New Haven, Connecticut
Lawyers from Philadelphia
Phillips Academy alumni
Reagan administration personnel
Recipients of American presidential clemency
Recipients of American presidential pardons
Yale University alumni
Hudson Institute
Conservatism in the United States | true | [
"Testify is a Southern Gospel/Contemporary Christian vocal band founded by two brothers, Kenneth Swanner and Brent Swanner in 1995. Testify has performed at the Southern Baptist Convention, multiple State Baptist Conventions, Gaither Homecoming Concerts, Chick-fil-a Corporate Headquarters, Theaters in Branson, at TBN, the Grand Ole Opry, GMT and in Nashville for a concert at Lifeway Christian Resource Center of the Southern Baptist Convention. In October 2001 Testify performed at the Roy Acuff Theater for the \"Heal Our Land Benefit Concert\" for the victims of 9/11.\n\nHistory \nBrent and Kenneth Swanner grew up in a musical family and started singing at an early age. Both were heavily involved in their church and school music programs. Out of college, Kenneth joined The Continental Singers and toured several years all over the world. Meanwhile, while Brent was performing in a school musical, he was discovered by Waine Self, founder of the Southern Gospel group, Higher Kingdom In 1994, Brent and Kenneth collaborated at a Youth Evangelism Conference and \"Testify\" was born. Brent and Kenneth officially formed \"Testify\" in February 1995. After months of concerts with just the two of them they added an old college buddy, Daniel Steele to sing the baritone. They recorded an Independent, Self Titled album at a local studio in 1995. In 1996 Testify won The Albert E Brumley Memorial Gospel Singing Contest in Springdale, AR. A year later Daniel Steele moved to bass and Philip Bergeron took over the baritone. In the meantime, Testify signed with Son Sound Music Group and recorded, Testify Self Titled, produced by Danny Funderburk of The Cathedral Quartet fame. Testify then released their first single ever, \"Jesus Left Heaven for Me\" and garnered major radio play and some chart success. In 1997 , Son Sound Music Group promoted Testify to their major label, Son Sound Masterpiece and Testify recorded Ready to Serve, produced by Danny Funderburk and Lari Goss.\n\nIn 1999, Landon Thompson joined the group and Testify began working with Grammy Award nominee and Dove Award winning producer, Michael Sykes. Michael produced two recordings for Testify. They are called, Something Worth Living For and Keep Walking. Something Worth Living For included Testify's first ever Top 40 song, \"He's Still Keeping Me\". Testify and Michael Sykes second collaboration, Keep Walking, produced Testify's second Top 40 single, \"Doubter To A Shouter\".\n\nIn 2004, with the release of The Highest Call, Testify changed their overall sound. In an effort to keep pushing the creative limits of the group, Testify enlisted Buddy Mullins, former member of The Mullins, The Gaither Vocal Band and Sunday Drive to produce. The first single from The Highest Call, \"All It Takes Is A Shout\", immediately entered the Top 40 on The Singing News chart. Testify's next single from The Highest Call, \"In God We Trust\", prompted a letter from then President, George W. Bush, to write Testify a letter thanking them for such a timely song. With the success of The Highest Call, Testify was nominated for the 2005 Diamond Award Trio of the Year and SGM Awards Trio of the Year. In addition to The Highest Call, Buddy Mullins went on to produce two more Testify recordings, Rhythm of Grace and Shine on Us Buddy's influence and comradery with the guys was undeniable. He became an honorary member of the group filling in for Kenneth Swanner at lead vocals when needed.\n\nThe Farewell concert \nIn 2012, Brent and Kenneth Swanner reevaluated the future of the ministry. After close to eighteen years together, Brent and Kenneth decide to announce their Farewell Tour. On November 17, 2012, they performed their final concert at First West (First Baptist Church West Monroe, LA), the city where Testify's 18-year journey first started. At that concert, various individuals (including family members, record producers, management, former members and Buddy Mullins contributions to Testify's ministry. Several former members and Buddy Mullins performed with Testify. To commemorate the Farewell Tour, Testify recorded their 13th and final album, Songs We Love to honor their Southern Gospel and CCM influences.\n\nDiscography\n\nStudio albums\nsource:\n\nCompilations\n\nLive Albums\n\nReferences \n\nPerformers of contemporary Christian music\n\nSouthern gospel performers\n\nContemporary Christian music",
"Holtzman v. Hellenbrand (1983) was a case in the U.S. state of New York concerning the admissibility of a prior statement by a person who later refused to testify in court. American law assures a defendant an opportunity to confront people testifying against them (so the prior statement would only be someone's hearsay statement), but prohibits a person from profiting by their wrongdoing so should not be able to avoid the statement if they criminally induced the person to not testify in court.\n\nFactual Background \nThe defendant, Mr. Neil Sirois, was charged in Kings County with second-degree murder. Mr. Sirois's wife was present at the scene of the alleged murder on December 6, 1980. Following her testimony before a grand jury, and the subsequent indictment of hertially recanted and informed the Assistant District Attorney that she would not testify. She then fled the jurisdiction.\n\nOn March 1, 1983, Mrs. Sirois was arrested on a material witness order, in Kings County, where she had assumed a different name. Sirois continued to refuse to testify against her husband. The judge threatened contempt, offered in-camera testimony, and offered transactional immunity, and she continued to refuse to testify.\n\nMrs. Sirois was held in contempt of the court's order and sentenced to 30 days' incarceration and a $250 fine. Based on the incarceration, the People moved to adjourn for the 30 days, which the trial court denied. Without further evidence, the case was dismissed.\n\nThe People appealed, arguing that U.S. v. Mastrangelo required the court hold a hearing to determine whether or not \"the defendant by his misconduct had induced his wife to unlawfully refused to testify at trial.\"\n\nHolding \nIn 1983, the Second Department of New York's Appellate Division held that hearsay statements of a declarant who refuses to testify at trial are admissible for the truth of the matter asserted. The Court, while recognizing the Constitutional mandates of the Confrontation Clause, held that a defendant should not benefit from his or her wrongdoing in preventing a witness from testifying against him or her, and hearsay statements of the declarant are thus ade if the prosecution can meet its burden. Holtzman established the New York precedent of Sirois hearings—an evidentiary hearing to determine the admissibility of out-of-court statements by an unavailable witness.\n\nReferences\n\nNew York (state) state case law\nLaw articles needing an infobox"
]
|
[
"Scooter Libby",
"Trial, conviction, and sentencing",
"What was he on trial for?",
"I don't know.",
"When was the trial?",
"United States v. Libby, began on January 16, 2007.",
"Who was called in to testify?",
"Bob Woodward, Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post and Judith Miller and David E. Sanger"
]
| C_9b3f2d9b78904bdd9a4dc0f6fa76ef2c_0 | What did they say? | 4 | What did Bob Woodward, Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post and Judith Miller and David E. Sanger say? | Scooter Libby | On March 6, 2007, the jury convicted him on four of the five counts but acquitted him on count three, the second charge of making false statements when interviewed by federal agents about his conversations with Time reporter Matthew Cooper. After being questioned by the FBI in the fall of 2003 and testifying before a Federal grand jury on March 5, 2004, and again on March 24, 2004, Libby pleaded not guilty to all five counts. According to the Associated Press, David Addington, Cheney's legal counsel, described a September 2003 meeting with Libby around the time that a criminal investigation began, saying that Libby had told him, "'I just want to tell you, I didn't do it'... I didn't ask what the 'it' was.'" Libby retained attorney Ted Wells of the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to represent him. Wells had successfully defended former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy against a 30-count indictment and had also participated in the successful defense of former Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan. After Judge Reggie Walton denied Libby's motion to dismiss, the press initially reported that Libby would testify at the trial. Libby's criminal trial, United States v. Libby, began on January 16, 2007. A parade of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists testified, including Bob Woodward, Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post and Judith Miller and David E. Sanger of The New York Times. Despite earlier press reports and widespread speculation, neither Libby nor Vice President Cheney testified. The jury began deliberations on February 21, 2007. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby (first name generally given as Irv, Irve or Irving; born August 22, 1950) is an American lawyer, and former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.
From 2001 to 2005, Libby held the offices of Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs, Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States, and Assistant to the President during the administration of President George W. Bush.
In October 2005, Libby resigned from all three government positions after he was indicted on five counts by a federal grand jury concerning the investigation of the leak of the covert identity of Central Intelligence Agency officer Valerie Plame Wilson. He was subsequently convicted of four counts (one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury, and one count of making false statements), making him the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since John Poindexter, the national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan in the Iran–Contra affair.
After a failed appeal, President Bush commuted Libby's sentence of 30 months in federal prison, leaving the other parts of his sentence intact. As a consequence of his conviction in United States v. Libby, Libby's license to practice law was suspended until being reinstated in 2016. President Donald Trump fully pardoned Libby on April 13, 2018.
Personal history
Background and education
Libby was born to an affluent Jewish family in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, Irving Lewis Leibovitz, was an investment banker. His father changed his family original surname from Leibovitz to Libby.
Libby graduated from the Eaglebrook School, in Deerfield, Massachusetts, a junior boarding school, in 1965. The family lived in the Washington, D.C. region; Miami, Florida; and Connecticut prior to Libby's graduation from Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1968.
He and his elder brother, Hank, a retired tax lawyer, were the first in the family to graduate from college. Libby attended Yale University in New Haven, graduating magna cum laude in 1972. As Yale Daily News reporter Jack Mirkinson observes, "Even though he would eventually become a prominent Republican, Libby's political beginnings would not have pointed in that direction. He served as vice president of the Yale College Democrats and later campaigned for Michael Dukakis when he was running for governor of Massachusetts." According to Mirkinson: "Two particular Yale courses helped guide Libby's future endeavors. One of these was a creative writing course, which started Libby on a 20-year mission to complete a novel ... [later published as] The Apprentice ... [and] a political science class with professor and future Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. In an interview with author James Mann, Libby said Wolfowitz was one of his favorite professors, and their professional relationship did not end with the class." Wolfowitz became a significant mentor in his later professional life.
In 1975, as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, Libby received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Columbia Law School.
Marriage and family
Libby is married to Harriet Grant, whom he met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the late 1980s, while he was a partner and she an associate in the law firm then known as Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin: When he and Harriet became serious,' Dickstein partner Kenneth Simon wrote, 'she chose to leave the firm rather than maintain the awkward situation of an associate dating a partner. Libby and Grant married in the early 1990s, have a son and a daughter, and live in McLean, Virginia.
Name
Libby has been secretive about his full name. He was prosecuted as I. Lewis Libby, also known as "Scooter Libby". National Public Radio's Day to Day reported that the 1972 Yale Banner (the yearbook of Yale) gave his name as Irve Lewis Libby Jr.; it is unclear if Irve is his given name, or if it is short for Irving, as it was for his father. CBS, the BBC, and The New York Timess John Tierney have all used this spelling of his first name. The Timess Eric Schmitt spelled it Irv, though he cited a phone interview with Libby's brother, and did not clarify if he had asked for a spelling.
At times, including in the Yale Banner, and as documented in a federal directory cited by Ron Kampeas and others, Libby has used the suffix Jr. after his name. At other times, however, as listed in his federal indictment and United States v. Libby, which give his alias as Scooter Libby, there is no Jr. after Libby's name. The Columbia Alumni Association online directory lists him as I. Lewis Libby, with a first name of "I." and birth first name of "Irve".
Libby has also been secretive about the origin of his nickname Scooter. The New York Timess Eric Schmitt, citing the aforementioned interview with Libby's brother, wrote that "His nickname 'Scooter' derives from the day [his] father watched him crawling in his crib and joked, 'He's a Scooter! In a February 2002 interview on Larry King Live, King asked Libby specifically, "Where did 'Scooter' come from?"; Libby replied: "Oh, it goes way back to when I was a kid. Some people ask me if ... [crosstalk] ... as you did earlier, if it's related to Phil Rizzuto [nicknamed 'The Scooter']. I had the range but not the arm."
The Apprentice
Libby's only novel, The Apprentice, about a group of travelers stranded in northern Japan in the winter of 1903, during a smallpox epidemic in the run-up to the Russo-Japanese War, was first published in a hardback edition by Graywolf Press in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1996, and reprinted as a trade paperback by St. Martin's Thomas Dunne Books in 2002. After Libby's indictment in the CIA leak grand jury investigation in 2005, St. Martin's Press reissued The Apprentice as a mass market paperback (Griffin imprint). An allegorical meditation on the legitimacy of concealed knowledge, The Apprentice has been described as "a thriller ... that includes references to bestiality, pedophilia and rape."
Law career
After earning his J.D. from Columbia in 1975, Libby joined the firm of Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis LLP. He was admitted to the bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on October 27, 1976, and to the Bar of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals on May 19, 1978.
Libby practiced law at Schnader for six years before joining the U.S. State Department policy planning staff, at the invitation of his former Yale professor, Paul Wolfowitz, in 1981. In 1985, returning to private practice, he joined the firm then known as Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin (now Dickstein Shapiro LLP), becoming a partner in 1986 and working there until 1989, when he left to work in the U.S. Defense Department, again under his former Yale professor Paul Wolfowitz, until January 1993.
In 1993, returning to private legal practice from government, Libby became the managing partner of the Washington, D.C. office of Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander & Ferdon (formerly Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, and Alexander); in 1995, along with his Mudge Rose colleague, Leonard Garment––who had replaced John Dean as acting Special Counsel to U.S. President Richard Nixon for the last two years of his presidency dominated by Watergate, and who had hired Libby at Mudge Rose twenty years later––and three other lawyers from that firm, Libby joined the Washington, D.C. office of Dechert Price & Rhoads (now part of Dechert LLP), where he was a managing partner, a member of its litigation department, and chaired its Public Policy Practice Group. His work there was well regarded, with President Clinton recognizing Libby as one of three "distinguished Republican lawyers" who worked on the Marc Rich pardon case.
In 2001 Libby left the firm to return to work again in government, as Vice President Cheney's chief of staff.
Fugitive billionaire commodities trader Marc Rich, who, along with his business partner Pincus Green, had been indicted of tax evasion and illegal trading with Iran, and who, with Green, was ultimately pardoned by President Bill Clinton, was a client whom Leonard Garment had hired Libby to help represent around the spring of 1985, after Rich and Green had first engaged Garment. Libby stopped representing Rich in the spring of 2000; early in March 2001, at a "contentious" Congressional hearing to review Clinton's pardons, Libby testified that he thought the prosecution's case against Rich "misconstrued the facts and the law". According to Jackson Hogan, Libby's roommate at Yale University, as quoted in the already-cited U.S. News & World Report article by Walsh, He is intensely partisan ... in that if he is your counsel, he'll embrace your case and try to figure a way out of whatever noose you are ensnared in. According to a House Committee on Government Reform report, however, "The arguments made by Garment, [William Bradford] Reynolds and Libby [in their testimony] focused on the claim that the SDNY was criminalizing what should have been a civil tax case. They did not make, compile, or in any other way lay the groundwork for, or make a case for a Presidential pardon. When former President Clinton stated that they 'reviewed and advocated' 'the case for the pardons,' he suggested that they were somehow involved in arguing that Rich and Green should receive pardons. This was completely untrue". (p. 162)
Bar suspension and disbarment
Before his indictment in United States v. Libby, Libby had been a licensed lawyer, admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, although his Pennsylvania law license was inactive, and he had already been suspended from the Washington, D.C. Office of Bar Counsel (D.C. Bar) for non-payment of fees. The Chief Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals recommended disbarment upon confirmation of his conviction, which Libby had initially indicated that he would appeal. Having suspended his license to practice law on April 3, 2007, the D.C. Bar "disbarred [him] pursuant to D.C. Code § 11-2503(a)" on legal grounds of "moral turpitude", effective April 11, 2007, and recommended to the D.C. Court of Appeals his disbarment if his conviction were not overturned on appeal. On December 10, 2007, Libby's lawyers announced his decision "to drop his appeal of his conviction in the CIA leak case". On March 20, 2008, following the dropping of his appeal of his conviction, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals disbarred Libby. As a result of the Court's ruling, "Libby will lose his license to practice or appear in court in Washington until at least 2012", and, "As is standard, he will probably lose any bar membership he holds in other states"; that is, in Pennsylvania.
Government public service and political career
In 1981, after working as a lawyer in the Philadelphia firm Schnader LLP, Libby accepted the invitation of his former Yale University political science professor and mentor Paul Wolfowitz to join the U.S. State Department's policy planning staff. From 1982 to 1985, Libby served as director of special projects in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. In 1985 he received the Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service from the United States Department of Defense, and he resigned from government to enter private legal practice at Dickstein, Shapiro, and Morin. In 1989, he went to work at the Pentagon, again under Wolfowitz, as principal deputy under-secretary for strategy and resources at the U.S. Defense Department.
During the George H. W. Bush administration, Libby was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as deputy under secretary of defense for policy, serving from 1992 to 1993. In 1992 he also served as legal adviser for the House Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China. Libby co-authored the draft of the Defense Planning Guidance for the 1994–99 fiscal years (dated February 18, 1992) with Wolfowitz for Dick Cheney, who was then Secretary of Defense. In 1993 Libby received the Distinguished Service Award from the U.S. Defense Department and the Distinguished Public Service Award from the U.S. State Department before resuming private legal practice first at Mudge Rose and then at Dechert.
Libby was part of a network of neo-conservatives known as the "Vulcans"—its other members included Wolfowitz, Condoleezza Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld. While he was still a managing partner of Dechert Price & Rhoads, he was a signatory to the "Statement of Principles" of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) (a document dated June 3, 1997). He joined Wolfowitz, PNAC co-founders William Kristol, Robert Kagan, and other "Project Participants" in developing the PNAC's September 2000 report entitled, "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces, and Resources for a New Century".
After becoming Cheney's chief of staff in 2001, Libby was reportedly nicknamed "Germ Boy" at the White House, for insisting on universal smallpox vaccination. He was also nicknamed "Dick Cheney's Dick Cheney" for his close working relationship with the Vice President. Mary Matalin, who worked with Libby as an adviser to Cheney during Bush's first term, said of him "He is to the vice president what the vice president is to the president."
Libby was active in the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee of the Pentagon when it was chaired by Richard Perle during the early years of the George W. Bush administration (2001–2003). At various points in his career, Libby has also held positions with the American Bar Association, been on the advisory board of the RAND Corporation's Center for Russia and Eurasia, and been a legal adviser to the United States House of Representatives, as well as served as a consultant for the defense contractor Northrop Grumman.
Libby was also actively involved in the Bush administration's efforts to negotiate the Israeli–Palestinian "road map" for peace; for example, he participated in a series of meetings with Jewish leaders in early December 2002 and a meeting with two aides of then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in mid-April 2003, culminating in the Red Sea Summit on June 4, 2004. In their highly controversial and widely contested "Working Paper" entitled "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy", University of Chicago political science professor John J. Mearsheimer and academic dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University Stephen M. Walt argue that Libby was among the Bush administration's most "fervently pro-Israel ... officials" (20).
Awards for government service
Distinguished Service Award, United States Department of Defense, 1993
Distinguished Public Service Award, United States Department of the Navy, 1993
Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service, United States Department of State, 1985
Subsequent work experience
From January 2006 until March 7, 2007, the day after his conviction in United States v. Libby, when he resigned, Libby served as a "senior adviser" at the Hudson Institute, to "focus on issues relating to the War on Terror and the future of Asia ... offer research guidance and ... advise the institute in strategic planning." His resignation was announced by the Hudson Institute in a press release dated March 8, 2007. However, he has served as Senior Vice President of the Hudson Institute at least since 2010.
Libby also serves as a member of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense, a group that encourages and advocates changes to government policy to strengthen national biodefense. In order to address biological threats facing the nation, the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense created a 33 step initiative for the U.S. Government to implement. Headed by former Senator Joe Lieberman and former Governor Tom Ridge, the Study Panel assembled in Washington D.C. for four meetings concerning current biodefense programs. The Study Panel concluded that the federal government had little to no defense mechanisms in case of a biological event. The Study Panel's final report, The National Blueprint for Biodefense, proposes a string of solutions and recommendations for the U.S. Government to take, including items such as giving the Vice President authority over biodefense responsibilities and merging the entire biodefense budget. These solutions represent the Panel's call to action in order to increase awareness and activity for pandemic related issues.
Involvement in the Plame affair
Between 2003 and 2005, intense speculation centered on the possibility that Libby may have been the administration official who had "leaked" classified employment information about Valerie Plame, a covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent and the wife of Iraq War critic Joseph C. Wilson, to New York Times reporter Judith Miller and other reporters and later tried to hide his having done so.
In August 2005, as revealed in grand jury testimony audiotapes played during the trial and reported in many news accounts, Libby testified that he met with Judith Miller, a reporter with The New York Times, on July 8, 2003, and discussed Plame with her.
Although Libby signed a "blanket waiver" allowing journalists to discuss their conversations with him pursuant to the CIA leak grand jury investigation, Miller maintained that such a waiver did not serve to allow her to reveal her source to that grand jury; moreover, Miller argued that Libby's general waiver pertaining to all journalists could have been coerced and that she would only testify before that grand jury if given an individual waiver.
After refusing to testify about her July 2003 meeting with Libby, Judith Miller was jailed on July 7, 2005, for contempt of court. Months later, however, her new attorney, Robert Bennett, told her that she already had possessed a written, voluntary waiver from Libby all along. After Miller had served most of her sentence, Libby reiterated that he had indeed given her a "waiver" both "voluntarily and personally." He attached the following letter, which, when released publicly, became the subject of further speculation about Libby's possible motives in sending it:
As noted above, my lawyer confirmed my waiver to other reporters in just the way he did with your lawyer. Why? Because as I am sure will not be news to you, the public report of every other reporter's testimony makes clear that they did not discuss Ms. Plame's name or identity with me, or knew about her before our call.
After agreeing to testify, Miller was released on September 29, 2005, appearing before the grand jury the next day, but the charge against her was rescinded only after she testified again on October 12, 2005. For her second grand jury appearance, Miller produced a notebook from a previously undisclosed meeting with Libby on June 23, 2003, two weeks before Wilson's New York Times op-ed was published. In her account published in the Times on October 16, 2005, based on her notes, Miller reports:
... in an interview with me on June 23 [2003], Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, discussed Mr. Wilson's activities and placed blame for intelligence failures on the CIA. In later conversations with me, on July 8 and July 12 [2003], Mr. Libby, ... [at the time] Mr. Cheney's top aide, played down the importance of Mr. Wilson's mission and questioned his performance ... My notes indicate that well before Mr. Wilson published his critique, Mr. Libby told me that Mr. Wilson's wife may have worked on unconventional weapons at the CIA. ... My notes do not show that Mr. Libby identified Mr. Wilson's wife by name. Nor do they show that he described Valerie Wilson as a covert agent or "operative"...
Her notation on her July 8, 2003 meeting with Libby does contain the name "Valerie Flame ", which she added retrospectively. While Miller reveals publicly that she herself had misidentified the last name of Wilson's wife (aka "Valerie Plame") in her own marginal notes on their interview as "Flame" instead of "Plame", in her grand jury (and later trial testimony), she remained uncertain when, how, and why she arrived at that name and did not attribute it to Libby:
I was not permitted to take notes of what I told the grand jury, and my interview notes on Mr. Libby are sketchy in places. It is also difficult, more than two years later, to parse the meaning and context of phrases, of underlining and of parentheses. On one page of my interview notes, for example, I wrote the name "Valerie Flame." Yet, as I told Mr. Fitzgerald, I simply could not recall where that came from, when I wrote it or why the name was misspelled ... I testified that I did not believe the name came from Mr. Libby, in part because the notation does not appear in the same part of my notebook as the interview notes from him.
A year and a half later, a jury convicted Libby of obstruction of justice and perjury in his grand jury testimony and making false statements to federal investigators about when and how he learned that Plame was a CIA agent.
On April 13, 2018, Libby was pardoned by US President Donald Trump.
Indictment and resignation
On October 28, 2005, as a result of the CIA leak grand jury investigation, Special Counsel Fitzgerald indicted Libby on five counts: one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of making false statements when interviewed by agents of the FBI, and two counts of perjury in his testimony before the grand jury. Pursuant to the grand jury investigation, Libby had told FBI investigators that he first heard of Mrs. Wilson's CIA employment from Cheney, and then later heard it from journalist Tim Russert, and acted as if he did not have that information. The indictment alleges that statements to federal investigators and the grand jury were intentionally false, in that Libby had numerous conversations about Mrs. Wilson's CIA employment, including his conversations with Judith Miller (see above), before speaking to Russert; Russert did not tell Libby about Mrs. Wilson's CIA employment; prior to talking with such reporters, Libby knew with certainty that she was employed by the CIA; and Libby told reporters that she worked for the CIA without making any disclaimer that he was uncertain of that fact. The false statements counts in the Libby indictment charge that he intentionally made those false statements to the FBI; the perjury counts charge that he intentionally lied to the grand jury in repeating those false statements; and the obstruction of justice count charges that Libby intentionally made those false statements in order to mislead the grand jury, thus impeding Fitzgerald's grand jury investigation of the truth about the leaking of Mrs. Wilson's then-classified, covert CIA identity.
Trial, conviction, and sentencing
On March 6, 2007, the jury convicted him on four of the five counts: obstruction of justice, one count of making false statements when interviewed by agents of the FBI, and two counts of perjury. They acquitted him on count three, the second charge of making false statements when interviewed by federal agents about his conversations with Time reporter Matthew Cooper.
Libby retained attorney Ted Wells of the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to represent him. Wells had successfully defended former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy against a 30-count indictment and had also participated in the successful defense of former Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan.
After Judge Reggie Walton denied Libby's motion to dismiss, the press initially reported that Libby would testify at the trial. Libby's criminal trial, United States v. Libby, began on January 16, 2007. A parade of Pulitzer Prize–winning journalists testified, including Bob Woodward, Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post and Judith Miller and David E. Sanger of The New York Times. Despite earlier press reports and widespread speculation, neither Libby nor Vice President Cheney testified. The jury began deliberations on February 21, 2007.
Verdict
After deliberating for 10 days, the jury rendered its verdict on March 6, 2007. It convicted Libby on four of the five counts against him: two counts of perjury, one count of obstruction of justice in a grand jury investigation, and one of the two counts of making false statements to federal investigators.
After the verdict, initially, Libby's lawyers announced that he would seek a new trial, and that, if that attempt were to fail, they would appeal Libby's conviction. Libby did not speak to reporters. Libby's defense team eventually decided against seeking a new trial.
Speaking to the media outside the courtroom after the verdict, Fitzgerald said that "The jury worked very long and hard and deliberated at length ... [and] was obviously convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had lied and obstructed justice in a serious manner ... I do not expect to file any further charges." The trial confirmed that the leak came first from then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage; since Fitzgerald did not charge Armitage and did not charge anyone else, Libby's conviction effectively ended the investigation.
In his October 28, 2005, press conference about the grand jury's indictment, Fitzgerald had already explained that Libby's obstruction of justice through perjury and false statements had prevented the grand jury from determining whether the leak violated federal law.
During his media appearance outside the courtroom after the verdict in the Libby case, Fitzgerald fielded questions from the press about others involved in the Plame affair and in the CIA leak grand jury investigation, such as Armitage and Cheney, whom he had already described as under "a cloud", as already addressed in his conduct of the case and in his closing arguments in court.
Sentencing
Given current federal sentencing guidelines, which are not mandatory, the conviction could have resulted in a sentence ranging from no imprisonment to imprisonment of up to 25 years and a fine of $1,000,000; yet, as Sniffen and Apuzzo observe, "federal sentencing guidelines will probably prescribe far less." In practice, according to federal sentencing data, three-fourths of the 198 defendants found guilty of obstruction of justice in 2006 served jail time. The average length of jail time on this charge alone was 70 months.
On June 5, 2007, Judge Walton sentenced Libby to 30 months in prison and fined him $250,000, clarifying that Libby would begin his sentence immediately. According to Apuzzo and Yost, the judge also "placed him on two years probation after his prison sentence expires. There is no parole in the federal system, but Libby would be eligible for release after two years." In addition, Judge Walton required Libby to provide "400 hours of community service" during his supervised release. On June 5, 2007, after the announcement of Libby's sentencing, CNN reported that Libby still "plans to appeal the verdict".
That day, in response to the sentencing, Vice President Cheney issued a statement in Libby's defense on The White House website. The statement concluded: "Speaking as friends, we hope that our system will return a final result consistent with what we know of this fine man."
Joseph and Valerie Wilson posted their statement on Libby's sentencing in United States v. Libby on their website, "grateful that justice has been served."
Order to report to prison pending appeal of verdict
After the June 5 sentencing, Walton said he was inclined to jail Libby after the defense laid out its proposed appeal, but the judge told attorneys he was open to changing his mind"; however, on June 14, 2007, Walton ordered Libby to report to prison while his attorneys appealed the conviction. Libby's attorneys asked that the order be stayed, but Walton denied the request and told Libby that he would have 10 days to appeal the ruling. In denying Libby's request, which had questioned Fitzgerald's authority to make the charges in the first place, Walton supported Fitzgerald's authority in the case. He said: "Everyone is accountable, and if you work in the White House, and if it's perceived that somehow (you're) linked at the hip, the American public would have serious questions about the fairness of any investigation of a high-level official conducted by the attorney general." The judge was also responding to an Amicus curiae brief that he had permitted to be filed, which had not apparently convinced him to change his mind, as he subsequently denied Libby bail during his appeal. His "order grant[ing] the [legal academic] scholars permission to file their brief ..." contained a caustic footnote questioning the motivation of the legal academics and suggesting he might not give a great deal of weight to their opinion[:]
... It is an impressive show of public service when twelve prominent and distinguished current and former law professors are able to amass their collective wisdom in the course of only several days to provide their legal expertise to the court on behalf of a criminal defendant. The Court trusts that this is a reflection of these eminent academics' willingness in the future to step to the plate and provide like assistance in cases involving any of the numerous litigants, both in this Court and throughout the courts of this nation, who lack the financial means to fully and properly articulate the merits of their legal positions even in instances where failure to do so could result in monetary penalties, incarceration, or worse. The Court will certainly not hesitate to call for such assistance from these luminaries, as necessary in the interests of justice and equity, whenever similar questions arise in the cases that come before it."
Moreover, when the hearing started, "in the interest of full disclosure," Walton informed the court that he had "received a number of harassing, angry and mean-spirited phone calls and messages. Some wishing bad things on me and my family ... [T]hose types of things will have no impact ... I initially threw them away, but then there were more, some that were more hateful ... [T]hey are being kept."
New York Times reporters Neil Lewis and David Stout estimated subsequently that Libby's prison sentence could begin within "two months", explaining that
Judge Walton's decision means that the defense lawyers will probably ask a federal appeals court to block the sentence, a long-shot move. It also sharpens interest in a question being asked by Mr. Libby's supporters and critics alike: Will President Bush pardon Mr. Libby? ... So far, the president has expressed sympathy for Mr. Libby and his family but has not tipped his hand on the pardon issue. ... If the president does not pardon him, and if an appeals court refuses to second-guess Judge Walton's decision, Mr. Libby will probably be ordered to report to prison in six to eight weeks' time. Federal prison authorities will decide where. "Unless the Court of Appeals overturns my ruling, he will have to report", Judge Walton said.
Failure of Libby's appeal in order to begin prison sentence
On June 20, 2007, Libby appealed Walton's ruling in federal appeals court. The following day, Walton filed a 30-page expanded ruling, in which he explained his decision to deny Libby bail in more detail.
On July 2, 2007, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied Libby's request for a delay and release from his prison sentence, stating that Libby "has not shown that the appeal raises a substantial question under federal law that would merit letting him remain free," increasing "pressure on President George W. Bush to decide soon whether to pardon Libby ... as the former White House official's supporters have urged."
Presidential commutation
Soon after the verdict, calls for Libby to be pardoned by President George W. Bush began to appear in some newspapers; some of them were posted online by the Libby Legal Defense Trust (LLDT). U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid issued a press release about the verdict, urging Bush to pledge not to pardon Libby, and other Democratic politicians followed his lead.
Surveying "the pardon battle" and citing both pro and con publications, The Washington Post online columnist Dan Froomkin concludes that many U.S. newspapers opposed a presidential pardon for Libby. Much of this commentary obscured the fact that the clemency power provided the President with several options short of a full, unconditional pardon. In an op-ed published in The Washington Post, former federal prosecutor and conservative activist William Otis argued the sentence was too stringent and that, instead of pardoning Libby, Bush should commute his sentence.
After the sentencing, Bush stated on camera that he would "not intervene until Libby's legal team has exhausted all of its avenues of appeal ... It wouldn't be appropriate for me to discuss the case until after the legal remedies have run its course." Ultimately, less than a month later, on July 2, 2007, Bush chose Otis's 'third option' — "neither prison nor pardon" — in commuting Libby's prison sentence.
After Libby was denied bail during his appeal process on July 2, 2007, Bush commuted Libby's 30-month federal prison sentence, calling it "excessive", but he did not change the other parts of the sentence and their conditions. That presidential commutation left in place the felony conviction, the $250,000 fine, and the terms of probation. Some have criticized the move, as presidential commutations are rarely issued, but when granted they have generally occurred after the convicted person has already served a substantial portion of his or her sentence: "We can't find any cases, certainly in the last half-century, where the president commuted a sentence before it had even started to be served," said former Justice Department pardon attorney Margaret Colgate Love. Others, notably Cheney himself who argued that Libby was unfairly charged by a politically motivated prosecution, believed that the commutation fell short, as Libby would likely never practice law again.
At the time, Bush explained his "Grant of Executive Clemency" to Libby, in part, as follows:
Mr. Libby was sentenced to thirty months of prison, two years of probation, and a $250,000 fine. In making the sentencing decision, the district court rejected the advice of the probation office, which recommended a lesser sentence and the consideration of factors that could have led to a sentence of home confinement or probation.
Libby paid the required fine of "$250,400, which included a 'special assessment' of costs" that same day.
Bush's explanation was written by Fred F. Fielding, White House Counsel during the last two years of Bush's presidency. According to a Time article published six months after Bush left office, Fielding worded the commutation "in a way that would make it harder for Bush to revisit it in the future ... ; [the] language was intended to send an unmistakable message, internally as well as externally: No one is above the law." The article suggested that there was a fundamental difference between how Bush and Cheney viewed the "War on Terror", with aides close to Bush feeling that Cheney had misled the President and damaged the administration's moral character with the Plame leak.
Libby's lawyer, Theodore V. Wells, Jr. "issued a brief statement saying Mr. Libby and his family 'wished to express their gratitude for the president's decision ... We continue to believe in Mr. Libby's innocence'. ... "
Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, however, took issue with Bush's description of the sentence as 'excessive', saying it was "[i]mposed pursuant to the laws governing sentencings which occur every day throughout this country ... It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals ... [T]hat principle guided the judge during both the trial and the sentencing," Fitzgerald said.
The day after the commuting of Libby's sentence, James Rowley (Bloomberg News) reported that Bush had not ruled out pardoning Libby in the future and that Bush's press spokesman, Tony Snow, denied any political motivation in the commutation. Quoting Snow, Rowley added: The president is getting pounded on the right because he didn't do a full pardon.' If Bush were 'doing the weather-vane thing' he 'would have done something differently.
Democratic politicians' responses stressed their outrage at what they called a disgraceful abrogation of justice, and, that evening CNN reported that Representative John Conyers, Jr., Democrat of Michigan, announced that there would be a formal Congressional investigation of Bush's commutation of Libby's sentence and other presidential reprieves.
The hearing on "The Use and Misuse of Presidential Clemency Power for Executive Branch Officials" was held by the United States House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Conyers, on July 11, 2007.
Just a few days later, however, Judge Walton questioned "whether ... [Libby] will face two years of probation, as [President Bush] said he would," because the supervised release time is conditioned on Libby's serving the prison sentence, and he "directed the special prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, and ... [Libby's] lawyers to file arguments on the point. ... " "If Judge Walton does not impose any supervised release, it could undercut ... [Bush's] argument that ... Libby still faced stiff justice." That issue was resolved on July 10, 2007, clearing the way for Libby to begin serving the rest of his sentence, the supervised release and 400 hours of community service.
In response to Bush's justifications for clemency, liberal commentator Harlan J. Protass noted that in Rita v. United States, the case of a defendant convicted of perjury in front of a grand jury which had been decided two weeks earlier by the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. government had successfully argued that sentences that fall within Federal Sentencing Guidelines are presumed to be "reasonable", regardless of individual circumstances.
Reportedly outraged by Bush's commutation of Libby's prison sentence, on July 2, 2007, Wilson told CNN: "I have nothing to say to Scooter Libby ... I don't owe this administration. They owe my wife and my family an apology for having betrayed her. Scooter Libby is a traitor. Bush's action ... demonstrates that the White House is corrupt from top to bottom." He reiterated this perspective on the commutation in the House Judiciary Committee hearing on July 11, 2007, vehemently protesting that a Republican congressman was engaging in "yet a further smear of my wife's good name and my good name."
According to a USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted from July 6 to July 8, 2007, "most Americans disagree with President George W. Bush's decision to intervene" on Libby's behalf in the case.
Several months after Bush's action, Judge Walton commented publicly on it. He spoke in favor of applying the law equally, stating: "The downside [of the commutation] is there are a lot of people in America who think that justice is determined to a large degree by who you are and that what you have plays a large role in what kind of justice you receive. ... "
Bush took no further action with respect to Libby's conviction or sentence during his presidential term, despite entreaties from conservatives that he should be pardoned. Two days after their term expired, former Vice President Cheney expressed his regret that Bush had not pardoned Libby on his last day in office.
Press coverage of Libby's trial
Blogs played a prominent role in the press coverage of Libby's trial. Scott Shane, in his article "For Liberal Bloggers, Libby Trial Is Fun and Fodder", published in The New York Times on February 15, 2007, quotes Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, who wrote that the trial was "the first federal case for which independent bloggers have been given official credentials along with reporters from the traditional news media." The trial was followed in the mass media and engaged the interest of both professional legal experts and the general public. While awaiting the judge's ruling pertaining to supervised release and the "400 hours of community service that Judge Walton imposed", for example, bloggers discussed the legal issues involved in these non-commuted parts of Libby's sentence and their effects on Libby's future life experiences.
Criticism of investigation
On August 28, 2006, Christopher Hitchens asserted that Richard Armitage was the primary source of the Valerie Plame leak and that Fitzgerald knew this at the beginning of his investigation. This was supported a month later by Armitage himself, who stated that Fitzgerald had instructed him not to go public with this information. Investor's Business Daily questioned Fitzgerald's truthfulness in an editorial, stating "From top to bottom, this has been one of the most disgraceful abuses of prosecutorial power in this country's history ... The Plame case proves [Fitzgerald] can bend the truth with the proficiency of the slickest of pols."
In a September 2008 Wall Street Journal editorial, attorney Alan Dershowitz cited the "questionable investigation[s]" of Scooter Libby as evidence of the problems brought to the criminal justice process by "politically appointed and partisan attorney[s] general". In April 2015, also writing in The Wall Street Journal, Hoover Institution fellow Peter Berkowitz argued that statements by Judith Miller, in her recently published memoir, raised anew contentions that her testimony was inaccurate and that Fitzgerald's conduct as prosecutor was inappropriate.
The Wilsons' civil suit
On July 13, 2006, Joseph and Valerie Wilson filed a civil lawsuit against Libby, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and other unnamed senior White House officials (among whom they later added Richard Armitage) for their role in the public disclosure of Valerie Wilson's classified CIA status. Judge John D. Bates dismissed the Wilsons' lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds on July 19, 2007. The Wilsons appealed Bates's district-court decision the next day. Agreeing with the Bush administration, the Obama Justice Department argued that the Wilsons had no legitimate grounds to sue. Melanie Sloan, one of the Wilsons' attorneys, said: "We are deeply disappointed that the Obama administration has failed to recognize the grievous harm top Bush White House officials inflicted on Joe and Valerie Wilson. The government's position cannot be reconciled with President Obama's oft-stated commitment to once again make government officials accountable for their actions."
On June 21, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal.
Restoration of voting rights, law license, and presidential pardon
Libby's voting rights were restored on November 1, 2012 by then-Governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell. Libby was part of a larger group of individuals who had their voting rights restored by McDonnell, all of whom were non-violent offenders. Three years later, on November 3, 2016, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals granted Libby's petition for reinstatement to the D.C. Bar. On April 13, 2018, President Donald Trump pardoned Libby.
In media portrayals
David Andrews played Scooter Libby in the 2010 film Fair Game, which is about the Plame affair.
Justin Kirk played Libby in the 2018 film Vice.
See also
List of disbarments in the United States
Plame affair criminal investigation
Project for the New American Century
List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States
Notes
Citations
References
. United States Department of State, February 2005. Accessed July 8, 2007.
Bromell, Nick. "Scooter Libby and Me". The American Scholar (Phi Beta Kappa) (Winter 2007). Accessed June 8, 2007.
–––. "Scooter's Tragic Innocence: Why My Friend Scooter Libby Is Loyal to Bush, Cheney and an Arrogant Administration Whose Values Are Not His Own". Salon, January 24, 2007. Accessed June 8, 2007. (Premium content; restricted access).
Dickerson, John. "Who Is Scooter Libby? The Secretive Cheney Aide at the Heart of the CIA Leak Case". Slate, October 21, 2005. Accessed June 28, 2007.
Frankel, Max. "The Washington Back Channel". The New York Times, March 25, 2007. Accessed March 23, 2008.
Garfield, Bob. "'Former New York Times Staffer Judith Miller'". On the Media from NPR, National Public Radio, WCNY-FM, November 11, 2005. Accessed March 5, 2007. (Transcript and RealAudio link.)
"I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby". Right Web (International Relations Center). Last updated March 21, 2007. Accessed July 1, 2007.
"Indictment" in United States of America vs. I. Lewis Libby, also known as "Scooter Libby". United States Department of Justice, October 28, 2005. Accessed July 5, 2007.
Libby, Lewis. The Apprentice: A Novel. Rpt. ed. 1996; New York: Griffin, 2005. (10). (13).
Markels, Alex. "Legal Affairs: I. Lewis Libby: The Plight of a Disciplined Risk-Taker". National Public Radio, October 28, 2005. Accessed March 5, 2007.
Merritt, Jeralyn, moderator. "Verdict in the Libby Trial". Transcript. The Washington Post ("Live Online" discussion), March 6, 2007, 2:00–3:00 p.m., ET. Accessed March 6, 2007. (Duration: one hour.) N.B.: "Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties."
in "United States of America, v. I. Lewis Libby, Defendant". Criminal No. 05-394 (RBW). United States District Court for the District of Columbia, filed January 10, 2007. Accessed February 10, 2007. ["USA-v-Libby_Rules-of-Order.pdf".]
"President Commutes Libby's Sentence: Calls 30-month Term for Ex-Cheney Aide 'excessive'". Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, July 3, 2007. Accessed July 4, 2007.
. White House biography from 2004. Accessed February 10, 2007.
Waas, Murray. "Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Leak Classified Information". National Journal, February 9, 2006. Accessed March 6, 2007.
–––, ed., with Jeff Lomonaco. The United States v. I. Lewis Libby. New York: Union Square Press (imprint of Sterling Publishing), 2007. (10). (13). ("Edited & with reporting by Murray Waas" and with research assistance by Jeff Lomonaco.)
Weisman, Steven. "White House Is Pressing Israelis To Take Initiatives in Peace Talks". The New York Times, April 17, 2003. Accessed March 23, 2008.
Wilson, Joseph C. "Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson's Response to Bush Spokesman Tony Snow's Comments at Today's White House Briefing". Online posting. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), July 3, 2007. Accessed July 4, 2007. Online posting. "Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson's Response ... " and "Read more", Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust (Home page), n.d. Accessed July 8, 2007. (Concerning Bush's commutation of Libby's prison sentence.)
–––. "Statement in Response to Jury's Verdict in U.S. v. I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby" (now outdated URL). Press release. Originally posted online. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), March 6, 2007. Accessed March 6, 2007. Posted as "CREW Statement on Libby Conviction: No Man Is Above the Law." Citizens ^Blogging for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (blog), March 6, 2007. Accessed April 18, 2007. Also posted as "Wilsons' Attorney Statement in Response to Jury's Verdict in U.S. v. I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby". Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust, March 6, 2007, home page. Accessed April 18, 2007.
External links
Background on the Plame Investigation at The Washington Post.
CNN Special Reports: CIA Leak Investigation compiled by CNN Newsroom; incl. interactive timeline in Case History.
"Legal Affairs: Lewis Libby's Complete Grand Jury Testimony". Full audio clip and transcript provided by National Public Radio on npr.org,
"The Lewis Libby Case". Archive of articles concerning Libby broadcast on National Public Radio.
.
United States v. I. Lewis Libby. Photo gallery with news captions at The Washington Post.
Membership at the Council on Foreign Relations
1950 births
Jewish American attorneys
Assistants to the President of the United States
Chiefs of Staff to the Vice President of the United States
Columbia Law School alumni
Columbia University alumni
Living people
Members of the Council on Foreign Relations
Pennsylvania Democrats
Pennsylvania Republicans
People associated with the Plame affair
People from McLean, Virginia
Lawyers from New Haven, Connecticut
Lawyers from Philadelphia
Phillips Academy alumni
Reagan administration personnel
Recipients of American presidential clemency
Recipients of American presidential pardons
Yale University alumni
Hudson Institute
Conservatism in the United States | false | [
"No Matter What They Say is a song by Lil' Kim\n\nNo Matter What They Say\tmay also refer to:\n\"No Matter What They Say\", song by Denise LaSalle\t1978\n\"No Matter What They Say\", song by Priscilla Hernández \n\"No Matter What They Say\", song by Heinz (singer)\tMeek, Lawrence 1964\n\"No Matter What They Say\", song by Booker T. & the MG's, sampled in \"Shamrocks and Shenanigans\" on House of Pain (album)\n\"No Matter What They Say\", song by Raptile",
"\"No Matter What They Say\" is a song by Lil' Kim, released as the first single from her second album The Notorious K.I.M., released in 2000. It reached number 60 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number 35 on the UK Singles Chart.\n\nBackground\n\"No Matter What They Say\" was not Kim's first choice as the lead single from the album. Kim did not want the song released as she felt the Spanish sound had already been done so many times due to the Latin pop explosion of the late 90s. Instead Kim wanted \"The Queen\", one of the songs that leaked prior to the album's release, as her first single. The record label didn't agree with Kim and insisted on releasing \"No Matter What They Say\". With time running out and not wanting her first week album sales to suffer, Kim agreed with her label to release the song. \"The Queen\" never made it on the album's final track listing.\n\nSamples\nThis song sampled many other songs, including:\n\"Esto es el Guaguanco\" by Cheo Feliciano\n\"I Got It Made\" by Special Ed\n\"I Know You Got Soul\" by Eric B. & Rakim\n\"Rapper's Delight\" by The Sugarhill Gang\n\nThe song also samples the line 'I'm just tryna be me, doing what I gotta do' from \"Top of the World\" by Brandy as well as \"This is how it should be done\" from Roxanne's On A Roll by The Real Roxanne.\n\nMusic video \nThe accompanying music video for \"No Matter What They Say\" was filmed in Los Angeles and directed by Marcus Raboy in early June 2000. It features cameo appearances from Puff Daddy, Mary J. Blige, Missy Elliott, Method Man & Redman, Xzibit, Junior M.A.F.I.A. and Carmen Electra. The video needed some digital retouches, such was \"nipple fixes\" for when Kim wiggles out of her Versace bustiers and computer-edited T-shirts for her backup girls (they were altered to \"itty girls\"). Cameo dancer Carmen Electra had her underwear altered as well. \"It's not like you could really see anything. It's just the freeze-frame factor you have to consider\", said director Marcus Raboy. The music video premiered on Total Request Live (TRL) on June 20, 2000.\n\nTrack listings\n\nUS Promo CD\n\"No Matter What They Say\" (Radio Edit) - 4:19\n\"No Matter What They Say\" (Album Version) - 5:35\n\"No Matter What They Say\" (Instrumental) - 4:21\n\nEurope CD single\n\"No Matter What They Say\" (Radio Edit) - 4:18\n\"No Matter What They Say\" (Album Version) - 4:14\n\"No Matter What They Say\" (Instrumental) - 4:19\n\"No Matter What They Say\" (Acappella) - 4:26\n\nCredits and personnel\nCredits for \"No Matter What They Say\" are taken from the single's liner notes.\n\nRecording\nRecorded at Daddy's House Recording Studios.\nRecorded by Stephen Dent\n\nPersonnel\n Lil' Kim – lead vocals\n K. Jones, D. Henson, J. Feliciano, Eric B. & Rakim, E. Archer, R. Beavers, J. Hill, P. Jovner, D. Taylor, H. Thomas, N. Rodgers, B. Edwards – songwriting\n Darren \"Limitless\" Henson – producer\n Rich Travali – mixing\n Chris Athens – audio mastering\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\n2000 singles\nLil' Kim songs\nMusic videos directed by Marcus Raboy\n1999 songs\nAtlantic Records singles\nSongs written by Lil' Kim\nSongs written by Bernard Edwards\nSongs written by Nile Rodgers"
]
|
[
"Scooter Libby",
"Trial, conviction, and sentencing",
"What was he on trial for?",
"I don't know.",
"When was the trial?",
"United States v. Libby, began on January 16, 2007.",
"Who was called in to testify?",
"Bob Woodward, Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post and Judith Miller and David E. Sanger",
"What did they say?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_9b3f2d9b78904bdd9a4dc0f6fa76ef2c_0 | Did anyone else testify? | 5 | Did anyone else besides Bob Woodward, Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post and Judith Miller and David E. Sanger testify? | Scooter Libby | On March 6, 2007, the jury convicted him on four of the five counts but acquitted him on count three, the second charge of making false statements when interviewed by federal agents about his conversations with Time reporter Matthew Cooper. After being questioned by the FBI in the fall of 2003 and testifying before a Federal grand jury on March 5, 2004, and again on March 24, 2004, Libby pleaded not guilty to all five counts. According to the Associated Press, David Addington, Cheney's legal counsel, described a September 2003 meeting with Libby around the time that a criminal investigation began, saying that Libby had told him, "'I just want to tell you, I didn't do it'... I didn't ask what the 'it' was.'" Libby retained attorney Ted Wells of the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to represent him. Wells had successfully defended former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy against a 30-count indictment and had also participated in the successful defense of former Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan. After Judge Reggie Walton denied Libby's motion to dismiss, the press initially reported that Libby would testify at the trial. Libby's criminal trial, United States v. Libby, began on January 16, 2007. A parade of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists testified, including Bob Woodward, Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post and Judith Miller and David E. Sanger of The New York Times. Despite earlier press reports and widespread speculation, neither Libby nor Vice President Cheney testified. The jury began deliberations on February 21, 2007. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby (first name generally given as Irv, Irve or Irving; born August 22, 1950) is an American lawyer, and former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.
From 2001 to 2005, Libby held the offices of Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs, Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States, and Assistant to the President during the administration of President George W. Bush.
In October 2005, Libby resigned from all three government positions after he was indicted on five counts by a federal grand jury concerning the investigation of the leak of the covert identity of Central Intelligence Agency officer Valerie Plame Wilson. He was subsequently convicted of four counts (one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury, and one count of making false statements), making him the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since John Poindexter, the national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan in the Iran–Contra affair.
After a failed appeal, President Bush commuted Libby's sentence of 30 months in federal prison, leaving the other parts of his sentence intact. As a consequence of his conviction in United States v. Libby, Libby's license to practice law was suspended until being reinstated in 2016. President Donald Trump fully pardoned Libby on April 13, 2018.
Personal history
Background and education
Libby was born to an affluent Jewish family in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, Irving Lewis Leibovitz, was an investment banker. His father changed his family original surname from Leibovitz to Libby.
Libby graduated from the Eaglebrook School, in Deerfield, Massachusetts, a junior boarding school, in 1965. The family lived in the Washington, D.C. region; Miami, Florida; and Connecticut prior to Libby's graduation from Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1968.
He and his elder brother, Hank, a retired tax lawyer, were the first in the family to graduate from college. Libby attended Yale University in New Haven, graduating magna cum laude in 1972. As Yale Daily News reporter Jack Mirkinson observes, "Even though he would eventually become a prominent Republican, Libby's political beginnings would not have pointed in that direction. He served as vice president of the Yale College Democrats and later campaigned for Michael Dukakis when he was running for governor of Massachusetts." According to Mirkinson: "Two particular Yale courses helped guide Libby's future endeavors. One of these was a creative writing course, which started Libby on a 20-year mission to complete a novel ... [later published as] The Apprentice ... [and] a political science class with professor and future Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. In an interview with author James Mann, Libby said Wolfowitz was one of his favorite professors, and their professional relationship did not end with the class." Wolfowitz became a significant mentor in his later professional life.
In 1975, as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, Libby received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Columbia Law School.
Marriage and family
Libby is married to Harriet Grant, whom he met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the late 1980s, while he was a partner and she an associate in the law firm then known as Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin: When he and Harriet became serious,' Dickstein partner Kenneth Simon wrote, 'she chose to leave the firm rather than maintain the awkward situation of an associate dating a partner. Libby and Grant married in the early 1990s, have a son and a daughter, and live in McLean, Virginia.
Name
Libby has been secretive about his full name. He was prosecuted as I. Lewis Libby, also known as "Scooter Libby". National Public Radio's Day to Day reported that the 1972 Yale Banner (the yearbook of Yale) gave his name as Irve Lewis Libby Jr.; it is unclear if Irve is his given name, or if it is short for Irving, as it was for his father. CBS, the BBC, and The New York Timess John Tierney have all used this spelling of his first name. The Timess Eric Schmitt spelled it Irv, though he cited a phone interview with Libby's brother, and did not clarify if he had asked for a spelling.
At times, including in the Yale Banner, and as documented in a federal directory cited by Ron Kampeas and others, Libby has used the suffix Jr. after his name. At other times, however, as listed in his federal indictment and United States v. Libby, which give his alias as Scooter Libby, there is no Jr. after Libby's name. The Columbia Alumni Association online directory lists him as I. Lewis Libby, with a first name of "I." and birth first name of "Irve".
Libby has also been secretive about the origin of his nickname Scooter. The New York Timess Eric Schmitt, citing the aforementioned interview with Libby's brother, wrote that "His nickname 'Scooter' derives from the day [his] father watched him crawling in his crib and joked, 'He's a Scooter! In a February 2002 interview on Larry King Live, King asked Libby specifically, "Where did 'Scooter' come from?"; Libby replied: "Oh, it goes way back to when I was a kid. Some people ask me if ... [crosstalk] ... as you did earlier, if it's related to Phil Rizzuto [nicknamed 'The Scooter']. I had the range but not the arm."
The Apprentice
Libby's only novel, The Apprentice, about a group of travelers stranded in northern Japan in the winter of 1903, during a smallpox epidemic in the run-up to the Russo-Japanese War, was first published in a hardback edition by Graywolf Press in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1996, and reprinted as a trade paperback by St. Martin's Thomas Dunne Books in 2002. After Libby's indictment in the CIA leak grand jury investigation in 2005, St. Martin's Press reissued The Apprentice as a mass market paperback (Griffin imprint). An allegorical meditation on the legitimacy of concealed knowledge, The Apprentice has been described as "a thriller ... that includes references to bestiality, pedophilia and rape."
Law career
After earning his J.D. from Columbia in 1975, Libby joined the firm of Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis LLP. He was admitted to the bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on October 27, 1976, and to the Bar of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals on May 19, 1978.
Libby practiced law at Schnader for six years before joining the U.S. State Department policy planning staff, at the invitation of his former Yale professor, Paul Wolfowitz, in 1981. In 1985, returning to private practice, he joined the firm then known as Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin (now Dickstein Shapiro LLP), becoming a partner in 1986 and working there until 1989, when he left to work in the U.S. Defense Department, again under his former Yale professor Paul Wolfowitz, until January 1993.
In 1993, returning to private legal practice from government, Libby became the managing partner of the Washington, D.C. office of Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander & Ferdon (formerly Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, and Alexander); in 1995, along with his Mudge Rose colleague, Leonard Garment––who had replaced John Dean as acting Special Counsel to U.S. President Richard Nixon for the last two years of his presidency dominated by Watergate, and who had hired Libby at Mudge Rose twenty years later––and three other lawyers from that firm, Libby joined the Washington, D.C. office of Dechert Price & Rhoads (now part of Dechert LLP), where he was a managing partner, a member of its litigation department, and chaired its Public Policy Practice Group. His work there was well regarded, with President Clinton recognizing Libby as one of three "distinguished Republican lawyers" who worked on the Marc Rich pardon case.
In 2001 Libby left the firm to return to work again in government, as Vice President Cheney's chief of staff.
Fugitive billionaire commodities trader Marc Rich, who, along with his business partner Pincus Green, had been indicted of tax evasion and illegal trading with Iran, and who, with Green, was ultimately pardoned by President Bill Clinton, was a client whom Leonard Garment had hired Libby to help represent around the spring of 1985, after Rich and Green had first engaged Garment. Libby stopped representing Rich in the spring of 2000; early in March 2001, at a "contentious" Congressional hearing to review Clinton's pardons, Libby testified that he thought the prosecution's case against Rich "misconstrued the facts and the law". According to Jackson Hogan, Libby's roommate at Yale University, as quoted in the already-cited U.S. News & World Report article by Walsh, He is intensely partisan ... in that if he is your counsel, he'll embrace your case and try to figure a way out of whatever noose you are ensnared in. According to a House Committee on Government Reform report, however, "The arguments made by Garment, [William Bradford] Reynolds and Libby [in their testimony] focused on the claim that the SDNY was criminalizing what should have been a civil tax case. They did not make, compile, or in any other way lay the groundwork for, or make a case for a Presidential pardon. When former President Clinton stated that they 'reviewed and advocated' 'the case for the pardons,' he suggested that they were somehow involved in arguing that Rich and Green should receive pardons. This was completely untrue". (p. 162)
Bar suspension and disbarment
Before his indictment in United States v. Libby, Libby had been a licensed lawyer, admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, although his Pennsylvania law license was inactive, and he had already been suspended from the Washington, D.C. Office of Bar Counsel (D.C. Bar) for non-payment of fees. The Chief Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals recommended disbarment upon confirmation of his conviction, which Libby had initially indicated that he would appeal. Having suspended his license to practice law on April 3, 2007, the D.C. Bar "disbarred [him] pursuant to D.C. Code § 11-2503(a)" on legal grounds of "moral turpitude", effective April 11, 2007, and recommended to the D.C. Court of Appeals his disbarment if his conviction were not overturned on appeal. On December 10, 2007, Libby's lawyers announced his decision "to drop his appeal of his conviction in the CIA leak case". On March 20, 2008, following the dropping of his appeal of his conviction, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals disbarred Libby. As a result of the Court's ruling, "Libby will lose his license to practice or appear in court in Washington until at least 2012", and, "As is standard, he will probably lose any bar membership he holds in other states"; that is, in Pennsylvania.
Government public service and political career
In 1981, after working as a lawyer in the Philadelphia firm Schnader LLP, Libby accepted the invitation of his former Yale University political science professor and mentor Paul Wolfowitz to join the U.S. State Department's policy planning staff. From 1982 to 1985, Libby served as director of special projects in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. In 1985 he received the Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service from the United States Department of Defense, and he resigned from government to enter private legal practice at Dickstein, Shapiro, and Morin. In 1989, he went to work at the Pentagon, again under Wolfowitz, as principal deputy under-secretary for strategy and resources at the U.S. Defense Department.
During the George H. W. Bush administration, Libby was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as deputy under secretary of defense for policy, serving from 1992 to 1993. In 1992 he also served as legal adviser for the House Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China. Libby co-authored the draft of the Defense Planning Guidance for the 1994–99 fiscal years (dated February 18, 1992) with Wolfowitz for Dick Cheney, who was then Secretary of Defense. In 1993 Libby received the Distinguished Service Award from the U.S. Defense Department and the Distinguished Public Service Award from the U.S. State Department before resuming private legal practice first at Mudge Rose and then at Dechert.
Libby was part of a network of neo-conservatives known as the "Vulcans"—its other members included Wolfowitz, Condoleezza Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld. While he was still a managing partner of Dechert Price & Rhoads, he was a signatory to the "Statement of Principles" of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) (a document dated June 3, 1997). He joined Wolfowitz, PNAC co-founders William Kristol, Robert Kagan, and other "Project Participants" in developing the PNAC's September 2000 report entitled, "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces, and Resources for a New Century".
After becoming Cheney's chief of staff in 2001, Libby was reportedly nicknamed "Germ Boy" at the White House, for insisting on universal smallpox vaccination. He was also nicknamed "Dick Cheney's Dick Cheney" for his close working relationship with the Vice President. Mary Matalin, who worked with Libby as an adviser to Cheney during Bush's first term, said of him "He is to the vice president what the vice president is to the president."
Libby was active in the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee of the Pentagon when it was chaired by Richard Perle during the early years of the George W. Bush administration (2001–2003). At various points in his career, Libby has also held positions with the American Bar Association, been on the advisory board of the RAND Corporation's Center for Russia and Eurasia, and been a legal adviser to the United States House of Representatives, as well as served as a consultant for the defense contractor Northrop Grumman.
Libby was also actively involved in the Bush administration's efforts to negotiate the Israeli–Palestinian "road map" for peace; for example, he participated in a series of meetings with Jewish leaders in early December 2002 and a meeting with two aides of then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in mid-April 2003, culminating in the Red Sea Summit on June 4, 2004. In their highly controversial and widely contested "Working Paper" entitled "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy", University of Chicago political science professor John J. Mearsheimer and academic dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University Stephen M. Walt argue that Libby was among the Bush administration's most "fervently pro-Israel ... officials" (20).
Awards for government service
Distinguished Service Award, United States Department of Defense, 1993
Distinguished Public Service Award, United States Department of the Navy, 1993
Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service, United States Department of State, 1985
Subsequent work experience
From January 2006 until March 7, 2007, the day after his conviction in United States v. Libby, when he resigned, Libby served as a "senior adviser" at the Hudson Institute, to "focus on issues relating to the War on Terror and the future of Asia ... offer research guidance and ... advise the institute in strategic planning." His resignation was announced by the Hudson Institute in a press release dated March 8, 2007. However, he has served as Senior Vice President of the Hudson Institute at least since 2010.
Libby also serves as a member of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense, a group that encourages and advocates changes to government policy to strengthen national biodefense. In order to address biological threats facing the nation, the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense created a 33 step initiative for the U.S. Government to implement. Headed by former Senator Joe Lieberman and former Governor Tom Ridge, the Study Panel assembled in Washington D.C. for four meetings concerning current biodefense programs. The Study Panel concluded that the federal government had little to no defense mechanisms in case of a biological event. The Study Panel's final report, The National Blueprint for Biodefense, proposes a string of solutions and recommendations for the U.S. Government to take, including items such as giving the Vice President authority over biodefense responsibilities and merging the entire biodefense budget. These solutions represent the Panel's call to action in order to increase awareness and activity for pandemic related issues.
Involvement in the Plame affair
Between 2003 and 2005, intense speculation centered on the possibility that Libby may have been the administration official who had "leaked" classified employment information about Valerie Plame, a covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent and the wife of Iraq War critic Joseph C. Wilson, to New York Times reporter Judith Miller and other reporters and later tried to hide his having done so.
In August 2005, as revealed in grand jury testimony audiotapes played during the trial and reported in many news accounts, Libby testified that he met with Judith Miller, a reporter with The New York Times, on July 8, 2003, and discussed Plame with her.
Although Libby signed a "blanket waiver" allowing journalists to discuss their conversations with him pursuant to the CIA leak grand jury investigation, Miller maintained that such a waiver did not serve to allow her to reveal her source to that grand jury; moreover, Miller argued that Libby's general waiver pertaining to all journalists could have been coerced and that she would only testify before that grand jury if given an individual waiver.
After refusing to testify about her July 2003 meeting with Libby, Judith Miller was jailed on July 7, 2005, for contempt of court. Months later, however, her new attorney, Robert Bennett, told her that she already had possessed a written, voluntary waiver from Libby all along. After Miller had served most of her sentence, Libby reiterated that he had indeed given her a "waiver" both "voluntarily and personally." He attached the following letter, which, when released publicly, became the subject of further speculation about Libby's possible motives in sending it:
As noted above, my lawyer confirmed my waiver to other reporters in just the way he did with your lawyer. Why? Because as I am sure will not be news to you, the public report of every other reporter's testimony makes clear that they did not discuss Ms. Plame's name or identity with me, or knew about her before our call.
After agreeing to testify, Miller was released on September 29, 2005, appearing before the grand jury the next day, but the charge against her was rescinded only after she testified again on October 12, 2005. For her second grand jury appearance, Miller produced a notebook from a previously undisclosed meeting with Libby on June 23, 2003, two weeks before Wilson's New York Times op-ed was published. In her account published in the Times on October 16, 2005, based on her notes, Miller reports:
... in an interview with me on June 23 [2003], Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, discussed Mr. Wilson's activities and placed blame for intelligence failures on the CIA. In later conversations with me, on July 8 and July 12 [2003], Mr. Libby, ... [at the time] Mr. Cheney's top aide, played down the importance of Mr. Wilson's mission and questioned his performance ... My notes indicate that well before Mr. Wilson published his critique, Mr. Libby told me that Mr. Wilson's wife may have worked on unconventional weapons at the CIA. ... My notes do not show that Mr. Libby identified Mr. Wilson's wife by name. Nor do they show that he described Valerie Wilson as a covert agent or "operative"...
Her notation on her July 8, 2003 meeting with Libby does contain the name "Valerie Flame ", which she added retrospectively. While Miller reveals publicly that she herself had misidentified the last name of Wilson's wife (aka "Valerie Plame") in her own marginal notes on their interview as "Flame" instead of "Plame", in her grand jury (and later trial testimony), she remained uncertain when, how, and why she arrived at that name and did not attribute it to Libby:
I was not permitted to take notes of what I told the grand jury, and my interview notes on Mr. Libby are sketchy in places. It is also difficult, more than two years later, to parse the meaning and context of phrases, of underlining and of parentheses. On one page of my interview notes, for example, I wrote the name "Valerie Flame." Yet, as I told Mr. Fitzgerald, I simply could not recall where that came from, when I wrote it or why the name was misspelled ... I testified that I did not believe the name came from Mr. Libby, in part because the notation does not appear in the same part of my notebook as the interview notes from him.
A year and a half later, a jury convicted Libby of obstruction of justice and perjury in his grand jury testimony and making false statements to federal investigators about when and how he learned that Plame was a CIA agent.
On April 13, 2018, Libby was pardoned by US President Donald Trump.
Indictment and resignation
On October 28, 2005, as a result of the CIA leak grand jury investigation, Special Counsel Fitzgerald indicted Libby on five counts: one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of making false statements when interviewed by agents of the FBI, and two counts of perjury in his testimony before the grand jury. Pursuant to the grand jury investigation, Libby had told FBI investigators that he first heard of Mrs. Wilson's CIA employment from Cheney, and then later heard it from journalist Tim Russert, and acted as if he did not have that information. The indictment alleges that statements to federal investigators and the grand jury were intentionally false, in that Libby had numerous conversations about Mrs. Wilson's CIA employment, including his conversations with Judith Miller (see above), before speaking to Russert; Russert did not tell Libby about Mrs. Wilson's CIA employment; prior to talking with such reporters, Libby knew with certainty that she was employed by the CIA; and Libby told reporters that she worked for the CIA without making any disclaimer that he was uncertain of that fact. The false statements counts in the Libby indictment charge that he intentionally made those false statements to the FBI; the perjury counts charge that he intentionally lied to the grand jury in repeating those false statements; and the obstruction of justice count charges that Libby intentionally made those false statements in order to mislead the grand jury, thus impeding Fitzgerald's grand jury investigation of the truth about the leaking of Mrs. Wilson's then-classified, covert CIA identity.
Trial, conviction, and sentencing
On March 6, 2007, the jury convicted him on four of the five counts: obstruction of justice, one count of making false statements when interviewed by agents of the FBI, and two counts of perjury. They acquitted him on count three, the second charge of making false statements when interviewed by federal agents about his conversations with Time reporter Matthew Cooper.
Libby retained attorney Ted Wells of the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to represent him. Wells had successfully defended former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy against a 30-count indictment and had also participated in the successful defense of former Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan.
After Judge Reggie Walton denied Libby's motion to dismiss, the press initially reported that Libby would testify at the trial. Libby's criminal trial, United States v. Libby, began on January 16, 2007. A parade of Pulitzer Prize–winning journalists testified, including Bob Woodward, Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post and Judith Miller and David E. Sanger of The New York Times. Despite earlier press reports and widespread speculation, neither Libby nor Vice President Cheney testified. The jury began deliberations on February 21, 2007.
Verdict
After deliberating for 10 days, the jury rendered its verdict on March 6, 2007. It convicted Libby on four of the five counts against him: two counts of perjury, one count of obstruction of justice in a grand jury investigation, and one of the two counts of making false statements to federal investigators.
After the verdict, initially, Libby's lawyers announced that he would seek a new trial, and that, if that attempt were to fail, they would appeal Libby's conviction. Libby did not speak to reporters. Libby's defense team eventually decided against seeking a new trial.
Speaking to the media outside the courtroom after the verdict, Fitzgerald said that "The jury worked very long and hard and deliberated at length ... [and] was obviously convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had lied and obstructed justice in a serious manner ... I do not expect to file any further charges." The trial confirmed that the leak came first from then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage; since Fitzgerald did not charge Armitage and did not charge anyone else, Libby's conviction effectively ended the investigation.
In his October 28, 2005, press conference about the grand jury's indictment, Fitzgerald had already explained that Libby's obstruction of justice through perjury and false statements had prevented the grand jury from determining whether the leak violated federal law.
During his media appearance outside the courtroom after the verdict in the Libby case, Fitzgerald fielded questions from the press about others involved in the Plame affair and in the CIA leak grand jury investigation, such as Armitage and Cheney, whom he had already described as under "a cloud", as already addressed in his conduct of the case and in his closing arguments in court.
Sentencing
Given current federal sentencing guidelines, which are not mandatory, the conviction could have resulted in a sentence ranging from no imprisonment to imprisonment of up to 25 years and a fine of $1,000,000; yet, as Sniffen and Apuzzo observe, "federal sentencing guidelines will probably prescribe far less." In practice, according to federal sentencing data, three-fourths of the 198 defendants found guilty of obstruction of justice in 2006 served jail time. The average length of jail time on this charge alone was 70 months.
On June 5, 2007, Judge Walton sentenced Libby to 30 months in prison and fined him $250,000, clarifying that Libby would begin his sentence immediately. According to Apuzzo and Yost, the judge also "placed him on two years probation after his prison sentence expires. There is no parole in the federal system, but Libby would be eligible for release after two years." In addition, Judge Walton required Libby to provide "400 hours of community service" during his supervised release. On June 5, 2007, after the announcement of Libby's sentencing, CNN reported that Libby still "plans to appeal the verdict".
That day, in response to the sentencing, Vice President Cheney issued a statement in Libby's defense on The White House website. The statement concluded: "Speaking as friends, we hope that our system will return a final result consistent with what we know of this fine man."
Joseph and Valerie Wilson posted their statement on Libby's sentencing in United States v. Libby on their website, "grateful that justice has been served."
Order to report to prison pending appeal of verdict
After the June 5 sentencing, Walton said he was inclined to jail Libby after the defense laid out its proposed appeal, but the judge told attorneys he was open to changing his mind"; however, on June 14, 2007, Walton ordered Libby to report to prison while his attorneys appealed the conviction. Libby's attorneys asked that the order be stayed, but Walton denied the request and told Libby that he would have 10 days to appeal the ruling. In denying Libby's request, which had questioned Fitzgerald's authority to make the charges in the first place, Walton supported Fitzgerald's authority in the case. He said: "Everyone is accountable, and if you work in the White House, and if it's perceived that somehow (you're) linked at the hip, the American public would have serious questions about the fairness of any investigation of a high-level official conducted by the attorney general." The judge was also responding to an Amicus curiae brief that he had permitted to be filed, which had not apparently convinced him to change his mind, as he subsequently denied Libby bail during his appeal. His "order grant[ing] the [legal academic] scholars permission to file their brief ..." contained a caustic footnote questioning the motivation of the legal academics and suggesting he might not give a great deal of weight to their opinion[:]
... It is an impressive show of public service when twelve prominent and distinguished current and former law professors are able to amass their collective wisdom in the course of only several days to provide their legal expertise to the court on behalf of a criminal defendant. The Court trusts that this is a reflection of these eminent academics' willingness in the future to step to the plate and provide like assistance in cases involving any of the numerous litigants, both in this Court and throughout the courts of this nation, who lack the financial means to fully and properly articulate the merits of their legal positions even in instances where failure to do so could result in monetary penalties, incarceration, or worse. The Court will certainly not hesitate to call for such assistance from these luminaries, as necessary in the interests of justice and equity, whenever similar questions arise in the cases that come before it."
Moreover, when the hearing started, "in the interest of full disclosure," Walton informed the court that he had "received a number of harassing, angry and mean-spirited phone calls and messages. Some wishing bad things on me and my family ... [T]hose types of things will have no impact ... I initially threw them away, but then there were more, some that were more hateful ... [T]hey are being kept."
New York Times reporters Neil Lewis and David Stout estimated subsequently that Libby's prison sentence could begin within "two months", explaining that
Judge Walton's decision means that the defense lawyers will probably ask a federal appeals court to block the sentence, a long-shot move. It also sharpens interest in a question being asked by Mr. Libby's supporters and critics alike: Will President Bush pardon Mr. Libby? ... So far, the president has expressed sympathy for Mr. Libby and his family but has not tipped his hand on the pardon issue. ... If the president does not pardon him, and if an appeals court refuses to second-guess Judge Walton's decision, Mr. Libby will probably be ordered to report to prison in six to eight weeks' time. Federal prison authorities will decide where. "Unless the Court of Appeals overturns my ruling, he will have to report", Judge Walton said.
Failure of Libby's appeal in order to begin prison sentence
On June 20, 2007, Libby appealed Walton's ruling in federal appeals court. The following day, Walton filed a 30-page expanded ruling, in which he explained his decision to deny Libby bail in more detail.
On July 2, 2007, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied Libby's request for a delay and release from his prison sentence, stating that Libby "has not shown that the appeal raises a substantial question under federal law that would merit letting him remain free," increasing "pressure on President George W. Bush to decide soon whether to pardon Libby ... as the former White House official's supporters have urged."
Presidential commutation
Soon after the verdict, calls for Libby to be pardoned by President George W. Bush began to appear in some newspapers; some of them were posted online by the Libby Legal Defense Trust (LLDT). U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid issued a press release about the verdict, urging Bush to pledge not to pardon Libby, and other Democratic politicians followed his lead.
Surveying "the pardon battle" and citing both pro and con publications, The Washington Post online columnist Dan Froomkin concludes that many U.S. newspapers opposed a presidential pardon for Libby. Much of this commentary obscured the fact that the clemency power provided the President with several options short of a full, unconditional pardon. In an op-ed published in The Washington Post, former federal prosecutor and conservative activist William Otis argued the sentence was too stringent and that, instead of pardoning Libby, Bush should commute his sentence.
After the sentencing, Bush stated on camera that he would "not intervene until Libby's legal team has exhausted all of its avenues of appeal ... It wouldn't be appropriate for me to discuss the case until after the legal remedies have run its course." Ultimately, less than a month later, on July 2, 2007, Bush chose Otis's 'third option' — "neither prison nor pardon" — in commuting Libby's prison sentence.
After Libby was denied bail during his appeal process on July 2, 2007, Bush commuted Libby's 30-month federal prison sentence, calling it "excessive", but he did not change the other parts of the sentence and their conditions. That presidential commutation left in place the felony conviction, the $250,000 fine, and the terms of probation. Some have criticized the move, as presidential commutations are rarely issued, but when granted they have generally occurred after the convicted person has already served a substantial portion of his or her sentence: "We can't find any cases, certainly in the last half-century, where the president commuted a sentence before it had even started to be served," said former Justice Department pardon attorney Margaret Colgate Love. Others, notably Cheney himself who argued that Libby was unfairly charged by a politically motivated prosecution, believed that the commutation fell short, as Libby would likely never practice law again.
At the time, Bush explained his "Grant of Executive Clemency" to Libby, in part, as follows:
Mr. Libby was sentenced to thirty months of prison, two years of probation, and a $250,000 fine. In making the sentencing decision, the district court rejected the advice of the probation office, which recommended a lesser sentence and the consideration of factors that could have led to a sentence of home confinement or probation.
Libby paid the required fine of "$250,400, which included a 'special assessment' of costs" that same day.
Bush's explanation was written by Fred F. Fielding, White House Counsel during the last two years of Bush's presidency. According to a Time article published six months after Bush left office, Fielding worded the commutation "in a way that would make it harder for Bush to revisit it in the future ... ; [the] language was intended to send an unmistakable message, internally as well as externally: No one is above the law." The article suggested that there was a fundamental difference between how Bush and Cheney viewed the "War on Terror", with aides close to Bush feeling that Cheney had misled the President and damaged the administration's moral character with the Plame leak.
Libby's lawyer, Theodore V. Wells, Jr. "issued a brief statement saying Mr. Libby and his family 'wished to express their gratitude for the president's decision ... We continue to believe in Mr. Libby's innocence'. ... "
Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, however, took issue with Bush's description of the sentence as 'excessive', saying it was "[i]mposed pursuant to the laws governing sentencings which occur every day throughout this country ... It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals ... [T]hat principle guided the judge during both the trial and the sentencing," Fitzgerald said.
The day after the commuting of Libby's sentence, James Rowley (Bloomberg News) reported that Bush had not ruled out pardoning Libby in the future and that Bush's press spokesman, Tony Snow, denied any political motivation in the commutation. Quoting Snow, Rowley added: The president is getting pounded on the right because he didn't do a full pardon.' If Bush were 'doing the weather-vane thing' he 'would have done something differently.
Democratic politicians' responses stressed their outrage at what they called a disgraceful abrogation of justice, and, that evening CNN reported that Representative John Conyers, Jr., Democrat of Michigan, announced that there would be a formal Congressional investigation of Bush's commutation of Libby's sentence and other presidential reprieves.
The hearing on "The Use and Misuse of Presidential Clemency Power for Executive Branch Officials" was held by the United States House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Conyers, on July 11, 2007.
Just a few days later, however, Judge Walton questioned "whether ... [Libby] will face two years of probation, as [President Bush] said he would," because the supervised release time is conditioned on Libby's serving the prison sentence, and he "directed the special prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, and ... [Libby's] lawyers to file arguments on the point. ... " "If Judge Walton does not impose any supervised release, it could undercut ... [Bush's] argument that ... Libby still faced stiff justice." That issue was resolved on July 10, 2007, clearing the way for Libby to begin serving the rest of his sentence, the supervised release and 400 hours of community service.
In response to Bush's justifications for clemency, liberal commentator Harlan J. Protass noted that in Rita v. United States, the case of a defendant convicted of perjury in front of a grand jury which had been decided two weeks earlier by the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. government had successfully argued that sentences that fall within Federal Sentencing Guidelines are presumed to be "reasonable", regardless of individual circumstances.
Reportedly outraged by Bush's commutation of Libby's prison sentence, on July 2, 2007, Wilson told CNN: "I have nothing to say to Scooter Libby ... I don't owe this administration. They owe my wife and my family an apology for having betrayed her. Scooter Libby is a traitor. Bush's action ... demonstrates that the White House is corrupt from top to bottom." He reiterated this perspective on the commutation in the House Judiciary Committee hearing on July 11, 2007, vehemently protesting that a Republican congressman was engaging in "yet a further smear of my wife's good name and my good name."
According to a USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted from July 6 to July 8, 2007, "most Americans disagree with President George W. Bush's decision to intervene" on Libby's behalf in the case.
Several months after Bush's action, Judge Walton commented publicly on it. He spoke in favor of applying the law equally, stating: "The downside [of the commutation] is there are a lot of people in America who think that justice is determined to a large degree by who you are and that what you have plays a large role in what kind of justice you receive. ... "
Bush took no further action with respect to Libby's conviction or sentence during his presidential term, despite entreaties from conservatives that he should be pardoned. Two days after their term expired, former Vice President Cheney expressed his regret that Bush had not pardoned Libby on his last day in office.
Press coverage of Libby's trial
Blogs played a prominent role in the press coverage of Libby's trial. Scott Shane, in his article "For Liberal Bloggers, Libby Trial Is Fun and Fodder", published in The New York Times on February 15, 2007, quotes Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, who wrote that the trial was "the first federal case for which independent bloggers have been given official credentials along with reporters from the traditional news media." The trial was followed in the mass media and engaged the interest of both professional legal experts and the general public. While awaiting the judge's ruling pertaining to supervised release and the "400 hours of community service that Judge Walton imposed", for example, bloggers discussed the legal issues involved in these non-commuted parts of Libby's sentence and their effects on Libby's future life experiences.
Criticism of investigation
On August 28, 2006, Christopher Hitchens asserted that Richard Armitage was the primary source of the Valerie Plame leak and that Fitzgerald knew this at the beginning of his investigation. This was supported a month later by Armitage himself, who stated that Fitzgerald had instructed him not to go public with this information. Investor's Business Daily questioned Fitzgerald's truthfulness in an editorial, stating "From top to bottom, this has been one of the most disgraceful abuses of prosecutorial power in this country's history ... The Plame case proves [Fitzgerald] can bend the truth with the proficiency of the slickest of pols."
In a September 2008 Wall Street Journal editorial, attorney Alan Dershowitz cited the "questionable investigation[s]" of Scooter Libby as evidence of the problems brought to the criminal justice process by "politically appointed and partisan attorney[s] general". In April 2015, also writing in The Wall Street Journal, Hoover Institution fellow Peter Berkowitz argued that statements by Judith Miller, in her recently published memoir, raised anew contentions that her testimony was inaccurate and that Fitzgerald's conduct as prosecutor was inappropriate.
The Wilsons' civil suit
On July 13, 2006, Joseph and Valerie Wilson filed a civil lawsuit against Libby, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and other unnamed senior White House officials (among whom they later added Richard Armitage) for their role in the public disclosure of Valerie Wilson's classified CIA status. Judge John D. Bates dismissed the Wilsons' lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds on July 19, 2007. The Wilsons appealed Bates's district-court decision the next day. Agreeing with the Bush administration, the Obama Justice Department argued that the Wilsons had no legitimate grounds to sue. Melanie Sloan, one of the Wilsons' attorneys, said: "We are deeply disappointed that the Obama administration has failed to recognize the grievous harm top Bush White House officials inflicted on Joe and Valerie Wilson. The government's position cannot be reconciled with President Obama's oft-stated commitment to once again make government officials accountable for their actions."
On June 21, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal.
Restoration of voting rights, law license, and presidential pardon
Libby's voting rights were restored on November 1, 2012 by then-Governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell. Libby was part of a larger group of individuals who had their voting rights restored by McDonnell, all of whom were non-violent offenders. Three years later, on November 3, 2016, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals granted Libby's petition for reinstatement to the D.C. Bar. On April 13, 2018, President Donald Trump pardoned Libby.
In media portrayals
David Andrews played Scooter Libby in the 2010 film Fair Game, which is about the Plame affair.
Justin Kirk played Libby in the 2018 film Vice.
See also
List of disbarments in the United States
Plame affair criminal investigation
Project for the New American Century
List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States
Notes
Citations
References
. United States Department of State, February 2005. Accessed July 8, 2007.
Bromell, Nick. "Scooter Libby and Me". The American Scholar (Phi Beta Kappa) (Winter 2007). Accessed June 8, 2007.
–––. "Scooter's Tragic Innocence: Why My Friend Scooter Libby Is Loyal to Bush, Cheney and an Arrogant Administration Whose Values Are Not His Own". Salon, January 24, 2007. Accessed June 8, 2007. (Premium content; restricted access).
Dickerson, John. "Who Is Scooter Libby? The Secretive Cheney Aide at the Heart of the CIA Leak Case". Slate, October 21, 2005. Accessed June 28, 2007.
Frankel, Max. "The Washington Back Channel". The New York Times, March 25, 2007. Accessed March 23, 2008.
Garfield, Bob. "'Former New York Times Staffer Judith Miller'". On the Media from NPR, National Public Radio, WCNY-FM, November 11, 2005. Accessed March 5, 2007. (Transcript and RealAudio link.)
"I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby". Right Web (International Relations Center). Last updated March 21, 2007. Accessed July 1, 2007.
"Indictment" in United States of America vs. I. Lewis Libby, also known as "Scooter Libby". United States Department of Justice, October 28, 2005. Accessed July 5, 2007.
Libby, Lewis. The Apprentice: A Novel. Rpt. ed. 1996; New York: Griffin, 2005. (10). (13).
Markels, Alex. "Legal Affairs: I. Lewis Libby: The Plight of a Disciplined Risk-Taker". National Public Radio, October 28, 2005. Accessed March 5, 2007.
Merritt, Jeralyn, moderator. "Verdict in the Libby Trial". Transcript. The Washington Post ("Live Online" discussion), March 6, 2007, 2:00–3:00 p.m., ET. Accessed March 6, 2007. (Duration: one hour.) N.B.: "Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties."
in "United States of America, v. I. Lewis Libby, Defendant". Criminal No. 05-394 (RBW). United States District Court for the District of Columbia, filed January 10, 2007. Accessed February 10, 2007. ["USA-v-Libby_Rules-of-Order.pdf".]
"President Commutes Libby's Sentence: Calls 30-month Term for Ex-Cheney Aide 'excessive'". Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, July 3, 2007. Accessed July 4, 2007.
. White House biography from 2004. Accessed February 10, 2007.
Waas, Murray. "Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Leak Classified Information". National Journal, February 9, 2006. Accessed March 6, 2007.
–––, ed., with Jeff Lomonaco. The United States v. I. Lewis Libby. New York: Union Square Press (imprint of Sterling Publishing), 2007. (10). (13). ("Edited & with reporting by Murray Waas" and with research assistance by Jeff Lomonaco.)
Weisman, Steven. "White House Is Pressing Israelis To Take Initiatives in Peace Talks". The New York Times, April 17, 2003. Accessed March 23, 2008.
Wilson, Joseph C. "Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson's Response to Bush Spokesman Tony Snow's Comments at Today's White House Briefing". Online posting. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), July 3, 2007. Accessed July 4, 2007. Online posting. "Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson's Response ... " and "Read more", Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust (Home page), n.d. Accessed July 8, 2007. (Concerning Bush's commutation of Libby's prison sentence.)
–––. "Statement in Response to Jury's Verdict in U.S. v. I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby" (now outdated URL). Press release. Originally posted online. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), March 6, 2007. Accessed March 6, 2007. Posted as "CREW Statement on Libby Conviction: No Man Is Above the Law." Citizens ^Blogging for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (blog), March 6, 2007. Accessed April 18, 2007. Also posted as "Wilsons' Attorney Statement in Response to Jury's Verdict in U.S. v. I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby". Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust, March 6, 2007, home page. Accessed April 18, 2007.
External links
Background on the Plame Investigation at The Washington Post.
CNN Special Reports: CIA Leak Investigation compiled by CNN Newsroom; incl. interactive timeline in Case History.
"Legal Affairs: Lewis Libby's Complete Grand Jury Testimony". Full audio clip and transcript provided by National Public Radio on npr.org,
"The Lewis Libby Case". Archive of articles concerning Libby broadcast on National Public Radio.
.
United States v. I. Lewis Libby. Photo gallery with news captions at The Washington Post.
Membership at the Council on Foreign Relations
1950 births
Jewish American attorneys
Assistants to the President of the United States
Chiefs of Staff to the Vice President of the United States
Columbia Law School alumni
Columbia University alumni
Living people
Members of the Council on Foreign Relations
Pennsylvania Democrats
Pennsylvania Republicans
People associated with the Plame affair
People from McLean, Virginia
Lawyers from New Haven, Connecticut
Lawyers from Philadelphia
Phillips Academy alumni
Reagan administration personnel
Recipients of American presidential clemency
Recipients of American presidential pardons
Yale University alumni
Hudson Institute
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"Early years"
]
| C_1cbaed8bc2e84e03929f1c91c086767d_1 | What were her early years like? | 1 | What were Augusta Jane Evans early years like? | Augusta Jane Evans | She was born Augusta Jane Evans on May 8, 1835, in Columbus, Georgia, the eldest child of the family. The area of her birth was then known as Wynnton (now MidTown). Her mother was Sarah S. Howard and her father was Matthew R. Evans. She was a descendant on her mother's side from the Howards, one of the most cultured families of Georgia. As a young girl in 19th-century America, she received little in the way of a formal education. However, she became a voracious reader at an early age. Her father suffered bankruptcy and lost the family's Sherwood Hall property in the 1840s. He moved his family of ten from Georgia for Alabama, and scarcely ten when they moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 1845. When the Mexican-American War had ended, and everything was in a disorganized condition, consequently there were no schools of any prominence. Had her mother not been cultivated and literary, Evans could never have obtained the education which fitted her for the work she later accomplished. During the Mexican war, San Antonio was the rendezvous for the United States troops sent to assist General Zachary Taylor, and the brilliant uniforms of the soldiery, the martial music, and the exciting events that accompany war, combined with the picturesque, enchanting scenery around San Antonio, furnished an excellent theme for Evans' first novel. In 1850, at the age of fifteen, she wrote Inez: A Tale of the Alamo, a sentimental, moralistic, anti-Catholic love story. It told the story of one orphan's spiritual journey from religious skepticism to devout faith. She presented the manuscript to her father as a Christmas gift in 1854. It was published anonymously in 1855. However, life in a frontier border town like San Antonio proved dangerous, especially with the Mexican-American War. By 1849, Evans' parents moved the family to Mobile, Alabama. She wrote her next novel, Beulah, at age 18; it was published in 1859. Beulah began the theme of female education in her novels. It sold well, selling over 22,000 copies during its first year of publication, a staggering accomplishment. It established her as Alabama's first professional author. Her family used the proceeds from her literary success to purchase Georgia Cottage on Springhill Avenue. CANNOTANSWER | She was born Augusta Jane Evans on May 8, 1835, in Columbus, Georgia, | false | [
"Margaret Lynch (born 1831) was best known for her role as one of the few female members of the crew on the SS Great Britain. She worked on the ship for 7 years and was recognised in the press as 'an institution'.\nHer role as a stewardess was something that became more common as more women were travelling on passenger ships in the mid nineteenth century\n\nEarly life \nMargaret was born in Dublin in 1831. No records have been found of her early life, but crew documents for the SS Great Britain held in the National Archives show her place of birth. They also show that by the time Margaret joined the ship she was 35 years old and widowed.\n\nWorking life \nThrough the development of luxury passenger liners like the SS Great Britain, women travellers became more commonplace and this required the assistance of female stewardesses. This meant that women had the opportunity to work at sea. They would serve first class women who were travelling without their own servants. They were also expected to control disorderly behaviour. Most stewardesses were unmarried or widowed like Margaret and were on average in their mid thirties to mid forties.\n\nMargaret worked as a stewardess for many voyages to Australia between 1866 and 1872, making on average £5 a month. She was celebrated in an article in the Western Daily Press alongside other key crew members- “Mrs Lynch, the stewardess, has been in the vessel several years and is an institution.” Margaret’s final working journey was to Liverpool in 1872. It was during this voyage where Captain John Gray (master mariner) mysteriously disappeared. Margaret did travel back to Australia in 1873, but this time as a passenger.\n\nThere are no records on what became of Margaret Lynch after her life on the SS Great Britain.\n\nReferences \n\n1831 births\nMaritime transport\nPeople from Dublin (city)\nYear of death missing",
"Kristine Andersen Vesterfjell (sometimes written Westerfjell; 1910–1987) was a Norwegian, Southern Sami reindeer herder and an important advocate for Sámi shamanism and culture. She was from Lomsdalen, in Brønnøy municipality, Nordland.\n\nBiography\nKristine Andersen Vesterfjell was born in 1910. She lived with her uncle, the reinsamen, Nils Andersen Vesterfjell.\n\nVesterfjell was one of the central figures that led to the finding of the \"Runebomme fra velfjord\" (Sámi drum from Velfjord) in 1969. Although she had never seen the drum in use, she knew where it had been hidden in the early 1900s, what the surface looked like, what the symbols meant, and how runebommes were used in the past. The last user of the runebomme was Nils' grandfather and her great-grandfather, Nils Johan Johannessen Vesterfjell (1819-1871).\n\nVesterfjell described the location of the drum as follows:—\n\nWorking with her, a sketch was made of what the drum skin had looked like, together with explanations of both structure and symbols. In 1969, Arvid Sveli and Herlaug Vonheim went on an expedition into the mountains to find one of the last remaining drums, and found it after an intense exploration in the inaccessible Henrikdalen.\n\nVesterfjell died in 1987.\n\nReferences\n \n\n1910 births\n1987 deaths\nPeople from Brønnøy\nNorwegian Sámi people\nNorwegian Sámi activists",
"Bedawwar A Albi (, ) is the third studio album by the Lebanese singer Amal Hijazi released in 2004. It was her first album under the label Rotana. Produced by Stallions Records with a sponsorship deal with Pepsi and Future Television, the album saw a huge drop in sales compared to her previous album Zaman but it was also because of lack of promotion in countries like Lebanon, Egypt, UAE, and Jordan. Despite everything that happened, Bedawwar A Albi managed to become one of the highest selling albums of 2004 in Lebanon despite of the hot competition from the albums of other singers like Elissa and Nancy Ajram. In addition, the album released two number one hit singles \"Bedawwar A Albi\" and \"Mistanie Eiy\" .\n\nProduction\n\nIn early 2004, rumors began to circulate that Hijazi had, in fact, left her previous production company Dilara Master Production and cancelled her sponsorship deals with Music Master and Panasonic. In addition, there were rumors about Hijazi producing her own album under the sponsorship of Pepsi. In an interview later, prior to the release of Bedawwar A Albi Hijazi candidly stated that he had left Dilara Master Production and was now signed to the label Rotana. Hijazi also confirmed that her upcoming album be produced by Stallions Records under a full sponsorship of international names like Pepsi and Future Television.\n\nHijazi once again teamed up with the Turkish composer and singer Bendeniz for the production of the album's main song Bedawwar A Albi. In addition, Hijazi collaborated with the songwriter Elias Naser and the arranger Jean Marie Riachi. Late in February 2004, Hijazi was almost done recording her third, much-awaited studio album.\n\nChart performance\n\nUpon its initial release, Bedawwar A Albi received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Songs like \"Bedawwar A Albi\", \"Omri w Sneene\", \"Alaa Keiffak\" and \"Keef\" became one of Hijazi's greatest ballads and reached high demand from fans in her concerts. In addition, \"Mistanie Eiy\" was a huge radio hit, while other songs like \"Esaal Aliyya\" and \"Ma Habitsh Gheral\" were minor disco hits. Despite the poor marketing and advertisement by Rotana, \"Bedawwar A Albi\" managed to become a number one best-selling album all around the Middle East.\n\nTrack listing\n\n \"Mestanni Eih\" ( \"What Are You Waiting for?\")\n \"Aah Ya Habibi\" ( \"Oh My Darling\")\n \"Bedawwar A Albi\" ( \"Searching for My Heart\")\n \"Aah Ya Nari\" ( \"Oh, The Fire Within Me\")\n \"Ala Keaifak\" ( \"The Way You Like It\")\n \"Isaal Aliee\" () \"Check Up On Me\")\n \"Omrei Wa Snieni\" ( \"My Lifetime and Years\")\n \"Ma Habitsh Ghairak\" ( \"I Have Never Loved Anyone But You\")\n \"Keaf\" ( \"How\")\n \"Chou Ally Sar\" ( \"What Happened?\")\n\nAmal Hijazi albums\n2004 albums"
]
|
|
[
"Augusta Jane Evans",
"Early years",
"What were her early years like?",
"She was born Augusta Jane Evans on May 8, 1835, in Columbus, Georgia,"
]
| C_1cbaed8bc2e84e03929f1c91c086767d_1 | Did she stay in Columbus for her entire childhood? | 2 | Did Augusta Jane Evans stay in Columbus for her entire childhood? | Augusta Jane Evans | She was born Augusta Jane Evans on May 8, 1835, in Columbus, Georgia, the eldest child of the family. The area of her birth was then known as Wynnton (now MidTown). Her mother was Sarah S. Howard and her father was Matthew R. Evans. She was a descendant on her mother's side from the Howards, one of the most cultured families of Georgia. As a young girl in 19th-century America, she received little in the way of a formal education. However, she became a voracious reader at an early age. Her father suffered bankruptcy and lost the family's Sherwood Hall property in the 1840s. He moved his family of ten from Georgia for Alabama, and scarcely ten when they moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 1845. When the Mexican-American War had ended, and everything was in a disorganized condition, consequently there were no schools of any prominence. Had her mother not been cultivated and literary, Evans could never have obtained the education which fitted her for the work she later accomplished. During the Mexican war, San Antonio was the rendezvous for the United States troops sent to assist General Zachary Taylor, and the brilliant uniforms of the soldiery, the martial music, and the exciting events that accompany war, combined with the picturesque, enchanting scenery around San Antonio, furnished an excellent theme for Evans' first novel. In 1850, at the age of fifteen, she wrote Inez: A Tale of the Alamo, a sentimental, moralistic, anti-Catholic love story. It told the story of one orphan's spiritual journey from religious skepticism to devout faith. She presented the manuscript to her father as a Christmas gift in 1854. It was published anonymously in 1855. However, life in a frontier border town like San Antonio proved dangerous, especially with the Mexican-American War. By 1849, Evans' parents moved the family to Mobile, Alabama. She wrote her next novel, Beulah, at age 18; it was published in 1859. Beulah began the theme of female education in her novels. It sold well, selling over 22,000 copies during its first year of publication, a staggering accomplishment. It established her as Alabama's first professional author. Her family used the proceeds from her literary success to purchase Georgia Cottage on Springhill Avenue. CANNOTANSWER | scarcely ten when they moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 1845. | false | [
"Rita Martinez () was a Chicana activist operating in Pueblo, Colorado. She is notable for her activism against the observance of Columbus Day in Colorado. Her efforts came to fruition in 2020, when Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed a bill abolishing Columbus Day.\n\nActivism\nMartinez began her life as an activist in the 1970s when she worked for the newspaper La Cucaracha where she was a reporter and photographer. One of the first issues she took up was police brutality and accountability. With her husband she helped organize Pueblo's Cinco de Mayo festivities for at least 45 years.\n\nIn 1992, the 500th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the Americas, Martinez took part in protests against the Columbus Day parade, held in Denver, which has since been disbanded. Martinez, Esteban and Freddy \"Freak\" Trujillo founded the Colorado Chicano Movement archives at Colorado State University in Pueblo.\n\nIn 2020 her activism came to fruition when Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed a bill abolishing Columbus Day and creating Mother Cabrini Day instead. From June to November 2020 she led weekly protests to remove a statue of Christopher Columbus form Mesa Junction in Pueblo, Colorado. Martinez did not live to see the statue of Columbus removed from Mesa Junction. She died on December 10, 2020, from COVID-19, after 13 days in Parkview Medical Center.\n\nPersonal life\nShe met her husband Jose Esteban Ortega, at La Cucaracha, the newspaper she worked for in the late 70s. Together Martinez and Esteban had three children, daughter Neva, and sons Tomas and Vicente.\n\nReferences \n\n1955 births\n2020 deaths\nPeople from Pueblo, Colorado\nActivists from Colorado\nAmerican women activists\nAmerican activists of Mexican descent\nWomen civil rights activists\n21st-century American women",
"Lucile Atcherson Curtis (1894-1986) was the first woman in what became the U.S. Foreign Service. Specifically, she was the first woman appointed as a United States Diplomatic Officer or Consular Officer, in 1923; the U.S. would not establish the unified Foreign Service until 1924, at which time Diplomatic and Consular Officers became Foreign Service Officers.\n\nBiography\nCurtis, née Atcherson, was born on October 11, 1894, in Columbus, Ohio. She attended Columbus School for Girls and completed her coursework there at the age of 14.\n\nCurtis graduated from Smith College in 1913 and later did graduate and research work at Ohio State University and the University of Chicago.\n\nShe supported women's suffrage, joining a five thousand woman march through Columbus, Ohio, in 1912 in support of a constitutional amendment to give women the right to vote. She later became the first Columbus woman to join the National Women's Party and helped organize the Ohio Suffrage Association.\n\nIn 1917 Curtis volunteered overseas with the American Fund for the French Wounded; in 1918 she was transferred to its new civilian division, called the American Committee for Devastated France, which sought to rebuild eleven villages and give medical and social services. Lucile was eventually transferred to Paris to become director of personnel there for the Committee, and in December 1919, she was given the Medaille de la Reconnaissance Francaise for her work.\n\nIn 1920 she became the first woman to apply to be tested to join what became the U.S. Foreign Service. Although she passed, and in 1922 President Warren G. Harding nominated her as the first woman in what became the U.S. Foreign Service, the Senate did not approve her appointment because its members did not think it was appropriate for a young single woman to travel overseas as a diplomat. She worked in the Department of State then, mostly in the Division of Latin-American Affairs. But after women's and political groups supported her with letters and telegrams, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations recommended her appointment overseas and the Senate approved it in 1923. Lucile thus became a U.S. diplomat based in Bern, Switzerland, officially titled \"third secretary of the legation\" in Bern.\n\nAfter serving in Switzerland, Lucile was assigned to the U.S. Legation in Panama in early 1927. In summer 1927, she wrote a letter to the legation's personnel chief asking when she would be promoted and noting that men had been promoted ahead of her; soon after this, the personnel board gave its members a bleak summary of her work, stating in part, \"Her sex [is] a handicap to useful official friendships.\" She resigned later that year, although it was not because of her lack of promotion but because she disliked Panama and was in a serious relationship with her future husband.\n\nIn 1978, the State Department had a day honoring Lucile and diplomat Clifton Reginald Wharton Sr. Columbus, Ohio celebrated a day in her honor the same year.\n\nPersonal life\nOn January 6, 1928 Lucile married George Morris Curtis with whom she had two children; Charlotte Curtis and Mary Curtis Davey. Lucile Atcherson Curtis died on March 6, 1986.\n\nLegacy\nLucile's papers are held at the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, a research library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.\n\nReferences\n\nAmerican suffragists\n1894 births\n1986 deaths\nSmith College alumni\nAmerican women diplomats\nAmerican diplomats\nUnited States Foreign Service personnel\n20th-century American women\n20th-century American people\nColumbus School for Girls alumni",
"Colo (December 22, 1956 – January 17, 2017) was a western gorilla widely known as the first gorilla to be born in captivity anywhere in the world and as the oldest known gorilla in the world. Colo was born at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium to Millie Christina (mother) and Baron Macombo (father), and lived there for her entire life. She was briefly called \"Cuddles\" before a contest was held to officially name her. (Mrs. Howard Brannon of Zanesville, Ohio, won the contest.) Colo's name was derived from the place of her birth, Columbus, Ohio.\n\nLife\n\nThe Columbus zoo first introduced gorillas in 1951. It was in 1956 that two gorillas first produced offspring in the zoo. The gorilla was named Colo, short for the Columbus Zoo.\nAfter she was rejected at birth by her mother, zookeepers had to hand-raise Colo. They hand-raised her much like a human child, by dressing her in clothes and giving her bottles of formula. At the age of two years, Colo was introduced to a 19-month-old male from Africa called Bongo. Colo and Bongo had three offspring, the first on February 1, 1968, Emmy, a female. Colo and Bongo had two more offspring: Oscar, born July 18, 1969, and Toni, on December 28, 1971.\n\nOn April 25, 1979, Columbus Zoo had its first third generation birth. The infant was named Cora, short for Central Ohio Rare Ape. On January 27, 1997, Colo's great-grandson Jantu was born. A birth at the Henry Doorly Zoo made Colo a great-great-grandmother in 2003. Although Colo did not raise any of her own offspring, she reared her twin grandsons, Macombo II and Mosuba, from birth. Colo also acted as a guardian for her grandson, named J.J. after \"Jungle\" Jack Hanna with whom he shares a birthday.\n\nColo was held at the Columbus Zoo, and has been there longer than any other animal in the zoo's captive animal collection. Colo and her progeny, five of whom are still held at the Columbus Zoo, comprise about one-third of the Zoo's 17 captive gorillas as of 2015.\n\nColo became the oldest living gorilla in captivity following the death of 55-year-old Jenny in September 2008. Colo celebrated her 60th birthday on December 22, 2016. The Columbus Zoo announced that Colo died in her sleep on January 17, 2017.\n\nGenealogy\nColo was a mother to three, a grandmother to 16, a great-grandmother to 12, and a great-great-grandmother to three.\n\nSee also\n Oldest apes#Gorillas\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Colo's family tree on Flickr\n Documentary about geriatric zoo animal care through the story of Colo on her 55th birthday\n\nIndividual gorillas\n1956 animal births\n2017 animal deaths\nIndividual animals in the United States\nOldest animals"
]
|
|
[
"Augusta Jane Evans",
"Early years",
"What were her early years like?",
"She was born Augusta Jane Evans on May 8, 1835, in Columbus, Georgia,",
"Did she stay in Columbus for her entire childhood?",
"scarcely ten when they moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 1845."
]
| C_1cbaed8bc2e84e03929f1c91c086767d_1 | Was she poor growing up? | 3 | Was Augusta Jane Evans poor growing up? | Augusta Jane Evans | She was born Augusta Jane Evans on May 8, 1835, in Columbus, Georgia, the eldest child of the family. The area of her birth was then known as Wynnton (now MidTown). Her mother was Sarah S. Howard and her father was Matthew R. Evans. She was a descendant on her mother's side from the Howards, one of the most cultured families of Georgia. As a young girl in 19th-century America, she received little in the way of a formal education. However, she became a voracious reader at an early age. Her father suffered bankruptcy and lost the family's Sherwood Hall property in the 1840s. He moved his family of ten from Georgia for Alabama, and scarcely ten when they moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 1845. When the Mexican-American War had ended, and everything was in a disorganized condition, consequently there were no schools of any prominence. Had her mother not been cultivated and literary, Evans could never have obtained the education which fitted her for the work she later accomplished. During the Mexican war, San Antonio was the rendezvous for the United States troops sent to assist General Zachary Taylor, and the brilliant uniforms of the soldiery, the martial music, and the exciting events that accompany war, combined with the picturesque, enchanting scenery around San Antonio, furnished an excellent theme for Evans' first novel. In 1850, at the age of fifteen, she wrote Inez: A Tale of the Alamo, a sentimental, moralistic, anti-Catholic love story. It told the story of one orphan's spiritual journey from religious skepticism to devout faith. She presented the manuscript to her father as a Christmas gift in 1854. It was published anonymously in 1855. However, life in a frontier border town like San Antonio proved dangerous, especially with the Mexican-American War. By 1849, Evans' parents moved the family to Mobile, Alabama. She wrote her next novel, Beulah, at age 18; it was published in 1859. Beulah began the theme of female education in her novels. It sold well, selling over 22,000 copies during its first year of publication, a staggering accomplishment. It established her as Alabama's first professional author. Her family used the proceeds from her literary success to purchase Georgia Cottage on Springhill Avenue. CANNOTANSWER | Her father suffered bankruptcy and lost the family's Sherwood Hall property in the 1840s. | false | [
"Anna Davin (born 1940) is a British academic and community historian; she is noted for her studies of working-class communities and her contributions to feminist politics and history-writing. She was a research fellow at Middlesex University.\n\nLife \nDavin was born in 1940, the daughter of Dan and Winne Davin, who both worked for Oxford University Press. In 1958, she got married and subsequently raised children, but she returned to education, studying history at the University of Warwick from 1966 to 1969, and was a founding member of the Women's Liberation Group there (1968). The experience of raising children and returning to education meant the she \"was thinking class and gender very strongly\". In 1970, she began studying for a PhD at Birkbeck College, London. While in London, she joined the Stratford Women's Liberation Group (helping to produce its publication, Shrew) and a feminist history group based in Pimlico. She also became involved in the 1970s in the History Workshop Movement; she was a founder editor of the History Workshop Journal (founded in 1976). Between 1972 and 1974, she was involved in the People's Autobiography of Hackney, an oral history project organised with the Hackney Workers' Educational Association.\n\nIn 1979, she started teaching six-week classes in history at Binghamton University, but otherwise taught evening classes in London during the 1980s. She returned to her PhD studies in the early 1990s; the doctorate was awarded in 1991 for her thesis \"Work and school for the children of London's labouring poor in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century\". In the 1990s, Davin became a research fellow at Middlesex University and published a book, Growing Up Poor (1996).\n\nSelected publications \n \"Imperialism and motherhood\", History Workshop Journal, no. 5 (1978), pp. 9–65.\n Growing Up Poor: Home, School and Street in London 1870-1914 (London: Rivers Oram Press, 1996).\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \"Papers of Anna Davin\", Women's Library Archives (reference no. GB 106 7ADA; formerly GB 106 7/XX26-XX26a).\n\n1940 births\nAlumni of the University of Warwick\nAlumni of Birkbeck, University of London\nBritish historians\nSocial historians\nFeminist historians\nLiving people",
"Growing Up X: A Memoir by the Daughter of Malcolm X is a 2002 book by Ilyasah Shabazz, the third daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz. Shabazz wrote the book with Kim McLarin.\n\nIn Growing Up X, Shabazz writes about what it was like to grow up in the shadow of her father, a human rights activist who was assassinated when she was two years old. She also writes about her mother and sisters, and her early life growing up, along with her personal memories and feelings about Malcolm X. Shabazz has commented that she was nervous about releasing the book, because she did not want to ruin people's expectations of her, but has received unexpectedly great praise for her writing.\n\nFurther reading\n\nExternal links\nDiscussion on Growing Up X with Ilyasah Shabazz at the Library of Congress, June 19, 2002\n\n2002 non-fiction books\nAfrican-American autobiographies\nCollaborative non-fiction books\nWorks about Malcolm X",
"Lexis “Lexi” Marie Brumback (born January 11, 2000) is an American cheerleader and television personality. She received national recognition after appearing in the Netflix docuseries Cheer. She is known for being a tumbler with elite tumbling skills.\n\nPersonal life \nBrumback is originally from Houston, Texas. She attended Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas, where she was member of the cheer team coached by Monica Aldama. She admitted to making poor choices growing up, landing her in trouble after she \"spent a night in jail after getting into a fight.\" During the finale of Cheer, it was revealed that she was kicked off of the team when she got into trouble after being pulled over in a car containing \"illegal stuff.\" She has since rejoined the team. In January 2020, she appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, along with other members of the team.\n\nReferences \n\n2000 births\nPeople from Houston\nLiving people\nAmerican women television personalities\nNavarro College cheer alumni\nTelevision personalities from Texas"
]
|
|
[
"Augusta Jane Evans",
"Early years",
"What were her early years like?",
"She was born Augusta Jane Evans on May 8, 1835, in Columbus, Georgia,",
"Did she stay in Columbus for her entire childhood?",
"scarcely ten when they moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 1845.",
"Was she poor growing up?",
"Her father suffered bankruptcy and lost the family's Sherwood Hall property in the 1840s."
]
| C_1cbaed8bc2e84e03929f1c91c086767d_1 | Did things ever improve for her family? | 4 | Did things ever improve for Augusta Jane Evans family? | Augusta Jane Evans | She was born Augusta Jane Evans on May 8, 1835, in Columbus, Georgia, the eldest child of the family. The area of her birth was then known as Wynnton (now MidTown). Her mother was Sarah S. Howard and her father was Matthew R. Evans. She was a descendant on her mother's side from the Howards, one of the most cultured families of Georgia. As a young girl in 19th-century America, she received little in the way of a formal education. However, she became a voracious reader at an early age. Her father suffered bankruptcy and lost the family's Sherwood Hall property in the 1840s. He moved his family of ten from Georgia for Alabama, and scarcely ten when they moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 1845. When the Mexican-American War had ended, and everything was in a disorganized condition, consequently there were no schools of any prominence. Had her mother not been cultivated and literary, Evans could never have obtained the education which fitted her for the work she later accomplished. During the Mexican war, San Antonio was the rendezvous for the United States troops sent to assist General Zachary Taylor, and the brilliant uniforms of the soldiery, the martial music, and the exciting events that accompany war, combined with the picturesque, enchanting scenery around San Antonio, furnished an excellent theme for Evans' first novel. In 1850, at the age of fifteen, she wrote Inez: A Tale of the Alamo, a sentimental, moralistic, anti-Catholic love story. It told the story of one orphan's spiritual journey from religious skepticism to devout faith. She presented the manuscript to her father as a Christmas gift in 1854. It was published anonymously in 1855. However, life in a frontier border town like San Antonio proved dangerous, especially with the Mexican-American War. By 1849, Evans' parents moved the family to Mobile, Alabama. She wrote her next novel, Beulah, at age 18; it was published in 1859. Beulah began the theme of female education in her novels. It sold well, selling over 22,000 copies during its first year of publication, a staggering accomplishment. It established her as Alabama's first professional author. Her family used the proceeds from her literary success to purchase Georgia Cottage on Springhill Avenue. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | false | [
"Chinese Cinderella: The Secret Story of an Unwanted Daughter (Wishbones) is a non-fiction book by Chinese-American physician and author Adeline Yen Mah describing her experiences growing up in China. First published in 1999, Chinese Cinderella is a revised version of part of her 1997 autobiography, Falling Leaves. Her mother died after giving birth to her (of fever) and she is known to her family as the worst luck ever. Her father remarries a woman who stays at home and looks after the children for a living while treating Adeline and her siblings harshly and spoiling her own children with many luxurious things. An extract of this book is also part of the anthology of Edexcel English Language IGCSE new specification.\n\nPlot\nEver since Adeline was born, she had been rejected coldly because her family believed her to bring bad luck. Her father's first wife died two weeks after giving birth to her, the fifth child. Soon, her father remarries Jeanne Prosperi (referred to as \"Niang\" in most of the story, an alternate term for \"mother\" in Mandarin Chinese), a beautiful half-French woman. She regards his first five children, especially Adeline, with distaste and cruelty while favouring her younger son, Franklin, and daughter, Susan, both born soon after the marriage.\n\nThe book outlines Adeline's struggle to find a place where she feels she belongs. She did not get very much love from her parents, she finds some solace in relationships with her grandfather (Ye Ye) and her Aunt Baba, but they are taken from her as Niang deems them to exert a bad influence on the children. Adeline immerses herself in striving for academic achievement in the hope of winning her family's appreciation, but also for its own rewards as she finds great pleasure in words and scholarly success, progressing in things that her father and step-mother had never expected, for example by topping her class. She has many friends at school who love her for who she is, but they do not know about her inside life.\n\nIGCSE Extract Synopsis\n\nWhile at boarding school in Hong Kong, Adeline is taken away by her chauffeur and told that Ye Ye has died, leaving her broken-hearted but the rest of her family is indifferent. Her love for her grandfather is resonated when she reads King Lear, inspiring her to submit a work of writing for an international playwriting competition and study at an English university. However, Adeline worries over what might happen to her when she returns home and is conflicted between her decisions.\n\nWhile playing with her friends at boarding school, Adeline is interrupted and taken home by her chauffeur to see her father. In his room (\"The Holy of Holies\"), she is informed that she has earned first place in the international playwriting competition. Delighted and surprised, Adeline gathers her courage to ask him for permission to study in England with her brothers in the field of literature and creative writing. Not surprisingly, her father immediately rejects her idea and sends her to a medical school that specialises in obstetrics. Regardless, Adeline is overjoyed to have the opportunity to study overseas.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Chinese Cinderella on the author's official website\n Extract from the book at Penguin Books Australia\n\n1999 American novels\nAmerican autobiographical novels\nAmerican children's novels\nNovels set in England\nNovels by Adeline Yen Mah\n1999 children's books",
"Ellinor Marita Jåma (born 8 August 1979) is a Norwegian Sami politician, representing Åarjel-Saemiej Gielh (South Sami Voices) in the Sami Parliament of Norway. She has been elected for two consecutive periods: 2009–13 and 2013–17. Jåma has a background in teaching, graduating in psychology, with a master's degree from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim.\n\nIn June 2014, Jåma was elected leader of the Reindeer Herders Association of Norway (Norske Reindriftssamers Landsforbund). She was the first woman to hold the post for 30 years. At only 35 on her election, she was the youngest leader ever.\n\nInterviewed on Norwegian television, Jåma explained how important it was for her to revive the Sami culture. \"We have a lasting legacy for which I wish to be a spokesman. Today I see the bureaucrats and politicians maintaining they know what is best for the Sami. But thanks to the Sami Parliament, we can influence things ourselves.\" She was also keen to support the Sami languages which had almost died out in some places. In this connection, Jåma had taken things into her own hands, producing the first ever children's television programme in the Southern Sami language.\n\nReferences\n\n1979 births\nLiving people\nMembers of the Sámi Parliament of Norway\nNorwegian women in politics\nNorwegian women psychologists\nPeople from Grong\nNorwegian University of Science and Technology alumni",
"is a Japanese actress and model who is affiliated with Ever Green Entertainment.\n\nBiography\nIn April 2006, Sakata won the Grand Prix at the exclusive model audition for the fashion magazine, Love Berry, the same year on June 1, she became an exclusive model in its July issue. She appeared in many commercials, dramas, and theater plays. In April 2009, Sakata went to a Tokyo high school. Along with it, she moved to Tokyo. Although her desire for Tokyo was from her sophomore high school, there was also opposition from her things, family, and staff Sakata was not solidified, and that could not be moved to Tokyo for junior high school. She graduated from Love Berry on its June 2010 issue, the same year in July, she was a model for Seventeen. In March 2012, Sakata graduated from high school. In April 2013, she graduated from Seventeen. The same year in May, she was an exclusive model for CanCam.\n\nFilmography\n\nTV series\n\nFilms\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nJapanese female models\n21st-century Japanese actresses\n1993 births\nLiving people\nActors from Saga Prefecture\nModels from Saga Prefecture"
]
|
|
[
"Augusta Jane Evans",
"Early years",
"What were her early years like?",
"She was born Augusta Jane Evans on May 8, 1835, in Columbus, Georgia,",
"Did she stay in Columbus for her entire childhood?",
"scarcely ten when they moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 1845.",
"Was she poor growing up?",
"Her father suffered bankruptcy and lost the family's Sherwood Hall property in the 1840s.",
"Did things ever improve for her family?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_1cbaed8bc2e84e03929f1c91c086767d_1 | Did she have any brothers or sisters? | 5 | Did Augusta Jane Evans have any brothers or sisters? | Augusta Jane Evans | She was born Augusta Jane Evans on May 8, 1835, in Columbus, Georgia, the eldest child of the family. The area of her birth was then known as Wynnton (now MidTown). Her mother was Sarah S. Howard and her father was Matthew R. Evans. She was a descendant on her mother's side from the Howards, one of the most cultured families of Georgia. As a young girl in 19th-century America, she received little in the way of a formal education. However, she became a voracious reader at an early age. Her father suffered bankruptcy and lost the family's Sherwood Hall property in the 1840s. He moved his family of ten from Georgia for Alabama, and scarcely ten when they moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 1845. When the Mexican-American War had ended, and everything was in a disorganized condition, consequently there were no schools of any prominence. Had her mother not been cultivated and literary, Evans could never have obtained the education which fitted her for the work she later accomplished. During the Mexican war, San Antonio was the rendezvous for the United States troops sent to assist General Zachary Taylor, and the brilliant uniforms of the soldiery, the martial music, and the exciting events that accompany war, combined with the picturesque, enchanting scenery around San Antonio, furnished an excellent theme for Evans' first novel. In 1850, at the age of fifteen, she wrote Inez: A Tale of the Alamo, a sentimental, moralistic, anti-Catholic love story. It told the story of one orphan's spiritual journey from religious skepticism to devout faith. She presented the manuscript to her father as a Christmas gift in 1854. It was published anonymously in 1855. However, life in a frontier border town like San Antonio proved dangerous, especially with the Mexican-American War. By 1849, Evans' parents moved the family to Mobile, Alabama. She wrote her next novel, Beulah, at age 18; it was published in 1859. Beulah began the theme of female education in her novels. It sold well, selling over 22,000 copies during its first year of publication, a staggering accomplishment. It established her as Alabama's first professional author. Her family used the proceeds from her literary success to purchase Georgia Cottage on Springhill Avenue. CANNOTANSWER | family of ten | false | [
"Brothers and Sisters, Are You Ready? is the fifth album by Big Sugar, It was released concurrently with a separate album containing French versions of the same songs, Brothers and Sisters, Êtes Vous Ready?. The album was nominated for Best Rock Album at the 2002 Juno Awards. Brothers and Sisters, Are You Ready? was certified Gold (50,000 units) by the CRIA in August 2003.\n\nTrack listing \n \"Red Rover\" – 4:57\n \"Nashville Grass\" – 3:49\n \"She Left Ashes\" – 4:04\n \"Nicotina (She's All That)\" – 4:02\n \"So Not Over\" – 3:33\n \"Butterball\" – 4:06\n \"Bump on the Head\" – 4:12\n \"Lost and Found\" – 3:55\n \"Bad Old Days\" – 3:36\n \"We Could Live\" – 4:10\n \"Pretty Bird\" – 3:12\n \"All Hell for a Basement\" – 4:00\n \"O Canada\" – 2:17\n\nBrothers and Sisters, Êtes Vous Ready? \n\nBrothers and Sisters, Êtes Vous Ready?, released in 2001, contains French versions of songs from Brothers and Sisters, Are You Ready?, along with four songs found only on the French release: \"La Bombe\", \"Busté\", \"Harmonie\" and \"À nu (Pom Pom)\".\n\nTrack listing\n \"Le Vainqueur\"\n \"Nashville Grass (For Woody)\"\n \"Elle est passée\"\n \"Tina Gasolina (Elle est tout çà)\" \n \"(Loin d'être) Over\"\n \"La Bombe\"\n \"Bump on the Head\"\n \"Lost and Found\"\n \"Busté\"\n \"Harmonie\"\n \"L'Oiseau reggae\"\n \"À nu (Pom Pom)\"\n \"O Canada\"\n\nThe album was also released in an international version which did not include the band's rendition of \"O Canada\".\n\nReferences \n\n2001 albums\nBig Sugar albums\nFrench-language albums",
"The Jewish Big Sisters was a communal organization offering support to Jewish children arraigned in the Children's Courts of New York City. Established in 1912, it was an outgrowth of the Big Brothers Big Sisters movement (established in 1902) which sought to provide mentorship to boys (and eventually girls) who had gone through the Children's Courts. As more Jewish boys and girls found their way into the court system, support materialized for the formation of organizations first for boys and then for girls with the aim of preventing delinquency.\n\nThe Jewish Big Sisters was founded by Mrs. Sidney C. Borg, who as a volunteer in Children's Court lamented the lack of qualified staff to deal with growing numbers of girls she found in court. She established the organization with the recruitment of six volunteers to help deal with individuals cases. The work of the Jewish Big Sisters involved visits to the home of the individual \"little sister\" in cooperation with the central office in order to work on specific cases. A professional would make preliminary visits and at the appropriate time, a big sister would be assigned to the individual. Frequent reports on progress were required. By 1917, the organization had a staff of 250.\n\nBorg also lobbied for legislation to aid children. At a 40th anniversary celebration in 1952, she promoted concern about the designation of \"delinquent,\" pointing out that the term implied conviction of a felony although the individuals may not have been convicted of any crime. She also noted that, when she first started, children were classified as either \"good\" or \"bad\" but that now they were called \"sick.\"\n\nSee also \nBig Brothers Big Sisters of New York City\nBig Brothers Big Sisters (disambiguation)\n\nReferences \n\nMentorships\nOrganizations established in 1912\nYouth empowerment organizations\nJewish organizations\n1912 establishments in New York City",
"Brothers and Sisters may refer to:\n{{TOC rig\n\nBooks\n Brothers and Sisters, a 1994 novel by Bebe Moore Campbell\n Brothers and Sisters, a novel by Ivy Compton-Burnett\n\nFilm and television\n Brothers and Sisters (1979 TV series), an American sitcom\n Brothers and Sisters (1980 film), a 1980 British film\n Brothers and Sisters (1992 film), a 1992 Italian film\n Brothers and Sisters (1998 TV series), a British television series starring Sandra Bee, John Adewole, and Mark Arden\n Brothers & Sisters (2006 TV series), an American television series\n \"Brothers & Sisters\" (Family Guy), episode of Family Guy\n \"Brothers and Sisters\" (The Green Green Grass), episode of The Green Green Grass\n \"Brothers & Sisters\" (Arrow), an episode of Arrow\n\nMusic\n Brothers and Sisters (album), by The Allman Brothers Band\n Brothers & Sisters (album), a 2014 album by Soil & \"Pimp\" Sessions\n Brother, Sister, an album by mewithoutYou\n Brother Sister, an album by the Brand New Heavies\n\nSongs\n \"Brothers and Sisters\", a song by Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers / Ziggy Marley Joy and Blues (1993)\n \"Brothers and Sisters\", a song by 2 Funky 2 (1993)\n \"Brothers & Sisters\" (song), a 1999 single by Coldplay\t\n \"Brothers and Sisters\", a song by Blur from Think Tank (2003)\n \"Brothers and Sisters\", a song by Twin Atlantic from Great Divide (2004)\n \"Brothers and Sisters\", a song by Joe Kum Yung Memorial Band & Dallas Tamaira from the single Happy Cones (2004)\n\nSee also\n Sibling, an individual who has one or both parents in common\n Birth order\n Brother and Sister (disambiguation)\n Sisters and Brothers (disambiguation)\n Sisters & Brothers, a 2011 Canadian film\n The Sisters Brothers (novel) 2011 Western novel\n The Sisters Brothers (film), 2018 Western film"
]
|
|
[
"Augusta Jane Evans",
"Early years",
"What were her early years like?",
"She was born Augusta Jane Evans on May 8, 1835, in Columbus, Georgia,",
"Did she stay in Columbus for her entire childhood?",
"scarcely ten when they moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 1845.",
"Was she poor growing up?",
"Her father suffered bankruptcy and lost the family's Sherwood Hall property in the 1840s.",
"Did things ever improve for her family?",
"I don't know.",
"Did she have any brothers or sisters?",
"family of ten"
]
| C_1cbaed8bc2e84e03929f1c91c086767d_1 | Was her childhood overall happy? | 6 | Was Augusta Jane Evans childhood overall happy? | Augusta Jane Evans | She was born Augusta Jane Evans on May 8, 1835, in Columbus, Georgia, the eldest child of the family. The area of her birth was then known as Wynnton (now MidTown). Her mother was Sarah S. Howard and her father was Matthew R. Evans. She was a descendant on her mother's side from the Howards, one of the most cultured families of Georgia. As a young girl in 19th-century America, she received little in the way of a formal education. However, she became a voracious reader at an early age. Her father suffered bankruptcy and lost the family's Sherwood Hall property in the 1840s. He moved his family of ten from Georgia for Alabama, and scarcely ten when they moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 1845. When the Mexican-American War had ended, and everything was in a disorganized condition, consequently there were no schools of any prominence. Had her mother not been cultivated and literary, Evans could never have obtained the education which fitted her for the work she later accomplished. During the Mexican war, San Antonio was the rendezvous for the United States troops sent to assist General Zachary Taylor, and the brilliant uniforms of the soldiery, the martial music, and the exciting events that accompany war, combined with the picturesque, enchanting scenery around San Antonio, furnished an excellent theme for Evans' first novel. In 1850, at the age of fifteen, she wrote Inez: A Tale of the Alamo, a sentimental, moralistic, anti-Catholic love story. It told the story of one orphan's spiritual journey from religious skepticism to devout faith. She presented the manuscript to her father as a Christmas gift in 1854. It was published anonymously in 1855. However, life in a frontier border town like San Antonio proved dangerous, especially with the Mexican-American War. By 1849, Evans' parents moved the family to Mobile, Alabama. She wrote her next novel, Beulah, at age 18; it was published in 1859. Beulah began the theme of female education in her novels. It sold well, selling over 22,000 copies during its first year of publication, a staggering accomplishment. It established her as Alabama's first professional author. Her family used the proceeds from her literary success to purchase Georgia Cottage on Springhill Avenue. CANNOTANSWER | she became a voracious reader at an early age. | false | [
"Home: A Memoir of My Early Years is a best-selling memoir written by Julie Andrews. It was published on April 1, 2008, by Hyperion.\n\nHome tells the story of Julie Andrews' life up until 1963, when she left England for Hollywood to shoot Mary Poppins and is part one of a two-part memoir, with the second part Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years, released over 11 years later in October 2019. While it includes dark childhood memories of surviving the London Blitz and attempts by her step-father Ted Andrews to molest her, the book overall presents a happy vision of Andrews's childhood. She has said in an interview that the book The Little Gray Men and her father Ted Wells were her inspirations and source of influence as an author, along with Charles Dickens, among others. Andrews revealed in the book that Wells was not, in fact, her natural father; her biological father had been a family friend with whom her mother had had a brief affair.\n\nThe book received a generally positive critical reception. The Los Angeles Times described it as \"immensely readable\" and The New York Times praised the quality of the prose. Home was #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List of non-fiction adult titles on April 27, 2008.\n\nReferences \n\nBritish memoirs\n2008 non-fiction books",
"Margaretta Large \"Happy\" Rockefeller (née Fitler, formerly Murphy; June 9, 1926 – May 19, 2015) was a philanthropist and the second wife of the 49th governor of New York and 41st vice president of the United States, Nelson Rockefeller (1908–1979). She was first lady of New York from 1963 to 1973, and second lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977.\n\nChildhood and family\nMargaretta Large Fitler was born at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, in 1926. Her parents were Margaretta Large Harrison and William Wonderly Fitler Jr., an heir to a cordage fortune. Her mother would subsequently remarry. The younger Margaretta was known by her nickname, \"Happy\", given to her for her childhood disposition. She was a great-granddaughter of Philadelphia mayor Edwin Henry Fitler and a great-great-granddaughter of Union general George Gordon Meade, the commander at the Battle of Gettysburg, and his wife Margaretta Sergeant, daughter of politician John Sergeant.\n\nMarriages\n\nOn December 11, 1949, she married James Slater Murphy, a virologist associated with the Rockefeller Institute and a close friend of Nelson Rockefeller's. They had four children: James B. Murphy, II, Margaretta Harrison Murphy, Carol Slater Murphy, and Malinda Fitler Murphy (1960–2005). Malinda married Francis Menotti, the adopted son of composer Gian Carlo Menotti.\n\nHappy and her husband divorced on April 1, 1963, for reasons The New York Times called \"grievous mental anguish\" and her former husband's lawyer classified as \"irreconcilable differences\". One month later – on May 4, 1963 – at the home of Laurance S. Rockefeller in Pocantico Hills, New York, Happy married Governor Nelson Rockefeller, who had taken office in 1959 and was eighteen years her senior. She had worked as a member of his office staff until her resignation in 1961. Nelson divorced his first wife, Mary Todhunter Clark, on March 16, 1962. Happy and Nelson Rockefeller had two sons together: Nelson Rockefeller Jr. (born 1964), and Mark Rockefeller (born 1967).\n\nAt the time, Happy Murphy's relationship with Gov. Rockefeller was controversial. As the British journalist Lady Jeanne Campbell wrote in the London Evening Standard, when the Murphy-Rockefeller involvement became a subject of media scrutiny after the announcement of Rockefeller's filing for divorce from his first wife and Happy Murphy's resignation from his staff, \"Already people are comparing Happy Murphy to the Duchess of Windsor when she was plain Mrs. Simpson.\" More damaging still was the political fallout for Rockefeller. Echoing the party-wide concerns, an official of the Michigan Republican Party told The New York Times that the couple's potential marriage likely would cost Rockefeller the 1964 presidential nomination. \"The rapidity of it all—he gets a divorce, she gets a divorce—and the indication of the break-up of two homes. Our country doesn't like broken homes.\"\n\nDespite some people's disapproval, Rockefeller was re-elected as governor twice more and served until 1973, when he resigned. He was appointed Vice President of the United States by President Gerald Ford, after Richard Nixon resigned, and served from 1974 to 1977.\n\nThere has been speculation surrounding Malinda Fitler Menotti, the youngest daughter of Happy Rockefeller and Dr. James Slater Murphy, with many in the Rockefeller inner circle believing her to be Nelson Rockefeller's daughter. In his diary, Rockefeller intimate Ken Riland used a tone of knowing irony when mentioning Malinda, putting the word stepfather in quotes. Ellen, the wife of Wally Harrison, the architect and Nelson Rockefeller confidant, claimed that Malinda's parentage was an open secret among Rockefeller associates.\n\nHealth and death\nShe was a breast cancer survivor, having undergone a double mastectomy in 1974, two weeks after Betty Ford, then First Lady of the United States, underwent a single mastectomy. Happy Rockefeller died on May 19, 2015, at the age of 88, following a short illness.\n\nSee also\n\n Rockefeller family\n\nReferences\n\n|-\n\n1926 births\n2015 deaths\nAmerican socialites\nFirst Ladies and Gentlemen of New York (state)\nNew York (state) Republicans\nPeople from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania\nPeople from Manhattan\nRockefeller family\nSecond Ladies of the United States\nMeade family",
"Jillian Kesner-Graver (August 9, 1949 – December 5, 2007) was an American actress and historian who worked with her husband, Gary Graver, to preserve the work and legacy of director Orson Welles. She was best known as an actress for playing Fonzie's girlfriend, Lorraine, on Happy Days.\n\nEarly life\nKesner-Graver was born in Portsmouth, Virginia. Her father was in the United States Navy and she spent much of her childhood in Denver, Colorado. She first moved to Los Angeles in 1959 where she worked as a model before getting into television and movie acting.\n\nCareer\nKesner-Graver was best known for playing Fonzie's girlfriend, Lorraine, on Happy Days. She was credited as Jillian Kesner on Happy Days, as well as her other television and movie roles. She appeared in a large number of \"B-rated\" films throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Her credits included Raw Force, Starhops and Jaded. She developed a large following among fans of B-level action films.\n\nShe appeared on a number of television shows, including Three's Company, The Rockford Files and Mork & Mindy. She met her husband, director and cinematographer, Gary Graver, on the set of the film The Student Body in 1976.\n\nDeath\nJillian Kesner-Graver died on December 5, 2007, in Irvine, California of complications from a staph infection, which she contracted after having been diagnosed with leukemia. She was 58 years old.\n\nFilmography\n\nFilm\n\nTelevision\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1949 births\n2007 deaths\nActresses from Virginia\nAmerican film actresses\nAmerican television actresses\nInfectious disease deaths in California\nDeaths from staphylococcal infection\nPeople from Portsmouth, Virginia\n20th-century American actresses\nDeaths from leukemia\nDeaths from cancer in California\n21st-century American women"
]
|
|
[
"Augusta Jane Evans",
"Early years",
"What were her early years like?",
"She was born Augusta Jane Evans on May 8, 1835, in Columbus, Georgia,",
"Did she stay in Columbus for her entire childhood?",
"scarcely ten when they moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 1845.",
"Was she poor growing up?",
"Her father suffered bankruptcy and lost the family's Sherwood Hall property in the 1840s.",
"Did things ever improve for her family?",
"I don't know.",
"Did she have any brothers or sisters?",
"family of ten",
"Was her childhood overall happy?",
"she became a voracious reader at an early age."
]
| C_1cbaed8bc2e84e03929f1c91c086767d_1 | When did she begin writing? | 7 | When did Augusta Jane Evans begin writing? | Augusta Jane Evans | She was born Augusta Jane Evans on May 8, 1835, in Columbus, Georgia, the eldest child of the family. The area of her birth was then known as Wynnton (now MidTown). Her mother was Sarah S. Howard and her father was Matthew R. Evans. She was a descendant on her mother's side from the Howards, one of the most cultured families of Georgia. As a young girl in 19th-century America, she received little in the way of a formal education. However, she became a voracious reader at an early age. Her father suffered bankruptcy and lost the family's Sherwood Hall property in the 1840s. He moved his family of ten from Georgia for Alabama, and scarcely ten when they moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 1845. When the Mexican-American War had ended, and everything was in a disorganized condition, consequently there were no schools of any prominence. Had her mother not been cultivated and literary, Evans could never have obtained the education which fitted her for the work she later accomplished. During the Mexican war, San Antonio was the rendezvous for the United States troops sent to assist General Zachary Taylor, and the brilliant uniforms of the soldiery, the martial music, and the exciting events that accompany war, combined with the picturesque, enchanting scenery around San Antonio, furnished an excellent theme for Evans' first novel. In 1850, at the age of fifteen, she wrote Inez: A Tale of the Alamo, a sentimental, moralistic, anti-Catholic love story. It told the story of one orphan's spiritual journey from religious skepticism to devout faith. She presented the manuscript to her father as a Christmas gift in 1854. It was published anonymously in 1855. However, life in a frontier border town like San Antonio proved dangerous, especially with the Mexican-American War. By 1849, Evans' parents moved the family to Mobile, Alabama. She wrote her next novel, Beulah, at age 18; it was published in 1859. Beulah began the theme of female education in her novels. It sold well, selling over 22,000 copies during its first year of publication, a staggering accomplishment. It established her as Alabama's first professional author. Her family used the proceeds from her literary success to purchase Georgia Cottage on Springhill Avenue. CANNOTANSWER | In 1850, at the age of fifteen, she wrote Inez: A Tale of the Alamo, | false | [
"Malka Locker (1887–1990; ) was a Ukrainian-born Israeli poet, writing primarily in Yiddish.\n\nBiography \nMalka Locker was born in 1887 in Kuty, known in Yiddish as Kitev, a town in what was then the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, now Ukraine. She came from a long line of rabbis, and education was important to her family, with Malka receiving a secular education as well as a Yiddish one. She went on to learn German, French, and English, as well as Polish, Ukrainian, and Hebrew.\n\nIn 1910, she married the Zionist activist Berl Locker, who was her cousin. The couple traveled the world together, spending a decade living in London from 1938 to 1948. They permanently settled in Israel in 1948, having first spent time in then-Mandatory Palestine in the 1930s.\n\nLocker is best known for her work as a poet, but she did not begin writing poetry until she was 42 years old. She began writing on the suggestion of a friend, who had identified a \"poetic quality\" in her correspondence. As she began to publish poems in the 1930s, her work received some notice from Yiddish critics.\n\nShe published at least six books of poetry, beginning with Velt un mentsh (\"World and Man\") in 1931. Subsequent collections included Du (\"You\") in 1932; Shtet (\"Cities\"), about London, in 1942; and The World Is Without a Protector: 1940-1945 in 1947. While she wrote primarily in Yiddish, she also published one book of poems in German, and her writing was also translated into Hebrew and French.\n\nLocker also produced various works of literary criticism, with a focus on French romantic and symbolic poetry, including a 1965 book on Arthur Rimbaud, a 1970 biography of Charles Baudelaire, and a 1976 biography of Paul Verlaine. She was also a composer, notably writing the choral works \"Luekh trts\"v\" and \"Luekh trts'kh\" in 1938, and would sing in Yiddish locally and internationally.\n\nShe died in Jerusalem in 1990, at age 103.\n\nReferences \n\n1887 births\n1990 deaths\nPeople from Galicia (Eastern Europe)\nUkrainian women poets\nIsraeli women poets\nIsraeli poets\nYiddish-language poets\nIsraeli centenarians\nWomen centenarians",
"Muriel Diallo (born 19 May 1967) is an Ivory Coast writer.\n\nDiallo was born in Boundiali in 1967. Although she is known for her writing she taught art for a living. She has exhibited her paintings and she has won a number of awards for her writing. Her first story was published in 1998. Her stories are written in French, for young people and frequently illustrated by Diallo. Diallo has written several books for young children with titles that begin \"Bibi does not like...\" and then titles deal with subjects like vegetables, medical treatment and football.\n\nDiallo was troubled by murders caused by intolerance in her home country. She has moved to live in Paris where she paints and illustrates.\n\nReferences\n\n1967 births\nLiving people\nIvorian writers",
"Shreshta is a Telugu-Language lyricist and writer. She became popular for her lyrics for the songs in the movies, Pelli Choopulu and Arjun Reddy. After her debut, she was lauded as Telugu cinema’s first female lyricist.\n\nEarly life\nShe was born in Mancherial in Adilabad district, Telangana. She is the only child, her father is a businessman and mother a government employee. Her mother a Hindu Brahmin and raised in a devout Hindu family and devotional songs were part of family culture. She was interested in writing from early age. She did her schooling in Mancherial and did her Bachelors in Commerce and LLB at Osmania University. She use to write poems and was encouraged by her grandfather, Panchadhara Venkata Kishan. She first started writing poems when she was in tenth standard.\n\nCareer\nShe was encouraged by popular Telugu language lyricist, Vennelakanti to take up a career in penning lyrics. Initially, she started writing devotional songs, before pushing a career in movies.\n\nTollywood\nShe made Tollywood debut in 2013 with the film, Oka Romantic Crime Katha. She also penned lyrics for the Telugu films, Ko Ante Koti and Courier Boy Kalyan. Pelli Choopulu was her 9th movie as a lyricist.\n\nFilmography\n\nAwards\n Debutant Award at Cine Maa Mahila Awards in 2013\n\nReferences\n\nTelugu-language lyricists"
]
|
|
[
"Augusta Jane Evans",
"Early years",
"What were her early years like?",
"She was born Augusta Jane Evans on May 8, 1835, in Columbus, Georgia,",
"Did she stay in Columbus for her entire childhood?",
"scarcely ten when they moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 1845.",
"Was she poor growing up?",
"Her father suffered bankruptcy and lost the family's Sherwood Hall property in the 1840s.",
"Did things ever improve for her family?",
"I don't know.",
"Did she have any brothers or sisters?",
"family of ten",
"Was her childhood overall happy?",
"she became a voracious reader at an early age.",
"When did she begin writing?",
"In 1850, at the age of fifteen, she wrote Inez: A Tale of the Alamo,"
]
| C_1cbaed8bc2e84e03929f1c91c086767d_1 | Was it a success? | 8 | Was Augusta Jane Evans writing a success? | Augusta Jane Evans | She was born Augusta Jane Evans on May 8, 1835, in Columbus, Georgia, the eldest child of the family. The area of her birth was then known as Wynnton (now MidTown). Her mother was Sarah S. Howard and her father was Matthew R. Evans. She was a descendant on her mother's side from the Howards, one of the most cultured families of Georgia. As a young girl in 19th-century America, she received little in the way of a formal education. However, she became a voracious reader at an early age. Her father suffered bankruptcy and lost the family's Sherwood Hall property in the 1840s. He moved his family of ten from Georgia for Alabama, and scarcely ten when they moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 1845. When the Mexican-American War had ended, and everything was in a disorganized condition, consequently there were no schools of any prominence. Had her mother not been cultivated and literary, Evans could never have obtained the education which fitted her for the work she later accomplished. During the Mexican war, San Antonio was the rendezvous for the United States troops sent to assist General Zachary Taylor, and the brilliant uniforms of the soldiery, the martial music, and the exciting events that accompany war, combined with the picturesque, enchanting scenery around San Antonio, furnished an excellent theme for Evans' first novel. In 1850, at the age of fifteen, she wrote Inez: A Tale of the Alamo, a sentimental, moralistic, anti-Catholic love story. It told the story of one orphan's spiritual journey from religious skepticism to devout faith. She presented the manuscript to her father as a Christmas gift in 1854. It was published anonymously in 1855. However, life in a frontier border town like San Antonio proved dangerous, especially with the Mexican-American War. By 1849, Evans' parents moved the family to Mobile, Alabama. She wrote her next novel, Beulah, at age 18; it was published in 1859. Beulah began the theme of female education in her novels. It sold well, selling over 22,000 copies during its first year of publication, a staggering accomplishment. It established her as Alabama's first professional author. Her family used the proceeds from her literary success to purchase Georgia Cottage on Springhill Avenue. CANNOTANSWER | It was published anonymously in 1855. | false | [
"Sixteen ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Success, whilst another was planned:\n\n was a 34-gun ship, previously the French ship Jules. She was captured in 1650, renamed HMS Old Success in 1660 and sold in 1662.\n HMS Success was a 24-gun ship launched in 1655 as . She was renamed HMS Success in 1660 and was wrecked in 1680.\n was a 6-gun fireship purchased in 1672 that foundered in 1673.\n was a store hulk purchased in 1692 and sunk as a breakwater in 1707.\n was a 10-gun sloop purchased in 1709 that the French captured in 1710 off Lisbon.\n was a 24-gun storeship launched in 1709, hulked in 1730, and sold in 1748. \n was a 20-gun sixth rate launched in 1712, converted to a fireship in 1739, and sold in 1743.\n was a 14-gun sloop launched in 1736; her fate is unknown.\n was a 24-gun sixth rate launched in 1740 and broken up in 1779.\n was a 14-gun ketch launched in 1754. Her fate is unknown.\n was a 32-gun fifth rate launched in 1781 that the French captured in 1801 but that the British recaptured the same year. She became a convict ship in 1814 and was broken up in 1820.\n was a 3-gun gunvessel, previously in use as a barge. She was purchased in 1797 and sold in 1802.\n was a 28 gun sixth rate launched in 1825, and captained by James Stirling in his journey to Western Australia. She was used for harbour service from 1832 and was broken up 1849.\n HMS Success was to have been a wood screw sloop. She was ordered but not laid down and was cancelled in 1863.\n was a launched in 1901 and wrecked in 1914.\n HMS Success was an launched in 1918. She was transferred to the Royal Australian Navy in 1919 and was sold in 1937.\n was an S-class destroyer launched in 1943. She was transferred to the Royal Norwegian Navy later that year and renamed . She was broken up in 1959.\n\nSee also\n , two ships of the Royal Australian Navy.\n\nCitations and references\nCitations\n\nReferences\n \n\nRoyal Navy ship names",
"HMAS Success was an Admiralty destroyer of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Built for the Royal Navy during World War I, the ship was not completed until 1919, and spent less than eight months in British service before being transferred to the RAN at the start of 1920. The destroyer's career was uneventful, with almost all of it spent in Australian waters. Success was decommissioned in 1930, and was sold for ship breaking in 1937.\n\nDesign and construction\n\nSuccess was built to the Admiralty design of the S-class destroyer, which was designed and built as part of the British emergency war programme. The destroyer had a displacement of 1,075 tons, a length of overall and between perpendiculars, and a beam of . The propulsion machinery consisted of three Yarrow boilers feeding Brown-Curtis turbines, which supplied to the ship's two propeller shafts. Success had a maximum speed of , and a range of at . The ship's company was made up of 6 officers and 93 sailors.\n\nThe destroyer's primary armament consisted of three QF 4-inch Mark IV guns. These were supplemented by a 2-pounder pom-pom, two 9.5-inch howitzer bomb throwers, five .303 inch machine guns (a mix of Lewis and Maxim guns), two twin 21-inch torpedo tube sets, two depth charge throwers, and two depth charge chutes.\n\nSuccess was laid down by William Doxford and Sons Limited at their Sunderland shipyard in 1917. The destroyer was launched on 29 June 1918, and completed on 15 April 1919. The ship was briefly commissioned into the Royal Navy in April 1919, but was quickly marked for transfer to the RAN, along with four sister ships. Success was commissioned into the RAN on 27 January 1920.\n\nOperational history\n\nSuccess and three of her sister ships sailed for Australia on 20 February, visiting ports in the Mediterranean, India, Singapore, and the Netherlands East Indies before reaching Sydney on 29 April. Success operated in Australian waters until 6 October 1921, when she was placed in reserve. The destroyer was reactivated on 1 December 1925. In late May 1926, Success visited Port Moresby.\n\nDecommissioning and fate\nSuccess paid off on 21 May 1930. She was sold to Penguins Limited for ship breaking in 1937.\n\nCitations\n\nReferences\n\nS-class destroyers (1917) of the Royal Australian Navy\nShips built on the River Wear\n1918 ships",
"HMS Success was an 28-gun sixth-rate wooden sailing ship notable for exploring Western Australia and the Swan River in 1827 as well as being one of the first ships to arrive at the fledgling Swan River Colony two years later, at which time she ran aground off Carnac Island.\n\nHistory \nHer keel was laid at Pembroke Dock in August 1823 and she was launched on 31 August 1825. She was and , and was a sixth-rate ship with 28 guns, including twenty 32-pounders.\n\nShe was sent by the Royal Navy on a mission to New South Wales and Melville Island. She made an expedition to the Swan River in 1827, arriving there in early March. Captain James Stirling was in command. There is a record of the expedition, An account of the expedition of H.M.S. 'Success', Captain James Stirling, RN., from Sydney, to the Swan River, in 1827 by Augustus Gilbert. Another account The visit of Charles Fraser (the colonial botanist of New South Wales) : to the Swan River in 1827, with his opinion on the suitableness of the district for a settlement was published in 1832.\n\nOn 3 December 1829 Success ran aground on Shag Rock, Carnac Island. In April Success was taken to Careening Bay on Garden Island for heaving down to and repaired.\n\nIn February 1833 Success was fitted out as a receiving ship and from 1833 to 1849 was engaged in harbour service in Portsmouth. She was broken up in 1849.\n\nSuccess Hill, Success Bank, the suburb of Success and a number of other features in Western Australia are named after the ship.\n\nReferences \n\n \n\nAtholl-class corvettes\n1825 ships\nShips built in Pembroke Dock\nMaritime incidents in December 1829"
]
|
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[
"Bee Gees",
"Main Course and Children of the World"
]
| C_6cca1f87ae8e46bd949e4e2bdf8ac2d4_1 | What happened during this time period? | 1 | What happened during Bee Gees' Main Course and Children of the World? | Bee Gees | At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record. After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs, including their second US No. 1, "Jive Talkin'", along with US No. 7 "Nights on Broadway". The band liked the resulting new sound. This time the public agreed by sending the LP Main Course up the charts. This album included the first Bee Gees songs wherein Barry used falsetto, something that would later become a trademark of the band. This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album. On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang "To Love Somebody" with Helen Reddy. Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers--"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" with Barry providing lead vocals, and "Sun King" with Maurice providing lead vocals, for the unsuccessful musical/documentary All This and World War II. The next album, Children of the World released in September 1976, was drenched in Barry's new-found falsetto and Weaver's synthesizer disco licks. Mardin was unavailable to produce, so the Bee Gees enlisted Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson, who had worked with Mardin during the Main Course sessions. This production team would carry the Bee Gees through the rest of the 1970s. The first single from the album was "You Should Be Dancing" (which features percussion work by musician Stephen Stills). The song pushed the Bee Gees to a level of stardom they had not previously achieved in the US, though their new R&B/disco sound was not as popular with some die hard fans. The pop ballad "Love So Right" reached No. 3 in the US, and "Boogie Child" reached US No. 12 in January 1977. The album peaked at No. 8 in the US. A compilation Bee Gees Gold was released in November, containing the group's hits from 1967 to 1972. CANNOTANSWER | At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record. | The Bee Gees
were a music group formed in 1958, featuring brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful as a popular music act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers of the disco music era in the mid- to late 1970s. The group sang recognisable three-part tight harmonies; Robin's clear vibrato lead vocals were a hallmark of their earlier hits, while Barry's R&B falsetto became their signature sound during the mid- to late 1970s and 1980s. The Bee Gees wrote all of their own hits, as well as writing and producing several major hits for other artists and have been regarded as one of the most important and influential acts in pop music history. They have been referred to in the media as The Disco Kings, Britain’s First Family of Harmony, and The Kings of Dance Music.
Born on the Isle of Man to English parents, the Gibb brothers lived in Chorlton, Manchester, England until the late 1950s. There, in 1955, they formed the skiffle/rock and roll group the Rattlesnakes. The family then moved to Redcliffe, in the Moreton Bay Region, Queensland, Australia, later to Cribb Island. After achieving their first chart success in Australia as the Bee Gees with "Spicks and Specks" (their twelfth single), they returned to the UK in January 1967, when producer Robert Stigwood began promoting them to a worldwide audience. The Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever soundtrack (1977) was the turning point of their career, with both the film and soundtrack having a cultural impact throughout the world, enhancing the disco scene's mainstream appeal. They won five Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever, including Album of the Year.
The Bee Gees have sold over 220 million records worldwide, making them among the best-selling music artists of all time. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997; the Hall's citation says, "Only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney have outsold the Bee Gees." With nine number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, the Bee Gees are the third-most successful band in Billboard charts history behind only the Beatles and the Supremes.
Following Maurice's sudden death in January 2003 at the age of 53, Barry and Robin retired the group's name after 45 years of activity. In 2009, Robin announced that he and Barry had agreed that the Bee Gees would re-form and perform again. Robin died in May 2012, aged 62, after a prolonged period of failing health, leaving Barry as the only surviving member of the group.
History
1955–1966: Music origins, Bee Gees formation and popularity in Australia
Born on the Isle of Man during the late 1940s, the Gibb brothers moved to their father Hugh Gibb's hometown of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Greater Manchester, England in 1955. They formed a skiffle/rock-and-roll group, the Rattlesnakes, which consisted of Barry on guitar and vocals, Robin and Maurice on vocals and friends Paul Frost on drums and Kenny Horrocks on tea-chest bass. In December 1957 the boys began to sing in harmony. The story is told that they were going to lip-sync to a record in the local Gaumont cinema (as other children had done on previous weeks), but as they were running to the theatre, the fragile shellac 78-RPM record broke. The brothers had to sing live, but received such a positive response from the audience that they decided to pursue a singing career. In May 1958 the Rattlesnakes disbanded when Frost and Horrocks left, so the Gibb brothers then formed Wee Johnny Hayes and the Blue Cats, with Barry as "Johnny Hayes".
In August 1958, the Gibb family, including older sister Lesley and infant brother Andy (born in March 1958), emigrated to Australia and settled in Redcliffe, Queensland, just north-east of Brisbane. The young brothers began performing to raise pocket money. Speedway promoter and driver Bill Goode, who had hired the brothers to entertain the crowd at the Redcliffe Speedway in 1960, introduced them to Brisbane radio-presenter jockey Bill Gates. The crowd at the speedway would throw money onto the track for the boys, who generally performed during the interval of meetings (usually on the back of a truck that drove around the track) and, in a deal with Goode, any money they collected from the crowd they were allowed to keep. Gates named the group the "BGs" (later changed to "Bee Gees") after his, Goode's and Barry Gibb's initials. The name was not specifically a reference to "Brothers Gibb", despite popular belief.
During the next few years, they began working regularly at resorts on the Queensland coast. Through his songwriting, Barry sparked the interest of Australian star Col Joye, who helped the brothers get a recording deal in 1963 with Festival Records subsidiary Leedon Records under the name "Bee Gees". The three released two or three singles a year, while Barry supplied additional songs to other Australian artists. In 1962 the Bee Gees were chosen as the supporting act for Chubby Checker's concert at the Sydney Stadium.
From 1963 to 1966, the Gibb family lived at 171 Bunnerong Road, Maroubra, in Sydney. Just prior to his death, Robin Gibb recorded the song "Sydney" about the brothers' experience of living in that city. It was released on his posthumous album 50 St. Catherine's Drive. The house was demolished in 2016.
A minor hit in 1965, "Wine and Women", led to the group's first LP, The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs. By 1966 Festival Records was, however, on the verge of dropping them from the Leedon roster because of their perceived lack of commercial success. At this time the brothers met the American-born songwriter, producer and entrepreneur Nat Kipner, who had just been appointed A&R manager of a new independent label, Spin Records. Kipner briefly took over as the group's manager and successfully negotiated their transfer to Spin in exchange for granting Festival the Australian distribution-rights to the group's recordings. Through Kipner the Bee Gees met engineer-producer, Ossie Byrne, who produced (or co-produced with Kipner) many of the earlier Spin recordings, most of which were cut at his own small, self-built St Clair Studio in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville. Byrne gave the Gibb brothers virtually unlimited access to St Clair Studio over a period of several months in mid-1966. The group later acknowledged that this enabled them to greatly improve their skills as recording artists. During this productive time they recorded a large batch of original material—including the song that became their first major hit, "Spicks and Specks" (on which Byrne played the trumpet coda)—as well as cover versions of current hits by overseas acts such as the Beatles. They regularly collaborated with other local musicians, including members of beat band Steve & The Board, led by Steve Kipner, Nat's teenage son.
Frustrated by their lack of success, the Gibbs began their return journey to England on 4 January 1967, with Ossie Byrne travelling with them. While at sea in January 1967, the Gibbs learned that Go-Set, Australia's most popular and influential music newspaper, had declared "Spicks and Specks" the "Best Single of the Year".
1967–1969: International fame and touring years
Bee Gees' 1st, Horizontal and Idea
Before their departure from Australia to England, Hugh Gibb sent demos to Brian Epstein, who managed the Beatles and directed NEMS, a British music store. Epstein passed the demo tapes to Robert Stigwood, who had recently joined NEMS. After an audition with Stigwood in February 1967, the Bee Gees signed a five-year contract whereby Polydor Records would release their records in the UK, and Atco Records would do so in the US. Work quickly began on the group's first international album, and Stigwood launched a promotional campaign to coincide with its release.
Stigwood proclaimed that the Bee Gees were "The most significant new musical talent of 1967", thus initiating the comparison of the Bee Gees to the Beatles. Before recording the first album, the group expanded to include Colin Petersen and Vince Melouney. "New York Mining Disaster 1941," their second British single (their first-issued UK 45 rpm was "Spicks and Specks"), was issued to radio stations with a blank white label listing only the song title. Some DJs immediately assumed this was a new single by the Beatles and started playing the song in heavy rotation. This helped the song climb into the top 20 in both the UK and US.
No such chicanery was needed to boost the Bee Gees' next single, "To Love Somebody", into the US Top 20. Originally written for Otis Redding, "To Love Somebody", a soulful ballad sung by Barry, has since become a pop standard covered by many artists. Another single, "Holiday", released in the US, peaked at No. 16.
The parent album, Bee Gees 1st (their first internationally), peaked at No. 7 in the US and No. 8 in the UK. Bill Shepherd was credited as the arranger. After recording that album, the group recorded their first BBC session at the Playhouse Theatre, Northumberland Avenue, in London, with Bill Bebb as the producer, and they performed three songs. That session is included on BBC Sessions: 1967–1973 (2008). After the release of Bee Gees' 1st, the group was first introduced in New York as "the English surprise." At that time, the band made their first British TV appearance on Top of the Pops. Maurice recalled:
In late 1967, they began recording the second album. On 21 December 1967, in a live broadcast from Liverpool Anglican Cathedral for a Christmas television special called How On Earth?, they performed their own song, "Thank You For Christmas" which was written especially for the programme, as well as a medley of the traditional Christmas carols "Silent Night," "The First Noel" and "Mary's Boy Child" (the latter incorrectly noted as "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" on tape boxes and subsequent release). The songs were all pre-recorded on 1 December 1967 and the group lip-synched their performance. The recordings were eventually released on the "Horizontal" reissue bonus disc in 2008. The folk group the Settlers and Radio 1 disc-jockey, Kenny Everett, also performed on the programme which was presented by the Reverend Edward H. Patey, dean of the cathedral.
January 1968 began with a promotional trip to the US. Los Angeles Police were on alert in anticipation of a Beatles-type reception, and special security arrangements were being put in place. In February, Horizontal repeated the success of their first album, featuring the group's first UK No. 1 single "Massachusetts" (a No. 11 US hit) and the No. 7 UK single "World." The sound of the album Horizontal had a more "rock" sound than their previous release, although ballads like "And the Sun Will Shine" and "Really and Sincerely" were also prominent. The Horizontal album reached No. 12 in the US and No. 16 in the UK.
With the release of Horizontal, they also embarked on a Scandinavian tour with concerts in Copenhagen. Around the same time, the Bee Gees turned down an offer to write and perform the soundtrack for the film Wonderwall, according to director Joe Massot.
On 27 February 1968, the band, backed by the 17-piece Massachusetts String Orchestra, began their first tour of Germany with two concerts at Hamburg Musikhalle. In March 1968, the band was supported by Procol Harum (who had a well-known hit "A Whiter Shade of Pale") on their German tour. As Robin's partner Molly Hullis recalls: "Germans were wilder than the fans in England at the heights of Beatlemania." The tour schedule took them to 11 venues in as many days with 18 concerts played, finishing with a brace of shows at the Stadthalle, Braunschweig.
After that, the group was off to Switzerland. As Maurice described it:
On 17 March, the band performed "Words" on The Ed Sullivan Show. The other artists who performed on that night's show were Lucille Ball, George Hamilton and Fran Jeffries. On 27 March 1968, the band performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Two more singles followed in early 1968: the ballad "Words" (No. 8 UK, No. 15 US) and the double A-sided single "Jumbo" backed with "The Singer Sang His Song". "Jumbo" only reached No. 25 in the UK and No. 57 in the US. The Bee Gees felt "The Singer Sang His Song" was the stronger of the two sides, an opinion shared by listeners in the Netherlands who made it a No. 3 hit.
Further Bee Gees chart singles followed: "I've Gotta Get a Message to You", their second UK No. 1 (No. 8 US), and "I Started a Joke" (No. 6 US), both culled from the band's third album Idea. Idea reached No. 4 in the UK and was another top 20 album in the US (No. 17).
After the tour and TV special to promote the album, Vince Melouney left the group, desiring to play more of a blues style music than the Gibbs were writing. Melouney did achieve one feat while with the Bee Gees: his composition "Such a Shame" (from Idea) is the only song on any Bee Gees album not written by a Gibb brother.
The band were due to begin a seven-week tour of the US on 2 August 1968, but on 27 July, Robin collapsed and fell unconscious. He was admitted to a London nursing home suffering from nervous exhaustion, and the American tour was postponed. The band began recording their sixth album, which resulted in their spending a week recording at Atlantic Studios in New York. Robin, still feeling poorly, missed the New York sessions, but the rest of the band put away instrumental tracks and demos.
Odessa, Cucumber Castle and break-up
By 1969, Robin began to feel that Stigwood had been favouring Barry as the frontman.
The Bee Gees' performances in early 1969 on the Top of the Pops and The Tom Jones Show performing "I Started a Joke" and "First of May" as a medley was one of the last live performances of the group with Robin.
Their next album, which was to have been a concept album called Masterpeace, evolved into the double-album Odessa. Most rock critics felt this was the best Bee Gees album of the 1960s with its progressive rock feel on the title track, the country-flavoured "Marley Purt Drive" and "Give Your Best", and ballads such as "Melody Fair" and "First of May" (the last of which became the only single from the album and a UK # 6 hit). Feeling the flipside, "Lamplight," should have been the A-side, Robin quit the group in mid-1969 and launched a solo career.
The first of many Bee Gees compilations, Best of Bee Gees, was released featuring the non-LP single "Words" plus the Australian hit "Spicks and Specks". The single "Tomorrow Tomorrow" was also released and was a moderate hit in the UK, where it reached No. 23, but it was only No. 54 in the US. The compilation reached the top 10 in both the UK and the US.
While Robin pursued his solo career, Barry, Maurice and Petersen continued on as the Bee Gees recording their next album, Cucumber Castle. The band made their debut performance without Robin at Talk of the Town. They had recruited their sister, Lesley, into the group at this time. To accompany the album, they also filmed a TV special with Frankie Howerd and cameos from several other contemporary pop and rock stars, which aired on the BBC in December 1970. Petersen played drums on the tracks recorded for the album but was fired from the group after filming began (he went on to form the Humpy Bong with Jonathan Kelly). His parts were edited out of the final cut of the film and Pentangle drummer Terry Cox was recruited to complete the recording of songs for the album.
After the album was released in early 1970, it seemed that the Bee Gees were finished. The leadoff single, "Don't Forget to Remember", was a big hit in the UK, reaching No. 2, but only reached No. 73 in the US. The next two singles, "I.O.I.O." and "If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else", barely scraped the charts. On 1 December 1969, Barry and Maurice parted ways professionally.
Maurice started to record his first solo album, The Loner, which was not released. Meanwhile, he released the single "Railroad" and starred in the West End musical Sing a Rude Song. In February 1970, Barry recorded a solo album which never saw official release either, although "I'll Kiss Your Memory" was released as a single backed by "This Time" without much interest. Meanwhile, Robin saw success in Europe and Australia with his No. 2 hit "Saved by the Bell" and the album Robin's Reign.
1970–1974: Reformation
In mid 1970, according to Barry, "Robin rang me in Spain where I was on holiday [saying] 'let's do it again'". By 21 August 1970, after they had reunited, Barry announced that the Bee Gees "are there and they will never, ever part again". Maurice said, "We just discussed it and re-formed. We want to apologise publicly to Robin for the things that have been said." Earlier, in June 1970, Robin and Maurice recorded a dozen songs before Barry joined and included two songs that were on their reunion album. Around the same time, Barry and Robin were about to publish the book On the Other Hand. They also recruited Geoff Bridgford as the group's official drummer. Bridgford had previously worked with the Groove and Tin Tin and played drums on Maurice's unreleased first solo album.
In 1970, 2 Years On was released in October in the US and November in the UK. The lead single "Lonely Days" reached No. 3 in the United States, promoted by appearances on The Johnny Cash Show, Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Dick Cavett Show and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Their ninth album, Trafalgar, was released in late 1971. The single "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" was their first to hit No. 1 on the US charts, while "Israel" reached No. 22 in the Netherlands. "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" also brought the Bee Gees their first Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Later that year, the group's songs were included in the soundtrack for the film Melody.
In 1972, they hit No. 16 in the US with the non-album single "My World", backed by Maurice's composition "On Time". Another 1972 single, "Run to Me" from the LP To Whom It May Concern, returned them to the UK top 10 for the first time in three years. On 24 November 1972, the band headlined the "Woodstock of the West" Festival at the Los Angeles Coliseum (which was a West Coast answer to Woodstock in New York), which also featured Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder and the Eagles. Also in 1972, the group sang "Hey Jude" with Wilson Pickett.
By 1973, however, the Bee Gees were in a rut. The album Life in a Tin Can, released on Robert Stigwood's newly formed RSO Records, and its lead-off single, "Saw a New Morning", sold poorly with the single peaking at No. 94. This was followed by an unreleased album (known as A Kick in the Head Is Worth Eight in the Pants). A second compilation album, Best of Bee Gees, Volume 2, was released in 1973, although it did not repeat the success of Volume 1. On 6 April 1973 episode of The Midnight Special they performed "Money (That's What I Want)" with Jerry Lee Lewis. Also in 1973, they were invited by Chuck Berry to perform two songs with him onstage at The Midnight Special: "Johnny B. Goode" and "Reelin' and Rockin'".
After a tour of the United States in early 1974 and a Canadian tour later in the year, the group ended up playing small clubs. As Barry joked, "We ended up in, have you ever heard of Batley's the variety club in (West Yorkshire) England?".
On the advice of Ahmet Ertegun, head of their US label Atlantic Records, Stigwood arranged for the group to record with soul music producer Arif Mardin. The resulting LP, Mr. Natural, included fewer ballads and foreshadowed the R&B direction of the rest of their career. When it, too, failed to attract much interest, Mardin encouraged them to work within the soul music style. The brothers attempted to assemble a live stage band that could replicate their studio sound. Lead guitarist Alan Kendall had come on board in 1971 but did not have much to do until Mr. Natural. For that album, they added drummer Dennis Bryon, and they later added ex-Strawbs keyboard player Blue Weaver, completing the Bee Gees band that lasted through the late '70s. Maurice, who had previously performed on piano, guitar, harpsichord, electric piano, organ, mellotron and bass guitar, as well as mandolin and Moog synthesiser, by then confined himself to bass onstage.
1975–1979: Turning to disco
Main Course and Children of the World
At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record at Criteria Studios. After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs, including their second US No. 1, "Jive Talkin'", along with US No. 7 "Nights on Broadway". The band liked the resulting new sound. This time the public agreed by sending the LP Main Course up the charts. This album included the first Bee Gees songs wherein Barry used falsetto, something that became a trademark of the band. This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album.
On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang "To Love Somebody" with Helen Reddy. Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers—"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" with Barry providing lead vocals, and "Sun King" with Maurice providing lead vocals, for the unsuccessful musical/documentary All This and World War II.
The next album, Children of the World, released in September 1976, was filled with Barry's new-found falsetto and Weaver's synthesizer disco licks. The first single from the album was "You Should Be Dancing", which features percussion work by musician Stephen Stills. The song pushed the Bee Gees to a level of stardom they had not previously achieved in the US, though their new R&B/disco sound was not as popular with some diehard fans. The pop ballad "Love So Right" reached No. 3 in the US, and "Boogie Child" reached US No. 12 in January 1977. The album peaked at No. 8 in the US.
Saturday Night Fever and Spirits Having Flown
Following a successful live album, Here at Last... Bee Gees... Live, the Bee Gees agreed with Stigwood to participate in the creation of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. It was the turning point of their career. The cultural impact of both the film and the soundtrack was significant throughout the world, epitomizing the disco phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic.
The band's involvement in the film did not begin until post-production. As John Travolta asserted, "The Bee Gees weren't even involved in the movie in the beginning ... I was dancing to Stevie Wonder and Boz Scaggs." Producer Robert Stigwood commissioned the Bee Gees to create the songs for the film. The brothers wrote the songs "virtually in a single weekend" at Château d'Hérouville studio in France. Barry Gibb remembered the reaction when Stigwood and music supervisor Bill Oakes arrived and listened to the demos:
Bill Oakes, who supervised the soundtrack, asserts that Saturday Night Fever did not begin the disco craze but rather prolonged it: "Disco had run its course. These days, Fever is credited with kicking off the whole disco thing—it really didn't. Truth is, it breathed new life into a genre that was actually dying."
Three Bee Gees singles—"How Deep Is Your Love" (US No. 1, UK No. 3), "Stayin' Alive" (US No. 1, UK No. 4) and "Night Fever" (US No. 1, UK No. 1)—charted high in many countries around the world, launching the most popular period of the disco era. They also penned the song "If I Can't Have You", which became a US No. 1 hit for Yvonne Elliman, while the Bee Gees' own version was the B-side of "Stayin' Alive". Such was the popularity of Saturday Night Fever that two different versions of the song "More Than a Woman" received airplay, one by the Bee Gees, which was relegated to an album track, and another by Tavares, which was the hit.
During a nine-month period beginning in the Christmas season of 1977, seven songs written by the brothers held the No. 1 position on the US charts for 27 of 37 consecutive weeks: three of their own releases, two for brother Andy Gibb, the Yvonne Elliman single, and "Grease", performed by Frankie Valli.
Fuelled by the film's success, the soundtrack broke multiple industry records, becoming the highest-selling album in recording history to that point. With more than 40 million copies sold, Saturday Night Fever is among music's top five best selling soundtrack albums. , it is calculated as the fourth highest-selling album worldwide.
In March 1978, the Bee Gees held the top two positions on the US charts with "Night Fever" and "Stayin' Alive", the first time this had happened since the Beatles. On the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for 25 March 1978, five songs written by the Gibbs were in the US top 10 at the same time: "Night Fever", "Stayin' Alive", "If I Can't Have You", "Emotion" and "Love Is Thicker Than Water". Such chart dominance had not been seen since April 1964, when the Beatles had all five of the top five American singles. Barry Gibb became the only songwriter to have four consecutive number-one hits in the US, breaking the John Lennon and Paul McCartney 1964 record. These songs were "Stayin' Alive", "Love Is Thicker Than Water", "Night Fever" and "If I Can't Have You".
The Bee Gees won five Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever over two years: Album of the Year, Producer of the Year (with Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson), two awards for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals (one in 1978 for "How Deep Is Your Love" and one in 1979 for "Stayin' Alive"), and Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices for "Stayin' Alive".
During this era, Barry and Robin also wrote "Emotion" for an old friend, Australian vocalist Samantha Sang, who made it a top 10 hit, with the Bee Gees singing backing vocals. Barry also wrote the title song to the film version of the Broadway musical Grease for Frankie Valli to perform, which went to No. 1.
The Bee Gees also co-starred with Peter Frampton in Robert Stigwood's film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), loosely inspired by the classic 1967 album by the Beatles. The movie had been heavily promoted prior to release and was expected to enjoy great commercial success. However, it was savaged by film critics as a disjointed mess and ignored by the public. Though some of its tracks charted, the soundtrack too was a high-profile flop. The single "Oh! Darling", credited to Robin Gibb, reached No. 15 in the US.
The Bee Gees' follow-up to Saturday Night Fever was the Spirits Having Flown album. It yielded three more hits: "Too Much Heaven" (US No. 1, UK No. 3), "Tragedy" (US No. 1, UK No. 1), and "Love You Inside Out" (US No. 1, UK No. 13). This gave the act six consecutive No. 1 singles in the US within a year and a half, equalling the Beatles and surpassed only by Whitney Houston.
In January 1979, the Bee Gees performed "Too Much Heaven" as their contribution to the Music for UNICEF Concert at the United Nations General Assembly. During the summer of 1979, the Bee Gees embarked on their largest concert tour covering the US and Canada. The Spirits Having Flown tour capitalised on Bee Gees fever that was sweeping the nation, with sold-out concerts in 38 cities. The Bee Gees produced a video for the title track "Too Much Heaven", directed by Miami-based filmmaker Martin Pitts and produced by Charles Allen. With this video, Pitts and Allen began a long association with the brothers.
The Bee Gees even had a country hit in 1979 with "Rest Your Love on Me", the flip side of their pop hit "Too Much Heaven", which made the top 40 on the country charts. It was also a 1981 hit for Conway Twitty, topping the country music charts.
The Bee Gees' overwhelming success rose and fell with the disco bubble. By the end of 1979, disco was rapidly declining in popularity, and the backlash against disco put the Bee Gees' American career in a tailspin. Radio stations around the US began promoting "Bee Gee-Free Weekends". Following their remarkable run from 1975 to 1979, the act had only one more top 10 single in the US, and that did not come until the single "One" reached number 7 in 1989.
Barry Gibb considered the success of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack both a blessing and a curse:
1980–1986: Outside projects, band turmoil, solo efforts and decline
Robin co-produced Jimmy Ruffin's Sunrise released in May 1980, but the songs were started in 1979; the album contains songs written by the Gibb brothers, including the single "Hold On To My Love".
In March 1980, Barry Gibb worked with Barbra Streisand on her album Guilty. He co-produced, and wrote or co-wrote all nine of the album's tracks (four of them written with Robin, and the title track with both Robin and Maurice). Barry also appeared on the album's cover with Streisand and duetted with her on two tracks. The album reached No. 1 in both the US and the UK, as did the single "Woman in Love" (written by Barry and Robin), becoming Streisand's most successful single and album to date. Both of the Streisand/Gibb duets, "Guilty" and "What Kind of Fool", also reached the US Top 10.
In 1981, the Bee Gees released the album Living Eyes, their last full-length album release on RSO. This album was the first CD ever played in public, when it was played to viewers of the BBC show Tomorrow's World. With the disco backlash still running strong, the album failed to make the UK or US Top 40—breaking their streak of Top 40 hits, which started in 1975 with "Jive Talkin'". Two singles from the album fared little better—"He's a Liar", which reached No. 30 in the US, and "Living Eyes", which reached No. 45.
In 1982, Dionne Warwick enjoyed a UK No. 2 and US Adult Contemporary No. 1 hit with her comeback single, "Heartbreaker", taken from her eponymous album written largely by the Bee Gees and co-produced by Barry Gibb. The album reached No. 3 in the UK and the Top 30 in the US, where it was certified Gold.
A year later, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers recorded the Bee Gees-penned track "Islands in the Stream", which became a US and Australian No. 1 hit and entered the Top 10 in the UK. Rogers' 1983 album, Eyes That See in the Dark, was written entirely by the Bee Gees and co-produced by Barry. The album was a Top 10 hit in the US and was certified Double Platinum.
The Bee Gees had greater success with the soundtrack to Staying Alive in 1983, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever. The soundtrack was certified platinum in the US, and included their Top 30 hit "The Woman in You".
Also in 1983, the band was sued by Chicago songwriter Ronald Selle, who claimed the brothers stole melodic material from one of his songs, "Let It End", and used it in "How Deep Is Your Love". At first, the Bee Gees lost the case; one juror said that a factor in the jury's decision was the Gibbs' failure to introduce expert testimony rebutting the plaintiff's expert testimony that it was "impossible" for the two songs to have been written independently. However, the verdict was overturned a few months later.
In August 1983, Barry signed a solo deal with MCA Records and spent much of late 1983 and 1984 writing songs for this first solo effort, Now Voyager. Robin released three solo albums in the 1980s, How Old Are You?, Secret Agent and Walls Have Eyes. Maurice released his second single to date, "Hold Her in Your Hand", the first one having been released in 1970.
In 1985, Diana Ross released the album Eaten Alive, written by the Bee Gees, with the title track co-written with Michael Jackson (who also performed on the track). The album was again co-produced by Barry Gibb, and the single "Chain Reaction" gave Ross a UK and Australian No. 1 hit.
1987–1999: Comeback, return to popularity and Andy's death
The Bee Gees released the album E.S.P. in 1987, which sold over 2 million copies. It was their first album in six years, and their first for Warner Bros. Records. The single "You Win Again" went to No. 1 in numerous countries, including the UK, and made the Bee Gees the first group to score a UK No. 1 hit in each of three decades: the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The single was a disappointment in the US, charting at No. 75, and the Bee Gees voiced their frustration over American radio stations not playing their new European hit single, an omission which the group felt led to poor sales of their current album in the US. The song won the Bee Gees the 1987 British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, and in February 1988 the band received a Brit Award nomination for Best British Group.
On 10 March 1988, younger brother Andy Gibb died, aged 30, as a result of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle due to a recent viral infection. The Bee Gees later got together with Eric Clapton to create a group called 'the Bunburys' to raise money for English charities. The group recorded three songs for The Bunbury Tails: "We're the Bunburys" (which eventually became the opening theme to the 1992 animated series The Bunbury Tails), "Bunbury Afternoon", and "Fight (No Matter How Long)". The last song reached No. 8 on the rock music chart and appeared on The 1988 Summer Olympics Album. The Bee Gees' next album, One (1989), featured a song dedicated to Andy, "Wish You Were Here". The album also contained their first US Top 10 hit (No. 7) in a decade, "One" (an Adult Contemporary No. 1). After the album's release, the band embarked on its first world tour in 10 years.
In the UK, Polydor issued a single-disc hits collection from Tales called The Very Best of the Bee Gees, which contained their biggest UK hits. The album became one of their best-selling albums in that country, and was eventually certified Triple Platinum.
Following their next album, High Civilization (1991), which contained the UK top five hit "Secret Love", the Bee Gees went on a European tour. After the tour, Barry Gibb began to battle a serious back problem, which required surgery. In addition, he suffered from arthritis which, at one point, was so severe that it was doubtful that he would be able to play guitar for much longer. Also, in the early 1990s, Maurice Gibb finally sought treatment for his alcoholism, which he had battled for many years with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous.
In 1993, the group returned to the Polydor label and released the album Size Isn't Everything, which contained the UK top five hit "For Whom the Bell Tolls". Success still eluded them in the US, however, as the first single released, "Paying the Price of Love", only managed to reach No. 74 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the parent album stalled at No. 153.
In 1997, they released the album Still Waters, which has reached No. 2 in the UK (their highest album chart position there since 1979) and No. 11 in the US. The album's first single, "Alone", gave them another UK Top 5 hit and a top 30 hit in the US. Still Waters was the band's most successful US release of their post-RSO era.
At the 1997 BRIT Awards held in Earls Court, London on 24 February, the Bee Gees received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. On 14 November 1997, the Bee Gees performed a live concert in Las Vegas called One Night Only. The show included a performance of "Our Love (Don't Throw It All Away)" synchronised with a vocal by their deceased brother Andy and a cameo appearance by Celine Dion singing "Immortality". The "One Night Only" name grew out of the band's declaration that, due to Barry's health issues, the Las Vegas show was to be the final live performance of their career. After the immensely positive audience response to the Vegas concert, Barry decided to continue despite the pain, and the concert expanded into their last full-blown world tour of "One Night Only" concerts. The tour included playing to 56,000 people at London's Wembley Stadium on 5 September 1998 and concluded in the newly built Olympic Stadium in Sydney, Australia on 27 March 1999 to 72,000 people.
In 1998, the group's soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever was incorporated into a stage production produced first in the West End and then on Broadway. They wrote three new songs for the adaptation. Also in 1998, the brothers released "Ellan Vannin" for Manx charities, recorded the previous year. Known as the unofficial national anthem of the Isle of Man, the brothers performed the song during their world tour to reflect their pride in the place of their birth.
The Bee Gees closed the century with what turned out to be their last full-sized concert, known as BG2K, on 31 December 1999.
2000–2008: This Is Where I Came In and Maurice's death
In 2001, the group released what turned out to be their final album of new material, This Is Where I Came In. The album was another success, reaching the Top 10 in the UK (being certified Gold), and the Top 20 in the US. The title track was also a UK Top 20 hit single.
The last concert of the Bee Gees as a trio was at the Love and Hope Ball in 2002. Maurice Gibb died unexpectedly on 12 January 2003, at age 53, from a heart attack while awaiting emergency surgery to repair a strangulated intestine. Initially, his surviving brothers announced that they intended to carry on the name "Bee Gees" in his memory, but as time passed they decided to retire the group's name, leaving it to represent the three brothers together.
The same week that Maurice died, Robin's solo album Magnet was released. On 23 February 2003, the Bee Gees received the Grammy Legend Award, they also became the first recipients of that award in the 21st century. Barry and Robin accepted as well as Maurice's son, Adam, in a tearful ceremony.
In late 2004, Robin embarked on a solo tour of Germany, Russia and Asia. During January 2005, Barry, Robin and several legendary rock artists recorded "Grief Never Grows Old", the official tsunami relief record for the Disasters Emergency Committee. Later that year, Barry reunited with Barbra Streisand for her top-selling album Guilty Pleasures, released as Guilty Too in the UK as a sequel album to the previous Guilty. Also in 2004, Barry recorded his song "I Cannot Give You My Love" with Cliff Richard, which became a UK top 20 hit single.
In February 2006, Barry and Robin reunited on stage for a Miami charity concert to benefit the Diabetes Research Institute. It was their first public performance together since Maurice's death. The pair also played at the 30th annual Prince's Trust Concert in the UK on 20 May 2006.
2009–2012: Return to performing and Robin's death
Barry and Robin performed on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing on 31 October 2009 and appeared on ABC-TV's Dancing with the Stars on 17 November 2009. On 15 March 2010, Barry and Robin inducted the Swedish group ABBA into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On 26 May 2010, the two made a surprise appearance on the ninth-season finale of American Idol.
On 20 November 2011 it was announced that Robin Gibb, at 61 years old, had been diagnosed with liver cancer, a condition he had become aware of several months earlier. He had become noticeably thinner in previous months and had to cancel several appearances due to severe abdominal pain. Robin joined British military trio the Soldiers for the Coming Home charity concert on 13 February 2012 at the London Palladium, in support of injured servicemen. It was his first public appearance for almost five months and, as it turned out, his final one. On 14 April 2012, it was reported that Robin had contracted pneumonia in a Chelsea hospital and was in a coma. Although he came out of his coma on 20 April 2012, his condition deteriorated rapidly and he died on 20 May 2012 of liver and kidney failure.
2013–present: Looking back at a lifetime of music
In September and October 2013, Barry performed his first solo tour "in honour of his brothers and a lifetime of music". In addition to the Rhino collection, The Studio Albums: 1967–1968, Warner Bros. released a box set in 2014 called The Warner Bros Years: 1987–1991 that included the studio albums E.S.P., One and High Civilization as well as extended mixes and B-sides. It also included the band's entire 1989 concert in Melbourne, Australia, available only on video as All for One prior to this release. The documentary The Joy of the Bee Gees was aired on BBC Four on 19 December 2014.
On 23 March 2015, 13STAR Records released a box set 1974–1979 which included the studio albums Mr. Natural, Main Course, Children of the World and Spirits Having Flown. A fifth disc called The Miami Years includes all the tracks from Saturday Night Fever as well as B-sides. No unreleased tracks from the era were included.
After a hiatus from performing, Barry Gibb returned to solo and guest singing performances. He occasionally appears with his son, Steve Gibb. In 2016, he released In the Now, his first solo effort since 1984's Now Voyager. It was the first release of new Bee Gees-related music since the posthumous release of Robin Gibb's 50 St. Catherine's Drive. Also in 2016, Capitol Records signed a new distribution deal with Barry and the estates of his brothers for the Bee Gees catalogue, bringing their music back to Universal.
An as-yet-untitled biopic about the Bee Gees is in development at Paramount, with Kenneth Branagh directing and Barry Gibb serving as an executive producer.
Influences
The Bee Gees were influenced by the Beatles, the Everly Brothers, the Mills Brothers, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, Roy Orbison, the Beach Boys and Stevie Wonder. On the 2014 documentary The Joy of the Bee Gees, Barry said that the Bee Gees were also influenced by the Hollies and Otis Redding. Maurice noted that Neil Sedaka was an early influence, and later the group was "very influenced" by Linda Creed songs for the Stylistics.
Legacy
In his 1980 Playboy magazine interview, John Lennon praised the Bee Gees, "Try to tell the kids in the seventies who were screaming to the Bee Gees that their music was just the Beatles redone. There is nothing wrong with the Bee Gees. They do a damn good job. There was nothing else going on then."
In a 2007 interview with Duane Hitchings, who co-wrote Rod Stewart's 1978 disco song "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?", he noted that the song was:
Kevin Parker of Tame Impala has said that listening to the Bee Gees after taking mushrooms inspired him to change the sound of the music he was making on his album Currents.
The English indie rock band the Cribs was also influenced by the Bee Gees. Cribs member Ryan Jarman said: "It must have had quite a big influence on us – pop melodies is something we always revert to. I always want to get back to pop melodies and I'm sure that's due to that Bee Gees phase we went through."
Following Robin's death on 20 May 2012, Beyoncé remarked: "The Bee Gees were an early inspiration for me, Kelly Rowland and Michelle. We loved their songwriting and beautiful harmonies. Recording their classic song, 'Emotion' was a special time for Destiny's Child. Sadly we lost Robin Gibb this week. My heart goes out to his brother Barry and the rest of his family."
Singer Jordin Sparks remarked that her favourite Bee Gees songs are "Too Much Heaven", "Emotion" (although performed by Samantha Sang with Barry on the background vocals using his falsetto), and "Stayin' Alive".
Carrie Underwood said, about discovering the Bee Gees during her childhood, "My parents listened to the Bee Gees quite a bit when I was little, so I was definitely exposed to them at an early age. They just had a sound that was all their own, obviously, [it was] never duplicated."
Songwriting
At one point, in 1978, the Gibb brothers were responsible for writing and/or performing nine of the songs in the Billboard Hot 100. In all, the Gibbs placed 13 singles onto the Hot 100 in 1978, with 12 making the Top 40. The Gibb brothers are fellows of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA). At least 2,500 artists have recorded their songs.
Singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw spoke about the Bee Gees' influence with their own music as well as their songwriting:
In 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Bee Gees were announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for their role as "Influential Artists".
Accolades and achievements
In 1978, following the success of Saturday Night Fever, and the single "Night Fever" in particular, Reubin Askew, the governor of the US state of Florida, named the Bee Gees honorary citizens of the state, since they resided in Miami at the time. In 1979, the Bee Gees got their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They were the subjects of This Is Your Life in 1991 when they were surprised by Michael Aspel while being interviewed by disc jockey Steve Wright (DJ) on his Radio 1 programme at BBC Broadcasting House.
The Bee Gees were inducted in 1994 into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, as well as Florida's Artists Hall of Fame in 1995 and the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1997. Also in 1997, the group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; the presenter of the award to "Britain's First Family of Harmony" was Brian Wilson, historical leader of the Beach Boys, another "family act" featuring three harmonising brothers. In 2001, they were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. After Maurice's death, the Bee Gees were also inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2001, London's Walk of Fame in 2006 and Musically Speaking Hall Of Fame in 2008. On 15 May 2007, the Bee Gees were named BMI Icons at the 55th annual BMI Pop Awards. Collectively, Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb have earned 109 BMI Pop, Country and Latin Awards.
In October 1999, the Isle of Man Post Office unveiled a set of six stamps honouring the Bee Gees.
All three brothers (including Maurice posthumously) were invested as Commanders of the Order of the British Empire in December 2001 with the ceremony taking place at Buckingham Palace on 27 May 2004. On 10 July 2009, the Isle of Man's capital bestowed the Freedom of the Borough of Douglas honour on Barry and Robin, as well as posthumously on Maurice. On 20 November 2009, the Douglas Borough Council released a limited edition commemorative DVD to mark their naming as Freemen of the Borough.
On 14 February 2013, Barry Gibb unveiled a statue of the Bee Gees as well as unveiling "Bee Gees Way" (a walkway filled with photos and videos of the Bee Gees) in honour of the Bee Gees in Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia. On 27 June 2018, Barry Gibb, the last surviving member of the Bee Gees, was knighted by Prince Charles after being named on the Queen's New Years Honours List. The statue of the Bee Gees in Douglas, Isle of Man, was installed in 2021.
In 2022, the last surviving member of the group, Barry Gibb, was made an Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia which is Australia's highest national honour.
The Bee Gees have sold over 220 million records worldwide, making them one of the best selling artists of all time. The group are to date the most successful family and sibling band of all time, the most successful musical trio of all time, and the most successful musical act with ties to Australia.
Awards and nominations
Queensland Music Awards
The Queensland Music Awards (previously known as Q Song Awards) are annual awards celebrating Queensland, Australia's brightest emerging artists and established legends. They commenced in 2006.
(wins only)
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| Grant McLennan Lifetime Achievement Award
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Band members
Principal members
Barry Gibb – vocals, rhythm guitar (1958–2003, 2006, 2009–2012)
Robin Gibb – vocals, occasional keyboards (1958–1969, 1970–2003, 2006, 2009–2012; d. 2012)
Maurice Gibb – bass, rhythm and lead guitars, keyboards, vocals (1958–2003; d. 2003)
Colin Petersen – drums (1967–1969)
Vince Melouney – lead guitar (1967–1968)
Geoff Bridgford – drums (1971–1972; touring 1970-1971)
Touring musicians
Alan Kendall – lead guitar (1971–1981, 1989–2003)
Chris Karan – drums (1972)
Dennis Bryon – drums (1973–1981)
Geoff Westley – keyboards, piano (1973–1976)
Blue Weaver – keyboards, synthesizers (1975–1981)
Joe Lala – percussion (1976, 1979)
Joey Murcia – rhythm guitar (1976, 1979)
Harold Cowart – bass (1979)
Tim Cansfield – lead guitar (1989)
Vic Martin – keyboard, synthesizer (1989)
Gary Moberly – keyboard, synthesizer (1989)
George Perry – bass (1989–1993)
Chester Thompson – drums (1989)
Mike Murphy – drums (1989)
Trevor Murrell – drums (1991–1992)
Rudi Dobson – keyboards (1991–1992)
Scott F. Crago – drums
Ben Stivers – keyboard (1996–1999)
Matt Bonelli – bass (1993–2001)
Steve Rucker – drums (1993–1999)
Guest musicians (studio and touring)
Phil Collins – drums
Lenny Castro – percussion
Glenn Frey – guitar
Timothy B. Schmit – bass guitar
Joe Walsh – lead guitar
Don Felder – lead guitar (1981)
Jeff Porcaro – drums
Mike Porcaro – bass guitar
Steve Porcaro – keyboards
Steve Lukather – guitar
David Hungate – bass guitar
David Paich – keyboards
Greg Phillinganes – keyboards
Bobby Kimball – keyboards
Leland Sklar – bass guitar
Reb Beach – lead guitar
Gregg Bissonette – drums
Ricky Lawson – drums
Scott F. Crago – drums
Steve Gadd – drums
Steve Ferrone – drums
Steve Jordan – drums
Nathan East – bass guitar
Steuart Smith – lead guitar
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Timeline
Timeline of touring members
Discography
Soundtracks Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Staying Alive (1983) are not official Bee Gees albums, but contain some previously unreleased tracks. Apart from live and compilation, all their official albums are included on this list. A Kick in the Head Is Worth Eight in the Pants has not been included on the list because it appeared only on numerous bootlegs and was not officially released.
Studio albums
The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs (1965)
Spicks and Specks (1966)
Bee Gees' 1st (1967)
Horizontal (1968)
Idea (1968)
Odessa (1969)
Cucumber Castle (1970)
2 Years On (1970)
Trafalgar (1971)
To Whom It May Concern (1972)
Life in a Tin Can (1973)
Mr. Natural (1974)
Main Course (1975)
Children of the World (1976)
Spirits Having Flown (1979)
Living Eyes (1981)
E.S.P. (1987)
One (1989)
High Civilization (1991)
Size Isn't Everything (1993)
Still Waters (1997)
This Is Where I Came In (2001)
Concert tours
The Bee Gees' concerts in 1967 and 1968 (1967–1968)
2 Years On Tour (1971)
Trafalgar Tour (1972)
Mr. Natural Tour (1974)
Main Course Tour (1975)
Children of the World Tour (1976)
Spirits Having Flown Tour (1979)
One for All World Tour (1989)
High Civilization World Tour (1991)
One Night Only World Tour (1997–1999)
This Is Where I Came In (2001)
Filmography
Citations
General bibliography
.
External links
Bee Gees Official website
Bee Gees at Rolling Stone
Bee Gees' Vocal Group Hall of Fame webpage
Bee Gees at bmi.com
Robin Gibb sadly passes away after losing his battle with cancer
Who Do You Think You Are? – Bee Gees Family History
1958 establishments in Australia
Australian pop rock groups
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Atlantic Records artists
Barry Gibb
Brit Award winners
British disco groups
British musical trios
British soft rock music groups
British soul musical groups
Brunswick Records artists
Capitol Records artists
Child musical groups
English expatriates in Australia
English expatriates in the United States
English pop music groups
English rock music groups
Grammy Legend Award winners
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Mercury Records artists
Manx musical groups
Maurice Gibb
Musical groups established in 1958
Musical groups disestablished in 2003
Musical groups reestablished in 2009
Musical groups disestablished in 2012
Musical groups from Manchester
Queensland musical groups
Philips Records artists
Q150 Icons
Robin Gibb
RSO Records artists
Sibling musical trios
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors
United Artists Records artists
Warner Records artists
World Music Awards winners | false | [
"What Happened may refer to:\n\n What Happened (Clinton book), 2017 book by Hillary Clinton\n What Happened (McClellan book), 2008 autobiography by Scott McClellan\n \"What Happened\", a song by Sublime from the album 40oz. to Freedom\n \"What Happened\", an episode of One Day at a Time (2017 TV series)\n\nSee also\nWhat's Happening (disambiguation)",
"\"What Happened to Us\" is a song by Australian recording artist Jessica Mauboy, featuring English recording artist Jay Sean. It was written by Sean, Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim and Israel Cruz. \"What Happened to Us\" was leaked online in October 2010, and was released on 10 March 2011, as the third single from Mauboy's second studio album, Get 'Em Girls (2010). The song received positive reviews from critics.\n\nA remix of \"What Happened to Us\" made by production team OFM, was released on 11 April 2011. A different version of the song which features Stan Walker, was released on 29 May 2011. \"What Happened to Us\" charted on the ARIA Singles Chart at number 14 and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). An accompanying music video was directed by Mark Alston, and reminisces on a former relationship between Mauboy and Sean.\n\nProduction and release\n\n\"What Happened to Us\" was written by Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim, Israel Cruz and Jay Sean. It was produced by Skaller, Cruz, Rohaim and Bobby Bass. The song uses C, D, and B minor chords in the chorus. \"What Happened to Us\" was sent to contemporary hit radio in Australia on 14 February 2011. The cover art for the song was revealed on 22 February on Mauboy's official Facebook page. A CD release was available for purchase via her official website on 10 March, for one week only. It was released digitally the following day.\n\nReception\nMajhid Heath from ABC Online Indigenous called the song a \"Jordin Sparks-esque duet\", and wrote that it \"has a nice innocence to it that rings true to the experience of losing a first love.\" Chris Urankar from Nine to Five wrote that it as a \"mid-tempo duet ballad\" which signifies Mauboy's strength as a global player. On 21 March 2011, \"What Happened to Us\" debuted at number 30 on the ARIA Singles Chart, and peaked at number 14 the following week. The song was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), for selling 70,000 copies. \"What Happened to Us\" spent a total of ten weeks in the ARIA top fifty.\n\nMusic video\n\nBackground\nThe music video for the song was shot in the Elizabeth Bay House in Sydney on 26 November 2010. The video was shot during Sean's visit to Australia for the Summerbeatz tour. During an interview with The Daily Telegraph while on the set of the video, Sean said \"the song is sick! ... Jessica's voice is amazing and we're shooting [the video] in this ridiculously beautiful mansion overlooking the harbour.\" The video was directed by Mark Alston, who had previously directed the video for Mauboy's single \"Let Me Be Me\" (2009). It premiered on YouTube on 10 February 2011.\n\nSynopsis and reception\nThe video begins showing Mauboy who appears to be sitting on a yellow antique couch in a mansion, wearing a purple dress. As the video progresses, scenes of memories are displayed of Mauboy and her love interest, played by Sean, spending time there previously. It then cuts to the scenes where Sean appears in the main entrance room of the mansion. The final scene shows Mauboy outdoors in a gold dress, surrounded by green grass and trees. She is later joined by Sean who appears in a black suit and a white shirt, and together they sing the chorus of the song to each other. David Lim of Feed Limmy wrote that the video is \"easily the best thing our R&B princess has committed to film – ever\" and praised the \"mansion and wondrous interior décor\". He also commended Mauboy for choosing Australian talent to direct the video instead of American directors, which she had used for her previous two music videos. Since its release, the video has received over two million views on Vevo.\n\nLive performances\nMauboy performed \"What Happened to Us\" live for the first time during her YouTube Live Sessions program on 4 December 2010. She also appeared on Adam Hills in Gordon Street Tonight on 23 February 2011 for an interview and later performed the song. On 15 March 2011, Mauboy performed \"What Happened to Us\" on Sunrise. She also performed the song with Stan Walker during the Australian leg of Chris Brown's F.A.M.E. Tour in April 2011. Mauboy and Walker later performed \"What Happened to Us\" on Dancing with the Stars Australia on 29 May 2011. From November 2013 to February 2014, \"What Happened to Us\" was part of the set list of the To the End of the Earth Tour, Mauboy's second headlining tour of Australia, with Nathaniel Willemse singing Sean's part.\n\nTrack listing\n\nDigital download\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean – 3:19\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Sgt Slick Remix) – 6:33\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Just Witness Remix) – 3:45\n\nCD single\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Album Version) – 3:19\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Sgt Slick Remix) – 6:33\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (OFM Remix) – 3:39\n\nDigital download – Remix\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (OFM Remix) – 3:38\n\nDigital download\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Stan Walker – 3:20\n\nPersonnel\nSongwriting – Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim, Israel Cruz, Jay Sean\nProduction – Jeremy Skaller, Bobby Bass\nAdditional production – Israel Cruz, Khaled Rohaim\nLead vocals – Jessica Mauboy, Jay Sean\nMixing – Phil Tan\nAdditional mixing – Damien Lewis\nMastering – Tom Coyne \nSource:\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly chart\n\nYear-end chart\n\nCertification\n\nRadio dates and release history\n\nReferences\n\n2010 songs\n2011 singles\nJessica Mauboy songs\nJay Sean songs\nSongs written by Billy Steinberg\nSongs written by Jay Sean\nSongs written by Josh Alexander\nSongs written by Israel Cruz\nVocal duets\nSony Music Australia singles\nSongs written by Khaled Rohaim"
]
|
[
"Bee Gees",
"Main Course and Children of the World",
"What happened during this time period?",
"At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record."
]
| C_6cca1f87ae8e46bd949e4e2bdf8ac2d4_1 | what did that lead to? | 2 | What did the Bee Gees relocation lead to? | Bee Gees | At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record. After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs, including their second US No. 1, "Jive Talkin'", along with US No. 7 "Nights on Broadway". The band liked the resulting new sound. This time the public agreed by sending the LP Main Course up the charts. This album included the first Bee Gees songs wherein Barry used falsetto, something that would later become a trademark of the band. This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album. On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang "To Love Somebody" with Helen Reddy. Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers--"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" with Barry providing lead vocals, and "Sun King" with Maurice providing lead vocals, for the unsuccessful musical/documentary All This and World War II. The next album, Children of the World released in September 1976, was drenched in Barry's new-found falsetto and Weaver's synthesizer disco licks. Mardin was unavailable to produce, so the Bee Gees enlisted Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson, who had worked with Mardin during the Main Course sessions. This production team would carry the Bee Gees through the rest of the 1970s. The first single from the album was "You Should Be Dancing" (which features percussion work by musician Stephen Stills). The song pushed the Bee Gees to a level of stardom they had not previously achieved in the US, though their new R&B/disco sound was not as popular with some die hard fans. The pop ballad "Love So Right" reached No. 3 in the US, and "Boogie Child" reached US No. 12 in January 1977. The album peaked at No. 8 in the US. A compilation Bee Gees Gold was released in November, containing the group's hits from 1967 to 1972. CANNOTANSWER | After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs, | The Bee Gees
were a music group formed in 1958, featuring brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful as a popular music act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers of the disco music era in the mid- to late 1970s. The group sang recognisable three-part tight harmonies; Robin's clear vibrato lead vocals were a hallmark of their earlier hits, while Barry's R&B falsetto became their signature sound during the mid- to late 1970s and 1980s. The Bee Gees wrote all of their own hits, as well as writing and producing several major hits for other artists and have been regarded as one of the most important and influential acts in pop music history. They have been referred to in the media as The Disco Kings, Britain’s First Family of Harmony, and The Kings of Dance Music.
Born on the Isle of Man to English parents, the Gibb brothers lived in Chorlton, Manchester, England until the late 1950s. There, in 1955, they formed the skiffle/rock and roll group the Rattlesnakes. The family then moved to Redcliffe, in the Moreton Bay Region, Queensland, Australia, later to Cribb Island. After achieving their first chart success in Australia as the Bee Gees with "Spicks and Specks" (their twelfth single), they returned to the UK in January 1967, when producer Robert Stigwood began promoting them to a worldwide audience. The Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever soundtrack (1977) was the turning point of their career, with both the film and soundtrack having a cultural impact throughout the world, enhancing the disco scene's mainstream appeal. They won five Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever, including Album of the Year.
The Bee Gees have sold over 220 million records worldwide, making them among the best-selling music artists of all time. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997; the Hall's citation says, "Only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney have outsold the Bee Gees." With nine number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, the Bee Gees are the third-most successful band in Billboard charts history behind only the Beatles and the Supremes.
Following Maurice's sudden death in January 2003 at the age of 53, Barry and Robin retired the group's name after 45 years of activity. In 2009, Robin announced that he and Barry had agreed that the Bee Gees would re-form and perform again. Robin died in May 2012, aged 62, after a prolonged period of failing health, leaving Barry as the only surviving member of the group.
History
1955–1966: Music origins, Bee Gees formation and popularity in Australia
Born on the Isle of Man during the late 1940s, the Gibb brothers moved to their father Hugh Gibb's hometown of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Greater Manchester, England in 1955. They formed a skiffle/rock-and-roll group, the Rattlesnakes, which consisted of Barry on guitar and vocals, Robin and Maurice on vocals and friends Paul Frost on drums and Kenny Horrocks on tea-chest bass. In December 1957 the boys began to sing in harmony. The story is told that they were going to lip-sync to a record in the local Gaumont cinema (as other children had done on previous weeks), but as they were running to the theatre, the fragile shellac 78-RPM record broke. The brothers had to sing live, but received such a positive response from the audience that they decided to pursue a singing career. In May 1958 the Rattlesnakes disbanded when Frost and Horrocks left, so the Gibb brothers then formed Wee Johnny Hayes and the Blue Cats, with Barry as "Johnny Hayes".
In August 1958, the Gibb family, including older sister Lesley and infant brother Andy (born in March 1958), emigrated to Australia and settled in Redcliffe, Queensland, just north-east of Brisbane. The young brothers began performing to raise pocket money. Speedway promoter and driver Bill Goode, who had hired the brothers to entertain the crowd at the Redcliffe Speedway in 1960, introduced them to Brisbane radio-presenter jockey Bill Gates. The crowd at the speedway would throw money onto the track for the boys, who generally performed during the interval of meetings (usually on the back of a truck that drove around the track) and, in a deal with Goode, any money they collected from the crowd they were allowed to keep. Gates named the group the "BGs" (later changed to "Bee Gees") after his, Goode's and Barry Gibb's initials. The name was not specifically a reference to "Brothers Gibb", despite popular belief.
During the next few years, they began working regularly at resorts on the Queensland coast. Through his songwriting, Barry sparked the interest of Australian star Col Joye, who helped the brothers get a recording deal in 1963 with Festival Records subsidiary Leedon Records under the name "Bee Gees". The three released two or three singles a year, while Barry supplied additional songs to other Australian artists. In 1962 the Bee Gees were chosen as the supporting act for Chubby Checker's concert at the Sydney Stadium.
From 1963 to 1966, the Gibb family lived at 171 Bunnerong Road, Maroubra, in Sydney. Just prior to his death, Robin Gibb recorded the song "Sydney" about the brothers' experience of living in that city. It was released on his posthumous album 50 St. Catherine's Drive. The house was demolished in 2016.
A minor hit in 1965, "Wine and Women", led to the group's first LP, The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs. By 1966 Festival Records was, however, on the verge of dropping them from the Leedon roster because of their perceived lack of commercial success. At this time the brothers met the American-born songwriter, producer and entrepreneur Nat Kipner, who had just been appointed A&R manager of a new independent label, Spin Records. Kipner briefly took over as the group's manager and successfully negotiated their transfer to Spin in exchange for granting Festival the Australian distribution-rights to the group's recordings. Through Kipner the Bee Gees met engineer-producer, Ossie Byrne, who produced (or co-produced with Kipner) many of the earlier Spin recordings, most of which were cut at his own small, self-built St Clair Studio in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville. Byrne gave the Gibb brothers virtually unlimited access to St Clair Studio over a period of several months in mid-1966. The group later acknowledged that this enabled them to greatly improve their skills as recording artists. During this productive time they recorded a large batch of original material—including the song that became their first major hit, "Spicks and Specks" (on which Byrne played the trumpet coda)—as well as cover versions of current hits by overseas acts such as the Beatles. They regularly collaborated with other local musicians, including members of beat band Steve & The Board, led by Steve Kipner, Nat's teenage son.
Frustrated by their lack of success, the Gibbs began their return journey to England on 4 January 1967, with Ossie Byrne travelling with them. While at sea in January 1967, the Gibbs learned that Go-Set, Australia's most popular and influential music newspaper, had declared "Spicks and Specks" the "Best Single of the Year".
1967–1969: International fame and touring years
Bee Gees' 1st, Horizontal and Idea
Before their departure from Australia to England, Hugh Gibb sent demos to Brian Epstein, who managed the Beatles and directed NEMS, a British music store. Epstein passed the demo tapes to Robert Stigwood, who had recently joined NEMS. After an audition with Stigwood in February 1967, the Bee Gees signed a five-year contract whereby Polydor Records would release their records in the UK, and Atco Records would do so in the US. Work quickly began on the group's first international album, and Stigwood launched a promotional campaign to coincide with its release.
Stigwood proclaimed that the Bee Gees were "The most significant new musical talent of 1967", thus initiating the comparison of the Bee Gees to the Beatles. Before recording the first album, the group expanded to include Colin Petersen and Vince Melouney. "New York Mining Disaster 1941," their second British single (their first-issued UK 45 rpm was "Spicks and Specks"), was issued to radio stations with a blank white label listing only the song title. Some DJs immediately assumed this was a new single by the Beatles and started playing the song in heavy rotation. This helped the song climb into the top 20 in both the UK and US.
No such chicanery was needed to boost the Bee Gees' next single, "To Love Somebody", into the US Top 20. Originally written for Otis Redding, "To Love Somebody", a soulful ballad sung by Barry, has since become a pop standard covered by many artists. Another single, "Holiday", released in the US, peaked at No. 16.
The parent album, Bee Gees 1st (their first internationally), peaked at No. 7 in the US and No. 8 in the UK. Bill Shepherd was credited as the arranger. After recording that album, the group recorded their first BBC session at the Playhouse Theatre, Northumberland Avenue, in London, with Bill Bebb as the producer, and they performed three songs. That session is included on BBC Sessions: 1967–1973 (2008). After the release of Bee Gees' 1st, the group was first introduced in New York as "the English surprise." At that time, the band made their first British TV appearance on Top of the Pops. Maurice recalled:
In late 1967, they began recording the second album. On 21 December 1967, in a live broadcast from Liverpool Anglican Cathedral for a Christmas television special called How On Earth?, they performed their own song, "Thank You For Christmas" which was written especially for the programme, as well as a medley of the traditional Christmas carols "Silent Night," "The First Noel" and "Mary's Boy Child" (the latter incorrectly noted as "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" on tape boxes and subsequent release). The songs were all pre-recorded on 1 December 1967 and the group lip-synched their performance. The recordings were eventually released on the "Horizontal" reissue bonus disc in 2008. The folk group the Settlers and Radio 1 disc-jockey, Kenny Everett, also performed on the programme which was presented by the Reverend Edward H. Patey, dean of the cathedral.
January 1968 began with a promotional trip to the US. Los Angeles Police were on alert in anticipation of a Beatles-type reception, and special security arrangements were being put in place. In February, Horizontal repeated the success of their first album, featuring the group's first UK No. 1 single "Massachusetts" (a No. 11 US hit) and the No. 7 UK single "World." The sound of the album Horizontal had a more "rock" sound than their previous release, although ballads like "And the Sun Will Shine" and "Really and Sincerely" were also prominent. The Horizontal album reached No. 12 in the US and No. 16 in the UK.
With the release of Horizontal, they also embarked on a Scandinavian tour with concerts in Copenhagen. Around the same time, the Bee Gees turned down an offer to write and perform the soundtrack for the film Wonderwall, according to director Joe Massot.
On 27 February 1968, the band, backed by the 17-piece Massachusetts String Orchestra, began their first tour of Germany with two concerts at Hamburg Musikhalle. In March 1968, the band was supported by Procol Harum (who had a well-known hit "A Whiter Shade of Pale") on their German tour. As Robin's partner Molly Hullis recalls: "Germans were wilder than the fans in England at the heights of Beatlemania." The tour schedule took them to 11 venues in as many days with 18 concerts played, finishing with a brace of shows at the Stadthalle, Braunschweig.
After that, the group was off to Switzerland. As Maurice described it:
On 17 March, the band performed "Words" on The Ed Sullivan Show. The other artists who performed on that night's show were Lucille Ball, George Hamilton and Fran Jeffries. On 27 March 1968, the band performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Two more singles followed in early 1968: the ballad "Words" (No. 8 UK, No. 15 US) and the double A-sided single "Jumbo" backed with "The Singer Sang His Song". "Jumbo" only reached No. 25 in the UK and No. 57 in the US. The Bee Gees felt "The Singer Sang His Song" was the stronger of the two sides, an opinion shared by listeners in the Netherlands who made it a No. 3 hit.
Further Bee Gees chart singles followed: "I've Gotta Get a Message to You", their second UK No. 1 (No. 8 US), and "I Started a Joke" (No. 6 US), both culled from the band's third album Idea. Idea reached No. 4 in the UK and was another top 20 album in the US (No. 17).
After the tour and TV special to promote the album, Vince Melouney left the group, desiring to play more of a blues style music than the Gibbs were writing. Melouney did achieve one feat while with the Bee Gees: his composition "Such a Shame" (from Idea) is the only song on any Bee Gees album not written by a Gibb brother.
The band were due to begin a seven-week tour of the US on 2 August 1968, but on 27 July, Robin collapsed and fell unconscious. He was admitted to a London nursing home suffering from nervous exhaustion, and the American tour was postponed. The band began recording their sixth album, which resulted in their spending a week recording at Atlantic Studios in New York. Robin, still feeling poorly, missed the New York sessions, but the rest of the band put away instrumental tracks and demos.
Odessa, Cucumber Castle and break-up
By 1969, Robin began to feel that Stigwood had been favouring Barry as the frontman.
The Bee Gees' performances in early 1969 on the Top of the Pops and The Tom Jones Show performing "I Started a Joke" and "First of May" as a medley was one of the last live performances of the group with Robin.
Their next album, which was to have been a concept album called Masterpeace, evolved into the double-album Odessa. Most rock critics felt this was the best Bee Gees album of the 1960s with its progressive rock feel on the title track, the country-flavoured "Marley Purt Drive" and "Give Your Best", and ballads such as "Melody Fair" and "First of May" (the last of which became the only single from the album and a UK # 6 hit). Feeling the flipside, "Lamplight," should have been the A-side, Robin quit the group in mid-1969 and launched a solo career.
The first of many Bee Gees compilations, Best of Bee Gees, was released featuring the non-LP single "Words" plus the Australian hit "Spicks and Specks". The single "Tomorrow Tomorrow" was also released and was a moderate hit in the UK, where it reached No. 23, but it was only No. 54 in the US. The compilation reached the top 10 in both the UK and the US.
While Robin pursued his solo career, Barry, Maurice and Petersen continued on as the Bee Gees recording their next album, Cucumber Castle. The band made their debut performance without Robin at Talk of the Town. They had recruited their sister, Lesley, into the group at this time. To accompany the album, they also filmed a TV special with Frankie Howerd and cameos from several other contemporary pop and rock stars, which aired on the BBC in December 1970. Petersen played drums on the tracks recorded for the album but was fired from the group after filming began (he went on to form the Humpy Bong with Jonathan Kelly). His parts were edited out of the final cut of the film and Pentangle drummer Terry Cox was recruited to complete the recording of songs for the album.
After the album was released in early 1970, it seemed that the Bee Gees were finished. The leadoff single, "Don't Forget to Remember", was a big hit in the UK, reaching No. 2, but only reached No. 73 in the US. The next two singles, "I.O.I.O." and "If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else", barely scraped the charts. On 1 December 1969, Barry and Maurice parted ways professionally.
Maurice started to record his first solo album, The Loner, which was not released. Meanwhile, he released the single "Railroad" and starred in the West End musical Sing a Rude Song. In February 1970, Barry recorded a solo album which never saw official release either, although "I'll Kiss Your Memory" was released as a single backed by "This Time" without much interest. Meanwhile, Robin saw success in Europe and Australia with his No. 2 hit "Saved by the Bell" and the album Robin's Reign.
1970–1974: Reformation
In mid 1970, according to Barry, "Robin rang me in Spain where I was on holiday [saying] 'let's do it again'". By 21 August 1970, after they had reunited, Barry announced that the Bee Gees "are there and they will never, ever part again". Maurice said, "We just discussed it and re-formed. We want to apologise publicly to Robin for the things that have been said." Earlier, in June 1970, Robin and Maurice recorded a dozen songs before Barry joined and included two songs that were on their reunion album. Around the same time, Barry and Robin were about to publish the book On the Other Hand. They also recruited Geoff Bridgford as the group's official drummer. Bridgford had previously worked with the Groove and Tin Tin and played drums on Maurice's unreleased first solo album.
In 1970, 2 Years On was released in October in the US and November in the UK. The lead single "Lonely Days" reached No. 3 in the United States, promoted by appearances on The Johnny Cash Show, Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Dick Cavett Show and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Their ninth album, Trafalgar, was released in late 1971. The single "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" was their first to hit No. 1 on the US charts, while "Israel" reached No. 22 in the Netherlands. "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" also brought the Bee Gees their first Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Later that year, the group's songs were included in the soundtrack for the film Melody.
In 1972, they hit No. 16 in the US with the non-album single "My World", backed by Maurice's composition "On Time". Another 1972 single, "Run to Me" from the LP To Whom It May Concern, returned them to the UK top 10 for the first time in three years. On 24 November 1972, the band headlined the "Woodstock of the West" Festival at the Los Angeles Coliseum (which was a West Coast answer to Woodstock in New York), which also featured Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder and the Eagles. Also in 1972, the group sang "Hey Jude" with Wilson Pickett.
By 1973, however, the Bee Gees were in a rut. The album Life in a Tin Can, released on Robert Stigwood's newly formed RSO Records, and its lead-off single, "Saw a New Morning", sold poorly with the single peaking at No. 94. This was followed by an unreleased album (known as A Kick in the Head Is Worth Eight in the Pants). A second compilation album, Best of Bee Gees, Volume 2, was released in 1973, although it did not repeat the success of Volume 1. On 6 April 1973 episode of The Midnight Special they performed "Money (That's What I Want)" with Jerry Lee Lewis. Also in 1973, they were invited by Chuck Berry to perform two songs with him onstage at The Midnight Special: "Johnny B. Goode" and "Reelin' and Rockin'".
After a tour of the United States in early 1974 and a Canadian tour later in the year, the group ended up playing small clubs. As Barry joked, "We ended up in, have you ever heard of Batley's the variety club in (West Yorkshire) England?".
On the advice of Ahmet Ertegun, head of their US label Atlantic Records, Stigwood arranged for the group to record with soul music producer Arif Mardin. The resulting LP, Mr. Natural, included fewer ballads and foreshadowed the R&B direction of the rest of their career. When it, too, failed to attract much interest, Mardin encouraged them to work within the soul music style. The brothers attempted to assemble a live stage band that could replicate their studio sound. Lead guitarist Alan Kendall had come on board in 1971 but did not have much to do until Mr. Natural. For that album, they added drummer Dennis Bryon, and they later added ex-Strawbs keyboard player Blue Weaver, completing the Bee Gees band that lasted through the late '70s. Maurice, who had previously performed on piano, guitar, harpsichord, electric piano, organ, mellotron and bass guitar, as well as mandolin and Moog synthesiser, by then confined himself to bass onstage.
1975–1979: Turning to disco
Main Course and Children of the World
At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record at Criteria Studios. After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs, including their second US No. 1, "Jive Talkin'", along with US No. 7 "Nights on Broadway". The band liked the resulting new sound. This time the public agreed by sending the LP Main Course up the charts. This album included the first Bee Gees songs wherein Barry used falsetto, something that became a trademark of the band. This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album.
On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang "To Love Somebody" with Helen Reddy. Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers—"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" with Barry providing lead vocals, and "Sun King" with Maurice providing lead vocals, for the unsuccessful musical/documentary All This and World War II.
The next album, Children of the World, released in September 1976, was filled with Barry's new-found falsetto and Weaver's synthesizer disco licks. The first single from the album was "You Should Be Dancing", which features percussion work by musician Stephen Stills. The song pushed the Bee Gees to a level of stardom they had not previously achieved in the US, though their new R&B/disco sound was not as popular with some diehard fans. The pop ballad "Love So Right" reached No. 3 in the US, and "Boogie Child" reached US No. 12 in January 1977. The album peaked at No. 8 in the US.
Saturday Night Fever and Spirits Having Flown
Following a successful live album, Here at Last... Bee Gees... Live, the Bee Gees agreed with Stigwood to participate in the creation of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. It was the turning point of their career. The cultural impact of both the film and the soundtrack was significant throughout the world, epitomizing the disco phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic.
The band's involvement in the film did not begin until post-production. As John Travolta asserted, "The Bee Gees weren't even involved in the movie in the beginning ... I was dancing to Stevie Wonder and Boz Scaggs." Producer Robert Stigwood commissioned the Bee Gees to create the songs for the film. The brothers wrote the songs "virtually in a single weekend" at Château d'Hérouville studio in France. Barry Gibb remembered the reaction when Stigwood and music supervisor Bill Oakes arrived and listened to the demos:
Bill Oakes, who supervised the soundtrack, asserts that Saturday Night Fever did not begin the disco craze but rather prolonged it: "Disco had run its course. These days, Fever is credited with kicking off the whole disco thing—it really didn't. Truth is, it breathed new life into a genre that was actually dying."
Three Bee Gees singles—"How Deep Is Your Love" (US No. 1, UK No. 3), "Stayin' Alive" (US No. 1, UK No. 4) and "Night Fever" (US No. 1, UK No. 1)—charted high in many countries around the world, launching the most popular period of the disco era. They also penned the song "If I Can't Have You", which became a US No. 1 hit for Yvonne Elliman, while the Bee Gees' own version was the B-side of "Stayin' Alive". Such was the popularity of Saturday Night Fever that two different versions of the song "More Than a Woman" received airplay, one by the Bee Gees, which was relegated to an album track, and another by Tavares, which was the hit.
During a nine-month period beginning in the Christmas season of 1977, seven songs written by the brothers held the No. 1 position on the US charts for 27 of 37 consecutive weeks: three of their own releases, two for brother Andy Gibb, the Yvonne Elliman single, and "Grease", performed by Frankie Valli.
Fuelled by the film's success, the soundtrack broke multiple industry records, becoming the highest-selling album in recording history to that point. With more than 40 million copies sold, Saturday Night Fever is among music's top five best selling soundtrack albums. , it is calculated as the fourth highest-selling album worldwide.
In March 1978, the Bee Gees held the top two positions on the US charts with "Night Fever" and "Stayin' Alive", the first time this had happened since the Beatles. On the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for 25 March 1978, five songs written by the Gibbs were in the US top 10 at the same time: "Night Fever", "Stayin' Alive", "If I Can't Have You", "Emotion" and "Love Is Thicker Than Water". Such chart dominance had not been seen since April 1964, when the Beatles had all five of the top five American singles. Barry Gibb became the only songwriter to have four consecutive number-one hits in the US, breaking the John Lennon and Paul McCartney 1964 record. These songs were "Stayin' Alive", "Love Is Thicker Than Water", "Night Fever" and "If I Can't Have You".
The Bee Gees won five Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever over two years: Album of the Year, Producer of the Year (with Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson), two awards for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals (one in 1978 for "How Deep Is Your Love" and one in 1979 for "Stayin' Alive"), and Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices for "Stayin' Alive".
During this era, Barry and Robin also wrote "Emotion" for an old friend, Australian vocalist Samantha Sang, who made it a top 10 hit, with the Bee Gees singing backing vocals. Barry also wrote the title song to the film version of the Broadway musical Grease for Frankie Valli to perform, which went to No. 1.
The Bee Gees also co-starred with Peter Frampton in Robert Stigwood's film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), loosely inspired by the classic 1967 album by the Beatles. The movie had been heavily promoted prior to release and was expected to enjoy great commercial success. However, it was savaged by film critics as a disjointed mess and ignored by the public. Though some of its tracks charted, the soundtrack too was a high-profile flop. The single "Oh! Darling", credited to Robin Gibb, reached No. 15 in the US.
The Bee Gees' follow-up to Saturday Night Fever was the Spirits Having Flown album. It yielded three more hits: "Too Much Heaven" (US No. 1, UK No. 3), "Tragedy" (US No. 1, UK No. 1), and "Love You Inside Out" (US No. 1, UK No. 13). This gave the act six consecutive No. 1 singles in the US within a year and a half, equalling the Beatles and surpassed only by Whitney Houston.
In January 1979, the Bee Gees performed "Too Much Heaven" as their contribution to the Music for UNICEF Concert at the United Nations General Assembly. During the summer of 1979, the Bee Gees embarked on their largest concert tour covering the US and Canada. The Spirits Having Flown tour capitalised on Bee Gees fever that was sweeping the nation, with sold-out concerts in 38 cities. The Bee Gees produced a video for the title track "Too Much Heaven", directed by Miami-based filmmaker Martin Pitts and produced by Charles Allen. With this video, Pitts and Allen began a long association with the brothers.
The Bee Gees even had a country hit in 1979 with "Rest Your Love on Me", the flip side of their pop hit "Too Much Heaven", which made the top 40 on the country charts. It was also a 1981 hit for Conway Twitty, topping the country music charts.
The Bee Gees' overwhelming success rose and fell with the disco bubble. By the end of 1979, disco was rapidly declining in popularity, and the backlash against disco put the Bee Gees' American career in a tailspin. Radio stations around the US began promoting "Bee Gee-Free Weekends". Following their remarkable run from 1975 to 1979, the act had only one more top 10 single in the US, and that did not come until the single "One" reached number 7 in 1989.
Barry Gibb considered the success of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack both a blessing and a curse:
1980–1986: Outside projects, band turmoil, solo efforts and decline
Robin co-produced Jimmy Ruffin's Sunrise released in May 1980, but the songs were started in 1979; the album contains songs written by the Gibb brothers, including the single "Hold On To My Love".
In March 1980, Barry Gibb worked with Barbra Streisand on her album Guilty. He co-produced, and wrote or co-wrote all nine of the album's tracks (four of them written with Robin, and the title track with both Robin and Maurice). Barry also appeared on the album's cover with Streisand and duetted with her on two tracks. The album reached No. 1 in both the US and the UK, as did the single "Woman in Love" (written by Barry and Robin), becoming Streisand's most successful single and album to date. Both of the Streisand/Gibb duets, "Guilty" and "What Kind of Fool", also reached the US Top 10.
In 1981, the Bee Gees released the album Living Eyes, their last full-length album release on RSO. This album was the first CD ever played in public, when it was played to viewers of the BBC show Tomorrow's World. With the disco backlash still running strong, the album failed to make the UK or US Top 40—breaking their streak of Top 40 hits, which started in 1975 with "Jive Talkin'". Two singles from the album fared little better—"He's a Liar", which reached No. 30 in the US, and "Living Eyes", which reached No. 45.
In 1982, Dionne Warwick enjoyed a UK No. 2 and US Adult Contemporary No. 1 hit with her comeback single, "Heartbreaker", taken from her eponymous album written largely by the Bee Gees and co-produced by Barry Gibb. The album reached No. 3 in the UK and the Top 30 in the US, where it was certified Gold.
A year later, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers recorded the Bee Gees-penned track "Islands in the Stream", which became a US and Australian No. 1 hit and entered the Top 10 in the UK. Rogers' 1983 album, Eyes That See in the Dark, was written entirely by the Bee Gees and co-produced by Barry. The album was a Top 10 hit in the US and was certified Double Platinum.
The Bee Gees had greater success with the soundtrack to Staying Alive in 1983, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever. The soundtrack was certified platinum in the US, and included their Top 30 hit "The Woman in You".
Also in 1983, the band was sued by Chicago songwriter Ronald Selle, who claimed the brothers stole melodic material from one of his songs, "Let It End", and used it in "How Deep Is Your Love". At first, the Bee Gees lost the case; one juror said that a factor in the jury's decision was the Gibbs' failure to introduce expert testimony rebutting the plaintiff's expert testimony that it was "impossible" for the two songs to have been written independently. However, the verdict was overturned a few months later.
In August 1983, Barry signed a solo deal with MCA Records and spent much of late 1983 and 1984 writing songs for this first solo effort, Now Voyager. Robin released three solo albums in the 1980s, How Old Are You?, Secret Agent and Walls Have Eyes. Maurice released his second single to date, "Hold Her in Your Hand", the first one having been released in 1970.
In 1985, Diana Ross released the album Eaten Alive, written by the Bee Gees, with the title track co-written with Michael Jackson (who also performed on the track). The album was again co-produced by Barry Gibb, and the single "Chain Reaction" gave Ross a UK and Australian No. 1 hit.
1987–1999: Comeback, return to popularity and Andy's death
The Bee Gees released the album E.S.P. in 1987, which sold over 2 million copies. It was their first album in six years, and their first for Warner Bros. Records. The single "You Win Again" went to No. 1 in numerous countries, including the UK, and made the Bee Gees the first group to score a UK No. 1 hit in each of three decades: the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The single was a disappointment in the US, charting at No. 75, and the Bee Gees voiced their frustration over American radio stations not playing their new European hit single, an omission which the group felt led to poor sales of their current album in the US. The song won the Bee Gees the 1987 British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, and in February 1988 the band received a Brit Award nomination for Best British Group.
On 10 March 1988, younger brother Andy Gibb died, aged 30, as a result of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle due to a recent viral infection. The Bee Gees later got together with Eric Clapton to create a group called 'the Bunburys' to raise money for English charities. The group recorded three songs for The Bunbury Tails: "We're the Bunburys" (which eventually became the opening theme to the 1992 animated series The Bunbury Tails), "Bunbury Afternoon", and "Fight (No Matter How Long)". The last song reached No. 8 on the rock music chart and appeared on The 1988 Summer Olympics Album. The Bee Gees' next album, One (1989), featured a song dedicated to Andy, "Wish You Were Here". The album also contained their first US Top 10 hit (No. 7) in a decade, "One" (an Adult Contemporary No. 1). After the album's release, the band embarked on its first world tour in 10 years.
In the UK, Polydor issued a single-disc hits collection from Tales called The Very Best of the Bee Gees, which contained their biggest UK hits. The album became one of their best-selling albums in that country, and was eventually certified Triple Platinum.
Following their next album, High Civilization (1991), which contained the UK top five hit "Secret Love", the Bee Gees went on a European tour. After the tour, Barry Gibb began to battle a serious back problem, which required surgery. In addition, he suffered from arthritis which, at one point, was so severe that it was doubtful that he would be able to play guitar for much longer. Also, in the early 1990s, Maurice Gibb finally sought treatment for his alcoholism, which he had battled for many years with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous.
In 1993, the group returned to the Polydor label and released the album Size Isn't Everything, which contained the UK top five hit "For Whom the Bell Tolls". Success still eluded them in the US, however, as the first single released, "Paying the Price of Love", only managed to reach No. 74 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the parent album stalled at No. 153.
In 1997, they released the album Still Waters, which has reached No. 2 in the UK (their highest album chart position there since 1979) and No. 11 in the US. The album's first single, "Alone", gave them another UK Top 5 hit and a top 30 hit in the US. Still Waters was the band's most successful US release of their post-RSO era.
At the 1997 BRIT Awards held in Earls Court, London on 24 February, the Bee Gees received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. On 14 November 1997, the Bee Gees performed a live concert in Las Vegas called One Night Only. The show included a performance of "Our Love (Don't Throw It All Away)" synchronised with a vocal by their deceased brother Andy and a cameo appearance by Celine Dion singing "Immortality". The "One Night Only" name grew out of the band's declaration that, due to Barry's health issues, the Las Vegas show was to be the final live performance of their career. After the immensely positive audience response to the Vegas concert, Barry decided to continue despite the pain, and the concert expanded into their last full-blown world tour of "One Night Only" concerts. The tour included playing to 56,000 people at London's Wembley Stadium on 5 September 1998 and concluded in the newly built Olympic Stadium in Sydney, Australia on 27 March 1999 to 72,000 people.
In 1998, the group's soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever was incorporated into a stage production produced first in the West End and then on Broadway. They wrote three new songs for the adaptation. Also in 1998, the brothers released "Ellan Vannin" for Manx charities, recorded the previous year. Known as the unofficial national anthem of the Isle of Man, the brothers performed the song during their world tour to reflect their pride in the place of their birth.
The Bee Gees closed the century with what turned out to be their last full-sized concert, known as BG2K, on 31 December 1999.
2000–2008: This Is Where I Came In and Maurice's death
In 2001, the group released what turned out to be their final album of new material, This Is Where I Came In. The album was another success, reaching the Top 10 in the UK (being certified Gold), and the Top 20 in the US. The title track was also a UK Top 20 hit single.
The last concert of the Bee Gees as a trio was at the Love and Hope Ball in 2002. Maurice Gibb died unexpectedly on 12 January 2003, at age 53, from a heart attack while awaiting emergency surgery to repair a strangulated intestine. Initially, his surviving brothers announced that they intended to carry on the name "Bee Gees" in his memory, but as time passed they decided to retire the group's name, leaving it to represent the three brothers together.
The same week that Maurice died, Robin's solo album Magnet was released. On 23 February 2003, the Bee Gees received the Grammy Legend Award, they also became the first recipients of that award in the 21st century. Barry and Robin accepted as well as Maurice's son, Adam, in a tearful ceremony.
In late 2004, Robin embarked on a solo tour of Germany, Russia and Asia. During January 2005, Barry, Robin and several legendary rock artists recorded "Grief Never Grows Old", the official tsunami relief record for the Disasters Emergency Committee. Later that year, Barry reunited with Barbra Streisand for her top-selling album Guilty Pleasures, released as Guilty Too in the UK as a sequel album to the previous Guilty. Also in 2004, Barry recorded his song "I Cannot Give You My Love" with Cliff Richard, which became a UK top 20 hit single.
In February 2006, Barry and Robin reunited on stage for a Miami charity concert to benefit the Diabetes Research Institute. It was their first public performance together since Maurice's death. The pair also played at the 30th annual Prince's Trust Concert in the UK on 20 May 2006.
2009–2012: Return to performing and Robin's death
Barry and Robin performed on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing on 31 October 2009 and appeared on ABC-TV's Dancing with the Stars on 17 November 2009. On 15 March 2010, Barry and Robin inducted the Swedish group ABBA into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On 26 May 2010, the two made a surprise appearance on the ninth-season finale of American Idol.
On 20 November 2011 it was announced that Robin Gibb, at 61 years old, had been diagnosed with liver cancer, a condition he had become aware of several months earlier. He had become noticeably thinner in previous months and had to cancel several appearances due to severe abdominal pain. Robin joined British military trio the Soldiers for the Coming Home charity concert on 13 February 2012 at the London Palladium, in support of injured servicemen. It was his first public appearance for almost five months and, as it turned out, his final one. On 14 April 2012, it was reported that Robin had contracted pneumonia in a Chelsea hospital and was in a coma. Although he came out of his coma on 20 April 2012, his condition deteriorated rapidly and he died on 20 May 2012 of liver and kidney failure.
2013–present: Looking back at a lifetime of music
In September and October 2013, Barry performed his first solo tour "in honour of his brothers and a lifetime of music". In addition to the Rhino collection, The Studio Albums: 1967–1968, Warner Bros. released a box set in 2014 called The Warner Bros Years: 1987–1991 that included the studio albums E.S.P., One and High Civilization as well as extended mixes and B-sides. It also included the band's entire 1989 concert in Melbourne, Australia, available only on video as All for One prior to this release. The documentary The Joy of the Bee Gees was aired on BBC Four on 19 December 2014.
On 23 March 2015, 13STAR Records released a box set 1974–1979 which included the studio albums Mr. Natural, Main Course, Children of the World and Spirits Having Flown. A fifth disc called The Miami Years includes all the tracks from Saturday Night Fever as well as B-sides. No unreleased tracks from the era were included.
After a hiatus from performing, Barry Gibb returned to solo and guest singing performances. He occasionally appears with his son, Steve Gibb. In 2016, he released In the Now, his first solo effort since 1984's Now Voyager. It was the first release of new Bee Gees-related music since the posthumous release of Robin Gibb's 50 St. Catherine's Drive. Also in 2016, Capitol Records signed a new distribution deal with Barry and the estates of his brothers for the Bee Gees catalogue, bringing their music back to Universal.
An as-yet-untitled biopic about the Bee Gees is in development at Paramount, with Kenneth Branagh directing and Barry Gibb serving as an executive producer.
Influences
The Bee Gees were influenced by the Beatles, the Everly Brothers, the Mills Brothers, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, Roy Orbison, the Beach Boys and Stevie Wonder. On the 2014 documentary The Joy of the Bee Gees, Barry said that the Bee Gees were also influenced by the Hollies and Otis Redding. Maurice noted that Neil Sedaka was an early influence, and later the group was "very influenced" by Linda Creed songs for the Stylistics.
Legacy
In his 1980 Playboy magazine interview, John Lennon praised the Bee Gees, "Try to tell the kids in the seventies who were screaming to the Bee Gees that their music was just the Beatles redone. There is nothing wrong with the Bee Gees. They do a damn good job. There was nothing else going on then."
In a 2007 interview with Duane Hitchings, who co-wrote Rod Stewart's 1978 disco song "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?", he noted that the song was:
Kevin Parker of Tame Impala has said that listening to the Bee Gees after taking mushrooms inspired him to change the sound of the music he was making on his album Currents.
The English indie rock band the Cribs was also influenced by the Bee Gees. Cribs member Ryan Jarman said: "It must have had quite a big influence on us – pop melodies is something we always revert to. I always want to get back to pop melodies and I'm sure that's due to that Bee Gees phase we went through."
Following Robin's death on 20 May 2012, Beyoncé remarked: "The Bee Gees were an early inspiration for me, Kelly Rowland and Michelle. We loved their songwriting and beautiful harmonies. Recording their classic song, 'Emotion' was a special time for Destiny's Child. Sadly we lost Robin Gibb this week. My heart goes out to his brother Barry and the rest of his family."
Singer Jordin Sparks remarked that her favourite Bee Gees songs are "Too Much Heaven", "Emotion" (although performed by Samantha Sang with Barry on the background vocals using his falsetto), and "Stayin' Alive".
Carrie Underwood said, about discovering the Bee Gees during her childhood, "My parents listened to the Bee Gees quite a bit when I was little, so I was definitely exposed to them at an early age. They just had a sound that was all their own, obviously, [it was] never duplicated."
Songwriting
At one point, in 1978, the Gibb brothers were responsible for writing and/or performing nine of the songs in the Billboard Hot 100. In all, the Gibbs placed 13 singles onto the Hot 100 in 1978, with 12 making the Top 40. The Gibb brothers are fellows of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA). At least 2,500 artists have recorded their songs.
Singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw spoke about the Bee Gees' influence with their own music as well as their songwriting:
In 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Bee Gees were announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for their role as "Influential Artists".
Accolades and achievements
In 1978, following the success of Saturday Night Fever, and the single "Night Fever" in particular, Reubin Askew, the governor of the US state of Florida, named the Bee Gees honorary citizens of the state, since they resided in Miami at the time. In 1979, the Bee Gees got their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They were the subjects of This Is Your Life in 1991 when they were surprised by Michael Aspel while being interviewed by disc jockey Steve Wright (DJ) on his Radio 1 programme at BBC Broadcasting House.
The Bee Gees were inducted in 1994 into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, as well as Florida's Artists Hall of Fame in 1995 and the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1997. Also in 1997, the group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; the presenter of the award to "Britain's First Family of Harmony" was Brian Wilson, historical leader of the Beach Boys, another "family act" featuring three harmonising brothers. In 2001, they were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. After Maurice's death, the Bee Gees were also inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2001, London's Walk of Fame in 2006 and Musically Speaking Hall Of Fame in 2008. On 15 May 2007, the Bee Gees were named BMI Icons at the 55th annual BMI Pop Awards. Collectively, Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb have earned 109 BMI Pop, Country and Latin Awards.
In October 1999, the Isle of Man Post Office unveiled a set of six stamps honouring the Bee Gees.
All three brothers (including Maurice posthumously) were invested as Commanders of the Order of the British Empire in December 2001 with the ceremony taking place at Buckingham Palace on 27 May 2004. On 10 July 2009, the Isle of Man's capital bestowed the Freedom of the Borough of Douglas honour on Barry and Robin, as well as posthumously on Maurice. On 20 November 2009, the Douglas Borough Council released a limited edition commemorative DVD to mark their naming as Freemen of the Borough.
On 14 February 2013, Barry Gibb unveiled a statue of the Bee Gees as well as unveiling "Bee Gees Way" (a walkway filled with photos and videos of the Bee Gees) in honour of the Bee Gees in Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia. On 27 June 2018, Barry Gibb, the last surviving member of the Bee Gees, was knighted by Prince Charles after being named on the Queen's New Years Honours List. The statue of the Bee Gees in Douglas, Isle of Man, was installed in 2021.
In 2022, the last surviving member of the group, Barry Gibb, was made an Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia which is Australia's highest national honour.
The Bee Gees have sold over 220 million records worldwide, making them one of the best selling artists of all time. The group are to date the most successful family and sibling band of all time, the most successful musical trio of all time, and the most successful musical act with ties to Australia.
Awards and nominations
Queensland Music Awards
The Queensland Music Awards (previously known as Q Song Awards) are annual awards celebrating Queensland, Australia's brightest emerging artists and established legends. They commenced in 2006.
(wins only)
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| 2009
| themselves
| Grant McLennan Lifetime Achievement Award
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Band members
Principal members
Barry Gibb – vocals, rhythm guitar (1958–2003, 2006, 2009–2012)
Robin Gibb – vocals, occasional keyboards (1958–1969, 1970–2003, 2006, 2009–2012; d. 2012)
Maurice Gibb – bass, rhythm and lead guitars, keyboards, vocals (1958–2003; d. 2003)
Colin Petersen – drums (1967–1969)
Vince Melouney – lead guitar (1967–1968)
Geoff Bridgford – drums (1971–1972; touring 1970-1971)
Touring musicians
Alan Kendall – lead guitar (1971–1981, 1989–2003)
Chris Karan – drums (1972)
Dennis Bryon – drums (1973–1981)
Geoff Westley – keyboards, piano (1973–1976)
Blue Weaver – keyboards, synthesizers (1975–1981)
Joe Lala – percussion (1976, 1979)
Joey Murcia – rhythm guitar (1976, 1979)
Harold Cowart – bass (1979)
Tim Cansfield – lead guitar (1989)
Vic Martin – keyboard, synthesizer (1989)
Gary Moberly – keyboard, synthesizer (1989)
George Perry – bass (1989–1993)
Chester Thompson – drums (1989)
Mike Murphy – drums (1989)
Trevor Murrell – drums (1991–1992)
Rudi Dobson – keyboards (1991–1992)
Scott F. Crago – drums
Ben Stivers – keyboard (1996–1999)
Matt Bonelli – bass (1993–2001)
Steve Rucker – drums (1993–1999)
Guest musicians (studio and touring)
Phil Collins – drums
Lenny Castro – percussion
Glenn Frey – guitar
Timothy B. Schmit – bass guitar
Joe Walsh – lead guitar
Don Felder – lead guitar (1981)
Jeff Porcaro – drums
Mike Porcaro – bass guitar
Steve Porcaro – keyboards
Steve Lukather – guitar
David Hungate – bass guitar
David Paich – keyboards
Greg Phillinganes – keyboards
Bobby Kimball – keyboards
Leland Sklar – bass guitar
Reb Beach – lead guitar
Gregg Bissonette – drums
Ricky Lawson – drums
Scott F. Crago – drums
Steve Gadd – drums
Steve Ferrone – drums
Steve Jordan – drums
Nathan East – bass guitar
Steuart Smith – lead guitar
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Timeline
Timeline of touring members
Discography
Soundtracks Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Staying Alive (1983) are not official Bee Gees albums, but contain some previously unreleased tracks. Apart from live and compilation, all their official albums are included on this list. A Kick in the Head Is Worth Eight in the Pants has not been included on the list because it appeared only on numerous bootlegs and was not officially released.
Studio albums
The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs (1965)
Spicks and Specks (1966)
Bee Gees' 1st (1967)
Horizontal (1968)
Idea (1968)
Odessa (1969)
Cucumber Castle (1970)
2 Years On (1970)
Trafalgar (1971)
To Whom It May Concern (1972)
Life in a Tin Can (1973)
Mr. Natural (1974)
Main Course (1975)
Children of the World (1976)
Spirits Having Flown (1979)
Living Eyes (1981)
E.S.P. (1987)
One (1989)
High Civilization (1991)
Size Isn't Everything (1993)
Still Waters (1997)
This Is Where I Came In (2001)
Concert tours
The Bee Gees' concerts in 1967 and 1968 (1967–1968)
2 Years On Tour (1971)
Trafalgar Tour (1972)
Mr. Natural Tour (1974)
Main Course Tour (1975)
Children of the World Tour (1976)
Spirits Having Flown Tour (1979)
One for All World Tour (1989)
High Civilization World Tour (1991)
One Night Only World Tour (1997–1999)
This Is Where I Came In (2001)
Filmography
Citations
General bibliography
.
External links
Bee Gees Official website
Bee Gees at Rolling Stone
Bee Gees' Vocal Group Hall of Fame webpage
Bee Gees at bmi.com
Robin Gibb sadly passes away after losing his battle with cancer
Who Do You Think You Are? – Bee Gees Family History
1958 establishments in Australia
Australian pop rock groups
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Atlantic Records artists
Barry Gibb
Brit Award winners
British disco groups
British musical trios
British soft rock music groups
British soul musical groups
Brunswick Records artists
Capitol Records artists
Child musical groups
English expatriates in Australia
English expatriates in the United States
English pop music groups
English rock music groups
Grammy Legend Award winners
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Mercury Records artists
Manx musical groups
Maurice Gibb
Musical groups established in 1958
Musical groups disestablished in 2003
Musical groups reestablished in 2009
Musical groups disestablished in 2012
Musical groups from Manchester
Queensland musical groups
Philips Records artists
Q150 Icons
Robin Gibb
RSO Records artists
Sibling musical trios
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors
United Artists Records artists
Warner Records artists
World Music Awards winners | true | [
"The situation, task, action, result (STAR) format is a technique used by interviewers to gather all the relevant information about a specific capability that the job requires. \n\n Situation: The interviewer wants you to present a recent challenging situation in which you found yourself.\n Task: What were you required to achieve? The interviewer will be looking to see what you were trying to achieve from the situation. Some performance development methods use “Target” rather than “Task”. Job interview candidates who describe a “Target” they set themselves instead of an externally imposed “Task” emphasize their own intrinsic motivation to perform and to develop their performance.\n Action: What did you do? The interviewer will be looking for information on what you did, why you did it and what the alternatives were.\n Results: What was the outcome of your actions? What did you achieve through your actions? Did you meet your objectives? What did you learn from this experience? Have you used this learning since?\n\nThe STAR technique is similar to the SOARA technique.\n\nThe STAR technique is also often complemented with an additional R on the end STARR or STAR(R) with the last R resembling reflection. This R aims to gather insight and interviewee's ability to learn and iterate. Whereas the STAR reveals how and what kind of result on an objective was achieved, the STARR with the additional R helps the interviewer to understand what the interviewee learned from the experience and how they would assimilate experiences. The interviewee can define what they would do (differently, the same, or better) next time being posed with a situation.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nThe ‘STAR’ technique to answer behavioral interview questions\nThe STAR method explained\n\nJob interview",
"The Predator is the third EP by American metalcore band Ice Nine Kills and was self-released by the band on January 15, 2013. The EP debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart.\n\nIt is the only album to feature Steve Koch as bassist and backup singer after his departure in 2013, and the last album to feature Justin Morrow as rhythm guitarist; he would switch to bass guitar and backing vocals (on live performance only) while still playing rhythm guitar in studio in 2013.\n\nThe tracks \"The Coffin Is Moving\" and \"What I Never Learned in Study Hall\" later would be featured on the band's 2014 album The Predator Becomes the Prey.\n\nThe track \"What I Never Learned in Study Hall\" was later re-recorded acoustically for Take Action. Vol. 11 making it similar to the song's predecessors \"What I Really Learned in Study Hall\" and \"What I Should Have Learned in Study Hall\". Unlike the original version, the acoustic version did not feature Tyler Carter as guest vocalist, but instead featured former Kid's Jackson Summer vocalist Kate Ellen Dean.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel \n Spencer Charnas - lead vocals, piano on \"A Reptile's Dysfunction\"\n Justin \"JD\" DeBlieck - lead guitar, lead vocals\n Justin Morrow - rhythm guitar\n Steve Koch - bass guitar, backing vocals\n Connor Sullivan - drums\n Steve Sopchak - producer, engineer, mixing\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2013 EPs\nIce Nine Kills EPs\nSelf-released EPs"
]
|
[
"Bee Gees",
"Main Course and Children of the World",
"What happened during this time period?",
"At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record.",
"what did that lead to?",
"After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs,"
]
| C_6cca1f87ae8e46bd949e4e2bdf8ac2d4_1 | any awards or special recognition during this time? | 3 | Did the Bee Gees receive any awards or special recognition after moving to Miami? | Bee Gees | At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record. After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs, including their second US No. 1, "Jive Talkin'", along with US No. 7 "Nights on Broadway". The band liked the resulting new sound. This time the public agreed by sending the LP Main Course up the charts. This album included the first Bee Gees songs wherein Barry used falsetto, something that would later become a trademark of the band. This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album. On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang "To Love Somebody" with Helen Reddy. Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers--"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" with Barry providing lead vocals, and "Sun King" with Maurice providing lead vocals, for the unsuccessful musical/documentary All This and World War II. The next album, Children of the World released in September 1976, was drenched in Barry's new-found falsetto and Weaver's synthesizer disco licks. Mardin was unavailable to produce, so the Bee Gees enlisted Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson, who had worked with Mardin during the Main Course sessions. This production team would carry the Bee Gees through the rest of the 1970s. The first single from the album was "You Should Be Dancing" (which features percussion work by musician Stephen Stills). The song pushed the Bee Gees to a level of stardom they had not previously achieved in the US, though their new R&B/disco sound was not as popular with some die hard fans. The pop ballad "Love So Right" reached No. 3 in the US, and "Boogie Child" reached US No. 12 in January 1977. The album peaked at No. 8 in the US. A compilation Bee Gees Gold was released in November, containing the group's hits from 1967 to 1972. CANNOTANSWER | This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album. | The Bee Gees
were a music group formed in 1958, featuring brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful as a popular music act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers of the disco music era in the mid- to late 1970s. The group sang recognisable three-part tight harmonies; Robin's clear vibrato lead vocals were a hallmark of their earlier hits, while Barry's R&B falsetto became their signature sound during the mid- to late 1970s and 1980s. The Bee Gees wrote all of their own hits, as well as writing and producing several major hits for other artists and have been regarded as one of the most important and influential acts in pop music history. They have been referred to in the media as The Disco Kings, Britain’s First Family of Harmony, and The Kings of Dance Music.
Born on the Isle of Man to English parents, the Gibb brothers lived in Chorlton, Manchester, England until the late 1950s. There, in 1955, they formed the skiffle/rock and roll group the Rattlesnakes. The family then moved to Redcliffe, in the Moreton Bay Region, Queensland, Australia, later to Cribb Island. After achieving their first chart success in Australia as the Bee Gees with "Spicks and Specks" (their twelfth single), they returned to the UK in January 1967, when producer Robert Stigwood began promoting them to a worldwide audience. The Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever soundtrack (1977) was the turning point of their career, with both the film and soundtrack having a cultural impact throughout the world, enhancing the disco scene's mainstream appeal. They won five Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever, including Album of the Year.
The Bee Gees have sold over 220 million records worldwide, making them among the best-selling music artists of all time. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997; the Hall's citation says, "Only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney have outsold the Bee Gees." With nine number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, the Bee Gees are the third-most successful band in Billboard charts history behind only the Beatles and the Supremes.
Following Maurice's sudden death in January 2003 at the age of 53, Barry and Robin retired the group's name after 45 years of activity. In 2009, Robin announced that he and Barry had agreed that the Bee Gees would re-form and perform again. Robin died in May 2012, aged 62, after a prolonged period of failing health, leaving Barry as the only surviving member of the group.
History
1955–1966: Music origins, Bee Gees formation and popularity in Australia
Born on the Isle of Man during the late 1940s, the Gibb brothers moved to their father Hugh Gibb's hometown of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Greater Manchester, England in 1955. They formed a skiffle/rock-and-roll group, the Rattlesnakes, which consisted of Barry on guitar and vocals, Robin and Maurice on vocals and friends Paul Frost on drums and Kenny Horrocks on tea-chest bass. In December 1957 the boys began to sing in harmony. The story is told that they were going to lip-sync to a record in the local Gaumont cinema (as other children had done on previous weeks), but as they were running to the theatre, the fragile shellac 78-RPM record broke. The brothers had to sing live, but received such a positive response from the audience that they decided to pursue a singing career. In May 1958 the Rattlesnakes disbanded when Frost and Horrocks left, so the Gibb brothers then formed Wee Johnny Hayes and the Blue Cats, with Barry as "Johnny Hayes".
In August 1958, the Gibb family, including older sister Lesley and infant brother Andy (born in March 1958), emigrated to Australia and settled in Redcliffe, Queensland, just north-east of Brisbane. The young brothers began performing to raise pocket money. Speedway promoter and driver Bill Goode, who had hired the brothers to entertain the crowd at the Redcliffe Speedway in 1960, introduced them to Brisbane radio-presenter jockey Bill Gates. The crowd at the speedway would throw money onto the track for the boys, who generally performed during the interval of meetings (usually on the back of a truck that drove around the track) and, in a deal with Goode, any money they collected from the crowd they were allowed to keep. Gates named the group the "BGs" (later changed to "Bee Gees") after his, Goode's and Barry Gibb's initials. The name was not specifically a reference to "Brothers Gibb", despite popular belief.
During the next few years, they began working regularly at resorts on the Queensland coast. Through his songwriting, Barry sparked the interest of Australian star Col Joye, who helped the brothers get a recording deal in 1963 with Festival Records subsidiary Leedon Records under the name "Bee Gees". The three released two or three singles a year, while Barry supplied additional songs to other Australian artists. In 1962 the Bee Gees were chosen as the supporting act for Chubby Checker's concert at the Sydney Stadium.
From 1963 to 1966, the Gibb family lived at 171 Bunnerong Road, Maroubra, in Sydney. Just prior to his death, Robin Gibb recorded the song "Sydney" about the brothers' experience of living in that city. It was released on his posthumous album 50 St. Catherine's Drive. The house was demolished in 2016.
A minor hit in 1965, "Wine and Women", led to the group's first LP, The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs. By 1966 Festival Records was, however, on the verge of dropping them from the Leedon roster because of their perceived lack of commercial success. At this time the brothers met the American-born songwriter, producer and entrepreneur Nat Kipner, who had just been appointed A&R manager of a new independent label, Spin Records. Kipner briefly took over as the group's manager and successfully negotiated their transfer to Spin in exchange for granting Festival the Australian distribution-rights to the group's recordings. Through Kipner the Bee Gees met engineer-producer, Ossie Byrne, who produced (or co-produced with Kipner) many of the earlier Spin recordings, most of which were cut at his own small, self-built St Clair Studio in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville. Byrne gave the Gibb brothers virtually unlimited access to St Clair Studio over a period of several months in mid-1966. The group later acknowledged that this enabled them to greatly improve their skills as recording artists. During this productive time they recorded a large batch of original material—including the song that became their first major hit, "Spicks and Specks" (on which Byrne played the trumpet coda)—as well as cover versions of current hits by overseas acts such as the Beatles. They regularly collaborated with other local musicians, including members of beat band Steve & The Board, led by Steve Kipner, Nat's teenage son.
