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[
"Todd Bertuzzi",
"Guelph Storm (1991-95)",
"When did Bertuzzi make his debut with the Storm?",
"The NHL Central Scouting Bureau described Bertuzzi as a physical and strong player with good skating who checks hard and is offensively effective in close proximity to the net.",
"How did he do in the 1991 season?",
"After playing for two minor hockey teams based out of Sudbury, Ontario in 1990-91, Bertuzzi was selected in the first round (fifth overall) by the Guelph Storm",
"What were his stats like in 1991?",
"started his OHL career for Guelph in 1991-92, recording 21 points over 42 games as a rookie."
]
| C_40acc9f3ce424ca48b13ddefa5d4c640_1 | What position was he playing in 1991? | 4 | What position was Bertuzzi playing in 1991? | Todd Bertuzzi | After playing for two minor hockey teams based out of Sudbury, Ontario in 1990-91, Bertuzzi was selected in the first round (fifth overall) by the Guelph Storm in the 1991 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) Priority Selection. His future coach with the Vancouver Canucks, Marc Crawford, passed on Bertuzzi during the draft while he was general manager of the Cornwall Royals; he has recalled not selecting him due to "maturity issues" and that he was "a big kid who hadn't grown into his body yet." Bertuzzi started his OHL career for Guelph in 1991-92, recording 21 points over 42 games as a rookie. He missed the last 15 games of the regular season due to suspension as a result of kicking opposing defenceman Brad Barton during a contest between the Storm and Kitchener Rangers. After improving to 58 points over 60 games in 1992-93, he was selected 23rd overall by the New York Islanders in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. The NHL Central Scouting Bureau described Bertuzzi as a physical and strong player with good skating who checks hard and is offensively effective in close proximity to the net. Following his NHL draft, he underwent surgery for chipped bones in his left elbow in August 1993. As a result, he was unable to participate in the Islanders' training camp in September and was returned to the OHL. Playing in his third season for Guelph, he improved to 28 goals and 82 points over 61 games. Bertuzzi competed for an Islanders' roster spot at their 1994 training camp, but was sent back to his junior team after going scoreless in three exhibition games. During his last campaign with Guelph in 1994-95, he recorded 119 points - sixth overall in the league. His 54 goals established a single-season team record, beating Mike Prokopec's mark, set the previous year, by two goals. The Storm's forward tandem of Bertuzzi and Jeff O'Neill, who finished fourth in league scoring, led the club to the best regular season record in the league. He went on to add a team-leading 33 points in 14 playoff games, en route to an OHL Finals loss to the Detroit Junior Red Wings. After four seasons with Guelph, he left the club ranked third all-time in career points with 280, behind O'Neill and Martin St. Pierre. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Todd Bertuzzi (born February 2, 1975) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey winger of the National Hockey League (NHL). Known as a power forward, he has played in the NHL for the New York Islanders, Vancouver Canucks, Florida Panthers, Anaheim Ducks, Calgary Flames and Detroit Red Wings. He is widely known for his role in the Todd Bertuzzi–Steve Moore incident, for which he was suspended by the NHL and IIHF, and criminally charged.
Selected 23rd overall by the New York Islanders in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft, he played at the junior level with the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) for four seasons. In 1995–96, he played his rookie season with the Islanders. After two-and-a-half seasons with the Islanders, he was traded to the Vancouver Canucks. Bertuzzi enjoyed the most successful seasons of his career with the Canucks—his longest tenured team in the NHL—including NHL First Team All-Star honours in 2003. In 2006, after seven-and-a-half seasons with Vancouver, Bertuzzi was dealt to the Florida Panthers, with whom he briefly played for until being traded again to the Red Wings. He then played single seasons with the Anaheim Ducks and the Calgary Flames before returning to Detroit in 2009 and finishing his career there. Internationally, Bertuzzi has competed for Team Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, as well as the 1998 and 2000 World Championships.
He is the uncle of Tyler Bertuzzi who currently plays for the Detroit Red Wings.
Playing career
Guelph Storm (1991–95)
After playing for two minor hockey teams based out of Sudbury, Ontario in 1990–91, Bertuzzi was selected in the first round (fifth overall) by the Guelph Storm in the 1991 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) Priority Selection. His future coach with the Vancouver Canucks, Marc Crawford, passed on Bertuzzi during the draft while he was general manager of the Cornwall Royals; he has recalled not selecting him due to "maturity issues" and that he was "a big kid who hadn't grown into his body yet." Bertuzzi started his OHL career for Guelph in 1991–92, recording 21 points over 42 games as a rookie. He missed the last 15 games of the regular season due to suspension as a result of kicking opposing defenceman Brad Barton during a contest between the Storm and Kitchener Rangers. After improving to 58 points over 60 games in 1992–93, he was selected 23rd overall by the New York Islanders in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. The NHL Central Scouting Bureau described Bertuzzi as a physical and strong player with good skating who checks hard and is offensively effective in close proximity to the net.
Following his NHL draft, he underwent surgery for chipped bones in his left elbow in August 1993. As a result, he was unable to participate in the Islanders' training camp in September and was returned to the OHL. Playing in his third season for Guelph, he improved to 28 goals and 82 points over 61 games. Bertuzzi competed for an Islanders' roster spot at their 1994 training camp, but was sent back to his junior team after going scoreless in three exhibition games.
During his last campaign with Guelph in 1994–95, he recorded 119 points – sixth overall in the league. His 54 goals established a single-season team record, beating Mike Prokopec's mark, set the previous year, by two goals. The Storm's forward tandem of Bertuzzi and Jeff O'Neill, who finished fourth in league scoring, led the club to the best regular season record in the league. He went on to add a team-leading 33 points in 14 playoff games, en route to an OHL Finals loss to the Detroit Junior Red Wings. After four seasons with Guelph, he left the club ranked third all-time in career points with 280, behind O'Neill and Martin St. Pierre.
New York Islanders (1995–98)
Two years after his draft, Bertuzzi and the Islanders had not yet been agreed to a contract. With Bertuzzi eligible to re-enter the draft if the Islanders did not sign him by July 7, 1995, general manager Don Maloney made it apparent that he would use the team's second overall pick in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft to select him again if a contract could not be agreed upon by the required date. Moments before the midnight deadline, the Islanders were able to sign Bertuzzi to a four-year, US$4.6 million contract. His agent, Pat Morris, had reportedly wanted a similar deal to that of fellow Islanders prospect Brett Lindros – a five-year, $6.7 million contract signed the previous summer.
During training camp in September 1995, Islanders head coach Mike Milbury heralded Bertuzzi as the team's best performing forward. Making his NHL debut on October 7, 1995, he scored a wrap around goal against goaltender Blaine Lacher in a 4–4 tie with the Boston Bruins. Beginning the season on the team's top line with Žigmund Pálffy and Travis Green, Bertuzzi finished his rookie year with 18 goals and 39 points over 76 games. The following season, Bertuzzi recorded 23 points in 64 games. The Islanders did not qualify for the playoffs in either of his two full seasons with the club, ranking second-last in the Eastern Conference in 1995–96 and 1996–97.
Bertuzzi's playing style as a power forward resulted in comparisons to former Islander Clark Gillies. As a result, the club hired Gillies to personally mentor Bertuzzi. Failing to meet lofty expectations from the club, Gillies once said of Bertuzzi, "If you're built like a freight train, you can't drive around like a Volkswagen." Feeling burdened with the pressure of playing up to the club's expectations while his offensive production diminished, he requested to be traded away at one point during the 1996–97 season. In response, Milbury, who had also taken over general manager duties the previous season, demoted Bertuzzi to the Islanders' minor league affiliate, the Utah Grizzlies of the International Hockey League (IHL). Playing 13 games in the minors, he registered 10 points before being called back up to the NHL. During the 1997–98 campaign, he continued to score below his pace as a rookie. On February 6, 1998, he was traded along with defenceman Bryan McCabe and a third-round selection in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft (Jarkko Ruutu) to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for veteran forward Trevor Linden. The deal was made prior to the NHL's roster freeze in preparation for the 1998 Winter Olympics.
Bertuzzi and McCabe had both been widely regarded as the players of the future for New York after their respective drafts in 1993. While Milbury expressed regret at having to trade McCabe, relations between Bertuzzi and the club were strained. Welcoming the trade, Bertuzzi commented that "things weren't working out [in New York]."
Vancouver Canucks (1998–2006)
Bertuzzi immediately began producing with Vancouver, tallying 15 points in 22 games after the trade. Combined with his totals from New York, he finished with 33 points over 74 games in 1997–98. Contrasting his strained relationship with Milbury in New York, Canucks head coach Mike Keenan has recalled his experience with Bertuzzi upon his arrival as positive: "He came as a young player and he was very open-minded about learning about the game." Similar to the Islanders, Bertuzzi joined a struggling club in Vancouver; the team finished last in the Western Conference in his first two seasons after the trade.
After beginning the 1998–99 season on the Canucks' top line, Bertuzzi was limited to 32 games due to injuries, the first of which was a fractured tibia. He suffered the injury on November 1, 1998, after a shot by teammate Mattias Öhlund hit him in the leg. His season was later ended with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee, suffered during a game on March 5, 1999. He recorded 8 goals and 16 points in 1998–99. In the off-season, Bertuzzi became a restricted free agent and was re-signed by the Canucks to a two-year contract in September 1999. The deal was reported by The Vancouver Sun to be worth a little over $2 million.
Returning from injury the following season, Bertuzzi emerged as one of the Canucks' best offensive contributors, finishing with 25 goals (second on the team to Markus Näslund) and 50 points in 1999–2000. At the end of the season, he received the team's Most Exciting Player Award, as voted by the fans. He received the distinction three more times during his career with the Canucks from 2002 to 2004). Meanwhile, the Canucks began improving as a team, finishing four points out of a playoff spot in the West in 2000.
The following season, Bertuzzi recorded his first career NHL hat trick, recording all three goals on the power play against San Jose Sharks goaltender Evgeni Nabokov in a 6–3 win on December 30, 2000. Bertuzzi recorded a second consecutive 25-goal season in 2000–01, adding 30 assists for 55 points, third in team scoring behind Näslund and Andrew Cassels. His -18 plus-minus rating, however, was a team-worst. The Canucks continued to improve, qualifying for the post-season for the first time in five years. Entering the 2001 playoffs as the final and eighth seed in the West, they were eliminated in the first round by the Colorado Avalanche. Bertuzzi scored two goals and two assists over four games in his first NHL post-season appearance. In the off-season, Bertuzzi filed for salary arbitration after initially failing to come to terms on a new contract with the Canucks. Both sides avoided arbitration by agreeing to a three-year deal on July 26, 2001.
In the first month of the 2001–02 season, Bertuzzi received an automatic 10-game suspension from the league (forfeiting $118,557 in salary) after leaving the bench to help teammate Ed Jovanovski in a fight. The incident occurred during a game against the Colorado Avalanche in which opposing coach Bob Hartley sent enforcer Scott Parker onto the ice as the extra attacker during a delayed penalty. Parker proceeded to physically engage Jovanovski, at which point Bertuzzi left the bench to help his teammate. Vancouver struggled with him out of the lineup, winning 3 games during the 10-game span. Two months after returning from suspension, Bertuzzi went 15 consecutive games with at least a point, scoring 7 goals and 12 assists from January 3 – February 4, 2002. The streak tied Petr Nedvěd for the longest in Canucks history. During that span, in a game on January 9, Canucks head coach Marc Crawford replaced Andrew Cassels with Brendan Morrison, marking the beginning of what was considered by many to be the most effective line combination in the league for several seasons. Bertuzzi had emerged as an effective power forward, able to use his size and strength to position himself in front of the net, with good stickhandling ability. According to Canucks assistant coach Jack McIlhargey, Bertuzzi's skill set favourably complemented Näslund's goal-scoring and Morrison's playmaking abilities. The trio were dubbed by Vancouver media as the "West Coast Express", named after the city's commuter rail service of the same name.
Late in the 2001–02 season, Bertuzzi recorded his second career hat-trick on March 19, 2002, during a win against the New York Rangers. He scored his first two goals of the game against Dan Blackburn and his third into an empty net. Despite missing ten games from his suspension, Bertuzzi finished the 2001–02 season third in league-scoring with 85 points, behind Näslund and Calgary Flames forward Jarome Iginla. His 1.18 points-per-game average ranked second in the NHL behind Mario Lemieux, who played 48 fewer games than Bertuzzi. He also improved his plus-minus rating by 39 points from the previous season, finishing a career-high +21. Although the Canucks were the league's highest scoring team, they finished with the final seed in the West for the 2002 playoffs, ranking eighth in their conference. Facing the Detroit Red Wings in the opening round, they were eliminated in six games. Bertuzzi recorded four points in the series.
The following season, Bertuzzi appeared in his first NHL All-Star Game. He was joined by fellow Canucks Markus Näslund, defenceman Ed Jovanovski and head coach Marc Crawford, helping the Western Conference to a 6–5 shootout win against the East. He played on a line with Näslund and Peter Forsberg. Later in the season, he scored his third career hat-trick on March 17, 2003, scoring three goals against Ron Tugnutt in a game against the Dallas Stars. He finished the season with career-highs of 46 goals (third in the league), 51 assists and 97 points (fifth in the league). His 25 power play goals led the NHL and tied Pavel Bure for the Canucks' single-season record. Linemates Näslund and Morrison also recorded personal bests with 104 and 71 points, respectively. Meanwhile, the Canucks emerged as a top team in the West. Losing the Northwest Division title to the Avalanche by one point in the regular season, they finished as the fourth seed in their conference. After going down three-games-to-one in the opening round against the St. Louis Blues, Vancouver won three straight games to advance to the second round. Facing the Minnesota Wild, the Canucks gave up their own three-games-to-one series lead and were eliminated in seven games. During the series, Bertuzzi had reportedly walked by the Xcel Energy Center box office and told Wild fans they would not need their Game 6 tickets because Minnesota would be eliminated by then. In another on-ice incident, he skated by the opposing bench during Game 7 when the Canucks were winning 2–0, telling Wild players to "get [their] golf clubs". Despite his successful regular season, Bertuzzi struggled to score in the playoffs, recording 6 points in 14 games. In the off-season, Bertuzzi was named with Näslund to the NHL First All-Star Team.
With Bertuzzi entering the final year of his contract, the Canucks began negotiating a contract extension prior to the 2003–04 season. Despite Bertuzzi's agent, Pat Morris, declaring that they would cease negotiations once the season began, Bertuzzi signed a four-year, $27.8 million deal with the Canucks on October 23, 2003. The contract took effect immediately, erasing the last year on his previous contract, and included a $3 million signing bonus ($2.5 million paid in the first year and $500,000 in the second). The deal paid him $4.3 million the first year, $6.633 million the second year and $6.933 million for the third and fourth years.
In January 2004, Bertuzzi was voted by league fans to the starting lineup of the NHL All-Star Game. Representing the Western Conference alongside Näslund and Canucks head coach Marc Crawford, they were defeated by the East 6–4. Bertuzzi had two assists while playing on a line with Näslund and Joe Sakic. Nearing the end of the 2003–04 season, Bertuzzi was indefinitely suspended by the NHL for punching Colorado Avalanche forward Steve Moore from behind and driving his head into the ice during a game on March 8, 2004. His actions were a retaliation to a hit from Moore on Näslund during a previous game. Sitting out the remainder of the regular season and playoffs due to his suspension, he finished 2003–04 with 60 points over 69 games. Vancouver replaced Bertuzzi on the team's top line with Matt Cooke and went on to their first Northwest Division title, before being eliminated in the first round of the 2004 playoffs by the Calgary Flames.
Inactive in 2004–05 due to the players lockout and his ongoing suspension, which had been extended internationally, Bertuzzi returned to the Canucks in 2005–06, as the league ended his playing ban. He recorded 25 goals and 71 points, including two hat tricks (November 13, 2005, against the Detroit Red Wings and January 14, 2006, against the New York Islanders). Though he ranked third in team scoring, Crawford has recalled that by the end of the season, Näslund and Bertuzzi had been eclipsed by Daniel and Henrik Sedin as the team's offensive leaders.
There was speculation that the effects of the Steve Moore incident, which included assault charges and constant media coverage, were negatively affecting his play. While on the road, he was consistently heckled and booed by fans throughout the NHL. Näslund, a close friend of Bertuzzi's, later expressed sympathy for him, saying in a 2008 interview, "It still bothers me what Todd has had to go through...There's no question he was standing up for me...it all went too far."
Beyond the negative impact on Bertuzzi's individual play, the media speculated that the fallout from the Moore incident had become a distraction to the organization as a whole. Compounding the situation in Vancouver, the Canucks had missed the playoffs for the first time in four years. As such, general manager Dave Nonis spent the off-season making significant changes to the Canucks lineup. On June 23, 2006, he traded Bertuzzi to the Florida Panthers, along with goaltender Alex Auld and defenceman Bryan Allen, in exchange for goaltender Roberto Luongo, defenceman Lukáš Krajíček and a sixth-round selection in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft (Sergei Shirokov). After seven-and-a-half seasons with the Canucks, Bertuzzi left the club ranked seventh all-time among franchise scoring leaders with 449 points.
Florida, Detroit, and Anaheim (2006–08)
Instrumental in facilitating the trade to Florida was Bertuzzi's positive relationship with Panthers general manager Mike Keenan, who was his first coach in Vancouver. Debuting with the Panthers on October 6, 2006, Bertuzzi scored a goal and three assists in an 8–3 win against the Boston Bruins. He appeared in six more games for Florida, notching seven points total, before being sidelined with back spasms. After being diagnosed with a herniated disc in early-November, Bertuzzi opted for surgery, which kept him out of the lineup for five months. While recovering, the Panthers dealt him to the Detroit Red Wings at the trade deadline in exchange for forward prospect Shawn Matthias and conditional draft picks. Bertuzzi was in the last year of his contract with no guarantee he would re-sign with Florida in the off-season.
Bertuzzi returned to action on March 22, 2007, debuting with his new team in a 2–1 shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Eight days later, he scored his first goal as a Red Wing in a 4–3 shootout loss to the Dallas Stars. On April 7, he suffered a neck injury that kept him out of the lineup for the last game of the regular season and the first two games of the 2007 playoffs. He finished the campaign with 11 points in 15 games split between Florida and Detroit. During the playoffs, the Red Wings advanced to the Western Conference Finals, where they lost in six games to the Anaheim Ducks, who went on to win the Stanley Cup. Bertuzzi recorded 7 points in 16 playoff games.
Becoming an unrestricted free agent in the off-season, Bertuzzi agreed to a two-year, $8 million contract with the Anaheim Ducks on July 2, 2007. Signing him was Ducks general manager Brian Burke, who had served as the Canucks general manager during Bertuzzi's time in Vancouver. Bertuzzi had reportedly been in negotiations to re-sign with Detroit, but the club only wanted a one-year deal. Playing the Red Wings in the Ducks' first game of the regular season on October 3, 2007, he registered a goal and an assist in a 3–2 shootout loss. In the first month of the 2007–08 campaign, he suffered a concussion and was sidelined for 14 games in October and November 2007. Bertuzzi returned to the lineup in time for the Ducks' away game against the Canucks on November 27, which marked his first NHL game in Vancouver since being traded away. Bertuzzi was received warmly by Canucks fans, as the Ducks lost the game 4–0. Playing in 68 contests over the season, he registered 40 points with Anaheim. Entering the 2008 playoffs as the defending champions, the Ducks were eliminated in the first round four games to two by the Dallas Stars. In six playoff contests, Bertuzzi recorded two assists.
Calgary Flames (2008–09)
During the subsequent summer, several Ducks players were set to become free agents, including high-profile forward Corey Perry. Requiring additional salary cap space to make room for defenceman Scott Niedermayer, who announced he was returning for another season, Bertuzzi was placed on unconditional waivers with the intention of buying out the remaining year on his contract. Addressing Bertuzzi's buy out with the media, Burke asserted that he "believe[d] [Bertuzzi] can still play at the NHL level," and that the Ducks were merely "handcuffed by [their] salary cap situation." Bertuzzi once again became an unrestricted free agent and signed a one-year, $1.95 million contract with the Calgary Flames on July 7, 2008. Joining Calgary, he was reunited with Flames coach Mike Keenan. Before the start of the 2008–09 season, Bertuzzi switched jersey numbers from 4 to 7, in honour of his boyhood idol, Phil Esposito. The numbers 44, which Bertuzzi wore in New York, Vancouver and Detroit, and 4, which he wore in Anaheim, were already taken in Calgary.
Bertuzzi scored his first goal with the Flames, deflecting a Dion Phaneuf shot, on October 11, 2008, in a 5–4 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks. While initial fan reaction to Bertuzzi was negative due to his previous role with the division-rival Canucks, as well as his reputation following the Steve Moore incident, he was eventually accepted in Calgary. In January 2009, he missed five games due to a back injury. Several months later, he was sidelined again with a knee injury and underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair damaged cartilage on March 3, 2009. Missing 11 games, he returned in time for the 2009 playoffs, where the Flames were eliminated by the Chicago Blackhawks in the opening round. He finished his only season in Calgary with 44 points in 66 regular season games, while adding a goal and an assist in six playoff contests.
Return to Detroit (2009–2014)
On August 18, 2009, Bertuzzi re-joined the Red Wings by accepting a one-year contract with the club worth $1.5 million. He recorded 44 points (18 goals and 26 assists) in 2009–10, ranking fifth in team scoring. During the second round of the 2010 playoffs, Bertuzzi recorded a career-high five-point contest (a goal and four assists) in a Game 4 victory against the San Jose Sharks. Bertuzzi finished with a playoffs career-high 11 points in 12 games.
In the off-season, Bertuzzi signed a two-year, $3.875 million contract extension with the Red Wings on June 16, 2010. During the 2010–11 season, he appeared in his 1,000th NHL game on February 20, 2011, against the Minnesota Wild. Bertuzzi scored a shootout goal to help Detroit win the game 2–1. Dressing for 81 games that season, he ranked seventh in team scoring with 45 points (16 goals and 29 assists). During the 2011 playoffs, he added 6 points (2 goals and 4 assists) over 11 games as the Red Wings were eliminated in the second round by the San Jose Sharks.
On February 23, 2012 Bertuzzi re-signed with the Red Wings for $4.15 million over two years. He dressed for seven games in the lockout-shortened 2012-2013 regular season due to injuries, producing three points, and was held pointless over six games in the playoffs. In the 2013–2014 season he played 59 games and produced 16 points, but was a healthy scratch 15 times; he played one playoff game without a point.
During his time with Detroit, he earned praise from head coach Mike Babcock and teammates for adapting his playing style to be more defensively responsible. Bertuzzi credited the influence of teammates Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, both successful two-way players in the league.
Binghamton Senators tryout and retirement (2015)
On January 9, 2015 he signed a professional tryout contract with the Ottawa Senators AHL affiliate the Binghamton Senators in hopes to get a contract with Ottawa.
Bertuzzi was released from his professional tryout offer with Binghamton on January 21, 2015, after posting no points and a minus-3 rating in his 2 games played with the Senators. He subsequently retired that year.
International play
Bertuzzi debuted internationally for Team Canada at the 1998 World Championships in Switzerland. He was among the youngest players selected to the team, along with Canucks teammate Bryan McCabe and Chicago Blackhawks forward Eric Dazé, who were all born in 1975 (third-string goaltender Christian Bronsard was two years younger, but did not play in any games). In six games, he recorded three points, as Canada failed to qualify for the medal rounds.
Two years later, Bertuzzi competed at the 2000 World Championships in St. Petersburg, Russia. One of five Canucks players chosen to the national team, he was joined by Adrian Aucoin, Ed Jovanovski, Brendan Morrison and Peter Schaefer. His second tournament appearance was more productive, as he scored nine points in nine games – first among Canadian players and fourth overall – while also leading the tournament in penalty minutes with 47. Canada did not medal, losing to Finland in the bronze medal game by a 2–1 score. His 63 total penalty minutes from both tournament appearances set an all-time Canadian record for World Championship competitors since 1977 (when Canada resumed competing in the tournament).
In December 2005, Bertuzzi was controversially selected to play for Team Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. His inclusion, along with that of Dany Heatley and Shane Doan, was discussed at length by the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC). The committee had concerns stemming from the Steve Moore incident and Bertuzzi's probationary status, but subsequently approved his representation of Canada at the Olympics. According to a Canadian Press article, "[COC president] Chambers said the [unusual meeting] was prompted by some media concerns raised over the three athletes participating in the Games. The fact it took the committee so long to approve the list means there was some debate."
Bertuzzi went on to post three points (all assists) at the 2006 Olympics, tying for second in team scoring with nine other players. Canada failed to advance past the quarterfinal, losing to Russia by a 2–0 score. They finished in seventh place overall after winning gold at the previous Winter Olympics in 2002.
Steve Moore Incident
On February 16, 2004, during a game between Vancouver and Colorado, Avalanche center Steve Moore checked Markus Näslund in the head, causing a minor concussion and a bone chip in his elbow. No penalty was assessed, and the league decided not to fine or suspend Moore, ruling the hit legal. Näslund missed three games as a result of the hit. In a rematch, with the Canucks trailing the Avalanche 8–2 in the third period, Bertuzzi began following Moore around the ice, attempting to provoke him into another fight. With Moore ignoring him, Bertuzzi grabbed Moore's jersey from behind and punched him in the side of the face from behind, with Moore's face hitting the ice as Bertuzzi pushed him, already out cold, into the ice, breaking his neck. Bertuzzi, as well as several other players from both teams, landed atop Moore as he fell to the ice. Bertuzzi was assessed a match penalty and ejected from the game. Per league rules, he was also suspended indefinitely pending a ruling from league commissioner Gary Bettman.
After lying on the ice for approximately 10 minutes, Moore was removed from the playing surface on a stretcher. He was treated for three fractured vertebrae in his neck, a grade three concussion, vertebral ligament damage, stretching of the brachial plexus nerves, and facial lacerations. He was also suffering from amnesia. Bertuzzi apologized to Moore and his family, as well as to Burke, Canucks owner John McCaw, Jr., the Canucks organization, his teammates, and the fans in a press conference two days later.
On March 11, 2004, the league ruled he would remain suspended for at least the remainder of the Canucks' season, which ultimately cost him the final 13 games of the regular season plus seven playoff games. The Canucks were additionally fined $250,000. While the following NHL season was suspended due to the 2004–05 lockout, Bertuzzi intended to play in Europe, but the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) extended his NHL suspension to cover their jurisdiction. Bertuzzi remained professionally inactive during the 2004–05 season. The IIHF's sanction also kept him from representing Canada in the 2004 and 2005 World Championships, as well as the 2004 World Cup.
Bettman scheduled a reinstatement hearing for Bertuzzi on April 26, 2005. The hearing was attended separately by Bertuzzi and Moore. Prior to the 2005–06 season, Bettman announced Bertuzzi's reinstatement on August 8, citing that "Mr. Bertuzzi had paid a very significant price for his conduct," adding that he felt Bertuzzi was "genuinely remorseful and apologetic." Bertuzzi's 17-month suspension caused him to miss a total of 20 games—the fourth-longest suspension in NHL history at the time. The suspension accounted for $501,926.39 in forfeited salary, as well as an approximate $350,000 in lost endorsements. On the day of his reinstatement, Team Canada's executive director, Wayne Gretzky, offered him a spot on the national team's summer orientation camp in preparation for the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Legal actions
After a four-month investigation, the criminal justice branch of the Attorney General of British Columbia announced formal charges of assault causing bodily harm against Bertuzzi on June 24, 2004. With the charge, Bertuzzi faced up to one-and-a-half years in prison. Bertuzzi pleaded guilty to the assault charge on December 22 after arranging a plea bargain with prosecutors. He was given a conditional discharge requiring 80 hours of community service and one year's probation that additionally prohibited him from playing in any hockey game Moore was competing in. Under Canadian law, Bertuzzi's successful completion of his probationary period precluded him from a criminal record. Moore expressed disappointment regarding Bertuzzi's discharge and was upset that he was unable to attend the court date, having to issue a written victim statement instead. Moore's lawyer, Tim Danson, was given one day's notice of the court date following Bertuzzi's plea bargain, which he said was insufficient time for Moore to travel to Vancouver.
On February 17, 2005, Moore filed a lawsuit in a Colorado court against Bertuzzi, numerous individuals within the Canucks organization, including Brad May (Bertuzzi's teammate at the time who was quoted as saying that there would "definitely be a price on Moore's head" after Moore's hit on Näslund), Brian Burke, Marc Crawford, as well as the Canucks organization as a whole and the Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment company that owned the team. The lawsuit was thrown out in October 2005, as the Colorado judge ruled the case was better suited for Canadian courts, as Moore and all the defendants were Canadian citizens. Planning to appeal the decision, Danson stated publicly the following month that Moore had begun skating and doing regular workouts, but continued to suffer concussion-related symptoms.
On February 16, 2006, Moore filed another lawsuit in the Ontario Superior Court against Bertuzzi, the Canucks, and Orca Bay, seeking CAD$15 million in pecuniary damages for loss of income, CAD$1 million for aggravated damages, and CAD$2 million for punitive damages. Moore's parents, who were watching their son on television when the attack happened, also sued, seeking CAD$1.5 million for "negligent infliction of nervous shock and mental distress". In December 2006, Bettman and top lieutenant Bill Daly facilitated a meeting between Moore's representatives and the defendants in hopes of agreeing on an out-of-court settlement. An out-of-court settlement was reached in Moore's lawsuit in October 2014. Terms of the settlement are confidential.
Personal life
Bertuzzi was born and raised in Sudbury, Ontario. His father, Albert Bertuzzi, is an Italian-Canadian who worked in the window-washing business. When Bertuzzi was a teenager, Albert survived a near-fatal car accident in which he was thrown from the vehicle through the windshield. His father has stated that he was proud of his own local reputation as a "dirty player" and referred to it as a "Bertuzzi trait". He has said that Bertuzzi takes after him in regards to his toughness and aggression. Bertuzzi's great-uncle, Larry Bertuzzi, is a Toronto-based lawyer who has done arbitration work for the NHL, including on the Eric Lindros trade.
Growing up, Bertuzzi played minor hockey with the Nickel Centre and Sudbury Minor Hockey programs. In 1990–91, Bertuzzi played as an underaged player in the major midget ranks with the Sudbury Capitals AAA team. Physically built as a power forward throughout his youth, he stood 6 feet and 2 inches (1.88 metres) and weighed 195 pounds (88.5 kilograms) by age 15.
Bertuzzi and his wife, Julie, were married in July 1996. They have two children born one-and-a-half years apart in Vancouver, a son named Tag and a daughter named Jaden. His son, Tag Bertuzzi, was drafted into the OHL by the Guelph Storm, 2nd overall in 2017. Bertuzzi is a recreational golfer and has credited the sport with allowing him to relax more as a hockey player. During his 10-game suspension from the NHL in October and November 2001, he played golf to focus his energy. Afterwards, he made it a custom to go to the driving range before every game.
Bertuzzi's nephew Tyler Bertuzzi plays hockey for the Detroit Red Wings.
Bertuzzi was arrested on February 27, 2021, and was detained at the Oakland County Jail in Michigan on suspicion of DUI.
Career statistics
Regular season and playoffs
International
Awards
Records
Guelph Storm team record; most goals, single season—54 in 1994–95 (surpassed Mike Prokopec, 52 goals in 1992–93)
Vancouver Canucks team record; longest point-scoring streak—15 games (7 goals, 12 assists; January 3 – February 4, 2003) (tied with Petr Nedved; November 19 – December 27, 1992)
Vancouver Canucks team record; most powerplay goals, single season—25 in 2002–03 (tied with Pavel Bure)
Transactions
June 26, 1993: Drafted 23rd overall by the New York Islanders
July 6, 1995: Signed to a four-year, $4.6 million contract with the New York Islanders
February 6, 1998: Traded to the Vancouver Canucks from the New York Islanders with Bryan McCabe and a 3rd round choice in 1998 (Jarkko Ruutu) for Trevor Linden
September 1999: Re-signed to a two-year contract with the Vancouver Canucks
October 27, 2003: Signed a four-year, $27.9 million contract extension with the Vancouver Canucks
March 11, 2004: Suspended indefinitely by the NHL for deliberate injury to Steve Moore in a game versus the Colorado Avalanche
August 8, 2005: Officially reinstated by the NHL
June 23, 2006: Traded to the Florida Panthers by the Vancouver Canucks with Bryan Allen and Alex Auld for Roberto Luongo, Lukas Krajicek and a sixth-round draft choice in 2006 (Sergei Shirokov)
February 27, 2007: Traded to the Detroit Red Wings by the Florida Panthers for prospect Shawn Matthias and conditional draft picks
July 2, 2007: Signed a two-year, $8 million contract as an unrestricted free agent with the Anaheim Ducks
June 28, 2008: Placed on waivers by the Anaheim Ducks; subsequently bought out
July 7, 2008: Signed a one-year $1.95 million contract as an unrestricted free agent with the Calgary Flames
August 18, 2009: Signed a one-year $1.5 million contract as an unrestricted free agent with the Detroit Red Wings
May 10, 2010: Signed a two-year, $3.85 million contract extension with the Detroit Red Wings
February 23, 2012: Signed a two-year, $4.15 million contract extension with the Detroit Red Wings
See also
List of NHL players with 1000 games played
References
Footnotes
Citations
External links
1975 births
Anaheim Ducks players
Binghamton Senators players
Calgary Flames players
Canadian ice hockey right wingers
Detroit Red Wings players
Florida Panthers players
Guelph Storm players
Ice hockey people from Ontario
Ice hockey players at the 2006 Winter Olympics
Living people
National Hockey League All-Stars
National Hockey League first round draft picks
New York Islanders draft picks
New York Islanders players
Olympic ice hockey players of Canada
Sportspeople from Greater Sudbury
Utah Grizzlies (IHL) players
Vancouver Canucks players
Violence in sports
Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States
Canadian people of Italian descent | false | [
"What Price Glory?! is a role-playing game published by James Lauffenburger in 1978.\n\nDescription\nWhat Price Glory?! is a fantasy system, basically a variant of Original D&D, with a hex-grid position-based combat system and a spell-point system for magic.\n\nPublication history\nWhat Price Glory?! was designed by John Dankert and Jim Lauffenburger, and published by James Lauffenburger in 1978 as a 140-page digest-sized book. The print run was 500 copies, of which 300 were distributed by Gamescience. Artwork was performed by Thomas E. Sprimont.\n\nReception\n\nReferences\n\nFantasy role-playing games\nRole-playing games introduced in 1978",
"Damarius Bilbo (born December 3, 1982) is an American sports agent and former American football player. He played college football at Georgia Tech as a quarterback and wide receiver.\n\nHigh school \nBilbo attended Moss Point High School and was a three year letterman and All-American in American football and baseball. In football, he was named the Dick Butkus Football Network National High School Player of the Year (after beating out Cedric Benson, formerly of the Cincinnati Bengals), Mississippi Player of the Year by USA Today and Gatorade. Seen by most sports writers as the best \"true quarterback\" in the state of Mississippi since Steve McNair and Brett Favre. In baseball, he garnered ALL-American honors and was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2001 Major League Baseball drafted as a pitcher and center field after being clocked with a 96 mph fastball.\n\nCollege football \nHe had a medical redshirt in 2001 (broken thumb) after what looked to be a promising freshman year, and played backup quarterback in 2002. Bilbo did see extensive playing time in the second half of the Silicon Valley Football Classic (bowl) in relief of starter A.J. Suggs. He contended for the starting job during fall camp in 2003 was moved from the position by Coach Chan Gailey after what Gailey called \"a great spring.\" Eventually 4yr starter Reggie Ball moved into the position. Bilbo was later relegated to wide receiver, leaving school that same summer to play baseball, but later returned and found success at that position, starting all 12 games his senior season opposite Calvin Johnson making them one of the top receiving duos in college football. He was invited to the Hula Bowl all-star game in Hawaii. Bilbo graduated in 2005 with a degree in management information technology and industrial design.\n\nProfessional career \nBilbo was undrafted in the 2006 NFL Draft, but was signed as a free-agent by the Arizona Cardinals. He was released by the Cardinals in preseason, but immediately signed by the Dallas Cowboys. He was cut from the active roster but signed to the practice squad. He helped the Cowboys prepare for their week 4 meeting with the Tennessee Titans by simulating Vince Young in practice and also Michael Vick and Donovan McNabb respectively. He was cut from the squad in mid-October in favor of ex-Seattle Seahawks Jerheme Urban after injuring the finger on his throwing hand. He was re-signed to the Cowboys in November and coach Bill Parcells called him \"a very promising player\" and had plans of moving him to safety because of his athletic ability and smarts.\n\nPost-playing career \nAfter his playing career ended, Bilbo became an agent by representing Jarvis Landry, Melvin Gordon and Alvin Kamara. In 2019, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports Group hired Bilbo, expanding the company's clientele into NFL sports.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Georgia Tech profile\n\n1982 births\nLiving people\nPeople from Moss Point, Mississippi\nAmerican football wide receivers\nGeorgia Tech Yellow Jackets football players\nAmerican sports agents"
]
|
[
"Todd Bertuzzi",
"Guelph Storm (1991-95)",
"When did Bertuzzi make his debut with the Storm?",
"The NHL Central Scouting Bureau described Bertuzzi as a physical and strong player with good skating who checks hard and is offensively effective in close proximity to the net.",
"How did he do in the 1991 season?",
"After playing for two minor hockey teams based out of Sudbury, Ontario in 1990-91, Bertuzzi was selected in the first round (fifth overall) by the Guelph Storm",
"What were his stats like in 1991?",
"started his OHL career for Guelph in 1991-92, recording 21 points over 42 games as a rookie.",
"What position was he playing in 1991?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_40acc9f3ce424ca48b13ddefa5d4c640_1 | Ws he on the starting team? | 5 | Was Bertuzzi on the starting team? | Todd Bertuzzi | After playing for two minor hockey teams based out of Sudbury, Ontario in 1990-91, Bertuzzi was selected in the first round (fifth overall) by the Guelph Storm in the 1991 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) Priority Selection. His future coach with the Vancouver Canucks, Marc Crawford, passed on Bertuzzi during the draft while he was general manager of the Cornwall Royals; he has recalled not selecting him due to "maturity issues" and that he was "a big kid who hadn't grown into his body yet." Bertuzzi started his OHL career for Guelph in 1991-92, recording 21 points over 42 games as a rookie. He missed the last 15 games of the regular season due to suspension as a result of kicking opposing defenceman Brad Barton during a contest between the Storm and Kitchener Rangers. After improving to 58 points over 60 games in 1992-93, he was selected 23rd overall by the New York Islanders in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. The NHL Central Scouting Bureau described Bertuzzi as a physical and strong player with good skating who checks hard and is offensively effective in close proximity to the net. Following his NHL draft, he underwent surgery for chipped bones in his left elbow in August 1993. As a result, he was unable to participate in the Islanders' training camp in September and was returned to the OHL. Playing in his third season for Guelph, he improved to 28 goals and 82 points over 61 games. Bertuzzi competed for an Islanders' roster spot at their 1994 training camp, but was sent back to his junior team after going scoreless in three exhibition games. During his last campaign with Guelph in 1994-95, he recorded 119 points - sixth overall in the league. His 54 goals established a single-season team record, beating Mike Prokopec's mark, set the previous year, by two goals. The Storm's forward tandem of Bertuzzi and Jeff O'Neill, who finished fourth in league scoring, led the club to the best regular season record in the league. He went on to add a team-leading 33 points in 14 playoff games, en route to an OHL Finals loss to the Detroit Junior Red Wings. After four seasons with Guelph, he left the club ranked third all-time in career points with 280, behind O'Neill and Martin St. Pierre. CANNOTANSWER | He missed the last 15 games of the regular season due to suspension | Todd Bertuzzi (born February 2, 1975) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey winger of the National Hockey League (NHL). Known as a power forward, he has played in the NHL for the New York Islanders, Vancouver Canucks, Florida Panthers, Anaheim Ducks, Calgary Flames and Detroit Red Wings. He is widely known for his role in the Todd Bertuzzi–Steve Moore incident, for which he was suspended by the NHL and IIHF, and criminally charged.
Selected 23rd overall by the New York Islanders in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft, he played at the junior level with the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) for four seasons. In 1995–96, he played his rookie season with the Islanders. After two-and-a-half seasons with the Islanders, he was traded to the Vancouver Canucks. Bertuzzi enjoyed the most successful seasons of his career with the Canucks—his longest tenured team in the NHL—including NHL First Team All-Star honours in 2003. In 2006, after seven-and-a-half seasons with Vancouver, Bertuzzi was dealt to the Florida Panthers, with whom he briefly played for until being traded again to the Red Wings. He then played single seasons with the Anaheim Ducks and the Calgary Flames before returning to Detroit in 2009 and finishing his career there. Internationally, Bertuzzi has competed for Team Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, as well as the 1998 and 2000 World Championships.
He is the uncle of Tyler Bertuzzi who currently plays for the Detroit Red Wings.
Playing career
Guelph Storm (1991–95)
After playing for two minor hockey teams based out of Sudbury, Ontario in 1990–91, Bertuzzi was selected in the first round (fifth overall) by the Guelph Storm in the 1991 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) Priority Selection. His future coach with the Vancouver Canucks, Marc Crawford, passed on Bertuzzi during the draft while he was general manager of the Cornwall Royals; he has recalled not selecting him due to "maturity issues" and that he was "a big kid who hadn't grown into his body yet." Bertuzzi started his OHL career for Guelph in 1991–92, recording 21 points over 42 games as a rookie. He missed the last 15 games of the regular season due to suspension as a result of kicking opposing defenceman Brad Barton during a contest between the Storm and Kitchener Rangers. After improving to 58 points over 60 games in 1992–93, he was selected 23rd overall by the New York Islanders in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. The NHL Central Scouting Bureau described Bertuzzi as a physical and strong player with good skating who checks hard and is offensively effective in close proximity to the net.
Following his NHL draft, he underwent surgery for chipped bones in his left elbow in August 1993. As a result, he was unable to participate in the Islanders' training camp in September and was returned to the OHL. Playing in his third season for Guelph, he improved to 28 goals and 82 points over 61 games. Bertuzzi competed for an Islanders' roster spot at their 1994 training camp, but was sent back to his junior team after going scoreless in three exhibition games.
During his last campaign with Guelph in 1994–95, he recorded 119 points – sixth overall in the league. His 54 goals established a single-season team record, beating Mike Prokopec's mark, set the previous year, by two goals. The Storm's forward tandem of Bertuzzi and Jeff O'Neill, who finished fourth in league scoring, led the club to the best regular season record in the league. He went on to add a team-leading 33 points in 14 playoff games, en route to an OHL Finals loss to the Detroit Junior Red Wings. After four seasons with Guelph, he left the club ranked third all-time in career points with 280, behind O'Neill and Martin St. Pierre.
New York Islanders (1995–98)
Two years after his draft, Bertuzzi and the Islanders had not yet been agreed to a contract. With Bertuzzi eligible to re-enter the draft if the Islanders did not sign him by July 7, 1995, general manager Don Maloney made it apparent that he would use the team's second overall pick in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft to select him again if a contract could not be agreed upon by the required date. Moments before the midnight deadline, the Islanders were able to sign Bertuzzi to a four-year, US$4.6 million contract. His agent, Pat Morris, had reportedly wanted a similar deal to that of fellow Islanders prospect Brett Lindros – a five-year, $6.7 million contract signed the previous summer.
During training camp in September 1995, Islanders head coach Mike Milbury heralded Bertuzzi as the team's best performing forward. Making his NHL debut on October 7, 1995, he scored a wrap around goal against goaltender Blaine Lacher in a 4–4 tie with the Boston Bruins. Beginning the season on the team's top line with Žigmund Pálffy and Travis Green, Bertuzzi finished his rookie year with 18 goals and 39 points over 76 games. The following season, Bertuzzi recorded 23 points in 64 games. The Islanders did not qualify for the playoffs in either of his two full seasons with the club, ranking second-last in the Eastern Conference in 1995–96 and 1996–97.
Bertuzzi's playing style as a power forward resulted in comparisons to former Islander Clark Gillies. As a result, the club hired Gillies to personally mentor Bertuzzi. Failing to meet lofty expectations from the club, Gillies once said of Bertuzzi, "If you're built like a freight train, you can't drive around like a Volkswagen." Feeling burdened with the pressure of playing up to the club's expectations while his offensive production diminished, he requested to be traded away at one point during the 1996–97 season. In response, Milbury, who had also taken over general manager duties the previous season, demoted Bertuzzi to the Islanders' minor league affiliate, the Utah Grizzlies of the International Hockey League (IHL). Playing 13 games in the minors, he registered 10 points before being called back up to the NHL. During the 1997–98 campaign, he continued to score below his pace as a rookie. On February 6, 1998, he was traded along with defenceman Bryan McCabe and a third-round selection in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft (Jarkko Ruutu) to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for veteran forward Trevor Linden. The deal was made prior to the NHL's roster freeze in preparation for the 1998 Winter Olympics.
Bertuzzi and McCabe had both been widely regarded as the players of the future for New York after their respective drafts in 1993. While Milbury expressed regret at having to trade McCabe, relations between Bertuzzi and the club were strained. Welcoming the trade, Bertuzzi commented that "things weren't working out [in New York]."
Vancouver Canucks (1998–2006)
Bertuzzi immediately began producing with Vancouver, tallying 15 points in 22 games after the trade. Combined with his totals from New York, he finished with 33 points over 74 games in 1997–98. Contrasting his strained relationship with Milbury in New York, Canucks head coach Mike Keenan has recalled his experience with Bertuzzi upon his arrival as positive: "He came as a young player and he was very open-minded about learning about the game." Similar to the Islanders, Bertuzzi joined a struggling club in Vancouver; the team finished last in the Western Conference in his first two seasons after the trade.
After beginning the 1998–99 season on the Canucks' top line, Bertuzzi was limited to 32 games due to injuries, the first of which was a fractured tibia. He suffered the injury on November 1, 1998, after a shot by teammate Mattias Öhlund hit him in the leg. His season was later ended with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee, suffered during a game on March 5, 1999. He recorded 8 goals and 16 points in 1998–99. In the off-season, Bertuzzi became a restricted free agent and was re-signed by the Canucks to a two-year contract in September 1999. The deal was reported by The Vancouver Sun to be worth a little over $2 million.
Returning from injury the following season, Bertuzzi emerged as one of the Canucks' best offensive contributors, finishing with 25 goals (second on the team to Markus Näslund) and 50 points in 1999–2000. At the end of the season, he received the team's Most Exciting Player Award, as voted by the fans. He received the distinction three more times during his career with the Canucks from 2002 to 2004). Meanwhile, the Canucks began improving as a team, finishing four points out of a playoff spot in the West in 2000.
The following season, Bertuzzi recorded his first career NHL hat trick, recording all three goals on the power play against San Jose Sharks goaltender Evgeni Nabokov in a 6–3 win on December 30, 2000. Bertuzzi recorded a second consecutive 25-goal season in 2000–01, adding 30 assists for 55 points, third in team scoring behind Näslund and Andrew Cassels. His -18 plus-minus rating, however, was a team-worst. The Canucks continued to improve, qualifying for the post-season for the first time in five years. Entering the 2001 playoffs as the final and eighth seed in the West, they were eliminated in the first round by the Colorado Avalanche. Bertuzzi scored two goals and two assists over four games in his first NHL post-season appearance. In the off-season, Bertuzzi filed for salary arbitration after initially failing to come to terms on a new contract with the Canucks. Both sides avoided arbitration by agreeing to a three-year deal on July 26, 2001.
In the first month of the 2001–02 season, Bertuzzi received an automatic 10-game suspension from the league (forfeiting $118,557 in salary) after leaving the bench to help teammate Ed Jovanovski in a fight. The incident occurred during a game against the Colorado Avalanche in which opposing coach Bob Hartley sent enforcer Scott Parker onto the ice as the extra attacker during a delayed penalty. Parker proceeded to physically engage Jovanovski, at which point Bertuzzi left the bench to help his teammate. Vancouver struggled with him out of the lineup, winning 3 games during the 10-game span. Two months after returning from suspension, Bertuzzi went 15 consecutive games with at least a point, scoring 7 goals and 12 assists from January 3 – February 4, 2002. The streak tied Petr Nedvěd for the longest in Canucks history. During that span, in a game on January 9, Canucks head coach Marc Crawford replaced Andrew Cassels with Brendan Morrison, marking the beginning of what was considered by many to be the most effective line combination in the league for several seasons. Bertuzzi had emerged as an effective power forward, able to use his size and strength to position himself in front of the net, with good stickhandling ability. According to Canucks assistant coach Jack McIlhargey, Bertuzzi's skill set favourably complemented Näslund's goal-scoring and Morrison's playmaking abilities. The trio were dubbed by Vancouver media as the "West Coast Express", named after the city's commuter rail service of the same name.
Late in the 2001–02 season, Bertuzzi recorded his second career hat-trick on March 19, 2002, during a win against the New York Rangers. He scored his first two goals of the game against Dan Blackburn and his third into an empty net. Despite missing ten games from his suspension, Bertuzzi finished the 2001–02 season third in league-scoring with 85 points, behind Näslund and Calgary Flames forward Jarome Iginla. His 1.18 points-per-game average ranked second in the NHL behind Mario Lemieux, who played 48 fewer games than Bertuzzi. He also improved his plus-minus rating by 39 points from the previous season, finishing a career-high +21. Although the Canucks were the league's highest scoring team, they finished with the final seed in the West for the 2002 playoffs, ranking eighth in their conference. Facing the Detroit Red Wings in the opening round, they were eliminated in six games. Bertuzzi recorded four points in the series.
The following season, Bertuzzi appeared in his first NHL All-Star Game. He was joined by fellow Canucks Markus Näslund, defenceman Ed Jovanovski and head coach Marc Crawford, helping the Western Conference to a 6–5 shootout win against the East. He played on a line with Näslund and Peter Forsberg. Later in the season, he scored his third career hat-trick on March 17, 2003, scoring three goals against Ron Tugnutt in a game against the Dallas Stars. He finished the season with career-highs of 46 goals (third in the league), 51 assists and 97 points (fifth in the league). His 25 power play goals led the NHL and tied Pavel Bure for the Canucks' single-season record. Linemates Näslund and Morrison also recorded personal bests with 104 and 71 points, respectively. Meanwhile, the Canucks emerged as a top team in the West. Losing the Northwest Division title to the Avalanche by one point in the regular season, they finished as the fourth seed in their conference. After going down three-games-to-one in the opening round against the St. Louis Blues, Vancouver won three straight games to advance to the second round. Facing the Minnesota Wild, the Canucks gave up their own three-games-to-one series lead and were eliminated in seven games. During the series, Bertuzzi had reportedly walked by the Xcel Energy Center box office and told Wild fans they would not need their Game 6 tickets because Minnesota would be eliminated by then. In another on-ice incident, he skated by the opposing bench during Game 7 when the Canucks were winning 2–0, telling Wild players to "get [their] golf clubs". Despite his successful regular season, Bertuzzi struggled to score in the playoffs, recording 6 points in 14 games. In the off-season, Bertuzzi was named with Näslund to the NHL First All-Star Team.
With Bertuzzi entering the final year of his contract, the Canucks began negotiating a contract extension prior to the 2003–04 season. Despite Bertuzzi's agent, Pat Morris, declaring that they would cease negotiations once the season began, Bertuzzi signed a four-year, $27.8 million deal with the Canucks on October 23, 2003. The contract took effect immediately, erasing the last year on his previous contract, and included a $3 million signing bonus ($2.5 million paid in the first year and $500,000 in the second). The deal paid him $4.3 million the first year, $6.633 million the second year and $6.933 million for the third and fourth years.
In January 2004, Bertuzzi was voted by league fans to the starting lineup of the NHL All-Star Game. Representing the Western Conference alongside Näslund and Canucks head coach Marc Crawford, they were defeated by the East 6–4. Bertuzzi had two assists while playing on a line with Näslund and Joe Sakic. Nearing the end of the 2003–04 season, Bertuzzi was indefinitely suspended by the NHL for punching Colorado Avalanche forward Steve Moore from behind and driving his head into the ice during a game on March 8, 2004. His actions were a retaliation to a hit from Moore on Näslund during a previous game. Sitting out the remainder of the regular season and playoffs due to his suspension, he finished 2003–04 with 60 points over 69 games. Vancouver replaced Bertuzzi on the team's top line with Matt Cooke and went on to their first Northwest Division title, before being eliminated in the first round of the 2004 playoffs by the Calgary Flames.
Inactive in 2004–05 due to the players lockout and his ongoing suspension, which had been extended internationally, Bertuzzi returned to the Canucks in 2005–06, as the league ended his playing ban. He recorded 25 goals and 71 points, including two hat tricks (November 13, 2005, against the Detroit Red Wings and January 14, 2006, against the New York Islanders). Though he ranked third in team scoring, Crawford has recalled that by the end of the season, Näslund and Bertuzzi had been eclipsed by Daniel and Henrik Sedin as the team's offensive leaders.
There was speculation that the effects of the Steve Moore incident, which included assault charges and constant media coverage, were negatively affecting his play. While on the road, he was consistently heckled and booed by fans throughout the NHL. Näslund, a close friend of Bertuzzi's, later expressed sympathy for him, saying in a 2008 interview, "It still bothers me what Todd has had to go through...There's no question he was standing up for me...it all went too far."
Beyond the negative impact on Bertuzzi's individual play, the media speculated that the fallout from the Moore incident had become a distraction to the organization as a whole. Compounding the situation in Vancouver, the Canucks had missed the playoffs for the first time in four years. As such, general manager Dave Nonis spent the off-season making significant changes to the Canucks lineup. On June 23, 2006, he traded Bertuzzi to the Florida Panthers, along with goaltender Alex Auld and defenceman Bryan Allen, in exchange for goaltender Roberto Luongo, defenceman Lukáš Krajíček and a sixth-round selection in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft (Sergei Shirokov). After seven-and-a-half seasons with the Canucks, Bertuzzi left the club ranked seventh all-time among franchise scoring leaders with 449 points.
Florida, Detroit, and Anaheim (2006–08)
Instrumental in facilitating the trade to Florida was Bertuzzi's positive relationship with Panthers general manager Mike Keenan, who was his first coach in Vancouver. Debuting with the Panthers on October 6, 2006, Bertuzzi scored a goal and three assists in an 8–3 win against the Boston Bruins. He appeared in six more games for Florida, notching seven points total, before being sidelined with back spasms. After being diagnosed with a herniated disc in early-November, Bertuzzi opted for surgery, which kept him out of the lineup for five months. While recovering, the Panthers dealt him to the Detroit Red Wings at the trade deadline in exchange for forward prospect Shawn Matthias and conditional draft picks. Bertuzzi was in the last year of his contract with no guarantee he would re-sign with Florida in the off-season.
Bertuzzi returned to action on March 22, 2007, debuting with his new team in a 2–1 shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Eight days later, he scored his first goal as a Red Wing in a 4–3 shootout loss to the Dallas Stars. On April 7, he suffered a neck injury that kept him out of the lineup for the last game of the regular season and the first two games of the 2007 playoffs. He finished the campaign with 11 points in 15 games split between Florida and Detroit. During the playoffs, the Red Wings advanced to the Western Conference Finals, where they lost in six games to the Anaheim Ducks, who went on to win the Stanley Cup. Bertuzzi recorded 7 points in 16 playoff games.
Becoming an unrestricted free agent in the off-season, Bertuzzi agreed to a two-year, $8 million contract with the Anaheim Ducks on July 2, 2007. Signing him was Ducks general manager Brian Burke, who had served as the Canucks general manager during Bertuzzi's time in Vancouver. Bertuzzi had reportedly been in negotiations to re-sign with Detroit, but the club only wanted a one-year deal. Playing the Red Wings in the Ducks' first game of the regular season on October 3, 2007, he registered a goal and an assist in a 3–2 shootout loss. In the first month of the 2007–08 campaign, he suffered a concussion and was sidelined for 14 games in October and November 2007. Bertuzzi returned to the lineup in time for the Ducks' away game against the Canucks on November 27, which marked his first NHL game in Vancouver since being traded away. Bertuzzi was received warmly by Canucks fans, as the Ducks lost the game 4–0. Playing in 68 contests over the season, he registered 40 points with Anaheim. Entering the 2008 playoffs as the defending champions, the Ducks were eliminated in the first round four games to two by the Dallas Stars. In six playoff contests, Bertuzzi recorded two assists.
Calgary Flames (2008–09)
During the subsequent summer, several Ducks players were set to become free agents, including high-profile forward Corey Perry. Requiring additional salary cap space to make room for defenceman Scott Niedermayer, who announced he was returning for another season, Bertuzzi was placed on unconditional waivers with the intention of buying out the remaining year on his contract. Addressing Bertuzzi's buy out with the media, Burke asserted that he "believe[d] [Bertuzzi] can still play at the NHL level," and that the Ducks were merely "handcuffed by [their] salary cap situation." Bertuzzi once again became an unrestricted free agent and signed a one-year, $1.95 million contract with the Calgary Flames on July 7, 2008. Joining Calgary, he was reunited with Flames coach Mike Keenan. Before the start of the 2008–09 season, Bertuzzi switched jersey numbers from 4 to 7, in honour of his boyhood idol, Phil Esposito. The numbers 44, which Bertuzzi wore in New York, Vancouver and Detroit, and 4, which he wore in Anaheim, were already taken in Calgary.
Bertuzzi scored his first goal with the Flames, deflecting a Dion Phaneuf shot, on October 11, 2008, in a 5–4 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks. While initial fan reaction to Bertuzzi was negative due to his previous role with the division-rival Canucks, as well as his reputation following the Steve Moore incident, he was eventually accepted in Calgary. In January 2009, he missed five games due to a back injury. Several months later, he was sidelined again with a knee injury and underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair damaged cartilage on March 3, 2009. Missing 11 games, he returned in time for the 2009 playoffs, where the Flames were eliminated by the Chicago Blackhawks in the opening round. He finished his only season in Calgary with 44 points in 66 regular season games, while adding a goal and an assist in six playoff contests.
Return to Detroit (2009–2014)
On August 18, 2009, Bertuzzi re-joined the Red Wings by accepting a one-year contract with the club worth $1.5 million. He recorded 44 points (18 goals and 26 assists) in 2009–10, ranking fifth in team scoring. During the second round of the 2010 playoffs, Bertuzzi recorded a career-high five-point contest (a goal and four assists) in a Game 4 victory against the San Jose Sharks. Bertuzzi finished with a playoffs career-high 11 points in 12 games.
In the off-season, Bertuzzi signed a two-year, $3.875 million contract extension with the Red Wings on June 16, 2010. During the 2010–11 season, he appeared in his 1,000th NHL game on February 20, 2011, against the Minnesota Wild. Bertuzzi scored a shootout goal to help Detroit win the game 2–1. Dressing for 81 games that season, he ranked seventh in team scoring with 45 points (16 goals and 29 assists). During the 2011 playoffs, he added 6 points (2 goals and 4 assists) over 11 games as the Red Wings were eliminated in the second round by the San Jose Sharks.
On February 23, 2012 Bertuzzi re-signed with the Red Wings for $4.15 million over two years. He dressed for seven games in the lockout-shortened 2012-2013 regular season due to injuries, producing three points, and was held pointless over six games in the playoffs. In the 2013–2014 season he played 59 games and produced 16 points, but was a healthy scratch 15 times; he played one playoff game without a point.
During his time with Detroit, he earned praise from head coach Mike Babcock and teammates for adapting his playing style to be more defensively responsible. Bertuzzi credited the influence of teammates Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, both successful two-way players in the league.
Binghamton Senators tryout and retirement (2015)
On January 9, 2015 he signed a professional tryout contract with the Ottawa Senators AHL affiliate the Binghamton Senators in hopes to get a contract with Ottawa.
Bertuzzi was released from his professional tryout offer with Binghamton on January 21, 2015, after posting no points and a minus-3 rating in his 2 games played with the Senators. He subsequently retired that year.
International play
Bertuzzi debuted internationally for Team Canada at the 1998 World Championships in Switzerland. He was among the youngest players selected to the team, along with Canucks teammate Bryan McCabe and Chicago Blackhawks forward Eric Dazé, who were all born in 1975 (third-string goaltender Christian Bronsard was two years younger, but did not play in any games). In six games, he recorded three points, as Canada failed to qualify for the medal rounds.
Two years later, Bertuzzi competed at the 2000 World Championships in St. Petersburg, Russia. One of five Canucks players chosen to the national team, he was joined by Adrian Aucoin, Ed Jovanovski, Brendan Morrison and Peter Schaefer. His second tournament appearance was more productive, as he scored nine points in nine games – first among Canadian players and fourth overall – while also leading the tournament in penalty minutes with 47. Canada did not medal, losing to Finland in the bronze medal game by a 2–1 score. His 63 total penalty minutes from both tournament appearances set an all-time Canadian record for World Championship competitors since 1977 (when Canada resumed competing in the tournament).
In December 2005, Bertuzzi was controversially selected to play for Team Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. His inclusion, along with that of Dany Heatley and Shane Doan, was discussed at length by the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC). The committee had concerns stemming from the Steve Moore incident and Bertuzzi's probationary status, but subsequently approved his representation of Canada at the Olympics. According to a Canadian Press article, "[COC president] Chambers said the [unusual meeting] was prompted by some media concerns raised over the three athletes participating in the Games. The fact it took the committee so long to approve the list means there was some debate."
Bertuzzi went on to post three points (all assists) at the 2006 Olympics, tying for second in team scoring with nine other players. Canada failed to advance past the quarterfinal, losing to Russia by a 2–0 score. They finished in seventh place overall after winning gold at the previous Winter Olympics in 2002.
Steve Moore Incident
On February 16, 2004, during a game between Vancouver and Colorado, Avalanche center Steve Moore checked Markus Näslund in the head, causing a minor concussion and a bone chip in his elbow. No penalty was assessed, and the league decided not to fine or suspend Moore, ruling the hit legal. Näslund missed three games as a result of the hit. In a rematch, with the Canucks trailing the Avalanche 8–2 in the third period, Bertuzzi began following Moore around the ice, attempting to provoke him into another fight. With Moore ignoring him, Bertuzzi grabbed Moore's jersey from behind and punched him in the side of the face from behind, with Moore's face hitting the ice as Bertuzzi pushed him, already out cold, into the ice, breaking his neck. Bertuzzi, as well as several other players from both teams, landed atop Moore as he fell to the ice. Bertuzzi was assessed a match penalty and ejected from the game. Per league rules, he was also suspended indefinitely pending a ruling from league commissioner Gary Bettman.
After lying on the ice for approximately 10 minutes, Moore was removed from the playing surface on a stretcher. He was treated for three fractured vertebrae in his neck, a grade three concussion, vertebral ligament damage, stretching of the brachial plexus nerves, and facial lacerations. He was also suffering from amnesia. Bertuzzi apologized to Moore and his family, as well as to Burke, Canucks owner John McCaw, Jr., the Canucks organization, his teammates, and the fans in a press conference two days later.
On March 11, 2004, the league ruled he would remain suspended for at least the remainder of the Canucks' season, which ultimately cost him the final 13 games of the regular season plus seven playoff games. The Canucks were additionally fined $250,000. While the following NHL season was suspended due to the 2004–05 lockout, Bertuzzi intended to play in Europe, but the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) extended his NHL suspension to cover their jurisdiction. Bertuzzi remained professionally inactive during the 2004–05 season. The IIHF's sanction also kept him from representing Canada in the 2004 and 2005 World Championships, as well as the 2004 World Cup.
Bettman scheduled a reinstatement hearing for Bertuzzi on April 26, 2005. The hearing was attended separately by Bertuzzi and Moore. Prior to the 2005–06 season, Bettman announced Bertuzzi's reinstatement on August 8, citing that "Mr. Bertuzzi had paid a very significant price for his conduct," adding that he felt Bertuzzi was "genuinely remorseful and apologetic." Bertuzzi's 17-month suspension caused him to miss a total of 20 games—the fourth-longest suspension in NHL history at the time. The suspension accounted for $501,926.39 in forfeited salary, as well as an approximate $350,000 in lost endorsements. On the day of his reinstatement, Team Canada's executive director, Wayne Gretzky, offered him a spot on the national team's summer orientation camp in preparation for the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Legal actions
After a four-month investigation, the criminal justice branch of the Attorney General of British Columbia announced formal charges of assault causing bodily harm against Bertuzzi on June 24, 2004. With the charge, Bertuzzi faced up to one-and-a-half years in prison. Bertuzzi pleaded guilty to the assault charge on December 22 after arranging a plea bargain with prosecutors. He was given a conditional discharge requiring 80 hours of community service and one year's probation that additionally prohibited him from playing in any hockey game Moore was competing in. Under Canadian law, Bertuzzi's successful completion of his probationary period precluded him from a criminal record. Moore expressed disappointment regarding Bertuzzi's discharge and was upset that he was unable to attend the court date, having to issue a written victim statement instead. Moore's lawyer, Tim Danson, was given one day's notice of the court date following Bertuzzi's plea bargain, which he said was insufficient time for Moore to travel to Vancouver.
On February 17, 2005, Moore filed a lawsuit in a Colorado court against Bertuzzi, numerous individuals within the Canucks organization, including Brad May (Bertuzzi's teammate at the time who was quoted as saying that there would "definitely be a price on Moore's head" after Moore's hit on Näslund), Brian Burke, Marc Crawford, as well as the Canucks organization as a whole and the Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment company that owned the team. The lawsuit was thrown out in October 2005, as the Colorado judge ruled the case was better suited for Canadian courts, as Moore and all the defendants were Canadian citizens. Planning to appeal the decision, Danson stated publicly the following month that Moore had begun skating and doing regular workouts, but continued to suffer concussion-related symptoms.
On February 16, 2006, Moore filed another lawsuit in the Ontario Superior Court against Bertuzzi, the Canucks, and Orca Bay, seeking CAD$15 million in pecuniary damages for loss of income, CAD$1 million for aggravated damages, and CAD$2 million for punitive damages. Moore's parents, who were watching their son on television when the attack happened, also sued, seeking CAD$1.5 million for "negligent infliction of nervous shock and mental distress". In December 2006, Bettman and top lieutenant Bill Daly facilitated a meeting between Moore's representatives and the defendants in hopes of agreeing on an out-of-court settlement. An out-of-court settlement was reached in Moore's lawsuit in October 2014. Terms of the settlement are confidential.
Personal life
Bertuzzi was born and raised in Sudbury, Ontario. His father, Albert Bertuzzi, is an Italian-Canadian who worked in the window-washing business. When Bertuzzi was a teenager, Albert survived a near-fatal car accident in which he was thrown from the vehicle through the windshield. His father has stated that he was proud of his own local reputation as a "dirty player" and referred to it as a "Bertuzzi trait". He has said that Bertuzzi takes after him in regards to his toughness and aggression. Bertuzzi's great-uncle, Larry Bertuzzi, is a Toronto-based lawyer who has done arbitration work for the NHL, including on the Eric Lindros trade.
Growing up, Bertuzzi played minor hockey with the Nickel Centre and Sudbury Minor Hockey programs. In 1990–91, Bertuzzi played as an underaged player in the major midget ranks with the Sudbury Capitals AAA team. Physically built as a power forward throughout his youth, he stood 6 feet and 2 inches (1.88 metres) and weighed 195 pounds (88.5 kilograms) by age 15.
Bertuzzi and his wife, Julie, were married in July 1996. They have two children born one-and-a-half years apart in Vancouver, a son named Tag and a daughter named Jaden. His son, Tag Bertuzzi, was drafted into the OHL by the Guelph Storm, 2nd overall in 2017. Bertuzzi is a recreational golfer and has credited the sport with allowing him to relax more as a hockey player. During his 10-game suspension from the NHL in October and November 2001, he played golf to focus his energy. Afterwards, he made it a custom to go to the driving range before every game.
Bertuzzi's nephew Tyler Bertuzzi plays hockey for the Detroit Red Wings.
Bertuzzi was arrested on February 27, 2021, and was detained at the Oakland County Jail in Michigan on suspicion of DUI.
Career statistics
Regular season and playoffs
International
Awards
Records
Guelph Storm team record; most goals, single season—54 in 1994–95 (surpassed Mike Prokopec, 52 goals in 1992–93)
Vancouver Canucks team record; longest point-scoring streak—15 games (7 goals, 12 assists; January 3 – February 4, 2003) (tied with Petr Nedved; November 19 – December 27, 1992)
Vancouver Canucks team record; most powerplay goals, single season—25 in 2002–03 (tied with Pavel Bure)
Transactions
June 26, 1993: Drafted 23rd overall by the New York Islanders
July 6, 1995: Signed to a four-year, $4.6 million contract with the New York Islanders
February 6, 1998: Traded to the Vancouver Canucks from the New York Islanders with Bryan McCabe and a 3rd round choice in 1998 (Jarkko Ruutu) for Trevor Linden
September 1999: Re-signed to a two-year contract with the Vancouver Canucks
October 27, 2003: Signed a four-year, $27.9 million contract extension with the Vancouver Canucks
March 11, 2004: Suspended indefinitely by the NHL for deliberate injury to Steve Moore in a game versus the Colorado Avalanche
August 8, 2005: Officially reinstated by the NHL
June 23, 2006: Traded to the Florida Panthers by the Vancouver Canucks with Bryan Allen and Alex Auld for Roberto Luongo, Lukas Krajicek and a sixth-round draft choice in 2006 (Sergei Shirokov)
February 27, 2007: Traded to the Detroit Red Wings by the Florida Panthers for prospect Shawn Matthias and conditional draft picks
July 2, 2007: Signed a two-year, $8 million contract as an unrestricted free agent with the Anaheim Ducks
June 28, 2008: Placed on waivers by the Anaheim Ducks; subsequently bought out
July 7, 2008: Signed a one-year $1.95 million contract as an unrestricted free agent with the Calgary Flames
August 18, 2009: Signed a one-year $1.5 million contract as an unrestricted free agent with the Detroit Red Wings
May 10, 2010: Signed a two-year, $3.85 million contract extension with the Detroit Red Wings
February 23, 2012: Signed a two-year, $4.15 million contract extension with the Detroit Red Wings
See also
List of NHL players with 1000 games played
References
Footnotes
Citations
External links
1975 births
Anaheim Ducks players
Binghamton Senators players
Calgary Flames players
Canadian ice hockey right wingers
Detroit Red Wings players
Florida Panthers players
Guelph Storm players
Ice hockey people from Ontario
Ice hockey players at the 2006 Winter Olympics
Living people
National Hockey League All-Stars
National Hockey League first round draft picks
New York Islanders draft picks
New York Islanders players
Olympic ice hockey players of Canada
Sportspeople from Greater Sudbury
Utah Grizzlies (IHL) players
Vancouver Canucks players
Violence in sports
Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States
Canadian people of Italian descent | true | [
"Charles Wesley (July 4, 1896 – March 5, 1944), nicknamed \"Two Sides\", was an American baseball player in the Negro leagues. He played from 1921 to 1930 with several teams, but he played mostly for the Birmingham Black Barons.\n\nHe was born on July 4, 1896, to Charles Wesley Sr. (born in South Carolina) and Mary Wesley (Robinson) in Birmingham, Alabama. Charles \"Connie\" Wesley was drafted into the armed forces to fight in World War I on June 6, 1918. His daughter Johnie Mae Wesley was born on August 1, 1918. When he finished serving in World War I, in 1921 he went to play for his first team, the Columbus Buckeyes.\n\nHe was left to care for his daughter alone. His daughter Johnie was raised by his parents Charles and Mary while he was on the road. His all-time ranking as a second baseman was #28 out of 186. His overall ranking of all of his contemporaries is #340 out of #500. (Satchel Paige ranked #66 overall).\n\nHe played with his final team in 1930, the Louisville White Sox. He died in Panama City, Florida, on March 5, 1944.\n\nAwards\n 1923:All-Star NNA by WS: Position (2nd Base) WS 4.1 WS rank #1\n 1923:Golden Gloves NNA by WS: Position (2nd Base) WS 4.1 WS Rank #1\n 1923:Silver Slugger NNA by WS: Position (2nd Base) WS 2.1 WS Rank #1\n\nGolden Gloves: Career Position (2nd Base) WS 7.6 WS Rank #18\n\nReferences\n\nhttp://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/player.php?ID=821&tab=2\n\nExternal links\n\n1896 births\n1944 deaths\nBirmingham Black Barons players\nMemphis Red Sox players\nIndianapolis ABCs players\nLouisville White Sox players\nColumbus Buckeyes (Negro leagues) players\nSt. Louis Stars (baseball) players\nBaseball players from Alabama\n20th-century African-American sportspeople\nBaseball outfielders",
"The Shenyang WS-10 (), codename Taihang, is a turbofan engine designed and built by the People's Republic of China.\n\nChinese media reported 266 engines were manufactured from 2010 to 2012 for the J-11 program. Unofficial estimates placed production at more than 300 units by May 2015.\n\nDescription\nThe WS-10A is advertised as an engine with thrust. It has full authority digital engine control (FADEC).\n\nDevelopment\nThe WS-10 is derived from the CFM56 with the experience gained from the Woshan WS-6 turbofan project, which was abandoned at the start of the 1980s. The WS-10 project was reportedly started by Deng Xiaoping in 1986 to produce an engine comparable to the Saturn AL-31. The work was given to the Shenyang Aeroengine Research Institute (606 Institute) of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC). The WS-10 may have been based on the core of the CFM-56II (itself based on the General Electric F101); China purchased two CFM-56IIs in the 1980s before the arms embargo. Initial production models suffered quality issues from the early direct use of AL-31 control systems. Furthermore, Salyut refused to sell source code, forcing China to spend nearly 20 years developing its own code independently.\n\nThe WS-10A, targeted for of thrust, was already in development in 2002. An early version flew on an J-8II in 2002. In 2004, Russian sources familiar with project reported problems meeting the thrust target; in 2005, they reported problems reducing the weight of the primary and secondary compressors, in addition to problems meeting thrust requirements. Engine testing on the J-11 had already started by 2004, and testing using one engine on the J-11 may have occurred as early as 2002.\n\nA full-scale WS-10A engine was first seen at the 2008 China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition.\n\nIn 2009, Western media claim that the WS-10A approached the performance of the AL-31, but took much longer than the AL-31 to develop thrust. Furthermore, the engine reportedly only generated of thrust. In April 2009, , head of AVIC, reported that the engine's quality was unsatisfactory. In 2010, it was reported that reliability was also poor; the WS-10A lasted only 30 hours, while the AL-31 needed refurbishing after 400 hours. The quality problems encountered with the WS-10A reflected the state of the Chinese aerospace industry. AVIC initiated a general effort to improve quality control throughout its production chain in 2011.\n\nThe WS-10A reportedly matured enough after 2009 to power the J-11B Block 02 aircraft. Production or performance issues may have prevented the WS-10A from powering the J-10B. In 2018, Chinese state media reported an increase in engine lifespan from 800 to 1,500 hours due to the increased heat resistance of new third-generation single-crystal turbine blades.\n\nIn March 2020, Chinese state media released a video showing a WS-10B-powered J-10C; aircraft markings suggest it was part of the fourth batch of J-10Cs for the PLAAF.\n\nBy January 2021, Chinese engineers considered the WS-10C to be as good as the AL-31F, with the WS-10C being targeted as a replacement interim engine for the J-20.\n\nWS-20 (WS-188)\n\nThe Shenyang WS-20 (WS-188) is a high-bypass engine reportedly producing 13.8 tons of thrust. It is believed to be based on the core of the WS-10A.\n\nThe Shenyang WS-20 was first seen in January 2014 while being tested on an Il-76, and is believed to be intended for the Y-20 strategic airlifter.\n\nThrust vectoring\nA testbed J-10B powered by a WS-10 with thrust vectoring (TVC) - called \"WS-10B-3\" by Jamie Hunter - was demonstrated at the 2018 China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition. The TVC nozzle uses actuator-assisted moving petals, similar in concept to General Electric's axisymmetric vectoring exhaust nozzle (AVEN) and Pratt & Whitney's pitch-yaw balance beam nozzle (PYBBN).\n\nVariants\n WS-10 - base variant\n WS-10A – improved variant with FADEC; advertised to have of thrust\n WS-10B – improved variant with greater reliability and thrust; based on the WS-10A\n WS-10B-3 – TVC variant\n WS-10C – \"Updated\" variant with stealthier sawtooth exhaust feathers and improved thrust of .\n WS-10G – thrust vectoring variant generating of thrust during testing; intended for the Chengdu J-20\n WS-20 – high-bypass derivative for the Y-20 transport; of thrust\n QD70 – 7MW class gas turbine engine developed from WS-10 for industrial & naval applications\n\nApplications\nWS-10\nShenyang J-8II (test)\n\nWS-10A\nChengdu J-10B (test)\nShenyang J-11B\nShenyang J-15\nShenyang J-16\n\nWS-10B\nChengdu J-10C\nChengdu J-20 (low rate initial production aircraft)\n\nWS-10B-3\nChengdu J-10B (demonstrator)\nChengdu J-20B (prototype)\n\nWS-10C\nChengdu J-20A (2019–present)\n\nSpecifications (WS-10A)\n\nSee also\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n\n1990s turbofan engines\nLow-bypass turbofan engines"
]
|
[
"Todd Bertuzzi",
"Guelph Storm (1991-95)",
"When did Bertuzzi make his debut with the Storm?",
"The NHL Central Scouting Bureau described Bertuzzi as a physical and strong player with good skating who checks hard and is offensively effective in close proximity to the net.",
"How did he do in the 1991 season?",
"After playing for two minor hockey teams based out of Sudbury, Ontario in 1990-91, Bertuzzi was selected in the first round (fifth overall) by the Guelph Storm",
"What were his stats like in 1991?",
"started his OHL career for Guelph in 1991-92, recording 21 points over 42 games as a rookie.",
"What position was he playing in 1991?",
"I don't know.",
"Ws he on the starting team?",
"He missed the last 15 games of the regular season due to suspension"
]
| C_40acc9f3ce424ca48b13ddefa5d4c640_1 | Why was suspended? | 6 | Why was Bertuzzi suspended? | Todd Bertuzzi | After playing for two minor hockey teams based out of Sudbury, Ontario in 1990-91, Bertuzzi was selected in the first round (fifth overall) by the Guelph Storm in the 1991 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) Priority Selection. His future coach with the Vancouver Canucks, Marc Crawford, passed on Bertuzzi during the draft while he was general manager of the Cornwall Royals; he has recalled not selecting him due to "maturity issues" and that he was "a big kid who hadn't grown into his body yet." Bertuzzi started his OHL career for Guelph in 1991-92, recording 21 points over 42 games as a rookie. He missed the last 15 games of the regular season due to suspension as a result of kicking opposing defenceman Brad Barton during a contest between the Storm and Kitchener Rangers. After improving to 58 points over 60 games in 1992-93, he was selected 23rd overall by the New York Islanders in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. The NHL Central Scouting Bureau described Bertuzzi as a physical and strong player with good skating who checks hard and is offensively effective in close proximity to the net. Following his NHL draft, he underwent surgery for chipped bones in his left elbow in August 1993. As a result, he was unable to participate in the Islanders' training camp in September and was returned to the OHL. Playing in his third season for Guelph, he improved to 28 goals and 82 points over 61 games. Bertuzzi competed for an Islanders' roster spot at their 1994 training camp, but was sent back to his junior team after going scoreless in three exhibition games. During his last campaign with Guelph in 1994-95, he recorded 119 points - sixth overall in the league. His 54 goals established a single-season team record, beating Mike Prokopec's mark, set the previous year, by two goals. The Storm's forward tandem of Bertuzzi and Jeff O'Neill, who finished fourth in league scoring, led the club to the best regular season record in the league. He went on to add a team-leading 33 points in 14 playoff games, en route to an OHL Finals loss to the Detroit Junior Red Wings. After four seasons with Guelph, he left the club ranked third all-time in career points with 280, behind O'Neill and Martin St. Pierre. CANNOTANSWER | result of kicking opposing defenceman Brad Barton during a contest between the Storm and Kitchener Rangers. | Todd Bertuzzi (born February 2, 1975) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey winger of the National Hockey League (NHL). Known as a power forward, he has played in the NHL for the New York Islanders, Vancouver Canucks, Florida Panthers, Anaheim Ducks, Calgary Flames and Detroit Red Wings. He is widely known for his role in the Todd Bertuzzi–Steve Moore incident, for which he was suspended by the NHL and IIHF, and criminally charged.
Selected 23rd overall by the New York Islanders in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft, he played at the junior level with the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) for four seasons. In 1995–96, he played his rookie season with the Islanders. After two-and-a-half seasons with the Islanders, he was traded to the Vancouver Canucks. Bertuzzi enjoyed the most successful seasons of his career with the Canucks—his longest tenured team in the NHL—including NHL First Team All-Star honours in 2003. In 2006, after seven-and-a-half seasons with Vancouver, Bertuzzi was dealt to the Florida Panthers, with whom he briefly played for until being traded again to the Red Wings. He then played single seasons with the Anaheim Ducks and the Calgary Flames before returning to Detroit in 2009 and finishing his career there. Internationally, Bertuzzi has competed for Team Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, as well as the 1998 and 2000 World Championships.
He is the uncle of Tyler Bertuzzi who currently plays for the Detroit Red Wings.
Playing career
Guelph Storm (1991–95)
After playing for two minor hockey teams based out of Sudbury, Ontario in 1990–91, Bertuzzi was selected in the first round (fifth overall) by the Guelph Storm in the 1991 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) Priority Selection. His future coach with the Vancouver Canucks, Marc Crawford, passed on Bertuzzi during the draft while he was general manager of the Cornwall Royals; he has recalled not selecting him due to "maturity issues" and that he was "a big kid who hadn't grown into his body yet." Bertuzzi started his OHL career for Guelph in 1991–92, recording 21 points over 42 games as a rookie. He missed the last 15 games of the regular season due to suspension as a result of kicking opposing defenceman Brad Barton during a contest between the Storm and Kitchener Rangers. After improving to 58 points over 60 games in 1992–93, he was selected 23rd overall by the New York Islanders in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. The NHL Central Scouting Bureau described Bertuzzi as a physical and strong player with good skating who checks hard and is offensively effective in close proximity to the net.
Following his NHL draft, he underwent surgery for chipped bones in his left elbow in August 1993. As a result, he was unable to participate in the Islanders' training camp in September and was returned to the OHL. Playing in his third season for Guelph, he improved to 28 goals and 82 points over 61 games. Bertuzzi competed for an Islanders' roster spot at their 1994 training camp, but was sent back to his junior team after going scoreless in three exhibition games.
During his last campaign with Guelph in 1994–95, he recorded 119 points – sixth overall in the league. His 54 goals established a single-season team record, beating Mike Prokopec's mark, set the previous year, by two goals. The Storm's forward tandem of Bertuzzi and Jeff O'Neill, who finished fourth in league scoring, led the club to the best regular season record in the league. He went on to add a team-leading 33 points in 14 playoff games, en route to an OHL Finals loss to the Detroit Junior Red Wings. After four seasons with Guelph, he left the club ranked third all-time in career points with 280, behind O'Neill and Martin St. Pierre.
New York Islanders (1995–98)
Two years after his draft, Bertuzzi and the Islanders had not yet been agreed to a contract. With Bertuzzi eligible to re-enter the draft if the Islanders did not sign him by July 7, 1995, general manager Don Maloney made it apparent that he would use the team's second overall pick in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft to select him again if a contract could not be agreed upon by the required date. Moments before the midnight deadline, the Islanders were able to sign Bertuzzi to a four-year, US$4.6 million contract. His agent, Pat Morris, had reportedly wanted a similar deal to that of fellow Islanders prospect Brett Lindros – a five-year, $6.7 million contract signed the previous summer.
During training camp in September 1995, Islanders head coach Mike Milbury heralded Bertuzzi as the team's best performing forward. Making his NHL debut on October 7, 1995, he scored a wrap around goal against goaltender Blaine Lacher in a 4–4 tie with the Boston Bruins. Beginning the season on the team's top line with Žigmund Pálffy and Travis Green, Bertuzzi finished his rookie year with 18 goals and 39 points over 76 games. The following season, Bertuzzi recorded 23 points in 64 games. The Islanders did not qualify for the playoffs in either of his two full seasons with the club, ranking second-last in the Eastern Conference in 1995–96 and 1996–97.
Bertuzzi's playing style as a power forward resulted in comparisons to former Islander Clark Gillies. As a result, the club hired Gillies to personally mentor Bertuzzi. Failing to meet lofty expectations from the club, Gillies once said of Bertuzzi, "If you're built like a freight train, you can't drive around like a Volkswagen." Feeling burdened with the pressure of playing up to the club's expectations while his offensive production diminished, he requested to be traded away at one point during the 1996–97 season. In response, Milbury, who had also taken over general manager duties the previous season, demoted Bertuzzi to the Islanders' minor league affiliate, the Utah Grizzlies of the International Hockey League (IHL). Playing 13 games in the minors, he registered 10 points before being called back up to the NHL. During the 1997–98 campaign, he continued to score below his pace as a rookie. On February 6, 1998, he was traded along with defenceman Bryan McCabe and a third-round selection in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft (Jarkko Ruutu) to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for veteran forward Trevor Linden. The deal was made prior to the NHL's roster freeze in preparation for the 1998 Winter Olympics.
Bertuzzi and McCabe had both been widely regarded as the players of the future for New York after their respective drafts in 1993. While Milbury expressed regret at having to trade McCabe, relations between Bertuzzi and the club were strained. Welcoming the trade, Bertuzzi commented that "things weren't working out [in New York]."
Vancouver Canucks (1998–2006)
Bertuzzi immediately began producing with Vancouver, tallying 15 points in 22 games after the trade. Combined with his totals from New York, he finished with 33 points over 74 games in 1997–98. Contrasting his strained relationship with Milbury in New York, Canucks head coach Mike Keenan has recalled his experience with Bertuzzi upon his arrival as positive: "He came as a young player and he was very open-minded about learning about the game." Similar to the Islanders, Bertuzzi joined a struggling club in Vancouver; the team finished last in the Western Conference in his first two seasons after the trade.
After beginning the 1998–99 season on the Canucks' top line, Bertuzzi was limited to 32 games due to injuries, the first of which was a fractured tibia. He suffered the injury on November 1, 1998, after a shot by teammate Mattias Öhlund hit him in the leg. His season was later ended with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee, suffered during a game on March 5, 1999. He recorded 8 goals and 16 points in 1998–99. In the off-season, Bertuzzi became a restricted free agent and was re-signed by the Canucks to a two-year contract in September 1999. The deal was reported by The Vancouver Sun to be worth a little over $2 million.
Returning from injury the following season, Bertuzzi emerged as one of the Canucks' best offensive contributors, finishing with 25 goals (second on the team to Markus Näslund) and 50 points in 1999–2000. At the end of the season, he received the team's Most Exciting Player Award, as voted by the fans. He received the distinction three more times during his career with the Canucks from 2002 to 2004). Meanwhile, the Canucks began improving as a team, finishing four points out of a playoff spot in the West in 2000.
The following season, Bertuzzi recorded his first career NHL hat trick, recording all three goals on the power play against San Jose Sharks goaltender Evgeni Nabokov in a 6–3 win on December 30, 2000. Bertuzzi recorded a second consecutive 25-goal season in 2000–01, adding 30 assists for 55 points, third in team scoring behind Näslund and Andrew Cassels. His -18 plus-minus rating, however, was a team-worst. The Canucks continued to improve, qualifying for the post-season for the first time in five years. Entering the 2001 playoffs as the final and eighth seed in the West, they were eliminated in the first round by the Colorado Avalanche. Bertuzzi scored two goals and two assists over four games in his first NHL post-season appearance. In the off-season, Bertuzzi filed for salary arbitration after initially failing to come to terms on a new contract with the Canucks. Both sides avoided arbitration by agreeing to a three-year deal on July 26, 2001.
In the first month of the 2001–02 season, Bertuzzi received an automatic 10-game suspension from the league (forfeiting $118,557 in salary) after leaving the bench to help teammate Ed Jovanovski in a fight. The incident occurred during a game against the Colorado Avalanche in which opposing coach Bob Hartley sent enforcer Scott Parker onto the ice as the extra attacker during a delayed penalty. Parker proceeded to physically engage Jovanovski, at which point Bertuzzi left the bench to help his teammate. Vancouver struggled with him out of the lineup, winning 3 games during the 10-game span. Two months after returning from suspension, Bertuzzi went 15 consecutive games with at least a point, scoring 7 goals and 12 assists from January 3 – February 4, 2002. The streak tied Petr Nedvěd for the longest in Canucks history. During that span, in a game on January 9, Canucks head coach Marc Crawford replaced Andrew Cassels with Brendan Morrison, marking the beginning of what was considered by many to be the most effective line combination in the league for several seasons. Bertuzzi had emerged as an effective power forward, able to use his size and strength to position himself in front of the net, with good stickhandling ability. According to Canucks assistant coach Jack McIlhargey, Bertuzzi's skill set favourably complemented Näslund's goal-scoring and Morrison's playmaking abilities. The trio were dubbed by Vancouver media as the "West Coast Express", named after the city's commuter rail service of the same name.
Late in the 2001–02 season, Bertuzzi recorded his second career hat-trick on March 19, 2002, during a win against the New York Rangers. He scored his first two goals of the game against Dan Blackburn and his third into an empty net. Despite missing ten games from his suspension, Bertuzzi finished the 2001–02 season third in league-scoring with 85 points, behind Näslund and Calgary Flames forward Jarome Iginla. His 1.18 points-per-game average ranked second in the NHL behind Mario Lemieux, who played 48 fewer games than Bertuzzi. He also improved his plus-minus rating by 39 points from the previous season, finishing a career-high +21. Although the Canucks were the league's highest scoring team, they finished with the final seed in the West for the 2002 playoffs, ranking eighth in their conference. Facing the Detroit Red Wings in the opening round, they were eliminated in six games. Bertuzzi recorded four points in the series.
The following season, Bertuzzi appeared in his first NHL All-Star Game. He was joined by fellow Canucks Markus Näslund, defenceman Ed Jovanovski and head coach Marc Crawford, helping the Western Conference to a 6–5 shootout win against the East. He played on a line with Näslund and Peter Forsberg. Later in the season, he scored his third career hat-trick on March 17, 2003, scoring three goals against Ron Tugnutt in a game against the Dallas Stars. He finished the season with career-highs of 46 goals (third in the league), 51 assists and 97 points (fifth in the league). His 25 power play goals led the NHL and tied Pavel Bure for the Canucks' single-season record. Linemates Näslund and Morrison also recorded personal bests with 104 and 71 points, respectively. Meanwhile, the Canucks emerged as a top team in the West. Losing the Northwest Division title to the Avalanche by one point in the regular season, they finished as the fourth seed in their conference. After going down three-games-to-one in the opening round against the St. Louis Blues, Vancouver won three straight games to advance to the second round. Facing the Minnesota Wild, the Canucks gave up their own three-games-to-one series lead and were eliminated in seven games. During the series, Bertuzzi had reportedly walked by the Xcel Energy Center box office and told Wild fans they would not need their Game 6 tickets because Minnesota would be eliminated by then. In another on-ice incident, he skated by the opposing bench during Game 7 when the Canucks were winning 2–0, telling Wild players to "get [their] golf clubs". Despite his successful regular season, Bertuzzi struggled to score in the playoffs, recording 6 points in 14 games. In the off-season, Bertuzzi was named with Näslund to the NHL First All-Star Team.
With Bertuzzi entering the final year of his contract, the Canucks began negotiating a contract extension prior to the 2003–04 season. Despite Bertuzzi's agent, Pat Morris, declaring that they would cease negotiations once the season began, Bertuzzi signed a four-year, $27.8 million deal with the Canucks on October 23, 2003. The contract took effect immediately, erasing the last year on his previous contract, and included a $3 million signing bonus ($2.5 million paid in the first year and $500,000 in the second). The deal paid him $4.3 million the first year, $6.633 million the second year and $6.933 million for the third and fourth years.
In January 2004, Bertuzzi was voted by league fans to the starting lineup of the NHL All-Star Game. Representing the Western Conference alongside Näslund and Canucks head coach Marc Crawford, they were defeated by the East 6–4. Bertuzzi had two assists while playing on a line with Näslund and Joe Sakic. Nearing the end of the 2003–04 season, Bertuzzi was indefinitely suspended by the NHL for punching Colorado Avalanche forward Steve Moore from behind and driving his head into the ice during a game on March 8, 2004. His actions were a retaliation to a hit from Moore on Näslund during a previous game. Sitting out the remainder of the regular season and playoffs due to his suspension, he finished 2003–04 with 60 points over 69 games. Vancouver replaced Bertuzzi on the team's top line with Matt Cooke and went on to their first Northwest Division title, before being eliminated in the first round of the 2004 playoffs by the Calgary Flames.
Inactive in 2004–05 due to the players lockout and his ongoing suspension, which had been extended internationally, Bertuzzi returned to the Canucks in 2005–06, as the league ended his playing ban. He recorded 25 goals and 71 points, including two hat tricks (November 13, 2005, against the Detroit Red Wings and January 14, 2006, against the New York Islanders). Though he ranked third in team scoring, Crawford has recalled that by the end of the season, Näslund and Bertuzzi had been eclipsed by Daniel and Henrik Sedin as the team's offensive leaders.
There was speculation that the effects of the Steve Moore incident, which included assault charges and constant media coverage, were negatively affecting his play. While on the road, he was consistently heckled and booed by fans throughout the NHL. Näslund, a close friend of Bertuzzi's, later expressed sympathy for him, saying in a 2008 interview, "It still bothers me what Todd has had to go through...There's no question he was standing up for me...it all went too far."
Beyond the negative impact on Bertuzzi's individual play, the media speculated that the fallout from the Moore incident had become a distraction to the organization as a whole. Compounding the situation in Vancouver, the Canucks had missed the playoffs for the first time in four years. As such, general manager Dave Nonis spent the off-season making significant changes to the Canucks lineup. On June 23, 2006, he traded Bertuzzi to the Florida Panthers, along with goaltender Alex Auld and defenceman Bryan Allen, in exchange for goaltender Roberto Luongo, defenceman Lukáš Krajíček and a sixth-round selection in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft (Sergei Shirokov). After seven-and-a-half seasons with the Canucks, Bertuzzi left the club ranked seventh all-time among franchise scoring leaders with 449 points.
Florida, Detroit, and Anaheim (2006–08)
Instrumental in facilitating the trade to Florida was Bertuzzi's positive relationship with Panthers general manager Mike Keenan, who was his first coach in Vancouver. Debuting with the Panthers on October 6, 2006, Bertuzzi scored a goal and three assists in an 8–3 win against the Boston Bruins. He appeared in six more games for Florida, notching seven points total, before being sidelined with back spasms. After being diagnosed with a herniated disc in early-November, Bertuzzi opted for surgery, which kept him out of the lineup for five months. While recovering, the Panthers dealt him to the Detroit Red Wings at the trade deadline in exchange for forward prospect Shawn Matthias and conditional draft picks. Bertuzzi was in the last year of his contract with no guarantee he would re-sign with Florida in the off-season.
Bertuzzi returned to action on March 22, 2007, debuting with his new team in a 2–1 shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Eight days later, he scored his first goal as a Red Wing in a 4–3 shootout loss to the Dallas Stars. On April 7, he suffered a neck injury that kept him out of the lineup for the last game of the regular season and the first two games of the 2007 playoffs. He finished the campaign with 11 points in 15 games split between Florida and Detroit. During the playoffs, the Red Wings advanced to the Western Conference Finals, where they lost in six games to the Anaheim Ducks, who went on to win the Stanley Cup. Bertuzzi recorded 7 points in 16 playoff games.
Becoming an unrestricted free agent in the off-season, Bertuzzi agreed to a two-year, $8 million contract with the Anaheim Ducks on July 2, 2007. Signing him was Ducks general manager Brian Burke, who had served as the Canucks general manager during Bertuzzi's time in Vancouver. Bertuzzi had reportedly been in negotiations to re-sign with Detroit, but the club only wanted a one-year deal. Playing the Red Wings in the Ducks' first game of the regular season on October 3, 2007, he registered a goal and an assist in a 3–2 shootout loss. In the first month of the 2007–08 campaign, he suffered a concussion and was sidelined for 14 games in October and November 2007. Bertuzzi returned to the lineup in time for the Ducks' away game against the Canucks on November 27, which marked his first NHL game in Vancouver since being traded away. Bertuzzi was received warmly by Canucks fans, as the Ducks lost the game 4–0. Playing in 68 contests over the season, he registered 40 points with Anaheim. Entering the 2008 playoffs as the defending champions, the Ducks were eliminated in the first round four games to two by the Dallas Stars. In six playoff contests, Bertuzzi recorded two assists.
Calgary Flames (2008–09)
During the subsequent summer, several Ducks players were set to become free agents, including high-profile forward Corey Perry. Requiring additional salary cap space to make room for defenceman Scott Niedermayer, who announced he was returning for another season, Bertuzzi was placed on unconditional waivers with the intention of buying out the remaining year on his contract. Addressing Bertuzzi's buy out with the media, Burke asserted that he "believe[d] [Bertuzzi] can still play at the NHL level," and that the Ducks were merely "handcuffed by [their] salary cap situation." Bertuzzi once again became an unrestricted free agent and signed a one-year, $1.95 million contract with the Calgary Flames on July 7, 2008. Joining Calgary, he was reunited with Flames coach Mike Keenan. Before the start of the 2008–09 season, Bertuzzi switched jersey numbers from 4 to 7, in honour of his boyhood idol, Phil Esposito. The numbers 44, which Bertuzzi wore in New York, Vancouver and Detroit, and 4, which he wore in Anaheim, were already taken in Calgary.
Bertuzzi scored his first goal with the Flames, deflecting a Dion Phaneuf shot, on October 11, 2008, in a 5–4 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks. While initial fan reaction to Bertuzzi was negative due to his previous role with the division-rival Canucks, as well as his reputation following the Steve Moore incident, he was eventually accepted in Calgary. In January 2009, he missed five games due to a back injury. Several months later, he was sidelined again with a knee injury and underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair damaged cartilage on March 3, 2009. Missing 11 games, he returned in time for the 2009 playoffs, where the Flames were eliminated by the Chicago Blackhawks in the opening round. He finished his only season in Calgary with 44 points in 66 regular season games, while adding a goal and an assist in six playoff contests.
Return to Detroit (2009–2014)
On August 18, 2009, Bertuzzi re-joined the Red Wings by accepting a one-year contract with the club worth $1.5 million. He recorded 44 points (18 goals and 26 assists) in 2009–10, ranking fifth in team scoring. During the second round of the 2010 playoffs, Bertuzzi recorded a career-high five-point contest (a goal and four assists) in a Game 4 victory against the San Jose Sharks. Bertuzzi finished with a playoffs career-high 11 points in 12 games.
In the off-season, Bertuzzi signed a two-year, $3.875 million contract extension with the Red Wings on June 16, 2010. During the 2010–11 season, he appeared in his 1,000th NHL game on February 20, 2011, against the Minnesota Wild. Bertuzzi scored a shootout goal to help Detroit win the game 2–1. Dressing for 81 games that season, he ranked seventh in team scoring with 45 points (16 goals and 29 assists). During the 2011 playoffs, he added 6 points (2 goals and 4 assists) over 11 games as the Red Wings were eliminated in the second round by the San Jose Sharks.
On February 23, 2012 Bertuzzi re-signed with the Red Wings for $4.15 million over two years. He dressed for seven games in the lockout-shortened 2012-2013 regular season due to injuries, producing three points, and was held pointless over six games in the playoffs. In the 2013–2014 season he played 59 games and produced 16 points, but was a healthy scratch 15 times; he played one playoff game without a point.
During his time with Detroit, he earned praise from head coach Mike Babcock and teammates for adapting his playing style to be more defensively responsible. Bertuzzi credited the influence of teammates Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, both successful two-way players in the league.
Binghamton Senators tryout and retirement (2015)
On January 9, 2015 he signed a professional tryout contract with the Ottawa Senators AHL affiliate the Binghamton Senators in hopes to get a contract with Ottawa.
Bertuzzi was released from his professional tryout offer with Binghamton on January 21, 2015, after posting no points and a minus-3 rating in his 2 games played with the Senators. He subsequently retired that year.
International play
Bertuzzi debuted internationally for Team Canada at the 1998 World Championships in Switzerland. He was among the youngest players selected to the team, along with Canucks teammate Bryan McCabe and Chicago Blackhawks forward Eric Dazé, who were all born in 1975 (third-string goaltender Christian Bronsard was two years younger, but did not play in any games). In six games, he recorded three points, as Canada failed to qualify for the medal rounds.
Two years later, Bertuzzi competed at the 2000 World Championships in St. Petersburg, Russia. One of five Canucks players chosen to the national team, he was joined by Adrian Aucoin, Ed Jovanovski, Brendan Morrison and Peter Schaefer. His second tournament appearance was more productive, as he scored nine points in nine games – first among Canadian players and fourth overall – while also leading the tournament in penalty minutes with 47. Canada did not medal, losing to Finland in the bronze medal game by a 2–1 score. His 63 total penalty minutes from both tournament appearances set an all-time Canadian record for World Championship competitors since 1977 (when Canada resumed competing in the tournament).
In December 2005, Bertuzzi was controversially selected to play for Team Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. His inclusion, along with that of Dany Heatley and Shane Doan, was discussed at length by the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC). The committee had concerns stemming from the Steve Moore incident and Bertuzzi's probationary status, but subsequently approved his representation of Canada at the Olympics. According to a Canadian Press article, "[COC president] Chambers said the [unusual meeting] was prompted by some media concerns raised over the three athletes participating in the Games. The fact it took the committee so long to approve the list means there was some debate."
Bertuzzi went on to post three points (all assists) at the 2006 Olympics, tying for second in team scoring with nine other players. Canada failed to advance past the quarterfinal, losing to Russia by a 2–0 score. They finished in seventh place overall after winning gold at the previous Winter Olympics in 2002.
Steve Moore Incident
On February 16, 2004, during a game between Vancouver and Colorado, Avalanche center Steve Moore checked Markus Näslund in the head, causing a minor concussion and a bone chip in his elbow. No penalty was assessed, and the league decided not to fine or suspend Moore, ruling the hit legal. Näslund missed three games as a result of the hit. In a rematch, with the Canucks trailing the Avalanche 8–2 in the third period, Bertuzzi began following Moore around the ice, attempting to provoke him into another fight. With Moore ignoring him, Bertuzzi grabbed Moore's jersey from behind and punched him in the side of the face from behind, with Moore's face hitting the ice as Bertuzzi pushed him, already out cold, into the ice, breaking his neck. Bertuzzi, as well as several other players from both teams, landed atop Moore as he fell to the ice. Bertuzzi was assessed a match penalty and ejected from the game. Per league rules, he was also suspended indefinitely pending a ruling from league commissioner Gary Bettman.
After lying on the ice for approximately 10 minutes, Moore was removed from the playing surface on a stretcher. He was treated for three fractured vertebrae in his neck, a grade three concussion, vertebral ligament damage, stretching of the brachial plexus nerves, and facial lacerations. He was also suffering from amnesia. Bertuzzi apologized to Moore and his family, as well as to Burke, Canucks owner John McCaw, Jr., the Canucks organization, his teammates, and the fans in a press conference two days later.
On March 11, 2004, the league ruled he would remain suspended for at least the remainder of the Canucks' season, which ultimately cost him the final 13 games of the regular season plus seven playoff games. The Canucks were additionally fined $250,000. While the following NHL season was suspended due to the 2004–05 lockout, Bertuzzi intended to play in Europe, but the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) extended his NHL suspension to cover their jurisdiction. Bertuzzi remained professionally inactive during the 2004–05 season. The IIHF's sanction also kept him from representing Canada in the 2004 and 2005 World Championships, as well as the 2004 World Cup.
Bettman scheduled a reinstatement hearing for Bertuzzi on April 26, 2005. The hearing was attended separately by Bertuzzi and Moore. Prior to the 2005–06 season, Bettman announced Bertuzzi's reinstatement on August 8, citing that "Mr. Bertuzzi had paid a very significant price for his conduct," adding that he felt Bertuzzi was "genuinely remorseful and apologetic." Bertuzzi's 17-month suspension caused him to miss a total of 20 games—the fourth-longest suspension in NHL history at the time. The suspension accounted for $501,926.39 in forfeited salary, as well as an approximate $350,000 in lost endorsements. On the day of his reinstatement, Team Canada's executive director, Wayne Gretzky, offered him a spot on the national team's summer orientation camp in preparation for the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Legal actions
After a four-month investigation, the criminal justice branch of the Attorney General of British Columbia announced formal charges of assault causing bodily harm against Bertuzzi on June 24, 2004. With the charge, Bertuzzi faced up to one-and-a-half years in prison. Bertuzzi pleaded guilty to the assault charge on December 22 after arranging a plea bargain with prosecutors. He was given a conditional discharge requiring 80 hours of community service and one year's probation that additionally prohibited him from playing in any hockey game Moore was competing in. Under Canadian law, Bertuzzi's successful completion of his probationary period precluded him from a criminal record. Moore expressed disappointment regarding Bertuzzi's discharge and was upset that he was unable to attend the court date, having to issue a written victim statement instead. Moore's lawyer, Tim Danson, was given one day's notice of the court date following Bertuzzi's plea bargain, which he said was insufficient time for Moore to travel to Vancouver.
On February 17, 2005, Moore filed a lawsuit in a Colorado court against Bertuzzi, numerous individuals within the Canucks organization, including Brad May (Bertuzzi's teammate at the time who was quoted as saying that there would "definitely be a price on Moore's head" after Moore's hit on Näslund), Brian Burke, Marc Crawford, as well as the Canucks organization as a whole and the Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment company that owned the team. The lawsuit was thrown out in October 2005, as the Colorado judge ruled the case was better suited for Canadian courts, as Moore and all the defendants were Canadian citizens. Planning to appeal the decision, Danson stated publicly the following month that Moore had begun skating and doing regular workouts, but continued to suffer concussion-related symptoms.
On February 16, 2006, Moore filed another lawsuit in the Ontario Superior Court against Bertuzzi, the Canucks, and Orca Bay, seeking CAD$15 million in pecuniary damages for loss of income, CAD$1 million for aggravated damages, and CAD$2 million for punitive damages. Moore's parents, who were watching their son on television when the attack happened, also sued, seeking CAD$1.5 million for "negligent infliction of nervous shock and mental distress". In December 2006, Bettman and top lieutenant Bill Daly facilitated a meeting between Moore's representatives and the defendants in hopes of agreeing on an out-of-court settlement. An out-of-court settlement was reached in Moore's lawsuit in October 2014. Terms of the settlement are confidential.
Personal life
Bertuzzi was born and raised in Sudbury, Ontario. His father, Albert Bertuzzi, is an Italian-Canadian who worked in the window-washing business. When Bertuzzi was a teenager, Albert survived a near-fatal car accident in which he was thrown from the vehicle through the windshield. His father has stated that he was proud of his own local reputation as a "dirty player" and referred to it as a "Bertuzzi trait". He has said that Bertuzzi takes after him in regards to his toughness and aggression. Bertuzzi's great-uncle, Larry Bertuzzi, is a Toronto-based lawyer who has done arbitration work for the NHL, including on the Eric Lindros trade.
Growing up, Bertuzzi played minor hockey with the Nickel Centre and Sudbury Minor Hockey programs. In 1990–91, Bertuzzi played as an underaged player in the major midget ranks with the Sudbury Capitals AAA team. Physically built as a power forward throughout his youth, he stood 6 feet and 2 inches (1.88 metres) and weighed 195 pounds (88.5 kilograms) by age 15.
Bertuzzi and his wife, Julie, were married in July 1996. They have two children born one-and-a-half years apart in Vancouver, a son named Tag and a daughter named Jaden. His son, Tag Bertuzzi, was drafted into the OHL by the Guelph Storm, 2nd overall in 2017. Bertuzzi is a recreational golfer and has credited the sport with allowing him to relax more as a hockey player. During his 10-game suspension from the NHL in October and November 2001, he played golf to focus his energy. Afterwards, he made it a custom to go to the driving range before every game.
Bertuzzi's nephew Tyler Bertuzzi plays hockey for the Detroit Red Wings.
Bertuzzi was arrested on February 27, 2021, and was detained at the Oakland County Jail in Michigan on suspicion of DUI.
Career statistics
Regular season and playoffs
International
Awards
Records
Guelph Storm team record; most goals, single season—54 in 1994–95 (surpassed Mike Prokopec, 52 goals in 1992–93)
Vancouver Canucks team record; longest point-scoring streak—15 games (7 goals, 12 assists; January 3 – February 4, 2003) (tied with Petr Nedved; November 19 – December 27, 1992)
Vancouver Canucks team record; most powerplay goals, single season—25 in 2002–03 (tied with Pavel Bure)
Transactions
June 26, 1993: Drafted 23rd overall by the New York Islanders
July 6, 1995: Signed to a four-year, $4.6 million contract with the New York Islanders
February 6, 1998: Traded to the Vancouver Canucks from the New York Islanders with Bryan McCabe and a 3rd round choice in 1998 (Jarkko Ruutu) for Trevor Linden
September 1999: Re-signed to a two-year contract with the Vancouver Canucks
October 27, 2003: Signed a four-year, $27.9 million contract extension with the Vancouver Canucks
March 11, 2004: Suspended indefinitely by the NHL for deliberate injury to Steve Moore in a game versus the Colorado Avalanche
August 8, 2005: Officially reinstated by the NHL
June 23, 2006: Traded to the Florida Panthers by the Vancouver Canucks with Bryan Allen and Alex Auld for Roberto Luongo, Lukas Krajicek and a sixth-round draft choice in 2006 (Sergei Shirokov)
February 27, 2007: Traded to the Detroit Red Wings by the Florida Panthers for prospect Shawn Matthias and conditional draft picks
July 2, 2007: Signed a two-year, $8 million contract as an unrestricted free agent with the Anaheim Ducks
June 28, 2008: Placed on waivers by the Anaheim Ducks; subsequently bought out
July 7, 2008: Signed a one-year $1.95 million contract as an unrestricted free agent with the Calgary Flames
August 18, 2009: Signed a one-year $1.5 million contract as an unrestricted free agent with the Detroit Red Wings
May 10, 2010: Signed a two-year, $3.85 million contract extension with the Detroit Red Wings
February 23, 2012: Signed a two-year, $4.15 million contract extension with the Detroit Red Wings
See also
List of NHL players with 1000 games played
References
Footnotes
Citations
External links
1975 births
Anaheim Ducks players
Binghamton Senators players
Calgary Flames players
Canadian ice hockey right wingers
Detroit Red Wings players
Florida Panthers players
Guelph Storm players
Ice hockey people from Ontario
Ice hockey players at the 2006 Winter Olympics
Living people
National Hockey League All-Stars
National Hockey League first round draft picks
New York Islanders draft picks
New York Islanders players
Olympic ice hockey players of Canada
Sportspeople from Greater Sudbury
Utah Grizzlies (IHL) players
Vancouver Canucks players
Violence in sports
Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States
Canadian people of Italian descent | true | [
"The 2007 National Indoor Football League season was the seventh and final season of the National Indoor Football League (NIFL). The 2007 season was chaotic with teams folding and being suspended.\n\nStandings\n\nteam was suspended from league mid-season\n\nPostseason \n\nThe San Diego Shockwave was declared the league champion.\n\nExternal links\n\nNational Indoor Football League seasons\nNational Indoor Football League Season, 2007",
"\"Must Be A Reason Why\" is a song by American MC J. Pearl, released as a single in the United Kingdom on August 2, 2011 and in other European countries on October 3, 2011. The single features vocals from British singer Shayne Ward.\n\nBackground\n\"Must Be A Reason Why\" was produced by Lucas Secon, and was written by Secon, Chris Brann and Mintman. The song samples Wamdue Project's 1997 dance track, \"King of My Castle\". The track was originally recorded with American artist Britney Spears as the featured vocalist, and Ward as the main vocalist. Spears was subsequently replaced with J. Pearl and the track was to be included on Ward's third studio album, Obsession. The single was announced for release in January 2011, but prior to its release, Ward was dropped from his record label, Syco Records, preventing the release occurring. However, Pearl's record label, Simply Delicious, offered to release the single on Ward's behalf if he let Pearl be credited as the main vocalist. Ward agreed, and thus, the track was remixed by producer Guy Kastav, and prepared for release in August 2011. The single was later issued across Europe on October 3, 2011, with Italy being the only country to receive a physical release.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video for \"Must Be A Reason Why\" was shot at Portland Place, London, and directed by director Andy Hylton. It premiered on June 15, 2011, via Simply Delicious' YouTube account, at a total length of two minutes and forty seconds. The video consists of Pearl and Ward searching for each other in a nightclub, and performing the song amongst the crowd. The video received its first television airplay on Starz on Friday, June 17, 2011.\n\nTrack listing\n\n Digital download\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Guy Katsav Radio Edit) - 2:36\n\n Digital download - Extended Mix\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Guy Katsav Extended Mix) - 5:46\n\n Digital download - Afrojack Mixes\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Afrojack Radio Edit) - 3:26\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Afrojack Club Remix) - 7:27\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Afrojack Dub) - 6:28\n\n 'Digital download - Remixes EP\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Afrojack Club Remix) - 7:27\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Funky Stepz Dirty Dub) - 4:17\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Guy Katsav Extended Mix) - 5:46\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Costi Forza Mainstream Version) - 5:07\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Rivaz Club Remix) - 6:18\n\n Italian Maxi CD single\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Guy Katsav Radio Edit) - 2:36\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Afrojack Radio Edit) - 3:26\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Rivaz Radio Edit) - 3:11\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Costi Forza Mainstream Version) - 5:07\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Afrojack Club Remix) - 7:27\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Rivaz Club Remix) - 6:18\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Guy Katsav Extended Mix) - 5:46\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Costi Forza Extended Club Edit) - 7:05\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Afrojack Dub) - 6:28\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Funky Stepz Dirty Dub) - 4:17\n \"Must Be A Reason Why\" (Music Video) - 2:40\n\nCharts\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n2011 singles\nShayne Ward songs\nSongs written by Lucas Secon"
]
|
[
"Todd Bertuzzi",
"Guelph Storm (1991-95)",
"When did Bertuzzi make his debut with the Storm?",
"The NHL Central Scouting Bureau described Bertuzzi as a physical and strong player with good skating who checks hard and is offensively effective in close proximity to the net.",
"How did he do in the 1991 season?",
"After playing for two minor hockey teams based out of Sudbury, Ontario in 1990-91, Bertuzzi was selected in the first round (fifth overall) by the Guelph Storm",
"What were his stats like in 1991?",
"started his OHL career for Guelph in 1991-92, recording 21 points over 42 games as a rookie.",
"What position was he playing in 1991?",
"I don't know.",
"Ws he on the starting team?",
"He missed the last 15 games of the regular season due to suspension",
"Why was suspended?",
"result of kicking opposing defenceman Brad Barton during a contest between the Storm and Kitchener Rangers."