Frustrated by their lack of success, the Gibbs began their return journey to England on 4 January 1967, with Ossie Byrne travelling with them. While at sea in January 1967, the Gibbs learned that Go-Set, Australia's most popular and influential music newspaper, had declared "Spicks and Specks" the "Best Single of the Year".
1967–1969: International fame and touring years
Bee Gees' 1st, Horizontal and Idea
Before their departure from Australia to England, Hugh Gibb sent demos to Brian Epstein, who managed the Beatles and directed NEMS, a British music store. Epstein passed the demo tapes to Robert Stigwood, who had recently joined NEMS. After an audition with Stigwood in February 1967, the Bee Gees signed a five-year contract whereby Polydor Records would release their records in the UK, and Atco Records would do so in the US. Work quickly began on the group's first international album, and Stigwood launched a promotional campaign to coincide with its release.
Stigwood proclaimed that the Bee Gees were "The most significant new musical talent of 1967", thus initiating the comparison of the Bee Gees to the Beatles. Before recording the first album, the group expanded to include Colin Petersen and Vince Melouney. "New York Mining Disaster 1941," their second British single (their first-issued UK 45 rpm was "Spicks and Specks"), was issued to radio stations with a blank white label listing only the song title. Some DJs immediately assumed this was a new single by the Beatles and started playing the song in heavy rotation. This helped the song climb into the top 20 in both the UK and US.
No such chicanery was needed to boost the Bee Gees' next single, "To Love Somebody", into the US Top 20. Originally written for Otis Redding, "To Love Somebody", a soulful ballad sung by Barry, has since become a pop standard covered by many artists. Another single, "Holiday", released in the US, peaked at No. 16.
The parent album, Bee Gees 1st (their first internationally), peaked at No. 7 in the US and No. 8 in the UK. Bill Shepherd was credited as the arranger. After recording that album, the group recorded their first BBC session at the Playhouse Theatre, Northumberland Avenue, in London, with Bill Bebb as the producer, and they performed three songs. That session is included on BBC Sessions: 1967–1973 (2008). After the release of Bee Gees' 1st, the group was first introduced in New York as "the English surprise." At that time, the band made their first British TV appearance on Top of the Pops. Maurice recalled:
In late 1967, they began recording the second album. On 21 December 1967, in a live broadcast from Liverpool Anglican Cathedral for a Christmas television special called How On Earth?, they performed their own song, "Thank You For Christmas" which was written especially for the programme, as well as a medley of the traditional Christmas carols "Silent Night," "The First Noel" and "Mary's Boy Child" (the latter incorrectly noted as "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" on tape boxes and subsequent release). The songs were all pre-recorded on 1 December 1967 and the group lip-synched their performance. The recordings were eventually released on the "Horizontal" reissue bonus disc in 2008. The folk group the Settlers and Radio 1 disc-jockey, Kenny Everett, also performed on the programme which was presented by the Reverend Edward H. Patey, dean of the cathedral.
January 1968 began with a promotional trip to the US. Los Angeles Police were on alert in anticipation of a Beatles-type reception, and special security arrangements were being put in place. In February, Horizontal repeated the success of their first album, featuring the group's first UK No. 1 single "Massachusetts" (a No. 11 US hit) and the No. 7 UK single "World." The sound of the album Horizontal had a more "rock" sound than their previous release, although ballads like "And the Sun Will Shine" and "Really and Sincerely" were also prominent. The Horizontal album reached No. 12 in the US and No. 16 in the UK.
With the release of Horizontal, they also embarked on a Scandinavian tour with concerts in Copenhagen. Around the same time, the Bee Gees turned down an offer to write and perform the soundtrack for the film Wonderwall, according to director Joe Massot.
On 27 February 1968, the band, backed by the 17-piece Massachusetts String Orchestra, began their first tour of Germany with two concerts at Hamburg Musikhalle. In March 1968, the band was supported by Procol Harum (who had a well-known hit "A Whiter Shade of Pale") on their German tour. As Robin's partner Molly Hullis recalls: "Germans were wilder than the fans in England at the heights of Beatlemania." The tour schedule took them to 11 venues in as many days with 18 concerts played, finishing with a brace of shows at the Stadthalle, Braunschweig.
After that, the group was off to Switzerland. As Maurice described it:
On 17 March, the band performed "Words" on The Ed Sullivan Show. The other artists who performed on that night's show were Lucille Ball, George Hamilton and Fran Jeffries. On 27 March 1968, the band performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Two more singles followed in early 1968: the ballad "Words" (No. 8 UK, No. 15 US) and the double A-sided single "Jumbo" backed with "The Singer Sang His Song". "Jumbo" only reached No. 25 in the UK and No. 57 in the US. The Bee Gees felt "The Singer Sang His Song" was the stronger of the two sides, an opinion shared by listeners in the Netherlands who made it a No. 3 hit.
Further Bee Gees chart singles followed: "I've Gotta Get a Message to You", their second UK No. 1 (No. 8 US), and "I Started a Joke" (No. 6 US), both culled from the band's third album Idea. Idea reached No. 4 in the UK and was another top 20 album in the US (No. 17).
After the tour and TV special to promote the album, Vince Melouney left the group, desiring to play more of a blues style music than the Gibbs were writing. Melouney did achieve one feat while with the Bee Gees: his composition "Such a Shame" (from Idea) is the only song on any Bee Gees album not written by a Gibb brother.
The band were due to begin a seven-week tour of the US on 2 August 1968, but on 27 July, Robin collapsed and fell unconscious. He was admitted to a London nursing home suffering from nervous exhaustion, and the American tour was postponed. The band began recording their sixth album, which resulted in their spending a week recording at Atlantic Studios in New York. Robin, still feeling poorly, missed the New York sessions, but the rest of the band put away instrumental tracks and demos.
Odessa, Cucumber Castle and break-up
By 1969, Robin began to feel that Stigwood had been favouring Barry as the frontman.
The Bee Gees' performances in early 1969 on the Top of the Pops and The Tom Jones Show performing "I Started a Joke" and "First of May" as a medley was one of the last live performances of the group with Robin.
Their next album, which was to have been a concept album called Masterpeace, evolved into the double-album Odessa. Most rock critics felt this was the best Bee Gees album of the 1960s with its progressive rock feel on the title track, the country-flavoured "Marley Purt Drive" and "Give Your Best", and ballads such as "Melody Fair" and "First of May" (the last of which became the only single from the album and a UK # 6 hit). Feeling the flipside, "Lamplight," should have been the A-side, Robin quit the group in mid-1969 and launched a solo career.
The first of many Bee Gees compilations, Best of Bee Gees, was released featuring the non-LP single "Words" plus the Australian hit "Spicks and Specks". The single "Tomorrow Tomorrow" was also released and was a moderate hit in the UK, where it reached No. 23, but it was only No. 54 in the US. The compilation reached the top 10 in both the UK and the US.
While Robin pursued his solo career, Barry, Maurice and Petersen continued on as the Bee Gees recording their next album, Cucumber Castle. The band made their debut performance without Robin at Talk of the Town. They had recruited their sister, Lesley, into the group at this time. To accompany the album, they also filmed a TV special with Frankie Howerd and cameos from several other contemporary pop and rock stars, which aired on the BBC in December 1970. Petersen played drums on the tracks recorded for the album but was fired from the group after filming began (he went on to form the Humpy Bong with Jonathan Kelly). His parts were edited out of the final cut of the film and Pentangle drummer Terry Cox was recruited to complete the recording of songs for the album.
After the album was released in early 1970, it seemed that the Bee Gees were finished. The leadoff single, "Don't Forget to Remember", was a big hit in the UK, reaching No. 2, but only reached No. 73 in the US. The next two singles, "I.O.I.O." and "If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else", barely scraped the charts. On 1 December 1969, Barry and Maurice parted ways professionally.
Maurice started to record his first solo album, The Loner, which was not released. Meanwhile, he released the single "Railroad" and starred in the West End musical Sing a Rude Song. In February 1970, Barry recorded a solo album which never saw official release either, although "I'll Kiss Your Memory" was released as a single backed by "This Time" without much interest. Meanwhile, Robin saw success in Europe and Australia with his No. 2 hit "Saved by the Bell" and the album Robin's Reign.
1970–1974: Reformation
In mid 1970, according to Barry, "Robin rang me in Spain where I was on holiday [saying] 'let's do it again'". By 21 August 1970, after they had reunited, Barry announced that the Bee Gees "are there and they will never, ever part again". Maurice said, "We just discussed it and re-formed. We want to apologise publicly to Robin for the things that have been said." Earlier, in June 1970, Robin and Maurice recorded a dozen songs before Barry joined and included two songs that were on their reunion album. Around the same time, Barry and Robin were about to publish the book On the Other Hand. They also recruited Geoff Bridgford as the group's official drummer. Bridgford had previously worked with the Groove and Tin Tin and played drums on Maurice's unreleased first solo album.
In 1970, 2 Years On was released in October in the US and November in the UK. The lead single "Lonely Days" reached No. 3 in the United States, promoted by appearances on The Johnny Cash Show, Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Dick Cavett Show and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Their ninth album, Trafalgar, was released in late 1971. The single "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" was their first to hit No. 1 on the US charts, while "Israel" reached No. 22 in the Netherlands. "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" also brought the Bee Gees their first Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Later that year, the group's songs were included in the soundtrack for the film Melody.
In 1972, they hit No. 16 in the US with the non-album single "My World", backed by Maurice's composition "On Time". Another 1972 single, "Run to Me" from the LP To Whom It May Concern, returned them to the UK top 10 for the first time in three years. On 24 November 1972, the band headlined the "Woodstock of the West" Festival at the Los Angeles Coliseum (which was a West Coast answer to Woodstock in New York), which also featured Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder and the Eagles. Also in 1972, the group sang "Hey Jude" with Wilson Pickett.
By 1973, however, the Bee Gees were in a rut. The album Life in a Tin Can, released on Robert Stigwood's newly formed RSO Records, and its lead-off single, "Saw a New Morning", sold poorly with the single peaking at No. 94. This was followed by an unreleased album (known as A Kick in the Head Is Worth Eight in the Pants). A second compilation album, Best of Bee Gees, Volume 2, was released in 1973, although it did not repeat the success of Volume 1. On 6 April 1973 episode of The Midnight Special they performed "Money (That's What I Want)" with Jerry Lee Lewis. Also in 1973, they were invited by Chuck Berry to perform two songs with him onstage at The Midnight Special: "Johnny B. Goode" and "Reelin' and Rockin'".
After a tour of the United States in early 1974 and a Canadian tour later in the year, the group ended up playing small clubs. As Barry joked, "We ended up in, have you ever heard of Batley's the variety club in (West Yorkshire) England?".
On the advice of Ahmet Ertegun, head of their US label Atlantic Records, Stigwood arranged for the group to record with soul music producer Arif Mardin. The resulting LP, Mr. Natural, included fewer ballads and foreshadowed the R&B direction of the rest of their career. When it, too, failed to attract much interest, Mardin encouraged them to work within the soul music style. The brothers attempted to assemble a live stage band that could replicate their studio sound. Lead guitarist Alan Kendall had come on board in 1971 but did not have much to do until Mr. Natural. For that album, they added drummer Dennis Bryon, and they later added ex-Strawbs keyboard player Blue Weaver, completing the Bee Gees band that lasted through the late '70s. Maurice, who had previously performed on piano, guitar, harpsichord, electric piano, organ, mellotron and bass guitar, as well as mandolin and Moog synthesiser, by then confined himself to bass onstage.
1975–1979: Turning to disco
Main Course and Children of the World
At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record at Criteria Studios. After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs, including their second US No. 1, "Jive Talkin'", along with US No. 7 "Nights on Broadway". The band liked the resulting new sound. This time the public agreed by sending the LP Main Course up the charts. This album included the first Bee Gees songs wherein Barry used falsetto, something that became a trademark of the band. This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album.
On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang "To Love Somebody" with Helen Reddy. Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers—"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" with Barry providing lead vocals, and "Sun King" with Maurice providing lead vocals, for the unsuccessful musical/documentary All This and World War II.
The next album, Children of the World, released in September 1976, was filled with Barry's new-found falsetto and Weaver's synthesizer disco licks. The first single from the album was "You Should Be Dancing", which features percussion work by musician Stephen Stills. The song pushed the Bee Gees to a level of stardom they had not previously achieved in the US, though their new R&B/disco sound was not as popular with some diehard fans. The pop ballad "Love So Right" reached No. 3 in the US, and "Boogie Child" reached US No. 12 in January 1977. The album peaked at No. 8 in the US.
Saturday Night Fever and Spirits Having Flown
Following a successful live album, Here at Last... Bee Gees... Live, the Bee Gees agreed with Stigwood to participate in the creation of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. It was the turning point of their career. The cultural impact of both the film and the soundtrack was significant throughout the world, epitomizing the disco phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic.
The band's involvement in the film did not begin until post-production. As John Travolta asserted, "The Bee Gees weren't even involved in the movie in the beginning ... I was dancing to Stevie Wonder and Boz Scaggs." Producer Robert Stigwood commissioned the Bee Gees to create the songs for the film. The brothers wrote the songs "virtually in a single weekend" at Château d'Hérouville studio in France. Barry Gibb remembered the reaction when Stigwood and music supervisor Bill Oakes arrived and listened to the demos:
Bill Oakes, who supervised the soundtrack, asserts that Saturday Night Fever did not begin the disco craze but rather prolonged it: "Disco had run its course. These days, Fever is credited with kicking off the whole disco thing—it really didn't. Truth is, it breathed new life into a genre that was actually dying."
Three Bee Gees singles—"How Deep Is Your Love" (US No. 1, UK No. 3), "Stayin' Alive" (US No. 1, UK No. 4) and "Night Fever" (US No. 1, UK No. 1)—charted high in many countries around the world, launching the most popular period of the disco era. They also penned the song "If I Can't Have You", which became a US No. 1 hit for Yvonne Elliman, while the Bee Gees' own version was the B-side of "Stayin' Alive". Such was the popularity of Saturday Night Fever that two different versions of the song "More Than a Woman" received airplay, one by the Bee Gees, which was relegated to an album track, and another by Tavares, which was the hit.
During a nine-month period beginning in the Christmas season of 1977, seven songs written by the brothers held the No. 1 position on the US charts for 27 of 37 consecutive weeks: three of their own releases, two for brother Andy Gibb, the Yvonne Elliman single, and "Grease", performed by Frankie Valli.
Fuelled by the film's success, the soundtrack broke multiple industry records, becoming the highest-selling album in recording history to that point. With more than 40 million copies sold, Saturday Night Fever is among music's top five best selling soundtrack albums. , it is calculated as the fourth highest-selling album worldwide.
In March 1978, the Bee Gees held the top two positions on the US charts with "Night Fever" and "Stayin' Alive", the first time this had happened since the Beatles. On the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for 25 March 1978, five songs written by the Gibbs were in the US top 10 at the same time: "Night Fever", "Stayin' Alive", "If I Can't Have You", "Emotion" and "Love Is Thicker Than Water". Such chart dominance had not been seen since April 1964, when the Beatles had all five of the top five American singles. Barry Gibb became the only songwriter to have four consecutive number-one hits in the US, breaking the John Lennon and Paul McCartney 1964 record. These songs were "Stayin' Alive", "Love Is Thicker Than Water", "Night Fever" and "If I Can't Have You".
The Bee Gees won five Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever over two years: Album of the Year, Producer of the Year (with Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson), two awards for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals (one in 1978 for "How Deep Is Your Love" and one in 1979 for "Stayin' Alive"), and Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices for "Stayin' Alive".
During this era, Barry and Robin also wrote "Emotion" for an old friend, Australian vocalist Samantha Sang, who made it a top 10 hit, with the Bee Gees singing backing vocals. Barry also wrote the title song to the film version of the Broadway musical Grease for Frankie Valli to perform, which went to No. 1.
The Bee Gees also co-starred with Peter Frampton in Robert Stigwood's film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), loosely inspired by the classic 1967 album by the Beatles. The movie had been heavily promoted prior to release and was expected to enjoy great commercial success. However, it was savaged by film critics as a disjointed mess and ignored by the public. Though some of its tracks charted, the soundtrack too was a high-profile flop. The single "Oh! Darling", credited to Robin Gibb, reached No. 15 in the US.
The Bee Gees' follow-up to Saturday Night Fever was the Spirits Having Flown album. It yielded three more hits: "Too Much Heaven" (US No. 1, UK No. 3), "Tragedy" (US No. 1, UK No. 1), and "Love You Inside Out" (US No. 1, UK No. 13). This gave the act six consecutive No. 1 singles in the US within a year and a half, equalling the Beatles and surpassed only by Whitney Houston.
In January 1979, the Bee Gees performed "Too Much Heaven" as their contribution to the Music for UNICEF Concert at the United Nations General Assembly. During the summer of 1979, the Bee Gees embarked on their largest concert tour covering the US and Canada. The Spirits Having Flown tour capitalised on Bee Gees fever that was sweeping the nation, with sold-out concerts in 38 cities. The Bee Gees produced a video for the title track "Too Much Heaven", directed by Miami-based filmmaker Martin Pitts and produced by Charles Allen. With this video, Pitts and Allen began a long association with the brothers.
The Bee Gees even had a country hit in 1979 with "Rest Your Love on Me", the flip side of their pop hit "Too Much Heaven", which made the top 40 on the country charts. It was also a 1981 hit for Conway Twitty, topping the country music charts.
The Bee Gees' overwhelming success rose and fell with the disco bubble. By the end of 1979, disco was rapidly declining in popularity, and the backlash against disco put the Bee Gees' American career in a tailspin. Radio stations around the US began promoting "Bee Gee-Free Weekends". Following their remarkable run from 1975 to 1979, the act had only one more top 10 single in the US, and that did not come until the single "One" reached number 7 in 1989.
Barry Gibb considered the success of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack both a blessing and a curse:
1980–1986: Outside projects, band turmoil, solo efforts and decline
Robin co-produced Jimmy Ruffin's Sunrise released in May 1980, but the songs were started in 1979; the album contains songs written by the Gibb brothers, including the single "Hold On To My Love".
In March 1980, Barry Gibb worked with Barbra Streisand on her album Guilty. He co-produced, and wrote or co-wrote all nine of the album's tracks (four of them written with Robin, and the title track with both Robin and Maurice). Barry also appeared on the album's cover with Streisand and duetted with her on two tracks. The album reached No. 1 in both the US and the UK, as did the single "Woman in Love" (written by Barry and Robin), becoming Streisand's most successful single and album to date. Both of the Streisand/Gibb duets, "Guilty" and "What Kind of Fool", also reached the US Top 10.
In 1981, the Bee Gees released the album Living Eyes, their last full-length album release on RSO. This album was the first CD ever played in public, when it was played to viewers of the BBC show Tomorrow's World. With the disco backlash still running strong, the album failed to make the UK or US Top 40—breaking their streak of Top 40 hits, which started in 1975 with "Jive Talkin'". Two singles from the album fared little better—"He's a Liar", which reached No. 30 in the US, and "Living Eyes", which reached No. 45.
In 1982, Dionne Warwick enjoyed a UK No. 2 and US Adult Contemporary No. 1 hit with her comeback single, "Heartbreaker", taken from her eponymous album written largely by the Bee Gees and co-produced by Barry Gibb. The album reached No. 3 in the UK and the Top 30 in the US, where it was certified Gold.
A year later, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers recorded the Bee Gees-penned track "Islands in the Stream", which became a US and Australian No. 1 hit and entered the Top 10 in the UK. Rogers' 1983 album, Eyes That See in the Dark, was written entirely by the Bee Gees and co-produced by Barry. The album was a Top 10 hit in the US and was certified Double Platinum.
The Bee Gees had greater success with the soundtrack to Staying Alive in 1983, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever. The soundtrack was certified platinum in the US, and included their Top 30 hit "The Woman in You".
Also in 1983, the band was sued by Chicago songwriter Ronald Selle, who claimed the brothers stole melodic material from one of his songs, "Let It End", and used it in "How Deep Is Your Love". At first, the Bee Gees lost the case; one juror said that a factor in the jury's decision was the Gibbs' failure to introduce expert testimony rebutting the plaintiff's expert testimony that it was "impossible" for the two songs to have been written independently. However, the verdict was overturned a few months later.
In August 1983, Barry signed a solo deal with MCA Records and spent much of late 1983 and 1984 writing songs for this first solo effort, Now Voyager. Robin released three solo albums in the 1980s, How Old Are You?, Secret Agent and Walls Have Eyes. Maurice released his second single to date, "Hold Her in Your Hand", the first one having been released in 1970.
In 1985, Diana Ross released the album Eaten Alive, written by the Bee Gees, with the title track co-written with Michael Jackson (who also performed on the track). The album was again co-produced by Barry Gibb, and the single "Chain Reaction" gave Ross a UK and Australian No. 1 hit.
1987–1999: Comeback, return to popularity and Andy's death
The Bee Gees released the album E.S.P. in 1987, which sold over 2 million copies. It was their first album in six years, and their first for Warner Bros. Records. The single "You Win Again" went to No. 1 in numerous countries, including the UK, and made the Bee Gees the first group to score a UK No. 1 hit in each of three decades: the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The single was a disappointment in the US, charting at No. 75, and the Bee Gees voiced their frustration over American radio stations not playing their new European hit single, an omission which the group felt led to poor sales of their current album in the US. The song won the Bee Gees the 1987 British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, and in February 1988 the band received a Brit Award nomination for Best British Group.
On 10 March 1988, younger brother Andy Gibb died, aged 30, as a result of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle due to a recent viral infection. The Bee Gees later got together with Eric Clapton to create a group called 'the Bunburys' to raise money for English charities. The group recorded three songs for The Bunbury Tails: "We're the Bunburys" (which eventually became the opening theme to the 1992 animated series The Bunbury Tails), "Bunbury Afternoon", and "Fight (No Matter How Long)". The last song reached No. 8 on the rock music chart and appeared on The 1988 Summer Olympics Album. The Bee Gees' next album, One (1989), featured a song dedicated to Andy, "Wish You Were Here". The album also contained their first US Top 10 hit (No. 7) in a decade, "One" (an Adult Contemporary No. 1). After the album's release, the band embarked on its first world tour in 10 years.
In the UK, Polydor issued a single-disc hits collection from Tales called The Very Best of the Bee Gees, which contained their biggest UK hits. The album became one of their best-selling albums in that country, and was eventually certified Triple Platinum.
Following their next album, High Civilization (1991), which contained the UK top five hit "Secret Love", the Bee Gees went on a European tour. After the tour, Barry Gibb began to battle a serious back problem, which required surgery. In addition, he suffered from arthritis which, at one point, was so severe that it was doubtful that he would be able to play guitar for much longer. Also, in the early 1990s, Maurice Gibb finally sought treatment for his alcoholism, which he had battled for many years with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous.
In 1993, the group returned to the Polydor label and released the album Size Isn't Everything, which contained the UK top five hit "For Whom the Bell Tolls". Success still eluded them in the US, however, as the first single released, "Paying the Price of Love", only managed to reach No. 74 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the parent album stalled at No. 153.
In 1997, they released the album Still Waters, which has reached No. 2 in the UK (their highest album chart position there since 1979) and No. 11 in the US. The album's first single, "Alone", gave them another UK Top 5 hit and a top 30 hit in the US. Still Waters was the band's most successful US release of their post-RSO era.
At the 1997 BRIT Awards held in Earls Court, London on 24 February, the Bee Gees received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. On 14 November 1997, the Bee Gees performed a live concert in Las Vegas called One Night Only. The show included a performance of "Our Love (Don't Throw It All Away)" synchronised with a vocal by their deceased brother Andy and a cameo appearance by Celine Dion singing "Immortality". The "One Night Only" name grew out of the band's declaration that, due to Barry's health issues, the Las Vegas show was to be the final live performance of their career. After the immensely positive audience response to the Vegas concert, Barry decided to continue despite the pain, and the concert expanded into their last full-blown world tour of "One Night Only" concerts. The tour included playing to 56,000 people at London's Wembley Stadium on 5 September 1998 and concluded in the newly built Olympic Stadium in Sydney, Australia on 27 March 1999 to 72,000 people.
In 1998, the group's soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever was incorporated into a stage production produced first in the West End and then on Broadway. They wrote three new songs for the adaptation. Also in 1998, the brothers released "Ellan Vannin" for Manx charities, recorded the previous year. Known as the unofficial national anthem of the Isle of Man, the brothers performed the song during their world tour to reflect their pride in the place of their birth.
The Bee Gees closed the century with what turned out to be their last full-sized concert, known as BG2K, on 31 December 1999.
2000–2008: This Is Where I Came In and Maurice's death
In 2001, the group released what turned out to be their final album of new material, This Is Where I Came In. The album was another success, reaching the Top 10 in the UK (being certified Gold), and the Top 20 in the US. The title track was also a UK Top 20 hit single.
The last concert of the Bee Gees as a trio was at the Love and Hope Ball in 2002. Maurice Gibb died unexpectedly on 12 January 2003, at age 53, from a heart attack while awaiting emergency surgery to repair a strangulated intestine. Initially, his surviving brothers announced that they intended to carry on the name "Bee Gees" in his memory, but as time passed they decided to retire the group's name, leaving it to represent the three brothers together.
The same week that Maurice died, Robin's solo album Magnet was released. On 23 February 2003, the Bee Gees received the Grammy Legend Award, they also became the first recipients of that award in the 21st century. Barry and Robin accepted as well as Maurice's son, Adam, in a tearful ceremony.
In late 2004, Robin embarked on a solo tour of Germany, Russia and Asia. During January 2005, Barry, Robin and several legendary rock artists recorded "Grief Never Grows Old", the official tsunami relief record for the Disasters Emergency Committee. Later that year, Barry reunited with Barbra Streisand for her top-selling album Guilty Pleasures, released as Guilty Too in the UK as a sequel album to the previous Guilty. Also in 2004, Barry recorded his song "I Cannot Give You My Love" with Cliff Richard, which became a UK top 20 hit single.
In February 2006, Barry and Robin reunited on stage for a Miami charity concert to benefit the Diabetes Research Institute. It was their first public performance together since Maurice's death. The pair also played at the 30th annual Prince's Trust Concert in the UK on 20 May 2006.
2009–2012: Return to performing and Robin's death
Barry and Robin performed on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing on 31 October 2009 and appeared on ABC-TV's Dancing with the Stars on 17 November 2009. On 15 March 2010, Barry and Robin inducted the Swedish group ABBA into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On 26 May 2010, the two made a surprise appearance on the ninth-season finale of American Idol.
On 20 November 2011 it was announced that Robin Gibb, at 61 years old, had been diagnosed with liver cancer, a condition he had become aware of several months earlier. He had become noticeably thinner in previous months and had to cancel several appearances due to severe abdominal pain. Robin joined British military trio the Soldiers for the Coming Home charity concert on 13 February 2012 at the London Palladium, in support of injured servicemen. It was his first public appearance for almost five months and, as it turned out, his final one. On 14 April 2012, it was reported that Robin had contracted pneumonia in a Chelsea hospital and was in a coma. Although he came out of his coma on 20 April 2012, his condition deteriorated rapidly and he died on 20 May 2012 of liver and kidney failure.
2013–present: Looking back at a lifetime of music
In September and October 2013, Barry performed his first solo tour "in honour of his brothers and a lifetime of music". In addition to the Rhino collection, The Studio Albums: 1967–1968, Warner Bros. released a box set in 2014 called The Warner Bros Years: 1987–1991 that included the studio albums E.S.P., One and High Civilization as well as extended mixes and B-sides. It also included the band's entire 1989 concert in Melbourne, Australia, available only on video as All for One prior to this release. The documentary The Joy of the Bee Gees was aired on BBC Four on 19 December 2014.
On 23 March 2015, 13STAR Records released a box set 1974–1979 which included the studio albums Mr. Natural, Main Course, Children of the World and Spirits Having Flown. A fifth disc called The Miami Years includes all the tracks from Saturday Night Fever as well as B-sides. No unreleased tracks from the era were included.
After a hiatus from performing, Barry Gibb returned to solo and guest singing performances. He occasionally appears with his son, Steve Gibb. In 2016, he released In the Now, his first solo effort since 1984's Now Voyager. It was the first release of new Bee Gees-related music since the posthumous release of Robin Gibb's 50 St. Catherine's Drive. Also in 2016, Capitol Records signed a new distribution deal with Barry and the estates of his brothers for the Bee Gees catalogue, bringing their music back to Universal.
An as-yet-untitled biopic about the Bee Gees is in development at Paramount, with Kenneth Branagh directing and Barry Gibb serving as an executive producer.
Influences
The Bee Gees were influenced by the Beatles, the Everly Brothers, the Mills Brothers, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, Roy Orbison, the Beach Boys and Stevie Wonder. On the 2014 documentary The Joy of the Bee Gees, Barry said that the Bee Gees were also influenced by the Hollies and Otis Redding. Maurice noted that Neil Sedaka was an early influence, and later the group was "very influenced" by Linda Creed songs for the Stylistics.
Legacy
In his 1980 Playboy magazine interview, John Lennon praised the Bee Gees, "Try to tell the kids in the seventies who were screaming to the Bee Gees that their music was just the Beatles redone. There is nothing wrong with the Bee Gees. They do a damn good job. There was nothing else going on then."
In a 2007 interview with Duane Hitchings, who co-wrote Rod Stewart's 1978 disco song "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?", he noted that the song was:
Kevin Parker of Tame Impala has said that listening to the Bee Gees after taking mushrooms inspired him to change the sound of the music he was making on his album Currents.
The English indie rock band the Cribs was also influenced by the Bee Gees. Cribs member Ryan Jarman said: "It must have had quite a big influence on us – pop melodies is something we always revert to. I always want to get back to pop melodies and I'm sure that's due to that Bee Gees phase we went through."
Following Robin's death on 20 May 2012, Beyoncé remarked: "The Bee Gees were an early inspiration for me, Kelly Rowland and Michelle. We loved their songwriting and beautiful harmonies. Recording their classic song, 'Emotion' was a special time for Destiny's Child. Sadly we lost Robin Gibb this week. My heart goes out to his brother Barry and the rest of his family."
Singer Jordin Sparks remarked that her favourite Bee Gees songs are "Too Much Heaven", "Emotion" (although performed by Samantha Sang with Barry on the background vocals using his falsetto), and "Stayin' Alive".
Carrie Underwood said, about discovering the Bee Gees during her childhood, "My parents listened to the Bee Gees quite a bit when I was little, so I was definitely exposed to them at an early age. They just had a sound that was all their own, obviously, [it was] never duplicated."
Songwriting
At one point, in 1978, the Gibb brothers were responsible for writing and/or performing nine of the songs in the Billboard Hot 100. In all, the Gibbs placed 13 singles onto the Hot 100 in 1978, with 12 making the Top 40. The Gibb brothers are fellows of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA). At least 2,500 artists have recorded their songs.
Singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw spoke about the Bee Gees' influence with their own music as well as their songwriting:
In 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Bee Gees were announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for their role as "Influential Artists".
Accolades and achievements
In 1978, following the success of Saturday Night Fever, and the single "Night Fever" in particular, Reubin Askew, the governor of the US state of Florida, named the Bee Gees honorary citizens of the state, since they resided in Miami at the time. In 1979, the Bee Gees got their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They were the subjects of This Is Your Life in 1991 when they were surprised by Michael Aspel while being interviewed by disc jockey Steve Wright (DJ) on his Radio 1 programme at BBC Broadcasting House.
The Bee Gees were inducted in 1994 into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, as well as Florida's Artists Hall of Fame in 1995 and the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1997. Also in 1997, the group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; the presenter of the award to "Britain's First Family of Harmony" was Brian Wilson, historical leader of the Beach Boys, another "family act" featuring three harmonising brothers. In 2001, they were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. After Maurice's death, the Bee Gees were also inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2001, London's Walk of Fame in 2006 and Musically Speaking Hall Of Fame in 2008. On 15 May 2007, the Bee Gees were named BMI Icons at the 55th annual BMI Pop Awards. Collectively, Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb have earned 109 BMI Pop, Country and Latin Awards.
In October 1999, the Isle of Man Post Office unveiled a set of six stamps honouring the Bee Gees.
All three brothers (including Maurice posthumously) were invested as Commanders of the Order of the British Empire in December 2001 with the ceremony taking place at Buckingham Palace on 27 May 2004. On 10 July 2009, the Isle of Man's capital bestowed the Freedom of the Borough of Douglas honour on Barry and Robin, as well as posthumously on Maurice. On 20 November 2009, the Douglas Borough Council released a limited edition commemorative DVD to mark their naming as Freemen of the Borough.
On 14 February 2013, Barry Gibb unveiled a statue of the Bee Gees as well as unveiling "Bee Gees Way" (a walkway filled with photos and videos of the Bee Gees) in honour of the Bee Gees in Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia. On 27 June 2018, Barry Gibb, the last surviving member of the Bee Gees, was knighted by Prince Charles after being named on the Queen's New Years Honours List. The statue of the Bee Gees in Douglas, Isle of Man, was installed in 2021.
In 2022, the last surviving member of the group, Barry Gibb, was made an Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia which is Australia's highest national honour.
The Bee Gees have sold over 220 million records worldwide, making them one of the best selling artists of all time. The group are to date the most successful family and sibling band of all time, the most successful musical trio of all time, and the most successful musical act with ties to Australia.
Awards and nominations
Queensland Music Awards
The Queensland Music Awards (previously known as Q Song Awards) are annual awards celebrating Queensland, Australia's brightest emerging artists and established legends. They commenced in 2006.
(wins only)
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| 2009
| themselves
| Grant McLennan Lifetime Achievement Award
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Band members
Principal members
Barry Gibb – vocals, rhythm guitar (1958–2003, 2006, 2009–2012)
Robin Gibb – vocals, occasional keyboards (1958–1969, 1970–2003, 2006, 2009–2012; d. 2012)
Maurice Gibb – bass, rhythm and lead guitars, keyboards, vocals (1958–2003; d. 2003)
Colin Petersen – drums (1967–1969)
Vince Melouney – lead guitar (1967–1968)
Geoff Bridgford – drums (1971–1972; touring 1970-1971)
Touring musicians
Alan Kendall – lead guitar (1971–1981, 1989–2003)
Chris Karan – drums (1972)
Dennis Bryon – drums (1973–1981)
Geoff Westley – keyboards, piano (1973–1976)
Blue Weaver – keyboards, synthesizers (1975–1981)
Joe Lala – percussion (1976, 1979)
Joey Murcia – rhythm guitar (1976, 1979)
Harold Cowart – bass (1979)
Tim Cansfield – lead guitar (1989)
Vic Martin – keyboard, synthesizer (1989)
Gary Moberly – keyboard, synthesizer (1989)
George Perry – bass (1989–1993)
Chester Thompson – drums (1989)
Mike Murphy – drums (1989)
Trevor Murrell – drums (1991–1992)
Rudi Dobson – keyboards (1991–1992)
Scott F. Crago – drums
Ben Stivers – keyboard (1996–1999)
Matt Bonelli – bass (1993–2001)
Steve Rucker – drums (1993–1999)
Guest musicians (studio and touring)
Phil Collins – drums
Lenny Castro – percussion
Glenn Frey – guitar
Timothy B. Schmit – bass guitar
Joe Walsh – lead guitar
Don Felder – lead guitar (1981)
Jeff Porcaro – drums
Mike Porcaro – bass guitar
Steve Porcaro – keyboards
Steve Lukather – guitar
David Hungate – bass guitar
David Paich – keyboards
Greg Phillinganes – keyboards
Bobby Kimball – keyboards
Leland Sklar – bass guitar
Reb Beach – lead guitar
Gregg Bissonette – drums
Ricky Lawson – drums
Scott F. Crago – drums
Steve Gadd – drums
Steve Ferrone – drums
Steve Jordan – drums
Nathan East – bass guitar
Steuart Smith – lead guitar
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Timeline
Timeline of touring members
Discography
Soundtracks Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Staying Alive (1983) are not official Bee Gees albums, but contain some previously unreleased tracks. Apart from live and compilation, all their official albums are included on this list. A Kick in the Head Is Worth Eight in the Pants has not been included on the list because it appeared only on numerous bootlegs and was not officially released.
Studio albums
The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs (1965)
Spicks and Specks (1966)
Bee Gees' 1st (1967)
Horizontal (1968)
Idea (1968)
Odessa (1969)
Cucumber Castle (1970)
2 Years On (1970)
Trafalgar (1971)
To Whom It May Concern (1972)
Life in a Tin Can (1973)
Mr. Natural (1974)
Main Course (1975)
Children of the World (1976)
Spirits Having Flown (1979)
Living Eyes (1981)
E.S.P. (1987)
One (1989)
High Civilization (1991)
Size Isn't Everything (1993)
Still Waters (1997)
This Is Where I Came In (2001)
Concert tours
The Bee Gees' concerts in 1967 and 1968 (1967–1968)
2 Years On Tour (1971)
Trafalgar Tour (1972)
Mr. Natural Tour (1974)
Main Course Tour (1975)
Children of the World Tour (1976)
Spirits Having Flown Tour (1979)
One for All World Tour (1989)
High Civilization World Tour (1991)
One Night Only World Tour (1997–1999)
This Is Where I Came In (2001)
Filmography
Citations
General bibliography
.
External links
Bee Gees Official website
Bee Gees at Rolling Stone
Bee Gees' Vocal Group Hall of Fame webpage
Bee Gees at bmi.com
Robin Gibb sadly passes away after losing his battle with cancer
Who Do You Think You Are? – Bee Gees Family History
1958 establishments in Australia
Australian pop rock groups
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Atlantic Records artists
Barry Gibb
Brit Award winners
British disco groups
British musical trios
British soft rock music groups
British soul musical groups
Brunswick Records artists
Capitol Records artists
Child musical groups
English expatriates in Australia
English expatriates in the United States
English pop music groups
English rock music groups
Grammy Legend Award winners
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Mercury Records artists
Manx musical groups
Maurice Gibb
Musical groups established in 1958
Musical groups disestablished in 2003
Musical groups reestablished in 2009
Musical groups disestablished in 2012
Musical groups from Manchester
Queensland musical groups
Philips Records artists
Q150 Icons
Robin Gibb
RSO Records artists
Sibling musical trios
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors
United Artists Records artists
Warner Records artists
World Music Awards winners | true | [
"The Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Special (Practical) Effects in a Photoreal or Animated Project is one of the annual awards given by the Visual Effects Society. The award goes to artists whose work in special/practical effects, have been deemed worthy of recognition. The award has been handed out intermittently since the first VES awards. Only twice was it awarded to television broadcasts or commercials (in 2004 and 2008), and was award for film from 2003 to 2009, with the exception being 2006. It was reintroduced in 2020, awarding any photoreal and/or animated project.\n\nWinners and nominees\n\n2000s\n\n2010s\n\n2020s\n\nExternal links\n Visual Effects Society\n\nReferences\n\nP",
"The NOAA Corps Commendation Medal is an honorary recognition awarded to members of the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps or to members of the Uniformed Services detailed, assigned, or attached to NOAA.\n\nAward criteria\nThe NOAA Corps Commendation Medal is awarded for:\nRecognition of acts of heroism worthy of special recognition, but not to the degree required for the Department of Commerce Gold or Silver Medals.\nOutstanding service or achievement worthy of special recognition, but not to the degree required for the Department of Commerce Bronze Medal or NOAA Corps Meritorious Service Medal.\nLeadership meriting special recognition.\n\nAppearance\nThe medal is hexagonal in shape, high and wide made of nickel or silver plated red brass. The medal is suspended from a wide myrtle green ribbon with two white stripes. Subsequent awards are denoted by a gold 5/16 inch star worn on the medal suspension ribbon and service ribbon.\n\nReferences\n\nAwards and decorations of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration"
]
|
[
"Bee Gees",
"Main Course and Children of the World",
"What happened during this time period?",
"At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record.",
"what did that lead to?",
"After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs,",
"any awards or special recognition during this time?",
"This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album."
]
| C_6cca1f87ae8e46bd949e4e2bdf8ac2d4_1 | what happened next? | 4 | After the Main Course album charted, what happened next? | Bee Gees | At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record. After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs, including their second US No. 1, "Jive Talkin'", along with US No. 7 "Nights on Broadway". The band liked the resulting new sound. This time the public agreed by sending the LP Main Course up the charts. This album included the first Bee Gees songs wherein Barry used falsetto, something that would later become a trademark of the band. This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album. On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang "To Love Somebody" with Helen Reddy. Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers--"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" with Barry providing lead vocals, and "Sun King" with Maurice providing lead vocals, for the unsuccessful musical/documentary All This and World War II. The next album, Children of the World released in September 1976, was drenched in Barry's new-found falsetto and Weaver's synthesizer disco licks. Mardin was unavailable to produce, so the Bee Gees enlisted Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson, who had worked with Mardin during the Main Course sessions. This production team would carry the Bee Gees through the rest of the 1970s. The first single from the album was "You Should Be Dancing" (which features percussion work by musician Stephen Stills). The song pushed the Bee Gees to a level of stardom they had not previously achieved in the US, though their new R&B/disco sound was not as popular with some die hard fans. The pop ballad "Love So Right" reached No. 3 in the US, and "Boogie Child" reached US No. 12 in January 1977. The album peaked at No. 8 in the US. A compilation Bee Gees Gold was released in November, containing the group's hits from 1967 to 1972. CANNOTANSWER | On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang "To Love Somebody" with Helen Reddy. | The Bee Gees
were a music group formed in 1958, featuring brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful as a popular music act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers of the disco music era in the mid- to late 1970s. The group sang recognisable three-part tight harmonies; Robin's clear vibrato lead vocals were a hallmark of their earlier hits, while Barry's R&B falsetto became their signature sound during the mid- to late 1970s and 1980s. The Bee Gees wrote all of their own hits, as well as writing and producing several major hits for other artists and have been regarded as one of the most important and influential acts in pop music history. They have been referred to in the media as The Disco Kings, Britain’s First Family of Harmony, and The Kings of Dance Music.
Born on the Isle of Man to English parents, the Gibb brothers lived in Chorlton, Manchester, England until the late 1950s. There, in 1955, they formed the skiffle/rock and roll group the Rattlesnakes. The family then moved to Redcliffe, in the Moreton Bay Region, Queensland, Australia, later to Cribb Island. After achieving their first chart success in Australia as the Bee Gees with "Spicks and Specks" (their twelfth single), they returned to the UK in January 1967, when producer Robert Stigwood began promoting them to a worldwide audience. The Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever soundtrack (1977) was the turning point of their career, with both the film and soundtrack having a cultural impact throughout the world, enhancing the disco scene's mainstream appeal. They won five Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever, including Album of the Year.
The Bee Gees have sold over 220 million records worldwide, making them among the best-selling music artists of all time. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997; the Hall's citation says, "Only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney have outsold the Bee Gees." With nine number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, the Bee Gees are the third-most successful band in Billboard charts history behind only the Beatles and the Supremes.
Following Maurice's sudden death in January 2003 at the age of 53, Barry and Robin retired the group's name after 45 years of activity. In 2009, Robin announced that he and Barry had agreed that the Bee Gees would re-form and perform again. Robin died in May 2012, aged 62, after a prolonged period of failing health, leaving Barry as the only surviving member of the group.
History
1955–1966: Music origins, Bee Gees formation and popularity in Australia
Born on the Isle of Man during the late 1940s, the Gibb brothers moved to their father Hugh Gibb's hometown of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Greater Manchester, England in 1955. They formed a skiffle/rock-and-roll group, the Rattlesnakes, which consisted of Barry on guitar and vocals, Robin and Maurice on vocals and friends Paul Frost on drums and Kenny Horrocks on tea-chest bass. In December 1957 the boys began to sing in harmony. The story is told that they were going to lip-sync to a record in the local Gaumont cinema (as other children had done on previous weeks), but as they were running to the theatre, the fragile shellac 78-RPM record broke. The brothers had to sing live, but received such a positive response from the audience that they decided to pursue a singing career. In May 1958 the Rattlesnakes disbanded when Frost and Horrocks left, so the Gibb brothers then formed Wee Johnny Hayes and the Blue Cats, with Barry as "Johnny Hayes".
In August 1958, the Gibb family, including older sister Lesley and infant brother Andy (born in March 1958), emigrated to Australia and settled in Redcliffe, Queensland, just north-east of Brisbane. The young brothers began performing to raise pocket money. Speedway promoter and driver Bill Goode, who had hired the brothers to entertain the crowd at the Redcliffe Speedway in 1960, introduced them to Brisbane radio-presenter jockey Bill Gates. The crowd at the speedway would throw money onto the track for the boys, who generally performed during the interval of meetings (usually on the back of a truck that drove around the track) and, in a deal with Goode, any money they collected from the crowd they were allowed to keep. Gates named the group the "BGs" (later changed to "Bee Gees") after his, Goode's and Barry Gibb's initials. The name was not specifically a reference to "Brothers Gibb", despite popular belief.
During the next few years, they began working regularly at resorts on the Queensland coast. Through his songwriting, Barry sparked the interest of Australian star Col Joye, who helped the brothers get a recording deal in 1963 with Festival Records subsidiary Leedon Records under the name "Bee Gees". The three released two or three singles a year, while Barry supplied additional songs to other Australian artists. In 1962 the Bee Gees were chosen as the supporting act for Chubby Checker's concert at the Sydney Stadium.
From 1963 to 1966, the Gibb family lived at 171 Bunnerong Road, Maroubra, in Sydney. Just prior to his death, Robin Gibb recorded the song "Sydney" about the brothers' experience of living in that city. It was released on his posthumous album 50 St. Catherine's Drive. The house was demolished in 2016.
A minor hit in 1965, "Wine and Women", led to the group's first LP, The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs. By 1966 Festival Records was, however, on the verge of dropping them from the Leedon roster because of their perceived lack of commercial success. At this time the brothers met the American-born songwriter, producer and entrepreneur Nat Kipner, who had just been appointed A&R manager of a new independent label, Spin Records. Kipner briefly took over as the group's manager and successfully negotiated their transfer to Spin in exchange for granting Festival the Australian distribution-rights to the group's recordings. Through Kipner the Bee Gees met engineer-producer, Ossie Byrne, who produced (or co-produced with Kipner) many of the earlier Spin recordings, most of which were cut at his own small, self-built St Clair Studio in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville. Byrne gave the Gibb brothers virtually unlimited access to St Clair Studio over a period of several months in mid-1966. The group later acknowledged that this enabled them to greatly improve their skills as recording artists. During this productive time they recorded a large batch of original material—including the song that became their first major hit, "Spicks and Specks" (on which Byrne played the trumpet coda)—as well as cover versions of current hits by overseas acts such as the Beatles. They regularly collaborated with other local musicians, including members of beat band Steve & The Board, led by Steve Kipner, Nat's teenage son.
Frustrated by their lack of success, the Gibbs began their return journey to England on 4 January 1967, with Ossie Byrne travelling with them. While at sea in January 1967, the Gibbs learned that Go-Set, Australia's most popular and influential music newspaper, had declared "Spicks and Specks" the "Best Single of the Year".
1967–1969: International fame and touring years
Bee Gees' 1st, Horizontal and Idea
Before their departure from Australia to England, Hugh Gibb sent demos to Brian Epstein, who managed the Beatles and directed NEMS, a British music store. Epstein passed the demo tapes to Robert Stigwood, who had recently joined NEMS. After an audition with Stigwood in February 1967, the Bee Gees signed a five-year contract whereby Polydor Records would release their records in the UK, and Atco Records would do so in the US. Work quickly began on the group's first international album, and Stigwood launched a promotional campaign to coincide with its release.
Stigwood proclaimed that the Bee Gees were "The most significant new musical talent of 1967", thus initiating the comparison of the Bee Gees to the Beatles. Before recording the first album, the group expanded to include Colin Petersen and Vince Melouney. "New York Mining Disaster 1941," their second British single (their first-issued UK 45 rpm was "Spicks and Specks"), was issued to radio stations with a blank white label listing only the song title. Some DJs immediately assumed this was a new single by the Beatles and started playing the song in heavy rotation. This helped the song climb into the top 20 in both the UK and US.
No such chicanery was needed to boost the Bee Gees' next single, "To Love Somebody", into the US Top 20. Originally written for Otis Redding, "To Love Somebody", a soulful ballad sung by Barry, has since become a pop standard covered by many artists. Another single, "Holiday", released in the US, peaked at No. 16.
The parent album, Bee Gees 1st (their first internationally), peaked at No. 7 in the US and No. 8 in the UK. Bill Shepherd was credited as the arranger. After recording that album, the group recorded their first BBC session at the Playhouse Theatre, Northumberland Avenue, in London, with Bill Bebb as the producer, and they performed three songs. That session is included on BBC Sessions: 1967–1973 (2008). After the release of Bee Gees' 1st, the group was first introduced in New York as "the English surprise." At that time, the band made their first British TV appearance on Top of the Pops. Maurice recalled:
In late 1967, they began recording the second album. On 21 December 1967, in a live broadcast from Liverpool Anglican Cathedral for a Christmas television special called How On Earth?, they performed their own song, "Thank You For Christmas" which was written especially for the programme, as well as a medley of the traditional Christmas carols "Silent Night," "The First Noel" and "Mary's Boy Child" (the latter incorrectly noted as "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" on tape boxes and subsequent release). The songs were all pre-recorded on 1 December 1967 and the group lip-synched their performance. The recordings were eventually released on the "Horizontal" reissue bonus disc in 2008. The folk group the Settlers and Radio 1 disc-jockey, Kenny Everett, also performed on the programme which was presented by the Reverend Edward H. Patey, dean of the cathedral.
January 1968 began with a promotional trip to the US. Los Angeles Police were on alert in anticipation of a Beatles-type reception, and special security arrangements were being put in place. In February, Horizontal repeated the success of their first album, featuring the group's first UK No. 1 single "Massachusetts" (a No. 11 US hit) and the No. 7 UK single "World." The sound of the album Horizontal had a more "rock" sound than their previous release, although ballads like "And the Sun Will Shine" and "Really and Sincerely" were also prominent. The Horizontal album reached No. 12 in the US and No. 16 in the UK.
With the release of Horizontal, they also embarked on a Scandinavian tour with concerts in Copenhagen. Around the same time, the Bee Gees turned down an offer to write and perform the soundtrack for the film Wonderwall, according to director Joe Massot.
On 27 February 1968, the band, backed by the 17-piece Massachusetts String Orchestra, began their first tour of Germany with two concerts at Hamburg Musikhalle. In March 1968, the band was supported by Procol Harum (who had a well-known hit "A Whiter Shade of Pale") on their German tour. As Robin's partner Molly Hullis recalls: "Germans were wilder than the fans in England at the heights of Beatlemania." The tour schedule took them to 11 venues in as many days with 18 concerts played, finishing with a brace of shows at the Stadthalle, Braunschweig.
After that, the group was off to Switzerland. As Maurice described it:
On 17 March, the band performed "Words" on The Ed Sullivan Show. The other artists who performed on that night's show were Lucille Ball, George Hamilton and Fran Jeffries. On 27 March 1968, the band performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Two more singles followed in early 1968: the ballad "Words" (No. 8 UK, No. 15 US) and the double A-sided single "Jumbo" backed with "The Singer Sang His Song". "Jumbo" only reached No. 25 in the UK and No. 57 in the US. The Bee Gees felt "The Singer Sang His Song" was the stronger of the two sides, an opinion shared by listeners in the Netherlands who made it a No. 3 hit.
Further Bee Gees chart singles followed: "I've Gotta Get a Message to You", their second UK No. 1 (No. 8 US), and "I Started a Joke" (No. 6 US), both culled from the band's third album Idea. Idea reached No. 4 in the UK and was another top 20 album in the US (No. 17).
After the tour and TV special to promote the album, Vince Melouney left the group, desiring to play more of a blues style music than the Gibbs were writing. Melouney did achieve one feat while with the Bee Gees: his composition "Such a Shame" (from Idea) is the only song on any Bee Gees album not written by a Gibb brother.
The band were due to begin a seven-week tour of the US on 2 August 1968, but on 27 July, Robin collapsed and fell unconscious. He was admitted to a London nursing home suffering from nervous exhaustion, and the American tour was postponed. The band began recording their sixth album, which resulted in their spending a week recording at Atlantic Studios in New York. Robin, still feeling poorly, missed the New York sessions, but the rest of the band put away instrumental tracks and demos.
Odessa, Cucumber Castle and break-up
By 1969, Robin began to feel that Stigwood had been favouring Barry as the frontman.
The Bee Gees' performances in early 1969 on the Top of the Pops and The Tom Jones Show performing "I Started a Joke" and "First of May" as a medley was one of the last live performances of the group with Robin.
Their next album, which was to have been a concept album called Masterpeace, evolved into the double-album Odessa. Most rock critics felt this was the best Bee Gees album of the 1960s with its progressive rock feel on the title track, the country-flavoured "Marley Purt Drive" and "Give Your Best", and ballads such as "Melody Fair" and "First of May" (the last of which became the only single from the album and a UK # 6 hit). Feeling the flipside, "Lamplight," should have been the A-side, Robin quit the group in mid-1969 and launched a solo career.
The first of many Bee Gees compilations, Best of Bee Gees, was released featuring the non-LP single "Words" plus the Australian hit "Spicks and Specks". The single "Tomorrow Tomorrow" was also released and was a moderate hit in the UK, where it reached No. 23, but it was only No. 54 in the US. The compilation reached the top 10 in both the UK and the US.
While Robin pursued his solo career, Barry, Maurice and Petersen continued on as the Bee Gees recording their next album, Cucumber Castle. The band made their debut performance without Robin at Talk of the Town. They had recruited their sister, Lesley, into the group at this time. To accompany the album, they also filmed a TV special with Frankie Howerd and cameos from several other contemporary pop and rock stars, which aired on the BBC in December 1970. Petersen played drums on the tracks recorded for the album but was fired from the group after filming began (he went on to form the Humpy Bong with Jonathan Kelly). His parts were edited out of the final cut of the film and Pentangle drummer Terry Cox was recruited to complete the recording of songs for the album.
After the album was released in early 1970, it seemed that the Bee Gees were finished. The leadoff single, "Don't Forget to Remember", was a big hit in the UK, reaching No. 2, but only reached No. 73 in the US. The next two singles, "I.O.I.O." and "If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else", barely scraped the charts. On 1 December 1969, Barry and Maurice parted ways professionally.
Maurice started to record his first solo album, The Loner, which was not released. Meanwhile, he released the single "Railroad" and starred in the West End musical Sing a Rude Song. In February 1970, Barry recorded a solo album which never saw official release either, although "I'll Kiss Your Memory" was released as a single backed by "This Time" without much interest. Meanwhile, Robin saw success in Europe and Australia with his No. 2 hit "Saved by the Bell" and the album Robin's Reign.
1970–1974: Reformation
In mid 1970, according to Barry, "Robin rang me in Spain where I was on holiday [saying] 'let's do it again'". By 21 August 1970, after they had reunited, Barry announced that the Bee Gees "are there and they will never, ever part again". Maurice said, "We just discussed it and re-formed. We want to apologise publicly to Robin for the things that have been said." Earlier, in June 1970, Robin and Maurice recorded a dozen songs before Barry joined and included two songs that were on their reunion album. Around the same time, Barry and Robin were about to publish the book On the Other Hand. They also recruited Geoff Bridgford as the group's official drummer. Bridgford had previously worked with the Groove and Tin Tin and played drums on Maurice's unreleased first solo album.
In 1970, 2 Years On was released in October in the US and November in the UK. The lead single "Lonely Days" reached No. 3 in the United States, promoted by appearances on The Johnny Cash Show, Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Dick Cavett Show and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Their ninth album, Trafalgar, was released in late 1971. The single "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" was their first to hit No. 1 on the US charts, while "Israel" reached No. 22 in the Netherlands. "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" also brought the Bee Gees their first Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Later that year, the group's songs were included in the soundtrack for the film Melody.
In 1972, they hit No. 16 in the US with the non-album single "My World", backed by Maurice's composition "On Time". Another 1972 single, "Run to Me" from the LP To Whom It May Concern, returned them to the UK top 10 for the first time in three years. On 24 November 1972, the band headlined the "Woodstock of the West" Festival at the Los Angeles Coliseum (which was a West Coast answer to Woodstock in New York), which also featured Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder and the Eagles. Also in 1972, the group sang "Hey Jude" with Wilson Pickett.
By 1973, however, the Bee Gees were in a rut. The album Life in a Tin Can, released on Robert Stigwood's newly formed RSO Records, and its lead-off single, "Saw a New Morning", sold poorly with the single peaking at No. 94. This was followed by an unreleased album (known as A Kick in the Head Is Worth Eight in the Pants). A second compilation album, Best of Bee Gees, Volume 2, was released in 1973, although it did not repeat the success of Volume 1. On 6 April 1973 episode of The Midnight Special they performed "Money (That's What I Want)" with Jerry Lee Lewis. Also in 1973, they were invited by Chuck Berry to perform two songs with him onstage at The Midnight Special: "Johnny B. Goode" and "Reelin' and Rockin'".
After a tour of the United States in early 1974 and a Canadian tour later in the year, the group ended up playing small clubs. As Barry joked, "We ended up in, have you ever heard of Batley's the variety club in (West Yorkshire) England?".
On the advice of Ahmet Ertegun, head of their US label Atlantic Records, Stigwood arranged for the group to record with soul music producer Arif Mardin. The resulting LP, Mr. Natural, included fewer ballads and foreshadowed the R&B direction of the rest of their career. When it, too, failed to attract much interest, Mardin encouraged them to work within the soul music style. The brothers attempted to assemble a live stage band that could replicate their studio sound. Lead guitarist Alan Kendall had come on board in 1971 but did not have much to do until Mr. Natural. For that album, they added drummer Dennis Bryon, and they later added ex-Strawbs keyboard player Blue Weaver, completing the Bee Gees band that lasted through the late '70s. Maurice, who had previously performed on piano, guitar, harpsichord, electric piano, organ, mellotron and bass guitar, as well as mandolin and Moog synthesiser, by then confined himself to bass onstage.
1975–1979: Turning to disco
Main Course and Children of the World
At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record at Criteria Studios. After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs, including their second US No. 1, "Jive Talkin'", along with US No. 7 "Nights on Broadway". The band liked the resulting new sound. This time the public agreed by sending the LP Main Course up the charts. This album included the first Bee Gees songs wherein Barry used falsetto, something that became a trademark of the band. This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album.
On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang "To Love Somebody" with Helen Reddy. Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers—"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" with Barry providing lead vocals, and "Sun King" with Maurice providing lead vocals, for the unsuccessful musical/documentary All This and World War II.
The next album, Children of the World, released in September 1976, was filled with Barry's new-found falsetto and Weaver's synthesizer disco licks. The first single from the album was "You Should Be Dancing", which features percussion work by musician Stephen Stills. The song pushed the Bee Gees to a level of stardom they had not previously achieved in the US, though their new R&B/disco sound was not as popular with some diehard fans. The pop ballad "Love So Right" reached No. 3 in the US, and "Boogie Child" reached US No. 12 in January 1977. The album peaked at No. 8 in the US.
Saturday Night Fever and Spirits Having Flown
Following a successful live album, Here at Last... Bee Gees... Live, the Bee Gees agreed with Stigwood to participate in the creation of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. It was the turning point of their career. The cultural impact of both the film and the soundtrack was significant throughout the world, epitomizing the disco phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic.
The band's involvement in the film did not begin until post-production. As John Travolta asserted, "The Bee Gees weren't even involved in the movie in the beginning ... I was dancing to Stevie Wonder and Boz Scaggs." Producer Robert Stigwood commissioned the Bee Gees to create the songs for the film. The brothers wrote the songs "virtually in a single weekend" at Château d'Hérouville studio in France. Barry Gibb remembered the reaction when Stigwood and music supervisor Bill Oakes arrived and listened to the demos:
Bill Oakes, who supervised the soundtrack, asserts that Saturday Night Fever did not begin the disco craze but rather prolonged it: "Disco had run its course. These days, Fever is credited with kicking off the whole disco thing—it really didn't. Truth is, it breathed new life into a genre that was actually dying."
Three Bee Gees singles—"How Deep Is Your Love" (US No. 1, UK No. 3), "Stayin' Alive" (US No. 1, UK No. 4) and "Night Fever" (US No. 1, UK No. 1)—charted high in many countries around the world, launching the most popular period of the disco era. They also penned the song "If I Can't Have You", which became a US No. 1 hit for Yvonne Elliman, while the Bee Gees' own version was the B-side of "Stayin' Alive". Such was the popularity of Saturday Night Fever that two different versions of the song "More Than a Woman" received airplay, one by the Bee Gees, which was relegated to an album track, and another by Tavares, which was the hit.
During a nine-month period beginning in the Christmas season of 1977, seven songs written by the brothers held the No. 1 position on the US charts for 27 of 37 consecutive weeks: three of their own releases, two for brother Andy Gibb, the Yvonne Elliman single, and "Grease", performed by Frankie Valli.
Fuelled by the film's success, the soundtrack broke multiple industry records, becoming the highest-selling album in recording history to that point. With more than 40 million copies sold, Saturday Night Fever is among music's top five best selling soundtrack albums. , it is calculated as the fourth highest-selling album worldwide.
In March 1978, the Bee Gees held the top two positions on the US charts with "Night Fever" and "Stayin' Alive", the first time this had happened since the Beatles. On the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for 25 March 1978, five songs written by the Gibbs were in the US top 10 at the same time: "Night Fever", "Stayin' Alive", "If I Can't Have You", "Emotion" and "Love Is Thicker Than Water". Such chart dominance had not been seen since April 1964, when the Beatles had all five of the top five American singles. Barry Gibb became the only songwriter to have four consecutive number-one hits in the US, breaking the John Lennon and Paul McCartney 1964 record. These songs were "Stayin' Alive", "Love Is Thicker Than Water", "Night Fever" and "If I Can't Have You".
The Bee Gees won five Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever over two years: Album of the Year, Producer of the Year (with Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson), two awards for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals (one in 1978 for "How Deep Is Your Love" and one in 1979 for "Stayin' Alive"), and Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices for "Stayin' Alive".
During this era, Barry and Robin also wrote "Emotion" for an old friend, Australian vocalist Samantha Sang, who made it a top 10 hit, with the Bee Gees singing backing vocals. Barry also wrote the title song to the film version of the Broadway musical Grease for Frankie Valli to perform, which went to No. 1.
The Bee Gees also co-starred with Peter Frampton in Robert Stigwood's film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), loosely inspired by the classic 1967 album by the Beatles. The movie had been heavily promoted prior to release and was expected to enjoy great commercial success. However, it was savaged by film critics as a disjointed mess and ignored by the public. Though some of its tracks charted, the soundtrack too was a high-profile flop. The single "Oh! Darling", credited to Robin Gibb, reached No. 15 in the US.
The Bee Gees' follow-up to Saturday Night Fever was the Spirits Having Flown album. It yielded three more hits: "Too Much Heaven" (US No. 1, UK No. 3), "Tragedy" (US No. 1, UK No. 1), and "Love You Inside Out" (US No. 1, UK No. 13). This gave the act six consecutive No. 1 singles in the US within a year and a half, equalling the Beatles and surpassed only by Whitney Houston.
In January 1979, the Bee Gees performed "Too Much Heaven" as their contribution to the Music for UNICEF Concert at the United Nations General Assembly. During the summer of 1979, the Bee Gees embarked on their largest concert tour covering the US and Canada. The Spirits Having Flown tour capitalised on Bee Gees fever that was sweeping the nation, with sold-out concerts in 38 cities. The Bee Gees produced a video for the title track "Too Much Heaven", directed by Miami-based filmmaker Martin Pitts and produced by Charles Allen. With this video, Pitts and Allen began a long association with the brothers.
The Bee Gees even had a country hit in 1979 with "Rest Your Love on Me", the flip side of their pop hit "Too Much Heaven", which made the top 40 on the country charts. It was also a 1981 hit for Conway Twitty, topping the country music charts.
The Bee Gees' overwhelming success rose and fell with the disco bubble. By the end of 1979, disco was rapidly declining in popularity, and the backlash against disco put the Bee Gees' American career in a tailspin. Radio stations around the US began promoting "Bee Gee-Free Weekends". Following their remarkable run from 1975 to 1979, the act had only one more top 10 single in the US, and that did not come until the single "One" reached number 7 in 1989.
Barry Gibb considered the success of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack both a blessing and a curse:
1980–1986: Outside projects, band turmoil, solo efforts and decline
Robin co-produced Jimmy Ruffin's Sunrise released in May 1980, but the songs were started in 1979; the album contains songs written by the Gibb brothers, including the single "Hold On To My Love".
In March 1980, Barry Gibb worked with Barbra Streisand on her album Guilty. He co-produced, and wrote or co-wrote all nine of the album's tracks (four of them written with Robin, and the title track with both Robin and Maurice). Barry also appeared on the album's cover with Streisand and duetted with her on two tracks. The album reached No. 1 in both the US and the UK, as did the single "Woman in Love" (written by Barry and Robin), becoming Streisand's most successful single and album to date. Both of the Streisand/Gibb duets, "Guilty" and "What Kind of Fool", also reached the US Top 10.
In 1981, the Bee Gees released the album Living Eyes, their last full-length album release on RSO. This album was the first CD ever played in public, when it was played to viewers of the BBC show Tomorrow's World. With the disco backlash still running strong, the album failed to make the UK or US Top 40—breaking their streak of Top 40 hits, which started in 1975 with "Jive Talkin'". Two singles from the album fared little better—"He's a Liar", which reached No. 30 in the US, and "Living Eyes", which reached No. 45.
In 1982, Dionne Warwick enjoyed a UK No. 2 and US Adult Contemporary No. 1 hit with her comeback single, "Heartbreaker", taken from her eponymous album written largely by the Bee Gees and co-produced by Barry Gibb. The album reached No. 3 in the UK and the Top 30 in the US, where it was certified Gold.
A year later, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers recorded the Bee Gees-penned track "Islands in the Stream", which became a US and Australian No. 1 hit and entered the Top 10 in the UK. Rogers' 1983 album, Eyes That See in the Dark, was written entirely by the Bee Gees and co-produced by Barry. The album was a Top 10 hit in the US and was certified Double Platinum.
The Bee Gees had greater success with the soundtrack to Staying Alive in 1983, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever. The soundtrack was certified platinum in the US, and included their Top 30 hit "The Woman in You".
Also in 1983, the band was sued by Chicago songwriter Ronald Selle, who claimed the brothers stole melodic material from one of his songs, "Let It End", and used it in "How Deep Is Your Love". At first, the Bee Gees lost the case; one juror said that a factor in the jury's decision was the Gibbs' failure to introduce expert testimony rebutting the plaintiff's expert testimony that it was "impossible" for the two songs to have been written independently. However, the verdict was overturned a few months later.
In August 1983, Barry signed a solo deal with MCA Records and spent much of late 1983 and 1984 writing songs for this first solo effort, Now Voyager. Robin released three solo albums in the 1980s, How Old Are You?, Secret Agent and Walls Have Eyes. Maurice released his second single to date, "Hold Her in Your Hand", the first one having been released in 1970.
In 1985, Diana Ross released the album Eaten Alive, written by the Bee Gees, with the title track co-written with Michael Jackson (who also performed on the track). The album was again co-produced by Barry Gibb, and the single "Chain Reaction" gave Ross a UK and Australian No. 1 hit.
1987–1999: Comeback, return to popularity and Andy's death
The Bee Gees released the album E.S.P. in 1987, which sold over 2 million copies. It was their first album in six years, and their first for Warner Bros. Records. The single "You Win Again" went to No. 1 in numerous countries, including the UK, and made the Bee Gees the first group to score a UK No. 1 hit in each of three decades: the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The single was a disappointment in the US, charting at No. 75, and the Bee Gees voiced their frustration over American radio stations not playing their new European hit single, an omission which the group felt led to poor sales of their current album in the US. The song won the Bee Gees the 1987 British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, and in February 1988 the band received a Brit Award nomination for Best British Group.
On 10 March 1988, younger brother Andy Gibb died, aged 30, as a result of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle due to a recent viral infection. The Bee Gees later got together with Eric Clapton to create a group called 'the Bunburys' to raise money for English charities. The group recorded three songs for The Bunbury Tails: "We're the Bunburys" (which eventually became the opening theme to the 1992 animated series The Bunbury Tails), "Bunbury Afternoon", and "Fight (No Matter How Long)". The last song reached No. 8 on the rock music chart and appeared on The 1988 Summer Olympics Album. The Bee Gees' next album, One (1989), featured a song dedicated to Andy, "Wish You Were Here". The album also contained their first US Top 10 hit (No. 7) in a decade, "One" (an Adult Contemporary No. 1). After the album's release, the band embarked on its first world tour in 10 years.
In the UK, Polydor issued a single-disc hits collection from Tales called The Very Best of the Bee Gees, which contained their biggest UK hits. The album became one of their best-selling albums in that country, and was eventually certified Triple Platinum.
Following their next album, High Civilization (1991), which contained the UK top five hit "Secret Love", the Bee Gees went on a European tour. After the tour, Barry Gibb began to battle a serious back problem, which required surgery. In addition, he suffered from arthritis which, at one point, was so severe that it was doubtful that he would be able to play guitar for much longer. Also, in the early 1990s, Maurice Gibb finally sought treatment for his alcoholism, which he had battled for many years with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous.
In 1993, the group returned to the Polydor label and released the album Size Isn't Everything, which contained the UK top five hit "For Whom the Bell Tolls". Success still eluded them in the US, however, as the first single released, "Paying the Price of Love", only managed to reach No. 74 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the parent album stalled at No. 153.
In 1997, they released the album Still Waters, which has reached No. 2 in the UK (their highest album chart position there since 1979) and No. 11 in the US. The album's first single, "Alone", gave them another UK Top 5 hit and a top 30 hit in the US. Still Waters was the band's most successful US release of their post-RSO era.
At the 1997 BRIT Awards held in Earls Court, London on 24 February, the Bee Gees received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. On 14 November 1997, the Bee Gees performed a live concert in Las Vegas called One Night Only. The show included a performance of "Our Love (Don't Throw It All Away)" synchronised with a vocal by their deceased brother Andy and a cameo appearance by Celine Dion singing "Immortality". The "One Night Only" name grew out of the band's declaration that, due to Barry's health issues, the Las Vegas show was to be the final live performance of their career. After the immensely positive audience response to the Vegas concert, Barry decided to continue despite the pain, and the concert expanded into their last full-blown world tour of "One Night Only" concerts. The tour included playing to 56,000 people at London's Wembley Stadium on 5 September 1998 and concluded in the newly built Olympic Stadium in Sydney, Australia on 27 March 1999 to 72,000 people.
In 1998, the group's soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever was incorporated into a stage production produced first in the West End and then on Broadway. They wrote three new songs for the adaptation. Also in 1998, the brothers released "Ellan Vannin" for Manx charities, recorded the previous year. Known as the unofficial national anthem of the Isle of Man, the brothers performed the song during their world tour to reflect their pride in the place of their birth.
The Bee Gees closed the century with what turned out to be their last full-sized concert, known as BG2K, on 31 December 1999.
2000–2008: This Is Where I Came In and Maurice's death
In 2001, the group released what turned out to be their final album of new material, This Is Where I Came In. The album was another success, reaching the Top 10 in the UK (being certified Gold), and the Top 20 in the US. The title track was also a UK Top 20 hit single.
The last concert of the Bee Gees as a trio was at the Love and Hope Ball in 2002. Maurice Gibb died unexpectedly on 12 January 2003, at age 53, from a heart attack while awaiting emergency surgery to repair a strangulated intestine. Initially, his surviving brothers announced that they intended to carry on the name "Bee Gees" in his memory, but as time passed they decided to retire the group's name, leaving it to represent the three brothers together.
The same week that Maurice died, Robin's solo album Magnet was released. On 23 February 2003, the Bee Gees received the Grammy Legend Award, they also became the first recipients of that award in the 21st century. Barry and Robin accepted as well as Maurice's son, Adam, in a tearful ceremony.
In late 2004, Robin embarked on a solo tour of Germany, Russia and Asia. During January 2005, Barry, Robin and several legendary rock artists recorded "Grief Never Grows Old", the official tsunami relief record for the Disasters Emergency Committee. Later that year, Barry reunited with Barbra Streisand for her top-selling album Guilty Pleasures, released as Guilty Too in the UK as a sequel album to the previous Guilty. Also in 2004, Barry recorded his song "I Cannot Give You My Love" with Cliff Richard, which became a UK top 20 hit single.
In February 2006, Barry and Robin reunited on stage for a Miami charity concert to benefit the Diabetes Research Institute. It was their first public performance together since Maurice's death. The pair also played at the 30th annual Prince's Trust Concert in the UK on 20 May 2006.
2009–2012: Return to performing and Robin's death
Barry and Robin performed on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing on 31 October 2009 and appeared on ABC-TV's Dancing with the Stars on 17 November 2009. On 15 March 2010, Barry and Robin inducted the Swedish group ABBA into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On 26 May 2010, the two made a surprise appearance on the ninth-season finale of American Idol.
On 20 November 2011 it was announced that Robin Gibb, at 61 years old, had been diagnosed with liver cancer, a condition he had become aware of several months earlier. He had become noticeably thinner in previous months and had to cancel several appearances due to severe abdominal pain. Robin joined British military trio the Soldiers for the Coming Home charity concert on 13 February 2012 at the London Palladium, in support of injured servicemen. It was his first public appearance for almost five months and, as it turned out, his final one. On 14 April 2012, it was reported that Robin had contracted pneumonia in a Chelsea hospital and was in a coma. Although he came out of his coma on 20 April 2012, his condition deteriorated rapidly and he died on 20 May 2012 of liver and kidney failure.
2013–present: Looking back at a lifetime of music
In September and October 2013, Barry performed his first solo tour "in honour of his brothers and a lifetime of music". In addition to the Rhino collection, The Studio Albums: 1967–1968, Warner Bros. released a box set in 2014 called The Warner Bros Years: 1987–1991 that included the studio albums E.S.P., One and High Civilization as well as extended mixes and B-sides. It also included the band's entire 1989 concert in Melbourne, Australia, available only on video as All for One prior to this release. The documentary The Joy of the Bee Gees was aired on BBC Four on 19 December 2014.
On 23 March 2015, 13STAR Records released a box set 1974–1979 which included the studio albums Mr. Natural, Main Course, Children of the World and Spirits Having Flown. A fifth disc called The Miami Years includes all the tracks from Saturday Night Fever as well as B-sides. No unreleased tracks from the era were included.
After a hiatus from performing, Barry Gibb returned to solo and guest singing performances. He occasionally appears with his son, Steve Gibb. In 2016, he released In the Now, his first solo effort since 1984's Now Voyager. It was the first release of new Bee Gees-related music since the posthumous release of Robin Gibb's 50 St. Catherine's Drive. Also in 2016, Capitol Records signed a new distribution deal with Barry and the estates of his brothers for the Bee Gees catalogue, bringing their music back to Universal.
An as-yet-untitled biopic about the Bee Gees is in development at Paramount, with Kenneth Branagh directing and Barry Gibb serving as an executive producer.
Influences
The Bee Gees were influenced by the Beatles, the Everly Brothers, the Mills Brothers, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, Roy Orbison, the Beach Boys and Stevie Wonder. On the 2014 documentary The Joy of the Bee Gees, Barry said that the Bee Gees were also influenced by the Hollies and Otis Redding. Maurice noted that Neil Sedaka was an early influence, and later the group was "very influenced" by Linda Creed songs for the Stylistics.
Legacy
In his 1980 Playboy magazine interview, John Lennon praised the Bee Gees, "Try to tell the kids in the seventies who were screaming to the Bee Gees that their music was just the Beatles redone. There is nothing wrong with the Bee Gees. They do a damn good job. There was nothing else going on then."
In a 2007 interview with Duane Hitchings, who co-wrote Rod Stewart's 1978 disco song "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?", he noted that the song was:
Kevin Parker of Tame Impala has said that listening to the Bee Gees after taking mushrooms inspired him to change the sound of the music he was making on his album Currents.
The English indie rock band the Cribs was also influenced by the Bee Gees. Cribs member Ryan Jarman said: "It must have had quite a big influence on us – pop melodies is something we always revert to. I always want to get back to pop melodies and I'm sure that's due to that Bee Gees phase we went through."
Following Robin's death on 20 May 2012, Beyoncé remarked: "The Bee Gees were an early inspiration for me, Kelly Rowland and Michelle. We loved their songwriting and beautiful harmonies. Recording their classic song, 'Emotion' was a special time for Destiny's Child. Sadly we lost Robin Gibb this week. My heart goes out to his brother Barry and the rest of his family."
Singer Jordin Sparks remarked that her favourite Bee Gees songs are "Too Much Heaven", "Emotion" (although performed by Samantha Sang with Barry on the background vocals using his falsetto), and "Stayin' Alive".
Carrie Underwood said, about discovering the Bee Gees during her childhood, "My parents listened to the Bee Gees quite a bit when I was little, so I was definitely exposed to them at an early age. They just had a sound that was all their own, obviously, [it was] never duplicated."
Songwriting
At one point, in 1978, the Gibb brothers were responsible for writing and/or performing nine of the songs in the Billboard Hot 100. In all, the Gibbs placed 13 singles onto the Hot 100 in 1978, with 12 making the Top 40. The Gibb brothers are fellows of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA). At least 2,500 artists have recorded their songs.
Singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw spoke about the Bee Gees' influence with their own music as well as their songwriting:
In 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Bee Gees were announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for their role as "Influential Artists".
Accolades and achievements
In 1978, following the success of Saturday Night Fever, and the single "Night Fever" in particular, Reubin Askew, the governor of the US state of Florida, named the Bee Gees honorary citizens of the state, since they resided in Miami at the time. In 1979, the Bee Gees got their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They were the subjects of This Is Your Life in 1991 when they were surprised by Michael Aspel while being interviewed by disc jockey Steve Wright (DJ) on his Radio 1 programme at BBC Broadcasting House.
The Bee Gees were inducted in 1994 into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, as well as Florida's Artists Hall of Fame in 1995 and the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1997. Also in 1997, the group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; the presenter of the award to "Britain's First Family of Harmony" was Brian Wilson, historical leader of the Beach Boys, another "family act" featuring three harmonising brothers. In 2001, they were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. After Maurice's death, the Bee Gees were also inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2001, London's Walk of Fame in 2006 and Musically Speaking Hall Of Fame in 2008. On 15 May 2007, the Bee Gees were named BMI Icons at the 55th annual BMI Pop Awards. Collectively, Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb have earned 109 BMI Pop, Country and Latin Awards.
In October 1999, the Isle of Man Post Office unveiled a set of six stamps honouring the Bee Gees.
All three brothers (including Maurice posthumously) were invested as Commanders of the Order of the British Empire in December 2001 with the ceremony taking place at Buckingham Palace on 27 May 2004. On 10 July 2009, the Isle of Man's capital bestowed the Freedom of the Borough of Douglas honour on Barry and Robin, as well as posthumously on Maurice. On 20 November 2009, the Douglas Borough Council released a limited edition commemorative DVD to mark their naming as Freemen of the Borough.
On 14 February 2013, Barry Gibb unveiled a statue of the Bee Gees as well as unveiling "Bee Gees Way" (a walkway filled with photos and videos of the Bee Gees) in honour of the Bee Gees in Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia. On 27 June 2018, Barry Gibb, the last surviving member of the Bee Gees, was knighted by Prince Charles after being named on the Queen's New Years Honours List. The statue of the Bee Gees in Douglas, Isle of Man, was installed in 2021.
In 2022, the last surviving member of the group, Barry Gibb, was made an Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia which is Australia's highest national honour.
The Bee Gees have sold over 220 million records worldwide, making them one of the best selling artists of all time. The group are to date the most successful family and sibling band of all time, the most successful musical trio of all time, and the most successful musical act with ties to Australia.
Awards and nominations
Queensland Music Awards
The Queensland Music Awards (previously known as Q Song Awards) are annual awards celebrating Queensland, Australia's brightest emerging artists and established legends. They commenced in 2006.
(wins only)
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| Grant McLennan Lifetime Achievement Award
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Band members
Principal members
Barry Gibb – vocals, rhythm guitar (1958–2003, 2006, 2009–2012)
Robin Gibb – vocals, occasional keyboards (1958–1969, 1970–2003, 2006, 2009–2012; d. 2012)
Maurice Gibb – bass, rhythm and lead guitars, keyboards, vocals (1958–2003; d. 2003)
Colin Petersen – drums (1967–1969)
Vince Melouney – lead guitar (1967–1968)
Geoff Bridgford – drums (1971–1972; touring 1970-1971)
Touring musicians
Alan Kendall – lead guitar (1971–1981, 1989–2003)
Chris Karan – drums (1972)
Dennis Bryon – drums (1973–1981)
Geoff Westley – keyboards, piano (1973–1976)
Blue Weaver – keyboards, synthesizers (1975–1981)
Joe Lala – percussion (1976, 1979)
Joey Murcia – rhythm guitar (1976, 1979)
Harold Cowart – bass (1979)
Tim Cansfield – lead guitar (1989)
Vic Martin – keyboard, synthesizer (1989)
Gary Moberly – keyboard, synthesizer (1989)
George Perry – bass (1989–1993)
Chester Thompson – drums (1989)
Mike Murphy – drums (1989)
Trevor Murrell – drums (1991–1992)
Rudi Dobson – keyboards (1991–1992)
Scott F. Crago – drums
Ben Stivers – keyboard (1996–1999)
Matt Bonelli – bass (1993–2001)
Steve Rucker – drums (1993–1999)
Guest musicians (studio and touring)
Phil Collins – drums
Lenny Castro – percussion
Glenn Frey – guitar
Timothy B. Schmit – bass guitar
Joe Walsh – lead guitar
Don Felder – lead guitar (1981)
Jeff Porcaro – drums
Mike Porcaro – bass guitar
Steve Porcaro – keyboards
Steve Lukather – guitar
David Hungate – bass guitar
David Paich – keyboards
Greg Phillinganes – keyboards
Bobby Kimball – keyboards
Leland Sklar – bass guitar
Reb Beach – lead guitar
Gregg Bissonette – drums
Ricky Lawson – drums
Scott F. Crago – drums
Steve Gadd – drums
Steve Ferrone – drums
Steve Jordan – drums
Nathan East – bass guitar
Steuart Smith – lead guitar
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Timeline
Timeline of touring members
Discography
Soundtracks Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Staying Alive (1983) are not official Bee Gees albums, but contain some previously unreleased tracks. Apart from live and compilation, all their official albums are included on this list. A Kick in the Head Is Worth Eight in the Pants has not been included on the list because it appeared only on numerous bootlegs and was not officially released.
Studio albums
The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs (1965)
Spicks and Specks (1966)
Bee Gees' 1st (1967)
Horizontal (1968)
Idea (1968)
Odessa (1969)
Cucumber Castle (1970)
2 Years On (1970)
Trafalgar (1971)
To Whom It May Concern (1972)
Life in a Tin Can (1973)
Mr. Natural (1974)
Main Course (1975)
Children of the World (1976)
Spirits Having Flown (1979)
Living Eyes (1981)
E.S.P. (1987)
One (1989)
High Civilization (1991)
Size Isn't Everything (1993)
Still Waters (1997)
This Is Where I Came In (2001)
Concert tours
The Bee Gees' concerts in 1967 and 1968 (1967–1968)
2 Years On Tour (1971)
Trafalgar Tour (1972)
Mr. Natural Tour (1974)
Main Course Tour (1975)
Children of the World Tour (1976)
Spirits Having Flown Tour (1979)
One for All World Tour (1989)
High Civilization World Tour (1991)
One Night Only World Tour (1997–1999)
This Is Where I Came In (2001)
Filmography
Citations
General bibliography
.
External links
Bee Gees Official website
Bee Gees at Rolling Stone
Bee Gees' Vocal Group Hall of Fame webpage
Bee Gees at bmi.com
Robin Gibb sadly passes away after losing his battle with cancer
Who Do You Think You Are? – Bee Gees Family History
1958 establishments in Australia
Australian pop rock groups
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Atlantic Records artists
Barry Gibb
Brit Award winners
British disco groups
British musical trios
British soft rock music groups
British soul musical groups
Brunswick Records artists
Capitol Records artists
Child musical groups
English expatriates in Australia
English expatriates in the United States
English pop music groups
English rock music groups
Grammy Legend Award winners
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Mercury Records artists
Manx musical groups
Maurice Gibb
Musical groups established in 1958
Musical groups disestablished in 2003
Musical groups reestablished in 2009
Musical groups disestablished in 2012
Musical groups from Manchester
Queensland musical groups
Philips Records artists
Q150 Icons
Robin Gibb
RSO Records artists
Sibling musical trios
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors
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Warner Records artists
World Music Awards winners | true | [
"What Happens Next may refer to:\n\n What Happens Next? (film), 2012 documentary film about Dan Mangan\nWhat Happens Next? (band), American thrashcore band\n What Happens Next (Gang of Four album), 2015\nWhat Happens Next (Joe Satriani album), 2018\nWhat Happens Next (What Happened Then?), a 1984 album by American hardcore punk band Ill Repute\n\nOther uses\n What Happens Next?: A History of Hollywood Screenwriting, a book by Marc Norman\n\nSee also\n What Comes Next (disambiguation)",
"What Happened to Jones may refer to:\n What Happened to Jones (1897 play), a play by George Broadhurst\n What Happened to Jones (1915 film), a lost silent film\n What Happened to Jones (1920 film), a lost silent film\n What Happened to Jones (1926 film), a silent film comedy"
]
|
[
"Bee Gees",
"Main Course and Children of the World",
"What happened during this time period?",
"At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record.",
"what did that lead to?",
"After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs,",
"any awards or special recognition during this time?",
"This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album.",
"what happened next?",
"On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang \"To Love Somebody\" with Helen Reddy."
]
| C_6cca1f87ae8e46bd949e4e2bdf8ac2d4_1 | what do you find interesting in the article? | 5 | What do you find interesting about the Bee Gees? | Bee Gees | At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record. After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs, including their second US No. 1, "Jive Talkin'", along with US No. 7 "Nights on Broadway". The band liked the resulting new sound. This time the public agreed by sending the LP Main Course up the charts. This album included the first Bee Gees songs wherein Barry used falsetto, something that would later become a trademark of the band. This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album. On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang "To Love Somebody" with Helen Reddy. Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers--"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" with Barry providing lead vocals, and "Sun King" with Maurice providing lead vocals, for the unsuccessful musical/documentary All This and World War II. The next album, Children of the World released in September 1976, was drenched in Barry's new-found falsetto and Weaver's synthesizer disco licks. Mardin was unavailable to produce, so the Bee Gees enlisted Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson, who had worked with Mardin during the Main Course sessions. This production team would carry the Bee Gees through the rest of the 1970s. The first single from the album was "You Should Be Dancing" (which features percussion work by musician Stephen Stills). The song pushed the Bee Gees to a level of stardom they had not previously achieved in the US, though their new R&B/disco sound was not as popular with some die hard fans. The pop ballad "Love So Right" reached No. 3 in the US, and "Boogie Child" reached US No. 12 in January 1977. The album peaked at No. 8 in the US. A compilation Bee Gees Gold was released in November, containing the group's hits from 1967 to 1972. CANNOTANSWER | Barry used falsetto, something that would later become a trademark of the band. | The Bee Gees
were a music group formed in 1958, featuring brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful as a popular music act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers of the disco music era in the mid- to late 1970s. The group sang recognisable three-part tight harmonies; Robin's clear vibrato lead vocals were a hallmark of their earlier hits, while Barry's R&B falsetto became their signature sound during the mid- to late 1970s and 1980s. The Bee Gees wrote all of their own hits, as well as writing and producing several major hits for other artists and have been regarded as one of the most important and influential acts in pop music history. They have been referred to in the media as The Disco Kings, Britain’s First Family of Harmony, and The Kings of Dance Music.
Born on the Isle of Man to English parents, the Gibb brothers lived in Chorlton, Manchester, England until the late 1950s. There, in 1955, they formed the skiffle/rock and roll group the Rattlesnakes. The family then moved to Redcliffe, in the Moreton Bay Region, Queensland, Australia, later to Cribb Island. After achieving their first chart success in Australia as the Bee Gees with "Spicks and Specks" (their twelfth single), they returned to the UK in January 1967, when producer Robert Stigwood began promoting them to a worldwide audience. The Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever soundtrack (1977) was the turning point of their career, with both the film and soundtrack having a cultural impact throughout the world, enhancing the disco scene's mainstream appeal. They won five Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever, including Album of the Year.
The Bee Gees have sold over 220 million records worldwide, making them among the best-selling music artists of all time. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997; the Hall's citation says, "Only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney have outsold the Bee Gees." With nine number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, the Bee Gees are the third-most successful band in Billboard charts history behind only the Beatles and the Supremes.
Following Maurice's sudden death in January 2003 at the age of 53, Barry and Robin retired the group's name after 45 years of activity. In 2009, Robin announced that he and Barry had agreed that the Bee Gees would re-form and perform again. Robin died in May 2012, aged 62, after a prolonged period of failing health, leaving Barry as the only surviving member of the group.
History
1955–1966: Music origins, Bee Gees formation and popularity in Australia
Born on the Isle of Man during the late 1940s, the Gibb brothers moved to their father Hugh Gibb's hometown of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Greater Manchester, England in 1955. They formed a skiffle/rock-and-roll group, the Rattlesnakes, which consisted of Barry on guitar and vocals, Robin and Maurice on vocals and friends Paul Frost on drums and Kenny Horrocks on tea-chest bass. In December 1957 the boys began to sing in harmony. The story is told that they were going to lip-sync to a record in the local Gaumont cinema (as other children had done on previous weeks), but as they were running to the theatre, the fragile shellac 78-RPM record broke. The brothers had to sing live, but received such a positive response from the audience that they decided to pursue a singing career. In May 1958 the Rattlesnakes disbanded when Frost and Horrocks left, so the Gibb brothers then formed Wee Johnny Hayes and the Blue Cats, with Barry as "Johnny Hayes".
In August 1958, the Gibb family, including older sister Lesley and infant brother Andy (born in March 1958), emigrated to Australia and settled in Redcliffe, Queensland, just north-east of Brisbane. The young brothers began performing to raise pocket money. Speedway promoter and driver Bill Goode, who had hired the brothers to entertain the crowd at the Redcliffe Speedway in 1960, introduced them to Brisbane radio-presenter jockey Bill Gates. The crowd at the speedway would throw money onto the track for the boys, who generally performed during the interval of meetings (usually on the back of a truck that drove around the track) and, in a deal with Goode, any money they collected from the crowd they were allowed to keep. Gates named the group the "BGs" (later changed to "Bee Gees") after his, Goode's and Barry Gibb's initials. The name was not specifically a reference to "Brothers Gibb", despite popular belief.
During the next few years, they began working regularly at resorts on the Queensland coast. Through his songwriting, Barry sparked the interest of Australian star Col Joye, who helped the brothers get a recording deal in 1963 with Festival Records subsidiary Leedon Records under the name "Bee Gees". The three released two or three singles a year, while Barry supplied additional songs to other Australian artists. In 1962 the Bee Gees were chosen as the supporting act for Chubby Checker's concert at the Sydney Stadium.
From 1963 to 1966, the Gibb family lived at 171 Bunnerong Road, Maroubra, in Sydney. Just prior to his death, Robin Gibb recorded the song "Sydney" about the brothers' experience of living in that city. It was released on his posthumous album 50 St. Catherine's Drive. The house was demolished in 2016.
A minor hit in 1965, "Wine and Women", led to the group's first LP, The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs. By 1966 Festival Records was, however, on the verge of dropping them from the Leedon roster because of their perceived lack of commercial success. At this time the brothers met the American-born songwriter, producer and entrepreneur Nat Kipner, who had just been appointed A&R manager of a new independent label, Spin Records. Kipner briefly took over as the group's manager and successfully negotiated their transfer to Spin in exchange for granting Festival the Australian distribution-rights to the group's recordings. Through Kipner the Bee Gees met engineer-producer, Ossie Byrne, who produced (or co-produced with Kipner) many of the earlier Spin recordings, most of which were cut at his own small, self-built St Clair Studio in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville. Byrne gave the Gibb brothers virtually unlimited access to St Clair Studio over a period of several months in mid-1966. The group later acknowledged that this enabled them to greatly improve their skills as recording artists. During this productive time they recorded a large batch of original material—including the song that became their first major hit, "Spicks and Specks" (on which Byrne played the trumpet coda)—as well as cover versions of current hits by overseas acts such as the Beatles. They regularly collaborated with other local musicians, including members of beat band Steve & The Board, led by Steve Kipner, Nat's teenage son.
Frustrated by their lack of success, the Gibbs began their return journey to England on 4 January 1967, with Ossie Byrne travelling with them. While at sea in January 1967, the Gibbs learned that Go-Set, Australia's most popular and influential music newspaper, had declared "Spicks and Specks" the "Best Single of the Year".
1967–1969: International fame and touring years
Bee Gees' 1st, Horizontal and Idea
Before their departure from Australia to England, Hugh Gibb sent demos to Brian Epstein, who managed the Beatles and directed NEMS, a British music store. Epstein passed the demo tapes to Robert Stigwood, who had recently joined NEMS. After an audition with Stigwood in February 1967, the Bee Gees signed a five-year contract whereby Polydor Records would release their records in the UK, and Atco Records would do so in the US. Work quickly began on the group's first international album, and Stigwood launched a promotional campaign to coincide with its release.
Stigwood proclaimed that the Bee Gees were "The most significant new musical talent of 1967", thus initiating the comparison of the Bee Gees to the Beatles. Before recording the first album, the group expanded to include Colin Petersen and Vince Melouney. "New York Mining Disaster 1941," their second British single (their first-issued UK 45 rpm was "Spicks and Specks"), was issued to radio stations with a blank white label listing only the song title. Some DJs immediately assumed this was a new single by the Beatles and started playing the song in heavy rotation. This helped the song climb into the top 20 in both the UK and US.
No such chicanery was needed to boost the Bee Gees' next single, "To Love Somebody", into the US Top 20. Originally written for Otis Redding, "To Love Somebody", a soulful ballad sung by Barry, has since become a pop standard covered by many artists. Another single, "Holiday", released in the US, peaked at No. 16.
The parent album, Bee Gees 1st (their first internationally), peaked at No. 7 in the US and No. 8 in the UK. Bill Shepherd was credited as the arranger. After recording that album, the group recorded their first BBC session at the Playhouse Theatre, Northumberland Avenue, in London, with Bill Bebb as the producer, and they performed three songs. That session is included on BBC Sessions: 1967–1973 (2008). After the release of Bee Gees' 1st, the group was first introduced in New York as "the English surprise." At that time, the band made their first British TV appearance on Top of the Pops. Maurice recalled:
In late 1967, they began recording the second album. On 21 December 1967, in a live broadcast from Liverpool Anglican Cathedral for a Christmas television special called How On Earth?, they performed their own song, "Thank You For Christmas" which was written especially for the programme, as well as a medley of the traditional Christmas carols "Silent Night," "The First Noel" and "Mary's Boy Child" (the latter incorrectly noted as "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" on tape boxes and subsequent release). The songs were all pre-recorded on 1 December 1967 and the group lip-synched their performance. The recordings were eventually released on the "Horizontal" reissue bonus disc in 2008. The folk group the Settlers and Radio 1 disc-jockey, Kenny Everett, also performed on the programme which was presented by the Reverend Edward H. Patey, dean of the cathedral.
January 1968 began with a promotional trip to the US. Los Angeles Police were on alert in anticipation of a Beatles-type reception, and special security arrangements were being put in place. In February, Horizontal repeated the success of their first album, featuring the group's first UK No. 1 single "Massachusetts" (a No. 11 US hit) and the No. 7 UK single "World." The sound of the album Horizontal had a more "rock" sound than their previous release, although ballads like "And the Sun Will Shine" and "Really and Sincerely" were also prominent. The Horizontal album reached No. 12 in the US and No. 16 in the UK.
With the release of Horizontal, they also embarked on a Scandinavian tour with concerts in Copenhagen. Around the same time, the Bee Gees turned down an offer to write and perform the soundtrack for the film Wonderwall, according to director Joe Massot.
On 27 February 1968, the band, backed by the 17-piece Massachusetts String Orchestra, began their first tour of Germany with two concerts at Hamburg Musikhalle. In March 1968, the band was supported by Procol Harum (who had a well-known hit "A Whiter Shade of Pale") on their German tour. As Robin's partner Molly Hullis recalls: "Germans were wilder than the fans in England at the heights of Beatlemania." The tour schedule took them to 11 venues in as many days with 18 concerts played, finishing with a brace of shows at the Stadthalle, Braunschweig.
After that, the group was off to Switzerland. As Maurice described it:
On 17 March, the band performed "Words" on The Ed Sullivan Show. The other artists who performed on that night's show were Lucille Ball, George Hamilton and Fran Jeffries. On 27 March 1968, the band performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Two more singles followed in early 1968: the ballad "Words" (No. 8 UK, No. 15 US) and the double A-sided single "Jumbo" backed with "The Singer Sang His Song". "Jumbo" only reached No. 25 in the UK and No. 57 in the US. The Bee Gees felt "The Singer Sang His Song" was the stronger of the two sides, an opinion shared by listeners in the Netherlands who made it a No. 3 hit.
Further Bee Gees chart singles followed: "I've Gotta Get a Message to You", their second UK No. 1 (No. 8 US), and "I Started a Joke" (No. 6 US), both culled from the band's third album Idea. Idea reached No. 4 in the UK and was another top 20 album in the US (No. 17).
After the tour and TV special to promote the album, Vince Melouney left the group, desiring to play more of a blues style music than the Gibbs were writing. Melouney did achieve one feat while with the Bee Gees: his composition "Such a Shame" (from Idea) is the only song on any Bee Gees album not written by a Gibb brother.
The band were due to begin a seven-week tour of the US on 2 August 1968, but on 27 July, Robin collapsed and fell unconscious. He was admitted to a London nursing home suffering from nervous exhaustion, and the American tour was postponed. The band began recording their sixth album, which resulted in their spending a week recording at Atlantic Studios in New York. Robin, still feeling poorly, missed the New York sessions, but the rest of the band put away instrumental tracks and demos.
Odessa, Cucumber Castle and break-up
By 1969, Robin began to feel that Stigwood had been favouring Barry as the frontman.
The Bee Gees' performances in early 1969 on the Top of the Pops and The Tom Jones Show performing "I Started a Joke" and "First of May" as a medley was one of the last live performances of the group with Robin.
Their next album, which was to have been a concept album called Masterpeace, evolved into the double-album Odessa. Most rock critics felt this was the best Bee Gees album of the 1960s with its progressive rock feel on the title track, the country-flavoured "Marley Purt Drive" and "Give Your Best", and ballads such as "Melody Fair" and "First of May" (the last of which became the only single from the album and a UK # 6 hit). Feeling the flipside, "Lamplight," should have been the A-side, Robin quit the group in mid-1969 and launched a solo career.
The first of many Bee Gees compilations, Best of Bee Gees, was released featuring the non-LP single "Words" plus the Australian hit "Spicks and Specks". The single "Tomorrow Tomorrow" was also released and was a moderate hit in the UK, where it reached No. 23, but it was only No. 54 in the US. The compilation reached the top 10 in both the UK and the US.
While Robin pursued his solo career, Barry, Maurice and Petersen continued on as the Bee Gees recording their next album, Cucumber Castle. The band made their debut performance without Robin at Talk of the Town. They had recruited their sister, Lesley, into the group at this time. To accompany the album, they also filmed a TV special with Frankie Howerd and cameos from several other contemporary pop and rock stars, which aired on the BBC in December 1970. Petersen played drums on the tracks recorded for the album but was fired from the group after filming began (he went on to form the Humpy Bong with Jonathan Kelly). His parts were edited out of the final cut of the film and Pentangle drummer Terry Cox was recruited to complete the recording of songs for the album.
After the album was released in early 1970, it seemed that the Bee Gees were finished. The leadoff single, "Don't Forget to Remember", was a big hit in the UK, reaching No. 2, but only reached No. 73 in the US. The next two singles, "I.O.I.O." and "If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else", barely scraped the charts. On 1 December 1969, Barry and Maurice parted ways professionally.
Maurice started to record his first solo album, The Loner, which was not released. Meanwhile, he released the single "Railroad" and starred in the West End musical Sing a Rude Song. In February 1970, Barry recorded a solo album which never saw official release either, although "I'll Kiss Your Memory" was released as a single backed by "This Time" without much interest. Meanwhile, Robin saw success in Europe and Australia with his No. 2 hit "Saved by the Bell" and the album Robin's Reign.
1970–1974: Reformation
In mid 1970, according to Barry, "Robin rang me in Spain where I was on holiday [saying] 'let's do it again'". By 21 August 1970, after they had reunited, Barry announced that the Bee Gees "are there and they will never, ever part again". Maurice said, "We just discussed it and re-formed. We want to apologise publicly to Robin for the things that have been said." Earlier, in June 1970, Robin and Maurice recorded a dozen songs before Barry joined and included two songs that were on their reunion album. Around the same time, Barry and Robin were about to publish the book On the Other Hand. They also recruited Geoff Bridgford as the group's official drummer. Bridgford had previously worked with the Groove and Tin Tin and played drums on Maurice's unreleased first solo album.
In 1970, 2 Years On was released in October in the US and November in the UK. The lead single "Lonely Days" reached No. 3 in the United States, promoted by appearances on The Johnny Cash Show, Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Dick Cavett Show and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Their ninth album, Trafalgar, was released in late 1971. The single "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" was their first to hit No. 1 on the US charts, while "Israel" reached No. 22 in the Netherlands. "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" also brought the Bee Gees their first Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Later that year, the group's songs were included in the soundtrack for the film Melody.
In 1972, they hit No. 16 in the US with the non-album single "My World", backed by Maurice's composition "On Time". Another 1972 single, "Run to Me" from the LP To Whom It May Concern, returned them to the UK top 10 for the first time in three years. On 24 November 1972, the band headlined the "Woodstock of the West" Festival at the Los Angeles Coliseum (which was a West Coast answer to Woodstock in New York), which also featured Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder and the Eagles. Also in 1972, the group sang "Hey Jude" with Wilson Pickett.
By 1973, however, the Bee Gees were in a rut. The album Life in a Tin Can, released on Robert Stigwood's newly formed RSO Records, and its lead-off single, "Saw a New Morning", sold poorly with the single peaking at No. 94. This was followed by an unreleased album (known as A Kick in the Head Is Worth Eight in the Pants). A second compilation album, Best of Bee Gees, Volume 2, was released in 1973, although it did not repeat the success of Volume 1. On 6 April 1973 episode of The Midnight Special they performed "Money (That's What I Want)" with Jerry Lee Lewis. Also in 1973, they were invited by Chuck Berry to perform two songs with him onstage at The Midnight Special: "Johnny B. Goode" and "Reelin' and Rockin'".
After a tour of the United States in early 1974 and a Canadian tour later in the year, the group ended up playing small clubs. As Barry joked, "We ended up in, have you ever heard of Batley's the variety club in (West Yorkshire) England?".
On the advice of Ahmet Ertegun, head of their US label Atlantic Records, Stigwood arranged for the group to record with soul music producer Arif Mardin. The resulting LP, Mr. Natural, included fewer ballads and foreshadowed the R&B direction of the rest of their career. When it, too, failed to attract much interest, Mardin encouraged them to work within the soul music style. The brothers attempted to assemble a live stage band that could replicate their studio sound. Lead guitarist Alan Kendall had come on board in 1971 but did not have much to do until Mr. Natural. For that album, they added drummer Dennis Bryon, and they later added ex-Strawbs keyboard player Blue Weaver, completing the Bee Gees band that lasted through the late '70s. Maurice, who had previously performed on piano, guitar, harpsichord, electric piano, organ, mellotron and bass guitar, as well as mandolin and Moog synthesiser, by then confined himself to bass onstage.
1975–1979: Turning to disco
Main Course and Children of the World
At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record at Criteria Studios. After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs, including their second US No. 1, "Jive Talkin'", along with US No. 7 "Nights on Broadway". The band liked the resulting new sound. This time the public agreed by sending the LP Main Course up the charts. This album included the first Bee Gees songs wherein Barry used falsetto, something that became a trademark of the band. This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album.
On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang "To Love Somebody" with Helen Reddy. Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers—"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" with Barry providing lead vocals, and "Sun King" with Maurice providing lead vocals, for the unsuccessful musical/documentary All This and World War II.
The next album, Children of the World, released in September 1976, was filled with Barry's new-found falsetto and Weaver's synthesizer disco licks. The first single from the album was "You Should Be Dancing", which features percussion work by musician Stephen Stills. The song pushed the Bee Gees to a level of stardom they had not previously achieved in the US, though their new R&B/disco sound was not as popular with some diehard fans. The pop ballad "Love So Right" reached No. 3 in the US, and "Boogie Child" reached US No. 12 in January 1977. The album peaked at No. 8 in the US.
Saturday Night Fever and Spirits Having Flown
Following a successful live album, Here at Last... Bee Gees... Live, the Bee Gees agreed with Stigwood to participate in the creation of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. It was the turning point of their career. The cultural impact of both the film and the soundtrack was significant throughout the world, epitomizing the disco phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic.
The band's involvement in the film did not begin until post-production. As John Travolta asserted, "The Bee Gees weren't even involved in the movie in the beginning ... I was dancing to Stevie Wonder and Boz Scaggs." Producer Robert Stigwood commissioned the Bee Gees to create the songs for the film. The brothers wrote the songs "virtually in a single weekend" at Château d'Hérouville studio in France. Barry Gibb remembered the reaction when Stigwood and music supervisor Bill Oakes arrived and listened to the demos:
Bill Oakes, who supervised the soundtrack, asserts that Saturday Night Fever did not begin the disco craze but rather prolonged it: "Disco had run its course. These days, Fever is credited with kicking off the whole disco thing—it really didn't. Truth is, it breathed new life into a genre that was actually dying."
Three Bee Gees singles—"How Deep Is Your Love" (US No. 1, UK No. 3), "Stayin' Alive" (US No. 1, UK No. 4) and "Night Fever" (US No. 1, UK No. 1)—charted high in many countries around the world, launching the most popular period of the disco era. They also penned the song "If I Can't Have You", which became a US No. 1 hit for Yvonne Elliman, while the Bee Gees' own version was the B-side of "Stayin' Alive". Such was the popularity of Saturday Night Fever that two different versions of the song "More Than a Woman" received airplay, one by the Bee Gees, which was relegated to an album track, and another by Tavares, which was the hit.
During a nine-month period beginning in the Christmas season of 1977, seven songs written by the brothers held the No. 1 position on the US charts for 27 of 37 consecutive weeks: three of their own releases, two for brother Andy Gibb, the Yvonne Elliman single, and "Grease", performed by Frankie Valli.
Fuelled by the film's success, the soundtrack broke multiple industry records, becoming the highest-selling album in recording history to that point. With more than 40 million copies sold, Saturday Night Fever is among music's top five best selling soundtrack albums. , it is calculated as the fourth highest-selling album worldwide.
In March 1978, the Bee Gees held the top two positions on the US charts with "Night Fever" and "Stayin' Alive", the first time this had happened since the Beatles. On the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for 25 March 1978, five songs written by the Gibbs were in the US top 10 at the same time: "Night Fever", "Stayin' Alive", "If I Can't Have You", "Emotion" and "Love Is Thicker Than Water". Such chart dominance had not been seen since April 1964, when the Beatles had all five of the top five American singles. Barry Gibb became the only songwriter to have four consecutive number-one hits in the US, breaking the John Lennon and Paul McCartney 1964 record. These songs were "Stayin' Alive", "Love Is Thicker Than Water", "Night Fever" and "If I Can't Have You".
The Bee Gees won five Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever over two years: Album of the Year, Producer of the Year (with Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson), two awards for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals (one in 1978 for "How Deep Is Your Love" and one in 1979 for "Stayin' Alive"), and Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices for "Stayin' Alive".
During this era, Barry and Robin also wrote "Emotion" for an old friend, Australian vocalist Samantha Sang, who made it a top 10 hit, with the Bee Gees singing backing vocals. Barry also wrote the title song to the film version of the Broadway musical Grease for Frankie Valli to perform, which went to No. 1.
The Bee Gees also co-starred with Peter Frampton in Robert Stigwood's film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), loosely inspired by the classic 1967 album by the Beatles. The movie had been heavily promoted prior to release and was expected to enjoy great commercial success. However, it was savaged by film critics as a disjointed mess and ignored by the public. Though some of its tracks charted, the soundtrack too was a high-profile flop. The single "Oh! Darling", credited to Robin Gibb, reached No. 15 in the US.
The Bee Gees' follow-up to Saturday Night Fever was the Spirits Having Flown album. It yielded three more hits: "Too Much Heaven" (US No. 1, UK No. 3), "Tragedy" (US No. 1, UK No. 1), and "Love You Inside Out" (US No. 1, UK No. 13). This gave the act six consecutive No. 1 singles in the US within a year and a half, equalling the Beatles and surpassed only by Whitney Houston.
In January 1979, the Bee Gees performed "Too Much Heaven" as their contribution to the Music for UNICEF Concert at the United Nations General Assembly. During the summer of 1979, the Bee Gees embarked on their largest concert tour covering the US and Canada. The Spirits Having Flown tour capitalised on Bee Gees fever that was sweeping the nation, with sold-out concerts in 38 cities. The Bee Gees produced a video for the title track "Too Much Heaven", directed by Miami-based filmmaker Martin Pitts and produced by Charles Allen. With this video, Pitts and Allen began a long association with the brothers.
The Bee Gees even had a country hit in 1979 with "Rest Your Love on Me", the flip side of their pop hit "Too Much Heaven", which made the top 40 on the country charts. It was also a 1981 hit for Conway Twitty, topping the country music charts.
The Bee Gees' overwhelming success rose and fell with the disco bubble. By the end of 1979, disco was rapidly declining in popularity, and the backlash against disco put the Bee Gees' American career in a tailspin. Radio stations around the US began promoting "Bee Gee-Free Weekends". Following their remarkable run from 1975 to 1979, the act had only one more top 10 single in the US, and that did not come until the single "One" reached number 7 in 1989.
Barry Gibb considered the success of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack both a blessing and a curse:
1980–1986: Outside projects, band turmoil, solo efforts and decline
Robin co-produced Jimmy Ruffin's Sunrise released in May 1980, but the songs were started in 1979; the album contains songs written by the Gibb brothers, including the single "Hold On To My Love".
In March 1980, Barry Gibb worked with Barbra Streisand on her album Guilty. He co-produced, and wrote or co-wrote all nine of the album's tracks (four of them written with Robin, and the title track with both Robin and Maurice). Barry also appeared on the album's cover with Streisand and duetted with her on two tracks. The album reached No. 1 in both the US and the UK, as did the single "Woman in Love" (written by Barry and Robin), becoming Streisand's most successful single and album to date. Both of the Streisand/Gibb duets, "Guilty" and "What Kind of Fool", also reached the US Top 10.
In 1981, the Bee Gees released the album Living Eyes, their last full-length album release on RSO. This album was the first CD ever played in public, when it was played to viewers of the BBC show Tomorrow's World. With the disco backlash still running strong, the album failed to make the UK or US Top 40—breaking their streak of Top 40 hits, which started in 1975 with "Jive Talkin'". Two singles from the album fared little better—"He's a Liar", which reached No. 30 in the US, and "Living Eyes", which reached No. 45.
In 1982, Dionne Warwick enjoyed a UK No. 2 and US Adult Contemporary No. 1 hit with her comeback single, "Heartbreaker", taken from her eponymous album written largely by the Bee Gees and co-produced by Barry Gibb. The album reached No. 3 in the UK and the Top 30 in the US, where it was certified Gold.
A year later, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers recorded the Bee Gees-penned track "Islands in the Stream", which became a US and Australian No. 1 hit and entered the Top 10 in the UK. Rogers' 1983 album, Eyes That See in the Dark, was written entirely by the Bee Gees and co-produced by Barry. The album was a Top 10 hit in the US and was certified Double Platinum.
The Bee Gees had greater success with the soundtrack to Staying Alive in 1983, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever. The soundtrack was certified platinum in the US, and included their Top 30 hit "The Woman in You".
Also in 1983, the band was sued by Chicago songwriter Ronald Selle, who claimed the brothers stole melodic material from one of his songs, "Let It End", and used it in "How Deep Is Your Love". At first, the Bee Gees lost the case; one juror said that a factor in the jury's decision was the Gibbs' failure to introduce expert testimony rebutting the plaintiff's expert testimony that it was "impossible" for the two songs to have been written independently. However, the verdict was overturned a few months later.
In August 1983, Barry signed a solo deal with MCA Records and spent much of late 1983 and 1984 writing songs for this first solo effort, Now Voyager. Robin released three solo albums in the 1980s, How Old Are You?, Secret Agent and Walls Have Eyes. Maurice released his second single to date, "Hold Her in Your Hand", the first one having been released in 1970.
In 1985, Diana Ross released the album Eaten Alive, written by the Bee Gees, with the title track co-written with Michael Jackson (who also performed on the track). The album was again co-produced by Barry Gibb, and the single "Chain Reaction" gave Ross a UK and Australian No. 1 hit.
1987–1999: Comeback, return to popularity and Andy's death
The Bee Gees released the album E.S.P. in 1987, which sold over 2 million copies. It was their first album in six years, and their first for Warner Bros. Records. The single "You Win Again" went to No. 1 in numerous countries, including the UK, and made the Bee Gees the first group to score a UK No. 1 hit in each of three decades: the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The single was a disappointment in the US, charting at No. 75, and the Bee Gees voiced their frustration over American radio stations not playing their new European hit single, an omission which the group felt led to poor sales of their current album in the US. The song won the Bee Gees the 1987 British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, and in February 1988 the band received a Brit Award nomination for Best British Group.
On 10 March 1988, younger brother Andy Gibb died, aged 30, as a result of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle due to a recent viral infection. The Bee Gees later got together with Eric Clapton to create a group called 'the Bunburys' to raise money for English charities. The group recorded three songs for The Bunbury Tails: "We're the Bunburys" (which eventually became the opening theme to the 1992 animated series The Bunbury Tails), "Bunbury Afternoon", and "Fight (No Matter How Long)". The last song reached No. 8 on the rock music chart and appeared on The 1988 Summer Olympics Album. The Bee Gees' next album, One (1989), featured a song dedicated to Andy, "Wish You Were Here". The album also contained their first US Top 10 hit (No. 7) in a decade, "One" (an Adult Contemporary No. 1). After the album's release, the band embarked on its first world tour in 10 years.
In the UK, Polydor issued a single-disc hits collection from Tales called The Very Best of the Bee Gees, which contained their biggest UK hits. The album became one of their best-selling albums in that country, and was eventually certified Triple Platinum.
Following their next album, High Civilization (1991), which contained the UK top five hit "Secret Love", the Bee Gees went on a European tour. After the tour, Barry Gibb began to battle a serious back problem, which required surgery. In addition, he suffered from arthritis which, at one point, was so severe that it was doubtful that he would be able to play guitar for much longer. Also, in the early 1990s, Maurice Gibb finally sought treatment for his alcoholism, which he had battled for many years with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous.
In 1993, the group returned to the Polydor label and released the album Size Isn't Everything, which contained the UK top five hit "For Whom the Bell Tolls". Success still eluded them in the US, however, as the first single released, "Paying the Price of Love", only managed to reach No. 74 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the parent album stalled at No. 153.
In 1997, they released the album Still Waters, which has reached No. 2 in the UK (their highest album chart position there since 1979) and No. 11 in the US. The album's first single, "Alone", gave them another UK Top 5 hit and a top 30 hit in the US. Still Waters was the band's most successful US release of their post-RSO era.
At the 1997 BRIT Awards held in Earls Court, London on 24 February, the Bee Gees received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. On 14 November 1997, the Bee Gees performed a live concert in Las Vegas called One Night Only. The show included a performance of "Our Love (Don't Throw It All Away)" synchronised with a vocal by their deceased brother Andy and a cameo appearance by Celine Dion singing "Immortality". The "One Night Only" name grew out of the band's declaration that, due to Barry's health issues, the Las Vegas show was to be the final live performance of their career. After the immensely positive audience response to the Vegas concert, Barry decided to continue despite the pain, and the concert expanded into their last full-blown world tour of "One Night Only" concerts. The tour included playing to 56,000 people at London's Wembley Stadium on 5 September 1998 and concluded in the newly built Olympic Stadium in Sydney, Australia on 27 March 1999 to 72,000 people.
In 1998, the group's soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever was incorporated into a stage production produced first in the West End and then on Broadway. They wrote three new songs for the adaptation. Also in 1998, the brothers released "Ellan Vannin" for Manx charities, recorded the previous year. Known as the unofficial national anthem of the Isle of Man, the brothers performed the song during their world tour to reflect their pride in the place of their birth.
The Bee Gees closed the century with what turned out to be their last full-sized concert, known as BG2K, on 31 December 1999.
2000–2008: This Is Where I Came In and Maurice's death
In 2001, the group released what turned out to be their final album of new material, This Is Where I Came In. The album was another success, reaching the Top 10 in the UK (being certified Gold), and the Top 20 in the US. The title track was also a UK Top 20 hit single.
The last concert of the Bee Gees as a trio was at the Love and Hope Ball in 2002. Maurice Gibb died unexpectedly on 12 January 2003, at age 53, from a heart attack while awaiting emergency surgery to repair a strangulated intestine. Initially, his surviving brothers announced that they intended to carry on the name "Bee Gees" in his memory, but as time passed they decided to retire the group's name, leaving it to represent the three brothers together.
The same week that Maurice died, Robin's solo album Magnet was released. On 23 February 2003, the Bee Gees received the Grammy Legend Award, they also became the first recipients of that award in the 21st century. Barry and Robin accepted as well as Maurice's son, Adam, in a tearful ceremony.
In late 2004, Robin embarked on a solo tour of Germany, Russia and Asia. During January 2005, Barry, Robin and several legendary rock artists recorded "Grief Never Grows Old", the official tsunami relief record for the Disasters Emergency Committee. Later that year, Barry reunited with Barbra Streisand for her top-selling album Guilty Pleasures, released as Guilty Too in the UK as a sequel album to the previous Guilty. Also in 2004, Barry recorded his song "I Cannot Give You My Love" with Cliff Richard, which became a UK top 20 hit single.
In February 2006, Barry and Robin reunited on stage for a Miami charity concert to benefit the Diabetes Research Institute. It was their first public performance together since Maurice's death. The pair also played at the 30th annual Prince's Trust Concert in the UK on 20 May 2006.
2009–2012: Return to performing and Robin's death
Barry and Robin performed on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing on 31 October 2009 and appeared on ABC-TV's Dancing with the Stars on 17 November 2009. On 15 March 2010, Barry and Robin inducted the Swedish group ABBA into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On 26 May 2010, the two made a surprise appearance on the ninth-season finale of American Idol.
On 20 November 2011 it was announced that Robin Gibb, at 61 years old, had been diagnosed with liver cancer, a condition he had become aware of several months earlier. He had become noticeably thinner in previous months and had to cancel several appearances due to severe abdominal pain. Robin joined British military trio the Soldiers for the Coming Home charity concert on 13 February 2012 at the London Palladium, in support of injured servicemen. It was his first public appearance for almost five months and, as it turned out, his final one. On 14 April 2012, it was reported that Robin had contracted pneumonia in a Chelsea hospital and was in a coma. Although he came out of his coma on 20 April 2012, his condition deteriorated rapidly and he died on 20 May 2012 of liver and kidney failure.
2013–present: Looking back at a lifetime of music
In September and October 2013, Barry performed his first solo tour "in honour of his brothers and a lifetime of music". In addition to the Rhino collection, The Studio Albums: 1967–1968, Warner Bros. released a box set in 2014 called The Warner Bros Years: 1987–1991 that included the studio albums E.S.P., One and High Civilization as well as extended mixes and B-sides. It also included the band's entire 1989 concert in Melbourne, Australia, available only on video as All for One prior to this release. The documentary The Joy of the Bee Gees was aired on BBC Four on 19 December 2014.
On 23 March 2015, 13STAR Records released a box set 1974–1979 which included the studio albums Mr. Natural, Main Course, Children of the World and Spirits Having Flown. A fifth disc called The Miami Years includes all the tracks from Saturday Night Fever as well as B-sides. No unreleased tracks from the era were included.
After a hiatus from performing, Barry Gibb returned to solo and guest singing performances. He occasionally appears with his son, Steve Gibb. In 2016, he released In the Now, his first solo effort since 1984's Now Voyager. It was the first release of new Bee Gees-related music since the posthumous release of Robin Gibb's 50 St. Catherine's Drive. Also in 2016, Capitol Records signed a new distribution deal with Barry and the estates of his brothers for the Bee Gees catalogue, bringing their music back to Universal.
An as-yet-untitled biopic about the Bee Gees is in development at Paramount, with Kenneth Branagh directing and Barry Gibb serving as an executive producer.
Influences
The Bee Gees were influenced by the Beatles, the Everly Brothers, the Mills Brothers, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, Roy Orbison, the Beach Boys and Stevie Wonder. On the 2014 documentary The Joy of the Bee Gees, Barry said that the Bee Gees were also influenced by the Hollies and Otis Redding. Maurice noted that Neil Sedaka was an early influence, and later the group was "very influenced" by Linda Creed songs for the Stylistics.
Legacy
In his 1980 Playboy magazine interview, John Lennon praised the Bee Gees, "Try to tell the kids in the seventies who were screaming to the Bee Gees that their music was just the Beatles redone. There is nothing wrong with the Bee Gees. They do a damn good job. There was nothing else going on then."
In a 2007 interview with Duane Hitchings, who co-wrote Rod Stewart's 1978 disco song "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?", he noted that the song was:
Kevin Parker of Tame Impala has said that listening to the Bee Gees after taking mushrooms inspired him to change the sound of the music he was making on his album Currents.
The English indie rock band the Cribs was also influenced by the Bee Gees. Cribs member Ryan Jarman said: "It must have had quite a big influence on us – pop melodies is something we always revert to. I always want to get back to pop melodies and I'm sure that's due to that Bee Gees phase we went through."
Following Robin's death on 20 May 2012, Beyoncé remarked: "The Bee Gees were an early inspiration for me, Kelly Rowland and Michelle. We loved their songwriting and beautiful harmonies. Recording their classic song, 'Emotion' was a special time for Destiny's Child. Sadly we lost Robin Gibb this week. My heart goes out to his brother Barry and the rest of his family."
Singer Jordin Sparks remarked that her favourite Bee Gees songs are "Too Much Heaven", "Emotion" (although performed by Samantha Sang with Barry on the background vocals using his falsetto), and "Stayin' Alive".
Carrie Underwood said, about discovering the Bee Gees during her childhood, "My parents listened to the Bee Gees quite a bit when I was little, so I was definitely exposed to them at an early age. They just had a sound that was all their own, obviously, [it was] never duplicated."
Songwriting
At one point, in 1978, the Gibb brothers were responsible for writing and/or performing nine of the songs in the Billboard Hot 100. In all, the Gibbs placed 13 singles onto the Hot 100 in 1978, with 12 making the Top 40. The Gibb brothers are fellows of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA). At least 2,500 artists have recorded their songs.
Singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw spoke about the Bee Gees' influence with their own music as well as their songwriting:
In 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Bee Gees were announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for their role as "Influential Artists".
Accolades and achievements
In 1978, following the success of Saturday Night Fever, and the single "Night Fever" in particular, Reubin Askew, the governor of the US state of Florida, named the Bee Gees honorary citizens of the state, since they resided in Miami at the time. In 1979, the Bee Gees got their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They were the subjects of This Is Your Life in 1991 when they were surprised by Michael Aspel while being interviewed by disc jockey Steve Wright (DJ) on his Radio 1 programme at BBC Broadcasting House.
The Bee Gees were inducted in 1994 into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, as well as Florida's Artists Hall of Fame in 1995 and the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1997. Also in 1997, the group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; the presenter of the award to "Britain's First Family of Harmony" was Brian Wilson, historical leader of the Beach Boys, another "family act" featuring three harmonising brothers. In 2001, they were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. After Maurice's death, the Bee Gees were also inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2001, London's Walk of Fame in 2006 and Musically Speaking Hall Of Fame in 2008. On 15 May 2007, the Bee Gees were named BMI Icons at the 55th annual BMI Pop Awards. Collectively, Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb have earned 109 BMI Pop, Country and Latin Awards.
In October 1999, the Isle of Man Post Office unveiled a set of six stamps honouring the Bee Gees.
All three brothers (including Maurice posthumously) were invested as Commanders of the Order of the British Empire in December 2001 with the ceremony taking place at Buckingham Palace on 27 May 2004. On 10 July 2009, the Isle of Man's capital bestowed the Freedom of the Borough of Douglas honour on Barry and Robin, as well as posthumously on Maurice. On 20 November 2009, the Douglas Borough Council released a limited edition commemorative DVD to mark their naming as Freemen of the Borough.
On 14 February 2013, Barry Gibb unveiled a statue of the Bee Gees as well as unveiling "Bee Gees Way" (a walkway filled with photos and videos of the Bee Gees) in honour of the Bee Gees in Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia. On 27 June 2018, Barry Gibb, the last surviving member of the Bee Gees, was knighted by Prince Charles after being named on the Queen's New Years Honours List. The statue of the Bee Gees in Douglas, Isle of Man, was installed in 2021.
In 2022, the last surviving member of the group, Barry Gibb, was made an Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia which is Australia's highest national honour.
The Bee Gees have sold over 220 million records worldwide, making them one of the best selling artists of all time. The group are to date the most successful family and sibling band of all time, the most successful musical trio of all time, and the most successful musical act with ties to Australia.
Awards and nominations
Queensland Music Awards
The Queensland Music Awards (previously known as Q Song Awards) are annual awards celebrating Queensland, Australia's brightest emerging artists and established legends. They commenced in 2006.
(wins only)
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| 2009
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| Grant McLennan Lifetime Achievement Award
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Band members
Principal members
Barry Gibb – vocals, rhythm guitar (1958–2003, 2006, 2009–2012)
Robin Gibb – vocals, occasional keyboards (1958–1969, 1970–2003, 2006, 2009–2012; d. 2012)
Maurice Gibb – bass, rhythm and lead guitars, keyboards, vocals (1958–2003; d. 2003)
Colin Petersen – drums (1967–1969)
Vince Melouney – lead guitar (1967–1968)
Geoff Bridgford – drums (1971–1972; touring 1970-1971)
Touring musicians
Alan Kendall – lead guitar (1971–1981, 1989–2003)
Chris Karan – drums (1972)
Dennis Bryon – drums (1973–1981)
Geoff Westley – keyboards, piano (1973–1976)
Blue Weaver – keyboards, synthesizers (1975–1981)
Joe Lala – percussion (1976, 1979)
Joey Murcia – rhythm guitar (1976, 1979)
Harold Cowart – bass (1979)
Tim Cansfield – lead guitar (1989)
Vic Martin – keyboard, synthesizer (1989)
Gary Moberly – keyboard, synthesizer (1989)
George Perry – bass (1989–1993)
Chester Thompson – drums (1989)
Mike Murphy – drums (1989)
Trevor Murrell – drums (1991–1992)
Rudi Dobson – keyboards (1991–1992)
Scott F. Crago – drums
Ben Stivers – keyboard (1996–1999)
Matt Bonelli – bass (1993–2001)
Steve Rucker – drums (1993–1999)
Guest musicians (studio and touring)
Phil Collins – drums
Lenny Castro – percussion
Glenn Frey – guitar
Timothy B. Schmit – bass guitar
Joe Walsh – lead guitar
Don Felder – lead guitar (1981)
Jeff Porcaro – drums
Mike Porcaro – bass guitar
Steve Porcaro – keyboards
Steve Lukather – guitar
David Hungate – bass guitar
David Paich – keyboards
Greg Phillinganes – keyboards
Bobby Kimball – keyboards
Leland Sklar – bass guitar
Reb Beach – lead guitar
Gregg Bissonette – drums
Ricky Lawson – drums
Scott F. Crago – drums
Steve Gadd – drums
Steve Ferrone – drums
Steve Jordan – drums
Nathan East – bass guitar
Steuart Smith – lead guitar
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Timeline
Timeline of touring members
Discography
Soundtracks Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Staying Alive (1983) are not official Bee Gees albums, but contain some previously unreleased tracks. Apart from live and compilation, all their official albums are included on this list. A Kick in the Head Is Worth Eight in the Pants has not been included on the list because it appeared only on numerous bootlegs and was not officially released.
Studio albums
The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs (1965)
Spicks and Specks (1966)
Bee Gees' 1st (1967)
Horizontal (1968)
Idea (1968)
Odessa (1969)
Cucumber Castle (1970)
2 Years On (1970)
Trafalgar (1971)
To Whom It May Concern (1972)
Life in a Tin Can (1973)
Mr. Natural (1974)
Main Course (1975)
Children of the World (1976)
Spirits Having Flown (1979)
Living Eyes (1981)
E.S.P. (1987)
One (1989)
High Civilization (1991)
Size Isn't Everything (1993)
Still Waters (1997)
This Is Where I Came In (2001)
Concert tours
The Bee Gees' concerts in 1967 and 1968 (1967–1968)
2 Years On Tour (1971)
Trafalgar Tour (1972)
Mr. Natural Tour (1974)
Main Course Tour (1975)
Children of the World Tour (1976)
Spirits Having Flown Tour (1979)
One for All World Tour (1989)
High Civilization World Tour (1991)
One Night Only World Tour (1997–1999)
This Is Where I Came In (2001)
Filmography
Citations
General bibliography
.
External links
Bee Gees Official website
Bee Gees at Rolling Stone
Bee Gees' Vocal Group Hall of Fame webpage
Bee Gees at bmi.com
Robin Gibb sadly passes away after losing his battle with cancer
Who Do You Think You Are? – Bee Gees Family History
1958 establishments in Australia
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ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Atlantic Records artists
Barry Gibb
Brit Award winners
British disco groups
British musical trios
British soft rock music groups
British soul musical groups
Brunswick Records artists
Capitol Records artists
Child musical groups
English expatriates in Australia
English expatriates in the United States
English pop music groups
English rock music groups
Grammy Legend Award winners
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Mercury Records artists
Manx musical groups
Maurice Gibb
Musical groups established in 1958
Musical groups disestablished in 2003
Musical groups reestablished in 2009
Musical groups disestablished in 2012
Musical groups from Manchester
Queensland musical groups
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Q150 Icons
Robin Gibb
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World Music Awards winners | false | [
"The penthouse principle, a term in syntax coined by John R. Ross in 1973, describes the fact that many syntactic phenomena treat matrix (or main) clauses differently from embedded (or subordinate) clauses:\n\nThe penthouse principle: The rules are different if you live in the penthouse.\n\nThe penthouse named in the principle is the top-floor of a high-rise apartment building, and is a metaphor for the matrix clause in a multi-clause structure (which, when diagrammed in usual phrase marker notation, contains the highest clause node in the structure). Perhaps the best-known example of a penthouse principle effect is the distribution of subject-auxiliary inversion in constituent questions in English, which in many (but not all) varieties of English is restricted to matrix clauses:\n\n(1) a. What can Sam do about it?\n b. I'll find out what Sam can do about it.\n\nCompare:\n(2) a. *What Sam can do about it?\n b. *I'll find out what can Sam do about it.\n\nOther phenomena falling under the penthouse principle are V2-effects in the Germanic languages and the distribution of declarative markers, imperative morphology, and of various particles in a variety of languages.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\n \n \n\nSyntax\nEnglish grammar",
"Follow Me! is a series of television programmes produced by Bayerischer Rundfunk and the BBC in the late 1970s to provide a crash course in the English language. It became popular in many overseas countries as a first introduction to English; in 1983, one hundred million people watched the show in China alone, featuring Kathy Flower.\n\nThe British actor Francis Matthews hosted and narrated the series.\n\nThe course consists of sixty lessons. Each lesson lasts from 12 to 15 minutes and covers a specific lexis. The lessons follow a consistent group of actors, with the relationships between their characters developing during the course.\n\nFollow Me! actors\n Francis Matthews\n Raymond Mason\n David Savile\n Ian Bamforth\n Keith Alexander\n Diane Mercer\n Jane Argyle\n Diana King\n Veronica Leigh\n Elaine Wells\n Danielle Cohn\n Lashawnda Bell\n\nEpisodes \n \"What's your name\"\n \"How are you\"\n \"Can you help me\"\n \"Left, right, straight ahead\"\n \"Where are they\"\n \"What's the time\"\n \"What's this What's that\"\n \"I like it very much\"\n \"Have you got any wine\"\n \"What are they doing\"\n \"Can I have your name, please\"\n \"What does she look like\"\n \"No smoking\"\n \"It's on the first floor\"\n \"Where's he gone\"\n \"Going away\"\n \"Buying things\"\n \"Why do you like it\"\n \"What do you need\"\n \"I sometimes work late\"\n \"Welcome to Britain\"\n \"Who's that\"\n \"What would you like to do\"\n \"How can I get there?\"\n \"Where is it\"\n \"What's the date\"\n \"Whose is it\"\n \"I enjoy it\"\n \"How many and how much\"\n \"What have you done\"\n \"Haven't we met before\"\n \"What did you say\"\n \"Please stop\"\n \"How can I get to Brightly\"\n \"Where can I get it\"\n \"There's a concert on Wednesday\"\n \"What's it like\"\n \"What do you think of him\"\n \"I need someone\"\n \"What were you doing\"\n \"What do you do\"\n \"What do you know about him\"\n \"You shouldn't do that\"\n \"I hope you enjoy your holiday\"\n \"Where can I see a football match\"\n \"When will it be ready\"\n \"Where did you go\"\n \"I think it's awful\"\n \"A room with a view\"\n \"You'll be ill\"\n \"I don't believe in strikes\"\n \"They look tired\"\n \"Would you like to\"\n \"Holiday plans\"\n \"The second shelf on the left\"\n \"When you are ready\"\n \"Tell them about Britain\"\n \"I liked everything\"\n \"Classical or modern\"\n \"Finale\"\n\nReferences \n\n BBC article about the series in China\n\nExternal links \n Follow Me – Beginner level \n Follow Me – Elementary level\n Follow Me – Intermediate level\n Follow Me – Advanced level\n\nAdult education television series\nEnglish-language education television programming"
]
|
[
"Bee Gees",
"Main Course and Children of the World",
"What happened during this time period?",
"At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record.",
"what did that lead to?",
"After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs,",
"any awards or special recognition during this time?",
"This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album.",
"what happened next?",
"On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang \"To Love Somebody\" with Helen Reddy.",
"what do you find interesting in the article?",
"Barry used falsetto, something that would later become a trademark of the band."
]
| C_6cca1f87ae8e46bd949e4e2bdf8ac2d4_1 | What was next for the band ? | 6 | What was next for the Bee Gees? | Bee Gees | At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record. After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs, including their second US No. 1, "Jive Talkin'", along with US No. 7 "Nights on Broadway". The band liked the resulting new sound. This time the public agreed by sending the LP Main Course up the charts. This album included the first Bee Gees songs wherein Barry used falsetto, something that would later become a trademark of the band. This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album. On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang "To Love Somebody" with Helen Reddy. Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers--"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" with Barry providing lead vocals, and "Sun King" with Maurice providing lead vocals, for the unsuccessful musical/documentary All This and World War II. The next album, Children of the World released in September 1976, was drenched in Barry's new-found falsetto and Weaver's synthesizer disco licks. Mardin was unavailable to produce, so the Bee Gees enlisted Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson, who had worked with Mardin during the Main Course sessions. This production team would carry the Bee Gees through the rest of the 1970s. The first single from the album was "You Should Be Dancing" (which features percussion work by musician Stephen Stills). The song pushed the Bee Gees to a level of stardom they had not previously achieved in the US, though their new R&B/disco sound was not as popular with some die hard fans. The pop ballad "Love So Right" reached No. 3 in the US, and "Boogie Child" reached US No. 12 in January 1977. The album peaked at No. 8 in the US. A compilation Bee Gees Gold was released in November, containing the group's hits from 1967 to 1972. CANNOTANSWER | On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, | The Bee Gees
were a music group formed in 1958, featuring brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful as a popular music act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers of the disco music era in the mid- to late 1970s. The group sang recognisable three-part tight harmonies; Robin's clear vibrato lead vocals were a hallmark of their earlier hits, while Barry's R&B falsetto became their signature sound during the mid- to late 1970s and 1980s. The Bee Gees wrote all of their own hits, as well as writing and producing several major hits for other artists and have been regarded as one of the most important and influential acts in pop music history. They have been referred to in the media as The Disco Kings, Britain’s First Family of Harmony, and The Kings of Dance Music.
Born on the Isle of Man to English parents, the Gibb brothers lived in Chorlton, Manchester, England until the late 1950s. There, in 1955, they formed the skiffle/rock and roll group the Rattlesnakes. The family then moved to Redcliffe, in the Moreton Bay Region, Queensland, Australia, later to Cribb Island. After achieving their first chart success in Australia as the Bee Gees with "Spicks and Specks" (their twelfth single), they returned to the UK in January 1967, when producer Robert Stigwood began promoting them to a worldwide audience. The Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever soundtrack (1977) was the turning point of their career, with both the film and soundtrack having a cultural impact throughout the world, enhancing the disco scene's mainstream appeal. They won five Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever, including Album of the Year.
The Bee Gees have sold over 220 million records worldwide, making them among the best-selling music artists of all time. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997; the Hall's citation says, "Only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney have outsold the Bee Gees." With nine number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, the Bee Gees are the third-most successful band in Billboard charts history behind only the Beatles and the Supremes.
Following Maurice's sudden death in January 2003 at the age of 53, Barry and Robin retired the group's name after 45 years of activity. In 2009, Robin announced that he and Barry had agreed that the Bee Gees would re-form and perform again. Robin died in May 2012, aged 62, after a prolonged period of failing health, leaving Barry as the only surviving member of the group.
History
1955–1966: Music origins, Bee Gees formation and popularity in Australia
Born on the Isle of Man during the late 1940s, the Gibb brothers moved to their father Hugh Gibb's hometown of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Greater Manchester, England in 1955. They formed a skiffle/rock-and-roll group, the Rattlesnakes, which consisted of Barry on guitar and vocals, Robin and Maurice on vocals and friends Paul Frost on drums and Kenny Horrocks on tea-chest bass. In December 1957 the boys began to sing in harmony. The story is told that they were going to lip-sync to a record in the local Gaumont cinema (as other children had done on previous weeks), but as they were running to the theatre, the fragile shellac 78-RPM record broke. The brothers had to sing live, but received such a positive response from the audience that they decided to pursue a singing career. In May 1958 the Rattlesnakes disbanded when Frost and Horrocks left, so the Gibb brothers then formed Wee Johnny Hayes and the Blue Cats, with Barry as "Johnny Hayes".
In August 1958, the Gibb family, including older sister Lesley and infant brother Andy (born in March 1958), emigrated to Australia and settled in Redcliffe, Queensland, just north-east of Brisbane. The young brothers began performing to raise pocket money. Speedway promoter and driver Bill Goode, who had hired the brothers to entertain the crowd at the Redcliffe Speedway in 1960, introduced them to Brisbane radio-presenter jockey Bill Gates. The crowd at the speedway would throw money onto the track for the boys, who generally performed during the interval of meetings (usually on the back of a truck that drove around the track) and, in a deal with Goode, any money they collected from the crowd they were allowed to keep. Gates named the group the "BGs" (later changed to "Bee Gees") after his, Goode's and Barry Gibb's initials. The name was not specifically a reference to "Brothers Gibb", despite popular belief.
During the next few years, they began working regularly at resorts on the Queensland coast. Through his songwriting, Barry sparked the interest of Australian star Col Joye, who helped the brothers get a recording deal in 1963 with Festival Records subsidiary Leedon Records under the name "Bee Gees". The three released two or three singles a year, while Barry supplied additional songs to other Australian artists. In 1962 the Bee Gees were chosen as the supporting act for Chubby Checker's concert at the Sydney Stadium.
From 1963 to 1966, the Gibb family lived at 171 Bunnerong Road, Maroubra, in Sydney. Just prior to his death, Robin Gibb recorded the song "Sydney" about the brothers' experience of living in that city. It was released on his posthumous album 50 St. Catherine's Drive. The house was demolished in 2016.
A minor hit in 1965, "Wine and Women", led to the group's first LP, The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs. By 1966 Festival Records was, however, on the verge of dropping them from the Leedon roster because of their perceived lack of commercial success. At this time the brothers met the American-born songwriter, producer and entrepreneur Nat Kipner, who had just been appointed A&R manager of a new independent label, Spin Records. Kipner briefly took over as the group's manager and successfully negotiated their transfer to Spin in exchange for granting Festival the Australian distribution-rights to the group's recordings. Through Kipner the Bee Gees met engineer-producer, Ossie Byrne, who produced (or co-produced with Kipner) many of the earlier Spin recordings, most of which were cut at his own small, self-built St Clair Studio in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville. Byrne gave the Gibb brothers virtually unlimited access to St Clair Studio over a period of several months in mid-1966. The group later acknowledged that this enabled them to greatly improve their skills as recording artists. During this productive time they recorded a large batch of original material—including the song that became their first major hit, "Spicks and Specks" (on which Byrne played the trumpet coda)—as well as cover versions of current hits by overseas acts such as the Beatles. They regularly collaborated with other local musicians, including members of beat band Steve & The Board, led by Steve Kipner, Nat's teenage son.
Frustrated by their lack of success, the Gibbs began their return journey to England on 4 January 1967, with Ossie Byrne travelling with them. While at sea in January 1967, the Gibbs learned that Go-Set, Australia's most popular and influential music newspaper, had declared "Spicks and Specks" the "Best Single of the Year".
1967–1969: International fame and touring years
Bee Gees' 1st, Horizontal and Idea
Before their departure from Australia to England, Hugh Gibb sent demos to Brian Epstein, who managed the Beatles and directed NEMS, a British music store. Epstein passed the demo tapes to Robert Stigwood, who had recently joined NEMS. After an audition with Stigwood in February 1967, the Bee Gees signed a five-year contract whereby Polydor Records would release their records in the UK, and Atco Records would do so in the US. Work quickly began on the group's first international album, and Stigwood launched a promotional campaign to coincide with its release.
Stigwood proclaimed that the Bee Gees were "The most significant new musical talent of 1967", thus initiating the comparison of the Bee Gees to the Beatles. Before recording the first album, the group expanded to include Colin Petersen and Vince Melouney. "New York Mining Disaster 1941," their second British single (their first-issued UK 45 rpm was "Spicks and Specks"), was issued to radio stations with a blank white label listing only the song title. Some DJs immediately assumed this was a new single by the Beatles and started playing the song in heavy rotation. This helped the song climb into the top 20 in both the UK and US.
No such chicanery was needed to boost the Bee Gees' next single, "To Love Somebody", into the US Top 20. Originally written for Otis Redding, "To Love Somebody", a soulful ballad sung by Barry, has since become a pop standard covered by many artists. Another single, "Holiday", released in the US, peaked at No. 16.
The parent album, Bee Gees 1st (their first internationally), peaked at No. 7 in the US and No. 8 in the UK. Bill Shepherd was credited as the arranger. After recording that album, the group recorded their first BBC session at the Playhouse Theatre, Northumberland Avenue, in London, with Bill Bebb as the producer, and they performed three songs. That session is included on BBC Sessions: 1967–1973 (2008). After the release of Bee Gees' 1st, the group was first introduced in New York as "the English surprise." At that time, the band made their first British TV appearance on Top of the Pops. Maurice recalled:
In late 1967, they began recording the second album. On 21 December 1967, in a live broadcast from Liverpool Anglican Cathedral for a Christmas television special called How On Earth?, they performed their own song, "Thank You For Christmas" which was written especially for the programme, as well as a medley of the traditional Christmas carols "Silent Night," "The First Noel" and "Mary's Boy Child" (the latter incorrectly noted as "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" on tape boxes and subsequent release). The songs were all pre-recorded on 1 December 1967 and the group lip-synched their performance. The recordings were eventually released on the "Horizontal" reissue bonus disc in 2008. The folk group the Settlers and Radio 1 disc-jockey, Kenny Everett, also performed on the programme which was presented by the Reverend Edward H. Patey, dean of the cathedral.
January 1968 began with a promotional trip to the US. Los Angeles Police were on alert in anticipation of a Beatles-type reception, and special security arrangements were being put in place. In February, Horizontal repeated the success of their first album, featuring the group's first UK No. 1 single "Massachusetts" (a No. 11 US hit) and the No. 7 UK single "World." The sound of the album Horizontal had a more "rock" sound than their previous release, although ballads like "And the Sun Will Shine" and "Really and Sincerely" were also prominent. The Horizontal album reached No. 12 in the US and No. 16 in the UK.
With the release of Horizontal, they also embarked on a Scandinavian tour with concerts in Copenhagen. Around the same time, the Bee Gees turned down an offer to write and perform the soundtrack for the film Wonderwall, according to director Joe Massot.
On 27 February 1968, the band, backed by the 17-piece Massachusetts String Orchestra, began their first tour of Germany with two concerts at Hamburg Musikhalle. In March 1968, the band was supported by Procol Harum (who had a well-known hit "A Whiter Shade of Pale") on their German tour. As Robin's partner Molly Hullis recalls: "Germans were wilder than the fans in England at the heights of Beatlemania." The tour schedule took them to 11 venues in as many days with 18 concerts played, finishing with a brace of shows at the Stadthalle, Braunschweig.
After that, the group was off to Switzerland. As Maurice described it:
On 17 March, the band performed "Words" on The Ed Sullivan Show. The other artists who performed on that night's show were Lucille Ball, George Hamilton and Fran Jeffries. On 27 March 1968, the band performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Two more singles followed in early 1968: the ballad "Words" (No. 8 UK, No. 15 US) and the double A-sided single "Jumbo" backed with "The Singer Sang His Song". "Jumbo" only reached No. 25 in the UK and No. 57 in the US. The Bee Gees felt "The Singer Sang His Song" was the stronger of the two sides, an opinion shared by listeners in the Netherlands who made it a No. 3 hit.
Further Bee Gees chart singles followed: "I've Gotta Get a Message to You", their second UK No. 1 (No. 8 US), and "I Started a Joke" (No. 6 US), both culled from the band's third album Idea. Idea reached No. 4 in the UK and was another top 20 album in the US (No. 17).
After the tour and TV special to promote the album, Vince Melouney left the group, desiring to play more of a blues style music than the Gibbs were writing. Melouney did achieve one feat while with the Bee Gees: his composition "Such a Shame" (from Idea) is the only song on any Bee Gees album not written by a Gibb brother.
The band were due to begin a seven-week tour of the US on 2 August 1968, but on 27 July, Robin collapsed and fell unconscious. He was admitted to a London nursing home suffering from nervous exhaustion, and the American tour was postponed. The band began recording their sixth album, which resulted in their spending a week recording at Atlantic Studios in New York. Robin, still feeling poorly, missed the New York sessions, but the rest of the band put away instrumental tracks and demos.
Odessa, Cucumber Castle and break-up
By 1969, Robin began to feel that Stigwood had been favouring Barry as the frontman.
The Bee Gees' performances in early 1969 on the Top of the Pops and The Tom Jones Show performing "I Started a Joke" and "First of May" as a medley was one of the last live performances of the group with Robin.
Their next album, which was to have been a concept album called Masterpeace, evolved into the double-album Odessa. Most rock critics felt this was the best Bee Gees album of the 1960s with its progressive rock feel on the title track, the country-flavoured "Marley Purt Drive" and "Give Your Best", and ballads such as "Melody Fair" and "First of May" (the last of which became the only single from the album and a UK # 6 hit). Feeling the flipside, "Lamplight," should have been the A-side, Robin quit the group in mid-1969 and launched a solo career.
The first of many Bee Gees compilations, Best of Bee Gees, was released featuring the non-LP single "Words" plus the Australian hit "Spicks and Specks". The single "Tomorrow Tomorrow" was also released and was a moderate hit in the UK, where it reached No. 23, but it was only No. 54 in the US. The compilation reached the top 10 in both the UK and the US.
While Robin pursued his solo career, Barry, Maurice and Petersen continued on as the Bee Gees recording their next album, Cucumber Castle. The band made their debut performance without Robin at Talk of the Town. They had recruited their sister, Lesley, into the group at this time. To accompany the album, they also filmed a TV special with Frankie Howerd and cameos from several other contemporary pop and rock stars, which aired on the BBC in December 1970. Petersen played drums on the tracks recorded for the album but was fired from the group after filming began (he went on to form the Humpy Bong with Jonathan Kelly). His parts were edited out of the final cut of the film and Pentangle drummer Terry Cox was recruited to complete the recording of songs for the album.
After the album was released in early 1970, it seemed that the Bee Gees were finished. The leadoff single, "Don't Forget to Remember", was a big hit in the UK, reaching No. 2, but only reached No. 73 in the US. The next two singles, "I.O.I.O." and "If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else", barely scraped the charts. On 1 December 1969, Barry and Maurice parted ways professionally.
Maurice started to record his first solo album, The Loner, which was not released. Meanwhile, he released the single "Railroad" and starred in the West End musical Sing a Rude Song. In February 1970, Barry recorded a solo album which never saw official release either, although "I'll Kiss Your Memory" was released as a single backed by "This Time" without much interest. Meanwhile, Robin saw success in Europe and Australia with his No. 2 hit "Saved by the Bell" and the album Robin's Reign.
1970–1974: Reformation
In mid 1970, according to Barry, "Robin rang me in Spain where I was on holiday [saying] 'let's do it again'". By 21 August 1970, after they had reunited, Barry announced that the Bee Gees "are there and they will never, ever part again". Maurice said, "We just discussed it and re-formed. We want to apologise publicly to Robin for the things that have been said." Earlier, in June 1970, Robin and Maurice recorded a dozen songs before Barry joined and included two songs that were on their reunion album. Around the same time, Barry and Robin were about to publish the book On the Other Hand. They also recruited Geoff Bridgford as the group's official drummer. Bridgford had previously worked with the Groove and Tin Tin and played drums on Maurice's unreleased first solo album.
In 1970, 2 Years On was released in October in the US and November in the UK. The lead single "Lonely Days" reached No. 3 in the United States, promoted by appearances on The Johnny Cash Show, Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Dick Cavett Show and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Their ninth album, Trafalgar, was released in late 1971. The single "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" was their first to hit No. 1 on the US charts, while "Israel" reached No. 22 in the Netherlands. "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" also brought the Bee Gees their first Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Later that year, the group's songs were included in the soundtrack for the film Melody.
In 1972, they hit No. 16 in the US with the non-album single "My World", backed by Maurice's composition "On Time". Another 1972 single, "Run to Me" from the LP To Whom It May Concern, returned them to the UK top 10 for the first time in three years. On 24 November 1972, the band headlined the "Woodstock of the West" Festival at the Los Angeles Coliseum (which was a West Coast answer to Woodstock in New York), which also featured Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder and the Eagles. Also in 1972, the group sang "Hey Jude" with Wilson Pickett.
By 1973, however, the Bee Gees were in a rut. The album Life in a Tin Can, released on Robert Stigwood's newly formed RSO Records, and its lead-off single, "Saw a New Morning", sold poorly with the single peaking at No. 94. This was followed by an unreleased album (known as A Kick in the Head Is Worth Eight in the Pants). A second compilation album, Best of Bee Gees, Volume 2, was released in 1973, although it did not repeat the success of Volume 1. On 6 April 1973 episode of The Midnight Special they performed "Money (That's What I Want)" with Jerry Lee Lewis. Also in 1973, they were invited by Chuck Berry to perform two songs with him onstage at The Midnight Special: "Johnny B. Goode" and "Reelin' and Rockin'".
After a tour of the United States in early 1974 and a Canadian tour later in the year, the group ended up playing small clubs. As Barry joked, "We ended up in, have you ever heard of Batley's the variety club in (West Yorkshire) England?".
On the advice of Ahmet Ertegun, head of their US label Atlantic Records, Stigwood arranged for the group to record with soul music producer Arif Mardin. The resulting LP, Mr. Natural, included fewer ballads and foreshadowed the R&B direction of the rest of their career. When it, too, failed to attract much interest, Mardin encouraged them to work within the soul music style. The brothers attempted to assemble a live stage band that could replicate their studio sound. Lead guitarist Alan Kendall had come on board in 1971 but did not have much to do until Mr. Natural. For that album, they added drummer Dennis Bryon, and they later added ex-Strawbs keyboard player Blue Weaver, completing the Bee Gees band that lasted through the late '70s. Maurice, who had previously performed on piano, guitar, harpsichord, electric piano, organ, mellotron and bass guitar, as well as mandolin and Moog synthesiser, by then confined himself to bass onstage.
1975–1979: Turning to disco
Main Course and Children of the World
At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record at Criteria Studios. After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs, including their second US No. 1, "Jive Talkin'", along with US No. 7 "Nights on Broadway". The band liked the resulting new sound. This time the public agreed by sending the LP Main Course up the charts. This album included the first Bee Gees songs wherein Barry used falsetto, something that became a trademark of the band. This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album.
On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang "To Love Somebody" with Helen Reddy. Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers—"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" with Barry providing lead vocals, and "Sun King" with Maurice providing lead vocals, for the unsuccessful musical/documentary All This and World War II.
The next album, Children of the World, released in September 1976, was filled with Barry's new-found falsetto and Weaver's synthesizer disco licks. The first single from the album was "You Should Be Dancing", which features percussion work by musician Stephen Stills. The song pushed the Bee Gees to a level of stardom they had not previously achieved in the US, though their new R&B/disco sound was not as popular with some diehard fans. The pop ballad "Love So Right" reached No. 3 in the US, and "Boogie Child" reached US No. 12 in January 1977. The album peaked at No. 8 in the US.
Saturday Night Fever and Spirits Having Flown
Following a successful live album, Here at Last... Bee Gees... Live, the Bee Gees agreed with Stigwood to participate in the creation of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. It was the turning point of their career. The cultural impact of both the film and the soundtrack was significant throughout the world, epitomizing the disco phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic.
The band's involvement in the film did not begin until post-production. As John Travolta asserted, "The Bee Gees weren't even involved in the movie in the beginning ... I was dancing to Stevie Wonder and Boz Scaggs." Producer Robert Stigwood commissioned the Bee Gees to create the songs for the film. The brothers wrote the songs "virtually in a single weekend" at Château d'Hérouville studio in France. Barry Gibb remembered the reaction when Stigwood and music supervisor Bill Oakes arrived and listened to the demos:
Bill Oakes, who supervised the soundtrack, asserts that Saturday Night Fever did not begin the disco craze but rather prolonged it: "Disco had run its course. These days, Fever is credited with kicking off the whole disco thing—it really didn't. Truth is, it breathed new life into a genre that was actually dying."
Three Bee Gees singles—"How Deep Is Your Love" (US No. 1, UK No. 3), "Stayin' Alive" (US No. 1, UK No. 4) and "Night Fever" (US No. 1, UK No. 1)—charted high in many countries around the world, launching the most popular period of the disco era. They also penned the song "If I Can't Have You", which became a US No. 1 hit for Yvonne Elliman, while the Bee Gees' own version was the B-side of "Stayin' Alive". Such was the popularity of Saturday Night Fever that two different versions of the song "More Than a Woman" received airplay, one by the Bee Gees, which was relegated to an album track, and another by Tavares, which was the hit.
During a nine-month period beginning in the Christmas season of 1977, seven songs written by the brothers held the No. 1 position on the US charts for 27 of 37 consecutive weeks: three of their own releases, two for brother Andy Gibb, the Yvonne Elliman single, and "Grease", performed by Frankie Valli.
Fuelled by the film's success, the soundtrack broke multiple industry records, becoming the highest-selling album in recording history to that point. With more than 40 million copies sold, Saturday Night Fever is among music's top five best selling soundtrack albums. , it is calculated as the fourth highest-selling album worldwide.
In March 1978, the Bee Gees held the top two positions on the US charts with "Night Fever" and "Stayin' Alive", the first time this had happened since the Beatles. On the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for 25 March 1978, five songs written by the Gibbs were in the US top 10 at the same time: "Night Fever", "Stayin' Alive", "If I Can't Have You", "Emotion" and "Love Is Thicker Than Water". Such chart dominance had not been seen since April 1964, when the Beatles had all five of the top five American singles. Barry Gibb became the only songwriter to have four consecutive number-one hits in the US, breaking the John Lennon and Paul McCartney 1964 record. These songs were "Stayin' Alive", "Love Is Thicker Than Water", "Night Fever" and "If I Can't Have You".
The Bee Gees won five Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever over two years: Album of the Year, Producer of the Year (with Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson), two awards for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals (one in 1978 for "How Deep Is Your Love" and one in 1979 for "Stayin' Alive"), and Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices for "Stayin' Alive".
During this era, Barry and Robin also wrote "Emotion" for an old friend, Australian vocalist Samantha Sang, who made it a top 10 hit, with the Bee Gees singing backing vocals. Barry also wrote the title song to the film version of the Broadway musical Grease for Frankie Valli to perform, which went to No. 1.
The Bee Gees also co-starred with Peter Frampton in Robert Stigwood's film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), loosely inspired by the classic 1967 album by the Beatles. The movie had been heavily promoted prior to release and was expected to enjoy great commercial success. However, it was savaged by film critics as a disjointed mess and ignored by the public. Though some of its tracks charted, the soundtrack too was a high-profile flop. The single "Oh! Darling", credited to Robin Gibb, reached No. 15 in the US.
The Bee Gees' follow-up to Saturday Night Fever was the Spirits Having Flown album. It yielded three more hits: "Too Much Heaven" (US No. 1, UK No. 3), "Tragedy" (US No. 1, UK No. 1), and "Love You Inside Out" (US No. 1, UK No. 13). This gave the act six consecutive No. 1 singles in the US within a year and a half, equalling the Beatles and surpassed only by Whitney Houston.
In January 1979, the Bee Gees performed "Too Much Heaven" as their contribution to the Music for UNICEF Concert at the United Nations General Assembly. During the summer of 1979, the Bee Gees embarked on their largest concert tour covering the US and Canada. The Spirits Having Flown tour capitalised on Bee Gees fever that was sweeping the nation, with sold-out concerts in 38 cities. The Bee Gees produced a video for the title track "Too Much Heaven", directed by Miami-based filmmaker Martin Pitts and produced by Charles Allen. With this video, Pitts and Allen began a long association with the brothers.
The Bee Gees even had a country hit in 1979 with "Rest Your Love on Me", the flip side of their pop hit "Too Much Heaven", which made the top 40 on the country charts. It was also a 1981 hit for Conway Twitty, topping the country music charts.
The Bee Gees' overwhelming success rose and fell with the disco bubble. By the end of 1979, disco was rapidly declining in popularity, and the backlash against disco put the Bee Gees' American career in a tailspin. Radio stations around the US began promoting "Bee Gee-Free Weekends". Following their remarkable run from 1975 to 1979, the act had only one more top 10 single in the US, and that did not come until the single "One" reached number 7 in 1989.
Barry Gibb considered the success of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack both a blessing and a curse:
1980–1986: Outside projects, band turmoil, solo efforts and decline
Robin co-produced Jimmy Ruffin's Sunrise released in May 1980, but the songs were started in 1979; the album contains songs written by the Gibb brothers, including the single "Hold On To My Love".
In March 1980, Barry Gibb worked with Barbra Streisand on her album Guilty. He co-produced, and wrote or co-wrote all nine of the album's tracks (four of them written with Robin, and the title track with both Robin and Maurice). Barry also appeared on the album's cover with Streisand and duetted with her on two tracks. The album reached No. 1 in both the US and the UK, as did the single "Woman in Love" (written by Barry and Robin), becoming Streisand's most successful single and album to date. Both of the Streisand/Gibb duets, "Guilty" and "What Kind of Fool", also reached the US Top 10.
In 1981, the Bee Gees released the album Living Eyes, their last full-length album release on RSO. This album was the first CD ever played in public, when it was played to viewers of the BBC show Tomorrow's World. With the disco backlash still running strong, the album failed to make the UK or US Top 40—breaking their streak of Top 40 hits, which started in 1975 with "Jive Talkin'". Two singles from the album fared little better—"He's a Liar", which reached No. 30 in the US, and "Living Eyes", which reached No. 45.
In 1982, Dionne Warwick enjoyed a UK No. 2 and US Adult Contemporary No. 1 hit with her comeback single, "Heartbreaker", taken from her eponymous album written largely by the Bee Gees and co-produced by Barry Gibb. The album reached No. 3 in the UK and the Top 30 in the US, where it was certified Gold.
A year later, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers recorded the Bee Gees-penned track "Islands in the Stream", which became a US and Australian No. 1 hit and entered the Top 10 in the UK. Rogers' 1983 album, Eyes That See in the Dark, was written entirely by the Bee Gees and co-produced by Barry. The album was a Top 10 hit in the US and was certified Double Platinum.
The Bee Gees had greater success with the soundtrack to Staying Alive in 1983, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever. The soundtrack was certified platinum in the US, and included their Top 30 hit "The Woman in You".
Also in 1983, the band was sued by Chicago songwriter Ronald Selle, who claimed the brothers stole melodic material from one of his songs, "Let It End", and used it in "How Deep Is Your Love". At first, the Bee Gees lost the case; one juror said that a factor in the jury's decision was the Gibbs' failure to introduce expert testimony rebutting the plaintiff's expert testimony that it was "impossible" for the two songs to have been written independently. However, the verdict was overturned a few months later.
In August 1983, Barry signed a solo deal with MCA Records and spent much of late 1983 and 1984 writing songs for this first solo effort, Now Voyager. Robin released three solo albums in the 1980s, How Old Are You?, Secret Agent and Walls Have Eyes. Maurice released his second single to date, "Hold Her in Your Hand", the first one having been released in 1970.
In 1985, Diana Ross released the album Eaten Alive, written by the Bee Gees, with the title track co-written with Michael Jackson (who also performed on the track). The album was again co-produced by Barry Gibb, and the single "Chain Reaction" gave Ross a UK and Australian No. 1 hit.
1987–1999: Comeback, return to popularity and Andy's death
The Bee Gees released the album E.S.P. in 1987, which sold over 2 million copies. It was their first album in six years, and their first for Warner Bros. Records. The single "You Win Again" went to No. 1 in numerous countries, including the UK, and made the Bee Gees the first group to score a UK No. 1 hit in each of three decades: the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The single was a disappointment in the US, charting at No. 75, and the Bee Gees voiced their frustration over American radio stations not playing their new European hit single, an omission which the group felt led to poor sales of their current album in the US. The song won the Bee Gees the 1987 British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, and in February 1988 the band received a Brit Award nomination for Best British Group.
On 10 March 1988, younger brother Andy Gibb died, aged 30, as a result of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle due to a recent viral infection. The Bee Gees later got together with Eric Clapton to create a group called 'the Bunburys' to raise money for English charities. The group recorded three songs for The Bunbury Tails: "We're the Bunburys" (which eventually became the opening theme to the 1992 animated series The Bunbury Tails), "Bunbury Afternoon", and "Fight (No Matter How Long)". The last song reached No. 8 on the rock music chart and appeared on The 1988 Summer Olympics Album. The Bee Gees' next album, One (1989), featured a song dedicated to Andy, "Wish You Were Here". The album also contained their first US Top 10 hit (No. 7) in a decade, "One" (an Adult Contemporary No. 1). After the album's release, the band embarked on its first world tour in 10 years.
In the UK, Polydor issued a single-disc hits collection from Tales called The Very Best of the Bee Gees, which contained their biggest UK hits. The album became one of their best-selling albums in that country, and was eventually certified Triple Platinum.
Following their next album, High Civilization (1991), which contained the UK top five hit "Secret Love", the Bee Gees went on a European tour. After the tour, Barry Gibb began to battle a serious back problem, which required surgery. In addition, he suffered from arthritis which, at one point, was so severe that it was doubtful that he would be able to play guitar for much longer. Also, in the early 1990s, Maurice Gibb finally sought treatment for his alcoholism, which he had battled for many years with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous.
In 1993, the group returned to the Polydor label and released the album Size Isn't Everything, which contained the UK top five hit "For Whom the Bell Tolls". Success still eluded them in the US, however, as the first single released, "Paying the Price of Love", only managed to reach No. 74 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the parent album stalled at No. 153.
In 1997, they released the album Still Waters, which has reached No. 2 in the UK (their highest album chart position there since 1979) and No. 11 in the US. The album's first single, "Alone", gave them another UK Top 5 hit and a top 30 hit in the US. Still Waters was the band's most successful US release of their post-RSO era.
At the 1997 BRIT Awards held in Earls Court, London on 24 February, the Bee Gees received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. On 14 November 1997, the Bee Gees performed a live concert in Las Vegas called One Night Only. The show included a performance of "Our Love (Don't Throw It All Away)" synchronised with a vocal by their deceased brother Andy and a cameo appearance by Celine Dion singing "Immortality". The "One Night Only" name grew out of the band's declaration that, due to Barry's health issues, the Las Vegas show was to be the final live performance of their career. After the immensely positive audience response to the Vegas concert, Barry decided to continue despite the pain, and the concert expanded into their last full-blown world tour of "One Night Only" concerts. The tour included playing to 56,000 people at London's Wembley Stadium on 5 September 1998 and concluded in the newly built Olympic Stadium in Sydney, Australia on 27 March 1999 to 72,000 people.
In 1998, the group's soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever was incorporated into a stage production produced first in the West End and then on Broadway. They wrote three new songs for the adaptation. Also in 1998, the brothers released "Ellan Vannin" for Manx charities, recorded the previous year. Known as the unofficial national anthem of the Isle of Man, the brothers performed the song during their world tour to reflect their pride in the place of their birth.
The Bee Gees closed the century with what turned out to be their last full-sized concert, known as BG2K, on 31 December 1999.
2000–2008: This Is Where I Came In and Maurice's death
In 2001, the group released what turned out to be their final album of new material, This Is Where I Came In. The album was another success, reaching the Top 10 in the UK (being certified Gold), and the Top 20 in the US. The title track was also a UK Top 20 hit single.
The last concert of the Bee Gees as a trio was at the Love and Hope Ball in 2002. Maurice Gibb died unexpectedly on 12 January 2003, at age 53, from a heart attack while awaiting emergency surgery to repair a strangulated intestine. Initially, his surviving brothers announced that they intended to carry on the name "Bee Gees" in his memory, but as time passed they decided to retire the group's name, leaving it to represent the three brothers together.
The same week that Maurice died, Robin's solo album Magnet was released. On 23 February 2003, the Bee Gees received the Grammy Legend Award, they also became the first recipients of that award in the 21st century. Barry and Robin accepted as well as Maurice's son, Adam, in a tearful ceremony.
In late 2004, Robin embarked on a solo tour of Germany, Russia and Asia. During January 2005, Barry, Robin and several legendary rock artists recorded "Grief Never Grows Old", the official tsunami relief record for the Disasters Emergency Committee. Later that year, Barry reunited with Barbra Streisand for her top-selling album Guilty Pleasures, released as Guilty Too in the UK as a sequel album to the previous Guilty. Also in 2004, Barry recorded his song "I Cannot Give You My Love" with Cliff Richard, which became a UK top 20 hit single.
In February 2006, Barry and Robin reunited on stage for a Miami charity concert to benefit the Diabetes Research Institute. It was their first public performance together since Maurice's death. The pair also played at the 30th annual Prince's Trust Concert in the UK on 20 May 2006.
2009–2012: Return to performing and Robin's death
Barry and Robin performed on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing on 31 October 2009 and appeared on ABC-TV's Dancing with the Stars on 17 November 2009. On 15 March 2010, Barry and Robin inducted the Swedish group ABBA into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On 26 May 2010, the two made a surprise appearance on the ninth-season finale of American Idol.
On 20 November 2011 it was announced that Robin Gibb, at 61 years old, had been diagnosed with liver cancer, a condition he had become aware of several months earlier. He had become noticeably thinner in previous months and had to cancel several appearances due to severe abdominal pain. Robin joined British military trio the Soldiers for the Coming Home charity concert on 13 February 2012 at the London Palladium, in support of injured servicemen. It was his first public appearance for almost five months and, as it turned out, his final one. On 14 April 2012, it was reported that Robin had contracted pneumonia in a Chelsea hospital and was in a coma. Although he came out of his coma on 20 April 2012, his condition deteriorated rapidly and he died on 20 May 2012 of liver and kidney failure.
2013–present: Looking back at a lifetime of music
In September and October 2013, Barry performed his first solo tour "in honour of his brothers and a lifetime of music". In addition to the Rhino collection, The Studio Albums: 1967–1968, Warner Bros. released a box set in 2014 called The Warner Bros Years: 1987–1991 that included the studio albums E.S.P., One and High Civilization as well as extended mixes and B-sides. It also included the band's entire 1989 concert in Melbourne, Australia, available only on video as All for One prior to this release. The documentary The Joy of the Bee Gees was aired on BBC Four on 19 December 2014.
On 23 March 2015, 13STAR Records released a box set 1974–1979 which included the studio albums Mr. Natural, Main Course, Children of the World and Spirits Having Flown. A fifth disc called The Miami Years includes all the tracks from Saturday Night Fever as well as B-sides. No unreleased tracks from the era were included.
After a hiatus from performing, Barry Gibb returned to solo and guest singing performances. He occasionally appears with his son, Steve Gibb. In 2016, he released In the Now, his first solo effort since 1984's Now Voyager. It was the first release of new Bee Gees-related music since the posthumous release of Robin Gibb's 50 St. Catherine's Drive. Also in 2016, Capitol Records signed a new distribution deal with Barry and the estates of his brothers for the Bee Gees catalogue, bringing their music back to Universal.
An as-yet-untitled biopic about the Bee Gees is in development at Paramount, with Kenneth Branagh directing and Barry Gibb serving as an executive producer.
Influences
The Bee Gees were influenced by the Beatles, the Everly Brothers, the Mills Brothers, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, Roy Orbison, the Beach Boys and Stevie Wonder. On the 2014 documentary The Joy of the Bee Gees, Barry said that the Bee Gees were also influenced by the Hollies and Otis Redding. Maurice noted that Neil Sedaka was an early influence, and later the group was "very influenced" by Linda Creed songs for the Stylistics.
Legacy
In his 1980 Playboy magazine interview, John Lennon praised the Bee Gees, "Try to tell the kids in the seventies who were screaming to the Bee Gees that their music was just the Beatles redone. There is nothing wrong with the Bee Gees. They do a damn good job. There was nothing else going on then."
In a 2007 interview with Duane Hitchings, who co-wrote Rod Stewart's 1978 disco song "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?", he noted that the song was:
Kevin Parker of Tame Impala has said that listening to the Bee Gees after taking mushrooms inspired him to change the sound of the music he was making on his album Currents.
The English indie rock band the Cribs was also influenced by the Bee Gees. Cribs member Ryan Jarman said: "It must have had quite a big influence on us – pop melodies is something we always revert to. I always want to get back to pop melodies and I'm sure that's due to that Bee Gees phase we went through."
Following Robin's death on 20 May 2012, Beyoncé remarked: "The Bee Gees were an early inspiration for me, Kelly Rowland and Michelle. We loved their songwriting and beautiful harmonies. Recording their classic song, 'Emotion' was a special time for Destiny's Child. Sadly we lost Robin Gibb this week. My heart goes out to his brother Barry and the rest of his family."
Singer Jordin Sparks remarked that her favourite Bee Gees songs are "Too Much Heaven", "Emotion" (although performed by Samantha Sang with Barry on the background vocals using his falsetto), and "Stayin' Alive".
Carrie Underwood said, about discovering the Bee Gees during her childhood, "My parents listened to the Bee Gees quite a bit when I was little, so I was definitely exposed to them at an early age. They just had a sound that was all their own, obviously, [it was] never duplicated."
Songwriting
At one point, in 1978, the Gibb brothers were responsible for writing and/or performing nine of the songs in the Billboard Hot 100. In all, the Gibbs placed 13 singles onto the Hot 100 in 1978, with 12 making the Top 40. The Gibb brothers are fellows of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA). At least 2,500 artists have recorded their songs.
Singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw spoke about the Bee Gees' influence with their own music as well as their songwriting:
In 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Bee Gees were announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for their role as "Influential Artists".
Accolades and achievements
In 1978, following the success of Saturday Night Fever, and the single "Night Fever" in particular, Reubin Askew, the governor of the US state of Florida, named the Bee Gees honorary citizens of the state, since they resided in Miami at the time. In 1979, the Bee Gees got their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They were the subjects of This Is Your Life in 1991 when they were surprised by Michael Aspel while being interviewed by disc jockey Steve Wright (DJ) on his Radio 1 programme at BBC Broadcasting House.
The Bee Gees were inducted in 1994 into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, as well as Florida's Artists Hall of Fame in 1995 and the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1997. Also in 1997, the group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; the presenter of the award to "Britain's First Family of Harmony" was Brian Wilson, historical leader of the Beach Boys, another "family act" featuring three harmonising brothers. In 2001, they were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. After Maurice's death, the Bee Gees were also inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2001, London's Walk of Fame in 2006 and Musically Speaking Hall Of Fame in 2008. On 15 May 2007, the Bee Gees were named BMI Icons at the 55th annual BMI Pop Awards. Collectively, Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb have earned 109 BMI Pop, Country and Latin Awards.
In October 1999, the Isle of Man Post Office unveiled a set of six stamps honouring the Bee Gees.
All three brothers (including Maurice posthumously) were invested as Commanders of the Order of the British Empire in December 2001 with the ceremony taking place at Buckingham Palace on 27 May 2004. On 10 July 2009, the Isle of Man's capital bestowed the Freedom of the Borough of Douglas honour on Barry and Robin, as well as posthumously on Maurice. On 20 November 2009, the Douglas Borough Council released a limited edition commemorative DVD to mark their naming as Freemen of the Borough.
On 14 February 2013, Barry Gibb unveiled a statue of the Bee Gees as well as unveiling "Bee Gees Way" (a walkway filled with photos and videos of the Bee Gees) in honour of the Bee Gees in Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia. On 27 June 2018, Barry Gibb, the last surviving member of the Bee Gees, was knighted by Prince Charles after being named on the Queen's New Years Honours List. The statue of the Bee Gees in Douglas, Isle of Man, was installed in 2021.
In 2022, the last surviving member of the group, Barry Gibb, was made an Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia which is Australia's highest national honour.
The Bee Gees have sold over 220 million records worldwide, making them one of the best selling artists of all time. The group are to date the most successful family and sibling band of all time, the most successful musical trio of all time, and the most successful musical act with ties to Australia.
Awards and nominations
Queensland Music Awards
The Queensland Music Awards (previously known as Q Song Awards) are annual awards celebrating Queensland, Australia's brightest emerging artists and established legends. They commenced in 2006.
(wins only)
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| 2009
| themselves
| Grant McLennan Lifetime Achievement Award
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Band members
Principal members
Barry Gibb – vocals, rhythm guitar (1958–2003, 2006, 2009–2012)
Robin Gibb – vocals, occasional keyboards (1958–1969, 1970–2003, 2006, 2009–2012; d. 2012)
Maurice Gibb – bass, rhythm and lead guitars, keyboards, vocals (1958–2003; d. 2003)
Colin Petersen – drums (1967–1969)
Vince Melouney – lead guitar (1967–1968)
Geoff Bridgford – drums (1971–1972; touring 1970-1971)
Touring musicians
Alan Kendall – lead guitar (1971–1981, 1989–2003)
Chris Karan – drums (1972)
Dennis Bryon – drums (1973–1981)
Geoff Westley – keyboards, piano (1973–1976)
Blue Weaver – keyboards, synthesizers (1975–1981)
Joe Lala – percussion (1976, 1979)
Joey Murcia – rhythm guitar (1976, 1979)
Harold Cowart – bass (1979)
Tim Cansfield – lead guitar (1989)
Vic Martin – keyboard, synthesizer (1989)
Gary Moberly – keyboard, synthesizer (1989)
George Perry – bass (1989–1993)
Chester Thompson – drums (1989)
Mike Murphy – drums (1989)
Trevor Murrell – drums (1991–1992)
Rudi Dobson – keyboards (1991–1992)
Scott F. Crago – drums
Ben Stivers – keyboard (1996–1999)
Matt Bonelli – bass (1993–2001)
Steve Rucker – drums (1993–1999)
Guest musicians (studio and touring)
Phil Collins – drums
Lenny Castro – percussion
Glenn Frey – guitar
Timothy B. Schmit – bass guitar
Joe Walsh – lead guitar
Don Felder – lead guitar (1981)
Jeff Porcaro – drums
Mike Porcaro – bass guitar
Steve Porcaro – keyboards
Steve Lukather – guitar
David Hungate – bass guitar
David Paich – keyboards
Greg Phillinganes – keyboards
Bobby Kimball – keyboards
Leland Sklar – bass guitar
Reb Beach – lead guitar
Gregg Bissonette – drums
Ricky Lawson – drums
Scott F. Crago – drums
Steve Gadd – drums
Steve Ferrone – drums
Steve Jordan – drums
Nathan East – bass guitar
Steuart Smith – lead guitar
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Timeline
Timeline of touring members
Discography
Soundtracks Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Staying Alive (1983) are not official Bee Gees albums, but contain some previously unreleased tracks. Apart from live and compilation, all their official albums are included on this list. A Kick in the Head Is Worth Eight in the Pants has not been included on the list because it appeared only on numerous bootlegs and was not officially released.
Studio albums
The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs (1965)
Spicks and Specks (1966)
Bee Gees' 1st (1967)
Horizontal (1968)
Idea (1968)
Odessa (1969)
Cucumber Castle (1970)
2 Years On (1970)
Trafalgar (1971)
To Whom It May Concern (1972)
Life in a Tin Can (1973)
Mr. Natural (1974)
Main Course (1975)
Children of the World (1976)
Spirits Having Flown (1979)
Living Eyes (1981)
E.S.P. (1987)
One (1989)
High Civilization (1991)
Size Isn't Everything (1993)
Still Waters (1997)
This Is Where I Came In (2001)
Concert tours
The Bee Gees' concerts in 1967 and 1968 (1967–1968)
2 Years On Tour (1971)
Trafalgar Tour (1972)
Mr. Natural Tour (1974)
Main Course Tour (1975)
Children of the World Tour (1976)
Spirits Having Flown Tour (1979)
One for All World Tour (1989)
High Civilization World Tour (1991)
One Night Only World Tour (1997–1999)
This Is Where I Came In (2001)
Filmography
Citations
General bibliography
.
External links
Bee Gees Official website
Bee Gees at Rolling Stone
Bee Gees' Vocal Group Hall of Fame webpage
Bee Gees at bmi.com
Robin Gibb sadly passes away after losing his battle with cancer
Who Do You Think You Are? – Bee Gees Family History
1958 establishments in Australia
Australian pop rock groups
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Atlantic Records artists
Barry Gibb
Brit Award winners
British disco groups
British musical trios
British soft rock music groups
British soul musical groups
Brunswick Records artists
Capitol Records artists
Child musical groups
English expatriates in Australia
English expatriates in the United States
English pop music groups
English rock music groups
Grammy Legend Award winners
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Mercury Records artists
Manx musical groups
Maurice Gibb
Musical groups established in 1958
Musical groups disestablished in 2003
Musical groups reestablished in 2009
Musical groups disestablished in 2012
Musical groups from Manchester
Queensland musical groups
Philips Records artists
Q150 Icons
Robin Gibb
RSO Records artists
Sibling musical trios
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors
United Artists Records artists
Warner Records artists
World Music Awards winners | true | [
"That's What Friends Are For is a song by the British rock band Slade, released in 1987 as the second single from their fourteenth studio album You Boyz Make Big Noize. The song was written by lead vocalist Noddy Holder and bassist Jim Lea, and produced by Roy Thomas Baker. It reached No. 95 in the UK, remaining in the charts for the one week.\n\nBackground\nSlade began writing and recording material for their You Boyz Make Big Noize album in 1986. Hoping to record a hit album that would put them back in the public eye, the lead single \"Still the Same\" was released in February 1987 but stalled just inside the UK Top 75. In choosing the next single, RCA selected \"That's What Friends Are For\",. which was released in April 1987, a week prior to the release of You Boyz Make Big Noize. It reached No. 95 in the UK, and would be the band's last UK release under RCA.\n\n\"That's What Friends Are For\" was one of two tracks from the album to be produced by Roy Thomas Baker. Initially it was planned for Baker to produce the entire album, but Slade felt his working methods were too lengthy and expensive. Prior to the single's release, in a 1987 fan club interview, guitarist Dave Hill said: \"\"That's What Friends Are For\" looks to be the next single, mainly because there's a certain person up at RCA who is going wally over it.\" Describing the song, Hill said: \"This is a 'scarf waver' type of number\".\n\nRelease\n\"That's What Friends Are For\" was released on 7\" and 12\" vinyl by RCA Records in the UK only. In Europe, it was given a 12\" vinyl release, and a 7\" vinyl release in Australia and New Zealand. The B-side, \"Wild Wild Party\", had first appeared on the soundtrack of the 1986 British film Knights & Emeralds, along with \"We Won't Give In\". It would later appear on the band's 2007 compilation B-Sides.\n\nOn the 12\" single, three B-sides were included: \"Hi Ho Silver Lining,\" \"Wild Wild Party\" and \"Lock Up Your Daughters (Live)\". The band's cover of \"Hi Ho Silver Lining\" was taken from the band's 1985 album Crackers: The Christmas Party Album, while \"Lock Up Your Daughters\" was taken from the band's 1982 live album Slade on Stage.\n\nPromotion\nNo music video was filmed to promote the single. In the UK, the band performed the song on the BBC children's show The Krankies Elektronik Komik.\n\nCritical reception\nUpon release, \"That's What Friends Are For\" was a single reviewed on BBC Radio One's Singles Out programme on 18 April. The single received a thumbs up by Welsh singer/presenter Aled Jones, Dominica calypso musician The Wizzard and English radio broadcaster Janice Long. In a review of You Boyz Make Big Noize, Kerrang! felt the song, as with the rest of the album, bore the \"unmistakable Slade stamp\" with \"stomp-along, shout-it-out choruses\", but also commented that it \"leans heavily on the sentimental\".\n\nFormats\n7\" Single\n\"That's What Friends Are For\" - 3:17\n\"Wild Wild Party\" - 2:55\n\n12\" Single\n\"That's What Friends Are For\" - 3:17\n\"Hi Ho Silver Lining\" - 3:24\n\"Wild Wild Party\" - 2:55\n\"Lock Up Your Daughters (Live)\" - 4:03\n\nChart performance\n\nPersonnel\nSlade\nNoddy Holder - lead vocals\nJim Lea - synthesizer, bass, backing vocals, producer of all B-Sides\nDave Hill - lead guitar, backing vocals\nDon Powell - drums\n\nAdditional personnel\nRoy Thomas Baker - producer of \"That's What Friends Are For\"\nQuick On The Draw Ltd. - design\n\nReferences\n\n1987 singles\n1987 songs\nSlade songs\nRCA Records singles\nSongs written by Noddy Holder\nSongs written by Jim Lea\nSong recordings produced by Roy Thomas Baker",
"For What It's Worth is an EP by New Jersey hardcore punk band, Ensign. It was released in October, 2000 by Nitro Records and was the band's second release for the label following their first full-length album after leaving Indecision Records, Cast the First Stone. It was recorded in June, 2000 in New York City and at the same time the band produced two further tracks which appeared on the Death By Stereo/Ensign Split 7\" (EP) on Indecision Records in December, 2000. The track, \"Cast In Shadows\" was later re-recorded and appeared on their next album for Nitro Records, The Price of Progression. Another track, \"Left Hand Syndrome\", was destined for the same release, according to the inlay details, but eventually was omitted.\n\nOverview\nAs was heard from Cast the First Stone, the band was beginning to slow their approach to hardcore punk in its purest state. It was on this EP that the transition moved further forward. \"Cast In Shadow\" was a slow-paced, chugging song with variable vocal styles, from Tim Shaw's usual hardcore shout down to a hushed tone for the middle section. The title track and \"Nine-One-Zero-Zero\" perhaps sound more like the Ensign of old, a slow start moving into a fast-paced middle, but with a somewhat metalcore ending. The EP's closer, \"Left Hand Syndrome\", was perhaps somewhat of an experimental track for the band. Straying from the start directly into more melodic hardcore territory, such as that occupied by Good Riddance in \"pop-punk\" mode.\n\nOverall, the actual sound was quite different from Cast the First Stone, due mainly to the fact that Nate Gluck had assumed guitar duties as well as bass, and the raw production. The feel and style was most definitely a precursor for that of their next venture, The Price of Progression.\n\nTrack listing\nAll tracks written by Ensign\n\"Cast In The Shadows\" – 2:11\n\"For What It's Worth\" – 2:59\n\"Nine-One-Zero-Zero\" – 2:27\n\"Left Hand Syndrome\" – 2:19\n\nCredits\n Tim Shaw – vocals\n Nate \"Edge\" Gluck – guitar, bass, backing vocals\n John \"Vince Vegas\" O'Neill – drums\n Recorded in June, 2000 at Spin Recording Studios, Long Island, New York, USA\n Produced by Nate \"Edge\" Gluck\n Engineered by Nik Chinboukas\n Assistant engineered by Pete Benjamin\n Mixed by Nik Chinboukas, Pete Benjamin and Nate \"Edge\" Gluck\n\nExternal links\nIndecision Records\nBlackout Records\nNitro Records\n\nReferences\n\nEnsign (band) EPs\n2000 EPs\nNitro Records EPs"
]
|
[
"Bee Gees",
"Main Course and Children of the World",
"What happened during this time period?",
"At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record.",
"what did that lead to?",
"After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs,",
"any awards or special recognition during this time?",
"This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album.",
"what happened next?",
"On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang \"To Love Somebody\" with Helen Reddy.",
"what do you find interesting in the article?",
"Barry used falsetto, something that would later become a trademark of the band.",
"What was next for the band ?",
"On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course,"
]
| C_6cca1f87ae8e46bd949e4e2bdf8ac2d4_1 | How was that recieved? | 7 | How was the Bee Gees appearance received? | Bee Gees | At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record. After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs, including their second US No. 1, "Jive Talkin'", along with US No. 7 "Nights on Broadway". The band liked the resulting new sound. This time the public agreed by sending the LP Main Course up the charts. This album included the first Bee Gees songs wherein Barry used falsetto, something that would later become a trademark of the band. This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album. On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang "To Love Somebody" with Helen Reddy. Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers--"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" with Barry providing lead vocals, and "Sun King" with Maurice providing lead vocals, for the unsuccessful musical/documentary All This and World War II. The next album, Children of the World released in September 1976, was drenched in Barry's new-found falsetto and Weaver's synthesizer disco licks. Mardin was unavailable to produce, so the Bee Gees enlisted Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson, who had worked with Mardin during the Main Course sessions. This production team would carry the Bee Gees through the rest of the 1970s. The first single from the album was "You Should Be Dancing" (which features percussion work by musician Stephen Stills). The song pushed the Bee Gees to a level of stardom they had not previously achieved in the US, though their new R&B/disco sound was not as popular with some die hard fans. The pop ballad "Love So Right" reached No. 3 in the US, and "Boogie Child" reached US No. 12 in January 1977. The album peaked at No. 8 in the US. A compilation Bee Gees Gold was released in November, containing the group's hits from 1967 to 1972. CANNOTANSWER | Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers--" | The Bee Gees
were a music group formed in 1958, featuring brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful as a popular music act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers of the disco music era in the mid- to late 1970s. The group sang recognisable three-part tight harmonies; Robin's clear vibrato lead vocals were a hallmark of their earlier hits, while Barry's R&B falsetto became their signature sound during the mid- to late 1970s and 1980s. The Bee Gees wrote all of their own hits, as well as writing and producing several major hits for other artists and have been regarded as one of the most important and influential acts in pop music history. They have been referred to in the media as The Disco Kings, Britain’s First Family of Harmony, and The Kings of Dance Music.
Born on the Isle of Man to English parents, the Gibb brothers lived in Chorlton, Manchester, England until the late 1950s. There, in 1955, they formed the skiffle/rock and roll group the Rattlesnakes. The family then moved to Redcliffe, in the Moreton Bay Region, Queensland, Australia, later to Cribb Island. After achieving their first chart success in Australia as the Bee Gees with "Spicks and Specks" (their twelfth single), they returned to the UK in January 1967, when producer Robert Stigwood began promoting them to a worldwide audience. The Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever soundtrack (1977) was the turning point of their career, with both the film and soundtrack having a cultural impact throughout the world, enhancing the disco scene's mainstream appeal. They won five Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever, including Album of the Year.
The Bee Gees have sold over 220 million records worldwide, making them among the best-selling music artists of all time. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997; the Hall's citation says, "Only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney have outsold the Bee Gees." With nine number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, the Bee Gees are the third-most successful band in Billboard charts history behind only the Beatles and the Supremes.
Following Maurice's sudden death in January 2003 at the age of 53, Barry and Robin retired the group's name after 45 years of activity. In 2009, Robin announced that he and Barry had agreed that the Bee Gees would re-form and perform again. Robin died in May 2012, aged 62, after a prolonged period of failing health, leaving Barry as the only surviving member of the group.
History
1955–1966: Music origins, Bee Gees formation and popularity in Australia
Born on the Isle of Man during the late 1940s, the Gibb brothers moved to their father Hugh Gibb's hometown of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Greater Manchester, England in 1955. They formed a skiffle/rock-and-roll group, the Rattlesnakes, which consisted of Barry on guitar and vocals, Robin and Maurice on vocals and friends Paul Frost on drums and Kenny Horrocks on tea-chest bass. In December 1957 the boys began to sing in harmony. The story is told that they were going to lip-sync to a record in the local Gaumont cinema (as other children had done on previous weeks), but as they were running to the theatre, the fragile shellac 78-RPM record broke. The brothers had to sing live, but received such a positive response from the audience that they decided to pursue a singing career. In May 1958 the Rattlesnakes disbanded when Frost and Horrocks left, so the Gibb brothers then formed Wee Johnny Hayes and the Blue Cats, with Barry as "Johnny Hayes".
In August 1958, the Gibb family, including older sister Lesley and infant brother Andy (born in March 1958), emigrated to Australia and settled in Redcliffe, Queensland, just north-east of Brisbane. The young brothers began performing to raise pocket money. Speedway promoter and driver Bill Goode, who had hired the brothers to entertain the crowd at the Redcliffe Speedway in 1960, introduced them to Brisbane radio-presenter jockey Bill Gates. The crowd at the speedway would throw money onto the track for the boys, who generally performed during the interval of meetings (usually on the back of a truck that drove around the track) and, in a deal with Goode, any money they collected from the crowd they were allowed to keep. Gates named the group the "BGs" (later changed to "Bee Gees") after his, Goode's and Barry Gibb's initials. The name was not specifically a reference to "Brothers Gibb", despite popular belief.
During the next few years, they began working regularly at resorts on the Queensland coast. Through his songwriting, Barry sparked the interest of Australian star Col Joye, who helped the brothers get a recording deal in 1963 with Festival Records subsidiary Leedon Records under the name "Bee Gees". The three released two or three singles a year, while Barry supplied additional songs to other Australian artists. In 1962 the Bee Gees were chosen as the supporting act for Chubby Checker's concert at the Sydney Stadium.
From 1963 to 1966, the Gibb family lived at 171 Bunnerong Road, Maroubra, in Sydney. Just prior to his death, Robin Gibb recorded the song "Sydney" about the brothers' experience of living in that city. It was released on his posthumous album 50 St. Catherine's Drive. The house was demolished in 2016.
A minor hit in 1965, "Wine and Women", led to the group's first LP, The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs. By 1966 Festival Records was, however, on the verge of dropping them from the Leedon roster because of their perceived lack of commercial success. At this time the brothers met the American-born songwriter, producer and entrepreneur Nat Kipner, who had just been appointed A&R manager of a new independent label, Spin Records. Kipner briefly took over as the group's manager and successfully negotiated their transfer to Spin in exchange for granting Festival the Australian distribution-rights to the group's recordings. Through Kipner the Bee Gees met engineer-producer, Ossie Byrne, who produced (or co-produced with Kipner) many of the earlier Spin recordings, most of which were cut at his own small, self-built St Clair Studio in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville. Byrne gave the Gibb brothers virtually unlimited access to St Clair Studio over a period of several months in mid-1966. The group later acknowledged that this enabled them to greatly improve their skills as recording artists. During this productive time they recorded a large batch of original material—including the song that became their first major hit, "Spicks and Specks" (on which Byrne played the trumpet coda)—as well as cover versions of current hits by overseas acts such as the Beatles. They regularly collaborated with other local musicians, including members of beat band Steve & The Board, led by Steve Kipner, Nat's teenage son.
Frustrated by their lack of success, the Gibbs began their return journey to England on 4 January 1967, with Ossie Byrne travelling with them. While at sea in January 1967, the Gibbs learned that Go-Set, Australia's most popular and influential music newspaper, had declared "Spicks and Specks" the "Best Single of the Year".
1967–1969: International fame and touring years
Bee Gees' 1st, Horizontal and Idea
Before their departure from Australia to England, Hugh Gibb sent demos to Brian Epstein, who managed the Beatles and directed NEMS, a British music store. Epstein passed the demo tapes to Robert Stigwood, who had recently joined NEMS. After an audition with Stigwood in February 1967, the Bee Gees signed a five-year contract whereby Polydor Records would release their records in the UK, and Atco Records would do so in the US. Work quickly began on the group's first international album, and Stigwood launched a promotional campaign to coincide with its release.
Stigwood proclaimed that the Bee Gees were "The most significant new musical talent of 1967", thus initiating the comparison of the Bee Gees to the Beatles. Before recording the first album, the group expanded to include Colin Petersen and Vince Melouney. "New York Mining Disaster 1941," their second British single (their first-issued UK 45 rpm was "Spicks and Specks"), was issued to radio stations with a blank white label listing only the song title. Some DJs immediately assumed this was a new single by the Beatles and started playing the song in heavy rotation. This helped the song climb into the top 20 in both the UK and US.
No such chicanery was needed to boost the Bee Gees' next single, "To Love Somebody", into the US Top 20. Originally written for Otis Redding, "To Love Somebody", a soulful ballad sung by Barry, has since become a pop standard covered by many artists. Another single, "Holiday", released in the US, peaked at No. 16.
The parent album, Bee Gees 1st (their first internationally), peaked at No. 7 in the US and No. 8 in the UK. Bill Shepherd was credited as the arranger. After recording that album, the group recorded their first BBC session at the Playhouse Theatre, Northumberland Avenue, in London, with Bill Bebb as the producer, and they performed three songs. That session is included on BBC Sessions: 1967–1973 (2008). After the release of Bee Gees' 1st, the group was first introduced in New York as "the English surprise." At that time, the band made their first British TV appearance on Top of the Pops. Maurice recalled:
In late 1967, they began recording the second album. On 21 December 1967, in a live broadcast from Liverpool Anglican Cathedral for a Christmas television special called How On Earth?, they performed their own song, "Thank You For Christmas" which was written especially for the programme, as well as a medley of the traditional Christmas carols "Silent Night," "The First Noel" and "Mary's Boy Child" (the latter incorrectly noted as "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" on tape boxes and subsequent release). The songs were all pre-recorded on 1 December 1967 and the group lip-synched their performance. The recordings were eventually released on the "Horizontal" reissue bonus disc in 2008. The folk group the Settlers and Radio 1 disc-jockey, Kenny Everett, also performed on the programme which was presented by the Reverend Edward H. Patey, dean of the cathedral.
January 1968 began with a promotional trip to the US. Los Angeles Police were on alert in anticipation of a Beatles-type reception, and special security arrangements were being put in place. In February, Horizontal repeated the success of their first album, featuring the group's first UK No. 1 single "Massachusetts" (a No. 11 US hit) and the No. 7 UK single "World." The sound of the album Horizontal had a more "rock" sound than their previous release, although ballads like "And the Sun Will Shine" and "Really and Sincerely" were also prominent. The Horizontal album reached No. 12 in the US and No. 16 in the UK.
With the release of Horizontal, they also embarked on a Scandinavian tour with concerts in Copenhagen. Around the same time, the Bee Gees turned down an offer to write and perform the soundtrack for the film Wonderwall, according to director Joe Massot.
On 27 February 1968, the band, backed by the 17-piece Massachusetts String Orchestra, began their first tour of Germany with two concerts at Hamburg Musikhalle. In March 1968, the band was supported by Procol Harum (who had a well-known hit "A Whiter Shade of Pale") on their German tour. As Robin's partner Molly Hullis recalls: "Germans were wilder than the fans in England at the heights of Beatlemania." The tour schedule took them to 11 venues in as many days with 18 concerts played, finishing with a brace of shows at the Stadthalle, Braunschweig.
After that, the group was off to Switzerland. As Maurice described it:
On 17 March, the band performed "Words" on The Ed Sullivan Show. The other artists who performed on that night's show were Lucille Ball, George Hamilton and Fran Jeffries. On 27 March 1968, the band performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Two more singles followed in early 1968: the ballad "Words" (No. 8 UK, No. 15 US) and the double A-sided single "Jumbo" backed with "The Singer Sang His Song". "Jumbo" only reached No. 25 in the UK and No. 57 in the US. The Bee Gees felt "The Singer Sang His Song" was the stronger of the two sides, an opinion shared by listeners in the Netherlands who made it a No. 3 hit.
Further Bee Gees chart singles followed: "I've Gotta Get a Message to You", their second UK No. 1 (No. 8 US), and "I Started a Joke" (No. 6 US), both culled from the band's third album Idea. Idea reached No. 4 in the UK and was another top 20 album in the US (No. 17).
After the tour and TV special to promote the album, Vince Melouney left the group, desiring to play more of a blues style music than the Gibbs were writing. Melouney did achieve one feat while with the Bee Gees: his composition "Such a Shame" (from Idea) is the only song on any Bee Gees album not written by a Gibb brother.
The band were due to begin a seven-week tour of the US on 2 August 1968, but on 27 July, Robin collapsed and fell unconscious. He was admitted to a London nursing home suffering from nervous exhaustion, and the American tour was postponed. The band began recording their sixth album, which resulted in their spending a week recording at Atlantic Studios in New York. Robin, still feeling poorly, missed the New York sessions, but the rest of the band put away instrumental tracks and demos.
Odessa, Cucumber Castle and break-up
By 1969, Robin began to feel that Stigwood had been favouring Barry as the frontman.
The Bee Gees' performances in early 1969 on the Top of the Pops and The Tom Jones Show performing "I Started a Joke" and "First of May" as a medley was one of the last live performances of the group with Robin.
Their next album, which was to have been a concept album called Masterpeace, evolved into the double-album Odessa. Most rock critics felt this was the best Bee Gees album of the 1960s with its progressive rock feel on the title track, the country-flavoured "Marley Purt Drive" and "Give Your Best", and ballads such as "Melody Fair" and "First of May" (the last of which became the only single from the album and a UK # 6 hit). Feeling the flipside, "Lamplight," should have been the A-side, Robin quit the group in mid-1969 and launched a solo career.
The first of many Bee Gees compilations, Best of Bee Gees, was released featuring the non-LP single "Words" plus the Australian hit "Spicks and Specks". The single "Tomorrow Tomorrow" was also released and was a moderate hit in the UK, where it reached No. 23, but it was only No. 54 in the US. The compilation reached the top 10 in both the UK and the US.
While Robin pursued his solo career, Barry, Maurice and Petersen continued on as the Bee Gees recording their next album, Cucumber Castle. The band made their debut performance without Robin at Talk of the Town. They had recruited their sister, Lesley, into the group at this time. To accompany the album, they also filmed a TV special with Frankie Howerd and cameos from several other contemporary pop and rock stars, which aired on the BBC in December 1970. Petersen played drums on the tracks recorded for the album but was fired from the group after filming began (he went on to form the Humpy Bong with Jonathan Kelly). His parts were edited out of the final cut of the film and Pentangle drummer Terry Cox was recruited to complete the recording of songs for the album.
After the album was released in early 1970, it seemed that the Bee Gees were finished. The leadoff single, "Don't Forget to Remember", was a big hit in the UK, reaching No. 2, but only reached No. 73 in the US. The next two singles, "I.O.I.O." and "If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else", barely scraped the charts. On 1 December 1969, Barry and Maurice parted ways professionally.
Maurice started to record his first solo album, The Loner, which was not released. Meanwhile, he released the single "Railroad" and starred in the West End musical Sing a Rude Song. In February 1970, Barry recorded a solo album which never saw official release either, although "I'll Kiss Your Memory" was released as a single backed by "This Time" without much interest. Meanwhile, Robin saw success in Europe and Australia with his No. 2 hit "Saved by the Bell" and the album Robin's Reign.
1970–1974: Reformation
In mid 1970, according to Barry, "Robin rang me in Spain where I was on holiday [saying] 'let's do it again'". By 21 August 1970, after they had reunited, Barry announced that the Bee Gees "are there and they will never, ever part again". Maurice said, "We just discussed it and re-formed. We want to apologise publicly to Robin for the things that have been said." Earlier, in June 1970, Robin and Maurice recorded a dozen songs before Barry joined and included two songs that were on their reunion album. Around the same time, Barry and Robin were about to publish the book On the Other Hand. They also recruited Geoff Bridgford as the group's official drummer. Bridgford had previously worked with the Groove and Tin Tin and played drums on Maurice's unreleased first solo album.
In 1970, 2 Years On was released in October in the US and November in the UK. The lead single "Lonely Days" reached No. 3 in the United States, promoted by appearances on The Johnny Cash Show, Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Dick Cavett Show and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Their ninth album, Trafalgar, was released in late 1971. The single "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" was their first to hit No. 1 on the US charts, while "Israel" reached No. 22 in the Netherlands. "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" also brought the Bee Gees their first Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Later that year, the group's songs were included in the soundtrack for the film Melody.
In 1972, they hit No. 16 in the US with the non-album single "My World", backed by Maurice's composition "On Time". Another 1972 single, "Run to Me" from the LP To Whom It May Concern, returned them to the UK top 10 for the first time in three years. On 24 November 1972, the band headlined the "Woodstock of the West" Festival at the Los Angeles Coliseum (which was a West Coast answer to Woodstock in New York), which also featured Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder and the Eagles. Also in 1972, the group sang "Hey Jude" with Wilson Pickett.
By 1973, however, the Bee Gees were in a rut. The album Life in a Tin Can, released on Robert Stigwood's newly formed RSO Records, and its lead-off single, "Saw a New Morning", sold poorly with the single peaking at No. 94. This was followed by an unreleased album (known as A Kick in the Head Is Worth Eight in the Pants). A second compilation album, Best of Bee Gees, Volume 2, was released in 1973, although it did not repeat the success of Volume 1. On 6 April 1973 episode of The Midnight Special they performed "Money (That's What I Want)" with Jerry Lee Lewis. Also in 1973, they were invited by Chuck Berry to perform two songs with him onstage at The Midnight Special: "Johnny B. Goode" and "Reelin' and Rockin'".
After a tour of the United States in early 1974 and a Canadian tour later in the year, the group ended up playing small clubs. As Barry joked, "We ended up in, have you ever heard of Batley's the variety club in (West Yorkshire) England?".
On the advice of Ahmet Ertegun, head of their US label Atlantic Records, Stigwood arranged for the group to record with soul music producer Arif Mardin. The resulting LP, Mr. Natural, included fewer ballads and foreshadowed the R&B direction of the rest of their career. When it, too, failed to attract much interest, Mardin encouraged them to work within the soul music style. The brothers attempted to assemble a live stage band that could replicate their studio sound. Lead guitarist Alan Kendall had come on board in 1971 but did not have much to do until Mr. Natural. For that album, they added drummer Dennis Bryon, and they later added ex-Strawbs keyboard player Blue Weaver, completing the Bee Gees band that lasted through the late '70s. Maurice, who had previously performed on piano, guitar, harpsichord, electric piano, organ, mellotron and bass guitar, as well as mandolin and Moog synthesiser, by then confined himself to bass onstage.
1975–1979: Turning to disco
Main Course and Children of the World
At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record at Criteria Studios. After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs, including their second US No. 1, "Jive Talkin'", along with US No. 7 "Nights on Broadway". The band liked the resulting new sound. This time the public agreed by sending the LP Main Course up the charts. This album included the first Bee Gees songs wherein Barry used falsetto, something that became a trademark of the band. This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album.
On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang "To Love Somebody" with Helen Reddy. Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers—"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" with Barry providing lead vocals, and "Sun King" with Maurice providing lead vocals, for the unsuccessful musical/documentary All This and World War II.
The next album, Children of the World, released in September 1976, was filled with Barry's new-found falsetto and Weaver's synthesizer disco licks. The first single from the album was "You Should Be Dancing", which features percussion work by musician Stephen Stills. The song pushed the Bee Gees to a level of stardom they had not previously achieved in the US, though their new R&B/disco sound was not as popular with some diehard fans. The pop ballad "Love So Right" reached No. 3 in the US, and "Boogie Child" reached US No. 12 in January 1977. The album peaked at No. 8 in the US.
Saturday Night Fever and Spirits Having Flown
Following a successful live album, Here at Last... Bee Gees... Live, the Bee Gees agreed with Stigwood to participate in the creation of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. It was the turning point of their career. The cultural impact of both the film and the soundtrack was significant throughout the world, epitomizing the disco phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic.
The band's involvement in the film did not begin until post-production. As John Travolta asserted, "The Bee Gees weren't even involved in the movie in the beginning ... I was dancing to Stevie Wonder and Boz Scaggs." Producer Robert Stigwood commissioned the Bee Gees to create the songs for the film. The brothers wrote the songs "virtually in a single weekend" at Château d'Hérouville studio in France. Barry Gibb remembered the reaction when Stigwood and music supervisor Bill Oakes arrived and listened to the demos:
Bill Oakes, who supervised the soundtrack, asserts that Saturday Night Fever did not begin the disco craze but rather prolonged it: "Disco had run its course. These days, Fever is credited with kicking off the whole disco thing—it really didn't. Truth is, it breathed new life into a genre that was actually dying."
Three Bee Gees singles—"How Deep Is Your Love" (US No. 1, UK No. 3), "Stayin' Alive" (US No. 1, UK No. 4) and "Night Fever" (US No. 1, UK No. 1)—charted high in many countries around the world, launching the most popular period of the disco era. They also penned the song "If I Can't Have You", which became a US No. 1 hit for Yvonne Elliman, while the Bee Gees' own version was the B-side of "Stayin' Alive". Such was the popularity of Saturday Night Fever that two different versions of the song "More Than a Woman" received airplay, one by the Bee Gees, which was relegated to an album track, and another by Tavares, which was the hit.
During a nine-month period beginning in the Christmas season of 1977, seven songs written by the brothers held the No. 1 position on the US charts for 27 of 37 consecutive weeks: three of their own releases, two for brother Andy Gibb, the Yvonne Elliman single, and "Grease", performed by Frankie Valli.
Fuelled by the film's success, the soundtrack broke multiple industry records, becoming the highest-selling album in recording history to that point. With more than 40 million copies sold, Saturday Night Fever is among music's top five best selling soundtrack albums. , it is calculated as the fourth highest-selling album worldwide.
In March 1978, the Bee Gees held the top two positions on the US charts with "Night Fever" and "Stayin' Alive", the first time this had happened since the Beatles. On the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for 25 March 1978, five songs written by the Gibbs were in the US top 10 at the same time: "Night Fever", "Stayin' Alive", "If I Can't Have You", "Emotion" and "Love Is Thicker Than Water". Such chart dominance had not been seen since April 1964, when the Beatles had all five of the top five American singles. Barry Gibb became the only songwriter to have four consecutive number-one hits in the US, breaking the John Lennon and Paul McCartney 1964 record. These songs were "Stayin' Alive", "Love Is Thicker Than Water", "Night Fever" and "If I Can't Have You".
The Bee Gees won five Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever over two years: Album of the Year, Producer of the Year (with Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson), two awards for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals (one in 1978 for "How Deep Is Your Love" and one in 1979 for "Stayin' Alive"), and Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices for "Stayin' Alive".
During this era, Barry and Robin also wrote "Emotion" for an old friend, Australian vocalist Samantha Sang, who made it a top 10 hit, with the Bee Gees singing backing vocals. Barry also wrote the title song to the film version of the Broadway musical Grease for Frankie Valli to perform, which went to No. 1.
The Bee Gees also co-starred with Peter Frampton in Robert Stigwood's film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), loosely inspired by the classic 1967 album by the Beatles. The movie had been heavily promoted prior to release and was expected to enjoy great commercial success. However, it was savaged by film critics as a disjointed mess and ignored by the public. Though some of its tracks charted, the soundtrack too was a high-profile flop. The single "Oh! Darling", credited to Robin Gibb, reached No. 15 in the US.
The Bee Gees' follow-up to Saturday Night Fever was the Spirits Having Flown album. It yielded three more hits: "Too Much Heaven" (US No. 1, UK No. 3), "Tragedy" (US No. 1, UK No. 1), and "Love You Inside Out" (US No. 1, UK No. 13). This gave the act six consecutive No. 1 singles in the US within a year and a half, equalling the Beatles and surpassed only by Whitney Houston.
In January 1979, the Bee Gees performed "Too Much Heaven" as their contribution to the Music for UNICEF Concert at the United Nations General Assembly. During the summer of 1979, the Bee Gees embarked on their largest concert tour covering the US and Canada. The Spirits Having Flown tour capitalised on Bee Gees fever that was sweeping the nation, with sold-out concerts in 38 cities. The Bee Gees produced a video for the title track "Too Much Heaven", directed by Miami-based filmmaker Martin Pitts and produced by Charles Allen. With this video, Pitts and Allen began a long association with the brothers.
The Bee Gees even had a country hit in 1979 with "Rest Your Love on Me", the flip side of their pop hit "Too Much Heaven", which made the top 40 on the country charts. It was also a 1981 hit for Conway Twitty, topping the country music charts.
The Bee Gees' overwhelming success rose and fell with the disco bubble. By the end of 1979, disco was rapidly declining in popularity, and the backlash against disco put the Bee Gees' American career in a tailspin. Radio stations around the US began promoting "Bee Gee-Free Weekends". Following their remarkable run from 1975 to 1979, the act had only one more top 10 single in the US, and that did not come until the single "One" reached number 7 in 1989.
Barry Gibb considered the success of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack both a blessing and a curse:
1980–1986: Outside projects, band turmoil, solo efforts and decline
Robin co-produced Jimmy Ruffin's Sunrise released in May 1980, but the songs were started in 1979; the album contains songs written by the Gibb brothers, including the single "Hold On To My Love".
In March 1980, Barry Gibb worked with Barbra Streisand on her album Guilty. He co-produced, and wrote or co-wrote all nine of the album's tracks (four of them written with Robin, and the title track with both Robin and Maurice). Barry also appeared on the album's cover with Streisand and duetted with her on two tracks. The album reached No. 1 in both the US and the UK, as did the single "Woman in Love" (written by Barry and Robin), becoming Streisand's most successful single and album to date. Both of the Streisand/Gibb duets, "Guilty" and "What Kind of Fool", also reached the US Top 10.
In 1981, the Bee Gees released the album Living Eyes, their last full-length album release on RSO. This album was the first CD ever played in public, when it was played to viewers of the BBC show Tomorrow's World. With the disco backlash still running strong, the album failed to make the UK or US Top 40—breaking their streak of Top 40 hits, which started in 1975 with "Jive Talkin'". Two singles from the album fared little better—"He's a Liar", which reached No. 30 in the US, and "Living Eyes", which reached No. 45.
In 1982, Dionne Warwick enjoyed a UK No. 2 and US Adult Contemporary No. 1 hit with her comeback single, "Heartbreaker", taken from her eponymous album written largely by the Bee Gees and co-produced by Barry Gibb. The album reached No. 3 in the UK and the Top 30 in the US, where it was certified Gold.
A year later, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers recorded the Bee Gees-penned track "Islands in the Stream", which became a US and Australian No. 1 hit and entered the Top 10 in the UK. Rogers' 1983 album, Eyes That See in the Dark, was written entirely by the Bee Gees and co-produced by Barry. The album was a Top 10 hit in the US and was certified Double Platinum.
The Bee Gees had greater success with the soundtrack to Staying Alive in 1983, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever. The soundtrack was certified platinum in the US, and included their Top 30 hit "The Woman in You".
Also in 1983, the band was sued by Chicago songwriter Ronald Selle, who claimed the brothers stole melodic material from one of his songs, "Let It End", and used it in "How Deep Is Your Love". At first, the Bee Gees lost the case; one juror said that a factor in the jury's decision was the Gibbs' failure to introduce expert testimony rebutting the plaintiff's expert testimony that it was "impossible" for the two songs to have been written independently. However, the verdict was overturned a few months later.
In August 1983, Barry signed a solo deal with MCA Records and spent much of late 1983 and 1984 writing songs for this first solo effort, Now Voyager. Robin released three solo albums in the 1980s, How Old Are You?, Secret Agent and Walls Have Eyes. Maurice released his second single to date, "Hold Her in Your Hand", the first one having been released in 1970.
In 1985, Diana Ross released the album Eaten Alive, written by the Bee Gees, with the title track co-written with Michael Jackson (who also performed on the track). The album was again co-produced by Barry Gibb, and the single "Chain Reaction" gave Ross a UK and Australian No. 1 hit.
1987–1999: Comeback, return to popularity and Andy's death
The Bee Gees released the album E.S.P. in 1987, which sold over 2 million copies. It was their first album in six years, and their first for Warner Bros. Records. The single "You Win Again" went to No. 1 in numerous countries, including the UK, and made the Bee Gees the first group to score a UK No. 1 hit in each of three decades: the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The single was a disappointment in the US, charting at No. 75, and the Bee Gees voiced their frustration over American radio stations not playing their new European hit single, an omission which the group felt led to poor sales of their current album in the US. The song won the Bee Gees the 1987 British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, and in February 1988 the band received a Brit Award nomination for Best British Group.
On 10 March 1988, younger brother Andy Gibb died, aged 30, as a result of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle due to a recent viral infection. The Bee Gees later got together with Eric Clapton to create a group called 'the Bunburys' to raise money for English charities. The group recorded three songs for The Bunbury Tails: "We're the Bunburys" (which eventually became the opening theme to the 1992 animated series The Bunbury Tails), "Bunbury Afternoon", and "Fight (No Matter How Long)". The last song reached No. 8 on the rock music chart and appeared on The 1988 Summer Olympics Album. The Bee Gees' next album, One (1989), featured a song dedicated to Andy, "Wish You Were Here". The album also contained their first US Top 10 hit (No. 7) in a decade, "One" (an Adult Contemporary No. 1). After the album's release, the band embarked on its first world tour in 10 years.
In the UK, Polydor issued a single-disc hits collection from Tales called The Very Best of the Bee Gees, which contained their biggest UK hits. The album became one of their best-selling albums in that country, and was eventually certified Triple Platinum.
Following their next album, High Civilization (1991), which contained the UK top five hit "Secret Love", the Bee Gees went on a European tour. After the tour, Barry Gibb began to battle a serious back problem, which required surgery. In addition, he suffered from arthritis which, at one point, was so severe that it was doubtful that he would be able to play guitar for much longer. Also, in the early 1990s, Maurice Gibb finally sought treatment for his alcoholism, which he had battled for many years with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous.
In 1993, the group returned to the Polydor label and released the album Size Isn't Everything, which contained the UK top five hit "For Whom the Bell Tolls". Success still eluded them in the US, however, as the first single released, "Paying the Price of Love", only managed to reach No. 74 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the parent album stalled at No. 153.
In 1997, they released the album Still Waters, which has reached No. 2 in the UK (their highest album chart position there since 1979) and No. 11 in the US. The album's first single, "Alone", gave them another UK Top 5 hit and a top 30 hit in the US. Still Waters was the band's most successful US release of their post-RSO era.
At the 1997 BRIT Awards held in Earls Court, London on 24 February, the Bee Gees received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. On 14 November 1997, the Bee Gees performed a live concert in Las Vegas called One Night Only. The show included a performance of "Our Love (Don't Throw It All Away)" synchronised with a vocal by their deceased brother Andy and a cameo appearance by Celine Dion singing "Immortality". The "One Night Only" name grew out of the band's declaration that, due to Barry's health issues, the Las Vegas show was to be the final live performance of their career. After the immensely positive audience response to the Vegas concert, Barry decided to continue despite the pain, and the concert expanded into their last full-blown world tour of "One Night Only" concerts. The tour included playing to 56,000 people at London's Wembley Stadium on 5 September 1998 and concluded in the newly built Olympic Stadium in Sydney, Australia on 27 March 1999 to 72,000 people.
In 1998, the group's soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever was incorporated into a stage production produced first in the West End and then on Broadway. They wrote three new songs for the adaptation. Also in 1998, the brothers released "Ellan Vannin" for Manx charities, recorded the previous year. Known as the unofficial national anthem of the Isle of Man, the brothers performed the song during their world tour to reflect their pride in the place of their birth.
The Bee Gees closed the century with what turned out to be their last full-sized concert, known as BG2K, on 31 December 1999.
2000–2008: This Is Where I Came In and Maurice's death
In 2001, the group released what turned out to be their final album of new material, This Is Where I Came In. The album was another success, reaching the Top 10 in the UK (being certified Gold), and the Top 20 in the US. The title track was also a UK Top 20 hit single.
The last concert of the Bee Gees as a trio was at the Love and Hope Ball in 2002. Maurice Gibb died unexpectedly on 12 January 2003, at age 53, from a heart attack while awaiting emergency surgery to repair a strangulated intestine. Initially, his surviving brothers announced that they intended to carry on the name "Bee Gees" in his memory, but as time passed they decided to retire the group's name, leaving it to represent the three brothers together.
The same week that Maurice died, Robin's solo album Magnet was released. On 23 February 2003, the Bee Gees received the Grammy Legend Award, they also became the first recipients of that award in the 21st century. Barry and Robin accepted as well as Maurice's son, Adam, in a tearful ceremony.
In late 2004, Robin embarked on a solo tour of Germany, Russia and Asia. During January 2005, Barry, Robin and several legendary rock artists recorded "Grief Never Grows Old", the official tsunami relief record for the Disasters Emergency Committee. Later that year, Barry reunited with Barbra Streisand for her top-selling album Guilty Pleasures, released as Guilty Too in the UK as a sequel album to the previous Guilty. Also in 2004, Barry recorded his song "I Cannot Give You My Love" with Cliff Richard, which became a UK top 20 hit single.
In February 2006, Barry and Robin reunited on stage for a Miami charity concert to benefit the Diabetes Research Institute. It was their first public performance together since Maurice's death. The pair also played at the 30th annual Prince's Trust Concert in the UK on 20 May 2006.
2009–2012: Return to performing and Robin's death
Barry and Robin performed on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing on 31 October 2009 and appeared on ABC-TV's Dancing with the Stars on 17 November 2009. On 15 March 2010, Barry and Robin inducted the Swedish group ABBA into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On 26 May 2010, the two made a surprise appearance on the ninth-season finale of American Idol.
On 20 November 2011 it was announced that Robin Gibb, at 61 years old, had been diagnosed with liver cancer, a condition he had become aware of several months earlier. He had become noticeably thinner in previous months and had to cancel several appearances due to severe abdominal pain. Robin joined British military trio the Soldiers for the Coming Home charity concert on 13 February 2012 at the London Palladium, in support of injured servicemen. It was his first public appearance for almost five months and, as it turned out, his final one. On 14 April 2012, it was reported that Robin had contracted pneumonia in a Chelsea hospital and was in a coma. Although he came out of his coma on 20 April 2012, his condition deteriorated rapidly and he died on 20 May 2012 of liver and kidney failure.
2013–present: Looking back at a lifetime of music
In September and October 2013, Barry performed his first solo tour "in honour of his brothers and a lifetime of music". In addition to the Rhino collection, The Studio Albums: 1967–1968, Warner Bros. released a box set in 2014 called The Warner Bros Years: 1987–1991 that included the studio albums E.S.P., One and High Civilization as well as extended mixes and B-sides. It also included the band's entire 1989 concert in Melbourne, Australia, available only on video as All for One prior to this release. The documentary The Joy of the Bee Gees was aired on BBC Four on 19 December 2014.
On 23 March 2015, 13STAR Records released a box set 1974–1979 which included the studio albums Mr. Natural, Main Course, Children of the World and Spirits Having Flown. A fifth disc called The Miami Years includes all the tracks from Saturday Night Fever as well as B-sides. No unreleased tracks from the era were included.
After a hiatus from performing, Barry Gibb returned to solo and guest singing performances. He occasionally appears with his son, Steve Gibb. In 2016, he released In the Now, his first solo effort since 1984's Now Voyager. It was the first release of new Bee Gees-related music since the posthumous release of Robin Gibb's 50 St. Catherine's Drive. Also in 2016, Capitol Records signed a new distribution deal with Barry and the estates of his brothers for the Bee Gees catalogue, bringing their music back to Universal.
An as-yet-untitled biopic about the Bee Gees is in development at Paramount, with Kenneth Branagh directing and Barry Gibb serving as an executive producer.
Influences
The Bee Gees were influenced by the Beatles, the Everly Brothers, the Mills Brothers, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, Roy Orbison, the Beach Boys and Stevie Wonder. On the 2014 documentary The Joy of the Bee Gees, Barry said that the Bee Gees were also influenced by the Hollies and Otis Redding. Maurice noted that Neil Sedaka was an early influence, and later the group was "very influenced" by Linda Creed songs for the Stylistics.
Legacy
In his 1980 Playboy magazine interview, John Lennon praised the Bee Gees, "Try to tell the kids in the seventies who were screaming to the Bee Gees that their music was just the Beatles redone. There is nothing wrong with the Bee Gees. They do a damn good job. There was nothing else going on then."
In a 2007 interview with Duane Hitchings, who co-wrote Rod Stewart's 1978 disco song "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?", he noted that the song was:
Kevin Parker of Tame Impala has said that listening to the Bee Gees after taking mushrooms inspired him to change the sound of the music he was making on his album Currents.
The English indie rock band the Cribs was also influenced by the Bee Gees. Cribs member Ryan Jarman said: "It must have had quite a big influence on us – pop melodies is something we always revert to. I always want to get back to pop melodies and I'm sure that's due to that Bee Gees phase we went through."
Following Robin's death on 20 May 2012, Beyoncé remarked: "The Bee Gees were an early inspiration for me, Kelly Rowland and Michelle. We loved their songwriting and beautiful harmonies. Recording their classic song, 'Emotion' was a special time for Destiny's Child. Sadly we lost Robin Gibb this week. My heart goes out to his brother Barry and the rest of his family."
Singer Jordin Sparks remarked that her favourite Bee Gees songs are "Too Much Heaven", "Emotion" (although performed by Samantha Sang with Barry on the background vocals using his falsetto), and "Stayin' Alive".
Carrie Underwood said, about discovering the Bee Gees during her childhood, "My parents listened to the Bee Gees quite a bit when I was little, so I was definitely exposed to them at an early age. They just had a sound that was all their own, obviously, [it was] never duplicated."
Songwriting
At one point, in 1978, the Gibb brothers were responsible for writing and/or performing nine of the songs in the Billboard Hot 100. In all, the Gibbs placed 13 singles onto the Hot 100 in 1978, with 12 making the Top 40. The Gibb brothers are fellows of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA). At least 2,500 artists have recorded their songs.
Singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw spoke about the Bee Gees' influence with their own music as well as their songwriting:
In 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Bee Gees were announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for their role as "Influential Artists".
Accolades and achievements
In 1978, following the success of Saturday Night Fever, and the single "Night Fever" in particular, Reubin Askew, the governor of the US state of Florida, named the Bee Gees honorary citizens of the state, since they resided in Miami at the time. In 1979, the Bee Gees got their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They were the subjects of This Is Your Life in 1991 when they were surprised by Michael Aspel while being interviewed by disc jockey Steve Wright (DJ) on his Radio 1 programme at BBC Broadcasting House.
The Bee Gees were inducted in 1994 into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, as well as Florida's Artists Hall of Fame in 1995 and the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1997. Also in 1997, the group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; the presenter of the award to "Britain's First Family of Harmony" was Brian Wilson, historical leader of the Beach Boys, another "family act" featuring three harmonising brothers. In 2001, they were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. After Maurice's death, the Bee Gees were also inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2001, London's Walk of Fame in 2006 and Musically Speaking Hall Of Fame in 2008. On 15 May 2007, the Bee Gees were named BMI Icons at the 55th annual BMI Pop Awards. Collectively, Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb have earned 109 BMI Pop, Country and Latin Awards.
In October 1999, the Isle of Man Post Office unveiled a set of six stamps honouring the Bee Gees.
All three brothers (including Maurice posthumously) were invested as Commanders of the Order of the British Empire in December 2001 with the ceremony taking place at Buckingham Palace on 27 May 2004. On 10 July 2009, the Isle of Man's capital bestowed the Freedom of the Borough of Douglas honour on Barry and Robin, as well as posthumously on Maurice. On 20 November 2009, the Douglas Borough Council released a limited edition commemorative DVD to mark their naming as Freemen of the Borough.
On 14 February 2013, Barry Gibb unveiled a statue of the Bee Gees as well as unveiling "Bee Gees Way" (a walkway filled with photos and videos of the Bee Gees) in honour of the Bee Gees in Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia. On 27 June 2018, Barry Gibb, the last surviving member of the Bee Gees, was knighted by Prince Charles after being named on the Queen's New Years Honours List. The statue of the Bee Gees in Douglas, Isle of Man, was installed in 2021.
In 2022, the last surviving member of the group, Barry Gibb, was made an Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia which is Australia's highest national honour.
The Bee Gees have sold over 220 million records worldwide, making them one of the best selling artists of all time. The group are to date the most successful family and sibling band of all time, the most successful musical trio of all time, and the most successful musical act with ties to Australia.
Awards and nominations
Queensland Music Awards
The Queensland Music Awards (previously known as Q Song Awards) are annual awards celebrating Queensland, Australia's brightest emerging artists and established legends. They commenced in 2006.
(wins only)
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| Grant McLennan Lifetime Achievement Award
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Band members
Principal members
Barry Gibb – vocals, rhythm guitar (1958–2003, 2006, 2009–2012)
Robin Gibb – vocals, occasional keyboards (1958–1969, 1970–2003, 2006, 2009–2012; d. 2012)
Maurice Gibb – bass, rhythm and lead guitars, keyboards, vocals (1958–2003; d. 2003)
Colin Petersen – drums (1967–1969)
Vince Melouney – lead guitar (1967–1968)
Geoff Bridgford – drums (1971–1972; touring 1970-1971)
Touring musicians
Alan Kendall – lead guitar (1971–1981, 1989–2003)
Chris Karan – drums (1972)
Dennis Bryon – drums (1973–1981)
Geoff Westley – keyboards, piano (1973–1976)
Blue Weaver – keyboards, synthesizers (1975–1981)
Joe Lala – percussion (1976, 1979)
Joey Murcia – rhythm guitar (1976, 1979)
Harold Cowart – bass (1979)
Tim Cansfield – lead guitar (1989)
Vic Martin – keyboard, synthesizer (1989)
Gary Moberly – keyboard, synthesizer (1989)
George Perry – bass (1989–1993)
Chester Thompson – drums (1989)
Mike Murphy – drums (1989)
Trevor Murrell – drums (1991–1992)
Rudi Dobson – keyboards (1991–1992)
Scott F. Crago – drums
Ben Stivers – keyboard (1996–1999)
Matt Bonelli – bass (1993–2001)
Steve Rucker – drums (1993–1999)
Guest musicians (studio and touring)
Phil Collins – drums
Lenny Castro – percussion
Glenn Frey – guitar
Timothy B. Schmit – bass guitar
Joe Walsh – lead guitar
Don Felder – lead guitar (1981)
Jeff Porcaro – drums
Mike Porcaro – bass guitar
Steve Porcaro – keyboards
Steve Lukather – guitar
David Hungate – bass guitar
David Paich – keyboards
Greg Phillinganes – keyboards
Bobby Kimball – keyboards
Leland Sklar – bass guitar
Reb Beach – lead guitar
Gregg Bissonette – drums
Ricky Lawson – drums
Scott F. Crago – drums
Steve Gadd – drums
Steve Ferrone – drums
Steve Jordan – drums
Nathan East – bass guitar
Steuart Smith – lead guitar
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Timeline
Timeline of touring members
Discography
Soundtracks Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Staying Alive (1983) are not official Bee Gees albums, but contain some previously unreleased tracks. Apart from live and compilation, all their official albums are included on this list. A Kick in the Head Is Worth Eight in the Pants has not been included on the list because it appeared only on numerous bootlegs and was not officially released.
Studio albums
The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs (1965)
Spicks and Specks (1966)
Bee Gees' 1st (1967)
Horizontal (1968)
Idea (1968)
Odessa (1969)
Cucumber Castle (1970)
2 Years On (1970)
Trafalgar (1971)
To Whom It May Concern (1972)
Life in a Tin Can (1973)
Mr. Natural (1974)
Main Course (1975)
Children of the World (1976)
Spirits Having Flown (1979)
Living Eyes (1981)
E.S.P. (1987)
One (1989)
High Civilization (1991)
Size Isn't Everything (1993)
Still Waters (1997)
This Is Where I Came In (2001)
Concert tours
The Bee Gees' concerts in 1967 and 1968 (1967–1968)
2 Years On Tour (1971)
Trafalgar Tour (1972)
Mr. Natural Tour (1974)
Main Course Tour (1975)
Children of the World Tour (1976)
Spirits Having Flown Tour (1979)
One for All World Tour (1989)
High Civilization World Tour (1991)
One Night Only World Tour (1997–1999)
This Is Where I Came In (2001)
Filmography
Citations
General bibliography
.
External links
Bee Gees Official website
Bee Gees at Rolling Stone
Bee Gees' Vocal Group Hall of Fame webpage
Bee Gees at bmi.com
Robin Gibb sadly passes away after losing his battle with cancer
Who Do You Think You Are? – Bee Gees Family History
1958 establishments in Australia
Australian pop rock groups
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Atlantic Records artists
Barry Gibb
Brit Award winners
British disco groups
British musical trios
British soft rock music groups
British soul musical groups
Brunswick Records artists
Capitol Records artists
Child musical groups
English expatriates in Australia
English expatriates in the United States
English pop music groups
English rock music groups
Grammy Legend Award winners
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Mercury Records artists
Manx musical groups
Maurice Gibb
Musical groups established in 1958
Musical groups disestablished in 2003
Musical groups reestablished in 2009
Musical groups disestablished in 2012
Musical groups from Manchester
Queensland musical groups
Philips Records artists
Q150 Icons
Robin Gibb
RSO Records artists
Sibling musical trios
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors
United Artists Records artists
Warner Records artists
World Music Awards winners | false | [
"How the West Was Won may refer to:\n How the West Was Won (film), a 1962 American Western film\n How the West Was Won (TV series), a 1970s television series loosely based on the film\n How the West Was Won (Bing Crosby album) (1959)\n How the West Was Won (Led Zeppelin album) (2003)\n How the West Was Won (Peter Perrett album) (2017)\n How the West Was Won, a 2002 album by Luni Coleone\n \"How the West Was Won\", a 1987 song by Laibach from Opus Dei\n \"How the West Was Won\", a 1996 song by the Romo band Plastic Fantastic\n\nSee also\n How the West Was Fun, a 1994 TV movie starring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen\n How the West Was One (disambiguation)\n \"How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us\", a 1997 song by R.E.M.",
"How the West Was One may refer to:\n\n How the West Was One (Cali Agents album), 2000\n How the West Was One (2nd Chapter of Acts, Phil Keaggy and a band called David album), 1977\n How the West Was One (Carbon Leaf album), 2010\n\nSee also\n How the West Was Won (disambiguation)"
]
|
[
"Bee Gees",
"Main Course and Children of the World",
"What happened during this time period?",
"At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record.",
"what did that lead to?",
"After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs,",
"any awards or special recognition during this time?",
"This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album.",
"what happened next?",
"On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang \"To Love Somebody\" with Helen Reddy.",
"what do you find interesting in the article?",
"Barry used falsetto, something that would later become a trademark of the band.",
"What was next for the band ?",
"On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course,",
"How was that recieved?",
"Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers--\""
]
| C_6cca1f87ae8e46bd949e4e2bdf8ac2d4_1 | singles make the charts? | 8 | Did the Bee Gees singles make the charts? | Bee Gees | At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record. After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs, including their second US No. 1, "Jive Talkin'", along with US No. 7 "Nights on Broadway". The band liked the resulting new sound. This time the public agreed by sending the LP Main Course up the charts. This album included the first Bee Gees songs wherein Barry used falsetto, something that would later become a trademark of the band. This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album. On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang "To Love Somebody" with Helen Reddy. Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers--"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" with Barry providing lead vocals, and "Sun King" with Maurice providing lead vocals, for the unsuccessful musical/documentary All This and World War II. The next album, Children of the World released in September 1976, was drenched in Barry's new-found falsetto and Weaver's synthesizer disco licks. Mardin was unavailable to produce, so the Bee Gees enlisted Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson, who had worked with Mardin during the Main Course sessions. This production team would carry the Bee Gees through the rest of the 1970s. The first single from the album was "You Should Be Dancing" (which features percussion work by musician Stephen Stills). The song pushed the Bee Gees to a level of stardom they had not previously achieved in the US, though their new R&B/disco sound was not as popular with some die hard fans. The pop ballad "Love So Right" reached No. 3 in the US, and "Boogie Child" reached US No. 12 in January 1977. The album peaked at No. 8 in the US. A compilation Bee Gees Gold was released in November, containing the group's hits from 1967 to 1972. CANNOTANSWER | Main Course also became their first charting R&B album. | The Bee Gees
were a music group formed in 1958, featuring brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful as a popular music act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers of the disco music era in the mid- to late 1970s. The group sang recognisable three-part tight harmonies; Robin's clear vibrato lead vocals were a hallmark of their earlier hits, while Barry's R&B falsetto became their signature sound during the mid- to late 1970s and 1980s. The Bee Gees wrote all of their own hits, as well as writing and producing several major hits for other artists and have been regarded as one of the most important and influential acts in pop music history. They have been referred to in the media as The Disco Kings, Britain’s First Family of Harmony, and The Kings of Dance Music.
Born on the Isle of Man to English parents, the Gibb brothers lived in Chorlton, Manchester, England until the late 1950s. There, in 1955, they formed the skiffle/rock and roll group the Rattlesnakes. The family then moved to Redcliffe, in the Moreton Bay Region, Queensland, Australia, later to Cribb Island. After achieving their first chart success in Australia as the Bee Gees with "Spicks and Specks" (their twelfth single), they returned to the UK in January 1967, when producer Robert Stigwood began promoting them to a worldwide audience. The Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever soundtrack (1977) was the turning point of their career, with both the film and soundtrack having a cultural impact throughout the world, enhancing the disco scene's mainstream appeal. They won five Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever, including Album of the Year.
The Bee Gees have sold over 220 million records worldwide, making them among the best-selling music artists of all time. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997; the Hall's citation says, "Only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney have outsold the Bee Gees." With nine number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, the Bee Gees are the third-most successful band in Billboard charts history behind only the Beatles and the Supremes.
Following Maurice's sudden death in January 2003 at the age of 53, Barry and Robin retired the group's name after 45 years of activity. In 2009, Robin announced that he and Barry had agreed that the Bee Gees would re-form and perform again. Robin died in May 2012, aged 62, after a prolonged period of failing health, leaving Barry as the only surviving member of the group.
History
1955–1966: Music origins, Bee Gees formation and popularity in Australia
Born on the Isle of Man during the late 1940s, the Gibb brothers moved to their father Hugh Gibb's hometown of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Greater Manchester, England in 1955. They formed a skiffle/rock-and-roll group, the Rattlesnakes, which consisted of Barry on guitar and vocals, Robin and Maurice on vocals and friends Paul Frost on drums and Kenny Horrocks on tea-chest bass. In December 1957 the boys began to sing in harmony. The story is told that they were going to lip-sync to a record in the local Gaumont cinema (as other children had done on previous weeks), but as they were running to the theatre, the fragile shellac 78-RPM record broke. The brothers had to sing live, but received such a positive response from the audience that they decided to pursue a singing career. In May 1958 the Rattlesnakes disbanded when Frost and Horrocks left, so the Gibb brothers then formed Wee Johnny Hayes and the Blue Cats, with Barry as "Johnny Hayes".
In August 1958, the Gibb family, including older sister Lesley and infant brother Andy (born in March 1958), emigrated to Australia and settled in Redcliffe, Queensland, just north-east of Brisbane. The young brothers began performing to raise pocket money. Speedway promoter and driver Bill Goode, who had hired the brothers to entertain the crowd at the Redcliffe Speedway in 1960, introduced them to Brisbane radio-presenter jockey Bill Gates. The crowd at the speedway would throw money onto the track for the boys, who generally performed during the interval of meetings (usually on the back of a truck that drove around the track) and, in a deal with Goode, any money they collected from the crowd they were allowed to keep. Gates named the group the "BGs" (later changed to "Bee Gees") after his, Goode's and Barry Gibb's initials. The name was not specifically a reference to "Brothers Gibb", despite popular belief.
During the next few years, they began working regularly at resorts on the Queensland coast. Through his songwriting, Barry sparked the interest of Australian star Col Joye, who helped the brothers get a recording deal in 1963 with Festival Records subsidiary Leedon Records under the name "Bee Gees". The three released two or three singles a year, while Barry supplied additional songs to other Australian artists. In 1962 the Bee Gees were chosen as the supporting act for Chubby Checker's concert at the Sydney Stadium.
From 1963 to 1966, the Gibb family lived at 171 Bunnerong Road, Maroubra, in Sydney. Just prior to his death, Robin Gibb recorded the song "Sydney" about the brothers' experience of living in that city. It was released on his posthumous album 50 St. Catherine's Drive. The house was demolished in 2016.
A minor hit in 1965, "Wine and Women", led to the group's first LP, The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs. By 1966 Festival Records was, however, on the verge of dropping them from the Leedon roster because of their perceived lack of commercial success. At this time the brothers met the American-born songwriter, producer and entrepreneur Nat Kipner, who had just been appointed A&R manager of a new independent label, Spin Records. Kipner briefly took over as the group's manager and successfully negotiated their transfer to Spin in exchange for granting Festival the Australian distribution-rights to the group's recordings. Through Kipner the Bee Gees met engineer-producer, Ossie Byrne, who produced (or co-produced with Kipner) many of the earlier Spin recordings, most of which were cut at his own small, self-built St Clair Studio in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville. Byrne gave the Gibb brothers virtually unlimited access to St Clair Studio over a period of several months in mid-1966. The group later acknowledged that this enabled them to greatly improve their skills as recording artists. During this productive time they recorded a large batch of original material—including the song that became their first major hit, "Spicks and Specks" (on which Byrne played the trumpet coda)—as well as cover versions of current hits by overseas acts such as the Beatles. They regularly collaborated with other local musicians, including members of beat band Steve & The Board, led by Steve Kipner, Nat's teenage son.
Frustrated by their lack of success, the Gibbs began their return journey to England on 4 January 1967, with Ossie Byrne travelling with them. While at sea in January 1967, the Gibbs learned that Go-Set, Australia's most popular and influential music newspaper, had declared "Spicks and Specks" the "Best Single of the Year".
1967–1969: International fame and touring years
Bee Gees' 1st, Horizontal and Idea
Before their departure from Australia to England, Hugh Gibb sent demos to Brian Epstein, who managed the Beatles and directed NEMS, a British music store. Epstein passed the demo tapes to Robert Stigwood, who had recently joined NEMS. After an audition with Stigwood in February 1967, the Bee Gees signed a five-year contract whereby Polydor Records would release their records in the UK, and Atco Records would do so in the US. Work quickly began on the group's first international album, and Stigwood launched a promotional campaign to coincide with its release.
Stigwood proclaimed that the Bee Gees were "The most significant new musical talent of 1967", thus initiating the comparison of the Bee Gees to the Beatles. Before recording the first album, the group expanded to include Colin Petersen and Vince Melouney. "New York Mining Disaster 1941," their second British single (their first-issued UK 45 rpm was "Spicks and Specks"), was issued to radio stations with a blank white label listing only the song title. Some DJs immediately assumed this was a new single by the Beatles and started playing the song in heavy rotation. This helped the song climb into the top 20 in both the UK and US.
No such chicanery was needed to boost the Bee Gees' next single, "To Love Somebody", into the US Top 20. Originally written for Otis Redding, "To Love Somebody", a soulful ballad sung by Barry, has since become a pop standard covered by many artists. Another single, "Holiday", released in the US, peaked at No. 16.
The parent album, Bee Gees 1st (their first internationally), peaked at No. 7 in the US and No. 8 in the UK. Bill Shepherd was credited as the arranger. After recording that album, the group recorded their first BBC session at the Playhouse Theatre, Northumberland Avenue, in London, with Bill Bebb as the producer, and they performed three songs. That session is included on BBC Sessions: 1967–1973 (2008). After the release of Bee Gees' 1st, the group was first introduced in New York as "the English surprise." At that time, the band made their first British TV appearance on Top of the Pops. Maurice recalled:
In late 1967, they began recording the second album. On 21 December 1967, in a live broadcast from Liverpool Anglican Cathedral for a Christmas television special called How On Earth?, they performed their own song, "Thank You For Christmas" which was written especially for the programme, as well as a medley of the traditional Christmas carols "Silent Night," "The First Noel" and "Mary's Boy Child" (the latter incorrectly noted as "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" on tape boxes and subsequent release). The songs were all pre-recorded on 1 December 1967 and the group lip-synched their performance. The recordings were eventually released on the "Horizontal" reissue bonus disc in 2008. The folk group the Settlers and Radio 1 disc-jockey, Kenny Everett, also performed on the programme which was presented by the Reverend Edward H. Patey, dean of the cathedral.
January 1968 began with a promotional trip to the US. Los Angeles Police were on alert in anticipation of a Beatles-type reception, and special security arrangements were being put in place. In February, Horizontal repeated the success of their first album, featuring the group's first UK No. 1 single "Massachusetts" (a No. 11 US hit) and the No. 7 UK single "World." The sound of the album Horizontal had a more "rock" sound than their previous release, although ballads like "And the Sun Will Shine" and "Really and Sincerely" were also prominent. The Horizontal album reached No. 12 in the US and No. 16 in the UK.
With the release of Horizontal, they also embarked on a Scandinavian tour with concerts in Copenhagen. Around the same time, the Bee Gees turned down an offer to write and perform the soundtrack for the film Wonderwall, according to director Joe Massot.
On 27 February 1968, the band, backed by the 17-piece Massachusetts String Orchestra, began their first tour of Germany with two concerts at Hamburg Musikhalle. In March 1968, the band was supported by Procol Harum (who had a well-known hit "A Whiter Shade of Pale") on their German tour. As Robin's partner Molly Hullis recalls: "Germans were wilder than the fans in England at the heights of Beatlemania." The tour schedule took them to 11 venues in as many days with 18 concerts played, finishing with a brace of shows at the Stadthalle, Braunschweig.
After that, the group was off to Switzerland. As Maurice described it:
On 17 March, the band performed "Words" on The Ed Sullivan Show. The other artists who performed on that night's show were Lucille Ball, George Hamilton and Fran Jeffries. On 27 March 1968, the band performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Two more singles followed in early 1968: the ballad "Words" (No. 8 UK, No. 15 US) and the double A-sided single "Jumbo" backed with "The Singer Sang His Song". "Jumbo" only reached No. 25 in the UK and No. 57 in the US. The Bee Gees felt "The Singer Sang His Song" was the stronger of the two sides, an opinion shared by listeners in the Netherlands who made it a No. 3 hit.
Further Bee Gees chart singles followed: "I've Gotta Get a Message to You", their second UK No. 1 (No. 8 US), and "I Started a Joke" (No. 6 US), both culled from the band's third album Idea. Idea reached No. 4 in the UK and was another top 20 album in the US (No. 17).
After the tour and TV special to promote the album, Vince Melouney left the group, desiring to play more of a blues style music than the Gibbs were writing. Melouney did achieve one feat while with the Bee Gees: his composition "Such a Shame" (from Idea) is the only song on any Bee Gees album not written by a Gibb brother.
The band were due to begin a seven-week tour of the US on 2 August 1968, but on 27 July, Robin collapsed and fell unconscious. He was admitted to a London nursing home suffering from nervous exhaustion, and the American tour was postponed. The band began recording their sixth album, which resulted in their spending a week recording at Atlantic Studios in New York. Robin, still feeling poorly, missed the New York sessions, but the rest of the band put away instrumental tracks and demos.
Odessa, Cucumber Castle and break-up
By 1969, Robin began to feel that Stigwood had been favouring Barry as the frontman.
The Bee Gees' performances in early 1969 on the Top of the Pops and The Tom Jones Show performing "I Started a Joke" and "First of May" as a medley was one of the last live performances of the group with Robin.
Their next album, which was to have been a concept album called Masterpeace, evolved into the double-album Odessa. Most rock critics felt this was the best Bee Gees album of the 1960s with its progressive rock feel on the title track, the country-flavoured "Marley Purt Drive" and "Give Your Best", and ballads such as "Melody Fair" and "First of May" (the last of which became the only single from the album and a UK # 6 hit). Feeling the flipside, "Lamplight," should have been the A-side, Robin quit the group in mid-1969 and launched a solo career.
The first of many Bee Gees compilations, Best of Bee Gees, was released featuring the non-LP single "Words" plus the Australian hit "Spicks and Specks". The single "Tomorrow Tomorrow" was also released and was a moderate hit in the UK, where it reached No. 23, but it was only No. 54 in the US. The compilation reached the top 10 in both the UK and the US.
While Robin pursued his solo career, Barry, Maurice and Petersen continued on as the Bee Gees recording their next album, Cucumber Castle. The band made their debut performance without Robin at Talk of the Town. They had recruited their sister, Lesley, into the group at this time. To accompany the album, they also filmed a TV special with Frankie Howerd and cameos from several other contemporary pop and rock stars, which aired on the BBC in December 1970. Petersen played drums on the tracks recorded for the album but was fired from the group after filming began (he went on to form the Humpy Bong with Jonathan Kelly). His parts were edited out of the final cut of the film and Pentangle drummer Terry Cox was recruited to complete the recording of songs for the album.
After the album was released in early 1970, it seemed that the Bee Gees were finished. The leadoff single, "Don't Forget to Remember", was a big hit in the UK, reaching No. 2, but only reached No. 73 in the US. The next two singles, "I.O.I.O." and "If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else", barely scraped the charts. On 1 December 1969, Barry and Maurice parted ways professionally.
Maurice started to record his first solo album, The Loner, which was not released. Meanwhile, he released the single "Railroad" and starred in the West End musical Sing a Rude Song. In February 1970, Barry recorded a solo album which never saw official release either, although "I'll Kiss Your Memory" was released as a single backed by "This Time" without much interest. Meanwhile, Robin saw success in Europe and Australia with his No. 2 hit "Saved by the Bell" and the album Robin's Reign.
1970–1974: Reformation
In mid 1970, according to Barry, "Robin rang me in Spain where I was on holiday [saying] 'let's do it again'". By 21 August 1970, after they had reunited, Barry announced that the Bee Gees "are there and they will never, ever part again". Maurice said, "We just discussed it and re-formed. We want to apologise publicly to Robin for the things that have been said." Earlier, in June 1970, Robin and Maurice recorded a dozen songs before Barry joined and included two songs that were on their reunion album. Around the same time, Barry and Robin were about to publish the book On the Other Hand. They also recruited Geoff Bridgford as the group's official drummer. Bridgford had previously worked with the Groove and Tin Tin and played drums on Maurice's unreleased first solo album.
In 1970, 2 Years On was released in October in the US and November in the UK. The lead single "Lonely Days" reached No. 3 in the United States, promoted by appearances on The Johnny Cash Show, Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Dick Cavett Show and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Their ninth album, Trafalgar, was released in late 1971. The single "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" was their first to hit No. 1 on the US charts, while "Israel" reached No. 22 in the Netherlands. "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" also brought the Bee Gees their first Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Later that year, the group's songs were included in the soundtrack for the film Melody.
In 1972, they hit No. 16 in the US with the non-album single "My World", backed by Maurice's composition "On Time". Another 1972 single, "Run to Me" from the LP To Whom It May Concern, returned them to the UK top 10 for the first time in three years. On 24 November 1972, the band headlined the "Woodstock of the West" Festival at the Los Angeles Coliseum (which was a West Coast answer to Woodstock in New York), which also featured Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder and the Eagles. Also in 1972, the group sang "Hey Jude" with Wilson Pickett.
By 1973, however, the Bee Gees were in a rut. The album Life in a Tin Can, released on Robert Stigwood's newly formed RSO Records, and its lead-off single, "Saw a New Morning", sold poorly with the single peaking at No. 94. This was followed by an unreleased album (known as A Kick in the Head Is Worth Eight in the Pants). A second compilation album, Best of Bee Gees, Volume 2, was released in 1973, although it did not repeat the success of Volume 1. On 6 April 1973 episode of The Midnight Special they performed "Money (That's What I Want)" with Jerry Lee Lewis. Also in 1973, they were invited by Chuck Berry to perform two songs with him onstage at The Midnight Special: "Johnny B. Goode" and "Reelin' and Rockin'".
After a tour of the United States in early 1974 and a Canadian tour later in the year, the group ended up playing small clubs. As Barry joked, "We ended up in, have you ever heard of Batley's the variety club in (West Yorkshire) England?".
On the advice of Ahmet Ertegun, head of their US label Atlantic Records, Stigwood arranged for the group to record with soul music producer Arif Mardin. The resulting LP, Mr. Natural, included fewer ballads and foreshadowed the R&B direction of the rest of their career. When it, too, failed to attract much interest, Mardin encouraged them to work within the soul music style. The brothers attempted to assemble a live stage band that could replicate their studio sound. Lead guitarist Alan Kendall had come on board in 1971 but did not have much to do until Mr. Natural. For that album, they added drummer Dennis Bryon, and they later added ex-Strawbs keyboard player Blue Weaver, completing the Bee Gees band that lasted through the late '70s. Maurice, who had previously performed on piano, guitar, harpsichord, electric piano, organ, mellotron and bass guitar, as well as mandolin and Moog synthesiser, by then confined himself to bass onstage.
1975–1979: Turning to disco
Main Course and Children of the World
At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record at Criteria Studios. After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs, including their second US No. 1, "Jive Talkin'", along with US No. 7 "Nights on Broadway". The band liked the resulting new sound. This time the public agreed by sending the LP Main Course up the charts. This album included the first Bee Gees songs wherein Barry used falsetto, something that became a trademark of the band. This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album.
On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang "To Love Somebody" with Helen Reddy. Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers—"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" with Barry providing lead vocals, and "Sun King" with Maurice providing lead vocals, for the unsuccessful musical/documentary All This and World War II.
The next album, Children of the World, released in September 1976, was filled with Barry's new-found falsetto and Weaver's synthesizer disco licks. The first single from the album was "You Should Be Dancing", which features percussion work by musician Stephen Stills. The song pushed the Bee Gees to a level of stardom they had not previously achieved in the US, though their new R&B/disco sound was not as popular with some diehard fans. The pop ballad "Love So Right" reached No. 3 in the US, and "Boogie Child" reached US No. 12 in January 1977. The album peaked at No. 8 in the US.
Saturday Night Fever and Spirits Having Flown
Following a successful live album, Here at Last... Bee Gees... Live, the Bee Gees agreed with Stigwood to participate in the creation of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. It was the turning point of their career. The cultural impact of both the film and the soundtrack was significant throughout the world, epitomizing the disco phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic.
The band's involvement in the film did not begin until post-production. As John Travolta asserted, "The Bee Gees weren't even involved in the movie in the beginning ... I was dancing to Stevie Wonder and Boz Scaggs." Producer Robert Stigwood commissioned the Bee Gees to create the songs for the film. The brothers wrote the songs "virtually in a single weekend" at Château d'Hérouville studio in France. Barry Gibb remembered the reaction when Stigwood and music supervisor Bill Oakes arrived and listened to the demos:
Bill Oakes, who supervised the soundtrack, asserts that Saturday Night Fever did not begin the disco craze but rather prolonged it: "Disco had run its course. These days, Fever is credited with kicking off the whole disco thing—it really didn't. Truth is, it breathed new life into a genre that was actually dying."
Three Bee Gees singles—"How Deep Is Your Love" (US No. 1, UK No. 3), "Stayin' Alive" (US No. 1, UK No. 4) and "Night Fever" (US No. 1, UK No. 1)—charted high in many countries around the world, launching the most popular period of the disco era. They also penned the song "If I Can't Have You", which became a US No. 1 hit for Yvonne Elliman, while the Bee Gees' own version was the B-side of "Stayin' Alive". Such was the popularity of Saturday Night Fever that two different versions of the song "More Than a Woman" received airplay, one by the Bee Gees, which was relegated to an album track, and another by Tavares, which was the hit.
During a nine-month period beginning in the Christmas season of 1977, seven songs written by the brothers held the No. 1 position on the US charts for 27 of 37 consecutive weeks: three of their own releases, two for brother Andy Gibb, the Yvonne Elliman single, and "Grease", performed by Frankie Valli.
Fuelled by the film's success, the soundtrack broke multiple industry records, becoming the highest-selling album in recording history to that point. With more than 40 million copies sold, Saturday Night Fever is among music's top five best selling soundtrack albums. , it is calculated as the fourth highest-selling album worldwide.
In March 1978, the Bee Gees held the top two positions on the US charts with "Night Fever" and "Stayin' Alive", the first time this had happened since the Beatles. On the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for 25 March 1978, five songs written by the Gibbs were in the US top 10 at the same time: "Night Fever", "Stayin' Alive", "If I Can't Have You", "Emotion" and "Love Is Thicker Than Water". Such chart dominance had not been seen since April 1964, when the Beatles had all five of the top five American singles. Barry Gibb became the only songwriter to have four consecutive number-one hits in the US, breaking the John Lennon and Paul McCartney 1964 record. These songs were "Stayin' Alive", "Love Is Thicker Than Water", "Night Fever" and "If I Can't Have You".