]
| C_40acc9f3ce424ca48b13ddefa5d4c640_1 | Did Guelph go to post-season play? | 7 | Did the Guelph Storm go to post-season play? | Todd Bertuzzi | After playing for two minor hockey teams based out of Sudbury, Ontario in 1990-91, Bertuzzi was selected in the first round (fifth overall) by the Guelph Storm in the 1991 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) Priority Selection. His future coach with the Vancouver Canucks, Marc Crawford, passed on Bertuzzi during the draft while he was general manager of the Cornwall Royals; he has recalled not selecting him due to "maturity issues" and that he was "a big kid who hadn't grown into his body yet." Bertuzzi started his OHL career for Guelph in 1991-92, recording 21 points over 42 games as a rookie. He missed the last 15 games of the regular season due to suspension as a result of kicking opposing defenceman Brad Barton during a contest between the Storm and Kitchener Rangers. After improving to 58 points over 60 games in 1992-93, he was selected 23rd overall by the New York Islanders in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. The NHL Central Scouting Bureau described Bertuzzi as a physical and strong player with good skating who checks hard and is offensively effective in close proximity to the net. Following his NHL draft, he underwent surgery for chipped bones in his left elbow in August 1993. As a result, he was unable to participate in the Islanders' training camp in September and was returned to the OHL. Playing in his third season for Guelph, he improved to 28 goals and 82 points over 61 games. Bertuzzi competed for an Islanders' roster spot at their 1994 training camp, but was sent back to his junior team after going scoreless in three exhibition games. During his last campaign with Guelph in 1994-95, he recorded 119 points - sixth overall in the league. His 54 goals established a single-season team record, beating Mike Prokopec's mark, set the previous year, by two goals. The Storm's forward tandem of Bertuzzi and Jeff O'Neill, who finished fourth in league scoring, led the club to the best regular season record in the league. He went on to add a team-leading 33 points in 14 playoff games, en route to an OHL Finals loss to the Detroit Junior Red Wings. After four seasons with Guelph, he left the club ranked third all-time in career points with 280, behind O'Neill and Martin St. Pierre. CANNOTANSWER | After four seasons with Guelph, he left the club ranked third all-time in career points with 280, behind O'Neill and Martin St. Pierre. | Todd Bertuzzi (born February 2, 1975) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey winger of the National Hockey League (NHL). Known as a power forward, he has played in the NHL for the New York Islanders, Vancouver Canucks, Florida Panthers, Anaheim Ducks, Calgary Flames and Detroit Red Wings. He is widely known for his role in the Todd Bertuzzi–Steve Moore incident, for which he was suspended by the NHL and IIHF, and criminally charged.
Selected 23rd overall by the New York Islanders in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft, he played at the junior level with the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) for four seasons. In 1995–96, he played his rookie season with the Islanders. After two-and-a-half seasons with the Islanders, he was traded to the Vancouver Canucks. Bertuzzi enjoyed the most successful seasons of his career with the Canucks—his longest tenured team in the NHL—including NHL First Team All-Star honours in 2003. In 2006, after seven-and-a-half seasons with Vancouver, Bertuzzi was dealt to the Florida Panthers, with whom he briefly played for until being traded again to the Red Wings. He then played single seasons with the Anaheim Ducks and the Calgary Flames before returning to Detroit in 2009 and finishing his career there. Internationally, Bertuzzi has competed for Team Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, as well as the 1998 and 2000 World Championships.
He is the uncle of Tyler Bertuzzi who currently plays for the Detroit Red Wings.
Playing career
Guelph Storm (1991–95)
After playing for two minor hockey teams based out of Sudbury, Ontario in 1990–91, Bertuzzi was selected in the first round (fifth overall) by the Guelph Storm in the 1991 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) Priority Selection. His future coach with the Vancouver Canucks, Marc Crawford, passed on Bertuzzi during the draft while he was general manager of the Cornwall Royals; he has recalled not selecting him due to "maturity issues" and that he was "a big kid who hadn't grown into his body yet." Bertuzzi started his OHL career for Guelph in 1991–92, recording 21 points over 42 games as a rookie. He missed the last 15 games of the regular season due to suspension as a result of kicking opposing defenceman Brad Barton during a contest between the Storm and Kitchener Rangers. After improving to 58 points over 60 games in 1992–93, he was selected 23rd overall by the New York Islanders in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. The NHL Central Scouting Bureau described Bertuzzi as a physical and strong player with good skating who checks hard and is offensively effective in close proximity to the net.
Following his NHL draft, he underwent surgery for chipped bones in his left elbow in August 1993. As a result, he was unable to participate in the Islanders' training camp in September and was returned to the OHL. Playing in his third season for Guelph, he improved to 28 goals and 82 points over 61 games. Bertuzzi competed for an Islanders' roster spot at their 1994 training camp, but was sent back to his junior team after going scoreless in three exhibition games.
During his last campaign with Guelph in 1994–95, he recorded 119 points – sixth overall in the league. His 54 goals established a single-season team record, beating Mike Prokopec's mark, set the previous year, by two goals. The Storm's forward tandem of Bertuzzi and Jeff O'Neill, who finished fourth in league scoring, led the club to the best regular season record in the league. He went on to add a team-leading 33 points in 14 playoff games, en route to an OHL Finals loss to the Detroit Junior Red Wings. After four seasons with Guelph, he left the club ranked third all-time in career points with 280, behind O'Neill and Martin St. Pierre.
New York Islanders (1995–98)
Two years after his draft, Bertuzzi and the Islanders had not yet been agreed to a contract. With Bertuzzi eligible to re-enter the draft if the Islanders did not sign him by July 7, 1995, general manager Don Maloney made it apparent that he would use the team's second overall pick in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft to select him again if a contract could not be agreed upon by the required date. Moments before the midnight deadline, the Islanders were able to sign Bertuzzi to a four-year, US$4.6 million contract. His agent, Pat Morris, had reportedly wanted a similar deal to that of fellow Islanders prospect Brett Lindros – a five-year, $6.7 million contract signed the previous summer.
During training camp in September 1995, Islanders head coach Mike Milbury heralded Bertuzzi as the team's best performing forward. Making his NHL debut on October 7, 1995, he scored a wrap around goal against goaltender Blaine Lacher in a 4–4 tie with the Boston Bruins. Beginning the season on the team's top line with Žigmund Pálffy and Travis Green, Bertuzzi finished his rookie year with 18 goals and 39 points over 76 games. The following season, Bertuzzi recorded 23 points in 64 games. The Islanders did not qualify for the playoffs in either of his two full seasons with the club, ranking second-last in the Eastern Conference in 1995–96 and 1996–97.
Bertuzzi's playing style as a power forward resulted in comparisons to former Islander Clark Gillies. As a result, the club hired Gillies to personally mentor Bertuzzi. Failing to meet lofty expectations from the club, Gillies once said of Bertuzzi, "If you're built like a freight train, you can't drive around like a Volkswagen." Feeling burdened with the pressure of playing up to the club's expectations while his offensive production diminished, he requested to be traded away at one point during the 1996–97 season. In response, Milbury, who had also taken over general manager duties the previous season, demoted Bertuzzi to the Islanders' minor league affiliate, the Utah Grizzlies of the International Hockey League (IHL). Playing 13 games in the minors, he registered 10 points before being called back up to the NHL. During the 1997–98 campaign, he continued to score below his pace as a rookie. On February 6, 1998, he was traded along with defenceman Bryan McCabe and a third-round selection in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft (Jarkko Ruutu) to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for veteran forward Trevor Linden. The deal was made prior to the NHL's roster freeze in preparation for the 1998 Winter Olympics.
Bertuzzi and McCabe had both been widely regarded as the players of the future for New York after their respective drafts in 1993. While Milbury expressed regret at having to trade McCabe, relations between Bertuzzi and the club were strained. Welcoming the trade, Bertuzzi commented that "things weren't working out [in New York]."
Vancouver Canucks (1998–2006)
Bertuzzi immediately began producing with Vancouver, tallying 15 points in 22 games after the trade. Combined with his totals from New York, he finished with 33 points over 74 games in 1997–98. Contrasting his strained relationship with Milbury in New York, Canucks head coach Mike Keenan has recalled his experience with Bertuzzi upon his arrival as positive: "He came as a young player and he was very open-minded about learning about the game." Similar to the Islanders, Bertuzzi joined a struggling club in Vancouver; the team finished last in the Western Conference in his first two seasons after the trade.
After beginning the 1998–99 season on the Canucks' top line, Bertuzzi was limited to 32 games due to injuries, the first of which was a fractured tibia. He suffered the injury on November 1, 1998, after a shot by teammate Mattias Öhlund hit him in the leg. His season was later ended with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee, suffered during a game on March 5, 1999. He recorded 8 goals and 16 points in 1998–99. In the off-season, Bertuzzi became a restricted free agent and was re-signed by the Canucks to a two-year contract in September 1999. The deal was reported by The Vancouver Sun to be worth a little over $2 million.
Returning from injury the following season, Bertuzzi emerged as one of the Canucks' best offensive contributors, finishing with 25 goals (second on the team to Markus Näslund) and 50 points in 1999–2000. At the end of the season, he received the team's Most Exciting Player Award, as voted by the fans. He received the distinction three more times during his career with the Canucks from 2002 to 2004). Meanwhile, the Canucks began improving as a team, finishing four points out of a playoff spot in the West in 2000.
The following season, Bertuzzi recorded his first career NHL hat trick, recording all three goals on the power play against San Jose Sharks goaltender Evgeni Nabokov in a 6–3 win on December 30, 2000. Bertuzzi recorded a second consecutive 25-goal season in 2000–01, adding 30 assists for 55 points, third in team scoring behind Näslund and Andrew Cassels. His -18 plus-minus rating, however, was a team-worst. The Canucks continued to improve, qualifying for the post-season for the first time in five years. Entering the 2001 playoffs as the final and eighth seed in the West, they were eliminated in the first round by the Colorado Avalanche. Bertuzzi scored two goals and two assists over four games in his first NHL post-season appearance. In the off-season, Bertuzzi filed for salary arbitration after initially failing to come to terms on a new contract with the Canucks. Both sides avoided arbitration by agreeing to a three-year deal on July 26, 2001.
In the first month of the 2001–02 season, Bertuzzi received an automatic 10-game suspension from the league (forfeiting $118,557 in salary) after leaving the bench to help teammate Ed Jovanovski in a fight. The incident occurred during a game against the Colorado Avalanche in which opposing coach Bob Hartley sent enforcer Scott Parker onto the ice as the extra attacker during a delayed penalty. Parker proceeded to physically engage Jovanovski, at which point Bertuzzi left the bench to help his teammate. Vancouver struggled with him out of the lineup, winning 3 games during the 10-game span. Two months after returning from suspension, Bertuzzi went 15 consecutive games with at least a point, scoring 7 goals and 12 assists from January 3 – February 4, 2002. The streak tied Petr Nedvěd for the longest in Canucks history. During that span, in a game on January 9, Canucks head coach Marc Crawford replaced Andrew Cassels with Brendan Morrison, marking the beginning of what was considered by many to be the most effective line combination in the league for several seasons. Bertuzzi had emerged as an effective power forward, able to use his size and strength to position himself in front of the net, with good stickhandling ability. According to Canucks assistant coach Jack McIlhargey, Bertuzzi's skill set favourably complemented Näslund's goal-scoring and Morrison's playmaking abilities. The trio were dubbed by Vancouver media as the "West Coast Express", named after the city's commuter rail service of the same name.
Late in the 2001–02 season, Bertuzzi recorded his second career hat-trick on March 19, 2002, during a win against the New York Rangers. He scored his first two goals of the game against Dan Blackburn and his third into an empty net. Despite missing ten games from his suspension, Bertuzzi finished the 2001–02 season third in league-scoring with 85 points, behind Näslund and Calgary Flames forward Jarome Iginla. His 1.18 points-per-game average ranked second in the NHL behind Mario Lemieux, who played 48 fewer games than Bertuzzi. He also improved his plus-minus rating by 39 points from the previous season, finishing a career-high +21. Although the Canucks were the league's highest scoring team, they finished with the final seed in the West for the 2002 playoffs, ranking eighth in their conference. Facing the Detroit Red Wings in the opening round, they were eliminated in six games. Bertuzzi recorded four points in the series.
The following season, Bertuzzi appeared in his first NHL All-Star Game. He was joined by fellow Canucks Markus Näslund, defenceman Ed Jovanovski and head coach Marc Crawford, helping the Western Conference to a 6–5 shootout win against the East. He played on a line with Näslund and Peter Forsberg. Later in the season, he scored his third career hat-trick on March 17, 2003, scoring three goals against Ron Tugnutt in a game against the Dallas Stars. He finished the season with career-highs of 46 goals (third in the league), 51 assists and 97 points (fifth in the league). His 25 power play goals led the NHL and tied Pavel Bure for the Canucks' single-season record. Linemates Näslund and Morrison also recorded personal bests with 104 and 71 points, respectively. Meanwhile, the Canucks emerged as a top team in the West. Losing the Northwest Division title to the Avalanche by one point in the regular season, they finished as the fourth seed in their conference. After going down three-games-to-one in the opening round against the St. Louis Blues, Vancouver won three straight games to advance to the second round. Facing the Minnesota Wild, the Canucks gave up their own three-games-to-one series lead and were eliminated in seven games. During the series, Bertuzzi had reportedly walked by the Xcel Energy Center box office and told Wild fans they would not need their Game 6 tickets because Minnesota would be eliminated by then. In another on-ice incident, he skated by the opposing bench during Game 7 when the Canucks were winning 2–0, telling Wild players to "get [their] golf clubs". Despite his successful regular season, Bertuzzi struggled to score in the playoffs, recording 6 points in 14 games. In the off-season, Bertuzzi was named with Näslund to the NHL First All-Star Team.
With Bertuzzi entering the final year of his contract, the Canucks began negotiating a contract extension prior to the 2003–04 season. Despite Bertuzzi's agent, Pat Morris, declaring that they would cease negotiations once the season began, Bertuzzi signed a four-year, $27.8 million deal with the Canucks on October 23, 2003. The contract took effect immediately, erasing the last year on his previous contract, and included a $3 million signing bonus ($2.5 million paid in the first year and $500,000 in the second). The deal paid him $4.3 million the first year, $6.633 million the second year and $6.933 million for the third and fourth years.
In January 2004, Bertuzzi was voted by league fans to the starting lineup of the NHL All-Star Game. Representing the Western Conference alongside Näslund and Canucks head coach Marc Crawford, they were defeated by the East 6–4. Bertuzzi had two assists while playing on a line with Näslund and Joe Sakic. Nearing the end of the 2003–04 season, Bertuzzi was indefinitely suspended by the NHL for punching Colorado Avalanche forward Steve Moore from behind and driving his head into the ice during a game on March 8, 2004. His actions were a retaliation to a hit from Moore on Näslund during a previous game. Sitting out the remainder of the regular season and playoffs due to his suspension, he finished 2003–04 with 60 points over 69 games. Vancouver replaced Bertuzzi on the team's top line with Matt Cooke and went on to their first Northwest Division title, before being eliminated in the first round of the 2004 playoffs by the Calgary Flames.
Inactive in 2004–05 due to the players lockout and his ongoing suspension, which had been extended internationally, Bertuzzi returned to the Canucks in 2005–06, as the league ended his playing ban. He recorded 25 goals and 71 points, including two hat tricks (November 13, 2005, against the Detroit Red Wings and January 14, 2006, against the New York Islanders). Though he ranked third in team scoring, Crawford has recalled that by the end of the season, Näslund and Bertuzzi had been eclipsed by Daniel and Henrik Sedin as the team's offensive leaders.
There was speculation that the effects of the Steve Moore incident, which included assault charges and constant media coverage, were negatively affecting his play. While on the road, he was consistently heckled and booed by fans throughout the NHL. Näslund, a close friend of Bertuzzi's, later expressed sympathy for him, saying in a 2008 interview, "It still bothers me what Todd has had to go through...There's no question he was standing up for me...it all went too far."
Beyond the negative impact on Bertuzzi's individual play, the media speculated that the fallout from the Moore incident had become a distraction to the organization as a whole. Compounding the situation in Vancouver, the Canucks had missed the playoffs for the first time in four years. As such, general manager Dave Nonis spent the off-season making significant changes to the Canucks lineup. On June 23, 2006, he traded Bertuzzi to the Florida Panthers, along with goaltender Alex Auld and defenceman Bryan Allen, in exchange for goaltender Roberto Luongo, defenceman Lukáš Krajíček and a sixth-round selection in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft (Sergei Shirokov). After seven-and-a-half seasons with the Canucks, Bertuzzi left the club ranked seventh all-time among franchise scoring leaders with 449 points.
Florida, Detroit, and Anaheim (2006–08)
Instrumental in facilitating the trade to Florida was Bertuzzi's positive relationship with Panthers general manager Mike Keenan, who was his first coach in Vancouver. Debuting with the Panthers on October 6, 2006, Bertuzzi scored a goal and three assists in an 8–3 win against the Boston Bruins. He appeared in six more games for Florida, notching seven points total, before being sidelined with back spasms. After being diagnosed with a herniated disc in early-November, Bertuzzi opted for surgery, which kept him out of the lineup for five months. While recovering, the Panthers dealt him to the Detroit Red Wings at the trade deadline in exchange for forward prospect Shawn Matthias and conditional draft picks. Bertuzzi was in the last year of his contract with no guarantee he would re-sign with Florida in the off-season.
Bertuzzi returned to action on March 22, 2007, debuting with his new team in a 2–1 shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Eight days later, he scored his first goal as a Red Wing in a 4–3 shootout loss to the Dallas Stars. On April 7, he suffered a neck injury that kept him out of the lineup for the last game of the regular season and the first two games of the 2007 playoffs. He finished the campaign with 11 points in 15 games split between Florida and Detroit. During the playoffs, the Red Wings advanced to the Western Conference Finals, where they lost in six games to the Anaheim Ducks, who went on to win the Stanley Cup. Bertuzzi recorded 7 points in 16 playoff games.
Becoming an unrestricted free agent in the off-season, Bertuzzi agreed to a two-year, $8 million contract with the Anaheim Ducks on July 2, 2007. Signing him was Ducks general manager Brian Burke, who had served as the Canucks general manager during Bertuzzi's time in Vancouver. Bertuzzi had reportedly been in negotiations to re-sign with Detroit, but the club only wanted a one-year deal. Playing the Red Wings in the Ducks' first game of the regular season on October 3, 2007, he registered a goal and an assist in a 3–2 shootout loss. In the first month of the 2007–08 campaign, he suffered a concussion and was sidelined for 14 games in October and November 2007. Bertuzzi returned to the lineup in time for the Ducks' away game against the Canucks on November 27, which marked his first NHL game in Vancouver since being traded away. Bertuzzi was received warmly by Canucks fans, as the Ducks lost the game 4–0. Playing in 68 contests over the season, he registered 40 points with Anaheim. Entering the 2008 playoffs as the defending champions, the Ducks were eliminated in the first round four games to two by the Dallas Stars. In six playoff contests, Bertuzzi recorded two assists.
Calgary Flames (2008–09)
During the subsequent summer, several Ducks players were set to become free agents, including high-profile forward Corey Perry. Requiring additional salary cap space to make room for defenceman Scott Niedermayer, who announced he was returning for another season, Bertuzzi was placed on unconditional waivers with the intention of buying out the remaining year on his contract. Addressing Bertuzzi's buy out with the media, Burke asserted that he "believe[d] [Bertuzzi] can still play at the NHL level," and that the Ducks were merely "handcuffed by [their] salary cap situation." Bertuzzi once again became an unrestricted free agent and signed a one-year, $1.95 million contract with the Calgary Flames on July 7, 2008. Joining Calgary, he was reunited with Flames coach Mike Keenan. Before the start of the 2008–09 season, Bertuzzi switched jersey numbers from 4 to 7, in honour of his boyhood idol, Phil Esposito. The numbers 44, which Bertuzzi wore in New York, Vancouver and Detroit, and 4, which he wore in Anaheim, were already taken in Calgary.
Bertuzzi scored his first goal with the Flames, deflecting a Dion Phaneuf shot, on October 11, 2008, in a 5–4 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks. While initial fan reaction to Bertuzzi was negative due to his previous role with the division-rival Canucks, as well as his reputation following the Steve Moore incident, he was eventually accepted in Calgary. In January 2009, he missed five games due to a back injury. Several months later, he was sidelined again with a knee injury and underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair damaged cartilage on March 3, 2009. Missing 11 games, he returned in time for the 2009 playoffs, where the Flames were eliminated by the Chicago Blackhawks in the opening round. He finished his only season in Calgary with 44 points in 66 regular season games, while adding a goal and an assist in six playoff contests.
Return to Detroit (2009–2014)
On August 18, 2009, Bertuzzi re-joined the Red Wings by accepting a one-year contract with the club worth $1.5 million. He recorded 44 points (18 goals and 26 assists) in 2009–10, ranking fifth in team scoring. During the second round of the 2010 playoffs, Bertuzzi recorded a career-high five-point contest (a goal and four assists) in a Game 4 victory against the San Jose Sharks. Bertuzzi finished with a playoffs career-high 11 points in 12 games.
In the off-season, Bertuzzi signed a two-year, $3.875 million contract extension with the Red Wings on June 16, 2010. During the 2010–11 season, he appeared in his 1,000th NHL game on February 20, 2011, against the Minnesota Wild. Bertuzzi scored a shootout goal to help Detroit win the game 2–1. Dressing for 81 games that season, he ranked seventh in team scoring with 45 points (16 goals and 29 assists). During the 2011 playoffs, he added 6 points (2 goals and 4 assists) over 11 games as the Red Wings were eliminated in the second round by the San Jose Sharks.
On February 23, 2012 Bertuzzi re-signed with the Red Wings for $4.15 million over two years. He dressed for seven games in the lockout-shortened 2012-2013 regular season due to injuries, producing three points, and was held pointless over six games in the playoffs. In the 2013–2014 season he played 59 games and produced 16 points, but was a healthy scratch 15 times; he played one playoff game without a point.
During his time with Detroit, he earned praise from head coach Mike Babcock and teammates for adapting his playing style to be more defensively responsible. Bertuzzi credited the influence of teammates Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, both successful two-way players in the league.
Binghamton Senators tryout and retirement (2015)
On January 9, 2015 he signed a professional tryout contract with the Ottawa Senators AHL affiliate the Binghamton Senators in hopes to get a contract with Ottawa.
Bertuzzi was released from his professional tryout offer with Binghamton on January 21, 2015, after posting no points and a minus-3 rating in his 2 games played with the Senators. He subsequently retired that year.
International play
Bertuzzi debuted internationally for Team Canada at the 1998 World Championships in Switzerland. He was among the youngest players selected to the team, along with Canucks teammate Bryan McCabe and Chicago Blackhawks forward Eric Dazé, who were all born in 1975 (third-string goaltender Christian Bronsard was two years younger, but did not play in any games). In six games, he recorded three points, as Canada failed to qualify for the medal rounds.
Two years later, Bertuzzi competed at the 2000 World Championships in St. Petersburg, Russia. One of five Canucks players chosen to the national team, he was joined by Adrian Aucoin, Ed Jovanovski, Brendan Morrison and Peter Schaefer. His second tournament appearance was more productive, as he scored nine points in nine games – first among Canadian players and fourth overall – while also leading the tournament in penalty minutes with 47. Canada did not medal, losing to Finland in the bronze medal game by a 2–1 score. His 63 total penalty minutes from both tournament appearances set an all-time Canadian record for World Championship competitors since 1977 (when Canada resumed competing in the tournament).
In December 2005, Bertuzzi was controversially selected to play for Team Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. His inclusion, along with that of Dany Heatley and Shane Doan, was discussed at length by the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC). The committee had concerns stemming from the Steve Moore incident and Bertuzzi's probationary status, but subsequently approved his representation of Canada at the Olympics. According to a Canadian Press article, "[COC president] Chambers said the [unusual meeting] was prompted by some media concerns raised over the three athletes participating in the Games. The fact it took the committee so long to approve the list means there was some debate."
Bertuzzi went on to post three points (all assists) at the 2006 Olympics, tying for second in team scoring with nine other players. Canada failed to advance past the quarterfinal, losing to Russia by a 2–0 score. They finished in seventh place overall after winning gold at the previous Winter Olympics in 2002.
Steve Moore Incident
On February 16, 2004, during a game between Vancouver and Colorado, Avalanche center Steve Moore checked Markus Näslund in the head, causing a minor concussion and a bone chip in his elbow. No penalty was assessed, and the league decided not to fine or suspend Moore, ruling the hit legal. Näslund missed three games as a result of the hit. In a rematch, with the Canucks trailing the Avalanche 8–2 in the third period, Bertuzzi began following Moore around the ice, attempting to provoke him into another fight. With Moore ignoring him, Bertuzzi grabbed Moore's jersey from behind and punched him in the side of the face from behind, with Moore's face hitting the ice as Bertuzzi pushed him, already out cold, into the ice, breaking his neck. Bertuzzi, as well as several other players from both teams, landed atop Moore as he fell to the ice. Bertuzzi was assessed a match penalty and ejected from the game. Per league rules, he was also suspended indefinitely pending a ruling from league commissioner Gary Bettman.
After lying on the ice for approximately 10 minutes, Moore was removed from the playing surface on a stretcher. He was treated for three fractured vertebrae in his neck, a grade three concussion, vertebral ligament damage, stretching of the brachial plexus nerves, and facial lacerations. He was also suffering from amnesia. Bertuzzi apologized to Moore and his family, as well as to Burke, Canucks owner John McCaw, Jr., the Canucks organization, his teammates, and the fans in a press conference two days later.
On March 11, 2004, the league ruled he would remain suspended for at least the remainder of the Canucks' season, which ultimately cost him the final 13 games of the regular season plus seven playoff games. The Canucks were additionally fined $250,000. While the following NHL season was suspended due to the 2004–05 lockout, Bertuzzi intended to play in Europe, but the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) extended his NHL suspension to cover their jurisdiction. Bertuzzi remained professionally inactive during the 2004–05 season. The IIHF's sanction also kept him from representing Canada in the 2004 and 2005 World Championships, as well as the 2004 World Cup.
Bettman scheduled a reinstatement hearing for Bertuzzi on April 26, 2005. The hearing was attended separately by Bertuzzi and Moore. Prior to the 2005–06 season, Bettman announced Bertuzzi's reinstatement on August 8, citing that "Mr. Bertuzzi had paid a very significant price for his conduct," adding that he felt Bertuzzi was "genuinely remorseful and apologetic." Bertuzzi's 17-month suspension caused him to miss a total of 20 games—the fourth-longest suspension in NHL history at the time. The suspension accounted for $501,926.39 in forfeited salary, as well as an approximate $350,000 in lost endorsements. On the day of his reinstatement, Team Canada's executive director, Wayne Gretzky, offered him a spot on the national team's summer orientation camp in preparation for the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Legal actions
After a four-month investigation, the criminal justice branch of the Attorney General of British Columbia announced formal charges of assault causing bodily harm against Bertuzzi on June 24, 2004. With the charge, Bertuzzi faced up to one-and-a-half years in prison. Bertuzzi pleaded guilty to the assault charge on December 22 after arranging a plea bargain with prosecutors. He was given a conditional discharge requiring 80 hours of community service and one year's probation that additionally prohibited him from playing in any hockey game Moore was competing in. Under Canadian law, Bertuzzi's successful completion of his probationary period precluded him from a criminal record. Moore expressed disappointment regarding Bertuzzi's discharge and was upset that he was unable to attend the court date, having to issue a written victim statement instead. Moore's lawyer, Tim Danson, was given one day's notice of the court date following Bertuzzi's plea bargain, which he said was insufficient time for Moore to travel to Vancouver.
On February 17, 2005, Moore filed a lawsuit in a Colorado court against Bertuzzi, numerous individuals within the Canucks organization, including Brad May (Bertuzzi's teammate at the time who was quoted as saying that there would "definitely be a price on Moore's head" after Moore's hit on Näslund), Brian Burke, Marc Crawford, as well as the Canucks organization as a whole and the Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment company that owned the team. The lawsuit was thrown out in October 2005, as the Colorado judge ruled the case was better suited for Canadian courts, as Moore and all the defendants were Canadian citizens. Planning to appeal the decision, Danson stated publicly the following month that Moore had begun skating and doing regular workouts, but continued to suffer concussion-related symptoms.
On February 16, 2006, Moore filed another lawsuit in the Ontario Superior Court against Bertuzzi, the Canucks, and Orca Bay, seeking CAD$15 million in pecuniary damages for loss of income, CAD$1 million for aggravated damages, and CAD$2 million for punitive damages. Moore's parents, who were watching their son on television when the attack happened, also sued, seeking CAD$1.5 million for "negligent infliction of nervous shock and mental distress". In December 2006, Bettman and top lieutenant Bill Daly facilitated a meeting between Moore's representatives and the defendants in hopes of agreeing on an out-of-court settlement. An out-of-court settlement was reached in Moore's lawsuit in October 2014. Terms of the settlement are confidential.
Personal life
Bertuzzi was born and raised in Sudbury, Ontario. His father, Albert Bertuzzi, is an Italian-Canadian who worked in the window-washing business. When Bertuzzi was a teenager, Albert survived a near-fatal car accident in which he was thrown from the vehicle through the windshield. His father has stated that he was proud of his own local reputation as a "dirty player" and referred to it as a "Bertuzzi trait". He has said that Bertuzzi takes after him in regards to his toughness and aggression. Bertuzzi's great-uncle, Larry Bertuzzi, is a Toronto-based lawyer who has done arbitration work for the NHL, including on the Eric Lindros trade.
Growing up, Bertuzzi played minor hockey with the Nickel Centre and Sudbury Minor Hockey programs. In 1990–91, Bertuzzi played as an underaged player in the major midget ranks with the Sudbury Capitals AAA team. Physically built as a power forward throughout his youth, he stood 6 feet and 2 inches (1.88 metres) and weighed 195 pounds (88.5 kilograms) by age 15.
Bertuzzi and his wife, Julie, were married in July 1996. They have two children born one-and-a-half years apart in Vancouver, a son named Tag and a daughter named Jaden. His son, Tag Bertuzzi, was drafted into the OHL by the Guelph Storm, 2nd overall in 2017. Bertuzzi is a recreational golfer and has credited the sport with allowing him to relax more as a hockey player. During his 10-game suspension from the NHL in October and November 2001, he played golf to focus his energy. Afterwards, he made it a custom to go to the driving range before every game.
Bertuzzi's nephew Tyler Bertuzzi plays hockey for the Detroit Red Wings.
Bertuzzi was arrested on February 27, 2021, and was detained at the Oakland County Jail in Michigan on suspicion of DUI.
Career statistics
Regular season and playoffs
International
Awards
Records
Guelph Storm team record; most goals, single season—54 in 1994–95 (surpassed Mike Prokopec, 52 goals in 1992–93)
Vancouver Canucks team record; longest point-scoring streak—15 games (7 goals, 12 assists; January 3 – February 4, 2003) (tied with Petr Nedved; November 19 – December 27, 1992)
Vancouver Canucks team record; most powerplay goals, single season—25 in 2002–03 (tied with Pavel Bure)
Transactions
June 26, 1993: Drafted 23rd overall by the New York Islanders
July 6, 1995: Signed to a four-year, $4.6 million contract with the New York Islanders
February 6, 1998: Traded to the Vancouver Canucks from the New York Islanders with Bryan McCabe and a 3rd round choice in 1998 (Jarkko Ruutu) for Trevor Linden
September 1999: Re-signed to a two-year contract with the Vancouver Canucks
October 27, 2003: Signed a four-year, $27.9 million contract extension with the Vancouver Canucks
March 11, 2004: Suspended indefinitely by the NHL for deliberate injury to Steve Moore in a game versus the Colorado Avalanche
August 8, 2005: Officially reinstated by the NHL
June 23, 2006: Traded to the Florida Panthers by the Vancouver Canucks with Bryan Allen and Alex Auld for Roberto Luongo, Lukas Krajicek and a sixth-round draft choice in 2006 (Sergei Shirokov)
February 27, 2007: Traded to the Detroit Red Wings by the Florida Panthers for prospect Shawn Matthias and conditional draft picks
July 2, 2007: Signed a two-year, $8 million contract as an unrestricted free agent with the Anaheim Ducks
June 28, 2008: Placed on waivers by the Anaheim Ducks; subsequently bought out
July 7, 2008: Signed a one-year $1.95 million contract as an unrestricted free agent with the Calgary Flames
August 18, 2009: Signed a one-year $1.5 million contract as an unrestricted free agent with the Detroit Red Wings
May 10, 2010: Signed a two-year, $3.85 million contract extension with the Detroit Red Wings
February 23, 2012: Signed a two-year, $4.15 million contract extension with the Detroit Red Wings
See also
List of NHL players with 1000 games played
References
Footnotes
Citations
External links
1975 births
Anaheim Ducks players
Binghamton Senators players
Calgary Flames players
Canadian ice hockey right wingers
Detroit Red Wings players
Florida Panthers players
Guelph Storm players
Ice hockey people from Ontario
Ice hockey players at the 2006 Winter Olympics
Living people
National Hockey League All-Stars
National Hockey League first round draft picks
New York Islanders draft picks
New York Islanders players
Olympic ice hockey players of Canada
Sportspeople from Greater Sudbury
Utah Grizzlies (IHL) players
Vancouver Canucks players
Violence in sports
Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States
Canadian people of Italian descent | true | [
"Jake Reinhart (born November 25, 1989) is a Canadian football long snapper for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL).\n\nUniversity career\nReinhart played CIS football as a linebacker and long snapper for the Guelph Gryphons from 2008 to 2012. He was named a CIS Academic All-Canadian in 2012.\n\nProfessional career\nAfter going undrafted in the 2012 CFL Draft, Reinhart returned to play for the Guelph Gryphons in 2012. After completing his CIS eligibility, he was then signed as an undrafted free agent by the Toronto Argonauts on June 4, 2013. However, he was released after the team's first pre-season game on June 16, 2013.\n\nFollowing the departure of the Argonauts' incumbent long snapper, Chad Rempel, Reinhart was re-signed by the team on April 15, 2014. He earned the long snapper job following training camp and played in his first professional game on June 26, 2014 against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He played in all 18 regular season games that year and recorded seven special teams tackles. \n\nIn 2015, he again dressed in all 18 regular season games and had six special teams tackles. Reinhart also played in his first post-season game which was a loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the East Semi-Final.\n\nIn the 2017 season, Reinhart played in all 18 regular season games and both post-season games. He played in the first Grey Cup game of his career which ended in an Argonaut victory over the Calgary Stampeders in the 105th Grey Cup.\n\nThe Argonauts home pre-season game in 2018 was played at Alumni Stadium in Guelph, marking Reinhart's first return to play at his university's stadium. He finished the regular season with a career-high 11 special teams tackles in 18 regular season games. Reinhart was injured in the 2019 season opener and missed the first six games of his career. Prior to that, he had a 94 consecutive games played streak, including the post-season.\n\nOn February 28, 2020, Reinhart signed a contract extension with the Argonauts through to the 2022 season. However, he did not play in 2020 due to the cancellation of the 2020 CFL season. As of the 2021 season, he was the longest serving member of the Argonauts. On October 6, 2021, Reinhart suffered a severe elbow injury in a game against the Ottawa Redblacks that required emergency surgery in Guelph. It was expected that Reinhart would miss the remainder of the season due to the injury.\n\nPersonal life\nReinhart was born in Guelph, Ontario to parents Ellen and John Reinhart. His younger brother, Will, played football with him in high school, and his youngest brother, Job, also played long snapper at Guelph and was drafted by the Calgary Stampeders in 2019 CFL Draft.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nToronto Argonauts bio\n\nLiving people\n1989 births\nCanadian football long snappers\nGuelph Gryphons football players\nPlayers of Canadian football from Ontario\nSportspeople from Guelph\nToronto Argonauts players",
"Patrick Anthony Kudla is a Canadian professional ice hockey player in the Slovak Extraliga. He currently plays defence for HK Dukla Trenčín. \n\nKudla was born and raised in Guelph, Ontario, where he played for the Guelph Hurricanes in the GOJHL from the 2012-13 season through to the 2014-15 season. In 2016, he was drafted 158th overall by the Arizona Coyotes in the National Hockey League, but never played in the league. During the 2017-18 season, he played for the University of Guelph ice hockey team. \n\nAfter his season with the University of Guelph, he moved to Europe to play for HC Nové Zámky in the Slovak Extraliga. From here, during the 2019-20 season, he was drafted to HC Frýdek-Místek in the Czech Chance Liga, then subsequently to HC Litvínov in the Czech Extraliga, where he played 62 games across two seasons. In 2021, he returned to the Slovak Extraliga to play for HK Dukla Trenčín.\n\nReferences \n\n1996 births\nLiving people\nArizona Coyotes draft picks\nCanadian ice hockey defencemen\nDubuque Fighting Saints players\nHC Frýdek-Místek players\nHC Litvínov players\nHK Dukla Trenčín players\nIce hockey people from Ontario\nSportspeople from Guelph\nUniversity of Guelph alumni"
]
|
[
"Miyavi",
"2012-2014: Miyavi and international acting career"
]
| C_abe68c926ce046d7ae9603d2c1277e5e_0 | What films was he in? | 1 | What films was Miyavi in? | Miyavi | In 2012, Miyavi performed on February 19 at the second EMI Rocks event in Saitama Super Arena. On June 29, he performed at the EHZ Festival in Helette, while on June 30, he was the only Asian representative at the Main Square Festival in Arras, France. On July 11, his thirteenth major single, "Day 1," was released in collaboration with the French electronic producer and DJ, Yuksek. In August, he performed at the Kubana Festival in Russia. On September 8, Miyavi performed at the 908 Festival, organized by Kreva, in Saitama Super Arena. In October two concerts were held in Indonesia. On November 14, Samurai Sessions vol.1, his second EP, was released, which featured collaboration with various artists, and it was followed by a short nationwide tour. It reached 21 on the Oricon charts. On February 28, 2013, "Ahead of the Light", Miyavi's fourteenth single, was released; a promotional tour of the same name followed. On June 19, his seventh studio album, Miyavi, was released in Japan. It is his best-selling album so far, reaching number eight on the Oricon charts. On October 12, 2013, it was announced that Miyavi would venture into professional acting with his international debut in the film Unbroken. He played the role of Imperial Japanese Army sergeant Mutsuhiro Watanabe, nicknamed "The Bird", in what was Angelina Jolie's second feature film as director. It was released in December 2014. Miyavi commented that as the movie was somewhat sensitive to the Japanese people, he had hesitated as to whether he should take this role. However, after meeting with Jolie, and given that the underlying theme of this story is forgiveness, he wholeheartedly decided to accept it. Miyavi was featured in the same month's edition of Vogue Italia. In 2013 Miyavi was nominated for the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Japanese Act, and at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan he won the Best Collaboration category with Yuksek. In 2014, the music video of "Horizon" was nominated for the Best Male Video at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan. In 2014, Miyavi went on his fourth world tour, "Slap the World", which started on February 22 in Malaysia. He continued throughout Europe, followed by the European release of his latest studio album, and visited Mexico City and Los Angeles, with United States release of the album, before returning to Japan for his longest nationwide tour so far. Miyavi composed the music for the single "Top Of The World" by SMAP, which topped the Oricon singles charts. On August 25, he performed for the first time at Fuji Rock Festival. On September 9, his new single "Real?" was released, on which Miyavi collaborated with Jam and Lewis and Jeff Blue, and also the live video recording from the world tour. CANNOTANSWER | international debut in the film Unbroken. | , better known by his stage name Miyavi (雅, stylized as MIYAVI), is a Japanese guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor known for his finger-slapping style of playing a guitar.
He has been active since 1999, first as guitarist for the now defunct visual kei rock band Dué le quartz and then as a solo artist starting in 2002. In 2007, he became a member of the rock supergroup S.K.I.N. and in 2009 founded his own company, J-glam. He toured worldwide several times, with over 250 shows in 30 countries as of 2015. As of 2016, he released ten solo albums and 27 singles.
In 2014, Miyavi appeared in the motion picture Unbroken, directed by Angelina Jolie, and went on to undertake smaller roles in American productions such as Kong: Skull Island and Stray. Since 2013, Miyavi has been a volunteer at UNHCR, visiting refugee camps around the world. In November 2017, he was appointed an official Goodwill Ambassador.
Early life
Miyavi was born in the Nishikujō district in Konohana-ku ward, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, to a Japanese mother and a Korean-Japanese father. After the first grade, he moved to Kawanishi. His father's family, surnamed Lee, came from Jeju Island. Miyavi says that as a child he was a good student and enjoyed playing football. He was accepted into the junior team of Cerezo Osaka, a J-League team. In the second year of junior high school, a sports injury prevented him from pursuing a professional career in sports. Instead, at the age of fifteen, he learned to play the guitar. He bought a guitar and began covering songs by Ray Charles.
He was particularly fond of visual kei acts such as X Japan and Luna Sea but also listened to the blues, Motown, hard rock such as Metallica and L.A. Guns, and industrial music such as Nine Inch Nails. In his third year of junior high school, he started playing with his first band, a visual kei group named Loop.
Career
1999–2003: Dué le quartz and indies era
In 1999, at the age of 17, Miyavi moved to Tokyo, and joined the visual kei rock band Dué le quartz, where he went by the stage name "Miyabi". Besides being a guitarist, he wrote lyrics, composed, and arranged. When the band split up in 2002, he started his solo career and changed his name to Miyavi. He signed a contract with the independent record label PS Company, and on October 31, his debut studio album Gagaku was released. Before the end of the year three more singles were released: "Shindemo Boogie-Woogie", "Pop Is Dead" and "Jingle Bell", of which only the third managed to enter the top forty on the Oricon charts. Miyavi also starred alongside his former bandmate Sakito in a movie, Ryōma no Tsuma to Sono Otto to Aijin.
On April 23, 2003, his first solo concert was held at the Shibuya Public Hall. Three singles were released: "Jibun Kakumei", "Tariraritarara", and "Coo quack cluck (Ku. Ku. Ru)", which charted as numbers forty, thirty, and forty-two respectively on Oricon. On December 2, his second studio album, Galyuu, was released; it charted forty-fourth.
2004–2006: Majors and pop/acoustic era
In 2004, he starred as himself in the film Oresama. In February he went on his first solo tour, Tokyo Dassou, and in July additional dates were added in Korea and Taiwan. In June his seventh single, "Ashita, Genki Ni Naare", was released, which charted twenty-second, and number one on the indies chart. In August a small, free, fan-club-only event was organized in Tokyo Dome, and on the 31st he held his last indie concert at the Nippon Budokan. In October, he signed a major contract with Universal Music Group, but was still co-managed by PS Company. This was followed by the release of his first major (double) single, "Rock no Gyakushuu"/"21sekikei Koushinkyoku", which entered the top ten on the charts.
During May 2005 another single, "Freedom Fighters -Icecream wo Motta Hadashi no Megami to, Kikanjuu wo Motta Hadaka no Ousama-", was released, which charted tenth, and on June 1, his first major album, Miyavizm, was released. It was his first album to enter the top ten in the charts. It was followed by the third major single, "Kekkon Shiki Uta"/"Are You Ready to Rock?", which is his best charting single, along with "Dear My Friend"/"Itoshii Hito", released in 2006; both reached number six. In December he performed at the first Peace & Smile Carnival organized by PS Company.
In late 2005 and for most of 2006, Miyavi shifted to an acoustic/pop sound reflected in his second and third major albums, MYV Pops and Miyaviuta: Dokusō, released on August 2 and September 13 respectively. They charted at fifteenth and twenty-fifth. The first album singles, "Señor Señora Señorita"/"Gigpig Boogie" and "Kimi ni Negai o", are not different in style. They charted as tenth and twenty-sixth respectively. Miyavi showcased his new acoustic style for the first time in the 25 Shūnen Kinen Koen concert series held at Tokyo Geijutsu Gekijo for five days in September around his 25th birthday. Miyavi left for America for the next six months to study the English language and take dance classes, and, on the weekends, went to Venice Beach and gave street performances.
2007–2008: US debut, S.K.I.N., World Tour
On February 17, Miyavi, having been invited by the break dancer Mr. Freeze, performed with the local DJ and percussionist at his first solo concert in the United States, at the Tabu Ultra Lounge in the MGM Grand, Las Vegas. On May 25, at the JRock Revolution concert organized by Yoshiki at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, it was officially announced that Miyavi would be a member of a band named S.K.I.N. On June 29, the band held their debut and their only concert yet at the anime expo in Long Beach, California.
In June, Miyavi's seventh major single (and 14th overall), "Sakihokoru Hana no you ni (Neo Visualizm)"/"Kabuki Danshi", was released in Japan, which charted as twelfth. In July, a remixed extended play, 7 Samurai Sessions -We're Kavki Boiz-, was released, which includes re-arrangements of his past songs. It charted as forty-fourth. It was followed by Miyavi's nationwide tour, which started on July 16. He also performed at Animagic in Bonn, Germany, and in Seoul, South Korea. In November, his tenth major single was released, "Subarashikikana, Kono Sekai - What A Wonderful World", which charted as thirteenth.
On January 16, 2008, his ninth major single was released, "Hi no Hikari Sae Todokanai Kono Basho De", on which he collaborated with fellow Skin guitarist Sugizo. It is his third single to enter the top ten. On March 19, his fourth major studio album was released, titled, This Iz the Japanese Kabuki Rock, which charted as twenty-fifth. In May, it was followed by his very first worldwide tour, This Iz The Japanese Kabuki Rock Tour 2008, with 33 concerts in the United States, Chile, Brazil, Germany, England, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Finland, France, Taiwan, South Korea, mainland China and Japan. The tour covered a distance of approximately 48,385 miles, equivalent to almost two trips around the world, and the majority of the concerts were sold out and covered extensively by media organizations. It was the most successful international tour undertaken by a Japanese artist in history. On June 27, a compilation album, Azn Pride -This Iz the Japanese Kabuki Rock-, was released in Korea and Taiwan, later also in Japan, which charted as forty-fourth. In September, he performed in Beijing. On December 24, a remix album was released, Room No. 382, which failed to enter the top hundred.
2009–2011: Founding J-glam Inc.
In 2009, on January 3, Miyavi performed at the 10th Anniversary Commemorative concert by PS Company at the Nippon Budokan. On April 5, Miyavi left the PS Company because their ten-year contract expired, and on April 8 launched his own company, J-glam inc., of which he is the president. On April 22, a compilation album was released, Victory Road to the King of Neo Visual Rock, which includes all his major singles with Universal Group. On June 1, "Super Hero," a new song, was released through his official Myspace, and in September his International Fanclub was opened. On September 19, Miyavi started his second worldwide tour, Neo Tokyo Samurai Black 2009/2010, in Moscow, Russia. He held 17 concerts in Europe, visiting Austria, Hungary and Italy for the first time. The tour immediately continued in South America, with concerts in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico. The United States leg was canceled due to illness and an injury, but Miyavi managed to perform in November at Anime Matsuri, Texas. On December 31, he signed a new contract with EMI Music Japan.
On March 10, 2010, his first single with EMI was released, "Survive", via iTunes. The worldwide tour was continued on March 28, with the concert at Human Stage, Okinawa, and nationwide. In June and early July he toured throughout the United States and Canada, and in October for the first time in Australia. On September 15, his eleventh major single was released, "Torture". On October 13, his fifth studio album was released, What's My Name?, which charted as twenty-sixth. On November 6, he performed at the EMI Rocks 50th anniversary event at the Saitama Super Arena.
In March 2011, a new world tour, titled What's My Name?, began in Europe, with his first visit to Belgium. In April the tour continued in Japan, while in July Miyavi performed in France, and in September at the Mount Taishan MAO Rock Festival in China. In May 2011, a live album, Live in London 2011, was released, which was recorded during the London concert in March. On October 5, his twelfth major single, "Strong", was released, in collaboration with Japanese rapper Kreva. It was followed by the North American leg of the tour. Miyavi performed in South America at the Maquinaria festival in Chile, and visited Venezuela, Peru and Colombia for the first time.
2012–2014: Miyavi and international acting career
In 2012, Miyavi performed on February 19 at the second EMI Rocks event in Saitama Super Arena. On June 29, he performed at the EHZ Festival in Helette, while on June 30, he was the only Asian representative at the Main Square Festival in Arras, France. On July 11, his thirteenth major single, "Day 1", was released in collaboration with the French electronic producer and DJ Yuksek. In August, he performed at the Kubana Festival in Russia. On September 8, Miyavi performed at the 908 Festival, organized by Kreva, in Saitama Super Arena. In October two concerts were held in Indonesia. On November 14, Samurai Sessions vol.1, his second EP, was released, which featured collaboration with various artists, and it was followed by a short nationwide tour. It reached 21 on the Oricon charts.
On February 28, 2013, "Ahead of the Light", Miyavi's fourteenth single, was released; a promotional tour of the same name followed. On June 19, his seventh studio album, Miyavi, was released in Japan. It is his best-selling album so far, reaching number eight on the Oricon charts.
On October 12, 2013, it was announced that Miyavi would venture into professional acting with his international debut in the film Unbroken. He played the role of Imperial Japanese Army sergeant Mutsuhiro Watanabe, nicknamed "The Bird", in what was Angelina Jolie's second feature film as director. It was released in December 2014. Miyavi commented that as the movie was somewhat sensitive to the Japanese people, he had hesitated as to whether he should take this role. However, after meeting with Jolie, and given that the underlying theme of this story is forgiveness, he wholeheartedly decided to accept it. Miyavi was featured in the same month's edition of Vogue Italia.
In 2013, Miyavi was nominated for the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Japanese Act, and at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan he won the Best Collaboration category with Yuksek. In 2014, the music video of "Horizon" was nominated for the Best Male Video at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan.
In 2014, Miyavi went on his fourth world tour, "Slap the World", which started on February 22 in Malaysia. He continued throughout Europe, followed by the European release of his latest studio album, and visited Mexico City and Los Angeles, with United States release of the album, before returning to Japan for his longest nationwide tour so far. Miyavi composed the music for the single "Top of the World" by SMAP, which topped the Oricon singles charts. On August 25, he performed for the first time at Fuji Rock Festival. On September 9, his new single "Real?" was released, on which Miyavi collaborated with Jam and Lewis and Jeff Blue, and also the live video recording from the world tour.
2015–present: The Others, Fire Bird
His next album The Others was released on April 15, 2015, produced by Grammy Award winning Drew Ramsey and Shannon Sanders. The song "Alien Girl" was dedicated to Angelina Jolie, while his title song, "The Others" was later released in a different version to support UNHCR. The album ranked 10th on Oricon and was followed by a two-part nationwide tour, a Europe tour (his fifth on the continent) and a concert in South Korea.
On April 29, Miyavi released a digital single, "Afraid to Be Cool"/"Raise Me Up". His next album, Fire Bird came out on August 31, 2016, and ranked 11th on Oricon. The artist followed it up with a nationwide tour MIYAVI Japan Tour 2016 "NEW BEAT, NEW FUTURE", which included 10 stops. The last performance was held at Makuhari Messe, and was broadcast live on Abema TV, with more than 100,000 viewers watching.
In 2017, he played a cameo role in the movie Kong: Skull Island. In February, the singer revealed a North American and European tour. As a part of Live Nation's Asia on Tour, Miyavi performed in 14 cities, including Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City and Toronto. He embarked on a solo international tour entitled Fire Bird World Tour. The tour began in Seoul on February 29 and ended in Berlin on May 10, with shows in countries including Austria, Hungary, Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom. In March, Miyavi performed at South by Southwest for the first time in his career. On March 29, he released a digital single titled "Live to Die Another Day", which is the theme song of the live-action film Blade of the Immortal. To commemorate his 15th year as a solo artist, Miyavi embarked on a Japanese tour—MIYAVI 15th Anniversary Live "NEO TOKYO 15" started on May 21, with Miyavi releasing an anniversary compilation album, All Time Best: Day 2, on April 5.
In 2018, Miyavi covered "Pink Spider" for the Hide tribute album Tribute Impulse, and was also cast as Byakuya Kuchiki in the live-action film adaptation of Bleach. On February 23, 2019, Miyavi performed an album release concert for Samurai Sessions Vol. 3: Worlds Collide at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles with guest performers DUCKWRTH, Mikky Ekko, Che’nelle, and Yuna. On March 1, 2019, the supernatural action film Stray was released in the U.S., featuring Miyavi in the villain role of Jin. In April 2019, Miyavi performed a headlining concert at Anime Boston. In October, it was announced that Kyoto-based sake brewery launches a new product named after Miyavi.
On December 18, 2019, it was announced during an event held at Zepp DiverCity Tokyo that Miyavi would transfer to Japanese talent company LDH Japan, starting in January 2020. Miyavi, who had been independently active in the music industry for 10 years, explained his decision by mentioning that during those years he often wished for friends to work with and that he resonated with LDH's values, especially their approach to international expansion. He also announced that he would release two solo albums in 2020 and was planning a Japan tour.
On February 14, 2020, it was revealed that Miyavi would release one album before the Tokyo Olympics in summer and one afterwards. The first album, Holy Nights, was released on April 22 and accompanied by a national tour titled MIYAVI“Holy Nights”JAPAN TOUR 2020.
He provided the ending song for the anime ID:Invaded. The series also used his songs "UP", "Samurai 45", and "Butterfly".
Miyavi performed in Japan Expo Malaysia 2020 Goes Virtual on July 19, 2020.
In 2021, Miyavi made his voice acting debut as the character Kōketsu in the anime film Bright: Samurai Soul.
Personal life
On March 14, 2009, Miyavi married Japanese-American singer Melody. The couple has two daughters, Lovelie "Aily" Miyavi (born July 29, 2009 in Japan) and Jewelie Aoi (born October 21, 2010 in Japan), and a son named Skyler Kakeru (born February 24, 2021 in the United States). From 2014 to 2021, Miyavi and his family were living in Los Angeles, California, having moved to the area during the release of his film Unbroken. After the birth of his son Skyler, he and his family returned to Japan and currently live in Tokyo. After becoming a father, Miyavi toned down his on-stage attire.
Discography
Studio albums
Gagaku (October 31, 2002)
Galyuu (December 2, 2003)
Miyavizm (June 1, 2005)
MYV Pops (August 2, 2006)
Miyaviuta: Dokusō (September 13, 2006)
This Iz the Japanese Kabuki Rock (March 19, 2008)
What's My Name? (October 13, 2010)
Miyavi (June 19, 2013)
The Others (April 15, 2015)
Fire Bird (August 31, 2016)
Samurai Sessions, Vol. 2 (November 8, 2017)
Samurai Sessions, Vol. 3: Worlds Collide (December 5, 2018)
No Sleep Till Tokyo (July 24, 2019)
Holy Nights (April 22, 2020)
Imaginary (September 15, 2021)
Filmography
Awards and nominations
References
External links
21st-century Japanese male actors
21st-century Japanese singers
1981 births
Actors from Hyōgo Prefecture
EMI Records artists
Humanitarians
Japanese guitarists
Japanese male actors of Korean descent
Japanese male film actors
Japanese male pop singers
Japanese male rock singers
Japanese male singer-songwriters
Japanese singer-songwriters
Living people
Male actors from Osaka
Musicians from Hyōgo Prefecture
Musicians from Osaka
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Goodwill Ambassadors
Universal Music Japan artists
Visual kei musicians
Zainichi Korean people
21st-century guitarists
21st-century Japanese male singers | true | [
"Par le trou de la serrure is a 1901 French silent short comedy film directed by Ferdinand Zecca and distributed in France by Pathé Frères. It was also distributed in the United States under the titles What Is Seen Through a Keyhole and What Happened to the Inquisitive Janitor, and in the United Kingdom under the titles What Happened: The Inquisitive Janitor and Peeping Tom.\n\nPlot\n\nA hotel porter finds out the secrets of the guests by looking through the keyholes of four different rooms:\n in the first one he sees a woman combing her hair,\n in the second, what looked like a woman removes her whig and false breasts, revealing that she was in fact a transvestite,\n in the third, a man drinks champagne with a woman sitting on his lap,\n finally the door of the fourth room opens while he is watching and the furious guest kicks him down the stairs.\n\nAnalysis\n\nAfter being hired by Charles Pathé as main film director of the recently created film production company Pathé Frères, Zecca convinced Pathé to produce in addition to documentaries other genres of films, notably comedy films such as this one but also crime films, like Histoire d'un crime (1901), or religious subjects, like La vie et la passion du Christ (1903).\n\nHe also introduced in France innovations with respect to cinematographic style. Par le trou de la serrure is the first French film featuring editing in order to combine wide shots and medium close-up point of view shots. Zecca was clearly influenced by George Albert Smith who had used for the first time these innovations in 1900 in his short films Grandma's Reading Glass and As Seen Through a Telescope.\n\nPar le trou de la serrure is also characteristic of a certain voyeuristic trend in early cinema in showing what was normally hidden in a hotel room. The film was judged by some, notably Georges Méliès's granddaughter, as being of dubious taste.\n\nDistribution\nPar le trou de la serrure was distributed by Pathé Frères in 1901 in France, and in 1902 in the United States. In the latter country, it was also distributed by the Kleine Optical Company, the Edison Manufacturing Company, and the Lubin Manufacturing Company.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n Par le trou de la serrure (1901) What Is Seen Through a Keyhole at A Cinema History\n Par le trou de la serrure – Zecca / Ferdinand – 1901 at Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé (in French)\n\nFrench films\n1901 films\nFrench silent short films\nFrench black-and-white films\nFrench comedy films\n1901 comedy films\n1901 short films",
"Scam (released theatrically in the Philippines as Restless Heart) is a 1993 television film adaptation of crime drama novel by Craig Smith titled Ladystinger. It originally aired on Showtime in May 1993.\n\nPlot\nMaggie Rohrer (Lorraine Bracco) is a seductive con-artist scamming the rich in Miami Beach. When she picks the wrong mark, Jack Shanks (Christopher Walken), he blackmails her into working with him on the ultimate scam in Jamaica. He wants to use her talents in a much bigger scam: ripping off a crime lord by getting at his programmer's computer files. But she starts to have doubts about what he's really after when she finds a huge stash of loot with the disks. He claims no knowledge of the money, she distrusts him, he's using her, things start getting dangerous and even murderous - and then her boyfriend shows up. When the scam turns deadly, murder and double-cross become the only way to finish their dangerous game.\n\nCast\n\nProduction\nJohn Flynn says he was offered the film by Showtime on the basis of his work for them on Nails (1992). The movie was shot in Jamaica. Flynn:\nIt was a privilege to work with Chris Walken. What a fine actor he is. Miguel Ferrer and Martin Donovan are also first-rate talents, but Lorraine Bracco was clinically depressed at the time, having trouble with her boyfriend Edward James Olmos and her ex-husband Harvey Keitel. So Lorraine wasn't at the top of her game in Scam.\n\nRelease\nScam was first aired on Showtime in the United States on May 22, 1993. In the Philippines, the film was released in theaters as Restless Heart by Golden Films on July 6, 1994.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1993 television films\n1990s crime drama films\n1990s crime thriller films\n1993 drama films\nAmerican crime drama films\nAmerican films\nAmerican gangster films\nEnglish-language films\nFilms directed by John Flynn\nFilms shot in Jamaica\nMafia films\nViacom Pictures films"
]
|
[
"Miyavi",
"2012-2014: Miyavi and international acting career",
"What films was he in?",
"international debut in the film Unbroken."
]
| C_abe68c926ce046d7ae9603d2c1277e5e_0 | When was the film released? | 2 | When was the film Unbroken released? | Miyavi | In 2012, Miyavi performed on February 19 at the second EMI Rocks event in Saitama Super Arena. On June 29, he performed at the EHZ Festival in Helette, while on June 30, he was the only Asian representative at the Main Square Festival in Arras, France. On July 11, his thirteenth major single, "Day 1," was released in collaboration with the French electronic producer and DJ, Yuksek. In August, he performed at the Kubana Festival in Russia. On September 8, Miyavi performed at the 908 Festival, organized by Kreva, in Saitama Super Arena. In October two concerts were held in Indonesia. On November 14, Samurai Sessions vol.1, his second EP, was released, which featured collaboration with various artists, and it was followed by a short nationwide tour. It reached 21 on the Oricon charts. On February 28, 2013, "Ahead of the Light", Miyavi's fourteenth single, was released; a promotional tour of the same name followed. On June 19, his seventh studio album, Miyavi, was released in Japan. It is his best-selling album so far, reaching number eight on the Oricon charts. On October 12, 2013, it was announced that Miyavi would venture into professional acting with his international debut in the film Unbroken. He played the role of Imperial Japanese Army sergeant Mutsuhiro Watanabe, nicknamed "The Bird", in what was Angelina Jolie's second feature film as director. It was released in December 2014. Miyavi commented that as the movie was somewhat sensitive to the Japanese people, he had hesitated as to whether he should take this role. However, after meeting with Jolie, and given that the underlying theme of this story is forgiveness, he wholeheartedly decided to accept it. Miyavi was featured in the same month's edition of Vogue Italia. In 2013 Miyavi was nominated for the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Japanese Act, and at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan he won the Best Collaboration category with Yuksek. In 2014, the music video of "Horizon" was nominated for the Best Male Video at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan. In 2014, Miyavi went on his fourth world tour, "Slap the World", which started on February 22 in Malaysia. He continued throughout Europe, followed by the European release of his latest studio album, and visited Mexico City and Los Angeles, with United States release of the album, before returning to Japan for his longest nationwide tour so far. Miyavi composed the music for the single "Top Of The World" by SMAP, which topped the Oricon singles charts. On August 25, he performed for the first time at Fuji Rock Festival. On September 9, his new single "Real?" was released, on which Miyavi collaborated with Jam and Lewis and Jeff Blue, and also the live video recording from the world tour. CANNOTANSWER | It was released in December 2014. | , better known by his stage name Miyavi (雅, stylized as MIYAVI), is a Japanese guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor known for his finger-slapping style of playing a guitar.
He has been active since 1999, first as guitarist for the now defunct visual kei rock band Dué le quartz and then as a solo artist starting in 2002. In 2007, he became a member of the rock supergroup S.K.I.N. and in 2009 founded his own company, J-glam. He toured worldwide several times, with over 250 shows in 30 countries as of 2015. As of 2016, he released ten solo albums and 27 singles.
In 2014, Miyavi appeared in the motion picture Unbroken, directed by Angelina Jolie, and went on to undertake smaller roles in American productions such as Kong: Skull Island and Stray. Since 2013, Miyavi has been a volunteer at UNHCR, visiting refugee camps around the world. In November 2017, he was appointed an official Goodwill Ambassador.
Early life
Miyavi was born in the Nishikujō district in Konohana-ku ward, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, to a Japanese mother and a Korean-Japanese father. After the first grade, he moved to Kawanishi. His father's family, surnamed Lee, came from Jeju Island. Miyavi says that as a child he was a good student and enjoyed playing football. He was accepted into the junior team of Cerezo Osaka, a J-League team. In the second year of junior high school, a sports injury prevented him from pursuing a professional career in sports. Instead, at the age of fifteen, he learned to play the guitar. He bought a guitar and began covering songs by Ray Charles.
He was particularly fond of visual kei acts such as X Japan and Luna Sea but also listened to the blues, Motown, hard rock such as Metallica and L.A. Guns, and industrial music such as Nine Inch Nails. In his third year of junior high school, he started playing with his first band, a visual kei group named Loop.
Career
1999–2003: Dué le quartz and indies era
In 1999, at the age of 17, Miyavi moved to Tokyo, and joined the visual kei rock band Dué le quartz, where he went by the stage name "Miyabi". Besides being a guitarist, he wrote lyrics, composed, and arranged. When the band split up in 2002, he started his solo career and changed his name to Miyavi. He signed a contract with the independent record label PS Company, and on October 31, his debut studio album Gagaku was released. Before the end of the year three more singles were released: "Shindemo Boogie-Woogie", "Pop Is Dead" and "Jingle Bell", of which only the third managed to enter the top forty on the Oricon charts. Miyavi also starred alongside his former bandmate Sakito in a movie, Ryōma no Tsuma to Sono Otto to Aijin.
On April 23, 2003, his first solo concert was held at the Shibuya Public Hall. Three singles were released: "Jibun Kakumei", "Tariraritarara", and "Coo quack cluck (Ku. Ku. Ru)", which charted as numbers forty, thirty, and forty-two respectively on Oricon. On December 2, his second studio album, Galyuu, was released; it charted forty-fourth.
2004–2006: Majors and pop/acoustic era
In 2004, he starred as himself in the film Oresama. In February he went on his first solo tour, Tokyo Dassou, and in July additional dates were added in Korea and Taiwan. In June his seventh single, "Ashita, Genki Ni Naare", was released, which charted twenty-second, and number one on the indies chart. In August a small, free, fan-club-only event was organized in Tokyo Dome, and on the 31st he held his last indie concert at the Nippon Budokan. In October, he signed a major contract with Universal Music Group, but was still co-managed by PS Company. This was followed by the release of his first major (double) single, "Rock no Gyakushuu"/"21sekikei Koushinkyoku", which entered the top ten on the charts.
During May 2005 another single, "Freedom Fighters -Icecream wo Motta Hadashi no Megami to, Kikanjuu wo Motta Hadaka no Ousama-", was released, which charted tenth, and on June 1, his first major album, Miyavizm, was released. It was his first album to enter the top ten in the charts. It was followed by the third major single, "Kekkon Shiki Uta"/"Are You Ready to Rock?", which is his best charting single, along with "Dear My Friend"/"Itoshii Hito", released in 2006; both reached number six. In December he performed at the first Peace & Smile Carnival organized by PS Company.
In late 2005 and for most of 2006, Miyavi shifted to an acoustic/pop sound reflected in his second and third major albums, MYV Pops and Miyaviuta: Dokusō, released on August 2 and September 13 respectively. They charted at fifteenth and twenty-fifth. The first album singles, "Señor Señora Señorita"/"Gigpig Boogie" and "Kimi ni Negai o", are not different in style. They charted as tenth and twenty-sixth respectively. Miyavi showcased his new acoustic style for the first time in the 25 Shūnen Kinen Koen concert series held at Tokyo Geijutsu Gekijo for five days in September around his 25th birthday. Miyavi left for America for the next six months to study the English language and take dance classes, and, on the weekends, went to Venice Beach and gave street performances.
2007–2008: US debut, S.K.I.N., World Tour
On February 17, Miyavi, having been invited by the break dancer Mr. Freeze, performed with the local DJ and percussionist at his first solo concert in the United States, at the Tabu Ultra Lounge in the MGM Grand, Las Vegas. On May 25, at the JRock Revolution concert organized by Yoshiki at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, it was officially announced that Miyavi would be a member of a band named S.K.I.N. On June 29, the band held their debut and their only concert yet at the anime expo in Long Beach, California.
In June, Miyavi's seventh major single (and 14th overall), "Sakihokoru Hana no you ni (Neo Visualizm)"/"Kabuki Danshi", was released in Japan, which charted as twelfth. In July, a remixed extended play, 7 Samurai Sessions -We're Kavki Boiz-, was released, which includes re-arrangements of his past songs. It charted as forty-fourth. It was followed by Miyavi's nationwide tour, which started on July 16. He also performed at Animagic in Bonn, Germany, and in Seoul, South Korea. In November, his tenth major single was released, "Subarashikikana, Kono Sekai - What A Wonderful World", which charted as thirteenth.
On January 16, 2008, his ninth major single was released, "Hi no Hikari Sae Todokanai Kono Basho De", on which he collaborated with fellow Skin guitarist Sugizo. It is his third single to enter the top ten. On March 19, his fourth major studio album was released, titled, This Iz the Japanese Kabuki Rock, which charted as twenty-fifth. In May, it was followed by his very first worldwide tour, This Iz The Japanese Kabuki Rock Tour 2008, with 33 concerts in the United States, Chile, Brazil, Germany, England, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Finland, France, Taiwan, South Korea, mainland China and Japan. The tour covered a distance of approximately 48,385 miles, equivalent to almost two trips around the world, and the majority of the concerts were sold out and covered extensively by media organizations. It was the most successful international tour undertaken by a Japanese artist in history. On June 27, a compilation album, Azn Pride -This Iz the Japanese Kabuki Rock-, was released in Korea and Taiwan, later also in Japan, which charted as forty-fourth. In September, he performed in Beijing. On December 24, a remix album was released, Room No. 382, which failed to enter the top hundred.
2009–2011: Founding J-glam Inc.
In 2009, on January 3, Miyavi performed at the 10th Anniversary Commemorative concert by PS Company at the Nippon Budokan. On April 5, Miyavi left the PS Company because their ten-year contract expired, and on April 8 launched his own company, J-glam inc., of which he is the president. On April 22, a compilation album was released, Victory Road to the King of Neo Visual Rock, which includes all his major singles with Universal Group. On June 1, "Super Hero," a new song, was released through his official Myspace, and in September his International Fanclub was opened. On September 19, Miyavi started his second worldwide tour, Neo Tokyo Samurai Black 2009/2010, in Moscow, Russia. He held 17 concerts in Europe, visiting Austria, Hungary and Italy for the first time. The tour immediately continued in South America, with concerts in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico. The United States leg was canceled due to illness and an injury, but Miyavi managed to perform in November at Anime Matsuri, Texas. On December 31, he signed a new contract with EMI Music Japan.
On March 10, 2010, his first single with EMI was released, "Survive", via iTunes. The worldwide tour was continued on March 28, with the concert at Human Stage, Okinawa, and nationwide. In June and early July he toured throughout the United States and Canada, and in October for the first time in Australia. On September 15, his eleventh major single was released, "Torture". On October 13, his fifth studio album was released, What's My Name?, which charted as twenty-sixth. On November 6, he performed at the EMI Rocks 50th anniversary event at the Saitama Super Arena.
In March 2011, a new world tour, titled What's My Name?, began in Europe, with his first visit to Belgium. In April the tour continued in Japan, while in July Miyavi performed in France, and in September at the Mount Taishan MAO Rock Festival in China. In May 2011, a live album, Live in London 2011, was released, which was recorded during the London concert in March. On October 5, his twelfth major single, "Strong", was released, in collaboration with Japanese rapper Kreva. It was followed by the North American leg of the tour. Miyavi performed in South America at the Maquinaria festival in Chile, and visited Venezuela, Peru and Colombia for the first time.
2012–2014: Miyavi and international acting career
In 2012, Miyavi performed on February 19 at the second EMI Rocks event in Saitama Super Arena. On June 29, he performed at the EHZ Festival in Helette, while on June 30, he was the only Asian representative at the Main Square Festival in Arras, France. On July 11, his thirteenth major single, "Day 1", was released in collaboration with the French electronic producer and DJ Yuksek. In August, he performed at the Kubana Festival in Russia. On September 8, Miyavi performed at the 908 Festival, organized by Kreva, in Saitama Super Arena. In October two concerts were held in Indonesia. On November 14, Samurai Sessions vol.1, his second EP, was released, which featured collaboration with various artists, and it was followed by a short nationwide tour. It reached 21 on the Oricon charts.
On February 28, 2013, "Ahead of the Light", Miyavi's fourteenth single, was released; a promotional tour of the same name followed. On June 19, his seventh studio album, Miyavi, was released in Japan. It is his best-selling album so far, reaching number eight on the Oricon charts.
On October 12, 2013, it was announced that Miyavi would venture into professional acting with his international debut in the film Unbroken. He played the role of Imperial Japanese Army sergeant Mutsuhiro Watanabe, nicknamed "The Bird", in what was Angelina Jolie's second feature film as director. It was released in December 2014. Miyavi commented that as the movie was somewhat sensitive to the Japanese people, he had hesitated as to whether he should take this role. However, after meeting with Jolie, and given that the underlying theme of this story is forgiveness, he wholeheartedly decided to accept it. Miyavi was featured in the same month's edition of Vogue Italia.
In 2013, Miyavi was nominated for the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Japanese Act, and at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan he won the Best Collaboration category with Yuksek. In 2014, the music video of "Horizon" was nominated for the Best Male Video at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan.
In 2014, Miyavi went on his fourth world tour, "Slap the World", which started on February 22 in Malaysia. He continued throughout Europe, followed by the European release of his latest studio album, and visited Mexico City and Los Angeles, with United States release of the album, before returning to Japan for his longest nationwide tour so far. Miyavi composed the music for the single "Top of the World" by SMAP, which topped the Oricon singles charts. On August 25, he performed for the first time at Fuji Rock Festival. On September 9, his new single "Real?" was released, on which Miyavi collaborated with Jam and Lewis and Jeff Blue, and also the live video recording from the world tour.
2015–present: The Others, Fire Bird
His next album The Others was released on April 15, 2015, produced by Grammy Award winning Drew Ramsey and Shannon Sanders. The song "Alien Girl" was dedicated to Angelina Jolie, while his title song, "The Others" was later released in a different version to support UNHCR. The album ranked 10th on Oricon and was followed by a two-part nationwide tour, a Europe tour (his fifth on the continent) and a concert in South Korea.
On April 29, Miyavi released a digital single, "Afraid to Be Cool"/"Raise Me Up". His next album, Fire Bird came out on August 31, 2016, and ranked 11th on Oricon. The artist followed it up with a nationwide tour MIYAVI Japan Tour 2016 "NEW BEAT, NEW FUTURE", which included 10 stops. The last performance was held at Makuhari Messe, and was broadcast live on Abema TV, with more than 100,000 viewers watching.
In 2017, he played a cameo role in the movie Kong: Skull Island. In February, the singer revealed a North American and European tour. As a part of Live Nation's Asia on Tour, Miyavi performed in 14 cities, including Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City and Toronto. He embarked on a solo international tour entitled Fire Bird World Tour. The tour began in Seoul on February 29 and ended in Berlin on May 10, with shows in countries including Austria, Hungary, Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom. In March, Miyavi performed at South by Southwest for the first time in his career. On March 29, he released a digital single titled "Live to Die Another Day", which is the theme song of the live-action film Blade of the Immortal. To commemorate his 15th year as a solo artist, Miyavi embarked on a Japanese tour—MIYAVI 15th Anniversary Live "NEO TOKYO 15" started on May 21, with Miyavi releasing an anniversary compilation album, All Time Best: Day 2, on April 5.
In 2018, Miyavi covered "Pink Spider" for the Hide tribute album Tribute Impulse, and was also cast as Byakuya Kuchiki in the live-action film adaptation of Bleach. On February 23, 2019, Miyavi performed an album release concert for Samurai Sessions Vol. 3: Worlds Collide at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles with guest performers DUCKWRTH, Mikky Ekko, Che’nelle, and Yuna. On March 1, 2019, the supernatural action film Stray was released in the U.S., featuring Miyavi in the villain role of Jin. In April 2019, Miyavi performed a headlining concert at Anime Boston. In October, it was announced that Kyoto-based sake brewery launches a new product named after Miyavi.
On December 18, 2019, it was announced during an event held at Zepp DiverCity Tokyo that Miyavi would transfer to Japanese talent company LDH Japan, starting in January 2020. Miyavi, who had been independently active in the music industry for 10 years, explained his decision by mentioning that during those years he often wished for friends to work with and that he resonated with LDH's values, especially their approach to international expansion. He also announced that he would release two solo albums in 2020 and was planning a Japan tour.
On February 14, 2020, it was revealed that Miyavi would release one album before the Tokyo Olympics in summer and one afterwards. The first album, Holy Nights, was released on April 22 and accompanied by a national tour titled MIYAVI“Holy Nights”JAPAN TOUR 2020.
He provided the ending song for the anime ID:Invaded. The series also used his songs "UP", "Samurai 45", and "Butterfly".
Miyavi performed in Japan Expo Malaysia 2020 Goes Virtual on July 19, 2020.
In 2021, Miyavi made his voice acting debut as the character Kōketsu in the anime film Bright: Samurai Soul.
Personal life
On March 14, 2009, Miyavi married Japanese-American singer Melody. The couple has two daughters, Lovelie "Aily" Miyavi (born July 29, 2009 in Japan) and Jewelie Aoi (born October 21, 2010 in Japan), and a son named Skyler Kakeru (born February 24, 2021 in the United States). From 2014 to 2021, Miyavi and his family were living in Los Angeles, California, having moved to the area during the release of his film Unbroken. After the birth of his son Skyler, he and his family returned to Japan and currently live in Tokyo. After becoming a father, Miyavi toned down his on-stage attire.
Discography
Studio albums
Gagaku (October 31, 2002)
Galyuu (December 2, 2003)
Miyavizm (June 1, 2005)
MYV Pops (August 2, 2006)
Miyaviuta: Dokusō (September 13, 2006)
This Iz the Japanese Kabuki Rock (March 19, 2008)
What's My Name? (October 13, 2010)
Miyavi (June 19, 2013)
The Others (April 15, 2015)
Fire Bird (August 31, 2016)
Samurai Sessions, Vol. 2 (November 8, 2017)
Samurai Sessions, Vol. 3: Worlds Collide (December 5, 2018)
No Sleep Till Tokyo (July 24, 2019)
Holy Nights (April 22, 2020)
Imaginary (September 15, 2021)
Filmography
Awards and nominations
References
External links
21st-century Japanese male actors
21st-century Japanese singers
1981 births
Actors from Hyōgo Prefecture
EMI Records artists
Humanitarians
Japanese guitarists
Japanese male actors of Korean descent
Japanese male film actors
Japanese male pop singers
Japanese male rock singers
Japanese male singer-songwriters
Japanese singer-songwriters
Living people
Male actors from Osaka
Musicians from Hyōgo Prefecture
Musicians from Osaka
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Goodwill Ambassadors
Universal Music Japan artists
Visual kei musicians
Zainichi Korean people
21st-century guitarists
21st-century Japanese male singers | true | [
"\"When the Shit Goes Down\" (\"When the Ship Goes Down\" on edited versions) is a song by American hip hop group Cypress Hill. The song was released as the second single from the group's second studio album, Black Sunday. The single was released exclusively in Australia and Europe.\n\nTrack listing\nEuropean 12\"\n\nEuropean promo single\n\nEuropean maxi single\n\nAustralian maxi single\n\nCharts\n\nIn popular culture\n The song was used in the 2001 film Bully.\n An edited version of the song was used in the 2007 film Freedom Writers.\n The song was used in the pilot episode of Hello Ladies.\n The song was featured in the 2013 film This Is the End.\n The song was used in a second-season episode of The Affair.\n The song was featured in the 2018 film Mid90s.\n The song was used in the episode \"Ezekiel Patrol\" of the 2019 TV series Doom Patrol.\nThe song was used in the 2019 film Guns Akimbo.\n\nReferences\n\n1993 songs\n1993 singles\nCypress Hill songs\nRuffhouse Records singles\nColumbia Records singles\nHardcore hip hop songs\nSongs written by DJ Muggs\nSongs written by B-Real\nSong recordings produced by DJ Muggs",
"\"With A Flair\" is a song written by Robert and Richard Sherman for the 1971, Walt Disney musical film production Bedknobs and Broomsticks. David Tomlinson sings the song; however, the song was cut in the final cut of the motion picture. It was considered \"lost and forgotten\" until twenty-five years later, in 1996, when the film was reconstructed and the song was resurrected for the 1990s remastered CD. The song was also included on the original LP Soundtrack released when the film was released in 1971.\n\nStory Placement\nIn the Sherman Brothers' co-autobiography, Walt's Time, the authors discuss the song's place in the film:\n\"As thrilled as we were to have Angela Lansbury on board, we were equally delighted when the wonderful David Tomlinson accepted the role as Professor Emelius Browne. David was a great actor as we learned when he played the role of Mr. Banks in Mary Poppins. He can perform comedy brilliantly, but he can also handle the dramatic undertones a role like this one calls for. He once told us, ' There's a difference between comedians and clowns. A clown does funny things and a comedian does things funny. In 'With A Flair\", we meet Emelius Browne, who is selling people on the street his dubious magic tricks. We asked our pal Milt Larsen, who, along with being a fine comedy writer, is also an expert on magic, to come in and create a comedy magic act. He taught all the tricks to David, and even has a part in the film as the stooge who gets a hatful of milk dumped on his head. To our dismay, when Bedknobs was first released, the whole 'With A Flair' sequence was cut from the film- except for a brief scene where Milt walks by, inexplicably covered in spilled milk!\"\n\nThe 1971 Oscars\nAnother song from the film sung by Angela Lansbury; \"The Age of Not Believing\" was nominated for a Best Song Oscar. The Sherman Brothers' entire musical score was also nominated for an Oscar that year as well. These two nominations represent the songwriters' fourth and fifth Oscar bids respectively.\n\nThe reconstruction also marks the first time the film was presented in stereophonic sound. Though the musical score was recorded in stereo and the soundtrack album was presented that way, the film was released in mono sound.\n\nLiterary Sources\n Sherman, Robert B. Walt's Time: from before to beyond. Santa Clarita: Camphor Tree Publishers, 1998.\n\nReferences \n\n1971 songs\nSongs from Bedknobs and Broomsticks\nSongs written by the Sherman Brothers"
]
|
[
"Miyavi",
"2012-2014: Miyavi and international acting career",
"What films was he in?",
"international debut in the film Unbroken.",
"When was the film released?",
"It was released in December 2014."
]
| C_abe68c926ce046d7ae9603d2c1277e5e_0 | What other films was he in? | 3 | What other films was Miyavi in other than Unbroken? | Miyavi | In 2012, Miyavi performed on February 19 at the second EMI Rocks event in Saitama Super Arena. On June 29, he performed at the EHZ Festival in Helette, while on June 30, he was the only Asian representative at the Main Square Festival in Arras, France. On July 11, his thirteenth major single, "Day 1," was released in collaboration with the French electronic producer and DJ, Yuksek. In August, he performed at the Kubana Festival in Russia. On September 8, Miyavi performed at the 908 Festival, organized by Kreva, in Saitama Super Arena. In October two concerts were held in Indonesia. On November 14, Samurai Sessions vol.1, his second EP, was released, which featured collaboration with various artists, and it was followed by a short nationwide tour. It reached 21 on the Oricon charts. On February 28, 2013, "Ahead of the Light", Miyavi's fourteenth single, was released; a promotional tour of the same name followed. On June 19, his seventh studio album, Miyavi, was released in Japan. It is his best-selling album so far, reaching number eight on the Oricon charts. On October 12, 2013, it was announced that Miyavi would venture into professional acting with his international debut in the film Unbroken. He played the role of Imperial Japanese Army sergeant Mutsuhiro Watanabe, nicknamed "The Bird", in what was Angelina Jolie's second feature film as director. It was released in December 2014. Miyavi commented that as the movie was somewhat sensitive to the Japanese people, he had hesitated as to whether he should take this role. However, after meeting with Jolie, and given that the underlying theme of this story is forgiveness, he wholeheartedly decided to accept it. Miyavi was featured in the same month's edition of Vogue Italia. In 2013 Miyavi was nominated for the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Japanese Act, and at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan he won the Best Collaboration category with Yuksek. In 2014, the music video of "Horizon" was nominated for the Best Male Video at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan. In 2014, Miyavi went on his fourth world tour, "Slap the World", which started on February 22 in Malaysia. He continued throughout Europe, followed by the European release of his latest studio album, and visited Mexico City and Los Angeles, with United States release of the album, before returning to Japan for his longest nationwide tour so far. Miyavi composed the music for the single "Top Of The World" by SMAP, which topped the Oricon singles charts. On August 25, he performed for the first time at Fuji Rock Festival. On September 9, his new single "Real?" was released, on which Miyavi collaborated with Jam and Lewis and Jeff Blue, and also the live video recording from the world tour. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | , better known by his stage name Miyavi (雅, stylized as MIYAVI), is a Japanese guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor known for his finger-slapping style of playing a guitar.
He has been active since 1999, first as guitarist for the now defunct visual kei rock band Dué le quartz and then as a solo artist starting in 2002. In 2007, he became a member of the rock supergroup S.K.I.N. and in 2009 founded his own company, J-glam. He toured worldwide several times, with over 250 shows in 30 countries as of 2015. As of 2016, he released ten solo albums and 27 singles.
In 2014, Miyavi appeared in the motion picture Unbroken, directed by Angelina Jolie, and went on to undertake smaller roles in American productions such as Kong: Skull Island and Stray. Since 2013, Miyavi has been a volunteer at UNHCR, visiting refugee camps around the world. In November 2017, he was appointed an official Goodwill Ambassador.
Early life
Miyavi was born in the Nishikujō district in Konohana-ku ward, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, to a Japanese mother and a Korean-Japanese father. After the first grade, he moved to Kawanishi. His father's family, surnamed Lee, came from Jeju Island. Miyavi says that as a child he was a good student and enjoyed playing football. He was accepted into the junior team of Cerezo Osaka, a J-League team. In the second year of junior high school, a sports injury prevented him from pursuing a professional career in sports. Instead, at the age of fifteen, he learned to play the guitar. He bought a guitar and began covering songs by Ray Charles.
He was particularly fond of visual kei acts such as X Japan and Luna Sea but also listened to the blues, Motown, hard rock such as Metallica and L.A. Guns, and industrial music such as Nine Inch Nails. In his third year of junior high school, he started playing with his first band, a visual kei group named Loop.
Career
1999–2003: Dué le quartz and indies era
In 1999, at the age of 17, Miyavi moved to Tokyo, and joined the visual kei rock band Dué le quartz, where he went by the stage name "Miyabi". Besides being a guitarist, he wrote lyrics, composed, and arranged. When the band split up in 2002, he started his solo career and changed his name to Miyavi. He signed a contract with the independent record label PS Company, and on October 31, his debut studio album Gagaku was released. Before the end of the year three more singles were released: "Shindemo Boogie-Woogie", "Pop Is Dead" and "Jingle Bell", of which only the third managed to enter the top forty on the Oricon charts. Miyavi also starred alongside his former bandmate Sakito in a movie, Ryōma no Tsuma to Sono Otto to Aijin.
On April 23, 2003, his first solo concert was held at the Shibuya Public Hall. Three singles were released: "Jibun Kakumei", "Tariraritarara", and "Coo quack cluck (Ku. Ku. Ru)", which charted as numbers forty, thirty, and forty-two respectively on Oricon. On December 2, his second studio album, Galyuu, was released; it charted forty-fourth.
2004–2006: Majors and pop/acoustic era
In 2004, he starred as himself in the film Oresama. In February he went on his first solo tour, Tokyo Dassou, and in July additional dates were added in Korea and Taiwan. In June his seventh single, "Ashita, Genki Ni Naare", was released, which charted twenty-second, and number one on the indies chart. In August a small, free, fan-club-only event was organized in Tokyo Dome, and on the 31st he held his last indie concert at the Nippon Budokan. In October, he signed a major contract with Universal Music Group, but was still co-managed by PS Company. This was followed by the release of his first major (double) single, "Rock no Gyakushuu"/"21sekikei Koushinkyoku", which entered the top ten on the charts.
During May 2005 another single, "Freedom Fighters -Icecream wo Motta Hadashi no Megami to, Kikanjuu wo Motta Hadaka no Ousama-", was released, which charted tenth, and on June 1, his first major album, Miyavizm, was released. It was his first album to enter the top ten in the charts. It was followed by the third major single, "Kekkon Shiki Uta"/"Are You Ready to Rock?", which is his best charting single, along with "Dear My Friend"/"Itoshii Hito", released in 2006; both reached number six. In December he performed at the first Peace & Smile Carnival organized by PS Company.
In late 2005 and for most of 2006, Miyavi shifted to an acoustic/pop sound reflected in his second and third major albums, MYV Pops and Miyaviuta: Dokusō, released on August 2 and September 13 respectively. They charted at fifteenth and twenty-fifth. The first album singles, "Señor Señora Señorita"/"Gigpig Boogie" and "Kimi ni Negai o", are not different in style. They charted as tenth and twenty-sixth respectively. Miyavi showcased his new acoustic style for the first time in the 25 Shūnen Kinen Koen concert series held at Tokyo Geijutsu Gekijo for five days in September around his 25th birthday. Miyavi left for America for the next six months to study the English language and take dance classes, and, on the weekends, went to Venice Beach and gave street performances.
2007–2008: US debut, S.K.I.N., World Tour
On February 17, Miyavi, having been invited by the break dancer Mr. Freeze, performed with the local DJ and percussionist at his first solo concert in the United States, at the Tabu Ultra Lounge in the MGM Grand, Las Vegas. On May 25, at the JRock Revolution concert organized by Yoshiki at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, it was officially announced that Miyavi would be a member of a band named S.K.I.N. On June 29, the band held their debut and their only concert yet at the anime expo in Long Beach, California.
In June, Miyavi's seventh major single (and 14th overall), "Sakihokoru Hana no you ni (Neo Visualizm)"/"Kabuki Danshi", was released in Japan, which charted as twelfth. In July, a remixed extended play, 7 Samurai Sessions -We're Kavki Boiz-, was released, which includes re-arrangements of his past songs. It charted as forty-fourth. It was followed by Miyavi's nationwide tour, which started on July 16. He also performed at Animagic in Bonn, Germany, and in Seoul, South Korea. In November, his tenth major single was released, "Subarashikikana, Kono Sekai - What A Wonderful World", which charted as thirteenth.
On January 16, 2008, his ninth major single was released, "Hi no Hikari Sae Todokanai Kono Basho De", on which he collaborated with fellow Skin guitarist Sugizo. It is his third single to enter the top ten. On March 19, his fourth major studio album was released, titled, This Iz the Japanese Kabuki Rock, which charted as twenty-fifth. In May, it was followed by his very first worldwide tour, This Iz The Japanese Kabuki Rock Tour 2008, with 33 concerts in the United States, Chile, Brazil, Germany, England, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Finland, France, Taiwan, South Korea, mainland China and Japan. The tour covered a distance of approximately 48,385 miles, equivalent to almost two trips around the world, and the majority of the concerts were sold out and covered extensively by media organizations. It was the most successful international tour undertaken by a Japanese artist in history. On June 27, a compilation album, Azn Pride -This Iz the Japanese Kabuki Rock-, was released in Korea and Taiwan, later also in Japan, which charted as forty-fourth. In September, he performed in Beijing. On December 24, a remix album was released, Room No. 382, which failed to enter the top hundred.
2009–2011: Founding J-glam Inc.
In 2009, on January 3, Miyavi performed at the 10th Anniversary Commemorative concert by PS Company at the Nippon Budokan. On April 5, Miyavi left the PS Company because their ten-year contract expired, and on April 8 launched his own company, J-glam inc., of which he is the president. On April 22, a compilation album was released, Victory Road to the King of Neo Visual Rock, which includes all his major singles with Universal Group. On June 1, "Super Hero," a new song, was released through his official Myspace, and in September his International Fanclub was opened. On September 19, Miyavi started his second worldwide tour, Neo Tokyo Samurai Black 2009/2010, in Moscow, Russia. He held 17 concerts in Europe, visiting Austria, Hungary and Italy for the first time. The tour immediately continued in South America, with concerts in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico. The United States leg was canceled due to illness and an injury, but Miyavi managed to perform in November at Anime Matsuri, Texas. On December 31, he signed a new contract with EMI Music Japan.
On March 10, 2010, his first single with EMI was released, "Survive", via iTunes. The worldwide tour was continued on March 28, with the concert at Human Stage, Okinawa, and nationwide. In June and early July he toured throughout the United States and Canada, and in October for the first time in Australia. On September 15, his eleventh major single was released, "Torture". On October 13, his fifth studio album was released, What's My Name?, which charted as twenty-sixth. On November 6, he performed at the EMI Rocks 50th anniversary event at the Saitama Super Arena.
In March 2011, a new world tour, titled What's My Name?, began in Europe, with his first visit to Belgium. In April the tour continued in Japan, while in July Miyavi performed in France, and in September at the Mount Taishan MAO Rock Festival in China. In May 2011, a live album, Live in London 2011, was released, which was recorded during the London concert in March. On October 5, his twelfth major single, "Strong", was released, in collaboration with Japanese rapper Kreva. It was followed by the North American leg of the tour. Miyavi performed in South America at the Maquinaria festival in Chile, and visited Venezuela, Peru and Colombia for the first time.
2012–2014: Miyavi and international acting career
In 2012, Miyavi performed on February 19 at the second EMI Rocks event in Saitama Super Arena. On June 29, he performed at the EHZ Festival in Helette, while on June 30, he was the only Asian representative at the Main Square Festival in Arras, France. On July 11, his thirteenth major single, "Day 1", was released in collaboration with the French electronic producer and DJ Yuksek. In August, he performed at the Kubana Festival in Russia. On September 8, Miyavi performed at the 908 Festival, organized by Kreva, in Saitama Super Arena. In October two concerts were held in Indonesia. On November 14, Samurai Sessions vol.1, his second EP, was released, which featured collaboration with various artists, and it was followed by a short nationwide tour. It reached 21 on the Oricon charts.
On February 28, 2013, "Ahead of the Light", Miyavi's fourteenth single, was released; a promotional tour of the same name followed. On June 19, his seventh studio album, Miyavi, was released in Japan. It is his best-selling album so far, reaching number eight on the Oricon charts.
On October 12, 2013, it was announced that Miyavi would venture into professional acting with his international debut in the film Unbroken. He played the role of Imperial Japanese Army sergeant Mutsuhiro Watanabe, nicknamed "The Bird", in what was Angelina Jolie's second feature film as director. It was released in December 2014. Miyavi commented that as the movie was somewhat sensitive to the Japanese people, he had hesitated as to whether he should take this role. However, after meeting with Jolie, and given that the underlying theme of this story is forgiveness, he wholeheartedly decided to accept it. Miyavi was featured in the same month's edition of Vogue Italia.
In 2013, Miyavi was nominated for the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Japanese Act, and at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan he won the Best Collaboration category with Yuksek. In 2014, the music video of "Horizon" was nominated for the Best Male Video at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan.
In 2014, Miyavi went on his fourth world tour, "Slap the World", which started on February 22 in Malaysia. He continued throughout Europe, followed by the European release of his latest studio album, and visited Mexico City and Los Angeles, with United States release of the album, before returning to Japan for his longest nationwide tour so far. Miyavi composed the music for the single "Top of the World" by SMAP, which topped the Oricon singles charts. On August 25, he performed for the first time at Fuji Rock Festival. On September 9, his new single "Real?" was released, on which Miyavi collaborated with Jam and Lewis and Jeff Blue, and also the live video recording from the world tour.
2015–present: The Others, Fire Bird
His next album The Others was released on April 15, 2015, produced by Grammy Award winning Drew Ramsey and Shannon Sanders. The song "Alien Girl" was dedicated to Angelina Jolie, while his title song, "The Others" was later released in a different version to support UNHCR. The album ranked 10th on Oricon and was followed by a two-part nationwide tour, a Europe tour (his fifth on the continent) and a concert in South Korea.
On April 29, Miyavi released a digital single, "Afraid to Be Cool"/"Raise Me Up". His next album, Fire Bird came out on August 31, 2016, and ranked 11th on Oricon. The artist followed it up with a nationwide tour MIYAVI Japan Tour 2016 "NEW BEAT, NEW FUTURE", which included 10 stops. The last performance was held at Makuhari Messe, and was broadcast live on Abema TV, with more than 100,000 viewers watching.
In 2017, he played a cameo role in the movie Kong: Skull Island. In February, the singer revealed a North American and European tour. As a part of Live Nation's Asia on Tour, Miyavi performed in 14 cities, including Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City and Toronto. He embarked on a solo international tour entitled Fire Bird World Tour. The tour began in Seoul on February 29 and ended in Berlin on May 10, with shows in countries including Austria, Hungary, Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom. In March, Miyavi performed at South by Southwest for the first time in his career. On March 29, he released a digital single titled "Live to Die Another Day", which is the theme song of the live-action film Blade of the Immortal. To commemorate his 15th year as a solo artist, Miyavi embarked on a Japanese tour—MIYAVI 15th Anniversary Live "NEO TOKYO 15" started on May 21, with Miyavi releasing an anniversary compilation album, All Time Best: Day 2, on April 5.
In 2018, Miyavi covered "Pink Spider" for the Hide tribute album Tribute Impulse, and was also cast as Byakuya Kuchiki in the live-action film adaptation of Bleach. On February 23, 2019, Miyavi performed an album release concert for Samurai Sessions Vol. 3: Worlds Collide at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles with guest performers DUCKWRTH, Mikky Ekko, Che’nelle, and Yuna. On March 1, 2019, the supernatural action film Stray was released in the U.S., featuring Miyavi in the villain role of Jin. In April 2019, Miyavi performed a headlining concert at Anime Boston. In October, it was announced that Kyoto-based sake brewery launches a new product named after Miyavi.
On December 18, 2019, it was announced during an event held at Zepp DiverCity Tokyo that Miyavi would transfer to Japanese talent company LDH Japan, starting in January 2020. Miyavi, who had been independently active in the music industry for 10 years, explained his decision by mentioning that during those years he often wished for friends to work with and that he resonated with LDH's values, especially their approach to international expansion. He also announced that he would release two solo albums in 2020 and was planning a Japan tour.
On February 14, 2020, it was revealed that Miyavi would release one album before the Tokyo Olympics in summer and one afterwards. The first album, Holy Nights, was released on April 22 and accompanied by a national tour titled MIYAVI“Holy Nights”JAPAN TOUR 2020.
He provided the ending song for the anime ID:Invaded. The series also used his songs "UP", "Samurai 45", and "Butterfly".
Miyavi performed in Japan Expo Malaysia 2020 Goes Virtual on July 19, 2020.
In 2021, Miyavi made his voice acting debut as the character Kōketsu in the anime film Bright: Samurai Soul.
Personal life
On March 14, 2009, Miyavi married Japanese-American singer Melody. The couple has two daughters, Lovelie "Aily" Miyavi (born July 29, 2009 in Japan) and Jewelie Aoi (born October 21, 2010 in Japan), and a son named Skyler Kakeru (born February 24, 2021 in the United States). From 2014 to 2021, Miyavi and his family were living in Los Angeles, California, having moved to the area during the release of his film Unbroken. After the birth of his son Skyler, he and his family returned to Japan and currently live in Tokyo. After becoming a father, Miyavi toned down his on-stage attire.
Discography
Studio albums
Gagaku (October 31, 2002)
Galyuu (December 2, 2003)
Miyavizm (June 1, 2005)
MYV Pops (August 2, 2006)
Miyaviuta: Dokusō (September 13, 2006)
This Iz the Japanese Kabuki Rock (March 19, 2008)
What's My Name? (October 13, 2010)
Miyavi (June 19, 2013)
The Others (April 15, 2015)
Fire Bird (August 31, 2016)
Samurai Sessions, Vol. 2 (November 8, 2017)
Samurai Sessions, Vol. 3: Worlds Collide (December 5, 2018)
No Sleep Till Tokyo (July 24, 2019)
Holy Nights (April 22, 2020)
Imaginary (September 15, 2021)
Filmography
Awards and nominations
References
External links
21st-century Japanese male actors
21st-century Japanese singers
1981 births
Actors from Hyōgo Prefecture
EMI Records artists
Humanitarians
Japanese guitarists
Japanese male actors of Korean descent
Japanese male film actors
Japanese male pop singers
Japanese male rock singers
Japanese male singer-songwriters
Japanese singer-songwriters
Living people
Male actors from Osaka
Musicians from Hyōgo Prefecture
Musicians from Osaka
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Goodwill Ambassadors
Universal Music Japan artists
Visual kei musicians
Zainichi Korean people
21st-century guitarists
21st-century Japanese male singers | false | [
"Par le trou de la serrure is a 1901 French silent short comedy film directed by Ferdinand Zecca and distributed in France by Pathé Frères. It was also distributed in the United States under the titles What Is Seen Through a Keyhole and What Happened to the Inquisitive Janitor, and in the United Kingdom under the titles What Happened: The Inquisitive Janitor and Peeping Tom.\n\nPlot\n\nA hotel porter finds out the secrets of the guests by looking through the keyholes of four different rooms:\n in the first one he sees a woman combing her hair,\n in the second, what looked like a woman removes her whig and false breasts, revealing that she was in fact a transvestite,\n in the third, a man drinks champagne with a woman sitting on his lap,\n finally the door of the fourth room opens while he is watching and the furious guest kicks him down the stairs.\n\nAnalysis\n\nAfter being hired by Charles Pathé as main film director of the recently created film production company Pathé Frères, Zecca convinced Pathé to produce in addition to documentaries other genres of films, notably comedy films such as this one but also crime films, like Histoire d'un crime (1901), or religious subjects, like La vie et la passion du Christ (1903).\n\nHe also introduced in France innovations with respect to cinematographic style. Par le trou de la serrure is the first French film featuring editing in order to combine wide shots and medium close-up point of view shots. Zecca was clearly influenced by George Albert Smith who had used for the first time these innovations in 1900 in his short films Grandma's Reading Glass and As Seen Through a Telescope.\n\nPar le trou de la serrure is also characteristic of a certain voyeuristic trend in early cinema in showing what was normally hidden in a hotel room. The film was judged by some, notably Georges Méliès's granddaughter, as being of dubious taste.\n\nDistribution\nPar le trou de la serrure was distributed by Pathé Frères in 1901 in France, and in 1902 in the United States. In the latter country, it was also distributed by the Kleine Optical Company, the Edison Manufacturing Company, and the Lubin Manufacturing Company.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n Par le trou de la serrure (1901) What Is Seen Through a Keyhole at A Cinema History\n Par le trou de la serrure – Zecca / Ferdinand – 1901 at Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé (in French)\n\nFrench films\n1901 films\nFrench silent short films\nFrench black-and-white films\nFrench comedy films\n1901 comedy films\n1901 short films",
"So, What's Your Price? () is a 2007 documentary directed by Olallo Rubio about media, power, and the consumer culture in Mexico and United States. It debuted in Mexico on May 18, 2007, and had several screenings on the United States, the DVD version was released on October 16, 2007.\n\nProduction\nOriginally, the idea was that Olallo Rubio direct a documentary, so it could be sold as a straight to DVD film, while the money earned would go to the finance of This Is Not A Movie, another project of Olallo. Eventually, the project got bigger and it was called So, What's Your Price, using the budget of $100,000. The film was shot in the streets of New York and Mexico City. The film was first screened at a film festival in Guadalajara. In April 2007, it was announced that the film was going to be released May 18, 2007 in Mexico City. The film enjoyed positive reviews, so it was released in different places in Mexico. In July 2007, it was screened in New York with very positive reviews, and in October 2007 it was released on DVD.\n\nPlot\nThe film is about the differences between the United States and Mexico, with different opinions by people on the street, or sellers. It talks about drugs, money, the human body, the price of living, and how people see each other.\n\nRelease\nOn October 16, 2007 the DVD was released in a 2-disc special edition, with several extras, which included, two audio commentaries by the director, one in Spanish and one in English, the making of documentary called A Film For Sale, a podcast that includes fragments of interviews on the radio with the director, an interview with Stephen A. Bezruchka, the trailers, and a photo gallery.\n\nExternal links\n \n\nDocumentary films about consumerism\nMexican documentary films\n2007 films\n2007 documentary films\n2000s English-language films\n2000s Spanish-language films\nMexican films"
]
|
[
"Miyavi",
"2012-2014: Miyavi and international acting career",
"What films was he in?",
"international debut in the film Unbroken.",
"When was the film released?",
"It was released in December 2014.",
"What other films was he in?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_abe68c926ce046d7ae9603d2c1277e5e_0 | What else did he accomplish? | 4 | What else did Miyavi accomplish other than being in Unbroken? | Miyavi | In 2012, Miyavi performed on February 19 at the second EMI Rocks event in Saitama Super Arena. On June 29, he performed at the EHZ Festival in Helette, while on June 30, he was the only Asian representative at the Main Square Festival in Arras, France. On July 11, his thirteenth major single, "Day 1," was released in collaboration with the French electronic producer and DJ, Yuksek. In August, he performed at the Kubana Festival in Russia. On September 8, Miyavi performed at the 908 Festival, organized by Kreva, in Saitama Super Arena. In October two concerts were held in Indonesia. On November 14, Samurai Sessions vol.1, his second EP, was released, which featured collaboration with various artists, and it was followed by a short nationwide tour. It reached 21 on the Oricon charts. On February 28, 2013, "Ahead of the Light", Miyavi's fourteenth single, was released; a promotional tour of the same name followed. On June 19, his seventh studio album, Miyavi, was released in Japan. It is his best-selling album so far, reaching number eight on the Oricon charts. On October 12, 2013, it was announced that Miyavi would venture into professional acting with his international debut in the film Unbroken. He played the role of Imperial Japanese Army sergeant Mutsuhiro Watanabe, nicknamed "The Bird", in what was Angelina Jolie's second feature film as director. It was released in December 2014. Miyavi commented that as the movie was somewhat sensitive to the Japanese people, he had hesitated as to whether he should take this role. However, after meeting with Jolie, and given that the underlying theme of this story is forgiveness, he wholeheartedly decided to accept it. Miyavi was featured in the same month's edition of Vogue Italia. In 2013 Miyavi was nominated for the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Japanese Act, and at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan he won the Best Collaboration category with Yuksek. In 2014, the music video of "Horizon" was nominated for the Best Male Video at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan. In 2014, Miyavi went on his fourth world tour, "Slap the World", which started on February 22 in Malaysia. He continued throughout Europe, followed by the European release of his latest studio album, and visited Mexico City and Los Angeles, with United States release of the album, before returning to Japan for his longest nationwide tour so far. Miyavi composed the music for the single "Top Of The World" by SMAP, which topped the Oricon singles charts. On August 25, he performed for the first time at Fuji Rock Festival. On September 9, his new single "Real?" was released, on which Miyavi collaborated with Jam and Lewis and Jeff Blue, and also the live video recording from the world tour. CANNOTANSWER | On June 19, his seventh studio album, Miyavi, was released in Japan. | , better known by his stage name Miyavi (雅, stylized as MIYAVI), is a Japanese guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor known for his finger-slapping style of playing a guitar.
He has been active since 1999, first as guitarist for the now defunct visual kei rock band Dué le quartz and then as a solo artist starting in 2002. In 2007, he became a member of the rock supergroup S.K.I.N. and in 2009 founded his own company, J-glam. He toured worldwide several times, with over 250 shows in 30 countries as of 2015. As of 2016, he released ten solo albums and 27 singles.
In 2014, Miyavi appeared in the motion picture Unbroken, directed by Angelina Jolie, and went on to undertake smaller roles in American productions such as Kong: Skull Island and Stray. Since 2013, Miyavi has been a volunteer at UNHCR, visiting refugee camps around the world. In November 2017, he was appointed an official Goodwill Ambassador.
Early life
Miyavi was born in the Nishikujō district in Konohana-ku ward, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, to a Japanese mother and a Korean-Japanese father. After the first grade, he moved to Kawanishi. His father's family, surnamed Lee, came from Jeju Island. Miyavi says that as a child he was a good student and enjoyed playing football. He was accepted into the junior team of Cerezo Osaka, a J-League team. In the second year of junior high school, a sports injury prevented him from pursuing a professional career in sports. Instead, at the age of fifteen, he learned to play the guitar. He bought a guitar and began covering songs by Ray Charles.
He was particularly fond of visual kei acts such as X Japan and Luna Sea but also listened to the blues, Motown, hard rock such as Metallica and L.A. Guns, and industrial music such as Nine Inch Nails. In his third year of junior high school, he started playing with his first band, a visual kei group named Loop.
Career
1999–2003: Dué le quartz and indies era
In 1999, at the age of 17, Miyavi moved to Tokyo, and joined the visual kei rock band Dué le quartz, where he went by the stage name "Miyabi". Besides being a guitarist, he wrote lyrics, composed, and arranged. When the band split up in 2002, he started his solo career and changed his name to Miyavi. He signed a contract with the independent record label PS Company, and on October 31, his debut studio album Gagaku was released. Before the end of the year three more singles were released: "Shindemo Boogie-Woogie", "Pop Is Dead" and "Jingle Bell", of which only the third managed to enter the top forty on the Oricon charts. Miyavi also starred alongside his former bandmate Sakito in a movie, Ryōma no Tsuma to Sono Otto to Aijin.
On April 23, 2003, his first solo concert was held at the Shibuya Public Hall. Three singles were released: "Jibun Kakumei", "Tariraritarara", and "Coo quack cluck (Ku. Ku. Ru)", which charted as numbers forty, thirty, and forty-two respectively on Oricon. On December 2, his second studio album, Galyuu, was released; it charted forty-fourth.
2004–2006: Majors and pop/acoustic era
In 2004, he starred as himself in the film Oresama. In February he went on his first solo tour, Tokyo Dassou, and in July additional dates were added in Korea and Taiwan. In June his seventh single, "Ashita, Genki Ni Naare", was released, which charted twenty-second, and number one on the indies chart. In August a small, free, fan-club-only event was organized in Tokyo Dome, and on the 31st he held his last indie concert at the Nippon Budokan. In October, he signed a major contract with Universal Music Group, but was still co-managed by PS Company. This was followed by the release of his first major (double) single, "Rock no Gyakushuu"/"21sekikei Koushinkyoku", which entered the top ten on the charts.
During May 2005 another single, "Freedom Fighters -Icecream wo Motta Hadashi no Megami to, Kikanjuu wo Motta Hadaka no Ousama-", was released, which charted tenth, and on June 1, his first major album, Miyavizm, was released. It was his first album to enter the top ten in the charts. It was followed by the third major single, "Kekkon Shiki Uta"/"Are You Ready to Rock?", which is his best charting single, along with "Dear My Friend"/"Itoshii Hito", released in 2006; both reached number six. In December he performed at the first Peace & Smile Carnival organized by PS Company.
In late 2005 and for most of 2006, Miyavi shifted to an acoustic/pop sound reflected in his second and third major albums, MYV Pops and Miyaviuta: Dokusō, released on August 2 and September 13 respectively. They charted at fifteenth and twenty-fifth. The first album singles, "Señor Señora Señorita"/"Gigpig Boogie" and "Kimi ni Negai o", are not different in style. They charted as tenth and twenty-sixth respectively. Miyavi showcased his new acoustic style for the first time in the 25 Shūnen Kinen Koen concert series held at Tokyo Geijutsu Gekijo for five days in September around his 25th birthday. Miyavi left for America for the next six months to study the English language and take dance classes, and, on the weekends, went to Venice Beach and gave street performances.
2007–2008: US debut, S.K.I.N., World Tour
On February 17, Miyavi, having been invited by the break dancer Mr. Freeze, performed with the local DJ and percussionist at his first solo concert in the United States, at the Tabu Ultra Lounge in the MGM Grand, Las Vegas. On May 25, at the JRock Revolution concert organized by Yoshiki at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, it was officially announced that Miyavi would be a member of a band named S.K.I.N. On June 29, the band held their debut and their only concert yet at the anime expo in Long Beach, California.
In June, Miyavi's seventh major single (and 14th overall), "Sakihokoru Hana no you ni (Neo Visualizm)"/"Kabuki Danshi", was released in Japan, which charted as twelfth. In July, a remixed extended play, 7 Samurai Sessions -We're Kavki Boiz-, was released, which includes re-arrangements of his past songs. It charted as forty-fourth. It was followed by Miyavi's nationwide tour, which started on July 16. He also performed at Animagic in Bonn, Germany, and in Seoul, South Korea. In November, his tenth major single was released, "Subarashikikana, Kono Sekai - What A Wonderful World", which charted as thirteenth.
On January 16, 2008, his ninth major single was released, "Hi no Hikari Sae Todokanai Kono Basho De", on which he collaborated with fellow Skin guitarist Sugizo. It is his third single to enter the top ten. On March 19, his fourth major studio album was released, titled, This Iz the Japanese Kabuki Rock, which charted as twenty-fifth. In May, it was followed by his very first worldwide tour, This Iz The Japanese Kabuki Rock Tour 2008, with 33 concerts in the United States, Chile, Brazil, Germany, England, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Finland, France, Taiwan, South Korea, mainland China and Japan. The tour covered a distance of approximately 48,385 miles, equivalent to almost two trips around the world, and the majority of the concerts were sold out and covered extensively by media organizations. It was the most successful international tour undertaken by a Japanese artist in history. On June 27, a compilation album, Azn Pride -This Iz the Japanese Kabuki Rock-, was released in Korea and Taiwan, later also in Japan, which charted as forty-fourth. In September, he performed in Beijing. On December 24, a remix album was released, Room No. 382, which failed to enter the top hundred.
2009–2011: Founding J-glam Inc.
In 2009, on January 3, Miyavi performed at the 10th Anniversary Commemorative concert by PS Company at the Nippon Budokan. On April 5, Miyavi left the PS Company because their ten-year contract expired, and on April 8 launched his own company, J-glam inc., of which he is the president. On April 22, a compilation album was released, Victory Road to the King of Neo Visual Rock, which includes all his major singles with Universal Group. On June 1, "Super Hero," a new song, was released through his official Myspace, and in September his International Fanclub was opened. On September 19, Miyavi started his second worldwide tour, Neo Tokyo Samurai Black 2009/2010, in Moscow, Russia. He held 17 concerts in Europe, visiting Austria, Hungary and Italy for the first time. The tour immediately continued in South America, with concerts in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico. The United States leg was canceled due to illness and an injury, but Miyavi managed to perform in November at Anime Matsuri, Texas. On December 31, he signed a new contract with EMI Music Japan.
On March 10, 2010, his first single with EMI was released, "Survive", via iTunes. The worldwide tour was continued on March 28, with the concert at Human Stage, Okinawa, and nationwide. In June and early July he toured throughout the United States and Canada, and in October for the first time in Australia. On September 15, his eleventh major single was released, "Torture". On October 13, his fifth studio album was released, What's My Name?, which charted as twenty-sixth. On November 6, he performed at the EMI Rocks 50th anniversary event at the Saitama Super Arena.
In March 2011, a new world tour, titled What's My Name?, began in Europe, with his first visit to Belgium. In April the tour continued in Japan, while in July Miyavi performed in France, and in September at the Mount Taishan MAO Rock Festival in China. In May 2011, a live album, Live in London 2011, was released, which was recorded during the London concert in March. On October 5, his twelfth major single, "Strong", was released, in collaboration with Japanese rapper Kreva. It was followed by the North American leg of the tour. Miyavi performed in South America at the Maquinaria festival in Chile, and visited Venezuela, Peru and Colombia for the first time.
2012–2014: Miyavi and international acting career
In 2012, Miyavi performed on February 19 at the second EMI Rocks event in Saitama Super Arena. On June 29, he performed at the EHZ Festival in Helette, while on June 30, he was the only Asian representative at the Main Square Festival in Arras, France. On July 11, his thirteenth major single, "Day 1", was released in collaboration with the French electronic producer and DJ Yuksek. In August, he performed at the Kubana Festival in Russia. On September 8, Miyavi performed at the 908 Festival, organized by Kreva, in Saitama Super Arena. In October two concerts were held in Indonesia. On November 14, Samurai Sessions vol.1, his second EP, was released, which featured collaboration with various artists, and it was followed by a short nationwide tour. It reached 21 on the Oricon charts.
On February 28, 2013, "Ahead of the Light", Miyavi's fourteenth single, was released; a promotional tour of the same name followed. On June 19, his seventh studio album, Miyavi, was released in Japan. It is his best-selling album so far, reaching number eight on the Oricon charts.
On October 12, 2013, it was announced that Miyavi would venture into professional acting with his international debut in the film Unbroken. He played the role of Imperial Japanese Army sergeant Mutsuhiro Watanabe, nicknamed "The Bird", in what was Angelina Jolie's second feature film as director. It was released in December 2014. Miyavi commented that as the movie was somewhat sensitive to the Japanese people, he had hesitated as to whether he should take this role. However, after meeting with Jolie, and given that the underlying theme of this story is forgiveness, he wholeheartedly decided to accept it. Miyavi was featured in the same month's edition of Vogue Italia.
In 2013, Miyavi was nominated for the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Japanese Act, and at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan he won the Best Collaboration category with Yuksek. In 2014, the music video of "Horizon" was nominated for the Best Male Video at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan.
In 2014, Miyavi went on his fourth world tour, "Slap the World", which started on February 22 in Malaysia. He continued throughout Europe, followed by the European release of his latest studio album, and visited Mexico City and Los Angeles, with United States release of the album, before returning to Japan for his longest nationwide tour so far. Miyavi composed the music for the single "Top of the World" by SMAP, which topped the Oricon singles charts. On August 25, he performed for the first time at Fuji Rock Festival. On September 9, his new single "Real?" was released, on which Miyavi collaborated with Jam and Lewis and Jeff Blue, and also the live video recording from the world tour.
2015–present: The Others, Fire Bird
His next album The Others was released on April 15, 2015, produced by Grammy Award winning Drew Ramsey and Shannon Sanders. The song "Alien Girl" was dedicated to Angelina Jolie, while his title song, "The Others" was later released in a different version to support UNHCR. The album ranked 10th on Oricon and was followed by a two-part nationwide tour, a Europe tour (his fifth on the continent) and a concert in South Korea.
On April 29, Miyavi released a digital single, "Afraid to Be Cool"/"Raise Me Up". His next album, Fire Bird came out on August 31, 2016, and ranked 11th on Oricon. The artist followed it up with a nationwide tour MIYAVI Japan Tour 2016 "NEW BEAT, NEW FUTURE", which included 10 stops. The last performance was held at Makuhari Messe, and was broadcast live on Abema TV, with more than 100,000 viewers watching.
In 2017, he played a cameo role in the movie Kong: Skull Island. In February, the singer revealed a North American and European tour. As a part of Live Nation's Asia on Tour, Miyavi performed in 14 cities, including Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City and Toronto. He embarked on a solo international tour entitled Fire Bird World Tour. The tour began in Seoul on February 29 and ended in Berlin on May 10, with shows in countries including Austria, Hungary, Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom. In March, Miyavi performed at South by Southwest for the first time in his career. On March 29, he released a digital single titled "Live to Die Another Day", which is the theme song of the live-action film Blade of the Immortal. To commemorate his 15th year as a solo artist, Miyavi embarked on a Japanese tour—MIYAVI 15th Anniversary Live "NEO TOKYO 15" started on May 21, with Miyavi releasing an anniversary compilation album, All Time Best: Day 2, on April 5.
In 2018, Miyavi covered "Pink Spider" for the Hide tribute album Tribute Impulse, and was also cast as Byakuya Kuchiki in the live-action film adaptation of Bleach. On February 23, 2019, Miyavi performed an album release concert for Samurai Sessions Vol. 3: Worlds Collide at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles with guest performers DUCKWRTH, Mikky Ekko, Che’nelle, and Yuna. On March 1, 2019, the supernatural action film Stray was released in the U.S., featuring Miyavi in the villain role of Jin. In April 2019, Miyavi performed a headlining concert at Anime Boston. In October, it was announced that Kyoto-based sake brewery launches a new product named after Miyavi.
On December 18, 2019, it was announced during an event held at Zepp DiverCity Tokyo that Miyavi would transfer to Japanese talent company LDH Japan, starting in January 2020. Miyavi, who had been independently active in the music industry for 10 years, explained his decision by mentioning that during those years he often wished for friends to work with and that he resonated with LDH's values, especially their approach to international expansion. He also announced that he would release two solo albums in 2020 and was planning a Japan tour.
On February 14, 2020, it was revealed that Miyavi would release one album before the Tokyo Olympics in summer and one afterwards. The first album, Holy Nights, was released on April 22 and accompanied by a national tour titled MIYAVI“Holy Nights”JAPAN TOUR 2020.
He provided the ending song for the anime ID:Invaded. The series also used his songs "UP", "Samurai 45", and "Butterfly".
Miyavi performed in Japan Expo Malaysia 2020 Goes Virtual on July 19, 2020.
In 2021, Miyavi made his voice acting debut as the character Kōketsu in the anime film Bright: Samurai Soul.
Personal life
On March 14, 2009, Miyavi married Japanese-American singer Melody. The couple has two daughters, Lovelie "Aily" Miyavi (born July 29, 2009 in Japan) and Jewelie Aoi (born October 21, 2010 in Japan), and a son named Skyler Kakeru (born February 24, 2021 in the United States). From 2014 to 2021, Miyavi and his family were living in Los Angeles, California, having moved to the area during the release of his film Unbroken. After the birth of his son Skyler, he and his family returned to Japan and currently live in Tokyo. After becoming a father, Miyavi toned down his on-stage attire.
Discography
Studio albums
Gagaku (October 31, 2002)
Galyuu (December 2, 2003)
Miyavizm (June 1, 2005)
MYV Pops (August 2, 2006)
Miyaviuta: Dokusō (September 13, 2006)
This Iz the Japanese Kabuki Rock (March 19, 2008)
What's My Name? (October 13, 2010)
Miyavi (June 19, 2013)
The Others (April 15, 2015)
Fire Bird (August 31, 2016)
Samurai Sessions, Vol. 2 (November 8, 2017)
Samurai Sessions, Vol. 3: Worlds Collide (December 5, 2018)
No Sleep Till Tokyo (July 24, 2019)
Holy Nights (April 22, 2020)
Imaginary (September 15, 2021)
Filmography
Awards and nominations
References
External links
21st-century Japanese male actors
21st-century Japanese singers
1981 births
Actors from Hyōgo Prefecture
EMI Records artists
Humanitarians
Japanese guitarists
Japanese male actors of Korean descent
Japanese male film actors
Japanese male pop singers
Japanese male rock singers
Japanese male singer-songwriters
Japanese singer-songwriters
Living people
Male actors from Osaka
Musicians from Hyōgo Prefecture
Musicians from Osaka
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Goodwill Ambassadors
Universal Music Japan artists
Visual kei musicians
Zainichi Korean people
21st-century guitarists
21st-century Japanese male singers | true | [
"\"What Else Is There?\" is the third single from the Norwegian duo Röyksopp's second album The Understanding. It features the vocals of Karin Dreijer from the Swedish electronica duo The Knife. The album was released in the UK with the help of Astralwerks.\n\nThe single was used in an O2 television advertisement in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia during 2008. It was also used in the 2006 film Cashback and the 2007 film, Meet Bill. Trentemøller's remix of \"What Else is There?\" was featured in an episode of the HBO show Entourage.\n\nThe song was covered by extreme metal band Enslaved as a bonus track for their album E.\n\nThe song was listed as the 375th best song of the 2000s by Pitchfork Media.\n\nOfficial versions\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Album Version) – 5:17\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Radio Edit) – 3:38\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Jacques Lu Cont Radio Mix) – 3:46\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Vocal Version) – 8:03\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Dub Version) – 7:51\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Mix) – 8:25\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Edit) – 4:50\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Remix) (Radio Edit) – 3:06\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Trentemøller Remix) – 7:42\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Vitalic Remix) – 5:14\n\nResponse\nThe single was officially released on 5 December 2005 in the UK. The single had a limited release on 21 November 2005 to promote the upcoming album. On the UK Singles Chart, it peaked at number 32, while on the UK Dance Chart, it reached number one.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video was directed by Martin de Thurah. It features Norwegian model Marianne Schröder who is shown lip-syncing Dreijer's voice. Schröder is depicted as a floating woman traveling across stormy landscapes and within empty houses. Dreijer makes a cameo appearance as a woman wearing an Elizabethan ruff while dining alone at a festive table.\n\nMovie spots\n\nThe song is also featured in the movie Meet Bill as characters played by Jessica Alba and Aaron Eckhart smoke marijuana while listening to it. It is also part of the end credits music of the film Cashback.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2005 singles\nRöyksopp songs\nAstralwerks singles\nSongs written by Svein Berge\nSongs written by Torbjørn Brundtland\n2004 songs\nSongs written by Roger Greenaway\nSongs written by Olof Dreijer\nSongs written by Karin Dreijer",
"In software engineering, rubber duck debugging is a method of debugging code by articulating a problem in spoken or written natural language. The name is a reference to a story in the book The Pragmatic Programmer in which a programmer would carry around a rubber duck and debug their code by forcing themselves to explain it, line-by-line, to the duck. Many other terms exist for this technique, often involving different (usually) inanimate objects, or pets such as a dog or a cat.\n\nMany programmers have had the experience of explaining a problem to someone else, possibly even to someone who knows nothing about programming, and then hitting upon the solution in the process of explaining the problem. In describing what the code is supposed to do and observing what it actually does, any incongruity between these two becomes apparent. More generally, teaching a subject forces its evaluation from different perspectives and can provide a deeper understanding. By using an inanimate object, the programmer can try to accomplish this without having to interrupt anyone else. This approach has been taught in computer science and software engineering courses.\n\nIn popular culture\n\nOn 1 April 2018, Stack Exchange introduced a rubber duck avatar on their websites as a new feature called Quack Overflow. The duck appeared at the bottom right corner of the browser viewport, and attempted to help visitors by listening to their problems and responding with solutions. However, the duck merely produced a quack sound after apparently thinking and typing. It referenced rubber ducking as a powerful method for solving problems. Some confused visitors seeing the duck for the first time thought that a malware program had been installed in their computer before realizing it was an April Fools' Day joke.\n\nSee also\n\n Code review\n Pair programming\n Socratic method\n Desk checking\n Software walkthrough\n The Aha! effect\n Think aloud protocol\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Rubber Duck Debugging\n\nDebugging\nComputer programming folklore \nDucks"
]
|
[
"Fleet Foxes",
"Formation and early years (2005-06)"
]
| C_69d4d0e356d64e7587ee8769610ecaa4_1 | What happen in 2005? | 1 | What happened to the Fleet Foxes in 2005? | Fleet Foxes | Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both attended Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and soon became close friends. Pecknold and Skjelset bonded over a mutual appreciation of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and began making music together. Their parents influenced their musical tastes early on--Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. The two shared an interest in the music of Dylan and Brian Wilson. Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes. Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", suggesting that it was "evocative of some weird English activity like fox hunting". Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, Bryn Lumsden on bass and Nicholas Peterson on drums and backing vocals. Pecknold's late-sixties pop style caught the attention of the Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. Ek was impressed with the band's songwriting, and on hearing Pecknold for the first time, noted, "It was obvious he had talent coming out of his ass." By late 2006 the Seattle press began to take notice of the band; Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. By the end of the year, Lumsden had been replaced on bass by Craig Curran, who would also handle many of the band's vocal harmonies. With growing popularity on the local circuit, the band set about making their first album in early 2007, spending time in the studio with producer Ek in addition to recording material at home. However, funds for recording were tight, so the band members cobbled together what funds they had, which limited the time they had in the studio, and so the majority of the tracks were recorded in various band members' apartments, other spaces, or the basement of Pecknold's parents' house. CANNOTANSWER | Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes. | Fleet Foxes is an American indie folk band formed in Seattle, Washington in 2006. The band consists of Robin Pecknold (vocals, guitar), Skyler Skjelset (guitar, mandolin, backing vocals), Casey Wescott (keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals), Christian Wargo (bass, guitar, backing vocals) and Morgan Henderson (upright bass, guitar, woodwinds, violin, percussion, saxophone).
Led by Pecknold, "Fleet Foxes" came to prominence in 2008 with the release of their second EP Sun Giant and their debut album Fleet Foxes on Sub Pop. The band went to release the studio albums Helplessness Blues (2011), Crack-Up (2017), and Shore (2020), all of which received widespread acclaim. Though the band has received modest commercial success, their work has been highly hailed by the music critics, who have praised their lyricism, somber productions, and often noted the band's use of refined instrumentation and vocal harmonies. The band's eponymous debut album is ranked by the Rolling Stone amongst the best albums of the decade, as well being included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The band has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, the first for Best Folk Album in 2012 for Helplessness Blues and the second for Best Alternative Music Album in 2022 for Shore.
History
Formation and early years (2005–06)
Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both attended Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and soon became close friends. Pecknold and Skjelset bonded over an appreciation of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and began making music together. Their parents influenced their musical tastes early on—Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. The two shared an interest in the music of Dylan and Brian Wilson. Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes.
Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", suggesting that it was "evocative of some weird English activity like fox hunting". Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, Bryn Lumsden on bass and Nicholas Peterson on drums and backing vocals.
Pecknold's late-sixties pop style caught the attention of the Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. Ek was impressed with the band's songwriting, and on hearing Pecknold for the first time, noted, "It was obvious he had talent coming out of his ass." By late 2006 the Seattle press began to take notice of the band; Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. By the end of the year, Lumsden had been replaced on bass by Craig Curran, who would also handle many of the band's vocal harmonies.
With growing popularity on the local circuit, the band set about making their first album in early 2007, spending time in the studio with producer Ek in addition to recording material at home. However, funds for recording were tight, so the band members cobbled together what funds they had, which limited the time they had in the studio, and so the majority of the tracks were recorded in various band members' apartments, other spaces, or the basement of Pecknold's parents' house.
Sun Giant and Fleet Foxes (2007–08)
Fleet Foxes were becoming increasingly popular and by late 2007, they had attracted over a quarter of a million song plays over two months on their Myspace site. Although the band had not released any of their recordings, they benefited from word of mouth exposure and their success soon translated into a record deal, signing with Warner Music subsidiary record label Sub Pop on January 18, 2008. The band's frontman, Robin Pecknold, attributes much of their success and popularity to illegal file sharing.
The band tracked their second EP, Sun Giant, at Bear Creek Studio and performed overdubs and mixed at Seattle's Avast! Recording Co., around the same time in preparation for upcoming tours. Fleet Foxes began their spring tour with another Northwest band Blitzen Trapper on February 28, 2008. Before the recording of the EP, bassist Curran was replaced by Christian Wargo, whose voice, like that of his predecessor, would become an important part of the band's harmony blend. The band's performances, first at the SXSW festival in March 2008, and then the Sasquatch! festival in May 2008, moved the band into the public consciousness, notably attracting attention from the European press for the first time.
Sun Giant was released internationally on April 8, 2008 and the group's brand of folk, rock and pop, marked by their use of vocal harmonies, was well received by the press. Despite the warm critical reception, the group said that the EP did not represent their full ambitions, serving merely as a CD to sell while on tour. In May 2008, the band chose to extend their North American and European tour until September in support of their forthcoming album. At this time Josh Tillman replaced Peterson on drums and backing vocals. Their first full-length album, Fleet Foxes, was released shortly afterwards on June 3, 2008. The album achieved similar critical success as the previous EP. Fleet Foxes received four out of five stars from Rolling Stone, which compared it to the likes of the Beach Boys, Animal Collective, and Crosby, Stills & Nash, and a 9.0 out of 10 in a review by Pitchfork Media, sharing the website's album of the year rank with the Sun Giant EP. The Guardian was particularly complimentary, awarding the album five stars and declaring it "a landmark in American music — an instant classic". On June 24, 2008, Fleet Foxes went to No. 1 on the CMJ Radio 200 Chart. The album achieved an average rating of 87/100 from 30 critic reviews on the aggregator website Metacritic.
While the group enjoyed moderate success in the United States, Fleet Foxes was better received in Europe, selling over 200,000 copies in the five months following its release. The sales were matched with critical plaudits and their debut album won Uncut's first ever Music Award 2008 prize. Uncut'''s editor, Allan Jones, said the album "showed impeccable musicianship, and although you could trace its antecedents, it sounded totally unique. Fleet Foxes was just a glorious debut." The band sold out music venues for their tours of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, reaffirming their growing popularity.Sauma, Luiza (December 7, 2008). "Fleet Foxes: Are a hairy bunch of young folk-rockers inventing a new sound of Seattle?", The Independent. Retrieved on January 19, 2009.
At the end of 2008, Fleet Foxes was rated album of the year by Billboards Critic's Choice and in Metacritic's end of year best album round-up it appeared in 17 lists, topping six of them. Furthermore, it had sold over 408,000 copies in North America and over 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom, making it the first gold certificate record for UK label Bella Union. Their growing profile enabled the band to make televised appearances, playing on Vincent Moon's La Blogotheque in December 2008 and on Saturday Night Live the following January. In 2009, they toured in Europe to favorable reviews; the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant said their show in Paradiso induced goosebumps. In 2008 and 2009, the band played globally ending the tour in September with a final European leg.
Helplessness Blues (2009–12)
Pecknold said that he would have liked the album to be released in 2009; however, the band's touring schedule delayed rehearsals of the new songs until February 2009. These sessions took place in a rented house outside Seattle, but were mostly scrapped, losing the band $60,000 of their own money. Further delays ensued because the drummer, Tillman, was scheduled to play a solo tour in Europe and North America throughout the 2009–10 winter. Pecknold later sent some demos to producer Phil Ek and expressed the hope that the second LP would emerge in late 2010.
In December 2009, Pecknold said he wanted the new LP to sound "less poppy, less upbeat and more groove-based". He referenced the 12-string guitar sound from Roy Harper's folk album Stormcock, saying, "That will be the primary sonic distancing from the last record." He wanted the band to record very quickly, with "vocal takes in one go, so even if there are fuck-ups, I want them to be on there. I want there to be guitar mistakes. I want there to be not totally flawless vocals. I want to record it and have that kind of cohesive sound. Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, to me, is the best-sounding album because it sounds like there were only six hours in the universe for that album to be recorded in. So I want it to have that feeling." The band eventually began recording in April 2010 in various locations (including West Hurley, New York) under the label Reciprocal Recording and decided to scrap the earlier idea of a fast recording (though according to the band many of the initial vocals were done in one take). The album features a new six-piece band line up, with the addition of the former Blood Brothers bassist Morgan Henderson on upright bass and woodwind instruments.
The album, Helplessness Blues, was released on May 3, 2011 with a cover illustrated by the Seattle artist Toby Liebowitz and painted by Christopher Alderson. The title track was released via free download on January 31, 2011, and the album's fourth track, "Battery Kinzie", was premiered in the UK on Zane Lowe's radio show on March 22, 2011. The Sub Pop record label released a downloadable music video of the track "Grown Ocean", with footage of the album's recording, on its website in support of the album. A 12" vinyl double A-side single of "Helplessness Blues" and "Grown Ocean" was released for Record Store Day on April 16, 2011. On November 1, 2011, Pecknold's brother, Sean Pecknold, released the official music video for "The Shrine / An Argument".
Helplessness Blues was nominated as Best Folk Album at the 2012 Grammy Awards, held February 12, 2012.
Departure of Tillman and hiatus (2012–2016)
On January 18, 2012, after the band had finished touring for the album, drummer Tillman announced that he had left the band. He would go on to reinvent himself and record several albums as Father John Misty, notable for his ironic sense of humor in lyrics and media as well as often criticizing both the record industry and society in interviews and on stage.
In October 2020, Pecknold reflected on Tillman's departure during a Reddit AMA: "[Josh] "quit" the band after recording drums for Helplessness, got into narcotics and made his first Father John Misty album while I was making Helplessness in Seattle. Then Sub Pop offered to put out his album, but only if he delayed it for a year or so and toured Helplessness with us. Which we all weakly agreed to going through with, but it quickly became obvious he'd rather have just been doing that project instead, and I would have rathered that as well. So that tour I had to endure being around a lot of substance abuse, sabotaged shows, just general ill treatment, shit-talking, all while paying him for songs he didn't have anything to do with. It sucked!"
On June 15, 2013, an image of a home recording set-up–including a laptop computer, microphone and guitar–was posted on the Fleet Foxes Facebook page with the caption "Step one". On June 16, 2013, an image of a broken mandolin with the caption "Step two" was posted. These images were later deleted, but led to speculation that the group was working on a new project, possibly a third studio album. On April 23, 2014, Robin Pecknold posted to the band's Facebook page that he had moved to New York to get his undergraduate degree at the Columbia University School of General Studies, a liberal arts college of Columbia University in New York City.
Crack-Up (2016–2018)
On May 18, 2016, while answering fan questions on his Instagram account, Pecknold confirmed that Fleet Foxes were working on new material with drummer and frequent collaborator Neal Morgan, best known for his work with Joanna Newsom and Bill Callahan. Describing Morgan as a "full Fox", Pecknold also admitted he "had to up my songwriting game for homeboy." However, when Pecknold posted a photo of the band minus Morgan on Instagram, he clarified that Morgan was one of three drummers involved in the new album, and that for the time being Fleet Foxes would consist of Pecknold, Skjelset, Wescott, Wargo, and Henderson as a "five-piece 'core band'", but they would still use a drummer for live performances and additional musicians for certain shows. Pecknold also said that the new material would be "a different vibe" compared to Fleet Foxes' previous output. On November 14, 2016, the band confirmed (via their Facebook account) that their new album was nearly complete.
On December 25, 2016, Pecknold posted a photo on his Instagram account which showed four albums in the Fleet Foxes' queue in his iTunes library: the first studio album Fleet Foxes; the Sun Giant EP; the second studio album Helplessness Blues; and an unknown third album entitled Ylajali. This led to speculation that the band's third album would: 1) be named after a character from Knut Hamsun's novel Hunger; 2) contain a photo from Japanese photographer Hiroshi Hamaya as the cover art; and 3) be released through Nonesuch Records, since the label's logo can be seen on the album cover.
In an email newsletter on January 1, 2017, production company Mason Jar Music confirmed that Fleet Foxes was working on a new album, since they contributed to the production. The album was called Crack-Up, after an F. Scott Fitzgerald essay of the same name. The album is a concept album and was recorded at Electric Lady Studios and Sear Sound in New York City.
On March 7, 2017, Fleet Foxes announced their third studio album, Crack-Up, released on June 16, 2017 via Nonesuch Records, a new label for the band. The lead single, "Third of May / Ōdaigahara", was released the same day. On April 4, 2017, the band posted the album trailer for the new album on YouTube. The trailer briefly presents various songs from the album and shows some images while they were recording them. The video was made by Sean Pecknold, Robin's brother.
On May 15, 2017, Fleet Foxes made their live return at the Wilma Theatre in Missoula, in which they performed nine songs from Crack-Up along with a selection of older material and a cover of "In the Morning" by Bee Gees. The band's current live line-up includes Matt Barrick of The Walkmen, who is also the most heavily featured of the three guest drummers who contributed to Crack-Up. Barrick has continued to play with the band, but has not become an official member. The new album also included the sounds of a brass quartet called The Westerlies.
On October 10, 2017, the band announced the release of a new EP, entitled The Electric Lady Session, for Black Friday Record Store Day 2017. The EP was released on November 24 of that year, and is a collection of live performances of four songs from Crack-Up, originally recorded for their session at Fordham University’s radio station WFUV. For Record Store Day 2018, the band released another EP, entitled "Crack Up (Choral Version)"/"In The Morning (Live in Switzerland)", in collaboration with the Icelandic female choir, Graduale Nobili.
Shore (2019–present)
Work began on a fourth studio album in late 2018, not long after the Crack-Up tour finished. On December 31, 2018, Pecknold teased several new demos online for an upcoming new album.
Recording began in September 2019 at Long Pond Studios in Hudson, New York, and continued at other studios including Electro-Vox Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Pecknold collaborated closely with recording engineer Beatriz Artola during the recording process. Upon the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pecknold moved to New York City to be able to continue working with Artola. At this point, the majority of the music of the album was well-conceptualized, but the lyrics eluded Pecknold. He eventually developed the lyrics in part over the course of long drives in the New York countryside, and worked to finish the album in July and August 2020. Due to a desire to release the album quickly, Pecknold did not enlist the help of bandmates Skjelset, Wescott, Wargo, or Henderson.
The album was announced in September 2020; titled Shore, it was released on September 22. The album received universal acclaim, scoring 87/100 on Metacritic, and was listed among the best albums of the year by numerous publications. It is nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
On December 6, 2021, Fleet Foxes announced the release of a new live album entitled A Very Lonely Solstice. The album was released digitally on December 10, 2021. Vinyl and CD releases are scheduled for release in spring 2022 through Anti-. A Very Lonely Solstice is a recording of a virtual, pre-recorded video concert performance that was livestreamed at 9pm ET on December 21, 2020, coinciding with the winter solstice. The concert featured Pecknold performing an acoustic solo set inside the St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn. The album features performances of songs from Shore and older Fleet Foxes songs, as well as cover versions of two tracks.
Members
Robin Pecknold – lead vocals, guitar (2006–present)
Skyler Skjelset – guitar, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Casey Wescott – keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Christian Wargo – bass guitar, guitar, backing vocals (2008–present)
Morgan Henderson – upright bass, guitar, woodwind, violin, percussion (2010–present)Former members Bryn Lumsden – bass guitar (2006)
Craig Curran – bass guitar, backing vocals (2006–2008)
Nicholas Peterson – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2006–2008)
Josh Tillman – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2008–2012)Former touring musicians'Matt Barrick – drums, percussion (2017–2018)
Timeline
Discography
Albums
Fleet Foxes (2008)
Helplessness Blues (2011)
Crack-Up (2017)
Shore (2020)
Live albums
A Very Lonely Solstice (2021)
EPs
The Fleet Foxes (2006)
Sun Giant (2008)
Compilation albums
First Collection 2006–2009'' (2018)
References
External links
Fleet Foxes at Nonesuch Records
Official YouTube
American indie folk groups
Musical groups from Seattle
Sub Pop artists
Musical quintets
2006 establishments in Washington, D.C.
Musical groups established in 2006
Bella Union artists
Anti- (record label) artists
Arts & Crafts Productions artists
Nonesuch Records artists | true | [
"Jackson Rogow (born October 5, 1991) is an American actor. He is best known for starring in the Cartoon Network live action series Dude, What Would Happen?\n\nCareer\nRogow was on Dude, What Would Happen on Cartoon Network until it was cancelled in 2011. Rogow was also on the Lego Top Secret Project after The Yoda Chronicles on Cartoon Network.\n\nPersonal life\nRogow resides in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California.\n\nFilmography\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\nLiving people\n1991 births\nPeople from Kissimmee, Florida\nPeople from Bel Air, Los Angeles\nLos Angeles County High School for the Arts alumni\nAmerican male television actors",
"James P. Flynn (born February 5, 1934) is an American teamster and film actor. He was a reputed member of the famous Winter Hill Gang. He has been in films including Good Will Hunting, The Cider House Rules and What's the Worst That Could Happen?.\n\nBiography\nJames P. Flynn was born in Somerville, Massachusetts.\n\nIn 1982, Flynn was wrongly identified as a shooter in the murder of Winter Hill Gang mob associate Brian \"Balloonhead\" Halloran and attempted murder of Michael Donahue. He was tried and acquitted for the murder in 1986 after being framed by John Connolly and James J. Bulger.\n\nFlynn was a part of Boston's International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 25 labor union where he later ran the organization's movie production crew. He has also been the Teamster Union's transportation coordinator and transportation captain in the transportation department on numerous films, including The Departed, Fever Pitch and Jumanji.\n\nFlynn appeared in many films shot in the New England area. In show business he goes by the name 'James P. Flynn'. Flynn was cast as a judge in the Boston-based film Good Will Hunting in 1997. Later, he acted in the 1999 film The Cider House Rules and What's the Worst That Could Happen? in 2001. He was also a truck driver for movie production equipment during the filming of My Best Friend's Girl in 2008. Boston actor Tom Kemp remarked: \"[The film The Departed] wouldn't be a Boston movie without me, a Wahlberg, and Jimmy Flynn from the teamsters.\"\n\nFilmography\nGood Will Hunting (1997) as Judge George H. Malone\nThe Cider House Rules (1999) as Vernon\nWhat's the Worst That Could Happen? (2001) as the Fire Captain\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n1934 births\nLiving people\nMale actors from Boston\nWinter Hill Gang"
]
|
[
"Fleet Foxes",
"Formation and early years (2005-06)",
"What happen in 2005?",
"Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes."
]
| C_69d4d0e356d64e7587ee8769610ecaa4_1 | What happen in 2006 | 2 | What happen to the Fleet Foxes in 2006 | Fleet Foxes | Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both attended Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and soon became close friends. Pecknold and Skjelset bonded over a mutual appreciation of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and began making music together. Their parents influenced their musical tastes early on--Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. The two shared an interest in the music of Dylan and Brian Wilson. Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes. Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", suggesting that it was "evocative of some weird English activity like fox hunting". Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, Bryn Lumsden on bass and Nicholas Peterson on drums and backing vocals. Pecknold's late-sixties pop style caught the attention of the Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. Ek was impressed with the band's songwriting, and on hearing Pecknold for the first time, noted, "It was obvious he had talent coming out of his ass." By late 2006 the Seattle press began to take notice of the band; Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. By the end of the year, Lumsden had been replaced on bass by Craig Curran, who would also handle many of the band's vocal harmonies. With growing popularity on the local circuit, the band set about making their first album in early 2007, spending time in the studio with producer Ek in addition to recording material at home. However, funds for recording were tight, so the band members cobbled together what funds they had, which limited the time they had in the studio, and so the majority of the tracks were recorded in various band members' apartments, other spaces, or the basement of Pecknold's parents' house. CANNOTANSWER | Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. | Fleet Foxes is an American indie folk band formed in Seattle, Washington in 2006. The band consists of Robin Pecknold (vocals, guitar), Skyler Skjelset (guitar, mandolin, backing vocals), Casey Wescott (keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals), Christian Wargo (bass, guitar, backing vocals) and Morgan Henderson (upright bass, guitar, woodwinds, violin, percussion, saxophone).
Led by Pecknold, "Fleet Foxes" came to prominence in 2008 with the release of their second EP Sun Giant and their debut album Fleet Foxes on Sub Pop. The band went to release the studio albums Helplessness Blues (2011), Crack-Up (2017), and Shore (2020), all of which received widespread acclaim. Though the band has received modest commercial success, their work has been highly hailed by the music critics, who have praised their lyricism, somber productions, and often noted the band's use of refined instrumentation and vocal harmonies. The band's eponymous debut album is ranked by the Rolling Stone amongst the best albums of the decade, as well being included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The band has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, the first for Best Folk Album in 2012 for Helplessness Blues and the second for Best Alternative Music Album in 2022 for Shore.
History
Formation and early years (2005–06)
Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both attended Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and soon became close friends. Pecknold and Skjelset bonded over an appreciation of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and began making music together. Their parents influenced their musical tastes early on—Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. The two shared an interest in the music of Dylan and Brian Wilson. Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes.
Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", suggesting that it was "evocative of some weird English activity like fox hunting". Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, Bryn Lumsden on bass and Nicholas Peterson on drums and backing vocals.
Pecknold's late-sixties pop style caught the attention of the Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. Ek was impressed with the band's songwriting, and on hearing Pecknold for the first time, noted, "It was obvious he had talent coming out of his ass." By late 2006 the Seattle press began to take notice of the band; Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. By the end of the year, Lumsden had been replaced on bass by Craig Curran, who would also handle many of the band's vocal harmonies.
With growing popularity on the local circuit, the band set about making their first album in early 2007, spending time in the studio with producer Ek in addition to recording material at home. However, funds for recording were tight, so the band members cobbled together what funds they had, which limited the time they had in the studio, and so the majority of the tracks were recorded in various band members' apartments, other spaces, or the basement of Pecknold's parents' house.
Sun Giant and Fleet Foxes (2007–08)
Fleet Foxes were becoming increasingly popular and by late 2007, they had attracted over a quarter of a million song plays over two months on their Myspace site. Although the band had not released any of their recordings, they benefited from word of mouth exposure and their success soon translated into a record deal, signing with Warner Music subsidiary record label Sub Pop on January 18, 2008. The band's frontman, Robin Pecknold, attributes much of their success and popularity to illegal file sharing.
The band tracked their second EP, Sun Giant, at Bear Creek Studio and performed overdubs and mixed at Seattle's Avast! Recording Co., around the same time in preparation for upcoming tours. Fleet Foxes began their spring tour with another Northwest band Blitzen Trapper on February 28, 2008. Before the recording of the EP, bassist Curran was replaced by Christian Wargo, whose voice, like that of his predecessor, would become an important part of the band's harmony blend. The band's performances, first at the SXSW festival in March 2008, and then the Sasquatch! festival in May 2008, moved the band into the public consciousness, notably attracting attention from the European press for the first time.
Sun Giant was released internationally on April 8, 2008 and the group's brand of folk, rock and pop, marked by their use of vocal harmonies, was well received by the press. Despite the warm critical reception, the group said that the EP did not represent their full ambitions, serving merely as a CD to sell while on tour. In May 2008, the band chose to extend their North American and European tour until September in support of their forthcoming album. At this time Josh Tillman replaced Peterson on drums and backing vocals. Their first full-length album, Fleet Foxes, was released shortly afterwards on June 3, 2008. The album achieved similar critical success as the previous EP. Fleet Foxes received four out of five stars from Rolling Stone, which compared it to the likes of the Beach Boys, Animal Collective, and Crosby, Stills & Nash, and a 9.0 out of 10 in a review by Pitchfork Media, sharing the website's album of the year rank with the Sun Giant EP. The Guardian was particularly complimentary, awarding the album five stars and declaring it "a landmark in American music — an instant classic". On June 24, 2008, Fleet Foxes went to No. 1 on the CMJ Radio 200 Chart. The album achieved an average rating of 87/100 from 30 critic reviews on the aggregator website Metacritic.
While the group enjoyed moderate success in the United States, Fleet Foxes was better received in Europe, selling over 200,000 copies in the five months following its release. The sales were matched with critical plaudits and their debut album won Uncut's first ever Music Award 2008 prize. Uncut'''s editor, Allan Jones, said the album "showed impeccable musicianship, and although you could trace its antecedents, it sounded totally unique. Fleet Foxes was just a glorious debut." The band sold out music venues for their tours of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, reaffirming their growing popularity.Sauma, Luiza (December 7, 2008). "Fleet Foxes: Are a hairy bunch of young folk-rockers inventing a new sound of Seattle?", The Independent. Retrieved on January 19, 2009.
At the end of 2008, Fleet Foxes was rated album of the year by Billboards Critic's Choice and in Metacritic's end of year best album round-up it appeared in 17 lists, topping six of them. Furthermore, it had sold over 408,000 copies in North America and over 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom, making it the first gold certificate record for UK label Bella Union. Their growing profile enabled the band to make televised appearances, playing on Vincent Moon's La Blogotheque in December 2008 and on Saturday Night Live the following January. In 2009, they toured in Europe to favorable reviews; the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant said their show in Paradiso induced goosebumps. In 2008 and 2009, the band played globally ending the tour in September with a final European leg.
Helplessness Blues (2009–12)
Pecknold said that he would have liked the album to be released in 2009; however, the band's touring schedule delayed rehearsals of the new songs until February 2009. These sessions took place in a rented house outside Seattle, but were mostly scrapped, losing the band $60,000 of their own money. Further delays ensued because the drummer, Tillman, was scheduled to play a solo tour in Europe and North America throughout the 2009–10 winter. Pecknold later sent some demos to producer Phil Ek and expressed the hope that the second LP would emerge in late 2010.
In December 2009, Pecknold said he wanted the new LP to sound "less poppy, less upbeat and more groove-based". He referenced the 12-string guitar sound from Roy Harper's folk album Stormcock, saying, "That will be the primary sonic distancing from the last record." He wanted the band to record very quickly, with "vocal takes in one go, so even if there are fuck-ups, I want them to be on there. I want there to be guitar mistakes. I want there to be not totally flawless vocals. I want to record it and have that kind of cohesive sound. Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, to me, is the best-sounding album because it sounds like there were only six hours in the universe for that album to be recorded in. So I want it to have that feeling." The band eventually began recording in April 2010 in various locations (including West Hurley, New York) under the label Reciprocal Recording and decided to scrap the earlier idea of a fast recording (though according to the band many of the initial vocals were done in one take). The album features a new six-piece band line up, with the addition of the former Blood Brothers bassist Morgan Henderson on upright bass and woodwind instruments.
The album, Helplessness Blues, was released on May 3, 2011 with a cover illustrated by the Seattle artist Toby Liebowitz and painted by Christopher Alderson. The title track was released via free download on January 31, 2011, and the album's fourth track, "Battery Kinzie", was premiered in the UK on Zane Lowe's radio show on March 22, 2011. The Sub Pop record label released a downloadable music video of the track "Grown Ocean", with footage of the album's recording, on its website in support of the album. A 12" vinyl double A-side single of "Helplessness Blues" and "Grown Ocean" was released for Record Store Day on April 16, 2011. On November 1, 2011, Pecknold's brother, Sean Pecknold, released the official music video for "The Shrine / An Argument".
Helplessness Blues was nominated as Best Folk Album at the 2012 Grammy Awards, held February 12, 2012.
Departure of Tillman and hiatus (2012–2016)
On January 18, 2012, after the band had finished touring for the album, drummer Tillman announced that he had left the band. He would go on to reinvent himself and record several albums as Father John Misty, notable for his ironic sense of humor in lyrics and media as well as often criticizing both the record industry and society in interviews and on stage.
In October 2020, Pecknold reflected on Tillman's departure during a Reddit AMA: "[Josh] "quit" the band after recording drums for Helplessness, got into narcotics and made his first Father John Misty album while I was making Helplessness in Seattle. Then Sub Pop offered to put out his album, but only if he delayed it for a year or so and toured Helplessness with us. Which we all weakly agreed to going through with, but it quickly became obvious he'd rather have just been doing that project instead, and I would have rathered that as well. So that tour I had to endure being around a lot of substance abuse, sabotaged shows, just general ill treatment, shit-talking, all while paying him for songs he didn't have anything to do with. It sucked!"
On June 15, 2013, an image of a home recording set-up–including a laptop computer, microphone and guitar–was posted on the Fleet Foxes Facebook page with the caption "Step one". On June 16, 2013, an image of a broken mandolin with the caption "Step two" was posted. These images were later deleted, but led to speculation that the group was working on a new project, possibly a third studio album. On April 23, 2014, Robin Pecknold posted to the band's Facebook page that he had moved to New York to get his undergraduate degree at the Columbia University School of General Studies, a liberal arts college of Columbia University in New York City.
Crack-Up (2016–2018)
On May 18, 2016, while answering fan questions on his Instagram account, Pecknold confirmed that Fleet Foxes were working on new material with drummer and frequent collaborator Neal Morgan, best known for his work with Joanna Newsom and Bill Callahan. Describing Morgan as a "full Fox", Pecknold also admitted he "had to up my songwriting game for homeboy." However, when Pecknold posted a photo of the band minus Morgan on Instagram, he clarified that Morgan was one of three drummers involved in the new album, and that for the time being Fleet Foxes would consist of Pecknold, Skjelset, Wescott, Wargo, and Henderson as a "five-piece 'core band'", but they would still use a drummer for live performances and additional musicians for certain shows. Pecknold also said that the new material would be "a different vibe" compared to Fleet Foxes' previous output. On November 14, 2016, the band confirmed (via their Facebook account) that their new album was nearly complete.
On December 25, 2016, Pecknold posted a photo on his Instagram account which showed four albums in the Fleet Foxes' queue in his iTunes library: the first studio album Fleet Foxes; the Sun Giant EP; the second studio album Helplessness Blues; and an unknown third album entitled Ylajali. This led to speculation that the band's third album would: 1) be named after a character from Knut Hamsun's novel Hunger; 2) contain a photo from Japanese photographer Hiroshi Hamaya as the cover art; and 3) be released through Nonesuch Records, since the label's logo can be seen on the album cover.
In an email newsletter on January 1, 2017, production company Mason Jar Music confirmed that Fleet Foxes was working on a new album, since they contributed to the production. The album was called Crack-Up, after an F. Scott Fitzgerald essay of the same name. The album is a concept album and was recorded at Electric Lady Studios and Sear Sound in New York City.
On March 7, 2017, Fleet Foxes announced their third studio album, Crack-Up, released on June 16, 2017 via Nonesuch Records, a new label for the band. The lead single, "Third of May / Ōdaigahara", was released the same day. On April 4, 2017, the band posted the album trailer for the new album on YouTube. The trailer briefly presents various songs from the album and shows some images while they were recording them. The video was made by Sean Pecknold, Robin's brother.
On May 15, 2017, Fleet Foxes made their live return at the Wilma Theatre in Missoula, in which they performed nine songs from Crack-Up along with a selection of older material and a cover of "In the Morning" by Bee Gees. The band's current live line-up includes Matt Barrick of The Walkmen, who is also the most heavily featured of the three guest drummers who contributed to Crack-Up. Barrick has continued to play with the band, but has not become an official member. The new album also included the sounds of a brass quartet called The Westerlies.
On October 10, 2017, the band announced the release of a new EP, entitled The Electric Lady Session, for Black Friday Record Store Day 2017. The EP was released on November 24 of that year, and is a collection of live performances of four songs from Crack-Up, originally recorded for their session at Fordham University’s radio station WFUV. For Record Store Day 2018, the band released another EP, entitled "Crack Up (Choral Version)"/"In The Morning (Live in Switzerland)", in collaboration with the Icelandic female choir, Graduale Nobili.
Shore (2019–present)
Work began on a fourth studio album in late 2018, not long after the Crack-Up tour finished. On December 31, 2018, Pecknold teased several new demos online for an upcoming new album.
Recording began in September 2019 at Long Pond Studios in Hudson, New York, and continued at other studios including Electro-Vox Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Pecknold collaborated closely with recording engineer Beatriz Artola during the recording process. Upon the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pecknold moved to New York City to be able to continue working with Artola. At this point, the majority of the music of the album was well-conceptualized, but the lyrics eluded Pecknold. He eventually developed the lyrics in part over the course of long drives in the New York countryside, and worked to finish the album in July and August 2020. Due to a desire to release the album quickly, Pecknold did not enlist the help of bandmates Skjelset, Wescott, Wargo, or Henderson.
The album was announced in September 2020; titled Shore, it was released on September 22. The album received universal acclaim, scoring 87/100 on Metacritic, and was listed among the best albums of the year by numerous publications. It is nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
On December 6, 2021, Fleet Foxes announced the release of a new live album entitled A Very Lonely Solstice. The album was released digitally on December 10, 2021. Vinyl and CD releases are scheduled for release in spring 2022 through Anti-. A Very Lonely Solstice is a recording of a virtual, pre-recorded video concert performance that was livestreamed at 9pm ET on December 21, 2020, coinciding with the winter solstice. The concert featured Pecknold performing an acoustic solo set inside the St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn. The album features performances of songs from Shore and older Fleet Foxes songs, as well as cover versions of two tracks.
Members
Robin Pecknold – lead vocals, guitar (2006–present)
Skyler Skjelset – guitar, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Casey Wescott – keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Christian Wargo – bass guitar, guitar, backing vocals (2008–present)
Morgan Henderson – upright bass, guitar, woodwind, violin, percussion (2010–present)Former members Bryn Lumsden – bass guitar (2006)
Craig Curran – bass guitar, backing vocals (2006–2008)
Nicholas Peterson – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2006–2008)
Josh Tillman – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2008–2012)Former touring musicians'Matt Barrick – drums, percussion (2017–2018)
Timeline
Discography
Albums
Fleet Foxes (2008)
Helplessness Blues (2011)
Crack-Up (2017)
Shore (2020)
Live albums
A Very Lonely Solstice (2021)
EPs
The Fleet Foxes (2006)
Sun Giant (2008)
Compilation albums
First Collection 2006–2009'' (2018)
References
External links
Fleet Foxes at Nonesuch Records
Official YouTube
American indie folk groups
Musical groups from Seattle
Sub Pop artists
Musical quintets
2006 establishments in Washington, D.C.
Musical groups established in 2006
Bella Union artists
Anti- (record label) artists
Arts & Crafts Productions artists
Nonesuch Records artists | true | [
"Jackson Rogow (born October 5, 1991) is an American actor. He is best known for starring in the Cartoon Network live action series Dude, What Would Happen?\n\nCareer\nRogow was on Dude, What Would Happen on Cartoon Network until it was cancelled in 2011. Rogow was also on the Lego Top Secret Project after The Yoda Chronicles on Cartoon Network.\n\nPersonal life\nRogow resides in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California.\n\nFilmography\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\nLiving people\n1991 births\nPeople from Kissimmee, Florida\nPeople from Bel Air, Los Angeles\nLos Angeles County High School for the Arts alumni\nAmerican male television actors",
"James P. Flynn (born February 5, 1934) is an American teamster and film actor. He was a reputed member of the famous Winter Hill Gang. He has been in films including Good Will Hunting, The Cider House Rules and What's the Worst That Could Happen?.\n\nBiography\nJames P. Flynn was born in Somerville, Massachusetts.\n\nIn 1982, Flynn was wrongly identified as a shooter in the murder of Winter Hill Gang mob associate Brian \"Balloonhead\" Halloran and attempted murder of Michael Donahue. He was tried and acquitted for the murder in 1986 after being framed by John Connolly and James J. Bulger.\n\nFlynn was a part of Boston's International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 25 labor union where he later ran the organization's movie production crew. He has also been the Teamster Union's transportation coordinator and transportation captain in the transportation department on numerous films, including The Departed, Fever Pitch and Jumanji.\n\nFlynn appeared in many films shot in the New England area. In show business he goes by the name 'James P. Flynn'. Flynn was cast as a judge in the Boston-based film Good Will Hunting in 1997. Later, he acted in the 1999 film The Cider House Rules and What's the Worst That Could Happen? in 2001. He was also a truck driver for movie production equipment during the filming of My Best Friend's Girl in 2008. Boston actor Tom Kemp remarked: \"[The film The Departed] wouldn't be a Boston movie without me, a Wahlberg, and Jimmy Flynn from the teamsters.\"\n\nFilmography\nGood Will Hunting (1997) as Judge George H. Malone\nThe Cider House Rules (1999) as Vernon\nWhat's the Worst That Could Happen? (2001) as the Fire Captain\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n1934 births\nLiving people\nMale actors from Boston\nWinter Hill Gang"
]
|
[
"Fleet Foxes",
"Formation and early years (2005-06)",
"What happen in 2005?",
"Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes.",
"What happen in 2006",
"Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP."
]
| C_69d4d0e356d64e7587ee8769610ecaa4_1 | What was the title of their album | 3 | What was the title of Fleet Foxes's 2006 album? | Fleet Foxes | Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both attended Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and soon became close friends. Pecknold and Skjelset bonded over a mutual appreciation of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and began making music together. Their parents influenced their musical tastes early on--Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. The two shared an interest in the music of Dylan and Brian Wilson. Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes. Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", suggesting that it was "evocative of some weird English activity like fox hunting". Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, Bryn Lumsden on bass and Nicholas Peterson on drums and backing vocals. Pecknold's late-sixties pop style caught the attention of the Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. Ek was impressed with the band's songwriting, and on hearing Pecknold for the first time, noted, "It was obvious he had talent coming out of his ass." By late 2006 the Seattle press began to take notice of the band; Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. By the end of the year, Lumsden had been replaced on bass by Craig Curran, who would also handle many of the band's vocal harmonies. With growing popularity on the local circuit, the band set about making their first album in early 2007, spending time in the studio with producer Ek in addition to recording material at home. However, funds for recording were tight, so the band members cobbled together what funds they had, which limited the time they had in the studio, and so the majority of the tracks were recorded in various band members' apartments, other spaces, or the basement of Pecknold's parents' house. CANNOTANSWER | the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. | Fleet Foxes is an American indie folk band formed in Seattle, Washington in 2006. The band consists of Robin Pecknold (vocals, guitar), Skyler Skjelset (guitar, mandolin, backing vocals), Casey Wescott (keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals), Christian Wargo (bass, guitar, backing vocals) and Morgan Henderson (upright bass, guitar, woodwinds, violin, percussion, saxophone).
Led by Pecknold, "Fleet Foxes" came to prominence in 2008 with the release of their second EP Sun Giant and their debut album Fleet Foxes on Sub Pop. The band went to release the studio albums Helplessness Blues (2011), Crack-Up (2017), and Shore (2020), all of which received widespread acclaim. Though the band has received modest commercial success, their work has been highly hailed by the music critics, who have praised their lyricism, somber productions, and often noted the band's use of refined instrumentation and vocal harmonies. The band's eponymous debut album is ranked by the Rolling Stone amongst the best albums of the decade, as well being included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The band has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, the first for Best Folk Album in 2012 for Helplessness Blues and the second for Best Alternative Music Album in 2022 for Shore.
History
Formation and early years (2005–06)
Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both attended Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and soon became close friends. Pecknold and Skjelset bonded over an appreciation of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and began making music together. Their parents influenced their musical tastes early on—Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. The two shared an interest in the music of Dylan and Brian Wilson. Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes.
Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", suggesting that it was "evocative of some weird English activity like fox hunting". Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, Bryn Lumsden on bass and Nicholas Peterson on drums and backing vocals.
Pecknold's late-sixties pop style caught the attention of the Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. Ek was impressed with the band's songwriting, and on hearing Pecknold for the first time, noted, "It was obvious he had talent coming out of his ass." By late 2006 the Seattle press began to take notice of the band; Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. By the end of the year, Lumsden had been replaced on bass by Craig Curran, who would also handle many of the band's vocal harmonies.
With growing popularity on the local circuit, the band set about making their first album in early 2007, spending time in the studio with producer Ek in addition to recording material at home. However, funds for recording were tight, so the band members cobbled together what funds they had, which limited the time they had in the studio, and so the majority of the tracks were recorded in various band members' apartments, other spaces, or the basement of Pecknold's parents' house.
Sun Giant and Fleet Foxes (2007–08)
Fleet Foxes were becoming increasingly popular and by late 2007, they had attracted over a quarter of a million song plays over two months on their Myspace site. Although the band had not released any of their recordings, they benefited from word of mouth exposure and their success soon translated into a record deal, signing with Warner Music subsidiary record label Sub Pop on January 18, 2008. The band's frontman, Robin Pecknold, attributes much of their success and popularity to illegal file sharing.
The band tracked their second EP, Sun Giant, at Bear Creek Studio and performed overdubs and mixed at Seattle's Avast! Recording Co., around the same time in preparation for upcoming tours. Fleet Foxes began their spring tour with another Northwest band Blitzen Trapper on February 28, 2008. Before the recording of the EP, bassist Curran was replaced by Christian Wargo, whose voice, like that of his predecessor, would become an important part of the band's harmony blend. The band's performances, first at the SXSW festival in March 2008, and then the Sasquatch! festival in May 2008, moved the band into the public consciousness, notably attracting attention from the European press for the first time.
Sun Giant was released internationally on April 8, 2008 and the group's brand of folk, rock and pop, marked by their use of vocal harmonies, was well received by the press. Despite the warm critical reception, the group said that the EP did not represent their full ambitions, serving merely as a CD to sell while on tour. In May 2008, the band chose to extend their North American and European tour until September in support of their forthcoming album. At this time Josh Tillman replaced Peterson on drums and backing vocals. Their first full-length album, Fleet Foxes, was released shortly afterwards on June 3, 2008. The album achieved similar critical success as the previous EP. Fleet Foxes received four out of five stars from Rolling Stone, which compared it to the likes of the Beach Boys, Animal Collective, and Crosby, Stills & Nash, and a 9.0 out of 10 in a review by Pitchfork Media, sharing the website's album of the year rank with the Sun Giant EP. The Guardian was particularly complimentary, awarding the album five stars and declaring it "a landmark in American music — an instant classic". On June 24, 2008, Fleet Foxes went to No. 1 on the CMJ Radio 200 Chart. The album achieved an average rating of 87/100 from 30 critic reviews on the aggregator website Metacritic.
While the group enjoyed moderate success in the United States, Fleet Foxes was better received in Europe, selling over 200,000 copies in the five months following its release. The sales were matched with critical plaudits and their debut album won Uncut's first ever Music Award 2008 prize. Uncut'''s editor, Allan Jones, said the album "showed impeccable musicianship, and although you could trace its antecedents, it sounded totally unique. Fleet Foxes was just a glorious debut." The band sold out music venues for their tours of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, reaffirming their growing popularity.Sauma, Luiza (December 7, 2008). "Fleet Foxes: Are a hairy bunch of young folk-rockers inventing a new sound of Seattle?", The Independent. Retrieved on January 19, 2009.
At the end of 2008, Fleet Foxes was rated album of the year by Billboards Critic's Choice and in Metacritic's end of year best album round-up it appeared in 17 lists, topping six of them. Furthermore, it had sold over 408,000 copies in North America and over 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom, making it the first gold certificate record for UK label Bella Union. Their growing profile enabled the band to make televised appearances, playing on Vincent Moon's La Blogotheque in December 2008 and on Saturday Night Live the following January. In 2009, they toured in Europe to favorable reviews; the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant said their show in Paradiso induced goosebumps. In 2008 and 2009, the band played globally ending the tour in September with a final European leg.
Helplessness Blues (2009–12)
Pecknold said that he would have liked the album to be released in 2009; however, the band's touring schedule delayed rehearsals of the new songs until February 2009. These sessions took place in a rented house outside Seattle, but were mostly scrapped, losing the band $60,000 of their own money. Further delays ensued because the drummer, Tillman, was scheduled to play a solo tour in Europe and North America throughout the 2009–10 winter. Pecknold later sent some demos to producer Phil Ek and expressed the hope that the second LP would emerge in late 2010.
In December 2009, Pecknold said he wanted the new LP to sound "less poppy, less upbeat and more groove-based". He referenced the 12-string guitar sound from Roy Harper's folk album Stormcock, saying, "That will be the primary sonic distancing from the last record." He wanted the band to record very quickly, with "vocal takes in one go, so even if there are fuck-ups, I want them to be on there. I want there to be guitar mistakes. I want there to be not totally flawless vocals. I want to record it and have that kind of cohesive sound. Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, to me, is the best-sounding album because it sounds like there were only six hours in the universe for that album to be recorded in. So I want it to have that feeling." The band eventually began recording in April 2010 in various locations (including West Hurley, New York) under the label Reciprocal Recording and decided to scrap the earlier idea of a fast recording (though according to the band many of the initial vocals were done in one take). The album features a new six-piece band line up, with the addition of the former Blood Brothers bassist Morgan Henderson on upright bass and woodwind instruments.
The album, Helplessness Blues, was released on May 3, 2011 with a cover illustrated by the Seattle artist Toby Liebowitz and painted by Christopher Alderson. The title track was released via free download on January 31, 2011, and the album's fourth track, "Battery Kinzie", was premiered in the UK on Zane Lowe's radio show on March 22, 2011. The Sub Pop record label released a downloadable music video of the track "Grown Ocean", with footage of the album's recording, on its website in support of the album. A 12" vinyl double A-side single of "Helplessness Blues" and "Grown Ocean" was released for Record Store Day on April 16, 2011. On November 1, 2011, Pecknold's brother, Sean Pecknold, released the official music video for "The Shrine / An Argument".
Helplessness Blues was nominated as Best Folk Album at the 2012 Grammy Awards, held February 12, 2012.
Departure of Tillman and hiatus (2012–2016)
On January 18, 2012, after the band had finished touring for the album, drummer Tillman announced that he had left the band. He would go on to reinvent himself and record several albums as Father John Misty, notable for his ironic sense of humor in lyrics and media as well as often criticizing both the record industry and society in interviews and on stage.
In October 2020, Pecknold reflected on Tillman's departure during a Reddit AMA: "[Josh] "quit" the band after recording drums for Helplessness, got into narcotics and made his first Father John Misty album while I was making Helplessness in Seattle. Then Sub Pop offered to put out his album, but only if he delayed it for a year or so and toured Helplessness with us. Which we all weakly agreed to going through with, but it quickly became obvious he'd rather have just been doing that project instead, and I would have rathered that as well. So that tour I had to endure being around a lot of substance abuse, sabotaged shows, just general ill treatment, shit-talking, all while paying him for songs he didn't have anything to do with. It sucked!"
On June 15, 2013, an image of a home recording set-up–including a laptop computer, microphone and guitar–was posted on the Fleet Foxes Facebook page with the caption "Step one". On June 16, 2013, an image of a broken mandolin with the caption "Step two" was posted. These images were later deleted, but led to speculation that the group was working on a new project, possibly a third studio album. On April 23, 2014, Robin Pecknold posted to the band's Facebook page that he had moved to New York to get his undergraduate degree at the Columbia University School of General Studies, a liberal arts college of Columbia University in New York City.
Crack-Up (2016–2018)
On May 18, 2016, while answering fan questions on his Instagram account, Pecknold confirmed that Fleet Foxes were working on new material with drummer and frequent collaborator Neal Morgan, best known for his work with Joanna Newsom and Bill Callahan. Describing Morgan as a "full Fox", Pecknold also admitted he "had to up my songwriting game for homeboy." However, when Pecknold posted a photo of the band minus Morgan on Instagram, he clarified that Morgan was one of three drummers involved in the new album, and that for the time being Fleet Foxes would consist of Pecknold, Skjelset, Wescott, Wargo, and Henderson as a "five-piece 'core band'", but they would still use a drummer for live performances and additional musicians for certain shows. Pecknold also said that the new material would be "a different vibe" compared to Fleet Foxes' previous output. On November 14, 2016, the band confirmed (via their Facebook account) that their new album was nearly complete.
On December 25, 2016, Pecknold posted a photo on his Instagram account which showed four albums in the Fleet Foxes' queue in his iTunes library: the first studio album Fleet Foxes; the Sun Giant EP; the second studio album Helplessness Blues; and an unknown third album entitled Ylajali. This led to speculation that the band's third album would: 1) be named after a character from Knut Hamsun's novel Hunger; 2) contain a photo from Japanese photographer Hiroshi Hamaya as the cover art; and 3) be released through Nonesuch Records, since the label's logo can be seen on the album cover.
In an email newsletter on January 1, 2017, production company Mason Jar Music confirmed that Fleet Foxes was working on a new album, since they contributed to the production. The album was called Crack-Up, after an F. Scott Fitzgerald essay of the same name. The album is a concept album and was recorded at Electric Lady Studios and Sear Sound in New York City.
On March 7, 2017, Fleet Foxes announced their third studio album, Crack-Up, released on June 16, 2017 via Nonesuch Records, a new label for the band. The lead single, "Third of May / Ōdaigahara", was released the same day. On April 4, 2017, the band posted the album trailer for the new album on YouTube. The trailer briefly presents various songs from the album and shows some images while they were recording them. The video was made by Sean Pecknold, Robin's brother.
On May 15, 2017, Fleet Foxes made their live return at the Wilma Theatre in Missoula, in which they performed nine songs from Crack-Up along with a selection of older material and a cover of "In the Morning" by Bee Gees. The band's current live line-up includes Matt Barrick of The Walkmen, who is also the most heavily featured of the three guest drummers who contributed to Crack-Up. Barrick has continued to play with the band, but has not become an official member. The new album also included the sounds of a brass quartet called The Westerlies.
On October 10, 2017, the band announced the release of a new EP, entitled The Electric Lady Session, for Black Friday Record Store Day 2017. The EP was released on November 24 of that year, and is a collection of live performances of four songs from Crack-Up, originally recorded for their session at Fordham University’s radio station WFUV. For Record Store Day 2018, the band released another EP, entitled "Crack Up (Choral Version)"/"In The Morning (Live in Switzerland)", in collaboration with the Icelandic female choir, Graduale Nobili.
Shore (2019–present)
Work began on a fourth studio album in late 2018, not long after the Crack-Up tour finished. On December 31, 2018, Pecknold teased several new demos online for an upcoming new album.
Recording began in September 2019 at Long Pond Studios in Hudson, New York, and continued at other studios including Electro-Vox Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Pecknold collaborated closely with recording engineer Beatriz Artola during the recording process. Upon the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pecknold moved to New York City to be able to continue working with Artola. At this point, the majority of the music of the album was well-conceptualized, but the lyrics eluded Pecknold. He eventually developed the lyrics in part over the course of long drives in the New York countryside, and worked to finish the album in July and August 2020. Due to a desire to release the album quickly, Pecknold did not enlist the help of bandmates Skjelset, Wescott, Wargo, or Henderson.
The album was announced in September 2020; titled Shore, it was released on September 22. The album received universal acclaim, scoring 87/100 on Metacritic, and was listed among the best albums of the year by numerous publications. It is nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
On December 6, 2021, Fleet Foxes announced the release of a new live album entitled A Very Lonely Solstice. The album was released digitally on December 10, 2021. Vinyl and CD releases are scheduled for release in spring 2022 through Anti-. A Very Lonely Solstice is a recording of a virtual, pre-recorded video concert performance that was livestreamed at 9pm ET on December 21, 2020, coinciding with the winter solstice. The concert featured Pecknold performing an acoustic solo set inside the St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn. The album features performances of songs from Shore and older Fleet Foxes songs, as well as cover versions of two tracks.
Members
Robin Pecknold – lead vocals, guitar (2006–present)
Skyler Skjelset – guitar, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Casey Wescott – keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Christian Wargo – bass guitar, guitar, backing vocals (2008–present)
Morgan Henderson – upright bass, guitar, woodwind, violin, percussion (2010–present)Former members Bryn Lumsden – bass guitar (2006)
Craig Curran – bass guitar, backing vocals (2006–2008)
Nicholas Peterson – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2006–2008)
Josh Tillman – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2008–2012)Former touring musicians'Matt Barrick – drums, percussion (2017–2018)
Timeline
Discography
Albums
Fleet Foxes (2008)
Helplessness Blues (2011)
Crack-Up (2017)
Shore (2020)
Live albums
A Very Lonely Solstice (2021)
EPs
The Fleet Foxes (2006)
Sun Giant (2008)
Compilation albums
First Collection 2006–2009'' (2018)
References
External links
Fleet Foxes at Nonesuch Records
Official YouTube
American indie folk groups
Musical groups from Seattle
Sub Pop artists
Musical quintets
2006 establishments in Washington, D.C.
Musical groups established in 2006
Bella Union artists
Anti- (record label) artists
Arts & Crafts Productions artists
Nonesuch Records artists | true | [
"What the Future Holds is the sixth studio album by the British group Steps and was their first album to be released with their new record label BMG on 27 November 2020. They had originally intended to release the project in the Spring, however the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and imposing of lockdown resulted in a temporary delay of promotion. The album was preceded by singles \"What the Future Holds\" and \"Something in Your Eyes\". Promotional tracks \"Under My Skin\", \"Hold My Heart\" and \"To the Beat of My Heart\" were also released, the latter becoming the album's third single in January 2021.\n\nIn April 2021, Steps announced what was intended to be a deluxe edition of What the Future Holds would now be released as their seventh studio album, What the Future Holds Pt.2.\n\nBackground\n\nSteps came off of their planned break in 2017 in celebration of their twentieth anniversary of their formation. It was revealed that they would be releasing their fifth studio album, Tears on the Dancefloor in April followed by the Party on the Dancefloor Tour in November.\n\nOn 7 September 2020, Steps announced the release of their sixth studio album, called What the Future Holds, via their social media accounts. It was revealed by a series of enigmatic posts, with references to the past and the future, as well as imagery of a crystal ball. It was followed by a message posted on their official Twitter account saying \"We couldn't keep it a secret any longer!!\" The title track was revealed as the lead single on the same day while a supporting arena tour of the United Kingdom was announced on 8 September, set to take place in November 2021.\n\nTitle and theme\nThe title of the album, its musical composition, artwork and promotional campaign originated solely from the name of the title track, \"What the Future Holds\". Written by Sia and Greg Kurstin, the song's lyrics are \"a reflection how they feel now as a group and how far they've come\" since their formation 23 years prior. In an interview with the Official Charts Company, Ian \"H\" Watkins explained that the group decided to record another album following the release of their fifth studio album Tears on the Dancefloor (2017) and the completion of its supporting arena tour, the Party on the Dancefloor Tour, purely based on the sound of the song alone. The concept of the lyrics \"One foot in the past, one foot in the future\" is a reflection of where Steps are in their career and provides the basis for the project and upcoming tour, with Faye Tozer stating that the latter will consist of the \"nostalgia\" of their back catalogue while contemporaneously blending it with their new music.\n\nRelease\nThe album was announced via their official group social media on 7 September 2020, with a release date set for 27 November; it is their first album to be released with their new record label, BMG. Steps had originally planned to announce the release of the album and its accompanying What the Future Holds Tour earlier in the Spring of 2020, however the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown restrictions resulted in a temporary pause to the promotional campaign to Autumn, when the group announced that they could no longer keep the project a secret.\n\nSpeaking about the eventual announcement, Lee Latchford-Evans commented in an interview with Sky News that the general response was people saying \"Steps have saved 2020\" and that it was a positive feeling that despite the uncertainty around the pandemic, it was \"nice to have people be very positive towards us again.\" He continued to reveal that the group had first heard the title track during their Party on the Dancefloor Tour nearly three years prior, while they were deciding whether or not to \"carry on\" with potentially recording new music after the tour; the music video was filmed almost a year earlier in preparation for the original Spring release. Richards added that the timing of the announcement was not in order to seek advantage in a \"horrendous situation\", describing the album's title as coincidental, and that it felt like the right time after having worked on the project for several years.\n\nCritical reception\n\nWhat the Future Holds received generally favorable reviews from music critics and writers. Pip Ellwood-Hughes from Entertainment Focus gave the album a perfect score, commenting that the album showcases \"wider range of versatility and bringing back those harmony-filled ballads that always featured on their early albums.\" He added, \"What the Future Holds never attempts to jump onto current trends.\" In contrast, Roisin O'Connor of the Independent wrote, \"So it’s amusing that this year’s What the Future Holds, a sugary rush of high-octane bangers, fits so well into 2020’s onslaught of maximalist dance-pop. After more than two decades, Steps are finally on-trend.\" TotalNtertainment said in a review, \"it’s great to see that, not only have Steps retained their sound but have brought it dancing energetically into 2020 and beyond.\" Harrison Smith of Gigwise shared the same opinion stating, \"whilst the group may have a staple sound, they are more than willing to adapt to current trends.\" musicOMH 's Nick Smith described the album as \"bold and brilliant,\" saying \"it’s rather refreshing to hear Steps revelling so exultantly in the unashamedly feel-good aspect of their sound.\" Renowned for Sound'''s Brendon Veevers stated, \"It is without a doubt pop quintet Steps who deliver THE record of the year ... still producing top grade hits.\"\n\nCommercial performanceWhat the Future Holds debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart on December 4, 2020, with first-week sales of 37,394 units (9,000 copies behind Gary Barlow's Music Played by Humans after a week of close battle).\n\nSingles\nLead single \"What the Future Holds\" premiered on Zoe Ball's BBC The Radio 2 Breakfast Show'' on 8 September and was released as the lead single the same day on download and streaming platforms. The official music video for \"What the Future Holds\" was filmed in London at the start of 2020 and premiered on 11 September. It was directed by Max Giwa and Dania Pasquini. Although the single failed to chart on the Official UK Singles Chart Top 100, it debuted and peaked at number 10 on the UK Singles Downloads Chart.\n\nThe second single was a cover of Jenny Silver's \"Something in Your Eyes\". Steps described the track as \"so much fun\", adding that it was \"a nod to old Steps... You can’t help but sing along and feel uplifted by it.\" Pip Ellwood-Hughes for Entertainment Focus believed the song \"gleefully celebrates the past via a classic, ABBA-esque chorus, a joyous key change and a brilliantly unexpected staggered outro\". The official music video for \"Something in Your Eyes\", directed by Carly Cussen, premiered online on 28 October 2020. The single debuted at number 21 on the UK Singles Downloads Chart.\n\n\"To the Beat of My Heart\" was released as a promotional single on 26 November 2020, before being released as the album's third single in January 2021. The single was confirmed on Claire Richard's Facebook page on 15 January 2021 and was sent to BBC Radio 2 as the single of the week, the following day. A remix EP was released on 22 January 2021. The following week, the single peaked at number 33 on UK Download chart.\n\n\"Under My Skin\" was released as a promotional track in early October 2020. It was digitally released as an EP containing the \"What the Future Holds\" single and remixes from Cahill and Alphalove. Another promotional track was released 13 November titled, \"Hold My Heart\".\n\nTrack listing\nTrack listing adapted from Apple Music. All tracks produced by Barry stone and Julian Gingell, with the exception of \"To The Beat of My Heart\", produced by Steve Smith, and \"Hold My Heart\", produced by Robin Stjernberg. The physical CD has 12 tracks, the Single Mix of What The Future Holds is not included and has the full length version.\n\nWhat the Future Holds (Night In Edition) [digital only] \nReleased: 27 November 2020\n\n What The Future Holds (Acoustic Version) 4:23\n Something in Your Eyes (Acoustic Version) 3:06\n What the Future Holds [Official Video]\n Something in Your Eyes [Official Video]\n Something in Your Eyes [Choreo Video]\n Under My Skin [Live Video]\n What the Future Holds [Live Video]\n Something in Your Eyes [Live Video]\n\nWhat the Future Holds (Night Out Edition) [digital only] \nReleased: 27 November 2020\n\n What the Future Holds (7th Heaven Radio Mix) 4:15\n Something in Your Eyes (GMJS Poptastic Radio Edit) 3:42\n Under My Skin (Shortland Remix Radio Edit) 2:43\n To the Beat of My Heart (Saint Remix) 4:45\n What the Future Holds (Cahill Club Edit) 4:48\n Father's Eyes (Shanghai Surprise Edit) 3:29\n Heartbreak in This City (Saint Remix Radio Edit) 4:10\n Clouds (Conway Remix Radio Edit) 3:30\n What the Future Holds (7th Heaven Club Mix) 6:25\n Something in Your Eyes (GMJS Poptastic Club Anthem) 7:10\n\nCharts\n\nCertifications\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n2020 albums\nSteps (group) albums\nPop albums by British artists",
"What I'm Cut Out to Be is a studio album by American country music artist Dottie West featuring the title song written by Red Lane. It was released in March 1968 on RCA Victor Records and was produced by Chet Atkins. It was West's eighth studio recording issued during her career. The album was a collection of new recordings and cover versions. The album did however reach peak positions on national publication charts at the time of its release.\n\nBackground and content\nWhat I'm Cut Out to Be was recorded in November 1967 at RCA Studio B, a venue where West had cut most of her 1960's sessions. The album was produced by Chet Atkins. Atkins crafted the album in the Nashville Sound style of country music. The album itself consisted of 11 tracks. Some of the album's tracks were cover versions of songs first recorded by others. Many of the tracks were covers of songs by country artists. However some were covers of pop recordings. Among its pop covers was Roy Orbison's \"Crying\", the final track on the record. It also includes a recording of Tammy Wynette's \"I Don't Wanna Play House\". Several of the compositions, including the title track, was composed by songwriter Red Lane. Lane had also written the album's liner notes. \"What I'm Cut Out to Be is the understatement of the decade for Dottie West. She is the ultimate of the word 'talent',\" Lane wrote.\n\nRelease and reception\nWhat I'm Cut Out to Be was officially released in March 1968 on RCA Victor Records. It became West's eighth studio album at the time of its release. It was originally issued as a vinyl LP, containing six songs on \"side one\" and five songs on \"side two\" of the record. It was later re-released to digital and streaming retailers in 2018 by Sony Music Entertainment. The record spent 11 weeks on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart before peaking at number 18 in June 1968. What I'm Cut Out to Be became West's sixth album to make the latter chart. No singles were released or included from the project. Upon its release, What I'm Cut Out to Be received positive reception from Billboard magazine in their March 1968 issue. \"Dottie's vocals are full of heart and style and they really cause a lump in the throat,\" staff writers said. They also highlighted the album tracks \"My Baby's Gone\" and \"Where Love Is\".\n\nTrack listing\n\nOriginal vinyl version\n\nDigital version\n\nPersonnel\nAll credits are adapted from the liner notes of What I'm Cut Out to Be.\n\nMusical personnel\n Harold Bradley – guitar\n Jerry Carrigan – drums\n Floyd Cramer – piano\n Ray Edenton – guitar\n Buddy Harman – drums\n Roy Huskey – bass\n The Jordanaires – background vocals\n Grady Martin – guitar\n Charlie McCoy – harmonica, vibes\n Bob Moore – bass\n Wayne Moss – guitar\n Henry Strzelecki – bass\n Bill West – steel guitar\n Dottie West – lead vocals\n\nTechnical personnel\n Chet Atkins – producer\n Red Lane – liner notes\n Jim Malloy – engineering\n Cam Mullins – arrangement\n\nChart performance\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n1968 albums\nAlbums produced by Chet Atkins\nDottie West albums\nRCA Records albums"
]
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"Fleet Foxes",
"Formation and early years (2005-06)",
"What happen in 2005?",
"Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes.",
"What happen in 2006",
"Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP.",
"What was the title of their album",
"the self-released Fleet Foxes EP."
]
| C_69d4d0e356d64e7587ee8769610ecaa4_1 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 4 | Besides Fleet Foxes's 2006 album, are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | Fleet Foxes | Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both attended Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and soon became close friends. Pecknold and Skjelset bonded over a mutual appreciation of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and began making music together. Their parents influenced their musical tastes early on--Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. The two shared an interest in the music of Dylan and Brian Wilson. Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes. Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", suggesting that it was "evocative of some weird English activity like fox hunting". Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, Bryn Lumsden on bass and Nicholas Peterson on drums and backing vocals. Pecknold's late-sixties pop style caught the attention of the Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. Ek was impressed with the band's songwriting, and on hearing Pecknold for the first time, noted, "It was obvious he had talent coming out of his ass." By late 2006 the Seattle press began to take notice of the band; Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. By the end of the year, Lumsden had been replaced on bass by Craig Curran, who would also handle many of the band's vocal harmonies. With growing popularity on the local circuit, the band set about making their first album in early 2007, spending time in the studio with producer Ek in addition to recording material at home. However, funds for recording were tight, so the band members cobbled together what funds they had, which limited the time they had in the studio, and so the majority of the tracks were recorded in various band members' apartments, other spaces, or the basement of Pecknold's parents' house. CANNOTANSWER | Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", | Fleet Foxes is an American indie folk band formed in Seattle, Washington in 2006. The band consists of Robin Pecknold (vocals, guitar), Skyler Skjelset (guitar, mandolin, backing vocals), Casey Wescott (keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals), Christian Wargo (bass, guitar, backing vocals) and Morgan Henderson (upright bass, guitar, woodwinds, violin, percussion, saxophone).
Led by Pecknold, "Fleet Foxes" came to prominence in 2008 with the release of their second EP Sun Giant and their debut album Fleet Foxes on Sub Pop. The band went to release the studio albums Helplessness Blues (2011), Crack-Up (2017), and Shore (2020), all of which received widespread acclaim. Though the band has received modest commercial success, their work has been highly hailed by the music critics, who have praised their lyricism, somber productions, and often noted the band's use of refined instrumentation and vocal harmonies. The band's eponymous debut album is ranked by the Rolling Stone amongst the best albums of the decade, as well being included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The band has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, the first for Best Folk Album in 2012 for Helplessness Blues and the second for Best Alternative Music Album in 2022 for Shore.
History
Formation and early years (2005–06)
Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both attended Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and soon became close friends. Pecknold and Skjelset bonded over an appreciation of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and began making music together. Their parents influenced their musical tastes early on—Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. The two shared an interest in the music of Dylan and Brian Wilson. Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes.
Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", suggesting that it was "evocative of some weird English activity like fox hunting". Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, Bryn Lumsden on bass and Nicholas Peterson on drums and backing vocals.
Pecknold's late-sixties pop style caught the attention of the Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. Ek was impressed with the band's songwriting, and on hearing Pecknold for the first time, noted, "It was obvious he had talent coming out of his ass." By late 2006 the Seattle press began to take notice of the band; Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. By the end of the year, Lumsden had been replaced on bass by Craig Curran, who would also handle many of the band's vocal harmonies.
With growing popularity on the local circuit, the band set about making their first album in early 2007, spending time in the studio with producer Ek in addition to recording material at home. However, funds for recording were tight, so the band members cobbled together what funds they had, which limited the time they had in the studio, and so the majority of the tracks were recorded in various band members' apartments, other spaces, or the basement of Pecknold's parents' house.
Sun Giant and Fleet Foxes (2007–08)
Fleet Foxes were becoming increasingly popular and by late 2007, they had attracted over a quarter of a million song plays over two months on their Myspace site. Although the band had not released any of their recordings, they benefited from word of mouth exposure and their success soon translated into a record deal, signing with Warner Music subsidiary record label Sub Pop on January 18, 2008. The band's frontman, Robin Pecknold, attributes much of their success and popularity to illegal file sharing.
The band tracked their second EP, Sun Giant, at Bear Creek Studio and performed overdubs and mixed at Seattle's Avast! Recording Co., around the same time in preparation for upcoming tours. Fleet Foxes began their spring tour with another Northwest band Blitzen Trapper on February 28, 2008. Before the recording of the EP, bassist Curran was replaced by Christian Wargo, whose voice, like that of his predecessor, would become an important part of the band's harmony blend. The band's performances, first at the SXSW festival in March 2008, and then the Sasquatch! festival in May 2008, moved the band into the public consciousness, notably attracting attention from the European press for the first time.
Sun Giant was released internationally on April 8, 2008 and the group's brand of folk, rock and pop, marked by their use of vocal harmonies, was well received by the press. Despite the warm critical reception, the group said that the EP did not represent their full ambitions, serving merely as a CD to sell while on tour. In May 2008, the band chose to extend their North American and European tour until September in support of their forthcoming album. At this time Josh Tillman replaced Peterson on drums and backing vocals. Their first full-length album, Fleet Foxes, was released shortly afterwards on June 3, 2008. The album achieved similar critical success as the previous EP. Fleet Foxes received four out of five stars from Rolling Stone, which compared it to the likes of the Beach Boys, Animal Collective, and Crosby, Stills & Nash, and a 9.0 out of 10 in a review by Pitchfork Media, sharing the website's album of the year rank with the Sun Giant EP. The Guardian was particularly complimentary, awarding the album five stars and declaring it "a landmark in American music — an instant classic". On June 24, 2008, Fleet Foxes went to No. 1 on the CMJ Radio 200 Chart. The album achieved an average rating of 87/100 from 30 critic reviews on the aggregator website Metacritic.
While the group enjoyed moderate success in the United States, Fleet Foxes was better received in Europe, selling over 200,000 copies in the five months following its release. The sales were matched with critical plaudits and their debut album won Uncut's first ever Music Award 2008 prize. Uncut'''s editor, Allan Jones, said the album "showed impeccable musicianship, and although you could trace its antecedents, it sounded totally unique. Fleet Foxes was just a glorious debut." The band sold out music venues for their tours of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, reaffirming their growing popularity.Sauma, Luiza (December 7, 2008). "Fleet Foxes: Are a hairy bunch of young folk-rockers inventing a new sound of Seattle?", The Independent. Retrieved on January 19, 2009.
At the end of 2008, Fleet Foxes was rated album of the year by Billboards Critic's Choice and in Metacritic's end of year best album round-up it appeared in 17 lists, topping six of them. Furthermore, it had sold over 408,000 copies in North America and over 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom, making it the first gold certificate record for UK label Bella Union. Their growing profile enabled the band to make televised appearances, playing on Vincent Moon's La Blogotheque in December 2008 and on Saturday Night Live the following January. In 2009, they toured in Europe to favorable reviews; the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant said their show in Paradiso induced goosebumps. In 2008 and 2009, the band played globally ending the tour in September with a final European leg.
Helplessness Blues (2009–12)
Pecknold said that he would have liked the album to be released in 2009; however, the band's touring schedule delayed rehearsals of the new songs until February 2009. These sessions took place in a rented house outside Seattle, but were mostly scrapped, losing the band $60,000 of their own money. Further delays ensued because the drummer, Tillman, was scheduled to play a solo tour in Europe and North America throughout the 2009–10 winter. Pecknold later sent some demos to producer Phil Ek and expressed the hope that the second LP would emerge in late 2010.
In December 2009, Pecknold said he wanted the new LP to sound "less poppy, less upbeat and more groove-based". He referenced the 12-string guitar sound from Roy Harper's folk album Stormcock, saying, "That will be the primary sonic distancing from the last record." He wanted the band to record very quickly, with "vocal takes in one go, so even if there are fuck-ups, I want them to be on there. I want there to be guitar mistakes. I want there to be not totally flawless vocals. I want to record it and have that kind of cohesive sound. Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, to me, is the best-sounding album because it sounds like there were only six hours in the universe for that album to be recorded in. So I want it to have that feeling." The band eventually began recording in April 2010 in various locations (including West Hurley, New York) under the label Reciprocal Recording and decided to scrap the earlier idea of a fast recording (though according to the band many of the initial vocals were done in one take). The album features a new six-piece band line up, with the addition of the former Blood Brothers bassist Morgan Henderson on upright bass and woodwind instruments.
The album, Helplessness Blues, was released on May 3, 2011 with a cover illustrated by the Seattle artist Toby Liebowitz and painted by Christopher Alderson. The title track was released via free download on January 31, 2011, and the album's fourth track, "Battery Kinzie", was premiered in the UK on Zane Lowe's radio show on March 22, 2011. The Sub Pop record label released a downloadable music video of the track "Grown Ocean", with footage of the album's recording, on its website in support of the album. A 12" vinyl double A-side single of "Helplessness Blues" and "Grown Ocean" was released for Record Store Day on April 16, 2011. On November 1, 2011, Pecknold's brother, Sean Pecknold, released the official music video for "The Shrine / An Argument".
Helplessness Blues was nominated as Best Folk Album at the 2012 Grammy Awards, held February 12, 2012.
Departure of Tillman and hiatus (2012–2016)
On January 18, 2012, after the band had finished touring for the album, drummer Tillman announced that he had left the band. He would go on to reinvent himself and record several albums as Father John Misty, notable for his ironic sense of humor in lyrics and media as well as often criticizing both the record industry and society in interviews and on stage.
In October 2020, Pecknold reflected on Tillman's departure during a Reddit AMA: "[Josh] "quit" the band after recording drums for Helplessness, got into narcotics and made his first Father John Misty album while I was making Helplessness in Seattle. Then Sub Pop offered to put out his album, but only if he delayed it for a year or so and toured Helplessness with us. Which we all weakly agreed to going through with, but it quickly became obvious he'd rather have just been doing that project instead, and I would have rathered that as well. So that tour I had to endure being around a lot of substance abuse, sabotaged shows, just general ill treatment, shit-talking, all while paying him for songs he didn't have anything to do with. It sucked!"
On June 15, 2013, an image of a home recording set-up–including a laptop computer, microphone and guitar–was posted on the Fleet Foxes Facebook page with the caption "Step one". On June 16, 2013, an image of a broken mandolin with the caption "Step two" was posted. These images were later deleted, but led to speculation that the group was working on a new project, possibly a third studio album. On April 23, 2014, Robin Pecknold posted to the band's Facebook page that he had moved to New York to get his undergraduate degree at the Columbia University School of General Studies, a liberal arts college of Columbia University in New York City.
Crack-Up (2016–2018)
On May 18, 2016, while answering fan questions on his Instagram account, Pecknold confirmed that Fleet Foxes were working on new material with drummer and frequent collaborator Neal Morgan, best known for his work with Joanna Newsom and Bill Callahan. Describing Morgan as a "full Fox", Pecknold also admitted he "had to up my songwriting game for homeboy." However, when Pecknold posted a photo of the band minus Morgan on Instagram, he clarified that Morgan was one of three drummers involved in the new album, and that for the time being Fleet Foxes would consist of Pecknold, Skjelset, Wescott, Wargo, and Henderson as a "five-piece 'core band'", but they would still use a drummer for live performances and additional musicians for certain shows. Pecknold also said that the new material would be "a different vibe" compared to Fleet Foxes' previous output. On November 14, 2016, the band confirmed (via their Facebook account) that their new album was nearly complete.
On December 25, 2016, Pecknold posted a photo on his Instagram account which showed four albums in the Fleet Foxes' queue in his iTunes library: the first studio album Fleet Foxes; the Sun Giant EP; the second studio album Helplessness Blues; and an unknown third album entitled Ylajali. This led to speculation that the band's third album would: 1) be named after a character from Knut Hamsun's novel Hunger; 2) contain a photo from Japanese photographer Hiroshi Hamaya as the cover art; and 3) be released through Nonesuch Records, since the label's logo can be seen on the album cover.
In an email newsletter on January 1, 2017, production company Mason Jar Music confirmed that Fleet Foxes was working on a new album, since they contributed to the production. The album was called Crack-Up, after an F. Scott Fitzgerald essay of the same name. The album is a concept album and was recorded at Electric Lady Studios and Sear Sound in New York City.
On March 7, 2017, Fleet Foxes announced their third studio album, Crack-Up, released on June 16, 2017 via Nonesuch Records, a new label for the band. The lead single, "Third of May / Ōdaigahara", was released the same day. On April 4, 2017, the band posted the album trailer for the new album on YouTube. The trailer briefly presents various songs from the album and shows some images while they were recording them. The video was made by Sean Pecknold, Robin's brother.
On May 15, 2017, Fleet Foxes made their live return at the Wilma Theatre in Missoula, in which they performed nine songs from Crack-Up along with a selection of older material and a cover of "In the Morning" by Bee Gees. The band's current live line-up includes Matt Barrick of The Walkmen, who is also the most heavily featured of the three guest drummers who contributed to Crack-Up. Barrick has continued to play with the band, but has not become an official member. The new album also included the sounds of a brass quartet called The Westerlies.
On October 10, 2017, the band announced the release of a new EP, entitled The Electric Lady Session, for Black Friday Record Store Day 2017. The EP was released on November 24 of that year, and is a collection of live performances of four songs from Crack-Up, originally recorded for their session at Fordham University’s radio station WFUV. For Record Store Day 2018, the band released another EP, entitled "Crack Up (Choral Version)"/"In The Morning (Live in Switzerland)", in collaboration with the Icelandic female choir, Graduale Nobili.
Shore (2019–present)
Work began on a fourth studio album in late 2018, not long after the Crack-Up tour finished. On December 31, 2018, Pecknold teased several new demos online for an upcoming new album.
Recording began in September 2019 at Long Pond Studios in Hudson, New York, and continued at other studios including Electro-Vox Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Pecknold collaborated closely with recording engineer Beatriz Artola during the recording process. Upon the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pecknold moved to New York City to be able to continue working with Artola. At this point, the majority of the music of the album was well-conceptualized, but the lyrics eluded Pecknold. He eventually developed the lyrics in part over the course of long drives in the New York countryside, and worked to finish the album in July and August 2020. Due to a desire to release the album quickly, Pecknold did not enlist the help of bandmates Skjelset, Wescott, Wargo, or Henderson.
The album was announced in September 2020; titled Shore, it was released on September 22. The album received universal acclaim, scoring 87/100 on Metacritic, and was listed among the best albums of the year by numerous publications. It is nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
On December 6, 2021, Fleet Foxes announced the release of a new live album entitled A Very Lonely Solstice. The album was released digitally on December 10, 2021. Vinyl and CD releases are scheduled for release in spring 2022 through Anti-. A Very Lonely Solstice is a recording of a virtual, pre-recorded video concert performance that was livestreamed at 9pm ET on December 21, 2020, coinciding with the winter solstice. The concert featured Pecknold performing an acoustic solo set inside the St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn. The album features performances of songs from Shore and older Fleet Foxes songs, as well as cover versions of two tracks.
Members
Robin Pecknold – lead vocals, guitar (2006–present)
Skyler Skjelset – guitar, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Casey Wescott – keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Christian Wargo – bass guitar, guitar, backing vocals (2008–present)
Morgan Henderson – upright bass, guitar, woodwind, violin, percussion (2010–present)Former members Bryn Lumsden – bass guitar (2006)
Craig Curran – bass guitar, backing vocals (2006–2008)
Nicholas Peterson – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2006–2008)
Josh Tillman – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2008–2012)Former touring musicians'Matt Barrick – drums, percussion (2017–2018)
Timeline
Discography
Albums
Fleet Foxes (2008)
Helplessness Blues (2011)
Crack-Up (2017)
Shore (2020)
Live albums
A Very Lonely Solstice (2021)
EPs
The Fleet Foxes (2006)
Sun Giant (2008)
Compilation albums
First Collection 2006–2009'' (2018)
References
External links
Fleet Foxes at Nonesuch Records
Official YouTube
American indie folk groups
Musical groups from Seattle
Sub Pop artists
Musical quintets
2006 establishments in Washington, D.C.
Musical groups established in 2006
Bella Union artists
Anti- (record label) artists
Arts & Crafts Productions artists
Nonesuch Records artists | 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"
]
|
[
"Fleet Foxes",
"Formation and early years (2005-06)",
"What happen in 2005?",
"Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes.",
"What happen in 2006",
"Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP.",
"What was the title of their album",
"the self-released Fleet Foxes EP.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Originally going by the name \"The Pineapples\", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon \"Fleet Foxes\","
]
| C_69d4d0e356d64e7587ee8769610ecaa4_1 | Did they go on tour | 5 | Did Fleet Foxes go on tour? | Fleet Foxes | Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both attended Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and soon became close friends. Pecknold and Skjelset bonded over a mutual appreciation of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and began making music together. Their parents influenced their musical tastes early on--Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. The two shared an interest in the music of Dylan and Brian Wilson. Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes. Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", suggesting that it was "evocative of some weird English activity like fox hunting". Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, Bryn Lumsden on bass and Nicholas Peterson on drums and backing vocals. Pecknold's late-sixties pop style caught the attention of the Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. Ek was impressed with the band's songwriting, and on hearing Pecknold for the first time, noted, "It was obvious he had talent coming out of his ass." By late 2006 the Seattle press began to take notice of the band; Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. By the end of the year, Lumsden had been replaced on bass by Craig Curran, who would also handle many of the band's vocal harmonies. With growing popularity on the local circuit, the band set about making their first album in early 2007, spending time in the studio with producer Ek in addition to recording material at home. However, funds for recording were tight, so the band members cobbled together what funds they had, which limited the time they had in the studio, and so the majority of the tracks were recorded in various band members' apartments, other spaces, or the basement of Pecknold's parents' house. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Fleet Foxes is an American indie folk band formed in Seattle, Washington in 2006. The band consists of Robin Pecknold (vocals, guitar), Skyler Skjelset (guitar, mandolin, backing vocals), Casey Wescott (keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals), Christian Wargo (bass, guitar, backing vocals) and Morgan Henderson (upright bass, guitar, woodwinds, violin, percussion, saxophone).
Led by Pecknold, "Fleet Foxes" came to prominence in 2008 with the release of their second EP Sun Giant and their debut album Fleet Foxes on Sub Pop. The band went to release the studio albums Helplessness Blues (2011), Crack-Up (2017), and Shore (2020), all of which received widespread acclaim. Though the band has received modest commercial success, their work has been highly hailed by the music critics, who have praised their lyricism, somber productions, and often noted the band's use of refined instrumentation and vocal harmonies. The band's eponymous debut album is ranked by the Rolling Stone amongst the best albums of the decade, as well being included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The band has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, the first for Best Folk Album in 2012 for Helplessness Blues and the second for Best Alternative Music Album in 2022 for Shore.
History
Formation and early years (2005–06)
Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both attended Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and soon became close friends. Pecknold and Skjelset bonded over an appreciation of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and began making music together. Their parents influenced their musical tastes early on—Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. The two shared an interest in the music of Dylan and Brian Wilson. Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes.
Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", suggesting that it was "evocative of some weird English activity like fox hunting". Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, Bryn Lumsden on bass and Nicholas Peterson on drums and backing vocals.
Pecknold's late-sixties pop style caught the attention of the Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. Ek was impressed with the band's songwriting, and on hearing Pecknold for the first time, noted, "It was obvious he had talent coming out of his ass." By late 2006 the Seattle press began to take notice of the band; Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. By the end of the year, Lumsden had been replaced on bass by Craig Curran, who would also handle many of the band's vocal harmonies.
With growing popularity on the local circuit, the band set about making their first album in early 2007, spending time in the studio with producer Ek in addition to recording material at home. However, funds for recording were tight, so the band members cobbled together what funds they had, which limited the time they had in the studio, and so the majority of the tracks were recorded in various band members' apartments, other spaces, or the basement of Pecknold's parents' house.
Sun Giant and Fleet Foxes (2007–08)
Fleet Foxes were becoming increasingly popular and by late 2007, they had attracted over a quarter of a million song plays over two months on their Myspace site. Although the band had not released any of their recordings, they benefited from word of mouth exposure and their success soon translated into a record deal, signing with Warner Music subsidiary record label Sub Pop on January 18, 2008. The band's frontman, Robin Pecknold, attributes much of their success and popularity to illegal file sharing.
The band tracked their second EP, Sun Giant, at Bear Creek Studio and performed overdubs and mixed at Seattle's Avast! Recording Co., around the same time in preparation for upcoming tours. Fleet Foxes began their spring tour with another Northwest band Blitzen Trapper on February 28, 2008. Before the recording of the EP, bassist Curran was replaced by Christian Wargo, whose voice, like that of his predecessor, would become an important part of the band's harmony blend. The band's performances, first at the SXSW festival in March 2008, and then the Sasquatch! festival in May 2008, moved the band into the public consciousness, notably attracting attention from the European press for the first time.
Sun Giant was released internationally on April 8, 2008 and the group's brand of folk, rock and pop, marked by their use of vocal harmonies, was well received by the press. Despite the warm critical reception, the group said that the EP did not represent their full ambitions, serving merely as a CD to sell while on tour. In May 2008, the band chose to extend their North American and European tour until September in support of their forthcoming album. At this time Josh Tillman replaced Peterson on drums and backing vocals. Their first full-length album, Fleet Foxes, was released shortly afterwards on June 3, 2008. The album achieved similar critical success as the previous EP. Fleet Foxes received four out of five stars from Rolling Stone, which compared it to the likes of the Beach Boys, Animal Collective, and Crosby, Stills & Nash, and a 9.0 out of 10 in a review by Pitchfork Media, sharing the website's album of the year rank with the Sun Giant EP. The Guardian was particularly complimentary, awarding the album five stars and declaring it "a landmark in American music — an instant classic". On June 24, 2008, Fleet Foxes went to No. 1 on the CMJ Radio 200 Chart. The album achieved an average rating of 87/100 from 30 critic reviews on the aggregator website Metacritic.
While the group enjoyed moderate success in the United States, Fleet Foxes was better received in Europe, selling over 200,000 copies in the five months following its release. The sales were matched with critical plaudits and their debut album won Uncut's first ever Music Award 2008 prize. Uncut'''s editor, Allan Jones, said the album "showed impeccable musicianship, and although you could trace its antecedents, it sounded totally unique. Fleet Foxes was just a glorious debut." The band sold out music venues for their tours of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, reaffirming their growing popularity.Sauma, Luiza (December 7, 2008). "Fleet Foxes: Are a hairy bunch of young folk-rockers inventing a new sound of Seattle?", The Independent. Retrieved on January 19, 2009.
At the end of 2008, Fleet Foxes was rated album of the year by Billboards Critic's Choice and in Metacritic's end of year best album round-up it appeared in 17 lists, topping six of them. Furthermore, it had sold over 408,000 copies in North America and over 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom, making it the first gold certificate record for UK label Bella Union. Their growing profile enabled the band to make televised appearances, playing on Vincent Moon's La Blogotheque in December 2008 and on Saturday Night Live the following January. In 2009, they toured in Europe to favorable reviews; the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant said their show in Paradiso induced goosebumps. In 2008 and 2009, the band played globally ending the tour in September with a final European leg.
Helplessness Blues (2009–12)
Pecknold said that he would have liked the album to be released in 2009; however, the band's touring schedule delayed rehearsals of the new songs until February 2009. These sessions took place in a rented house outside Seattle, but were mostly scrapped, losing the band $60,000 of their own money. Further delays ensued because the drummer, Tillman, was scheduled to play a solo tour in Europe and North America throughout the 2009–10 winter. Pecknold later sent some demos to producer Phil Ek and expressed the hope that the second LP would emerge in late 2010.
In December 2009, Pecknold said he wanted the new LP to sound "less poppy, less upbeat and more groove-based". He referenced the 12-string guitar sound from Roy Harper's folk album Stormcock, saying, "That will be the primary sonic distancing from the last record." He wanted the band to record very quickly, with "vocal takes in one go, so even if there are fuck-ups, I want them to be on there. I want there to be guitar mistakes. I want there to be not totally flawless vocals. I want to record it and have that kind of cohesive sound. Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, to me, is the best-sounding album because it sounds like there were only six hours in the universe for that album to be recorded in. So I want it to have that feeling." The band eventually began recording in April 2010 in various locations (including West Hurley, New York) under the label Reciprocal Recording and decided to scrap the earlier idea of a fast recording (though according to the band many of the initial vocals were done in one take). The album features a new six-piece band line up, with the addition of the former Blood Brothers bassist Morgan Henderson on upright bass and woodwind instruments.
The album, Helplessness Blues, was released on May 3, 2011 with a cover illustrated by the Seattle artist Toby Liebowitz and painted by Christopher Alderson. The title track was released via free download on January 31, 2011, and the album's fourth track, "Battery Kinzie", was premiered in the UK on Zane Lowe's radio show on March 22, 2011. The Sub Pop record label released a downloadable music video of the track "Grown Ocean", with footage of the album's recording, on its website in support of the album. A 12" vinyl double A-side single of "Helplessness Blues" and "Grown Ocean" was released for Record Store Day on April 16, 2011. On November 1, 2011, Pecknold's brother, Sean Pecknold, released the official music video for "The Shrine / An Argument".
Helplessness Blues was nominated as Best Folk Album at the 2012 Grammy Awards, held February 12, 2012.
Departure of Tillman and hiatus (2012–2016)
On January 18, 2012, after the band had finished touring for the album, drummer Tillman announced that he had left the band. He would go on to reinvent himself and record several albums as Father John Misty, notable for his ironic sense of humor in lyrics and media as well as often criticizing both the record industry and society in interviews and on stage.
In October 2020, Pecknold reflected on Tillman's departure during a Reddit AMA: "[Josh] "quit" the band after recording drums for Helplessness, got into narcotics and made his first Father John Misty album while I was making Helplessness in Seattle. Then Sub Pop offered to put out his album, but only if he delayed it for a year or so and toured Helplessness with us. Which we all weakly agreed to going through with, but it quickly became obvious he'd rather have just been doing that project instead, and I would have rathered that as well. So that tour I had to endure being around a lot of substance abuse, sabotaged shows, just general ill treatment, shit-talking, all while paying him for songs he didn't have anything to do with. It sucked!"
On June 15, 2013, an image of a home recording set-up–including a laptop computer, microphone and guitar–was posted on the Fleet Foxes Facebook page with the caption "Step one". On June 16, 2013, an image of a broken mandolin with the caption "Step two" was posted. These images were later deleted, but led to speculation that the group was working on a new project, possibly a third studio album. On April 23, 2014, Robin Pecknold posted to the band's Facebook page that he had moved to New York to get his undergraduate degree at the Columbia University School of General Studies, a liberal arts college of Columbia University in New York City.
Crack-Up (2016–2018)
On May 18, 2016, while answering fan questions on his Instagram account, Pecknold confirmed that Fleet Foxes were working on new material with drummer and frequent collaborator Neal Morgan, best known for his work with Joanna Newsom and Bill Callahan. Describing Morgan as a "full Fox", Pecknold also admitted he "had to up my songwriting game for homeboy." However, when Pecknold posted a photo of the band minus Morgan on Instagram, he clarified that Morgan was one of three drummers involved in the new album, and that for the time being Fleet Foxes would consist of Pecknold, Skjelset, Wescott, Wargo, and Henderson as a "five-piece 'core band'", but they would still use a drummer for live performances and additional musicians for certain shows. Pecknold also said that the new material would be "a different vibe" compared to Fleet Foxes' previous output. On November 14, 2016, the band confirmed (via their Facebook account) that their new album was nearly complete.
On December 25, 2016, Pecknold posted a photo on his Instagram account which showed four albums in the Fleet Foxes' queue in his iTunes library: the first studio album Fleet Foxes; the Sun Giant EP; the second studio album Helplessness Blues; and an unknown third album entitled Ylajali. This led to speculation that the band's third album would: 1) be named after a character from Knut Hamsun's novel Hunger; 2) contain a photo from Japanese photographer Hiroshi Hamaya as the cover art; and 3) be released through Nonesuch Records, since the label's logo can be seen on the album cover.
In an email newsletter on January 1, 2017, production company Mason Jar Music confirmed that Fleet Foxes was working on a new album, since they contributed to the production. The album was called Crack-Up, after an F. Scott Fitzgerald essay of the same name. The album is a concept album and was recorded at Electric Lady Studios and Sear Sound in New York City.
On March 7, 2017, Fleet Foxes announced their third studio album, Crack-Up, released on June 16, 2017 via Nonesuch Records, a new label for the band. The lead single, "Third of May / Ōdaigahara", was released the same day. On April 4, 2017, the band posted the album trailer for the new album on YouTube. The trailer briefly presents various songs from the album and shows some images while they were recording them. The video was made by Sean Pecknold, Robin's brother.
On May 15, 2017, Fleet Foxes made their live return at the Wilma Theatre in Missoula, in which they performed nine songs from Crack-Up along with a selection of older material and a cover of "In the Morning" by Bee Gees. The band's current live line-up includes Matt Barrick of The Walkmen, who is also the most heavily featured of the three guest drummers who contributed to Crack-Up. Barrick has continued to play with the band, but has not become an official member. The new album also included the sounds of a brass quartet called The Westerlies.
On October 10, 2017, the band announced the release of a new EP, entitled The Electric Lady Session, for Black Friday Record Store Day 2017. The EP was released on November 24 of that year, and is a collection of live performances of four songs from Crack-Up, originally recorded for their session at Fordham University’s radio station WFUV. For Record Store Day 2018, the band released another EP, entitled "Crack Up (Choral Version)"/"In The Morning (Live in Switzerland)", in collaboration with the Icelandic female choir, Graduale Nobili.
Shore (2019–present)
Work began on a fourth studio album in late 2018, not long after the Crack-Up tour finished. On December 31, 2018, Pecknold teased several new demos online for an upcoming new album.
Recording began in September 2019 at Long Pond Studios in Hudson, New York, and continued at other studios including Electro-Vox Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Pecknold collaborated closely with recording engineer Beatriz Artola during the recording process. Upon the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pecknold moved to New York City to be able to continue working with Artola. At this point, the majority of the music of the album was well-conceptualized, but the lyrics eluded Pecknold. He eventually developed the lyrics in part over the course of long drives in the New York countryside, and worked to finish the album in July and August 2020. Due to a desire to release the album quickly, Pecknold did not enlist the help of bandmates Skjelset, Wescott, Wargo, or Henderson.
The album was announced in September 2020; titled Shore, it was released on September 22. The album received universal acclaim, scoring 87/100 on Metacritic, and was listed among the best albums of the year by numerous publications. It is nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
On December 6, 2021, Fleet Foxes announced the release of a new live album entitled A Very Lonely Solstice. The album was released digitally on December 10, 2021. Vinyl and CD releases are scheduled for release in spring 2022 through Anti-. A Very Lonely Solstice is a recording of a virtual, pre-recorded video concert performance that was livestreamed at 9pm ET on December 21, 2020, coinciding with the winter solstice. The concert featured Pecknold performing an acoustic solo set inside the St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn. The album features performances of songs from Shore and older Fleet Foxes songs, as well as cover versions of two tracks.
Members
Robin Pecknold – lead vocals, guitar (2006–present)
Skyler Skjelset – guitar, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Casey Wescott – keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Christian Wargo – bass guitar, guitar, backing vocals (2008–present)
Morgan Henderson – upright bass, guitar, woodwind, violin, percussion (2010–present)Former members Bryn Lumsden – bass guitar (2006)
Craig Curran – bass guitar, backing vocals (2006–2008)
Nicholas Peterson – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2006–2008)
Josh Tillman – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2008–2012)Former touring musicians'Matt Barrick – drums, percussion (2017–2018)
Timeline
Discography
Albums
Fleet Foxes (2008)
Helplessness Blues (2011)
Crack-Up (2017)
Shore (2020)
Live albums
A Very Lonely Solstice (2021)
EPs
The Fleet Foxes (2006)
Sun Giant (2008)
Compilation albums
First Collection 2006–2009'' (2018)
References
External links
Fleet Foxes at Nonesuch Records
Official YouTube
American indie folk groups
Musical groups from Seattle
Sub Pop artists
Musical quintets
2006 establishments in Washington, D.C.
Musical groups established in 2006
Bella Union artists
Anti- (record label) artists
Arts & Crafts Productions artists
Nonesuch Records artists | false | [
"Andrew Butterfield (born 7 January 1972) is an English professional golfer who plays on the Challenge Tour.\n\nCareer\nButterfield was born in London, England. He turned professional in 1993 and joined the Challenge Tour in 1996. He played on the Challenge Tour until qualifying for the European Tour through Q-School in 1999. Butterfield did not perform well enough on tour in 2000 to retain his card and had to go back to the Challenge Tour in 2001. He got his European Tour card back through Q-School again in 2001 and played on the European Tour in 2002 but did not find any success on tour. He returned to the Challenge Tour and played there until 2005 when he finished 4th on the Challenge Tour's Order of Merit which earned him his European Tour card for 2006. He did not play well enough in 2006 to retain his tour card but was able to get temporary status on tour for 2007 by finishing 129th on the Order of Merit. He played on the European Tour and the Challenge Tour in 2007 and has played only on the Challenge Tour since 2008. He picked up his first win on the Challenge Tour in Sweden at The Princess in June 2009. He also won an event on the PGA EuroPro Tour in 2004.\n\nProfessional wins (2)\n\nChallenge Tour wins (1)\n\nChallenge Tour playoff record (0–1)\n\nPGA EuroPro Tour wins (1)\n2004 Matchroom Golf Management International at Owston Hall\n\nPlayoff record\nEuropean Tour playoff record (0–1)\n\nResults in major championships\n\nNote: Butterfield only played in The Open Championship.\nCUT = missed the half-way cut\n\nSee also\n2005 Challenge Tour graduates\n2009 Challenge Tour graduates\n\nExternal links\n\nEnglish male golfers\nEuropean Tour golfers\nSportspeople from London\nPeople from the London Borough of Bromley\n1972 births\nLiving people",
"The Bob Dylan England Tour 1965 was a concert tour by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan during late April and early May 1965. The tour was widely documented by filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker, who used the footage of the tour in his documentary Dont Look Back.\n\nTour dates\n\nSet lists \nAs Dylan was still playing exclusively folk music live, much of the material performed during this tour was written pre-1965. Each show was divided into two halves, with seven songs performed during the first, and eight during the second. The set consisted of two songs from The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, three from The Times They Are a-Changin', three from Another Side of Bob Dylan, a comic-relief concert staple; \"If You Gotta Go, Go Now\", issued as a single in Europe, and six songs off his then-recent album, Bringing It All Back Home, including the second side in its entirety.\n\n First half\n\"The Times They Are a-Changin'\"\n\"To Ramona\"\n\"Gates of Eden\"\n\"If You Gotta Go, Go Now (or Else You Got to Stay All Night)\"\n\"It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)\"\n\"Love Minus Zero/No Limit\"\n\"Mr. Tambourine Man\"\n\nSecond Half\n\"Talkin' World War III Blues\"\n\"Don't Think Twice, It's All Right\"\n\"With God on Our Side\"\n\"She Belongs to Me\"\n\"It Ain't Me Babe\"\n\"The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll\"\n\"All I Really Want to Do\"\n\"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue\"\n\nSet list per Olof Bjorner.\n\nAftermath \nJoan Baez accompanied him on the tour, but she was never invited to play with him in concert. In fact, they did not tour together again until 1975. After this tour, Dylan was hailed as a hero of folk music, but two months later, at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, he would alienate his fans and go electric. Dylan was the only artist apart from the Beatles to sell out the De Montfort Hall in the 1960s. Even the Rolling Stones did not sell out this venue.\n\nReferences \n\nHoward Sounes: Down the Highway. The Life of Bob Dylan.. 2001.\n\nExternal links \n Bjorner's Still on the Road 1965: Tour dates & set lists\n\nBob Dylan concert tours\n1965 concert tours\nConcert tours of the United Kingdom\n1965 in England"
]
|
[
"Fleet Foxes",
"Formation and early years (2005-06)",
"What happen in 2005?",
"Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes.",
"What happen in 2006",
"Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP.",
"What was the title of their album",
"the self-released Fleet Foxes EP.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Originally going by the name \"The Pineapples\", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon \"Fleet Foxes\",",
"Did they go on tour",
"I don't know."
]
| C_69d4d0e356d64e7587ee8769610ecaa4_1 | What happen in formation | 6 | What happen in formation of Fleet Foxes? | Fleet Foxes | Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both attended Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and soon became close friends. Pecknold and Skjelset bonded over a mutual appreciation of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and began making music together. Their parents influenced their musical tastes early on--Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. The two shared an interest in the music of Dylan and Brian Wilson. Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes. Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", suggesting that it was "evocative of some weird English activity like fox hunting". Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, Bryn Lumsden on bass and Nicholas Peterson on drums and backing vocals. Pecknold's late-sixties pop style caught the attention of the Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. Ek was impressed with the band's songwriting, and on hearing Pecknold for the first time, noted, "It was obvious he had talent coming out of his ass." By late 2006 the Seattle press began to take notice of the band; Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. By the end of the year, Lumsden had been replaced on bass by Craig Curran, who would also handle many of the band's vocal harmonies. With growing popularity on the local circuit, the band set about making their first album in early 2007, spending time in the studio with producer Ek in addition to recording material at home. However, funds for recording were tight, so the band members cobbled together what funds they had, which limited the time they had in the studio, and so the majority of the tracks were recorded in various band members' apartments, other spaces, or the basement of Pecknold's parents' house. CANNOTANSWER | Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. | Fleet Foxes is an American indie folk band formed in Seattle, Washington in 2006. The band consists of Robin Pecknold (vocals, guitar), Skyler Skjelset (guitar, mandolin, backing vocals), Casey Wescott (keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals), Christian Wargo (bass, guitar, backing vocals) and Morgan Henderson (upright bass, guitar, woodwinds, violin, percussion, saxophone).
Led by Pecknold, "Fleet Foxes" came to prominence in 2008 with the release of their second EP Sun Giant and their debut album Fleet Foxes on Sub Pop. The band went to release the studio albums Helplessness Blues (2011), Crack-Up (2017), and Shore (2020), all of which received widespread acclaim. Though the band has received modest commercial success, their work has been highly hailed by the music critics, who have praised their lyricism, somber productions, and often noted the band's use of refined instrumentation and vocal harmonies. The band's eponymous debut album is ranked by the Rolling Stone amongst the best albums of the decade, as well being included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The band has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, the first for Best Folk Album in 2012 for Helplessness Blues and the second for Best Alternative Music Album in 2022 for Shore.
History
Formation and early years (2005–06)
Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both attended Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and soon became close friends. Pecknold and Skjelset bonded over an appreciation of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and began making music together. Their parents influenced their musical tastes early on—Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. The two shared an interest in the music of Dylan and Brian Wilson. Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes.
Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", suggesting that it was "evocative of some weird English activity like fox hunting". Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, Bryn Lumsden on bass and Nicholas Peterson on drums and backing vocals.
Pecknold's late-sixties pop style caught the attention of the Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. Ek was impressed with the band's songwriting, and on hearing Pecknold for the first time, noted, "It was obvious he had talent coming out of his ass." By late 2006 the Seattle press began to take notice of the band; Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. By the end of the year, Lumsden had been replaced on bass by Craig Curran, who would also handle many of the band's vocal harmonies.
With growing popularity on the local circuit, the band set about making their first album in early 2007, spending time in the studio with producer Ek in addition to recording material at home. However, funds for recording were tight, so the band members cobbled together what funds they had, which limited the time they had in the studio, and so the majority of the tracks were recorded in various band members' apartments, other spaces, or the basement of Pecknold's parents' house.
Sun Giant and Fleet Foxes (2007–08)
Fleet Foxes were becoming increasingly popular and by late 2007, they had attracted over a quarter of a million song plays over two months on their Myspace site. Although the band had not released any of their recordings, they benefited from word of mouth exposure and their success soon translated into a record deal, signing with Warner Music subsidiary record label Sub Pop on January 18, 2008. The band's frontman, Robin Pecknold, attributes much of their success and popularity to illegal file sharing.