The Bee Gees won five Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever over two years: Album of the Year, Producer of the Year (with Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson), two awards for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals (one in 1978 for "How Deep Is Your Love" and one in 1979 for "Stayin' Alive"), and Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices for "Stayin' Alive".
During this era, Barry and Robin also wrote "Emotion" for an old friend, Australian vocalist Samantha Sang, who made it a top 10 hit, with the Bee Gees singing backing vocals. Barry also wrote the title song to the film version of the Broadway musical Grease for Frankie Valli to perform, which went to No. 1.
The Bee Gees also co-starred with Peter Frampton in Robert Stigwood's film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), loosely inspired by the classic 1967 album by the Beatles. The movie had been heavily promoted prior to release and was expected to enjoy great commercial success. However, it was savaged by film critics as a disjointed mess and ignored by the public. Though some of its tracks charted, the soundtrack too was a high-profile flop. The single "Oh! Darling", credited to Robin Gibb, reached No. 15 in the US.
The Bee Gees' follow-up to Saturday Night Fever was the Spirits Having Flown album. It yielded three more hits: "Too Much Heaven" (US No. 1, UK No. 3), "Tragedy" (US No. 1, UK No. 1), and "Love You Inside Out" (US No. 1, UK No. 13). This gave the act six consecutive No. 1 singles in the US within a year and a half, equalling the Beatles and surpassed only by Whitney Houston.
In January 1979, the Bee Gees performed "Too Much Heaven" as their contribution to the Music for UNICEF Concert at the United Nations General Assembly. During the summer of 1979, the Bee Gees embarked on their largest concert tour covering the US and Canada. The Spirits Having Flown tour capitalised on Bee Gees fever that was sweeping the nation, with sold-out concerts in 38 cities. The Bee Gees produced a video for the title track "Too Much Heaven", directed by Miami-based filmmaker Martin Pitts and produced by Charles Allen. With this video, Pitts and Allen began a long association with the brothers.
The Bee Gees even had a country hit in 1979 with "Rest Your Love on Me", the flip side of their pop hit "Too Much Heaven", which made the top 40 on the country charts. It was also a 1981 hit for Conway Twitty, topping the country music charts.
The Bee Gees' overwhelming success rose and fell with the disco bubble. By the end of 1979, disco was rapidly declining in popularity, and the backlash against disco put the Bee Gees' American career in a tailspin. Radio stations around the US began promoting "Bee Gee-Free Weekends". Following their remarkable run from 1975 to 1979, the act had only one more top 10 single in the US, and that did not come until the single "One" reached number 7 in 1989.
Barry Gibb considered the success of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack both a blessing and a curse:
1980–1986: Outside projects, band turmoil, solo efforts and decline
Robin co-produced Jimmy Ruffin's Sunrise released in May 1980, but the songs were started in 1979; the album contains songs written by the Gibb brothers, including the single "Hold On To My Love".
In March 1980, Barry Gibb worked with Barbra Streisand on her album Guilty. He co-produced, and wrote or co-wrote all nine of the album's tracks (four of them written with Robin, and the title track with both Robin and Maurice). Barry also appeared on the album's cover with Streisand and duetted with her on two tracks. The album reached No. 1 in both the US and the UK, as did the single "Woman in Love" (written by Barry and Robin), becoming Streisand's most successful single and album to date. Both of the Streisand/Gibb duets, "Guilty" and "What Kind of Fool", also reached the US Top 10.
In 1981, the Bee Gees released the album Living Eyes, their last full-length album release on RSO. This album was the first CD ever played in public, when it was played to viewers of the BBC show Tomorrow's World. With the disco backlash still running strong, the album failed to make the UK or US Top 40—breaking their streak of Top 40 hits, which started in 1975 with "Jive Talkin'". Two singles from the album fared little better—"He's a Liar", which reached No. 30 in the US, and "Living Eyes", which reached No. 45.
In 1982, Dionne Warwick enjoyed a UK No. 2 and US Adult Contemporary No. 1 hit with her comeback single, "Heartbreaker", taken from her eponymous album written largely by the Bee Gees and co-produced by Barry Gibb. The album reached No. 3 in the UK and the Top 30 in the US, where it was certified Gold.
A year later, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers recorded the Bee Gees-penned track "Islands in the Stream", which became a US and Australian No. 1 hit and entered the Top 10 in the UK. Rogers' 1983 album, Eyes That See in the Dark, was written entirely by the Bee Gees and co-produced by Barry. The album was a Top 10 hit in the US and was certified Double Platinum.
The Bee Gees had greater success with the soundtrack to Staying Alive in 1983, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever. The soundtrack was certified platinum in the US, and included their Top 30 hit "The Woman in You".
Also in 1983, the band was sued by Chicago songwriter Ronald Selle, who claimed the brothers stole melodic material from one of his songs, "Let It End", and used it in "How Deep Is Your Love". At first, the Bee Gees lost the case; one juror said that a factor in the jury's decision was the Gibbs' failure to introduce expert testimony rebutting the plaintiff's expert testimony that it was "impossible" for the two songs to have been written independently. However, the verdict was overturned a few months later.
In August 1983, Barry signed a solo deal with MCA Records and spent much of late 1983 and 1984 writing songs for this first solo effort, Now Voyager. Robin released three solo albums in the 1980s, How Old Are You?, Secret Agent and Walls Have Eyes. Maurice released his second single to date, "Hold Her in Your Hand", the first one having been released in 1970.
In 1985, Diana Ross released the album Eaten Alive, written by the Bee Gees, with the title track co-written with Michael Jackson (who also performed on the track). The album was again co-produced by Barry Gibb, and the single "Chain Reaction" gave Ross a UK and Australian No. 1 hit.
1987–1999: Comeback, return to popularity and Andy's death
The Bee Gees released the album E.S.P. in 1987, which sold over 2 million copies. It was their first album in six years, and their first for Warner Bros. Records. The single "You Win Again" went to No. 1 in numerous countries, including the UK, and made the Bee Gees the first group to score a UK No. 1 hit in each of three decades: the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The single was a disappointment in the US, charting at No. 75, and the Bee Gees voiced their frustration over American radio stations not playing their new European hit single, an omission which the group felt led to poor sales of their current album in the US. The song won the Bee Gees the 1987 British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, and in February 1988 the band received a Brit Award nomination for Best British Group.
On 10 March 1988, younger brother Andy Gibb died, aged 30, as a result of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle due to a recent viral infection. The Bee Gees later got together with Eric Clapton to create a group called 'the Bunburys' to raise money for English charities. The group recorded three songs for The Bunbury Tails: "We're the Bunburys" (which eventually became the opening theme to the 1992 animated series The Bunbury Tails), "Bunbury Afternoon", and "Fight (No Matter How Long)". The last song reached No. 8 on the rock music chart and appeared on The 1988 Summer Olympics Album. The Bee Gees' next album, One (1989), featured a song dedicated to Andy, "Wish You Were Here". The album also contained their first US Top 10 hit (No. 7) in a decade, "One" (an Adult Contemporary No. 1). After the album's release, the band embarked on its first world tour in 10 years.
In the UK, Polydor issued a single-disc hits collection from Tales called The Very Best of the Bee Gees, which contained their biggest UK hits. The album became one of their best-selling albums in that country, and was eventually certified Triple Platinum.
Following their next album, High Civilization (1991), which contained the UK top five hit "Secret Love", the Bee Gees went on a European tour. After the tour, Barry Gibb began to battle a serious back problem, which required surgery. In addition, he suffered from arthritis which, at one point, was so severe that it was doubtful that he would be able to play guitar for much longer. Also, in the early 1990s, Maurice Gibb finally sought treatment for his alcoholism, which he had battled for many years with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous.
In 1993, the group returned to the Polydor label and released the album Size Isn't Everything, which contained the UK top five hit "For Whom the Bell Tolls". Success still eluded them in the US, however, as the first single released, "Paying the Price of Love", only managed to reach No. 74 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the parent album stalled at No. 153.
In 1997, they released the album Still Waters, which has reached No. 2 in the UK (their highest album chart position there since 1979) and No. 11 in the US. The album's first single, "Alone", gave them another UK Top 5 hit and a top 30 hit in the US. Still Waters was the band's most successful US release of their post-RSO era.
At the 1997 BRIT Awards held in Earls Court, London on 24 February, the Bee Gees received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. On 14 November 1997, the Bee Gees performed a live concert in Las Vegas called One Night Only. The show included a performance of "Our Love (Don't Throw It All Away)" synchronised with a vocal by their deceased brother Andy and a cameo appearance by Celine Dion singing "Immortality". The "One Night Only" name grew out of the band's declaration that, due to Barry's health issues, the Las Vegas show was to be the final live performance of their career. After the immensely positive audience response to the Vegas concert, Barry decided to continue despite the pain, and the concert expanded into their last full-blown world tour of "One Night Only" concerts. The tour included playing to 56,000 people at London's Wembley Stadium on 5 September 1998 and concluded in the newly built Olympic Stadium in Sydney, Australia on 27 March 1999 to 72,000 people.
In 1998, the group's soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever was incorporated into a stage production produced first in the West End and then on Broadway. They wrote three new songs for the adaptation. Also in 1998, the brothers released "Ellan Vannin" for Manx charities, recorded the previous year. Known as the unofficial national anthem of the Isle of Man, the brothers performed the song during their world tour to reflect their pride in the place of their birth.
The Bee Gees closed the century with what turned out to be their last full-sized concert, known as BG2K, on 31 December 1999.
2000–2008: This Is Where I Came In and Maurice's death
In 2001, the group released what turned out to be their final album of new material, This Is Where I Came In. The album was another success, reaching the Top 10 in the UK (being certified Gold), and the Top 20 in the US. The title track was also a UK Top 20 hit single.
The last concert of the Bee Gees as a trio was at the Love and Hope Ball in 2002. Maurice Gibb died unexpectedly on 12 January 2003, at age 53, from a heart attack while awaiting emergency surgery to repair a strangulated intestine. Initially, his surviving brothers announced that they intended to carry on the name "Bee Gees" in his memory, but as time passed they decided to retire the group's name, leaving it to represent the three brothers together.
The same week that Maurice died, Robin's solo album Magnet was released. On 23 February 2003, the Bee Gees received the Grammy Legend Award, they also became the first recipients of that award in the 21st century. Barry and Robin accepted as well as Maurice's son, Adam, in a tearful ceremony.
In late 2004, Robin embarked on a solo tour of Germany, Russia and Asia. During January 2005, Barry, Robin and several legendary rock artists recorded "Grief Never Grows Old", the official tsunami relief record for the Disasters Emergency Committee. Later that year, Barry reunited with Barbra Streisand for her top-selling album Guilty Pleasures, released as Guilty Too in the UK as a sequel album to the previous Guilty. Also in 2004, Barry recorded his song "I Cannot Give You My Love" with Cliff Richard, which became a UK top 20 hit single.
In February 2006, Barry and Robin reunited on stage for a Miami charity concert to benefit the Diabetes Research Institute. It was their first public performance together since Maurice's death. The pair also played at the 30th annual Prince's Trust Concert in the UK on 20 May 2006.
2009–2012: Return to performing and Robin's death
Barry and Robin performed on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing on 31 October 2009 and appeared on ABC-TV's Dancing with the Stars on 17 November 2009. On 15 March 2010, Barry and Robin inducted the Swedish group ABBA into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On 26 May 2010, the two made a surprise appearance on the ninth-season finale of American Idol.
On 20 November 2011 it was announced that Robin Gibb, at 61 years old, had been diagnosed with liver cancer, a condition he had become aware of several months earlier. He had become noticeably thinner in previous months and had to cancel several appearances due to severe abdominal pain. Robin joined British military trio the Soldiers for the Coming Home charity concert on 13 February 2012 at the London Palladium, in support of injured servicemen. It was his first public appearance for almost five months and, as it turned out, his final one. On 14 April 2012, it was reported that Robin had contracted pneumonia in a Chelsea hospital and was in a coma. Although he came out of his coma on 20 April 2012, his condition deteriorated rapidly and he died on 20 May 2012 of liver and kidney failure.
2013–present: Looking back at a lifetime of music
In September and October 2013, Barry performed his first solo tour "in honour of his brothers and a lifetime of music". In addition to the Rhino collection, The Studio Albums: 1967–1968, Warner Bros. released a box set in 2014 called The Warner Bros Years: 1987–1991 that included the studio albums E.S.P., One and High Civilization as well as extended mixes and B-sides. It also included the band's entire 1989 concert in Melbourne, Australia, available only on video as All for One prior to this release. The documentary The Joy of the Bee Gees was aired on BBC Four on 19 December 2014.
On 23 March 2015, 13STAR Records released a box set 1974–1979 which included the studio albums Mr. Natural, Main Course, Children of the World and Spirits Having Flown. A fifth disc called The Miami Years includes all the tracks from Saturday Night Fever as well as B-sides. No unreleased tracks from the era were included.
After a hiatus from performing, Barry Gibb returned to solo and guest singing performances. He occasionally appears with his son, Steve Gibb. In 2016, he released In the Now, his first solo effort since 1984's Now Voyager. It was the first release of new Bee Gees-related music since the posthumous release of Robin Gibb's 50 St. Catherine's Drive. Also in 2016, Capitol Records signed a new distribution deal with Barry and the estates of his brothers for the Bee Gees catalogue, bringing their music back to Universal.
An as-yet-untitled biopic about the Bee Gees is in development at Paramount, with Kenneth Branagh directing and Barry Gibb serving as an executive producer.
Influences
The Bee Gees were influenced by the Beatles, the Everly Brothers, the Mills Brothers, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, Roy Orbison, the Beach Boys and Stevie Wonder. On the 2014 documentary The Joy of the Bee Gees, Barry said that the Bee Gees were also influenced by the Hollies and Otis Redding. Maurice noted that Neil Sedaka was an early influence, and later the group was "very influenced" by Linda Creed songs for the Stylistics.
Legacy
In his 1980 Playboy magazine interview, John Lennon praised the Bee Gees, "Try to tell the kids in the seventies who were screaming to the Bee Gees that their music was just the Beatles redone. There is nothing wrong with the Bee Gees. They do a damn good job. There was nothing else going on then."
In a 2007 interview with Duane Hitchings, who co-wrote Rod Stewart's 1978 disco song "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?", he noted that the song was:
Kevin Parker of Tame Impala has said that listening to the Bee Gees after taking mushrooms inspired him to change the sound of the music he was making on his album Currents.
The English indie rock band the Cribs was also influenced by the Bee Gees. Cribs member Ryan Jarman said: "It must have had quite a big influence on us – pop melodies is something we always revert to. I always want to get back to pop melodies and I'm sure that's due to that Bee Gees phase we went through."
Following Robin's death on 20 May 2012, Beyoncé remarked: "The Bee Gees were an early inspiration for me, Kelly Rowland and Michelle. We loved their songwriting and beautiful harmonies. Recording their classic song, 'Emotion' was a special time for Destiny's Child. Sadly we lost Robin Gibb this week. My heart goes out to his brother Barry and the rest of his family."
Singer Jordin Sparks remarked that her favourite Bee Gees songs are "Too Much Heaven", "Emotion" (although performed by Samantha Sang with Barry on the background vocals using his falsetto), and "Stayin' Alive".
Carrie Underwood said, about discovering the Bee Gees during her childhood, "My parents listened to the Bee Gees quite a bit when I was little, so I was definitely exposed to them at an early age. They just had a sound that was all their own, obviously, [it was] never duplicated."
Songwriting
At one point, in 1978, the Gibb brothers were responsible for writing and/or performing nine of the songs in the Billboard Hot 100. In all, the Gibbs placed 13 singles onto the Hot 100 in 1978, with 12 making the Top 40. The Gibb brothers are fellows of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA). At least 2,500 artists have recorded their songs.
Singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw spoke about the Bee Gees' influence with their own music as well as their songwriting:
In 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Bee Gees were announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for their role as "Influential Artists".
Accolades and achievements
In 1978, following the success of Saturday Night Fever, and the single "Night Fever" in particular, Reubin Askew, the governor of the US state of Florida, named the Bee Gees honorary citizens of the state, since they resided in Miami at the time. In 1979, the Bee Gees got their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They were the subjects of This Is Your Life in 1991 when they were surprised by Michael Aspel while being interviewed by disc jockey Steve Wright (DJ) on his Radio 1 programme at BBC Broadcasting House.
The Bee Gees were inducted in 1994 into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, as well as Florida's Artists Hall of Fame in 1995 and the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1997. Also in 1997, the group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; the presenter of the award to "Britain's First Family of Harmony" was Brian Wilson, historical leader of the Beach Boys, another "family act" featuring three harmonising brothers. In 2001, they were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. After Maurice's death, the Bee Gees were also inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2001, London's Walk of Fame in 2006 and Musically Speaking Hall Of Fame in 2008. On 15 May 2007, the Bee Gees were named BMI Icons at the 55th annual BMI Pop Awards. Collectively, Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb have earned 109 BMI Pop, Country and Latin Awards.
In October 1999, the Isle of Man Post Office unveiled a set of six stamps honouring the Bee Gees.
All three brothers (including Maurice posthumously) were invested as Commanders of the Order of the British Empire in December 2001 with the ceremony taking place at Buckingham Palace on 27 May 2004. On 10 July 2009, the Isle of Man's capital bestowed the Freedom of the Borough of Douglas honour on Barry and Robin, as well as posthumously on Maurice. On 20 November 2009, the Douglas Borough Council released a limited edition commemorative DVD to mark their naming as Freemen of the Borough.
On 14 February 2013, Barry Gibb unveiled a statue of the Bee Gees as well as unveiling "Bee Gees Way" (a walkway filled with photos and videos of the Bee Gees) in honour of the Bee Gees in Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia. On 27 June 2018, Barry Gibb, the last surviving member of the Bee Gees, was knighted by Prince Charles after being named on the Queen's New Years Honours List. The statue of the Bee Gees in Douglas, Isle of Man, was installed in 2021.
In 2022, the last surviving member of the group, Barry Gibb, was made an Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia which is Australia's highest national honour.
The Bee Gees have sold over 220 million records worldwide, making them one of the best selling artists of all time. The group are to date the most successful family and sibling band of all time, the most successful musical trio of all time, and the most successful musical act with ties to Australia.
Awards and nominations
Queensland Music Awards
The Queensland Music Awards (previously known as Q Song Awards) are annual awards celebrating Queensland, Australia's brightest emerging artists and established legends. They commenced in 2006.
(wins only)
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| 2009
| themselves
| Grant McLennan Lifetime Achievement Award
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|}
Band members
Principal members
Barry Gibb – vocals, rhythm guitar (1958–2003, 2006, 2009–2012)
Robin Gibb – vocals, occasional keyboards (1958–1969, 1970–2003, 2006, 2009–2012; d. 2012)
Maurice Gibb – bass, rhythm and lead guitars, keyboards, vocals (1958–2003; d. 2003)
Colin Petersen – drums (1967–1969)
Vince Melouney – lead guitar (1967–1968)
Geoff Bridgford – drums (1971–1972; touring 1970-1971)
Touring musicians
Alan Kendall – lead guitar (1971–1981, 1989–2003)
Chris Karan – drums (1972)
Dennis Bryon – drums (1973–1981)
Geoff Westley – keyboards, piano (1973–1976)
Blue Weaver – keyboards, synthesizers (1975–1981)
Joe Lala – percussion (1976, 1979)
Joey Murcia – rhythm guitar (1976, 1979)
Harold Cowart – bass (1979)
Tim Cansfield – lead guitar (1989)
Vic Martin – keyboard, synthesizer (1989)
Gary Moberly – keyboard, synthesizer (1989)
George Perry – bass (1989–1993)
Chester Thompson – drums (1989)
Mike Murphy – drums (1989)
Trevor Murrell – drums (1991–1992)
Rudi Dobson – keyboards (1991–1992)
Scott F. Crago – drums
Ben Stivers – keyboard (1996–1999)
Matt Bonelli – bass (1993–2001)
Steve Rucker – drums (1993–1999)
Guest musicians (studio and touring)
Phil Collins – drums
Lenny Castro – percussion
Glenn Frey – guitar
Timothy B. Schmit – bass guitar
Joe Walsh – lead guitar
Don Felder – lead guitar (1981)
Jeff Porcaro – drums
Mike Porcaro – bass guitar
Steve Porcaro – keyboards
Steve Lukather – guitar
David Hungate – bass guitar
David Paich – keyboards
Greg Phillinganes – keyboards
Bobby Kimball – keyboards
Leland Sklar – bass guitar
Reb Beach – lead guitar
Gregg Bissonette – drums
Ricky Lawson – drums
Scott F. Crago – drums
Steve Gadd – drums
Steve Ferrone – drums
Steve Jordan – drums
Nathan East – bass guitar
Steuart Smith – lead guitar
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Timeline
Timeline of touring members
Discography
Soundtracks Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Staying Alive (1983) are not official Bee Gees albums, but contain some previously unreleased tracks. Apart from live and compilation, all their official albums are included on this list. A Kick in the Head Is Worth Eight in the Pants has not been included on the list because it appeared only on numerous bootlegs and was not officially released.
Studio albums
The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs (1965)
Spicks and Specks (1966)
Bee Gees' 1st (1967)
Horizontal (1968)
Idea (1968)
Odessa (1969)
Cucumber Castle (1970)
2 Years On (1970)
Trafalgar (1971)
To Whom It May Concern (1972)
Life in a Tin Can (1973)
Mr. Natural (1974)
Main Course (1975)
Children of the World (1976)
Spirits Having Flown (1979)
Living Eyes (1981)
E.S.P. (1987)
One (1989)
High Civilization (1991)
Size Isn't Everything (1993)
Still Waters (1997)
This Is Where I Came In (2001)
Concert tours
The Bee Gees' concerts in 1967 and 1968 (1967–1968)
2 Years On Tour (1971)
Trafalgar Tour (1972)
Mr. Natural Tour (1974)
Main Course Tour (1975)
Children of the World Tour (1976)
Spirits Having Flown Tour (1979)
One for All World Tour (1989)
High Civilization World Tour (1991)
One Night Only World Tour (1997–1999)
This Is Where I Came In (2001)
Filmography
Citations
General bibliography
.
External links
Bee Gees Official website
Bee Gees at Rolling Stone
Bee Gees' Vocal Group Hall of Fame webpage
Bee Gees at bmi.com
Robin Gibb sadly passes away after losing his battle with cancer
Who Do You Think You Are? – Bee Gees Family History
1958 establishments in Australia
Australian pop rock groups
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Atlantic Records artists
Barry Gibb
Brit Award winners
British disco groups
British musical trios
British soft rock music groups
British soul musical groups
Brunswick Records artists
Capitol Records artists
Child musical groups
English expatriates in Australia
English expatriates in the United States
English pop music groups
English rock music groups
Grammy Legend Award winners
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Mercury Records artists
Manx musical groups
Maurice Gibb
Musical groups established in 1958
Musical groups disestablished in 2003
Musical groups reestablished in 2009
Musical groups disestablished in 2012
Musical groups from Manchester
Queensland musical groups
Philips Records artists
Q150 Icons
Robin Gibb
RSO Records artists
Sibling musical trios
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors
United Artists Records artists
Warner Records artists
World Music Awards winners | true | [
"\"Without You\" is a song recorded by Australian group Girlfriend. The song was released in September 1992 as the third single from their debut studio album Make It Come True. The song peaked at number 18 on the ARIA Charts.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\n1992 songs\n1992 singles\nBertelsmann Music Group singles\nRCA Records singles\nGirlfriend (band) songs",
"\"I Could Make You Love Me\" is a song from Australian pop group Wa Wa Nee. The song was released in August 1986 as the second single from their self-titled debut studio album. The song peaked at number 5 on the Australian singles chart.\n\nTrack listing\n7\" (CBS - BA3475) \nSide A \"I Could Make You Love Me\" - 2:52\nSide B \"Meela Polarmay\" - 3:47\n\n12\"' (CBS - BA12212)\nSide A \"I Could Make You Love Me\" (Metal Mix)\nSide B \"Meela Polarmay\" (Extended Mix)\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences \n\n1985 songs\n1986 singles\nWa Wa Nee songs\nSongs written by Paul Gray (songwriter)\nCBS Records singles"
]
|
[
"Bee Gees",
"Main Course and Children of the World",
"What happened during this time period?",
"At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record.",
"what did that lead to?",
"After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs,",
"any awards or special recognition during this time?",
"This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album.",
"what happened next?",
"On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang \"To Love Somebody\" with Helen Reddy.",
"what do you find interesting in the article?",
"Barry used falsetto, something that would later become a trademark of the band.",
"What was next for the band ?",
"On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course,",
"How was that recieved?",
"Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers--\"",
"singles make the charts?",
"Main Course also became their first charting R&B album."
]
| C_6cca1f87ae8e46bd949e4e2bdf8ac2d4_1 | what else hit the charts? | 9 | Aside from Main Course, what else hit the charts? | Bee Gees | At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record. After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs, including their second US No. 1, "Jive Talkin'", along with US No. 7 "Nights on Broadway". The band liked the resulting new sound. This time the public agreed by sending the LP Main Course up the charts. This album included the first Bee Gees songs wherein Barry used falsetto, something that would later become a trademark of the band. This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album. On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang "To Love Somebody" with Helen Reddy. Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers--"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" with Barry providing lead vocals, and "Sun King" with Maurice providing lead vocals, for the unsuccessful musical/documentary All This and World War II. The next album, Children of the World released in September 1976, was drenched in Barry's new-found falsetto and Weaver's synthesizer disco licks. Mardin was unavailable to produce, so the Bee Gees enlisted Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson, who had worked with Mardin during the Main Course sessions. This production team would carry the Bee Gees through the rest of the 1970s. The first single from the album was "You Should Be Dancing" (which features percussion work by musician Stephen Stills). The song pushed the Bee Gees to a level of stardom they had not previously achieved in the US, though their new R&B/disco sound was not as popular with some die hard fans. The pop ballad "Love So Right" reached No. 3 in the US, and "Boogie Child" reached US No. 12 in January 1977. The album peaked at No. 8 in the US. A compilation Bee Gees Gold was released in November, containing the group's hits from 1967 to 1972. CANNOTANSWER | This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. | The Bee Gees
were a music group formed in 1958, featuring brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful as a popular music act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers of the disco music era in the mid- to late 1970s. The group sang recognisable three-part tight harmonies; Robin's clear vibrato lead vocals were a hallmark of their earlier hits, while Barry's R&B falsetto became their signature sound during the mid- to late 1970s and 1980s. The Bee Gees wrote all of their own hits, as well as writing and producing several major hits for other artists and have been regarded as one of the most important and influential acts in pop music history. They have been referred to in the media as The Disco Kings, Britain’s First Family of Harmony, and The Kings of Dance Music.
Born on the Isle of Man to English parents, the Gibb brothers lived in Chorlton, Manchester, England until the late 1950s. There, in 1955, they formed the skiffle/rock and roll group the Rattlesnakes. The family then moved to Redcliffe, in the Moreton Bay Region, Queensland, Australia, later to Cribb Island. After achieving their first chart success in Australia as the Bee Gees with "Spicks and Specks" (their twelfth single), they returned to the UK in January 1967, when producer Robert Stigwood began promoting them to a worldwide audience. The Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever soundtrack (1977) was the turning point of their career, with both the film and soundtrack having a cultural impact throughout the world, enhancing the disco scene's mainstream appeal. They won five Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever, including Album of the Year.
The Bee Gees have sold over 220 million records worldwide, making them among the best-selling music artists of all time. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997; the Hall's citation says, "Only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney have outsold the Bee Gees." With nine number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, the Bee Gees are the third-most successful band in Billboard charts history behind only the Beatles and the Supremes.
Following Maurice's sudden death in January 2003 at the age of 53, Barry and Robin retired the group's name after 45 years of activity. In 2009, Robin announced that he and Barry had agreed that the Bee Gees would re-form and perform again. Robin died in May 2012, aged 62, after a prolonged period of failing health, leaving Barry as the only surviving member of the group.
History
1955–1966: Music origins, Bee Gees formation and popularity in Australia
Born on the Isle of Man during the late 1940s, the Gibb brothers moved to their father Hugh Gibb's hometown of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Greater Manchester, England in 1955. They formed a skiffle/rock-and-roll group, the Rattlesnakes, which consisted of Barry on guitar and vocals, Robin and Maurice on vocals and friends Paul Frost on drums and Kenny Horrocks on tea-chest bass. In December 1957 the boys began to sing in harmony. The story is told that they were going to lip-sync to a record in the local Gaumont cinema (as other children had done on previous weeks), but as they were running to the theatre, the fragile shellac 78-RPM record broke. The brothers had to sing live, but received such a positive response from the audience that they decided to pursue a singing career. In May 1958 the Rattlesnakes disbanded when Frost and Horrocks left, so the Gibb brothers then formed Wee Johnny Hayes and the Blue Cats, with Barry as "Johnny Hayes".
In August 1958, the Gibb family, including older sister Lesley and infant brother Andy (born in March 1958), emigrated to Australia and settled in Redcliffe, Queensland, just north-east of Brisbane. The young brothers began performing to raise pocket money. Speedway promoter and driver Bill Goode, who had hired the brothers to entertain the crowd at the Redcliffe Speedway in 1960, introduced them to Brisbane radio-presenter jockey Bill Gates. The crowd at the speedway would throw money onto the track for the boys, who generally performed during the interval of meetings (usually on the back of a truck that drove around the track) and, in a deal with Goode, any money they collected from the crowd they were allowed to keep. Gates named the group the "BGs" (later changed to "Bee Gees") after his, Goode's and Barry Gibb's initials. The name was not specifically a reference to "Brothers Gibb", despite popular belief.
During the next few years, they began working regularly at resorts on the Queensland coast. Through his songwriting, Barry sparked the interest of Australian star Col Joye, who helped the brothers get a recording deal in 1963 with Festival Records subsidiary Leedon Records under the name "Bee Gees". The three released two or three singles a year, while Barry supplied additional songs to other Australian artists. In 1962 the Bee Gees were chosen as the supporting act for Chubby Checker's concert at the Sydney Stadium.
From 1963 to 1966, the Gibb family lived at 171 Bunnerong Road, Maroubra, in Sydney. Just prior to his death, Robin Gibb recorded the song "Sydney" about the brothers' experience of living in that city. It was released on his posthumous album 50 St. Catherine's Drive. The house was demolished in 2016.
A minor hit in 1965, "Wine and Women", led to the group's first LP, The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs. By 1966 Festival Records was, however, on the verge of dropping them from the Leedon roster because of their perceived lack of commercial success. At this time the brothers met the American-born songwriter, producer and entrepreneur Nat Kipner, who had just been appointed A&R manager of a new independent label, Spin Records. Kipner briefly took over as the group's manager and successfully negotiated their transfer to Spin in exchange for granting Festival the Australian distribution-rights to the group's recordings. Through Kipner the Bee Gees met engineer-producer, Ossie Byrne, who produced (or co-produced with Kipner) many of the earlier Spin recordings, most of which were cut at his own small, self-built St Clair Studio in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville. Byrne gave the Gibb brothers virtually unlimited access to St Clair Studio over a period of several months in mid-1966. The group later acknowledged that this enabled them to greatly improve their skills as recording artists. During this productive time they recorded a large batch of original material—including the song that became their first major hit, "Spicks and Specks" (on which Byrne played the trumpet coda)—as well as cover versions of current hits by overseas acts such as the Beatles. They regularly collaborated with other local musicians, including members of beat band Steve & The Board, led by Steve Kipner, Nat's teenage son.
Frustrated by their lack of success, the Gibbs began their return journey to England on 4 January 1967, with Ossie Byrne travelling with them. While at sea in January 1967, the Gibbs learned that Go-Set, Australia's most popular and influential music newspaper, had declared "Spicks and Specks" the "Best Single of the Year".
1967–1969: International fame and touring years
Bee Gees' 1st, Horizontal and Idea
Before their departure from Australia to England, Hugh Gibb sent demos to Brian Epstein, who managed the Beatles and directed NEMS, a British music store. Epstein passed the demo tapes to Robert Stigwood, who had recently joined NEMS. After an audition with Stigwood in February 1967, the Bee Gees signed a five-year contract whereby Polydor Records would release their records in the UK, and Atco Records would do so in the US. Work quickly began on the group's first international album, and Stigwood launched a promotional campaign to coincide with its release.
Stigwood proclaimed that the Bee Gees were "The most significant new musical talent of 1967", thus initiating the comparison of the Bee Gees to the Beatles. Before recording the first album, the group expanded to include Colin Petersen and Vince Melouney. "New York Mining Disaster 1941," their second British single (their first-issued UK 45 rpm was "Spicks and Specks"), was issued to radio stations with a blank white label listing only the song title. Some DJs immediately assumed this was a new single by the Beatles and started playing the song in heavy rotation. This helped the song climb into the top 20 in both the UK and US.
No such chicanery was needed to boost the Bee Gees' next single, "To Love Somebody", into the US Top 20. Originally written for Otis Redding, "To Love Somebody", a soulful ballad sung by Barry, has since become a pop standard covered by many artists. Another single, "Holiday", released in the US, peaked at No. 16.
The parent album, Bee Gees 1st (their first internationally), peaked at No. 7 in the US and No. 8 in the UK. Bill Shepherd was credited as the arranger. After recording that album, the group recorded their first BBC session at the Playhouse Theatre, Northumberland Avenue, in London, with Bill Bebb as the producer, and they performed three songs. That session is included on BBC Sessions: 1967–1973 (2008). After the release of Bee Gees' 1st, the group was first introduced in New York as "the English surprise." At that time, the band made their first British TV appearance on Top of the Pops. Maurice recalled:
In late 1967, they began recording the second album. On 21 December 1967, in a live broadcast from Liverpool Anglican Cathedral for a Christmas television special called How On Earth?, they performed their own song, "Thank You For Christmas" which was written especially for the programme, as well as a medley of the traditional Christmas carols "Silent Night," "The First Noel" and "Mary's Boy Child" (the latter incorrectly noted as "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" on tape boxes and subsequent release). The songs were all pre-recorded on 1 December 1967 and the group lip-synched their performance. The recordings were eventually released on the "Horizontal" reissue bonus disc in 2008. The folk group the Settlers and Radio 1 disc-jockey, Kenny Everett, also performed on the programme which was presented by the Reverend Edward H. Patey, dean of the cathedral.
January 1968 began with a promotional trip to the US. Los Angeles Police were on alert in anticipation of a Beatles-type reception, and special security arrangements were being put in place. In February, Horizontal repeated the success of their first album, featuring the group's first UK No. 1 single "Massachusetts" (a No. 11 US hit) and the No. 7 UK single "World." The sound of the album Horizontal had a more "rock" sound than their previous release, although ballads like "And the Sun Will Shine" and "Really and Sincerely" were also prominent. The Horizontal album reached No. 12 in the US and No. 16 in the UK.
With the release of Horizontal, they also embarked on a Scandinavian tour with concerts in Copenhagen. Around the same time, the Bee Gees turned down an offer to write and perform the soundtrack for the film Wonderwall, according to director Joe Massot.
On 27 February 1968, the band, backed by the 17-piece Massachusetts String Orchestra, began their first tour of Germany with two concerts at Hamburg Musikhalle. In March 1968, the band was supported by Procol Harum (who had a well-known hit "A Whiter Shade of Pale") on their German tour. As Robin's partner Molly Hullis recalls: "Germans were wilder than the fans in England at the heights of Beatlemania." The tour schedule took them to 11 venues in as many days with 18 concerts played, finishing with a brace of shows at the Stadthalle, Braunschweig.
After that, the group was off to Switzerland. As Maurice described it:
On 17 March, the band performed "Words" on The Ed Sullivan Show. The other artists who performed on that night's show were Lucille Ball, George Hamilton and Fran Jeffries. On 27 March 1968, the band performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Two more singles followed in early 1968: the ballad "Words" (No. 8 UK, No. 15 US) and the double A-sided single "Jumbo" backed with "The Singer Sang His Song". "Jumbo" only reached No. 25 in the UK and No. 57 in the US. The Bee Gees felt "The Singer Sang His Song" was the stronger of the two sides, an opinion shared by listeners in the Netherlands who made it a No. 3 hit.
Further Bee Gees chart singles followed: "I've Gotta Get a Message to You", their second UK No. 1 (No. 8 US), and "I Started a Joke" (No. 6 US), both culled from the band's third album Idea. Idea reached No. 4 in the UK and was another top 20 album in the US (No. 17).
After the tour and TV special to promote the album, Vince Melouney left the group, desiring to play more of a blues style music than the Gibbs were writing. Melouney did achieve one feat while with the Bee Gees: his composition "Such a Shame" (from Idea) is the only song on any Bee Gees album not written by a Gibb brother.
The band were due to begin a seven-week tour of the US on 2 August 1968, but on 27 July, Robin collapsed and fell unconscious. He was admitted to a London nursing home suffering from nervous exhaustion, and the American tour was postponed. The band began recording their sixth album, which resulted in their spending a week recording at Atlantic Studios in New York. Robin, still feeling poorly, missed the New York sessions, but the rest of the band put away instrumental tracks and demos.
Odessa, Cucumber Castle and break-up
By 1969, Robin began to feel that Stigwood had been favouring Barry as the frontman.
The Bee Gees' performances in early 1969 on the Top of the Pops and The Tom Jones Show performing "I Started a Joke" and "First of May" as a medley was one of the last live performances of the group with Robin.
Their next album, which was to have been a concept album called Masterpeace, evolved into the double-album Odessa. Most rock critics felt this was the best Bee Gees album of the 1960s with its progressive rock feel on the title track, the country-flavoured "Marley Purt Drive" and "Give Your Best", and ballads such as "Melody Fair" and "First of May" (the last of which became the only single from the album and a UK # 6 hit). Feeling the flipside, "Lamplight," should have been the A-side, Robin quit the group in mid-1969 and launched a solo career.
The first of many Bee Gees compilations, Best of Bee Gees, was released featuring the non-LP single "Words" plus the Australian hit "Spicks and Specks". The single "Tomorrow Tomorrow" was also released and was a moderate hit in the UK, where it reached No. 23, but it was only No. 54 in the US. The compilation reached the top 10 in both the UK and the US.
While Robin pursued his solo career, Barry, Maurice and Petersen continued on as the Bee Gees recording their next album, Cucumber Castle. The band made their debut performance without Robin at Talk of the Town. They had recruited their sister, Lesley, into the group at this time. To accompany the album, they also filmed a TV special with Frankie Howerd and cameos from several other contemporary pop and rock stars, which aired on the BBC in December 1970. Petersen played drums on the tracks recorded for the album but was fired from the group after filming began (he went on to form the Humpy Bong with Jonathan Kelly). His parts were edited out of the final cut of the film and Pentangle drummer Terry Cox was recruited to complete the recording of songs for the album.
After the album was released in early 1970, it seemed that the Bee Gees were finished. The leadoff single, "Don't Forget to Remember", was a big hit in the UK, reaching No. 2, but only reached No. 73 in the US. The next two singles, "I.O.I.O." and "If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else", barely scraped the charts. On 1 December 1969, Barry and Maurice parted ways professionally.
Maurice started to record his first solo album, The Loner, which was not released. Meanwhile, he released the single "Railroad" and starred in the West End musical Sing a Rude Song. In February 1970, Barry recorded a solo album which never saw official release either, although "I'll Kiss Your Memory" was released as a single backed by "This Time" without much interest. Meanwhile, Robin saw success in Europe and Australia with his No. 2 hit "Saved by the Bell" and the album Robin's Reign.
1970–1974: Reformation
In mid 1970, according to Barry, "Robin rang me in Spain where I was on holiday [saying] 'let's do it again'". By 21 August 1970, after they had reunited, Barry announced that the Bee Gees "are there and they will never, ever part again". Maurice said, "We just discussed it and re-formed. We want to apologise publicly to Robin for the things that have been said." Earlier, in June 1970, Robin and Maurice recorded a dozen songs before Barry joined and included two songs that were on their reunion album. Around the same time, Barry and Robin were about to publish the book On the Other Hand. They also recruited Geoff Bridgford as the group's official drummer. Bridgford had previously worked with the Groove and Tin Tin and played drums on Maurice's unreleased first solo album.
In 1970, 2 Years On was released in October in the US and November in the UK. The lead single "Lonely Days" reached No. 3 in the United States, promoted by appearances on The Johnny Cash Show, Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Dick Cavett Show and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Their ninth album, Trafalgar, was released in late 1971. The single "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" was their first to hit No. 1 on the US charts, while "Israel" reached No. 22 in the Netherlands. "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" also brought the Bee Gees their first Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Later that year, the group's songs were included in the soundtrack for the film Melody.
In 1972, they hit No. 16 in the US with the non-album single "My World", backed by Maurice's composition "On Time". Another 1972 single, "Run to Me" from the LP To Whom It May Concern, returned them to the UK top 10 for the first time in three years. On 24 November 1972, the band headlined the "Woodstock of the West" Festival at the Los Angeles Coliseum (which was a West Coast answer to Woodstock in New York), which also featured Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder and the Eagles. Also in 1972, the group sang "Hey Jude" with Wilson Pickett.
By 1973, however, the Bee Gees were in a rut. The album Life in a Tin Can, released on Robert Stigwood's newly formed RSO Records, and its lead-off single, "Saw a New Morning", sold poorly with the single peaking at No. 94. This was followed by an unreleased album (known as A Kick in the Head Is Worth Eight in the Pants). A second compilation album, Best of Bee Gees, Volume 2, was released in 1973, although it did not repeat the success of Volume 1. On 6 April 1973 episode of The Midnight Special they performed "Money (That's What I Want)" with Jerry Lee Lewis. Also in 1973, they were invited by Chuck Berry to perform two songs with him onstage at The Midnight Special: "Johnny B. Goode" and "Reelin' and Rockin'".
After a tour of the United States in early 1974 and a Canadian tour later in the year, the group ended up playing small clubs. As Barry joked, "We ended up in, have you ever heard of Batley's the variety club in (West Yorkshire) England?".
On the advice of Ahmet Ertegun, head of their US label Atlantic Records, Stigwood arranged for the group to record with soul music producer Arif Mardin. The resulting LP, Mr. Natural, included fewer ballads and foreshadowed the R&B direction of the rest of their career. When it, too, failed to attract much interest, Mardin encouraged them to work within the soul music style. The brothers attempted to assemble a live stage band that could replicate their studio sound. Lead guitarist Alan Kendall had come on board in 1971 but did not have much to do until Mr. Natural. For that album, they added drummer Dennis Bryon, and they later added ex-Strawbs keyboard player Blue Weaver, completing the Bee Gees band that lasted through the late '70s. Maurice, who had previously performed on piano, guitar, harpsichord, electric piano, organ, mellotron and bass guitar, as well as mandolin and Moog synthesiser, by then confined himself to bass onstage.
1975–1979: Turning to disco
Main Course and Children of the World
At Eric Clapton's suggestion, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, early in 1975 to record at Criteria Studios. After starting off with ballads, they eventually heeded the urging of Mardin and Stigwood, and crafted more dance-oriented disco songs, including their second US No. 1, "Jive Talkin'", along with US No. 7 "Nights on Broadway". The band liked the resulting new sound. This time the public agreed by sending the LP Main Course up the charts. This album included the first Bee Gees songs wherein Barry used falsetto, something that became a trademark of the band. This was also the first Bee Gees album to have two US top-10 singles since 1968's Idea. Main Course also became their first charting R&B album.
On the Bee Gees' appearance on The Midnight Special in 1975, to promote Main Course, they sang "To Love Somebody" with Helen Reddy. Around the same time, the Bee Gees recorded three Beatles covers—"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" with Barry providing lead vocals, and "Sun King" with Maurice providing lead vocals, for the unsuccessful musical/documentary All This and World War II.
The next album, Children of the World, released in September 1976, was filled with Barry's new-found falsetto and Weaver's synthesizer disco licks. The first single from the album was "You Should Be Dancing", which features percussion work by musician Stephen Stills. The song pushed the Bee Gees to a level of stardom they had not previously achieved in the US, though their new R&B/disco sound was not as popular with some diehard fans. The pop ballad "Love So Right" reached No. 3 in the US, and "Boogie Child" reached US No. 12 in January 1977. The album peaked at No. 8 in the US.
Saturday Night Fever and Spirits Having Flown
Following a successful live album, Here at Last... Bee Gees... Live, the Bee Gees agreed with Stigwood to participate in the creation of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. It was the turning point of their career. The cultural impact of both the film and the soundtrack was significant throughout the world, epitomizing the disco phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic.
The band's involvement in the film did not begin until post-production. As John Travolta asserted, "The Bee Gees weren't even involved in the movie in the beginning ... I was dancing to Stevie Wonder and Boz Scaggs." Producer Robert Stigwood commissioned the Bee Gees to create the songs for the film. The brothers wrote the songs "virtually in a single weekend" at Château d'Hérouville studio in France. Barry Gibb remembered the reaction when Stigwood and music supervisor Bill Oakes arrived and listened to the demos:
Bill Oakes, who supervised the soundtrack, asserts that Saturday Night Fever did not begin the disco craze but rather prolonged it: "Disco had run its course. These days, Fever is credited with kicking off the whole disco thing—it really didn't. Truth is, it breathed new life into a genre that was actually dying."
Three Bee Gees singles—"How Deep Is Your Love" (US No. 1, UK No. 3), "Stayin' Alive" (US No. 1, UK No. 4) and "Night Fever" (US No. 1, UK No. 1)—charted high in many countries around the world, launching the most popular period of the disco era. They also penned the song "If I Can't Have You", which became a US No. 1 hit for Yvonne Elliman, while the Bee Gees' own version was the B-side of "Stayin' Alive". Such was the popularity of Saturday Night Fever that two different versions of the song "More Than a Woman" received airplay, one by the Bee Gees, which was relegated to an album track, and another by Tavares, which was the hit.
During a nine-month period beginning in the Christmas season of 1977, seven songs written by the brothers held the No. 1 position on the US charts for 27 of 37 consecutive weeks: three of their own releases, two for brother Andy Gibb, the Yvonne Elliman single, and "Grease", performed by Frankie Valli.
Fuelled by the film's success, the soundtrack broke multiple industry records, becoming the highest-selling album in recording history to that point. With more than 40 million copies sold, Saturday Night Fever is among music's top five best selling soundtrack albums. , it is calculated as the fourth highest-selling album worldwide.
In March 1978, the Bee Gees held the top two positions on the US charts with "Night Fever" and "Stayin' Alive", the first time this had happened since the Beatles. On the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for 25 March 1978, five songs written by the Gibbs were in the US top 10 at the same time: "Night Fever", "Stayin' Alive", "If I Can't Have You", "Emotion" and "Love Is Thicker Than Water". Such chart dominance had not been seen since April 1964, when the Beatles had all five of the top five American singles. Barry Gibb became the only songwriter to have four consecutive number-one hits in the US, breaking the John Lennon and Paul McCartney 1964 record. These songs were "Stayin' Alive", "Love Is Thicker Than Water", "Night Fever" and "If I Can't Have You".
The Bee Gees won five Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever over two years: Album of the Year, Producer of the Year (with Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson), two awards for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals (one in 1978 for "How Deep Is Your Love" and one in 1979 for "Stayin' Alive"), and Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices for "Stayin' Alive".
During this era, Barry and Robin also wrote "Emotion" for an old friend, Australian vocalist Samantha Sang, who made it a top 10 hit, with the Bee Gees singing backing vocals. Barry also wrote the title song to the film version of the Broadway musical Grease for Frankie Valli to perform, which went to No. 1.
The Bee Gees also co-starred with Peter Frampton in Robert Stigwood's film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), loosely inspired by the classic 1967 album by the Beatles. The movie had been heavily promoted prior to release and was expected to enjoy great commercial success. However, it was savaged by film critics as a disjointed mess and ignored by the public. Though some of its tracks charted, the soundtrack too was a high-profile flop. The single "Oh! Darling", credited to Robin Gibb, reached No. 15 in the US.
The Bee Gees' follow-up to Saturday Night Fever was the Spirits Having Flown album. It yielded three more hits: "Too Much Heaven" (US No. 1, UK No. 3), "Tragedy" (US No. 1, UK No. 1), and "Love You Inside Out" (US No. 1, UK No. 13). This gave the act six consecutive No. 1 singles in the US within a year and a half, equalling the Beatles and surpassed only by Whitney Houston.
In January 1979, the Bee Gees performed "Too Much Heaven" as their contribution to the Music for UNICEF Concert at the United Nations General Assembly. During the summer of 1979, the Bee Gees embarked on their largest concert tour covering the US and Canada. The Spirits Having Flown tour capitalised on Bee Gees fever that was sweeping the nation, with sold-out concerts in 38 cities. The Bee Gees produced a video for the title track "Too Much Heaven", directed by Miami-based filmmaker Martin Pitts and produced by Charles Allen. With this video, Pitts and Allen began a long association with the brothers.
The Bee Gees even had a country hit in 1979 with "Rest Your Love on Me", the flip side of their pop hit "Too Much Heaven", which made the top 40 on the country charts. It was also a 1981 hit for Conway Twitty, topping the country music charts.
The Bee Gees' overwhelming success rose and fell with the disco bubble. By the end of 1979, disco was rapidly declining in popularity, and the backlash against disco put the Bee Gees' American career in a tailspin. Radio stations around the US began promoting "Bee Gee-Free Weekends". Following their remarkable run from 1975 to 1979, the act had only one more top 10 single in the US, and that did not come until the single "One" reached number 7 in 1989.
Barry Gibb considered the success of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack both a blessing and a curse:
1980–1986: Outside projects, band turmoil, solo efforts and decline
Robin co-produced Jimmy Ruffin's Sunrise released in May 1980, but the songs were started in 1979; the album contains songs written by the Gibb brothers, including the single "Hold On To My Love".
In March 1980, Barry Gibb worked with Barbra Streisand on her album Guilty. He co-produced, and wrote or co-wrote all nine of the album's tracks (four of them written with Robin, and the title track with both Robin and Maurice). Barry also appeared on the album's cover with Streisand and duetted with her on two tracks. The album reached No. 1 in both the US and the UK, as did the single "Woman in Love" (written by Barry and Robin), becoming Streisand's most successful single and album to date. Both of the Streisand/Gibb duets, "Guilty" and "What Kind of Fool", also reached the US Top 10.
In 1981, the Bee Gees released the album Living Eyes, their last full-length album release on RSO. This album was the first CD ever played in public, when it was played to viewers of the BBC show Tomorrow's World. With the disco backlash still running strong, the album failed to make the UK or US Top 40—breaking their streak of Top 40 hits, which started in 1975 with "Jive Talkin'". Two singles from the album fared little better—"He's a Liar", which reached No. 30 in the US, and "Living Eyes", which reached No. 45.
In 1982, Dionne Warwick enjoyed a UK No. 2 and US Adult Contemporary No. 1 hit with her comeback single, "Heartbreaker", taken from her eponymous album written largely by the Bee Gees and co-produced by Barry Gibb. The album reached No. 3 in the UK and the Top 30 in the US, where it was certified Gold.
A year later, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers recorded the Bee Gees-penned track "Islands in the Stream", which became a US and Australian No. 1 hit and entered the Top 10 in the UK. Rogers' 1983 album, Eyes That See in the Dark, was written entirely by the Bee Gees and co-produced by Barry. The album was a Top 10 hit in the US and was certified Double Platinum.
The Bee Gees had greater success with the soundtrack to Staying Alive in 1983, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever. The soundtrack was certified platinum in the US, and included their Top 30 hit "The Woman in You".
Also in 1983, the band was sued by Chicago songwriter Ronald Selle, who claimed the brothers stole melodic material from one of his songs, "Let It End", and used it in "How Deep Is Your Love". At first, the Bee Gees lost the case; one juror said that a factor in the jury's decision was the Gibbs' failure to introduce expert testimony rebutting the plaintiff's expert testimony that it was "impossible" for the two songs to have been written independently. However, the verdict was overturned a few months later.
In August 1983, Barry signed a solo deal with MCA Records and spent much of late 1983 and 1984 writing songs for this first solo effort, Now Voyager. Robin released three solo albums in the 1980s, How Old Are You?, Secret Agent and Walls Have Eyes. Maurice released his second single to date, "Hold Her in Your Hand", the first one having been released in 1970.
In 1985, Diana Ross released the album Eaten Alive, written by the Bee Gees, with the title track co-written with Michael Jackson (who also performed on the track). The album was again co-produced by Barry Gibb, and the single "Chain Reaction" gave Ross a UK and Australian No. 1 hit.
1987–1999: Comeback, return to popularity and Andy's death
The Bee Gees released the album E.S.P. in 1987, which sold over 2 million copies. It was their first album in six years, and their first for Warner Bros. Records. The single "You Win Again" went to No. 1 in numerous countries, including the UK, and made the Bee Gees the first group to score a UK No. 1 hit in each of three decades: the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The single was a disappointment in the US, charting at No. 75, and the Bee Gees voiced their frustration over American radio stations not playing their new European hit single, an omission which the group felt led to poor sales of their current album in the US. The song won the Bee Gees the 1987 British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, and in February 1988 the band received a Brit Award nomination for Best British Group.
On 10 March 1988, younger brother Andy Gibb died, aged 30, as a result of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle due to a recent viral infection. The Bee Gees later got together with Eric Clapton to create a group called 'the Bunburys' to raise money for English charities. The group recorded three songs for The Bunbury Tails: "We're the Bunburys" (which eventually became the opening theme to the 1992 animated series The Bunbury Tails), "Bunbury Afternoon", and "Fight (No Matter How Long)". The last song reached No. 8 on the rock music chart and appeared on The 1988 Summer Olympics Album. The Bee Gees' next album, One (1989), featured a song dedicated to Andy, "Wish You Were Here". The album also contained their first US Top 10 hit (No. 7) in a decade, "One" (an Adult Contemporary No. 1). After the album's release, the band embarked on its first world tour in 10 years.
In the UK, Polydor issued a single-disc hits collection from Tales called The Very Best of the Bee Gees, which contained their biggest UK hits. The album became one of their best-selling albums in that country, and was eventually certified Triple Platinum.
Following their next album, High Civilization (1991), which contained the UK top five hit "Secret Love", the Bee Gees went on a European tour. After the tour, Barry Gibb began to battle a serious back problem, which required surgery. In addition, he suffered from arthritis which, at one point, was so severe that it was doubtful that he would be able to play guitar for much longer. Also, in the early 1990s, Maurice Gibb finally sought treatment for his alcoholism, which he had battled for many years with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous.
In 1993, the group returned to the Polydor label and released the album Size Isn't Everything, which contained the UK top five hit "For Whom the Bell Tolls". Success still eluded them in the US, however, as the first single released, "Paying the Price of Love", only managed to reach No. 74 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the parent album stalled at No. 153.
In 1997, they released the album Still Waters, which has reached No. 2 in the UK (their highest album chart position there since 1979) and No. 11 in the US. The album's first single, "Alone", gave them another UK Top 5 hit and a top 30 hit in the US. Still Waters was the band's most successful US release of their post-RSO era.
At the 1997 BRIT Awards held in Earls Court, London on 24 February, the Bee Gees received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. On 14 November 1997, the Bee Gees performed a live concert in Las Vegas called One Night Only. The show included a performance of "Our Love (Don't Throw It All Away)" synchronised with a vocal by their deceased brother Andy and a cameo appearance by Celine Dion singing "Immortality". The "One Night Only" name grew out of the band's declaration that, due to Barry's health issues, the Las Vegas show was to be the final live performance of their career. After the immensely positive audience response to the Vegas concert, Barry decided to continue despite the pain, and the concert expanded into their last full-blown world tour of "One Night Only" concerts. The tour included playing to 56,000 people at London's Wembley Stadium on 5 September 1998 and concluded in the newly built Olympic Stadium in Sydney, Australia on 27 March 1999 to 72,000 people.
In 1998, the group's soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever was incorporated into a stage production produced first in the West End and then on Broadway. They wrote three new songs for the adaptation. Also in 1998, the brothers released "Ellan Vannin" for Manx charities, recorded the previous year. Known as the unofficial national anthem of the Isle of Man, the brothers performed the song during their world tour to reflect their pride in the place of their birth.
The Bee Gees closed the century with what turned out to be their last full-sized concert, known as BG2K, on 31 December 1999.
2000–2008: This Is Where I Came In and Maurice's death
In 2001, the group released what turned out to be their final album of new material, This Is Where I Came In. The album was another success, reaching the Top 10 in the UK (being certified Gold), and the Top 20 in the US. The title track was also a UK Top 20 hit single.
The last concert of the Bee Gees as a trio was at the Love and Hope Ball in 2002. Maurice Gibb died unexpectedly on 12 January 2003, at age 53, from a heart attack while awaiting emergency surgery to repair a strangulated intestine. Initially, his surviving brothers announced that they intended to carry on the name "Bee Gees" in his memory, but as time passed they decided to retire the group's name, leaving it to represent the three brothers together.
The same week that Maurice died, Robin's solo album Magnet was released. On 23 February 2003, the Bee Gees received the Grammy Legend Award, they also became the first recipients of that award in the 21st century. Barry and Robin accepted as well as Maurice's son, Adam, in a tearful ceremony.
In late 2004, Robin embarked on a solo tour of Germany, Russia and Asia. During January 2005, Barry, Robin and several legendary rock artists recorded "Grief Never Grows Old", the official tsunami relief record for the Disasters Emergency Committee. Later that year, Barry reunited with Barbra Streisand for her top-selling album Guilty Pleasures, released as Guilty Too in the UK as a sequel album to the previous Guilty. Also in 2004, Barry recorded his song "I Cannot Give You My Love" with Cliff Richard, which became a UK top 20 hit single.
In February 2006, Barry and Robin reunited on stage for a Miami charity concert to benefit the Diabetes Research Institute. It was their first public performance together since Maurice's death. The pair also played at the 30th annual Prince's Trust Concert in the UK on 20 May 2006.
2009–2012: Return to performing and Robin's death
Barry and Robin performed on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing on 31 October 2009 and appeared on ABC-TV's Dancing with the Stars on 17 November 2009. On 15 March 2010, Barry and Robin inducted the Swedish group ABBA into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On 26 May 2010, the two made a surprise appearance on the ninth-season finale of American Idol.
On 20 November 2011 it was announced that Robin Gibb, at 61 years old, had been diagnosed with liver cancer, a condition he had become aware of several months earlier. He had become noticeably thinner in previous months and had to cancel several appearances due to severe abdominal pain. Robin joined British military trio the Soldiers for the Coming Home charity concert on 13 February 2012 at the London Palladium, in support of injured servicemen. It was his first public appearance for almost five months and, as it turned out, his final one. On 14 April 2012, it was reported that Robin had contracted pneumonia in a Chelsea hospital and was in a coma. Although he came out of his coma on 20 April 2012, his condition deteriorated rapidly and he died on 20 May 2012 of liver and kidney failure.
2013–present: Looking back at a lifetime of music
In September and October 2013, Barry performed his first solo tour "in honour of his brothers and a lifetime of music". In addition to the Rhino collection, The Studio Albums: 1967–1968, Warner Bros. released a box set in 2014 called The Warner Bros Years: 1987–1991 that included the studio albums E.S.P., One and High Civilization as well as extended mixes and B-sides. It also included the band's entire 1989 concert in Melbourne, Australia, available only on video as All for One prior to this release. The documentary The Joy of the Bee Gees was aired on BBC Four on 19 December 2014.
On 23 March 2015, 13STAR Records released a box set 1974–1979 which included the studio albums Mr. Natural, Main Course, Children of the World and Spirits Having Flown. A fifth disc called The Miami Years includes all the tracks from Saturday Night Fever as well as B-sides. No unreleased tracks from the era were included.
After a hiatus from performing, Barry Gibb returned to solo and guest singing performances. He occasionally appears with his son, Steve Gibb. In 2016, he released In the Now, his first solo effort since 1984's Now Voyager. It was the first release of new Bee Gees-related music since the posthumous release of Robin Gibb's 50 St. Catherine's Drive. Also in 2016, Capitol Records signed a new distribution deal with Barry and the estates of his brothers for the Bee Gees catalogue, bringing their music back to Universal.
An as-yet-untitled biopic about the Bee Gees is in development at Paramount, with Kenneth Branagh directing and Barry Gibb serving as an executive producer.
Influences
The Bee Gees were influenced by the Beatles, the Everly Brothers, the Mills Brothers, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, Roy Orbison, the Beach Boys and Stevie Wonder. On the 2014 documentary The Joy of the Bee Gees, Barry said that the Bee Gees were also influenced by the Hollies and Otis Redding. Maurice noted that Neil Sedaka was an early influence, and later the group was "very influenced" by Linda Creed songs for the Stylistics.
Legacy
In his 1980 Playboy magazine interview, John Lennon praised the Bee Gees, "Try to tell the kids in the seventies who were screaming to the Bee Gees that their music was just the Beatles redone. There is nothing wrong with the Bee Gees. They do a damn good job. There was nothing else going on then."
In a 2007 interview with Duane Hitchings, who co-wrote Rod Stewart's 1978 disco song "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?", he noted that the song was:
Kevin Parker of Tame Impala has said that listening to the Bee Gees after taking mushrooms inspired him to change the sound of the music he was making on his album Currents.
The English indie rock band the Cribs was also influenced by the Bee Gees. Cribs member Ryan Jarman said: "It must have had quite a big influence on us – pop melodies is something we always revert to. I always want to get back to pop melodies and I'm sure that's due to that Bee Gees phase we went through."
Following Robin's death on 20 May 2012, Beyoncé remarked: "The Bee Gees were an early inspiration for me, Kelly Rowland and Michelle. We loved their songwriting and beautiful harmonies. Recording their classic song, 'Emotion' was a special time for Destiny's Child. Sadly we lost Robin Gibb this week. My heart goes out to his brother Barry and the rest of his family."
Singer Jordin Sparks remarked that her favourite Bee Gees songs are "Too Much Heaven", "Emotion" (although performed by Samantha Sang with Barry on the background vocals using his falsetto), and "Stayin' Alive".
Carrie Underwood said, about discovering the Bee Gees during her childhood, "My parents listened to the Bee Gees quite a bit when I was little, so I was definitely exposed to them at an early age. They just had a sound that was all their own, obviously, [it was] never duplicated."
Songwriting
At one point, in 1978, the Gibb brothers were responsible for writing and/or performing nine of the songs in the Billboard Hot 100. In all, the Gibbs placed 13 singles onto the Hot 100 in 1978, with 12 making the Top 40. The Gibb brothers are fellows of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA). At least 2,500 artists have recorded their songs.
Singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw spoke about the Bee Gees' influence with their own music as well as their songwriting:
In 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Bee Gees were announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for their role as "Influential Artists".
Accolades and achievements
In 1978, following the success of Saturday Night Fever, and the single "Night Fever" in particular, Reubin Askew, the governor of the US state of Florida, named the Bee Gees honorary citizens of the state, since they resided in Miami at the time. In 1979, the Bee Gees got their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They were the subjects of This Is Your Life in 1991 when they were surprised by Michael Aspel while being interviewed by disc jockey Steve Wright (DJ) on his Radio 1 programme at BBC Broadcasting House.
The Bee Gees were inducted in 1994 into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, as well as Florida's Artists Hall of Fame in 1995 and the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1997. Also in 1997, the group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; the presenter of the award to "Britain's First Family of Harmony" was Brian Wilson, historical leader of the Beach Boys, another "family act" featuring three harmonising brothers. In 2001, they were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. After Maurice's death, the Bee Gees were also inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2001, London's Walk of Fame in 2006 and Musically Speaking Hall Of Fame in 2008. On 15 May 2007, the Bee Gees were named BMI Icons at the 55th annual BMI Pop Awards. Collectively, Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb have earned 109 BMI Pop, Country and Latin Awards.
In October 1999, the Isle of Man Post Office unveiled a set of six stamps honouring the Bee Gees.
All three brothers (including Maurice posthumously) were invested as Commanders of the Order of the British Empire in December 2001 with the ceremony taking place at Buckingham Palace on 27 May 2004. On 10 July 2009, the Isle of Man's capital bestowed the Freedom of the Borough of Douglas honour on Barry and Robin, as well as posthumously on Maurice. On 20 November 2009, the Douglas Borough Council released a limited edition commemorative DVD to mark their naming as Freemen of the Borough.
On 14 February 2013, Barry Gibb unveiled a statue of the Bee Gees as well as unveiling "Bee Gees Way" (a walkway filled with photos and videos of the Bee Gees) in honour of the Bee Gees in Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia. On 27 June 2018, Barry Gibb, the last surviving member of the Bee Gees, was knighted by Prince Charles after being named on the Queen's New Years Honours List. The statue of the Bee Gees in Douglas, Isle of Man, was installed in 2021.
In 2022, the last surviving member of the group, Barry Gibb, was made an Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia which is Australia's highest national honour.
The Bee Gees have sold over 220 million records worldwide, making them one of the best selling artists of all time. The group are to date the most successful family and sibling band of all time, the most successful musical trio of all time, and the most successful musical act with ties to Australia.
Awards and nominations
Queensland Music Awards
The Queensland Music Awards (previously known as Q Song Awards) are annual awards celebrating Queensland, Australia's brightest emerging artists and established legends. They commenced in 2006.
(wins only)
|-
| 2009
| themselves
| Grant McLennan Lifetime Achievement Award
|
|}
Band members
Principal members
Barry Gibb – vocals, rhythm guitar (1958–2003, 2006, 2009–2012)
Robin Gibb – vocals, occasional keyboards (1958–1969, 1970–2003, 2006, 2009–2012; d. 2012)
Maurice Gibb – bass, rhythm and lead guitars, keyboards, vocals (1958–2003; d. 2003)
Colin Petersen – drums (1967–1969)
Vince Melouney – lead guitar (1967–1968)
Geoff Bridgford – drums (1971–1972; touring 1970-1971)
Touring musicians
Alan Kendall – lead guitar (1971–1981, 1989–2003)
Chris Karan – drums (1972)
Dennis Bryon – drums (1973–1981)
Geoff Westley – keyboards, piano (1973–1976)
Blue Weaver – keyboards, synthesizers (1975–1981)
Joe Lala – percussion (1976, 1979)
Joey Murcia – rhythm guitar (1976, 1979)
Harold Cowart – bass (1979)
Tim Cansfield – lead guitar (1989)
Vic Martin – keyboard, synthesizer (1989)
Gary Moberly – keyboard, synthesizer (1989)
George Perry – bass (1989–1993)
Chester Thompson – drums (1989)
Mike Murphy – drums (1989)
Trevor Murrell – drums (1991–1992)
Rudi Dobson – keyboards (1991–1992)
Scott F. Crago – drums
Ben Stivers – keyboard (1996–1999)
Matt Bonelli – bass (1993–2001)
Steve Rucker – drums (1993–1999)
Guest musicians (studio and touring)
Phil Collins – drums
Lenny Castro – percussion
Glenn Frey – guitar
Timothy B. Schmit – bass guitar
Joe Walsh – lead guitar
Don Felder – lead guitar (1981)
Jeff Porcaro – drums
Mike Porcaro – bass guitar
Steve Porcaro – keyboards
Steve Lukather – guitar
David Hungate – bass guitar
David Paich – keyboards
Greg Phillinganes – keyboards
Bobby Kimball – keyboards
Leland Sklar – bass guitar
Reb Beach – lead guitar
Gregg Bissonette – drums
Ricky Lawson – drums
Scott F. Crago – drums
Steve Gadd – drums
Steve Ferrone – drums
Steve Jordan – drums
Nathan East – bass guitar
Steuart Smith – lead guitar
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Timeline
Timeline of touring members
Discography
Soundtracks Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Staying Alive (1983) are not official Bee Gees albums, but contain some previously unreleased tracks. Apart from live and compilation, all their official albums are included on this list. A Kick in the Head Is Worth Eight in the Pants has not been included on the list because it appeared only on numerous bootlegs and was not officially released.
Studio albums
The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs (1965)
Spicks and Specks (1966)
Bee Gees' 1st (1967)
Horizontal (1968)
Idea (1968)
Odessa (1969)
Cucumber Castle (1970)
2 Years On (1970)
Trafalgar (1971)
To Whom It May Concern (1972)
Life in a Tin Can (1973)
Mr. Natural (1974)
Main Course (1975)
Children of the World (1976)
Spirits Having Flown (1979)
Living Eyes (1981)
E.S.P. (1987)
One (1989)
High Civilization (1991)
Size Isn't Everything (1993)
Still Waters (1997)
This Is Where I Came In (2001)
Concert tours
The Bee Gees' concerts in 1967 and 1968 (1967–1968)
2 Years On Tour (1971)
Trafalgar Tour (1972)
Mr. Natural Tour (1974)
Main Course Tour (1975)
Children of the World Tour (1976)
Spirits Having Flown Tour (1979)
One for All World Tour (1989)
High Civilization World Tour (1991)
One Night Only World Tour (1997–1999)
This Is Where I Came In (2001)
Filmography
Citations
General bibliography
.
External links
Bee Gees Official website
Bee Gees at Rolling Stone
Bee Gees' Vocal Group Hall of Fame webpage
Bee Gees at bmi.com
Robin Gibb sadly passes away after losing his battle with cancer
Who Do You Think You Are? – Bee Gees Family History
1958 establishments in Australia
Australian pop rock groups
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Atlantic Records artists
Barry Gibb
Brit Award winners
British disco groups
British musical trios
British soft rock music groups
British soul musical groups
Brunswick Records artists
Capitol Records artists
Child musical groups
English expatriates in Australia
English expatriates in the United States
English pop music groups
English rock music groups
Grammy Legend Award winners
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Mercury Records artists
Manx musical groups
Maurice Gibb
Musical groups established in 1958
Musical groups disestablished in 2003
Musical groups reestablished in 2009
Musical groups disestablished in 2012
Musical groups from Manchester
Queensland musical groups
Philips Records artists
Q150 Icons
Robin Gibb
RSO Records artists
Sibling musical trios
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors
United Artists Records artists
Warner Records artists
World Music Awards winners | true | [
"All Woman is the first and only studio album by Hurricane G, released on September 16, 1997, through Jellybean Benitez's H.O.L.A. Recordings.\n\nThe album was poorly promoted and failed to reach the Billboard album charts, however the album's lead single \"Somebody Else\" (which used a sampled of The Jones Girls 1979 hit \"You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else\") became a top 10 hit on the Hot Rap Singles chart.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nSomebody Else\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1997 debut albums\nAlbums produced by Domingo (producer)",
"\"Somewhere Else\" is a song by English indie rock band Razorlight, and was featured as a bonus track on the 2005 re-release of their debut album, Up All Night. It was their first new material following that album and became their biggest hit to date in the United Kingdom at the time when released as a single, debuting at number two in the UK Singles Chart, only to be bettered by \"America\", which charted at number one in October 2006. In 2007, the lyrics: \"and I met a girl/She asked me my name/I told her what it was\", were voted the third worst lyrics of all time.\n\nMusic video\nThe video features Johnny Borrell walking around various place in London, before returning to where he started at the beginning. A large portion of the video was filmed inside and outside the Northumberland Arms pub.\n\nTrack listings\n\nUK 7-inch vinyl\nA. \"Somewhere Else\"\nB. \"Dub the Right Profile\"\n\nUK CD single\n \"Somewhere Else\"\n \"Keep the Right Profile\"\n\nUK enhanced CD single\n \"Somewhere Else\"\n \"Hang By, Hang By\"\n \"Up All Night\" (live in California)\n Enhanced section: link to download five free live tracks\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nCertifications\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n2004 songs\n2005 singles\nRazorlight songs\nSongs written by Johnny Borrell\nUniversal Records singles\nVertigo Records singles"
]
|
[
"Hack Wilson",
"New York Giants"
]
| C_caf876f084ed435aae7dfb1e41e6fe73_0 | When did Wilson start playing for the New York Giants? | 1 | When did Hack Wilson start playing for the New York Giants? | Hack Wilson | Wilson made his major league debut with the Giants on September 29, 1923 and became the starting left fielder the following season. By mid-July he was ranked second in the National League (NL) in hitting. He ended the season with a .295 average, 10 home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs) as New York won the NL pennant. In the 1924 World Series he averaged only .233 in a seven-game loss to the Washington Senators. Multiple stories exist to explain the origin of Wilson's nickname: By one account, a New York newspaper held a nicknaming contest; the winning entry was "Hack" because he reminded many fans of another stocky athlete, the popular wrestler Georg Hackenschmidt. In another version, McGraw is said to have remarked that Wilson's physique was reminiscent of a "hack" (slang for taxicab in that era). Giants teammate Bill Cunningham claimed that the nickname was based on Wilson's resemblance to Hack Miller, an outfielder with the Chicago Cubs. The New York Times printed the first documented usage of "Hack" on June 10, 1924. Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins, but fell into a slump in May, and was replaced in left field by Irish Meusel. On July 2 he hit two home runs in one inning, tying Ken Williams' major league record set in 1922, but his hitting slump continued. In August McGraw told reporters that he had "...made the mistake of rushing [Wilson] along," and sent him to the Giants' minor league affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association. At season's end, a front office oversight--or possibly, deliberate inaction--left him unprotected on the Toledo roster, and the last-place Chicago Cubs acquired him on waivers. "They let go the best outfielder I ever played alongside", said Giants right fielder Ross Youngs, "and they're going to regret it." During the 1925 World Series -- between the Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates -- Wilson's son, Robert, was born. CANNOTANSWER | September 29, 1923 | Lewis Robert "Hack" Wilson (April 26, 1900 – November 23, 1948) was an American Major League Baseball player who played 12 seasons for the New York Giants, Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. Despite his diminutive stature, he was one of the most accomplished power hitters in the game during the late 1920s and early 1930s. His 1930 season with the Cubs is widely considered one of the most memorable individual single-season hitting performances in baseball history. Highlights included 56 home runs, the National League record for 68 years; and 191 runs batted in, a mark yet to be surpassed. "For a brief span of a few years", wrote a sportswriter of the day, "this hammered down little strongman actually rivaled the mighty Ruth."
While Wilson's combativeness and excessive alcohol consumption made him one of the most colorful sports personalities of his era, his drinking and fighting undoubtedly contributed to a premature end to his athletic career and, ultimately, his premature death. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979.
Baseball career
Early life and minor leagues
Lewis Robert Wilson was born April 26, 1900, in the Pennsylvania steel mill town of Ellwood City, north of Pittsburgh. His mother, Jennie Kaughn, 16, was an unemployed drifter from Philadelphia; his father, Robert Wilson, 24, was a steel worker. His parents never married; both were heavy drinkers, and in 1907 his mother died of appendicitis at the age of 24.
In 1916 Lewis left school to take a job at a locomotive factory, swinging a sledge hammer for four dollars a week. Although only five feet six inches tall, he weighed 195 pounds with an 18-inch neck, and feet that fit into size-five-and-one-half shoes. Sportswriter Shirley Povich later observed that he was "built along the lines of a beer keg, and was not wholly unfamiliar with its contents." While his unusual physique was considered an oddity at the time, his large head, tiny feet, short legs and broad, flat face are now recognized as hallmarks of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
In 1921 Wilson moved to Martinsburg, West Virginia, to join the Martinsburg Mountaineers of the Class "D" Blue Ridge League. After breaking his leg while sliding into home plate during his first professional game, he was moved from the catcher's position to the outfield. In 1922 he met Virginia Riddleburger, a 34-year-old office clerk; they married the following year. In 1923, playing for the "B" division Portsmouth Truckers, he led the Virginia League in hitting with a .388 batting average. Late in the season, New York Giants manager John McGraw purchased his contract from Portsmouth for $10,500 ($ in current dollar terms).
New York Giants
Wilson made his major league debut with the Giants on September 29, 1923, at the age of 23, and became the starting left fielder the following season. By mid-July he was ranked second in the National League (NL) in hitting. He ended the season with a .295 average, 10 home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs) as New York won the NL pennant. In the 1924 World Series he averaged only .233 in a seven-game loss to the Washington Senators.
Multiple stories exist to explain the origin of Wilson's nickname: By one account, a New York newspaper held a nicknaming contest; the winning entry was "Hack" because he reminded many fans of another stocky athlete, the popular wrestler Georg Hackenschmidt. In another version, McGraw is said to have remarked that Wilson's physique was reminiscent of a "hack" (slang for taxicab in that era). Giants teammate Bill Cunningham claimed that the nickname was based on Wilson's resemblance to Hack Miller, an outfielder with the Chicago Cubs. The New York Times printed the first documented usage of "Hack" on June 10, 1924.
Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins, but fell into a slump in May, and was replaced in left field by Irish Meusel. On July 2 he hit two home runs in one inning, tying Ken Williams' major league record set in 1922, but his hitting slump continued. In August McGraw told reporters that he had "... made the mistake of rushing [Wilson] along," and sent him to the Giants' minor league affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association. At season's end, a front office oversight—or possibly, deliberate inaction—left him unprotected on the Toledo roster, and the last-place Chicago Cubs acquired him on waivers. "They let go the best outfielder I ever played alongside", said Giants right fielder Ross Youngs, "and they're going to regret it."
During the 1925 World Series — between the Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates — Wilson's son, Robert, was born.
Glory years with the Cubs
Wilson regained his form as the Cubs' center fielder in 1926, and he quickly became a favorite of Chicago fans. On May 24 he hit the center field scoreboard with one of the longest home runs in Wrigley Field history as the Cubs came from behind to defeat the Boston Braves. Later that evening he made news again when he was arrested during a police raid of a Prohibition-era speakeasy while trying to escape through the rear window, and was fined one dollar. He ended the season with a league-leading 21 home runs along with 36 doubles, 109 RBIs, a .321 batting average, and a .406 on-base percentage. The Cubs improved to fourth place, and Wilson ended the year ranked fifth in voting for the NL's Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award.
Another strong performance followed in 1927 as Wilson once again led the league in home runs. Although the Cubs were in first place heading into the final month of the season, the team faltered and again finished fourth. Wilson posted a .318 average with 30 home runs and 129 RBIs, and led NL outfielders with 400 putouts. He led the NL in home runs for a third consecutive year in 1928 with 31, along with 120 RBIs and a .313 average as the Cubs improved to third place.
Wilson had a combative streak and sometimes initiated fights with opposing players and fans. On June 22, 1928, a near-riot broke out in the ninth inning at Wrigley Field against the St. Louis Cardinals when Wilson jumped into the box seats to attack a heckling fan. An estimated 5,000 spectators swarmed the field before police could separate the combatants and restore order. The fan sued Wilson for $20,000, but a jury ruled in his favor. The following year he took offense at a remark by Cincinnati Reds pitcher Ray Kolp, and – upon reaching first base after hitting a single – he charged into the Reds dugout, punching Kolp several times before they could be separated. Later that evening at the train station, Wilson exchanged words and blows with Cincinnati player Pete Donohue. In late 1929 he signed a contract to fight Art Shires of the Chicago White Sox in a boxing match, but reneged after Cubs president William Veeck, Sr. enlisted Hack's wife Virginia to dissuade him, and then Shires lost a fight to George Trafton of the Chicago Bears. There was nothing to gain, Wilson said, by fighting a defeated boxer.
Wilson's "penchant for festivities" is also well documented. Biographer Clifton Blue Parker described him as "... the Roaring '20s epitome of a baseball player, primed for an age of American excess ... at a time when baseball was America's favorite sport." His love of drinking and partying did not endear him to Cubs owner William Wrigley, who abhorred alcohol consumption. (Wilson always insisted that he never played drunk; "hung over, yes; drunk, no.") Manager Joe McCarthy worked hard to shield Wilson from Wrigley, and to keep him on an even keel. "Better than any other manager," wrote sportswriter Frank Graham, "Joe understood Hack, made allowances for him when he failed, and rewarded him with praise when he did well. Joe could be strict and stern with his players ... but he never was with Hack, and Hack repaid him by playing as he never had before, nor would again."
In 1929 Wilson hit .345 with 39 home runs and a league-record 159 RBIs. He and new teammate Rogers Hornsby (who also contributed 39 home runs) led the Cubs to their first NL pennant in eleven years. In the World Series against Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics, Wilson's .471 hitting performance was eclipsed by two fielding errors at Shibe Park. Though trailing the Series two games to one, the Cubs were leading by a score of 8–0 in the fourth game when the Athletics mounted a 10-run rally in the seventh inning. Wilson lost two fly balls in the sun; the second, with two runners on base, led to an inside-the-park home run by Mule Haas as the Athletics won 10–8. After the game, McCarthy reportedly told a boy asking for a souvenir baseball, "Come back tomorrow and stand behind Wilson, and you'll be able to pick up all the balls you want!" The Athletics won again the next day to take the Series in five games.
1930 peak
Wilson's 1930 season, aided by a lively ball wound with special Australian wool, is considered one of the best single-season hitting performances in baseball history. By the middle of July he had accumulated 82 RBIs. In August he hit 13 home runs and 53 RBIs, and by September 17 he had reached 174 RBIs, breaking Lou Gehrig's major league record established three years earlier. He finished the season with 190 RBIs, along with an NL-record 56 home runs, .356 batting average, .454 on-base percentage, and league-leading .723 slugging percentage. He was unofficially voted the NL's most "useful" player by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (which did not inaugurate its official MVP award until 1931).
In 1999 the Commissioner of Baseball officially increased Wilson's 1930 RBI total to 191 after a box score analysis by baseball historian Jerome Holtzman revealed that Charlie Grimm had been mistakenly credited with an RBI actually driven home by Wilson during the second game of a doubleheader on July 28. Wilson's 191 RBIs remains one of baseball's most enduring records; only Gehrig (185) and Hank Greenberg (184) ever came close, and there have been no serious challenges in the last 75 years. (The best recent effort was 165 by Manny Ramirez in 1999.)
Reds catcher Clyde Sukeforth asserted that Wilson should have been credited with an additional home run in 1930 as well. "He hit one in Cincinnati one day", he said, "way up in the seats, hit it so hard that it bounced right back onto the field. The umpire had a bad angle on it and ruled that it had hit the screen and bounced back. I was sitting in the Cincinnati bullpen, and of course, we weren't going to say anything. But Hack really hit 57 that year." Wilson's official total of 56 stood as the NL record until the 1998 season, when it was broken by Sammy Sosa (66) and Mark McGwire (70).
Decline
Wilson's success in the 1930 season served only to fuel his drinking habits, and in 1931 he reported to spring training 20 pounds overweight. In addition, the NL responded to the prodigious offensive statistics of the previous year (the only season, other than 1894, in which the league as a whole batted over .300) by introducing a heavier ball with raised stitching to allow pitchers to gain a better grip and throw sharper curveballs. Wilson complained that the new Cubs manager, Hornsby, did not allow him to "swing away" as much as Joe McCarthy had. He hit his 200th career home run at Ebbets Field on June 18 — only the fourth player ever to do so, behind Ruth, Cy Williams, and Hornsby — but then fell into a protracted slump, and was benched in late May. By late August Wrigley publicly expressed his desire to trade him. On September 6 he was suspended without pay for the remainder of the season after a fight with reporters aboard a train in Cincinnati. He was hitting .261 with only 13 home runs (his 1930 production during August alone) at the time.
In December 1931, the Cubs traded Wilson, along with Bud Teachout, to the St. Louis Cardinals for Burleigh Grimes. Less than a month later, the Cardinals sent him to the Brooklyn Dodgers for minor league outfielder Bob Parham and $25,000 ($ in current dollar terms). Wilson hit .297 with 23 home runs and 123 RBIs for Brooklyn in 1932. He began 1933 with a ninth-inning game-winning pinch-hit inside-the-park grand slam home run at Ebbets Field—the first pinch-hit grand slam in Dodger history, and only the third inside-the-park pinch-hit grand slam in MLB history. By season's end his offensive totals had dropped substantially, and he was hitting .262 when the Dodgers released him mid-season in 1934. The Philadelphia Phillies signed him immediately, but after just two hits in 20 at bats he was released again a month later. After a final season with the Albany Senators of the Class "A" New York–Pennsylvania League, Wilson retired at the age of 35.
Career statistics
In a 12-year major league career, Wilson played in 1,348 games and accumulated 1,461 hits in 4,760 at-bats for a .307 career batting average and a .395 on-base percentage. He hit 244 home runs and batted in 1,063 runs, led the NL in home runs four times, and surpassed 100 RBIs six times. Defensively, he finished his career with a .965 fielding percentage.
Life after baseball
Wilson returned to Martinsburg where he opened a pool hall, but encountered financial problems due to a failed sporting goods business venture, and then a rancorous divorce from Virginia. By 1938 he was working as a bartender near Brooklyn's Ebbets Field where he sang for drinks, but had to quit when customers became too abusive. A night club venture in suburban Chicago was another financial failure. In 1944 he took a job as a good will ambassador for a professional basketball team in Washington, D.C., where he lamented that fans remembered his two dropped fly balls in the 1929 World Series far more vividly than his 56 home runs and 191 RBIs in 1930. Unable to find work in professional baseball, he moved to Baltimore where he worked as a tool checker in an airplane manufacturing plant and later as a laborer for the City of Baltimore. When municipal authorities realized who he was, he was made the manager of a Baltimore public swimming pool.
On October 4, 1948 Wilson was discovered unconscious after a fall in his home. Though the accident did not appear serious at first, pneumonia and other complications developed and he died of internal hemorrhaging on November 23, 1948, at the age of 48.
Wilson — once the highest-paid player in the National League — died penniless; his son, Robert, refused to claim his remains. NL President Ford Frick finally sent money to cover his funeral expenses. His gray burial suit was donated by the undertaker. In marked contrast to Babe Ruth's funeral, which had been attended by thousands just three months earlier, only a few hundred people were present for Wilson's services. He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery in the town where he made his professional playing debut, Martinsburg, West Virginia.
Ten months later Joe McCarthy organized a second, more complete memorial service, attended by Kiki Cuyler, Charlie Grimm, Nick Altrock and other players from the Cubs and the Martinsburg team (by then renamed the Blue Sox). A granite tombstone was unveiled, with the inscription, "One of Baseball's Immortals, Lewis R. (Hack) Wilson, Rests Here."
One week before his death, Wilson gave an interview to CBS Radio which was reprinted in Chicago newspapers. In 1949 Charlie Grimm, the Cubs' new manager, posted a framed excerpt from that interview in the Cubs clubhouse, where it remains. It reads, in part:
Talent isn't enough. You need common sense and good advice. If anyone tries to tell you different, tell them the story of Hack Wilson. ... Kids in and out of baseball who think because they have talent they have the world by the tail. It isn't so. Kids, don't be too big to accept advice. Don't let what happened to me happen to you.
In 1979 Wilson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. A Martinsburg street is named Hack Wilson Way in his honor, and the access road to a large city park within his home town, Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, is known as Hack Wilson Drive.
See also
50 home run club
List of Major League Baseball annual home run leaders
List of Major League Baseball annual runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball career slugging percentage leaders
List of Major League Baseball career OPS leaders
List of Major League Baseball career home run leaders
References
Further reading
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National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Major League Baseball center fielders
Chicago Cubs players
Brooklyn Dodgers players
New York Giants (NL) players
Philadelphia Phillies players
National League home run champions
National League RBI champions
Martinsburg Mountaineers players
Martinsburg Blue Sox players
Portsmouth Truckers players
Toledo Mud Hens players
Albany Senators players
Baseball players from Pennsylvania
Sportspeople from Martinsburg, West Virginia
People from Ellwood City, Pennsylvania
People from Lawrence County, Pennsylvania
1900 births
1948 deaths | true | [
"Isaiah Terrell Wilson (born February 12, 1999) is an American football offensive tackle who is a free agent. He played college football at Georgia and was drafted 29th overall by the Tennessee Titans in 2020.\n\nWilson's tenure with the Titans was characterized by violations of team rules and several off-field legal issues, leading to minimal playing time and his subsequent trade to the Miami Dolphins after his rookie season. He was released by the Dolphins three days later after he refused the team's efforts to help him. He signed with the Giants' practice squad during the 2021 season.\n\nEarly life\nWilson attended Poly Prep in Brooklyn, New York. He played in the 2017 Under Armour All-America Game. Wilson was a consensus five-star recruit. He was the 16th highest-rated player and the fifth highest-rated offensive tackle in the class of 2017. He committed to play college football for the University of Georgia on December 16, 2016.\n\nCollege career\nWilson redshirted his first year at Georgia in 2017. He became a starter in 2018 and started in all but one game in the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Wilson was named to the second-team All-SEC in 2019. He entered the 2020 NFL Draft, forgoing two years of college eligibility.\n\nProfessional career\n\nTennessee Titans\nWilson became the 29th overall draft pick in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft when he was chosen by the Tennessee Titans. He was expected to compete with veteran Dennis Kelly for the open starting right tackle position. Wilson was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list by the team at the start of training camp on July 28, 2020 before returning to the active roster when he signed a four-year rookie contract on August 3, 2020. He was placed back on the reserve/COVID-19 list on September 6, 2020. Wilson was activated from the reserve/COVID list on October 10, 2020. On December 5, 2020, Wilson was suspended for the Titans' Week 13 game against the Cleveland Browns due to a violation of team rules. He was reinstated from suspension on December 7, 2020 but was placed on the reserve/non-football illness list on December 9, 2020. He finished the season playing in one game, the Titans' Week 12, 45-26 win against the Indianapolis Colts.\n\nOn February 22, 2021, Wilson posted and then deleted a tweet saying he would no longer play football as a Titan.\n\nMiami Dolphins\nOn March 17, 2021, Wilson and a seventh-round pick in the 2022 draft were traded to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for a seventh-round pick in the 2021 draft. He was waived by the Dolphins three days later after showing up late for his team physical and missing two workouts.\n\nNew York Giants\nOn September 29, 2021, Wilson signed with the New York Giants practice squad. On January 4, 2022, Wilson was released.\n\nLegal issues\nOn September 11, 2020, Wilson was arrested for DUI. On January 7, 2021, Wilson was arrested for leading police on a 140-mile-per-hour chase. Police found 3.4 grams of marijuana in his car. On March 24, 2021, Wilson was charged with felony fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, speeding in a construction zone, reckless driving, reckless conduct, possession of less than 1 ounce of marijuana and possession and use of drug-related objects.\n\nMusic career\nIn April 2021, Wilson released a hip hop EP under the stage name GGBowzer titled Layup Lines.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nTennessee Titans bio\nGeorgia Bulldogs bio\nNew York Giants bio\n\n1999 births\nLiving people\nSportspeople from Brooklyn\nPlayers of American football from New York (state)\nAmerican football offensive tackles\nGeorgia Bulldogs football players\nTennessee Titans players\nMiami Dolphins players\nNew York Giants players",
"Samuel O'Neil \"Neil\" Wilson (June 14, 1935 – February 20, 2013) was an American professional baseball player. He appeared in six games in Major League Baseball for the San Francisco Giants as a catcher, starting in two games (on April 20 and 22). The native of Lexington, Tennessee, batted left-handed, threw right-handed and was listed at tall and .\n\nWilson was signed by the then-New York Giants in 1956. He spent parts of four years in the minor leagues before being on the opening day roster for the 1960 San Francisco Giants. Wilson and came to the plate eleven times, with no hits and one base on balls, before being demoted to the minors on April 26, 1960. He made one error in 23 chances defensively, with one passed ball. Wilson continued to play professional baseball through 1962 but never again appeared in the big leagues.\n\nWhile playing for the Fresno Giants in 1958, he was named Most Valuable Player of the Class C California League after leading the circuit in hits (191) and batting average (.349).\n\nExternal links \n\nBaseball Almanac\n\nReferences\n\n1935 births\n2013 deaths\nBaseball players from Tennessee\nCorpus Christi Giants players\nFresno Giants players\nHawaii Islanders players\nMajor League Baseball catchers\nMuskogee Giants players\nPeople from Lexington, Tennessee\nSan Francisco Giants players\nTacoma Giants players\nVancouver Mounties players"
]
|
[
"Hack Wilson",
"New York Giants",
"When did Wilson start playing for the New York Giants?",
"September 29, 1923"
]
| C_caf876f084ed435aae7dfb1e41e6fe73_0 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 2 | In addition to Hack Wilson playing for New York Giants, are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | Hack Wilson | Wilson made his major league debut with the Giants on September 29, 1923 and became the starting left fielder the following season. By mid-July he was ranked second in the National League (NL) in hitting. He ended the season with a .295 average, 10 home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs) as New York won the NL pennant. In the 1924 World Series he averaged only .233 in a seven-game loss to the Washington Senators. Multiple stories exist to explain the origin of Wilson's nickname: By one account, a New York newspaper held a nicknaming contest; the winning entry was "Hack" because he reminded many fans of another stocky athlete, the popular wrestler Georg Hackenschmidt. In another version, McGraw is said to have remarked that Wilson's physique was reminiscent of a "hack" (slang for taxicab in that era). Giants teammate Bill Cunningham claimed that the nickname was based on Wilson's resemblance to Hack Miller, an outfielder with the Chicago Cubs. The New York Times printed the first documented usage of "Hack" on June 10, 1924. Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins, but fell into a slump in May, and was replaced in left field by Irish Meusel. On July 2 he hit two home runs in one inning, tying Ken Williams' major league record set in 1922, but his hitting slump continued. In August McGraw told reporters that he had "...made the mistake of rushing [Wilson] along," and sent him to the Giants' minor league affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association. At season's end, a front office oversight--or possibly, deliberate inaction--left him unprotected on the Toledo roster, and the last-place Chicago Cubs acquired him on waivers. "They let go the best outfielder I ever played alongside", said Giants right fielder Ross Youngs, "and they're going to regret it." During the 1925 World Series -- between the Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates -- Wilson's son, Robert, was born. CANNOTANSWER | became the starting left fielder the following season. | Lewis Robert "Hack" Wilson (April 26, 1900 – November 23, 1948) was an American Major League Baseball player who played 12 seasons for the New York Giants, Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. Despite his diminutive stature, he was one of the most accomplished power hitters in the game during the late 1920s and early 1930s. His 1930 season with the Cubs is widely considered one of the most memorable individual single-season hitting performances in baseball history. Highlights included 56 home runs, the National League record for 68 years; and 191 runs batted in, a mark yet to be surpassed. "For a brief span of a few years", wrote a sportswriter of the day, "this hammered down little strongman actually rivaled the mighty Ruth."
While Wilson's combativeness and excessive alcohol consumption made him one of the most colorful sports personalities of his era, his drinking and fighting undoubtedly contributed to a premature end to his athletic career and, ultimately, his premature death. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979.
Baseball career
Early life and minor leagues
Lewis Robert Wilson was born April 26, 1900, in the Pennsylvania steel mill town of Ellwood City, north of Pittsburgh. His mother, Jennie Kaughn, 16, was an unemployed drifter from Philadelphia; his father, Robert Wilson, 24, was a steel worker. His parents never married; both were heavy drinkers, and in 1907 his mother died of appendicitis at the age of 24.
In 1916 Lewis left school to take a job at a locomotive factory, swinging a sledge hammer for four dollars a week. Although only five feet six inches tall, he weighed 195 pounds with an 18-inch neck, and feet that fit into size-five-and-one-half shoes. Sportswriter Shirley Povich later observed that he was "built along the lines of a beer keg, and was not wholly unfamiliar with its contents." While his unusual physique was considered an oddity at the time, his large head, tiny feet, short legs and broad, flat face are now recognized as hallmarks of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
In 1921 Wilson moved to Martinsburg, West Virginia, to join the Martinsburg Mountaineers of the Class "D" Blue Ridge League. After breaking his leg while sliding into home plate during his first professional game, he was moved from the catcher's position to the outfield. In 1922 he met Virginia Riddleburger, a 34-year-old office clerk; they married the following year. In 1923, playing for the "B" division Portsmouth Truckers, he led the Virginia League in hitting with a .388 batting average. Late in the season, New York Giants manager John McGraw purchased his contract from Portsmouth for $10,500 ($ in current dollar terms).
New York Giants
Wilson made his major league debut with the Giants on September 29, 1923, at the age of 23, and became the starting left fielder the following season. By mid-July he was ranked second in the National League (NL) in hitting. He ended the season with a .295 average, 10 home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs) as New York won the NL pennant. In the 1924 World Series he averaged only .233 in a seven-game loss to the Washington Senators.
Multiple stories exist to explain the origin of Wilson's nickname: By one account, a New York newspaper held a nicknaming contest; the winning entry was "Hack" because he reminded many fans of another stocky athlete, the popular wrestler Georg Hackenschmidt. In another version, McGraw is said to have remarked that Wilson's physique was reminiscent of a "hack" (slang for taxicab in that era). Giants teammate Bill Cunningham claimed that the nickname was based on Wilson's resemblance to Hack Miller, an outfielder with the Chicago Cubs. The New York Times printed the first documented usage of "Hack" on June 10, 1924.
Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins, but fell into a slump in May, and was replaced in left field by Irish Meusel. On July 2 he hit two home runs in one inning, tying Ken Williams' major league record set in 1922, but his hitting slump continued. In August McGraw told reporters that he had "... made the mistake of rushing [Wilson] along," and sent him to the Giants' minor league affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association. At season's end, a front office oversight—or possibly, deliberate inaction—left him unprotected on the Toledo roster, and the last-place Chicago Cubs acquired him on waivers. "They let go the best outfielder I ever played alongside", said Giants right fielder Ross Youngs, "and they're going to regret it."
During the 1925 World Series — between the Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates — Wilson's son, Robert, was born.
Glory years with the Cubs
Wilson regained his form as the Cubs' center fielder in 1926, and he quickly became a favorite of Chicago fans. On May 24 he hit the center field scoreboard with one of the longest home runs in Wrigley Field history as the Cubs came from behind to defeat the Boston Braves. Later that evening he made news again when he was arrested during a police raid of a Prohibition-era speakeasy while trying to escape through the rear window, and was fined one dollar. He ended the season with a league-leading 21 home runs along with 36 doubles, 109 RBIs, a .321 batting average, and a .406 on-base percentage. The Cubs improved to fourth place, and Wilson ended the year ranked fifth in voting for the NL's Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award.
Another strong performance followed in 1927 as Wilson once again led the league in home runs. Although the Cubs were in first place heading into the final month of the season, the team faltered and again finished fourth. Wilson posted a .318 average with 30 home runs and 129 RBIs, and led NL outfielders with 400 putouts. He led the NL in home runs for a third consecutive year in 1928 with 31, along with 120 RBIs and a .313 average as the Cubs improved to third place.
Wilson had a combative streak and sometimes initiated fights with opposing players and fans. On June 22, 1928, a near-riot broke out in the ninth inning at Wrigley Field against the St. Louis Cardinals when Wilson jumped into the box seats to attack a heckling fan. An estimated 5,000 spectators swarmed the field before police could separate the combatants and restore order. The fan sued Wilson for $20,000, but a jury ruled in his favor. The following year he took offense at a remark by Cincinnati Reds pitcher Ray Kolp, and – upon reaching first base after hitting a single – he charged into the Reds dugout, punching Kolp several times before they could be separated. Later that evening at the train station, Wilson exchanged words and blows with Cincinnati player Pete Donohue. In late 1929 he signed a contract to fight Art Shires of the Chicago White Sox in a boxing match, but reneged after Cubs president William Veeck, Sr. enlisted Hack's wife Virginia to dissuade him, and then Shires lost a fight to George Trafton of the Chicago Bears. There was nothing to gain, Wilson said, by fighting a defeated boxer.
Wilson's "penchant for festivities" is also well documented. Biographer Clifton Blue Parker described him as "... the Roaring '20s epitome of a baseball player, primed for an age of American excess ... at a time when baseball was America's favorite sport." His love of drinking and partying did not endear him to Cubs owner William Wrigley, who abhorred alcohol consumption. (Wilson always insisted that he never played drunk; "hung over, yes; drunk, no.") Manager Joe McCarthy worked hard to shield Wilson from Wrigley, and to keep him on an even keel. "Better than any other manager," wrote sportswriter Frank Graham, "Joe understood Hack, made allowances for him when he failed, and rewarded him with praise when he did well. Joe could be strict and stern with his players ... but he never was with Hack, and Hack repaid him by playing as he never had before, nor would again."
In 1929 Wilson hit .345 with 39 home runs and a league-record 159 RBIs. He and new teammate Rogers Hornsby (who also contributed 39 home runs) led the Cubs to their first NL pennant in eleven years. In the World Series against Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics, Wilson's .471 hitting performance was eclipsed by two fielding errors at Shibe Park. Though trailing the Series two games to one, the Cubs were leading by a score of 8–0 in the fourth game when the Athletics mounted a 10-run rally in the seventh inning. Wilson lost two fly balls in the sun; the second, with two runners on base, led to an inside-the-park home run by Mule Haas as the Athletics won 10–8. After the game, McCarthy reportedly told a boy asking for a souvenir baseball, "Come back tomorrow and stand behind Wilson, and you'll be able to pick up all the balls you want!" The Athletics won again the next day to take the Series in five games.
1930 peak
Wilson's 1930 season, aided by a lively ball wound with special Australian wool, is considered one of the best single-season hitting performances in baseball history. By the middle of July he had accumulated 82 RBIs. In August he hit 13 home runs and 53 RBIs, and by September 17 he had reached 174 RBIs, breaking Lou Gehrig's major league record established three years earlier. He finished the season with 190 RBIs, along with an NL-record 56 home runs, .356 batting average, .454 on-base percentage, and league-leading .723 slugging percentage. He was unofficially voted the NL's most "useful" player by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (which did not inaugurate its official MVP award until 1931).
In 1999 the Commissioner of Baseball officially increased Wilson's 1930 RBI total to 191 after a box score analysis by baseball historian Jerome Holtzman revealed that Charlie Grimm had been mistakenly credited with an RBI actually driven home by Wilson during the second game of a doubleheader on July 28. Wilson's 191 RBIs remains one of baseball's most enduring records; only Gehrig (185) and Hank Greenberg (184) ever came close, and there have been no serious challenges in the last 75 years. (The best recent effort was 165 by Manny Ramirez in 1999.)
Reds catcher Clyde Sukeforth asserted that Wilson should have been credited with an additional home run in 1930 as well. "He hit one in Cincinnati one day", he said, "way up in the seats, hit it so hard that it bounced right back onto the field. The umpire had a bad angle on it and ruled that it had hit the screen and bounced back. I was sitting in the Cincinnati bullpen, and of course, we weren't going to say anything. But Hack really hit 57 that year." Wilson's official total of 56 stood as the NL record until the 1998 season, when it was broken by Sammy Sosa (66) and Mark McGwire (70).
Decline
Wilson's success in the 1930 season served only to fuel his drinking habits, and in 1931 he reported to spring training 20 pounds overweight. In addition, the NL responded to the prodigious offensive statistics of the previous year (the only season, other than 1894, in which the league as a whole batted over .300) by introducing a heavier ball with raised stitching to allow pitchers to gain a better grip and throw sharper curveballs. Wilson complained that the new Cubs manager, Hornsby, did not allow him to "swing away" as much as Joe McCarthy had. He hit his 200th career home run at Ebbets Field on June 18 — only the fourth player ever to do so, behind Ruth, Cy Williams, and Hornsby — but then fell into a protracted slump, and was benched in late May. By late August Wrigley publicly expressed his desire to trade him. On September 6 he was suspended without pay for the remainder of the season after a fight with reporters aboard a train in Cincinnati. He was hitting .261 with only 13 home runs (his 1930 production during August alone) at the time.
In December 1931, the Cubs traded Wilson, along with Bud Teachout, to the St. Louis Cardinals for Burleigh Grimes. Less than a month later, the Cardinals sent him to the Brooklyn Dodgers for minor league outfielder Bob Parham and $25,000 ($ in current dollar terms). Wilson hit .297 with 23 home runs and 123 RBIs for Brooklyn in 1932. He began 1933 with a ninth-inning game-winning pinch-hit inside-the-park grand slam home run at Ebbets Field—the first pinch-hit grand slam in Dodger history, and only the third inside-the-park pinch-hit grand slam in MLB history. By season's end his offensive totals had dropped substantially, and he was hitting .262 when the Dodgers released him mid-season in 1934. The Philadelphia Phillies signed him immediately, but after just two hits in 20 at bats he was released again a month later. After a final season with the Albany Senators of the Class "A" New York–Pennsylvania League, Wilson retired at the age of 35.
Career statistics
In a 12-year major league career, Wilson played in 1,348 games and accumulated 1,461 hits in 4,760 at-bats for a .307 career batting average and a .395 on-base percentage. He hit 244 home runs and batted in 1,063 runs, led the NL in home runs four times, and surpassed 100 RBIs six times. Defensively, he finished his career with a .965 fielding percentage.
Life after baseball
Wilson returned to Martinsburg where he opened a pool hall, but encountered financial problems due to a failed sporting goods business venture, and then a rancorous divorce from Virginia. By 1938 he was working as a bartender near Brooklyn's Ebbets Field where he sang for drinks, but had to quit when customers became too abusive. A night club venture in suburban Chicago was another financial failure. In 1944 he took a job as a good will ambassador for a professional basketball team in Washington, D.C., where he lamented that fans remembered his two dropped fly balls in the 1929 World Series far more vividly than his 56 home runs and 191 RBIs in 1930. Unable to find work in professional baseball, he moved to Baltimore where he worked as a tool checker in an airplane manufacturing plant and later as a laborer for the City of Baltimore. When municipal authorities realized who he was, he was made the manager of a Baltimore public swimming pool.
On October 4, 1948 Wilson was discovered unconscious after a fall in his home. Though the accident did not appear serious at first, pneumonia and other complications developed and he died of internal hemorrhaging on November 23, 1948, at the age of 48.
Wilson — once the highest-paid player in the National League — died penniless; his son, Robert, refused to claim his remains. NL President Ford Frick finally sent money to cover his funeral expenses. His gray burial suit was donated by the undertaker. In marked contrast to Babe Ruth's funeral, which had been attended by thousands just three months earlier, only a few hundred people were present for Wilson's services. He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery in the town where he made his professional playing debut, Martinsburg, West Virginia.
Ten months later Joe McCarthy organized a second, more complete memorial service, attended by Kiki Cuyler, Charlie Grimm, Nick Altrock and other players from the Cubs and the Martinsburg team (by then renamed the Blue Sox). A granite tombstone was unveiled, with the inscription, "One of Baseball's Immortals, Lewis R. (Hack) Wilson, Rests Here."
One week before his death, Wilson gave an interview to CBS Radio which was reprinted in Chicago newspapers. In 1949 Charlie Grimm, the Cubs' new manager, posted a framed excerpt from that interview in the Cubs clubhouse, where it remains. It reads, in part:
Talent isn't enough. You need common sense and good advice. If anyone tries to tell you different, tell them the story of Hack Wilson. ... Kids in and out of baseball who think because they have talent they have the world by the tail. It isn't so. Kids, don't be too big to accept advice. Don't let what happened to me happen to you.
In 1979 Wilson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. A Martinsburg street is named Hack Wilson Way in his honor, and the access road to a large city park within his home town, Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, is known as Hack Wilson Drive.
See also
50 home run club
List of Major League Baseball annual home run leaders
List of Major League Baseball annual runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball career slugging percentage leaders
List of Major League Baseball career OPS leaders
List of Major League Baseball career home run leaders
References
Further reading
Subscription required.
Subscription required.
External links
, or Retrosheet
National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Major League Baseball center fielders
Chicago Cubs players
Brooklyn Dodgers players
New York Giants (NL) players
Philadelphia Phillies players
National League home run champions
National League RBI champions
Martinsburg Mountaineers players
Martinsburg Blue Sox players
Portsmouth Truckers players
Toledo Mud Hens players
Albany Senators players
Baseball players from Pennsylvania
Sportspeople from Martinsburg, West Virginia
People from Ellwood City, Pennsylvania
People from Lawrence County, Pennsylvania
1900 births
1948 deaths | true | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
]
|
[
"Hack Wilson",
"New York Giants",
"When did Wilson start playing for the New York Giants?",
"September 29, 1923",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"became the starting left fielder the following season."
]
| C_caf876f084ed435aae7dfb1e41e6fe73_0 | Did he play any other position? | 3 | In addition to becoming the starting left fielder, did Hack Wilson play any other position? | Hack Wilson | Wilson made his major league debut with the Giants on September 29, 1923 and became the starting left fielder the following season. By mid-July he was ranked second in the National League (NL) in hitting. He ended the season with a .295 average, 10 home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs) as New York won the NL pennant. In the 1924 World Series he averaged only .233 in a seven-game loss to the Washington Senators. Multiple stories exist to explain the origin of Wilson's nickname: By one account, a New York newspaper held a nicknaming contest; the winning entry was "Hack" because he reminded many fans of another stocky athlete, the popular wrestler Georg Hackenschmidt. In another version, McGraw is said to have remarked that Wilson's physique was reminiscent of a "hack" (slang for taxicab in that era). Giants teammate Bill Cunningham claimed that the nickname was based on Wilson's resemblance to Hack Miller, an outfielder with the Chicago Cubs. The New York Times printed the first documented usage of "Hack" on June 10, 1924. Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins, but fell into a slump in May, and was replaced in left field by Irish Meusel. On July 2 he hit two home runs in one inning, tying Ken Williams' major league record set in 1922, but his hitting slump continued. In August McGraw told reporters that he had "...made the mistake of rushing [Wilson] along," and sent him to the Giants' minor league affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association. At season's end, a front office oversight--or possibly, deliberate inaction--left him unprotected on the Toledo roster, and the last-place Chicago Cubs acquired him on waivers. "They let go the best outfielder I ever played alongside", said Giants right fielder Ross Youngs, "and they're going to regret it." During the 1925 World Series -- between the Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates -- Wilson's son, Robert, was born. CANNOTANSWER | left field | Lewis Robert "Hack" Wilson (April 26, 1900 – November 23, 1948) was an American Major League Baseball player who played 12 seasons for the New York Giants, Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. Despite his diminutive stature, he was one of the most accomplished power hitters in the game during the late 1920s and early 1930s. His 1930 season with the Cubs is widely considered one of the most memorable individual single-season hitting performances in baseball history. Highlights included 56 home runs, the National League record for 68 years; and 191 runs batted in, a mark yet to be surpassed. "For a brief span of a few years", wrote a sportswriter of the day, "this hammered down little strongman actually rivaled the mighty Ruth."
While Wilson's combativeness and excessive alcohol consumption made him one of the most colorful sports personalities of his era, his drinking and fighting undoubtedly contributed to a premature end to his athletic career and, ultimately, his premature death. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979.
Baseball career
Early life and minor leagues
Lewis Robert Wilson was born April 26, 1900, in the Pennsylvania steel mill town of Ellwood City, north of Pittsburgh. His mother, Jennie Kaughn, 16, was an unemployed drifter from Philadelphia; his father, Robert Wilson, 24, was a steel worker. His parents never married; both were heavy drinkers, and in 1907 his mother died of appendicitis at the age of 24.
In 1916 Lewis left school to take a job at a locomotive factory, swinging a sledge hammer for four dollars a week. Although only five feet six inches tall, he weighed 195 pounds with an 18-inch neck, and feet that fit into size-five-and-one-half shoes. Sportswriter Shirley Povich later observed that he was "built along the lines of a beer keg, and was not wholly unfamiliar with its contents." While his unusual physique was considered an oddity at the time, his large head, tiny feet, short legs and broad, flat face are now recognized as hallmarks of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
In 1921 Wilson moved to Martinsburg, West Virginia, to join the Martinsburg Mountaineers of the Class "D" Blue Ridge League. After breaking his leg while sliding into home plate during his first professional game, he was moved from the catcher's position to the outfield. In 1922 he met Virginia Riddleburger, a 34-year-old office clerk; they married the following year. In 1923, playing for the "B" division Portsmouth Truckers, he led the Virginia League in hitting with a .388 batting average. Late in the season, New York Giants manager John McGraw purchased his contract from Portsmouth for $10,500 ($ in current dollar terms).
New York Giants
Wilson made his major league debut with the Giants on September 29, 1923, at the age of 23, and became the starting left fielder the following season. By mid-July he was ranked second in the National League (NL) in hitting. He ended the season with a .295 average, 10 home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs) as New York won the NL pennant. In the 1924 World Series he averaged only .233 in a seven-game loss to the Washington Senators.
Multiple stories exist to explain the origin of Wilson's nickname: By one account, a New York newspaper held a nicknaming contest; the winning entry was "Hack" because he reminded many fans of another stocky athlete, the popular wrestler Georg Hackenschmidt. In another version, McGraw is said to have remarked that Wilson's physique was reminiscent of a "hack" (slang for taxicab in that era). Giants teammate Bill Cunningham claimed that the nickname was based on Wilson's resemblance to Hack Miller, an outfielder with the Chicago Cubs. The New York Times printed the first documented usage of "Hack" on June 10, 1924.
Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins, but fell into a slump in May, and was replaced in left field by Irish Meusel. On July 2 he hit two home runs in one inning, tying Ken Williams' major league record set in 1922, but his hitting slump continued. In August McGraw told reporters that he had "... made the mistake of rushing [Wilson] along," and sent him to the Giants' minor league affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association. At season's end, a front office oversight—or possibly, deliberate inaction—left him unprotected on the Toledo roster, and the last-place Chicago Cubs acquired him on waivers. "They let go the best outfielder I ever played alongside", said Giants right fielder Ross Youngs, "and they're going to regret it."
During the 1925 World Series — between the Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates — Wilson's son, Robert, was born.
Glory years with the Cubs
Wilson regained his form as the Cubs' center fielder in 1926, and he quickly became a favorite of Chicago fans. On May 24 he hit the center field scoreboard with one of the longest home runs in Wrigley Field history as the Cubs came from behind to defeat the Boston Braves. Later that evening he made news again when he was arrested during a police raid of a Prohibition-era speakeasy while trying to escape through the rear window, and was fined one dollar. He ended the season with a league-leading 21 home runs along with 36 doubles, 109 RBIs, a .321 batting average, and a .406 on-base percentage. The Cubs improved to fourth place, and Wilson ended the year ranked fifth in voting for the NL's Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award.
Another strong performance followed in 1927 as Wilson once again led the league in home runs. Although the Cubs were in first place heading into the final month of the season, the team faltered and again finished fourth. Wilson posted a .318 average with 30 home runs and 129 RBIs, and led NL outfielders with 400 putouts. He led the NL in home runs for a third consecutive year in 1928 with 31, along with 120 RBIs and a .313 average as the Cubs improved to third place.
Wilson had a combative streak and sometimes initiated fights with opposing players and fans. On June 22, 1928, a near-riot broke out in the ninth inning at Wrigley Field against the St. Louis Cardinals when Wilson jumped into the box seats to attack a heckling fan. An estimated 5,000 spectators swarmed the field before police could separate the combatants and restore order. The fan sued Wilson for $20,000, but a jury ruled in his favor. The following year he took offense at a remark by Cincinnati Reds pitcher Ray Kolp, and – upon reaching first base after hitting a single – he charged into the Reds dugout, punching Kolp several times before they could be separated. Later that evening at the train station, Wilson exchanged words and blows with Cincinnati player Pete Donohue. In late 1929 he signed a contract to fight Art Shires of the Chicago White Sox in a boxing match, but reneged after Cubs president William Veeck, Sr. enlisted Hack's wife Virginia to dissuade him, and then Shires lost a fight to George Trafton of the Chicago Bears. There was nothing to gain, Wilson said, by fighting a defeated boxer.
Wilson's "penchant for festivities" is also well documented. Biographer Clifton Blue Parker described him as "... the Roaring '20s epitome of a baseball player, primed for an age of American excess ... at a time when baseball was America's favorite sport." His love of drinking and partying did not endear him to Cubs owner William Wrigley, who abhorred alcohol consumption. (Wilson always insisted that he never played drunk; "hung over, yes; drunk, no.") Manager Joe McCarthy worked hard to shield Wilson from Wrigley, and to keep him on an even keel. "Better than any other manager," wrote sportswriter Frank Graham, "Joe understood Hack, made allowances for him when he failed, and rewarded him with praise when he did well. Joe could be strict and stern with his players ... but he never was with Hack, and Hack repaid him by playing as he never had before, nor would again."
In 1929 Wilson hit .345 with 39 home runs and a league-record 159 RBIs. He and new teammate Rogers Hornsby (who also contributed 39 home runs) led the Cubs to their first NL pennant in eleven years. In the World Series against Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics, Wilson's .471 hitting performance was eclipsed by two fielding errors at Shibe Park. Though trailing the Series two games to one, the Cubs were leading by a score of 8–0 in the fourth game when the Athletics mounted a 10-run rally in the seventh inning. Wilson lost two fly balls in the sun; the second, with two runners on base, led to an inside-the-park home run by Mule Haas as the Athletics won 10–8. After the game, McCarthy reportedly told a boy asking for a souvenir baseball, "Come back tomorrow and stand behind Wilson, and you'll be able to pick up all the balls you want!" The Athletics won again the next day to take the Series in five games.
1930 peak
Wilson's 1930 season, aided by a lively ball wound with special Australian wool, is considered one of the best single-season hitting performances in baseball history. By the middle of July he had accumulated 82 RBIs. In August he hit 13 home runs and 53 RBIs, and by September 17 he had reached 174 RBIs, breaking Lou Gehrig's major league record established three years earlier. He finished the season with 190 RBIs, along with an NL-record 56 home runs, .356 batting average, .454 on-base percentage, and league-leading .723 slugging percentage. He was unofficially voted the NL's most "useful" player by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (which did not inaugurate its official MVP award until 1931).
In 1999 the Commissioner of Baseball officially increased Wilson's 1930 RBI total to 191 after a box score analysis by baseball historian Jerome Holtzman revealed that Charlie Grimm had been mistakenly credited with an RBI actually driven home by Wilson during the second game of a doubleheader on July 28. Wilson's 191 RBIs remains one of baseball's most enduring records; only Gehrig (185) and Hank Greenberg (184) ever came close, and there have been no serious challenges in the last 75 years. (The best recent effort was 165 by Manny Ramirez in 1999.)
Reds catcher Clyde Sukeforth asserted that Wilson should have been credited with an additional home run in 1930 as well. "He hit one in Cincinnati one day", he said, "way up in the seats, hit it so hard that it bounced right back onto the field. The umpire had a bad angle on it and ruled that it had hit the screen and bounced back. I was sitting in the Cincinnati bullpen, and of course, we weren't going to say anything. But Hack really hit 57 that year." Wilson's official total of 56 stood as the NL record until the 1998 season, when it was broken by Sammy Sosa (66) and Mark McGwire (70).
Decline
Wilson's success in the 1930 season served only to fuel his drinking habits, and in 1931 he reported to spring training 20 pounds overweight. In addition, the NL responded to the prodigious offensive statistics of the previous year (the only season, other than 1894, in which the league as a whole batted over .300) by introducing a heavier ball with raised stitching to allow pitchers to gain a better grip and throw sharper curveballs. Wilson complained that the new Cubs manager, Hornsby, did not allow him to "swing away" as much as Joe McCarthy had. He hit his 200th career home run at Ebbets Field on June 18 — only the fourth player ever to do so, behind Ruth, Cy Williams, and Hornsby — but then fell into a protracted slump, and was benched in late May. By late August Wrigley publicly expressed his desire to trade him. On September 6 he was suspended without pay for the remainder of the season after a fight with reporters aboard a train in Cincinnati. He was hitting .261 with only 13 home runs (his 1930 production during August alone) at the time.
In December 1931, the Cubs traded Wilson, along with Bud Teachout, to the St. Louis Cardinals for Burleigh Grimes. Less than a month later, the Cardinals sent him to the Brooklyn Dodgers for minor league outfielder Bob Parham and $25,000 ($ in current dollar terms). Wilson hit .297 with 23 home runs and 123 RBIs for Brooklyn in 1932. He began 1933 with a ninth-inning game-winning pinch-hit inside-the-park grand slam home run at Ebbets Field—the first pinch-hit grand slam in Dodger history, and only the third inside-the-park pinch-hit grand slam in MLB history. By season's end his offensive totals had dropped substantially, and he was hitting .262 when the Dodgers released him mid-season in 1934. The Philadelphia Phillies signed him immediately, but after just two hits in 20 at bats he was released again a month later. After a final season with the Albany Senators of the Class "A" New York–Pennsylvania League, Wilson retired at the age of 35.
Career statistics
In a 12-year major league career, Wilson played in 1,348 games and accumulated 1,461 hits in 4,760 at-bats for a .307 career batting average and a .395 on-base percentage. He hit 244 home runs and batted in 1,063 runs, led the NL in home runs four times, and surpassed 100 RBIs six times. Defensively, he finished his career with a .965 fielding percentage.
Life after baseball
Wilson returned to Martinsburg where he opened a pool hall, but encountered financial problems due to a failed sporting goods business venture, and then a rancorous divorce from Virginia. By 1938 he was working as a bartender near Brooklyn's Ebbets Field where he sang for drinks, but had to quit when customers became too abusive. A night club venture in suburban Chicago was another financial failure. In 1944 he took a job as a good will ambassador for a professional basketball team in Washington, D.C., where he lamented that fans remembered his two dropped fly balls in the 1929 World Series far more vividly than his 56 home runs and 191 RBIs in 1930. Unable to find work in professional baseball, he moved to Baltimore where he worked as a tool checker in an airplane manufacturing plant and later as a laborer for the City of Baltimore. When municipal authorities realized who he was, he was made the manager of a Baltimore public swimming pool.
On October 4, 1948 Wilson was discovered unconscious after a fall in his home. Though the accident did not appear serious at first, pneumonia and other complications developed and he died of internal hemorrhaging on November 23, 1948, at the age of 48.
Wilson — once the highest-paid player in the National League — died penniless; his son, Robert, refused to claim his remains. NL President Ford Frick finally sent money to cover his funeral expenses. His gray burial suit was donated by the undertaker. In marked contrast to Babe Ruth's funeral, which had been attended by thousands just three months earlier, only a few hundred people were present for Wilson's services. He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery in the town where he made his professional playing debut, Martinsburg, West Virginia.
Ten months later Joe McCarthy organized a second, more complete memorial service, attended by Kiki Cuyler, Charlie Grimm, Nick Altrock and other players from the Cubs and the Martinsburg team (by then renamed the Blue Sox). A granite tombstone was unveiled, with the inscription, "One of Baseball's Immortals, Lewis R. (Hack) Wilson, Rests Here."
One week before his death, Wilson gave an interview to CBS Radio which was reprinted in Chicago newspapers. In 1949 Charlie Grimm, the Cubs' new manager, posted a framed excerpt from that interview in the Cubs clubhouse, where it remains. It reads, in part:
Talent isn't enough. You need common sense and good advice. If anyone tries to tell you different, tell them the story of Hack Wilson. ... Kids in and out of baseball who think because they have talent they have the world by the tail. It isn't so. Kids, don't be too big to accept advice. Don't let what happened to me happen to you.
In 1979 Wilson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. A Martinsburg street is named Hack Wilson Way in his honor, and the access road to a large city park within his home town, Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, is known as Hack Wilson Drive.
See also
50 home run club
List of Major League Baseball annual home run leaders
List of Major League Baseball annual runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball career slugging percentage leaders
List of Major League Baseball career OPS leaders
List of Major League Baseball career home run leaders
References
Further reading
Subscription required.
Subscription required.
External links
, or Retrosheet
National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Major League Baseball center fielders
Chicago Cubs players
Brooklyn Dodgers players
New York Giants (NL) players
Philadelphia Phillies players
National League home run champions
National League RBI champions
Martinsburg Mountaineers players
Martinsburg Blue Sox players
Portsmouth Truckers players
Toledo Mud Hens players
Albany Senators players
Baseball players from Pennsylvania
Sportspeople from Martinsburg, West Virginia
People from Ellwood City, Pennsylvania
People from Lawrence County, Pennsylvania
1900 births
1948 deaths | true | [
"Tapio Pylkkönen (6 February 1923 – 22 August 2005) was a Finnish footballer. He played in 25 matches for the Finland national football team from 1948 to 1952. He was also part of Finland's squad for the 1952 Summer Olympics, but he did not play in any matches.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1923 births\n2005 deaths\nFinnish footballers\nFinland international footballers\nPlace of birth missing\nAssociation footballers not categorized by position",
"Finn Sterobo (born 17 December 1933) is a Danish footballer. He played in two matches for the Denmark national football team in 1962. He was also part of Denmark's squad at the 1960 Summer Olympics, but he did not play in any matches.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1933 births\nLiving people\nDanish footballers\nDenmark international footballers\nSportspeople from Odense\nAssociation footballers not categorized by position"
]
|
[
"Hack Wilson",
"New York Giants",
"When did Wilson start playing for the New York Giants?",
"September 29, 1923",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"became the starting left fielder the following season.",
"Did he play any other position?",
"left field"
]
| C_caf876f084ed435aae7dfb1e41e6fe73_0 | Is there any notable games during his career? | 4 | Are there any notable games during Hack Wilson career? | Hack Wilson | Wilson made his major league debut with the Giants on September 29, 1923 and became the starting left fielder the following season. By mid-July he was ranked second in the National League (NL) in hitting. He ended the season with a .295 average, 10 home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs) as New York won the NL pennant. In the 1924 World Series he averaged only .233 in a seven-game loss to the Washington Senators. Multiple stories exist to explain the origin of Wilson's nickname: By one account, a New York newspaper held a nicknaming contest; the winning entry was "Hack" because he reminded many fans of another stocky athlete, the popular wrestler Georg Hackenschmidt. In another version, McGraw is said to have remarked that Wilson's physique was reminiscent of a "hack" (slang for taxicab in that era). Giants teammate Bill Cunningham claimed that the nickname was based on Wilson's resemblance to Hack Miller, an outfielder with the Chicago Cubs. The New York Times printed the first documented usage of "Hack" on June 10, 1924. Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins, but fell into a slump in May, and was replaced in left field by Irish Meusel. On July 2 he hit two home runs in one inning, tying Ken Williams' major league record set in 1922, but his hitting slump continued. In August McGraw told reporters that he had "...made the mistake of rushing [Wilson] along," and sent him to the Giants' minor league affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association. At season's end, a front office oversight--or possibly, deliberate inaction--left him unprotected on the Toledo roster, and the last-place Chicago Cubs acquired him on waivers. "They let go the best outfielder I ever played alongside", said Giants right fielder Ross Youngs, "and they're going to regret it." During the 1925 World Series -- between the Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates -- Wilson's son, Robert, was born. CANNOTANSWER | Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins, | Lewis Robert "Hack" Wilson (April 26, 1900 – November 23, 1948) was an American Major League Baseball player who played 12 seasons for the New York Giants, Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. Despite his diminutive stature, he was one of the most accomplished power hitters in the game during the late 1920s and early 1930s. His 1930 season with the Cubs is widely considered one of the most memorable individual single-season hitting performances in baseball history. Highlights included 56 home runs, the National League record for 68 years; and 191 runs batted in, a mark yet to be surpassed. "For a brief span of a few years", wrote a sportswriter of the day, "this hammered down little strongman actually rivaled the mighty Ruth."
While Wilson's combativeness and excessive alcohol consumption made him one of the most colorful sports personalities of his era, his drinking and fighting undoubtedly contributed to a premature end to his athletic career and, ultimately, his premature death. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979.
Baseball career
Early life and minor leagues
Lewis Robert Wilson was born April 26, 1900, in the Pennsylvania steel mill town of Ellwood City, north of Pittsburgh. His mother, Jennie Kaughn, 16, was an unemployed drifter from Philadelphia; his father, Robert Wilson, 24, was a steel worker. His parents never married; both were heavy drinkers, and in 1907 his mother died of appendicitis at the age of 24.
In 1916 Lewis left school to take a job at a locomotive factory, swinging a sledge hammer for four dollars a week. Although only five feet six inches tall, he weighed 195 pounds with an 18-inch neck, and feet that fit into size-five-and-one-half shoes. Sportswriter Shirley Povich later observed that he was "built along the lines of a beer keg, and was not wholly unfamiliar with its contents." While his unusual physique was considered an oddity at the time, his large head, tiny feet, short legs and broad, flat face are now recognized as hallmarks of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
In 1921 Wilson moved to Martinsburg, West Virginia, to join the Martinsburg Mountaineers of the Class "D" Blue Ridge League. After breaking his leg while sliding into home plate during his first professional game, he was moved from the catcher's position to the outfield. In 1922 he met Virginia Riddleburger, a 34-year-old office clerk; they married the following year. In 1923, playing for the "B" division Portsmouth Truckers, he led the Virginia League in hitting with a .388 batting average. Late in the season, New York Giants manager John McGraw purchased his contract from Portsmouth for $10,500 ($ in current dollar terms).
New York Giants
Wilson made his major league debut with the Giants on September 29, 1923, at the age of 23, and became the starting left fielder the following season. By mid-July he was ranked second in the National League (NL) in hitting. He ended the season with a .295 average, 10 home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs) as New York won the NL pennant. In the 1924 World Series he averaged only .233 in a seven-game loss to the Washington Senators.
Multiple stories exist to explain the origin of Wilson's nickname: By one account, a New York newspaper held a nicknaming contest; the winning entry was "Hack" because he reminded many fans of another stocky athlete, the popular wrestler Georg Hackenschmidt. In another version, McGraw is said to have remarked that Wilson's physique was reminiscent of a "hack" (slang for taxicab in that era). Giants teammate Bill Cunningham claimed that the nickname was based on Wilson's resemblance to Hack Miller, an outfielder with the Chicago Cubs. The New York Times printed the first documented usage of "Hack" on June 10, 1924.
Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins, but fell into a slump in May, and was replaced in left field by Irish Meusel. On July 2 he hit two home runs in one inning, tying Ken Williams' major league record set in 1922, but his hitting slump continued. In August McGraw told reporters that he had "... made the mistake of rushing [Wilson] along," and sent him to the Giants' minor league affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association. At season's end, a front office oversight—or possibly, deliberate inaction—left him unprotected on the Toledo roster, and the last-place Chicago Cubs acquired him on waivers. "They let go the best outfielder I ever played alongside", said Giants right fielder Ross Youngs, "and they're going to regret it."
During the 1925 World Series — between the Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates — Wilson's son, Robert, was born.
Glory years with the Cubs
Wilson regained his form as the Cubs' center fielder in 1926, and he quickly became a favorite of Chicago fans. On May 24 he hit the center field scoreboard with one of the longest home runs in Wrigley Field history as the Cubs came from behind to defeat the Boston Braves. Later that evening he made news again when he was arrested during a police raid of a Prohibition-era speakeasy while trying to escape through the rear window, and was fined one dollar. He ended the season with a league-leading 21 home runs along with 36 doubles, 109 RBIs, a .321 batting average, and a .406 on-base percentage. The Cubs improved to fourth place, and Wilson ended the year ranked fifth in voting for the NL's Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award.
Another strong performance followed in 1927 as Wilson once again led the league in home runs. Although the Cubs were in first place heading into the final month of the season, the team faltered and again finished fourth. Wilson posted a .318 average with 30 home runs and 129 RBIs, and led NL outfielders with 400 putouts. He led the NL in home runs for a third consecutive year in 1928 with 31, along with 120 RBIs and a .313 average as the Cubs improved to third place.
Wilson had a combative streak and sometimes initiated fights with opposing players and fans. On June 22, 1928, a near-riot broke out in the ninth inning at Wrigley Field against the St. Louis Cardinals when Wilson jumped into the box seats to attack a heckling fan. An estimated 5,000 spectators swarmed the field before police could separate the combatants and restore order. The fan sued Wilson for $20,000, but a jury ruled in his favor. The following year he took offense at a remark by Cincinnati Reds pitcher Ray Kolp, and – upon reaching first base after hitting a single – he charged into the Reds dugout, punching Kolp several times before they could be separated. Later that evening at the train station, Wilson exchanged words and blows with Cincinnati player Pete Donohue. In late 1929 he signed a contract to fight Art Shires of the Chicago White Sox in a boxing match, but reneged after Cubs president William Veeck, Sr. enlisted Hack's wife Virginia to dissuade him, and then Shires lost a fight to George Trafton of the Chicago Bears. There was nothing to gain, Wilson said, by fighting a defeated boxer.
Wilson's "penchant for festivities" is also well documented. Biographer Clifton Blue Parker described him as "... the Roaring '20s epitome of a baseball player, primed for an age of American excess ... at a time when baseball was America's favorite sport." His love of drinking and partying did not endear him to Cubs owner William Wrigley, who abhorred alcohol consumption. (Wilson always insisted that he never played drunk; "hung over, yes; drunk, no.") Manager Joe McCarthy worked hard to shield Wilson from Wrigley, and to keep him on an even keel. "Better than any other manager," wrote sportswriter Frank Graham, "Joe understood Hack, made allowances for him when he failed, and rewarded him with praise when he did well. Joe could be strict and stern with his players ... but he never was with Hack, and Hack repaid him by playing as he never had before, nor would again."
In 1929 Wilson hit .345 with 39 home runs and a league-record 159 RBIs. He and new teammate Rogers Hornsby (who also contributed 39 home runs) led the Cubs to their first NL pennant in eleven years. In the World Series against Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics, Wilson's .471 hitting performance was eclipsed by two fielding errors at Shibe Park. Though trailing the Series two games to one, the Cubs were leading by a score of 8–0 in the fourth game when the Athletics mounted a 10-run rally in the seventh inning. Wilson lost two fly balls in the sun; the second, with two runners on base, led to an inside-the-park home run by Mule Haas as the Athletics won 10–8. After the game, McCarthy reportedly told a boy asking for a souvenir baseball, "Come back tomorrow and stand behind Wilson, and you'll be able to pick up all the balls you want!" The Athletics won again the next day to take the Series in five games.
1930 peak
Wilson's 1930 season, aided by a lively ball wound with special Australian wool, is considered one of the best single-season hitting performances in baseball history. By the middle of July he had accumulated 82 RBIs. In August he hit 13 home runs and 53 RBIs, and by September 17 he had reached 174 RBIs, breaking Lou Gehrig's major league record established three years earlier. He finished the season with 190 RBIs, along with an NL-record 56 home runs, .356 batting average, .454 on-base percentage, and league-leading .723 slugging percentage. He was unofficially voted the NL's most "useful" player by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (which did not inaugurate its official MVP award until 1931).
In 1999 the Commissioner of Baseball officially increased Wilson's 1930 RBI total to 191 after a box score analysis by baseball historian Jerome Holtzman revealed that Charlie Grimm had been mistakenly credited with an RBI actually driven home by Wilson during the second game of a doubleheader on July 28. Wilson's 191 RBIs remains one of baseball's most enduring records; only Gehrig (185) and Hank Greenberg (184) ever came close, and there have been no serious challenges in the last 75 years. (The best recent effort was 165 by Manny Ramirez in 1999.)
Reds catcher Clyde Sukeforth asserted that Wilson should have been credited with an additional home run in 1930 as well. "He hit one in Cincinnati one day", he said, "way up in the seats, hit it so hard that it bounced right back onto the field. The umpire had a bad angle on it and ruled that it had hit the screen and bounced back. I was sitting in the Cincinnati bullpen, and of course, we weren't going to say anything. But Hack really hit 57 that year." Wilson's official total of 56 stood as the NL record until the 1998 season, when it was broken by Sammy Sosa (66) and Mark McGwire (70).
Decline
Wilson's success in the 1930 season served only to fuel his drinking habits, and in 1931 he reported to spring training 20 pounds overweight. In addition, the NL responded to the prodigious offensive statistics of the previous year (the only season, other than 1894, in which the league as a whole batted over .300) by introducing a heavier ball with raised stitching to allow pitchers to gain a better grip and throw sharper curveballs. Wilson complained that the new Cubs manager, Hornsby, did not allow him to "swing away" as much as Joe McCarthy had. He hit his 200th career home run at Ebbets Field on June 18 — only the fourth player ever to do so, behind Ruth, Cy Williams, and Hornsby — but then fell into a protracted slump, and was benched in late May. By late August Wrigley publicly expressed his desire to trade him. On September 6 he was suspended without pay for the remainder of the season after a fight with reporters aboard a train in Cincinnati. He was hitting .261 with only 13 home runs (his 1930 production during August alone) at the time.
In December 1931, the Cubs traded Wilson, along with Bud Teachout, to the St. Louis Cardinals for Burleigh Grimes. Less than a month later, the Cardinals sent him to the Brooklyn Dodgers for minor league outfielder Bob Parham and $25,000 ($ in current dollar terms). Wilson hit .297 with 23 home runs and 123 RBIs for Brooklyn in 1932. He began 1933 with a ninth-inning game-winning pinch-hit inside-the-park grand slam home run at Ebbets Field—the first pinch-hit grand slam in Dodger history, and only the third inside-the-park pinch-hit grand slam in MLB history. By season's end his offensive totals had dropped substantially, and he was hitting .262 when the Dodgers released him mid-season in 1934. The Philadelphia Phillies signed him immediately, but after just two hits in 20 at bats he was released again a month later. After a final season with the Albany Senators of the Class "A" New York–Pennsylvania League, Wilson retired at the age of 35.
Career statistics
In a 12-year major league career, Wilson played in 1,348 games and accumulated 1,461 hits in 4,760 at-bats for a .307 career batting average and a .395 on-base percentage. He hit 244 home runs and batted in 1,063 runs, led the NL in home runs four times, and surpassed 100 RBIs six times. Defensively, he finished his career with a .965 fielding percentage.
Life after baseball
Wilson returned to Martinsburg where he opened a pool hall, but encountered financial problems due to a failed sporting goods business venture, and then a rancorous divorce from Virginia. By 1938 he was working as a bartender near Brooklyn's Ebbets Field where he sang for drinks, but had to quit when customers became too abusive. A night club venture in suburban Chicago was another financial failure. In 1944 he took a job as a good will ambassador for a professional basketball team in Washington, D.C., where he lamented that fans remembered his two dropped fly balls in the 1929 World Series far more vividly than his 56 home runs and 191 RBIs in 1930. Unable to find work in professional baseball, he moved to Baltimore where he worked as a tool checker in an airplane manufacturing plant and later as a laborer for the City of Baltimore. When municipal authorities realized who he was, he was made the manager of a Baltimore public swimming pool.
On October 4, 1948 Wilson was discovered unconscious after a fall in his home. Though the accident did not appear serious at first, pneumonia and other complications developed and he died of internal hemorrhaging on November 23, 1948, at the age of 48.
Wilson — once the highest-paid player in the National League — died penniless; his son, Robert, refused to claim his remains. NL President Ford Frick finally sent money to cover his funeral expenses. His gray burial suit was donated by the undertaker. In marked contrast to Babe Ruth's funeral, which had been attended by thousands just three months earlier, only a few hundred people were present for Wilson's services. He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery in the town where he made his professional playing debut, Martinsburg, West Virginia.
Ten months later Joe McCarthy organized a second, more complete memorial service, attended by Kiki Cuyler, Charlie Grimm, Nick Altrock and other players from the Cubs and the Martinsburg team (by then renamed the Blue Sox). A granite tombstone was unveiled, with the inscription, "One of Baseball's Immortals, Lewis R. (Hack) Wilson, Rests Here."
One week before his death, Wilson gave an interview to CBS Radio which was reprinted in Chicago newspapers. In 1949 Charlie Grimm, the Cubs' new manager, posted a framed excerpt from that interview in the Cubs clubhouse, where it remains. It reads, in part:
Talent isn't enough. You need common sense and good advice. If anyone tries to tell you different, tell them the story of Hack Wilson. ... Kids in and out of baseball who think because they have talent they have the world by the tail. It isn't so. Kids, don't be too big to accept advice. Don't let what happened to me happen to you.
In 1979 Wilson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. A Martinsburg street is named Hack Wilson Way in his honor, and the access road to a large city park within his home town, Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, is known as Hack Wilson Drive.
See also
50 home run club
List of Major League Baseball annual home run leaders
List of Major League Baseball annual runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball career slugging percentage leaders
List of Major League Baseball career OPS leaders
List of Major League Baseball career home run leaders
References
Further reading
Subscription required.
Subscription required.
External links
, or Retrosheet
National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Major League Baseball center fielders
Chicago Cubs players
Brooklyn Dodgers players
New York Giants (NL) players
Philadelphia Phillies players
National League home run champions
National League RBI champions
Martinsburg Mountaineers players
Martinsburg Blue Sox players
Portsmouth Truckers players
Toledo Mud Hens players
Albany Senators players
Baseball players from Pennsylvania
Sportspeople from Martinsburg, West Virginia
People from Ellwood City, Pennsylvania
People from Lawrence County, Pennsylvania
1900 births
1948 deaths | true | [
"Franco Properzi Curti (born Dehradun, India, 4 November 1965) is a former Indian-born Italian rugby union player and a current assistant coach. He played as a prop.\n\nHe was born in India, due to his father work there. He returned to Italy with his family, starting his rugby player career at Amatori Rugby Milano, where he would play from 1984/85 to 1997/98. During his presence at Milano, he won 4 titles of the Italian Premiership, in 1990/91, 1992/93, 1994/95 and 1995/96, and the Cup of Italy, in 1994/95. Properzi moved to Benetton Treviso in 1998/99, where he would spend the rest of his career, finished in 2002/03, at 37 years old. He was also successful there, winning 3 titles of Italian Champions, in 1998/99, 2000/01 and 2002/03.\n\nProperzi had a notable career at the service of Italy, counting 53 caps, from 1990 to 2001, with 3 tries scored, 15 points in aggregate. He was called three times for the Rugby World Cup finals. In the 1991 Rugby World Cup, he played in all the three games, in the 1995 Rugby World Cup, he was used in all the three games once again, and at the 1999 Rugby World Cup, he played two games. He never scored in any of his presences at the competition.\n\nThe highest point of his international career was the title of the European Nations Cup for the 1997 edition, when Italy won France by 40-32, at 22 March 1997, in Grenoble.\n\nProperzi, aged 35 years old, had his last caps for Italy at the 2001 Six Nations Championship, being used in three games.\n\nHe has been assistant coach since the finish of his player career. He was first assistant coach of Benetton Rugby Treviso (2004/05-2009/10) and he is currently of Mogliano Rugby, since 2010/11.\n\nExternal links\nFranco Properzi International Statistics\n\n1965 births\nLiving people\nItalian rugby union players\nItaly international rugby union players\nRugby union props",
"Žarko Zečević (; born 19 January 1950) is a Serbian retired basketball player, former football administrator, and current businessman.\n\nKnown by his widely used nickname Zeka, he is most notable as the controversial and all powerful general-secretary of FK Partizan, a role he performed for more than two decades. Since 2007, he is employed at YugoRosGaz, a subsidiary of Gazprom.\n\nBorn to Slavko Zečević (former Police Minister and former FK Partizan managing board member) Žarko's entire sports career, both playing and administrative, is also tied to Partizan Sports Society. During the late 1960s and 1970s, he was a basketball player for KK Partizan and even managed 16 appearances in the Yugoslavia national basketball team jersey, though only in friendly preparation games and minor competitions - he never made the final cut for any of the major competitions (Eurobasket, World Championships, and the Olympics).\n\nPersonal\nŽarko Zečević is married to Mira who used to work as marketing director at Politika daily newspaper during the 1990s. They have a son and a daughter.\n\nZečević's sister is married to Danko Đunić, former Partizan Sports Society president.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Навијачи ме „сахрањују”, а власт не реагује; Politika, 3 April 2011\n\n \n \n\n1950 births\nLiving people\nBasketball players from Belgrade\nSerbian men's basketball players\nKK Partizan players\nFK Partizan non-playing staff\nSerbian businesspeople\nSerbian sports executives and administrators\nMediterranean Games gold medalists for Yugoslavia\nCompetitors at the 1971 Mediterranean Games\nMediterranean Games medalists in basketball\nCenters (basketball)"
]
|
[
"Hack Wilson",
"New York Giants",
"When did Wilson start playing for the New York Giants?",
"September 29, 1923",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"became the starting left fielder the following season.",
"Did he play any other position?",
"left field",
"Is there any notable games during his career?",
"Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins,"
]
| C_caf876f084ed435aae7dfb1e41e6fe73_0 | Does he have any other records? | 5 | In addition to the Hack Wilson hitting the longest home run on record against the Brooklyn Robins, does Hack Wilson have any other records? | Hack Wilson | Wilson made his major league debut with the Giants on September 29, 1923 and became the starting left fielder the following season. By mid-July he was ranked second in the National League (NL) in hitting. He ended the season with a .295 average, 10 home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs) as New York won the NL pennant. In the 1924 World Series he averaged only .233 in a seven-game loss to the Washington Senators. Multiple stories exist to explain the origin of Wilson's nickname: By one account, a New York newspaper held a nicknaming contest; the winning entry was "Hack" because he reminded many fans of another stocky athlete, the popular wrestler Georg Hackenschmidt. In another version, McGraw is said to have remarked that Wilson's physique was reminiscent of a "hack" (slang for taxicab in that era). Giants teammate Bill Cunningham claimed that the nickname was based on Wilson's resemblance to Hack Miller, an outfielder with the Chicago Cubs. The New York Times printed the first documented usage of "Hack" on June 10, 1924. Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins, but fell into a slump in May, and was replaced in left field by Irish Meusel. On July 2 he hit two home runs in one inning, tying Ken Williams' major league record set in 1922, but his hitting slump continued. In August McGraw told reporters that he had "...made the mistake of rushing [Wilson] along," and sent him to the Giants' minor league affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association. At season's end, a front office oversight--or possibly, deliberate inaction--left him unprotected on the Toledo roster, and the last-place Chicago Cubs acquired him on waivers. "They let go the best outfielder I ever played alongside", said Giants right fielder Ross Youngs, "and they're going to regret it." During the 1925 World Series -- between the Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates -- Wilson's son, Robert, was born. CANNOTANSWER | He ended the season with a .295 average, 10 home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs) | Lewis Robert "Hack" Wilson (April 26, 1900 – November 23, 1948) was an American Major League Baseball player who played 12 seasons for the New York Giants, Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. Despite his diminutive stature, he was one of the most accomplished power hitters in the game during the late 1920s and early 1930s. His 1930 season with the Cubs is widely considered one of the most memorable individual single-season hitting performances in baseball history. Highlights included 56 home runs, the National League record for 68 years; and 191 runs batted in, a mark yet to be surpassed. "For a brief span of a few years", wrote a sportswriter of the day, "this hammered down little strongman actually rivaled the mighty Ruth."
While Wilson's combativeness and excessive alcohol consumption made him one of the most colorful sports personalities of his era, his drinking and fighting undoubtedly contributed to a premature end to his athletic career and, ultimately, his premature death. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979.
Baseball career
Early life and minor leagues
Lewis Robert Wilson was born April 26, 1900, in the Pennsylvania steel mill town of Ellwood City, north of Pittsburgh. His mother, Jennie Kaughn, 16, was an unemployed drifter from Philadelphia; his father, Robert Wilson, 24, was a steel worker. His parents never married; both were heavy drinkers, and in 1907 his mother died of appendicitis at the age of 24.
In 1916 Lewis left school to take a job at a locomotive factory, swinging a sledge hammer for four dollars a week. Although only five feet six inches tall, he weighed 195 pounds with an 18-inch neck, and feet that fit into size-five-and-one-half shoes. Sportswriter Shirley Povich later observed that he was "built along the lines of a beer keg, and was not wholly unfamiliar with its contents." While his unusual physique was considered an oddity at the time, his large head, tiny feet, short legs and broad, flat face are now recognized as hallmarks of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
In 1921 Wilson moved to Martinsburg, West Virginia, to join the Martinsburg Mountaineers of the Class "D" Blue Ridge League. After breaking his leg while sliding into home plate during his first professional game, he was moved from the catcher's position to the outfield. In 1922 he met Virginia Riddleburger, a 34-year-old office clerk; they married the following year. In 1923, playing for the "B" division Portsmouth Truckers, he led the Virginia League in hitting with a .388 batting average. Late in the season, New York Giants manager John McGraw purchased his contract from Portsmouth for $10,500 ($ in current dollar terms).
New York Giants
Wilson made his major league debut with the Giants on September 29, 1923, at the age of 23, and became the starting left fielder the following season. By mid-July he was ranked second in the National League (NL) in hitting. He ended the season with a .295 average, 10 home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs) as New York won the NL pennant. In the 1924 World Series he averaged only .233 in a seven-game loss to the Washington Senators.
Multiple stories exist to explain the origin of Wilson's nickname: By one account, a New York newspaper held a nicknaming contest; the winning entry was "Hack" because he reminded many fans of another stocky athlete, the popular wrestler Georg Hackenschmidt. In another version, McGraw is said to have remarked that Wilson's physique was reminiscent of a "hack" (slang for taxicab in that era). Giants teammate Bill Cunningham claimed that the nickname was based on Wilson's resemblance to Hack Miller, an outfielder with the Chicago Cubs. The New York Times printed the first documented usage of "Hack" on June 10, 1924.
Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins, but fell into a slump in May, and was replaced in left field by Irish Meusel. On July 2 he hit two home runs in one inning, tying Ken Williams' major league record set in 1922, but his hitting slump continued. In August McGraw told reporters that he had "... made the mistake of rushing [Wilson] along," and sent him to the Giants' minor league affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association. At season's end, a front office oversight—or possibly, deliberate inaction—left him unprotected on the Toledo roster, and the last-place Chicago Cubs acquired him on waivers. "They let go the best outfielder I ever played alongside", said Giants right fielder Ross Youngs, "and they're going to regret it."
During the 1925 World Series — between the Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates — Wilson's son, Robert, was born.
Glory years with the Cubs
Wilson regained his form as the Cubs' center fielder in 1926, and he quickly became a favorite of Chicago fans. On May 24 he hit the center field scoreboard with one of the longest home runs in Wrigley Field history as the Cubs came from behind to defeat the Boston Braves. Later that evening he made news again when he was arrested during a police raid of a Prohibition-era speakeasy while trying to escape through the rear window, and was fined one dollar. He ended the season with a league-leading 21 home runs along with 36 doubles, 109 RBIs, a .321 batting average, and a .406 on-base percentage. The Cubs improved to fourth place, and Wilson ended the year ranked fifth in voting for the NL's Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award.
Another strong performance followed in 1927 as Wilson once again led the league in home runs. Although the Cubs were in first place heading into the final month of the season, the team faltered and again finished fourth. Wilson posted a .318 average with 30 home runs and 129 RBIs, and led NL outfielders with 400 putouts. He led the NL in home runs for a third consecutive year in 1928 with 31, along with 120 RBIs and a .313 average as the Cubs improved to third place.
Wilson had a combative streak and sometimes initiated fights with opposing players and fans. On June 22, 1928, a near-riot broke out in the ninth inning at Wrigley Field against the St. Louis Cardinals when Wilson jumped into the box seats to attack a heckling fan. An estimated 5,000 spectators swarmed the field before police could separate the combatants and restore order. The fan sued Wilson for $20,000, but a jury ruled in his favor. The following year he took offense at a remark by Cincinnati Reds pitcher Ray Kolp, and – upon reaching first base after hitting a single – he charged into the Reds dugout, punching Kolp several times before they could be separated. Later that evening at the train station, Wilson exchanged words and blows with Cincinnati player Pete Donohue. In late 1929 he signed a contract to fight Art Shires of the Chicago White Sox in a boxing match, but reneged after Cubs president William Veeck, Sr. enlisted Hack's wife Virginia to dissuade him, and then Shires lost a fight to George Trafton of the Chicago Bears. There was nothing to gain, Wilson said, by fighting a defeated boxer.
Wilson's "penchant for festivities" is also well documented. Biographer Clifton Blue Parker described him as "... the Roaring '20s epitome of a baseball player, primed for an age of American excess ... at a time when baseball was America's favorite sport." His love of drinking and partying did not endear him to Cubs owner William Wrigley, who abhorred alcohol consumption. (Wilson always insisted that he never played drunk; "hung over, yes; drunk, no.") Manager Joe McCarthy worked hard to shield Wilson from Wrigley, and to keep him on an even keel. "Better than any other manager," wrote sportswriter Frank Graham, "Joe understood Hack, made allowances for him when he failed, and rewarded him with praise when he did well. Joe could be strict and stern with his players ... but he never was with Hack, and Hack repaid him by playing as he never had before, nor would again."
In 1929 Wilson hit .345 with 39 home runs and a league-record 159 RBIs. He and new teammate Rogers Hornsby (who also contributed 39 home runs) led the Cubs to their first NL pennant in eleven years. In the World Series against Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics, Wilson's .471 hitting performance was eclipsed by two fielding errors at Shibe Park. Though trailing the Series two games to one, the Cubs were leading by a score of 8–0 in the fourth game when the Athletics mounted a 10-run rally in the seventh inning. Wilson lost two fly balls in the sun; the second, with two runners on base, led to an inside-the-park home run by Mule Haas as the Athletics won 10–8. After the game, McCarthy reportedly told a boy asking for a souvenir baseball, "Come back tomorrow and stand behind Wilson, and you'll be able to pick up all the balls you want!" The Athletics won again the next day to take the Series in five games.
1930 peak
Wilson's 1930 season, aided by a lively ball wound with special Australian wool, is considered one of the best single-season hitting performances in baseball history. By the middle of July he had accumulated 82 RBIs. In August he hit 13 home runs and 53 RBIs, and by September 17 he had reached 174 RBIs, breaking Lou Gehrig's major league record established three years earlier. He finished the season with 190 RBIs, along with an NL-record 56 home runs, .356 batting average, .454 on-base percentage, and league-leading .723 slugging percentage. He was unofficially voted the NL's most "useful" player by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (which did not inaugurate its official MVP award until 1931).
In 1999 the Commissioner of Baseball officially increased Wilson's 1930 RBI total to 191 after a box score analysis by baseball historian Jerome Holtzman revealed that Charlie Grimm had been mistakenly credited with an RBI actually driven home by Wilson during the second game of a doubleheader on July 28. Wilson's 191 RBIs remains one of baseball's most enduring records; only Gehrig (185) and Hank Greenberg (184) ever came close, and there have been no serious challenges in the last 75 years. (The best recent effort was 165 by Manny Ramirez in 1999.)
Reds catcher Clyde Sukeforth asserted that Wilson should have been credited with an additional home run in 1930 as well. "He hit one in Cincinnati one day", he said, "way up in the seats, hit it so hard that it bounced right back onto the field. The umpire had a bad angle on it and ruled that it had hit the screen and bounced back. I was sitting in the Cincinnati bullpen, and of course, we weren't going to say anything. But Hack really hit 57 that year." Wilson's official total of 56 stood as the NL record until the 1998 season, when it was broken by Sammy Sosa (66) and Mark McGwire (70).
Decline
Wilson's success in the 1930 season served only to fuel his drinking habits, and in 1931 he reported to spring training 20 pounds overweight. In addition, the NL responded to the prodigious offensive statistics of the previous year (the only season, other than 1894, in which the league as a whole batted over .300) by introducing a heavier ball with raised stitching to allow pitchers to gain a better grip and throw sharper curveballs. Wilson complained that the new Cubs manager, Hornsby, did not allow him to "swing away" as much as Joe McCarthy had. He hit his 200th career home run at Ebbets Field on June 18 — only the fourth player ever to do so, behind Ruth, Cy Williams, and Hornsby — but then fell into a protracted slump, and was benched in late May. By late August Wrigley publicly expressed his desire to trade him. On September 6 he was suspended without pay for the remainder of the season after a fight with reporters aboard a train in Cincinnati. He was hitting .261 with only 13 home runs (his 1930 production during August alone) at the time.
In December 1931, the Cubs traded Wilson, along with Bud Teachout, to the St. Louis Cardinals for Burleigh Grimes. Less than a month later, the Cardinals sent him to the Brooklyn Dodgers for minor league outfielder Bob Parham and $25,000 ($ in current dollar terms). Wilson hit .297 with 23 home runs and 123 RBIs for Brooklyn in 1932. He began 1933 with a ninth-inning game-winning pinch-hit inside-the-park grand slam home run at Ebbets Field—the first pinch-hit grand slam in Dodger history, and only the third inside-the-park pinch-hit grand slam in MLB history. By season's end his offensive totals had dropped substantially, and he was hitting .262 when the Dodgers released him mid-season in 1934. The Philadelphia Phillies signed him immediately, but after just two hits in 20 at bats he was released again a month later. After a final season with the Albany Senators of the Class "A" New York–Pennsylvania League, Wilson retired at the age of 35.
Career statistics
In a 12-year major league career, Wilson played in 1,348 games and accumulated 1,461 hits in 4,760 at-bats for a .307 career batting average and a .395 on-base percentage. He hit 244 home runs and batted in 1,063 runs, led the NL in home runs four times, and surpassed 100 RBIs six times. Defensively, he finished his career with a .965 fielding percentage.
Life after baseball
Wilson returned to Martinsburg where he opened a pool hall, but encountered financial problems due to a failed sporting goods business venture, and then a rancorous divorce from Virginia. By 1938 he was working as a bartender near Brooklyn's Ebbets Field where he sang for drinks, but had to quit when customers became too abusive. A night club venture in suburban Chicago was another financial failure. In 1944 he took a job as a good will ambassador for a professional basketball team in Washington, D.C., where he lamented that fans remembered his two dropped fly balls in the 1929 World Series far more vividly than his 56 home runs and 191 RBIs in 1930. Unable to find work in professional baseball, he moved to Baltimore where he worked as a tool checker in an airplane manufacturing plant and later as a laborer for the City of Baltimore. When municipal authorities realized who he was, he was made the manager of a Baltimore public swimming pool.
On October 4, 1948 Wilson was discovered unconscious after a fall in his home. Though the accident did not appear serious at first, pneumonia and other complications developed and he died of internal hemorrhaging on November 23, 1948, at the age of 48.
Wilson — once the highest-paid player in the National League — died penniless; his son, Robert, refused to claim his remains. NL President Ford Frick finally sent money to cover his funeral expenses. His gray burial suit was donated by the undertaker. In marked contrast to Babe Ruth's funeral, which had been attended by thousands just three months earlier, only a few hundred people were present for Wilson's services. He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery in the town where he made his professional playing debut, Martinsburg, West Virginia.
Ten months later Joe McCarthy organized a second, more complete memorial service, attended by Kiki Cuyler, Charlie Grimm, Nick Altrock and other players from the Cubs and the Martinsburg team (by then renamed the Blue Sox). A granite tombstone was unveiled, with the inscription, "One of Baseball's Immortals, Lewis R. (Hack) Wilson, Rests Here."
One week before his death, Wilson gave an interview to CBS Radio which was reprinted in Chicago newspapers. In 1949 Charlie Grimm, the Cubs' new manager, posted a framed excerpt from that interview in the Cubs clubhouse, where it remains. It reads, in part:
Talent isn't enough. You need common sense and good advice. If anyone tries to tell you different, tell them the story of Hack Wilson. ... Kids in and out of baseball who think because they have talent they have the world by the tail. It isn't so. Kids, don't be too big to accept advice. Don't let what happened to me happen to you.
In 1979 Wilson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. A Martinsburg street is named Hack Wilson Way in his honor, and the access road to a large city park within his home town, Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, is known as Hack Wilson Drive.
See also
50 home run club
List of Major League Baseball annual home run leaders
List of Major League Baseball annual runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball career slugging percentage leaders
List of Major League Baseball career OPS leaders
List of Major League Baseball career home run leaders
References
Further reading
Subscription required.
Subscription required.
External links
, or Retrosheet
National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Major League Baseball center fielders
Chicago Cubs players
Brooklyn Dodgers players
New York Giants (NL) players
Philadelphia Phillies players
National League home run champions
National League RBI champions
Martinsburg Mountaineers players
Martinsburg Blue Sox players
Portsmouth Truckers players
Toledo Mud Hens players
Albany Senators players
Baseball players from Pennsylvania
Sportspeople from Martinsburg, West Virginia
People from Ellwood City, Pennsylvania
People from Lawrence County, Pennsylvania
1900 births
1948 deaths | true | [
"The Tennessee Open Records Act is a law that states that any citizen of Tennessee may request public records there. Public documents shall \"be open for personal inspection by any citizen of Tennessee.\" However, recent federal court rulings have overturned similar state specific statutes and open up records in these states to all U.S. citizens. \n\nIn a US Supreme Court ruling McBurney v. Young (2013), concerning Virginia specifically but also relevant to Tennessee, upheld that states can restrict open records to their citizens. However open records counsel Ann V. Butterworth also stated that the law \"does not forbid providing access to others\".\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nTennessee\nTennessee law",
"Gajendrasinh Parmar (born 24 November 1978) is the BJP MLA from Prantij constituency. He is additionally a Director at S.K. district bank, Himatnagar. Gajendrasinh Parmar has won by 83482 votes from Prantji constituency in Gujarat. He defeated sitting Congress MLA Mahendrasinh Kacharsinh Baraiya (80931 votes) by 2551 votes in prantiji election. He does not have any criminal records but he has 3,09,504 Rupees financial liability.\n\nEducation \nHe was graduated in B.A. (Hindi) from Hemchandracharya North Gujarat University, Patan in the year 2010.\n\nReferences \n\n1978 births\nLiving people\nGujarat politicians\nPeople from Sabarkantha district\nGujarat MLAs 2017–2022"
]
|
[
"Hack Wilson",
"New York Giants",
"When did Wilson start playing for the New York Giants?",
"September 29, 1923",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"became the starting left fielder the following season.",
"Did he play any other position?",
"left field",
"Is there any notable games during his career?",
"Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins,",
"Does he have any other records?",
"He ended the season with a .295 average, 10 home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs)"
]
| C_caf876f084ed435aae7dfb1e41e6fe73_0 | When did he retire? | 6 | When did Hack Wilson retire? | Hack Wilson | Wilson made his major league debut with the Giants on September 29, 1923 and became the starting left fielder the following season. By mid-July he was ranked second in the National League (NL) in hitting. He ended the season with a .295 average, 10 home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs) as New York won the NL pennant. In the 1924 World Series he averaged only .233 in a seven-game loss to the Washington Senators. Multiple stories exist to explain the origin of Wilson's nickname: By one account, a New York newspaper held a nicknaming contest; the winning entry was "Hack" because he reminded many fans of another stocky athlete, the popular wrestler Georg Hackenschmidt. In another version, McGraw is said to have remarked that Wilson's physique was reminiscent of a "hack" (slang for taxicab in that era). Giants teammate Bill Cunningham claimed that the nickname was based on Wilson's resemblance to Hack Miller, an outfielder with the Chicago Cubs. The New York Times printed the first documented usage of "Hack" on June 10, 1924. Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins, but fell into a slump in May, and was replaced in left field by Irish Meusel. On July 2 he hit two home runs in one inning, tying Ken Williams' major league record set in 1922, but his hitting slump continued. In August McGraw told reporters that he had "...made the mistake of rushing [Wilson] along," and sent him to the Giants' minor league affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association. At season's end, a front office oversight--or possibly, deliberate inaction--left him unprotected on the Toledo roster, and the last-place Chicago Cubs acquired him on waivers. "They let go the best outfielder I ever played alongside", said Giants right fielder Ross Youngs, "and they're going to regret it." During the 1925 World Series -- between the Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates -- Wilson's son, Robert, was born. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Lewis Robert "Hack" Wilson (April 26, 1900 – November 23, 1948) was an American Major League Baseball player who played 12 seasons for the New York Giants, Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. Despite his diminutive stature, he was one of the most accomplished power hitters in the game during the late 1920s and early 1930s. His 1930 season with the Cubs is widely considered one of the most memorable individual single-season hitting performances in baseball history. Highlights included 56 home runs, the National League record for 68 years; and 191 runs batted in, a mark yet to be surpassed. "For a brief span of a few years", wrote a sportswriter of the day, "this hammered down little strongman actually rivaled the mighty Ruth."
While Wilson's combativeness and excessive alcohol consumption made him one of the most colorful sports personalities of his era, his drinking and fighting undoubtedly contributed to a premature end to his athletic career and, ultimately, his premature death. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979.
Baseball career
Early life and minor leagues
Lewis Robert Wilson was born April 26, 1900, in the Pennsylvania steel mill town of Ellwood City, north of Pittsburgh. His mother, Jennie Kaughn, 16, was an unemployed drifter from Philadelphia; his father, Robert Wilson, 24, was a steel worker. His parents never married; both were heavy drinkers, and in 1907 his mother died of appendicitis at the age of 24.
In 1916 Lewis left school to take a job at a locomotive factory, swinging a sledge hammer for four dollars a week. Although only five feet six inches tall, he weighed 195 pounds with an 18-inch neck, and feet that fit into size-five-and-one-half shoes. Sportswriter Shirley Povich later observed that he was "built along the lines of a beer keg, and was not wholly unfamiliar with its contents." While his unusual physique was considered an oddity at the time, his large head, tiny feet, short legs and broad, flat face are now recognized as hallmarks of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
In 1921 Wilson moved to Martinsburg, West Virginia, to join the Martinsburg Mountaineers of the Class "D" Blue Ridge League. After breaking his leg while sliding into home plate during his first professional game, he was moved from the catcher's position to the outfield. In 1922 he met Virginia Riddleburger, a 34-year-old office clerk; they married the following year. In 1923, playing for the "B" division Portsmouth Truckers, he led the Virginia League in hitting with a .388 batting average. Late in the season, New York Giants manager John McGraw purchased his contract from Portsmouth for $10,500 ($ in current dollar terms).
New York Giants
Wilson made his major league debut with the Giants on September 29, 1923, at the age of 23, and became the starting left fielder the following season. By mid-July he was ranked second in the National League (NL) in hitting. He ended the season with a .295 average, 10 home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs) as New York won the NL pennant. In the 1924 World Series he averaged only .233 in a seven-game loss to the Washington Senators.
Multiple stories exist to explain the origin of Wilson's nickname: By one account, a New York newspaper held a nicknaming contest; the winning entry was "Hack" because he reminded many fans of another stocky athlete, the popular wrestler Georg Hackenschmidt. In another version, McGraw is said to have remarked that Wilson's physique was reminiscent of a "hack" (slang for taxicab in that era). Giants teammate Bill Cunningham claimed that the nickname was based on Wilson's resemblance to Hack Miller, an outfielder with the Chicago Cubs. The New York Times printed the first documented usage of "Hack" on June 10, 1924.
Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins, but fell into a slump in May, and was replaced in left field by Irish Meusel. On July 2 he hit two home runs in one inning, tying Ken Williams' major league record set in 1922, but his hitting slump continued. In August McGraw told reporters that he had "... made the mistake of rushing [Wilson] along," and sent him to the Giants' minor league affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association. At season's end, a front office oversight—or possibly, deliberate inaction—left him unprotected on the Toledo roster, and the last-place Chicago Cubs acquired him on waivers. "They let go the best outfielder I ever played alongside", said Giants right fielder Ross Youngs, "and they're going to regret it."
During the 1925 World Series — between the Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates — Wilson's son, Robert, was born.
Glory years with the Cubs
Wilson regained his form as the Cubs' center fielder in 1926, and he quickly became a favorite of Chicago fans. On May 24 he hit the center field scoreboard with one of the longest home runs in Wrigley Field history as the Cubs came from behind to defeat the Boston Braves. Later that evening he made news again when he was arrested during a police raid of a Prohibition-era speakeasy while trying to escape through the rear window, and was fined one dollar. He ended the season with a league-leading 21 home runs along with 36 doubles, 109 RBIs, a .321 batting average, and a .406 on-base percentage. The Cubs improved to fourth place, and Wilson ended the year ranked fifth in voting for the NL's Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award.
Another strong performance followed in 1927 as Wilson once again led the league in home runs. Although the Cubs were in first place heading into the final month of the season, the team faltered and again finished fourth. Wilson posted a .318 average with 30 home runs and 129 RBIs, and led NL outfielders with 400 putouts. He led the NL in home runs for a third consecutive year in 1928 with 31, along with 120 RBIs and a .313 average as the Cubs improved to third place.
Wilson had a combative streak and sometimes initiated fights with opposing players and fans. On June 22, 1928, a near-riot broke out in the ninth inning at Wrigley Field against the St. Louis Cardinals when Wilson jumped into the box seats to attack a heckling fan. An estimated 5,000 spectators swarmed the field before police could separate the combatants and restore order. The fan sued Wilson for $20,000, but a jury ruled in his favor. The following year he took offense at a remark by Cincinnati Reds pitcher Ray Kolp, and – upon reaching first base after hitting a single – he charged into the Reds dugout, punching Kolp several times before they could be separated. Later that evening at the train station, Wilson exchanged words and blows with Cincinnati player Pete Donohue. In late 1929 he signed a contract to fight Art Shires of the Chicago White Sox in a boxing match, but reneged after Cubs president William Veeck, Sr. enlisted Hack's wife Virginia to dissuade him, and then Shires lost a fight to George Trafton of the Chicago Bears. There was nothing to gain, Wilson said, by fighting a defeated boxer.
Wilson's "penchant for festivities" is also well documented. Biographer Clifton Blue Parker described him as "... the Roaring '20s epitome of a baseball player, primed for an age of American excess ... at a time when baseball was America's favorite sport." His love of drinking and partying did not endear him to Cubs owner William Wrigley, who abhorred alcohol consumption. (Wilson always insisted that he never played drunk; "hung over, yes; drunk, no.") Manager Joe McCarthy worked hard to shield Wilson from Wrigley, and to keep him on an even keel. "Better than any other manager," wrote sportswriter Frank Graham, "Joe understood Hack, made allowances for him when he failed, and rewarded him with praise when he did well. Joe could be strict and stern with his players ... but he never was with Hack, and Hack repaid him by playing as he never had before, nor would again."
In 1929 Wilson hit .345 with 39 home runs and a league-record 159 RBIs. He and new teammate Rogers Hornsby (who also contributed 39 home runs) led the Cubs to their first NL pennant in eleven years. In the World Series against Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics, Wilson's .471 hitting performance was eclipsed by two fielding errors at Shibe Park. Though trailing the Series two games to one, the Cubs were leading by a score of 8–0 in the fourth game when the Athletics mounted a 10-run rally in the seventh inning. Wilson lost two fly balls in the sun; the second, with two runners on base, led to an inside-the-park home run by Mule Haas as the Athletics won 10–8. After the game, McCarthy reportedly told a boy asking for a souvenir baseball, "Come back tomorrow and stand behind Wilson, and you'll be able to pick up all the balls you want!" The Athletics won again the next day to take the Series in five games.
1930 peak
Wilson's 1930 season, aided by a lively ball wound with special Australian wool, is considered one of the best single-season hitting performances in baseball history. By the middle of July he had accumulated 82 RBIs. In August he hit 13 home runs and 53 RBIs, and by September 17 he had reached 174 RBIs, breaking Lou Gehrig's major league record established three years earlier. He finished the season with 190 RBIs, along with an NL-record 56 home runs, .356 batting average, .454 on-base percentage, and league-leading .723 slugging percentage. He was unofficially voted the NL's most "useful" player by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (which did not inaugurate its official MVP award until 1931).
In 1999 the Commissioner of Baseball officially increased Wilson's 1930 RBI total to 191 after a box score analysis by baseball historian Jerome Holtzman revealed that Charlie Grimm had been mistakenly credited with an RBI actually driven home by Wilson during the second game of a doubleheader on July 28. Wilson's 191 RBIs remains one of baseball's most enduring records; only Gehrig (185) and Hank Greenberg (184) ever came close, and there have been no serious challenges in the last 75 years. (The best recent effort was 165 by Manny Ramirez in 1999.)
Reds catcher Clyde Sukeforth asserted that Wilson should have been credited with an additional home run in 1930 as well. "He hit one in Cincinnati one day", he said, "way up in the seats, hit it so hard that it bounced right back onto the field. The umpire had a bad angle on it and ruled that it had hit the screen and bounced back. I was sitting in the Cincinnati bullpen, and of course, we weren't going to say anything. But Hack really hit 57 that year." Wilson's official total of 56 stood as the NL record until the 1998 season, when it was broken by Sammy Sosa (66) and Mark McGwire (70).
Decline
Wilson's success in the 1930 season served only to fuel his drinking habits, and in 1931 he reported to spring training 20 pounds overweight. In addition, the NL responded to the prodigious offensive statistics of the previous year (the only season, other than 1894, in which the league as a whole batted over .300) by introducing a heavier ball with raised stitching to allow pitchers to gain a better grip and throw sharper curveballs. Wilson complained that the new Cubs manager, Hornsby, did not allow him to "swing away" as much as Joe McCarthy had. He hit his 200th career home run at Ebbets Field on June 18 — only the fourth player ever to do so, behind Ruth, Cy Williams, and Hornsby — but then fell into a protracted slump, and was benched in late May. By late August Wrigley publicly expressed his desire to trade him. On September 6 he was suspended without pay for the remainder of the season after a fight with reporters aboard a train in Cincinnati. He was hitting .261 with only 13 home runs (his 1930 production during August alone) at the time.
In December 1931, the Cubs traded Wilson, along with Bud Teachout, to the St. Louis Cardinals for Burleigh Grimes. Less than a month later, the Cardinals sent him to the Brooklyn Dodgers for minor league outfielder Bob Parham and $25,000 ($ in current dollar terms). Wilson hit .297 with 23 home runs and 123 RBIs for Brooklyn in 1932. He began 1933 with a ninth-inning game-winning pinch-hit inside-the-park grand slam home run at Ebbets Field—the first pinch-hit grand slam in Dodger history, and only the third inside-the-park pinch-hit grand slam in MLB history. By season's end his offensive totals had dropped substantially, and he was hitting .262 when the Dodgers released him mid-season in 1934. The Philadelphia Phillies signed him immediately, but after just two hits in 20 at bats he was released again a month later. After a final season with the Albany Senators of the Class "A" New York–Pennsylvania League, Wilson retired at the age of 35.
Career statistics
In a 12-year major league career, Wilson played in 1,348 games and accumulated 1,461 hits in 4,760 at-bats for a .307 career batting average and a .395 on-base percentage. He hit 244 home runs and batted in 1,063 runs, led the NL in home runs four times, and surpassed 100 RBIs six times. Defensively, he finished his career with a .965 fielding percentage.
Life after baseball
Wilson returned to Martinsburg where he opened a pool hall, but encountered financial problems due to a failed sporting goods business venture, and then a rancorous divorce from Virginia. By 1938 he was working as a bartender near Brooklyn's Ebbets Field where he sang for drinks, but had to quit when customers became too abusive. A night club venture in suburban Chicago was another financial failure. In 1944 he took a job as a good will ambassador for a professional basketball team in Washington, D.C., where he lamented that fans remembered his two dropped fly balls in the 1929 World Series far more vividly than his 56 home runs and 191 RBIs in 1930. Unable to find work in professional baseball, he moved to Baltimore where he worked as a tool checker in an airplane manufacturing plant and later as a laborer for the City of Baltimore. When municipal authorities realized who he was, he was made the manager of a Baltimore public swimming pool.
On October 4, 1948 Wilson was discovered unconscious after a fall in his home. Though the accident did not appear serious at first, pneumonia and other complications developed and he died of internal hemorrhaging on November 23, 1948, at the age of 48.
Wilson — once the highest-paid player in the National League — died penniless; his son, Robert, refused to claim his remains. NL President Ford Frick finally sent money to cover his funeral expenses. His gray burial suit was donated by the undertaker. In marked contrast to Babe Ruth's funeral, which had been attended by thousands just three months earlier, only a few hundred people were present for Wilson's services. He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery in the town where he made his professional playing debut, Martinsburg, West Virginia.
Ten months later Joe McCarthy organized a second, more complete memorial service, attended by Kiki Cuyler, Charlie Grimm, Nick Altrock and other players from the Cubs and the Martinsburg team (by then renamed the Blue Sox). A granite tombstone was unveiled, with the inscription, "One of Baseball's Immortals, Lewis R. (Hack) Wilson, Rests Here."
One week before his death, Wilson gave an interview to CBS Radio which was reprinted in Chicago newspapers. In 1949 Charlie Grimm, the Cubs' new manager, posted a framed excerpt from that interview in the Cubs clubhouse, where it remains. It reads, in part:
Talent isn't enough. You need common sense and good advice. If anyone tries to tell you different, tell them the story of Hack Wilson. ... Kids in and out of baseball who think because they have talent they have the world by the tail. It isn't so. Kids, don't be too big to accept advice. Don't let what happened to me happen to you.
In 1979 Wilson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. A Martinsburg street is named Hack Wilson Way in his honor, and the access road to a large city park within his home town, Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, is known as Hack Wilson Drive.
See also
50 home run club
List of Major League Baseball annual home run leaders
List of Major League Baseball annual runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball career slugging percentage leaders
List of Major League Baseball career OPS leaders
List of Major League Baseball career home run leaders
References
Further reading
Subscription required.
Subscription required.
External links
, or Retrosheet
National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Major League Baseball center fielders
Chicago Cubs players
Brooklyn Dodgers players
New York Giants (NL) players
Philadelphia Phillies players
National League home run champions
National League RBI champions
Martinsburg Mountaineers players
Martinsburg Blue Sox players
Portsmouth Truckers players
Toledo Mud Hens players
Albany Senators players
Baseball players from Pennsylvania
Sportspeople from Martinsburg, West Virginia
People from Ellwood City, Pennsylvania
People from Lawrence County, Pennsylvania
1900 births
1948 deaths | false | [
"Øyvind Gjerde (born 18 March 1977) is a Norwegian former footballer who played for Molde. He has previously played for the clubs Åndalsnes, Lillestrøm and Aalesund.\n\nAfter the 2010 season, when he did not get a new contract with Molde after 7 years in the club, Gjerde announced that he would most likely retire.\n\nReferences \n\n1977 births\nLiving people\nPeople from Møre og Romsdal\nNorwegian footballers\nEliteserien players\nNorwegian First Division players\nAalesunds FK players\nLillestrøm SK players\nMolde FK players\n\nAssociation football defenders",
"Max Mnkandla is the President of the Zimbabwe Liberators' Peace Initiative. He fought for the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) in the Rhodesian Bush War.\n\nHis father, Siqanywana, died in the Gukurahundi massacres of the 1980s. When Information Minister Nathan Shamuyarira defended the massacres in October 2006, Mnkandla said Shamuyarira's comments show he is \"not only suffering from 1880s hangover — the feeling that the Ndebele also did the same to the Shonas — it also shows that Shamuyarira is now old and should retire.\"\n\nReferences\n\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nLiving people\nZimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army personnel\nZimbabwean politicians"
]
|
[
"Hack Wilson",
"New York Giants",
"When did Wilson start playing for the New York Giants?",
"September 29, 1923",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"became the starting left fielder the following season.",
"Did he play any other position?",
"left field",
"Is there any notable games during his career?",
"Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins,",
"Does he have any other records?",
"He ended the season with a .295 average, 10 home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs)",
"When did he retire?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_caf876f084ed435aae7dfb1e41e6fe73_0 | Were any championships won? | 7 | Were any championships won by Hack Wilson? | Hack Wilson | Wilson made his major league debut with the Giants on September 29, 1923 and became the starting left fielder the following season. By mid-July he was ranked second in the National League (NL) in hitting. He ended the season with a .295 average, 10 home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs) as New York won the NL pennant. In the 1924 World Series he averaged only .233 in a seven-game loss to the Washington Senators. Multiple stories exist to explain the origin of Wilson's nickname: By one account, a New York newspaper held a nicknaming contest; the winning entry was "Hack" because he reminded many fans of another stocky athlete, the popular wrestler Georg Hackenschmidt. In another version, McGraw is said to have remarked that Wilson's physique was reminiscent of a "hack" (slang for taxicab in that era). Giants teammate Bill Cunningham claimed that the nickname was based on Wilson's resemblance to Hack Miller, an outfielder with the Chicago Cubs. The New York Times printed the first documented usage of "Hack" on June 10, 1924. Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins, but fell into a slump in May, and was replaced in left field by Irish Meusel. On July 2 he hit two home runs in one inning, tying Ken Williams' major league record set in 1922, but his hitting slump continued. In August McGraw told reporters that he had "...made the mistake of rushing [Wilson] along," and sent him to the Giants' minor league affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association. At season's end, a front office oversight--or possibly, deliberate inaction--left him unprotected on the Toledo roster, and the last-place Chicago Cubs acquired him on waivers. "They let go the best outfielder I ever played alongside", said Giants right fielder Ross Youngs, "and they're going to regret it." During the 1925 World Series -- between the Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates -- Wilson's son, Robert, was born. CANNOTANSWER | During the 1925 World Series -- between the Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates -- Wilson's son, Robert, was born. | Lewis Robert "Hack" Wilson (April 26, 1900 – November 23, 1948) was an American Major League Baseball player who played 12 seasons for the New York Giants, Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. Despite his diminutive stature, he was one of the most accomplished power hitters in the game during the late 1920s and early 1930s. His 1930 season with the Cubs is widely considered one of the most memorable individual single-season hitting performances in baseball history. Highlights included 56 home runs, the National League record for 68 years; and 191 runs batted in, a mark yet to be surpassed. "For a brief span of a few years", wrote a sportswriter of the day, "this hammered down little strongman actually rivaled the mighty Ruth."
While Wilson's combativeness and excessive alcohol consumption made him one of the most colorful sports personalities of his era, his drinking and fighting undoubtedly contributed to a premature end to his athletic career and, ultimately, his premature death. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979.
Baseball career
Early life and minor leagues
Lewis Robert Wilson was born April 26, 1900, in the Pennsylvania steel mill town of Ellwood City, north of Pittsburgh. His mother, Jennie Kaughn, 16, was an unemployed drifter from Philadelphia; his father, Robert Wilson, 24, was a steel worker. His parents never married; both were heavy drinkers, and in 1907 his mother died of appendicitis at the age of 24.
In 1916 Lewis left school to take a job at a locomotive factory, swinging a sledge hammer for four dollars a week. Although only five feet six inches tall, he weighed 195 pounds with an 18-inch neck, and feet that fit into size-five-and-one-half shoes. Sportswriter Shirley Povich later observed that he was "built along the lines of a beer keg, and was not wholly unfamiliar with its contents." While his unusual physique was considered an oddity at the time, his large head, tiny feet, short legs and broad, flat face are now recognized as hallmarks of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
In 1921 Wilson moved to Martinsburg, West Virginia, to join the Martinsburg Mountaineers of the Class "D" Blue Ridge League. After breaking his leg while sliding into home plate during his first professional game, he was moved from the catcher's position to the outfield. In 1922 he met Virginia Riddleburger, a 34-year-old office clerk; they married the following year. In 1923, playing for the "B" division Portsmouth Truckers, he led the Virginia League in hitting with a .388 batting average. Late in the season, New York Giants manager John McGraw purchased his contract from Portsmouth for $10,500 ($ in current dollar terms).
New York Giants
Wilson made his major league debut with the Giants on September 29, 1923, at the age of 23, and became the starting left fielder the following season. By mid-July he was ranked second in the National League (NL) in hitting. He ended the season with a .295 average, 10 home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs) as New York won the NL pennant. In the 1924 World Series he averaged only .233 in a seven-game loss to the Washington Senators.
Multiple stories exist to explain the origin of Wilson's nickname: By one account, a New York newspaper held a nicknaming contest; the winning entry was "Hack" because he reminded many fans of another stocky athlete, the popular wrestler Georg Hackenschmidt. In another version, McGraw is said to have remarked that Wilson's physique was reminiscent of a "hack" (slang for taxicab in that era). Giants teammate Bill Cunningham claimed that the nickname was based on Wilson's resemblance to Hack Miller, an outfielder with the Chicago Cubs. The New York Times printed the first documented usage of "Hack" on June 10, 1924.
Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins, but fell into a slump in May, and was replaced in left field by Irish Meusel. On July 2 he hit two home runs in one inning, tying Ken Williams' major league record set in 1922, but his hitting slump continued. In August McGraw told reporters that he had "... made the mistake of rushing [Wilson] along," and sent him to the Giants' minor league affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association. At season's end, a front office oversight—or possibly, deliberate inaction—left him unprotected on the Toledo roster, and the last-place Chicago Cubs acquired him on waivers. "They let go the best outfielder I ever played alongside", said Giants right fielder Ross Youngs, "and they're going to regret it."
During the 1925 World Series — between the Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates — Wilson's son, Robert, was born.
Glory years with the Cubs
Wilson regained his form as the Cubs' center fielder in 1926, and he quickly became a favorite of Chicago fans. On May 24 he hit the center field scoreboard with one of the longest home runs in Wrigley Field history as the Cubs came from behind to defeat the Boston Braves. Later that evening he made news again when he was arrested during a police raid of a Prohibition-era speakeasy while trying to escape through the rear window, and was fined one dollar. He ended the season with a league-leading 21 home runs along with 36 doubles, 109 RBIs, a .321 batting average, and a .406 on-base percentage. The Cubs improved to fourth place, and Wilson ended the year ranked fifth in voting for the NL's Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award.
Another strong performance followed in 1927 as Wilson once again led the league in home runs. Although the Cubs were in first place heading into the final month of the season, the team faltered and again finished fourth. Wilson posted a .318 average with 30 home runs and 129 RBIs, and led NL outfielders with 400 putouts. He led the NL in home runs for a third consecutive year in 1928 with 31, along with 120 RBIs and a .313 average as the Cubs improved to third place.
Wilson had a combative streak and sometimes initiated fights with opposing players and fans. On June 22, 1928, a near-riot broke out in the ninth inning at Wrigley Field against the St. Louis Cardinals when Wilson jumped into the box seats to attack a heckling fan. An estimated 5,000 spectators swarmed the field before police could separate the combatants and restore order. The fan sued Wilson for $20,000, but a jury ruled in his favor. The following year he took offense at a remark by Cincinnati Reds pitcher Ray Kolp, and – upon reaching first base after hitting a single – he charged into the Reds dugout, punching Kolp several times before they could be separated. Later that evening at the train station, Wilson exchanged words and blows with Cincinnati player Pete Donohue. In late 1929 he signed a contract to fight Art Shires of the Chicago White Sox in a boxing match, but reneged after Cubs president William Veeck, Sr. enlisted Hack's wife Virginia to dissuade him, and then Shires lost a fight to George Trafton of the Chicago Bears. There was nothing to gain, Wilson said, by fighting a defeated boxer.
Wilson's "penchant for festivities" is also well documented. Biographer Clifton Blue Parker described him as "... the Roaring '20s epitome of a baseball player, primed for an age of American excess ... at a time when baseball was America's favorite sport." His love of drinking and partying did not endear him to Cubs owner William Wrigley, who abhorred alcohol consumption. (Wilson always insisted that he never played drunk; "hung over, yes; drunk, no.") Manager Joe McCarthy worked hard to shield Wilson from Wrigley, and to keep him on an even keel. "Better than any other manager," wrote sportswriter Frank Graham, "Joe understood Hack, made allowances for him when he failed, and rewarded him with praise when he did well. Joe could be strict and stern with his players ... but he never was with Hack, and Hack repaid him by playing as he never had before, nor would again."
In 1929 Wilson hit .345 with 39 home runs and a league-record 159 RBIs. He and new teammate Rogers Hornsby (who also contributed 39 home runs) led the Cubs to their first NL pennant in eleven years. In the World Series against Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics, Wilson's .471 hitting performance was eclipsed by two fielding errors at Shibe Park. Though trailing the Series two games to one, the Cubs were leading by a score of 8–0 in the fourth game when the Athletics mounted a 10-run rally in the seventh inning. Wilson lost two fly balls in the sun; the second, with two runners on base, led to an inside-the-park home run by Mule Haas as the Athletics won 10–8. After the game, McCarthy reportedly told a boy asking for a souvenir baseball, "Come back tomorrow and stand behind Wilson, and you'll be able to pick up all the balls you want!" The Athletics won again the next day to take the Series in five games.
1930 peak
Wilson's 1930 season, aided by a lively ball wound with special Australian wool, is considered one of the best single-season hitting performances in baseball history. By the middle of July he had accumulated 82 RBIs. In August he hit 13 home runs and 53 RBIs, and by September 17 he had reached 174 RBIs, breaking Lou Gehrig's major league record established three years earlier. He finished the season with 190 RBIs, along with an NL-record 56 home runs, .356 batting average, .454 on-base percentage, and league-leading .723 slugging percentage. He was unofficially voted the NL's most "useful" player by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (which did not inaugurate its official MVP award until 1931).
In 1999 the Commissioner of Baseball officially increased Wilson's 1930 RBI total to 191 after a box score analysis by baseball historian Jerome Holtzman revealed that Charlie Grimm had been mistakenly credited with an RBI actually driven home by Wilson during the second game of a doubleheader on July 28. Wilson's 191 RBIs remains one of baseball's most enduring records; only Gehrig (185) and Hank Greenberg (184) ever came close, and there have been no serious challenges in the last 75 years. (The best recent effort was 165 by Manny Ramirez in 1999.)
Reds catcher Clyde Sukeforth asserted that Wilson should have been credited with an additional home run in 1930 as well. "He hit one in Cincinnati one day", he said, "way up in the seats, hit it so hard that it bounced right back onto the field. The umpire had a bad angle on it and ruled that it had hit the screen and bounced back. I was sitting in the Cincinnati bullpen, and of course, we weren't going to say anything. But Hack really hit 57 that year." Wilson's official total of 56 stood as the NL record until the 1998 season, when it was broken by Sammy Sosa (66) and Mark McGwire (70).
Decline
Wilson's success in the 1930 season served only to fuel his drinking habits, and in 1931 he reported to spring training 20 pounds overweight. In addition, the NL responded to the prodigious offensive statistics of the previous year (the only season, other than 1894, in which the league as a whole batted over .300) by introducing a heavier ball with raised stitching to allow pitchers to gain a better grip and throw sharper curveballs. Wilson complained that the new Cubs manager, Hornsby, did not allow him to "swing away" as much as Joe McCarthy had. He hit his 200th career home run at Ebbets Field on June 18 — only the fourth player ever to do so, behind Ruth, Cy Williams, and Hornsby — but then fell into a protracted slump, and was benched in late May. By late August Wrigley publicly expressed his desire to trade him. On September 6 he was suspended without pay for the remainder of the season after a fight with reporters aboard a train in Cincinnati. He was hitting .261 with only 13 home runs (his 1930 production during August alone) at the time.
In December 1931, the Cubs traded Wilson, along with Bud Teachout, to the St. Louis Cardinals for Burleigh Grimes. Less than a month later, the Cardinals sent him to the Brooklyn Dodgers for minor league outfielder Bob Parham and $25,000 ($ in current dollar terms). Wilson hit .297 with 23 home runs and 123 RBIs for Brooklyn in 1932. He began 1933 with a ninth-inning game-winning pinch-hit inside-the-park grand slam home run at Ebbets Field—the first pinch-hit grand slam in Dodger history, and only the third inside-the-park pinch-hit grand slam in MLB history. By season's end his offensive totals had dropped substantially, and he was hitting .262 when the Dodgers released him mid-season in 1934. The Philadelphia Phillies signed him immediately, but after just two hits in 20 at bats he was released again a month later. After a final season with the Albany Senators of the Class "A" New York–Pennsylvania League, Wilson retired at the age of 35.
Career statistics
In a 12-year major league career, Wilson played in 1,348 games and accumulated 1,461 hits in 4,760 at-bats for a .307 career batting average and a .395 on-base percentage. He hit 244 home runs and batted in 1,063 runs, led the NL in home runs four times, and surpassed 100 RBIs six times. Defensively, he finished his career with a .965 fielding percentage.
Life after baseball
Wilson returned to Martinsburg where he opened a pool hall, but encountered financial problems due to a failed sporting goods business venture, and then a rancorous divorce from Virginia. By 1938 he was working as a bartender near Brooklyn's Ebbets Field where he sang for drinks, but had to quit when customers became too abusive. A night club venture in suburban Chicago was another financial failure. In 1944 he took a job as a good will ambassador for a professional basketball team in Washington, D.C., where he lamented that fans remembered his two dropped fly balls in the 1929 World Series far more vividly than his 56 home runs and 191 RBIs in 1930. Unable to find work in professional baseball, he moved to Baltimore where he worked as a tool checker in an airplane manufacturing plant and later as a laborer for the City of Baltimore. When municipal authorities realized who he was, he was made the manager of a Baltimore public swimming pool.
On October 4, 1948 Wilson was discovered unconscious after a fall in his home. Though the accident did not appear serious at first, pneumonia and other complications developed and he died of internal hemorrhaging on November 23, 1948, at the age of 48.
Wilson — once the highest-paid player in the National League — died penniless; his son, Robert, refused to claim his remains. NL President Ford Frick finally sent money to cover his funeral expenses. His gray burial suit was donated by the undertaker. In marked contrast to Babe Ruth's funeral, which had been attended by thousands just three months earlier, only a few hundred people were present for Wilson's services. He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery in the town where he made his professional playing debut, Martinsburg, West Virginia.
Ten months later Joe McCarthy organized a second, more complete memorial service, attended by Kiki Cuyler, Charlie Grimm, Nick Altrock and other players from the Cubs and the Martinsburg team (by then renamed the Blue Sox). A granite tombstone was unveiled, with the inscription, "One of Baseball's Immortals, Lewis R. (Hack) Wilson, Rests Here."
One week before his death, Wilson gave an interview to CBS Radio which was reprinted in Chicago newspapers. In 1949 Charlie Grimm, the Cubs' new manager, posted a framed excerpt from that interview in the Cubs clubhouse, where it remains. It reads, in part:
Talent isn't enough. You need common sense and good advice. If anyone tries to tell you different, tell them the story of Hack Wilson. ... Kids in and out of baseball who think because they have talent they have the world by the tail. It isn't so. Kids, don't be too big to accept advice. Don't let what happened to me happen to you.
In 1979 Wilson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. A Martinsburg street is named Hack Wilson Way in his honor, and the access road to a large city park within his home town, Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, is known as Hack Wilson Drive.
See also
50 home run club
List of Major League Baseball annual home run leaders
List of Major League Baseball annual runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball career slugging percentage leaders
List of Major League Baseball career OPS leaders
List of Major League Baseball career home run leaders
References
Further reading
Subscription required.
Subscription required.
External links
, or Retrosheet
National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Major League Baseball center fielders
Chicago Cubs players
Brooklyn Dodgers players
New York Giants (NL) players
Philadelphia Phillies players
National League home run champions
National League RBI champions
Martinsburg Mountaineers players
Martinsburg Blue Sox players
Portsmouth Truckers players
Toledo Mud Hens players
Albany Senators players
Baseball players from Pennsylvania
Sportspeople from Martinsburg, West Virginia
People from Ellwood City, Pennsylvania
People from Lawrence County, Pennsylvania
1900 births
1948 deaths | false | [
"The 1981 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships (1981 WJHC) was the fifth edition of the Ice Hockey World Junior Championship and was held from December 27, 1980, until January 2, 1981. The tournament was held in Füssen, West Germany. Sweden won the gold medal, while Finland won the silver, and the Soviet Union bronze.\n\nPool A\nThe 1981 tournament divided participants into two divisions of four teams, each playing three games. The top two teams in each division advanced to the A division in the medal round, while the bottom two were placed in a B division. Each division played another round robin. The top three teams in the A division won the gold, silver and bronze medals. Teams that faced each other in the first round had their results carried over to the medal rounds.\n\nFinal standings\nThis is the aggregate standings, ordered according to final placing. The four teams in the A division in the medal round were ranked one through four, while the four teams in the B division were ranked five through eight regardless of overall record.\n\n was relegated to Pool B for the 1982 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships.\n\nPreliminary round\n\nGold group\n\nBlue group\n\nConsolation round\nResults from any games played during the preliminary round were carried forward to the consolation round.\n\nChampionship round\nResults from any games played during the preliminary round were carried forward to the championship round.\n\nScoring leaders\n\nTournament awards\n\nPool B\nThe second tier was contested from March 23–29, in Strasbourg, France. Eight teams were divided into two round robin groups where the top two, and bottom two, graduated to meet their respective opponents in a final round robin. Results between competitors who migrated together were carried forward. Yugoslavia made their debut, replacing Hungary.\n\nPreliminary round\n\nGroup A\n\nGroup B\n\nConsolation round\nResults from any games played during the preliminary round were carried forward to the consolation round.\n\nPromotion round\nResults from any games played during the preliminary round were carried forward to the promotion round.\n\n was promoted to Pool A for the 1982 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships.\n\nScoring leaders\n\nReferences\n\n \n1977–81 World Junior Hockey Championships at TSN\n Results at passionhockey.com\n\nWorld Junior Ice Hockey Championships\nWorld Junior Ice Hockey Championships\nWorld Junior Ice Hockey Championships\n1981\n1980–81 in West German ice hockey\n1980 in ice hockey\nIce hockey in Bavaria\nWorld Junior Ice Hockey Championships\nWorld Junior Ice Hockey Championships\nWorld Junior Ice Hockey Championships\nSports competitions in Bavaria\nWorld Junior Ice Hockey Championships\nSports competitions in Strasbourg\n20th century in Strasbourg\n1980–81 in French ice hockey\nInternational ice hockey competitions hosted by France",
"Vaivase-Tai is a Samoan football club based in Tuanaimato. It currently plays in Samoa National League. As eight times champions of Samoa, they have won more recorded titles than any other club.\n\nHistory\nVaivase-Tai won four of the first five national championships, with only Alafua winning a championship outright prior to 1984. They won further championships in 1998 and 2006. They were also runners up in 1985.\n\nTitles\nSamoa National League: 8\n1979, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1986, 1998,2000, 2006\n\nSquad\nAs of 2020 season:\n\nReferences\n\nFootball clubs in Samoa"
]
|
[
"Hack Wilson",
"New York Giants",
"When did Wilson start playing for the New York Giants?",
"September 29, 1923",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"became the starting left fielder the following season.",
"Did he play any other position?",
"left field",
"Is there any notable games during his career?",
"Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins,",
"Does he have any other records?",
"He ended the season with a .295 average, 10 home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs)",
"When did he retire?",
"I don't know.",
"Were any championships won?",
"During the 1925 World Series -- between the Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates -- Wilson's son, Robert, was born."
]
| C_caf876f084ed435aae7dfb1e41e6fe73_0 | Did he have any notable losses? | 8 | Did Hack Wilson have any notable losses? | Hack Wilson | Wilson made his major league debut with the Giants on September 29, 1923 and became the starting left fielder the following season. By mid-July he was ranked second in the National League (NL) in hitting. He ended the season with a .295 average, 10 home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs) as New York won the NL pennant. In the 1924 World Series he averaged only .233 in a seven-game loss to the Washington Senators. Multiple stories exist to explain the origin of Wilson's nickname: By one account, a New York newspaper held a nicknaming contest; the winning entry was "Hack" because he reminded many fans of another stocky athlete, the popular wrestler Georg Hackenschmidt. In another version, McGraw is said to have remarked that Wilson's physique was reminiscent of a "hack" (slang for taxicab in that era). Giants teammate Bill Cunningham claimed that the nickname was based on Wilson's resemblance to Hack Miller, an outfielder with the Chicago Cubs. The New York Times printed the first documented usage of "Hack" on June 10, 1924. Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins, but fell into a slump in May, and was replaced in left field by Irish Meusel. On July 2 he hit two home runs in one inning, tying Ken Williams' major league record set in 1922, but his hitting slump continued. In August McGraw told reporters that he had "...made the mistake of rushing [Wilson] along," and sent him to the Giants' minor league affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association. At season's end, a front office oversight--or possibly, deliberate inaction--left him unprotected on the Toledo roster, and the last-place Chicago Cubs acquired him on waivers. "They let go the best outfielder I ever played alongside", said Giants right fielder Ross Youngs, "and they're going to regret it." During the 1925 World Series -- between the Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates -- Wilson's son, Robert, was born. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Lewis Robert "Hack" Wilson (April 26, 1900 – November 23, 1948) was an American Major League Baseball player who played 12 seasons for the New York Giants, Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. Despite his diminutive stature, he was one of the most accomplished power hitters in the game during the late 1920s and early 1930s. His 1930 season with the Cubs is widely considered one of the most memorable individual single-season hitting performances in baseball history. Highlights included 56 home runs, the National League record for 68 years; and 191 runs batted in, a mark yet to be surpassed. "For a brief span of a few years", wrote a sportswriter of the day, "this hammered down little strongman actually rivaled the mighty Ruth."
While Wilson's combativeness and excessive alcohol consumption made him one of the most colorful sports personalities of his era, his drinking and fighting undoubtedly contributed to a premature end to his athletic career and, ultimately, his premature death. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979.
Baseball career
Early life and minor leagues
Lewis Robert Wilson was born April 26, 1900, in the Pennsylvania steel mill town of Ellwood City, north of Pittsburgh. His mother, Jennie Kaughn, 16, was an unemployed drifter from Philadelphia; his father, Robert Wilson, 24, was a steel worker. His parents never married; both were heavy drinkers, and in 1907 his mother died of appendicitis at the age of 24.
In 1916 Lewis left school to take a job at a locomotive factory, swinging a sledge hammer for four dollars a week. Although only five feet six inches tall, he weighed 195 pounds with an 18-inch neck, and feet that fit into size-five-and-one-half shoes. Sportswriter Shirley Povich later observed that he was "built along the lines of a beer keg, and was not wholly unfamiliar with its contents." While his unusual physique was considered an oddity at the time, his large head, tiny feet, short legs and broad, flat face are now recognized as hallmarks of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
In 1921 Wilson moved to Martinsburg, West Virginia, to join the Martinsburg Mountaineers of the Class "D" Blue Ridge League. After breaking his leg while sliding into home plate during his first professional game, he was moved from the catcher's position to the outfield. In 1922 he met Virginia Riddleburger, a 34-year-old office clerk; they married the following year. In 1923, playing for the "B" division Portsmouth Truckers, he led the Virginia League in hitting with a .388 batting average. Late in the season, New York Giants manager John McGraw purchased his contract from Portsmouth for $10,500 ($ in current dollar terms).
New York Giants
Wilson made his major league debut with the Giants on September 29, 1923, at the age of 23, and became the starting left fielder the following season. By mid-July he was ranked second in the National League (NL) in hitting. He ended the season with a .295 average, 10 home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBIs) as New York won the NL pennant. In the 1924 World Series he averaged only .233 in a seven-game loss to the Washington Senators.
Multiple stories exist to explain the origin of Wilson's nickname: By one account, a New York newspaper held a nicknaming contest; the winning entry was "Hack" because he reminded many fans of another stocky athlete, the popular wrestler Georg Hackenschmidt. In another version, McGraw is said to have remarked that Wilson's physique was reminiscent of a "hack" (slang for taxicab in that era). Giants teammate Bill Cunningham claimed that the nickname was based on Wilson's resemblance to Hack Miller, an outfielder with the Chicago Cubs. The New York Times printed the first documented usage of "Hack" on June 10, 1924.
Early in the 1925 season Wilson hit the longest home run on record at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Robins, but fell into a slump in May, and was replaced in left field by Irish Meusel. On July 2 he hit two home runs in one inning, tying Ken Williams' major league record set in 1922, but his hitting slump continued. In August McGraw told reporters that he had "... made the mistake of rushing [Wilson] along," and sent him to the Giants' minor league affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association. At season's end, a front office oversight—or possibly, deliberate inaction—left him unprotected on the Toledo roster, and the last-place Chicago Cubs acquired him on waivers. "They let go the best outfielder I ever played alongside", said Giants right fielder Ross Youngs, "and they're going to regret it."
During the 1925 World Series — between the Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates — Wilson's son, Robert, was born.
Glory years with the Cubs
Wilson regained his form as the Cubs' center fielder in 1926, and he quickly became a favorite of Chicago fans. On May 24 he hit the center field scoreboard with one of the longest home runs in Wrigley Field history as the Cubs came from behind to defeat the Boston Braves. Later that evening he made news again when he was arrested during a police raid of a Prohibition-era speakeasy while trying to escape through the rear window, and was fined one dollar. He ended the season with a league-leading 21 home runs along with 36 doubles, 109 RBIs, a .321 batting average, and a .406 on-base percentage. The Cubs improved to fourth place, and Wilson ended the year ranked fifth in voting for the NL's Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award.
Another strong performance followed in 1927 as Wilson once again led the league in home runs. Although the Cubs were in first place heading into the final month of the season, the team faltered and again finished fourth. Wilson posted a .318 average with 30 home runs and 129 RBIs, and led NL outfielders with 400 putouts. He led the NL in home runs for a third consecutive year in 1928 with 31, along with 120 RBIs and a .313 average as the Cubs improved to third place.
Wilson had a combative streak and sometimes initiated fights with opposing players and fans. On June 22, 1928, a near-riot broke out in the ninth inning at Wrigley Field against the St. Louis Cardinals when Wilson jumped into the box seats to attack a heckling fan. An estimated 5,000 spectators swarmed the field before police could separate the combatants and restore order. The fan sued Wilson for $20,000, but a jury ruled in his favor. The following year he took offense at a remark by Cincinnati Reds pitcher Ray Kolp, and – upon reaching first base after hitting a single – he charged into the Reds dugout, punching Kolp several times before they could be separated. Later that evening at the train station, Wilson exchanged words and blows with Cincinnati player Pete Donohue. In late 1929 he signed a contract to fight Art Shires of the Chicago White Sox in a boxing match, but reneged after Cubs president William Veeck, Sr. enlisted Hack's wife Virginia to dissuade him, and then Shires lost a fight to George Trafton of the Chicago Bears. There was nothing to gain, Wilson said, by fighting a defeated boxer.
Wilson's "penchant for festivities" is also well documented. Biographer Clifton Blue Parker described him as "... the Roaring '20s epitome of a baseball player, primed for an age of American excess ... at a time when baseball was America's favorite sport." His love of drinking and partying did not endear him to Cubs owner William Wrigley, who abhorred alcohol consumption. (Wilson always insisted that he never played drunk; "hung over, yes; drunk, no.") Manager Joe McCarthy worked hard to shield Wilson from Wrigley, and to keep him on an even keel. "Better than any other manager," wrote sportswriter Frank Graham, "Joe understood Hack, made allowances for him when he failed, and rewarded him with praise when he did well. Joe could be strict and stern with his players ... but he never was with Hack, and Hack repaid him by playing as he never had before, nor would again."
In 1929 Wilson hit .345 with 39 home runs and a league-record 159 RBIs. He and new teammate Rogers Hornsby (who also contributed 39 home runs) led the Cubs to their first NL pennant in eleven years. In the World Series against Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics, Wilson's .471 hitting performance was eclipsed by two fielding errors at Shibe Park. Though trailing the Series two games to one, the Cubs were leading by a score of 8–0 in the fourth game when the Athletics mounted a 10-run rally in the seventh inning. Wilson lost two fly balls in the sun; the second, with two runners on base, led to an inside-the-park home run by Mule Haas as the Athletics won 10–8. After the game, McCarthy reportedly told a boy asking for a souvenir baseball, "Come back tomorrow and stand behind Wilson, and you'll be able to pick up all the balls you want!" The Athletics won again the next day to take the Series in five games.
1930 peak
Wilson's 1930 season, aided by a lively ball wound with special Australian wool, is considered one of the best single-season hitting performances in baseball history. By the middle of July he had accumulated 82 RBIs. In August he hit 13 home runs and 53 RBIs, and by September 17 he had reached 174 RBIs, breaking Lou Gehrig's major league record established three years earlier. He finished the season with 190 RBIs, along with an NL-record 56 home runs, .356 batting average, .454 on-base percentage, and league-leading .723 slugging percentage. He was unofficially voted the NL's most "useful" player by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (which did not inaugurate its official MVP award until 1931).
In 1999 the Commissioner of Baseball officially increased Wilson's 1930 RBI total to 191 after a box score analysis by baseball historian Jerome Holtzman revealed that Charlie Grimm had been mistakenly credited with an RBI actually driven home by Wilson during the second game of a doubleheader on July 28. Wilson's 191 RBIs remains one of baseball's most enduring records; only Gehrig (185) and Hank Greenberg (184) ever came close, and there have been no serious challenges in the last 75 years. (The best recent effort was 165 by Manny Ramirez in 1999.)
Reds catcher Clyde Sukeforth asserted that Wilson should have been credited with an additional home run in 1930 as well. "He hit one in Cincinnati one day", he said, "way up in the seats, hit it so hard that it bounced right back onto the field. The umpire had a bad angle on it and ruled that it had hit the screen and bounced back. I was sitting in the Cincinnati bullpen, and of course, we weren't going to say anything. But Hack really hit 57 that year." Wilson's official total of 56 stood as the NL record until the 1998 season, when it was broken by Sammy Sosa (66) and Mark McGwire (70).
Decline
Wilson's success in the 1930 season served only to fuel his drinking habits, and in 1931 he reported to spring training 20 pounds overweight. In addition, the NL responded to the prodigious offensive statistics of the previous year (the only season, other than 1894, in which the league as a whole batted over .300) by introducing a heavier ball with raised stitching to allow pitchers to gain a better grip and throw sharper curveballs. Wilson complained that the new Cubs manager, Hornsby, did not allow him to "swing away" as much as Joe McCarthy had. He hit his 200th career home run at Ebbets Field on June 18 — only the fourth player ever to do so, behind Ruth, Cy Williams, and Hornsby — but then fell into a protracted slump, and was benched in late May. By late August Wrigley publicly expressed his desire to trade him. On September 6 he was suspended without pay for the remainder of the season after a fight with reporters aboard a train in Cincinnati. He was hitting .261 with only 13 home runs (his 1930 production during August alone) at the time.
In December 1931, the Cubs traded Wilson, along with Bud Teachout, to the St. Louis Cardinals for Burleigh Grimes. Less than a month later, the Cardinals sent him to the Brooklyn Dodgers for minor league outfielder Bob Parham and $25,000 ($ in current dollar terms). Wilson hit .297 with 23 home runs and 123 RBIs for Brooklyn in 1932. He began 1933 with a ninth-inning game-winning pinch-hit inside-the-park grand slam home run at Ebbets Field—the first pinch-hit grand slam in Dodger history, and only the third inside-the-park pinch-hit grand slam in MLB history. By season's end his offensive totals had dropped substantially, and he was hitting .262 when the Dodgers released him mid-season in 1934. The Philadelphia Phillies signed him immediately, but after just two hits in 20 at bats he was released again a month later. After a final season with the Albany Senators of the Class "A" New York–Pennsylvania League, Wilson retired at the age of 35.
Career statistics
In a 12-year major league career, Wilson played in 1,348 games and accumulated 1,461 hits in 4,760 at-bats for a .307 career batting average and a .395 on-base percentage. He hit 244 home runs and batted in 1,063 runs, led the NL in home runs four times, and surpassed 100 RBIs six times. Defensively, he finished his career with a .965 fielding percentage.
Life after baseball
Wilson returned to Martinsburg where he opened a pool hall, but encountered financial problems due to a failed sporting goods business venture, and then a rancorous divorce from Virginia. By 1938 he was working as a bartender near Brooklyn's Ebbets Field where he sang for drinks, but had to quit when customers became too abusive. A night club venture in suburban Chicago was another financial failure. In 1944 he took a job as a good will ambassador for a professional basketball team in Washington, D.C., where he lamented that fans remembered his two dropped fly balls in the 1929 World Series far more vividly than his 56 home runs and 191 RBIs in 1930. Unable to find work in professional baseball, he moved to Baltimore where he worked as a tool checker in an airplane manufacturing plant and later as a laborer for the City of Baltimore. When municipal authorities realized who he was, he was made the manager of a Baltimore public swimming pool.
On October 4, 1948 Wilson was discovered unconscious after a fall in his home. Though the accident did not appear serious at first, pneumonia and other complications developed and he died of internal hemorrhaging on November 23, 1948, at the age of 48.
Wilson — once the highest-paid player in the National League — died penniless; his son, Robert, refused to claim his remains. NL President Ford Frick finally sent money to cover his funeral expenses. His gray burial suit was donated by the undertaker. In marked contrast to Babe Ruth's funeral, which had been attended by thousands just three months earlier, only a few hundred people were present for Wilson's services. He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery in the town where he made his professional playing debut, Martinsburg, West Virginia.
Ten months later Joe McCarthy organized a second, more complete memorial service, attended by Kiki Cuyler, Charlie Grimm, Nick Altrock and other players from the Cubs and the Martinsburg team (by then renamed the Blue Sox). A granite tombstone was unveiled, with the inscription, "One of Baseball's Immortals, Lewis R. (Hack) Wilson, Rests Here."
One week before his death, Wilson gave an interview to CBS Radio which was reprinted in Chicago newspapers. In 1949 Charlie Grimm, the Cubs' new manager, posted a framed excerpt from that interview in the Cubs clubhouse, where it remains. It reads, in part:
Talent isn't enough. You need common sense and good advice. If anyone tries to tell you different, tell them the story of Hack Wilson. ... Kids in and out of baseball who think because they have talent they have the world by the tail. It isn't so. Kids, don't be too big to accept advice. Don't let what happened to me happen to you.
In 1979 Wilson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. A Martinsburg street is named Hack Wilson Way in his honor, and the access road to a large city park within his home town, Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, is known as Hack Wilson Drive.
See also
50 home run club
List of Major League Baseball annual home run leaders
List of Major League Baseball annual runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball career slugging percentage leaders
List of Major League Baseball career OPS leaders
List of Major League Baseball career home run leaders
References
Further reading
Subscription required.
Subscription required.
External links
, or Retrosheet
National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Major League Baseball center fielders
Chicago Cubs players
Brooklyn Dodgers players
New York Giants (NL) players
Philadelphia Phillies players
National League home run champions
National League RBI champions
Martinsburg Mountaineers players
Martinsburg Blue Sox players
Portsmouth Truckers players
Toledo Mud Hens players
Albany Senators players
Baseball players from Pennsylvania
Sportspeople from Martinsburg, West Virginia
People from Ellwood City, Pennsylvania
People from Lawrence County, Pennsylvania
1900 births
1948 deaths | false | [
"The following contains a list of trading losses of the equivalent of USD100 million or higher. Trading losses are the amount of principal losses in an account. Because of the secretive nature of many hedge funds and fund managers, some notable losses may never be reported to the public. The list is ordered by the real amount lost, starting with the greatest.\n\nThis list includes both fraudulent and non-fraudulent losses, but excludes those associated with Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme (estimated in the $50 billion range) as Madoff did not lose most of this money in trading.\n\nSee also \n Rogue trader\n Derivative (finance)\n Silver Thursday\n Sumitomo copper affair\n\nReferences \n\nLists by economic indicators\nStock market-related lists\n\nInternational trade-related lists",
"The 1971 Oakland Athletics season involved the A's finishing first in the American League West with a record of 101 wins and 60 losses. In their first postseason appearance of any kind since 1931, the A's were swept in three games by the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Championship Series.\n\nOffseason\n January 13, 1971: 1971 Major League Baseball Draft (January Draft) notable picks:\nRound 5: Rich Dauer (did not sign) \nSecondary Phase\nRound 1: Phil Garner\nRound 3: Steve Staggs (did not sign)\n\nRegular season \nVida Blue became the first black player in the history of the American League to win the American League Cy Young Award. He was also the youngest AL player in the 20th century to win the MVP Award. During the year, Vida Blue was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and Time magazine.\n\nSeason standings\n\nRecord vs. opponents\n\nOpening Day starters \n 1B Don Mincher\n 2B Dick Green\n 3B Sal Bando\n SS Bert Campaneris\n LF Felipe Alou\n CF Rick Monday\n RF Reggie Jackson\n C Dave Duncan\n P Vida Blue\n\nNotable transactions \n May 8, 1971: Frank Fernández, Don Mincher, Paul Lindblad, and cash were traded by the Athletics to the Washington Senators for Darold Knowles and Mike Epstein.\n May 26, 1971: Rob Gardner was traded by the Athletics to the New York Yankees for Curt Blefary.\n June 12, 1971: Champ Summers was signed by the Athletics as an amateur free agent.\n\nRoster\n\nPlayer stats\n\nBatting\n\nStarters by position \nNote: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in\n\nOther batters \nNote: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in\n\nPitching\n\nStarting pitchers \nNote: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts\n\nOther pitchers \nNote: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts\n\nRelief pitchers \nNote: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts\n\nAwards and honors \n Vida Blue, P, American League Cy Young Award\n Vida Blue, P, American League Most Valuable Player Award. Sal Bando, second in American League MVP voting\n Dick Williams, Associated Press AL Manager of the Year\n\nAll-Stars \n1971 Major League Baseball All-Star Game\n Vida Blue, pitcher, starter\n Dave Duncan, reserve\n Reggie Jackson, reserve\n\n1971 American League Championship Series\n\nGame 1 \nSunday, October 3, 1971, at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland\n\nGame 2 \nMonday, October 4, 1971, at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland\n\nGame 3 \nTuesday, October 5, 1971, at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, California\n\nFarm system\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n1971 Oakland Athletics team page at Baseball Reference\n1971 Oakland Athletics team page at www.baseball-almanac.com\n\nOakland Athletics seasons\nOakland Athletics season\nAmerican League West champion seasons\nOakland Athletics"
]
|
[
"AFI (band)",
"Black Sails in the Sunset, All Hallow's E.P. and The Art of Drowning (1999-2001)"
]
| C_0bfe0dfe02b04ae196ba2bec3fc86408_1 | Were these three albums or singles ? | 1 | Were Black Sails in the Sunset, All Hallow's E.P. and The Art of Drowning, albums or singles? | AFI (band) | After recording the A Fire Inside EP (1998), Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Jade Puget, former member of Influence 13 and vocalist Havok's close friend. The band then recorded Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), a musical turning point which introduced AFI fans to a much darker sound, mixing the band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences (a poem by Charles Baudelaire, "De profundis clamavi," is present in the hidden track "Midnight Sun") and an emphasis on a more somber atmosphere and lyrics. The New York Times later referred to this as the point where Havok "developed into a singer and songwriter of substance". The influence of the deathrock and goth rock scenes was also apparent. During this period, AFI's style was considered the band's gothic punk rock style. Offspring frontman Dexter Holland was featured as a backing vocalist on two tracks: "Clove Smoke Catharsis" and "The Prayer Position". The All Hallow's E.P. (October 5, 1999) further explored the horror punk genre, featuring artwork and lyrics containing Halloween themes. The EP spawned the single "Totalimmortal", a track later covered by The Offspring for the Me, Myself and Irene soundtrack. It received a fair amount of radio play and exposed AFI to larger audiences. "The Boy Who Destroyed the World" from the All Hallows EP was featured in the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 video game. All Hallow's also featured a cover of the Misfits song "Halloween". On September 19, 2000, AFI released The Art of Drowning, which debuted on the Billboard Charts at number 174, and peaked at number 9 on the Heatseekers chart. It continued to touch base with the horror punk genre, but expanded into styles that were a departure from previous works. The album featured slower, more melodic songs that were more reminiscent of alternative rock, such as "Ever and a Day" and "6 to 8". Still, the presence of hardcore influences was imminent in most of the album, flaunted most on tracks like "Smile", "The Lost Souls", and "Catch a Hot One". The album brought the band unprecedented success in the underground scene, selling in excess of 100,000 copies. "The Days of the Phoenix" was released as a single and video and, like "Totalimmortal," had some moderate mainstream success, garnering the band more TV and radio airplay. The song even managed to reach the UK Singles Chart with its titular EP in 2001, peaking at number 152. The success of The Art of Drowning helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety. CANNOTANSWER | The band then recorded Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), a musical turning point which introduced AFI fans to a much darker sound, | AFI (abbreviation for A Fire Inside) is an American rock band from Ukiah, California, formed in 1991. Since 1998, it consists of lead vocalist Davey Havok, drummer and backing vocalist Adam Carson, bassist, backing vocalist and keyboardist Hunter Burgan, and guitarist, backing vocalist and keyboardist Jade Puget. Havok and Carson are the sole remaining original members. Originally a hardcore punk band, they have since delved into many genres, starting with horror punk and following through post-hardcore and emo into alternative rock and gothic rock.
AFI has released eleven studio albums, ten EPs, one live album and one DVD. The band first reached substantial commercial success with their fifth album, The Art of Drowning (2000), which peaked at number 174 on the Billboard 200. They then broke into the mainstream with their sixth, Sing the Sorrow (2003), which peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 51 weeks. The album was supported by popular singles "Girl's Not Grey" and "Silver and Cold", both of which peaked at number seven on America's Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart in 2003. "The Leaving Song Pt. II" was also released as a single, reaching number 16 on the chart. Sing the Sorrow was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2006 and is AFI's best-selling release, having sold over 1.26 million copies .
AFI's seventh album, Decemberunderground (2006), debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and featured the hit single "Miss Murder", which topped the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart, reached number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and appeared in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The album was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2013. Their next three albums, Crash Love (2009), Burials (2013) and AFI (2017), were also successful, peaking at increasing positions on the Billboard 200. An EP, The Missing Man, followed in December 2018. The band released their 11th album, Bodies, on June 11, 2021.
History
Early years (1991–1994)
While still in high school in Ukiah, California, Davey Havok (vocals), Mark Stopholese and Vic Chalker formed a band called AFI in November 1991. At the time, the band did not know how to play any instruments. Stopholese suggested that his friend, Adam Carson (who had a drum set), join the band. Stopholese learned guitar and Chalker learned bass, but Chalker was soon replaced by Geoff Kresge. By the end of October 1992, the band had played their first three shows, generally as an opener for a few other punk bands, including Influence 13, which featured future AFI lead guitarist Jade Puget and frequent collaborator Nick 13. AFI recorded their first EP, Dork (1993), with the now defunct band Loose Change, which also featured Puget.
The band briefly broke up in 1993, when the members left Ukiah to attend different colleges. They decided to commit to AFI full-time after an extremely positive experience and enthusiastic crowd response at a reunion show they played at The Phoenix Theater over Christmas break.
AFI relocated to Berkeley, California and lived in a squat that was a decommissioned fraternity house. Between 1993 and 1995, the band independently released vinyl EPs such as Behind the Times, Eddie Picnic's All Wet and Fly in the Ointment, as well as the compilation EPs This Is Berkeley, Not West Bay, AFI/Heckle, and Bombing the Bay (with Swingin' Utters).
First three albums (1995–1998)
AFI's first full-length album, Answer That and Stay Fashionable was released July 4, 1995, on Wingnut Records. It was produced by Rancid's Tim Armstrong and Brett Reed. The album featured fast and upbeat hardcore songs, with humorous lyrical themes, which are vocalized in songs such as "Nyquil", "Cereal Wars", and "I Wanna Get a Mohawk (But Mom Won't Let Me Get One)". Around this time, they coined the term 'East Bay hardcore' to describe their genre.
AFI signed on to Nitro Records, a record label started by The Offspring's Dexter Holland and Greg K. AFI would remain with the label until the release of the 336 EP (2002). In 1996, they released their second album, Very Proud of Ya. Two songs from their previous album, "Yurf Rendenmein" and "Two of A Kind", were re-recorded for this album. After several tours in support of the album, Kresge decided to leave the group. His spot was filled by current AFI bassist Hunter Burgan for the remaining album tour dates.
Burgan went on to help AFI record Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997) and was invited to become their full-time bassist. Jade Puget, a former member of Influence 13 and Havok's close friend, also provided background vocals and additional guitar on the album, making it the first to feature all four current members of the band. It is also the first album to be copyrighted to the band's official moniker, A Fire Inside. Subsequently, the A Fire Inside EP (1998) was released, after which Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Puget.
Darker sound and wider reach (1999–2001)
The band's next album, Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), was a musical turning point which featured a darker sound, mixing the band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences and an emphasis on a more somber atmosphere and lyrics. The New York Times later referred to this as the point where Havok "developed into a singer and songwriter of substance". During this period, AFI's style was considered punk rock. The influence of death rock and goth rock was also apparent. Offspring frontman Dexter Holland was featured as a backing vocalist on two tracks.
The All Hallow's E.P. (1999) further explored the horror punk genre, featuring artwork and lyrics containing Halloween themes, including a cover of the Misfits song "Halloween". The song "The Boy Who Destroyed the World" was featured in the video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, and the single "Totalimmortal" was later covered by The Offspring.
On September 19, 2000, AFI released The Art of Drowning, which debuted on the Billboard Charts at number 174, and peaked at number 9 on the Heatseekers chart. It continued to touch base with the horror punk genre, but expanded into styles that were a departure from previous works. The album featured slower, more melodic songs that were more reminiscent of alternative rock, such as "Ever and a Day" and "6 to 8". Hardcore influences were present, more overtly on some tracks. The album sold over 100,000 copies. "The Days of the Phoenix" was released as a single and video and had some moderate mainstream success, garnering the band more TV and radio airplay. The song reached the UK Singles Chart with its titular EP in 2001, peaking at number 152. The success of The Art of Drowning helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety.
Mainstream labels and popularity (2002–2007)
In 2002, AFI left Nitro Records. DreamWorks Records artists and repertoire executive Luke Wood signed them to the label following intense interest. Their first album for the label, Sing the Sorrow, was released in 2003. The album opened in Billboards top ten and scored enthusiastic lead reviews in major music magazines. The songs "Girl's Not Grey", "The Leaving Song Pt. II", and "Silver and Cold" had some Billboard chart success and exposed the band to even larger audiences. They were nominated in the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards for the MTV2 award category for the "Girl's Not Grey" video, which came to be their first VMA.
In June 2006, AFI's seventh studio album, Decemberunderground, was released on Interscope Records. The album's first single, "Miss Murder", reached No. 1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Charts. The release reflects the continually changing and growing fan base of the band, and the album debuted as No. 1 on the Billboard charts. The album has been certified Gold by the RIAA for sales of over 500,000 copies of the album. The album's second single, "Love Like Winter", was successful on MTV's Total Request Live and was retired after 40 days on the countdown.
On December 12, 2006, AFI released their first DVD, I Heard a Voice – Live from Long Beach Arena, featuring a live performance shot in Long Beach, California. The performance was later released on December 13, 2007, as a live album, and charted at number 133 on the Billboard 200, and number 16 on the Hard Rock Albums chart. The album was well-received, with punknews.org giving it a four-star rating and commenting that when hearing or seeing the performance "you begin to realize AFI are truly a great live band," and that at some points "Pantera would say turn the noise down."
On July 7, 2007, AFI performed on the American leg of Live Earth. They performed "The Missing Frame", "Love Like Winter", "Miss Murder", and a cover of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust".
Maturity and resurgence (2008–2017)
In July 2009, Havok released a statement saying that after two years of writing and recording, an upcoming album titled Crash Love would be released on September 29, 2009. It was recorded with producer David Bottrill (who was later dismissed in favor of Joe McGrath and Jacknife Lee). The first single from the album, "Medicate", was released on August 25, 2009, and reached number 7 on the Billboard Alternative Songs Chart. Another single, "Beautiful Thieves", followed later in the year. Havok called Crash Love "the album by which we'll be remembered". It was the band's first release to make a significantly smaller impact than their previous effort, but peaked at number 12 on the Billboard 200.
From April to June 2013, several teaser videos were released on AFI's website.
The band was announced to play Riot Fest 2013, as well as being signed to Republic Records. A single titled "I Hope You Suffer" was released on July 23, and the title of the album, Burials, was announced. Another single, "17 Crimes", was released on August 6. The third single from the album, titled "The Conductor", was released on September 9. The album was released on October 22, produced by Gil Norton. It peaked at number 9 on the Billboard 200.
In a June 2016 interview with Aggressive Tendencies, Puget confirmed that AFI had begun working on new material for their tenth studio album. On October 27, the band released two new songs via Spotify, "Snow Cats" and "White Offerings".
The band's tenth album, AFI (also known as The Blood Album), was released on January 20, 2017. Puget served as the main producer. The album peaked at number 5 on the Billboard 200. Other singles were released, including "Aurelia" and "Hidden Knives".
Recent releases (2018–present)
On October 26, 2018, the band surprise-released a new single called "Get Dark" on Spotify and iTunes. This was followed by The Missing Man EP on December 7, featuring five new songs.
On March 25, 2020, AFI was announced as a headliner for the Two Thousand Trees Festival on July 10 of the same year. Puget was interviewed by Kerrang! to promote the festival appearance and said that "hopefully at least a couple of songs" from the band's eleventh album would be released by then. On April 27, 2020, Puget said that the album was finished, but that its release date was being pushed back as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The next day, it was announced that the Two Thousand Trees Festival was being pushed back to 2021, also due to the pandemic.
On January 15, 2021, the band released the tracks "Twisted Tongues" and "Escape from Los Angeles". On February 25, it was revealed that the album would be called Bodies, and be released on June 11. Along with the announcement, the band revealed two new songs as another joint single, "Looking Tragic / Begging for Trouble". On April 9, "Dulceria / Far Too Near" were released, followed by "Tied to a Tree" on May 25.
Musical style
AFI's music has been classified under many genres of music, including punk rock, horror punk, garage punk, pop punk, hardcore punk, skate punk, emo, screamo, alternative rock, and gothic rock. AFI has often been called "goth-punk" due to the band's appearance, but AFI never considered the label accurate. AFI guitarist Jade Puget has said, "Goth-punk isn't a style of music, it doesn't even exist."
AFI's sound has constantly changed. AFI originally were a hardcore punk band. AFI's first three albums, Answer That and Stay Fashionable (1995), Very Proud of Ya (1996), and Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997), all have been described as hardcore punk. AFI's fourth album Black Sails in the Sunset and the band's fifth album The Art of Drowning both have been described as horror punk. AFI's 2003 album Sing the Sorrow is considered post-hardcore and emo. Decemberunderground, which features elements of music genres like electronic, new wave, industrial, punk rock, hardcore punk, and synthpop, is considered alternative rock, post-hardcore and emo. AFI's 2009 album Crash Love is considered alternative rock and pop rock. AFI's 2013 album Burials is considered alternative rock and gothic rock. AFI's 2017 self-titled album, also referred to as The Blood Album, has been described as new wave, post-punk and gothic rock.
Puget, who has produced much of the band's music, stated in 2021:
Anyone who knows our catalog knows that no two records really sit together. Some sit a little closer, maybe. We do certain things, just by virtue of who we are, that are consistent, but those things come about organically. Every time we do something, I have to judge it on its own merits. Some fans are going to judge a new album, or a new song, based on what's come before. But as artists, we can't do that, because it would only hinder our creativity.
Influences
In an interview, Davey Havok described the band's influences: "We have many, many influences that span the musical spectrum. Each of us grew up on everything from punk to hardcore to dark '80s UK stuff like The Cure, Bauhaus, Joy Division, and The Sisters of Mercy. And there were rock bands like The Misfits, Samhain, and Danzig and industrial bands like Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Front 242 and Alien Sex Fiend. And we all love The Smiths." AFI have also been influenced by British electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), whom Havok said "have and will continue to musically and emotionally inspire" him. Other bands that have influenced AFI include Minor Threat, 7 Seconds, Descendents, Suicide, the Germs, Black Flag, Slayer, Metallica, T.S.O.L., D.R.I., State of Alert, and the Angry Samoans.
Legacy
The Sydney Morning Herald has written that AFI have been "hailed as being responsible for bringing back the big '80s rock chorus." The band has received much praise in particular from Alternative Press, which has supported the group since the mid-1990s. The publication rated the band's major label debut, Sing the Sorrow as the most anticipated album of 2003, and noted that it "blew the doors off goth-punk as we knew it". AFI has also been granted responsibility for paving the way for the rise of the visual element of rock bands in the 2000s; in a December 2006 article, Revolver Magazine wrote that "AFI have increased the importance of a band's visual identity and the flair for the theatrical," adding that "when a group like Panic! at the Disco borrows imagery from a movie such as Moulin Rouge!, you have to consider the precedent AFI set when they borrowed cues from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas." Shoutmouth.com placed AFI at number 22 on its list of the 25 most influential punk bands, noting that the band "have evolved with each album, showing that a punk band can not only change, but stay true to their sound at the same time. AFI have been on a constant rise through their career, and as such, out the honors". After Sing The Sorrow release, Yorkshire Evening Post described Havok's voice as one of those "you'll love or hate, but one thing can't be denied, this guy has range beyond belief". Recognized by his trademark flair and vocal style, Havok has been recognized as "a bona fide rock god" by Alternative Press.
In 2003, The Pitch described the band's fan club as a "particularly excitable bunch", adding that "there's also the type of sentiments that put the cult back into cult success, such as links to something called 'the Church of Havok'."
Members
Current
Davey Havok – lead vocals
Adam Carson – drums, backing vocals
Hunter Burgan – bass, backing vocals, keyboards, programming
Jade Puget – guitars, backing vocals, keyboards, piano, programming, synthesizers
Former
Vic Chalker – bass, backing vocals
Geoff Kresge – bass, backing vocals
Mark Stopholese – guitars
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Answer That and Stay Fashionable (1995)
Very Proud of Ya (1996)
Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997)
Black Sails in the Sunset (1999)
The Art of Drowning (2000)
Sing the Sorrow (2003)
Decemberunderground (2006)
Crash Love (2009)
Burials (2013)
AFI (2017)
Bodies (2021)
References
Footnotes
Citations
External links
Alternative rock groups from California
Punk rock groups from California
Hardcore punk groups from California
Musical groups established in 1991
Musical quartets
Horror punk groups
Interscope Records artists
DreamWorks Records artists
Emo musical groups from California
American gothic rock groups
American post-hardcore musical groups
Nitro Records artists
Adeline Records artists
Rise Records artists
Articles which contain graphical timelines
1991 establishments in California | false | [
"The discography of Deana Carter, an American country music singer, consists of seven studio albums and 18 singles. She debuted in 1995 with two test singles released in the United Kingdom before entering the Hot Country Songs charts in 1996 with \"Strawberry Wine\", the first of three number-one singles from her album Did I Shave My Legs for This? Her second and third albums, Everything's Gonna Be Alright and I'm Just a Girl, also produced top 40 hits at country radio.\n\nStudio albums\n\n1990s\n\n2000s–2010s\n\nCompilation albums\n\nLive albums\n\nExtended plays\n\nSingles\n\n1990s\n\n2000s and 2010s\n\nOther appearances\nThese recordings were only commercially released through compilations or other artists.\n\nMusic videos\nMost of Carter's singles have featured music videos. An album-cut, \"I've Loved Enough to Know\", featured a video. Deana Carter also released a video for her rendition of \"Once Upon a December\".\n\nReferences\n\nCarter, Deana\nDiscographies of American artists",
"American singer and songwriter Bonnie McKee has released one studio album, two extended plays, 10 singles (including three as a featured artist), three promotional singles, and 13 music videos.\n\nAlbums\n\nStudio albums\n\nExtended plays\n\nSingles\n\nAs lead artist\n\nAs featured artist\n\nPromotional singles\n\nSpecial releases \n\nThese songs were released onto McKee's Myspace account on November 26, 2008.\n\nMusic videos\n\nFootnotes\n\nSee also \n List of songs written by Bonnie McKee\n\nReferences \n\nDiscography\nDiscographies of American artists\nPop music discographies"
]
|
[
"AFI (band)",
"Black Sails in the Sunset, All Hallow's E.P. and The Art of Drowning (1999-2001)",
"Were these three albums or singles ?",
"The band then recorded Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), a musical turning point which introduced AFI fans to a much darker sound,"
]
| C_0bfe0dfe02b04ae196ba2bec3fc86408_1 | did any of them earn an award ? | 2 | did any of the albums earn an award ? | AFI (band) | After recording the A Fire Inside EP (1998), Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Jade Puget, former member of Influence 13 and vocalist Havok's close friend. The band then recorded Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), a musical turning point which introduced AFI fans to a much darker sound, mixing the band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences (a poem by Charles Baudelaire, "De profundis clamavi," is present in the hidden track "Midnight Sun") and an emphasis on a more somber atmosphere and lyrics. The New York Times later referred to this as the point where Havok "developed into a singer and songwriter of substance". The influence of the deathrock and goth rock scenes was also apparent. During this period, AFI's style was considered the band's gothic punk rock style. Offspring frontman Dexter Holland was featured as a backing vocalist on two tracks: "Clove Smoke Catharsis" and "The Prayer Position". The All Hallow's E.P. (October 5, 1999) further explored the horror punk genre, featuring artwork and lyrics containing Halloween themes. The EP spawned the single "Totalimmortal", a track later covered by The Offspring for the Me, Myself and Irene soundtrack. It received a fair amount of radio play and exposed AFI to larger audiences. "The Boy Who Destroyed the World" from the All Hallows EP was featured in the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 video game. All Hallow's also featured a cover of the Misfits song "Halloween". On September 19, 2000, AFI released The Art of Drowning, which debuted on the Billboard Charts at number 174, and peaked at number 9 on the Heatseekers chart. It continued to touch base with the horror punk genre, but expanded into styles that were a departure from previous works. The album featured slower, more melodic songs that were more reminiscent of alternative rock, such as "Ever and a Day" and "6 to 8". Still, the presence of hardcore influences was imminent in most of the album, flaunted most on tracks like "Smile", "The Lost Souls", and "Catch a Hot One". The album brought the band unprecedented success in the underground scene, selling in excess of 100,000 copies. "The Days of the Phoenix" was released as a single and video and, like "Totalimmortal," had some moderate mainstream success, garnering the band more TV and radio airplay. The song even managed to reach the UK Singles Chart with its titular EP in 2001, peaking at number 152. The success of The Art of Drowning helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | AFI (abbreviation for A Fire Inside) is an American rock band from Ukiah, California, formed in 1991. Since 1998, it consists of lead vocalist Davey Havok, drummer and backing vocalist Adam Carson, bassist, backing vocalist and keyboardist Hunter Burgan, and guitarist, backing vocalist and keyboardist Jade Puget. Havok and Carson are the sole remaining original members. Originally a hardcore punk band, they have since delved into many genres, starting with horror punk and following through post-hardcore and emo into alternative rock and gothic rock.
AFI has released eleven studio albums, ten EPs, one live album and one DVD. The band first reached substantial commercial success with their fifth album, The Art of Drowning (2000), which peaked at number 174 on the Billboard 200. They then broke into the mainstream with their sixth, Sing the Sorrow (2003), which peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 51 weeks. The album was supported by popular singles "Girl's Not Grey" and "Silver and Cold", both of which peaked at number seven on America's Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart in 2003. "The Leaving Song Pt. II" was also released as a single, reaching number 16 on the chart. Sing the Sorrow was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2006 and is AFI's best-selling release, having sold over 1.26 million copies .
AFI's seventh album, Decemberunderground (2006), debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and featured the hit single "Miss Murder", which topped the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart, reached number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and appeared in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The album was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2013. Their next three albums, Crash Love (2009), Burials (2013) and AFI (2017), were also successful, peaking at increasing positions on the Billboard 200. An EP, The Missing Man, followed in December 2018. The band released their 11th album, Bodies, on June 11, 2021.
History
Early years (1991–1994)
While still in high school in Ukiah, California, Davey Havok (vocals), Mark Stopholese and Vic Chalker formed a band called AFI in November 1991. At the time, the band did not know how to play any instruments. Stopholese suggested that his friend, Adam Carson (who had a drum set), join the band. Stopholese learned guitar and Chalker learned bass, but Chalker was soon replaced by Geoff Kresge. By the end of October 1992, the band had played their first three shows, generally as an opener for a few other punk bands, including Influence 13, which featured future AFI lead guitarist Jade Puget and frequent collaborator Nick 13. AFI recorded their first EP, Dork (1993), with the now defunct band Loose Change, which also featured Puget.
The band briefly broke up in 1993, when the members left Ukiah to attend different colleges. They decided to commit to AFI full-time after an extremely positive experience and enthusiastic crowd response at a reunion show they played at The Phoenix Theater over Christmas break.
AFI relocated to Berkeley, California and lived in a squat that was a decommissioned fraternity house. Between 1993 and 1995, the band independently released vinyl EPs such as Behind the Times, Eddie Picnic's All Wet and Fly in the Ointment, as well as the compilation EPs This Is Berkeley, Not West Bay, AFI/Heckle, and Bombing the Bay (with Swingin' Utters).
First three albums (1995–1998)
AFI's first full-length album, Answer That and Stay Fashionable was released July 4, 1995, on Wingnut Records. It was produced by Rancid's Tim Armstrong and Brett Reed. The album featured fast and upbeat hardcore songs, with humorous lyrical themes, which are vocalized in songs such as "Nyquil", "Cereal Wars", and "I Wanna Get a Mohawk (But Mom Won't Let Me Get One)". Around this time, they coined the term 'East Bay hardcore' to describe their genre.
AFI signed on to Nitro Records, a record label started by The Offspring's Dexter Holland and Greg K. AFI would remain with the label until the release of the 336 EP (2002). In 1996, they released their second album, Very Proud of Ya. Two songs from their previous album, "Yurf Rendenmein" and "Two of A Kind", were re-recorded for this album. After several tours in support of the album, Kresge decided to leave the group. His spot was filled by current AFI bassist Hunter Burgan for the remaining album tour dates.
Burgan went on to help AFI record Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997) and was invited to become their full-time bassist. Jade Puget, a former member of Influence 13 and Havok's close friend, also provided background vocals and additional guitar on the album, making it the first to feature all four current members of the band. It is also the first album to be copyrighted to the band's official moniker, A Fire Inside. Subsequently, the A Fire Inside EP (1998) was released, after which Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Puget.
Darker sound and wider reach (1999–2001)
The band's next album, Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), was a musical turning point which featured a darker sound, mixing the band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences and an emphasis on a more somber atmosphere and lyrics. The New York Times later referred to this as the point where Havok "developed into a singer and songwriter of substance". During this period, AFI's style was considered punk rock. The influence of death rock and goth rock was also apparent. Offspring frontman Dexter Holland was featured as a backing vocalist on two tracks.
The All Hallow's E.P. (1999) further explored the horror punk genre, featuring artwork and lyrics containing Halloween themes, including a cover of the Misfits song "Halloween". The song "The Boy Who Destroyed the World" was featured in the video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, and the single "Totalimmortal" was later covered by The Offspring.
On September 19, 2000, AFI released The Art of Drowning, which debuted on the Billboard Charts at number 174, and peaked at number 9 on the Heatseekers chart. It continued to touch base with the horror punk genre, but expanded into styles that were a departure from previous works. The album featured slower, more melodic songs that were more reminiscent of alternative rock, such as "Ever and a Day" and "6 to 8". Hardcore influences were present, more overtly on some tracks. The album sold over 100,000 copies. "The Days of the Phoenix" was released as a single and video and had some moderate mainstream success, garnering the band more TV and radio airplay. The song reached the UK Singles Chart with its titular EP in 2001, peaking at number 152. The success of The Art of Drowning helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety.
Mainstream labels and popularity (2002–2007)
In 2002, AFI left Nitro Records. DreamWorks Records artists and repertoire executive Luke Wood signed them to the label following intense interest. Their first album for the label, Sing the Sorrow, was released in 2003. The album opened in Billboards top ten and scored enthusiastic lead reviews in major music magazines. The songs "Girl's Not Grey", "The Leaving Song Pt. II", and "Silver and Cold" had some Billboard chart success and exposed the band to even larger audiences. They were nominated in the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards for the MTV2 award category for the "Girl's Not Grey" video, which came to be their first VMA.
In June 2006, AFI's seventh studio album, Decemberunderground, was released on Interscope Records. The album's first single, "Miss Murder", reached No. 1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Charts. The release reflects the continually changing and growing fan base of the band, and the album debuted as No. 1 on the Billboard charts. The album has been certified Gold by the RIAA for sales of over 500,000 copies of the album. The album's second single, "Love Like Winter", was successful on MTV's Total Request Live and was retired after 40 days on the countdown.
On December 12, 2006, AFI released their first DVD, I Heard a Voice – Live from Long Beach Arena, featuring a live performance shot in Long Beach, California. The performance was later released on December 13, 2007, as a live album, and charted at number 133 on the Billboard 200, and number 16 on the Hard Rock Albums chart. The album was well-received, with punknews.org giving it a four-star rating and commenting that when hearing or seeing the performance "you begin to realize AFI are truly a great live band," and that at some points "Pantera would say turn the noise down."
On July 7, 2007, AFI performed on the American leg of Live Earth. They performed "The Missing Frame", "Love Like Winter", "Miss Murder", and a cover of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust".
Maturity and resurgence (2008–2017)
In July 2009, Havok released a statement saying that after two years of writing and recording, an upcoming album titled Crash Love would be released on September 29, 2009. It was recorded with producer David Bottrill (who was later dismissed in favor of Joe McGrath and Jacknife Lee). The first single from the album, "Medicate", was released on August 25, 2009, and reached number 7 on the Billboard Alternative Songs Chart. Another single, "Beautiful Thieves", followed later in the year. Havok called Crash Love "the album by which we'll be remembered". It was the band's first release to make a significantly smaller impact than their previous effort, but peaked at number 12 on the Billboard 200.
From April to June 2013, several teaser videos were released on AFI's website.
The band was announced to play Riot Fest 2013, as well as being signed to Republic Records. A single titled "I Hope You Suffer" was released on July 23, and the title of the album, Burials, was announced. Another single, "17 Crimes", was released on August 6. The third single from the album, titled "The Conductor", was released on September 9. The album was released on October 22, produced by Gil Norton. It peaked at number 9 on the Billboard 200.
In a June 2016 interview with Aggressive Tendencies, Puget confirmed that AFI had begun working on new material for their tenth studio album. On October 27, the band released two new songs via Spotify, "Snow Cats" and "White Offerings".
The band's tenth album, AFI (also known as The Blood Album), was released on January 20, 2017. Puget served as the main producer. The album peaked at number 5 on the Billboard 200. Other singles were released, including "Aurelia" and "Hidden Knives".
Recent releases (2018–present)
On October 26, 2018, the band surprise-released a new single called "Get Dark" on Spotify and iTunes. This was followed by The Missing Man EP on December 7, featuring five new songs.
On March 25, 2020, AFI was announced as a headliner for the Two Thousand Trees Festival on July 10 of the same year. Puget was interviewed by Kerrang! to promote the festival appearance and said that "hopefully at least a couple of songs" from the band's eleventh album would be released by then. On April 27, 2020, Puget said that the album was finished, but that its release date was being pushed back as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The next day, it was announced that the Two Thousand Trees Festival was being pushed back to 2021, also due to the pandemic.
On January 15, 2021, the band released the tracks "Twisted Tongues" and "Escape from Los Angeles". On February 25, it was revealed that the album would be called Bodies, and be released on June 11. Along with the announcement, the band revealed two new songs as another joint single, "Looking Tragic / Begging for Trouble". On April 9, "Dulceria / Far Too Near" were released, followed by "Tied to a Tree" on May 25.
Musical style
AFI's music has been classified under many genres of music, including punk rock, horror punk, garage punk, pop punk, hardcore punk, skate punk, emo, screamo, alternative rock, and gothic rock. AFI has often been called "goth-punk" due to the band's appearance, but AFI never considered the label accurate. AFI guitarist Jade Puget has said, "Goth-punk isn't a style of music, it doesn't even exist."
AFI's sound has constantly changed. AFI originally were a hardcore punk band. AFI's first three albums, Answer That and Stay Fashionable (1995), Very Proud of Ya (1996), and Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997), all have been described as hardcore punk. AFI's fourth album Black Sails in the Sunset and the band's fifth album The Art of Drowning both have been described as horror punk. AFI's 2003 album Sing the Sorrow is considered post-hardcore and emo. Decemberunderground, which features elements of music genres like electronic, new wave, industrial, punk rock, hardcore punk, and synthpop, is considered alternative rock, post-hardcore and emo. AFI's 2009 album Crash Love is considered alternative rock and pop rock. AFI's 2013 album Burials is considered alternative rock and gothic rock. AFI's 2017 self-titled album, also referred to as The Blood Album, has been described as new wave, post-punk and gothic rock.
Puget, who has produced much of the band's music, stated in 2021:
Anyone who knows our catalog knows that no two records really sit together. Some sit a little closer, maybe. We do certain things, just by virtue of who we are, that are consistent, but those things come about organically. Every time we do something, I have to judge it on its own merits. Some fans are going to judge a new album, or a new song, based on what's come before. But as artists, we can't do that, because it would only hinder our creativity.
Influences
In an interview, Davey Havok described the band's influences: "We have many, many influences that span the musical spectrum. Each of us grew up on everything from punk to hardcore to dark '80s UK stuff like The Cure, Bauhaus, Joy Division, and The Sisters of Mercy. And there were rock bands like The Misfits, Samhain, and Danzig and industrial bands like Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Front 242 and Alien Sex Fiend. And we all love The Smiths." AFI have also been influenced by British electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), whom Havok said "have and will continue to musically and emotionally inspire" him. Other bands that have influenced AFI include Minor Threat, 7 Seconds, Descendents, Suicide, the Germs, Black Flag, Slayer, Metallica, T.S.O.L., D.R.I., State of Alert, and the Angry Samoans.
Legacy
The Sydney Morning Herald has written that AFI have been "hailed as being responsible for bringing back the big '80s rock chorus." The band has received much praise in particular from Alternative Press, which has supported the group since the mid-1990s. The publication rated the band's major label debut, Sing the Sorrow as the most anticipated album of 2003, and noted that it "blew the doors off goth-punk as we knew it". AFI has also been granted responsibility for paving the way for the rise of the visual element of rock bands in the 2000s; in a December 2006 article, Revolver Magazine wrote that "AFI have increased the importance of a band's visual identity and the flair for the theatrical," adding that "when a group like Panic! at the Disco borrows imagery from a movie such as Moulin Rouge!, you have to consider the precedent AFI set when they borrowed cues from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas." Shoutmouth.com placed AFI at number 22 on its list of the 25 most influential punk bands, noting that the band "have evolved with each album, showing that a punk band can not only change, but stay true to their sound at the same time. AFI have been on a constant rise through their career, and as such, out the honors". After Sing The Sorrow release, Yorkshire Evening Post described Havok's voice as one of those "you'll love or hate, but one thing can't be denied, this guy has range beyond belief". Recognized by his trademark flair and vocal style, Havok has been recognized as "a bona fide rock god" by Alternative Press.
In 2003, The Pitch described the band's fan club as a "particularly excitable bunch", adding that "there's also the type of sentiments that put the cult back into cult success, such as links to something called 'the Church of Havok'."
Members
Current
Davey Havok – lead vocals
Adam Carson – drums, backing vocals
Hunter Burgan – bass, backing vocals, keyboards, programming
Jade Puget – guitars, backing vocals, keyboards, piano, programming, synthesizers
Former
Vic Chalker – bass, backing vocals
Geoff Kresge – bass, backing vocals
Mark Stopholese – guitars
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Answer That and Stay Fashionable (1995)
Very Proud of Ya (1996)
Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997)
Black Sails in the Sunset (1999)
The Art of Drowning (2000)
Sing the Sorrow (2003)
Decemberunderground (2006)
Crash Love (2009)
Burials (2013)
AFI (2017)
Bodies (2021)
References
Footnotes
Citations
External links
Alternative rock groups from California
Punk rock groups from California
Hardcore punk groups from California
Musical groups established in 1991
Musical quartets
Horror punk groups
Interscope Records artists
DreamWorks Records artists
Emo musical groups from California
American gothic rock groups
American post-hardcore musical groups
Nitro Records artists
Adeline Records artists
Rise Records artists
Articles which contain graphical timelines
1991 establishments in California | false | [
"Below is a list of Black nominees and winners of Golden Globe Awards in various award categories. Sidney Poitier was both the first winner and nominee, winning in 1964 for Lilies of the Field.\n\nFilm\n\nBest Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama\n\nNotes:\n Out of the 33 nominated performances, 22 of them earned Academy Award nominations or wins.\n Denzel Washington is the most nominated in this category with 9 nominations.\n Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, Chadwick Boseman, and Will Smith have won in this category.\n\nBest Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama\n\nNotes:\n Out of the 12 nominated performances, 10 of them earned Academy Award nominations or wins.\n Halle Berry and Viola Davis are the most nominated in this category with 2 nominations.\n Whoopi Goldberg and Andra Day have won in this category.\n\nBest Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy\n\nNotes:\n Out of the 12 nominated performances, 3 of them earned Academy Award nominations or wins.\n Eddie Murphy is the most nominated in this category with 4 nominations.\n Morgan Freeman and Jamie Foxx have won in this category.\n\nBest Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy\n\nNotes:\n Out of the 10 nominated performances, 2 of them earned Academy Award nominations.\n Currently, Angela Bassett is the only winner in this category.\n\nBest Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture\n\nNotes:\n Out of the 19 nominated performances, 16 went on to earn Academy Award nominations or wins.\n Morgan Freeman, Samuel L. Jackson, and Mahershala Ali are the most nominated in this category with 2 nominations.\n Louis Gossett Jr., Denzel Washington, Eddie Murphy, Mahershala Ali, and Daniel Kaluuya have won in this category.\n\nBest Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture\n\nNotes:\n Out of the 23 nominated performances, 19 went on to earn Academy Award nominations or wins.\n Octavia Spencer is the most nominated in this category with 3 nominations.\n Whoopi Goldberg, Jennifer Hudson, Mo'Nique, Octavia Spencer, Viola Davis, Regina King, and Ariana DeBose have won in this category.\n\nBest Motion Picture – Animated\n\nBest Director – Motion Picture\n\nNotes:\n Out of the 6 nominees, 3 of them earned Academy Award nominations.\n Spike Lee is the most nominated in this category with 2 nominations.\n\nBest Screenplay – Motion Picture\n\nNotes:\n Out of the 5 nominees, 5 of them earned Academy Award nominations or wins.\n Barry Jenkins is the most nominated in this category with 2 nominations.\n\nBest Original Score – Motion Picture\n\nNotes:\n Out of the 7 nominees, 5 of them earned Academy Award nominations or wins.\n Quincy Jones is the most nominated in this category with 2 nominations.\n Isaac Hayes and Jon Batiste have won in this category.\n\nBest Original Song – Motion Picture\n\nTelevision\n\nBest Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama\n\nNotes:\n Billy Porter is the most nominated in this category with 3 nominations.\n Currently, Sterling K. Brown is the only winner in this category.\n\nBest Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama\n\nNotes:\n Denise Nicholas is the most nominated in this category with 3 nominations.\n Gail Fisher, Regina Taylor, Taraji P. Henson, and Michaela Jaé Rodriguez have won in this category.\n\nBest Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy\n\nNotes:\n Redd Foxx, Bill Cosby, and Don Cheadle are the most nominated in this category with 4 nominations.\n Flip Wilson, Redd Foxx, Bill Cosby, Don Cheadle, and Donald Glover have won in this category.\n\nBest Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy\n\nNotes:\n Isabel Sanford is the most nominated in this category with 5 nominations.\n Debbie Allen and Tracee Ellis Ross have won in this category.\n\nBest Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or a Motion Picture Made for Television\n\nNotes:\n Idris Elba is the most nominated in this category with 4 nominations.\n Ving Rhames and Idris Elba have won in this category.\n\nBest Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or a Motion Picture Made for Television\n\nNotes:\n Alfre Woodard, Halle Berry, and Queen Latifah are the most nominated in this category with 2 nominations.\n Alfre Woodard, Halle Berry, Queen Latifah, and S. Epatha Merkerson have won in this category.\n\nBest Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role on Television\n\nNotes:\n Jimmie Walker and Blair Underwood are the most nominated in this category with 2 nominations.\n Louis Gossett Jr., Don Cheadle, Jeffrey Wright, and John Boyega have won in this category.\n\nBest Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role on Television\n\nNotes:\n Gail Fisher is the most nominated in this category with 3 nominations and is the only winner in this category.\n\nBy acting categories\n\nFilm\n\nMen\n\nWomen\n\nTelevision\n\nMen\n\nWomen\n\nDirecting category\n\nSee also\n List of black Academy Award winners and nominees\nList of Asian Golden Globe winners and nominees\n List of Golden Globe Awards ceremonies\n List of Golden Globe winners\n\nReferences\n\n Black winners\nLists of black people",
"The Ranger Award is an award available to youth in the Venturing program of the Boy Scouts of America, to encourage and recognize proficiency in skills.\n\nAward\nThe medal is an antique silver colored roundel suspended from a white and green ribbon that is in turn suspended from a bar. The medal is inscribed with a compass rose with the BSA universal badge at the top and the word RANGER at the bottom. A powderhorn is in the center on a green enameled background. The bar is inscribed with RANGER. The Ranger bar is available as a separate item for informal uniform wear. As of 2012, there is no square knot insignia and no plans to add one, as the Venturing Summit is the highest award in Venturing and thus the only award on par to have a knot with Eagle Scout (Scouts BSA program), Quartermaster (Sea Scout program), and Arrow of Light (Cub Scout program).\n\nRequirements\nTo earn the Ranger Award, Venturers must complete requirements similar to Merit Badges, although they are more difficult to complete. For example, an Eagle Scout must earn the first aid merit badge, by becoming certified in standard first aid. To earn the first aid elective, a Ranger must complete a 24-hour emergency first aid course and the Red Cross When Help is Delayed Module. There are eight requirements, called Core Requirements, that must be earned by all Ranger Candidates. In addition, a Venturer must complete four out of eighteen requirements, called Electives.\n\nCore requirements\nTo earn the Ranger Award, all Venturers must earn the following awards:\n First Aid\n Communications\n Cooking\n Emergency Preparedness\n Land Navigation\n Leave No Trace\n Wilderness Survival\n Conservation\n\nElectives\nTo earn the Ranger Award, Venturers must earn four of the following:\n Backpacking\n Cave Exploring\n Cycling/Mountain Biking\n Ecology\n Equestrian\n First Aid (Different from the Core Requirement)\n Fishing\n Hunting\n Lifesaver (Lifeguarding)\n Mountaineering\n Outdoor Living History\n Physical Fitness\n Plants and Wildlife\n Project COPE\n Scuba\n Shooting Sports\n Watercraft\n Winter Sports\n\nOrigins\nThe first Ranger Medal was issued between 1946 and 1949 as part of the BSA's Explorer Scout Program. Although the Ranger program was officially discontinued in 1949, Explorer Scouts could continue work on the Ranger Award until 1951. A total of 2,782 Explorers earned the original Ranger Award between 1944 and 1951.\n\nThe Ranger Award was re-introduced by the BSA in 1998 as part of the new Venturing program. Adam Snyder of Waukegan, Illinois was the first Venturer to earn the Ranger Award in 1999.\n\nFor Leaders\nScout Leaders interested in the Ranger award can take Powder Horn.\n\nReferences\n\nAdvancement and recognition in the Boy Scouts of America"
]
|
[
"AFI (band)",
"Black Sails in the Sunset, All Hallow's E.P. and The Art of Drowning (1999-2001)",
"Were these three albums or singles ?",
"The band then recorded Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), a musical turning point which introduced AFI fans to a much darker sound,",
"did any of them earn an award ?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_0bfe0dfe02b04ae196ba2bec3fc86408_1 | What style of music were the albums ? | 3 | What style of music were the AFI (band) albums ? | AFI (band) | After recording the A Fire Inside EP (1998), Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Jade Puget, former member of Influence 13 and vocalist Havok's close friend. The band then recorded Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), a musical turning point which introduced AFI fans to a much darker sound, mixing the band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences (a poem by Charles Baudelaire, "De profundis clamavi," is present in the hidden track "Midnight Sun") and an emphasis on a more somber atmosphere and lyrics. The New York Times later referred to this as the point where Havok "developed into a singer and songwriter of substance". The influence of the deathrock and goth rock scenes was also apparent. During this period, AFI's style was considered the band's gothic punk rock style. Offspring frontman Dexter Holland was featured as a backing vocalist on two tracks: "Clove Smoke Catharsis" and "The Prayer Position". The All Hallow's E.P. (October 5, 1999) further explored the horror punk genre, featuring artwork and lyrics containing Halloween themes. The EP spawned the single "Totalimmortal", a track later covered by The Offspring for the Me, Myself and Irene soundtrack. It received a fair amount of radio play and exposed AFI to larger audiences. "The Boy Who Destroyed the World" from the All Hallows EP was featured in the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 video game. All Hallow's also featured a cover of the Misfits song "Halloween". On September 19, 2000, AFI released The Art of Drowning, which debuted on the Billboard Charts at number 174, and peaked at number 9 on the Heatseekers chart. It continued to touch base with the horror punk genre, but expanded into styles that were a departure from previous works. The album featured slower, more melodic songs that were more reminiscent of alternative rock, such as "Ever and a Day" and "6 to 8". Still, the presence of hardcore influences was imminent in most of the album, flaunted most on tracks like "Smile", "The Lost Souls", and "Catch a Hot One". The album brought the band unprecedented success in the underground scene, selling in excess of 100,000 copies. "The Days of the Phoenix" was released as a single and video and, like "Totalimmortal," had some moderate mainstream success, garnering the band more TV and radio airplay. The song even managed to reach the UK Singles Chart with its titular EP in 2001, peaking at number 152. The success of The Art of Drowning helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety. CANNOTANSWER | band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences | AFI (abbreviation for A Fire Inside) is an American rock band from Ukiah, California, formed in 1991. Since 1998, it consists of lead vocalist Davey Havok, drummer and backing vocalist Adam Carson, bassist, backing vocalist and keyboardist Hunter Burgan, and guitarist, backing vocalist and keyboardist Jade Puget. Havok and Carson are the sole remaining original members. Originally a hardcore punk band, they have since delved into many genres, starting with horror punk and following through post-hardcore and emo into alternative rock and gothic rock.
AFI has released eleven studio albums, ten EPs, one live album and one DVD. The band first reached substantial commercial success with their fifth album, The Art of Drowning (2000), which peaked at number 174 on the Billboard 200. They then broke into the mainstream with their sixth, Sing the Sorrow (2003), which peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 51 weeks. The album was supported by popular singles "Girl's Not Grey" and "Silver and Cold", both of which peaked at number seven on America's Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart in 2003. "The Leaving Song Pt. II" was also released as a single, reaching number 16 on the chart. Sing the Sorrow was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2006 and is AFI's best-selling release, having sold over 1.26 million copies .
AFI's seventh album, Decemberunderground (2006), debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and featured the hit single "Miss Murder", which topped the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart, reached number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and appeared in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The album was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2013. Their next three albums, Crash Love (2009), Burials (2013) and AFI (2017), were also successful, peaking at increasing positions on the Billboard 200. An EP, The Missing Man, followed in December 2018. The band released their 11th album, Bodies, on June 11, 2021.
History
Early years (1991–1994)
While still in high school in Ukiah, California, Davey Havok (vocals), Mark Stopholese and Vic Chalker formed a band called AFI in November 1991. At the time, the band did not know how to play any instruments. Stopholese suggested that his friend, Adam Carson (who had a drum set), join the band. Stopholese learned guitar and Chalker learned bass, but Chalker was soon replaced by Geoff Kresge. By the end of October 1992, the band had played their first three shows, generally as an opener for a few other punk bands, including Influence 13, which featured future AFI lead guitarist Jade Puget and frequent collaborator Nick 13. AFI recorded their first EP, Dork (1993), with the now defunct band Loose Change, which also featured Puget.
The band briefly broke up in 1993, when the members left Ukiah to attend different colleges. They decided to commit to AFI full-time after an extremely positive experience and enthusiastic crowd response at a reunion show they played at The Phoenix Theater over Christmas break.
AFI relocated to Berkeley, California and lived in a squat that was a decommissioned fraternity house. Between 1993 and 1995, the band independently released vinyl EPs such as Behind the Times, Eddie Picnic's All Wet and Fly in the Ointment, as well as the compilation EPs This Is Berkeley, Not West Bay, AFI/Heckle, and Bombing the Bay (with Swingin' Utters).
First three albums (1995–1998)
AFI's first full-length album, Answer That and Stay Fashionable was released July 4, 1995, on Wingnut Records. It was produced by Rancid's Tim Armstrong and Brett Reed. The album featured fast and upbeat hardcore songs, with humorous lyrical themes, which are vocalized in songs such as "Nyquil", "Cereal Wars", and "I Wanna Get a Mohawk (But Mom Won't Let Me Get One)". Around this time, they coined the term 'East Bay hardcore' to describe their genre.
AFI signed on to Nitro Records, a record label started by The Offspring's Dexter Holland and Greg K. AFI would remain with the label until the release of the 336 EP (2002). In 1996, they released their second album, Very Proud of Ya. Two songs from their previous album, "Yurf Rendenmein" and "Two of A Kind", were re-recorded for this album. After several tours in support of the album, Kresge decided to leave the group. His spot was filled by current AFI bassist Hunter Burgan for the remaining album tour dates.
Burgan went on to help AFI record Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997) and was invited to become their full-time bassist. Jade Puget, a former member of Influence 13 and Havok's close friend, also provided background vocals and additional guitar on the album, making it the first to feature all four current members of the band. It is also the first album to be copyrighted to the band's official moniker, A Fire Inside. Subsequently, the A Fire Inside EP (1998) was released, after which Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Puget.
Darker sound and wider reach (1999–2001)
The band's next album, Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), was a musical turning point which featured a darker sound, mixing the band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences and an emphasis on a more somber atmosphere and lyrics. The New York Times later referred to this as the point where Havok "developed into a singer and songwriter of substance". During this period, AFI's style was considered punk rock. The influence of death rock and goth rock was also apparent. Offspring frontman Dexter Holland was featured as a backing vocalist on two tracks.
The All Hallow's E.P. (1999) further explored the horror punk genre, featuring artwork and lyrics containing Halloween themes, including a cover of the Misfits song "Halloween". The song "The Boy Who Destroyed the World" was featured in the video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, and the single "Totalimmortal" was later covered by The Offspring.
On September 19, 2000, AFI released The Art of Drowning, which debuted on the Billboard Charts at number 174, and peaked at number 9 on the Heatseekers chart. It continued to touch base with the horror punk genre, but expanded into styles that were a departure from previous works. The album featured slower, more melodic songs that were more reminiscent of alternative rock, such as "Ever and a Day" and "6 to 8". Hardcore influences were present, more overtly on some tracks. The album sold over 100,000 copies. "The Days of the Phoenix" was released as a single and video and had some moderate mainstream success, garnering the band more TV and radio airplay. The song reached the UK Singles Chart with its titular EP in 2001, peaking at number 152. The success of The Art of Drowning helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety.
Mainstream labels and popularity (2002–2007)
In 2002, AFI left Nitro Records. DreamWorks Records artists and repertoire executive Luke Wood signed them to the label following intense interest. Their first album for the label, Sing the Sorrow, was released in 2003. The album opened in Billboards top ten and scored enthusiastic lead reviews in major music magazines. The songs "Girl's Not Grey", "The Leaving Song Pt. II", and "Silver and Cold" had some Billboard chart success and exposed the band to even larger audiences. They were nominated in the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards for the MTV2 award category for the "Girl's Not Grey" video, which came to be their first VMA.
In June 2006, AFI's seventh studio album, Decemberunderground, was released on Interscope Records. The album's first single, "Miss Murder", reached No. 1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Charts. The release reflects the continually changing and growing fan base of the band, and the album debuted as No. 1 on the Billboard charts. The album has been certified Gold by the RIAA for sales of over 500,000 copies of the album. The album's second single, "Love Like Winter", was successful on MTV's Total Request Live and was retired after 40 days on the countdown.
On December 12, 2006, AFI released their first DVD, I Heard a Voice – Live from Long Beach Arena, featuring a live performance shot in Long Beach, California. The performance was later released on December 13, 2007, as a live album, and charted at number 133 on the Billboard 200, and number 16 on the Hard Rock Albums chart. The album was well-received, with punknews.org giving it a four-star rating and commenting that when hearing or seeing the performance "you begin to realize AFI are truly a great live band," and that at some points "Pantera would say turn the noise down."
On July 7, 2007, AFI performed on the American leg of Live Earth. They performed "The Missing Frame", "Love Like Winter", "Miss Murder", and a cover of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust".
Maturity and resurgence (2008–2017)
In July 2009, Havok released a statement saying that after two years of writing and recording, an upcoming album titled Crash Love would be released on September 29, 2009. It was recorded with producer David Bottrill (who was later dismissed in favor of Joe McGrath and Jacknife Lee). The first single from the album, "Medicate", was released on August 25, 2009, and reached number 7 on the Billboard Alternative Songs Chart. Another single, "Beautiful Thieves", followed later in the year. Havok called Crash Love "the album by which we'll be remembered". It was the band's first release to make a significantly smaller impact than their previous effort, but peaked at number 12 on the Billboard 200.
From April to June 2013, several teaser videos were released on AFI's website.
The band was announced to play Riot Fest 2013, as well as being signed to Republic Records. A single titled "I Hope You Suffer" was released on July 23, and the title of the album, Burials, was announced. Another single, "17 Crimes", was released on August 6. The third single from the album, titled "The Conductor", was released on September 9. The album was released on October 22, produced by Gil Norton. It peaked at number 9 on the Billboard 200.
In a June 2016 interview with Aggressive Tendencies, Puget confirmed that AFI had begun working on new material for their tenth studio album. On October 27, the band released two new songs via Spotify, "Snow Cats" and "White Offerings".
The band's tenth album, AFI (also known as The Blood Album), was released on January 20, 2017. Puget served as the main producer. The album peaked at number 5 on the Billboard 200. Other singles were released, including "Aurelia" and "Hidden Knives".
Recent releases (2018–present)
On October 26, 2018, the band surprise-released a new single called "Get Dark" on Spotify and iTunes. This was followed by The Missing Man EP on December 7, featuring five new songs.
On March 25, 2020, AFI was announced as a headliner for the Two Thousand Trees Festival on July 10 of the same year. Puget was interviewed by Kerrang! to promote the festival appearance and said that "hopefully at least a couple of songs" from the band's eleventh album would be released by then. On April 27, 2020, Puget said that the album was finished, but that its release date was being pushed back as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The next day, it was announced that the Two Thousand Trees Festival was being pushed back to 2021, also due to the pandemic.
On January 15, 2021, the band released the tracks "Twisted Tongues" and "Escape from Los Angeles". On February 25, it was revealed that the album would be called Bodies, and be released on June 11. Along with the announcement, the band revealed two new songs as another joint single, "Looking Tragic / Begging for Trouble". On April 9, "Dulceria / Far Too Near" were released, followed by "Tied to a Tree" on May 25.
Musical style
AFI's music has been classified under many genres of music, including punk rock, horror punk, garage punk, pop punk, hardcore punk, skate punk, emo, screamo, alternative rock, and gothic rock. AFI has often been called "goth-punk" due to the band's appearance, but AFI never considered the label accurate. AFI guitarist Jade Puget has said, "Goth-punk isn't a style of music, it doesn't even exist."
AFI's sound has constantly changed. AFI originally were a hardcore punk band. AFI's first three albums, Answer That and Stay Fashionable (1995), Very Proud of Ya (1996), and Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997), all have been described as hardcore punk. AFI's fourth album Black Sails in the Sunset and the band's fifth album The Art of Drowning both have been described as horror punk. AFI's 2003 album Sing the Sorrow is considered post-hardcore and emo. Decemberunderground, which features elements of music genres like electronic, new wave, industrial, punk rock, hardcore punk, and synthpop, is considered alternative rock, post-hardcore and emo. AFI's 2009 album Crash Love is considered alternative rock and pop rock. AFI's 2013 album Burials is considered alternative rock and gothic rock. AFI's 2017 self-titled album, also referred to as The Blood Album, has been described as new wave, post-punk and gothic rock.
Puget, who has produced much of the band's music, stated in 2021:
Anyone who knows our catalog knows that no two records really sit together. Some sit a little closer, maybe. We do certain things, just by virtue of who we are, that are consistent, but those things come about organically. Every time we do something, I have to judge it on its own merits. Some fans are going to judge a new album, or a new song, based on what's come before. But as artists, we can't do that, because it would only hinder our creativity.
Influences
In an interview, Davey Havok described the band's influences: "We have many, many influences that span the musical spectrum. Each of us grew up on everything from punk to hardcore to dark '80s UK stuff like The Cure, Bauhaus, Joy Division, and The Sisters of Mercy. And there were rock bands like The Misfits, Samhain, and Danzig and industrial bands like Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Front 242 and Alien Sex Fiend. And we all love The Smiths." AFI have also been influenced by British electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), whom Havok said "have and will continue to musically and emotionally inspire" him. Other bands that have influenced AFI include Minor Threat, 7 Seconds, Descendents, Suicide, the Germs, Black Flag, Slayer, Metallica, T.S.O.L., D.R.I., State of Alert, and the Angry Samoans.
Legacy
The Sydney Morning Herald has written that AFI have been "hailed as being responsible for bringing back the big '80s rock chorus." The band has received much praise in particular from Alternative Press, which has supported the group since the mid-1990s. The publication rated the band's major label debut, Sing the Sorrow as the most anticipated album of 2003, and noted that it "blew the doors off goth-punk as we knew it". AFI has also been granted responsibility for paving the way for the rise of the visual element of rock bands in the 2000s; in a December 2006 article, Revolver Magazine wrote that "AFI have increased the importance of a band's visual identity and the flair for the theatrical," adding that "when a group like Panic! at the Disco borrows imagery from a movie such as Moulin Rouge!, you have to consider the precedent AFI set when they borrowed cues from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas." Shoutmouth.com placed AFI at number 22 on its list of the 25 most influential punk bands, noting that the band "have evolved with each album, showing that a punk band can not only change, but stay true to their sound at the same time. AFI have been on a constant rise through their career, and as such, out the honors". After Sing The Sorrow release, Yorkshire Evening Post described Havok's voice as one of those "you'll love or hate, but one thing can't be denied, this guy has range beyond belief". Recognized by his trademark flair and vocal style, Havok has been recognized as "a bona fide rock god" by Alternative Press.
In 2003, The Pitch described the band's fan club as a "particularly excitable bunch", adding that "there's also the type of sentiments that put the cult back into cult success, such as links to something called 'the Church of Havok'."
Members
Current
Davey Havok – lead vocals
Adam Carson – drums, backing vocals
Hunter Burgan – bass, backing vocals, keyboards, programming
Jade Puget – guitars, backing vocals, keyboards, piano, programming, synthesizers
Former
Vic Chalker – bass, backing vocals
Geoff Kresge – bass, backing vocals
Mark Stopholese – guitars
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Answer That and Stay Fashionable (1995)
Very Proud of Ya (1996)
Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997)
Black Sails in the Sunset (1999)
The Art of Drowning (2000)
Sing the Sorrow (2003)
Decemberunderground (2006)
Crash Love (2009)
Burials (2013)
AFI (2017)
Bodies (2021)
References
Footnotes
Citations
External links
Alternative rock groups from California
Punk rock groups from California
Hardcore punk groups from California
Musical groups established in 1991
Musical quartets
Horror punk groups
Interscope Records artists
DreamWorks Records artists
Emo musical groups from California
American gothic rock groups
American post-hardcore musical groups
Nitro Records artists
Adeline Records artists
Rise Records artists
Articles which contain graphical timelines
1991 establishments in California | true | [
"Huevos is the fifth studio album by the Arizona alternative rock band the Meat Puppets. It is said to have a strong ZZ Top influence in terms of style (ZZ Top also have titled some of their albums in Spanish, Tres Hombres, Tejas, Degüello and El Loco for instance). The album is named not only after the Spanish word for eggs, but is also a reference to the Southwestern expression \"Huevos\", meaning to deliver with chutzpah. Most of the songs were recorded in one take. The cover art is done by guitarist/vocalist Curt Kirkwood.\n\nThe 1999 Rykodisc re-release features 5 unreleased bonus tracks (early demos of \"Sexy Music\", \"Paradise\", \"Fruit\" and \"Automatic Mojo\" and a cover of Jimmy Reed's \"Baby What You Want Me to Do\") as well as live footage from a January 1988 concert at the Variety Arts Center in Los Angeles of \"Automatic Mojo\".\n\nContent\n\nMusical style \nIn an AllMusic biography of the band, Stephen Thomas Erlewine described the sound of Huevos as \"ZZ Top-style hard rock swagger\". Matthew Smith Lahrman cataloged the record to be a blues rock effort.\n\nTrack listing\nAll songs written by Curt Kirkwood, unless otherwise noted.\n\nOriginal album\n\n \"Paradise\" (Curt Kirkwood, Cris Kirkwood) – 5:00\n \"Look at the Rain\" – 4:20\n \"Bad Love\" (Curt Kirkwood, Cris Kirkwood) – 3:10\n \"Sexy Music\" – 5:28\n \"Crazy\" – 4:45\n \"Fruit\" – 3:30\n \"Automatic Mojo\" (Curt Kirkwood, Cris Kirkwood) – 3:19\n \"Dry Rain\" – 2:55\n \"I Can't Be Counted On\" (Curt Kirkwood, Cris Kirkwood) – 3:58\n\nCD reissue bonus tracks\n\n \"Baby What You Want Me to Do\" (Jimmy Reed) – 1:29\n \"Sexy Music\" (Demo Version) – 6:40\n \"Automatic Mojo\" (Demo Version) – 3:56\n \"Paradise\" (Demo Version) – 4:06\n \"Fruit\" (Demo Version) – 5:20\n\nPersonnel\nMeat Puppets\nCurt Kirkwood - guitar, vocals, cover\nCris Kirkwood - bass, vocals, illustration\nDerrick Bostrom - drums\n\nReferences\n\nMeat Puppets albums\n1987 albums\nSST Records albums",
"American-born Swiss pop/rock singer Tina Turner has been nominated for, and won, numerous worldwide awards and accolades.\n\nAmerican Music Awards\nCreated by Dick Clark in 1973, the American Music Awards is an annual music awards ceremony and one of several major annual American music awards shows. Turner won 3 AMAs from eight nominations.\n\n|-\n| rowspan=\"5\"|1985\n| rowspan=\"5\"|Herself\n| Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist\n| \n|-\n| Favorite Soul/R&B Female Video Artist\n| \n|-\n| Favorite Pop/Rock Female Video Artist\n| \n|-\n| Favorite Soul/R&B Single for \"What's Love Got To Do With It\"\n| \n|-\n| Favorite Pop/Rock Single for \"What's Love Got To Do With It\"\n| \n|-\n| 1986\n| Herself\n| Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist\n| \n|-\n| rowspan=\"2\"| 1987\n| rowspan=\"2\"| Herself\n| Favorite Pop/Rock Female Video Artist\n| \n|-\n| Favorite Soul/R&B Female Video Artist\n| \n|-\n\nBillboard Year-End Charts Awards\n\n|-\n| rowspan=\"6\"|1984\n| rowspan=\"4\"|Herself\n|Comeback of the Year\n| \n|-\n|Artist of the Year\n|\n|-\n|Female Vocalist of the Year\n|\n|-\n|Soul/R&B Artist of the Year\n|\n|-\n|What's Love Got to Do with It\n| Song of the Year\n|\n|-\n|Private Dancer\n| Album of the Year\n|\n|-\n\n| 1986\n| Herself\n| Singer of the Year\n| \n|-\n|-\n| 1993\n| Herself\n| Chart Achievement Award\n| \n|-\n\nCyprus Music Awards\nTina Turner won one Cyprus Music Award from 2 nominations.\n\n|-\n| 2011\n| Herself\n| Best Artists from the Oldies\n| \n|-\n| 2012\n| Herself\n| Best Artists from the Oldies\n| \n|-\n\nEssence Awards\nAnn-Margret presented the Essence Award to Turner on stage.\n\nGrammy Awards\nThe Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States. Turner has won 8 Grammys from 25 nominations. She has also received 3 Grammy Hall of Fame Awards and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, giving her a total of 12 Grammys.\n\n|-\n| 1962\n| It's Gonna Work Out Fine\n| \n| \n|-\n| 1970\n| The Hunter\n| \n| \n|-\n| 1972\n| Proud Mary (Shared with Ike)\n| \n| \n|-\n| rowspan=\"2\"|1975\n| Tina Turns the Country On!\n| \n| \n|-\n| The Gospel According To Ike And Tina\n| \n| \n|-\n| rowspan=\"5\"| 1985\n| Private Dancer\n| \n| \n|-\n| rowspan=\"2\"| What's Love Got to Do with It\n| \n| \n|-\n| \n| \n|-\n| Better Be Good to Me\n| \n| \n|-\n| Let's Stay Together\n| \n| \n|-\n| rowspan=\"5\"| 1986\n| Private Dancer\n| \n| \n|-\n| One of the Living\n| \n| \n|-\n| We Don't Need Another Hero\n| \n| \n|-\n| It's Only Love\n| .\n| \n|-\n| Tina Live\n| \n| \n|-\n| rowspan=\"2\"| 1987\n| Back Where You Started\n| \n| \n|-\n| Typical Male\n| \n| \n|-\n| 1988\n| Better Be Good To Me live\n| \n| \n|-\n| 1989\n| Tina Live in Europe\n| \n| \n|-\n| 1990\n| Foreign Affair\n| \n| \n|-\n| 1991\n| Steamy Windows\n| \n| \n|-\n| 1993\n| The Bitch Is Back\n| \n| \n|-\n| 1994\n| I Don't Wanna Fight\n| \n| \n|-\n| 1998\n| Live in Amsterdam: Wildest Dreams Tour\n| \n| \n|-\n| 2008\n| River: The Joni Letters (Shared with Various Artists)\n| \n| \n\nNote: \"What's Love Got to Do with It also won the Grammy for \"Song of the Year\". This award was presented to songwriters Terry Britten and Graham Lyle. Note: Tina is also represented in the Grammy Hall of Fame with three of her singles inducted: \"River Deep - Mountain High\" (1999); \"Proud Mary\" (2003); and \"What's Love Got To Do With It\" (2012).\n\nGrammy Hall of Fame\n\nGrammy Special awards\n\nGuinness Book of World Records\n\nIn January 1988 Turner set a Guinness World Record \"for the largest paying rock concert attendance for a solo artist\" by performing in front of approximately people at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which remained until 1997. Some sources claim that she's also listed in the Guinness Book of Records for selling more concert tickets than any solo performer in history.\n\nGuinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums\nBritish Hit Singles & Albums (originally known as The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles and The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums) is a music reference book originally published in the United Kingdom by the publishing arm of Guinness, Guinness Superlatives. Turner has been featured three times.\n\n!\n|-\n|| 2002\n|| Turner\n| Top 100 Artists of All Time – #67\n| \n| style=\"text-align:center;\"|\n|-\n|| 2005\n|| Turner\n| Top 100 Most Successful Acts Of All Time in The Book Of British Hit Singles & Albums.#34\n| \n| style=\"text-align:center;\"|\n|-\n|| 2010\n| Turner\n| the first recording artist in UK chart history to score top 40 hits in the\n1960s,1970s,1980s,1990s,2000s and 2010s.\n| \n| style=\"text-align:center;\"|\n\n|-\n|| 2020\n| Turner\n| the first recording artist in UK chart history to score top 40 hits in the\n1960s,1970s,1980s,1990s,2000s,2010s and 2020s.\n| \n| style=\"text-align:center;\"|\n\n|-\n\nHollywood Walk of Fame\nThese are the awards Tina Turner only won. The awards she didn't are not included.\n\n|-\n| 1986\n| Herself\n| Recipient\n| \n|-\n\nIFPI Platinum Europe Awards\nThe IFPI Platinum Europe Awards were founded in 1996 and are awarded in recognition of one million album retail sales across Europe. Turner has received 3 awards.\n\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:center;\"| 1997\n| Wildest Dreams (2x)\n| rowspan=\"7\"|Platinum Europe Award\n| \n|-\n| style=\"text-align:center;\"| 1999\n| Twenty Four Seven (1x)\n| \n|-\n| style=\"text-align:center;\"| 2004\n| All the Best (1x)\n| \n|-\n\nKennedy Center Honors\n\n|-\n| 2005\n| Herself\n| Award\n| \n|-\n\nLive Design\nThe concerts received additional accolades, receiving an \"Excellence Award\" from Live Design Magazine.\n\n|-\n| 2009\n| Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour\n| Excellence Award\n| \n|-\n\nMTV Video Music Awards\nhe MTV Video Music Awards were established in 1984 by MTV to celebrate the top music videos of the year. Turner won two VMA and one from Best group Video.\n\n|-\n| rowspan=\"3\"| \n| \"What's Love Got to Do with It\"\n| Best Female Video\n| \n|-\n| \"Better Be Good to Me\"\n| Best Stage Performance\n| \n|-\n| \"Private Dancer\"\n| Best Choreography\n| \n|-\n| rowspan=\"2\"| \n| \"It's Only Love\" (with Bryan Adams)\n| Best Stage Performance in a Video\n| \n|-\n| \"We Don't Need Another Hero\"\n| Best Female Video\n| \n|-\n\nNAACP Image Awards\nThese are the awards Tina Turner only won. The awards she didn't are not included.\n\n|-\n|1986\n|Herself\n|Outstanding Female Actress\n|\n|-\n|1998\n|Herself\n|Outstanding Performance in a Variety Series/Special\n|\n|-\n\nPollstar Awards\nThe Pollstar Concert Industry Awards aim to reward the best in the business of shows and concerts. Turner has received 5 awards.\n\n!\n|-\n| rowspan=\"2\"| 1984\n| rowspan=\"2\"| 1984 World Tour\n| Best National Tour Package\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"2\"|\n|-\n| Comeback of the Year\n| \n|-\n| rowspan=\"3\"| 1985\n| rowspan=\"3\"|Private Dancer Tour\n| Most Creative Tour Package\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"3\"|\n|-\n| Comeback Tour Of The Year\n| \n|-\n| Most Creative Stage Set\n| \n|-\n| rowspan=\"2\"| 2000\n| rowspan=\"2\"| Twenty Four Seven Tour\n| Road Warrior of the Year\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"2\"|\n|-\n| Major Tour of the Year\n| \n|-\n\nRock & Roll Hall of Fame\nThese are the awards Tina Turner only won. The awards she did not are not included.\n\n|-\n| 1991\n| Herself*\n| Recipient\n| \n|-\n| 2021\n| Herself\n| Recipient\n| \n\nInducted to the Hall alongside former husband Ike Turner in 1991.\n\nTony Awards\nThe Tony Award recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. Tina Turner has received one nomination.\n\n|-\n| 2020\n| Tina: The Tina Turner Musical\n| Best Musical\n|\n\nWorld Music Awards\nThese are the awards Tina Turner only won. The awards she didn't are not included.\n\n|-\n| 1991\n| Herself\n|Outstanding Contribution to Music\n| \n|-\n| 1993\n| Herself\n| The Legend Award\n| \n|-\n\nMuseum Awards\nTina Turner Museum received 9 awards at the Tennessee Association of Museums Conference, the Discovery Park of America in Union City.\n\n|-\n| 2015\n| Herself\n| Past President's Award\n| \n|-\n| 2015\n| Herself\n| Special Recognition Tina Turner\n| \n|-\n| 2015\n| Herself\n| Permanent Exhibition Tina Turner Museum at Flagg Grove School\n| \n|-\n| 2015\n| Herself\n| Special Event \"Grand Opening of Tina Turner Museum at Flagg Grove School\n| \n|-\n| 2015\n| Herself\n| Volunteerism Sandra and Fred Silverstein\n| \n|-\n| 2015\n| Herself\n| Special Recognition Ann and Pat Mann\n| \n|-\n| 2015\n| Herself\n| Publication: Book/Catalog Life Perspectives 7 Award Winning West TN Artists\n| \n|-\n| 2015\n| Herself\n| Superlative Achievement for Publications: PR Kit PLA Media-Tina Turner Museum at Flagg Grove School\n| \n|-\n| 2015\n| Herself\n| Publications: Flat Paper The Art of Farming brochure\n|\n\nRecord World Awards\nRecord World magazine (1946–1982) was one of the three main music industry trade magazines in the United States, along with Billboard and Cash Box magazines, The Record World Awards were an annual award given to most successful artists in the US.\n\n!\n|-\n| rowspan=\"1\"| 1969\n| Ike & Tina Turner\n| Top Promising Duo Albums Of The Year\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n| rowspan=\"2\"| 1971\n| Ike & Tina Turner\n| Top Duo (Albums)\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"2\"|\n|-\n| Ike & Tina Turner\n| Top Duo (Singles)\n| \n|-\n| 1972\n| Ike & Tina Turner\n| Top Duo R&B Award\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n| 1973\n| Ike & Tina Turner\n| Top Duo R&B Of The Year\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n| rowspan=\"2\"|1974\n| rowspan=\"2 |Ike & Tina Turner\n| Top Duo Of The Year (Album)\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"2\"|\n|-\n|Top Vocal Duo Of The Year (Singles)\n|\n|-\n\nRecord Mirror R&B Poll\nR&B POLL RESULTS – Week ending April 25, 1964\n\n!\n|-\n| 1964\n| Tina Turner\n| TOP FEMALE SINGER\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n\nRecord World DJ Awards\n\n!\n|-\n| 1971\n| Ike & Tina Turner\n| TOP Duo Of The Year (singles)\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n\nRoper Poll\n\n!\n|-\n| 1985\n| rowspan=\"2\"| Tina Turner\n| America's Heroes and Heroines of the Year\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n| 1999\n| the most admired women of the 20th Century\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n\nRolling Stone Critics Poll Music Awards\nTurner has won 5 times list.\n\n!\n|-\n| rowspan=\"5\"| 1984\n| Private Dancer - Tina Turner\n| Albums Of The Year\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"2\"|\n|-\n| What's Love Got To Do With It - Tina Turner\n| Top Best Singles of 1984\n| \n|-\n| Tina Turner\n| Top Best Female vocalists\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n| Tina Turner\n| The Artist Of The Year\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"2\"|\n|-\n| Tina Turner\n| Soul / R&B artist Of The Year\n| \n|-\n\nRolling Stone's Readers Poll Awards\n1986 – Rolling Stone Music Awards Readers´ Poll gave Tina Awards for Best Female Singer Of The Year and Comeback Of The Year.\n\n!\n|-\n| rowspan=\"2\"|1984\n| Tina Turner\n| Top Best Female vocalists\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n| Tina Turner\n| R&B Artist Of The Year\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n| rowspan=\"2\"| 1986\n| Tina Turner\n| Best Female Singer Of The Year\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"2\"|\n|-\n| Tina Turner\n| Comeback Of The Year\n| \n|-\n\nSmash Hits Awards\nSmash Hits was a pop music magazine, aimed at teenagers and young adults and originally published in the United Kingdom by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006.\n\n!\n|-\n| rowspan=\"1\"| 1984\n| Tina Turner\n| Best Female Singer Of The Year\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n| rowspan=\"1\"| 1985\n| Tina Turner\n| Best Female Singer Of The Year\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n| rowspan=\"1\"| 1986\n| Tina Turner\n| Best Female Singer Of The Year\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n| 1987\n| Tina Turner\n| Best Female Singer Of The Year\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n| 1990\n| Tina Turner\n| Best Female Singer Of The Year\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n| 1991\n| Tina Turner\n| Best Female Singer Of The Year\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n| 1993\n| Tina Turner\n| Best Female Singer Of The Year\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n\nU.S. Television Viewers Awards\n\nOther awards\nAARP Awards\n{| class=\"wikitable\" width=\"100%\"\n|-\n! width=\"17%\"| Year\n! width=\"17%\"| Nominee/Work\n! width=\"30%\"| Award\n! width=\"10%\"| Result\n! width=\"5%\"| Ref\n|-\n| 1999\n| rowspan=\"2\"| \"Tina Turner\"\n| rowspan=\"2\"| The Sexiest Stars Award\n| \n| style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"2\" |\n|-\n\nAustin Music Awards\n\n!\n|-\n|1985-1986\n|Tina Turner\n| Best Concert By a Touring Artist\n|\n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\" |\n|-\n|1987-1988\n|Tina Turner\n| Best Concert By a Touring Artist\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\" |\n|-\n| rowspan=\"2\"| 2000-2001\n| Tina Turner\n| Best Roadshow of the Year\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\" |\n|-\n| Tina Turner\n| Best Concert By a Touring Artist\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\" |\n|-\n\nBravo Awards\nA German accolade honoring excellence of performers in film, television and music. Presented annually since 1957, winners are selected by the readers of Bravo magazine. The award is presented in Gold, Silver and Bronze.\n\n!\n|-\n| 1984\n| Herself\n| Favorite Female Singer of the Year - (Bronze Award)\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n| 1985\n| Herself\n| Favorite Female Singer of the Year - (Bronze Award)\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n\nFrench Jazz Academy Soul Awards\nJazz music has been popular in France since the 1920s. Its international popularity peaked in the 1930s, and it has been continually enjoyed since. Ike and Tina Turner received the French Jazz Academy Soul award during their late January visit to Paris.\n\n!\n|-\n|rowspan=\"2\"|1971\n|\"Ike and Tina Turner\"\n| Top Duo of the Year\n|\n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\" |\n|-\n\nMOBO Awards\nThe MOBO Awards (an acronym for \"Music of Black Origin\") were established in 1996 by Kanya King. They are held annually in the United Kingdom to recognize artists of any race or nationality performing music of black origin. Turner has received Mobo Awards from Lionel Richie\n\n|-\n| 1999\n| Herself\n| Lifetime Achievement Award\n| \n|-\n\nThe CASH BOX Year-End Charts\nCash Box magazine awards was a weekly publication devoted to the music and coin-operated machine industries which was published from July 1942 to November 16, 1996. It was one of several magazines that published charts of song popularity in the United States. Turner, both solo and with Ike, has been listed on the award lists 12 times.\n\n!\n|-\n|| 1960\n| A FOOL IN LOVE - Ike & Tina Turner\n| Top 50 R&B singles–\n|\n| style=\"text-align:center;\"|\n|-\n| rowspan=\"2\"| 1961\n| It's Gonna Work Out Fine - Ike & Tina Turner\n| Top 50 R&B singles–\n|\n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"2\"|\n|-\n| I IDOLIZE YOU – Ike & Tina Turner\n| Top 50 R&B singles–\n|\n|-\n|| 1962\n| POOR FOOL – Ike & Tina Turner\n| Top 50 R&B singles–\n|\n| style=\"text-align:center;\"|\n|-\n|| 1971\n| PROUD MARY – Ike & Tina Turner\n| TOP 100 POP SINGLES –\n|\n| style=\"text-align:center;\"|\n|-\n| rowspan=\"3\"| 1984\n||WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT Tina Turner\n| TOP 100 POP SINGLES –\n|\n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"2\"|\n|-\n|BETTER BE GOOD TO ME – Tina Turner\n| TOP 100 POP SINGLES –\n|\n|-\n| PRIVATE DANCER – Tina Turner\n| TOP 100 POP ALBUMS –\n|\n| style=\"text-align:center;\"|\n|-\n|| 1985\n| WE DON’T NEED ANOTHER HERO (Thunderdome) – Tina Turner\n| TOP 100 POP SINGLES –\n|\n| style=\"text-align:center;\"|\n|-\n| rowspan=\"2\"|1986\n| TYPICAL MALE – Tina Turner\n| TOP 100 POP SINGLES –\n|\n| style=\"text-align:center;\"|\n|-\n| BREAK EVERY RULE – Tina Turner\n| TOP 50 POP ALBUMS –\n|\n|style=\"text-align:center;|\n|-\n|| 1993\n| I DON’T WANNA FIGHT – Tina Turner\n| TOP 50 POP SINGLES –\n|\n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"3\"|\n|-\n\nMusic & Media year-end awards\nMusic & Media year-end awards were based on statistics from the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles and European Top 100 Albums. The awards were handed to most successful artists in Europe. Turner has received 6 awards\n\n!\n|-\n|-\n|rowspan=\"5\"| 1985\n|rowspan=\"13\"| Tina Turner\n| Top Female Artist (Albums)\n|\n|rowspan=\"13\"|\n|-\n| Top Female Artist (Singles)\n|\n|-\n| Top 10 Artists (Albums) -\n|\n|-\n| Top 10 Artists (Singles)-\n|\n|-\n| Female Artist of the year -\n|\n|-\n| rowspan=\"3\"| 1986\n| Top 10 Female Artists (Albums)\n|\n|-\n| Top 10 Female Artists (Singles)\n|\n|-\n| Euro clips of the year (Singles) -\n|\n|-\n|rowspan=\"3\"|1989\n| Top 10 Female Artists (Albums)\n|\n|-\n| Top 10 Female Artists (Singles)-\n|\n|-\n| Euro clips of the year (Singles) -\n|\n|-\n|| 1993\n| Top Female Artists (Albums)-\n|\n|-\n|| 1996\n|Top Female Artists (Singles)-\n|\n\nBillboard's Year-End R&B Chart\nTop R&B Hits of 1950–1969\nFrom wsuonline (based on Year End R&B Chart summaries – probably The Billboard year-end issues) \nTurner with Ike, has been on the lists 2 times.\n\n!\n|-\n|| 1960\n| A FOOL IN LOVE - Ike & Tina Turner\n| Top 5 R&B singles–\n|\n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"2\"|\n|-\n|| 1961\n| It's Gonna Work Out Fine - Ike & Tina Turner\n| Top 5 R&B singles–\n|\n|-\n\nChicago Tribune\n\n!\n|-\n| rowspan=\"2\"|1984\n| Tina Turner\n| R&B Performer of the Year\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n| Tina Turner\n| Rhythm and blues/soul artist honors\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\"|\n|-\n\nEbony Readers Poll\n\n!\n|-\n| 1985\n| Tina Turner\n| The Honorees\n| \n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\" |\n|-\n|1990\n| Tina Turner\n|The most Exciting Black Woman\n|\n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\" |\n|-\n|1992\n| Tina Turner\n| The woman most male readers would like to spend an evening with\n|\n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\" |\n|-\n|1994\n| Tina Turner and Ike\n| The best recent movie starring Blacks\n|\n|style=\"text-align:center;\" rowspan=\"1\" |\n|-\n\nBMI Awards\nThe BMI Awards are annual award ceremonies for songwriters in various genres organized by Broadcast Music, Inc., honoring songwriters and publishers. The main pop music award was founded in 1952.\n\n|-\n| 1994\n| I Don't Wanna Fight\n| The Most Performed Songs of the Year\n| \n|-\n| 2008\n| What's Love Got to do with it\n| Multi-Million Performance\n| \n|-\n\nThe CLASSICS Act\nThe CLASSICS Act has been introduced by both chambers of Congress and\npetition urging lawmakers to see it through.\nThe bill, which stands for Compensating Legacy Artists for their Songs, Service, & Important Contributions to Society Act—would close that loophole and require a uniform digital royalty rate for all music makes billions of dollars a year from airplay of music made before February 15, 1972. The letter, first introduced in December, was initially signed by more than 40 artists, including\nTina Turner.\n\n|-\n| 2018\n| Herself\n| Legacy Artists\n| \n| style=\"text-align:center;\"|\n|-\n\nNARM Music Awards\nthe National Association Of Record Merchandisers Gift Of Music Awards, now known as the Music Business Association\n\nWalk of Fame Europe\nIn 1996, Turner's handprints at the Walk of Fame Europe Rotterdam.\n\n|-\n| 1996\n| Herself\n| handprints\n| \n|-\n\nDressed Hall of Fame\nVanity Fair's International Best Dressed Hall of Fame – Females\n\n|-\n| 1996\n| Herself\n| Best Dressed Hall of Fame - Females\n| \n|-\n\nWomen of the Year Award\n\n|-\n| 2005\n| Herself\n| Women of the Year Award\n|\n\nRecognitions, Career Achievements and Milestones\nThe Best Legs of All Time by Vogue (2018)\nranked No. 2 greatest female artist on VH-1's 100 Greatest Women in Rock & Roll list.\nranked No. 2 on The 15 Greatest Legs In The Music Biz by VH1.\nranked No. 2 on Top 5 Greatest Voices in the History of Rock Music.(2016) by ppcorn.com \nranked No. 2 on Rolling Stone's \"20 Greatest Duos of All Time\" (with Ike Turner).\nranked No. 4 on 11 Hair Icons of all time by Hype Hair \nranked No. 9 on Sly Magazine's 10 Sexiest Women Over 40 [January 2006]\nranked No. 11 on Pollstar's Top 40 Grossing Tours of all-time in North America [Through 2003] \nranked No. 34 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Artists Of All Time.\nRanked number sixty-one on the list of Rolling Stone's Immortals list.\nranked No. 26 on Rolling Stone's 50 Greatest Portraits \nranked No. 6 on VH1's 100 Sexiest Artists of All Time.(2002)\nranked No. 6 on most loved singers in Switzerland.(2013) by The Swiss TV channel SRF 1.\nranked No. 2 on Pop's 20 greatest female artists by The Telegraph.\nranked No. 2 on 10 biggest musical comebacks of all time by Toronto Sun\nranked No. 19 by BET in the World's Top 25 Dancers of All Time.\nranked No. 11 The 25 Coolest Women [1999] by The Advocate\nranked No. 22 on VH1's 50 Greatest Women Of The Video Era.\nranked No. 20 on The greatest singers ever by NME.COM \nranked No. 22 on The 100 hottest female singers of all time by complex.com\nranked No. 23 on The 50 Hottest People of All Time by papermag.com\nranked No. 29 on The 35 Greatest R&B Artists Of All Time by Billboard\nranked No. 33 on The Sexiest Woman Over 50 by zimbio.com\n50 Most Beautiful People in the World (2000) by People Magazine \n25 Most Intriguing People [1984] by People Magazine \nranked No. 48 on THE TOP POP ARTISTS of the PAST 25 YEARS by THE ARC WEEKLY TOP 40 ARCHIVES \nranked No. 51 on Top 100 artists by www.rockonthenet.com\nranked No. 80 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll.\nranked No. 15 in Celebrity Sleuth 25 Sexiest Women of 1990 by Celebrity Skin (magazine)\nranked No. 33 on MetroNOW's Top 50 Gay Icons by MetroSource.\nranked No. 55 on The 75 Greatest Women of All Time by Esquire.\nranked No. 78 on USA Today Pop Candy's 100 People of the Year [2000] \nThe oldest person to be on the front cover of Vogue.\nWorld's most successful female rock artist ever. Record sales: over 60 million (1983–99)\n\nReferences\n\nAwards\nLists of awards received by American musicians"
]
|
[
"AFI (band)",
"Black Sails in the Sunset, All Hallow's E.P. and The Art of Drowning (1999-2001)",
"Were these three albums or singles ?",
"The band then recorded Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), a musical turning point which introduced AFI fans to a much darker sound,",
"did any of them earn an award ?",
"I don't know.",
"What style of music were the albums ?",
"band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences"
]
| C_0bfe0dfe02b04ae196ba2bec3fc86408_1 | Did the band members stay the same throughout these years? | 4 | Did the AFI band members stay the same throughout the years? | AFI (band) | After recording the A Fire Inside EP (1998), Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Jade Puget, former member of Influence 13 and vocalist Havok's close friend. The band then recorded Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), a musical turning point which introduced AFI fans to a much darker sound, mixing the band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences (a poem by Charles Baudelaire, "De profundis clamavi," is present in the hidden track "Midnight Sun") and an emphasis on a more somber atmosphere and lyrics. The New York Times later referred to this as the point where Havok "developed into a singer and songwriter of substance". The influence of the deathrock and goth rock scenes was also apparent. During this period, AFI's style was considered the band's gothic punk rock style. Offspring frontman Dexter Holland was featured as a backing vocalist on two tracks: "Clove Smoke Catharsis" and "The Prayer Position". The All Hallow's E.P. (October 5, 1999) further explored the horror punk genre, featuring artwork and lyrics containing Halloween themes. The EP spawned the single "Totalimmortal", a track later covered by The Offspring for the Me, Myself and Irene soundtrack. It received a fair amount of radio play and exposed AFI to larger audiences. "The Boy Who Destroyed the World" from the All Hallows EP was featured in the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 video game. All Hallow's also featured a cover of the Misfits song "Halloween". On September 19, 2000, AFI released The Art of Drowning, which debuted on the Billboard Charts at number 174, and peaked at number 9 on the Heatseekers chart. It continued to touch base with the horror punk genre, but expanded into styles that were a departure from previous works. The album featured slower, more melodic songs that were more reminiscent of alternative rock, such as "Ever and a Day" and "6 to 8". Still, the presence of hardcore influences was imminent in most of the album, flaunted most on tracks like "Smile", "The Lost Souls", and "Catch a Hot One". The album brought the band unprecedented success in the underground scene, selling in excess of 100,000 copies. "The Days of the Phoenix" was released as a single and video and, like "Totalimmortal," had some moderate mainstream success, garnering the band more TV and radio airplay. The song even managed to reach the UK Singles Chart with its titular EP in 2001, peaking at number 152. The success of The Art of Drowning helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety. CANNOTANSWER | Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Jade Puget, former member of Influence 13 and vocalist Havok's close friend. | AFI (abbreviation for A Fire Inside) is an American rock band from Ukiah, California, formed in 1991. Since 1998, it consists of lead vocalist Davey Havok, drummer and backing vocalist Adam Carson, bassist, backing vocalist and keyboardist Hunter Burgan, and guitarist, backing vocalist and keyboardist Jade Puget. Havok and Carson are the sole remaining original members. Originally a hardcore punk band, they have since delved into many genres, starting with horror punk and following through post-hardcore and emo into alternative rock and gothic rock.
AFI has released eleven studio albums, ten EPs, one live album and one DVD. The band first reached substantial commercial success with their fifth album, The Art of Drowning (2000), which peaked at number 174 on the Billboard 200. They then broke into the mainstream with their sixth, Sing the Sorrow (2003), which peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 51 weeks. The album was supported by popular singles "Girl's Not Grey" and "Silver and Cold", both of which peaked at number seven on America's Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart in 2003. "The Leaving Song Pt. II" was also released as a single, reaching number 16 on the chart. Sing the Sorrow was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2006 and is AFI's best-selling release, having sold over 1.26 million copies .
AFI's seventh album, Decemberunderground (2006), debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and featured the hit single "Miss Murder", which topped the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart, reached number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and appeared in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The album was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2013. Their next three albums, Crash Love (2009), Burials (2013) and AFI (2017), were also successful, peaking at increasing positions on the Billboard 200. An EP, The Missing Man, followed in December 2018. The band released their 11th album, Bodies, on June 11, 2021.
History
Early years (1991–1994)
While still in high school in Ukiah, California, Davey Havok (vocals), Mark Stopholese and Vic Chalker formed a band called AFI in November 1991. At the time, the band did not know how to play any instruments. Stopholese suggested that his friend, Adam Carson (who had a drum set), join the band. Stopholese learned guitar and Chalker learned bass, but Chalker was soon replaced by Geoff Kresge. By the end of October 1992, the band had played their first three shows, generally as an opener for a few other punk bands, including Influence 13, which featured future AFI lead guitarist Jade Puget and frequent collaborator Nick 13. AFI recorded their first EP, Dork (1993), with the now defunct band Loose Change, which also featured Puget.
The band briefly broke up in 1993, when the members left Ukiah to attend different colleges. They decided to commit to AFI full-time after an extremely positive experience and enthusiastic crowd response at a reunion show they played at The Phoenix Theater over Christmas break.
AFI relocated to Berkeley, California and lived in a squat that was a decommissioned fraternity house. Between 1993 and 1995, the band independently released vinyl EPs such as Behind the Times, Eddie Picnic's All Wet and Fly in the Ointment, as well as the compilation EPs This Is Berkeley, Not West Bay, AFI/Heckle, and Bombing the Bay (with Swingin' Utters).
First three albums (1995–1998)
AFI's first full-length album, Answer That and Stay Fashionable was released July 4, 1995, on Wingnut Records. It was produced by Rancid's Tim Armstrong and Brett Reed. The album featured fast and upbeat hardcore songs, with humorous lyrical themes, which are vocalized in songs such as "Nyquil", "Cereal Wars", and "I Wanna Get a Mohawk (But Mom Won't Let Me Get One)". Around this time, they coined the term 'East Bay hardcore' to describe their genre.
AFI signed on to Nitro Records, a record label started by The Offspring's Dexter Holland and Greg K. AFI would remain with the label until the release of the 336 EP (2002). In 1996, they released their second album, Very Proud of Ya. Two songs from their previous album, "Yurf Rendenmein" and "Two of A Kind", were re-recorded for this album. After several tours in support of the album, Kresge decided to leave the group. His spot was filled by current AFI bassist Hunter Burgan for the remaining album tour dates.
Burgan went on to help AFI record Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997) and was invited to become their full-time bassist. Jade Puget, a former member of Influence 13 and Havok's close friend, also provided background vocals and additional guitar on the album, making it the first to feature all four current members of the band. It is also the first album to be copyrighted to the band's official moniker, A Fire Inside. Subsequently, the A Fire Inside EP (1998) was released, after which Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Puget.
Darker sound and wider reach (1999–2001)
The band's next album, Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), was a musical turning point which featured a darker sound, mixing the band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences and an emphasis on a more somber atmosphere and lyrics. The New York Times later referred to this as the point where Havok "developed into a singer and songwriter of substance". During this period, AFI's style was considered punk rock. The influence of death rock and goth rock was also apparent. Offspring frontman Dexter Holland was featured as a backing vocalist on two tracks.
The All Hallow's E.P. (1999) further explored the horror punk genre, featuring artwork and lyrics containing Halloween themes, including a cover of the Misfits song "Halloween". The song "The Boy Who Destroyed the World" was featured in the video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, and the single "Totalimmortal" was later covered by The Offspring.
On September 19, 2000, AFI released The Art of Drowning, which debuted on the Billboard Charts at number 174, and peaked at number 9 on the Heatseekers chart. It continued to touch base with the horror punk genre, but expanded into styles that were a departure from previous works. The album featured slower, more melodic songs that were more reminiscent of alternative rock, such as "Ever and a Day" and "6 to 8". Hardcore influences were present, more overtly on some tracks. The album sold over 100,000 copies. "The Days of the Phoenix" was released as a single and video and had some moderate mainstream success, garnering the band more TV and radio airplay. The song reached the UK Singles Chart with its titular EP in 2001, peaking at number 152. The success of The Art of Drowning helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety.
Mainstream labels and popularity (2002–2007)
In 2002, AFI left Nitro Records. DreamWorks Records artists and repertoire executive Luke Wood signed them to the label following intense interest. Their first album for the label, Sing the Sorrow, was released in 2003. The album opened in Billboards top ten and scored enthusiastic lead reviews in major music magazines. The songs "Girl's Not Grey", "The Leaving Song Pt. II", and "Silver and Cold" had some Billboard chart success and exposed the band to even larger audiences. They were nominated in the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards for the MTV2 award category for the "Girl's Not Grey" video, which came to be their first VMA.
In June 2006, AFI's seventh studio album, Decemberunderground, was released on Interscope Records. The album's first single, "Miss Murder", reached No. 1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Charts. The release reflects the continually changing and growing fan base of the band, and the album debuted as No. 1 on the Billboard charts. The album has been certified Gold by the RIAA for sales of over 500,000 copies of the album. The album's second single, "Love Like Winter", was successful on MTV's Total Request Live and was retired after 40 days on the countdown.
On December 12, 2006, AFI released their first DVD, I Heard a Voice – Live from Long Beach Arena, featuring a live performance shot in Long Beach, California. The performance was later released on December 13, 2007, as a live album, and charted at number 133 on the Billboard 200, and number 16 on the Hard Rock Albums chart. The album was well-received, with punknews.org giving it a four-star rating and commenting that when hearing or seeing the performance "you begin to realize AFI are truly a great live band," and that at some points "Pantera would say turn the noise down."
On July 7, 2007, AFI performed on the American leg of Live Earth. They performed "The Missing Frame", "Love Like Winter", "Miss Murder", and a cover of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust".
Maturity and resurgence (2008–2017)
In July 2009, Havok released a statement saying that after two years of writing and recording, an upcoming album titled Crash Love would be released on September 29, 2009. It was recorded with producer David Bottrill (who was later dismissed in favor of Joe McGrath and Jacknife Lee). The first single from the album, "Medicate", was released on August 25, 2009, and reached number 7 on the Billboard Alternative Songs Chart. Another single, "Beautiful Thieves", followed later in the year. Havok called Crash Love "the album by which we'll be remembered". It was the band's first release to make a significantly smaller impact than their previous effort, but peaked at number 12 on the Billboard 200.
From April to June 2013, several teaser videos were released on AFI's website.
The band was announced to play Riot Fest 2013, as well as being signed to Republic Records. A single titled "I Hope You Suffer" was released on July 23, and the title of the album, Burials, was announced. Another single, "17 Crimes", was released on August 6. The third single from the album, titled "The Conductor", was released on September 9. The album was released on October 22, produced by Gil Norton. It peaked at number 9 on the Billboard 200.
In a June 2016 interview with Aggressive Tendencies, Puget confirmed that AFI had begun working on new material for their tenth studio album. On October 27, the band released two new songs via Spotify, "Snow Cats" and "White Offerings".
The band's tenth album, AFI (also known as The Blood Album), was released on January 20, 2017. Puget served as the main producer. The album peaked at number 5 on the Billboard 200. Other singles were released, including "Aurelia" and "Hidden Knives".
Recent releases (2018–present)
On October 26, 2018, the band surprise-released a new single called "Get Dark" on Spotify and iTunes. This was followed by The Missing Man EP on December 7, featuring five new songs.
On March 25, 2020, AFI was announced as a headliner for the Two Thousand Trees Festival on July 10 of the same year. Puget was interviewed by Kerrang! to promote the festival appearance and said that "hopefully at least a couple of songs" from the band's eleventh album would be released by then. On April 27, 2020, Puget said that the album was finished, but that its release date was being pushed back as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The next day, it was announced that the Two Thousand Trees Festival was being pushed back to 2021, also due to the pandemic.
On January 15, 2021, the band released the tracks "Twisted Tongues" and "Escape from Los Angeles". On February 25, it was revealed that the album would be called Bodies, and be released on June 11. Along with the announcement, the band revealed two new songs as another joint single, "Looking Tragic / Begging for Trouble". On April 9, "Dulceria / Far Too Near" were released, followed by "Tied to a Tree" on May 25.
Musical style
AFI's music has been classified under many genres of music, including punk rock, horror punk, garage punk, pop punk, hardcore punk, skate punk, emo, screamo, alternative rock, and gothic rock. AFI has often been called "goth-punk" due to the band's appearance, but AFI never considered the label accurate. AFI guitarist Jade Puget has said, "Goth-punk isn't a style of music, it doesn't even exist."
AFI's sound has constantly changed. AFI originally were a hardcore punk band. AFI's first three albums, Answer That and Stay Fashionable (1995), Very Proud of Ya (1996), and Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997), all have been described as hardcore punk. AFI's fourth album Black Sails in the Sunset and the band's fifth album The Art of Drowning both have been described as horror punk. AFI's 2003 album Sing the Sorrow is considered post-hardcore and emo. Decemberunderground, which features elements of music genres like electronic, new wave, industrial, punk rock, hardcore punk, and synthpop, is considered alternative rock, post-hardcore and emo. AFI's 2009 album Crash Love is considered alternative rock and pop rock. AFI's 2013 album Burials is considered alternative rock and gothic rock. AFI's 2017 self-titled album, also referred to as The Blood Album, has been described as new wave, post-punk and gothic rock.
Puget, who has produced much of the band's music, stated in 2021:
Anyone who knows our catalog knows that no two records really sit together. Some sit a little closer, maybe. We do certain things, just by virtue of who we are, that are consistent, but those things come about organically. Every time we do something, I have to judge it on its own merits. Some fans are going to judge a new album, or a new song, based on what's come before. But as artists, we can't do that, because it would only hinder our creativity.
Influences
In an interview, Davey Havok described the band's influences: "We have many, many influences that span the musical spectrum. Each of us grew up on everything from punk to hardcore to dark '80s UK stuff like The Cure, Bauhaus, Joy Division, and The Sisters of Mercy. And there were rock bands like The Misfits, Samhain, and Danzig and industrial bands like Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Front 242 and Alien Sex Fiend. And we all love The Smiths." AFI have also been influenced by British electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), whom Havok said "have and will continue to musically and emotionally inspire" him. Other bands that have influenced AFI include Minor Threat, 7 Seconds, Descendents, Suicide, the Germs, Black Flag, Slayer, Metallica, T.S.O.L., D.R.I., State of Alert, and the Angry Samoans.
Legacy
The Sydney Morning Herald has written that AFI have been "hailed as being responsible for bringing back the big '80s rock chorus." The band has received much praise in particular from Alternative Press, which has supported the group since the mid-1990s. The publication rated the band's major label debut, Sing the Sorrow as the most anticipated album of 2003, and noted that it "blew the doors off goth-punk as we knew it". AFI has also been granted responsibility for paving the way for the rise of the visual element of rock bands in the 2000s; in a December 2006 article, Revolver Magazine wrote that "AFI have increased the importance of a band's visual identity and the flair for the theatrical," adding that "when a group like Panic! at the Disco borrows imagery from a movie such as Moulin Rouge!, you have to consider the precedent AFI set when they borrowed cues from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas." Shoutmouth.com placed AFI at number 22 on its list of the 25 most influential punk bands, noting that the band "have evolved with each album, showing that a punk band can not only change, but stay true to their sound at the same time. AFI have been on a constant rise through their career, and as such, out the honors". After Sing The Sorrow release, Yorkshire Evening Post described Havok's voice as one of those "you'll love or hate, but one thing can't be denied, this guy has range beyond belief". Recognized by his trademark flair and vocal style, Havok has been recognized as "a bona fide rock god" by Alternative Press.
In 2003, The Pitch described the band's fan club as a "particularly excitable bunch", adding that "there's also the type of sentiments that put the cult back into cult success, such as links to something called 'the Church of Havok'."
Members
Current
Davey Havok – lead vocals
Adam Carson – drums, backing vocals
Hunter Burgan – bass, backing vocals, keyboards, programming
Jade Puget – guitars, backing vocals, keyboards, piano, programming, synthesizers
Former
Vic Chalker – bass, backing vocals
Geoff Kresge – bass, backing vocals
Mark Stopholese – guitars
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Answer That and Stay Fashionable (1995)
Very Proud of Ya (1996)
Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997)
Black Sails in the Sunset (1999)
The Art of Drowning (2000)
Sing the Sorrow (2003)
Decemberunderground (2006)
Crash Love (2009)
Burials (2013)
AFI (2017)
Bodies (2021)
References
Footnotes
Citations
External links
Alternative rock groups from California
Punk rock groups from California
Hardcore punk groups from California
Musical groups established in 1991
Musical quartets
Horror punk groups
Interscope Records artists
DreamWorks Records artists
Emo musical groups from California
American gothic rock groups
American post-hardcore musical groups
Nitro Records artists
Adeline Records artists
Rise Records artists
Articles which contain graphical timelines
1991 establishments in California | false | [
"Stay the Same may refer to:\n\nMusic\n\nAlbums\n \"Stay the Same\" (album), or the title song, an album by Joey McIntyre\n\nSongs\n Stay the Same (Joey McIntyre song)\n Stay the Same (Gabrielle song), a song by Gabrielle\n \"Stay the Same\", a song by London-based electronic band autoKratz\n \"Stay the Same\", a song by Nottingham electronica band Bent, from The Everlasting Blink.\n \"Stay the Same\", a song by Idlewild from The Remote Part",
"\"Stay on These Roads\" is a song by Norwegian band A-ha, released on 14 March 1988 as the lead single from their third studio album of the same name (1988). It achieved success in many European countries.\n\nRelease and reception\n\"Stay on These Roads\" was released in the spring of 1988 and became the most successful single from the Stay on These Roads album, along with \"The Living Daylights\" on the UK charts. The song did not hit the national charts in the United States, but was a significant hit across Europe. It went to number seven in Germany, number three in France and Iceland, and number two in Ireland. In Norway, the song was the band's fourth number one single. \"Stay on These Roads\" was A-ha's seventh and final top five showing in the United Kingdom, reaching number five on the chart edition of March 27, 1988. It would also prove their last top ten hit in the country for almost two decades, as they did not score another UK top ten hit until eighteen years later in 2006.\n\nA Roland D-50 was used on this song—the sound patch is called \"Staccato Heaven\"—the wind sound during the instrumental was made on either a Roland Juno 60 or Juno 106 synthesizer.\n\nThe versions on the 7\" vinyl and the 3\" CD single (\"7 inch Version\") are identical to the album version.\n\nA-ha played the song at Oslo Spektrum on 21 August 2011, performing for a national memorial service dedicated to the victims of the 2011 Norway attacks.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video accompanying the song's release was directed by Andy Morahan, with its location footage filmed on England's East Anglia coast at Aldeburgh, Suffolk.\n\nTrack listings\n7-inch single: Warner Bros. / W 7936 United Kingdom\n \"Stay on These Roads\" - 4:46\n \"Soft Rains of April\" (Original Mix) - 3:18\n Track 1 is the \"Album Version\".\n\n12-inch single: Warner Bros. / W 7936T United Kingdom\n \"Stay on These Roads\" (Extended Remix) - 6:08\n \"Soft Rains of April\" (Original Mix) - 3:18\n Also released as a 12\" picture disc (W 8405TP)\n\n7-inch single: Warner Bros. / 7-27886 United States\n \"Stay on These Roads\" (U.S. 7'' Edit) - 3:54\n \"You'll End Up Crying - 3:18\n Track 1 is exclusive to this version\n\nCD single: Warner Bros. / W 7936CD United Kingdom\n \"Stay on These Roads\" (7\" version) - 4:46\n \"Soft Rains of April\" (Original Mix) - 3:18\n \"Take on Me\" - 3:50\n \"Cry Wolf\" - 4:05\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nCertifications\n\nReferences\n\n1988 singles\n1988 songs\nA-ha songs\nMusic videos directed by Andy Morahan\nNumber-one singles in Denmark\nNumber-one singles in Norway\nSong recordings produced by Alan Tarney\nSongs written by Magne Furuholmen\nSongs written by Morten Harket\nSongs written by Paul Waaktaar-Savoy\nWarner Records singles"
]
|
[
"AFI (band)",
"Black Sails in the Sunset, All Hallow's E.P. and The Art of Drowning (1999-2001)",
"Were these three albums or singles ?",
"The band then recorded Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), a musical turning point which introduced AFI fans to a much darker sound,",
"did any of them earn an award ?",
"I don't know.",
"What style of music were the albums ?",
"band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences",
"Did the band members stay the same throughout these years?",
"Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Jade Puget, former member of Influence 13 and vocalist Havok's close friend."
]
| C_0bfe0dfe02b04ae196ba2bec3fc86408_1 | Any other band changes ? | 5 | In addition to Stopholese leaving the band and replaced by Jade Pugetny, any other band changes happened ? | AFI (band) | After recording the A Fire Inside EP (1998), Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Jade Puget, former member of Influence 13 and vocalist Havok's close friend. The band then recorded Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), a musical turning point which introduced AFI fans to a much darker sound, mixing the band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences (a poem by Charles Baudelaire, "De profundis clamavi," is present in the hidden track "Midnight Sun") and an emphasis on a more somber atmosphere and lyrics. The New York Times later referred to this as the point where Havok "developed into a singer and songwriter of substance". The influence of the deathrock and goth rock scenes was also apparent. During this period, AFI's style was considered the band's gothic punk rock style. Offspring frontman Dexter Holland was featured as a backing vocalist on two tracks: "Clove Smoke Catharsis" and "The Prayer Position". The All Hallow's E.P. (October 5, 1999) further explored the horror punk genre, featuring artwork and lyrics containing Halloween themes. The EP spawned the single "Totalimmortal", a track later covered by The Offspring for the Me, Myself and Irene soundtrack. It received a fair amount of radio play and exposed AFI to larger audiences. "The Boy Who Destroyed the World" from the All Hallows EP was featured in the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 video game. All Hallow's also featured a cover of the Misfits song "Halloween". On September 19, 2000, AFI released The Art of Drowning, which debuted on the Billboard Charts at number 174, and peaked at number 9 on the Heatseekers chart. It continued to touch base with the horror punk genre, but expanded into styles that were a departure from previous works. The album featured slower, more melodic songs that were more reminiscent of alternative rock, such as "Ever and a Day" and "6 to 8". Still, the presence of hardcore influences was imminent in most of the album, flaunted most on tracks like "Smile", "The Lost Souls", and "Catch a Hot One". The album brought the band unprecedented success in the underground scene, selling in excess of 100,000 copies. "The Days of the Phoenix" was released as a single and video and, like "Totalimmortal," had some moderate mainstream success, garnering the band more TV and radio airplay. The song even managed to reach the UK Singles Chart with its titular EP in 2001, peaking at number 152. The success of The Art of Drowning helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety. CANNOTANSWER | The success of The Art of Drowning helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety. | AFI (abbreviation for A Fire Inside) is an American rock band from Ukiah, California, formed in 1991. Since 1998, it consists of lead vocalist Davey Havok, drummer and backing vocalist Adam Carson, bassist, backing vocalist and keyboardist Hunter Burgan, and guitarist, backing vocalist and keyboardist Jade Puget. Havok and Carson are the sole remaining original members. Originally a hardcore punk band, they have since delved into many genres, starting with horror punk and following through post-hardcore and emo into alternative rock and gothic rock.
AFI has released eleven studio albums, ten EPs, one live album and one DVD. The band first reached substantial commercial success with their fifth album, The Art of Drowning (2000), which peaked at number 174 on the Billboard 200. They then broke into the mainstream with their sixth, Sing the Sorrow (2003), which peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 51 weeks. The album was supported by popular singles "Girl's Not Grey" and "Silver and Cold", both of which peaked at number seven on America's Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart in 2003. "The Leaving Song Pt. II" was also released as a single, reaching number 16 on the chart. Sing the Sorrow was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2006 and is AFI's best-selling release, having sold over 1.26 million copies .
AFI's seventh album, Decemberunderground (2006), debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and featured the hit single "Miss Murder", which topped the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart, reached number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and appeared in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The album was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2013. Their next three albums, Crash Love (2009), Burials (2013) and AFI (2017), were also successful, peaking at increasing positions on the Billboard 200. An EP, The Missing Man, followed in December 2018. The band released their 11th album, Bodies, on June 11, 2021.
History
Early years (1991–1994)
While still in high school in Ukiah, California, Davey Havok (vocals), Mark Stopholese and Vic Chalker formed a band called AFI in November 1991. At the time, the band did not know how to play any instruments. Stopholese suggested that his friend, Adam Carson (who had a drum set), join the band. Stopholese learned guitar and Chalker learned bass, but Chalker was soon replaced by Geoff Kresge. By the end of October 1992, the band had played their first three shows, generally as an opener for a few other punk bands, including Influence 13, which featured future AFI lead guitarist Jade Puget and frequent collaborator Nick 13. AFI recorded their first EP, Dork (1993), with the now defunct band Loose Change, which also featured Puget.
The band briefly broke up in 1993, when the members left Ukiah to attend different colleges. They decided to commit to AFI full-time after an extremely positive experience and enthusiastic crowd response at a reunion show they played at The Phoenix Theater over Christmas break.
AFI relocated to Berkeley, California and lived in a squat that was a decommissioned fraternity house. Between 1993 and 1995, the band independently released vinyl EPs such as Behind the Times, Eddie Picnic's All Wet and Fly in the Ointment, as well as the compilation EPs This Is Berkeley, Not West Bay, AFI/Heckle, and Bombing the Bay (with Swingin' Utters).
First three albums (1995–1998)
AFI's first full-length album, Answer That and Stay Fashionable was released July 4, 1995, on Wingnut Records. It was produced by Rancid's Tim Armstrong and Brett Reed. The album featured fast and upbeat hardcore songs, with humorous lyrical themes, which are vocalized in songs such as "Nyquil", "Cereal Wars", and "I Wanna Get a Mohawk (But Mom Won't Let Me Get One)". Around this time, they coined the term 'East Bay hardcore' to describe their genre.
AFI signed on to Nitro Records, a record label started by The Offspring's Dexter Holland and Greg K. AFI would remain with the label until the release of the 336 EP (2002). In 1996, they released their second album, Very Proud of Ya. Two songs from their previous album, "Yurf Rendenmein" and "Two of A Kind", were re-recorded for this album. After several tours in support of the album, Kresge decided to leave the group. His spot was filled by current AFI bassist Hunter Burgan for the remaining album tour dates.
Burgan went on to help AFI record Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997) and was invited to become their full-time bassist. Jade Puget, a former member of Influence 13 and Havok's close friend, also provided background vocals and additional guitar on the album, making it the first to feature all four current members of the band. It is also the first album to be copyrighted to the band's official moniker, A Fire Inside. Subsequently, the A Fire Inside EP (1998) was released, after which Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Puget.
Darker sound and wider reach (1999–2001)
The band's next album, Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), was a musical turning point which featured a darker sound, mixing the band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences and an emphasis on a more somber atmosphere and lyrics. The New York Times later referred to this as the point where Havok "developed into a singer and songwriter of substance". During this period, AFI's style was considered punk rock. The influence of death rock and goth rock was also apparent. Offspring frontman Dexter Holland was featured as a backing vocalist on two tracks.
The All Hallow's E.P. (1999) further explored the horror punk genre, featuring artwork and lyrics containing Halloween themes, including a cover of the Misfits song "Halloween". The song "The Boy Who Destroyed the World" was featured in the video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, and the single "Totalimmortal" was later covered by The Offspring.
On September 19, 2000, AFI released The Art of Drowning, which debuted on the Billboard Charts at number 174, and peaked at number 9 on the Heatseekers chart. It continued to touch base with the horror punk genre, but expanded into styles that were a departure from previous works. The album featured slower, more melodic songs that were more reminiscent of alternative rock, such as "Ever and a Day" and "6 to 8". Hardcore influences were present, more overtly on some tracks. The album sold over 100,000 copies. "The Days of the Phoenix" was released as a single and video and had some moderate mainstream success, garnering the band more TV and radio airplay. The song reached the UK Singles Chart with its titular EP in 2001, peaking at number 152. The success of The Art of Drowning helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety.
Mainstream labels and popularity (2002–2007)
In 2002, AFI left Nitro Records. DreamWorks Records artists and repertoire executive Luke Wood signed them to the label following intense interest. Their first album for the label, Sing the Sorrow, was released in 2003. The album opened in Billboards top ten and scored enthusiastic lead reviews in major music magazines. The songs "Girl's Not Grey", "The Leaving Song Pt. II", and "Silver and Cold" had some Billboard chart success and exposed the band to even larger audiences. They were nominated in the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards for the MTV2 award category for the "Girl's Not Grey" video, which came to be their first VMA.
In June 2006, AFI's seventh studio album, Decemberunderground, was released on Interscope Records. The album's first single, "Miss Murder", reached No. 1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Charts. The release reflects the continually changing and growing fan base of the band, and the album debuted as No. 1 on the Billboard charts. The album has been certified Gold by the RIAA for sales of over 500,000 copies of the album. The album's second single, "Love Like Winter", was successful on MTV's Total Request Live and was retired after 40 days on the countdown.
On December 12, 2006, AFI released their first DVD, I Heard a Voice – Live from Long Beach Arena, featuring a live performance shot in Long Beach, California. The performance was later released on December 13, 2007, as a live album, and charted at number 133 on the Billboard 200, and number 16 on the Hard Rock Albums chart. The album was well-received, with punknews.org giving it a four-star rating and commenting that when hearing or seeing the performance "you begin to realize AFI are truly a great live band," and that at some points "Pantera would say turn the noise down."
On July 7, 2007, AFI performed on the American leg of Live Earth. They performed "The Missing Frame", "Love Like Winter", "Miss Murder", and a cover of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust".
Maturity and resurgence (2008–2017)
In July 2009, Havok released a statement saying that after two years of writing and recording, an upcoming album titled Crash Love would be released on September 29, 2009. It was recorded with producer David Bottrill (who was later dismissed in favor of Joe McGrath and Jacknife Lee). The first single from the album, "Medicate", was released on August 25, 2009, and reached number 7 on the Billboard Alternative Songs Chart. Another single, "Beautiful Thieves", followed later in the year. Havok called Crash Love "the album by which we'll be remembered". It was the band's first release to make a significantly smaller impact than their previous effort, but peaked at number 12 on the Billboard 200.
From April to June 2013, several teaser videos were released on AFI's website.
The band was announced to play Riot Fest 2013, as well as being signed to Republic Records. A single titled "I Hope You Suffer" was released on July 23, and the title of the album, Burials, was announced. Another single, "17 Crimes", was released on August 6. The third single from the album, titled "The Conductor", was released on September 9. The album was released on October 22, produced by Gil Norton. It peaked at number 9 on the Billboard 200.
In a June 2016 interview with Aggressive Tendencies, Puget confirmed that AFI had begun working on new material for their tenth studio album. On October 27, the band released two new songs via Spotify, "Snow Cats" and "White Offerings".
The band's tenth album, AFI (also known as The Blood Album), was released on January 20, 2017. Puget served as the main producer. The album peaked at number 5 on the Billboard 200. Other singles were released, including "Aurelia" and "Hidden Knives".
Recent releases (2018–present)
On October 26, 2018, the band surprise-released a new single called "Get Dark" on Spotify and iTunes. This was followed by The Missing Man EP on December 7, featuring five new songs.
On March 25, 2020, AFI was announced as a headliner for the Two Thousand Trees Festival on July 10 of the same year. Puget was interviewed by Kerrang! to promote the festival appearance and said that "hopefully at least a couple of songs" from the band's eleventh album would be released by then. On April 27, 2020, Puget said that the album was finished, but that its release date was being pushed back as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The next day, it was announced that the Two Thousand Trees Festival was being pushed back to 2021, also due to the pandemic.
On January 15, 2021, the band released the tracks "Twisted Tongues" and "Escape from Los Angeles". On February 25, it was revealed that the album would be called Bodies, and be released on June 11. Along with the announcement, the band revealed two new songs as another joint single, "Looking Tragic / Begging for Trouble". On April 9, "Dulceria / Far Too Near" were released, followed by "Tied to a Tree" on May 25.
Musical style
AFI's music has been classified under many genres of music, including punk rock, horror punk, garage punk, pop punk, hardcore punk, skate punk, emo, screamo, alternative rock, and gothic rock. AFI has often been called "goth-punk" due to the band's appearance, but AFI never considered the label accurate. AFI guitarist Jade Puget has said, "Goth-punk isn't a style of music, it doesn't even exist."
AFI's sound has constantly changed. AFI originally were a hardcore punk band. AFI's first three albums, Answer That and Stay Fashionable (1995), Very Proud of Ya (1996), and Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997), all have been described as hardcore punk. AFI's fourth album Black Sails in the Sunset and the band's fifth album The Art of Drowning both have been described as horror punk. AFI's 2003 album Sing the Sorrow is considered post-hardcore and emo. Decemberunderground, which features elements of music genres like electronic, new wave, industrial, punk rock, hardcore punk, and synthpop, is considered alternative rock, post-hardcore and emo. AFI's 2009 album Crash Love is considered alternative rock and pop rock. AFI's 2013 album Burials is considered alternative rock and gothic rock. AFI's 2017 self-titled album, also referred to as The Blood Album, has been described as new wave, post-punk and gothic rock.
Puget, who has produced much of the band's music, stated in 2021:
Anyone who knows our catalog knows that no two records really sit together. Some sit a little closer, maybe. We do certain things, just by virtue of who we are, that are consistent, but those things come about organically. Every time we do something, I have to judge it on its own merits. Some fans are going to judge a new album, or a new song, based on what's come before. But as artists, we can't do that, because it would only hinder our creativity.
Influences
In an interview, Davey Havok described the band's influences: "We have many, many influences that span the musical spectrum. Each of us grew up on everything from punk to hardcore to dark '80s UK stuff like The Cure, Bauhaus, Joy Division, and The Sisters of Mercy. And there were rock bands like The Misfits, Samhain, and Danzig and industrial bands like Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Front 242 and Alien Sex Fiend. And we all love The Smiths." AFI have also been influenced by British electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), whom Havok said "have and will continue to musically and emotionally inspire" him. Other bands that have influenced AFI include Minor Threat, 7 Seconds, Descendents, Suicide, the Germs, Black Flag, Slayer, Metallica, T.S.O.L., D.R.I., State of Alert, and the Angry Samoans.
Legacy
The Sydney Morning Herald has written that AFI have been "hailed as being responsible for bringing back the big '80s rock chorus." The band has received much praise in particular from Alternative Press, which has supported the group since the mid-1990s. The publication rated the band's major label debut, Sing the Sorrow as the most anticipated album of 2003, and noted that it "blew the doors off goth-punk as we knew it". AFI has also been granted responsibility for paving the way for the rise of the visual element of rock bands in the 2000s; in a December 2006 article, Revolver Magazine wrote that "AFI have increased the importance of a band's visual identity and the flair for the theatrical," adding that "when a group like Panic! at the Disco borrows imagery from a movie such as Moulin Rouge!, you have to consider the precedent AFI set when they borrowed cues from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas." Shoutmouth.com placed AFI at number 22 on its list of the 25 most influential punk bands, noting that the band "have evolved with each album, showing that a punk band can not only change, but stay true to their sound at the same time. AFI have been on a constant rise through their career, and as such, out the honors". After Sing The Sorrow release, Yorkshire Evening Post described Havok's voice as one of those "you'll love or hate, but one thing can't be denied, this guy has range beyond belief". Recognized by his trademark flair and vocal style, Havok has been recognized as "a bona fide rock god" by Alternative Press.
In 2003, The Pitch described the band's fan club as a "particularly excitable bunch", adding that "there's also the type of sentiments that put the cult back into cult success, such as links to something called 'the Church of Havok'."
Members
Current
Davey Havok – lead vocals
Adam Carson – drums, backing vocals
Hunter Burgan – bass, backing vocals, keyboards, programming
Jade Puget – guitars, backing vocals, keyboards, piano, programming, synthesizers
Former
Vic Chalker – bass, backing vocals
Geoff Kresge – bass, backing vocals
Mark Stopholese – guitars
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Answer That and Stay Fashionable (1995)
Very Proud of Ya (1996)
Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997)
Black Sails in the Sunset (1999)
The Art of Drowning (2000)
Sing the Sorrow (2003)
Decemberunderground (2006)
Crash Love (2009)
Burials (2013)
AFI (2017)
Bodies (2021)
References
Footnotes
Citations
External links
Alternative rock groups from California
Punk rock groups from California
Hardcore punk groups from California
Musical groups established in 1991
Musical quartets
Horror punk groups
Interscope Records artists
DreamWorks Records artists
Emo musical groups from California
American gothic rock groups
American post-hardcore musical groups
Nitro Records artists
Adeline Records artists
Rise Records artists
Articles which contain graphical timelines
1991 establishments in California | true | [
"Many notable bands originally went by different names before their mainstream breakthrough. This list of original names of bands list only former official band names that are significantly different from the eventual \"famous\" name. This list does not include former band names that have only minor differences, such as stylisation changes, with the band's final band name.\n\nThe bands listed here must be notable, can be from any genre of music, and includes vocal groups whose members do not play instruments.\n\nList\nThis is a sortable list, ordered alphabetically, starting with the name that the band is best known as, followed by the band's original name, and any other names they previously used (in chronological order).\n\nSee also \n List of band name etymologies\n\nReferences \n\nLists of bands",
"AArt is the eleventh album to be released by smooth jazz band Acoustic Alchemy. It contains more tracks than any other studio recording by the band, with fourteen.\n\nContinuing on from the radical changes enforced by The Beautiful Game, AArt follows precedent with another varied mix of styles and genres, and even calls upon saxophonist Jeff Kashiwa, formerly of The Rippingtons, to share the lead on one track, \"AArt Attack\".\n\n\"The Velvet Swing\" managed to achieve daytime radio play on London's 102.2 Jazz FM.\n\nTrack listing\n\nSingles\n\"Wish You Were Near\"\n\nNotes\n\nAcoustic Alchemy albums\n2001 albums"
]
|
[
"AFI (band)",
"Black Sails in the Sunset, All Hallow's E.P. and The Art of Drowning (1999-2001)",
"Were these three albums or singles ?",
"The band then recorded Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), a musical turning point which introduced AFI fans to a much darker sound,",
"did any of them earn an award ?",
"I don't know.",
"What style of music were the albums ?",
"band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences",
"Did the band members stay the same throughout these years?",
"Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Jade Puget, former member of Influence 13 and vocalist Havok's close friend.",
"Any other band changes ?",
"The success of The Art of Drowning helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety."
]
| C_0bfe0dfe02b04ae196ba2bec3fc86408_1 | Any singles released off these albums ? | 6 | Any singles released off the AFI (band) albums ? | AFI (band) | After recording the A Fire Inside EP (1998), Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Jade Puget, former member of Influence 13 and vocalist Havok's close friend. The band then recorded Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), a musical turning point which introduced AFI fans to a much darker sound, mixing the band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences (a poem by Charles Baudelaire, "De profundis clamavi," is present in the hidden track "Midnight Sun") and an emphasis on a more somber atmosphere and lyrics. The New York Times later referred to this as the point where Havok "developed into a singer and songwriter of substance". The influence of the deathrock and goth rock scenes was also apparent. During this period, AFI's style was considered the band's gothic punk rock style. Offspring frontman Dexter Holland was featured as a backing vocalist on two tracks: "Clove Smoke Catharsis" and "The Prayer Position". The All Hallow's E.P. (October 5, 1999) further explored the horror punk genre, featuring artwork and lyrics containing Halloween themes. The EP spawned the single "Totalimmortal", a track later covered by The Offspring for the Me, Myself and Irene soundtrack. It received a fair amount of radio play and exposed AFI to larger audiences. "The Boy Who Destroyed the World" from the All Hallows EP was featured in the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 video game. All Hallow's also featured a cover of the Misfits song "Halloween". On September 19, 2000, AFI released The Art of Drowning, which debuted on the Billboard Charts at number 174, and peaked at number 9 on the Heatseekers chart. It continued to touch base with the horror punk genre, but expanded into styles that were a departure from previous works. The album featured slower, more melodic songs that were more reminiscent of alternative rock, such as "Ever and a Day" and "6 to 8". Still, the presence of hardcore influences was imminent in most of the album, flaunted most on tracks like "Smile", "The Lost Souls", and "Catch a Hot One". The album brought the band unprecedented success in the underground scene, selling in excess of 100,000 copies. "The Days of the Phoenix" was released as a single and video and, like "Totalimmortal," had some moderate mainstream success, garnering the band more TV and radio airplay. The song even managed to reach the UK Singles Chart with its titular EP in 2001, peaking at number 152. The success of The Art of Drowning helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety. CANNOTANSWER | "Ever and a Day" and "6 to 8". | AFI (abbreviation for A Fire Inside) is an American rock band from Ukiah, California, formed in 1991. Since 1998, it consists of lead vocalist Davey Havok, drummer and backing vocalist Adam Carson, bassist, backing vocalist and keyboardist Hunter Burgan, and guitarist, backing vocalist and keyboardist Jade Puget. Havok and Carson are the sole remaining original members. Originally a hardcore punk band, they have since delved into many genres, starting with horror punk and following through post-hardcore and emo into alternative rock and gothic rock.
AFI has released eleven studio albums, ten EPs, one live album and one DVD. The band first reached substantial commercial success with their fifth album, The Art of Drowning (2000), which peaked at number 174 on the Billboard 200. They then broke into the mainstream with their sixth, Sing the Sorrow (2003), which peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 51 weeks. The album was supported by popular singles "Girl's Not Grey" and "Silver and Cold", both of which peaked at number seven on America's Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart in 2003. "The Leaving Song Pt. II" was also released as a single, reaching number 16 on the chart. Sing the Sorrow was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2006 and is AFI's best-selling release, having sold over 1.26 million copies .
AFI's seventh album, Decemberunderground (2006), debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and featured the hit single "Miss Murder", which topped the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart, reached number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and appeared in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The album was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2013. Their next three albums, Crash Love (2009), Burials (2013) and AFI (2017), were also successful, peaking at increasing positions on the Billboard 200. An EP, The Missing Man, followed in December 2018. The band released their 11th album, Bodies, on June 11, 2021.
History
Early years (1991–1994)
While still in high school in Ukiah, California, Davey Havok (vocals), Mark Stopholese and Vic Chalker formed a band called AFI in November 1991. At the time, the band did not know how to play any instruments. Stopholese suggested that his friend, Adam Carson (who had a drum set), join the band. Stopholese learned guitar and Chalker learned bass, but Chalker was soon replaced by Geoff Kresge. By the end of October 1992, the band had played their first three shows, generally as an opener for a few other punk bands, including Influence 13, which featured future AFI lead guitarist Jade Puget and frequent collaborator Nick 13. AFI recorded their first EP, Dork (1993), with the now defunct band Loose Change, which also featured Puget.
The band briefly broke up in 1993, when the members left Ukiah to attend different colleges. They decided to commit to AFI full-time after an extremely positive experience and enthusiastic crowd response at a reunion show they played at The Phoenix Theater over Christmas break.
AFI relocated to Berkeley, California and lived in a squat that was a decommissioned fraternity house. Between 1993 and 1995, the band independently released vinyl EPs such as Behind the Times, Eddie Picnic's All Wet and Fly in the Ointment, as well as the compilation EPs This Is Berkeley, Not West Bay, AFI/Heckle, and Bombing the Bay (with Swingin' Utters).
First three albums (1995–1998)
AFI's first full-length album, Answer That and Stay Fashionable was released July 4, 1995, on Wingnut Records. It was produced by Rancid's Tim Armstrong and Brett Reed. The album featured fast and upbeat hardcore songs, with humorous lyrical themes, which are vocalized in songs such as "Nyquil", "Cereal Wars", and "I Wanna Get a Mohawk (But Mom Won't Let Me Get One)". Around this time, they coined the term 'East Bay hardcore' to describe their genre.
AFI signed on to Nitro Records, a record label started by The Offspring's Dexter Holland and Greg K. AFI would remain with the label until the release of the 336 EP (2002). In 1996, they released their second album, Very Proud of Ya. Two songs from their previous album, "Yurf Rendenmein" and "Two of A Kind", were re-recorded for this album. After several tours in support of the album, Kresge decided to leave the group. His spot was filled by current AFI bassist Hunter Burgan for the remaining album tour dates.
Burgan went on to help AFI record Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997) and was invited to become their full-time bassist. Jade Puget, a former member of Influence 13 and Havok's close friend, also provided background vocals and additional guitar on the album, making it the first to feature all four current members of the band. It is also the first album to be copyrighted to the band's official moniker, A Fire Inside. Subsequently, the A Fire Inside EP (1998) was released, after which Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Puget.
Darker sound and wider reach (1999–2001)
The band's next album, Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), was a musical turning point which featured a darker sound, mixing the band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences and an emphasis on a more somber atmosphere and lyrics. The New York Times later referred to this as the point where Havok "developed into a singer and songwriter of substance". During this period, AFI's style was considered punk rock. The influence of death rock and goth rock was also apparent. Offspring frontman Dexter Holland was featured as a backing vocalist on two tracks.
The All Hallow's E.P. (1999) further explored the horror punk genre, featuring artwork and lyrics containing Halloween themes, including a cover of the Misfits song "Halloween". The song "The Boy Who Destroyed the World" was featured in the video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, and the single "Totalimmortal" was later covered by The Offspring.
On September 19, 2000, AFI released The Art of Drowning, which debuted on the Billboard Charts at number 174, and peaked at number 9 on the Heatseekers chart. It continued to touch base with the horror punk genre, but expanded into styles that were a departure from previous works. The album featured slower, more melodic songs that were more reminiscent of alternative rock, such as "Ever and a Day" and "6 to 8". Hardcore influences were present, more overtly on some tracks. The album sold over 100,000 copies. "The Days of the Phoenix" was released as a single and video and had some moderate mainstream success, garnering the band more TV and radio airplay. The song reached the UK Singles Chart with its titular EP in 2001, peaking at number 152. The success of The Art of Drowning helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety.
Mainstream labels and popularity (2002–2007)
In 2002, AFI left Nitro Records. DreamWorks Records artists and repertoire executive Luke Wood signed them to the label following intense interest. Their first album for the label, Sing the Sorrow, was released in 2003. The album opened in Billboards top ten and scored enthusiastic lead reviews in major music magazines. The songs "Girl's Not Grey", "The Leaving Song Pt. II", and "Silver and Cold" had some Billboard chart success and exposed the band to even larger audiences. They were nominated in the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards for the MTV2 award category for the "Girl's Not Grey" video, which came to be their first VMA.
In June 2006, AFI's seventh studio album, Decemberunderground, was released on Interscope Records. The album's first single, "Miss Murder", reached No. 1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Charts. The release reflects the continually changing and growing fan base of the band, and the album debuted as No. 1 on the Billboard charts. The album has been certified Gold by the RIAA for sales of over 500,000 copies of the album. The album's second single, "Love Like Winter", was successful on MTV's Total Request Live and was retired after 40 days on the countdown.
On December 12, 2006, AFI released their first DVD, I Heard a Voice – Live from Long Beach Arena, featuring a live performance shot in Long Beach, California. The performance was later released on December 13, 2007, as a live album, and charted at number 133 on the Billboard 200, and number 16 on the Hard Rock Albums chart. The album was well-received, with punknews.org giving it a four-star rating and commenting that when hearing or seeing the performance "you begin to realize AFI are truly a great live band," and that at some points "Pantera would say turn the noise down."
On July 7, 2007, AFI performed on the American leg of Live Earth. They performed "The Missing Frame", "Love Like Winter", "Miss Murder", and a cover of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust".
Maturity and resurgence (2008–2017)
In July 2009, Havok released a statement saying that after two years of writing and recording, an upcoming album titled Crash Love would be released on September 29, 2009. It was recorded with producer David Bottrill (who was later dismissed in favor of Joe McGrath and Jacknife Lee). The first single from the album, "Medicate", was released on August 25, 2009, and reached number 7 on the Billboard Alternative Songs Chart. Another single, "Beautiful Thieves", followed later in the year. Havok called Crash Love "the album by which we'll be remembered". It was the band's first release to make a significantly smaller impact than their previous effort, but peaked at number 12 on the Billboard 200.
From April to June 2013, several teaser videos were released on AFI's website.
The band was announced to play Riot Fest 2013, as well as being signed to Republic Records. A single titled "I Hope You Suffer" was released on July 23, and the title of the album, Burials, was announced. Another single, "17 Crimes", was released on August 6. The third single from the album, titled "The Conductor", was released on September 9. The album was released on October 22, produced by Gil Norton. It peaked at number 9 on the Billboard 200.
In a June 2016 interview with Aggressive Tendencies, Puget confirmed that AFI had begun working on new material for their tenth studio album. On October 27, the band released two new songs via Spotify, "Snow Cats" and "White Offerings".
The band's tenth album, AFI (also known as The Blood Album), was released on January 20, 2017. Puget served as the main producer. The album peaked at number 5 on the Billboard 200. Other singles were released, including "Aurelia" and "Hidden Knives".
Recent releases (2018–present)
On October 26, 2018, the band surprise-released a new single called "Get Dark" on Spotify and iTunes. This was followed by The Missing Man EP on December 7, featuring five new songs.
On March 25, 2020, AFI was announced as a headliner for the Two Thousand Trees Festival on July 10 of the same year. Puget was interviewed by Kerrang! to promote the festival appearance and said that "hopefully at least a couple of songs" from the band's eleventh album would be released by then. On April 27, 2020, Puget said that the album was finished, but that its release date was being pushed back as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The next day, it was announced that the Two Thousand Trees Festival was being pushed back to 2021, also due to the pandemic.
On January 15, 2021, the band released the tracks "Twisted Tongues" and "Escape from Los Angeles". On February 25, it was revealed that the album would be called Bodies, and be released on June 11. Along with the announcement, the band revealed two new songs as another joint single, "Looking Tragic / Begging for Trouble". On April 9, "Dulceria / Far Too Near" were released, followed by "Tied to a Tree" on May 25.
Musical style
AFI's music has been classified under many genres of music, including punk rock, horror punk, garage punk, pop punk, hardcore punk, skate punk, emo, screamo, alternative rock, and gothic rock. AFI has often been called "goth-punk" due to the band's appearance, but AFI never considered the label accurate. AFI guitarist Jade Puget has said, "Goth-punk isn't a style of music, it doesn't even exist."
AFI's sound has constantly changed. AFI originally were a hardcore punk band. AFI's first three albums, Answer That and Stay Fashionable (1995), Very Proud of Ya (1996), and Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997), all have been described as hardcore punk. AFI's fourth album Black Sails in the Sunset and the band's fifth album The Art of Drowning both have been described as horror punk. AFI's 2003 album Sing the Sorrow is considered post-hardcore and emo. Decemberunderground, which features elements of music genres like electronic, new wave, industrial, punk rock, hardcore punk, and synthpop, is considered alternative rock, post-hardcore and emo. AFI's 2009 album Crash Love is considered alternative rock and pop rock. AFI's 2013 album Burials is considered alternative rock and gothic rock. AFI's 2017 self-titled album, also referred to as The Blood Album, has been described as new wave, post-punk and gothic rock.
Puget, who has produced much of the band's music, stated in 2021:
Anyone who knows our catalog knows that no two records really sit together. Some sit a little closer, maybe. We do certain things, just by virtue of who we are, that are consistent, but those things come about organically. Every time we do something, I have to judge it on its own merits. Some fans are going to judge a new album, or a new song, based on what's come before. But as artists, we can't do that, because it would only hinder our creativity.
Influences
In an interview, Davey Havok described the band's influences: "We have many, many influences that span the musical spectrum. Each of us grew up on everything from punk to hardcore to dark '80s UK stuff like The Cure, Bauhaus, Joy Division, and The Sisters of Mercy. And there were rock bands like The Misfits, Samhain, and Danzig and industrial bands like Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Front 242 and Alien Sex Fiend. And we all love The Smiths." AFI have also been influenced by British electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), whom Havok said "have and will continue to musically and emotionally inspire" him. Other bands that have influenced AFI include Minor Threat, 7 Seconds, Descendents, Suicide, the Germs, Black Flag, Slayer, Metallica, T.S.O.L., D.R.I., State of Alert, and the Angry Samoans.
Legacy
The Sydney Morning Herald has written that AFI have been "hailed as being responsible for bringing back the big '80s rock chorus." The band has received much praise in particular from Alternative Press, which has supported the group since the mid-1990s. The publication rated the band's major label debut, Sing the Sorrow as the most anticipated album of 2003, and noted that it "blew the doors off goth-punk as we knew it". AFI has also been granted responsibility for paving the way for the rise of the visual element of rock bands in the 2000s; in a December 2006 article, Revolver Magazine wrote that "AFI have increased the importance of a band's visual identity and the flair for the theatrical," adding that "when a group like Panic! at the Disco borrows imagery from a movie such as Moulin Rouge!, you have to consider the precedent AFI set when they borrowed cues from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas." Shoutmouth.com placed AFI at number 22 on its list of the 25 most influential punk bands, noting that the band "have evolved with each album, showing that a punk band can not only change, but stay true to their sound at the same time. AFI have been on a constant rise through their career, and as such, out the honors". After Sing The Sorrow release, Yorkshire Evening Post described Havok's voice as one of those "you'll love or hate, but one thing can't be denied, this guy has range beyond belief". Recognized by his trademark flair and vocal style, Havok has been recognized as "a bona fide rock god" by Alternative Press.
In 2003, The Pitch described the band's fan club as a "particularly excitable bunch", adding that "there's also the type of sentiments that put the cult back into cult success, such as links to something called 'the Church of Havok'."
Members
Current
Davey Havok – lead vocals
Adam Carson – drums, backing vocals
Hunter Burgan – bass, backing vocals, keyboards, programming
Jade Puget – guitars, backing vocals, keyboards, piano, programming, synthesizers
Former
Vic Chalker – bass, backing vocals
Geoff Kresge – bass, backing vocals
Mark Stopholese – guitars
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Answer That and Stay Fashionable (1995)
Very Proud of Ya (1996)
Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997)
Black Sails in the Sunset (1999)
The Art of Drowning (2000)
Sing the Sorrow (2003)
Decemberunderground (2006)
Crash Love (2009)
Burials (2013)
AFI (2017)
Bodies (2021)
References
Footnotes
Citations
External links
Alternative rock groups from California
Punk rock groups from California
Hardcore punk groups from California
Musical groups established in 1991
Musical quartets
Horror punk groups
Interscope Records artists
DreamWorks Records artists
Emo musical groups from California
American gothic rock groups
American post-hardcore musical groups
Nitro Records artists
Adeline Records artists
Rise Records artists
Articles which contain graphical timelines
1991 establishments in California | true | [
"The discography of Mallu Magalhães, a Brazilian Folk singer, consists of two studio albums, one live albums, five singles as a lead artist, one collaborations with Marcelo Camelo and one video albums.\n\nIn 2008 she released her first eponymous album and in 2009 she released her second album, also self-titled.\n\nShe already has five singles released, and the most famous is Tchubaruba.\n\nAlbums\n\nStudio albums\n\nCompilations\n\nVideo albums\n\nNotes\n These albums did not reach any of the charts in Brazil.\n\nSingles\n\nAs lead artist\n\nOther appearances\n\nNotes\n These albums did not reach any of the charts in Brazil.\n\nMusic videos \n J1 (2008)\n Tchubaruba (2008)\n O Preço da Flor (2009)\n Vanguart (2009)\n Shine Yellow (2009)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nMallu Magalhães's official website\nMallu Magalhães's official MySpace\n\nFolk music discographies\nDiscography\nDiscographies of Brazilian artists\nLatin music discographies",
"The discography of Fresno, a Brazilian emo band, consists of seven studio albums, one live albums, two video albums and nine singles.\n\nIn 2001 they released her first EP album, and between 2003 and 2010 released seven studio albums.\n\nThe band already has nine singles released, and the most famous is Pólo.\n\nAlbums\n\nStudio albums\n\nNotes\n These albums did not reach any of the charts in Brazil.\n\nLive albums\n\nExtended plays\n\nSingles\n\nVideo albums\n\nMusic videos \n Stonehenge (2003)\n Onde Está (Where is?) (2004)\n Onde Está (Version 2) (Where Is?) (2005)\n Quebre As Correntes (Break The Chains) (2006)\n Alguém Que Te Faz Sorrir (Someone That Makes You Smile) (2006)\n Polo (2007)\n Uma Música (A Song) (2008)\n Alguém Que Te Faz Sorrir (Redenção Version) (Someone That Makes You Smile) (2008)\n Desde Quando Você Se Foi (Since You've Been Gone) (2009)\n Deixa o Tempo (Let The Time) (2010)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nFresno's official website\nFresno's official MySpace\n\nRock music group discographies\nDiscography\nDiscographies of Brazilian artists\nLatin music discographies"
]
|
[
"AFI (band)",
"Black Sails in the Sunset, All Hallow's E.P. and The Art of Drowning (1999-2001)",
"Were these three albums or singles ?",
"The band then recorded Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), a musical turning point which introduced AFI fans to a much darker sound,",
"did any of them earn an award ?",
"I don't know.",
"What style of music were the albums ?",
"band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences",
"Did the band members stay the same throughout these years?",
"Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Jade Puget, former member of Influence 13 and vocalist Havok's close friend.",
"Any other band changes ?",
"The success of The Art of Drowning helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety.",
"Any singles released off these albums ?",
"\"Ever and a Day\" and \"6 to 8\"."
]
| C_0bfe0dfe02b04ae196ba2bec3fc86408_1 | Any other hits ? | 7 | Besides "Ever and a Day" and "6 to 8", did AFI (band) have any other hits ? | AFI (band) | After recording the A Fire Inside EP (1998), Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Jade Puget, former member of Influence 13 and vocalist Havok's close friend. The band then recorded Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), a musical turning point which introduced AFI fans to a much darker sound, mixing the band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences (a poem by Charles Baudelaire, "De profundis clamavi," is present in the hidden track "Midnight Sun") and an emphasis on a more somber atmosphere and lyrics. The New York Times later referred to this as the point where Havok "developed into a singer and songwriter of substance". The influence of the deathrock and goth rock scenes was also apparent. During this period, AFI's style was considered the band's gothic punk rock style. Offspring frontman Dexter Holland was featured as a backing vocalist on two tracks: "Clove Smoke Catharsis" and "The Prayer Position". The All Hallow's E.P. (October 5, 1999) further explored the horror punk genre, featuring artwork and lyrics containing Halloween themes. The EP spawned the single "Totalimmortal", a track later covered by The Offspring for the Me, Myself and Irene soundtrack. It received a fair amount of radio play and exposed AFI to larger audiences. "The Boy Who Destroyed the World" from the All Hallows EP was featured in the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 video game. All Hallow's also featured a cover of the Misfits song "Halloween". On September 19, 2000, AFI released The Art of Drowning, which debuted on the Billboard Charts at number 174, and peaked at number 9 on the Heatseekers chart. It continued to touch base with the horror punk genre, but expanded into styles that were a departure from previous works. The album featured slower, more melodic songs that were more reminiscent of alternative rock, such as "Ever and a Day" and "6 to 8". Still, the presence of hardcore influences was imminent in most of the album, flaunted most on tracks like "Smile", "The Lost Souls", and "Catch a Hot One". The album brought the band unprecedented success in the underground scene, selling in excess of 100,000 copies. "The Days of the Phoenix" was released as a single and video and, like "Totalimmortal," had some moderate mainstream success, garnering the band more TV and radio airplay. The song even managed to reach the UK Singles Chart with its titular EP in 2001, peaking at number 152. The success of The Art of Drowning helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety. CANNOTANSWER | ", "The Lost Souls", and "Catch a Hot One". | AFI (abbreviation for A Fire Inside) is an American rock band from Ukiah, California, formed in 1991. Since 1998, it consists of lead vocalist Davey Havok, drummer and backing vocalist Adam Carson, bassist, backing vocalist and keyboardist Hunter Burgan, and guitarist, backing vocalist and keyboardist Jade Puget. Havok and Carson are the sole remaining original members. Originally a hardcore punk band, they have since delved into many genres, starting with horror punk and following through post-hardcore and emo into alternative rock and gothic rock.
AFI has released eleven studio albums, ten EPs, one live album and one DVD. The band first reached substantial commercial success with their fifth album, The Art of Drowning (2000), which peaked at number 174 on the Billboard 200. They then broke into the mainstream with their sixth, Sing the Sorrow (2003), which peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 51 weeks. The album was supported by popular singles "Girl's Not Grey" and "Silver and Cold", both of which peaked at number seven on America's Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart in 2003. "The Leaving Song Pt. II" was also released as a single, reaching number 16 on the chart. Sing the Sorrow was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2006 and is AFI's best-selling release, having sold over 1.26 million copies .
AFI's seventh album, Decemberunderground (2006), debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and featured the hit single "Miss Murder", which topped the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart, reached number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and appeared in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The album was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2013. Their next three albums, Crash Love (2009), Burials (2013) and AFI (2017), were also successful, peaking at increasing positions on the Billboard 200. An EP, The Missing Man, followed in December 2018. The band released their 11th album, Bodies, on June 11, 2021.
History
Early years (1991–1994)
While still in high school in Ukiah, California, Davey Havok (vocals), Mark Stopholese and Vic Chalker formed a band called AFI in November 1991. At the time, the band did not know how to play any instruments. Stopholese suggested that his friend, Adam Carson (who had a drum set), join the band. Stopholese learned guitar and Chalker learned bass, but Chalker was soon replaced by Geoff Kresge. By the end of October 1992, the band had played their first three shows, generally as an opener for a few other punk bands, including Influence 13, which featured future AFI lead guitarist Jade Puget and frequent collaborator Nick 13. AFI recorded their first EP, Dork (1993), with the now defunct band Loose Change, which also featured Puget.
The band briefly broke up in 1993, when the members left Ukiah to attend different colleges. They decided to commit to AFI full-time after an extremely positive experience and enthusiastic crowd response at a reunion show they played at The Phoenix Theater over Christmas break.
AFI relocated to Berkeley, California and lived in a squat that was a decommissioned fraternity house. Between 1993 and 1995, the band independently released vinyl EPs such as Behind the Times, Eddie Picnic's All Wet and Fly in the Ointment, as well as the compilation EPs This Is Berkeley, Not West Bay, AFI/Heckle, and Bombing the Bay (with Swingin' Utters).
First three albums (1995–1998)
AFI's first full-length album, Answer That and Stay Fashionable was released July 4, 1995, on Wingnut Records. It was produced by Rancid's Tim Armstrong and Brett Reed. The album featured fast and upbeat hardcore songs, with humorous lyrical themes, which are vocalized in songs such as "Nyquil", "Cereal Wars", and "I Wanna Get a Mohawk (But Mom Won't Let Me Get One)". Around this time, they coined the term 'East Bay hardcore' to describe their genre.
AFI signed on to Nitro Records, a record label started by The Offspring's Dexter Holland and Greg K. AFI would remain with the label until the release of the 336 EP (2002). In 1996, they released their second album, Very Proud of Ya. Two songs from their previous album, "Yurf Rendenmein" and "Two of A Kind", were re-recorded for this album. After several tours in support of the album, Kresge decided to leave the group. His spot was filled by current AFI bassist Hunter Burgan for the remaining album tour dates.
Burgan went on to help AFI record Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997) and was invited to become their full-time bassist. Jade Puget, a former member of Influence 13 and Havok's close friend, also provided background vocals and additional guitar on the album, making it the first to feature all four current members of the band. It is also the first album to be copyrighted to the band's official moniker, A Fire Inside. Subsequently, the A Fire Inside EP (1998) was released, after which Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Puget.
Darker sound and wider reach (1999–2001)
The band's next album, Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), was a musical turning point which featured a darker sound, mixing the band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences and an emphasis on a more somber atmosphere and lyrics. The New York Times later referred to this as the point where Havok "developed into a singer and songwriter of substance". During this period, AFI's style was considered punk rock. The influence of death rock and goth rock was also apparent. Offspring frontman Dexter Holland was featured as a backing vocalist on two tracks.
The All Hallow's E.P. (1999) further explored the horror punk genre, featuring artwork and lyrics containing Halloween themes, including a cover of the Misfits song "Halloween". The song "The Boy Who Destroyed the World" was featured in the video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, and the single "Totalimmortal" was later covered by The Offspring.
On September 19, 2000, AFI released The Art of Drowning, which debuted on the Billboard Charts at number 174, and peaked at number 9 on the Heatseekers chart. It continued to touch base with the horror punk genre, but expanded into styles that were a departure from previous works. The album featured slower, more melodic songs that were more reminiscent of alternative rock, such as "Ever and a Day" and "6 to 8". Hardcore influences were present, more overtly on some tracks. The album sold over 100,000 copies. "The Days of the Phoenix" was released as a single and video and had some moderate mainstream success, garnering the band more TV and radio airplay. The song reached the UK Singles Chart with its titular EP in 2001, peaking at number 152. The success of The Art of Drowning helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety.
Mainstream labels and popularity (2002–2007)
In 2002, AFI left Nitro Records. DreamWorks Records artists and repertoire executive Luke Wood signed them to the label following intense interest. Their first album for the label, Sing the Sorrow, was released in 2003. The album opened in Billboards top ten and scored enthusiastic lead reviews in major music magazines. The songs "Girl's Not Grey", "The Leaving Song Pt. II", and "Silver and Cold" had some Billboard chart success and exposed the band to even larger audiences. They were nominated in the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards for the MTV2 award category for the "Girl's Not Grey" video, which came to be their first VMA.
In June 2006, AFI's seventh studio album, Decemberunderground, was released on Interscope Records. The album's first single, "Miss Murder", reached No. 1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Charts. The release reflects the continually changing and growing fan base of the band, and the album debuted as No. 1 on the Billboard charts. The album has been certified Gold by the RIAA for sales of over 500,000 copies of the album. The album's second single, "Love Like Winter", was successful on MTV's Total Request Live and was retired after 40 days on the countdown.
On December 12, 2006, AFI released their first DVD, I Heard a Voice – Live from Long Beach Arena, featuring a live performance shot in Long Beach, California. The performance was later released on December 13, 2007, as a live album, and charted at number 133 on the Billboard 200, and number 16 on the Hard Rock Albums chart. The album was well-received, with punknews.org giving it a four-star rating and commenting that when hearing or seeing the performance "you begin to realize AFI are truly a great live band," and that at some points "Pantera would say turn the noise down."
On July 7, 2007, AFI performed on the American leg of Live Earth. They performed "The Missing Frame", "Love Like Winter", "Miss Murder", and a cover of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust".
Maturity and resurgence (2008–2017)
In July 2009, Havok released a statement saying that after two years of writing and recording, an upcoming album titled Crash Love would be released on September 29, 2009. It was recorded with producer David Bottrill (who was later dismissed in favor of Joe McGrath and Jacknife Lee). The first single from the album, "Medicate", was released on August 25, 2009, and reached number 7 on the Billboard Alternative Songs Chart. Another single, "Beautiful Thieves", followed later in the year. Havok called Crash Love "the album by which we'll be remembered". It was the band's first release to make a significantly smaller impact than their previous effort, but peaked at number 12 on the Billboard 200.
From April to June 2013, several teaser videos were released on AFI's website.
The band was announced to play Riot Fest 2013, as well as being signed to Republic Records. A single titled "I Hope You Suffer" was released on July 23, and the title of the album, Burials, was announced. Another single, "17 Crimes", was released on August 6. The third single from the album, titled "The Conductor", was released on September 9. The album was released on October 22, produced by Gil Norton. It peaked at number 9 on the Billboard 200.
In a June 2016 interview with Aggressive Tendencies, Puget confirmed that AFI had begun working on new material for their tenth studio album. On October 27, the band released two new songs via Spotify, "Snow Cats" and "White Offerings".
The band's tenth album, AFI (also known as The Blood Album), was released on January 20, 2017. Puget served as the main producer. The album peaked at number 5 on the Billboard 200. Other singles were released, including "Aurelia" and "Hidden Knives".
Recent releases (2018–present)
On October 26, 2018, the band surprise-released a new single called "Get Dark" on Spotify and iTunes. This was followed by The Missing Man EP on December 7, featuring five new songs.
On March 25, 2020, AFI was announced as a headliner for the Two Thousand Trees Festival on July 10 of the same year. Puget was interviewed by Kerrang! to promote the festival appearance and said that "hopefully at least a couple of songs" from the band's eleventh album would be released by then. On April 27, 2020, Puget said that the album was finished, but that its release date was being pushed back as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The next day, it was announced that the Two Thousand Trees Festival was being pushed back to 2021, also due to the pandemic.
On January 15, 2021, the band released the tracks "Twisted Tongues" and "Escape from Los Angeles". On February 25, it was revealed that the album would be called Bodies, and be released on June 11. Along with the announcement, the band revealed two new songs as another joint single, "Looking Tragic / Begging for Trouble". On April 9, "Dulceria / Far Too Near" were released, followed by "Tied to a Tree" on May 25.
Musical style
AFI's music has been classified under many genres of music, including punk rock, horror punk, garage punk, pop punk, hardcore punk, skate punk, emo, screamo, alternative rock, and gothic rock. AFI has often been called "goth-punk" due to the band's appearance, but AFI never considered the label accurate. AFI guitarist Jade Puget has said, "Goth-punk isn't a style of music, it doesn't even exist."
AFI's sound has constantly changed. AFI originally were a hardcore punk band. AFI's first three albums, Answer That and Stay Fashionable (1995), Very Proud of Ya (1996), and Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997), all have been described as hardcore punk. AFI's fourth album Black Sails in the Sunset and the band's fifth album The Art of Drowning both have been described as horror punk. AFI's 2003 album Sing the Sorrow is considered post-hardcore and emo. Decemberunderground, which features elements of music genres like electronic, new wave, industrial, punk rock, hardcore punk, and synthpop, is considered alternative rock, post-hardcore and emo. AFI's 2009 album Crash Love is considered alternative rock and pop rock. AFI's 2013 album Burials is considered alternative rock and gothic rock. AFI's 2017 self-titled album, also referred to as The Blood Album, has been described as new wave, post-punk and gothic rock.
Puget, who has produced much of the band's music, stated in 2021:
Anyone who knows our catalog knows that no two records really sit together. Some sit a little closer, maybe. We do certain things, just by virtue of who we are, that are consistent, but those things come about organically. Every time we do something, I have to judge it on its own merits. Some fans are going to judge a new album, or a new song, based on what's come before. But as artists, we can't do that, because it would only hinder our creativity.
Influences
In an interview, Davey Havok described the band's influences: "We have many, many influences that span the musical spectrum. Each of us grew up on everything from punk to hardcore to dark '80s UK stuff like The Cure, Bauhaus, Joy Division, and The Sisters of Mercy. And there were rock bands like The Misfits, Samhain, and Danzig and industrial bands like Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Front 242 and Alien Sex Fiend. And we all love The Smiths." AFI have also been influenced by British electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), whom Havok said "have and will continue to musically and emotionally inspire" him. Other bands that have influenced AFI include Minor Threat, 7 Seconds, Descendents, Suicide, the Germs, Black Flag, Slayer, Metallica, T.S.O.L., D.R.I., State of Alert, and the Angry Samoans.
Legacy
The Sydney Morning Herald has written that AFI have been "hailed as being responsible for bringing back the big '80s rock chorus." The band has received much praise in particular from Alternative Press, which has supported the group since the mid-1990s. The publication rated the band's major label debut, Sing the Sorrow as the most anticipated album of 2003, and noted that it "blew the doors off goth-punk as we knew it". AFI has also been granted responsibility for paving the way for the rise of the visual element of rock bands in the 2000s; in a December 2006 article, Revolver Magazine wrote that "AFI have increased the importance of a band's visual identity and the flair for the theatrical," adding that "when a group like Panic! at the Disco borrows imagery from a movie such as Moulin Rouge!, you have to consider the precedent AFI set when they borrowed cues from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas." Shoutmouth.com placed AFI at number 22 on its list of the 25 most influential punk bands, noting that the band "have evolved with each album, showing that a punk band can not only change, but stay true to their sound at the same time. AFI have been on a constant rise through their career, and as such, out the honors". After Sing The Sorrow release, Yorkshire Evening Post described Havok's voice as one of those "you'll love or hate, but one thing can't be denied, this guy has range beyond belief". Recognized by his trademark flair and vocal style, Havok has been recognized as "a bona fide rock god" by Alternative Press.
In 2003, The Pitch described the band's fan club as a "particularly excitable bunch", adding that "there's also the type of sentiments that put the cult back into cult success, such as links to something called 'the Church of Havok'."
Members
Current
Davey Havok – lead vocals
Adam Carson – drums, backing vocals
Hunter Burgan – bass, backing vocals, keyboards, programming
Jade Puget – guitars, backing vocals, keyboards, piano, programming, synthesizers
Former
Vic Chalker – bass, backing vocals
Geoff Kresge – bass, backing vocals
Mark Stopholese – guitars
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Answer That and Stay Fashionable (1995)
Very Proud of Ya (1996)
Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997)
Black Sails in the Sunset (1999)
The Art of Drowning (2000)
Sing the Sorrow (2003)
Decemberunderground (2006)
Crash Love (2009)
Burials (2013)
AFI (2017)
Bodies (2021)
References
Footnotes
Citations
External links
Alternative rock groups from California
Punk rock groups from California
Hardcore punk groups from California
Musical groups established in 1991
Musical quartets
Horror punk groups
Interscope Records artists
DreamWorks Records artists
Emo musical groups from California
American gothic rock groups
American post-hardcore musical groups
Nitro Records artists
Adeline Records artists
Rise Records artists
Articles which contain graphical timelines
1991 establishments in California | false | [
"In probability theory, The Poisson scatter theorem describes a probability model of random scattering. It implies that the number of points in a fixed region will follow a Poisson distribution.\n\nStatement \n\nLet there exist a chance process realized by a set of points (called hits) over a bounded region such that:\n\n1) There are only a finite number of hits over the entire region K.\n2) There are no multiple hits at a single point.\n3) There is homogeneity and independence among the hits. i.e. For any non-overlapping subregions , , the numbers of hits in these regions are independent. \n\nIn any region B, let NB be the number of hits in B. Then there exists a positive constant such that for each subregion , NB has a Poisson distribution with parameter , where is the area of B (remember that this is , in other measure spaces, could mean different things, i.e. length in ). In addition, for any non-overlapping regions , the random variables are independent from one another.\n\nThe positive constant is called the intensity parameter, and is equivalent to the number of hits in a unit area of K. \n \nProof: \n\nAlso, \n\nWhile the statement of the theorem here is limited to , the theorem can be generalized to any-dimensional space. Some calculations change depending on the space that the points are scattered in (as is mentioned above), but the general assumptions and outcomes still hold.\n\nExample \n\nConsider raindrops falling on a rooftop. The rooftop is the region , while the raindrops can be considered the hits of our system. It is reasonable to assume that the number of raindrops that fall in any particular region of the rooftop follows a poisson distribution. The Poisson Scatter Theorem, states that if one was to subdivide the rooftops into k disjoint sub-regions, then the number of raindrops that hits a particular region with intensity of the rooftop is independent from the number of raindrops that hit any other subregion. Suppose that 2000 raindrops fall in 1000 subregions of the rooftop, randomly. The expected number of raindrops per subregion would be 2. So the distribution of the number of raindrops on the whole rooftop is Poisson with intensity parameter 2. The distribution of the number of raindrops falling on 1/5 of the rooftop is Poisson with intensity parameter 2/5. \n\nDue to the reproductive property of the Poisson distribution, k independent random scatters on the same region can superimpose to produce a random scatter that follows a poisson distribution with parameter .\n\nNotes \n^ Pitman 2003, p. 230.\n\nReferences \n\nPitman, Jim (2003). Probability. Springer.\n\nProbability theorems",
"Greatest Hits Volume Two (or variants) may refer to any of the following albums:\n\nGreatest Hits Vol. 2 (ABBA album) (1979)\nGreatest Hits II (Clint Black album) (2001)\nGreatest Hits, Vol. 2 (Johnny Cash album) (1971)\nGreatest Hits II (Kenny Chesney album) (2009)\nGreatest Hits, Volume II (Chicago album) (1981)\nGreatest Hits Vol. II (Gloria Estefan album) (2001)\nGreatest Hits, Vol. 2 (Marvin Gaye album) (1967)\nGreatest Hits Volume II (Alan Jackson album) (2003)\nGreatest Hits Volume II (1985) by Billy Joel\nGreatest Hits Volume Two (The Judds album) (1991)\nGreatest Hits 2 (Toby Keith album) (2004)\nGreatest Hits Vol. II (Barry Manilow album) (1983)\nGreatest Hits, Vol. 2 (The Miracles album) (1968) \nGreatest Hits Volume Two (Reba McEntire album) (1993)\nGreatest Hits, Vol. 2 (Ronnie Milsap album) (1985)\nGreatest Hits II (Queen album) (1991)\nGreatest Hits, Volume 2 (Linda Ronstadt album) (1980)\nGreatest Hits Volume Two (George Strait album) (1987)\nGreatest Hits Volume 2 (James Taylor album) (2000)\nGreatest Hits, Vol. 2 (Temptations album) (1970)\nGreatest Hits, Volume 2 (Randy Travis album) (1992)\nGreatest Hits Volume 2 (Hank Williams Jr. album) (1972)\nGreatest Hits Volume II (\"Weird Al\" Yankovic album) (1994)\nGreatest Hits 2 (Journey album) (2011)\n\nIt may also refer to other albums that include the phrase \"Greatest Hits Volume Two\":\n\nThe Greatest Hits – Volume 2: 20 More Good Vibrations (1999) by The Beach Boys\nThe Best of The Byrds: Greatest Hits, Volume II (1972)\nJohn Denver's Greatest Hits, Volume 2 (1977)\nBob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II (1971)\nEagles Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (1982)\nELO's Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (1992) by Electric Light Orchestra\nAl Green's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (1977)\nElton John's Greatest Hits Volume II (1977)\nOlivia's Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (1982) by Olivia Newton-John\nFrank Sinatra's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (1972)\nStyx Greatest Hits Part 2 (1995)\nHank Williams, Jr.'s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (1985)\n\nSee also\nList of greatest hits albums\nGreatest hits\nGreatest Hits Volume One (disambiguation)\nGreatest Hits Volume Three (disambiguation)\n\nGreatest Hits Volume 2"
]
|
[
"AFI (band)",
"Black Sails in the Sunset, All Hallow's E.P. and The Art of Drowning (1999-2001)",
"Were these three albums or singles ?",
"The band then recorded Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), a musical turning point which introduced AFI fans to a much darker sound,",
"did any of them earn an award ?",
"I don't know.",
"What style of music were the albums ?",
"band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences",
"Did the band members stay the same throughout these years?",
"Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Jade Puget, former member of Influence 13 and vocalist Havok's close friend.",
"Any other band changes ?",
"The success of The Art of Drowning helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety.",
"Any singles released off these albums ?",
"\"Ever and a Day\" and \"6 to 8\".",
"Any other hits ?",
"\", \"The Lost Souls\", and \"Catch a Hot One\"."
]
| C_0bfe0dfe02b04ae196ba2bec3fc86408_1 | Were there any hidden messages in any of the albums ? | 8 | Were there any hidden messages in any of the AFI (band) albums ? | AFI (band) | After recording the A Fire Inside EP (1998), Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Jade Puget, former member of Influence 13 and vocalist Havok's close friend. The band then recorded Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), a musical turning point which introduced AFI fans to a much darker sound, mixing the band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences (a poem by Charles Baudelaire, "De profundis clamavi," is present in the hidden track "Midnight Sun") and an emphasis on a more somber atmosphere and lyrics. The New York Times later referred to this as the point where Havok "developed into a singer and songwriter of substance". The influence of the deathrock and goth rock scenes was also apparent. During this period, AFI's style was considered the band's gothic punk rock style. Offspring frontman Dexter Holland was featured as a backing vocalist on two tracks: "Clove Smoke Catharsis" and "The Prayer Position". The All Hallow's E.P. (October 5, 1999) further explored the horror punk genre, featuring artwork and lyrics containing Halloween themes. The EP spawned the single "Totalimmortal", a track later covered by The Offspring for the Me, Myself and Irene soundtrack. It received a fair amount of radio play and exposed AFI to larger audiences. "The Boy Who Destroyed the World" from the All Hallows EP was featured in the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 video game. All Hallow's also featured a cover of the Misfits song "Halloween". On September 19, 2000, AFI released The Art of Drowning, which debuted on the Billboard Charts at number 174, and peaked at number 9 on the Heatseekers chart. It continued to touch base with the horror punk genre, but expanded into styles that were a departure from previous works. The album featured slower, more melodic songs that were more reminiscent of alternative rock, such as "Ever and a Day" and "6 to 8". Still, the presence of hardcore influences was imminent in most of the album, flaunted most on tracks like "Smile", "The Lost Souls", and "Catch a Hot One". The album brought the band unprecedented success in the underground scene, selling in excess of 100,000 copies. "The Days of the Phoenix" was released as a single and video and, like "Totalimmortal," had some moderate mainstream success, garnering the band more TV and radio airplay. The song even managed to reach the UK Singles Chart with its titular EP in 2001, peaking at number 152. The success of The Art of Drowning helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | AFI (abbreviation for A Fire Inside) is an American rock band from Ukiah, California, formed in 1991. Since 1998, it consists of lead vocalist Davey Havok, drummer and backing vocalist Adam Carson, bassist, backing vocalist and keyboardist Hunter Burgan, and guitarist, backing vocalist and keyboardist Jade Puget. Havok and Carson are the sole remaining original members. Originally a hardcore punk band, they have since delved into many genres, starting with horror punk and following through post-hardcore and emo into alternative rock and gothic rock.
AFI has released eleven studio albums, ten EPs, one live album and one DVD. The band first reached substantial commercial success with their fifth album, The Art of Drowning (2000), which peaked at number 174 on the Billboard 200. They then broke into the mainstream with their sixth, Sing the Sorrow (2003), which peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 51 weeks. The album was supported by popular singles "Girl's Not Grey" and "Silver and Cold", both of which peaked at number seven on America's Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart in 2003. "The Leaving Song Pt. II" was also released as a single, reaching number 16 on the chart. Sing the Sorrow was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2006 and is AFI's best-selling release, having sold over 1.26 million copies .
AFI's seventh album, Decemberunderground (2006), debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and featured the hit single "Miss Murder", which topped the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart, reached number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and appeared in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The album was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2013. Their next three albums, Crash Love (2009), Burials (2013) and AFI (2017), were also successful, peaking at increasing positions on the Billboard 200. An EP, The Missing Man, followed in December 2018. The band released their 11th album, Bodies, on June 11, 2021.
History
Early years (1991–1994)
While still in high school in Ukiah, California, Davey Havok (vocals), Mark Stopholese and Vic Chalker formed a band called AFI in November 1991. At the time, the band did not know how to play any instruments. Stopholese suggested that his friend, Adam Carson (who had a drum set), join the band. Stopholese learned guitar and Chalker learned bass, but Chalker was soon replaced by Geoff Kresge. By the end of October 1992, the band had played their first three shows, generally as an opener for a few other punk bands, including Influence 13, which featured future AFI lead guitarist Jade Puget and frequent collaborator Nick 13. AFI recorded their first EP, Dork (1993), with the now defunct band Loose Change, which also featured Puget.
The band briefly broke up in 1993, when the members left Ukiah to attend different colleges. They decided to commit to AFI full-time after an extremely positive experience and enthusiastic crowd response at a reunion show they played at The Phoenix Theater over Christmas break.
AFI relocated to Berkeley, California and lived in a squat that was a decommissioned fraternity house. Between 1993 and 1995, the band independently released vinyl EPs such as Behind the Times, Eddie Picnic's All Wet and Fly in the Ointment, as well as the compilation EPs This Is Berkeley, Not West Bay, AFI/Heckle, and Bombing the Bay (with Swingin' Utters).
First three albums (1995–1998)
AFI's first full-length album, Answer That and Stay Fashionable was released July 4, 1995, on Wingnut Records. It was produced by Rancid's Tim Armstrong and Brett Reed. The album featured fast and upbeat hardcore songs, with humorous lyrical themes, which are vocalized in songs such as "Nyquil", "Cereal Wars", and "I Wanna Get a Mohawk (But Mom Won't Let Me Get One)". Around this time, they coined the term 'East Bay hardcore' to describe their genre.
AFI signed on to Nitro Records, a record label started by The Offspring's Dexter Holland and Greg K. AFI would remain with the label until the release of the 336 EP (2002). In 1996, they released their second album, Very Proud of Ya. Two songs from their previous album, "Yurf Rendenmein" and "Two of A Kind", were re-recorded for this album. After several tours in support of the album, Kresge decided to leave the group. His spot was filled by current AFI bassist Hunter Burgan for the remaining album tour dates.
Burgan went on to help AFI record Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997) and was invited to become their full-time bassist. Jade Puget, a former member of Influence 13 and Havok's close friend, also provided background vocals and additional guitar on the album, making it the first to feature all four current members of the band. It is also the first album to be copyrighted to the band's official moniker, A Fire Inside. Subsequently, the A Fire Inside EP (1998) was released, after which Stopholese left the band and was replaced by Puget.
Darker sound and wider reach (1999–2001)
The band's next album, Black Sails in the Sunset (1999), was a musical turning point which featured a darker sound, mixing the band's original hardcore roots with dark romantic influences and an emphasis on a more somber atmosphere and lyrics. The New York Times later referred to this as the point where Havok "developed into a singer and songwriter of substance". During this period, AFI's style was considered punk rock. The influence of death rock and goth rock was also apparent. Offspring frontman Dexter Holland was featured as a backing vocalist on two tracks.
The All Hallow's E.P. (1999) further explored the horror punk genre, featuring artwork and lyrics containing Halloween themes, including a cover of the Misfits song "Halloween". The song "The Boy Who Destroyed the World" was featured in the video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, and the single "Totalimmortal" was later covered by The Offspring.
On September 19, 2000, AFI released The Art of Drowning, which debuted on the Billboard Charts at number 174, and peaked at number 9 on the Heatseekers chart. It continued to touch base with the horror punk genre, but expanded into styles that were a departure from previous works. The album featured slower, more melodic songs that were more reminiscent of alternative rock, such as "Ever and a Day" and "6 to 8". Hardcore influences were present, more overtly on some tracks. The album sold over 100,000 copies. "The Days of the Phoenix" was released as a single and video and had some moderate mainstream success, garnering the band more TV and radio airplay. The song reached the UK Singles Chart with its titular EP in 2001, peaking at number 152. The success of The Art of Drowning helped to encourage the band to pursue higher mainstream notoriety.
Mainstream labels and popularity (2002–2007)
In 2002, AFI left Nitro Records. DreamWorks Records artists and repertoire executive Luke Wood signed them to the label following intense interest. Their first album for the label, Sing the Sorrow, was released in 2003. The album opened in Billboards top ten and scored enthusiastic lead reviews in major music magazines. The songs "Girl's Not Grey", "The Leaving Song Pt. II", and "Silver and Cold" had some Billboard chart success and exposed the band to even larger audiences. They were nominated in the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards for the MTV2 award category for the "Girl's Not Grey" video, which came to be their first VMA.
In June 2006, AFI's seventh studio album, Decemberunderground, was released on Interscope Records. The album's first single, "Miss Murder", reached No. 1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Charts. The release reflects the continually changing and growing fan base of the band, and the album debuted as No. 1 on the Billboard charts. The album has been certified Gold by the RIAA for sales of over 500,000 copies of the album. The album's second single, "Love Like Winter", was successful on MTV's Total Request Live and was retired after 40 days on the countdown.
On December 12, 2006, AFI released their first DVD, I Heard a Voice – Live from Long Beach Arena, featuring a live performance shot in Long Beach, California. The performance was later released on December 13, 2007, as a live album, and charted at number 133 on the Billboard 200, and number 16 on the Hard Rock Albums chart. The album was well-received, with punknews.org giving it a four-star rating and commenting that when hearing or seeing the performance "you begin to realize AFI are truly a great live band," and that at some points "Pantera would say turn the noise down."
On July 7, 2007, AFI performed on the American leg of Live Earth. They performed "The Missing Frame", "Love Like Winter", "Miss Murder", and a cover of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust".
Maturity and resurgence (2008–2017)
In July 2009, Havok released a statement saying that after two years of writing and recording, an upcoming album titled Crash Love would be released on September 29, 2009. It was recorded with producer David Bottrill (who was later dismissed in favor of Joe McGrath and Jacknife Lee). The first single from the album, "Medicate", was released on August 25, 2009, and reached number 7 on the Billboard Alternative Songs Chart. Another single, "Beautiful Thieves", followed later in the year. Havok called Crash Love "the album by which we'll be remembered". It was the band's first release to make a significantly smaller impact than their previous effort, but peaked at number 12 on the Billboard 200.
From April to June 2013, several teaser videos were released on AFI's website.
The band was announced to play Riot Fest 2013, as well as being signed to Republic Records. A single titled "I Hope You Suffer" was released on July 23, and the title of the album, Burials, was announced. Another single, "17 Crimes", was released on August 6. The third single from the album, titled "The Conductor", was released on September 9. The album was released on October 22, produced by Gil Norton. It peaked at number 9 on the Billboard 200.
In a June 2016 interview with Aggressive Tendencies, Puget confirmed that AFI had begun working on new material for their tenth studio album. On October 27, the band released two new songs via Spotify, "Snow Cats" and "White Offerings".
The band's tenth album, AFI (also known as The Blood Album), was released on January 20, 2017. Puget served as the main producer. The album peaked at number 5 on the Billboard 200. Other singles were released, including "Aurelia" and "Hidden Knives".
Recent releases (2018–present)
On October 26, 2018, the band surprise-released a new single called "Get Dark" on Spotify and iTunes. This was followed by The Missing Man EP on December 7, featuring five new songs.
On March 25, 2020, AFI was announced as a headliner for the Two Thousand Trees Festival on July 10 of the same year. Puget was interviewed by Kerrang! to promote the festival appearance and said that "hopefully at least a couple of songs" from the band's eleventh album would be released by then. On April 27, 2020, Puget said that the album was finished, but that its release date was being pushed back as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The next day, it was announced that the Two Thousand Trees Festival was being pushed back to 2021, also due to the pandemic.
On January 15, 2021, the band released the tracks "Twisted Tongues" and "Escape from Los Angeles". On February 25, it was revealed that the album would be called Bodies, and be released on June 11. Along with the announcement, the band revealed two new songs as another joint single, "Looking Tragic / Begging for Trouble". On April 9, "Dulceria / Far Too Near" were released, followed by "Tied to a Tree" on May 25.
Musical style
AFI's music has been classified under many genres of music, including punk rock, horror punk, garage punk, pop punk, hardcore punk, skate punk, emo, screamo, alternative rock, and gothic rock. AFI has often been called "goth-punk" due to the band's appearance, but AFI never considered the label accurate. AFI guitarist Jade Puget has said, "Goth-punk isn't a style of music, it doesn't even exist."
AFI's sound has constantly changed. AFI originally were a hardcore punk band. AFI's first three albums, Answer That and Stay Fashionable (1995), Very Proud of Ya (1996), and Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997), all have been described as hardcore punk. AFI's fourth album Black Sails in the Sunset and the band's fifth album The Art of Drowning both have been described as horror punk. AFI's 2003 album Sing the Sorrow is considered post-hardcore and emo. Decemberunderground, which features elements of music genres like electronic, new wave, industrial, punk rock, hardcore punk, and synthpop, is considered alternative rock, post-hardcore and emo. AFI's 2009 album Crash Love is considered alternative rock and pop rock. AFI's 2013 album Burials is considered alternative rock and gothic rock. AFI's 2017 self-titled album, also referred to as The Blood Album, has been described as new wave, post-punk and gothic rock.
Puget, who has produced much of the band's music, stated in 2021:
Anyone who knows our catalog knows that no two records really sit together. Some sit a little closer, maybe. We do certain things, just by virtue of who we are, that are consistent, but those things come about organically. Every time we do something, I have to judge it on its own merits. Some fans are going to judge a new album, or a new song, based on what's come before. But as artists, we can't do that, because it would only hinder our creativity.
Influences
In an interview, Davey Havok described the band's influences: "We have many, many influences that span the musical spectrum. Each of us grew up on everything from punk to hardcore to dark '80s UK stuff like The Cure, Bauhaus, Joy Division, and The Sisters of Mercy. And there were rock bands like The Misfits, Samhain, and Danzig and industrial bands like Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Front 242 and Alien Sex Fiend. And we all love The Smiths." AFI have also been influenced by British electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), whom Havok said "have and will continue to musically and emotionally inspire" him. Other bands that have influenced AFI include Minor Threat, 7 Seconds, Descendents, Suicide, the Germs, Black Flag, Slayer, Metallica, T.S.O.L., D.R.I., State of Alert, and the Angry Samoans.
Legacy
The Sydney Morning Herald has written that AFI have been "hailed as being responsible for bringing back the big '80s rock chorus." The band has received much praise in particular from Alternative Press, which has supported the group since the mid-1990s. The publication rated the band's major label debut, Sing the Sorrow as the most anticipated album of 2003, and noted that it "blew the doors off goth-punk as we knew it". AFI has also been granted responsibility for paving the way for the rise of the visual element of rock bands in the 2000s; in a December 2006 article, Revolver Magazine wrote that "AFI have increased the importance of a band's visual identity and the flair for the theatrical," adding that "when a group like Panic! at the Disco borrows imagery from a movie such as Moulin Rouge!, you have to consider the precedent AFI set when they borrowed cues from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas." Shoutmouth.com placed AFI at number 22 on its list of the 25 most influential punk bands, noting that the band "have evolved with each album, showing that a punk band can not only change, but stay true to their sound at the same time. AFI have been on a constant rise through their career, and as such, out the honors". After Sing The Sorrow release, Yorkshire Evening Post described Havok's voice as one of those "you'll love or hate, but one thing can't be denied, this guy has range beyond belief". Recognized by his trademark flair and vocal style, Havok has been recognized as "a bona fide rock god" by Alternative Press.
In 2003, The Pitch described the band's fan club as a "particularly excitable bunch", adding that "there's also the type of sentiments that put the cult back into cult success, such as links to something called 'the Church of Havok'."
Members
Current
Davey Havok – lead vocals
Adam Carson – drums, backing vocals
Hunter Burgan – bass, backing vocals, keyboards, programming
Jade Puget – guitars, backing vocals, keyboards, piano, programming, synthesizers
Former
Vic Chalker – bass, backing vocals
Geoff Kresge – bass, backing vocals
Mark Stopholese – guitars
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Answer That and Stay Fashionable (1995)
Very Proud of Ya (1996)
Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997)
Black Sails in the Sunset (1999)
The Art of Drowning (2000)
Sing the Sorrow (2003)
Decemberunderground (2006)
Crash Love (2009)
Burials (2013)
AFI (2017)
Bodies (2021)
References
Footnotes
Citations
External links
Alternative rock groups from California
Punk rock groups from California
Hardcore punk groups from California
Musical groups established in 1991
Musical quartets
Horror punk groups
Interscope Records artists
DreamWorks Records artists
Emo musical groups from California
American gothic rock groups
American post-hardcore musical groups
Nitro Records artists
Adeline Records artists
Rise Records artists
Articles which contain graphical timelines
1991 establishments in California | false | [
"This article contains a list of the names of albums that contain a hidden track and also information on how to find them. Not all printings of an album contain the same track arrangements, so some copies of a particular album may not have the hidden track(s) listed below. Some of these tracks may be hidden in the pregap, and some hidden simply as a track following the listed tracks. The list is ordered by artist name using the surname where appropriate.\n\nSee also\n List of backmasked messages\n List of albums with tracks hidden in the pregap\n Lists of albums\n\nReferences",
"A hidden message is information that is not immediately noticeable, and that must be discovered or uncovered and interpreted before it can be known. Hidden messages include backwards audio messages, hidden visual messages and symbolic or cryptic codes such as a crossword or cipher. Although there are many legitimate examples of hidden messages created with techniques such as backmasking and steganography, many so-called hidden messages are merely fanciful imaginings or apophany.\n\nDescription \nThe information in hidden messages is not immediately noticeable; it must be discovered or uncovered, and interpreted before it can be known. Hidden messages include backwards audio messages, hidden visual messages, and symbolic or cryptic codes such as a crossword or cipher. There are many legitimate examples of hidden messages, though many are imaginings.\n\nBackward audio messages \nA backward message in an audio recording is only fully apparent when the recording is played reversed. Some backward messages are produced by deliberate backmasking, while others are simply phonetic reversals resulting from random combinations of words. Backward messages may occur in various mediums, including music, video games, music videos, movies, and television shows.\n\nBackmasking \n\nBackmasking is a recording technique in which a message is recorded backwards onto a track that is meant to be played forwards. It was popularized by The Beatles, who used backward vocals and instrumentation on their 1966 album Revolver. The technique has also been used to censor words or phrases for \"clean\" releases of songs.\n\nBackmasking has been a controversial topic in the United States since the 1980s, when allegations of its use for Satanic purposes were made against prominent rock musicians, leading to record-burnings and proposed anti-backmasking legislation by state and federal governments. In debate are both the existence of backmasked Satanic messages and their purported ability to subliminally affect listeners.\n\nPhonetic reversal \n\nCertain phrases produce a different phrase when their phonemes are reversed—a process known as phonetic reversal. For example, \"Kiss\" backwards sounds like \"sick\", and so the title of Yoko Ono's \"Kiss Kiss Kiss\" sounds like \"Sick Sick Sick\" or \"Six Six Six\" backwards. Queen's \"Another One Bites the Dust\" backwards was claimed that the chorus, when played in reverse, can be heard as \"It's fun to smoke marijuana\" or \"start to smoke marijuana\". The Paul is dead phenomenon was started in part because a phonetic reversal of \"Number nine\" (the words were constantly repeated in Revolution 9) was interpreted as \"Turn me on, dead man\".\n\nAccording to proponents of reverse speech, phonetic reversal occurs unknowingly during normal speech.\n\nVisual messages \nHidden messages can be created in visual mediums with techniques such as hidden text and steganography.\n\nIn the 1980s, Coca-Cola released in South Australia an advertising poster featuring the reintroduced contour bottle, with a speech bubble, \"Feel the Curves!!\" An image hidden inside one of the ice cubes was controversial. Thousands of posters were distributed to hotels and bottle shops in Australia before the mistake was discovered by Coca-Cola management. The artist of the poster was fired and all the posters were recalled. Rival PepsiCo had a similar accusation in 1990 when their promotional Pepsi Cool Cans was accused of having the word \"sex\" hidden in their design if two of their cans were placed atop each other.\n\nVarious other messages have been claimed to exist in Disney movies, some of them risque, such as the well-known allegation of an erection showing on a priest in The Little Mermaid. According to the Snopes website, one image \"is clearly true [and] undeniably purposely inserted into the movie\": a topless woman in two frames of The Rescuers.\n\nPETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) had an antipathy towards PETCO, a pet food retailer in San Diego, regarding the purported mistreatment of live animals at their stores. When the San Diego Padres baseball team announced that the retailer had purchased naming rights to Petco Park stadium, PETA was unable to persuade the sports team to terminate the agreement. Later, PETA successfully purchased a commemorative display brick with what appears to be a complimentary message: \"Break Open Your Cold Ones! Toast The Padres! Enjoy This Championship Organization!\" However, if one takes the first letters of each word, the resulting acrostic reads \"BOYCOTT PETCO\". Neither PETCO nor the Padres have taken any action to remove the brick, stating that if someone walked by, they would not know it had anything to do with the PETA/PETCO feud.\n\nSecretive design language is widely used on web sites as Easter eggs within products as hidden features, such as In-N-Out Burger's secret menu or the new Norwegian passport design for security.\n\nSee also \nApophenia\nPareidolia\nSynchronicity\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Audio Reversal in Popular Culture — explanation of backmasking and phonetic reversals\n SHOOSH An easy tool to make an hidden message — visual messages can be hidden in images.\n Hidden subliminal design\nsecret message link\n\nAudio engineering\nPerception\nPopular music\n\nde:Rückwärtsbotschaft\nfr:Message à l'envers"
]
|
[
"Augusto Pinochet",
"Accusations of fascism"
]
| C_2456f9e2997745a2bdf69e61067fea11_0 | What were the accusations? | 1 | What were the accusations against Augusto Pinochet? | Augusto Pinochet | Pinochet and his government have been characterised as fascist. For example, journalist and author Samuel Chavkin, in his book Storm Over Chile: The Junta Under Siege, repeatedly characterizes both Pinochet himself and the military dictatorship as fascist. However, he and his government are generally excluded from academic typologies of fascism. Roger Griffin included Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots distinct from fascism and including the likes of Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos. He argues that such regimes may be considered populist ultra-nationalism but lack the rhetoric of national rebirth, or palingenesis, necessary to make them conform to the model of palingenetic ultranationalism. Robert Paxton meanwhile compared Pinochet's regime to that of Mobutu Sese Seko in the former Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), arguing that both were merely client states that lacked popular acclaim and the ability to expand. He further argued that had Pinochet attempted to build true fascism, the regime would likely have been toppled or at least been forced to alter its relationship to the United States. Anna Cento Bull also excluded Pinochet from fascism, although she has argued that his regime belongs to a strand of Cold War anti-communism that was happy to accommodate neo-fascist elements within its activity. World Fascism: a Historical Encyclopedia notes that "Although he was authoritarian and ruled dictatorially, Pinochet's support of neoliberal economic policies and his unwillingness to support national businesses distinguished him from classical fascists." Historian Gabriel Salazar stated that Pinochet's establishment cult of personality around him was a fascist tactic: It is notable that in all the declarations of Pinochet's men, nobody has mentioned the creators of the new Chilean society and state, I haven't heard anybody mention Jaime Guzman, Carlos Caceres, Hernan Buchi, Sergio de Castro. There is no mention of the true brains, or that the whole of the armed forces were involved in this, in dirty and symbolic tasks. Everything is embodied in Pinochet, it's very curious that figures of the stature of Buchi are immolated before the figure of Pinochet, in what is to me a fascist rite, give everything to the Fuhrer, "I did it, but ultimately it was him". CANNOTANSWER | Griffin included Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots distinct from fascism and including the likes of Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos. | Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean dictator and general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being self-declared President of the Republic by the junta in 1974 and becoming the de facto dictator of Chile, and from 1981 to 1990 as de jure President after a new Constitution, which confirmed him in the office, was approved by a referendum in 1980.
Augusto Pinochet rose through the ranks of the Chilean Army to become General Chief of Staff in early 1972 before being appointed its Commander-in-Chief on 23 August 1973 by President Salvador Allende. On 11 September 1973,
Pinochet seized power in Chile in a coup d'état, with the support of the U.S., that toppled Allende's democratically elected Unidad Popular government and ended civilian rule. In December 1974, the ruling military junta appointed Pinochet Supreme Head of the nation by joint decree, although without the support of one of the coup's instigators, Air Force General Gustavo Leigh. After his rise to power, Pinochet persecuted leftists, socialists, and political critics, resulting in the executions of 1,200 to 3,200 people, the internment of as many as 80,000 people, and the torture of tens of thousands. According to the Chilean government, the number of executions and forced disappearances was 3,095. Operation Condor, a U.S.-supported terror operation focusing on South America, was founded at the behest of the Pinochet regime in late November 1975, his 60th birthday.
Under the influence of the free market-oriented "Chicago Boys", Pinochet's military government implemented economic liberalization, including currency stabilization, removed tariff protections for local industry, banned trade unions, and privatized social security and hundreds of state-owned enterprises. Some of the government properties were sold below market price to politically connected buyers, including Pinochet's own son-in-law. The regime used censorship of entertainment as a way to reward supporters of the regime and punish opponents. These policies produced high economic growth, but critics state that economic inequality dramatically increased and attribute the devastating effects of the 1982 monetary crisis on the Chilean economy to these policies. For most of the 1990s, Chile was the best-performing economy in Latin America, though the legacy of Pinochet's reforms continues to be in dispute. His fortune grew considerably during his years in power through dozens of bank accounts secretly held abroad and a fortune in real estate. He was later prosecuted for embezzlement, tax fraud, and for possible commissions levied on arms deals.
Pinochet's 17-year rule was given a legal framework through a controversial 1980 plebiscite, which approved a new constitution drafted by a government-appointed commission. In a 1988 plebiscite, 56% voted against Pinochet's continuing as president, which led to democratic elections for the presidency and Congress. After stepping down in 1990, Pinochet continued to serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army until 10 March 1998, when he retired and became a senator-for-life in accordance with his 1980 Constitution. However, Pinochet was arrested under an international arrest warrant on a visit to London on 10 October 1998 in connection with numerous human rights violations. Following a legal battle, he was released on grounds of ill-health and returned to Chile on 3 March 2000. In 2004, Chilean Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia ruled that Pinochet was medically fit to stand trial and placed him under house arrest. By the time of his death on 10 December 2006, about 300 criminal charges were still pending against him in Chile for numerous human rights violations during his 17-year rule, as well as tax evasion and embezzlement during and after his rule. He was also accused of having corruptly amassed at least US$28 million.
Early life and education
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was born in Valparaíso on 25 November 1915. He was the son and namesake of Augusto Pinochet Vera (1891–1944), a descendant of an 18th century French Breton immigrant from Lamballe, and Avelina Ugarte Martínez (1895–1986), a woman of Basque heritage whose family had been in Chile since the 17th century.
Pinochet went to primary and secondary school at the San Rafael Seminary of Valparaíso, the Rafael Ariztía Institute (Marist Brothers) in Quillota, the French Fathers' School of Valparaíso, and then to the Military School in Santiago, which he entered in 1931. In 1935, after four years studying military geography, he graduated with the rank of alférez (Second Lieutenant) in the infantry.
Military career
In September 1937, Pinochet was assigned to the "Chacabuco" Regiment, in Concepción. Two years later, in 1939, then with the rank of Sub-lieutenant, he moved to the "Maipo" Regiment, garrisoned in Valparaíso. He returned to Infantry School in 1940. On 30 January 1943, Pinochet married Lucía Hiriart Rodríguez, with whom he had five children: Inés Lucía, María Verónica, Jacqueline Marie, Augusto Osvaldo and Marco Antonio.
By late 1945, Pinochet had been assigned to the "Carampangue" Regiment in the northern city of Iquique. Three years later, he entered the Chilean War Academy but had to postpone his studies because, being the youngest officer, he had to carry out a service mission in the coal zone of Lota. In 1948, Pinochet was initiated in the regular Masonic Lodge Victoria n°15 of San Bernardo, affiliated to the Grand Lodge of Chile. He received the Scottish Rite degree of companion, but he is thought not to have ever become a Grand Master.
The following year he returned to his studies in the academy, and after obtaining the title of Officer Chief of Staff, in 1951, he returned to teach at the Military School. At the same time, he worked as a teachers' aide at the War Academy, giving military geography and geopolitics classes. He was also the editor of the institutional magazine Cien Águilas ('One Hundred Eagles'). At the beginning of 1953, with the rank of major, he was sent for two years to the "Rancagua" Regiment in Arica. While there, he was appointed professor of the Chilean War Academy, and returned to Santiago to take up his new position.
In 1956, Pinochet and a group of young officers were chosen to form a military mission to collaborate in the organization of the War Academy of Ecuador in Quito. He remained with the Quito mission for four-and-a-half years, during which time he studied geopolitics, military geography and military intelligence. At the end of 1959 he returned to Chile and was sent to General Headquarters of the 1st Army Division, based in Antofagasta. The following year, he was appointed commander of the "Esmeralda" Regiment. Due to his success in this position, he was appointed Sub-director of the War Academy in 1963. In 1968, he was named Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army Division, based in Santiago, and at the end of that year, he was promoted to brigadier general and Commander in Chief of the 6th Division, garrisoned in Iquique. In his new function, he was also appointed Intendent of the Tarapacá Province.
In January 1971, Pinochet was promoted to division general and was named General Commander of the Santiago Army Garrison. On 8 June 1971, following the assassination of Edmundo Perez Zujovic by left-wing radicals, Allende appointed Pinochet a supreme authority of Santiago province, imposing a military curfew in the process, which was later lifted. However, on 2 December 1971, following a series of peaceful protests against economic policies of Allende, the curfew was re-installed, all protests prohibited, with Pinochet leading the crackdown on anti-Allende protests. At the beginning of 1972, he was appointed General Chief of Staff of the Army. With rising domestic strife in Chile, after General Prats resigned his position, Pinochet was appointed commander-in-chief of the Army on 23 August 1973 by President Salvador Allende just one day after the Chamber of Deputies of Chile approved a resolution asserting that the government was not respecting the Constitution. Less than a month later, the Chilean military deposed Allende.
Military coup of 1973
On 11 September 1973, the combined Chilean Armed Forces (the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Carabineros) overthrew Allende's government in a coup, during which the presidential palace, La Moneda, was shelled and most likely where Allende was said to have committed suicide. While the military claimed that he had committed suicide, controversy surrounded Allende's death, with many claiming that he had been assassinated (such theory was discarded by the Chilean Supreme Court in 2014).
In his memoirs, Pinochet said that he was the leading plotter of the coup and had used his position as commander-in-chief of the Army to coordinate a far-reaching scheme with the other two branches of the military and the national police. In later years, however, high military officials from the time have said that Pinochet reluctantly became involved only a few days before the coup was scheduled to occur, and followed the lead of the other branches (especially the Navy, under Merino) as they executed the coup.
The new government rounded up thousands of people and held them in the national stadium, where many were killed. This was followed by brutal repression during Pinochet's rule, during which approximately 3,000 people were killed, while more than 1,000 are still missing.
In the months that followed the coup, the junta, with authoring work by historian Gonzalo Vial and admiral Patricio Carvajal, published a book titled El Libro Blanco del cambio de gobierno en Chile (commonly known as El Libro Blanco, 'The White Book on the Change of Government in Chile'), in which they said that they were in fact anticipating a self-coup (the alleged Plan Zeta, or Plan Z) that Allende's government or its associates were purportedly preparing. United States intelligence agencies believed the plan to be untrue propaganda. Although later discredited and officially recognized as the product of political propaganda, Gonzalo Vial Correa insists in the similarities between the alleged Plan Z and other existing paramilitary plans of the Popular Unity parties in support of its legitimacy. Pinochet was also trained by the School of the Americas (SOA) where it is likely he first encountered the ideals of the coup.
Canadian reporter Jean Charpentier of Télévision de Radio-Canada was the first foreign journalist to interview General Pinochet following the coup. After Allende's final radio address, he shot himself rather than becoming a prisoner.
U.S. backing of the coup
The Church Report investigating the fallout of the Watergate scandal stated that while the U.S. tacitly supported the Pinochet government after the 1973 coup, there was "no evidence" that the US was directly involved in it. This view has been contradicted by several academics, such as Peter Winn, who writes that the role of the CIA was crucial to the consolidation of power after the coup; the CIA helped fabricate a conspiracy against the Allende government, which Pinochet was then portrayed as preventing. He stated that the coup itself was possible only through a three-year covert operation mounted by the United States. Winn also points out that the US imposed an "invisible blockade" that was designed to disrupt the economy under Allende, and contributed to the destabilization of the regime. Author Peter Kornbluh argues in The Pinochet File that the US was extensively involved and actively "fomented" the 1973 coup. Authors Tim Weiner (Legacy of Ashes) and Christopher Hitchens (The Trial of Henry Kissinger) similarly argue the case that US covert actions actively destabilized Allende's government and set the stage for the 1973 coup. Despite denial of countless American agencies, current declassified documentation has proven the American involvement. Nixon and Kissinger, along with both private and public intelligence agencies were "apprised of, and even enmeshed in, the planning and executing of the military takeover." Along with this, CIA operatives directly involved, such as Jack Devine, have also come out and declared their involvement in the coup. Devine stating "I sent CIA headquarters a special type of top-secret cable known as a CRITIC, which ... goes directly to the highest levels of government."
The US provided material support to the military government after the coup, although criticizing it in public. A document released by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2000, titled "CIA Activities in Chile", revealed that the CIA actively supported the military junta after the overthrow of Allende, and that it made many of Pinochet's officers into paid contacts of the CIA or U.S. military, even though some were known to be involved in human rights abuses. The CIA also maintained contacts in the Chilean DINA intelligence service. DINA led the multinational campaign known as Operation Condor, which amongst other activities carried out assassinations of prominent politicians in various Latin American countries, in Washington, D.C., and in Europe, and kidnapped, tortured and executed activists holding left-wing views, which culminated in the deaths of roughly 60,000 people. The United States provided key organizational, financial and technical assistance to the operation. CIA contact with DINA head Manuel Contreras was established in 1974 soon after the coup, during the Junta period prior to official transfer of Presidential powers to Pinochet; in 1975, the CIA reviewed a warning that keeping Contreras as an asset might threaten human rights in the region. The CIA chose to keep him as an asset, and at one point even paid him. In addition to the CIA's maintaining of assets in DINA beginning soon after the coup, several CIA assets, such as CORU Cuban exile militants Orlando Bosch and Guillermo Novo, collaborated in DINA operations under the Condor Plan in the early years of Pinochet's presidency.
Military junta
A military junta was established immediately following the coup, made up of General Pinochet representing the Army, Admiral José Toribio Merino representing the Navy, General Gustavo Leigh representing the Air Force, and General César Mendoza representing the Carabineros (national police). As established, the junta exercised both executive and legislative functions of the government, suspended the Constitution and the Congress, imposed strict censorship and curfew, banned all parties and halted all political and perceived subversive activities. This military junta held the executive role until 17 December 1974, after which it remained strictly as a legislative body, the executive powers being transferred to Pinochet with the title of President.
Military dictatorship (1973–1990)
The junta members originally planned that the presidency would be held for a year by the commanders-in-chief of each of the four military branches in turn. However, Pinochet soon consolidated his control, first retaining sole chairmanship of the military junta, and then proclaiming himself "Supreme Chief of the Nation" (de facto provisional president) on 27 June 1974. He officially changed his title to "President" on 17 December 1974. General Leigh, head of the Air Force, became increasingly opposed to Pinochet's policies and was forced into retirement on 24 July 1978, after contradicting Pinochet on that year's plebiscite (officially called Consulta Nacional, or National Consultation, in response to a UN resolution condemning Pinochet's government). He was replaced by General Fernando Matthei.
Pinochet organized a plebiscite on 11 September 1980 to ratify a new constitution, replacing the 1925 Constitution drafted during Arturo Alessandri's presidency. The new Constitution, partly drafted by Jaime Guzmán, a close adviser to Pinochet who later founded the right-wing party Independent Democratic Union (UDI), gave a lot of power to the President of the Republic—Pinochet. It created some new institutions, such as the Constitutional Tribunal and the controversial National Security Council (COSENA). It also prescribed an 8-year presidential period, and a single-candidate presidential referendum in 1988, where a candidate nominated by the Junta would be approved or rejected for another 8-year period. The new constitution was approved by a margin of 67.04% to 30.19% according to official figures; the opposition, headed by ex-president Eduardo Frei Montalva (who had supported Pinochet's coup), denounced extensive irregularities such as the lack of an electoral register, which facilitated multiple voting, and said that the total number of votes reported to have been cast was very much larger than would be expected from the size of the electorate and turnout in previous elections. Interviews after Pinochet's departure with people involved with the referendum confirmed that fraud had, indeed, been widespread. The Constitution was promulgated on 21 October 1980, taking effect on 11 March 1981. Pinochet was replaced as President of the Junta that day by Admiral Merino. During Pinochet's reign it is estimated that some one million people had been forced to flee the country.
Armed opposition to the Pinochet rule continued in remote parts of the country. In a massive operation spearheaded by Chilean Army para-commandos, some 2,000 security forces troops were deployed in the mountains of Neltume from June to November 1981, where they destroyed two MIR bases, seizing large caches of munitions and killing a number of guerrillas.
According to author Ozren Agnic Krstulovic, weapons including C-4 plastic explosives, RPG-7 and M72 LAW rocket launchers, as well as more than 3,000 M-16 rifles, were smuggled into the country by opponents of the government.
In September 1986, weapons from the same source were used in an unsuccessful assassination attempt against Pinochet by the FPMR. His military bodyguard was taken by surprise, and five members were killed. Pinochet's bulletproof Mercedes Benz vehicle was struck by a rocket, but it failed to explode and Pinochet suffered only minor injuries.
Suppression of opposition
Almost immediately after the military's seizure of power, the junta banned all the leftist parties that had constituted Allende's UP coalition.
All other parties were placed in "indefinite recess" and were later banned outright. The government's violence was directed not only against dissidents but also against their families and other civilians.
The Rettig Report concluded 2,279 persons who disappeared during the military government were killed for political reasons or as a result of political violence. According to the later Valech Report approximately 31,947 were tortured and 1,312 exiled. The exiles were chased all over the world by the intelligence agencies. In Latin America, this was made in the frame of Operation Condor, a cooperation plan between the various intelligence agencies of South American countries, assisted by a United States CIA communication base in Panama. Pinochet believed these operations were necessary in order to "save the country from communism". In 2011, the commission identified an additional 9,800 victims of political repression during Pinochet's rule, increasing the total number of victims to approximately 40,018, including 3,065 killed.
Some political scientists have ascribed the relative bloodiness of the coup to the stability of the existing democratic system, which required extreme action to overturn. Some of the most infamous cases of human rights violation occurred during the early period: in October 1973, at least 70 people were killed throughout the country by the Caravan of Death. Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, both U.S. journalists, "disappeared", as did Víctor Olea Alegría, a member of the Socialist Party, and many others, in 1973. British priest Michael Woodward, who vanished within 10 days of the coup, was tortured and beaten to death aboard the Chilean naval ship, Esmeralda.
Many other important officials of Allende's government were tracked down by the DINA in the frame of Operation Condor. General Carlos Prats, Pinochet's predecessor and army commander under Allende, who had resigned rather than support the moves against Allende's government, was assassinated in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1974. A year later, the murder of 119 opponents abroad was disguised as an internal conflict, the DINA setting up a propaganda campaign to support this idea (Operation Colombo), a campaign publicised by the leading newspaper in Chile, El Mercurio.
Other victims of Condor included, among hundreds of less famous persons, Juan José Torres, the former President of Bolivia, assassinated in Buenos Aires on 2 June 1976; Carmelo Soria, a UN diplomat working for the CEPAL, assassinated in July 1976;
Orlando Letelier, a former Chilean ambassador to the United States and minister in Allende's cabinet, assassinated after his release from internment and exile in Washington, D.C. by a car bomb on 21 September 1976. Documents confirm that Pinochet directly ordered the assassination of Letelier. This led to strained relations with the US and to the extradition of Michael Townley, a US citizen who worked for the DINA and had organized Letelier's assassination. Other targeted victims, who escaped assassination, included Christian-Democrat Bernardo Leighton, who escaped an assassination attempt in Rome in 1975 by the Italian terrorist Stefano delle Chiaie; Carlos Altamirano, the leader of the Chilean Socialist Party, targeted for murder in 1975 by Pinochet, along with Volodia Teitelboim, member of the Communist Party; Pascal Allende, the nephew of Salvador Allende and president of the MIR, who escaped an assassination attempt in Costa Rica in March 1976; US Congressman Edward Koch, who became aware in 2001 of relations between death threats and his denunciation of Operation Condor, etc. Furthermore, according to current investigations, Eduardo Frei Montalva, the Christian Democrat President of Chile from 1964 to 1970, may have been poisoned in 1982 by toxin produced by DINA biochemist Eugenio Berrios.
Protests continued, however, during the 1980s, leading to several scandals. In March 1985, the murder of three Communist Party members led to the resignation of César Mendoza, head of the Carabineros and member of the junta since its formation. During a 1986 protest against Pinochet, 21-year-old American photographer Rodrigo Rojas DeNegri and 18-year-old student Carmen Gloria Quintana were burnt alive, with only Carmen surviving.
In August 1989, Marcelo Barrios Andres, a 21-year-old member of the FPMR (the armed wing of the PCC, created in 1983, which had attempted to assassinate Pinochet on 7 September 1986), was assassinated by a group of military personnel who were supposed to arrest him on orders of Valparaíso's public prosecutor. However, they simply executed him; this case was included in the Rettig Report. Among the killed and disappeared during the military junta were 440 MIR guerrillas. In December 2015, three former DINA agents were sentenced to ten years in prison for the murder of a 29-year-old theology student and activist, German Rodriguez Cortes, in 1978. That same month 62-year-old Guillermo Reyes Rammsy, a former Chilean soldier during the Pinochet years, was arrested and charged with murder for boasting of participating in 18 executions during a live phone-in to the Chilean radio show "Chacotero Sentimental".
On 2 June 2017, Chilean judge Hernan Cristoso sentenced 106 former Chilean intelligence officials to between 541 days and 20 years in prison for their role in the kidnapping and murder of 16 left-wing activists in 1974 and 1975.
Economic policy
In 1973, the Chilean economy was deeply depressed for several reasons, Allende's government had expropriated many Chilean and foreign businesses, including all copper mines, had controlled prices, inflation reached 606%, income per capita had a contraction of -7.14% in 1973 only while in comparison to 1970 it had contracted by -30%, GDP contracted by -5% in 1973, and also public spending rose from 22.6% to 44.9% between 1970 and 1973 creating a deficit of 25% of the GDP, while some authors like Peter Kornbluh also argue that economic sanctions by the Nixon administration helped to create the economic crisis other authors like Paul Sigmund and Mark Falcoff argue there was no blockade because there was still (just less) aid and credit as well as not a real embargo on trade; the economic and political crisis had the armed forces taking power in September 1973 with Augusto Pinochet, José Toribio Merino Castro, Gustavo Leigh and César Mendoza as their leaders.
By mid-1975, after two years of Keynesianism, the government set forth an economic policy of free-market reforms that attempted to stop inflation and collapse. Pinochet declared that he wanted "to make Chile not a nation of proletarians, but a nation of proprietors". To formulate the economic rescue, the government relied on the so-called Chicago Boys and a text called El ladrillo, and although Chile grew very quickly between 1976 and 1981, it had a large amount of debt which made Chile the most affected nation by the Latin American debt crisis.
In sharp contrast to the privatization done in other areas, Chile's nationalized main copper mines remained in government hands, with the 1980 Constitution later declaring the mines "inalienable". In 1976, Codelco was established to exploit them but new mineral deposits were opened to private investment. In November 1980, the pension system was restructured from a PAYGO-system to a fully funded capitalization system run by private sector pension funds. Healthcare and education were likewise privatized. These mines would ultimately help them economically however they would fall partly in American hands.
Wages decreased by 8%. Family allowances in 1989 were 28% of what they had been in 1970 and the budgets for education, health and housing had dropped by over 20% on average. The junta relied on the middle class, the oligarchy, foreign corporations, and foreign loans to maintain itself. Businesses recovered most of their lost industrial and agricultural holdings, for the junta returned properties to original owners who had lost them during expropriations, and sold other industries expropriated by Allende's Popular Unity government to private buyers. This period saw the expansion of business and widespread speculation.
Financial conglomerates became major beneficiaries of the liberalized economy and the flood of foreign bank loans. Large foreign banks reinstated the credit cycle, as debt obligations, such as resuming payment of principal and interest installments, were honored. International lending organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Inter-American Development Bank lent vast sums anew. Many foreign multinational corporations such as International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT), Dow Chemical, and Firestone, all expropriated by Allende, returned to Chile. Pinochet's policies eventually led to substantial GDP growth, in contrast to the negative growth seen in the early years of his administration, while public debt also was kept high mostly to finance public spending which even after the privatization of services was kept at high rates (though far less than before privatization), for example, in 1991 after one year of post-Pinochet democracy debt was still at 37.4% of the GDP.
The Pinochet government implemented an economic model that had three main objectives: economic liberalization, privatization of state owned companies, and stabilization of inflation. In 1985, the government initiated a second round of privatization, revising previously introduced tariff increases and creating a greater supervisory role for the Central Bank. Pinochet's market liberalizations have continued after his death, led by Patricio Aylwin. According to a 2020 study in the Journal of Economic History, Pinochet sold firms at below-market prices to politically connected buyers.
Critics argue the neoliberal economic policies of the Pinochet regime resulted in widening inequality and deepening poverty as they negatively impacted the wages, benefits and working conditions of Chile's working class. According to Chilean economist Alejandro Foxley, by the end of Pinochet's reign around 44% of Chilean families were living below the poverty line. According to The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, by the late 1980s, the economy had stabilized and was growing, but around 45% of the population had fallen into poverty while the wealthiest 10% saw their incomes rise by 83%. But others disagree, Chilean economist José Piñera argues that 2 years after Pinochet took power, poverty was still at 50% and the liberal reforms reduced it to 7.8% in 2013 as well as income per capita rising from US$4.000 in 1975 to US$25.000 in 2015, supporters of the reforms also argue that when Pinochet left power in 1990 poverty had fallen to 38% and some claim that since the consolidation of the neoliberal system inequality has been reducing. However, protests erupted in late 2019 in response to growing inequality in the country which can be traced back to the neoliberal policies of the Pinochet dictatorship.
American scholar, Nancy MacLean, wrote that the concentration of money in the hands of the very rich and the perversion of democracy through the privatization of government was always the goal. The architect of this economic model known as "public choice", James M. Buchanan, traveled to Chile and worked closely with the Pinochet regime. MacLean's account, however, has come under scrutiny. Economist Andrew Farrant examined the Chilean constitutional clauses that MacLean attributes to Buchanan, and discovered that they pre-dated his visit. He concludes that "evidence suggests that Buchanan's May 1980 visit did not particularly influence the subsequent drafting of the Chilean Constitution" and "there is no evidence to suggest that Buchanan had any kind of audience with Pinochet or corresponded with the Chilean dictator."
1988 referendum, attempt to stay in power and transition to democracy
According to the transitional provisions of the 1980 Constitution, a referendum was scheduled for 5 October 1988, to vote on a new eight-year presidential term for Pinochet. Confronted with increasing opposition, notably at the international level, Pinochet legalized political parties in 1987 and called for a vote to determine whether or not he would remain in power until 1997. If the "YES" won, Pinochet would have to implement the dispositions of the 1980 Constitution, mainly the call for general elections, while he would himself remain in power as president. If the "NO" won, Pinochet would remain President for another year, and a joint Presidential and legislative election would be held.
Another reason for Pinochet's decision to call for elections was the April 1987 visit of Pope John Paul II to Chile. According to the US Catholic author George Weigel, he held a meeting with Pinochet during which they discussed a return to democracy. John Paul II allegedly pushed Pinochet to accept a democratic opening of his government, and even called for his resignation.
Political advertising was legalized on 5 September 1987, as a necessary element for the campaign for the "NO" to the referendum, which countered the official campaign, which presaged a return to a Popular Unity government in case of a defeat of Pinochet. The Opposition, gathered into the Concertación de Partidos por el NO ("Coalition of Parties for NO"), organized a colorful and cheerful campaign under the slogan La alegría ya viene ("Joy is coming"). It was formed by the Christian Democracy, the Socialist Party and the Radical Party, gathered in the Alianza Democrática (Democratic Alliance). In 1988, several more parties, including the Humanist Party, the Ecologist Party, the Social Democrats, and several Socialist Party splinter groups added their support.
On 5 October 1988, the "NO" option won with 55.99% of the votes, against 44.01% of "YES" votes. In the wake of his electoral defeat, Pinochet attempted to implement a plan for an auto-coup. He attempted to implement efforts to orchestrate chaos and violence in the streets to justify his power grab, however, the Carabinero police refused an order to lift the cordon against street demonstrations in the capital, according to a CIA informant. In his final move, Pinochet convened a meeting of his junta at La Moneda, in which he requested that they give him extraordinary powers to have the military seize the capital. Air Force General Fernando Matthei refused, saying that he would not agree to such a thing under any circumstances, and the rest of the junta followed this stance, on grounds that Pinochet already had his turn and lost. Matthei would later become the first member of the junta to publicly admit that Pinochet had lost the plebiscite. Without any support from the junta, Pinochet was forced to accept the result. The ensuing Constitutional process led to presidential and legislative elections the following year.
The Coalition changed its name to Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia (Coalition of Parties for Democracy) and put forward Patricio Aylwin, a Christian Democrat who had opposed Allende, as presidential candidate, and also proposed a list of candidates for the parliamentary elections. The opposition and the Pinochet government made several negotiations to amend the Constitution and agreed to 54 modifications. These amendments changed the way the Constitution would be modified in the future, added restrictions to state of emergency dispositions, the affirmation of political pluralism, and enhanced constitutional rights as well as the democratic principle and participation to political life. In July 1989, a referendum on the proposed changes took place, supported by all the parties except the right-wing Southern Party and the Chilean Socialist Party. The Constitutional changes were approved by 91.25% of the voters.
Thereafter, Aylwin won the December 1989 presidential election with 55% of the votes, against less than 30% for the right-wing candidate, Hernán Büchi, who had been Pinochet's Minister of Finances since 1985 (there was also a third-party candidate, Francisco Javier Errázuriz, a wealthy aristocrat representing the extreme economic right, who garnered the remaining 15%). Pinochet thus left the presidency on 11 March 1990 and transferred power to the new democratically elected president.
The Concertación also won the majority of votes for the Parliament. However, due to the "binomial" representation system included in the constitution, the elected senators did not achieve a complete majority in Parliament, a situation that would last for over 15 years. This forced them to negotiate all law projects with the Alliance for Chile (originally called "Democracy and Progress" and then "Union for Chile"), a center-right coalition involving the Unión Demócrata Independiente (UDI) and Renovación Nacional (RN), parties composed mainly of Pinochet's supporters.
Due to the transitional provisions of the constitution, Pinochet remained as Commander-in-Chief of the Army until March 1998. He was then sworn in as a senator-for-life, a privilege granted by the 1980 constitution to former presidents with at least six years in office. His senatorship and consequent immunity from prosecution protected him from legal action. These were possible in Chile only after Pinochet was arrested in 1998 in the United Kingdom, on an extradition request issued by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón. Allegations of abuses had been made numerous times before his arrest, but never acted upon. The extradition attempt was dramatised in the 2006 BBC television docudrama Pinochet in Suburbia, with Pinochet played by Derek Jacobi. Shortly before giving up power, on September 15, 1989, Pinochet prohibited all forms of abortion, previously authorized in case of rape or risk to the life of the mother. Pinochet argued that due to advances in medicine, abortion was "no longer justifiable".
Relationship with the United Kingdom
Chile was officially neutral during the Falklands War, but Chile's Westinghouse long-range radar that was deployed in the south of the country gave the British task force early warning of Argentinian air attacks. This allowed British ships and troops in the war zone to take defensive action. Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister at the time of the war, said that the day the radar was taken out of service for overdue maintenance was the day Argentinian fighter-bombers bombed the troopships Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram, leaving 53 dead and many injured. According to Chilean Junta member and former Air Force commander, General Fernando Matthei, Chilean support included military intelligence gathering, radar surveillance, allowing British aircraft to operate with Chilean colours, and facilitating the safe return of British special forces, among other forms of assistance.
In April and May 1982, a squadron of mothballed British Hawker Hunter fighter-bombers departed for Chile, arriving on 22 May and allowing the Chilean Air Force to reform the No. 9 "Las Panteras Negras" Squadron. A further consignment of three frontier surveillance and shipping reconnaissance Canberras left for Chile in October. Some authors have speculated that Argentina might have won the war had the military felt able to employ the elite VIth and VIIIth Mountain Brigades, which remained sitting in the Andes guarding against possible Chilean incursions. Pinochet subsequently visited the UK on more than one occasion. Pinochet's controversial relationship with Thatcher led Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair to mock Thatcher's Conservatives as "the party of Pinochet" in 1999.
Human rights violations
Pinochet's regime was responsible for many human rights abuses during its reign, including forced disappearances, murder, and torture of political opponents. According to a government commission report that included testimony from more than 30,000 people, Pinochet's government killed at least 3,197 people and tortured about 29,000. Two-thirds of the cases listed in the report happened in 1973.
Professor Clive Foss, in The Tyrants: 2500 Years of Absolute Power and Corruption (Quercus Publishing 2006), estimates that 1,500–2,000 Chileans were killed or "disappeared" during the Pinochet regime. In October 1979, The New York Times reported that Amnesty International had documented the disappearance of approximately 1,500 Chileans since 1973. Among the killed and disappeared during the military regime were at least 663 Marxist MIR guerrillas. The Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, however, has stated that only 49 FPMR guerrillas were killed but hundreds detained and tortured. According to a study in Latin American Perspectives, at least 200,000 Chileans (about 2% of Chile's 1973 population) were forced to go into exile. Additionally, hundreds of thousands left the country in the wake of the economic crises that followed the military coup during the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the key individuals who fled because of political persecution were followed in their exile by the DINA secret police, in the framework of Operation Condor, which linked South American military dictatorships together against political opponents.
According to John Dinges, author of The Condor Years (The New Press 2003), documents released in 2015 revealed a CIA report dated 28 April 1978 that showed the agency by then had knowledge that Pinochet ordered the assassination of Orlando Letelier, a leading political opponent living in exile in the United States.
According to Peter Kornbluh in The Pinochet File, "routine sadism was taken to extremes" in the prison camps. The rape of women was common, including sexual torture such as the insertion of rats into genitals and "unnatural acts involving dogs". Detainees were forcibly immersed in vats of urine and excrement, and were occasionally forced to ingest it. Beatings with gun butts, fists and chains were routine; one technique known as "the telephone" involved the torturer slamming "his open hands hard and rhythmically against the ears of the victim", leaving the person deaf. At Villa Grimaldi, prisoners were dragged into the parking lot and had the bones in their legs crushed as they were run over with trucks. Some died from torture; prisoners were beaten with chains and left to die from internal injuries. Following abuse and execution, corpses were interred in secret graves, dropped into rivers or the ocean, or just dumped on urban streets in the night. The body of the renowned Chilean singer, theatre director and academic Víctor Jara was found in a dirty canal "with his hands and face extremely disfigured" and with "forty-four bullet holes".
The practice of murdering political opponents via "death flights", employed by the juntas of Argentina and Chile, has sometimes been the subject of numerous alt-right and other right-wing extremist groups internet memes, with the suggestion that political enemies and leftists be given "free helicopter rides". In 2001, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos informed the nation that during Pinochet's reign, 120 bodies had been tossed from helicopters into "the ocean, the lakes and the rivers of Chile". In a final assessment of his legacy during his funeral, Belisario Velasco, Chile's interior minister at the time remarked that "Pinochet was a classic right-wing dictator who badly violated human rights and who became rich."
Ideology and public image
Pinochet himself expressed his project in government as a national rebirth inspired by Diego Portales, a figure of the early republic:
Lawyer Jaime Guzmán participated in the design of important speeches of Pinochet, and provided frequent political and doctrinal advice and consultancy.
Jacobo Timerman has called the Chilean army under Pinochet "the last Prussian army in the world", suggesting a pre-Fascist origin to the model of Pinochet's military government.
Historian Alfredo Jocelyn-Holt has referred to Pinochet's figure as "totemic", and added that it serves as a scapegoat which attracts "all hate". Gabriel Salazar, also a historian, has lamented the lack of an international condemnation of Pinochet in court, since, according to Salazar, that would have damaged his image "irreparably" and that of the judicial system of Chile [for the good] too.
In 1989 indigenous Mapuche groups representing the "Consejos Regionales" bestowed Pinochet the title Ulmen Füta Lonko or Great Authority.
According to Pinochet, who was aware of his ancestry, he was taught the French language by an uncle, although he later forgot most of it. Pinochet admired Napoleon as the greatest among French and had a framed picture of him. Another French ruler he admired was Louis XIV.
Pinochet's reputation led Peruvians in the 1990s to call Alberto Fujimori "chinochet" instead of his ordinary nickname "chino". Chadian dictator Hissène Habré, a Cold War ally of the West, has been characterized as "Africa's Pinochet" for ordering the torture and mass killing of political opponents during his reign, and for the decades long campaign to see him convicted of crimes against humanity. Images of Pinochet have been used in several Internet memes with the caption "Pinochet's Free Helicopter Rides", referencing death flights which saw political dissidents being thrown from helicopters over the Pacific or the Andes during Pinochet's rule. Variations of the internet meme have seen increased popularity with the rise of far-right and alt-right politics.
Accusations of fascism
Pinochet and his government have been characterised as fascist. For example, journalist and author Samuel Chavkin, in his book Storm Over Chile: The Junta Under Siege, repeatedly characterizes both Pinochet himself and the military dictatorship as fascist.
However, he and his government are generally excluded from academic typologies of fascism. Roger Griffin included Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots distinct from fascism, which included the likes of Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos. He argues that such regimes may be considered populist ultra-nationalist but lack the rhetoric of national rebirth, or palingenesis, necessary to make them conform to the model of palingenetic ultranationalism. Robert Paxton meanwhile compared Pinochet's regime to that of Mobutu Sese Seko in the former Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), arguing that both were merely client states that lacked popular acclaim and the ability to expand. He further argued that had Pinochet attempted to build true fascism, the regime would likely have been toppled or at least been forced to alter its relationship to the United States. Anna Cento Bull also excluded Pinochet from fascism, although she has argued that his regime belongs to a strand of Cold War anti-communism that was happy to accommodate neo-fascist elements within its activity.
World Fascism: a Historical Encyclopedia notes that "Although he was authoritarian and ruled dictatorially, Pinochet's support of neoliberal economic policies and his unwillingness to support national businesses distinguished him from classical fascists."
Historian Gabriel Salazar stated that high visibility of Pinochet and neglect of co-workers was reminiscent of fascist leadership:
Intellectual life and academic work
Pinochet was publicly known as a man with a lack of culture and this image was reinforced by the fact that he also portrayed himself as a common man with simple ideas. He was also known for being reserved, sharing little about his opinions or feelings. Before wresting power from Allende, Pinochet had written two books, Geopolítica (1968) and Campaña de Tarapacá (1972), which established him as a major figure in Chile's military literature. In Geopolítica Pinochet plagiarized his mentor general Gregorio Rodríguez Tascón by using paragraphs from a 1949 conference presentation of Rodríguez without attributing them to him.
Rodríguez had previously lectured Pinochet and René Schneider and Carlos Prats in geography and geopolitics. In contrast to the two latter Pinochet was not an outstanding student but his persistence and interest in geopolitics made Rodríguez assume the role as his academic mentor. Rodríguez granted Pinochet a slot as assistant lecturer in geopolitics and in geography. According to Rodríguez, Pinochet would have been particularly impressed by his lectures on The Art of War. Pinochet would later succeed Rodríguez in the geopolitics and geography chair.
Investigative journalist Juan Cristóbal Peña has put forward the thesis that Pinochet felt intellectual envy of Carlos Prats and that the latter's assassination in 1974 was a relief for Pinochet.
During his lifetime, Pinochet amassed more than 55,000 books in his private library, worth an estimated 2,840,000 US dollars (2006–07). The extent of his library was revealed to the public only after a police inspection in January 2006. Pinochet bought books at several small bookshops in the old centre of Santiago and was later supplied with books from abroad by military attachés who bought texts Pinochet was searching after. As ruler of Chile he used discretionary funds for these purchases. The library included many rare books including a first edition (1646) Historica relacion del Reyno de Chile and an original letter of Bernardo O'Higgins. A significant part of the books and documents of the library of José Manuel Balmaceda was found in Pinochet's library in 2006. Pinochet's library contained almost no poetry or fiction works.
Nicknames
Supporters sometimes refer to Pinochet as my general (the military salutation for a general) while opponents call him pinocho (Spanish for "Pinocchio", from the children's story). A common nickname used by both younger generations is el tata (Chilean Spanish equivalent of "the grandpa"). Since the Riggs Bank scandal he has been referred to sarcastically as Daniel Lopez, one of the fake identities he used to deposit money in the bank.
Post-dictatorship life
Arrest and court cases in the United Kingdom
Pinochet was arrested in London on "charges of genocide and terrorism that include murder" in October 1998. The indictment and arrest of Pinochet was the first time that a former government head was arrested on the principle of universal jurisdiction.
After having been placed under house arrest on the grounds of the Wentworth Club in Britain in October 1998 and initiating a judicial and public relations battle, the latter run by Thatcherite political operative Patrick Robertson, he was released in March 2000 on medical grounds by the Home Secretary Jack Straw without facing trial. Straw had overruled a House of Lords decision to extradite Pinochet to face trial in Spain.
Return to Chile
Pinochet returned to Chile on 3 March 2000. So as to avoid any potential disruption his flight back to Chile from the UK departed from RAF Waddington, evading those protesting against his release.
His first act when landing in Santiago's airport was to triumphantly get up from his wheelchair to the acclaim of his supporters. He was greeted by his successor as head of the Chilean armed forces, General Ricardo Izurieta. President-elect Ricardo Lagos said the retired general's televised arrival had damaged the image of Chile, while thousands demonstrated against him.
In March 2000, Congress approved a constitutional amendment creating the status of "ex-president", which granted its holder immunity from prosecution and a financial allowance; this replaced Pinochet's senatorship-for-life. 111 legislators voted for, and 29 against.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of judge Juan Guzmán's request in August 2000, and Pinochet was indicted on 1 December 2000 for the kidnapping of 75 opponents in the Caravan of Death case. Guzmán advanced the charge of kidnapping as the 75 were officially "disappeared": even though they were all most likely dead, the absence of their corpses made any charge of "homicide" difficult.
In July 2002, the Supreme Court dismissed Pinochet's indictment in the various human rights abuse cases, for medical reasons (vascular dementia). The debate concerned Pinochet's mental faculties, his legal team claiming that he was senile and could not remember, while others (including several physicians) claimed that he was affected only physically but retained all control of his faculties. The same year, the prosecuting attorney Hugo Guttierez, in charge of the Caravan of Death case, declared, "Our country has the degree of justice that the political transition permits us to have."
Pinochet resigned from his senatorial seat shortly after the Supreme Court's July 2002 ruling. In May 2004, the Supreme Court overturned its precedent decision, and ruled that he was capable of standing trial. In arguing their case, the prosecution presented a recent TV interview Pinochet had given to journalist Maria Elvira Salazar for a Miami-based television network, which raised doubts about his alleged mental incapacity. In December 2004, he was charged with several crimes, including the 1974 assassination of General Prats and the Operation Colombo case in which 119 died, and was again placed under house arrest. He suffered a stroke on 18 December 2004. Questioned by his judges in order to know if, as president, he was the direct head of DINA, he answered: "I don't remember, but it's not true. And if it were true, I don't remember."
In January 2005, the Chilean Army accepted institutional responsibility for past human rights abuses. In 2006, Pinochet was indicted for kidnappings and torture at the Villa Grimaldi detention center by judge Alejandro Madrid (Guzmán's successor), as well as for the 1995 assassination of the DINA biochemist Eugenio Berrios, himself involved in the Letelier case. Berrios, who had worked with Michael Townley, had produced sarin gas, anthrax and botulism in the Bacteriological War Army Laboratory for Pinochet; these materials were used against political opponents. The DINA biochemist was also alleged to have created black cocaine, which Pinochet then sold in Europe and the United States. The money for the drug trade was allegedly deposited into Pinochet's bank accounts. Pinochet's son Marco Antonio, who had been accused of participating in the drug trade, in 2006 denied claims of drug trafficking in his father's administration and said that he would sue Manuel Contreras, who had said that Pinochet sold cocaine.
On 25 November 2006, Pinochet marked his 91st birthday by having his wife read a statement he had written to admirers present for his birthday: "I assume the political responsibility for all that has been done." Two days later, he was again sentenced to house arrest for the kidnapping and murder of two bodyguards of Salvador Allende who were arrested the day of the 1973 coup and executed by firing squad during the Caravan of Death.
Pinochet died a few days later, on 10 December 2006, without having been convicted of any of the crimes of which he was accused.
Scandals: secret bank accounts, tax evasion, and arms deal
In 2004, a United States Senate money laundering investigation led by Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Norm Coleman (R-MN)—ordered in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks—uncovered a network of over 125 securities and bank accounts at Riggs Bank and other U.S. financial institutions used by Pinochet and his associates for twenty-five years to secretly move millions of dollars.
Though the subcommittee was charged only with investigating compliance of financial institutions under the USA PATRIOT Act, and not the Pinochet regime, Senator Coleman noted:
Over several months in 2005, Chilean judge Sergio Muñoz indicted Augusto Pinochet's wife, Lucia Hiriart; four of his children – Marco Antonio, Jacqueline, Veronica and Lucia Pinochet; his personal secretary, Monica Ananias; and his former aide Oscar Aitken on tax evasion and falsification charges stemming from the Riggs Bank investigation. In January 2006, daughter Lucia Pinochet was detained at Washington DC-Dulles airport and subsequently deported while attempting to evade the tax charges in Chile. In January 2007, the Santiago Court of Appeals revoked most of the indictment from Judge Carlos Cerda against the Pinochet family. But Pinochet's five children, his wife and 17 other persons (including two generals, one of his former lawyer and former secretary) were arrested in October 2007 on charges of embezzlement and use of false passports. They are accused of having illegally transferred $27m (£13.2m) to foreign bank accounts during Pinochet's rule.
In September 2005, a joint investigation by The Guardian and La Tercera revealed that the British arms firm BAE Systems had been identified as paying more than £1m to Pinochet, through a front company in the British Virgin Islands, which BAE has used to channel commission on arms deals. The payments began in 1997 and lasted until 2004.
In 2007, fifteen years of investigation led to the conclusion that the 1992 assassination of DINA Colonel Gerardo Huber was most probably related to various illegal arms traffic carried out, after Pinochet's resignation from power, by military circles very close to himself. Huber had been assassinated a short time before he was due to testify in the case concerning the 1991 illegal export of weapons to the Croatian army. The deal involved 370 tons of weapons, sold to Croatia by Chile on 7 December 1991, when the former country was under a United Nations' embargo because of the support for Croatia war in Yugoslavia. In January 1992, the judge Hernán Correa de la Cerda wanted to hear Gerardo Huber in this case, but the latter may have been silenced to avoid implicating Pinochet in this new case—although the latter was no longer President, he remained at the time Commander-in-Chief of the Army. Pinochet was at the center of this illegal arms trade, receiving money through various offshores and front companies, including the Banco Coutts International in Miami.
Pinochet was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in August 2000 by the Supreme Court, and indicted by judge Juan Guzmán Tapia. Guzmán had ordered in 1999 the arrest of five militarists, including General Pedro Espinoza Bravo of the DINA, for their role in the Caravan of Death following the coup on 11 September. Arguing that the bodies of the "disappeared" were still missing, he made jurisprudence, which had as effect to lift any prescription on the crimes committed by the military. Pinochet's trial continued until his death on 10 December 2006, with an alternation of indictments for specific cases, lifting of immunities by the Supreme Court or to the contrary immunity from prosecution, with his health a main argument for, or against, his prosecution.
The Supreme Court affirmed, in March 2005, Pinochet's immunity concerning the 1974 assassination of General Carlos Prats in Buenos Aires, which had taken place in the frame of Operation Condor. However, he was deemed fit to stand trial for Operation Colombo, during which 119 political opponents were "disappeared" in Argentina. The Chilean justice also lifted his immunity on the Villa Grimaldi case, a detention and torture center in the outskirts of Santiago. Pinochet, who still benefited from a reputation of righteousness from his supporters, lost legitimacy when he was put under house arrest on tax fraud and passport forgery, following the publication by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of a report concerning the Riggs Bank in July 2004. The report was a consequence of investigations on financial funding of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US. The bank controlled between US$4 million and $8 million of the assets of Pinochet, who lived in Santiago in a modest house, dissimulating his wealth. According to the report, Riggs participated in money laundering for Pinochet, setting up offshore shell corporations (referring to Pinochet as only "a former public official"), and hiding his accounts from regulatory agencies. Related to Pinochet's and his family secret bank accounts in United States and in Caribbean islands, this tax fraud filing for an amount of 27 million dollars shocked the conservative sectors who still supported him. Ninety percent of these funds would have been raised between 1990 and 1998, when Pinochet was chief of the Chilean armies, and would essentially have come from weapons traffic (when purchasing French 'Mirage' fighter aircraft in 1994, Dutch 'Leopard 2' tanks, Swiss 'MOWAG' armored vehicles or by illegal sales of weapons to Croatia, during the Balkans war.) His wife, Lucía Hiriart, and his son, Marco Antonio Pinochet, were also sued for complicity. For the fourth time in seven years, Pinochet was indicted by the Chilean justice.
Death
Pinochet suffered a heart attack on the morning of 3 December 2006 and was given the last rites the same day. On 4 December 2006, the Chilean Court of Appeals ordered the suspension of his house arrest. On 10 December 2006 at 13:30 local time (16:30 UTC) he was taken to the intensive care unit. He died of congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema, surrounded by family members, at the Military Hospital at 14:15 local time (17:15 UTC).
Massive spontaneous street demonstrations broke out throughout the country upon the news of his death. In Santiago, opponents celebrated his death in Alameda Avenue, while supporters grieved outside the Military Hospital. Pinochet's remains lay in repose on 11 December 2006 at the Military Academy in Las Condes. During this ceremony, Francisco Cuadrado Prats—the grandson of Carlos Prats (a former Commander-in-Chief of the Army in the Allende government who was murdered by Pinochet's secret police)—spat on the coffin, and was quickly surrounded by supporters of Pinochet, who assaulted him. Pinochet's funeral took place the following day at the same venue before a gathering of 60,000 supporters.
In a government decision, he was not granted a state funeral (an honor normally bestowed upon past presidents of Chile) but a military funeral as former commander-in-chief of the Army appointed by Allende. The government also refused to declare an official national day of mourning, but it did authorize flags at military barracks to be flown at half staff, and for the Chilean flag to be draped on Pinochet's coffin. Socialist President Michelle Bachelet, whose father Alberto was temporarily imprisoned and tortured after the 1973 coup and died shortly afterwards from heart complications, said that it would be "a violation of [her] conscience" to attend a state funeral for Pinochet. The only government authority present at the public funeral was the Defense Minister, Vivianne Blanlot.
In Spain, supporters of late dictator Francisco Franco paid homage to Pinochet. Antonio Tejero, who led the failed coup of 1981, attended a memorial service in Madrid.
Pinochet's body was cremated in Parque del Mar Cemetery, Concón on 12 December 2006, on his request to "avoid vandalism of his tomb", according to his son Marco Antonio. His ashes were delivered to his family later that day, and are deposited in Los Boldos, Santo Domingo, Valparaiso, Chile; one of his personal residences. The armed forces refused to allow his ashes to be deposited on military property.
Honours
National honours
:
Grand Master of the Order of Merit - (1974-1990)
Grand Master of the Order of Bernardo O'Higgins- (1974-1990)
President of the Republic Decoration
10 Years Service Award
20 Years Service Award
30 Years Service Award
Minerva Medal(Army War College)
Minerva Medal(Army War College)
Decoration of the President of the Chilean Red Cross
Grand Knight of the Altiplano of Arica
Foreign honours
: Grand Cross of the Order of the Quetzal
:
Order of Abdon Calderón, 1st Class
Official Honorary General Staff Decoration of the Armed Forces of Ecuador
Honorary Staff Officer of the Armed Forces of Ecuador
: Order of José Matías Delgado
: Collar of Francisco Solano Lopez Grade of the National Order of Merit (Paraguay)
:
Grand Cross of the Order of the Liberator General San Martín
Grand Cross of the Order of May
: Commander of the Order of Military Merit José María Córdova
: Crosses of Military Merit
: Supreme Grand Collar of the Military Order of the Saint Salvador and Saint Bridgette (self-styled order)
See also
1970 Chilean presidential election
United States intervention in Chile
Book burnings in Chile
History of Chile
Pinochetism
Colonia, a film about two West Germans caught up in the aftermath of the Pinochet coup who end up in the Colonia Dignidad cult
Missing, a film based on the life of U.S. journalist Charles Horman, who disappeared in the aftermath of the Pinochet coup
No, an Academy Award-nominated film presenting a dramatized account of the 1988 national plebiscite campaign on Pinochet's rule
David H. Popper, US ambassador to Chile (1974–1977)
United States involvement in regime change
Notes
References
Further reading
(Reviewed in The Washington Post, Book World, p. 2, 2009-10-19)
External links
Extensive bio by Fundación CIDOB (in Spanish)
Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006) – A Biography
France 24 coverage – Augusto Pinochet's Necrology on France 24
BBC coverage (special report)
Documentary Film on Chilean Concentration Camp from Pinochet's Regime: Chacabuco
CIA Acknowledges Ties to Pinochet's Repression from The National Security Archive
Chile under Allende and Pinochet
Human rights violation under Pinochet
The Times obituary
Analysis of economic policy under Pinochet by economist Jim Cypher in Dollars & Sense magazine
Chile: The Price of Democracy New English Review
What Pinochet Did for Chile Hoover Digest (2007 No. 1)
When US-Backed Pinochet Forces Took Power in Chile – video report by Democracy Now!
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Survivors of terrorist attacks | false | [
"Adel Fattough Ali Al Gazzar (Arabic: عادل الجزار ) is a citizen of Egypt formerly held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.\nThe Department of Defense reports that he was born on October 22, 1965, in Cairo, Egypt.\n\nAfter approximately eight years in Guantanamo, he was transferred to Slovakia in January 2010. In June, he declared his intention to go on a hunger strike to protest conditions there.\n\nBackground\n\nAccording to his lawyers Gazzar worked for the Saudi Red Crescent, and was injured during his one and only visit to Afghanistan to deliver humanitarian aid. He claimed sympathetic Pakistani dignitaries visited him in the Pakistani hospital where his wounds were treated, but that he was nevertheless falsely denounced and sold to the US for a bounty.\n\nHe was first held in a U.S prison in Kandahar where he according to lawyers \"was subject to severe beatings, exposure to freezing temperatures, sleep deprivation for days on end, and suspension by the wrists.\"\n\nHe was injured during the American aerial bombardment of Afghanistan, and had his leg amputated above the knee by Guantanamo medical staff after i had become gangrenous from lack of care.\n\nHe stood accused of training and fighting in Kashmir.\n\nAdel Fattough Ali Algazzar v. George W. Bush\n\nA writ of habeas corpus, Adel Fattough Ali Algazzar v. George W. Bush, was submitted on Adel Fattough Al Algazzar's behalf.\nIn response\nthe Department of Defense published 37\npages of unclassified documents related to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.\n\nOn October 29, 2004, Tribunal panel 15 confirmed his \"enemy combatant\" status.\n\nPress reports\nOn July 12, 2006 the magazine Mother Jones provided excerpts from the transcripts of a selection of the Guantanamo detainees.\nAl Gazzar was one of the detainees profiled.\nAccording to the article his transcript contained the following exchange:\nalgazzar: I am disappointed with this tribunal because if I am in a court and you accuse me of anything I should be allowed to know what the accusations are and to see the evidence. You tell me that these accusations are unclassified but there are other classified accusations. How can I defend myself if I don’t know what the evidence is about the other accusations?...\n\ntribunal member: If I can clarify a little bit before you start. These are all the accusations. What we will get in the classified session is in theory evidence to support these accusations, but there are no other accusations against you besides what is listed here.\n\nalgazzar: I understand that but what I mean is if you say I am an enemy combatant and you say you have evidence, I don’t get to see it. Then I will stay here….\n\ntribunal member: Do you have any theories about why the government and the Pakistani intel folks would sell you out and turn you over to the Americans?\n\nalgazzar: Come on, man, you know what happened. In Pakistan you can buy people for $10. So what about $5,000?\n\ntribunal member: So they sold you?\n\nalgazzar: Yes.\nCanadian journalist, and former special assistant to US President George W. Bush, David Frum, published an article based on his own reading of the transcripts from the Combatant Status Review Tribunals, on November 11, 2006.\nIt was Frum who coined the term \"Axis of evil\" for use in a speech he wrote for Bush. \nAl Gazzar's transcript was one of the nine Frum briefly summarized.\nHis comment on Al Gazzar was:\n\nFrum came to the conclusion that all nine of the men whose transcript he summarized had obviously lied. \nHe did not, however, state how he came to the conclusion they lied.\nHis article concluded with the comment:\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n Moazzam Begg interviews former Guantanamo prisoner, Adel el-Gazzar, in Slovakia\n Ex-Guantánamo Prisoner Adel Al-Gazzar Returns Home to Egypt and Is Arrested June 14, 2011 \n After 8 years in Guantanamo, Egyptian jailed at Tora Prison\n Three Neglected Ex-Guantánamo Prisoners in Slovakia Embark on a Hunger Strike Andy Worthington June 27, 2010\n Guantánamo’s refugees Andy Worthington\n\n1965 births\nLiving people\nEgyptian extrajudicial prisoners of the United States\nEgyptian Muslims\nPeople from Cairo\nGuantanamo detainees known to have been released",
"Genocide Organ is a German power electronics/martial industrial collective, formed in Mannheim, Germany in 1985. They are known for their brutal and controversial presentation in their music and attitude.\n\nMany of the themes present in their music make reference to the Ku Klux Klan, the Third Reich and war. This insistence on these themes has led to accusations of being far-right extremists, they have denied these accusations in interviews saying: “We never say what we think, and we never believe what we say, and if we tell the truth by accident, we hide it under so many lies that it is difficult to find out”. Due to this attitude, the website Discogs has blocked the sale of a number of their albums.\n\nDiscography \n\n Leichenlinie (1989)\n Save Our Slaves (1991)\n Mind Control (1995)\n Remember (1997)\n The Truth Will Make You Free (1999)\n Same (2003)\n In-Konflikt (2004)\n Under-Kontrakt (2011)\n Obituary of the Americas (2016)\n Civilization (2017)\n Movement (2019)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n Tesco Organisation Webpage\n\nMusical groups established in 1985\nElectronic music groups\nExperimental music\nPower electronics (music)\nIndustrial music groups"
]
|
[
"Augusto Pinochet",
"Accusations of fascism",
"What were the accusations?",
"Griffin included Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots distinct from fascism and including the likes of Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos."
]
| C_2456f9e2997745a2bdf69e61067fea11_0 | What he accused of being a fascist? | 2 | Why was Augusto Pinochet accused of being a fascist? | Augusto Pinochet | Pinochet and his government have been characterised as fascist. For example, journalist and author Samuel Chavkin, in his book Storm Over Chile: The Junta Under Siege, repeatedly characterizes both Pinochet himself and the military dictatorship as fascist. However, he and his government are generally excluded from academic typologies of fascism. Roger Griffin included Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots distinct from fascism and including the likes of Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos. He argues that such regimes may be considered populist ultra-nationalism but lack the rhetoric of national rebirth, or palingenesis, necessary to make them conform to the model of palingenetic ultranationalism. Robert Paxton meanwhile compared Pinochet's regime to that of Mobutu Sese Seko in the former Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), arguing that both were merely client states that lacked popular acclaim and the ability to expand. He further argued that had Pinochet attempted to build true fascism, the regime would likely have been toppled or at least been forced to alter its relationship to the United States. Anna Cento Bull also excluded Pinochet from fascism, although she has argued that his regime belongs to a strand of Cold War anti-communism that was happy to accommodate neo-fascist elements within its activity. World Fascism: a Historical Encyclopedia notes that "Although he was authoritarian and ruled dictatorially, Pinochet's support of neoliberal economic policies and his unwillingness to support national businesses distinguished him from classical fascists." Historian Gabriel Salazar stated that Pinochet's establishment cult of personality around him was a fascist tactic: It is notable that in all the declarations of Pinochet's men, nobody has mentioned the creators of the new Chilean society and state, I haven't heard anybody mention Jaime Guzman, Carlos Caceres, Hernan Buchi, Sergio de Castro. There is no mention of the true brains, or that the whole of the armed forces were involved in this, in dirty and symbolic tasks. Everything is embodied in Pinochet, it's very curious that figures of the stature of Buchi are immolated before the figure of Pinochet, in what is to me a fascist rite, give everything to the Fuhrer, "I did it, but ultimately it was him". CANNOTANSWER | Pinochet attempted to build true fascism, the regime would likely have been toppled or at least been forced to alter its relationship to the United States. | Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean dictator and general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being self-declared President of the Republic by the junta in 1974 and becoming the de facto dictator of Chile, and from 1981 to 1990 as de jure President after a new Constitution, which confirmed him in the office, was approved by a referendum in 1980.
Augusto Pinochet rose through the ranks of the Chilean Army to become General Chief of Staff in early 1972 before being appointed its Commander-in-Chief on 23 August 1973 by President Salvador Allende. On 11 September 1973,
Pinochet seized power in Chile in a coup d'état, with the support of the U.S., that toppled Allende's democratically elected Unidad Popular government and ended civilian rule. In December 1974, the ruling military junta appointed Pinochet Supreme Head of the nation by joint decree, although without the support of one of the coup's instigators, Air Force General Gustavo Leigh. After his rise to power, Pinochet persecuted leftists, socialists, and political critics, resulting in the executions of 1,200 to 3,200 people, the internment of as many as 80,000 people, and the torture of tens of thousands. According to the Chilean government, the number of executions and forced disappearances was 3,095. Operation Condor, a U.S.-supported terror operation focusing on South America, was founded at the behest of the Pinochet regime in late November 1975, his 60th birthday.
Under the influence of the free market-oriented "Chicago Boys", Pinochet's military government implemented economic liberalization, including currency stabilization, removed tariff protections for local industry, banned trade unions, and privatized social security and hundreds of state-owned enterprises. Some of the government properties were sold below market price to politically connected buyers, including Pinochet's own son-in-law. The regime used censorship of entertainment as a way to reward supporters of the regime and punish opponents. These policies produced high economic growth, but critics state that economic inequality dramatically increased and attribute the devastating effects of the 1982 monetary crisis on the Chilean economy to these policies. For most of the 1990s, Chile was the best-performing economy in Latin America, though the legacy of Pinochet's reforms continues to be in dispute. His fortune grew considerably during his years in power through dozens of bank accounts secretly held abroad and a fortune in real estate. He was later prosecuted for embezzlement, tax fraud, and for possible commissions levied on arms deals.
Pinochet's 17-year rule was given a legal framework through a controversial 1980 plebiscite, which approved a new constitution drafted by a government-appointed commission. In a 1988 plebiscite, 56% voted against Pinochet's continuing as president, which led to democratic elections for the presidency and Congress. After stepping down in 1990, Pinochet continued to serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army until 10 March 1998, when he retired and became a senator-for-life in accordance with his 1980 Constitution. However, Pinochet was arrested under an international arrest warrant on a visit to London on 10 October 1998 in connection with numerous human rights violations. Following a legal battle, he was released on grounds of ill-health and returned to Chile on 3 March 2000. In 2004, Chilean Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia ruled that Pinochet was medically fit to stand trial and placed him under house arrest. By the time of his death on 10 December 2006, about 300 criminal charges were still pending against him in Chile for numerous human rights violations during his 17-year rule, as well as tax evasion and embezzlement during and after his rule. He was also accused of having corruptly amassed at least US$28 million.
Early life and education
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was born in Valparaíso on 25 November 1915. He was the son and namesake of Augusto Pinochet Vera (1891–1944), a descendant of an 18th century French Breton immigrant from Lamballe, and Avelina Ugarte Martínez (1895–1986), a woman of Basque heritage whose family had been in Chile since the 17th century.
Pinochet went to primary and secondary school at the San Rafael Seminary of Valparaíso, the Rafael Ariztía Institute (Marist Brothers) in Quillota, the French Fathers' School of Valparaíso, and then to the Military School in Santiago, which he entered in 1931. In 1935, after four years studying military geography, he graduated with the rank of alférez (Second Lieutenant) in the infantry.
Military career
In September 1937, Pinochet was assigned to the "Chacabuco" Regiment, in Concepción. Two years later, in 1939, then with the rank of Sub-lieutenant, he moved to the "Maipo" Regiment, garrisoned in Valparaíso. He returned to Infantry School in 1940. On 30 January 1943, Pinochet married Lucía Hiriart Rodríguez, with whom he had five children: Inés Lucía, María Verónica, Jacqueline Marie, Augusto Osvaldo and Marco Antonio.
By late 1945, Pinochet had been assigned to the "Carampangue" Regiment in the northern city of Iquique. Three years later, he entered the Chilean War Academy but had to postpone his studies because, being the youngest officer, he had to carry out a service mission in the coal zone of Lota. In 1948, Pinochet was initiated in the regular Masonic Lodge Victoria n°15 of San Bernardo, affiliated to the Grand Lodge of Chile. He received the Scottish Rite degree of companion, but he is thought not to have ever become a Grand Master.
The following year he returned to his studies in the academy, and after obtaining the title of Officer Chief of Staff, in 1951, he returned to teach at the Military School. At the same time, he worked as a teachers' aide at the War Academy, giving military geography and geopolitics classes. He was also the editor of the institutional magazine Cien Águilas ('One Hundred Eagles'). At the beginning of 1953, with the rank of major, he was sent for two years to the "Rancagua" Regiment in Arica. While there, he was appointed professor of the Chilean War Academy, and returned to Santiago to take up his new position.
In 1956, Pinochet and a group of young officers were chosen to form a military mission to collaborate in the organization of the War Academy of Ecuador in Quito. He remained with the Quito mission for four-and-a-half years, during which time he studied geopolitics, military geography and military intelligence. At the end of 1959 he returned to Chile and was sent to General Headquarters of the 1st Army Division, based in Antofagasta. The following year, he was appointed commander of the "Esmeralda" Regiment. Due to his success in this position, he was appointed Sub-director of the War Academy in 1963. In 1968, he was named Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army Division, based in Santiago, and at the end of that year, he was promoted to brigadier general and Commander in Chief of the 6th Division, garrisoned in Iquique. In his new function, he was also appointed Intendent of the Tarapacá Province.
In January 1971, Pinochet was promoted to division general and was named General Commander of the Santiago Army Garrison. On 8 June 1971, following the assassination of Edmundo Perez Zujovic by left-wing radicals, Allende appointed Pinochet a supreme authority of Santiago province, imposing a military curfew in the process, which was later lifted. However, on 2 December 1971, following a series of peaceful protests against economic policies of Allende, the curfew was re-installed, all protests prohibited, with Pinochet leading the crackdown on anti-Allende protests. At the beginning of 1972, he was appointed General Chief of Staff of the Army. With rising domestic strife in Chile, after General Prats resigned his position, Pinochet was appointed commander-in-chief of the Army on 23 August 1973 by President Salvador Allende just one day after the Chamber of Deputies of Chile approved a resolution asserting that the government was not respecting the Constitution. Less than a month later, the Chilean military deposed Allende.
Military coup of 1973
On 11 September 1973, the combined Chilean Armed Forces (the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Carabineros) overthrew Allende's government in a coup, during which the presidential palace, La Moneda, was shelled and most likely where Allende was said to have committed suicide. While the military claimed that he had committed suicide, controversy surrounded Allende's death, with many claiming that he had been assassinated (such theory was discarded by the Chilean Supreme Court in 2014).
In his memoirs, Pinochet said that he was the leading plotter of the coup and had used his position as commander-in-chief of the Army to coordinate a far-reaching scheme with the other two branches of the military and the national police. In later years, however, high military officials from the time have said that Pinochet reluctantly became involved only a few days before the coup was scheduled to occur, and followed the lead of the other branches (especially the Navy, under Merino) as they executed the coup.
The new government rounded up thousands of people and held them in the national stadium, where many were killed. This was followed by brutal repression during Pinochet's rule, during which approximately 3,000 people were killed, while more than 1,000 are still missing.
In the months that followed the coup, the junta, with authoring work by historian Gonzalo Vial and admiral Patricio Carvajal, published a book titled El Libro Blanco del cambio de gobierno en Chile (commonly known as El Libro Blanco, 'The White Book on the Change of Government in Chile'), in which they said that they were in fact anticipating a self-coup (the alleged Plan Zeta, or Plan Z) that Allende's government or its associates were purportedly preparing. United States intelligence agencies believed the plan to be untrue propaganda. Although later discredited and officially recognized as the product of political propaganda, Gonzalo Vial Correa insists in the similarities between the alleged Plan Z and other existing paramilitary plans of the Popular Unity parties in support of its legitimacy. Pinochet was also trained by the School of the Americas (SOA) where it is likely he first encountered the ideals of the coup.
Canadian reporter Jean Charpentier of Télévision de Radio-Canada was the first foreign journalist to interview General Pinochet following the coup. After Allende's final radio address, he shot himself rather than becoming a prisoner.
U.S. backing of the coup
The Church Report investigating the fallout of the Watergate scandal stated that while the U.S. tacitly supported the Pinochet government after the 1973 coup, there was "no evidence" that the US was directly involved in it. This view has been contradicted by several academics, such as Peter Winn, who writes that the role of the CIA was crucial to the consolidation of power after the coup; the CIA helped fabricate a conspiracy against the Allende government, which Pinochet was then portrayed as preventing. He stated that the coup itself was possible only through a three-year covert operation mounted by the United States. Winn also points out that the US imposed an "invisible blockade" that was designed to disrupt the economy under Allende, and contributed to the destabilization of the regime. Author Peter Kornbluh argues in The Pinochet File that the US was extensively involved and actively "fomented" the 1973 coup. Authors Tim Weiner (Legacy of Ashes) and Christopher Hitchens (The Trial of Henry Kissinger) similarly argue the case that US covert actions actively destabilized Allende's government and set the stage for the 1973 coup. Despite denial of countless American agencies, current declassified documentation has proven the American involvement. Nixon and Kissinger, along with both private and public intelligence agencies were "apprised of, and even enmeshed in, the planning and executing of the military takeover." Along with this, CIA operatives directly involved, such as Jack Devine, have also come out and declared their involvement in the coup. Devine stating "I sent CIA headquarters a special type of top-secret cable known as a CRITIC, which ... goes directly to the highest levels of government."
The US provided material support to the military government after the coup, although criticizing it in public. A document released by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2000, titled "CIA Activities in Chile", revealed that the CIA actively supported the military junta after the overthrow of Allende, and that it made many of Pinochet's officers into paid contacts of the CIA or U.S. military, even though some were known to be involved in human rights abuses. The CIA also maintained contacts in the Chilean DINA intelligence service. DINA led the multinational campaign known as Operation Condor, which amongst other activities carried out assassinations of prominent politicians in various Latin American countries, in Washington, D.C., and in Europe, and kidnapped, tortured and executed activists holding left-wing views, which culminated in the deaths of roughly 60,000 people. The United States provided key organizational, financial and technical assistance to the operation. CIA contact with DINA head Manuel Contreras was established in 1974 soon after the coup, during the Junta period prior to official transfer of Presidential powers to Pinochet; in 1975, the CIA reviewed a warning that keeping Contreras as an asset might threaten human rights in the region. The CIA chose to keep him as an asset, and at one point even paid him. In addition to the CIA's maintaining of assets in DINA beginning soon after the coup, several CIA assets, such as CORU Cuban exile militants Orlando Bosch and Guillermo Novo, collaborated in DINA operations under the Condor Plan in the early years of Pinochet's presidency.
Military junta
A military junta was established immediately following the coup, made up of General Pinochet representing the Army, Admiral José Toribio Merino representing the Navy, General Gustavo Leigh representing the Air Force, and General César Mendoza representing the Carabineros (national police). As established, the junta exercised both executive and legislative functions of the government, suspended the Constitution and the Congress, imposed strict censorship and curfew, banned all parties and halted all political and perceived subversive activities. This military junta held the executive role until 17 December 1974, after which it remained strictly as a legislative body, the executive powers being transferred to Pinochet with the title of President.
Military dictatorship (1973–1990)
The junta members originally planned that the presidency would be held for a year by the commanders-in-chief of each of the four military branches in turn. However, Pinochet soon consolidated his control, first retaining sole chairmanship of the military junta, and then proclaiming himself "Supreme Chief of the Nation" (de facto provisional president) on 27 June 1974. He officially changed his title to "President" on 17 December 1974. General Leigh, head of the Air Force, became increasingly opposed to Pinochet's policies and was forced into retirement on 24 July 1978, after contradicting Pinochet on that year's plebiscite (officially called Consulta Nacional, or National Consultation, in response to a UN resolution condemning Pinochet's government). He was replaced by General Fernando Matthei.
Pinochet organized a plebiscite on 11 September 1980 to ratify a new constitution, replacing the 1925 Constitution drafted during Arturo Alessandri's presidency. The new Constitution, partly drafted by Jaime Guzmán, a close adviser to Pinochet who later founded the right-wing party Independent Democratic Union (UDI), gave a lot of power to the President of the Republic—Pinochet. It created some new institutions, such as the Constitutional Tribunal and the controversial National Security Council (COSENA). It also prescribed an 8-year presidential period, and a single-candidate presidential referendum in 1988, where a candidate nominated by the Junta would be approved or rejected for another 8-year period. The new constitution was approved by a margin of 67.04% to 30.19% according to official figures; the opposition, headed by ex-president Eduardo Frei Montalva (who had supported Pinochet's coup), denounced extensive irregularities such as the lack of an electoral register, which facilitated multiple voting, and said that the total number of votes reported to have been cast was very much larger than would be expected from the size of the electorate and turnout in previous elections. Interviews after Pinochet's departure with people involved with the referendum confirmed that fraud had, indeed, been widespread. The Constitution was promulgated on 21 October 1980, taking effect on 11 March 1981. Pinochet was replaced as President of the Junta that day by Admiral Merino. During Pinochet's reign it is estimated that some one million people had been forced to flee the country.
Armed opposition to the Pinochet rule continued in remote parts of the country. In a massive operation spearheaded by Chilean Army para-commandos, some 2,000 security forces troops were deployed in the mountains of Neltume from June to November 1981, where they destroyed two MIR bases, seizing large caches of munitions and killing a number of guerrillas.
According to author Ozren Agnic Krstulovic, weapons including C-4 plastic explosives, RPG-7 and M72 LAW rocket launchers, as well as more than 3,000 M-16 rifles, were smuggled into the country by opponents of the government.
In September 1986, weapons from the same source were used in an unsuccessful assassination attempt against Pinochet by the FPMR. His military bodyguard was taken by surprise, and five members were killed. Pinochet's bulletproof Mercedes Benz vehicle was struck by a rocket, but it failed to explode and Pinochet suffered only minor injuries.
Suppression of opposition
Almost immediately after the military's seizure of power, the junta banned all the leftist parties that had constituted Allende's UP coalition.
All other parties were placed in "indefinite recess" and were later banned outright. The government's violence was directed not only against dissidents but also against their families and other civilians.
The Rettig Report concluded 2,279 persons who disappeared during the military government were killed for political reasons or as a result of political violence. According to the later Valech Report approximately 31,947 were tortured and 1,312 exiled. The exiles were chased all over the world by the intelligence agencies. In Latin America, this was made in the frame of Operation Condor, a cooperation plan between the various intelligence agencies of South American countries, assisted by a United States CIA communication base in Panama. Pinochet believed these operations were necessary in order to "save the country from communism". In 2011, the commission identified an additional 9,800 victims of political repression during Pinochet's rule, increasing the total number of victims to approximately 40,018, including 3,065 killed.
Some political scientists have ascribed the relative bloodiness of the coup to the stability of the existing democratic system, which required extreme action to overturn. Some of the most infamous cases of human rights violation occurred during the early period: in October 1973, at least 70 people were killed throughout the country by the Caravan of Death. Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, both U.S. journalists, "disappeared", as did Víctor Olea Alegría, a member of the Socialist Party, and many others, in 1973. British priest Michael Woodward, who vanished within 10 days of the coup, was tortured and beaten to death aboard the Chilean naval ship, Esmeralda.
Many other important officials of Allende's government were tracked down by the DINA in the frame of Operation Condor. General Carlos Prats, Pinochet's predecessor and army commander under Allende, who had resigned rather than support the moves against Allende's government, was assassinated in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1974. A year later, the murder of 119 opponents abroad was disguised as an internal conflict, the DINA setting up a propaganda campaign to support this idea (Operation Colombo), a campaign publicised by the leading newspaper in Chile, El Mercurio.
Other victims of Condor included, among hundreds of less famous persons, Juan José Torres, the former President of Bolivia, assassinated in Buenos Aires on 2 June 1976; Carmelo Soria, a UN diplomat working for the CEPAL, assassinated in July 1976;
Orlando Letelier, a former Chilean ambassador to the United States and minister in Allende's cabinet, assassinated after his release from internment and exile in Washington, D.C. by a car bomb on 21 September 1976. Documents confirm that Pinochet directly ordered the assassination of Letelier. This led to strained relations with the US and to the extradition of Michael Townley, a US citizen who worked for the DINA and had organized Letelier's assassination. Other targeted victims, who escaped assassination, included Christian-Democrat Bernardo Leighton, who escaped an assassination attempt in Rome in 1975 by the Italian terrorist Stefano delle Chiaie; Carlos Altamirano, the leader of the Chilean Socialist Party, targeted for murder in 1975 by Pinochet, along with Volodia Teitelboim, member of the Communist Party; Pascal Allende, the nephew of Salvador Allende and president of the MIR, who escaped an assassination attempt in Costa Rica in March 1976; US Congressman Edward Koch, who became aware in 2001 of relations between death threats and his denunciation of Operation Condor, etc. Furthermore, according to current investigations, Eduardo Frei Montalva, the Christian Democrat President of Chile from 1964 to 1970, may have been poisoned in 1982 by toxin produced by DINA biochemist Eugenio Berrios.
Protests continued, however, during the 1980s, leading to several scandals. In March 1985, the murder of three Communist Party members led to the resignation of César Mendoza, head of the Carabineros and member of the junta since its formation. During a 1986 protest against Pinochet, 21-year-old American photographer Rodrigo Rojas DeNegri and 18-year-old student Carmen Gloria Quintana were burnt alive, with only Carmen surviving.
In August 1989, Marcelo Barrios Andres, a 21-year-old member of the FPMR (the armed wing of the PCC, created in 1983, which had attempted to assassinate Pinochet on 7 September 1986), was assassinated by a group of military personnel who were supposed to arrest him on orders of Valparaíso's public prosecutor. However, they simply executed him; this case was included in the Rettig Report. Among the killed and disappeared during the military junta were 440 MIR guerrillas. In December 2015, three former DINA agents were sentenced to ten years in prison for the murder of a 29-year-old theology student and activist, German Rodriguez Cortes, in 1978. That same month 62-year-old Guillermo Reyes Rammsy, a former Chilean soldier during the Pinochet years, was arrested and charged with murder for boasting of participating in 18 executions during a live phone-in to the Chilean radio show "Chacotero Sentimental".
On 2 June 2017, Chilean judge Hernan Cristoso sentenced 106 former Chilean intelligence officials to between 541 days and 20 years in prison for their role in the kidnapping and murder of 16 left-wing activists in 1974 and 1975.
Economic policy
In 1973, the Chilean economy was deeply depressed for several reasons, Allende's government had expropriated many Chilean and foreign businesses, including all copper mines, had controlled prices, inflation reached 606%, income per capita had a contraction of -7.14% in 1973 only while in comparison to 1970 it had contracted by -30%, GDP contracted by -5% in 1973, and also public spending rose from 22.6% to 44.9% between 1970 and 1973 creating a deficit of 25% of the GDP, while some authors like Peter Kornbluh also argue that economic sanctions by the Nixon administration helped to create the economic crisis other authors like Paul Sigmund and Mark Falcoff argue there was no blockade because there was still (just less) aid and credit as well as not a real embargo on trade; the economic and political crisis had the armed forces taking power in September 1973 with Augusto Pinochet, José Toribio Merino Castro, Gustavo Leigh and César Mendoza as their leaders.
By mid-1975, after two years of Keynesianism, the government set forth an economic policy of free-market reforms that attempted to stop inflation and collapse. Pinochet declared that he wanted "to make Chile not a nation of proletarians, but a nation of proprietors". To formulate the economic rescue, the government relied on the so-called Chicago Boys and a text called El ladrillo, and although Chile grew very quickly between 1976 and 1981, it had a large amount of debt which made Chile the most affected nation by the Latin American debt crisis.
In sharp contrast to the privatization done in other areas, Chile's nationalized main copper mines remained in government hands, with the 1980 Constitution later declaring the mines "inalienable". In 1976, Codelco was established to exploit them but new mineral deposits were opened to private investment. In November 1980, the pension system was restructured from a PAYGO-system to a fully funded capitalization system run by private sector pension funds. Healthcare and education were likewise privatized. These mines would ultimately help them economically however they would fall partly in American hands.
Wages decreased by 8%. Family allowances in 1989 were 28% of what they had been in 1970 and the budgets for education, health and housing had dropped by over 20% on average. The junta relied on the middle class, the oligarchy, foreign corporations, and foreign loans to maintain itself. Businesses recovered most of their lost industrial and agricultural holdings, for the junta returned properties to original owners who had lost them during expropriations, and sold other industries expropriated by Allende's Popular Unity government to private buyers. This period saw the expansion of business and widespread speculation.
Financial conglomerates became major beneficiaries of the liberalized economy and the flood of foreign bank loans. Large foreign banks reinstated the credit cycle, as debt obligations, such as resuming payment of principal and interest installments, were honored. International lending organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Inter-American Development Bank lent vast sums anew. Many foreign multinational corporations such as International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT), Dow Chemical, and Firestone, all expropriated by Allende, returned to Chile. Pinochet's policies eventually led to substantial GDP growth, in contrast to the negative growth seen in the early years of his administration, while public debt also was kept high mostly to finance public spending which even after the privatization of services was kept at high rates (though far less than before privatization), for example, in 1991 after one year of post-Pinochet democracy debt was still at 37.4% of the GDP.
The Pinochet government implemented an economic model that had three main objectives: economic liberalization, privatization of state owned companies, and stabilization of inflation. In 1985, the government initiated a second round of privatization, revising previously introduced tariff increases and creating a greater supervisory role for the Central Bank. Pinochet's market liberalizations have continued after his death, led by Patricio Aylwin. According to a 2020 study in the Journal of Economic History, Pinochet sold firms at below-market prices to politically connected buyers.
Critics argue the neoliberal economic policies of the Pinochet regime resulted in widening inequality and deepening poverty as they negatively impacted the wages, benefits and working conditions of Chile's working class. According to Chilean economist Alejandro Foxley, by the end of Pinochet's reign around 44% of Chilean families were living below the poverty line. According to The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, by the late 1980s, the economy had stabilized and was growing, but around 45% of the population had fallen into poverty while the wealthiest 10% saw their incomes rise by 83%. But others disagree, Chilean economist José Piñera argues that 2 years after Pinochet took power, poverty was still at 50% and the liberal reforms reduced it to 7.8% in 2013 as well as income per capita rising from US$4.000 in 1975 to US$25.000 in 2015, supporters of the reforms also argue that when Pinochet left power in 1990 poverty had fallen to 38% and some claim that since the consolidation of the neoliberal system inequality has been reducing. However, protests erupted in late 2019 in response to growing inequality in the country which can be traced back to the neoliberal policies of the Pinochet dictatorship.
American scholar, Nancy MacLean, wrote that the concentration of money in the hands of the very rich and the perversion of democracy through the privatization of government was always the goal. The architect of this economic model known as "public choice", James M. Buchanan, traveled to Chile and worked closely with the Pinochet regime. MacLean's account, however, has come under scrutiny. Economist Andrew Farrant examined the Chilean constitutional clauses that MacLean attributes to Buchanan, and discovered that they pre-dated his visit. He concludes that "evidence suggests that Buchanan's May 1980 visit did not particularly influence the subsequent drafting of the Chilean Constitution" and "there is no evidence to suggest that Buchanan had any kind of audience with Pinochet or corresponded with the Chilean dictator."
1988 referendum, attempt to stay in power and transition to democracy
According to the transitional provisions of the 1980 Constitution, a referendum was scheduled for 5 October 1988, to vote on a new eight-year presidential term for Pinochet. Confronted with increasing opposition, notably at the international level, Pinochet legalized political parties in 1987 and called for a vote to determine whether or not he would remain in power until 1997. If the "YES" won, Pinochet would have to implement the dispositions of the 1980 Constitution, mainly the call for general elections, while he would himself remain in power as president. If the "NO" won, Pinochet would remain President for another year, and a joint Presidential and legislative election would be held.
Another reason for Pinochet's decision to call for elections was the April 1987 visit of Pope John Paul II to Chile. According to the US Catholic author George Weigel, he held a meeting with Pinochet during which they discussed a return to democracy. John Paul II allegedly pushed Pinochet to accept a democratic opening of his government, and even called for his resignation.
Political advertising was legalized on 5 September 1987, as a necessary element for the campaign for the "NO" to the referendum, which countered the official campaign, which presaged a return to a Popular Unity government in case of a defeat of Pinochet. The Opposition, gathered into the Concertación de Partidos por el NO ("Coalition of Parties for NO"), organized a colorful and cheerful campaign under the slogan La alegría ya viene ("Joy is coming"). It was formed by the Christian Democracy, the Socialist Party and the Radical Party, gathered in the Alianza Democrática (Democratic Alliance). In 1988, several more parties, including the Humanist Party, the Ecologist Party, the Social Democrats, and several Socialist Party splinter groups added their support.
On 5 October 1988, the "NO" option won with 55.99% of the votes, against 44.01% of "YES" votes. In the wake of his electoral defeat, Pinochet attempted to implement a plan for an auto-coup. He attempted to implement efforts to orchestrate chaos and violence in the streets to justify his power grab, however, the Carabinero police refused an order to lift the cordon against street demonstrations in the capital, according to a CIA informant. In his final move, Pinochet convened a meeting of his junta at La Moneda, in which he requested that they give him extraordinary powers to have the military seize the capital. Air Force General Fernando Matthei refused, saying that he would not agree to such a thing under any circumstances, and the rest of the junta followed this stance, on grounds that Pinochet already had his turn and lost. Matthei would later become the first member of the junta to publicly admit that Pinochet had lost the plebiscite. Without any support from the junta, Pinochet was forced to accept the result. The ensuing Constitutional process led to presidential and legislative elections the following year.
The Coalition changed its name to Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia (Coalition of Parties for Democracy) and put forward Patricio Aylwin, a Christian Democrat who had opposed Allende, as presidential candidate, and also proposed a list of candidates for the parliamentary elections. The opposition and the Pinochet government made several negotiations to amend the Constitution and agreed to 54 modifications. These amendments changed the way the Constitution would be modified in the future, added restrictions to state of emergency dispositions, the affirmation of political pluralism, and enhanced constitutional rights as well as the democratic principle and participation to political life. In July 1989, a referendum on the proposed changes took place, supported by all the parties except the right-wing Southern Party and the Chilean Socialist Party. The Constitutional changes were approved by 91.25% of the voters.
Thereafter, Aylwin won the December 1989 presidential election with 55% of the votes, against less than 30% for the right-wing candidate, Hernán Büchi, who had been Pinochet's Minister of Finances since 1985 (there was also a third-party candidate, Francisco Javier Errázuriz, a wealthy aristocrat representing the extreme economic right, who garnered the remaining 15%). Pinochet thus left the presidency on 11 March 1990 and transferred power to the new democratically elected president.
The Concertación also won the majority of votes for the Parliament. However, due to the "binomial" representation system included in the constitution, the elected senators did not achieve a complete majority in Parliament, a situation that would last for over 15 years. This forced them to negotiate all law projects with the Alliance for Chile (originally called "Democracy and Progress" and then "Union for Chile"), a center-right coalition involving the Unión Demócrata Independiente (UDI) and Renovación Nacional (RN), parties composed mainly of Pinochet's supporters.
Due to the transitional provisions of the constitution, Pinochet remained as Commander-in-Chief of the Army until March 1998. He was then sworn in as a senator-for-life, a privilege granted by the 1980 constitution to former presidents with at least six years in office. His senatorship and consequent immunity from prosecution protected him from legal action. These were possible in Chile only after Pinochet was arrested in 1998 in the United Kingdom, on an extradition request issued by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón. Allegations of abuses had been made numerous times before his arrest, but never acted upon. The extradition attempt was dramatised in the 2006 BBC television docudrama Pinochet in Suburbia, with Pinochet played by Derek Jacobi. Shortly before giving up power, on September 15, 1989, Pinochet prohibited all forms of abortion, previously authorized in case of rape or risk to the life of the mother. Pinochet argued that due to advances in medicine, abortion was "no longer justifiable".
Relationship with the United Kingdom
Chile was officially neutral during the Falklands War, but Chile's Westinghouse long-range radar that was deployed in the south of the country gave the British task force early warning of Argentinian air attacks. This allowed British ships and troops in the war zone to take defensive action. Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister at the time of the war, said that the day the radar was taken out of service for overdue maintenance was the day Argentinian fighter-bombers bombed the troopships Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram, leaving 53 dead and many injured. According to Chilean Junta member and former Air Force commander, General Fernando Matthei, Chilean support included military intelligence gathering, radar surveillance, allowing British aircraft to operate with Chilean colours, and facilitating the safe return of British special forces, among other forms of assistance.
In April and May 1982, a squadron of mothballed British Hawker Hunter fighter-bombers departed for Chile, arriving on 22 May and allowing the Chilean Air Force to reform the No. 9 "Las Panteras Negras" Squadron. A further consignment of three frontier surveillance and shipping reconnaissance Canberras left for Chile in October. Some authors have speculated that Argentina might have won the war had the military felt able to employ the elite VIth and VIIIth Mountain Brigades, which remained sitting in the Andes guarding against possible Chilean incursions. Pinochet subsequently visited the UK on more than one occasion. Pinochet's controversial relationship with Thatcher led Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair to mock Thatcher's Conservatives as "the party of Pinochet" in 1999.
Human rights violations
Pinochet's regime was responsible for many human rights abuses during its reign, including forced disappearances, murder, and torture of political opponents. According to a government commission report that included testimony from more than 30,000 people, Pinochet's government killed at least 3,197 people and tortured about 29,000. Two-thirds of the cases listed in the report happened in 1973.
Professor Clive Foss, in The Tyrants: 2500 Years of Absolute Power and Corruption (Quercus Publishing 2006), estimates that 1,500–2,000 Chileans were killed or "disappeared" during the Pinochet regime. In October 1979, The New York Times reported that Amnesty International had documented the disappearance of approximately 1,500 Chileans since 1973. Among the killed and disappeared during the military regime were at least 663 Marxist MIR guerrillas. The Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, however, has stated that only 49 FPMR guerrillas were killed but hundreds detained and tortured. According to a study in Latin American Perspectives, at least 200,000 Chileans (about 2% of Chile's 1973 population) were forced to go into exile. Additionally, hundreds of thousands left the country in the wake of the economic crises that followed the military coup during the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the key individuals who fled because of political persecution were followed in their exile by the DINA secret police, in the framework of Operation Condor, which linked South American military dictatorships together against political opponents.
According to John Dinges, author of The Condor Years (The New Press 2003), documents released in 2015 revealed a CIA report dated 28 April 1978 that showed the agency by then had knowledge that Pinochet ordered the assassination of Orlando Letelier, a leading political opponent living in exile in the United States.
According to Peter Kornbluh in The Pinochet File, "routine sadism was taken to extremes" in the prison camps. The rape of women was common, including sexual torture such as the insertion of rats into genitals and "unnatural acts involving dogs". Detainees were forcibly immersed in vats of urine and excrement, and were occasionally forced to ingest it. Beatings with gun butts, fists and chains were routine; one technique known as "the telephone" involved the torturer slamming "his open hands hard and rhythmically against the ears of the victim", leaving the person deaf. At Villa Grimaldi, prisoners were dragged into the parking lot and had the bones in their legs crushed as they were run over with trucks. Some died from torture; prisoners were beaten with chains and left to die from internal injuries. Following abuse and execution, corpses were interred in secret graves, dropped into rivers or the ocean, or just dumped on urban streets in the night. The body of the renowned Chilean singer, theatre director and academic Víctor Jara was found in a dirty canal "with his hands and face extremely disfigured" and with "forty-four bullet holes".
The practice of murdering political opponents via "death flights", employed by the juntas of Argentina and Chile, has sometimes been the subject of numerous alt-right and other right-wing extremist groups internet memes, with the suggestion that political enemies and leftists be given "free helicopter rides". In 2001, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos informed the nation that during Pinochet's reign, 120 bodies had been tossed from helicopters into "the ocean, the lakes and the rivers of Chile". In a final assessment of his legacy during his funeral, Belisario Velasco, Chile's interior minister at the time remarked that "Pinochet was a classic right-wing dictator who badly violated human rights and who became rich."
Ideology and public image
Pinochet himself expressed his project in government as a national rebirth inspired by Diego Portales, a figure of the early republic:
Lawyer Jaime Guzmán participated in the design of important speeches of Pinochet, and provided frequent political and doctrinal advice and consultancy.
Jacobo Timerman has called the Chilean army under Pinochet "the last Prussian army in the world", suggesting a pre-Fascist origin to the model of Pinochet's military government.
Historian Alfredo Jocelyn-Holt has referred to Pinochet's figure as "totemic", and added that it serves as a scapegoat which attracts "all hate". Gabriel Salazar, also a historian, has lamented the lack of an international condemnation of Pinochet in court, since, according to Salazar, that would have damaged his image "irreparably" and that of the judicial system of Chile [for the good] too.
In 1989 indigenous Mapuche groups representing the "Consejos Regionales" bestowed Pinochet the title Ulmen Füta Lonko or Great Authority.
According to Pinochet, who was aware of his ancestry, he was taught the French language by an uncle, although he later forgot most of it. Pinochet admired Napoleon as the greatest among French and had a framed picture of him. Another French ruler he admired was Louis XIV.
Pinochet's reputation led Peruvians in the 1990s to call Alberto Fujimori "chinochet" instead of his ordinary nickname "chino". Chadian dictator Hissène Habré, a Cold War ally of the West, has been characterized as "Africa's Pinochet" for ordering the torture and mass killing of political opponents during his reign, and for the decades long campaign to see him convicted of crimes against humanity. Images of Pinochet have been used in several Internet memes with the caption "Pinochet's Free Helicopter Rides", referencing death flights which saw political dissidents being thrown from helicopters over the Pacific or the Andes during Pinochet's rule. Variations of the internet meme have seen increased popularity with the rise of far-right and alt-right politics.
Accusations of fascism
Pinochet and his government have been characterised as fascist. For example, journalist and author Samuel Chavkin, in his book Storm Over Chile: The Junta Under Siege, repeatedly characterizes both Pinochet himself and the military dictatorship as fascist.
However, he and his government are generally excluded from academic typologies of fascism. Roger Griffin included Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots distinct from fascism, which included the likes of Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos. He argues that such regimes may be considered populist ultra-nationalist but lack the rhetoric of national rebirth, or palingenesis, necessary to make them conform to the model of palingenetic ultranationalism. Robert Paxton meanwhile compared Pinochet's regime to that of Mobutu Sese Seko in the former Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), arguing that both were merely client states that lacked popular acclaim and the ability to expand. He further argued that had Pinochet attempted to build true fascism, the regime would likely have been toppled or at least been forced to alter its relationship to the United States. Anna Cento Bull also excluded Pinochet from fascism, although she has argued that his regime belongs to a strand of Cold War anti-communism that was happy to accommodate neo-fascist elements within its activity.
World Fascism: a Historical Encyclopedia notes that "Although he was authoritarian and ruled dictatorially, Pinochet's support of neoliberal economic policies and his unwillingness to support national businesses distinguished him from classical fascists."
Historian Gabriel Salazar stated that high visibility of Pinochet and neglect of co-workers was reminiscent of fascist leadership:
Intellectual life and academic work
Pinochet was publicly known as a man with a lack of culture and this image was reinforced by the fact that he also portrayed himself as a common man with simple ideas. He was also known for being reserved, sharing little about his opinions or feelings. Before wresting power from Allende, Pinochet had written two books, Geopolítica (1968) and Campaña de Tarapacá (1972), which established him as a major figure in Chile's military literature. In Geopolítica Pinochet plagiarized his mentor general Gregorio Rodríguez Tascón by using paragraphs from a 1949 conference presentation of Rodríguez without attributing them to him.
Rodríguez had previously lectured Pinochet and René Schneider and Carlos Prats in geography and geopolitics. In contrast to the two latter Pinochet was not an outstanding student but his persistence and interest in geopolitics made Rodríguez assume the role as his academic mentor. Rodríguez granted Pinochet a slot as assistant lecturer in geopolitics and in geography. According to Rodríguez, Pinochet would have been particularly impressed by his lectures on The Art of War. Pinochet would later succeed Rodríguez in the geopolitics and geography chair.
Investigative journalist Juan Cristóbal Peña has put forward the thesis that Pinochet felt intellectual envy of Carlos Prats and that the latter's assassination in 1974 was a relief for Pinochet.
During his lifetime, Pinochet amassed more than 55,000 books in his private library, worth an estimated 2,840,000 US dollars (2006–07). The extent of his library was revealed to the public only after a police inspection in January 2006. Pinochet bought books at several small bookshops in the old centre of Santiago and was later supplied with books from abroad by military attachés who bought texts Pinochet was searching after. As ruler of Chile he used discretionary funds for these purchases. The library included many rare books including a first edition (1646) Historica relacion del Reyno de Chile and an original letter of Bernardo O'Higgins. A significant part of the books and documents of the library of José Manuel Balmaceda was found in Pinochet's library in 2006. Pinochet's library contained almost no poetry or fiction works.
Nicknames
Supporters sometimes refer to Pinochet as my general (the military salutation for a general) while opponents call him pinocho (Spanish for "Pinocchio", from the children's story). A common nickname used by both younger generations is el tata (Chilean Spanish equivalent of "the grandpa"). Since the Riggs Bank scandal he has been referred to sarcastically as Daniel Lopez, one of the fake identities he used to deposit money in the bank.
Post-dictatorship life
Arrest and court cases in the United Kingdom
Pinochet was arrested in London on "charges of genocide and terrorism that include murder" in October 1998. The indictment and arrest of Pinochet was the first time that a former government head was arrested on the principle of universal jurisdiction.
After having been placed under house arrest on the grounds of the Wentworth Club in Britain in October 1998 and initiating a judicial and public relations battle, the latter run by Thatcherite political operative Patrick Robertson, he was released in March 2000 on medical grounds by the Home Secretary Jack Straw without facing trial. Straw had overruled a House of Lords decision to extradite Pinochet to face trial in Spain.
Return to Chile
Pinochet returned to Chile on 3 March 2000. So as to avoid any potential disruption his flight back to Chile from the UK departed from RAF Waddington, evading those protesting against his release.
His first act when landing in Santiago's airport was to triumphantly get up from his wheelchair to the acclaim of his supporters. He was greeted by his successor as head of the Chilean armed forces, General Ricardo Izurieta. President-elect Ricardo Lagos said the retired general's televised arrival had damaged the image of Chile, while thousands demonstrated against him.
In March 2000, Congress approved a constitutional amendment creating the status of "ex-president", which granted its holder immunity from prosecution and a financial allowance; this replaced Pinochet's senatorship-for-life. 111 legislators voted for, and 29 against.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of judge Juan Guzmán's request in August 2000, and Pinochet was indicted on 1 December 2000 for the kidnapping of 75 opponents in the Caravan of Death case. Guzmán advanced the charge of kidnapping as the 75 were officially "disappeared": even though they were all most likely dead, the absence of their corpses made any charge of "homicide" difficult.
In July 2002, the Supreme Court dismissed Pinochet's indictment in the various human rights abuse cases, for medical reasons (vascular dementia). The debate concerned Pinochet's mental faculties, his legal team claiming that he was senile and could not remember, while others (including several physicians) claimed that he was affected only physically but retained all control of his faculties. The same year, the prosecuting attorney Hugo Guttierez, in charge of the Caravan of Death case, declared, "Our country has the degree of justice that the political transition permits us to have."
Pinochet resigned from his senatorial seat shortly after the Supreme Court's July 2002 ruling. In May 2004, the Supreme Court overturned its precedent decision, and ruled that he was capable of standing trial. In arguing their case, the prosecution presented a recent TV interview Pinochet had given to journalist Maria Elvira Salazar for a Miami-based television network, which raised doubts about his alleged mental incapacity. In December 2004, he was charged with several crimes, including the 1974 assassination of General Prats and the Operation Colombo case in which 119 died, and was again placed under house arrest. He suffered a stroke on 18 December 2004. Questioned by his judges in order to know if, as president, he was the direct head of DINA, he answered: "I don't remember, but it's not true. And if it were true, I don't remember."
In January 2005, the Chilean Army accepted institutional responsibility for past human rights abuses. In 2006, Pinochet was indicted for kidnappings and torture at the Villa Grimaldi detention center by judge Alejandro Madrid (Guzmán's successor), as well as for the 1995 assassination of the DINA biochemist Eugenio Berrios, himself involved in the Letelier case. Berrios, who had worked with Michael Townley, had produced sarin gas, anthrax and botulism in the Bacteriological War Army Laboratory for Pinochet; these materials were used against political opponents. The DINA biochemist was also alleged to have created black cocaine, which Pinochet then sold in Europe and the United States. The money for the drug trade was allegedly deposited into Pinochet's bank accounts. Pinochet's son Marco Antonio, who had been accused of participating in the drug trade, in 2006 denied claims of drug trafficking in his father's administration and said that he would sue Manuel Contreras, who had said that Pinochet sold cocaine.
On 25 November 2006, Pinochet marked his 91st birthday by having his wife read a statement he had written to admirers present for his birthday: "I assume the political responsibility for all that has been done." Two days later, he was again sentenced to house arrest for the kidnapping and murder of two bodyguards of Salvador Allende who were arrested the day of the 1973 coup and executed by firing squad during the Caravan of Death.
Pinochet died a few days later, on 10 December 2006, without having been convicted of any of the crimes of which he was accused.
Scandals: secret bank accounts, tax evasion, and arms deal
In 2004, a United States Senate money laundering investigation led by Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Norm Coleman (R-MN)—ordered in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks—uncovered a network of over 125 securities and bank accounts at Riggs Bank and other U.S. financial institutions used by Pinochet and his associates for twenty-five years to secretly move millions of dollars.
Though the subcommittee was charged only with investigating compliance of financial institutions under the USA PATRIOT Act, and not the Pinochet regime, Senator Coleman noted:
Over several months in 2005, Chilean judge Sergio Muñoz indicted Augusto Pinochet's wife, Lucia Hiriart; four of his children – Marco Antonio, Jacqueline, Veronica and Lucia Pinochet; his personal secretary, Monica Ananias; and his former aide Oscar Aitken on tax evasion and falsification charges stemming from the Riggs Bank investigation. In January 2006, daughter Lucia Pinochet was detained at Washington DC-Dulles airport and subsequently deported while attempting to evade the tax charges in Chile. In January 2007, the Santiago Court of Appeals revoked most of the indictment from Judge Carlos Cerda against the Pinochet family. But Pinochet's five children, his wife and 17 other persons (including two generals, one of his former lawyer and former secretary) were arrested in October 2007 on charges of embezzlement and use of false passports. They are accused of having illegally transferred $27m (£13.2m) to foreign bank accounts during Pinochet's rule.
In September 2005, a joint investigation by The Guardian and La Tercera revealed that the British arms firm BAE Systems had been identified as paying more than £1m to Pinochet, through a front company in the British Virgin Islands, which BAE has used to channel commission on arms deals. The payments began in 1997 and lasted until 2004.
In 2007, fifteen years of investigation led to the conclusion that the 1992 assassination of DINA Colonel Gerardo Huber was most probably related to various illegal arms traffic carried out, after Pinochet's resignation from power, by military circles very close to himself. Huber had been assassinated a short time before he was due to testify in the case concerning the 1991 illegal export of weapons to the Croatian army. The deal involved 370 tons of weapons, sold to Croatia by Chile on 7 December 1991, when the former country was under a United Nations' embargo because of the support for Croatia war in Yugoslavia. In January 1992, the judge Hernán Correa de la Cerda wanted to hear Gerardo Huber in this case, but the latter may have been silenced to avoid implicating Pinochet in this new case—although the latter was no longer President, he remained at the time Commander-in-Chief of the Army. Pinochet was at the center of this illegal arms trade, receiving money through various offshores and front companies, including the Banco Coutts International in Miami.
Pinochet was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in August 2000 by the Supreme Court, and indicted by judge Juan Guzmán Tapia. Guzmán had ordered in 1999 the arrest of five militarists, including General Pedro Espinoza Bravo of the DINA, for their role in the Caravan of Death following the coup on 11 September. Arguing that the bodies of the "disappeared" were still missing, he made jurisprudence, which had as effect to lift any prescription on the crimes committed by the military. Pinochet's trial continued until his death on 10 December 2006, with an alternation of indictments for specific cases, lifting of immunities by the Supreme Court or to the contrary immunity from prosecution, with his health a main argument for, or against, his prosecution.
The Supreme Court affirmed, in March 2005, Pinochet's immunity concerning the 1974 assassination of General Carlos Prats in Buenos Aires, which had taken place in the frame of Operation Condor. However, he was deemed fit to stand trial for Operation Colombo, during which 119 political opponents were "disappeared" in Argentina. The Chilean justice also lifted his immunity on the Villa Grimaldi case, a detention and torture center in the outskirts of Santiago. Pinochet, who still benefited from a reputation of righteousness from his supporters, lost legitimacy when he was put under house arrest on tax fraud and passport forgery, following the publication by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of a report concerning the Riggs Bank in July 2004. The report was a consequence of investigations on financial funding of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US. The bank controlled between US$4 million and $8 million of the assets of Pinochet, who lived in Santiago in a modest house, dissimulating his wealth. According to the report, Riggs participated in money laundering for Pinochet, setting up offshore shell corporations (referring to Pinochet as only "a former public official"), and hiding his accounts from regulatory agencies. Related to Pinochet's and his family secret bank accounts in United States and in Caribbean islands, this tax fraud filing for an amount of 27 million dollars shocked the conservative sectors who still supported him. Ninety percent of these funds would have been raised between 1990 and 1998, when Pinochet was chief of the Chilean armies, and would essentially have come from weapons traffic (when purchasing French 'Mirage' fighter aircraft in 1994, Dutch 'Leopard 2' tanks, Swiss 'MOWAG' armored vehicles or by illegal sales of weapons to Croatia, during the Balkans war.) His wife, Lucía Hiriart, and his son, Marco Antonio Pinochet, were also sued for complicity. For the fourth time in seven years, Pinochet was indicted by the Chilean justice.
Death
Pinochet suffered a heart attack on the morning of 3 December 2006 and was given the last rites the same day. On 4 December 2006, the Chilean Court of Appeals ordered the suspension of his house arrest. On 10 December 2006 at 13:30 local time (16:30 UTC) he was taken to the intensive care unit. He died of congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema, surrounded by family members, at the Military Hospital at 14:15 local time (17:15 UTC).
Massive spontaneous street demonstrations broke out throughout the country upon the news of his death. In Santiago, opponents celebrated his death in Alameda Avenue, while supporters grieved outside the Military Hospital. Pinochet's remains lay in repose on 11 December 2006 at the Military Academy in Las Condes. During this ceremony, Francisco Cuadrado Prats—the grandson of Carlos Prats (a former Commander-in-Chief of the Army in the Allende government who was murdered by Pinochet's secret police)—spat on the coffin, and was quickly surrounded by supporters of Pinochet, who assaulted him. Pinochet's funeral took place the following day at the same venue before a gathering of 60,000 supporters.
In a government decision, he was not granted a state funeral (an honor normally bestowed upon past presidents of Chile) but a military funeral as former commander-in-chief of the Army appointed by Allende. The government also refused to declare an official national day of mourning, but it did authorize flags at military barracks to be flown at half staff, and for the Chilean flag to be draped on Pinochet's coffin. Socialist President Michelle Bachelet, whose father Alberto was temporarily imprisoned and tortured after the 1973 coup and died shortly afterwards from heart complications, said that it would be "a violation of [her] conscience" to attend a state funeral for Pinochet. The only government authority present at the public funeral was the Defense Minister, Vivianne Blanlot.