The band tracked their second EP, Sun Giant, at Bear Creek Studio and performed overdubs and mixed at Seattle's Avast! Recording Co., around the same time in preparation for upcoming tours. Fleet Foxes began their spring tour with another Northwest band Blitzen Trapper on February 28, 2008. Before the recording of the EP, bassist Curran was replaced by Christian Wargo, whose voice, like that of his predecessor, would become an important part of the band's harmony blend. The band's performances, first at the SXSW festival in March 2008, and then the Sasquatch! festival in May 2008, moved the band into the public consciousness, notably attracting attention from the European press for the first time.
Sun Giant was released internationally on April 8, 2008 and the group's brand of folk, rock and pop, marked by their use of vocal harmonies, was well received by the press. Despite the warm critical reception, the group said that the EP did not represent their full ambitions, serving merely as a CD to sell while on tour. In May 2008, the band chose to extend their North American and European tour until September in support of their forthcoming album. At this time Josh Tillman replaced Peterson on drums and backing vocals. Their first full-length album, Fleet Foxes, was released shortly afterwards on June 3, 2008. The album achieved similar critical success as the previous EP. Fleet Foxes received four out of five stars from Rolling Stone, which compared it to the likes of the Beach Boys, Animal Collective, and Crosby, Stills & Nash, and a 9.0 out of 10 in a review by Pitchfork Media, sharing the website's album of the year rank with the Sun Giant EP. The Guardian was particularly complimentary, awarding the album five stars and declaring it "a landmark in American music — an instant classic". On June 24, 2008, Fleet Foxes went to No. 1 on the CMJ Radio 200 Chart. The album achieved an average rating of 87/100 from 30 critic reviews on the aggregator website Metacritic.
While the group enjoyed moderate success in the United States, Fleet Foxes was better received in Europe, selling over 200,000 copies in the five months following its release. The sales were matched with critical plaudits and their debut album won Uncut's first ever Music Award 2008 prize. Uncut'''s editor, Allan Jones, said the album "showed impeccable musicianship, and although you could trace its antecedents, it sounded totally unique. Fleet Foxes was just a glorious debut." The band sold out music venues for their tours of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, reaffirming their growing popularity.Sauma, Luiza (December 7, 2008). "Fleet Foxes: Are a hairy bunch of young folk-rockers inventing a new sound of Seattle?", The Independent. Retrieved on January 19, 2009.
At the end of 2008, Fleet Foxes was rated album of the year by Billboards Critic's Choice and in Metacritic's end of year best album round-up it appeared in 17 lists, topping six of them. Furthermore, it had sold over 408,000 copies in North America and over 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom, making it the first gold certificate record for UK label Bella Union. Their growing profile enabled the band to make televised appearances, playing on Vincent Moon's La Blogotheque in December 2008 and on Saturday Night Live the following January. In 2009, they toured in Europe to favorable reviews; the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant said their show in Paradiso induced goosebumps. In 2008 and 2009, the band played globally ending the tour in September with a final European leg.
Helplessness Blues (2009–12)
Pecknold said that he would have liked the album to be released in 2009; however, the band's touring schedule delayed rehearsals of the new songs until February 2009. These sessions took place in a rented house outside Seattle, but were mostly scrapped, losing the band $60,000 of their own money. Further delays ensued because the drummer, Tillman, was scheduled to play a solo tour in Europe and North America throughout the 2009–10 winter. Pecknold later sent some demos to producer Phil Ek and expressed the hope that the second LP would emerge in late 2010.
In December 2009, Pecknold said he wanted the new LP to sound "less poppy, less upbeat and more groove-based". He referenced the 12-string guitar sound from Roy Harper's folk album Stormcock, saying, "That will be the primary sonic distancing from the last record." He wanted the band to record very quickly, with "vocal takes in one go, so even if there are fuck-ups, I want them to be on there. I want there to be guitar mistakes. I want there to be not totally flawless vocals. I want to record it and have that kind of cohesive sound. Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, to me, is the best-sounding album because it sounds like there were only six hours in the universe for that album to be recorded in. So I want it to have that feeling." The band eventually began recording in April 2010 in various locations (including West Hurley, New York) under the label Reciprocal Recording and decided to scrap the earlier idea of a fast recording (though according to the band many of the initial vocals were done in one take). The album features a new six-piece band line up, with the addition of the former Blood Brothers bassist Morgan Henderson on upright bass and woodwind instruments.
The album, Helplessness Blues, was released on May 3, 2011 with a cover illustrated by the Seattle artist Toby Liebowitz and painted by Christopher Alderson. The title track was released via free download on January 31, 2011, and the album's fourth track, "Battery Kinzie", was premiered in the UK on Zane Lowe's radio show on March 22, 2011. The Sub Pop record label released a downloadable music video of the track "Grown Ocean", with footage of the album's recording, on its website in support of the album. A 12" vinyl double A-side single of "Helplessness Blues" and "Grown Ocean" was released for Record Store Day on April 16, 2011. On November 1, 2011, Pecknold's brother, Sean Pecknold, released the official music video for "The Shrine / An Argument".
Helplessness Blues was nominated as Best Folk Album at the 2012 Grammy Awards, held February 12, 2012.
Departure of Tillman and hiatus (2012–2016)
On January 18, 2012, after the band had finished touring for the album, drummer Tillman announced that he had left the band. He would go on to reinvent himself and record several albums as Father John Misty, notable for his ironic sense of humor in lyrics and media as well as often criticizing both the record industry and society in interviews and on stage.
In October 2020, Pecknold reflected on Tillman's departure during a Reddit AMA: "[Josh] "quit" the band after recording drums for Helplessness, got into narcotics and made his first Father John Misty album while I was making Helplessness in Seattle. Then Sub Pop offered to put out his album, but only if he delayed it for a year or so and toured Helplessness with us. Which we all weakly agreed to going through with, but it quickly became obvious he'd rather have just been doing that project instead, and I would have rathered that as well. So that tour I had to endure being around a lot of substance abuse, sabotaged shows, just general ill treatment, shit-talking, all while paying him for songs he didn't have anything to do with. It sucked!"
On June 15, 2013, an image of a home recording set-up–including a laptop computer, microphone and guitar–was posted on the Fleet Foxes Facebook page with the caption "Step one". On June 16, 2013, an image of a broken mandolin with the caption "Step two" was posted. These images were later deleted, but led to speculation that the group was working on a new project, possibly a third studio album. On April 23, 2014, Robin Pecknold posted to the band's Facebook page that he had moved to New York to get his undergraduate degree at the Columbia University School of General Studies, a liberal arts college of Columbia University in New York City.
Crack-Up (2016–2018)
On May 18, 2016, while answering fan questions on his Instagram account, Pecknold confirmed that Fleet Foxes were working on new material with drummer and frequent collaborator Neal Morgan, best known for his work with Joanna Newsom and Bill Callahan. Describing Morgan as a "full Fox", Pecknold also admitted he "had to up my songwriting game for homeboy." However, when Pecknold posted a photo of the band minus Morgan on Instagram, he clarified that Morgan was one of three drummers involved in the new album, and that for the time being Fleet Foxes would consist of Pecknold, Skjelset, Wescott, Wargo, and Henderson as a "five-piece 'core band'", but they would still use a drummer for live performances and additional musicians for certain shows. Pecknold also said that the new material would be "a different vibe" compared to Fleet Foxes' previous output. On November 14, 2016, the band confirmed (via their Facebook account) that their new album was nearly complete.
On December 25, 2016, Pecknold posted a photo on his Instagram account which showed four albums in the Fleet Foxes' queue in his iTunes library: the first studio album Fleet Foxes; the Sun Giant EP; the second studio album Helplessness Blues; and an unknown third album entitled Ylajali. This led to speculation that the band's third album would: 1) be named after a character from Knut Hamsun's novel Hunger; 2) contain a photo from Japanese photographer Hiroshi Hamaya as the cover art; and 3) be released through Nonesuch Records, since the label's logo can be seen on the album cover.
In an email newsletter on January 1, 2017, production company Mason Jar Music confirmed that Fleet Foxes was working on a new album, since they contributed to the production. The album was called Crack-Up, after an F. Scott Fitzgerald essay of the same name. The album is a concept album and was recorded at Electric Lady Studios and Sear Sound in New York City.
On March 7, 2017, Fleet Foxes announced their third studio album, Crack-Up, released on June 16, 2017 via Nonesuch Records, a new label for the band. The lead single, "Third of May / Ōdaigahara", was released the same day. On April 4, 2017, the band posted the album trailer for the new album on YouTube. The trailer briefly presents various songs from the album and shows some images while they were recording them. The video was made by Sean Pecknold, Robin's brother.
On May 15, 2017, Fleet Foxes made their live return at the Wilma Theatre in Missoula, in which they performed nine songs from Crack-Up along with a selection of older material and a cover of "In the Morning" by Bee Gees. The band's current live line-up includes Matt Barrick of The Walkmen, who is also the most heavily featured of the three guest drummers who contributed to Crack-Up. Barrick has continued to play with the band, but has not become an official member. The new album also included the sounds of a brass quartet called The Westerlies.
On October 10, 2017, the band announced the release of a new EP, entitled The Electric Lady Session, for Black Friday Record Store Day 2017. The EP was released on November 24 of that year, and is a collection of live performances of four songs from Crack-Up, originally recorded for their session at Fordham University’s radio station WFUV. For Record Store Day 2018, the band released another EP, entitled "Crack Up (Choral Version)"/"In The Morning (Live in Switzerland)", in collaboration with the Icelandic female choir, Graduale Nobili.
Shore (2019–present)
Work began on a fourth studio album in late 2018, not long after the Crack-Up tour finished. On December 31, 2018, Pecknold teased several new demos online for an upcoming new album.
Recording began in September 2019 at Long Pond Studios in Hudson, New York, and continued at other studios including Electro-Vox Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Pecknold collaborated closely with recording engineer Beatriz Artola during the recording process. Upon the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pecknold moved to New York City to be able to continue working with Artola. At this point, the majority of the music of the album was well-conceptualized, but the lyrics eluded Pecknold. He eventually developed the lyrics in part over the course of long drives in the New York countryside, and worked to finish the album in July and August 2020. Due to a desire to release the album quickly, Pecknold did not enlist the help of bandmates Skjelset, Wescott, Wargo, or Henderson.
The album was announced in September 2020; titled Shore, it was released on September 22. The album received universal acclaim, scoring 87/100 on Metacritic, and was listed among the best albums of the year by numerous publications. It is nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
On December 6, 2021, Fleet Foxes announced the release of a new live album entitled A Very Lonely Solstice. The album was released digitally on December 10, 2021. Vinyl and CD releases are scheduled for release in spring 2022 through Anti-. A Very Lonely Solstice is a recording of a virtual, pre-recorded video concert performance that was livestreamed at 9pm ET on December 21, 2020, coinciding with the winter solstice. The concert featured Pecknold performing an acoustic solo set inside the St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn. The album features performances of songs from Shore and older Fleet Foxes songs, as well as cover versions of two tracks.
Members
Robin Pecknold – lead vocals, guitar (2006–present)
Skyler Skjelset – guitar, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Casey Wescott – keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Christian Wargo – bass guitar, guitar, backing vocals (2008–present)
Morgan Henderson – upright bass, guitar, woodwind, violin, percussion (2010–present)Former members Bryn Lumsden – bass guitar (2006)
Craig Curran – bass guitar, backing vocals (2006–2008)
Nicholas Peterson – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2006–2008)
Josh Tillman – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2008–2012)Former touring musicians'Matt Barrick – drums, percussion (2017–2018)
Timeline
Discography
Albums
Fleet Foxes (2008)
Helplessness Blues (2011)
Crack-Up (2017)
Shore (2020)
Live albums
A Very Lonely Solstice (2021)
EPs
The Fleet Foxes (2006)
Sun Giant (2008)
Compilation albums
First Collection 2006–2009'' (2018)
References
External links
Fleet Foxes at Nonesuch Records
Official YouTube
American indie folk groups
Musical groups from Seattle
Sub Pop artists
Musical quintets
2006 establishments in Washington, D.C.
Musical groups established in 2006
Bella Union artists
Anti- (record label) artists
Arts & Crafts Productions artists
Nonesuch Records artists | true | [
"Jackson Rogow (born October 5, 1991) is an American actor. He is best known for starring in the Cartoon Network live action series Dude, What Would Happen?\n\nCareer\nRogow was on Dude, What Would Happen on Cartoon Network until it was cancelled in 2011. Rogow was also on the Lego Top Secret Project after The Yoda Chronicles on Cartoon Network.\n\nPersonal life\nRogow resides in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California.\n\nFilmography\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\nLiving people\n1991 births\nPeople from Kissimmee, Florida\nPeople from Bel Air, Los Angeles\nLos Angeles County High School for the Arts alumni\nAmerican male television actors",
"James P. Flynn (born February 5, 1934) is an American teamster and film actor. He was a reputed member of the famous Winter Hill Gang. He has been in films including Good Will Hunting, The Cider House Rules and What's the Worst That Could Happen?.\n\nBiography\nJames P. Flynn was born in Somerville, Massachusetts.\n\nIn 1982, Flynn was wrongly identified as a shooter in the murder of Winter Hill Gang mob associate Brian \"Balloonhead\" Halloran and attempted murder of Michael Donahue. He was tried and acquitted for the murder in 1986 after being framed by John Connolly and James J. Bulger.\n\nFlynn was a part of Boston's International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 25 labor union where he later ran the organization's movie production crew. He has also been the Teamster Union's transportation coordinator and transportation captain in the transportation department on numerous films, including The Departed, Fever Pitch and Jumanji.\n\nFlynn appeared in many films shot in the New England area. In show business he goes by the name 'James P. Flynn'. Flynn was cast as a judge in the Boston-based film Good Will Hunting in 1997. Later, he acted in the 1999 film The Cider House Rules and What's the Worst That Could Happen? in 2001. He was also a truck driver for movie production equipment during the filming of My Best Friend's Girl in 2008. Boston actor Tom Kemp remarked: \"[The film The Departed] wouldn't be a Boston movie without me, a Wahlberg, and Jimmy Flynn from the teamsters.\"\n\nFilmography\nGood Will Hunting (1997) as Judge George H. Malone\nThe Cider House Rules (1999) as Vernon\nWhat's the Worst That Could Happen? (2001) as the Fire Captain\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n1934 births\nLiving people\nMale actors from Boston\nWinter Hill Gang"
]
|
[
"Fleet Foxes",
"Formation and early years (2005-06)",
"What happen in 2005?",
"Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes.",
"What happen in 2006",
"Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP.",
"What was the title of their album",
"the self-released Fleet Foxes EP.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Originally going by the name \"The Pineapples\", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon \"Fleet Foxes\",",
"Did they go on tour",
"I don't know.",
"What happen in formation",
"Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar."
]
| C_69d4d0e356d64e7587ee8769610ecaa4_1 | What else happen in 2005 | 7 | Besides forming Fleet Foxes, what else happened to Fleet Foxes in 2005 | Fleet Foxes | Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both attended Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and soon became close friends. Pecknold and Skjelset bonded over a mutual appreciation of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and began making music together. Their parents influenced their musical tastes early on--Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. The two shared an interest in the music of Dylan and Brian Wilson. Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes. Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", suggesting that it was "evocative of some weird English activity like fox hunting". Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, Bryn Lumsden on bass and Nicholas Peterson on drums and backing vocals. Pecknold's late-sixties pop style caught the attention of the Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. Ek was impressed with the band's songwriting, and on hearing Pecknold for the first time, noted, "It was obvious he had talent coming out of his ass." By late 2006 the Seattle press began to take notice of the band; Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. By the end of the year, Lumsden had been replaced on bass by Craig Curran, who would also handle many of the band's vocal harmonies. With growing popularity on the local circuit, the band set about making their first album in early 2007, spending time in the studio with producer Ek in addition to recording material at home. However, funds for recording were tight, so the band members cobbled together what funds they had, which limited the time they had in the studio, and so the majority of the tracks were recorded in various band members' apartments, other spaces, or the basement of Pecknold's parents' house. CANNOTANSWER | The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, | Fleet Foxes is an American indie folk band formed in Seattle, Washington in 2006. The band consists of Robin Pecknold (vocals, guitar), Skyler Skjelset (guitar, mandolin, backing vocals), Casey Wescott (keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals), Christian Wargo (bass, guitar, backing vocals) and Morgan Henderson (upright bass, guitar, woodwinds, violin, percussion, saxophone).
Led by Pecknold, "Fleet Foxes" came to prominence in 2008 with the release of their second EP Sun Giant and their debut album Fleet Foxes on Sub Pop. The band went to release the studio albums Helplessness Blues (2011), Crack-Up (2017), and Shore (2020), all of which received widespread acclaim. Though the band has received modest commercial success, their work has been highly hailed by the music critics, who have praised their lyricism, somber productions, and often noted the band's use of refined instrumentation and vocal harmonies. The band's eponymous debut album is ranked by the Rolling Stone amongst the best albums of the decade, as well being included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The band has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, the first for Best Folk Album in 2012 for Helplessness Blues and the second for Best Alternative Music Album in 2022 for Shore.
History
Formation and early years (2005–06)
Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both attended Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and soon became close friends. Pecknold and Skjelset bonded over an appreciation of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and began making music together. Their parents influenced their musical tastes early on—Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. The two shared an interest in the music of Dylan and Brian Wilson. Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes.
Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", suggesting that it was "evocative of some weird English activity like fox hunting". Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, Bryn Lumsden on bass and Nicholas Peterson on drums and backing vocals.
Pecknold's late-sixties pop style caught the attention of the Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. Ek was impressed with the band's songwriting, and on hearing Pecknold for the first time, noted, "It was obvious he had talent coming out of his ass." By late 2006 the Seattle press began to take notice of the band; Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. By the end of the year, Lumsden had been replaced on bass by Craig Curran, who would also handle many of the band's vocal harmonies.
With growing popularity on the local circuit, the band set about making their first album in early 2007, spending time in the studio with producer Ek in addition to recording material at home. However, funds for recording were tight, so the band members cobbled together what funds they had, which limited the time they had in the studio, and so the majority of the tracks were recorded in various band members' apartments, other spaces, or the basement of Pecknold's parents' house.
Sun Giant and Fleet Foxes (2007–08)
Fleet Foxes were becoming increasingly popular and by late 2007, they had attracted over a quarter of a million song plays over two months on their Myspace site. Although the band had not released any of their recordings, they benefited from word of mouth exposure and their success soon translated into a record deal, signing with Warner Music subsidiary record label Sub Pop on January 18, 2008. The band's frontman, Robin Pecknold, attributes much of their success and popularity to illegal file sharing.
The band tracked their second EP, Sun Giant, at Bear Creek Studio and performed overdubs and mixed at Seattle's Avast! Recording Co., around the same time in preparation for upcoming tours. Fleet Foxes began their spring tour with another Northwest band Blitzen Trapper on February 28, 2008. Before the recording of the EP, bassist Curran was replaced by Christian Wargo, whose voice, like that of his predecessor, would become an important part of the band's harmony blend. The band's performances, first at the SXSW festival in March 2008, and then the Sasquatch! festival in May 2008, moved the band into the public consciousness, notably attracting attention from the European press for the first time.
Sun Giant was released internationally on April 8, 2008 and the group's brand of folk, rock and pop, marked by their use of vocal harmonies, was well received by the press. Despite the warm critical reception, the group said that the EP did not represent their full ambitions, serving merely as a CD to sell while on tour. In May 2008, the band chose to extend their North American and European tour until September in support of their forthcoming album. At this time Josh Tillman replaced Peterson on drums and backing vocals. Their first full-length album, Fleet Foxes, was released shortly afterwards on June 3, 2008. The album achieved similar critical success as the previous EP. Fleet Foxes received four out of five stars from Rolling Stone, which compared it to the likes of the Beach Boys, Animal Collective, and Crosby, Stills & Nash, and a 9.0 out of 10 in a review by Pitchfork Media, sharing the website's album of the year rank with the Sun Giant EP. The Guardian was particularly complimentary, awarding the album five stars and declaring it "a landmark in American music — an instant classic". On June 24, 2008, Fleet Foxes went to No. 1 on the CMJ Radio 200 Chart. The album achieved an average rating of 87/100 from 30 critic reviews on the aggregator website Metacritic.
While the group enjoyed moderate success in the United States, Fleet Foxes was better received in Europe, selling over 200,000 copies in the five months following its release. The sales were matched with critical plaudits and their debut album won Uncut's first ever Music Award 2008 prize. Uncut'''s editor, Allan Jones, said the album "showed impeccable musicianship, and although you could trace its antecedents, it sounded totally unique. Fleet Foxes was just a glorious debut." The band sold out music venues for their tours of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, reaffirming their growing popularity.Sauma, Luiza (December 7, 2008). "Fleet Foxes: Are a hairy bunch of young folk-rockers inventing a new sound of Seattle?", The Independent. Retrieved on January 19, 2009.
At the end of 2008, Fleet Foxes was rated album of the year by Billboards Critic's Choice and in Metacritic's end of year best album round-up it appeared in 17 lists, topping six of them. Furthermore, it had sold over 408,000 copies in North America and over 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom, making it the first gold certificate record for UK label Bella Union. Their growing profile enabled the band to make televised appearances, playing on Vincent Moon's La Blogotheque in December 2008 and on Saturday Night Live the following January. In 2009, they toured in Europe to favorable reviews; the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant said their show in Paradiso induced goosebumps. In 2008 and 2009, the band played globally ending the tour in September with a final European leg.
Helplessness Blues (2009–12)
Pecknold said that he would have liked the album to be released in 2009; however, the band's touring schedule delayed rehearsals of the new songs until February 2009. These sessions took place in a rented house outside Seattle, but were mostly scrapped, losing the band $60,000 of their own money. Further delays ensued because the drummer, Tillman, was scheduled to play a solo tour in Europe and North America throughout the 2009–10 winter. Pecknold later sent some demos to producer Phil Ek and expressed the hope that the second LP would emerge in late 2010.
In December 2009, Pecknold said he wanted the new LP to sound "less poppy, less upbeat and more groove-based". He referenced the 12-string guitar sound from Roy Harper's folk album Stormcock, saying, "That will be the primary sonic distancing from the last record." He wanted the band to record very quickly, with "vocal takes in one go, so even if there are fuck-ups, I want them to be on there. I want there to be guitar mistakes. I want there to be not totally flawless vocals. I want to record it and have that kind of cohesive sound. Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, to me, is the best-sounding album because it sounds like there were only six hours in the universe for that album to be recorded in. So I want it to have that feeling." The band eventually began recording in April 2010 in various locations (including West Hurley, New York) under the label Reciprocal Recording and decided to scrap the earlier idea of a fast recording (though according to the band many of the initial vocals were done in one take). The album features a new six-piece band line up, with the addition of the former Blood Brothers bassist Morgan Henderson on upright bass and woodwind instruments.
The album, Helplessness Blues, was released on May 3, 2011 with a cover illustrated by the Seattle artist Toby Liebowitz and painted by Christopher Alderson. The title track was released via free download on January 31, 2011, and the album's fourth track, "Battery Kinzie", was premiered in the UK on Zane Lowe's radio show on March 22, 2011. The Sub Pop record label released a downloadable music video of the track "Grown Ocean", with footage of the album's recording, on its website in support of the album. A 12" vinyl double A-side single of "Helplessness Blues" and "Grown Ocean" was released for Record Store Day on April 16, 2011. On November 1, 2011, Pecknold's brother, Sean Pecknold, released the official music video for "The Shrine / An Argument".
Helplessness Blues was nominated as Best Folk Album at the 2012 Grammy Awards, held February 12, 2012.
Departure of Tillman and hiatus (2012–2016)
On January 18, 2012, after the band had finished touring for the album, drummer Tillman announced that he had left the band. He would go on to reinvent himself and record several albums as Father John Misty, notable for his ironic sense of humor in lyrics and media as well as often criticizing both the record industry and society in interviews and on stage.
In October 2020, Pecknold reflected on Tillman's departure during a Reddit AMA: "[Josh] "quit" the band after recording drums for Helplessness, got into narcotics and made his first Father John Misty album while I was making Helplessness in Seattle. Then Sub Pop offered to put out his album, but only if he delayed it for a year or so and toured Helplessness with us. Which we all weakly agreed to going through with, but it quickly became obvious he'd rather have just been doing that project instead, and I would have rathered that as well. So that tour I had to endure being around a lot of substance abuse, sabotaged shows, just general ill treatment, shit-talking, all while paying him for songs he didn't have anything to do with. It sucked!"
On June 15, 2013, an image of a home recording set-up–including a laptop computer, microphone and guitar–was posted on the Fleet Foxes Facebook page with the caption "Step one". On June 16, 2013, an image of a broken mandolin with the caption "Step two" was posted. These images were later deleted, but led to speculation that the group was working on a new project, possibly a third studio album. On April 23, 2014, Robin Pecknold posted to the band's Facebook page that he had moved to New York to get his undergraduate degree at the Columbia University School of General Studies, a liberal arts college of Columbia University in New York City.
Crack-Up (2016–2018)
On May 18, 2016, while answering fan questions on his Instagram account, Pecknold confirmed that Fleet Foxes were working on new material with drummer and frequent collaborator Neal Morgan, best known for his work with Joanna Newsom and Bill Callahan. Describing Morgan as a "full Fox", Pecknold also admitted he "had to up my songwriting game for homeboy." However, when Pecknold posted a photo of the band minus Morgan on Instagram, he clarified that Morgan was one of three drummers involved in the new album, and that for the time being Fleet Foxes would consist of Pecknold, Skjelset, Wescott, Wargo, and Henderson as a "five-piece 'core band'", but they would still use a drummer for live performances and additional musicians for certain shows. Pecknold also said that the new material would be "a different vibe" compared to Fleet Foxes' previous output. On November 14, 2016, the band confirmed (via their Facebook account) that their new album was nearly complete.
On December 25, 2016, Pecknold posted a photo on his Instagram account which showed four albums in the Fleet Foxes' queue in his iTunes library: the first studio album Fleet Foxes; the Sun Giant EP; the second studio album Helplessness Blues; and an unknown third album entitled Ylajali. This led to speculation that the band's third album would: 1) be named after a character from Knut Hamsun's novel Hunger; 2) contain a photo from Japanese photographer Hiroshi Hamaya as the cover art; and 3) be released through Nonesuch Records, since the label's logo can be seen on the album cover.
In an email newsletter on January 1, 2017, production company Mason Jar Music confirmed that Fleet Foxes was working on a new album, since they contributed to the production. The album was called Crack-Up, after an F. Scott Fitzgerald essay of the same name. The album is a concept album and was recorded at Electric Lady Studios and Sear Sound in New York City.
On March 7, 2017, Fleet Foxes announced their third studio album, Crack-Up, released on June 16, 2017 via Nonesuch Records, a new label for the band. The lead single, "Third of May / Ōdaigahara", was released the same day. On April 4, 2017, the band posted the album trailer for the new album on YouTube. The trailer briefly presents various songs from the album and shows some images while they were recording them. The video was made by Sean Pecknold, Robin's brother.
On May 15, 2017, Fleet Foxes made their live return at the Wilma Theatre in Missoula, in which they performed nine songs from Crack-Up along with a selection of older material and a cover of "In the Morning" by Bee Gees. The band's current live line-up includes Matt Barrick of The Walkmen, who is also the most heavily featured of the three guest drummers who contributed to Crack-Up. Barrick has continued to play with the band, but has not become an official member. The new album also included the sounds of a brass quartet called The Westerlies.
On October 10, 2017, the band announced the release of a new EP, entitled The Electric Lady Session, for Black Friday Record Store Day 2017. The EP was released on November 24 of that year, and is a collection of live performances of four songs from Crack-Up, originally recorded for their session at Fordham University’s radio station WFUV. For Record Store Day 2018, the band released another EP, entitled "Crack Up (Choral Version)"/"In The Morning (Live in Switzerland)", in collaboration with the Icelandic female choir, Graduale Nobili.
Shore (2019–present)
Work began on a fourth studio album in late 2018, not long after the Crack-Up tour finished. On December 31, 2018, Pecknold teased several new demos online for an upcoming new album.
Recording began in September 2019 at Long Pond Studios in Hudson, New York, and continued at other studios including Electro-Vox Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Pecknold collaborated closely with recording engineer Beatriz Artola during the recording process. Upon the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pecknold moved to New York City to be able to continue working with Artola. At this point, the majority of the music of the album was well-conceptualized, but the lyrics eluded Pecknold. He eventually developed the lyrics in part over the course of long drives in the New York countryside, and worked to finish the album in July and August 2020. Due to a desire to release the album quickly, Pecknold did not enlist the help of bandmates Skjelset, Wescott, Wargo, or Henderson.
The album was announced in September 2020; titled Shore, it was released on September 22. The album received universal acclaim, scoring 87/100 on Metacritic, and was listed among the best albums of the year by numerous publications. It is nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
On December 6, 2021, Fleet Foxes announced the release of a new live album entitled A Very Lonely Solstice. The album was released digitally on December 10, 2021. Vinyl and CD releases are scheduled for release in spring 2022 through Anti-. A Very Lonely Solstice is a recording of a virtual, pre-recorded video concert performance that was livestreamed at 9pm ET on December 21, 2020, coinciding with the winter solstice. The concert featured Pecknold performing an acoustic solo set inside the St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn. The album features performances of songs from Shore and older Fleet Foxes songs, as well as cover versions of two tracks.
Members
Robin Pecknold – lead vocals, guitar (2006–present)
Skyler Skjelset – guitar, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Casey Wescott – keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Christian Wargo – bass guitar, guitar, backing vocals (2008–present)
Morgan Henderson – upright bass, guitar, woodwind, violin, percussion (2010–present)Former members Bryn Lumsden – bass guitar (2006)
Craig Curran – bass guitar, backing vocals (2006–2008)
Nicholas Peterson – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2006–2008)
Josh Tillman – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2008–2012)Former touring musicians'Matt Barrick – drums, percussion (2017–2018)
Timeline
Discography
Albums
Fleet Foxes (2008)
Helplessness Blues (2011)
Crack-Up (2017)
Shore (2020)
Live albums
A Very Lonely Solstice (2021)
EPs
The Fleet Foxes (2006)
Sun Giant (2008)
Compilation albums
First Collection 2006–2009'' (2018)
References
External links
Fleet Foxes at Nonesuch Records
Official YouTube
American indie folk groups
Musical groups from Seattle
Sub Pop artists
Musical quintets
2006 establishments in Washington, D.C.
Musical groups established in 2006
Bella Union artists
Anti- (record label) artists
Arts & Crafts Productions artists
Nonesuch Records artists | true | [
"Tunnel vision is a term used when a shooter is focused on a target, and thus misses what goes on around that target. Therefore an innocent bystander may pass in front or behind of the target and be shot accidentally. This is easily understandable if the bystander is not visible in the telescopic sight (see Tunnel vision#Optical instruments), but can also happen without one. In this case, the mental concentration of the shooter is so focused on the target, that they fail to notice anything else.\n\nMarksmanship\nShooting sports",
"\"What Else Is There?\" is the third single from the Norwegian duo Röyksopp's second album The Understanding. It features the vocals of Karin Dreijer from the Swedish electronica duo The Knife. The album was released in the UK with the help of Astralwerks.\n\nThe single was used in an O2 television advertisement in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia during 2008. It was also used in the 2006 film Cashback and the 2007 film, Meet Bill. Trentemøller's remix of \"What Else is There?\" was featured in an episode of the HBO show Entourage.\n\nThe song was covered by extreme metal band Enslaved as a bonus track for their album E.\n\nThe song was listed as the 375th best song of the 2000s by Pitchfork Media.\n\nOfficial versions\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Album Version) – 5:17\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Radio Edit) – 3:38\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Jacques Lu Cont Radio Mix) – 3:46\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Vocal Version) – 8:03\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Dub Version) – 7:51\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Mix) – 8:25\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Edit) – 4:50\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Remix) (Radio Edit) – 3:06\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Trentemøller Remix) – 7:42\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Vitalic Remix) – 5:14\n\nResponse\nThe single was officially released on 5 December 2005 in the UK. The single had a limited release on 21 November 2005 to promote the upcoming album. On the UK Singles Chart, it peaked at number 32, while on the UK Dance Chart, it reached number one.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video was directed by Martin de Thurah. It features Norwegian model Marianne Schröder who is shown lip-syncing Dreijer's voice. Schröder is depicted as a floating woman traveling across stormy landscapes and within empty houses. Dreijer makes a cameo appearance as a woman wearing an Elizabethan ruff while dining alone at a festive table.\n\nMovie spots\n\nThe song is also featured in the movie Meet Bill as characters played by Jessica Alba and Aaron Eckhart smoke marijuana while listening to it. It is also part of the end credits music of the film Cashback.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2005 singles\nRöyksopp songs\nAstralwerks singles\nSongs written by Svein Berge\nSongs written by Torbjørn Brundtland\n2004 songs\nSongs written by Roger Greenaway\nSongs written by Olof Dreijer\nSongs written by Karin Dreijer"
]
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[
"Fleet Foxes",
"Formation and early years (2005-06)",
"What happen in 2005?",
"Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes.",
"What happen in 2006",
"Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP.",
"What was the title of their album",
"the self-released Fleet Foxes EP.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Originally going by the name \"The Pineapples\", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon \"Fleet Foxes\",",
"Did they go on tour",
"I don't know.",
"What happen in formation",
"Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar.",
"What else happen in 2005",
"The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals,"
]
| C_69d4d0e356d64e7587ee8769610ecaa4_1 | What else stood out to you? | 8 | Besides Casey Wescott in the original lineup, what else stood out to you? | Fleet Foxes | Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both attended Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and soon became close friends. Pecknold and Skjelset bonded over a mutual appreciation of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and began making music together. Their parents influenced their musical tastes early on--Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. The two shared an interest in the music of Dylan and Brian Wilson. Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes. Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", suggesting that it was "evocative of some weird English activity like fox hunting". Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, Bryn Lumsden on bass and Nicholas Peterson on drums and backing vocals. Pecknold's late-sixties pop style caught the attention of the Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. Ek was impressed with the band's songwriting, and on hearing Pecknold for the first time, noted, "It was obvious he had talent coming out of his ass." By late 2006 the Seattle press began to take notice of the band; Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. By the end of the year, Lumsden had been replaced on bass by Craig Curran, who would also handle many of the band's vocal harmonies. With growing popularity on the local circuit, the band set about making their first album in early 2007, spending time in the studio with producer Ek in addition to recording material at home. However, funds for recording were tight, so the band members cobbled together what funds they had, which limited the time they had in the studio, and so the majority of the tracks were recorded in various band members' apartments, other spaces, or the basement of Pecknold's parents' house. CANNOTANSWER | Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. | Fleet Foxes is an American indie folk band formed in Seattle, Washington in 2006. The band consists of Robin Pecknold (vocals, guitar), Skyler Skjelset (guitar, mandolin, backing vocals), Casey Wescott (keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals), Christian Wargo (bass, guitar, backing vocals) and Morgan Henderson (upright bass, guitar, woodwinds, violin, percussion, saxophone).
Led by Pecknold, "Fleet Foxes" came to prominence in 2008 with the release of their second EP Sun Giant and their debut album Fleet Foxes on Sub Pop. The band went to release the studio albums Helplessness Blues (2011), Crack-Up (2017), and Shore (2020), all of which received widespread acclaim. Though the band has received modest commercial success, their work has been highly hailed by the music critics, who have praised their lyricism, somber productions, and often noted the band's use of refined instrumentation and vocal harmonies. The band's eponymous debut album is ranked by the Rolling Stone amongst the best albums of the decade, as well being included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The band has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, the first for Best Folk Album in 2012 for Helplessness Blues and the second for Best Alternative Music Album in 2022 for Shore.
History
Formation and early years (2005–06)
Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both attended Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and soon became close friends. Pecknold and Skjelset bonded over an appreciation of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and began making music together. Their parents influenced their musical tastes early on—Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. The two shared an interest in the music of Dylan and Brian Wilson. Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes.
Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", suggesting that it was "evocative of some weird English activity like fox hunting". Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, Bryn Lumsden on bass and Nicholas Peterson on drums and backing vocals.
Pecknold's late-sixties pop style caught the attention of the Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. Ek was impressed with the band's songwriting, and on hearing Pecknold for the first time, noted, "It was obvious he had talent coming out of his ass." By late 2006 the Seattle press began to take notice of the band; Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. By the end of the year, Lumsden had been replaced on bass by Craig Curran, who would also handle many of the band's vocal harmonies.
With growing popularity on the local circuit, the band set about making their first album in early 2007, spending time in the studio with producer Ek in addition to recording material at home. However, funds for recording were tight, so the band members cobbled together what funds they had, which limited the time they had in the studio, and so the majority of the tracks were recorded in various band members' apartments, other spaces, or the basement of Pecknold's parents' house.
Sun Giant and Fleet Foxes (2007–08)
Fleet Foxes were becoming increasingly popular and by late 2007, they had attracted over a quarter of a million song plays over two months on their Myspace site. Although the band had not released any of their recordings, they benefited from word of mouth exposure and their success soon translated into a record deal, signing with Warner Music subsidiary record label Sub Pop on January 18, 2008. The band's frontman, Robin Pecknold, attributes much of their success and popularity to illegal file sharing.
The band tracked their second EP, Sun Giant, at Bear Creek Studio and performed overdubs and mixed at Seattle's Avast! Recording Co., around the same time in preparation for upcoming tours. Fleet Foxes began their spring tour with another Northwest band Blitzen Trapper on February 28, 2008. Before the recording of the EP, bassist Curran was replaced by Christian Wargo, whose voice, like that of his predecessor, would become an important part of the band's harmony blend. The band's performances, first at the SXSW festival in March 2008, and then the Sasquatch! festival in May 2008, moved the band into the public consciousness, notably attracting attention from the European press for the first time.
Sun Giant was released internationally on April 8, 2008 and the group's brand of folk, rock and pop, marked by their use of vocal harmonies, was well received by the press. Despite the warm critical reception, the group said that the EP did not represent their full ambitions, serving merely as a CD to sell while on tour. In May 2008, the band chose to extend their North American and European tour until September in support of their forthcoming album. At this time Josh Tillman replaced Peterson on drums and backing vocals. Their first full-length album, Fleet Foxes, was released shortly afterwards on June 3, 2008. The album achieved similar critical success as the previous EP. Fleet Foxes received four out of five stars from Rolling Stone, which compared it to the likes of the Beach Boys, Animal Collective, and Crosby, Stills & Nash, and a 9.0 out of 10 in a review by Pitchfork Media, sharing the website's album of the year rank with the Sun Giant EP. The Guardian was particularly complimentary, awarding the album five stars and declaring it "a landmark in American music — an instant classic". On June 24, 2008, Fleet Foxes went to No. 1 on the CMJ Radio 200 Chart. The album achieved an average rating of 87/100 from 30 critic reviews on the aggregator website Metacritic.
While the group enjoyed moderate success in the United States, Fleet Foxes was better received in Europe, selling over 200,000 copies in the five months following its release. The sales were matched with critical plaudits and their debut album won Uncut's first ever Music Award 2008 prize. Uncut'''s editor, Allan Jones, said the album "showed impeccable musicianship, and although you could trace its antecedents, it sounded totally unique. Fleet Foxes was just a glorious debut." The band sold out music venues for their tours of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, reaffirming their growing popularity.Sauma, Luiza (December 7, 2008). "Fleet Foxes: Are a hairy bunch of young folk-rockers inventing a new sound of Seattle?", The Independent. Retrieved on January 19, 2009.
At the end of 2008, Fleet Foxes was rated album of the year by Billboards Critic's Choice and in Metacritic's end of year best album round-up it appeared in 17 lists, topping six of them. Furthermore, it had sold over 408,000 copies in North America and over 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom, making it the first gold certificate record for UK label Bella Union. Their growing profile enabled the band to make televised appearances, playing on Vincent Moon's La Blogotheque in December 2008 and on Saturday Night Live the following January. In 2009, they toured in Europe to favorable reviews; the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant said their show in Paradiso induced goosebumps. In 2008 and 2009, the band played globally ending the tour in September with a final European leg.
Helplessness Blues (2009–12)
Pecknold said that he would have liked the album to be released in 2009; however, the band's touring schedule delayed rehearsals of the new songs until February 2009. These sessions took place in a rented house outside Seattle, but were mostly scrapped, losing the band $60,000 of their own money. Further delays ensued because the drummer, Tillman, was scheduled to play a solo tour in Europe and North America throughout the 2009–10 winter. Pecknold later sent some demos to producer Phil Ek and expressed the hope that the second LP would emerge in late 2010.
In December 2009, Pecknold said he wanted the new LP to sound "less poppy, less upbeat and more groove-based". He referenced the 12-string guitar sound from Roy Harper's folk album Stormcock, saying, "That will be the primary sonic distancing from the last record." He wanted the band to record very quickly, with "vocal takes in one go, so even if there are fuck-ups, I want them to be on there. I want there to be guitar mistakes. I want there to be not totally flawless vocals. I want to record it and have that kind of cohesive sound. Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, to me, is the best-sounding album because it sounds like there were only six hours in the universe for that album to be recorded in. So I want it to have that feeling." The band eventually began recording in April 2010 in various locations (including West Hurley, New York) under the label Reciprocal Recording and decided to scrap the earlier idea of a fast recording (though according to the band many of the initial vocals were done in one take). The album features a new six-piece band line up, with the addition of the former Blood Brothers bassist Morgan Henderson on upright bass and woodwind instruments.
The album, Helplessness Blues, was released on May 3, 2011 with a cover illustrated by the Seattle artist Toby Liebowitz and painted by Christopher Alderson. The title track was released via free download on January 31, 2011, and the album's fourth track, "Battery Kinzie", was premiered in the UK on Zane Lowe's radio show on March 22, 2011. The Sub Pop record label released a downloadable music video of the track "Grown Ocean", with footage of the album's recording, on its website in support of the album. A 12" vinyl double A-side single of "Helplessness Blues" and "Grown Ocean" was released for Record Store Day on April 16, 2011. On November 1, 2011, Pecknold's brother, Sean Pecknold, released the official music video for "The Shrine / An Argument".
Helplessness Blues was nominated as Best Folk Album at the 2012 Grammy Awards, held February 12, 2012.
Departure of Tillman and hiatus (2012–2016)
On January 18, 2012, after the band had finished touring for the album, drummer Tillman announced that he had left the band. He would go on to reinvent himself and record several albums as Father John Misty, notable for his ironic sense of humor in lyrics and media as well as often criticizing both the record industry and society in interviews and on stage.
In October 2020, Pecknold reflected on Tillman's departure during a Reddit AMA: "[Josh] "quit" the band after recording drums for Helplessness, got into narcotics and made his first Father John Misty album while I was making Helplessness in Seattle. Then Sub Pop offered to put out his album, but only if he delayed it for a year or so and toured Helplessness with us. Which we all weakly agreed to going through with, but it quickly became obvious he'd rather have just been doing that project instead, and I would have rathered that as well. So that tour I had to endure being around a lot of substance abuse, sabotaged shows, just general ill treatment, shit-talking, all while paying him for songs he didn't have anything to do with. It sucked!"
On June 15, 2013, an image of a home recording set-up–including a laptop computer, microphone and guitar–was posted on the Fleet Foxes Facebook page with the caption "Step one". On June 16, 2013, an image of a broken mandolin with the caption "Step two" was posted. These images were later deleted, but led to speculation that the group was working on a new project, possibly a third studio album. On April 23, 2014, Robin Pecknold posted to the band's Facebook page that he had moved to New York to get his undergraduate degree at the Columbia University School of General Studies, a liberal arts college of Columbia University in New York City.
Crack-Up (2016–2018)
On May 18, 2016, while answering fan questions on his Instagram account, Pecknold confirmed that Fleet Foxes were working on new material with drummer and frequent collaborator Neal Morgan, best known for his work with Joanna Newsom and Bill Callahan. Describing Morgan as a "full Fox", Pecknold also admitted he "had to up my songwriting game for homeboy." However, when Pecknold posted a photo of the band minus Morgan on Instagram, he clarified that Morgan was one of three drummers involved in the new album, and that for the time being Fleet Foxes would consist of Pecknold, Skjelset, Wescott, Wargo, and Henderson as a "five-piece 'core band'", but they would still use a drummer for live performances and additional musicians for certain shows. Pecknold also said that the new material would be "a different vibe" compared to Fleet Foxes' previous output. On November 14, 2016, the band confirmed (via their Facebook account) that their new album was nearly complete.
On December 25, 2016, Pecknold posted a photo on his Instagram account which showed four albums in the Fleet Foxes' queue in his iTunes library: the first studio album Fleet Foxes; the Sun Giant EP; the second studio album Helplessness Blues; and an unknown third album entitled Ylajali. This led to speculation that the band's third album would: 1) be named after a character from Knut Hamsun's novel Hunger; 2) contain a photo from Japanese photographer Hiroshi Hamaya as the cover art; and 3) be released through Nonesuch Records, since the label's logo can be seen on the album cover.
In an email newsletter on January 1, 2017, production company Mason Jar Music confirmed that Fleet Foxes was working on a new album, since they contributed to the production. The album was called Crack-Up, after an F. Scott Fitzgerald essay of the same name. The album is a concept album and was recorded at Electric Lady Studios and Sear Sound in New York City.
On March 7, 2017, Fleet Foxes announced their third studio album, Crack-Up, released on June 16, 2017 via Nonesuch Records, a new label for the band. The lead single, "Third of May / Ōdaigahara", was released the same day. On April 4, 2017, the band posted the album trailer for the new album on YouTube. The trailer briefly presents various songs from the album and shows some images while they were recording them. The video was made by Sean Pecknold, Robin's brother.
On May 15, 2017, Fleet Foxes made their live return at the Wilma Theatre in Missoula, in which they performed nine songs from Crack-Up along with a selection of older material and a cover of "In the Morning" by Bee Gees. The band's current live line-up includes Matt Barrick of The Walkmen, who is also the most heavily featured of the three guest drummers who contributed to Crack-Up. Barrick has continued to play with the band, but has not become an official member. The new album also included the sounds of a brass quartet called The Westerlies.
On October 10, 2017, the band announced the release of a new EP, entitled The Electric Lady Session, for Black Friday Record Store Day 2017. The EP was released on November 24 of that year, and is a collection of live performances of four songs from Crack-Up, originally recorded for their session at Fordham University’s radio station WFUV. For Record Store Day 2018, the band released another EP, entitled "Crack Up (Choral Version)"/"In The Morning (Live in Switzerland)", in collaboration with the Icelandic female choir, Graduale Nobili.
Shore (2019–present)
Work began on a fourth studio album in late 2018, not long after the Crack-Up tour finished. On December 31, 2018, Pecknold teased several new demos online for an upcoming new album.
Recording began in September 2019 at Long Pond Studios in Hudson, New York, and continued at other studios including Electro-Vox Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Pecknold collaborated closely with recording engineer Beatriz Artola during the recording process. Upon the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pecknold moved to New York City to be able to continue working with Artola. At this point, the majority of the music of the album was well-conceptualized, but the lyrics eluded Pecknold. He eventually developed the lyrics in part over the course of long drives in the New York countryside, and worked to finish the album in July and August 2020. Due to a desire to release the album quickly, Pecknold did not enlist the help of bandmates Skjelset, Wescott, Wargo, or Henderson.
The album was announced in September 2020; titled Shore, it was released on September 22. The album received universal acclaim, scoring 87/100 on Metacritic, and was listed among the best albums of the year by numerous publications. It is nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
On December 6, 2021, Fleet Foxes announced the release of a new live album entitled A Very Lonely Solstice. The album was released digitally on December 10, 2021. Vinyl and CD releases are scheduled for release in spring 2022 through Anti-. A Very Lonely Solstice is a recording of a virtual, pre-recorded video concert performance that was livestreamed at 9pm ET on December 21, 2020, coinciding with the winter solstice. The concert featured Pecknold performing an acoustic solo set inside the St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn. The album features performances of songs from Shore and older Fleet Foxes songs, as well as cover versions of two tracks.
Members
Robin Pecknold – lead vocals, guitar (2006–present)
Skyler Skjelset – guitar, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Casey Wescott – keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Christian Wargo – bass guitar, guitar, backing vocals (2008–present)
Morgan Henderson – upright bass, guitar, woodwind, violin, percussion (2010–present)Former members Bryn Lumsden – bass guitar (2006)
Craig Curran – bass guitar, backing vocals (2006–2008)
Nicholas Peterson – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2006–2008)
Josh Tillman – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2008–2012)Former touring musicians'Matt Barrick – drums, percussion (2017–2018)
Timeline
Discography
Albums
Fleet Foxes (2008)
Helplessness Blues (2011)
Crack-Up (2017)
Shore (2020)
Live albums
A Very Lonely Solstice (2021)
EPs
The Fleet Foxes (2006)
Sun Giant (2008)
Compilation albums
First Collection 2006–2009'' (2018)
References
External links
Fleet Foxes at Nonesuch Records
Official YouTube
American indie folk groups
Musical groups from Seattle
Sub Pop artists
Musical quintets
2006 establishments in Washington, D.C.
Musical groups established in 2006
Bella Union artists
Anti- (record label) artists
Arts & Crafts Productions artists
Nonesuch Records artists | true | [
"Reach Out is an album recorded by the Four Tops, issued on Motown Records in July 1967. It was the final Four Tops LP to be produced by Motown's main songwriting and production team, Holland–Dozier–Holland, who departed the label in late 1967 over money disputes.\n\nThe group's most successful studio LP, Reach Out includes six of the Four Tops' Top 20 singles: the #1 hit \"Reach Out I'll Be There\", the Top 10 singles \"Standing in the Shadows of Love\", \"Bernadette\", the Top 20 \"7-Rooms of Gloom\", and their Top 20 covers of Tim Hardin's \"If I Were a Carpenter\" and the Left Banke's \"Walk Away Renée\", both of which reached the UK Top 10.\n\nRounding out the LP are a pair of Monkees covers (\"Last Train to Clarksville\" and \"I'm a Believer\"), a cover of The Association's \"Cherish\", and the originals \"Wonderful Baby\" and \"What Else Is There to Do (But Think About You)\". Reach Out was followed one month later by a Four Tops' Greatest Hits album, which contained all of the group's hit singles to that point.\n\nTrack listing\nAll tracks produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier, except for \"Wonderful Baby\", produced by Smokey Robinson; and \"What Else is There to Do (But Think About You)\", produced by Clarence Paul.\n\n\"Reach Out I'll Be There\" (Holland–Dozier–Holland)\n\"Walk Away Renée\" (Michael Brown, Bob Calilli, Tony Sansone)\n\"7-Rooms of Gloom\" (Holland-Dozier-Holland)\n\"If I Were a Carpenter\" (Tim Hardin)\n\"Last Train to Clarksville\" (Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart)\n\"I'll Turn to Stone\" (Holland-Dozier-Holland, R. Dean Taylor)\n\"I'm a Believer\" (Neil Diamond)\n\"Standing in the Shadows of Love\" (Holland-Dozier-Holland)\n\"Bernadette\" (Holland-Dozier-Holland)\n\"Cherish\" (Terry Kirkman)\n\"Wonderful Baby\" (Smokey Robinson)\n\"What Else Is There to Do (But Think About You)\" (Stevie Wonder, Clarence Paul, Morris Broadnax)\n\nPersonnel\nLevi Stubbs - lead vocals\nAbdul \"Duke\" Fakir, Renaldo \"Obie\" Benson, Lawrence Payton, The Andantes - backing vocals\nThe Funk Brothers - instrumentation\nJames Meese - cover artwork\n\nLegacy\nBoth \"Reach Out I'll Be There\" and \"Standing in the Shadows of Love\" were recorded for inclusion on the album Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5, with \"Reach Out\" being released on the box set Soulsation!\n\nCritical Reception/Accolades\nReach Out was ranked number 429 in Rolling Stone magazine's 2020 edition of \"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time\" list.\n\nReferences\n\n1967 albums\nFour Tops albums\nAlbums produced by Smokey Robinson\nAlbums produced by Clarence Paul\nAlbums produced by Brian Holland\nAlbums produced by Lamont Dozier\nAlbums recorded at Hitsville U.S.A.\nMotown albums",
"Send You is the first studio album by Sneaky Feelings. It was released in 1983 via Flying Nun Records.\n\nProduction\nThe album was recorded in four days, in a minimalist fashion.\n\nCritical reception\nAllMusic wrote that the album \"makes a strong case that Sneaky Feelings were among the best pop bands of the '80s, no matter what part of the world they came from or what label released their records.\" PopMatters wrote that \"the deft songwriting of Send You is not entirely showcased considering the label’s limited recording resources at the time, so most of the multi-tracked harmonies on display ... are unfortunately obscured.\" Perfect Sound Forever wrote that Send You \"remains a gem, with songs like 'Throwing Stones' and 'Someone Else's Eyes' crystallizing the (often oversimplified) notion of a 'Dunedin Sound,' an identifiable jangle that hearkened back to the great guitar pop of the '60's.\"\n\nTrack listing\nSide A\nWaiting For Touchdown\nThrowing Stones\nStrangers Again\nSomeone Else's Eyes\n\nSide B\nNot To Take Sides\nP.I.T. Song\nWon't Change\nEverything I Want\n\nBonus tracks on 1992 CD version\nNot To Take Sides (Reprise) \nReady Or Not \nCry You Out Of My Eyes \nMaybe You Need To Come Back\n\nPersonnel\nKat Tyrie - bass guitar, organ\nMartin Durrant - drums, vocals, synthesizer\nMatthew Bannister - guitar, vocals, organ\nDavid Pine - guitar, vocals, vibraphone\nAndrew Hubbard - percussion\n\nReferences\n\n1983 debut albums\nFlying Nun Records albums\nSneaky Feelings albums"
]
|
[
"Fleet Foxes",
"Formation and early years (2005-06)",
"What happen in 2005?",
"Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes.",
"What happen in 2006",
"Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP.",
"What was the title of their album",
"the self-released Fleet Foxes EP.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Originally going by the name \"The Pineapples\", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon \"Fleet Foxes\",",
"Did they go on tour",
"I don't know.",
"What happen in formation",
"Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar.",
"What else happen in 2005",
"The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals,",
"What else stood out to you?",
"Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group."
]
| C_69d4d0e356d64e7587ee8769610ecaa4_1 | What else made the fleet foxes popular | 9 | Besides Fleet Foxes's music, what else made Fleet Foxes popular? | Fleet Foxes | Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both attended Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and soon became close friends. Pecknold and Skjelset bonded over a mutual appreciation of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and began making music together. Their parents influenced their musical tastes early on--Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. The two shared an interest in the music of Dylan and Brian Wilson. Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes. Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", suggesting that it was "evocative of some weird English activity like fox hunting". Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, Bryn Lumsden on bass and Nicholas Peterson on drums and backing vocals. Pecknold's late-sixties pop style caught the attention of the Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. Ek was impressed with the band's songwriting, and on hearing Pecknold for the first time, noted, "It was obvious he had talent coming out of his ass." By late 2006 the Seattle press began to take notice of the band; Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. By the end of the year, Lumsden had been replaced on bass by Craig Curran, who would also handle many of the band's vocal harmonies. With growing popularity on the local circuit, the band set about making their first album in early 2007, spending time in the studio with producer Ek in addition to recording material at home. However, funds for recording were tight, so the band members cobbled together what funds they had, which limited the time they had in the studio, and so the majority of the tracks were recorded in various band members' apartments, other spaces, or the basement of Pecknold's parents' house. CANNOTANSWER | Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. | Fleet Foxes is an American indie folk band formed in Seattle, Washington in 2006. The band consists of Robin Pecknold (vocals, guitar), Skyler Skjelset (guitar, mandolin, backing vocals), Casey Wescott (keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals), Christian Wargo (bass, guitar, backing vocals) and Morgan Henderson (upright bass, guitar, woodwinds, violin, percussion, saxophone).
Led by Pecknold, "Fleet Foxes" came to prominence in 2008 with the release of their second EP Sun Giant and their debut album Fleet Foxes on Sub Pop. The band went to release the studio albums Helplessness Blues (2011), Crack-Up (2017), and Shore (2020), all of which received widespread acclaim. Though the band has received modest commercial success, their work has been highly hailed by the music critics, who have praised their lyricism, somber productions, and often noted the band's use of refined instrumentation and vocal harmonies. The band's eponymous debut album is ranked by the Rolling Stone amongst the best albums of the decade, as well being included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The band has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, the first for Best Folk Album in 2012 for Helplessness Blues and the second for Best Alternative Music Album in 2022 for Shore.
History
Formation and early years (2005–06)
Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both attended Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and soon became close friends. Pecknold and Skjelset bonded over an appreciation of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and began making music together. Their parents influenced their musical tastes early on—Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. The two shared an interest in the music of Dylan and Brian Wilson. Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes.
Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", suggesting that it was "evocative of some weird English activity like fox hunting". Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, Bryn Lumsden on bass and Nicholas Peterson on drums and backing vocals.
Pecknold's late-sixties pop style caught the attention of the Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. Ek was impressed with the band's songwriting, and on hearing Pecknold for the first time, noted, "It was obvious he had talent coming out of his ass." By late 2006 the Seattle press began to take notice of the band; Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. By the end of the year, Lumsden had been replaced on bass by Craig Curran, who would also handle many of the band's vocal harmonies.
With growing popularity on the local circuit, the band set about making their first album in early 2007, spending time in the studio with producer Ek in addition to recording material at home. However, funds for recording were tight, so the band members cobbled together what funds they had, which limited the time they had in the studio, and so the majority of the tracks were recorded in various band members' apartments, other spaces, or the basement of Pecknold's parents' house.
Sun Giant and Fleet Foxes (2007–08)
Fleet Foxes were becoming increasingly popular and by late 2007, they had attracted over a quarter of a million song plays over two months on their Myspace site. Although the band had not released any of their recordings, they benefited from word of mouth exposure and their success soon translated into a record deal, signing with Warner Music subsidiary record label Sub Pop on January 18, 2008. The band's frontman, Robin Pecknold, attributes much of their success and popularity to illegal file sharing.
The band tracked their second EP, Sun Giant, at Bear Creek Studio and performed overdubs and mixed at Seattle's Avast! Recording Co., around the same time in preparation for upcoming tours. Fleet Foxes began their spring tour with another Northwest band Blitzen Trapper on February 28, 2008. Before the recording of the EP, bassist Curran was replaced by Christian Wargo, whose voice, like that of his predecessor, would become an important part of the band's harmony blend. The band's performances, first at the SXSW festival in March 2008, and then the Sasquatch! festival in May 2008, moved the band into the public consciousness, notably attracting attention from the European press for the first time.
Sun Giant was released internationally on April 8, 2008 and the group's brand of folk, rock and pop, marked by their use of vocal harmonies, was well received by the press. Despite the warm critical reception, the group said that the EP did not represent their full ambitions, serving merely as a CD to sell while on tour. In May 2008, the band chose to extend their North American and European tour until September in support of their forthcoming album. At this time Josh Tillman replaced Peterson on drums and backing vocals. Their first full-length album, Fleet Foxes, was released shortly afterwards on June 3, 2008. The album achieved similar critical success as the previous EP. Fleet Foxes received four out of five stars from Rolling Stone, which compared it to the likes of the Beach Boys, Animal Collective, and Crosby, Stills & Nash, and a 9.0 out of 10 in a review by Pitchfork Media, sharing the website's album of the year rank with the Sun Giant EP. The Guardian was particularly complimentary, awarding the album five stars and declaring it "a landmark in American music — an instant classic". On June 24, 2008, Fleet Foxes went to No. 1 on the CMJ Radio 200 Chart. The album achieved an average rating of 87/100 from 30 critic reviews on the aggregator website Metacritic.
While the group enjoyed moderate success in the United States, Fleet Foxes was better received in Europe, selling over 200,000 copies in the five months following its release. The sales were matched with critical plaudits and their debut album won Uncut's first ever Music Award 2008 prize. Uncut'''s editor, Allan Jones, said the album "showed impeccable musicianship, and although you could trace its antecedents, it sounded totally unique. Fleet Foxes was just a glorious debut." The band sold out music venues for their tours of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, reaffirming their growing popularity.Sauma, Luiza (December 7, 2008). "Fleet Foxes: Are a hairy bunch of young folk-rockers inventing a new sound of Seattle?", The Independent. Retrieved on January 19, 2009.
At the end of 2008, Fleet Foxes was rated album of the year by Billboards Critic's Choice and in Metacritic's end of year best album round-up it appeared in 17 lists, topping six of them. Furthermore, it had sold over 408,000 copies in North America and over 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom, making it the first gold certificate record for UK label Bella Union. Their growing profile enabled the band to make televised appearances, playing on Vincent Moon's La Blogotheque in December 2008 and on Saturday Night Live the following January. In 2009, they toured in Europe to favorable reviews; the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant said their show in Paradiso induced goosebumps. In 2008 and 2009, the band played globally ending the tour in September with a final European leg.
Helplessness Blues (2009–12)
Pecknold said that he would have liked the album to be released in 2009; however, the band's touring schedule delayed rehearsals of the new songs until February 2009. These sessions took place in a rented house outside Seattle, but were mostly scrapped, losing the band $60,000 of their own money. Further delays ensued because the drummer, Tillman, was scheduled to play a solo tour in Europe and North America throughout the 2009–10 winter. Pecknold later sent some demos to producer Phil Ek and expressed the hope that the second LP would emerge in late 2010.
In December 2009, Pecknold said he wanted the new LP to sound "less poppy, less upbeat and more groove-based". He referenced the 12-string guitar sound from Roy Harper's folk album Stormcock, saying, "That will be the primary sonic distancing from the last record." He wanted the band to record very quickly, with "vocal takes in one go, so even if there are fuck-ups, I want them to be on there. I want there to be guitar mistakes. I want there to be not totally flawless vocals. I want to record it and have that kind of cohesive sound. Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, to me, is the best-sounding album because it sounds like there were only six hours in the universe for that album to be recorded in. So I want it to have that feeling." The band eventually began recording in April 2010 in various locations (including West Hurley, New York) under the label Reciprocal Recording and decided to scrap the earlier idea of a fast recording (though according to the band many of the initial vocals were done in one take). The album features a new six-piece band line up, with the addition of the former Blood Brothers bassist Morgan Henderson on upright bass and woodwind instruments.
The album, Helplessness Blues, was released on May 3, 2011 with a cover illustrated by the Seattle artist Toby Liebowitz and painted by Christopher Alderson. The title track was released via free download on January 31, 2011, and the album's fourth track, "Battery Kinzie", was premiered in the UK on Zane Lowe's radio show on March 22, 2011. The Sub Pop record label released a downloadable music video of the track "Grown Ocean", with footage of the album's recording, on its website in support of the album. A 12" vinyl double A-side single of "Helplessness Blues" and "Grown Ocean" was released for Record Store Day on April 16, 2011. On November 1, 2011, Pecknold's brother, Sean Pecknold, released the official music video for "The Shrine / An Argument".
Helplessness Blues was nominated as Best Folk Album at the 2012 Grammy Awards, held February 12, 2012.
Departure of Tillman and hiatus (2012–2016)
On January 18, 2012, after the band had finished touring for the album, drummer Tillman announced that he had left the band. He would go on to reinvent himself and record several albums as Father John Misty, notable for his ironic sense of humor in lyrics and media as well as often criticizing both the record industry and society in interviews and on stage.
In October 2020, Pecknold reflected on Tillman's departure during a Reddit AMA: "[Josh] "quit" the band after recording drums for Helplessness, got into narcotics and made his first Father John Misty album while I was making Helplessness in Seattle. Then Sub Pop offered to put out his album, but only if he delayed it for a year or so and toured Helplessness with us. Which we all weakly agreed to going through with, but it quickly became obvious he'd rather have just been doing that project instead, and I would have rathered that as well. So that tour I had to endure being around a lot of substance abuse, sabotaged shows, just general ill treatment, shit-talking, all while paying him for songs he didn't have anything to do with. It sucked!"
On June 15, 2013, an image of a home recording set-up–including a laptop computer, microphone and guitar–was posted on the Fleet Foxes Facebook page with the caption "Step one". On June 16, 2013, an image of a broken mandolin with the caption "Step two" was posted. These images were later deleted, but led to speculation that the group was working on a new project, possibly a third studio album. On April 23, 2014, Robin Pecknold posted to the band's Facebook page that he had moved to New York to get his undergraduate degree at the Columbia University School of General Studies, a liberal arts college of Columbia University in New York City.
Crack-Up (2016–2018)
On May 18, 2016, while answering fan questions on his Instagram account, Pecknold confirmed that Fleet Foxes were working on new material with drummer and frequent collaborator Neal Morgan, best known for his work with Joanna Newsom and Bill Callahan. Describing Morgan as a "full Fox", Pecknold also admitted he "had to up my songwriting game for homeboy." However, when Pecknold posted a photo of the band minus Morgan on Instagram, he clarified that Morgan was one of three drummers involved in the new album, and that for the time being Fleet Foxes would consist of Pecknold, Skjelset, Wescott, Wargo, and Henderson as a "five-piece 'core band'", but they would still use a drummer for live performances and additional musicians for certain shows. Pecknold also said that the new material would be "a different vibe" compared to Fleet Foxes' previous output. On November 14, 2016, the band confirmed (via their Facebook account) that their new album was nearly complete.
On December 25, 2016, Pecknold posted a photo on his Instagram account which showed four albums in the Fleet Foxes' queue in his iTunes library: the first studio album Fleet Foxes; the Sun Giant EP; the second studio album Helplessness Blues; and an unknown third album entitled Ylajali. This led to speculation that the band's third album would: 1) be named after a character from Knut Hamsun's novel Hunger; 2) contain a photo from Japanese photographer Hiroshi Hamaya as the cover art; and 3) be released through Nonesuch Records, since the label's logo can be seen on the album cover.
In an email newsletter on January 1, 2017, production company Mason Jar Music confirmed that Fleet Foxes was working on a new album, since they contributed to the production. The album was called Crack-Up, after an F. Scott Fitzgerald essay of the same name. The album is a concept album and was recorded at Electric Lady Studios and Sear Sound in New York City.
On March 7, 2017, Fleet Foxes announced their third studio album, Crack-Up, released on June 16, 2017 via Nonesuch Records, a new label for the band. The lead single, "Third of May / Ōdaigahara", was released the same day. On April 4, 2017, the band posted the album trailer for the new album on YouTube. The trailer briefly presents various songs from the album and shows some images while they were recording them. The video was made by Sean Pecknold, Robin's brother.
On May 15, 2017, Fleet Foxes made their live return at the Wilma Theatre in Missoula, in which they performed nine songs from Crack-Up along with a selection of older material and a cover of "In the Morning" by Bee Gees. The band's current live line-up includes Matt Barrick of The Walkmen, who is also the most heavily featured of the three guest drummers who contributed to Crack-Up. Barrick has continued to play with the band, but has not become an official member. The new album also included the sounds of a brass quartet called The Westerlies.
On October 10, 2017, the band announced the release of a new EP, entitled The Electric Lady Session, for Black Friday Record Store Day 2017. The EP was released on November 24 of that year, and is a collection of live performances of four songs from Crack-Up, originally recorded for their session at Fordham University’s radio station WFUV. For Record Store Day 2018, the band released another EP, entitled "Crack Up (Choral Version)"/"In The Morning (Live in Switzerland)", in collaboration with the Icelandic female choir, Graduale Nobili.
Shore (2019–present)
Work began on a fourth studio album in late 2018, not long after the Crack-Up tour finished. On December 31, 2018, Pecknold teased several new demos online for an upcoming new album.
Recording began in September 2019 at Long Pond Studios in Hudson, New York, and continued at other studios including Electro-Vox Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Pecknold collaborated closely with recording engineer Beatriz Artola during the recording process. Upon the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pecknold moved to New York City to be able to continue working with Artola. At this point, the majority of the music of the album was well-conceptualized, but the lyrics eluded Pecknold. He eventually developed the lyrics in part over the course of long drives in the New York countryside, and worked to finish the album in July and August 2020. Due to a desire to release the album quickly, Pecknold did not enlist the help of bandmates Skjelset, Wescott, Wargo, or Henderson.
The album was announced in September 2020; titled Shore, it was released on September 22. The album received universal acclaim, scoring 87/100 on Metacritic, and was listed among the best albums of the year by numerous publications. It is nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
On December 6, 2021, Fleet Foxes announced the release of a new live album entitled A Very Lonely Solstice. The album was released digitally on December 10, 2021. Vinyl and CD releases are scheduled for release in spring 2022 through Anti-. A Very Lonely Solstice is a recording of a virtual, pre-recorded video concert performance that was livestreamed at 9pm ET on December 21, 2020, coinciding with the winter solstice. The concert featured Pecknold performing an acoustic solo set inside the St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn. The album features performances of songs from Shore and older Fleet Foxes songs, as well as cover versions of two tracks.
Members
Robin Pecknold – lead vocals, guitar (2006–present)
Skyler Skjelset – guitar, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Casey Wescott – keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Christian Wargo – bass guitar, guitar, backing vocals (2008–present)
Morgan Henderson – upright bass, guitar, woodwind, violin, percussion (2010–present)Former members Bryn Lumsden – bass guitar (2006)
Craig Curran – bass guitar, backing vocals (2006–2008)
Nicholas Peterson – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2006–2008)
Josh Tillman – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2008–2012)Former touring musicians'Matt Barrick – drums, percussion (2017–2018)
Timeline
Discography
Albums
Fleet Foxes (2008)
Helplessness Blues (2011)
Crack-Up (2017)
Shore (2020)
Live albums
A Very Lonely Solstice (2021)
EPs
The Fleet Foxes (2006)
Sun Giant (2008)
Compilation albums
First Collection 2006–2009'' (2018)
References
External links
Fleet Foxes at Nonesuch Records
Official YouTube
American indie folk groups
Musical groups from Seattle
Sub Pop artists
Musical quintets
2006 establishments in Washington, D.C.
Musical groups established in 2006
Bella Union artists
Anti- (record label) artists
Arts & Crafts Productions artists
Nonesuch Records artists | true | [
"The Fleet Foxes, also known simply as Fleet Foxes, is a self-released EP by the Seattle, Washington-based band Fleet Foxes. Sold by the band at local shows in Seattle, only 50 copies were made. It was released in the fall of 2006 around the Seattle area, and its success led to the eventual signing to Sub Pop records. The album was produced and recorded by veteran Seattle producer Phil Ek. It was remastered and reissued in 2018 as part of the First Collection 2006–2009 boxed set.\n\nTrack listing\n\nReferences \n\nFleet Foxes albums\n2006 debut EPs\nAlbums produced by Phil Ek\nSelf-released EPs",
"The discography of Fleet Foxes, a Seattle-based indie folk and folk rock band, consists of four studio albums, three extended plays (EP), and nine singles. Fleet Foxes was formed in 2006 by vocalist Robin Pecknold and guitarist Skyler Skjelset, and were then joined by keyboardist Casey Wescott, bassist Bryn Lumsden, and drummer Nicholas Peterson.\n\nWith producer Phil Ek, the band recorded their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. The group subsequently signed with acclaimed UK indie label Bella Union in Europe and Warner Music subsidiary record label Sub Pop for the USA, early in 2008. The band's performance at the South by Southwest festival in March caught the attention of the international press; a month later, Fleet Foxes released their second EP, Sun Giant, to critical acclaim. Their first full-length album, Fleet Foxes, was released in June and peaked at number three in the United Kingdom, where it was certified platinum. The album was also certified gold in the US. \"Mykonos\", a single from Sun Giant, was released in 2009 and reached the top 20 in Belgium and Scotland, and peaked at 51 in the UK.\n\nFleet Foxes' second album, Helplessness Blues, was released in 2011 and entered the top 10 in the US, Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the UK. It was nominated in the Best Folk Album category at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. After a six-year hiatus, Fleet Foxes released a lyric video for the song \"Third of May / Ōdaigahara\" in March 2017. The band's third studio album, Crack-Up, was released June 16, 2017 on Nonesuch Records. On September 22, 2020, their fourth album, Shore, was released via Anti- Records at exactly 13:31 UCT to coincide with the September equinox.\n\nAlbums\n\nStudio albums\n\nLive albums\n\nCompilation albums\n\nExtended plays\n\nSingles\n\nAs lead artist\n\nAs featured artist\n\nMusic videos\n\nTraditional videos\n\nLyric videos\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official website\n Fleet Foxes at AllMusic\n \n \n\nDiscographies of American artists\nFolk music discographies"
]
|
[
"Fleet Foxes",
"Formation and early years (2005-06)",
"What happen in 2005?",
"Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes.",
"What happen in 2006",
"Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP.",
"What was the title of their album",
"the self-released Fleet Foxes EP.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Originally going by the name \"The Pineapples\", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon \"Fleet Foxes\",",
"Did they go on tour",
"I don't know.",
"What happen in formation",
"Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar.",
"What else happen in 2005",
"The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals,",
"What else stood out to you?",
"Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group.",
"What else made the fleet foxes popular",
"Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity."
]
| C_69d4d0e356d64e7587ee8769610ecaa4_1 | Did they have any other albums | 10 | Besides Fleet Foxes EP, did Fleet Foxes have any other albums | Fleet Foxes | Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both attended Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and soon became close friends. Pecknold and Skjelset bonded over a mutual appreciation of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and began making music together. Their parents influenced their musical tastes early on--Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. The two shared an interest in the music of Dylan and Brian Wilson. Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes. Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", suggesting that it was "evocative of some weird English activity like fox hunting". Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, Bryn Lumsden on bass and Nicholas Peterson on drums and backing vocals. Pecknold's late-sixties pop style caught the attention of the Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. Ek was impressed with the band's songwriting, and on hearing Pecknold for the first time, noted, "It was obvious he had talent coming out of his ass." By late 2006 the Seattle press began to take notice of the band; Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. By the end of the year, Lumsden had been replaced on bass by Craig Curran, who would also handle many of the band's vocal harmonies. With growing popularity on the local circuit, the band set about making their first album in early 2007, spending time in the studio with producer Ek in addition to recording material at home. However, funds for recording were tight, so the band members cobbled together what funds they had, which limited the time they had in the studio, and so the majority of the tracks were recorded in various band members' apartments, other spaces, or the basement of Pecknold's parents' house. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Fleet Foxes is an American indie folk band formed in Seattle, Washington in 2006. The band consists of Robin Pecknold (vocals, guitar), Skyler Skjelset (guitar, mandolin, backing vocals), Casey Wescott (keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals), Christian Wargo (bass, guitar, backing vocals) and Morgan Henderson (upright bass, guitar, woodwinds, violin, percussion, saxophone).
Led by Pecknold, "Fleet Foxes" came to prominence in 2008 with the release of their second EP Sun Giant and their debut album Fleet Foxes on Sub Pop. The band went to release the studio albums Helplessness Blues (2011), Crack-Up (2017), and Shore (2020), all of which received widespread acclaim. Though the band has received modest commercial success, their work has been highly hailed by the music critics, who have praised their lyricism, somber productions, and often noted the band's use of refined instrumentation and vocal harmonies. The band's eponymous debut album is ranked by the Rolling Stone amongst the best albums of the decade, as well being included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The band has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, the first for Best Folk Album in 2012 for Helplessness Blues and the second for Best Alternative Music Album in 2022 for Shore.
History
Formation and early years (2005–06)
Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both attended Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, and soon became close friends. Pecknold and Skjelset bonded over an appreciation of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and began making music together. Their parents influenced their musical tastes early on—Skjelset's mother Peggi was a keen listener to both Dylan and Hank Williams while Pecknold's father Greg was a member of The Fathoms, a local 1960s soul group. The two shared an interest in the music of Dylan and Brian Wilson. Pecknold played bass for Seattle's Dolour on a US tour in 2005, shortly before forming the first incarnation of Fleet Foxes.
Originally going by the name "The Pineapples", a name clash with another local band prompted a change and Pecknold decided upon "Fleet Foxes", suggesting that it was "evocative of some weird English activity like fox hunting". Pecknold took up the role of principal songwriter, both singing and playing guitar, while Skjelset played lead guitar. The original lineup was filled out by Casey Wescott on keyboards and backing vocals, Bryn Lumsden on bass and Nicholas Peterson on drums and backing vocals.
Pecknold's late-sixties pop style caught the attention of the Seattle producer Phil Ek and he helped them record their first demo in 2006, the self-released Fleet Foxes EP. Ek was impressed with the band's songwriting, and on hearing Pecknold for the first time, noted, "It was obvious he had talent coming out of his ass." By late 2006 the Seattle press began to take notice of the band; Tom Scanlon of the Seattle Times stated that he was impressed with the band's lyrics and musical maturity. By the end of the year, Lumsden had been replaced on bass by Craig Curran, who would also handle many of the band's vocal harmonies.
With growing popularity on the local circuit, the band set about making their first album in early 2007, spending time in the studio with producer Ek in addition to recording material at home. However, funds for recording were tight, so the band members cobbled together what funds they had, which limited the time they had in the studio, and so the majority of the tracks were recorded in various band members' apartments, other spaces, or the basement of Pecknold's parents' house.
Sun Giant and Fleet Foxes (2007–08)
Fleet Foxes were becoming increasingly popular and by late 2007, they had attracted over a quarter of a million song plays over two months on their Myspace site. Although the band had not released any of their recordings, they benefited from word of mouth exposure and their success soon translated into a record deal, signing with Warner Music subsidiary record label Sub Pop on January 18, 2008. The band's frontman, Robin Pecknold, attributes much of their success and popularity to illegal file sharing.
The band tracked their second EP, Sun Giant, at Bear Creek Studio and performed overdubs and mixed at Seattle's Avast! Recording Co., around the same time in preparation for upcoming tours. Fleet Foxes began their spring tour with another Northwest band Blitzen Trapper on February 28, 2008. Before the recording of the EP, bassist Curran was replaced by Christian Wargo, whose voice, like that of his predecessor, would become an important part of the band's harmony blend. The band's performances, first at the SXSW festival in March 2008, and then the Sasquatch! festival in May 2008, moved the band into the public consciousness, notably attracting attention from the European press for the first time.
Sun Giant was released internationally on April 8, 2008 and the group's brand of folk, rock and pop, marked by their use of vocal harmonies, was well received by the press. Despite the warm critical reception, the group said that the EP did not represent their full ambitions, serving merely as a CD to sell while on tour. In May 2008, the band chose to extend their North American and European tour until September in support of their forthcoming album. At this time Josh Tillman replaced Peterson on drums and backing vocals. Their first full-length album, Fleet Foxes, was released shortly afterwards on June 3, 2008. The album achieved similar critical success as the previous EP. Fleet Foxes received four out of five stars from Rolling Stone, which compared it to the likes of the Beach Boys, Animal Collective, and Crosby, Stills & Nash, and a 9.0 out of 10 in a review by Pitchfork Media, sharing the website's album of the year rank with the Sun Giant EP. The Guardian was particularly complimentary, awarding the album five stars and declaring it "a landmark in American music — an instant classic". On June 24, 2008, Fleet Foxes went to No. 1 on the CMJ Radio 200 Chart. The album achieved an average rating of 87/100 from 30 critic reviews on the aggregator website Metacritic.
While the group enjoyed moderate success in the United States, Fleet Foxes was better received in Europe, selling over 200,000 copies in the five months following its release. The sales were matched with critical plaudits and their debut album won Uncut's first ever Music Award 2008 prize. Uncut'''s editor, Allan Jones, said the album "showed impeccable musicianship, and although you could trace its antecedents, it sounded totally unique. Fleet Foxes was just a glorious debut." The band sold out music venues for their tours of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, reaffirming their growing popularity.Sauma, Luiza (December 7, 2008). "Fleet Foxes: Are a hairy bunch of young folk-rockers inventing a new sound of Seattle?", The Independent. Retrieved on January 19, 2009.
At the end of 2008, Fleet Foxes was rated album of the year by Billboards Critic's Choice and in Metacritic's end of year best album round-up it appeared in 17 lists, topping six of them. Furthermore, it had sold over 408,000 copies in North America and over 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom, making it the first gold certificate record for UK label Bella Union. Their growing profile enabled the band to make televised appearances, playing on Vincent Moon's La Blogotheque in December 2008 and on Saturday Night Live the following January. In 2009, they toured in Europe to favorable reviews; the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant said their show in Paradiso induced goosebumps. In 2008 and 2009, the band played globally ending the tour in September with a final European leg.
Helplessness Blues (2009–12)
Pecknold said that he would have liked the album to be released in 2009; however, the band's touring schedule delayed rehearsals of the new songs until February 2009. These sessions took place in a rented house outside Seattle, but were mostly scrapped, losing the band $60,000 of their own money. Further delays ensued because the drummer, Tillman, was scheduled to play a solo tour in Europe and North America throughout the 2009–10 winter. Pecknold later sent some demos to producer Phil Ek and expressed the hope that the second LP would emerge in late 2010.
In December 2009, Pecknold said he wanted the new LP to sound "less poppy, less upbeat and more groove-based". He referenced the 12-string guitar sound from Roy Harper's folk album Stormcock, saying, "That will be the primary sonic distancing from the last record." He wanted the band to record very quickly, with "vocal takes in one go, so even if there are fuck-ups, I want them to be on there. I want there to be guitar mistakes. I want there to be not totally flawless vocals. I want to record it and have that kind of cohesive sound. Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, to me, is the best-sounding album because it sounds like there were only six hours in the universe for that album to be recorded in. So I want it to have that feeling." The band eventually began recording in April 2010 in various locations (including West Hurley, New York) under the label Reciprocal Recording and decided to scrap the earlier idea of a fast recording (though according to the band many of the initial vocals were done in one take). The album features a new six-piece band line up, with the addition of the former Blood Brothers bassist Morgan Henderson on upright bass and woodwind instruments.
The album, Helplessness Blues, was released on May 3, 2011 with a cover illustrated by the Seattle artist Toby Liebowitz and painted by Christopher Alderson. The title track was released via free download on January 31, 2011, and the album's fourth track, "Battery Kinzie", was premiered in the UK on Zane Lowe's radio show on March 22, 2011. The Sub Pop record label released a downloadable music video of the track "Grown Ocean", with footage of the album's recording, on its website in support of the album. A 12" vinyl double A-side single of "Helplessness Blues" and "Grown Ocean" was released for Record Store Day on April 16, 2011. On November 1, 2011, Pecknold's brother, Sean Pecknold, released the official music video for "The Shrine / An Argument".
Helplessness Blues was nominated as Best Folk Album at the 2012 Grammy Awards, held February 12, 2012.
Departure of Tillman and hiatus (2012–2016)
On January 18, 2012, after the band had finished touring for the album, drummer Tillman announced that he had left the band. He would go on to reinvent himself and record several albums as Father John Misty, notable for his ironic sense of humor in lyrics and media as well as often criticizing both the record industry and society in interviews and on stage.
In October 2020, Pecknold reflected on Tillman's departure during a Reddit AMA: "[Josh] "quit" the band after recording drums for Helplessness, got into narcotics and made his first Father John Misty album while I was making Helplessness in Seattle. Then Sub Pop offered to put out his album, but only if he delayed it for a year or so and toured Helplessness with us. Which we all weakly agreed to going through with, but it quickly became obvious he'd rather have just been doing that project instead, and I would have rathered that as well. So that tour I had to endure being around a lot of substance abuse, sabotaged shows, just general ill treatment, shit-talking, all while paying him for songs he didn't have anything to do with. It sucked!"
On June 15, 2013, an image of a home recording set-up–including a laptop computer, microphone and guitar–was posted on the Fleet Foxes Facebook page with the caption "Step one". On June 16, 2013, an image of a broken mandolin with the caption "Step two" was posted. These images were later deleted, but led to speculation that the group was working on a new project, possibly a third studio album. On April 23, 2014, Robin Pecknold posted to the band's Facebook page that he had moved to New York to get his undergraduate degree at the Columbia University School of General Studies, a liberal arts college of Columbia University in New York City.
Crack-Up (2016–2018)
On May 18, 2016, while answering fan questions on his Instagram account, Pecknold confirmed that Fleet Foxes were working on new material with drummer and frequent collaborator Neal Morgan, best known for his work with Joanna Newsom and Bill Callahan. Describing Morgan as a "full Fox", Pecknold also admitted he "had to up my songwriting game for homeboy." However, when Pecknold posted a photo of the band minus Morgan on Instagram, he clarified that Morgan was one of three drummers involved in the new album, and that for the time being Fleet Foxes would consist of Pecknold, Skjelset, Wescott, Wargo, and Henderson as a "five-piece 'core band'", but they would still use a drummer for live performances and additional musicians for certain shows. Pecknold also said that the new material would be "a different vibe" compared to Fleet Foxes' previous output. On November 14, 2016, the band confirmed (via their Facebook account) that their new album was nearly complete.
On December 25, 2016, Pecknold posted a photo on his Instagram account which showed four albums in the Fleet Foxes' queue in his iTunes library: the first studio album Fleet Foxes; the Sun Giant EP; the second studio album Helplessness Blues; and an unknown third album entitled Ylajali. This led to speculation that the band's third album would: 1) be named after a character from Knut Hamsun's novel Hunger; 2) contain a photo from Japanese photographer Hiroshi Hamaya as the cover art; and 3) be released through Nonesuch Records, since the label's logo can be seen on the album cover.
In an email newsletter on January 1, 2017, production company Mason Jar Music confirmed that Fleet Foxes was working on a new album, since they contributed to the production. The album was called Crack-Up, after an F. Scott Fitzgerald essay of the same name. The album is a concept album and was recorded at Electric Lady Studios and Sear Sound in New York City.
On March 7, 2017, Fleet Foxes announced their third studio album, Crack-Up, released on June 16, 2017 via Nonesuch Records, a new label for the band. The lead single, "Third of May / Ōdaigahara", was released the same day. On April 4, 2017, the band posted the album trailer for the new album on YouTube. The trailer briefly presents various songs from the album and shows some images while they were recording them. The video was made by Sean Pecknold, Robin's brother.
On May 15, 2017, Fleet Foxes made their live return at the Wilma Theatre in Missoula, in which they performed nine songs from Crack-Up along with a selection of older material and a cover of "In the Morning" by Bee Gees. The band's current live line-up includes Matt Barrick of The Walkmen, who is also the most heavily featured of the three guest drummers who contributed to Crack-Up. Barrick has continued to play with the band, but has not become an official member. The new album also included the sounds of a brass quartet called The Westerlies.
On October 10, 2017, the band announced the release of a new EP, entitled The Electric Lady Session, for Black Friday Record Store Day 2017. The EP was released on November 24 of that year, and is a collection of live performances of four songs from Crack-Up, originally recorded for their session at Fordham University’s radio station WFUV. For Record Store Day 2018, the band released another EP, entitled "Crack Up (Choral Version)"/"In The Morning (Live in Switzerland)", in collaboration with the Icelandic female choir, Graduale Nobili.
Shore (2019–present)
Work began on a fourth studio album in late 2018, not long after the Crack-Up tour finished. On December 31, 2018, Pecknold teased several new demos online for an upcoming new album.
Recording began in September 2019 at Long Pond Studios in Hudson, New York, and continued at other studios including Electro-Vox Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Pecknold collaborated closely with recording engineer Beatriz Artola during the recording process. Upon the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pecknold moved to New York City to be able to continue working with Artola. At this point, the majority of the music of the album was well-conceptualized, but the lyrics eluded Pecknold. He eventually developed the lyrics in part over the course of long drives in the New York countryside, and worked to finish the album in July and August 2020. Due to a desire to release the album quickly, Pecknold did not enlist the help of bandmates Skjelset, Wescott, Wargo, or Henderson.
The album was announced in September 2020; titled Shore, it was released on September 22. The album received universal acclaim, scoring 87/100 on Metacritic, and was listed among the best albums of the year by numerous publications. It is nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
On December 6, 2021, Fleet Foxes announced the release of a new live album entitled A Very Lonely Solstice. The album was released digitally on December 10, 2021. Vinyl and CD releases are scheduled for release in spring 2022 through Anti-. A Very Lonely Solstice is a recording of a virtual, pre-recorded video concert performance that was livestreamed at 9pm ET on December 21, 2020, coinciding with the winter solstice. The concert featured Pecknold performing an acoustic solo set inside the St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn. The album features performances of songs from Shore and older Fleet Foxes songs, as well as cover versions of two tracks.
Members
Robin Pecknold – lead vocals, guitar (2006–present)
Skyler Skjelset – guitar, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Casey Wescott – keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Christian Wargo – bass guitar, guitar, backing vocals (2008–present)
Morgan Henderson – upright bass, guitar, woodwind, violin, percussion (2010–present)Former members Bryn Lumsden – bass guitar (2006)
Craig Curran – bass guitar, backing vocals (2006–2008)
Nicholas Peterson – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2006–2008)
Josh Tillman – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2008–2012)Former touring musicians'Matt Barrick – drums, percussion (2017–2018)
Timeline
Discography
Albums
Fleet Foxes (2008)
Helplessness Blues (2011)
Crack-Up (2017)
Shore (2020)
Live albums
A Very Lonely Solstice (2021)
EPs
The Fleet Foxes (2006)
Sun Giant (2008)
Compilation albums
First Collection 2006–2009'' (2018)
References
External links
Fleet Foxes at Nonesuch Records
Official YouTube
American indie folk groups
Musical groups from Seattle
Sub Pop artists
Musical quintets
2006 establishments in Washington, D.C.
Musical groups established in 2006
Bella Union artists
Anti- (record label) artists
Arts & Crafts Productions artists
Nonesuch Records artists | false | [
"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",
"This is the discography of the hard rock band Magnum, which is headed by vocalist Bob Catley and guitarist/songwriter Tony Clarkin. Originally formed around 1972 they released their first single in 1975 (a cover of Sweets for My Sweet that did not chart) and their first album Kingdom of Madness in 1978. They continued recording and releasing albums until 1995 when they split. However, they re-formed in 2001 and have released albums every few years since. Many compilations and live albums were released in the gap, as well as Bob and Tony forming Hard Rain before re-forming Magnum with long-time keyboard player Mark Stanway.\n\nStudio albums\n\nLive albums\n\nCompilation albums\n\nThere have also been many other compilations across various labels.\n\nCharted singles\n\nVideos and DVDs\n\nReferences\n\nDiscographies of British artists\nRock music group discographies"
]
|
[
"Fred Hampton",
"Chicago"
]
| C_8919227193b845118bd28af3621b8eee_1 | When did he first go to Chicago? | 1 | When did Fred Hampton first go to Chicago? | Fred Hampton | About the same time that Hampton was successfully organizing young African-Americans for the NAACP, the Black Panther Party (BPP) started rising to national prominence. Hampton was quickly attracted to the Black Panthers' approach, which was based on a ten-point program that integrated black self-determination on the basis of Maoism. Hampton joined the Party and relocated to downtown Chicago, and in November 1968 he joined the Party's nascent Illinois chapter--founded by Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizer Bob Brown in late 1967. Over the next year, Hampton and his associates made a number of significant achievements in Chicago. Perhaps his most important accomplishment was his brokering of a nonaggression pact between Chicago's most powerful street gangs. Emphasizing that racial and ethnic conflict between gangs would only keep its members entrenched in poverty, Hampton strove to forge a class-conscious, multi-racial alliance between the BPP, the Young Patriots Organization, and the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez. Fred Hampton met the Young Lords in the Chicago Lincoln Park Neighborhood, the day after the Young Lords were in the news after they had occupied a police community workshop meeting, held on the second floor hall of the Chicago 18th District Police Station. Later, the Rainbow Coalition was joined nationwide by the Students for a Democratic Society ("SDS"), the Brown Berets, and the Red Guard Party. In May 1969, Hampton called a press conference to announce that this "rainbow coalition" had formed. It was a phrase coined by Hampton and made popular over the years by Reverend Jesse Jackson, who eventually appropriated the name in forming his own, unrelated, coalition, Rainbow/PUSH. Hampton's organizing skills, substantial oratorical gifts, and personal charisma allowed him to rise quickly in the Black Panthers. Once he became leader of the Chicago chapter, he organized weekly rallies, worked closely with the BPP's local People's Clinic, taught political education classes every morning at 6am, and launched a project for community supervision of the police. Hampton was also instrumental in the BPP's Free Breakfast Program. When Brown left the Party with Stokely Carmichael in the FBI-fomented SNCC/Panther split, Hampton assumed chairmanship of the Illinois state BPP, automatically making him a national BPP deputy chairman. As the Panther leadership across the country began to be decimated by the impact of the FBI's COINTELPRO, Hampton's prominence in the national hierarchy increased rapidly and dramatically. Eventually, Hampton was in line to be appointed to the Party's Central Committee's Chief of Staff. He would have achieved this position had it not been for his death on the morning of December 4, 1969. CANNOTANSWER | Hampton joined the Party and relocated to downtown Chicago, and in November 1968 | Fredrick Allen Hampton Sr. (August 30, 1948 – December 4, 1969) was an American activist. He came to prominence in Chicago as deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party, and chair of the Illinois chapter. As a progressive African American, he founded the antiracist, anticlass Rainbow Coalition, a prominent multicultural political organization that initially included the Black Panthers, Young Patriots (which organized poor whites), and the Young Lords (which organized Hispanics), and an alliance among major Chicago street gangs to help them end infighting and work for social change. A Marxist–Leninist, Hampton considered fascism the greatest threat, saying, "nothing is more important than stopping fascism, because fascism will stop us all.”
In 1967, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) identified Hampton as a radical threat. It tried to subvert his activities in Chicago, sowing disinformation among black progressive groups and placing a counterintelligence operative in the local Panthers organization. In December 1969, Hampton was drugged, shot and killed in his bed during a predawn raid at his Chicago apartment by a tactical unit of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, who received aid from the Chicago Police Department and the FBI leading up to the attack. Law enforcement sprayed more than 90 gunshots throughout the apartment; the occupants fired once. During the raid, Panther Mark Clark was also killed and several others were seriously wounded. In January 1970, the Cook County Coroner held an inquest; the jury concluded that Hampton's and Clark's deaths were justifiable homicides.
A civil lawsuit was later filed on behalf of the survivors and the relatives of Hampton and Clark. It was resolved in 1982 by a settlement of $1.85 million (equivalent to $ million in ); the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the federal government each paid one-third to a group of nine plaintiffs. Given revelations about the illegal COINTELPRO program and documents associated with the killings, many scholars now consider Hampton's death an assassination at the FBI's initiative.
Biography
Early life and youth
Hampton was born on August 30, 1948, in present-day Summit Argo, Illinois (generally shortened to Summit), and moved with his parents to another Chicago suburb, Maywood, at age 10. His parents had come from Louisiana as part of the Great Migration of African Americans in the early 20th century out of the South. They both worked at the Argo Starch Company, a corn starch processor. As a youth, Hampton was gifted both in the classroom and athletically, and hoped to play center field for the New York Yankees. Fred couldn't accept injustice anywhere. At 10 years old, he started hosting weekend breakfasts for other children from the neighborhood, cooking the meals himself in what could be described as a precursor to the Panthers’ free breakfast program. In high school, he led walkouts protesting black students' exclusion from the competition for homecoming queen and calling on officials to hire more black teachers and administrators. Hampton graduated from Proviso East High School with honors and varsity letters, and a Junior Achievement Award, in 1966. He enrolled at Triton Junior College in nearby River Grove, Illinois, where he majored in pre-law. He planned to become more familiar with the legal system to use it as a defense against police. When he and fellow Black Panthers later followed police in his community supervision program, watching out for police brutality, they used his knowledge of law as a defense.
In 1966, Fred Hampton turned 18. At that time, he started identifying with the Third World socialist struggles, as well as reading communist revolutionaries Che Guevara, Ho Chi Minh, and Mao Zedong. Shortly after, Hampton urged not only peace in the Vietnam War, but also North Vietnam's victory.
Hampton became active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and assumed leadership of its West Suburban Branch's Youth Council. In his capacity as an NAACP youth organizer, he demonstrated natural leadership abilities: from a community of 27,000, he was able to muster a youth group 500-members strong. He worked to get more and better recreational facilities established in the neighborhoods and to improve educational resources for Maywood's impoverished black community.
Activity in Chicago
At about the same time that Hampton was successfully organizing young African Americans for the NAACP, the Black Panther Party (BPP) was rising to national prominence. Hampton was quickly attracted to the Black Panthers' approach, which was based on a Ten-Point Program that integrated black self-determination with class and economic critique from Maoism. He joined the party and relocated to downtown Chicago. In November 1968, he joined the party's nascent Illinois chapter, founded in late 1967 by Bob Brown, a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizer.
In 1968, Hampton was accused of assaulting an ice cream truck driver, stealing $71 worth of ice cream bars, and giving them to kids in the street. He was convicted in May 1969 and sentenced to two to five years in prison. Writer Frank B. Wilderson III places this incident within the framework of COINTELPRO efforts to disrupt the Black Panthers of Chicago, in this case by "leveling [...] trumped-up charges".
In 1969, Hampton, now deputy chairman of the BPP Illinois chapter, conducted a meeting condemning sexism. After 1969, the party considered sexism counter-revolutionary. In 1970, about 40–70% of party members were women.
Over the next year, Hampton and his friends and associates achieved a number of successes in Chicago. Perhaps the most important was a nonaggression pact among Chicago's most powerful street gangs. Emphasizing that racial and ethnic conflict among gangs would only keep its members entrenched in poverty, Hampton strove to forge an anti-racist, class-conscious, multiracial alliance among the BPP, the Young Patriots Organization, and the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez, leading to the Rainbow Coalition.
Hampton met the Young Lords in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood the day after they were in the news for occupying a police community workshop at the Chicago 18th District Police Station. He was arrested twice with Jimenez at the Wicker Park Welfare Office, and both were charged with "mob action" at a peaceful picket of the office. Later, the Rainbow Coalition was joined nationwide by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Brown Berets, AIM, and the Red Guard Party. In May 1969, Hampton called a press conference to announce that the coalition had formed. What the coalition groups would do was based on common action. Some of their joint issues were poverty, anti-racism, corruption, police brutality, and substandard housing. If there was a protest or a demonstration, the groups would attend the event and support each other.
Jeffrey Haas, who was Hampton's lawyer, has praised some of Hampton's politics and his success in unifying movements. But Haas criticizes the way Hampton and the BPP organized in a pyramidal/vertical structure, contrasting this with the horizontal structure of Black Lives Matter: "They may also have picked up on the vulnerability of a hierarchical movement where you have one leader, which makes the movement very vulnerable if that leader is imprisoned, killed, or otherwise compromised. I think the fact that Black Lives Matter says 'We're leaderfull, not leaderless' perhaps makes them less vulnerable to this kind of government assault."
Hampton rose quickly in the Black Panthers, based on his organizing skills, oratorical gifts, and charisma. Once he became leader of the Chicago chapter, he organized weekly rallies, participated in strikes, worked closely with the BPP's local People's Clinic, taught political education classes every morning at 6 am, and launched a project for community supervision of the police. Hampton was also instrumental in the BPP's Free Breakfast Program. When Bob Brown left the party with Kwame Ture, in the FBI-fomented SNCC/Panther split, Hampton assumed chairmanship of the Illinois state BPP. This automatically made him a national BPP deputy chairman. As the FBI's COINTELPRO began to decimate the nationwide Panther leadership, Hampton's prominence in the national hierarchy increased rapidly and dramatically. Eventually he was in line to be appointed to the party's Central Committee Chief of Staff. He would have achieved this position had he not been killed on December 4, 1969.
FBI investigation
The FBI believed that Hampton's leadership and talent for communication made him a major threat among Black Panther leaders. It began keeping close tabs on his activities. Investigations have shown that FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover was determined to prevent the formation of a cohesive Black movement in the United States. Hoover believed the Panthers, Young Patriots, Young Lords, and similar radical coalitions that Hampton forged in Chicago were a stepping stone to the rise of a revolution that could cause a radical change in the U.S. government.
The FBI opened a file on Hampton in 1967. It tapped Hampton's mother's phone in February 1968 and by May placed Hampton on the bureau's "Agitator Index" as a "key militant leader". In late 1968, the Racial Matters squad of the FBI's Chicago field office recruited William O'Neal to work with it; he had recently been arrested twice for interstate car theft and impersonating a federal officer. In exchange for having his felony charges dropped and receiving a monthly stipend, O'Neal agreed to infiltrate the BPP as a counterintelligence operative.
O'Neal joined the party and quickly rose in the organization, becoming Director of Chapter Security and Hampton's bodyguard. In 1969, the FBI Special Agent in Charge (SAC) in San Francisco wrote Hoover that the agent's investigation had found that, in his city at least, the Panthers were primarily feeding breakfast to children. Hoover responded with a memo implying that the agent's career prospects depended on his supplying evidence to support Hoover's view that the BPP was "a violence-prone organization seeking to overthrow the Government by revolutionary means".
By means of anonymous letters, the FBI sowed distrust and eventually instigated a split between the Panthers and the Blackstone Rangers. O'Neal instigated an armed clash between them on April 2, 1969. The Panthers became effectively isolated from their power base in the Chicago ghetto, so the FBI worked to undermine its ties with other radical organizations. O'Neal was instructed to "create a rift" between the party and Students for a Democratic Society, whose Chicago headquarters was near that of the Panthers.
The FBI released a batch of racist cartoons in the Panthers' name, aimed at alienating white activists. It also launched a disinformation program to forestall the formation of the Rainbow Coalition, but the BPP did make an alliance with the Young Patriots and Young Lords. In repeated directives, Hoover demanded that COINTELPRO personnel investigate the Rainbow Coalition, "destroy what the [BPP] stands for", and "eradicate its 'serve the people' programs".
Documents secured by Senate investigators in the early 1970s revealed that the FBI actively encouraged violence between the Panthers and other radical groups; this provoked multiple murders in cities throughout the country. On July 16, 1969, an armed confrontation between party members and the Chicago Police Department resulted in one BPP member mortally wounded and six others arrested on serious charges.
In early October, Hampton and his girlfriend Deborah Johnson (now known as Akua Njeri), who was pregnant with their child (Fred Hampton Jr.), rented a four-and-a-half-room apartment at 2337 West Monroe Street to be closer to BPP headquarters. O'Neal reported to his superiors that much of the Panthers' "provocative" stockpile of arms was stored there. He drew them a map of the apartment. In early November, Hampton traveled to California on a speaking engagement to the UCLA Law Students Association. There he met with the remaining BPP national hierarchy, who appointed him to the party's central committee. He was soon to take the position of chief of staff and major spokesman.
Death
Prelude
While Hampton was in California in November 1969, two Chicago police officers, John J. Gilhooly and Frank G. Rappaport, were killed in a gun battle with Panthers on the night of November 13; one died the next day. A total of nine police officers were shot. Spurgeon Winter Jr, a 19-year-old Panther, was killed by police. Another Panther, Lawrence S. Bell, was charged with murder. In an unsigned editorial headlined "No Quarter for Wild Beasts", the Chicago Tribune urged that Chicago police officers approaching suspected Panthers "should be ordered to be ready to shoot."
As part of the larger COINTELPRO operation, the FBI was determined to prevent any improvement in the effectiveness of the BPP leadership. The FBI orchestrated an armed raid with the Chicago police and State Attorney on Hampton's Chicago apartment. They had obtained detailed information about the apartment, including a layout of furniture, from O'Neal. An augmented, 14-man team of the SAO (state Special Prosecutions Unit) was organized for a predawn raid; they were armed with a search warrant for illegal weapons.
On the evening of December 3, Hampton taught a political education course at a local church, which was attended by most Panther members. Afterward, as was typical, he was accompanied to his Monroe Street apartment by Johnson and several Panthers: Blair Anderson, James Grady, Ronald "Doc" Satchell, Harold Bell, Verlina Brewer, Louis Truelock, Brenda Harris and Mark Clark. O'Neal was already there, having prepared a late dinner, which the group ate around midnight. O'Neal had slipped the secobarbital into a drink that Hampton consumed during the dinner in order to sedate Hampton so he would not awaken during the subsequent raid. O'Neal left after the dinner. At about 1:30 am, December 4, Hampton fell asleep mid-sentence while talking to his mother on the telephone.
Although Hampton was not known to take drugs, Cook County chemist Eleanor Berman later reported that she had run two tests, which each showed evidence of barbiturates in Hampton's blood. An FBI chemist failed to find similar traces, but Berman stood by her findings.
Raid
The office of Cook County State's Attorney Edward Hanrahan organized the raid, using officers attached to his office. Hampton had recently strongly criticized Hanrahan, saying that Hanrahan's talk about a "war on gangs" was really rhetoric used to enable him to carry out a "war on black youth".
At 4 am, the heavily armed police team arrived at the site, divided into two teams, eight for the front of the building and six for the rear. At 4:45 am, they stormed the apartment. Mark Clark, sitting in the front room of the apartment with a shotgun in his lap, was on security duty. The police shot him in the chest, killing him instantly. An alternative account said that Clark answered the door and police immediately shot him. Either way, Clark's gun discharged once into the ceiling. This single round was fired when he suffered a reflexive death-convulsion after being shot. This was the only shot fired by the Panthers.
Hampton, drugged by barbiturates, was sleeping on a mattress in the bedroom with Johnson, who was nine months pregnant with their child. Police officers removed her from the room while Hampton lay unconscious in bed. Then the raiding team fired at the head of the south bedroom. Hampton was wounded in the shoulder by the shooting. According to the National Archives and Records Administration, "upon that discovery, an officer shot him twice in his head and killed him".
Fellow Black Panther Harold Bell said that he heard the following exchange:
:"That's Fred Hampton."
"Is he dead?... Bring him out."
"He's barely alive."
"He'll make it."
The injured Panthers said they heard two shots. According to Hampton's supporters, the shots were fired point blank at Hampton's head. According to Johnson, an officer then said: "He's good and dead now."
Hampton's body was dragged into the doorway of the bedroom and left in a pool of blood. The officers directed their gunfire at the remaining Panthers who had been sleeping in the north bedroom (Satchel, Anderson, Brewer and Harris). Brewer, Satchel, Anderson, and Harris were seriously wounded, then beaten and dragged into the street. They were arrested on charges of aggravated assault and attempted murder of the officers. They were each held on $100,000 bail.
In the early 1990s, Johnson was interviewed about the raid by Jose "Cha Cha" Jimenez, former president and co-founder of the Young Lords. He and his group had developed close ties to Hampton and the Chicago Black Panther Party during the late 1960s. She said:
I believe Fred Hampton was drugged. The reason why is because when he woke up when the person [Truelock] said, "Chairman, chairman," he was shaking Fred's arm, you know, Fred's arm was folded across the head of the bed. And Fred—he just raised his head up real slow. It was like watching a slow motion. He raised. His eyes were open. He raised his head up real slow, you know, with his eyes toward the entranceway, toward the bedroom and laid his head back down. That was the only movement he made [...]
The seven Panthers who survived the raid were indicted by a grand jury on charges of attempted murder, armed violence, and various other weapons charges. These charges were subsequently dropped. During the trial, the Chicago Police Department claimed that the Panthers were the first to fire shots. But a later investigation found that the Chicago police fired between 90 and 99 shots, while the only Panthers shot was from Clark's dropped shotgun.
After the raid, the apartment was left unguarded. The Panthers sent some members to investigate, accompanied by videographer Mike Gray and stills photographer Norris McNamara to document the scene. This footage was instrumental in proving the raid was an assassination. The footage was later released as part of the 1971 documentary The Murder of Fred Hampton. After a break-in at an FBI office in Pennsylvania, the existence of COINTELPRO, an illegal counter-intelligence program, was revealed and reported. With this program revealed, many activists and others began to suspect that the police raid and Hampton's killing were conducted under this program. One of the documents released after the break-in was a floor plan of Hampton's apartment. Another document outlined a deal that the FBI brokered with US deputy attorney general Richard Kleindienst to conceal the FBI's role in Hampton's death and the existence of COINTELPRO.
Aftermath
At a press conference the next day, the police announced the arrest team had been attacked by the "violent" and "extremely vicious" Panthers and defended themselves accordingly. In a second press conference on December 8, the police leadership praised the assault team for their "remarkable restraint", "bravery", and "professional discipline" in not killing all the Panthers present. Photographic evidence was presented of "bullet holes" allegedly made by shots fired by the Panthers, but reporters soon challenged this claim. An internal investigation was undertaken, and the police claimed that their colleagues on the assault team were exonerated of any wrongdoing, concluding that they "used lawful means to overcome the assault".
Five thousand people attended Hampton's funeral. He was eulogized by black leaders, including Jesse Jackson and Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr.'s successor as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In his eulogy, Jackson said that "when Fred was shot in Chicago, black people in particular, and decent people in general, bled everywhere." On December 6, members of the Weather Underground destroyed numerous police vehicles in a retaliatory bombing spree at 3600 N. Halsted Street, Chicago.
The police called their raid on Hampton's apartment a "shootout". The Black Panthers called it a "shoot-in", because so many shots were fired by police.
On December 11 and 12, the two competing daily newspapers, the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, published vivid accounts of the events, but drew different conclusions. The Tribune has long been considered the politically conservative newspaper, and the Sun-Times the liberal paper. On December 11, the Tribune published a page 1 article titled, "Exclusive – Hanrahan, Police Tell Panther Story." The article included photographs, supplied by Hanrahan's office, that depicted bullet holes in a thin white curtain and door jamb as evidence that the Panthers fired multiple bullets at the police.
Jack Challem, editor of the Wright College News, the student newspaper at Wright Junior College in Chicago, had visited the apartment on December 6, when it was still unsecured. He took numerous photographs of the crime scenes. A member of the Black Panthers was allowing visitors to tour the apartment. Challem's photographs did not show the bullet holes as reported by the Tribune. On the morning of December 12, after the Tribune article had appeared with the Hanrahan-supplied photos, Challem contacted a reporter at the Sun-Times, showed him his own photographs, and encouraged the other reporter to visit the apartment. That evening, the Sun-Times published a page 1 article with the headline: "Those 'bullet holes' aren't." According to the article, the alleged bullet holes (supposedly the result of the Panthers shooting in the direction of the police) were nail heads.
Four weeks after witnessing Hampton's death at the hands of the police, Johnson gave birth to their son, Fred Hampton Jr.
Civil rights activists Roy Wilkins and Ramsey Clark (styled as "The Commission of Inquiry into the Black Panthers and the Police") subsequently alleged that the Chicago police had killed Hampton without justification or provocation, and had violated the Panthers' constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure. "The Commission" further alleged that the Chicago Police Department had imposed a summary punishment on the Panthers.
A federal grand jury did not return any indictment against any of the individuals involved with the planning or execution of the raid, including the officers involved in killing Hampton. O'Neal, who had given the FBI the floor plan of the apartment and drugged Hampton, later admitted his involvement in setting up the raid. He committed suicide on January 15, 1990.
Inquest
Shortly after the raid, Cook County Coroner Andrew Toman began forming a special six-member coroner's jury to hold an inquest into the deaths of Hampton and Clark. On December 23, Toman announced four additions to the jury, who included two African-American men: physician Theodore K. Lawless and attorney Julian B. Wilkins, the son of J. Ernest Wilkins Sr. He said the four were selected from a group of candidates submitted to his office by groups and individuals representing both Chicago's black and white communities. Civil rights leaders and spokesmen for the black community were reported to have been disappointed with the selection.
An official with the Chicago Urban League said, "I would have had more confidence in the jury if one of them had been a black man who has a rapport with the young and the grass roots in the community." Gus Savage said that such a man to whom the community could relate need not be black. The jury eventually included a third black man, who had been a member of the first coroner's jury sworn in on December 4.
The blue-ribbon panel convened for the inquest on January 6, 1970. On January 21, they ruled the deaths of Hampton and Clark to be justifiable homicides. The jury qualified their verdict on Hampton's death as "based solely and exclusively on the evidence presented to this inquisition"; police and expert witnesses provided the only testimony during the inquest.
Jury foreman James T. Hicks stated that they could not consider the charges made by surviving Black Panthers who had been in the apartment; they had told reporters that the police entered the apartment shooting. The survivors were reported to have refused to testify during the inquest because they faced criminal charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault during the raid. Attorneys for the Hampton and Clark families did not introduce any witnesses during the proceedings, but called the inquest "a well-rehearsed theatrical performance designed to vindicate the police officers". Hanrahan said the verdict was recognition "of the truthfulness of our police officers' account of the events".
Federal grand jury
Released on May 15, 1970, the reports of a federal grand jury criticized the actions of the police, the surviving Black Panthers, and the Chicago news media. The grand jury called the police department's raid "ill conceived" and said many errors were committed during the post-raid investigation and reconstruction of the events. It said that the surviving Black Panthers' refusal to cooperate hampered the investigation, and that the press "improperly and grossly exaggerated stories".
1970 civil rights lawsuit
In 1970, the survivors and relatives of Hampton and Clark filed a civil suit, stating that the civil rights of the Black Panther members were violated by the joint police/FBI raid and seeking $47.7 million in damages. Twenty-eight defendants were named, including Hanrahan as well as the City of Chicago, Cook County, and federal governments. It took years for the case to get to trial, which lasted 18 months. It was reported to have been the longest federal trial up to that time. After its conclusion in 1977, Judge Joseph Sam Perry of United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed the suit against 21 of the defendants before jury deliberations. After jurors deadlocked on a verdict, Perry dismissed the suit against the remaining defendants.
The plaintiffs appealed. In 1979, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago found that the government had withheld relevant documents, thereby obstructing the judicial process. Reinstating the case against 24 of the defendants, the Court of Appeals ordered a new trial. The Supreme Court of the United States heard an appeal by defendants, but voted 5–3 in 1980 to remand the case to the District Court for a new trial.
In 1982, the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the federal government agreed to a settlement in which each would pay $616,333 (equivalent to $ million per payee in ) to a group of nine plaintiffs, including the mothers of Hampton and Clark. The $1.85 million settlement (equivalent to $ million in ) was believed to be the largest ever in a civil rights case. G. Flint Taylor, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said, "The settlement is an admission of the conspiracy that existed between the FBI and Hanrahan's men to murder Fred Hampton." Assistant United States Attorney Robert Gruenberg said the settlement was intended to avoid another costly trial and was not an admission of guilt or responsibility by any of the defendants.
Controversy
Ten days afterward, Bobby Rush, the then deputy minister of defense for the Illinois Black Panther Party, called the raiding party an "execution squad". As is typical in settlements, the three government defendants did not acknowledge claims of responsibility for plaintiffs' allegations.
Michael Newton is among the writers who have concluded that Hampton was assassinated. In his 2016 book Unsolved Civil Rights Murder Cases, 1934–1970, Newton writes that Hampton "was murdered in his sleep by Chicago police with FBI collusion." This view is also presented in Jakobi Williams's book From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago.
Personal life
Hampton was very close with Chicago Black Catholic priest George Clements, who served as his mentor and as a chaplain for the local Panther outfit. Hampton and the Panthers also used Clements's parish, Holy Angels Catholic Church in Chicago, as a refuge in times of particular surveillance or pursuit from the police. They also provided security for a number of Clements's "Black Unity Masses", part of his revolutionary activities during the Black Catholic Movement. Clements spoke at Hampton's funeral, and also said a Requiem Mass for him at Holy Angels.
Legacy
Legal and political effects
According to a 1969 Chicago Tribune report, "The raid ended the promising political career of Cook County State's Atty. Edward V. Hanrahan, who was indicted but cleared with 13 other law-enforcement agents on charges of obstructing justice. Bernard Carey, a Republican, defeated him in the next election, in part because of the support of outraged black voters." The families of Hampton and Clark filed a $47.7 million civil suit against the city, state, and federal governments. The case went to trial before Federal Judge J. Sam Perry. After more than 18 months of testimony and at the close of the plaintiffs' case, Perry dismissed the case. The plaintiffs appealed and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed, ordering the case to be retried. More than a decade after the case had been filed, the suit was finally settled for $1.85 million. The two families each shared in the settlement.
Jeffrey Haas, who, together with his law partners G. Flint Taylor and Dennis Cunningham and attorney James D. Montgomery, were the attorneys for the plaintiffs in the federal suit Hampton v. Hanrahan, conducted additional research and wrote a book about these events. It was published in 2009. He said that Chicago was worse off without Hampton:
In 1990, the Chicago City Council unanimously passed a resolution, introduced by then-Alderman Madeline Haithcock, commemorating December 4, 2004, as Fred Hampton Day in Chicago. The resolution read in part:
"Fred Hampton, who was only 21 years old, made his mark in Chicago history not so much by his death as by the heroic efforts of his life and by his goals of empowering the most oppressed sector of Chicago's Black community, bringing people into political life through participation in their own freedom fighting organization."
Monuments and streets
A public pool was named in his honor in his home town of Maywood, Illinois.
On September 7, 2007, a bust of Hampton by sculptor Preston Jackson was erected outside the Fred Hampton Family Aquatic Center in Maywood.
In March 2006, supporters of Hampton's charity work proposed the naming of a Chicago street in his honor. Chicago's chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police opposed this effort.
Weather Underground reaction
Two days after the killings of Hampton and Clark, on December 6, 1969, members of the Weathermen destroyed numerous police vehicles in a retaliatory bombing spree at 3600 N. Halsted Street in Chicago. After that, the group became more radical. On May 21, 1970, the group issued a "Declaration of War" against the U.S. government, and for the first time used its new name, the "Weather Underground Organization". They adopted fake identities and decided to pursue covert activities only. These initially included preparations to bomb a U.S. military non-commissioned officers' dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in what Brian Flanagan later said was intended to be "the most horrific hit the United States government had ever suffered on its territory"."We've known that our job is to lead white kids into armed revolution... Kids know the lines are drawn: revolution is touching all of our lives. Tens of thousands have learned that protest and marches don't do it. Revolutionary violence is the only way."
—Bernardine Dohrn
Media and popular culture
In film
A 27-minute documentary, Death of a Black Panther: The Fred Hampton Story, was used as evidence in the civil suit. The 2002 documentary The Weather Underground shows in detail how that group was deeply influenced by Hampton and his death—as well as showing that Hampton kept his distance from them for being what he called "adventuristic, masochistic and Custeristic".
Much of the first half of Eyes on the Prize episode 12, "A Nation of Law?", chronicles Hampton's leadership and extrajudicial killing. The events of his rise to prominence, Hoover's targeting of him, and Hampton's subsequent death are also recounted with footage in the 2015 documentary The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.
The Murder of Fred Hampton is a documentary shot from within the movement, released in 1971. It has no narration, relying solely on footage shot from within the Black Panther organization and portraying Hampton and his colleagues on their own terms.
In the 1999 TV miniseries The 60s, Hampton appears serving free breakfast with the BPP. David Alan Grier plays Hampton.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) features Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Hampton, in which he advises Bobby Seale as he was denied counsel, with the Chicago Seven.
Judas and the Black Messiah is a 2021 film about O'Neal's betrayal of Hampton. The film stars Daniel Kaluuya as Hampton and was directed by Shaka King. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on February 1, 2021. For his performance, Kaluuya won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In literature
Jeffrey Haas wrote an account of Hampton's death, The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther (2009).
Stephen King refers to Hampton in the novel 11/22/63 (2012), in which a character discusses the ripple effect of traveling back in time to prevent John F. Kennedy's assassination. He postulates that other events would follow that could have prevented Hampton's assassination as well.
In music
American rapper and businessman Jay-Z has made multiple references in his music to being born on the day Hampton died.
American rock band Rage Against the Machine referenced Hampton in their 1996 song Down Rodeo, saying "They ain't gonna send us campin' like they did my man Fred Hampton."
Notes
References
External links
The Marxists Internet Archive: Fred Hampton Archive Transcribed speeches and collected works.
"The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther" – video report by Democracy Now! December 4, 2009.
(A 1971 documentary film directed by Howard Alk)
FBI files on Fred Hampton
From COINTELPRO to the Shadow Government: As Fred Hampton Jr. Is Released From 9 Years of Prison, a Look Back at the Assassination of Fred Hampton. 36:48 real audio. Tape: Fred Hampton, Deborah Johnson. Guests: Fred Hampton Jr., Mutulu Olugabala, Rosa Clemente. Interviewer: Amy Goodman. Democracy Now!. Tuesday, March 5, 2002. Retrieved May 12, 2005.
"Power Anywhere Where There's People" A Speech By Fred Hampton
National Young Lords Brief notes on Young Lords origins
Grand Valley State University Oral History Collection
1948 births
1969 deaths
Activists from Chicago
African-American activists
African-American communists
African-American history
American anti-capitalists
American Maoists
American Marxists
American revolutionaries
Anti-poverty advocates
Anti-revisionists
Assassinated American civil rights activists
African-American Marxists
African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States
COINTELPRO targets
Deaths by firearm in Illinois
Extrajudicial killings
Members of the Black Panther Party
People from Maywood, Illinois
People from Summit, Illinois
People murdered in Illinois | false | [
"Marc Eversley (born 1969) is the general manager of the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association.\n\nEversley's family moved from London to Toronto when he was four years old. After university, Eversley worked at Nike in their retail and marketing departments. Following the clothing company, Eversley worked for the Toronto Raptors under Bryan Colangelo. When Colangelo was let go, he moved to Washington. He rejoined Colangelo's staff in Philadelphia, and stayed with that team past Colangelo's firing.\n\nHe is the first Canadian-trained basketball player to become an NBA general manager, the first NBA general manager from the Greater Toronto Area, and the first person of color to serve as the general manager of the Chicago Bulls franchise.\n\nReferences\n\nLiving people\nChicago Bulls executives\nPeople from Brampton\n1969 births",
"I-GO was a Chicago-based car sharing organization owned by Enterprise Holdings. It was established in 2002 by the Center for Neighborhood Technology as an independent 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to \"creating and implementing new strategies that make urban communities more livable and environmentally sustainable\". I-GO was sold to Enterprise Holdings in May 2013 and re-branded as Enterprise CarShare.\n\nMission \nI-GO’s mission was to reduce car ownership rates, decrease transportation costs, reduce urban congestion and improve air quality in Chicago. It focuses on a convenient and economic way to commute without having to own a car and to reduce vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions. Through eco-friendliness, it also provided a significant social return on investment.\n\nOperations \nI-GO had cars located in approximately 30 Chicago neighborhoods. I-GO members reserved a vehicle online or by calling its customer service. Members could also create and modify their reservations using smart phones. Once a reservation had been created, the member could access the reserved car using a member card, use the car and then return it to the same location. Members paid a one-time fee to join, an annual renewal fee, and were then billed by the hour for their use of I-GO cars; specific rates varied depending on type of plan. Gas and insurance were both included in I-GO's rates. As of June 2009, I-GO had more than 12,000 members and 185 cars available for use.\n\nThe average fuel efficiency of I-GO's fleet was 35 miles per gallon, and the fleet was composed of low-emission vehicles. Approximately 40% of the fleet were hybrid vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.\n\nPlug-in hybrid electric vehicles \n\nI-GO added the first two plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to its fleet in April 2009 as a result of a joint effort with electricity provider ComEd.\n\nPartnerships \nI-GO had strategic partnerships and alliances with government offices, local businesses, as well as other non-profits and independent car sharing organizations. Among others, I-GO worked closely with the Chicago Transit Authority, City of Chicago and Chicago Park District. Businesses such as Whole Foods and Dominick's provided parking spaces dedicated to I-GO cars, and I-GO also worked with universities, including Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, DePaul University, University of Illinois at Chicago and Illinois Institute of Technology.\n\nHistory \n 2001: I-GO is created by the Center for Neighborhood Technology as the first car sharing organization in the Chicago market\n 2002: I-GO begins operations as a pilot project with six cars\n April 2005: I-GO begins its suburban expansion, placing cars in Evanston, Illinois\n August 2008: I-GO and eight other leading non-profit and independent North American car sharing organizations adopt a code of ethics to specify standards and strengthen the industry\n October 2008: I-GO membership reaches 10,000\n January 2009: I-GO establishes a joint smart card with the Chicago Transit Authority, allowing I-GO members to access CTA buses and trains using a single card\n April 2009: Two plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are added to I-GO fleet; the joint effort between I-GO and ComEd is formally recognized by Governor Quinn\n May 2013: I-GO is sold to Enterprise Holdings\n\nSee also \nCarsharing\nPlug-in hybrid electric vehicles\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\nCarsharing\nDefunct organizations based in Illinois\nEnterprise Holdings\nNon-profit organizations based in Chicago\nOrganizations established in 2002\nOrganizations disestablished in 2013\nTransport companies established in 2002\nTransport companies disestablished in 2013\nPlug-in hybrid vehicles\nTransportation in Chicago\nDefunct non-profit organizations based in the United States"
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"Hampton joined the Party and relocated to downtown Chicago, and in November 1968"
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| C_8919227193b845118bd28af3621b8eee_1 | What party did he join? | 2 | What party did Fred Hampton join? | Fred Hampton | About the same time that Hampton was successfully organizing young African-Americans for the NAACP, the Black Panther Party (BPP) started rising to national prominence. Hampton was quickly attracted to the Black Panthers' approach, which was based on a ten-point program that integrated black self-determination on the basis of Maoism. Hampton joined the Party and relocated to downtown Chicago, and in November 1968 he joined the Party's nascent Illinois chapter--founded by Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizer Bob Brown in late 1967. Over the next year, Hampton and his associates made a number of significant achievements in Chicago. Perhaps his most important accomplishment was his brokering of a nonaggression pact between Chicago's most powerful street gangs. Emphasizing that racial and ethnic conflict between gangs would only keep its members entrenched in poverty, Hampton strove to forge a class-conscious, multi-racial alliance between the BPP, the Young Patriots Organization, and the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez. Fred Hampton met the Young Lords in the Chicago Lincoln Park Neighborhood, the day after the Young Lords were in the news after they had occupied a police community workshop meeting, held on the second floor hall of the Chicago 18th District Police Station. Later, the Rainbow Coalition was joined nationwide by the Students for a Democratic Society ("SDS"), the Brown Berets, and the Red Guard Party. In May 1969, Hampton called a press conference to announce that this "rainbow coalition" had formed. It was a phrase coined by Hampton and made popular over the years by Reverend Jesse Jackson, who eventually appropriated the name in forming his own, unrelated, coalition, Rainbow/PUSH. Hampton's organizing skills, substantial oratorical gifts, and personal charisma allowed him to rise quickly in the Black Panthers. Once he became leader of the Chicago chapter, he organized weekly rallies, worked closely with the BPP's local People's Clinic, taught political education classes every morning at 6am, and launched a project for community supervision of the police. Hampton was also instrumental in the BPP's Free Breakfast Program. When Brown left the Party with Stokely Carmichael in the FBI-fomented SNCC/Panther split, Hampton assumed chairmanship of the Illinois state BPP, automatically making him a national BPP deputy chairman. As the Panther leadership across the country began to be decimated by the impact of the FBI's COINTELPRO, Hampton's prominence in the national hierarchy increased rapidly and dramatically. Eventually, Hampton was in line to be appointed to the Party's Central Committee's Chief of Staff. He would have achieved this position had it not been for his death on the morning of December 4, 1969. CANNOTANSWER | Black Panthers | Fredrick Allen Hampton Sr. (August 30, 1948 – December 4, 1969) was an American activist. He came to prominence in Chicago as deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party, and chair of the Illinois chapter. As a progressive African American, he founded the antiracist, anticlass Rainbow Coalition, a prominent multicultural political organization that initially included the Black Panthers, Young Patriots (which organized poor whites), and the Young Lords (which organized Hispanics), and an alliance among major Chicago street gangs to help them end infighting and work for social change. A Marxist–Leninist, Hampton considered fascism the greatest threat, saying, "nothing is more important than stopping fascism, because fascism will stop us all.”
In 1967, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) identified Hampton as a radical threat. It tried to subvert his activities in Chicago, sowing disinformation among black progressive groups and placing a counterintelligence operative in the local Panthers organization. In December 1969, Hampton was drugged, shot and killed in his bed during a predawn raid at his Chicago apartment by a tactical unit of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, who received aid from the Chicago Police Department and the FBI leading up to the attack. Law enforcement sprayed more than 90 gunshots throughout the apartment; the occupants fired once. During the raid, Panther Mark Clark was also killed and several others were seriously wounded. In January 1970, the Cook County Coroner held an inquest; the jury concluded that Hampton's and Clark's deaths were justifiable homicides.
A civil lawsuit was later filed on behalf of the survivors and the relatives of Hampton and Clark. It was resolved in 1982 by a settlement of $1.85 million (equivalent to $ million in ); the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the federal government each paid one-third to a group of nine plaintiffs. Given revelations about the illegal COINTELPRO program and documents associated with the killings, many scholars now consider Hampton's death an assassination at the FBI's initiative.
Biography
Early life and youth
Hampton was born on August 30, 1948, in present-day Summit Argo, Illinois (generally shortened to Summit), and moved with his parents to another Chicago suburb, Maywood, at age 10. His parents had come from Louisiana as part of the Great Migration of African Americans in the early 20th century out of the South. They both worked at the Argo Starch Company, a corn starch processor. As a youth, Hampton was gifted both in the classroom and athletically, and hoped to play center field for the New York Yankees. Fred couldn't accept injustice anywhere. At 10 years old, he started hosting weekend breakfasts for other children from the neighborhood, cooking the meals himself in what could be described as a precursor to the Panthers’ free breakfast program. In high school, he led walkouts protesting black students' exclusion from the competition for homecoming queen and calling on officials to hire more black teachers and administrators. Hampton graduated from Proviso East High School with honors and varsity letters, and a Junior Achievement Award, in 1966. He enrolled at Triton Junior College in nearby River Grove, Illinois, where he majored in pre-law. He planned to become more familiar with the legal system to use it as a defense against police. When he and fellow Black Panthers later followed police in his community supervision program, watching out for police brutality, they used his knowledge of law as a defense.
In 1966, Fred Hampton turned 18. At that time, he started identifying with the Third World socialist struggles, as well as reading communist revolutionaries Che Guevara, Ho Chi Minh, and Mao Zedong. Shortly after, Hampton urged not only peace in the Vietnam War, but also North Vietnam's victory.
Hampton became active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and assumed leadership of its West Suburban Branch's Youth Council. In his capacity as an NAACP youth organizer, he demonstrated natural leadership abilities: from a community of 27,000, he was able to muster a youth group 500-members strong. He worked to get more and better recreational facilities established in the neighborhoods and to improve educational resources for Maywood's impoverished black community.
Activity in Chicago
At about the same time that Hampton was successfully organizing young African Americans for the NAACP, the Black Panther Party (BPP) was rising to national prominence. Hampton was quickly attracted to the Black Panthers' approach, which was based on a Ten-Point Program that integrated black self-determination with class and economic critique from Maoism. He joined the party and relocated to downtown Chicago. In November 1968, he joined the party's nascent Illinois chapter, founded in late 1967 by Bob Brown, a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizer.
In 1968, Hampton was accused of assaulting an ice cream truck driver, stealing $71 worth of ice cream bars, and giving them to kids in the street. He was convicted in May 1969 and sentenced to two to five years in prison. Writer Frank B. Wilderson III places this incident within the framework of COINTELPRO efforts to disrupt the Black Panthers of Chicago, in this case by "leveling [...] trumped-up charges".
In 1969, Hampton, now deputy chairman of the BPP Illinois chapter, conducted a meeting condemning sexism. After 1969, the party considered sexism counter-revolutionary. In 1970, about 40–70% of party members were women.
Over the next year, Hampton and his friends and associates achieved a number of successes in Chicago. Perhaps the most important was a nonaggression pact among Chicago's most powerful street gangs. Emphasizing that racial and ethnic conflict among gangs would only keep its members entrenched in poverty, Hampton strove to forge an anti-racist, class-conscious, multiracial alliance among the BPP, the Young Patriots Organization, and the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez, leading to the Rainbow Coalition.
Hampton met the Young Lords in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood the day after they were in the news for occupying a police community workshop at the Chicago 18th District Police Station. He was arrested twice with Jimenez at the Wicker Park Welfare Office, and both were charged with "mob action" at a peaceful picket of the office. Later, the Rainbow Coalition was joined nationwide by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Brown Berets, AIM, and the Red Guard Party. In May 1969, Hampton called a press conference to announce that the coalition had formed. What the coalition groups would do was based on common action. Some of their joint issues were poverty, anti-racism, corruption, police brutality, and substandard housing. If there was a protest or a demonstration, the groups would attend the event and support each other.
Jeffrey Haas, who was Hampton's lawyer, has praised some of Hampton's politics and his success in unifying movements. But Haas criticizes the way Hampton and the BPP organized in a pyramidal/vertical structure, contrasting this with the horizontal structure of Black Lives Matter: "They may also have picked up on the vulnerability of a hierarchical movement where you have one leader, which makes the movement very vulnerable if that leader is imprisoned, killed, or otherwise compromised. I think the fact that Black Lives Matter says 'We're leaderfull, not leaderless' perhaps makes them less vulnerable to this kind of government assault."
Hampton rose quickly in the Black Panthers, based on his organizing skills, oratorical gifts, and charisma. Once he became leader of the Chicago chapter, he organized weekly rallies, participated in strikes, worked closely with the BPP's local People's Clinic, taught political education classes every morning at 6 am, and launched a project for community supervision of the police. Hampton was also instrumental in the BPP's Free Breakfast Program. When Bob Brown left the party with Kwame Ture, in the FBI-fomented SNCC/Panther split, Hampton assumed chairmanship of the Illinois state BPP. This automatically made him a national BPP deputy chairman. As the FBI's COINTELPRO began to decimate the nationwide Panther leadership, Hampton's prominence in the national hierarchy increased rapidly and dramatically. Eventually he was in line to be appointed to the party's Central Committee Chief of Staff. He would have achieved this position had he not been killed on December 4, 1969.
FBI investigation
The FBI believed that Hampton's leadership and talent for communication made him a major threat among Black Panther leaders. It began keeping close tabs on his activities. Investigations have shown that FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover was determined to prevent the formation of a cohesive Black movement in the United States. Hoover believed the Panthers, Young Patriots, Young Lords, and similar radical coalitions that Hampton forged in Chicago were a stepping stone to the rise of a revolution that could cause a radical change in the U.S. government.
The FBI opened a file on Hampton in 1967. It tapped Hampton's mother's phone in February 1968 and by May placed Hampton on the bureau's "Agitator Index" as a "key militant leader". In late 1968, the Racial Matters squad of the FBI's Chicago field office recruited William O'Neal to work with it; he had recently been arrested twice for interstate car theft and impersonating a federal officer. In exchange for having his felony charges dropped and receiving a monthly stipend, O'Neal agreed to infiltrate the BPP as a counterintelligence operative.
O'Neal joined the party and quickly rose in the organization, becoming Director of Chapter Security and Hampton's bodyguard. In 1969, the FBI Special Agent in Charge (SAC) in San Francisco wrote Hoover that the agent's investigation had found that, in his city at least, the Panthers were primarily feeding breakfast to children. Hoover responded with a memo implying that the agent's career prospects depended on his supplying evidence to support Hoover's view that the BPP was "a violence-prone organization seeking to overthrow the Government by revolutionary means".
By means of anonymous letters, the FBI sowed distrust and eventually instigated a split between the Panthers and the Blackstone Rangers. O'Neal instigated an armed clash between them on April 2, 1969. The Panthers became effectively isolated from their power base in the Chicago ghetto, so the FBI worked to undermine its ties with other radical organizations. O'Neal was instructed to "create a rift" between the party and Students for a Democratic Society, whose Chicago headquarters was near that of the Panthers.
The FBI released a batch of racist cartoons in the Panthers' name, aimed at alienating white activists. It also launched a disinformation program to forestall the formation of the Rainbow Coalition, but the BPP did make an alliance with the Young Patriots and Young Lords. In repeated directives, Hoover demanded that COINTELPRO personnel investigate the Rainbow Coalition, "destroy what the [BPP] stands for", and "eradicate its 'serve the people' programs".
Documents secured by Senate investigators in the early 1970s revealed that the FBI actively encouraged violence between the Panthers and other radical groups; this provoked multiple murders in cities throughout the country. On July 16, 1969, an armed confrontation between party members and the Chicago Police Department resulted in one BPP member mortally wounded and six others arrested on serious charges.
In early October, Hampton and his girlfriend Deborah Johnson (now known as Akua Njeri), who was pregnant with their child (Fred Hampton Jr.), rented a four-and-a-half-room apartment at 2337 West Monroe Street to be closer to BPP headquarters. O'Neal reported to his superiors that much of the Panthers' "provocative" stockpile of arms was stored there. He drew them a map of the apartment. In early November, Hampton traveled to California on a speaking engagement to the UCLA Law Students Association. There he met with the remaining BPP national hierarchy, who appointed him to the party's central committee. He was soon to take the position of chief of staff and major spokesman.
Death
Prelude
While Hampton was in California in November 1969, two Chicago police officers, John J. Gilhooly and Frank G. Rappaport, were killed in a gun battle with Panthers on the night of November 13; one died the next day. A total of nine police officers were shot. Spurgeon Winter Jr, a 19-year-old Panther, was killed by police. Another Panther, Lawrence S. Bell, was charged with murder. In an unsigned editorial headlined "No Quarter for Wild Beasts", the Chicago Tribune urged that Chicago police officers approaching suspected Panthers "should be ordered to be ready to shoot."
As part of the larger COINTELPRO operation, the FBI was determined to prevent any improvement in the effectiveness of the BPP leadership. The FBI orchestrated an armed raid with the Chicago police and State Attorney on Hampton's Chicago apartment. They had obtained detailed information about the apartment, including a layout of furniture, from O'Neal. An augmented, 14-man team of the SAO (state Special Prosecutions Unit) was organized for a predawn raid; they were armed with a search warrant for illegal weapons.
On the evening of December 3, Hampton taught a political education course at a local church, which was attended by most Panther members. Afterward, as was typical, he was accompanied to his Monroe Street apartment by Johnson and several Panthers: Blair Anderson, James Grady, Ronald "Doc" Satchell, Harold Bell, Verlina Brewer, Louis Truelock, Brenda Harris and Mark Clark. O'Neal was already there, having prepared a late dinner, which the group ate around midnight. O'Neal had slipped the secobarbital into a drink that Hampton consumed during the dinner in order to sedate Hampton so he would not awaken during the subsequent raid. O'Neal left after the dinner. At about 1:30 am, December 4, Hampton fell asleep mid-sentence while talking to his mother on the telephone.
Although Hampton was not known to take drugs, Cook County chemist Eleanor Berman later reported that she had run two tests, which each showed evidence of barbiturates in Hampton's blood. An FBI chemist failed to find similar traces, but Berman stood by her findings.
Raid
The office of Cook County State's Attorney Edward Hanrahan organized the raid, using officers attached to his office. Hampton had recently strongly criticized Hanrahan, saying that Hanrahan's talk about a "war on gangs" was really rhetoric used to enable him to carry out a "war on black youth".
At 4 am, the heavily armed police team arrived at the site, divided into two teams, eight for the front of the building and six for the rear. At 4:45 am, they stormed the apartment. Mark Clark, sitting in the front room of the apartment with a shotgun in his lap, was on security duty. The police shot him in the chest, killing him instantly. An alternative account said that Clark answered the door and police immediately shot him. Either way, Clark's gun discharged once into the ceiling. This single round was fired when he suffered a reflexive death-convulsion after being shot. This was the only shot fired by the Panthers.
Hampton, drugged by barbiturates, was sleeping on a mattress in the bedroom with Johnson, who was nine months pregnant with their child. Police officers removed her from the room while Hampton lay unconscious in bed. Then the raiding team fired at the head of the south bedroom. Hampton was wounded in the shoulder by the shooting. According to the National Archives and Records Administration, "upon that discovery, an officer shot him twice in his head and killed him".
Fellow Black Panther Harold Bell said that he heard the following exchange:
:"That's Fred Hampton."
"Is he dead?... Bring him out."
"He's barely alive."
"He'll make it."
The injured Panthers said they heard two shots. According to Hampton's supporters, the shots were fired point blank at Hampton's head. According to Johnson, an officer then said: "He's good and dead now."
Hampton's body was dragged into the doorway of the bedroom and left in a pool of blood. The officers directed their gunfire at the remaining Panthers who had been sleeping in the north bedroom (Satchel, Anderson, Brewer and Harris). Brewer, Satchel, Anderson, and Harris were seriously wounded, then beaten and dragged into the street. They were arrested on charges of aggravated assault and attempted murder of the officers. They were each held on $100,000 bail.
In the early 1990s, Johnson was interviewed about the raid by Jose "Cha Cha" Jimenez, former president and co-founder of the Young Lords. He and his group had developed close ties to Hampton and the Chicago Black Panther Party during the late 1960s. She said:
I believe Fred Hampton was drugged. The reason why is because when he woke up when the person [Truelock] said, "Chairman, chairman," he was shaking Fred's arm, you know, Fred's arm was folded across the head of the bed. And Fred—he just raised his head up real slow. It was like watching a slow motion. He raised. His eyes were open. He raised his head up real slow, you know, with his eyes toward the entranceway, toward the bedroom and laid his head back down. That was the only movement he made [...]
The seven Panthers who survived the raid were indicted by a grand jury on charges of attempted murder, armed violence, and various other weapons charges. These charges were subsequently dropped. During the trial, the Chicago Police Department claimed that the Panthers were the first to fire shots. But a later investigation found that the Chicago police fired between 90 and 99 shots, while the only Panthers shot was from Clark's dropped shotgun.
After the raid, the apartment was left unguarded. The Panthers sent some members to investigate, accompanied by videographer Mike Gray and stills photographer Norris McNamara to document the scene. This footage was instrumental in proving the raid was an assassination. The footage was later released as part of the 1971 documentary The Murder of Fred Hampton. After a break-in at an FBI office in Pennsylvania, the existence of COINTELPRO, an illegal counter-intelligence program, was revealed and reported. With this program revealed, many activists and others began to suspect that the police raid and Hampton's killing were conducted under this program. One of the documents released after the break-in was a floor plan of Hampton's apartment. Another document outlined a deal that the FBI brokered with US deputy attorney general Richard Kleindienst to conceal the FBI's role in Hampton's death and the existence of COINTELPRO.
Aftermath
At a press conference the next day, the police announced the arrest team had been attacked by the "violent" and "extremely vicious" Panthers and defended themselves accordingly. In a second press conference on December 8, the police leadership praised the assault team for their "remarkable restraint", "bravery", and "professional discipline" in not killing all the Panthers present. Photographic evidence was presented of "bullet holes" allegedly made by shots fired by the Panthers, but reporters soon challenged this claim. An internal investigation was undertaken, and the police claimed that their colleagues on the assault team were exonerated of any wrongdoing, concluding that they "used lawful means to overcome the assault".
Five thousand people attended Hampton's funeral. He was eulogized by black leaders, including Jesse Jackson and Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr.'s successor as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In his eulogy, Jackson said that "when Fred was shot in Chicago, black people in particular, and decent people in general, bled everywhere." On December 6, members of the Weather Underground destroyed numerous police vehicles in a retaliatory bombing spree at 3600 N. Halsted Street, Chicago.
The police called their raid on Hampton's apartment a "shootout". The Black Panthers called it a "shoot-in", because so many shots were fired by police.
On December 11 and 12, the two competing daily newspapers, the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, published vivid accounts of the events, but drew different conclusions. The Tribune has long been considered the politically conservative newspaper, and the Sun-Times the liberal paper. On December 11, the Tribune published a page 1 article titled, "Exclusive – Hanrahan, Police Tell Panther Story." The article included photographs, supplied by Hanrahan's office, that depicted bullet holes in a thin white curtain and door jamb as evidence that the Panthers fired multiple bullets at the police.
Jack Challem, editor of the Wright College News, the student newspaper at Wright Junior College in Chicago, had visited the apartment on December 6, when it was still unsecured. He took numerous photographs of the crime scenes. A member of the Black Panthers was allowing visitors to tour the apartment. Challem's photographs did not show the bullet holes as reported by the Tribune. On the morning of December 12, after the Tribune article had appeared with the Hanrahan-supplied photos, Challem contacted a reporter at the Sun-Times, showed him his own photographs, and encouraged the other reporter to visit the apartment. That evening, the Sun-Times published a page 1 article with the headline: "Those 'bullet holes' aren't." According to the article, the alleged bullet holes (supposedly the result of the Panthers shooting in the direction of the police) were nail heads.
Four weeks after witnessing Hampton's death at the hands of the police, Johnson gave birth to their son, Fred Hampton Jr.
Civil rights activists Roy Wilkins and Ramsey Clark (styled as "The Commission of Inquiry into the Black Panthers and the Police") subsequently alleged that the Chicago police had killed Hampton without justification or provocation, and had violated the Panthers' constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure. "The Commission" further alleged that the Chicago Police Department had imposed a summary punishment on the Panthers.
A federal grand jury did not return any indictment against any of the individuals involved with the planning or execution of the raid, including the officers involved in killing Hampton. O'Neal, who had given the FBI the floor plan of the apartment and drugged Hampton, later admitted his involvement in setting up the raid. He committed suicide on January 15, 1990.
Inquest
Shortly after the raid, Cook County Coroner Andrew Toman began forming a special six-member coroner's jury to hold an inquest into the deaths of Hampton and Clark. On December 23, Toman announced four additions to the jury, who included two African-American men: physician Theodore K. Lawless and attorney Julian B. Wilkins, the son of J. Ernest Wilkins Sr. He said the four were selected from a group of candidates submitted to his office by groups and individuals representing both Chicago's black and white communities. Civil rights leaders and spokesmen for the black community were reported to have been disappointed with the selection.
An official with the Chicago Urban League said, "I would have had more confidence in the jury if one of them had been a black man who has a rapport with the young and the grass roots in the community." Gus Savage said that such a man to whom the community could relate need not be black. The jury eventually included a third black man, who had been a member of the first coroner's jury sworn in on December 4.
The blue-ribbon panel convened for the inquest on January 6, 1970. On January 21, they ruled the deaths of Hampton and Clark to be justifiable homicides. The jury qualified their verdict on Hampton's death as "based solely and exclusively on the evidence presented to this inquisition"; police and expert witnesses provided the only testimony during the inquest.
Jury foreman James T. Hicks stated that they could not consider the charges made by surviving Black Panthers who had been in the apartment; they had told reporters that the police entered the apartment shooting. The survivors were reported to have refused to testify during the inquest because they faced criminal charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault during the raid. Attorneys for the Hampton and Clark families did not introduce any witnesses during the proceedings, but called the inquest "a well-rehearsed theatrical performance designed to vindicate the police officers". Hanrahan said the verdict was recognition "of the truthfulness of our police officers' account of the events".
Federal grand jury
Released on May 15, 1970, the reports of a federal grand jury criticized the actions of the police, the surviving Black Panthers, and the Chicago news media. The grand jury called the police department's raid "ill conceived" and said many errors were committed during the post-raid investigation and reconstruction of the events. It said that the surviving Black Panthers' refusal to cooperate hampered the investigation, and that the press "improperly and grossly exaggerated stories".
1970 civil rights lawsuit
In 1970, the survivors and relatives of Hampton and Clark filed a civil suit, stating that the civil rights of the Black Panther members were violated by the joint police/FBI raid and seeking $47.7 million in damages. Twenty-eight defendants were named, including Hanrahan as well as the City of Chicago, Cook County, and federal governments. It took years for the case to get to trial, which lasted 18 months. It was reported to have been the longest federal trial up to that time. After its conclusion in 1977, Judge Joseph Sam Perry of United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed the suit against 21 of the defendants before jury deliberations. After jurors deadlocked on a verdict, Perry dismissed the suit against the remaining defendants.
The plaintiffs appealed. In 1979, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago found that the government had withheld relevant documents, thereby obstructing the judicial process. Reinstating the case against 24 of the defendants, the Court of Appeals ordered a new trial. The Supreme Court of the United States heard an appeal by defendants, but voted 5–3 in 1980 to remand the case to the District Court for a new trial.
In 1982, the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the federal government agreed to a settlement in which each would pay $616,333 (equivalent to $ million per payee in ) to a group of nine plaintiffs, including the mothers of Hampton and Clark. The $1.85 million settlement (equivalent to $ million in ) was believed to be the largest ever in a civil rights case. G. Flint Taylor, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said, "The settlement is an admission of the conspiracy that existed between the FBI and Hanrahan's men to murder Fred Hampton." Assistant United States Attorney Robert Gruenberg said the settlement was intended to avoid another costly trial and was not an admission of guilt or responsibility by any of the defendants.
Controversy
Ten days afterward, Bobby Rush, the then deputy minister of defense for the Illinois Black Panther Party, called the raiding party an "execution squad". As is typical in settlements, the three government defendants did not acknowledge claims of responsibility for plaintiffs' allegations.
Michael Newton is among the writers who have concluded that Hampton was assassinated. In his 2016 book Unsolved Civil Rights Murder Cases, 1934–1970, Newton writes that Hampton "was murdered in his sleep by Chicago police with FBI collusion." This view is also presented in Jakobi Williams's book From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago.
Personal life
Hampton was very close with Chicago Black Catholic priest George Clements, who served as his mentor and as a chaplain for the local Panther outfit. Hampton and the Panthers also used Clements's parish, Holy Angels Catholic Church in Chicago, as a refuge in times of particular surveillance or pursuit from the police. They also provided security for a number of Clements's "Black Unity Masses", part of his revolutionary activities during the Black Catholic Movement. Clements spoke at Hampton's funeral, and also said a Requiem Mass for him at Holy Angels.
Legacy
Legal and political effects
According to a 1969 Chicago Tribune report, "The raid ended the promising political career of Cook County State's Atty. Edward V. Hanrahan, who was indicted but cleared with 13 other law-enforcement agents on charges of obstructing justice. Bernard Carey, a Republican, defeated him in the next election, in part because of the support of outraged black voters." The families of Hampton and Clark filed a $47.7 million civil suit against the city, state, and federal governments. The case went to trial before Federal Judge J. Sam Perry. After more than 18 months of testimony and at the close of the plaintiffs' case, Perry dismissed the case. The plaintiffs appealed and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed, ordering the case to be retried. More than a decade after the case had been filed, the suit was finally settled for $1.85 million. The two families each shared in the settlement.
Jeffrey Haas, who, together with his law partners G. Flint Taylor and Dennis Cunningham and attorney James D. Montgomery, were the attorneys for the plaintiffs in the federal suit Hampton v. Hanrahan, conducted additional research and wrote a book about these events. It was published in 2009. He said that Chicago was worse off without Hampton:
In 1990, the Chicago City Council unanimously passed a resolution, introduced by then-Alderman Madeline Haithcock, commemorating December 4, 2004, as Fred Hampton Day in Chicago. The resolution read in part:
"Fred Hampton, who was only 21 years old, made his mark in Chicago history not so much by his death as by the heroic efforts of his life and by his goals of empowering the most oppressed sector of Chicago's Black community, bringing people into political life through participation in their own freedom fighting organization."
Monuments and streets
A public pool was named in his honor in his home town of Maywood, Illinois.
On September 7, 2007, a bust of Hampton by sculptor Preston Jackson was erected outside the Fred Hampton Family Aquatic Center in Maywood.
In March 2006, supporters of Hampton's charity work proposed the naming of a Chicago street in his honor. Chicago's chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police opposed this effort.
Weather Underground reaction
Two days after the killings of Hampton and Clark, on December 6, 1969, members of the Weathermen destroyed numerous police vehicles in a retaliatory bombing spree at 3600 N. Halsted Street in Chicago. After that, the group became more radical. On May 21, 1970, the group issued a "Declaration of War" against the U.S. government, and for the first time used its new name, the "Weather Underground Organization". They adopted fake identities and decided to pursue covert activities only. These initially included preparations to bomb a U.S. military non-commissioned officers' dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in what Brian Flanagan later said was intended to be "the most horrific hit the United States government had ever suffered on its territory"."We've known that our job is to lead white kids into armed revolution... Kids know the lines are drawn: revolution is touching all of our lives. Tens of thousands have learned that protest and marches don't do it. Revolutionary violence is the only way."
—Bernardine Dohrn
Media and popular culture
In film
A 27-minute documentary, Death of a Black Panther: The Fred Hampton Story, was used as evidence in the civil suit. The 2002 documentary The Weather Underground shows in detail how that group was deeply influenced by Hampton and his death—as well as showing that Hampton kept his distance from them for being what he called "adventuristic, masochistic and Custeristic".
Much of the first half of Eyes on the Prize episode 12, "A Nation of Law?", chronicles Hampton's leadership and extrajudicial killing. The events of his rise to prominence, Hoover's targeting of him, and Hampton's subsequent death are also recounted with footage in the 2015 documentary The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.
The Murder of Fred Hampton is a documentary shot from within the movement, released in 1971. It has no narration, relying solely on footage shot from within the Black Panther organization and portraying Hampton and his colleagues on their own terms.
In the 1999 TV miniseries The 60s, Hampton appears serving free breakfast with the BPP. David Alan Grier plays Hampton.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) features Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Hampton, in which he advises Bobby Seale as he was denied counsel, with the Chicago Seven.
Judas and the Black Messiah is a 2021 film about O'Neal's betrayal of Hampton. The film stars Daniel Kaluuya as Hampton and was directed by Shaka King. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on February 1, 2021. For his performance, Kaluuya won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In literature
Jeffrey Haas wrote an account of Hampton's death, The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther (2009).
Stephen King refers to Hampton in the novel 11/22/63 (2012), in which a character discusses the ripple effect of traveling back in time to prevent John F. Kennedy's assassination. He postulates that other events would follow that could have prevented Hampton's assassination as well.
In music
American rapper and businessman Jay-Z has made multiple references in his music to being born on the day Hampton died.
American rock band Rage Against the Machine referenced Hampton in their 1996 song Down Rodeo, saying "They ain't gonna send us campin' like they did my man Fred Hampton."
Notes
References
External links
The Marxists Internet Archive: Fred Hampton Archive Transcribed speeches and collected works.
"The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther" – video report by Democracy Now! December 4, 2009.
(A 1971 documentary film directed by Howard Alk)
FBI files on Fred Hampton
From COINTELPRO to the Shadow Government: As Fred Hampton Jr. Is Released From 9 Years of Prison, a Look Back at the Assassination of Fred Hampton. 36:48 real audio. Tape: Fred Hampton, Deborah Johnson. Guests: Fred Hampton Jr., Mutulu Olugabala, Rosa Clemente. Interviewer: Amy Goodman. Democracy Now!. Tuesday, March 5, 2002. Retrieved May 12, 2005.
"Power Anywhere Where There's People" A Speech By Fred Hampton
National Young Lords Brief notes on Young Lords origins
Grand Valley State University Oral History Collection
1948 births
1969 deaths
Activists from Chicago
African-American activists
African-American communists
African-American history
American anti-capitalists
American Maoists
American Marxists
American revolutionaries
Anti-poverty advocates
Anti-revisionists
Assassinated American civil rights activists
African-American Marxists
African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States
COINTELPRO targets
Deaths by firearm in Illinois
Extrajudicial killings
Members of the Black Panther Party
People from Maywood, Illinois
People from Summit, Illinois
People murdered in Illinois | true | [
"The Quicuchabe were one of 20 groups of American Indians who chose to join Juan Domínguez de Mendoza on his trek across Texas from the area of El Paso to the area around what is now San Angelo between 1683 and 1684. Mendoza did not indicate at what point the Quicuchabe joined his party; consequently, ascertaining where, exactly, they lived, and with what tribe they were affiliated is impossible. As the tribes between the Pecos River and the vicinity of San Angelo were being pushed by the Apache, the Quicuchabe likely originated somewhere in that general area.\n\nSee also\nHandbook of Texas entry\n\nNative American tribes in Texas",
"The Election Bloc of Left and Center-left Political Forces () or the Block of the Left Forces () is the name of a bloc of political parties in Ukraine who participated in the 2010 presidential election with a single candidate; the leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine Petro Symonenko. During the 2010 election he received 3.54% of the votes.\n\nHistory\nOn September 14, 2009 the Communist Party of Ukraine, the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united), the Justice Party and the Union of Leftists signed an agreement on creating the bloc of leftists and center-leftists and a unitary participation in the upcoming presidential election. The Bloc nominated Communist leader Petro Symonenko for the post of President of Ukraine. On October 3, 2009 his own Communist Party proposed him, on October 10, 2009 the Justice Party did the same followed by the Union of Leftists on October 16 and the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) on October 17, 2009.\n\nThe Socialist Party of Ukraine did not join the bloc but did state on the day of its creation that they would continue to negotiate to join the bloc. The Socialist Party of Ukraine also stated they would have preferred if the bloc would have been created after the presidential election (of 2010). The Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine refused to join the union since it did not want to be in the same election bloc as the Socialist Party of Ukraine.\n\nThe creation of the bloc made ex-President of Ukraine Kravchuk leave the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united), Kravchuk declared he also was indignant because the political council of the party decided to accomplish that behind the closed doors in non-democratic order. He called the block \"as the artificial union without any perspectives\".\n\nStances\nThe bloc of leftists is planning to call for a referendum on the Common Economic Space, Ukraine's attitude to NATO and the status of the Russian language in Ukraine. The bloc wants Russian to be the second state language in Ukraine (currently Ukrainian is the only state language of Ukraine).\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n2009 establishments in Ukraine\nCommunist Party of Ukraine\nPolitical parties established in 2009\nPolitical party alliances in Ukraine\nSocialist parties in Ukraine\nSocialist Party of Ukraine"
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| C_8919227193b845118bd28af3621b8eee_1 | What was his position in the Black Panthers? | 3 | What was Fred Hampton's position in the Black Panthers? | Fred Hampton | About the same time that Hampton was successfully organizing young African-Americans for the NAACP, the Black Panther Party (BPP) started rising to national prominence. Hampton was quickly attracted to the Black Panthers' approach, which was based on a ten-point program that integrated black self-determination on the basis of Maoism. Hampton joined the Party and relocated to downtown Chicago, and in November 1968 he joined the Party's nascent Illinois chapter--founded by Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizer Bob Brown in late 1967. Over the next year, Hampton and his associates made a number of significant achievements in Chicago. Perhaps his most important accomplishment was his brokering of a nonaggression pact between Chicago's most powerful street gangs. Emphasizing that racial and ethnic conflict between gangs would only keep its members entrenched in poverty, Hampton strove to forge a class-conscious, multi-racial alliance between the BPP, the Young Patriots Organization, and the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez. Fred Hampton met the Young Lords in the Chicago Lincoln Park Neighborhood, the day after the Young Lords were in the news after they had occupied a police community workshop meeting, held on the second floor hall of the Chicago 18th District Police Station. Later, the Rainbow Coalition was joined nationwide by the Students for a Democratic Society ("SDS"), the Brown Berets, and the Red Guard Party. In May 1969, Hampton called a press conference to announce that this "rainbow coalition" had formed. It was a phrase coined by Hampton and made popular over the years by Reverend Jesse Jackson, who eventually appropriated the name in forming his own, unrelated, coalition, Rainbow/PUSH. Hampton's organizing skills, substantial oratorical gifts, and personal charisma allowed him to rise quickly in the Black Panthers. Once he became leader of the Chicago chapter, he organized weekly rallies, worked closely with the BPP's local People's Clinic, taught political education classes every morning at 6am, and launched a project for community supervision of the police. Hampton was also instrumental in the BPP's Free Breakfast Program. When Brown left the Party with Stokely Carmichael in the FBI-fomented SNCC/Panther split, Hampton assumed chairmanship of the Illinois state BPP, automatically making him a national BPP deputy chairman. As the Panther leadership across the country began to be decimated by the impact of the FBI's COINTELPRO, Hampton's prominence in the national hierarchy increased rapidly and dramatically. Eventually, Hampton was in line to be appointed to the Party's Central Committee's Chief of Staff. He would have achieved this position had it not been for his death on the morning of December 4, 1969. CANNOTANSWER | Perhaps his most important accomplishment was his brokering of a nonaggression pact between Chicago's most powerful street gangs. | Fredrick Allen Hampton Sr. (August 30, 1948 – December 4, 1969) was an American activist. He came to prominence in Chicago as deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party, and chair of the Illinois chapter. As a progressive African American, he founded the antiracist, anticlass Rainbow Coalition, a prominent multicultural political organization that initially included the Black Panthers, Young Patriots (which organized poor whites), and the Young Lords (which organized Hispanics), and an alliance among major Chicago street gangs to help them end infighting and work for social change. A Marxist–Leninist, Hampton considered fascism the greatest threat, saying, "nothing is more important than stopping fascism, because fascism will stop us all.”
In 1967, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) identified Hampton as a radical threat. It tried to subvert his activities in Chicago, sowing disinformation among black progressive groups and placing a counterintelligence operative in the local Panthers organization. In December 1969, Hampton was drugged, shot and killed in his bed during a predawn raid at his Chicago apartment by a tactical unit of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, who received aid from the Chicago Police Department and the FBI leading up to the attack. Law enforcement sprayed more than 90 gunshots throughout the apartment; the occupants fired once. During the raid, Panther Mark Clark was also killed and several others were seriously wounded. In January 1970, the Cook County Coroner held an inquest; the jury concluded that Hampton's and Clark's deaths were justifiable homicides.
A civil lawsuit was later filed on behalf of the survivors and the relatives of Hampton and Clark. It was resolved in 1982 by a settlement of $1.85 million (equivalent to $ million in ); the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the federal government each paid one-third to a group of nine plaintiffs. Given revelations about the illegal COINTELPRO program and documents associated with the killings, many scholars now consider Hampton's death an assassination at the FBI's initiative.
Biography
Early life and youth
Hampton was born on August 30, 1948, in present-day Summit Argo, Illinois (generally shortened to Summit), and moved with his parents to another Chicago suburb, Maywood, at age 10. His parents had come from Louisiana as part of the Great Migration of African Americans in the early 20th century out of the South. They both worked at the Argo Starch Company, a corn starch processor. As a youth, Hampton was gifted both in the classroom and athletically, and hoped to play center field for the New York Yankees. Fred couldn't accept injustice anywhere. At 10 years old, he started hosting weekend breakfasts for other children from the neighborhood, cooking the meals himself in what could be described as a precursor to the Panthers’ free breakfast program. In high school, he led walkouts protesting black students' exclusion from the competition for homecoming queen and calling on officials to hire more black teachers and administrators. Hampton graduated from Proviso East High School with honors and varsity letters, and a Junior Achievement Award, in 1966. He enrolled at Triton Junior College in nearby River Grove, Illinois, where he majored in pre-law. He planned to become more familiar with the legal system to use it as a defense against police. When he and fellow Black Panthers later followed police in his community supervision program, watching out for police brutality, they used his knowledge of law as a defense.
In 1966, Fred Hampton turned 18. At that time, he started identifying with the Third World socialist struggles, as well as reading communist revolutionaries Che Guevara, Ho Chi Minh, and Mao Zedong. Shortly after, Hampton urged not only peace in the Vietnam War, but also North Vietnam's victory.
Hampton became active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and assumed leadership of its West Suburban Branch's Youth Council. In his capacity as an NAACP youth organizer, he demonstrated natural leadership abilities: from a community of 27,000, he was able to muster a youth group 500-members strong. He worked to get more and better recreational facilities established in the neighborhoods and to improve educational resources for Maywood's impoverished black community.
Activity in Chicago
At about the same time that Hampton was successfully organizing young African Americans for the NAACP, the Black Panther Party (BPP) was rising to national prominence. Hampton was quickly attracted to the Black Panthers' approach, which was based on a Ten-Point Program that integrated black self-determination with class and economic critique from Maoism. He joined the party and relocated to downtown Chicago. In November 1968, he joined the party's nascent Illinois chapter, founded in late 1967 by Bob Brown, a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizer.
In 1968, Hampton was accused of assaulting an ice cream truck driver, stealing $71 worth of ice cream bars, and giving them to kids in the street. He was convicted in May 1969 and sentenced to two to five years in prison. Writer Frank B. Wilderson III places this incident within the framework of COINTELPRO efforts to disrupt the Black Panthers of Chicago, in this case by "leveling [...] trumped-up charges".
In 1969, Hampton, now deputy chairman of the BPP Illinois chapter, conducted a meeting condemning sexism. After 1969, the party considered sexism counter-revolutionary. In 1970, about 40–70% of party members were women.
Over the next year, Hampton and his friends and associates achieved a number of successes in Chicago. Perhaps the most important was a nonaggression pact among Chicago's most powerful street gangs. Emphasizing that racial and ethnic conflict among gangs would only keep its members entrenched in poverty, Hampton strove to forge an anti-racist, class-conscious, multiracial alliance among the BPP, the Young Patriots Organization, and the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez, leading to the Rainbow Coalition.
Hampton met the Young Lords in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood the day after they were in the news for occupying a police community workshop at the Chicago 18th District Police Station. He was arrested twice with Jimenez at the Wicker Park Welfare Office, and both were charged with "mob action" at a peaceful picket of the office. Later, the Rainbow Coalition was joined nationwide by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Brown Berets, AIM, and the Red Guard Party. In May 1969, Hampton called a press conference to announce that the coalition had formed. What the coalition groups would do was based on common action. Some of their joint issues were poverty, anti-racism, corruption, police brutality, and substandard housing. If there was a protest or a demonstration, the groups would attend the event and support each other.
Jeffrey Haas, who was Hampton's lawyer, has praised some of Hampton's politics and his success in unifying movements. But Haas criticizes the way Hampton and the BPP organized in a pyramidal/vertical structure, contrasting this with the horizontal structure of Black Lives Matter: "They may also have picked up on the vulnerability of a hierarchical movement where you have one leader, which makes the movement very vulnerable if that leader is imprisoned, killed, or otherwise compromised. I think the fact that Black Lives Matter says 'We're leaderfull, not leaderless' perhaps makes them less vulnerable to this kind of government assault."
Hampton rose quickly in the Black Panthers, based on his organizing skills, oratorical gifts, and charisma. Once he became leader of the Chicago chapter, he organized weekly rallies, participated in strikes, worked closely with the BPP's local People's Clinic, taught political education classes every morning at 6 am, and launched a project for community supervision of the police. Hampton was also instrumental in the BPP's Free Breakfast Program. When Bob Brown left the party with Kwame Ture, in the FBI-fomented SNCC/Panther split, Hampton assumed chairmanship of the Illinois state BPP. This automatically made him a national BPP deputy chairman. As the FBI's COINTELPRO began to decimate the nationwide Panther leadership, Hampton's prominence in the national hierarchy increased rapidly and dramatically. Eventually he was in line to be appointed to the party's Central Committee Chief of Staff. He would have achieved this position had he not been killed on December 4, 1969.
FBI investigation
The FBI believed that Hampton's leadership and talent for communication made him a major threat among Black Panther leaders. It began keeping close tabs on his activities. Investigations have shown that FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover was determined to prevent the formation of a cohesive Black movement in the United States. Hoover believed the Panthers, Young Patriots, Young Lords, and similar radical coalitions that Hampton forged in Chicago were a stepping stone to the rise of a revolution that could cause a radical change in the U.S. government.
The FBI opened a file on Hampton in 1967. It tapped Hampton's mother's phone in February 1968 and by May placed Hampton on the bureau's "Agitator Index" as a "key militant leader". In late 1968, the Racial Matters squad of the FBI's Chicago field office recruited William O'Neal to work with it; he had recently been arrested twice for interstate car theft and impersonating a federal officer. In exchange for having his felony charges dropped and receiving a monthly stipend, O'Neal agreed to infiltrate the BPP as a counterintelligence operative.
O'Neal joined the party and quickly rose in the organization, becoming Director of Chapter Security and Hampton's bodyguard. In 1969, the FBI Special Agent in Charge (SAC) in San Francisco wrote Hoover that the agent's investigation had found that, in his city at least, the Panthers were primarily feeding breakfast to children. Hoover responded with a memo implying that the agent's career prospects depended on his supplying evidence to support Hoover's view that the BPP was "a violence-prone organization seeking to overthrow the Government by revolutionary means".
By means of anonymous letters, the FBI sowed distrust and eventually instigated a split between the Panthers and the Blackstone Rangers. O'Neal instigated an armed clash between them on April 2, 1969. The Panthers became effectively isolated from their power base in the Chicago ghetto, so the FBI worked to undermine its ties with other radical organizations. O'Neal was instructed to "create a rift" between the party and Students for a Democratic Society, whose Chicago headquarters was near that of the Panthers.
The FBI released a batch of racist cartoons in the Panthers' name, aimed at alienating white activists. It also launched a disinformation program to forestall the formation of the Rainbow Coalition, but the BPP did make an alliance with the Young Patriots and Young Lords. In repeated directives, Hoover demanded that COINTELPRO personnel investigate the Rainbow Coalition, "destroy what the [BPP] stands for", and "eradicate its 'serve the people' programs".
Documents secured by Senate investigators in the early 1970s revealed that the FBI actively encouraged violence between the Panthers and other radical groups; this provoked multiple murders in cities throughout the country. On July 16, 1969, an armed confrontation between party members and the Chicago Police Department resulted in one BPP member mortally wounded and six others arrested on serious charges.
In early October, Hampton and his girlfriend Deborah Johnson (now known as Akua Njeri), who was pregnant with their child (Fred Hampton Jr.), rented a four-and-a-half-room apartment at 2337 West Monroe Street to be closer to BPP headquarters. O'Neal reported to his superiors that much of the Panthers' "provocative" stockpile of arms was stored there. He drew them a map of the apartment. In early November, Hampton traveled to California on a speaking engagement to the UCLA Law Students Association. There he met with the remaining BPP national hierarchy, who appointed him to the party's central committee. He was soon to take the position of chief of staff and major spokesman.
Death
Prelude
While Hampton was in California in November 1969, two Chicago police officers, John J. Gilhooly and Frank G. Rappaport, were killed in a gun battle with Panthers on the night of November 13; one died the next day. A total of nine police officers were shot. Spurgeon Winter Jr, a 19-year-old Panther, was killed by police. Another Panther, Lawrence S. Bell, was charged with murder. In an unsigned editorial headlined "No Quarter for Wild Beasts", the Chicago Tribune urged that Chicago police officers approaching suspected Panthers "should be ordered to be ready to shoot."
As part of the larger COINTELPRO operation, the FBI was determined to prevent any improvement in the effectiveness of the BPP leadership. The FBI orchestrated an armed raid with the Chicago police and State Attorney on Hampton's Chicago apartment. They had obtained detailed information about the apartment, including a layout of furniture, from O'Neal. An augmented, 14-man team of the SAO (state Special Prosecutions Unit) was organized for a predawn raid; they were armed with a search warrant for illegal weapons.
On the evening of December 3, Hampton taught a political education course at a local church, which was attended by most Panther members. Afterward, as was typical, he was accompanied to his Monroe Street apartment by Johnson and several Panthers: Blair Anderson, James Grady, Ronald "Doc" Satchell, Harold Bell, Verlina Brewer, Louis Truelock, Brenda Harris and Mark Clark. O'Neal was already there, having prepared a late dinner, which the group ate around midnight. O'Neal had slipped the secobarbital into a drink that Hampton consumed during the dinner in order to sedate Hampton so he would not awaken during the subsequent raid. O'Neal left after the dinner. At about 1:30 am, December 4, Hampton fell asleep mid-sentence while talking to his mother on the telephone.
Although Hampton was not known to take drugs, Cook County chemist Eleanor Berman later reported that she had run two tests, which each showed evidence of barbiturates in Hampton's blood. An FBI chemist failed to find similar traces, but Berman stood by her findings.
Raid
The office of Cook County State's Attorney Edward Hanrahan organized the raid, using officers attached to his office. Hampton had recently strongly criticized Hanrahan, saying that Hanrahan's talk about a "war on gangs" was really rhetoric used to enable him to carry out a "war on black youth".
At 4 am, the heavily armed police team arrived at the site, divided into two teams, eight for the front of the building and six for the rear. At 4:45 am, they stormed the apartment. Mark Clark, sitting in the front room of the apartment with a shotgun in his lap, was on security duty. The police shot him in the chest, killing him instantly. An alternative account said that Clark answered the door and police immediately shot him. Either way, Clark's gun discharged once into the ceiling. This single round was fired when he suffered a reflexive death-convulsion after being shot. This was the only shot fired by the Panthers.
Hampton, drugged by barbiturates, was sleeping on a mattress in the bedroom with Johnson, who was nine months pregnant with their child. Police officers removed her from the room while Hampton lay unconscious in bed. Then the raiding team fired at the head of the south bedroom. Hampton was wounded in the shoulder by the shooting. According to the National Archives and Records Administration, "upon that discovery, an officer shot him twice in his head and killed him".
Fellow Black Panther Harold Bell said that he heard the following exchange:
:"That's Fred Hampton."
"Is he dead?... Bring him out."
"He's barely alive."
"He'll make it."
The injured Panthers said they heard two shots. According to Hampton's supporters, the shots were fired point blank at Hampton's head. According to Johnson, an officer then said: "He's good and dead now."
Hampton's body was dragged into the doorway of the bedroom and left in a pool of blood. The officers directed their gunfire at the remaining Panthers who had been sleeping in the north bedroom (Satchel, Anderson, Brewer and Harris). Brewer, Satchel, Anderson, and Harris were seriously wounded, then beaten and dragged into the street. They were arrested on charges of aggravated assault and attempted murder of the officers. They were each held on $100,000 bail.
In the early 1990s, Johnson was interviewed about the raid by Jose "Cha Cha" Jimenez, former president and co-founder of the Young Lords. He and his group had developed close ties to Hampton and the Chicago Black Panther Party during the late 1960s. She said:
I believe Fred Hampton was drugged. The reason why is because when he woke up when the person [Truelock] said, "Chairman, chairman," he was shaking Fred's arm, you know, Fred's arm was folded across the head of the bed. And Fred—he just raised his head up real slow. It was like watching a slow motion. He raised. His eyes were open. He raised his head up real slow, you know, with his eyes toward the entranceway, toward the bedroom and laid his head back down. That was the only movement he made [...]
The seven Panthers who survived the raid were indicted by a grand jury on charges of attempted murder, armed violence, and various other weapons charges. These charges were subsequently dropped. During the trial, the Chicago Police Department claimed that the Panthers were the first to fire shots. But a later investigation found that the Chicago police fired between 90 and 99 shots, while the only Panthers shot was from Clark's dropped shotgun.
After the raid, the apartment was left unguarded. The Panthers sent some members to investigate, accompanied by videographer Mike Gray and stills photographer Norris McNamara to document the scene. This footage was instrumental in proving the raid was an assassination. The footage was later released as part of the 1971 documentary The Murder of Fred Hampton. After a break-in at an FBI office in Pennsylvania, the existence of COINTELPRO, an illegal counter-intelligence program, was revealed and reported. With this program revealed, many activists and others began to suspect that the police raid and Hampton's killing were conducted under this program. One of the documents released after the break-in was a floor plan of Hampton's apartment. Another document outlined a deal that the FBI brokered with US deputy attorney general Richard Kleindienst to conceal the FBI's role in Hampton's death and the existence of COINTELPRO.
Aftermath
At a press conference the next day, the police announced the arrest team had been attacked by the "violent" and "extremely vicious" Panthers and defended themselves accordingly. In a second press conference on December 8, the police leadership praised the assault team for their "remarkable restraint", "bravery", and "professional discipline" in not killing all the Panthers present. Photographic evidence was presented of "bullet holes" allegedly made by shots fired by the Panthers, but reporters soon challenged this claim. An internal investigation was undertaken, and the police claimed that their colleagues on the assault team were exonerated of any wrongdoing, concluding that they "used lawful means to overcome the assault".
Five thousand people attended Hampton's funeral. He was eulogized by black leaders, including Jesse Jackson and Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr.'s successor as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In his eulogy, Jackson said that "when Fred was shot in Chicago, black people in particular, and decent people in general, bled everywhere." On December 6, members of the Weather Underground destroyed numerous police vehicles in a retaliatory bombing spree at 3600 N. Halsted Street, Chicago.
The police called their raid on Hampton's apartment a "shootout". The Black Panthers called it a "shoot-in", because so many shots were fired by police.
On December 11 and 12, the two competing daily newspapers, the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, published vivid accounts of the events, but drew different conclusions. The Tribune has long been considered the politically conservative newspaper, and the Sun-Times the liberal paper. On December 11, the Tribune published a page 1 article titled, "Exclusive – Hanrahan, Police Tell Panther Story." The article included photographs, supplied by Hanrahan's office, that depicted bullet holes in a thin white curtain and door jamb as evidence that the Panthers fired multiple bullets at the police.
Jack Challem, editor of the Wright College News, the student newspaper at Wright Junior College in Chicago, had visited the apartment on December 6, when it was still unsecured. He took numerous photographs of the crime scenes. A member of the Black Panthers was allowing visitors to tour the apartment. Challem's photographs did not show the bullet holes as reported by the Tribune. On the morning of December 12, after the Tribune article had appeared with the Hanrahan-supplied photos, Challem contacted a reporter at the Sun-Times, showed him his own photographs, and encouraged the other reporter to visit the apartment. That evening, the Sun-Times published a page 1 article with the headline: "Those 'bullet holes' aren't." According to the article, the alleged bullet holes (supposedly the result of the Panthers shooting in the direction of the police) were nail heads.
Four weeks after witnessing Hampton's death at the hands of the police, Johnson gave birth to their son, Fred Hampton Jr.
Civil rights activists Roy Wilkins and Ramsey Clark (styled as "The Commission of Inquiry into the Black Panthers and the Police") subsequently alleged that the Chicago police had killed Hampton without justification or provocation, and had violated the Panthers' constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure. "The Commission" further alleged that the Chicago Police Department had imposed a summary punishment on the Panthers.
A federal grand jury did not return any indictment against any of the individuals involved with the planning or execution of the raid, including the officers involved in killing Hampton. O'Neal, who had given the FBI the floor plan of the apartment and drugged Hampton, later admitted his involvement in setting up the raid. He committed suicide on January 15, 1990.
Inquest
Shortly after the raid, Cook County Coroner Andrew Toman began forming a special six-member coroner's jury to hold an inquest into the deaths of Hampton and Clark. On December 23, Toman announced four additions to the jury, who included two African-American men: physician Theodore K. Lawless and attorney Julian B. Wilkins, the son of J. Ernest Wilkins Sr. He said the four were selected from a group of candidates submitted to his office by groups and individuals representing both Chicago's black and white communities. Civil rights leaders and spokesmen for the black community were reported to have been disappointed with the selection.
An official with the Chicago Urban League said, "I would have had more confidence in the jury if one of them had been a black man who has a rapport with the young and the grass roots in the community." Gus Savage said that such a man to whom the community could relate need not be black. The jury eventually included a third black man, who had been a member of the first coroner's jury sworn in on December 4.
The blue-ribbon panel convened for the inquest on January 6, 1970. On January 21, they ruled the deaths of Hampton and Clark to be justifiable homicides. The jury qualified their verdict on Hampton's death as "based solely and exclusively on the evidence presented to this inquisition"; police and expert witnesses provided the only testimony during the inquest.
Jury foreman James T. Hicks stated that they could not consider the charges made by surviving Black Panthers who had been in the apartment; they had told reporters that the police entered the apartment shooting. The survivors were reported to have refused to testify during the inquest because they faced criminal charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault during the raid. Attorneys for the Hampton and Clark families did not introduce any witnesses during the proceedings, but called the inquest "a well-rehearsed theatrical performance designed to vindicate the police officers". Hanrahan said the verdict was recognition "of the truthfulness of our police officers' account of the events".
Federal grand jury
Released on May 15, 1970, the reports of a federal grand jury criticized the actions of the police, the surviving Black Panthers, and the Chicago news media. The grand jury called the police department's raid "ill conceived" and said many errors were committed during the post-raid investigation and reconstruction of the events. It said that the surviving Black Panthers' refusal to cooperate hampered the investigation, and that the press "improperly and grossly exaggerated stories".
1970 civil rights lawsuit
In 1970, the survivors and relatives of Hampton and Clark filed a civil suit, stating that the civil rights of the Black Panther members were violated by the joint police/FBI raid and seeking $47.7 million in damages. Twenty-eight defendants were named, including Hanrahan as well as the City of Chicago, Cook County, and federal governments. It took years for the case to get to trial, which lasted 18 months. It was reported to have been the longest federal trial up to that time. After its conclusion in 1977, Judge Joseph Sam Perry of United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed the suit against 21 of the defendants before jury deliberations. After jurors deadlocked on a verdict, Perry dismissed the suit against the remaining defendants.
The plaintiffs appealed. In 1979, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago found that the government had withheld relevant documents, thereby obstructing the judicial process. Reinstating the case against 24 of the defendants, the Court of Appeals ordered a new trial. The Supreme Court of the United States heard an appeal by defendants, but voted 5–3 in 1980 to remand the case to the District Court for a new trial.
In 1982, the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the federal government agreed to a settlement in which each would pay $616,333 (equivalent to $ million per payee in ) to a group of nine plaintiffs, including the mothers of Hampton and Clark. The $1.85 million settlement (equivalent to $ million in ) was believed to be the largest ever in a civil rights case. G. Flint Taylor, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said, "The settlement is an admission of the conspiracy that existed between the FBI and Hanrahan's men to murder Fred Hampton." Assistant United States Attorney Robert Gruenberg said the settlement was intended to avoid another costly trial and was not an admission of guilt or responsibility by any of the defendants.
Controversy
Ten days afterward, Bobby Rush, the then deputy minister of defense for the Illinois Black Panther Party, called the raiding party an "execution squad". As is typical in settlements, the three government defendants did not acknowledge claims of responsibility for plaintiffs' allegations.
Michael Newton is among the writers who have concluded that Hampton was assassinated. In his 2016 book Unsolved Civil Rights Murder Cases, 1934–1970, Newton writes that Hampton "was murdered in his sleep by Chicago police with FBI collusion." This view is also presented in Jakobi Williams's book From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago.
Personal life
Hampton was very close with Chicago Black Catholic priest George Clements, who served as his mentor and as a chaplain for the local Panther outfit. Hampton and the Panthers also used Clements's parish, Holy Angels Catholic Church in Chicago, as a refuge in times of particular surveillance or pursuit from the police. They also provided security for a number of Clements's "Black Unity Masses", part of his revolutionary activities during the Black Catholic Movement. Clements spoke at Hampton's funeral, and also said a Requiem Mass for him at Holy Angels.
Legacy
Legal and political effects
According to a 1969 Chicago Tribune report, "The raid ended the promising political career of Cook County State's Atty. Edward V. Hanrahan, who was indicted but cleared with 13 other law-enforcement agents on charges of obstructing justice. Bernard Carey, a Republican, defeated him in the next election, in part because of the support of outraged black voters." The families of Hampton and Clark filed a $47.7 million civil suit against the city, state, and federal governments. The case went to trial before Federal Judge J. Sam Perry. After more than 18 months of testimony and at the close of the plaintiffs' case, Perry dismissed the case. The plaintiffs appealed and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed, ordering the case to be retried. More than a decade after the case had been filed, the suit was finally settled for $1.85 million. The two families each shared in the settlement.
Jeffrey Haas, who, together with his law partners G. Flint Taylor and Dennis Cunningham and attorney James D. Montgomery, were the attorneys for the plaintiffs in the federal suit Hampton v. Hanrahan, conducted additional research and wrote a book about these events. It was published in 2009. He said that Chicago was worse off without Hampton:
In 1990, the Chicago City Council unanimously passed a resolution, introduced by then-Alderman Madeline Haithcock, commemorating December 4, 2004, as Fred Hampton Day in Chicago. The resolution read in part:
"Fred Hampton, who was only 21 years old, made his mark in Chicago history not so much by his death as by the heroic efforts of his life and by his goals of empowering the most oppressed sector of Chicago's Black community, bringing people into political life through participation in their own freedom fighting organization."
Monuments and streets
A public pool was named in his honor in his home town of Maywood, Illinois.
On September 7, 2007, a bust of Hampton by sculptor Preston Jackson was erected outside the Fred Hampton Family Aquatic Center in Maywood.
In March 2006, supporters of Hampton's charity work proposed the naming of a Chicago street in his honor. Chicago's chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police opposed this effort.
Weather Underground reaction
Two days after the killings of Hampton and Clark, on December 6, 1969, members of the Weathermen destroyed numerous police vehicles in a retaliatory bombing spree at 3600 N. Halsted Street in Chicago. After that, the group became more radical. On May 21, 1970, the group issued a "Declaration of War" against the U.S. government, and for the first time used its new name, the "Weather Underground Organization". They adopted fake identities and decided to pursue covert activities only. These initially included preparations to bomb a U.S. military non-commissioned officers' dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in what Brian Flanagan later said was intended to be "the most horrific hit the United States government had ever suffered on its territory"."We've known that our job is to lead white kids into armed revolution... Kids know the lines are drawn: revolution is touching all of our lives. Tens of thousands have learned that protest and marches don't do it. Revolutionary violence is the only way."
—Bernardine Dohrn
Media and popular culture
In film
A 27-minute documentary, Death of a Black Panther: The Fred Hampton Story, was used as evidence in the civil suit. The 2002 documentary The Weather Underground shows in detail how that group was deeply influenced by Hampton and his death—as well as showing that Hampton kept his distance from them for being what he called "adventuristic, masochistic and Custeristic".
Much of the first half of Eyes on the Prize episode 12, "A Nation of Law?", chronicles Hampton's leadership and extrajudicial killing. The events of his rise to prominence, Hoover's targeting of him, and Hampton's subsequent death are also recounted with footage in the 2015 documentary The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.
The Murder of Fred Hampton is a documentary shot from within the movement, released in 1971. It has no narration, relying solely on footage shot from within the Black Panther organization and portraying Hampton and his colleagues on their own terms.
In the 1999 TV miniseries The 60s, Hampton appears serving free breakfast with the BPP. David Alan Grier plays Hampton.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) features Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Hampton, in which he advises Bobby Seale as he was denied counsel, with the Chicago Seven.
Judas and the Black Messiah is a 2021 film about O'Neal's betrayal of Hampton. The film stars Daniel Kaluuya as Hampton and was directed by Shaka King. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on February 1, 2021. For his performance, Kaluuya won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In literature
Jeffrey Haas wrote an account of Hampton's death, The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther (2009).
Stephen King refers to Hampton in the novel 11/22/63 (2012), in which a character discusses the ripple effect of traveling back in time to prevent John F. Kennedy's assassination. He postulates that other events would follow that could have prevented Hampton's assassination as well.
In music
American rapper and businessman Jay-Z has made multiple references in his music to being born on the day Hampton died.
American rock band Rage Against the Machine referenced Hampton in their 1996 song Down Rodeo, saying "They ain't gonna send us campin' like they did my man Fred Hampton."
Notes
References
External links
The Marxists Internet Archive: Fred Hampton Archive Transcribed speeches and collected works.
"The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther" – video report by Democracy Now! December 4, 2009.
(A 1971 documentary film directed by Howard Alk)
FBI files on Fred Hampton
From COINTELPRO to the Shadow Government: As Fred Hampton Jr. Is Released From 9 Years of Prison, a Look Back at the Assassination of Fred Hampton. 36:48 real audio. Tape: Fred Hampton, Deborah Johnson. Guests: Fred Hampton Jr., Mutulu Olugabala, Rosa Clemente. Interviewer: Amy Goodman. Democracy Now!. Tuesday, March 5, 2002. Retrieved May 12, 2005.
"Power Anywhere Where There's People" A Speech By Fred Hampton
National Young Lords Brief notes on Young Lords origins
Grand Valley State University Oral History Collection
1948 births
1969 deaths
Activists from Chicago
African-American activists
African-American communists
African-American history
American anti-capitalists
American Maoists
American Marxists
American revolutionaries
Anti-poverty advocates
Anti-revisionists
Assassinated American civil rights activists
African-American Marxists
African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States
COINTELPRO targets
Deaths by firearm in Illinois
Extrajudicial killings
Members of the Black Panther Party
People from Maywood, Illinois
People from Summit, Illinois
People murdered in Illinois | false | [
"Constance Evadine Matthews (August 3, 1943 - 1993), better known as Connie Matthews, was an organizer, a part of the Black Panther Party between 1968 and 1971. A resident of Denmark, she helped co-ordinate the Black Panthers with left-wing political groups based in Europe.\n\nBlack Panther Party Organizer\nMatthews was born in Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica on August 3, 1943. As an adult, she had studied in London and Vienna and had obtained a master's degree in psychology. Matthews worked for the International Folk Music Council in Copenhagen, Denmark, 1967–1969. She first became involved with the Panthers in 1968.\n\nIn May 1969, Matthews was officially designated by the Panthers as their \"International Coordinator\", and was \"authorised to mobilise to carry out demonstrations of support, raise funds, and inform the peoples of Scandinavia about poor black and oppressed peoples' revolutionary struggle from the Panthers' vanguard position\". In early 1969, Matthews organised a tour of Black Panther Party leaders Bobby Seale and Raymond Hewitt around Northern Europe, with the goal being to network with left-wing European political groups and raise funds for the \"Free Huey\" campaign, which sought to see Huey Newton released from prison. The tour was considered a success and Matthews was commended by the Panthers' central committee for her work, leading her to become more involved with the party.\n\nMatthews continued to build a base of support for the Panthers in Europe. Matthews was also responsible for recruiting French Intellectual Jean Genet, persuading him to travel to the United States for an extended tour where he took part in the \"Free Huey\" campaign.\n\nIn February 1970 Matthews was a part of a tour of the United Kingdom, intended to strengthen bonds between the Black Panther Party and the Black Power Movement growing in Britain at the time. Hailing from Jamaica, a commonwealth nation, and having studied in London, Matthews was capable of speaking in a British manner, if not a British accent. However, during the tour, she spoke in a style more in line with the way the American Black Panthers spoke. Speaking to British Black Panthers, She was also critical of the direction they were going, telling them that they needed to work with non-black liberals and socialists instead of dividing into \"sixteen organisations which won’t work with white people\". Between the use of American vernacular and stiff criticism, some of the British audience came away from the speech feeling stung. Derek Humphry, a journalist reporting on the speech for The Sunday Times, ran with the headline \"Sister Connie Matthews swears at British Black Panthers\", summarising how the speech was received.\n\nMatthews also began to also make visits to the United States as well as writing articles for The Black Panther, the Panthers' official newspaper. In the spring of 1970, she courted controversy in relation to the Chicago Eight trial, of which Bobby Seale was a part of. The Jewish Telegraph Agency accused Matthews of labelling the Judge a \"Zionist\", and of thinking of all Jews as Zionists. Huey Newton would directly respond to the controversy, asking Jewish publications such as the magazine Jewish Currents to reprint statement he had made in September 1969 in the Black Panther newspaper, where he explicitly stated the official policy of the party was not anti-Semitic. Newton also referred to the controversy within the Black Panther paper itself in a late April 1970 edition in which he referred to Matthews comments as \"made in anger\" (at how the trial was being run)\n\nMichael Tabor and Algeria\nMatthews eventually rose through the Panther ranks to become the personal secretary of party leader Huey Newton. Writer T.J. English claims in order to protect Matthews from being deported from the US, he ordered Black Panther member Michael Tabor to marry Connie. English further suggests that this plan backfired on Newton, who was in a sexual relationship with Matthews at the time, as the relationship between Tabor and Matthews blossomed from sham-marriage into genuine love.\n\nIn 1969, Tabor and 12 other members of the Black Panthers were charged for allegedly plotting to kill police officers and to plant bombs in New York City commercial and public buildings, in what came to be known as the Panther 21 Trial. In February 1971, Tabor and fellow defendant Richard Moore failed to appear for trial and consequently forfeited $150,000 in bail. Newton was furiously and had Tabor and Moore declared \"enemies of the people\". Matthews was denounced as well, and accusing of fleeing the Party and taking valuable assets with her. Moore, Tabor and Matthews all resurfaced a month later in Algeria, where Black Panther Party leaders Eldridge and Kathleen Cleaver had previously fled to after Eldridge also escaped a trial. They joined a wider faction of Black Panthers who had all left the United States rather than faces trails, and who had all consolidated around the leadership of the Cleavers. Other Panthers in this clique were Donald L. Cox and his wife Barbara Easley Cox, Pete O'Neal and his wife Charlotte Hill O'Neal and Sekou Odinga to name a few.\n\nIn time, this faction, dubbed \"The International Section of the Black Panther Party\" by the Panthers, came to be considered to be in a feud with the main branch of the Black Panthers in America who remained under the leadership of Huey Newton and to a lesser degree, David Hilliard. Internal tensions between the groups were deliberately greatly intensified by the FBI, who unleashed the full force of their COINTELPRO project on them.\n\nThe Algerian-based panthers all eventually went their separate ways and in 1972 Tabor and Matthews immigrated to Zambia. Matthews eventually returned to her homeland of Jamaica, where she died of cancer in 1993.\n\nReferences\n\n1943 births\n1993 deaths\nActivists for African-American civil rights\nCivil rights movement\nJamaican activists\nJamaican communists\nMembers of the Black Panther Party\nJamaican women activists",
"Charlie-Shalom Biton (; born 11 April 1947) is an Israeli social activist and former politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Hadash and the Black Panthers between 1977 and 1992.\n\nBiography\nCharlie Biton was born in Casablanca in Morocco. His family immigrated to Israel in 1949 when he was two years old. He grew up in Musrara neighbourhood of Jerusalem and attended an ORT vocational school. In 1971 he was one of the founders of the Israeli Black Panthers movement, along with Sa'adia Marciano, Reuven Abergel, and Eli Avichzer. In 1974, he was sentenced to seven months in prison for assaulting a police officer. He went into hiding to avoid his sentence, and was later pardoned.\n\nPolitical career\nAs the Black Panthers became aligned with Hadash, Biton was elected to the Knesset on the party's list in 1977. He was re-elected in 1981, 1984 and 1988. On 25 December 1990, he left Hadash to establish his own faction. The faction's name was not initially approved by the House Committee, but on 1 January 1991 it was named Black Panthers.\n\nIn the 1992 Knesset elections he headed a list named Hatikva, but it won only 2,053 votes (0.1%), well below the 1.5% electoral threshold, and Biton lost his seat.\n\nSee also \n\n Kochavi Shemesh\n Matzpen\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1947 births\nPeople from Casablanca\n20th-century Moroccan Jews\nMoroccan emigrants to Israel\nLeaders of political parties in Israel\nJewish socialists\nLiving people\nHadash politicians\nBlack Panthers (Israel) politicians\nMembers of the 9th Knesset (1977–1981)\nMembers of the 10th Knesset (1981–1984)\nMembers of the 11th Knesset (1984–1988)\nMembers of the 12th Knesset (1988–1992)"
]
|
[
"Fred Hampton",
"Chicago",
"When did he first go to Chicago?",
"Hampton joined the Party and relocated to downtown Chicago, and in November 1968",
"What party did he join?",
"Black Panthers",
"What was his position in the Black Panthers?",
"Perhaps his most important accomplishment was his brokering of a nonaggression pact between Chicago's most powerful street gangs."
]
| C_8919227193b845118bd28af3621b8eee_1 | Was the nonaggression pack honored? | 4 | Was the nonaggression pact between Chicago's street gangs honored? | Fred Hampton | About the same time that Hampton was successfully organizing young African-Americans for the NAACP, the Black Panther Party (BPP) started rising to national prominence. Hampton was quickly attracted to the Black Panthers' approach, which was based on a ten-point program that integrated black self-determination on the basis of Maoism. Hampton joined the Party and relocated to downtown Chicago, and in November 1968 he joined the Party's nascent Illinois chapter--founded by Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizer Bob Brown in late 1967. Over the next year, Hampton and his associates made a number of significant achievements in Chicago. Perhaps his most important accomplishment was his brokering of a nonaggression pact between Chicago's most powerful street gangs. Emphasizing that racial and ethnic conflict between gangs would only keep its members entrenched in poverty, Hampton strove to forge a class-conscious, multi-racial alliance between the BPP, the Young Patriots Organization, and the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez. Fred Hampton met the Young Lords in the Chicago Lincoln Park Neighborhood, the day after the Young Lords were in the news after they had occupied a police community workshop meeting, held on the second floor hall of the Chicago 18th District Police Station. Later, the Rainbow Coalition was joined nationwide by the Students for a Democratic Society ("SDS"), the Brown Berets, and the Red Guard Party. In May 1969, Hampton called a press conference to announce that this "rainbow coalition" had formed. It was a phrase coined by Hampton and made popular over the years by Reverend Jesse Jackson, who eventually appropriated the name in forming his own, unrelated, coalition, Rainbow/PUSH. Hampton's organizing skills, substantial oratorical gifts, and personal charisma allowed him to rise quickly in the Black Panthers. Once he became leader of the Chicago chapter, he organized weekly rallies, worked closely with the BPP's local People's Clinic, taught political education classes every morning at 6am, and launched a project for community supervision of the police. Hampton was also instrumental in the BPP's Free Breakfast Program. When Brown left the Party with Stokely Carmichael in the FBI-fomented SNCC/Panther split, Hampton assumed chairmanship of the Illinois state BPP, automatically making him a national BPP deputy chairman. As the Panther leadership across the country began to be decimated by the impact of the FBI's COINTELPRO, Hampton's prominence in the national hierarchy increased rapidly and dramatically. Eventually, Hampton was in line to be appointed to the Party's Central Committee's Chief of Staff. He would have achieved this position had it not been for his death on the morning of December 4, 1969. CANNOTANSWER | Hampton strove to forge a class-conscious, multi-racial alliance between the BPP, the Young Patriots Organization, and the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez. | Fredrick Allen Hampton Sr. (August 30, 1948 – December 4, 1969) was an American activist. He came to prominence in Chicago as deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party, and chair of the Illinois chapter. As a progressive African American, he founded the antiracist, anticlass Rainbow Coalition, a prominent multicultural political organization that initially included the Black Panthers, Young Patriots (which organized poor whites), and the Young Lords (which organized Hispanics), and an alliance among major Chicago street gangs to help them end infighting and work for social change. A Marxist–Leninist, Hampton considered fascism the greatest threat, saying, "nothing is more important than stopping fascism, because fascism will stop us all.”
In 1967, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) identified Hampton as a radical threat. It tried to subvert his activities in Chicago, sowing disinformation among black progressive groups and placing a counterintelligence operative in the local Panthers organization. In December 1969, Hampton was drugged, shot and killed in his bed during a predawn raid at his Chicago apartment by a tactical unit of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, who received aid from the Chicago Police Department and the FBI leading up to the attack. Law enforcement sprayed more than 90 gunshots throughout the apartment; the occupants fired once. During the raid, Panther Mark Clark was also killed and several others were seriously wounded. In January 1970, the Cook County Coroner held an inquest; the jury concluded that Hampton's and Clark's deaths were justifiable homicides.
A civil lawsuit was later filed on behalf of the survivors and the relatives of Hampton and Clark. It was resolved in 1982 by a settlement of $1.85 million (equivalent to $ million in ); the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the federal government each paid one-third to a group of nine plaintiffs. Given revelations about the illegal COINTELPRO program and documents associated with the killings, many scholars now consider Hampton's death an assassination at the FBI's initiative.
Biography
Early life and youth
Hampton was born on August 30, 1948, in present-day Summit Argo, Illinois (generally shortened to Summit), and moved with his parents to another Chicago suburb, Maywood, at age 10. His parents had come from Louisiana as part of the Great Migration of African Americans in the early 20th century out of the South. They both worked at the Argo Starch Company, a corn starch processor. As a youth, Hampton was gifted both in the classroom and athletically, and hoped to play center field for the New York Yankees. Fred couldn't accept injustice anywhere. At 10 years old, he started hosting weekend breakfasts for other children from the neighborhood, cooking the meals himself in what could be described as a precursor to the Panthers’ free breakfast program. In high school, he led walkouts protesting black students' exclusion from the competition for homecoming queen and calling on officials to hire more black teachers and administrators. Hampton graduated from Proviso East High School with honors and varsity letters, and a Junior Achievement Award, in 1966. He enrolled at Triton Junior College in nearby River Grove, Illinois, where he majored in pre-law. He planned to become more familiar with the legal system to use it as a defense against police. When he and fellow Black Panthers later followed police in his community supervision program, watching out for police brutality, they used his knowledge of law as a defense.
In 1966, Fred Hampton turned 18. At that time, he started identifying with the Third World socialist struggles, as well as reading communist revolutionaries Che Guevara, Ho Chi Minh, and Mao Zedong. Shortly after, Hampton urged not only peace in the Vietnam War, but also North Vietnam's victory.
Hampton became active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and assumed leadership of its West Suburban Branch's Youth Council. In his capacity as an NAACP youth organizer, he demonstrated natural leadership abilities: from a community of 27,000, he was able to muster a youth group 500-members strong. He worked to get more and better recreational facilities established in the neighborhoods and to improve educational resources for Maywood's impoverished black community.
Activity in Chicago
At about the same time that Hampton was successfully organizing young African Americans for the NAACP, the Black Panther Party (BPP) was rising to national prominence. Hampton was quickly attracted to the Black Panthers' approach, which was based on a Ten-Point Program that integrated black self-determination with class and economic critique from Maoism. He joined the party and relocated to downtown Chicago. In November 1968, he joined the party's nascent Illinois chapter, founded in late 1967 by Bob Brown, a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizer.
In 1968, Hampton was accused of assaulting an ice cream truck driver, stealing $71 worth of ice cream bars, and giving them to kids in the street. He was convicted in May 1969 and sentenced to two to five years in prison. Writer Frank B. Wilderson III places this incident within the framework of COINTELPRO efforts to disrupt the Black Panthers of Chicago, in this case by "leveling [...] trumped-up charges".
In 1969, Hampton, now deputy chairman of the BPP Illinois chapter, conducted a meeting condemning sexism. After 1969, the party considered sexism counter-revolutionary. In 1970, about 40–70% of party members were women.
Over the next year, Hampton and his friends and associates achieved a number of successes in Chicago. Perhaps the most important was a nonaggression pact among Chicago's most powerful street gangs. Emphasizing that racial and ethnic conflict among gangs would only keep its members entrenched in poverty, Hampton strove to forge an anti-racist, class-conscious, multiracial alliance among the BPP, the Young Patriots Organization, and the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez, leading to the Rainbow Coalition.
Hampton met the Young Lords in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood the day after they were in the news for occupying a police community workshop at the Chicago 18th District Police Station. He was arrested twice with Jimenez at the Wicker Park Welfare Office, and both were charged with "mob action" at a peaceful picket of the office. Later, the Rainbow Coalition was joined nationwide by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Brown Berets, AIM, and the Red Guard Party. In May 1969, Hampton called a press conference to announce that the coalition had formed. What the coalition groups would do was based on common action. Some of their joint issues were poverty, anti-racism, corruption, police brutality, and substandard housing. If there was a protest or a demonstration, the groups would attend the event and support each other.
Jeffrey Haas, who was Hampton's lawyer, has praised some of Hampton's politics and his success in unifying movements. But Haas criticizes the way Hampton and the BPP organized in a pyramidal/vertical structure, contrasting this with the horizontal structure of Black Lives Matter: "They may also have picked up on the vulnerability of a hierarchical movement where you have one leader, which makes the movement very vulnerable if that leader is imprisoned, killed, or otherwise compromised. I think the fact that Black Lives Matter says 'We're leaderfull, not leaderless' perhaps makes them less vulnerable to this kind of government assault."
Hampton rose quickly in the Black Panthers, based on his organizing skills, oratorical gifts, and charisma. Once he became leader of the Chicago chapter, he organized weekly rallies, participated in strikes, worked closely with the BPP's local People's Clinic, taught political education classes every morning at 6 am, and launched a project for community supervision of the police. Hampton was also instrumental in the BPP's Free Breakfast Program. When Bob Brown left the party with Kwame Ture, in the FBI-fomented SNCC/Panther split, Hampton assumed chairmanship of the Illinois state BPP. This automatically made him a national BPP deputy chairman. As the FBI's COINTELPRO began to decimate the nationwide Panther leadership, Hampton's prominence in the national hierarchy increased rapidly and dramatically. Eventually he was in line to be appointed to the party's Central Committee Chief of Staff. He would have achieved this position had he not been killed on December 4, 1969.
FBI investigation
The FBI believed that Hampton's leadership and talent for communication made him a major threat among Black Panther leaders. It began keeping close tabs on his activities. Investigations have shown that FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover was determined to prevent the formation of a cohesive Black movement in the United States. Hoover believed the Panthers, Young Patriots, Young Lords, and similar radical coalitions that Hampton forged in Chicago were a stepping stone to the rise of a revolution that could cause a radical change in the U.S. government.
The FBI opened a file on Hampton in 1967. It tapped Hampton's mother's phone in February 1968 and by May placed Hampton on the bureau's "Agitator Index" as a "key militant leader". In late 1968, the Racial Matters squad of the FBI's Chicago field office recruited William O'Neal to work with it; he had recently been arrested twice for interstate car theft and impersonating a federal officer. In exchange for having his felony charges dropped and receiving a monthly stipend, O'Neal agreed to infiltrate the BPP as a counterintelligence operative.
O'Neal joined the party and quickly rose in the organization, becoming Director of Chapter Security and Hampton's bodyguard. In 1969, the FBI Special Agent in Charge (SAC) in San Francisco wrote Hoover that the agent's investigation had found that, in his city at least, the Panthers were primarily feeding breakfast to children. Hoover responded with a memo implying that the agent's career prospects depended on his supplying evidence to support Hoover's view that the BPP was "a violence-prone organization seeking to overthrow the Government by revolutionary means".
By means of anonymous letters, the FBI sowed distrust and eventually instigated a split between the Panthers and the Blackstone Rangers. O'Neal instigated an armed clash between them on April 2, 1969. The Panthers became effectively isolated from their power base in the Chicago ghetto, so the FBI worked to undermine its ties with other radical organizations. O'Neal was instructed to "create a rift" between the party and Students for a Democratic Society, whose Chicago headquarters was near that of the Panthers.
The FBI released a batch of racist cartoons in the Panthers' name, aimed at alienating white activists. It also launched a disinformation program to forestall the formation of the Rainbow Coalition, but the BPP did make an alliance with the Young Patriots and Young Lords. In repeated directives, Hoover demanded that COINTELPRO personnel investigate the Rainbow Coalition, "destroy what the [BPP] stands for", and "eradicate its 'serve the people' programs".
Documents secured by Senate investigators in the early 1970s revealed that the FBI actively encouraged violence between the Panthers and other radical groups; this provoked multiple murders in cities throughout the country. On July 16, 1969, an armed confrontation between party members and the Chicago Police Department resulted in one BPP member mortally wounded and six others arrested on serious charges.
In early October, Hampton and his girlfriend Deborah Johnson (now known as Akua Njeri), who was pregnant with their child (Fred Hampton Jr.), rented a four-and-a-half-room apartment at 2337 West Monroe Street to be closer to BPP headquarters. O'Neal reported to his superiors that much of the Panthers' "provocative" stockpile of arms was stored there. He drew them a map of the apartment. In early November, Hampton traveled to California on a speaking engagement to the UCLA Law Students Association. There he met with the remaining BPP national hierarchy, who appointed him to the party's central committee. He was soon to take the position of chief of staff and major spokesman.
Death
Prelude
While Hampton was in California in November 1969, two Chicago police officers, John J. Gilhooly and Frank G. Rappaport, were killed in a gun battle with Panthers on the night of November 13; one died the next day. A total of nine police officers were shot. Spurgeon Winter Jr, a 19-year-old Panther, was killed by police. Another Panther, Lawrence S. Bell, was charged with murder. In an unsigned editorial headlined "No Quarter for Wild Beasts", the Chicago Tribune urged that Chicago police officers approaching suspected Panthers "should be ordered to be ready to shoot."
As part of the larger COINTELPRO operation, the FBI was determined to prevent any improvement in the effectiveness of the BPP leadership. The FBI orchestrated an armed raid with the Chicago police and State Attorney on Hampton's Chicago apartment. They had obtained detailed information about the apartment, including a layout of furniture, from O'Neal. An augmented, 14-man team of the SAO (state Special Prosecutions Unit) was organized for a predawn raid; they were armed with a search warrant for illegal weapons.
On the evening of December 3, Hampton taught a political education course at a local church, which was attended by most Panther members. Afterward, as was typical, he was accompanied to his Monroe Street apartment by Johnson and several Panthers: Blair Anderson, James Grady, Ronald "Doc" Satchell, Harold Bell, Verlina Brewer, Louis Truelock, Brenda Harris and Mark Clark. O'Neal was already there, having prepared a late dinner, which the group ate around midnight. O'Neal had slipped the secobarbital into a drink that Hampton consumed during the dinner in order to sedate Hampton so he would not awaken during the subsequent raid. O'Neal left after the dinner. At about 1:30 am, December 4, Hampton fell asleep mid-sentence while talking to his mother on the telephone.
Although Hampton was not known to take drugs, Cook County chemist Eleanor Berman later reported that she had run two tests, which each showed evidence of barbiturates in Hampton's blood. An FBI chemist failed to find similar traces, but Berman stood by her findings.
Raid
The office of Cook County State's Attorney Edward Hanrahan organized the raid, using officers attached to his office. Hampton had recently strongly criticized Hanrahan, saying that Hanrahan's talk about a "war on gangs" was really rhetoric used to enable him to carry out a "war on black youth".
At 4 am, the heavily armed police team arrived at the site, divided into two teams, eight for the front of the building and six for the rear. At 4:45 am, they stormed the apartment. Mark Clark, sitting in the front room of the apartment with a shotgun in his lap, was on security duty. The police shot him in the chest, killing him instantly. An alternative account said that Clark answered the door and police immediately shot him. Either way, Clark's gun discharged once into the ceiling. This single round was fired when he suffered a reflexive death-convulsion after being shot. This was the only shot fired by the Panthers.
Hampton, drugged by barbiturates, was sleeping on a mattress in the bedroom with Johnson, who was nine months pregnant with their child. Police officers removed her from the room while Hampton lay unconscious in bed. Then the raiding team fired at the head of the south bedroom. Hampton was wounded in the shoulder by the shooting. According to the National Archives and Records Administration, "upon that discovery, an officer shot him twice in his head and killed him".
Fellow Black Panther Harold Bell said that he heard the following exchange:
:"That's Fred Hampton."
"Is he dead?... Bring him out."
"He's barely alive."
"He'll make it."
The injured Panthers said they heard two shots. According to Hampton's supporters, the shots were fired point blank at Hampton's head. According to Johnson, an officer then said: "He's good and dead now."
Hampton's body was dragged into the doorway of the bedroom and left in a pool of blood. The officers directed their gunfire at the remaining Panthers who had been sleeping in the north bedroom (Satchel, Anderson, Brewer and Harris). Brewer, Satchel, Anderson, and Harris were seriously wounded, then beaten and dragged into the street. They were arrested on charges of aggravated assault and attempted murder of the officers. They were each held on $100,000 bail.
In the early 1990s, Johnson was interviewed about the raid by Jose "Cha Cha" Jimenez, former president and co-founder of the Young Lords. He and his group had developed close ties to Hampton and the Chicago Black Panther Party during the late 1960s. She said:
I believe Fred Hampton was drugged. The reason why is because when he woke up when the person [Truelock] said, "Chairman, chairman," he was shaking Fred's arm, you know, Fred's arm was folded across the head of the bed. And Fred—he just raised his head up real slow. It was like watching a slow motion. He raised. His eyes were open. He raised his head up real slow, you know, with his eyes toward the entranceway, toward the bedroom and laid his head back down. That was the only movement he made [...]
The seven Panthers who survived the raid were indicted by a grand jury on charges of attempted murder, armed violence, and various other weapons charges. These charges were subsequently dropped. During the trial, the Chicago Police Department claimed that the Panthers were the first to fire shots. But a later investigation found that the Chicago police fired between 90 and 99 shots, while the only Panthers shot was from Clark's dropped shotgun.
After the raid, the apartment was left unguarded. The Panthers sent some members to investigate, accompanied by videographer Mike Gray and stills photographer Norris McNamara to document the scene. This footage was instrumental in proving the raid was an assassination. The footage was later released as part of the 1971 documentary The Murder of Fred Hampton. After a break-in at an FBI office in Pennsylvania, the existence of COINTELPRO, an illegal counter-intelligence program, was revealed and reported. With this program revealed, many activists and others began to suspect that the police raid and Hampton's killing were conducted under this program. One of the documents released after the break-in was a floor plan of Hampton's apartment. Another document outlined a deal that the FBI brokered with US deputy attorney general Richard Kleindienst to conceal the FBI's role in Hampton's death and the existence of COINTELPRO.
Aftermath
At a press conference the next day, the police announced the arrest team had been attacked by the "violent" and "extremely vicious" Panthers and defended themselves accordingly. In a second press conference on December 8, the police leadership praised the assault team for their "remarkable restraint", "bravery", and "professional discipline" in not killing all the Panthers present. Photographic evidence was presented of "bullet holes" allegedly made by shots fired by the Panthers, but reporters soon challenged this claim. An internal investigation was undertaken, and the police claimed that their colleagues on the assault team were exonerated of any wrongdoing, concluding that they "used lawful means to overcome the assault".
Five thousand people attended Hampton's funeral. He was eulogized by black leaders, including Jesse Jackson and Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr.'s successor as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In his eulogy, Jackson said that "when Fred was shot in Chicago, black people in particular, and decent people in general, bled everywhere." On December 6, members of the Weather Underground destroyed numerous police vehicles in a retaliatory bombing spree at 3600 N. Halsted Street, Chicago.
The police called their raid on Hampton's apartment a "shootout". The Black Panthers called it a "shoot-in", because so many shots were fired by police.
On December 11 and 12, the two competing daily newspapers, the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, published vivid accounts of the events, but drew different conclusions. The Tribune has long been considered the politically conservative newspaper, and the Sun-Times the liberal paper. On December 11, the Tribune published a page 1 article titled, "Exclusive – Hanrahan, Police Tell Panther Story." The article included photographs, supplied by Hanrahan's office, that depicted bullet holes in a thin white curtain and door jamb as evidence that the Panthers fired multiple bullets at the police.
Jack Challem, editor of the Wright College News, the student newspaper at Wright Junior College in Chicago, had visited the apartment on December 6, when it was still unsecured. He took numerous photographs of the crime scenes. A member of the Black Panthers was allowing visitors to tour the apartment. Challem's photographs did not show the bullet holes as reported by the Tribune. On the morning of December 12, after the Tribune article had appeared with the Hanrahan-supplied photos, Challem contacted a reporter at the Sun-Times, showed him his own photographs, and encouraged the other reporter to visit the apartment. That evening, the Sun-Times published a page 1 article with the headline: "Those 'bullet holes' aren't." According to the article, the alleged bullet holes (supposedly the result of the Panthers shooting in the direction of the police) were nail heads.
Four weeks after witnessing Hampton's death at the hands of the police, Johnson gave birth to their son, Fred Hampton Jr.
Civil rights activists Roy Wilkins and Ramsey Clark (styled as "The Commission of Inquiry into the Black Panthers and the Police") subsequently alleged that the Chicago police had killed Hampton without justification or provocation, and had violated the Panthers' constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure. "The Commission" further alleged that the Chicago Police Department had imposed a summary punishment on the Panthers.
A federal grand jury did not return any indictment against any of the individuals involved with the planning or execution of the raid, including the officers involved in killing Hampton. O'Neal, who had given the FBI the floor plan of the apartment and drugged Hampton, later admitted his involvement in setting up the raid. He committed suicide on January 15, 1990.
Inquest
Shortly after the raid, Cook County Coroner Andrew Toman began forming a special six-member coroner's jury to hold an inquest into the deaths of Hampton and Clark. On December 23, Toman announced four additions to the jury, who included two African-American men: physician Theodore K. Lawless and attorney Julian B. Wilkins, the son of J. Ernest Wilkins Sr. He said the four were selected from a group of candidates submitted to his office by groups and individuals representing both Chicago's black and white communities. Civil rights leaders and spokesmen for the black community were reported to have been disappointed with the selection.
An official with the Chicago Urban League said, "I would have had more confidence in the jury if one of them had been a black man who has a rapport with the young and the grass roots in the community." Gus Savage said that such a man to whom the community could relate need not be black. The jury eventually included a third black man, who had been a member of the first coroner's jury sworn in on December 4.
The blue-ribbon panel convened for the inquest on January 6, 1970. On January 21, they ruled the deaths of Hampton and Clark to be justifiable homicides. The jury qualified their verdict on Hampton's death as "based solely and exclusively on the evidence presented to this inquisition"; police and expert witnesses provided the only testimony during the inquest.
Jury foreman James T. Hicks stated that they could not consider the charges made by surviving Black Panthers who had been in the apartment; they had told reporters that the police entered the apartment shooting. The survivors were reported to have refused to testify during the inquest because they faced criminal charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault during the raid. Attorneys for the Hampton and Clark families did not introduce any witnesses during the proceedings, but called the inquest "a well-rehearsed theatrical performance designed to vindicate the police officers". Hanrahan said the verdict was recognition "of the truthfulness of our police officers' account of the events".
Federal grand jury
Released on May 15, 1970, the reports of a federal grand jury criticized the actions of the police, the surviving Black Panthers, and the Chicago news media. The grand jury called the police department's raid "ill conceived" and said many errors were committed during the post-raid investigation and reconstruction of the events. It said that the surviving Black Panthers' refusal to cooperate hampered the investigation, and that the press "improperly and grossly exaggerated stories".
1970 civil rights lawsuit
In 1970, the survivors and relatives of Hampton and Clark filed a civil suit, stating that the civil rights of the Black Panther members were violated by the joint police/FBI raid and seeking $47.7 million in damages. Twenty-eight defendants were named, including Hanrahan as well as the City of Chicago, Cook County, and federal governments. It took years for the case to get to trial, which lasted 18 months. It was reported to have been the longest federal trial up to that time. After its conclusion in 1977, Judge Joseph Sam Perry of United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed the suit against 21 of the defendants before jury deliberations. After jurors deadlocked on a verdict, Perry dismissed the suit against the remaining defendants.
The plaintiffs appealed. In 1979, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago found that the government had withheld relevant documents, thereby obstructing the judicial process. Reinstating the case against 24 of the defendants, the Court of Appeals ordered a new trial. The Supreme Court of the United States heard an appeal by defendants, but voted 5–3 in 1980 to remand the case to the District Court for a new trial.
In 1982, the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the federal government agreed to a settlement in which each would pay $616,333 (equivalent to $ million per payee in ) to a group of nine plaintiffs, including the mothers of Hampton and Clark. The $1.85 million settlement (equivalent to $ million in ) was believed to be the largest ever in a civil rights case. G. Flint Taylor, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said, "The settlement is an admission of the conspiracy that existed between the FBI and Hanrahan's men to murder Fred Hampton." Assistant United States Attorney Robert Gruenberg said the settlement was intended to avoid another costly trial and was not an admission of guilt or responsibility by any of the defendants.
Controversy
Ten days afterward, Bobby Rush, the then deputy minister of defense for the Illinois Black Panther Party, called the raiding party an "execution squad". As is typical in settlements, the three government defendants did not acknowledge claims of responsibility for plaintiffs' allegations.
Michael Newton is among the writers who have concluded that Hampton was assassinated. In his 2016 book Unsolved Civil Rights Murder Cases, 1934–1970, Newton writes that Hampton "was murdered in his sleep by Chicago police with FBI collusion." This view is also presented in Jakobi Williams's book From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago.
Personal life
Hampton was very close with Chicago Black Catholic priest George Clements, who served as his mentor and as a chaplain for the local Panther outfit. Hampton and the Panthers also used Clements's parish, Holy Angels Catholic Church in Chicago, as a refuge in times of particular surveillance or pursuit from the police. They also provided security for a number of Clements's "Black Unity Masses", part of his revolutionary activities during the Black Catholic Movement. Clements spoke at Hampton's funeral, and also said a Requiem Mass for him at Holy Angels.
Legacy
Legal and political effects
According to a 1969 Chicago Tribune report, "The raid ended the promising political career of Cook County State's Atty. Edward V. Hanrahan, who was indicted but cleared with 13 other law-enforcement agents on charges of obstructing justice. Bernard Carey, a Republican, defeated him in the next election, in part because of the support of outraged black voters." The families of Hampton and Clark filed a $47.7 million civil suit against the city, state, and federal governments. The case went to trial before Federal Judge J. Sam Perry. After more than 18 months of testimony and at the close of the plaintiffs' case, Perry dismissed the case. The plaintiffs appealed and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed, ordering the case to be retried. More than a decade after the case had been filed, the suit was finally settled for $1.85 million. The two families each shared in the settlement.
Jeffrey Haas, who, together with his law partners G. Flint Taylor and Dennis Cunningham and attorney James D. Montgomery, were the attorneys for the plaintiffs in the federal suit Hampton v. Hanrahan, conducted additional research and wrote a book about these events. It was published in 2009. He said that Chicago was worse off without Hampton:
In 1990, the Chicago City Council unanimously passed a resolution, introduced by then-Alderman Madeline Haithcock, commemorating December 4, 2004, as Fred Hampton Day in Chicago. The resolution read in part:
"Fred Hampton, who was only 21 years old, made his mark in Chicago history not so much by his death as by the heroic efforts of his life and by his goals of empowering the most oppressed sector of Chicago's Black community, bringing people into political life through participation in their own freedom fighting organization."
Monuments and streets
A public pool was named in his honor in his home town of Maywood, Illinois.
On September 7, 2007, a bust of Hampton by sculptor Preston Jackson was erected outside the Fred Hampton Family Aquatic Center in Maywood.
In March 2006, supporters of Hampton's charity work proposed the naming of a Chicago street in his honor. Chicago's chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police opposed this effort.
Weather Underground reaction
Two days after the killings of Hampton and Clark, on December 6, 1969, members of the Weathermen destroyed numerous police vehicles in a retaliatory bombing spree at 3600 N. Halsted Street in Chicago. After that, the group became more radical. On May 21, 1970, the group issued a "Declaration of War" against the U.S. government, and for the first time used its new name, the "Weather Underground Organization". They adopted fake identities and decided to pursue covert activities only. These initially included preparations to bomb a U.S. military non-commissioned officers' dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in what Brian Flanagan later said was intended to be "the most horrific hit the United States government had ever suffered on its territory"."We've known that our job is to lead white kids into armed revolution... Kids know the lines are drawn: revolution is touching all of our lives. Tens of thousands have learned that protest and marches don't do it. Revolutionary violence is the only way."
—Bernardine Dohrn
Media and popular culture
In film
A 27-minute documentary, Death of a Black Panther: The Fred Hampton Story, was used as evidence in the civil suit. The 2002 documentary The Weather Underground shows in detail how that group was deeply influenced by Hampton and his death—as well as showing that Hampton kept his distance from them for being what he called "adventuristic, masochistic and Custeristic".
Much of the first half of Eyes on the Prize episode 12, "A Nation of Law?", chronicles Hampton's leadership and extrajudicial killing. The events of his rise to prominence, Hoover's targeting of him, and Hampton's subsequent death are also recounted with footage in the 2015 documentary The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.
The Murder of Fred Hampton is a documentary shot from within the movement, released in 1971. It has no narration, relying solely on footage shot from within the Black Panther organization and portraying Hampton and his colleagues on their own terms.
In the 1999 TV miniseries The 60s, Hampton appears serving free breakfast with the BPP. David Alan Grier plays Hampton.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) features Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Hampton, in which he advises Bobby Seale as he was denied counsel, with the Chicago Seven.
Judas and the Black Messiah is a 2021 film about O'Neal's betrayal of Hampton. The film stars Daniel Kaluuya as Hampton and was directed by Shaka King. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on February 1, 2021. For his performance, Kaluuya won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In literature
Jeffrey Haas wrote an account of Hampton's death, The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther (2009).
Stephen King refers to Hampton in the novel 11/22/63 (2012), in which a character discusses the ripple effect of traveling back in time to prevent John F. Kennedy's assassination. He postulates that other events would follow that could have prevented Hampton's assassination as well.
In music
American rapper and businessman Jay-Z has made multiple references in his music to being born on the day Hampton died.
American rock band Rage Against the Machine referenced Hampton in their 1996 song Down Rodeo, saying "They ain't gonna send us campin' like they did my man Fred Hampton."
Notes
References
External links
The Marxists Internet Archive: Fred Hampton Archive Transcribed speeches and collected works.
"The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther" – video report by Democracy Now! December 4, 2009.
(A 1971 documentary film directed by Howard Alk)
FBI files on Fred Hampton
From COINTELPRO to the Shadow Government: As Fred Hampton Jr. Is Released From 9 Years of Prison, a Look Back at the Assassination of Fred Hampton. 36:48 real audio. Tape: Fred Hampton, Deborah Johnson. Guests: Fred Hampton Jr., Mutulu Olugabala, Rosa Clemente. Interviewer: Amy Goodman. Democracy Now!. Tuesday, March 5, 2002. Retrieved May 12, 2005.
"Power Anywhere Where There's People" A Speech By Fred Hampton
National Young Lords Brief notes on Young Lords origins
Grand Valley State University Oral History Collection
1948 births
1969 deaths
Activists from Chicago
African-American activists
African-American communists
African-American history
American anti-capitalists
American Maoists
American Marxists
American revolutionaries
Anti-poverty advocates
Anti-revisionists
Assassinated American civil rights activists
African-American Marxists
African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States
COINTELPRO targets
Deaths by firearm in Illinois
Extrajudicial killings
Members of the Black Panther Party
People from Maywood, Illinois
People from Summit, Illinois
People murdered in Illinois | false | [
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"Denis William Pack-Beresford (7 July 1818 – 28 December 1881), known as Denis William Pack until 1854, was an Irish Conservative Party politician.\n\nEarly life and family\nPack was the son of decorated military officer Denis Pack and Elizabeth Louisa Beresford. In early life, Pack was a Captain of the Royal Artillery. Upon inheriting estates from his uncle, General William Carr Beresford, in 1854, he also inherited the arms of Beresford, and assumed the additional surname. In 1856, he became a High Sheriff.\n\nPack-Beresford then married Annette Caroline Browne, daughter of Robert Clayton Browne and Harriette Augusta Hamilton, in 1863. Together, they had nine children:\n Elizabeth Harriet Pack-Beresford (died 1937)\n Annette Louisa Pack-Beresford (died 1941)\n Denis Robert Pack-Beresford (1864–1942)\n Arthur William Pack-Beresford (1868–1902)\n Charles George Pack-Beresford (1869–1914), an officer in the West Kent Regiment.\n Henry John Pack-Beresford (1871–1945)\n Reynell James Pack-Beresford (1872–1949)\n Hugh de la Poer Pack-Beresford (1874–1954)\n Algernon Dunbar Pack-Beresford (1875–1908)\n\nPolitical career\nHe was elected as one of the two Members of Parliament (MPs) for Carlow County at a by-election in 1862 and held the seat until standing down at the 1868 general election.\n\nLater life\nIn later life, Pack-Beresford was a Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1818 births\n1881 deaths\nIrish Conservative Party MPs\nMembers of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Carlow constituencies (1801–1922)\nUK MPs 1859–1865\nUK MPs 1865–1868\nHigh Shrievalties in Ireland"
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"Fred Hampton",
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"Hampton joined the Party and relocated to downtown Chicago, and in November 1968",
"What party did he join?",
"Black Panthers",
"What was his position in the Black Panthers?",
"Perhaps his most important accomplishment was his brokering of a nonaggression pact between Chicago's most powerful street gangs.",
"Was the nonaggression pack honored?",
"Hampton strove to forge a class-conscious, multi-racial alliance between the BPP, the Young Patriots Organization, and the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez."