In Spain, supporters of late dictator Francisco Franco paid homage to Pinochet. Antonio Tejero, who led the failed coup of 1981, attended a memorial service in Madrid.
Pinochet's body was cremated in Parque del Mar Cemetery, Concón on 12 December 2006, on his request to "avoid vandalism of his tomb", according to his son Marco Antonio. His ashes were delivered to his family later that day, and are deposited in Los Boldos, Santo Domingo, Valparaiso, Chile; one of his personal residences. The armed forces refused to allow his ashes to be deposited on military property.
Honours
National honours
:
Grand Master of the Order of Merit - (1974-1990)
Grand Master of the Order of Bernardo O'Higgins- (1974-1990)
President of the Republic Decoration
10 Years Service Award
20 Years Service Award
30 Years Service Award
Minerva Medal(Army War College)
Minerva Medal(Army War College)
Decoration of the President of the Chilean Red Cross
Grand Knight of the Altiplano of Arica
Foreign honours
: Grand Cross of the Order of the Quetzal
:
Order of Abdon Calderón, 1st Class
Official Honorary General Staff Decoration of the Armed Forces of Ecuador
Honorary Staff Officer of the Armed Forces of Ecuador
: Order of José Matías Delgado
: Collar of Francisco Solano Lopez Grade of the National Order of Merit (Paraguay)
:
Grand Cross of the Order of the Liberator General San Martín
Grand Cross of the Order of May
: Commander of the Order of Military Merit José María Córdova
: Crosses of Military Merit
: Supreme Grand Collar of the Military Order of the Saint Salvador and Saint Bridgette (self-styled order)
See also
1970 Chilean presidential election
United States intervention in Chile
Book burnings in Chile
History of Chile
Pinochetism
Colonia, a film about two West Germans caught up in the aftermath of the Pinochet coup who end up in the Colonia Dignidad cult
Missing, a film based on the life of U.S. journalist Charles Horman, who disappeared in the aftermath of the Pinochet coup
No, an Academy Award-nominated film presenting a dramatized account of the 1988 national plebiscite campaign on Pinochet's rule
David H. Popper, US ambassador to Chile (1974–1977)
United States involvement in regime change
Notes
References
Further reading
(Reviewed in The Washington Post, Book World, p. 2, 2009-10-19)
External links
Extensive bio by Fundación CIDOB (in Spanish)
Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006) – A Biography
France 24 coverage – Augusto Pinochet's Necrology on France 24
BBC coverage (special report)
Documentary Film on Chilean Concentration Camp from Pinochet's Regime: Chacabuco
CIA Acknowledges Ties to Pinochet's Repression from The National Security Archive
Chile under Allende and Pinochet
Human rights violation under Pinochet
The Times obituary
Analysis of economic policy under Pinochet by economist Jim Cypher in Dollars & Sense magazine
Chile: The Price of Democracy New English Review
What Pinochet Did for Chile Hoover Digest (2007 No. 1)
When US-Backed Pinochet Forces Took Power in Chile – video report by Democracy Now!
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Augusto
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Survivors of terrorist attacks | true | [
"Augusto De Angelis (28 June 1888 – 18 July 1944) was an Italian writer and journalist, active in particular during the Fascist rule in Italy.\n\nBiography\nDe Angelis was born in Rome. He published his first mystery, Il banchiere assassinato, in 1935. He subsequently wrote some twenty crime books, whose protagonist is Commissario Carlo De Vincenzi of the squadra mobile of Milan. Some of them were adapted for television by RAI in 1974–1977, with Paolo Stoppa playing the role of De Vincenzi.\n\nDespite the success of the books, the Fascist government banned them. De Angelis was arrested in 1943, accused of being Anti-Fascist. After a few months he was freed but soon afterwards he was beaten up by a Fascist activist at Bellagio, and died at Como Hospital of the wounds he had received.\n\n1888 births\n1944 deaths\nWriters from Rome\nItalian male journalists\n20th-century Italian journalists\n20th-century Italian male writers",
"The Völkisch Work Community (Völkische Werkgemeinschaft) was a German fascist movement founded and led by Otto Dickel that existed from the 1920s until 1933, which was not associated with Nazism.\n\nHistory\nThe movement was one of a number of Völkisch nationalist movements that existed in Germany during the Weimar Republic era and in 1921, the Nazi Party under the leadership of Anton Drexler attempted to negotiate with Dickel to merge the Volkisch Work Community with the Nazi Party and the German Socialist Party. However such plans were scrapped when Adolf Hitler, then only a member of the Nazi party, vehemently rejected the plan and threatened to resign from the Nazi Party, if the Nazis agreed to merge with the German Socialist Party and the Völkisch Work Community, Hitler personally accused Dickel of being an enemy of National Socialism. Over time, Dickel gradually drifted away from his economic statism, and by the 1930s he had become a proponent of laissez-faire capitalism.\n\nOtto Dickel spoke of the need to revive of the German nation as well as German and Western culture, supported the creation of a Greater German nation and wanted to abandon what he saw as a cowardly contemporary culture. he stated:\n\nReferences\n\nFar-right political parties in Germany\nFascist parties in Germany\nGerman nationalist organizations\nGerman nationalist political parties"
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"Augusto Pinochet",
"Accusations of fascism",
"What were the accusations?",
"Griffin included Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots distinct from fascism and including the likes of Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos.",
"What he accused of being a fascist?",
"Pinochet attempted to build true fascism, the regime would likely have been toppled or at least been forced to alter its relationship to the United States."
]
| C_2456f9e2997745a2bdf69e61067fea11_0 | Was there conflict because of his views? | 3 | Was there conflict because of Augusto Pinochet's views of Fascism? | Augusto Pinochet | Pinochet and his government have been characterised as fascist. For example, journalist and author Samuel Chavkin, in his book Storm Over Chile: The Junta Under Siege, repeatedly characterizes both Pinochet himself and the military dictatorship as fascist. However, he and his government are generally excluded from academic typologies of fascism. Roger Griffin included Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots distinct from fascism and including the likes of Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos. He argues that such regimes may be considered populist ultra-nationalism but lack the rhetoric of national rebirth, or palingenesis, necessary to make them conform to the model of palingenetic ultranationalism. Robert Paxton meanwhile compared Pinochet's regime to that of Mobutu Sese Seko in the former Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), arguing that both were merely client states that lacked popular acclaim and the ability to expand. He further argued that had Pinochet attempted to build true fascism, the regime would likely have been toppled or at least been forced to alter its relationship to the United States. Anna Cento Bull also excluded Pinochet from fascism, although she has argued that his regime belongs to a strand of Cold War anti-communism that was happy to accommodate neo-fascist elements within its activity. World Fascism: a Historical Encyclopedia notes that "Although he was authoritarian and ruled dictatorially, Pinochet's support of neoliberal economic policies and his unwillingness to support national businesses distinguished him from classical fascists." Historian Gabriel Salazar stated that Pinochet's establishment cult of personality around him was a fascist tactic: It is notable that in all the declarations of Pinochet's men, nobody has mentioned the creators of the new Chilean society and state, I haven't heard anybody mention Jaime Guzman, Carlos Caceres, Hernan Buchi, Sergio de Castro. There is no mention of the true brains, or that the whole of the armed forces were involved in this, in dirty and symbolic tasks. Everything is embodied in Pinochet, it's very curious that figures of the stature of Buchi are immolated before the figure of Pinochet, in what is to me a fascist rite, give everything to the Fuhrer, "I did it, but ultimately it was him". CANNOTANSWER | Anna Cento Bull also excluded Pinochet from fascism, although she has argued that his regime belongs to a strand of Cold War anti-communism | Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean dictator and general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being self-declared President of the Republic by the junta in 1974 and becoming the de facto dictator of Chile, and from 1981 to 1990 as de jure President after a new Constitution, which confirmed him in the office, was approved by a referendum in 1980.
Augusto Pinochet rose through the ranks of the Chilean Army to become General Chief of Staff in early 1972 before being appointed its Commander-in-Chief on 23 August 1973 by President Salvador Allende. On 11 September 1973,
Pinochet seized power in Chile in a coup d'état, with the support of the U.S., that toppled Allende's democratically elected Unidad Popular government and ended civilian rule. In December 1974, the ruling military junta appointed Pinochet Supreme Head of the nation by joint decree, although without the support of one of the coup's instigators, Air Force General Gustavo Leigh. After his rise to power, Pinochet persecuted leftists, socialists, and political critics, resulting in the executions of 1,200 to 3,200 people, the internment of as many as 80,000 people, and the torture of tens of thousands. According to the Chilean government, the number of executions and forced disappearances was 3,095. Operation Condor, a U.S.-supported terror operation focusing on South America, was founded at the behest of the Pinochet regime in late November 1975, his 60th birthday.
Under the influence of the free market-oriented "Chicago Boys", Pinochet's military government implemented economic liberalization, including currency stabilization, removed tariff protections for local industry, banned trade unions, and privatized social security and hundreds of state-owned enterprises. Some of the government properties were sold below market price to politically connected buyers, including Pinochet's own son-in-law. The regime used censorship of entertainment as a way to reward supporters of the regime and punish opponents. These policies produced high economic growth, but critics state that economic inequality dramatically increased and attribute the devastating effects of the 1982 monetary crisis on the Chilean economy to these policies. For most of the 1990s, Chile was the best-performing economy in Latin America, though the legacy of Pinochet's reforms continues to be in dispute. His fortune grew considerably during his years in power through dozens of bank accounts secretly held abroad and a fortune in real estate. He was later prosecuted for embezzlement, tax fraud, and for possible commissions levied on arms deals.
Pinochet's 17-year rule was given a legal framework through a controversial 1980 plebiscite, which approved a new constitution drafted by a government-appointed commission. In a 1988 plebiscite, 56% voted against Pinochet's continuing as president, which led to democratic elections for the presidency and Congress. After stepping down in 1990, Pinochet continued to serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army until 10 March 1998, when he retired and became a senator-for-life in accordance with his 1980 Constitution. However, Pinochet was arrested under an international arrest warrant on a visit to London on 10 October 1998 in connection with numerous human rights violations. Following a legal battle, he was released on grounds of ill-health and returned to Chile on 3 March 2000. In 2004, Chilean Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia ruled that Pinochet was medically fit to stand trial and placed him under house arrest. By the time of his death on 10 December 2006, about 300 criminal charges were still pending against him in Chile for numerous human rights violations during his 17-year rule, as well as tax evasion and embezzlement during and after his rule. He was also accused of having corruptly amassed at least US$28 million.
Early life and education
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was born in Valparaíso on 25 November 1915. He was the son and namesake of Augusto Pinochet Vera (1891–1944), a descendant of an 18th century French Breton immigrant from Lamballe, and Avelina Ugarte Martínez (1895–1986), a woman of Basque heritage whose family had been in Chile since the 17th century.
Pinochet went to primary and secondary school at the San Rafael Seminary of Valparaíso, the Rafael Ariztía Institute (Marist Brothers) in Quillota, the French Fathers' School of Valparaíso, and then to the Military School in Santiago, which he entered in 1931. In 1935, after four years studying military geography, he graduated with the rank of alférez (Second Lieutenant) in the infantry.
Military career
In September 1937, Pinochet was assigned to the "Chacabuco" Regiment, in Concepción. Two years later, in 1939, then with the rank of Sub-lieutenant, he moved to the "Maipo" Regiment, garrisoned in Valparaíso. He returned to Infantry School in 1940. On 30 January 1943, Pinochet married Lucía Hiriart Rodríguez, with whom he had five children: Inés Lucía, María Verónica, Jacqueline Marie, Augusto Osvaldo and Marco Antonio.
By late 1945, Pinochet had been assigned to the "Carampangue" Regiment in the northern city of Iquique. Three years later, he entered the Chilean War Academy but had to postpone his studies because, being the youngest officer, he had to carry out a service mission in the coal zone of Lota. In 1948, Pinochet was initiated in the regular Masonic Lodge Victoria n°15 of San Bernardo, affiliated to the Grand Lodge of Chile. He received the Scottish Rite degree of companion, but he is thought not to have ever become a Grand Master.
The following year he returned to his studies in the academy, and after obtaining the title of Officer Chief of Staff, in 1951, he returned to teach at the Military School. At the same time, he worked as a teachers' aide at the War Academy, giving military geography and geopolitics classes. He was also the editor of the institutional magazine Cien Águilas ('One Hundred Eagles'). At the beginning of 1953, with the rank of major, he was sent for two years to the "Rancagua" Regiment in Arica. While there, he was appointed professor of the Chilean War Academy, and returned to Santiago to take up his new position.
In 1956, Pinochet and a group of young officers were chosen to form a military mission to collaborate in the organization of the War Academy of Ecuador in Quito. He remained with the Quito mission for four-and-a-half years, during which time he studied geopolitics, military geography and military intelligence. At the end of 1959 he returned to Chile and was sent to General Headquarters of the 1st Army Division, based in Antofagasta. The following year, he was appointed commander of the "Esmeralda" Regiment. Due to his success in this position, he was appointed Sub-director of the War Academy in 1963. In 1968, he was named Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army Division, based in Santiago, and at the end of that year, he was promoted to brigadier general and Commander in Chief of the 6th Division, garrisoned in Iquique. In his new function, he was also appointed Intendent of the Tarapacá Province.
In January 1971, Pinochet was promoted to division general and was named General Commander of the Santiago Army Garrison. On 8 June 1971, following the assassination of Edmundo Perez Zujovic by left-wing radicals, Allende appointed Pinochet a supreme authority of Santiago province, imposing a military curfew in the process, which was later lifted. However, on 2 December 1971, following a series of peaceful protests against economic policies of Allende, the curfew was re-installed, all protests prohibited, with Pinochet leading the crackdown on anti-Allende protests. At the beginning of 1972, he was appointed General Chief of Staff of the Army. With rising domestic strife in Chile, after General Prats resigned his position, Pinochet was appointed commander-in-chief of the Army on 23 August 1973 by President Salvador Allende just one day after the Chamber of Deputies of Chile approved a resolution asserting that the government was not respecting the Constitution. Less than a month later, the Chilean military deposed Allende.
Military coup of 1973
On 11 September 1973, the combined Chilean Armed Forces (the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Carabineros) overthrew Allende's government in a coup, during which the presidential palace, La Moneda, was shelled and most likely where Allende was said to have committed suicide. While the military claimed that he had committed suicide, controversy surrounded Allende's death, with many claiming that he had been assassinated (such theory was discarded by the Chilean Supreme Court in 2014).
In his memoirs, Pinochet said that he was the leading plotter of the coup and had used his position as commander-in-chief of the Army to coordinate a far-reaching scheme with the other two branches of the military and the national police. In later years, however, high military officials from the time have said that Pinochet reluctantly became involved only a few days before the coup was scheduled to occur, and followed the lead of the other branches (especially the Navy, under Merino) as they executed the coup.
The new government rounded up thousands of people and held them in the national stadium, where many were killed. This was followed by brutal repression during Pinochet's rule, during which approximately 3,000 people were killed, while more than 1,000 are still missing.
In the months that followed the coup, the junta, with authoring work by historian Gonzalo Vial and admiral Patricio Carvajal, published a book titled El Libro Blanco del cambio de gobierno en Chile (commonly known as El Libro Blanco, 'The White Book on the Change of Government in Chile'), in which they said that they were in fact anticipating a self-coup (the alleged Plan Zeta, or Plan Z) that Allende's government or its associates were purportedly preparing. United States intelligence agencies believed the plan to be untrue propaganda. Although later discredited and officially recognized as the product of political propaganda, Gonzalo Vial Correa insists in the similarities between the alleged Plan Z and other existing paramilitary plans of the Popular Unity parties in support of its legitimacy. Pinochet was also trained by the School of the Americas (SOA) where it is likely he first encountered the ideals of the coup.
Canadian reporter Jean Charpentier of Télévision de Radio-Canada was the first foreign journalist to interview General Pinochet following the coup. After Allende's final radio address, he shot himself rather than becoming a prisoner.
U.S. backing of the coup
The Church Report investigating the fallout of the Watergate scandal stated that while the U.S. tacitly supported the Pinochet government after the 1973 coup, there was "no evidence" that the US was directly involved in it. This view has been contradicted by several academics, such as Peter Winn, who writes that the role of the CIA was crucial to the consolidation of power after the coup; the CIA helped fabricate a conspiracy against the Allende government, which Pinochet was then portrayed as preventing. He stated that the coup itself was possible only through a three-year covert operation mounted by the United States. Winn also points out that the US imposed an "invisible blockade" that was designed to disrupt the economy under Allende, and contributed to the destabilization of the regime. Author Peter Kornbluh argues in The Pinochet File that the US was extensively involved and actively "fomented" the 1973 coup. Authors Tim Weiner (Legacy of Ashes) and Christopher Hitchens (The Trial of Henry Kissinger) similarly argue the case that US covert actions actively destabilized Allende's government and set the stage for the 1973 coup. Despite denial of countless American agencies, current declassified documentation has proven the American involvement. Nixon and Kissinger, along with both private and public intelligence agencies were "apprised of, and even enmeshed in, the planning and executing of the military takeover." Along with this, CIA operatives directly involved, such as Jack Devine, have also come out and declared their involvement in the coup. Devine stating "I sent CIA headquarters a special type of top-secret cable known as a CRITIC, which ... goes directly to the highest levels of government."
The US provided material support to the military government after the coup, although criticizing it in public. A document released by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2000, titled "CIA Activities in Chile", revealed that the CIA actively supported the military junta after the overthrow of Allende, and that it made many of Pinochet's officers into paid contacts of the CIA or U.S. military, even though some were known to be involved in human rights abuses. The CIA also maintained contacts in the Chilean DINA intelligence service. DINA led the multinational campaign known as Operation Condor, which amongst other activities carried out assassinations of prominent politicians in various Latin American countries, in Washington, D.C., and in Europe, and kidnapped, tortured and executed activists holding left-wing views, which culminated in the deaths of roughly 60,000 people. The United States provided key organizational, financial and technical assistance to the operation. CIA contact with DINA head Manuel Contreras was established in 1974 soon after the coup, during the Junta period prior to official transfer of Presidential powers to Pinochet; in 1975, the CIA reviewed a warning that keeping Contreras as an asset might threaten human rights in the region. The CIA chose to keep him as an asset, and at one point even paid him. In addition to the CIA's maintaining of assets in DINA beginning soon after the coup, several CIA assets, such as CORU Cuban exile militants Orlando Bosch and Guillermo Novo, collaborated in DINA operations under the Condor Plan in the early years of Pinochet's presidency.
Military junta
A military junta was established immediately following the coup, made up of General Pinochet representing the Army, Admiral José Toribio Merino representing the Navy, General Gustavo Leigh representing the Air Force, and General César Mendoza representing the Carabineros (national police). As established, the junta exercised both executive and legislative functions of the government, suspended the Constitution and the Congress, imposed strict censorship and curfew, banned all parties and halted all political and perceived subversive activities. This military junta held the executive role until 17 December 1974, after which it remained strictly as a legislative body, the executive powers being transferred to Pinochet with the title of President.
Military dictatorship (1973–1990)
The junta members originally planned that the presidency would be held for a year by the commanders-in-chief of each of the four military branches in turn. However, Pinochet soon consolidated his control, first retaining sole chairmanship of the military junta, and then proclaiming himself "Supreme Chief of the Nation" (de facto provisional president) on 27 June 1974. He officially changed his title to "President" on 17 December 1974. General Leigh, head of the Air Force, became increasingly opposed to Pinochet's policies and was forced into retirement on 24 July 1978, after contradicting Pinochet on that year's plebiscite (officially called Consulta Nacional, or National Consultation, in response to a UN resolution condemning Pinochet's government). He was replaced by General Fernando Matthei.
Pinochet organized a plebiscite on 11 September 1980 to ratify a new constitution, replacing the 1925 Constitution drafted during Arturo Alessandri's presidency. The new Constitution, partly drafted by Jaime Guzmán, a close adviser to Pinochet who later founded the right-wing party Independent Democratic Union (UDI), gave a lot of power to the President of the Republic—Pinochet. It created some new institutions, such as the Constitutional Tribunal and the controversial National Security Council (COSENA). It also prescribed an 8-year presidential period, and a single-candidate presidential referendum in 1988, where a candidate nominated by the Junta would be approved or rejected for another 8-year period. The new constitution was approved by a margin of 67.04% to 30.19% according to official figures; the opposition, headed by ex-president Eduardo Frei Montalva (who had supported Pinochet's coup), denounced extensive irregularities such as the lack of an electoral register, which facilitated multiple voting, and said that the total number of votes reported to have been cast was very much larger than would be expected from the size of the electorate and turnout in previous elections. Interviews after Pinochet's departure with people involved with the referendum confirmed that fraud had, indeed, been widespread. The Constitution was promulgated on 21 October 1980, taking effect on 11 March 1981. Pinochet was replaced as President of the Junta that day by Admiral Merino. During Pinochet's reign it is estimated that some one million people had been forced to flee the country.
Armed opposition to the Pinochet rule continued in remote parts of the country. In a massive operation spearheaded by Chilean Army para-commandos, some 2,000 security forces troops were deployed in the mountains of Neltume from June to November 1981, where they destroyed two MIR bases, seizing large caches of munitions and killing a number of guerrillas.
According to author Ozren Agnic Krstulovic, weapons including C-4 plastic explosives, RPG-7 and M72 LAW rocket launchers, as well as more than 3,000 M-16 rifles, were smuggled into the country by opponents of the government.
In September 1986, weapons from the same source were used in an unsuccessful assassination attempt against Pinochet by the FPMR. His military bodyguard was taken by surprise, and five members were killed. Pinochet's bulletproof Mercedes Benz vehicle was struck by a rocket, but it failed to explode and Pinochet suffered only minor injuries.
Suppression of opposition
Almost immediately after the military's seizure of power, the junta banned all the leftist parties that had constituted Allende's UP coalition.
All other parties were placed in "indefinite recess" and were later banned outright. The government's violence was directed not only against dissidents but also against their families and other civilians.
The Rettig Report concluded 2,279 persons who disappeared during the military government were killed for political reasons or as a result of political violence. According to the later Valech Report approximately 31,947 were tortured and 1,312 exiled. The exiles were chased all over the world by the intelligence agencies. In Latin America, this was made in the frame of Operation Condor, a cooperation plan between the various intelligence agencies of South American countries, assisted by a United States CIA communication base in Panama. Pinochet believed these operations were necessary in order to "save the country from communism". In 2011, the commission identified an additional 9,800 victims of political repression during Pinochet's rule, increasing the total number of victims to approximately 40,018, including 3,065 killed.
Some political scientists have ascribed the relative bloodiness of the coup to the stability of the existing democratic system, which required extreme action to overturn. Some of the most infamous cases of human rights violation occurred during the early period: in October 1973, at least 70 people were killed throughout the country by the Caravan of Death. Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, both U.S. journalists, "disappeared", as did Víctor Olea Alegría, a member of the Socialist Party, and many others, in 1973. British priest Michael Woodward, who vanished within 10 days of the coup, was tortured and beaten to death aboard the Chilean naval ship, Esmeralda.
Many other important officials of Allende's government were tracked down by the DINA in the frame of Operation Condor. General Carlos Prats, Pinochet's predecessor and army commander under Allende, who had resigned rather than support the moves against Allende's government, was assassinated in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1974. A year later, the murder of 119 opponents abroad was disguised as an internal conflict, the DINA setting up a propaganda campaign to support this idea (Operation Colombo), a campaign publicised by the leading newspaper in Chile, El Mercurio.
Other victims of Condor included, among hundreds of less famous persons, Juan José Torres, the former President of Bolivia, assassinated in Buenos Aires on 2 June 1976; Carmelo Soria, a UN diplomat working for the CEPAL, assassinated in July 1976;
Orlando Letelier, a former Chilean ambassador to the United States and minister in Allende's cabinet, assassinated after his release from internment and exile in Washington, D.C. by a car bomb on 21 September 1976. Documents confirm that Pinochet directly ordered the assassination of Letelier. This led to strained relations with the US and to the extradition of Michael Townley, a US citizen who worked for the DINA and had organized Letelier's assassination. Other targeted victims, who escaped assassination, included Christian-Democrat Bernardo Leighton, who escaped an assassination attempt in Rome in 1975 by the Italian terrorist Stefano delle Chiaie; Carlos Altamirano, the leader of the Chilean Socialist Party, targeted for murder in 1975 by Pinochet, along with Volodia Teitelboim, member of the Communist Party; Pascal Allende, the nephew of Salvador Allende and president of the MIR, who escaped an assassination attempt in Costa Rica in March 1976; US Congressman Edward Koch, who became aware in 2001 of relations between death threats and his denunciation of Operation Condor, etc. Furthermore, according to current investigations, Eduardo Frei Montalva, the Christian Democrat President of Chile from 1964 to 1970, may have been poisoned in 1982 by toxin produced by DINA biochemist Eugenio Berrios.
Protests continued, however, during the 1980s, leading to several scandals. In March 1985, the murder of three Communist Party members led to the resignation of César Mendoza, head of the Carabineros and member of the junta since its formation. During a 1986 protest against Pinochet, 21-year-old American photographer Rodrigo Rojas DeNegri and 18-year-old student Carmen Gloria Quintana were burnt alive, with only Carmen surviving.
In August 1989, Marcelo Barrios Andres, a 21-year-old member of the FPMR (the armed wing of the PCC, created in 1983, which had attempted to assassinate Pinochet on 7 September 1986), was assassinated by a group of military personnel who were supposed to arrest him on orders of Valparaíso's public prosecutor. However, they simply executed him; this case was included in the Rettig Report. Among the killed and disappeared during the military junta were 440 MIR guerrillas. In December 2015, three former DINA agents were sentenced to ten years in prison for the murder of a 29-year-old theology student and activist, German Rodriguez Cortes, in 1978. That same month 62-year-old Guillermo Reyes Rammsy, a former Chilean soldier during the Pinochet years, was arrested and charged with murder for boasting of participating in 18 executions during a live phone-in to the Chilean radio show "Chacotero Sentimental".
On 2 June 2017, Chilean judge Hernan Cristoso sentenced 106 former Chilean intelligence officials to between 541 days and 20 years in prison for their role in the kidnapping and murder of 16 left-wing activists in 1974 and 1975.
Economic policy
In 1973, the Chilean economy was deeply depressed for several reasons, Allende's government had expropriated many Chilean and foreign businesses, including all copper mines, had controlled prices, inflation reached 606%, income per capita had a contraction of -7.14% in 1973 only while in comparison to 1970 it had contracted by -30%, GDP contracted by -5% in 1973, and also public spending rose from 22.6% to 44.9% between 1970 and 1973 creating a deficit of 25% of the GDP, while some authors like Peter Kornbluh also argue that economic sanctions by the Nixon administration helped to create the economic crisis other authors like Paul Sigmund and Mark Falcoff argue there was no blockade because there was still (just less) aid and credit as well as not a real embargo on trade; the economic and political crisis had the armed forces taking power in September 1973 with Augusto Pinochet, José Toribio Merino Castro, Gustavo Leigh and César Mendoza as their leaders.
By mid-1975, after two years of Keynesianism, the government set forth an economic policy of free-market reforms that attempted to stop inflation and collapse. Pinochet declared that he wanted "to make Chile not a nation of proletarians, but a nation of proprietors". To formulate the economic rescue, the government relied on the so-called Chicago Boys and a text called El ladrillo, and although Chile grew very quickly between 1976 and 1981, it had a large amount of debt which made Chile the most affected nation by the Latin American debt crisis.
In sharp contrast to the privatization done in other areas, Chile's nationalized main copper mines remained in government hands, with the 1980 Constitution later declaring the mines "inalienable". In 1976, Codelco was established to exploit them but new mineral deposits were opened to private investment. In November 1980, the pension system was restructured from a PAYGO-system to a fully funded capitalization system run by private sector pension funds. Healthcare and education were likewise privatized. These mines would ultimately help them economically however they would fall partly in American hands.
Wages decreased by 8%. Family allowances in 1989 were 28% of what they had been in 1970 and the budgets for education, health and housing had dropped by over 20% on average. The junta relied on the middle class, the oligarchy, foreign corporations, and foreign loans to maintain itself. Businesses recovered most of their lost industrial and agricultural holdings, for the junta returned properties to original owners who had lost them during expropriations, and sold other industries expropriated by Allende's Popular Unity government to private buyers. This period saw the expansion of business and widespread speculation.
Financial conglomerates became major beneficiaries of the liberalized economy and the flood of foreign bank loans. Large foreign banks reinstated the credit cycle, as debt obligations, such as resuming payment of principal and interest installments, were honored. International lending organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Inter-American Development Bank lent vast sums anew. Many foreign multinational corporations such as International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT), Dow Chemical, and Firestone, all expropriated by Allende, returned to Chile. Pinochet's policies eventually led to substantial GDP growth, in contrast to the negative growth seen in the early years of his administration, while public debt also was kept high mostly to finance public spending which even after the privatization of services was kept at high rates (though far less than before privatization), for example, in 1991 after one year of post-Pinochet democracy debt was still at 37.4% of the GDP.
The Pinochet government implemented an economic model that had three main objectives: economic liberalization, privatization of state owned companies, and stabilization of inflation. In 1985, the government initiated a second round of privatization, revising previously introduced tariff increases and creating a greater supervisory role for the Central Bank. Pinochet's market liberalizations have continued after his death, led by Patricio Aylwin. According to a 2020 study in the Journal of Economic History, Pinochet sold firms at below-market prices to politically connected buyers.
Critics argue the neoliberal economic policies of the Pinochet regime resulted in widening inequality and deepening poverty as they negatively impacted the wages, benefits and working conditions of Chile's working class. According to Chilean economist Alejandro Foxley, by the end of Pinochet's reign around 44% of Chilean families were living below the poverty line. According to The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, by the late 1980s, the economy had stabilized and was growing, but around 45% of the population had fallen into poverty while the wealthiest 10% saw their incomes rise by 83%. But others disagree, Chilean economist José Piñera argues that 2 years after Pinochet took power, poverty was still at 50% and the liberal reforms reduced it to 7.8% in 2013 as well as income per capita rising from US$4.000 in 1975 to US$25.000 in 2015, supporters of the reforms also argue that when Pinochet left power in 1990 poverty had fallen to 38% and some claim that since the consolidation of the neoliberal system inequality has been reducing. However, protests erupted in late 2019 in response to growing inequality in the country which can be traced back to the neoliberal policies of the Pinochet dictatorship.
American scholar, Nancy MacLean, wrote that the concentration of money in the hands of the very rich and the perversion of democracy through the privatization of government was always the goal. The architect of this economic model known as "public choice", James M. Buchanan, traveled to Chile and worked closely with the Pinochet regime. MacLean's account, however, has come under scrutiny. Economist Andrew Farrant examined the Chilean constitutional clauses that MacLean attributes to Buchanan, and discovered that they pre-dated his visit. He concludes that "evidence suggests that Buchanan's May 1980 visit did not particularly influence the subsequent drafting of the Chilean Constitution" and "there is no evidence to suggest that Buchanan had any kind of audience with Pinochet or corresponded with the Chilean dictator."
1988 referendum, attempt to stay in power and transition to democracy
According to the transitional provisions of the 1980 Constitution, a referendum was scheduled for 5 October 1988, to vote on a new eight-year presidential term for Pinochet. Confronted with increasing opposition, notably at the international level, Pinochet legalized political parties in 1987 and called for a vote to determine whether or not he would remain in power until 1997. If the "YES" won, Pinochet would have to implement the dispositions of the 1980 Constitution, mainly the call for general elections, while he would himself remain in power as president. If the "NO" won, Pinochet would remain President for another year, and a joint Presidential and legislative election would be held.
Another reason for Pinochet's decision to call for elections was the April 1987 visit of Pope John Paul II to Chile. According to the US Catholic author George Weigel, he held a meeting with Pinochet during which they discussed a return to democracy. John Paul II allegedly pushed Pinochet to accept a democratic opening of his government, and even called for his resignation.
Political advertising was legalized on 5 September 1987, as a necessary element for the campaign for the "NO" to the referendum, which countered the official campaign, which presaged a return to a Popular Unity government in case of a defeat of Pinochet. The Opposition, gathered into the Concertación de Partidos por el NO ("Coalition of Parties for NO"), organized a colorful and cheerful campaign under the slogan La alegría ya viene ("Joy is coming"). It was formed by the Christian Democracy, the Socialist Party and the Radical Party, gathered in the Alianza Democrática (Democratic Alliance). In 1988, several more parties, including the Humanist Party, the Ecologist Party, the Social Democrats, and several Socialist Party splinter groups added their support.
On 5 October 1988, the "NO" option won with 55.99% of the votes, against 44.01% of "YES" votes. In the wake of his electoral defeat, Pinochet attempted to implement a plan for an auto-coup. He attempted to implement efforts to orchestrate chaos and violence in the streets to justify his power grab, however, the Carabinero police refused an order to lift the cordon against street demonstrations in the capital, according to a CIA informant. In his final move, Pinochet convened a meeting of his junta at La Moneda, in which he requested that they give him extraordinary powers to have the military seize the capital. Air Force General Fernando Matthei refused, saying that he would not agree to such a thing under any circumstances, and the rest of the junta followed this stance, on grounds that Pinochet already had his turn and lost. Matthei would later become the first member of the junta to publicly admit that Pinochet had lost the plebiscite. Without any support from the junta, Pinochet was forced to accept the result. The ensuing Constitutional process led to presidential and legislative elections the following year.
The Coalition changed its name to Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia (Coalition of Parties for Democracy) and put forward Patricio Aylwin, a Christian Democrat who had opposed Allende, as presidential candidate, and also proposed a list of candidates for the parliamentary elections. The opposition and the Pinochet government made several negotiations to amend the Constitution and agreed to 54 modifications. These amendments changed the way the Constitution would be modified in the future, added restrictions to state of emergency dispositions, the affirmation of political pluralism, and enhanced constitutional rights as well as the democratic principle and participation to political life. In July 1989, a referendum on the proposed changes took place, supported by all the parties except the right-wing Southern Party and the Chilean Socialist Party. The Constitutional changes were approved by 91.25% of the voters.
Thereafter, Aylwin won the December 1989 presidential election with 55% of the votes, against less than 30% for the right-wing candidate, Hernán Büchi, who had been Pinochet's Minister of Finances since 1985 (there was also a third-party candidate, Francisco Javier Errázuriz, a wealthy aristocrat representing the extreme economic right, who garnered the remaining 15%). Pinochet thus left the presidency on 11 March 1990 and transferred power to the new democratically elected president.
The Concertación also won the majority of votes for the Parliament. However, due to the "binomial" representation system included in the constitution, the elected senators did not achieve a complete majority in Parliament, a situation that would last for over 15 years. This forced them to negotiate all law projects with the Alliance for Chile (originally called "Democracy and Progress" and then "Union for Chile"), a center-right coalition involving the Unión Demócrata Independiente (UDI) and Renovación Nacional (RN), parties composed mainly of Pinochet's supporters.
Due to the transitional provisions of the constitution, Pinochet remained as Commander-in-Chief of the Army until March 1998. He was then sworn in as a senator-for-life, a privilege granted by the 1980 constitution to former presidents with at least six years in office. His senatorship and consequent immunity from prosecution protected him from legal action. These were possible in Chile only after Pinochet was arrested in 1998 in the United Kingdom, on an extradition request issued by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón. Allegations of abuses had been made numerous times before his arrest, but never acted upon. The extradition attempt was dramatised in the 2006 BBC television docudrama Pinochet in Suburbia, with Pinochet played by Derek Jacobi. Shortly before giving up power, on September 15, 1989, Pinochet prohibited all forms of abortion, previously authorized in case of rape or risk to the life of the mother. Pinochet argued that due to advances in medicine, abortion was "no longer justifiable".
Relationship with the United Kingdom
Chile was officially neutral during the Falklands War, but Chile's Westinghouse long-range radar that was deployed in the south of the country gave the British task force early warning of Argentinian air attacks. This allowed British ships and troops in the war zone to take defensive action. Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister at the time of the war, said that the day the radar was taken out of service for overdue maintenance was the day Argentinian fighter-bombers bombed the troopships Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram, leaving 53 dead and many injured. According to Chilean Junta member and former Air Force commander, General Fernando Matthei, Chilean support included military intelligence gathering, radar surveillance, allowing British aircraft to operate with Chilean colours, and facilitating the safe return of British special forces, among other forms of assistance.
In April and May 1982, a squadron of mothballed British Hawker Hunter fighter-bombers departed for Chile, arriving on 22 May and allowing the Chilean Air Force to reform the No. 9 "Las Panteras Negras" Squadron. A further consignment of three frontier surveillance and shipping reconnaissance Canberras left for Chile in October. Some authors have speculated that Argentina might have won the war had the military felt able to employ the elite VIth and VIIIth Mountain Brigades, which remained sitting in the Andes guarding against possible Chilean incursions. Pinochet subsequently visited the UK on more than one occasion. Pinochet's controversial relationship with Thatcher led Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair to mock Thatcher's Conservatives as "the party of Pinochet" in 1999.
Human rights violations
Pinochet's regime was responsible for many human rights abuses during its reign, including forced disappearances, murder, and torture of political opponents. According to a government commission report that included testimony from more than 30,000 people, Pinochet's government killed at least 3,197 people and tortured about 29,000. Two-thirds of the cases listed in the report happened in 1973.
Professor Clive Foss, in The Tyrants: 2500 Years of Absolute Power and Corruption (Quercus Publishing 2006), estimates that 1,500–2,000 Chileans were killed or "disappeared" during the Pinochet regime. In October 1979, The New York Times reported that Amnesty International had documented the disappearance of approximately 1,500 Chileans since 1973. Among the killed and disappeared during the military regime were at least 663 Marxist MIR guerrillas. The Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, however, has stated that only 49 FPMR guerrillas were killed but hundreds detained and tortured. According to a study in Latin American Perspectives, at least 200,000 Chileans (about 2% of Chile's 1973 population) were forced to go into exile. Additionally, hundreds of thousands left the country in the wake of the economic crises that followed the military coup during the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the key individuals who fled because of political persecution were followed in their exile by the DINA secret police, in the framework of Operation Condor, which linked South American military dictatorships together against political opponents.
According to John Dinges, author of The Condor Years (The New Press 2003), documents released in 2015 revealed a CIA report dated 28 April 1978 that showed the agency by then had knowledge that Pinochet ordered the assassination of Orlando Letelier, a leading political opponent living in exile in the United States.
According to Peter Kornbluh in The Pinochet File, "routine sadism was taken to extremes" in the prison camps. The rape of women was common, including sexual torture such as the insertion of rats into genitals and "unnatural acts involving dogs". Detainees were forcibly immersed in vats of urine and excrement, and were occasionally forced to ingest it. Beatings with gun butts, fists and chains were routine; one technique known as "the telephone" involved the torturer slamming "his open hands hard and rhythmically against the ears of the victim", leaving the person deaf. At Villa Grimaldi, prisoners were dragged into the parking lot and had the bones in their legs crushed as they were run over with trucks. Some died from torture; prisoners were beaten with chains and left to die from internal injuries. Following abuse and execution, corpses were interred in secret graves, dropped into rivers or the ocean, or just dumped on urban streets in the night. The body of the renowned Chilean singer, theatre director and academic Víctor Jara was found in a dirty canal "with his hands and face extremely disfigured" and with "forty-four bullet holes".
The practice of murdering political opponents via "death flights", employed by the juntas of Argentina and Chile, has sometimes been the subject of numerous alt-right and other right-wing extremist groups internet memes, with the suggestion that political enemies and leftists be given "free helicopter rides". In 2001, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos informed the nation that during Pinochet's reign, 120 bodies had been tossed from helicopters into "the ocean, the lakes and the rivers of Chile". In a final assessment of his legacy during his funeral, Belisario Velasco, Chile's interior minister at the time remarked that "Pinochet was a classic right-wing dictator who badly violated human rights and who became rich."
Ideology and public image
Pinochet himself expressed his project in government as a national rebirth inspired by Diego Portales, a figure of the early republic:
Lawyer Jaime Guzmán participated in the design of important speeches of Pinochet, and provided frequent political and doctrinal advice and consultancy.
Jacobo Timerman has called the Chilean army under Pinochet "the last Prussian army in the world", suggesting a pre-Fascist origin to the model of Pinochet's military government.
Historian Alfredo Jocelyn-Holt has referred to Pinochet's figure as "totemic", and added that it serves as a scapegoat which attracts "all hate". Gabriel Salazar, also a historian, has lamented the lack of an international condemnation of Pinochet in court, since, according to Salazar, that would have damaged his image "irreparably" and that of the judicial system of Chile [for the good] too.
In 1989 indigenous Mapuche groups representing the "Consejos Regionales" bestowed Pinochet the title Ulmen Füta Lonko or Great Authority.
According to Pinochet, who was aware of his ancestry, he was taught the French language by an uncle, although he later forgot most of it. Pinochet admired Napoleon as the greatest among French and had a framed picture of him. Another French ruler he admired was Louis XIV.
Pinochet's reputation led Peruvians in the 1990s to call Alberto Fujimori "chinochet" instead of his ordinary nickname "chino". Chadian dictator Hissène Habré, a Cold War ally of the West, has been characterized as "Africa's Pinochet" for ordering the torture and mass killing of political opponents during his reign, and for the decades long campaign to see him convicted of crimes against humanity. Images of Pinochet have been used in several Internet memes with the caption "Pinochet's Free Helicopter Rides", referencing death flights which saw political dissidents being thrown from helicopters over the Pacific or the Andes during Pinochet's rule. Variations of the internet meme have seen increased popularity with the rise of far-right and alt-right politics.
Accusations of fascism
Pinochet and his government have been characterised as fascist. For example, journalist and author Samuel Chavkin, in his book Storm Over Chile: The Junta Under Siege, repeatedly characterizes both Pinochet himself and the military dictatorship as fascist.
However, he and his government are generally excluded from academic typologies of fascism. Roger Griffin included Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots distinct from fascism, which included the likes of Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos. He argues that such regimes may be considered populist ultra-nationalist but lack the rhetoric of national rebirth, or palingenesis, necessary to make them conform to the model of palingenetic ultranationalism. Robert Paxton meanwhile compared Pinochet's regime to that of Mobutu Sese Seko in the former Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), arguing that both were merely client states that lacked popular acclaim and the ability to expand. He further argued that had Pinochet attempted to build true fascism, the regime would likely have been toppled or at least been forced to alter its relationship to the United States. Anna Cento Bull also excluded Pinochet from fascism, although she has argued that his regime belongs to a strand of Cold War anti-communism that was happy to accommodate neo-fascist elements within its activity.
World Fascism: a Historical Encyclopedia notes that "Although he was authoritarian and ruled dictatorially, Pinochet's support of neoliberal economic policies and his unwillingness to support national businesses distinguished him from classical fascists."
Historian Gabriel Salazar stated that high visibility of Pinochet and neglect of co-workers was reminiscent of fascist leadership:
Intellectual life and academic work
Pinochet was publicly known as a man with a lack of culture and this image was reinforced by the fact that he also portrayed himself as a common man with simple ideas. He was also known for being reserved, sharing little about his opinions or feelings. Before wresting power from Allende, Pinochet had written two books, Geopolítica (1968) and Campaña de Tarapacá (1972), which established him as a major figure in Chile's military literature. In Geopolítica Pinochet plagiarized his mentor general Gregorio Rodríguez Tascón by using paragraphs from a 1949 conference presentation of Rodríguez without attributing them to him.
Rodríguez had previously lectured Pinochet and René Schneider and Carlos Prats in geography and geopolitics. In contrast to the two latter Pinochet was not an outstanding student but his persistence and interest in geopolitics made Rodríguez assume the role as his academic mentor. Rodríguez granted Pinochet a slot as assistant lecturer in geopolitics and in geography. According to Rodríguez, Pinochet would have been particularly impressed by his lectures on The Art of War. Pinochet would later succeed Rodríguez in the geopolitics and geography chair.
Investigative journalist Juan Cristóbal Peña has put forward the thesis that Pinochet felt intellectual envy of Carlos Prats and that the latter's assassination in 1974 was a relief for Pinochet.
During his lifetime, Pinochet amassed more than 55,000 books in his private library, worth an estimated 2,840,000 US dollars (2006–07). The extent of his library was revealed to the public only after a police inspection in January 2006. Pinochet bought books at several small bookshops in the old centre of Santiago and was later supplied with books from abroad by military attachés who bought texts Pinochet was searching after. As ruler of Chile he used discretionary funds for these purchases. The library included many rare books including a first edition (1646) Historica relacion del Reyno de Chile and an original letter of Bernardo O'Higgins. A significant part of the books and documents of the library of José Manuel Balmaceda was found in Pinochet's library in 2006. Pinochet's library contained almost no poetry or fiction works.
Nicknames
Supporters sometimes refer to Pinochet as my general (the military salutation for a general) while opponents call him pinocho (Spanish for "Pinocchio", from the children's story). A common nickname used by both younger generations is el tata (Chilean Spanish equivalent of "the grandpa"). Since the Riggs Bank scandal he has been referred to sarcastically as Daniel Lopez, one of the fake identities he used to deposit money in the bank.
Post-dictatorship life
Arrest and court cases in the United Kingdom
Pinochet was arrested in London on "charges of genocide and terrorism that include murder" in October 1998. The indictment and arrest of Pinochet was the first time that a former government head was arrested on the principle of universal jurisdiction.
After having been placed under house arrest on the grounds of the Wentworth Club in Britain in October 1998 and initiating a judicial and public relations battle, the latter run by Thatcherite political operative Patrick Robertson, he was released in March 2000 on medical grounds by the Home Secretary Jack Straw without facing trial. Straw had overruled a House of Lords decision to extradite Pinochet to face trial in Spain.
Return to Chile
Pinochet returned to Chile on 3 March 2000. So as to avoid any potential disruption his flight back to Chile from the UK departed from RAF Waddington, evading those protesting against his release.
His first act when landing in Santiago's airport was to triumphantly get up from his wheelchair to the acclaim of his supporters. He was greeted by his successor as head of the Chilean armed forces, General Ricardo Izurieta. President-elect Ricardo Lagos said the retired general's televised arrival had damaged the image of Chile, while thousands demonstrated against him.
In March 2000, Congress approved a constitutional amendment creating the status of "ex-president", which granted its holder immunity from prosecution and a financial allowance; this replaced Pinochet's senatorship-for-life. 111 legislators voted for, and 29 against.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of judge Juan Guzmán's request in August 2000, and Pinochet was indicted on 1 December 2000 for the kidnapping of 75 opponents in the Caravan of Death case. Guzmán advanced the charge of kidnapping as the 75 were officially "disappeared": even though they were all most likely dead, the absence of their corpses made any charge of "homicide" difficult.
In July 2002, the Supreme Court dismissed Pinochet's indictment in the various human rights abuse cases, for medical reasons (vascular dementia). The debate concerned Pinochet's mental faculties, his legal team claiming that he was senile and could not remember, while others (including several physicians) claimed that he was affected only physically but retained all control of his faculties. The same year, the prosecuting attorney Hugo Guttierez, in charge of the Caravan of Death case, declared, "Our country has the degree of justice that the political transition permits us to have."
Pinochet resigned from his senatorial seat shortly after the Supreme Court's July 2002 ruling. In May 2004, the Supreme Court overturned its precedent decision, and ruled that he was capable of standing trial. In arguing their case, the prosecution presented a recent TV interview Pinochet had given to journalist Maria Elvira Salazar for a Miami-based television network, which raised doubts about his alleged mental incapacity. In December 2004, he was charged with several crimes, including the 1974 assassination of General Prats and the Operation Colombo case in which 119 died, and was again placed under house arrest. He suffered a stroke on 18 December 2004. Questioned by his judges in order to know if, as president, he was the direct head of DINA, he answered: "I don't remember, but it's not true. And if it were true, I don't remember."
In January 2005, the Chilean Army accepted institutional responsibility for past human rights abuses. In 2006, Pinochet was indicted for kidnappings and torture at the Villa Grimaldi detention center by judge Alejandro Madrid (Guzmán's successor), as well as for the 1995 assassination of the DINA biochemist Eugenio Berrios, himself involved in the Letelier case. Berrios, who had worked with Michael Townley, had produced sarin gas, anthrax and botulism in the Bacteriological War Army Laboratory for Pinochet; these materials were used against political opponents. The DINA biochemist was also alleged to have created black cocaine, which Pinochet then sold in Europe and the United States. The money for the drug trade was allegedly deposited into Pinochet's bank accounts. Pinochet's son Marco Antonio, who had been accused of participating in the drug trade, in 2006 denied claims of drug trafficking in his father's administration and said that he would sue Manuel Contreras, who had said that Pinochet sold cocaine.
On 25 November 2006, Pinochet marked his 91st birthday by having his wife read a statement he had written to admirers present for his birthday: "I assume the political responsibility for all that has been done." Two days later, he was again sentenced to house arrest for the kidnapping and murder of two bodyguards of Salvador Allende who were arrested the day of the 1973 coup and executed by firing squad during the Caravan of Death.
Pinochet died a few days later, on 10 December 2006, without having been convicted of any of the crimes of which he was accused.
Scandals: secret bank accounts, tax evasion, and arms deal
In 2004, a United States Senate money laundering investigation led by Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Norm Coleman (R-MN)—ordered in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks—uncovered a network of over 125 securities and bank accounts at Riggs Bank and other U.S. financial institutions used by Pinochet and his associates for twenty-five years to secretly move millions of dollars.
Though the subcommittee was charged only with investigating compliance of financial institutions under the USA PATRIOT Act, and not the Pinochet regime, Senator Coleman noted:
Over several months in 2005, Chilean judge Sergio Muñoz indicted Augusto Pinochet's wife, Lucia Hiriart; four of his children – Marco Antonio, Jacqueline, Veronica and Lucia Pinochet; his personal secretary, Monica Ananias; and his former aide Oscar Aitken on tax evasion and falsification charges stemming from the Riggs Bank investigation. In January 2006, daughter Lucia Pinochet was detained at Washington DC-Dulles airport and subsequently deported while attempting to evade the tax charges in Chile. In January 2007, the Santiago Court of Appeals revoked most of the indictment from Judge Carlos Cerda against the Pinochet family. But Pinochet's five children, his wife and 17 other persons (including two generals, one of his former lawyer and former secretary) were arrested in October 2007 on charges of embezzlement and use of false passports. They are accused of having illegally transferred $27m (£13.2m) to foreign bank accounts during Pinochet's rule.
In September 2005, a joint investigation by The Guardian and La Tercera revealed that the British arms firm BAE Systems had been identified as paying more than £1m to Pinochet, through a front company in the British Virgin Islands, which BAE has used to channel commission on arms deals. The payments began in 1997 and lasted until 2004.
In 2007, fifteen years of investigation led to the conclusion that the 1992 assassination of DINA Colonel Gerardo Huber was most probably related to various illegal arms traffic carried out, after Pinochet's resignation from power, by military circles very close to himself. Huber had been assassinated a short time before he was due to testify in the case concerning the 1991 illegal export of weapons to the Croatian army. The deal involved 370 tons of weapons, sold to Croatia by Chile on 7 December 1991, when the former country was under a United Nations' embargo because of the support for Croatia war in Yugoslavia. In January 1992, the judge Hernán Correa de la Cerda wanted to hear Gerardo Huber in this case, but the latter may have been silenced to avoid implicating Pinochet in this new case—although the latter was no longer President, he remained at the time Commander-in-Chief of the Army. Pinochet was at the center of this illegal arms trade, receiving money through various offshores and front companies, including the Banco Coutts International in Miami.
Pinochet was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in August 2000 by the Supreme Court, and indicted by judge Juan Guzmán Tapia. Guzmán had ordered in 1999 the arrest of five militarists, including General Pedro Espinoza Bravo of the DINA, for their role in the Caravan of Death following the coup on 11 September. Arguing that the bodies of the "disappeared" were still missing, he made jurisprudence, which had as effect to lift any prescription on the crimes committed by the military. Pinochet's trial continued until his death on 10 December 2006, with an alternation of indictments for specific cases, lifting of immunities by the Supreme Court or to the contrary immunity from prosecution, with his health a main argument for, or against, his prosecution.
The Supreme Court affirmed, in March 2005, Pinochet's immunity concerning the 1974 assassination of General Carlos Prats in Buenos Aires, which had taken place in the frame of Operation Condor. However, he was deemed fit to stand trial for Operation Colombo, during which 119 political opponents were "disappeared" in Argentina. The Chilean justice also lifted his immunity on the Villa Grimaldi case, a detention and torture center in the outskirts of Santiago. Pinochet, who still benefited from a reputation of righteousness from his supporters, lost legitimacy when he was put under house arrest on tax fraud and passport forgery, following the publication by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of a report concerning the Riggs Bank in July 2004. The report was a consequence of investigations on financial funding of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US. The bank controlled between US$4 million and $8 million of the assets of Pinochet, who lived in Santiago in a modest house, dissimulating his wealth. According to the report, Riggs participated in money laundering for Pinochet, setting up offshore shell corporations (referring to Pinochet as only "a former public official"), and hiding his accounts from regulatory agencies. Related to Pinochet's and his family secret bank accounts in United States and in Caribbean islands, this tax fraud filing for an amount of 27 million dollars shocked the conservative sectors who still supported him. Ninety percent of these funds would have been raised between 1990 and 1998, when Pinochet was chief of the Chilean armies, and would essentially have come from weapons traffic (when purchasing French 'Mirage' fighter aircraft in 1994, Dutch 'Leopard 2' tanks, Swiss 'MOWAG' armored vehicles or by illegal sales of weapons to Croatia, during the Balkans war.) His wife, Lucía Hiriart, and his son, Marco Antonio Pinochet, were also sued for complicity. For the fourth time in seven years, Pinochet was indicted by the Chilean justice.
Death
Pinochet suffered a heart attack on the morning of 3 December 2006 and was given the last rites the same day. On 4 December 2006, the Chilean Court of Appeals ordered the suspension of his house arrest. On 10 December 2006 at 13:30 local time (16:30 UTC) he was taken to the intensive care unit. He died of congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema, surrounded by family members, at the Military Hospital at 14:15 local time (17:15 UTC).
Massive spontaneous street demonstrations broke out throughout the country upon the news of his death. In Santiago, opponents celebrated his death in Alameda Avenue, while supporters grieved outside the Military Hospital. Pinochet's remains lay in repose on 11 December 2006 at the Military Academy in Las Condes. During this ceremony, Francisco Cuadrado Prats—the grandson of Carlos Prats (a former Commander-in-Chief of the Army in the Allende government who was murdered by Pinochet's secret police)—spat on the coffin, and was quickly surrounded by supporters of Pinochet, who assaulted him. Pinochet's funeral took place the following day at the same venue before a gathering of 60,000 supporters.
In a government decision, he was not granted a state funeral (an honor normally bestowed upon past presidents of Chile) but a military funeral as former commander-in-chief of the Army appointed by Allende. The government also refused to declare an official national day of mourning, but it did authorize flags at military barracks to be flown at half staff, and for the Chilean flag to be draped on Pinochet's coffin. Socialist President Michelle Bachelet, whose father Alberto was temporarily imprisoned and tortured after the 1973 coup and died shortly afterwards from heart complications, said that it would be "a violation of [her] conscience" to attend a state funeral for Pinochet. The only government authority present at the public funeral was the Defense Minister, Vivianne Blanlot.
In Spain, supporters of late dictator Francisco Franco paid homage to Pinochet. Antonio Tejero, who led the failed coup of 1981, attended a memorial service in Madrid.
Pinochet's body was cremated in Parque del Mar Cemetery, Concón on 12 December 2006, on his request to "avoid vandalism of his tomb", according to his son Marco Antonio. His ashes were delivered to his family later that day, and are deposited in Los Boldos, Santo Domingo, Valparaiso, Chile; one of his personal residences. The armed forces refused to allow his ashes to be deposited on military property.
Honours
National honours
:
Grand Master of the Order of Merit - (1974-1990)
Grand Master of the Order of Bernardo O'Higgins- (1974-1990)
President of the Republic Decoration
10 Years Service Award
20 Years Service Award
30 Years Service Award
Minerva Medal(Army War College)
Minerva Medal(Army War College)
Decoration of the President of the Chilean Red Cross
Grand Knight of the Altiplano of Arica
Foreign honours
: Grand Cross of the Order of the Quetzal
:
Order of Abdon Calderón, 1st Class
Official Honorary General Staff Decoration of the Armed Forces of Ecuador
Honorary Staff Officer of the Armed Forces of Ecuador
: Order of José Matías Delgado
: Collar of Francisco Solano Lopez Grade of the National Order of Merit (Paraguay)
:
Grand Cross of the Order of the Liberator General San Martín
Grand Cross of the Order of May
: Commander of the Order of Military Merit José María Córdova
: Crosses of Military Merit
: Supreme Grand Collar of the Military Order of the Saint Salvador and Saint Bridgette (self-styled order)
See also
1970 Chilean presidential election
United States intervention in Chile
Book burnings in Chile
History of Chile
Pinochetism
Colonia, a film about two West Germans caught up in the aftermath of the Pinochet coup who end up in the Colonia Dignidad cult
Missing, a film based on the life of U.S. journalist Charles Horman, who disappeared in the aftermath of the Pinochet coup
No, an Academy Award-nominated film presenting a dramatized account of the 1988 national plebiscite campaign on Pinochet's rule
David H. Popper, US ambassador to Chile (1974–1977)
United States involvement in regime change
Notes
References
Further reading
(Reviewed in The Washington Post, Book World, p. 2, 2009-10-19)
External links
Extensive bio by Fundación CIDOB (in Spanish)
Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006) – A Biography
France 24 coverage – Augusto Pinochet's Necrology on France 24
BBC coverage (special report)
Documentary Film on Chilean Concentration Camp from Pinochet's Regime: Chacabuco
CIA Acknowledges Ties to Pinochet's Repression from The National Security Archive
Chile under Allende and Pinochet
Human rights violation under Pinochet
The Times obituary
Analysis of economic policy under Pinochet by economist Jim Cypher in Dollars & Sense magazine
Chile: The Price of Democracy New English Review
What Pinochet Did for Chile Hoover Digest (2007 No. 1)
When US-Backed Pinochet Forces Took Power in Chile – video report by Democracy Now!
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Deaths from pulmonary edema
Survivors of terrorist attacks | true | [
"This is a list of principals of the University of Zimbabwe. The head of the university holds the title of Vice Chancellor (the Chancellor is the President of Zimbabwe ex officio). \n\nThe first chief executive of the university was William Rollo, who served as interim principal from 1953 to 1955. The first substantive Principal was Sir Walter Adams who served from 1955 to 1966 and was later Director of the London School of Economics. Sir Walter was succeeded by Terence Miller, who lasted a mere two years as his political views brought him into conflict with the government. His successor, Robert Craig, later Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, served from 1969 to 1980. Leonard J. Lewis served as Principal for the transition to Zimbabwe's independence, despite his somewhat controversial views on African education and politics. He was succeeded in 1981 by Walter Kamba, who became Vice–Chancellor, a new title replacing that of Principal. Like Miller, Kamba came into conflict with the government and he resigned in a controversial speech at the 1992 graduation ceremony, citing government interference and threats to academic freedom. He was succeeded by Gordon Chavunduka (1992–1996), who was followed by Graham Hill (1997–2002). Levi Nyagura served as Vice Chancellor beginning in 2003 until his resignation in April 2018 amidst allegations of abuse of office. He was succeeded by incumbent Vice Chancellor Paul Mapfumo on 17 August 2018.\n\nList of principals\n\nReferences\n\nUniversity of Zimbabwe\nPrincipals\nZimbabwe, University of\nZimbabwe, University of",
"ʾAḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Hārūn ibn Yazīd al Baghdādī () better known as Abū Bakr al Khalāl, was a Medieval Muslim jurist.\n\nAl-Khallal was a student of five of Ahmad ibn Hanbal's direct students, including Ibn Hanbal's son Abdullah. His documentation on Ibn Hanbal's views eventually reached twenty volumes and ultimately led to the preservation of the Hanbali school of Islamic law. He was considered the principal Hanbalite scholar of his time.\n\nLife\nAl-Khallal's exact date of birth is not known. He died in 923 at the age of 78, which means that he must have been born during Ibn Hanbal's twilight years. The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History estimates al-Khallal's year of birth as 848.\n\nAside from his legal efforts, virtually nothing is known of al-Khallal's life. During his efforts to compile the views of Ibn Hanbal, al-Khallal ended up spending periods of time living in Fars Province, Syria and Mesopotamia. According to Muslim historian Al-Dhahabi, there was no such thing as an independent Hanbalite school of law prior to al-Khallal's efforts at compiling Ibn Hanbal's views. Al-Khallal's status within the school was not universally accepted, and he and his students were often in conflict with fellow Hanbalite Al-Hasan ibn 'Ali al-Barbahari and his students.\n\nReception\nThe historian al-Dhahabi stated that, \"Before him (al-Khallal) there were no independent school of the imam's; not until he followed up Ahmed's texts, wrote them down and checked there proofs after 300 A.H.\"\n\nThe 20th century Hanbali jurisprudent Badran called al-Khallal's collection \"the very root of the Hanbali school, from which sprang all later books of Hanbali jurisprudence.\"\n\nCitations\n\nExternal links\nBibliography at Alibris\n\nAtharis\nHanbalis\nSunni Muslim scholars\nYear of birth unknown\n923 deaths\n9th-century Muslim scholars of Islam\n9th-century jurists\n10th-century jurists"
]
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[
"Augusto Pinochet",
"Accusations of fascism",
"What were the accusations?",
"Griffin included Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots distinct from fascism and including the likes of Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos.",
"What he accused of being a fascist?",
"Pinochet attempted to build true fascism, the regime would likely have been toppled or at least been forced to alter its relationship to the United States.",
"Was there conflict because of his views?",
"Anna Cento Bull also excluded Pinochet from fascism, although she has argued that his regime belongs to a strand of Cold War anti-communism"
]
| C_2456f9e2997745a2bdf69e61067fea11_0 | Did he have many followers? | 4 | Did Augusto Pinochet have many followers? | Augusto Pinochet | Pinochet and his government have been characterised as fascist. For example, journalist and author Samuel Chavkin, in his book Storm Over Chile: The Junta Under Siege, repeatedly characterizes both Pinochet himself and the military dictatorship as fascist. However, he and his government are generally excluded from academic typologies of fascism. Roger Griffin included Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots distinct from fascism and including the likes of Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos. He argues that such regimes may be considered populist ultra-nationalism but lack the rhetoric of national rebirth, or palingenesis, necessary to make them conform to the model of palingenetic ultranationalism. Robert Paxton meanwhile compared Pinochet's regime to that of Mobutu Sese Seko in the former Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), arguing that both were merely client states that lacked popular acclaim and the ability to expand. He further argued that had Pinochet attempted to build true fascism, the regime would likely have been toppled or at least been forced to alter its relationship to the United States. Anna Cento Bull also excluded Pinochet from fascism, although she has argued that his regime belongs to a strand of Cold War anti-communism that was happy to accommodate neo-fascist elements within its activity. World Fascism: a Historical Encyclopedia notes that "Although he was authoritarian and ruled dictatorially, Pinochet's support of neoliberal economic policies and his unwillingness to support national businesses distinguished him from classical fascists." Historian Gabriel Salazar stated that Pinochet's establishment cult of personality around him was a fascist tactic: It is notable that in all the declarations of Pinochet's men, nobody has mentioned the creators of the new Chilean society and state, I haven't heard anybody mention Jaime Guzman, Carlos Caceres, Hernan Buchi, Sergio de Castro. There is no mention of the true brains, or that the whole of the armed forces were involved in this, in dirty and symbolic tasks. Everything is embodied in Pinochet, it's very curious that figures of the stature of Buchi are immolated before the figure of Pinochet, in what is to me a fascist rite, give everything to the Fuhrer, "I did it, but ultimately it was him". CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean dictator and general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being self-declared President of the Republic by the junta in 1974 and becoming the de facto dictator of Chile, and from 1981 to 1990 as de jure President after a new Constitution, which confirmed him in the office, was approved by a referendum in 1980.
Augusto Pinochet rose through the ranks of the Chilean Army to become General Chief of Staff in early 1972 before being appointed its Commander-in-Chief on 23 August 1973 by President Salvador Allende. On 11 September 1973,
Pinochet seized power in Chile in a coup d'état, with the support of the U.S., that toppled Allende's democratically elected Unidad Popular government and ended civilian rule. In December 1974, the ruling military junta appointed Pinochet Supreme Head of the nation by joint decree, although without the support of one of the coup's instigators, Air Force General Gustavo Leigh. After his rise to power, Pinochet persecuted leftists, socialists, and political critics, resulting in the executions of 1,200 to 3,200 people, the internment of as many as 80,000 people, and the torture of tens of thousands. According to the Chilean government, the number of executions and forced disappearances was 3,095. Operation Condor, a U.S.-supported terror operation focusing on South America, was founded at the behest of the Pinochet regime in late November 1975, his 60th birthday.
Under the influence of the free market-oriented "Chicago Boys", Pinochet's military government implemented economic liberalization, including currency stabilization, removed tariff protections for local industry, banned trade unions, and privatized social security and hundreds of state-owned enterprises. Some of the government properties were sold below market price to politically connected buyers, including Pinochet's own son-in-law. The regime used censorship of entertainment as a way to reward supporters of the regime and punish opponents. These policies produced high economic growth, but critics state that economic inequality dramatically increased and attribute the devastating effects of the 1982 monetary crisis on the Chilean economy to these policies. For most of the 1990s, Chile was the best-performing economy in Latin America, though the legacy of Pinochet's reforms continues to be in dispute. His fortune grew considerably during his years in power through dozens of bank accounts secretly held abroad and a fortune in real estate. He was later prosecuted for embezzlement, tax fraud, and for possible commissions levied on arms deals.
Pinochet's 17-year rule was given a legal framework through a controversial 1980 plebiscite, which approved a new constitution drafted by a government-appointed commission. In a 1988 plebiscite, 56% voted against Pinochet's continuing as president, which led to democratic elections for the presidency and Congress. After stepping down in 1990, Pinochet continued to serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army until 10 March 1998, when he retired and became a senator-for-life in accordance with his 1980 Constitution. However, Pinochet was arrested under an international arrest warrant on a visit to London on 10 October 1998 in connection with numerous human rights violations. Following a legal battle, he was released on grounds of ill-health and returned to Chile on 3 March 2000. In 2004, Chilean Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia ruled that Pinochet was medically fit to stand trial and placed him under house arrest. By the time of his death on 10 December 2006, about 300 criminal charges were still pending against him in Chile for numerous human rights violations during his 17-year rule, as well as tax evasion and embezzlement during and after his rule. He was also accused of having corruptly amassed at least US$28 million.
Early life and education
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was born in Valparaíso on 25 November 1915. He was the son and namesake of Augusto Pinochet Vera (1891–1944), a descendant of an 18th century French Breton immigrant from Lamballe, and Avelina Ugarte Martínez (1895–1986), a woman of Basque heritage whose family had been in Chile since the 17th century.
Pinochet went to primary and secondary school at the San Rafael Seminary of Valparaíso, the Rafael Ariztía Institute (Marist Brothers) in Quillota, the French Fathers' School of Valparaíso, and then to the Military School in Santiago, which he entered in 1931. In 1935, after four years studying military geography, he graduated with the rank of alférez (Second Lieutenant) in the infantry.
Military career
In September 1937, Pinochet was assigned to the "Chacabuco" Regiment, in Concepción. Two years later, in 1939, then with the rank of Sub-lieutenant, he moved to the "Maipo" Regiment, garrisoned in Valparaíso. He returned to Infantry School in 1940. On 30 January 1943, Pinochet married Lucía Hiriart Rodríguez, with whom he had five children: Inés Lucía, María Verónica, Jacqueline Marie, Augusto Osvaldo and Marco Antonio.
By late 1945, Pinochet had been assigned to the "Carampangue" Regiment in the northern city of Iquique. Three years later, he entered the Chilean War Academy but had to postpone his studies because, being the youngest officer, he had to carry out a service mission in the coal zone of Lota. In 1948, Pinochet was initiated in the regular Masonic Lodge Victoria n°15 of San Bernardo, affiliated to the Grand Lodge of Chile. He received the Scottish Rite degree of companion, but he is thought not to have ever become a Grand Master.
The following year he returned to his studies in the academy, and after obtaining the title of Officer Chief of Staff, in 1951, he returned to teach at the Military School. At the same time, he worked as a teachers' aide at the War Academy, giving military geography and geopolitics classes. He was also the editor of the institutional magazine Cien Águilas ('One Hundred Eagles'). At the beginning of 1953, with the rank of major, he was sent for two years to the "Rancagua" Regiment in Arica. While there, he was appointed professor of the Chilean War Academy, and returned to Santiago to take up his new position.
In 1956, Pinochet and a group of young officers were chosen to form a military mission to collaborate in the organization of the War Academy of Ecuador in Quito. He remained with the Quito mission for four-and-a-half years, during which time he studied geopolitics, military geography and military intelligence. At the end of 1959 he returned to Chile and was sent to General Headquarters of the 1st Army Division, based in Antofagasta. The following year, he was appointed commander of the "Esmeralda" Regiment. Due to his success in this position, he was appointed Sub-director of the War Academy in 1963. In 1968, he was named Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army Division, based in Santiago, and at the end of that year, he was promoted to brigadier general and Commander in Chief of the 6th Division, garrisoned in Iquique. In his new function, he was also appointed Intendent of the Tarapacá Province.
In January 1971, Pinochet was promoted to division general and was named General Commander of the Santiago Army Garrison. On 8 June 1971, following the assassination of Edmundo Perez Zujovic by left-wing radicals, Allende appointed Pinochet a supreme authority of Santiago province, imposing a military curfew in the process, which was later lifted. However, on 2 December 1971, following a series of peaceful protests against economic policies of Allende, the curfew was re-installed, all protests prohibited, with Pinochet leading the crackdown on anti-Allende protests. At the beginning of 1972, he was appointed General Chief of Staff of the Army. With rising domestic strife in Chile, after General Prats resigned his position, Pinochet was appointed commander-in-chief of the Army on 23 August 1973 by President Salvador Allende just one day after the Chamber of Deputies of Chile approved a resolution asserting that the government was not respecting the Constitution. Less than a month later, the Chilean military deposed Allende.
Military coup of 1973
On 11 September 1973, the combined Chilean Armed Forces (the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Carabineros) overthrew Allende's government in a coup, during which the presidential palace, La Moneda, was shelled and most likely where Allende was said to have committed suicide. While the military claimed that he had committed suicide, controversy surrounded Allende's death, with many claiming that he had been assassinated (such theory was discarded by the Chilean Supreme Court in 2014).
In his memoirs, Pinochet said that he was the leading plotter of the coup and had used his position as commander-in-chief of the Army to coordinate a far-reaching scheme with the other two branches of the military and the national police. In later years, however, high military officials from the time have said that Pinochet reluctantly became involved only a few days before the coup was scheduled to occur, and followed the lead of the other branches (especially the Navy, under Merino) as they executed the coup.
The new government rounded up thousands of people and held them in the national stadium, where many were killed. This was followed by brutal repression during Pinochet's rule, during which approximately 3,000 people were killed, while more than 1,000 are still missing.
In the months that followed the coup, the junta, with authoring work by historian Gonzalo Vial and admiral Patricio Carvajal, published a book titled El Libro Blanco del cambio de gobierno en Chile (commonly known as El Libro Blanco, 'The White Book on the Change of Government in Chile'), in which they said that they were in fact anticipating a self-coup (the alleged Plan Zeta, or Plan Z) that Allende's government or its associates were purportedly preparing. United States intelligence agencies believed the plan to be untrue propaganda. Although later discredited and officially recognized as the product of political propaganda, Gonzalo Vial Correa insists in the similarities between the alleged Plan Z and other existing paramilitary plans of the Popular Unity parties in support of its legitimacy. Pinochet was also trained by the School of the Americas (SOA) where it is likely he first encountered the ideals of the coup.
Canadian reporter Jean Charpentier of Télévision de Radio-Canada was the first foreign journalist to interview General Pinochet following the coup. After Allende's final radio address, he shot himself rather than becoming a prisoner.
U.S. backing of the coup
The Church Report investigating the fallout of the Watergate scandal stated that while the U.S. tacitly supported the Pinochet government after the 1973 coup, there was "no evidence" that the US was directly involved in it. This view has been contradicted by several academics, such as Peter Winn, who writes that the role of the CIA was crucial to the consolidation of power after the coup; the CIA helped fabricate a conspiracy against the Allende government, which Pinochet was then portrayed as preventing. He stated that the coup itself was possible only through a three-year covert operation mounted by the United States. Winn also points out that the US imposed an "invisible blockade" that was designed to disrupt the economy under Allende, and contributed to the destabilization of the regime. Author Peter Kornbluh argues in The Pinochet File that the US was extensively involved and actively "fomented" the 1973 coup. Authors Tim Weiner (Legacy of Ashes) and Christopher Hitchens (The Trial of Henry Kissinger) similarly argue the case that US covert actions actively destabilized Allende's government and set the stage for the 1973 coup. Despite denial of countless American agencies, current declassified documentation has proven the American involvement. Nixon and Kissinger, along with both private and public intelligence agencies were "apprised of, and even enmeshed in, the planning and executing of the military takeover." Along with this, CIA operatives directly involved, such as Jack Devine, have also come out and declared their involvement in the coup. Devine stating "I sent CIA headquarters a special type of top-secret cable known as a CRITIC, which ... goes directly to the highest levels of government."
The US provided material support to the military government after the coup, although criticizing it in public. A document released by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2000, titled "CIA Activities in Chile", revealed that the CIA actively supported the military junta after the overthrow of Allende, and that it made many of Pinochet's officers into paid contacts of the CIA or U.S. military, even though some were known to be involved in human rights abuses. The CIA also maintained contacts in the Chilean DINA intelligence service. DINA led the multinational campaign known as Operation Condor, which amongst other activities carried out assassinations of prominent politicians in various Latin American countries, in Washington, D.C., and in Europe, and kidnapped, tortured and executed activists holding left-wing views, which culminated in the deaths of roughly 60,000 people. The United States provided key organizational, financial and technical assistance to the operation. CIA contact with DINA head Manuel Contreras was established in 1974 soon after the coup, during the Junta period prior to official transfer of Presidential powers to Pinochet; in 1975, the CIA reviewed a warning that keeping Contreras as an asset might threaten human rights in the region. The CIA chose to keep him as an asset, and at one point even paid him. In addition to the CIA's maintaining of assets in DINA beginning soon after the coup, several CIA assets, such as CORU Cuban exile militants Orlando Bosch and Guillermo Novo, collaborated in DINA operations under the Condor Plan in the early years of Pinochet's presidency.
Military junta
A military junta was established immediately following the coup, made up of General Pinochet representing the Army, Admiral José Toribio Merino representing the Navy, General Gustavo Leigh representing the Air Force, and General César Mendoza representing the Carabineros (national police). As established, the junta exercised both executive and legislative functions of the government, suspended the Constitution and the Congress, imposed strict censorship and curfew, banned all parties and halted all political and perceived subversive activities. This military junta held the executive role until 17 December 1974, after which it remained strictly as a legislative body, the executive powers being transferred to Pinochet with the title of President.
Military dictatorship (1973–1990)
The junta members originally planned that the presidency would be held for a year by the commanders-in-chief of each of the four military branches in turn. However, Pinochet soon consolidated his control, first retaining sole chairmanship of the military junta, and then proclaiming himself "Supreme Chief of the Nation" (de facto provisional president) on 27 June 1974. He officially changed his title to "President" on 17 December 1974. General Leigh, head of the Air Force, became increasingly opposed to Pinochet's policies and was forced into retirement on 24 July 1978, after contradicting Pinochet on that year's plebiscite (officially called Consulta Nacional, or National Consultation, in response to a UN resolution condemning Pinochet's government). He was replaced by General Fernando Matthei.
Pinochet organized a plebiscite on 11 September 1980 to ratify a new constitution, replacing the 1925 Constitution drafted during Arturo Alessandri's presidency. The new Constitution, partly drafted by Jaime Guzmán, a close adviser to Pinochet who later founded the right-wing party Independent Democratic Union (UDI), gave a lot of power to the President of the Republic—Pinochet. It created some new institutions, such as the Constitutional Tribunal and the controversial National Security Council (COSENA). It also prescribed an 8-year presidential period, and a single-candidate presidential referendum in 1988, where a candidate nominated by the Junta would be approved or rejected for another 8-year period. The new constitution was approved by a margin of 67.04% to 30.19% according to official figures; the opposition, headed by ex-president Eduardo Frei Montalva (who had supported Pinochet's coup), denounced extensive irregularities such as the lack of an electoral register, which facilitated multiple voting, and said that the total number of votes reported to have been cast was very much larger than would be expected from the size of the electorate and turnout in previous elections. Interviews after Pinochet's departure with people involved with the referendum confirmed that fraud had, indeed, been widespread. The Constitution was promulgated on 21 October 1980, taking effect on 11 March 1981. Pinochet was replaced as President of the Junta that day by Admiral Merino. During Pinochet's reign it is estimated that some one million people had been forced to flee the country.
Armed opposition to the Pinochet rule continued in remote parts of the country. In a massive operation spearheaded by Chilean Army para-commandos, some 2,000 security forces troops were deployed in the mountains of Neltume from June to November 1981, where they destroyed two MIR bases, seizing large caches of munitions and killing a number of guerrillas.
According to author Ozren Agnic Krstulovic, weapons including C-4 plastic explosives, RPG-7 and M72 LAW rocket launchers, as well as more than 3,000 M-16 rifles, were smuggled into the country by opponents of the government.
In September 1986, weapons from the same source were used in an unsuccessful assassination attempt against Pinochet by the FPMR. His military bodyguard was taken by surprise, and five members were killed. Pinochet's bulletproof Mercedes Benz vehicle was struck by a rocket, but it failed to explode and Pinochet suffered only minor injuries.
Suppression of opposition
Almost immediately after the military's seizure of power, the junta banned all the leftist parties that had constituted Allende's UP coalition.
All other parties were placed in "indefinite recess" and were later banned outright. The government's violence was directed not only against dissidents but also against their families and other civilians.
The Rettig Report concluded 2,279 persons who disappeared during the military government were killed for political reasons or as a result of political violence. According to the later Valech Report approximately 31,947 were tortured and 1,312 exiled. The exiles were chased all over the world by the intelligence agencies. In Latin America, this was made in the frame of Operation Condor, a cooperation plan between the various intelligence agencies of South American countries, assisted by a United States CIA communication base in Panama. Pinochet believed these operations were necessary in order to "save the country from communism". In 2011, the commission identified an additional 9,800 victims of political repression during Pinochet's rule, increasing the total number of victims to approximately 40,018, including 3,065 killed.
Some political scientists have ascribed the relative bloodiness of the coup to the stability of the existing democratic system, which required extreme action to overturn. Some of the most infamous cases of human rights violation occurred during the early period: in October 1973, at least 70 people were killed throughout the country by the Caravan of Death. Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, both U.S. journalists, "disappeared", as did Víctor Olea Alegría, a member of the Socialist Party, and many others, in 1973. British priest Michael Woodward, who vanished within 10 days of the coup, was tortured and beaten to death aboard the Chilean naval ship, Esmeralda.
Many other important officials of Allende's government were tracked down by the DINA in the frame of Operation Condor. General Carlos Prats, Pinochet's predecessor and army commander under Allende, who had resigned rather than support the moves against Allende's government, was assassinated in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1974. A year later, the murder of 119 opponents abroad was disguised as an internal conflict, the DINA setting up a propaganda campaign to support this idea (Operation Colombo), a campaign publicised by the leading newspaper in Chile, El Mercurio.
Other victims of Condor included, among hundreds of less famous persons, Juan José Torres, the former President of Bolivia, assassinated in Buenos Aires on 2 June 1976; Carmelo Soria, a UN diplomat working for the CEPAL, assassinated in July 1976;
Orlando Letelier, a former Chilean ambassador to the United States and minister in Allende's cabinet, assassinated after his release from internment and exile in Washington, D.C. by a car bomb on 21 September 1976. Documents confirm that Pinochet directly ordered the assassination of Letelier. This led to strained relations with the US and to the extradition of Michael Townley, a US citizen who worked for the DINA and had organized Letelier's assassination. Other targeted victims, who escaped assassination, included Christian-Democrat Bernardo Leighton, who escaped an assassination attempt in Rome in 1975 by the Italian terrorist Stefano delle Chiaie; Carlos Altamirano, the leader of the Chilean Socialist Party, targeted for murder in 1975 by Pinochet, along with Volodia Teitelboim, member of the Communist Party; Pascal Allende, the nephew of Salvador Allende and president of the MIR, who escaped an assassination attempt in Costa Rica in March 1976; US Congressman Edward Koch, who became aware in 2001 of relations between death threats and his denunciation of Operation Condor, etc. Furthermore, according to current investigations, Eduardo Frei Montalva, the Christian Democrat President of Chile from 1964 to 1970, may have been poisoned in 1982 by toxin produced by DINA biochemist Eugenio Berrios.
Protests continued, however, during the 1980s, leading to several scandals. In March 1985, the murder of three Communist Party members led to the resignation of César Mendoza, head of the Carabineros and member of the junta since its formation. During a 1986 protest against Pinochet, 21-year-old American photographer Rodrigo Rojas DeNegri and 18-year-old student Carmen Gloria Quintana were burnt alive, with only Carmen surviving.
In August 1989, Marcelo Barrios Andres, a 21-year-old member of the FPMR (the armed wing of the PCC, created in 1983, which had attempted to assassinate Pinochet on 7 September 1986), was assassinated by a group of military personnel who were supposed to arrest him on orders of Valparaíso's public prosecutor. However, they simply executed him; this case was included in the Rettig Report. Among the killed and disappeared during the military junta were 440 MIR guerrillas. In December 2015, three former DINA agents were sentenced to ten years in prison for the murder of a 29-year-old theology student and activist, German Rodriguez Cortes, in 1978. That same month 62-year-old Guillermo Reyes Rammsy, a former Chilean soldier during the Pinochet years, was arrested and charged with murder for boasting of participating in 18 executions during a live phone-in to the Chilean radio show "Chacotero Sentimental".
On 2 June 2017, Chilean judge Hernan Cristoso sentenced 106 former Chilean intelligence officials to between 541 days and 20 years in prison for their role in the kidnapping and murder of 16 left-wing activists in 1974 and 1975.
Economic policy
In 1973, the Chilean economy was deeply depressed for several reasons, Allende's government had expropriated many Chilean and foreign businesses, including all copper mines, had controlled prices, inflation reached 606%, income per capita had a contraction of -7.14% in 1973 only while in comparison to 1970 it had contracted by -30%, GDP contracted by -5% in 1973, and also public spending rose from 22.6% to 44.9% between 1970 and 1973 creating a deficit of 25% of the GDP, while some authors like Peter Kornbluh also argue that economic sanctions by the Nixon administration helped to create the economic crisis other authors like Paul Sigmund and Mark Falcoff argue there was no blockade because there was still (just less) aid and credit as well as not a real embargo on trade; the economic and political crisis had the armed forces taking power in September 1973 with Augusto Pinochet, José Toribio Merino Castro, Gustavo Leigh and César Mendoza as their leaders.
By mid-1975, after two years of Keynesianism, the government set forth an economic policy of free-market reforms that attempted to stop inflation and collapse. Pinochet declared that he wanted "to make Chile not a nation of proletarians, but a nation of proprietors". To formulate the economic rescue, the government relied on the so-called Chicago Boys and a text called El ladrillo, and although Chile grew very quickly between 1976 and 1981, it had a large amount of debt which made Chile the most affected nation by the Latin American debt crisis.
In sharp contrast to the privatization done in other areas, Chile's nationalized main copper mines remained in government hands, with the 1980 Constitution later declaring the mines "inalienable". In 1976, Codelco was established to exploit them but new mineral deposits were opened to private investment. In November 1980, the pension system was restructured from a PAYGO-system to a fully funded capitalization system run by private sector pension funds. Healthcare and education were likewise privatized. These mines would ultimately help them economically however they would fall partly in American hands.
Wages decreased by 8%. Family allowances in 1989 were 28% of what they had been in 1970 and the budgets for education, health and housing had dropped by over 20% on average. The junta relied on the middle class, the oligarchy, foreign corporations, and foreign loans to maintain itself. Businesses recovered most of their lost industrial and agricultural holdings, for the junta returned properties to original owners who had lost them during expropriations, and sold other industries expropriated by Allende's Popular Unity government to private buyers. This period saw the expansion of business and widespread speculation.
Financial conglomerates became major beneficiaries of the liberalized economy and the flood of foreign bank loans. Large foreign banks reinstated the credit cycle, as debt obligations, such as resuming payment of principal and interest installments, were honored. International lending organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Inter-American Development Bank lent vast sums anew. Many foreign multinational corporations such as International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT), Dow Chemical, and Firestone, all expropriated by Allende, returned to Chile. Pinochet's policies eventually led to substantial GDP growth, in contrast to the negative growth seen in the early years of his administration, while public debt also was kept high mostly to finance public spending which even after the privatization of services was kept at high rates (though far less than before privatization), for example, in 1991 after one year of post-Pinochet democracy debt was still at 37.4% of the GDP.
The Pinochet government implemented an economic model that had three main objectives: economic liberalization, privatization of state owned companies, and stabilization of inflation. In 1985, the government initiated a second round of privatization, revising previously introduced tariff increases and creating a greater supervisory role for the Central Bank. Pinochet's market liberalizations have continued after his death, led by Patricio Aylwin. According to a 2020 study in the Journal of Economic History, Pinochet sold firms at below-market prices to politically connected buyers.
Critics argue the neoliberal economic policies of the Pinochet regime resulted in widening inequality and deepening poverty as they negatively impacted the wages, benefits and working conditions of Chile's working class. According to Chilean economist Alejandro Foxley, by the end of Pinochet's reign around 44% of Chilean families were living below the poverty line. According to The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, by the late 1980s, the economy had stabilized and was growing, but around 45% of the population had fallen into poverty while the wealthiest 10% saw their incomes rise by 83%. But others disagree, Chilean economist José Piñera argues that 2 years after Pinochet took power, poverty was still at 50% and the liberal reforms reduced it to 7.8% in 2013 as well as income per capita rising from US$4.000 in 1975 to US$25.000 in 2015, supporters of the reforms also argue that when Pinochet left power in 1990 poverty had fallen to 38% and some claim that since the consolidation of the neoliberal system inequality has been reducing. However, protests erupted in late 2019 in response to growing inequality in the country which can be traced back to the neoliberal policies of the Pinochet dictatorship.
American scholar, Nancy MacLean, wrote that the concentration of money in the hands of the very rich and the perversion of democracy through the privatization of government was always the goal. The architect of this economic model known as "public choice", James M. Buchanan, traveled to Chile and worked closely with the Pinochet regime. MacLean's account, however, has come under scrutiny. Economist Andrew Farrant examined the Chilean constitutional clauses that MacLean attributes to Buchanan, and discovered that they pre-dated his visit. He concludes that "evidence suggests that Buchanan's May 1980 visit did not particularly influence the subsequent drafting of the Chilean Constitution" and "there is no evidence to suggest that Buchanan had any kind of audience with Pinochet or corresponded with the Chilean dictator."
1988 referendum, attempt to stay in power and transition to democracy
According to the transitional provisions of the 1980 Constitution, a referendum was scheduled for 5 October 1988, to vote on a new eight-year presidential term for Pinochet. Confronted with increasing opposition, notably at the international level, Pinochet legalized political parties in 1987 and called for a vote to determine whether or not he would remain in power until 1997. If the "YES" won, Pinochet would have to implement the dispositions of the 1980 Constitution, mainly the call for general elections, while he would himself remain in power as president. If the "NO" won, Pinochet would remain President for another year, and a joint Presidential and legislative election would be held.
Another reason for Pinochet's decision to call for elections was the April 1987 visit of Pope John Paul II to Chile. According to the US Catholic author George Weigel, he held a meeting with Pinochet during which they discussed a return to democracy. John Paul II allegedly pushed Pinochet to accept a democratic opening of his government, and even called for his resignation.
Political advertising was legalized on 5 September 1987, as a necessary element for the campaign for the "NO" to the referendum, which countered the official campaign, which presaged a return to a Popular Unity government in case of a defeat of Pinochet. The Opposition, gathered into the Concertación de Partidos por el NO ("Coalition of Parties for NO"), organized a colorful and cheerful campaign under the slogan La alegría ya viene ("Joy is coming"). It was formed by the Christian Democracy, the Socialist Party and the Radical Party, gathered in the Alianza Democrática (Democratic Alliance). In 1988, several more parties, including the Humanist Party, the Ecologist Party, the Social Democrats, and several Socialist Party splinter groups added their support.
On 5 October 1988, the "NO" option won with 55.99% of the votes, against 44.01% of "YES" votes. In the wake of his electoral defeat, Pinochet attempted to implement a plan for an auto-coup. He attempted to implement efforts to orchestrate chaos and violence in the streets to justify his power grab, however, the Carabinero police refused an order to lift the cordon against street demonstrations in the capital, according to a CIA informant. In his final move, Pinochet convened a meeting of his junta at La Moneda, in which he requested that they give him extraordinary powers to have the military seize the capital. Air Force General Fernando Matthei refused, saying that he would not agree to such a thing under any circumstances, and the rest of the junta followed this stance, on grounds that Pinochet already had his turn and lost. Matthei would later become the first member of the junta to publicly admit that Pinochet had lost the plebiscite. Without any support from the junta, Pinochet was forced to accept the result. The ensuing Constitutional process led to presidential and legislative elections the following year.
The Coalition changed its name to Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia (Coalition of Parties for Democracy) and put forward Patricio Aylwin, a Christian Democrat who had opposed Allende, as presidential candidate, and also proposed a list of candidates for the parliamentary elections. The opposition and the Pinochet government made several negotiations to amend the Constitution and agreed to 54 modifications. These amendments changed the way the Constitution would be modified in the future, added restrictions to state of emergency dispositions, the affirmation of political pluralism, and enhanced constitutional rights as well as the democratic principle and participation to political life. In July 1989, a referendum on the proposed changes took place, supported by all the parties except the right-wing Southern Party and the Chilean Socialist Party. The Constitutional changes were approved by 91.25% of the voters.
Thereafter, Aylwin won the December 1989 presidential election with 55% of the votes, against less than 30% for the right-wing candidate, Hernán Büchi, who had been Pinochet's Minister of Finances since 1985 (there was also a third-party candidate, Francisco Javier Errázuriz, a wealthy aristocrat representing the extreme economic right, who garnered the remaining 15%). Pinochet thus left the presidency on 11 March 1990 and transferred power to the new democratically elected president.
The Concertación also won the majority of votes for the Parliament. However, due to the "binomial" representation system included in the constitution, the elected senators did not achieve a complete majority in Parliament, a situation that would last for over 15 years. This forced them to negotiate all law projects with the Alliance for Chile (originally called "Democracy and Progress" and then "Union for Chile"), a center-right coalition involving the Unión Demócrata Independiente (UDI) and Renovación Nacional (RN), parties composed mainly of Pinochet's supporters.
Due to the transitional provisions of the constitution, Pinochet remained as Commander-in-Chief of the Army until March 1998. He was then sworn in as a senator-for-life, a privilege granted by the 1980 constitution to former presidents with at least six years in office. His senatorship and consequent immunity from prosecution protected him from legal action. These were possible in Chile only after Pinochet was arrested in 1998 in the United Kingdom, on an extradition request issued by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón. Allegations of abuses had been made numerous times before his arrest, but never acted upon. The extradition attempt was dramatised in the 2006 BBC television docudrama Pinochet in Suburbia, with Pinochet played by Derek Jacobi. Shortly before giving up power, on September 15, 1989, Pinochet prohibited all forms of abortion, previously authorized in case of rape or risk to the life of the mother. Pinochet argued that due to advances in medicine, abortion was "no longer justifiable".
Relationship with the United Kingdom
Chile was officially neutral during the Falklands War, but Chile's Westinghouse long-range radar that was deployed in the south of the country gave the British task force early warning of Argentinian air attacks. This allowed British ships and troops in the war zone to take defensive action. Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister at the time of the war, said that the day the radar was taken out of service for overdue maintenance was the day Argentinian fighter-bombers bombed the troopships Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram, leaving 53 dead and many injured. According to Chilean Junta member and former Air Force commander, General Fernando Matthei, Chilean support included military intelligence gathering, radar surveillance, allowing British aircraft to operate with Chilean colours, and facilitating the safe return of British special forces, among other forms of assistance.
In April and May 1982, a squadron of mothballed British Hawker Hunter fighter-bombers departed for Chile, arriving on 22 May and allowing the Chilean Air Force to reform the No. 9 "Las Panteras Negras" Squadron. A further consignment of three frontier surveillance and shipping reconnaissance Canberras left for Chile in October. Some authors have speculated that Argentina might have won the war had the military felt able to employ the elite VIth and VIIIth Mountain Brigades, which remained sitting in the Andes guarding against possible Chilean incursions. Pinochet subsequently visited the UK on more than one occasion. Pinochet's controversial relationship with Thatcher led Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair to mock Thatcher's Conservatives as "the party of Pinochet" in 1999.
Human rights violations
Pinochet's regime was responsible for many human rights abuses during its reign, including forced disappearances, murder, and torture of political opponents. According to a government commission report that included testimony from more than 30,000 people, Pinochet's government killed at least 3,197 people and tortured about 29,000. Two-thirds of the cases listed in the report happened in 1973.
Professor Clive Foss, in The Tyrants: 2500 Years of Absolute Power and Corruption (Quercus Publishing 2006), estimates that 1,500–2,000 Chileans were killed or "disappeared" during the Pinochet regime. In October 1979, The New York Times reported that Amnesty International had documented the disappearance of approximately 1,500 Chileans since 1973. Among the killed and disappeared during the military regime were at least 663 Marxist MIR guerrillas. The Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, however, has stated that only 49 FPMR guerrillas were killed but hundreds detained and tortured. According to a study in Latin American Perspectives, at least 200,000 Chileans (about 2% of Chile's 1973 population) were forced to go into exile. Additionally, hundreds of thousands left the country in the wake of the economic crises that followed the military coup during the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the key individuals who fled because of political persecution were followed in their exile by the DINA secret police, in the framework of Operation Condor, which linked South American military dictatorships together against political opponents.
According to John Dinges, author of The Condor Years (The New Press 2003), documents released in 2015 revealed a CIA report dated 28 April 1978 that showed the agency by then had knowledge that Pinochet ordered the assassination of Orlando Letelier, a leading political opponent living in exile in the United States.
According to Peter Kornbluh in The Pinochet File, "routine sadism was taken to extremes" in the prison camps. The rape of women was common, including sexual torture such as the insertion of rats into genitals and "unnatural acts involving dogs". Detainees were forcibly immersed in vats of urine and excrement, and were occasionally forced to ingest it. Beatings with gun butts, fists and chains were routine; one technique known as "the telephone" involved the torturer slamming "his open hands hard and rhythmically against the ears of the victim", leaving the person deaf. At Villa Grimaldi, prisoners were dragged into the parking lot and had the bones in their legs crushed as they were run over with trucks. Some died from torture; prisoners were beaten with chains and left to die from internal injuries. Following abuse and execution, corpses were interred in secret graves, dropped into rivers or the ocean, or just dumped on urban streets in the night. The body of the renowned Chilean singer, theatre director and academic Víctor Jara was found in a dirty canal "with his hands and face extremely disfigured" and with "forty-four bullet holes".
The practice of murdering political opponents via "death flights", employed by the juntas of Argentina and Chile, has sometimes been the subject of numerous alt-right and other right-wing extremist groups internet memes, with the suggestion that political enemies and leftists be given "free helicopter rides". In 2001, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos informed the nation that during Pinochet's reign, 120 bodies had been tossed from helicopters into "the ocean, the lakes and the rivers of Chile". In a final assessment of his legacy during his funeral, Belisario Velasco, Chile's interior minister at the time remarked that "Pinochet was a classic right-wing dictator who badly violated human rights and who became rich."
Ideology and public image
Pinochet himself expressed his project in government as a national rebirth inspired by Diego Portales, a figure of the early republic:
Lawyer Jaime Guzmán participated in the design of important speeches of Pinochet, and provided frequent political and doctrinal advice and consultancy.
Jacobo Timerman has called the Chilean army under Pinochet "the last Prussian army in the world", suggesting a pre-Fascist origin to the model of Pinochet's military government.
Historian Alfredo Jocelyn-Holt has referred to Pinochet's figure as "totemic", and added that it serves as a scapegoat which attracts "all hate". Gabriel Salazar, also a historian, has lamented the lack of an international condemnation of Pinochet in court, since, according to Salazar, that would have damaged his image "irreparably" and that of the judicial system of Chile [for the good] too.
In 1989 indigenous Mapuche groups representing the "Consejos Regionales" bestowed Pinochet the title Ulmen Füta Lonko or Great Authority.
According to Pinochet, who was aware of his ancestry, he was taught the French language by an uncle, although he later forgot most of it. Pinochet admired Napoleon as the greatest among French and had a framed picture of him. Another French ruler he admired was Louis XIV.
Pinochet's reputation led Peruvians in the 1990s to call Alberto Fujimori "chinochet" instead of his ordinary nickname "chino". Chadian dictator Hissène Habré, a Cold War ally of the West, has been characterized as "Africa's Pinochet" for ordering the torture and mass killing of political opponents during his reign, and for the decades long campaign to see him convicted of crimes against humanity. Images of Pinochet have been used in several Internet memes with the caption "Pinochet's Free Helicopter Rides", referencing death flights which saw political dissidents being thrown from helicopters over the Pacific or the Andes during Pinochet's rule. Variations of the internet meme have seen increased popularity with the rise of far-right and alt-right politics.
Accusations of fascism
Pinochet and his government have been characterised as fascist. For example, journalist and author Samuel Chavkin, in his book Storm Over Chile: The Junta Under Siege, repeatedly characterizes both Pinochet himself and the military dictatorship as fascist.
However, he and his government are generally excluded from academic typologies of fascism. Roger Griffin included Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots distinct from fascism, which included the likes of Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos. He argues that such regimes may be considered populist ultra-nationalist but lack the rhetoric of national rebirth, or palingenesis, necessary to make them conform to the model of palingenetic ultranationalism. Robert Paxton meanwhile compared Pinochet's regime to that of Mobutu Sese Seko in the former Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), arguing that both were merely client states that lacked popular acclaim and the ability to expand. He further argued that had Pinochet attempted to build true fascism, the regime would likely have been toppled or at least been forced to alter its relationship to the United States. Anna Cento Bull also excluded Pinochet from fascism, although she has argued that his regime belongs to a strand of Cold War anti-communism that was happy to accommodate neo-fascist elements within its activity.
World Fascism: a Historical Encyclopedia notes that "Although he was authoritarian and ruled dictatorially, Pinochet's support of neoliberal economic policies and his unwillingness to support national businesses distinguished him from classical fascists."
Historian Gabriel Salazar stated that high visibility of Pinochet and neglect of co-workers was reminiscent of fascist leadership:
Intellectual life and academic work
Pinochet was publicly known as a man with a lack of culture and this image was reinforced by the fact that he also portrayed himself as a common man with simple ideas. He was also known for being reserved, sharing little about his opinions or feelings. Before wresting power from Allende, Pinochet had written two books, Geopolítica (1968) and Campaña de Tarapacá (1972), which established him as a major figure in Chile's military literature. In Geopolítica Pinochet plagiarized his mentor general Gregorio Rodríguez Tascón by using paragraphs from a 1949 conference presentation of Rodríguez without attributing them to him.
Rodríguez had previously lectured Pinochet and René Schneider and Carlos Prats in geography and geopolitics. In contrast to the two latter Pinochet was not an outstanding student but his persistence and interest in geopolitics made Rodríguez assume the role as his academic mentor. Rodríguez granted Pinochet a slot as assistant lecturer in geopolitics and in geography. According to Rodríguez, Pinochet would have been particularly impressed by his lectures on The Art of War. Pinochet would later succeed Rodríguez in the geopolitics and geography chair.
Investigative journalist Juan Cristóbal Peña has put forward the thesis that Pinochet felt intellectual envy of Carlos Prats and that the latter's assassination in 1974 was a relief for Pinochet.
During his lifetime, Pinochet amassed more than 55,000 books in his private library, worth an estimated 2,840,000 US dollars (2006–07). The extent of his library was revealed to the public only after a police inspection in January 2006. Pinochet bought books at several small bookshops in the old centre of Santiago and was later supplied with books from abroad by military attachés who bought texts Pinochet was searching after. As ruler of Chile he used discretionary funds for these purchases. The library included many rare books including a first edition (1646) Historica relacion del Reyno de Chile and an original letter of Bernardo O'Higgins. A significant part of the books and documents of the library of José Manuel Balmaceda was found in Pinochet's library in 2006. Pinochet's library contained almost no poetry or fiction works.
Nicknames
Supporters sometimes refer to Pinochet as my general (the military salutation for a general) while opponents call him pinocho (Spanish for "Pinocchio", from the children's story). A common nickname used by both younger generations is el tata (Chilean Spanish equivalent of "the grandpa"). Since the Riggs Bank scandal he has been referred to sarcastically as Daniel Lopez, one of the fake identities he used to deposit money in the bank.
Post-dictatorship life
Arrest and court cases in the United Kingdom
Pinochet was arrested in London on "charges of genocide and terrorism that include murder" in October 1998. The indictment and arrest of Pinochet was the first time that a former government head was arrested on the principle of universal jurisdiction.
After having been placed under house arrest on the grounds of the Wentworth Club in Britain in October 1998 and initiating a judicial and public relations battle, the latter run by Thatcherite political operative Patrick Robertson, he was released in March 2000 on medical grounds by the Home Secretary Jack Straw without facing trial. Straw had overruled a House of Lords decision to extradite Pinochet to face trial in Spain.
Return to Chile
Pinochet returned to Chile on 3 March 2000. So as to avoid any potential disruption his flight back to Chile from the UK departed from RAF Waddington, evading those protesting against his release.
His first act when landing in Santiago's airport was to triumphantly get up from his wheelchair to the acclaim of his supporters. He was greeted by his successor as head of the Chilean armed forces, General Ricardo Izurieta. President-elect Ricardo Lagos said the retired general's televised arrival had damaged the image of Chile, while thousands demonstrated against him.
In March 2000, Congress approved a constitutional amendment creating the status of "ex-president", which granted its holder immunity from prosecution and a financial allowance; this replaced Pinochet's senatorship-for-life. 111 legislators voted for, and 29 against.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of judge Juan Guzmán's request in August 2000, and Pinochet was indicted on 1 December 2000 for the kidnapping of 75 opponents in the Caravan of Death case. Guzmán advanced the charge of kidnapping as the 75 were officially "disappeared": even though they were all most likely dead, the absence of their corpses made any charge of "homicide" difficult.
In July 2002, the Supreme Court dismissed Pinochet's indictment in the various human rights abuse cases, for medical reasons (vascular dementia). The debate concerned Pinochet's mental faculties, his legal team claiming that he was senile and could not remember, while others (including several physicians) claimed that he was affected only physically but retained all control of his faculties. The same year, the prosecuting attorney Hugo Guttierez, in charge of the Caravan of Death case, declared, "Our country has the degree of justice that the political transition permits us to have."
Pinochet resigned from his senatorial seat shortly after the Supreme Court's July 2002 ruling. In May 2004, the Supreme Court overturned its precedent decision, and ruled that he was capable of standing trial. In arguing their case, the prosecution presented a recent TV interview Pinochet had given to journalist Maria Elvira Salazar for a Miami-based television network, which raised doubts about his alleged mental incapacity. In December 2004, he was charged with several crimes, including the 1974 assassination of General Prats and the Operation Colombo case in which 119 died, and was again placed under house arrest. He suffered a stroke on 18 December 2004. Questioned by his judges in order to know if, as president, he was the direct head of DINA, he answered: "I don't remember, but it's not true. And if it were true, I don't remember."
In January 2005, the Chilean Army accepted institutional responsibility for past human rights abuses. In 2006, Pinochet was indicted for kidnappings and torture at the Villa Grimaldi detention center by judge Alejandro Madrid (Guzmán's successor), as well as for the 1995 assassination of the DINA biochemist Eugenio Berrios, himself involved in the Letelier case. Berrios, who had worked with Michael Townley, had produced sarin gas, anthrax and botulism in the Bacteriological War Army Laboratory for Pinochet; these materials were used against political opponents. The DINA biochemist was also alleged to have created black cocaine, which Pinochet then sold in Europe and the United States. The money for the drug trade was allegedly deposited into Pinochet's bank accounts. Pinochet's son Marco Antonio, who had been accused of participating in the drug trade, in 2006 denied claims of drug trafficking in his father's administration and said that he would sue Manuel Contreras, who had said that Pinochet sold cocaine.
On 25 November 2006, Pinochet marked his 91st birthday by having his wife read a statement he had written to admirers present for his birthday: "I assume the political responsibility for all that has been done." Two days later, he was again sentenced to house arrest for the kidnapping and murder of two bodyguards of Salvador Allende who were arrested the day of the 1973 coup and executed by firing squad during the Caravan of Death.
Pinochet died a few days later, on 10 December 2006, without having been convicted of any of the crimes of which he was accused.
Scandals: secret bank accounts, tax evasion, and arms deal
In 2004, a United States Senate money laundering investigation led by Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Norm Coleman (R-MN)—ordered in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks—uncovered a network of over 125 securities and bank accounts at Riggs Bank and other U.S. financial institutions used by Pinochet and his associates for twenty-five years to secretly move millions of dollars.
Though the subcommittee was charged only with investigating compliance of financial institutions under the USA PATRIOT Act, and not the Pinochet regime, Senator Coleman noted:
Over several months in 2005, Chilean judge Sergio Muñoz indicted Augusto Pinochet's wife, Lucia Hiriart; four of his children – Marco Antonio, Jacqueline, Veronica and Lucia Pinochet; his personal secretary, Monica Ananias; and his former aide Oscar Aitken on tax evasion and falsification charges stemming from the Riggs Bank investigation. In January 2006, daughter Lucia Pinochet was detained at Washington DC-Dulles airport and subsequently deported while attempting to evade the tax charges in Chile. In January 2007, the Santiago Court of Appeals revoked most of the indictment from Judge Carlos Cerda against the Pinochet family. But Pinochet's five children, his wife and 17 other persons (including two generals, one of his former lawyer and former secretary) were arrested in October 2007 on charges of embezzlement and use of false passports. They are accused of having illegally transferred $27m (£13.2m) to foreign bank accounts during Pinochet's rule.
In September 2005, a joint investigation by The Guardian and La Tercera revealed that the British arms firm BAE Systems had been identified as paying more than £1m to Pinochet, through a front company in the British Virgin Islands, which BAE has used to channel commission on arms deals. The payments began in 1997 and lasted until 2004.
In 2007, fifteen years of investigation led to the conclusion that the 1992 assassination of DINA Colonel Gerardo Huber was most probably related to various illegal arms traffic carried out, after Pinochet's resignation from power, by military circles very close to himself. Huber had been assassinated a short time before he was due to testify in the case concerning the 1991 illegal export of weapons to the Croatian army. The deal involved 370 tons of weapons, sold to Croatia by Chile on 7 December 1991, when the former country was under a United Nations' embargo because of the support for Croatia war in Yugoslavia. In January 1992, the judge Hernán Correa de la Cerda wanted to hear Gerardo Huber in this case, but the latter may have been silenced to avoid implicating Pinochet in this new case—although the latter was no longer President, he remained at the time Commander-in-Chief of the Army. Pinochet was at the center of this illegal arms trade, receiving money through various offshores and front companies, including the Banco Coutts International in Miami.
Pinochet was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in August 2000 by the Supreme Court, and indicted by judge Juan Guzmán Tapia. Guzmán had ordered in 1999 the arrest of five militarists, including General Pedro Espinoza Bravo of the DINA, for their role in the Caravan of Death following the coup on 11 September. Arguing that the bodies of the "disappeared" were still missing, he made jurisprudence, which had as effect to lift any prescription on the crimes committed by the military. Pinochet's trial continued until his death on 10 December 2006, with an alternation of indictments for specific cases, lifting of immunities by the Supreme Court or to the contrary immunity from prosecution, with his health a main argument for, or against, his prosecution.
The Supreme Court affirmed, in March 2005, Pinochet's immunity concerning the 1974 assassination of General Carlos Prats in Buenos Aires, which had taken place in the frame of Operation Condor. However, he was deemed fit to stand trial for Operation Colombo, during which 119 political opponents were "disappeared" in Argentina. The Chilean justice also lifted his immunity on the Villa Grimaldi case, a detention and torture center in the outskirts of Santiago. Pinochet, who still benefited from a reputation of righteousness from his supporters, lost legitimacy when he was put under house arrest on tax fraud and passport forgery, following the publication by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of a report concerning the Riggs Bank in July 2004. The report was a consequence of investigations on financial funding of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US. The bank controlled between US$4 million and $8 million of the assets of Pinochet, who lived in Santiago in a modest house, dissimulating his wealth. According to the report, Riggs participated in money laundering for Pinochet, setting up offshore shell corporations (referring to Pinochet as only "a former public official"), and hiding his accounts from regulatory agencies. Related to Pinochet's and his family secret bank accounts in United States and in Caribbean islands, this tax fraud filing for an amount of 27 million dollars shocked the conservative sectors who still supported him. Ninety percent of these funds would have been raised between 1990 and 1998, when Pinochet was chief of the Chilean armies, and would essentially have come from weapons traffic (when purchasing French 'Mirage' fighter aircraft in 1994, Dutch 'Leopard 2' tanks, Swiss 'MOWAG' armored vehicles or by illegal sales of weapons to Croatia, during the Balkans war.) His wife, Lucía Hiriart, and his son, Marco Antonio Pinochet, were also sued for complicity. For the fourth time in seven years, Pinochet was indicted by the Chilean justice.
Death
Pinochet suffered a heart attack on the morning of 3 December 2006 and was given the last rites the same day. On 4 December 2006, the Chilean Court of Appeals ordered the suspension of his house arrest. On 10 December 2006 at 13:30 local time (16:30 UTC) he was taken to the intensive care unit. He died of congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema, surrounded by family members, at the Military Hospital at 14:15 local time (17:15 UTC).
Massive spontaneous street demonstrations broke out throughout the country upon the news of his death. In Santiago, opponents celebrated his death in Alameda Avenue, while supporters grieved outside the Military Hospital. Pinochet's remains lay in repose on 11 December 2006 at the Military Academy in Las Condes. During this ceremony, Francisco Cuadrado Prats—the grandson of Carlos Prats (a former Commander-in-Chief of the Army in the Allende government who was murdered by Pinochet's secret police)—spat on the coffin, and was quickly surrounded by supporters of Pinochet, who assaulted him. Pinochet's funeral took place the following day at the same venue before a gathering of 60,000 supporters.
In a government decision, he was not granted a state funeral (an honor normally bestowed upon past presidents of Chile) but a military funeral as former commander-in-chief of the Army appointed by Allende. The government also refused to declare an official national day of mourning, but it did authorize flags at military barracks to be flown at half staff, and for the Chilean flag to be draped on Pinochet's coffin. Socialist President Michelle Bachelet, whose father Alberto was temporarily imprisoned and tortured after the 1973 coup and died shortly afterwards from heart complications, said that it would be "a violation of [her] conscience" to attend a state funeral for Pinochet. The only government authority present at the public funeral was the Defense Minister, Vivianne Blanlot.
In Spain, supporters of late dictator Francisco Franco paid homage to Pinochet. Antonio Tejero, who led the failed coup of 1981, attended a memorial service in Madrid.
Pinochet's body was cremated in Parque del Mar Cemetery, Concón on 12 December 2006, on his request to "avoid vandalism of his tomb", according to his son Marco Antonio. His ashes were delivered to his family later that day, and are deposited in Los Boldos, Santo Domingo, Valparaiso, Chile; one of his personal residences. The armed forces refused to allow his ashes to be deposited on military property.
Honours
National honours
:
Grand Master of the Order of Merit - (1974-1990)
Grand Master of the Order of Bernardo O'Higgins- (1974-1990)
President of the Republic Decoration
10 Years Service Award
20 Years Service Award
30 Years Service Award
Minerva Medal(Army War College)
Minerva Medal(Army War College)
Decoration of the President of the Chilean Red Cross
Grand Knight of the Altiplano of Arica
Foreign honours
: Grand Cross of the Order of the Quetzal
:
Order of Abdon Calderón, 1st Class
Official Honorary General Staff Decoration of the Armed Forces of Ecuador
Honorary Staff Officer of the Armed Forces of Ecuador
: Order of José Matías Delgado
: Collar of Francisco Solano Lopez Grade of the National Order of Merit (Paraguay)
:
Grand Cross of the Order of the Liberator General San Martín
Grand Cross of the Order of May
: Commander of the Order of Military Merit José María Córdova
: Crosses of Military Merit
: Supreme Grand Collar of the Military Order of the Saint Salvador and Saint Bridgette (self-styled order)
See also
1970 Chilean presidential election
United States intervention in Chile
Book burnings in Chile
History of Chile
Pinochetism
Colonia, a film about two West Germans caught up in the aftermath of the Pinochet coup who end up in the Colonia Dignidad cult
Missing, a film based on the life of U.S. journalist Charles Horman, who disappeared in the aftermath of the Pinochet coup
No, an Academy Award-nominated film presenting a dramatized account of the 1988 national plebiscite campaign on Pinochet's rule
David H. Popper, US ambassador to Chile (1974–1977)
United States involvement in regime change
Notes
References
Further reading
(Reviewed in The Washington Post, Book World, p. 2, 2009-10-19)
External links
Extensive bio by Fundación CIDOB (in Spanish)
Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006) – A Biography
France 24 coverage – Augusto Pinochet's Necrology on France 24
BBC coverage (special report)
Documentary Film on Chilean Concentration Camp from Pinochet's Regime: Chacabuco
CIA Acknowledges Ties to Pinochet's Repression from The National Security Archive
Chile under Allende and Pinochet
Human rights violation under Pinochet
The Times obituary
Analysis of economic policy under Pinochet by economist Jim Cypher in Dollars & Sense magazine
Chile: The Price of Democracy New English Review
What Pinochet Did for Chile Hoover Digest (2007 No. 1)
When US-Backed Pinochet Forces Took Power in Chile – video report by Democracy Now!
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Survivors of terrorist attacks | false | [
"Likhmidas (8 July 1750 – 8 September 1830) is a noted saint from Rajasthan belonging to Rajput Mali community. He is believed to did many miracles during his lifetime.\n\nHe was married and had two sons and daughter and lived in Nagaur. His ishta-devata was Ramdevji. He has written many bhajans and dohas, which are very popular today.\n\nThere are many followers of him, especially in Rajasthan. The main temple of him is located at Amarpura near Nagaur, where he took live samadhi. The renovated large temple with pran-pratishtha of idol of Likhmidasji was inaugurated by erstwhile Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje on 6 December 2016.\n\nReferences\n\n1750 births\n1830 deaths\nIndian Hindu saints\nPeople from Nagaur",
"Rifai Ratib (also Rifai raatheeb, Hadra rifaiyya) is a spiritual mortification ritual performed by followers of the Rifa’i Tariqa. \n\nByths or Ratheebs are sung during the ritual. There are more than twenty different byths being used. The daf is the main musical instruments used in Rifa’i Ratib. During heightened states of Rifai Ratib, Rifai followers were noted to have eaten live snakes, entered ovens filled with fire and ridden on lions. Followers have been seen thrusting iron spikes and glass into their bodies. \n\nThe ritual consists of acts like piercing parts of one's own body like the tongue, the ear, and the stomach with knives and sharp-edged steel tools. The followers and protagonists of the ritual believe, that even though injuries are inflicted on the bodies of the performers by weapons, these do not cause pain or damage to the body. According to many masters of the Rifai sufi order, They believe that, since the ritual is performed by devotees who have received \"ijazath\" (permission) from their \"sheikh\" (saint), it will not cause injuries.\n\nReferences\n\nSources\n\nSufism"
]
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[
"Augusto Pinochet",
"Accusations of fascism",
"What were the accusations?",
"Griffin included Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots distinct from fascism and including the likes of Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos.",
"What he accused of being a fascist?",
"Pinochet attempted to build true fascism, the regime would likely have been toppled or at least been forced to alter its relationship to the United States.",
"Was there conflict because of his views?",
"Anna Cento Bull also excluded Pinochet from fascism, although she has argued that his regime belongs to a strand of Cold War anti-communism",
"Did he have many followers?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_2456f9e2997745a2bdf69e61067fea11_0 | Is there something else interesting to know? | 5 | Is there something else interesting to know about Augusto Pinochet other than his views of Fascism? | Augusto Pinochet | Pinochet and his government have been characterised as fascist. For example, journalist and author Samuel Chavkin, in his book Storm Over Chile: The Junta Under Siege, repeatedly characterizes both Pinochet himself and the military dictatorship as fascist. However, he and his government are generally excluded from academic typologies of fascism. Roger Griffin included Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots distinct from fascism and including the likes of Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos. He argues that such regimes may be considered populist ultra-nationalism but lack the rhetoric of national rebirth, or palingenesis, necessary to make them conform to the model of palingenetic ultranationalism. Robert Paxton meanwhile compared Pinochet's regime to that of Mobutu Sese Seko in the former Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), arguing that both were merely client states that lacked popular acclaim and the ability to expand. He further argued that had Pinochet attempted to build true fascism, the regime would likely have been toppled or at least been forced to alter its relationship to the United States. Anna Cento Bull also excluded Pinochet from fascism, although she has argued that his regime belongs to a strand of Cold War anti-communism that was happy to accommodate neo-fascist elements within its activity. World Fascism: a Historical Encyclopedia notes that "Although he was authoritarian and ruled dictatorially, Pinochet's support of neoliberal economic policies and his unwillingness to support national businesses distinguished him from classical fascists." Historian Gabriel Salazar stated that Pinochet's establishment cult of personality around him was a fascist tactic: It is notable that in all the declarations of Pinochet's men, nobody has mentioned the creators of the new Chilean society and state, I haven't heard anybody mention Jaime Guzman, Carlos Caceres, Hernan Buchi, Sergio de Castro. There is no mention of the true brains, or that the whole of the armed forces were involved in this, in dirty and symbolic tasks. Everything is embodied in Pinochet, it's very curious that figures of the stature of Buchi are immolated before the figure of Pinochet, in what is to me a fascist rite, give everything to the Fuhrer, "I did it, but ultimately it was him". CANNOTANSWER | It is notable that in all the declarations of Pinochet's men, nobody has mentioned the creators of the new Chilean society and state, | Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean dictator and general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being self-declared President of the Republic by the junta in 1974 and becoming the de facto dictator of Chile, and from 1981 to 1990 as de jure President after a new Constitution, which confirmed him in the office, was approved by a referendum in 1980.
Augusto Pinochet rose through the ranks of the Chilean Army to become General Chief of Staff in early 1972 before being appointed its Commander-in-Chief on 23 August 1973 by President Salvador Allende. On 11 September 1973,
Pinochet seized power in Chile in a coup d'état, with the support of the U.S., that toppled Allende's democratically elected Unidad Popular government and ended civilian rule. In December 1974, the ruling military junta appointed Pinochet Supreme Head of the nation by joint decree, although without the support of one of the coup's instigators, Air Force General Gustavo Leigh. After his rise to power, Pinochet persecuted leftists, socialists, and political critics, resulting in the executions of 1,200 to 3,200 people, the internment of as many as 80,000 people, and the torture of tens of thousands. According to the Chilean government, the number of executions and forced disappearances was 3,095. Operation Condor, a U.S.-supported terror operation focusing on South America, was founded at the behest of the Pinochet regime in late November 1975, his 60th birthday.
Under the influence of the free market-oriented "Chicago Boys", Pinochet's military government implemented economic liberalization, including currency stabilization, removed tariff protections for local industry, banned trade unions, and privatized social security and hundreds of state-owned enterprises. Some of the government properties were sold below market price to politically connected buyers, including Pinochet's own son-in-law. The regime used censorship of entertainment as a way to reward supporters of the regime and punish opponents. These policies produced high economic growth, but critics state that economic inequality dramatically increased and attribute the devastating effects of the 1982 monetary crisis on the Chilean economy to these policies. For most of the 1990s, Chile was the best-performing economy in Latin America, though the legacy of Pinochet's reforms continues to be in dispute. His fortune grew considerably during his years in power through dozens of bank accounts secretly held abroad and a fortune in real estate. He was later prosecuted for embezzlement, tax fraud, and for possible commissions levied on arms deals.
Pinochet's 17-year rule was given a legal framework through a controversial 1980 plebiscite, which approved a new constitution drafted by a government-appointed commission. In a 1988 plebiscite, 56% voted against Pinochet's continuing as president, which led to democratic elections for the presidency and Congress. After stepping down in 1990, Pinochet continued to serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army until 10 March 1998, when he retired and became a senator-for-life in accordance with his 1980 Constitution. However, Pinochet was arrested under an international arrest warrant on a visit to London on 10 October 1998 in connection with numerous human rights violations. Following a legal battle, he was released on grounds of ill-health and returned to Chile on 3 March 2000. In 2004, Chilean Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia ruled that Pinochet was medically fit to stand trial and placed him under house arrest. By the time of his death on 10 December 2006, about 300 criminal charges were still pending against him in Chile for numerous human rights violations during his 17-year rule, as well as tax evasion and embezzlement during and after his rule. He was also accused of having corruptly amassed at least US$28 million.
Early life and education
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was born in Valparaíso on 25 November 1915. He was the son and namesake of Augusto Pinochet Vera (1891–1944), a descendant of an 18th century French Breton immigrant from Lamballe, and Avelina Ugarte Martínez (1895–1986), a woman of Basque heritage whose family had been in Chile since the 17th century.
Pinochet went to primary and secondary school at the San Rafael Seminary of Valparaíso, the Rafael Ariztía Institute (Marist Brothers) in Quillota, the French Fathers' School of Valparaíso, and then to the Military School in Santiago, which he entered in 1931. In 1935, after four years studying military geography, he graduated with the rank of alférez (Second Lieutenant) in the infantry.
Military career
In September 1937, Pinochet was assigned to the "Chacabuco" Regiment, in Concepción. Two years later, in 1939, then with the rank of Sub-lieutenant, he moved to the "Maipo" Regiment, garrisoned in Valparaíso. He returned to Infantry School in 1940. On 30 January 1943, Pinochet married Lucía Hiriart Rodríguez, with whom he had five children: Inés Lucía, María Verónica, Jacqueline Marie, Augusto Osvaldo and Marco Antonio.
By late 1945, Pinochet had been assigned to the "Carampangue" Regiment in the northern city of Iquique. Three years later, he entered the Chilean War Academy but had to postpone his studies because, being the youngest officer, he had to carry out a service mission in the coal zone of Lota. In 1948, Pinochet was initiated in the regular Masonic Lodge Victoria n°15 of San Bernardo, affiliated to the Grand Lodge of Chile. He received the Scottish Rite degree of companion, but he is thought not to have ever become a Grand Master.
The following year he returned to his studies in the academy, and after obtaining the title of Officer Chief of Staff, in 1951, he returned to teach at the Military School. At the same time, he worked as a teachers' aide at the War Academy, giving military geography and geopolitics classes. He was also the editor of the institutional magazine Cien Águilas ('One Hundred Eagles'). At the beginning of 1953, with the rank of major, he was sent for two years to the "Rancagua" Regiment in Arica. While there, he was appointed professor of the Chilean War Academy, and returned to Santiago to take up his new position.
In 1956, Pinochet and a group of young officers were chosen to form a military mission to collaborate in the organization of the War Academy of Ecuador in Quito. He remained with the Quito mission for four-and-a-half years, during which time he studied geopolitics, military geography and military intelligence. At the end of 1959 he returned to Chile and was sent to General Headquarters of the 1st Army Division, based in Antofagasta. The following year, he was appointed commander of the "Esmeralda" Regiment. Due to his success in this position, he was appointed Sub-director of the War Academy in 1963. In 1968, he was named Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army Division, based in Santiago, and at the end of that year, he was promoted to brigadier general and Commander in Chief of the 6th Division, garrisoned in Iquique. In his new function, he was also appointed Intendent of the Tarapacá Province.
In January 1971, Pinochet was promoted to division general and was named General Commander of the Santiago Army Garrison. On 8 June 1971, following the assassination of Edmundo Perez Zujovic by left-wing radicals, Allende appointed Pinochet a supreme authority of Santiago province, imposing a military curfew in the process, which was later lifted. However, on 2 December 1971, following a series of peaceful protests against economic policies of Allende, the curfew was re-installed, all protests prohibited, with Pinochet leading the crackdown on anti-Allende protests. At the beginning of 1972, he was appointed General Chief of Staff of the Army. With rising domestic strife in Chile, after General Prats resigned his position, Pinochet was appointed commander-in-chief of the Army on 23 August 1973 by President Salvador Allende just one day after the Chamber of Deputies of Chile approved a resolution asserting that the government was not respecting the Constitution. Less than a month later, the Chilean military deposed Allende.
Military coup of 1973
On 11 September 1973, the combined Chilean Armed Forces (the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Carabineros) overthrew Allende's government in a coup, during which the presidential palace, La Moneda, was shelled and most likely where Allende was said to have committed suicide. While the military claimed that he had committed suicide, controversy surrounded Allende's death, with many claiming that he had been assassinated (such theory was discarded by the Chilean Supreme Court in 2014).
In his memoirs, Pinochet said that he was the leading plotter of the coup and had used his position as commander-in-chief of the Army to coordinate a far-reaching scheme with the other two branches of the military and the national police. In later years, however, high military officials from the time have said that Pinochet reluctantly became involved only a few days before the coup was scheduled to occur, and followed the lead of the other branches (especially the Navy, under Merino) as they executed the coup.
The new government rounded up thousands of people and held them in the national stadium, where many were killed. This was followed by brutal repression during Pinochet's rule, during which approximately 3,000 people were killed, while more than 1,000 are still missing.
In the months that followed the coup, the junta, with authoring work by historian Gonzalo Vial and admiral Patricio Carvajal, published a book titled El Libro Blanco del cambio de gobierno en Chile (commonly known as El Libro Blanco, 'The White Book on the Change of Government in Chile'), in which they said that they were in fact anticipating a self-coup (the alleged Plan Zeta, or Plan Z) that Allende's government or its associates were purportedly preparing. United States intelligence agencies believed the plan to be untrue propaganda. Although later discredited and officially recognized as the product of political propaganda, Gonzalo Vial Correa insists in the similarities between the alleged Plan Z and other existing paramilitary plans of the Popular Unity parties in support of its legitimacy. Pinochet was also trained by the School of the Americas (SOA) where it is likely he first encountered the ideals of the coup.
Canadian reporter Jean Charpentier of Télévision de Radio-Canada was the first foreign journalist to interview General Pinochet following the coup. After Allende's final radio address, he shot himself rather than becoming a prisoner.
U.S. backing of the coup
The Church Report investigating the fallout of the Watergate scandal stated that while the U.S. tacitly supported the Pinochet government after the 1973 coup, there was "no evidence" that the US was directly involved in it. This view has been contradicted by several academics, such as Peter Winn, who writes that the role of the CIA was crucial to the consolidation of power after the coup; the CIA helped fabricate a conspiracy against the Allende government, which Pinochet was then portrayed as preventing. He stated that the coup itself was possible only through a three-year covert operation mounted by the United States. Winn also points out that the US imposed an "invisible blockade" that was designed to disrupt the economy under Allende, and contributed to the destabilization of the regime. Author Peter Kornbluh argues in The Pinochet File that the US was extensively involved and actively "fomented" the 1973 coup. Authors Tim Weiner (Legacy of Ashes) and Christopher Hitchens (The Trial of Henry Kissinger) similarly argue the case that US covert actions actively destabilized Allende's government and set the stage for the 1973 coup. Despite denial of countless American agencies, current declassified documentation has proven the American involvement. Nixon and Kissinger, along with both private and public intelligence agencies were "apprised of, and even enmeshed in, the planning and executing of the military takeover." Along with this, CIA operatives directly involved, such as Jack Devine, have also come out and declared their involvement in the coup. Devine stating "I sent CIA headquarters a special type of top-secret cable known as a CRITIC, which ... goes directly to the highest levels of government."
The US provided material support to the military government after the coup, although criticizing it in public. A document released by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2000, titled "CIA Activities in Chile", revealed that the CIA actively supported the military junta after the overthrow of Allende, and that it made many of Pinochet's officers into paid contacts of the CIA or U.S. military, even though some were known to be involved in human rights abuses. The CIA also maintained contacts in the Chilean DINA intelligence service. DINA led the multinational campaign known as Operation Condor, which amongst other activities carried out assassinations of prominent politicians in various Latin American countries, in Washington, D.C., and in Europe, and kidnapped, tortured and executed activists holding left-wing views, which culminated in the deaths of roughly 60,000 people. The United States provided key organizational, financial and technical assistance to the operation. CIA contact with DINA head Manuel Contreras was established in 1974 soon after the coup, during the Junta period prior to official transfer of Presidential powers to Pinochet; in 1975, the CIA reviewed a warning that keeping Contreras as an asset might threaten human rights in the region. The CIA chose to keep him as an asset, and at one point even paid him. In addition to the CIA's maintaining of assets in DINA beginning soon after the coup, several CIA assets, such as CORU Cuban exile militants Orlando Bosch and Guillermo Novo, collaborated in DINA operations under the Condor Plan in the early years of Pinochet's presidency.
Military junta
A military junta was established immediately following the coup, made up of General Pinochet representing the Army, Admiral José Toribio Merino representing the Navy, General Gustavo Leigh representing the Air Force, and General César Mendoza representing the Carabineros (national police). As established, the junta exercised both executive and legislative functions of the government, suspended the Constitution and the Congress, imposed strict censorship and curfew, banned all parties and halted all political and perceived subversive activities. This military junta held the executive role until 17 December 1974, after which it remained strictly as a legislative body, the executive powers being transferred to Pinochet with the title of President.
Military dictatorship (1973–1990)
The junta members originally planned that the presidency would be held for a year by the commanders-in-chief of each of the four military branches in turn. However, Pinochet soon consolidated his control, first retaining sole chairmanship of the military junta, and then proclaiming himself "Supreme Chief of the Nation" (de facto provisional president) on 27 June 1974. He officially changed his title to "President" on 17 December 1974. General Leigh, head of the Air Force, became increasingly opposed to Pinochet's policies and was forced into retirement on 24 July 1978, after contradicting Pinochet on that year's plebiscite (officially called Consulta Nacional, or National Consultation, in response to a UN resolution condemning Pinochet's government). He was replaced by General Fernando Matthei.
Pinochet organized a plebiscite on 11 September 1980 to ratify a new constitution, replacing the 1925 Constitution drafted during Arturo Alessandri's presidency. The new Constitution, partly drafted by Jaime Guzmán, a close adviser to Pinochet who later founded the right-wing party Independent Democratic Union (UDI), gave a lot of power to the President of the Republic—Pinochet. It created some new institutions, such as the Constitutional Tribunal and the controversial National Security Council (COSENA). It also prescribed an 8-year presidential period, and a single-candidate presidential referendum in 1988, where a candidate nominated by the Junta would be approved or rejected for another 8-year period. The new constitution was approved by a margin of 67.04% to 30.19% according to official figures; the opposition, headed by ex-president Eduardo Frei Montalva (who had supported Pinochet's coup), denounced extensive irregularities such as the lack of an electoral register, which facilitated multiple voting, and said that the total number of votes reported to have been cast was very much larger than would be expected from the size of the electorate and turnout in previous elections. Interviews after Pinochet's departure with people involved with the referendum confirmed that fraud had, indeed, been widespread. The Constitution was promulgated on 21 October 1980, taking effect on 11 March 1981. Pinochet was replaced as President of the Junta that day by Admiral Merino. During Pinochet's reign it is estimated that some one million people had been forced to flee the country.
Armed opposition to the Pinochet rule continued in remote parts of the country. In a massive operation spearheaded by Chilean Army para-commandos, some 2,000 security forces troops were deployed in the mountains of Neltume from June to November 1981, where they destroyed two MIR bases, seizing large caches of munitions and killing a number of guerrillas.
According to author Ozren Agnic Krstulovic, weapons including C-4 plastic explosives, RPG-7 and M72 LAW rocket launchers, as well as more than 3,000 M-16 rifles, were smuggled into the country by opponents of the government.
In September 1986, weapons from the same source were used in an unsuccessful assassination attempt against Pinochet by the FPMR. His military bodyguard was taken by surprise, and five members were killed. Pinochet's bulletproof Mercedes Benz vehicle was struck by a rocket, but it failed to explode and Pinochet suffered only minor injuries.
Suppression of opposition
Almost immediately after the military's seizure of power, the junta banned all the leftist parties that had constituted Allende's UP coalition.
All other parties were placed in "indefinite recess" and were later banned outright. The government's violence was directed not only against dissidents but also against their families and other civilians.
The Rettig Report concluded 2,279 persons who disappeared during the military government were killed for political reasons or as a result of political violence. According to the later Valech Report approximately 31,947 were tortured and 1,312 exiled. The exiles were chased all over the world by the intelligence agencies. In Latin America, this was made in the frame of Operation Condor, a cooperation plan between the various intelligence agencies of South American countries, assisted by a United States CIA communication base in Panama. Pinochet believed these operations were necessary in order to "save the country from communism". In 2011, the commission identified an additional 9,800 victims of political repression during Pinochet's rule, increasing the total number of victims to approximately 40,018, including 3,065 killed.
Some political scientists have ascribed the relative bloodiness of the coup to the stability of the existing democratic system, which required extreme action to overturn. Some of the most infamous cases of human rights violation occurred during the early period: in October 1973, at least 70 people were killed throughout the country by the Caravan of Death. Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, both U.S. journalists, "disappeared", as did Víctor Olea Alegría, a member of the Socialist Party, and many others, in 1973. British priest Michael Woodward, who vanished within 10 days of the coup, was tortured and beaten to death aboard the Chilean naval ship, Esmeralda.
Many other important officials of Allende's government were tracked down by the DINA in the frame of Operation Condor. General Carlos Prats, Pinochet's predecessor and army commander under Allende, who had resigned rather than support the moves against Allende's government, was assassinated in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1974. A year later, the murder of 119 opponents abroad was disguised as an internal conflict, the DINA setting up a propaganda campaign to support this idea (Operation Colombo), a campaign publicised by the leading newspaper in Chile, El Mercurio.
Other victims of Condor included, among hundreds of less famous persons, Juan José Torres, the former President of Bolivia, assassinated in Buenos Aires on 2 June 1976; Carmelo Soria, a UN diplomat working for the CEPAL, assassinated in July 1976;
Orlando Letelier, a former Chilean ambassador to the United States and minister in Allende's cabinet, assassinated after his release from internment and exile in Washington, D.C. by a car bomb on 21 September 1976. Documents confirm that Pinochet directly ordered the assassination of Letelier. This led to strained relations with the US and to the extradition of Michael Townley, a US citizen who worked for the DINA and had organized Letelier's assassination. Other targeted victims, who escaped assassination, included Christian-Democrat Bernardo Leighton, who escaped an assassination attempt in Rome in 1975 by the Italian terrorist Stefano delle Chiaie; Carlos Altamirano, the leader of the Chilean Socialist Party, targeted for murder in 1975 by Pinochet, along with Volodia Teitelboim, member of the Communist Party; Pascal Allende, the nephew of Salvador Allende and president of the MIR, who escaped an assassination attempt in Costa Rica in March 1976; US Congressman Edward Koch, who became aware in 2001 of relations between death threats and his denunciation of Operation Condor, etc. Furthermore, according to current investigations, Eduardo Frei Montalva, the Christian Democrat President of Chile from 1964 to 1970, may have been poisoned in 1982 by toxin produced by DINA biochemist Eugenio Berrios.
Protests continued, however, during the 1980s, leading to several scandals. In March 1985, the murder of three Communist Party members led to the resignation of César Mendoza, head of the Carabineros and member of the junta since its formation. During a 1986 protest against Pinochet, 21-year-old American photographer Rodrigo Rojas DeNegri and 18-year-old student Carmen Gloria Quintana were burnt alive, with only Carmen surviving.
In August 1989, Marcelo Barrios Andres, a 21-year-old member of the FPMR (the armed wing of the PCC, created in 1983, which had attempted to assassinate Pinochet on 7 September 1986), was assassinated by a group of military personnel who were supposed to arrest him on orders of Valparaíso's public prosecutor. However, they simply executed him; this case was included in the Rettig Report. Among the killed and disappeared during the military junta were 440 MIR guerrillas. In December 2015, three former DINA agents were sentenced to ten years in prison for the murder of a 29-year-old theology student and activist, German Rodriguez Cortes, in 1978. That same month 62-year-old Guillermo Reyes Rammsy, a former Chilean soldier during the Pinochet years, was arrested and charged with murder for boasting of participating in 18 executions during a live phone-in to the Chilean radio show "Chacotero Sentimental".
On 2 June 2017, Chilean judge Hernan Cristoso sentenced 106 former Chilean intelligence officials to between 541 days and 20 years in prison for their role in the kidnapping and murder of 16 left-wing activists in 1974 and 1975.
Economic policy
In 1973, the Chilean economy was deeply depressed for several reasons, Allende's government had expropriated many Chilean and foreign businesses, including all copper mines, had controlled prices, inflation reached 606%, income per capita had a contraction of -7.14% in 1973 only while in comparison to 1970 it had contracted by -30%, GDP contracted by -5% in 1973, and also public spending rose from 22.6% to 44.9% between 1970 and 1973 creating a deficit of 25% of the GDP, while some authors like Peter Kornbluh also argue that economic sanctions by the Nixon administration helped to create the economic crisis other authors like Paul Sigmund and Mark Falcoff argue there was no blockade because there was still (just less) aid and credit as well as not a real embargo on trade; the economic and political crisis had the armed forces taking power in September 1973 with Augusto Pinochet, José Toribio Merino Castro, Gustavo Leigh and César Mendoza as their leaders.
By mid-1975, after two years of Keynesianism, the government set forth an economic policy of free-market reforms that attempted to stop inflation and collapse. Pinochet declared that he wanted "to make Chile not a nation of proletarians, but a nation of proprietors". To formulate the economic rescue, the government relied on the so-called Chicago Boys and a text called El ladrillo, and although Chile grew very quickly between 1976 and 1981, it had a large amount of debt which made Chile the most affected nation by the Latin American debt crisis.
In sharp contrast to the privatization done in other areas, Chile's nationalized main copper mines remained in government hands, with the 1980 Constitution later declaring the mines "inalienable". In 1976, Codelco was established to exploit them but new mineral deposits were opened to private investment. In November 1980, the pension system was restructured from a PAYGO-system to a fully funded capitalization system run by private sector pension funds. Healthcare and education were likewise privatized. These mines would ultimately help them economically however they would fall partly in American hands.
Wages decreased by 8%. Family allowances in 1989 were 28% of what they had been in 1970 and the budgets for education, health and housing had dropped by over 20% on average. The junta relied on the middle class, the oligarchy, foreign corporations, and foreign loans to maintain itself. Businesses recovered most of their lost industrial and agricultural holdings, for the junta returned properties to original owners who had lost them during expropriations, and sold other industries expropriated by Allende's Popular Unity government to private buyers. This period saw the expansion of business and widespread speculation.
Financial conglomerates became major beneficiaries of the liberalized economy and the flood of foreign bank loans. Large foreign banks reinstated the credit cycle, as debt obligations, such as resuming payment of principal and interest installments, were honored. International lending organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Inter-American Development Bank lent vast sums anew. Many foreign multinational corporations such as International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT), Dow Chemical, and Firestone, all expropriated by Allende, returned to Chile. Pinochet's policies eventually led to substantial GDP growth, in contrast to the negative growth seen in the early years of his administration, while public debt also was kept high mostly to finance public spending which even after the privatization of services was kept at high rates (though far less than before privatization), for example, in 1991 after one year of post-Pinochet democracy debt was still at 37.4% of the GDP.
The Pinochet government implemented an economic model that had three main objectives: economic liberalization, privatization of state owned companies, and stabilization of inflation. In 1985, the government initiated a second round of privatization, revising previously introduced tariff increases and creating a greater supervisory role for the Central Bank. Pinochet's market liberalizations have continued after his death, led by Patricio Aylwin. According to a 2020 study in the Journal of Economic History, Pinochet sold firms at below-market prices to politically connected buyers.
Critics argue the neoliberal economic policies of the Pinochet regime resulted in widening inequality and deepening poverty as they negatively impacted the wages, benefits and working conditions of Chile's working class. According to Chilean economist Alejandro Foxley, by the end of Pinochet's reign around 44% of Chilean families were living below the poverty line. According to The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, by the late 1980s, the economy had stabilized and was growing, but around 45% of the population had fallen into poverty while the wealthiest 10% saw their incomes rise by 83%. But others disagree, Chilean economist José Piñera argues that 2 years after Pinochet took power, poverty was still at 50% and the liberal reforms reduced it to 7.8% in 2013 as well as income per capita rising from US$4.000 in 1975 to US$25.000 in 2015, supporters of the reforms also argue that when Pinochet left power in 1990 poverty had fallen to 38% and some claim that since the consolidation of the neoliberal system inequality has been reducing. However, protests erupted in late 2019 in response to growing inequality in the country which can be traced back to the neoliberal policies of the Pinochet dictatorship.
American scholar, Nancy MacLean, wrote that the concentration of money in the hands of the very rich and the perversion of democracy through the privatization of government was always the goal. The architect of this economic model known as "public choice", James M. Buchanan, traveled to Chile and worked closely with the Pinochet regime. MacLean's account, however, has come under scrutiny. Economist Andrew Farrant examined the Chilean constitutional clauses that MacLean attributes to Buchanan, and discovered that they pre-dated his visit. He concludes that "evidence suggests that Buchanan's May 1980 visit did not particularly influence the subsequent drafting of the Chilean Constitution" and "there is no evidence to suggest that Buchanan had any kind of audience with Pinochet or corresponded with the Chilean dictator."
1988 referendum, attempt to stay in power and transition to democracy
According to the transitional provisions of the 1980 Constitution, a referendum was scheduled for 5 October 1988, to vote on a new eight-year presidential term for Pinochet. Confronted with increasing opposition, notably at the international level, Pinochet legalized political parties in 1987 and called for a vote to determine whether or not he would remain in power until 1997. If the "YES" won, Pinochet would have to implement the dispositions of the 1980 Constitution, mainly the call for general elections, while he would himself remain in power as president. If the "NO" won, Pinochet would remain President for another year, and a joint Presidential and legislative election would be held.
Another reason for Pinochet's decision to call for elections was the April 1987 visit of Pope John Paul II to Chile. According to the US Catholic author George Weigel, he held a meeting with Pinochet during which they discussed a return to democracy. John Paul II allegedly pushed Pinochet to accept a democratic opening of his government, and even called for his resignation.
Political advertising was legalized on 5 September 1987, as a necessary element for the campaign for the "NO" to the referendum, which countered the official campaign, which presaged a return to a Popular Unity government in case of a defeat of Pinochet. The Opposition, gathered into the Concertación de Partidos por el NO ("Coalition of Parties for NO"), organized a colorful and cheerful campaign under the slogan La alegría ya viene ("Joy is coming"). It was formed by the Christian Democracy, the Socialist Party and the Radical Party, gathered in the Alianza Democrática (Democratic Alliance). In 1988, several more parties, including the Humanist Party, the Ecologist Party, the Social Democrats, and several Socialist Party splinter groups added their support.
On 5 October 1988, the "NO" option won with 55.99% of the votes, against 44.01% of "YES" votes. In the wake of his electoral defeat, Pinochet attempted to implement a plan for an auto-coup. He attempted to implement efforts to orchestrate chaos and violence in the streets to justify his power grab, however, the Carabinero police refused an order to lift the cordon against street demonstrations in the capital, according to a CIA informant. In his final move, Pinochet convened a meeting of his junta at La Moneda, in which he requested that they give him extraordinary powers to have the military seize the capital. Air Force General Fernando Matthei refused, saying that he would not agree to such a thing under any circumstances, and the rest of the junta followed this stance, on grounds that Pinochet already had his turn and lost. Matthei would later become the first member of the junta to publicly admit that Pinochet had lost the plebiscite. Without any support from the junta, Pinochet was forced to accept the result. The ensuing Constitutional process led to presidential and legislative elections the following year.
The Coalition changed its name to Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia (Coalition of Parties for Democracy) and put forward Patricio Aylwin, a Christian Democrat who had opposed Allende, as presidential candidate, and also proposed a list of candidates for the parliamentary elections. The opposition and the Pinochet government made several negotiations to amend the Constitution and agreed to 54 modifications. These amendments changed the way the Constitution would be modified in the future, added restrictions to state of emergency dispositions, the affirmation of political pluralism, and enhanced constitutional rights as well as the democratic principle and participation to political life. In July 1989, a referendum on the proposed changes took place, supported by all the parties except the right-wing Southern Party and the Chilean Socialist Party. The Constitutional changes were approved by 91.25% of the voters.
Thereafter, Aylwin won the December 1989 presidential election with 55% of the votes, against less than 30% for the right-wing candidate, Hernán Büchi, who had been Pinochet's Minister of Finances since 1985 (there was also a third-party candidate, Francisco Javier Errázuriz, a wealthy aristocrat representing the extreme economic right, who garnered the remaining 15%). Pinochet thus left the presidency on 11 March 1990 and transferred power to the new democratically elected president.
The Concertación also won the majority of votes for the Parliament. However, due to the "binomial" representation system included in the constitution, the elected senators did not achieve a complete majority in Parliament, a situation that would last for over 15 years. This forced them to negotiate all law projects with the Alliance for Chile (originally called "Democracy and Progress" and then "Union for Chile"), a center-right coalition involving the Unión Demócrata Independiente (UDI) and Renovación Nacional (RN), parties composed mainly of Pinochet's supporters.
Due to the transitional provisions of the constitution, Pinochet remained as Commander-in-Chief of the Army until March 1998. He was then sworn in as a senator-for-life, a privilege granted by the 1980 constitution to former presidents with at least six years in office. His senatorship and consequent immunity from prosecution protected him from legal action. These were possible in Chile only after Pinochet was arrested in 1998 in the United Kingdom, on an extradition request issued by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón. Allegations of abuses had been made numerous times before his arrest, but never acted upon. The extradition attempt was dramatised in the 2006 BBC television docudrama Pinochet in Suburbia, with Pinochet played by Derek Jacobi. Shortly before giving up power, on September 15, 1989, Pinochet prohibited all forms of abortion, previously authorized in case of rape or risk to the life of the mother. Pinochet argued that due to advances in medicine, abortion was "no longer justifiable".
Relationship with the United Kingdom
Chile was officially neutral during the Falklands War, but Chile's Westinghouse long-range radar that was deployed in the south of the country gave the British task force early warning of Argentinian air attacks. This allowed British ships and troops in the war zone to take defensive action. Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister at the time of the war, said that the day the radar was taken out of service for overdue maintenance was the day Argentinian fighter-bombers bombed the troopships Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram, leaving 53 dead and many injured. According to Chilean Junta member and former Air Force commander, General Fernando Matthei, Chilean support included military intelligence gathering, radar surveillance, allowing British aircraft to operate with Chilean colours, and facilitating the safe return of British special forces, among other forms of assistance.
In April and May 1982, a squadron of mothballed British Hawker Hunter fighter-bombers departed for Chile, arriving on 22 May and allowing the Chilean Air Force to reform the No. 9 "Las Panteras Negras" Squadron. A further consignment of three frontier surveillance and shipping reconnaissance Canberras left for Chile in October. Some authors have speculated that Argentina might have won the war had the military felt able to employ the elite VIth and VIIIth Mountain Brigades, which remained sitting in the Andes guarding against possible Chilean incursions. Pinochet subsequently visited the UK on more than one occasion. Pinochet's controversial relationship with Thatcher led Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair to mock Thatcher's Conservatives as "the party of Pinochet" in 1999.
Human rights violations
Pinochet's regime was responsible for many human rights abuses during its reign, including forced disappearances, murder, and torture of political opponents. According to a government commission report that included testimony from more than 30,000 people, Pinochet's government killed at least 3,197 people and tortured about 29,000. Two-thirds of the cases listed in the report happened in 1973.
Professor Clive Foss, in The Tyrants: 2500 Years of Absolute Power and Corruption (Quercus Publishing 2006), estimates that 1,500–2,000 Chileans were killed or "disappeared" during the Pinochet regime. In October 1979, The New York Times reported that Amnesty International had documented the disappearance of approximately 1,500 Chileans since 1973. Among the killed and disappeared during the military regime were at least 663 Marxist MIR guerrillas. The Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, however, has stated that only 49 FPMR guerrillas were killed but hundreds detained and tortured. According to a study in Latin American Perspectives, at least 200,000 Chileans (about 2% of Chile's 1973 population) were forced to go into exile. Additionally, hundreds of thousands left the country in the wake of the economic crises that followed the military coup during the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the key individuals who fled because of political persecution were followed in their exile by the DINA secret police, in the framework of Operation Condor, which linked South American military dictatorships together against political opponents.
According to John Dinges, author of The Condor Years (The New Press 2003), documents released in 2015 revealed a CIA report dated 28 April 1978 that showed the agency by then had knowledge that Pinochet ordered the assassination of Orlando Letelier, a leading political opponent living in exile in the United States.
According to Peter Kornbluh in The Pinochet File, "routine sadism was taken to extremes" in the prison camps. The rape of women was common, including sexual torture such as the insertion of rats into genitals and "unnatural acts involving dogs". Detainees were forcibly immersed in vats of urine and excrement, and were occasionally forced to ingest it. Beatings with gun butts, fists and chains were routine; one technique known as "the telephone" involved the torturer slamming "his open hands hard and rhythmically against the ears of the victim", leaving the person deaf. At Villa Grimaldi, prisoners were dragged into the parking lot and had the bones in their legs crushed as they were run over with trucks. Some died from torture; prisoners were beaten with chains and left to die from internal injuries. Following abuse and execution, corpses were interred in secret graves, dropped into rivers or the ocean, or just dumped on urban streets in the night. The body of the renowned Chilean singer, theatre director and academic Víctor Jara was found in a dirty canal "with his hands and face extremely disfigured" and with "forty-four bullet holes".
The practice of murdering political opponents via "death flights", employed by the juntas of Argentina and Chile, has sometimes been the subject of numerous alt-right and other right-wing extremist groups internet memes, with the suggestion that political enemies and leftists be given "free helicopter rides". In 2001, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos informed the nation that during Pinochet's reign, 120 bodies had been tossed from helicopters into "the ocean, the lakes and the rivers of Chile". In a final assessment of his legacy during his funeral, Belisario Velasco, Chile's interior minister at the time remarked that "Pinochet was a classic right-wing dictator who badly violated human rights and who became rich."
Ideology and public image
Pinochet himself expressed his project in government as a national rebirth inspired by Diego Portales, a figure of the early republic:
Lawyer Jaime Guzmán participated in the design of important speeches of Pinochet, and provided frequent political and doctrinal advice and consultancy.
Jacobo Timerman has called the Chilean army under Pinochet "the last Prussian army in the world", suggesting a pre-Fascist origin to the model of Pinochet's military government.
Historian Alfredo Jocelyn-Holt has referred to Pinochet's figure as "totemic", and added that it serves as a scapegoat which attracts "all hate". Gabriel Salazar, also a historian, has lamented the lack of an international condemnation of Pinochet in court, since, according to Salazar, that would have damaged his image "irreparably" and that of the judicial system of Chile [for the good] too.
In 1989 indigenous Mapuche groups representing the "Consejos Regionales" bestowed Pinochet the title Ulmen Füta Lonko or Great Authority.
According to Pinochet, who was aware of his ancestry, he was taught the French language by an uncle, although he later forgot most of it. Pinochet admired Napoleon as the greatest among French and had a framed picture of him. Another French ruler he admired was Louis XIV.
Pinochet's reputation led Peruvians in the 1990s to call Alberto Fujimori "chinochet" instead of his ordinary nickname "chino". Chadian dictator Hissène Habré, a Cold War ally of the West, has been characterized as "Africa's Pinochet" for ordering the torture and mass killing of political opponents during his reign, and for the decades long campaign to see him convicted of crimes against humanity. Images of Pinochet have been used in several Internet memes with the caption "Pinochet's Free Helicopter Rides", referencing death flights which saw political dissidents being thrown from helicopters over the Pacific or the Andes during Pinochet's rule. Variations of the internet meme have seen increased popularity with the rise of far-right and alt-right politics.
Accusations of fascism
Pinochet and his government have been characterised as fascist. For example, journalist and author Samuel Chavkin, in his book Storm Over Chile: The Junta Under Siege, repeatedly characterizes both Pinochet himself and the military dictatorship as fascist.
However, he and his government are generally excluded from academic typologies of fascism. Roger Griffin included Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots distinct from fascism, which included the likes of Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos. He argues that such regimes may be considered populist ultra-nationalist but lack the rhetoric of national rebirth, or palingenesis, necessary to make them conform to the model of palingenetic ultranationalism. Robert Paxton meanwhile compared Pinochet's regime to that of Mobutu Sese Seko in the former Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), arguing that both were merely client states that lacked popular acclaim and the ability to expand. He further argued that had Pinochet attempted to build true fascism, the regime would likely have been toppled or at least been forced to alter its relationship to the United States. Anna Cento Bull also excluded Pinochet from fascism, although she has argued that his regime belongs to a strand of Cold War anti-communism that was happy to accommodate neo-fascist elements within its activity.
World Fascism: a Historical Encyclopedia notes that "Although he was authoritarian and ruled dictatorially, Pinochet's support of neoliberal economic policies and his unwillingness to support national businesses distinguished him from classical fascists."
Historian Gabriel Salazar stated that high visibility of Pinochet and neglect of co-workers was reminiscent of fascist leadership:
Intellectual life and academic work
Pinochet was publicly known as a man with a lack of culture and this image was reinforced by the fact that he also portrayed himself as a common man with simple ideas. He was also known for being reserved, sharing little about his opinions or feelings. Before wresting power from Allende, Pinochet had written two books, Geopolítica (1968) and Campaña de Tarapacá (1972), which established him as a major figure in Chile's military literature. In Geopolítica Pinochet plagiarized his mentor general Gregorio Rodríguez Tascón by using paragraphs from a 1949 conference presentation of Rodríguez without attributing them to him.
Rodríguez had previously lectured Pinochet and René Schneider and Carlos Prats in geography and geopolitics. In contrast to the two latter Pinochet was not an outstanding student but his persistence and interest in geopolitics made Rodríguez assume the role as his academic mentor. Rodríguez granted Pinochet a slot as assistant lecturer in geopolitics and in geography. According to Rodríguez, Pinochet would have been particularly impressed by his lectures on The Art of War. Pinochet would later succeed Rodríguez in the geopolitics and geography chair.
Investigative journalist Juan Cristóbal Peña has put forward the thesis that Pinochet felt intellectual envy of Carlos Prats and that the latter's assassination in 1974 was a relief for Pinochet.
During his lifetime, Pinochet amassed more than 55,000 books in his private library, worth an estimated 2,840,000 US dollars (2006–07). The extent of his library was revealed to the public only after a police inspection in January 2006. Pinochet bought books at several small bookshops in the old centre of Santiago and was later supplied with books from abroad by military attachés who bought texts Pinochet was searching after. As ruler of Chile he used discretionary funds for these purchases. The library included many rare books including a first edition (1646) Historica relacion del Reyno de Chile and an original letter of Bernardo O'Higgins. A significant part of the books and documents of the library of José Manuel Balmaceda was found in Pinochet's library in 2006. Pinochet's library contained almost no poetry or fiction works.
Nicknames
Supporters sometimes refer to Pinochet as my general (the military salutation for a general) while opponents call him pinocho (Spanish for "Pinocchio", from the children's story). A common nickname used by both younger generations is el tata (Chilean Spanish equivalent of "the grandpa"). Since the Riggs Bank scandal he has been referred to sarcastically as Daniel Lopez, one of the fake identities he used to deposit money in the bank.
Post-dictatorship life
Arrest and court cases in the United Kingdom
Pinochet was arrested in London on "charges of genocide and terrorism that include murder" in October 1998. The indictment and arrest of Pinochet was the first time that a former government head was arrested on the principle of universal jurisdiction.
After having been placed under house arrest on the grounds of the Wentworth Club in Britain in October 1998 and initiating a judicial and public relations battle, the latter run by Thatcherite political operative Patrick Robertson, he was released in March 2000 on medical grounds by the Home Secretary Jack Straw without facing trial. Straw had overruled a House of Lords decision to extradite Pinochet to face trial in Spain.
Return to Chile
Pinochet returned to Chile on 3 March 2000. So as to avoid any potential disruption his flight back to Chile from the UK departed from RAF Waddington, evading those protesting against his release.
His first act when landing in Santiago's airport was to triumphantly get up from his wheelchair to the acclaim of his supporters. He was greeted by his successor as head of the Chilean armed forces, General Ricardo Izurieta. President-elect Ricardo Lagos said the retired general's televised arrival had damaged the image of Chile, while thousands demonstrated against him.
In March 2000, Congress approved a constitutional amendment creating the status of "ex-president", which granted its holder immunity from prosecution and a financial allowance; this replaced Pinochet's senatorship-for-life. 111 legislators voted for, and 29 against.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of judge Juan Guzmán's request in August 2000, and Pinochet was indicted on 1 December 2000 for the kidnapping of 75 opponents in the Caravan of Death case. Guzmán advanced the charge of kidnapping as the 75 were officially "disappeared": even though they were all most likely dead, the absence of their corpses made any charge of "homicide" difficult.
In July 2002, the Supreme Court dismissed Pinochet's indictment in the various human rights abuse cases, for medical reasons (vascular dementia). The debate concerned Pinochet's mental faculties, his legal team claiming that he was senile and could not remember, while others (including several physicians) claimed that he was affected only physically but retained all control of his faculties. The same year, the prosecuting attorney Hugo Guttierez, in charge of the Caravan of Death case, declared, "Our country has the degree of justice that the political transition permits us to have."
Pinochet resigned from his senatorial seat shortly after the Supreme Court's July 2002 ruling. In May 2004, the Supreme Court overturned its precedent decision, and ruled that he was capable of standing trial. In arguing their case, the prosecution presented a recent TV interview Pinochet had given to journalist Maria Elvira Salazar for a Miami-based television network, which raised doubts about his alleged mental incapacity. In December 2004, he was charged with several crimes, including the 1974 assassination of General Prats and the Operation Colombo case in which 119 died, and was again placed under house arrest. He suffered a stroke on 18 December 2004. Questioned by his judges in order to know if, as president, he was the direct head of DINA, he answered: "I don't remember, but it's not true. And if it were true, I don't remember."
In January 2005, the Chilean Army accepted institutional responsibility for past human rights abuses. In 2006, Pinochet was indicted for kidnappings and torture at the Villa Grimaldi detention center by judge Alejandro Madrid (Guzmán's successor), as well as for the 1995 assassination of the DINA biochemist Eugenio Berrios, himself involved in the Letelier case. Berrios, who had worked with Michael Townley, had produced sarin gas, anthrax and botulism in the Bacteriological War Army Laboratory for Pinochet; these materials were used against political opponents. The DINA biochemist was also alleged to have created black cocaine, which Pinochet then sold in Europe and the United States. The money for the drug trade was allegedly deposited into Pinochet's bank accounts. Pinochet's son Marco Antonio, who had been accused of participating in the drug trade, in 2006 denied claims of drug trafficking in his father's administration and said that he would sue Manuel Contreras, who had said that Pinochet sold cocaine.
On 25 November 2006, Pinochet marked his 91st birthday by having his wife read a statement he had written to admirers present for his birthday: "I assume the political responsibility for all that has been done." Two days later, he was again sentenced to house arrest for the kidnapping and murder of two bodyguards of Salvador Allende who were arrested the day of the 1973 coup and executed by firing squad during the Caravan of Death.
Pinochet died a few days later, on 10 December 2006, without having been convicted of any of the crimes of which he was accused.
Scandals: secret bank accounts, tax evasion, and arms deal
In 2004, a United States Senate money laundering investigation led by Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Norm Coleman (R-MN)—ordered in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks—uncovered a network of over 125 securities and bank accounts at Riggs Bank and other U.S. financial institutions used by Pinochet and his associates for twenty-five years to secretly move millions of dollars.
Though the subcommittee was charged only with investigating compliance of financial institutions under the USA PATRIOT Act, and not the Pinochet regime, Senator Coleman noted:
Over several months in 2005, Chilean judge Sergio Muñoz indicted Augusto Pinochet's wife, Lucia Hiriart; four of his children – Marco Antonio, Jacqueline, Veronica and Lucia Pinochet; his personal secretary, Monica Ananias; and his former aide Oscar Aitken on tax evasion and falsification charges stemming from the Riggs Bank investigation. In January 2006, daughter Lucia Pinochet was detained at Washington DC-Dulles airport and subsequently deported while attempting to evade the tax charges in Chile. In January 2007, the Santiago Court of Appeals revoked most of the indictment from Judge Carlos Cerda against the Pinochet family. But Pinochet's five children, his wife and 17 other persons (including two generals, one of his former lawyer and former secretary) were arrested in October 2007 on charges of embezzlement and use of false passports. They are accused of having illegally transferred $27m (£13.2m) to foreign bank accounts during Pinochet's rule.
In September 2005, a joint investigation by The Guardian and La Tercera revealed that the British arms firm BAE Systems had been identified as paying more than £1m to Pinochet, through a front company in the British Virgin Islands, which BAE has used to channel commission on arms deals. The payments began in 1997 and lasted until 2004.
In 2007, fifteen years of investigation led to the conclusion that the 1992 assassination of DINA Colonel Gerardo Huber was most probably related to various illegal arms traffic carried out, after Pinochet's resignation from power, by military circles very close to himself. Huber had been assassinated a short time before he was due to testify in the case concerning the 1991 illegal export of weapons to the Croatian army. The deal involved 370 tons of weapons, sold to Croatia by Chile on 7 December 1991, when the former country was under a United Nations' embargo because of the support for Croatia war in Yugoslavia. In January 1992, the judge Hernán Correa de la Cerda wanted to hear Gerardo Huber in this case, but the latter may have been silenced to avoid implicating Pinochet in this new case—although the latter was no longer President, he remained at the time Commander-in-Chief of the Army. Pinochet was at the center of this illegal arms trade, receiving money through various offshores and front companies, including the Banco Coutts International in Miami.
Pinochet was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in August 2000 by the Supreme Court, and indicted by judge Juan Guzmán Tapia. Guzmán had ordered in 1999 the arrest of five militarists, including General Pedro Espinoza Bravo of the DINA, for their role in the Caravan of Death following the coup on 11 September. Arguing that the bodies of the "disappeared" were still missing, he made jurisprudence, which had as effect to lift any prescription on the crimes committed by the military. Pinochet's trial continued until his death on 10 December 2006, with an alternation of indictments for specific cases, lifting of immunities by the Supreme Court or to the contrary immunity from prosecution, with his health a main argument for, or against, his prosecution.
The Supreme Court affirmed, in March 2005, Pinochet's immunity concerning the 1974 assassination of General Carlos Prats in Buenos Aires, which had taken place in the frame of Operation Condor. However, he was deemed fit to stand trial for Operation Colombo, during which 119 political opponents were "disappeared" in Argentina. The Chilean justice also lifted his immunity on the Villa Grimaldi case, a detention and torture center in the outskirts of Santiago. Pinochet, who still benefited from a reputation of righteousness from his supporters, lost legitimacy when he was put under house arrest on tax fraud and passport forgery, following the publication by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of a report concerning the Riggs Bank in July 2004. The report was a consequence of investigations on financial funding of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US. The bank controlled between US$4 million and $8 million of the assets of Pinochet, who lived in Santiago in a modest house, dissimulating his wealth. According to the report, Riggs participated in money laundering for Pinochet, setting up offshore shell corporations (referring to Pinochet as only "a former public official"), and hiding his accounts from regulatory agencies. Related to Pinochet's and his family secret bank accounts in United States and in Caribbean islands, this tax fraud filing for an amount of 27 million dollars shocked the conservative sectors who still supported him. Ninety percent of these funds would have been raised between 1990 and 1998, when Pinochet was chief of the Chilean armies, and would essentially have come from weapons traffic (when purchasing French 'Mirage' fighter aircraft in 1994, Dutch 'Leopard 2' tanks, Swiss 'MOWAG' armored vehicles or by illegal sales of weapons to Croatia, during the Balkans war.) His wife, Lucía Hiriart, and his son, Marco Antonio Pinochet, were also sued for complicity. For the fourth time in seven years, Pinochet was indicted by the Chilean justice.
Death
Pinochet suffered a heart attack on the morning of 3 December 2006 and was given the last rites the same day. On 4 December 2006, the Chilean Court of Appeals ordered the suspension of his house arrest. On 10 December 2006 at 13:30 local time (16:30 UTC) he was taken to the intensive care unit. He died of congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema, surrounded by family members, at the Military Hospital at 14:15 local time (17:15 UTC).
Massive spontaneous street demonstrations broke out throughout the country upon the news of his death. In Santiago, opponents celebrated his death in Alameda Avenue, while supporters grieved outside the Military Hospital. Pinochet's remains lay in repose on 11 December 2006 at the Military Academy in Las Condes. During this ceremony, Francisco Cuadrado Prats—the grandson of Carlos Prats (a former Commander-in-Chief of the Army in the Allende government who was murdered by Pinochet's secret police)—spat on the coffin, and was quickly surrounded by supporters of Pinochet, who assaulted him. Pinochet's funeral took place the following day at the same venue before a gathering of 60,000 supporters.
In a government decision, he was not granted a state funeral (an honor normally bestowed upon past presidents of Chile) but a military funeral as former commander-in-chief of the Army appointed by Allende. The government also refused to declare an official national day of mourning, but it did authorize flags at military barracks to be flown at half staff, and for the Chilean flag to be draped on Pinochet's coffin. Socialist President Michelle Bachelet, whose father Alberto was temporarily imprisoned and tortured after the 1973 coup and died shortly afterwards from heart complications, said that it would be "a violation of [her] conscience" to attend a state funeral for Pinochet. The only government authority present at the public funeral was the Defense Minister, Vivianne Blanlot.
In Spain, supporters of late dictator Francisco Franco paid homage to Pinochet. Antonio Tejero, who led the failed coup of 1981, attended a memorial service in Madrid.
Pinochet's body was cremated in Parque del Mar Cemetery, Concón on 12 December 2006, on his request to "avoid vandalism of his tomb", according to his son Marco Antonio. His ashes were delivered to his family later that day, and are deposited in Los Boldos, Santo Domingo, Valparaiso, Chile; one of his personal residences. The armed forces refused to allow his ashes to be deposited on military property.
Honours
National honours
:
Grand Master of the Order of Merit - (1974-1990)
Grand Master of the Order of Bernardo O'Higgins- (1974-1990)
President of the Republic Decoration
10 Years Service Award
20 Years Service Award
30 Years Service Award
Minerva Medal(Army War College)
Minerva Medal(Army War College)
Decoration of the President of the Chilean Red Cross
Grand Knight of the Altiplano of Arica
Foreign honours
: Grand Cross of the Order of the Quetzal
:
Order of Abdon Calderón, 1st Class
Official Honorary General Staff Decoration of the Armed Forces of Ecuador
Honorary Staff Officer of the Armed Forces of Ecuador
: Order of José Matías Delgado
: Collar of Francisco Solano Lopez Grade of the National Order of Merit (Paraguay)
:
Grand Cross of the Order of the Liberator General San Martín
Grand Cross of the Order of May
: Commander of the Order of Military Merit José María Córdova
: Crosses of Military Merit
: Supreme Grand Collar of the Military Order of the Saint Salvador and Saint Bridgette (self-styled order)
See also
1970 Chilean presidential election
United States intervention in Chile
Book burnings in Chile
History of Chile
Pinochetism
Colonia, a film about two West Germans caught up in the aftermath of the Pinochet coup who end up in the Colonia Dignidad cult
Missing, a film based on the life of U.S. journalist Charles Horman, who disappeared in the aftermath of the Pinochet coup
No, an Academy Award-nominated film presenting a dramatized account of the 1988 national plebiscite campaign on Pinochet's rule
David H. Popper, US ambassador to Chile (1974–1977)
United States involvement in regime change
Notes
References
Further reading
(Reviewed in The Washington Post, Book World, p. 2, 2009-10-19)
External links
Extensive bio by Fundación CIDOB (in Spanish)
Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006) – A Biography
France 24 coverage – Augusto Pinochet's Necrology on France 24
BBC coverage (special report)
Documentary Film on Chilean Concentration Camp from Pinochet's Regime: Chacabuco
CIA Acknowledges Ties to Pinochet's Repression from The National Security Archive
Chile under Allende and Pinochet
Human rights violation under Pinochet
The Times obituary
Analysis of economic policy under Pinochet by economist Jim Cypher in Dollars & Sense magazine
Chile: The Price of Democracy New English Review
What Pinochet Did for Chile Hoover Digest (2007 No. 1)
When US-Backed Pinochet Forces Took Power in Chile – video report by Democracy Now!
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Survivors of terrorist attacks | false | [
"Something Else is the seventh studio album by Irish alternative rock band The Cranberries, released on 28 April 2017, through BMG. The album, which features \"unplugged\" and orchestral versions of ten previously released singles and three new songs, was recorded at the Irish Chamber Orchestra Building, the University of Limerick, Ireland. The album cover is a re-enactment of the front cover image of the band's 1994 album No Need to Argue with the four members each in very similar positions. The backdrop, however, is a darker green as opposed to No Need to Argue'''s stark white and the band is sitting on a different sofa.\n\nThe lead single from the album, an acoustic version of the band's 1993 hit \"Linger\", was released on 16 March 2017. The same day, \"Why?\" was also released.Something Else is the band's final album released during lead singer Dolores O'Riordan's lifetime.\n\nCritical receptionSomething Else received mostly positive reviews from music critics. Neil Z. Yeung of AllMusic rated the album four out of five stars and states, \"Something Else is worthwhile for the faithful, offering new spins on songs that they likely know by heart, and is an easily digestible snapshot of their 20th century output for those in need of a reminder of the beloved Limerick group's legacy.\"\n\nMatt the Raven of Under the Radar viewed that it presents Something Else'' in two styles,\n\nTrack listing\nWriting credits adapted from BMI and ASCAP\n\nCharts\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\nThe Cranberries albums\n2017 albums\nBMG Rights Management albums\nIrish Chamber Orchestra albums\nUniversity of Limerick",
"\"Is There Something I Should Know?\" is the eighth single by British pop band Duran Duran, released on 19 March 1983.\n\nThe song was released as a stand-alone single and became the band's first UK number one record. It debuted in the number one position on the UK Singles Chart on 26 March 1983. The single also had great success in America, where it was released in late May: The song debuted on the charts on 4 June at #57, and it reached number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 on 6 August 1983 and sold more than a million copies.\n\nBackground\n\"Is There Something I Should Know?\" was recorded at Tony Visconti’s Good Earth Studios in Soho, London with producer Ian Little, who was recommended to the group by Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera. Eventually, the song would undergo several rounds of mixing due to a lack of compression on the drums as Little asserted: one mix was done at Good Earth, one at Eel Pie Studios, one at The Gallery and one at The Power Station in New York with Bob Clearmountain. Keyboardist Nick Rhodes remembered being present most of the night during the mix with Clearmountain and leaving the next day thinking the band had something special on their hands. But upon reflection some days later, it was decided that despite being what they considered a \"beautiful mix\", it was a little too soft for the sound they were trying to achieve for the record. So the final mix would be done with producer Alex Sadkin (who’d be brought in to produce the band’s next album alongside Little, Seven and the Ragged Tiger) and Phil Thornalley at RAK Studios, London, who replaced the drums with samples triggered via AMS delay units.\n\nAlthough generally regarded as a stand-alone single, it was added to the 1983 US re-issue of the band's 1981 debut album, Duran Duran. The first album on which the song featured in the UK was the inaugural Now That's What I Call Music compilation at the end of the year.\n\nThe singles from the Duran Duran album did not receive much airplay in the United States on the album's first release; both the band and the New Romantic fashion style were unknown, and very few British bands were able to break into American radio at that time. However, by the end of 1982, the band's Rio album was rapidly climbing the American charts, fueled by saturation airplay of various Duran Duran videos on MTV. The band and their label, Capitol/EMI, decided to re-release the debut album in the United States with the inclusion of this newly recorded single.\n\nBecause of the time limitations of vinyl records, the inclusion of \"Is There Something I Should Know?\" required the omission of the album track \"To The Shore\" on the reissue. \"To The Shore\" was reinstated on later compact disc pressings.\n\n\"Is There Something I Should Know?\" was the opening song on Duran Duran’s set list for the 1983/84 Seven and the Ragged Tiger tour - as well as Duran Duran's charity concert at Aston Villa football ground in 1983.\n\nIn a retrospective review of the song, Allmusic journalist Donald A. Guarisco wrote that the lyrics \"deal with a difficult romantic relationship in rather obtuse terms.\" Guarisco highlighted what he described as \"odd turns of phrase\" in the lyrics, such as: \"and fiery demons all dance when you walk through that door/Don't say you're easy on me 'cause you're about as easy as a nuclear war.\"\n\nAlthough Guarisco questioned the lyrics, he praised the melody in the song. He wrote: \"The melody of 'Is There Something I Should Know?' is one of Duran Duran's catchiest, matching twisty verse melodies full of ear-catching hooks with a harmonized chorus.\"\n\nAccording to Rhodes, the pulsing keyboard sound is from a Roland Jupiter-8 synth, while the Prophet-5 was used for a small melodic part.\n\nMusic video\nThe memorable and much-played video for \"Is There Something I Should Know?\" featured colour clips of the band members, in blue shirts with tucked-in white ties, interspersed with surreal images in black-and-white. The video made a point of marking the transition between albums one and two - and the third, featuring clips from several earlier Duran Duran videos. This included \"My Own Way\" - presented on the Duran Duran Video Album but never released to MTV.\n\nThe video was directed by Russell Mulcahy, and was one of the most popular videos of 1983 on MTV. The video is longer as there are verses that were edited out of the original 45 release, that subsequently made it to album, tape and CD. The DVD Greatest Hits has the long version video\n\nWhen asked if there was anything about their videos they'd like to change, drummer Roger Taylor commented, \"The only part of a video I would change is the end of 'Is There Something I Should Know?' where I am singing to the camera. I look very uncomfortable doing this and cringe every time I see it to this day.\"\n\nB-sides, bonus tracks and remixes\nThe B-side to \"Is There Something I Should Know?\" in the UK is the instrumental \"Faith in This Colour\". An \"Alternate Slow Mix\" of \"Faith in this Colour\" was used on the 7\" single, some pressings of which included brief unauthorized sound samples from the movie Star Wars—these were promptly withdrawn when copyright concerns were raised, although on the \"Alternate Slow Mix\" from the singles box set, the scene, in which Obi-Wan leaves to disable the tractor beam, can clearly be heard in the last minute. Duran Duran has not confirmed this, though.\n\nThe mainly instrumental \"Monster Mix\" of \"Is There Something I Should Know?\" was completed by producers Ian Little and Alex Sadkin and Phil Thornalley at RAK studio One.\n\nIn the US, the song \"Careless Memories\" is the B-side of \"Is There Something I Should Know?\".\n\nFormats and track listing\n\n7\": EMI. / EMI 5371 United Kingdom\n \"Is There Something I Should Know?\" – 4:11\n \"Faith in This Colour (Alternate Slow Mix)\" – 4:06\n\n12\": EMI. / 12 EMI 5371 United Kingdom\n \"Is There Something I Should Know?\" (Monster Mix) – 6:43\n \"Faith in This Colour\" – 4:06\n\n7\": Capitol Records. / B-5233 United States \n \"Is There Something I Should Know?\" – 4:07\n \"Careless Memories\" – 3:53\n Track 2 is the \"Album Version\".\n\n12\": Capitol Records. / 8551 United States \n \"Is There Something I Should Know?\" (Monster Mix) – 6:40\n \"Faith in This Colour\" – 4:05\n\n12\": EMI. / EMI Electrola 1C K062-65-106Z Germany \n \"Is There Something I Should Know?\" (Monster Mix) – 6:43\n \"Is There Something I Should Know?\" (Short Mix) – 4:06\n \"Faith in This Colour\" – 4:04\n Track 2 \"Short Mix\" is the \"Single Version\".\n\nCD: Part of \"Singles Box Set 1981–1985\" boxset\n \"Is There Something I Should Know?\" – 4:11\n \"Faith in This Colour\" – 4:05\n \"Is There Something I Should Know?\" (Monster Mix) – 6:40\n \"Faith in This Colour (Alternate Slow Mix)\" – 4:05\n\"Monster Mix\" remixed by Alex Sadkin, Ian Little and Phil Thornalley.\n\nCovers, samples and media references\n\nThe band Sugar Ray took elements from the video and featured them in a segment of the music video for their single \"When It's Over\".\n\nCover versions of the song have been recorded by The Mr. T Experience, Harvey Danger and allSTARS*, the last of which took the song back into the UK charts at #12 in September 2001 as a double-A-side with their own track \"Things That Go Bump In The Night\".\n\nThe line \"you're about as easy as a nuclear war\" was the inspiration for the Duran Duran song \"Yo Bad Azizi\", included as a B-side to the \"Serious\" single released seven years later.\n\nallSTARS* version \n\nTrack Listing\n\nCD\n \"Things That Go Bump In The Night\"\n \"Is There Something I Should Know\"\n \"Is There Something I Should Know\" (Almighty Mix)\n \"Things That Go Bump In The Night\" (Video)\n\nCassette\n \"Things That Go Bump In The Night\"\n \"Is There Something I Should Know\"\n \"That Crazy Thing That We Call Love\"\n\n12\" Vinyl\n \"Is There Something I Should Know\" (Mothership Mix)\n \"Is There Something I Should Know\" (Almighty Mix)\n \"Is There Something I Should Know\" (K Boys Club Mix)\n \"Is There Something I Should Know\" (Radio Edit)\n \"Things That Go Bump In The Night\" (Xenomania Mix)\n \"Things That Go Bump In The Night\" (Radio Edit)\n\nPromo CD\n \"Things That Go Bump In The Night\" (Radio Edit)\n \"Is There Something I Should Know\" (Radio Edit)\n\nChart performance\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nOther appearances\nApart from the single, \"Is There Something I Should Know?\" has also appeared on:\n\nAlbums:\nDuran Duran (1983 US Re-release)\nArena (1984 live album)\nTiger! Tiger! EP (Japan only, 1984)\nDecade (1989)\nNight Versions: The Essential Duran Duran (US only, 1998)\nGreatest (1998)\nStrange Behaviour (1999)\nSingles Box Set 1981–1985 (2003)\nSingles Box Set 1986–1995 (2004)\nSeven and the Ragged Tiger (2010 remastered version)\n\nSingles:\nCapitol Gold Cuts (1990)\nCome Undone (1993)\n\nPersonnel\nDuran Duran are:\nSimon Le Bon – vocals, harmonica \nNick Rhodes – keyboards\nJohn Taylor – bass guitar\nRoger Taylor – drums\nAndy Taylor – guitar, vocals\n\nAlso credited:\nIan Little – producer\nAlex Sadkin – mixer\nPhil Thornalley – mix engineer \nMike Nocito – mix assistant engineer\nRAK studios – mix studio\n\nReferences\n\n1983 singles\nDuran Duran songs\nUK Singles Chart number-one singles\nMusic videos directed by Russell Mulcahy\nAllstars (band) songs\nSongs written by Simon Le Bon\nSongs written by John Taylor (bass guitarist)\nSongs written by Roger Taylor (Duran Duran drummer)\nSongs written by Andy Taylor (guitarist)\nSongs written by Nick Rhodes\nCapitol Records singles\nEMI Records singles"
]
|
[
"Arthur Miller",
"Early career"
]
| C_5ab66b0bf57946a38cd17bf139f94d57_1 | When did his career begin? | 1 | When did Arthur Miller's career begin? | Arthur Miller | In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap. That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews. In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure. In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times. In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred. CANNOTANSWER | That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award. | Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955, revised 1956). He wrote several screenplays and was most noted for his work on The Misfits (1961). The drama Death of a Salesman has been numbered on the short list of finest American plays in the 20th century.
Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. During this time, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and married Marilyn Monroe. In 1980, Miller received the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates. He received the Praemium Imperiale prize in 2001, Prince of Asturias Award in 2002, and the Jerusalem Prize in 2003, as well as the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 1999.
Biography
Early life
Miller was born on October 17, 1915, in Harlem, in the New York City borough of Manhattan, and published an account of his early years under the title "A Boy Grew in Brooklyn"; the second of three children of Augusta (Barnett) and Isidore Miller. Miller was Jewish and of Polish-Jewish descent. His father was born in Radomyśl Wielki, Galicia (then part of Austria-Hungary, now Poland), and his mother was a native of New York whose parents also arrived from that town. Isidore owned a women's clothing manufacturing business employing 400 people. He became a wealthy and respected man in the community. The family, including Miller's younger sister Joan Copeland, lived on West 110th Street in Manhattan, owned a summer house in Far Rockaway, Queens, and employed a chauffeur. In the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the family lost almost everything and moved to Gravesend, Brooklyn. (One source says they moved to Midwood.) As a teenager, Miller delivered bread every morning before school to help the family. After graduating in 1932 from Abraham Lincoln High School, he worked at several menial jobs to pay for his college tuition at the University of Michigan. After graduation (circa 1936), he began to work as a psychiatric aide and also a copywriter before accepting faculty posts at New York University and University of New Hampshire. On May 1, 1935, Miller joined the League of American Writers (1935–1943), whose members included Alexander Trachtenberg of International Publishers, Franklin Folsom, Louis Untermeyer, I. F. Stone, Myra Page, Millen Brand, Lillian Hellman, and Dashiell Hammett. (Members were largely either Communist Party members or fellow travelers.)
At the University of Michigan, Miller first majored in journalism and worked for the student newspaper, The Michigan Daily, as well as the satirical Gargoyle Humor Magazine. It was during this time that he wrote his first play, No Villain. Miller switched his major to English, and subsequently won the Avery Hopwood Award for No Villain. The award brought him his first recognition and led him to begin to consider that he could have a career as a playwright. Miller enrolled in a playwriting seminar taught by the influential Professor Kenneth Rowe, who instructed him in his early forays into playwriting; Rowe emphasized how a play is built in order to achieve its intended effect, or what Miller called "the dynamics of play construction". Rowe provided realistic feedback along with much-needed encouragement, and became a lifelong friend. Miller retained strong ties to his alma mater throughout the rest of his life, establishing the university's Arthur Miller Award in 1985 and Arthur Miller Award for Dramatic Writing in 1999, and lending his name to the Arthur Miller Theatre in 2000. In 1937, Miller wrote Honors at Dawn, which also received the Avery Hopwood Award.
After his graduation in 1938, he joined the Federal Theatre Project, a New Deal agency established to provide jobs in the theater. He chose the theater project despite the more lucrative offer to work as a scriptwriter for 20th Century Fox. However, Congress, worried about possible Communist infiltration, closed the project in 1939. Miller began working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard while continuing to write radio plays, some of which were broadcast on CBS.
Early career
In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane (born September 7, 1944) and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap.
In 1944 Miller's first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck and won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews.
In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure.
In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times.
In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred.
Critical years
In 1955, a one-act version of Miller's verse drama A View from the Bridge opened on Broadway in a joint bill with one of Miller's lesser-known plays, A Memory of Two Mondays. The following year, Miller revised A View from the Bridge as a two-act prose drama, which Peter Brook directed in London. A French-Italian co-production Vu du pont, based on the play, was released in 1962.
Marriages and family
In June 1956, Miller left his first wife, Mary Slattery, whom he had married in 1940, and wed film star Marilyn Monroe. They had met in 1951, had a brief affair, and remained in contact since. Monroe had just turned 30 when they married; she never had a real family of her own and was eager to join the family of her new husband.
Monroe began to reconsider her career and the fact that trying to manage it made her feel helpless. She admitted to Miller, "I hate Hollywood. I don't want it any more. I want to live quietly in the country and just be there when you need me. I can't fight for myself any more."
Monroe converted to Judaism to "express her loyalty and get close to both Miller and his parents", writes biographer Jeffrey Meyers. She told her close friend, Susan Strasberg: "I can identify with the Jews. Everybody's always out to get them, no matter what they do, like me." Soon after Monroe converted, Egypt banned all of her movies.
Away from Hollywood and the culture of celebrity, Monroe's life became more normal; she began cooking, keeping house and giving Miller more attention and affection than he had been used to.
Later that year, Miller was subpoenaed by the HCUA, and Monroe accompanied him. In her personal notes, she wrote about her worries during this period:
Miller began work on writing the screenplay for The Misfits in 1960, directed by John Huston and starring Monroe but it was during the filming that Miller and Monroe's relationship hit difficulties, and he later said that the filming was one of the lowest points in his life. Monroe was taking drugs to help her sleep and more drugs to help her wake up, which caused her to arrive on the set late and then have trouble remembering her lines. Huston was unaware that Miller and Monroe were having problems in their private life. He recalled later, "I was impertinent enough to say to Arthur that to allow her to take drugs of any kind was criminal and utterly irresponsible. Shortly after that I realized that she wouldn't listen to Arthur at all; he had no say over her actions."
Shortly before the film's premiere in 1961, Miller and Monroe divorced after five years of marriage. Nineteen months later, on August 5, 1962, Monroe died of a likely drug overdose. Huston, who had also directed her in her first major role in The Asphalt Jungle in 1950, and who had seen her rise to stardom, put the blame for her death on her doctors as opposed to the stresses of being a star: "The girl was an addict of sleeping pills and she was made so by the God-damn doctors. It had nothing to do with the Hollywood set-up."
Miller married photographer Inge Morath in February 1962. She had worked as a photographer documenting the production of The Misfits. The first of their two children, Rebecca, was born September 15, 1962. Their son, Daniel, was born with Down syndrome in November 1966. Against his wife's wishes, Miller had him institutionalized, first at a home for infants in New York City, and then at the Southbury Training School in Connecticut. Though Morath visited Daniel often, Miller never visited him at the school and rarely spoke of him. Miller and Inge remained together until her death in 2002. Arthur Miller's son-in-law, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, is said to have visited Daniel frequently, and to have persuaded Arthur Miller to meet with him.
HUAC controversy and The Crucible
In 1952, Elia Kazan appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Kazan named eight members of the Group Theatre, including Clifford Odets, Paula Strasberg, Lillian Hellman, J. Edward Bromberg, and John Garfield, who in recent years had been fellow members of the Communist Party. Miller and Kazan were close friends throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, but after Kazan's testimony to the HUAC, the pair's friendship ended. After speaking with Kazan about his testimony, Miller traveled to Salem, Massachusetts, to research the witch trials of 1692. He and Kazan did not speak to each other for the next ten years. Kazan later defended his own actions through his film On the Waterfront, in which a dockworker heroically testifies against a corrupt union boss. Miller would retaliate to Kazan's work by writing A View from the Bridge, a play where a longshoreman outs his co-workers motivated only by jealousy and greed. He sent a copy of the initial script to Kazan and when the director asked in jest to direct the movie, Miller replied "I only sent you the script to let you know what I think of Stool-Pigeons."
In The Crucible, Miller likened the situation with the House Un-American Activities Committee to the witch hunt in Salem in 1692. The play opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway on January 22, 1953. Though widely considered only somewhat successful at the time of its release, today The Crucible is Miller's most frequently produced work throughout the world. It was adapted into an opera by Robert Ward in 1961.
The HUAC took an interest in Miller himself not long after The Crucible opened, denying him a passport to attend the play's London opening in 1954. When Miller applied in 1956 for a routine renewal of his passport, the House Un-American Activities Committee used this opportunity to subpoena him to appear before the committee. Before appearing, Miller asked the committee not to ask him to name names, to which the chairman, Francis E. Walter (D-PA) agreed. When Miller attended the hearing, to which Monroe accompanied him, risking her own career, he gave the committee a detailed account of his political activities. Reneging on the chairman's promise, the committee demanded the names of friends and colleagues who had participated in similar activities. Miller refused to comply, saying "I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him." As a result, a judge found Miller guilty of contempt of Congress in May 1957. Miller was sentenced to a fine and a prison sentence, blacklisted, and disallowed a US passport. In August 1958, his conviction was overturned by the court of appeals, which ruled that Miller had been misled by the chairman of the HUAC.
Miller's experience with the HUAC affected him throughout his life. In the late 1970s, he joined other celebrities (including William Styron and Mike Nichols) who were brought together by the journalist Joan Barthel. Barthel's coverage of the highly publicized Barbara Gibbons murder case helped raise bail for Gibbons' son Peter Reilly, who had been convicted of his mother's murder based on what many felt was a coerced confession and little other evidence. Barthel documented the case in her book A Death in Canaan, which was made as a television film of the same name and broadcast in 1978. City Confidential, an A&E Network series, produced an episode about the murder, postulating that part of the reason Miller took such an active interest (including supporting Reilly's defense and using his own celebrity to bring attention to Reilly's plight) was because he had felt similarly persecuted in his run-ins with the HUAC. He sympathized with Reilly, whom he firmly believed to be innocent and to have been railroaded by the Connecticut State Police and the Attorney General who had initially prosecuted the case.
Later career
In 1964, After the Fall was produced, and is said to be a deeply personal view of Miller's experiences during his marriage to Monroe. The play reunited Miller with his former friend Kazan: they collaborated on both the script and the direction. After the Fall opened on January 23, 1964, at the ANTA Theatre in Washington Square Park amid a flurry of publicity and outrage at putting a Monroe-like character, called Maggie, on stage. Robert Brustein, in a review in the New Republic, called After the Fall "a three and one half hour breach of taste, a confessional autobiography of embarrassing explicitness ... there is a misogynistic strain in the play which the author does not seem to recognize. ... He has created a shameless piece of tabloid gossip, an act of exhibitionism which makes us all voyeurs, ... a wretched piece of dramatic writing." That same year, Miller produced Incident at Vichy. In 1965, Miller was elected the first American president of PEN International, a position which he held for four years. A year later, Miller organized the 1966 PEN congress in New York City. Miller also wrote the penetrating family drama, The Price, produced in 1968. It was Miller's most successful play since Death of a Salesman.
In 1968, Miller attended the Democratic National Convention as a delegate for Eugene McCarthy. In 1969, Miller's works were banned in the Soviet Union after he campaigned for the freedom of dissident writers. Throughout the 1970s, Miller spent much of his time experimenting with the theatre, producing one-act plays such as Fame and The Reason Why, and traveling with his wife, producing In the Country and Chinese Encounters with her. Both his 1972 comedy The Creation of the World and Other Business and its musical adaptation, Up from Paradise, were critical and commercial failures.
Miller was an unusually articulate commentator on his own work. In 1978 he published a collection of his Theater Essays, edited by Robert A. Martin and with a foreword by Miller. Highlights of the collection included Miller's introduction to his Collected Plays, his reflections on the theory of tragedy, comments on the McCarthy Era, and pieces arguing for a publicly supported theater. Reviewing this collection in the Chicago Tribune, Studs Terkel remarked, "in reading [the Theater Essays]...you are exhilaratingly aware of a social critic, as well as a playwright, who knows what he's talking about."
In 1983, Miller traveled to China to produce and direct Death of a Salesman at the People's Art Theatre in Beijing. The play was a success in China and in 1984, Salesman in Beijing, a book about Miller's experiences in Beijing, was published. Around the same time, Death of a Salesman was made into a TV movie starring Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman. Shown on CBS, it attracted 25 million viewers. In late 1987, Miller's autobiographical work,
Timebends, was published. Before it was published, it was well known that Miller would not talk about Monroe in interviews; in Timebends Miller talks about his experiences with Monroe in detail.
During the early-mid 1990s, Miller wrote three new plays: The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1992), and Broken Glass (1994). In 1996, a film of The Crucible starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Scofield, Bruce Davison, and Winona Ryder opened. Miller spent much of 1996 working on the screenplay for the film.
Mr. Peters' Connections was staged Off-Broadway in 1998, and Death of a Salesman was revived on Broadway in 1999 to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. The play, once again, was a large critical success, winning a Tony Award for best revival of a play.
In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. Miller was honored with the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award for a Master American Dramatist in 1998. In 2001 the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) selected Miller for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Miller's lecture was entitled "On Politics and the Art of Acting." Miller's lecture analyzed political events (including the U.S. presidential election of 2000)
in terms of the "arts of performance", and it drew attacks from some conservatives such as Jay Nordlinger, who called it "a disgrace", and George Will, who argued that Miller was not legitimately a "scholar".
In 1999, Miller was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to "a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life." In 2001, Miller received the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. On May 1, 2002, Miller was awarded Spain's Principe de Asturias Prize for Literature as "the undisputed master of modern drama". Later that year, Ingeborg Morath died of lymphatic cancer at the age of 78. The following year Miller won the Jerusalem Prize.
In December 2004, 89-year-old Miller announced that he had been in love with 34-year-old minimalist painter Agnes Barley and had been living with her at his Connecticut farm since 2002, and that they intended to marry. Within hours of her father's death, Rebecca Miller ordered Barley to vacate the premises because she had consistently been opposed to the relationship. Miller's final play, Finishing the Picture, opened at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, in the fall of 2004, with one character said to be based on Barley. It was reported to be based on his experience during the filming of The Misfits, though Miller insisted the play is a work of fiction with independent characters that were no more than composite shadows of history.
Death
Miller died on the evening of February 10, 2005 (the 56th anniversary of the Broadway debut of Death of a Salesman) at age 89 of bladder cancer and heart failure, at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. He had been in hospice care at his sister's apartment in New York since his release from hospital the previous month. He was surrounded by Barley, family and friends. His body was interred at Roxbury Center Cemetery in Roxbury.
Legacy
Miller's career as a writer spanned over seven decades, and at the time of his death, Miller was considered to be one of the greatest dramatists of the twentieth century. After his death, many respected actors, directors, and producers paid tribute to Miller, some calling him the last great practitioner of the American stage, and Broadway theatres darkened their lights in a show of respect.
Miller's alma mater, the University of Michigan, opened the Arthur Miller Theatre in March 2007. As per his express wish, it is the only theatre in the world that bears Miller's name.
Other notable arrangements for Miller's legacy are that his letters, notes, drafts and other papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin.
Miller is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. He was inducted in 1979.
In 1993, he received the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech.
In 2017, his daughter, Rebecca Miller, a writer and filmmaker, completed a documentary about her father's life, under the title Arthur Miller: Writer.
Minor planet 3769 Arthurmiller is named after him.
Foundation
The Arthur Miller Foundation was founded to honor the legacy of Miller and his New York City Public School Education. The mission of the foundation is: "Promoting increased access and equity to theater arts education in our schools and increasing the number of students receiving theater arts education as an integral part of their academic curriculum." Other initiatives include certification of new theater teachers and their placement in public schools; increasing the number of theater teachers in the system from the current estimate of 180 teachers in 1800 schools; supporting professional development of all certified theater teachers; providing teaching artists, cultural partners, physical spaces, and theater ticket allocations for students. The foundation's primary purpose is to provide arts education in the New York City school system. The current chancellor of the foundation is Carmen Farina, a large proponent of the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The Master Arts Council includes, among others, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Barkin, Bradley Cooper, Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson, Tony Kushner, Julianne Moore, Michael Moore, Liam Neeson, David O. Russell, and Liev Schreiber. His son-in-law Daniel Day-Lewis, serves on the current board of directors since 2016.
The foundation celebrated Miller's 100th birthday with a one-night-only performance of Miller's seminal works in November 2015.
The Arthur Miller Foundation currently supports a pilot program in theater and film at the public school Quest to Learn in partnership with the Institute of Play. The model is being used as an in-school elective theater class and lab. The objective is to create a sustainable theater education model to disseminate to teachers at professional development workshops.
Archive
Miller donated thirteen boxes of his earliest manuscripts to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin in 1961 and 1962. This collection included the original handwritten notebooks and early typed drafts for Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, All My Sons, and other works. In January, 2018, the Ransom Center announced the acquisition of the remainder of the Miller archive totaling over 200 boxes. The full archive opened in November, 2019.
Literary and public criticism
Christopher Bigsby wrote Arthur Miller: The Definitive Biography based on boxes of papers Miller made available to him before his death in 2005. The book was published in November 2008, and is reported to reveal unpublished works in which Miller "bitterly attack[ed] the injustices of American racism long before it was taken up by the civil rights movement".
In his book Trinity of Passion, author Alan M. Wald conjectures that Miller was "a member of a writer's unit of the Communist Party around 1946," using the pseudonym Matt Wayne, and editing a drama column in the magazine The New Masses.
In 1999 the writer Christopher Hitchens attacked Miller for comparing the Monica Lewinsky investigation to the Salem witch hunt. Miller had asserted a parallel between the examination of physical evidence on Lewinsky's dress and the examinations of women's bodies for signs of the "Devil's Marks" in Salem. Hitchens scathingly disputed the parallel. In his memoir, Hitch-22, Hitchens bitterly noted that Miller, despite his prominence as a left-wing intellectual, had failed to support author Salman Rushdie during the Iranian fatwa involving The Satanic Verses.
Works
Stage plays
No Villain (1936)
They Too Arise (1937, based on No Villain)
Honors at Dawn (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Grass Still Grows (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Great Disobedience (1938)
Listen My Children (1939, with Norman Rosten)
The Golden Years (1940)
The Half-Bridge (1943)
The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944)
All My Sons (1947)
Death of a Salesman (1949)
An Enemy of the People (1950, based on Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People)
The Crucible (1953)
A View from the Bridge (1955)
A Memory of Two Mondays (1955)
After the Fall (1964)
Incident at Vichy (1964)
The Price (1968)
The Reason Why (1970)
Fame (one-act, 1970; revised for television 1978)
The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972)
Up from Paradise (1974)
The Archbishop's Ceiling (1977)
The American Clock (1980)
Playing for Time (television play, 1980)
Elegy for a Lady (short play, 1982, first part of Two Way Mirror)
Some Kind of Love Story (short play, 1982, second part of Two Way Mirror)
I Think About You a Great Deal (1986)
Playing for Time (stage version, 1985)
I Can't Remember Anything (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
Clara (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991)
The Last Yankee (1993)
Broken Glass (1994)
Mr. Peters' Connections (1998)
Resurrection Blues (2002)
Finishing the Picture (2004)
Radio plays
The Pussycat and the Expert Plumber Who Was a Man (1941)
Joel Chandler Harris (1941)
The Battle of the Ovens (1942)
Thunder from the Mountains (1942)
I Was Married in Bataan (1942)
That They May Win (1943)
Listen for the Sound of Wings (1943)
Bernardine (1944)
I Love You (1944)
Grandpa and the Statue (1944)
The Philippines Never Surrendered (1944)
The Guardsman (1944, based on Ferenc Molnár's play)
The Story of Gus (1947)
Screenplays
The Hook (1947)
All My Sons (1948)
Let's Make Love (1960)
The Misfits (1961)
Death of a Salesman (1985)
Everybody Wins (1990)
The Crucible (1996)
Assorted fiction
Focus (novel, 1945)
"The Misfits" (short story, published in Esquire, October 1957)
I Don't Need You Anymore (short stories, 1967)
Homely Girl: A Life (short story, 1992, published in UK as "Plain Girl: A Life" 1995)
"The Performance" (short story)
Presence: Stories (2007) (short stories include The Bare Manuscript, Beavers, The Performance, and Bulldog)
Non-fiction
Situation Normal (1944) is based on his experiences researching the war correspondence of Ernie Pyle.
In Russia (1969), the first of three books created with his photographer wife Inge Morath, offers Miller's impressions of Russia and Russian society.
In the Country (1977), with photographs by Morath and text by Miller, provides insight into how Miller spent his time in Roxbury, Connecticut, and profiles of his various neighbors.
Chinese Encounters (1979) is a travel journal with photographs by Morath. It depicts the Chinese society in the state of flux which followed the end of the Cultural Revolution. Miller discusses the hardships of many writers, professors, and artists as they try to regain the sense of freedom and place they lost during Mao Zedong's regime.
Salesman in Beijing (1984) details Miller's experiences with the 1983 Beijing People's Theatre production of Death of a Salesman. He describes the idiosyncrasies, understandings, and insights encountered in directing a Chinese cast in a decidedly American play.
Timebends: A Life, Methuen London (1987) . Like Death of a Salesman, the book follows the structure of memory itself, each passage linked to and triggered by the one before.
Collections
Abbotson, Susan C. W. (ed.), Arthur Miller: Collected Essays, Penguin 2016
Centola, Steven R. ed. Echoes Down the Corridor: Arthur Miller, Collected Essays 1944–2000, Viking Penguin (US)/Methuen (UK), 2000
Kushner, Tony, ed. Arthur Miller, Collected Plays 1944–1961 (Library of America, 2006) .
Martin, Robert A. (ed.), "The theater essays of Arthur Miller", foreword by Arthur Miller. NY: Viking Press, 1978
References
Bibliography
Bigsby, Christopher (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller, Cambridge 1997
Gottfried, Martin, Arthur Miller, A Life, Da Capo Press (US)/Faber and Faber (UK), 2003
Koorey, Stefani, Arthur Miller's Life and Literature, Scarecrow, 2000
Moss, Leonard. Arthur Miller, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980.
Further reading
Critical Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (2007)
Student Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Facts on File (2000)
File on Miller, Christopher Bigsby (1988)
Arthur Miller & Company, Christopher Bigsby, editor (1990)
Arthur Miller: A Critical Study, Christopher Bigsby (2005)
Remembering Arthur Miller, Christopher Bigsby, editor (2005)
Arthur Miller 1915–1962, Christopher Bigsby (2008, U.K.; 2009, U.S.)
The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller (Cambridge Companions to Literature), Christopher Bigsby, editor (1998, updated and republished 2010)
Arthur Miller 1962–2005, Christopher Bigsby (2011)
Arthur Miller: Critical Insights, Brenda Murphy, editor, Salem (2011)
Understanding Death of a Salesman, Brenda Murphy and Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (1999)
Critical articles
Arthur Miller Journal, published biannually by Penn State UP. Vol. 1.1 (2006)
Radavich, David. "Arthur Miller's Sojourn in the Heartland". American Drama 16:2 (Summer 2007): 28–45.
External links
Organizations
Arthur Miller official website
Arthur Miller Society
The Arthur Miller Foundation
Archive
Arthur Miller Papers at the Harry Ransom Center
"Playwright Arthur Miller's archive comes to the Harry Ransom Center"
Finding aid to Arthur Miller papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Databases
Websites
A Visit With Castro – Miller's article in The Nation, January 12, 2004
Joyce Carol Oates on Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller Biography
Arthur Miller and Mccarthyism
Interviews
Miller interview, Humanities, March–April 2001
Obituaries
The New York Times Obituary
NPR obituary
CNN obituary
1915 births
2005 deaths
University of Michigan alumni
Kennedy Center honorees
Laurence Olivier Award winners
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Tony Award winners
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American screenwriters
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century essayists
21st-century American dramatists and playwrights
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American screenwriters
21st-century American short story writers
21st-century essayists
Abraham Lincoln High School (Brooklyn) alumni
American agnostics
American anti-capitalists
American autobiographers
20th-century American Jews
American male dramatists and playwrights
American male essayists
American male non-fiction writers
American male novelists
American male screenwriters
American male short story writers
American memoirists
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
American radio writers
Analysands of Rudolph Lowenstein
Cultural critics
Deaths from bladder cancer
Deaths from cancer in Connecticut
Free speech activists
Hopwood Award winners
Jerusalem Prize recipients
Jewish agnostics
Jewish American dramatists and playwrights
Jewish novelists
Jewish writers
Marilyn Monroe
The Michigan Daily alumni
PEN International
People from Brooklyn Heights
People from Gravesend, Brooklyn
People from Midwood, Brooklyn
People from Roxbury, Connecticut
Postmodern writers
Recipients of the Four Freedoms Award
American social commentators
Social critics
Special Tony Award recipients
Writers about activism and social change
Writers about communism
Writers from Brooklyn
Writers from Connecticut
21st-century American Jews | false | [
"Gypsy: A Memoir is a 1957 autobiography of renowned striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee, which inspired the 1959 Broadway musical Gypsy: A Musical Fable. The book tells Lee's true life story in three acts beginning with her early childhood days in theatre when she toured with her sister, June Havoc. The book ends just as Gypsy has gotten on a train and is headed to Hollywood to begin her career in the movies. Her Hollywood career was short lived and she did not get many roles. The roles she did get were so small that at one point she wanted to be billed under her birth name, Louise Hovick.\n\nThe first edition was published by Harper in 1957. It is now available in a 1999 paperback reprint.\n\n1957 non-fiction books\nAmerican memoirs",
"Ze'ev Binyamin \"Benny\" Begin, (; born 1 March 1943) is an Israeli geologist and politician. He is a member of the Knesset for New Hope, having previously served as a member for Likud and Herut – The National Movement. He is the son of former Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin.\n\nBiography\nZe'ev Binyamin (Benny) Begin was born in Jerusalem to Aliza and Menachem Begin. He studied geology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After completing his undergraduate and graduate studies, he worked for the Geological Survey of Israel. He completed his doctorate in geology at Colorado State University in 1978.\n\nPolitical career\nFirst elected to the Knesset in 1988 as a Likud MK, Begin ran in the Likud primary in 1993 to succeed Yitzhak Shamir as party leader but was defeated by Benjamin Netanyahu. Under Netanyahu's government (1996–1999), Begin served as Science Minister until 1997 when he resigned in protest against the Hebron Agreement.\n\nHe subsequently led hardliners out of the Likud with the hope of reviving the Herut political party founded by his father. With full support from former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, Herut – The National Movement departed from the Likud and joined other right-wing parties to form the National Union, an alliance opposing the Oslo Accords. Owing to the National Union's poor showing in the 1999 elections, Begin resigned his seat and quit politics. He resumed his career in science and education, and was appointed Director of the Geological Survey of Israel.\n\nBegin announced on 2 November 2008 his return to politics and the Likud party, as well as his intention to seek a place on the Likud list for the 2009 elections. He ultimately won fifth place on the party's list, and returned to the Knesset with Likud winning 27 seats. Netanyahu had promised Begin a ministerial position if Likud won the election and honored that promise by appointing Begin a Minister without Portfolio in the new government.\n\nBegin did not run in the 2013 elections, but returned to politics in the 2015 elections running on the 11th place on the Likud party list, the spot reserved for a candidate appointed by party leader Netanyahu. Following the elections, he was appointed Minister without Portfolio in the new government. His term with the government lasted only eleven days. After Prime Minister Netanyahu convinced Gilad Erdan to join the government as Minister of Public Security, Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy, Begin was forced to resign as Likud's coalition agreement limited the party to 13 ministers.\n\nBenny Begin officially left Likud and joined Gideon Sa'ar's New Hope party on 21 January 2021. Begin was placed sixth on New Hope's list for the 2021 elections. He gained a seat in the 24th Knesset as New Hope won six seats.\n\nViews and opinions\nIn an interview with Haaretz in 2009, Begin explained his opposition to a Palestinian state, proposing instead an Arab autonomy under Israeli control, since \"without security control in Samaria, Judea and Gaza there will be no security in Tel Aviv, either.\" He concluded with his belief that we must \"live together with people who do not want us...[and] behave humanely and decently both with the Israeli citizens who are not Jews and with those who are not citizens. Is there a contradiction between my nationalism and my liberalism? I believe that this is a day-to-day effort to which I and he is obligated.\"\n\nOn 3 March 2019, Begin said that he was \"deeply troubled\" after reading the Israeli attorney general's 57-page document detailing the suspicions against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Begin was one of the few members of the then governing coalition to support the attorney general.\n\nPersonal life\nBegin is married, and had six children. One son, Yonatan, was a fighter pilot with the Israeli Air Force who was killed when his F-16 fighter jet crashed in 2000. Another son,\nAvinadav is a writer, and has become a social activist, out of a general anti-nationalist ideology. He was engaged in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nThoughts of a National Liberal: an interview with Benny Begin - Fathom Journal\n\n1943 births\nLiving people\nChildren of prime ministers of Israel\nColorado State University alumni\nHebrew University of Jerusalem alumni\nHerut – The National Movement politicians\nIsraeli geologists\nIsraeli Jews\nJewish Israeli politicians\nJews in Mandatory Palestine\nLeaders of political parties in Israel\nLikud politicians\nMembers of the 12th Knesset (1988–1992)\nMembers of the 13th Knesset (1992–1996)\nMembers of the 14th Knesset (1996–1999)\nMembers of the 18th Knesset (2009–2013)\nMembers of the 20th Knesset (2015–2019)\nMembers of the 24th Knesset (2021–present)\nNew Hope (Israel) politicians\nPoliticians from Jerusalem"
]
|
[
"Arthur Miller",
"Early career",
"When did his career begin?",
"That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award."
]
| C_5ab66b0bf57946a38cd17bf139f94d57_1 | Did the play do well for him? | 2 | Did the play, The Man Who Had all the Luck do well for Arthur Miller? | Arthur Miller | In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap. That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews. In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure. In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times. In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred. CANNOTANSWER | The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews. | Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955, revised 1956). He wrote several screenplays and was most noted for his work on The Misfits (1961). The drama Death of a Salesman has been numbered on the short list of finest American plays in the 20th century.
Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. During this time, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and married Marilyn Monroe. In 1980, Miller received the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates. He received the Praemium Imperiale prize in 2001, Prince of Asturias Award in 2002, and the Jerusalem Prize in 2003, as well as the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 1999.
Biography
Early life
Miller was born on October 17, 1915, in Harlem, in the New York City borough of Manhattan, and published an account of his early years under the title "A Boy Grew in Brooklyn"; the second of three children of Augusta (Barnett) and Isidore Miller. Miller was Jewish and of Polish-Jewish descent. His father was born in Radomyśl Wielki, Galicia (then part of Austria-Hungary, now Poland), and his mother was a native of New York whose parents also arrived from that town. Isidore owned a women's clothing manufacturing business employing 400 people. He became a wealthy and respected man in the community. The family, including Miller's younger sister Joan Copeland, lived on West 110th Street in Manhattan, owned a summer house in Far Rockaway, Queens, and employed a chauffeur. In the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the family lost almost everything and moved to Gravesend, Brooklyn. (One source says they moved to Midwood.) As a teenager, Miller delivered bread every morning before school to help the family. After graduating in 1932 from Abraham Lincoln High School, he worked at several menial jobs to pay for his college tuition at the University of Michigan. After graduation (circa 1936), he began to work as a psychiatric aide and also a copywriter before accepting faculty posts at New York University and University of New Hampshire. On May 1, 1935, Miller joined the League of American Writers (1935–1943), whose members included Alexander Trachtenberg of International Publishers, Franklin Folsom, Louis Untermeyer, I. F. Stone, Myra Page, Millen Brand, Lillian Hellman, and Dashiell Hammett. (Members were largely either Communist Party members or fellow travelers.)
At the University of Michigan, Miller first majored in journalism and worked for the student newspaper, The Michigan Daily, as well as the satirical Gargoyle Humor Magazine. It was during this time that he wrote his first play, No Villain. Miller switched his major to English, and subsequently won the Avery Hopwood Award for No Villain. The award brought him his first recognition and led him to begin to consider that he could have a career as a playwright. Miller enrolled in a playwriting seminar taught by the influential Professor Kenneth Rowe, who instructed him in his early forays into playwriting; Rowe emphasized how a play is built in order to achieve its intended effect, or what Miller called "the dynamics of play construction". Rowe provided realistic feedback along with much-needed encouragement, and became a lifelong friend. Miller retained strong ties to his alma mater throughout the rest of his life, establishing the university's Arthur Miller Award in 1985 and Arthur Miller Award for Dramatic Writing in 1999, and lending his name to the Arthur Miller Theatre in 2000. In 1937, Miller wrote Honors at Dawn, which also received the Avery Hopwood Award.
After his graduation in 1938, he joined the Federal Theatre Project, a New Deal agency established to provide jobs in the theater. He chose the theater project despite the more lucrative offer to work as a scriptwriter for 20th Century Fox. However, Congress, worried about possible Communist infiltration, closed the project in 1939. Miller began working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard while continuing to write radio plays, some of which were broadcast on CBS.
Early career
In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane (born September 7, 1944) and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap.
In 1944 Miller's first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck and won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews.
In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure.
In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times.
In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred.
Critical years
In 1955, a one-act version of Miller's verse drama A View from the Bridge opened on Broadway in a joint bill with one of Miller's lesser-known plays, A Memory of Two Mondays. The following year, Miller revised A View from the Bridge as a two-act prose drama, which Peter Brook directed in London. A French-Italian co-production Vu du pont, based on the play, was released in 1962.
Marriages and family
In June 1956, Miller left his first wife, Mary Slattery, whom he had married in 1940, and wed film star Marilyn Monroe. They had met in 1951, had a brief affair, and remained in contact since. Monroe had just turned 30 when they married; she never had a real family of her own and was eager to join the family of her new husband.
Monroe began to reconsider her career and the fact that trying to manage it made her feel helpless. She admitted to Miller, "I hate Hollywood. I don't want it any more. I want to live quietly in the country and just be there when you need me. I can't fight for myself any more."
Monroe converted to Judaism to "express her loyalty and get close to both Miller and his parents", writes biographer Jeffrey Meyers. She told her close friend, Susan Strasberg: "I can identify with the Jews. Everybody's always out to get them, no matter what they do, like me." Soon after Monroe converted, Egypt banned all of her movies.
Away from Hollywood and the culture of celebrity, Monroe's life became more normal; she began cooking, keeping house and giving Miller more attention and affection than he had been used to.
Later that year, Miller was subpoenaed by the HCUA, and Monroe accompanied him. In her personal notes, she wrote about her worries during this period:
Miller began work on writing the screenplay for The Misfits in 1960, directed by John Huston and starring Monroe but it was during the filming that Miller and Monroe's relationship hit difficulties, and he later said that the filming was one of the lowest points in his life. Monroe was taking drugs to help her sleep and more drugs to help her wake up, which caused her to arrive on the set late and then have trouble remembering her lines. Huston was unaware that Miller and Monroe were having problems in their private life. He recalled later, "I was impertinent enough to say to Arthur that to allow her to take drugs of any kind was criminal and utterly irresponsible. Shortly after that I realized that she wouldn't listen to Arthur at all; he had no say over her actions."
Shortly before the film's premiere in 1961, Miller and Monroe divorced after five years of marriage. Nineteen months later, on August 5, 1962, Monroe died of a likely drug overdose. Huston, who had also directed her in her first major role in The Asphalt Jungle in 1950, and who had seen her rise to stardom, put the blame for her death on her doctors as opposed to the stresses of being a star: "The girl was an addict of sleeping pills and she was made so by the God-damn doctors. It had nothing to do with the Hollywood set-up."
Miller married photographer Inge Morath in February 1962. She had worked as a photographer documenting the production of The Misfits. The first of their two children, Rebecca, was born September 15, 1962. Their son, Daniel, was born with Down syndrome in November 1966. Against his wife's wishes, Miller had him institutionalized, first at a home for infants in New York City, and then at the Southbury Training School in Connecticut. Though Morath visited Daniel often, Miller never visited him at the school and rarely spoke of him. Miller and Inge remained together until her death in 2002. Arthur Miller's son-in-law, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, is said to have visited Daniel frequently, and to have persuaded Arthur Miller to meet with him.
HUAC controversy and The Crucible
In 1952, Elia Kazan appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Kazan named eight members of the Group Theatre, including Clifford Odets, Paula Strasberg, Lillian Hellman, J. Edward Bromberg, and John Garfield, who in recent years had been fellow members of the Communist Party. Miller and Kazan were close friends throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, but after Kazan's testimony to the HUAC, the pair's friendship ended. After speaking with Kazan about his testimony, Miller traveled to Salem, Massachusetts, to research the witch trials of 1692. He and Kazan did not speak to each other for the next ten years. Kazan later defended his own actions through his film On the Waterfront, in which a dockworker heroically testifies against a corrupt union boss. Miller would retaliate to Kazan's work by writing A View from the Bridge, a play where a longshoreman outs his co-workers motivated only by jealousy and greed. He sent a copy of the initial script to Kazan and when the director asked in jest to direct the movie, Miller replied "I only sent you the script to let you know what I think of Stool-Pigeons."
In The Crucible, Miller likened the situation with the House Un-American Activities Committee to the witch hunt in Salem in 1692. The play opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway on January 22, 1953. Though widely considered only somewhat successful at the time of its release, today The Crucible is Miller's most frequently produced work throughout the world. It was adapted into an opera by Robert Ward in 1961.
The HUAC took an interest in Miller himself not long after The Crucible opened, denying him a passport to attend the play's London opening in 1954. When Miller applied in 1956 for a routine renewal of his passport, the House Un-American Activities Committee used this opportunity to subpoena him to appear before the committee. Before appearing, Miller asked the committee not to ask him to name names, to which the chairman, Francis E. Walter (D-PA) agreed. When Miller attended the hearing, to which Monroe accompanied him, risking her own career, he gave the committee a detailed account of his political activities. Reneging on the chairman's promise, the committee demanded the names of friends and colleagues who had participated in similar activities. Miller refused to comply, saying "I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him." As a result, a judge found Miller guilty of contempt of Congress in May 1957. Miller was sentenced to a fine and a prison sentence, blacklisted, and disallowed a US passport. In August 1958, his conviction was overturned by the court of appeals, which ruled that Miller had been misled by the chairman of the HUAC.
Miller's experience with the HUAC affected him throughout his life. In the late 1970s, he joined other celebrities (including William Styron and Mike Nichols) who were brought together by the journalist Joan Barthel. Barthel's coverage of the highly publicized Barbara Gibbons murder case helped raise bail for Gibbons' son Peter Reilly, who had been convicted of his mother's murder based on what many felt was a coerced confession and little other evidence. Barthel documented the case in her book A Death in Canaan, which was made as a television film of the same name and broadcast in 1978. City Confidential, an A&E Network series, produced an episode about the murder, postulating that part of the reason Miller took such an active interest (including supporting Reilly's defense and using his own celebrity to bring attention to Reilly's plight) was because he had felt similarly persecuted in his run-ins with the HUAC. He sympathized with Reilly, whom he firmly believed to be innocent and to have been railroaded by the Connecticut State Police and the Attorney General who had initially prosecuted the case.
Later career
In 1964, After the Fall was produced, and is said to be a deeply personal view of Miller's experiences during his marriage to Monroe. The play reunited Miller with his former friend Kazan: they collaborated on both the script and the direction. After the Fall opened on January 23, 1964, at the ANTA Theatre in Washington Square Park amid a flurry of publicity and outrage at putting a Monroe-like character, called Maggie, on stage. Robert Brustein, in a review in the New Republic, called After the Fall "a three and one half hour breach of taste, a confessional autobiography of embarrassing explicitness ... there is a misogynistic strain in the play which the author does not seem to recognize. ... He has created a shameless piece of tabloid gossip, an act of exhibitionism which makes us all voyeurs, ... a wretched piece of dramatic writing." That same year, Miller produced Incident at Vichy. In 1965, Miller was elected the first American president of PEN International, a position which he held for four years. A year later, Miller organized the 1966 PEN congress in New York City. Miller also wrote the penetrating family drama, The Price, produced in 1968. It was Miller's most successful play since Death of a Salesman.
In 1968, Miller attended the Democratic National Convention as a delegate for Eugene McCarthy. In 1969, Miller's works were banned in the Soviet Union after he campaigned for the freedom of dissident writers. Throughout the 1970s, Miller spent much of his time experimenting with the theatre, producing one-act plays such as Fame and The Reason Why, and traveling with his wife, producing In the Country and Chinese Encounters with her. Both his 1972 comedy The Creation of the World and Other Business and its musical adaptation, Up from Paradise, were critical and commercial failures.
Miller was an unusually articulate commentator on his own work. In 1978 he published a collection of his Theater Essays, edited by Robert A. Martin and with a foreword by Miller. Highlights of the collection included Miller's introduction to his Collected Plays, his reflections on the theory of tragedy, comments on the McCarthy Era, and pieces arguing for a publicly supported theater. Reviewing this collection in the Chicago Tribune, Studs Terkel remarked, "in reading [the Theater Essays]...you are exhilaratingly aware of a social critic, as well as a playwright, who knows what he's talking about."
In 1983, Miller traveled to China to produce and direct Death of a Salesman at the People's Art Theatre in Beijing. The play was a success in China and in 1984, Salesman in Beijing, a book about Miller's experiences in Beijing, was published. Around the same time, Death of a Salesman was made into a TV movie starring Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman. Shown on CBS, it attracted 25 million viewers. In late 1987, Miller's autobiographical work,
Timebends, was published. Before it was published, it was well known that Miller would not talk about Monroe in interviews; in Timebends Miller talks about his experiences with Monroe in detail.
During the early-mid 1990s, Miller wrote three new plays: The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1992), and Broken Glass (1994). In 1996, a film of The Crucible starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Scofield, Bruce Davison, and Winona Ryder opened. Miller spent much of 1996 working on the screenplay for the film.
Mr. Peters' Connections was staged Off-Broadway in 1998, and Death of a Salesman was revived on Broadway in 1999 to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. The play, once again, was a large critical success, winning a Tony Award for best revival of a play.
In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. Miller was honored with the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award for a Master American Dramatist in 1998. In 2001 the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) selected Miller for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Miller's lecture was entitled "On Politics and the Art of Acting." Miller's lecture analyzed political events (including the U.S. presidential election of 2000)
in terms of the "arts of performance", and it drew attacks from some conservatives such as Jay Nordlinger, who called it "a disgrace", and George Will, who argued that Miller was not legitimately a "scholar".
In 1999, Miller was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to "a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life." In 2001, Miller received the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. On May 1, 2002, Miller was awarded Spain's Principe de Asturias Prize for Literature as "the undisputed master of modern drama". Later that year, Ingeborg Morath died of lymphatic cancer at the age of 78. The following year Miller won the Jerusalem Prize.
In December 2004, 89-year-old Miller announced that he had been in love with 34-year-old minimalist painter Agnes Barley and had been living with her at his Connecticut farm since 2002, and that they intended to marry. Within hours of her father's death, Rebecca Miller ordered Barley to vacate the premises because she had consistently been opposed to the relationship. Miller's final play, Finishing the Picture, opened at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, in the fall of 2004, with one character said to be based on Barley. It was reported to be based on his experience during the filming of The Misfits, though Miller insisted the play is a work of fiction with independent characters that were no more than composite shadows of history.
Death
Miller died on the evening of February 10, 2005 (the 56th anniversary of the Broadway debut of Death of a Salesman) at age 89 of bladder cancer and heart failure, at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. He had been in hospice care at his sister's apartment in New York since his release from hospital the previous month. He was surrounded by Barley, family and friends. His body was interred at Roxbury Center Cemetery in Roxbury.
Legacy
Miller's career as a writer spanned over seven decades, and at the time of his death, Miller was considered to be one of the greatest dramatists of the twentieth century. After his death, many respected actors, directors, and producers paid tribute to Miller, some calling him the last great practitioner of the American stage, and Broadway theatres darkened their lights in a show of respect.
Miller's alma mater, the University of Michigan, opened the Arthur Miller Theatre in March 2007. As per his express wish, it is the only theatre in the world that bears Miller's name.
Other notable arrangements for Miller's legacy are that his letters, notes, drafts and other papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin.
Miller is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. He was inducted in 1979.
In 1993, he received the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech.
In 2017, his daughter, Rebecca Miller, a writer and filmmaker, completed a documentary about her father's life, under the title Arthur Miller: Writer.
Minor planet 3769 Arthurmiller is named after him.
Foundation
The Arthur Miller Foundation was founded to honor the legacy of Miller and his New York City Public School Education. The mission of the foundation is: "Promoting increased access and equity to theater arts education in our schools and increasing the number of students receiving theater arts education as an integral part of their academic curriculum." Other initiatives include certification of new theater teachers and their placement in public schools; increasing the number of theater teachers in the system from the current estimate of 180 teachers in 1800 schools; supporting professional development of all certified theater teachers; providing teaching artists, cultural partners, physical spaces, and theater ticket allocations for students. The foundation's primary purpose is to provide arts education in the New York City school system. The current chancellor of the foundation is Carmen Farina, a large proponent of the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The Master Arts Council includes, among others, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Barkin, Bradley Cooper, Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson, Tony Kushner, Julianne Moore, Michael Moore, Liam Neeson, David O. Russell, and Liev Schreiber. His son-in-law Daniel Day-Lewis, serves on the current board of directors since 2016.
The foundation celebrated Miller's 100th birthday with a one-night-only performance of Miller's seminal works in November 2015.
The Arthur Miller Foundation currently supports a pilot program in theater and film at the public school Quest to Learn in partnership with the Institute of Play. The model is being used as an in-school elective theater class and lab. The objective is to create a sustainable theater education model to disseminate to teachers at professional development workshops.
Archive
Miller donated thirteen boxes of his earliest manuscripts to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin in 1961 and 1962. This collection included the original handwritten notebooks and early typed drafts for Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, All My Sons, and other works. In January, 2018, the Ransom Center announced the acquisition of the remainder of the Miller archive totaling over 200 boxes. The full archive opened in November, 2019.
Literary and public criticism
Christopher Bigsby wrote Arthur Miller: The Definitive Biography based on boxes of papers Miller made available to him before his death in 2005. The book was published in November 2008, and is reported to reveal unpublished works in which Miller "bitterly attack[ed] the injustices of American racism long before it was taken up by the civil rights movement".
In his book Trinity of Passion, author Alan M. Wald conjectures that Miller was "a member of a writer's unit of the Communist Party around 1946," using the pseudonym Matt Wayne, and editing a drama column in the magazine The New Masses.
In 1999 the writer Christopher Hitchens attacked Miller for comparing the Monica Lewinsky investigation to the Salem witch hunt. Miller had asserted a parallel between the examination of physical evidence on Lewinsky's dress and the examinations of women's bodies for signs of the "Devil's Marks" in Salem. Hitchens scathingly disputed the parallel. In his memoir, Hitch-22, Hitchens bitterly noted that Miller, despite his prominence as a left-wing intellectual, had failed to support author Salman Rushdie during the Iranian fatwa involving The Satanic Verses.
Works
Stage plays
No Villain (1936)
They Too Arise (1937, based on No Villain)
Honors at Dawn (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Grass Still Grows (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Great Disobedience (1938)
Listen My Children (1939, with Norman Rosten)
The Golden Years (1940)
The Half-Bridge (1943)
The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944)
All My Sons (1947)
Death of a Salesman (1949)
An Enemy of the People (1950, based on Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People)
The Crucible (1953)
A View from the Bridge (1955)
A Memory of Two Mondays (1955)
After the Fall (1964)
Incident at Vichy (1964)
The Price (1968)
The Reason Why (1970)
Fame (one-act, 1970; revised for television 1978)
The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972)
Up from Paradise (1974)
The Archbishop's Ceiling (1977)
The American Clock (1980)
Playing for Time (television play, 1980)
Elegy for a Lady (short play, 1982, first part of Two Way Mirror)
Some Kind of Love Story (short play, 1982, second part of Two Way Mirror)
I Think About You a Great Deal (1986)
Playing for Time (stage version, 1985)
I Can't Remember Anything (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
Clara (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991)
The Last Yankee (1993)
Broken Glass (1994)
Mr. Peters' Connections (1998)
Resurrection Blues (2002)
Finishing the Picture (2004)
Radio plays
The Pussycat and the Expert Plumber Who Was a Man (1941)
Joel Chandler Harris (1941)
The Battle of the Ovens (1942)
Thunder from the Mountains (1942)
I Was Married in Bataan (1942)
That They May Win (1943)
Listen for the Sound of Wings (1943)
Bernardine (1944)
I Love You (1944)
Grandpa and the Statue (1944)
The Philippines Never Surrendered (1944)
The Guardsman (1944, based on Ferenc Molnár's play)
The Story of Gus (1947)
Screenplays
The Hook (1947)
All My Sons (1948)
Let's Make Love (1960)
The Misfits (1961)
Death of a Salesman (1985)
Everybody Wins (1990)
The Crucible (1996)
Assorted fiction
Focus (novel, 1945)
"The Misfits" (short story, published in Esquire, October 1957)
I Don't Need You Anymore (short stories, 1967)
Homely Girl: A Life (short story, 1992, published in UK as "Plain Girl: A Life" 1995)
"The Performance" (short story)
Presence: Stories (2007) (short stories include The Bare Manuscript, Beavers, The Performance, and Bulldog)
Non-fiction
Situation Normal (1944) is based on his experiences researching the war correspondence of Ernie Pyle.
In Russia (1969), the first of three books created with his photographer wife Inge Morath, offers Miller's impressions of Russia and Russian society.
In the Country (1977), with photographs by Morath and text by Miller, provides insight into how Miller spent his time in Roxbury, Connecticut, and profiles of his various neighbors.
Chinese Encounters (1979) is a travel journal with photographs by Morath. It depicts the Chinese society in the state of flux which followed the end of the Cultural Revolution. Miller discusses the hardships of many writers, professors, and artists as they try to regain the sense of freedom and place they lost during Mao Zedong's regime.
Salesman in Beijing (1984) details Miller's experiences with the 1983 Beijing People's Theatre production of Death of a Salesman. He describes the idiosyncrasies, understandings, and insights encountered in directing a Chinese cast in a decidedly American play.
Timebends: A Life, Methuen London (1987) . Like Death of a Salesman, the book follows the structure of memory itself, each passage linked to and triggered by the one before.
Collections
Abbotson, Susan C. W. (ed.), Arthur Miller: Collected Essays, Penguin 2016
Centola, Steven R. ed. Echoes Down the Corridor: Arthur Miller, Collected Essays 1944–2000, Viking Penguin (US)/Methuen (UK), 2000
Kushner, Tony, ed. Arthur Miller, Collected Plays 1944–1961 (Library of America, 2006) .
Martin, Robert A. (ed.), "The theater essays of Arthur Miller", foreword by Arthur Miller. NY: Viking Press, 1978
References
Bibliography
Bigsby, Christopher (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller, Cambridge 1997
Gottfried, Martin, Arthur Miller, A Life, Da Capo Press (US)/Faber and Faber (UK), 2003
Koorey, Stefani, Arthur Miller's Life and Literature, Scarecrow, 2000
Moss, Leonard. Arthur Miller, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980.
Further reading
Critical Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (2007)
Student Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Facts on File (2000)
File on Miller, Christopher Bigsby (1988)
Arthur Miller & Company, Christopher Bigsby, editor (1990)
Arthur Miller: A Critical Study, Christopher Bigsby (2005)
Remembering Arthur Miller, Christopher Bigsby, editor (2005)
Arthur Miller 1915–1962, Christopher Bigsby (2008, U.K.; 2009, U.S.)
The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller (Cambridge Companions to Literature), Christopher Bigsby, editor (1998, updated and republished 2010)
Arthur Miller 1962–2005, Christopher Bigsby (2011)
Arthur Miller: Critical Insights, Brenda Murphy, editor, Salem (2011)
Understanding Death of a Salesman, Brenda Murphy and Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (1999)
Critical articles
Arthur Miller Journal, published biannually by Penn State UP. Vol. 1.1 (2006)
Radavich, David. "Arthur Miller's Sojourn in the Heartland". American Drama 16:2 (Summer 2007): 28–45.
External links
Organizations
Arthur Miller official website
Arthur Miller Society
The Arthur Miller Foundation
Archive
Arthur Miller Papers at the Harry Ransom Center
"Playwright Arthur Miller's archive comes to the Harry Ransom Center"
Finding aid to Arthur Miller papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Databases
Websites
A Visit With Castro – Miller's article in The Nation, January 12, 2004
Joyce Carol Oates on Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller Biography
Arthur Miller and Mccarthyism
Interviews
Miller interview, Humanities, March–April 2001
Obituaries
The New York Times Obituary
NPR obituary
CNN obituary
1915 births
2005 deaths
University of Michigan alumni
Kennedy Center honorees
Laurence Olivier Award winners
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Tony Award winners
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American screenwriters
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century essayists
21st-century American dramatists and playwrights
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American screenwriters
21st-century American short story writers
21st-century essayists
Abraham Lincoln High School (Brooklyn) alumni
American agnostics
American anti-capitalists
American autobiographers
20th-century American Jews
American male dramatists and playwrights
American male essayists
American male non-fiction writers
American male novelists
American male screenwriters
American male short story writers
American memoirists
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
American radio writers
Analysands of Rudolph Lowenstein
Cultural critics
Deaths from bladder cancer
Deaths from cancer in Connecticut
Free speech activists
Hopwood Award winners
Jerusalem Prize recipients
Jewish agnostics
Jewish American dramatists and playwrights
Jewish novelists
Jewish writers
Marilyn Monroe
The Michigan Daily alumni
PEN International
People from Brooklyn Heights
People from Gravesend, Brooklyn
People from Midwood, Brooklyn
People from Roxbury, Connecticut
Postmodern writers
Recipients of the Four Freedoms Award
American social commentators
Social critics
Special Tony Award recipients
Writers about activism and social change
Writers about communism
Writers from Brooklyn
Writers from Connecticut
21st-century American Jews | true | [
"The Dock Brief is a play by John Mortimer. It is a two-hander play that has been adapted many times.\n\nIt was the first piece he wrote for actors although he had written several novels previously.\n\nOrigins\n\nBackground\nThe play was originally devised for radio. Mortimer was a barrister and got the idea for the play from the real-life practice of the Dock Brief, where criminals could pick a barrister to defend them. Mortimer wrote \"I wanted to say something about the lawyer's almost pathetic dependence on the criminal classes, without whom he would be unemployed, and I wanted to find a criminal who would be sorrier for his luckless advocate than he was for himself.\"\n\nMortimer enjoyed writing the play for actors \"at a new level of reality, one that was two feet above the ground.\" Mortimer said he had no trouble writing for the barrister but struggled writing the criminal until the director Nesta Pain said the criminal was the sort of person who would \"never use one word when six could do\".\n\nThe play was first performed as a radio play on the BBC on 16 May 1957 for the Third Programme. Michael Hordern played Morganhall and David Kossoff played Fowle.\n\nThe play was well received. Mortimer says the BBC awarded him a bonus of £20.\n\n1957 BBC television version\nFollowing on from the success of the radio adaptation, the BBC produced a version for television. It aired in September 1957 and again featured Hordern as Morganhall.\n\nThe Manchester Guardian called it \"a masterpiece\".\n\n1958 Stage play\nA stage play version was performed in 1958 on a double bill with another Mortimer play, What Shall We Tell Caroline?. The play was popular; it did not have a long run but it launched Mortimer as a playwright and led to offers to write screenplays.\n\nIt was performed on Broadway in 1961.\n\nLater adaptations\n\n1960 Australian TV version\nThe play was adapted for Australian TV in 1960.\n\n1962 feature film\nThe play was turned into a feature film in 1962 starring Peter Sellars.\n\nReferences\n\nNotes\n\nEnglish-language plays\nTwo-handers\n1950s plays",
"John Paul \"JP\" Dellacamera (born January 11, 1952) is an American play-by-play sportscaster primarily for Major League Soccer with the Philadelphia Union, as well as major soccer tournaments and ice hockey. Dellacamera is one of a handful of people to have worked for ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX.\n\nCommentary career\n\nSoccer\nIn the 1980s, Dellacamera was the play-by-play announcer for broadcasts of the original Major Indoor Soccer League on ESPN and FNN-Score.\n\nHe is an ESPN and ABC's play-by-play announcer for their coverage of international soccer, and has been calling the sport for nearly 30 years. Dellacamera did not call the 2006 World Cup final, with Dave O'Brien replacing him, but has teamed with Tommy Smyth to become the lead radio commentary team for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups for ESPN Radio.\n\nHis most famous assignments include the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final and 1999 Women's World Cup final between the United States, and China. That match ended in a 0–0 tie after regulation, with the U.S. women winning in a penalty kick shootout 5–4 (\"The shot-save, Scurry!\" was one of Dellacamera's most memorable calls from that day's shootout, coming from U.S. goalkeeper Briana Scurry's save on China's third kick of the shootout). He has also called numerous United States' World Cup qualifiers, including Paul Caligiuri's famed 1989 \"Shot Heard Round the World\" goal against Trinidad & Tobago.\n\nIn the early 2000s, he was the lead play-by-play announcer for the WUSA national broadcasts. Dellacamera was NBC's play-by-play voice for soccer at the 2004 Summer Olympics, where he did both the men's and women's tournaments. He also did play-by-play for the New York Red Bulls on MSG Network for several years.\n\nDellacamera was the first host of ESPN's PressPass alongside analysts Tommy Smyth and Eddie Mighten. The show airs on ESPN's African, Pacific Rim, and Middle East channels, in addition to ESPN360. Dellacamera has been replaced by Derek Rae, and Mighten has been replaced by Janusz Michallik.\n\nDellacamera served as the lead play-by-play announcer for NBC Sports coverage of Soccer at the 2008 Summer Olympics.\n\nOn January 16, 2010, Major League Soccer expansion team Philadelphia Union announced that Dellacamera will do play-by-play for local TV broadcasts during its inaugural season.\n\nIn March 2011, Dellacamera left ESPN to join Fox Soccer as their lead MLS play-by-play commentator. However, in November 2011, the NBC Sports Network signed a deal with the league to broadcast all league matches starting in the 2012 season. He will continue with his duties for the Philadelphia Union.\n\nStarting in 2013, Dellacamera will do play-by-play for the New York Cosmos on ONE World Sports when games do not interfere with Union broadcasts.\n\nIn 2014, he was a play-by-play commentator for ESPN Radio for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. He was the play-by-play commentator for ONE World Sports's coverage of the 2015 Asian Cup.\n\nIn 2018, he was a featured commentator alongside Tony Meola on FOX and FS1 for their United States broadcasts of the FIFA World Cup. He also was the 2018 recipient of the National Soccer Hall of Fame's Colin Jose Media Award. In 2021 JP took the position of President of Communications/Media of the Major Arena Soccer League.\n\nNational Hockey League\nIn addition to soccer and a few other sports, Dellacamera is a veteran NHL announcer. In the early 1990s, he was a part of the Chicago Wolves for two seasons, being the first play-by-play person on the team. From 2003-04 through 2008-09 he was the television play-by-play voice of the Atlanta Thrashers, and previously served as one of ESPN's many play-by-play commentators. Possibly due to his extensive work in soccer, Dellacamera is one of the few hockey play-by-play broadcasters to use \"goal\" in his goal calls (i.e. instead of saying \"he takes the shot and scores,\" Dellacamera will say \"takes the shot, goal\"). Earlier in his career he did play-by-play for both the EHL Long Island Ducks and NAHL Long Island Cougars.\n\nWorld Junior Hockey\nDellacamera served as the play-by-play announcer for all US National Team games on the NHL Network during the 2010 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. Dellacamera replaced Gary Thorne, who was originally scheduled to announce the games.\n\nTV credits\nFIFA World Cup: 1986 (ESPN), 1990 (TNT), 1998 (ABC/ESPN), 2002 (ABC/ESPN), 2006 (ABC/ESPN), 2010 (ESPN Radio), 2014 (ESPN Radio), 2018 (Fox Sports)\nMLS: 1996-2006 (ABC/ESPN), 2008-2010 (ABC/ESPN), 2010-present (Philadelphia Union), 2011 (Fox Soccer), 2012-2014 (NBC Sports), 2015-present (Fox Sports)\nFIFA Women's World Cup: 1999 (ABC/ESPN), 2003 (ABC/ESPN), 2007 (ESPN), 2015 (Fox Sports), 2019 (Fox Sports)\nSummer Olympics (Soccer): 2004 (NBC Sports), 2008 (NBC Sports)\nUEFA Champions League: 1999 Final (ESPN)\nUSMNT Games: 1999-2002 (ESPN), 2007-2010 (ESPN)\nUSWNT Games: 1999-2010 (ESPN), 2015-present (Fox Sports)\nNHL: 2002-2004 (ABC/ESPN)\nWorld Junior Ice Hockey Championships: 2010 (NHL Network)\nNWSL: 2021-present (CBS Sports)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nJP Dellacamera Bio Fox Sports\nOpinion: JP Dellacamera’s Loyalty To ESPN Was Never Returned\nMLS, NBC announce three-year broadcast deal\n\n1956 births\nLiving people\nAmerican television sports announcers\nAtlanta Thrashers announcers\nAssociation football commentators\nNational Hockey League broadcasters\nSportspeople from Waltham, Massachusetts\nNorth American Soccer League (1968–1984) commentators\nOlympic Games broadcasters\nMajor League Soccer broadcasters\nPhiladelphia Union broadcasters\nSt. Louis Blues announcers\nMajor Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) commentators\nWomen's United Soccer Association commentators"
]
|
[
"Arthur Miller",
"Early career",
"When did his career begin?",
"That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award.",
"Did the play do well for him?",
"The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews."
]
| C_5ab66b0bf57946a38cd17bf139f94d57_1 | Did he have any hit plays? | 3 | Did Arthur Miller have any hit plays? | Arthur Miller | In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap. That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews. In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure. In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times. In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred. CANNOTANSWER | In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway | Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955, revised 1956). He wrote several screenplays and was most noted for his work on The Misfits (1961). The drama Death of a Salesman has been numbered on the short list of finest American plays in the 20th century.
Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. During this time, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and married Marilyn Monroe. In 1980, Miller received the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates. He received the Praemium Imperiale prize in 2001, Prince of Asturias Award in 2002, and the Jerusalem Prize in 2003, as well as the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 1999.
Biography
Early life
Miller was born on October 17, 1915, in Harlem, in the New York City borough of Manhattan, and published an account of his early years under the title "A Boy Grew in Brooklyn"; the second of three children of Augusta (Barnett) and Isidore Miller. Miller was Jewish and of Polish-Jewish descent. His father was born in Radomyśl Wielki, Galicia (then part of Austria-Hungary, now Poland), and his mother was a native of New York whose parents also arrived from that town. Isidore owned a women's clothing manufacturing business employing 400 people. He became a wealthy and respected man in the community. The family, including Miller's younger sister Joan Copeland, lived on West 110th Street in Manhattan, owned a summer house in Far Rockaway, Queens, and employed a chauffeur. In the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the family lost almost everything and moved to Gravesend, Brooklyn. (One source says they moved to Midwood.) As a teenager, Miller delivered bread every morning before school to help the family. After graduating in 1932 from Abraham Lincoln High School, he worked at several menial jobs to pay for his college tuition at the University of Michigan. After graduation (circa 1936), he began to work as a psychiatric aide and also a copywriter before accepting faculty posts at New York University and University of New Hampshire. On May 1, 1935, Miller joined the League of American Writers (1935–1943), whose members included Alexander Trachtenberg of International Publishers, Franklin Folsom, Louis Untermeyer, I. F. Stone, Myra Page, Millen Brand, Lillian Hellman, and Dashiell Hammett. (Members were largely either Communist Party members or fellow travelers.)
At the University of Michigan, Miller first majored in journalism and worked for the student newspaper, The Michigan Daily, as well as the satirical Gargoyle Humor Magazine. It was during this time that he wrote his first play, No Villain. Miller switched his major to English, and subsequently won the Avery Hopwood Award for No Villain. The award brought him his first recognition and led him to begin to consider that he could have a career as a playwright. Miller enrolled in a playwriting seminar taught by the influential Professor Kenneth Rowe, who instructed him in his early forays into playwriting; Rowe emphasized how a play is built in order to achieve its intended effect, or what Miller called "the dynamics of play construction". Rowe provided realistic feedback along with much-needed encouragement, and became a lifelong friend. Miller retained strong ties to his alma mater throughout the rest of his life, establishing the university's Arthur Miller Award in 1985 and Arthur Miller Award for Dramatic Writing in 1999, and lending his name to the Arthur Miller Theatre in 2000. In 1937, Miller wrote Honors at Dawn, which also received the Avery Hopwood Award.
After his graduation in 1938, he joined the Federal Theatre Project, a New Deal agency established to provide jobs in the theater. He chose the theater project despite the more lucrative offer to work as a scriptwriter for 20th Century Fox. However, Congress, worried about possible Communist infiltration, closed the project in 1939. Miller began working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard while continuing to write radio plays, some of which were broadcast on CBS.
Early career
In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane (born September 7, 1944) and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap.
In 1944 Miller's first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck and won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews.
In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure.
In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times.
In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred.
Critical years
In 1955, a one-act version of Miller's verse drama A View from the Bridge opened on Broadway in a joint bill with one of Miller's lesser-known plays, A Memory of Two Mondays. The following year, Miller revised A View from the Bridge as a two-act prose drama, which Peter Brook directed in London. A French-Italian co-production Vu du pont, based on the play, was released in 1962.
Marriages and family
In June 1956, Miller left his first wife, Mary Slattery, whom he had married in 1940, and wed film star Marilyn Monroe. They had met in 1951, had a brief affair, and remained in contact since. Monroe had just turned 30 when they married; she never had a real family of her own and was eager to join the family of her new husband.
Monroe began to reconsider her career and the fact that trying to manage it made her feel helpless. She admitted to Miller, "I hate Hollywood. I don't want it any more. I want to live quietly in the country and just be there when you need me. I can't fight for myself any more."
Monroe converted to Judaism to "express her loyalty and get close to both Miller and his parents", writes biographer Jeffrey Meyers. She told her close friend, Susan Strasberg: "I can identify with the Jews. Everybody's always out to get them, no matter what they do, like me." Soon after Monroe converted, Egypt banned all of her movies.
Away from Hollywood and the culture of celebrity, Monroe's life became more normal; she began cooking, keeping house and giving Miller more attention and affection than he had been used to.
Later that year, Miller was subpoenaed by the HCUA, and Monroe accompanied him. In her personal notes, she wrote about her worries during this period:
Miller began work on writing the screenplay for The Misfits in 1960, directed by John Huston and starring Monroe but it was during the filming that Miller and Monroe's relationship hit difficulties, and he later said that the filming was one of the lowest points in his life. Monroe was taking drugs to help her sleep and more drugs to help her wake up, which caused her to arrive on the set late and then have trouble remembering her lines. Huston was unaware that Miller and Monroe were having problems in their private life. He recalled later, "I was impertinent enough to say to Arthur that to allow her to take drugs of any kind was criminal and utterly irresponsible. Shortly after that I realized that she wouldn't listen to Arthur at all; he had no say over her actions."
Shortly before the film's premiere in 1961, Miller and Monroe divorced after five years of marriage. Nineteen months later, on August 5, 1962, Monroe died of a likely drug overdose. Huston, who had also directed her in her first major role in The Asphalt Jungle in 1950, and who had seen her rise to stardom, put the blame for her death on her doctors as opposed to the stresses of being a star: "The girl was an addict of sleeping pills and she was made so by the God-damn doctors. It had nothing to do with the Hollywood set-up."
Miller married photographer Inge Morath in February 1962. She had worked as a photographer documenting the production of The Misfits. The first of their two children, Rebecca, was born September 15, 1962. Their son, Daniel, was born with Down syndrome in November 1966. Against his wife's wishes, Miller had him institutionalized, first at a home for infants in New York City, and then at the Southbury Training School in Connecticut. Though Morath visited Daniel often, Miller never visited him at the school and rarely spoke of him. Miller and Inge remained together until her death in 2002. Arthur Miller's son-in-law, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, is said to have visited Daniel frequently, and to have persuaded Arthur Miller to meet with him.
HUAC controversy and The Crucible
In 1952, Elia Kazan appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Kazan named eight members of the Group Theatre, including Clifford Odets, Paula Strasberg, Lillian Hellman, J. Edward Bromberg, and John Garfield, who in recent years had been fellow members of the Communist Party. Miller and Kazan were close friends throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, but after Kazan's testimony to the HUAC, the pair's friendship ended. After speaking with Kazan about his testimony, Miller traveled to Salem, Massachusetts, to research the witch trials of 1692. He and Kazan did not speak to each other for the next ten years. Kazan later defended his own actions through his film On the Waterfront, in which a dockworker heroically testifies against a corrupt union boss. Miller would retaliate to Kazan's work by writing A View from the Bridge, a play where a longshoreman outs his co-workers motivated only by jealousy and greed. He sent a copy of the initial script to Kazan and when the director asked in jest to direct the movie, Miller replied "I only sent you the script to let you know what I think of Stool-Pigeons."
In The Crucible, Miller likened the situation with the House Un-American Activities Committee to the witch hunt in Salem in 1692. The play opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway on January 22, 1953. Though widely considered only somewhat successful at the time of its release, today The Crucible is Miller's most frequently produced work throughout the world. It was adapted into an opera by Robert Ward in 1961.
The HUAC took an interest in Miller himself not long after The Crucible opened, denying him a passport to attend the play's London opening in 1954. When Miller applied in 1956 for a routine renewal of his passport, the House Un-American Activities Committee used this opportunity to subpoena him to appear before the committee. Before appearing, Miller asked the committee not to ask him to name names, to which the chairman, Francis E. Walter (D-PA) agreed. When Miller attended the hearing, to which Monroe accompanied him, risking her own career, he gave the committee a detailed account of his political activities. Reneging on the chairman's promise, the committee demanded the names of friends and colleagues who had participated in similar activities. Miller refused to comply, saying "I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him." As a result, a judge found Miller guilty of contempt of Congress in May 1957. Miller was sentenced to a fine and a prison sentence, blacklisted, and disallowed a US passport. In August 1958, his conviction was overturned by the court of appeals, which ruled that Miller had been misled by the chairman of the HUAC.
Miller's experience with the HUAC affected him throughout his life. In the late 1970s, he joined other celebrities (including William Styron and Mike Nichols) who were brought together by the journalist Joan Barthel. Barthel's coverage of the highly publicized Barbara Gibbons murder case helped raise bail for Gibbons' son Peter Reilly, who had been convicted of his mother's murder based on what many felt was a coerced confession and little other evidence. Barthel documented the case in her book A Death in Canaan, which was made as a television film of the same name and broadcast in 1978. City Confidential, an A&E Network series, produced an episode about the murder, postulating that part of the reason Miller took such an active interest (including supporting Reilly's defense and using his own celebrity to bring attention to Reilly's plight) was because he had felt similarly persecuted in his run-ins with the HUAC. He sympathized with Reilly, whom he firmly believed to be innocent and to have been railroaded by the Connecticut State Police and the Attorney General who had initially prosecuted the case.
Later career
In 1964, After the Fall was produced, and is said to be a deeply personal view of Miller's experiences during his marriage to Monroe. The play reunited Miller with his former friend Kazan: they collaborated on both the script and the direction. After the Fall opened on January 23, 1964, at the ANTA Theatre in Washington Square Park amid a flurry of publicity and outrage at putting a Monroe-like character, called Maggie, on stage. Robert Brustein, in a review in the New Republic, called After the Fall "a three and one half hour breach of taste, a confessional autobiography of embarrassing explicitness ... there is a misogynistic strain in the play which the author does not seem to recognize. ... He has created a shameless piece of tabloid gossip, an act of exhibitionism which makes us all voyeurs, ... a wretched piece of dramatic writing." That same year, Miller produced Incident at Vichy. In 1965, Miller was elected the first American president of PEN International, a position which he held for four years. A year later, Miller organized the 1966 PEN congress in New York City. Miller also wrote the penetrating family drama, The Price, produced in 1968. It was Miller's most successful play since Death of a Salesman.
In 1968, Miller attended the Democratic National Convention as a delegate for Eugene McCarthy. In 1969, Miller's works were banned in the Soviet Union after he campaigned for the freedom of dissident writers. Throughout the 1970s, Miller spent much of his time experimenting with the theatre, producing one-act plays such as Fame and The Reason Why, and traveling with his wife, producing In the Country and Chinese Encounters with her. Both his 1972 comedy The Creation of the World and Other Business and its musical adaptation, Up from Paradise, were critical and commercial failures.
Miller was an unusually articulate commentator on his own work. In 1978 he published a collection of his Theater Essays, edited by Robert A. Martin and with a foreword by Miller. Highlights of the collection included Miller's introduction to his Collected Plays, his reflections on the theory of tragedy, comments on the McCarthy Era, and pieces arguing for a publicly supported theater. Reviewing this collection in the Chicago Tribune, Studs Terkel remarked, "in reading [the Theater Essays]...you are exhilaratingly aware of a social critic, as well as a playwright, who knows what he's talking about."
In 1983, Miller traveled to China to produce and direct Death of a Salesman at the People's Art Theatre in Beijing. The play was a success in China and in 1984, Salesman in Beijing, a book about Miller's experiences in Beijing, was published. Around the same time, Death of a Salesman was made into a TV movie starring Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman. Shown on CBS, it attracted 25 million viewers. In late 1987, Miller's autobiographical work,
Timebends, was published. Before it was published, it was well known that Miller would not talk about Monroe in interviews; in Timebends Miller talks about his experiences with Monroe in detail.
During the early-mid 1990s, Miller wrote three new plays: The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1992), and Broken Glass (1994). In 1996, a film of The Crucible starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Scofield, Bruce Davison, and Winona Ryder opened. Miller spent much of 1996 working on the screenplay for the film.
Mr. Peters' Connections was staged Off-Broadway in 1998, and Death of a Salesman was revived on Broadway in 1999 to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. The play, once again, was a large critical success, winning a Tony Award for best revival of a play.
In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. Miller was honored with the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award for a Master American Dramatist in 1998. In 2001 the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) selected Miller for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Miller's lecture was entitled "On Politics and the Art of Acting." Miller's lecture analyzed political events (including the U.S. presidential election of 2000)
in terms of the "arts of performance", and it drew attacks from some conservatives such as Jay Nordlinger, who called it "a disgrace", and George Will, who argued that Miller was not legitimately a "scholar".