]
| C_8919227193b845118bd28af3621b8eee_1 | What part of Chicago did he live in? | 5 | What part of Chicago did Fred Hampton live in? | Fred Hampton | About the same time that Hampton was successfully organizing young African-Americans for the NAACP, the Black Panther Party (BPP) started rising to national prominence. Hampton was quickly attracted to the Black Panthers' approach, which was based on a ten-point program that integrated black self-determination on the basis of Maoism. Hampton joined the Party and relocated to downtown Chicago, and in November 1968 he joined the Party's nascent Illinois chapter--founded by Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizer Bob Brown in late 1967. Over the next year, Hampton and his associates made a number of significant achievements in Chicago. Perhaps his most important accomplishment was his brokering of a nonaggression pact between Chicago's most powerful street gangs. Emphasizing that racial and ethnic conflict between gangs would only keep its members entrenched in poverty, Hampton strove to forge a class-conscious, multi-racial alliance between the BPP, the Young Patriots Organization, and the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez. Fred Hampton met the Young Lords in the Chicago Lincoln Park Neighborhood, the day after the Young Lords were in the news after they had occupied a police community workshop meeting, held on the second floor hall of the Chicago 18th District Police Station. Later, the Rainbow Coalition was joined nationwide by the Students for a Democratic Society ("SDS"), the Brown Berets, and the Red Guard Party. In May 1969, Hampton called a press conference to announce that this "rainbow coalition" had formed. It was a phrase coined by Hampton and made popular over the years by Reverend Jesse Jackson, who eventually appropriated the name in forming his own, unrelated, coalition, Rainbow/PUSH. Hampton's organizing skills, substantial oratorical gifts, and personal charisma allowed him to rise quickly in the Black Panthers. Once he became leader of the Chicago chapter, he organized weekly rallies, worked closely with the BPP's local People's Clinic, taught political education classes every morning at 6am, and launched a project for community supervision of the police. Hampton was also instrumental in the BPP's Free Breakfast Program. When Brown left the Party with Stokely Carmichael in the FBI-fomented SNCC/Panther split, Hampton assumed chairmanship of the Illinois state BPP, automatically making him a national BPP deputy chairman. As the Panther leadership across the country began to be decimated by the impact of the FBI's COINTELPRO, Hampton's prominence in the national hierarchy increased rapidly and dramatically. Eventually, Hampton was in line to be appointed to the Party's Central Committee's Chief of Staff. He would have achieved this position had it not been for his death on the morning of December 4, 1969. CANNOTANSWER | in the Chicago Lincoln Park | Fredrick Allen Hampton Sr. (August 30, 1948 – December 4, 1969) was an American activist. He came to prominence in Chicago as deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party, and chair of the Illinois chapter. As a progressive African American, he founded the antiracist, anticlass Rainbow Coalition, a prominent multicultural political organization that initially included the Black Panthers, Young Patriots (which organized poor whites), and the Young Lords (which organized Hispanics), and an alliance among major Chicago street gangs to help them end infighting and work for social change. A Marxist–Leninist, Hampton considered fascism the greatest threat, saying, "nothing is more important than stopping fascism, because fascism will stop us all.”
In 1967, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) identified Hampton as a radical threat. It tried to subvert his activities in Chicago, sowing disinformation among black progressive groups and placing a counterintelligence operative in the local Panthers organization. In December 1969, Hampton was drugged, shot and killed in his bed during a predawn raid at his Chicago apartment by a tactical unit of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, who received aid from the Chicago Police Department and the FBI leading up to the attack. Law enforcement sprayed more than 90 gunshots throughout the apartment; the occupants fired once. During the raid, Panther Mark Clark was also killed and several others were seriously wounded. In January 1970, the Cook County Coroner held an inquest; the jury concluded that Hampton's and Clark's deaths were justifiable homicides.
A civil lawsuit was later filed on behalf of the survivors and the relatives of Hampton and Clark. It was resolved in 1982 by a settlement of $1.85 million (equivalent to $ million in ); the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the federal government each paid one-third to a group of nine plaintiffs. Given revelations about the illegal COINTELPRO program and documents associated with the killings, many scholars now consider Hampton's death an assassination at the FBI's initiative.
Biography
Early life and youth
Hampton was born on August 30, 1948, in present-day Summit Argo, Illinois (generally shortened to Summit), and moved with his parents to another Chicago suburb, Maywood, at age 10. His parents had come from Louisiana as part of the Great Migration of African Americans in the early 20th century out of the South. They both worked at the Argo Starch Company, a corn starch processor. As a youth, Hampton was gifted both in the classroom and athletically, and hoped to play center field for the New York Yankees. Fred couldn't accept injustice anywhere. At 10 years old, he started hosting weekend breakfasts for other children from the neighborhood, cooking the meals himself in what could be described as a precursor to the Panthers’ free breakfast program. In high school, he led walkouts protesting black students' exclusion from the competition for homecoming queen and calling on officials to hire more black teachers and administrators. Hampton graduated from Proviso East High School with honors and varsity letters, and a Junior Achievement Award, in 1966. He enrolled at Triton Junior College in nearby River Grove, Illinois, where he majored in pre-law. He planned to become more familiar with the legal system to use it as a defense against police. When he and fellow Black Panthers later followed police in his community supervision program, watching out for police brutality, they used his knowledge of law as a defense.
In 1966, Fred Hampton turned 18. At that time, he started identifying with the Third World socialist struggles, as well as reading communist revolutionaries Che Guevara, Ho Chi Minh, and Mao Zedong. Shortly after, Hampton urged not only peace in the Vietnam War, but also North Vietnam's victory.
Hampton became active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and assumed leadership of its West Suburban Branch's Youth Council. In his capacity as an NAACP youth organizer, he demonstrated natural leadership abilities: from a community of 27,000, he was able to muster a youth group 500-members strong. He worked to get more and better recreational facilities established in the neighborhoods and to improve educational resources for Maywood's impoverished black community.
Activity in Chicago
At about the same time that Hampton was successfully organizing young African Americans for the NAACP, the Black Panther Party (BPP) was rising to national prominence. Hampton was quickly attracted to the Black Panthers' approach, which was based on a Ten-Point Program that integrated black self-determination with class and economic critique from Maoism. He joined the party and relocated to downtown Chicago. In November 1968, he joined the party's nascent Illinois chapter, founded in late 1967 by Bob Brown, a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizer.
In 1968, Hampton was accused of assaulting an ice cream truck driver, stealing $71 worth of ice cream bars, and giving them to kids in the street. He was convicted in May 1969 and sentenced to two to five years in prison. Writer Frank B. Wilderson III places this incident within the framework of COINTELPRO efforts to disrupt the Black Panthers of Chicago, in this case by "leveling [...] trumped-up charges".
In 1969, Hampton, now deputy chairman of the BPP Illinois chapter, conducted a meeting condemning sexism. After 1969, the party considered sexism counter-revolutionary. In 1970, about 40–70% of party members were women.
Over the next year, Hampton and his friends and associates achieved a number of successes in Chicago. Perhaps the most important was a nonaggression pact among Chicago's most powerful street gangs. Emphasizing that racial and ethnic conflict among gangs would only keep its members entrenched in poverty, Hampton strove to forge an anti-racist, class-conscious, multiracial alliance among the BPP, the Young Patriots Organization, and the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez, leading to the Rainbow Coalition.
Hampton met the Young Lords in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood the day after they were in the news for occupying a police community workshop at the Chicago 18th District Police Station. He was arrested twice with Jimenez at the Wicker Park Welfare Office, and both were charged with "mob action" at a peaceful picket of the office. Later, the Rainbow Coalition was joined nationwide by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Brown Berets, AIM, and the Red Guard Party. In May 1969, Hampton called a press conference to announce that the coalition had formed. What the coalition groups would do was based on common action. Some of their joint issues were poverty, anti-racism, corruption, police brutality, and substandard housing. If there was a protest or a demonstration, the groups would attend the event and support each other.
Jeffrey Haas, who was Hampton's lawyer, has praised some of Hampton's politics and his success in unifying movements. But Haas criticizes the way Hampton and the BPP organized in a pyramidal/vertical structure, contrasting this with the horizontal structure of Black Lives Matter: "They may also have picked up on the vulnerability of a hierarchical movement where you have one leader, which makes the movement very vulnerable if that leader is imprisoned, killed, or otherwise compromised. I think the fact that Black Lives Matter says 'We're leaderfull, not leaderless' perhaps makes them less vulnerable to this kind of government assault."
Hampton rose quickly in the Black Panthers, based on his organizing skills, oratorical gifts, and charisma. Once he became leader of the Chicago chapter, he organized weekly rallies, participated in strikes, worked closely with the BPP's local People's Clinic, taught political education classes every morning at 6 am, and launched a project for community supervision of the police. Hampton was also instrumental in the BPP's Free Breakfast Program. When Bob Brown left the party with Kwame Ture, in the FBI-fomented SNCC/Panther split, Hampton assumed chairmanship of the Illinois state BPP. This automatically made him a national BPP deputy chairman. As the FBI's COINTELPRO began to decimate the nationwide Panther leadership, Hampton's prominence in the national hierarchy increased rapidly and dramatically. Eventually he was in line to be appointed to the party's Central Committee Chief of Staff. He would have achieved this position had he not been killed on December 4, 1969.
FBI investigation
The FBI believed that Hampton's leadership and talent for communication made him a major threat among Black Panther leaders. It began keeping close tabs on his activities. Investigations have shown that FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover was determined to prevent the formation of a cohesive Black movement in the United States. Hoover believed the Panthers, Young Patriots, Young Lords, and similar radical coalitions that Hampton forged in Chicago were a stepping stone to the rise of a revolution that could cause a radical change in the U.S. government.
The FBI opened a file on Hampton in 1967. It tapped Hampton's mother's phone in February 1968 and by May placed Hampton on the bureau's "Agitator Index" as a "key militant leader". In late 1968, the Racial Matters squad of the FBI's Chicago field office recruited William O'Neal to work with it; he had recently been arrested twice for interstate car theft and impersonating a federal officer. In exchange for having his felony charges dropped and receiving a monthly stipend, O'Neal agreed to infiltrate the BPP as a counterintelligence operative.
O'Neal joined the party and quickly rose in the organization, becoming Director of Chapter Security and Hampton's bodyguard. In 1969, the FBI Special Agent in Charge (SAC) in San Francisco wrote Hoover that the agent's investigation had found that, in his city at least, the Panthers were primarily feeding breakfast to children. Hoover responded with a memo implying that the agent's career prospects depended on his supplying evidence to support Hoover's view that the BPP was "a violence-prone organization seeking to overthrow the Government by revolutionary means".
By means of anonymous letters, the FBI sowed distrust and eventually instigated a split between the Panthers and the Blackstone Rangers. O'Neal instigated an armed clash between them on April 2, 1969. The Panthers became effectively isolated from their power base in the Chicago ghetto, so the FBI worked to undermine its ties with other radical organizations. O'Neal was instructed to "create a rift" between the party and Students for a Democratic Society, whose Chicago headquarters was near that of the Panthers.
The FBI released a batch of racist cartoons in the Panthers' name, aimed at alienating white activists. It also launched a disinformation program to forestall the formation of the Rainbow Coalition, but the BPP did make an alliance with the Young Patriots and Young Lords. In repeated directives, Hoover demanded that COINTELPRO personnel investigate the Rainbow Coalition, "destroy what the [BPP] stands for", and "eradicate its 'serve the people' programs".
Documents secured by Senate investigators in the early 1970s revealed that the FBI actively encouraged violence between the Panthers and other radical groups; this provoked multiple murders in cities throughout the country. On July 16, 1969, an armed confrontation between party members and the Chicago Police Department resulted in one BPP member mortally wounded and six others arrested on serious charges.
In early October, Hampton and his girlfriend Deborah Johnson (now known as Akua Njeri), who was pregnant with their child (Fred Hampton Jr.), rented a four-and-a-half-room apartment at 2337 West Monroe Street to be closer to BPP headquarters. O'Neal reported to his superiors that much of the Panthers' "provocative" stockpile of arms was stored there. He drew them a map of the apartment. In early November, Hampton traveled to California on a speaking engagement to the UCLA Law Students Association. There he met with the remaining BPP national hierarchy, who appointed him to the party's central committee. He was soon to take the position of chief of staff and major spokesman.
Death
Prelude
While Hampton was in California in November 1969, two Chicago police officers, John J. Gilhooly and Frank G. Rappaport, were killed in a gun battle with Panthers on the night of November 13; one died the next day. A total of nine police officers were shot. Spurgeon Winter Jr, a 19-year-old Panther, was killed by police. Another Panther, Lawrence S. Bell, was charged with murder. In an unsigned editorial headlined "No Quarter for Wild Beasts", the Chicago Tribune urged that Chicago police officers approaching suspected Panthers "should be ordered to be ready to shoot."
As part of the larger COINTELPRO operation, the FBI was determined to prevent any improvement in the effectiveness of the BPP leadership. The FBI orchestrated an armed raid with the Chicago police and State Attorney on Hampton's Chicago apartment. They had obtained detailed information about the apartment, including a layout of furniture, from O'Neal. An augmented, 14-man team of the SAO (state Special Prosecutions Unit) was organized for a predawn raid; they were armed with a search warrant for illegal weapons.
On the evening of December 3, Hampton taught a political education course at a local church, which was attended by most Panther members. Afterward, as was typical, he was accompanied to his Monroe Street apartment by Johnson and several Panthers: Blair Anderson, James Grady, Ronald "Doc" Satchell, Harold Bell, Verlina Brewer, Louis Truelock, Brenda Harris and Mark Clark. O'Neal was already there, having prepared a late dinner, which the group ate around midnight. O'Neal had slipped the secobarbital into a drink that Hampton consumed during the dinner in order to sedate Hampton so he would not awaken during the subsequent raid. O'Neal left after the dinner. At about 1:30 am, December 4, Hampton fell asleep mid-sentence while talking to his mother on the telephone.
Although Hampton was not known to take drugs, Cook County chemist Eleanor Berman later reported that she had run two tests, which each showed evidence of barbiturates in Hampton's blood. An FBI chemist failed to find similar traces, but Berman stood by her findings.
Raid
The office of Cook County State's Attorney Edward Hanrahan organized the raid, using officers attached to his office. Hampton had recently strongly criticized Hanrahan, saying that Hanrahan's talk about a "war on gangs" was really rhetoric used to enable him to carry out a "war on black youth".
At 4 am, the heavily armed police team arrived at the site, divided into two teams, eight for the front of the building and six for the rear. At 4:45 am, they stormed the apartment. Mark Clark, sitting in the front room of the apartment with a shotgun in his lap, was on security duty. The police shot him in the chest, killing him instantly. An alternative account said that Clark answered the door and police immediately shot him. Either way, Clark's gun discharged once into the ceiling. This single round was fired when he suffered a reflexive death-convulsion after being shot. This was the only shot fired by the Panthers.
Hampton, drugged by barbiturates, was sleeping on a mattress in the bedroom with Johnson, who was nine months pregnant with their child. Police officers removed her from the room while Hampton lay unconscious in bed. Then the raiding team fired at the head of the south bedroom. Hampton was wounded in the shoulder by the shooting. According to the National Archives and Records Administration, "upon that discovery, an officer shot him twice in his head and killed him".
Fellow Black Panther Harold Bell said that he heard the following exchange:
:"That's Fred Hampton."
"Is he dead?... Bring him out."
"He's barely alive."
"He'll make it."
The injured Panthers said they heard two shots. According to Hampton's supporters, the shots were fired point blank at Hampton's head. According to Johnson, an officer then said: "He's good and dead now."
Hampton's body was dragged into the doorway of the bedroom and left in a pool of blood. The officers directed their gunfire at the remaining Panthers who had been sleeping in the north bedroom (Satchel, Anderson, Brewer and Harris). Brewer, Satchel, Anderson, and Harris were seriously wounded, then beaten and dragged into the street. They were arrested on charges of aggravated assault and attempted murder of the officers. They were each held on $100,000 bail.
In the early 1990s, Johnson was interviewed about the raid by Jose "Cha Cha" Jimenez, former president and co-founder of the Young Lords. He and his group had developed close ties to Hampton and the Chicago Black Panther Party during the late 1960s. She said:
I believe Fred Hampton was drugged. The reason why is because when he woke up when the person [Truelock] said, "Chairman, chairman," he was shaking Fred's arm, you know, Fred's arm was folded across the head of the bed. And Fred—he just raised his head up real slow. It was like watching a slow motion. He raised. His eyes were open. He raised his head up real slow, you know, with his eyes toward the entranceway, toward the bedroom and laid his head back down. That was the only movement he made [...]
The seven Panthers who survived the raid were indicted by a grand jury on charges of attempted murder, armed violence, and various other weapons charges. These charges were subsequently dropped. During the trial, the Chicago Police Department claimed that the Panthers were the first to fire shots. But a later investigation found that the Chicago police fired between 90 and 99 shots, while the only Panthers shot was from Clark's dropped shotgun.
After the raid, the apartment was left unguarded. The Panthers sent some members to investigate, accompanied by videographer Mike Gray and stills photographer Norris McNamara to document the scene. This footage was instrumental in proving the raid was an assassination. The footage was later released as part of the 1971 documentary The Murder of Fred Hampton. After a break-in at an FBI office in Pennsylvania, the existence of COINTELPRO, an illegal counter-intelligence program, was revealed and reported. With this program revealed, many activists and others began to suspect that the police raid and Hampton's killing were conducted under this program. One of the documents released after the break-in was a floor plan of Hampton's apartment. Another document outlined a deal that the FBI brokered with US deputy attorney general Richard Kleindienst to conceal the FBI's role in Hampton's death and the existence of COINTELPRO.
Aftermath
At a press conference the next day, the police announced the arrest team had been attacked by the "violent" and "extremely vicious" Panthers and defended themselves accordingly. In a second press conference on December 8, the police leadership praised the assault team for their "remarkable restraint", "bravery", and "professional discipline" in not killing all the Panthers present. Photographic evidence was presented of "bullet holes" allegedly made by shots fired by the Panthers, but reporters soon challenged this claim. An internal investigation was undertaken, and the police claimed that their colleagues on the assault team were exonerated of any wrongdoing, concluding that they "used lawful means to overcome the assault".
Five thousand people attended Hampton's funeral. He was eulogized by black leaders, including Jesse Jackson and Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr.'s successor as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In his eulogy, Jackson said that "when Fred was shot in Chicago, black people in particular, and decent people in general, bled everywhere." On December 6, members of the Weather Underground destroyed numerous police vehicles in a retaliatory bombing spree at 3600 N. Halsted Street, Chicago.
The police called their raid on Hampton's apartment a "shootout". The Black Panthers called it a "shoot-in", because so many shots were fired by police.
On December 11 and 12, the two competing daily newspapers, the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, published vivid accounts of the events, but drew different conclusions. The Tribune has long been considered the politically conservative newspaper, and the Sun-Times the liberal paper. On December 11, the Tribune published a page 1 article titled, "Exclusive – Hanrahan, Police Tell Panther Story." The article included photographs, supplied by Hanrahan's office, that depicted bullet holes in a thin white curtain and door jamb as evidence that the Panthers fired multiple bullets at the police.
Jack Challem, editor of the Wright College News, the student newspaper at Wright Junior College in Chicago, had visited the apartment on December 6, when it was still unsecured. He took numerous photographs of the crime scenes. A member of the Black Panthers was allowing visitors to tour the apartment. Challem's photographs did not show the bullet holes as reported by the Tribune. On the morning of December 12, after the Tribune article had appeared with the Hanrahan-supplied photos, Challem contacted a reporter at the Sun-Times, showed him his own photographs, and encouraged the other reporter to visit the apartment. That evening, the Sun-Times published a page 1 article with the headline: "Those 'bullet holes' aren't." According to the article, the alleged bullet holes (supposedly the result of the Panthers shooting in the direction of the police) were nail heads.
Four weeks after witnessing Hampton's death at the hands of the police, Johnson gave birth to their son, Fred Hampton Jr.
Civil rights activists Roy Wilkins and Ramsey Clark (styled as "The Commission of Inquiry into the Black Panthers and the Police") subsequently alleged that the Chicago police had killed Hampton without justification or provocation, and had violated the Panthers' constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure. "The Commission" further alleged that the Chicago Police Department had imposed a summary punishment on the Panthers.
A federal grand jury did not return any indictment against any of the individuals involved with the planning or execution of the raid, including the officers involved in killing Hampton. O'Neal, who had given the FBI the floor plan of the apartment and drugged Hampton, later admitted his involvement in setting up the raid. He committed suicide on January 15, 1990.
Inquest
Shortly after the raid, Cook County Coroner Andrew Toman began forming a special six-member coroner's jury to hold an inquest into the deaths of Hampton and Clark. On December 23, Toman announced four additions to the jury, who included two African-American men: physician Theodore K. Lawless and attorney Julian B. Wilkins, the son of J. Ernest Wilkins Sr. He said the four were selected from a group of candidates submitted to his office by groups and individuals representing both Chicago's black and white communities. Civil rights leaders and spokesmen for the black community were reported to have been disappointed with the selection.
An official with the Chicago Urban League said, "I would have had more confidence in the jury if one of them had been a black man who has a rapport with the young and the grass roots in the community." Gus Savage said that such a man to whom the community could relate need not be black. The jury eventually included a third black man, who had been a member of the first coroner's jury sworn in on December 4.
The blue-ribbon panel convened for the inquest on January 6, 1970. On January 21, they ruled the deaths of Hampton and Clark to be justifiable homicides. The jury qualified their verdict on Hampton's death as "based solely and exclusively on the evidence presented to this inquisition"; police and expert witnesses provided the only testimony during the inquest.
Jury foreman James T. Hicks stated that they could not consider the charges made by surviving Black Panthers who had been in the apartment; they had told reporters that the police entered the apartment shooting. The survivors were reported to have refused to testify during the inquest because they faced criminal charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault during the raid. Attorneys for the Hampton and Clark families did not introduce any witnesses during the proceedings, but called the inquest "a well-rehearsed theatrical performance designed to vindicate the police officers". Hanrahan said the verdict was recognition "of the truthfulness of our police officers' account of the events".
Federal grand jury
Released on May 15, 1970, the reports of a federal grand jury criticized the actions of the police, the surviving Black Panthers, and the Chicago news media. The grand jury called the police department's raid "ill conceived" and said many errors were committed during the post-raid investigation and reconstruction of the events. It said that the surviving Black Panthers' refusal to cooperate hampered the investigation, and that the press "improperly and grossly exaggerated stories".
1970 civil rights lawsuit
In 1970, the survivors and relatives of Hampton and Clark filed a civil suit, stating that the civil rights of the Black Panther members were violated by the joint police/FBI raid and seeking $47.7 million in damages. Twenty-eight defendants were named, including Hanrahan as well as the City of Chicago, Cook County, and federal governments. It took years for the case to get to trial, which lasted 18 months. It was reported to have been the longest federal trial up to that time. After its conclusion in 1977, Judge Joseph Sam Perry of United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed the suit against 21 of the defendants before jury deliberations. After jurors deadlocked on a verdict, Perry dismissed the suit against the remaining defendants.
The plaintiffs appealed. In 1979, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago found that the government had withheld relevant documents, thereby obstructing the judicial process. Reinstating the case against 24 of the defendants, the Court of Appeals ordered a new trial. The Supreme Court of the United States heard an appeal by defendants, but voted 5–3 in 1980 to remand the case to the District Court for a new trial.
In 1982, the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the federal government agreed to a settlement in which each would pay $616,333 (equivalent to $ million per payee in ) to a group of nine plaintiffs, including the mothers of Hampton and Clark. The $1.85 million settlement (equivalent to $ million in ) was believed to be the largest ever in a civil rights case. G. Flint Taylor, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said, "The settlement is an admission of the conspiracy that existed between the FBI and Hanrahan's men to murder Fred Hampton." Assistant United States Attorney Robert Gruenberg said the settlement was intended to avoid another costly trial and was not an admission of guilt or responsibility by any of the defendants.
Controversy
Ten days afterward, Bobby Rush, the then deputy minister of defense for the Illinois Black Panther Party, called the raiding party an "execution squad". As is typical in settlements, the three government defendants did not acknowledge claims of responsibility for plaintiffs' allegations.
Michael Newton is among the writers who have concluded that Hampton was assassinated. In his 2016 book Unsolved Civil Rights Murder Cases, 1934–1970, Newton writes that Hampton "was murdered in his sleep by Chicago police with FBI collusion." This view is also presented in Jakobi Williams's book From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago.
Personal life
Hampton was very close with Chicago Black Catholic priest George Clements, who served as his mentor and as a chaplain for the local Panther outfit. Hampton and the Panthers also used Clements's parish, Holy Angels Catholic Church in Chicago, as a refuge in times of particular surveillance or pursuit from the police. They also provided security for a number of Clements's "Black Unity Masses", part of his revolutionary activities during the Black Catholic Movement. Clements spoke at Hampton's funeral, and also said a Requiem Mass for him at Holy Angels.
Legacy
Legal and political effects
According to a 1969 Chicago Tribune report, "The raid ended the promising political career of Cook County State's Atty. Edward V. Hanrahan, who was indicted but cleared with 13 other law-enforcement agents on charges of obstructing justice. Bernard Carey, a Republican, defeated him in the next election, in part because of the support of outraged black voters." The families of Hampton and Clark filed a $47.7 million civil suit against the city, state, and federal governments. The case went to trial before Federal Judge J. Sam Perry. After more than 18 months of testimony and at the close of the plaintiffs' case, Perry dismissed the case. The plaintiffs appealed and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed, ordering the case to be retried. More than a decade after the case had been filed, the suit was finally settled for $1.85 million. The two families each shared in the settlement.
Jeffrey Haas, who, together with his law partners G. Flint Taylor and Dennis Cunningham and attorney James D. Montgomery, were the attorneys for the plaintiffs in the federal suit Hampton v. Hanrahan, conducted additional research and wrote a book about these events. It was published in 2009. He said that Chicago was worse off without Hampton:
In 1990, the Chicago City Council unanimously passed a resolution, introduced by then-Alderman Madeline Haithcock, commemorating December 4, 2004, as Fred Hampton Day in Chicago. The resolution read in part:
"Fred Hampton, who was only 21 years old, made his mark in Chicago history not so much by his death as by the heroic efforts of his life and by his goals of empowering the most oppressed sector of Chicago's Black community, bringing people into political life through participation in their own freedom fighting organization."
Monuments and streets
A public pool was named in his honor in his home town of Maywood, Illinois.
On September 7, 2007, a bust of Hampton by sculptor Preston Jackson was erected outside the Fred Hampton Family Aquatic Center in Maywood.
In March 2006, supporters of Hampton's charity work proposed the naming of a Chicago street in his honor. Chicago's chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police opposed this effort.
Weather Underground reaction
Two days after the killings of Hampton and Clark, on December 6, 1969, members of the Weathermen destroyed numerous police vehicles in a retaliatory bombing spree at 3600 N. Halsted Street in Chicago. After that, the group became more radical. On May 21, 1970, the group issued a "Declaration of War" against the U.S. government, and for the first time used its new name, the "Weather Underground Organization". They adopted fake identities and decided to pursue covert activities only. These initially included preparations to bomb a U.S. military non-commissioned officers' dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in what Brian Flanagan later said was intended to be "the most horrific hit the United States government had ever suffered on its territory"."We've known that our job is to lead white kids into armed revolution... Kids know the lines are drawn: revolution is touching all of our lives. Tens of thousands have learned that protest and marches don't do it. Revolutionary violence is the only way."
—Bernardine Dohrn
Media and popular culture
In film
A 27-minute documentary, Death of a Black Panther: The Fred Hampton Story, was used as evidence in the civil suit. The 2002 documentary The Weather Underground shows in detail how that group was deeply influenced by Hampton and his death—as well as showing that Hampton kept his distance from them for being what he called "adventuristic, masochistic and Custeristic".
Much of the first half of Eyes on the Prize episode 12, "A Nation of Law?", chronicles Hampton's leadership and extrajudicial killing. The events of his rise to prominence, Hoover's targeting of him, and Hampton's subsequent death are also recounted with footage in the 2015 documentary The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.
The Murder of Fred Hampton is a documentary shot from within the movement, released in 1971. It has no narration, relying solely on footage shot from within the Black Panther organization and portraying Hampton and his colleagues on their own terms.
In the 1999 TV miniseries The 60s, Hampton appears serving free breakfast with the BPP. David Alan Grier plays Hampton.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) features Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Hampton, in which he advises Bobby Seale as he was denied counsel, with the Chicago Seven.
Judas and the Black Messiah is a 2021 film about O'Neal's betrayal of Hampton. The film stars Daniel Kaluuya as Hampton and was directed by Shaka King. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on February 1, 2021. For his performance, Kaluuya won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In literature
Jeffrey Haas wrote an account of Hampton's death, The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther (2009).
Stephen King refers to Hampton in the novel 11/22/63 (2012), in which a character discusses the ripple effect of traveling back in time to prevent John F. Kennedy's assassination. He postulates that other events would follow that could have prevented Hampton's assassination as well.
In music
American rapper and businessman Jay-Z has made multiple references in his music to being born on the day Hampton died.
American rock band Rage Against the Machine referenced Hampton in their 1996 song Down Rodeo, saying "They ain't gonna send us campin' like they did my man Fred Hampton."
Notes
References
External links
The Marxists Internet Archive: Fred Hampton Archive Transcribed speeches and collected works.
"The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther" – video report by Democracy Now! December 4, 2009.
(A 1971 documentary film directed by Howard Alk)
FBI files on Fred Hampton
From COINTELPRO to the Shadow Government: As Fred Hampton Jr. Is Released From 9 Years of Prison, a Look Back at the Assassination of Fred Hampton. 36:48 real audio. Tape: Fred Hampton, Deborah Johnson. Guests: Fred Hampton Jr., Mutulu Olugabala, Rosa Clemente. Interviewer: Amy Goodman. Democracy Now!. Tuesday, March 5, 2002. Retrieved May 12, 2005.
"Power Anywhere Where There's People" A Speech By Fred Hampton
National Young Lords Brief notes on Young Lords origins
Grand Valley State University Oral History Collection
1948 births
1969 deaths
Activists from Chicago
African-American activists
African-American communists
African-American history
American anti-capitalists
American Maoists
American Marxists
American revolutionaries
Anti-poverty advocates
Anti-revisionists
Assassinated American civil rights activists
African-American Marxists
African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States
COINTELPRO targets
Deaths by firearm in Illinois
Extrajudicial killings
Members of the Black Panther Party
People from Maywood, Illinois
People from Summit, Illinois
People murdered in Illinois | false | [
"Live in Japan is a live album by American rock band Chicago, released in November 1972. It was recorded over the course of three days at the Osaka Festival Hall on the band's tour in support of Chicago V in 1972. The group recorded Japanese-language versions of \"Lowdown\" and \"Questions 67 And 68\" to coincide with their Japan performances. They performed both songs in Japanese during their stay, which are documented on this album.\n\nOriginally, the album was released as a two-LP set (CBS/Sony SOPJ 31-32XR), and only in Japan. The album was eventually released in the U.S. in 1996 as a two-CD set (CRD-3030) on Chicago's own label, Chicago Records.\n\n1971's Chicago at Carnegie Hall, however, is part of the canon with the numbering for the album being 'IV'.\n\nSound quality\nMany fans and band members alike think the sound quality of this recording is better than 1971's Chicago at Carnegie Hall. Chicago founding member James Pankow was always particularly critical of the Carnegie Hall album saying:\n\nWalter Parazaider noted about the sound quality of Live in Japan:\n\nRe-release\nThe album was reissued in March 2014 worldwide faithfully replicating the original LP design including a cardboard sleeve, booklet with photos and all the lyrics in very difficult to read small font.\n\nTrack listing\n\nSide one\n\"Dialogue (Part I & II)\" (Robert Lamm) 6:55\n\"A Hit by Varèse\" (Lamm) 4:43\n\"Lowdown (Japanese version)\" (Peter Cetera/Danny Seraphine/Osamu Kitayama) 4:14\n\"State of the Union\" (Lamm) 8:14\n\"Saturday in the Park\" (Lamm) 4:19\n\nSide two\n\"Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon\" (James Pankow) 14:05\n\"Make Me Smile\" – 3:17\n\"So Much to Say, So Much to Give\" – 0:59\n\"Anxiety's Moment\" – 1:02\n\"West Virginia Fantasies\" – 1:32\n\"Colour My World\" – 3:22\n\"To Be Free\" – 2:17\n\"Now More Than Ever\" – 1:36\n \"Beginnings\" (Lamm) 6:36\n \"Mississippi Delta City Blues\" (Terry Kath) 5:50\n\nSide three\n \"A Song for Richard and His Friends\" (Lamm) 7:54\n \"Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? [Free Form Intro]\" (Lamm) 6:15\n \"Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?\" (Lamm) 3:53\n \"Questions 67 & 68 (Japanese version)\" (Lamm/Kazuko Katagiri) 4:51\n\nSide four\n \"25 or 6 to 4\" (Lamm) 9:14\n \"I'm a Man\" (Steve Winwood/Jimmy Miller) 10:43\n \"Free\" (Lamm) 6:29\n\nPersonnel\n Peter Cetera: bass, vocals\n Terry Kath: guitar, vocals\n Robert Lamm: keyboards, vocals\n Lee Loughnane: trumpet, percussion, background vocals\n James Pankow: trombone, percussion, background vocals\n Walter Parazaider: woodwinds, percussion, background vocals\n Danny Seraphine: drums\n\nReferences\n\nAlbums produced by James William Guercio\nChicago (band) live albums\n1975 live albums\nAlbums recorded at Festival Hall, Osaka",
"The Miracles Recorded Live on Stage (Tamla TM241) is a 1963 live album by the Miracles, part of the early 1960s Motown \"Live on Stage\" series by various artists. The first of three live albums the group released during their career, it features live R&B numbers led by Smokey Robinson along with Bobby Rogers, Ronnie White and Claudette Robinson recorded at either the Apollo Theater in New York or The Regal Theatre in Chicago, Illinois during their 1962 and 1963 tour. (Miracles member Pete Moore was serving in the US Army at the time of this performance). The opener \"Mighty Good Lovin'\" was selected for various later compilations, while \"I've Been Good To You\" later appeared in a stereo mix on the 2002 compilation Ooo Baby Baby: The Anthology. The group's live performance of their-then current release, \"A Love She Can Count On\" contains some of Smokey's greatest ad-libs and is well worth the price of the album.\n\nThe Miracles: Recorded Live On Stage was released on CD for the first time, as part of the 2009 Motown limited edition CD release: The Miracles – Depend on Me: The Early Albums.\n\nTrack listing\n\"Mighty Good Lovin'\" - recorded at The Regal Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, 1963\n\"A Love She Can Count On\" - recorded at The Regal Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, 1963\n\"Happy Landing\" - recorded at The Regal Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, 1963\n\"I've Been Good To You\" - recorded at the Apollo Theatre in New York, 1962\n\"What's So Good About Goodbye\" - recorded at the Apollo Theatre in New York, 1962\n\"You've Really Got A Hold On Me\" - recorded at the Apollo Theatre in New York, 1962\n\"Way Over There\" - recorded at the Apollo Theatre in New York, 1963\n\nPersonnel: The Miracles\n Smokey Robinson & Bobby Rogers (\"You've Really Got A Hold On Me\"): lead vocals\n Ronnie White, Bobby Rogers, Claudette Robinson: background vocals\n Marv Tarplin: guitarist\n\nOther personnel\n Berry Gordy Jr., producer\n\nExternal links\nThe Miracles-Recorded Live on Stage Original Cover Artwork: \n\n1963 live albums\nThe Miracles live albums\nTamla Records live albums\nMotown live albums"
]
|
[
"Fred Hampton",
"Chicago",
"When did he first go to Chicago?",
"Hampton joined the Party and relocated to downtown Chicago, and in November 1968",
"What party did he join?",
"Black Panthers",
"What was his position in the Black Panthers?",
"Perhaps his most important accomplishment was his brokering of a nonaggression pact between Chicago's most powerful street gangs.",
"Was the nonaggression pack honored?",
"Hampton strove to forge a class-conscious, multi-racial alliance between the BPP, the Young Patriots Organization, and the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez.",
"What part of Chicago did he live in?",
"in the Chicago Lincoln Park"
]
| C_8919227193b845118bd28af3621b8eee_1 | Did his family move to Chicago as well? | 6 | Did Fred Hampton's family move to Chicago as well? | Fred Hampton | About the same time that Hampton was successfully organizing young African-Americans for the NAACP, the Black Panther Party (BPP) started rising to national prominence. Hampton was quickly attracted to the Black Panthers' approach, which was based on a ten-point program that integrated black self-determination on the basis of Maoism. Hampton joined the Party and relocated to downtown Chicago, and in November 1968 he joined the Party's nascent Illinois chapter--founded by Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizer Bob Brown in late 1967. Over the next year, Hampton and his associates made a number of significant achievements in Chicago. Perhaps his most important accomplishment was his brokering of a nonaggression pact between Chicago's most powerful street gangs. Emphasizing that racial and ethnic conflict between gangs would only keep its members entrenched in poverty, Hampton strove to forge a class-conscious, multi-racial alliance between the BPP, the Young Patriots Organization, and the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez. Fred Hampton met the Young Lords in the Chicago Lincoln Park Neighborhood, the day after the Young Lords were in the news after they had occupied a police community workshop meeting, held on the second floor hall of the Chicago 18th District Police Station. Later, the Rainbow Coalition was joined nationwide by the Students for a Democratic Society ("SDS"), the Brown Berets, and the Red Guard Party. In May 1969, Hampton called a press conference to announce that this "rainbow coalition" had formed. It was a phrase coined by Hampton and made popular over the years by Reverend Jesse Jackson, who eventually appropriated the name in forming his own, unrelated, coalition, Rainbow/PUSH. Hampton's organizing skills, substantial oratorical gifts, and personal charisma allowed him to rise quickly in the Black Panthers. Once he became leader of the Chicago chapter, he organized weekly rallies, worked closely with the BPP's local People's Clinic, taught political education classes every morning at 6am, and launched a project for community supervision of the police. Hampton was also instrumental in the BPP's Free Breakfast Program. When Brown left the Party with Stokely Carmichael in the FBI-fomented SNCC/Panther split, Hampton assumed chairmanship of the Illinois state BPP, automatically making him a national BPP deputy chairman. As the Panther leadership across the country began to be decimated by the impact of the FBI's COINTELPRO, Hampton's prominence in the national hierarchy increased rapidly and dramatically. Eventually, Hampton was in line to be appointed to the Party's Central Committee's Chief of Staff. He would have achieved this position had it not been for his death on the morning of December 4, 1969. CANNOTANSWER | unrelated, | Fredrick Allen Hampton Sr. (August 30, 1948 – December 4, 1969) was an American activist. He came to prominence in Chicago as deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party, and chair of the Illinois chapter. As a progressive African American, he founded the antiracist, anticlass Rainbow Coalition, a prominent multicultural political organization that initially included the Black Panthers, Young Patriots (which organized poor whites), and the Young Lords (which organized Hispanics), and an alliance among major Chicago street gangs to help them end infighting and work for social change. A Marxist–Leninist, Hampton considered fascism the greatest threat, saying, "nothing is more important than stopping fascism, because fascism will stop us all.”
In 1967, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) identified Hampton as a radical threat. It tried to subvert his activities in Chicago, sowing disinformation among black progressive groups and placing a counterintelligence operative in the local Panthers organization. In December 1969, Hampton was drugged, shot and killed in his bed during a predawn raid at his Chicago apartment by a tactical unit of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, who received aid from the Chicago Police Department and the FBI leading up to the attack. Law enforcement sprayed more than 90 gunshots throughout the apartment; the occupants fired once. During the raid, Panther Mark Clark was also killed and several others were seriously wounded. In January 1970, the Cook County Coroner held an inquest; the jury concluded that Hampton's and Clark's deaths were justifiable homicides.
A civil lawsuit was later filed on behalf of the survivors and the relatives of Hampton and Clark. It was resolved in 1982 by a settlement of $1.85 million (equivalent to $ million in ); the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the federal government each paid one-third to a group of nine plaintiffs. Given revelations about the illegal COINTELPRO program and documents associated with the killings, many scholars now consider Hampton's death an assassination at the FBI's initiative.
Biography
Early life and youth
Hampton was born on August 30, 1948, in present-day Summit Argo, Illinois (generally shortened to Summit), and moved with his parents to another Chicago suburb, Maywood, at age 10. His parents had come from Louisiana as part of the Great Migration of African Americans in the early 20th century out of the South. They both worked at the Argo Starch Company, a corn starch processor. As a youth, Hampton was gifted both in the classroom and athletically, and hoped to play center field for the New York Yankees. Fred couldn't accept injustice anywhere. At 10 years old, he started hosting weekend breakfasts for other children from the neighborhood, cooking the meals himself in what could be described as a precursor to the Panthers’ free breakfast program. In high school, he led walkouts protesting black students' exclusion from the competition for homecoming queen and calling on officials to hire more black teachers and administrators. Hampton graduated from Proviso East High School with honors and varsity letters, and a Junior Achievement Award, in 1966. He enrolled at Triton Junior College in nearby River Grove, Illinois, where he majored in pre-law. He planned to become more familiar with the legal system to use it as a defense against police. When he and fellow Black Panthers later followed police in his community supervision program, watching out for police brutality, they used his knowledge of law as a defense.
In 1966, Fred Hampton turned 18. At that time, he started identifying with the Third World socialist struggles, as well as reading communist revolutionaries Che Guevara, Ho Chi Minh, and Mao Zedong. Shortly after, Hampton urged not only peace in the Vietnam War, but also North Vietnam's victory.
Hampton became active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and assumed leadership of its West Suburban Branch's Youth Council. In his capacity as an NAACP youth organizer, he demonstrated natural leadership abilities: from a community of 27,000, he was able to muster a youth group 500-members strong. He worked to get more and better recreational facilities established in the neighborhoods and to improve educational resources for Maywood's impoverished black community.
Activity in Chicago
At about the same time that Hampton was successfully organizing young African Americans for the NAACP, the Black Panther Party (BPP) was rising to national prominence. Hampton was quickly attracted to the Black Panthers' approach, which was based on a Ten-Point Program that integrated black self-determination with class and economic critique from Maoism. He joined the party and relocated to downtown Chicago. In November 1968, he joined the party's nascent Illinois chapter, founded in late 1967 by Bob Brown, a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizer.
In 1968, Hampton was accused of assaulting an ice cream truck driver, stealing $71 worth of ice cream bars, and giving them to kids in the street. He was convicted in May 1969 and sentenced to two to five years in prison. Writer Frank B. Wilderson III places this incident within the framework of COINTELPRO efforts to disrupt the Black Panthers of Chicago, in this case by "leveling [...] trumped-up charges".
In 1969, Hampton, now deputy chairman of the BPP Illinois chapter, conducted a meeting condemning sexism. After 1969, the party considered sexism counter-revolutionary. In 1970, about 40–70% of party members were women.
Over the next year, Hampton and his friends and associates achieved a number of successes in Chicago. Perhaps the most important was a nonaggression pact among Chicago's most powerful street gangs. Emphasizing that racial and ethnic conflict among gangs would only keep its members entrenched in poverty, Hampton strove to forge an anti-racist, class-conscious, multiracial alliance among the BPP, the Young Patriots Organization, and the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez, leading to the Rainbow Coalition.
Hampton met the Young Lords in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood the day after they were in the news for occupying a police community workshop at the Chicago 18th District Police Station. He was arrested twice with Jimenez at the Wicker Park Welfare Office, and both were charged with "mob action" at a peaceful picket of the office. Later, the Rainbow Coalition was joined nationwide by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Brown Berets, AIM, and the Red Guard Party. In May 1969, Hampton called a press conference to announce that the coalition had formed. What the coalition groups would do was based on common action. Some of their joint issues were poverty, anti-racism, corruption, police brutality, and substandard housing. If there was a protest or a demonstration, the groups would attend the event and support each other.
Jeffrey Haas, who was Hampton's lawyer, has praised some of Hampton's politics and his success in unifying movements. But Haas criticizes the way Hampton and the BPP organized in a pyramidal/vertical structure, contrasting this with the horizontal structure of Black Lives Matter: "They may also have picked up on the vulnerability of a hierarchical movement where you have one leader, which makes the movement very vulnerable if that leader is imprisoned, killed, or otherwise compromised. I think the fact that Black Lives Matter says 'We're leaderfull, not leaderless' perhaps makes them less vulnerable to this kind of government assault."
Hampton rose quickly in the Black Panthers, based on his organizing skills, oratorical gifts, and charisma. Once he became leader of the Chicago chapter, he organized weekly rallies, participated in strikes, worked closely with the BPP's local People's Clinic, taught political education classes every morning at 6 am, and launched a project for community supervision of the police. Hampton was also instrumental in the BPP's Free Breakfast Program. When Bob Brown left the party with Kwame Ture, in the FBI-fomented SNCC/Panther split, Hampton assumed chairmanship of the Illinois state BPP. This automatically made him a national BPP deputy chairman. As the FBI's COINTELPRO began to decimate the nationwide Panther leadership, Hampton's prominence in the national hierarchy increased rapidly and dramatically. Eventually he was in line to be appointed to the party's Central Committee Chief of Staff. He would have achieved this position had he not been killed on December 4, 1969.
FBI investigation
The FBI believed that Hampton's leadership and talent for communication made him a major threat among Black Panther leaders. It began keeping close tabs on his activities. Investigations have shown that FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover was determined to prevent the formation of a cohesive Black movement in the United States. Hoover believed the Panthers, Young Patriots, Young Lords, and similar radical coalitions that Hampton forged in Chicago were a stepping stone to the rise of a revolution that could cause a radical change in the U.S. government.
The FBI opened a file on Hampton in 1967. It tapped Hampton's mother's phone in February 1968 and by May placed Hampton on the bureau's "Agitator Index" as a "key militant leader". In late 1968, the Racial Matters squad of the FBI's Chicago field office recruited William O'Neal to work with it; he had recently been arrested twice for interstate car theft and impersonating a federal officer. In exchange for having his felony charges dropped and receiving a monthly stipend, O'Neal agreed to infiltrate the BPP as a counterintelligence operative.
O'Neal joined the party and quickly rose in the organization, becoming Director of Chapter Security and Hampton's bodyguard. In 1969, the FBI Special Agent in Charge (SAC) in San Francisco wrote Hoover that the agent's investigation had found that, in his city at least, the Panthers were primarily feeding breakfast to children. Hoover responded with a memo implying that the agent's career prospects depended on his supplying evidence to support Hoover's view that the BPP was "a violence-prone organization seeking to overthrow the Government by revolutionary means".
By means of anonymous letters, the FBI sowed distrust and eventually instigated a split between the Panthers and the Blackstone Rangers. O'Neal instigated an armed clash between them on April 2, 1969. The Panthers became effectively isolated from their power base in the Chicago ghetto, so the FBI worked to undermine its ties with other radical organizations. O'Neal was instructed to "create a rift" between the party and Students for a Democratic Society, whose Chicago headquarters was near that of the Panthers.
The FBI released a batch of racist cartoons in the Panthers' name, aimed at alienating white activists. It also launched a disinformation program to forestall the formation of the Rainbow Coalition, but the BPP did make an alliance with the Young Patriots and Young Lords. In repeated directives, Hoover demanded that COINTELPRO personnel investigate the Rainbow Coalition, "destroy what the [BPP] stands for", and "eradicate its 'serve the people' programs".
Documents secured by Senate investigators in the early 1970s revealed that the FBI actively encouraged violence between the Panthers and other radical groups; this provoked multiple murders in cities throughout the country. On July 16, 1969, an armed confrontation between party members and the Chicago Police Department resulted in one BPP member mortally wounded and six others arrested on serious charges.
In early October, Hampton and his girlfriend Deborah Johnson (now known as Akua Njeri), who was pregnant with their child (Fred Hampton Jr.), rented a four-and-a-half-room apartment at 2337 West Monroe Street to be closer to BPP headquarters. O'Neal reported to his superiors that much of the Panthers' "provocative" stockpile of arms was stored there. He drew them a map of the apartment. In early November, Hampton traveled to California on a speaking engagement to the UCLA Law Students Association. There he met with the remaining BPP national hierarchy, who appointed him to the party's central committee. He was soon to take the position of chief of staff and major spokesman.
Death
Prelude
While Hampton was in California in November 1969, two Chicago police officers, John J. Gilhooly and Frank G. Rappaport, were killed in a gun battle with Panthers on the night of November 13; one died the next day. A total of nine police officers were shot. Spurgeon Winter Jr, a 19-year-old Panther, was killed by police. Another Panther, Lawrence S. Bell, was charged with murder. In an unsigned editorial headlined "No Quarter for Wild Beasts", the Chicago Tribune urged that Chicago police officers approaching suspected Panthers "should be ordered to be ready to shoot."
As part of the larger COINTELPRO operation, the FBI was determined to prevent any improvement in the effectiveness of the BPP leadership. The FBI orchestrated an armed raid with the Chicago police and State Attorney on Hampton's Chicago apartment. They had obtained detailed information about the apartment, including a layout of furniture, from O'Neal. An augmented, 14-man team of the SAO (state Special Prosecutions Unit) was organized for a predawn raid; they were armed with a search warrant for illegal weapons.
On the evening of December 3, Hampton taught a political education course at a local church, which was attended by most Panther members. Afterward, as was typical, he was accompanied to his Monroe Street apartment by Johnson and several Panthers: Blair Anderson, James Grady, Ronald "Doc" Satchell, Harold Bell, Verlina Brewer, Louis Truelock, Brenda Harris and Mark Clark. O'Neal was already there, having prepared a late dinner, which the group ate around midnight. O'Neal had slipped the secobarbital into a drink that Hampton consumed during the dinner in order to sedate Hampton so he would not awaken during the subsequent raid. O'Neal left after the dinner. At about 1:30 am, December 4, Hampton fell asleep mid-sentence while talking to his mother on the telephone.
Although Hampton was not known to take drugs, Cook County chemist Eleanor Berman later reported that she had run two tests, which each showed evidence of barbiturates in Hampton's blood. An FBI chemist failed to find similar traces, but Berman stood by her findings.
Raid
The office of Cook County State's Attorney Edward Hanrahan organized the raid, using officers attached to his office. Hampton had recently strongly criticized Hanrahan, saying that Hanrahan's talk about a "war on gangs" was really rhetoric used to enable him to carry out a "war on black youth".
At 4 am, the heavily armed police team arrived at the site, divided into two teams, eight for the front of the building and six for the rear. At 4:45 am, they stormed the apartment. Mark Clark, sitting in the front room of the apartment with a shotgun in his lap, was on security duty. The police shot him in the chest, killing him instantly. An alternative account said that Clark answered the door and police immediately shot him. Either way, Clark's gun discharged once into the ceiling. This single round was fired when he suffered a reflexive death-convulsion after being shot. This was the only shot fired by the Panthers.
Hampton, drugged by barbiturates, was sleeping on a mattress in the bedroom with Johnson, who was nine months pregnant with their child. Police officers removed her from the room while Hampton lay unconscious in bed. Then the raiding team fired at the head of the south bedroom. Hampton was wounded in the shoulder by the shooting. According to the National Archives and Records Administration, "upon that discovery, an officer shot him twice in his head and killed him".
Fellow Black Panther Harold Bell said that he heard the following exchange:
:"That's Fred Hampton."
"Is he dead?... Bring him out."
"He's barely alive."
"He'll make it."
The injured Panthers said they heard two shots. According to Hampton's supporters, the shots were fired point blank at Hampton's head. According to Johnson, an officer then said: "He's good and dead now."
Hampton's body was dragged into the doorway of the bedroom and left in a pool of blood. The officers directed their gunfire at the remaining Panthers who had been sleeping in the north bedroom (Satchel, Anderson, Brewer and Harris). Brewer, Satchel, Anderson, and Harris were seriously wounded, then beaten and dragged into the street. They were arrested on charges of aggravated assault and attempted murder of the officers. They were each held on $100,000 bail.
In the early 1990s, Johnson was interviewed about the raid by Jose "Cha Cha" Jimenez, former president and co-founder of the Young Lords. He and his group had developed close ties to Hampton and the Chicago Black Panther Party during the late 1960s. She said:
I believe Fred Hampton was drugged. The reason why is because when he woke up when the person [Truelock] said, "Chairman, chairman," he was shaking Fred's arm, you know, Fred's arm was folded across the head of the bed. And Fred—he just raised his head up real slow. It was like watching a slow motion. He raised. His eyes were open. He raised his head up real slow, you know, with his eyes toward the entranceway, toward the bedroom and laid his head back down. That was the only movement he made [...]
The seven Panthers who survived the raid were indicted by a grand jury on charges of attempted murder, armed violence, and various other weapons charges. These charges were subsequently dropped. During the trial, the Chicago Police Department claimed that the Panthers were the first to fire shots. But a later investigation found that the Chicago police fired between 90 and 99 shots, while the only Panthers shot was from Clark's dropped shotgun.
After the raid, the apartment was left unguarded. The Panthers sent some members to investigate, accompanied by videographer Mike Gray and stills photographer Norris McNamara to document the scene. This footage was instrumental in proving the raid was an assassination. The footage was later released as part of the 1971 documentary The Murder of Fred Hampton. After a break-in at an FBI office in Pennsylvania, the existence of COINTELPRO, an illegal counter-intelligence program, was revealed and reported. With this program revealed, many activists and others began to suspect that the police raid and Hampton's killing were conducted under this program. One of the documents released after the break-in was a floor plan of Hampton's apartment. Another document outlined a deal that the FBI brokered with US deputy attorney general Richard Kleindienst to conceal the FBI's role in Hampton's death and the existence of COINTELPRO.
Aftermath
At a press conference the next day, the police announced the arrest team had been attacked by the "violent" and "extremely vicious" Panthers and defended themselves accordingly. In a second press conference on December 8, the police leadership praised the assault team for their "remarkable restraint", "bravery", and "professional discipline" in not killing all the Panthers present. Photographic evidence was presented of "bullet holes" allegedly made by shots fired by the Panthers, but reporters soon challenged this claim. An internal investigation was undertaken, and the police claimed that their colleagues on the assault team were exonerated of any wrongdoing, concluding that they "used lawful means to overcome the assault".
Five thousand people attended Hampton's funeral. He was eulogized by black leaders, including Jesse Jackson and Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr.'s successor as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In his eulogy, Jackson said that "when Fred was shot in Chicago, black people in particular, and decent people in general, bled everywhere." On December 6, members of the Weather Underground destroyed numerous police vehicles in a retaliatory bombing spree at 3600 N. Halsted Street, Chicago.
The police called their raid on Hampton's apartment a "shootout". The Black Panthers called it a "shoot-in", because so many shots were fired by police.
On December 11 and 12, the two competing daily newspapers, the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, published vivid accounts of the events, but drew different conclusions. The Tribune has long been considered the politically conservative newspaper, and the Sun-Times the liberal paper. On December 11, the Tribune published a page 1 article titled, "Exclusive – Hanrahan, Police Tell Panther Story." The article included photographs, supplied by Hanrahan's office, that depicted bullet holes in a thin white curtain and door jamb as evidence that the Panthers fired multiple bullets at the police.
Jack Challem, editor of the Wright College News, the student newspaper at Wright Junior College in Chicago, had visited the apartment on December 6, when it was still unsecured. He took numerous photographs of the crime scenes. A member of the Black Panthers was allowing visitors to tour the apartment. Challem's photographs did not show the bullet holes as reported by the Tribune. On the morning of December 12, after the Tribune article had appeared with the Hanrahan-supplied photos, Challem contacted a reporter at the Sun-Times, showed him his own photographs, and encouraged the other reporter to visit the apartment. That evening, the Sun-Times published a page 1 article with the headline: "Those 'bullet holes' aren't." According to the article, the alleged bullet holes (supposedly the result of the Panthers shooting in the direction of the police) were nail heads.
Four weeks after witnessing Hampton's death at the hands of the police, Johnson gave birth to their son, Fred Hampton Jr.
Civil rights activists Roy Wilkins and Ramsey Clark (styled as "The Commission of Inquiry into the Black Panthers and the Police") subsequently alleged that the Chicago police had killed Hampton without justification or provocation, and had violated the Panthers' constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure. "The Commission" further alleged that the Chicago Police Department had imposed a summary punishment on the Panthers.
A federal grand jury did not return any indictment against any of the individuals involved with the planning or execution of the raid, including the officers involved in killing Hampton. O'Neal, who had given the FBI the floor plan of the apartment and drugged Hampton, later admitted his involvement in setting up the raid. He committed suicide on January 15, 1990.
Inquest
Shortly after the raid, Cook County Coroner Andrew Toman began forming a special six-member coroner's jury to hold an inquest into the deaths of Hampton and Clark. On December 23, Toman announced four additions to the jury, who included two African-American men: physician Theodore K. Lawless and attorney Julian B. Wilkins, the son of J. Ernest Wilkins Sr. He said the four were selected from a group of candidates submitted to his office by groups and individuals representing both Chicago's black and white communities. Civil rights leaders and spokesmen for the black community were reported to have been disappointed with the selection.
An official with the Chicago Urban League said, "I would have had more confidence in the jury if one of them had been a black man who has a rapport with the young and the grass roots in the community." Gus Savage said that such a man to whom the community could relate need not be black. The jury eventually included a third black man, who had been a member of the first coroner's jury sworn in on December 4.
The blue-ribbon panel convened for the inquest on January 6, 1970. On January 21, they ruled the deaths of Hampton and Clark to be justifiable homicides. The jury qualified their verdict on Hampton's death as "based solely and exclusively on the evidence presented to this inquisition"; police and expert witnesses provided the only testimony during the inquest.
Jury foreman James T. Hicks stated that they could not consider the charges made by surviving Black Panthers who had been in the apartment; they had told reporters that the police entered the apartment shooting. The survivors were reported to have refused to testify during the inquest because they faced criminal charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault during the raid. Attorneys for the Hampton and Clark families did not introduce any witnesses during the proceedings, but called the inquest "a well-rehearsed theatrical performance designed to vindicate the police officers". Hanrahan said the verdict was recognition "of the truthfulness of our police officers' account of the events".
Federal grand jury
Released on May 15, 1970, the reports of a federal grand jury criticized the actions of the police, the surviving Black Panthers, and the Chicago news media. The grand jury called the police department's raid "ill conceived" and said many errors were committed during the post-raid investigation and reconstruction of the events. It said that the surviving Black Panthers' refusal to cooperate hampered the investigation, and that the press "improperly and grossly exaggerated stories".
1970 civil rights lawsuit
In 1970, the survivors and relatives of Hampton and Clark filed a civil suit, stating that the civil rights of the Black Panther members were violated by the joint police/FBI raid and seeking $47.7 million in damages. Twenty-eight defendants were named, including Hanrahan as well as the City of Chicago, Cook County, and federal governments. It took years for the case to get to trial, which lasted 18 months. It was reported to have been the longest federal trial up to that time. After its conclusion in 1977, Judge Joseph Sam Perry of United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed the suit against 21 of the defendants before jury deliberations. After jurors deadlocked on a verdict, Perry dismissed the suit against the remaining defendants.
The plaintiffs appealed. In 1979, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago found that the government had withheld relevant documents, thereby obstructing the judicial process. Reinstating the case against 24 of the defendants, the Court of Appeals ordered a new trial. The Supreme Court of the United States heard an appeal by defendants, but voted 5–3 in 1980 to remand the case to the District Court for a new trial.
In 1982, the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the federal government agreed to a settlement in which each would pay $616,333 (equivalent to $ million per payee in ) to a group of nine plaintiffs, including the mothers of Hampton and Clark. The $1.85 million settlement (equivalent to $ million in ) was believed to be the largest ever in a civil rights case. G. Flint Taylor, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said, "The settlement is an admission of the conspiracy that existed between the FBI and Hanrahan's men to murder Fred Hampton." Assistant United States Attorney Robert Gruenberg said the settlement was intended to avoid another costly trial and was not an admission of guilt or responsibility by any of the defendants.
Controversy
Ten days afterward, Bobby Rush, the then deputy minister of defense for the Illinois Black Panther Party, called the raiding party an "execution squad". As is typical in settlements, the three government defendants did not acknowledge claims of responsibility for plaintiffs' allegations.
Michael Newton is among the writers who have concluded that Hampton was assassinated. In his 2016 book Unsolved Civil Rights Murder Cases, 1934–1970, Newton writes that Hampton "was murdered in his sleep by Chicago police with FBI collusion." This view is also presented in Jakobi Williams's book From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago.
Personal life
Hampton was very close with Chicago Black Catholic priest George Clements, who served as his mentor and as a chaplain for the local Panther outfit. Hampton and the Panthers also used Clements's parish, Holy Angels Catholic Church in Chicago, as a refuge in times of particular surveillance or pursuit from the police. They also provided security for a number of Clements's "Black Unity Masses", part of his revolutionary activities during the Black Catholic Movement. Clements spoke at Hampton's funeral, and also said a Requiem Mass for him at Holy Angels.
Legacy
Legal and political effects
According to a 1969 Chicago Tribune report, "The raid ended the promising political career of Cook County State's Atty. Edward V. Hanrahan, who was indicted but cleared with 13 other law-enforcement agents on charges of obstructing justice. Bernard Carey, a Republican, defeated him in the next election, in part because of the support of outraged black voters." The families of Hampton and Clark filed a $47.7 million civil suit against the city, state, and federal governments. The case went to trial before Federal Judge J. Sam Perry. After more than 18 months of testimony and at the close of the plaintiffs' case, Perry dismissed the case. The plaintiffs appealed and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed, ordering the case to be retried. More than a decade after the case had been filed, the suit was finally settled for $1.85 million. The two families each shared in the settlement.
Jeffrey Haas, who, together with his law partners G. Flint Taylor and Dennis Cunningham and attorney James D. Montgomery, were the attorneys for the plaintiffs in the federal suit Hampton v. Hanrahan, conducted additional research and wrote a book about these events. It was published in 2009. He said that Chicago was worse off without Hampton:
In 1990, the Chicago City Council unanimously passed a resolution, introduced by then-Alderman Madeline Haithcock, commemorating December 4, 2004, as Fred Hampton Day in Chicago. The resolution read in part:
"Fred Hampton, who was only 21 years old, made his mark in Chicago history not so much by his death as by the heroic efforts of his life and by his goals of empowering the most oppressed sector of Chicago's Black community, bringing people into political life through participation in their own freedom fighting organization."
Monuments and streets
A public pool was named in his honor in his home town of Maywood, Illinois.
On September 7, 2007, a bust of Hampton by sculptor Preston Jackson was erected outside the Fred Hampton Family Aquatic Center in Maywood.
In March 2006, supporters of Hampton's charity work proposed the naming of a Chicago street in his honor. Chicago's chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police opposed this effort.
Weather Underground reaction
Two days after the killings of Hampton and Clark, on December 6, 1969, members of the Weathermen destroyed numerous police vehicles in a retaliatory bombing spree at 3600 N. Halsted Street in Chicago. After that, the group became more radical. On May 21, 1970, the group issued a "Declaration of War" against the U.S. government, and for the first time used its new name, the "Weather Underground Organization". They adopted fake identities and decided to pursue covert activities only. These initially included preparations to bomb a U.S. military non-commissioned officers' dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in what Brian Flanagan later said was intended to be "the most horrific hit the United States government had ever suffered on its territory"."We've known that our job is to lead white kids into armed revolution... Kids know the lines are drawn: revolution is touching all of our lives. Tens of thousands have learned that protest and marches don't do it. Revolutionary violence is the only way."
—Bernardine Dohrn
Media and popular culture
In film
A 27-minute documentary, Death of a Black Panther: The Fred Hampton Story, was used as evidence in the civil suit. The 2002 documentary The Weather Underground shows in detail how that group was deeply influenced by Hampton and his death—as well as showing that Hampton kept his distance from them for being what he called "adventuristic, masochistic and Custeristic".
Much of the first half of Eyes on the Prize episode 12, "A Nation of Law?", chronicles Hampton's leadership and extrajudicial killing. The events of his rise to prominence, Hoover's targeting of him, and Hampton's subsequent death are also recounted with footage in the 2015 documentary The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.
The Murder of Fred Hampton is a documentary shot from within the movement, released in 1971. It has no narration, relying solely on footage shot from within the Black Panther organization and portraying Hampton and his colleagues on their own terms.
In the 1999 TV miniseries The 60s, Hampton appears serving free breakfast with the BPP. David Alan Grier plays Hampton.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) features Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Hampton, in which he advises Bobby Seale as he was denied counsel, with the Chicago Seven.
Judas and the Black Messiah is a 2021 film about O'Neal's betrayal of Hampton. The film stars Daniel Kaluuya as Hampton and was directed by Shaka King. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on February 1, 2021. For his performance, Kaluuya won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In literature
Jeffrey Haas wrote an account of Hampton's death, The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther (2009).
Stephen King refers to Hampton in the novel 11/22/63 (2012), in which a character discusses the ripple effect of traveling back in time to prevent John F. Kennedy's assassination. He postulates that other events would follow that could have prevented Hampton's assassination as well.
In music
American rapper and businessman Jay-Z has made multiple references in his music to being born on the day Hampton died.
American rock band Rage Against the Machine referenced Hampton in their 1996 song Down Rodeo, saying "They ain't gonna send us campin' like they did my man Fred Hampton."
Notes
References
External links
The Marxists Internet Archive: Fred Hampton Archive Transcribed speeches and collected works.
"The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther" – video report by Democracy Now! December 4, 2009.
(A 1971 documentary film directed by Howard Alk)
FBI files on Fred Hampton
From COINTELPRO to the Shadow Government: As Fred Hampton Jr. Is Released From 9 Years of Prison, a Look Back at the Assassination of Fred Hampton. 36:48 real audio. Tape: Fred Hampton, Deborah Johnson. Guests: Fred Hampton Jr., Mutulu Olugabala, Rosa Clemente. Interviewer: Amy Goodman. Democracy Now!. Tuesday, March 5, 2002. Retrieved May 12, 2005.
"Power Anywhere Where There's People" A Speech By Fred Hampton
National Young Lords Brief notes on Young Lords origins
Grand Valley State University Oral History Collection
1948 births
1969 deaths
Activists from Chicago
African-American activists
African-American communists
African-American history
American anti-capitalists
American Maoists
American Marxists
American revolutionaries
Anti-poverty advocates
Anti-revisionists
Assassinated American civil rights activists
African-American Marxists
African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States
COINTELPRO targets
Deaths by firearm in Illinois
Extrajudicial killings
Members of the Black Panther Party
People from Maywood, Illinois
People from Summit, Illinois
People murdered in Illinois | false | [
"Milton Preves (June 18, 1909 in Cleveland, Ohio – June 11, 2000 in Glenview, Illinois) was a violist, conductor and pedagogue. He was a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for 52 years, of which 47 years were as principal violist.\n\nPreves attended the University of Chicago. In 1931, he joined the Little Symphony—a Chicago Symphony training ground—and was promoted to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1934. He became principal violist in 1939, which position he held until he retired from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1986. He played under the batons of all the Chicago Symphony's conductors, up until Sir Georg Solti, except for the Chicago Symphony's founder, Theodore Thomas.\n\nPreves was a founding member of the Chicago String Quartet, as well as the music director for Chicago's North Side Symphony for 26 years. Besides playing the viola, he was a conductor with the Oak Park-River Forest, Wheaton, and Gary symphonies, as well as the Gold Coast Chamber Orchestra. He was also a part of the music faculty at a number of universities: Chicago Musical College, Northwestern University, and DePaul University.\n\nIn 1963, he resigned as conductor of the Oak Park-River Forest orchestra, because \nCarol Anderson, a talented black female violinist whom Preves had recruited for the symphony, was pressured to resign because of her race. The president of the orchestra quickly apologized, and urged Preves to continue to conduct the group. He did not return for 25 years and when he did, it was only to play as a soloist with the orchestra.\n\nErnest Bloch dedicated his Meditation and Processional to Milton Preves. Preves taught many students, some of whom continue to teach, passing down his style.\n\nReferences \n\n1909 births\n2000 deaths\nUniversity of Chicago alumni\nRoosevelt University faculty\nNorthwestern University faculty\nDePaul University faculty\nAmerican classical violists\nAmerican male conductors (music)\n20th-century American conductors (music)\n20th-century American male musicians",
"Josef Spudich (November 9, 1908 – March 10, 2001) was a United States professional American football player and teacher.\n\nHe was born one of nine children of parents who came to the United States in 1903 from Croatia.\n \nIn order to help with family expenses, Spudich worked nights and summers in a coal mine while attending high school in Benld, Illinois, and was graduated in 1929. He was a graduate of McKendree College, Lebanon, Illinois, in 1933, where he was named to the United Press International All-Star Football Team in 1932, and was All State fullback in 1931 and 1932. Moreover, he played professional football for the St. Louis Gunners, the Tulsa Oilers, and the Chicago Cardinals.\n\nSpudich earned his Masters Degree from the University of Missouri and did post-graduate work at Oxford in England and at Columbia University.\n\nHe taught and coached in Sikeston, Missouri, Cairo and El Dorado Springs; then starting in 1942, at Freeport High School, Freeport, Illinois, where he was head football coach from 1951–1954.\n\nSpudich taught English and served as assistant principal. He was\na soft-spoken man and had the respect and admiration of his students. Mr. Spudich always had time to help students, even if it was at the expense of his own plans. He was a very patient and kind man. He was also not only considered the High School's strongest man, his arms filling out his suit jackets, but was also considered the best dressed male teacher. Joe, as he was known to his students, would also plan field trips, such as taking them to Chicago to see such plays as Camelot, starring Richard Burton. He also assigned then contemporary books such as Patterns, by Rod Serling, as well as classics, such as Shakespeare's, Julius Caesar. After retiring at Freeport High School in 1964, he taught English and was chairman of the Humanities Division at Highland College, also in Freeport, Illinois.\n\nMr. Spudich served on the Freeport Library Board, was a Freeport City Alderman, coached the Frogs Girls Softball Team, played slow pitch softball in his 1970s, helped move a log cabin to the Stephenson County Historical Society grounds in Freeport, and did all the stonework on his own house plus a lot of stonework for others. If Joe knew that his stonework for some people was unaffordable, he did it free of cost.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n McKendree Hall of Fame profile\n\n1908 births\n2001 deaths\n20th-century American educators\nAmerican football running backs\nChicago Cardinals players\nSchoolteachers from Illinois\nMcKendree Bearcats athletic directors\nMcKendree Bearcats football players\nPeople from Macoupin County, Illinois\nUniversity of Missouri alumni"
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"Fred Hampton",
"Chicago",
"When did he first go to Chicago?",
"Hampton joined the Party and relocated to downtown Chicago, and in November 1968",
"What party did he join?",
"Black Panthers",
"What was his position in the Black Panthers?",
"Perhaps his most important accomplishment was his brokering of a nonaggression pact between Chicago's most powerful street gangs.",
"Was the nonaggression pack honored?",
"Hampton strove to forge a class-conscious, multi-racial alliance between the BPP, the Young Patriots Organization, and the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez.",
"What part of Chicago did he live in?",
"in the Chicago Lincoln Park",
"Did his family move to Chicago as well?",
"unrelated,"
]
| C_8919227193b845118bd28af3621b8eee_1 | How long did he live there? | 7 | How long did Fred Hampton live in Chicago? | Fred Hampton | About the same time that Hampton was successfully organizing young African-Americans for the NAACP, the Black Panther Party (BPP) started rising to national prominence. Hampton was quickly attracted to the Black Panthers' approach, which was based on a ten-point program that integrated black self-determination on the basis of Maoism. Hampton joined the Party and relocated to downtown Chicago, and in November 1968 he joined the Party's nascent Illinois chapter--founded by Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizer Bob Brown in late 1967. Over the next year, Hampton and his associates made a number of significant achievements in Chicago. Perhaps his most important accomplishment was his brokering of a nonaggression pact between Chicago's most powerful street gangs. Emphasizing that racial and ethnic conflict between gangs would only keep its members entrenched in poverty, Hampton strove to forge a class-conscious, multi-racial alliance between the BPP, the Young Patriots Organization, and the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez. Fred Hampton met the Young Lords in the Chicago Lincoln Park Neighborhood, the day after the Young Lords were in the news after they had occupied a police community workshop meeting, held on the second floor hall of the Chicago 18th District Police Station. Later, the Rainbow Coalition was joined nationwide by the Students for a Democratic Society ("SDS"), the Brown Berets, and the Red Guard Party. In May 1969, Hampton called a press conference to announce that this "rainbow coalition" had formed. It was a phrase coined by Hampton and made popular over the years by Reverend Jesse Jackson, who eventually appropriated the name in forming his own, unrelated, coalition, Rainbow/PUSH. Hampton's organizing skills, substantial oratorical gifts, and personal charisma allowed him to rise quickly in the Black Panthers. Once he became leader of the Chicago chapter, he organized weekly rallies, worked closely with the BPP's local People's Clinic, taught political education classes every morning at 6am, and launched a project for community supervision of the police. Hampton was also instrumental in the BPP's Free Breakfast Program. When Brown left the Party with Stokely Carmichael in the FBI-fomented SNCC/Panther split, Hampton assumed chairmanship of the Illinois state BPP, automatically making him a national BPP deputy chairman. As the Panther leadership across the country began to be decimated by the impact of the FBI's COINTELPRO, Hampton's prominence in the national hierarchy increased rapidly and dramatically. Eventually, Hampton was in line to be appointed to the Party's Central Committee's Chief of Staff. He would have achieved this position had it not been for his death on the morning of December 4, 1969. CANNOTANSWER | Party's Central Committee's Chief of Staff. He would have achieved this position had it not been for his death | Fredrick Allen Hampton Sr. (August 30, 1948 – December 4, 1969) was an American activist. He came to prominence in Chicago as deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party, and chair of the Illinois chapter. As a progressive African American, he founded the antiracist, anticlass Rainbow Coalition, a prominent multicultural political organization that initially included the Black Panthers, Young Patriots (which organized poor whites), and the Young Lords (which organized Hispanics), and an alliance among major Chicago street gangs to help them end infighting and work for social change. A Marxist–Leninist, Hampton considered fascism the greatest threat, saying, "nothing is more important than stopping fascism, because fascism will stop us all.”
In 1967, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) identified Hampton as a radical threat. It tried to subvert his activities in Chicago, sowing disinformation among black progressive groups and placing a counterintelligence operative in the local Panthers organization. In December 1969, Hampton was drugged, shot and killed in his bed during a predawn raid at his Chicago apartment by a tactical unit of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, who received aid from the Chicago Police Department and the FBI leading up to the attack. Law enforcement sprayed more than 90 gunshots throughout the apartment; the occupants fired once. During the raid, Panther Mark Clark was also killed and several others were seriously wounded. In January 1970, the Cook County Coroner held an inquest; the jury concluded that Hampton's and Clark's deaths were justifiable homicides.
A civil lawsuit was later filed on behalf of the survivors and the relatives of Hampton and Clark. It was resolved in 1982 by a settlement of $1.85 million (equivalent to $ million in ); the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the federal government each paid one-third to a group of nine plaintiffs. Given revelations about the illegal COINTELPRO program and documents associated with the killings, many scholars now consider Hampton's death an assassination at the FBI's initiative.
Biography
Early life and youth
Hampton was born on August 30, 1948, in present-day Summit Argo, Illinois (generally shortened to Summit), and moved with his parents to another Chicago suburb, Maywood, at age 10. His parents had come from Louisiana as part of the Great Migration of African Americans in the early 20th century out of the South. They both worked at the Argo Starch Company, a corn starch processor. As a youth, Hampton was gifted both in the classroom and athletically, and hoped to play center field for the New York Yankees. Fred couldn't accept injustice anywhere. At 10 years old, he started hosting weekend breakfasts for other children from the neighborhood, cooking the meals himself in what could be described as a precursor to the Panthers’ free breakfast program. In high school, he led walkouts protesting black students' exclusion from the competition for homecoming queen and calling on officials to hire more black teachers and administrators. Hampton graduated from Proviso East High School with honors and varsity letters, and a Junior Achievement Award, in 1966. He enrolled at Triton Junior College in nearby River Grove, Illinois, where he majored in pre-law. He planned to become more familiar with the legal system to use it as a defense against police. When he and fellow Black Panthers later followed police in his community supervision program, watching out for police brutality, they used his knowledge of law as a defense.
In 1966, Fred Hampton turned 18. At that time, he started identifying with the Third World socialist struggles, as well as reading communist revolutionaries Che Guevara, Ho Chi Minh, and Mao Zedong. Shortly after, Hampton urged not only peace in the Vietnam War, but also North Vietnam's victory.
Hampton became active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and assumed leadership of its West Suburban Branch's Youth Council. In his capacity as an NAACP youth organizer, he demonstrated natural leadership abilities: from a community of 27,000, he was able to muster a youth group 500-members strong. He worked to get more and better recreational facilities established in the neighborhoods and to improve educational resources for Maywood's impoverished black community.
Activity in Chicago
At about the same time that Hampton was successfully organizing young African Americans for the NAACP, the Black Panther Party (BPP) was rising to national prominence. Hampton was quickly attracted to the Black Panthers' approach, which was based on a Ten-Point Program that integrated black self-determination with class and economic critique from Maoism. He joined the party and relocated to downtown Chicago. In November 1968, he joined the party's nascent Illinois chapter, founded in late 1967 by Bob Brown, a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizer.
In 1968, Hampton was accused of assaulting an ice cream truck driver, stealing $71 worth of ice cream bars, and giving them to kids in the street. He was convicted in May 1969 and sentenced to two to five years in prison. Writer Frank B. Wilderson III places this incident within the framework of COINTELPRO efforts to disrupt the Black Panthers of Chicago, in this case by "leveling [...] trumped-up charges".
In 1969, Hampton, now deputy chairman of the BPP Illinois chapter, conducted a meeting condemning sexism. After 1969, the party considered sexism counter-revolutionary. In 1970, about 40–70% of party members were women.
Over the next year, Hampton and his friends and associates achieved a number of successes in Chicago. Perhaps the most important was a nonaggression pact among Chicago's most powerful street gangs. Emphasizing that racial and ethnic conflict among gangs would only keep its members entrenched in poverty, Hampton strove to forge an anti-racist, class-conscious, multiracial alliance among the BPP, the Young Patriots Organization, and the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez, leading to the Rainbow Coalition.
Hampton met the Young Lords in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood the day after they were in the news for occupying a police community workshop at the Chicago 18th District Police Station. He was arrested twice with Jimenez at the Wicker Park Welfare Office, and both were charged with "mob action" at a peaceful picket of the office. Later, the Rainbow Coalition was joined nationwide by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Brown Berets, AIM, and the Red Guard Party. In May 1969, Hampton called a press conference to announce that the coalition had formed. What the coalition groups would do was based on common action. Some of their joint issues were poverty, anti-racism, corruption, police brutality, and substandard housing. If there was a protest or a demonstration, the groups would attend the event and support each other.
Jeffrey Haas, who was Hampton's lawyer, has praised some of Hampton's politics and his success in unifying movements. But Haas criticizes the way Hampton and the BPP organized in a pyramidal/vertical structure, contrasting this with the horizontal structure of Black Lives Matter: "They may also have picked up on the vulnerability of a hierarchical movement where you have one leader, which makes the movement very vulnerable if that leader is imprisoned, killed, or otherwise compromised. I think the fact that Black Lives Matter says 'We're leaderfull, not leaderless' perhaps makes them less vulnerable to this kind of government assault."
Hampton rose quickly in the Black Panthers, based on his organizing skills, oratorical gifts, and charisma. Once he became leader of the Chicago chapter, he organized weekly rallies, participated in strikes, worked closely with the BPP's local People's Clinic, taught political education classes every morning at 6 am, and launched a project for community supervision of the police. Hampton was also instrumental in the BPP's Free Breakfast Program. When Bob Brown left the party with Kwame Ture, in the FBI-fomented SNCC/Panther split, Hampton assumed chairmanship of the Illinois state BPP. This automatically made him a national BPP deputy chairman. As the FBI's COINTELPRO began to decimate the nationwide Panther leadership, Hampton's prominence in the national hierarchy increased rapidly and dramatically. Eventually he was in line to be appointed to the party's Central Committee Chief of Staff. He would have achieved this position had he not been killed on December 4, 1969.
FBI investigation
The FBI believed that Hampton's leadership and talent for communication made him a major threat among Black Panther leaders. It began keeping close tabs on his activities. Investigations have shown that FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover was determined to prevent the formation of a cohesive Black movement in the United States. Hoover believed the Panthers, Young Patriots, Young Lords, and similar radical coalitions that Hampton forged in Chicago were a stepping stone to the rise of a revolution that could cause a radical change in the U.S. government.
The FBI opened a file on Hampton in 1967. It tapped Hampton's mother's phone in February 1968 and by May placed Hampton on the bureau's "Agitator Index" as a "key militant leader". In late 1968, the Racial Matters squad of the FBI's Chicago field office recruited William O'Neal to work with it; he had recently been arrested twice for interstate car theft and impersonating a federal officer. In exchange for having his felony charges dropped and receiving a monthly stipend, O'Neal agreed to infiltrate the BPP as a counterintelligence operative.
O'Neal joined the party and quickly rose in the organization, becoming Director of Chapter Security and Hampton's bodyguard. In 1969, the FBI Special Agent in Charge (SAC) in San Francisco wrote Hoover that the agent's investigation had found that, in his city at least, the Panthers were primarily feeding breakfast to children. Hoover responded with a memo implying that the agent's career prospects depended on his supplying evidence to support Hoover's view that the BPP was "a violence-prone organization seeking to overthrow the Government by revolutionary means".
By means of anonymous letters, the FBI sowed distrust and eventually instigated a split between the Panthers and the Blackstone Rangers. O'Neal instigated an armed clash between them on April 2, 1969. The Panthers became effectively isolated from their power base in the Chicago ghetto, so the FBI worked to undermine its ties with other radical organizations. O'Neal was instructed to "create a rift" between the party and Students for a Democratic Society, whose Chicago headquarters was near that of the Panthers.
The FBI released a batch of racist cartoons in the Panthers' name, aimed at alienating white activists. It also launched a disinformation program to forestall the formation of the Rainbow Coalition, but the BPP did make an alliance with the Young Patriots and Young Lords. In repeated directives, Hoover demanded that COINTELPRO personnel investigate the Rainbow Coalition, "destroy what the [BPP] stands for", and "eradicate its 'serve the people' programs".
Documents secured by Senate investigators in the early 1970s revealed that the FBI actively encouraged violence between the Panthers and other radical groups; this provoked multiple murders in cities throughout the country. On July 16, 1969, an armed confrontation between party members and the Chicago Police Department resulted in one BPP member mortally wounded and six others arrested on serious charges.
In early October, Hampton and his girlfriend Deborah Johnson (now known as Akua Njeri), who was pregnant with their child (Fred Hampton Jr.), rented a four-and-a-half-room apartment at 2337 West Monroe Street to be closer to BPP headquarters. O'Neal reported to his superiors that much of the Panthers' "provocative" stockpile of arms was stored there. He drew them a map of the apartment. In early November, Hampton traveled to California on a speaking engagement to the UCLA Law Students Association. There he met with the remaining BPP national hierarchy, who appointed him to the party's central committee. He was soon to take the position of chief of staff and major spokesman.
Death
Prelude
While Hampton was in California in November 1969, two Chicago police officers, John J. Gilhooly and Frank G. Rappaport, were killed in a gun battle with Panthers on the night of November 13; one died the next day. A total of nine police officers were shot. Spurgeon Winter Jr, a 19-year-old Panther, was killed by police. Another Panther, Lawrence S. Bell, was charged with murder. In an unsigned editorial headlined "No Quarter for Wild Beasts", the Chicago Tribune urged that Chicago police officers approaching suspected Panthers "should be ordered to be ready to shoot."
As part of the larger COINTELPRO operation, the FBI was determined to prevent any improvement in the effectiveness of the BPP leadership. The FBI orchestrated an armed raid with the Chicago police and State Attorney on Hampton's Chicago apartment. They had obtained detailed information about the apartment, including a layout of furniture, from O'Neal. An augmented, 14-man team of the SAO (state Special Prosecutions Unit) was organized for a predawn raid; they were armed with a search warrant for illegal weapons.
On the evening of December 3, Hampton taught a political education course at a local church, which was attended by most Panther members. Afterward, as was typical, he was accompanied to his Monroe Street apartment by Johnson and several Panthers: Blair Anderson, James Grady, Ronald "Doc" Satchell, Harold Bell, Verlina Brewer, Louis Truelock, Brenda Harris and Mark Clark. O'Neal was already there, having prepared a late dinner, which the group ate around midnight. O'Neal had slipped the secobarbital into a drink that Hampton consumed during the dinner in order to sedate Hampton so he would not awaken during the subsequent raid. O'Neal left after the dinner. At about 1:30 am, December 4, Hampton fell asleep mid-sentence while talking to his mother on the telephone.
Although Hampton was not known to take drugs, Cook County chemist Eleanor Berman later reported that she had run two tests, which each showed evidence of barbiturates in Hampton's blood. An FBI chemist failed to find similar traces, but Berman stood by her findings.
Raid
The office of Cook County State's Attorney Edward Hanrahan organized the raid, using officers attached to his office. Hampton had recently strongly criticized Hanrahan, saying that Hanrahan's talk about a "war on gangs" was really rhetoric used to enable him to carry out a "war on black youth".
At 4 am, the heavily armed police team arrived at the site, divided into two teams, eight for the front of the building and six for the rear. At 4:45 am, they stormed the apartment. Mark Clark, sitting in the front room of the apartment with a shotgun in his lap, was on security duty. The police shot him in the chest, killing him instantly. An alternative account said that Clark answered the door and police immediately shot him. Either way, Clark's gun discharged once into the ceiling. This single round was fired when he suffered a reflexive death-convulsion after being shot. This was the only shot fired by the Panthers.
Hampton, drugged by barbiturates, was sleeping on a mattress in the bedroom with Johnson, who was nine months pregnant with their child. Police officers removed her from the room while Hampton lay unconscious in bed. Then the raiding team fired at the head of the south bedroom. Hampton was wounded in the shoulder by the shooting. According to the National Archives and Records Administration, "upon that discovery, an officer shot him twice in his head and killed him".
Fellow Black Panther Harold Bell said that he heard the following exchange:
:"That's Fred Hampton."
"Is he dead?... Bring him out."
"He's barely alive."
"He'll make it."
The injured Panthers said they heard two shots. According to Hampton's supporters, the shots were fired point blank at Hampton's head. According to Johnson, an officer then said: "He's good and dead now."
Hampton's body was dragged into the doorway of the bedroom and left in a pool of blood. The officers directed their gunfire at the remaining Panthers who had been sleeping in the north bedroom (Satchel, Anderson, Brewer and Harris). Brewer, Satchel, Anderson, and Harris were seriously wounded, then beaten and dragged into the street. They were arrested on charges of aggravated assault and attempted murder of the officers. They were each held on $100,000 bail.
In the early 1990s, Johnson was interviewed about the raid by Jose "Cha Cha" Jimenez, former president and co-founder of the Young Lords. He and his group had developed close ties to Hampton and the Chicago Black Panther Party during the late 1960s. She said:
I believe Fred Hampton was drugged. The reason why is because when he woke up when the person [Truelock] said, "Chairman, chairman," he was shaking Fred's arm, you know, Fred's arm was folded across the head of the bed. And Fred—he just raised his head up real slow. It was like watching a slow motion. He raised. His eyes were open. He raised his head up real slow, you know, with his eyes toward the entranceway, toward the bedroom and laid his head back down. That was the only movement he made [...]
The seven Panthers who survived the raid were indicted by a grand jury on charges of attempted murder, armed violence, and various other weapons charges. These charges were subsequently dropped. During the trial, the Chicago Police Department claimed that the Panthers were the first to fire shots. But a later investigation found that the Chicago police fired between 90 and 99 shots, while the only Panthers shot was from Clark's dropped shotgun.
After the raid, the apartment was left unguarded. The Panthers sent some members to investigate, accompanied by videographer Mike Gray and stills photographer Norris McNamara to document the scene. This footage was instrumental in proving the raid was an assassination. The footage was later released as part of the 1971 documentary The Murder of Fred Hampton. After a break-in at an FBI office in Pennsylvania, the existence of COINTELPRO, an illegal counter-intelligence program, was revealed and reported. With this program revealed, many activists and others began to suspect that the police raid and Hampton's killing were conducted under this program. One of the documents released after the break-in was a floor plan of Hampton's apartment. Another document outlined a deal that the FBI brokered with US deputy attorney general Richard Kleindienst to conceal the FBI's role in Hampton's death and the existence of COINTELPRO.
Aftermath
At a press conference the next day, the police announced the arrest team had been attacked by the "violent" and "extremely vicious" Panthers and defended themselves accordingly. In a second press conference on December 8, the police leadership praised the assault team for their "remarkable restraint", "bravery", and "professional discipline" in not killing all the Panthers present. Photographic evidence was presented of "bullet holes" allegedly made by shots fired by the Panthers, but reporters soon challenged this claim. An internal investigation was undertaken, and the police claimed that their colleagues on the assault team were exonerated of any wrongdoing, concluding that they "used lawful means to overcome the assault".
Five thousand people attended Hampton's funeral. He was eulogized by black leaders, including Jesse Jackson and Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr.'s successor as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In his eulogy, Jackson said that "when Fred was shot in Chicago, black people in particular, and decent people in general, bled everywhere." On December 6, members of the Weather Underground destroyed numerous police vehicles in a retaliatory bombing spree at 3600 N. Halsted Street, Chicago.
The police called their raid on Hampton's apartment a "shootout". The Black Panthers called it a "shoot-in", because so many shots were fired by police.
On December 11 and 12, the two competing daily newspapers, the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, published vivid accounts of the events, but drew different conclusions. The Tribune has long been considered the politically conservative newspaper, and the Sun-Times the liberal paper. On December 11, the Tribune published a page 1 article titled, "Exclusive – Hanrahan, Police Tell Panther Story." The article included photographs, supplied by Hanrahan's office, that depicted bullet holes in a thin white curtain and door jamb as evidence that the Panthers fired multiple bullets at the police.
Jack Challem, editor of the Wright College News, the student newspaper at Wright Junior College in Chicago, had visited the apartment on December 6, when it was still unsecured. He took numerous photographs of the crime scenes. A member of the Black Panthers was allowing visitors to tour the apartment. Challem's photographs did not show the bullet holes as reported by the Tribune. On the morning of December 12, after the Tribune article had appeared with the Hanrahan-supplied photos, Challem contacted a reporter at the Sun-Times, showed him his own photographs, and encouraged the other reporter to visit the apartment. That evening, the Sun-Times published a page 1 article with the headline: "Those 'bullet holes' aren't." According to the article, the alleged bullet holes (supposedly the result of the Panthers shooting in the direction of the police) were nail heads.
Four weeks after witnessing Hampton's death at the hands of the police, Johnson gave birth to their son, Fred Hampton Jr.
Civil rights activists Roy Wilkins and Ramsey Clark (styled as "The Commission of Inquiry into the Black Panthers and the Police") subsequently alleged that the Chicago police had killed Hampton without justification or provocation, and had violated the Panthers' constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure. "The Commission" further alleged that the Chicago Police Department had imposed a summary punishment on the Panthers.
A federal grand jury did not return any indictment against any of the individuals involved with the planning or execution of the raid, including the officers involved in killing Hampton. O'Neal, who had given the FBI the floor plan of the apartment and drugged Hampton, later admitted his involvement in setting up the raid. He committed suicide on January 15, 1990.
Inquest
Shortly after the raid, Cook County Coroner Andrew Toman began forming a special six-member coroner's jury to hold an inquest into the deaths of Hampton and Clark. On December 23, Toman announced four additions to the jury, who included two African-American men: physician Theodore K. Lawless and attorney Julian B. Wilkins, the son of J. Ernest Wilkins Sr. He said the four were selected from a group of candidates submitted to his office by groups and individuals representing both Chicago's black and white communities. Civil rights leaders and spokesmen for the black community were reported to have been disappointed with the selection.
An official with the Chicago Urban League said, "I would have had more confidence in the jury if one of them had been a black man who has a rapport with the young and the grass roots in the community." Gus Savage said that such a man to whom the community could relate need not be black. The jury eventually included a third black man, who had been a member of the first coroner's jury sworn in on December 4.
The blue-ribbon panel convened for the inquest on January 6, 1970. On January 21, they ruled the deaths of Hampton and Clark to be justifiable homicides. The jury qualified their verdict on Hampton's death as "based solely and exclusively on the evidence presented to this inquisition"; police and expert witnesses provided the only testimony during the inquest.
Jury foreman James T. Hicks stated that they could not consider the charges made by surviving Black Panthers who had been in the apartment; they had told reporters that the police entered the apartment shooting. The survivors were reported to have refused to testify during the inquest because they faced criminal charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault during the raid. Attorneys for the Hampton and Clark families did not introduce any witnesses during the proceedings, but called the inquest "a well-rehearsed theatrical performance designed to vindicate the police officers". Hanrahan said the verdict was recognition "of the truthfulness of our police officers' account of the events".
Federal grand jury
Released on May 15, 1970, the reports of a federal grand jury criticized the actions of the police, the surviving Black Panthers, and the Chicago news media. The grand jury called the police department's raid "ill conceived" and said many errors were committed during the post-raid investigation and reconstruction of the events. It said that the surviving Black Panthers' refusal to cooperate hampered the investigation, and that the press "improperly and grossly exaggerated stories".
1970 civil rights lawsuit
In 1970, the survivors and relatives of Hampton and Clark filed a civil suit, stating that the civil rights of the Black Panther members were violated by the joint police/FBI raid and seeking $47.7 million in damages. Twenty-eight defendants were named, including Hanrahan as well as the City of Chicago, Cook County, and federal governments. It took years for the case to get to trial, which lasted 18 months. It was reported to have been the longest federal trial up to that time. After its conclusion in 1977, Judge Joseph Sam Perry of United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed the suit against 21 of the defendants before jury deliberations. After jurors deadlocked on a verdict, Perry dismissed the suit against the remaining defendants.
The plaintiffs appealed. In 1979, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago found that the government had withheld relevant documents, thereby obstructing the judicial process. Reinstating the case against 24 of the defendants, the Court of Appeals ordered a new trial. The Supreme Court of the United States heard an appeal by defendants, but voted 5–3 in 1980 to remand the case to the District Court for a new trial.
In 1982, the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the federal government agreed to a settlement in which each would pay $616,333 (equivalent to $ million per payee in ) to a group of nine plaintiffs, including the mothers of Hampton and Clark. The $1.85 million settlement (equivalent to $ million in ) was believed to be the largest ever in a civil rights case. G. Flint Taylor, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said, "The settlement is an admission of the conspiracy that existed between the FBI and Hanrahan's men to murder Fred Hampton." Assistant United States Attorney Robert Gruenberg said the settlement was intended to avoid another costly trial and was not an admission of guilt or responsibility by any of the defendants.
Controversy
Ten days afterward, Bobby Rush, the then deputy minister of defense for the Illinois Black Panther Party, called the raiding party an "execution squad". As is typical in settlements, the three government defendants did not acknowledge claims of responsibility for plaintiffs' allegations.
Michael Newton is among the writers who have concluded that Hampton was assassinated. In his 2016 book Unsolved Civil Rights Murder Cases, 1934–1970, Newton writes that Hampton "was murdered in his sleep by Chicago police with FBI collusion." This view is also presented in Jakobi Williams's book From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago.
Personal life
Hampton was very close with Chicago Black Catholic priest George Clements, who served as his mentor and as a chaplain for the local Panther outfit. Hampton and the Panthers also used Clements's parish, Holy Angels Catholic Church in Chicago, as a refuge in times of particular surveillance or pursuit from the police. They also provided security for a number of Clements's "Black Unity Masses", part of his revolutionary activities during the Black Catholic Movement. Clements spoke at Hampton's funeral, and also said a Requiem Mass for him at Holy Angels.
Legacy
Legal and political effects
According to a 1969 Chicago Tribune report, "The raid ended the promising political career of Cook County State's Atty. Edward V. Hanrahan, who was indicted but cleared with 13 other law-enforcement agents on charges of obstructing justice. Bernard Carey, a Republican, defeated him in the next election, in part because of the support of outraged black voters." The families of Hampton and Clark filed a $47.7 million civil suit against the city, state, and federal governments. The case went to trial before Federal Judge J. Sam Perry. After more than 18 months of testimony and at the close of the plaintiffs' case, Perry dismissed the case. The plaintiffs appealed and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed, ordering the case to be retried. More than a decade after the case had been filed, the suit was finally settled for $1.85 million. The two families each shared in the settlement.
Jeffrey Haas, who, together with his law partners G. Flint Taylor and Dennis Cunningham and attorney James D. Montgomery, were the attorneys for the plaintiffs in the federal suit Hampton v. Hanrahan, conducted additional research and wrote a book about these events. It was published in 2009. He said that Chicago was worse off without Hampton:
In 1990, the Chicago City Council unanimously passed a resolution, introduced by then-Alderman Madeline Haithcock, commemorating December 4, 2004, as Fred Hampton Day in Chicago. The resolution read in part:
"Fred Hampton, who was only 21 years old, made his mark in Chicago history not so much by his death as by the heroic efforts of his life and by his goals of empowering the most oppressed sector of Chicago's Black community, bringing people into political life through participation in their own freedom fighting organization."
Monuments and streets
A public pool was named in his honor in his home town of Maywood, Illinois.
On September 7, 2007, a bust of Hampton by sculptor Preston Jackson was erected outside the Fred Hampton Family Aquatic Center in Maywood.
In March 2006, supporters of Hampton's charity work proposed the naming of a Chicago street in his honor. Chicago's chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police opposed this effort.
Weather Underground reaction
Two days after the killings of Hampton and Clark, on December 6, 1969, members of the Weathermen destroyed numerous police vehicles in a retaliatory bombing spree at 3600 N. Halsted Street in Chicago. After that, the group became more radical. On May 21, 1970, the group issued a "Declaration of War" against the U.S. government, and for the first time used its new name, the "Weather Underground Organization". They adopted fake identities and decided to pursue covert activities only. These initially included preparations to bomb a U.S. military non-commissioned officers' dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in what Brian Flanagan later said was intended to be "the most horrific hit the United States government had ever suffered on its territory"."We've known that our job is to lead white kids into armed revolution... Kids know the lines are drawn: revolution is touching all of our lives. Tens of thousands have learned that protest and marches don't do it. Revolutionary violence is the only way."
—Bernardine Dohrn
Media and popular culture
In film
A 27-minute documentary, Death of a Black Panther: The Fred Hampton Story, was used as evidence in the civil suit. The 2002 documentary The Weather Underground shows in detail how that group was deeply influenced by Hampton and his death—as well as showing that Hampton kept his distance from them for being what he called "adventuristic, masochistic and Custeristic".
Much of the first half of Eyes on the Prize episode 12, "A Nation of Law?", chronicles Hampton's leadership and extrajudicial killing. The events of his rise to prominence, Hoover's targeting of him, and Hampton's subsequent death are also recounted with footage in the 2015 documentary The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.
The Murder of Fred Hampton is a documentary shot from within the movement, released in 1971. It has no narration, relying solely on footage shot from within the Black Panther organization and portraying Hampton and his colleagues on their own terms.
In the 1999 TV miniseries The 60s, Hampton appears serving free breakfast with the BPP. David Alan Grier plays Hampton.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) features Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Hampton, in which he advises Bobby Seale as he was denied counsel, with the Chicago Seven.
Judas and the Black Messiah is a 2021 film about O'Neal's betrayal of Hampton. The film stars Daniel Kaluuya as Hampton and was directed by Shaka King. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on February 1, 2021. For his performance, Kaluuya won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In literature
Jeffrey Haas wrote an account of Hampton's death, The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther (2009).
Stephen King refers to Hampton in the novel 11/22/63 (2012), in which a character discusses the ripple effect of traveling back in time to prevent John F. Kennedy's assassination. He postulates that other events would follow that could have prevented Hampton's assassination as well.
In music
American rapper and businessman Jay-Z has made multiple references in his music to being born on the day Hampton died.
American rock band Rage Against the Machine referenced Hampton in their 1996 song Down Rodeo, saying "They ain't gonna send us campin' like they did my man Fred Hampton."
Notes
References
External links
The Marxists Internet Archive: Fred Hampton Archive Transcribed speeches and collected works.
"The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther" – video report by Democracy Now! December 4, 2009.
(A 1971 documentary film directed by Howard Alk)
FBI files on Fred Hampton
From COINTELPRO to the Shadow Government: As Fred Hampton Jr. Is Released From 9 Years of Prison, a Look Back at the Assassination of Fred Hampton. 36:48 real audio. Tape: Fred Hampton, Deborah Johnson. Guests: Fred Hampton Jr., Mutulu Olugabala, Rosa Clemente. Interviewer: Amy Goodman. Democracy Now!. Tuesday, March 5, 2002. Retrieved May 12, 2005.
"Power Anywhere Where There's People" A Speech By Fred Hampton
National Young Lords Brief notes on Young Lords origins
Grand Valley State University Oral History Collection
1948 births
1969 deaths
Activists from Chicago
African-American activists
African-American communists
African-American history
American anti-capitalists
American Maoists
American Marxists
American revolutionaries
Anti-poverty advocates
Anti-revisionists
Assassinated American civil rights activists
African-American Marxists
African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States
COINTELPRO targets
Deaths by firearm in Illinois
Extrajudicial killings
Members of the Black Panther Party
People from Maywood, Illinois
People from Summit, Illinois
People murdered in Illinois | false | [
"Live in Tokyo is a live album by American pianist and composer Brad Mehldau released on the Nonesuch label in 2004.\n\nReception\n\nThe album received universally favourable reviews. AllMusic awarded the album 4½ stars and called it an \"intense, cerebral, and beautiful album\". The Guardian's John Fordham identifies it as \"Another bold step on Mehldau's imperious way\".\n\nOn All About Jazz, Doug Collete noted \"Mehldau plays beautifully on his own, his work is florid with detail, yet never just flowery. There is a deeply felt passion in all he plays, and that's exactly why he is so engrossing to hear: in a solo setting Mehldau demonstrates how he selects his ideas altogether discriminatingly from what must be a veritable flood of variations that occur to him as he plays. It's not long into listening to Live in Tokyo that you are reminded how skillfully he runs the gamut of emotion in his playing\". \n \nJazzTimes reviewer, Harvey Siders commented \"Few pianists can match Brad Mehldau when it comes to cross-fertilizing jazz, classical and rock. The same applies for technique, taste and intellectual curiosity. All of those qualities are on display in Mehldau's latest CD\".\n\nTrack listing \nAll compositions by Brad Mehldau except as indicated\n\nSingle Disc International Edition\n \"Things Behind the Sun\" (Nick Drake) - 4:37\n \"Intro\" - 2:42\n \"Someone to Watch Over Me\" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin) - 9:55\n \"From This Moment On\" (Cole Porter) - 7:55\n \"Monk's Dream\" (Thelonious Monk) - 7:59\n \"Paranoid Android\" (Colin Greenwood, Phil Selway, Thom Yorke) - 19:29\n \"How Long Has This Been Going On?\" (Gershwin, Gershwin) - 9:00\n \"River Man\" (Drake) - 8:59\n \nTwo Disc Japanese Edition \n\nDisc One:\n \"Intro\" - 4:37 \n \"50 Ways to Leave Your Lover\" (Paul Simon) - 6:30 \n \"My Heart Stood Still\" (Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers) - 9:32 \n \"Roses Blue\" (Joni Mitchell) - 8:16 \n \"Intro II\" - 2:37 \n \"Someone to Watch Over Me\" (Gershwin, Gershwin) - 10:08 \n \"Things Behind the Sun\" (Drake) - 4:49 \nDisc Two:\n \"C Tune\" - 5:52 \n \"Waltz Tune\" - 5:24 \n \"From This Moment On\" (Porter) - 7:57 \n \"Alfie\" (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) - 6:50 \n \"Monk's Dream\" (Monk) - 7:59 \n \"Paranoid Android\" (Greenwood, O'Brien, Yorke) - 19:29 \n \"How Long Has This Been Going On?\" (Gershwin, Gershwin) - 9:00 \n \"River Man\" (Drake) - 8:58\n\nPersonnel \nBrad Mehldau - Piano\n\nCredits \nProduced by Brad Mehldau\nRecorded by Yoshihito Saegusa \nMastering by Greg Calbi \nDesign by Barbara de Wilde\nPhotography by Michael Wilson and Ye Rin Mok\n\nReferences \n\nNonesuch Records live albums\nBrad Mehldau live albums\n2004 live albums\nSolo piano jazz albums",
"The Live Wire: Woody Guthrie in Performance 1949 is a recording of a concert by Woody Guthrie in Newark, New Jersey, one of a small number of surviving live recordings of the folk singer. The program consists of Guthrie answering questions from his wife Marjorie Guthrie about his life, and singing songs. The recording was made on an inexpensive wire recorder by Paul Braverman, and a significant restoration process was required to clean up the audio on the two spools of wire. In 2008 the album won a Grammy Award for Best Historical Album.\n\nTrack listing\nIntro: How much? How long?\n\"Black Diamond\"\nI was there and the dust was there\n\"The Great Dust Storm\"\nFolk singers and dancers\n\"Talking Dust Bowl Blues\"\n\"Tom Joad\"\nColumbia River\n\"Pastures of Plenty\"\n\"Grand Coulee Dam\"\nTold by Mother Bloor\n\"1913 Massacre\"\nQuit sending your inspectors\n\"Goodbye Centralia\"\nA cowboy of some kind\n\"Dead or Alive\"\nJesus Christ has come!\n\"Jesus Christ\"\n\nReferences\n\nWoody Guthrie albums\nGrammy Award for Best Historical Album\nLive albums published posthumously\n2007 live albums\nRounder Records live albums\nLive folk albums"
]
|
[
"Abbey Road",
"Medley"
]
| C_8105eda42e114746b1837acf728441f2_1 | Does Medley refer to a song on the album? | 1 | Does Medley refer to a song on the album for Abbey Road? | Abbey Road | Side two contains a 16-minute medley of eight short songs, recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin. Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3. While the idea for the medley was McCartney's, Martin claims credit for some structure, adding he "wanted to get John and Paul to think more seriously about their music". The first track recorded for the medley was the opening number, "You Never Give Me Your Money". McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. However, MacDonald doubts this given that the backing track, recorded on 6 May at Olympic Studios, predated the worst altercations between Klein and McCartney. The track is a suite of varying styles, ranging from a piano-led ballad at the start to arpeggiated guitars at the end. Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track, which Beatles author Walter Everett considers his favourite Lennon guitar contribution. This song transitions into Lennon's "Sun King" which, like "Because", showcases Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies. Following it are Lennon's "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during the Beatles' 1968 trip to India) and "Polythene Pam". These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan entered McCartney's residence via his bathroom window), "Golden Slumbers" (based on Thomas Dekker's 17th-century poem set to new music), "Carry That Weight" (reprising elements from "You Never Give Me Your Money", and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and closing with "The End". "The End" features Starr's only drum solo in the Beatles' catalogue (the drums are mixed across two tracks in "true stereo", unlike most releases at that time where they were hard panned left or right). Fifty-four seconds into the song are 18 bars of lead guitar: the first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, with the sequence repeating. Harrison suggested the idea of a guitar solo in the track, Lennon decided they should trade solos and McCartney elected to go first. The solos were cut live against the existing backing track in one take. Immediately after Lennon's third and final solo, the piano chords of the final part of the song begin. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". This section was taped separately to the first, and required the piano to be re-recorded by McCartney, which was done on 18 August. An alternative version of the song, with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (with Starr's drum solo heard in the background), appears on the Anthology 3 album and the 2012 digital-only compilation album Tomorrow Never Knows. CANNOTANSWER | Side two contains a 16-minute medley of eight short songs, recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin. | Abbey Road is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969 by Apple Records. Named after Abbey Road, London, the location of EMI Studios, the cover features the group walking across the street's zebra crossing, an image that became one of the most famous and imitated in popular music. The album's initially mixed reviews were contrasted by its immediate commercial success, topping record charts in the UK and US. The single "Something" / "Come Together" was released in October and topped the US charts.
The album incorporates genres such as blues, rock and pop, and makes prominent use of Moog synthesizer, sounds filtered through a Leslie speaker, and tom-tom drums. It is the Beatles' only album recorded exclusively through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, which afforded a clearer and brighter sound than the group's previous records. Side two contains a medley of shorter song fragments. The sessions also produced a non-album single, "The Ballad of John and Yoko" backed with "Old Brown Shoe".
Producer George Martin returned on the condition that the Beatles adhere to the discipline of their earlier records. They found the album's recording more enjoyable than the preceding Get Back sessions, but personal and business issues still affected the working environment. Production lasted from February to August 1969, and the closing track "The End" marked the final occasion that all four members recorded together. John Lennon privately left the group six days before the album's release; Paul McCartney publicly declared the band's break-up the following April.
Upon release, detractors found Abbey Road to be inauthentic and bemoaned the production's artificial effects. Since then, many critics have hailed the album as the Beatles' finest; in particular, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" are considered among the best songs George Harrison wrote for the group. The album has also been ranked as one of the Beatles' best-selling, including a multi-platinum certification by the RIAA. Shortly after its release, the cover photograph fuelled rumours of McCartney's purported death. EMI Studios was also renamed Abbey Road Studios in honour of the album. A deluxe version of the album was released in 2019. In 2020, it was ranked fifth in Rolling Stones list of the greatest albums of all time.
Background
After the tense and unpleasant recording sessions for the proposed Get Back album, Paul McCartney suggested to music producer George Martin that the group get together and make an album "the way we used to do it", free of the conflict that had begun during sessions for The Beatles (also known as the "White Album"). Martin agreed, but on the strict condition that all the group – particularly John Lennon – allow him to produce the record in the same manner as earlier albums and that discipline would be adhered to. No one was entirely sure that the work was going to be the group's last, though George Harrison said "it felt as if we were reaching the end of the line".
Production
Recording history
The first sessions for Abbey Road began on 22 February 1969, only three weeks after the Get Back sessions, in Trident Studios. There, the group recorded a backing track for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" with Billy Preston accompanying them on Hammond organ. No further group recording occurred until April because of Ringo Starr's commitments on the film The Magic Christian. After a small amount of work that month and a session for "You Never Give Me Your Money" on 6 May, the group took an eight-week break before recommencing on 2 July. Recording continued through July and August, and the last backing track, for "Because", was taped on 1 August. Overdubs continued through the month, with the final sequencing of the album coming together on 20 August the last time all four Beatles were present in a studio together.
McCartney, Starr and Martin have reported positive recollections of the sessions, while Harrison said, "we did actually perform like musicians again". Lennon and McCartney had enjoyed working together on the non-album single "The Ballad of John and Yoko" in April, sharing friendly banter between takes, and some of this camaraderie carried over to the Abbey Road sessions. Nevertheless, there was a significant amount of tension in the group. According to Ian MacDonald, McCartney had an acrimonious argument with Lennon during the sessions. Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, had become a permanent presence at Beatles' recordings and clashed with other members. Halfway through recording in June, Lennon and Ono were involved in a car accident. A doctor told Ono to rest in bed, so Lennon had one installed in the studio so she could observe the recording process from there.
During the sessions, Lennon expressed a desire to have all of his songs on one side of the album, and McCartney's on the other. The album's two halves represented a compromise: Lennon wanted a traditional release with distinct and unrelated songs while McCartney and Martin wanted to continue their thematic approach from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by incorporating a medley. Lennon ultimately said that he disliked Abbey Road as a whole and felt that it lacked authenticity, calling McCartney's contributions "[music] for the grannies to dig" and not "real songs", and describing the medley as "junk ... just bits of songs thrown together".
Technical aspects
Abbey Road was recorded on eight-track reel-to-reel tape machines rather than the four-track machines that were used for earlier Beatles albums such as Sgt Pepper, and was the first Beatles album not to be issued in mono. The album makes prominent use of guitar played through a Leslie speaker, and of the Moog synthesizer. The Moog is not merely used as a background effect but sometimes plays a central role, as in "Because", where it is used for the middle eight. It is also prominent on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Here Comes the Sun". The synthesizer was introduced to the band by Harrison, who acquired one in November 1968 and used it to create his album Electronic Sound. Starr made more prominent use of the tom-toms on Abbey Road, later saying the album was "tom-tom madness ... I went nuts on the toms."
Abbey Road was also the first and only Beatles album to be entirely recorded through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, the TG12345 Mk I, as opposed to earlier thermionic valve-based REDD desks. The TG console also allowed better support for eight-track recording, facilitating the Beatles' considerable use of overdubbing. Emerick recalls that the TG desk used to record the album had individual limiters and compressors on each audio channel and noted that the overall sound was "softer" than the earlier valve desks. In his study of the role of the TG12345 in the Beatles' sound on Abbey Road, music historian Kenneth Womack observes that "the expansive sound palette and mixing capabilities of the TG12345 enabled George Martin and Geoff Emerick to imbue the Beatles' sound with greater definition and clarity. The warmth of solid-state recording also afforded their music with brighter tonalities and a deeper low end that distinguished Abbey Road from the rest of their corpus, providing listeners with an abiding sense that the Beatles' final long-player was markedly different."
Alan Parsons worked as an assistant engineer on the album. He later went on to engineer Pink Floyd's landmark album The Dark Side of the Moon and produce many popular albums himself with the Alan Parsons Project. John Kurlander also assisted on many of the sessions, and went on to become a successful engineer and producer, most noteworthy for his success on the scores for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
Songs
Side one
"Come Together"
"Come Together" was an expansion of "Let's Get It Together", a song Lennon originally wrote for Timothy Leary's California gubernatorial campaign against Ronald Reagan. A rough version of the lyrics for "Come Together" was written at Lennon's and Ono's second bed-in event in Montreal.
Beatles author Jonathan Gould suggested that the song has only a single "pariah-like protagonist" and Lennon was "painting another sardonic self-portrait". MacDonald has suggested that the "juju eyeballs" has been claimed to refer to Dr John and "spinal cracker" to Ono. The song was later the subject of a lawsuit brought against Lennon by Morris Levy because the opening line in "Come Together" – "Here come old flat-top" – was admittedly lifted from a line in Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me". A settlement was reached in 1973 in which Lennon promised to record three songs from Levy's publishing catalogue for his next album.
"Come Together" was later released as a double A-side single with "Something". In the liner notes to the compilation album Love, Martin described the track as "a simple song but it stands out because of the sheer brilliance of the performers".
"Something"
Harrison was inspired to write "Something" during sessions for the White Album by listening to label-mate James Taylor's "Something in the Way She Moves" from his album James Taylor. After the lyrics were refined during the Let It Be sessions (tapes reveal Lennon giving Harrison some songwriting advice during its composition), the song was initially given to Joe Cocker, but was subsequently recorded for Abbey Road. Cocker's version appeared on his album Joe Cocker! that November.