In 1999, Miller was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to "a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life." In 2001, Miller received the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. On May 1, 2002, Miller was awarded Spain's Principe de Asturias Prize for Literature as "the undisputed master of modern drama". Later that year, Ingeborg Morath died of lymphatic cancer at the age of 78. The following year Miller won the Jerusalem Prize.
In December 2004, 89-year-old Miller announced that he had been in love with 34-year-old minimalist painter Agnes Barley and had been living with her at his Connecticut farm since 2002, and that they intended to marry. Within hours of her father's death, Rebecca Miller ordered Barley to vacate the premises because she had consistently been opposed to the relationship. Miller's final play, Finishing the Picture, opened at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, in the fall of 2004, with one character said to be based on Barley. It was reported to be based on his experience during the filming of The Misfits, though Miller insisted the play is a work of fiction with independent characters that were no more than composite shadows of history.
Death
Miller died on the evening of February 10, 2005 (the 56th anniversary of the Broadway debut of Death of a Salesman) at age 89 of bladder cancer and heart failure, at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. He had been in hospice care at his sister's apartment in New York since his release from hospital the previous month. He was surrounded by Barley, family and friends. His body was interred at Roxbury Center Cemetery in Roxbury.
Legacy
Miller's career as a writer spanned over seven decades, and at the time of his death, Miller was considered to be one of the greatest dramatists of the twentieth century. After his death, many respected actors, directors, and producers paid tribute to Miller, some calling him the last great practitioner of the American stage, and Broadway theatres darkened their lights in a show of respect.
Miller's alma mater, the University of Michigan, opened the Arthur Miller Theatre in March 2007. As per his express wish, it is the only theatre in the world that bears Miller's name.
Other notable arrangements for Miller's legacy are that his letters, notes, drafts and other papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin.
Miller is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. He was inducted in 1979.
In 1993, he received the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech.
In 2017, his daughter, Rebecca Miller, a writer and filmmaker, completed a documentary about her father's life, under the title Arthur Miller: Writer.
Minor planet 3769 Arthurmiller is named after him.
Foundation
The Arthur Miller Foundation was founded to honor the legacy of Miller and his New York City Public School Education. The mission of the foundation is: "Promoting increased access and equity to theater arts education in our schools and increasing the number of students receiving theater arts education as an integral part of their academic curriculum." Other initiatives include certification of new theater teachers and their placement in public schools; increasing the number of theater teachers in the system from the current estimate of 180 teachers in 1800 schools; supporting professional development of all certified theater teachers; providing teaching artists, cultural partners, physical spaces, and theater ticket allocations for students. The foundation's primary purpose is to provide arts education in the New York City school system. The current chancellor of the foundation is Carmen Farina, a large proponent of the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The Master Arts Council includes, among others, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Barkin, Bradley Cooper, Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson, Tony Kushner, Julianne Moore, Michael Moore, Liam Neeson, David O. Russell, and Liev Schreiber. His son-in-law Daniel Day-Lewis, serves on the current board of directors since 2016.
The foundation celebrated Miller's 100th birthday with a one-night-only performance of Miller's seminal works in November 2015.
The Arthur Miller Foundation currently supports a pilot program in theater and film at the public school Quest to Learn in partnership with the Institute of Play. The model is being used as an in-school elective theater class and lab. The objective is to create a sustainable theater education model to disseminate to teachers at professional development workshops.
Archive
Miller donated thirteen boxes of his earliest manuscripts to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin in 1961 and 1962. This collection included the original handwritten notebooks and early typed drafts for Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, All My Sons, and other works. In January, 2018, the Ransom Center announced the acquisition of the remainder of the Miller archive totaling over 200 boxes. The full archive opened in November, 2019.
Literary and public criticism
Christopher Bigsby wrote Arthur Miller: The Definitive Biography based on boxes of papers Miller made available to him before his death in 2005. The book was published in November 2008, and is reported to reveal unpublished works in which Miller "bitterly attack[ed] the injustices of American racism long before it was taken up by the civil rights movement".
In his book Trinity of Passion, author Alan M. Wald conjectures that Miller was "a member of a writer's unit of the Communist Party around 1946," using the pseudonym Matt Wayne, and editing a drama column in the magazine The New Masses.
In 1999 the writer Christopher Hitchens attacked Miller for comparing the Monica Lewinsky investigation to the Salem witch hunt. Miller had asserted a parallel between the examination of physical evidence on Lewinsky's dress and the examinations of women's bodies for signs of the "Devil's Marks" in Salem. Hitchens scathingly disputed the parallel. In his memoir, Hitch-22, Hitchens bitterly noted that Miller, despite his prominence as a left-wing intellectual, had failed to support author Salman Rushdie during the Iranian fatwa involving The Satanic Verses.
Works
Stage plays
No Villain (1936)
They Too Arise (1937, based on No Villain)
Honors at Dawn (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Grass Still Grows (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Great Disobedience (1938)
Listen My Children (1939, with Norman Rosten)
The Golden Years (1940)
The Half-Bridge (1943)
The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944)
All My Sons (1947)
Death of a Salesman (1949)
An Enemy of the People (1950, based on Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People)
The Crucible (1953)
A View from the Bridge (1955)
A Memory of Two Mondays (1955)
After the Fall (1964)
Incident at Vichy (1964)
The Price (1968)
The Reason Why (1970)
Fame (one-act, 1970; revised for television 1978)
The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972)
Up from Paradise (1974)
The Archbishop's Ceiling (1977)
The American Clock (1980)
Playing for Time (television play, 1980)
Elegy for a Lady (short play, 1982, first part of Two Way Mirror)
Some Kind of Love Story (short play, 1982, second part of Two Way Mirror)
I Think About You a Great Deal (1986)
Playing for Time (stage version, 1985)
I Can't Remember Anything (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
Clara (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991)
The Last Yankee (1993)
Broken Glass (1994)
Mr. Peters' Connections (1998)
Resurrection Blues (2002)
Finishing the Picture (2004)
Radio plays
The Pussycat and the Expert Plumber Who Was a Man (1941)
Joel Chandler Harris (1941)
The Battle of the Ovens (1942)
Thunder from the Mountains (1942)
I Was Married in Bataan (1942)
That They May Win (1943)
Listen for the Sound of Wings (1943)
Bernardine (1944)
I Love You (1944)
Grandpa and the Statue (1944)
The Philippines Never Surrendered (1944)
The Guardsman (1944, based on Ferenc Molnár's play)
The Story of Gus (1947)
Screenplays
The Hook (1947)
All My Sons (1948)
Let's Make Love (1960)
The Misfits (1961)
Death of a Salesman (1985)
Everybody Wins (1990)
The Crucible (1996)
Assorted fiction
Focus (novel, 1945)
"The Misfits" (short story, published in Esquire, October 1957)
I Don't Need You Anymore (short stories, 1967)
Homely Girl: A Life (short story, 1992, published in UK as "Plain Girl: A Life" 1995)
"The Performance" (short story)
Presence: Stories (2007) (short stories include The Bare Manuscript, Beavers, The Performance, and Bulldog)
Non-fiction
Situation Normal (1944) is based on his experiences researching the war correspondence of Ernie Pyle.
In Russia (1969), the first of three books created with his photographer wife Inge Morath, offers Miller's impressions of Russia and Russian society.
In the Country (1977), with photographs by Morath and text by Miller, provides insight into how Miller spent his time in Roxbury, Connecticut, and profiles of his various neighbors.
Chinese Encounters (1979) is a travel journal with photographs by Morath. It depicts the Chinese society in the state of flux which followed the end of the Cultural Revolution. Miller discusses the hardships of many writers, professors, and artists as they try to regain the sense of freedom and place they lost during Mao Zedong's regime.
Salesman in Beijing (1984) details Miller's experiences with the 1983 Beijing People's Theatre production of Death of a Salesman. He describes the idiosyncrasies, understandings, and insights encountered in directing a Chinese cast in a decidedly American play.
Timebends: A Life, Methuen London (1987) . Like Death of a Salesman, the book follows the structure of memory itself, each passage linked to and triggered by the one before.
Collections
Abbotson, Susan C. W. (ed.), Arthur Miller: Collected Essays, Penguin 2016
Centola, Steven R. ed. Echoes Down the Corridor: Arthur Miller, Collected Essays 1944–2000, Viking Penguin (US)/Methuen (UK), 2000
Kushner, Tony, ed. Arthur Miller, Collected Plays 1944–1961 (Library of America, 2006) .
Martin, Robert A. (ed.), "The theater essays of Arthur Miller", foreword by Arthur Miller. NY: Viking Press, 1978
References
Bibliography
Bigsby, Christopher (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller, Cambridge 1997
Gottfried, Martin, Arthur Miller, A Life, Da Capo Press (US)/Faber and Faber (UK), 2003
Koorey, Stefani, Arthur Miller's Life and Literature, Scarecrow, 2000
Moss, Leonard. Arthur Miller, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980.
Further reading
Critical Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (2007)
Student Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Facts on File (2000)
File on Miller, Christopher Bigsby (1988)
Arthur Miller & Company, Christopher Bigsby, editor (1990)
Arthur Miller: A Critical Study, Christopher Bigsby (2005)
Remembering Arthur Miller, Christopher Bigsby, editor (2005)
Arthur Miller 1915–1962, Christopher Bigsby (2008, U.K.; 2009, U.S.)
The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller (Cambridge Companions to Literature), Christopher Bigsby, editor (1998, updated and republished 2010)
Arthur Miller 1962–2005, Christopher Bigsby (2011)
Arthur Miller: Critical Insights, Brenda Murphy, editor, Salem (2011)
Understanding Death of a Salesman, Brenda Murphy and Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (1999)
Critical articles
Arthur Miller Journal, published biannually by Penn State UP. Vol. 1.1 (2006)
Radavich, David. "Arthur Miller's Sojourn in the Heartland". American Drama 16:2 (Summer 2007): 28–45.
External links
Organizations
Arthur Miller official website
Arthur Miller Society
The Arthur Miller Foundation
Archive
Arthur Miller Papers at the Harry Ransom Center
"Playwright Arthur Miller's archive comes to the Harry Ransom Center"
Finding aid to Arthur Miller papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Databases
Websites
A Visit With Castro – Miller's article in The Nation, January 12, 2004
Joyce Carol Oates on Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller Biography
Arthur Miller and Mccarthyism
Interviews
Miller interview, Humanities, March–April 2001
Obituaries
The New York Times Obituary
NPR obituary
CNN obituary
1915 births
2005 deaths
University of Michigan alumni
Kennedy Center honorees
Laurence Olivier Award winners
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Tony Award winners
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American screenwriters
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century essayists
21st-century American dramatists and playwrights
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American screenwriters
21st-century American short story writers
21st-century essayists
Abraham Lincoln High School (Brooklyn) alumni
American agnostics
American anti-capitalists
American autobiographers
20th-century American Jews
American male dramatists and playwrights
American male essayists
American male non-fiction writers
American male novelists
American male screenwriters
American male short story writers
American memoirists
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
American radio writers
Analysands of Rudolph Lowenstein
Cultural critics
Deaths from bladder cancer
Deaths from cancer in Connecticut
Free speech activists
Hopwood Award winners
Jerusalem Prize recipients
Jewish agnostics
Jewish American dramatists and playwrights
Jewish novelists
Jewish writers
Marilyn Monroe
The Michigan Daily alumni
PEN International
People from Brooklyn Heights
People from Gravesend, Brooklyn
People from Midwood, Brooklyn
People from Roxbury, Connecticut
Postmodern writers
Recipients of the Four Freedoms Award
American social commentators
Social critics
Special Tony Award recipients
Writers about activism and social change
Writers about communism
Writers from Brooklyn
Writers from Connecticut
21st-century American Jews | true | [
"Return of the 1 Hit Wonder is the fourth album by rapper, Young MC. The album was released in 1997 for Overall Records and was Young MC's first release on an independent record label. While the album did not chart on any album charts, it did have two charting singles; \"Madame Buttafly\" reached No. 25 on the Hot Rap Songs and \"On & Poppin\" reached No. 23. The title refers to Young MC's only Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit, \"Bust A Move\".\n\nTrack listing\n\"One Hit\" \n\"Freakie\" \n\"On & Poppin'\" \n\"You Ain't Gotta Lie Ta Kick It\" \n\"Madame Buttafly\" \n\"Lingerie\" \n\"Coast 2 Coast\" \n\"Fuel to the Fire\" \n\"Bring It Home\" \n\"Intensify\" \n\"Mr. Right Now\" \n\"On & Poppin'\" (Remix)\n\nReferences\n\nYoung MC albums\n1997 albums",
"This is the discography of American rock band Styx. Over the years they have released 17 studio albums, 9 live albums, 16 compilation albums, 39 singles, and 3 extended plays. 16 singles have hit the top 40 of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and 8 have hit the top 10.\n\nStudio albums\n\nLive albums\n\nCompilation albums\n\nExtended plays\n\nSingles\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOfficial discography of Styx\n\nDiscographies of American artists\nRock music group discographies"
]
|
[
"Arthur Miller",
"Early career",
"When did his career begin?",
"That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award.",
"Did the play do well for him?",
"The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews.",
"Did he have any hit plays?",
"In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway"
]
| C_5ab66b0bf57946a38cd17bf139f94d57_1 | Did he win any awards? | 4 | Did Arthur Miller win any awards? | Arthur Miller | In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap. That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews. In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure. In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times. In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred. CANNOTANSWER | (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author | Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955, revised 1956). He wrote several screenplays and was most noted for his work on The Misfits (1961). The drama Death of a Salesman has been numbered on the short list of finest American plays in the 20th century.
Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. During this time, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and married Marilyn Monroe. In 1980, Miller received the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates. He received the Praemium Imperiale prize in 2001, Prince of Asturias Award in 2002, and the Jerusalem Prize in 2003, as well as the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 1999.
Biography
Early life
Miller was born on October 17, 1915, in Harlem, in the New York City borough of Manhattan, and published an account of his early years under the title "A Boy Grew in Brooklyn"; the second of three children of Augusta (Barnett) and Isidore Miller. Miller was Jewish and of Polish-Jewish descent. His father was born in Radomyśl Wielki, Galicia (then part of Austria-Hungary, now Poland), and his mother was a native of New York whose parents also arrived from that town. Isidore owned a women's clothing manufacturing business employing 400 people. He became a wealthy and respected man in the community. The family, including Miller's younger sister Joan Copeland, lived on West 110th Street in Manhattan, owned a summer house in Far Rockaway, Queens, and employed a chauffeur. In the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the family lost almost everything and moved to Gravesend, Brooklyn. (One source says they moved to Midwood.) As a teenager, Miller delivered bread every morning before school to help the family. After graduating in 1932 from Abraham Lincoln High School, he worked at several menial jobs to pay for his college tuition at the University of Michigan. After graduation (circa 1936), he began to work as a psychiatric aide and also a copywriter before accepting faculty posts at New York University and University of New Hampshire. On May 1, 1935, Miller joined the League of American Writers (1935–1943), whose members included Alexander Trachtenberg of International Publishers, Franklin Folsom, Louis Untermeyer, I. F. Stone, Myra Page, Millen Brand, Lillian Hellman, and Dashiell Hammett. (Members were largely either Communist Party members or fellow travelers.)
At the University of Michigan, Miller first majored in journalism and worked for the student newspaper, The Michigan Daily, as well as the satirical Gargoyle Humor Magazine. It was during this time that he wrote his first play, No Villain. Miller switched his major to English, and subsequently won the Avery Hopwood Award for No Villain. The award brought him his first recognition and led him to begin to consider that he could have a career as a playwright. Miller enrolled in a playwriting seminar taught by the influential Professor Kenneth Rowe, who instructed him in his early forays into playwriting; Rowe emphasized how a play is built in order to achieve its intended effect, or what Miller called "the dynamics of play construction". Rowe provided realistic feedback along with much-needed encouragement, and became a lifelong friend. Miller retained strong ties to his alma mater throughout the rest of his life, establishing the university's Arthur Miller Award in 1985 and Arthur Miller Award for Dramatic Writing in 1999, and lending his name to the Arthur Miller Theatre in 2000. In 1937, Miller wrote Honors at Dawn, which also received the Avery Hopwood Award.
After his graduation in 1938, he joined the Federal Theatre Project, a New Deal agency established to provide jobs in the theater. He chose the theater project despite the more lucrative offer to work as a scriptwriter for 20th Century Fox. However, Congress, worried about possible Communist infiltration, closed the project in 1939. Miller began working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard while continuing to write radio plays, some of which were broadcast on CBS.
Early career
In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane (born September 7, 1944) and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap.
In 1944 Miller's first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck and won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews.
In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure.
In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times.
In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred.
Critical years
In 1955, a one-act version of Miller's verse drama A View from the Bridge opened on Broadway in a joint bill with one of Miller's lesser-known plays, A Memory of Two Mondays. The following year, Miller revised A View from the Bridge as a two-act prose drama, which Peter Brook directed in London. A French-Italian co-production Vu du pont, based on the play, was released in 1962.
Marriages and family
In June 1956, Miller left his first wife, Mary Slattery, whom he had married in 1940, and wed film star Marilyn Monroe. They had met in 1951, had a brief affair, and remained in contact since. Monroe had just turned 30 when they married; she never had a real family of her own and was eager to join the family of her new husband.
Monroe began to reconsider her career and the fact that trying to manage it made her feel helpless. She admitted to Miller, "I hate Hollywood. I don't want it any more. I want to live quietly in the country and just be there when you need me. I can't fight for myself any more."
Monroe converted to Judaism to "express her loyalty and get close to both Miller and his parents", writes biographer Jeffrey Meyers. She told her close friend, Susan Strasberg: "I can identify with the Jews. Everybody's always out to get them, no matter what they do, like me." Soon after Monroe converted, Egypt banned all of her movies.
Away from Hollywood and the culture of celebrity, Monroe's life became more normal; she began cooking, keeping house and giving Miller more attention and affection than he had been used to.
Later that year, Miller was subpoenaed by the HCUA, and Monroe accompanied him. In her personal notes, she wrote about her worries during this period:
Miller began work on writing the screenplay for The Misfits in 1960, directed by John Huston and starring Monroe but it was during the filming that Miller and Monroe's relationship hit difficulties, and he later said that the filming was one of the lowest points in his life. Monroe was taking drugs to help her sleep and more drugs to help her wake up, which caused her to arrive on the set late and then have trouble remembering her lines. Huston was unaware that Miller and Monroe were having problems in their private life. He recalled later, "I was impertinent enough to say to Arthur that to allow her to take drugs of any kind was criminal and utterly irresponsible. Shortly after that I realized that she wouldn't listen to Arthur at all; he had no say over her actions."
Shortly before the film's premiere in 1961, Miller and Monroe divorced after five years of marriage. Nineteen months later, on August 5, 1962, Monroe died of a likely drug overdose. Huston, who had also directed her in her first major role in The Asphalt Jungle in 1950, and who had seen her rise to stardom, put the blame for her death on her doctors as opposed to the stresses of being a star: "The girl was an addict of sleeping pills and she was made so by the God-damn doctors. It had nothing to do with the Hollywood set-up."
Miller married photographer Inge Morath in February 1962. She had worked as a photographer documenting the production of The Misfits. The first of their two children, Rebecca, was born September 15, 1962. Their son, Daniel, was born with Down syndrome in November 1966. Against his wife's wishes, Miller had him institutionalized, first at a home for infants in New York City, and then at the Southbury Training School in Connecticut. Though Morath visited Daniel often, Miller never visited him at the school and rarely spoke of him. Miller and Inge remained together until her death in 2002. Arthur Miller's son-in-law, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, is said to have visited Daniel frequently, and to have persuaded Arthur Miller to meet with him.
HUAC controversy and The Crucible
In 1952, Elia Kazan appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Kazan named eight members of the Group Theatre, including Clifford Odets, Paula Strasberg, Lillian Hellman, J. Edward Bromberg, and John Garfield, who in recent years had been fellow members of the Communist Party. Miller and Kazan were close friends throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, but after Kazan's testimony to the HUAC, the pair's friendship ended. After speaking with Kazan about his testimony, Miller traveled to Salem, Massachusetts, to research the witch trials of 1692. He and Kazan did not speak to each other for the next ten years. Kazan later defended his own actions through his film On the Waterfront, in which a dockworker heroically testifies against a corrupt union boss. Miller would retaliate to Kazan's work by writing A View from the Bridge, a play where a longshoreman outs his co-workers motivated only by jealousy and greed. He sent a copy of the initial script to Kazan and when the director asked in jest to direct the movie, Miller replied "I only sent you the script to let you know what I think of Stool-Pigeons."
In The Crucible, Miller likened the situation with the House Un-American Activities Committee to the witch hunt in Salem in 1692. The play opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway on January 22, 1953. Though widely considered only somewhat successful at the time of its release, today The Crucible is Miller's most frequently produced work throughout the world. It was adapted into an opera by Robert Ward in 1961.
The HUAC took an interest in Miller himself not long after The Crucible opened, denying him a passport to attend the play's London opening in 1954. When Miller applied in 1956 for a routine renewal of his passport, the House Un-American Activities Committee used this opportunity to subpoena him to appear before the committee. Before appearing, Miller asked the committee not to ask him to name names, to which the chairman, Francis E. Walter (D-PA) agreed. When Miller attended the hearing, to which Monroe accompanied him, risking her own career, he gave the committee a detailed account of his political activities. Reneging on the chairman's promise, the committee demanded the names of friends and colleagues who had participated in similar activities. Miller refused to comply, saying "I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him." As a result, a judge found Miller guilty of contempt of Congress in May 1957. Miller was sentenced to a fine and a prison sentence, blacklisted, and disallowed a US passport. In August 1958, his conviction was overturned by the court of appeals, which ruled that Miller had been misled by the chairman of the HUAC.
Miller's experience with the HUAC affected him throughout his life. In the late 1970s, he joined other celebrities (including William Styron and Mike Nichols) who were brought together by the journalist Joan Barthel. Barthel's coverage of the highly publicized Barbara Gibbons murder case helped raise bail for Gibbons' son Peter Reilly, who had been convicted of his mother's murder based on what many felt was a coerced confession and little other evidence. Barthel documented the case in her book A Death in Canaan, which was made as a television film of the same name and broadcast in 1978. City Confidential, an A&E Network series, produced an episode about the murder, postulating that part of the reason Miller took such an active interest (including supporting Reilly's defense and using his own celebrity to bring attention to Reilly's plight) was because he had felt similarly persecuted in his run-ins with the HUAC. He sympathized with Reilly, whom he firmly believed to be innocent and to have been railroaded by the Connecticut State Police and the Attorney General who had initially prosecuted the case.
Later career
In 1964, After the Fall was produced, and is said to be a deeply personal view of Miller's experiences during his marriage to Monroe. The play reunited Miller with his former friend Kazan: they collaborated on both the script and the direction. After the Fall opened on January 23, 1964, at the ANTA Theatre in Washington Square Park amid a flurry of publicity and outrage at putting a Monroe-like character, called Maggie, on stage. Robert Brustein, in a review in the New Republic, called After the Fall "a three and one half hour breach of taste, a confessional autobiography of embarrassing explicitness ... there is a misogynistic strain in the play which the author does not seem to recognize. ... He has created a shameless piece of tabloid gossip, an act of exhibitionism which makes us all voyeurs, ... a wretched piece of dramatic writing." That same year, Miller produced Incident at Vichy. In 1965, Miller was elected the first American president of PEN International, a position which he held for four years. A year later, Miller organized the 1966 PEN congress in New York City. Miller also wrote the penetrating family drama, The Price, produced in 1968. It was Miller's most successful play since Death of a Salesman.
In 1968, Miller attended the Democratic National Convention as a delegate for Eugene McCarthy. In 1969, Miller's works were banned in the Soviet Union after he campaigned for the freedom of dissident writers. Throughout the 1970s, Miller spent much of his time experimenting with the theatre, producing one-act plays such as Fame and The Reason Why, and traveling with his wife, producing In the Country and Chinese Encounters with her. Both his 1972 comedy The Creation of the World and Other Business and its musical adaptation, Up from Paradise, were critical and commercial failures.
Miller was an unusually articulate commentator on his own work. In 1978 he published a collection of his Theater Essays, edited by Robert A. Martin and with a foreword by Miller. Highlights of the collection included Miller's introduction to his Collected Plays, his reflections on the theory of tragedy, comments on the McCarthy Era, and pieces arguing for a publicly supported theater. Reviewing this collection in the Chicago Tribune, Studs Terkel remarked, "in reading [the Theater Essays]...you are exhilaratingly aware of a social critic, as well as a playwright, who knows what he's talking about."
In 1983, Miller traveled to China to produce and direct Death of a Salesman at the People's Art Theatre in Beijing. The play was a success in China and in 1984, Salesman in Beijing, a book about Miller's experiences in Beijing, was published. Around the same time, Death of a Salesman was made into a TV movie starring Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman. Shown on CBS, it attracted 25 million viewers. In late 1987, Miller's autobiographical work,
Timebends, was published. Before it was published, it was well known that Miller would not talk about Monroe in interviews; in Timebends Miller talks about his experiences with Monroe in detail.
During the early-mid 1990s, Miller wrote three new plays: The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1992), and Broken Glass (1994). In 1996, a film of The Crucible starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Scofield, Bruce Davison, and Winona Ryder opened. Miller spent much of 1996 working on the screenplay for the film.
Mr. Peters' Connections was staged Off-Broadway in 1998, and Death of a Salesman was revived on Broadway in 1999 to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. The play, once again, was a large critical success, winning a Tony Award for best revival of a play.
In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. Miller was honored with the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award for a Master American Dramatist in 1998. In 2001 the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) selected Miller for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Miller's lecture was entitled "On Politics and the Art of Acting." Miller's lecture analyzed political events (including the U.S. presidential election of 2000)
in terms of the "arts of performance", and it drew attacks from some conservatives such as Jay Nordlinger, who called it "a disgrace", and George Will, who argued that Miller was not legitimately a "scholar".
In 1999, Miller was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to "a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life." In 2001, Miller received the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. On May 1, 2002, Miller was awarded Spain's Principe de Asturias Prize for Literature as "the undisputed master of modern drama". Later that year, Ingeborg Morath died of lymphatic cancer at the age of 78. The following year Miller won the Jerusalem Prize.
In December 2004, 89-year-old Miller announced that he had been in love with 34-year-old minimalist painter Agnes Barley and had been living with her at his Connecticut farm since 2002, and that they intended to marry. Within hours of her father's death, Rebecca Miller ordered Barley to vacate the premises because she had consistently been opposed to the relationship. Miller's final play, Finishing the Picture, opened at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, in the fall of 2004, with one character said to be based on Barley. It was reported to be based on his experience during the filming of The Misfits, though Miller insisted the play is a work of fiction with independent characters that were no more than composite shadows of history.
Death
Miller died on the evening of February 10, 2005 (the 56th anniversary of the Broadway debut of Death of a Salesman) at age 89 of bladder cancer and heart failure, at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. He had been in hospice care at his sister's apartment in New York since his release from hospital the previous month. He was surrounded by Barley, family and friends. His body was interred at Roxbury Center Cemetery in Roxbury.
Legacy
Miller's career as a writer spanned over seven decades, and at the time of his death, Miller was considered to be one of the greatest dramatists of the twentieth century. After his death, many respected actors, directors, and producers paid tribute to Miller, some calling him the last great practitioner of the American stage, and Broadway theatres darkened their lights in a show of respect.
Miller's alma mater, the University of Michigan, opened the Arthur Miller Theatre in March 2007. As per his express wish, it is the only theatre in the world that bears Miller's name.
Other notable arrangements for Miller's legacy are that his letters, notes, drafts and other papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin.
Miller is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. He was inducted in 1979.
In 1993, he received the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech.
In 2017, his daughter, Rebecca Miller, a writer and filmmaker, completed a documentary about her father's life, under the title Arthur Miller: Writer.
Minor planet 3769 Arthurmiller is named after him.
Foundation
The Arthur Miller Foundation was founded to honor the legacy of Miller and his New York City Public School Education. The mission of the foundation is: "Promoting increased access and equity to theater arts education in our schools and increasing the number of students receiving theater arts education as an integral part of their academic curriculum." Other initiatives include certification of new theater teachers and their placement in public schools; increasing the number of theater teachers in the system from the current estimate of 180 teachers in 1800 schools; supporting professional development of all certified theater teachers; providing teaching artists, cultural partners, physical spaces, and theater ticket allocations for students. The foundation's primary purpose is to provide arts education in the New York City school system. The current chancellor of the foundation is Carmen Farina, a large proponent of the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The Master Arts Council includes, among others, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Barkin, Bradley Cooper, Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson, Tony Kushner, Julianne Moore, Michael Moore, Liam Neeson, David O. Russell, and Liev Schreiber. His son-in-law Daniel Day-Lewis, serves on the current board of directors since 2016.
The foundation celebrated Miller's 100th birthday with a one-night-only performance of Miller's seminal works in November 2015.
The Arthur Miller Foundation currently supports a pilot program in theater and film at the public school Quest to Learn in partnership with the Institute of Play. The model is being used as an in-school elective theater class and lab. The objective is to create a sustainable theater education model to disseminate to teachers at professional development workshops.
Archive
Miller donated thirteen boxes of his earliest manuscripts to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin in 1961 and 1962. This collection included the original handwritten notebooks and early typed drafts for Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, All My Sons, and other works. In January, 2018, the Ransom Center announced the acquisition of the remainder of the Miller archive totaling over 200 boxes. The full archive opened in November, 2019.
Literary and public criticism
Christopher Bigsby wrote Arthur Miller: The Definitive Biography based on boxes of papers Miller made available to him before his death in 2005. The book was published in November 2008, and is reported to reveal unpublished works in which Miller "bitterly attack[ed] the injustices of American racism long before it was taken up by the civil rights movement".
In his book Trinity of Passion, author Alan M. Wald conjectures that Miller was "a member of a writer's unit of the Communist Party around 1946," using the pseudonym Matt Wayne, and editing a drama column in the magazine The New Masses.
In 1999 the writer Christopher Hitchens attacked Miller for comparing the Monica Lewinsky investigation to the Salem witch hunt. Miller had asserted a parallel between the examination of physical evidence on Lewinsky's dress and the examinations of women's bodies for signs of the "Devil's Marks" in Salem. Hitchens scathingly disputed the parallel. In his memoir, Hitch-22, Hitchens bitterly noted that Miller, despite his prominence as a left-wing intellectual, had failed to support author Salman Rushdie during the Iranian fatwa involving The Satanic Verses.
Works
Stage plays
No Villain (1936)
They Too Arise (1937, based on No Villain)
Honors at Dawn (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Grass Still Grows (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Great Disobedience (1938)
Listen My Children (1939, with Norman Rosten)
The Golden Years (1940)
The Half-Bridge (1943)
The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944)
All My Sons (1947)
Death of a Salesman (1949)
An Enemy of the People (1950, based on Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People)
The Crucible (1953)
A View from the Bridge (1955)
A Memory of Two Mondays (1955)
After the Fall (1964)
Incident at Vichy (1964)
The Price (1968)
The Reason Why (1970)
Fame (one-act, 1970; revised for television 1978)
The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972)
Up from Paradise (1974)
The Archbishop's Ceiling (1977)
The American Clock (1980)
Playing for Time (television play, 1980)
Elegy for a Lady (short play, 1982, first part of Two Way Mirror)
Some Kind of Love Story (short play, 1982, second part of Two Way Mirror)
I Think About You a Great Deal (1986)
Playing for Time (stage version, 1985)
I Can't Remember Anything (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
Clara (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991)
The Last Yankee (1993)
Broken Glass (1994)
Mr. Peters' Connections (1998)
Resurrection Blues (2002)
Finishing the Picture (2004)
Radio plays
The Pussycat and the Expert Plumber Who Was a Man (1941)
Joel Chandler Harris (1941)
The Battle of the Ovens (1942)
Thunder from the Mountains (1942)
I Was Married in Bataan (1942)
That They May Win (1943)
Listen for the Sound of Wings (1943)
Bernardine (1944)
I Love You (1944)
Grandpa and the Statue (1944)
The Philippines Never Surrendered (1944)
The Guardsman (1944, based on Ferenc Molnár's play)
The Story of Gus (1947)
Screenplays
The Hook (1947)
All My Sons (1948)
Let's Make Love (1960)
The Misfits (1961)
Death of a Salesman (1985)
Everybody Wins (1990)
The Crucible (1996)
Assorted fiction
Focus (novel, 1945)
"The Misfits" (short story, published in Esquire, October 1957)
I Don't Need You Anymore (short stories, 1967)
Homely Girl: A Life (short story, 1992, published in UK as "Plain Girl: A Life" 1995)
"The Performance" (short story)
Presence: Stories (2007) (short stories include The Bare Manuscript, Beavers, The Performance, and Bulldog)
Non-fiction
Situation Normal (1944) is based on his experiences researching the war correspondence of Ernie Pyle.
In Russia (1969), the first of three books created with his photographer wife Inge Morath, offers Miller's impressions of Russia and Russian society.
In the Country (1977), with photographs by Morath and text by Miller, provides insight into how Miller spent his time in Roxbury, Connecticut, and profiles of his various neighbors.
Chinese Encounters (1979) is a travel journal with photographs by Morath. It depicts the Chinese society in the state of flux which followed the end of the Cultural Revolution. Miller discusses the hardships of many writers, professors, and artists as they try to regain the sense of freedom and place they lost during Mao Zedong's regime.
Salesman in Beijing (1984) details Miller's experiences with the 1983 Beijing People's Theatre production of Death of a Salesman. He describes the idiosyncrasies, understandings, and insights encountered in directing a Chinese cast in a decidedly American play.
Timebends: A Life, Methuen London (1987) . Like Death of a Salesman, the book follows the structure of memory itself, each passage linked to and triggered by the one before.
Collections
Abbotson, Susan C. W. (ed.), Arthur Miller: Collected Essays, Penguin 2016
Centola, Steven R. ed. Echoes Down the Corridor: Arthur Miller, Collected Essays 1944–2000, Viking Penguin (US)/Methuen (UK), 2000
Kushner, Tony, ed. Arthur Miller, Collected Plays 1944–1961 (Library of America, 2006) .
Martin, Robert A. (ed.), "The theater essays of Arthur Miller", foreword by Arthur Miller. NY: Viking Press, 1978
References
Bibliography
Bigsby, Christopher (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller, Cambridge 1997
Gottfried, Martin, Arthur Miller, A Life, Da Capo Press (US)/Faber and Faber (UK), 2003
Koorey, Stefani, Arthur Miller's Life and Literature, Scarecrow, 2000
Moss, Leonard. Arthur Miller, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980.
Further reading
Critical Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (2007)
Student Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Facts on File (2000)
File on Miller, Christopher Bigsby (1988)
Arthur Miller & Company, Christopher Bigsby, editor (1990)
Arthur Miller: A Critical Study, Christopher Bigsby (2005)
Remembering Arthur Miller, Christopher Bigsby, editor (2005)
Arthur Miller 1915–1962, Christopher Bigsby (2008, U.K.; 2009, U.S.)
The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller (Cambridge Companions to Literature), Christopher Bigsby, editor (1998, updated and republished 2010)
Arthur Miller 1962–2005, Christopher Bigsby (2011)
Arthur Miller: Critical Insights, Brenda Murphy, editor, Salem (2011)
Understanding Death of a Salesman, Brenda Murphy and Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (1999)
Critical articles
Arthur Miller Journal, published biannually by Penn State UP. Vol. 1.1 (2006)
Radavich, David. "Arthur Miller's Sojourn in the Heartland". American Drama 16:2 (Summer 2007): 28–45.
External links
Organizations
Arthur Miller official website
Arthur Miller Society
The Arthur Miller Foundation
Archive
Arthur Miller Papers at the Harry Ransom Center
"Playwright Arthur Miller's archive comes to the Harry Ransom Center"
Finding aid to Arthur Miller papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Databases
Websites
A Visit With Castro – Miller's article in The Nation, January 12, 2004
Joyce Carol Oates on Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller Biography
Arthur Miller and Mccarthyism
Interviews
Miller interview, Humanities, March–April 2001
Obituaries
The New York Times Obituary
NPR obituary
CNN obituary
1915 births
2005 deaths
University of Michigan alumni
Kennedy Center honorees
Laurence Olivier Award winners
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Tony Award winners
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American screenwriters
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21st-century American dramatists and playwrights
21st-century American non-fiction writers
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21st-century essayists
Abraham Lincoln High School (Brooklyn) alumni
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20th-century American Jews
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American male novelists
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American memoirists
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
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Cultural critics
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Free speech activists
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Marilyn Monroe
The Michigan Daily alumni
PEN International
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Postmodern writers
Recipients of the Four Freedoms Award
American social commentators
Social critics
Special Tony Award recipients
Writers about activism and social change
Writers about communism
Writers from Brooklyn
Writers from Connecticut
21st-century American Jews | true | [
"Le Cousin is a 1997 French film directed by Alain Corneau.\n\nPlot \nThe film deals with the relationship of the police and an informant in the drug scene.\n\nAwards and nominations\nLe Cousin was nominated for 5 César Awards but did not win in any category.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1997 films\n1997 crime films\nFilms about drugs\nFilms directed by Alain Corneau\nFrench crime films\nFrench films\nFrench-language films",
"The 23rd Fangoria Chainsaw Awards is an award ceremony presented for horror films that were released in 2020. The nominees were announced on January 20, 2021. The film The Invisible Man won five of its five nominations, including Best Wide Release, as well as the write-in poll of Best Kill. Color Out Of Space and Possessor each took two awards. His House did not win any of its seven nominations. The ceremony was exclusively livestreamed for the first time on the SHUDDER horror streaming service.\n\nWinners and nominees\n\nReferences\n\nFangoria Chainsaw Awards"
]
|
[
"Arthur Miller",
"Early career",
"When did his career begin?",
"That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award.",
"Did the play do well for him?",
"The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews.",
"Did he have any hit plays?",
"In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway",
"Did he win any awards?",
"(earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author"
]
| C_5ab66b0bf57946a38cd17bf139f94d57_1 | Did he write the plays? | 5 | Did Arthur Miller write the plays? | Arthur Miller | In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap. That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews. In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure. In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times. In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955, revised 1956). He wrote several screenplays and was most noted for his work on The Misfits (1961). The drama Death of a Salesman has been numbered on the short list of finest American plays in the 20th century.
Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. During this time, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and married Marilyn Monroe. In 1980, Miller received the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates. He received the Praemium Imperiale prize in 2001, Prince of Asturias Award in 2002, and the Jerusalem Prize in 2003, as well as the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 1999.
Biography
Early life
Miller was born on October 17, 1915, in Harlem, in the New York City borough of Manhattan, and published an account of his early years under the title "A Boy Grew in Brooklyn"; the second of three children of Augusta (Barnett) and Isidore Miller. Miller was Jewish and of Polish-Jewish descent. His father was born in Radomyśl Wielki, Galicia (then part of Austria-Hungary, now Poland), and his mother was a native of New York whose parents also arrived from that town. Isidore owned a women's clothing manufacturing business employing 400 people. He became a wealthy and respected man in the community. The family, including Miller's younger sister Joan Copeland, lived on West 110th Street in Manhattan, owned a summer house in Far Rockaway, Queens, and employed a chauffeur. In the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the family lost almost everything and moved to Gravesend, Brooklyn. (One source says they moved to Midwood.) As a teenager, Miller delivered bread every morning before school to help the family. After graduating in 1932 from Abraham Lincoln High School, he worked at several menial jobs to pay for his college tuition at the University of Michigan. After graduation (circa 1936), he began to work as a psychiatric aide and also a copywriter before accepting faculty posts at New York University and University of New Hampshire. On May 1, 1935, Miller joined the League of American Writers (1935–1943), whose members included Alexander Trachtenberg of International Publishers, Franklin Folsom, Louis Untermeyer, I. F. Stone, Myra Page, Millen Brand, Lillian Hellman, and Dashiell Hammett. (Members were largely either Communist Party members or fellow travelers.)
At the University of Michigan, Miller first majored in journalism and worked for the student newspaper, The Michigan Daily, as well as the satirical Gargoyle Humor Magazine. It was during this time that he wrote his first play, No Villain. Miller switched his major to English, and subsequently won the Avery Hopwood Award for No Villain. The award brought him his first recognition and led him to begin to consider that he could have a career as a playwright. Miller enrolled in a playwriting seminar taught by the influential Professor Kenneth Rowe, who instructed him in his early forays into playwriting; Rowe emphasized how a play is built in order to achieve its intended effect, or what Miller called "the dynamics of play construction". Rowe provided realistic feedback along with much-needed encouragement, and became a lifelong friend. Miller retained strong ties to his alma mater throughout the rest of his life, establishing the university's Arthur Miller Award in 1985 and Arthur Miller Award for Dramatic Writing in 1999, and lending his name to the Arthur Miller Theatre in 2000. In 1937, Miller wrote Honors at Dawn, which also received the Avery Hopwood Award.
After his graduation in 1938, he joined the Federal Theatre Project, a New Deal agency established to provide jobs in the theater. He chose the theater project despite the more lucrative offer to work as a scriptwriter for 20th Century Fox. However, Congress, worried about possible Communist infiltration, closed the project in 1939. Miller began working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard while continuing to write radio plays, some of which were broadcast on CBS.
Early career
In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane (born September 7, 1944) and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap.
In 1944 Miller's first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck and won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews.
In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure.
In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times.
In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred.
Critical years
In 1955, a one-act version of Miller's verse drama A View from the Bridge opened on Broadway in a joint bill with one of Miller's lesser-known plays, A Memory of Two Mondays. The following year, Miller revised A View from the Bridge as a two-act prose drama, which Peter Brook directed in London. A French-Italian co-production Vu du pont, based on the play, was released in 1962.
Marriages and family
In June 1956, Miller left his first wife, Mary Slattery, whom he had married in 1940, and wed film star Marilyn Monroe. They had met in 1951, had a brief affair, and remained in contact since. Monroe had just turned 30 when they married; she never had a real family of her own and was eager to join the family of her new husband.
Monroe began to reconsider her career and the fact that trying to manage it made her feel helpless. She admitted to Miller, "I hate Hollywood. I don't want it any more. I want to live quietly in the country and just be there when you need me. I can't fight for myself any more."
Monroe converted to Judaism to "express her loyalty and get close to both Miller and his parents", writes biographer Jeffrey Meyers. She told her close friend, Susan Strasberg: "I can identify with the Jews. Everybody's always out to get them, no matter what they do, like me." Soon after Monroe converted, Egypt banned all of her movies.
Away from Hollywood and the culture of celebrity, Monroe's life became more normal; she began cooking, keeping house and giving Miller more attention and affection than he had been used to.
Later that year, Miller was subpoenaed by the HCUA, and Monroe accompanied him. In her personal notes, she wrote about her worries during this period:
Miller began work on writing the screenplay for The Misfits in 1960, directed by John Huston and starring Monroe but it was during the filming that Miller and Monroe's relationship hit difficulties, and he later said that the filming was one of the lowest points in his life. Monroe was taking drugs to help her sleep and more drugs to help her wake up, which caused her to arrive on the set late and then have trouble remembering her lines. Huston was unaware that Miller and Monroe were having problems in their private life. He recalled later, "I was impertinent enough to say to Arthur that to allow her to take drugs of any kind was criminal and utterly irresponsible. Shortly after that I realized that she wouldn't listen to Arthur at all; he had no say over her actions."
Shortly before the film's premiere in 1961, Miller and Monroe divorced after five years of marriage. Nineteen months later, on August 5, 1962, Monroe died of a likely drug overdose. Huston, who had also directed her in her first major role in The Asphalt Jungle in 1950, and who had seen her rise to stardom, put the blame for her death on her doctors as opposed to the stresses of being a star: "The girl was an addict of sleeping pills and she was made so by the God-damn doctors. It had nothing to do with the Hollywood set-up."
Miller married photographer Inge Morath in February 1962. She had worked as a photographer documenting the production of The Misfits. The first of their two children, Rebecca, was born September 15, 1962. Their son, Daniel, was born with Down syndrome in November 1966. Against his wife's wishes, Miller had him institutionalized, first at a home for infants in New York City, and then at the Southbury Training School in Connecticut. Though Morath visited Daniel often, Miller never visited him at the school and rarely spoke of him. Miller and Inge remained together until her death in 2002. Arthur Miller's son-in-law, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, is said to have visited Daniel frequently, and to have persuaded Arthur Miller to meet with him.
HUAC controversy and The Crucible
In 1952, Elia Kazan appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Kazan named eight members of the Group Theatre, including Clifford Odets, Paula Strasberg, Lillian Hellman, J. Edward Bromberg, and John Garfield, who in recent years had been fellow members of the Communist Party. Miller and Kazan were close friends throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, but after Kazan's testimony to the HUAC, the pair's friendship ended. After speaking with Kazan about his testimony, Miller traveled to Salem, Massachusetts, to research the witch trials of 1692. He and Kazan did not speak to each other for the next ten years. Kazan later defended his own actions through his film On the Waterfront, in which a dockworker heroically testifies against a corrupt union boss. Miller would retaliate to Kazan's work by writing A View from the Bridge, a play where a longshoreman outs his co-workers motivated only by jealousy and greed. He sent a copy of the initial script to Kazan and when the director asked in jest to direct the movie, Miller replied "I only sent you the script to let you know what I think of Stool-Pigeons."
In The Crucible, Miller likened the situation with the House Un-American Activities Committee to the witch hunt in Salem in 1692. The play opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway on January 22, 1953. Though widely considered only somewhat successful at the time of its release, today The Crucible is Miller's most frequently produced work throughout the world. It was adapted into an opera by Robert Ward in 1961.
The HUAC took an interest in Miller himself not long after The Crucible opened, denying him a passport to attend the play's London opening in 1954. When Miller applied in 1956 for a routine renewal of his passport, the House Un-American Activities Committee used this opportunity to subpoena him to appear before the committee. Before appearing, Miller asked the committee not to ask him to name names, to which the chairman, Francis E. Walter (D-PA) agreed. When Miller attended the hearing, to which Monroe accompanied him, risking her own career, he gave the committee a detailed account of his political activities. Reneging on the chairman's promise, the committee demanded the names of friends and colleagues who had participated in similar activities. Miller refused to comply, saying "I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him." As a result, a judge found Miller guilty of contempt of Congress in May 1957. Miller was sentenced to a fine and a prison sentence, blacklisted, and disallowed a US passport. In August 1958, his conviction was overturned by the court of appeals, which ruled that Miller had been misled by the chairman of the HUAC.
Miller's experience with the HUAC affected him throughout his life. In the late 1970s, he joined other celebrities (including William Styron and Mike Nichols) who were brought together by the journalist Joan Barthel. Barthel's coverage of the highly publicized Barbara Gibbons murder case helped raise bail for Gibbons' son Peter Reilly, who had been convicted of his mother's murder based on what many felt was a coerced confession and little other evidence. Barthel documented the case in her book A Death in Canaan, which was made as a television film of the same name and broadcast in 1978. City Confidential, an A&E Network series, produced an episode about the murder, postulating that part of the reason Miller took such an active interest (including supporting Reilly's defense and using his own celebrity to bring attention to Reilly's plight) was because he had felt similarly persecuted in his run-ins with the HUAC. He sympathized with Reilly, whom he firmly believed to be innocent and to have been railroaded by the Connecticut State Police and the Attorney General who had initially prosecuted the case.
Later career
In 1964, After the Fall was produced, and is said to be a deeply personal view of Miller's experiences during his marriage to Monroe. The play reunited Miller with his former friend Kazan: they collaborated on both the script and the direction. After the Fall opened on January 23, 1964, at the ANTA Theatre in Washington Square Park amid a flurry of publicity and outrage at putting a Monroe-like character, called Maggie, on stage. Robert Brustein, in a review in the New Republic, called After the Fall "a three and one half hour breach of taste, a confessional autobiography of embarrassing explicitness ... there is a misogynistic strain in the play which the author does not seem to recognize. ... He has created a shameless piece of tabloid gossip, an act of exhibitionism which makes us all voyeurs, ... a wretched piece of dramatic writing." That same year, Miller produced Incident at Vichy. In 1965, Miller was elected the first American president of PEN International, a position which he held for four years. A year later, Miller organized the 1966 PEN congress in New York City. Miller also wrote the penetrating family drama, The Price, produced in 1968. It was Miller's most successful play since Death of a Salesman.
In 1968, Miller attended the Democratic National Convention as a delegate for Eugene McCarthy. In 1969, Miller's works were banned in the Soviet Union after he campaigned for the freedom of dissident writers. Throughout the 1970s, Miller spent much of his time experimenting with the theatre, producing one-act plays such as Fame and The Reason Why, and traveling with his wife, producing In the Country and Chinese Encounters with her. Both his 1972 comedy The Creation of the World and Other Business and its musical adaptation, Up from Paradise, were critical and commercial failures.
Miller was an unusually articulate commentator on his own work. In 1978 he published a collection of his Theater Essays, edited by Robert A. Martin and with a foreword by Miller. Highlights of the collection included Miller's introduction to his Collected Plays, his reflections on the theory of tragedy, comments on the McCarthy Era, and pieces arguing for a publicly supported theater. Reviewing this collection in the Chicago Tribune, Studs Terkel remarked, "in reading [the Theater Essays]...you are exhilaratingly aware of a social critic, as well as a playwright, who knows what he's talking about."
In 1983, Miller traveled to China to produce and direct Death of a Salesman at the People's Art Theatre in Beijing. The play was a success in China and in 1984, Salesman in Beijing, a book about Miller's experiences in Beijing, was published. Around the same time, Death of a Salesman was made into a TV movie starring Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman. Shown on CBS, it attracted 25 million viewers. In late 1987, Miller's autobiographical work,
Timebends, was published. Before it was published, it was well known that Miller would not talk about Monroe in interviews; in Timebends Miller talks about his experiences with Monroe in detail.
During the early-mid 1990s, Miller wrote three new plays: The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1992), and Broken Glass (1994). In 1996, a film of The Crucible starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Scofield, Bruce Davison, and Winona Ryder opened. Miller spent much of 1996 working on the screenplay for the film.
Mr. Peters' Connections was staged Off-Broadway in 1998, and Death of a Salesman was revived on Broadway in 1999 to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. The play, once again, was a large critical success, winning a Tony Award for best revival of a play.
In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. Miller was honored with the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award for a Master American Dramatist in 1998. In 2001 the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) selected Miller for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Miller's lecture was entitled "On Politics and the Art of Acting." Miller's lecture analyzed political events (including the U.S. presidential election of 2000)
in terms of the "arts of performance", and it drew attacks from some conservatives such as Jay Nordlinger, who called it "a disgrace", and George Will, who argued that Miller was not legitimately a "scholar".
In 1999, Miller was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to "a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life." In 2001, Miller received the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. On May 1, 2002, Miller was awarded Spain's Principe de Asturias Prize for Literature as "the undisputed master of modern drama". Later that year, Ingeborg Morath died of lymphatic cancer at the age of 78. The following year Miller won the Jerusalem Prize.
In December 2004, 89-year-old Miller announced that he had been in love with 34-year-old minimalist painter Agnes Barley and had been living with her at his Connecticut farm since 2002, and that they intended to marry. Within hours of her father's death, Rebecca Miller ordered Barley to vacate the premises because she had consistently been opposed to the relationship. Miller's final play, Finishing the Picture, opened at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, in the fall of 2004, with one character said to be based on Barley. It was reported to be based on his experience during the filming of The Misfits, though Miller insisted the play is a work of fiction with independent characters that were no more than composite shadows of history.
Death
Miller died on the evening of February 10, 2005 (the 56th anniversary of the Broadway debut of Death of a Salesman) at age 89 of bladder cancer and heart failure, at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. He had been in hospice care at his sister's apartment in New York since his release from hospital the previous month. He was surrounded by Barley, family and friends. His body was interred at Roxbury Center Cemetery in Roxbury.
Legacy
Miller's career as a writer spanned over seven decades, and at the time of his death, Miller was considered to be one of the greatest dramatists of the twentieth century. After his death, many respected actors, directors, and producers paid tribute to Miller, some calling him the last great practitioner of the American stage, and Broadway theatres darkened their lights in a show of respect.
Miller's alma mater, the University of Michigan, opened the Arthur Miller Theatre in March 2007. As per his express wish, it is the only theatre in the world that bears Miller's name.
Other notable arrangements for Miller's legacy are that his letters, notes, drafts and other papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin.
Miller is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. He was inducted in 1979.
In 1993, he received the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech.
In 2017, his daughter, Rebecca Miller, a writer and filmmaker, completed a documentary about her father's life, under the title Arthur Miller: Writer.
Minor planet 3769 Arthurmiller is named after him.
Foundation
The Arthur Miller Foundation was founded to honor the legacy of Miller and his New York City Public School Education. The mission of the foundation is: "Promoting increased access and equity to theater arts education in our schools and increasing the number of students receiving theater arts education as an integral part of their academic curriculum." Other initiatives include certification of new theater teachers and their placement in public schools; increasing the number of theater teachers in the system from the current estimate of 180 teachers in 1800 schools; supporting professional development of all certified theater teachers; providing teaching artists, cultural partners, physical spaces, and theater ticket allocations for students. The foundation's primary purpose is to provide arts education in the New York City school system. The current chancellor of the foundation is Carmen Farina, a large proponent of the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The Master Arts Council includes, among others, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Barkin, Bradley Cooper, Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson, Tony Kushner, Julianne Moore, Michael Moore, Liam Neeson, David O. Russell, and Liev Schreiber. His son-in-law Daniel Day-Lewis, serves on the current board of directors since 2016.
The foundation celebrated Miller's 100th birthday with a one-night-only performance of Miller's seminal works in November 2015.
The Arthur Miller Foundation currently supports a pilot program in theater and film at the public school Quest to Learn in partnership with the Institute of Play. The model is being used as an in-school elective theater class and lab. The objective is to create a sustainable theater education model to disseminate to teachers at professional development workshops.
Archive
Miller donated thirteen boxes of his earliest manuscripts to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin in 1961 and 1962. This collection included the original handwritten notebooks and early typed drafts for Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, All My Sons, and other works. In January, 2018, the Ransom Center announced the acquisition of the remainder of the Miller archive totaling over 200 boxes. The full archive opened in November, 2019.
Literary and public criticism
Christopher Bigsby wrote Arthur Miller: The Definitive Biography based on boxes of papers Miller made available to him before his death in 2005. The book was published in November 2008, and is reported to reveal unpublished works in which Miller "bitterly attack[ed] the injustices of American racism long before it was taken up by the civil rights movement".
In his book Trinity of Passion, author Alan M. Wald conjectures that Miller was "a member of a writer's unit of the Communist Party around 1946," using the pseudonym Matt Wayne, and editing a drama column in the magazine The New Masses.
In 1999 the writer Christopher Hitchens attacked Miller for comparing the Monica Lewinsky investigation to the Salem witch hunt. Miller had asserted a parallel between the examination of physical evidence on Lewinsky's dress and the examinations of women's bodies for signs of the "Devil's Marks" in Salem. Hitchens scathingly disputed the parallel. In his memoir, Hitch-22, Hitchens bitterly noted that Miller, despite his prominence as a left-wing intellectual, had failed to support author Salman Rushdie during the Iranian fatwa involving The Satanic Verses.
Works
Stage plays
No Villain (1936)
They Too Arise (1937, based on No Villain)
Honors at Dawn (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Grass Still Grows (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Great Disobedience (1938)
Listen My Children (1939, with Norman Rosten)
The Golden Years (1940)
The Half-Bridge (1943)
The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944)
All My Sons (1947)
Death of a Salesman (1949)
An Enemy of the People (1950, based on Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People)
The Crucible (1953)
A View from the Bridge (1955)
A Memory of Two Mondays (1955)
After the Fall (1964)
Incident at Vichy (1964)
The Price (1968)
The Reason Why (1970)
Fame (one-act, 1970; revised for television 1978)
The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972)
Up from Paradise (1974)
The Archbishop's Ceiling (1977)
The American Clock (1980)
Playing for Time (television play, 1980)
Elegy for a Lady (short play, 1982, first part of Two Way Mirror)
Some Kind of Love Story (short play, 1982, second part of Two Way Mirror)
I Think About You a Great Deal (1986)
Playing for Time (stage version, 1985)
I Can't Remember Anything (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
Clara (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991)
The Last Yankee (1993)
Broken Glass (1994)
Mr. Peters' Connections (1998)
Resurrection Blues (2002)
Finishing the Picture (2004)
Radio plays
The Pussycat and the Expert Plumber Who Was a Man (1941)
Joel Chandler Harris (1941)
The Battle of the Ovens (1942)
Thunder from the Mountains (1942)
I Was Married in Bataan (1942)
That They May Win (1943)
Listen for the Sound of Wings (1943)
Bernardine (1944)
I Love You (1944)
Grandpa and the Statue (1944)
The Philippines Never Surrendered (1944)
The Guardsman (1944, based on Ferenc Molnár's play)
The Story of Gus (1947)
Screenplays
The Hook (1947)
All My Sons (1948)
Let's Make Love (1960)
The Misfits (1961)
Death of a Salesman (1985)
Everybody Wins (1990)
The Crucible (1996)
Assorted fiction
Focus (novel, 1945)
"The Misfits" (short story, published in Esquire, October 1957)
I Don't Need You Anymore (short stories, 1967)
Homely Girl: A Life (short story, 1992, published in UK as "Plain Girl: A Life" 1995)
"The Performance" (short story)
Presence: Stories (2007) (short stories include The Bare Manuscript, Beavers, The Performance, and Bulldog)
Non-fiction
Situation Normal (1944) is based on his experiences researching the war correspondence of Ernie Pyle.
In Russia (1969), the first of three books created with his photographer wife Inge Morath, offers Miller's impressions of Russia and Russian society.
In the Country (1977), with photographs by Morath and text by Miller, provides insight into how Miller spent his time in Roxbury, Connecticut, and profiles of his various neighbors.
Chinese Encounters (1979) is a travel journal with photographs by Morath. It depicts the Chinese society in the state of flux which followed the end of the Cultural Revolution. Miller discusses the hardships of many writers, professors, and artists as they try to regain the sense of freedom and place they lost during Mao Zedong's regime.
Salesman in Beijing (1984) details Miller's experiences with the 1983 Beijing People's Theatre production of Death of a Salesman. He describes the idiosyncrasies, understandings, and insights encountered in directing a Chinese cast in a decidedly American play.
Timebends: A Life, Methuen London (1987) . Like Death of a Salesman, the book follows the structure of memory itself, each passage linked to and triggered by the one before.
Collections
Abbotson, Susan C. W. (ed.), Arthur Miller: Collected Essays, Penguin 2016
Centola, Steven R. ed. Echoes Down the Corridor: Arthur Miller, Collected Essays 1944–2000, Viking Penguin (US)/Methuen (UK), 2000
Kushner, Tony, ed. Arthur Miller, Collected Plays 1944–1961 (Library of America, 2006) .
Martin, Robert A. (ed.), "The theater essays of Arthur Miller", foreword by Arthur Miller. NY: Viking Press, 1978
References
Bibliography
Bigsby, Christopher (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller, Cambridge 1997
Gottfried, Martin, Arthur Miller, A Life, Da Capo Press (US)/Faber and Faber (UK), 2003
Koorey, Stefani, Arthur Miller's Life and Literature, Scarecrow, 2000
Moss, Leonard. Arthur Miller, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980.
Further reading
Critical Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (2007)
Student Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Facts on File (2000)
File on Miller, Christopher Bigsby (1988)
Arthur Miller & Company, Christopher Bigsby, editor (1990)
Arthur Miller: A Critical Study, Christopher Bigsby (2005)
Remembering Arthur Miller, Christopher Bigsby, editor (2005)
Arthur Miller 1915–1962, Christopher Bigsby (2008, U.K.; 2009, U.S.)
The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller (Cambridge Companions to Literature), Christopher Bigsby, editor (1998, updated and republished 2010)
Arthur Miller 1962–2005, Christopher Bigsby (2011)
Arthur Miller: Critical Insights, Brenda Murphy, editor, Salem (2011)
Understanding Death of a Salesman, Brenda Murphy and Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (1999)
Critical articles
Arthur Miller Journal, published biannually by Penn State UP. Vol. 1.1 (2006)
Radavich, David. "Arthur Miller's Sojourn in the Heartland". American Drama 16:2 (Summer 2007): 28–45.
External links
Organizations
Arthur Miller official website
Arthur Miller Society
The Arthur Miller Foundation
Archive
Arthur Miller Papers at the Harry Ransom Center
"Playwright Arthur Miller's archive comes to the Harry Ransom Center"
Finding aid to Arthur Miller papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Databases
Websites
A Visit With Castro – Miller's article in The Nation, January 12, 2004
Joyce Carol Oates on Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller Biography
Arthur Miller and Mccarthyism
Interviews
Miller interview, Humanities, March–April 2001
Obituaries
The New York Times Obituary
NPR obituary
CNN obituary
1915 births
2005 deaths
University of Michigan alumni
Kennedy Center honorees
Laurence Olivier Award winners
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Tony Award winners
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American screenwriters
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21st-century American short story writers
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Abraham Lincoln High School (Brooklyn) alumni
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20th-century American Jews
American male dramatists and playwrights
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Deaths from cancer in Connecticut
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Hopwood Award winners
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Jewish American dramatists and playwrights
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21st-century American Jews | false | [
"Matsemela Manaka (1956 - 1998) was a South-African born playwright, poet, and artist. He began his career in the mid-1970's and was influenced by the ideas of the Black Consciousness Movement. Among his plays, the most distinguished are Egoli: City of Gold and Children of Asazi. He eventually won the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award in 1987.\n\nEarly life and education\nManaka was born on 20 June 1956, in Alexandra township. He attended primary and secondary school in Diepkloof, and spent the majority of his life in Soweto. He then attended Ithumeng Commercial College studying commerce part-time. Manaka desired to attend a university, but the recently introduced requirement for Afrikaans, which wasn't offered at Ithumeng, was prohibitive. He then enrolled at Matibane High School in 1976, which did offer the language, but his attempt was voided, ironically, by the Soweto uprising that came as a response to the 1974 legislation demanding Afrikaans.\n\nCareer\nManaka worked as a teacher and, already an admirer of the plays of Gibson Kente, developed an interest in theatre after witnessing his students participate in the 1976 Soweto uprising. He founded the Soyikwa African Theatre group in 1978, with students from the Creative Youth Association who had gotten together after the uprising. His work was often chosen through suggestion by students and staff. Soyikwa's first production was The Horn, followed by Imbumba, and then Egoli, the latter of which became a success when it was performed in the city. The group performed political satire drawing from both European and African traditions; themes included Pan-African and Black Consciousness as well as the realities of South African politics--apartheid, the continuing destruction of social life in townships, and widespread poverty in rual areas. Manaka's plays were a success in Europe as well.\n\nHe was awarded the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award in 1987 and with this award he funded a playwright for young authors in Soweto. Manaka participated in multiple initiative such as The Creative Youth Association, Ravan Press, Staffrider. Matsemela Manaka died from a car accident in 1998.\n\nPlays\nThe Horn\nImbumba\nEgoli: City of Gold (1978)\nBlues Afrika Cafe (1980)\nVuka (1981)\nMbumba (1984)\nChildren of Asazi (1984)\nGoree (musical), 1989\n\nReferences\n\n1956 births\n1998 deaths\nPeople from Alexandra, Gauteng",
"Music for Flute and Orchestra is a classical work by Catalan composer Leonardo Balada, composed in 2000. This work was commissioned by the Carnegie Mellon University, and the first recording of the work can be found in the Naxos catalogue. This piece has plenty of Catalan folk elements and belong to the composer's avant-garde period.\n\nStructure \n\nThis piece is in two movements, each one of them lasting for ten minutes approximately. The composer did not write a title for either of the movements, so the number within the work is considered the title, namely:\n\n I.\n II.\n\nAccording to the author of this work, the first movement is slow; the flute plays a mysterious melody after a short introduction from the orchestra. The second movement is written for a virtuoso soloist, while the orchestra plays a dance in the background.\n\nReferences \n\nCompositions by Leonardo Balada\nCatalan music\n2000 compositions"
]
|
[
"Arthur Miller",
"Early career",
"When did his career begin?",
"That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award.",
"Did the play do well for him?",
"The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews.",
"Did he have any hit plays?",
"In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway",
"Did he win any awards?",
"(earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author",
"Did he write the plays?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_5ab66b0bf57946a38cd17bf139f94d57_1 | what did critics think of his work? | 6 | what did critics think of Arthur Miller's work? | Arthur Miller | In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap. That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews. In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure. In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times. In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred. CANNOTANSWER | "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure. | Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955, revised 1956). He wrote several screenplays and was most noted for his work on The Misfits (1961). The drama Death of a Salesman has been numbered on the short list of finest American plays in the 20th century.
Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. During this time, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and married Marilyn Monroe. In 1980, Miller received the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates. He received the Praemium Imperiale prize in 2001, Prince of Asturias Award in 2002, and the Jerusalem Prize in 2003, as well as the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 1999.
Biography
Early life
Miller was born on October 17, 1915, in Harlem, in the New York City borough of Manhattan, and published an account of his early years under the title "A Boy Grew in Brooklyn"; the second of three children of Augusta (Barnett) and Isidore Miller. Miller was Jewish and of Polish-Jewish descent. His father was born in Radomyśl Wielki, Galicia (then part of Austria-Hungary, now Poland), and his mother was a native of New York whose parents also arrived from that town. Isidore owned a women's clothing manufacturing business employing 400 people. He became a wealthy and respected man in the community. The family, including Miller's younger sister Joan Copeland, lived on West 110th Street in Manhattan, owned a summer house in Far Rockaway, Queens, and employed a chauffeur. In the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the family lost almost everything and moved to Gravesend, Brooklyn. (One source says they moved to Midwood.) As a teenager, Miller delivered bread every morning before school to help the family. After graduating in 1932 from Abraham Lincoln High School, he worked at several menial jobs to pay for his college tuition at the University of Michigan. After graduation (circa 1936), he began to work as a psychiatric aide and also a copywriter before accepting faculty posts at New York University and University of New Hampshire. On May 1, 1935, Miller joined the League of American Writers (1935–1943), whose members included Alexander Trachtenberg of International Publishers, Franklin Folsom, Louis Untermeyer, I. F. Stone, Myra Page, Millen Brand, Lillian Hellman, and Dashiell Hammett. (Members were largely either Communist Party members or fellow travelers.)
At the University of Michigan, Miller first majored in journalism and worked for the student newspaper, The Michigan Daily, as well as the satirical Gargoyle Humor Magazine. It was during this time that he wrote his first play, No Villain. Miller switched his major to English, and subsequently won the Avery Hopwood Award for No Villain. The award brought him his first recognition and led him to begin to consider that he could have a career as a playwright. Miller enrolled in a playwriting seminar taught by the influential Professor Kenneth Rowe, who instructed him in his early forays into playwriting; Rowe emphasized how a play is built in order to achieve its intended effect, or what Miller called "the dynamics of play construction". Rowe provided realistic feedback along with much-needed encouragement, and became a lifelong friend. Miller retained strong ties to his alma mater throughout the rest of his life, establishing the university's Arthur Miller Award in 1985 and Arthur Miller Award for Dramatic Writing in 1999, and lending his name to the Arthur Miller Theatre in 2000. In 1937, Miller wrote Honors at Dawn, which also received the Avery Hopwood Award.
After his graduation in 1938, he joined the Federal Theatre Project, a New Deal agency established to provide jobs in the theater. He chose the theater project despite the more lucrative offer to work as a scriptwriter for 20th Century Fox. However, Congress, worried about possible Communist infiltration, closed the project in 1939. Miller began working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard while continuing to write radio plays, some of which were broadcast on CBS.
Early career
In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane (born September 7, 1944) and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap.
In 1944 Miller's first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck and won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews.
In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure.
In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times.
In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred.
Critical years
In 1955, a one-act version of Miller's verse drama A View from the Bridge opened on Broadway in a joint bill with one of Miller's lesser-known plays, A Memory of Two Mondays. The following year, Miller revised A View from the Bridge as a two-act prose drama, which Peter Brook directed in London. A French-Italian co-production Vu du pont, based on the play, was released in 1962.
Marriages and family
In June 1956, Miller left his first wife, Mary Slattery, whom he had married in 1940, and wed film star Marilyn Monroe. They had met in 1951, had a brief affair, and remained in contact since. Monroe had just turned 30 when they married; she never had a real family of her own and was eager to join the family of her new husband.
Monroe began to reconsider her career and the fact that trying to manage it made her feel helpless. She admitted to Miller, "I hate Hollywood. I don't want it any more. I want to live quietly in the country and just be there when you need me. I can't fight for myself any more."
Monroe converted to Judaism to "express her loyalty and get close to both Miller and his parents", writes biographer Jeffrey Meyers. She told her close friend, Susan Strasberg: "I can identify with the Jews. Everybody's always out to get them, no matter what they do, like me." Soon after Monroe converted, Egypt banned all of her movies.
Away from Hollywood and the culture of celebrity, Monroe's life became more normal; she began cooking, keeping house and giving Miller more attention and affection than he had been used to.
Later that year, Miller was subpoenaed by the HCUA, and Monroe accompanied him. In her personal notes, she wrote about her worries during this period:
Miller began work on writing the screenplay for The Misfits in 1960, directed by John Huston and starring Monroe but it was during the filming that Miller and Monroe's relationship hit difficulties, and he later said that the filming was one of the lowest points in his life. Monroe was taking drugs to help her sleep and more drugs to help her wake up, which caused her to arrive on the set late and then have trouble remembering her lines. Huston was unaware that Miller and Monroe were having problems in their private life. He recalled later, "I was impertinent enough to say to Arthur that to allow her to take drugs of any kind was criminal and utterly irresponsible. Shortly after that I realized that she wouldn't listen to Arthur at all; he had no say over her actions."
Shortly before the film's premiere in 1961, Miller and Monroe divorced after five years of marriage. Nineteen months later, on August 5, 1962, Monroe died of a likely drug overdose. Huston, who had also directed her in her first major role in The Asphalt Jungle in 1950, and who had seen her rise to stardom, put the blame for her death on her doctors as opposed to the stresses of being a star: "The girl was an addict of sleeping pills and she was made so by the God-damn doctors. It had nothing to do with the Hollywood set-up."
Miller married photographer Inge Morath in February 1962. She had worked as a photographer documenting the production of The Misfits. The first of their two children, Rebecca, was born September 15, 1962. Their son, Daniel, was born with Down syndrome in November 1966. Against his wife's wishes, Miller had him institutionalized, first at a home for infants in New York City, and then at the Southbury Training School in Connecticut. Though Morath visited Daniel often, Miller never visited him at the school and rarely spoke of him. Miller and Inge remained together until her death in 2002. Arthur Miller's son-in-law, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, is said to have visited Daniel frequently, and to have persuaded Arthur Miller to meet with him.
HUAC controversy and The Crucible
In 1952, Elia Kazan appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Kazan named eight members of the Group Theatre, including Clifford Odets, Paula Strasberg, Lillian Hellman, J. Edward Bromberg, and John Garfield, who in recent years had been fellow members of the Communist Party. Miller and Kazan were close friends throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, but after Kazan's testimony to the HUAC, the pair's friendship ended. After speaking with Kazan about his testimony, Miller traveled to Salem, Massachusetts, to research the witch trials of 1692. He and Kazan did not speak to each other for the next ten years. Kazan later defended his own actions through his film On the Waterfront, in which a dockworker heroically testifies against a corrupt union boss. Miller would retaliate to Kazan's work by writing A View from the Bridge, a play where a longshoreman outs his co-workers motivated only by jealousy and greed. He sent a copy of the initial script to Kazan and when the director asked in jest to direct the movie, Miller replied "I only sent you the script to let you know what I think of Stool-Pigeons."
In The Crucible, Miller likened the situation with the House Un-American Activities Committee to the witch hunt in Salem in 1692. The play opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway on January 22, 1953. Though widely considered only somewhat successful at the time of its release, today The Crucible is Miller's most frequently produced work throughout the world. It was adapted into an opera by Robert Ward in 1961.
The HUAC took an interest in Miller himself not long after The Crucible opened, denying him a passport to attend the play's London opening in 1954. When Miller applied in 1956 for a routine renewal of his passport, the House Un-American Activities Committee used this opportunity to subpoena him to appear before the committee. Before appearing, Miller asked the committee not to ask him to name names, to which the chairman, Francis E. Walter (D-PA) agreed. When Miller attended the hearing, to which Monroe accompanied him, risking her own career, he gave the committee a detailed account of his political activities. Reneging on the chairman's promise, the committee demanded the names of friends and colleagues who had participated in similar activities. Miller refused to comply, saying "I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him." As a result, a judge found Miller guilty of contempt of Congress in May 1957. Miller was sentenced to a fine and a prison sentence, blacklisted, and disallowed a US passport. In August 1958, his conviction was overturned by the court of appeals, which ruled that Miller had been misled by the chairman of the HUAC.
Miller's experience with the HUAC affected him throughout his life. In the late 1970s, he joined other celebrities (including William Styron and Mike Nichols) who were brought together by the journalist Joan Barthel. Barthel's coverage of the highly publicized Barbara Gibbons murder case helped raise bail for Gibbons' son Peter Reilly, who had been convicted of his mother's murder based on what many felt was a coerced confession and little other evidence. Barthel documented the case in her book A Death in Canaan, which was made as a television film of the same name and broadcast in 1978. City Confidential, an A&E Network series, produced an episode about the murder, postulating that part of the reason Miller took such an active interest (including supporting Reilly's defense and using his own celebrity to bring attention to Reilly's plight) was because he had felt similarly persecuted in his run-ins with the HUAC. He sympathized with Reilly, whom he firmly believed to be innocent and to have been railroaded by the Connecticut State Police and the Attorney General who had initially prosecuted the case.
Later career
In 1964, After the Fall was produced, and is said to be a deeply personal view of Miller's experiences during his marriage to Monroe. The play reunited Miller with his former friend Kazan: they collaborated on both the script and the direction. After the Fall opened on January 23, 1964, at the ANTA Theatre in Washington Square Park amid a flurry of publicity and outrage at putting a Monroe-like character, called Maggie, on stage. Robert Brustein, in a review in the New Republic, called After the Fall "a three and one half hour breach of taste, a confessional autobiography of embarrassing explicitness ... there is a misogynistic strain in the play which the author does not seem to recognize. ... He has created a shameless piece of tabloid gossip, an act of exhibitionism which makes us all voyeurs, ... a wretched piece of dramatic writing." That same year, Miller produced Incident at Vichy. In 1965, Miller was elected the first American president of PEN International, a position which he held for four years. A year later, Miller organized the 1966 PEN congress in New York City. Miller also wrote the penetrating family drama, The Price, produced in 1968. It was Miller's most successful play since Death of a Salesman.
In 1968, Miller attended the Democratic National Convention as a delegate for Eugene McCarthy. In 1969, Miller's works were banned in the Soviet Union after he campaigned for the freedom of dissident writers. Throughout the 1970s, Miller spent much of his time experimenting with the theatre, producing one-act plays such as Fame and The Reason Why, and traveling with his wife, producing In the Country and Chinese Encounters with her. Both his 1972 comedy The Creation of the World and Other Business and its musical adaptation, Up from Paradise, were critical and commercial failures.
Miller was an unusually articulate commentator on his own work. In 1978 he published a collection of his Theater Essays, edited by Robert A. Martin and with a foreword by Miller. Highlights of the collection included Miller's introduction to his Collected Plays, his reflections on the theory of tragedy, comments on the McCarthy Era, and pieces arguing for a publicly supported theater. Reviewing this collection in the Chicago Tribune, Studs Terkel remarked, "in reading [the Theater Essays]...you are exhilaratingly aware of a social critic, as well as a playwright, who knows what he's talking about."
In 1983, Miller traveled to China to produce and direct Death of a Salesman at the People's Art Theatre in Beijing. The play was a success in China and in 1984, Salesman in Beijing, a book about Miller's experiences in Beijing, was published. Around the same time, Death of a Salesman was made into a TV movie starring Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman. Shown on CBS, it attracted 25 million viewers. In late 1987, Miller's autobiographical work,
Timebends, was published. Before it was published, it was well known that Miller would not talk about Monroe in interviews; in Timebends Miller talks about his experiences with Monroe in detail.
During the early-mid 1990s, Miller wrote three new plays: The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1992), and Broken Glass (1994). In 1996, a film of The Crucible starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Scofield, Bruce Davison, and Winona Ryder opened. Miller spent much of 1996 working on the screenplay for the film.
Mr. Peters' Connections was staged Off-Broadway in 1998, and Death of a Salesman was revived on Broadway in 1999 to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. The play, once again, was a large critical success, winning a Tony Award for best revival of a play.
In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. Miller was honored with the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award for a Master American Dramatist in 1998. In 2001 the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) selected Miller for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Miller's lecture was entitled "On Politics and the Art of Acting." Miller's lecture analyzed political events (including the U.S. presidential election of 2000)
in terms of the "arts of performance", and it drew attacks from some conservatives such as Jay Nordlinger, who called it "a disgrace", and George Will, who argued that Miller was not legitimately a "scholar".
In 1999, Miller was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to "a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life." In 2001, Miller received the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. On May 1, 2002, Miller was awarded Spain's Principe de Asturias Prize for Literature as "the undisputed master of modern drama". Later that year, Ingeborg Morath died of lymphatic cancer at the age of 78. The following year Miller won the Jerusalem Prize.
In December 2004, 89-year-old Miller announced that he had been in love with 34-year-old minimalist painter Agnes Barley and had been living with her at his Connecticut farm since 2002, and that they intended to marry. Within hours of her father's death, Rebecca Miller ordered Barley to vacate the premises because she had consistently been opposed to the relationship. Miller's final play, Finishing the Picture, opened at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, in the fall of 2004, with one character said to be based on Barley. It was reported to be based on his experience during the filming of The Misfits, though Miller insisted the play is a work of fiction with independent characters that were no more than composite shadows of history.
Death
Miller died on the evening of February 10, 2005 (the 56th anniversary of the Broadway debut of Death of a Salesman) at age 89 of bladder cancer and heart failure, at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. He had been in hospice care at his sister's apartment in New York since his release from hospital the previous month. He was surrounded by Barley, family and friends. His body was interred at Roxbury Center Cemetery in Roxbury.
Legacy
Miller's career as a writer spanned over seven decades, and at the time of his death, Miller was considered to be one of the greatest dramatists of the twentieth century. After his death, many respected actors, directors, and producers paid tribute to Miller, some calling him the last great practitioner of the American stage, and Broadway theatres darkened their lights in a show of respect.
Miller's alma mater, the University of Michigan, opened the Arthur Miller Theatre in March 2007. As per his express wish, it is the only theatre in the world that bears Miller's name.
Other notable arrangements for Miller's legacy are that his letters, notes, drafts and other papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin.
Miller is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. He was inducted in 1979.
In 1993, he received the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech.
In 2017, his daughter, Rebecca Miller, a writer and filmmaker, completed a documentary about her father's life, under the title Arthur Miller: Writer.
Minor planet 3769 Arthurmiller is named after him.
Foundation
The Arthur Miller Foundation was founded to honor the legacy of Miller and his New York City Public School Education. The mission of the foundation is: "Promoting increased access and equity to theater arts education in our schools and increasing the number of students receiving theater arts education as an integral part of their academic curriculum." Other initiatives include certification of new theater teachers and their placement in public schools; increasing the number of theater teachers in the system from the current estimate of 180 teachers in 1800 schools; supporting professional development of all certified theater teachers; providing teaching artists, cultural partners, physical spaces, and theater ticket allocations for students. The foundation's primary purpose is to provide arts education in the New York City school system. The current chancellor of the foundation is Carmen Farina, a large proponent of the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The Master Arts Council includes, among others, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Barkin, Bradley Cooper, Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson, Tony Kushner, Julianne Moore, Michael Moore, Liam Neeson, David O. Russell, and Liev Schreiber. His son-in-law Daniel Day-Lewis, serves on the current board of directors since 2016.
The foundation celebrated Miller's 100th birthday with a one-night-only performance of Miller's seminal works in November 2015.
The Arthur Miller Foundation currently supports a pilot program in theater and film at the public school Quest to Learn in partnership with the Institute of Play. The model is being used as an in-school elective theater class and lab. The objective is to create a sustainable theater education model to disseminate to teachers at professional development workshops.
Archive
Miller donated thirteen boxes of his earliest manuscripts to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin in 1961 and 1962. This collection included the original handwritten notebooks and early typed drafts for Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, All My Sons, and other works. In January, 2018, the Ransom Center announced the acquisition of the remainder of the Miller archive totaling over 200 boxes. The full archive opened in November, 2019.
Literary and public criticism
Christopher Bigsby wrote Arthur Miller: The Definitive Biography based on boxes of papers Miller made available to him before his death in 2005. The book was published in November 2008, and is reported to reveal unpublished works in which Miller "bitterly attack[ed] the injustices of American racism long before it was taken up by the civil rights movement".
In his book Trinity of Passion, author Alan M. Wald conjectures that Miller was "a member of a writer's unit of the Communist Party around 1946," using the pseudonym Matt Wayne, and editing a drama column in the magazine The New Masses.
In 1999 the writer Christopher Hitchens attacked Miller for comparing the Monica Lewinsky investigation to the Salem witch hunt. Miller had asserted a parallel between the examination of physical evidence on Lewinsky's dress and the examinations of women's bodies for signs of the "Devil's Marks" in Salem. Hitchens scathingly disputed the parallel. In his memoir, Hitch-22, Hitchens bitterly noted that Miller, despite his prominence as a left-wing intellectual, had failed to support author Salman Rushdie during the Iranian fatwa involving The Satanic Verses.
Works
Stage plays
No Villain (1936)
They Too Arise (1937, based on No Villain)
Honors at Dawn (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Grass Still Grows (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Great Disobedience (1938)
Listen My Children (1939, with Norman Rosten)
The Golden Years (1940)
The Half-Bridge (1943)
The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944)
All My Sons (1947)
Death of a Salesman (1949)
An Enemy of the People (1950, based on Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People)
The Crucible (1953)
A View from the Bridge (1955)
A Memory of Two Mondays (1955)
After the Fall (1964)
Incident at Vichy (1964)
The Price (1968)
The Reason Why (1970)
Fame (one-act, 1970; revised for television 1978)
The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972)
Up from Paradise (1974)
The Archbishop's Ceiling (1977)
The American Clock (1980)
Playing for Time (television play, 1980)
Elegy for a Lady (short play, 1982, first part of Two Way Mirror)
Some Kind of Love Story (short play, 1982, second part of Two Way Mirror)
I Think About You a Great Deal (1986)
Playing for Time (stage version, 1985)
I Can't Remember Anything (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
Clara (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991)
The Last Yankee (1993)
Broken Glass (1994)
Mr. Peters' Connections (1998)
Resurrection Blues (2002)
Finishing the Picture (2004)
Radio plays
The Pussycat and the Expert Plumber Who Was a Man (1941)
Joel Chandler Harris (1941)
The Battle of the Ovens (1942)
Thunder from the Mountains (1942)
I Was Married in Bataan (1942)
That They May Win (1943)
Listen for the Sound of Wings (1943)
Bernardine (1944)
I Love You (1944)
Grandpa and the Statue (1944)
The Philippines Never Surrendered (1944)
The Guardsman (1944, based on Ferenc Molnár's play)
The Story of Gus (1947)
Screenplays
The Hook (1947)
All My Sons (1948)
Let's Make Love (1960)
The Misfits (1961)
Death of a Salesman (1985)
Everybody Wins (1990)
The Crucible (1996)
Assorted fiction
Focus (novel, 1945)
"The Misfits" (short story, published in Esquire, October 1957)
I Don't Need You Anymore (short stories, 1967)
Homely Girl: A Life (short story, 1992, published in UK as "Plain Girl: A Life" 1995)
"The Performance" (short story)
Presence: Stories (2007) (short stories include The Bare Manuscript, Beavers, The Performance, and Bulldog)
Non-fiction
Situation Normal (1944) is based on his experiences researching the war correspondence of Ernie Pyle.
In Russia (1969), the first of three books created with his photographer wife Inge Morath, offers Miller's impressions of Russia and Russian society.
In the Country (1977), with photographs by Morath and text by Miller, provides insight into how Miller spent his time in Roxbury, Connecticut, and profiles of his various neighbors.
Chinese Encounters (1979) is a travel journal with photographs by Morath. It depicts the Chinese society in the state of flux which followed the end of the Cultural Revolution. Miller discusses the hardships of many writers, professors, and artists as they try to regain the sense of freedom and place they lost during Mao Zedong's regime.
Salesman in Beijing (1984) details Miller's experiences with the 1983 Beijing People's Theatre production of Death of a Salesman. He describes the idiosyncrasies, understandings, and insights encountered in directing a Chinese cast in a decidedly American play.
Timebends: A Life, Methuen London (1987) . Like Death of a Salesman, the book follows the structure of memory itself, each passage linked to and triggered by the one before.
Collections
Abbotson, Susan C. W. (ed.), Arthur Miller: Collected Essays, Penguin 2016
Centola, Steven R. ed. Echoes Down the Corridor: Arthur Miller, Collected Essays 1944–2000, Viking Penguin (US)/Methuen (UK), 2000
Kushner, Tony, ed. Arthur Miller, Collected Plays 1944–1961 (Library of America, 2006) .
Martin, Robert A. (ed.), "The theater essays of Arthur Miller", foreword by Arthur Miller. NY: Viking Press, 1978
References
Bibliography
Bigsby, Christopher (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller, Cambridge 1997
Gottfried, Martin, Arthur Miller, A Life, Da Capo Press (US)/Faber and Faber (UK), 2003
Koorey, Stefani, Arthur Miller's Life and Literature, Scarecrow, 2000
Moss, Leonard. Arthur Miller, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980.
Further reading
Critical Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (2007)
Student Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Facts on File (2000)
File on Miller, Christopher Bigsby (1988)
Arthur Miller & Company, Christopher Bigsby, editor (1990)
Arthur Miller: A Critical Study, Christopher Bigsby (2005)
Remembering Arthur Miller, Christopher Bigsby, editor (2005)
Arthur Miller 1915–1962, Christopher Bigsby (2008, U.K.; 2009, U.S.)
The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller (Cambridge Companions to Literature), Christopher Bigsby, editor (1998, updated and republished 2010)
Arthur Miller 1962–2005, Christopher Bigsby (2011)
Arthur Miller: Critical Insights, Brenda Murphy, editor, Salem (2011)
Understanding Death of a Salesman, Brenda Murphy and Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (1999)
Critical articles
Arthur Miller Journal, published biannually by Penn State UP. Vol. 1.1 (2006)
Radavich, David. "Arthur Miller's Sojourn in the Heartland". American Drama 16:2 (Summer 2007): 28–45.
External links
Organizations
Arthur Miller official website
Arthur Miller Society
The Arthur Miller Foundation
Archive
Arthur Miller Papers at the Harry Ransom Center
"Playwright Arthur Miller's archive comes to the Harry Ransom Center"
Finding aid to Arthur Miller papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Databases
Websites
A Visit With Castro – Miller's article in The Nation, January 12, 2004
Joyce Carol Oates on Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller Biography
Arthur Miller and Mccarthyism
Interviews
Miller interview, Humanities, March–April 2001
Obituaries
The New York Times Obituary
NPR obituary
CNN obituary
1915 births
2005 deaths
University of Michigan alumni
Kennedy Center honorees
Laurence Olivier Award winners
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Tony Award winners
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American screenwriters
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20th-century essayists
21st-century American dramatists and playwrights
21st-century American non-fiction writers
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Abraham Lincoln High School (Brooklyn) alumni
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American autobiographers
20th-century American Jews
American male dramatists and playwrights
American male essayists
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American male novelists
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American male short story writers
American memoirists
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Cultural critics
Deaths from bladder cancer
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Recipients of the Four Freedoms Award
American social commentators
Social critics
Special Tony Award recipients
Writers about activism and social change
Writers about communism
Writers from Brooklyn
Writers from Connecticut
21st-century American Jews | true | [
"Julius Leopold Korngold (24 December 1860 – 25 September 1945) was an Austrian music critic. He was the leading critic in early twentieth century Vienna, serving as chief music critic of the Neue Freie Presse from 1904 to 1934. His son was the composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, whom he named after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of his favorite composers.\n\nLife and career\nHe was the father of composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold. He co-wrote the libretto of the opera Die tote Stadt with his son (under the collective pseudonym Paul Schott). He died in Hollywood, California on 25 September 1945.\n\nIn his time, he was known as the \"dean of European music critics\". He is most notable for championing the works of Gustav Mahler at a time when many did not think much of him.\n\nReferences\n\nSources\n\nFurther reading\n\nExternal links\n \n \n\nAustrian music critics\nAustrian Jews\n1860 births\n1945 deaths\nAustrian opera librettists",
"Destination Universe is the second studio album by Material Issue, released on Mercury Records in 1992. The new album was not as well received by critics as the debut album, nor did it sell as well. The album included the single \"What Girls Want\" and was, like their debut album, produced by Jeff Murphy.\n\nTrack listing\nAll songs written by Jim Ellison \n\"What Girls Want\" - 3:55\n\"When I Get This Way (Over You)\" - 4:09\n\"Next Big Thing\" - 3:12\n\"Who Needs Love\" - 2:52\n\"Destination You\" - 2:49\n\"Everything\" - 3:48\n\"Ballad of a Lonely Man\" - 3:27\n\"Girl from Out of This World\" - 3:56\n\"So Easy to Love Somebody\" - 2:49\n\"Don't You Think I Know\" - 3:47\n\"The Loneliest Heart\" - 2:38\n\"Whole Lotta You\" - 2:52\n\"If Ever You Should Fall\" 2:41\n\nReferences\n\n1992 albums\nMercury Records albums\nMaterial Issue albums"
]
|
[
"Arthur Miller",
"Early career",
"When did his career begin?",
"That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award.",
"Did the play do well for him?",
"The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews.",
"Did he have any hit plays?",
"In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway",
"Did he win any awards?",
"(earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author",
"Did he write the plays?",
"I don't know.",
"what did critics think of his work?",
"\"a very depressing play in a time of great optimism\" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure."
]
| C_5ab66b0bf57946a38cd17bf139f94d57_1 | what play is this remark referring to? | 7 | what play is the remark, "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism," referring to? | Arthur Miller | In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap. That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews. In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure. In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times. In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred. CANNOTANSWER | Miller's play All My Sons, | Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955, revised 1956). He wrote several screenplays and was most noted for his work on The Misfits (1961). The drama Death of a Salesman has been numbered on the short list of finest American plays in the 20th century.
Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. During this time, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and married Marilyn Monroe. In 1980, Miller received the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates. He received the Praemium Imperiale prize in 2001, Prince of Asturias Award in 2002, and the Jerusalem Prize in 2003, as well as the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 1999.
Biography
Early life
Miller was born on October 17, 1915, in Harlem, in the New York City borough of Manhattan, and published an account of his early years under the title "A Boy Grew in Brooklyn"; the second of three children of Augusta (Barnett) and Isidore Miller. Miller was Jewish and of Polish-Jewish descent. His father was born in Radomyśl Wielki, Galicia (then part of Austria-Hungary, now Poland), and his mother was a native of New York whose parents also arrived from that town. Isidore owned a women's clothing manufacturing business employing 400 people. He became a wealthy and respected man in the community. The family, including Miller's younger sister Joan Copeland, lived on West 110th Street in Manhattan, owned a summer house in Far Rockaway, Queens, and employed a chauffeur. In the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the family lost almost everything and moved to Gravesend, Brooklyn. (One source says they moved to Midwood.) As a teenager, Miller delivered bread every morning before school to help the family. After graduating in 1932 from Abraham Lincoln High School, he worked at several menial jobs to pay for his college tuition at the University of Michigan. After graduation (circa 1936), he began to work as a psychiatric aide and also a copywriter before accepting faculty posts at New York University and University of New Hampshire. On May 1, 1935, Miller joined the League of American Writers (1935–1943), whose members included Alexander Trachtenberg of International Publishers, Franklin Folsom, Louis Untermeyer, I. F. Stone, Myra Page, Millen Brand, Lillian Hellman, and Dashiell Hammett. (Members were largely either Communist Party members or fellow travelers.)
At the University of Michigan, Miller first majored in journalism and worked for the student newspaper, The Michigan Daily, as well as the satirical Gargoyle Humor Magazine. It was during this time that he wrote his first play, No Villain. Miller switched his major to English, and subsequently won the Avery Hopwood Award for No Villain. The award brought him his first recognition and led him to begin to consider that he could have a career as a playwright. Miller enrolled in a playwriting seminar taught by the influential Professor Kenneth Rowe, who instructed him in his early forays into playwriting; Rowe emphasized how a play is built in order to achieve its intended effect, or what Miller called "the dynamics of play construction". Rowe provided realistic feedback along with much-needed encouragement, and became a lifelong friend. Miller retained strong ties to his alma mater throughout the rest of his life, establishing the university's Arthur Miller Award in 1985 and Arthur Miller Award for Dramatic Writing in 1999, and lending his name to the Arthur Miller Theatre in 2000. In 1937, Miller wrote Honors at Dawn, which also received the Avery Hopwood Award.
After his graduation in 1938, he joined the Federal Theatre Project, a New Deal agency established to provide jobs in the theater. He chose the theater project despite the more lucrative offer to work as a scriptwriter for 20th Century Fox. However, Congress, worried about possible Communist infiltration, closed the project in 1939. Miller began working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard while continuing to write radio plays, some of which were broadcast on CBS.
Early career
In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane (born September 7, 1944) and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap.
In 1944 Miller's first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck and won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews.
In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure.
In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times.
In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred.
Critical years
In 1955, a one-act version of Miller's verse drama A View from the Bridge opened on Broadway in a joint bill with one of Miller's lesser-known plays, A Memory of Two Mondays. The following year, Miller revised A View from the Bridge as a two-act prose drama, which Peter Brook directed in London. A French-Italian co-production Vu du pont, based on the play, was released in 1962.
Marriages and family
In June 1956, Miller left his first wife, Mary Slattery, whom he had married in 1940, and wed film star Marilyn Monroe. They had met in 1951, had a brief affair, and remained in contact since. Monroe had just turned 30 when they married; she never had a real family of her own and was eager to join the family of her new husband.
Monroe began to reconsider her career and the fact that trying to manage it made her feel helpless. She admitted to Miller, "I hate Hollywood. I don't want it any more. I want to live quietly in the country and just be there when you need me. I can't fight for myself any more."
Monroe converted to Judaism to "express her loyalty and get close to both Miller and his parents", writes biographer Jeffrey Meyers. She told her close friend, Susan Strasberg: "I can identify with the Jews. Everybody's always out to get them, no matter what they do, like me." Soon after Monroe converted, Egypt banned all of her movies.
Away from Hollywood and the culture of celebrity, Monroe's life became more normal; she began cooking, keeping house and giving Miller more attention and affection than he had been used to.
Later that year, Miller was subpoenaed by the HCUA, and Monroe accompanied him. In her personal notes, she wrote about her worries during this period:
Miller began work on writing the screenplay for The Misfits in 1960, directed by John Huston and starring Monroe but it was during the filming that Miller and Monroe's relationship hit difficulties, and he later said that the filming was one of the lowest points in his life. Monroe was taking drugs to help her sleep and more drugs to help her wake up, which caused her to arrive on the set late and then have trouble remembering her lines. Huston was unaware that Miller and Monroe were having problems in their private life. He recalled later, "I was impertinent enough to say to Arthur that to allow her to take drugs of any kind was criminal and utterly irresponsible. Shortly after that I realized that she wouldn't listen to Arthur at all; he had no say over her actions."
Shortly before the film's premiere in 1961, Miller and Monroe divorced after five years of marriage. Nineteen months later, on August 5, 1962, Monroe died of a likely drug overdose. Huston, who had also directed her in her first major role in The Asphalt Jungle in 1950, and who had seen her rise to stardom, put the blame for her death on her doctors as opposed to the stresses of being a star: "The girl was an addict of sleeping pills and she was made so by the God-damn doctors. It had nothing to do with the Hollywood set-up."
Miller married photographer Inge Morath in February 1962. She had worked as a photographer documenting the production of The Misfits. The first of their two children, Rebecca, was born September 15, 1962. Their son, Daniel, was born with Down syndrome in November 1966. Against his wife's wishes, Miller had him institutionalized, first at a home for infants in New York City, and then at the Southbury Training School in Connecticut. Though Morath visited Daniel often, Miller never visited him at the school and rarely spoke of him. Miller and Inge remained together until her death in 2002. Arthur Miller's son-in-law, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, is said to have visited Daniel frequently, and to have persuaded Arthur Miller to meet with him.
HUAC controversy and The Crucible
In 1952, Elia Kazan appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Kazan named eight members of the Group Theatre, including Clifford Odets, Paula Strasberg, Lillian Hellman, J. Edward Bromberg, and John Garfield, who in recent years had been fellow members of the Communist Party. Miller and Kazan were close friends throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, but after Kazan's testimony to the HUAC, the pair's friendship ended. After speaking with Kazan about his testimony, Miller traveled to Salem, Massachusetts, to research the witch trials of 1692. He and Kazan did not speak to each other for the next ten years. Kazan later defended his own actions through his film On the Waterfront, in which a dockworker heroically testifies against a corrupt union boss. Miller would retaliate to Kazan's work by writing A View from the Bridge, a play where a longshoreman outs his co-workers motivated only by jealousy and greed. He sent a copy of the initial script to Kazan and when the director asked in jest to direct the movie, Miller replied "I only sent you the script to let you know what I think of Stool-Pigeons."
In The Crucible, Miller likened the situation with the House Un-American Activities Committee to the witch hunt in Salem in 1692. The play opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway on January 22, 1953. Though widely considered only somewhat successful at the time of its release, today The Crucible is Miller's most frequently produced work throughout the world. It was adapted into an opera by Robert Ward in 1961.
The HUAC took an interest in Miller himself not long after The Crucible opened, denying him a passport to attend the play's London opening in 1954. When Miller applied in 1956 for a routine renewal of his passport, the House Un-American Activities Committee used this opportunity to subpoena him to appear before the committee. Before appearing, Miller asked the committee not to ask him to name names, to which the chairman, Francis E. Walter (D-PA) agreed. When Miller attended the hearing, to which Monroe accompanied him, risking her own career, he gave the committee a detailed account of his political activities. Reneging on the chairman's promise, the committee demanded the names of friends and colleagues who had participated in similar activities. Miller refused to comply, saying "I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him." As a result, a judge found Miller guilty of contempt of Congress in May 1957. Miller was sentenced to a fine and a prison sentence, blacklisted, and disallowed a US passport. In August 1958, his conviction was overturned by the court of appeals, which ruled that Miller had been misled by the chairman of the HUAC.
Miller's experience with the HUAC affected him throughout his life. In the late 1970s, he joined other celebrities (including William Styron and Mike Nichols) who were brought together by the journalist Joan Barthel. Barthel's coverage of the highly publicized Barbara Gibbons murder case helped raise bail for Gibbons' son Peter Reilly, who had been convicted of his mother's murder based on what many felt was a coerced confession and little other evidence. Barthel documented the case in her book A Death in Canaan, which was made as a television film of the same name and broadcast in 1978. City Confidential, an A&E Network series, produced an episode about the murder, postulating that part of the reason Miller took such an active interest (including supporting Reilly's defense and using his own celebrity to bring attention to Reilly's plight) was because he had felt similarly persecuted in his run-ins with the HUAC. He sympathized with Reilly, whom he firmly believed to be innocent and to have been railroaded by the Connecticut State Police and the Attorney General who had initially prosecuted the case.
Later career
In 1964, After the Fall was produced, and is said to be a deeply personal view of Miller's experiences during his marriage to Monroe. The play reunited Miller with his former friend Kazan: they collaborated on both the script and the direction. After the Fall opened on January 23, 1964, at the ANTA Theatre in Washington Square Park amid a flurry of publicity and outrage at putting a Monroe-like character, called Maggie, on stage. Robert Brustein, in a review in the New Republic, called After the Fall "a three and one half hour breach of taste, a confessional autobiography of embarrassing explicitness ... there is a misogynistic strain in the play which the author does not seem to recognize. ... He has created a shameless piece of tabloid gossip, an act of exhibitionism which makes us all voyeurs, ... a wretched piece of dramatic writing." That same year, Miller produced Incident at Vichy. In 1965, Miller was elected the first American president of PEN International, a position which he held for four years. A year later, Miller organized the 1966 PEN congress in New York City. Miller also wrote the penetrating family drama, The Price, produced in 1968. It was Miller's most successful play since Death of a Salesman.
In 1968, Miller attended the Democratic National Convention as a delegate for Eugene McCarthy. In 1969, Miller's works were banned in the Soviet Union after he campaigned for the freedom of dissident writers. Throughout the 1970s, Miller spent much of his time experimenting with the theatre, producing one-act plays such as Fame and The Reason Why, and traveling with his wife, producing In the Country and Chinese Encounters with her. Both his 1972 comedy The Creation of the World and Other Business and its musical adaptation, Up from Paradise, were critical and commercial failures.
Miller was an unusually articulate commentator on his own work. In 1978 he published a collection of his Theater Essays, edited by Robert A. Martin and with a foreword by Miller. Highlights of the collection included Miller's introduction to his Collected Plays, his reflections on the theory of tragedy, comments on the McCarthy Era, and pieces arguing for a publicly supported theater. Reviewing this collection in the Chicago Tribune, Studs Terkel remarked, "in reading [the Theater Essays]...you are exhilaratingly aware of a social critic, as well as a playwright, who knows what he's talking about."
In 1983, Miller traveled to China to produce and direct Death of a Salesman at the People's Art Theatre in Beijing. The play was a success in China and in 1984, Salesman in Beijing, a book about Miller's experiences in Beijing, was published. Around the same time, Death of a Salesman was made into a TV movie starring Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman. Shown on CBS, it attracted 25 million viewers. In late 1987, Miller's autobiographical work,
Timebends, was published. Before it was published, it was well known that Miller would not talk about Monroe in interviews; in Timebends Miller talks about his experiences with Monroe in detail.
During the early-mid 1990s, Miller wrote three new plays: The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1992), and Broken Glass (1994). In 1996, a film of The Crucible starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Scofield, Bruce Davison, and Winona Ryder opened. Miller spent much of 1996 working on the screenplay for the film.
Mr. Peters' Connections was staged Off-Broadway in 1998, and Death of a Salesman was revived on Broadway in 1999 to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. The play, once again, was a large critical success, winning a Tony Award for best revival of a play.
In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. Miller was honored with the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award for a Master American Dramatist in 1998. In 2001 the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) selected Miller for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Miller's lecture was entitled "On Politics and the Art of Acting." Miller's lecture analyzed political events (including the U.S. presidential election of 2000)
in terms of the "arts of performance", and it drew attacks from some conservatives such as Jay Nordlinger, who called it "a disgrace", and George Will, who argued that Miller was not legitimately a "scholar".
In 1999, Miller was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to "a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life." In 2001, Miller received the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. On May 1, 2002, Miller was awarded Spain's Principe de Asturias Prize for Literature as "the undisputed master of modern drama". Later that year, Ingeborg Morath died of lymphatic cancer at the age of 78. The following year Miller won the Jerusalem Prize.
In December 2004, 89-year-old Miller announced that he had been in love with 34-year-old minimalist painter Agnes Barley and had been living with her at his Connecticut farm since 2002, and that they intended to marry. Within hours of her father's death, Rebecca Miller ordered Barley to vacate the premises because she had consistently been opposed to the relationship. Miller's final play, Finishing the Picture, opened at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, in the fall of 2004, with one character said to be based on Barley. It was reported to be based on his experience during the filming of The Misfits, though Miller insisted the play is a work of fiction with independent characters that were no more than composite shadows of history.
Death
Miller died on the evening of February 10, 2005 (the 56th anniversary of the Broadway debut of Death of a Salesman) at age 89 of bladder cancer and heart failure, at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. He had been in hospice care at his sister's apartment in New York since his release from hospital the previous month. He was surrounded by Barley, family and friends. His body was interred at Roxbury Center Cemetery in Roxbury.
Legacy
Miller's career as a writer spanned over seven decades, and at the time of his death, Miller was considered to be one of the greatest dramatists of the twentieth century. After his death, many respected actors, directors, and producers paid tribute to Miller, some calling him the last great practitioner of the American stage, and Broadway theatres darkened their lights in a show of respect.
Miller's alma mater, the University of Michigan, opened the Arthur Miller Theatre in March 2007. As per his express wish, it is the only theatre in the world that bears Miller's name.
Other notable arrangements for Miller's legacy are that his letters, notes, drafts and other papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin.
Miller is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. He was inducted in 1979.
In 1993, he received the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech.
In 2017, his daughter, Rebecca Miller, a writer and filmmaker, completed a documentary about her father's life, under the title Arthur Miller: Writer.
Minor planet 3769 Arthurmiller is named after him.
Foundation
The Arthur Miller Foundation was founded to honor the legacy of Miller and his New York City Public School Education. The mission of the foundation is: "Promoting increased access and equity to theater arts education in our schools and increasing the number of students receiving theater arts education as an integral part of their academic curriculum." Other initiatives include certification of new theater teachers and their placement in public schools; increasing the number of theater teachers in the system from the current estimate of 180 teachers in 1800 schools; supporting professional development of all certified theater teachers; providing teaching artists, cultural partners, physical spaces, and theater ticket allocations for students. The foundation's primary purpose is to provide arts education in the New York City school system. The current chancellor of the foundation is Carmen Farina, a large proponent of the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The Master Arts Council includes, among others, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Barkin, Bradley Cooper, Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson, Tony Kushner, Julianne Moore, Michael Moore, Liam Neeson, David O. Russell, and Liev Schreiber. His son-in-law Daniel Day-Lewis, serves on the current board of directors since 2016.
The foundation celebrated Miller's 100th birthday with a one-night-only performance of Miller's seminal works in November 2015.
The Arthur Miller Foundation currently supports a pilot program in theater and film at the public school Quest to Learn in partnership with the Institute of Play. The model is being used as an in-school elective theater class and lab. The objective is to create a sustainable theater education model to disseminate to teachers at professional development workshops.
Archive
Miller donated thirteen boxes of his earliest manuscripts to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin in 1961 and 1962. This collection included the original handwritten notebooks and early typed drafts for Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, All My Sons, and other works. In January, 2018, the Ransom Center announced the acquisition of the remainder of the Miller archive totaling over 200 boxes. The full archive opened in November, 2019.
Literary and public criticism
Christopher Bigsby wrote Arthur Miller: The Definitive Biography based on boxes of papers Miller made available to him before his death in 2005. The book was published in November 2008, and is reported to reveal unpublished works in which Miller "bitterly attack[ed] the injustices of American racism long before it was taken up by the civil rights movement".
In his book Trinity of Passion, author Alan M. Wald conjectures that Miller was "a member of a writer's unit of the Communist Party around 1946," using the pseudonym Matt Wayne, and editing a drama column in the magazine The New Masses.
In 1999 the writer Christopher Hitchens attacked Miller for comparing the Monica Lewinsky investigation to the Salem witch hunt. Miller had asserted a parallel between the examination of physical evidence on Lewinsky's dress and the examinations of women's bodies for signs of the "Devil's Marks" in Salem. Hitchens scathingly disputed the parallel. In his memoir, Hitch-22, Hitchens bitterly noted that Miller, despite his prominence as a left-wing intellectual, had failed to support author Salman Rushdie during the Iranian fatwa involving The Satanic Verses.
Works
Stage plays
No Villain (1936)
They Too Arise (1937, based on No Villain)
Honors at Dawn (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Grass Still Grows (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Great Disobedience (1938)
Listen My Children (1939, with Norman Rosten)
The Golden Years (1940)
The Half-Bridge (1943)
The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944)
All My Sons (1947)
Death of a Salesman (1949)
An Enemy of the People (1950, based on Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People)
The Crucible (1953)
A View from the Bridge (1955)
A Memory of Two Mondays (1955)
After the Fall (1964)
Incident at Vichy (1964)
The Price (1968)
The Reason Why (1970)
Fame (one-act, 1970; revised for television 1978)
The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972)
Up from Paradise (1974)
The Archbishop's Ceiling (1977)
The American Clock (1980)
Playing for Time (television play, 1980)
Elegy for a Lady (short play, 1982, first part of Two Way Mirror)
Some Kind of Love Story (short play, 1982, second part of Two Way Mirror)
I Think About You a Great Deal (1986)
Playing for Time (stage version, 1985)
I Can't Remember Anything (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
Clara (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991)
The Last Yankee (1993)
Broken Glass (1994)
Mr. Peters' Connections (1998)
Resurrection Blues (2002)
Finishing the Picture (2004)
Radio plays
The Pussycat and the Expert Plumber Who Was a Man (1941)
Joel Chandler Harris (1941)
The Battle of the Ovens (1942)
Thunder from the Mountains (1942)
I Was Married in Bataan (1942)
That They May Win (1943)
Listen for the Sound of Wings (1943)
Bernardine (1944)
I Love You (1944)
Grandpa and the Statue (1944)
The Philippines Never Surrendered (1944)
The Guardsman (1944, based on Ferenc Molnár's play)
The Story of Gus (1947)
Screenplays
The Hook (1947)
All My Sons (1948)
Let's Make Love (1960)
The Misfits (1961)
Death of a Salesman (1985)
Everybody Wins (1990)
The Crucible (1996)
Assorted fiction
Focus (novel, 1945)
"The Misfits" (short story, published in Esquire, October 1957)
I Don't Need You Anymore (short stories, 1967)
Homely Girl: A Life (short story, 1992, published in UK as "Plain Girl: A Life" 1995)
"The Performance" (short story)
Presence: Stories (2007) (short stories include The Bare Manuscript, Beavers, The Performance, and Bulldog)
Non-fiction
Situation Normal (1944) is based on his experiences researching the war correspondence of Ernie Pyle.
In Russia (1969), the first of three books created with his photographer wife Inge Morath, offers Miller's impressions of Russia and Russian society.
In the Country (1977), with photographs by Morath and text by Miller, provides insight into how Miller spent his time in Roxbury, Connecticut, and profiles of his various neighbors.
Chinese Encounters (1979) is a travel journal with photographs by Morath. It depicts the Chinese society in the state of flux which followed the end of the Cultural Revolution. Miller discusses the hardships of many writers, professors, and artists as they try to regain the sense of freedom and place they lost during Mao Zedong's regime.
Salesman in Beijing (1984) details Miller's experiences with the 1983 Beijing People's Theatre production of Death of a Salesman. He describes the idiosyncrasies, understandings, and insights encountered in directing a Chinese cast in a decidedly American play.
Timebends: A Life, Methuen London (1987) . Like Death of a Salesman, the book follows the structure of memory itself, each passage linked to and triggered by the one before.
Collections
Abbotson, Susan C. W. (ed.), Arthur Miller: Collected Essays, Penguin 2016
Centola, Steven R. ed. Echoes Down the Corridor: Arthur Miller, Collected Essays 1944–2000, Viking Penguin (US)/Methuen (UK), 2000
Kushner, Tony, ed. Arthur Miller, Collected Plays 1944–1961 (Library of America, 2006) .
Martin, Robert A. (ed.), "The theater essays of Arthur Miller", foreword by Arthur Miller. NY: Viking Press, 1978
References
Bibliography
Bigsby, Christopher (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller, Cambridge 1997
Gottfried, Martin, Arthur Miller, A Life, Da Capo Press (US)/Faber and Faber (UK), 2003
Koorey, Stefani, Arthur Miller's Life and Literature, Scarecrow, 2000
Moss, Leonard. Arthur Miller, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980.
Further reading
Critical Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (2007)
Student Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Facts on File (2000)
File on Miller, Christopher Bigsby (1988)
Arthur Miller & Company, Christopher Bigsby, editor (1990)
Arthur Miller: A Critical Study, Christopher Bigsby (2005)
Remembering Arthur Miller, Christopher Bigsby, editor (2005)
Arthur Miller 1915–1962, Christopher Bigsby (2008, U.K.; 2009, U.S.)
The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller (Cambridge Companions to Literature), Christopher Bigsby, editor (1998, updated and republished 2010)
Arthur Miller 1962–2005, Christopher Bigsby (2011)
Arthur Miller: Critical Insights, Brenda Murphy, editor, Salem (2011)
Understanding Death of a Salesman, Brenda Murphy and Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (1999)
Critical articles
Arthur Miller Journal, published biannually by Penn State UP. Vol. 1.1 (2006)
Radavich, David. "Arthur Miller's Sojourn in the Heartland". American Drama 16:2 (Summer 2007): 28–45.
External links
Organizations
Arthur Miller official website
Arthur Miller Society
The Arthur Miller Foundation
Archive
Arthur Miller Papers at the Harry Ransom Center
"Playwright Arthur Miller's archive comes to the Harry Ransom Center"
Finding aid to Arthur Miller papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Databases
Websites
A Visit With Castro – Miller's article in The Nation, January 12, 2004
Joyce Carol Oates on Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller Biography
Arthur Miller and Mccarthyism
Interviews
Miller interview, Humanities, March–April 2001
Obituaries
The New York Times Obituary
NPR obituary
CNN obituary
1915 births
2005 deaths
University of Michigan alumni
Kennedy Center honorees
Laurence Olivier Award winners
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Tony Award winners
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American screenwriters
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century essayists
21st-century American dramatists and playwrights
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American screenwriters
21st-century American short story writers
21st-century essayists
Abraham Lincoln High School (Brooklyn) alumni
American agnostics
American anti-capitalists
American autobiographers
20th-century American Jews
American male dramatists and playwrights
American male essayists
American male non-fiction writers
American male novelists
American male screenwriters
American male short story writers
American memoirists
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
American radio writers
Analysands of Rudolph Lowenstein
Cultural critics
Deaths from bladder cancer
Deaths from cancer in Connecticut
Free speech activists
Hopwood Award winners
Jerusalem Prize recipients
Jewish agnostics
Jewish American dramatists and playwrights
Jewish novelists
Jewish writers
Marilyn Monroe
The Michigan Daily alumni
PEN International
People from Brooklyn Heights
People from Gravesend, Brooklyn
People from Midwood, Brooklyn
People from Roxbury, Connecticut
Postmodern writers
Recipients of the Four Freedoms Award
American social commentators
Social critics
Special Tony Award recipients
Writers about activism and social change
Writers about communism
Writers from Brooklyn
Writers from Connecticut
21st-century American Jews | true | [
"George Matthews is the current radio play-by-play announcer for the Charlottetown Islanders of the QMJHL. He was the original radio play-by-play announcer for the Columbus Blue Jackets, a National Hockey League franchise. He held this position since the team's inaugural 2000–01 season through the 2012–2013 season. He hails from Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada.\n\nEntering his 37th season of hockey broadcasting, he is known for his passionate broadcast style and also his penchant for rhyme.\n\nHe has stated that he will perform limited broadcasting duties during the 2013–2014 season on the Blue Jackets Radio Network through their flagship station WBNS (FM 97.1).\n\nIn addition to calling play-by-play action, he was also a regular contributor to the \"Between the Pipes\" radio show that airs weekly on WBNS during the hockey season.\n\nCatch phrases\nMatthews' trademark is his ability for improvised rhyme. Some examples:\n\nGeneral\n \"Hey hey, whaddya say?\" - in reference to an exceptional play.\n\nReferring to Skaters\n \"He boot scoots it...\"\n \"What a steal, that's the deal!\"\n \"Jumpin' Jack Flash, Rick Nash!\"\n \"Ka-Ching It's CASH, RICK NAAAAAAASH!\"\n \"Nick! (Nikolai Zherdev) with the flick for the Jackets!\"\n\nMatthews is also known for referring to a goal as \"burying the biscuit\" or \"burying the stash\" (specifically when referring to left winger Rick Nash).\n\nReferring to Goaltenders\n \"Holy Moley, what a goalie!\"\n \"Return to sender! What a 'tender!\"\n \"Jim dandy, Mr. Handy!\"\n \"Goodness Gracious, Leclaire's Sensatious!\"\n \"Norrena is showing to be a whopper of a stopper tonight!\"\n \"Lightning quick with the leather\n\nExternal links\n Matthews to step away from full-time radio duties\nBlue Jackets Radio/TV Personalities\nGeorge Matthews: True Blue\n\nAmerican color commentators\nColumbus Blue Jackets announcers\nLiving people\nPeople from Summerside, Prince Edward Island\nYear of birth missing (living people)",
"A linkback is a method for Web authors to obtain notifications when other authors link to one of their documents. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking to, or referring to, their articles. The four methods (refback, trackback, pingback and webmention) differ in how they accomplish this task.\n\nOverview\n\"Linkback\" is the generalized term used to reference four methods of communication between websites. While sometimes confused with one another, linkbacks and backlinks are not the same type of entity. A backlink is what the person referring to a page creates while a linkback is what the publisher of the page being referred to receives.\n\nAny of the four terms—linkback, trackback, pingback, or (rarely) refback—might also refer colloquially to items within a section upon the linked page that display the received notifications, usually along with a reciprocal link; trackback is used most often for this purpose. Also, the word trackback is often used colloquially to mean any kind of linkback.\n\nSee also\n Backlink\n Page rank\n Search engine optimization\n\nReferences\n\nBlogs\nWordPress"
]
|
[
"Arthur Miller",
"Early career",
"When did his career begin?",
"That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award.",
"Did the play do well for him?",
"The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews.",
"Did he have any hit plays?",
"In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway",
"Did he win any awards?",
"(earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author",
"Did he write the plays?",
"I don't know.",
"what did critics think of his work?",
"\"a very depressing play in a time of great optimism\" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure.",
"what play is this remark referring to?",
"Miller's play All My Sons,"
]
| C_5ab66b0bf57946a38cd17bf139f94d57_1 | What is a notable fact about his early work? | 8 | What is a notable fact about Arthur Miller's early work? | Arthur Miller | In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap. That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews. In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure. In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times. In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred. CANNOTANSWER | 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. | Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955, revised 1956). He wrote several screenplays and was most noted for his work on The Misfits (1961). The drama Death of a Salesman has been numbered on the short list of finest American plays in the 20th century.
Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. During this time, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and married Marilyn Monroe. In 1980, Miller received the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates. He received the Praemium Imperiale prize in 2001, Prince of Asturias Award in 2002, and the Jerusalem Prize in 2003, as well as the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 1999.
Biography
Early life
Miller was born on October 17, 1915, in Harlem, in the New York City borough of Manhattan, and published an account of his early years under the title "A Boy Grew in Brooklyn"; the second of three children of Augusta (Barnett) and Isidore Miller. Miller was Jewish and of Polish-Jewish descent. His father was born in Radomyśl Wielki, Galicia (then part of Austria-Hungary, now Poland), and his mother was a native of New York whose parents also arrived from that town. Isidore owned a women's clothing manufacturing business employing 400 people. He became a wealthy and respected man in the community. The family, including Miller's younger sister Joan Copeland, lived on West 110th Street in Manhattan, owned a summer house in Far Rockaway, Queens, and employed a chauffeur. In the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the family lost almost everything and moved to Gravesend, Brooklyn. (One source says they moved to Midwood.) As a teenager, Miller delivered bread every morning before school to help the family. After graduating in 1932 from Abraham Lincoln High School, he worked at several menial jobs to pay for his college tuition at the University of Michigan. After graduation (circa 1936), he began to work as a psychiatric aide and also a copywriter before accepting faculty posts at New York University and University of New Hampshire. On May 1, 1935, Miller joined the League of American Writers (1935–1943), whose members included Alexander Trachtenberg of International Publishers, Franklin Folsom, Louis Untermeyer, I. F. Stone, Myra Page, Millen Brand, Lillian Hellman, and Dashiell Hammett. (Members were largely either Communist Party members or fellow travelers.)
At the University of Michigan, Miller first majored in journalism and worked for the student newspaper, The Michigan Daily, as well as the satirical Gargoyle Humor Magazine. It was during this time that he wrote his first play, No Villain. Miller switched his major to English, and subsequently won the Avery Hopwood Award for No Villain. The award brought him his first recognition and led him to begin to consider that he could have a career as a playwright. Miller enrolled in a playwriting seminar taught by the influential Professor Kenneth Rowe, who instructed him in his early forays into playwriting; Rowe emphasized how a play is built in order to achieve its intended effect, or what Miller called "the dynamics of play construction". Rowe provided realistic feedback along with much-needed encouragement, and became a lifelong friend. Miller retained strong ties to his alma mater throughout the rest of his life, establishing the university's Arthur Miller Award in 1985 and Arthur Miller Award for Dramatic Writing in 1999, and lending his name to the Arthur Miller Theatre in 2000. In 1937, Miller wrote Honors at Dawn, which also received the Avery Hopwood Award.
After his graduation in 1938, he joined the Federal Theatre Project, a New Deal agency established to provide jobs in the theater. He chose the theater project despite the more lucrative offer to work as a scriptwriter for 20th Century Fox. However, Congress, worried about possible Communist infiltration, closed the project in 1939. Miller began working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard while continuing to write radio plays, some of which were broadcast on CBS.
Early career
In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane (born September 7, 1944) and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap.
In 1944 Miller's first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck and won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews.
In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure.
In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times.
In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred.
Critical years
In 1955, a one-act version of Miller's verse drama A View from the Bridge opened on Broadway in a joint bill with one of Miller's lesser-known plays, A Memory of Two Mondays. The following year, Miller revised A View from the Bridge as a two-act prose drama, which Peter Brook directed in London. A French-Italian co-production Vu du pont, based on the play, was released in 1962.
Marriages and family
In June 1956, Miller left his first wife, Mary Slattery, whom he had married in 1940, and wed film star Marilyn Monroe. They had met in 1951, had a brief affair, and remained in contact since. Monroe had just turned 30 when they married; she never had a real family of her own and was eager to join the family of her new husband.
Monroe began to reconsider her career and the fact that trying to manage it made her feel helpless. She admitted to Miller, "I hate Hollywood. I don't want it any more. I want to live quietly in the country and just be there when you need me. I can't fight for myself any more."
Monroe converted to Judaism to "express her loyalty and get close to both Miller and his parents", writes biographer Jeffrey Meyers. She told her close friend, Susan Strasberg: "I can identify with the Jews. Everybody's always out to get them, no matter what they do, like me." Soon after Monroe converted, Egypt banned all of her movies.
Away from Hollywood and the culture of celebrity, Monroe's life became more normal; she began cooking, keeping house and giving Miller more attention and affection than he had been used to.
Later that year, Miller was subpoenaed by the HCUA, and Monroe accompanied him. In her personal notes, she wrote about her worries during this period:
Miller began work on writing the screenplay for The Misfits in 1960, directed by John Huston and starring Monroe but it was during the filming that Miller and Monroe's relationship hit difficulties, and he later said that the filming was one of the lowest points in his life. Monroe was taking drugs to help her sleep and more drugs to help her wake up, which caused her to arrive on the set late and then have trouble remembering her lines. Huston was unaware that Miller and Monroe were having problems in their private life. He recalled later, "I was impertinent enough to say to Arthur that to allow her to take drugs of any kind was criminal and utterly irresponsible. Shortly after that I realized that she wouldn't listen to Arthur at all; he had no say over her actions."
Shortly before the film's premiere in 1961, Miller and Monroe divorced after five years of marriage. Nineteen months later, on August 5, 1962, Monroe died of a likely drug overdose. Huston, who had also directed her in her first major role in The Asphalt Jungle in 1950, and who had seen her rise to stardom, put the blame for her death on her doctors as opposed to the stresses of being a star: "The girl was an addict of sleeping pills and she was made so by the God-damn doctors. It had nothing to do with the Hollywood set-up."
Miller married photographer Inge Morath in February 1962. She had worked as a photographer documenting the production of The Misfits. The first of their two children, Rebecca, was born September 15, 1962. Their son, Daniel, was born with Down syndrome in November 1966. Against his wife's wishes, Miller had him institutionalized, first at a home for infants in New York City, and then at the Southbury Training School in Connecticut. Though Morath visited Daniel often, Miller never visited him at the school and rarely spoke of him. Miller and Inge remained together until her death in 2002. Arthur Miller's son-in-law, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, is said to have visited Daniel frequently, and to have persuaded Arthur Miller to meet with him.
HUAC controversy and The Crucible
In 1952, Elia Kazan appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Kazan named eight members of the Group Theatre, including Clifford Odets, Paula Strasberg, Lillian Hellman, J. Edward Bromberg, and John Garfield, who in recent years had been fellow members of the Communist Party. Miller and Kazan were close friends throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, but after Kazan's testimony to the HUAC, the pair's friendship ended. After speaking with Kazan about his testimony, Miller traveled to Salem, Massachusetts, to research the witch trials of 1692. He and Kazan did not speak to each other for the next ten years. Kazan later defended his own actions through his film On the Waterfront, in which a dockworker heroically testifies against a corrupt union boss. Miller would retaliate to Kazan's work by writing A View from the Bridge, a play where a longshoreman outs his co-workers motivated only by jealousy and greed. He sent a copy of the initial script to Kazan and when the director asked in jest to direct the movie, Miller replied "I only sent you the script to let you know what I think of Stool-Pigeons."
In The Crucible, Miller likened the situation with the House Un-American Activities Committee to the witch hunt in Salem in 1692. The play opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway on January 22, 1953. Though widely considered only somewhat successful at the time of its release, today The Crucible is Miller's most frequently produced work throughout the world. It was adapted into an opera by Robert Ward in 1961.
The HUAC took an interest in Miller himself not long after The Crucible opened, denying him a passport to attend the play's London opening in 1954. When Miller applied in 1956 for a routine renewal of his passport, the House Un-American Activities Committee used this opportunity to subpoena him to appear before the committee. Before appearing, Miller asked the committee not to ask him to name names, to which the chairman, Francis E. Walter (D-PA) agreed. When Miller attended the hearing, to which Monroe accompanied him, risking her own career, he gave the committee a detailed account of his political activities. Reneging on the chairman's promise, the committee demanded the names of friends and colleagues who had participated in similar activities. Miller refused to comply, saying "I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him." As a result, a judge found Miller guilty of contempt of Congress in May 1957. Miller was sentenced to a fine and a prison sentence, blacklisted, and disallowed a US passport. In August 1958, his conviction was overturned by the court of appeals, which ruled that Miller had been misled by the chairman of the HUAC.
Miller's experience with the HUAC affected him throughout his life. In the late 1970s, he joined other celebrities (including William Styron and Mike Nichols) who were brought together by the journalist Joan Barthel. Barthel's coverage of the highly publicized Barbara Gibbons murder case helped raise bail for Gibbons' son Peter Reilly, who had been convicted of his mother's murder based on what many felt was a coerced confession and little other evidence. Barthel documented the case in her book A Death in Canaan, which was made as a television film of the same name and broadcast in 1978. City Confidential, an A&E Network series, produced an episode about the murder, postulating that part of the reason Miller took such an active interest (including supporting Reilly's defense and using his own celebrity to bring attention to Reilly's plight) was because he had felt similarly persecuted in his run-ins with the HUAC. He sympathized with Reilly, whom he firmly believed to be innocent and to have been railroaded by the Connecticut State Police and the Attorney General who had initially prosecuted the case.
Later career
In 1964, After the Fall was produced, and is said to be a deeply personal view of Miller's experiences during his marriage to Monroe. The play reunited Miller with his former friend Kazan: they collaborated on both the script and the direction. After the Fall opened on January 23, 1964, at the ANTA Theatre in Washington Square Park amid a flurry of publicity and outrage at putting a Monroe-like character, called Maggie, on stage. Robert Brustein, in a review in the New Republic, called After the Fall "a three and one half hour breach of taste, a confessional autobiography of embarrassing explicitness ... there is a misogynistic strain in the play which the author does not seem to recognize. ... He has created a shameless piece of tabloid gossip, an act of exhibitionism which makes us all voyeurs, ... a wretched piece of dramatic writing." That same year, Miller produced Incident at Vichy. In 1965, Miller was elected the first American president of PEN International, a position which he held for four years. A year later, Miller organized the 1966 PEN congress in New York City. Miller also wrote the penetrating family drama, The Price, produced in 1968. It was Miller's most successful play since Death of a Salesman.
In 1968, Miller attended the Democratic National Convention as a delegate for Eugene McCarthy. In 1969, Miller's works were banned in the Soviet Union after he campaigned for the freedom of dissident writers. Throughout the 1970s, Miller spent much of his time experimenting with the theatre, producing one-act plays such as Fame and The Reason Why, and traveling with his wife, producing In the Country and Chinese Encounters with her. Both his 1972 comedy The Creation of the World and Other Business and its musical adaptation, Up from Paradise, were critical and commercial failures.
Miller was an unusually articulate commentator on his own work. In 1978 he published a collection of his Theater Essays, edited by Robert A. Martin and with a foreword by Miller. Highlights of the collection included Miller's introduction to his Collected Plays, his reflections on the theory of tragedy, comments on the McCarthy Era, and pieces arguing for a publicly supported theater. Reviewing this collection in the Chicago Tribune, Studs Terkel remarked, "in reading [the Theater Essays]...you are exhilaratingly aware of a social critic, as well as a playwright, who knows what he's talking about."
In 1983, Miller traveled to China to produce and direct Death of a Salesman at the People's Art Theatre in Beijing. The play was a success in China and in 1984, Salesman in Beijing, a book about Miller's experiences in Beijing, was published. Around the same time, Death of a Salesman was made into a TV movie starring Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman. Shown on CBS, it attracted 25 million viewers. In late 1987, Miller's autobiographical work,
Timebends, was published. Before it was published, it was well known that Miller would not talk about Monroe in interviews; in Timebends Miller talks about his experiences with Monroe in detail.
During the early-mid 1990s, Miller wrote three new plays: The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1992), and Broken Glass (1994). In 1996, a film of The Crucible starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Scofield, Bruce Davison, and Winona Ryder opened. Miller spent much of 1996 working on the screenplay for the film.
Mr. Peters' Connections was staged Off-Broadway in 1998, and Death of a Salesman was revived on Broadway in 1999 to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. The play, once again, was a large critical success, winning a Tony Award for best revival of a play.
In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. Miller was honored with the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award for a Master American Dramatist in 1998. In 2001 the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) selected Miller for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Miller's lecture was entitled "On Politics and the Art of Acting." Miller's lecture analyzed political events (including the U.S. presidential election of 2000)
in terms of the "arts of performance", and it drew attacks from some conservatives such as Jay Nordlinger, who called it "a disgrace", and George Will, who argued that Miller was not legitimately a "scholar".
In 1999, Miller was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to "a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life." In 2001, Miller received the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. On May 1, 2002, Miller was awarded Spain's Principe de Asturias Prize for Literature as "the undisputed master of modern drama". Later that year, Ingeborg Morath died of lymphatic cancer at the age of 78. The following year Miller won the Jerusalem Prize.
In December 2004, 89-year-old Miller announced that he had been in love with 34-year-old minimalist painter Agnes Barley and had been living with her at his Connecticut farm since 2002, and that they intended to marry. Within hours of her father's death, Rebecca Miller ordered Barley to vacate the premises because she had consistently been opposed to the relationship. Miller's final play, Finishing the Picture, opened at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, in the fall of 2004, with one character said to be based on Barley. It was reported to be based on his experience during the filming of The Misfits, though Miller insisted the play is a work of fiction with independent characters that were no more than composite shadows of history.
Death
Miller died on the evening of February 10, 2005 (the 56th anniversary of the Broadway debut of Death of a Salesman) at age 89 of bladder cancer and heart failure, at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. He had been in hospice care at his sister's apartment in New York since his release from hospital the previous month. He was surrounded by Barley, family and friends. His body was interred at Roxbury Center Cemetery in Roxbury.
Legacy
Miller's career as a writer spanned over seven decades, and at the time of his death, Miller was considered to be one of the greatest dramatists of the twentieth century. After his death, many respected actors, directors, and producers paid tribute to Miller, some calling him the last great practitioner of the American stage, and Broadway theatres darkened their lights in a show of respect.
Miller's alma mater, the University of Michigan, opened the Arthur Miller Theatre in March 2007. As per his express wish, it is the only theatre in the world that bears Miller's name.
Other notable arrangements for Miller's legacy are that his letters, notes, drafts and other papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin.
Miller is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. He was inducted in 1979.
In 1993, he received the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech.
In 2017, his daughter, Rebecca Miller, a writer and filmmaker, completed a documentary about her father's life, under the title Arthur Miller: Writer.
Minor planet 3769 Arthurmiller is named after him.
Foundation
The Arthur Miller Foundation was founded to honor the legacy of Miller and his New York City Public School Education. The mission of the foundation is: "Promoting increased access and equity to theater arts education in our schools and increasing the number of students receiving theater arts education as an integral part of their academic curriculum." Other initiatives include certification of new theater teachers and their placement in public schools; increasing the number of theater teachers in the system from the current estimate of 180 teachers in 1800 schools; supporting professional development of all certified theater teachers; providing teaching artists, cultural partners, physical spaces, and theater ticket allocations for students. The foundation's primary purpose is to provide arts education in the New York City school system. The current chancellor of the foundation is Carmen Farina, a large proponent of the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The Master Arts Council includes, among others, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Barkin, Bradley Cooper, Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson, Tony Kushner, Julianne Moore, Michael Moore, Liam Neeson, David O. Russell, and Liev Schreiber. His son-in-law Daniel Day-Lewis, serves on the current board of directors since 2016.
The foundation celebrated Miller's 100th birthday with a one-night-only performance of Miller's seminal works in November 2015.
The Arthur Miller Foundation currently supports a pilot program in theater and film at the public school Quest to Learn in partnership with the Institute of Play. The model is being used as an in-school elective theater class and lab. The objective is to create a sustainable theater education model to disseminate to teachers at professional development workshops.
Archive
Miller donated thirteen boxes of his earliest manuscripts to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin in 1961 and 1962. This collection included the original handwritten notebooks and early typed drafts for Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, All My Sons, and other works. In January, 2018, the Ransom Center announced the acquisition of the remainder of the Miller archive totaling over 200 boxes. The full archive opened in November, 2019.
Literary and public criticism
Christopher Bigsby wrote Arthur Miller: The Definitive Biography based on boxes of papers Miller made available to him before his death in 2005. The book was published in November 2008, and is reported to reveal unpublished works in which Miller "bitterly attack[ed] the injustices of American racism long before it was taken up by the civil rights movement".
In his book Trinity of Passion, author Alan M. Wald conjectures that Miller was "a member of a writer's unit of the Communist Party around 1946," using the pseudonym Matt Wayne, and editing a drama column in the magazine The New Masses.
In 1999 the writer Christopher Hitchens attacked Miller for comparing the Monica Lewinsky investigation to the Salem witch hunt. Miller had asserted a parallel between the examination of physical evidence on Lewinsky's dress and the examinations of women's bodies for signs of the "Devil's Marks" in Salem. Hitchens scathingly disputed the parallel. In his memoir, Hitch-22, Hitchens bitterly noted that Miller, despite his prominence as a left-wing intellectual, had failed to support author Salman Rushdie during the Iranian fatwa involving The Satanic Verses.
Works
Stage plays
No Villain (1936)
They Too Arise (1937, based on No Villain)
Honors at Dawn (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Grass Still Grows (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Great Disobedience (1938)
Listen My Children (1939, with Norman Rosten)
The Golden Years (1940)
The Half-Bridge (1943)
The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944)
All My Sons (1947)
Death of a Salesman (1949)
An Enemy of the People (1950, based on Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People)
The Crucible (1953)
A View from the Bridge (1955)
A Memory of Two Mondays (1955)
After the Fall (1964)
Incident at Vichy (1964)
The Price (1968)
The Reason Why (1970)
Fame (one-act, 1970; revised for television 1978)
The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972)
Up from Paradise (1974)
The Archbishop's Ceiling (1977)
The American Clock (1980)
Playing for Time (television play, 1980)
Elegy for a Lady (short play, 1982, first part of Two Way Mirror)
Some Kind of Love Story (short play, 1982, second part of Two Way Mirror)
I Think About You a Great Deal (1986)
Playing for Time (stage version, 1985)
I Can't Remember Anything (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
Clara (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991)
The Last Yankee (1993)
Broken Glass (1994)
Mr. Peters' Connections (1998)
Resurrection Blues (2002)
Finishing the Picture (2004)
Radio plays
The Pussycat and the Expert Plumber Who Was a Man (1941)
Joel Chandler Harris (1941)
The Battle of the Ovens (1942)
Thunder from the Mountains (1942)
I Was Married in Bataan (1942)
That They May Win (1943)
Listen for the Sound of Wings (1943)
Bernardine (1944)
I Love You (1944)
Grandpa and the Statue (1944)
The Philippines Never Surrendered (1944)
The Guardsman (1944, based on Ferenc Molnár's play)
The Story of Gus (1947)
Screenplays
The Hook (1947)
All My Sons (1948)
Let's Make Love (1960)
The Misfits (1961)
Death of a Salesman (1985)
Everybody Wins (1990)
The Crucible (1996)
Assorted fiction
Focus (novel, 1945)
"The Misfits" (short story, published in Esquire, October 1957)
I Don't Need You Anymore (short stories, 1967)
Homely Girl: A Life (short story, 1992, published in UK as "Plain Girl: A Life" 1995)
"The Performance" (short story)
Presence: Stories (2007) (short stories include The Bare Manuscript, Beavers, The Performance, and Bulldog)
Non-fiction
Situation Normal (1944) is based on his experiences researching the war correspondence of Ernie Pyle.
In Russia (1969), the first of three books created with his photographer wife Inge Morath, offers Miller's impressions of Russia and Russian society.
In the Country (1977), with photographs by Morath and text by Miller, provides insight into how Miller spent his time in Roxbury, Connecticut, and profiles of his various neighbors.
Chinese Encounters (1979) is a travel journal with photographs by Morath. It depicts the Chinese society in the state of flux which followed the end of the Cultural Revolution. Miller discusses the hardships of many writers, professors, and artists as they try to regain the sense of freedom and place they lost during Mao Zedong's regime.
Salesman in Beijing (1984) details Miller's experiences with the 1983 Beijing People's Theatre production of Death of a Salesman. He describes the idiosyncrasies, understandings, and insights encountered in directing a Chinese cast in a decidedly American play.
Timebends: A Life, Methuen London (1987) . Like Death of a Salesman, the book follows the structure of memory itself, each passage linked to and triggered by the one before.
Collections
Abbotson, Susan C. W. (ed.), Arthur Miller: Collected Essays, Penguin 2016
Centola, Steven R. ed. Echoes Down the Corridor: Arthur Miller, Collected Essays 1944–2000, Viking Penguin (US)/Methuen (UK), 2000
Kushner, Tony, ed. Arthur Miller, Collected Plays 1944–1961 (Library of America, 2006) .
Martin, Robert A. (ed.), "The theater essays of Arthur Miller", foreword by Arthur Miller. NY: Viking Press, 1978
References
Bibliography
Bigsby, Christopher (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller, Cambridge 1997
Gottfried, Martin, Arthur Miller, A Life, Da Capo Press (US)/Faber and Faber (UK), 2003
Koorey, Stefani, Arthur Miller's Life and Literature, Scarecrow, 2000
Moss, Leonard. Arthur Miller, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980.
Further reading
Critical Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (2007)
Student Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Facts on File (2000)
File on Miller, Christopher Bigsby (1988)
Arthur Miller & Company, Christopher Bigsby, editor (1990)
Arthur Miller: A Critical Study, Christopher Bigsby (2005)
Remembering Arthur Miller, Christopher Bigsby, editor (2005)
Arthur Miller 1915–1962, Christopher Bigsby (2008, U.K.; 2009, U.S.)
The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller (Cambridge Companions to Literature), Christopher Bigsby, editor (1998, updated and republished 2010)
Arthur Miller 1962–2005, Christopher Bigsby (2011)
Arthur Miller: Critical Insights, Brenda Murphy, editor, Salem (2011)
Understanding Death of a Salesman, Brenda Murphy and Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (1999)
Critical articles
Arthur Miller Journal, published biannually by Penn State UP. Vol. 1.1 (2006)
Radavich, David. "Arthur Miller's Sojourn in the Heartland". American Drama 16:2 (Summer 2007): 28–45.
External links
Organizations
Arthur Miller official website
Arthur Miller Society
The Arthur Miller Foundation
Archive
Arthur Miller Papers at the Harry Ransom Center
"Playwright Arthur Miller's archive comes to the Harry Ransom Center"
Finding aid to Arthur Miller papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Databases
Websites
A Visit With Castro – Miller's article in The Nation, January 12, 2004
Joyce Carol Oates on Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller Biography
Arthur Miller and Mccarthyism
Interviews
Miller interview, Humanities, March–April 2001
Obituaries
The New York Times Obituary
NPR obituary
CNN obituary
1915 births
2005 deaths
University of Michigan alumni
Kennedy Center honorees
Laurence Olivier Award winners
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Tony Award winners
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American screenwriters
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century essayists
21st-century American dramatists and playwrights
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American screenwriters
21st-century American short story writers
21st-century essayists
Abraham Lincoln High School (Brooklyn) alumni
American agnostics
American anti-capitalists
American autobiographers
20th-century American Jews
American male dramatists and playwrights
American male essayists
American male non-fiction writers
American male novelists
American male screenwriters
American male short story writers
American memoirists
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
American radio writers
Analysands of Rudolph Lowenstein
Cultural critics
Deaths from bladder cancer
Deaths from cancer in Connecticut
Free speech activists
Hopwood Award winners
Jerusalem Prize recipients
Jewish agnostics
Jewish American dramatists and playwrights
Jewish novelists
Jewish writers
Marilyn Monroe
The Michigan Daily alumni
PEN International
People from Brooklyn Heights
People from Gravesend, Brooklyn
People from Midwood, Brooklyn
People from Roxbury, Connecticut
Postmodern writers
Recipients of the Four Freedoms Award
American social commentators
Social critics
Special Tony Award recipients
Writers about activism and social change
Writers about communism
Writers from Brooklyn
Writers from Connecticut
21st-century American Jews | true | [
"Jan Jacobsz. Schipper (1616-1669) was a bookseller, printer, and theatre poet in Amsterdam.\n\nPersonal life\nSchipper was born to Jacob Claesz. and Neeltje Leyen in Amsterdam. The surname Schipper is in fact a pseudonym derived from his father’s work as a skipper, and his actual surname is Dommekracht, or Dommescracht.\nNot much is known about Schipper’s early life, however he was registered to the Amsterdam bookseller’s guild on 28 October 1636, and married Suzanna Veselaers on 27 August 1650. In 1673 his widow started a printing house with Joseph Athias.\n\nWork\nSchipper was best known as the publisher of Calvin, De Brune, and particularly for Cats’ complete works. He was also an accomplished translator of French prose, and a theatre poet in his own right. His most successful works are two plays about the “incomparable” Ariane, which featured the first woman to perform in Amsterdam theatre, Ariane Nooseman.\n\nNotable Works\nAlle de Wercken, Cats 1655, 2nd print 1661\nOnvergelijkelijke Ariane, Schipper 1644 and 1655\nDe razende Roelant, Ariosto 1649, tr. Schipper\nDe bezadigde Roelant, François de Rosset 1649, tr. Schipper\nAriane, Jean Desmarets 1621, tr. Schipper\n\nReferences\n\n1616 births\n1669 deaths\n17th-century printers\nBusinesspeople from Amsterdam\nDutch booksellers\nDutch printers\nDutch translators\nWriters from Amsterdam\n17th-century Dutch businesspeople\n17th-century translators",
"In philosophy, further facts are facts that do not follow logically from the physical facts of the world. Reductionists who argue that at bottom there is nothing more than the physical facts thus argue against the existence of further facts. The concept of further facts plays a key role in some of the major works in analytic philosophy of the late 20th century, including in Derek Parfit's Reasons and Persons, and David Chalmers's The Conscious Mind.\n\nOne context in which the existence of further facts is debated is that of personal identity across time: in what sense is Alice today really the same person as Alice yesterday, given that across the two days the state of her brain is different and the atoms that constitute her are different? One may believe that at bottom, there is nothing more than the atoms and their arrangement at different points in time; while we may for practical purposes come up with some notion of sameness of a person, this notion does not reflect anything deeper about reality. Under this view there would be no further facts. Alternatively, one may believe that there is a deeper sense in which Alice yesterday and Alice today really are the same person. For example, if one believes in Cartesian souls, one may believe that Alice yesterday and Alice today are the same person if and only if they correspond to the same soul. Or one may not believe in Cartesian souls, but yet believe that whether Alice yesterday and Alice today are the same person is a question about something other than facts about which atoms constitute them and how they are arranged. These would both be further-fact views.\n\nThe debate about further facts about personal identity over time is most closely associated with Derek Parfit. In his Reasons and Persons, he describes the non-reductionist's view that \"personal identity is a deep further fact, distinct from physical and psychological continuity\". Parfit takes a reductionist stance and argues against this further-fact view. As a result it is not clear whether a person has any reason to be worried about his or her future self in a special way that does not also apply to worrying about others, with Parfit arguing that it is plausible that \"only the deep further fact gives me a reason to be specially concerned about my future\" (his so-called \"Extreme Claim\"). Sydney Shoemaker objects that it is not clear how a further fact would give a reason for such special concerns, either. Harold Langsam has attempted to give a positive account of how a further fact would give such a reason.\n\nDavid Chalmers lists a number of other types of candidates for further facts. One is facts about conscious experience. For example, it is difficult to see how it follows from the physical facts what it is like to experience seeing red; indeed, inverted spectrum scenarios, where we imagine that experiences of colors are swapped without anything else changing, might suggest that things could have been different without the physical facts changing. Another candidate for a further fact is the fact that there is any conscious experience at all, rather than everyone being a philosophical zombie. Christopher Hill and Brian Mclaughlin have argued against the idea that facts about consciousness are further facts, disputing the logical possibility of a world physically identical to ours in which the facts about consciousness are different.\n\nChalmers also considers facts about indexicality. He cites the fact that \"I am David Chalmers\", noting that its significance seems to go beyond the tautology that David Chalmers is David Chalmers. (See also Caspar Hare's egocentric presentism and Benj Hellie's vertiginous question.) Similarly, in the philosophy of time, what date and time it is now might be considered a candidate for a further fact, in the sense that a being that knows everything about the full four-dimensional block of spacetime would still not know what time it is now. (See also the A-theory and the B-theory of time.)\n\nA final type of fact that Chalmers considers is that of negative facts. For example, consider the following statement: there do not exist nonphysical angels. If in fact true, it does not seem that this logically follows from any of the physical facts by themselves; but, he argues, it would follow if one added a \"That is all\" statement at the end of the list of all the physical facts.\n\nSee also\n Benj Hellie's vertiginous question\n B-theory of time\n Centered world\n Consciousness\n Personal identity\n Simulation hypothesis\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Conitzer, Vincent. A Puzzle about Further Facts. Open access version of article in Erkenntnis.\n\nEpistemological theories\nMetaphysics of mind\nPhilosophy of time\nTheory of mind\nConceptions of self\nIdentity (philosophy)\nThought experiments in philosophy"
]
|
[
"Arthur Miller",
"Early career",
"When did his career begin?",
"That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award.",
"Did the play do well for him?",
"The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews.",
"Did he have any hit plays?",
"In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway",
"Did he win any awards?",
"(earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author",
"Did he write the plays?",
"I don't know.",
"what did critics think of his work?",
"\"a very depressing play in a time of great optimism\" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure.",
"what play is this remark referring to?",
"Miller's play All My Sons,",
"What is a notable fact about his early work?",
"1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman."
]
| C_5ab66b0bf57946a38cd17bf139f94d57_1 | Did he write any plays there? | 9 | Did Arthur Miller write any plays in Roxbury, Connecticut? | Arthur Miller | In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap. That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews. In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure. In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times. In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955, revised 1956). He wrote several screenplays and was most noted for his work on The Misfits (1961). The drama Death of a Salesman has been numbered on the short list of finest American plays in the 20th century.
Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. During this time, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and married Marilyn Monroe. In 1980, Miller received the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates. He received the Praemium Imperiale prize in 2001, Prince of Asturias Award in 2002, and the Jerusalem Prize in 2003, as well as the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 1999.
Biography
Early life
Miller was born on October 17, 1915, in Harlem, in the New York City borough of Manhattan, and published an account of his early years under the title "A Boy Grew in Brooklyn"; the second of three children of Augusta (Barnett) and Isidore Miller. Miller was Jewish and of Polish-Jewish descent. His father was born in Radomyśl Wielki, Galicia (then part of Austria-Hungary, now Poland), and his mother was a native of New York whose parents also arrived from that town. Isidore owned a women's clothing manufacturing business employing 400 people. He became a wealthy and respected man in the community. The family, including Miller's younger sister Joan Copeland, lived on West 110th Street in Manhattan, owned a summer house in Far Rockaway, Queens, and employed a chauffeur. In the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the family lost almost everything and moved to Gravesend, Brooklyn. (One source says they moved to Midwood.) As a teenager, Miller delivered bread every morning before school to help the family. After graduating in 1932 from Abraham Lincoln High School, he worked at several menial jobs to pay for his college tuition at the University of Michigan. After graduation (circa 1936), he began to work as a psychiatric aide and also a copywriter before accepting faculty posts at New York University and University of New Hampshire. On May 1, 1935, Miller joined the League of American Writers (1935–1943), whose members included Alexander Trachtenberg of International Publishers, Franklin Folsom, Louis Untermeyer, I. F. Stone, Myra Page, Millen Brand, Lillian Hellman, and Dashiell Hammett. (Members were largely either Communist Party members or fellow travelers.)
At the University of Michigan, Miller first majored in journalism and worked for the student newspaper, The Michigan Daily, as well as the satirical Gargoyle Humor Magazine. It was during this time that he wrote his first play, No Villain. Miller switched his major to English, and subsequently won the Avery Hopwood Award for No Villain. The award brought him his first recognition and led him to begin to consider that he could have a career as a playwright. Miller enrolled in a playwriting seminar taught by the influential Professor Kenneth Rowe, who instructed him in his early forays into playwriting; Rowe emphasized how a play is built in order to achieve its intended effect, or what Miller called "the dynamics of play construction". Rowe provided realistic feedback along with much-needed encouragement, and became a lifelong friend. Miller retained strong ties to his alma mater throughout the rest of his life, establishing the university's Arthur Miller Award in 1985 and Arthur Miller Award for Dramatic Writing in 1999, and lending his name to the Arthur Miller Theatre in 2000. In 1937, Miller wrote Honors at Dawn, which also received the Avery Hopwood Award.
After his graduation in 1938, he joined the Federal Theatre Project, a New Deal agency established to provide jobs in the theater. He chose the theater project despite the more lucrative offer to work as a scriptwriter for 20th Century Fox. However, Congress, worried about possible Communist infiltration, closed the project in 1939. Miller began working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard while continuing to write radio plays, some of which were broadcast on CBS.
Early career
In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane (born September 7, 1944) and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap.
In 1944 Miller's first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck and won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews.
In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure.
In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times.
In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred.
Critical years
In 1955, a one-act version of Miller's verse drama A View from the Bridge opened on Broadway in a joint bill with one of Miller's lesser-known plays, A Memory of Two Mondays. The following year, Miller revised A View from the Bridge as a two-act prose drama, which Peter Brook directed in London. A French-Italian co-production Vu du pont, based on the play, was released in 1962.
Marriages and family
In June 1956, Miller left his first wife, Mary Slattery, whom he had married in 1940, and wed film star Marilyn Monroe. They had met in 1951, had a brief affair, and remained in contact since. Monroe had just turned 30 when they married; she never had a real family of her own and was eager to join the family of her new husband.
Monroe began to reconsider her career and the fact that trying to manage it made her feel helpless. She admitted to Miller, "I hate Hollywood. I don't want it any more. I want to live quietly in the country and just be there when you need me. I can't fight for myself any more."
Monroe converted to Judaism to "express her loyalty and get close to both Miller and his parents", writes biographer Jeffrey Meyers. She told her close friend, Susan Strasberg: "I can identify with the Jews. Everybody's always out to get them, no matter what they do, like me." Soon after Monroe converted, Egypt banned all of her movies.
Away from Hollywood and the culture of celebrity, Monroe's life became more normal; she began cooking, keeping house and giving Miller more attention and affection than he had been used to.
Later that year, Miller was subpoenaed by the HCUA, and Monroe accompanied him. In her personal notes, she wrote about her worries during this period:
Miller began work on writing the screenplay for The Misfits in 1960, directed by John Huston and starring Monroe but it was during the filming that Miller and Monroe's relationship hit difficulties, and he later said that the filming was one of the lowest points in his life. Monroe was taking drugs to help her sleep and more drugs to help her wake up, which caused her to arrive on the set late and then have trouble remembering her lines. Huston was unaware that Miller and Monroe were having problems in their private life. He recalled later, "I was impertinent enough to say to Arthur that to allow her to take drugs of any kind was criminal and utterly irresponsible. Shortly after that I realized that she wouldn't listen to Arthur at all; he had no say over her actions."
Shortly before the film's premiere in 1961, Miller and Monroe divorced after five years of marriage. Nineteen months later, on August 5, 1962, Monroe died of a likely drug overdose. Huston, who had also directed her in her first major role in The Asphalt Jungle in 1950, and who had seen her rise to stardom, put the blame for her death on her doctors as opposed to the stresses of being a star: "The girl was an addict of sleeping pills and she was made so by the God-damn doctors. It had nothing to do with the Hollywood set-up."
Miller married photographer Inge Morath in February 1962. She had worked as a photographer documenting the production of The Misfits. The first of their two children, Rebecca, was born September 15, 1962. Their son, Daniel, was born with Down syndrome in November 1966. Against his wife's wishes, Miller had him institutionalized, first at a home for infants in New York City, and then at the Southbury Training School in Connecticut. Though Morath visited Daniel often, Miller never visited him at the school and rarely spoke of him. Miller and Inge remained together until her death in 2002. Arthur Miller's son-in-law, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, is said to have visited Daniel frequently, and to have persuaded Arthur Miller to meet with him.
HUAC controversy and The Crucible
In 1952, Elia Kazan appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Kazan named eight members of the Group Theatre, including Clifford Odets, Paula Strasberg, Lillian Hellman, J. Edward Bromberg, and John Garfield, who in recent years had been fellow members of the Communist Party. Miller and Kazan were close friends throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, but after Kazan's testimony to the HUAC, the pair's friendship ended. After speaking with Kazan about his testimony, Miller traveled to Salem, Massachusetts, to research the witch trials of 1692. He and Kazan did not speak to each other for the next ten years. Kazan later defended his own actions through his film On the Waterfront, in which a dockworker heroically testifies against a corrupt union boss. Miller would retaliate to Kazan's work by writing A View from the Bridge, a play where a longshoreman outs his co-workers motivated only by jealousy and greed. He sent a copy of the initial script to Kazan and when the director asked in jest to direct the movie, Miller replied "I only sent you the script to let you know what I think of Stool-Pigeons."
In The Crucible, Miller likened the situation with the House Un-American Activities Committee to the witch hunt in Salem in 1692. The play opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway on January 22, 1953. Though widely considered only somewhat successful at the time of its release, today The Crucible is Miller's most frequently produced work throughout the world. It was adapted into an opera by Robert Ward in 1961.
The HUAC took an interest in Miller himself not long after The Crucible opened, denying him a passport to attend the play's London opening in 1954. When Miller applied in 1956 for a routine renewal of his passport, the House Un-American Activities Committee used this opportunity to subpoena him to appear before the committee. Before appearing, Miller asked the committee not to ask him to name names, to which the chairman, Francis E. Walter (D-PA) agreed. When Miller attended the hearing, to which Monroe accompanied him, risking her own career, he gave the committee a detailed account of his political activities. Reneging on the chairman's promise, the committee demanded the names of friends and colleagues who had participated in similar activities. Miller refused to comply, saying "I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him." As a result, a judge found Miller guilty of contempt of Congress in May 1957. Miller was sentenced to a fine and a prison sentence, blacklisted, and disallowed a US passport. In August 1958, his conviction was overturned by the court of appeals, which ruled that Miller had been misled by the chairman of the HUAC.
Miller's experience with the HUAC affected him throughout his life. In the late 1970s, he joined other celebrities (including William Styron and Mike Nichols) who were brought together by the journalist Joan Barthel. Barthel's coverage of the highly publicized Barbara Gibbons murder case helped raise bail for Gibbons' son Peter Reilly, who had been convicted of his mother's murder based on what many felt was a coerced confession and little other evidence. Barthel documented the case in her book A Death in Canaan, which was made as a television film of the same name and broadcast in 1978. City Confidential, an A&E Network series, produced an episode about the murder, postulating that part of the reason Miller took such an active interest (including supporting Reilly's defense and using his own celebrity to bring attention to Reilly's plight) was because he had felt similarly persecuted in his run-ins with the HUAC. He sympathized with Reilly, whom he firmly believed to be innocent and to have been railroaded by the Connecticut State Police and the Attorney General who had initially prosecuted the case.
Later career
In 1964, After the Fall was produced, and is said to be a deeply personal view of Miller's experiences during his marriage to Monroe. The play reunited Miller with his former friend Kazan: they collaborated on both the script and the direction. After the Fall opened on January 23, 1964, at the ANTA Theatre in Washington Square Park amid a flurry of publicity and outrage at putting a Monroe-like character, called Maggie, on stage. Robert Brustein, in a review in the New Republic, called After the Fall "a three and one half hour breach of taste, a confessional autobiography of embarrassing explicitness ... there is a misogynistic strain in the play which the author does not seem to recognize. ... He has created a shameless piece of tabloid gossip, an act of exhibitionism which makes us all voyeurs, ... a wretched piece of dramatic writing." That same year, Miller produced Incident at Vichy. In 1965, Miller was elected the first American president of PEN International, a position which he held for four years. A year later, Miller organized the 1966 PEN congress in New York City. Miller also wrote the penetrating family drama, The Price, produced in 1968. It was Miller's most successful play since Death of a Salesman.
In 1968, Miller attended the Democratic National Convention as a delegate for Eugene McCarthy. In 1969, Miller's works were banned in the Soviet Union after he campaigned for the freedom of dissident writers. Throughout the 1970s, Miller spent much of his time experimenting with the theatre, producing one-act plays such as Fame and The Reason Why, and traveling with his wife, producing In the Country and Chinese Encounters with her. Both his 1972 comedy The Creation of the World and Other Business and its musical adaptation, Up from Paradise, were critical and commercial failures.
Miller was an unusually articulate commentator on his own work. In 1978 he published a collection of his Theater Essays, edited by Robert A. Martin and with a foreword by Miller. Highlights of the collection included Miller's introduction to his Collected Plays, his reflections on the theory of tragedy, comments on the McCarthy Era, and pieces arguing for a publicly supported theater. Reviewing this collection in the Chicago Tribune, Studs Terkel remarked, "in reading [the Theater Essays]...you are exhilaratingly aware of a social critic, as well as a playwright, who knows what he's talking about."
In 1983, Miller traveled to China to produce and direct Death of a Salesman at the People's Art Theatre in Beijing. The play was a success in China and in 1984, Salesman in Beijing, a book about Miller's experiences in Beijing, was published. Around the same time, Death of a Salesman was made into a TV movie starring Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman. Shown on CBS, it attracted 25 million viewers. In late 1987, Miller's autobiographical work,
Timebends, was published. Before it was published, it was well known that Miller would not talk about Monroe in interviews; in Timebends Miller talks about his experiences with Monroe in detail.
During the early-mid 1990s, Miller wrote three new plays: The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1992), and Broken Glass (1994). In 1996, a film of The Crucible starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Scofield, Bruce Davison, and Winona Ryder opened. Miller spent much of 1996 working on the screenplay for the film.
Mr. Peters' Connections was staged Off-Broadway in 1998, and Death of a Salesman was revived on Broadway in 1999 to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. The play, once again, was a large critical success, winning a Tony Award for best revival of a play.
In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. Miller was honored with the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award for a Master American Dramatist in 1998. In 2001 the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) selected Miller for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Miller's lecture was entitled "On Politics and the Art of Acting." Miller's lecture analyzed political events (including the U.S. presidential election of 2000)
in terms of the "arts of performance", and it drew attacks from some conservatives such as Jay Nordlinger, who called it "a disgrace", and George Will, who argued that Miller was not legitimately a "scholar".
In 1999, Miller was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to "a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life." In 2001, Miller received the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. On May 1, 2002, Miller was awarded Spain's Principe de Asturias Prize for Literature as "the undisputed master of modern drama". Later that year, Ingeborg Morath died of lymphatic cancer at the age of 78. The following year Miller won the Jerusalem Prize.
In December 2004, 89-year-old Miller announced that he had been in love with 34-year-old minimalist painter Agnes Barley and had been living with her at his Connecticut farm since 2002, and that they intended to marry. Within hours of her father's death, Rebecca Miller ordered Barley to vacate the premises because she had consistently been opposed to the relationship. Miller's final play, Finishing the Picture, opened at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, in the fall of 2004, with one character said to be based on Barley. It was reported to be based on his experience during the filming of The Misfits, though Miller insisted the play is a work of fiction with independent characters that were no more than composite shadows of history.
Death
Miller died on the evening of February 10, 2005 (the 56th anniversary of the Broadway debut of Death of a Salesman) at age 89 of bladder cancer and heart failure, at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. He had been in hospice care at his sister's apartment in New York since his release from hospital the previous month. He was surrounded by Barley, family and friends. His body was interred at Roxbury Center Cemetery in Roxbury.
Legacy
Miller's career as a writer spanned over seven decades, and at the time of his death, Miller was considered to be one of the greatest dramatists of the twentieth century. After his death, many respected actors, directors, and producers paid tribute to Miller, some calling him the last great practitioner of the American stage, and Broadway theatres darkened their lights in a show of respect.
Miller's alma mater, the University of Michigan, opened the Arthur Miller Theatre in March 2007. As per his express wish, it is the only theatre in the world that bears Miller's name.
Other notable arrangements for Miller's legacy are that his letters, notes, drafts and other papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin.
Miller is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. He was inducted in 1979.
In 1993, he received the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech.
In 2017, his daughter, Rebecca Miller, a writer and filmmaker, completed a documentary about her father's life, under the title Arthur Miller: Writer.
Minor planet 3769 Arthurmiller is named after him.
Foundation
The Arthur Miller Foundation was founded to honor the legacy of Miller and his New York City Public School Education. The mission of the foundation is: "Promoting increased access and equity to theater arts education in our schools and increasing the number of students receiving theater arts education as an integral part of their academic curriculum." Other initiatives include certification of new theater teachers and their placement in public schools; increasing the number of theater teachers in the system from the current estimate of 180 teachers in 1800 schools; supporting professional development of all certified theater teachers; providing teaching artists, cultural partners, physical spaces, and theater ticket allocations for students. The foundation's primary purpose is to provide arts education in the New York City school system. The current chancellor of the foundation is Carmen Farina, a large proponent of the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The Master Arts Council includes, among others, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Barkin, Bradley Cooper, Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson, Tony Kushner, Julianne Moore, Michael Moore, Liam Neeson, David O. Russell, and Liev Schreiber. His son-in-law Daniel Day-Lewis, serves on the current board of directors since 2016.
The foundation celebrated Miller's 100th birthday with a one-night-only performance of Miller's seminal works in November 2015.
The Arthur Miller Foundation currently supports a pilot program in theater and film at the public school Quest to Learn in partnership with the Institute of Play. The model is being used as an in-school elective theater class and lab. The objective is to create a sustainable theater education model to disseminate to teachers at professional development workshops.
Archive
Miller donated thirteen boxes of his earliest manuscripts to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin in 1961 and 1962. This collection included the original handwritten notebooks and early typed drafts for Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, All My Sons, and other works. In January, 2018, the Ransom Center announced the acquisition of the remainder of the Miller archive totaling over 200 boxes. The full archive opened in November, 2019.
Literary and public criticism
Christopher Bigsby wrote Arthur Miller: The Definitive Biography based on boxes of papers Miller made available to him before his death in 2005. The book was published in November 2008, and is reported to reveal unpublished works in which Miller "bitterly attack[ed] the injustices of American racism long before it was taken up by the civil rights movement".
In his book Trinity of Passion, author Alan M. Wald conjectures that Miller was "a member of a writer's unit of the Communist Party around 1946," using the pseudonym Matt Wayne, and editing a drama column in the magazine The New Masses.
In 1999 the writer Christopher Hitchens attacked Miller for comparing the Monica Lewinsky investigation to the Salem witch hunt. Miller had asserted a parallel between the examination of physical evidence on Lewinsky's dress and the examinations of women's bodies for signs of the "Devil's Marks" in Salem. Hitchens scathingly disputed the parallel. In his memoir, Hitch-22, Hitchens bitterly noted that Miller, despite his prominence as a left-wing intellectual, had failed to support author Salman Rushdie during the Iranian fatwa involving The Satanic Verses.
Works
Stage plays
No Villain (1936)
They Too Arise (1937, based on No Villain)
Honors at Dawn (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Grass Still Grows (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Great Disobedience (1938)
Listen My Children (1939, with Norman Rosten)
The Golden Years (1940)
The Half-Bridge (1943)
The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944)
All My Sons (1947)
Death of a Salesman (1949)
An Enemy of the People (1950, based on Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People)
The Crucible (1953)
A View from the Bridge (1955)
A Memory of Two Mondays (1955)
After the Fall (1964)
Incident at Vichy (1964)
The Price (1968)
The Reason Why (1970)
Fame (one-act, 1970; revised for television 1978)
The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972)
Up from Paradise (1974)
The Archbishop's Ceiling (1977)
The American Clock (1980)
Playing for Time (television play, 1980)
Elegy for a Lady (short play, 1982, first part of Two Way Mirror)
Some Kind of Love Story (short play, 1982, second part of Two Way Mirror)
I Think About You a Great Deal (1986)
Playing for Time (stage version, 1985)
I Can't Remember Anything (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
Clara (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991)
The Last Yankee (1993)
Broken Glass (1994)
Mr. Peters' Connections (1998)
Resurrection Blues (2002)
Finishing the Picture (2004)
Radio plays
The Pussycat and the Expert Plumber Who Was a Man (1941)
Joel Chandler Harris (1941)
The Battle of the Ovens (1942)
Thunder from the Mountains (1942)
I Was Married in Bataan (1942)
That They May Win (1943)
Listen for the Sound of Wings (1943)
Bernardine (1944)
I Love You (1944)
Grandpa and the Statue (1944)
The Philippines Never Surrendered (1944)
The Guardsman (1944, based on Ferenc Molnár's play)
The Story of Gus (1947)
Screenplays
The Hook (1947)
All My Sons (1948)
Let's Make Love (1960)
The Misfits (1961)
Death of a Salesman (1985)
Everybody Wins (1990)
The Crucible (1996)
Assorted fiction
Focus (novel, 1945)
"The Misfits" (short story, published in Esquire, October 1957)
I Don't Need You Anymore (short stories, 1967)
Homely Girl: A Life (short story, 1992, published in UK as "Plain Girl: A Life" 1995)
"The Performance" (short story)
Presence: Stories (2007) (short stories include The Bare Manuscript, Beavers, The Performance, and Bulldog)
Non-fiction
Situation Normal (1944) is based on his experiences researching the war correspondence of Ernie Pyle.
In Russia (1969), the first of three books created with his photographer wife Inge Morath, offers Miller's impressions of Russia and Russian society.
In the Country (1977), with photographs by Morath and text by Miller, provides insight into how Miller spent his time in Roxbury, Connecticut, and profiles of his various neighbors.
Chinese Encounters (1979) is a travel journal with photographs by Morath. It depicts the Chinese society in the state of flux which followed the end of the Cultural Revolution. Miller discusses the hardships of many writers, professors, and artists as they try to regain the sense of freedom and place they lost during Mao Zedong's regime.
Salesman in Beijing (1984) details Miller's experiences with the 1983 Beijing People's Theatre production of Death of a Salesman. He describes the idiosyncrasies, understandings, and insights encountered in directing a Chinese cast in a decidedly American play.
Timebends: A Life, Methuen London (1987) . Like Death of a Salesman, the book follows the structure of memory itself, each passage linked to and triggered by the one before.
Collections
Abbotson, Susan C. W. (ed.), Arthur Miller: Collected Essays, Penguin 2016
Centola, Steven R. ed. Echoes Down the Corridor: Arthur Miller, Collected Essays 1944–2000, Viking Penguin (US)/Methuen (UK), 2000
Kushner, Tony, ed. Arthur Miller, Collected Plays 1944–1961 (Library of America, 2006) .
Martin, Robert A. (ed.), "The theater essays of Arthur Miller", foreword by Arthur Miller. NY: Viking Press, 1978
References
Bibliography
Bigsby, Christopher (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller, Cambridge 1997
Gottfried, Martin, Arthur Miller, A Life, Da Capo Press (US)/Faber and Faber (UK), 2003
Koorey, Stefani, Arthur Miller's Life and Literature, Scarecrow, 2000
Moss, Leonard. Arthur Miller, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980.
Further reading
Critical Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (2007)
Student Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Facts on File (2000)
File on Miller, Christopher Bigsby (1988)
Arthur Miller & Company, Christopher Bigsby, editor (1990)
Arthur Miller: A Critical Study, Christopher Bigsby (2005)
Remembering Arthur Miller, Christopher Bigsby, editor (2005)
Arthur Miller 1915–1962, Christopher Bigsby (2008, U.K.; 2009, U.S.)
The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller (Cambridge Companions to Literature), Christopher Bigsby, editor (1998, updated and republished 2010)
Arthur Miller 1962–2005, Christopher Bigsby (2011)
Arthur Miller: Critical Insights, Brenda Murphy, editor, Salem (2011)
Understanding Death of a Salesman, Brenda Murphy and Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (1999)
Critical articles
Arthur Miller Journal, published biannually by Penn State UP. Vol. 1.1 (2006)
Radavich, David. "Arthur Miller's Sojourn in the Heartland". American Drama 16:2 (Summer 2007): 28–45.
External links
Organizations
Arthur Miller official website
Arthur Miller Society
The Arthur Miller Foundation
Archive
Arthur Miller Papers at the Harry Ransom Center
"Playwright Arthur Miller's archive comes to the Harry Ransom Center"
Finding aid to Arthur Miller papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Databases
Websites
A Visit With Castro – Miller's article in The Nation, January 12, 2004
Joyce Carol Oates on Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller Biography
Arthur Miller and Mccarthyism
Interviews
Miller interview, Humanities, March–April 2001
Obituaries
The New York Times Obituary
NPR obituary
CNN obituary
1915 births
2005 deaths
University of Michigan alumni
Kennedy Center honorees
Laurence Olivier Award winners
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Tony Award winners
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American screenwriters
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century essayists
21st-century American dramatists and playwrights
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American screenwriters
21st-century American short story writers
21st-century essayists
Abraham Lincoln High School (Brooklyn) alumni
American agnostics
American anti-capitalists
American autobiographers
20th-century American Jews
American male dramatists and playwrights
American male essayists
American male non-fiction writers
American male novelists
American male screenwriters
American male short story writers
American memoirists
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
American radio writers
Analysands of Rudolph Lowenstein
Cultural critics
Deaths from bladder cancer
Deaths from cancer in Connecticut
Free speech activists
Hopwood Award winners
Jerusalem Prize recipients
Jewish agnostics
Jewish American dramatists and playwrights
Jewish novelists
Jewish writers
Marilyn Monroe
The Michigan Daily alumni
PEN International
People from Brooklyn Heights
People from Gravesend, Brooklyn
People from Midwood, Brooklyn
People from Roxbury, Connecticut
Postmodern writers
Recipients of the Four Freedoms Award
American social commentators
Social critics
Special Tony Award recipients
Writers about activism and social change
Writers about communism
Writers from Brooklyn
Writers from Connecticut
21st-century American Jews | false | [
"Pommy is a play.\n\nPlot\nAn Englishman arrives in Australia and works on a station.\n\nProduction\nThe play was written by W. P. Lipscomb and John Watson in the late 1940s. The story was originally written by Watson as a script and sent to Rank. He met Lipscomb, who had never been to Australia in 1948 and the two decided to collaborate. Lipscomb later went to Australia to write Bitter Springs.\n\nPeter Finch was originally attached as director for its original English production but eventually pulled out. The cast included Bill Kerr and Ronald Howard and the production ran for six weeks touring through England. It did not come to London.\n\nDespite the play's success in England, author John Watson said there was a reluctance from Australian theatre managements to put on the play in Australia. It was eventually produced in Sydney and Melbourne in 1954.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nMelbourne 1954 production details at AusStage\n\n1954 plays\nEnglish plays",
"Life of the Party: The Biography of Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman is an unauthorized 1994 biography of Pamela Harriman by Christopher Ogden.\n\nBackground\nThe author stated that he chose to write the book anyway after Harriman canceled plans for an authorized biography and did not pay him for the work he did. Kirkus Reviews stated \"That may or may not have influenced his perspective when he decided to write the story anyway\".\n\nOgden had, over a period of several months, collected about forty hours of interview footage.\n\nOgden was a correspondent for Time.\n\nContent\nThere are nineteen chapters, with most of them each being named after a male figure with significance in the biography.\n\nKirkus stated that the author had a negative view of her romantic ties, and according to Kirkus this was not primarily about any promiscuity but instead about allowing her partners to give her support.\n\nReception\nKirkus Reviews stated that \" This is fun to read as the names drop, but it offers more titillation than insight into\" the subject.\n\nPublishers Weekly stated that the book is \"captivating, gossipy, withering\".\n\nReferences\n\n1994 non-fiction books\nUnauthorized biographies"
]
|
[
"Arthur Miller",
"Early career",
"When did his career begin?",
"That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award.",
"Did the play do well for him?",
"The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews.",
"Did he have any hit plays?",
"In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway",
"Did he win any awards?",
"(earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author",
"Did he write the plays?",
"I don't know.",
"what did critics think of his work?",
"\"a very depressing play in a time of great optimism\" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure.",
"what play is this remark referring to?",
"Miller's play All My Sons,",
"What is a notable fact about his early work?",
"1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman.",
"Did he write any plays there?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_5ab66b0bf57946a38cd17bf139f94d57_1 | What work did he do at the studio? | 10 | What work did Arthur Miller do at the studio in Roxbury, Connecticut? | Arthur Miller | In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap. That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews. In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure. In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times. In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred. CANNOTANSWER | 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; | Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955, revised 1956). He wrote several screenplays and was most noted for his work on The Misfits (1961). The drama Death of a Salesman has been numbered on the short list of finest American plays in the 20th century.
Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. During this time, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and married Marilyn Monroe. In 1980, Miller received the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates. He received the Praemium Imperiale prize in 2001, Prince of Asturias Award in 2002, and the Jerusalem Prize in 2003, as well as the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 1999.
Biography
Early life
Miller was born on October 17, 1915, in Harlem, in the New York City borough of Manhattan, and published an account of his early years under the title "A Boy Grew in Brooklyn"; the second of three children of Augusta (Barnett) and Isidore Miller. Miller was Jewish and of Polish-Jewish descent. His father was born in Radomyśl Wielki, Galicia (then part of Austria-Hungary, now Poland), and his mother was a native of New York whose parents also arrived from that town. Isidore owned a women's clothing manufacturing business employing 400 people. He became a wealthy and respected man in the community. The family, including Miller's younger sister Joan Copeland, lived on West 110th Street in Manhattan, owned a summer house in Far Rockaway, Queens, and employed a chauffeur. In the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the family lost almost everything and moved to Gravesend, Brooklyn. (One source says they moved to Midwood.) As a teenager, Miller delivered bread every morning before school to help the family. After graduating in 1932 from Abraham Lincoln High School, he worked at several menial jobs to pay for his college tuition at the University of Michigan. After graduation (circa 1936), he began to work as a psychiatric aide and also a copywriter before accepting faculty posts at New York University and University of New Hampshire. On May 1, 1935, Miller joined the League of American Writers (1935–1943), whose members included Alexander Trachtenberg of International Publishers, Franklin Folsom, Louis Untermeyer, I. F. Stone, Myra Page, Millen Brand, Lillian Hellman, and Dashiell Hammett. (Members were largely either Communist Party members or fellow travelers.)
At the University of Michigan, Miller first majored in journalism and worked for the student newspaper, The Michigan Daily, as well as the satirical Gargoyle Humor Magazine. It was during this time that he wrote his first play, No Villain. Miller switched his major to English, and subsequently won the Avery Hopwood Award for No Villain. The award brought him his first recognition and led him to begin to consider that he could have a career as a playwright. Miller enrolled in a playwriting seminar taught by the influential Professor Kenneth Rowe, who instructed him in his early forays into playwriting; Rowe emphasized how a play is built in order to achieve its intended effect, or what Miller called "the dynamics of play construction". Rowe provided realistic feedback along with much-needed encouragement, and became a lifelong friend. Miller retained strong ties to his alma mater throughout the rest of his life, establishing the university's Arthur Miller Award in 1985 and Arthur Miller Award for Dramatic Writing in 1999, and lending his name to the Arthur Miller Theatre in 2000. In 1937, Miller wrote Honors at Dawn, which also received the Avery Hopwood Award.
After his graduation in 1938, he joined the Federal Theatre Project, a New Deal agency established to provide jobs in the theater. He chose the theater project despite the more lucrative offer to work as a scriptwriter for 20th Century Fox. However, Congress, worried about possible Communist infiltration, closed the project in 1939. Miller began working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard while continuing to write radio plays, some of which were broadcast on CBS.
Early career
In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane (born September 7, 1944) and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap.
In 1944 Miller's first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck and won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews.
In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure.
In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times.
In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred.
Critical years
In 1955, a one-act version of Miller's verse drama A View from the Bridge opened on Broadway in a joint bill with one of Miller's lesser-known plays, A Memory of Two Mondays. The following year, Miller revised A View from the Bridge as a two-act prose drama, which Peter Brook directed in London. A French-Italian co-production Vu du pont, based on the play, was released in 1962.
Marriages and family
In June 1956, Miller left his first wife, Mary Slattery, whom he had married in 1940, and wed film star Marilyn Monroe. They had met in 1951, had a brief affair, and remained in contact since. Monroe had just turned 30 when they married; she never had a real family of her own and was eager to join the family of her new husband.
Monroe began to reconsider her career and the fact that trying to manage it made her feel helpless. She admitted to Miller, "I hate Hollywood. I don't want it any more. I want to live quietly in the country and just be there when you need me. I can't fight for myself any more."
Monroe converted to Judaism to "express her loyalty and get close to both Miller and his parents", writes biographer Jeffrey Meyers. She told her close friend, Susan Strasberg: "I can identify with the Jews. Everybody's always out to get them, no matter what they do, like me." Soon after Monroe converted, Egypt banned all of her movies.
Away from Hollywood and the culture of celebrity, Monroe's life became more normal; she began cooking, keeping house and giving Miller more attention and affection than he had been used to.
Later that year, Miller was subpoenaed by the HCUA, and Monroe accompanied him. In her personal notes, she wrote about her worries during this period:
Miller began work on writing the screenplay for The Misfits in 1960, directed by John Huston and starring Monroe but it was during the filming that Miller and Monroe's relationship hit difficulties, and he later said that the filming was one of the lowest points in his life. Monroe was taking drugs to help her sleep and more drugs to help her wake up, which caused her to arrive on the set late and then have trouble remembering her lines. Huston was unaware that Miller and Monroe were having problems in their private life. He recalled later, "I was impertinent enough to say to Arthur that to allow her to take drugs of any kind was criminal and utterly irresponsible. Shortly after that I realized that she wouldn't listen to Arthur at all; he had no say over her actions."
Shortly before the film's premiere in 1961, Miller and Monroe divorced after five years of marriage. Nineteen months later, on August 5, 1962, Monroe died of a likely drug overdose. Huston, who had also directed her in her first major role in The Asphalt Jungle in 1950, and who had seen her rise to stardom, put the blame for her death on her doctors as opposed to the stresses of being a star: "The girl was an addict of sleeping pills and she was made so by the God-damn doctors. It had nothing to do with the Hollywood set-up."
Miller married photographer Inge Morath in February 1962. She had worked as a photographer documenting the production of The Misfits. The first of their two children, Rebecca, was born September 15, 1962. Their son, Daniel, was born with Down syndrome in November 1966. Against his wife's wishes, Miller had him institutionalized, first at a home for infants in New York City, and then at the Southbury Training School in Connecticut. Though Morath visited Daniel often, Miller never visited him at the school and rarely spoke of him. Miller and Inge remained together until her death in 2002. Arthur Miller's son-in-law, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, is said to have visited Daniel frequently, and to have persuaded Arthur Miller to meet with him.
HUAC controversy and The Crucible
In 1952, Elia Kazan appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Kazan named eight members of the Group Theatre, including Clifford Odets, Paula Strasberg, Lillian Hellman, J. Edward Bromberg, and John Garfield, who in recent years had been fellow members of the Communist Party. Miller and Kazan were close friends throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, but after Kazan's testimony to the HUAC, the pair's friendship ended. After speaking with Kazan about his testimony, Miller traveled to Salem, Massachusetts, to research the witch trials of 1692. He and Kazan did not speak to each other for the next ten years. Kazan later defended his own actions through his film On the Waterfront, in which a dockworker heroically testifies against a corrupt union boss. Miller would retaliate to Kazan's work by writing A View from the Bridge, a play where a longshoreman outs his co-workers motivated only by jealousy and greed. He sent a copy of the initial script to Kazan and when the director asked in jest to direct the movie, Miller replied "I only sent you the script to let you know what I think of Stool-Pigeons."
In The Crucible, Miller likened the situation with the House Un-American Activities Committee to the witch hunt in Salem in 1692. The play opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway on January 22, 1953. Though widely considered only somewhat successful at the time of its release, today The Crucible is Miller's most frequently produced work throughout the world. It was adapted into an opera by Robert Ward in 1961.
The HUAC took an interest in Miller himself not long after The Crucible opened, denying him a passport to attend the play's London opening in 1954. When Miller applied in 1956 for a routine renewal of his passport, the House Un-American Activities Committee used this opportunity to subpoena him to appear before the committee. Before appearing, Miller asked the committee not to ask him to name names, to which the chairman, Francis E. Walter (D-PA) agreed. When Miller attended the hearing, to which Monroe accompanied him, risking her own career, he gave the committee a detailed account of his political activities. Reneging on the chairman's promise, the committee demanded the names of friends and colleagues who had participated in similar activities. Miller refused to comply, saying "I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him." As a result, a judge found Miller guilty of contempt of Congress in May 1957. Miller was sentenced to a fine and a prison sentence, blacklisted, and disallowed a US passport. In August 1958, his conviction was overturned by the court of appeals, which ruled that Miller had been misled by the chairman of the HUAC.
Miller's experience with the HUAC affected him throughout his life. In the late 1970s, he joined other celebrities (including William Styron and Mike Nichols) who were brought together by the journalist Joan Barthel. Barthel's coverage of the highly publicized Barbara Gibbons murder case helped raise bail for Gibbons' son Peter Reilly, who had been convicted of his mother's murder based on what many felt was a coerced confession and little other evidence. Barthel documented the case in her book A Death in Canaan, which was made as a television film of the same name and broadcast in 1978. City Confidential, an A&E Network series, produced an episode about the murder, postulating that part of the reason Miller took such an active interest (including supporting Reilly's defense and using his own celebrity to bring attention to Reilly's plight) was because he had felt similarly persecuted in his run-ins with the HUAC. He sympathized with Reilly, whom he firmly believed to be innocent and to have been railroaded by the Connecticut State Police and the Attorney General who had initially prosecuted the case.
Later career
In 1964, After the Fall was produced, and is said to be a deeply personal view of Miller's experiences during his marriage to Monroe. The play reunited Miller with his former friend Kazan: they collaborated on both the script and the direction. After the Fall opened on January 23, 1964, at the ANTA Theatre in Washington Square Park amid a flurry of publicity and outrage at putting a Monroe-like character, called Maggie, on stage. Robert Brustein, in a review in the New Republic, called After the Fall "a three and one half hour breach of taste, a confessional autobiography of embarrassing explicitness ... there is a misogynistic strain in the play which the author does not seem to recognize. ... He has created a shameless piece of tabloid gossip, an act of exhibitionism which makes us all voyeurs, ... a wretched piece of dramatic writing." That same year, Miller produced Incident at Vichy. In 1965, Miller was elected the first American president of PEN International, a position which he held for four years. A year later, Miller organized the 1966 PEN congress in New York City. Miller also wrote the penetrating family drama, The Price, produced in 1968. It was Miller's most successful play since Death of a Salesman.
In 1968, Miller attended the Democratic National Convention as a delegate for Eugene McCarthy. In 1969, Miller's works were banned in the Soviet Union after he campaigned for the freedom of dissident writers. Throughout the 1970s, Miller spent much of his time experimenting with the theatre, producing one-act plays such as Fame and The Reason Why, and traveling with his wife, producing In the Country and Chinese Encounters with her. Both his 1972 comedy The Creation of the World and Other Business and its musical adaptation, Up from Paradise, were critical and commercial failures.
Miller was an unusually articulate commentator on his own work. In 1978 he published a collection of his Theater Essays, edited by Robert A. Martin and with a foreword by Miller. Highlights of the collection included Miller's introduction to his Collected Plays, his reflections on the theory of tragedy, comments on the McCarthy Era, and pieces arguing for a publicly supported theater. Reviewing this collection in the Chicago Tribune, Studs Terkel remarked, "in reading [the Theater Essays]...you are exhilaratingly aware of a social critic, as well as a playwright, who knows what he's talking about."
In 1983, Miller traveled to China to produce and direct Death of a Salesman at the People's Art Theatre in Beijing. The play was a success in China and in 1984, Salesman in Beijing, a book about Miller's experiences in Beijing, was published. Around the same time, Death of a Salesman was made into a TV movie starring Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman. Shown on CBS, it attracted 25 million viewers. In late 1987, Miller's autobiographical work,
Timebends, was published. Before it was published, it was well known that Miller would not talk about Monroe in interviews; in Timebends Miller talks about his experiences with Monroe in detail.
During the early-mid 1990s, Miller wrote three new plays: The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1992), and Broken Glass (1994). In 1996, a film of The Crucible starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Scofield, Bruce Davison, and Winona Ryder opened. Miller spent much of 1996 working on the screenplay for the film.
Mr. Peters' Connections was staged Off-Broadway in 1998, and Death of a Salesman was revived on Broadway in 1999 to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. The play, once again, was a large critical success, winning a Tony Award for best revival of a play.
In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. Miller was honored with the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award for a Master American Dramatist in 1998. In 2001 the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) selected Miller for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Miller's lecture was entitled "On Politics and the Art of Acting." Miller's lecture analyzed political events (including the U.S. presidential election of 2000)
in terms of the "arts of performance", and it drew attacks from some conservatives such as Jay Nordlinger, who called it "a disgrace", and George Will, who argued that Miller was not legitimately a "scholar".
In 1999, Miller was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to "a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life." In 2001, Miller received the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. On May 1, 2002, Miller was awarded Spain's Principe de Asturias Prize for Literature as "the undisputed master of modern drama". Later that year, Ingeborg Morath died of lymphatic cancer at the age of 78. The following year Miller won the Jerusalem Prize.
In December 2004, 89-year-old Miller announced that he had been in love with 34-year-old minimalist painter Agnes Barley and had been living with her at his Connecticut farm since 2002, and that they intended to marry. Within hours of her father's death, Rebecca Miller ordered Barley to vacate the premises because she had consistently been opposed to the relationship. Miller's final play, Finishing the Picture, opened at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, in the fall of 2004, with one character said to be based on Barley. It was reported to be based on his experience during the filming of The Misfits, though Miller insisted the play is a work of fiction with independent characters that were no more than composite shadows of history.
Death
Miller died on the evening of February 10, 2005 (the 56th anniversary of the Broadway debut of Death of a Salesman) at age 89 of bladder cancer and heart failure, at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. He had been in hospice care at his sister's apartment in New York since his release from hospital the previous month. He was surrounded by Barley, family and friends. His body was interred at Roxbury Center Cemetery in Roxbury.
Legacy
Miller's career as a writer spanned over seven decades, and at the time of his death, Miller was considered to be one of the greatest dramatists of the twentieth century. After his death, many respected actors, directors, and producers paid tribute to Miller, some calling him the last great practitioner of the American stage, and Broadway theatres darkened their lights in a show of respect.
Miller's alma mater, the University of Michigan, opened the Arthur Miller Theatre in March 2007. As per his express wish, it is the only theatre in the world that bears Miller's name.
Other notable arrangements for Miller's legacy are that his letters, notes, drafts and other papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin.
Miller is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. He was inducted in 1979.
In 1993, he received the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech.
In 2017, his daughter, Rebecca Miller, a writer and filmmaker, completed a documentary about her father's life, under the title Arthur Miller: Writer.
Minor planet 3769 Arthurmiller is named after him.
Foundation
The Arthur Miller Foundation was founded to honor the legacy of Miller and his New York City Public School Education. The mission of the foundation is: "Promoting increased access and equity to theater arts education in our schools and increasing the number of students receiving theater arts education as an integral part of their academic curriculum." Other initiatives include certification of new theater teachers and their placement in public schools; increasing the number of theater teachers in the system from the current estimate of 180 teachers in 1800 schools; supporting professional development of all certified theater teachers; providing teaching artists, cultural partners, physical spaces, and theater ticket allocations for students. The foundation's primary purpose is to provide arts education in the New York City school system. The current chancellor of the foundation is Carmen Farina, a large proponent of the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The Master Arts Council includes, among others, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Barkin, Bradley Cooper, Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson, Tony Kushner, Julianne Moore, Michael Moore, Liam Neeson, David O. Russell, and Liev Schreiber. His son-in-law Daniel Day-Lewis, serves on the current board of directors since 2016.
The foundation celebrated Miller's 100th birthday with a one-night-only performance of Miller's seminal works in November 2015.
The Arthur Miller Foundation currently supports a pilot program in theater and film at the public school Quest to Learn in partnership with the Institute of Play. The model is being used as an in-school elective theater class and lab. The objective is to create a sustainable theater education model to disseminate to teachers at professional development workshops.
Archive
Miller donated thirteen boxes of his earliest manuscripts to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin in 1961 and 1962. This collection included the original handwritten notebooks and early typed drafts for Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, All My Sons, and other works. In January, 2018, the Ransom Center announced the acquisition of the remainder of the Miller archive totaling over 200 boxes. The full archive opened in November, 2019.
Literary and public criticism
Christopher Bigsby wrote Arthur Miller: The Definitive Biography based on boxes of papers Miller made available to him before his death in 2005. The book was published in November 2008, and is reported to reveal unpublished works in which Miller "bitterly attack[ed] the injustices of American racism long before it was taken up by the civil rights movement".
In his book Trinity of Passion, author Alan M. Wald conjectures that Miller was "a member of a writer's unit of the Communist Party around 1946," using the pseudonym Matt Wayne, and editing a drama column in the magazine The New Masses.
In 1999 the writer Christopher Hitchens attacked Miller for comparing the Monica Lewinsky investigation to the Salem witch hunt. Miller had asserted a parallel between the examination of physical evidence on Lewinsky's dress and the examinations of women's bodies for signs of the "Devil's Marks" in Salem. Hitchens scathingly disputed the parallel. In his memoir, Hitch-22, Hitchens bitterly noted that Miller, despite his prominence as a left-wing intellectual, had failed to support author Salman Rushdie during the Iranian fatwa involving The Satanic Verses.
Works
Stage plays
No Villain (1936)
They Too Arise (1937, based on No Villain)
Honors at Dawn (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Grass Still Grows (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Great Disobedience (1938)
Listen My Children (1939, with Norman Rosten)
The Golden Years (1940)
The Half-Bridge (1943)
The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944)
All My Sons (1947)
Death of a Salesman (1949)
An Enemy of the People (1950, based on Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People)
The Crucible (1953)
A View from the Bridge (1955)
A Memory of Two Mondays (1955)
After the Fall (1964)
Incident at Vichy (1964)
The Price (1968)
The Reason Why (1970)
Fame (one-act, 1970; revised for television 1978)
The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972)
Up from Paradise (1974)
The Archbishop's Ceiling (1977)
The American Clock (1980)
Playing for Time (television play, 1980)
Elegy for a Lady (short play, 1982, first part of Two Way Mirror)
Some Kind of Love Story (short play, 1982, second part of Two Way Mirror)
I Think About You a Great Deal (1986)
Playing for Time (stage version, 1985)
I Can't Remember Anything (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
Clara (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991)
The Last Yankee (1993)
Broken Glass (1994)
Mr. Peters' Connections (1998)
Resurrection Blues (2002)
Finishing the Picture (2004)
Radio plays
The Pussycat and the Expert Plumber Who Was a Man (1941)
Joel Chandler Harris (1941)
The Battle of the Ovens (1942)
Thunder from the Mountains (1942)
I Was Married in Bataan (1942)
That They May Win (1943)
Listen for the Sound of Wings (1943)
Bernardine (1944)
I Love You (1944)
Grandpa and the Statue (1944)
The Philippines Never Surrendered (1944)
The Guardsman (1944, based on Ferenc Molnár's play)
The Story of Gus (1947)
Screenplays
The Hook (1947)
All My Sons (1948)
Let's Make Love (1960)
The Misfits (1961)
Death of a Salesman (1985)
Everybody Wins (1990)
The Crucible (1996)
Assorted fiction
Focus (novel, 1945)
"The Misfits" (short story, published in Esquire, October 1957)
I Don't Need You Anymore (short stories, 1967)
Homely Girl: A Life (short story, 1992, published in UK as "Plain Girl: A Life" 1995)
"The Performance" (short story)
Presence: Stories (2007) (short stories include The Bare Manuscript, Beavers, The Performance, and Bulldog)
Non-fiction
Situation Normal (1944) is based on his experiences researching the war correspondence of Ernie Pyle.
In Russia (1969), the first of three books created with his photographer wife Inge Morath, offers Miller's impressions of Russia and Russian society.
In the Country (1977), with photographs by Morath and text by Miller, provides insight into how Miller spent his time in Roxbury, Connecticut, and profiles of his various neighbors.
Chinese Encounters (1979) is a travel journal with photographs by Morath. It depicts the Chinese society in the state of flux which followed the end of the Cultural Revolution. Miller discusses the hardships of many writers, professors, and artists as they try to regain the sense of freedom and place they lost during Mao Zedong's regime.
Salesman in Beijing (1984) details Miller's experiences with the 1983 Beijing People's Theatre production of Death of a Salesman. He describes the idiosyncrasies, understandings, and insights encountered in directing a Chinese cast in a decidedly American play.
Timebends: A Life, Methuen London (1987) . Like Death of a Salesman, the book follows the structure of memory itself, each passage linked to and triggered by the one before.
Collections
Abbotson, Susan C. W. (ed.), Arthur Miller: Collected Essays, Penguin 2016
Centola, Steven R. ed. Echoes Down the Corridor: Arthur Miller, Collected Essays 1944–2000, Viking Penguin (US)/Methuen (UK), 2000
Kushner, Tony, ed. Arthur Miller, Collected Plays 1944–1961 (Library of America, 2006) .
Martin, Robert A. (ed.), "The theater essays of Arthur Miller", foreword by Arthur Miller. NY: Viking Press, 1978
References
Bibliography
Bigsby, Christopher (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller, Cambridge 1997
Gottfried, Martin, Arthur Miller, A Life, Da Capo Press (US)/Faber and Faber (UK), 2003
Koorey, Stefani, Arthur Miller's Life and Literature, Scarecrow, 2000
Moss, Leonard. Arthur Miller, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980.
Further reading
Critical Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (2007)
Student Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Facts on File (2000)
File on Miller, Christopher Bigsby (1988)
Arthur Miller & Company, Christopher Bigsby, editor (1990)
Arthur Miller: A Critical Study, Christopher Bigsby (2005)
Remembering Arthur Miller, Christopher Bigsby, editor (2005)
Arthur Miller 1915–1962, Christopher Bigsby (2008, U.K.; 2009, U.S.)
The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller (Cambridge Companions to Literature), Christopher Bigsby, editor (1998, updated and republished 2010)
Arthur Miller 1962–2005, Christopher Bigsby (2011)
Arthur Miller: Critical Insights, Brenda Murphy, editor, Salem (2011)
Understanding Death of a Salesman, Brenda Murphy and Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (1999)
Critical articles
Arthur Miller Journal, published biannually by Penn State UP. Vol. 1.1 (2006)
Radavich, David. "Arthur Miller's Sojourn in the Heartland". American Drama 16:2 (Summer 2007): 28–45.
External links
Organizations
Arthur Miller official website
Arthur Miller Society
The Arthur Miller Foundation
Archive
Arthur Miller Papers at the Harry Ransom Center
"Playwright Arthur Miller's archive comes to the Harry Ransom Center"
Finding aid to Arthur Miller papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Databases
Websites
A Visit With Castro – Miller's article in The Nation, January 12, 2004
Joyce Carol Oates on Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller Biography
Arthur Miller and Mccarthyism
Interviews
Miller interview, Humanities, March–April 2001
Obituaries
The New York Times Obituary
NPR obituary
CNN obituary
1915 births
2005 deaths
University of Michigan alumni
Kennedy Center honorees
Laurence Olivier Award winners
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Tony Award winners
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American screenwriters
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century essayists
21st-century American dramatists and playwrights
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American screenwriters
21st-century American short story writers
21st-century essayists
Abraham Lincoln High School (Brooklyn) alumni
American agnostics
American anti-capitalists
American autobiographers
20th-century American Jews
American male dramatists and playwrights
American male essayists
American male non-fiction writers
American male novelists
American male screenwriters
American male short story writers
American memoirists
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
American radio writers
Analysands of Rudolph Lowenstein
Cultural critics
Deaths from bladder cancer
Deaths from cancer in Connecticut
Free speech activists
Hopwood Award winners
Jerusalem Prize recipients
Jewish agnostics
Jewish American dramatists and playwrights
Jewish novelists
Jewish writers
Marilyn Monroe
The Michigan Daily alumni
PEN International
People from Brooklyn Heights
People from Gravesend, Brooklyn
People from Midwood, Brooklyn
People from Roxbury, Connecticut
Postmodern writers
Recipients of the Four Freedoms Award
American social commentators
Social critics
Special Tony Award recipients
Writers about activism and social change
Writers about communism
Writers from Brooklyn
Writers from Connecticut
21st-century American Jews | true | [
"\"What'cha Gonna Do\" is a song by British R&B girl group Eternal. It was the lead (and only) single from their final studio album Eternal, and subsequently their last single before they split. It was the only single released from the group as a duo (consisting of Easther & Vernie).\n\nRelease\n\"What'cha Gonna Do\" was released as a CD single on 18 October 1999. The single managed to chart at Number 16 on the UK Singles Chart making it their only single not to reach the Top 15. It also managed to peak at No.29 in Japan, No.30 on the Dutch Top 40 & No.34 in Sweden. \"What'cha Gonna Do\" also peaked at No.84 in Germany.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video is very different from Eternal's previous videos. The video is set out in a desert at night, the desert appears to be on a different planet as the girls float around through parts of the video. Easther and Vernie are seen in numerous outfits throughout the song and they also take part in a dance routine. At the end of the video the girls fly up to camera and sing the last line of the song, \"Aint nowhere to run, when He's looking for you...\", the video ends abruptly and the screen turns black.\n\nTrack listings\nUK CD single\n\"What'cha Gonna Do\"\n\"We're Not Making Love Anymore\"\n\"Got to Be the One\"\n\nUK mixes single\n\"What'cha Gonna Do\" (The Beatmasters Remix)\n\"What'cha Gonna Do\" (Masters At Work Remix)\n\"What'cha Gonna Do\" (Lisa Marie Experience Remix)\n\"What'cha Gonna Do\" (Characters Remix)\n\nCharts\n\nExternal links\n Official music video\n\n1999 singles\nEternal (band) songs\n1999 songs\nEMI Records singles",
"What Do Artists Do All Day? is a documentary series, airing on BBC Four. Film crews accompany various prominent artists as they go about their daily schedules and share insights into their working lives and creative processes.\n\nEpisodes\nSeries 1\n2013-03-19 – Series 1 – 1. Norman Ackroyd, the working life of Britain's celebrated landscape artist.\n2013-03-25 – Series 1 – 2. Polly Morgan, the taxidermist's strange and wonderful art\n2013-04-08 – Series 1 – 3. Jack Vettriano, the popular artist at work in his studio.\n2013-06-04 – Series 1 – 4. Cornelia Parker, prepares for a new exhibition of her work in London.\n2013-08-22 – Series 1 – 5. John Byrne, artist and writer, completes a mural for King's Theatre in Edinburgh.\n2013-11-06 – Series 1 – 6. Edmund de Waal, ceramic artist, author of the memoir The Hare with Amber Eyes\n2013-11-13 – Series 1 – 7. Shani Rhys James, Welsh painter as she prepares for a new exhibition.\n2014-02-25 – Series 1 – 8. Tom Wood, photographer at work in Mayo in the west of Ireland.\n2014-03-04 – Series 1 – 9. Frank Quitely, alter ego of Glaswegian comic-book artist, Vince Deighan.\n2014-03-13 – Series 1 – 10. Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, the performance artist's first solo UK show in Nottingham.\n2014-03-11 – Series 1 – 11. Albert Watson photographs the landscape of the Isle of Skye.\n2014-03-26 – Series 1 – 12. Antony Gormley and his team as they prepare a new work.\n2014-05-19 – Series 1 – 13. Michael Craig-Martin at work in his London studio.\nSeries 2\n2014-10-12 – Series 2 – 1. Evelyn Glennie, how the Dame became a global percussion superstar.\n2014-10-15 – Series 2 – 2. Akram Khan, the creation of TOROBAKA, the dance collaboration with Israel Galvan.\n2014-10-22 – Series 2 – 4. Michael Landy as he takes his Art Bin project to Yokohama.\n2014-11-05 – Series 2 – 5. Jake and Dinos Chapman as they prepare for a new show in Hastings.\nSeries 3\n2015-06-08 – Series 3 – 1. Tracey Emin, in her studio, preparing for an exhibition in Vienna.\n2015-06-15 – Series 3 – 2. Sue Webster, at work on new projects, including a cook book.\n2015-08-24 – Series 3 – 3. Derek Boshier works on a new painting and reflects on his life.\n2015-08-26 – Series 3 – 4. Peter Blake, following the process of his latest work.\nSeries 4\nDennis Morris\nKatie Paterson\nShirley Hughes\nSeries 5\nAnoushka Shankar\nRaqib Shaw\nMahtab Hussain\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n \n BBC Four – What Do Artists Do All Day?\n What Do Artists Do All Day? – Radio Times\n\n2010s British documentary television series\nDocumentary television series about art\n2013 British television series debuts\n2015 British television series endings\nBBC television documentaries\nBritish art"
]
|
[
"Arthur Miller",
"Early career",
"When did his career begin?",
"That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award.",
"Did the play do well for him?",
"The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews.",
"Did he have any hit plays?",
"In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway",
"Did he win any awards?",
"(earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author",
"Did he write the plays?",
"I don't know.",
"what did critics think of his work?",
"\"a very depressing play in a time of great optimism\" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure.",
"what play is this remark referring to?",
"Miller's play All My Sons,",
"What is a notable fact about his early work?",
"1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman.",
"Did he write any plays there?",
"I don't know.",
"What work did he do at the studio?",
"1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram;"
]
| C_5ab66b0bf57946a38cd17bf139f94d57_1 | who directed his plays? | 11 | who directed Arthur Miller's plays? | Arthur Miller | In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap. That same year his first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews. In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure. In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times. In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred. CANNOTANSWER | Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, | Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955, revised 1956). He wrote several screenplays and was most noted for his work on The Misfits (1961). The drama Death of a Salesman has been numbered on the short list of finest American plays in the 20th century.
Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. During this time, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and married Marilyn Monroe. In 1980, Miller received the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates. He received the Praemium Imperiale prize in 2001, Prince of Asturias Award in 2002, and the Jerusalem Prize in 2003, as well as the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 1999.
Biography
Early life
Miller was born on October 17, 1915, in Harlem, in the New York City borough of Manhattan, and published an account of his early years under the title "A Boy Grew in Brooklyn"; the second of three children of Augusta (Barnett) and Isidore Miller. Miller was Jewish and of Polish-Jewish descent. His father was born in Radomyśl Wielki, Galicia (then part of Austria-Hungary, now Poland), and his mother was a native of New York whose parents also arrived from that town. Isidore owned a women's clothing manufacturing business employing 400 people. He became a wealthy and respected man in the community. The family, including Miller's younger sister Joan Copeland, lived on West 110th Street in Manhattan, owned a summer house in Far Rockaway, Queens, and employed a chauffeur. In the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the family lost almost everything and moved to Gravesend, Brooklyn. (One source says they moved to Midwood.) As a teenager, Miller delivered bread every morning before school to help the family. After graduating in 1932 from Abraham Lincoln High School, he worked at several menial jobs to pay for his college tuition at the University of Michigan. After graduation (circa 1936), he began to work as a psychiatric aide and also a copywriter before accepting faculty posts at New York University and University of New Hampshire. On May 1, 1935, Miller joined the League of American Writers (1935–1943), whose members included Alexander Trachtenberg of International Publishers, Franklin Folsom, Louis Untermeyer, I. F. Stone, Myra Page, Millen Brand, Lillian Hellman, and Dashiell Hammett. (Members were largely either Communist Party members or fellow travelers.)
At the University of Michigan, Miller first majored in journalism and worked for the student newspaper, The Michigan Daily, as well as the satirical Gargoyle Humor Magazine. It was during this time that he wrote his first play, No Villain. Miller switched his major to English, and subsequently won the Avery Hopwood Award for No Villain. The award brought him his first recognition and led him to begin to consider that he could have a career as a playwright. Miller enrolled in a playwriting seminar taught by the influential Professor Kenneth Rowe, who instructed him in his early forays into playwriting; Rowe emphasized how a play is built in order to achieve its intended effect, or what Miller called "the dynamics of play construction". Rowe provided realistic feedback along with much-needed encouragement, and became a lifelong friend. Miller retained strong ties to his alma mater throughout the rest of his life, establishing the university's Arthur Miller Award in 1985 and Arthur Miller Award for Dramatic Writing in 1999, and lending his name to the Arthur Miller Theatre in 2000. In 1937, Miller wrote Honors at Dawn, which also received the Avery Hopwood Award.
After his graduation in 1938, he joined the Federal Theatre Project, a New Deal agency established to provide jobs in the theater. He chose the theater project despite the more lucrative offer to work as a scriptwriter for 20th Century Fox. However, Congress, worried about possible Communist infiltration, closed the project in 1939. Miller began working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard while continuing to write radio plays, some of which were broadcast on CBS.
Early career
In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery. The couple had two children, Jane (born September 7, 1944) and Robert (born May 31, 1947). Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high school football injury to his left kneecap.
In 1944 Miller's first play was produced; The Man Who Had All the Luck and won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews.
In 1947, Miller's play All My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established. Years later, in a 1994 interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded All My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had saved it from failure.
In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times.
In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of All My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening of Death of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that his Parkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation to Boston, a trip that never occurred.
Critical years
In 1955, a one-act version of Miller's verse drama A View from the Bridge opened on Broadway in a joint bill with one of Miller's lesser-known plays, A Memory of Two Mondays. The following year, Miller revised A View from the Bridge as a two-act prose drama, which Peter Brook directed in London. A French-Italian co-production Vu du pont, based on the play, was released in 1962.
Marriages and family
In June 1956, Miller left his first wife, Mary Slattery, whom he had married in 1940, and wed film star Marilyn Monroe. They had met in 1951, had a brief affair, and remained in contact since. Monroe had just turned 30 when they married; she never had a real family of her own and was eager to join the family of her new husband.
Monroe began to reconsider her career and the fact that trying to manage it made her feel helpless. She admitted to Miller, "I hate Hollywood. I don't want it any more. I want to live quietly in the country and just be there when you need me. I can't fight for myself any more."
Monroe converted to Judaism to "express her loyalty and get close to both Miller and his parents", writes biographer Jeffrey Meyers. She told her close friend, Susan Strasberg: "I can identify with the Jews. Everybody's always out to get them, no matter what they do, like me." Soon after Monroe converted, Egypt banned all of her movies.
Away from Hollywood and the culture of celebrity, Monroe's life became more normal; she began cooking, keeping house and giving Miller more attention and affection than he had been used to.
Later that year, Miller was subpoenaed by the HCUA, and Monroe accompanied him. In her personal notes, she wrote about her worries during this period:
Miller began work on writing the screenplay for The Misfits in 1960, directed by John Huston and starring Monroe but it was during the filming that Miller and Monroe's relationship hit difficulties, and he later said that the filming was one of the lowest points in his life. Monroe was taking drugs to help her sleep and more drugs to help her wake up, which caused her to arrive on the set late and then have trouble remembering her lines. Huston was unaware that Miller and Monroe were having problems in their private life. He recalled later, "I was impertinent enough to say to Arthur that to allow her to take drugs of any kind was criminal and utterly irresponsible. Shortly after that I realized that she wouldn't listen to Arthur at all; he had no say over her actions."
Shortly before the film's premiere in 1961, Miller and Monroe divorced after five years of marriage. Nineteen months later, on August 5, 1962, Monroe died of a likely drug overdose. Huston, who had also directed her in her first major role in The Asphalt Jungle in 1950, and who had seen her rise to stardom, put the blame for her death on her doctors as opposed to the stresses of being a star: "The girl was an addict of sleeping pills and she was made so by the God-damn doctors. It had nothing to do with the Hollywood set-up."
Miller married photographer Inge Morath in February 1962. She had worked as a photographer documenting the production of The Misfits. The first of their two children, Rebecca, was born September 15, 1962. Their son, Daniel, was born with Down syndrome in November 1966. Against his wife's wishes, Miller had him institutionalized, first at a home for infants in New York City, and then at the Southbury Training School in Connecticut. Though Morath visited Daniel often, Miller never visited him at the school and rarely spoke of him. Miller and Inge remained together until her death in 2002. Arthur Miller's son-in-law, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, is said to have visited Daniel frequently, and to have persuaded Arthur Miller to meet with him.
HUAC controversy and The Crucible
In 1952, Elia Kazan appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Kazan named eight members of the Group Theatre, including Clifford Odets, Paula Strasberg, Lillian Hellman, J. Edward Bromberg, and John Garfield, who in recent years had been fellow members of the Communist Party. Miller and Kazan were close friends throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, but after Kazan's testimony to the HUAC, the pair's friendship ended. After speaking with Kazan about his testimony, Miller traveled to Salem, Massachusetts, to research the witch trials of 1692. He and Kazan did not speak to each other for the next ten years. Kazan later defended his own actions through his film On the Waterfront, in which a dockworker heroically testifies against a corrupt union boss. Miller would retaliate to Kazan's work by writing A View from the Bridge, a play where a longshoreman outs his co-workers motivated only by jealousy and greed. He sent a copy of the initial script to Kazan and when the director asked in jest to direct the movie, Miller replied "I only sent you the script to let you know what I think of Stool-Pigeons."
In The Crucible, Miller likened the situation with the House Un-American Activities Committee to the witch hunt in Salem in 1692. The play opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway on January 22, 1953. Though widely considered only somewhat successful at the time of its release, today The Crucible is Miller's most frequently produced work throughout the world. It was adapted into an opera by Robert Ward in 1961.
The HUAC took an interest in Miller himself not long after The Crucible opened, denying him a passport to attend the play's London opening in 1954. When Miller applied in 1956 for a routine renewal of his passport, the House Un-American Activities Committee used this opportunity to subpoena him to appear before the committee. Before appearing, Miller asked the committee not to ask him to name names, to which the chairman, Francis E. Walter (D-PA) agreed. When Miller attended the hearing, to which Monroe accompanied him, risking her own career, he gave the committee a detailed account of his political activities. Reneging on the chairman's promise, the committee demanded the names of friends and colleagues who had participated in similar activities. Miller refused to comply, saying "I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him." As a result, a judge found Miller guilty of contempt of Congress in May 1957. Miller was sentenced to a fine and a prison sentence, blacklisted, and disallowed a US passport. In August 1958, his conviction was overturned by the court of appeals, which ruled that Miller had been misled by the chairman of the HUAC.
Miller's experience with the HUAC affected him throughout his life. In the late 1970s, he joined other celebrities (including William Styron and Mike Nichols) who were brought together by the journalist Joan Barthel. Barthel's coverage of the highly publicized Barbara Gibbons murder case helped raise bail for Gibbons' son Peter Reilly, who had been convicted of his mother's murder based on what many felt was a coerced confession and little other evidence. Barthel documented the case in her book A Death in Canaan, which was made as a television film of the same name and broadcast in 1978. City Confidential, an A&E Network series, produced an episode about the murder, postulating that part of the reason Miller took such an active interest (including supporting Reilly's defense and using his own celebrity to bring attention to Reilly's plight) was because he had felt similarly persecuted in his run-ins with the HUAC. He sympathized with Reilly, whom he firmly believed to be innocent and to have been railroaded by the Connecticut State Police and the Attorney General who had initially prosecuted the case.
Later career
In 1964, After the Fall was produced, and is said to be a deeply personal view of Miller's experiences during his marriage to Monroe. The play reunited Miller with his former friend Kazan: they collaborated on both the script and the direction. After the Fall opened on January 23, 1964, at the ANTA Theatre in Washington Square Park amid a flurry of publicity and outrage at putting a Monroe-like character, called Maggie, on stage. Robert Brustein, in a review in the New Republic, called After the Fall "a three and one half hour breach of taste, a confessional autobiography of embarrassing explicitness ... there is a misogynistic strain in the play which the author does not seem to recognize. ... He has created a shameless piece of tabloid gossip, an act of exhibitionism which makes us all voyeurs, ... a wretched piece of dramatic writing." That same year, Miller produced Incident at Vichy. In 1965, Miller was elected the first American president of PEN International, a position which he held for four years. A year later, Miller organized the 1966 PEN congress in New York City. Miller also wrote the penetrating family drama, The Price, produced in 1968. It was Miller's most successful play since Death of a Salesman.
In 1968, Miller attended the Democratic National Convention as a delegate for Eugene McCarthy. In 1969, Miller's works were banned in the Soviet Union after he campaigned for the freedom of dissident writers. Throughout the 1970s, Miller spent much of his time experimenting with the theatre, producing one-act plays such as Fame and The Reason Why, and traveling with his wife, producing In the Country and Chinese Encounters with her. Both his 1972 comedy The Creation of the World and Other Business and its musical adaptation, Up from Paradise, were critical and commercial failures.
Miller was an unusually articulate commentator on his own work. In 1978 he published a collection of his Theater Essays, edited by Robert A. Martin and with a foreword by Miller. Highlights of the collection included Miller's introduction to his Collected Plays, his reflections on the theory of tragedy, comments on the McCarthy Era, and pieces arguing for a publicly supported theater. Reviewing this collection in the Chicago Tribune, Studs Terkel remarked, "in reading [the Theater Essays]...you are exhilaratingly aware of a social critic, as well as a playwright, who knows what he's talking about."
In 1983, Miller traveled to China to produce and direct Death of a Salesman at the People's Art Theatre in Beijing. The play was a success in China and in 1984, Salesman in Beijing, a book about Miller's experiences in Beijing, was published. Around the same time, Death of a Salesman was made into a TV movie starring Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman. Shown on CBS, it attracted 25 million viewers. In late 1987, Miller's autobiographical work,
Timebends, was published. Before it was published, it was well known that Miller would not talk about Monroe in interviews; in Timebends Miller talks about his experiences with Monroe in detail.
During the early-mid 1990s, Miller wrote three new plays: The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1992), and Broken Glass (1994). In 1996, a film of The Crucible starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Scofield, Bruce Davison, and Winona Ryder opened. Miller spent much of 1996 working on the screenplay for the film.
Mr. Peters' Connections was staged Off-Broadway in 1998, and Death of a Salesman was revived on Broadway in 1999 to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. The play, once again, was a large critical success, winning a Tony Award for best revival of a play.
In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. Miller was honored with the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award for a Master American Dramatist in 1998. In 2001 the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) selected Miller for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Miller's lecture was entitled "On Politics and the Art of Acting." Miller's lecture analyzed political events (including the U.S. presidential election of 2000)
in terms of the "arts of performance", and it drew attacks from some conservatives such as Jay Nordlinger, who called it "a disgrace", and George Will, who argued that Miller was not legitimately a "scholar".
In 1999, Miller was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to "a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life." In 2001, Miller received the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. On May 1, 2002, Miller was awarded Spain's Principe de Asturias Prize for Literature as "the undisputed master of modern drama". Later that year, Ingeborg Morath died of lymphatic cancer at the age of 78. The following year Miller won the Jerusalem Prize.
In December 2004, 89-year-old Miller announced that he had been in love with 34-year-old minimalist painter Agnes Barley and had been living with her at his Connecticut farm since 2002, and that they intended to marry. Within hours of her father's death, Rebecca Miller ordered Barley to vacate the premises because she had consistently been opposed to the relationship. Miller's final play, Finishing the Picture, opened at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, in the fall of 2004, with one character said to be based on Barley. It was reported to be based on his experience during the filming of The Misfits, though Miller insisted the play is a work of fiction with independent characters that were no more than composite shadows of history.
Death
Miller died on the evening of February 10, 2005 (the 56th anniversary of the Broadway debut of Death of a Salesman) at age 89 of bladder cancer and heart failure, at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. He had been in hospice care at his sister's apartment in New York since his release from hospital the previous month. He was surrounded by Barley, family and friends. His body was interred at Roxbury Center Cemetery in Roxbury.
Legacy
Miller's career as a writer spanned over seven decades, and at the time of his death, Miller was considered to be one of the greatest dramatists of the twentieth century. After his death, many respected actors, directors, and producers paid tribute to Miller, some calling him the last great practitioner of the American stage, and Broadway theatres darkened their lights in a show of respect.
Miller's alma mater, the University of Michigan, opened the Arthur Miller Theatre in March 2007. As per his express wish, it is the only theatre in the world that bears Miller's name.
Other notable arrangements for Miller's legacy are that his letters, notes, drafts and other papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin.
Miller is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. He was inducted in 1979.
In 1993, he received the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech.
In 2017, his daughter, Rebecca Miller, a writer and filmmaker, completed a documentary about her father's life, under the title Arthur Miller: Writer.
Minor planet 3769 Arthurmiller is named after him.
Foundation
The Arthur Miller Foundation was founded to honor the legacy of Miller and his New York City Public School Education. The mission of the foundation is: "Promoting increased access and equity to theater arts education in our schools and increasing the number of students receiving theater arts education as an integral part of their academic curriculum." Other initiatives include certification of new theater teachers and their placement in public schools; increasing the number of theater teachers in the system from the current estimate of 180 teachers in 1800 schools; supporting professional development of all certified theater teachers; providing teaching artists, cultural partners, physical spaces, and theater ticket allocations for students. The foundation's primary purpose is to provide arts education in the New York City school system. The current chancellor of the foundation is Carmen Farina, a large proponent of the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The Master Arts Council includes, among others, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Barkin, Bradley Cooper, Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson, Tony Kushner, Julianne Moore, Michael Moore, Liam Neeson, David O. Russell, and Liev Schreiber. His son-in-law Daniel Day-Lewis, serves on the current board of directors since 2016.
The foundation celebrated Miller's 100th birthday with a one-night-only performance of Miller's seminal works in November 2015.
The Arthur Miller Foundation currently supports a pilot program in theater and film at the public school Quest to Learn in partnership with the Institute of Play. The model is being used as an in-school elective theater class and lab. The objective is to create a sustainable theater education model to disseminate to teachers at professional development workshops.
Archive
Miller donated thirteen boxes of his earliest manuscripts to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin in 1961 and 1962. This collection included the original handwritten notebooks and early typed drafts for Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, All My Sons, and other works. In January, 2018, the Ransom Center announced the acquisition of the remainder of the Miller archive totaling over 200 boxes. The full archive opened in November, 2019.
Literary and public criticism
Christopher Bigsby wrote Arthur Miller: The Definitive Biography based on boxes of papers Miller made available to him before his death in 2005. The book was published in November 2008, and is reported to reveal unpublished works in which Miller "bitterly attack[ed] the injustices of American racism long before it was taken up by the civil rights movement".
In his book Trinity of Passion, author Alan M. Wald conjectures that Miller was "a member of a writer's unit of the Communist Party around 1946," using the pseudonym Matt Wayne, and editing a drama column in the magazine The New Masses.
In 1999 the writer Christopher Hitchens attacked Miller for comparing the Monica Lewinsky investigation to the Salem witch hunt. Miller had asserted a parallel between the examination of physical evidence on Lewinsky's dress and the examinations of women's bodies for signs of the "Devil's Marks" in Salem. Hitchens scathingly disputed the parallel. In his memoir, Hitch-22, Hitchens bitterly noted that Miller, despite his prominence as a left-wing intellectual, had failed to support author Salman Rushdie during the Iranian fatwa involving The Satanic Verses.
Works
Stage plays
No Villain (1936)
They Too Arise (1937, based on No Villain)
Honors at Dawn (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Grass Still Grows (1938, based on They Too Arise)
The Great Disobedience (1938)
Listen My Children (1939, with Norman Rosten)
The Golden Years (1940)
The Half-Bridge (1943)
The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944)
All My Sons (1947)
Death of a Salesman (1949)
An Enemy of the People (1950, based on Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People)
The Crucible (1953)
A View from the Bridge (1955)
A Memory of Two Mondays (1955)
After the Fall (1964)
Incident at Vichy (1964)
The Price (1968)
The Reason Why (1970)
Fame (one-act, 1970; revised for television 1978)
The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972)
Up from Paradise (1974)
The Archbishop's Ceiling (1977)
The American Clock (1980)
Playing for Time (television play, 1980)
Elegy for a Lady (short play, 1982, first part of Two Way Mirror)
Some Kind of Love Story (short play, 1982, second part of Two Way Mirror)
I Think About You a Great Deal (1986)
Playing for Time (stage version, 1985)
I Can't Remember Anything (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
Clara (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)
The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991)
The Last Yankee (1993)
Broken Glass (1994)
Mr. Peters' Connections (1998)
Resurrection Blues (2002)
Finishing the Picture (2004)
Radio plays
The Pussycat and the Expert Plumber Who Was a Man (1941)
Joel Chandler Harris (1941)
The Battle of the Ovens (1942)
Thunder from the Mountains (1942)
I Was Married in Bataan (1942)
That They May Win (1943)
Listen for the Sound of Wings (1943)
Bernardine (1944)
I Love You (1944)
Grandpa and the Statue (1944)
The Philippines Never Surrendered (1944)
The Guardsman (1944, based on Ferenc Molnár's play)
The Story of Gus (1947)
Screenplays
The Hook (1947)
All My Sons (1948)
Let's Make Love (1960)
The Misfits (1961)
Death of a Salesman (1985)
Everybody Wins (1990)
The Crucible (1996)
Assorted fiction
Focus (novel, 1945)
"The Misfits" (short story, published in Esquire, October 1957)
I Don't Need You Anymore (short stories, 1967)
Homely Girl: A Life (short story, 1992, published in UK as "Plain Girl: A Life" 1995)
"The Performance" (short story)
Presence: Stories (2007) (short stories include The Bare Manuscript, Beavers, The Performance, and Bulldog)
Non-fiction
Situation Normal (1944) is based on his experiences researching the war correspondence of Ernie Pyle.
In Russia (1969), the first of three books created with his photographer wife Inge Morath, offers Miller's impressions of Russia and Russian society.
In the Country (1977), with photographs by Morath and text by Miller, provides insight into how Miller spent his time in Roxbury, Connecticut, and profiles of his various neighbors.
Chinese Encounters (1979) is a travel journal with photographs by Morath. It depicts the Chinese society in the state of flux which followed the end of the Cultural Revolution. Miller discusses the hardships of many writers, professors, and artists as they try to regain the sense of freedom and place they lost during Mao Zedong's regime.
Salesman in Beijing (1984) details Miller's experiences with the 1983 Beijing People's Theatre production of Death of a Salesman. He describes the idiosyncrasies, understandings, and insights encountered in directing a Chinese cast in a decidedly American play.
Timebends: A Life, Methuen London (1987) . Like Death of a Salesman, the book follows the structure of memory itself, each passage linked to and triggered by the one before.
Collections
Abbotson, Susan C. W. (ed.), Arthur Miller: Collected Essays, Penguin 2016
Centola, Steven R. ed. Echoes Down the Corridor: Arthur Miller, Collected Essays 1944–2000, Viking Penguin (US)/Methuen (UK), 2000
Kushner, Tony, ed. Arthur Miller, Collected Plays 1944–1961 (Library of America, 2006) .
Martin, Robert A. (ed.), "The theater essays of Arthur Miller", foreword by Arthur Miller. NY: Viking Press, 1978
References
Bibliography
Bigsby, Christopher (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller, Cambridge 1997
Gottfried, Martin, Arthur Miller, A Life, Da Capo Press (US)/Faber and Faber (UK), 2003
Koorey, Stefani, Arthur Miller's Life and Literature, Scarecrow, 2000
Moss, Leonard. Arthur Miller, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980.
Further reading
Critical Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (2007)
Student Companion to Arthur Miller, Susan C. W. Abbotson, Facts on File (2000)
File on Miller, Christopher Bigsby (1988)
Arthur Miller & Company, Christopher Bigsby, editor (1990)
Arthur Miller: A Critical Study, Christopher Bigsby (2005)
Remembering Arthur Miller, Christopher Bigsby, editor (2005)
Arthur Miller 1915–1962, Christopher Bigsby (2008, U.K.; 2009, U.S.)
The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller (Cambridge Companions to Literature), Christopher Bigsby, editor (1998, updated and republished 2010)
Arthur Miller 1962–2005, Christopher Bigsby (2011)
Arthur Miller: Critical Insights, Brenda Murphy, editor, Salem (2011)
Understanding Death of a Salesman, Brenda Murphy and Susan C. W. Abbotson, Greenwood (1999)
Critical articles
Arthur Miller Journal, published biannually by Penn State UP. Vol. 1.1 (2006)
Radavich, David. "Arthur Miller's Sojourn in the Heartland". American Drama 16:2 (Summer 2007): 28–45.
External links
Organizations
Arthur Miller official website
Arthur Miller Society
The Arthur Miller Foundation
Archive
Arthur Miller Papers at the Harry Ransom Center
"Playwright Arthur Miller's archive comes to the Harry Ransom Center"
Finding aid to Arthur Miller papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Databases
Websites
A Visit With Castro – Miller's article in The Nation, January 12, 2004
Joyce Carol Oates on Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller Biography
Arthur Miller and Mccarthyism
Interviews
Miller interview, Humanities, March–April 2001
Obituaries
The New York Times Obituary
NPR obituary
CNN obituary
1915 births
2005 deaths
University of Michigan alumni
Kennedy Center honorees
Laurence Olivier Award winners
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Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
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Writers from Connecticut
21st-century American Jews | true | [
"The Man Who Changed His Name is a mystery play by the British writer Edgar Wallace, which was first staged in 1928. A young woman begins to suspect that her wealthy, respectable husband may be an escaped Canadian murderer.\n\nIts initial run lasted for 77 performances at the Apollo Theatre in the West End. The original cast included James Raglan, Hartley Power and Dorothy Dickson.\n\nAdaptions\nThe play was the basis for three film adaptations. A British silent film The Man Who Changed His Name (1928) directed by A.V. Bramble and a British sound film The Man Who Changed His Name (1934) directed by Henry Edwards. In 1933 Mario Camerini directed an Italian version Giallo starring Assia Noris.\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n Kabatchnik, Amnon. Blood on the Stage, 1925-1950: Milestone Plays of Crime, Mystery and Detection. Scarecrow Press, 2010.\n\n1928 plays\nBritish plays adapted into films\nPlays set in England\nPlays by Edgar Wallace\nWest End plays",
"Match is a dramatic comedy by Stephen Belber.\n\nHistory\nThe character of Tobi is inspired by Alphonse Poulin, a professor of ballet at Juilliard School.\n\nSynopsis\nTobi is an aging dancer, choreographer and teacher who enjoys knitting. His quiet life is interrupted when Mike and Lisa enter his home under the pretense of interviewing him for Lisa's thesis.\n\nProductions\nThe Broadway production was directed by Nicholas Martin. The play starred Frank Langella as Tobi with Ray Liotta as Mike and Jane Adams as Lisa. The show ran for about two months. For his role as Tobi, Langella was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.\n\nAdaptations\nBelber adapted the play into the 2014 film Match, which he also directed.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n Dramatists Play Service, Inc\n\n2004 plays\nBroadway plays\nComedy plays\nPlays set in New York City\nPlays by Stephen Belber"
]
|
[
"Fats Domino",
"Recordings after leaving Imperial (1963-1970s)"
]
| C_3f0b793857fc4c92b275df034570128d_1 | What did Fats Domino do after leaving Imperial? | 1 | What did Fats Domino do after leaving Imperial? | Fats Domino | Domino moved to ABC-Paramount Records in 1963. The label dictated that he record in Nashville, Tennessee, rather than New Orleans. He was assigned a new producer (Felton Jarvis) and a new arranger (Bill Justis). Domino's long-term collaboration with the producer, arranger, and frequent co-writer Dave Bartholomew, who oversaw virtually all of his Imperial hits, was seemingly at an end. Jarvis and Justis changed the Domino sound somewhat, notably by adding the backing of a countrypolitan-style vocal chorus to most of his new recordings. He released 11 singles for ABC-Paramount, several which hit the Top 100 but just once entering the Top 40 ("Red Sails in the Sunset", 1963). By the end of 1964 the British Invasion had changed the tastes of the record-buying public, and Domino's chart run was over. Despite the lack of chart success, Domino continued to record steadily until about 1970, leaving ABC-Paramount in mid-1965 and recording for Mercury Records, where he delivered a live album and two singles. A studio album was planned but stalled with just four tracks recorded . Dave Bartholomew's small Broadmoor label (reuniting with Bartholomew along the way), featured many contemporary Soul infused sides but an album was released overseas in 1971 to fulfill his Reprise Records contract. He shifted to that label after Broadmoor and had a Top 100 single, a cover of the Beatles' "Lady Madonna". Domino appeared in the Monkees' television special 33 1/3 Revolutions per Monkee in 1969. He continued to be popular as a performer for several decades. He made a cameo appearance in Clint Eastwood's movie Any Which Way You Can, filmed in 1979 and released in 1980 singing the country song "Whiskey Heaven" which later became a minor hit. His life and career were showcased in Joe Lauro's 2015 documentary The Big Beat: Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll. CANNOTANSWER | Domino moved to ABC-Paramount Records in 1963. | Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American pianist and singer-songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New Orleans to a French Creole family, Domino signed to Imperial Records in 1949. His first single "The Fat Man" is cited by some historians as the first rock and roll single and the first to sell more than 1 million copies. Domino continued to work with the song's co-writer Dave Bartholomew, contributing his distinctive rolling piano style to Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (1952) and scoring a string of mainstream hits beginning with "Ain't That a Shame" (1955). Between 1955 and 1960, he had eleven Top 10 US pop hits. By 1955, five of his records had sold more than a million copies, being certified gold.
Domino was shy and modest by nature but made a significant contribution to the rock and roll genre. Elvis Presley declared Domino a "huge influence on me when I started out" and described him as "the real king of rock 'n' roll". The artist himself did not define his work as rock and roll, saying of the genre "It wasn't anything but the same rhythm and blues I'd been playing down in New Orleans". Four of Domino's records were named to the Grammy Hall of Fame for their significance: "Blueberry Hill", "Ain't That A Shame", "Walking to New Orleans" and "The Fat Man". He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. The Associated Press estimates that during his career, Domino "sold more than 110 million records".
Biography
Early life and education
Antoine Domino Jr. was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, the youngest of eight children born to Antoine Caliste Domino (1879–1964) and Marie-Donatille Gros (1886–1971). The Domino family was of French Creole background, and Louisiana Creole was his first language. Like most such families, the Dominos were Catholic.
Antoine was born at home with the assistance of his grandmother, a midwife. His name was initially misspelled as Anthony on his birth certificate. His family had recently arrived in the Lower Ninth Ward from Vacherie, Louisiana. His father was a part-time violin player who worked at a racetrack.
He attended the Louis B. Macarty School, leaving to start work as a helper to an ice delivery man. Domino learned to play the piano in about 1938 from his brother-in-law, the jazz guitarist Harrison Verrett.
Early career (1940s)
By age 14, Domino was performing in New Orleans bars. In 1947, Billy Diamond, a New Orleans bandleader, accepted an invitation to hear the young pianist perform at a backyard barbecue. Domino played well enough that Diamond asked him to join his band, the Solid Senders, at the Hideaway Club in New Orleans, where he would earn $3 a week playing the piano. Diamond nicknamed him "Fats", because Domino reminded him of the renowned pianists Fats Waller and Fats Pichon, but also because of his large appetite.
Recordings for Imperial Records (1949–1962)
Domino was signed to the Imperial Records label in 1949 by owner Lew Chudd, to be paid royalties based on sales instead of a fee for each song. He and producer Dave Bartholomew wrote "The Fat Man", a toned down version of a song about drug addicts called "Junker Blues"; the record had sold a million copies by 1951. Featuring a rolling piano and Domino vocalizing "wah-wah" over a strong backbeat, "The Fat Man" is widely considered the first rock-and-roll record to achieve this level of sales. In 2015, the song would enter the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Domino released a series of hit songs with Bartholomew (also the co-writer of many of the songs), the saxophonists Herbert Hardesty and Alvin "Red" Tyler, the bassist Billy Diamond and later Frank Fields, and the drummers Earl Palmer and Smokey Johnson. Other notable and long-standing musicians in Domino's band were the saxophonists Reggie Houston, Lee Allen, and Fred Kemp, Domino's trusted bandleader.
While Domino's own recordings were done for Imperial, he sometimes sat in during that time as a session musician on recordings by other artists for other record labels. Domino's rolling piano triplets provided the memorable instrumental introduction for Lloyd Price's first hit, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", recorded for Specialty Records on March 13, 1952, at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios in New Orleans (where Domino himself had earlier recorded "The Fat Man" and other songs). Dave Bartholomew was producing Price's record, which also featured familiar Domino collaborators Hardesty, Fields and Palmer as sidemen, and he asked Domino to play the piano part, replacing the original session pianist.
Domino crossed into the pop mainstream with "Ain't That a Shame" (mislabeled as "Ain't It a Shame") which reached the Top Ten. This was the first of his records to appear on the Billboard pop singles chart (on July 16, 1955), with the debut at number 14. A milder cover version by Pat Boone reached number 1, having received wider radio airplay in an era of racial segregation. In 1955, Domino was said to be earning $10,000 a week while touring, according to a report in the memoir of artist Chuck Berry. Domino eventually had 37 Top 40 singles, but none made it to number 1 on the Pop chart.
Domino's debut album contained several of his recent hits and earlier blues tracks that had not been released as singles, and was issued on the Imperial label (catalogue number 9009) in November 1955, and was reissued as Rock and Rollin' with Fats Domino. The reissue reached number 17 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart.
His 1956 recording of "Blueberry Hill", a 1940 song by Vincent Rose, Al Lewis and Larry Stock (which had previously been recorded by Gene Autry, Louis Armstrong and others), reached number 2 on the Billboard Juke Box chart for two weeks and was number 1 on the R&B chart for 11 weeks. It was his biggest hit, selling more than 5 million copies worldwide in 1956 and 1957. The song was subsequently recorded by Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Led Zeppelin. Some 32 years later, the song would enter the
Grammy Hall of Fame.
Domino had further hit singles between 1956 and 1959, including "When My Dreamboat Comes Home" (Pop number 14), "I'm Walkin'" (Pop number 4), "Valley of Tears" (Pop number 8), "It's You I Love" (Pop number 6), "Whole Lotta Lovin'" (Pop number 6), "I Want to Walk You Home" (Pop number 8), and "Be My Guest" (Pop number 8). In 1957, Domino maintained "What they call rock 'n' roll now is rhythm and blues. I've been playing it for 15 years in New Orleans".
Domino appeared in two films released in 1956: Shake, Rattle & Rock! and The Girl Can't Help It. On December 18, 1957, his hit recording of "The Big Beat" was featured on Dick Clark's American Bandstand.
He was also featured in a movie of the same name.
On November 2, 1956, a riot broke out at a Domino concert in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The police used tear gas to break up the unruly crowd. Domino jumped out a window to avoid the melee; he and two members of his band were slightly injured. During his career, four major riots occurred at his concerts, "partly because of integration", according to his biographer Rick Coleman. "But also the fact they had alcohol at these shows. So they were mixing alcohol, plus dancing, plus the races together for the first time in a lot of these places." In November 1957, Domino appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show; no disturbance accompanied this performance.
In the same year, the article "King of Rock 'n' Roll" in Ebony magazine featured Domino who said he was on the road 340 days a year, up to $2,500 per evening, and grossing over $500,000; Domino also told readers that he owned 50 suits, 100 pairs of shoes and a $1,500 diamond horseshoe stick pin.
Domino had a steady series of hits for Imperial through early 1962, including "Walking to New Orleans" (1960, Pop number 6), co-written by Bobby Charles, and "My Girl Josephine" (Pop number 14) in the same year. He toured Europe in 1962 and met the Beatles who would later cite Domino as an inspiration. After returning, he played the first of his many stands in Las Vegas.
Imperial Records was sold in early 1963, and Domino left the label. "I stuck with them until they sold out," he said in 1979. In all, he recorded over 60 singles for Imperial, placing 40 songs in the top 10 on the R&B chart and 11 in the top 10 on the Pop chart, twenty-seven of which were double-sided hits.
Recordings after leaving Imperial (1963–1970s)
Domino moved to ABC-Paramount Records in 1963. The label dictated that he record in Nashville, Tennessee, rather than New Orleans. He was assigned a new producer (Felton Jarvis) and a new arranger (Bill Justis). Domino's long-term collaboration with the producer, arranger, and frequent co-writer Dave Bartholomew, who oversaw virtually all of his Imperial hits, was seemingly at an end. Jarvis and Justis changed the Domino sound somewhat, notably by adding the backing of a countrypolitan-style vocal chorus to most of his new recordings. He released 11 singles for ABC-Paramount, several which hit the Top 100 but just once entering the Top 40 ("Red Sails in the Sunset", 1963). By the end of 1964 the British Invasion had changed the tastes of the record-buying public, and Domino's chart run was over.
Despite the lack of chart success, Domino continued to record steadily until about 1970, leaving ABC-Paramount in mid-1965 and recording for Mercury Records, where he delivered a live album and two singles. A studio album was planned but stalled with just four tracks recorded. Dave Bartholomew's small Broadmoor label (reuniting with Bartholomew along the way), featured many contemporary Soul infused sides and a few single releases but an album was not released overseas until 1971 to fulfill his Reprise Records contract. He shifted to that label after Broadmoor and had a Top 100 single, a cover of the Beatles' "Lady Madonna".
Domino appeared in the Monkees' television special 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee in 1969. In 1971, he opened for Ike & Tina Turner at Carnegie Hall. He continued to be popular as a performer for several decades. He made a cameo appearance in Clint Eastwood's movie Any Which Way You Can, filmed in 1979 and released in 1980, singing the country song "Whiskey Heaven", which later became a minor hit. His life and career were showcased in Joe Lauro's 2015 documentary The Big Beat: Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll.
Later career (1980s–2005)
In 1986, Domino was one of the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He also received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. Domino's last album for a major label, Christmas Is a Special Day, was released in 1993.
Domino lived in a mansion in a predominantly working-class neighborhood in the Lower Ninth Ward, where he was a familiar sight in his bright pink Cadillac automobile. He made yearly appearances at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and other local events.
His last tour was in Europe, for three weeks in 1995. After being ill while on tour, Domino decided he would no longer leave the New Orleans area, having a comfortable income from royalty payments and a dislike of touring and claiming he could not get any food that he liked anywhere else. In the same year, he received the Rhythm & Blues Foundation's Ray Charles Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 1998, President Bill Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Arts. Domino declined an invitation to perform at the White House.
In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 25 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in an essay written by Dr. John.
Domino and Hurricane Katrina
As Hurricane Katrina approached New Orleans in August 2005, Domino chose to stay at home with his family, partly because his wife, Rosemary, was in poor health. His house was in an area that was heavily flooded.
Domino was rumored to have died, and his home was vandalized when someone spray-painted the message "RIP Fats. You will be missed". On September 1, the talent agent Al Embry announced that he had not heard from Domino since before the hurricane struck. Later that day, CNN reported that Domino had been rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter. Until then, even family members had not heard from him since before the storm. Embry confirmed that Domino and his family had been rescued. The family was then taken to a shelter in Baton Rouge, after which they were picked up by JaMarcus Russell, the starting quarterback of the Louisiana State University football team, and the boyfriend of Domino's granddaughter. He let the family stay in his apartment. The Washington Post reported that on September 2, they had left Russell's apartment after sleeping three nights on the couch. "We've lost everything," Domino said, according to the Post.
By January 2006, work to gut and repair Domino's home and office had begun (see Reconstruction of New Orleans). In the meantime, the Domino family resided in Harvey, Louisiana.
President George W. Bush made a personal visit and replaced the National Medal of Arts that President Bill Clinton had previously awarded Domino. The gold records were replaced by the RIAA and Capitol Records, which owned the Imperial Records catalogue.
Later life
Domino was scheduled to perform at the 2006 Jazz & Heritage Festival in New Orleans. However, he was suffering from anxiety and was forced to cancel the performance, but he did appear to offer the audience an on-stage greeting.
In 2006 Domino's album Alive and Kickin' was released to benefit the Tipitina's Foundation, which supports indigent local musicians and helps preserve the New Orleans sound. The album consists of unreleased recordings from the 1990s and received great critical acclaim.
On January 12, 2007, Domino was honored with OffBeat magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Best of the Beat Awards, held at the House of Blues in New Orleans. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared the day "Fats Domino Day in New Orleans" and presented him with a signed declaration. Domino returned to stage on May 19, 2007, at Tipitina's at New Orleans, performing to a full house. This was his last public performance. The concert was recorded for a 2008 TV presentation entitled Fats Domino: Walkin' Back to New Orleans. This was a fund-raising concert, featuring a number of artists. Domino donated his fee to the cause. Later that year, a Vanguard record was released, Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino featuring his songs as recorded by Elton John, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Robert Plant, Willie Nelson, Norah Jones, Lenny Kravitz, and Lucinda Williams. A portion of the proceeds was to be used by the Foundation to help restore Domino's publishing office which had been damaged by the hurricane.
In September 2007, Domino was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
In May 2009, Domino made an unexpected appearance in the audience for the Domino Effect, a concert featuring Little Richard and other artists, aimed at raising funds to help rebuild schools and playgrounds damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
In October 2012, Domino was featured in season three of the television series Treme, playing himself. On August 21, 2016, Domino was inducted into the National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame. The ceremony was held in Detroit, Michigan. The other inductees were Dionne Warwick, Cathy Hughes, Smokey Robinson, Prince, and the Supremes. He had received the Rhythm & Blues Foundation's Ray Charles Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. His song "The Fat Man" entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2015.
Death
Domino died on October 24, 2017, at his home in Harvey, Louisiana, at the age of 89, from natural causes, according to the coroner's office.
Influence and legacy
Domino was one of the biggest stars of rock and roll in the 1950s, but he was not convinced that this was a new genre. In 1957, Domino said: "What they call rock 'n' roll now is rhythm and blues. I've been playing it for 15 years in New Orleans". According to Rolling Stone, "this is a valid statement ... all Fifties rockers, black and white, country born and city bred, were fundamentally influenced by R&B, the black popular music of the late Forties and early Fifties".
He was among the first R&B artists to gain popularity with white audiences. His biographer Rick Coleman argues that Domino's records and tours with rock-and-roll shows in that decade, bringing together black and white youths in a shared appreciation of his music, was a factor in the breakdown of racial segregation in the United States. The artist himself did not define his work as rock and roll, saying, "It wasn't anything but the same rhythm and blues I'd been playin' down in New Orleans."
Both John Lennon and Paul McCartney recorded Domino songs. According to some reports, McCartney wrote the Beatles song "Lady Madonna" in emulation of Domino's style, combining it with a nod to Humphrey Lyttelton's 1956 hit "Bad Penny Blues". Domino also recorded the song in 1968. Domino returned to the "Hot 100" chart for the last time in 1968, with his recording of "Lady Madonna". That recording, as well as covers of two other songs by the Beatles, appeared on his Reprise album Fats Is Back, produced by Richard Perry and with several hits recorded by a band that included the New Orleans pianist James Booker.
Domino was present in the audience of 2,200 people at Elvis Presley's first concert at the Las Vegas Hilton on July 31, 1969. At a press conference after the show, when a journalist referred to Presley as "The King", Presley gestured toward Domino, who was taking in the scene. "No," Presley said, "that's the real king of rock and roll." Presley made a subsequent comment, "rock 'n' roll was here a long time before I came along. Let's face it: I can't sing like Fats Domino can. I know that" and added that Domino was "a huge influence on me when I started out".
About a photograph made of him and Elvis together, Domino said: "Elvis told me he flopped the first time he came to Las Vegas. I loved his music. He could sing anything ... I'm glad we took this picture." (Fats Domino (2002). "Music Pioneer Fats Domino Talks About Elvis." Retrieved from "USA Today." December 10, 2002.)
Domino received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987.
John Lennon covered Domino's composition "Ain't That a Shame" on his 1975 album "Rock 'n' Roll," his tribute to the musicians who had influenced him.
American band Cheap Trick recorded "Ain't That a Shame" on their 1978 live album Cheap Trick at Budokan and released it as the second single from the album. It reached 35 of the Billboard Hot 100. Reportedly, this was Domino's favorite cover. It remains a staple of their live performances, including at their 25th Anniversary concert (which was recorded as the album and DVD Silver) and at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.
The Jamaican reggae artist Yellowman covered many songs by Domino, including "Be My Guest" and "Blueberry Hill."
Jah Wobble, a post-punk bassist best known for his work with Johnny Rotten, released a solo recording of "Blueberry Hill".
The Jamaican ska band Justin Hinds and the Dominoes, formed in the 1960s, was named after Domino, Hinds's favorite singer.
In 2007, various artists came together for a tribute to Domino, recording a live session containing only his songs. Musicians performing on the album, Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino, included Paul McCartney, Norah Jones, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and Elton John.
According to Richie Unterberger, writing for AllMusic, Domino was one of the most consistent artists of early rock music, the best-selling African-American rock-and-roll star of the 1950s, and the most popular singer of the "classic" New Orleans rhythm and blues style. His million-selling debut single, "The Fat Man" (1949), is one of many that have been cited as the first rock and roll record. Robert Christgau wrote that Domino was "the most widely liked rock and roller of the '50s" and remarked on his influence:
Domino's rhythm, accentuating the offbeat, as in the song "Be My Guest", was an influence on ska music.
Personal life
Domino was married to Rosemary Domino ( Hall) from 1947 until her death in 2008; the couple had eight children: Antoine III (1950-2015), Anatole, Andre (1952-1997), Antonio, Antoinette, Andrea, Anola, and Adonica.
Even after his success he continued to live in his old neighborhood, the Lower Ninth Ward, until after Hurricane Katrina, when he moved to a suburb of New Orleans.
Discography
Fats Domino discography
List of songs recorded by Fats Domino
Studio albums
References
External links
Fats Domino at history-of-rock.com
Fats Domino: Walking to New Orleans special
1928 births
2017 deaths
African-American pianists
African-American rock musicians
American baritones
American blues pianists
American male pianists
American rock pianists
American rhythm and blues singers
American rock singers
Boogie-woogie pianists
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Imperial Records artists
Louisiana Creole people
Rhythm and blues musicians from New Orleans
Rock and roll musicians
Songwriters from Louisiana
Stride pianists
United States National Medal of Arts recipients
Singers from Louisiana
People from Harvey, Louisiana
ABC Records artists
London Records artists
Mercury Records artists
Reprise Records artists
Warner Records artists
Male jazz musicians
African-American male singer-songwriters
African-American Catholics
20th-century African-American male singers
Singer-songwriters from Louisiana | true | [
"This Is Fats Domino! is the third album by R&B pianist and vocalist Fats Domino. The album was released by Imperial Records in December 1956.\n\nRelease history\nThe album was released on Imperial Records, catalog #LP-9028, in December 1956.\nThe album was reissued in 1969 as stereo (in fact \"Electronically re-recorded to simulate stereo\", as printed on cover) by Liberty Records, the new owner of Imperial Records, with catalog# LP-12389.\n\nPoints of note\nThe first track on the album, Blueberry Hill, is a classic 1940s composition, previously recorded by a number of prominent artists. It is noted that during the recording of this track, Domino and his band could not find the sheet music or a note of the lyrics for the song. A complete take was never recorded and the studio had to eventually cobble together the final version from a number of takes.\nThe album is included in the reference book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.\n\nTrack listing\nExcept where otherwise noted, all songs by Dave Bartholomew and Fats Domino.\n\"Blueberry Hill\" (Vincent Rose, Larry Stock) – 2:37\n\"Honey Chile\" – 2:00\n\"What's the Reason (I'm Not Pleasing You)\" (Pinky Tomlin) – 2:15\n\"Blue Monday\" – 2:32\n\"So Long\" – 2:23\n\"La-La\" – 2:24\n\"Troubles of My Own\" – 2:27\n\"You Done Me Wrong\" – 2:14\n\"Reeling and Rocking\" (Fats Domino, Alvin Young) – 2:31\n\"The Fat Man's Hop\" (Fats Domino, Alvin Young) – 2:37\n\"Poor, Poor Me\" – 2:20\n\"Trust in Me\" – 2:41\n\nPersonnel\nFats Domino – piano, vocals\nWalter / Nelson – Guitar\nLawrence Guyton – Bass\nWilliam Diamond – Bass\nCornelius Coleman – Drums\nHerbert Hardesty – Tenor saxophone\nRobert Hagans – Tenor saxophone\nWendell DuConge – Alto saxophone\n\nReferences \n\nFats Domino albums\nImperial Records albums\n1956 albums",
"\"My Girl Josephine\" is a song written by Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew. Domino recorded the song on Imperial Records (Imperial 5704) in 1960, and it charted #7 on the Billboard R&B charts and #14 on the Billboard pop charts. The song is also listed and recorded as \"Josephine\" and \"Hello Josephine\" in various cover versions.\n\nSee also\nJosephine (Wayne King song), also covered by Bill Black's Combo\n\nReferences\n\n1960 singles\nFats Domino songs\nSongs written by Dave Bartholomew\n1960 songs\nSongs written by Fats Domino\nImperial Records singles"
]
|
[
"Fats Domino",
"Recordings after leaving Imperial (1963-1970s)",
"What did Fats Domino do after leaving Imperial?",
"Domino moved to ABC-Paramount Records in 1963."
]
| C_3f0b793857fc4c92b275df034570128d_1 | What recordings did he do? | 2 | What recordings did Fats Domino do after moving to ABC-Paramount? | Fats Domino | Domino moved to ABC-Paramount Records in 1963. The label dictated that he record in Nashville, Tennessee, rather than New Orleans. He was assigned a new producer (Felton Jarvis) and a new arranger (Bill Justis). Domino's long-term collaboration with the producer, arranger, and frequent co-writer Dave Bartholomew, who oversaw virtually all of his Imperial hits, was seemingly at an end. Jarvis and Justis changed the Domino sound somewhat, notably by adding the backing of a countrypolitan-style vocal chorus to most of his new recordings. He released 11 singles for ABC-Paramount, several which hit the Top 100 but just once entering the Top 40 ("Red Sails in the Sunset", 1963). By the end of 1964 the British Invasion had changed the tastes of the record-buying public, and Domino's chart run was over. Despite the lack of chart success, Domino continued to record steadily until about 1970, leaving ABC-Paramount in mid-1965 and recording for Mercury Records, where he delivered a live album and two singles. A studio album was planned but stalled with just four tracks recorded . Dave Bartholomew's small Broadmoor label (reuniting with Bartholomew along the way), featured many contemporary Soul infused sides but an album was released overseas in 1971 to fulfill his Reprise Records contract. He shifted to that label after Broadmoor and had a Top 100 single, a cover of the Beatles' "Lady Madonna". Domino appeared in the Monkees' television special 33 1/3 Revolutions per Monkee in 1969. He continued to be popular as a performer for several decades. He made a cameo appearance in Clint Eastwood's movie Any Which Way You Can, filmed in 1979 and released in 1980 singing the country song "Whiskey Heaven" which later became a minor hit. His life and career were showcased in Joe Lauro's 2015 documentary The Big Beat: Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll. CANNOTANSWER | He released 11 singles for ABC-Paramount, | Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American pianist and singer-songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New Orleans to a French Creole family, Domino signed to Imperial Records in 1949. His first single "The Fat Man" is cited by some historians as the first rock and roll single and the first to sell more than 1 million copies. Domino continued to work with the song's co-writer Dave Bartholomew, contributing his distinctive rolling piano style to Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (1952) and scoring a string of mainstream hits beginning with "Ain't That a Shame" (1955). Between 1955 and 1960, he had eleven Top 10 US pop hits. By 1955, five of his records had sold more than a million copies, being certified gold.
Domino was shy and modest by nature but made a significant contribution to the rock and roll genre. Elvis Presley declared Domino a "huge influence on me when I started out" and described him as "the real king of rock 'n' roll". The artist himself did not define his work as rock and roll, saying of the genre "It wasn't anything but the same rhythm and blues I'd been playing down in New Orleans". Four of Domino's records were named to the Grammy Hall of Fame for their significance: "Blueberry Hill", "Ain't That A Shame", "Walking to New Orleans" and "The Fat Man". He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. The Associated Press estimates that during his career, Domino "sold more than 110 million records".
Biography
Early life and education
Antoine Domino Jr. was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, the youngest of eight children born to Antoine Caliste Domino (1879–1964) and Marie-Donatille Gros (1886–1971). The Domino family was of French Creole background, and Louisiana Creole was his first language. Like most such families, the Dominos were Catholic.
Antoine was born at home with the assistance of his grandmother, a midwife. His name was initially misspelled as Anthony on his birth certificate. His family had recently arrived in the Lower Ninth Ward from Vacherie, Louisiana. His father was a part-time violin player who worked at a racetrack.