"Something" was Lennon's favourite song on the album, and McCartney considered it the best song Harrison had written. Though the song was written by Harrison, Frank Sinatra once commented that it was his favourite Lennon–McCartney composition and "the greatest love song ever written". Lennon contributed piano to the recording and while most of the part was removed, traces of it remain in the final cut, notably on the middle eight, before Harrison's guitar solo.
The song was issued as a double A-side single with "Come Together" in October 1969 and topped the US charts for one week, becoming the Beatles' first number-one single that was not a Lennon–McCartney composition. It was also the first Beatles single from an album already released in the UK. Apple's Neil Aspinall filmed a promotional video, which combined separate footage of the Beatles and their wives.
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer", McCartney's first song on the album, was first performed by the Beatles during the Let It Be sessions (as seen in the film). He wrote the song after the group's trip to India in 1968 and wanted to record it for the White Album, but it was rejected by the others as "too complicated".
The recording was fraught with tension between band members, as McCartney annoyed others by insisting on a perfect performance. The track was the first Lennon was invited to work on following his car accident, but he hated it and declined to do so. According to engineer Geoff Emerick, Lennon said it was "more of Paul's granny music" and left the session. He spent the next two weeks with Ono and did not return to the studio until the backing track for "Come Together" was laid down on 21 July. Harrison was also tired of the song, saying "we had to play it over and over again until Paul liked it. It was a real drag". Starr was more sympathetic to the song. "It was granny music", he admitted, "but we needed stuff like that on our album so other people would listen to it". Longtime roadie Mal Evans played the anvil sound in the chorus. This track also makes use of Harrison's Moog synthesizer, played by McCartney.
"Oh! Darling"
"Oh! Darling" was written by McCartney in the doo-wop style, like contemporary work by Frank Zappa. It was tried at the Get Back sessions, and a version appears on Anthology 3. It was subsequently re-recorded in April, with overdubs in July and August.
McCartney attempted recording the lead vocal only once a day. He said: "I came into the studios early every day for a week to sing it by myself because at first my voice was too clear. I wanted it to sound as though I'd been performing it on stage all week." Lennon thought he should have sung it, remarking that it was more his style.
"Octopus's Garden"
As was the case with most of the Beatles' albums, Starr sang lead vocal on one track. "Octopus's Garden" is his second and last solo composition released on any album by the band. It was inspired by a trip with his family to Sardinia aboard Peter Sellers's yacht after Starr left the band for two weeks during the sessions for the White Album. Starr received a full songwriting credit and composed most of the lyrics, although the song's melodic structure was partly written in the studio by Harrison. The pair would later collaborate as writers on Starr's solo singles "It Don't Come Easy", "Back Off Boogaloo" and "Photograph".
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)"
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)" was written by Lennon about his relationship with Ono, and he made a deliberate choice to keep the lyrics simple and concise. Author Tom Maginnis writes that the song had a progressive rock influence, with its unusual length and structure, repeating guitar riff, and white noise effects, though he noted the "I Want You" section has a straightforward blues structure.
The finished song is a combination of two different recording attempts. The first attempt occurred in February 1969, almost immediately after the Get Back/Let It Be sessions with Billy Preston. This was subsequently combined with a second version made during the Abbey Road sessions proper in April. The two sections together ran to nearly eight minutes, making it the Beatles' second-longest released track. Lennon used Harrison's Moog synthesizer with a white noise setting to create a "wind" effect that was overdubbed on the second half of the track. During the final edit, Lennon told Emerick to "cut it right there" at 7 minutes and 44 seconds, creating a sudden, jarring silence that concludes the first side of Abbey Road (the recording tape would have run out within 20 seconds as it was). The final mixing and editing of the track occurred on 20 August 1969, the last day all four Beatles were together in the studio.
Side two
"Here Comes the Sun"
"Here Comes the Sun" was written by Harrison in Eric Clapton's garden in Surrey during a break from stressful band business meetings. The basic track was recorded on 7 July 1969. Harrison sang lead and played acoustic guitar, McCartney provided backing vocals and played bass and Starr played the drums. Lennon was still recuperating from his car accident and did not perform on the track. Martin provided an orchestral arrangement in collaboration with Harrison, who overdubbed a Moog synthesizer part on 19 August, immediately before the final mix.
Though not released as a single, the song attracted attention and critical praise, and was included on the compilation 1967–1970. It has been featured several times on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, having been chosen by Sandie Shaw, Jerry Springer, Boris Johnson and Elaine Paige. The Daily Telegraph's Martin Chilton said it was "almost impossible not to sing along to". Since digital downloads have become eligible to chart, it reached number 56 in 2010 after the Beatles' back catalogue was released on iTunes. It is also the most streamed Beatles song on Spotify.
Harrison recorded a guitar solo for this track that did not appear in the final mix. It was rediscovered in 2012, and footage of Martin and Harrison's son Dhani listening to it in the studio was released on the DVD of Living in the Material World.
"Because"
"Because" was inspired by Lennon listening to Ono playing Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" on the piano. He recalled he was "lying on the sofa in our house, listening to Yoko play ... Suddenly, I said, 'Can you play those chords backward?' She did, and I wrote 'Because' around them." The track features three-part harmonies by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, which were then triple-tracked to give nine voices in the final mix. The group considered the vocals to be some of the hardest and most complex they attempted. Harrison played the Moog synthesizer, and Martin played the harpsichord that opens the track.
Medley
The remainder of side two consists of a 16-minute medley of eight short songs (known during the recording sessions as "The Long One"), recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin. Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3. While the idea for the medley was McCartney's, Martin claims credit for some structure, adding he "wanted to get John and Paul to think more seriously about their music".
The first track recorded for the medley was the opening number, "You Never Give Me Your Money". McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. However, MacDonald doubts this, given that the backing track, recorded on 6 May at Olympic Studios, predated the worst altercations between Klein and McCartney. The track is a suite of varying styles, ranging from a piano-led ballad at the start to arpeggiated guitars at the end. Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track.
This song transitions into Lennon's "Sun King" which, like "Because", showcases Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies. Following it are Lennon's "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during the Beatles' 1968 trip to India) and "Polythene Pam". These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan entered McCartney's residence via his bathroom window), "Golden Slumbers" (based on Thomas Dekker's 17th-century poem set to new music), "Carry That Weight" (reprising elements from "You Never Give Me Your Money", and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and closing with "The End".
"The End" features Starr's only drum solo in the Beatles' catalogue (the drums are mixed across two tracks in "true stereo", unlike most releases at that time where they were hard panned left or right). Fifty-four seconds into the song are 18 bars of lead guitar: the first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, and the sequence is repeated two more times. Harrison suggested the idea of a guitar solo in the track, Lennon decided they should trade solos and McCartney elected to go first. The solos were cut live against the existing backing track in one take. Immediately after Lennon's third and final solo, the piano chords of the final part of the song begin. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". This section was taped separately from the first, and required the piano to be re-recorded by McCartney, which was done on 18 August. An alternative version of the song, with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (and Starr's drum solo heard in the background), appears on the Anthology 3 album and the 2012 digital-only compilation album Tomorrow Never Knows.
Musicologist Walter Everett interprets that most of the lyrics on side two's medley deal with "selfishness and self-gratification – the financial complaints in 'You Never Give Me Your Money,' the miserliness of Mr. Mustard, the holding back of the pillow in 'Carry That Weight,' the desire that some second person will visit the singer's dreams – perhaps the 'one sweet dream' of 'You Never Give Me Your Money'? – in 'The End.'" Everett adds that the medley's "selfish moments" are played in the context of the tonal centre of A, while "generosity" is expressed in songs where C major is central. The medley concludes with a "great compromise in the 'negotiations'" in "The End", which serves as a structurally balanced coda. In response to the repeated A-major choruses of "love you", McCartney sings in realisation that there is as much self-gratifying love ("the love you take") as there is of the generous love ("the love you make"), in A major and C major, respectively.
"Her Majesty"
"Her Majesty" was recorded by McCartney on 2 July when he arrived before the rest of the group at Abbey Road. It was originally included in a rough mix of the side two medley (and officially available in this form for the first time on the album's 3CD Super Deluxe edition box set), appearing between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam". McCartney disliked the way the medley sounded when it included "Her Majesty", so he asked for it to be cut. The second engineer, John Kurlander, had been instructed by George Martin not to throw out anything, so after McCartney left, he attached the track to the end of the master tape after 20 seconds of silence. The tape box bore an instruction to leave "Her Majesty" off the final product, but the next day when mastering engineer Malcolm Davies received the tape, he (also trained not to throw anything away) cut a playback lacquer of the whole sequence, including "Her Majesty". The Beatles liked this effect and included it on the album.
"Her Majesty" opens with the final, crashing chord of "Mean Mr. Mustard", while the final note remained buried in the mix of "Polythene Pam", as a result of being snipped off the reel during a rough mix of the medley on 30 July. The medley was subsequently mixed again from scratch although the song was not touched again and still appears in its rough mix on the album.
Original US and UK pressings of Abbey Road do not list "Her Majesty" on the album's cover nor on the record label, making it a hidden track. The song title appears on the inlay card and disc of the 1987 remastered CD reissue, as track 17. It also appears on the sleeve, booklet and disc of the 2009 remastered CD reissue, but not on the cover or record label of the 2012 vinyl reissue.
Unreleased material
Three days after the session for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", Harrison recorded solo demos of "All Things Must Pass" (which became the title track of his 1970 triple album), "Something" and "Old Brown Shoe". The latter was re-recorded by the Beatles in April 1969 and issued as the B-side to "The Ballad of John and Yoko" the following month. All three of these Harrison demos were later featured on Anthology 3.
During the sessions for the medley, McCartney recorded "Come and Get It", playing all the instruments. It was assumed to be a demo recording for another artist but McCartney later said that he originally intended to put it on Abbey Road. It was instead covered by Badfinger, while McCartney's original recording appeared on Anthology 3.
The original backing track to "Something", featuring a piano-led coda, and "You Never Give Me Your Money", which leads into a fast rock-n-roll jam session, have appeared on bootlegs.
Cover photo
Apple Records creative director Kosh designed the album cover. It is the only original UK Beatles album sleeve to show neither the artist name nor the album title on its front cover, which was Kosh's idea, despite EMI claiming the record would not sell without this information. He later explained that "we didn't need to write the band's name on the cover ... They were the most famous band in the world". The front cover was a photograph of the group on a zebra crossing based on ideas that McCartney sketched and taken on 8 August 1969 outside EMI Studios on Abbey Road. At 11:35 that morning, photographer Iain Macmillan was given only ten minutes to take the photo while he stood on a step-ladder and a policeman held up traffic behind the camera. Macmillan took six photographs, which McCartney examined with a magnifying glass before deciding which would be used on the album sleeve.
In the image selected by McCartney, the group walk across the street in single file from left to right, with Lennon leading, followed by Starr, McCartney, and Harrison. McCartney is barefoot and out of step with the others. Except for Harrison, the group are wearing suits designed by Tommy Nutter. A white Volkswagen Beetle is to the left of the picture, parked next to the zebra crossing, which belonged to one of the people living in the block of flats across from the recording studio. After the album was released, the number plate (LMW 281F) was repeatedly stolen from the car. In 2004, news sources published a claim made by retired American salesman Paul Cole that he was the man standing on the pavement to the right of the picture.
Release
In mid-1969, Lennon formed a new group, the Plastic Ono Band, in part because the Beatles had rejected his song "Cold Turkey". While Harrison worked with such artists as Leon Russell, Doris Troy, Preston and Delaney & Bonnie through to the end of the year, McCartney took a hiatus from the group after his daughter Mary was born on 28 August. On 20 September, Lennon told McCartney, Starr, and business manager Allen Klein (Harrison was not present) he was leaving the group, (or in his words, he wanted a divorce) six days before Abbey Road was released. Apple released "Something" backed with "Come Together" in the US on 6 October 1969. Release of the single in the UK followed on 31 October, while Lennon released the Plastic Ono Band's "Cold Turkey" the same month.
The Beatles did little promotion of Abbey Road directly, and no public announcement was made of the band's split until McCartney announced he was leaving the group in April 1970. By this time, the Get Back project (by now retitled Let It Be) had been re-examined, with overdubs and mixing sessions continuing into 1970. Therefore, Let It Be became the last album to be finished and released by the Beatles, although its recording had begun before Abbey Road.
Abbey Road sold four million copies in its first two months of release. In the UK, the album debuted at number one, where it remained for 11 weeks before being displaced for one week by the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed. The following week (which was Christmas), Abbey Road returned to the top for another six weeks (completing a total of 17 weeks) before being replaced by Led Zeppelin II. Altogether, it spent 81 weeks on the UK albums chart. Reaction overseas was similar. In the US, the album spent 11 weeks at number one on the Billboard Top LPs chart. It was the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) best-selling album of 1969. In Japan, it was one of the longest-charting albums to date, remaining in the top 100 for 298 weeks during the 1970s.
Critical reception
Contemporary
Abbey Road initially received mixed reviews from music critics, who criticised the production's artificial sounds and viewed its music as inauthentic. William Mann of The Times said that the album will "be called gimmicky by people who want a record to sound exactly like a live performance", although he considered it to be "teem[ing] with musical invention" and added: "Nice as Come Together and Harrison's Something are – they are minor pleasures in the context of the whole disc ... Side Two is marvellous ..." Ed Ward of Rolling Stone called the album "complicated instead of complex" and felt that the Moog synthesizer "disembodies and artificializes" the band's sound, adding that they "create a sound that could not possibly exist outside the studio". While he found the medley on side two to be their "most impressive music" since Rubber Soul, Nik Cohn of The New York Times said that, "individually", the album's songs are "nothing special". Albert Goldman of Life magazine wrote that Abbey Road "is not one of the Beatles' great albums" and, despite some "lovely" phrases and "stirring" segues, side two's suite "seems symbolic of the Beatles' latest phase, which might be described as the round-the-clock production of disposable music effects".
Conversely, Chris Welch wrote in Melody Maker: "the truth is, their latest LP is just a natural born gas, entirely free of pretension, deep meanings or symbolism ... While production is simple compared to past intricacies, it is still extremely sophisticated and inventive." Derek Jewell of The Sunday Times found the album "refreshingly terse and unpretentious", and although he lamented the band's "cod-1920s jokes (Maxwell's Silver Hammer) and ... Ringo's obligatory nursery arias (Octopus's Garden)", he considered that Abbey Road "touches higher peaks than did their last album". John Mendelsohn, writing for Rolling Stone, called it "breathtakingly recorded" and praised side two especially, equating it to "the whole of Sgt. Pepper" and stating, "That the Beatles can unify seemingly countless musical fragments and lyrical doodlings into a uniformly wonderful suite ... seems potent testimony that no, they've far from lost it, and no, they haven't stopped trying."
While covering the Rolling Stones' 1969 American tour for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau reported from a meeting with Greil Marcus in Berkeley that "opinion has shifted against the Beatles. Everyone is putting down Abbey Road." Shortly afterwards, in Los Angeles, he wrote that his colleague Ellen Willis had grown to love the record, adding: "Damned if she isn't right – flawed but fine. Because the world is round it turns her on. Charlie Watts tells us he likes it too."
Retrospective
Many critics have since cited Abbey Road as the Beatles' greatest album. In a retrospective review, Nicole Pensiero of PopMatters called it "an amazingly cohesive piece of music, innovative and timeless". Mark Kemp of Paste viewed the album as being "among The Beatles' finest works, even if it foreshadows the cigarette-lighter-waving arena rock that technically skilled but critically maligned artists from Journey to Meatloaf would belabor throughout the '70s and '80s". Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph dubbed it the Beatles' "last love letter to the world" and praised its "big, modern sound", calling it "lush, rich, smooth, epic, emotional and utterly gorgeous".
AllMusic's Richie Unterberger felt that the album shared Sgt. Peppers "faux-conceptual forms", but had "stronger compositions", and wrote of its standing in the band's catalogue: "Whether Abbey Road is the Beatles' best work is debatable, but it's certainly the most immaculately produced (with the possible exception of Sgt. Pepper) and most tightly constructed." Ian MacDonald gave a mixed opinion of the album, noting that several tracks had been written at least a year previously, and would possibly have been unsuitable without being integrated into the medley on side two. He did, however, praise the production, particularly the sound of Starr's bass drum.
Abbey Road received high rankings in several "best albums in history" polls by critics and publications. It was voted number 8 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000). Time included it in their 2006 list of the All-Time 100 Albums. In 2009, readers of Rolling Stone named Abbey Road the greatest Beatles album. In 2020, the magazine ranked the album at number 5 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", the highest Beatles record on the list; a previous version of the list from 2012 had ranked it at number 14. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Legacy
Abbey Road crossing and "Paul is dead"
The image of the Beatles on the Abbey Road crossing has become one of the most famous and imitated in recording history. The crossing is a popular destination for Beatles fans, and a webcam has operated there since 2011. In December 2010, the crossing was given grade II listed status for its "cultural and historical importance"; the Abbey Road studios themselves had been given similar status earlier in the year.
Shortly after the album's release, the cover became part of the "Paul is dead" theory that was spreading across college campuses in the US. According to followers of the rumour, the cover depicted the Beatles walking out of a cemetery in a funeral procession. The procession was led by Lennon dressed in white as a religious figure; Starr was dressed in black as the undertaker; McCartney, out of step with the others, was a barefoot corpse; and Harrison dressed in denim was the gravedigger. The left-handed McCartney is holding a cigarette in his right hand, indicating that he is an imposter, and part of the number plate on the Volkswagen parked on the street is 281F (misread as 28IF), meaning that McCartney would have been 28 if he had lived – despite the fact that he was only 27 at the time of the photo and subsequent release of the record. The escalation of the "Paul is dead" rumour became the subject of intense analysis on mainstream radio and contributed to Abbey Roads commercial success in the US. Lennon was interviewed in London by New York's WMCA, and he ridiculed the rumour but conceded that it was invaluable publicity for the album.
The cover image has been parodied on several occasions, including by McCartney on his 1993 live album Paul Is Live. On the cover of its October 1977 issue, the satirical magazine National Lampoon depicted the four Beatles flattened along the zebra crossing, with a road roller driving away up the street. The Red Hot Chili Peppers' The Abbey Road E.P. parodies the cover, with the band walking near-naked across a similar zebra crossing. In 2003, several US poster companies airbrushed McCartney's cigarette out of the image without permission from Apple or McCartney. In 2013, Kolkata Police launched a traffic safety awareness advertisement against jaywalking, using the cover and a caption that read: "If they can, why can't you?"
Cover versions and influence
The songs on Abbey Road have been covered many times and the album itself has been covered in its entirety. One month after Abbey Roads release, George Benson recorded a cover version of the album called The Other Side of Abbey Road. Later in 1969 Booker T. & the M.G.'s recorded McLemore Avenue (the location in Memphis of Stax Records) which covered the Abbey Road songs and had a similar cover photo.
While matching albums such as Sgt. Pepper in terms of popularity, Abbey Road failed to repeat the Beatles' earlier achievements in galvanising their rivals to imitate them. In author Peter Doggett's description, "Too contrived for the rock underground to copy, too complex for the bubblegum pop brigade to copy, the album influenced no one – except [Paul McCartney]", who spent years trying to emulate its scope in his solo career. Writing for Classic Rock in 2014, Jon Anderson of the progressive rock band Yes said his group were constantly influenced by the Beatles from Revolver onwards, but it was the feeling that side two was "one complete idea" that inspired him to create long-form pieces of music.
Several artists have covered some or all of the side-two medley, including Phil Collins (for the Martin/Beatles tribute album In My Life), The String Cheese Incident, Transatlantic and Tenacious D (who performed the medley with Phish keyboardist Page McConnell). Furthur, a jam band including former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, played the entire Abbey Road album during its Spring Tour 2011. It began with a "Come Together" opener at Boston on 4 March and ended with the entire medley in New York City on 15 March, including "Her Majesty" as an encore.
Continued sales and reissues
In June 1970, Allen Klein reported that Abbey Road was the Beatles' best-selling album in the US with sales of about five million. By 1992, Abbey Road had sold nine million copies. The album became the ninth-most downloaded on the iTunes Store a week after it was released there on 16 November 2010. A CNN report stated it was the best-selling vinyl album of 2011. It is the first album from the 1960s to sell over five million albums since 1991 when Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales. In the US, the album had sold 7,177,797 copies by the end of the 1970s. , the album had sold over 31 million copies worldwide and is one of the band's best-selling albums. In October 2019, Abbey Road re-entered the UK charts, again hitting number one.
Abbey Road has remained in print since its first release in 1969. The original album was released on 26 September in the UK and 1 October in the US on Apple Records. It was reissued as a limited edition picture disc on vinyl in the US by Capitol on 27 December 1978, while a CD reissue of the album was released in 1987, with a remastered version appearing in 2009. The remaster included additional photographs with additional liner notes and the first, limited edition, run also included a short documentary about the making of the album.
In 2001, Abbey Road was certified 12× platinum by the RIAA. The album continues to be reissued on vinyl. It was included as part of the Beatles' Collector's Crate series in September 2009 and saw a remastered LP release on 180-gram vinyl in 2012.
A super deluxe version of the album, which featured new mixes by Giles Martin, was released in September 2019 to celebrate the original album's 50th anniversary.
As of October 2019, Abbey Road has sold 2,240,608 pure sales in United Kingdom and overall all consumed sales stand at 2,327,230 units. Post 1994 sales stand at 827,329.
Track listing
Notes
"Her Majesty" appears as a hidden track after "The End" and 14 seconds of silence. Later releases of the album included the song on the track listing, except the vinyl editions.
Some cassette tape versions in the UK and US had "Come Together" and "Here Comes the Sun" swapped to even out the playing time of each side.
Personnel
According to Mark Lewisohn, Ian MacDonald, Barry Miles, Kevin Howlett, and Geoff Emerick.
The Beatles
John Lennon – lead, harmony and background vocals; rhythm, lead and acoustic guitars; acoustic and electric pianos, Moog synthesizer; white noise generator and sound effects; percussion
Paul McCartney – lead, harmony and background vocals; bass, rhythm, lead and acoustic guitars; acoustic and electric pianos, Moog synthesizer; sound effects; wind chimes, handclaps and percussion
George Harrison – harmony and background vocals; lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars; bass on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "Oh Darling" and "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight"; harmonium and Moog synthesizer; handclaps and percussion; lead vocals (on "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun")
Ringo Starr – drums and percussion; background vocals; lead vocals (on "Octopus's Garden")
Additional musicians
George Martin – harpsichord, organ, percussion
Billy Preston – Hammond organ (on "Something" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)")
Mal Evans – anvil on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
Production
"Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with George Harrison)
"Golden Slumbers", "Carry That Weight" and "The End" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with Paul McCartney)
Produced by George Martin (with the Beatles)
Recorded by Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald
Assistant engineering by Alan Parsons
Mixed by Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald and George Martin (with the Beatles)
Moog programming by Mike Vickers
Charts
Original release
1987 reissue
2009 reissue
2019 reissue
Certifications
Release history
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
External links
Beatles comments on each song
Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick on Abbey Road – A track-by-track walkthrough
Live webcam at the Abbey Road zebra crossing
The Beatles y la foto de la portada de Abbey Road
1969 albums
The Beatles albums
Apple Records albums
Albums produced by George Martin
Albums recorded at Olympic Sound Studios
Albums recorded at Trident Studios
Albums arranged by George Martin
Albums conducted by George Martin
Albums produced by Chris Thomas (record producer)
Albums produced by George Harrison
Albums produced by John Lennon
Albums produced by Paul McCartney
Albums produced by Ringo Starr
Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients
Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical | false | [
"\"Happy Holiday\" (sometimes performed as \"Happy Holidays\") is a popular song composed by Irving Berlin during 1942 and published the following year.\n\nHistory\n\"Happy Holiday\" was introduced by Bing Crosby and Marjorie Reynolds (dubbed by Martha Mears) in the 1942 film Holiday Inn in a scene when the Inn opens for the first time. While it is commonly regarded as a Christmas song, in the film it is performed on New Year's Eve, and expresses a wish for the listener to enjoy \"happy holidays\" throughout the entire year.\n\nJo Stafford was the first to release it on a Christmas album, on her album of the same name in 1955.\n\nThe Kay Thompson song \"The Holiday Season\" is sometimes paired with \"Happy Holiday\" as a medley. This was first popularized by Andy Williams (whom Thompson herself discovered and mentored). Other artists who have covered the \"Happy Holiday\"/\"Holiday Season\" medley include The Manhattan Transfer, She & Him, and Michael W. Smith.\n\nRenditions\n\nBing Crosby recorded the song on June 1, 1942, for Decca Records with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra, plus The Music Maids and Hal. Crosby also used the song as the introduction to his long-running A Christmas Sing with Bing radio shows.\nJo Stafford on her album of the same name in 1955.\nJackie Gleason, on his 1956 album Merry Christmas\nSteve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, on their 1964 album That Holiday Feeling!\nAndy Williams (in a medley with \"The Holiday Season\"), on his 1963 album The Andy Williams Christmas Album\nPeggy Lee, on her 1965 album Happy Holiday\nPercy Faith, on his 1966 album Christmas Is...\nLiving Strings and Living Voices, on their 1968 album White Christmas\nNelson Riddle, on the 1970 album Avon Christmas 1970\nThe Carpenters (as part of a medley), on their 1984 album An Old-Fashioned Christmas\nJohnny Mathis (in a medley with \"Caroling, Caroling\"), on his 1986 album Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis\nSarah Vaughan (in a medley with \"White Christmas\"), on the 1989 album Hallmark Presents Carols of Christmas\nThe Manhattan Transfer (in a medley with \"The Holiday Season\"), on their 1992 album The Christmas Album\nPerry Como (in a medley with \"We Need a Little Christmas\"), on his 1994 album Perry Como's Christmas Concert\nAcoustix, on their 1999 album Cool Yule\nBarry Manilow (in a medley with \"White Christmas\"), on his 2002 album A Christmas Gift of Love\nDionne Warwick, on her 2004 album My Favorite Time of the Year\nMichael W. Smith (in a medley with \"The Holiday Season\"), on his 2014 album The Spirit of Christmas\nShe & Him (in a medley with \"The Holiday Season\"), on their 2016 album Christmas Party\n\nCharts\n\nAndy Williams \"Happy Holiday/The Holiday Season\" version\n\nReferences\n\nHoliday songs\n1942 songs\nAndy Williams songs\nBing Crosby songs\nJo Stafford songs\nPeggy Lee songs\nAmerican Christmas songs\nSongs written for films\nSongs written by Irving Berlin",
"\"Golden Slumbers\" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1969 album Abbey Road. Written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney, it is the sixth song of the album's climactic B-side medley. The song is followed by \"Carry That Weight\" and begins the progression that leads to the end of the album. The two songs were recorded together as a single piece, and both contain strings and brass arranged and scored by producer George Martin.\n\nBackground\n\"Golden Slumbers\" is based on the poem \"Cradle Song\" from the play Patient Grissel, a lullaby by the dramatist Thomas Dekker. McCartney saw sheet music for \"Cradle Song\" at his father's home in Liverpool, left on a piano by his stepsister Ruth. Unable to read music, he created his own music. McCartney uses the first stanza of the original poem, with minor word changes, adding to it a single lyric line repeated with minor variation. In the 1885 collection \"St Nicholas Songs\", p. 177, is W J Henderson's music set to the poem, titled \"Golden Slumbers Kiss Your Eyes\". Abbey Road does not credit Dekker with the stanza or with the title. Thomas Dekker's poem was set to music by W J Henderson in 1885, Peter Warlock in 1918, also by Charles Villiers Stanford and Alfredo Casella.\n\nRecording\nMcCartney was the lead vocalist. He begins the song in a soft tone appropriate for a lullaby, with piano, bass guitar, and string section accompaniment. The drums come in on the line \"Golden slumbers fill your eyes\", and McCartney switches to a stronger tone, both of which emphasise the switch to the refrain. McCartney said, \"I remember trying to get a very strong vocal on it, because it was such a gentle theme, so I worked on the strength of the vocal on it, and ended up quite pleased with it.\"\n\nThe main recording session for \"Golden Slumbers\"/\"Carry That Weight\" was on 2 July 1969. John Lennon was not present, as he had been injured in a motor vehicle accident in Scotland on 1 July, and was hospitalised there until 6 July.\n\nDrums, timpani, and additional vocals were added in an overdub session on 31 July, the same day the first trial edit of the side two medley was created, with Lennon participating in the session. On 15 August, orchestral overdubs that marked 30 musicians altogether were added to \"Golden Slumbers\" and five other songs on Abbey Road.\n\nScottish band White Trash recorded \"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight\" which was released as a single on Apple Records a week prior to the Abbey Road release.\n\nPersonnel\nAccording to Ian MacDonald:\n\nThe Beatles\n Paul McCartney – lead vocals, piano\n George Harrison – 6-string bass guitar\n Ringo Starr – drums, timpani\n\nAdditional musicians\n Unnamed session musicians – twelve violins, four violas, four cellos, double bass, four horns, three trumpets, trombone, bass trombone\n George Martin – orchestral arrangement\n\nCover versions\n American guitarist George Benson covered the song in a medley with \"You Never Give Me Your Money\" on his 1970 album The Other Side of Abbey Road.\nIn 2006, Antonia Eugenia \"Nia\" Vardalos, better known for comedy acting and as a playwright/screenwriter than for singing, covered \"Golden Slumbers\" as one of the participants in Unexpected Dreams - Songs from the Stars, a compilation album released that year.\nAmerican singer Judy Collins covered the song on her 2007 album Judy Collins Sings Lennon and McCartney.\n The song is featured twice in the 2016 animated film Sing, sung by Jennifer Hudson. The song also appears on the film's soundtrack with \"Carry That Weight\" as a medley.\nElbow recorded a cover of the song for the 2017 John Lewis Christmas TV advert. The single reached No. 29 in the UK, and appears on the Elbow compilation album The Best Of.\nDua Lipa covered the song as a part of her Live Acoustic EP in 2017.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nSongs about sleep\n1600s poems\n1969 songs\n1969 singles\nRock ballads\nSong recordings produced by George Martin\nThe Beatles songs\nSongs written by Lennon–McCartney\nSongs published by Northern Songs"
]
|
[
"Abbey Road",
"Medley",
"Does Medley refer to a song on the album?",
"Side two contains a 16-minute medley of eight short songs, recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin."
]
| C_8105eda42e114746b1837acf728441f2_1 | Were the 8 songs previously recorded or new? | 2 | Were the 8 songs in Medley previously recorded or new? | Abbey Road | Side two contains a 16-minute medley of eight short songs, recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin. Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3. While the idea for the medley was McCartney's, Martin claims credit for some structure, adding he "wanted to get John and Paul to think more seriously about their music". The first track recorded for the medley was the opening number, "You Never Give Me Your Money". McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. However, MacDonald doubts this given that the backing track, recorded on 6 May at Olympic Studios, predated the worst altercations between Klein and McCartney. The track is a suite of varying styles, ranging from a piano-led ballad at the start to arpeggiated guitars at the end. Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track, which Beatles author Walter Everett considers his favourite Lennon guitar contribution. This song transitions into Lennon's "Sun King" which, like "Because", showcases Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies. Following it are Lennon's "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during the Beatles' 1968 trip to India) and "Polythene Pam". These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan entered McCartney's residence via his bathroom window), "Golden Slumbers" (based on Thomas Dekker's 17th-century poem set to new music), "Carry That Weight" (reprising elements from "You Never Give Me Your Money", and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and closing with "The End". "The End" features Starr's only drum solo in the Beatles' catalogue (the drums are mixed across two tracks in "true stereo", unlike most releases at that time where they were hard panned left or right). Fifty-four seconds into the song are 18 bars of lead guitar: the first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, with the sequence repeating. Harrison suggested the idea of a guitar solo in the track, Lennon decided they should trade solos and McCartney elected to go first. The solos were cut live against the existing backing track in one take. Immediately after Lennon's third and final solo, the piano chords of the final part of the song begin. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". This section was taped separately to the first, and required the piano to be re-recorded by McCartney, which was done on 18 August. An alternative version of the song, with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (with Starr's drum solo heard in the background), appears on the Anthology 3 album and the 2012 digital-only compilation album Tomorrow Never Knows. CANNOTANSWER | Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3. | Abbey Road is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969 by Apple Records. Named after Abbey Road, London, the location of EMI Studios, the cover features the group walking across the street's zebra crossing, an image that became one of the most famous and imitated in popular music. The album's initially mixed reviews were contrasted by its immediate commercial success, topping record charts in the UK and US. The single "Something" / "Come Together" was released in October and topped the US charts.
The album incorporates genres such as blues, rock and pop, and makes prominent use of Moog synthesizer, sounds filtered through a Leslie speaker, and tom-tom drums. It is the Beatles' only album recorded exclusively through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, which afforded a clearer and brighter sound than the group's previous records. Side two contains a medley of shorter song fragments. The sessions also produced a non-album single, "The Ballad of John and Yoko" backed with "Old Brown Shoe".
Producer George Martin returned on the condition that the Beatles adhere to the discipline of their earlier records. They found the album's recording more enjoyable than the preceding Get Back sessions, but personal and business issues still affected the working environment. Production lasted from February to August 1969, and the closing track "The End" marked the final occasion that all four members recorded together. John Lennon privately left the group six days before the album's release; Paul McCartney publicly declared the band's break-up the following April.
Upon release, detractors found Abbey Road to be inauthentic and bemoaned the production's artificial effects. Since then, many critics have hailed the album as the Beatles' finest; in particular, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" are considered among the best songs George Harrison wrote for the group. The album has also been ranked as one of the Beatles' best-selling, including a multi-platinum certification by the RIAA. Shortly after its release, the cover photograph fuelled rumours of McCartney's purported death. EMI Studios was also renamed Abbey Road Studios in honour of the album. A deluxe version of the album was released in 2019. In 2020, it was ranked fifth in Rolling Stones list of the greatest albums of all time.
Background
After the tense and unpleasant recording sessions for the proposed Get Back album, Paul McCartney suggested to music producer George Martin that the group get together and make an album "the way we used to do it", free of the conflict that had begun during sessions for The Beatles (also known as the "White Album"). Martin agreed, but on the strict condition that all the group – particularly John Lennon – allow him to produce the record in the same manner as earlier albums and that discipline would be adhered to. No one was entirely sure that the work was going to be the group's last, though George Harrison said "it felt as if we were reaching the end of the line".
Production
Recording history
The first sessions for Abbey Road began on 22 February 1969, only three weeks after the Get Back sessions, in Trident Studios. There, the group recorded a backing track for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" with Billy Preston accompanying them on Hammond organ. No further group recording occurred until April because of Ringo Starr's commitments on the film The Magic Christian. After a small amount of work that month and a session for "You Never Give Me Your Money" on 6 May, the group took an eight-week break before recommencing on 2 July. Recording continued through July and August, and the last backing track, for "Because", was taped on 1 August. Overdubs continued through the month, with the final sequencing of the album coming together on 20 August the last time all four Beatles were present in a studio together.
McCartney, Starr and Martin have reported positive recollections of the sessions, while Harrison said, "we did actually perform like musicians again". Lennon and McCartney had enjoyed working together on the non-album single "The Ballad of John and Yoko" in April, sharing friendly banter between takes, and some of this camaraderie carried over to the Abbey Road sessions. Nevertheless, there was a significant amount of tension in the group. According to Ian MacDonald, McCartney had an acrimonious argument with Lennon during the sessions. Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, had become a permanent presence at Beatles' recordings and clashed with other members. Halfway through recording in June, Lennon and Ono were involved in a car accident. A doctor told Ono to rest in bed, so Lennon had one installed in the studio so she could observe the recording process from there.
During the sessions, Lennon expressed a desire to have all of his songs on one side of the album, and McCartney's on the other. The album's two halves represented a compromise: Lennon wanted a traditional release with distinct and unrelated songs while McCartney and Martin wanted to continue their thematic approach from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by incorporating a medley. Lennon ultimately said that he disliked Abbey Road as a whole and felt that it lacked authenticity, calling McCartney's contributions "[music] for the grannies to dig" and not "real songs", and describing the medley as "junk ... just bits of songs thrown together".
Technical aspects
Abbey Road was recorded on eight-track reel-to-reel tape machines rather than the four-track machines that were used for earlier Beatles albums such as Sgt Pepper, and was the first Beatles album not to be issued in mono. The album makes prominent use of guitar played through a Leslie speaker, and of the Moog synthesizer. The Moog is not merely used as a background effect but sometimes plays a central role, as in "Because", where it is used for the middle eight. It is also prominent on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Here Comes the Sun". The synthesizer was introduced to the band by Harrison, who acquired one in November 1968 and used it to create his album Electronic Sound. Starr made more prominent use of the tom-toms on Abbey Road, later saying the album was "tom-tom madness ... I went nuts on the toms."
Abbey Road was also the first and only Beatles album to be entirely recorded through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, the TG12345 Mk I, as opposed to earlier thermionic valve-based REDD desks. The TG console also allowed better support for eight-track recording, facilitating the Beatles' considerable use of overdubbing. Emerick recalls that the TG desk used to record the album had individual limiters and compressors on each audio channel and noted that the overall sound was "softer" than the earlier valve desks. In his study of the role of the TG12345 in the Beatles' sound on Abbey Road, music historian Kenneth Womack observes that "the expansive sound palette and mixing capabilities of the TG12345 enabled George Martin and Geoff Emerick to imbue the Beatles' sound with greater definition and clarity. The warmth of solid-state recording also afforded their music with brighter tonalities and a deeper low end that distinguished Abbey Road from the rest of their corpus, providing listeners with an abiding sense that the Beatles' final long-player was markedly different."
Alan Parsons worked as an assistant engineer on the album. He later went on to engineer Pink Floyd's landmark album The Dark Side of the Moon and produce many popular albums himself with the Alan Parsons Project. John Kurlander also assisted on many of the sessions, and went on to become a successful engineer and producer, most noteworthy for his success on the scores for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
Songs
Side one
"Come Together"
"Come Together" was an expansion of "Let's Get It Together", a song Lennon originally wrote for Timothy Leary's California gubernatorial campaign against Ronald Reagan. A rough version of the lyrics for "Come Together" was written at Lennon's and Ono's second bed-in event in Montreal.
Beatles author Jonathan Gould suggested that the song has only a single "pariah-like protagonist" and Lennon was "painting another sardonic self-portrait". MacDonald has suggested that the "juju eyeballs" has been claimed to refer to Dr John and "spinal cracker" to Ono. The song was later the subject of a lawsuit brought against Lennon by Morris Levy because the opening line in "Come Together" – "Here come old flat-top" – was admittedly lifted from a line in Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me". A settlement was reached in 1973 in which Lennon promised to record three songs from Levy's publishing catalogue for his next album.
"Come Together" was later released as a double A-side single with "Something". In the liner notes to the compilation album Love, Martin described the track as "a simple song but it stands out because of the sheer brilliance of the performers".
"Something"
Harrison was inspired to write "Something" during sessions for the White Album by listening to label-mate James Taylor's "Something in the Way She Moves" from his album James Taylor. After the lyrics were refined during the Let It Be sessions (tapes reveal Lennon giving Harrison some songwriting advice during its composition), the song was initially given to Joe Cocker, but was subsequently recorded for Abbey Road. Cocker's version appeared on his album Joe Cocker! that November.
"Something" was Lennon's favourite song on the album, and McCartney considered it the best song Harrison had written. Though the song was written by Harrison, Frank Sinatra once commented that it was his favourite Lennon–McCartney composition and "the greatest love song ever written". Lennon contributed piano to the recording and while most of the part was removed, traces of it remain in the final cut, notably on the middle eight, before Harrison's guitar solo.
The song was issued as a double A-side single with "Come Together" in October 1969 and topped the US charts for one week, becoming the Beatles' first number-one single that was not a Lennon–McCartney composition. It was also the first Beatles single from an album already released in the UK. Apple's Neil Aspinall filmed a promotional video, which combined separate footage of the Beatles and their wives.
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer", McCartney's first song on the album, was first performed by the Beatles during the Let It Be sessions (as seen in the film). He wrote the song after the group's trip to India in 1968 and wanted to record it for the White Album, but it was rejected by the others as "too complicated".
The recording was fraught with tension between band members, as McCartney annoyed others by insisting on a perfect performance. The track was the first Lennon was invited to work on following his car accident, but he hated it and declined to do so. According to engineer Geoff Emerick, Lennon said it was "more of Paul's granny music" and left the session. He spent the next two weeks with Ono and did not return to the studio until the backing track for "Come Together" was laid down on 21 July. Harrison was also tired of the song, saying "we had to play it over and over again until Paul liked it. It was a real drag". Starr was more sympathetic to the song. "It was granny music", he admitted, "but we needed stuff like that on our album so other people would listen to it". Longtime roadie Mal Evans played the anvil sound in the chorus. This track also makes use of Harrison's Moog synthesizer, played by McCartney.
"Oh! Darling"
"Oh! Darling" was written by McCartney in the doo-wop style, like contemporary work by Frank Zappa. It was tried at the Get Back sessions, and a version appears on Anthology 3. It was subsequently re-recorded in April, with overdubs in July and August.
McCartney attempted recording the lead vocal only once a day. He said: "I came into the studios early every day for a week to sing it by myself because at first my voice was too clear. I wanted it to sound as though I'd been performing it on stage all week." Lennon thought he should have sung it, remarking that it was more his style.
"Octopus's Garden"
As was the case with most of the Beatles' albums, Starr sang lead vocal on one track. "Octopus's Garden" is his second and last solo composition released on any album by the band. It was inspired by a trip with his family to Sardinia aboard Peter Sellers's yacht after Starr left the band for two weeks during the sessions for the White Album. Starr received a full songwriting credit and composed most of the lyrics, although the song's melodic structure was partly written in the studio by Harrison. The pair would later collaborate as writers on Starr's solo singles "It Don't Come Easy", "Back Off Boogaloo" and "Photograph".
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)"
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)" was written by Lennon about his relationship with Ono, and he made a deliberate choice to keep the lyrics simple and concise. Author Tom Maginnis writes that the song had a progressive rock influence, with its unusual length and structure, repeating guitar riff, and white noise effects, though he noted the "I Want You" section has a straightforward blues structure.
The finished song is a combination of two different recording attempts. The first attempt occurred in February 1969, almost immediately after the Get Back/Let It Be sessions with Billy Preston. This was subsequently combined with a second version made during the Abbey Road sessions proper in April. The two sections together ran to nearly eight minutes, making it the Beatles' second-longest released track. Lennon used Harrison's Moog synthesizer with a white noise setting to create a "wind" effect that was overdubbed on the second half of the track. During the final edit, Lennon told Emerick to "cut it right there" at 7 minutes and 44 seconds, creating a sudden, jarring silence that concludes the first side of Abbey Road (the recording tape would have run out within 20 seconds as it was). The final mixing and editing of the track occurred on 20 August 1969, the last day all four Beatles were together in the studio.
Side two
"Here Comes the Sun"
"Here Comes the Sun" was written by Harrison in Eric Clapton's garden in Surrey during a break from stressful band business meetings. The basic track was recorded on 7 July 1969. Harrison sang lead and played acoustic guitar, McCartney provided backing vocals and played bass and Starr played the drums. Lennon was still recuperating from his car accident and did not perform on the track. Martin provided an orchestral arrangement in collaboration with Harrison, who overdubbed a Moog synthesizer part on 19 August, immediately before the final mix.
Though not released as a single, the song attracted attention and critical praise, and was included on the compilation 1967–1970. It has been featured several times on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, having been chosen by Sandie Shaw, Jerry Springer, Boris Johnson and Elaine Paige. The Daily Telegraph's Martin Chilton said it was "almost impossible not to sing along to". Since digital downloads have become eligible to chart, it reached number 56 in 2010 after the Beatles' back catalogue was released on iTunes. It is also the most streamed Beatles song on Spotify.
Harrison recorded a guitar solo for this track that did not appear in the final mix. It was rediscovered in 2012, and footage of Martin and Harrison's son Dhani listening to it in the studio was released on the DVD of Living in the Material World.
"Because"
"Because" was inspired by Lennon listening to Ono playing Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" on the piano. He recalled he was "lying on the sofa in our house, listening to Yoko play ... Suddenly, I said, 'Can you play those chords backward?' She did, and I wrote 'Because' around them." The track features three-part harmonies by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, which were then triple-tracked to give nine voices in the final mix. The group considered the vocals to be some of the hardest and most complex they attempted. Harrison played the Moog synthesizer, and Martin played the harpsichord that opens the track.
Medley
The remainder of side two consists of a 16-minute medley of eight short songs (known during the recording sessions as "The Long One"), recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin. Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3. While the idea for the medley was McCartney's, Martin claims credit for some structure, adding he "wanted to get John and Paul to think more seriously about their music".
The first track recorded for the medley was the opening number, "You Never Give Me Your Money". McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. However, MacDonald doubts this, given that the backing track, recorded on 6 May at Olympic Studios, predated the worst altercations between Klein and McCartney. The track is a suite of varying styles, ranging from a piano-led ballad at the start to arpeggiated guitars at the end. Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track.
This song transitions into Lennon's "Sun King" which, like "Because", showcases Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies. Following it are Lennon's "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during the Beatles' 1968 trip to India) and "Polythene Pam". These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan entered McCartney's residence via his bathroom window), "Golden Slumbers" (based on Thomas Dekker's 17th-century poem set to new music), "Carry That Weight" (reprising elements from "You Never Give Me Your Money", and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and closing with "The End".
"The End" features Starr's only drum solo in the Beatles' catalogue (the drums are mixed across two tracks in "true stereo", unlike most releases at that time where they were hard panned left or right). Fifty-four seconds into the song are 18 bars of lead guitar: the first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, and the sequence is repeated two more times. Harrison suggested the idea of a guitar solo in the track, Lennon decided they should trade solos and McCartney elected to go first. The solos were cut live against the existing backing track in one take. Immediately after Lennon's third and final solo, the piano chords of the final part of the song begin. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". This section was taped separately from the first, and required the piano to be re-recorded by McCartney, which was done on 18 August. An alternative version of the song, with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (and Starr's drum solo heard in the background), appears on the Anthology 3 album and the 2012 digital-only compilation album Tomorrow Never Knows.
Musicologist Walter Everett interprets that most of the lyrics on side two's medley deal with "selfishness and self-gratification – the financial complaints in 'You Never Give Me Your Money,' the miserliness of Mr. Mustard, the holding back of the pillow in 'Carry That Weight,' the desire that some second person will visit the singer's dreams – perhaps the 'one sweet dream' of 'You Never Give Me Your Money'? – in 'The End.'" Everett adds that the medley's "selfish moments" are played in the context of the tonal centre of A, while "generosity" is expressed in songs where C major is central. The medley concludes with a "great compromise in the 'negotiations'" in "The End", which serves as a structurally balanced coda. In response to the repeated A-major choruses of "love you", McCartney sings in realisation that there is as much self-gratifying love ("the love you take") as there is of the generous love ("the love you make"), in A major and C major, respectively.
"Her Majesty"
"Her Majesty" was recorded by McCartney on 2 July when he arrived before the rest of the group at Abbey Road. It was originally included in a rough mix of the side two medley (and officially available in this form for the first time on the album's 3CD Super Deluxe edition box set), appearing between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam". McCartney disliked the way the medley sounded when it included "Her Majesty", so he asked for it to be cut. The second engineer, John Kurlander, had been instructed by George Martin not to throw out anything, so after McCartney left, he attached the track to the end of the master tape after 20 seconds of silence. The tape box bore an instruction to leave "Her Majesty" off the final product, but the next day when mastering engineer Malcolm Davies received the tape, he (also trained not to throw anything away) cut a playback lacquer of the whole sequence, including "Her Majesty". The Beatles liked this effect and included it on the album.
"Her Majesty" opens with the final, crashing chord of "Mean Mr. Mustard", while the final note remained buried in the mix of "Polythene Pam", as a result of being snipped off the reel during a rough mix of the medley on 30 July. The medley was subsequently mixed again from scratch although the song was not touched again and still appears in its rough mix on the album.
Original US and UK pressings of Abbey Road do not list "Her Majesty" on the album's cover nor on the record label, making it a hidden track. The song title appears on the inlay card and disc of the 1987 remastered CD reissue, as track 17. It also appears on the sleeve, booklet and disc of the 2009 remastered CD reissue, but not on the cover or record label of the 2012 vinyl reissue.
Unreleased material
Three days after the session for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", Harrison recorded solo demos of "All Things Must Pass" (which became the title track of his 1970 triple album), "Something" and "Old Brown Shoe". The latter was re-recorded by the Beatles in April 1969 and issued as the B-side to "The Ballad of John and Yoko" the following month. All three of these Harrison demos were later featured on Anthology 3.
During the sessions for the medley, McCartney recorded "Come and Get It", playing all the instruments. It was assumed to be a demo recording for another artist but McCartney later said that he originally intended to put it on Abbey Road. It was instead covered by Badfinger, while McCartney's original recording appeared on Anthology 3.
The original backing track to "Something", featuring a piano-led coda, and "You Never Give Me Your Money", which leads into a fast rock-n-roll jam session, have appeared on bootlegs.
Cover photo
Apple Records creative director Kosh designed the album cover. It is the only original UK Beatles album sleeve to show neither the artist name nor the album title on its front cover, which was Kosh's idea, despite EMI claiming the record would not sell without this information. He later explained that "we didn't need to write the band's name on the cover ... They were the most famous band in the world". The front cover was a photograph of the group on a zebra crossing based on ideas that McCartney sketched and taken on 8 August 1969 outside EMI Studios on Abbey Road. At 11:35 that morning, photographer Iain Macmillan was given only ten minutes to take the photo while he stood on a step-ladder and a policeman held up traffic behind the camera. Macmillan took six photographs, which McCartney examined with a magnifying glass before deciding which would be used on the album sleeve.
In the image selected by McCartney, the group walk across the street in single file from left to right, with Lennon leading, followed by Starr, McCartney, and Harrison. McCartney is barefoot and out of step with the others. Except for Harrison, the group are wearing suits designed by Tommy Nutter. A white Volkswagen Beetle is to the left of the picture, parked next to the zebra crossing, which belonged to one of the people living in the block of flats across from the recording studio. After the album was released, the number plate (LMW 281F) was repeatedly stolen from the car. In 2004, news sources published a claim made by retired American salesman Paul Cole that he was the man standing on the pavement to the right of the picture.
Release
In mid-1969, Lennon formed a new group, the Plastic Ono Band, in part because the Beatles had rejected his song "Cold Turkey". While Harrison worked with such artists as Leon Russell, Doris Troy, Preston and Delaney & Bonnie through to the end of the year, McCartney took a hiatus from the group after his daughter Mary was born on 28 August. On 20 September, Lennon told McCartney, Starr, and business manager Allen Klein (Harrison was not present) he was leaving the group, (or in his words, he wanted a divorce) six days before Abbey Road was released. Apple released "Something" backed with "Come Together" in the US on 6 October 1969. Release of the single in the UK followed on 31 October, while Lennon released the Plastic Ono Band's "Cold Turkey" the same month.
The Beatles did little promotion of Abbey Road directly, and no public announcement was made of the band's split until McCartney announced he was leaving the group in April 1970. By this time, the Get Back project (by now retitled Let It Be) had been re-examined, with overdubs and mixing sessions continuing into 1970. Therefore, Let It Be became the last album to be finished and released by the Beatles, although its recording had begun before Abbey Road.
Abbey Road sold four million copies in its first two months of release. In the UK, the album debuted at number one, where it remained for 11 weeks before being displaced for one week by the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed. The following week (which was Christmas), Abbey Road returned to the top for another six weeks (completing a total of 17 weeks) before being replaced by Led Zeppelin II. Altogether, it spent 81 weeks on the UK albums chart. Reaction overseas was similar. In the US, the album spent 11 weeks at number one on the Billboard Top LPs chart. It was the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) best-selling album of 1969. In Japan, it was one of the longest-charting albums to date, remaining in the top 100 for 298 weeks during the 1970s.
Critical reception
Contemporary
Abbey Road initially received mixed reviews from music critics, who criticised the production's artificial sounds and viewed its music as inauthentic. William Mann of The Times said that the album will "be called gimmicky by people who want a record to sound exactly like a live performance", although he considered it to be "teem[ing] with musical invention" and added: "Nice as Come Together and Harrison's Something are – they are minor pleasures in the context of the whole disc ... Side Two is marvellous ..." Ed Ward of Rolling Stone called the album "complicated instead of complex" and felt that the Moog synthesizer "disembodies and artificializes" the band's sound, adding that they "create a sound that could not possibly exist outside the studio". While he found the medley on side two to be their "most impressive music" since Rubber Soul, Nik Cohn of The New York Times said that, "individually", the album's songs are "nothing special". Albert Goldman of Life magazine wrote that Abbey Road "is not one of the Beatles' great albums" and, despite some "lovely" phrases and "stirring" segues, side two's suite "seems symbolic of the Beatles' latest phase, which might be described as the round-the-clock production of disposable music effects".
Conversely, Chris Welch wrote in Melody Maker: "the truth is, their latest LP is just a natural born gas, entirely free of pretension, deep meanings or symbolism ... While production is simple compared to past intricacies, it is still extremely sophisticated and inventive." Derek Jewell of The Sunday Times found the album "refreshingly terse and unpretentious", and although he lamented the band's "cod-1920s jokes (Maxwell's Silver Hammer) and ... Ringo's obligatory nursery arias (Octopus's Garden)", he considered that Abbey Road "touches higher peaks than did their last album". John Mendelsohn, writing for Rolling Stone, called it "breathtakingly recorded" and praised side two especially, equating it to "the whole of Sgt. Pepper" and stating, "That the Beatles can unify seemingly countless musical fragments and lyrical doodlings into a uniformly wonderful suite ... seems potent testimony that no, they've far from lost it, and no, they haven't stopped trying."
While covering the Rolling Stones' 1969 American tour for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau reported from a meeting with Greil Marcus in Berkeley that "opinion has shifted against the Beatles. Everyone is putting down Abbey Road." Shortly afterwards, in Los Angeles, he wrote that his colleague Ellen Willis had grown to love the record, adding: "Damned if she isn't right – flawed but fine. Because the world is round it turns her on. Charlie Watts tells us he likes it too."
Retrospective
Many critics have since cited Abbey Road as the Beatles' greatest album. In a retrospective review, Nicole Pensiero of PopMatters called it "an amazingly cohesive piece of music, innovative and timeless". Mark Kemp of Paste viewed the album as being "among The Beatles' finest works, even if it foreshadows the cigarette-lighter-waving arena rock that technically skilled but critically maligned artists from Journey to Meatloaf would belabor throughout the '70s and '80s". Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph dubbed it the Beatles' "last love letter to the world" and praised its "big, modern sound", calling it "lush, rich, smooth, epic, emotional and utterly gorgeous".
AllMusic's Richie Unterberger felt that the album shared Sgt. Peppers "faux-conceptual forms", but had "stronger compositions", and wrote of its standing in the band's catalogue: "Whether Abbey Road is the Beatles' best work is debatable, but it's certainly the most immaculately produced (with the possible exception of Sgt. Pepper) and most tightly constructed." Ian MacDonald gave a mixed opinion of the album, noting that several tracks had been written at least a year previously, and would possibly have been unsuitable without being integrated into the medley on side two. He did, however, praise the production, particularly the sound of Starr's bass drum.
Abbey Road received high rankings in several "best albums in history" polls by critics and publications. It was voted number 8 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000). Time included it in their 2006 list of the All-Time 100 Albums. In 2009, readers of Rolling Stone named Abbey Road the greatest Beatles album. In 2020, the magazine ranked the album at number 5 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", the highest Beatles record on the list; a previous version of the list from 2012 had ranked it at number 14. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Legacy
Abbey Road crossing and "Paul is dead"
The image of the Beatles on the Abbey Road crossing has become one of the most famous and imitated in recording history. The crossing is a popular destination for Beatles fans, and a webcam has operated there since 2011. In December 2010, the crossing was given grade II listed status for its "cultural and historical importance"; the Abbey Road studios themselves had been given similar status earlier in the year.
Shortly after the album's release, the cover became part of the "Paul is dead" theory that was spreading across college campuses in the US. According to followers of the rumour, the cover depicted the Beatles walking out of a cemetery in a funeral procession. The procession was led by Lennon dressed in white as a religious figure; Starr was dressed in black as the undertaker; McCartney, out of step with the others, was a barefoot corpse; and Harrison dressed in denim was the gravedigger. The left-handed McCartney is holding a cigarette in his right hand, indicating that he is an imposter, and part of the number plate on the Volkswagen parked on the street is 281F (misread as 28IF), meaning that McCartney would have been 28 if he had lived – despite the fact that he was only 27 at the time of the photo and subsequent release of the record. The escalation of the "Paul is dead" rumour became the subject of intense analysis on mainstream radio and contributed to Abbey Roads commercial success in the US. Lennon was interviewed in London by New York's WMCA, and he ridiculed the rumour but conceded that it was invaluable publicity for the album.
The cover image has been parodied on several occasions, including by McCartney on his 1993 live album Paul Is Live. On the cover of its October 1977 issue, the satirical magazine National Lampoon depicted the four Beatles flattened along the zebra crossing, with a road roller driving away up the street. The Red Hot Chili Peppers' The Abbey Road E.P. parodies the cover, with the band walking near-naked across a similar zebra crossing. In 2003, several US poster companies airbrushed McCartney's cigarette out of the image without permission from Apple or McCartney. In 2013, Kolkata Police launched a traffic safety awareness advertisement against jaywalking, using the cover and a caption that read: "If they can, why can't you?"
Cover versions and influence
The songs on Abbey Road have been covered many times and the album itself has been covered in its entirety. One month after Abbey Roads release, George Benson recorded a cover version of the album called The Other Side of Abbey Road. Later in 1969 Booker T. & the M.G.'s recorded McLemore Avenue (the location in Memphis of Stax Records) which covered the Abbey Road songs and had a similar cover photo.
While matching albums such as Sgt. Pepper in terms of popularity, Abbey Road failed to repeat the Beatles' earlier achievements in galvanising their rivals to imitate them. In author Peter Doggett's description, "Too contrived for the rock underground to copy, too complex for the bubblegum pop brigade to copy, the album influenced no one – except [Paul McCartney]", who spent years trying to emulate its scope in his solo career. Writing for Classic Rock in 2014, Jon Anderson of the progressive rock band Yes said his group were constantly influenced by the Beatles from Revolver onwards, but it was the feeling that side two was "one complete idea" that inspired him to create long-form pieces of music.
Several artists have covered some or all of the side-two medley, including Phil Collins (for the Martin/Beatles tribute album In My Life), The String Cheese Incident, Transatlantic and Tenacious D (who performed the medley with Phish keyboardist Page McConnell). Furthur, a jam band including former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, played the entire Abbey Road album during its Spring Tour 2011. It began with a "Come Together" opener at Boston on 4 March and ended with the entire medley in New York City on 15 March, including "Her Majesty" as an encore.
Continued sales and reissues
In June 1970, Allen Klein reported that Abbey Road was the Beatles' best-selling album in the US with sales of about five million. By 1992, Abbey Road had sold nine million copies. The album became the ninth-most downloaded on the iTunes Store a week after it was released there on 16 November 2010. A CNN report stated it was the best-selling vinyl album of 2011. It is the first album from the 1960s to sell over five million albums since 1991 when Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales. In the US, the album had sold 7,177,797 copies by the end of the 1970s. , the album had sold over 31 million copies worldwide and is one of the band's best-selling albums. In October 2019, Abbey Road re-entered the UK charts, again hitting number one.
Abbey Road has remained in print since its first release in 1969. The original album was released on 26 September in the UK and 1 October in the US on Apple Records. It was reissued as a limited edition picture disc on vinyl in the US by Capitol on 27 December 1978, while a CD reissue of the album was released in 1987, with a remastered version appearing in 2009. The remaster included additional photographs with additional liner notes and the first, limited edition, run also included a short documentary about the making of the album.
In 2001, Abbey Road was certified 12× platinum by the RIAA. The album continues to be reissued on vinyl. It was included as part of the Beatles' Collector's Crate series in September 2009 and saw a remastered LP release on 180-gram vinyl in 2012.
A super deluxe version of the album, which featured new mixes by Giles Martin, was released in September 2019 to celebrate the original album's 50th anniversary.
As of October 2019, Abbey Road has sold 2,240,608 pure sales in United Kingdom and overall all consumed sales stand at 2,327,230 units. Post 1994 sales stand at 827,329.
Track listing
Notes
"Her Majesty" appears as a hidden track after "The End" and 14 seconds of silence. Later releases of the album included the song on the track listing, except the vinyl editions.
Some cassette tape versions in the UK and US had "Come Together" and "Here Comes the Sun" swapped to even out the playing time of each side.
Personnel
According to Mark Lewisohn, Ian MacDonald, Barry Miles, Kevin Howlett, and Geoff Emerick.
The Beatles
John Lennon – lead, harmony and background vocals; rhythm, lead and acoustic guitars; acoustic and electric pianos, Moog synthesizer; white noise generator and sound effects; percussion
Paul McCartney – lead, harmony and background vocals; bass, rhythm, lead and acoustic guitars; acoustic and electric pianos, Moog synthesizer; sound effects; wind chimes, handclaps and percussion
George Harrison – harmony and background vocals; lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars; bass on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "Oh Darling" and "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight"; harmonium and Moog synthesizer; handclaps and percussion; lead vocals (on "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun")
Ringo Starr – drums and percussion; background vocals; lead vocals (on "Octopus's Garden")
Additional musicians
George Martin – harpsichord, organ, percussion
Billy Preston – Hammond organ (on "Something" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)")
Mal Evans – anvil on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
Production
"Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with George Harrison)
"Golden Slumbers", "Carry That Weight" and "The End" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with Paul McCartney)
Produced by George Martin (with the Beatles)
Recorded by Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald
Assistant engineering by Alan Parsons
Mixed by Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald and George Martin (with the Beatles)
Moog programming by Mike Vickers
Charts
Original release
1987 reissue
2009 reissue
2019 reissue
Certifications
Release history
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
External links
Beatles comments on each song
Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick on Abbey Road – A track-by-track walkthrough
Live webcam at the Abbey Road zebra crossing
The Beatles y la foto de la portada de Abbey Road
1969 albums
The Beatles albums
Apple Records albums
Albums produced by George Martin
Albums recorded at Olympic Sound Studios
Albums recorded at Trident Studios
Albums arranged by George Martin
Albums conducted by George Martin
Albums produced by Chris Thomas (record producer)
Albums produced by George Harrison
Albums produced by John Lennon
Albums produced by Paul McCartney
Albums produced by Ringo Starr
Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients
Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical | false | [
"Just What I Needed: The Cars Anthology is a two-disc, career-spanning compilation album of songs by the American new wave rock band the Cars. It features most of the band's singles, as well as many album tracks, non-album B-sides and unreleased songs.\n\nBackground\nWhereas the 1985 Greatest Hits album contained the band's most popular hit singles, Just What I Needed includes an album's worth of rarities and unreleased tracks, in addition to deeper album tracks and the requisite hits.\n\nThis album contains the original album version of \"I'm Not the One\" from 1980, while the rendition on Greatest Hits was a 1985 remix. \"Heartbeat City\" is the only song on Greatest Hits that was excluded from this album.\n\nRare and unreleased tracks\n\nB-sides\nThe following three songs are non-album single B-sides that were previously unreleased on CD:\n\n\"That's It\" (B-side of 1979's \"Let's Go\") \n\"Don't Go to Pieces\" (B-side of 1980's \"Don't Tell Me No\" and 1981's \"Gimme Some Slack\") \n\"Breakaway\" (B-side of 1985's \"Why Can't I Have You\")\n\nDemos\n\n1977\nThe following four songs were recorded as demos in 1977. \"Leave or Stay\" and \"Ta Ta Wayo Wayo\" were eventually re-recorded for the band's 1987 album Door to Door; the other two tracks were never re-recorded. All four songs were previously unreleased recordings.\n\n\"Take Me Now\"\n\"Cool Fool\"\n\"Ta Ta Wayo Wayo\" (demo)\n\"Leave or Stay\" (demo)\n\n1978\nThe following previously unreleased song is an unfinished outtake from the band's first album, featuring only Ric Ocasek and Greg Hawkes. It was eventually re-recorded for 1979's Candy-O.\n\"Night Spots\" (early version)\n\n1979\nThe previously unreleased \"Slipaway\" was recorded as a 24-track demo by The Cars between their first and second albums. Rather than record a finished studio version, the Cars gave the song to Ian Lloyd, who issued his version later in 1979. \n\"Slipaway\"\n\nPreviously unreleased cover songs\nThe following two songs, both cover versions, were initially made as backing tracks for Bebe Buell to record vocals over for her 1981 EP Covers Girl. These versions feature lead vocals by Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr, and were previously unreleased.\n\"The Little Black Egg\"\n\"Funtime\"\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel\nElliot Easton – lead guitar, backing vocals\nGreg Hawkes – keyboard, backing vocals\nRic Ocasek – rhythm guitar, lead vocals on disc one tracks: 2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19; disc two tracks: 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20\nBenjamin Orr – bass guitar, lead vocals on disc one tracks: 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 17, 20; disc two tracks: 2, 6, 8, 10\nDavid Robinson – drums, percussion\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\n1995 compilation albums\nThe Cars compilation albums\nAlbums produced by Robert John \"Mutt\" Lange\nAlbums produced by Roy Thomas Baker\nAlbums produced by Mike Shipley\nAlbums produced by Ric Ocasek\nElektra Records compilation albums",
"Radiant Sea: A Collection of Bootleg Rarities and Two New Songs is a compilation album from the band Live. Released in 2007, the album features ten live concert recordings of previously released songs, and two studio-recorded songs that were previously unreleased. The disc was only available at Live concerts or from the band's online store at their official website.\n\nTrack listing\n\"The Beauty of Gray\" – 4:48\n\"Pillar of Davidson\" – 6:25\n\"Shit Towne\" – 4:26\n\"I Alone\" – 6:45\n\"Lakini's Juice\" – 5:19\n\"The Distance\" – 7:32\n\"The Dolphin's Cry\" – 4:40\n\"Nobody Knows\" – 4:46\n\"Sweet Release\" – 3:14\n\"Overcome\" – 4:20\n\"Beautiful Invisible\"* – 3:22\n\"Radiant Sea\"* – 3:40\n\n(*) indicates a studio recording\n\nLive (band) compilation albums\nSelf-released albums\n2007 compilation albums\n2007 live albums"
]
|
[
"Abbey Road",
"Medley",
"Does Medley refer to a song on the album?",
"Side two contains a 16-minute medley of eight short songs, recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin.",
"Were the 8 songs previously recorded or new?",
"Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3."
]
| C_8105eda42e114746b1837acf728441f2_1 | Did anyone besides McCartney and Martin have a hand in creating the song? | 3 | Did anyone besides McCartney and Martin have a hand in creating the song Medley? | Abbey Road | Side two contains a 16-minute medley of eight short songs, recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin. Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3. While the idea for the medley was McCartney's, Martin claims credit for some structure, adding he "wanted to get John and Paul to think more seriously about their music". The first track recorded for the medley was the opening number, "You Never Give Me Your Money". McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. However, MacDonald doubts this given that the backing track, recorded on 6 May at Olympic Studios, predated the worst altercations between Klein and McCartney. The track is a suite of varying styles, ranging from a piano-led ballad at the start to arpeggiated guitars at the end. Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track, which Beatles author Walter Everett considers his favourite Lennon guitar contribution. This song transitions into Lennon's "Sun King" which, like "Because", showcases Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies. Following it are Lennon's "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during the Beatles' 1968 trip to India) and "Polythene Pam". These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan entered McCartney's residence via his bathroom window), "Golden Slumbers" (based on Thomas Dekker's 17th-century poem set to new music), "Carry That Weight" (reprising elements from "You Never Give Me Your Money", and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and closing with "The End". "The End" features Starr's only drum solo in the Beatles' catalogue (the drums are mixed across two tracks in "true stereo", unlike most releases at that time where they were hard panned left or right). Fifty-four seconds into the song are 18 bars of lead guitar: the first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, with the sequence repeating. Harrison suggested the idea of a guitar solo in the track, Lennon decided they should trade solos and McCartney elected to go first. The solos were cut live against the existing backing track in one take. Immediately after Lennon's third and final solo, the piano chords of the final part of the song begin. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". This section was taped separately to the first, and required the piano to be re-recorded by McCartney, which was done on 18 August. An alternative version of the song, with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (with Starr's drum solo heard in the background), appears on the Anthology 3 album and the 2012 digital-only compilation album Tomorrow Never Knows. CANNOTANSWER | Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track, | Abbey Road is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969 by Apple Records. Named after Abbey Road, London, the location of EMI Studios, the cover features the group walking across the street's zebra crossing, an image that became one of the most famous and imitated in popular music. The album's initially mixed reviews were contrasted by its immediate commercial success, topping record charts in the UK and US. The single "Something" / "Come Together" was released in October and topped the US charts.
The album incorporates genres such as blues, rock and pop, and makes prominent use of Moog synthesizer, sounds filtered through a Leslie speaker, and tom-tom drums. It is the Beatles' only album recorded exclusively through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, which afforded a clearer and brighter sound than the group's previous records. Side two contains a medley of shorter song fragments. The sessions also produced a non-album single, "The Ballad of John and Yoko" backed with "Old Brown Shoe".
Producer George Martin returned on the condition that the Beatles adhere to the discipline of their earlier records. They found the album's recording more enjoyable than the preceding Get Back sessions, but personal and business issues still affected the working environment. Production lasted from February to August 1969, and the closing track "The End" marked the final occasion that all four members recorded together. John Lennon privately left the group six days before the album's release; Paul McCartney publicly declared the band's break-up the following April.
Upon release, detractors found Abbey Road to be inauthentic and bemoaned the production's artificial effects. Since then, many critics have hailed the album as the Beatles' finest; in particular, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" are considered among the best songs George Harrison wrote for the group. The album has also been ranked as one of the Beatles' best-selling, including a multi-platinum certification by the RIAA. Shortly after its release, the cover photograph fuelled rumours of McCartney's purported death. EMI Studios was also renamed Abbey Road Studios in honour of the album. A deluxe version of the album was released in 2019. In 2020, it was ranked fifth in Rolling Stones list of the greatest albums of all time.
Background
After the tense and unpleasant recording sessions for the proposed Get Back album, Paul McCartney suggested to music producer George Martin that the group get together and make an album "the way we used to do it", free of the conflict that had begun during sessions for The Beatles (also known as the "White Album"). Martin agreed, but on the strict condition that all the group – particularly John Lennon – allow him to produce the record in the same manner as earlier albums and that discipline would be adhered to. No one was entirely sure that the work was going to be the group's last, though George Harrison said "it felt as if we were reaching the end of the line".
Production
Recording history
The first sessions for Abbey Road began on 22 February 1969, only three weeks after the Get Back sessions, in Trident Studios. There, the group recorded a backing track for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" with Billy Preston accompanying them on Hammond organ. No further group recording occurred until April because of Ringo Starr's commitments on the film The Magic Christian. After a small amount of work that month and a session for "You Never Give Me Your Money" on 6 May, the group took an eight-week break before recommencing on 2 July. Recording continued through July and August, and the last backing track, for "Because", was taped on 1 August. Overdubs continued through the month, with the final sequencing of the album coming together on 20 August the last time all four Beatles were present in a studio together.
McCartney, Starr and Martin have reported positive recollections of the sessions, while Harrison said, "we did actually perform like musicians again". Lennon and McCartney had enjoyed working together on the non-album single "The Ballad of John and Yoko" in April, sharing friendly banter between takes, and some of this camaraderie carried over to the Abbey Road sessions. Nevertheless, there was a significant amount of tension in the group. According to Ian MacDonald, McCartney had an acrimonious argument with Lennon during the sessions. Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, had become a permanent presence at Beatles' recordings and clashed with other members. Halfway through recording in June, Lennon and Ono were involved in a car accident. A doctor told Ono to rest in bed, so Lennon had one installed in the studio so she could observe the recording process from there.
During the sessions, Lennon expressed a desire to have all of his songs on one side of the album, and McCartney's on the other. The album's two halves represented a compromise: Lennon wanted a traditional release with distinct and unrelated songs while McCartney and Martin wanted to continue their thematic approach from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by incorporating a medley. Lennon ultimately said that he disliked Abbey Road as a whole and felt that it lacked authenticity, calling McCartney's contributions "[music] for the grannies to dig" and not "real songs", and describing the medley as "junk ... just bits of songs thrown together".
Technical aspects
Abbey Road was recorded on eight-track reel-to-reel tape machines rather than the four-track machines that were used for earlier Beatles albums such as Sgt Pepper, and was the first Beatles album not to be issued in mono. The album makes prominent use of guitar played through a Leslie speaker, and of the Moog synthesizer. The Moog is not merely used as a background effect but sometimes plays a central role, as in "Because", where it is used for the middle eight. It is also prominent on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Here Comes the Sun". The synthesizer was introduced to the band by Harrison, who acquired one in November 1968 and used it to create his album Electronic Sound. Starr made more prominent use of the tom-toms on Abbey Road, later saying the album was "tom-tom madness ... I went nuts on the toms."
Abbey Road was also the first and only Beatles album to be entirely recorded through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, the TG12345 Mk I, as opposed to earlier thermionic valve-based REDD desks. The TG console also allowed better support for eight-track recording, facilitating the Beatles' considerable use of overdubbing. Emerick recalls that the TG desk used to record the album had individual limiters and compressors on each audio channel and noted that the overall sound was "softer" than the earlier valve desks. In his study of the role of the TG12345 in the Beatles' sound on Abbey Road, music historian Kenneth Womack observes that "the expansive sound palette and mixing capabilities of the TG12345 enabled George Martin and Geoff Emerick to imbue the Beatles' sound with greater definition and clarity. The warmth of solid-state recording also afforded their music with brighter tonalities and a deeper low end that distinguished Abbey Road from the rest of their corpus, providing listeners with an abiding sense that the Beatles' final long-player was markedly different."
Alan Parsons worked as an assistant engineer on the album. He later went on to engineer Pink Floyd's landmark album The Dark Side of the Moon and produce many popular albums himself with the Alan Parsons Project. John Kurlander also assisted on many of the sessions, and went on to become a successful engineer and producer, most noteworthy for his success on the scores for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
Songs
Side one
"Come Together"
"Come Together" was an expansion of "Let's Get It Together", a song Lennon originally wrote for Timothy Leary's California gubernatorial campaign against Ronald Reagan. A rough version of the lyrics for "Come Together" was written at Lennon's and Ono's second bed-in event in Montreal.
Beatles author Jonathan Gould suggested that the song has only a single "pariah-like protagonist" and Lennon was "painting another sardonic self-portrait". MacDonald has suggested that the "juju eyeballs" has been claimed to refer to Dr John and "spinal cracker" to Ono. The song was later the subject of a lawsuit brought against Lennon by Morris Levy because the opening line in "Come Together" – "Here come old flat-top" – was admittedly lifted from a line in Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me". A settlement was reached in 1973 in which Lennon promised to record three songs from Levy's publishing catalogue for his next album.
"Come Together" was later released as a double A-side single with "Something". In the liner notes to the compilation album Love, Martin described the track as "a simple song but it stands out because of the sheer brilliance of the performers".
"Something"
Harrison was inspired to write "Something" during sessions for the White Album by listening to label-mate James Taylor's "Something in the Way She Moves" from his album James Taylor. After the lyrics were refined during the Let It Be sessions (tapes reveal Lennon giving Harrison some songwriting advice during its composition), the song was initially given to Joe Cocker, but was subsequently recorded for Abbey Road. Cocker's version appeared on his album Joe Cocker! that November.
"Something" was Lennon's favourite song on the album, and McCartney considered it the best song Harrison had written. Though the song was written by Harrison, Frank Sinatra once commented that it was his favourite Lennon–McCartney composition and "the greatest love song ever written". Lennon contributed piano to the recording and while most of the part was removed, traces of it remain in the final cut, notably on the middle eight, before Harrison's guitar solo.
The song was issued as a double A-side single with "Come Together" in October 1969 and topped the US charts for one week, becoming the Beatles' first number-one single that was not a Lennon–McCartney composition. It was also the first Beatles single from an album already released in the UK. Apple's Neil Aspinall filmed a promotional video, which combined separate footage of the Beatles and their wives.
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer", McCartney's first song on the album, was first performed by the Beatles during the Let It Be sessions (as seen in the film). He wrote the song after the group's trip to India in 1968 and wanted to record it for the White Album, but it was rejected by the others as "too complicated".
The recording was fraught with tension between band members, as McCartney annoyed others by insisting on a perfect performance. The track was the first Lennon was invited to work on following his car accident, but he hated it and declined to do so. According to engineer Geoff Emerick, Lennon said it was "more of Paul's granny music" and left the session. He spent the next two weeks with Ono and did not return to the studio until the backing track for "Come Together" was laid down on 21 July. Harrison was also tired of the song, saying "we had to play it over and over again until Paul liked it. It was a real drag". Starr was more sympathetic to the song. "It was granny music", he admitted, "but we needed stuff like that on our album so other people would listen to it". Longtime roadie Mal Evans played the anvil sound in the chorus. This track also makes use of Harrison's Moog synthesizer, played by McCartney.
"Oh! Darling"
"Oh! Darling" was written by McCartney in the doo-wop style, like contemporary work by Frank Zappa. It was tried at the Get Back sessions, and a version appears on Anthology 3. It was subsequently re-recorded in April, with overdubs in July and August.
McCartney attempted recording the lead vocal only once a day. He said: "I came into the studios early every day for a week to sing it by myself because at first my voice was too clear. I wanted it to sound as though I'd been performing it on stage all week." Lennon thought he should have sung it, remarking that it was more his style.
"Octopus's Garden"
As was the case with most of the Beatles' albums, Starr sang lead vocal on one track. "Octopus's Garden" is his second and last solo composition released on any album by the band. It was inspired by a trip with his family to Sardinia aboard Peter Sellers's yacht after Starr left the band for two weeks during the sessions for the White Album. Starr received a full songwriting credit and composed most of the lyrics, although the song's melodic structure was partly written in the studio by Harrison. The pair would later collaborate as writers on Starr's solo singles "It Don't Come Easy", "Back Off Boogaloo" and "Photograph".
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)"
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)" was written by Lennon about his relationship with Ono, and he made a deliberate choice to keep the lyrics simple and concise. Author Tom Maginnis writes that the song had a progressive rock influence, with its unusual length and structure, repeating guitar riff, and white noise effects, though he noted the "I Want You" section has a straightforward blues structure.
The finished song is a combination of two different recording attempts. The first attempt occurred in February 1969, almost immediately after the Get Back/Let It Be sessions with Billy Preston. This was subsequently combined with a second version made during the Abbey Road sessions proper in April. The two sections together ran to nearly eight minutes, making it the Beatles' second-longest released track. Lennon used Harrison's Moog synthesizer with a white noise setting to create a "wind" effect that was overdubbed on the second half of the track. During the final edit, Lennon told Emerick to "cut it right there" at 7 minutes and 44 seconds, creating a sudden, jarring silence that concludes the first side of Abbey Road (the recording tape would have run out within 20 seconds as it was). The final mixing and editing of the track occurred on 20 August 1969, the last day all four Beatles were together in the studio.
Side two
"Here Comes the Sun"
"Here Comes the Sun" was written by Harrison in Eric Clapton's garden in Surrey during a break from stressful band business meetings. The basic track was recorded on 7 July 1969. Harrison sang lead and played acoustic guitar, McCartney provided backing vocals and played bass and Starr played the drums. Lennon was still recuperating from his car accident and did not perform on the track. Martin provided an orchestral arrangement in collaboration with Harrison, who overdubbed a Moog synthesizer part on 19 August, immediately before the final mix.
Though not released as a single, the song attracted attention and critical praise, and was included on the compilation 1967–1970. It has been featured several times on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, having been chosen by Sandie Shaw, Jerry Springer, Boris Johnson and Elaine Paige. The Daily Telegraph's Martin Chilton said it was "almost impossible not to sing along to". Since digital downloads have become eligible to chart, it reached number 56 in 2010 after the Beatles' back catalogue was released on iTunes. It is also the most streamed Beatles song on Spotify.
Harrison recorded a guitar solo for this track that did not appear in the final mix. It was rediscovered in 2012, and footage of Martin and Harrison's son Dhani listening to it in the studio was released on the DVD of Living in the Material World.
"Because"
"Because" was inspired by Lennon listening to Ono playing Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" on the piano. He recalled he was "lying on the sofa in our house, listening to Yoko play ... Suddenly, I said, 'Can you play those chords backward?' She did, and I wrote 'Because' around them." The track features three-part harmonies by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, which were then triple-tracked to give nine voices in the final mix. The group considered the vocals to be some of the hardest and most complex they attempted. Harrison played the Moog synthesizer, and Martin played the harpsichord that opens the track.
Medley
The remainder of side two consists of a 16-minute medley of eight short songs (known during the recording sessions as "The Long One"), recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin. Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3. While the idea for the medley was McCartney's, Martin claims credit for some structure, adding he "wanted to get John and Paul to think more seriously about their music".
The first track recorded for the medley was the opening number, "You Never Give Me Your Money". McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. However, MacDonald doubts this, given that the backing track, recorded on 6 May at Olympic Studios, predated the worst altercations between Klein and McCartney. The track is a suite of varying styles, ranging from a piano-led ballad at the start to arpeggiated guitars at the end. Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track.
This song transitions into Lennon's "Sun King" which, like "Because", showcases Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies. Following it are Lennon's "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during the Beatles' 1968 trip to India) and "Polythene Pam". These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan entered McCartney's residence via his bathroom window), "Golden Slumbers" (based on Thomas Dekker's 17th-century poem set to new music), "Carry That Weight" (reprising elements from "You Never Give Me Your Money", and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and closing with "The End".
"The End" features Starr's only drum solo in the Beatles' catalogue (the drums are mixed across two tracks in "true stereo", unlike most releases at that time where they were hard panned left or right). Fifty-four seconds into the song are 18 bars of lead guitar: the first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, and the sequence is repeated two more times. Harrison suggested the idea of a guitar solo in the track, Lennon decided they should trade solos and McCartney elected to go first. The solos were cut live against the existing backing track in one take. Immediately after Lennon's third and final solo, the piano chords of the final part of the song begin. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". This section was taped separately from the first, and required the piano to be re-recorded by McCartney, which was done on 18 August. An alternative version of the song, with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (and Starr's drum solo heard in the background), appears on the Anthology 3 album and the 2012 digital-only compilation album Tomorrow Never Knows.
Musicologist Walter Everett interprets that most of the lyrics on side two's medley deal with "selfishness and self-gratification – the financial complaints in 'You Never Give Me Your Money,' the miserliness of Mr. Mustard, the holding back of the pillow in 'Carry That Weight,' the desire that some second person will visit the singer's dreams – perhaps the 'one sweet dream' of 'You Never Give Me Your Money'? – in 'The End.'" Everett adds that the medley's "selfish moments" are played in the context of the tonal centre of A, while "generosity" is expressed in songs where C major is central. The medley concludes with a "great compromise in the 'negotiations'" in "The End", which serves as a structurally balanced coda. In response to the repeated A-major choruses of "love you", McCartney sings in realisation that there is as much self-gratifying love ("the love you take") as there is of the generous love ("the love you make"), in A major and C major, respectively.
"Her Majesty"
"Her Majesty" was recorded by McCartney on 2 July when he arrived before the rest of the group at Abbey Road. It was originally included in a rough mix of the side two medley (and officially available in this form for the first time on the album's 3CD Super Deluxe edition box set), appearing between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam". McCartney disliked the way the medley sounded when it included "Her Majesty", so he asked for it to be cut. The second engineer, John Kurlander, had been instructed by George Martin not to throw out anything, so after McCartney left, he attached the track to the end of the master tape after 20 seconds of silence. The tape box bore an instruction to leave "Her Majesty" off the final product, but the next day when mastering engineer Malcolm Davies received the tape, he (also trained not to throw anything away) cut a playback lacquer of the whole sequence, including "Her Majesty". The Beatles liked this effect and included it on the album.
"Her Majesty" opens with the final, crashing chord of "Mean Mr. Mustard", while the final note remained buried in the mix of "Polythene Pam", as a result of being snipped off the reel during a rough mix of the medley on 30 July. The medley was subsequently mixed again from scratch although the song was not touched again and still appears in its rough mix on the album.
Original US and UK pressings of Abbey Road do not list "Her Majesty" on the album's cover nor on the record label, making it a hidden track. The song title appears on the inlay card and disc of the 1987 remastered CD reissue, as track 17. It also appears on the sleeve, booklet and disc of the 2009 remastered CD reissue, but not on the cover or record label of the 2012 vinyl reissue.
Unreleased material
Three days after the session for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", Harrison recorded solo demos of "All Things Must Pass" (which became the title track of his 1970 triple album), "Something" and "Old Brown Shoe". The latter was re-recorded by the Beatles in April 1969 and issued as the B-side to "The Ballad of John and Yoko" the following month. All three of these Harrison demos were later featured on Anthology 3.
During the sessions for the medley, McCartney recorded "Come and Get It", playing all the instruments. It was assumed to be a demo recording for another artist but McCartney later said that he originally intended to put it on Abbey Road. It was instead covered by Badfinger, while McCartney's original recording appeared on Anthology 3.
The original backing track to "Something", featuring a piano-led coda, and "You Never Give Me Your Money", which leads into a fast rock-n-roll jam session, have appeared on bootlegs.
Cover photo
Apple Records creative director Kosh designed the album cover. It is the only original UK Beatles album sleeve to show neither the artist name nor the album title on its front cover, which was Kosh's idea, despite EMI claiming the record would not sell without this information. He later explained that "we didn't need to write the band's name on the cover ... They were the most famous band in the world". The front cover was a photograph of the group on a zebra crossing based on ideas that McCartney sketched and taken on 8 August 1969 outside EMI Studios on Abbey Road. At 11:35 that morning, photographer Iain Macmillan was given only ten minutes to take the photo while he stood on a step-ladder and a policeman held up traffic behind the camera. Macmillan took six photographs, which McCartney examined with a magnifying glass before deciding which would be used on the album sleeve.
In the image selected by McCartney, the group walk across the street in single file from left to right, with Lennon leading, followed by Starr, McCartney, and Harrison. McCartney is barefoot and out of step with the others. Except for Harrison, the group are wearing suits designed by Tommy Nutter. A white Volkswagen Beetle is to the left of the picture, parked next to the zebra crossing, which belonged to one of the people living in the block of flats across from the recording studio. After the album was released, the number plate (LMW 281F) was repeatedly stolen from the car. In 2004, news sources published a claim made by retired American salesman Paul Cole that he was the man standing on the pavement to the right of the picture.
Release
In mid-1969, Lennon formed a new group, the Plastic Ono Band, in part because the Beatles had rejected his song "Cold Turkey". While Harrison worked with such artists as Leon Russell, Doris Troy, Preston and Delaney & Bonnie through to the end of the year, McCartney took a hiatus from the group after his daughter Mary was born on 28 August. On 20 September, Lennon told McCartney, Starr, and business manager Allen Klein (Harrison was not present) he was leaving the group, (or in his words, he wanted a divorce) six days before Abbey Road was released. Apple released "Something" backed with "Come Together" in the US on 6 October 1969. Release of the single in the UK followed on 31 October, while Lennon released the Plastic Ono Band's "Cold Turkey" the same month.
The Beatles did little promotion of Abbey Road directly, and no public announcement was made of the band's split until McCartney announced he was leaving the group in April 1970. By this time, the Get Back project (by now retitled Let It Be) had been re-examined, with overdubs and mixing sessions continuing into 1970. Therefore, Let It Be became the last album to be finished and released by the Beatles, although its recording had begun before Abbey Road.
Abbey Road sold four million copies in its first two months of release. In the UK, the album debuted at number one, where it remained for 11 weeks before being displaced for one week by the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed. The following week (which was Christmas), Abbey Road returned to the top for another six weeks (completing a total of 17 weeks) before being replaced by Led Zeppelin II. Altogether, it spent 81 weeks on the UK albums chart. Reaction overseas was similar. In the US, the album spent 11 weeks at number one on the Billboard Top LPs chart. It was the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) best-selling album of 1969. In Japan, it was one of the longest-charting albums to date, remaining in the top 100 for 298 weeks during the 1970s.
Critical reception
Contemporary
Abbey Road initially received mixed reviews from music critics, who criticised the production's artificial sounds and viewed its music as inauthentic. William Mann of The Times said that the album will "be called gimmicky by people who want a record to sound exactly like a live performance", although he considered it to be "teem[ing] with musical invention" and added: "Nice as Come Together and Harrison's Something are – they are minor pleasures in the context of the whole disc ... Side Two is marvellous ..." Ed Ward of Rolling Stone called the album "complicated instead of complex" and felt that the Moog synthesizer "disembodies and artificializes" the band's sound, adding that they "create a sound that could not possibly exist outside the studio". While he found the medley on side two to be their "most impressive music" since Rubber Soul, Nik Cohn of The New York Times said that, "individually", the album's songs are "nothing special". Albert Goldman of Life magazine wrote that Abbey Road "is not one of the Beatles' great albums" and, despite some "lovely" phrases and "stirring" segues, side two's suite "seems symbolic of the Beatles' latest phase, which might be described as the round-the-clock production of disposable music effects".
Conversely, Chris Welch wrote in Melody Maker: "the truth is, their latest LP is just a natural born gas, entirely free of pretension, deep meanings or symbolism ... While production is simple compared to past intricacies, it is still extremely sophisticated and inventive." Derek Jewell of The Sunday Times found the album "refreshingly terse and unpretentious", and although he lamented the band's "cod-1920s jokes (Maxwell's Silver Hammer) and ... Ringo's obligatory nursery arias (Octopus's Garden)", he considered that Abbey Road "touches higher peaks than did their last album". John Mendelsohn, writing for Rolling Stone, called it "breathtakingly recorded" and praised side two especially, equating it to "the whole of Sgt. Pepper" and stating, "That the Beatles can unify seemingly countless musical fragments and lyrical doodlings into a uniformly wonderful suite ... seems potent testimony that no, they've far from lost it, and no, they haven't stopped trying."
While covering the Rolling Stones' 1969 American tour for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau reported from a meeting with Greil Marcus in Berkeley that "opinion has shifted against the Beatles. Everyone is putting down Abbey Road." Shortly afterwards, in Los Angeles, he wrote that his colleague Ellen Willis had grown to love the record, adding: "Damned if she isn't right – flawed but fine. Because the world is round it turns her on. Charlie Watts tells us he likes it too."
Retrospective
Many critics have since cited Abbey Road as the Beatles' greatest album. In a retrospective review, Nicole Pensiero of PopMatters called it "an amazingly cohesive piece of music, innovative and timeless". Mark Kemp of Paste viewed the album as being "among The Beatles' finest works, even if it foreshadows the cigarette-lighter-waving arena rock that technically skilled but critically maligned artists from Journey to Meatloaf would belabor throughout the '70s and '80s". Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph dubbed it the Beatles' "last love letter to the world" and praised its "big, modern sound", calling it "lush, rich, smooth, epic, emotional and utterly gorgeous".
AllMusic's Richie Unterberger felt that the album shared Sgt. Peppers "faux-conceptual forms", but had "stronger compositions", and wrote of its standing in the band's catalogue: "Whether Abbey Road is the Beatles' best work is debatable, but it's certainly the most immaculately produced (with the possible exception of Sgt. Pepper) and most tightly constructed." Ian MacDonald gave a mixed opinion of the album, noting that several tracks had been written at least a year previously, and would possibly have been unsuitable without being integrated into the medley on side two. He did, however, praise the production, particularly the sound of Starr's bass drum.
Abbey Road received high rankings in several "best albums in history" polls by critics and publications. It was voted number 8 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000). Time included it in their 2006 list of the All-Time 100 Albums. In 2009, readers of Rolling Stone named Abbey Road the greatest Beatles album. In 2020, the magazine ranked the album at number 5 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", the highest Beatles record on the list; a previous version of the list from 2012 had ranked it at number 14. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Legacy
Abbey Road crossing and "Paul is dead"
The image of the Beatles on the Abbey Road crossing has become one of the most famous and imitated in recording history. The crossing is a popular destination for Beatles fans, and a webcam has operated there since 2011. In December 2010, the crossing was given grade II listed status for its "cultural and historical importance"; the Abbey Road studios themselves had been given similar status earlier in the year.
Shortly after the album's release, the cover became part of the "Paul is dead" theory that was spreading across college campuses in the US. According to followers of the rumour, the cover depicted the Beatles walking out of a cemetery in a funeral procession. The procession was led by Lennon dressed in white as a religious figure; Starr was dressed in black as the undertaker; McCartney, out of step with the others, was a barefoot corpse; and Harrison dressed in denim was the gravedigger. The left-handed McCartney is holding a cigarette in his right hand, indicating that he is an imposter, and part of the number plate on the Volkswagen parked on the street is 281F (misread as 28IF), meaning that McCartney would have been 28 if he had lived – despite the fact that he was only 27 at the time of the photo and subsequent release of the record. The escalation of the "Paul is dead" rumour became the subject of intense analysis on mainstream radio and contributed to Abbey Roads commercial success in the US. Lennon was interviewed in London by New York's WMCA, and he ridiculed the rumour but conceded that it was invaluable publicity for the album.
The cover image has been parodied on several occasions, including by McCartney on his 1993 live album Paul Is Live. On the cover of its October 1977 issue, the satirical magazine National Lampoon depicted the four Beatles flattened along the zebra crossing, with a road roller driving away up the street. The Red Hot Chili Peppers' The Abbey Road E.P. parodies the cover, with the band walking near-naked across a similar zebra crossing. In 2003, several US poster companies airbrushed McCartney's cigarette out of the image without permission from Apple or McCartney. In 2013, Kolkata Police launched a traffic safety awareness advertisement against jaywalking, using the cover and a caption that read: "If they can, why can't you?"
Cover versions and influence
The songs on Abbey Road have been covered many times and the album itself has been covered in its entirety. One month after Abbey Roads release, George Benson recorded a cover version of the album called The Other Side of Abbey Road. Later in 1969 Booker T. & the M.G.'s recorded McLemore Avenue (the location in Memphis of Stax Records) which covered the Abbey Road songs and had a similar cover photo.
While matching albums such as Sgt. Pepper in terms of popularity, Abbey Road failed to repeat the Beatles' earlier achievements in galvanising their rivals to imitate them. In author Peter Doggett's description, "Too contrived for the rock underground to copy, too complex for the bubblegum pop brigade to copy, the album influenced no one – except [Paul McCartney]", who spent years trying to emulate its scope in his solo career. Writing for Classic Rock in 2014, Jon Anderson of the progressive rock band Yes said his group were constantly influenced by the Beatles from Revolver onwards, but it was the feeling that side two was "one complete idea" that inspired him to create long-form pieces of music.
Several artists have covered some or all of the side-two medley, including Phil Collins (for the Martin/Beatles tribute album In My Life), The String Cheese Incident, Transatlantic and Tenacious D (who performed the medley with Phish keyboardist Page McConnell). Furthur, a jam band including former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, played the entire Abbey Road album during its Spring Tour 2011. It began with a "Come Together" opener at Boston on 4 March and ended with the entire medley in New York City on 15 March, including "Her Majesty" as an encore.
Continued sales and reissues
In June 1970, Allen Klein reported that Abbey Road was the Beatles' best-selling album in the US with sales of about five million. By 1992, Abbey Road had sold nine million copies. The album became the ninth-most downloaded on the iTunes Store a week after it was released there on 16 November 2010. A CNN report stated it was the best-selling vinyl album of 2011. It is the first album from the 1960s to sell over five million albums since 1991 when Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales. In the US, the album had sold 7,177,797 copies by the end of the 1970s. , the album had sold over 31 million copies worldwide and is one of the band's best-selling albums. In October 2019, Abbey Road re-entered the UK charts, again hitting number one.
Abbey Road has remained in print since its first release in 1969. The original album was released on 26 September in the UK and 1 October in the US on Apple Records. It was reissued as a limited edition picture disc on vinyl in the US by Capitol on 27 December 1978, while a CD reissue of the album was released in 1987, with a remastered version appearing in 2009. The remaster included additional photographs with additional liner notes and the first, limited edition, run also included a short documentary about the making of the album.
In 2001, Abbey Road was certified 12× platinum by the RIAA. The album continues to be reissued on vinyl. It was included as part of the Beatles' Collector's Crate series in September 2009 and saw a remastered LP release on 180-gram vinyl in 2012.
A super deluxe version of the album, which featured new mixes by Giles Martin, was released in September 2019 to celebrate the original album's 50th anniversary.
As of October 2019, Abbey Road has sold 2,240,608 pure sales in United Kingdom and overall all consumed sales stand at 2,327,230 units. Post 1994 sales stand at 827,329.
Track listing
Notes
"Her Majesty" appears as a hidden track after "The End" and 14 seconds of silence. Later releases of the album included the song on the track listing, except the vinyl editions.
Some cassette tape versions in the UK and US had "Come Together" and "Here Comes the Sun" swapped to even out the playing time of each side.
Personnel
According to Mark Lewisohn, Ian MacDonald, Barry Miles, Kevin Howlett, and Geoff Emerick.
The Beatles
John Lennon – lead, harmony and background vocals; rhythm, lead and acoustic guitars; acoustic and electric pianos, Moog synthesizer; white noise generator and sound effects; percussion
Paul McCartney – lead, harmony and background vocals; bass, rhythm, lead and acoustic guitars; acoustic and electric pianos, Moog synthesizer; sound effects; wind chimes, handclaps and percussion
George Harrison – harmony and background vocals; lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars; bass on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "Oh Darling" and "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight"; harmonium and Moog synthesizer; handclaps and percussion; lead vocals (on "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun")
Ringo Starr – drums and percussion; background vocals; lead vocals (on "Octopus's Garden")
Additional musicians
George Martin – harpsichord, organ, percussion
Billy Preston – Hammond organ (on "Something" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)")
Mal Evans – anvil on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
Production
"Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with George Harrison)
"Golden Slumbers", "Carry That Weight" and "The End" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with Paul McCartney)
Produced by George Martin (with the Beatles)
Recorded by Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald
Assistant engineering by Alan Parsons
Mixed by Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald and George Martin (with the Beatles)
Moog programming by Mike Vickers
Charts
Original release
1987 reissue
2009 reissue
2019 reissue
Certifications
Release history
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
External links
Beatles comments on each song
Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick on Abbey Road – A track-by-track walkthrough
Live webcam at the Abbey Road zebra crossing
The Beatles y la foto de la portada de Abbey Road
1969 albums
The Beatles albums
Apple Records albums
Albums produced by George Martin
Albums recorded at Olympic Sound Studios
Albums recorded at Trident Studios
Albums arranged by George Martin
Albums conducted by George Martin
Albums produced by Chris Thomas (record producer)
Albums produced by George Harrison
Albums produced by John Lennon
Albums produced by Paul McCartney
Albums produced by Ringo Starr
Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients
Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical | false | [
"\"It's for You\" is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles for Cilla Black for whom it was a UK Top Ten hit in 1964. The song is mainly a McCartney composition.\n\nBackground\n\nComposition\nPaul McCartney, who had been present at Abbey Road Studios when Cilla Black had recorded her breakthrough hit \"Anyone Who Had a Heart\", had written \"It's for You\" with John Lennon using \"Anyone Who Had a Heart\" as the model although Black herself has opined: \"For my money, ['It's for You'] is nothing like the 'Anyone...' composition.\"\n\nRecording \nOn 3 June 1964 McCartney cut a demo of \"It's for You\" to give to Black and producer George Martin. Black recorded the song at Abbey Road Studios on 2 July with Martin producing the session. She recalled: \"That was some session...John [Lennon] and Paul [McCartney] joined me and George Martin. We made one track and then everyone had a go at suggesting how they thought it should be recorded. George said it should be one way, John and Paul another and I just added my suggestions while they were thinking of what else they could do with the composition.\"\n\nRelease and chart performances\nHaving Black, well publicized as an associate of the Beatles, record a Lennon–McCartney tune did not result in the anticipated smash hit: \"It's for You\" followed Black's back-to-back #1 hits: \"Anyone Who Had a Heart\" and \"You're My World\", into the Top Ten but remained there for only two weeks - 29 August & 5 September 1964 - at #8 and #7.\n\nIn the US \"It's for You\" became Black's second single release in September 1964: although the precedent \"You're My World\" had reached the US Top 30, \"It's for You\" rose no higher on the Billboard Hot 100 than #79.\n\n\"It's for You\" reached #17 in Australia.\n\nAlthough Black recorded several Beatles songs to be album cuts, she only had one later single release of a Lennon–McCartney song: \"Step Inside Love\" #8 in 1968.\n\nTribute covers\nRecordings of \"It's for You\" as The Beatles may have performed it are available on the 1989 album by Bas Muys entitled Secret Songs: Lennon & McCartney and on the 1998 release It's Four You by the Australian tribute band The Beatnix.\n\nThe Beatles recording demo version\nOn 20 July 2016, the Daily Express announced the original acetate demo featuring Paul's voice was discovered among other demos in Cilla Black's collection and was proposed for auction.\n\nRemakes and covers\nMina recorded an Italian rendering of \"It's for You\" – entitled \"So che mi vuoi\" – on her 1965 album, Studio Uno.\nTexas band The Mods recorded a version of \"It's for You\" in 1966.\nThree Dog Night recorded a version of the song for their eponymous debut album in 1968. A performance of the song is also featured on the group's 1969 live album, Captured Live at the Forum. That same year the Puerto Rican rock band The Challengers covered the song in their first album, which can be heard at http://rockinpr.net/challengers.html \nIn 1971, Springwell, a five-man outfit from Allen Park MI, had a regional hit with \"It's for You\" which reached #60 on the Hot 100 in Billboard: the track, recorded at Eastern Sound Studio in Toronto, reached #21 in Canada.\n In 1979, Midwest-based Head East covered the song on their A&M Records double LP release of Head East Live!\n In 1995, Salad, an alternative rock group from the UK, covered the song as the B-Side to their single \"Granite Statue\".\n In 2009, Mr. Big covered \"It's for You\" during their reunion tour, and a recording was released on their album Back to Budokan. This performance featured vocals by Paul Gilbert, Billy Sheehan, and Pat Torpey, without regular lead singer Eric Martin.\nIt was covered by Seattle-based Beatles cover band Apple Jam on their 2012 album Off the Beatle Track.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n \n\nParlophone singles\n1964 singles\nCilla Black songs\nThree Dog Night songs\nSong recordings produced by George Martin\nSongs written by Lennon–McCartney\n1964 songs",
"\"Here Today\" is a song by Paul McCartney from his 1982 album Tug of War. He wrote the song as a tribute to his relationship with John Lennon, who was murdered in 1980. He stated the song was composed in the form of an imaginary conversation the pair might have had. The song was produced by the Beatles' producer George Martin. Although not released as a single, the song reached No. 46 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts.\n\nOrigins and meaning \nWhen McCartney wrote the song, Lennon had been dead for less than a year. In a 2004 interview with The Guardian, McCartney said that due to the honest and emotional nature of the song he was \"kind of crying\" when he wrote it. He even found it difficult to talk about with the other remaining members of the Beatles. The structure of the song itself is written like a dialogue between Lennon and McCartney. McCartney says that Lennon used to \"lay into\" McCartney, but often did not really mean it, and this is emulated in the hypothetical conversation where the two bicker over whether or not they really know each other. The song is about McCartney really trying to talk to Lennon, but finding it futile after the latter's death.\n\nMcCartney describes parts of the song as being quite honest. One verse in the song refers to an incident that occurred during the Beatles' first full American tour in 1964 when they were stranded in Key West, Florida during a hurricane. Said McCartney, It was during that night, when we'd all stayed up way too late, and we got so pissed that we ended up crying—about, you know, how wonderful we were, and how much we loved each other, even though we'd never said anything. It was a good one: you never say anything like that. Especially if you're a Northern Man. McCartney began recording the song in the summer of 1981 in the loft of the mill at his Sussex home. McCartney and George Martin went back and forth about using a string quartet as they had famously included one in the Beatles' hit \"Yesterday\", but ultimately opted for it anyway.\n\nLive performances \nMcCartney often performs the song live, and it is featured on the live albums Back in the World, Back in the U.S., Amoeba's Secret and Good Evening New York City.\n\nWhile performing the song, McCartney is prone to becoming choked up over the emotional content of the song. He told The Guardian, At least once a tour, that song just gets me. I'm singing it, and I think I'm OK, and I suddenly realise it's very emotional, and John was a great mate and a very important man in my life, and I miss him, y'know?\n\nPersonnel\n Paul McCartney – lead vocals, acoustic guitar\n Jack Rothstein – violin\n Bernard Partridge – violin\n Ian Jewel – viola\n Keith Harvey – cello\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Lyrics of this song\n \n\n1982 songs\nPaul McCartney songs\nMusic published by MPL Music Publishing\nSong recordings produced by George Martin\nSongs about the Beatles\nSongs in memory of deceased persons\nSongs in memory of John Lennon\nSongs inspired by deaths\nSongs written by Paul McCartney"
]
|
[
"Abbey Road",
"Medley",
"Does Medley refer to a song on the album?",
"Side two contains a 16-minute medley of eight short songs, recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin.",
"Were the 8 songs previously recorded or new?",
"Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3.",
"Did anyone besides McCartney and Martin have a hand in creating the song?",
"Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track,"
]
| C_8105eda42e114746b1837acf728441f2_1 | Did Medley win any awards? | 4 | Did the song Medley win any awards? | Abbey Road | Side two contains a 16-minute medley of eight short songs, recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin. Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3. While the idea for the medley was McCartney's, Martin claims credit for some structure, adding he "wanted to get John and Paul to think more seriously about their music". The first track recorded for the medley was the opening number, "You Never Give Me Your Money". McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. However, MacDonald doubts this given that the backing track, recorded on 6 May at Olympic Studios, predated the worst altercations between Klein and McCartney. The track is a suite of varying styles, ranging from a piano-led ballad at the start to arpeggiated guitars at the end. Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track, which Beatles author Walter Everett considers his favourite Lennon guitar contribution. This song transitions into Lennon's "Sun King" which, like "Because", showcases Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies. Following it are Lennon's "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during the Beatles' 1968 trip to India) and "Polythene Pam". These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan entered McCartney's residence via his bathroom window), "Golden Slumbers" (based on Thomas Dekker's 17th-century poem set to new music), "Carry That Weight" (reprising elements from "You Never Give Me Your Money", and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and closing with "The End". "The End" features Starr's only drum solo in the Beatles' catalogue (the drums are mixed across two tracks in "true stereo", unlike most releases at that time where they were hard panned left or right). Fifty-four seconds into the song are 18 bars of lead guitar: the first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, with the sequence repeating. Harrison suggested the idea of a guitar solo in the track, Lennon decided they should trade solos and McCartney elected to go first. The solos were cut live against the existing backing track in one take. Immediately after Lennon's third and final solo, the piano chords of the final part of the song begin. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". This section was taped separately to the first, and required the piano to be re-recorded by McCartney, which was done on 18 August. An alternative version of the song, with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (with Starr's drum solo heard in the background), appears on the Anthology 3 album and the 2012 digital-only compilation album Tomorrow Never Knows. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Abbey Road is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969 by Apple Records. Named after Abbey Road, London, the location of EMI Studios, the cover features the group walking across the street's zebra crossing, an image that became one of the most famous and imitated in popular music. The album's initially mixed reviews were contrasted by its immediate commercial success, topping record charts in the UK and US. The single "Something" / "Come Together" was released in October and topped the US charts.
The album incorporates genres such as blues, rock and pop, and makes prominent use of Moog synthesizer, sounds filtered through a Leslie speaker, and tom-tom drums. It is the Beatles' only album recorded exclusively through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, which afforded a clearer and brighter sound than the group's previous records. Side two contains a medley of shorter song fragments. The sessions also produced a non-album single, "The Ballad of John and Yoko" backed with "Old Brown Shoe".
Producer George Martin returned on the condition that the Beatles adhere to the discipline of their earlier records. They found the album's recording more enjoyable than the preceding Get Back sessions, but personal and business issues still affected the working environment. Production lasted from February to August 1969, and the closing track "The End" marked the final occasion that all four members recorded together. John Lennon privately left the group six days before the album's release; Paul McCartney publicly declared the band's break-up the following April.
Upon release, detractors found Abbey Road to be inauthentic and bemoaned the production's artificial effects. Since then, many critics have hailed the album as the Beatles' finest; in particular, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" are considered among the best songs George Harrison wrote for the group. The album has also been ranked as one of the Beatles' best-selling, including a multi-platinum certification by the RIAA. Shortly after its release, the cover photograph fuelled rumours of McCartney's purported death. EMI Studios was also renamed Abbey Road Studios in honour of the album. A deluxe version of the album was released in 2019. In 2020, it was ranked fifth in Rolling Stones list of the greatest albums of all time.
Background
After the tense and unpleasant recording sessions for the proposed Get Back album, Paul McCartney suggested to music producer George Martin that the group get together and make an album "the way we used to do it", free of the conflict that had begun during sessions for The Beatles (also known as the "White Album"). Martin agreed, but on the strict condition that all the group – particularly John Lennon – allow him to produce the record in the same manner as earlier albums and that discipline would be adhered to. No one was entirely sure that the work was going to be the group's last, though George Harrison said "it felt as if we were reaching the end of the line".
Production
Recording history
The first sessions for Abbey Road began on 22 February 1969, only three weeks after the Get Back sessions, in Trident Studios. There, the group recorded a backing track for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" with Billy Preston accompanying them on Hammond organ. No further group recording occurred until April because of Ringo Starr's commitments on the film The Magic Christian. After a small amount of work that month and a session for "You Never Give Me Your Money" on 6 May, the group took an eight-week break before recommencing on 2 July. Recording continued through July and August, and the last backing track, for "Because", was taped on 1 August. Overdubs continued through the month, with the final sequencing of the album coming together on 20 August the last time all four Beatles were present in a studio together.
McCartney, Starr and Martin have reported positive recollections of the sessions, while Harrison said, "we did actually perform like musicians again". Lennon and McCartney had enjoyed working together on the non-album single "The Ballad of John and Yoko" in April, sharing friendly banter between takes, and some of this camaraderie carried over to the Abbey Road sessions. Nevertheless, there was a significant amount of tension in the group. According to Ian MacDonald, McCartney had an acrimonious argument with Lennon during the sessions. Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, had become a permanent presence at Beatles' recordings and clashed with other members. Halfway through recording in June, Lennon and Ono were involved in a car accident. A doctor told Ono to rest in bed, so Lennon had one installed in the studio so she could observe the recording process from there.
During the sessions, Lennon expressed a desire to have all of his songs on one side of the album, and McCartney's on the other. The album's two halves represented a compromise: Lennon wanted a traditional release with distinct and unrelated songs while McCartney and Martin wanted to continue their thematic approach from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by incorporating a medley. Lennon ultimately said that he disliked Abbey Road as a whole and felt that it lacked authenticity, calling McCartney's contributions "[music] for the grannies to dig" and not "real songs", and describing the medley as "junk ... just bits of songs thrown together".
Technical aspects
Abbey Road was recorded on eight-track reel-to-reel tape machines rather than the four-track machines that were used for earlier Beatles albums such as Sgt Pepper, and was the first Beatles album not to be issued in mono. The album makes prominent use of guitar played through a Leslie speaker, and of the Moog synthesizer. The Moog is not merely used as a background effect but sometimes plays a central role, as in "Because", where it is used for the middle eight. It is also prominent on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Here Comes the Sun". The synthesizer was introduced to the band by Harrison, who acquired one in November 1968 and used it to create his album Electronic Sound. Starr made more prominent use of the tom-toms on Abbey Road, later saying the album was "tom-tom madness ... I went nuts on the toms."
Abbey Road was also the first and only Beatles album to be entirely recorded through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, the TG12345 Mk I, as opposed to earlier thermionic valve-based REDD desks. The TG console also allowed better support for eight-track recording, facilitating the Beatles' considerable use of overdubbing. Emerick recalls that the TG desk used to record the album had individual limiters and compressors on each audio channel and noted that the overall sound was "softer" than the earlier valve desks. In his study of the role of the TG12345 in the Beatles' sound on Abbey Road, music historian Kenneth Womack observes that "the expansive sound palette and mixing capabilities of the TG12345 enabled George Martin and Geoff Emerick to imbue the Beatles' sound with greater definition and clarity. The warmth of solid-state recording also afforded their music with brighter tonalities and a deeper low end that distinguished Abbey Road from the rest of their corpus, providing listeners with an abiding sense that the Beatles' final long-player was markedly different."
Alan Parsons worked as an assistant engineer on the album. He later went on to engineer Pink Floyd's landmark album The Dark Side of the Moon and produce many popular albums himself with the Alan Parsons Project. John Kurlander also assisted on many of the sessions, and went on to become a successful engineer and producer, most noteworthy for his success on the scores for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
Songs
Side one
"Come Together"
"Come Together" was an expansion of "Let's Get It Together", a song Lennon originally wrote for Timothy Leary's California gubernatorial campaign against Ronald Reagan. A rough version of the lyrics for "Come Together" was written at Lennon's and Ono's second bed-in event in Montreal.
Beatles author Jonathan Gould suggested that the song has only a single "pariah-like protagonist" and Lennon was "painting another sardonic self-portrait". MacDonald has suggested that the "juju eyeballs" has been claimed to refer to Dr John and "spinal cracker" to Ono. The song was later the subject of a lawsuit brought against Lennon by Morris Levy because the opening line in "Come Together" – "Here come old flat-top" – was admittedly lifted from a line in Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me". A settlement was reached in 1973 in which Lennon promised to record three songs from Levy's publishing catalogue for his next album.
"Come Together" was later released as a double A-side single with "Something". In the liner notes to the compilation album Love, Martin described the track as "a simple song but it stands out because of the sheer brilliance of the performers".