He attended the Louis B. Macarty School, leaving to start work as a helper to an ice delivery man. Domino learned to play the piano in about 1938 from his brother-in-law, the jazz guitarist Harrison Verrett.
Early career (1940s)
By age 14, Domino was performing in New Orleans bars. In 1947, Billy Diamond, a New Orleans bandleader, accepted an invitation to hear the young pianist perform at a backyard barbecue. Domino played well enough that Diamond asked him to join his band, the Solid Senders, at the Hideaway Club in New Orleans, where he would earn $3 a week playing the piano. Diamond nicknamed him "Fats", because Domino reminded him of the renowned pianists Fats Waller and Fats Pichon, but also because of his large appetite.
Recordings for Imperial Records (1949–1962)
Domino was signed to the Imperial Records label in 1949 by owner Lew Chudd, to be paid royalties based on sales instead of a fee for each song. He and producer Dave Bartholomew wrote "The Fat Man", a toned down version of a song about drug addicts called "Junker Blues"; the record had sold a million copies by 1951. Featuring a rolling piano and Domino vocalizing "wah-wah" over a strong backbeat, "The Fat Man" is widely considered the first rock-and-roll record to achieve this level of sales. In 2015, the song would enter the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Domino released a series of hit songs with Bartholomew (also the co-writer of many of the songs), the saxophonists Herbert Hardesty and Alvin "Red" Tyler, the bassist Billy Diamond and later Frank Fields, and the drummers Earl Palmer and Smokey Johnson. Other notable and long-standing musicians in Domino's band were the saxophonists Reggie Houston, Lee Allen, and Fred Kemp, Domino's trusted bandleader.
While Domino's own recordings were done for Imperial, he sometimes sat in during that time as a session musician on recordings by other artists for other record labels. Domino's rolling piano triplets provided the memorable instrumental introduction for Lloyd Price's first hit, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", recorded for Specialty Records on March 13, 1952, at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios in New Orleans (where Domino himself had earlier recorded "The Fat Man" and other songs). Dave Bartholomew was producing Price's record, which also featured familiar Domino collaborators Hardesty, Fields and Palmer as sidemen, and he asked Domino to play the piano part, replacing the original session pianist.
Domino crossed into the pop mainstream with "Ain't That a Shame" (mislabeled as "Ain't It a Shame") which reached the Top Ten. This was the first of his records to appear on the Billboard pop singles chart (on July 16, 1955), with the debut at number 14. A milder cover version by Pat Boone reached number 1, having received wider radio airplay in an era of racial segregation. In 1955, Domino was said to be earning $10,000 a week while touring, according to a report in the memoir of artist Chuck Berry. Domino eventually had 37 Top 40 singles, but none made it to number 1 on the Pop chart.
Domino's debut album contained several of his recent hits and earlier blues tracks that had not been released as singles, and was issued on the Imperial label (catalogue number 9009) in November 1955, and was reissued as Rock and Rollin' with Fats Domino. The reissue reached number 17 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart.
His 1956 recording of "Blueberry Hill", a 1940 song by Vincent Rose, Al Lewis and Larry Stock (which had previously been recorded by Gene Autry, Louis Armstrong and others), reached number 2 on the Billboard Juke Box chart for two weeks and was number 1 on the R&B chart for 11 weeks. It was his biggest hit, selling more than 5 million copies worldwide in 1956 and 1957. The song was subsequently recorded by Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Led Zeppelin. Some 32 years later, the song would enter the
Grammy Hall of Fame.
Domino had further hit singles between 1956 and 1959, including "When My Dreamboat Comes Home" (Pop number 14), "I'm Walkin'" (Pop number 4), "Valley of Tears" (Pop number 8), "It's You I Love" (Pop number 6), "Whole Lotta Lovin'" (Pop number 6), "I Want to Walk You Home" (Pop number 8), and "Be My Guest" (Pop number 8). In 1957, Domino maintained "What they call rock 'n' roll now is rhythm and blues. I've been playing it for 15 years in New Orleans".
Domino appeared in two films released in 1956: Shake, Rattle & Rock! and The Girl Can't Help It. On December 18, 1957, his hit recording of "The Big Beat" was featured on Dick Clark's American Bandstand.
He was also featured in a movie of the same name.
On November 2, 1956, a riot broke out at a Domino concert in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The police used tear gas to break up the unruly crowd. Domino jumped out a window to avoid the melee; he and two members of his band were slightly injured. During his career, four major riots occurred at his concerts, "partly because of integration", according to his biographer Rick Coleman. "But also the fact they had alcohol at these shows. So they were mixing alcohol, plus dancing, plus the races together for the first time in a lot of these places." In November 1957, Domino appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show; no disturbance accompanied this performance.
In the same year, the article "King of Rock 'n' Roll" in Ebony magazine featured Domino who said he was on the road 340 days a year, up to $2,500 per evening, and grossing over $500,000; Domino also told readers that he owned 50 suits, 100 pairs of shoes and a $1,500 diamond horseshoe stick pin.
Domino had a steady series of hits for Imperial through early 1962, including "Walking to New Orleans" (1960, Pop number 6), co-written by Bobby Charles, and "My Girl Josephine" (Pop number 14) in the same year. He toured Europe in 1962 and met the Beatles who would later cite Domino as an inspiration. After returning, he played the first of his many stands in Las Vegas.
Imperial Records was sold in early 1963, and Domino left the label. "I stuck with them until they sold out," he said in 1979. In all, he recorded over 60 singles for Imperial, placing 40 songs in the top 10 on the R&B chart and 11 in the top 10 on the Pop chart, twenty-seven of which were double-sided hits.
Recordings after leaving Imperial (1963–1970s)
Domino moved to ABC-Paramount Records in 1963. The label dictated that he record in Nashville, Tennessee, rather than New Orleans. He was assigned a new producer (Felton Jarvis) and a new arranger (Bill Justis). Domino's long-term collaboration with the producer, arranger, and frequent co-writer Dave Bartholomew, who oversaw virtually all of his Imperial hits, was seemingly at an end. Jarvis and Justis changed the Domino sound somewhat, notably by adding the backing of a countrypolitan-style vocal chorus to most of his new recordings. He released 11 singles for ABC-Paramount, several which hit the Top 100 but just once entering the Top 40 ("Red Sails in the Sunset", 1963). By the end of 1964 the British Invasion had changed the tastes of the record-buying public, and Domino's chart run was over.
Despite the lack of chart success, Domino continued to record steadily until about 1970, leaving ABC-Paramount in mid-1965 and recording for Mercury Records, where he delivered a live album and two singles. A studio album was planned but stalled with just four tracks recorded. Dave Bartholomew's small Broadmoor label (reuniting with Bartholomew along the way), featured many contemporary Soul infused sides and a few single releases but an album was not released overseas until 1971 to fulfill his Reprise Records contract. He shifted to that label after Broadmoor and had a Top 100 single, a cover of the Beatles' "Lady Madonna".
Domino appeared in the Monkees' television special 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee in 1969. In 1971, he opened for Ike & Tina Turner at Carnegie Hall. He continued to be popular as a performer for several decades. He made a cameo appearance in Clint Eastwood's movie Any Which Way You Can, filmed in 1979 and released in 1980, singing the country song "Whiskey Heaven", which later became a minor hit. His life and career were showcased in Joe Lauro's 2015 documentary The Big Beat: Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll.
Later career (1980s–2005)
In 1986, Domino was one of the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He also received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. Domino's last album for a major label, Christmas Is a Special Day, was released in 1993.
Domino lived in a mansion in a predominantly working-class neighborhood in the Lower Ninth Ward, where he was a familiar sight in his bright pink Cadillac automobile. He made yearly appearances at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and other local events.
His last tour was in Europe, for three weeks in 1995. After being ill while on tour, Domino decided he would no longer leave the New Orleans area, having a comfortable income from royalty payments and a dislike of touring and claiming he could not get any food that he liked anywhere else. In the same year, he received the Rhythm & Blues Foundation's Ray Charles Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 1998, President Bill Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Arts. Domino declined an invitation to perform at the White House.
In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 25 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in an essay written by Dr. John.
Domino and Hurricane Katrina
As Hurricane Katrina approached New Orleans in August 2005, Domino chose to stay at home with his family, partly because his wife, Rosemary, was in poor health. His house was in an area that was heavily flooded.
Domino was rumored to have died, and his home was vandalized when someone spray-painted the message "RIP Fats. You will be missed". On September 1, the talent agent Al Embry announced that he had not heard from Domino since before the hurricane struck. Later that day, CNN reported that Domino had been rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter. Until then, even family members had not heard from him since before the storm. Embry confirmed that Domino and his family had been rescued. The family was then taken to a shelter in Baton Rouge, after which they were picked up by JaMarcus Russell, the starting quarterback of the Louisiana State University football team, and the boyfriend of Domino's granddaughter. He let the family stay in his apartment. The Washington Post reported that on September 2, they had left Russell's apartment after sleeping three nights on the couch. "We've lost everything," Domino said, according to the Post.
By January 2006, work to gut and repair Domino's home and office had begun (see Reconstruction of New Orleans). In the meantime, the Domino family resided in Harvey, Louisiana.
President George W. Bush made a personal visit and replaced the National Medal of Arts that President Bill Clinton had previously awarded Domino. The gold records were replaced by the RIAA and Capitol Records, which owned the Imperial Records catalogue.
Later life
Domino was scheduled to perform at the 2006 Jazz & Heritage Festival in New Orleans. However, he was suffering from anxiety and was forced to cancel the performance, but he did appear to offer the audience an on-stage greeting.
In 2006 Domino's album Alive and Kickin' was released to benefit the Tipitina's Foundation, which supports indigent local musicians and helps preserve the New Orleans sound. The album consists of unreleased recordings from the 1990s and received great critical acclaim.
On January 12, 2007, Domino was honored with OffBeat magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Best of the Beat Awards, held at the House of Blues in New Orleans. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared the day "Fats Domino Day in New Orleans" and presented him with a signed declaration. Domino returned to stage on May 19, 2007, at Tipitina's at New Orleans, performing to a full house. This was his last public performance. The concert was recorded for a 2008 TV presentation entitled Fats Domino: Walkin' Back to New Orleans. This was a fund-raising concert, featuring a number of artists. Domino donated his fee to the cause. Later that year, a Vanguard record was released, Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino featuring his songs as recorded by Elton John, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Robert Plant, Willie Nelson, Norah Jones, Lenny Kravitz, and Lucinda Williams. A portion of the proceeds was to be used by the Foundation to help restore Domino's publishing office which had been damaged by the hurricane.
In September 2007, Domino was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
In May 2009, Domino made an unexpected appearance in the audience for the Domino Effect, a concert featuring Little Richard and other artists, aimed at raising funds to help rebuild schools and playgrounds damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
In October 2012, Domino was featured in season three of the television series Treme, playing himself. On August 21, 2016, Domino was inducted into the National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame. The ceremony was held in Detroit, Michigan. The other inductees were Dionne Warwick, Cathy Hughes, Smokey Robinson, Prince, and the Supremes. He had received the Rhythm & Blues Foundation's Ray Charles Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. His song "The Fat Man" entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2015.
Death
Domino died on October 24, 2017, at his home in Harvey, Louisiana, at the age of 89, from natural causes, according to the coroner's office.
Influence and legacy
Domino was one of the biggest stars of rock and roll in the 1950s, but he was not convinced that this was a new genre. In 1957, Domino said: "What they call rock 'n' roll now is rhythm and blues. I've been playing it for 15 years in New Orleans". According to Rolling Stone, "this is a valid statement ... all Fifties rockers, black and white, country born and city bred, were fundamentally influenced by R&B, the black popular music of the late Forties and early Fifties".
He was among the first R&B artists to gain popularity with white audiences. His biographer Rick Coleman argues that Domino's records and tours with rock-and-roll shows in that decade, bringing together black and white youths in a shared appreciation of his music, was a factor in the breakdown of racial segregation in the United States. The artist himself did not define his work as rock and roll, saying, "It wasn't anything but the same rhythm and blues I'd been playin' down in New Orleans."
Both John Lennon and Paul McCartney recorded Domino songs. According to some reports, McCartney wrote the Beatles song "Lady Madonna" in emulation of Domino's style, combining it with a nod to Humphrey Lyttelton's 1956 hit "Bad Penny Blues". Domino also recorded the song in 1968. Domino returned to the "Hot 100" chart for the last time in 1968, with his recording of "Lady Madonna". That recording, as well as covers of two other songs by the Beatles, appeared on his Reprise album Fats Is Back, produced by Richard Perry and with several hits recorded by a band that included the New Orleans pianist James Booker.
Domino was present in the audience of 2,200 people at Elvis Presley's first concert at the Las Vegas Hilton on July 31, 1969. At a press conference after the show, when a journalist referred to Presley as "The King", Presley gestured toward Domino, who was taking in the scene. "No," Presley said, "that's the real king of rock and roll." Presley made a subsequent comment, "rock 'n' roll was here a long time before I came along. Let's face it: I can't sing like Fats Domino can. I know that" and added that Domino was "a huge influence on me when I started out".
About a photograph made of him and Elvis together, Domino said: "Elvis told me he flopped the first time he came to Las Vegas. I loved his music. He could sing anything ... I'm glad we took this picture." (Fats Domino (2002). "Music Pioneer Fats Domino Talks About Elvis." Retrieved from "USA Today." December 10, 2002.)
Domino received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987.
John Lennon covered Domino's composition "Ain't That a Shame" on his 1975 album "Rock 'n' Roll," his tribute to the musicians who had influenced him.
American band Cheap Trick recorded "Ain't That a Shame" on their 1978 live album Cheap Trick at Budokan and released it as the second single from the album. It reached 35 of the Billboard Hot 100. Reportedly, this was Domino's favorite cover. It remains a staple of their live performances, including at their 25th Anniversary concert (which was recorded as the album and DVD Silver) and at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.
The Jamaican reggae artist Yellowman covered many songs by Domino, including "Be My Guest" and "Blueberry Hill."
Jah Wobble, a post-punk bassist best known for his work with Johnny Rotten, released a solo recording of "Blueberry Hill".
The Jamaican ska band Justin Hinds and the Dominoes, formed in the 1960s, was named after Domino, Hinds's favorite singer.
In 2007, various artists came together for a tribute to Domino, recording a live session containing only his songs. Musicians performing on the album, Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino, included Paul McCartney, Norah Jones, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and Elton John.
According to Richie Unterberger, writing for AllMusic, Domino was one of the most consistent artists of early rock music, the best-selling African-American rock-and-roll star of the 1950s, and the most popular singer of the "classic" New Orleans rhythm and blues style. His million-selling debut single, "The Fat Man" (1949), is one of many that have been cited as the first rock and roll record. Robert Christgau wrote that Domino was "the most widely liked rock and roller of the '50s" and remarked on his influence:
Domino's rhythm, accentuating the offbeat, as in the song "Be My Guest", was an influence on ska music.
Personal life
Domino was married to Rosemary Domino ( Hall) from 1947 until her death in 2008; the couple had eight children: Antoine III (1950-2015), Anatole, Andre (1952-1997), Antonio, Antoinette, Andrea, Anola, and Adonica.
Even after his success he continued to live in his old neighborhood, the Lower Ninth Ward, until after Hurricane Katrina, when he moved to a suburb of New Orleans.
Discography
Fats Domino discography
List of songs recorded by Fats Domino
Studio albums
References
External links
Fats Domino at history-of-rock.com
Fats Domino: Walking to New Orleans special
1928 births
2017 deaths
African-American pianists
African-American rock musicians
American baritones
American blues pianists
American male pianists
American rock pianists
American rhythm and blues singers
American rock singers
Boogie-woogie pianists
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Imperial Records artists
Louisiana Creole people
Rhythm and blues musicians from New Orleans
Rock and roll musicians
Songwriters from Louisiana
Stride pianists
United States National Medal of Arts recipients
Singers from Louisiana
People from Harvey, Louisiana
ABC Records artists
London Records artists
Mercury Records artists
Reprise Records artists
Warner Records artists
Male jazz musicians
African-American male singer-songwriters
African-American Catholics
20th-century African-American male singers
Singer-songwriters from Louisiana | true | [
"\"What I Need To Do\" is a song written by Tom Damphier and Bill Luther, and recorded by American country music artist Kenny Chesney. It was released in January 2000 as the fourth and final single from Chesney's 1999 album Everywhere We Go. The song peaked at number 8 in the United States and number 13 in Canada in 2000.\n\nContent\nThe song describes the narrator thinking about \"what [he] need[s] to do\" as he is driving away from his old hometown away from his former lover. He also thinks that he should \"turn [his] car around\" and go back to his lover, then hold her, and then tell her how sorry he is for what he did.\n\nChart positions\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\n2000 singles\nKenny Chesney songs\nSong recordings produced by Buddy Cannon\nSong recordings produced by Norro Wilson\nBNA Records singles\nSongs written by Bill Luther (songwriter)\n1999 songs",
"\"How Do I Deal\" is a song by American actress Jennifer Love Hewitt from the soundtrack to the film I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. The song was released as a single on November 17, 1998, with an accompanying music video. The single became Hewitt's one and only appearance on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, peaking at number 59 in a seven-week run. Although not a big success in America, the single reached number five in New Zealand and peaked at number eight in Australia, where it is certified gold.\n\nTrack listings\nUS CD, 7-inch, and cassette single\n \"How Do I Deal\" (single version) – 3:23\n \"Try to Say Goodbye\" (performed by Jory Eve) – 3:36\n\nEuropean CD single\n \"How Do I Deal\" – 3:24\n \"Sugar Is Sweeter\" (performed by CJ Bolland) – 5:34\n\nAustralian CD single\n \"How Do I Deal\" – 3:23\n \"Sugar Is Sweeter\" (Danny Saber Remix featuring Justin Warfield, performed by CJ Bolland) – 4:57\n \"Try to Say Goodbye\" (performed by Jory Eve) – 3:35\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nCertifications\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n143 Records singles\n1998 songs\n1999 singles\nJennifer Love Hewitt songs\nI Know What You Did Last Summer (franchise)\nMusic videos directed by Joseph Kahn\nSong recordings produced by Bruce Fairbairn\nSong recordings produced by David Foster\nSongs written for films\nWarner Records singles"
]
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"What did Fats Domino do after leaving Imperial?",
"Domino moved to ABC-Paramount Records in 1963.",
"What recordings did he do?",
"He released 11 singles for ABC-Paramount,"
]
| C_3f0b793857fc4c92b275df034570128d_1 | What else did he do? | 3 | Besides recording singles, what else did Fats Domino do for ABC-Paramount? | Fats Domino | Domino moved to ABC-Paramount Records in 1963. The label dictated that he record in Nashville, Tennessee, rather than New Orleans. He was assigned a new producer (Felton Jarvis) and a new arranger (Bill Justis). Domino's long-term collaboration with the producer, arranger, and frequent co-writer Dave Bartholomew, who oversaw virtually all of his Imperial hits, was seemingly at an end. Jarvis and Justis changed the Domino sound somewhat, notably by adding the backing of a countrypolitan-style vocal chorus to most of his new recordings. He released 11 singles for ABC-Paramount, several which hit the Top 100 but just once entering the Top 40 ("Red Sails in the Sunset", 1963). By the end of 1964 the British Invasion had changed the tastes of the record-buying public, and Domino's chart run was over. Despite the lack of chart success, Domino continued to record steadily until about 1970, leaving ABC-Paramount in mid-1965 and recording for Mercury Records, where he delivered a live album and two singles. A studio album was planned but stalled with just four tracks recorded . Dave Bartholomew's small Broadmoor label (reuniting with Bartholomew along the way), featured many contemporary Soul infused sides but an album was released overseas in 1971 to fulfill his Reprise Records contract. He shifted to that label after Broadmoor and had a Top 100 single, a cover of the Beatles' "Lady Madonna". Domino appeared in the Monkees' television special 33 1/3 Revolutions per Monkee in 1969. He continued to be popular as a performer for several decades. He made a cameo appearance in Clint Eastwood's movie Any Which Way You Can, filmed in 1979 and released in 1980 singing the country song "Whiskey Heaven" which later became a minor hit. His life and career were showcased in Joe Lauro's 2015 documentary The Big Beat: Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll. CANNOTANSWER | Jarvis and Justis changed the Domino sound somewhat, | Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American pianist and singer-songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New Orleans to a French Creole family, Domino signed to Imperial Records in 1949. His first single "The Fat Man" is cited by some historians as the first rock and roll single and the first to sell more than 1 million copies. Domino continued to work with the song's co-writer Dave Bartholomew, contributing his distinctive rolling piano style to Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (1952) and scoring a string of mainstream hits beginning with "Ain't That a Shame" (1955). Between 1955 and 1960, he had eleven Top 10 US pop hits. By 1955, five of his records had sold more than a million copies, being certified gold.
Domino was shy and modest by nature but made a significant contribution to the rock and roll genre. Elvis Presley declared Domino a "huge influence on me when I started out" and described him as "the real king of rock 'n' roll". The artist himself did not define his work as rock and roll, saying of the genre "It wasn't anything but the same rhythm and blues I'd been playing down in New Orleans". Four of Domino's records were named to the Grammy Hall of Fame for their significance: "Blueberry Hill", "Ain't That A Shame", "Walking to New Orleans" and "The Fat Man". He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. The Associated Press estimates that during his career, Domino "sold more than 110 million records".
Biography
Early life and education
Antoine Domino Jr. was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, the youngest of eight children born to Antoine Caliste Domino (1879–1964) and Marie-Donatille Gros (1886–1971). The Domino family was of French Creole background, and Louisiana Creole was his first language. Like most such families, the Dominos were Catholic.
Antoine was born at home with the assistance of his grandmother, a midwife. His name was initially misspelled as Anthony on his birth certificate. His family had recently arrived in the Lower Ninth Ward from Vacherie, Louisiana. His father was a part-time violin player who worked at a racetrack.
He attended the Louis B. Macarty School, leaving to start work as a helper to an ice delivery man. Domino learned to play the piano in about 1938 from his brother-in-law, the jazz guitarist Harrison Verrett.
Early career (1940s)
By age 14, Domino was performing in New Orleans bars. In 1947, Billy Diamond, a New Orleans bandleader, accepted an invitation to hear the young pianist perform at a backyard barbecue. Domino played well enough that Diamond asked him to join his band, the Solid Senders, at the Hideaway Club in New Orleans, where he would earn $3 a week playing the piano. Diamond nicknamed him "Fats", because Domino reminded him of the renowned pianists Fats Waller and Fats Pichon, but also because of his large appetite.
Recordings for Imperial Records (1949–1962)
Domino was signed to the Imperial Records label in 1949 by owner Lew Chudd, to be paid royalties based on sales instead of a fee for each song. He and producer Dave Bartholomew wrote "The Fat Man", a toned down version of a song about drug addicts called "Junker Blues"; the record had sold a million copies by 1951. Featuring a rolling piano and Domino vocalizing "wah-wah" over a strong backbeat, "The Fat Man" is widely considered the first rock-and-roll record to achieve this level of sales. In 2015, the song would enter the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Domino released a series of hit songs with Bartholomew (also the co-writer of many of the songs), the saxophonists Herbert Hardesty and Alvin "Red" Tyler, the bassist Billy Diamond and later Frank Fields, and the drummers Earl Palmer and Smokey Johnson. Other notable and long-standing musicians in Domino's band were the saxophonists Reggie Houston, Lee Allen, and Fred Kemp, Domino's trusted bandleader.
While Domino's own recordings were done for Imperial, he sometimes sat in during that time as a session musician on recordings by other artists for other record labels. Domino's rolling piano triplets provided the memorable instrumental introduction for Lloyd Price's first hit, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", recorded for Specialty Records on March 13, 1952, at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios in New Orleans (where Domino himself had earlier recorded "The Fat Man" and other songs). Dave Bartholomew was producing Price's record, which also featured familiar Domino collaborators Hardesty, Fields and Palmer as sidemen, and he asked Domino to play the piano part, replacing the original session pianist.
Domino crossed into the pop mainstream with "Ain't That a Shame" (mislabeled as "Ain't It a Shame") which reached the Top Ten. This was the first of his records to appear on the Billboard pop singles chart (on July 16, 1955), with the debut at number 14. A milder cover version by Pat Boone reached number 1, having received wider radio airplay in an era of racial segregation. In 1955, Domino was said to be earning $10,000 a week while touring, according to a report in the memoir of artist Chuck Berry. Domino eventually had 37 Top 40 singles, but none made it to number 1 on the Pop chart.
Domino's debut album contained several of his recent hits and earlier blues tracks that had not been released as singles, and was issued on the Imperial label (catalogue number 9009) in November 1955, and was reissued as Rock and Rollin' with Fats Domino. The reissue reached number 17 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart.
His 1956 recording of "Blueberry Hill", a 1940 song by Vincent Rose, Al Lewis and Larry Stock (which had previously been recorded by Gene Autry, Louis Armstrong and others), reached number 2 on the Billboard Juke Box chart for two weeks and was number 1 on the R&B chart for 11 weeks. It was his biggest hit, selling more than 5 million copies worldwide in 1956 and 1957. The song was subsequently recorded by Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Led Zeppelin. Some 32 years later, the song would enter the
Grammy Hall of Fame.
Domino had further hit singles between 1956 and 1959, including "When My Dreamboat Comes Home" (Pop number 14), "I'm Walkin'" (Pop number 4), "Valley of Tears" (Pop number 8), "It's You I Love" (Pop number 6), "Whole Lotta Lovin'" (Pop number 6), "I Want to Walk You Home" (Pop number 8), and "Be My Guest" (Pop number 8). In 1957, Domino maintained "What they call rock 'n' roll now is rhythm and blues. I've been playing it for 15 years in New Orleans".
Domino appeared in two films released in 1956: Shake, Rattle & Rock! and The Girl Can't Help It. On December 18, 1957, his hit recording of "The Big Beat" was featured on Dick Clark's American Bandstand.
He was also featured in a movie of the same name.
On November 2, 1956, a riot broke out at a Domino concert in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The police used tear gas to break up the unruly crowd. Domino jumped out a window to avoid the melee; he and two members of his band were slightly injured. During his career, four major riots occurred at his concerts, "partly because of integration", according to his biographer Rick Coleman. "But also the fact they had alcohol at these shows. So they were mixing alcohol, plus dancing, plus the races together for the first time in a lot of these places." In November 1957, Domino appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show; no disturbance accompanied this performance.
In the same year, the article "King of Rock 'n' Roll" in Ebony magazine featured Domino who said he was on the road 340 days a year, up to $2,500 per evening, and grossing over $500,000; Domino also told readers that he owned 50 suits, 100 pairs of shoes and a $1,500 diamond horseshoe stick pin.
Domino had a steady series of hits for Imperial through early 1962, including "Walking to New Orleans" (1960, Pop number 6), co-written by Bobby Charles, and "My Girl Josephine" (Pop number 14) in the same year. He toured Europe in 1962 and met the Beatles who would later cite Domino as an inspiration. After returning, he played the first of his many stands in Las Vegas.
Imperial Records was sold in early 1963, and Domino left the label. "I stuck with them until they sold out," he said in 1979. In all, he recorded over 60 singles for Imperial, placing 40 songs in the top 10 on the R&B chart and 11 in the top 10 on the Pop chart, twenty-seven of which were double-sided hits.
Recordings after leaving Imperial (1963–1970s)
Domino moved to ABC-Paramount Records in 1963. The label dictated that he record in Nashville, Tennessee, rather than New Orleans. He was assigned a new producer (Felton Jarvis) and a new arranger (Bill Justis). Domino's long-term collaboration with the producer, arranger, and frequent co-writer Dave Bartholomew, who oversaw virtually all of his Imperial hits, was seemingly at an end. Jarvis and Justis changed the Domino sound somewhat, notably by adding the backing of a countrypolitan-style vocal chorus to most of his new recordings. He released 11 singles for ABC-Paramount, several which hit the Top 100 but just once entering the Top 40 ("Red Sails in the Sunset", 1963). By the end of 1964 the British Invasion had changed the tastes of the record-buying public, and Domino's chart run was over.
Despite the lack of chart success, Domino continued to record steadily until about 1970, leaving ABC-Paramount in mid-1965 and recording for Mercury Records, where he delivered a live album and two singles. A studio album was planned but stalled with just four tracks recorded. Dave Bartholomew's small Broadmoor label (reuniting with Bartholomew along the way), featured many contemporary Soul infused sides and a few single releases but an album was not released overseas until 1971 to fulfill his Reprise Records contract. He shifted to that label after Broadmoor and had a Top 100 single, a cover of the Beatles' "Lady Madonna".
Domino appeared in the Monkees' television special 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee in 1969. In 1971, he opened for Ike & Tina Turner at Carnegie Hall. He continued to be popular as a performer for several decades. He made a cameo appearance in Clint Eastwood's movie Any Which Way You Can, filmed in 1979 and released in 1980, singing the country song "Whiskey Heaven", which later became a minor hit. His life and career were showcased in Joe Lauro's 2015 documentary The Big Beat: Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll.
Later career (1980s–2005)
In 1986, Domino was one of the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He also received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. Domino's last album for a major label, Christmas Is a Special Day, was released in 1993.
Domino lived in a mansion in a predominantly working-class neighborhood in the Lower Ninth Ward, where he was a familiar sight in his bright pink Cadillac automobile. He made yearly appearances at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and other local events.
His last tour was in Europe, for three weeks in 1995. After being ill while on tour, Domino decided he would no longer leave the New Orleans area, having a comfortable income from royalty payments and a dislike of touring and claiming he could not get any food that he liked anywhere else. In the same year, he received the Rhythm & Blues Foundation's Ray Charles Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 1998, President Bill Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Arts. Domino declined an invitation to perform at the White House.
In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 25 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in an essay written by Dr. John.
Domino and Hurricane Katrina
As Hurricane Katrina approached New Orleans in August 2005, Domino chose to stay at home with his family, partly because his wife, Rosemary, was in poor health. His house was in an area that was heavily flooded.
Domino was rumored to have died, and his home was vandalized when someone spray-painted the message "RIP Fats. You will be missed". On September 1, the talent agent Al Embry announced that he had not heard from Domino since before the hurricane struck. Later that day, CNN reported that Domino had been rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter. Until then, even family members had not heard from him since before the storm. Embry confirmed that Domino and his family had been rescued. The family was then taken to a shelter in Baton Rouge, after which they were picked up by JaMarcus Russell, the starting quarterback of the Louisiana State University football team, and the boyfriend of Domino's granddaughter. He let the family stay in his apartment. The Washington Post reported that on September 2, they had left Russell's apartment after sleeping three nights on the couch. "We've lost everything," Domino said, according to the Post.
By January 2006, work to gut and repair Domino's home and office had begun (see Reconstruction of New Orleans). In the meantime, the Domino family resided in Harvey, Louisiana.
President George W. Bush made a personal visit and replaced the National Medal of Arts that President Bill Clinton had previously awarded Domino. The gold records were replaced by the RIAA and Capitol Records, which owned the Imperial Records catalogue.
Later life
Domino was scheduled to perform at the 2006 Jazz & Heritage Festival in New Orleans. However, he was suffering from anxiety and was forced to cancel the performance, but he did appear to offer the audience an on-stage greeting.
In 2006 Domino's album Alive and Kickin' was released to benefit the Tipitina's Foundation, which supports indigent local musicians and helps preserve the New Orleans sound. The album consists of unreleased recordings from the 1990s and received great critical acclaim.
On January 12, 2007, Domino was honored with OffBeat magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Best of the Beat Awards, held at the House of Blues in New Orleans. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared the day "Fats Domino Day in New Orleans" and presented him with a signed declaration. Domino returned to stage on May 19, 2007, at Tipitina's at New Orleans, performing to a full house. This was his last public performance. The concert was recorded for a 2008 TV presentation entitled Fats Domino: Walkin' Back to New Orleans. This was a fund-raising concert, featuring a number of artists. Domino donated his fee to the cause. Later that year, a Vanguard record was released, Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino featuring his songs as recorded by Elton John, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Robert Plant, Willie Nelson, Norah Jones, Lenny Kravitz, and Lucinda Williams. A portion of the proceeds was to be used by the Foundation to help restore Domino's publishing office which had been damaged by the hurricane.
In September 2007, Domino was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
In May 2009, Domino made an unexpected appearance in the audience for the Domino Effect, a concert featuring Little Richard and other artists, aimed at raising funds to help rebuild schools and playgrounds damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
In October 2012, Domino was featured in season three of the television series Treme, playing himself. On August 21, 2016, Domino was inducted into the National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame. The ceremony was held in Detroit, Michigan. The other inductees were Dionne Warwick, Cathy Hughes, Smokey Robinson, Prince, and the Supremes. He had received the Rhythm & Blues Foundation's Ray Charles Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. His song "The Fat Man" entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2015.
Death
Domino died on October 24, 2017, at his home in Harvey, Louisiana, at the age of 89, from natural causes, according to the coroner's office.
Influence and legacy
Domino was one of the biggest stars of rock and roll in the 1950s, but he was not convinced that this was a new genre. In 1957, Domino said: "What they call rock 'n' roll now is rhythm and blues. I've been playing it for 15 years in New Orleans". According to Rolling Stone, "this is a valid statement ... all Fifties rockers, black and white, country born and city bred, were fundamentally influenced by R&B, the black popular music of the late Forties and early Fifties".
He was among the first R&B artists to gain popularity with white audiences. His biographer Rick Coleman argues that Domino's records and tours with rock-and-roll shows in that decade, bringing together black and white youths in a shared appreciation of his music, was a factor in the breakdown of racial segregation in the United States. The artist himself did not define his work as rock and roll, saying, "It wasn't anything but the same rhythm and blues I'd been playin' down in New Orleans."
Both John Lennon and Paul McCartney recorded Domino songs. According to some reports, McCartney wrote the Beatles song "Lady Madonna" in emulation of Domino's style, combining it with a nod to Humphrey Lyttelton's 1956 hit "Bad Penny Blues". Domino also recorded the song in 1968. Domino returned to the "Hot 100" chart for the last time in 1968, with his recording of "Lady Madonna". That recording, as well as covers of two other songs by the Beatles, appeared on his Reprise album Fats Is Back, produced by Richard Perry and with several hits recorded by a band that included the New Orleans pianist James Booker.
Domino was present in the audience of 2,200 people at Elvis Presley's first concert at the Las Vegas Hilton on July 31, 1969. At a press conference after the show, when a journalist referred to Presley as "The King", Presley gestured toward Domino, who was taking in the scene. "No," Presley said, "that's the real king of rock and roll." Presley made a subsequent comment, "rock 'n' roll was here a long time before I came along. Let's face it: I can't sing like Fats Domino can. I know that" and added that Domino was "a huge influence on me when I started out".
About a photograph made of him and Elvis together, Domino said: "Elvis told me he flopped the first time he came to Las Vegas. I loved his music. He could sing anything ... I'm glad we took this picture." (Fats Domino (2002). "Music Pioneer Fats Domino Talks About Elvis." Retrieved from "USA Today." December 10, 2002.)
Domino received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987.
John Lennon covered Domino's composition "Ain't That a Shame" on his 1975 album "Rock 'n' Roll," his tribute to the musicians who had influenced him.
American band Cheap Trick recorded "Ain't That a Shame" on their 1978 live album Cheap Trick at Budokan and released it as the second single from the album. It reached 35 of the Billboard Hot 100. Reportedly, this was Domino's favorite cover. It remains a staple of their live performances, including at their 25th Anniversary concert (which was recorded as the album and DVD Silver) and at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.
The Jamaican reggae artist Yellowman covered many songs by Domino, including "Be My Guest" and "Blueberry Hill."
Jah Wobble, a post-punk bassist best known for his work with Johnny Rotten, released a solo recording of "Blueberry Hill".
The Jamaican ska band Justin Hinds and the Dominoes, formed in the 1960s, was named after Domino, Hinds's favorite singer.
In 2007, various artists came together for a tribute to Domino, recording a live session containing only his songs. Musicians performing on the album, Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino, included Paul McCartney, Norah Jones, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and Elton John.
According to Richie Unterberger, writing for AllMusic, Domino was one of the most consistent artists of early rock music, the best-selling African-American rock-and-roll star of the 1950s, and the most popular singer of the "classic" New Orleans rhythm and blues style. His million-selling debut single, "The Fat Man" (1949), is one of many that have been cited as the first rock and roll record. Robert Christgau wrote that Domino was "the most widely liked rock and roller of the '50s" and remarked on his influence:
Domino's rhythm, accentuating the offbeat, as in the song "Be My Guest", was an influence on ska music.
Personal life
Domino was married to Rosemary Domino ( Hall) from 1947 until her death in 2008; the couple had eight children: Antoine III (1950-2015), Anatole, Andre (1952-1997), Antonio, Antoinette, Andrea, Anola, and Adonica.
Even after his success he continued to live in his old neighborhood, the Lower Ninth Ward, until after Hurricane Katrina, when he moved to a suburb of New Orleans.
Discography
Fats Domino discography
List of songs recorded by Fats Domino
Studio albums
References
External links
Fats Domino at history-of-rock.com
Fats Domino: Walking to New Orleans special
1928 births
2017 deaths
African-American pianists
African-American rock musicians
American baritones
American blues pianists
American male pianists
American rock pianists
American rhythm and blues singers
American rock singers
Boogie-woogie pianists
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Imperial Records artists
Louisiana Creole people
Rhythm and blues musicians from New Orleans
Rock and roll musicians
Songwriters from Louisiana
Stride pianists
United States National Medal of Arts recipients
Singers from Louisiana
People from Harvey, Louisiana
ABC Records artists
London Records artists
Mercury Records artists
Reprise Records artists
Warner Records artists
Male jazz musicians
African-American male singer-songwriters
African-American Catholics
20th-century African-American male singers
Singer-songwriters from Louisiana | true | [
"What Else Do You Do? (A Compilation of Quiet Music) is a various artists compilation album, released in 1990 by Shimmy Disc.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel \nAdapted from the What Else Do You Do? (A Compilation of Quiet Music) liner notes.\n Kramer – production, engineering\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\n1990 compilation albums\nAlbums produced by Kramer (musician)\nShimmy Disc compilation albums",
"Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday? is a 1963 children's book published by Beginner Books and written by Helen Palmer Geisel, the first wife of Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss). Unlike most of the Beginner Books, Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday? did not follow the format of text with inline drawings, being illustrated with black-and-white photographs by Lynn Fayman, featuring a boy named Rawli Davis. It is sometimes misattributed to Dr. Seuss himself. The book's cover features a photograph of a young boy sitting at a breakfast table with a huge pile of pancakes.\n\nActivities mentioned in the book include bowling, water skiing, marching, boxing, and shooting guns with the United States Marines, and eating more spaghetti \"than anyone else has eaten before.\n\nHelen Palmer's photograph-based children's books did not prove to be as popular as the more traditional text-and-illustrations format; however, Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday received positive reviews and was listed by The New York Times as one of the best children's books of 1963. The book is currently out of print.\n\nReferences\n\n1963 children's books\nAmerican picture books"
]
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"What else did he do?",
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| C_3f0b793857fc4c92b275df034570128d_1 | What happened after that? | 4 | What happened after Jarvis and Justis changed the Domino sound? | Fats Domino | Domino moved to ABC-Paramount Records in 1963. The label dictated that he record in Nashville, Tennessee, rather than New Orleans. He was assigned a new producer (Felton Jarvis) and a new arranger (Bill Justis). Domino's long-term collaboration with the producer, arranger, and frequent co-writer Dave Bartholomew, who oversaw virtually all of his Imperial hits, was seemingly at an end. Jarvis and Justis changed the Domino sound somewhat, notably by adding the backing of a countrypolitan-style vocal chorus to most of his new recordings. He released 11 singles for ABC-Paramount, several which hit the Top 100 but just once entering the Top 40 ("Red Sails in the Sunset", 1963). By the end of 1964 the British Invasion had changed the tastes of the record-buying public, and Domino's chart run was over. Despite the lack of chart success, Domino continued to record steadily until about 1970, leaving ABC-Paramount in mid-1965 and recording for Mercury Records, where he delivered a live album and two singles. A studio album was planned but stalled with just four tracks recorded . Dave Bartholomew's small Broadmoor label (reuniting with Bartholomew along the way), featured many contemporary Soul infused sides but an album was released overseas in 1971 to fulfill his Reprise Records contract. He shifted to that label after Broadmoor and had a Top 100 single, a cover of the Beatles' "Lady Madonna". Domino appeared in the Monkees' television special 33 1/3 Revolutions per Monkee in 1969. He continued to be popular as a performer for several decades. He made a cameo appearance in Clint Eastwood's movie Any Which Way You Can, filmed in 1979 and released in 1980 singing the country song "Whiskey Heaven" which later became a minor hit. His life and career were showcased in Joe Lauro's 2015 documentary The Big Beat: Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll. CANNOTANSWER | ). By the end of 1964 the British Invasion had changed the tastes of the record-buying public, and Domino's chart run was over. | Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American pianist and singer-songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New Orleans to a French Creole family, Domino signed to Imperial Records in 1949. His first single "The Fat Man" is cited by some historians as the first rock and roll single and the first to sell more than 1 million copies. Domino continued to work with the song's co-writer Dave Bartholomew, contributing his distinctive rolling piano style to Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (1952) and scoring a string of mainstream hits beginning with "Ain't That a Shame" (1955). Between 1955 and 1960, he had eleven Top 10 US pop hits. By 1955, five of his records had sold more than a million copies, being certified gold.
Domino was shy and modest by nature but made a significant contribution to the rock and roll genre. Elvis Presley declared Domino a "huge influence on me when I started out" and described him as "the real king of rock 'n' roll". The artist himself did not define his work as rock and roll, saying of the genre "It wasn't anything but the same rhythm and blues I'd been playing down in New Orleans". Four of Domino's records were named to the Grammy Hall of Fame for their significance: "Blueberry Hill", "Ain't That A Shame", "Walking to New Orleans" and "The Fat Man". He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. The Associated Press estimates that during his career, Domino "sold more than 110 million records".
Biography
Early life and education
Antoine Domino Jr. was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, the youngest of eight children born to Antoine Caliste Domino (1879–1964) and Marie-Donatille Gros (1886–1971). The Domino family was of French Creole background, and Louisiana Creole was his first language. Like most such families, the Dominos were Catholic.
Antoine was born at home with the assistance of his grandmother, a midwife. His name was initially misspelled as Anthony on his birth certificate. His family had recently arrived in the Lower Ninth Ward from Vacherie, Louisiana. His father was a part-time violin player who worked at a racetrack.
He attended the Louis B. Macarty School, leaving to start work as a helper to an ice delivery man. Domino learned to play the piano in about 1938 from his brother-in-law, the jazz guitarist Harrison Verrett.
Early career (1940s)
By age 14, Domino was performing in New Orleans bars. In 1947, Billy Diamond, a New Orleans bandleader, accepted an invitation to hear the young pianist perform at a backyard barbecue. Domino played well enough that Diamond asked him to join his band, the Solid Senders, at the Hideaway Club in New Orleans, where he would earn $3 a week playing the piano. Diamond nicknamed him "Fats", because Domino reminded him of the renowned pianists Fats Waller and Fats Pichon, but also because of his large appetite.
Recordings for Imperial Records (1949–1962)
Domino was signed to the Imperial Records label in 1949 by owner Lew Chudd, to be paid royalties based on sales instead of a fee for each song. He and producer Dave Bartholomew wrote "The Fat Man", a toned down version of a song about drug addicts called "Junker Blues"; the record had sold a million copies by 1951. Featuring a rolling piano and Domino vocalizing "wah-wah" over a strong backbeat, "The Fat Man" is widely considered the first rock-and-roll record to achieve this level of sales. In 2015, the song would enter the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Domino released a series of hit songs with Bartholomew (also the co-writer of many of the songs), the saxophonists Herbert Hardesty and Alvin "Red" Tyler, the bassist Billy Diamond and later Frank Fields, and the drummers Earl Palmer and Smokey Johnson. Other notable and long-standing musicians in Domino's band were the saxophonists Reggie Houston, Lee Allen, and Fred Kemp, Domino's trusted bandleader.
While Domino's own recordings were done for Imperial, he sometimes sat in during that time as a session musician on recordings by other artists for other record labels. Domino's rolling piano triplets provided the memorable instrumental introduction for Lloyd Price's first hit, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", recorded for Specialty Records on March 13, 1952, at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios in New Orleans (where Domino himself had earlier recorded "The Fat Man" and other songs). Dave Bartholomew was producing Price's record, which also featured familiar Domino collaborators Hardesty, Fields and Palmer as sidemen, and he asked Domino to play the piano part, replacing the original session pianist.
Domino crossed into the pop mainstream with "Ain't That a Shame" (mislabeled as "Ain't It a Shame") which reached the Top Ten. This was the first of his records to appear on the Billboard pop singles chart (on July 16, 1955), with the debut at number 14. A milder cover version by Pat Boone reached number 1, having received wider radio airplay in an era of racial segregation. In 1955, Domino was said to be earning $10,000 a week while touring, according to a report in the memoir of artist Chuck Berry. Domino eventually had 37 Top 40 singles, but none made it to number 1 on the Pop chart.
Domino's debut album contained several of his recent hits and earlier blues tracks that had not been released as singles, and was issued on the Imperial label (catalogue number 9009) in November 1955, and was reissued as Rock and Rollin' with Fats Domino. The reissue reached number 17 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart.
His 1956 recording of "Blueberry Hill", a 1940 song by Vincent Rose, Al Lewis and Larry Stock (which had previously been recorded by Gene Autry, Louis Armstrong and others), reached number 2 on the Billboard Juke Box chart for two weeks and was number 1 on the R&B chart for 11 weeks. It was his biggest hit, selling more than 5 million copies worldwide in 1956 and 1957. The song was subsequently recorded by Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Led Zeppelin. Some 32 years later, the song would enter the
Grammy Hall of Fame.
Domino had further hit singles between 1956 and 1959, including "When My Dreamboat Comes Home" (Pop number 14), "I'm Walkin'" (Pop number 4), "Valley of Tears" (Pop number 8), "It's You I Love" (Pop number 6), "Whole Lotta Lovin'" (Pop number 6), "I Want to Walk You Home" (Pop number 8), and "Be My Guest" (Pop number 8). In 1957, Domino maintained "What they call rock 'n' roll now is rhythm and blues. I've been playing it for 15 years in New Orleans".
Domino appeared in two films released in 1956: Shake, Rattle & Rock! and The Girl Can't Help It. On December 18, 1957, his hit recording of "The Big Beat" was featured on Dick Clark's American Bandstand.
He was also featured in a movie of the same name.
On November 2, 1956, a riot broke out at a Domino concert in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The police used tear gas to break up the unruly crowd. Domino jumped out a window to avoid the melee; he and two members of his band were slightly injured. During his career, four major riots occurred at his concerts, "partly because of integration", according to his biographer Rick Coleman. "But also the fact they had alcohol at these shows. So they were mixing alcohol, plus dancing, plus the races together for the first time in a lot of these places." In November 1957, Domino appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show; no disturbance accompanied this performance.
In the same year, the article "King of Rock 'n' Roll" in Ebony magazine featured Domino who said he was on the road 340 days a year, up to $2,500 per evening, and grossing over $500,000; Domino also told readers that he owned 50 suits, 100 pairs of shoes and a $1,500 diamond horseshoe stick pin.
Domino had a steady series of hits for Imperial through early 1962, including "Walking to New Orleans" (1960, Pop number 6), co-written by Bobby Charles, and "My Girl Josephine" (Pop number 14) in the same year. He toured Europe in 1962 and met the Beatles who would later cite Domino as an inspiration. After returning, he played the first of his many stands in Las Vegas.
Imperial Records was sold in early 1963, and Domino left the label. "I stuck with them until they sold out," he said in 1979. In all, he recorded over 60 singles for Imperial, placing 40 songs in the top 10 on the R&B chart and 11 in the top 10 on the Pop chart, twenty-seven of which were double-sided hits.
Recordings after leaving Imperial (1963–1970s)
Domino moved to ABC-Paramount Records in 1963. The label dictated that he record in Nashville, Tennessee, rather than New Orleans. He was assigned a new producer (Felton Jarvis) and a new arranger (Bill Justis). Domino's long-term collaboration with the producer, arranger, and frequent co-writer Dave Bartholomew, who oversaw virtually all of his Imperial hits, was seemingly at an end. Jarvis and Justis changed the Domino sound somewhat, notably by adding the backing of a countrypolitan-style vocal chorus to most of his new recordings. He released 11 singles for ABC-Paramount, several which hit the Top 100 but just once entering the Top 40 ("Red Sails in the Sunset", 1963). By the end of 1964 the British Invasion had changed the tastes of the record-buying public, and Domino's chart run was over.
Despite the lack of chart success, Domino continued to record steadily until about 1970, leaving ABC-Paramount in mid-1965 and recording for Mercury Records, where he delivered a live album and two singles. A studio album was planned but stalled with just four tracks recorded. Dave Bartholomew's small Broadmoor label (reuniting with Bartholomew along the way), featured many contemporary Soul infused sides and a few single releases but an album was not released overseas until 1971 to fulfill his Reprise Records contract. He shifted to that label after Broadmoor and had a Top 100 single, a cover of the Beatles' "Lady Madonna".
Domino appeared in the Monkees' television special 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee in 1969. In 1971, he opened for Ike & Tina Turner at Carnegie Hall. He continued to be popular as a performer for several decades. He made a cameo appearance in Clint Eastwood's movie Any Which Way You Can, filmed in 1979 and released in 1980, singing the country song "Whiskey Heaven", which later became a minor hit. His life and career were showcased in Joe Lauro's 2015 documentary The Big Beat: Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll.
Later career (1980s–2005)
In 1986, Domino was one of the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He also received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. Domino's last album for a major label, Christmas Is a Special Day, was released in 1993.
Domino lived in a mansion in a predominantly working-class neighborhood in the Lower Ninth Ward, where he was a familiar sight in his bright pink Cadillac automobile. He made yearly appearances at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and other local events.
His last tour was in Europe, for three weeks in 1995. After being ill while on tour, Domino decided he would no longer leave the New Orleans area, having a comfortable income from royalty payments and a dislike of touring and claiming he could not get any food that he liked anywhere else. In the same year, he received the Rhythm & Blues Foundation's Ray Charles Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 1998, President Bill Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Arts. Domino declined an invitation to perform at the White House.
In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 25 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in an essay written by Dr. John.
Domino and Hurricane Katrina
As Hurricane Katrina approached New Orleans in August 2005, Domino chose to stay at home with his family, partly because his wife, Rosemary, was in poor health. His house was in an area that was heavily flooded.
Domino was rumored to have died, and his home was vandalized when someone spray-painted the message "RIP Fats. You will be missed". On September 1, the talent agent Al Embry announced that he had not heard from Domino since before the hurricane struck. Later that day, CNN reported that Domino had been rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter. Until then, even family members had not heard from him since before the storm. Embry confirmed that Domino and his family had been rescued. The family was then taken to a shelter in Baton Rouge, after which they were picked up by JaMarcus Russell, the starting quarterback of the Louisiana State University football team, and the boyfriend of Domino's granddaughter. He let the family stay in his apartment. The Washington Post reported that on September 2, they had left Russell's apartment after sleeping three nights on the couch. "We've lost everything," Domino said, according to the Post.
By January 2006, work to gut and repair Domino's home and office had begun (see Reconstruction of New Orleans). In the meantime, the Domino family resided in Harvey, Louisiana.
President George W. Bush made a personal visit and replaced the National Medal of Arts that President Bill Clinton had previously awarded Domino. The gold records were replaced by the RIAA and Capitol Records, which owned the Imperial Records catalogue.
Later life
Domino was scheduled to perform at the 2006 Jazz & Heritage Festival in New Orleans. However, he was suffering from anxiety and was forced to cancel the performance, but he did appear to offer the audience an on-stage greeting.
In 2006 Domino's album Alive and Kickin' was released to benefit the Tipitina's Foundation, which supports indigent local musicians and helps preserve the New Orleans sound. The album consists of unreleased recordings from the 1990s and received great critical acclaim.
On January 12, 2007, Domino was honored with OffBeat magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Best of the Beat Awards, held at the House of Blues in New Orleans. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared the day "Fats Domino Day in New Orleans" and presented him with a signed declaration. Domino returned to stage on May 19, 2007, at Tipitina's at New Orleans, performing to a full house. This was his last public performance. The concert was recorded for a 2008 TV presentation entitled Fats Domino: Walkin' Back to New Orleans. This was a fund-raising concert, featuring a number of artists. Domino donated his fee to the cause. Later that year, a Vanguard record was released, Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino featuring his songs as recorded by Elton John, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Robert Plant, Willie Nelson, Norah Jones, Lenny Kravitz, and Lucinda Williams. A portion of the proceeds was to be used by the Foundation to help restore Domino's publishing office which had been damaged by the hurricane.
In September 2007, Domino was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
In May 2009, Domino made an unexpected appearance in the audience for the Domino Effect, a concert featuring Little Richard and other artists, aimed at raising funds to help rebuild schools and playgrounds damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
In October 2012, Domino was featured in season three of the television series Treme, playing himself. On August 21, 2016, Domino was inducted into the National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame. The ceremony was held in Detroit, Michigan. The other inductees were Dionne Warwick, Cathy Hughes, Smokey Robinson, Prince, and the Supremes. He had received the Rhythm & Blues Foundation's Ray Charles Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. His song "The Fat Man" entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2015.
Death
Domino died on October 24, 2017, at his home in Harvey, Louisiana, at the age of 89, from natural causes, according to the coroner's office.
Influence and legacy
Domino was one of the biggest stars of rock and roll in the 1950s, but he was not convinced that this was a new genre. In 1957, Domino said: "What they call rock 'n' roll now is rhythm and blues. I've been playing it for 15 years in New Orleans". According to Rolling Stone, "this is a valid statement ... all Fifties rockers, black and white, country born and city bred, were fundamentally influenced by R&B, the black popular music of the late Forties and early Fifties".
He was among the first R&B artists to gain popularity with white audiences. His biographer Rick Coleman argues that Domino's records and tours with rock-and-roll shows in that decade, bringing together black and white youths in a shared appreciation of his music, was a factor in the breakdown of racial segregation in the United States. The artist himself did not define his work as rock and roll, saying, "It wasn't anything but the same rhythm and blues I'd been playin' down in New Orleans."
Both John Lennon and Paul McCartney recorded Domino songs. According to some reports, McCartney wrote the Beatles song "Lady Madonna" in emulation of Domino's style, combining it with a nod to Humphrey Lyttelton's 1956 hit "Bad Penny Blues". Domino also recorded the song in 1968. Domino returned to the "Hot 100" chart for the last time in 1968, with his recording of "Lady Madonna". That recording, as well as covers of two other songs by the Beatles, appeared on his Reprise album Fats Is Back, produced by Richard Perry and with several hits recorded by a band that included the New Orleans pianist James Booker.
Domino was present in the audience of 2,200 people at Elvis Presley's first concert at the Las Vegas Hilton on July 31, 1969. At a press conference after the show, when a journalist referred to Presley as "The King", Presley gestured toward Domino, who was taking in the scene. "No," Presley said, "that's the real king of rock and roll." Presley made a subsequent comment, "rock 'n' roll was here a long time before I came along. Let's face it: I can't sing like Fats Domino can. I know that" and added that Domino was "a huge influence on me when I started out".
About a photograph made of him and Elvis together, Domino said: "Elvis told me he flopped the first time he came to Las Vegas. I loved his music. He could sing anything ... I'm glad we took this picture." (Fats Domino (2002). "Music Pioneer Fats Domino Talks About Elvis." Retrieved from "USA Today." December 10, 2002.)
Domino received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987.
John Lennon covered Domino's composition "Ain't That a Shame" on his 1975 album "Rock 'n' Roll," his tribute to the musicians who had influenced him.
American band Cheap Trick recorded "Ain't That a Shame" on their 1978 live album Cheap Trick at Budokan and released it as the second single from the album. It reached 35 of the Billboard Hot 100. Reportedly, this was Domino's favorite cover. It remains a staple of their live performances, including at their 25th Anniversary concert (which was recorded as the album and DVD Silver) and at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.
The Jamaican reggae artist Yellowman covered many songs by Domino, including "Be My Guest" and "Blueberry Hill."
Jah Wobble, a post-punk bassist best known for his work with Johnny Rotten, released a solo recording of "Blueberry Hill".
The Jamaican ska band Justin Hinds and the Dominoes, formed in the 1960s, was named after Domino, Hinds's favorite singer.
In 2007, various artists came together for a tribute to Domino, recording a live session containing only his songs. Musicians performing on the album, Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino, included Paul McCartney, Norah Jones, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and Elton John.
According to Richie Unterberger, writing for AllMusic, Domino was one of the most consistent artists of early rock music, the best-selling African-American rock-and-roll star of the 1950s, and the most popular singer of the "classic" New Orleans rhythm and blues style. His million-selling debut single, "The Fat Man" (1949), is one of many that have been cited as the first rock and roll record. Robert Christgau wrote that Domino was "the most widely liked rock and roller of the '50s" and remarked on his influence:
Domino's rhythm, accentuating the offbeat, as in the song "Be My Guest", was an influence on ska music.
Personal life
Domino was married to Rosemary Domino ( Hall) from 1947 until her death in 2008; the couple had eight children: Antoine III (1950-2015), Anatole, Andre (1952-1997), Antonio, Antoinette, Andrea, Anola, and Adonica.
Even after his success he continued to live in his old neighborhood, the Lower Ninth Ward, until after Hurricane Katrina, when he moved to a suburb of New Orleans.
Discography
Fats Domino discography
List of songs recorded by Fats Domino
Studio albums
References
External links
Fats Domino at history-of-rock.com
Fats Domino: Walking to New Orleans special
1928 births
2017 deaths
African-American pianists
African-American rock musicians
American baritones
American blues pianists
American male pianists
American rock pianists
American rhythm and blues singers
American rock singers
Boogie-woogie pianists
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Imperial Records artists
Louisiana Creole people
Rhythm and blues musicians from New Orleans
Rock and roll musicians
Songwriters from Louisiana
Stride pianists
United States National Medal of Arts recipients
Singers from Louisiana
People from Harvey, Louisiana
ABC Records artists
London Records artists
Mercury Records artists
Reprise Records artists
Warner Records artists
Male jazz musicians
African-American male singer-songwriters
African-American Catholics
20th-century African-American male singers
Singer-songwriters from Louisiana | true | [
"Don Juan Manuel's Tales of Count Lucanor, in Spanish Libro de los ejemplos del conde Lucanor y de Patronio (Book of the Examples of Count Lucanor and of Patronio), also commonly known as El Conde Lucanor, Libro de Patronio, or Libro de los ejemplos (original Old Castilian: Libro de los enxiemplos del Conde Lucanor et de Patronio), is one of the earliest works of prose in Castilian Spanish. It was first written in 1335.\n\nThe book is divided into four parts. The first and most well-known part is a series of 51 short stories (some no more than a page or two) drawn from various sources, such as Aesop and other classical writers, and Arabic folktales.\n\nTales of Count Lucanor was first printed in 1575 when it was published at Seville under the auspices of Argote de Molina. It was again printed at Madrid in 1642, after which it lay forgotten for nearly two centuries.\n\nPurpose and structure\n\nA didactic, moralistic purpose, which would color so much of the Spanish literature to follow (see Novela picaresca), is the mark of this book. Count Lucanor engages in conversation with his advisor Patronio, putting to him a problem (\"Some man has made me a proposition...\" or \"I fear that such and such person intends to...\") and asking for advice. Patronio responds always with the greatest humility, claiming not to wish to offer advice to so illustrious a person as the Count, but offering to tell him a story of which the Count's problem reminds him. (Thus, the stories are \"examples\" [ejemplos] of wise action.) At the end he advises the Count to do as the protagonist of his story did.\n\nEach chapter ends in more or less the same way, with slight variations on: \"And this pleased the Count greatly and he did just so, and found it well. And Don Johán (Juan) saw that this example was very good, and had it written in this book, and composed the following verses.\" A rhymed couplet closes, giving the moral of the story.\n\nOrigin of stories and influence on later literature\nMany of the stories written in the book are the first examples written in a modern European language of various stories, which many other writers would use in the proceeding centuries. Many of the stories he included were themselves derived from other stories, coming from western and Arab sources.\n\nShakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew has the basic elements of Tale 35, \"What Happened to a Young Man Who Married a Strong and Ill-tempered Woman\".\n\nTale 32, \"What Happened to the King and the Tricksters Who Made Cloth\" tells the story that Hans Christian Andersen made popular as The Emperor's New Clothes.\n\nStory 7, \"What Happened to a Woman Named Truhana\", a version of Aesop's The Milkmaid and Her Pail, was claimed by Max Müller to originate in the Hindu cycle Panchatantra.\n\nTale 2, \"What happened to a good Man and his Son, leading a beast to market,\" is the familiar fable The miller, his son and the donkey.\n\nIn 2016, Baroque Decay released a game under the name \"The Count Lucanor\". As well as some protagonists' names, certain events from the books inspired past events in the game.\n\nThe stories\n\nThe book opens with a prologue which introduces the characters of the Count and Patronio. The titles in the following list are those given in Keller and Keating's 1977 translation into English. James York's 1868 translation into English gives a significantly different ordering of the stories and omits the fifty-first.\n\n What Happened to a King and His Favorite \n What Happened to a Good Man and His Son \n How King Richard of England Leapt into the Sea against the Moors\n What a Genoese Said to His Soul When He Was about to Die \n What Happened to a Fox and a Crow Who Had a Piece of Cheese in His Beak\n How the Swallow Warned the Other Birds When She Saw Flax Being Sown \n What Happened to a Woman Named Truhana \n What Happened to a Man Whose Liver Had to Be Washed \n What Happened to Two Horses Which Were Thrown to the Lion \n What Happened to a Man Who on Account of Poverty and Lack of Other Food Was Eating Bitter Lentils \n What Happened to a Dean of Santiago de Compostela and Don Yllán, the Grand Master of Toledo\n What Happened to the Fox and the Rooster \n What Happened to a Man Who Was Hunting Partridges \n The Miracle of Saint Dominick When He Preached against the Usurer \n What Happened to Lorenzo Suárez at the Siege of Seville \n The Reply that count Fernán González Gave to His Relative Núño Laynes \n What Happened to a Very Hungry Man Who Was Half-heartedly Invited to Dinner \n What Happened to Pero Meléndez de Valdés When He Broke His Leg \n What Happened to the Crows and the Owls \n What Happened to a King for Whom a Man Promised to Perform Alchemy \n What Happened to a Young King and a Philosopher to Whom his Father Commended Him \n What Happened to the Lion and the Bull \n How the Ants Provide for Themselves \n What Happened to the King Who Wanted to Test His Three Sons \n What Happened to the Count of Provence and How He Was Freed from Prison by the Advice of Saladin\n What Happened to the Tree of Lies \n What Happened to an Emperor and to Don Alvarfáñez Minaya and Their Wives \n What Happened in Granada to Don Lorenzo Suárez Gallinato When He Beheaded the Renegade Chaplain \n What Happened to a Fox Who Lay down in the Street to Play Dead \n What Happened to King Abenabet of Seville and Ramayquía His Wife \n How a Cardinal Judged between the Canons of Paris and the Friars Minor \n What Happened to the King and the Tricksters Who Made Cloth \n What Happened to Don Juan Manuel's Saker Falcon and an Eagle and a Heron \n What Happened to a Blind Man Who Was Leading Another \n What Happened to a Young Man Who Married a Strong and Ill-tempered Woman\n What Happened to a Merchant When He Found His Son and His Wife Sleeping Together \n What Happened to Count Fernán González with His Men after He Had Won the Battle of Hacinas \n What Happened to a Man Who Was Loaded down with Precious Stones and Drowned in the River \n What Happened to a Man and a Swallow and a Sparrow \n Why the Seneschal of Carcassonne Lost His Soul \n What Happened to a King of Córdova Named Al-Haquem \n What Happened to a Woman of Sham Piety \n What Happened to Good and Evil and the Wise Man and the Madman \n What Happened to Don Pero Núñez the Loyal, to Don Ruy González de Zavallos, and to Don Gutier Roiz de Blaguiello with Don Rodrigo the Generous \n What Happened to a Man Who Became the Devil's Friend and Vassal \n What Happened to a Philosopher who by Accident Went down a Street Where Prostitutes Lived \n What Befell a Moor and His Sister Who Pretended That She Was Timid \n What Happened to a Man Who Tested His Friends \n What Happened to the Man Whom They Cast out Naked on an Island When They Took away from Him the Kingdom He Ruled \n What Happened to Saladin and a Lady, the Wife of a Knight Who Was His Vassal \n What Happened to a Christian King Who Was Very Powerful and Haughty\n\nReferences\n\nNotes\n\nBibliography\n\n Sturm, Harlan\n\n Wacks, David\n\nExternal links\n\nThe Internet Archive provides free access to the 1868 translation by James York.\nJSTOR has the to the 1977 translation by Keller and Keating.\nSelections in English and Spanish (pedagogical edition) with introduction, notes, and bibliography in Open Iberia/América (open access teaching anthology)\n\n14th-century books\nSpanish literature\n1335 books",
"What Happened to Jones may refer to:\n What Happened to Jones (1897 play), a play by George Broadhurst\n What Happened to Jones (1915 film), a lost silent film\n What Happened to Jones (1920 film), a lost silent film\n What Happened to Jones (1926 film), a silent film comedy"
]
|
[
"Fats Domino",
"Recordings after leaving Imperial (1963-1970s)",
"What did Fats Domino do after leaving Imperial?",
"Domino moved to ABC-Paramount Records in 1963.",
"What recordings did he do?",
"He released 11 singles for ABC-Paramount,",
"What else did he do?",
"Jarvis and Justis changed the Domino sound somewhat,",
"What happened after that?",
"). By the end of 1964 the British Invasion had changed the tastes of the record-buying public, and Domino's chart run was over."
]
| C_3f0b793857fc4c92b275df034570128d_1 | What did he do in the 70s? | 5 | What did Fats Domino do in the 70s? | Fats Domino | Domino moved to ABC-Paramount Records in 1963. The label dictated that he record in Nashville, Tennessee, rather than New Orleans. He was assigned a new producer (Felton Jarvis) and a new arranger (Bill Justis). Domino's long-term collaboration with the producer, arranger, and frequent co-writer Dave Bartholomew, who oversaw virtually all of his Imperial hits, was seemingly at an end. Jarvis and Justis changed the Domino sound somewhat, notably by adding the backing of a countrypolitan-style vocal chorus to most of his new recordings. He released 11 singles for ABC-Paramount, several which hit the Top 100 but just once entering the Top 40 ("Red Sails in the Sunset", 1963). By the end of 1964 the British Invasion had changed the tastes of the record-buying public, and Domino's chart run was over. Despite the lack of chart success, Domino continued to record steadily until about 1970, leaving ABC-Paramount in mid-1965 and recording for Mercury Records, where he delivered a live album and two singles. A studio album was planned but stalled with just four tracks recorded . Dave Bartholomew's small Broadmoor label (reuniting with Bartholomew along the way), featured many contemporary Soul infused sides but an album was released overseas in 1971 to fulfill his Reprise Records contract. He shifted to that label after Broadmoor and had a Top 100 single, a cover of the Beatles' "Lady Madonna". Domino appeared in the Monkees' television special 33 1/3 Revolutions per Monkee in 1969. He continued to be popular as a performer for several decades. He made a cameo appearance in Clint Eastwood's movie Any Which Way You Can, filmed in 1979 and released in 1980 singing the country song "Whiskey Heaven" which later became a minor hit. His life and career were showcased in Joe Lauro's 2015 documentary The Big Beat: Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll. CANNOTANSWER | Domino continued to record steadily until about 1970, | Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American pianist and singer-songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New Orleans to a French Creole family, Domino signed to Imperial Records in 1949. His first single "The Fat Man" is cited by some historians as the first rock and roll single and the first to sell more than 1 million copies. Domino continued to work with the song's co-writer Dave Bartholomew, contributing his distinctive rolling piano style to Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (1952) and scoring a string of mainstream hits beginning with "Ain't That a Shame" (1955). Between 1955 and 1960, he had eleven Top 10 US pop hits. By 1955, five of his records had sold more than a million copies, being certified gold.
Domino was shy and modest by nature but made a significant contribution to the rock and roll genre. Elvis Presley declared Domino a "huge influence on me when I started out" and described him as "the real king of rock 'n' roll". The artist himself did not define his work as rock and roll, saying of the genre "It wasn't anything but the same rhythm and blues I'd been playing down in New Orleans". Four of Domino's records were named to the Grammy Hall of Fame for their significance: "Blueberry Hill", "Ain't That A Shame", "Walking to New Orleans" and "The Fat Man". He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. The Associated Press estimates that during his career, Domino "sold more than 110 million records".
Biography
Early life and education
Antoine Domino Jr. was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, the youngest of eight children born to Antoine Caliste Domino (1879–1964) and Marie-Donatille Gros (1886–1971). The Domino family was of French Creole background, and Louisiana Creole was his first language. Like most such families, the Dominos were Catholic.
Antoine was born at home with the assistance of his grandmother, a midwife. His name was initially misspelled as Anthony on his birth certificate. His family had recently arrived in the Lower Ninth Ward from Vacherie, Louisiana. His father was a part-time violin player who worked at a racetrack.
He attended the Louis B. Macarty School, leaving to start work as a helper to an ice delivery man. Domino learned to play the piano in about 1938 from his brother-in-law, the jazz guitarist Harrison Verrett.
Early career (1940s)
By age 14, Domino was performing in New Orleans bars. In 1947, Billy Diamond, a New Orleans bandleader, accepted an invitation to hear the young pianist perform at a backyard barbecue. Domino played well enough that Diamond asked him to join his band, the Solid Senders, at the Hideaway Club in New Orleans, where he would earn $3 a week playing the piano. Diamond nicknamed him "Fats", because Domino reminded him of the renowned pianists Fats Waller and Fats Pichon, but also because of his large appetite.
Recordings for Imperial Records (1949–1962)
Domino was signed to the Imperial Records label in 1949 by owner Lew Chudd, to be paid royalties based on sales instead of a fee for each song. He and producer Dave Bartholomew wrote "The Fat Man", a toned down version of a song about drug addicts called "Junker Blues"; the record had sold a million copies by 1951. Featuring a rolling piano and Domino vocalizing "wah-wah" over a strong backbeat, "The Fat Man" is widely considered the first rock-and-roll record to achieve this level of sales. In 2015, the song would enter the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Domino released a series of hit songs with Bartholomew (also the co-writer of many of the songs), the saxophonists Herbert Hardesty and Alvin "Red" Tyler, the bassist Billy Diamond and later Frank Fields, and the drummers Earl Palmer and Smokey Johnson. Other notable and long-standing musicians in Domino's band were the saxophonists Reggie Houston, Lee Allen, and Fred Kemp, Domino's trusted bandleader.
While Domino's own recordings were done for Imperial, he sometimes sat in during that time as a session musician on recordings by other artists for other record labels. Domino's rolling piano triplets provided the memorable instrumental introduction for Lloyd Price's first hit, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", recorded for Specialty Records on March 13, 1952, at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios in New Orleans (where Domino himself had earlier recorded "The Fat Man" and other songs). Dave Bartholomew was producing Price's record, which also featured familiar Domino collaborators Hardesty, Fields and Palmer as sidemen, and he asked Domino to play the piano part, replacing the original session pianist.
Domino crossed into the pop mainstream with "Ain't That a Shame" (mislabeled as "Ain't It a Shame") which reached the Top Ten. This was the first of his records to appear on the Billboard pop singles chart (on July 16, 1955), with the debut at number 14. A milder cover version by Pat Boone reached number 1, having received wider radio airplay in an era of racial segregation. In 1955, Domino was said to be earning $10,000 a week while touring, according to a report in the memoir of artist Chuck Berry. Domino eventually had 37 Top 40 singles, but none made it to number 1 on the Pop chart.
Domino's debut album contained several of his recent hits and earlier blues tracks that had not been released as singles, and was issued on the Imperial label (catalogue number 9009) in November 1955, and was reissued as Rock and Rollin' with Fats Domino. The reissue reached number 17 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart.
His 1956 recording of "Blueberry Hill", a 1940 song by Vincent Rose, Al Lewis and Larry Stock (which had previously been recorded by Gene Autry, Louis Armstrong and others), reached number 2 on the Billboard Juke Box chart for two weeks and was number 1 on the R&B chart for 11 weeks. It was his biggest hit, selling more than 5 million copies worldwide in 1956 and 1957. The song was subsequently recorded by Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Led Zeppelin. Some 32 years later, the song would enter the
Grammy Hall of Fame.
Domino had further hit singles between 1956 and 1959, including "When My Dreamboat Comes Home" (Pop number 14), "I'm Walkin'" (Pop number 4), "Valley of Tears" (Pop number 8), "It's You I Love" (Pop number 6), "Whole Lotta Lovin'" (Pop number 6), "I Want to Walk You Home" (Pop number 8), and "Be My Guest" (Pop number 8). In 1957, Domino maintained "What they call rock 'n' roll now is rhythm and blues. I've been playing it for 15 years in New Orleans".
Domino appeared in two films released in 1956: Shake, Rattle & Rock! and The Girl Can't Help It. On December 18, 1957, his hit recording of "The Big Beat" was featured on Dick Clark's American Bandstand.
He was also featured in a movie of the same name.
On November 2, 1956, a riot broke out at a Domino concert in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The police used tear gas to break up the unruly crowd. Domino jumped out a window to avoid the melee; he and two members of his band were slightly injured. During his career, four major riots occurred at his concerts, "partly because of integration", according to his biographer Rick Coleman. "But also the fact they had alcohol at these shows. So they were mixing alcohol, plus dancing, plus the races together for the first time in a lot of these places." In November 1957, Domino appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show; no disturbance accompanied this performance.
In the same year, the article "King of Rock 'n' Roll" in Ebony magazine featured Domino who said he was on the road 340 days a year, up to $2,500 per evening, and grossing over $500,000; Domino also told readers that he owned 50 suits, 100 pairs of shoes and a $1,500 diamond horseshoe stick pin.
Domino had a steady series of hits for Imperial through early 1962, including "Walking to New Orleans" (1960, Pop number 6), co-written by Bobby Charles, and "My Girl Josephine" (Pop number 14) in the same year. He toured Europe in 1962 and met the Beatles who would later cite Domino as an inspiration. After returning, he played the first of his many stands in Las Vegas.
Imperial Records was sold in early 1963, and Domino left the label. "I stuck with them until they sold out," he said in 1979. In all, he recorded over 60 singles for Imperial, placing 40 songs in the top 10 on the R&B chart and 11 in the top 10 on the Pop chart, twenty-seven of which were double-sided hits.
Recordings after leaving Imperial (1963–1970s)
Domino moved to ABC-Paramount Records in 1963. The label dictated that he record in Nashville, Tennessee, rather than New Orleans. He was assigned a new producer (Felton Jarvis) and a new arranger (Bill Justis). Domino's long-term collaboration with the producer, arranger, and frequent co-writer Dave Bartholomew, who oversaw virtually all of his Imperial hits, was seemingly at an end. Jarvis and Justis changed the Domino sound somewhat, notably by adding the backing of a countrypolitan-style vocal chorus to most of his new recordings. He released 11 singles for ABC-Paramount, several which hit the Top 100 but just once entering the Top 40 ("Red Sails in the Sunset", 1963). By the end of 1964 the British Invasion had changed the tastes of the record-buying public, and Domino's chart run was over.
Despite the lack of chart success, Domino continued to record steadily until about 1970, leaving ABC-Paramount in mid-1965 and recording for Mercury Records, where he delivered a live album and two singles. A studio album was planned but stalled with just four tracks recorded. Dave Bartholomew's small Broadmoor label (reuniting with Bartholomew along the way), featured many contemporary Soul infused sides and a few single releases but an album was not released overseas until 1971 to fulfill his Reprise Records contract. He shifted to that label after Broadmoor and had a Top 100 single, a cover of the Beatles' "Lady Madonna".
Domino appeared in the Monkees' television special 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee in 1969. In 1971, he opened for Ike & Tina Turner at Carnegie Hall. He continued to be popular as a performer for several decades. He made a cameo appearance in Clint Eastwood's movie Any Which Way You Can, filmed in 1979 and released in 1980, singing the country song "Whiskey Heaven", which later became a minor hit. His life and career were showcased in Joe Lauro's 2015 documentary The Big Beat: Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll.
Later career (1980s–2005)
In 1986, Domino was one of the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He also received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. Domino's last album for a major label, Christmas Is a Special Day, was released in 1993.
Domino lived in a mansion in a predominantly working-class neighborhood in the Lower Ninth Ward, where he was a familiar sight in his bright pink Cadillac automobile. He made yearly appearances at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and other local events.
His last tour was in Europe, for three weeks in 1995. After being ill while on tour, Domino decided he would no longer leave the New Orleans area, having a comfortable income from royalty payments and a dislike of touring and claiming he could not get any food that he liked anywhere else. In the same year, he received the Rhythm & Blues Foundation's Ray Charles Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 1998, President Bill Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Arts. Domino declined an invitation to perform at the White House.
In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 25 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in an essay written by Dr. John.
Domino and Hurricane Katrina
As Hurricane Katrina approached New Orleans in August 2005, Domino chose to stay at home with his family, partly because his wife, Rosemary, was in poor health. His house was in an area that was heavily flooded.
Domino was rumored to have died, and his home was vandalized when someone spray-painted the message "RIP Fats. You will be missed". On September 1, the talent agent Al Embry announced that he had not heard from Domino since before the hurricane struck. Later that day, CNN reported that Domino had been rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter. Until then, even family members had not heard from him since before the storm. Embry confirmed that Domino and his family had been rescued. The family was then taken to a shelter in Baton Rouge, after which they were picked up by JaMarcus Russell, the starting quarterback of the Louisiana State University football team, and the boyfriend of Domino's granddaughter. He let the family stay in his apartment. The Washington Post reported that on September 2, they had left Russell's apartment after sleeping three nights on the couch. "We've lost everything," Domino said, according to the Post.
By January 2006, work to gut and repair Domino's home and office had begun (see Reconstruction of New Orleans). In the meantime, the Domino family resided in Harvey, Louisiana.
President George W. Bush made a personal visit and replaced the National Medal of Arts that President Bill Clinton had previously awarded Domino. The gold records were replaced by the RIAA and Capitol Records, which owned the Imperial Records catalogue.
Later life
Domino was scheduled to perform at the 2006 Jazz & Heritage Festival in New Orleans. However, he was suffering from anxiety and was forced to cancel the performance, but he did appear to offer the audience an on-stage greeting.
In 2006 Domino's album Alive and Kickin' was released to benefit the Tipitina's Foundation, which supports indigent local musicians and helps preserve the New Orleans sound. The album consists of unreleased recordings from the 1990s and received great critical acclaim.
On January 12, 2007, Domino was honored with OffBeat magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Best of the Beat Awards, held at the House of Blues in New Orleans. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared the day "Fats Domino Day in New Orleans" and presented him with a signed declaration. Domino returned to stage on May 19, 2007, at Tipitina's at New Orleans, performing to a full house. This was his last public performance. The concert was recorded for a 2008 TV presentation entitled Fats Domino: Walkin' Back to New Orleans. This was a fund-raising concert, featuring a number of artists. Domino donated his fee to the cause. Later that year, a Vanguard record was released, Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino featuring his songs as recorded by Elton John, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Robert Plant, Willie Nelson, Norah Jones, Lenny Kravitz, and Lucinda Williams. A portion of the proceeds was to be used by the Foundation to help restore Domino's publishing office which had been damaged by the hurricane.
In September 2007, Domino was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
In May 2009, Domino made an unexpected appearance in the audience for the Domino Effect, a concert featuring Little Richard and other artists, aimed at raising funds to help rebuild schools and playgrounds damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
In October 2012, Domino was featured in season three of the television series Treme, playing himself. On August 21, 2016, Domino was inducted into the National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame. The ceremony was held in Detroit, Michigan. The other inductees were Dionne Warwick, Cathy Hughes, Smokey Robinson, Prince, and the Supremes. He had received the Rhythm & Blues Foundation's Ray Charles Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. His song "The Fat Man" entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2015.
Death
Domino died on October 24, 2017, at his home in Harvey, Louisiana, at the age of 89, from natural causes, according to the coroner's office.
Influence and legacy
Domino was one of the biggest stars of rock and roll in the 1950s, but he was not convinced that this was a new genre. In 1957, Domino said: "What they call rock 'n' roll now is rhythm and blues. I've been playing it for 15 years in New Orleans". According to Rolling Stone, "this is a valid statement ... all Fifties rockers, black and white, country born and city bred, were fundamentally influenced by R&B, the black popular music of the late Forties and early Fifties".
He was among the first R&B artists to gain popularity with white audiences. His biographer Rick Coleman argues that Domino's records and tours with rock-and-roll shows in that decade, bringing together black and white youths in a shared appreciation of his music, was a factor in the breakdown of racial segregation in the United States. The artist himself did not define his work as rock and roll, saying, "It wasn't anything but the same rhythm and blues I'd been playin' down in New Orleans."
Both John Lennon and Paul McCartney recorded Domino songs. According to some reports, McCartney wrote the Beatles song "Lady Madonna" in emulation of Domino's style, combining it with a nod to Humphrey Lyttelton's 1956 hit "Bad Penny Blues". Domino also recorded the song in 1968. Domino returned to the "Hot 100" chart for the last time in 1968, with his recording of "Lady Madonna". That recording, as well as covers of two other songs by the Beatles, appeared on his Reprise album Fats Is Back, produced by Richard Perry and with several hits recorded by a band that included the New Orleans pianist James Booker.
Domino was present in the audience of 2,200 people at Elvis Presley's first concert at the Las Vegas Hilton on July 31, 1969. At a press conference after the show, when a journalist referred to Presley as "The King", Presley gestured toward Domino, who was taking in the scene. "No," Presley said, "that's the real king of rock and roll." Presley made a subsequent comment, "rock 'n' roll was here a long time before I came along. Let's face it: I can't sing like Fats Domino can. I know that" and added that Domino was "a huge influence on me when I started out".
About a photograph made of him and Elvis together, Domino said: "Elvis told me he flopped the first time he came to Las Vegas. I loved his music. He could sing anything ... I'm glad we took this picture." (Fats Domino (2002). "Music Pioneer Fats Domino Talks About Elvis." Retrieved from "USA Today." December 10, 2002.)
Domino received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987.
John Lennon covered Domino's composition "Ain't That a Shame" on his 1975 album "Rock 'n' Roll," his tribute to the musicians who had influenced him.
American band Cheap Trick recorded "Ain't That a Shame" on their 1978 live album Cheap Trick at Budokan and released it as the second single from the album. It reached 35 of the Billboard Hot 100. Reportedly, this was Domino's favorite cover. It remains a staple of their live performances, including at their 25th Anniversary concert (which was recorded as the album and DVD Silver) and at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.
The Jamaican reggae artist Yellowman covered many songs by Domino, including "Be My Guest" and "Blueberry Hill."
Jah Wobble, a post-punk bassist best known for his work with Johnny Rotten, released a solo recording of "Blueberry Hill".
The Jamaican ska band Justin Hinds and the Dominoes, formed in the 1960s, was named after Domino, Hinds's favorite singer.
In 2007, various artists came together for a tribute to Domino, recording a live session containing only his songs. Musicians performing on the album, Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino, included Paul McCartney, Norah Jones, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and Elton John.
According to Richie Unterberger, writing for AllMusic, Domino was one of the most consistent artists of early rock music, the best-selling African-American rock-and-roll star of the 1950s, and the most popular singer of the "classic" New Orleans rhythm and blues style. His million-selling debut single, "The Fat Man" (1949), is one of many that have been cited as the first rock and roll record. Robert Christgau wrote that Domino was "the most widely liked rock and roller of the '50s" and remarked on his influence:
Domino's rhythm, accentuating the offbeat, as in the song "Be My Guest", was an influence on ska music.
Personal life
Domino was married to Rosemary Domino ( Hall) from 1947 until her death in 2008; the couple had eight children: Antoine III (1950-2015), Anatole, Andre (1952-1997), Antonio, Antoinette, Andrea, Anola, and Adonica.
Even after his success he continued to live in his old neighborhood, the Lower Ninth Ward, until after Hurricane Katrina, when he moved to a suburb of New Orleans.
Discography
Fats Domino discography
List of songs recorded by Fats Domino
Studio albums
References
External links
Fats Domino at history-of-rock.com
Fats Domino: Walking to New Orleans special
1928 births
2017 deaths
African-American pianists
African-American rock musicians
American baritones
American blues pianists
American male pianists
American rock pianists
American rhythm and blues singers
American rock singers
Boogie-woogie pianists
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Imperial Records artists
Louisiana Creole people
Rhythm and blues musicians from New Orleans
Rock and roll musicians
Songwriters from Louisiana
Stride pianists
United States National Medal of Arts recipients
Singers from Louisiana
People from Harvey, Louisiana
ABC Records artists
London Records artists
Mercury Records artists
Reprise Records artists
Warner Records artists
Male jazz musicians
African-American male singer-songwriters
African-American Catholics
20th-century African-American male singers
Singer-songwriters from Louisiana | true | [
"\"What Did I Do to You?\" is a song recorded by British singer Lisa Stansfield for her 1989 album, Affection. It was written by Stansfield, Ian Devaney and Andy Morris, and produced by Devaney and Morris. The song was released as the fourth European single on 30 April 1990. It included three previously unreleased songs written by Stansfield, Devaney and Morris: \"My Apple Heart,\" \"Lay Me Down\" and \"Something's Happenin'.\" \"What Did I Do to You?\" was remixed by Mark Saunders and by the Grammy Award-winning American house music DJ and producer, David Morales. The single became a top forty hit in the European countries reaching number eighteen in Finland, number twenty in Ireland and number twenty-five in the United Kingdom. \"What Did I Do to You?\" was also released in Japan.\n\nIn 2014, the remixes of \"What Did I Do to You?\" were included on the deluxe 2CD + DVD re-release of Affection and on People Hold On ... The Remix Anthology. They were also featured on The Collection 1989–2003 box set (2014), including previously unreleased Red Zone Mix by David Morales.\n\nCritical reception\nThe song received positive reviews from music critics. Matthew Hocter from Albumism viewed it as a \"upbeat offering\". David Giles from Music Week said it is \"beautifully performed\" by Stansfield. A reviewer from Reading Eagle wrote that \"What Did I Do to You?\" \"would be right at home on the \"Saturday Night Fever\" soundtrack.\"\n\nMusic video\nA music video was produced to promote the single, directed by Philip Richardson, who had previously directed the videos for \"All Around the World\" and \"Live Together\". It features Stansfield with her kiss curls, dressed in a white outfit and performing with her band on a stage in front of a jumping audience. The video was later published on Stansfield's official YouTube channel in November 2009. It has amassed more than 1,6 million views as of October 2021.\n\nTrack listings\n\n European/UK 7\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix Edit) – 4:20\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n European/UK/Japanese CD single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix Edit) – 4:20\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 5:19\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 4:17\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n UK 10\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix) – 5:52\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 5:19\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 4:17\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n European/UK 12\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Morales Mix) – 7:59\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 4:22\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 3:19\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:15\n\n UK 12\" promotional single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Morales Mix) – 7:59\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Anti Poll Tax Dub) – 6:31\n\n Other remixes\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Red Zone Mix) – 7:45\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nLisa Stansfield songs\n1990 singles\nSongs written by Lisa Stansfield\n1989 songs\nArista Records singles\nSongs written by Ian Devaney\nSongs written by Andy Morris (musician)",
"What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid is the debut album from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in the UK four days after his nineteenth birthday on 14 May 1965, through Pye Records (catalog number NPL 18117). Terry Kennedy, Peter Eden, and Geoff Stephens produced the album. The album was released in the US as Catch the Wind on Hickory Records in June 1965. Hickory Records changed the title to match that of Donovan's debut single.\n\nHistory \nIn late 1964, Peter Eden and Geoff Stephens offered Donovan a recording contract with Pye Records in the UK. Donovan had performed around Britain and had become well known in British folk circles before his record contract. His 1964 demo tapes (released as Sixty Four in 2004) show a great resemblance to both Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, which probably prompted the \"British answer to Bob Dylan\" press line that was subsequently released. What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid is notable because it captures Donovan at a point where his style and vision were starting to diverge significantly from those of Guthrie and Dylan.\n\nThe music primarily consists of Donovan singing and playing mouth harp and acoustic guitar, much like his live performances of the time. He still had some vestiges of Woody Guthrie's style, and here covers Guthrie's \"Riding In My Car\" (titled here as \"Car Car\"). What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid also includes British folk (\"Tangerine Puppet\") and even some jazz (\"Cuttin' Out\").\n\nDonovan re-recorded \"Catch the Wind\" for the album, which was initially released as his debut single in the UK on 12 March 1965.\n\nOther musicians featured on the album are Brian Locking on bass, Skip Alan (who joined the Pretty Things later the same year) on drums, and Gypsy Dave on kazoo.\n\nReissues \n On 13 September 1968, What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid was reissued in an edited form (Marble Arch Records MAL 795) in the UK. \"Car Car\" and \"Donna Donna\" were both removed from the album, possibly because they were not written by Donovan.\n On 26 February 1996, Sequel Records reissued What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid in the US under its US title Catch the Wind on compact disc. Three bonus tracks were added to the track listing. The first bonus track, \"Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?\", was released as the B-side to Donovan's UK debut single. The second bonus track is the A-side of Donovan's UK debut single. The third bonus track, \"Every Man Has His Chain\", was originally released on Donovan's Catch the Wind EP in France.\n On 22 January 2002, Sanctuary Records reissued the complete What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid for the first time on compact disc. The US version of the CD titled Catch the Wind was released six years earlier. The CD features four bonus tracks. The first two tracks are Donovan's debut single \"Catch the Wind\" (a different take than the album track) and its b-side \"Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?\". The third bonus track \"Every Man Has His Chain\" was once a rare track in Donovan's discography, and was originally released on the French EP Catch the Wind in 1965. Donovan's second single \"Colours\" is also released here, in a version different from the one included on the Fairytale album.\n\nTrack listing\n\nOriginal album (UK)\nSide 1\n\"Josie\" (Donovan Leitch) – 3:28\n\"Catch the Wind\" (Donovan Leitch) – 2:56\n\"Remember the Alamo\" (Jane Bowers) – 3:04\n\"Cuttin' Out\" (Leitch) – 2:19\n\"Car Car\" (Woody Guthrie) – 1:31\n\"Keep on Truckin'\" (traditional; arranged by Leitch) – 1:50\n\nSide 2\n\"Goldwatch Blues\" (Mick Softley) – 2:33\n\"To Sing for You\" (Leitch) – 2:45\n\"You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond\" (traditional; arranged by Leitch) – 4:04\n\"Tangerine Puppet\" (Leitch) – 1:51\n\"Donna Donna\" (Aaron Zeitlin, Sholom Secunda, Arthur S Kevess, Teddi Schwartz) – 2:56\n\"Ramblin' Boy\" (Leitch) – 2:33\n\n1996 Sequel Records CD-reissue (Title: Catch the Wind)\nThe original album plus the following bonus tracks:\n\"Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?\" (Leitch) – 2:56\n\"Catch the Wind\" (Leitch) – 2:18\n\"Every Man Has His Chain\" (Leitch) – 2:09\n\n2002 Sanctuary Records CD-reissue\nThe original album plus the following bonus tracks:\n\"Catch the Wind\" (Single version with strings) (Leitch) – 2:18\n\"Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?\" (Single b-side) (Leitch) – 2:56\n\"Every Man Has His Chain\" (French EP track) (Leitch) – 2:12\n\"Colours\" (Single version) (Leitch) – 2:45\n\nPersonnel \n Donovan – vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica\n Brian Locking – bass\n Skip Alan (Alan Skipper) – drums\n Gypsy Dave (David Mills) – kazoo\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n What's Bin Did And What's Bin Hid – Donovan Unofficial Site\n Sanctuary Records\n\n1965 debut albums\nDonovan albums\nPye Records albums\nHickory Records albums\nSanctuary Records albums"
]
|
[
"Miriam Makeba",
"Childhood and family"
]
| C_be942cd9bfc84a1eb32a2739a1edbbc7_1 | Where did she grow up? | 1 | Where did Miriam Makeba grow up? | Miriam Makeba | Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932 in the black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg. Her Swazi mother, Christina Makeba, was a sangoma, or traditional healer, and a domestic worker. Her Xhosa father, Caswell Makeba, was a teacher; he died when she was six years old. Makeba later said that before she was conceived, her mother had been warned that any future pregnancy could be fatal. Neither Miriam nor her mother seemed likely to survive after a difficult labour and delivery. Miriam's grandmother, who attended the birth, often muttered "uzenzile", a Xhosa word that means "you brought this on yourself", to Miriam's mother during her recovery, which inspired her to give her daughter the name "Zenzile". When Makeba was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. The family could not afford the small fine required to avoid a jail term, and Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail. As a child, Makeba sang in the choir of the Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria, an all-black Methodist primary school that she attended for eight years. Her talent for singing earned her praise at school. Makeba was baptised a Protestant, and sang in church choirs, in English, Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu; she later said that she learned to sing in English before she could speak the language. The family moved to the Transvaal when Makeba was a child. After her father's death, she was forced to find employment; she did domestic work, and worked as a nanny. She described herself as a shy person at the time. Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children. Makeba lived for a while with her grandmother and a large number of cousins in Pretoria. Makeba was influenced by her family's musical tastes; her mother played several traditional instruments, and her elder brother collected records, including those of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, and taught Makeba songs. Her father played the piano, and his musical inclination was later a factor in Makeba's family accepting what was seen as a risque choice of career. In 1949, Makeba married James Kubay, a policeman in training, with whom she had her only child, Bongi Makeba, in 1950. Makeba was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband, who was said to have beaten her, left her shortly afterwards, after a two-year marriage. A decade later she overcame cervical cancer via a hysterectomy. CANNOTANSWER | black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg. | Zenzile Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid and white-minority government in South Africa.
Born in Johannesburg to Swazi and Xhosa parents, Makeba was forced to find employment as a child after the death of her father. She had a brief and allegedly abusive first marriage at the age of 17, gave birth to her only child in 1950, and survived breast cancer. Her vocal talent had been recognized when she was a child, and she began singing professionally in the 1950s, with the Cuban Brothers, the Manhattan Brothers, and an all-woman group, the Skylarks, performing a mixture of jazz, traditional African melodies, and Western popular music. In 1959, Makeba had a brief role in the anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa, which brought her international attention, and led to her performing in Venice, London, and New York City. In London, she met the American singer Harry Belafonte, who became a mentor and colleague. She moved to New York City, where she became immediately popular, and recorded her first solo album in 1960. Her attempt to return to South Africa that year for her mother's funeral was prevented by the country's government.
Makeba's career flourished in the United States, and she released several albums and songs, her most popular being "Pata Pata" (1967). Along with Belafonte she received a Grammy Award for her 1965 album An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. She testified against the South African government at the United Nations and became involved in the civil rights movement. She married Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Black Panther Party, in 1968. As a result, she lost support among white Americans. The US government cancelled her visa while she was travelling abroad, leading her and Carmichael to move to Guinea. She continued to perform, mostly in African countries, including at several independence celebrations. She began to write and perform music more explicitly critical of apartheid; the 1977 song "Soweto Blues", written by her former husband Hugh Masekela, was about the Soweto uprising. After apartheid was dismantled in 1990, Makeba returned to South Africa. She continued recording and performing, including a 1991 album with Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, and appeared in the 1992 film Sarafina!. She was named a UN goodwill ambassador in 1999, and campaigned for humanitarian causes. She died of a heart attack during a 2008 concert in Italy.
Makeba was among the first African musicians to receive worldwide recognition. She brought African music to a Western audience, and popularized the world music and Afropop genres. She also made popular several songs critical of apartheid, and became a symbol of opposition to the system, particularly after her right to return was revoked. Upon her death, former South African President Nelson Mandela said that "her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
Early years
Childhood and family
Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932 in the black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg. Her Swazi mother, Christina Makeba, was a sangoma, or traditional healer, and a domestic worker. Her Xhosa father, Caswell Makeba, was a teacher; he died when she was six years old. Makeba later said that before she was conceived, her mother had been warned that any future pregnancy could be fatal. Neither Miriam nor her mother seemed likely to survive after a difficult labour and delivery. Miriam's grandmother, who attended the birth, often muttered "uzenzile", a Xhosa word that means "you brought this on yourself", to Miriam's mother during her recovery, which inspired her to give her daughter the name "Zenzile".
When Makeba was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. The family could not afford the small fine required to avoid a jail term, and Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail. As a child, Makeba sang in the choir of the Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria, an all-black Methodist primary school that she attended for eight years. Her talent for singing earned her praise at school. Makeba was baptised a Protestant, and sang in church choirs, in English, Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu; she later said that she learned to sing in English before she could speak the language.
The family moved to the Transvaal when Makeba was a child. After her father's death, she was forced to find employment; she did domestic work, and worked as a nanny. She described herself as a shy person at the time. Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children. Makeba lived for a while with her grandmother and a large number of cousins in Pretoria. Makeba was influenced by her family's musical tastes; her mother played several traditional instruments, and her elder brother collected records, including those of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, and taught Makeba songs. Her father played the piano, and his musical inclination was later a factor in Makeba's family accepting what was seen as a risque choice of career.
In 1949, Makeba married James Kubay, a policeman in training, with whom she had her only child, Bongi Makeba, in 1950. Makeba was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband, who was said to have beaten her, left her shortly afterwards, after a two-year marriage. A decade later she overcame cervical cancer via a hysterectomy.
Early career
Makeba began her professional musical career with the Cuban Brothers, a South African all-male close harmony group, with whom she sang covers of popular American songs. Soon afterwards, at the age of 21, she joined a jazz group, the Manhattan Brothers, who sang a mixture of South African songs and pieces from popular African-American groups. Makeba was the only woman in the group. With the Manhattan Brothers she recorded her first hit, "Laku Tshoni Ilanga", in 1953, and developed a national reputation as a musician. In 1956 she joined a new all-woman group, the Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional South African melodies. Formed by Gallotone Records, the group was also known as the Sunbeams. Makeba sang with the Skylarks when the Manhattan Brothers were travelling abroad; later, she also travelled with the Manhattan Brothers. In the Skylarks, Makeba sang alongside Rhodesian-born musician Dorothy Masuka, whose music Makeba had followed, along with that of Dolly Rathebe. Several of the Skylarks' pieces from this period became popular; the music historian Rob Allingham later described the group as "real trendsetters, with harmonisation that had never been heard before." Makeba received no royalties from her work with the Skylarks.
While performing with the Manhattan Brothers in 1955, Makeba met Nelson Mandela, then a young lawyer; he later remembered the meeting, and that he felt that the girl he met "was going to be someone." In 1956, Gallotone Records released "Lovely Lies", Makeba's first solo success; the Xhosa lyric about a man looking for his beloved in jails and hospitals was replaced with the unrelated and innocuous line "You tell such lovely lies with your two lovely eyes" in the English version. The record became the first South African record to chart on the United States Billboard Top 100. In 1957, Makeba was featured on the cover of Drum magazine.
In 1959, Makeba sang the lead female role in the Broadway-inspired South African jazz opera King Kong; among those in the cast was the musician Hugh Masekela. The musical was performed to racially integrated audiences, raising her profile among white South Africans. Also in 1959, she had a short guest appearance in Come Back, Africa, an anti-apartheid film produced and directed by the American independent filmmaker Lionel Rogosin. Rogosin cast her after seeing her on stage in African Jazz and Variety show, on which Makeba was a performer for 18 months. The film blended elements of documentary and fiction and had to be filmed in secret as the government was expected to be hostile to it. Makeba appeared on stage, and sang two songs: her appearance lasted four minutes. The cameo made an enormous impression on viewers, and Rogosin organised a visa for her to attend the premiere of the film at the twenty-fourth Venice Film Festival in Italy, where the film won the prestigious Critics' Choice Award. Makeba's presence has been described as crucial to the film, as an emblem of cosmopolitan black identity that also connected with working-class black people due to the dialogue being in Zulu.
Makeba's role in Come Back, Africa brought her international recognition and she travelled to London and New York to perform. In London she met the American singer Harry Belafonte, who became her mentor, helping her with her first solo recordings. These included "Pata Pata", which would be released many years later, and a version of the traditional Xhosa song "Qongqothwane", which she had first performed with the Skylarks. Though "Pata Pata"—described by Musician magazine as a "groundbreaking Afropop gem"—became her most famous song, Makeba described it as "one of my most insignificant songs". While in England, she married Sonny Pillay, a South African ballad singer of Indian descent; they divorced within a few months.
Makeba then moved to New York, making her US music debut on 1 November 1959 on The Steve Allen Show in Los Angeles for a television audience of 60 million. Her New York debut at the Village Vanguard occurred soon after; she sang in Xhosa and Zulu, and performed a Yiddish folk song. Her audience at this concert included Miles Davis and Duke Ellington; her performance received strongly positive reviews from critics. She first came to popular and critical attention in jazz clubs, after which her reputation grew rapidly. Belafonte, who had helped Makeba with her move to the US, handled the logistics for her first performances. When she first moved to the US, Makeba lived in Greenwich Village, along with other musicians and actors. As was common in her profession, she experienced some financial insecurity, and worked as a babysitter for a period.
Exile
United States
Breakthrough
Soon after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, Makeba learned that her mother had died. When she tried to return home for the funeral, she found that her South African passport had been cancelled. Two of Makeba's family members were killed in the massacre. The incident left her concerned about her family, many of whom were still in South Africa, including her daughter: the nine-year-old Bongi joined her mother in the US in August 1960. During her first few years in the US, Makeba had rarely sung explicitly political music, but her popularity had led to an increase in awareness of apartheid and the anti-apartheid movement. Following the Sharpeville killings, Makeba felt a responsibility to help, as she had been able to leave the country while others had not. From this point, she became an increasingly outspoken critic of apartheid and the white-minority government; before the massacre, she had taken care to avoid overtly political statements in South Africa.
Her musical career in the US continued to flourish. She signed a recording contract with RCA Victor, and released Miriam Makeba, her first studio album, in 1960, backed by Belafonte's band. RCA Victor chose to buy out Makeba's contract with Gallotone Records, and despite the fact that Makeba was unable to perform in South Africa, Gallotone received US$45,000 in the deal, which meant that Makeba received no royalties for her debut album. The album included one of her most famous hits in the US, "Qongqothwane", which was known in English as "The Click Song" because Makeba's audiences could not pronounce the Xhosa name. Time magazine called her the "most exciting new singing talent to appear in many years", and Newsweek compared her voice to "the smoky tones and delicate phrasing" of Ella Fitzgerald and the "intimate warmth" of Frank Sinatra. The album was not commercially successful, and Makeba was briefly dropped from RCA Victor: she was re-signed soon after as the label recognised the commercial possibilities of the growing interest in African culture. Her South African identity had been downplayed during her first signing, but it was strongly emphasised the second time to take advantage of this interest. Makeba made several appearances on television, often in the company of Belafonte. In 1962, Makeba and Belafonte sang at the birthday party for US President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, but Makeba did not go to the party afterwards because she was ill. Kennedy nevertheless insisted on meeting her, so Belafonte sent a car to pick her up.
In 1964, Makeba released her second studio album for RCA Victor, The World of Miriam Makeba. An early example of world music, the album peaked at number eighty-six on the Billboard 200. Makeba's music had a cross-racial appeal in the US; white Americans were attracted to her image as an "exotic" African performer, and black Americans related their own experiences of racial segregation to Makeba's struggle against apartheid. Makeba found company among other African exiles and émigrés in New York, including Hugh Masekela, to whom she was married from 1963 to 1968. During their marriage, Makeba and Masekela were neighbours of the jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie in Englewood, New Jersey; they spent much of their time in Harlem. She also came to know actors Marlon Brando and Lauren Bacall, and musicians Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles. Fellow singer-activist Nina Simone became friendly with Makeba, as did actor Cicely Tyson; Makeba and Simone performed together at Carnegie Hall. Makeba was among black entertainers, activists, and intellectuals in New York at the time who believed that the civil rights movement and popular culture could reinforce each other, creating "a sense of intertwined political and cultural vibrancy"; other examples included Maya Angelou and Sidney Poitier. She later described her difficulty living with racial segregation, saying "There wasn't much difference in America; it was a country that had abolished slavery but there was apartheid in its own way."
Travel and activism
Makeba's music was also popular in Europe, and she travelled and performed there frequently. Acting on the advice of Belafonte, she added songs from Latin America, Europe, Israel, and elsewhere in Africa to her repertoire. She visited Kenya in 1962 in support of the country's independence from British colonial rule, and raised funds for its independence leader Jomo Kenyatta. Later that year she testified before the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid about the effects of the system, asking for economic sanctions against South Africa's National Party government. She requested an arms embargo against South Africa, on the basis that weapons sold to the government would likely be used against black women and children. As a result, her music was banned in South Africa, and her South African citizenship and right to return were revoked. Makeba thus became a stateless person, but she was soon issued passports by Algeria, Guinea, Belgium and Ghana. In her life, she held nine passports, and was granted honorary citizenship in ten countries.
Soon after her testimony, Haile Selassie, the emperor of Ethiopia, invited her to sing at the inauguration of the Organisation of African Unity, the only performer to be invited. As the fact of her ban from South Africa became well known she became a cause célèbre for Western liberals, and her presence in the civil rights movement provided a link between that movement and the anti-apartheid struggle. In 1964 she was taught the song "Malaika" by a Kenyan student while backstage at a performance in San Francisco; the song later became a staple of her performances.
Throughout the 1960s, Makeba strengthened her involvement with a range of black-centred political movements, including the civil rights, anti-apartheid, Black Consciousness, and Black Power movements. She briefly met the Trinidadian-American activist Stokely Carmichael—the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and a prominent figure in the Black Panther Party—after Belafonte invited him to one of Makeba's concerts; they met again in Conakry six years later. They entered a relationship, initially kept secret from all but their closest friends and family. Makeba participated in fundraising activities for various civil rights groups, including a benefit concert for the 1962 Southern Christian Leadership Conference that civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. referred to as the "event of the year". Following a concert and rally in Atlanta in support of King, Makeba and others were denied entrance to a restaurant as a result of Jim Crow laws, leading to a televised protest in front of the establishment. She also criticised King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference for its investment in South African companies, informing press that "Now my friend of long standing supports the country's persecution of my people and I must find a new idol". Her identity as an African woman in the civil rights movement helped create "an emerging liberal consensus" that extreme racial discrimination, whether domestically or internationally, was harmful. In 1964 she testified at the UN for a second time, quoting a song by Vanessa Redgrave in calling for quick action against the South African government.
On 15 March 1966, Makeba and Belafonte received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording for An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under apartheid, including several songs critical of the South African government, such as "Ndodemnyama we Verwoerd" ("Watch our Verwoerd", a reference to Hendrik Verwoerd, one of the architects of apartheid). It sold widely and raised Makeba's profile in the US; Belafonte and Makeba's concert tour following its release was often sold out, and the album has been described as the best they made together. Makeba's use of lyrics in Swahili, Xhosa, and Sotho led to her being seen as a representation of an "authentic" Africa by American audiences. In 1967, more than ten years after she first recorded the song, the single "Pata Pata" was released in the US on an album of the same title, and became a worldwide hit. During its recording, she and Belafonte had a disagreement, after which they stopped recording together.
Guinea
Makeba married Carmichael in March 1968; this caused her popularity in the US to decline markedly. Conservatives came to regard her as a militant and an extremist, an image that alienated much of her fanbase. Her performances were cancelled and her coverage in the press declined despite her efforts to portray her marriage as apolitical. White American audiences stopped supporting her, and the US government took an interest in her activities. The Central Intelligence Agency began following her, and placed hidden microphones in her apartment; the Federal Bureau of Investigation also placed her under surveillance. While she and her husband were travelling in the Bahamas, she was banned from returning to the US, and was refused a visa. As a result, the couple moved to Guinea, where Carmichael changed his name to Kwame Touré. Makeba did not return to the US until 1987.
Guinea remained Makeba's home for the next 15 years, and she and her husband became close to President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife, Andrée. Touré wanted to create a new style of African music, creating his own record label Syliphone for this purpose, and all musicians received a minimum wage if they practised for several hours every day. Makeba later stated that "I've never seen a country that did what Sékou Touré did for artists." After her rejection from the US she began to write music more directly critical of the US government's racial policies, recording and singing songs such as "Lumumba" in 1970 (referring to Patrice Lumumba, the assassinated Prime Minister of the Congo), and "Malcolm X" in 1974.
Makeba performed more frequently in African countries, and as countries became independent of European colonial powers, was invited to sing at independence ceremonies, including in Kenya, Angola, Zambia, Tanganyika, and Mozambique. In September 1974 she performed alongside a multitude of well-known African and American musicians at the Zaire 74 festival in Kinshasa, Zaire (formerly the Congo). She also became a diplomat for Ghana, and was appointed Guinea's official delegate to the UN in 1975; that year, she addressed the United Nations General Assembly. She continued to perform in Europe and Asia, as well as her African concerts, but not in the US, where a de facto boycott was in effect. Her performances in Africa were immensely popular: she was described as the highlight of FESTAC 77, a Pan-African arts festival in Nigeria in 1977, and during a Liberian performance of "Pata Pata", the stadium proved so loud that she was unable to complete the song. "Pata Pata", like her other songs, had been banned in South Africa. Another song she sang frequently in this period was "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika", though she never recorded it. Makeba later stated that it was during this period that she accepted the label "Mama Africa".
In 1976, the South African government replaced English with Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in all schools, setting off the Soweto uprising. Between 15,000 and 20,000 students took part; caught unprepared, the police opened fire on the protesting children, killing hundreds and injuring more than a thousand. Hugh Masekela wrote "Soweto Blues" in response to the massacre, and the song was performed by Makeba, becoming a staple of her live performances for many years. A review in the magazine Musician said that the song had "searingly righteous lyrics" about the uprising that "cut to the bone". She had separated from Carmichael in 1973; in 1978 they divorced and in 1981 she married Bageot Bah, an airline executive.
Belgium
Makeba's daughter Bongi, who was a singer in her own right and had often accompanied her mother on stage, died in childbirth in 1985. Makeba was left responsible for her two grandchildren, and decided to move out of Guinea. She settled in the Woluwe-Saint-Lambert district of the Belgian capital Brussels. In the following year, Masekela introduced Makeba to Paul Simon, and a few months later she embarked on Simon's very successful Graceland Tour. The tour concluded with two concerts held in Harare, Zimbabwe, which were filmed in 1987 for release as Graceland: The African Concert. After touring the world with Simon, Warner Bros. Records signed Makeba and she released Sangoma ("Healer"), an album of healing chants named in honour of her sangoma mother. Her involvement with Simon caused controversy: Graceland had been recorded in South Africa, breaking the cultural boycott of the country, and thus Makeba's participation in the tour was regarded as contravening the boycott (which Makeba herself endorsed).
In preparation for the Graceland tour, she worked with journalist James Hall to write an autobiography titled Makeba: My Story. The book contained descriptions of her experience with apartheid, and was also critical of the commodification and consumerism she experienced in the US. The book was translated into five languages. She took part in the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute, a popular-music concert staged on 11 June 1988 at London's Wembley Stadium, and broadcast to an audience of 600 million across 67 countries. Political aspects of the concert were heavily censored in the US by the Fox television network. The use of music to raise awareness of apartheid paid off: a survey after the concert found that among people aged between 16 and 24, three-quarters knew of Mandela, and supported his release from prison.
Return to South Africa, final years and death
Following growing pressure from the anti-apartheid movement both domestically and internationally, in 1990 State President Frederik Willem de Klerk reversed the ban on the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid organisations, and announced that Mandela would shortly be released from prison. Mandela was released in February 1990. He persuaded Makeba to return to South Africa, which she did, using her French passport, on 10 June 1990.
Makeba, Gillespie, Simone, and Masekela recorded and released her studio album, Eyes on Tomorrow, in 1991. It combined jazz, R&B, pop, and traditional African music, and was a hit across Africa. Makeba and Gillespie then toured the world together to promote it. In November she made a guest appearance on a US sitcom, The Cosby Show. In 1992, she starred in the film Sarafina! which centred on students involved in the 1976 Soweto uprising. Makeba portrayed the title character's mother, Angelina, a role which The New York Times described as having been performed with "immense dignity".
On 16 October 1999, Makeba was named a Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In January 2000, her album, Homeland, produced by the New York City based record label Putumayo World Music, was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best World Music Album category. She worked closely with Graça Machel-Mandela, the South African first lady, advocating for children suffering from HIV/AIDS, child soldiers, and the physically handicapped. She established the Makeba Centre for Girls, a home for orphans, described in an obituary as her most personal project. She also took part in the 2002 documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony, which examined the struggles of black South Africans against apartheid through the music of the period. Makeba's second autobiography, Makeba: The Miriam Makeba Story, was published in 2004. In 2005 she announced that she would retire and began a farewell tour, but despite having osteoarthritis, continued to perform until her death. During this period, her grandchildren Nelson Lumumba Lee and Zenzi Lee, and her great-grandchild Lindelani, occasionally joined her performances.
On 9 November 2008, Makeba fell ill during a concert in Castel Volturno, near Caserta, Italy. The concert had been organised to support the writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a criminal organisation active in the Campania region. She suffered a heart attack after singing her hit song "Pata Pata", and was taken to the Pineta Grande clinic, where doctors were unable to revive her.
Music and image
Musical style
The groups with which Makeba began her career performed mbube, a style of vocal harmony which drew on American jazz, ragtime, and Anglican church hymns, as well as indigenous styles of music. Johannesburg musician Dolly Rathebe was an early influence on Makeba's music, as were female jazz singers from the US. Historian David Coplan writes that the "African jazz" made popular by Makeba and others was "inherently hybridized" rather than derivative of any particular genre, blending as it did marabi and jazz, and was "Americanized African music, not Africanized American music". The music that she performed was described by British writer Robin Denselow as a "unique blend of rousing township styles and jazz-influenced balladry".
Makeba released more than 30 albums during her career. The dominant styles of these shifted over time, moving from African jazz to recordings influenced by Belafonte's "crooning" to music drawing from traditional South African musical forms. She has been associated with the genres of world music and Afropop. She also incorporated Latin American musical styles into her performances. Historian Ruth Feldstein described her music as "[crossing] the borders between what many people associated with avant-garde and 'quality' culture and the commercial mainstream"; the latter aspect often drew criticism. She was able to appeal to audiences from many political, racial, and national backgrounds.
She was known for having a dynamic vocal range, and was described as having an emotional awareness during her performances. She occasionally danced during her shows, and was described as having a sensuous presence on stage. She was able to vary her voice considerably: an obituary remarked that she "could soar like an opera singer, but she could also whisper, roar, hiss, growl and shout. She could sing while making the epiglottal clicks of the Xhosa language." She sang in English and several African languages, but never in Afrikaans, the language of the apartheid government in South Africa. She once stated "When Afrikaaners sing in my language, then I will sing theirs." English was seen as the language of political resistance by black South Africans due to the educational barriers they faced under apartheid; the Manhattan Brothers, with whom Makeba had sung in Sophiatown, had been prohibited from recording in English. Her songs in African languages have been described as reaffirming black pride.
Politics and perception
Makeba said that she did not perform political music, but music about her personal life in South Africa, which included describing the pain she felt living under apartheid. She once stated "people say I sing politics, but what I sing is not politics, it is the truth", an example of the mixing of personal and political issues for musicians living during apartheid. When she first entered the US, she avoided discussing apartheid explicitly, partly out of concern for her family still in South Africa. Nonetheless, she is known for using her voice to convey the political message of opposition to apartheid, performing widely and frequently for civil rights and anti-apartheid organisations. Even songs that did not carry an explicitly political message were seen as subversive, due to their being banned in South Africa. Makeba saw her music as a tool of activism, saying "In our struggle, songs are not simply entertainment for us. They are the way we communicate."
Makeba's use of the clicks common in languages such as Xhosa and Zulu (as in "Qongqothwane", "The Click Song") was frequently remarked upon by Western audiences. It contributed to her popularity and her exotic image, which scholars have described as a kind of othering, exacerbated by the fact that Western audiences often could not understand her lyrics. Critics in the US described her as the "African tribeswoman" and as an "import from South Africa", often depicting her in condescending terms as a product of a more primitive society. Commentators also frequently described her in terms of the prominent men she was associated with, despite her own prominence. During her early career in South Africa she had been seen as a sex symbol, an image that received considerably less attention in the US.
Makeba was described as a style icon, both in her home country and the US. She wore no makeup and refused to straighten her hair for shows, thus helping establish a style that came to be known internationally as the "Afro look". According to music scholar Tanisha Ford, her hairstyle represented a "liberated African beauty aesthetic". She was seen as a beauty icon by South African schoolgirls, who were compelled to shorten their hair by the apartheid government. Makeba stuck to wearing African jewellery; she disapproved of the skin-lighteners commonly used by South African women at the time, and refused to appear in advertisements for them. Her self-presentation has been characterised by scholars as a rejection of the predominantly white standards of beauty that women in the US were held to, which allowed Makeba to partially escape the sexualisation directed at women performers during this period. Nonetheless, the terms used to describe her in the US media have been identified by scholars as frequently used to "sexualize, infantalize, and animalize" people of African heritage.
Legacy
Musical influence
Makeba was among the most visible Africans in the US; as a result, she was often emblematic of the continent of Africa for Americans. Her music earned her the moniker "Mama Africa", and she was variously described as the "Empress of African Song", the "Queen of South African music", and Africa's "first superstar". Music scholar J. U. Jacobs said that Makeba's music had "both been shaped by and given shape to black South African and American music". The jazz musician Abbey Lincoln is among those identified as being influenced by Makeba. Makeba and Simone were among a group of artists who helped shape soul music. Longtime collaborator Belafonte called her "the most revolutionary new talent to appear in any medium in the last decade". Speaking after her death, Mandela called her "South Africa's first lady of song", and said that "her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
Outside her home country Makeba was credited with bringing African music to a Western audience, and along with artists such as Youssou N'Dour, Salif Keita, Ali Farka Touré, Baaba Maal and Angélique Kidjo, with popularising the genre of world music. Her work with Belafonte in the 1960s has been described as creating the genre of world music before the concept entered the popular imagination, and also as highlighting the diversity and cultural pluralism within African music. Within South Africa, Makeba has been described as influencing artists such as kwaito musician Thandiswa Mazwai and her band Bongo Maffin, whose track "De Makeba" was a modified version of Makeba's "Pata Pata", and one of several tribute recordings released after her return to South Africa. South African jazz musician Simphiwe Dana has been described as "the new Miriam Makeba". South African singer Lira has frequently been compared with Makeba, particularly for her performance of "Pata Pata" during the opening ceremony of the 2010 Football World Cup. A year later, Kidjo dedicated her concert in New York to Makeba, as a musician who had "paved the way for her success". In an obituary, scholar Lara Allen referred to Makeba as "arguably South Africa's most famous musical export". In 2016 the French singer Jain released "Makeba", a tribute.
Activism
Makeba was among the most visible people campaigning against the apartheid system in South Africa, and was responsible for popularising several anti-apartheid songs, including "Meadowlands" by Strike Vilakezi and "Ndodemnyama we Verwoerd" (Watch out, Verwoerd) by Vuyisile Mini. Due to her high profile, she became a spokesperson of sorts for Africans living under oppressive governments, and in particular for black South Africans living under apartheid. When the South African government prevented her from entering her home country, she became a symbol of "apartheid's cruelty", and she used her position as a celebrity by testifying against apartheid before the UN in 1962 and 1964. Many of her songs were banned within South Africa, leading to Makeba's records being distributed underground, and even her apolitical songs being seen as subversive. She thus became a symbol of resistance to the white-minority government both within and outside South Africa. In an interview in 2000, Masekela said that "there [was] nobody in Africa who made the world more aware of what was happening in South Africa than Miriam Makeba."
Makeba has also been associated with the movement against colonialism, with the civil rights and black power movements in the US, and with the Pan-African movement. She called for unity between black people of African descent across the world: "Africans who live everywhere should fight everywhere. The struggle is no different in South Africa, the streets of Chicago, Trinidad or Canada. The Black people are the victims of capitalism, racism and oppression, period". After marrying Carmichael she often appeared with him during his speeches; Carmichael later described her presence at these events as an asset, and Feldstein wrote that Makeba enhanced Carmichael's message that "black is beautiful". Along with performers such as Simone, Lena Horne, and Abbey Lincoln, she used her position as a prominent musician to advocate for civil rights. Their activism has been described as simultaneously calling attention to racial and gender disparities, and highlighting "that the liberation they desired could not separate race from sex". Makeba's critique of second-wave feminism as being the product of luxury led to observers being unwilling to call her a feminist. Scholar Ruth Feldstein stated that Makeba and others influenced both black feminism and second-wave feminism through their advocacy, and the historian Jacqueline Castledine referred to her as one of the "most steadfast voices for social justice".
Awards and recognition
Makeba's 1965 collaboration with Harry Belafonte won a Grammy Award, making her the first African recording artist to win this award. Makeba shared the 2001 Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. They received their prize from Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden, during a nationally televised ceremony at Berwaldhallen, Stockholm, on 27 May 2002.
Makeba won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986, and in 2001 was awarded the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold by the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding". She also received several honorary doctorates. In 2004, she was voted 38th in a poll ranking 100 Great South Africans.
Mama Africa, a musical about Makeba, was produced in South Africa by Niyi Coker. Originally titled Zenzi!, the musical premiered to a sold-out crowd in Cape Town on 26 May 2016. It was performed in the US in St. Louis, Missouri and at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City between October and December 2016. The musical returned to South Africa in February 2017 for what would have been Makeba's 85th birthday.
From 25 to 27 September 2009, a tribute television show to Makeba entitled Hommage à Miriam Makeba and curated by Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist Angélique Kidjo, was held at the Cirque d'hiver in Paris. The show was presented as Mama Africa: Celebrating Miriam Makeba at the Barbican in London on 21 November 2009. A documentary film titled Mama Africa, about Makeba's life, co-written and directed by Finnish director Mika Kaurismäki, was released in 2011. On 4 March 2013, and again on International Women's Day in 2017, Google honoured her with a Google Doodle on their homepage. In 2014 she was honoured (along with Nelson Mandela, Albertina Sisulu and Steve Biko) in the Belgian city of Ghent, which named a square after her, the "Miriam Makebaplein". Makeba was named 1967's "woman of the year" by Time magazine in 2020, as one of a list of 100 "women of the year" for the years 1920–2019.
Notable songs and albums
This is a list of albums and songs, including covers, by Miriam Makeba that have received significant mention in commentary about her or about the musical and political movements she participated in.
Albums
Miriam Makeba (1960)
The Many Voices of Miriam Makeba (1962)
An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba (1965)
Comme une symphonie d'amour (1979)
The Queen of African Music (1987)
Sangoma (1988)
Welela (1989)
Eyes on Tomorrow (1991)
Homeland (2000)
Songs
"Lakutshn, Ilanga"/Lovely Lies" (1956)
"Sophiatown is Gone"
"The Click Song" / "Mbube" (1963)
"Pata Pata" (1967)
"Lumumba" (1970)
"Malcolm X" (1974)
"Soweto Blues" (1977)
"Thula Sizwe/I Shall Be Released" (1991)
"Malaika"
See also
Culture of South Africa
Notes and references
Footnotes
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Miriam Makeba at National Public Radio
1932 births
2008 deaths
20th-century South African women singers
21st-century South African women singers
Anti-apartheid activists
FAO Goodwill ambassadors
Grammy Award winners
Heads Up International artists
Music in the movement against apartheid
Musicians who died on stage
Musicians from Johannesburg
South African actresses
South African exiles
South African people of Swazi descent
World music musicians
Wrasse Records artists
Xhosa people | true | [
"\"Time to Grow\" is the second single and title track of British R&B singer Lemar's second album, Time to Grow (2004). The single became Lemar's sixth top-10 hit in the UK, peaking at number nine on the UK Singles Chart.\n\nLyrical content\n\nThe song lyrics refer to Lemar breaking up with a girl and him trying to get over it. He clearly is still hurting over her, but she has moved on from him. He doesn't know what to do or where to go because he still feels something for her, but she doesn't feel the same. He knows that the best thing for him to do is to move on, but he just can't do it. He misses her terribly and wishes that he could go back to when she felt something for him.\n\nTrack listings\n CD: 1\n \"Time to Grow\" (radio edit)\n \"Time to Grow\" (5am Remix)\n\n CD: 2\n \"Time to Grow\" (album version)\n \"Time to Grow\" (Kings of Soul Remix)\n \"Time to Grow\" (Kardinal Beats Remix—no rap)\n \"Freak You Right\"\n \"Time to Grow\" (CD-ROM video)\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2004 songs\n2005 singles\nLemar songs\nSongs about heartache\nSongs written by Lemar\nSony Music UK singles",
"Erica Alicia Grow-Cei (born March 15, 1980) is an American meteorologist and television reporter who is on PIX 11 News for New York City.\n\nEarly life\nErica Grow was born and raised in Bethlehem in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. She graduated from Penn State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology in 2002.\n\nBroadcasting career\nAfter graduating from Penn State, Grow became a meteorologist and weather producer for KMID-TV in Midland and Odessa, Texas, writing and producing the \"Weather Wise\" segment. She left Midland to join the crew of WHP-TV in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as a meteorologist and reporter.\n\nIn 2007, Grow became a weather anchor for WPVI-TV's 6ABC Action News on Saturday and Sunday mornings in Philadelphia. She became active in education initiatives in Philadelphia area schools, and represented 6ABC at community events such as the Philadelphia Flower Show, Philadelphia Auto Show, and the 6ABC Holiday Food Drive. Grow left WPVI in 2010 when her contract was not renewed.\n\nShortly after, in 2011, she was hired to forecast, produce and anchor weather segments for WTNH-TV News 8 in New Haven, Connecticut, where she was also active in the community visiting schools with the News 8 \"Mobile Weather Lab\" vehicle. In 2012, Grow earned the Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM) Seal of Approval from the American Meteorological Society. After only one year there She left WTNH in 2012.\n\nIn September 2012, Grow worked on-air at CBS affiliate WUSA in Washington, D.C., as a Meteorologist for the weekend evening newscasts. Grow left WUSA in 2015.\n\nIn late September 2015, Grow became the new weekend evening meteorologist for flagship NBC station WNBC in New York City. Sometime in the summer of 2019, Grow was replaced by meteorologist Matt Brickman.\n\nErica can now be seen on PIX-11 News in New York City.\n\nPersonal life\nGrow is married to Kevin Cei, who also graduated Penn State in meteorology. Cei is president of the NYC Chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association, where Grow serves in the position of Digital Content & Visibility.\n\nReferences\n\nLiving people\nAmerican meteorologists\nPeople from the Lehigh Valley\n1980 births\nPenn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences alumni"
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"Miriam Makeba",
"Childhood and family",
"Where did she grow up?",
"black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg."
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| C_be942cd9bfc84a1eb32a2739a1edbbc7_1 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 2 | Besides the childhood and family of Miriam Makeba, are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | Miriam Makeba | Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932 in the black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg. Her Swazi mother, Christina Makeba, was a sangoma, or traditional healer, and a domestic worker. Her Xhosa father, Caswell Makeba, was a teacher; he died when she was six years old. Makeba later said that before she was conceived, her mother had been warned that any future pregnancy could be fatal. Neither Miriam nor her mother seemed likely to survive after a difficult labour and delivery. Miriam's grandmother, who attended the birth, often muttered "uzenzile", a Xhosa word that means "you brought this on yourself", to Miriam's mother during her recovery, which inspired her to give her daughter the name "Zenzile". When Makeba was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. The family could not afford the small fine required to avoid a jail term, and Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail. As a child, Makeba sang in the choir of the Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria, an all-black Methodist primary school that she attended for eight years. Her talent for singing earned her praise at school. Makeba was baptised a Protestant, and sang in church choirs, in English, Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu; she later said that she learned to sing in English before she could speak the language. The family moved to the Transvaal when Makeba was a child. After her father's death, she was forced to find employment; she did domestic work, and worked as a nanny. She described herself as a shy person at the time. Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children. Makeba lived for a while with her grandmother and a large number of cousins in Pretoria. Makeba was influenced by her family's musical tastes; her mother played several traditional instruments, and her elder brother collected records, including those of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, and taught Makeba songs. Her father played the piano, and his musical inclination was later a factor in Makeba's family accepting what was seen as a risque choice of career. In 1949, Makeba married James Kubay, a policeman in training, with whom she had her only child, Bongi Makeba, in 1950. Makeba was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband, who was said to have beaten her, left her shortly afterwards, after a two-year marriage. A decade later she overcame cervical cancer via a hysterectomy. CANNOTANSWER | Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail. | Zenzile Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid and white-minority government in South Africa.
Born in Johannesburg to Swazi and Xhosa parents, Makeba was forced to find employment as a child after the death of her father. She had a brief and allegedly abusive first marriage at the age of 17, gave birth to her only child in 1950, and survived breast cancer. Her vocal talent had been recognized when she was a child, and she began singing professionally in the 1950s, with the Cuban Brothers, the Manhattan Brothers, and an all-woman group, the Skylarks, performing a mixture of jazz, traditional African melodies, and Western popular music. In 1959, Makeba had a brief role in the anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa, which brought her international attention, and led to her performing in Venice, London, and New York City. In London, she met the American singer Harry Belafonte, who became a mentor and colleague. She moved to New York City, where she became immediately popular, and recorded her first solo album in 1960. Her attempt to return to South Africa that year for her mother's funeral was prevented by the country's government.
Makeba's career flourished in the United States, and she released several albums and songs, her most popular being "Pata Pata" (1967). Along with Belafonte she received a Grammy Award for her 1965 album An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. She testified against the South African government at the United Nations and became involved in the civil rights movement. She married Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Black Panther Party, in 1968. As a result, she lost support among white Americans. The US government cancelled her visa while she was travelling abroad, leading her and Carmichael to move to Guinea. She continued to perform, mostly in African countries, including at several independence celebrations. She began to write and perform music more explicitly critical of apartheid; the 1977 song "Soweto Blues", written by her former husband Hugh Masekela, was about the Soweto uprising. After apartheid was dismantled in 1990, Makeba returned to South Africa. She continued recording and performing, including a 1991 album with Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, and appeared in the 1992 film Sarafina!. She was named a UN goodwill ambassador in 1999, and campaigned for humanitarian causes. She died of a heart attack during a 2008 concert in Italy.
Makeba was among the first African musicians to receive worldwide recognition. She brought African music to a Western audience, and popularized the world music and Afropop genres. She also made popular several songs critical of apartheid, and became a symbol of opposition to the system, particularly after her right to return was revoked. Upon her death, former South African President Nelson Mandela said that "her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
Early years
Childhood and family
Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932 in the black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg. Her Swazi mother, Christina Makeba, was a sangoma, or traditional healer, and a domestic worker. Her Xhosa father, Caswell Makeba, was a teacher; he died when she was six years old. Makeba later said that before she was conceived, her mother had been warned that any future pregnancy could be fatal. Neither Miriam nor her mother seemed likely to survive after a difficult labour and delivery. Miriam's grandmother, who attended the birth, often muttered "uzenzile", a Xhosa word that means "you brought this on yourself", to Miriam's mother during her recovery, which inspired her to give her daughter the name "Zenzile".
When Makeba was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. The family could not afford the small fine required to avoid a jail term, and Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail. As a child, Makeba sang in the choir of the Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria, an all-black Methodist primary school that she attended for eight years. Her talent for singing earned her praise at school. Makeba was baptised a Protestant, and sang in church choirs, in English, Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu; she later said that she learned to sing in English before she could speak the language.
The family moved to the Transvaal when Makeba was a child. After her father's death, she was forced to find employment; she did domestic work, and worked as a nanny. She described herself as a shy person at the time. Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children. Makeba lived for a while with her grandmother and a large number of cousins in Pretoria. Makeba was influenced by her family's musical tastes; her mother played several traditional instruments, and her elder brother collected records, including those of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, and taught Makeba songs. Her father played the piano, and his musical inclination was later a factor in Makeba's family accepting what was seen as a risque choice of career.
In 1949, Makeba married James Kubay, a policeman in training, with whom she had her only child, Bongi Makeba, in 1950. Makeba was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband, who was said to have beaten her, left her shortly afterwards, after a two-year marriage. A decade later she overcame cervical cancer via a hysterectomy.
Early career
Makeba began her professional musical career with the Cuban Brothers, a South African all-male close harmony group, with whom she sang covers of popular American songs. Soon afterwards, at the age of 21, she joined a jazz group, the Manhattan Brothers, who sang a mixture of South African songs and pieces from popular African-American groups. Makeba was the only woman in the group. With the Manhattan Brothers she recorded her first hit, "Laku Tshoni Ilanga", in 1953, and developed a national reputation as a musician. In 1956 she joined a new all-woman group, the Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional South African melodies. Formed by Gallotone Records, the group was also known as the Sunbeams. Makeba sang with the Skylarks when the Manhattan Brothers were travelling abroad; later, she also travelled with the Manhattan Brothers. In the Skylarks, Makeba sang alongside Rhodesian-born musician Dorothy Masuka, whose music Makeba had followed, along with that of Dolly Rathebe. Several of the Skylarks' pieces from this period became popular; the music historian Rob Allingham later described the group as "real trendsetters, with harmonisation that had never been heard before." Makeba received no royalties from her work with the Skylarks.
While performing with the Manhattan Brothers in 1955, Makeba met Nelson Mandela, then a young lawyer; he later remembered the meeting, and that he felt that the girl he met "was going to be someone." In 1956, Gallotone Records released "Lovely Lies", Makeba's first solo success; the Xhosa lyric about a man looking for his beloved in jails and hospitals was replaced with the unrelated and innocuous line "You tell such lovely lies with your two lovely eyes" in the English version. The record became the first South African record to chart on the United States Billboard Top 100. In 1957, Makeba was featured on the cover of Drum magazine.
In 1959, Makeba sang the lead female role in the Broadway-inspired South African jazz opera King Kong; among those in the cast was the musician Hugh Masekela. The musical was performed to racially integrated audiences, raising her profile among white South Africans. Also in 1959, she had a short guest appearance in Come Back, Africa, an anti-apartheid film produced and directed by the American independent filmmaker Lionel Rogosin. Rogosin cast her after seeing her on stage in African Jazz and Variety show, on which Makeba was a performer for 18 months. The film blended elements of documentary and fiction and had to be filmed in secret as the government was expected to be hostile to it. Makeba appeared on stage, and sang two songs: her appearance lasted four minutes. The cameo made an enormous impression on viewers, and Rogosin organised a visa for her to attend the premiere of the film at the twenty-fourth Venice Film Festival in Italy, where the film won the prestigious Critics' Choice Award. Makeba's presence has been described as crucial to the film, as an emblem of cosmopolitan black identity that also connected with working-class black people due to the dialogue being in Zulu.
Makeba's role in Come Back, Africa brought her international recognition and she travelled to London and New York to perform. In London she met the American singer Harry Belafonte, who became her mentor, helping her with her first solo recordings. These included "Pata Pata", which would be released many years later, and a version of the traditional Xhosa song "Qongqothwane", which she had first performed with the Skylarks. Though "Pata Pata"—described by Musician magazine as a "groundbreaking Afropop gem"—became her most famous song, Makeba described it as "one of my most insignificant songs". While in England, she married Sonny Pillay, a South African ballad singer of Indian descent; they divorced within a few months.
Makeba then moved to New York, making her US music debut on 1 November 1959 on The Steve Allen Show in Los Angeles for a television audience of 60 million. Her New York debut at the Village Vanguard occurred soon after; she sang in Xhosa and Zulu, and performed a Yiddish folk song. Her audience at this concert included Miles Davis and Duke Ellington; her performance received strongly positive reviews from critics. She first came to popular and critical attention in jazz clubs, after which her reputation grew rapidly. Belafonte, who had helped Makeba with her move to the US, handled the logistics for her first performances. When she first moved to the US, Makeba lived in Greenwich Village, along with other musicians and actors. As was common in her profession, she experienced some financial insecurity, and worked as a babysitter for a period.
Exile
United States
Breakthrough
Soon after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, Makeba learned that her mother had died. When she tried to return home for the funeral, she found that her South African passport had been cancelled. Two of Makeba's family members were killed in the massacre. The incident left her concerned about her family, many of whom were still in South Africa, including her daughter: the nine-year-old Bongi joined her mother in the US in August 1960. During her first few years in the US, Makeba had rarely sung explicitly political music, but her popularity had led to an increase in awareness of apartheid and the anti-apartheid movement. Following the Sharpeville killings, Makeba felt a responsibility to help, as she had been able to leave the country while others had not. From this point, she became an increasingly outspoken critic of apartheid and the white-minority government; before the massacre, she had taken care to avoid overtly political statements in South Africa.
Her musical career in the US continued to flourish. She signed a recording contract with RCA Victor, and released Miriam Makeba, her first studio album, in 1960, backed by Belafonte's band. RCA Victor chose to buy out Makeba's contract with Gallotone Records, and despite the fact that Makeba was unable to perform in South Africa, Gallotone received US$45,000 in the deal, which meant that Makeba received no royalties for her debut album. The album included one of her most famous hits in the US, "Qongqothwane", which was known in English as "The Click Song" because Makeba's audiences could not pronounce the Xhosa name. Time magazine called her the "most exciting new singing talent to appear in many years", and Newsweek compared her voice to "the smoky tones and delicate phrasing" of Ella Fitzgerald and the "intimate warmth" of Frank Sinatra. The album was not commercially successful, and Makeba was briefly dropped from RCA Victor: she was re-signed soon after as the label recognised the commercial possibilities of the growing interest in African culture. Her South African identity had been downplayed during her first signing, but it was strongly emphasised the second time to take advantage of this interest. Makeba made several appearances on television, often in the company of Belafonte. In 1962, Makeba and Belafonte sang at the birthday party for US President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, but Makeba did not go to the party afterwards because she was ill. Kennedy nevertheless insisted on meeting her, so Belafonte sent a car to pick her up.
In 1964, Makeba released her second studio album for RCA Victor, The World of Miriam Makeba. An early example of world music, the album peaked at number eighty-six on the Billboard 200. Makeba's music had a cross-racial appeal in the US; white Americans were attracted to her image as an "exotic" African performer, and black Americans related their own experiences of racial segregation to Makeba's struggle against apartheid. Makeba found company among other African exiles and émigrés in New York, including Hugh Masekela, to whom she was married from 1963 to 1968. During their marriage, Makeba and Masekela were neighbours of the jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie in Englewood, New Jersey; they spent much of their time in Harlem. She also came to know actors Marlon Brando and Lauren Bacall, and musicians Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles. Fellow singer-activist Nina Simone became friendly with Makeba, as did actor Cicely Tyson; Makeba and Simone performed together at Carnegie Hall. Makeba was among black entertainers, activists, and intellectuals in New York at the time who believed that the civil rights movement and popular culture could reinforce each other, creating "a sense of intertwined political and cultural vibrancy"; other examples included Maya Angelou and Sidney Poitier. She later described her difficulty living with racial segregation, saying "There wasn't much difference in America; it was a country that had abolished slavery but there was apartheid in its own way."
Travel and activism
Makeba's music was also popular in Europe, and she travelled and performed there frequently. Acting on the advice of Belafonte, she added songs from Latin America, Europe, Israel, and elsewhere in Africa to her repertoire. She visited Kenya in 1962 in support of the country's independence from British colonial rule, and raised funds for its independence leader Jomo Kenyatta. Later that year she testified before the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid about the effects of the system, asking for economic sanctions against South Africa's National Party government. She requested an arms embargo against South Africa, on the basis that weapons sold to the government would likely be used against black women and children. As a result, her music was banned in South Africa, and her South African citizenship and right to return were revoked. Makeba thus became a stateless person, but she was soon issued passports by Algeria, Guinea, Belgium and Ghana. In her life, she held nine passports, and was granted honorary citizenship in ten countries.
Soon after her testimony, Haile Selassie, the emperor of Ethiopia, invited her to sing at the inauguration of the Organisation of African Unity, the only performer to be invited. As the fact of her ban from South Africa became well known she became a cause célèbre for Western liberals, and her presence in the civil rights movement provided a link between that movement and the anti-apartheid struggle. In 1964 she was taught the song "Malaika" by a Kenyan student while backstage at a performance in San Francisco; the song later became a staple of her performances.
Throughout the 1960s, Makeba strengthened her involvement with a range of black-centred political movements, including the civil rights, anti-apartheid, Black Consciousness, and Black Power movements. She briefly met the Trinidadian-American activist Stokely Carmichael—the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and a prominent figure in the Black Panther Party—after Belafonte invited him to one of Makeba's concerts; they met again in Conakry six years later. They entered a relationship, initially kept secret from all but their closest friends and family. Makeba participated in fundraising activities for various civil rights groups, including a benefit concert for the 1962 Southern Christian Leadership Conference that civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. referred to as the "event of the year". Following a concert and rally in Atlanta in support of King, Makeba and others were denied entrance to a restaurant as a result of Jim Crow laws, leading to a televised protest in front of the establishment. She also criticised King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference for its investment in South African companies, informing press that "Now my friend of long standing supports the country's persecution of my people and I must find a new idol". Her identity as an African woman in the civil rights movement helped create "an emerging liberal consensus" that extreme racial discrimination, whether domestically or internationally, was harmful. In 1964 she testified at the UN for a second time, quoting a song by Vanessa Redgrave in calling for quick action against the South African government.
On 15 March 1966, Makeba and Belafonte received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording for An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under apartheid, including several songs critical of the South African government, such as "Ndodemnyama we Verwoerd" ("Watch our Verwoerd", a reference to Hendrik Verwoerd, one of the architects of apartheid). It sold widely and raised Makeba's profile in the US; Belafonte and Makeba's concert tour following its release was often sold out, and the album has been described as the best they made together. Makeba's use of lyrics in Swahili, Xhosa, and Sotho led to her being seen as a representation of an "authentic" Africa by American audiences. In 1967, more than ten years after she first recorded the song, the single "Pata Pata" was released in the US on an album of the same title, and became a worldwide hit. During its recording, she and Belafonte had a disagreement, after which they stopped recording together.
Guinea
Makeba married Carmichael in March 1968; this caused her popularity in the US to decline markedly. Conservatives came to regard her as a militant and an extremist, an image that alienated much of her fanbase. Her performances were cancelled and her coverage in the press declined despite her efforts to portray her marriage as apolitical. White American audiences stopped supporting her, and the US government took an interest in her activities. The Central Intelligence Agency began following her, and placed hidden microphones in her apartment; the Federal Bureau of Investigation also placed her under surveillance. While she and her husband were travelling in the Bahamas, she was banned from returning to the US, and was refused a visa. As a result, the couple moved to Guinea, where Carmichael changed his name to Kwame Touré. Makeba did not return to the US until 1987.
Guinea remained Makeba's home for the next 15 years, and she and her husband became close to President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife, Andrée. Touré wanted to create a new style of African music, creating his own record label Syliphone for this purpose, and all musicians received a minimum wage if they practised for several hours every day. Makeba later stated that "I've never seen a country that did what Sékou Touré did for artists." After her rejection from the US she began to write music more directly critical of the US government's racial policies, recording and singing songs such as "Lumumba" in 1970 (referring to Patrice Lumumba, the assassinated Prime Minister of the Congo), and "Malcolm X" in 1974.
Makeba performed more frequently in African countries, and as countries became independent of European colonial powers, was invited to sing at independence ceremonies, including in Kenya, Angola, Zambia, Tanganyika, and Mozambique. In September 1974 she performed alongside a multitude of well-known African and American musicians at the Zaire 74 festival in Kinshasa, Zaire (formerly the Congo). She also became a diplomat for Ghana, and was appointed Guinea's official delegate to the UN in 1975; that year, she addressed the United Nations General Assembly. She continued to perform in Europe and Asia, as well as her African concerts, but not in the US, where a de facto boycott was in effect. Her performances in Africa were immensely popular: she was described as the highlight of FESTAC 77, a Pan-African arts festival in Nigeria in 1977, and during a Liberian performance of "Pata Pata", the stadium proved so loud that she was unable to complete the song. "Pata Pata", like her other songs, had been banned in South Africa. Another song she sang frequently in this period was "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika", though she never recorded it. Makeba later stated that it was during this period that she accepted the label "Mama Africa".
In 1976, the South African government replaced English with Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in all schools, setting off the Soweto uprising. Between 15,000 and 20,000 students took part; caught unprepared, the police opened fire on the protesting children, killing hundreds and injuring more than a thousand. Hugh Masekela wrote "Soweto Blues" in response to the massacre, and the song was performed by Makeba, becoming a staple of her live performances for many years. A review in the magazine Musician said that the song had "searingly righteous lyrics" about the uprising that "cut to the bone". She had separated from Carmichael in 1973; in 1978 they divorced and in 1981 she married Bageot Bah, an airline executive.
Belgium
Makeba's daughter Bongi, who was a singer in her own right and had often accompanied her mother on stage, died in childbirth in 1985. Makeba was left responsible for her two grandchildren, and decided to move out of Guinea. She settled in the Woluwe-Saint-Lambert district of the Belgian capital Brussels. In the following year, Masekela introduced Makeba to Paul Simon, and a few months later she embarked on Simon's very successful Graceland Tour. The tour concluded with two concerts held in Harare, Zimbabwe, which were filmed in 1987 for release as Graceland: The African Concert. After touring the world with Simon, Warner Bros. Records signed Makeba and she released Sangoma ("Healer"), an album of healing chants named in honour of her sangoma mother. Her involvement with Simon caused controversy: Graceland had been recorded in South Africa, breaking the cultural boycott of the country, and thus Makeba's participation in the tour was regarded as contravening the boycott (which Makeba herself endorsed).
In preparation for the Graceland tour, she worked with journalist James Hall to write an autobiography titled Makeba: My Story. The book contained descriptions of her experience with apartheid, and was also critical of the commodification and consumerism she experienced in the US. The book was translated into five languages. She took part in the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute, a popular-music concert staged on 11 June 1988 at London's Wembley Stadium, and broadcast to an audience of 600 million across 67 countries. Political aspects of the concert were heavily censored in the US by the Fox television network. The use of music to raise awareness of apartheid paid off: a survey after the concert found that among people aged between 16 and 24, three-quarters knew of Mandela, and supported his release from prison.
Return to South Africa, final years and death
Following growing pressure from the anti-apartheid movement both domestically and internationally, in 1990 State President Frederik Willem de Klerk reversed the ban on the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid organisations, and announced that Mandela would shortly be released from prison. Mandela was released in February 1990. He persuaded Makeba to return to South Africa, which she did, using her French passport, on 10 June 1990.
Makeba, Gillespie, Simone, and Masekela recorded and released her studio album, Eyes on Tomorrow, in 1991. It combined jazz, R&B, pop, and traditional African music, and was a hit across Africa. Makeba and Gillespie then toured the world together to promote it. In November she made a guest appearance on a US sitcom, The Cosby Show. In 1992, she starred in the film Sarafina! which centred on students involved in the 1976 Soweto uprising. Makeba portrayed the title character's mother, Angelina, a role which The New York Times described as having been performed with "immense dignity".
On 16 October 1999, Makeba was named a Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In January 2000, her album, Homeland, produced by the New York City based record label Putumayo World Music, was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best World Music Album category. She worked closely with Graça Machel-Mandela, the South African first lady, advocating for children suffering from HIV/AIDS, child soldiers, and the physically handicapped. She established the Makeba Centre for Girls, a home for orphans, described in an obituary as her most personal project. She also took part in the 2002 documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony, which examined the struggles of black South Africans against apartheid through the music of the period. Makeba's second autobiography, Makeba: The Miriam Makeba Story, was published in 2004. In 2005 she announced that she would retire and began a farewell tour, but despite having osteoarthritis, continued to perform until her death. During this period, her grandchildren Nelson Lumumba Lee and Zenzi Lee, and her great-grandchild Lindelani, occasionally joined her performances.
On 9 November 2008, Makeba fell ill during a concert in Castel Volturno, near Caserta, Italy. The concert had been organised to support the writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a criminal organisation active in the Campania region. She suffered a heart attack after singing her hit song "Pata Pata", and was taken to the Pineta Grande clinic, where doctors were unable to revive her.
Music and image
Musical style
The groups with which Makeba began her career performed mbube, a style of vocal harmony which drew on American jazz, ragtime, and Anglican church hymns, as well as indigenous styles of music. Johannesburg musician Dolly Rathebe was an early influence on Makeba's music, as were female jazz singers from the US. Historian David Coplan writes that the "African jazz" made popular by Makeba and others was "inherently hybridized" rather than derivative of any particular genre, blending as it did marabi and jazz, and was "Americanized African music, not Africanized American music". The music that she performed was described by British writer Robin Denselow as a "unique blend of rousing township styles and jazz-influenced balladry".
Makeba released more than 30 albums during her career. The dominant styles of these shifted over time, moving from African jazz to recordings influenced by Belafonte's "crooning" to music drawing from traditional South African musical forms. She has been associated with the genres of world music and Afropop. She also incorporated Latin American musical styles into her performances. Historian Ruth Feldstein described her music as "[crossing] the borders between what many people associated with avant-garde and 'quality' culture and the commercial mainstream"; the latter aspect often drew criticism. She was able to appeal to audiences from many political, racial, and national backgrounds.
She was known for having a dynamic vocal range, and was described as having an emotional awareness during her performances. She occasionally danced during her shows, and was described as having a sensuous presence on stage. She was able to vary her voice considerably: an obituary remarked that she "could soar like an opera singer, but she could also whisper, roar, hiss, growl and shout. She could sing while making the epiglottal clicks of the Xhosa language." She sang in English and several African languages, but never in Afrikaans, the language of the apartheid government in South Africa. She once stated "When Afrikaaners sing in my language, then I will sing theirs." English was seen as the language of political resistance by black South Africans due to the educational barriers they faced under apartheid; the Manhattan Brothers, with whom Makeba had sung in Sophiatown, had been prohibited from recording in English. Her songs in African languages have been described as reaffirming black pride.
Politics and perception
Makeba said that she did not perform political music, but music about her personal life in South Africa, which included describing the pain she felt living under apartheid. She once stated "people say I sing politics, but what I sing is not politics, it is the truth", an example of the mixing of personal and political issues for musicians living during apartheid. When she first entered the US, she avoided discussing apartheid explicitly, partly out of concern for her family still in South Africa. Nonetheless, she is known for using her voice to convey the political message of opposition to apartheid, performing widely and frequently for civil rights and anti-apartheid organisations. Even songs that did not carry an explicitly political message were seen as subversive, due to their being banned in South Africa. Makeba saw her music as a tool of activism, saying "In our struggle, songs are not simply entertainment for us. They are the way we communicate."
Makeba's use of the clicks common in languages such as Xhosa and Zulu (as in "Qongqothwane", "The Click Song") was frequently remarked upon by Western audiences. It contributed to her popularity and her exotic image, which scholars have described as a kind of othering, exacerbated by the fact that Western audiences often could not understand her lyrics. Critics in the US described her as the "African tribeswoman" and as an "import from South Africa", often depicting her in condescending terms as a product of a more primitive society. Commentators also frequently described her in terms of the prominent men she was associated with, despite her own prominence. During her early career in South Africa she had been seen as a sex symbol, an image that received considerably less attention in the US.
Makeba was described as a style icon, both in her home country and the US. She wore no makeup and refused to straighten her hair for shows, thus helping establish a style that came to be known internationally as the "Afro look". According to music scholar Tanisha Ford, her hairstyle represented a "liberated African beauty aesthetic". She was seen as a beauty icon by South African schoolgirls, who were compelled to shorten their hair by the apartheid government. Makeba stuck to wearing African jewellery; she disapproved of the skin-lighteners commonly used by South African women at the time, and refused to appear in advertisements for them. Her self-presentation has been characterised by scholars as a rejection of the predominantly white standards of beauty that women in the US were held to, which allowed Makeba to partially escape the sexualisation directed at women performers during this period. Nonetheless, the terms used to describe her in the US media have been identified by scholars as frequently used to "sexualize, infantalize, and animalize" people of African heritage.
Legacy
Musical influence
Makeba was among the most visible Africans in the US; as a result, she was often emblematic of the continent of Africa for Americans. Her music earned her the moniker "Mama Africa", and she was variously described as the "Empress of African Song", the "Queen of South African music", and Africa's "first superstar". Music scholar J. U. Jacobs said that Makeba's music had "both been shaped by and given shape to black South African and American music". The jazz musician Abbey Lincoln is among those identified as being influenced by Makeba. Makeba and Simone were among a group of artists who helped shape soul music. Longtime collaborator Belafonte called her "the most revolutionary new talent to appear in any medium in the last decade". Speaking after her death, Mandela called her "South Africa's first lady of song", and said that "her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
Outside her home country Makeba was credited with bringing African music to a Western audience, and along with artists such as Youssou N'Dour, Salif Keita, Ali Farka Touré, Baaba Maal and Angélique Kidjo, with popularising the genre of world music. Her work with Belafonte in the 1960s has been described as creating the genre of world music before the concept entered the popular imagination, and also as highlighting the diversity and cultural pluralism within African music. Within South Africa, Makeba has been described as influencing artists such as kwaito musician Thandiswa Mazwai and her band Bongo Maffin, whose track "De Makeba" was a modified version of Makeba's "Pata Pata", and one of several tribute recordings released after her return to South Africa. South African jazz musician Simphiwe Dana has been described as "the new Miriam Makeba". South African singer Lira has frequently been compared with Makeba, particularly for her performance of "Pata Pata" during the opening ceremony of the 2010 Football World Cup. A year later, Kidjo dedicated her concert in New York to Makeba, as a musician who had "paved the way for her success". In an obituary, scholar Lara Allen referred to Makeba as "arguably South Africa's most famous musical export". In 2016 the French singer Jain released "Makeba", a tribute.
Activism
Makeba was among the most visible people campaigning against the apartheid system in South Africa, and was responsible for popularising several anti-apartheid songs, including "Meadowlands" by Strike Vilakezi and "Ndodemnyama we Verwoerd" (Watch out, Verwoerd) by Vuyisile Mini. Due to her high profile, she became a spokesperson of sorts for Africans living under oppressive governments, and in particular for black South Africans living under apartheid. When the South African government prevented her from entering her home country, she became a symbol of "apartheid's cruelty", and she used her position as a celebrity by testifying against apartheid before the UN in 1962 and 1964. Many of her songs were banned within South Africa, leading to Makeba's records being distributed underground, and even her apolitical songs being seen as subversive. She thus became a symbol of resistance to the white-minority government both within and outside South Africa. In an interview in 2000, Masekela said that "there [was] nobody in Africa who made the world more aware of what was happening in South Africa than Miriam Makeba."
Makeba has also been associated with the movement against colonialism, with the civil rights and black power movements in the US, and with the Pan-African movement. She called for unity between black people of African descent across the world: "Africans who live everywhere should fight everywhere. The struggle is no different in South Africa, the streets of Chicago, Trinidad or Canada. The Black people are the victims of capitalism, racism and oppression, period". After marrying Carmichael she often appeared with him during his speeches; Carmichael later described her presence at these events as an asset, and Feldstein wrote that Makeba enhanced Carmichael's message that "black is beautiful". Along with performers such as Simone, Lena Horne, and Abbey Lincoln, she used her position as a prominent musician to advocate for civil rights. Their activism has been described as simultaneously calling attention to racial and gender disparities, and highlighting "that the liberation they desired could not separate race from sex". Makeba's critique of second-wave feminism as being the product of luxury led to observers being unwilling to call her a feminist. Scholar Ruth Feldstein stated that Makeba and others influenced both black feminism and second-wave feminism through their advocacy, and the historian Jacqueline Castledine referred to her as one of the "most steadfast voices for social justice".
Awards and recognition
Makeba's 1965 collaboration with Harry Belafonte won a Grammy Award, making her the first African recording artist to win this award. Makeba shared the 2001 Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. They received their prize from Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden, during a nationally televised ceremony at Berwaldhallen, Stockholm, on 27 May 2002.
Makeba won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986, and in 2001 was awarded the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold by the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding". She also received several honorary doctorates. In 2004, she was voted 38th in a poll ranking 100 Great South Africans.
Mama Africa, a musical about Makeba, was produced in South Africa by Niyi Coker. Originally titled Zenzi!, the musical premiered to a sold-out crowd in Cape Town on 26 May 2016. It was performed in the US in St. Louis, Missouri and at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City between October and December 2016. The musical returned to South Africa in February 2017 for what would have been Makeba's 85th birthday.
From 25 to 27 September 2009, a tribute television show to Makeba entitled Hommage à Miriam Makeba and curated by Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist Angélique Kidjo, was held at the Cirque d'hiver in Paris. The show was presented as Mama Africa: Celebrating Miriam Makeba at the Barbican in London on 21 November 2009. A documentary film titled Mama Africa, about Makeba's life, co-written and directed by Finnish director Mika Kaurismäki, was released in 2011. On 4 March 2013, and again on International Women's Day in 2017, Google honoured her with a Google Doodle on their homepage. In 2014 she was honoured (along with Nelson Mandela, Albertina Sisulu and Steve Biko) in the Belgian city of Ghent, which named a square after her, the "Miriam Makebaplein". Makeba was named 1967's "woman of the year" by Time magazine in 2020, as one of a list of 100 "women of the year" for the years 1920–2019.
Notable songs and albums
This is a list of albums and songs, including covers, by Miriam Makeba that have received significant mention in commentary about her or about the musical and political movements she participated in.
Albums
Miriam Makeba (1960)
The Many Voices of Miriam Makeba (1962)
An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba (1965)
Comme une symphonie d'amour (1979)
The Queen of African Music (1987)
Sangoma (1988)
Welela (1989)
Eyes on Tomorrow (1991)
Homeland (2000)
Songs
"Lakutshn, Ilanga"/Lovely Lies" (1956)
"Sophiatown is Gone"
"The Click Song" / "Mbube" (1963)
"Pata Pata" (1967)
"Lumumba" (1970)
"Malcolm X" (1974)
"Soweto Blues" (1977)
"Thula Sizwe/I Shall Be Released" (1991)
"Malaika"
See also
Culture of South Africa
Notes and references
Footnotes
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Miriam Makeba at National Public Radio
1932 births
2008 deaths
20th-century South African women singers
21st-century South African women singers
Anti-apartheid activists
FAO Goodwill ambassadors
Grammy Award winners
Heads Up International artists
Music in the movement against apartheid
Musicians who died on stage
Musicians from Johannesburg
South African actresses
South African exiles
South African people of Swazi descent
World music musicians
Wrasse Records artists
Xhosa people | true | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
]
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[
"Miriam Makeba",
"Childhood and family",
"Where did she grow up?",
"black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail."
]
| C_be942cd9bfc84a1eb32a2739a1edbbc7_1 | Why was she in jail? | 3 | Why was Miriam Makeba in jail for the first six months of her life? | Miriam Makeba | Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932 in the black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg. Her Swazi mother, Christina Makeba, was a sangoma, or traditional healer, and a domestic worker. Her Xhosa father, Caswell Makeba, was a teacher; he died when she was six years old. Makeba later said that before she was conceived, her mother had been warned that any future pregnancy could be fatal. Neither Miriam nor her mother seemed likely to survive after a difficult labour and delivery. Miriam's grandmother, who attended the birth, often muttered "uzenzile", a Xhosa word that means "you brought this on yourself", to Miriam's mother during her recovery, which inspired her to give her daughter the name "Zenzile". When Makeba was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. The family could not afford the small fine required to avoid a jail term, and Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail. As a child, Makeba sang in the choir of the Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria, an all-black Methodist primary school that she attended for eight years. Her talent for singing earned her praise at school. Makeba was baptised a Protestant, and sang in church choirs, in English, Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu; she later said that she learned to sing in English before she could speak the language. The family moved to the Transvaal when Makeba was a child. After her father's death, she was forced to find employment; she did domestic work, and worked as a nanny. She described herself as a shy person at the time. Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children. Makeba lived for a while with her grandmother and a large number of cousins in Pretoria. Makeba was influenced by her family's musical tastes; her mother played several traditional instruments, and her elder brother collected records, including those of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, and taught Makeba songs. Her father played the piano, and his musical inclination was later a factor in Makeba's family accepting what was seen as a risque choice of career. In 1949, Makeba married James Kubay, a policeman in training, with whom she had her only child, Bongi Makeba, in 1950. Makeba was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband, who was said to have beaten her, left her shortly afterwards, after a two-year marriage. A decade later she overcame cervical cancer via a hysterectomy. CANNOTANSWER | her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. | Zenzile Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid and white-minority government in South Africa.
Born in Johannesburg to Swazi and Xhosa parents, Makeba was forced to find employment as a child after the death of her father. She had a brief and allegedly abusive first marriage at the age of 17, gave birth to her only child in 1950, and survived breast cancer. Her vocal talent had been recognized when she was a child, and she began singing professionally in the 1950s, with the Cuban Brothers, the Manhattan Brothers, and an all-woman group, the Skylarks, performing a mixture of jazz, traditional African melodies, and Western popular music. In 1959, Makeba had a brief role in the anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa, which brought her international attention, and led to her performing in Venice, London, and New York City. In London, she met the American singer Harry Belafonte, who became a mentor and colleague. She moved to New York City, where she became immediately popular, and recorded her first solo album in 1960. Her attempt to return to South Africa that year for her mother's funeral was prevented by the country's government.
Makeba's career flourished in the United States, and she released several albums and songs, her most popular being "Pata Pata" (1967). Along with Belafonte she received a Grammy Award for her 1965 album An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. She testified against the South African government at the United Nations and became involved in the civil rights movement. She married Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Black Panther Party, in 1968. As a result, she lost support among white Americans. The US government cancelled her visa while she was travelling abroad, leading her and Carmichael to move to Guinea. She continued to perform, mostly in African countries, including at several independence celebrations. She began to write and perform music more explicitly critical of apartheid; the 1977 song "Soweto Blues", written by her former husband Hugh Masekela, was about the Soweto uprising. After apartheid was dismantled in 1990, Makeba returned to South Africa. She continued recording and performing, including a 1991 album with Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, and appeared in the 1992 film Sarafina!. She was named a UN goodwill ambassador in 1999, and campaigned for humanitarian causes. She died of a heart attack during a 2008 concert in Italy.
Makeba was among the first African musicians to receive worldwide recognition. She brought African music to a Western audience, and popularized the world music and Afropop genres. She also made popular several songs critical of apartheid, and became a symbol of opposition to the system, particularly after her right to return was revoked. Upon her death, former South African President Nelson Mandela said that "her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
Early years
Childhood and family
Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932 in the black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg. Her Swazi mother, Christina Makeba, was a sangoma, or traditional healer, and a domestic worker. Her Xhosa father, Caswell Makeba, was a teacher; he died when she was six years old. Makeba later said that before she was conceived, her mother had been warned that any future pregnancy could be fatal. Neither Miriam nor her mother seemed likely to survive after a difficult labour and delivery. Miriam's grandmother, who attended the birth, often muttered "uzenzile", a Xhosa word that means "you brought this on yourself", to Miriam's mother during her recovery, which inspired her to give her daughter the name "Zenzile".
When Makeba was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. The family could not afford the small fine required to avoid a jail term, and Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail. As a child, Makeba sang in the choir of the Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria, an all-black Methodist primary school that she attended for eight years. Her talent for singing earned her praise at school. Makeba was baptised a Protestant, and sang in church choirs, in English, Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu; she later said that she learned to sing in English before she could speak the language.
The family moved to the Transvaal when Makeba was a child. After her father's death, she was forced to find employment; she did domestic work, and worked as a nanny. She described herself as a shy person at the time. Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children. Makeba lived for a while with her grandmother and a large number of cousins in Pretoria. Makeba was influenced by her family's musical tastes; her mother played several traditional instruments, and her elder brother collected records, including those of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, and taught Makeba songs. Her father played the piano, and his musical inclination was later a factor in Makeba's family accepting what was seen as a risque choice of career.
In 1949, Makeba married James Kubay, a policeman in training, with whom she had her only child, Bongi Makeba, in 1950. Makeba was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband, who was said to have beaten her, left her shortly afterwards, after a two-year marriage. A decade later she overcame cervical cancer via a hysterectomy.
Early career
Makeba began her professional musical career with the Cuban Brothers, a South African all-male close harmony group, with whom she sang covers of popular American songs. Soon afterwards, at the age of 21, she joined a jazz group, the Manhattan Brothers, who sang a mixture of South African songs and pieces from popular African-American groups. Makeba was the only woman in the group. With the Manhattan Brothers she recorded her first hit, "Laku Tshoni Ilanga", in 1953, and developed a national reputation as a musician. In 1956 she joined a new all-woman group, the Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional South African melodies. Formed by Gallotone Records, the group was also known as the Sunbeams. Makeba sang with the Skylarks when the Manhattan Brothers were travelling abroad; later, she also travelled with the Manhattan Brothers. In the Skylarks, Makeba sang alongside Rhodesian-born musician Dorothy Masuka, whose music Makeba had followed, along with that of Dolly Rathebe. Several of the Skylarks' pieces from this period became popular; the music historian Rob Allingham later described the group as "real trendsetters, with harmonisation that had never been heard before." Makeba received no royalties from her work with the Skylarks.
While performing with the Manhattan Brothers in 1955, Makeba met Nelson Mandela, then a young lawyer; he later remembered the meeting, and that he felt that the girl he met "was going to be someone." In 1956, Gallotone Records released "Lovely Lies", Makeba's first solo success; the Xhosa lyric about a man looking for his beloved in jails and hospitals was replaced with the unrelated and innocuous line "You tell such lovely lies with your two lovely eyes" in the English version. The record became the first South African record to chart on the United States Billboard Top 100. In 1957, Makeba was featured on the cover of Drum magazine.
In 1959, Makeba sang the lead female role in the Broadway-inspired South African jazz opera King Kong; among those in the cast was the musician Hugh Masekela. The musical was performed to racially integrated audiences, raising her profile among white South Africans. Also in 1959, she had a short guest appearance in Come Back, Africa, an anti-apartheid film produced and directed by the American independent filmmaker Lionel Rogosin. Rogosin cast her after seeing her on stage in African Jazz and Variety show, on which Makeba was a performer for 18 months. The film blended elements of documentary and fiction and had to be filmed in secret as the government was expected to be hostile to it. Makeba appeared on stage, and sang two songs: her appearance lasted four minutes. The cameo made an enormous impression on viewers, and Rogosin organised a visa for her to attend the premiere of the film at the twenty-fourth Venice Film Festival in Italy, where the film won the prestigious Critics' Choice Award. Makeba's presence has been described as crucial to the film, as an emblem of cosmopolitan black identity that also connected with working-class black people due to the dialogue being in Zulu.
Makeba's role in Come Back, Africa brought her international recognition and she travelled to London and New York to perform. In London she met the American singer Harry Belafonte, who became her mentor, helping her with her first solo recordings. These included "Pata Pata", which would be released many years later, and a version of the traditional Xhosa song "Qongqothwane", which she had first performed with the Skylarks. Though "Pata Pata"—described by Musician magazine as a "groundbreaking Afropop gem"—became her most famous song, Makeba described it as "one of my most insignificant songs". While in England, she married Sonny Pillay, a South African ballad singer of Indian descent; they divorced within a few months.
Makeba then moved to New York, making her US music debut on 1 November 1959 on The Steve Allen Show in Los Angeles for a television audience of 60 million. Her New York debut at the Village Vanguard occurred soon after; she sang in Xhosa and Zulu, and performed a Yiddish folk song. Her audience at this concert included Miles Davis and Duke Ellington; her performance received strongly positive reviews from critics. She first came to popular and critical attention in jazz clubs, after which her reputation grew rapidly. Belafonte, who had helped Makeba with her move to the US, handled the logistics for her first performances. When she first moved to the US, Makeba lived in Greenwich Village, along with other musicians and actors. As was common in her profession, she experienced some financial insecurity, and worked as a babysitter for a period.
Exile
United States
Breakthrough
Soon after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, Makeba learned that her mother had died. When she tried to return home for the funeral, she found that her South African passport had been cancelled. Two of Makeba's family members were killed in the massacre. The incident left her concerned about her family, many of whom were still in South Africa, including her daughter: the nine-year-old Bongi joined her mother in the US in August 1960. During her first few years in the US, Makeba had rarely sung explicitly political music, but her popularity had led to an increase in awareness of apartheid and the anti-apartheid movement. Following the Sharpeville killings, Makeba felt a responsibility to help, as she had been able to leave the country while others had not. From this point, she became an increasingly outspoken critic of apartheid and the white-minority government; before the massacre, she had taken care to avoid overtly political statements in South Africa.
Her musical career in the US continued to flourish. She signed a recording contract with RCA Victor, and released Miriam Makeba, her first studio album, in 1960, backed by Belafonte's band. RCA Victor chose to buy out Makeba's contract with Gallotone Records, and despite the fact that Makeba was unable to perform in South Africa, Gallotone received US$45,000 in the deal, which meant that Makeba received no royalties for her debut album. The album included one of her most famous hits in the US, "Qongqothwane", which was known in English as "The Click Song" because Makeba's audiences could not pronounce the Xhosa name. Time magazine called her the "most exciting new singing talent to appear in many years", and Newsweek compared her voice to "the smoky tones and delicate phrasing" of Ella Fitzgerald and the "intimate warmth" of Frank Sinatra. The album was not commercially successful, and Makeba was briefly dropped from RCA Victor: she was re-signed soon after as the label recognised the commercial possibilities of the growing interest in African culture. Her South African identity had been downplayed during her first signing, but it was strongly emphasised the second time to take advantage of this interest. Makeba made several appearances on television, often in the company of Belafonte. In 1962, Makeba and Belafonte sang at the birthday party for US President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, but Makeba did not go to the party afterwards because she was ill. Kennedy nevertheless insisted on meeting her, so Belafonte sent a car to pick her up.
In 1964, Makeba released her second studio album for RCA Victor, The World of Miriam Makeba. An early example of world music, the album peaked at number eighty-six on the Billboard 200. Makeba's music had a cross-racial appeal in the US; white Americans were attracted to her image as an "exotic" African performer, and black Americans related their own experiences of racial segregation to Makeba's struggle against apartheid. Makeba found company among other African exiles and émigrés in New York, including Hugh Masekela, to whom she was married from 1963 to 1968. During their marriage, Makeba and Masekela were neighbours of the jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie in Englewood, New Jersey; they spent much of their time in Harlem. She also came to know actors Marlon Brando and Lauren Bacall, and musicians Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles. Fellow singer-activist Nina Simone became friendly with Makeba, as did actor Cicely Tyson; Makeba and Simone performed together at Carnegie Hall. Makeba was among black entertainers, activists, and intellectuals in New York at the time who believed that the civil rights movement and popular culture could reinforce each other, creating "a sense of intertwined political and cultural vibrancy"; other examples included Maya Angelou and Sidney Poitier. She later described her difficulty living with racial segregation, saying "There wasn't much difference in America; it was a country that had abolished slavery but there was apartheid in its own way."
Travel and activism
Makeba's music was also popular in Europe, and she travelled and performed there frequently. Acting on the advice of Belafonte, she added songs from Latin America, Europe, Israel, and elsewhere in Africa to her repertoire. She visited Kenya in 1962 in support of the country's independence from British colonial rule, and raised funds for its independence leader Jomo Kenyatta. Later that year she testified before the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid about the effects of the system, asking for economic sanctions against South Africa's National Party government. She requested an arms embargo against South Africa, on the basis that weapons sold to the government would likely be used against black women and children. As a result, her music was banned in South Africa, and her South African citizenship and right to return were revoked. Makeba thus became a stateless person, but she was soon issued passports by Algeria, Guinea, Belgium and Ghana. In her life, she held nine passports, and was granted honorary citizenship in ten countries.
Soon after her testimony, Haile Selassie, the emperor of Ethiopia, invited her to sing at the inauguration of the Organisation of African Unity, the only performer to be invited. As the fact of her ban from South Africa became well known she became a cause célèbre for Western liberals, and her presence in the civil rights movement provided a link between that movement and the anti-apartheid struggle. In 1964 she was taught the song "Malaika" by a Kenyan student while backstage at a performance in San Francisco; the song later became a staple of her performances.
Throughout the 1960s, Makeba strengthened her involvement with a range of black-centred political movements, including the civil rights, anti-apartheid, Black Consciousness, and Black Power movements. She briefly met the Trinidadian-American activist Stokely Carmichael—the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and a prominent figure in the Black Panther Party—after Belafonte invited him to one of Makeba's concerts; they met again in Conakry six years later. They entered a relationship, initially kept secret from all but their closest friends and family. Makeba participated in fundraising activities for various civil rights groups, including a benefit concert for the 1962 Southern Christian Leadership Conference that civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. referred to as the "event of the year". Following a concert and rally in Atlanta in support of King, Makeba and others were denied entrance to a restaurant as a result of Jim Crow laws, leading to a televised protest in front of the establishment. She also criticised King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference for its investment in South African companies, informing press that "Now my friend of long standing supports the country's persecution of my people and I must find a new idol". Her identity as an African woman in the civil rights movement helped create "an emerging liberal consensus" that extreme racial discrimination, whether domestically or internationally, was harmful. In 1964 she testified at the UN for a second time, quoting a song by Vanessa Redgrave in calling for quick action against the South African government.
On 15 March 1966, Makeba and Belafonte received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording for An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under apartheid, including several songs critical of the South African government, such as "Ndodemnyama we Verwoerd" ("Watch our Verwoerd", a reference to Hendrik Verwoerd, one of the architects of apartheid). It sold widely and raised Makeba's profile in the US; Belafonte and Makeba's concert tour following its release was often sold out, and the album has been described as the best they made together. Makeba's use of lyrics in Swahili, Xhosa, and Sotho led to her being seen as a representation of an "authentic" Africa by American audiences. In 1967, more than ten years after she first recorded the song, the single "Pata Pata" was released in the US on an album of the same title, and became a worldwide hit. During its recording, she and Belafonte had a disagreement, after which they stopped recording together.
Guinea
Makeba married Carmichael in March 1968; this caused her popularity in the US to decline markedly. Conservatives came to regard her as a militant and an extremist, an image that alienated much of her fanbase. Her performances were cancelled and her coverage in the press declined despite her efforts to portray her marriage as apolitical. White American audiences stopped supporting her, and the US government took an interest in her activities. The Central Intelligence Agency began following her, and placed hidden microphones in her apartment; the Federal Bureau of Investigation also placed her under surveillance. While she and her husband were travelling in the Bahamas, she was banned from returning to the US, and was refused a visa. As a result, the couple moved to Guinea, where Carmichael changed his name to Kwame Touré. Makeba did not return to the US until 1987.
Guinea remained Makeba's home for the next 15 years, and she and her husband became close to President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife, Andrée. Touré wanted to create a new style of African music, creating his own record label Syliphone for this purpose, and all musicians received a minimum wage if they practised for several hours every day. Makeba later stated that "I've never seen a country that did what Sékou Touré did for artists." After her rejection from the US she began to write music more directly critical of the US government's racial policies, recording and singing songs such as "Lumumba" in 1970 (referring to Patrice Lumumba, the assassinated Prime Minister of the Congo), and "Malcolm X" in 1974.
Makeba performed more frequently in African countries, and as countries became independent of European colonial powers, was invited to sing at independence ceremonies, including in Kenya, Angola, Zambia, Tanganyika, and Mozambique. In September 1974 she performed alongside a multitude of well-known African and American musicians at the Zaire 74 festival in Kinshasa, Zaire (formerly the Congo). She also became a diplomat for Ghana, and was appointed Guinea's official delegate to the UN in 1975; that year, she addressed the United Nations General Assembly. She continued to perform in Europe and Asia, as well as her African concerts, but not in the US, where a de facto boycott was in effect. Her performances in Africa were immensely popular: she was described as the highlight of FESTAC 77, a Pan-African arts festival in Nigeria in 1977, and during a Liberian performance of "Pata Pata", the stadium proved so loud that she was unable to complete the song. "Pata Pata", like her other songs, had been banned in South Africa. Another song she sang frequently in this period was "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika", though she never recorded it. Makeba later stated that it was during this period that she accepted the label "Mama Africa".
In 1976, the South African government replaced English with Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in all schools, setting off the Soweto uprising. Between 15,000 and 20,000 students took part; caught unprepared, the police opened fire on the protesting children, killing hundreds and injuring more than a thousand. Hugh Masekela wrote "Soweto Blues" in response to the massacre, and the song was performed by Makeba, becoming a staple of her live performances for many years. A review in the magazine Musician said that the song had "searingly righteous lyrics" about the uprising that "cut to the bone". She had separated from Carmichael in 1973; in 1978 they divorced and in 1981 she married Bageot Bah, an airline executive.
Belgium
Makeba's daughter Bongi, who was a singer in her own right and had often accompanied her mother on stage, died in childbirth in 1985. Makeba was left responsible for her two grandchildren, and decided to move out of Guinea. She settled in the Woluwe-Saint-Lambert district of the Belgian capital Brussels. In the following year, Masekela introduced Makeba to Paul Simon, and a few months later she embarked on Simon's very successful Graceland Tour. The tour concluded with two concerts held in Harare, Zimbabwe, which were filmed in 1987 for release as Graceland: The African Concert. After touring the world with Simon, Warner Bros. Records signed Makeba and she released Sangoma ("Healer"), an album of healing chants named in honour of her sangoma mother. Her involvement with Simon caused controversy: Graceland had been recorded in South Africa, breaking the cultural boycott of the country, and thus Makeba's participation in the tour was regarded as contravening the boycott (which Makeba herself endorsed).
In preparation for the Graceland tour, she worked with journalist James Hall to write an autobiography titled Makeba: My Story. The book contained descriptions of her experience with apartheid, and was also critical of the commodification and consumerism she experienced in the US. The book was translated into five languages. She took part in the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute, a popular-music concert staged on 11 June 1988 at London's Wembley Stadium, and broadcast to an audience of 600 million across 67 countries. Political aspects of the concert were heavily censored in the US by the Fox television network. The use of music to raise awareness of apartheid paid off: a survey after the concert found that among people aged between 16 and 24, three-quarters knew of Mandela, and supported his release from prison.
Return to South Africa, final years and death
Following growing pressure from the anti-apartheid movement both domestically and internationally, in 1990 State President Frederik Willem de Klerk reversed the ban on the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid organisations, and announced that Mandela would shortly be released from prison. Mandela was released in February 1990. He persuaded Makeba to return to South Africa, which she did, using her French passport, on 10 June 1990.
Makeba, Gillespie, Simone, and Masekela recorded and released her studio album, Eyes on Tomorrow, in 1991. It combined jazz, R&B, pop, and traditional African music, and was a hit across Africa. Makeba and Gillespie then toured the world together to promote it. In November she made a guest appearance on a US sitcom, The Cosby Show. In 1992, she starred in the film Sarafina! which centred on students involved in the 1976 Soweto uprising. Makeba portrayed the title character's mother, Angelina, a role which The New York Times described as having been performed with "immense dignity".
On 16 October 1999, Makeba was named a Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In January 2000, her album, Homeland, produced by the New York City based record label Putumayo World Music, was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best World Music Album category. She worked closely with Graça Machel-Mandela, the South African first lady, advocating for children suffering from HIV/AIDS, child soldiers, and the physically handicapped. She established the Makeba Centre for Girls, a home for orphans, described in an obituary as her most personal project. She also took part in the 2002 documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony, which examined the struggles of black South Africans against apartheid through the music of the period. Makeba's second autobiography, Makeba: The Miriam Makeba Story, was published in 2004. In 2005 she announced that she would retire and began a farewell tour, but despite having osteoarthritis, continued to perform until her death. During this period, her grandchildren Nelson Lumumba Lee and Zenzi Lee, and her great-grandchild Lindelani, occasionally joined her performances.
On 9 November 2008, Makeba fell ill during a concert in Castel Volturno, near Caserta, Italy. The concert had been organised to support the writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a criminal organisation active in the Campania region. She suffered a heart attack after singing her hit song "Pata Pata", and was taken to the Pineta Grande clinic, where doctors were unable to revive her.
Music and image
Musical style
The groups with which Makeba began her career performed mbube, a style of vocal harmony which drew on American jazz, ragtime, and Anglican church hymns, as well as indigenous styles of music. Johannesburg musician Dolly Rathebe was an early influence on Makeba's music, as were female jazz singers from the US. Historian David Coplan writes that the "African jazz" made popular by Makeba and others was "inherently hybridized" rather than derivative of any particular genre, blending as it did marabi and jazz, and was "Americanized African music, not Africanized American music". The music that she performed was described by British writer Robin Denselow as a "unique blend of rousing township styles and jazz-influenced balladry".
Makeba released more than 30 albums during her career. The dominant styles of these shifted over time, moving from African jazz to recordings influenced by Belafonte's "crooning" to music drawing from traditional South African musical forms. She has been associated with the genres of world music and Afropop. She also incorporated Latin American musical styles into her performances. Historian Ruth Feldstein described her music as "[crossing] the borders between what many people associated with avant-garde and 'quality' culture and the commercial mainstream"; the latter aspect often drew criticism. She was able to appeal to audiences from many political, racial, and national backgrounds.
She was known for having a dynamic vocal range, and was described as having an emotional awareness during her performances. She occasionally danced during her shows, and was described as having a sensuous presence on stage. She was able to vary her voice considerably: an obituary remarked that she "could soar like an opera singer, but she could also whisper, roar, hiss, growl and shout. She could sing while making the epiglottal clicks of the Xhosa language." She sang in English and several African languages, but never in Afrikaans, the language of the apartheid government in South Africa. She once stated "When Afrikaaners sing in my language, then I will sing theirs." English was seen as the language of political resistance by black South Africans due to the educational barriers they faced under apartheid; the Manhattan Brothers, with whom Makeba had sung in Sophiatown, had been prohibited from recording in English. Her songs in African languages have been described as reaffirming black pride.
Politics and perception
Makeba said that she did not perform political music, but music about her personal life in South Africa, which included describing the pain she felt living under apartheid. She once stated "people say I sing politics, but what I sing is not politics, it is the truth", an example of the mixing of personal and political issues for musicians living during apartheid. When she first entered the US, she avoided discussing apartheid explicitly, partly out of concern for her family still in South Africa. Nonetheless, she is known for using her voice to convey the political message of opposition to apartheid, performing widely and frequently for civil rights and anti-apartheid organisations. Even songs that did not carry an explicitly political message were seen as subversive, due to their being banned in South Africa. Makeba saw her music as a tool of activism, saying "In our struggle, songs are not simply entertainment for us. They are the way we communicate."
Makeba's use of the clicks common in languages such as Xhosa and Zulu (as in "Qongqothwane", "The Click Song") was frequently remarked upon by Western audiences. It contributed to her popularity and her exotic image, which scholars have described as a kind of othering, exacerbated by the fact that Western audiences often could not understand her lyrics. Critics in the US described her as the "African tribeswoman" and as an "import from South Africa", often depicting her in condescending terms as a product of a more primitive society. Commentators also frequently described her in terms of the prominent men she was associated with, despite her own prominence. During her early career in South Africa she had been seen as a sex symbol, an image that received considerably less attention in the US.
Makeba was described as a style icon, both in her home country and the US. She wore no makeup and refused to straighten her hair for shows, thus helping establish a style that came to be known internationally as the "Afro look". According to music scholar Tanisha Ford, her hairstyle represented a "liberated African beauty aesthetic". She was seen as a beauty icon by South African schoolgirls, who were compelled to shorten their hair by the apartheid government. Makeba stuck to wearing African jewellery; she disapproved of the skin-lighteners commonly used by South African women at the time, and refused to appear in advertisements for them. Her self-presentation has been characterised by scholars as a rejection of the predominantly white standards of beauty that women in the US were held to, which allowed Makeba to partially escape the sexualisation directed at women performers during this period. Nonetheless, the terms used to describe her in the US media have been identified by scholars as frequently used to "sexualize, infantalize, and animalize" people of African heritage.
Legacy
Musical influence
Makeba was among the most visible Africans in the US; as a result, she was often emblematic of the continent of Africa for Americans. Her music earned her the moniker "Mama Africa", and she was variously described as the "Empress of African Song", the "Queen of South African music", and Africa's "first superstar". Music scholar J. U. Jacobs said that Makeba's music had "both been shaped by and given shape to black South African and American music". The jazz musician Abbey Lincoln is among those identified as being influenced by Makeba. Makeba and Simone were among a group of artists who helped shape soul music. Longtime collaborator Belafonte called her "the most revolutionary new talent to appear in any medium in the last decade". Speaking after her death, Mandela called her "South Africa's first lady of song", and said that "her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
Outside her home country Makeba was credited with bringing African music to a Western audience, and along with artists such as Youssou N'Dour, Salif Keita, Ali Farka Touré, Baaba Maal and Angélique Kidjo, with popularising the genre of world music. Her work with Belafonte in the 1960s has been described as creating the genre of world music before the concept entered the popular imagination, and also as highlighting the diversity and cultural pluralism within African music. Within South Africa, Makeba has been described as influencing artists such as kwaito musician Thandiswa Mazwai and her band Bongo Maffin, whose track "De Makeba" was a modified version of Makeba's "Pata Pata", and one of several tribute recordings released after her return to South Africa. South African jazz musician Simphiwe Dana has been described as "the new Miriam Makeba". South African singer Lira has frequently been compared with Makeba, particularly for her performance of "Pata Pata" during the opening ceremony of the 2010 Football World Cup. A year later, Kidjo dedicated her concert in New York to Makeba, as a musician who had "paved the way for her success". In an obituary, scholar Lara Allen referred to Makeba as "arguably South Africa's most famous musical export". In 2016 the French singer Jain released "Makeba", a tribute.
Activism
Makeba was among the most visible people campaigning against the apartheid system in South Africa, and was responsible for popularising several anti-apartheid songs, including "Meadowlands" by Strike Vilakezi and "Ndodemnyama we Verwoerd" (Watch out, Verwoerd) by Vuyisile Mini. Due to her high profile, she became a spokesperson of sorts for Africans living under oppressive governments, and in particular for black South Africans living under apartheid. When the South African government prevented her from entering her home country, she became a symbol of "apartheid's cruelty", and she used her position as a celebrity by testifying against apartheid before the UN in 1962 and 1964. Many of her songs were banned within South Africa, leading to Makeba's records being distributed underground, and even her apolitical songs being seen as subversive. She thus became a symbol of resistance to the white-minority government both within and outside South Africa. In an interview in 2000, Masekela said that "there [was] nobody in Africa who made the world more aware of what was happening in South Africa than Miriam Makeba."
Makeba has also been associated with the movement against colonialism, with the civil rights and black power movements in the US, and with the Pan-African movement. She called for unity between black people of African descent across the world: "Africans who live everywhere should fight everywhere. The struggle is no different in South Africa, the streets of Chicago, Trinidad or Canada. The Black people are the victims of capitalism, racism and oppression, period". After marrying Carmichael she often appeared with him during his speeches; Carmichael later described her presence at these events as an asset, and Feldstein wrote that Makeba enhanced Carmichael's message that "black is beautiful". Along with performers such as Simone, Lena Horne, and Abbey Lincoln, she used her position as a prominent musician to advocate for civil rights. Their activism has been described as simultaneously calling attention to racial and gender disparities, and highlighting "that the liberation they desired could not separate race from sex". Makeba's critique of second-wave feminism as being the product of luxury led to observers being unwilling to call her a feminist. Scholar Ruth Feldstein stated that Makeba and others influenced both black feminism and second-wave feminism through their advocacy, and the historian Jacqueline Castledine referred to her as one of the "most steadfast voices for social justice".
Awards and recognition
Makeba's 1965 collaboration with Harry Belafonte won a Grammy Award, making her the first African recording artist to win this award. Makeba shared the 2001 Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. They received their prize from Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden, during a nationally televised ceremony at Berwaldhallen, Stockholm, on 27 May 2002.
Makeba won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986, and in 2001 was awarded the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold by the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding". She also received several honorary doctorates. In 2004, she was voted 38th in a poll ranking 100 Great South Africans.
Mama Africa, a musical about Makeba, was produced in South Africa by Niyi Coker. Originally titled Zenzi!, the musical premiered to a sold-out crowd in Cape Town on 26 May 2016. It was performed in the US in St. Louis, Missouri and at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City between October and December 2016. The musical returned to South Africa in February 2017 for what would have been Makeba's 85th birthday.
From 25 to 27 September 2009, a tribute television show to Makeba entitled Hommage à Miriam Makeba and curated by Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist Angélique Kidjo, was held at the Cirque d'hiver in Paris. The show was presented as Mama Africa: Celebrating Miriam Makeba at the Barbican in London on 21 November 2009. A documentary film titled Mama Africa, about Makeba's life, co-written and directed by Finnish director Mika Kaurismäki, was released in 2011. On 4 March 2013, and again on International Women's Day in 2017, Google honoured her with a Google Doodle on their homepage. In 2014 she was honoured (along with Nelson Mandela, Albertina Sisulu and Steve Biko) in the Belgian city of Ghent, which named a square after her, the "Miriam Makebaplein". Makeba was named 1967's "woman of the year" by Time magazine in 2020, as one of a list of 100 "women of the year" for the years 1920–2019.
Notable songs and albums
This is a list of albums and songs, including covers, by Miriam Makeba that have received significant mention in commentary about her or about the musical and political movements she participated in.
Albums
Miriam Makeba (1960)
The Many Voices of Miriam Makeba (1962)
An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba (1965)
Comme une symphonie d'amour (1979)
The Queen of African Music (1987)
Sangoma (1988)
Welela (1989)
Eyes on Tomorrow (1991)
Homeland (2000)
Songs
"Lakutshn, Ilanga"/Lovely Lies" (1956)
"Sophiatown is Gone"
"The Click Song" / "Mbube" (1963)
"Pata Pata" (1967)
"Lumumba" (1970)
"Malcolm X" (1974)
"Soweto Blues" (1977)
"Thula Sizwe/I Shall Be Released" (1991)
"Malaika"
See also
Culture of South Africa
Notes and references
Footnotes
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Miriam Makeba at National Public Radio
1932 births
2008 deaths
20th-century South African women singers
21st-century South African women singers
Anti-apartheid activists
FAO Goodwill ambassadors
Grammy Award winners
Heads Up International artists
Music in the movement against apartheid
Musicians who died on stage
Musicians from Johannesburg
South African actresses
South African exiles
South African people of Swazi descent
World music musicians
Wrasse Records artists
Xhosa people | true | [
"Franziska Kessel (6 January 1906, in Cologne – 23 April 1934, in Mainz) was a German politician. She was a member of the Reichstag representing the Communist Party of Germany. After the party was made illegal, she joined the underground, was arrested, and subsequently died in jail.\n\nBackground\nKessel was born in Cologne and worked as a shop assistant. She was close to leftist groups and, in 1926, she joined the Communist Party of Germany. She also started her job as an editor of Kommunistische Arbeiter-Zeitung in Frankfurt. She spent one year in jail under the charge of high treason, was freed, and in July 1932 became the deputy of the Reichstag. In November 1932, she was reelected. After the Nazi seizure of power, in March 1933 the party was outlawed, and Kessel became active in the Communist underground. On 4 April 1933 she was arrested and sentenced to three years in jail. She was held in the correction house in Mainz. During the incarceration, she was tortured and lost her vision. On 23 April 1934, she was found hanged in her cell. It is still unclear whether this was a suicide or a murder.\n\nMemorial \n\nin Mainz-Oberstadt and Frankfurt am Main-Heddernheim streets are named Franziska-Kessel-Straße. \nSince 1992, one of 96 cast iron plates, with the names, birth and death dates and places, commemorates Kessel in the Memorial to the Murdered Members of the Reichstag in Berlin.\n\nSee also\nList of unsolved deaths\n\nReferences\n\n1906 births\n1934 deaths\n20th-century German women politicians\nCommunist Party of Germany politicians\nCommunists in the German Resistance\nDeaths by hanging\nMembers of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic\nUnsolved deaths",
"Arabella Scott (7 May 1886 – 27 August 1980) was a Scottish suffragette and campaigner. She underwent hunger and thirst strikes when she was sent to jail and was released under the Cat and Mouse Act.\n\nEarly life \nArabella Charlotte Scott was born on 7 May 1886 in Dunoon, Scotland. Her mother was a teacher and her father served as a captain in the British army for more than 25 years.\n\nShe graduated with an MA from the University of Edinburgh and went on to become a school teacher, living with her family in Edinburgh. Arabella and her sisters were advocates for women's suffrage and were active speakers in Scotland for the cause.\n\nCampaigning for women's suffrage \nIn 1909, Arabella and her sister Muriel were both arrested on the charge of obstruction in London after they tried to hand a petition to the British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, on this charge the sisters served 21 days at HM Prison Holloway.\n\nArabella Scott was arrested and released several times over the following years, under the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913, known by suffragettes as the Cat and Mouse Act. The Cat and Mouse Act was put into place so that suffragettes could not die in prison due to hunger strikes, instead when they became too weak they were released and then re-arrested at a later time to complete their sentences. On the 6 April 1913, she was arrested again, for trying to set fire to a racecourse stand at Kelso Racecourse along with Agnes and Elizabeth Thomson, Edith Hudson, and Donald M'Ewan. Following their trial, on 19 May 1913, Arabella Scott, Edith Hudson and Donald M'Ewan were sentenced to nine months, Elizabeth Thompson, three months, and Agnes was released. They were imprisoned at Calton jail and went on hunger strike together. Scott was released under the Cat and Mouse Act on 24 May, her licence ran out and she failed to return to Calton jail.\n\nScott was caught on 12 June and rearrested, when she returned to Calton jail she went on hunger strike again. On the 16 June she was assessed as too weak by a medical officer and was released on licence but did not return to the jail. Scott was found in London on the 24 August and returned to Calton jail where she went on hunger and thirst strike. On 28 August the medical officer put her forward for immediate discharge due to her health, however she had to be removed from the jail by force as she did not want to be placed on leave under licence once more. The licence expired on 10 September 1913, Scott was not found until the following year.\n\nScott continued to work as an organiser for the Women's Social and Political Union in the Brighton branch under the name, 'Catherine Reid', she was found in May 1914 and resisted arrest. Scotland Yard and the Brighton Police both had to help the police that had come from Scotland to arrest Scott as she refused to walk and had to be lifted and dragged onto trains. She started her hunger and thirst strike on 2 May when she was arrested, and by 8 May was ill and allowed to leave the Calton jail under licence. On 17 May Scott departed for London so that she could help the WSPU campaign against the liberal candidate in the Ipswich by-election. She was due to return to jail on 22 May. She was found on 19 June during a raid at a suffragette house, where she was rearrested and forced to return to jail.\n\nScott was given a Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour' by WSPU.\n\nForce-feeding at Perth prison \nScott was taken to Perth prison, instead of Calton jail, she was admitted on 20 June and released on 26 July. Despite an appeal to prison authorities by Janie Allan on her behalf, warning of dangerous protests during a royal visit, if Scott was force-fed, she suffered this throughout her imprisonment three times a day. She was not allowed visitors or letters during her imprisonment.\n\nIn her autobiography, My Murky Past, compiled and edited by her niece, Frances Wheelhouse, from taped interviews, Scott described a force-feeding tube being driven into her stomach as bits of her broken teeth washed around with blood in her mouth. When she vomited after it was removed, Watson would shout at her 'You did that on purpose'. Scott also recalled that one day Watson had said to her, \"Look here, it's a pity, why don't you give it all away? The government would send you over to Canada and I would personally conduct you there.\" She replied, \"That would be tantamount to saying that all this protest of mine was in vain and wrong and I would be giving in.\"\n\nScott was once more released under licence under the Cat and Mouse Act. Her sister Muriel gathered a crowd of 3000 people outside the prison to protest. On 28 June 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, two days after Scott's release the First World War began, with the UK joining by declaring war on Germany on 4 August. The WSPU announced a truce on militant acts, the Secretary of Scotland announced on 10 August the mitigation of all suffragette sentences passed in Scottish courts including Scott's.\n\nA fictional account, based on Arabella Scott's ordeal has since been dramatised by the playwright, Ajay Close, who researched the play based on Watson's reports held in the National Archives of Scotland and from the select transcripts of taped interviews with Arabella Scott, provided by Frances Wheelhouse.\n\nLater life \nScott, under her married name Colville-Reeves emigrated to Australia.\n\nShe died on 27 August 1980, and her memorial is in the Palmdale Lawn Cemetery on the Central Coast of New South Wales.\n\nSee also \n Suffragette\n Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom\n Frances Gordon\n Fanny Parker\nMaude Edwards\n\nReferences \n\n1886 births\n1980 deaths\nScottish suffragists\nAlumni of the University of Edinburgh\nPeople from Dunoon\nScottish women activists\nBritish women's rights activists\nWomen's Social and Political Union\nHunger Strike Medal recipients"
]
|
[
"Miriam Makeba",
"Childhood and family",
"Where did she grow up?",
"black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail.",
"Why was she in jail?",
"her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal."
]
| C_be942cd9bfc84a1eb32a2739a1edbbc7_1 | when was she born? | 4 | When was Miriam Makeba born? | Miriam Makeba | Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932 in the black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg. Her Swazi mother, Christina Makeba, was a sangoma, or traditional healer, and a domestic worker. Her Xhosa father, Caswell Makeba, was a teacher; he died when she was six years old. Makeba later said that before she was conceived, her mother had been warned that any future pregnancy could be fatal. Neither Miriam nor her mother seemed likely to survive after a difficult labour and delivery. Miriam's grandmother, who attended the birth, often muttered "uzenzile", a Xhosa word that means "you brought this on yourself", to Miriam's mother during her recovery, which inspired her to give her daughter the name "Zenzile". When Makeba was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. The family could not afford the small fine required to avoid a jail term, and Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail. As a child, Makeba sang in the choir of the Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria, an all-black Methodist primary school that she attended for eight years. Her talent for singing earned her praise at school. Makeba was baptised a Protestant, and sang in church choirs, in English, Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu; she later said that she learned to sing in English before she could speak the language. The family moved to the Transvaal when Makeba was a child. After her father's death, she was forced to find employment; she did domestic work, and worked as a nanny. She described herself as a shy person at the time. Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children. Makeba lived for a while with her grandmother and a large number of cousins in Pretoria. Makeba was influenced by her family's musical tastes; her mother played several traditional instruments, and her elder brother collected records, including those of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, and taught Makeba songs. Her father played the piano, and his musical inclination was later a factor in Makeba's family accepting what was seen as a risque choice of career. In 1949, Makeba married James Kubay, a policeman in training, with whom she had her only child, Bongi Makeba, in 1950. Makeba was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband, who was said to have beaten her, left her shortly afterwards, after a two-year marriage. A decade later she overcame cervical cancer via a hysterectomy. CANNOTANSWER | Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932 | Zenzile Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid and white-minority government in South Africa.
Born in Johannesburg to Swazi and Xhosa parents, Makeba was forced to find employment as a child after the death of her father. She had a brief and allegedly abusive first marriage at the age of 17, gave birth to her only child in 1950, and survived breast cancer. Her vocal talent had been recognized when she was a child, and she began singing professionally in the 1950s, with the Cuban Brothers, the Manhattan Brothers, and an all-woman group, the Skylarks, performing a mixture of jazz, traditional African melodies, and Western popular music. In 1959, Makeba had a brief role in the anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa, which brought her international attention, and led to her performing in Venice, London, and New York City. In London, she met the American singer Harry Belafonte, who became a mentor and colleague. She moved to New York City, where she became immediately popular, and recorded her first solo album in 1960. Her attempt to return to South Africa that year for her mother's funeral was prevented by the country's government.
Makeba's career flourished in the United States, and she released several albums and songs, her most popular being "Pata Pata" (1967). Along with Belafonte she received a Grammy Award for her 1965 album An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. She testified against the South African government at the United Nations and became involved in the civil rights movement. She married Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Black Panther Party, in 1968. As a result, she lost support among white Americans. The US government cancelled her visa while she was travelling abroad, leading her and Carmichael to move to Guinea. She continued to perform, mostly in African countries, including at several independence celebrations. She began to write and perform music more explicitly critical of apartheid; the 1977 song "Soweto Blues", written by her former husband Hugh Masekela, was about the Soweto uprising. After apartheid was dismantled in 1990, Makeba returned to South Africa. She continued recording and performing, including a 1991 album with Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, and appeared in the 1992 film Sarafina!. She was named a UN goodwill ambassador in 1999, and campaigned for humanitarian causes. She died of a heart attack during a 2008 concert in Italy.
Makeba was among the first African musicians to receive worldwide recognition. She brought African music to a Western audience, and popularized the world music and Afropop genres. She also made popular several songs critical of apartheid, and became a symbol of opposition to the system, particularly after her right to return was revoked. Upon her death, former South African President Nelson Mandela said that "her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
Early years
Childhood and family
Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932 in the black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg. Her Swazi mother, Christina Makeba, was a sangoma, or traditional healer, and a domestic worker. Her Xhosa father, Caswell Makeba, was a teacher; he died when she was six years old. Makeba later said that before she was conceived, her mother had been warned that any future pregnancy could be fatal. Neither Miriam nor her mother seemed likely to survive after a difficult labour and delivery. Miriam's grandmother, who attended the birth, often muttered "uzenzile", a Xhosa word that means "you brought this on yourself", to Miriam's mother during her recovery, which inspired her to give her daughter the name "Zenzile".
When Makeba was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. The family could not afford the small fine required to avoid a jail term, and Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail. As a child, Makeba sang in the choir of the Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria, an all-black Methodist primary school that she attended for eight years. Her talent for singing earned her praise at school. Makeba was baptised a Protestant, and sang in church choirs, in English, Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu; she later said that she learned to sing in English before she could speak the language.
The family moved to the Transvaal when Makeba was a child. After her father's death, she was forced to find employment; she did domestic work, and worked as a nanny. She described herself as a shy person at the time. Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children. Makeba lived for a while with her grandmother and a large number of cousins in Pretoria. Makeba was influenced by her family's musical tastes; her mother played several traditional instruments, and her elder brother collected records, including those of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, and taught Makeba songs. Her father played the piano, and his musical inclination was later a factor in Makeba's family accepting what was seen as a risque choice of career.
In 1949, Makeba married James Kubay, a policeman in training, with whom she had her only child, Bongi Makeba, in 1950. Makeba was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband, who was said to have beaten her, left her shortly afterwards, after a two-year marriage. A decade later she overcame cervical cancer via a hysterectomy.
Early career
Makeba began her professional musical career with the Cuban Brothers, a South African all-male close harmony group, with whom she sang covers of popular American songs. Soon afterwards, at the age of 21, she joined a jazz group, the Manhattan Brothers, who sang a mixture of South African songs and pieces from popular African-American groups. Makeba was the only woman in the group. With the Manhattan Brothers she recorded her first hit, "Laku Tshoni Ilanga", in 1953, and developed a national reputation as a musician. In 1956 she joined a new all-woman group, the Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional South African melodies. Formed by Gallotone Records, the group was also known as the Sunbeams. Makeba sang with the Skylarks when the Manhattan Brothers were travelling abroad; later, she also travelled with the Manhattan Brothers. In the Skylarks, Makeba sang alongside Rhodesian-born musician Dorothy Masuka, whose music Makeba had followed, along with that of Dolly Rathebe. Several of the Skylarks' pieces from this period became popular; the music historian Rob Allingham later described the group as "real trendsetters, with harmonisation that had never been heard before." Makeba received no royalties from her work with the Skylarks.
While performing with the Manhattan Brothers in 1955, Makeba met Nelson Mandela, then a young lawyer; he later remembered the meeting, and that he felt that the girl he met "was going to be someone." In 1956, Gallotone Records released "Lovely Lies", Makeba's first solo success; the Xhosa lyric about a man looking for his beloved in jails and hospitals was replaced with the unrelated and innocuous line "You tell such lovely lies with your two lovely eyes" in the English version. The record became the first South African record to chart on the United States Billboard Top 100. In 1957, Makeba was featured on the cover of Drum magazine.
In 1959, Makeba sang the lead female role in the Broadway-inspired South African jazz opera King Kong; among those in the cast was the musician Hugh Masekela. The musical was performed to racially integrated audiences, raising her profile among white South Africans. Also in 1959, she had a short guest appearance in Come Back, Africa, an anti-apartheid film produced and directed by the American independent filmmaker Lionel Rogosin. Rogosin cast her after seeing her on stage in African Jazz and Variety show, on which Makeba was a performer for 18 months. The film blended elements of documentary and fiction and had to be filmed in secret as the government was expected to be hostile to it. Makeba appeared on stage, and sang two songs: her appearance lasted four minutes. The cameo made an enormous impression on viewers, and Rogosin organised a visa for her to attend the premiere of the film at the twenty-fourth Venice Film Festival in Italy, where the film won the prestigious Critics' Choice Award. Makeba's presence has been described as crucial to the film, as an emblem of cosmopolitan black identity that also connected with working-class black people due to the dialogue being in Zulu.
Makeba's role in Come Back, Africa brought her international recognition and she travelled to London and New York to perform. In London she met the American singer Harry Belafonte, who became her mentor, helping her with her first solo recordings. These included "Pata Pata", which would be released many years later, and a version of the traditional Xhosa song "Qongqothwane", which she had first performed with the Skylarks. Though "Pata Pata"—described by Musician magazine as a "groundbreaking Afropop gem"—became her most famous song, Makeba described it as "one of my most insignificant songs". While in England, she married Sonny Pillay, a South African ballad singer of Indian descent; they divorced within a few months.
Makeba then moved to New York, making her US music debut on 1 November 1959 on The Steve Allen Show in Los Angeles for a television audience of 60 million. Her New York debut at the Village Vanguard occurred soon after; she sang in Xhosa and Zulu, and performed a Yiddish folk song. Her audience at this concert included Miles Davis and Duke Ellington; her performance received strongly positive reviews from critics. She first came to popular and critical attention in jazz clubs, after which her reputation grew rapidly. Belafonte, who had helped Makeba with her move to the US, handled the logistics for her first performances. When she first moved to the US, Makeba lived in Greenwich Village, along with other musicians and actors. As was common in her profession, she experienced some financial insecurity, and worked as a babysitter for a period.
Exile
United States
Breakthrough
Soon after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, Makeba learned that her mother had died. When she tried to return home for the funeral, she found that her South African passport had been cancelled. Two of Makeba's family members were killed in the massacre. The incident left her concerned about her family, many of whom were still in South Africa, including her daughter: the nine-year-old Bongi joined her mother in the US in August 1960. During her first few years in the US, Makeba had rarely sung explicitly political music, but her popularity had led to an increase in awareness of apartheid and the anti-apartheid movement. Following the Sharpeville killings, Makeba felt a responsibility to help, as she had been able to leave the country while others had not. From this point, she became an increasingly outspoken critic of apartheid and the white-minority government; before the massacre, she had taken care to avoid overtly political statements in South Africa.
Her musical career in the US continued to flourish. She signed a recording contract with RCA Victor, and released Miriam Makeba, her first studio album, in 1960, backed by Belafonte's band. RCA Victor chose to buy out Makeba's contract with Gallotone Records, and despite the fact that Makeba was unable to perform in South Africa, Gallotone received US$45,000 in the deal, which meant that Makeba received no royalties for her debut album. The album included one of her most famous hits in the US, "Qongqothwane", which was known in English as "The Click Song" because Makeba's audiences could not pronounce the Xhosa name. Time magazine called her the "most exciting new singing talent to appear in many years", and Newsweek compared her voice to "the smoky tones and delicate phrasing" of Ella Fitzgerald and the "intimate warmth" of Frank Sinatra. The album was not commercially successful, and Makeba was briefly dropped from RCA Victor: she was re-signed soon after as the label recognised the commercial possibilities of the growing interest in African culture. Her South African identity had been downplayed during her first signing, but it was strongly emphasised the second time to take advantage of this interest. Makeba made several appearances on television, often in the company of Belafonte. In 1962, Makeba and Belafonte sang at the birthday party for US President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, but Makeba did not go to the party afterwards because she was ill. Kennedy nevertheless insisted on meeting her, so Belafonte sent a car to pick her up.
In 1964, Makeba released her second studio album for RCA Victor, The World of Miriam Makeba. An early example of world music, the album peaked at number eighty-six on the Billboard 200. Makeba's music had a cross-racial appeal in the US; white Americans were attracted to her image as an "exotic" African performer, and black Americans related their own experiences of racial segregation to Makeba's struggle against apartheid. Makeba found company among other African exiles and émigrés in New York, including Hugh Masekela, to whom she was married from 1963 to 1968. During their marriage, Makeba and Masekela were neighbours of the jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie in Englewood, New Jersey; they spent much of their time in Harlem. She also came to know actors Marlon Brando and Lauren Bacall, and musicians Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles. Fellow singer-activist Nina Simone became friendly with Makeba, as did actor Cicely Tyson; Makeba and Simone performed together at Carnegie Hall. Makeba was among black entertainers, activists, and intellectuals in New York at the time who believed that the civil rights movement and popular culture could reinforce each other, creating "a sense of intertwined political and cultural vibrancy"; other examples included Maya Angelou and Sidney Poitier. She later described her difficulty living with racial segregation, saying "There wasn't much difference in America; it was a country that had abolished slavery but there was apartheid in its own way."
Travel and activism
Makeba's music was also popular in Europe, and she travelled and performed there frequently. Acting on the advice of Belafonte, she added songs from Latin America, Europe, Israel, and elsewhere in Africa to her repertoire. She visited Kenya in 1962 in support of the country's independence from British colonial rule, and raised funds for its independence leader Jomo Kenyatta. Later that year she testified before the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid about the effects of the system, asking for economic sanctions against South Africa's National Party government. She requested an arms embargo against South Africa, on the basis that weapons sold to the government would likely be used against black women and children. As a result, her music was banned in South Africa, and her South African citizenship and right to return were revoked. Makeba thus became a stateless person, but she was soon issued passports by Algeria, Guinea, Belgium and Ghana. In her life, she held nine passports, and was granted honorary citizenship in ten countries.
Soon after her testimony, Haile Selassie, the emperor of Ethiopia, invited her to sing at the inauguration of the Organisation of African Unity, the only performer to be invited. As the fact of her ban from South Africa became well known she became a cause célèbre for Western liberals, and her presence in the civil rights movement provided a link between that movement and the anti-apartheid struggle. In 1964 she was taught the song "Malaika" by a Kenyan student while backstage at a performance in San Francisco; the song later became a staple of her performances.
Throughout the 1960s, Makeba strengthened her involvement with a range of black-centred political movements, including the civil rights, anti-apartheid, Black Consciousness, and Black Power movements. She briefly met the Trinidadian-American activist Stokely Carmichael—the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and a prominent figure in the Black Panther Party—after Belafonte invited him to one of Makeba's concerts; they met again in Conakry six years later. They entered a relationship, initially kept secret from all but their closest friends and family. Makeba participated in fundraising activities for various civil rights groups, including a benefit concert for the 1962 Southern Christian Leadership Conference that civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. referred to as the "event of the year". Following a concert and rally in Atlanta in support of King, Makeba and others were denied entrance to a restaurant as a result of Jim Crow laws, leading to a televised protest in front of the establishment. She also criticised King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference for its investment in South African companies, informing press that "Now my friend of long standing supports the country's persecution of my people and I must find a new idol". Her identity as an African woman in the civil rights movement helped create "an emerging liberal consensus" that extreme racial discrimination, whether domestically or internationally, was harmful. In 1964 she testified at the UN for a second time, quoting a song by Vanessa Redgrave in calling for quick action against the South African government.
On 15 March 1966, Makeba and Belafonte received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording for An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under apartheid, including several songs critical of the South African government, such as "Ndodemnyama we Verwoerd" ("Watch our Verwoerd", a reference to Hendrik Verwoerd, one of the architects of apartheid). It sold widely and raised Makeba's profile in the US; Belafonte and Makeba's concert tour following its release was often sold out, and the album has been described as the best they made together. Makeba's use of lyrics in Swahili, Xhosa, and Sotho led to her being seen as a representation of an "authentic" Africa by American audiences. In 1967, more than ten years after she first recorded the song, the single "Pata Pata" was released in the US on an album of the same title, and became a worldwide hit. During its recording, she and Belafonte had a disagreement, after which they stopped recording together.
Guinea
Makeba married Carmichael in March 1968; this caused her popularity in the US to decline markedly. Conservatives came to regard her as a militant and an extremist, an image that alienated much of her fanbase. Her performances were cancelled and her coverage in the press declined despite her efforts to portray her marriage as apolitical. White American audiences stopped supporting her, and the US government took an interest in her activities. The Central Intelligence Agency began following her, and placed hidden microphones in her apartment; the Federal Bureau of Investigation also placed her under surveillance. While she and her husband were travelling in the Bahamas, she was banned from returning to the US, and was refused a visa. As a result, the couple moved to Guinea, where Carmichael changed his name to Kwame Touré. Makeba did not return to the US until 1987.
Guinea remained Makeba's home for the next 15 years, and she and her husband became close to President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife, Andrée. Touré wanted to create a new style of African music, creating his own record label Syliphone for this purpose, and all musicians received a minimum wage if they practised for several hours every day. Makeba later stated that "I've never seen a country that did what Sékou Touré did for artists." After her rejection from the US she began to write music more directly critical of the US government's racial policies, recording and singing songs such as "Lumumba" in 1970 (referring to Patrice Lumumba, the assassinated Prime Minister of the Congo), and "Malcolm X" in 1974.
Makeba performed more frequently in African countries, and as countries became independent of European colonial powers, was invited to sing at independence ceremonies, including in Kenya, Angola, Zambia, Tanganyika, and Mozambique. In September 1974 she performed alongside a multitude of well-known African and American musicians at the Zaire 74 festival in Kinshasa, Zaire (formerly the Congo). She also became a diplomat for Ghana, and was appointed Guinea's official delegate to the UN in 1975; that year, she addressed the United Nations General Assembly. She continued to perform in Europe and Asia, as well as her African concerts, but not in the US, where a de facto boycott was in effect. Her performances in Africa were immensely popular: she was described as the highlight of FESTAC 77, a Pan-African arts festival in Nigeria in 1977, and during a Liberian performance of "Pata Pata", the stadium proved so loud that she was unable to complete the song. "Pata Pata", like her other songs, had been banned in South Africa. Another song she sang frequently in this period was "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika", though she never recorded it. Makeba later stated that it was during this period that she accepted the label "Mama Africa".
In 1976, the South African government replaced English with Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in all schools, setting off the Soweto uprising. Between 15,000 and 20,000 students took part; caught unprepared, the police opened fire on the protesting children, killing hundreds and injuring more than a thousand. Hugh Masekela wrote "Soweto Blues" in response to the massacre, and the song was performed by Makeba, becoming a staple of her live performances for many years. A review in the magazine Musician said that the song had "searingly righteous lyrics" about the uprising that "cut to the bone". She had separated from Carmichael in 1973; in 1978 they divorced and in 1981 she married Bageot Bah, an airline executive.
Belgium
Makeba's daughter Bongi, who was a singer in her own right and had often accompanied her mother on stage, died in childbirth in 1985. Makeba was left responsible for her two grandchildren, and decided to move out of Guinea. She settled in the Woluwe-Saint-Lambert district of the Belgian capital Brussels. In the following year, Masekela introduced Makeba to Paul Simon, and a few months later she embarked on Simon's very successful Graceland Tour. The tour concluded with two concerts held in Harare, Zimbabwe, which were filmed in 1987 for release as Graceland: The African Concert. After touring the world with Simon, Warner Bros. Records signed Makeba and she released Sangoma ("Healer"), an album of healing chants named in honour of her sangoma mother. Her involvement with Simon caused controversy: Graceland had been recorded in South Africa, breaking the cultural boycott of the country, and thus Makeba's participation in the tour was regarded as contravening the boycott (which Makeba herself endorsed).
In preparation for the Graceland tour, she worked with journalist James Hall to write an autobiography titled Makeba: My Story. The book contained descriptions of her experience with apartheid, and was also critical of the commodification and consumerism she experienced in the US. The book was translated into five languages. She took part in the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute, a popular-music concert staged on 11 June 1988 at London's Wembley Stadium, and broadcast to an audience of 600 million across 67 countries. Political aspects of the concert were heavily censored in the US by the Fox television network. The use of music to raise awareness of apartheid paid off: a survey after the concert found that among people aged between 16 and 24, three-quarters knew of Mandela, and supported his release from prison.
Return to South Africa, final years and death
Following growing pressure from the anti-apartheid movement both domestically and internationally, in 1990 State President Frederik Willem de Klerk reversed the ban on the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid organisations, and announced that Mandela would shortly be released from prison. Mandela was released in February 1990. He persuaded Makeba to return to South Africa, which she did, using her French passport, on 10 June 1990.
Makeba, Gillespie, Simone, and Masekela recorded and released her studio album, Eyes on Tomorrow, in 1991. It combined jazz, R&B, pop, and traditional African music, and was a hit across Africa. Makeba and Gillespie then toured the world together to promote it. In November she made a guest appearance on a US sitcom, The Cosby Show. In 1992, she starred in the film Sarafina! which centred on students involved in the 1976 Soweto uprising. Makeba portrayed the title character's mother, Angelina, a role which The New York Times described as having been performed with "immense dignity".
On 16 October 1999, Makeba was named a Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In January 2000, her album, Homeland, produced by the New York City based record label Putumayo World Music, was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best World Music Album category. She worked closely with Graça Machel-Mandela, the South African first lady, advocating for children suffering from HIV/AIDS, child soldiers, and the physically handicapped. She established the Makeba Centre for Girls, a home for orphans, described in an obituary as her most personal project. She also took part in the 2002 documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony, which examined the struggles of black South Africans against apartheid through the music of the period. Makeba's second autobiography, Makeba: The Miriam Makeba Story, was published in 2004. In 2005 she announced that she would retire and began a farewell tour, but despite having osteoarthritis, continued to perform until her death. During this period, her grandchildren Nelson Lumumba Lee and Zenzi Lee, and her great-grandchild Lindelani, occasionally joined her performances.
On 9 November 2008, Makeba fell ill during a concert in Castel Volturno, near Caserta, Italy. The concert had been organised to support the writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a criminal organisation active in the Campania region. She suffered a heart attack after singing her hit song "Pata Pata", and was taken to the Pineta Grande clinic, where doctors were unable to revive her.
Music and image
Musical style
The groups with which Makeba began her career performed mbube, a style of vocal harmony which drew on American jazz, ragtime, and Anglican church hymns, as well as indigenous styles of music. Johannesburg musician Dolly Rathebe was an early influence on Makeba's music, as were female jazz singers from the US. Historian David Coplan writes that the "African jazz" made popular by Makeba and others was "inherently hybridized" rather than derivative of any particular genre, blending as it did marabi and jazz, and was "Americanized African music, not Africanized American music". The music that she performed was described by British writer Robin Denselow as a "unique blend of rousing township styles and jazz-influenced balladry".
Makeba released more than 30 albums during her career. The dominant styles of these shifted over time, moving from African jazz to recordings influenced by Belafonte's "crooning" to music drawing from traditional South African musical forms. She has been associated with the genres of world music and Afropop. She also incorporated Latin American musical styles into her performances. Historian Ruth Feldstein described her music as "[crossing] the borders between what many people associated with avant-garde and 'quality' culture and the commercial mainstream"; the latter aspect often drew criticism. She was able to appeal to audiences from many political, racial, and national backgrounds.
She was known for having a dynamic vocal range, and was described as having an emotional awareness during her performances. She occasionally danced during her shows, and was described as having a sensuous presence on stage. She was able to vary her voice considerably: an obituary remarked that she "could soar like an opera singer, but she could also whisper, roar, hiss, growl and shout. She could sing while making the epiglottal clicks of the Xhosa language." She sang in English and several African languages, but never in Afrikaans, the language of the apartheid government in South Africa. She once stated "When Afrikaaners sing in my language, then I will sing theirs." English was seen as the language of political resistance by black South Africans due to the educational barriers they faced under apartheid; the Manhattan Brothers, with whom Makeba had sung in Sophiatown, had been prohibited from recording in English. Her songs in African languages have been described as reaffirming black pride.
Politics and perception
Makeba said that she did not perform political music, but music about her personal life in South Africa, which included describing the pain she felt living under apartheid. She once stated "people say I sing politics, but what I sing is not politics, it is the truth", an example of the mixing of personal and political issues for musicians living during apartheid. When she first entered the US, she avoided discussing apartheid explicitly, partly out of concern for her family still in South Africa. Nonetheless, she is known for using her voice to convey the political message of opposition to apartheid, performing widely and frequently for civil rights and anti-apartheid organisations. Even songs that did not carry an explicitly political message were seen as subversive, due to their being banned in South Africa. Makeba saw her music as a tool of activism, saying "In our struggle, songs are not simply entertainment for us. They are the way we communicate."
Makeba's use of the clicks common in languages such as Xhosa and Zulu (as in "Qongqothwane", "The Click Song") was frequently remarked upon by Western audiences. It contributed to her popularity and her exotic image, which scholars have described as a kind of othering, exacerbated by the fact that Western audiences often could not understand her lyrics. Critics in the US described her as the "African tribeswoman" and as an "import from South Africa", often depicting her in condescending terms as a product of a more primitive society. Commentators also frequently described her in terms of the prominent men she was associated with, despite her own prominence. During her early career in South Africa she had been seen as a sex symbol, an image that received considerably less attention in the US.
Makeba was described as a style icon, both in her home country and the US. She wore no makeup and refused to straighten her hair for shows, thus helping establish a style that came to be known internationally as the "Afro look". According to music scholar Tanisha Ford, her hairstyle represented a "liberated African beauty aesthetic". She was seen as a beauty icon by South African schoolgirls, who were compelled to shorten their hair by the apartheid government. Makeba stuck to wearing African jewellery; she disapproved of the skin-lighteners commonly used by South African women at the time, and refused to appear in advertisements for them. Her self-presentation has been characterised by scholars as a rejection of the predominantly white standards of beauty that women in the US were held to, which allowed Makeba to partially escape the sexualisation directed at women performers during this period. Nonetheless, the terms used to describe her in the US media have been identified by scholars as frequently used to "sexualize, infantalize, and animalize" people of African heritage.
Legacy
Musical influence
Makeba was among the most visible Africans in the US; as a result, she was often emblematic of the continent of Africa for Americans. Her music earned her the moniker "Mama Africa", and she was variously described as the "Empress of African Song", the "Queen of South African music", and Africa's "first superstar". Music scholar J. U. Jacobs said that Makeba's music had "both been shaped by and given shape to black South African and American music". The jazz musician Abbey Lincoln is among those identified as being influenced by Makeba. Makeba and Simone were among a group of artists who helped shape soul music. Longtime collaborator Belafonte called her "the most revolutionary new talent to appear in any medium in the last decade". Speaking after her death, Mandela called her "South Africa's first lady of song", and said that "her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
Outside her home country Makeba was credited with bringing African music to a Western audience, and along with artists such as Youssou N'Dour, Salif Keita, Ali Farka Touré, Baaba Maal and Angélique Kidjo, with popularising the genre of world music. Her work with Belafonte in the 1960s has been described as creating the genre of world music before the concept entered the popular imagination, and also as highlighting the diversity and cultural pluralism within African music. Within South Africa, Makeba has been described as influencing artists such as kwaito musician Thandiswa Mazwai and her band Bongo Maffin, whose track "De Makeba" was a modified version of Makeba's "Pata Pata", and one of several tribute recordings released after her return to South Africa. South African jazz musician Simphiwe Dana has been described as "the new Miriam Makeba". South African singer Lira has frequently been compared with Makeba, particularly for her performance of "Pata Pata" during the opening ceremony of the 2010 Football World Cup. A year later, Kidjo dedicated her concert in New York to Makeba, as a musician who had "paved the way for her success". In an obituary, scholar Lara Allen referred to Makeba as "arguably South Africa's most famous musical export". In 2016 the French singer Jain released "Makeba", a tribute.
Activism
Makeba was among the most visible people campaigning against the apartheid system in South Africa, and was responsible for popularising several anti-apartheid songs, including "Meadowlands" by Strike Vilakezi and "Ndodemnyama we Verwoerd" (Watch out, Verwoerd) by Vuyisile Mini. Due to her high profile, she became a spokesperson of sorts for Africans living under oppressive governments, and in particular for black South Africans living under apartheid. When the South African government prevented her from entering her home country, she became a symbol of "apartheid's cruelty", and she used her position as a celebrity by testifying against apartheid before the UN in 1962 and 1964. Many of her songs were banned within South Africa, leading to Makeba's records being distributed underground, and even her apolitical songs being seen as subversive. She thus became a symbol of resistance to the white-minority government both within and outside South Africa. In an interview in 2000, Masekela said that "there [was] nobody in Africa who made the world more aware of what was happening in South Africa than Miriam Makeba."
Makeba has also been associated with the movement against colonialism, with the civil rights and black power movements in the US, and with the Pan-African movement. She called for unity between black people of African descent across the world: "Africans who live everywhere should fight everywhere. The struggle is no different in South Africa, the streets of Chicago, Trinidad or Canada. The Black people are the victims of capitalism, racism and oppression, period". After marrying Carmichael she often appeared with him during his speeches; Carmichael later described her presence at these events as an asset, and Feldstein wrote that Makeba enhanced Carmichael's message that "black is beautiful". Along with performers such as Simone, Lena Horne, and Abbey Lincoln, she used her position as a prominent musician to advocate for civil rights. Their activism has been described as simultaneously calling attention to racial and gender disparities, and highlighting "that the liberation they desired could not separate race from sex". Makeba's critique of second-wave feminism as being the product of luxury led to observers being unwilling to call her a feminist. Scholar Ruth Feldstein stated that Makeba and others influenced both black feminism and second-wave feminism through their advocacy, and the historian Jacqueline Castledine referred to her as one of the "most steadfast voices for social justice".
Awards and recognition
Makeba's 1965 collaboration with Harry Belafonte won a Grammy Award, making her the first African recording artist to win this award. Makeba shared the 2001 Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. They received their prize from Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden, during a nationally televised ceremony at Berwaldhallen, Stockholm, on 27 May 2002.
Makeba won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986, and in 2001 was awarded the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold by the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding". She also received several honorary doctorates. In 2004, she was voted 38th in a poll ranking 100 Great South Africans.
Mama Africa, a musical about Makeba, was produced in South Africa by Niyi Coker. Originally titled Zenzi!, the musical premiered to a sold-out crowd in Cape Town on 26 May 2016. It was performed in the US in St. Louis, Missouri and at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City between October and December 2016. The musical returned to South Africa in February 2017 for what would have been Makeba's 85th birthday.
From 25 to 27 September 2009, a tribute television show to Makeba entitled Hommage à Miriam Makeba and curated by Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist Angélique Kidjo, was held at the Cirque d'hiver in Paris. The show was presented as Mama Africa: Celebrating Miriam Makeba at the Barbican in London on 21 November 2009. A documentary film titled Mama Africa, about Makeba's life, co-written and directed by Finnish director Mika Kaurismäki, was released in 2011. On 4 March 2013, and again on International Women's Day in 2017, Google honoured her with a Google Doodle on their homepage. In 2014 she was honoured (along with Nelson Mandela, Albertina Sisulu and Steve Biko) in the Belgian city of Ghent, which named a square after her, the "Miriam Makebaplein". Makeba was named 1967's "woman of the year" by Time magazine in 2020, as one of a list of 100 "women of the year" for the years 1920–2019.
Notable songs and albums
This is a list of albums and songs, including covers, by Miriam Makeba that have received significant mention in commentary about her or about the musical and political movements she participated in.
Albums
Miriam Makeba (1960)
The Many Voices of Miriam Makeba (1962)
An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba (1965)
Comme une symphonie d'amour (1979)
The Queen of African Music (1987)
Sangoma (1988)
Welela (1989)
Eyes on Tomorrow (1991)
Homeland (2000)
Songs
"Lakutshn, Ilanga"/Lovely Lies" (1956)
"Sophiatown is Gone"
"The Click Song" / "Mbube" (1963)
"Pata Pata" (1967)
"Lumumba" (1970)
"Malcolm X" (1974)
"Soweto Blues" (1977)
"Thula Sizwe/I Shall Be Released" (1991)
"Malaika"
See also
Culture of South Africa
Notes and references
Footnotes
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Miriam Makeba at National Public Radio
1932 births
2008 deaths
20th-century South African women singers
21st-century South African women singers
Anti-apartheid activists
FAO Goodwill ambassadors
Grammy Award winners
Heads Up International artists
Music in the movement against apartheid
Musicians who died on stage
Musicians from Johannesburg
South African actresses
South African exiles
South African people of Swazi descent
World music musicians
Wrasse Records artists
Xhosa people | true | [
"This is a list of notable books by young authors and of books written by notable writers in their early years. These books were written, or substantially completed, before the author's twentieth birthday. \n\nAlexandra Adornetto (born 18 April 1994) wrote her debut novel, The Shadow Thief, when she was 13. It was published in 2007. Other books written by her as a teenager are: The Lampo Circus (2008), Von Gobstopper's Arcade (2009), Halo (2010) and Hades (2011).\nMargery Allingham (1904–1966) had her first novel, Blackkerchief Dick, about smugglers in 17th century Essex, published in 1923, when she was 19.\nJorge Amado (1912–2001) had his debut novel, The Country of Carnival, published in 1931, when he was 18.\nPrateek Arora wrote his debut novel Village 1104 at the age of 16. It was published in 2010.\nDaisy Ashford (1881–1972) wrote The Young Visiters while aged nine. This novella was first published in 1919, preserving her juvenile punctuation and spelling. An earlier work, The Life of Father McSwiney, was dictated to her father when she was four. It was published almost a century later in 1983.\nAmelia Atwater-Rhodes (born 1984) had her first novel, In the Forests of the Night, published in 1999. Subsequent novels include Demon in My View (2000), Shattered Mirror (2001), Midnight Predator (2002), Hawksong (2003) and Snakecharm (2004).\nJane Austen (1775–1817) wrote Lady Susan, a short epistolary novel, between 1793 and 1795 when she was aged 18-20.\nRuskin Bond (born 1934) wrote his semi-autobiographical novel The Room on the Roof when he was 17. It was published in 1955.\nMarjorie Bowen (1885–1952) wrote the historical novel The Viper of Milan when she was 16. Published in 1906 after several rejections, it became a bestseller.\nOliver Madox Brown (1855–1874) finished his novel Gabriel Denver in early 1872, when he was 17. It was published the following year.\nPamela Brown (1924–1989) finished her children's novel about an amateur theatre company, The Swish of the Curtain (1941), when she was 16 and later wrote other books about the stage.\nCeleste and Carmel Buckingham wrote The Lost Princess when they were 11 and 9.\nFlavia Bujor (born 8 August 1988) wrote The Prophecy of the Stones (2002) when she was 13.\nLord Byron (1788–1824) published two volumes of poetry in his teens, Fugitive Pieces and Hours of Idleness.\nTaylor Caldwell's The Romance of Atlantis was written when she was 12.\n (1956–1976), Le Don de Vorace, was published in 1974.\nHilda Conkling (1910–1986) had her poems published in Poems by a Little Girl (1920), Shoes of the Wind (1922) and Silverhorn (1924).\nAbraham Cowley (1618–1667), Tragicall History of Piramus and Thisbe (1628), Poetical Blossoms (published 1633).\nMaureen Daly (1921–2006) completed Seventeenth Summer before she was 20. It was published in 1942.\nJuliette Davies (born 2000) wrote the first book in the JJ Halo series when she was eight years old. The series was published the following year.\nSamuel R. Delany (born 1 April 1942) published his The Jewels of Aptor in 1962.\nPatricia Finney's A Shadow of Gulls was published in 1977 when she was 18. Its sequel, The Crow Goddess, was published in 1978.\nBarbara Newhall Follett (1914–1939) wrote her first novel The House Without Windows at the age of eight. The manuscript was destroyed in a house fire and she later retyped her manuscript at the age of 12. The novel was published by Knopf publishing house in January 1927.\nFord Madox Ford (né Hueffer) (1873–1939) published in 1892 two children's stories, The Brown Owl and The Feather, and a novel, The Shifting of the Fire.\nAnne Frank (1929–1945) wrote her diary for two-and-a-half years starting on her 13th birthday. It was published posthumously as Het Achterhuis in 1947 and then in English translation in 1952 as Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. An unabridged translation followed in 1996.\nMiles Franklin wrote My Brilliant Career (1901) when she was a teenager.\nAlec Greven's How to Talk to Girls was published in 2008 when he was nine years old. Subsequently he has published How to Talk to Moms, How to Talk to Dads and How to Talk to Santa.\nFaïza Guène (born 1985) had Kiffe kiffe demain published in 2004, when she was 19. It has since been translated into 22 languages, including English (as Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow).\nSonya Hartnett (born 1968) was thirteen years old when she wrote her first novel, Trouble All the Way, which was published in Australia in 1984.\nAlex and Brett Harris wrote the best-selling book Do Hard Things (2008), a non-fiction book challenging teenagers to \"rebel against low expectations\", at age 19. Two years later came a follow-up book called Start Here (2010).\nGeorgette Heyer (1902–1974) wrote The Black Moth when she was 17 and received a publishing contract when she was 18. It was published just after she turned 19.\nSusan Hill (born 1942), The Enclosure, published in 1961.\nS. E. Hinton (born 1948), The Outsiders, first published in 1967.\nPalle Huld (1912–2010) wrote A Boy Scout Around the World (Jorden Rundt i 44 dage) when he was 15, following a sponsored journey around the world.\nGeorge Vernon Hudson (1867–1946) completed An Elementary Manual of New Zealand Entomology at the end of 1886, when he was 19, but not published until 1892.\nKatharine Hull (1921–1977) and Pamela Whitlock (1920–1982) wrote the children's outdoor adventure novel The Far-Distant Oxus in 1937. It was followed in 1938 by Escape to Persia and in 1939 by Oxus in Summer.\nLeigh Hunt (1784–1859) published Juvenilia; or, a Collection of Poems Written between the ages of Twelve and Sixteen by J. H. L. Hunt, Late of the Grammar School of Christ's Hospital in March 1801.\nKody Keplinger (born 1991) wrote her debut novel The DUFF when she was 17.\nGordon Korman (born 1963), This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall (1978), three sequels, and I Want to Go Home (1981).\nMatthew Gregory Lewis (1775–1818) wrote the Gothic novel The Monk, now regarded as a classic of the genre, before he was twenty. It was published in 1796.\nNina Lugovskaya (1918–1993), a painter, theater director and Gulag survivor, kept a diary in 1932–37, which shows strong social sensitivities. It was found in the Russian State Archives and published 2003. It appeared in English in the same year.\nJoyce Maynard (born 1953) completed Looking Back while she was 19. It was first published in 1973.\nMargaret Mitchell (1900–1949) wrote her novella Lost Laysen at the age of fifteen and gave the two notebooks containing the manuscript to her boyfriend, Henry Love Angel. The novel was published posthumously in 1996.\nBen Okri, the Nigerian poet and novelist, (born 1959) wrote his first book Flowers and Shadows while he was 19.\nAlice Oseman(born 1994) wrote the novel Solitaire when she was 17 and it was published in 2014.\nHelen Oyeyemi (born 1984) completed The Icarus Girl while still 18. First published in 2005.\nChristopher Paolini (born 1983) had Eragon, the first novel of the Inheritance Cycle, first published 2002.\nEmily Pepys (1833–1877), daughter of a bishop, wrote a vivid private journal over six months of 1844–45, aged ten. It was discovered much later and published in 1984.\nAnya Reiss (born 1991) wrote her play Spur of the Moment when she was 17. It was both performed and published in 2010, when she was 18.\nArthur Rimbaud (1854–1891) wrote almost all his prose and poetry while still a teenager, for example Le Soleil était encore chaud (1866), Le Bateau ivre (1871) and Une Saison en Enfer (1873).\nJohn Thomas Romney Robinson (1792–1882) saw his juvenile poems published in 1806, when he was 13.\nFrançoise Sagan (1935–2004) had Bonjour tristesse published in 1954, when she was 18.\nMary Shelley (1797–1851) completed Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus during May 1817, when she was 19. It was first published in the following year.\nMattie Stepanek (1990–2004), an American poet, published seven best-selling books of poetry.\nJohn Steptoe (1950–1989), author and illustrator, began his picture book Stevie at 16. It was published in 1969 in Life.\nAnna Stothard (born 1983) saw her Isabel and Rocco published when she was 19.\nDorothy Straight (born 1958) in 1962 wrote How the World Began, which was published by Pantheon Books in 1964. She holds the Guinness world record for the youngest female published author.\nJalaluddin Al-Suyuti (c. 1445–1505) wrote his first book, Sharh Al-Isti'aadha wal-Basmalah, at the age of 17.\nF. J. Thwaites (1908–1979) wrote his bestselling novel The Broken Melody when he was 19.\nJohn Kennedy Toole (1937–1969) wrote The Neon Bible in 1954 when he was 16. It was not published until 1989.\nAlec Waugh (1898–1981) wrote his novel about school life, The Loom of Youth, after leaving school. It was published in 1917.\nCatherine Webb (born 1986) had five young adult books published before she was 20: Mirror Dreams (2002), Mirror Wakes (2003), Waywalkers (2003), Timekeepers (2004) and The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle (February 2006).\nNancy Yi Fan (born 1993) published her debut Swordbird when she was 12. Other books she published as a teenager include Sword Quest (2008) and Sword Mountain (2012).\nKat Zhang (born 1991) was 20 when she sold, in a three-book deal, her entire Hybrid Chronicles trilogy. The first book, What's Left of Me, was published 2012.\n\nSee also \nLists of books\n\nReferences \n\nBooks Written By Children and Teenagers\nbooks\nChildren And Teenagers, Written By\nChi",
"Alannah Yip (born October 26, 1993) is a Canadian engineer and sport climber. She was a national champion for her age when she was twelve. She won a gold medal at the American Climbing Championships 2020 in Los Angeles, which qualified her for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.\n\nLife\nYip was born and raised in North Vancouver. She began climbing when she was nine when her godparent's children became interested in climbing. She won her first National Climbing Championship when she was twelve. She trained to be an engineer, specialising in mechatronics. She tried giving up climbing to concentrate on her university studies, but she realised that sport was essential. In 2015 she was able to visit Switzerland as part of her studies and she was able to practice climbing in her spare time with the Swiss national team. When she returned to Canada she began training with the \"Climb Base 5\" in preparation for the following years World Cup climbing events.\n\nYip graduated from the University of British Columbia in 2018.\n\nHer coach was Andrew Wilson in 2018 and she has been supported by Petro-Canada. She qualified for a place in sport climbing at the 2020 Summer Olympics by winning the 2020 IFSC Pan-American Championships.\n\nResults\n\nWorld championships\n\nPan American championships\n\nReferences\n\n1993 births\nLiving people\nPeople from North Vancouver\nCanadian engineers\nCanadian rock climbers\nSport climbers at the 2020 Summer Olympics\nOlympic sport climbers of Canada"
]
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[
"Miriam Makeba",
"Childhood and family",
"Where did she grow up?",
"black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail.",
"Why was she in jail?",
"her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal.",
"when was she born?",
"Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932"
]
| C_be942cd9bfc84a1eb32a2739a1edbbc7_1 | Does she have sublings? | 5 | Does Miriam Makeba have siblings? | Miriam Makeba | Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932 in the black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg. Her Swazi mother, Christina Makeba, was a sangoma, or traditional healer, and a domestic worker. Her Xhosa father, Caswell Makeba, was a teacher; he died when she was six years old. Makeba later said that before she was conceived, her mother had been warned that any future pregnancy could be fatal. Neither Miriam nor her mother seemed likely to survive after a difficult labour and delivery. Miriam's grandmother, who attended the birth, often muttered "uzenzile", a Xhosa word that means "you brought this on yourself", to Miriam's mother during her recovery, which inspired her to give her daughter the name "Zenzile". When Makeba was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. The family could not afford the small fine required to avoid a jail term, and Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail. As a child, Makeba sang in the choir of the Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria, an all-black Methodist primary school that she attended for eight years. Her talent for singing earned her praise at school. Makeba was baptised a Protestant, and sang in church choirs, in English, Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu; she later said that she learned to sing in English before she could speak the language. The family moved to the Transvaal when Makeba was a child. After her father's death, she was forced to find employment; she did domestic work, and worked as a nanny. She described herself as a shy person at the time. Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children. Makeba lived for a while with her grandmother and a large number of cousins in Pretoria. Makeba was influenced by her family's musical tastes; her mother played several traditional instruments, and her elder brother collected records, including those of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, and taught Makeba songs. Her father played the piano, and his musical inclination was later a factor in Makeba's family accepting what was seen as a risque choice of career. In 1949, Makeba married James Kubay, a policeman in training, with whom she had her only child, Bongi Makeba, in 1950. Makeba was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband, who was said to have beaten her, left her shortly afterwards, after a two-year marriage. A decade later she overcame cervical cancer via a hysterectomy. CANNOTANSWER | Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children. | Zenzile Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid and white-minority government in South Africa.
Born in Johannesburg to Swazi and Xhosa parents, Makeba was forced to find employment as a child after the death of her father. She had a brief and allegedly abusive first marriage at the age of 17, gave birth to her only child in 1950, and survived breast cancer. Her vocal talent had been recognized when she was a child, and she began singing professionally in the 1950s, with the Cuban Brothers, the Manhattan Brothers, and an all-woman group, the Skylarks, performing a mixture of jazz, traditional African melodies, and Western popular music. In 1959, Makeba had a brief role in the anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa, which brought her international attention, and led to her performing in Venice, London, and New York City. In London, she met the American singer Harry Belafonte, who became a mentor and colleague. She moved to New York City, where she became immediately popular, and recorded her first solo album in 1960. Her attempt to return to South Africa that year for her mother's funeral was prevented by the country's government.
Makeba's career flourished in the United States, and she released several albums and songs, her most popular being "Pata Pata" (1967). Along with Belafonte she received a Grammy Award for her 1965 album An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. She testified against the South African government at the United Nations and became involved in the civil rights movement. She married Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Black Panther Party, in 1968. As a result, she lost support among white Americans. The US government cancelled her visa while she was travelling abroad, leading her and Carmichael to move to Guinea. She continued to perform, mostly in African countries, including at several independence celebrations. She began to write and perform music more explicitly critical of apartheid; the 1977 song "Soweto Blues", written by her former husband Hugh Masekela, was about the Soweto uprising. After apartheid was dismantled in 1990, Makeba returned to South Africa. She continued recording and performing, including a 1991 album with Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, and appeared in the 1992 film Sarafina!. She was named a UN goodwill ambassador in 1999, and campaigned for humanitarian causes. She died of a heart attack during a 2008 concert in Italy.
Makeba was among the first African musicians to receive worldwide recognition. She brought African music to a Western audience, and popularized the world music and Afropop genres. She also made popular several songs critical of apartheid, and became a symbol of opposition to the system, particularly after her right to return was revoked. Upon her death, former South African President Nelson Mandela said that "her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
Early years
Childhood and family
Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932 in the black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg. Her Swazi mother, Christina Makeba, was a sangoma, or traditional healer, and a domestic worker. Her Xhosa father, Caswell Makeba, was a teacher; he died when she was six years old. Makeba later said that before she was conceived, her mother had been warned that any future pregnancy could be fatal. Neither Miriam nor her mother seemed likely to survive after a difficult labour and delivery. Miriam's grandmother, who attended the birth, often muttered "uzenzile", a Xhosa word that means "you brought this on yourself", to Miriam's mother during her recovery, which inspired her to give her daughter the name "Zenzile".
When Makeba was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. The family could not afford the small fine required to avoid a jail term, and Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail. As a child, Makeba sang in the choir of the Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria, an all-black Methodist primary school that she attended for eight years. Her talent for singing earned her praise at school. Makeba was baptised a Protestant, and sang in church choirs, in English, Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu; she later said that she learned to sing in English before she could speak the language.
The family moved to the Transvaal when Makeba was a child. After her father's death, she was forced to find employment; she did domestic work, and worked as a nanny. She described herself as a shy person at the time. Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children. Makeba lived for a while with her grandmother and a large number of cousins in Pretoria. Makeba was influenced by her family's musical tastes; her mother played several traditional instruments, and her elder brother collected records, including those of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, and taught Makeba songs. Her father played the piano, and his musical inclination was later a factor in Makeba's family accepting what was seen as a risque choice of career.
In 1949, Makeba married James Kubay, a policeman in training, with whom she had her only child, Bongi Makeba, in 1950. Makeba was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband, who was said to have beaten her, left her shortly afterwards, after a two-year marriage. A decade later she overcame cervical cancer via a hysterectomy.
Early career
Makeba began her professional musical career with the Cuban Brothers, a South African all-male close harmony group, with whom she sang covers of popular American songs. Soon afterwards, at the age of 21, she joined a jazz group, the Manhattan Brothers, who sang a mixture of South African songs and pieces from popular African-American groups. Makeba was the only woman in the group. With the Manhattan Brothers she recorded her first hit, "Laku Tshoni Ilanga", in 1953, and developed a national reputation as a musician. In 1956 she joined a new all-woman group, the Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional South African melodies. Formed by Gallotone Records, the group was also known as the Sunbeams. Makeba sang with the Skylarks when the Manhattan Brothers were travelling abroad; later, she also travelled with the Manhattan Brothers. In the Skylarks, Makeba sang alongside Rhodesian-born musician Dorothy Masuka, whose music Makeba had followed, along with that of Dolly Rathebe. Several of the Skylarks' pieces from this period became popular; the music historian Rob Allingham later described the group as "real trendsetters, with harmonisation that had never been heard before." Makeba received no royalties from her work with the Skylarks.
While performing with the Manhattan Brothers in 1955, Makeba met Nelson Mandela, then a young lawyer; he later remembered the meeting, and that he felt that the girl he met "was going to be someone." In 1956, Gallotone Records released "Lovely Lies", Makeba's first solo success; the Xhosa lyric about a man looking for his beloved in jails and hospitals was replaced with the unrelated and innocuous line "You tell such lovely lies with your two lovely eyes" in the English version. The record became the first South African record to chart on the United States Billboard Top 100. In 1957, Makeba was featured on the cover of Drum magazine.
In 1959, Makeba sang the lead female role in the Broadway-inspired South African jazz opera King Kong; among those in the cast was the musician Hugh Masekela. The musical was performed to racially integrated audiences, raising her profile among white South Africans. Also in 1959, she had a short guest appearance in Come Back, Africa, an anti-apartheid film produced and directed by the American independent filmmaker Lionel Rogosin. Rogosin cast her after seeing her on stage in African Jazz and Variety show, on which Makeba was a performer for 18 months. The film blended elements of documentary and fiction and had to be filmed in secret as the government was expected to be hostile to it. Makeba appeared on stage, and sang two songs: her appearance lasted four minutes. The cameo made an enormous impression on viewers, and Rogosin organised a visa for her to attend the premiere of the film at the twenty-fourth Venice Film Festival in Italy, where the film won the prestigious Critics' Choice Award. Makeba's presence has been described as crucial to the film, as an emblem of cosmopolitan black identity that also connected with working-class black people due to the dialogue being in Zulu.
Makeba's role in Come Back, Africa brought her international recognition and she travelled to London and New York to perform. In London she met the American singer Harry Belafonte, who became her mentor, helping her with her first solo recordings. These included "Pata Pata", which would be released many years later, and a version of the traditional Xhosa song "Qongqothwane", which she had first performed with the Skylarks. Though "Pata Pata"—described by Musician magazine as a "groundbreaking Afropop gem"—became her most famous song, Makeba described it as "one of my most insignificant songs". While in England, she married Sonny Pillay, a South African ballad singer of Indian descent; they divorced within a few months.
Makeba then moved to New York, making her US music debut on 1 November 1959 on The Steve Allen Show in Los Angeles for a television audience of 60 million. Her New York debut at the Village Vanguard occurred soon after; she sang in Xhosa and Zulu, and performed a Yiddish folk song. Her audience at this concert included Miles Davis and Duke Ellington; her performance received strongly positive reviews from critics. She first came to popular and critical attention in jazz clubs, after which her reputation grew rapidly. Belafonte, who had helped Makeba with her move to the US, handled the logistics for her first performances. When she first moved to the US, Makeba lived in Greenwich Village, along with other musicians and actors. As was common in her profession, she experienced some financial insecurity, and worked as a babysitter for a period.
Exile
United States
Breakthrough
Soon after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, Makeba learned that her mother had died. When she tried to return home for the funeral, she found that her South African passport had been cancelled. Two of Makeba's family members were killed in the massacre. The incident left her concerned about her family, many of whom were still in South Africa, including her daughter: the nine-year-old Bongi joined her mother in the US in August 1960. During her first few years in the US, Makeba had rarely sung explicitly political music, but her popularity had led to an increase in awareness of apartheid and the anti-apartheid movement. Following the Sharpeville killings, Makeba felt a responsibility to help, as she had been able to leave the country while others had not. From this point, she became an increasingly outspoken critic of apartheid and the white-minority government; before the massacre, she had taken care to avoid overtly political statements in South Africa.
Her musical career in the US continued to flourish. She signed a recording contract with RCA Victor, and released Miriam Makeba, her first studio album, in 1960, backed by Belafonte's band. RCA Victor chose to buy out Makeba's contract with Gallotone Records, and despite the fact that Makeba was unable to perform in South Africa, Gallotone received US$45,000 in the deal, which meant that Makeba received no royalties for her debut album. The album included one of her most famous hits in the US, "Qongqothwane", which was known in English as "The Click Song" because Makeba's audiences could not pronounce the Xhosa name. Time magazine called her the "most exciting new singing talent to appear in many years", and Newsweek compared her voice to "the smoky tones and delicate phrasing" of Ella Fitzgerald and the "intimate warmth" of Frank Sinatra. The album was not commercially successful, and Makeba was briefly dropped from RCA Victor: she was re-signed soon after as the label recognised the commercial possibilities of the growing interest in African culture. Her South African identity had been downplayed during her first signing, but it was strongly emphasised the second time to take advantage of this interest. Makeba made several appearances on television, often in the company of Belafonte. In 1962, Makeba and Belafonte sang at the birthday party for US President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, but Makeba did not go to the party afterwards because she was ill. Kennedy nevertheless insisted on meeting her, so Belafonte sent a car to pick her up.
In 1964, Makeba released her second studio album for RCA Victor, The World of Miriam Makeba. An early example of world music, the album peaked at number eighty-six on the Billboard 200. Makeba's music had a cross-racial appeal in the US; white Americans were attracted to her image as an "exotic" African performer, and black Americans related their own experiences of racial segregation to Makeba's struggle against apartheid. Makeba found company among other African exiles and émigrés in New York, including Hugh Masekela, to whom she was married from 1963 to 1968. During their marriage, Makeba and Masekela were neighbours of the jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie in Englewood, New Jersey; they spent much of their time in Harlem. She also came to know actors Marlon Brando and Lauren Bacall, and musicians Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles. Fellow singer-activist Nina Simone became friendly with Makeba, as did actor Cicely Tyson; Makeba and Simone performed together at Carnegie Hall. Makeba was among black entertainers, activists, and intellectuals in New York at the time who believed that the civil rights movement and popular culture could reinforce each other, creating "a sense of intertwined political and cultural vibrancy"; other examples included Maya Angelou and Sidney Poitier. She later described her difficulty living with racial segregation, saying "There wasn't much difference in America; it was a country that had abolished slavery but there was apartheid in its own way."
Travel and activism
Makeba's music was also popular in Europe, and she travelled and performed there frequently. Acting on the advice of Belafonte, she added songs from Latin America, Europe, Israel, and elsewhere in Africa to her repertoire. She visited Kenya in 1962 in support of the country's independence from British colonial rule, and raised funds for its independence leader Jomo Kenyatta. Later that year she testified before the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid about the effects of the system, asking for economic sanctions against South Africa's National Party government. She requested an arms embargo against South Africa, on the basis that weapons sold to the government would likely be used against black women and children. As a result, her music was banned in South Africa, and her South African citizenship and right to return were revoked. Makeba thus became a stateless person, but she was soon issued passports by Algeria, Guinea, Belgium and Ghana. In her life, she held nine passports, and was granted honorary citizenship in ten countries.
Soon after her testimony, Haile Selassie, the emperor of Ethiopia, invited her to sing at the inauguration of the Organisation of African Unity, the only performer to be invited. As the fact of her ban from South Africa became well known she became a cause célèbre for Western liberals, and her presence in the civil rights movement provided a link between that movement and the anti-apartheid struggle. In 1964 she was taught the song "Malaika" by a Kenyan student while backstage at a performance in San Francisco; the song later became a staple of her performances.
Throughout the 1960s, Makeba strengthened her involvement with a range of black-centred political movements, including the civil rights, anti-apartheid, Black Consciousness, and Black Power movements. She briefly met the Trinidadian-American activist Stokely Carmichael—the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and a prominent figure in the Black Panther Party—after Belafonte invited him to one of Makeba's concerts; they met again in Conakry six years later. They entered a relationship, initially kept secret from all but their closest friends and family. Makeba participated in fundraising activities for various civil rights groups, including a benefit concert for the 1962 Southern Christian Leadership Conference that civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. referred to as the "event of the year". Following a concert and rally in Atlanta in support of King, Makeba and others were denied entrance to a restaurant as a result of Jim Crow laws, leading to a televised protest in front of the establishment. She also criticised King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference for its investment in South African companies, informing press that "Now my friend of long standing supports the country's persecution of my people and I must find a new idol". Her identity as an African woman in the civil rights movement helped create "an emerging liberal consensus" that extreme racial discrimination, whether domestically or internationally, was harmful. In 1964 she testified at the UN for a second time, quoting a song by Vanessa Redgrave in calling for quick action against the South African government.
On 15 March 1966, Makeba and Belafonte received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording for An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under apartheid, including several songs critical of the South African government, such as "Ndodemnyama we Verwoerd" ("Watch our Verwoerd", a reference to Hendrik Verwoerd, one of the architects of apartheid). It sold widely and raised Makeba's profile in the US; Belafonte and Makeba's concert tour following its release was often sold out, and the album has been described as the best they made together. Makeba's use of lyrics in Swahili, Xhosa, and Sotho led to her being seen as a representation of an "authentic" Africa by American audiences. In 1967, more than ten years after she first recorded the song, the single "Pata Pata" was released in the US on an album of the same title, and became a worldwide hit. During its recording, she and Belafonte had a disagreement, after which they stopped recording together.
Guinea
Makeba married Carmichael in March 1968; this caused her popularity in the US to decline markedly. Conservatives came to regard her as a militant and an extremist, an image that alienated much of her fanbase. Her performances were cancelled and her coverage in the press declined despite her efforts to portray her marriage as apolitical. White American audiences stopped supporting her, and the US government took an interest in her activities. The Central Intelligence Agency began following her, and placed hidden microphones in her apartment; the Federal Bureau of Investigation also placed her under surveillance. While she and her husband were travelling in the Bahamas, she was banned from returning to the US, and was refused a visa. As a result, the couple moved to Guinea, where Carmichael changed his name to Kwame Touré. Makeba did not return to the US until 1987.
Guinea remained Makeba's home for the next 15 years, and she and her husband became close to President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife, Andrée. Touré wanted to create a new style of African music, creating his own record label Syliphone for this purpose, and all musicians received a minimum wage if they practised for several hours every day. Makeba later stated that "I've never seen a country that did what Sékou Touré did for artists." After her rejection from the US she began to write music more directly critical of the US government's racial policies, recording and singing songs such as "Lumumba" in 1970 (referring to Patrice Lumumba, the assassinated Prime Minister of the Congo), and "Malcolm X" in 1974.
Makeba performed more frequently in African countries, and as countries became independent of European colonial powers, was invited to sing at independence ceremonies, including in Kenya, Angola, Zambia, Tanganyika, and Mozambique. In September 1974 she performed alongside a multitude of well-known African and American musicians at the Zaire 74 festival in Kinshasa, Zaire (formerly the Congo). She also became a diplomat for Ghana, and was appointed Guinea's official delegate to the UN in 1975; that year, she addressed the United Nations General Assembly. She continued to perform in Europe and Asia, as well as her African concerts, but not in the US, where a de facto boycott was in effect. Her performances in Africa were immensely popular: she was described as the highlight of FESTAC 77, a Pan-African arts festival in Nigeria in 1977, and during a Liberian performance of "Pata Pata", the stadium proved so loud that she was unable to complete the song. "Pata Pata", like her other songs, had been banned in South Africa. Another song she sang frequently in this period was "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika", though she never recorded it. Makeba later stated that it was during this period that she accepted the label "Mama Africa".
In 1976, the South African government replaced English with Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in all schools, setting off the Soweto uprising. Between 15,000 and 20,000 students took part; caught unprepared, the police opened fire on the protesting children, killing hundreds and injuring more than a thousand. Hugh Masekela wrote "Soweto Blues" in response to the massacre, and the song was performed by Makeba, becoming a staple of her live performances for many years. A review in the magazine Musician said that the song had "searingly righteous lyrics" about the uprising that "cut to the bone". She had separated from Carmichael in 1973; in 1978 they divorced and in 1981 she married Bageot Bah, an airline executive.
Belgium
Makeba's daughter Bongi, who was a singer in her own right and had often accompanied her mother on stage, died in childbirth in 1985. Makeba was left responsible for her two grandchildren, and decided to move out of Guinea. She settled in the Woluwe-Saint-Lambert district of the Belgian capital Brussels. In the following year, Masekela introduced Makeba to Paul Simon, and a few months later she embarked on Simon's very successful Graceland Tour. The tour concluded with two concerts held in Harare, Zimbabwe, which were filmed in 1987 for release as Graceland: The African Concert. After touring the world with Simon, Warner Bros. Records signed Makeba and she released Sangoma ("Healer"), an album of healing chants named in honour of her sangoma mother. Her involvement with Simon caused controversy: Graceland had been recorded in South Africa, breaking the cultural boycott of the country, and thus Makeba's participation in the tour was regarded as contravening the boycott (which Makeba herself endorsed).
In preparation for the Graceland tour, she worked with journalist James Hall to write an autobiography titled Makeba: My Story. The book contained descriptions of her experience with apartheid, and was also critical of the commodification and consumerism she experienced in the US. The book was translated into five languages. She took part in the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute, a popular-music concert staged on 11 June 1988 at London's Wembley Stadium, and broadcast to an audience of 600 million across 67 countries. Political aspects of the concert were heavily censored in the US by the Fox television network. The use of music to raise awareness of apartheid paid off: a survey after the concert found that among people aged between 16 and 24, three-quarters knew of Mandela, and supported his release from prison.
Return to South Africa, final years and death
Following growing pressure from the anti-apartheid movement both domestically and internationally, in 1990 State President Frederik Willem de Klerk reversed the ban on the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid organisations, and announced that Mandela would shortly be released from prison. Mandela was released in February 1990. He persuaded Makeba to return to South Africa, which she did, using her French passport, on 10 June 1990.
Makeba, Gillespie, Simone, and Masekela recorded and released her studio album, Eyes on Tomorrow, in 1991. It combined jazz, R&B, pop, and traditional African music, and was a hit across Africa. Makeba and Gillespie then toured the world together to promote it. In November she made a guest appearance on a US sitcom, The Cosby Show. In 1992, she starred in the film Sarafina! which centred on students involved in the 1976 Soweto uprising. Makeba portrayed the title character's mother, Angelina, a role which The New York Times described as having been performed with "immense dignity".
On 16 October 1999, Makeba was named a Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In January 2000, her album, Homeland, produced by the New York City based record label Putumayo World Music, was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best World Music Album category. She worked closely with Graça Machel-Mandela, the South African first lady, advocating for children suffering from HIV/AIDS, child soldiers, and the physically handicapped. She established the Makeba Centre for Girls, a home for orphans, described in an obituary as her most personal project. She also took part in the 2002 documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony, which examined the struggles of black South Africans against apartheid through the music of the period. Makeba's second autobiography, Makeba: The Miriam Makeba Story, was published in 2004. In 2005 she announced that she would retire and began a farewell tour, but despite having osteoarthritis, continued to perform until her death. During this period, her grandchildren Nelson Lumumba Lee and Zenzi Lee, and her great-grandchild Lindelani, occasionally joined her performances.
On 9 November 2008, Makeba fell ill during a concert in Castel Volturno, near Caserta, Italy. The concert had been organised to support the writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a criminal organisation active in the Campania region. She suffered a heart attack after singing her hit song "Pata Pata", and was taken to the Pineta Grande clinic, where doctors were unable to revive her.
Music and image
Musical style
The groups with which Makeba began her career performed mbube, a style of vocal harmony which drew on American jazz, ragtime, and Anglican church hymns, as well as indigenous styles of music. Johannesburg musician Dolly Rathebe was an early influence on Makeba's music, as were female jazz singers from the US. Historian David Coplan writes that the "African jazz" made popular by Makeba and others was "inherently hybridized" rather than derivative of any particular genre, blending as it did marabi and jazz, and was "Americanized African music, not Africanized American music". The music that she performed was described by British writer Robin Denselow as a "unique blend of rousing township styles and jazz-influenced balladry".
Makeba released more than 30 albums during her career. The dominant styles of these shifted over time, moving from African jazz to recordings influenced by Belafonte's "crooning" to music drawing from traditional South African musical forms. She has been associated with the genres of world music and Afropop. She also incorporated Latin American musical styles into her performances. Historian Ruth Feldstein described her music as "[crossing] the borders between what many people associated with avant-garde and 'quality' culture and the commercial mainstream"; the latter aspect often drew criticism. She was able to appeal to audiences from many political, racial, and national backgrounds.
She was known for having a dynamic vocal range, and was described as having an emotional awareness during her performances. She occasionally danced during her shows, and was described as having a sensuous presence on stage. She was able to vary her voice considerably: an obituary remarked that she "could soar like an opera singer, but she could also whisper, roar, hiss, growl and shout. She could sing while making the epiglottal clicks of the Xhosa language." She sang in English and several African languages, but never in Afrikaans, the language of the apartheid government in South Africa. She once stated "When Afrikaaners sing in my language, then I will sing theirs." English was seen as the language of political resistance by black South Africans due to the educational barriers they faced under apartheid; the Manhattan Brothers, with whom Makeba had sung in Sophiatown, had been prohibited from recording in English. Her songs in African languages have been described as reaffirming black pride.
Politics and perception
Makeba said that she did not perform political music, but music about her personal life in South Africa, which included describing the pain she felt living under apartheid. She once stated "people say I sing politics, but what I sing is not politics, it is the truth", an example of the mixing of personal and political issues for musicians living during apartheid. When she first entered the US, she avoided discussing apartheid explicitly, partly out of concern for her family still in South Africa. Nonetheless, she is known for using her voice to convey the political message of opposition to apartheid, performing widely and frequently for civil rights and anti-apartheid organisations. Even songs that did not carry an explicitly political message were seen as subversive, due to their being banned in South Africa. Makeba saw her music as a tool of activism, saying "In our struggle, songs are not simply entertainment for us. They are the way we communicate."
Makeba's use of the clicks common in languages such as Xhosa and Zulu (as in "Qongqothwane", "The Click Song") was frequently remarked upon by Western audiences. It contributed to her popularity and her exotic image, which scholars have described as a kind of othering, exacerbated by the fact that Western audiences often could not understand her lyrics. Critics in the US described her as the "African tribeswoman" and as an "import from South Africa", often depicting her in condescending terms as a product of a more primitive society. Commentators also frequently described her in terms of the prominent men she was associated with, despite her own prominence. During her early career in South Africa she had been seen as a sex symbol, an image that received considerably less attention in the US.
Makeba was described as a style icon, both in her home country and the US. She wore no makeup and refused to straighten her hair for shows, thus helping establish a style that came to be known internationally as the "Afro look". According to music scholar Tanisha Ford, her hairstyle represented a "liberated African beauty aesthetic". She was seen as a beauty icon by South African schoolgirls, who were compelled to shorten their hair by the apartheid government. Makeba stuck to wearing African jewellery; she disapproved of the skin-lighteners commonly used by South African women at the time, and refused to appear in advertisements for them. Her self-presentation has been characterised by scholars as a rejection of the predominantly white standards of beauty that women in the US were held to, which allowed Makeba to partially escape the sexualisation directed at women performers during this period. Nonetheless, the terms used to describe her in the US media have been identified by scholars as frequently used to "sexualize, infantalize, and animalize" people of African heritage.
Legacy
Musical influence
Makeba was among the most visible Africans in the US; as a result, she was often emblematic of the continent of Africa for Americans. Her music earned her the moniker "Mama Africa", and she was variously described as the "Empress of African Song", the "Queen of South African music", and Africa's "first superstar". Music scholar J. U. Jacobs said that Makeba's music had "both been shaped by and given shape to black South African and American music". The jazz musician Abbey Lincoln is among those identified as being influenced by Makeba. Makeba and Simone were among a group of artists who helped shape soul music. Longtime collaborator Belafonte called her "the most revolutionary new talent to appear in any medium in the last decade". Speaking after her death, Mandela called her "South Africa's first lady of song", and said that "her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
Outside her home country Makeba was credited with bringing African music to a Western audience, and along with artists such as Youssou N'Dour, Salif Keita, Ali Farka Touré, Baaba Maal and Angélique Kidjo, with popularising the genre of world music. Her work with Belafonte in the 1960s has been described as creating the genre of world music before the concept entered the popular imagination, and also as highlighting the diversity and cultural pluralism within African music. Within South Africa, Makeba has been described as influencing artists such as kwaito musician Thandiswa Mazwai and her band Bongo Maffin, whose track "De Makeba" was a modified version of Makeba's "Pata Pata", and one of several tribute recordings released after her return to South Africa. South African jazz musician Simphiwe Dana has been described as "the new Miriam Makeba". South African singer Lira has frequently been compared with Makeba, particularly for her performance of "Pata Pata" during the opening ceremony of the 2010 Football World Cup. A year later, Kidjo dedicated her concert in New York to Makeba, as a musician who had "paved the way for her success". In an obituary, scholar Lara Allen referred to Makeba as "arguably South Africa's most famous musical export". In 2016 the French singer Jain released "Makeba", a tribute.
Activism
Makeba was among the most visible people campaigning against the apartheid system in South Africa, and was responsible for popularising several anti-apartheid songs, including "Meadowlands" by Strike Vilakezi and "Ndodemnyama we Verwoerd" (Watch out, Verwoerd) by Vuyisile Mini. Due to her high profile, she became a spokesperson of sorts for Africans living under oppressive governments, and in particular for black South Africans living under apartheid. When the South African government prevented her from entering her home country, she became a symbol of "apartheid's cruelty", and she used her position as a celebrity by testifying against apartheid before the UN in 1962 and 1964. Many of her songs were banned within South Africa, leading to Makeba's records being distributed underground, and even her apolitical songs being seen as subversive. She thus became a symbol of resistance to the white-minority government both within and outside South Africa. In an interview in 2000, Masekela said that "there [was] nobody in Africa who made the world more aware of what was happening in South Africa than Miriam Makeba."
Makeba has also been associated with the movement against colonialism, with the civil rights and black power movements in the US, and with the Pan-African movement. She called for unity between black people of African descent across the world: "Africans who live everywhere should fight everywhere. The struggle is no different in South Africa, the streets of Chicago, Trinidad or Canada. The Black people are the victims of capitalism, racism and oppression, period". After marrying Carmichael she often appeared with him during his speeches; Carmichael later described her presence at these events as an asset, and Feldstein wrote that Makeba enhanced Carmichael's message that "black is beautiful". Along with performers such as Simone, Lena Horne, and Abbey Lincoln, she used her position as a prominent musician to advocate for civil rights. Their activism has been described as simultaneously calling attention to racial and gender disparities, and highlighting "that the liberation they desired could not separate race from sex". Makeba's critique of second-wave feminism as being the product of luxury led to observers being unwilling to call her a feminist. Scholar Ruth Feldstein stated that Makeba and others influenced both black feminism and second-wave feminism through their advocacy, and the historian Jacqueline Castledine referred to her as one of the "most steadfast voices for social justice".
Awards and recognition
Makeba's 1965 collaboration with Harry Belafonte won a Grammy Award, making her the first African recording artist to win this award. Makeba shared the 2001 Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. They received their prize from Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden, during a nationally televised ceremony at Berwaldhallen, Stockholm, on 27 May 2002.
Makeba won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986, and in 2001 was awarded the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold by the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding". She also received several honorary doctorates. In 2004, she was voted 38th in a poll ranking 100 Great South Africans.
Mama Africa, a musical about Makeba, was produced in South Africa by Niyi Coker. Originally titled Zenzi!, the musical premiered to a sold-out crowd in Cape Town on 26 May 2016. It was performed in the US in St. Louis, Missouri and at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City between October and December 2016. The musical returned to South Africa in February 2017 for what would have been Makeba's 85th birthday.
From 25 to 27 September 2009, a tribute television show to Makeba entitled Hommage à Miriam Makeba and curated by Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist Angélique Kidjo, was held at the Cirque d'hiver in Paris. The show was presented as Mama Africa: Celebrating Miriam Makeba at the Barbican in London on 21 November 2009. A documentary film titled Mama Africa, about Makeba's life, co-written and directed by Finnish director Mika Kaurismäki, was released in 2011. On 4 March 2013, and again on International Women's Day in 2017, Google honoured her with a Google Doodle on their homepage. In 2014 she was honoured (along with Nelson Mandela, Albertina Sisulu and Steve Biko) in the Belgian city of Ghent, which named a square after her, the "Miriam Makebaplein". Makeba was named 1967's "woman of the year" by Time magazine in 2020, as one of a list of 100 "women of the year" for the years 1920–2019.
Notable songs and albums
This is a list of albums and songs, including covers, by Miriam Makeba that have received significant mention in commentary about her or about the musical and political movements she participated in.
Albums
Miriam Makeba (1960)
The Many Voices of Miriam Makeba (1962)
An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba (1965)
Comme une symphonie d'amour (1979)
The Queen of African Music (1987)
Sangoma (1988)
Welela (1989)
Eyes on Tomorrow (1991)
Homeland (2000)
Songs
"Lakutshn, Ilanga"/Lovely Lies" (1956)
"Sophiatown is Gone"
"The Click Song" / "Mbube" (1963)
"Pata Pata" (1967)
"Lumumba" (1970)
"Malcolm X" (1974)
"Soweto Blues" (1977)
"Thula Sizwe/I Shall Be Released" (1991)
"Malaika"
See also
Culture of South Africa
Notes and references
Footnotes
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Miriam Makeba at National Public Radio
1932 births
2008 deaths
20th-century South African women singers
21st-century South African women singers
Anti-apartheid activists
FAO Goodwill ambassadors
Grammy Award winners
Heads Up International artists
Music in the movement against apartheid
Musicians who died on stage
Musicians from Johannesburg
South African actresses
South African exiles
South African people of Swazi descent
World music musicians
Wrasse Records artists
Xhosa people | true | [
"Four ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Topaze, after the French word for the gemstone Topaz:\n\n , a 38-gun fifth rate, previously the . She was handed over to the British in 1793 by French royalists, and was sold in 1814.\n HMS Topaze (1814), a 38-gun fifth rate, previously the French frigate Étoile. She was captured by Hebrus in 1814 and became a receiving ship in 1823. She was used as a target from 1850 and broken up in 1851. \n , a wood screw frigate launched in 1858 and sold in 1884.\n , a launched in 1903, and sold in 1921.\n\nThere was also a naval trawler named . She was formerly the trawler Melbourne launched in 1935, and used for anti-submarine training during the Second World War, before she sank after a collision with in 1941. She does not seem to have been formally commissioned into the Royal Navy, and does not have the HMS prefix.\n\nRoyal Navy ship names",
"George Merrill Witte is an American poet and book editor from Madison, New Jersey. Witte is the current editor-in-chief of St. Martin's Press. He is the author of Does She Have a Name?, Deniability: Poems and The Apparitioners: Poems.\n\nCareer\nGeorge Witte is the author of three books of poetry: Does She Have a Name, Deniability and The Apparitioners.\n\nHis poems have also been published in The Atlantic, The Antioch Review, Boulevard, Gettysburg Review, The Hopkins Review, The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, Poetry (magazine), Prairie Schooner, New York Quarterly, Southwest Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Yale Review.\n\nWitte has also worked in book publishing at St. Martin's Press for thirty three years, as an editor, the publisher of Picador USA, and now as editor in chief. A graduate of Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he lives in Ridgewood, New Jersey .\n\nAwards\nWitte received Poetry's Frederick Bock Prize for a group of poems, a poetry fellowship from the New Jersey Council on the Arts/Department of State, and his poem \"At Dusk, the Catbird\" was selected for The Best American Poetry 2007 anthology.\n\nCollected works\n\n Does She Have a Name? NYQ Books, 2014\n\nAnthologies\n The Best American Poetry 2007\n Vocabula Bound 2\n Old Flame: From the First 10 Years of 32 Poems\n Rabbit Ears: TV Poems, ed. Joel Allegretti (NYQ Books, 2015)\n The Doll Collection, ed. Diane Lockward (Terrapin Books, 2016)\n Meta-Land: Poets of the Palisades II, ed. Paul Nash and Denise La Neve (The Poet's Press, 2016)\n What Editors Do: The Art, Craft, and Business of Book Editing, ed. Peter Ginna (University of Chicago Press, 2017)\n\nSee also\n\n Deniability: Poems\n New York Sun\n Library Journal\n The Environmentalist\n The Huffington Post\n Chicago Sun-Times\n St. Martin's Press\n\nExternal links\n \"Night Swimming\" in The Yale Review: https://yalereview.yale.edu/night-swimming\n \"Process of Elimination\" in Hopkins Review: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/627971/summary\n \"Constellations\" in Valparaiso Poetry Review: https://www.valpo.edu/valparaiso-poetry-review/2018/01/04/george-witte-constellations/\n \"Gully,\" \"Thaw,\" \"Narcissus,\" and \"Totenwald\" in Poetry: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?volume=155&issue=6&page=14\n \"As Is\" in Nimrod: https://nimrod.utulsa.edu/archive/leaving_home/main.html\n \"The Hatch\" in Poetry Northwest: http://www.poetrynw.org/george-witte-the-hatch/\n \"The Way Back\" in The Antioch Review: https://antiochreviewblog.com/2016/04/13/poem-wednesday-the-way-back-by-george-witte/\n George Witte Goodreads page https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/801230.George_Witte\n Does She Have a Name? at NYQ Books: http://books.nyq.org/author/georgewitte\n Does She Have a Name? at Small Press Distribution: http://www.spdbooks.org/Producte/9781630450014/does-she-have-a-name.aspx?rf=1\n New York Sun\n Academia\n Orchises Press\n The Environmentalist\n The Huffington Post\n Does She Have a Name? on Amazon\n Does She Have a Name? on Barnes & Noble\n The Apparitioners on Amazon\n Deniability on Amazon\n Deniability on Barnes & Noble\n St. Martin's Press\n\nReferences\n\nAmerican male poets\nPeople from Madison, New Jersey\nPeople from Ridgewood, New Jersey\nLiving people\nPoets from New Jersey\nFormalist poets\n20th-century American poets\n21st-century American poets\nAmerican book editors\nDuke University alumni\n20th-century American male writers\n21st-century American male writers\nYear of birth missing (living people)"
]
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"Miriam Makeba",
"Childhood and family",
"Where did she grow up?",
"black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail.",
"Why was she in jail?",
"her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal.",
"when was she born?",
"Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932",
"Does she have sublings?",
"Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children."
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| C_be942cd9bfc84a1eb32a2739a1edbbc7_1 | Where did she go to school? | 6 | Where did Miriam Makeba go to school? | Miriam Makeba | Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932 in the black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg. Her Swazi mother, Christina Makeba, was a sangoma, or traditional healer, and a domestic worker. Her Xhosa father, Caswell Makeba, was a teacher; he died when she was six years old. Makeba later said that before she was conceived, her mother had been warned that any future pregnancy could be fatal. Neither Miriam nor her mother seemed likely to survive after a difficult labour and delivery. Miriam's grandmother, who attended the birth, often muttered "uzenzile", a Xhosa word that means "you brought this on yourself", to Miriam's mother during her recovery, which inspired her to give her daughter the name "Zenzile". When Makeba was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. The family could not afford the small fine required to avoid a jail term, and Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail. As a child, Makeba sang in the choir of the Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria, an all-black Methodist primary school that she attended for eight years. Her talent for singing earned her praise at school. Makeba was baptised a Protestant, and sang in church choirs, in English, Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu; she later said that she learned to sing in English before she could speak the language. The family moved to the Transvaal when Makeba was a child. After her father's death, she was forced to find employment; she did domestic work, and worked as a nanny. She described herself as a shy person at the time. Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children. Makeba lived for a while with her grandmother and a large number of cousins in Pretoria. Makeba was influenced by her family's musical tastes; her mother played several traditional instruments, and her elder brother collected records, including those of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, and taught Makeba songs. Her father played the piano, and his musical inclination was later a factor in Makeba's family accepting what was seen as a risque choice of career. In 1949, Makeba married James Kubay, a policeman in training, with whom she had her only child, Bongi Makeba, in 1950. Makeba was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband, who was said to have beaten her, left her shortly afterwards, after a two-year marriage. A decade later she overcame cervical cancer via a hysterectomy. CANNOTANSWER | Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria, an all-black Methodist primary school | Zenzile Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid and white-minority government in South Africa.
Born in Johannesburg to Swazi and Xhosa parents, Makeba was forced to find employment as a child after the death of her father. She had a brief and allegedly abusive first marriage at the age of 17, gave birth to her only child in 1950, and survived breast cancer. Her vocal talent had been recognized when she was a child, and she began singing professionally in the 1950s, with the Cuban Brothers, the Manhattan Brothers, and an all-woman group, the Skylarks, performing a mixture of jazz, traditional African melodies, and Western popular music. In 1959, Makeba had a brief role in the anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa, which brought her international attention, and led to her performing in Venice, London, and New York City. In London, she met the American singer Harry Belafonte, who became a mentor and colleague. She moved to New York City, where she became immediately popular, and recorded her first solo album in 1960. Her attempt to return to South Africa that year for her mother's funeral was prevented by the country's government.
Makeba's career flourished in the United States, and she released several albums and songs, her most popular being "Pata Pata" (1967). Along with Belafonte she received a Grammy Award for her 1965 album An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. She testified against the South African government at the United Nations and became involved in the civil rights movement. She married Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Black Panther Party, in 1968. As a result, she lost support among white Americans. The US government cancelled her visa while she was travelling abroad, leading her and Carmichael to move to Guinea. She continued to perform, mostly in African countries, including at several independence celebrations. She began to write and perform music more explicitly critical of apartheid; the 1977 song "Soweto Blues", written by her former husband Hugh Masekela, was about the Soweto uprising. After apartheid was dismantled in 1990, Makeba returned to South Africa. She continued recording and performing, including a 1991 album with Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, and appeared in the 1992 film Sarafina!. She was named a UN goodwill ambassador in 1999, and campaigned for humanitarian causes. She died of a heart attack during a 2008 concert in Italy.
Makeba was among the first African musicians to receive worldwide recognition. She brought African music to a Western audience, and popularized the world music and Afropop genres. She also made popular several songs critical of apartheid, and became a symbol of opposition to the system, particularly after her right to return was revoked. Upon her death, former South African President Nelson Mandela said that "her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
Early years
Childhood and family
Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932 in the black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg. Her Swazi mother, Christina Makeba, was a sangoma, or traditional healer, and a domestic worker. Her Xhosa father, Caswell Makeba, was a teacher; he died when she was six years old. Makeba later said that before she was conceived, her mother had been warned that any future pregnancy could be fatal. Neither Miriam nor her mother seemed likely to survive after a difficult labour and delivery. Miriam's grandmother, who attended the birth, often muttered "uzenzile", a Xhosa word that means "you brought this on yourself", to Miriam's mother during her recovery, which inspired her to give her daughter the name "Zenzile".
When Makeba was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. The family could not afford the small fine required to avoid a jail term, and Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail. As a child, Makeba sang in the choir of the Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria, an all-black Methodist primary school that she attended for eight years. Her talent for singing earned her praise at school. Makeba was baptised a Protestant, and sang in church choirs, in English, Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu; she later said that she learned to sing in English before she could speak the language.
The family moved to the Transvaal when Makeba was a child. After her father's death, she was forced to find employment; she did domestic work, and worked as a nanny. She described herself as a shy person at the time. Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children. Makeba lived for a while with her grandmother and a large number of cousins in Pretoria. Makeba was influenced by her family's musical tastes; her mother played several traditional instruments, and her elder brother collected records, including those of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, and taught Makeba songs. Her father played the piano, and his musical inclination was later a factor in Makeba's family accepting what was seen as a risque choice of career.
In 1949, Makeba married James Kubay, a policeman in training, with whom she had her only child, Bongi Makeba, in 1950. Makeba was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband, who was said to have beaten her, left her shortly afterwards, after a two-year marriage. A decade later she overcame cervical cancer via a hysterectomy.
Early career
Makeba began her professional musical career with the Cuban Brothers, a South African all-male close harmony group, with whom she sang covers of popular American songs. Soon afterwards, at the age of 21, she joined a jazz group, the Manhattan Brothers, who sang a mixture of South African songs and pieces from popular African-American groups. Makeba was the only woman in the group. With the Manhattan Brothers she recorded her first hit, "Laku Tshoni Ilanga", in 1953, and developed a national reputation as a musician. In 1956 she joined a new all-woman group, the Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional South African melodies. Formed by Gallotone Records, the group was also known as the Sunbeams. Makeba sang with the Skylarks when the Manhattan Brothers were travelling abroad; later, she also travelled with the Manhattan Brothers. In the Skylarks, Makeba sang alongside Rhodesian-born musician Dorothy Masuka, whose music Makeba had followed, along with that of Dolly Rathebe. Several of the Skylarks' pieces from this period became popular; the music historian Rob Allingham later described the group as "real trendsetters, with harmonisation that had never been heard before." Makeba received no royalties from her work with the Skylarks.
While performing with the Manhattan Brothers in 1955, Makeba met Nelson Mandela, then a young lawyer; he later remembered the meeting, and that he felt that the girl he met "was going to be someone." In 1956, Gallotone Records released "Lovely Lies", Makeba's first solo success; the Xhosa lyric about a man looking for his beloved in jails and hospitals was replaced with the unrelated and innocuous line "You tell such lovely lies with your two lovely eyes" in the English version. The record became the first South African record to chart on the United States Billboard Top 100. In 1957, Makeba was featured on the cover of Drum magazine.
In 1959, Makeba sang the lead female role in the Broadway-inspired South African jazz opera King Kong; among those in the cast was the musician Hugh Masekela. The musical was performed to racially integrated audiences, raising her profile among white South Africans. Also in 1959, she had a short guest appearance in Come Back, Africa, an anti-apartheid film produced and directed by the American independent filmmaker Lionel Rogosin. Rogosin cast her after seeing her on stage in African Jazz and Variety show, on which Makeba was a performer for 18 months. The film blended elements of documentary and fiction and had to be filmed in secret as the government was expected to be hostile to it. Makeba appeared on stage, and sang two songs: her appearance lasted four minutes. The cameo made an enormous impression on viewers, and Rogosin organised a visa for her to attend the premiere of the film at the twenty-fourth Venice Film Festival in Italy, where the film won the prestigious Critics' Choice Award. Makeba's presence has been described as crucial to the film, as an emblem of cosmopolitan black identity that also connected with working-class black people due to the dialogue being in Zulu.
Makeba's role in Come Back, Africa brought her international recognition and she travelled to London and New York to perform. In London she met the American singer Harry Belafonte, who became her mentor, helping her with her first solo recordings. These included "Pata Pata", which would be released many years later, and a version of the traditional Xhosa song "Qongqothwane", which she had first performed with the Skylarks. Though "Pata Pata"—described by Musician magazine as a "groundbreaking Afropop gem"—became her most famous song, Makeba described it as "one of my most insignificant songs". While in England, she married Sonny Pillay, a South African ballad singer of Indian descent; they divorced within a few months.
Makeba then moved to New York, making her US music debut on 1 November 1959 on The Steve Allen Show in Los Angeles for a television audience of 60 million. Her New York debut at the Village Vanguard occurred soon after; she sang in Xhosa and Zulu, and performed a Yiddish folk song. Her audience at this concert included Miles Davis and Duke Ellington; her performance received strongly positive reviews from critics. She first came to popular and critical attention in jazz clubs, after which her reputation grew rapidly. Belafonte, who had helped Makeba with her move to the US, handled the logistics for her first performances. When she first moved to the US, Makeba lived in Greenwich Village, along with other musicians and actors. As was common in her profession, she experienced some financial insecurity, and worked as a babysitter for a period.
Exile
United States
Breakthrough
Soon after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, Makeba learned that her mother had died. When she tried to return home for the funeral, she found that her South African passport had been cancelled. Two of Makeba's family members were killed in the massacre. The incident left her concerned about her family, many of whom were still in South Africa, including her daughter: the nine-year-old Bongi joined her mother in the US in August 1960. During her first few years in the US, Makeba had rarely sung explicitly political music, but her popularity had led to an increase in awareness of apartheid and the anti-apartheid movement. Following the Sharpeville killings, Makeba felt a responsibility to help, as she had been able to leave the country while others had not. From this point, she became an increasingly outspoken critic of apartheid and the white-minority government; before the massacre, she had taken care to avoid overtly political statements in South Africa.
Her musical career in the US continued to flourish. She signed a recording contract with RCA Victor, and released Miriam Makeba, her first studio album, in 1960, backed by Belafonte's band. RCA Victor chose to buy out Makeba's contract with Gallotone Records, and despite the fact that Makeba was unable to perform in South Africa, Gallotone received US$45,000 in the deal, which meant that Makeba received no royalties for her debut album. The album included one of her most famous hits in the US, "Qongqothwane", which was known in English as "The Click Song" because Makeba's audiences could not pronounce the Xhosa name. Time magazine called her the "most exciting new singing talent to appear in many years", and Newsweek compared her voice to "the smoky tones and delicate phrasing" of Ella Fitzgerald and the "intimate warmth" of Frank Sinatra. The album was not commercially successful, and Makeba was briefly dropped from RCA Victor: she was re-signed soon after as the label recognised the commercial possibilities of the growing interest in African culture. Her South African identity had been downplayed during her first signing, but it was strongly emphasised the second time to take advantage of this interest. Makeba made several appearances on television, often in the company of Belafonte. In 1962, Makeba and Belafonte sang at the birthday party for US President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, but Makeba did not go to the party afterwards because she was ill. Kennedy nevertheless insisted on meeting her, so Belafonte sent a car to pick her up.
In 1964, Makeba released her second studio album for RCA Victor, The World of Miriam Makeba. An early example of world music, the album peaked at number eighty-six on the Billboard 200. Makeba's music had a cross-racial appeal in the US; white Americans were attracted to her image as an "exotic" African performer, and black Americans related their own experiences of racial segregation to Makeba's struggle against apartheid. Makeba found company among other African exiles and émigrés in New York, including Hugh Masekela, to whom she was married from 1963 to 1968. During their marriage, Makeba and Masekela were neighbours of the jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie in Englewood, New Jersey; they spent much of their time in Harlem. She also came to know actors Marlon Brando and Lauren Bacall, and musicians Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles. Fellow singer-activist Nina Simone became friendly with Makeba, as did actor Cicely Tyson; Makeba and Simone performed together at Carnegie Hall. Makeba was among black entertainers, activists, and intellectuals in New York at the time who believed that the civil rights movement and popular culture could reinforce each other, creating "a sense of intertwined political and cultural vibrancy"; other examples included Maya Angelou and Sidney Poitier. She later described her difficulty living with racial segregation, saying "There wasn't much difference in America; it was a country that had abolished slavery but there was apartheid in its own way."
Travel and activism
Makeba's music was also popular in Europe, and she travelled and performed there frequently. Acting on the advice of Belafonte, she added songs from Latin America, Europe, Israel, and elsewhere in Africa to her repertoire. She visited Kenya in 1962 in support of the country's independence from British colonial rule, and raised funds for its independence leader Jomo Kenyatta. Later that year she testified before the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid about the effects of the system, asking for economic sanctions against South Africa's National Party government. She requested an arms embargo against South Africa, on the basis that weapons sold to the government would likely be used against black women and children. As a result, her music was banned in South Africa, and her South African citizenship and right to return were revoked. Makeba thus became a stateless person, but she was soon issued passports by Algeria, Guinea, Belgium and Ghana. In her life, she held nine passports, and was granted honorary citizenship in ten countries.
Soon after her testimony, Haile Selassie, the emperor of Ethiopia, invited her to sing at the inauguration of the Organisation of African Unity, the only performer to be invited. As the fact of her ban from South Africa became well known she became a cause célèbre for Western liberals, and her presence in the civil rights movement provided a link between that movement and the anti-apartheid struggle. In 1964 she was taught the song "Malaika" by a Kenyan student while backstage at a performance in San Francisco; the song later became a staple of her performances.
Throughout the 1960s, Makeba strengthened her involvement with a range of black-centred political movements, including the civil rights, anti-apartheid, Black Consciousness, and Black Power movements. She briefly met the Trinidadian-American activist Stokely Carmichael—the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and a prominent figure in the Black Panther Party—after Belafonte invited him to one of Makeba's concerts; they met again in Conakry six years later. They entered a relationship, initially kept secret from all but their closest friends and family. Makeba participated in fundraising activities for various civil rights groups, including a benefit concert for the 1962 Southern Christian Leadership Conference that civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. referred to as the "event of the year". Following a concert and rally in Atlanta in support of King, Makeba and others were denied entrance to a restaurant as a result of Jim Crow laws, leading to a televised protest in front of the establishment. She also criticised King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference for its investment in South African companies, informing press that "Now my friend of long standing supports the country's persecution of my people and I must find a new idol". Her identity as an African woman in the civil rights movement helped create "an emerging liberal consensus" that extreme racial discrimination, whether domestically or internationally, was harmful. In 1964 she testified at the UN for a second time, quoting a song by Vanessa Redgrave in calling for quick action against the South African government.
On 15 March 1966, Makeba and Belafonte received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording for An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under apartheid, including several songs critical of the South African government, such as "Ndodemnyama we Verwoerd" ("Watch our Verwoerd", a reference to Hendrik Verwoerd, one of the architects of apartheid). It sold widely and raised Makeba's profile in the US; Belafonte and Makeba's concert tour following its release was often sold out, and the album has been described as the best they made together. Makeba's use of lyrics in Swahili, Xhosa, and Sotho led to her being seen as a representation of an "authentic" Africa by American audiences. In 1967, more than ten years after she first recorded the song, the single "Pata Pata" was released in the US on an album of the same title, and became a worldwide hit. During its recording, she and Belafonte had a disagreement, after which they stopped recording together.
Guinea
Makeba married Carmichael in March 1968; this caused her popularity in the US to decline markedly. Conservatives came to regard her as a militant and an extremist, an image that alienated much of her fanbase. Her performances were cancelled and her coverage in the press declined despite her efforts to portray her marriage as apolitical. White American audiences stopped supporting her, and the US government took an interest in her activities. The Central Intelligence Agency began following her, and placed hidden microphones in her apartment; the Federal Bureau of Investigation also placed her under surveillance. While she and her husband were travelling in the Bahamas, she was banned from returning to the US, and was refused a visa. As a result, the couple moved to Guinea, where Carmichael changed his name to Kwame Touré. Makeba did not return to the US until 1987.
Guinea remained Makeba's home for the next 15 years, and she and her husband became close to President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife, Andrée. Touré wanted to create a new style of African music, creating his own record label Syliphone for this purpose, and all musicians received a minimum wage if they practised for several hours every day. Makeba later stated that "I've never seen a country that did what Sékou Touré did for artists." After her rejection from the US she began to write music more directly critical of the US government's racial policies, recording and singing songs such as "Lumumba" in 1970 (referring to Patrice Lumumba, the assassinated Prime Minister of the Congo), and "Malcolm X" in 1974.
Makeba performed more frequently in African countries, and as countries became independent of European colonial powers, was invited to sing at independence ceremonies, including in Kenya, Angola, Zambia, Tanganyika, and Mozambique. In September 1974 she performed alongside a multitude of well-known African and American musicians at the Zaire 74 festival in Kinshasa, Zaire (formerly the Congo). She also became a diplomat for Ghana, and was appointed Guinea's official delegate to the UN in 1975; that year, she addressed the United Nations General Assembly. She continued to perform in Europe and Asia, as well as her African concerts, but not in the US, where a de facto boycott was in effect. Her performances in Africa were immensely popular: she was described as the highlight of FESTAC 77, a Pan-African arts festival in Nigeria in 1977, and during a Liberian performance of "Pata Pata", the stadium proved so loud that she was unable to complete the song. "Pata Pata", like her other songs, had been banned in South Africa. Another song she sang frequently in this period was "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika", though she never recorded it. Makeba later stated that it was during this period that she accepted the label "Mama Africa".
In 1976, the South African government replaced English with Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in all schools, setting off the Soweto uprising. Between 15,000 and 20,000 students took part; caught unprepared, the police opened fire on the protesting children, killing hundreds and injuring more than a thousand. Hugh Masekela wrote "Soweto Blues" in response to the massacre, and the song was performed by Makeba, becoming a staple of her live performances for many years. A review in the magazine Musician said that the song had "searingly righteous lyrics" about the uprising that "cut to the bone". She had separated from Carmichael in 1973; in 1978 they divorced and in 1981 she married Bageot Bah, an airline executive.
Belgium
Makeba's daughter Bongi, who was a singer in her own right and had often accompanied her mother on stage, died in childbirth in 1985. Makeba was left responsible for her two grandchildren, and decided to move out of Guinea. She settled in the Woluwe-Saint-Lambert district of the Belgian capital Brussels. In the following year, Masekela introduced Makeba to Paul Simon, and a few months later she embarked on Simon's very successful Graceland Tour. The tour concluded with two concerts held in Harare, Zimbabwe, which were filmed in 1987 for release as Graceland: The African Concert. After touring the world with Simon, Warner Bros. Records signed Makeba and she released Sangoma ("Healer"), an album of healing chants named in honour of her sangoma mother. Her involvement with Simon caused controversy: Graceland had been recorded in South Africa, breaking the cultural boycott of the country, and thus Makeba's participation in the tour was regarded as contravening the boycott (which Makeba herself endorsed).
In preparation for the Graceland tour, she worked with journalist James Hall to write an autobiography titled Makeba: My Story. The book contained descriptions of her experience with apartheid, and was also critical of the commodification and consumerism she experienced in the US. The book was translated into five languages. She took part in the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute, a popular-music concert staged on 11 June 1988 at London's Wembley Stadium, and broadcast to an audience of 600 million across 67 countries. Political aspects of the concert were heavily censored in the US by the Fox television network. The use of music to raise awareness of apartheid paid off: a survey after the concert found that among people aged between 16 and 24, three-quarters knew of Mandela, and supported his release from prison.
Return to South Africa, final years and death
Following growing pressure from the anti-apartheid movement both domestically and internationally, in 1990 State President Frederik Willem de Klerk reversed the ban on the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid organisations, and announced that Mandela would shortly be released from prison. Mandela was released in February 1990. He persuaded Makeba to return to South Africa, which she did, using her French passport, on 10 June 1990.
Makeba, Gillespie, Simone, and Masekela recorded and released her studio album, Eyes on Tomorrow, in 1991. It combined jazz, R&B, pop, and traditional African music, and was a hit across Africa. Makeba and Gillespie then toured the world together to promote it. In November she made a guest appearance on a US sitcom, The Cosby Show. In 1992, she starred in the film Sarafina! which centred on students involved in the 1976 Soweto uprising. Makeba portrayed the title character's mother, Angelina, a role which The New York Times described as having been performed with "immense dignity".
On 16 October 1999, Makeba was named a Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In January 2000, her album, Homeland, produced by the New York City based record label Putumayo World Music, was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best World Music Album category. She worked closely with Graça Machel-Mandela, the South African first lady, advocating for children suffering from HIV/AIDS, child soldiers, and the physically handicapped. She established the Makeba Centre for Girls, a home for orphans, described in an obituary as her most personal project. She also took part in the 2002 documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony, which examined the struggles of black South Africans against apartheid through the music of the period. Makeba's second autobiography, Makeba: The Miriam Makeba Story, was published in 2004. In 2005 she announced that she would retire and began a farewell tour, but despite having osteoarthritis, continued to perform until her death. During this period, her grandchildren Nelson Lumumba Lee and Zenzi Lee, and her great-grandchild Lindelani, occasionally joined her performances.
On 9 November 2008, Makeba fell ill during a concert in Castel Volturno, near Caserta, Italy. The concert had been organised to support the writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a criminal organisation active in the Campania region. She suffered a heart attack after singing her hit song "Pata Pata", and was taken to the Pineta Grande clinic, where doctors were unable to revive her.
Music and image
Musical style
The groups with which Makeba began her career performed mbube, a style of vocal harmony which drew on American jazz, ragtime, and Anglican church hymns, as well as indigenous styles of music. Johannesburg musician Dolly Rathebe was an early influence on Makeba's music, as were female jazz singers from the US. Historian David Coplan writes that the "African jazz" made popular by Makeba and others was "inherently hybridized" rather than derivative of any particular genre, blending as it did marabi and jazz, and was "Americanized African music, not Africanized American music". The music that she performed was described by British writer Robin Denselow as a "unique blend of rousing township styles and jazz-influenced balladry".
Makeba released more than 30 albums during her career. The dominant styles of these shifted over time, moving from African jazz to recordings influenced by Belafonte's "crooning" to music drawing from traditional South African musical forms. She has been associated with the genres of world music and Afropop. She also incorporated Latin American musical styles into her performances. Historian Ruth Feldstein described her music as "[crossing] the borders between what many people associated with avant-garde and 'quality' culture and the commercial mainstream"; the latter aspect often drew criticism. She was able to appeal to audiences from many political, racial, and national backgrounds.
She was known for having a dynamic vocal range, and was described as having an emotional awareness during her performances. She occasionally danced during her shows, and was described as having a sensuous presence on stage. She was able to vary her voice considerably: an obituary remarked that she "could soar like an opera singer, but she could also whisper, roar, hiss, growl and shout. She could sing while making the epiglottal clicks of the Xhosa language." She sang in English and several African languages, but never in Afrikaans, the language of the apartheid government in South Africa. She once stated "When Afrikaaners sing in my language, then I will sing theirs." English was seen as the language of political resistance by black South Africans due to the educational barriers they faced under apartheid; the Manhattan Brothers, with whom Makeba had sung in Sophiatown, had been prohibited from recording in English. Her songs in African languages have been described as reaffirming black pride.
Politics and perception
Makeba said that she did not perform political music, but music about her personal life in South Africa, which included describing the pain she felt living under apartheid. She once stated "people say I sing politics, but what I sing is not politics, it is the truth", an example of the mixing of personal and political issues for musicians living during apartheid. When she first entered the US, she avoided discussing apartheid explicitly, partly out of concern for her family still in South Africa. Nonetheless, she is known for using her voice to convey the political message of opposition to apartheid, performing widely and frequently for civil rights and anti-apartheid organisations. Even songs that did not carry an explicitly political message were seen as subversive, due to their being banned in South Africa. Makeba saw her music as a tool of activism, saying "In our struggle, songs are not simply entertainment for us. They are the way we communicate."
Makeba's use of the clicks common in languages such as Xhosa and Zulu (as in "Qongqothwane", "The Click Song") was frequently remarked upon by Western audiences. It contributed to her popularity and her exotic image, which scholars have described as a kind of othering, exacerbated by the fact that Western audiences often could not understand her lyrics. Critics in the US described her as the "African tribeswoman" and as an "import from South Africa", often depicting her in condescending terms as a product of a more primitive society. Commentators also frequently described her in terms of the prominent men she was associated with, despite her own prominence. During her early career in South Africa she had been seen as a sex symbol, an image that received considerably less attention in the US.
Makeba was described as a style icon, both in her home country and the US. She wore no makeup and refused to straighten her hair for shows, thus helping establish a style that came to be known internationally as the "Afro look". According to music scholar Tanisha Ford, her hairstyle represented a "liberated African beauty aesthetic". She was seen as a beauty icon by South African schoolgirls, who were compelled to shorten their hair by the apartheid government. Makeba stuck to wearing African jewellery; she disapproved of the skin-lighteners commonly used by South African women at the time, and refused to appear in advertisements for them. Her self-presentation has been characterised by scholars as a rejection of the predominantly white standards of beauty that women in the US were held to, which allowed Makeba to partially escape the sexualisation directed at women performers during this period. Nonetheless, the terms used to describe her in the US media have been identified by scholars as frequently used to "sexualize, infantalize, and animalize" people of African heritage.
Legacy
Musical influence
Makeba was among the most visible Africans in the US; as a result, she was often emblematic of the continent of Africa for Americans. Her music earned her the moniker "Mama Africa", and she was variously described as the "Empress of African Song", the "Queen of South African music", and Africa's "first superstar". Music scholar J. U. Jacobs said that Makeba's music had "both been shaped by and given shape to black South African and American music". The jazz musician Abbey Lincoln is among those identified as being influenced by Makeba. Makeba and Simone were among a group of artists who helped shape soul music. Longtime collaborator Belafonte called her "the most revolutionary new talent to appear in any medium in the last decade". Speaking after her death, Mandela called her "South Africa's first lady of song", and said that "her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
Outside her home country Makeba was credited with bringing African music to a Western audience, and along with artists such as Youssou N'Dour, Salif Keita, Ali Farka Touré, Baaba Maal and Angélique Kidjo, with popularising the genre of world music. Her work with Belafonte in the 1960s has been described as creating the genre of world music before the concept entered the popular imagination, and also as highlighting the diversity and cultural pluralism within African music. Within South Africa, Makeba has been described as influencing artists such as kwaito musician Thandiswa Mazwai and her band Bongo Maffin, whose track "De Makeba" was a modified version of Makeba's "Pata Pata", and one of several tribute recordings released after her return to South Africa. South African jazz musician Simphiwe Dana has been described as "the new Miriam Makeba". South African singer Lira has frequently been compared with Makeba, particularly for her performance of "Pata Pata" during the opening ceremony of the 2010 Football World Cup. A year later, Kidjo dedicated her concert in New York to Makeba, as a musician who had "paved the way for her success". In an obituary, scholar Lara Allen referred to Makeba as "arguably South Africa's most famous musical export". In 2016 the French singer Jain released "Makeba", a tribute.
Activism
Makeba was among the most visible people campaigning against the apartheid system in South Africa, and was responsible for popularising several anti-apartheid songs, including "Meadowlands" by Strike Vilakezi and "Ndodemnyama we Verwoerd" (Watch out, Verwoerd) by Vuyisile Mini. Due to her high profile, she became a spokesperson of sorts for Africans living under oppressive governments, and in particular for black South Africans living under apartheid. When the South African government prevented her from entering her home country, she became a symbol of "apartheid's cruelty", and she used her position as a celebrity by testifying against apartheid before the UN in 1962 and 1964. Many of her songs were banned within South Africa, leading to Makeba's records being distributed underground, and even her apolitical songs being seen as subversive. She thus became a symbol of resistance to the white-minority government both within and outside South Africa. In an interview in 2000, Masekela said that "there [was] nobody in Africa who made the world more aware of what was happening in South Africa than Miriam Makeba."
Makeba has also been associated with the movement against colonialism, with the civil rights and black power movements in the US, and with the Pan-African movement. She called for unity between black people of African descent across the world: "Africans who live everywhere should fight everywhere. The struggle is no different in South Africa, the streets of Chicago, Trinidad or Canada. The Black people are the victims of capitalism, racism and oppression, period". After marrying Carmichael she often appeared with him during his speeches; Carmichael later described her presence at these events as an asset, and Feldstein wrote that Makeba enhanced Carmichael's message that "black is beautiful". Along with performers such as Simone, Lena Horne, and Abbey Lincoln, she used her position as a prominent musician to advocate for civil rights. Their activism has been described as simultaneously calling attention to racial and gender disparities, and highlighting "that the liberation they desired could not separate race from sex". Makeba's critique of second-wave feminism as being the product of luxury led to observers being unwilling to call her a feminist. Scholar Ruth Feldstein stated that Makeba and others influenced both black feminism and second-wave feminism through their advocacy, and the historian Jacqueline Castledine referred to her as one of the "most steadfast voices for social justice".
Awards and recognition
Makeba's 1965 collaboration with Harry Belafonte won a Grammy Award, making her the first African recording artist to win this award. Makeba shared the 2001 Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. They received their prize from Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden, during a nationally televised ceremony at Berwaldhallen, Stockholm, on 27 May 2002.
Makeba won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986, and in 2001 was awarded the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold by the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding". She also received several honorary doctorates. In 2004, she was voted 38th in a poll ranking 100 Great South Africans.
Mama Africa, a musical about Makeba, was produced in South Africa by Niyi Coker. Originally titled Zenzi!, the musical premiered to a sold-out crowd in Cape Town on 26 May 2016. It was performed in the US in St. Louis, Missouri and at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City between October and December 2016. The musical returned to South Africa in February 2017 for what would have been Makeba's 85th birthday.
From 25 to 27 September 2009, a tribute television show to Makeba entitled Hommage à Miriam Makeba and curated by Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist Angélique Kidjo, was held at the Cirque d'hiver in Paris. The show was presented as Mama Africa: Celebrating Miriam Makeba at the Barbican in London on 21 November 2009. A documentary film titled Mama Africa, about Makeba's life, co-written and directed by Finnish director Mika Kaurismäki, was released in 2011. On 4 March 2013, and again on International Women's Day in 2017, Google honoured her with a Google Doodle on their homepage. In 2014 she was honoured (along with Nelson Mandela, Albertina Sisulu and Steve Biko) in the Belgian city of Ghent, which named a square after her, the "Miriam Makebaplein". Makeba was named 1967's "woman of the year" by Time magazine in 2020, as one of a list of 100 "women of the year" for the years 1920–2019.
Notable songs and albums
This is a list of albums and songs, including covers, by Miriam Makeba that have received significant mention in commentary about her or about the musical and political movements she participated in.
Albums
Miriam Makeba (1960)
The Many Voices of Miriam Makeba (1962)
An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba (1965)
Comme une symphonie d'amour (1979)
The Queen of African Music (1987)
Sangoma (1988)
Welela (1989)
Eyes on Tomorrow (1991)
Homeland (2000)
Songs
"Lakutshn, Ilanga"/Lovely Lies" (1956)
"Sophiatown is Gone"
"The Click Song" / "Mbube" (1963)
"Pata Pata" (1967)
"Lumumba" (1970)
"Malcolm X" (1974)
"Soweto Blues" (1977)
"Thula Sizwe/I Shall Be Released" (1991)
"Malaika"
See also
Culture of South Africa
Notes and references
Footnotes
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Miriam Makeba at National Public Radio
1932 births
2008 deaths
20th-century South African women singers
21st-century South African women singers
Anti-apartheid activists
FAO Goodwill ambassadors
Grammy Award winners
Heads Up International artists
Music in the movement against apartheid
Musicians who died on stage
Musicians from Johannesburg
South African actresses
South African exiles
South African people of Swazi descent
World music musicians
Wrasse Records artists
Xhosa people | true | [
"Annemie Anne Francine Coenen (born 14 July 1978 in Herk-de-Stad) is a Belgian singer and songwriter who was in the duo AnnaGrace (formerly known as Ian Van Dahl).\n\nLife\nCoenen sang in school musical comedies and choral in Antwerp. She joined a dance band at the age of 17. She hoped to become a fashion designer, and aimed to enter a fashion school at Antwerp. To this end, she worked a variety of odd jobs around Antwerp. One of her friends invited her to Ibiza where she found the dance scene.\n\nWhen she did return to Belgium, Coenen recorded a demo which she said was mainly \"just for fun.\" However, the demo came to the attention of Stefan Wuyts, representing the A&R label, who was looking for a mime artist for a song called \"Castles in the Sky\" which was meant to be part of a new Belgian project called Ian Van Dahl. Since her joining the group in 2001, it has sold four million CDs and singles worldwide. She was the main vocalist on the albums Ace and Lost and Found.\n\nIn June 2008, Coenen and Luts teamed together to create their own trance music project called AnnaGrace. \n\nSince March 2014, Coenen has had her own fashion line named Gracenatic.\n\nDiscography\n\nAlbums\n Ace\n Lost and Found\n (AnnaGrace) Ready to Dare\n\nSingles\n Ian Van Dahl:\n 2000 \"Castles in the Sky\"\n 2001 \"Secret Love\"\n 2001 \"Will I?\"\n 2002 \"Reason\"\n 2002 \"Try\"\n 2003 \"I Can't Let You Go\"\n 2004 \"Where Are You Now?\"\n 2004 \"Believe\"\n 2004 \"Inspiration\"\n 2005 \"Movin' On\"\n 2006 \"Just a Girl\"\n AnnaGrace:\n 2008 \"You Make Me Feel\"\n 2009 \"Let the Feelings Go\"\n 2009 \"Love Keeps Calling\"\n 2010 \"Celebration\"\n 2011 \"Don't Let Go\"\n 2012 \"Ready to Fall in Love\"\n 2012 \"Alive\"\n 2013 \"Girls Like Dancing\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official Annagrace site\n Official Gracenatic site\n\n1978 births\nLiving people\nBelgian songwriters\nEnglish-language singers from Belgium\nTrance singers\n21st-century Belgian women singers",
"Feng Yun (Chinese: 丰云; Pinyin: Fēng Yún; born October 2, 1966) is a professional Go player. She is the second woman after Rui Naiwei to ever attain the level of 9-dan professional.\n\nBiography\nFeng Yun was born in Chong Qing, China. She started learning Go in Henan province when she was nine years old. She began her professional career in 1979 at the age of 12. In 1982 she was selected for the Chinese National Go Team where she trained for 18 years. In 1997, Feng Yun reached the top rank of professional Go players and ascended to 9-dan professional. She was the second woman in the world ever (after Rui Naiwei) to reach 9 dan. She has lived in New Jersey, U.S. with her family since 2000. The Feng Yun Go School, with four locations in New Jersey, has produced many strong players. Her book, The Best Play, analyzes two amateur games played on the internet.\n\nProfessional accomplishments\nFeng Yun was a finalist in the first four Bohae Cups, winning on the second occasion (1995), but lost to Rui Naiwei on the other three occasions, finishing 2nd in 1994, 1996 and 1997. \n1979 Promoted a professional Go player of the Henan Provincial Team \n1982 Promoted to 4 dan professional\n1983 Promoted to 5 dan professional, won her first title: National Women's Championship \n1987 Promoted to 6 dan professional \n1990 Finished second in National Individual Go Tournament (China)\n1991 Finished second in National Individual Go Tournament (China)\n1992 Promoted to 7 dan professional \n1995 Promoted to 8 dan professional \n1997 Advanced to 9 dan professional, one of the only three women 9p in the world \n1998 Won Kuerle Cup champion\n2002 Founded first 9-dan school in North America, was the challenger in the 2002 North American Masters Tournament\n2004 Won Ing Pro Tournament held at the 20th AGA Go Congress in Rochester, New York\n2008 Won Ing Pro Tournament held at the 24th AGA Go Congress in Portland, Oregon\n\nExternal links\nFeng Yun Go School Official Site\nGoBase.org Information on Feng Yun + her replayable games\n\n1966 births\nLiving people\nChinese Go players\nFemale Go players\nSportspeople from Liaoning\nAmerican Go players\nAmerican sportspeople of Chinese descent"
]
|
[
"Miriam Makeba",
"Childhood and family",
"Where did she grow up?",
"black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail.",
"Why was she in jail?",
"her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal.",
"when was she born?",
"Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932",
"Does she have sublings?",
"Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children.",
"Where did she go to school?",
"Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria, an all-black Methodist primary school"
]
| C_be942cd9bfc84a1eb32a2739a1edbbc7_1 | Did she go to college? | 7 | Did Miriam Makeba go to college? | Miriam Makeba | Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932 in the black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg. Her Swazi mother, Christina Makeba, was a sangoma, or traditional healer, and a domestic worker. Her Xhosa father, Caswell Makeba, was a teacher; he died when she was six years old. Makeba later said that before she was conceived, her mother had been warned that any future pregnancy could be fatal. Neither Miriam nor her mother seemed likely to survive after a difficult labour and delivery. Miriam's grandmother, who attended the birth, often muttered "uzenzile", a Xhosa word that means "you brought this on yourself", to Miriam's mother during her recovery, which inspired her to give her daughter the name "Zenzile". When Makeba was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. The family could not afford the small fine required to avoid a jail term, and Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail. As a child, Makeba sang in the choir of the Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria, an all-black Methodist primary school that she attended for eight years. Her talent for singing earned her praise at school. Makeba was baptised a Protestant, and sang in church choirs, in English, Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu; she later said that she learned to sing in English before she could speak the language. The family moved to the Transvaal when Makeba was a child. After her father's death, she was forced to find employment; she did domestic work, and worked as a nanny. She described herself as a shy person at the time. Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children. Makeba lived for a while with her grandmother and a large number of cousins in Pretoria. Makeba was influenced by her family's musical tastes; her mother played several traditional instruments, and her elder brother collected records, including those of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, and taught Makeba songs. Her father played the piano, and his musical inclination was later a factor in Makeba's family accepting what was seen as a risque choice of career. In 1949, Makeba married James Kubay, a policeman in training, with whom she had her only child, Bongi Makeba, in 1950. Makeba was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband, who was said to have beaten her, left her shortly afterwards, after a two-year marriage. A decade later she overcame cervical cancer via a hysterectomy. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Zenzile Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid and white-minority government in South Africa.
Born in Johannesburg to Swazi and Xhosa parents, Makeba was forced to find employment as a child after the death of her father. She had a brief and allegedly abusive first marriage at the age of 17, gave birth to her only child in 1950, and survived breast cancer. Her vocal talent had been recognized when she was a child, and she began singing professionally in the 1950s, with the Cuban Brothers, the Manhattan Brothers, and an all-woman group, the Skylarks, performing a mixture of jazz, traditional African melodies, and Western popular music. In 1959, Makeba had a brief role in the anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa, which brought her international attention, and led to her performing in Venice, London, and New York City. In London, she met the American singer Harry Belafonte, who became a mentor and colleague. She moved to New York City, where she became immediately popular, and recorded her first solo album in 1960. Her attempt to return to South Africa that year for her mother's funeral was prevented by the country's government.
Makeba's career flourished in the United States, and she released several albums and songs, her most popular being "Pata Pata" (1967). Along with Belafonte she received a Grammy Award for her 1965 album An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. She testified against the South African government at the United Nations and became involved in the civil rights movement. She married Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Black Panther Party, in 1968. As a result, she lost support among white Americans. The US government cancelled her visa while she was travelling abroad, leading her and Carmichael to move to Guinea. She continued to perform, mostly in African countries, including at several independence celebrations. She began to write and perform music more explicitly critical of apartheid; the 1977 song "Soweto Blues", written by her former husband Hugh Masekela, was about the Soweto uprising. After apartheid was dismantled in 1990, Makeba returned to South Africa. She continued recording and performing, including a 1991 album with Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, and appeared in the 1992 film Sarafina!. She was named a UN goodwill ambassador in 1999, and campaigned for humanitarian causes. She died of a heart attack during a 2008 concert in Italy.
Makeba was among the first African musicians to receive worldwide recognition. She brought African music to a Western audience, and popularized the world music and Afropop genres. She also made popular several songs critical of apartheid, and became a symbol of opposition to the system, particularly after her right to return was revoked. Upon her death, former South African President Nelson Mandela said that "her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
Early years
Childhood and family
Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932 in the black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg. Her Swazi mother, Christina Makeba, was a sangoma, or traditional healer, and a domestic worker. Her Xhosa father, Caswell Makeba, was a teacher; he died when she was six years old. Makeba later said that before she was conceived, her mother had been warned that any future pregnancy could be fatal. Neither Miriam nor her mother seemed likely to survive after a difficult labour and delivery. Miriam's grandmother, who attended the birth, often muttered "uzenzile", a Xhosa word that means "you brought this on yourself", to Miriam's mother during her recovery, which inspired her to give her daughter the name "Zenzile".
When Makeba was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. The family could not afford the small fine required to avoid a jail term, and Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail. As a child, Makeba sang in the choir of the Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria, an all-black Methodist primary school that she attended for eight years. Her talent for singing earned her praise at school. Makeba was baptised a Protestant, and sang in church choirs, in English, Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu; she later said that she learned to sing in English before she could speak the language.
The family moved to the Transvaal when Makeba was a child. After her father's death, she was forced to find employment; she did domestic work, and worked as a nanny. She described herself as a shy person at the time. Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children. Makeba lived for a while with her grandmother and a large number of cousins in Pretoria. Makeba was influenced by her family's musical tastes; her mother played several traditional instruments, and her elder brother collected records, including those of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, and taught Makeba songs. Her father played the piano, and his musical inclination was later a factor in Makeba's family accepting what was seen as a risque choice of career.
In 1949, Makeba married James Kubay, a policeman in training, with whom she had her only child, Bongi Makeba, in 1950. Makeba was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband, who was said to have beaten her, left her shortly afterwards, after a two-year marriage. A decade later she overcame cervical cancer via a hysterectomy.
Early career
Makeba began her professional musical career with the Cuban Brothers, a South African all-male close harmony group, with whom she sang covers of popular American songs. Soon afterwards, at the age of 21, she joined a jazz group, the Manhattan Brothers, who sang a mixture of South African songs and pieces from popular African-American groups. Makeba was the only woman in the group. With the Manhattan Brothers she recorded her first hit, "Laku Tshoni Ilanga", in 1953, and developed a national reputation as a musician. In 1956 she joined a new all-woman group, the Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional South African melodies. Formed by Gallotone Records, the group was also known as the Sunbeams. Makeba sang with the Skylarks when the Manhattan Brothers were travelling abroad; later, she also travelled with the Manhattan Brothers. In the Skylarks, Makeba sang alongside Rhodesian-born musician Dorothy Masuka, whose music Makeba had followed, along with that of Dolly Rathebe. Several of the Skylarks' pieces from this period became popular; the music historian Rob Allingham later described the group as "real trendsetters, with harmonisation that had never been heard before." Makeba received no royalties from her work with the Skylarks.
While performing with the Manhattan Brothers in 1955, Makeba met Nelson Mandela, then a young lawyer; he later remembered the meeting, and that he felt that the girl he met "was going to be someone." In 1956, Gallotone Records released "Lovely Lies", Makeba's first solo success; the Xhosa lyric about a man looking for his beloved in jails and hospitals was replaced with the unrelated and innocuous line "You tell such lovely lies with your two lovely eyes" in the English version. The record became the first South African record to chart on the United States Billboard Top 100. In 1957, Makeba was featured on the cover of Drum magazine.
In 1959, Makeba sang the lead female role in the Broadway-inspired South African jazz opera King Kong; among those in the cast was the musician Hugh Masekela. The musical was performed to racially integrated audiences, raising her profile among white South Africans. Also in 1959, she had a short guest appearance in Come Back, Africa, an anti-apartheid film produced and directed by the American independent filmmaker Lionel Rogosin. Rogosin cast her after seeing her on stage in African Jazz and Variety show, on which Makeba was a performer for 18 months. The film blended elements of documentary and fiction and had to be filmed in secret as the government was expected to be hostile to it. Makeba appeared on stage, and sang two songs: her appearance lasted four minutes. The cameo made an enormous impression on viewers, and Rogosin organised a visa for her to attend the premiere of the film at the twenty-fourth Venice Film Festival in Italy, where the film won the prestigious Critics' Choice Award. Makeba's presence has been described as crucial to the film, as an emblem of cosmopolitan black identity that also connected with working-class black people due to the dialogue being in Zulu.
Makeba's role in Come Back, Africa brought her international recognition and she travelled to London and New York to perform. In London she met the American singer Harry Belafonte, who became her mentor, helping her with her first solo recordings. These included "Pata Pata", which would be released many years later, and a version of the traditional Xhosa song "Qongqothwane", which she had first performed with the Skylarks. Though "Pata Pata"—described by Musician magazine as a "groundbreaking Afropop gem"—became her most famous song, Makeba described it as "one of my most insignificant songs". While in England, she married Sonny Pillay, a South African ballad singer of Indian descent; they divorced within a few months.
Makeba then moved to New York, making her US music debut on 1 November 1959 on The Steve Allen Show in Los Angeles for a television audience of 60 million. Her New York debut at the Village Vanguard occurred soon after; she sang in Xhosa and Zulu, and performed a Yiddish folk song. Her audience at this concert included Miles Davis and Duke Ellington; her performance received strongly positive reviews from critics. She first came to popular and critical attention in jazz clubs, after which her reputation grew rapidly. Belafonte, who had helped Makeba with her move to the US, handled the logistics for her first performances. When she first moved to the US, Makeba lived in Greenwich Village, along with other musicians and actors. As was common in her profession, she experienced some financial insecurity, and worked as a babysitter for a period.
Exile
United States
Breakthrough
Soon after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, Makeba learned that her mother had died. When she tried to return home for the funeral, she found that her South African passport had been cancelled. Two of Makeba's family members were killed in the massacre. The incident left her concerned about her family, many of whom were still in South Africa, including her daughter: the nine-year-old Bongi joined her mother in the US in August 1960. During her first few years in the US, Makeba had rarely sung explicitly political music, but her popularity had led to an increase in awareness of apartheid and the anti-apartheid movement. Following the Sharpeville killings, Makeba felt a responsibility to help, as she had been able to leave the country while others had not. From this point, she became an increasingly outspoken critic of apartheid and the white-minority government; before the massacre, she had taken care to avoid overtly political statements in South Africa.
Her musical career in the US continued to flourish. She signed a recording contract with RCA Victor, and released Miriam Makeba, her first studio album, in 1960, backed by Belafonte's band. RCA Victor chose to buy out Makeba's contract with Gallotone Records, and despite the fact that Makeba was unable to perform in South Africa, Gallotone received US$45,000 in the deal, which meant that Makeba received no royalties for her debut album. The album included one of her most famous hits in the US, "Qongqothwane", which was known in English as "The Click Song" because Makeba's audiences could not pronounce the Xhosa name. Time magazine called her the "most exciting new singing talent to appear in many years", and Newsweek compared her voice to "the smoky tones and delicate phrasing" of Ella Fitzgerald and the "intimate warmth" of Frank Sinatra. The album was not commercially successful, and Makeba was briefly dropped from RCA Victor: she was re-signed soon after as the label recognised the commercial possibilities of the growing interest in African culture. Her South African identity had been downplayed during her first signing, but it was strongly emphasised the second time to take advantage of this interest. Makeba made several appearances on television, often in the company of Belafonte. In 1962, Makeba and Belafonte sang at the birthday party for US President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, but Makeba did not go to the party afterwards because she was ill. Kennedy nevertheless insisted on meeting her, so Belafonte sent a car to pick her up.
In 1964, Makeba released her second studio album for RCA Victor, The World of Miriam Makeba. An early example of world music, the album peaked at number eighty-six on the Billboard 200. Makeba's music had a cross-racial appeal in the US; white Americans were attracted to her image as an "exotic" African performer, and black Americans related their own experiences of racial segregation to Makeba's struggle against apartheid. Makeba found company among other African exiles and émigrés in New York, including Hugh Masekela, to whom she was married from 1963 to 1968. During their marriage, Makeba and Masekela were neighbours of the jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie in Englewood, New Jersey; they spent much of their time in Harlem. She also came to know actors Marlon Brando and Lauren Bacall, and musicians Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles. Fellow singer-activist Nina Simone became friendly with Makeba, as did actor Cicely Tyson; Makeba and Simone performed together at Carnegie Hall. Makeba was among black entertainers, activists, and intellectuals in New York at the time who believed that the civil rights movement and popular culture could reinforce each other, creating "a sense of intertwined political and cultural vibrancy"; other examples included Maya Angelou and Sidney Poitier. She later described her difficulty living with racial segregation, saying "There wasn't much difference in America; it was a country that had abolished slavery but there was apartheid in its own way."
Travel and activism
Makeba's music was also popular in Europe, and she travelled and performed there frequently. Acting on the advice of Belafonte, she added songs from Latin America, Europe, Israel, and elsewhere in Africa to her repertoire. She visited Kenya in 1962 in support of the country's independence from British colonial rule, and raised funds for its independence leader Jomo Kenyatta. Later that year she testified before the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid about the effects of the system, asking for economic sanctions against South Africa's National Party government. She requested an arms embargo against South Africa, on the basis that weapons sold to the government would likely be used against black women and children. As a result, her music was banned in South Africa, and her South African citizenship and right to return were revoked. Makeba thus became a stateless person, but she was soon issued passports by Algeria, Guinea, Belgium and Ghana. In her life, she held nine passports, and was granted honorary citizenship in ten countries.
Soon after her testimony, Haile Selassie, the emperor of Ethiopia, invited her to sing at the inauguration of the Organisation of African Unity, the only performer to be invited. As the fact of her ban from South Africa became well known she became a cause célèbre for Western liberals, and her presence in the civil rights movement provided a link between that movement and the anti-apartheid struggle. In 1964 she was taught the song "Malaika" by a Kenyan student while backstage at a performance in San Francisco; the song later became a staple of her performances.
Throughout the 1960s, Makeba strengthened her involvement with a range of black-centred political movements, including the civil rights, anti-apartheid, Black Consciousness, and Black Power movements. She briefly met the Trinidadian-American activist Stokely Carmichael—the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and a prominent figure in the Black Panther Party—after Belafonte invited him to one of Makeba's concerts; they met again in Conakry six years later. They entered a relationship, initially kept secret from all but their closest friends and family. Makeba participated in fundraising activities for various civil rights groups, including a benefit concert for the 1962 Southern Christian Leadership Conference that civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. referred to as the "event of the year". Following a concert and rally in Atlanta in support of King, Makeba and others were denied entrance to a restaurant as a result of Jim Crow laws, leading to a televised protest in front of the establishment. She also criticised King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference for its investment in South African companies, informing press that "Now my friend of long standing supports the country's persecution of my people and I must find a new idol". Her identity as an African woman in the civil rights movement helped create "an emerging liberal consensus" that extreme racial discrimination, whether domestically or internationally, was harmful. In 1964 she testified at the UN for a second time, quoting a song by Vanessa Redgrave in calling for quick action against the South African government.
On 15 March 1966, Makeba and Belafonte received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording for An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under apartheid, including several songs critical of the South African government, such as "Ndodemnyama we Verwoerd" ("Watch our Verwoerd", a reference to Hendrik Verwoerd, one of the architects of apartheid). It sold widely and raised Makeba's profile in the US; Belafonte and Makeba's concert tour following its release was often sold out, and the album has been described as the best they made together. Makeba's use of lyrics in Swahili, Xhosa, and Sotho led to her being seen as a representation of an "authentic" Africa by American audiences. In 1967, more than ten years after she first recorded the song, the single "Pata Pata" was released in the US on an album of the same title, and became a worldwide hit. During its recording, she and Belafonte had a disagreement, after which they stopped recording together.
Guinea
Makeba married Carmichael in March 1968; this caused her popularity in the US to decline markedly. Conservatives came to regard her as a militant and an extremist, an image that alienated much of her fanbase. Her performances were cancelled and her coverage in the press declined despite her efforts to portray her marriage as apolitical. White American audiences stopped supporting her, and the US government took an interest in her activities. The Central Intelligence Agency began following her, and placed hidden microphones in her apartment; the Federal Bureau of Investigation also placed her under surveillance. While she and her husband were travelling in the Bahamas, she was banned from returning to the US, and was refused a visa. As a result, the couple moved to Guinea, where Carmichael changed his name to Kwame Touré. Makeba did not return to the US until 1987.
Guinea remained Makeba's home for the next 15 years, and she and her husband became close to President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife, Andrée. Touré wanted to create a new style of African music, creating his own record label Syliphone for this purpose, and all musicians received a minimum wage if they practised for several hours every day. Makeba later stated that "I've never seen a country that did what Sékou Touré did for artists." After her rejection from the US she began to write music more directly critical of the US government's racial policies, recording and singing songs such as "Lumumba" in 1970 (referring to Patrice Lumumba, the assassinated Prime Minister of the Congo), and "Malcolm X" in 1974.
Makeba performed more frequently in African countries, and as countries became independent of European colonial powers, was invited to sing at independence ceremonies, including in Kenya, Angola, Zambia, Tanganyika, and Mozambique. In September 1974 she performed alongside a multitude of well-known African and American musicians at the Zaire 74 festival in Kinshasa, Zaire (formerly the Congo). She also became a diplomat for Ghana, and was appointed Guinea's official delegate to the UN in 1975; that year, she addressed the United Nations General Assembly. She continued to perform in Europe and Asia, as well as her African concerts, but not in the US, where a de facto boycott was in effect. Her performances in Africa were immensely popular: she was described as the highlight of FESTAC 77, a Pan-African arts festival in Nigeria in 1977, and during a Liberian performance of "Pata Pata", the stadium proved so loud that she was unable to complete the song. "Pata Pata", like her other songs, had been banned in South Africa. Another song she sang frequently in this period was "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika", though she never recorded it. Makeba later stated that it was during this period that she accepted the label "Mama Africa".
In 1976, the South African government replaced English with Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in all schools, setting off the Soweto uprising. Between 15,000 and 20,000 students took part; caught unprepared, the police opened fire on the protesting children, killing hundreds and injuring more than a thousand. Hugh Masekela wrote "Soweto Blues" in response to the massacre, and the song was performed by Makeba, becoming a staple of her live performances for many years. A review in the magazine Musician said that the song had "searingly righteous lyrics" about the uprising that "cut to the bone". She had separated from Carmichael in 1973; in 1978 they divorced and in 1981 she married Bageot Bah, an airline executive.
Belgium
Makeba's daughter Bongi, who was a singer in her own right and had often accompanied her mother on stage, died in childbirth in 1985. Makeba was left responsible for her two grandchildren, and decided to move out of Guinea. She settled in the Woluwe-Saint-Lambert district of the Belgian capital Brussels. In the following year, Masekela introduced Makeba to Paul Simon, and a few months later she embarked on Simon's very successful Graceland Tour. The tour concluded with two concerts held in Harare, Zimbabwe, which were filmed in 1987 for release as Graceland: The African Concert. After touring the world with Simon, Warner Bros. Records signed Makeba and she released Sangoma ("Healer"), an album of healing chants named in honour of her sangoma mother. Her involvement with Simon caused controversy: Graceland had been recorded in South Africa, breaking the cultural boycott of the country, and thus Makeba's participation in the tour was regarded as contravening the boycott (which Makeba herself endorsed).
In preparation for the Graceland tour, she worked with journalist James Hall to write an autobiography titled Makeba: My Story. The book contained descriptions of her experience with apartheid, and was also critical of the commodification and consumerism she experienced in the US. The book was translated into five languages. She took part in the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute, a popular-music concert staged on 11 June 1988 at London's Wembley Stadium, and broadcast to an audience of 600 million across 67 countries. Political aspects of the concert were heavily censored in the US by the Fox television network. The use of music to raise awareness of apartheid paid off: a survey after the concert found that among people aged between 16 and 24, three-quarters knew of Mandela, and supported his release from prison.
Return to South Africa, final years and death
Following growing pressure from the anti-apartheid movement both domestically and internationally, in 1990 State President Frederik Willem de Klerk reversed the ban on the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid organisations, and announced that Mandela would shortly be released from prison. Mandela was released in February 1990. He persuaded Makeba to return to South Africa, which she did, using her French passport, on 10 June 1990.
Makeba, Gillespie, Simone, and Masekela recorded and released her studio album, Eyes on Tomorrow, in 1991. It combined jazz, R&B, pop, and traditional African music, and was a hit across Africa. Makeba and Gillespie then toured the world together to promote it. In November she made a guest appearance on a US sitcom, The Cosby Show. In 1992, she starred in the film Sarafina! which centred on students involved in the 1976 Soweto uprising. Makeba portrayed the title character's mother, Angelina, a role which The New York Times described as having been performed with "immense dignity".
On 16 October 1999, Makeba was named a Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In January 2000, her album, Homeland, produced by the New York City based record label Putumayo World Music, was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best World Music Album category. She worked closely with Graça Machel-Mandela, the South African first lady, advocating for children suffering from HIV/AIDS, child soldiers, and the physically handicapped. She established the Makeba Centre for Girls, a home for orphans, described in an obituary as her most personal project. She also took part in the 2002 documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony, which examined the struggles of black South Africans against apartheid through the music of the period. Makeba's second autobiography, Makeba: The Miriam Makeba Story, was published in 2004. In 2005 she announced that she would retire and began a farewell tour, but despite having osteoarthritis, continued to perform until her death. During this period, her grandchildren Nelson Lumumba Lee and Zenzi Lee, and her great-grandchild Lindelani, occasionally joined her performances.
On 9 November 2008, Makeba fell ill during a concert in Castel Volturno, near Caserta, Italy. The concert had been organised to support the writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a criminal organisation active in the Campania region. She suffered a heart attack after singing her hit song "Pata Pata", and was taken to the Pineta Grande clinic, where doctors were unable to revive her.
Music and image
Musical style
The groups with which Makeba began her career performed mbube, a style of vocal harmony which drew on American jazz, ragtime, and Anglican church hymns, as well as indigenous styles of music. Johannesburg musician Dolly Rathebe was an early influence on Makeba's music, as were female jazz singers from the US. Historian David Coplan writes that the "African jazz" made popular by Makeba and others was "inherently hybridized" rather than derivative of any particular genre, blending as it did marabi and jazz, and was "Americanized African music, not Africanized American music". The music that she performed was described by British writer Robin Denselow as a "unique blend of rousing township styles and jazz-influenced balladry".
Makeba released more than 30 albums during her career. The dominant styles of these shifted over time, moving from African jazz to recordings influenced by Belafonte's "crooning" to music drawing from traditional South African musical forms. She has been associated with the genres of world music and Afropop. She also incorporated Latin American musical styles into her performances. Historian Ruth Feldstein described her music as "[crossing] the borders between what many people associated with avant-garde and 'quality' culture and the commercial mainstream"; the latter aspect often drew criticism. She was able to appeal to audiences from many political, racial, and national backgrounds.
She was known for having a dynamic vocal range, and was described as having an emotional awareness during her performances. She occasionally danced during her shows, and was described as having a sensuous presence on stage. She was able to vary her voice considerably: an obituary remarked that she "could soar like an opera singer, but she could also whisper, roar, hiss, growl and shout. She could sing while making the epiglottal clicks of the Xhosa language." She sang in English and several African languages, but never in Afrikaans, the language of the apartheid government in South Africa. She once stated "When Afrikaaners sing in my language, then I will sing theirs." English was seen as the language of political resistance by black South Africans due to the educational barriers they faced under apartheid; the Manhattan Brothers, with whom Makeba had sung in Sophiatown, had been prohibited from recording in English. Her songs in African languages have been described as reaffirming black pride.
Politics and perception
Makeba said that she did not perform political music, but music about her personal life in South Africa, which included describing the pain she felt living under apartheid. She once stated "people say I sing politics, but what I sing is not politics, it is the truth", an example of the mixing of personal and political issues for musicians living during apartheid. When she first entered the US, she avoided discussing apartheid explicitly, partly out of concern for her family still in South Africa. Nonetheless, she is known for using her voice to convey the political message of opposition to apartheid, performing widely and frequently for civil rights and anti-apartheid organisations. Even songs that did not carry an explicitly political message were seen as subversive, due to their being banned in South Africa. Makeba saw her music as a tool of activism, saying "In our struggle, songs are not simply entertainment for us. They are the way we communicate."
Makeba's use of the clicks common in languages such as Xhosa and Zulu (as in "Qongqothwane", "The Click Song") was frequently remarked upon by Western audiences. It contributed to her popularity and her exotic image, which scholars have described as a kind of othering, exacerbated by the fact that Western audiences often could not understand her lyrics. Critics in the US described her as the "African tribeswoman" and as an "import from South Africa", often depicting her in condescending terms as a product of a more primitive society. Commentators also frequently described her in terms of the prominent men she was associated with, despite her own prominence. During her early career in South Africa she had been seen as a sex symbol, an image that received considerably less attention in the US.
Makeba was described as a style icon, both in her home country and the US. She wore no makeup and refused to straighten her hair for shows, thus helping establish a style that came to be known internationally as the "Afro look". According to music scholar Tanisha Ford, her hairstyle represented a "liberated African beauty aesthetic". She was seen as a beauty icon by South African schoolgirls, who were compelled to shorten their hair by the apartheid government. Makeba stuck to wearing African jewellery; she disapproved of the skin-lighteners commonly used by South African women at the time, and refused to appear in advertisements for them. Her self-presentation has been characterised by scholars as a rejection of the predominantly white standards of beauty that women in the US were held to, which allowed Makeba to partially escape the sexualisation directed at women performers during this period. Nonetheless, the terms used to describe her in the US media have been identified by scholars as frequently used to "sexualize, infantalize, and animalize" people of African heritage.
Legacy
Musical influence
Makeba was among the most visible Africans in the US; as a result, she was often emblematic of the continent of Africa for Americans. Her music earned her the moniker "Mama Africa", and she was variously described as the "Empress of African Song", the "Queen of South African music", and Africa's "first superstar". Music scholar J. U. Jacobs said that Makeba's music had "both been shaped by and given shape to black South African and American music". The jazz musician Abbey Lincoln is among those identified as being influenced by Makeba. Makeba and Simone were among a group of artists who helped shape soul music. Longtime collaborator Belafonte called her "the most revolutionary new talent to appear in any medium in the last decade". Speaking after her death, Mandela called her "South Africa's first lady of song", and said that "her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
Outside her home country Makeba was credited with bringing African music to a Western audience, and along with artists such as Youssou N'Dour, Salif Keita, Ali Farka Touré, Baaba Maal and Angélique Kidjo, with popularising the genre of world music. Her work with Belafonte in the 1960s has been described as creating the genre of world music before the concept entered the popular imagination, and also as highlighting the diversity and cultural pluralism within African music. Within South Africa, Makeba has been described as influencing artists such as kwaito musician Thandiswa Mazwai and her band Bongo Maffin, whose track "De Makeba" was a modified version of Makeba's "Pata Pata", and one of several tribute recordings released after her return to South Africa. South African jazz musician Simphiwe Dana has been described as "the new Miriam Makeba". South African singer Lira has frequently been compared with Makeba, particularly for her performance of "Pata Pata" during the opening ceremony of the 2010 Football World Cup. A year later, Kidjo dedicated her concert in New York to Makeba, as a musician who had "paved the way for her success". In an obituary, scholar Lara Allen referred to Makeba as "arguably South Africa's most famous musical export". In 2016 the French singer Jain released "Makeba", a tribute.
Activism
Makeba was among the most visible people campaigning against the apartheid system in South Africa, and was responsible for popularising several anti-apartheid songs, including "Meadowlands" by Strike Vilakezi and "Ndodemnyama we Verwoerd" (Watch out, Verwoerd) by Vuyisile Mini. Due to her high profile, she became a spokesperson of sorts for Africans living under oppressive governments, and in particular for black South Africans living under apartheid. When the South African government prevented her from entering her home country, she became a symbol of "apartheid's cruelty", and she used her position as a celebrity by testifying against apartheid before the UN in 1962 and 1964. Many of her songs were banned within South Africa, leading to Makeba's records being distributed underground, and even her apolitical songs being seen as subversive. She thus became a symbol of resistance to the white-minority government both within and outside South Africa. In an interview in 2000, Masekela said that "there [was] nobody in Africa who made the world more aware of what was happening in South Africa than Miriam Makeba."
Makeba has also been associated with the movement against colonialism, with the civil rights and black power movements in the US, and with the Pan-African movement. She called for unity between black people of African descent across the world: "Africans who live everywhere should fight everywhere. The struggle is no different in South Africa, the streets of Chicago, Trinidad or Canada. The Black people are the victims of capitalism, racism and oppression, period". After marrying Carmichael she often appeared with him during his speeches; Carmichael later described her presence at these events as an asset, and Feldstein wrote that Makeba enhanced Carmichael's message that "black is beautiful". Along with performers such as Simone, Lena Horne, and Abbey Lincoln, she used her position as a prominent musician to advocate for civil rights. Their activism has been described as simultaneously calling attention to racial and gender disparities, and highlighting "that the liberation they desired could not separate race from sex". Makeba's critique of second-wave feminism as being the product of luxury led to observers being unwilling to call her a feminist. Scholar Ruth Feldstein stated that Makeba and others influenced both black feminism and second-wave feminism through their advocacy, and the historian Jacqueline Castledine referred to her as one of the "most steadfast voices for social justice".
Awards and recognition
Makeba's 1965 collaboration with Harry Belafonte won a Grammy Award, making her the first African recording artist to win this award. Makeba shared the 2001 Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. They received their prize from Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden, during a nationally televised ceremony at Berwaldhallen, Stockholm, on 27 May 2002.
Makeba won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986, and in 2001 was awarded the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold by the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding". She also received several honorary doctorates. In 2004, she was voted 38th in a poll ranking 100 Great South Africans.
Mama Africa, a musical about Makeba, was produced in South Africa by Niyi Coker. Originally titled Zenzi!, the musical premiered to a sold-out crowd in Cape Town on 26 May 2016. It was performed in the US in St. Louis, Missouri and at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City between October and December 2016. The musical returned to South Africa in February 2017 for what would have been Makeba's 85th birthday.
From 25 to 27 September 2009, a tribute television show to Makeba entitled Hommage à Miriam Makeba and curated by Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist Angélique Kidjo, was held at the Cirque d'hiver in Paris. The show was presented as Mama Africa: Celebrating Miriam Makeba at the Barbican in London on 21 November 2009. A documentary film titled Mama Africa, about Makeba's life, co-written and directed by Finnish director Mika Kaurismäki, was released in 2011. On 4 March 2013, and again on International Women's Day in 2017, Google honoured her with a Google Doodle on their homepage. In 2014 she was honoured (along with Nelson Mandela, Albertina Sisulu and Steve Biko) in the Belgian city of Ghent, which named a square after her, the "Miriam Makebaplein". Makeba was named 1967's "woman of the year" by Time magazine in 2020, as one of a list of 100 "women of the year" for the years 1920–2019.
Notable songs and albums
This is a list of albums and songs, including covers, by Miriam Makeba that have received significant mention in commentary about her or about the musical and political movements she participated in.
Albums
Miriam Makeba (1960)
The Many Voices of Miriam Makeba (1962)
An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba (1965)
Comme une symphonie d'amour (1979)
The Queen of African Music (1987)
Sangoma (1988)
Welela (1989)
Eyes on Tomorrow (1991)
Homeland (2000)
Songs
"Lakutshn, Ilanga"/Lovely Lies" (1956)
"Sophiatown is Gone"
"The Click Song" / "Mbube" (1963)
"Pata Pata" (1967)
"Lumumba" (1970)
"Malcolm X" (1974)
"Soweto Blues" (1977)
"Thula Sizwe/I Shall Be Released" (1991)
"Malaika"
See also
Culture of South Africa
Notes and references
Footnotes
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Miriam Makeba at National Public Radio
1932 births
2008 deaths
20th-century South African women singers
21st-century South African women singers
Anti-apartheid activists
FAO Goodwill ambassadors
Grammy Award winners
Heads Up International artists
Music in the movement against apartheid
Musicians who died on stage
Musicians from Johannesburg
South African actresses
South African exiles
South African people of Swazi descent
World music musicians
Wrasse Records artists
Xhosa people | false | [
"Diána Kőszegi (born 1983 in Hungary) is the first Hungarian professional Go player. She became only the sixth European professional when she was promoted to professional by the Korean Go Association on 4 January 2008.\n\nBiography\n\n \nDiána Kőszegi was born in August 1983 in Budapest. She began playing Go at age 9. She was initially taught by her father, Sándor Kőszegi (who teaches Go to elementary schools students). At age 11 she began studying under Tibor Pocsai, the winner of the European Go Championship in 1988. During her study of Go, she also began to teach others. She teaches Go on the KGS Go Server.\n\nIn 1996, she met 9 dan professional Yasutoshi Yasuda, with whom she kept in contact thanks to Shigeno Yuki, a friend who Diána considers as close as a sister. Diána wanted to be Yasuda's pupil, but this was not to be. Yasuda was very busy at that time. Both Yasuda and Yuki were a big influence on her.\n\nWhen she was 14 she came 4th at the 1st World Women Amateur Baduk Championship, held in 1997 in Seoul. In the following autumn, she finished 2nd in the 2nd European Women Amateur Go Championship.\n\nShe came 9th at the female equivalent of the World Amateur Go Championship in 1998, and was invited to Japan and Korea to study as an insei. Considering her young age, her family did not let her go.\n\nIn March 2000, she won the European Youth Go Championship that was held in Sinaia. She came 2nd in the previous two years, and again in 2001. In the same year, even though she finished only joint 8th at the Hungarian Go Championship, winning the play-offs between the top 6, she became the Hungarian Go Champion. She was the first Hungarian invited to professional competitions in China, while still an amateur. Representing Europe, she entered three competitions in 2000 (Shanghai), 2001 (Guiyang), and 2002 (Hong Kong).\n\nSince 2001 she has continued studying Go, without a tutor. In 2001, she stayed in Japan for 1.5 months thanks to the sister and brother Kobayashi Chizu and Kobayashi Satoru. In 2003 she went to the Hungarian university, ELTE. She studied at the programming mathematician department, but she did not complete her course, because of an invitation from the KimWon Baduk Academy, thanks to Mr Eo Jong Soo (7 dan Korean). She got to know him at the World Championship held in Korea in 2003.\n\nShe went to Korea in 2004 for 3 months, but then returned because she could not extend her visa. Until she was promoted to professional, from 2005 as an insei she was competing at the league in Seoul. In 2005, she studied at the Korean Myongji University and started teaching Go on-line. She became the sixth European professional, when she was promoted to professional by the Korean Go Association on 4 January 2008.\n\nShe translated the Go book 21st Century New Openings, by Kim Sung Rae (4 Dan), into English.\n\nPromotion record\n\nSee also \n\n List of Go organizations\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Diána's page on the site of the Korean Baduk Association\n Diána's page on the Hungarian Go Wiki\n\n1983 births\nLiving people\nHungarian Go players\nFemale Go players",
"True Believer is a verse novel for young adults, written by Virginia Euwer Wolff and published by Atheneum Books in 2001.\nIt has been published as an audiobook read by Heather Alicia Simms, and translated into Chinese, German, Italian, and Japanese.\nIt won the U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature and was named a Michael L. Printz Honor book.\n\nA review in Publishers Weekly observed that Wolff writes with \"delicacy and sensitivity\".\n\nPlot summary\n\nCharacters\n\nVerna LaVaughn: LaVaughn is the protagonist of the story. She is named after her two grand aunts, Verna and LaVaughn, but goes by the name LaVaughn. LaVaughn is fifteen years old, telling what her life is like through that age. She tells how she falls in love with Jody, only to find him kissing another guy. LaVaughn briefly tells how her father dies, (he was an innocent bystander of a tragic shooting.) She tells how her mom is raising her in a slightly destitute type neighborhood, and also a little about her past.\nLaVaughn's mother: In the story, LaVaughn's mother does not get a name. LaVaughn's mom is a single mother. She is taking care of her daughter and herself alone, because her husband died. In True Believer, LaVaughn doesn't talk about her as much as she does with others, but when she does, you can get a feel for how wonderful and supportive her mother is LaVaughn even tells of her mother possibly finding love.\nJody: Jody comes back to live in LaVaughn's apartment. He left because where he and LaVaughn are from, children die at a young age and he and his mother did not want that to be the result of his life. He is the same age as LaVaughn, (fifteen). In the book, not many people get the chance to go to college. Like LaVaughn, he is determined not be another statistic. He wants to get into college and move away from the neighborhood. He hopes to win a swimming scholarship for college.\nMyrtle: In the book, Myrtle is LaVaughn's best friend. She grew up with LaVaughn, her father is a drug addict, trying to turn his life around in rehabilitation. Myrtle may not be as determined to go to college as Jody and LaVaughn are but she does want to stay on the right track. Myrtle joins a church, but this also pushes back their close friendship with LaVaughn, because LaVaughn doesn't go to church.\nAnnie: Annie is another childhood friend of LaVaughn's in the book. She did not grow up with LaVaughn like Myrtle did, but she did go to school with them, and after a while became their best friend. Annie's background isn't really described in True Believer. Annie also joined a church and after a while became very attached to it. LaVaughn did not attend church with them at all, therefore their friendship of dwindled. Myrtle and Annie did not have as much to talk to LaVaughn about, because LaVaughn had different views. LaVaughn questions God a lot throughout the book, while Annie and Myrtle goes go with what is dealt to them through the church.\nPatrick: Patrick, born into a poor family, is described as LaVaughn's new biology partner in the book. When she is moved into that class, Patrick is really nice to her, As days progress, she says Patrick wears the same green shirt everyday, and Patrick's speech is terribly slow. he is really good at science, biology in particular. \nJolly: Jolly is an old friend of LaVaughn's. LaVaughn babysat Jolly's kids when she was younger. (In the book before True Believer, Make Lemonade told Jolly’s story). Jolly is a senior in true Believer, and is eighteen with two children, Jeremy, and Jilly. Jolly had a rough time growing up, the guys that impregnated her left her way before the children were born, she raises the kids on her own, in a substandard apartment. Jolly is trying to make a way for her kids, and herself so she goes back to high school so she too can graduate on time.\nLester: LaVaughn's mom's new “boyfriend.’” She describes him as: “His name is Lester. He is at her new job. He is in charge of something there. And he is coming to our house to eat supper.” (page 105). Lester comes over to dinner that night, and compliments on everything LaVaughn's mom cooks. For a while everything is going good, and her mom is even thinking about moving into a house with Lester and LaVaughn as a sort of “family”. LaVaughn's mom finds out that Lester calls her every night from a pay phone, and the worse: he took out money from LaVaughn's savings account to pay for his own mortgage. After that, LaVaughn's mom leaves him.\nb's up\n\nReception and themes\nAccording to an interview with Horn Book Magazine, Wolff never identified the race of the characters purposefully, because she wanted readers to have their own views of them.\n\nHorn Book Magazine mentioned the theme of romantic feeling that can take over everyday life. Roger Sutton, the reviewer, said that \"LaVaughn's portrayal of her life at school and home becomes shaped by her feelings for Jody.\" \nPublishers Weekly summarized the overall theme as \"one of the pivotal issues of puberty\": abstinence.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n True Believer on Google Books\n\n2001 American novels\nVerse novels\nAmerican young adult novels\nNational Book Award for Young People's Literature winning works\nGolden Kite Award-winning works\nAtheneum Books books"
]
|
[
"Miriam Makeba",
"Childhood and family",
"Where did she grow up?",
"black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail.",
"Why was she in jail?",
"her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal.",
"when was she born?",
"Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932",
"Does she have sublings?",
"Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children.",
"Where did she go to school?",
"Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria, an all-black Methodist primary school",
"Did she go to college?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_be942cd9bfc84a1eb32a2739a1edbbc7_1 | What was her childhood like? | 8 | What was Miriam Makeba’s childhood like? | Miriam Makeba | Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932 in the black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg. Her Swazi mother, Christina Makeba, was a sangoma, or traditional healer, and a domestic worker. Her Xhosa father, Caswell Makeba, was a teacher; he died when she was six years old. Makeba later said that before she was conceived, her mother had been warned that any future pregnancy could be fatal. Neither Miriam nor her mother seemed likely to survive after a difficult labour and delivery. Miriam's grandmother, who attended the birth, often muttered "uzenzile", a Xhosa word that means "you brought this on yourself", to Miriam's mother during her recovery, which inspired her to give her daughter the name "Zenzile". When Makeba was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. The family could not afford the small fine required to avoid a jail term, and Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail. As a child, Makeba sang in the choir of the Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria, an all-black Methodist primary school that she attended for eight years. Her talent for singing earned her praise at school. Makeba was baptised a Protestant, and sang in church choirs, in English, Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu; she later said that she learned to sing in English before she could speak the language. The family moved to the Transvaal when Makeba was a child. After her father's death, she was forced to find employment; she did domestic work, and worked as a nanny. She described herself as a shy person at the time. Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children. Makeba lived for a while with her grandmother and a large number of cousins in Pretoria. Makeba was influenced by her family's musical tastes; her mother played several traditional instruments, and her elder brother collected records, including those of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, and taught Makeba songs. Her father played the piano, and his musical inclination was later a factor in Makeba's family accepting what was seen as a risque choice of career. In 1949, Makeba married James Kubay, a policeman in training, with whom she had her only child, Bongi Makeba, in 1950. Makeba was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband, who was said to have beaten her, left her shortly afterwards, after a two-year marriage. A decade later she overcame cervical cancer via a hysterectomy. CANNOTANSWER | After her father's death, she was forced to find employment; she did domestic work, and worked as a nanny. | Zenzile Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid and white-minority government in South Africa.
Born in Johannesburg to Swazi and Xhosa parents, Makeba was forced to find employment as a child after the death of her father. She had a brief and allegedly abusive first marriage at the age of 17, gave birth to her only child in 1950, and survived breast cancer. Her vocal talent had been recognized when she was a child, and she began singing professionally in the 1950s, with the Cuban Brothers, the Manhattan Brothers, and an all-woman group, the Skylarks, performing a mixture of jazz, traditional African melodies, and Western popular music. In 1959, Makeba had a brief role in the anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa, which brought her international attention, and led to her performing in Venice, London, and New York City. In London, she met the American singer Harry Belafonte, who became a mentor and colleague. She moved to New York City, where she became immediately popular, and recorded her first solo album in 1960. Her attempt to return to South Africa that year for her mother's funeral was prevented by the country's government.
Makeba's career flourished in the United States, and she released several albums and songs, her most popular being "Pata Pata" (1967). Along with Belafonte she received a Grammy Award for her 1965 album An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. She testified against the South African government at the United Nations and became involved in the civil rights movement. She married Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Black Panther Party, in 1968. As a result, she lost support among white Americans. The US government cancelled her visa while she was travelling abroad, leading her and Carmichael to move to Guinea. She continued to perform, mostly in African countries, including at several independence celebrations. She began to write and perform music more explicitly critical of apartheid; the 1977 song "Soweto Blues", written by her former husband Hugh Masekela, was about the Soweto uprising. After apartheid was dismantled in 1990, Makeba returned to South Africa. She continued recording and performing, including a 1991 album with Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, and appeared in the 1992 film Sarafina!. She was named a UN goodwill ambassador in 1999, and campaigned for humanitarian causes. She died of a heart attack during a 2008 concert in Italy.
Makeba was among the first African musicians to receive worldwide recognition. She brought African music to a Western audience, and popularized the world music and Afropop genres. She also made popular several songs critical of apartheid, and became a symbol of opposition to the system, particularly after her right to return was revoked. Upon her death, former South African President Nelson Mandela said that "her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
Early years
Childhood and family
Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932 in the black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg. Her Swazi mother, Christina Makeba, was a sangoma, or traditional healer, and a domestic worker. Her Xhosa father, Caswell Makeba, was a teacher; he died when she was six years old. Makeba later said that before she was conceived, her mother had been warned that any future pregnancy could be fatal. Neither Miriam nor her mother seemed likely to survive after a difficult labour and delivery. Miriam's grandmother, who attended the birth, often muttered "uzenzile", a Xhosa word that means "you brought this on yourself", to Miriam's mother during her recovery, which inspired her to give her daughter the name "Zenzile".
When Makeba was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. The family could not afford the small fine required to avoid a jail term, and Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail. As a child, Makeba sang in the choir of the Kilnerton Training Institute in Pretoria, an all-black Methodist primary school that she attended for eight years. Her talent for singing earned her praise at school. Makeba was baptised a Protestant, and sang in church choirs, in English, Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu; she later said that she learned to sing in English before she could speak the language.
The family moved to the Transvaal when Makeba was a child. After her father's death, she was forced to find employment; she did domestic work, and worked as a nanny. She described herself as a shy person at the time. Her mother worked for white families in Johannesburg, and had to live away from her six children. Makeba lived for a while with her grandmother and a large number of cousins in Pretoria. Makeba was influenced by her family's musical tastes; her mother played several traditional instruments, and her elder brother collected records, including those of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, and taught Makeba songs. Her father played the piano, and his musical inclination was later a factor in Makeba's family accepting what was seen as a risque choice of career.
In 1949, Makeba married James Kubay, a policeman in training, with whom she had her only child, Bongi Makeba, in 1950. Makeba was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband, who was said to have beaten her, left her shortly afterwards, after a two-year marriage. A decade later she overcame cervical cancer via a hysterectomy.
Early career
Makeba began her professional musical career with the Cuban Brothers, a South African all-male close harmony group, with whom she sang covers of popular American songs. Soon afterwards, at the age of 21, she joined a jazz group, the Manhattan Brothers, who sang a mixture of South African songs and pieces from popular African-American groups. Makeba was the only woman in the group. With the Manhattan Brothers she recorded her first hit, "Laku Tshoni Ilanga", in 1953, and developed a national reputation as a musician. In 1956 she joined a new all-woman group, the Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional South African melodies. Formed by Gallotone Records, the group was also known as the Sunbeams. Makeba sang with the Skylarks when the Manhattan Brothers were travelling abroad; later, she also travelled with the Manhattan Brothers. In the Skylarks, Makeba sang alongside Rhodesian-born musician Dorothy Masuka, whose music Makeba had followed, along with that of Dolly Rathebe. Several of the Skylarks' pieces from this period became popular; the music historian Rob Allingham later described the group as "real trendsetters, with harmonisation that had never been heard before." Makeba received no royalties from her work with the Skylarks.
While performing with the Manhattan Brothers in 1955, Makeba met Nelson Mandela, then a young lawyer; he later remembered the meeting, and that he felt that the girl he met "was going to be someone." In 1956, Gallotone Records released "Lovely Lies", Makeba's first solo success; the Xhosa lyric about a man looking for his beloved in jails and hospitals was replaced with the unrelated and innocuous line "You tell such lovely lies with your two lovely eyes" in the English version. The record became the first South African record to chart on the United States Billboard Top 100. In 1957, Makeba was featured on the cover of Drum magazine.
In 1959, Makeba sang the lead female role in the Broadway-inspired South African jazz opera King Kong; among those in the cast was the musician Hugh Masekela. The musical was performed to racially integrated audiences, raising her profile among white South Africans. Also in 1959, she had a short guest appearance in Come Back, Africa, an anti-apartheid film produced and directed by the American independent filmmaker Lionel Rogosin. Rogosin cast her after seeing her on stage in African Jazz and Variety show, on which Makeba was a performer for 18 months. The film blended elements of documentary and fiction and had to be filmed in secret as the government was expected to be hostile to it. Makeba appeared on stage, and sang two songs: her appearance lasted four minutes. The cameo made an enormous impression on viewers, and Rogosin organised a visa for her to attend the premiere of the film at the twenty-fourth Venice Film Festival in Italy, where the film won the prestigious Critics' Choice Award. Makeba's presence has been described as crucial to the film, as an emblem of cosmopolitan black identity that also connected with working-class black people due to the dialogue being in Zulu.
Makeba's role in Come Back, Africa brought her international recognition and she travelled to London and New York to perform. In London she met the American singer Harry Belafonte, who became her mentor, helping her with her first solo recordings. These included "Pata Pata", which would be released many years later, and a version of the traditional Xhosa song "Qongqothwane", which she had first performed with the Skylarks. Though "Pata Pata"—described by Musician magazine as a "groundbreaking Afropop gem"—became her most famous song, Makeba described it as "one of my most insignificant songs". While in England, she married Sonny Pillay, a South African ballad singer of Indian descent; they divorced within a few months.
Makeba then moved to New York, making her US music debut on 1 November 1959 on The Steve Allen Show in Los Angeles for a television audience of 60 million. Her New York debut at the Village Vanguard occurred soon after; she sang in Xhosa and Zulu, and performed a Yiddish folk song. Her audience at this concert included Miles Davis and Duke Ellington; her performance received strongly positive reviews from critics. She first came to popular and critical attention in jazz clubs, after which her reputation grew rapidly. Belafonte, who had helped Makeba with her move to the US, handled the logistics for her first performances. When she first moved to the US, Makeba lived in Greenwich Village, along with other musicians and actors. As was common in her profession, she experienced some financial insecurity, and worked as a babysitter for a period.
Exile
United States
Breakthrough
Soon after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, Makeba learned that her mother had died. When she tried to return home for the funeral, she found that her South African passport had been cancelled. Two of Makeba's family members were killed in the massacre. The incident left her concerned about her family, many of whom were still in South Africa, including her daughter: the nine-year-old Bongi joined her mother in the US in August 1960. During her first few years in the US, Makeba had rarely sung explicitly political music, but her popularity had led to an increase in awareness of apartheid and the anti-apartheid movement. Following the Sharpeville killings, Makeba felt a responsibility to help, as she had been able to leave the country while others had not. From this point, she became an increasingly outspoken critic of apartheid and the white-minority government; before the massacre, she had taken care to avoid overtly political statements in South Africa.
Her musical career in the US continued to flourish. She signed a recording contract with RCA Victor, and released Miriam Makeba, her first studio album, in 1960, backed by Belafonte's band. RCA Victor chose to buy out Makeba's contract with Gallotone Records, and despite the fact that Makeba was unable to perform in South Africa, Gallotone received US$45,000 in the deal, which meant that Makeba received no royalties for her debut album. The album included one of her most famous hits in the US, "Qongqothwane", which was known in English as "The Click Song" because Makeba's audiences could not pronounce the Xhosa name. Time magazine called her the "most exciting new singing talent to appear in many years", and Newsweek compared her voice to "the smoky tones and delicate phrasing" of Ella Fitzgerald and the "intimate warmth" of Frank Sinatra. The album was not commercially successful, and Makeba was briefly dropped from RCA Victor: she was re-signed soon after as the label recognised the commercial possibilities of the growing interest in African culture. Her South African identity had been downplayed during her first signing, but it was strongly emphasised the second time to take advantage of this interest. Makeba made several appearances on television, often in the company of Belafonte. In 1962, Makeba and Belafonte sang at the birthday party for US President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, but Makeba did not go to the party afterwards because she was ill. Kennedy nevertheless insisted on meeting her, so Belafonte sent a car to pick her up.
In 1964, Makeba released her second studio album for RCA Victor, The World of Miriam Makeba. An early example of world music, the album peaked at number eighty-six on the Billboard 200. Makeba's music had a cross-racial appeal in the US; white Americans were attracted to her image as an "exotic" African performer, and black Americans related their own experiences of racial segregation to Makeba's struggle against apartheid. Makeba found company among other African exiles and émigrés in New York, including Hugh Masekela, to whom she was married from 1963 to 1968. During their marriage, Makeba and Masekela were neighbours of the jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie in Englewood, New Jersey; they spent much of their time in Harlem. She also came to know actors Marlon Brando and Lauren Bacall, and musicians Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles. Fellow singer-activist Nina Simone became friendly with Makeba, as did actor Cicely Tyson; Makeba and Simone performed together at Carnegie Hall. Makeba was among black entertainers, activists, and intellectuals in New York at the time who believed that the civil rights movement and popular culture could reinforce each other, creating "a sense of intertwined political and cultural vibrancy"; other examples included Maya Angelou and Sidney Poitier. She later described her difficulty living with racial segregation, saying "There wasn't much difference in America; it was a country that had abolished slavery but there was apartheid in its own way."
Travel and activism
Makeba's music was also popular in Europe, and she travelled and performed there frequently. Acting on the advice of Belafonte, she added songs from Latin America, Europe, Israel, and elsewhere in Africa to her repertoire. She visited Kenya in 1962 in support of the country's independence from British colonial rule, and raised funds for its independence leader Jomo Kenyatta. Later that year she testified before the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid about the effects of the system, asking for economic sanctions against South Africa's National Party government. She requested an arms embargo against South Africa, on the basis that weapons sold to the government would likely be used against black women and children. As a result, her music was banned in South Africa, and her South African citizenship and right to return were revoked. Makeba thus became a stateless person, but she was soon issued passports by Algeria, Guinea, Belgium and Ghana. In her life, she held nine passports, and was granted honorary citizenship in ten countries.
Soon after her testimony, Haile Selassie, the emperor of Ethiopia, invited her to sing at the inauguration of the Organisation of African Unity, the only performer to be invited. As the fact of her ban from South Africa became well known she became a cause célèbre for Western liberals, and her presence in the civil rights movement provided a link between that movement and the anti-apartheid struggle. In 1964 she was taught the song "Malaika" by a Kenyan student while backstage at a performance in San Francisco; the song later became a staple of her performances.
Throughout the 1960s, Makeba strengthened her involvement with a range of black-centred political movements, including the civil rights, anti-apartheid, Black Consciousness, and Black Power movements. She briefly met the Trinidadian-American activist Stokely Carmichael—the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and a prominent figure in the Black Panther Party—after Belafonte invited him to one of Makeba's concerts; they met again in Conakry six years later. They entered a relationship, initially kept secret from all but their closest friends and family. Makeba participated in fundraising activities for various civil rights groups, including a benefit concert for the 1962 Southern Christian Leadership Conference that civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. referred to as the "event of the year". Following a concert and rally in Atlanta in support of King, Makeba and others were denied entrance to a restaurant as a result of Jim Crow laws, leading to a televised protest in front of the establishment. She also criticised King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference for its investment in South African companies, informing press that "Now my friend of long standing supports the country's persecution of my people and I must find a new idol". Her identity as an African woman in the civil rights movement helped create "an emerging liberal consensus" that extreme racial discrimination, whether domestically or internationally, was harmful. In 1964 she testified at the UN for a second time, quoting a song by Vanessa Redgrave in calling for quick action against the South African government.
On 15 March 1966, Makeba and Belafonte received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording for An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under apartheid, including several songs critical of the South African government, such as "Ndodemnyama we Verwoerd" ("Watch our Verwoerd", a reference to Hendrik Verwoerd, one of the architects of apartheid). It sold widely and raised Makeba's profile in the US; Belafonte and Makeba's concert tour following its release was often sold out, and the album has been described as the best they made together. Makeba's use of lyrics in Swahili, Xhosa, and Sotho led to her being seen as a representation of an "authentic" Africa by American audiences. In 1967, more than ten years after she first recorded the song, the single "Pata Pata" was released in the US on an album of the same title, and became a worldwide hit. During its recording, she and Belafonte had a disagreement, after which they stopped recording together.
Guinea
Makeba married Carmichael in March 1968; this caused her popularity in the US to decline markedly. Conservatives came to regard her as a militant and an extremist, an image that alienated much of her fanbase. Her performances were cancelled and her coverage in the press declined despite her efforts to portray her marriage as apolitical. White American audiences stopped supporting her, and the US government took an interest in her activities. The Central Intelligence Agency began following her, and placed hidden microphones in her apartment; the Federal Bureau of Investigation also placed her under surveillance. While she and her husband were travelling in the Bahamas, she was banned from returning to the US, and was refused a visa. As a result, the couple moved to Guinea, where Carmichael changed his name to Kwame Touré. Makeba did not return to the US until 1987.
Guinea remained Makeba's home for the next 15 years, and she and her husband became close to President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife, Andrée. Touré wanted to create a new style of African music, creating his own record label Syliphone for this purpose, and all musicians received a minimum wage if they practised for several hours every day. Makeba later stated that "I've never seen a country that did what Sékou Touré did for artists." After her rejection from the US she began to write music more directly critical of the US government's racial policies, recording and singing songs such as "Lumumba" in 1970 (referring to Patrice Lumumba, the assassinated Prime Minister of the Congo), and "Malcolm X" in 1974.
Makeba performed more frequently in African countries, and as countries became independent of European colonial powers, was invited to sing at independence ceremonies, including in Kenya, Angola, Zambia, Tanganyika, and Mozambique. In September 1974 she performed alongside a multitude of well-known African and American musicians at the Zaire 74 festival in Kinshasa, Zaire (formerly the Congo). She also became a diplomat for Ghana, and was appointed Guinea's official delegate to the UN in 1975; that year, she addressed the United Nations General Assembly. She continued to perform in Europe and Asia, as well as her African concerts, but not in the US, where a de facto boycott was in effect. Her performances in Africa were immensely popular: she was described as the highlight of FESTAC 77, a Pan-African arts festival in Nigeria in 1977, and during a Liberian performance of "Pata Pata", the stadium proved so loud that she was unable to complete the song. "Pata Pata", like her other songs, had been banned in South Africa. Another song she sang frequently in this period was "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika", though she never recorded it. Makeba later stated that it was during this period that she accepted the label "Mama Africa".
In 1976, the South African government replaced English with Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in all schools, setting off the Soweto uprising. Between 15,000 and 20,000 students took part; caught unprepared, the police opened fire on the protesting children, killing hundreds and injuring more than a thousand. Hugh Masekela wrote "Soweto Blues" in response to the massacre, and the song was performed by Makeba, becoming a staple of her live performances for many years. A review in the magazine Musician said that the song had "searingly righteous lyrics" about the uprising that "cut to the bone". She had separated from Carmichael in 1973; in 1978 they divorced and in 1981 she married Bageot Bah, an airline executive.
Belgium
Makeba's daughter Bongi, who was a singer in her own right and had often accompanied her mother on stage, died in childbirth in 1985. Makeba was left responsible for her two grandchildren, and decided to move out of Guinea. She settled in the Woluwe-Saint-Lambert district of the Belgian capital Brussels. In the following year, Masekela introduced Makeba to Paul Simon, and a few months later she embarked on Simon's very successful Graceland Tour. The tour concluded with two concerts held in Harare, Zimbabwe, which were filmed in 1987 for release as Graceland: The African Concert. After touring the world with Simon, Warner Bros. Records signed Makeba and she released Sangoma ("Healer"), an album of healing chants named in honour of her sangoma mother. Her involvement with Simon caused controversy: Graceland had been recorded in South Africa, breaking the cultural boycott of the country, and thus Makeba's participation in the tour was regarded as contravening the boycott (which Makeba herself endorsed).
In preparation for the Graceland tour, she worked with journalist James Hall to write an autobiography titled Makeba: My Story. The book contained descriptions of her experience with apartheid, and was also critical of the commodification and consumerism she experienced in the US. The book was translated into five languages. She took part in the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute, a popular-music concert staged on 11 June 1988 at London's Wembley Stadium, and broadcast to an audience of 600 million across 67 countries. Political aspects of the concert were heavily censored in the US by the Fox television network. The use of music to raise awareness of apartheid paid off: a survey after the concert found that among people aged between 16 and 24, three-quarters knew of Mandela, and supported his release from prison.
Return to South Africa, final years and death
Following growing pressure from the anti-apartheid movement both domestically and internationally, in 1990 State President Frederik Willem de Klerk reversed the ban on the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid organisations, and announced that Mandela would shortly be released from prison. Mandela was released in February 1990. He persuaded Makeba to return to South Africa, which she did, using her French passport, on 10 June 1990.
Makeba, Gillespie, Simone, and Masekela recorded and released her studio album, Eyes on Tomorrow, in 1991. It combined jazz, R&B, pop, and traditional African music, and was a hit across Africa. Makeba and Gillespie then toured the world together to promote it. In November she made a guest appearance on a US sitcom, The Cosby Show. In 1992, she starred in the film Sarafina! which centred on students involved in the 1976 Soweto uprising. Makeba portrayed the title character's mother, Angelina, a role which The New York Times described as having been performed with "immense dignity".
On 16 October 1999, Makeba was named a Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In January 2000, her album, Homeland, produced by the New York City based record label Putumayo World Music, was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best World Music Album category. She worked closely with Graça Machel-Mandela, the South African first lady, advocating for children suffering from HIV/AIDS, child soldiers, and the physically handicapped. She established the Makeba Centre for Girls, a home for orphans, described in an obituary as her most personal project. She also took part in the 2002 documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony, which examined the struggles of black South Africans against apartheid through the music of the period. Makeba's second autobiography, Makeba: The Miriam Makeba Story, was published in 2004. In 2005 she announced that she would retire and began a farewell tour, but despite having osteoarthritis, continued to perform until her death. During this period, her grandchildren Nelson Lumumba Lee and Zenzi Lee, and her great-grandchild Lindelani, occasionally joined her performances.
On 9 November 2008, Makeba fell ill during a concert in Castel Volturno, near Caserta, Italy. The concert had been organised to support the writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a criminal organisation active in the Campania region. She suffered a heart attack after singing her hit song "Pata Pata", and was taken to the Pineta Grande clinic, where doctors were unable to revive her.
Music and image
Musical style
The groups with which Makeba began her career performed mbube, a style of vocal harmony which drew on American jazz, ragtime, and Anglican church hymns, as well as indigenous styles of music. Johannesburg musician Dolly Rathebe was an early influence on Makeba's music, as were female jazz singers from the US. Historian David Coplan writes that the "African jazz" made popular by Makeba and others was "inherently hybridized" rather than derivative of any particular genre, blending as it did marabi and jazz, and was "Americanized African music, not Africanized American music". The music that she performed was described by British writer Robin Denselow as a "unique blend of rousing township styles and jazz-influenced balladry".
Makeba released more than 30 albums during her career. The dominant styles of these shifted over time, moving from African jazz to recordings influenced by Belafonte's "crooning" to music drawing from traditional South African musical forms. She has been associated with the genres of world music and Afropop. She also incorporated Latin American musical styles into her performances. Historian Ruth Feldstein described her music as "[crossing] the borders between what many people associated with avant-garde and 'quality' culture and the commercial mainstream"; the latter aspect often drew criticism. She was able to appeal to audiences from many political, racial, and national backgrounds.
She was known for having a dynamic vocal range, and was described as having an emotional awareness during her performances. She occasionally danced during her shows, and was described as having a sensuous presence on stage. She was able to vary her voice considerably: an obituary remarked that she "could soar like an opera singer, but she could also whisper, roar, hiss, growl and shout. She could sing while making the epiglottal clicks of the Xhosa language." She sang in English and several African languages, but never in Afrikaans, the language of the apartheid government in South Africa. She once stated "When Afrikaaners sing in my language, then I will sing theirs." English was seen as the language of political resistance by black South Africans due to the educational barriers they faced under apartheid; the Manhattan Brothers, with whom Makeba had sung in Sophiatown, had been prohibited from recording in English. Her songs in African languages have been described as reaffirming black pride.
Politics and perception
Makeba said that she did not perform political music, but music about her personal life in South Africa, which included describing the pain she felt living under apartheid. She once stated "people say I sing politics, but what I sing is not politics, it is the truth", an example of the mixing of personal and political issues for musicians living during apartheid. When she first entered the US, she avoided discussing apartheid explicitly, partly out of concern for her family still in South Africa. Nonetheless, she is known for using her voice to convey the political message of opposition to apartheid, performing widely and frequently for civil rights and anti-apartheid organisations. Even songs that did not carry an explicitly political message were seen as subversive, due to their being banned in South Africa. Makeba saw her music as a tool of activism, saying "In our struggle, songs are not simply entertainment for us. They are the way we communicate."
Makeba's use of the clicks common in languages such as Xhosa and Zulu (as in "Qongqothwane", "The Click Song") was frequently remarked upon by Western audiences. It contributed to her popularity and her exotic image, which scholars have described as a kind of othering, exacerbated by the fact that Western audiences often could not understand her lyrics. Critics in the US described her as the "African tribeswoman" and as an "import from South Africa", often depicting her in condescending terms as a product of a more primitive society. Commentators also frequently described her in terms of the prominent men she was associated with, despite her own prominence. During her early career in South Africa she had been seen as a sex symbol, an image that received considerably less attention in the US.
Makeba was described as a style icon, both in her home country and the US. She wore no makeup and refused to straighten her hair for shows, thus helping establish a style that came to be known internationally as the "Afro look". According to music scholar Tanisha Ford, her hairstyle represented a "liberated African beauty aesthetic". She was seen as a beauty icon by South African schoolgirls, who were compelled to shorten their hair by the apartheid government. Makeba stuck to wearing African jewellery; she disapproved of the skin-lighteners commonly used by South African women at the time, and refused to appear in advertisements for them. Her self-presentation has been characterised by scholars as a rejection of the predominantly white standards of beauty that women in the US were held to, which allowed Makeba to partially escape the sexualisation directed at women performers during this period. Nonetheless, the terms used to describe her in the US media have been identified by scholars as frequently used to "sexualize, infantalize, and animalize" people of African heritage.
Legacy
Musical influence
Makeba was among the most visible Africans in the US; as a result, she was often emblematic of the continent of Africa for Americans. Her music earned her the moniker "Mama Africa", and she was variously described as the "Empress of African Song", the "Queen of South African music", and Africa's "first superstar". Music scholar J. U. Jacobs said that Makeba's music had "both been shaped by and given shape to black South African and American music". The jazz musician Abbey Lincoln is among those identified as being influenced by Makeba. Makeba and Simone were among a group of artists who helped shape soul music. Longtime collaborator Belafonte called her "the most revolutionary new talent to appear in any medium in the last decade". Speaking after her death, Mandela called her "South Africa's first lady of song", and said that "her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
Outside her home country Makeba was credited with bringing African music to a Western audience, and along with artists such as Youssou N'Dour, Salif Keita, Ali Farka Touré, Baaba Maal and Angélique Kidjo, with popularising the genre of world music. Her work with Belafonte in the 1960s has been described as creating the genre of world music before the concept entered the popular imagination, and also as highlighting the diversity and cultural pluralism within African music. Within South Africa, Makeba has been described as influencing artists such as kwaito musician Thandiswa Mazwai and her band Bongo Maffin, whose track "De Makeba" was a modified version of Makeba's "Pata Pata", and one of several tribute recordings released after her return to South Africa. South African jazz musician Simphiwe Dana has been described as "the new Miriam Makeba". South African singer Lira has frequently been compared with Makeba, particularly for her performance of "Pata Pata" during the opening ceremony of the 2010 Football World Cup. A year later, Kidjo dedicated her concert in New York to Makeba, as a musician who had "paved the way for her success". In an obituary, scholar Lara Allen referred to Makeba as "arguably South Africa's most famous musical export". In 2016 the French singer Jain released "Makeba", a tribute.
Activism
Makeba was among the most visible people campaigning against the apartheid system in South Africa, and was responsible for popularising several anti-apartheid songs, including "Meadowlands" by Strike Vilakezi and "Ndodemnyama we Verwoerd" (Watch out, Verwoerd) by Vuyisile Mini. Due to her high profile, she became a spokesperson of sorts for Africans living under oppressive governments, and in particular for black South Africans living under apartheid. When the South African government prevented her from entering her home country, she became a symbol of "apartheid's cruelty", and she used her position as a celebrity by testifying against apartheid before the UN in 1962 and 1964. Many of her songs were banned within South Africa, leading to Makeba's records being distributed underground, and even her apolitical songs being seen as subversive. She thus became a symbol of resistance to the white-minority government both within and outside South Africa. In an interview in 2000, Masekela said that "there [was] nobody in Africa who made the world more aware of what was happening in South Africa than Miriam Makeba."
Makeba has also been associated with the movement against colonialism, with the civil rights and black power movements in the US, and with the Pan-African movement. She called for unity between black people of African descent across the world: "Africans who live everywhere should fight everywhere. The struggle is no different in South Africa, the streets of Chicago, Trinidad or Canada. The Black people are the victims of capitalism, racism and oppression, period". After marrying Carmichael she often appeared with him during his speeches; Carmichael later described her presence at these events as an asset, and Feldstein wrote that Makeba enhanced Carmichael's message that "black is beautiful". Along with performers such as Simone, Lena Horne, and Abbey Lincoln, she used her position as a prominent musician to advocate for civil rights. Their activism has been described as simultaneously calling attention to racial and gender disparities, and highlighting "that the liberation they desired could not separate race from sex". Makeba's critique of second-wave feminism as being the product of luxury led to observers being unwilling to call her a feminist. Scholar Ruth Feldstein stated that Makeba and others influenced both black feminism and second-wave feminism through their advocacy, and the historian Jacqueline Castledine referred to her as one of the "most steadfast voices for social justice".
Awards and recognition
Makeba's 1965 collaboration with Harry Belafonte won a Grammy Award, making her the first African recording artist to win this award. Makeba shared the 2001 Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. They received their prize from Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden, during a nationally televised ceremony at Berwaldhallen, Stockholm, on 27 May 2002.
Makeba won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986, and in 2001 was awarded the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold by the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding". She also received several honorary doctorates. In 2004, she was voted 38th in a poll ranking 100 Great South Africans.
Mama Africa, a musical about Makeba, was produced in South Africa by Niyi Coker. Originally titled Zenzi!, the musical premiered to a sold-out crowd in Cape Town on 26 May 2016. It was performed in the US in St. Louis, Missouri and at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City between October and December 2016. The musical returned to South Africa in February 2017 for what would have been Makeba's 85th birthday.
From 25 to 27 September 2009, a tribute television show to Makeba entitled Hommage à Miriam Makeba and curated by Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist Angélique Kidjo, was held at the Cirque d'hiver in Paris. The show was presented as Mama Africa: Celebrating Miriam Makeba at the Barbican in London on 21 November 2009. A documentary film titled Mama Africa, about Makeba's life, co-written and directed by Finnish director Mika Kaurismäki, was released in 2011. On 4 March 2013, and again on International Women's Day in 2017, Google honoured her with a Google Doodle on their homepage. In 2014 she was honoured (along with Nelson Mandela, Albertina Sisulu and Steve Biko) in the Belgian city of Ghent, which named a square after her, the "Miriam Makebaplein". Makeba was named 1967's "woman of the year" by Time magazine in 2020, as one of a list of 100 "women of the year" for the years 1920–2019.
Notable songs and albums
This is a list of albums and songs, including covers, by Miriam Makeba that have received significant mention in commentary about her or about the musical and political movements she participated in.
Albums
Miriam Makeba (1960)
The Many Voices of Miriam Makeba (1962)
An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba (1965)
Comme une symphonie d'amour (1979)
The Queen of African Music (1987)
Sangoma (1988)
Welela (1989)
Eyes on Tomorrow (1991)
Homeland (2000)
Songs
"Lakutshn, Ilanga"/Lovely Lies" (1956)
"Sophiatown is Gone"
"The Click Song" / "Mbube" (1963)
"Pata Pata" (1967)
"Lumumba" (1970)
"Malcolm X" (1974)
"Soweto Blues" (1977)
"Thula Sizwe/I Shall Be Released" (1991)
"Malaika"
See also
Culture of South Africa
Notes and references
Footnotes
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Miriam Makeba at National Public Radio
1932 births
2008 deaths
20th-century South African women singers
21st-century South African women singers
Anti-apartheid activists
FAO Goodwill ambassadors
Grammy Award winners
Heads Up International artists
Music in the movement against apartheid
Musicians who died on stage
Musicians from Johannesburg
South African actresses
South African exiles
South African people of Swazi descent
World music musicians
Wrasse Records artists
Xhosa people | true | [
"The Woman I Was Born To Be: My Story is the autobiography of Scottish singer Susan Boyle, published in October 2010.\n\nBoyle describes her childhood growing up in a large Catholic family and the importance of her faith. She addresses the bullying she endured and the prominent place of music in her life. She deals with her despair and difficulties coping after her mother's death in 2007. She relates what it was like to experience sudden global fame as a result of her Britain's Got Talent appearance.\n\nReferences\n\nBritish autobiographies\nSusan Boyle\n2010 non-fiction books",
"Chizuko Judy Sugita de Queiroz (born 1933) is an American artist and art educator; her paintings depict her memories of a childhood during the Japanese American internment.\n\nEarly life and education\nChizuko Judy Sugita was born in Orange, California, the youngest of nine children; her mother died from complications soon after Chizuko's birth. Her Hiroshima-born father owned a nursery. In 1942, her family was sent to Poston War Relocation Center in Arizona, as part of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. They were released from Poston when Chizuko was twelve. After the war, she returned to Southern California with her father, and settled in Huntington Beach.\n\nChizuko Judy Sugita earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from California State University, Dominguez Hills. In 1953, she was chosen as Nisei Week Queen.\n\nCareer\nChizuko Judy Sugita de Queiroz worked as an art teacher at Palos Verdes High School, and served as chair of the school's art department. After early retirement following a workplace injury, she turned to watercolor painting full-time, and took up her childhood memories of camp life as her theme. Her illustrated memoir, Camp Days, 1942-1945, was published in 2004, with an introduction by George Takei.\n\nAn exhibit of her watercolors about her childhood in Poston, \"Camp Days, 1942-1945,\" was first shown at the Palos Verdes Art Center near her home, in 2009. It has since appeared at the Japanese American Museum of San Jose (in 2010-11). She lectures on her life and work, saying \"This is what I wanted to leave for my grandchildren, I wanted them to know what their parents and family went through.\"\n\nMontez Productions made a film of her story, \"Childhood Memories of Chizuko Judy Sugita de Queiroz,\" in 2011. Her art also appears in the documentary \"Heart Mountain: An All-American Town,\" by Raechel Donahue.\n\nPersonal life\nChizuko Judy Sugita de Queiroz is married to Richard de Queiroz.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nChizuko Judy Sugita de Queiroz's website.\n\n1933 births\nLiving people\nAmerican artists of Japanese descent\nJapanese-American internees\nCalifornia State University, Dominguez Hills alumni"
]
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[
"Henry Kissinger",
"Bangladesh War"
]
| C_ef92c644002c473eaf6d65042f130ef6_0 | What happened to him during the Bangladesh war? | 1 | What happened to Henry Kissinger during the Bangladesh war? | Henry Kissinger | Under Kissinger's guidance, the United States government supported Pakistan in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. Kissinger was particularly concerned about the expansion of Soviet influence in the Indian Subcontinent as a result of a treaty of friendship recently signed by India and the USSR, and sought to demonstrate to the People's Republic of China (Pakistan's ally and an enemy of both India and the USSR) the value of a tacit alliance with the United States. Kissinger sneered at people who "bleed" for "the dying Bengalis" and ignored the first telegram from the United States consul general in East Pakistan, Archer K. Blood, and 20 members of his staff, which informed the US that their allies West Pakistan were undertaking, in Blood's words, "a selective genocide". In the second, more famous, Blood Telegram the word genocide was again used to describe the events, and further that with its continuing support for West Pakistan the US government had "evidenced [...] moral bankruptcy". As a direct response to the dissent against US policy Kissinger and Nixon ended Archer Blood's tenure as United States consul general in East Pakistan and put him to work in the State Department's Personnel Office. Henry Kissinger had also come under fire for private comments he made to Nixon during the Bangladesh-Pakistan War in which he described Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as a "bitch" and a "witch". He also said "The Indians are bastards", shortly before the war. Kissinger has since expressed his regret over the comments. CANNOTANSWER | Under Kissinger's guidance, the United States government supported Pakistan in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. | Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger; May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presidential administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. A Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany with his family in 1938, he became National Security Advisor in 1969 and U.S. Secretary of State in 1973. For his actions negotiating a ceasefire in Vietnam, Kissinger received the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize under controversial circumstances, with two members of the committee resigning in protest.
A practitioner of Realpolitik, Kissinger played a prominent role in United States foreign policy between 1969 and 1977. During this period, he pioneered the policy of détente with the Soviet Union, orchestrated the opening of relations with China, engaged in what became known as shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East to end the Yom Kippur War, and negotiated the Paris Peace Accords, ending American involvement in the Vietnam War. Kissinger has also been associated with such controversial policies as U.S. involvement in the 1973 Chilean military coup, a "green light" to Argentina's military junta for their Dirty War, and U.S. support for Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War despite a genocide being perpetrated by Pakistan. After leaving government, he formed Kissinger Associates, an international geopolitical consulting firm. Kissinger has written over a dozen books on diplomatic history and international relations.
Kissinger remains a controversial and polarizing figure in U.S. politics, both condemned as an alleged war criminal by many journalists, political activists, and human rights lawyers, and venerated as a highly effective U.S. Secretary of State by many prominent international relations scholars. With the death of centenarian George Shultz in February 2021, Kissinger is the oldest living former U.S. Cabinet member and the last surviving member of Nixon's Cabinet.
Early life and education
Kissinger was born Heinz Alfred Kissinger on May 27, 1923, in Fürth, Bavaria, Weimar Republic to homemaker Paula (née Stern; 1901–1998, from Leutershausen), and Louis Kissinger (1887–1982), a schoolteacher. He had a younger brother, business manager Walter (1924–2021). His family was German Jewish. The surname Kissinger was adopted in 1817 by his great-great-grandfather Meyer Löb, after the Bavarian spa town of Bad Kissingen. In his youth, Kissinger enjoyed playing soccer. He played for the youth team of SpVgg Fürth, which was one of the nation's best clubs at the time.
In 1938, when Kissinger was 15 years old, he and his family fled Germany as a result of Nazi persecution. During Nazi rule Kissinger and his friends were regularly harassed and beaten by Hitler Youth gangs. Kissinger sometimes defied the segregation imposed by Nazi racial laws by sneaking into soccer stadiums to watch matches, often resulting in beatings from security guards. As a result of the Nazis' anti-Semitic laws Kissinger was unable to gain admittance to the Gymnasium, while his father was dismissed from his teaching job. The family briefly emigrated to London before arriving in New York City on September 5. Kissinger later downplayed the influence his experiences of Nazi persecution had on his policies, writing "Germany of my youth had a great deal of order and very little justice; it was not the sort of place likely to inspire devotion to order in the abstract." However, many scholars, including Kissinger's biographer Walter Isaacson, have disagreed and argued that his experiences influenced the formation of his realist approach to foreign policy.
Kissinger spent his high school years in the Washington Heights section of Upper Manhattan as part of the German Jewish immigrant community that resided there at the time. Although Kissinger assimilated quickly into American culture, he never lost his pronounced German accent, due to childhood shyness that made him hesitant to speak. After his first year at George Washington High School, he began attending school at night and worked in a shaving brush factory during the day.
Following high school, Kissinger enrolled in the City College of New York, studying accounting. He excelled academically as a part-time student, continuing to work while enrolled. His studies were interrupted in early 1943, when he was drafted into the US Army.
Army experience
Kissinger underwent basic training at Camp Croft in Spartanburg, South Carolina. On June 19, 1943, while stationed in South Carolina, at the age of 20 years, he became a naturalized U.S. citizen. The army sent him to study engineering at Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, but the program was canceled, and Kissinger was reassigned to the 84th Infantry Division. There, he made the acquaintance of Fritz Kraemer, a fellow immigrant from Germany who noted Kissinger's fluency in German and his intellect, and arranged for him to be assigned to the military intelligence section of the division. Kissinger saw combat with the division, and volunteered for hazardous intelligence duties during the Battle of the Bulge.
During the American advance into Germany, Kissinger, only a private, was put in charge of the administration of the city of Krefeld, owing to a lack of German speakers on the division's intelligence staff. Within eight days he had established a civilian administration. Kissinger was then reassigned to the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC), where he became a CIC Special Agent holding the enlisted rank of sergeant. He was given charge of a team in Hanover assigned to tracking down Gestapo officers and other saboteurs, for which he was awarded the Bronze Star. In June 1945, Kissinger was made commandant of the Bensheim metro CIC detachment, Bergstrasse district of Hesse, with responsibility for de-Nazification of the district. Although he possessed absolute authority and powers of arrest, Kissinger took care to avoid abuses against the local population by his command.
In 1946, Kissinger was reassigned to teach at the European Command Intelligence School at Camp King and, as a civilian employee following his separation from the army, continued to serve in this role.
Kissinger would later recall that his experience in the army "made me feel like an American".
Academic career
Henry Kissinger received his BA degree summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa in political science from Harvard College in 1950, where he lived in Adams House and studied under William Yandell Elliott. His senior undergraduate thesis, titled The Meaning of History: Reflections on Spengler, Toynbee and Kant, was over 400 pages long, and was the origin of the current limit on length (35,000 words). He received his MA and PhD degrees at Harvard University in 1951 and 1954, respectively. In 1952, while still a graduate student at Harvard, he served as a consultant to the director of the Psychological Strategy Board, and founded a magazine, Confluence. At that time, he sought to work as a spy for the FBI.
His doctoral dissertation was titled Peace, Legitimacy, and the Equilibrium (A Study of the Statesmanship of Castlereagh and Metternich). In his PhD dissertation, Kissinger first introduced the concept of "legitimacy", which he defined as: "Legitimacy as used here should not be confused with justice. It means no more than an international agreement about the nature of workable arrangements and about the permissible aims and methods of foreign policy". An international order accepted by all of the major powers is "legitimate" whereas an international order not accepted by one or more of the great powers is "revolutionary" and hence dangerous. Thus, when after the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the leaders of Britain, France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia agreed to co-operate in the Concert of Europe to preserve the peace, in Kissinger's viewpoint this international system was "legitimate" because it was accepted by the leaders of all five of the Great Powers of Europe. Notably, Kissinger's primat der aussenpolitik approach to diplomacy took it for granted that as long as the decision-makers in the major states were willing to accept the international order, then it is "legitimate" with questions of public opinion and morality dismissed as irrelevant.
Kissinger remained at Harvard as a member of the faculty in the Department of Government where he served as the director of the Harvard International Seminar between 1951 and 1971. In 1955, he was a consultant to the National Security Council's Operations Coordinating Board. During 1955 and 1956, he was also study director in nuclear weapons and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. He released his book Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy the following year. The book, which criticized the Eisenhower Administration's "massive retaliation" nuclear doctrine, caused much controversy at the time by proposing the use of tactical nuclear weapons on a regular basis to win wars. That same year, he published A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace, 1812–22, a study of balance-of-power politics in post-Napoleonic Europe.
From 1956 to 1958, he worked for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund as director of its Special Studies Project. He served as the director of the Harvard Defense Studies Program between 1958 and 1971. In 1958, he also co-founded the Center for International Affairs with Robert R. Bowie where he served as its associate director. Outside of academia, he served as a consultant to several government agencies and think tanks, including the Operations Research Office, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Department of State, and the RAND Corporation.
Keen to have a greater influence on U.S. foreign policy, Kissinger became foreign policy advisor to the presidential campaigns of Nelson Rockefeller, supporting his bids for the Republican nomination in 1960, 1964, and 1968. Kissinger first met Richard Nixon at a party hosted by Clare Booth Luce in 1967, saying that he found him more "thoughtful" than he expected. During the Republican primaries in 1968, Kissinger again served as the foreign policy adviser to Rockefeller and in July 1968 called Nixon "the most dangerous of all the men running to have as president". Initially upset when Nixon won the Republican nomination, the ambitious Kissinger soon changed his mind about Nixon and contacted a Nixon campaign aide, Richard Allen, to state he was willing to do anything to help Nixon win. After Nixon became president in January 1969, Kissinger was appointed as National Security Advisor. By this time he was arguably "one of the most important theorists about foreign policy ever to be produced by the United States of America", according to his official biographer Niall Ferguson.
Foreign policy
Kissinger served as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State under President Richard Nixon, and continued as Secretary of State under Nixon's successor Gerald Ford. With the death of George Shultz in February 2021, Kissinger is the last surviving member of the Nixon administration Cabinet.
The relationship between Nixon and Kissinger was unusually close, and has been compared to the relationships of Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House, or Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Hopkins. In all three cases, the State Department was relegated to a backseat role in developing foreign policy. Kissinger and Nixon shared a penchant for secrecy and conducted numerous "backchannel" negotiations, such as that through the Soviet Ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Dobrynin, that excluded State Department experts. Historian David Rothkopf has looked at the personalities of Nixon and Kissinger, saying:
They were a fascinating pair. In a way, they complemented each other perfectly. Kissinger was the charming and worldly Mr. Outside who provided the grace and intellectual-establishment respectability that Nixon lacked, disdained and aspired to. Kissinger was an international citizen. Nixon very much a classic American. Kissinger had a worldview and a facility for adjusting it to meet the times, Nixon had pragmatism and a strategic vision that provided the foundations for their policies. Kissinger would, of course, say that he was not political like Nixon—but in fact he was just as political as Nixon, just as calculating, just as relentlessly ambitious ... these self-made men were driven as much by their need for approval and their neuroses as by their strengths.
A proponent of Realpolitik, Kissinger played a dominant role in United States foreign policy between 1969 and 1977. In that period, he extended the policy of détente. This policy led to a significant relaxation in US–Soviet tensions and played a crucial role in 1971 talks with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. The talks concluded with a rapprochement between the United States and China, and the formation of a new strategic anti-Soviet Sino-American alignment. He was jointly awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize with Lê Đức Thọ for helping to establish a ceasefire and U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. The ceasefire, however, was not durable. Thọ declined to accept the award and Kissinger appeared deeply ambivalent about it - he donated his prize money to charity, did not attend the award ceremony, and later offered to return his prize medal.[40] As National Security Advisor in 1974, Kissinger directed the much-debated National Security Study Memorandum 200.
Détente and opening to China
Kissinger initially had little interest in China when he began his work as National Security Adviser in 1969, and the driving force behind the rapprochement with China was Nixon. In April 1970 both Nixon and Kissinger promised Chiang Ching-kuo, a leader in Taiwan, that they would never abandon Taiwan or make any compromises with Mao Zedong, although Nixon did speak vaguely of his wish to improve relations with the People's Republic.
Kissinger made two trips to China in July and October 1971 (the first of which was made in secret) to confer with Premier Zhou Enlai, then in charge of Chinese foreign policy. During his visit to Beijing, the main issue turned out to be Taiwan, as Zhou demanded the United States recognize that Taiwan was a legitimate part of China, pull U.S. forces out of Taiwan, and end military support for the Kuomintang regime. Kissinger gave way by promising to pull U.S. forces out of Taiwan, saying two-thirds would be pulled out when the Vietnam war ended and the rest to be pulled out as Sino-American relations improved.
In October 1971, as Kissinger was making his second trip to the People's Republic, the issue of which Chinese government deserved to be represented in the United Nations came up again. Out of concern to not be seen abandoning an ally, the United States tried to promote a compromise under which both Chinese regimes would be UN members, although Kissinger called it "an essentially doomed rearguard action". While American ambassador to the UN George H. W. Bush was lobbying for the "two Chinas" formula, Kissinger was removing favorable references to Taiwan from a speech that Rogers was preparing, as he expected China to be expelled from the UN. During his second visit to Beijing, Kissinger told Zhou that according to a public opinion poll 62% of Americans wanted Taiwan to remain a UN member, and asked him to consider the "two Chinas" compromise to avoid offending American public opinion. Zhou responded with his claim that the People's Republic was the legitimate government of all China and no compromise was possible with the Taiwan issue. Kissinger said that the United States could not totally sever ties with Chiang, who had been an ally in World War II. Kissinger told Nixon that Bush was "too soft and not sophisticated" enough to properly represent the United States at the UN, and expressed no anger when the UN General Assembly voted to expel Taiwan and give China's seat on the UN Security Council to the People's Republic.
His trips paved the way for the groundbreaking 1972 summit between Nixon, Zhou, and Communist Party of China Chairman Mao Zedong, as well as the formalization of relations between the two countries, ending 23 years of diplomatic isolation and mutual hostility. The result was the formation of a tacit strategic anti-Soviet alliance between China and the United States. Kissinger's diplomacy led to economic and cultural exchanges between the two sides and the establishment of "liaison offices" in the Chinese and American capitals, though full normalization of relations with China would not occur until 1979.
Vietnam War
Kissinger's involvement in Indochina started prior to his appointment as National Security Adviser to Nixon. While still at Harvard, he had worked as a consultant on foreign policy to both the White House and State Department. In a 1967 peace initiative, he would mediate between Washington and Hanoi.
When he came into office in 1969, Kissinger favored a negotiating strategy under which the United States and North Vietnam would sign an armistice and agreed to pull their troops out of South Vietnam while the South Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were to agree to a coalition government. Kissinger had doubts about Nixon's theory of "linkage", believing that this would give the Soviet Union leverage over the United States and unlike Nixon was less concerned about the ultimate fate of South Vietnam. Though Kissinger did not regard South Vietnam as important in its own right, he believed it was necessary to support South Vietnam to maintain the United States as a global power, believing that none of America's allies would trust the United States if South Vietnam were abandoned too quickly.
In early 1969, Kissinger was opposed to the plans for Operation Menu, the bombing of Cambodia, fearing that Nixon was acting rashly with no plans for the diplomatic fall-out, but on March 16, 1969. Nixon announced the bombing would start the next day. As he saw the president was committed, he became more and more supportive. Kissinger would play a key role in bombing Cambodia to disrupt raids into South Vietnam from Cambodia, as well as the 1970 Cambodian Incursion and subsequent widespread bombing of Khmer Rouge targets in Cambodia.
The Paris peace talks had become stalemated by late 1969 owing to the obstructionism of the South Vietnamese delegation. The South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu did not want the United States to withdraw from Vietnam, and out of frustration with him, Kissinger decided to begin secret peace talks with Thọ in Paris parallel to the official talks that the South Vietnamese were unaware of.
In June 1971, Kissinger supported Nixon's effort to ban the Pentagon Papers saying the "hemorrhage of state secrets" to the media was making diplomacy impossible.
On August 1, 1972, Kissinger met Thọ again in Paris, and for first time, he seemed willing to compromise, saying that political and military terms of an armistice could be treated separately and hinted that his government was no longer willing to make the overthrow of Thiệu a precondition.
On the evening of October 8, 1972, at a secret meeting of Kissinger and Thọ in Paris came the decisive breakthrough in the talks. Thọ began with "a very realistic and very simple proposal" for a ceasefire that would see the Americans pull all their forces out of Vietnam in exchange for the release of all the POWs in North Vietnam. Kissinger accepted Thọ's offer as the best deal possible, saying that the "mutual withdrawal formula" had to be abandoned as it been "unobtainable through ten years of war ... We could not make it a condition for a final settlement. We had long passed that threshold".
In the fall of 1972, both Kissinger and Nixon were frustrated with Thiệu's refusal to accept any sort of peace deal calling for withdrawal of American forces. On October 21 Kissinger and the American ambassador Ellsworth Bunker arrived in Saigon to show Thiệu the peace agreement. Thiệu refused to sign the peace agreement and demanded very extensive amendments that Kissinger reported to Nixon "verge on insanity".
Though Nixon had initially supported Kissinger against Thiệu, H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman urged him to reconsider, arguing that Thiệu's objections had merit. Nixon wanted 69 amendments to the draft peace agreement included in the final treaty, and ordered Kissinger back to Paris to force Thọ to accept them. Kissinger regarded Nixon's 69 amendments as "preposterous" as he knew Thọ would never accept them. As expected, Thọ refused to consider any of the 69 amendments, and on December 13, 1972, left Paris for Hanoi. Kissinger by this stage was worked up into a state of fury after Thọ walked out of the Paris talks and told Nixon: "They're just a bunch of shits. Tawdry, filthy shits".
On January 8, 1973, Kissinger and Thọ met again in Paris and the next day reached an agreement, which in main points was essentially the same as the one Nixon had rejected in October with only cosmetic concessions to the Americans. Thiệu once again rejected the peace agreement, only to receive an ultimatum from Nixon which caused Thiệu to reluctantly accept the peace agreement. On January 27, 1973, Kissinger and Thọ signed a peace agreement that called for the complete withdrawal of all U.S forces from Vietnam by March in exchange for North Vietnam freeing all the U.S POWs.
Along with Thọ, Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, 1973, for their work in negotiating the ceasefires contained in the Paris Peace Accords on "Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam", signed the previous January. According to Irwin Abrams, this prize was the most controversial to date. For the first time in the history of the Peace Prize, two members left the Nobel Committee in protest. Thọ rejected the award, telling Kissinger that peace had not been restored in South Vietnam. Kissinger wrote to the Nobel Committee that he accepted the award "with humility," and "donated the entire proceeds to the children of American servicemembers killed or missing in action in Indochina." After the Fall of Saigon in 1975, Kissinger attempted to return the award.
By the summer of 1974, the U.S. embassy reported that morale in the ARVN had fallen to dangerously low levels and it was uncertain how much longer South Vietnam would last. In August 1974, Congress passed a bill limiting American aid to South Vietnam to $700 million annually. By November 1974, Kissinger lobbied Brezhnev to end Soviet military aid to North Vietnam. The same month, he also lobbied Mao and Zhou to end Chinese military aid to North Vietnam. On April 15, 1975, Kissinger testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee, urging Congress to increase the military aid budget to South Vietnam by another $700 million to save the ARVN as the PAVN was rapidly advancing on Saigon, which was refused. Kissinger maintained at the time, and still maintains, that if only Congress had approved of his request for another $700 million South Vietnam would have been able to resist.
Bangladesh Liberation War
Nixon supported Pakistani dictator, General Yahya Khan, in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. Kissinger sneered at people who "bleed" for "the dying Bengalis" and ignored the first telegram from the United States consul general in East Pakistan, Archer K. Blood, and 20 members of his staff, which informed the US that their allies West Pakistan were undertaking, in Blood's words, "a selective genocide" targeting the Bengali intelligentsia, supporters of independence for East Pakistan, and the Hindu minority. In the second, more famous, Blood Telegram the word genocide was again used to describe the events, and further that with its continuing support for West Pakistan the US government had "evidenced [...] moral bankruptcy".
As a direct response to the dissent against US policy Kissinger and Nixon ended Archer Blood's tenure as United States consul general in East Pakistan and put him to work in the State Department's Personnel Office. Christopher Clary argues that Nixon and Kissinger were unconsciously biased, leading them to overestimate the likelihood of Pakistani victory against Bengali rebels.
Kissinger was particularly concerned about the expansion of Soviet influence in the Indian subcontinent as a result of a treaty of friendship recently signed by India and the USSR, and sought to demonstrate to the People's Republic of China (Pakistan's ally and an enemy of both India and the USSR) the value of a tacit alliance with the United States.
Kissinger had also come under fire for private comments he made to Nixon during the Bangladesh–Pakistan War in which he described Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as a "bitch" and a "witch". He also said "The Indians are bastards", shortly before the war. Kissinger has since expressed his regret over the comments.
Europe
As National Security Adviser under Nixon, Kissinger pioneered the policy of détente with the Soviet Union, seeking a relaxation in tensions between the two superpowers. As a part of this strategy, he negotiated the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (culminating in the SALT I treaty) and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. Negotiations about strategic disarmament were originally supposed to start under the Johnson Administration but were postponed in protest upon the invasion by Warsaw Pact troops of Czechoslovakia in August 1968.
Nixon felt his administration had neglected relations with the Western European states in his first term and in September 1972 decided that if he was reelected that 1973 would be the "Year of Europe" as the United States would focus on relations with the states of the European Economic Community (EEC) which had emerged as a serious economic rival by 1970. Applying his favorite "linkage" concept, Nixon intended henceforward economic relations with Europe would not be severed from security relations, and if the EEC states wanted changes in American tariff and monetary policies, the price would be defense spending on their part. Kissinger in particular as part of the "Year of Europe" wanted to "revitalize" NATO, which he called a "decaying" alliance as he believed that there was nothing at present to stop the Red Army from overrunning Western Europe in a conventional forces conflict. The "linkage" concept more applied to the question of security as Kissinger noted that the United States was going to sacrifice NATO for the sake of "citrus fruits".
Israeli policy and Soviet Jewry
According to notes taken by H. R. Haldeman, Nixon "ordered his aides to exclude all Jewish-Americans from policy-making on Israel", including Kissinger. One note quotes Nixon as saying "get K. [Kissinger] out of the play—Haig handle it".
In 1973, Kissinger did not feel that pressing the Soviet Union concerning the plight of Jews being persecuted there was in the interest of U.S. foreign policy. In conversation with Nixon shortly after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir on March 1, 1973, Kissinger stated, "The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy, and if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern."
Arab–Israeli dispute
In September 1973, Nixon fired Rogers as Secretary of State and replaced him with Kissinger. He would later state he had not been given enough time to know the Middle East as he settled into the State Department. Kissinger later admitted that he was so engrossed with the Paris peace talks to end the Vietnam war that he and others in Washington missed the significance of the Egyptian-Saudi alliance. Sadat expected as a reward that the United States would respond by pressuring Israel to return the Sinai to Egypt, but after receiving no response from the United States, by November 1972 Sadat moved again closer to the Soviet Union, buying a massive amount of Soviet arms for a war he planned to launch against Israel in 1973.
Kissinger delayed telling President Richard Nixon about the start of the Yom Kippur War in 1973 to keep him from interfering. On October 6, 1973, the Israelis informed Kissinger about the attack at 6 am; Kissinger waited nearly 3 and a half hours before he informed Nixon. According to Kissinger, he was notified at 6:30 a.m. (12:30 pm. Israel time) that war was imminent, and his urgent calls to the Soviets and Egyptians were ineffective. On October 12, under Nixon's direction, and against Kissinger's initial advice, while Kissinger was on his way to Moscow to discuss conditions for a cease-fire, Nixon sent a message to Brezhnev giving Kissinger full negotiating authority. Kissinger wanted to stall a ceasefire to gain more time for Israel to push across the Suez Canal to the African side, and wanted to be perceived as a mere presidential emissary who needed to consult the White House all the time as a stalling tactic.
Kissinger promised the Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir that the United States would replace its losses in equipment after the war, but sought initially to delay arm shipments to Israel, as he believed it would improve the odds of making peace along the lines of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242. In 1973, Meir requested $850 million worth of American arms and equipment to replace its material losses. Nixon instead sent some $2 billion worth. The arms lift enraged King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, and he retaliated on October 20, 1973, by placing a total embargo on oil shipments to the United States, to be joined by all of the other oil-producing Arab states except Iraq and Libya.
On November 7, 1973, Kissinger flew to Riyadh to meet King Faisal and to ask him to end the oil embargo in exchange for promising to be "even handed" in the Arab-Israeli dispute. Despite all of Kissinger's efforts to charm him, Faisal refused to end the oil embargo. Only on March 19, 1974, did the king end the oil embargo, after Sadat reported to him that the United States was being more "even handed" and after Kissinger had promised to sell Saudi Arabia weapons that it had previously denied under the grounds that they might be used against Israel.
Kissinger pressured the Israelis to cede some of the newly captured land back to its Arab neighbors, contributing to the first phases of Israeli–Egyptian non-aggression. In 1973–74, Kissinger engaged in "shuttle diplomacy" flying between Tel Aviv, Cairo, and Damascus in a bid to make the armistice the basis of a preferment peace. Kissinger's first meeting with Hafez al-Assad lasted 6 hours and 30 minutes, causing the press to believe for a moment that he had been kidnapped by the Syrians. In his memoirs, Kissinger described how, during the course of his 28 meetings in Damascus in 1973–74, Assad "negotiated tenaciously and daringly like a riverboat gambler to make sure he had exacted the last sliver of available concessions".
In contrast, Kissinger's negotiations with Sadat, though not without difficulties, were more fruitful. The move saw a warming in U.S.–Egyptian relations, bitter since the 1950s, as the country moved away from its former independent stance and into a close partnership with the United States.
Persian Gulf
A major concern for Kissinger was the possibility of Soviet influence in the Persian Gulf. In April 1969, Iraq came into conflict with Iran when Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi renounced the 1937 treaty governing the Shatt-al-Arab river. After two years of skirmishes along the border, President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr broke off diplomatic relations with Iran on December 1, 1971. In May 1972, Nixon and Kissinger visited Tehran to tell the Shah that there would be no "second-guessing of his requests" to buy American weapons. At the same time, Nixon and Kissinger agreed a plan of the Shah's that the United States together with Iran and Israel would support the Kurdish peshmerga guerrillas fighting for independence from Iraq. Kissinger later wrote that after Vietnam, there was no possibility of deploying American forces in the Middle East, and henceforward Iran was to act as America's surrogate in the Persian Gulf. Kissinger described the Baathist regime in Iraq as a potential threat to the United States and believed that building up Iran and supporting the peshmerga was the best counterweight.
Turkish invasion of Cyprus
Following a period of steady relations between the U.S. Government and the Greek military regime after 1967, Secretary of State Kissinger was faced with the coup by the Greek junta and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in July and August 1974. In an August 1974 edition of The New York Times, it was revealed that Kissinger and State Department were informed in advance οf the impending coup by the Greek junta in Cyprus. Indeed, according to the journalist,) the official version of events as told by the State Department was that it felt it had to warn the Greek military regime not to carry out the coup. Kissinger was a target of anti-American sentiment which was a significant feature of Greek public opinion at the time—particularly among young people—viewing the U.S. role in Cyprus as negative. In a demonstration by students in Heraklion, Crete, soon after the second phase of the Turkish invasion in August 1974, slogans such as "Kissinger, murderer", "Americans get out", "No to Partition" and "Cyprus is no Vietnam" were heard. Some years later, Kissinger expressed the opinion that the Cyprus issue was resolved in 1974.
Latin American policy
The United States continued to recognize and maintain relationships with non-left-wing governments, democratic and authoritarian alike. John F. Kennedy's Alliance for Progress was ended in 1973. In 1974, negotiations over a new settlement for the Panama Canal began, and they eventually led to the Torrijos–Carter Treaties and the handing over of the Canal to Panamanian control.
Kissinger initially supported the normalization of United States-Cuba relations, broken since 1961 (all U.S.–Cuban trade was blocked in February 1962, a few weeks after the exclusion of Cuba from the Organization of American States because of U.S. pressure). However, he quickly changed his mind and followed Kennedy's policy. After the involvement of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces in the independence struggles in Angola and Mozambique, Kissinger said that unless Cuba withdrew its forces relations would not be normalized. Cuba refused.
Intervention in Chile
Chilean Socialist Party presidential candidate Salvador Allende was elected by a plurality of 36.2 percent in 1970, causing serious concern in Washington, D.C., due to his openly socialist and pro-Cuban politics. The Nixon administration, with Kissinger's input, authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to encourage a military coup that would prevent Allende's inauguration, but the plan was not successful.
On September 11, 1973, Allende died during a military coup launched by Army Commander-in-Chief Augusto Pinochet, who became president. In September 1976, Orlando Letelier, a Chilean opponent of the new Pinochet regime, was assassinated in Washington, D.C. with a car bomb. Previously, Kissinger had helped secure his release from prison, and had chosen to cancel a letter to Chile warning them against carrying out any political assassinations. This murder was part of Operation Condor, a covert program of political repression and assassination carried out by Southern Cone nations that Kissinger has been accused of being involved in.
On September 10, 2001, the family of Chilean general René Schneider filed a suit against Kissinger, accusing him of collaborating in arranging Schneider's kidnapping which resulted in his death. The case was later dismissed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, citing separation of powers: "The decision to support a coup of the Chilean government to prevent Dr. Allende from coming to power, and the means by which the United States Government sought to effect that goal, implicate policy makers in the murky realm of foreign affairs and national security best left to the political branches." Decades later, the CIA admitted its involvement in the kidnapping of General Schneider, but not his murder, and subsequently paid the group responsible for his death $35,000 "to keep the prior contact secret, maintain the goodwill of the group, and for humanitarian reasons."
Argentina
Kissinger took a similar line as he had toward Chile when the Argentine Armed Forces, led by Jorge Videla, toppled the elected government of Isabel Perón in 1976 with a process called the National Reorganization Process by the military, with which they consolidated power, launching brutal reprisals and "disappearances" against political opponents. An October 1987 investigative report in The Nation broke the story of how, in a June 1976 meeting in the Hotel Carrera in Santiago, Kissinger gave the military junta in neighboring Argentina the "green light" for their own clandestine repression against leftwing guerrillas and other dissidents, thousands of whom were kept in more than 400 secret concentration camps before they were executed. During a meeting with Argentine foreign minister César Augusto Guzzetti, Kissinger assured him that the United States was an ally, but urged him to "get back to normal procedures" quickly before the U.S. Congress reconvened and had a chance to consider sanctions.
As the article published in The Nation noted, as the state-sponsored terror mounted, conservative Republican U.S. Ambassador to Buenos Aires Robert C. Hill "'was shaken, he became very disturbed, by the case of the son of a thirty-year embassy employee, a student who was arrested, never to be seen again,' recalled former New York Times reporter Juan de Onis. 'Hill took a personal interest.' He went to the Interior Minister, a general with whom he had worked on drug cases, saying, 'Hey, what about this? We're interested in this case.' He questioned (Foreign Minister Cesar) Guzzetti and, finally, President Jorge R. Videla himself. 'All he got was stonewalling; he got nowhere.' de Onis said. 'His last year was marked by increasing disillusionment and dismay, and he backed his staff on human rights right to the hilt."
In a letter to The Nation editor Victor Navasky, protesting publication of the article, Kissinger claimed that: "At any rate, the notion of Hill as a passionate human rights advocate is news to all his former associates." Yet Kissinger aide Harry W. Shlaudeman later disagreed with Kissinger, telling the oral historian William E. Knight of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project: "It really came to a head when I was Assistant Secretary, or it began to come to a head, in the case of Argentina where the dirty war was in full flower. Bob Hill, who was Ambassador then in Buenos Aires, a very conservative Republican politician—by no means liberal or anything of the kind, began to report quite effectively about what was going on, this slaughter of innocent civilians, supposedly innocent civilians—this vicious war that they were conducting, underground war. He, at one time in fact, sent me a back-channel telegram saying that the Foreign Minister, who had just come for a visit to Washington and had returned to Buenos Aires, had gloated to him that Kissinger had said nothing to him about human rights. I don't know—I wasn't present at the interview."
Navasky later wrote in his book about being confronted by Kissinger, "'Tell me, Mr. Navasky,' [Kissinger] said in his famous guttural tones, 'how is it that a short article in a obscure journal such as yours about a conversation that was supposed to have taken place years ago about something that did or didn't happen in Argentina resulted in sixty people holding placards denouncing me a few months ago at the airport when I got off the plane in Copenhagen?'"
According to declassified state department files, Kissinger also hindered Carter Administration's efforts to halt the mass killings by the 1976–83 military dictatorship by visiting the country and praising the regime.
Brazil's nuclear weapons program
Kissinger was in favor of accommodating Brazil while it pursued a nuclear weapons program in the 1970s. Kissinger justified his position by arguing that Brazil was a U.S. ally and on the grounds that it would benefit private nuclear industry actors in the U.S. Kissinger's position on Brazil was out of sync with influential voices in the U.S. Congress, the State Department, and the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.
Rhodesia
In September 1976, Kissinger was actively involved in negotiations regarding the Rhodesian Bush War. Kissinger, along with South Africa's Prime Minister John Vorster, pressured Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith to hasten the transition to black majority rule in Rhodesia. With FRELIMO in control of Mozambique and even the apartheid regime of South Africa withdrawing its support, Rhodesia's isolation was nearly complete. According to Smith's autobiography, Kissinger told Smith of Mrs. Kissinger's admiration for him, but Smith stated that he thought Kissinger was asking him to sign Rhodesia's "death certificate". Kissinger, bringing the weight of the United States, and corralling other relevant parties to put pressure on Rhodesia, hastened the end of minority-rule.
East Timor
The Portuguese decolonization process brought U.S. attention to the former Portuguese colony of East Timor, which declared its independence in 1975. Indonesian president Suharto regarded East Timor as rightfully part of Indonesia. In December 1975, Suharto discussed invasion plans during a meeting with Kissinger and President Ford in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. Both Ford and Kissinger made clear that U.S. relations with Indonesia would remain strong and that it would not object to the proposed annexation. They only wanted it done "fast" and proposed that it be delayed until after they had returned to Washington. Accordingly, Suharto delayed the operation for one day. Finally on December 7 Indonesian forces invaded the former Portuguese colony. U.S. arms sales to Indonesia continued, and Suharto went ahead with the annexation plan. According to Ben Kiernan, the invasion and occupation resulted in the deaths of nearly a quarter of the Timorese population from 1975 to 1981.
Cuba
In February 1976, Kissinger considered launching air strikes against ports and military installations in Cuba, as well as deploying U.S. Marine Corps battalions based at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, in retaliation for Cuban President Fidel Castro's decision in late 1975 to send troops to newly independent Angola to help the MPLA in its fight against UNITA and South Africa during the start of the Angolan Civil War.
Western Sahara
The Kissingerian doctrine endorsed the forced concession of Spanish Sahara to Morocco. At the height of the 1975 Sahara crisis, Kissinger misled Gerald Ford into thinking the International Court of Justice had ruled in favor of Morocco. Kissinger was aware in advance of the Moroccan plans for the invasion of the territory, materialized on November 6, 1975, in the so-called Green March.
Later roles
After Nixon was forced to resign in the Watergate scandal, Kissinger's influence in the new presidential administration of Gerald R. Ford was diminished after he was replaced by Brent Scowcroft as National Security Advisor during the "Halloween Massacre" cabinet reshuffle of November 1975. Kissinger left office as Secretary of State when Democrat Jimmy Carter defeated Republican Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential elections.
Kissinger continued to participate in policy groups, such as the Trilateral Commission, and to maintain political consulting, speaking, and writing engagements. In 1976, he was secretly involved in thwarting efforts by the Carter administration to indict three Chilean intelligence agents for masterminding the 1976 assassination of Orlando Letelier. Kissinger was critical of the foreign policy of the Jimmy Carter administration, saying in 1980 that “has managed the extraordinary feat of having, at one and the same time, the worst relations with our allies, the worst relations with our adversaries, and the most serious upheavals in the developing world since the end of the Second World War.”
After Kissinger left office in 1977, he was offered an endowed chair at Columbia University. There was student opposition to the appointment, which became a subject of media commentary. Columbia canceled the appointment as a result.
Kissinger was then appointed to Georgetown University's Center for Strategic and International Studies. He taught at Georgetown's Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service for several years in the late 1970s. In 1982, with the help of a loan from the international banking firm of E.M. Warburg, Pincus and Company, Kissinger founded a consulting firm, Kissinger Associates, and is a partner in affiliate Kissinger McLarty Associates with Mack McLarty, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton. He also serves on the board of directors of Hollinger International, a Chicago-based newspaper group, and as of March 1999, was a director of Gulfstream Aerospace.
In September 1989, the Wall Street Journal'''s John Fialka disclosed that Kissinger took a direct economic interest in US-China relations in March 1989 with the establishment of China Ventures, Inc., a Delaware limited partnership, of which he was chairman of the board and chief executive officer. A US$75 million investment in a joint venture with the Communist Party government's primary commercial vehicle at the time, China International Trust & Investment Corporation (CITIC), was its purpose. Board members were major clients of Kissinger Associates. Kissinger was criticised for not disclosing his role in the venture when called upon by ABC's Peter Jennings to comment the morning after the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square massacre. Kissinger's position was generally supportive of Deng Xiaoping's decision to use the military against the demonstrating students and he opposed economic sanctions.
From 1995 to 2001, Kissinger served on the board of directors for Freeport-McMoRan, a multinational copper and gold producer with significant mining and milling operations in Papua, Indonesia. In February 2000, then-president of Indonesia Abdurrahman Wahid appointed Kissinger as a political advisor. He also serves as an honorary advisor to the United States-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce.
In 1998, in response to the 2002 Winter Olympic bid scandal, the International Olympic Committee formed a commission, called the "2000 Commission," to recommend reforms, which Kissinger served on. This service led in 2000 to his appointment as one of five IOC "honor members," a category the organization described as granted to "eminent personalities from outside the IOC who have rendered particularly outstanding services to it."
From 2000 to 2006, Kissinger served as chairman of the board of trustees of Eisenhower Fellowships. In 2006, upon his departure from Eisenhower Fellowships, he received the Dwight D. Eisenhower Medal for Leadership and Service.
In November 2002, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to chair the newly established National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States to investigate the September 11 attacks. Kissinger stepped down as chairman on December 13, 2002, rather than reveal his business client list, when queried about potential conflicts of interest.
In the Rio Tinto espionage case of 2009–2010, Kissinger was paid $5 million to advise the multinational mining company how to distance itself from an employee who had been arrested in China for bribery.
Kissinger—along with William Perry, Sam Nunn, and George Shultz—has called upon governments to embrace the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons, and in three Wall Street Journal op-eds proposed an ambitious program of urgent steps to that end. The four have created the Nuclear Threat Initiative to advance this agenda. In 2010, the four were featured in a documentary film entitled Nuclear Tipping Point. The film is a visual and historical depiction of the ideas laid forth in the Wall Street Journal op-eds and reinforces their commitment to a world without nuclear weapons and the steps that can be taken to reach that goal.
In December 2008, Kissinger was given the American Patriot Award by the National Defense University Foundation "in recognition for his distinguished career in public service."
On November 17, 2016, Kissinger met with then President-elect Donald Trump during which they discussed global affairs. Kissinger also met with President Trump at the White House in May 2017.
In an interview with Charlie Rose on August 17, 2017, Kissinger said about President Trump: "I'm hoping for an Augustinian moment, for St. Augustine ... who in his early life followed a pattern that was quite incompatible with later on when he had a vision, and rose to sainthood. One does not expect the president to become that, but it's conceivable ...". Kissinger also argued that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to weaken Hillary Clinton, not elect Donald Trump. Kissinger said that Putin "thought—wrongly incidentally—that she would be extremely confrontational ... I think he tried to weaken the incoming president [Clinton]".
Views on U.S. foreign policy
Yugoslav wars
In several articles of his and interviews that he gave during the Yugoslav wars, he criticized the United States' policies in Southeast Europe, among other things for the recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a sovereign state, which he described as a foolish act. Most importantly he dismissed the notion of Serbs and Croats being aggressors or separatist, saying that "they can't be separating from something that has never existed". In addition, he repeatedly warned the West against inserting itself into a conflict that has its roots at least hundreds of years back in time, and said that the West would do better if it allowed the Serbs and Croats to join their respective countries. Kissinger shared similarly critical views on Western involvement in Kosovo. In particular, he held a disparaging view of the Rambouillet Agreement:
However, as the Serbs did not accept the Rambouillet text and NATO bombings started, he opted for a continuation of the bombing as NATO's credibility was now at stake, but dismissed the use of ground forces, claiming that it was not worth it.
Iraq
In 2006, it was reported in the book State of Denial by Bob Woodward that Kissinger met regularly with President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to offer advice on the Iraq War. Kissinger confirmed in recorded interviews with Woodward that the advice was the same as he had given in a column in The Washington Post on August 12, 2005: "Victory over the insurgency is the only meaningful exit strategy." Kissinger also frequently met with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who he warned that Coalition Provisional Authority Director L. Paul Bremer was "a control freak."
In an interview on the BBC's Sunday AM on November 19, 2006, Kissinger was asked whether there is any hope left for a clear military victory in Iraq and responded, "If you mean by 'military victory' an Iraqi government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets the civil war under control and sectarian violence under control in a time period that the political processes of the democracies will support, I don't believe that is possible. ... I think we have to redefine the course. But I don't believe that the alternative is between military victory as it had been defined previously, or total withdrawal."
In an interview with Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institution on April 3, 2008, Kissinger reiterated that even though he supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq, he thought that the George W. Bush administration rested too much of its case for war on Saddam's supposed weapons of mass destruction. Robinson noted that Kissinger had criticized the administration for invading with too few troops, for disbanding the Iraqi Army as part of de-Baathification, and for mishandling relations with certain allies.
India
Kissinger said in April 2008 that "India has parallel objectives to the United States," and he called it an ally of the U.S.
China
Kissinger was present at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. A few months before the Games opened, as controversy over China's human rights record was intensifying due to criticism by Amnesty International and other groups of the widespread use of the death penalty and other issues, Kissinger told the PRC's official press agency Xinhua: "I think one should separate Olympics as a sporting event from whatever political disagreements people may have had with China. I expect that the games will proceed in the spirit for which they were designed, which is friendship among nations, and that other issues are discussed in other forums." He said China had made huge efforts to stage the Games. "Friends of China should not use the Olympics to pressure China now." He added that he would bring two of his grandchildren to watch the Games and planned to attend the opening ceremony. During the Games, he participated with Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe, film star Jackie Chan, and former British PM Tony Blair at a Peking University forum on the qualities that make a champion. He sat with his wife Nancy Kissinger, President George W. Bush, former President George H. W. Bush, and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi at the men's basketball game between China and the U.S.
In 2011, Kissinger published On China, chronicling the evolution of Sino-American relations and laying out the challenges to a partnership of 'genuine strategic trust' between the U.S. and China.
In his 2011 book On China, his 2014 book World Order and in a 2018 interview with Financial Times, Kissinger stated that he believes China wants to restore its historic role as the Middle Kingdom and be "the principal adviser to all humanity".
In 2020, during a period of worsening Sino-American relations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hong Kong protests, and the U.S.–China trade war, Kissinger expressed concerns that the United States and China are entering a Second Cold War and will eventually become embroiled in a military conflict similar to World War I. He called for Chinese President Xi Jinping and the incoming U.S. President-elect Joe Biden to take a less confrontational foreign policy. Kissinger previously said that a potential war between China and the United States would be "worse than the world wars that ruined European civilization."
Iran
Kissinger's position on this issue of U.S.–Iran talks was reported by the Tehran Times to be that "Any direct talks between the U.S. and Iran on issues such as the nuclear dispute would be most likely to succeed if they first involved only diplomatic staff and progressed to the level of secretary of state before the heads of state meet." In 2016, Kissinger said that the biggest challenge facing the Middle East is the "potential domination of the region by an Iran that is both imperial and jihadist." He further wrote in August 2017 that if the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran and its Shiite allies were allowed to fill the territorial vacuum left by a militarily defeated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the region would be left with a land corridor extending from Iran to the Levant "which could mark the emergence of an Iranian radical empire." Commenting on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Kissinger said that he wouldn't have agreed to it, but that Trump's plan to end the agreement after it was signed would "enable the Iranians to do more than us."
2014 Ukrainian crisis
On March 5, 2014, The Washington Post published an op-ed piece by Kissinger, 11 days before the Crimean referendum on whether Autonomous Republic of Crimea should officially rejoin Ukraine or join neighboring Russia. In it, he attempted to balance the Ukrainian, Russian and Western desires for a functional state. He made four main points:
Ukraine should have the right to choose freely its economic and political associations, including with Europe;
Ukraine should not join NATO, a repetition of the position he took seven years before;
Ukraine should be free to create any government compatible with the expressed will of its people. Wise Ukrainian leaders would then opt for a policy of reconciliation between the various parts of their country. He imagined an international position for Ukraine like that of Finland.
Ukraine should maintain sovereignty over Crimea.
Kissinger also wrote: "The west speaks Ukrainian; the east speaks mostly Russian. Any attempt by one wing of Ukraine to dominate the other—as has been the pattern—would lead eventually to civil war or break up."
Following the publication of his book titled World Order, Kissinger participated in an interview with Charlie Rose and updated his position on Ukraine, which he sees as a possible geographical mediator between Russia and the West. In a question he posed to himself for illustration regarding re-conceiving policy regarding Ukraine, Kissinger stated: "If Ukraine is considered an outpost, then the situation is that its eastern border is the NATO strategic line, and NATO will be within of Volgograd. That will never be accepted by Russia. On the other hand, if the Russian western line is at the border of Poland, Europe will be permanently disquieted. The Strategic objective should have been to see whether one can build Ukraine as a bridge between East and West, and whether one can do it as a kind of a joint effort."
In December 2016, Kissinger advised then President-elect Donald Trump to accept "Crimea as a part of Russia" in an attempt to secure a rapprochement between the United States and Russia, whose relations soured as a result of the Crimean crisis. When asked if he explicitly considered Russia's sovereignty over Crimea legitimate, Kissinger answered in the affirmative, reversing the position he took in his Washington Post op-ed.
Computers and nuclear weapons
In 2019, Kissinger wrote about the increasing tendency to give control of nuclear weapons to computers operating with Artificial Intelligence (AI) that: "Adversaries' ignorance of AI-developed configurations will become a strategic advantage". Kissinger argued that giving power to launch nuclear weapons to computers using algorithms to make decisions would eliminate the human factor and give the advantage to the state that had the most effective AI system as a computer can make decisions about war and peace far faster than any human ever could. Just as an AI-enhanced computer can win chess games by anticipating human decision-making, an AI-enhanced computer could be useful in a crisis as in a nuclear war, the side that strikes first would have the advantage by destroying the opponent's nuclear capacity. Kissinger also noted there was always the danger that a computer could make a decision to start a nuclear war before diplomacy had been exhausted, or for a reason that would not be understandable to the operators. Kissinger also warned the use of AI to control nuclear weapons would impose "opacity" on the decision-making process as the algorithms that control the AI system are not readily understandable, destabilizing the decision-making process:
COVID-19 pandemic
On April 3, 2020, Kissinger shared his diagnostic view of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that it threatens the "liberal world order". Kissinger added that the virus does not know borders although global leaders are trying to address the crisis on a mainly national basis. He stressed that the key is not a purely national effort but greater international cooperation.
Public perception
At the height of Kissinger's prominence, many commented on his wit. In February 1972, at the Washington Press Club annual congressional dinner, "Kissinger mocked his reputation as a secret swinger." The insight, "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac", is widely attributed to him, although Kissinger was paraphrasing Napoleon Bonaparte.
Four scholars at the College of William & Mary ranked Kissinger as the most effective U.S. Secretary of State in the 50 years to 2015. A number of activists and human rights lawyers, however, have sought his prosecution for alleged war crimes. According to historian and Kissinger biographer Niall Ferguson, however, accusing Kissinger alone of war crimes "requires a double standard" because "nearly all the secretaries of state ... and nearly all the presidents" have taken similar actions. But Ferguson continues "this is not to say that it's all OK."
Some have blamed Kissinger for injustices in American foreign policy during his tenure in government. In September 2001, relatives and survivors of General Rene Schneider (former head of the Chilean general staff) filed civil proceedings in Federal Court in Washington, DC, and, in April 2002, a petition for Kissinger's arrest was filed in the High Court in London by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, citing the destruction of civilian populations and the environment in Indochina during the years 1969–75. British-American journalist and author Christopher Hitchens authored The Trial of Henry Kissinger, in which Hitchens calls for the prosecution of Kissinger "for war crimes, for crimes against humanity, and for offenses against common or customary or international law, including conspiracy to commit murder, kidnap, and torture". Critics on the right, such as Ray Takeyh, have faulted Kissinger for his role in the Nixon administration's opening to China and secret negotiations with North Vietnam. Takeyh writes that while rapprochement with China was a worthy goal, the Nixon administration failed to achieve any meaningful concessions from Chinese officials in return, as China continued to support North Vietnam and various "revolutionary forces throughout the Third World," "nor does there appear to be even a remote, indirect connection between Nixon and Kissinger's diplomacy and the communist leadership's decision, after Mao's bloody rule, to move away from a communist economy towards state capitalism."
Historian Jeffrey Kimball developed the theory that Kissinger and the Nixon administration accepted a South Vietnamese collapse provided a face-saving decent interval passed between American withdrawal and defeat. In his first meeting with Zhou Enlai in 1971, Kissinger "laid out in detail the settlement terms that would produce such a delayed defeat: total American withdrawal, return of all American POWs, and a ceasefire-in-place for '18 months or some period'", in the words of historian Ken Hughes. On October 6, 1972, Kissinger told Nixon twice that the terms of the Paris Peace Accords would probably destroy South Vietnam: "I also think that Thieu is right, that our terms will eventually destroy him." However, Kissinger denied using a "decent interval" strategy, writing "All of us who negotiated the agreement of October 12 were convinced that we had vindicated the anguish of a decade not by a 'decent interval' but by a decent settlement." Johannes Kadura offers a positive assessment of Nixon and Kissinger's strategy, arguing that the two men "simultaneously maintained a Plan A of further supporting Saigon and a Plan B of shielding Washington should their maneuvers prove futile." According to Kadura, the "decent interval" concept has been "largely misrepresented," in that Nixon and Kissinger "sought to gain time, make the North turn inward, and create a perpetual equilibrium" rather than acquiescing in the collapse of South Vietnam.
Kissinger's record was brought up during the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries. Hillary Clinton had cultivated a close relationship with Kissinger, describing him as a "friend" and a source of "counsel." During the Democratic Primary Debates, Clinton touted Kissinger's praise for her record as Secretary of State. In response, candidate Bernie Sanders issued a critique of Kissinger's foreign policy, declaring, "I am proud to say that Henry Kissinger is not my friend. I will not take advice from Henry Kissinger."
Family and personal life
Kissinger married Ann Fleischer on February 6, 1949. They had two children, Elizabeth and David, and divorced in 1964. On March 30, 1974, he married Nancy Maginnes. They now live in Kent, Connecticut, and in New York City. Kissinger's son David Kissinger served as an executive with NBC Universal Television Studio before becoming head of Conaco, Conan O'Brien's production company, in 2005. In February 1982, at the age of 58, Henry Kissinger underwent coronary bypass surgery.
Kissinger described Diplomacy as his favorite game in a 1973 interview.
Soccer
Daryl Grove characterised Kissinger as one of the most influential people in the growth of soccer in the United States. Kissinger was named chairman of the North American Soccer League board of directors in 1978.
Since his childhood, Kissinger has been a fan of his hometown's soccer club, SpVgg Fürth (now SpVgg Greuther Fürth). Even during his time in office, the German Embassy informed him about the team's results every Monday morning. He is an honorary member with lifetime season-tickets. In September 2012 Kissinger attended a home game in which SpVgg Greuther Fürth lost, 0–2, against Schalke, after promising years ago he would attend a Greuther Fürth home game if they were promoted to the Bundesliga, the top football league in Germany, from the 2. Bundesliga.
Awards, honors, and associations
Kissinger and Le Duc Tho were jointly offered the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for their work on the Paris Peace Accords which prompted the withdrawal of American forces from the Vietnam war. (Le Duc Tho declined to accept the award on the grounds that such "bourgeois sentimentalities" were not for him[40] and that peace had not actually been achieved in Vietnam.) Kissinger donated his prize money to charity, did not attend the award ceremony and later offered to return his prize medal after the fall of South Vietnam to North Vietnamese forces 18 months later.[40]
In 1973, Kissinger received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.
In 1976, Kissinger became the first honorary member of the Harlem Globetrotters.
On January 13, 1977, Kissinger received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Gerald Ford.
In 1980, Kissinger won the National Book Award in History for the first volume of his memoirs, The White House Years.
In 1986, Kissinger was one of twelve recipients of the Medal of Liberty.
In 1995, he was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George.
In 2000, Kissinger received the Sylvanus Thayer Award at United States Military Academy at West Point.
In 2002, Kissinger became an honorary member of the International Olympic Committee.
On March 1, 2012, Kissinger was awarded Israel's President's Medal.
In October 2013, Kissinger was awarded the Henry A. Grunwald Award for Public Service by Lighthouse International
Kissinger was a member of the Founding Council of the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford.
Kissinger is a member of the following groups:
Aspen Institute
Atlantic Council
Bilderberg Group
Bohemian Club
Council on Foreign Relations
Center for Strategic and International Studies
World.Minds
Kissinger served on the board of Theranos, a health technology company, from 2014 to 2017.
He received the Theodore Roosevelt American Experience Award from the Union League Club of New York in 2009.
He became the Honorary Chair of the advisory board for the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in 2018.
Notable works
Thesis
1950. "The Meaning of History: Reflections on Spengler, Toynbee and Kant." Harvard University.
Memoirs
1979. The White House Years. (National Book Award, History Hardcover)
1982. Years of Upheaval.
1999. Years of Renewal.
Public policy
1957. A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace, 1812–22. .
1957. Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy. New York: Published for the Council on Foreign Relations by Harper & Brothers. Foreword by Gordon Dean (pp. vii-x).
1961. The Necessity for Choice: Prospects of American Foreign Policy. .
1965. The Troubled Partnership: A Re-Appraisal of the Atlantic Alliance. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. .
1969. American Foreign Policy: Three Essays. .
1981. For the Record: Selected Statements 1977–1980. .
1985. Observations: Selected Speeches and Essays 1982–1984. Boston: Little, Brown. .
1994. Diplomacy. .
1998. Kissinger Transcripts: The Top Secret Talks With Beijing and Moscow, edited by William Burr. New York: New Press. .
2001. Does America Need a Foreign Policy? Toward a Diplomacy for the 21st Century. .
2002. Vietnam: A Personal History of America's Involvement in and Extrication from the Vietnam War. .
2003. Crisis: The Anatomy of Two Major Foreign Policy Crises: Based on the Record of Henry Kissinger's Hitherto Secret Telephone Conversations. New York: Simon & Schuster. .
2011. On China. New York: Penguin Press. .
2014. World Order. New York: Penguin Press. .
See also
List of foreign-born United States Cabinet Secretaries
Explanatory notes
References
Citations
General sources
Further reading
Biographies
1973. Graubard, Stephen Richards, Kissinger: Portrait of a Mind.
1974. Kalb, Marvin L. and Kalb, Bernard, Kissinger,
1974. Schlafly, Phyllis, Kissinger on the Couch. Arlington House Publishers.
1983. Hersh, Seymour, The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House, Summit Books. . (Awards: National Book Critics Circle, General Non-Fiction Award. Best Book of the Year: New York Times Book Review; Newsweek; San Francisco Chronicle)
2004. Hanhimäki, Jussi. The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy.
2009. Kurz, Evi. The Kissinger-Saga: Walter and Henry Kissinger, Two Brothers from Fuerth, Germany. London. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. .
2015.
2020. Runciman, David, "Don't be a Kerensky!" (review of Barry Gewen, The Inevitability of Tragedy: Henry Kissinger and His World, Norton, April 2020, , 452 pp.; and Thomas Schwartz, Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Political Biography, Hill and Wang, September 2020, , 548 pp.), London Review of Books, vol. 42, no. 23 (December 3, 2020), pp. 13–16, 18. "[Kissinger] was [...] a political opportunist doing his best to keep one step ahead of the people determined to bring him down. [...] Unelected, unaccountable, never really representing anyone but himself, he rose so high and resided so long in America's political consciousness because his shapeshifting allowed people to find in him what they wanted to find." (p. 18.)
Other
Avner, Yehuda, The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership, 2010.
Bass, Gary. The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide, 2013. 0
Benedetti, Amedeo. Lezioni di politica di Henry Kissinger : linguaggio, pensiero ed aforismi del più abile politico di fine Novecento, Genova: Erga, 2005 . .
Berman, Larry, No peace, no honor. Nixon, Kissinger, and Betrayal in Vietnam, New York: Free Press, 2001. .
Dallek, Robert, Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power. HarperCollins, 2007.
Gaddis, John Lewis. "Rescuing Choice from Circumstance: The Statecraft of Henry Kissinger." The Diplomats, 1939-1979 (Princeton UP, 1994) pp. 564–592 online.
Graebner, Norman A. "Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy: A Contemporary Appraisal." Conspectus of History 1.2 (1975).
Grandin, Greg, Kissinger's Shadow: The Long Reach of America's Most Controversial Statesman. Metropolitan Books, 2015.
Groth, Alexander J, Henry Kissinger and the Limits of Realpolitik, Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs 5#1 (2011)
Hanhimäki, Jussi M. "'Dr. Kissinger' or 'Mr. Henry'? Kissingerology, Thirty Years and Counting" Diplomatic History (2003), 27#5, pp. 637–76; historiography
Hanhimäki, Jussi. The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy (2004)
Hitchens, Christopher, The Trial of Henry Kissinger, 2002.
Keys, Barbara, "Henry Kissinger: The Emotional Statesman," Diplomatic History, 35#4, pp. 587–609, online.
Ki, Youn. "Tweaking or Breaking of the International Order: Kissinger, Shultz, and Transatlantic Relations, 1971-1973." The Korean Journal of International Studies 19.1 (2021): 1-28. online
Klitzing, Holger, The Nemesis of Stability. Henry A. Kissinger's Ambivalent Relationship with Germany. Trier: WVT 2007,
Larson, Deborah Welch. "Learning in US—Soviet Relations: The Nixon-Kissinger Structure of Peace." in Learning in US and Soviet Foreign Policy (Routledge, 2019) pp. 350–399.
Lord, Winston, and Henry Kissinger. Kissinger on Kissinger: Reflections on Diplomacy, Grand Strategy, and Leadership (All Points Books, 2019).
Mohan, Shannon E. "Memorandum for Mr. Bundy": Henry Kissinger as Consultant to the Kennedy National Security Council," Historian, 71,2 (2009), 234–257.
Morris, Roger, Uncertain Greatness: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy. Harper and Row,
Rabe, Stephen G. Kissinger and Latin America: Intervention, Human Rights, and Diplomacy (2020)
Qureshi, Lubna Z. Nixon, Kissinger, and Allende: U.S. Involvement in the 1973 Coup in Chile. Lexington Books, 2009.
Schulzinger, Robert D. Henry Kissinger. Doctor of Diplomacy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1989.
Shawcross, William, Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia (Revised edition October 2002) .
Suri, Jeremi, Henry Kissinger and the American Century (Harvard, Belknap Press, 2007), .
Thornton, Richard C. The Nixon-Kissinger Years: Reshaping America's Foreign Policy'' (2001)
External links
Membership at the Council on Foreign Relations
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Writers from Manhattan | false | [
"The Battle of Kushtia can refer to two incidents during the Bangladesh Liberation War, both of which happened in what is now Bangladesh:\n\nA battle on 19 April 1971 between East Bengali rebels and Pakistani forces.\nAn Indian attack from West Bengal into East Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War.\n\nSee also\n Timeline of the Bangladesh Liberation War\n Military plans of the Bangladesh Liberation War\n Mitro Bahini order of battle\n Pakistan Army order of battle, December 1971\n Evolution of Pakistan Eastern Command plan\n 1971 Bangladesh genocide\n Operation Searchlight\n Indo-Pakistani wars and conflicts\n\nReferences \n\nKushtia\n1971 in Bangladesh",
"Lieutenant Colonel (Retd.) Quazi Sazzad Ali Zahir (born April 11, 1951) is a veteran of the Bangladesh Liberation War. The Bangladesh government awarded him the Bir Protik gallantary award for his bravery in the war. He was conferred with the Independence Award, Bangladesh's highest civilian in 2013 and India's fourth highest civilian award the Padma Shri on November 9, 2021.\n\nEarly life \nZaheer was born in Chausai, Daudkandi Upazila, Comilla District on 11 April 1951. in East Pakistan now Bangladesh.\n\nCareer \nZahir joined the Pakistan Army at the end of 1969 as a cadet. In 1971, he was training as a senior cadet at the Kakul Military Academy in Pakistan.\n\nZahir was commissioned in the Artillery Corps of the Pakistan Army in August. Posting is in 6th Field Artillery Regiment Sialkot. When the Bangladesh Liberation war started, he fled from Pakistan at the end of August and came to India to join the war. He crossed the border with Pak Army deployment maps stuffed inside his boots and Rs. 20 in his pocket. Initially he was considered to be a Pakistani spy sent to distract the Indian Army prior to the launch of an invasion. He was interrogated by Indian Army officials before being taken to Pathankot for further grilling. Here he produced maps of troop deployments across the border. When established that he was not a spy but was a Pak defector who wanted to help with the war effort, he was sent to Delhi and lodged up in safe house for a further period of 9 months.\n\nZahir joined the Bangladesh Liberation war in September 1971. He organized the 2nd Artillery Force under Sector 4 in the Sylhet region. At that time the Indian government gave six 105 mm artillery to the Mukti Bahini and with that a field artillery battery was formed for the Mukti Bahini. It is named Raushan Ara Battery. He was the co-captain of this group. Since October, the battery had assisted the Mukti Bahini Z Force in the greater Sylhet region with artillery fire support in various battles.\n\nAfter the liberation war, he has been at the vanguard of educating the next generation about all that happened during those turbulent years, during which millions of Bangladeshi patriots were tortured and sacrificed their lives for the sake of freedom. Among his other accomplishments, he pioneered the concept of producing graphic novels for children, focusing on the Mukti Joddhas' martyrdom and the Indian Army's role in the liberation of Bangladesh.\n\nIn 2013, Zahir was awarded the Bangladesh Independence Award, the highest civilian award, for his contribution to the liberation war.\n\nZahir approached Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to provide award and recognition to Indian soldiers killed in the Bangladesh Liberation war. He is co-coordinating the project with the Government of Bangladesh to provide crests to Indian soldiers killed in the war. He founded Shuddhoi Muktijoddho to provide recognition to Tribal veterans of Bangladesh Liberation war.\n\nHe has been awarded Padma Shri for his contribution in the field of Public Affairs on 2021 by the president of India Shri Ramnath Kovind.\n\nAwards and honours\n – Bir Protik Award, fourth highest gallantry award in Bangladesh.\n – Swadhinata Padak in 2013, highest civilian award in Bangladesh.\n – Padma Shri in 2021, fourth highest civilian award in India,\n\nReferences \n\n1951 births\nRecipients of the Bir Protik\nLiving people\nRecipients of the Independence Day Award\nPeople from Comilla District\nBangladesh Army officers\nMukti Bahini personnel\nRecipients of the Padma Shri"
]
|
[
"Henry Kissinger",
"Bangladesh War",
"What happened to him during the Bangladesh war?",
"Under Kissinger's guidance, the United States government supported Pakistan in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971."
]
| C_ef92c644002c473eaf6d65042f130ef6_0 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 2 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article about Henry Kissinger during the Bangladesh war other than his guidance of the United States government? | Henry Kissinger | Under Kissinger's guidance, the United States government supported Pakistan in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. Kissinger was particularly concerned about the expansion of Soviet influence in the Indian Subcontinent as a result of a treaty of friendship recently signed by India and the USSR, and sought to demonstrate to the People's Republic of China (Pakistan's ally and an enemy of both India and the USSR) the value of a tacit alliance with the United States. Kissinger sneered at people who "bleed" for "the dying Bengalis" and ignored the first telegram from the United States consul general in East Pakistan, Archer K. Blood, and 20 members of his staff, which informed the US that their allies West Pakistan were undertaking, in Blood's words, "a selective genocide". In the second, more famous, Blood Telegram the word genocide was again used to describe the events, and further that with its continuing support for West Pakistan the US government had "evidenced [...] moral bankruptcy". As a direct response to the dissent against US policy Kissinger and Nixon ended Archer Blood's tenure as United States consul general in East Pakistan and put him to work in the State Department's Personnel Office. Henry Kissinger had also come under fire for private comments he made to Nixon during the Bangladesh-Pakistan War in which he described Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as a "bitch" and a "witch". He also said "The Indians are bastards", shortly before the war. Kissinger has since expressed his regret over the comments. CANNOTANSWER | Kissinger was particularly concerned about the expansion of Soviet influence in the Indian Subcontinent as a result of a treaty of friendship recently signed by India and the USSR, | Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger; May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presidential administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. A Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany with his family in 1938, he became National Security Advisor in 1969 and U.S. Secretary of State in 1973. For his actions negotiating a ceasefire in Vietnam, Kissinger received the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize under controversial circumstances, with two members of the committee resigning in protest.
A practitioner of Realpolitik, Kissinger played a prominent role in United States foreign policy between 1969 and 1977. During this period, he pioneered the policy of détente with the Soviet Union, orchestrated the opening of relations with China, engaged in what became known as shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East to end the Yom Kippur War, and negotiated the Paris Peace Accords, ending American involvement in the Vietnam War. Kissinger has also been associated with such controversial policies as U.S. involvement in the 1973 Chilean military coup, a "green light" to Argentina's military junta for their Dirty War, and U.S. support for Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War despite a genocide being perpetrated by Pakistan. After leaving government, he formed Kissinger Associates, an international geopolitical consulting firm. Kissinger has written over a dozen books on diplomatic history and international relations.
Kissinger remains a controversial and polarizing figure in U.S. politics, both condemned as an alleged war criminal by many journalists, political activists, and human rights lawyers, and venerated as a highly effective U.S. Secretary of State by many prominent international relations scholars. With the death of centenarian George Shultz in February 2021, Kissinger is the oldest living former U.S. Cabinet member and the last surviving member of Nixon's Cabinet.
Early life and education
Kissinger was born Heinz Alfred Kissinger on May 27, 1923, in Fürth, Bavaria, Weimar Republic to homemaker Paula (née Stern; 1901–1998, from Leutershausen), and Louis Kissinger (1887–1982), a schoolteacher. He had a younger brother, business manager Walter (1924–2021). His family was German Jewish. The surname Kissinger was adopted in 1817 by his great-great-grandfather Meyer Löb, after the Bavarian spa town of Bad Kissingen. In his youth, Kissinger enjoyed playing soccer. He played for the youth team of SpVgg Fürth, which was one of the nation's best clubs at the time.
In 1938, when Kissinger was 15 years old, he and his family fled Germany as a result of Nazi persecution. During Nazi rule Kissinger and his friends were regularly harassed and beaten by Hitler Youth gangs. Kissinger sometimes defied the segregation imposed by Nazi racial laws by sneaking into soccer stadiums to watch matches, often resulting in beatings from security guards. As a result of the Nazis' anti-Semitic laws Kissinger was unable to gain admittance to the Gymnasium, while his father was dismissed from his teaching job. The family briefly emigrated to London before arriving in New York City on September 5. Kissinger later downplayed the influence his experiences of Nazi persecution had on his policies, writing "Germany of my youth had a great deal of order and very little justice; it was not the sort of place likely to inspire devotion to order in the abstract." However, many scholars, including Kissinger's biographer Walter Isaacson, have disagreed and argued that his experiences influenced the formation of his realist approach to foreign policy.
Kissinger spent his high school years in the Washington Heights section of Upper Manhattan as part of the German Jewish immigrant community that resided there at the time. Although Kissinger assimilated quickly into American culture, he never lost his pronounced German accent, due to childhood shyness that made him hesitant to speak. After his first year at George Washington High School, he began attending school at night and worked in a shaving brush factory during the day.
Following high school, Kissinger enrolled in the City College of New York, studying accounting. He excelled academically as a part-time student, continuing to work while enrolled. His studies were interrupted in early 1943, when he was drafted into the US Army.
Army experience
Kissinger underwent basic training at Camp Croft in Spartanburg, South Carolina. On June 19, 1943, while stationed in South Carolina, at the age of 20 years, he became a naturalized U.S. citizen. The army sent him to study engineering at Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, but the program was canceled, and Kissinger was reassigned to the 84th Infantry Division. There, he made the acquaintance of Fritz Kraemer, a fellow immigrant from Germany who noted Kissinger's fluency in German and his intellect, and arranged for him to be assigned to the military intelligence section of the division. Kissinger saw combat with the division, and volunteered for hazardous intelligence duties during the Battle of the Bulge.
During the American advance into Germany, Kissinger, only a private, was put in charge of the administration of the city of Krefeld, owing to a lack of German speakers on the division's intelligence staff. Within eight days he had established a civilian administration. Kissinger was then reassigned to the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC), where he became a CIC Special Agent holding the enlisted rank of sergeant. He was given charge of a team in Hanover assigned to tracking down Gestapo officers and other saboteurs, for which he was awarded the Bronze Star. In June 1945, Kissinger was made commandant of the Bensheim metro CIC detachment, Bergstrasse district of Hesse, with responsibility for de-Nazification of the district. Although he possessed absolute authority and powers of arrest, Kissinger took care to avoid abuses against the local population by his command.
In 1946, Kissinger was reassigned to teach at the European Command Intelligence School at Camp King and, as a civilian employee following his separation from the army, continued to serve in this role.
Kissinger would later recall that his experience in the army "made me feel like an American".
Academic career
Henry Kissinger received his BA degree summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa in political science from Harvard College in 1950, where he lived in Adams House and studied under William Yandell Elliott. His senior undergraduate thesis, titled The Meaning of History: Reflections on Spengler, Toynbee and Kant, was over 400 pages long, and was the origin of the current limit on length (35,000 words). He received his MA and PhD degrees at Harvard University in 1951 and 1954, respectively. In 1952, while still a graduate student at Harvard, he served as a consultant to the director of the Psychological Strategy Board, and founded a magazine, Confluence. At that time, he sought to work as a spy for the FBI.
His doctoral dissertation was titled Peace, Legitimacy, and the Equilibrium (A Study of the Statesmanship of Castlereagh and Metternich). In his PhD dissertation, Kissinger first introduced the concept of "legitimacy", which he defined as: "Legitimacy as used here should not be confused with justice. It means no more than an international agreement about the nature of workable arrangements and about the permissible aims and methods of foreign policy". An international order accepted by all of the major powers is "legitimate" whereas an international order not accepted by one or more of the great powers is "revolutionary" and hence dangerous. Thus, when after the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the leaders of Britain, France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia agreed to co-operate in the Concert of Europe to preserve the peace, in Kissinger's viewpoint this international system was "legitimate" because it was accepted by the leaders of all five of the Great Powers of Europe. Notably, Kissinger's primat der aussenpolitik approach to diplomacy took it for granted that as long as the decision-makers in the major states were willing to accept the international order, then it is "legitimate" with questions of public opinion and morality dismissed as irrelevant.
Kissinger remained at Harvard as a member of the faculty in the Department of Government where he served as the director of the Harvard International Seminar between 1951 and 1971. In 1955, he was a consultant to the National Security Council's Operations Coordinating Board. During 1955 and 1956, he was also study director in nuclear weapons and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. He released his book Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy the following year. The book, which criticized the Eisenhower Administration's "massive retaliation" nuclear doctrine, caused much controversy at the time by proposing the use of tactical nuclear weapons on a regular basis to win wars. That same year, he published A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace, 1812–22, a study of balance-of-power politics in post-Napoleonic Europe.
From 1956 to 1958, he worked for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund as director of its Special Studies Project. He served as the director of the Harvard Defense Studies Program between 1958 and 1971. In 1958, he also co-founded the Center for International Affairs with Robert R. Bowie where he served as its associate director. Outside of academia, he served as a consultant to several government agencies and think tanks, including the Operations Research Office, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Department of State, and the RAND Corporation.
Keen to have a greater influence on U.S. foreign policy, Kissinger became foreign policy advisor to the presidential campaigns of Nelson Rockefeller, supporting his bids for the Republican nomination in 1960, 1964, and 1968. Kissinger first met Richard Nixon at a party hosted by Clare Booth Luce in 1967, saying that he found him more "thoughtful" than he expected. During the Republican primaries in 1968, Kissinger again served as the foreign policy adviser to Rockefeller and in July 1968 called Nixon "the most dangerous of all the men running to have as president". Initially upset when Nixon won the Republican nomination, the ambitious Kissinger soon changed his mind about Nixon and contacted a Nixon campaign aide, Richard Allen, to state he was willing to do anything to help Nixon win. After Nixon became president in January 1969, Kissinger was appointed as National Security Advisor. By this time he was arguably "one of the most important theorists about foreign policy ever to be produced by the United States of America", according to his official biographer Niall Ferguson.
Foreign policy
Kissinger served as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State under President Richard Nixon, and continued as Secretary of State under Nixon's successor Gerald Ford. With the death of George Shultz in February 2021, Kissinger is the last surviving member of the Nixon administration Cabinet.
The relationship between Nixon and Kissinger was unusually close, and has been compared to the relationships of Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House, or Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Hopkins. In all three cases, the State Department was relegated to a backseat role in developing foreign policy. Kissinger and Nixon shared a penchant for secrecy and conducted numerous "backchannel" negotiations, such as that through the Soviet Ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Dobrynin, that excluded State Department experts. Historian David Rothkopf has looked at the personalities of Nixon and Kissinger, saying:
They were a fascinating pair. In a way, they complemented each other perfectly. Kissinger was the charming and worldly Mr. Outside who provided the grace and intellectual-establishment respectability that Nixon lacked, disdained and aspired to. Kissinger was an international citizen. Nixon very much a classic American. Kissinger had a worldview and a facility for adjusting it to meet the times, Nixon had pragmatism and a strategic vision that provided the foundations for their policies. Kissinger would, of course, say that he was not political like Nixon—but in fact he was just as political as Nixon, just as calculating, just as relentlessly ambitious ... these self-made men were driven as much by their need for approval and their neuroses as by their strengths.
A proponent of Realpolitik, Kissinger played a dominant role in United States foreign policy between 1969 and 1977. In that period, he extended the policy of détente. This policy led to a significant relaxation in US–Soviet tensions and played a crucial role in 1971 talks with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. The talks concluded with a rapprochement between the United States and China, and the formation of a new strategic anti-Soviet Sino-American alignment. He was jointly awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize with Lê Đức Thọ for helping to establish a ceasefire and U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. The ceasefire, however, was not durable. Thọ declined to accept the award and Kissinger appeared deeply ambivalent about it - he donated his prize money to charity, did not attend the award ceremony, and later offered to return his prize medal.[40] As National Security Advisor in 1974, Kissinger directed the much-debated National Security Study Memorandum 200.
Détente and opening to China
Kissinger initially had little interest in China when he began his work as National Security Adviser in 1969, and the driving force behind the rapprochement with China was Nixon. In April 1970 both Nixon and Kissinger promised Chiang Ching-kuo, a leader in Taiwan, that they would never abandon Taiwan or make any compromises with Mao Zedong, although Nixon did speak vaguely of his wish to improve relations with the People's Republic.
Kissinger made two trips to China in July and October 1971 (the first of which was made in secret) to confer with Premier Zhou Enlai, then in charge of Chinese foreign policy. During his visit to Beijing, the main issue turned out to be Taiwan, as Zhou demanded the United States recognize that Taiwan was a legitimate part of China, pull U.S. forces out of Taiwan, and end military support for the Kuomintang regime. Kissinger gave way by promising to pull U.S. forces out of Taiwan, saying two-thirds would be pulled out when the Vietnam war ended and the rest to be pulled out as Sino-American relations improved.
In October 1971, as Kissinger was making his second trip to the People's Republic, the issue of which Chinese government deserved to be represented in the United Nations came up again. Out of concern to not be seen abandoning an ally, the United States tried to promote a compromise under which both Chinese regimes would be UN members, although Kissinger called it "an essentially doomed rearguard action". While American ambassador to the UN George H. W. Bush was lobbying for the "two Chinas" formula, Kissinger was removing favorable references to Taiwan from a speech that Rogers was preparing, as he expected China to be expelled from the UN. During his second visit to Beijing, Kissinger told Zhou that according to a public opinion poll 62% of Americans wanted Taiwan to remain a UN member, and asked him to consider the "two Chinas" compromise to avoid offending American public opinion. Zhou responded with his claim that the People's Republic was the legitimate government of all China and no compromise was possible with the Taiwan issue. Kissinger said that the United States could not totally sever ties with Chiang, who had been an ally in World War II. Kissinger told Nixon that Bush was "too soft and not sophisticated" enough to properly represent the United States at the UN, and expressed no anger when the UN General Assembly voted to expel Taiwan and give China's seat on the UN Security Council to the People's Republic.
His trips paved the way for the groundbreaking 1972 summit between Nixon, Zhou, and Communist Party of China Chairman Mao Zedong, as well as the formalization of relations between the two countries, ending 23 years of diplomatic isolation and mutual hostility. The result was the formation of a tacit strategic anti-Soviet alliance between China and the United States. Kissinger's diplomacy led to economic and cultural exchanges between the two sides and the establishment of "liaison offices" in the Chinese and American capitals, though full normalization of relations with China would not occur until 1979.
Vietnam War
Kissinger's involvement in Indochina started prior to his appointment as National Security Adviser to Nixon. While still at Harvard, he had worked as a consultant on foreign policy to both the White House and State Department. In a 1967 peace initiative, he would mediate between Washington and Hanoi.
When he came into office in 1969, Kissinger favored a negotiating strategy under which the United States and North Vietnam would sign an armistice and agreed to pull their troops out of South Vietnam while the South Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were to agree to a coalition government. Kissinger had doubts about Nixon's theory of "linkage", believing that this would give the Soviet Union leverage over the United States and unlike Nixon was less concerned about the ultimate fate of South Vietnam. Though Kissinger did not regard South Vietnam as important in its own right, he believed it was necessary to support South Vietnam to maintain the United States as a global power, believing that none of America's allies would trust the United States if South Vietnam were abandoned too quickly.
In early 1969, Kissinger was opposed to the plans for Operation Menu, the bombing of Cambodia, fearing that Nixon was acting rashly with no plans for the diplomatic fall-out, but on March 16, 1969. Nixon announced the bombing would start the next day. As he saw the president was committed, he became more and more supportive. Kissinger would play a key role in bombing Cambodia to disrupt raids into South Vietnam from Cambodia, as well as the 1970 Cambodian Incursion and subsequent widespread bombing of Khmer Rouge targets in Cambodia.
The Paris peace talks had become stalemated by late 1969 owing to the obstructionism of the South Vietnamese delegation. The South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu did not want the United States to withdraw from Vietnam, and out of frustration with him, Kissinger decided to begin secret peace talks with Thọ in Paris parallel to the official talks that the South Vietnamese were unaware of.
In June 1971, Kissinger supported Nixon's effort to ban the Pentagon Papers saying the "hemorrhage of state secrets" to the media was making diplomacy impossible.
On August 1, 1972, Kissinger met Thọ again in Paris, and for first time, he seemed willing to compromise, saying that political and military terms of an armistice could be treated separately and hinted that his government was no longer willing to make the overthrow of Thiệu a precondition.
On the evening of October 8, 1972, at a secret meeting of Kissinger and Thọ in Paris came the decisive breakthrough in the talks. Thọ began with "a very realistic and very simple proposal" for a ceasefire that would see the Americans pull all their forces out of Vietnam in exchange for the release of all the POWs in North Vietnam. Kissinger accepted Thọ's offer as the best deal possible, saying that the "mutual withdrawal formula" had to be abandoned as it been "unobtainable through ten years of war ... We could not make it a condition for a final settlement. We had long passed that threshold".
In the fall of 1972, both Kissinger and Nixon were frustrated with Thiệu's refusal to accept any sort of peace deal calling for withdrawal of American forces. On October 21 Kissinger and the American ambassador Ellsworth Bunker arrived in Saigon to show Thiệu the peace agreement. Thiệu refused to sign the peace agreement and demanded very extensive amendments that Kissinger reported to Nixon "verge on insanity".
Though Nixon had initially supported Kissinger against Thiệu, H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman urged him to reconsider, arguing that Thiệu's objections had merit. Nixon wanted 69 amendments to the draft peace agreement included in the final treaty, and ordered Kissinger back to Paris to force Thọ to accept them. Kissinger regarded Nixon's 69 amendments as "preposterous" as he knew Thọ would never accept them. As expected, Thọ refused to consider any of the 69 amendments, and on December 13, 1972, left Paris for Hanoi. Kissinger by this stage was worked up into a state of fury after Thọ walked out of the Paris talks and told Nixon: "They're just a bunch of shits. Tawdry, filthy shits".
On January 8, 1973, Kissinger and Thọ met again in Paris and the next day reached an agreement, which in main points was essentially the same as the one Nixon had rejected in October with only cosmetic concessions to the Americans. Thiệu once again rejected the peace agreement, only to receive an ultimatum from Nixon which caused Thiệu to reluctantly accept the peace agreement. On January 27, 1973, Kissinger and Thọ signed a peace agreement that called for the complete withdrawal of all U.S forces from Vietnam by March in exchange for North Vietnam freeing all the U.S POWs.
Along with Thọ, Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, 1973, for their work in negotiating the ceasefires contained in the Paris Peace Accords on "Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam", signed the previous January. According to Irwin Abrams, this prize was the most controversial to date. For the first time in the history of the Peace Prize, two members left the Nobel Committee in protest. Thọ rejected the award, telling Kissinger that peace had not been restored in South Vietnam. Kissinger wrote to the Nobel Committee that he accepted the award "with humility," and "donated the entire proceeds to the children of American servicemembers killed or missing in action in Indochina." After the Fall of Saigon in 1975, Kissinger attempted to return the award.
By the summer of 1974, the U.S. embassy reported that morale in the ARVN had fallen to dangerously low levels and it was uncertain how much longer South Vietnam would last. In August 1974, Congress passed a bill limiting American aid to South Vietnam to $700 million annually. By November 1974, Kissinger lobbied Brezhnev to end Soviet military aid to North Vietnam. The same month, he also lobbied Mao and Zhou to end Chinese military aid to North Vietnam. On April 15, 1975, Kissinger testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee, urging Congress to increase the military aid budget to South Vietnam by another $700 million to save the ARVN as the PAVN was rapidly advancing on Saigon, which was refused. Kissinger maintained at the time, and still maintains, that if only Congress had approved of his request for another $700 million South Vietnam would have been able to resist.
Bangladesh Liberation War
Nixon supported Pakistani dictator, General Yahya Khan, in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. Kissinger sneered at people who "bleed" for "the dying Bengalis" and ignored the first telegram from the United States consul general in East Pakistan, Archer K. Blood, and 20 members of his staff, which informed the US that their allies West Pakistan were undertaking, in Blood's words, "a selective genocide" targeting the Bengali intelligentsia, supporters of independence for East Pakistan, and the Hindu minority. In the second, more famous, Blood Telegram the word genocide was again used to describe the events, and further that with its continuing support for West Pakistan the US government had "evidenced [...] moral bankruptcy".
As a direct response to the dissent against US policy Kissinger and Nixon ended Archer Blood's tenure as United States consul general in East Pakistan and put him to work in the State Department's Personnel Office. Christopher Clary argues that Nixon and Kissinger were unconsciously biased, leading them to overestimate the likelihood of Pakistani victory against Bengali rebels.
Kissinger was particularly concerned about the expansion of Soviet influence in the Indian subcontinent as a result of a treaty of friendship recently signed by India and the USSR, and sought to demonstrate to the People's Republic of China (Pakistan's ally and an enemy of both India and the USSR) the value of a tacit alliance with the United States.
Kissinger had also come under fire for private comments he made to Nixon during the Bangladesh–Pakistan War in which he described Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as a "bitch" and a "witch". He also said "The Indians are bastards", shortly before the war. Kissinger has since expressed his regret over the comments.
Europe
As National Security Adviser under Nixon, Kissinger pioneered the policy of détente with the Soviet Union, seeking a relaxation in tensions between the two superpowers. As a part of this strategy, he negotiated the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (culminating in the SALT I treaty) and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. Negotiations about strategic disarmament were originally supposed to start under the Johnson Administration but were postponed in protest upon the invasion by Warsaw Pact troops of Czechoslovakia in August 1968.
Nixon felt his administration had neglected relations with the Western European states in his first term and in September 1972 decided that if he was reelected that 1973 would be the "Year of Europe" as the United States would focus on relations with the states of the European Economic Community (EEC) which had emerged as a serious economic rival by 1970. Applying his favorite "linkage" concept, Nixon intended henceforward economic relations with Europe would not be severed from security relations, and if the EEC states wanted changes in American tariff and monetary policies, the price would be defense spending on their part. Kissinger in particular as part of the "Year of Europe" wanted to "revitalize" NATO, which he called a "decaying" alliance as he believed that there was nothing at present to stop the Red Army from overrunning Western Europe in a conventional forces conflict. The "linkage" concept more applied to the question of security as Kissinger noted that the United States was going to sacrifice NATO for the sake of "citrus fruits".
Israeli policy and Soviet Jewry
According to notes taken by H. R. Haldeman, Nixon "ordered his aides to exclude all Jewish-Americans from policy-making on Israel", including Kissinger. One note quotes Nixon as saying "get K. [Kissinger] out of the play—Haig handle it".
In 1973, Kissinger did not feel that pressing the Soviet Union concerning the plight of Jews being persecuted there was in the interest of U.S. foreign policy. In conversation with Nixon shortly after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir on March 1, 1973, Kissinger stated, "The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy, and if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern."
Arab–Israeli dispute
In September 1973, Nixon fired Rogers as Secretary of State and replaced him with Kissinger. He would later state he had not been given enough time to know the Middle East as he settled into the State Department. Kissinger later admitted that he was so engrossed with the Paris peace talks to end the Vietnam war that he and others in Washington missed the significance of the Egyptian-Saudi alliance. Sadat expected as a reward that the United States would respond by pressuring Israel to return the Sinai to Egypt, but after receiving no response from the United States, by November 1972 Sadat moved again closer to the Soviet Union, buying a massive amount of Soviet arms for a war he planned to launch against Israel in 1973.
Kissinger delayed telling President Richard Nixon about the start of the Yom Kippur War in 1973 to keep him from interfering. On October 6, 1973, the Israelis informed Kissinger about the attack at 6 am; Kissinger waited nearly 3 and a half hours before he informed Nixon. According to Kissinger, he was notified at 6:30 a.m. (12:30 pm. Israel time) that war was imminent, and his urgent calls to the Soviets and Egyptians were ineffective. On October 12, under Nixon's direction, and against Kissinger's initial advice, while Kissinger was on his way to Moscow to discuss conditions for a cease-fire, Nixon sent a message to Brezhnev giving Kissinger full negotiating authority. Kissinger wanted to stall a ceasefire to gain more time for Israel to push across the Suez Canal to the African side, and wanted to be perceived as a mere presidential emissary who needed to consult the White House all the time as a stalling tactic.
Kissinger promised the Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir that the United States would replace its losses in equipment after the war, but sought initially to delay arm shipments to Israel, as he believed it would improve the odds of making peace along the lines of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242. In 1973, Meir requested $850 million worth of American arms and equipment to replace its material losses. Nixon instead sent some $2 billion worth. The arms lift enraged King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, and he retaliated on October 20, 1973, by placing a total embargo on oil shipments to the United States, to be joined by all of the other oil-producing Arab states except Iraq and Libya.
On November 7, 1973, Kissinger flew to Riyadh to meet King Faisal and to ask him to end the oil embargo in exchange for promising to be "even handed" in the Arab-Israeli dispute. Despite all of Kissinger's efforts to charm him, Faisal refused to end the oil embargo. Only on March 19, 1974, did the king end the oil embargo, after Sadat reported to him that the United States was being more "even handed" and after Kissinger had promised to sell Saudi Arabia weapons that it had previously denied under the grounds that they might be used against Israel.
Kissinger pressured the Israelis to cede some of the newly captured land back to its Arab neighbors, contributing to the first phases of Israeli–Egyptian non-aggression. In 1973–74, Kissinger engaged in "shuttle diplomacy" flying between Tel Aviv, Cairo, and Damascus in a bid to make the armistice the basis of a preferment peace. Kissinger's first meeting with Hafez al-Assad lasted 6 hours and 30 minutes, causing the press to believe for a moment that he had been kidnapped by the Syrians. In his memoirs, Kissinger described how, during the course of his 28 meetings in Damascus in 1973–74, Assad "negotiated tenaciously and daringly like a riverboat gambler to make sure he had exacted the last sliver of available concessions".
In contrast, Kissinger's negotiations with Sadat, though not without difficulties, were more fruitful. The move saw a warming in U.S.–Egyptian relations, bitter since the 1950s, as the country moved away from its former independent stance and into a close partnership with the United States.
Persian Gulf
A major concern for Kissinger was the possibility of Soviet influence in the Persian Gulf. In April 1969, Iraq came into conflict with Iran when Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi renounced the 1937 treaty governing the Shatt-al-Arab river. After two years of skirmishes along the border, President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr broke off diplomatic relations with Iran on December 1, 1971. In May 1972, Nixon and Kissinger visited Tehran to tell the Shah that there would be no "second-guessing of his requests" to buy American weapons. At the same time, Nixon and Kissinger agreed a plan of the Shah's that the United States together with Iran and Israel would support the Kurdish peshmerga guerrillas fighting for independence from Iraq. Kissinger later wrote that after Vietnam, there was no possibility of deploying American forces in the Middle East, and henceforward Iran was to act as America's surrogate in the Persian Gulf. Kissinger described the Baathist regime in Iraq as a potential threat to the United States and believed that building up Iran and supporting the peshmerga was the best counterweight.
Turkish invasion of Cyprus
Following a period of steady relations between the U.S. Government and the Greek military regime after 1967, Secretary of State Kissinger was faced with the coup by the Greek junta and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in July and August 1974. In an August 1974 edition of The New York Times, it was revealed that Kissinger and State Department were informed in advance οf the impending coup by the Greek junta in Cyprus. Indeed, according to the journalist,) the official version of events as told by the State Department was that it felt it had to warn the Greek military regime not to carry out the coup. Kissinger was a target of anti-American sentiment which was a significant feature of Greek public opinion at the time—particularly among young people—viewing the U.S. role in Cyprus as negative. In a demonstration by students in Heraklion, Crete, soon after the second phase of the Turkish invasion in August 1974, slogans such as "Kissinger, murderer", "Americans get out", "No to Partition" and "Cyprus is no Vietnam" were heard. Some years later, Kissinger expressed the opinion that the Cyprus issue was resolved in 1974.
Latin American policy
The United States continued to recognize and maintain relationships with non-left-wing governments, democratic and authoritarian alike. John F. Kennedy's Alliance for Progress was ended in 1973. In 1974, negotiations over a new settlement for the Panama Canal began, and they eventually led to the Torrijos–Carter Treaties and the handing over of the Canal to Panamanian control.
Kissinger initially supported the normalization of United States-Cuba relations, broken since 1961 (all U.S.–Cuban trade was blocked in February 1962, a few weeks after the exclusion of Cuba from the Organization of American States because of U.S. pressure). However, he quickly changed his mind and followed Kennedy's policy. After the involvement of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces in the independence struggles in Angola and Mozambique, Kissinger said that unless Cuba withdrew its forces relations would not be normalized. Cuba refused.
Intervention in Chile
Chilean Socialist Party presidential candidate Salvador Allende was elected by a plurality of 36.2 percent in 1970, causing serious concern in Washington, D.C., due to his openly socialist and pro-Cuban politics. The Nixon administration, with Kissinger's input, authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to encourage a military coup that would prevent Allende's inauguration, but the plan was not successful.
On September 11, 1973, Allende died during a military coup launched by Army Commander-in-Chief Augusto Pinochet, who became president. In September 1976, Orlando Letelier, a Chilean opponent of the new Pinochet regime, was assassinated in Washington, D.C. with a car bomb. Previously, Kissinger had helped secure his release from prison, and had chosen to cancel a letter to Chile warning them against carrying out any political assassinations. This murder was part of Operation Condor, a covert program of political repression and assassination carried out by Southern Cone nations that Kissinger has been accused of being involved in.
On September 10, 2001, the family of Chilean general René Schneider filed a suit against Kissinger, accusing him of collaborating in arranging Schneider's kidnapping which resulted in his death. The case was later dismissed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, citing separation of powers: "The decision to support a coup of the Chilean government to prevent Dr. Allende from coming to power, and the means by which the United States Government sought to effect that goal, implicate policy makers in the murky realm of foreign affairs and national security best left to the political branches." Decades later, the CIA admitted its involvement in the kidnapping of General Schneider, but not his murder, and subsequently paid the group responsible for his death $35,000 "to keep the prior contact secret, maintain the goodwill of the group, and for humanitarian reasons."
Argentina
Kissinger took a similar line as he had toward Chile when the Argentine Armed Forces, led by Jorge Videla, toppled the elected government of Isabel Perón in 1976 with a process called the National Reorganization Process by the military, with which they consolidated power, launching brutal reprisals and "disappearances" against political opponents. An October 1987 investigative report in The Nation broke the story of how, in a June 1976 meeting in the Hotel Carrera in Santiago, Kissinger gave the military junta in neighboring Argentina the "green light" for their own clandestine repression against leftwing guerrillas and other dissidents, thousands of whom were kept in more than 400 secret concentration camps before they were executed. During a meeting with Argentine foreign minister César Augusto Guzzetti, Kissinger assured him that the United States was an ally, but urged him to "get back to normal procedures" quickly before the U.S. Congress reconvened and had a chance to consider sanctions.
As the article published in The Nation noted, as the state-sponsored terror mounted, conservative Republican U.S. Ambassador to Buenos Aires Robert C. Hill "'was shaken, he became very disturbed, by the case of the son of a thirty-year embassy employee, a student who was arrested, never to be seen again,' recalled former New York Times reporter Juan de Onis. 'Hill took a personal interest.' He went to the Interior Minister, a general with whom he had worked on drug cases, saying, 'Hey, what about this? We're interested in this case.' He questioned (Foreign Minister Cesar) Guzzetti and, finally, President Jorge R. Videla himself. 'All he got was stonewalling; he got nowhere.' de Onis said. 'His last year was marked by increasing disillusionment and dismay, and he backed his staff on human rights right to the hilt."
In a letter to The Nation editor Victor Navasky, protesting publication of the article, Kissinger claimed that: "At any rate, the notion of Hill as a passionate human rights advocate is news to all his former associates." Yet Kissinger aide Harry W. Shlaudeman later disagreed with Kissinger, telling the oral historian William E. Knight of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project: "It really came to a head when I was Assistant Secretary, or it began to come to a head, in the case of Argentina where the dirty war was in full flower. Bob Hill, who was Ambassador then in Buenos Aires, a very conservative Republican politician—by no means liberal or anything of the kind, began to report quite effectively about what was going on, this slaughter of innocent civilians, supposedly innocent civilians—this vicious war that they were conducting, underground war. He, at one time in fact, sent me a back-channel telegram saying that the Foreign Minister, who had just come for a visit to Washington and had returned to Buenos Aires, had gloated to him that Kissinger had said nothing to him about human rights. I don't know—I wasn't present at the interview."
Navasky later wrote in his book about being confronted by Kissinger, "'Tell me, Mr. Navasky,' [Kissinger] said in his famous guttural tones, 'how is it that a short article in a obscure journal such as yours about a conversation that was supposed to have taken place years ago about something that did or didn't happen in Argentina resulted in sixty people holding placards denouncing me a few months ago at the airport when I got off the plane in Copenhagen?'"
According to declassified state department files, Kissinger also hindered Carter Administration's efforts to halt the mass killings by the 1976–83 military dictatorship by visiting the country and praising the regime.
Brazil's nuclear weapons program
Kissinger was in favor of accommodating Brazil while it pursued a nuclear weapons program in the 1970s. Kissinger justified his position by arguing that Brazil was a U.S. ally and on the grounds that it would benefit private nuclear industry actors in the U.S. Kissinger's position on Brazil was out of sync with influential voices in the U.S. Congress, the State Department, and the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.
Rhodesia
In September 1976, Kissinger was actively involved in negotiations regarding the Rhodesian Bush War. Kissinger, along with South Africa's Prime Minister John Vorster, pressured Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith to hasten the transition to black majority rule in Rhodesia. With FRELIMO in control of Mozambique and even the apartheid regime of South Africa withdrawing its support, Rhodesia's isolation was nearly complete. According to Smith's autobiography, Kissinger told Smith of Mrs. Kissinger's admiration for him, but Smith stated that he thought Kissinger was asking him to sign Rhodesia's "death certificate". Kissinger, bringing the weight of the United States, and corralling other relevant parties to put pressure on Rhodesia, hastened the end of minority-rule.
East Timor
The Portuguese decolonization process brought U.S. attention to the former Portuguese colony of East Timor, which declared its independence in 1975. Indonesian president Suharto regarded East Timor as rightfully part of Indonesia. In December 1975, Suharto discussed invasion plans during a meeting with Kissinger and President Ford in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. Both Ford and Kissinger made clear that U.S. relations with Indonesia would remain strong and that it would not object to the proposed annexation. They only wanted it done "fast" and proposed that it be delayed until after they had returned to Washington. Accordingly, Suharto delayed the operation for one day. Finally on December 7 Indonesian forces invaded the former Portuguese colony. U.S. arms sales to Indonesia continued, and Suharto went ahead with the annexation plan. According to Ben Kiernan, the invasion and occupation resulted in the deaths of nearly a quarter of the Timorese population from 1975 to 1981.
Cuba
In February 1976, Kissinger considered launching air strikes against ports and military installations in Cuba, as well as deploying U.S. Marine Corps battalions based at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, in retaliation for Cuban President Fidel Castro's decision in late 1975 to send troops to newly independent Angola to help the MPLA in its fight against UNITA and South Africa during the start of the Angolan Civil War.
Western Sahara
The Kissingerian doctrine endorsed the forced concession of Spanish Sahara to Morocco. At the height of the 1975 Sahara crisis, Kissinger misled Gerald Ford into thinking the International Court of Justice had ruled in favor of Morocco. Kissinger was aware in advance of the Moroccan plans for the invasion of the territory, materialized on November 6, 1975, in the so-called Green March.
Later roles
After Nixon was forced to resign in the Watergate scandal, Kissinger's influence in the new presidential administration of Gerald R. Ford was diminished after he was replaced by Brent Scowcroft as National Security Advisor during the "Halloween Massacre" cabinet reshuffle of November 1975. Kissinger left office as Secretary of State when Democrat Jimmy Carter defeated Republican Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential elections.
Kissinger continued to participate in policy groups, such as the Trilateral Commission, and to maintain political consulting, speaking, and writing engagements. In 1976, he was secretly involved in thwarting efforts by the Carter administration to indict three Chilean intelligence agents for masterminding the 1976 assassination of Orlando Letelier. Kissinger was critical of the foreign policy of the Jimmy Carter administration, saying in 1980 that “has managed the extraordinary feat of having, at one and the same time, the worst relations with our allies, the worst relations with our adversaries, and the most serious upheavals in the developing world since the end of the Second World War.”
After Kissinger left office in 1977, he was offered an endowed chair at Columbia University. There was student opposition to the appointment, which became a subject of media commentary. Columbia canceled the appointment as a result.
Kissinger was then appointed to Georgetown University's Center for Strategic and International Studies. He taught at Georgetown's Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service for several years in the late 1970s. In 1982, with the help of a loan from the international banking firm of E.M. Warburg, Pincus and Company, Kissinger founded a consulting firm, Kissinger Associates, and is a partner in affiliate Kissinger McLarty Associates with Mack McLarty, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton. He also serves on the board of directors of Hollinger International, a Chicago-based newspaper group, and as of March 1999, was a director of Gulfstream Aerospace.
In September 1989, the Wall Street Journal'''s John Fialka disclosed that Kissinger took a direct economic interest in US-China relations in March 1989 with the establishment of China Ventures, Inc., a Delaware limited partnership, of which he was chairman of the board and chief executive officer. A US$75 million investment in a joint venture with the Communist Party government's primary commercial vehicle at the time, China International Trust & Investment Corporation (CITIC), was its purpose. Board members were major clients of Kissinger Associates. Kissinger was criticised for not disclosing his role in the venture when called upon by ABC's Peter Jennings to comment the morning after the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square massacre. Kissinger's position was generally supportive of Deng Xiaoping's decision to use the military against the demonstrating students and he opposed economic sanctions.
From 1995 to 2001, Kissinger served on the board of directors for Freeport-McMoRan, a multinational copper and gold producer with significant mining and milling operations in Papua, Indonesia. In February 2000, then-president of Indonesia Abdurrahman Wahid appointed Kissinger as a political advisor. He also serves as an honorary advisor to the United States-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce.
In 1998, in response to the 2002 Winter Olympic bid scandal, the International Olympic Committee formed a commission, called the "2000 Commission," to recommend reforms, which Kissinger served on. This service led in 2000 to his appointment as one of five IOC "honor members," a category the organization described as granted to "eminent personalities from outside the IOC who have rendered particularly outstanding services to it."
From 2000 to 2006, Kissinger served as chairman of the board of trustees of Eisenhower Fellowships. In 2006, upon his departure from Eisenhower Fellowships, he received the Dwight D. Eisenhower Medal for Leadership and Service.
In November 2002, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to chair the newly established National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States to investigate the September 11 attacks. Kissinger stepped down as chairman on December 13, 2002, rather than reveal his business client list, when queried about potential conflicts of interest.
In the Rio Tinto espionage case of 2009–2010, Kissinger was paid $5 million to advise the multinational mining company how to distance itself from an employee who had been arrested in China for bribery.
Kissinger—along with William Perry, Sam Nunn, and George Shultz—has called upon governments to embrace the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons, and in three Wall Street Journal op-eds proposed an ambitious program of urgent steps to that end. The four have created the Nuclear Threat Initiative to advance this agenda. In 2010, the four were featured in a documentary film entitled Nuclear Tipping Point. The film is a visual and historical depiction of the ideas laid forth in the Wall Street Journal op-eds and reinforces their commitment to a world without nuclear weapons and the steps that can be taken to reach that goal.
In December 2008, Kissinger was given the American Patriot Award by the National Defense University Foundation "in recognition for his distinguished career in public service."
On November 17, 2016, Kissinger met with then President-elect Donald Trump during which they discussed global affairs. Kissinger also met with President Trump at the White House in May 2017.
In an interview with Charlie Rose on August 17, 2017, Kissinger said about President Trump: "I'm hoping for an Augustinian moment, for St. Augustine ... who in his early life followed a pattern that was quite incompatible with later on when he had a vision, and rose to sainthood. One does not expect the president to become that, but it's conceivable ...". Kissinger also argued that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to weaken Hillary Clinton, not elect Donald Trump. Kissinger said that Putin "thought—wrongly incidentally—that she would be extremely confrontational ... I think he tried to weaken the incoming president [Clinton]".
Views on U.S. foreign policy
Yugoslav wars
In several articles of his and interviews that he gave during the Yugoslav wars, he criticized the United States' policies in Southeast Europe, among other things for the recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a sovereign state, which he described as a foolish act. Most importantly he dismissed the notion of Serbs and Croats being aggressors or separatist, saying that "they can't be separating from something that has never existed". In addition, he repeatedly warned the West against inserting itself into a conflict that has its roots at least hundreds of years back in time, and said that the West would do better if it allowed the Serbs and Croats to join their respective countries. Kissinger shared similarly critical views on Western involvement in Kosovo. In particular, he held a disparaging view of the Rambouillet Agreement:
However, as the Serbs did not accept the Rambouillet text and NATO bombings started, he opted for a continuation of the bombing as NATO's credibility was now at stake, but dismissed the use of ground forces, claiming that it was not worth it.
Iraq
In 2006, it was reported in the book State of Denial by Bob Woodward that Kissinger met regularly with President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to offer advice on the Iraq War. Kissinger confirmed in recorded interviews with Woodward that the advice was the same as he had given in a column in The Washington Post on August 12, 2005: "Victory over the insurgency is the only meaningful exit strategy." Kissinger also frequently met with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who he warned that Coalition Provisional Authority Director L. Paul Bremer was "a control freak."
In an interview on the BBC's Sunday AM on November 19, 2006, Kissinger was asked whether there is any hope left for a clear military victory in Iraq and responded, "If you mean by 'military victory' an Iraqi government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets the civil war under control and sectarian violence under control in a time period that the political processes of the democracies will support, I don't believe that is possible. ... I think we have to redefine the course. But I don't believe that the alternative is between military victory as it had been defined previously, or total withdrawal."
In an interview with Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institution on April 3, 2008, Kissinger reiterated that even though he supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq, he thought that the George W. Bush administration rested too much of its case for war on Saddam's supposed weapons of mass destruction. Robinson noted that Kissinger had criticized the administration for invading with too few troops, for disbanding the Iraqi Army as part of de-Baathification, and for mishandling relations with certain allies.
India
Kissinger said in April 2008 that "India has parallel objectives to the United States," and he called it an ally of the U.S.
China
Kissinger was present at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. A few months before the Games opened, as controversy over China's human rights record was intensifying due to criticism by Amnesty International and other groups of the widespread use of the death penalty and other issues, Kissinger told the PRC's official press agency Xinhua: "I think one should separate Olympics as a sporting event from whatever political disagreements people may have had with China. I expect that the games will proceed in the spirit for which they were designed, which is friendship among nations, and that other issues are discussed in other forums." He said China had made huge efforts to stage the Games. "Friends of China should not use the Olympics to pressure China now." He added that he would bring two of his grandchildren to watch the Games and planned to attend the opening ceremony. During the Games, he participated with Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe, film star Jackie Chan, and former British PM Tony Blair at a Peking University forum on the qualities that make a champion. He sat with his wife Nancy Kissinger, President George W. Bush, former President George H. W. Bush, and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi at the men's basketball game between China and the U.S.
In 2011, Kissinger published On China, chronicling the evolution of Sino-American relations and laying out the challenges to a partnership of 'genuine strategic trust' between the U.S. and China.
In his 2011 book On China, his 2014 book World Order and in a 2018 interview with Financial Times, Kissinger stated that he believes China wants to restore its historic role as the Middle Kingdom and be "the principal adviser to all humanity".
In 2020, during a period of worsening Sino-American relations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hong Kong protests, and the U.S.–China trade war, Kissinger expressed concerns that the United States and China are entering a Second Cold War and will eventually become embroiled in a military conflict similar to World War I. He called for Chinese President Xi Jinping and the incoming U.S. President-elect Joe Biden to take a less confrontational foreign policy. Kissinger previously said that a potential war between China and the United States would be "worse than the world wars that ruined European civilization."
Iran
Kissinger's position on this issue of U.S.–Iran talks was reported by the Tehran Times to be that "Any direct talks between the U.S. and Iran on issues such as the nuclear dispute would be most likely to succeed if they first involved only diplomatic staff and progressed to the level of secretary of state before the heads of state meet." In 2016, Kissinger said that the biggest challenge facing the Middle East is the "potential domination of the region by an Iran that is both imperial and jihadist." He further wrote in August 2017 that if the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran and its Shiite allies were allowed to fill the territorial vacuum left by a militarily defeated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the region would be left with a land corridor extending from Iran to the Levant "which could mark the emergence of an Iranian radical empire." Commenting on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Kissinger said that he wouldn't have agreed to it, but that Trump's plan to end the agreement after it was signed would "enable the Iranians to do more than us."
2014 Ukrainian crisis
On March 5, 2014, The Washington Post published an op-ed piece by Kissinger, 11 days before the Crimean referendum on whether Autonomous Republic of Crimea should officially rejoin Ukraine or join neighboring Russia. In it, he attempted to balance the Ukrainian, Russian and Western desires for a functional state. He made four main points:
Ukraine should have the right to choose freely its economic and political associations, including with Europe;
Ukraine should not join NATO, a repetition of the position he took seven years before;
Ukraine should be free to create any government compatible with the expressed will of its people. Wise Ukrainian leaders would then opt for a policy of reconciliation between the various parts of their country. He imagined an international position for Ukraine like that of Finland.
Ukraine should maintain sovereignty over Crimea.
Kissinger also wrote: "The west speaks Ukrainian; the east speaks mostly Russian. Any attempt by one wing of Ukraine to dominate the other—as has been the pattern—would lead eventually to civil war or break up."
Following the publication of his book titled World Order, Kissinger participated in an interview with Charlie Rose and updated his position on Ukraine, which he sees as a possible geographical mediator between Russia and the West. In a question he posed to himself for illustration regarding re-conceiving policy regarding Ukraine, Kissinger stated: "If Ukraine is considered an outpost, then the situation is that its eastern border is the NATO strategic line, and NATO will be within of Volgograd. That will never be accepted by Russia. On the other hand, if the Russian western line is at the border of Poland, Europe will be permanently disquieted. The Strategic objective should have been to see whether one can build Ukraine as a bridge between East and West, and whether one can do it as a kind of a joint effort."
In December 2016, Kissinger advised then President-elect Donald Trump to accept "Crimea as a part of Russia" in an attempt to secure a rapprochement between the United States and Russia, whose relations soured as a result of the Crimean crisis. When asked if he explicitly considered Russia's sovereignty over Crimea legitimate, Kissinger answered in the affirmative, reversing the position he took in his Washington Post op-ed.
Computers and nuclear weapons
In 2019, Kissinger wrote about the increasing tendency to give control of nuclear weapons to computers operating with Artificial Intelligence (AI) that: "Adversaries' ignorance of AI-developed configurations will become a strategic advantage". Kissinger argued that giving power to launch nuclear weapons to computers using algorithms to make decisions would eliminate the human factor and give the advantage to the state that had the most effective AI system as a computer can make decisions about war and peace far faster than any human ever could. Just as an AI-enhanced computer can win chess games by anticipating human decision-making, an AI-enhanced computer could be useful in a crisis as in a nuclear war, the side that strikes first would have the advantage by destroying the opponent's nuclear capacity. Kissinger also noted there was always the danger that a computer could make a decision to start a nuclear war before diplomacy had been exhausted, or for a reason that would not be understandable to the operators. Kissinger also warned the use of AI to control nuclear weapons would impose "opacity" on the decision-making process as the algorithms that control the AI system are not readily understandable, destabilizing the decision-making process:
COVID-19 pandemic
On April 3, 2020, Kissinger shared his diagnostic view of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that it threatens the "liberal world order". Kissinger added that the virus does not know borders although global leaders are trying to address the crisis on a mainly national basis. He stressed that the key is not a purely national effort but greater international cooperation.
Public perception
At the height of Kissinger's prominence, many commented on his wit. In February 1972, at the Washington Press Club annual congressional dinner, "Kissinger mocked his reputation as a secret swinger." The insight, "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac", is widely attributed to him, although Kissinger was paraphrasing Napoleon Bonaparte.
Four scholars at the College of William & Mary ranked Kissinger as the most effective U.S. Secretary of State in the 50 years to 2015. A number of activists and human rights lawyers, however, have sought his prosecution for alleged war crimes. According to historian and Kissinger biographer Niall Ferguson, however, accusing Kissinger alone of war crimes "requires a double standard" because "nearly all the secretaries of state ... and nearly all the presidents" have taken similar actions. But Ferguson continues "this is not to say that it's all OK."
Some have blamed Kissinger for injustices in American foreign policy during his tenure in government. In September 2001, relatives and survivors of General Rene Schneider (former head of the Chilean general staff) filed civil proceedings in Federal Court in Washington, DC, and, in April 2002, a petition for Kissinger's arrest was filed in the High Court in London by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, citing the destruction of civilian populations and the environment in Indochina during the years 1969–75. British-American journalist and author Christopher Hitchens authored The Trial of Henry Kissinger, in which Hitchens calls for the prosecution of Kissinger "for war crimes, for crimes against humanity, and for offenses against common or customary or international law, including conspiracy to commit murder, kidnap, and torture". Critics on the right, such as Ray Takeyh, have faulted Kissinger for his role in the Nixon administration's opening to China and secret negotiations with North Vietnam. Takeyh writes that while rapprochement with China was a worthy goal, the Nixon administration failed to achieve any meaningful concessions from Chinese officials in return, as China continued to support North Vietnam and various "revolutionary forces throughout the Third World," "nor does there appear to be even a remote, indirect connection between Nixon and Kissinger's diplomacy and the communist leadership's decision, after Mao's bloody rule, to move away from a communist economy towards state capitalism."
Historian Jeffrey Kimball developed the theory that Kissinger and the Nixon administration accepted a South Vietnamese collapse provided a face-saving decent interval passed between American withdrawal and defeat. In his first meeting with Zhou Enlai in 1971, Kissinger "laid out in detail the settlement terms that would produce such a delayed defeat: total American withdrawal, return of all American POWs, and a ceasefire-in-place for '18 months or some period'", in the words of historian Ken Hughes. On October 6, 1972, Kissinger told Nixon twice that the terms of the Paris Peace Accords would probably destroy South Vietnam: "I also think that Thieu is right, that our terms will eventually destroy him." However, Kissinger denied using a "decent interval" strategy, writing "All of us who negotiated the agreement of October 12 were convinced that we had vindicated the anguish of a decade not by a 'decent interval' but by a decent settlement." Johannes Kadura offers a positive assessment of Nixon and Kissinger's strategy, arguing that the two men "simultaneously maintained a Plan A of further supporting Saigon and a Plan B of shielding Washington should their maneuvers prove futile." According to Kadura, the "decent interval" concept has been "largely misrepresented," in that Nixon and Kissinger "sought to gain time, make the North turn inward, and create a perpetual equilibrium" rather than acquiescing in the collapse of South Vietnam.
Kissinger's record was brought up during the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries. Hillary Clinton had cultivated a close relationship with Kissinger, describing him as a "friend" and a source of "counsel." During the Democratic Primary Debates, Clinton touted Kissinger's praise for her record as Secretary of State. In response, candidate Bernie Sanders issued a critique of Kissinger's foreign policy, declaring, "I am proud to say that Henry Kissinger is not my friend. I will not take advice from Henry Kissinger."
Family and personal life
Kissinger married Ann Fleischer on February 6, 1949. They had two children, Elizabeth and David, and divorced in 1964. On March 30, 1974, he married Nancy Maginnes. They now live in Kent, Connecticut, and in New York City. Kissinger's son David Kissinger served as an executive with NBC Universal Television Studio before becoming head of Conaco, Conan O'Brien's production company, in 2005. In February 1982, at the age of 58, Henry Kissinger underwent coronary bypass surgery.
Kissinger described Diplomacy as his favorite game in a 1973 interview.
Soccer
Daryl Grove characterised Kissinger as one of the most influential people in the growth of soccer in the United States. Kissinger was named chairman of the North American Soccer League board of directors in 1978.
Since his childhood, Kissinger has been a fan of his hometown's soccer club, SpVgg Fürth (now SpVgg Greuther Fürth). Even during his time in office, the German Embassy informed him about the team's results every Monday morning. He is an honorary member with lifetime season-tickets. In September 2012 Kissinger attended a home game in which SpVgg Greuther Fürth lost, 0–2, against Schalke, after promising years ago he would attend a Greuther Fürth home game if they were promoted to the Bundesliga, the top football league in Germany, from the 2. Bundesliga.
Awards, honors, and associations
Kissinger and Le Duc Tho were jointly offered the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for their work on the Paris Peace Accords which prompted the withdrawal of American forces from the Vietnam war. (Le Duc Tho declined to accept the award on the grounds that such "bourgeois sentimentalities" were not for him[40] and that peace had not actually been achieved in Vietnam.) Kissinger donated his prize money to charity, did not attend the award ceremony and later offered to return his prize medal after the fall of South Vietnam to North Vietnamese forces 18 months later.[40]
In 1973, Kissinger received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.
In 1976, Kissinger became the first honorary member of the Harlem Globetrotters.
On January 13, 1977, Kissinger received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Gerald Ford.
In 1980, Kissinger won the National Book Award in History for the first volume of his memoirs, The White House Years.
In 1986, Kissinger was one of twelve recipients of the Medal of Liberty.
In 1995, he was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George.
In 2000, Kissinger received the Sylvanus Thayer Award at United States Military Academy at West Point.
In 2002, Kissinger became an honorary member of the International Olympic Committee.
On March 1, 2012, Kissinger was awarded Israel's President's Medal.
In October 2013, Kissinger was awarded the Henry A. Grunwald Award for Public Service by Lighthouse International
Kissinger was a member of the Founding Council of the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford.
Kissinger is a member of the following groups:
Aspen Institute
Atlantic Council
Bilderberg Group
Bohemian Club
Council on Foreign Relations
Center for Strategic and International Studies
World.Minds
Kissinger served on the board of Theranos, a health technology company, from 2014 to 2017.
He received the Theodore Roosevelt American Experience Award from the Union League Club of New York in 2009.
He became the Honorary Chair of the advisory board for the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in 2018.
Notable works
Thesis
1950. "The Meaning of History: Reflections on Spengler, Toynbee and Kant." Harvard University.
Memoirs
1979. The White House Years. (National Book Award, History Hardcover)
1982. Years of Upheaval.
1999. Years of Renewal.
Public policy
1957. A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace, 1812–22. .
1957. Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy. New York: Published for the Council on Foreign Relations by Harper & Brothers. Foreword by Gordon Dean (pp. vii-x).
1961. The Necessity for Choice: Prospects of American Foreign Policy. .
1965. The Troubled Partnership: A Re-Appraisal of the Atlantic Alliance. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. .
1969. American Foreign Policy: Three Essays. .
1981. For the Record: Selected Statements 1977–1980. .
1985. Observations: Selected Speeches and Essays 1982–1984. Boston: Little, Brown. .
1994. Diplomacy. .
1998. Kissinger Transcripts: The Top Secret Talks With Beijing and Moscow, edited by William Burr. New York: New Press. .
2001. Does America Need a Foreign Policy? Toward a Diplomacy for the 21st Century. .
2002. Vietnam: A Personal History of America's Involvement in and Extrication from the Vietnam War. .
2003. Crisis: The Anatomy of Two Major Foreign Policy Crises: Based on the Record of Henry Kissinger's Hitherto Secret Telephone Conversations. New York: Simon & Schuster. .
2011. On China. New York: Penguin Press. .
2014. World Order. New York: Penguin Press. .
See also
List of foreign-born United States Cabinet Secretaries
Explanatory notes
References
Citations
General sources
Further reading
Biographies
1973. Graubard, Stephen Richards, Kissinger: Portrait of a Mind.
1974. Kalb, Marvin L. and Kalb, Bernard, Kissinger,
1974. Schlafly, Phyllis, Kissinger on the Couch. Arlington House Publishers.
1983. Hersh, Seymour, The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House, Summit Books. . (Awards: National Book Critics Circle, General Non-Fiction Award. Best Book of the Year: New York Times Book Review; Newsweek; San Francisco Chronicle)
2004. Hanhimäki, Jussi. The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy.
2009. Kurz, Evi. The Kissinger-Saga: Walter and Henry Kissinger, Two Brothers from Fuerth, Germany. London. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. .
2015.
2020. Runciman, David, "Don't be a Kerensky!" (review of Barry Gewen, The Inevitability of Tragedy: Henry Kissinger and His World, Norton, April 2020, , 452 pp.; and Thomas Schwartz, Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Political Biography, Hill and Wang, September 2020, , 548 pp.), London Review of Books, vol. 42, no. 23 (December 3, 2020), pp. 13–16, 18. "[Kissinger] was [...] a political opportunist doing his best to keep one step ahead of the people determined to bring him down. [...] Unelected, unaccountable, never really representing anyone but himself, he rose so high and resided so long in America's political consciousness because his shapeshifting allowed people to find in him what they wanted to find." (p. 18.)
Other
Avner, Yehuda, The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership, 2010.
Bass, Gary. The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide, 2013. 0
Benedetti, Amedeo. Lezioni di politica di Henry Kissinger : linguaggio, pensiero ed aforismi del più abile politico di fine Novecento, Genova: Erga, 2005 . .
Berman, Larry, No peace, no honor. Nixon, Kissinger, and Betrayal in Vietnam, New York: Free Press, 2001. .
Dallek, Robert, Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power. HarperCollins, 2007.
Gaddis, John Lewis. "Rescuing Choice from Circumstance: The Statecraft of Henry Kissinger." The Diplomats, 1939-1979 (Princeton UP, 1994) pp. 564–592 online.
Graebner, Norman A. "Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy: A Contemporary Appraisal." Conspectus of History 1.2 (1975).
Grandin, Greg, Kissinger's Shadow: The Long Reach of America's Most Controversial Statesman. Metropolitan Books, 2015.
Groth, Alexander J, Henry Kissinger and the Limits of Realpolitik, Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs 5#1 (2011)
Hanhimäki, Jussi M. "'Dr. Kissinger' or 'Mr. Henry'? Kissingerology, Thirty Years and Counting" Diplomatic History (2003), 27#5, pp. 637–76; historiography
Hanhimäki, Jussi. The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy (2004)
Hitchens, Christopher, The Trial of Henry Kissinger, 2002.
Keys, Barbara, "Henry Kissinger: The Emotional Statesman," Diplomatic History, 35#4, pp. 587–609, online.
Ki, Youn. "Tweaking or Breaking of the International Order: Kissinger, Shultz, and Transatlantic Relations, 1971-1973." The Korean Journal of International Studies 19.1 (2021): 1-28. online
Klitzing, Holger, The Nemesis of Stability. Henry A. Kissinger's Ambivalent Relationship with Germany. Trier: WVT 2007,
Larson, Deborah Welch. "Learning in US—Soviet Relations: The Nixon-Kissinger Structure of Peace." in Learning in US and Soviet Foreign Policy (Routledge, 2019) pp. 350–399.
Lord, Winston, and Henry Kissinger. Kissinger on Kissinger: Reflections on Diplomacy, Grand Strategy, and Leadership (All Points Books, 2019).
Mohan, Shannon E. "Memorandum for Mr. Bundy": Henry Kissinger as Consultant to the Kennedy National Security Council," Historian, 71,2 (2009), 234–257.
Morris, Roger, Uncertain Greatness: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy. Harper and Row,
Rabe, Stephen G. Kissinger and Latin America: Intervention, Human Rights, and Diplomacy (2020)
Qureshi, Lubna Z. Nixon, Kissinger, and Allende: U.S. Involvement in the 1973 Coup in Chile. Lexington Books, 2009.
Schulzinger, Robert D. Henry Kissinger. Doctor of Diplomacy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1989.
Shawcross, William, Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia (Revised edition October 2002) .
Suri, Jeremi, Henry Kissinger and the American Century (Harvard, Belknap Press, 2007), .
Thornton, Richard C. The Nixon-Kissinger Years: Reshaping America's Foreign Policy'' (2001)
External links
Membership at the Council on Foreign Relations
|-
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Writers from Manhattan | true | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
]
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