"Something"
Harrison was inspired to write "Something" during sessions for the White Album by listening to label-mate James Taylor's "Something in the Way She Moves" from his album James Taylor. After the lyrics were refined during the Let It Be sessions (tapes reveal Lennon giving Harrison some songwriting advice during its composition), the song was initially given to Joe Cocker, but was subsequently recorded for Abbey Road. Cocker's version appeared on his album Joe Cocker! that November.
"Something" was Lennon's favourite song on the album, and McCartney considered it the best song Harrison had written. Though the song was written by Harrison, Frank Sinatra once commented that it was his favourite Lennon–McCartney composition and "the greatest love song ever written". Lennon contributed piano to the recording and while most of the part was removed, traces of it remain in the final cut, notably on the middle eight, before Harrison's guitar solo.
The song was issued as a double A-side single with "Come Together" in October 1969 and topped the US charts for one week, becoming the Beatles' first number-one single that was not a Lennon–McCartney composition. It was also the first Beatles single from an album already released in the UK. Apple's Neil Aspinall filmed a promotional video, which combined separate footage of the Beatles and their wives.
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer", McCartney's first song on the album, was first performed by the Beatles during the Let It Be sessions (as seen in the film). He wrote the song after the group's trip to India in 1968 and wanted to record it for the White Album, but it was rejected by the others as "too complicated".
The recording was fraught with tension between band members, as McCartney annoyed others by insisting on a perfect performance. The track was the first Lennon was invited to work on following his car accident, but he hated it and declined to do so. According to engineer Geoff Emerick, Lennon said it was "more of Paul's granny music" and left the session. He spent the next two weeks with Ono and did not return to the studio until the backing track for "Come Together" was laid down on 21 July. Harrison was also tired of the song, saying "we had to play it over and over again until Paul liked it. It was a real drag". Starr was more sympathetic to the song. "It was granny music", he admitted, "but we needed stuff like that on our album so other people would listen to it". Longtime roadie Mal Evans played the anvil sound in the chorus. This track also makes use of Harrison's Moog synthesizer, played by McCartney.
"Oh! Darling"
"Oh! Darling" was written by McCartney in the doo-wop style, like contemporary work by Frank Zappa. It was tried at the Get Back sessions, and a version appears on Anthology 3. It was subsequently re-recorded in April, with overdubs in July and August.
McCartney attempted recording the lead vocal only once a day. He said: "I came into the studios early every day for a week to sing it by myself because at first my voice was too clear. I wanted it to sound as though I'd been performing it on stage all week." Lennon thought he should have sung it, remarking that it was more his style.
"Octopus's Garden"
As was the case with most of the Beatles' albums, Starr sang lead vocal on one track. "Octopus's Garden" is his second and last solo composition released on any album by the band. It was inspired by a trip with his family to Sardinia aboard Peter Sellers's yacht after Starr left the band for two weeks during the sessions for the White Album. Starr received a full songwriting credit and composed most of the lyrics, although the song's melodic structure was partly written in the studio by Harrison. The pair would later collaborate as writers on Starr's solo singles "It Don't Come Easy", "Back Off Boogaloo" and "Photograph".
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)"
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)" was written by Lennon about his relationship with Ono, and he made a deliberate choice to keep the lyrics simple and concise. Author Tom Maginnis writes that the song had a progressive rock influence, with its unusual length and structure, repeating guitar riff, and white noise effects, though he noted the "I Want You" section has a straightforward blues structure.
The finished song is a combination of two different recording attempts. The first attempt occurred in February 1969, almost immediately after the Get Back/Let It Be sessions with Billy Preston. This was subsequently combined with a second version made during the Abbey Road sessions proper in April. The two sections together ran to nearly eight minutes, making it the Beatles' second-longest released track. Lennon used Harrison's Moog synthesizer with a white noise setting to create a "wind" effect that was overdubbed on the second half of the track. During the final edit, Lennon told Emerick to "cut it right there" at 7 minutes and 44 seconds, creating a sudden, jarring silence that concludes the first side of Abbey Road (the recording tape would have run out within 20 seconds as it was). The final mixing and editing of the track occurred on 20 August 1969, the last day all four Beatles were together in the studio.
Side two
"Here Comes the Sun"
"Here Comes the Sun" was written by Harrison in Eric Clapton's garden in Surrey during a break from stressful band business meetings. The basic track was recorded on 7 July 1969. Harrison sang lead and played acoustic guitar, McCartney provided backing vocals and played bass and Starr played the drums. Lennon was still recuperating from his car accident and did not perform on the track. Martin provided an orchestral arrangement in collaboration with Harrison, who overdubbed a Moog synthesizer part on 19 August, immediately before the final mix.
Though not released as a single, the song attracted attention and critical praise, and was included on the compilation 1967–1970. It has been featured several times on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, having been chosen by Sandie Shaw, Jerry Springer, Boris Johnson and Elaine Paige. The Daily Telegraph's Martin Chilton said it was "almost impossible not to sing along to". Since digital downloads have become eligible to chart, it reached number 56 in 2010 after the Beatles' back catalogue was released on iTunes. It is also the most streamed Beatles song on Spotify.
Harrison recorded a guitar solo for this track that did not appear in the final mix. It was rediscovered in 2012, and footage of Martin and Harrison's son Dhani listening to it in the studio was released on the DVD of Living in the Material World.
"Because"
"Because" was inspired by Lennon listening to Ono playing Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" on the piano. He recalled he was "lying on the sofa in our house, listening to Yoko play ... Suddenly, I said, 'Can you play those chords backward?' She did, and I wrote 'Because' around them." The track features three-part harmonies by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, which were then triple-tracked to give nine voices in the final mix. The group considered the vocals to be some of the hardest and most complex they attempted. Harrison played the Moog synthesizer, and Martin played the harpsichord that opens the track.
Medley
The remainder of side two consists of a 16-minute medley of eight short songs (known during the recording sessions as "The Long One"), recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin. Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3. While the idea for the medley was McCartney's, Martin claims credit for some structure, adding he "wanted to get John and Paul to think more seriously about their music".
The first track recorded for the medley was the opening number, "You Never Give Me Your Money". McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. However, MacDonald doubts this, given that the backing track, recorded on 6 May at Olympic Studios, predated the worst altercations between Klein and McCartney. The track is a suite of varying styles, ranging from a piano-led ballad at the start to arpeggiated guitars at the end. Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track.
This song transitions into Lennon's "Sun King" which, like "Because", showcases Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies. Following it are Lennon's "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during the Beatles' 1968 trip to India) and "Polythene Pam". These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan entered McCartney's residence via his bathroom window), "Golden Slumbers" (based on Thomas Dekker's 17th-century poem set to new music), "Carry That Weight" (reprising elements from "You Never Give Me Your Money", and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and closing with "The End".
"The End" features Starr's only drum solo in the Beatles' catalogue (the drums are mixed across two tracks in "true stereo", unlike most releases at that time where they were hard panned left or right). Fifty-four seconds into the song are 18 bars of lead guitar: the first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, and the sequence is repeated two more times. Harrison suggested the idea of a guitar solo in the track, Lennon decided they should trade solos and McCartney elected to go first. The solos were cut live against the existing backing track in one take. Immediately after Lennon's third and final solo, the piano chords of the final part of the song begin. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". This section was taped separately from the first, and required the piano to be re-recorded by McCartney, which was done on 18 August. An alternative version of the song, with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (and Starr's drum solo heard in the background), appears on the Anthology 3 album and the 2012 digital-only compilation album Tomorrow Never Knows.
Musicologist Walter Everett interprets that most of the lyrics on side two's medley deal with "selfishness and self-gratification – the financial complaints in 'You Never Give Me Your Money,' the miserliness of Mr. Mustard, the holding back of the pillow in 'Carry That Weight,' the desire that some second person will visit the singer's dreams – perhaps the 'one sweet dream' of 'You Never Give Me Your Money'? – in 'The End.'" Everett adds that the medley's "selfish moments" are played in the context of the tonal centre of A, while "generosity" is expressed in songs where C major is central. The medley concludes with a "great compromise in the 'negotiations'" in "The End", which serves as a structurally balanced coda. In response to the repeated A-major choruses of "love you", McCartney sings in realisation that there is as much self-gratifying love ("the love you take") as there is of the generous love ("the love you make"), in A major and C major, respectively.
"Her Majesty"
"Her Majesty" was recorded by McCartney on 2 July when he arrived before the rest of the group at Abbey Road. It was originally included in a rough mix of the side two medley (and officially available in this form for the first time on the album's 3CD Super Deluxe edition box set), appearing between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam". McCartney disliked the way the medley sounded when it included "Her Majesty", so he asked for it to be cut. The second engineer, John Kurlander, had been instructed by George Martin not to throw out anything, so after McCartney left, he attached the track to the end of the master tape after 20 seconds of silence. The tape box bore an instruction to leave "Her Majesty" off the final product, but the next day when mastering engineer Malcolm Davies received the tape, he (also trained not to throw anything away) cut a playback lacquer of the whole sequence, including "Her Majesty". The Beatles liked this effect and included it on the album.
"Her Majesty" opens with the final, crashing chord of "Mean Mr. Mustard", while the final note remained buried in the mix of "Polythene Pam", as a result of being snipped off the reel during a rough mix of the medley on 30 July. The medley was subsequently mixed again from scratch although the song was not touched again and still appears in its rough mix on the album.
Original US and UK pressings of Abbey Road do not list "Her Majesty" on the album's cover nor on the record label, making it a hidden track. The song title appears on the inlay card and disc of the 1987 remastered CD reissue, as track 17. It also appears on the sleeve, booklet and disc of the 2009 remastered CD reissue, but not on the cover or record label of the 2012 vinyl reissue.
Unreleased material
Three days after the session for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", Harrison recorded solo demos of "All Things Must Pass" (which became the title track of his 1970 triple album), "Something" and "Old Brown Shoe". The latter was re-recorded by the Beatles in April 1969 and issued as the B-side to "The Ballad of John and Yoko" the following month. All three of these Harrison demos were later featured on Anthology 3.
During the sessions for the medley, McCartney recorded "Come and Get It", playing all the instruments. It was assumed to be a demo recording for another artist but McCartney later said that he originally intended to put it on Abbey Road. It was instead covered by Badfinger, while McCartney's original recording appeared on Anthology 3.
The original backing track to "Something", featuring a piano-led coda, and "You Never Give Me Your Money", which leads into a fast rock-n-roll jam session, have appeared on bootlegs.
Cover photo
Apple Records creative director Kosh designed the album cover. It is the only original UK Beatles album sleeve to show neither the artist name nor the album title on its front cover, which was Kosh's idea, despite EMI claiming the record would not sell without this information. He later explained that "we didn't need to write the band's name on the cover ... They were the most famous band in the world". The front cover was a photograph of the group on a zebra crossing based on ideas that McCartney sketched and taken on 8 August 1969 outside EMI Studios on Abbey Road. At 11:35 that morning, photographer Iain Macmillan was given only ten minutes to take the photo while he stood on a step-ladder and a policeman held up traffic behind the camera. Macmillan took six photographs, which McCartney examined with a magnifying glass before deciding which would be used on the album sleeve.
In the image selected by McCartney, the group walk across the street in single file from left to right, with Lennon leading, followed by Starr, McCartney, and Harrison. McCartney is barefoot and out of step with the others. Except for Harrison, the group are wearing suits designed by Tommy Nutter. A white Volkswagen Beetle is to the left of the picture, parked next to the zebra crossing, which belonged to one of the people living in the block of flats across from the recording studio. After the album was released, the number plate (LMW 281F) was repeatedly stolen from the car. In 2004, news sources published a claim made by retired American salesman Paul Cole that he was the man standing on the pavement to the right of the picture.
Release
In mid-1969, Lennon formed a new group, the Plastic Ono Band, in part because the Beatles had rejected his song "Cold Turkey". While Harrison worked with such artists as Leon Russell, Doris Troy, Preston and Delaney & Bonnie through to the end of the year, McCartney took a hiatus from the group after his daughter Mary was born on 28 August. On 20 September, Lennon told McCartney, Starr, and business manager Allen Klein (Harrison was not present) he was leaving the group, (or in his words, he wanted a divorce) six days before Abbey Road was released. Apple released "Something" backed with "Come Together" in the US on 6 October 1969. Release of the single in the UK followed on 31 October, while Lennon released the Plastic Ono Band's "Cold Turkey" the same month.
The Beatles did little promotion of Abbey Road directly, and no public announcement was made of the band's split until McCartney announced he was leaving the group in April 1970. By this time, the Get Back project (by now retitled Let It Be) had been re-examined, with overdubs and mixing sessions continuing into 1970. Therefore, Let It Be became the last album to be finished and released by the Beatles, although its recording had begun before Abbey Road.
Abbey Road sold four million copies in its first two months of release. In the UK, the album debuted at number one, where it remained for 11 weeks before being displaced for one week by the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed. The following week (which was Christmas), Abbey Road returned to the top for another six weeks (completing a total of 17 weeks) before being replaced by Led Zeppelin II. Altogether, it spent 81 weeks on the UK albums chart. Reaction overseas was similar. In the US, the album spent 11 weeks at number one on the Billboard Top LPs chart. It was the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) best-selling album of 1969. In Japan, it was one of the longest-charting albums to date, remaining in the top 100 for 298 weeks during the 1970s.
Critical reception
Contemporary
Abbey Road initially received mixed reviews from music critics, who criticised the production's artificial sounds and viewed its music as inauthentic. William Mann of The Times said that the album will "be called gimmicky by people who want a record to sound exactly like a live performance", although he considered it to be "teem[ing] with musical invention" and added: "Nice as Come Together and Harrison's Something are – they are minor pleasures in the context of the whole disc ... Side Two is marvellous ..." Ed Ward of Rolling Stone called the album "complicated instead of complex" and felt that the Moog synthesizer "disembodies and artificializes" the band's sound, adding that they "create a sound that could not possibly exist outside the studio". While he found the medley on side two to be their "most impressive music" since Rubber Soul, Nik Cohn of The New York Times said that, "individually", the album's songs are "nothing special". Albert Goldman of Life magazine wrote that Abbey Road "is not one of the Beatles' great albums" and, despite some "lovely" phrases and "stirring" segues, side two's suite "seems symbolic of the Beatles' latest phase, which might be described as the round-the-clock production of disposable music effects".
Conversely, Chris Welch wrote in Melody Maker: "the truth is, their latest LP is just a natural born gas, entirely free of pretension, deep meanings or symbolism ... While production is simple compared to past intricacies, it is still extremely sophisticated and inventive." Derek Jewell of The Sunday Times found the album "refreshingly terse and unpretentious", and although he lamented the band's "cod-1920s jokes (Maxwell's Silver Hammer) and ... Ringo's obligatory nursery arias (Octopus's Garden)", he considered that Abbey Road "touches higher peaks than did their last album". John Mendelsohn, writing for Rolling Stone, called it "breathtakingly recorded" and praised side two especially, equating it to "the whole of Sgt. Pepper" and stating, "That the Beatles can unify seemingly countless musical fragments and lyrical doodlings into a uniformly wonderful suite ... seems potent testimony that no, they've far from lost it, and no, they haven't stopped trying."
While covering the Rolling Stones' 1969 American tour for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau reported from a meeting with Greil Marcus in Berkeley that "opinion has shifted against the Beatles. Everyone is putting down Abbey Road." Shortly afterwards, in Los Angeles, he wrote that his colleague Ellen Willis had grown to love the record, adding: "Damned if she isn't right – flawed but fine. Because the world is round it turns her on. Charlie Watts tells us he likes it too."
Retrospective
Many critics have since cited Abbey Road as the Beatles' greatest album. In a retrospective review, Nicole Pensiero of PopMatters called it "an amazingly cohesive piece of music, innovative and timeless". Mark Kemp of Paste viewed the album as being "among The Beatles' finest works, even if it foreshadows the cigarette-lighter-waving arena rock that technically skilled but critically maligned artists from Journey to Meatloaf would belabor throughout the '70s and '80s". Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph dubbed it the Beatles' "last love letter to the world" and praised its "big, modern sound", calling it "lush, rich, smooth, epic, emotional and utterly gorgeous".
AllMusic's Richie Unterberger felt that the album shared Sgt. Peppers "faux-conceptual forms", but had "stronger compositions", and wrote of its standing in the band's catalogue: "Whether Abbey Road is the Beatles' best work is debatable, but it's certainly the most immaculately produced (with the possible exception of Sgt. Pepper) and most tightly constructed." Ian MacDonald gave a mixed opinion of the album, noting that several tracks had been written at least a year previously, and would possibly have been unsuitable without being integrated into the medley on side two. He did, however, praise the production, particularly the sound of Starr's bass drum.
Abbey Road received high rankings in several "best albums in history" polls by critics and publications. It was voted number 8 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000). Time included it in their 2006 list of the All-Time 100 Albums. In 2009, readers of Rolling Stone named Abbey Road the greatest Beatles album. In 2020, the magazine ranked the album at number 5 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", the highest Beatles record on the list; a previous version of the list from 2012 had ranked it at number 14. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Legacy
Abbey Road crossing and "Paul is dead"
The image of the Beatles on the Abbey Road crossing has become one of the most famous and imitated in recording history. The crossing is a popular destination for Beatles fans, and a webcam has operated there since 2011. In December 2010, the crossing was given grade II listed status for its "cultural and historical importance"; the Abbey Road studios themselves had been given similar status earlier in the year.
Shortly after the album's release, the cover became part of the "Paul is dead" theory that was spreading across college campuses in the US. According to followers of the rumour, the cover depicted the Beatles walking out of a cemetery in a funeral procession. The procession was led by Lennon dressed in white as a religious figure; Starr was dressed in black as the undertaker; McCartney, out of step with the others, was a barefoot corpse; and Harrison dressed in denim was the gravedigger. The left-handed McCartney is holding a cigarette in his right hand, indicating that he is an imposter, and part of the number plate on the Volkswagen parked on the street is 281F (misread as 28IF), meaning that McCartney would have been 28 if he had lived – despite the fact that he was only 27 at the time of the photo and subsequent release of the record. The escalation of the "Paul is dead" rumour became the subject of intense analysis on mainstream radio and contributed to Abbey Roads commercial success in the US. Lennon was interviewed in London by New York's WMCA, and he ridiculed the rumour but conceded that it was invaluable publicity for the album.
The cover image has been parodied on several occasions, including by McCartney on his 1993 live album Paul Is Live. On the cover of its October 1977 issue, the satirical magazine National Lampoon depicted the four Beatles flattened along the zebra crossing, with a road roller driving away up the street. The Red Hot Chili Peppers' The Abbey Road E.P. parodies the cover, with the band walking near-naked across a similar zebra crossing. In 2003, several US poster companies airbrushed McCartney's cigarette out of the image without permission from Apple or McCartney. In 2013, Kolkata Police launched a traffic safety awareness advertisement against jaywalking, using the cover and a caption that read: "If they can, why can't you?"
Cover versions and influence
The songs on Abbey Road have been covered many times and the album itself has been covered in its entirety. One month after Abbey Roads release, George Benson recorded a cover version of the album called The Other Side of Abbey Road. Later in 1969 Booker T. & the M.G.'s recorded McLemore Avenue (the location in Memphis of Stax Records) which covered the Abbey Road songs and had a similar cover photo.
While matching albums such as Sgt. Pepper in terms of popularity, Abbey Road failed to repeat the Beatles' earlier achievements in galvanising their rivals to imitate them. In author Peter Doggett's description, "Too contrived for the rock underground to copy, too complex for the bubblegum pop brigade to copy, the album influenced no one – except [Paul McCartney]", who spent years trying to emulate its scope in his solo career. Writing for Classic Rock in 2014, Jon Anderson of the progressive rock band Yes said his group were constantly influenced by the Beatles from Revolver onwards, but it was the feeling that side two was "one complete idea" that inspired him to create long-form pieces of music.
Several artists have covered some or all of the side-two medley, including Phil Collins (for the Martin/Beatles tribute album In My Life), The String Cheese Incident, Transatlantic and Tenacious D (who performed the medley with Phish keyboardist Page McConnell). Furthur, a jam band including former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, played the entire Abbey Road album during its Spring Tour 2011. It began with a "Come Together" opener at Boston on 4 March and ended with the entire medley in New York City on 15 March, including "Her Majesty" as an encore.
Continued sales and reissues
In June 1970, Allen Klein reported that Abbey Road was the Beatles' best-selling album in the US with sales of about five million. By 1992, Abbey Road had sold nine million copies. The album became the ninth-most downloaded on the iTunes Store a week after it was released there on 16 November 2010. A CNN report stated it was the best-selling vinyl album of 2011. It is the first album from the 1960s to sell over five million albums since 1991 when Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales. In the US, the album had sold 7,177,797 copies by the end of the 1970s. , the album had sold over 31 million copies worldwide and is one of the band's best-selling albums. In October 2019, Abbey Road re-entered the UK charts, again hitting number one.
Abbey Road has remained in print since its first release in 1969. The original album was released on 26 September in the UK and 1 October in the US on Apple Records. It was reissued as a limited edition picture disc on vinyl in the US by Capitol on 27 December 1978, while a CD reissue of the album was released in 1987, with a remastered version appearing in 2009. The remaster included additional photographs with additional liner notes and the first, limited edition, run also included a short documentary about the making of the album.
In 2001, Abbey Road was certified 12× platinum by the RIAA. The album continues to be reissued on vinyl. It was included as part of the Beatles' Collector's Crate series in September 2009 and saw a remastered LP release on 180-gram vinyl in 2012.
A super deluxe version of the album, which featured new mixes by Giles Martin, was released in September 2019 to celebrate the original album's 50th anniversary.
As of October 2019, Abbey Road has sold 2,240,608 pure sales in United Kingdom and overall all consumed sales stand at 2,327,230 units. Post 1994 sales stand at 827,329.
Track listing
Notes
"Her Majesty" appears as a hidden track after "The End" and 14 seconds of silence. Later releases of the album included the song on the track listing, except the vinyl editions.
Some cassette tape versions in the UK and US had "Come Together" and "Here Comes the Sun" swapped to even out the playing time of each side.
Personnel
According to Mark Lewisohn, Ian MacDonald, Barry Miles, Kevin Howlett, and Geoff Emerick.
The Beatles
John Lennon – lead, harmony and background vocals; rhythm, lead and acoustic guitars; acoustic and electric pianos, Moog synthesizer; white noise generator and sound effects; percussion
Paul McCartney – lead, harmony and background vocals; bass, rhythm, lead and acoustic guitars; acoustic and electric pianos, Moog synthesizer; sound effects; wind chimes, handclaps and percussion
George Harrison – harmony and background vocals; lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars; bass on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "Oh Darling" and "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight"; harmonium and Moog synthesizer; handclaps and percussion; lead vocals (on "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun")
Ringo Starr – drums and percussion; background vocals; lead vocals (on "Octopus's Garden")
Additional musicians
George Martin – harpsichord, organ, percussion
Billy Preston – Hammond organ (on "Something" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)")
Mal Evans – anvil on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
Production
"Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with George Harrison)
"Golden Slumbers", "Carry That Weight" and "The End" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with Paul McCartney)
Produced by George Martin (with the Beatles)
Recorded by Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald
Assistant engineering by Alan Parsons
Mixed by Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald and George Martin (with the Beatles)
Moog programming by Mike Vickers
Charts
Original release
1987 reissue
2009 reissue
2019 reissue
Certifications
Release history
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
External links
Beatles comments on each song
Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick on Abbey Road – A track-by-track walkthrough
Live webcam at the Abbey Road zebra crossing
The Beatles y la foto de la portada de Abbey Road
1969 albums
The Beatles albums
Apple Records albums
Albums produced by George Martin
Albums recorded at Olympic Sound Studios
Albums recorded at Trident Studios
Albums arranged by George Martin
Albums conducted by George Martin
Albums produced by Chris Thomas (record producer)
Albums produced by George Harrison
Albums produced by John Lennon
Albums produced by Paul McCartney
Albums produced by Ringo Starr
Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients
Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical | false | [
"Alex Hadley (born 14 September 1973) is an Australian Paralympic swimmer from the United Kingdom. He was born in Staines, England. He competed but did not win any medals at the 1996 Atlanta Games. At the 2004 Athens Games, he won a gold medal in the Men's 4 × 100 m Medley 34 pts event and a silver medal in the Men's 4 × 100 m Freestyle 34 pts event. He also competed but did not win any medals at the 2008 Beijing Games.\n\nReferences\n\nMale Paralympic swimmers of Australia\nSwimmers at the 1996 Summer Paralympics\nSwimmers at the 2004 Summer Paralympics\nSwimmers at the 2008 Summer Paralympics\nMedalists at the 2004 Summer Paralympics\nParalympic gold medalists for Australia\nParalympic silver medalists for Australia\nEnglish emigrants to Australia\nPeople from Staines-upon-Thames\n1973 births\nLiving people\nParalympic medalists in swimming",
"Australia was represented in table tennis at the 1960 Summer Paralympics.In the early Games, many Australian table tennis players represented Australia in several sports. It was won 8 medals - 2 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals. \nGold medallists are:\n Daphne Ceeney and Marion O'Brien in 1964\nTerry Biggs in 1984\n\nMedal tally\n\nSummer Paralympic Games\n\n1960\n\nAustralia represented by: \nMen - Bruno Moretti, Bill Mather-Brown \nAustralia won a silver medal in Men's Doubles B - Bruno Moretti, Bill Mather-Brown\n\n1964\n\nAustralia represented by: \nMen - Allan McLucas \nWomen - Daphne Ceeney, Marion O'Brien, Elaine Schreiber \nAustralia won 1 gold and 3 bronze medals.\n\n1968\n\nAustralia represented by: \nMen - Kevin Bawden, Alan Conn, Kevin Coombs, John Martin, Bill Mather-Brown, Allan McLucas, Bruno Moretti, Jimmy Newton, Tony South, Don Watts \nWomen - Lorraine Dodd, Daphne Hilton, Cherrie Loydstrom, Marion O'Brien, Elaine Schreiber, Pam Smith \nAustralia won 1 silver medal in Women's Doubles C - Marion O'Brien, Elaine Schreiber.\n\n1972\n\nAustralia represented by: \nMen – Bob Millan, Cliff Rickard \nWomen - ? \nAustralia did not win any medals.\n\n1976\n\nAustralia represented by:\nMen – Kevin Bawden, Wayne Flood, Ray Letheby, Peter Marsh, John Martin, Ross Soutar \nWomen – Elaine Schreiber \nAustralia did not win any medals.\n\n1980\n\nAustralia represented by: \nMen – Donald Dann, Peter Marsh, John Martin, John Sheil, Charlie Tapscott \nAustralia did not win any medals.\n\n1984\n\nAustralia represented by: \nMen – Terry Biggs, Paul Croft, Joe Marlow, Errol Smith \nAustralian won a gold medal through Terry Biggs performance.\n\n1988\n\nAustralia represented by: \nMen – Geoffrey Barden, Marcel Bucello, Paul Croft, Gary Croker, Jeremy Halloran, Craig Parson, John Sheil, Ian Simpson \nWomen – Carmel Williams \nAustralia did not win any medals.\n\n1992\n\n \nAustralia represented by: \nMen – Csaba Bobory \nAustralia won no medals.\n\n1996\nNo athletes\n\n2000\n\nAustralia represented by:\n\nMen - Bill Medley, Ross Schurgott \nOfficials - Head Coach - Joe Hoad (Head) ; Officials - Carmel Medley \nAustralia was given two wild card entries due to it being the host nation. It did not win any medals as no athlete progressed past the first round.\n\n2004\nNo athletes\n\n2008\n\nAustralia represented by: Women - Rebecca Julian, Sarah Lazzaro \nOfficials - Head Coach - Brian Berry, Section Manager - Barbara Talbot Catherine Morrow was selected but withdrew from the team.\n\nAustralia did not win any medals.\n\n2012\n\nAustralia represented by: Women- Melissa Tapper, Rebecca McDonnell \nOfficials - Head Coach - Alois Rosario ; Team Leader - Roger Massie \nAustralia did not win any medals.\n\n2016 \n\nAustralia represented by: \nWomen- Daniela Di Toro, Melissa Tapper, Andrea McDonnell (d) \nMen- Barak Mizrachi (d), Samuel Von Einem (d) \nOfficials - Head Coach - Alois Rosario ; Team Leader - Roger Massie \n\nSam Von Einem in winning the silver medal won Australia's first medal since Terry Biggs won gold in 1984.\n\n(d)= Paralympic Games debut\n\nSee also\nTable tennis at the Summer Paralympics\nAustralia at the Paralympics\n\nReferences\n\nAustralian Paralympic teams\nTable tennis at the Summer Paralympics\nTable tennis in Australia"
]
|
[
"Abbey Road",
"Medley",
"Does Medley refer to a song on the album?",
"Side two contains a 16-minute medley of eight short songs, recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin.",
"Were the 8 songs previously recorded or new?",
"Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3.",
"Did anyone besides McCartney and Martin have a hand in creating the song?",
"Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track,",
"Did Medley win any awards?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_8105eda42e114746b1837acf728441f2_1 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 5 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article besides the song Medley ? | Abbey Road | Side two contains a 16-minute medley of eight short songs, recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin. Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3. While the idea for the medley was McCartney's, Martin claims credit for some structure, adding he "wanted to get John and Paul to think more seriously about their music". The first track recorded for the medley was the opening number, "You Never Give Me Your Money". McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. However, MacDonald doubts this given that the backing track, recorded on 6 May at Olympic Studios, predated the worst altercations between Klein and McCartney. The track is a suite of varying styles, ranging from a piano-led ballad at the start to arpeggiated guitars at the end. Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track, which Beatles author Walter Everett considers his favourite Lennon guitar contribution. This song transitions into Lennon's "Sun King" which, like "Because", showcases Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies. Following it are Lennon's "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during the Beatles' 1968 trip to India) and "Polythene Pam". These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan entered McCartney's residence via his bathroom window), "Golden Slumbers" (based on Thomas Dekker's 17th-century poem set to new music), "Carry That Weight" (reprising elements from "You Never Give Me Your Money", and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and closing with "The End". "The End" features Starr's only drum solo in the Beatles' catalogue (the drums are mixed across two tracks in "true stereo", unlike most releases at that time where they were hard panned left or right). Fifty-four seconds into the song are 18 bars of lead guitar: the first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, with the sequence repeating. Harrison suggested the idea of a guitar solo in the track, Lennon decided they should trade solos and McCartney elected to go first. The solos were cut live against the existing backing track in one take. Immediately after Lennon's third and final solo, the piano chords of the final part of the song begin. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". This section was taped separately to the first, and required the piano to be re-recorded by McCartney, which was done on 18 August. An alternative version of the song, with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (with Starr's drum solo heard in the background), appears on the Anthology 3 album and the 2012 digital-only compilation album Tomorrow Never Knows. CANNOTANSWER | McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. | Abbey Road is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969 by Apple Records. Named after Abbey Road, London, the location of EMI Studios, the cover features the group walking across the street's zebra crossing, an image that became one of the most famous and imitated in popular music. The album's initially mixed reviews were contrasted by its immediate commercial success, topping record charts in the UK and US. The single "Something" / "Come Together" was released in October and topped the US charts.
The album incorporates genres such as blues, rock and pop, and makes prominent use of Moog synthesizer, sounds filtered through a Leslie speaker, and tom-tom drums. It is the Beatles' only album recorded exclusively through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, which afforded a clearer and brighter sound than the group's previous records. Side two contains a medley of shorter song fragments. The sessions also produced a non-album single, "The Ballad of John and Yoko" backed with "Old Brown Shoe".
Producer George Martin returned on the condition that the Beatles adhere to the discipline of their earlier records. They found the album's recording more enjoyable than the preceding Get Back sessions, but personal and business issues still affected the working environment. Production lasted from February to August 1969, and the closing track "The End" marked the final occasion that all four members recorded together. John Lennon privately left the group six days before the album's release; Paul McCartney publicly declared the band's break-up the following April.
Upon release, detractors found Abbey Road to be inauthentic and bemoaned the production's artificial effects. Since then, many critics have hailed the album as the Beatles' finest; in particular, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" are considered among the best songs George Harrison wrote for the group. The album has also been ranked as one of the Beatles' best-selling, including a multi-platinum certification by the RIAA. Shortly after its release, the cover photograph fuelled rumours of McCartney's purported death. EMI Studios was also renamed Abbey Road Studios in honour of the album. A deluxe version of the album was released in 2019. In 2020, it was ranked fifth in Rolling Stones list of the greatest albums of all time.
Background
After the tense and unpleasant recording sessions for the proposed Get Back album, Paul McCartney suggested to music producer George Martin that the group get together and make an album "the way we used to do it", free of the conflict that had begun during sessions for The Beatles (also known as the "White Album"). Martin agreed, but on the strict condition that all the group – particularly John Lennon – allow him to produce the record in the same manner as earlier albums and that discipline would be adhered to. No one was entirely sure that the work was going to be the group's last, though George Harrison said "it felt as if we were reaching the end of the line".
Production
Recording history
The first sessions for Abbey Road began on 22 February 1969, only three weeks after the Get Back sessions, in Trident Studios. There, the group recorded a backing track for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" with Billy Preston accompanying them on Hammond organ. No further group recording occurred until April because of Ringo Starr's commitments on the film The Magic Christian. After a small amount of work that month and a session for "You Never Give Me Your Money" on 6 May, the group took an eight-week break before recommencing on 2 July. Recording continued through July and August, and the last backing track, for "Because", was taped on 1 August. Overdubs continued through the month, with the final sequencing of the album coming together on 20 August the last time all four Beatles were present in a studio together.
McCartney, Starr and Martin have reported positive recollections of the sessions, while Harrison said, "we did actually perform like musicians again". Lennon and McCartney had enjoyed working together on the non-album single "The Ballad of John and Yoko" in April, sharing friendly banter between takes, and some of this camaraderie carried over to the Abbey Road sessions. Nevertheless, there was a significant amount of tension in the group. According to Ian MacDonald, McCartney had an acrimonious argument with Lennon during the sessions. Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, had become a permanent presence at Beatles' recordings and clashed with other members. Halfway through recording in June, Lennon and Ono were involved in a car accident. A doctor told Ono to rest in bed, so Lennon had one installed in the studio so she could observe the recording process from there.
During the sessions, Lennon expressed a desire to have all of his songs on one side of the album, and McCartney's on the other. The album's two halves represented a compromise: Lennon wanted a traditional release with distinct and unrelated songs while McCartney and Martin wanted to continue their thematic approach from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by incorporating a medley. Lennon ultimately said that he disliked Abbey Road as a whole and felt that it lacked authenticity, calling McCartney's contributions "[music] for the grannies to dig" and not "real songs", and describing the medley as "junk ... just bits of songs thrown together".
Technical aspects
Abbey Road was recorded on eight-track reel-to-reel tape machines rather than the four-track machines that were used for earlier Beatles albums such as Sgt Pepper, and was the first Beatles album not to be issued in mono. The album makes prominent use of guitar played through a Leslie speaker, and of the Moog synthesizer. The Moog is not merely used as a background effect but sometimes plays a central role, as in "Because", where it is used for the middle eight. It is also prominent on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Here Comes the Sun". The synthesizer was introduced to the band by Harrison, who acquired one in November 1968 and used it to create his album Electronic Sound. Starr made more prominent use of the tom-toms on Abbey Road, later saying the album was "tom-tom madness ... I went nuts on the toms."
Abbey Road was also the first and only Beatles album to be entirely recorded through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, the TG12345 Mk I, as opposed to earlier thermionic valve-based REDD desks. The TG console also allowed better support for eight-track recording, facilitating the Beatles' considerable use of overdubbing. Emerick recalls that the TG desk used to record the album had individual limiters and compressors on each audio channel and noted that the overall sound was "softer" than the earlier valve desks. In his study of the role of the TG12345 in the Beatles' sound on Abbey Road, music historian Kenneth Womack observes that "the expansive sound palette and mixing capabilities of the TG12345 enabled George Martin and Geoff Emerick to imbue the Beatles' sound with greater definition and clarity. The warmth of solid-state recording also afforded their music with brighter tonalities and a deeper low end that distinguished Abbey Road from the rest of their corpus, providing listeners with an abiding sense that the Beatles' final long-player was markedly different."
Alan Parsons worked as an assistant engineer on the album. He later went on to engineer Pink Floyd's landmark album The Dark Side of the Moon and produce many popular albums himself with the Alan Parsons Project. John Kurlander also assisted on many of the sessions, and went on to become a successful engineer and producer, most noteworthy for his success on the scores for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
Songs
Side one
"Come Together"
"Come Together" was an expansion of "Let's Get It Together", a song Lennon originally wrote for Timothy Leary's California gubernatorial campaign against Ronald Reagan. A rough version of the lyrics for "Come Together" was written at Lennon's and Ono's second bed-in event in Montreal.
Beatles author Jonathan Gould suggested that the song has only a single "pariah-like protagonist" and Lennon was "painting another sardonic self-portrait". MacDonald has suggested that the "juju eyeballs" has been claimed to refer to Dr John and "spinal cracker" to Ono. The song was later the subject of a lawsuit brought against Lennon by Morris Levy because the opening line in "Come Together" – "Here come old flat-top" – was admittedly lifted from a line in Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me". A settlement was reached in 1973 in which Lennon promised to record three songs from Levy's publishing catalogue for his next album.
"Come Together" was later released as a double A-side single with "Something". In the liner notes to the compilation album Love, Martin described the track as "a simple song but it stands out because of the sheer brilliance of the performers".
"Something"
Harrison was inspired to write "Something" during sessions for the White Album by listening to label-mate James Taylor's "Something in the Way She Moves" from his album James Taylor. After the lyrics were refined during the Let It Be sessions (tapes reveal Lennon giving Harrison some songwriting advice during its composition), the song was initially given to Joe Cocker, but was subsequently recorded for Abbey Road. Cocker's version appeared on his album Joe Cocker! that November.
"Something" was Lennon's favourite song on the album, and McCartney considered it the best song Harrison had written. Though the song was written by Harrison, Frank Sinatra once commented that it was his favourite Lennon–McCartney composition and "the greatest love song ever written". Lennon contributed piano to the recording and while most of the part was removed, traces of it remain in the final cut, notably on the middle eight, before Harrison's guitar solo.
The song was issued as a double A-side single with "Come Together" in October 1969 and topped the US charts for one week, becoming the Beatles' first number-one single that was not a Lennon–McCartney composition. It was also the first Beatles single from an album already released in the UK. Apple's Neil Aspinall filmed a promotional video, which combined separate footage of the Beatles and their wives.
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer", McCartney's first song on the album, was first performed by the Beatles during the Let It Be sessions (as seen in the film). He wrote the song after the group's trip to India in 1968 and wanted to record it for the White Album, but it was rejected by the others as "too complicated".
The recording was fraught with tension between band members, as McCartney annoyed others by insisting on a perfect performance. The track was the first Lennon was invited to work on following his car accident, but he hated it and declined to do so. According to engineer Geoff Emerick, Lennon said it was "more of Paul's granny music" and left the session. He spent the next two weeks with Ono and did not return to the studio until the backing track for "Come Together" was laid down on 21 July. Harrison was also tired of the song, saying "we had to play it over and over again until Paul liked it. It was a real drag". Starr was more sympathetic to the song. "It was granny music", he admitted, "but we needed stuff like that on our album so other people would listen to it". Longtime roadie Mal Evans played the anvil sound in the chorus. This track also makes use of Harrison's Moog synthesizer, played by McCartney.
"Oh! Darling"
"Oh! Darling" was written by McCartney in the doo-wop style, like contemporary work by Frank Zappa. It was tried at the Get Back sessions, and a version appears on Anthology 3. It was subsequently re-recorded in April, with overdubs in July and August.
McCartney attempted recording the lead vocal only once a day. He said: "I came into the studios early every day for a week to sing it by myself because at first my voice was too clear. I wanted it to sound as though I'd been performing it on stage all week." Lennon thought he should have sung it, remarking that it was more his style.
"Octopus's Garden"
As was the case with most of the Beatles' albums, Starr sang lead vocal on one track. "Octopus's Garden" is his second and last solo composition released on any album by the band. It was inspired by a trip with his family to Sardinia aboard Peter Sellers's yacht after Starr left the band for two weeks during the sessions for the White Album. Starr received a full songwriting credit and composed most of the lyrics, although the song's melodic structure was partly written in the studio by Harrison. The pair would later collaborate as writers on Starr's solo singles "It Don't Come Easy", "Back Off Boogaloo" and "Photograph".
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)"
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)" was written by Lennon about his relationship with Ono, and he made a deliberate choice to keep the lyrics simple and concise. Author Tom Maginnis writes that the song had a progressive rock influence, with its unusual length and structure, repeating guitar riff, and white noise effects, though he noted the "I Want You" section has a straightforward blues structure.
The finished song is a combination of two different recording attempts. The first attempt occurred in February 1969, almost immediately after the Get Back/Let It Be sessions with Billy Preston. This was subsequently combined with a second version made during the Abbey Road sessions proper in April. The two sections together ran to nearly eight minutes, making it the Beatles' second-longest released track. Lennon used Harrison's Moog synthesizer with a white noise setting to create a "wind" effect that was overdubbed on the second half of the track. During the final edit, Lennon told Emerick to "cut it right there" at 7 minutes and 44 seconds, creating a sudden, jarring silence that concludes the first side of Abbey Road (the recording tape would have run out within 20 seconds as it was). The final mixing and editing of the track occurred on 20 August 1969, the last day all four Beatles were together in the studio.
Side two
"Here Comes the Sun"
"Here Comes the Sun" was written by Harrison in Eric Clapton's garden in Surrey during a break from stressful band business meetings. The basic track was recorded on 7 July 1969. Harrison sang lead and played acoustic guitar, McCartney provided backing vocals and played bass and Starr played the drums. Lennon was still recuperating from his car accident and did not perform on the track. Martin provided an orchestral arrangement in collaboration with Harrison, who overdubbed a Moog synthesizer part on 19 August, immediately before the final mix.
Though not released as a single, the song attracted attention and critical praise, and was included on the compilation 1967–1970. It has been featured several times on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, having been chosen by Sandie Shaw, Jerry Springer, Boris Johnson and Elaine Paige. The Daily Telegraph's Martin Chilton said it was "almost impossible not to sing along to". Since digital downloads have become eligible to chart, it reached number 56 in 2010 after the Beatles' back catalogue was released on iTunes. It is also the most streamed Beatles song on Spotify.
Harrison recorded a guitar solo for this track that did not appear in the final mix. It was rediscovered in 2012, and footage of Martin and Harrison's son Dhani listening to it in the studio was released on the DVD of Living in the Material World.
"Because"
"Because" was inspired by Lennon listening to Ono playing Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" on the piano. He recalled he was "lying on the sofa in our house, listening to Yoko play ... Suddenly, I said, 'Can you play those chords backward?' She did, and I wrote 'Because' around them." The track features three-part harmonies by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, which were then triple-tracked to give nine voices in the final mix. The group considered the vocals to be some of the hardest and most complex they attempted. Harrison played the Moog synthesizer, and Martin played the harpsichord that opens the track.
Medley
The remainder of side two consists of a 16-minute medley of eight short songs (known during the recording sessions as "The Long One"), recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin. Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3. While the idea for the medley was McCartney's, Martin claims credit for some structure, adding he "wanted to get John and Paul to think more seriously about their music".
The first track recorded for the medley was the opening number, "You Never Give Me Your Money". McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. However, MacDonald doubts this, given that the backing track, recorded on 6 May at Olympic Studios, predated the worst altercations between Klein and McCartney. The track is a suite of varying styles, ranging from a piano-led ballad at the start to arpeggiated guitars at the end. Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track.
This song transitions into Lennon's "Sun King" which, like "Because", showcases Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies. Following it are Lennon's "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during the Beatles' 1968 trip to India) and "Polythene Pam". These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan entered McCartney's residence via his bathroom window), "Golden Slumbers" (based on Thomas Dekker's 17th-century poem set to new music), "Carry That Weight" (reprising elements from "You Never Give Me Your Money", and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and closing with "The End".
"The End" features Starr's only drum solo in the Beatles' catalogue (the drums are mixed across two tracks in "true stereo", unlike most releases at that time where they were hard panned left or right). Fifty-four seconds into the song are 18 bars of lead guitar: the first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, and the sequence is repeated two more times. Harrison suggested the idea of a guitar solo in the track, Lennon decided they should trade solos and McCartney elected to go first. The solos were cut live against the existing backing track in one take. Immediately after Lennon's third and final solo, the piano chords of the final part of the song begin. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". This section was taped separately from the first, and required the piano to be re-recorded by McCartney, which was done on 18 August. An alternative version of the song, with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (and Starr's drum solo heard in the background), appears on the Anthology 3 album and the 2012 digital-only compilation album Tomorrow Never Knows.
Musicologist Walter Everett interprets that most of the lyrics on side two's medley deal with "selfishness and self-gratification – the financial complaints in 'You Never Give Me Your Money,' the miserliness of Mr. Mustard, the holding back of the pillow in 'Carry That Weight,' the desire that some second person will visit the singer's dreams – perhaps the 'one sweet dream' of 'You Never Give Me Your Money'? – in 'The End.'" Everett adds that the medley's "selfish moments" are played in the context of the tonal centre of A, while "generosity" is expressed in songs where C major is central. The medley concludes with a "great compromise in the 'negotiations'" in "The End", which serves as a structurally balanced coda. In response to the repeated A-major choruses of "love you", McCartney sings in realisation that there is as much self-gratifying love ("the love you take") as there is of the generous love ("the love you make"), in A major and C major, respectively.
"Her Majesty"
"Her Majesty" was recorded by McCartney on 2 July when he arrived before the rest of the group at Abbey Road. It was originally included in a rough mix of the side two medley (and officially available in this form for the first time on the album's 3CD Super Deluxe edition box set), appearing between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam". McCartney disliked the way the medley sounded when it included "Her Majesty", so he asked for it to be cut. The second engineer, John Kurlander, had been instructed by George Martin not to throw out anything, so after McCartney left, he attached the track to the end of the master tape after 20 seconds of silence. The tape box bore an instruction to leave "Her Majesty" off the final product, but the next day when mastering engineer Malcolm Davies received the tape, he (also trained not to throw anything away) cut a playback lacquer of the whole sequence, including "Her Majesty". The Beatles liked this effect and included it on the album.
"Her Majesty" opens with the final, crashing chord of "Mean Mr. Mustard", while the final note remained buried in the mix of "Polythene Pam", as a result of being snipped off the reel during a rough mix of the medley on 30 July. The medley was subsequently mixed again from scratch although the song was not touched again and still appears in its rough mix on the album.
Original US and UK pressings of Abbey Road do not list "Her Majesty" on the album's cover nor on the record label, making it a hidden track. The song title appears on the inlay card and disc of the 1987 remastered CD reissue, as track 17. It also appears on the sleeve, booklet and disc of the 2009 remastered CD reissue, but not on the cover or record label of the 2012 vinyl reissue.
Unreleased material
Three days after the session for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", Harrison recorded solo demos of "All Things Must Pass" (which became the title track of his 1970 triple album), "Something" and "Old Brown Shoe". The latter was re-recorded by the Beatles in April 1969 and issued as the B-side to "The Ballad of John and Yoko" the following month. All three of these Harrison demos were later featured on Anthology 3.
During the sessions for the medley, McCartney recorded "Come and Get It", playing all the instruments. It was assumed to be a demo recording for another artist but McCartney later said that he originally intended to put it on Abbey Road. It was instead covered by Badfinger, while McCartney's original recording appeared on Anthology 3.
The original backing track to "Something", featuring a piano-led coda, and "You Never Give Me Your Money", which leads into a fast rock-n-roll jam session, have appeared on bootlegs.
Cover photo
Apple Records creative director Kosh designed the album cover. It is the only original UK Beatles album sleeve to show neither the artist name nor the album title on its front cover, which was Kosh's idea, despite EMI claiming the record would not sell without this information. He later explained that "we didn't need to write the band's name on the cover ... They were the most famous band in the world". The front cover was a photograph of the group on a zebra crossing based on ideas that McCartney sketched and taken on 8 August 1969 outside EMI Studios on Abbey Road. At 11:35 that morning, photographer Iain Macmillan was given only ten minutes to take the photo while he stood on a step-ladder and a policeman held up traffic behind the camera. Macmillan took six photographs, which McCartney examined with a magnifying glass before deciding which would be used on the album sleeve.
In the image selected by McCartney, the group walk across the street in single file from left to right, with Lennon leading, followed by Starr, McCartney, and Harrison. McCartney is barefoot and out of step with the others. Except for Harrison, the group are wearing suits designed by Tommy Nutter. A white Volkswagen Beetle is to the left of the picture, parked next to the zebra crossing, which belonged to one of the people living in the block of flats across from the recording studio. After the album was released, the number plate (LMW 281F) was repeatedly stolen from the car. In 2004, news sources published a claim made by retired American salesman Paul Cole that he was the man standing on the pavement to the right of the picture.
Release
In mid-1969, Lennon formed a new group, the Plastic Ono Band, in part because the Beatles had rejected his song "Cold Turkey". While Harrison worked with such artists as Leon Russell, Doris Troy, Preston and Delaney & Bonnie through to the end of the year, McCartney took a hiatus from the group after his daughter Mary was born on 28 August. On 20 September, Lennon told McCartney, Starr, and business manager Allen Klein (Harrison was not present) he was leaving the group, (or in his words, he wanted a divorce) six days before Abbey Road was released. Apple released "Something" backed with "Come Together" in the US on 6 October 1969. Release of the single in the UK followed on 31 October, while Lennon released the Plastic Ono Band's "Cold Turkey" the same month.
The Beatles did little promotion of Abbey Road directly, and no public announcement was made of the band's split until McCartney announced he was leaving the group in April 1970. By this time, the Get Back project (by now retitled Let It Be) had been re-examined, with overdubs and mixing sessions continuing into 1970. Therefore, Let It Be became the last album to be finished and released by the Beatles, although its recording had begun before Abbey Road.
Abbey Road sold four million copies in its first two months of release. In the UK, the album debuted at number one, where it remained for 11 weeks before being displaced for one week by the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed. The following week (which was Christmas), Abbey Road returned to the top for another six weeks (completing a total of 17 weeks) before being replaced by Led Zeppelin II. Altogether, it spent 81 weeks on the UK albums chart. Reaction overseas was similar. In the US, the album spent 11 weeks at number one on the Billboard Top LPs chart. It was the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) best-selling album of 1969. In Japan, it was one of the longest-charting albums to date, remaining in the top 100 for 298 weeks during the 1970s.
Critical reception
Contemporary
Abbey Road initially received mixed reviews from music critics, who criticised the production's artificial sounds and viewed its music as inauthentic. William Mann of The Times said that the album will "be called gimmicky by people who want a record to sound exactly like a live performance", although he considered it to be "teem[ing] with musical invention" and added: "Nice as Come Together and Harrison's Something are – they are minor pleasures in the context of the whole disc ... Side Two is marvellous ..." Ed Ward of Rolling Stone called the album "complicated instead of complex" and felt that the Moog synthesizer "disembodies and artificializes" the band's sound, adding that they "create a sound that could not possibly exist outside the studio". While he found the medley on side two to be their "most impressive music" since Rubber Soul, Nik Cohn of The New York Times said that, "individually", the album's songs are "nothing special". Albert Goldman of Life magazine wrote that Abbey Road "is not one of the Beatles' great albums" and, despite some "lovely" phrases and "stirring" segues, side two's suite "seems symbolic of the Beatles' latest phase, which might be described as the round-the-clock production of disposable music effects".
Conversely, Chris Welch wrote in Melody Maker: "the truth is, their latest LP is just a natural born gas, entirely free of pretension, deep meanings or symbolism ... While production is simple compared to past intricacies, it is still extremely sophisticated and inventive." Derek Jewell of The Sunday Times found the album "refreshingly terse and unpretentious", and although he lamented the band's "cod-1920s jokes (Maxwell's Silver Hammer) and ... Ringo's obligatory nursery arias (Octopus's Garden)", he considered that Abbey Road "touches higher peaks than did their last album". John Mendelsohn, writing for Rolling Stone, called it "breathtakingly recorded" and praised side two especially, equating it to "the whole of Sgt. Pepper" and stating, "That the Beatles can unify seemingly countless musical fragments and lyrical doodlings into a uniformly wonderful suite ... seems potent testimony that no, they've far from lost it, and no, they haven't stopped trying."
While covering the Rolling Stones' 1969 American tour for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau reported from a meeting with Greil Marcus in Berkeley that "opinion has shifted against the Beatles. Everyone is putting down Abbey Road." Shortly afterwards, in Los Angeles, he wrote that his colleague Ellen Willis had grown to love the record, adding: "Damned if she isn't right – flawed but fine. Because the world is round it turns her on. Charlie Watts tells us he likes it too."
Retrospective
Many critics have since cited Abbey Road as the Beatles' greatest album. In a retrospective review, Nicole Pensiero of PopMatters called it "an amazingly cohesive piece of music, innovative and timeless". Mark Kemp of Paste viewed the album as being "among The Beatles' finest works, even if it foreshadows the cigarette-lighter-waving arena rock that technically skilled but critically maligned artists from Journey to Meatloaf would belabor throughout the '70s and '80s". Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph dubbed it the Beatles' "last love letter to the world" and praised its "big, modern sound", calling it "lush, rich, smooth, epic, emotional and utterly gorgeous".
AllMusic's Richie Unterberger felt that the album shared Sgt. Peppers "faux-conceptual forms", but had "stronger compositions", and wrote of its standing in the band's catalogue: "Whether Abbey Road is the Beatles' best work is debatable, but it's certainly the most immaculately produced (with the possible exception of Sgt. Pepper) and most tightly constructed." Ian MacDonald gave a mixed opinion of the album, noting that several tracks had been written at least a year previously, and would possibly have been unsuitable without being integrated into the medley on side two. He did, however, praise the production, particularly the sound of Starr's bass drum.
Abbey Road received high rankings in several "best albums in history" polls by critics and publications. It was voted number 8 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000). Time included it in their 2006 list of the All-Time 100 Albums. In 2009, readers of Rolling Stone named Abbey Road the greatest Beatles album. In 2020, the magazine ranked the album at number 5 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", the highest Beatles record on the list; a previous version of the list from 2012 had ranked it at number 14. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Legacy
Abbey Road crossing and "Paul is dead"
The image of the Beatles on the Abbey Road crossing has become one of the most famous and imitated in recording history. The crossing is a popular destination for Beatles fans, and a webcam has operated there since 2011. In December 2010, the crossing was given grade II listed status for its "cultural and historical importance"; the Abbey Road studios themselves had been given similar status earlier in the year.
Shortly after the album's release, the cover became part of the "Paul is dead" theory that was spreading across college campuses in the US. According to followers of the rumour, the cover depicted the Beatles walking out of a cemetery in a funeral procession. The procession was led by Lennon dressed in white as a religious figure; Starr was dressed in black as the undertaker; McCartney, out of step with the others, was a barefoot corpse; and Harrison dressed in denim was the gravedigger. The left-handed McCartney is holding a cigarette in his right hand, indicating that he is an imposter, and part of the number plate on the Volkswagen parked on the street is 281F (misread as 28IF), meaning that McCartney would have been 28 if he had lived – despite the fact that he was only 27 at the time of the photo and subsequent release of the record. The escalation of the "Paul is dead" rumour became the subject of intense analysis on mainstream radio and contributed to Abbey Roads commercial success in the US. Lennon was interviewed in London by New York's WMCA, and he ridiculed the rumour but conceded that it was invaluable publicity for the album.
The cover image has been parodied on several occasions, including by McCartney on his 1993 live album Paul Is Live. On the cover of its October 1977 issue, the satirical magazine National Lampoon depicted the four Beatles flattened along the zebra crossing, with a road roller driving away up the street. The Red Hot Chili Peppers' The Abbey Road E.P. parodies the cover, with the band walking near-naked across a similar zebra crossing. In 2003, several US poster companies airbrushed McCartney's cigarette out of the image without permission from Apple or McCartney. In 2013, Kolkata Police launched a traffic safety awareness advertisement against jaywalking, using the cover and a caption that read: "If they can, why can't you?"
Cover versions and influence
The songs on Abbey Road have been covered many times and the album itself has been covered in its entirety. One month after Abbey Roads release, George Benson recorded a cover version of the album called The Other Side of Abbey Road. Later in 1969 Booker T. & the M.G.'s recorded McLemore Avenue (the location in Memphis of Stax Records) which covered the Abbey Road songs and had a similar cover photo.
While matching albums such as Sgt. Pepper in terms of popularity, Abbey Road failed to repeat the Beatles' earlier achievements in galvanising their rivals to imitate them. In author Peter Doggett's description, "Too contrived for the rock underground to copy, too complex for the bubblegum pop brigade to copy, the album influenced no one – except [Paul McCartney]", who spent years trying to emulate its scope in his solo career. Writing for Classic Rock in 2014, Jon Anderson of the progressive rock band Yes said his group were constantly influenced by the Beatles from Revolver onwards, but it was the feeling that side two was "one complete idea" that inspired him to create long-form pieces of music.
Several artists have covered some or all of the side-two medley, including Phil Collins (for the Martin/Beatles tribute album In My Life), The String Cheese Incident, Transatlantic and Tenacious D (who performed the medley with Phish keyboardist Page McConnell). Furthur, a jam band including former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, played the entire Abbey Road album during its Spring Tour 2011. It began with a "Come Together" opener at Boston on 4 March and ended with the entire medley in New York City on 15 March, including "Her Majesty" as an encore.
Continued sales and reissues
In June 1970, Allen Klein reported that Abbey Road was the Beatles' best-selling album in the US with sales of about five million. By 1992, Abbey Road had sold nine million copies. The album became the ninth-most downloaded on the iTunes Store a week after it was released there on 16 November 2010. A CNN report stated it was the best-selling vinyl album of 2011. It is the first album from the 1960s to sell over five million albums since 1991 when Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales. In the US, the album had sold 7,177,797 copies by the end of the 1970s. , the album had sold over 31 million copies worldwide and is one of the band's best-selling albums. In October 2019, Abbey Road re-entered the UK charts, again hitting number one.
Abbey Road has remained in print since its first release in 1969. The original album was released on 26 September in the UK and 1 October in the US on Apple Records. It was reissued as a limited edition picture disc on vinyl in the US by Capitol on 27 December 1978, while a CD reissue of the album was released in 1987, with a remastered version appearing in 2009. The remaster included additional photographs with additional liner notes and the first, limited edition, run also included a short documentary about the making of the album.
In 2001, Abbey Road was certified 12× platinum by the RIAA. The album continues to be reissued on vinyl. It was included as part of the Beatles' Collector's Crate series in September 2009 and saw a remastered LP release on 180-gram vinyl in 2012.
A super deluxe version of the album, which featured new mixes by Giles Martin, was released in September 2019 to celebrate the original album's 50th anniversary.
As of October 2019, Abbey Road has sold 2,240,608 pure sales in United Kingdom and overall all consumed sales stand at 2,327,230 units. Post 1994 sales stand at 827,329.
Track listing
Notes
"Her Majesty" appears as a hidden track after "The End" and 14 seconds of silence. Later releases of the album included the song on the track listing, except the vinyl editions.
Some cassette tape versions in the UK and US had "Come Together" and "Here Comes the Sun" swapped to even out the playing time of each side.
Personnel
According to Mark Lewisohn, Ian MacDonald, Barry Miles, Kevin Howlett, and Geoff Emerick.
The Beatles
John Lennon – lead, harmony and background vocals; rhythm, lead and acoustic guitars; acoustic and electric pianos, Moog synthesizer; white noise generator and sound effects; percussion
Paul McCartney – lead, harmony and background vocals; bass, rhythm, lead and acoustic guitars; acoustic and electric pianos, Moog synthesizer; sound effects; wind chimes, handclaps and percussion
George Harrison – harmony and background vocals; lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars; bass on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "Oh Darling" and "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight"; harmonium and Moog synthesizer; handclaps and percussion; lead vocals (on "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun")
Ringo Starr – drums and percussion; background vocals; lead vocals (on "Octopus's Garden")
Additional musicians
George Martin – harpsichord, organ, percussion
Billy Preston – Hammond organ (on "Something" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)")
Mal Evans – anvil on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
Production
"Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with George Harrison)
"Golden Slumbers", "Carry That Weight" and "The End" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with Paul McCartney)
Produced by George Martin (with the Beatles)
Recorded by Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald
Assistant engineering by Alan Parsons
Mixed by Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald and George Martin (with the Beatles)
Moog programming by Mike Vickers
Charts
Original release
1987 reissue
2009 reissue
2019 reissue
Certifications
Release history
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
External links
Beatles comments on each song
Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick on Abbey Road – A track-by-track walkthrough
Live webcam at the Abbey Road zebra crossing
The Beatles y la foto de la portada de Abbey Road
1969 albums
The Beatles albums
Apple Records albums
Albums produced by George Martin
Albums recorded at Olympic Sound Studios
Albums recorded at Trident Studios
Albums arranged by George Martin
Albums conducted by George Martin
Albums produced by Chris Thomas (record producer)
Albums produced by George Harrison
Albums produced by John Lennon
Albums produced by Paul McCartney
Albums produced by Ringo Starr
Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients
Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical | 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"
]
|
[
"Abbey Road",
"Medley",
"Does Medley refer to a song on the album?",
"Side two contains a 16-minute medley of eight short songs, recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin.",
"Were the 8 songs previously recorded or new?",
"Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3.",
"Did anyone besides McCartney and Martin have a hand in creating the song?",
"Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track,",
"Did Medley win any awards?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics."
]
| C_8105eda42e114746b1837acf728441f2_1 | When was the song recorded? | 6 | When was the song Medley recorded? | Abbey Road | Side two contains a 16-minute medley of eight short songs, recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin. Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3. While the idea for the medley was McCartney's, Martin claims credit for some structure, adding he "wanted to get John and Paul to think more seriously about their music". The first track recorded for the medley was the opening number, "You Never Give Me Your Money". McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. However, MacDonald doubts this given that the backing track, recorded on 6 May at Olympic Studios, predated the worst altercations between Klein and McCartney. The track is a suite of varying styles, ranging from a piano-led ballad at the start to arpeggiated guitars at the end. Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track, which Beatles author Walter Everett considers his favourite Lennon guitar contribution. This song transitions into Lennon's "Sun King" which, like "Because", showcases Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies. Following it are Lennon's "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during the Beatles' 1968 trip to India) and "Polythene Pam". These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan entered McCartney's residence via his bathroom window), "Golden Slumbers" (based on Thomas Dekker's 17th-century poem set to new music), "Carry That Weight" (reprising elements from "You Never Give Me Your Money", and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and closing with "The End". "The End" features Starr's only drum solo in the Beatles' catalogue (the drums are mixed across two tracks in "true stereo", unlike most releases at that time where they were hard panned left or right). Fifty-four seconds into the song are 18 bars of lead guitar: the first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, with the sequence repeating. Harrison suggested the idea of a guitar solo in the track, Lennon decided they should trade solos and McCartney elected to go first. The solos were cut live against the existing backing track in one take. Immediately after Lennon's third and final solo, the piano chords of the final part of the song begin. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". This section was taped separately to the first, and required the piano to be re-recorded by McCartney, which was done on 18 August. An alternative version of the song, with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (with Starr's drum solo heard in the background), appears on the Anthology 3 album and the 2012 digital-only compilation album Tomorrow Never Knows. CANNOTANSWER | Side two contains a 16-minute medley of eight short songs, recorded over July and August | Abbey Road is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969 by Apple Records. Named after Abbey Road, London, the location of EMI Studios, the cover features the group walking across the street's zebra crossing, an image that became one of the most famous and imitated in popular music. The album's initially mixed reviews were contrasted by its immediate commercial success, topping record charts in the UK and US. The single "Something" / "Come Together" was released in October and topped the US charts.
The album incorporates genres such as blues, rock and pop, and makes prominent use of Moog synthesizer, sounds filtered through a Leslie speaker, and tom-tom drums. It is the Beatles' only album recorded exclusively through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, which afforded a clearer and brighter sound than the group's previous records. Side two contains a medley of shorter song fragments. The sessions also produced a non-album single, "The Ballad of John and Yoko" backed with "Old Brown Shoe".
Producer George Martin returned on the condition that the Beatles adhere to the discipline of their earlier records. They found the album's recording more enjoyable than the preceding Get Back sessions, but personal and business issues still affected the working environment. Production lasted from February to August 1969, and the closing track "The End" marked the final occasion that all four members recorded together. John Lennon privately left the group six days before the album's release; Paul McCartney publicly declared the band's break-up the following April.
Upon release, detractors found Abbey Road to be inauthentic and bemoaned the production's artificial effects. Since then, many critics have hailed the album as the Beatles' finest; in particular, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" are considered among the best songs George Harrison wrote for the group. The album has also been ranked as one of the Beatles' best-selling, including a multi-platinum certification by the RIAA. Shortly after its release, the cover photograph fuelled rumours of McCartney's purported death. EMI Studios was also renamed Abbey Road Studios in honour of the album. A deluxe version of the album was released in 2019. In 2020, it was ranked fifth in Rolling Stones list of the greatest albums of all time.
Background
After the tense and unpleasant recording sessions for the proposed Get Back album, Paul McCartney suggested to music producer George Martin that the group get together and make an album "the way we used to do it", free of the conflict that had begun during sessions for The Beatles (also known as the "White Album"). Martin agreed, but on the strict condition that all the group – particularly John Lennon – allow him to produce the record in the same manner as earlier albums and that discipline would be adhered to. No one was entirely sure that the work was going to be the group's last, though George Harrison said "it felt as if we were reaching the end of the line".
Production
Recording history
The first sessions for Abbey Road began on 22 February 1969, only three weeks after the Get Back sessions, in Trident Studios. There, the group recorded a backing track for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" with Billy Preston accompanying them on Hammond organ. No further group recording occurred until April because of Ringo Starr's commitments on the film The Magic Christian. After a small amount of work that month and a session for "You Never Give Me Your Money" on 6 May, the group took an eight-week break before recommencing on 2 July. Recording continued through July and August, and the last backing track, for "Because", was taped on 1 August. Overdubs continued through the month, with the final sequencing of the album coming together on 20 August the last time all four Beatles were present in a studio together.
McCartney, Starr and Martin have reported positive recollections of the sessions, while Harrison said, "we did actually perform like musicians again". Lennon and McCartney had enjoyed working together on the non-album single "The Ballad of John and Yoko" in April, sharing friendly banter between takes, and some of this camaraderie carried over to the Abbey Road sessions. Nevertheless, there was a significant amount of tension in the group. According to Ian MacDonald, McCartney had an acrimonious argument with Lennon during the sessions. Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, had become a permanent presence at Beatles' recordings and clashed with other members. Halfway through recording in June, Lennon and Ono were involved in a car accident. A doctor told Ono to rest in bed, so Lennon had one installed in the studio so she could observe the recording process from there.
During the sessions, Lennon expressed a desire to have all of his songs on one side of the album, and McCartney's on the other. The album's two halves represented a compromise: Lennon wanted a traditional release with distinct and unrelated songs while McCartney and Martin wanted to continue their thematic approach from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by incorporating a medley. Lennon ultimately said that he disliked Abbey Road as a whole and felt that it lacked authenticity, calling McCartney's contributions "[music] for the grannies to dig" and not "real songs", and describing the medley as "junk ... just bits of songs thrown together".
Technical aspects
Abbey Road was recorded on eight-track reel-to-reel tape machines rather than the four-track machines that were used for earlier Beatles albums such as Sgt Pepper, and was the first Beatles album not to be issued in mono. The album makes prominent use of guitar played through a Leslie speaker, and of the Moog synthesizer. The Moog is not merely used as a background effect but sometimes plays a central role, as in "Because", where it is used for the middle eight. It is also prominent on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Here Comes the Sun". The synthesizer was introduced to the band by Harrison, who acquired one in November 1968 and used it to create his album Electronic Sound. Starr made more prominent use of the tom-toms on Abbey Road, later saying the album was "tom-tom madness ... I went nuts on the toms."
Abbey Road was also the first and only Beatles album to be entirely recorded through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, the TG12345 Mk I, as opposed to earlier thermionic valve-based REDD desks. The TG console also allowed better support for eight-track recording, facilitating the Beatles' considerable use of overdubbing. Emerick recalls that the TG desk used to record the album had individual limiters and compressors on each audio channel and noted that the overall sound was "softer" than the earlier valve desks. In his study of the role of the TG12345 in the Beatles' sound on Abbey Road, music historian Kenneth Womack observes that "the expansive sound palette and mixing capabilities of the TG12345 enabled George Martin and Geoff Emerick to imbue the Beatles' sound with greater definition and clarity. The warmth of solid-state recording also afforded their music with brighter tonalities and a deeper low end that distinguished Abbey Road from the rest of their corpus, providing listeners with an abiding sense that the Beatles' final long-player was markedly different."
Alan Parsons worked as an assistant engineer on the album. He later went on to engineer Pink Floyd's landmark album The Dark Side of the Moon and produce many popular albums himself with the Alan Parsons Project. John Kurlander also assisted on many of the sessions, and went on to become a successful engineer and producer, most noteworthy for his success on the scores for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
Songs
Side one
"Come Together"
"Come Together" was an expansion of "Let's Get It Together", a song Lennon originally wrote for Timothy Leary's California gubernatorial campaign against Ronald Reagan. A rough version of the lyrics for "Come Together" was written at Lennon's and Ono's second bed-in event in Montreal.
Beatles author Jonathan Gould suggested that the song has only a single "pariah-like protagonist" and Lennon was "painting another sardonic self-portrait". MacDonald has suggested that the "juju eyeballs" has been claimed to refer to Dr John and "spinal cracker" to Ono. The song was later the subject of a lawsuit brought against Lennon by Morris Levy because the opening line in "Come Together" – "Here come old flat-top" – was admittedly lifted from a line in Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me". A settlement was reached in 1973 in which Lennon promised to record three songs from Levy's publishing catalogue for his next album.
"Come Together" was later released as a double A-side single with "Something". In the liner notes to the compilation album Love, Martin described the track as "a simple song but it stands out because of the sheer brilliance of the performers".
"Something"
Harrison was inspired to write "Something" during sessions for the White Album by listening to label-mate James Taylor's "Something in the Way She Moves" from his album James Taylor. After the lyrics were refined during the Let It Be sessions (tapes reveal Lennon giving Harrison some songwriting advice during its composition), the song was initially given to Joe Cocker, but was subsequently recorded for Abbey Road. Cocker's version appeared on his album Joe Cocker! that November.
"Something" was Lennon's favourite song on the album, and McCartney considered it the best song Harrison had written. Though the song was written by Harrison, Frank Sinatra once commented that it was his favourite Lennon–McCartney composition and "the greatest love song ever written". Lennon contributed piano to the recording and while most of the part was removed, traces of it remain in the final cut, notably on the middle eight, before Harrison's guitar solo.
The song was issued as a double A-side single with "Come Together" in October 1969 and topped the US charts for one week, becoming the Beatles' first number-one single that was not a Lennon–McCartney composition. It was also the first Beatles single from an album already released in the UK. Apple's Neil Aspinall filmed a promotional video, which combined separate footage of the Beatles and their wives.
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer", McCartney's first song on the album, was first performed by the Beatles during the Let It Be sessions (as seen in the film). He wrote the song after the group's trip to India in 1968 and wanted to record it for the White Album, but it was rejected by the others as "too complicated".
The recording was fraught with tension between band members, as McCartney annoyed others by insisting on a perfect performance. The track was the first Lennon was invited to work on following his car accident, but he hated it and declined to do so. According to engineer Geoff Emerick, Lennon said it was "more of Paul's granny music" and left the session. He spent the next two weeks with Ono and did not return to the studio until the backing track for "Come Together" was laid down on 21 July. Harrison was also tired of the song, saying "we had to play it over and over again until Paul liked it. It was a real drag". Starr was more sympathetic to the song. "It was granny music", he admitted, "but we needed stuff like that on our album so other people would listen to it". Longtime roadie Mal Evans played the anvil sound in the chorus. This track also makes use of Harrison's Moog synthesizer, played by McCartney.
"Oh! Darling"
"Oh! Darling" was written by McCartney in the doo-wop style, like contemporary work by Frank Zappa. It was tried at the Get Back sessions, and a version appears on Anthology 3. It was subsequently re-recorded in April, with overdubs in July and August.
McCartney attempted recording the lead vocal only once a day. He said: "I came into the studios early every day for a week to sing it by myself because at first my voice was too clear. I wanted it to sound as though I'd been performing it on stage all week." Lennon thought he should have sung it, remarking that it was more his style.
"Octopus's Garden"
As was the case with most of the Beatles' albums, Starr sang lead vocal on one track. "Octopus's Garden" is his second and last solo composition released on any album by the band. It was inspired by a trip with his family to Sardinia aboard Peter Sellers's yacht after Starr left the band for two weeks during the sessions for the White Album. Starr received a full songwriting credit and composed most of the lyrics, although the song's melodic structure was partly written in the studio by Harrison. The pair would later collaborate as writers on Starr's solo singles "It Don't Come Easy", "Back Off Boogaloo" and "Photograph".
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)"
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)" was written by Lennon about his relationship with Ono, and he made a deliberate choice to keep the lyrics simple and concise. Author Tom Maginnis writes that the song had a progressive rock influence, with its unusual length and structure, repeating guitar riff, and white noise effects, though he noted the "I Want You" section has a straightforward blues structure.
The finished song is a combination of two different recording attempts. The first attempt occurred in February 1969, almost immediately after the Get Back/Let It Be sessions with Billy Preston. This was subsequently combined with a second version made during the Abbey Road sessions proper in April. The two sections together ran to nearly eight minutes, making it the Beatles' second-longest released track. Lennon used Harrison's Moog synthesizer with a white noise setting to create a "wind" effect that was overdubbed on the second half of the track. During the final edit, Lennon told Emerick to "cut it right there" at 7 minutes and 44 seconds, creating a sudden, jarring silence that concludes the first side of Abbey Road (the recording tape would have run out within 20 seconds as it was). The final mixing and editing of the track occurred on 20 August 1969, the last day all four Beatles were together in the studio.
Side two
"Here Comes the Sun"
"Here Comes the Sun" was written by Harrison in Eric Clapton's garden in Surrey during a break from stressful band business meetings. The basic track was recorded on 7 July 1969. Harrison sang lead and played acoustic guitar, McCartney provided backing vocals and played bass and Starr played the drums. Lennon was still recuperating from his car accident and did not perform on the track. Martin provided an orchestral arrangement in collaboration with Harrison, who overdubbed a Moog synthesizer part on 19 August, immediately before the final mix.
Though not released as a single, the song attracted attention and critical praise, and was included on the compilation 1967–1970. It has been featured several times on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, having been chosen by Sandie Shaw, Jerry Springer, Boris Johnson and Elaine Paige. The Daily Telegraph's Martin Chilton said it was "almost impossible not to sing along to". Since digital downloads have become eligible to chart, it reached number 56 in 2010 after the Beatles' back catalogue was released on iTunes. It is also the most streamed Beatles song on Spotify.
Harrison recorded a guitar solo for this track that did not appear in the final mix. It was rediscovered in 2012, and footage of Martin and Harrison's son Dhani listening to it in the studio was released on the DVD of Living in the Material World.
"Because"
"Because" was inspired by Lennon listening to Ono playing Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" on the piano. He recalled he was "lying on the sofa in our house, listening to Yoko play ... Suddenly, I said, 'Can you play those chords backward?' She did, and I wrote 'Because' around them." The track features three-part harmonies by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, which were then triple-tracked to give nine voices in the final mix. The group considered the vocals to be some of the hardest and most complex they attempted. Harrison played the Moog synthesizer, and Martin played the harpsichord that opens the track.
Medley
The remainder of side two consists of a 16-minute medley of eight short songs (known during the recording sessions as "The Long One"), recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin. Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3. While the idea for the medley was McCartney's, Martin claims credit for some structure, adding he "wanted to get John and Paul to think more seriously about their music".
The first track recorded for the medley was the opening number, "You Never Give Me Your Money". McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. However, MacDonald doubts this, given that the backing track, recorded on 6 May at Olympic Studios, predated the worst altercations between Klein and McCartney. The track is a suite of varying styles, ranging from a piano-led ballad at the start to arpeggiated guitars at the end. Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track.
This song transitions into Lennon's "Sun King" which, like "Because", showcases Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies. Following it are Lennon's "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during the Beatles' 1968 trip to India) and "Polythene Pam". These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan entered McCartney's residence via his bathroom window), "Golden Slumbers" (based on Thomas Dekker's 17th-century poem set to new music), "Carry That Weight" (reprising elements from "You Never Give Me Your Money", and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and closing with "The End".
"The End" features Starr's only drum solo in the Beatles' catalogue (the drums are mixed across two tracks in "true stereo", unlike most releases at that time where they were hard panned left or right). Fifty-four seconds into the song are 18 bars of lead guitar: the first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, and the sequence is repeated two more times. Harrison suggested the idea of a guitar solo in the track, Lennon decided they should trade solos and McCartney elected to go first. The solos were cut live against the existing backing track in one take. Immediately after Lennon's third and final solo, the piano chords of the final part of the song begin. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". This section was taped separately from the first, and required the piano to be re-recorded by McCartney, which was done on 18 August. An alternative version of the song, with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (and Starr's drum solo heard in the background), appears on the Anthology 3 album and the 2012 digital-only compilation album Tomorrow Never Knows.
Musicologist Walter Everett interprets that most of the lyrics on side two's medley deal with "selfishness and self-gratification – the financial complaints in 'You Never Give Me Your Money,' the miserliness of Mr. Mustard, the holding back of the pillow in 'Carry That Weight,' the desire that some second person will visit the singer's dreams – perhaps the 'one sweet dream' of 'You Never Give Me Your Money'? – in 'The End.'" Everett adds that the medley's "selfish moments" are played in the context of the tonal centre of A, while "generosity" is expressed in songs where C major is central. The medley concludes with a "great compromise in the 'negotiations'" in "The End", which serves as a structurally balanced coda. In response to the repeated A-major choruses of "love you", McCartney sings in realisation that there is as much self-gratifying love ("the love you take") as there is of the generous love ("the love you make"), in A major and C major, respectively.
"Her Majesty"
"Her Majesty" was recorded by McCartney on 2 July when he arrived before the rest of the group at Abbey Road. It was originally included in a rough mix of the side two medley (and officially available in this form for the first time on the album's 3CD Super Deluxe edition box set), appearing between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam". McCartney disliked the way the medley sounded when it included "Her Majesty", so he asked for it to be cut. The second engineer, John Kurlander, had been instructed by George Martin not to throw out anything, so after McCartney left, he attached the track to the end of the master tape after 20 seconds of silence. The tape box bore an instruction to leave "Her Majesty" off the final product, but the next day when mastering engineer Malcolm Davies received the tape, he (also trained not to throw anything away) cut a playback lacquer of the whole sequence, including "Her Majesty". The Beatles liked this effect and included it on the album.
"Her Majesty" opens with the final, crashing chord of "Mean Mr. Mustard", while the final note remained buried in the mix of "Polythene Pam", as a result of being snipped off the reel during a rough mix of the medley on 30 July. The medley was subsequently mixed again from scratch although the song was not touched again and still appears in its rough mix on the album.
Original US and UK pressings of Abbey Road do not list "Her Majesty" on the album's cover nor on the record label, making it a hidden track. The song title appears on the inlay card and disc of the 1987 remastered CD reissue, as track 17. It also appears on the sleeve, booklet and disc of the 2009 remastered CD reissue, but not on the cover or record label of the 2012 vinyl reissue.
Unreleased material
Three days after the session for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", Harrison recorded solo demos of "All Things Must Pass" (which became the title track of his 1970 triple album), "Something" and "Old Brown Shoe". The latter was re-recorded by the Beatles in April 1969 and issued as the B-side to "The Ballad of John and Yoko" the following month. All three of these Harrison demos were later featured on Anthology 3.
During the sessions for the medley, McCartney recorded "Come and Get It", playing all the instruments. It was assumed to be a demo recording for another artist but McCartney later said that he originally intended to put it on Abbey Road. It was instead covered by Badfinger, while McCartney's original recording appeared on Anthology 3.
The original backing track to "Something", featuring a piano-led coda, and "You Never Give Me Your Money", which leads into a fast rock-n-roll jam session, have appeared on bootlegs.
Cover photo
Apple Records creative director Kosh designed the album cover. It is the only original UK Beatles album sleeve to show neither the artist name nor the album title on its front cover, which was Kosh's idea, despite EMI claiming the record would not sell without this information. He later explained that "we didn't need to write the band's name on the cover ... They were the most famous band in the world". The front cover was a photograph of the group on a zebra crossing based on ideas that McCartney sketched and taken on 8 August 1969 outside EMI Studios on Abbey Road. At 11:35 that morning, photographer Iain Macmillan was given only ten minutes to take the photo while he stood on a step-ladder and a policeman held up traffic behind the camera. Macmillan took six photographs, which McCartney examined with a magnifying glass before deciding which would be used on the album sleeve.
In the image selected by McCartney, the group walk across the street in single file from left to right, with Lennon leading, followed by Starr, McCartney, and Harrison. McCartney is barefoot and out of step with the others. Except for Harrison, the group are wearing suits designed by Tommy Nutter. A white Volkswagen Beetle is to the left of the picture, parked next to the zebra crossing, which belonged to one of the people living in the block of flats across from the recording studio. After the album was released, the number plate (LMW 281F) was repeatedly stolen from the car. In 2004, news sources published a claim made by retired American salesman Paul Cole that he was the man standing on the pavement to the right of the picture.
Release
In mid-1969, Lennon formed a new group, the Plastic Ono Band, in part because the Beatles had rejected his song "Cold Turkey". While Harrison worked with such artists as Leon Russell, Doris Troy, Preston and Delaney & Bonnie through to the end of the year, McCartney took a hiatus from the group after his daughter Mary was born on 28 August. On 20 September, Lennon told McCartney, Starr, and business manager Allen Klein (Harrison was not present) he was leaving the group, (or in his words, he wanted a divorce) six days before Abbey Road was released. Apple released "Something" backed with "Come Together" in the US on 6 October 1969. Release of the single in the UK followed on 31 October, while Lennon released the Plastic Ono Band's "Cold Turkey" the same month.
The Beatles did little promotion of Abbey Road directly, and no public announcement was made of the band's split until McCartney announced he was leaving the group in April 1970. By this time, the Get Back project (by now retitled Let It Be) had been re-examined, with overdubs and mixing sessions continuing into 1970. Therefore, Let It Be became the last album to be finished and released by the Beatles, although its recording had begun before Abbey Road.
Abbey Road sold four million copies in its first two months of release. In the UK, the album debuted at number one, where it remained for 11 weeks before being displaced for one week by the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed. The following week (which was Christmas), Abbey Road returned to the top for another six weeks (completing a total of 17 weeks) before being replaced by Led Zeppelin II. Altogether, it spent 81 weeks on the UK albums chart. Reaction overseas was similar. In the US, the album spent 11 weeks at number one on the Billboard Top LPs chart. It was the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) best-selling album of 1969. In Japan, it was one of the longest-charting albums to date, remaining in the top 100 for 298 weeks during the 1970s.
Critical reception
Contemporary
Abbey Road initially received mixed reviews from music critics, who criticised the production's artificial sounds and viewed its music as inauthentic. William Mann of The Times said that the album will "be called gimmicky by people who want a record to sound exactly like a live performance", although he considered it to be "teem[ing] with musical invention" and added: "Nice as Come Together and Harrison's Something are – they are minor pleasures in the context of the whole disc ... Side Two is marvellous ..." Ed Ward of Rolling Stone called the album "complicated instead of complex" and felt that the Moog synthesizer "disembodies and artificializes" the band's sound, adding that they "create a sound that could not possibly exist outside the studio". While he found the medley on side two to be their "most impressive music" since Rubber Soul, Nik Cohn of The New York Times said that, "individually", the album's songs are "nothing special". Albert Goldman of Life magazine wrote that Abbey Road "is not one of the Beatles' great albums" and, despite some "lovely" phrases and "stirring" segues, side two's suite "seems symbolic of the Beatles' latest phase, which might be described as the round-the-clock production of disposable music effects".
Conversely, Chris Welch wrote in Melody Maker: "the truth is, their latest LP is just a natural born gas, entirely free of pretension, deep meanings or symbolism ... While production is simple compared to past intricacies, it is still extremely sophisticated and inventive." Derek Jewell of The Sunday Times found the album "refreshingly terse and unpretentious", and although he lamented the band's "cod-1920s jokes (Maxwell's Silver Hammer) and ... Ringo's obligatory nursery arias (Octopus's Garden)", he considered that Abbey Road "touches higher peaks than did their last album". John Mendelsohn, writing for Rolling Stone, called it "breathtakingly recorded" and praised side two especially, equating it to "the whole of Sgt. Pepper" and stating, "That the Beatles can unify seemingly countless musical fragments and lyrical doodlings into a uniformly wonderful suite ... seems potent testimony that no, they've far from lost it, and no, they haven't stopped trying."
While covering the Rolling Stones' 1969 American tour for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau reported from a meeting with Greil Marcus in Berkeley that "opinion has shifted against the Beatles. Everyone is putting down Abbey Road." Shortly afterwards, in Los Angeles, he wrote that his colleague Ellen Willis had grown to love the record, adding: "Damned if she isn't right – flawed but fine. Because the world is round it turns her on. Charlie Watts tells us he likes it too."
Retrospective
Many critics have since cited Abbey Road as the Beatles' greatest album. In a retrospective review, Nicole Pensiero of PopMatters called it "an amazingly cohesive piece of music, innovative and timeless". Mark Kemp of Paste viewed the album as being "among The Beatles' finest works, even if it foreshadows the cigarette-lighter-waving arena rock that technically skilled but critically maligned artists from Journey to Meatloaf would belabor throughout the '70s and '80s". Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph dubbed it the Beatles' "last love letter to the world" and praised its "big, modern sound", calling it "lush, rich, smooth, epic, emotional and utterly gorgeous".
AllMusic's Richie Unterberger felt that the album shared Sgt. Peppers "faux-conceptual forms", but had "stronger compositions", and wrote of its standing in the band's catalogue: "Whether Abbey Road is the Beatles' best work is debatable, but it's certainly the most immaculately produced (with the possible exception of Sgt. Pepper) and most tightly constructed." Ian MacDonald gave a mixed opinion of the album, noting that several tracks had been written at least a year previously, and would possibly have been unsuitable without being integrated into the medley on side two. He did, however, praise the production, particularly the sound of Starr's bass drum.
Abbey Road received high rankings in several "best albums in history" polls by critics and publications. It was voted number 8 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000). Time included it in their 2006 list of the All-Time 100 Albums. In 2009, readers of Rolling Stone named Abbey Road the greatest Beatles album. In 2020, the magazine ranked the album at number 5 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", the highest Beatles record on the list; a previous version of the list from 2012 had ranked it at number 14. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Legacy
Abbey Road crossing and "Paul is dead"
The image of the Beatles on the Abbey Road crossing has become one of the most famous and imitated in recording history. The crossing is a popular destination for Beatles fans, and a webcam has operated there since 2011. In December 2010, the crossing was given grade II listed status for its "cultural and historical importance"; the Abbey Road studios themselves had been given similar status earlier in the year.
Shortly after the album's release, the cover became part of the "Paul is dead" theory that was spreading across college campuses in the US. According to followers of the rumour, the cover depicted the Beatles walking out of a cemetery in a funeral procession. The procession was led by Lennon dressed in white as a religious figure; Starr was dressed in black as the undertaker; McCartney, out of step with the others, was a barefoot corpse; and Harrison dressed in denim was the gravedigger. The left-handed McCartney is holding a cigarette in his right hand, indicating that he is an imposter, and part of the number plate on the Volkswagen parked on the street is 281F (misread as 28IF), meaning that McCartney would have been 28 if he had lived – despite the fact that he was only 27 at the time of the photo and subsequent release of the record. The escalation of the "Paul is dead" rumour became the subject of intense analysis on mainstream radio and contributed to Abbey Roads commercial success in the US. Lennon was interviewed in London by New York's WMCA, and he ridiculed the rumour but conceded that it was invaluable publicity for the album.
The cover image has been parodied on several occasions, including by McCartney on his 1993 live album Paul Is Live. On the cover of its October 1977 issue, the satirical magazine National Lampoon depicted the four Beatles flattened along the zebra crossing, with a road roller driving away up the street. The Red Hot Chili Peppers' The Abbey Road E.P. parodies the cover, with the band walking near-naked across a similar zebra crossing. In 2003, several US poster companies airbrushed McCartney's cigarette out of the image without permission from Apple or McCartney. In 2013, Kolkata Police launched a traffic safety awareness advertisement against jaywalking, using the cover and a caption that read: "If they can, why can't you?"
Cover versions and influence
The songs on Abbey Road have been covered many times and the album itself has been covered in its entirety. One month after Abbey Roads release, George Benson recorded a cover version of the album called The Other Side of Abbey Road. Later in 1969 Booker T. & the M.G.'s recorded McLemore Avenue (the location in Memphis of Stax Records) which covered the Abbey Road songs and had a similar cover photo.
While matching albums such as Sgt. Pepper in terms of popularity, Abbey Road failed to repeat the Beatles' earlier achievements in galvanising their rivals to imitate them. In author Peter Doggett's description, "Too contrived for the rock underground to copy, too complex for the bubblegum pop brigade to copy, the album influenced no one – except [Paul McCartney]", who spent years trying to emulate its scope in his solo career. Writing for Classic Rock in 2014, Jon Anderson of the progressive rock band Yes said his group were constantly influenced by the Beatles from Revolver onwards, but it was the feeling that side two was "one complete idea" that inspired him to create long-form pieces of music.
Several artists have covered some or all of the side-two medley, including Phil Collins (for the Martin/Beatles tribute album In My Life), The String Cheese Incident, Transatlantic and Tenacious D (who performed the medley with Phish keyboardist Page McConnell). Furthur, a jam band including former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, played the entire Abbey Road album during its Spring Tour 2011. It began with a "Come Together" opener at Boston on 4 March and ended with the entire medley in New York City on 15 March, including "Her Majesty" as an encore.
Continued sales and reissues
In June 1970, Allen Klein reported that Abbey Road was the Beatles' best-selling album in the US with sales of about five million. By 1992, Abbey Road had sold nine million copies. The album became the ninth-most downloaded on the iTunes Store a week after it was released there on 16 November 2010. A CNN report stated it was the best-selling vinyl album of 2011. It is the first album from the 1960s to sell over five million albums since 1991 when Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales. In the US, the album had sold 7,177,797 copies by the end of the 1970s. , the album had sold over 31 million copies worldwide and is one of the band's best-selling albums. In October 2019, Abbey Road re-entered the UK charts, again hitting number one.
Abbey Road has remained in print since its first release in 1969. The original album was released on 26 September in the UK and 1 October in the US on Apple Records. It was reissued as a limited edition picture disc on vinyl in the US by Capitol on 27 December 1978, while a CD reissue of the album was released in 1987, with a remastered version appearing in 2009. The remaster included additional photographs with additional liner notes and the first, limited edition, run also included a short documentary about the making of the album.
In 2001, Abbey Road was certified 12× platinum by the RIAA. The album continues to be reissued on vinyl. It was included as part of the Beatles' Collector's Crate series in September 2009 and saw a remastered LP release on 180-gram vinyl in 2012.
A super deluxe version of the album, which featured new mixes by Giles Martin, was released in September 2019 to celebrate the original album's 50th anniversary.
As of October 2019, Abbey Road has sold 2,240,608 pure sales in United Kingdom and overall all consumed sales stand at 2,327,230 units. Post 1994 sales stand at 827,329.
Track listing
Notes
"Her Majesty" appears as a hidden track after "The End" and 14 seconds of silence. Later releases of the album included the song on the track listing, except the vinyl editions.
Some cassette tape versions in the UK and US had "Come Together" and "Here Comes the Sun" swapped to even out the playing time of each side.
Personnel
According to Mark Lewisohn, Ian MacDonald, Barry Miles, Kevin Howlett, and Geoff Emerick.
The Beatles
John Lennon – lead, harmony and background vocals; rhythm, lead and acoustic guitars; acoustic and electric pianos, Moog synthesizer; white noise generator and sound effects; percussion
Paul McCartney – lead, harmony and background vocals; bass, rhythm, lead and acoustic guitars; acoustic and electric pianos, Moog synthesizer; sound effects; wind chimes, handclaps and percussion
George Harrison – harmony and background vocals; lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars; bass on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "Oh Darling" and "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight"; harmonium and Moog synthesizer; handclaps and percussion; lead vocals (on "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun")
Ringo Starr – drums and percussion; background vocals; lead vocals (on "Octopus's Garden")
Additional musicians
George Martin – harpsichord, organ, percussion
Billy Preston – Hammond organ (on "Something" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)")
Mal Evans – anvil on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
Production
"Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with George Harrison)
"Golden Slumbers", "Carry That Weight" and "The End" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with Paul McCartney)
Produced by George Martin (with the Beatles)
Recorded by Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald
Assistant engineering by Alan Parsons
Mixed by Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald and George Martin (with the Beatles)
Moog programming by Mike Vickers
Charts
Original release
1987 reissue
2009 reissue
2019 reissue
Certifications
Release history
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
External links
Beatles comments on each song
Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick on Abbey Road – A track-by-track walkthrough
Live webcam at the Abbey Road zebra crossing
The Beatles y la foto de la portada de Abbey Road
1969 albums
The Beatles albums
Apple Records albums
Albums produced by George Martin
Albums recorded at Olympic Sound Studios
Albums recorded at Trident Studios
Albums arranged by George Martin
Albums conducted by George Martin
Albums produced by Chris Thomas (record producer)
Albums produced by George Harrison
Albums produced by John Lennon
Albums produced by Paul McCartney
Albums produced by Ringo Starr
Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients
Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical | false | [
"\"Älskade ängel\" is a song, written by Per Johan Widestrand and recorded by Lill-Babs. The single was released under the name Lill-Babs & Heman Hunters and in 1994 the song was used as signature melody for the SVT TV series Bert , where the refrain can be heard. In the TV series, Bert is seen dancing at the mirror when the song was played, while appearing words showed the episode title.\n\nIn 2004 the song was on Lill-Babs compilation album Lill-Babs i lyxförpackning.\n\nThe song became a Svensktoppen hit for nine weeks, during the period 10 December 1994-14 January 1995, peaking at second position.\n\nThe Playtones also performed the song at Dansbandskampen 2009, when Lill-Babs was tonight's theme in the second round. The song was also recorded on their 2010 album Rock'n'Roll Dance Party.\n\nBlack Jack recorded the song on the 2012 album Casino.\n\nReferences \n\n1994 singles\nLill-Babs songs\nSwedish-language songs\n1994 songs",
"\"Surfboard\" is an instrumental song by Antônio Carlos Jobim. The song was composed by Jobim on Ipanema beach after buying a surfboard for his son. Initially released on his US album The Wonderful World of Antonio Carlos Jobim in 1965, the song was re-recorded by Jobim for the albums A Certain Mr. Jobim (1967) with Claus Ogerman and 1995's Antonio Brasileiro.\n\nThe song had been performed by many artists on their albums but did not appear as a single until 1969 when it was recorded by Brazilian keyboardist Walter Wanderley on the album When It Was Done. The song was also recorded by Herbie Mann in 1996. Being an instrumental composition, Surfboard has no lyrics but was recorded vocally in a scat singing version by The Swingle Singers on Mood Swings 2003.\n\nReferences\n\nSongs with music by Antônio Carlos Jobim\n1965 songs"
]
|
[
"Abbey Road",
"Medley",
"Does Medley refer to a song on the album?",
"Side two contains a 16-minute medley of eight short songs, recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin.",
"Were the 8 songs previously recorded or new?",
"Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3.",
"Did anyone besides McCartney and Martin have a hand in creating the song?",
"Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track,",
"Did Medley win any awards?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics.",
"When was the song recorded?",
"Side two contains a 16-minute medley of eight short songs, recorded over July and August"
]
| C_8105eda42e114746b1837acf728441f2_1 | Who is Allen Klein? | 7 | Who is Allen Klein? | Abbey Road | Side two contains a 16-minute medley of eight short songs, recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin. Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3. While the idea for the medley was McCartney's, Martin claims credit for some structure, adding he "wanted to get John and Paul to think more seriously about their music". The first track recorded for the medley was the opening number, "You Never Give Me Your Money". McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. However, MacDonald doubts this given that the backing track, recorded on 6 May at Olympic Studios, predated the worst altercations between Klein and McCartney. The track is a suite of varying styles, ranging from a piano-led ballad at the start to arpeggiated guitars at the end. Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track, which Beatles author Walter Everett considers his favourite Lennon guitar contribution. This song transitions into Lennon's "Sun King" which, like "Because", showcases Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies. Following it are Lennon's "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during the Beatles' 1968 trip to India) and "Polythene Pam". These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan entered McCartney's residence via his bathroom window), "Golden Slumbers" (based on Thomas Dekker's 17th-century poem set to new music), "Carry That Weight" (reprising elements from "You Never Give Me Your Money", and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and closing with "The End". "The End" features Starr's only drum solo in the Beatles' catalogue (the drums are mixed across two tracks in "true stereo", unlike most releases at that time where they were hard panned left or right). Fifty-four seconds into the song are 18 bars of lead guitar: the first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, with the sequence repeating. Harrison suggested the idea of a guitar solo in the track, Lennon decided they should trade solos and McCartney elected to go first. The solos were cut live against the existing backing track in one take. Immediately after Lennon's third and final solo, the piano chords of the final part of the song begin. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". This section was taped separately to the first, and required the piano to be re-recorded by McCartney, which was done on 18 August. An alternative version of the song, with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (with Starr's drum solo heard in the background), appears on the Anthology 3 album and the 2012 digital-only compilation album Tomorrow Never Knows. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Abbey Road is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969 by Apple Records. Named after Abbey Road, London, the location of EMI Studios, the cover features the group walking across the street's zebra crossing, an image that became one of the most famous and imitated in popular music. The album's initially mixed reviews were contrasted by its immediate commercial success, topping record charts in the UK and US. The single "Something" / "Come Together" was released in October and topped the US charts.
The album incorporates genres such as blues, rock and pop, and makes prominent use of Moog synthesizer, sounds filtered through a Leslie speaker, and tom-tom drums. It is the Beatles' only album recorded exclusively through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, which afforded a clearer and brighter sound than the group's previous records. Side two contains a medley of shorter song fragments. The sessions also produced a non-album single, "The Ballad of John and Yoko" backed with "Old Brown Shoe".
Producer George Martin returned on the condition that the Beatles adhere to the discipline of their earlier records. They found the album's recording more enjoyable than the preceding Get Back sessions, but personal and business issues still affected the working environment. Production lasted from February to August 1969, and the closing track "The End" marked the final occasion that all four members recorded together. John Lennon privately left the group six days before the album's release; Paul McCartney publicly declared the band's break-up the following April.
Upon release, detractors found Abbey Road to be inauthentic and bemoaned the production's artificial effects. Since then, many critics have hailed the album as the Beatles' finest; in particular, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" are considered among the best songs George Harrison wrote for the group. The album has also been ranked as one of the Beatles' best-selling, including a multi-platinum certification by the RIAA. Shortly after its release, the cover photograph fuelled rumours of McCartney's purported death. EMI Studios was also renamed Abbey Road Studios in honour of the album. A deluxe version of the album was released in 2019. In 2020, it was ranked fifth in Rolling Stones list of the greatest albums of all time.
Background
After the tense and unpleasant recording sessions for the proposed Get Back album, Paul McCartney suggested to music producer George Martin that the group get together and make an album "the way we used to do it", free of the conflict that had begun during sessions for The Beatles (also known as the "White Album"). Martin agreed, but on the strict condition that all the group – particularly John Lennon – allow him to produce the record in the same manner as earlier albums and that discipline would be adhered to. No one was entirely sure that the work was going to be the group's last, though George Harrison said "it felt as if we were reaching the end of the line".
Production
Recording history
The first sessions for Abbey Road began on 22 February 1969, only three weeks after the Get Back sessions, in Trident Studios. There, the group recorded a backing track for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" with Billy Preston accompanying them on Hammond organ. No further group recording occurred until April because of Ringo Starr's commitments on the film The Magic Christian. After a small amount of work that month and a session for "You Never Give Me Your Money" on 6 May, the group took an eight-week break before recommencing on 2 July. Recording continued through July and August, and the last backing track, for "Because", was taped on 1 August. Overdubs continued through the month, with the final sequencing of the album coming together on 20 August the last time all four Beatles were present in a studio together.
McCartney, Starr and Martin have reported positive recollections of the sessions, while Harrison said, "we did actually perform like musicians again". Lennon and McCartney had enjoyed working together on the non-album single "The Ballad of John and Yoko" in April, sharing friendly banter between takes, and some of this camaraderie carried over to the Abbey Road sessions. Nevertheless, there was a significant amount of tension in the group. According to Ian MacDonald, McCartney had an acrimonious argument with Lennon during the sessions. Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, had become a permanent presence at Beatles' recordings and clashed with other members. Halfway through recording in June, Lennon and Ono were involved in a car accident. A doctor told Ono to rest in bed, so Lennon had one installed in the studio so she could observe the recording process from there.
During the sessions, Lennon expressed a desire to have all of his songs on one side of the album, and McCartney's on the other. The album's two halves represented a compromise: Lennon wanted a traditional release with distinct and unrelated songs while McCartney and Martin wanted to continue their thematic approach from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by incorporating a medley. Lennon ultimately said that he disliked Abbey Road as a whole and felt that it lacked authenticity, calling McCartney's contributions "[music] for the grannies to dig" and not "real songs", and describing the medley as "junk ... just bits of songs thrown together".
Technical aspects
Abbey Road was recorded on eight-track reel-to-reel tape machines rather than the four-track machines that were used for earlier Beatles albums such as Sgt Pepper, and was the first Beatles album not to be issued in mono. The album makes prominent use of guitar played through a Leslie speaker, and of the Moog synthesizer. The Moog is not merely used as a background effect but sometimes plays a central role, as in "Because", where it is used for the middle eight. It is also prominent on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Here Comes the Sun". The synthesizer was introduced to the band by Harrison, who acquired one in November 1968 and used it to create his album Electronic Sound. Starr made more prominent use of the tom-toms on Abbey Road, later saying the album was "tom-tom madness ... I went nuts on the toms."
Abbey Road was also the first and only Beatles album to be entirely recorded through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, the TG12345 Mk I, as opposed to earlier thermionic valve-based REDD desks. The TG console also allowed better support for eight-track recording, facilitating the Beatles' considerable use of overdubbing. Emerick recalls that the TG desk used to record the album had individual limiters and compressors on each audio channel and noted that the overall sound was "softer" than the earlier valve desks. In his study of the role of the TG12345 in the Beatles' sound on Abbey Road, music historian Kenneth Womack observes that "the expansive sound palette and mixing capabilities of the TG12345 enabled George Martin and Geoff Emerick to imbue the Beatles' sound with greater definition and clarity. The warmth of solid-state recording also afforded their music with brighter tonalities and a deeper low end that distinguished Abbey Road from the rest of their corpus, providing listeners with an abiding sense that the Beatles' final long-player was markedly different."
Alan Parsons worked as an assistant engineer on the album. He later went on to engineer Pink Floyd's landmark album The Dark Side of the Moon and produce many popular albums himself with the Alan Parsons Project. John Kurlander also assisted on many of the sessions, and went on to become a successful engineer and producer, most noteworthy for his success on the scores for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
Songs
Side one
"Come Together"
"Come Together" was an expansion of "Let's Get It Together", a song Lennon originally wrote for Timothy Leary's California gubernatorial campaign against Ronald Reagan. A rough version of the lyrics for "Come Together" was written at Lennon's and Ono's second bed-in event in Montreal.
Beatles author Jonathan Gould suggested that the song has only a single "pariah-like protagonist" and Lennon was "painting another sardonic self-portrait". MacDonald has suggested that the "juju eyeballs" has been claimed to refer to Dr John and "spinal cracker" to Ono. The song was later the subject of a lawsuit brought against Lennon by Morris Levy because the opening line in "Come Together" – "Here come old flat-top" – was admittedly lifted from a line in Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me". A settlement was reached in 1973 in which Lennon promised to record three songs from Levy's publishing catalogue for his next album.
"Come Together" was later released as a double A-side single with "Something". In the liner notes to the compilation album Love, Martin described the track as "a simple song but it stands out because of the sheer brilliance of the performers".
"Something"
Harrison was inspired to write "Something" during sessions for the White Album by listening to label-mate James Taylor's "Something in the Way She Moves" from his album James Taylor. After the lyrics were refined during the Let It Be sessions (tapes reveal Lennon giving Harrison some songwriting advice during its composition), the song was initially given to Joe Cocker, but was subsequently recorded for Abbey Road. Cocker's version appeared on his album Joe Cocker! that November.
"Something" was Lennon's favourite song on the album, and McCartney considered it the best song Harrison had written. Though the song was written by Harrison, Frank Sinatra once commented that it was his favourite Lennon–McCartney composition and "the greatest love song ever written". Lennon contributed piano to the recording and while most of the part was removed, traces of it remain in the final cut, notably on the middle eight, before Harrison's guitar solo.
The song was issued as a double A-side single with "Come Together" in October 1969 and topped the US charts for one week, becoming the Beatles' first number-one single that was not a Lennon–McCartney composition. It was also the first Beatles single from an album already released in the UK. Apple's Neil Aspinall filmed a promotional video, which combined separate footage of the Beatles and their wives.
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer", McCartney's first song on the album, was first performed by the Beatles during the Let It Be sessions (as seen in the film). He wrote the song after the group's trip to India in 1968 and wanted to record it for the White Album, but it was rejected by the others as "too complicated".
The recording was fraught with tension between band members, as McCartney annoyed others by insisting on a perfect performance. The track was the first Lennon was invited to work on following his car accident, but he hated it and declined to do so. According to engineer Geoff Emerick, Lennon said it was "more of Paul's granny music" and left the session. He spent the next two weeks with Ono and did not return to the studio until the backing track for "Come Together" was laid down on 21 July. Harrison was also tired of the song, saying "we had to play it over and over again until Paul liked it. It was a real drag". Starr was more sympathetic to the song. "It was granny music", he admitted, "but we needed stuff like that on our album so other people would listen to it". Longtime roadie Mal Evans played the anvil sound in the chorus. This track also makes use of Harrison's Moog synthesizer, played by McCartney.
"Oh! Darling"
"Oh! Darling" was written by McCartney in the doo-wop style, like contemporary work by Frank Zappa. It was tried at the Get Back sessions, and a version appears on Anthology 3. It was subsequently re-recorded in April, with overdubs in July and August.
McCartney attempted recording the lead vocal only once a day. He said: "I came into the studios early every day for a week to sing it by myself because at first my voice was too clear. I wanted it to sound as though I'd been performing it on stage all week." Lennon thought he should have sung it, remarking that it was more his style.
"Octopus's Garden"
As was the case with most of the Beatles' albums, Starr sang lead vocal on one track. "Octopus's Garden" is his second and last solo composition released on any album by the band. It was inspired by a trip with his family to Sardinia aboard Peter Sellers's yacht after Starr left the band for two weeks during the sessions for the White Album. Starr received a full songwriting credit and composed most of the lyrics, although the song's melodic structure was partly written in the studio by Harrison. The pair would later collaborate as writers on Starr's solo singles "It Don't Come Easy", "Back Off Boogaloo" and "Photograph".
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)"
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)" was written by Lennon about his relationship with Ono, and he made a deliberate choice to keep the lyrics simple and concise. Author Tom Maginnis writes that the song had a progressive rock influence, with its unusual length and structure, repeating guitar riff, and white noise effects, though he noted the "I Want You" section has a straightforward blues structure.
The finished song is a combination of two different recording attempts. The first attempt occurred in February 1969, almost immediately after the Get Back/Let It Be sessions with Billy Preston. This was subsequently combined with a second version made during the Abbey Road sessions proper in April. The two sections together ran to nearly eight minutes, making it the Beatles' second-longest released track. Lennon used Harrison's Moog synthesizer with a white noise setting to create a "wind" effect that was overdubbed on the second half of the track. During the final edit, Lennon told Emerick to "cut it right there" at 7 minutes and 44 seconds, creating a sudden, jarring silence that concludes the first side of Abbey Road (the recording tape would have run out within 20 seconds as it was). The final mixing and editing of the track occurred on 20 August 1969, the last day all four Beatles were together in the studio.
Side two
"Here Comes the Sun"
"Here Comes the Sun" was written by Harrison in Eric Clapton's garden in Surrey during a break from stressful band business meetings. The basic track was recorded on 7 July 1969. Harrison sang lead and played acoustic guitar, McCartney provided backing vocals and played bass and Starr played the drums. Lennon was still recuperating from his car accident and did not perform on the track. Martin provided an orchestral arrangement in collaboration with Harrison, who overdubbed a Moog synthesizer part on 19 August, immediately before the final mix.
Though not released as a single, the song attracted attention and critical praise, and was included on the compilation 1967–1970. It has been featured several times on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, having been chosen by Sandie Shaw, Jerry Springer, Boris Johnson and Elaine Paige. The Daily Telegraph's Martin Chilton said it was "almost impossible not to sing along to". Since digital downloads have become eligible to chart, it reached number 56 in 2010 after the Beatles' back catalogue was released on iTunes. It is also the most streamed Beatles song on Spotify.
Harrison recorded a guitar solo for this track that did not appear in the final mix. It was rediscovered in 2012, and footage of Martin and Harrison's son Dhani listening to it in the studio was released on the DVD of Living in the Material World.
"Because"
"Because" was inspired by Lennon listening to Ono playing Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" on the piano. He recalled he was "lying on the sofa in our house, listening to Yoko play ... Suddenly, I said, 'Can you play those chords backward?' She did, and I wrote 'Because' around them." The track features three-part harmonies by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, which were then triple-tracked to give nine voices in the final mix. The group considered the vocals to be some of the hardest and most complex they attempted. Harrison played the Moog synthesizer, and Martin played the harpsichord that opens the track.
Medley
The remainder of side two consists of a 16-minute medley of eight short songs (known during the recording sessions as "The Long One"), recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin. Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3. While the idea for the medley was McCartney's, Martin claims credit for some structure, adding he "wanted to get John and Paul to think more seriously about their music".
The first track recorded for the medley was the opening number, "You Never Give Me Your Money". McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. However, MacDonald doubts this, given that the backing track, recorded on 6 May at Olympic Studios, predated the worst altercations between Klein and McCartney. The track is a suite of varying styles, ranging from a piano-led ballad at the start to arpeggiated guitars at the end. Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track.
This song transitions into Lennon's "Sun King" which, like "Because", showcases Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies. Following it are Lennon's "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during the Beatles' 1968 trip to India) and "Polythene Pam". These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan entered McCartney's residence via his bathroom window), "Golden Slumbers" (based on Thomas Dekker's 17th-century poem set to new music), "Carry That Weight" (reprising elements from "You Never Give Me Your Money", and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and closing with "The End".
"The End" features Starr's only drum solo in the Beatles' catalogue (the drums are mixed across two tracks in "true stereo", unlike most releases at that time where they were hard panned left or right). Fifty-four seconds into the song are 18 bars of lead guitar: the first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, and the sequence is repeated two more times. Harrison suggested the idea of a guitar solo in the track, Lennon decided they should trade solos and McCartney elected to go first. The solos were cut live against the existing backing track in one take. Immediately after Lennon's third and final solo, the piano chords of the final part of the song begin. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". This section was taped separately from the first, and required the piano to be re-recorded by McCartney, which was done on 18 August. An alternative version of the song, with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (and Starr's drum solo heard in the background), appears on the Anthology 3 album and the 2012 digital-only compilation album Tomorrow Never Knows.
Musicologist Walter Everett interprets that most of the lyrics on side two's medley deal with "selfishness and self-gratification – the financial complaints in 'You Never Give Me Your Money,' the miserliness of Mr. Mustard, the holding back of the pillow in 'Carry That Weight,' the desire that some second person will visit the singer's dreams – perhaps the 'one sweet dream' of 'You Never Give Me Your Money'? – in 'The End.'" Everett adds that the medley's "selfish moments" are played in the context of the tonal centre of A, while "generosity" is expressed in songs where C major is central. The medley concludes with a "great compromise in the 'negotiations'" in "The End", which serves as a structurally balanced coda. In response to the repeated A-major choruses of "love you", McCartney sings in realisation that there is as much self-gratifying love ("the love you take") as there is of the generous love ("the love you make"), in A major and C major, respectively.
"Her Majesty"
"Her Majesty" was recorded by McCartney on 2 July when he arrived before the rest of the group at Abbey Road. It was originally included in a rough mix of the side two medley (and officially available in this form for the first time on the album's 3CD Super Deluxe edition box set), appearing between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam". McCartney disliked the way the medley sounded when it included "Her Majesty", so he asked for it to be cut. The second engineer, John Kurlander, had been instructed by George Martin not to throw out anything, so after McCartney left, he attached the track to the end of the master tape after 20 seconds of silence. The tape box bore an instruction to leave "Her Majesty" off the final product, but the next day when mastering engineer Malcolm Davies received the tape, he (also trained not to throw anything away) cut a playback lacquer of the whole sequence, including "Her Majesty". The Beatles liked this effect and included it on the album.
"Her Majesty" opens with the final, crashing chord of "Mean Mr. Mustard", while the final note remained buried in the mix of "Polythene Pam", as a result of being snipped off the reel during a rough mix of the medley on 30 July. The medley was subsequently mixed again from scratch although the song was not touched again and still appears in its rough mix on the album.
Original US and UK pressings of Abbey Road do not list "Her Majesty" on the album's cover nor on the record label, making it a hidden track. The song title appears on the inlay card and disc of the 1987 remastered CD reissue, as track 17. It also appears on the sleeve, booklet and disc of the 2009 remastered CD reissue, but not on the cover or record label of the 2012 vinyl reissue.
Unreleased material
Three days after the session for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", Harrison recorded solo demos of "All Things Must Pass" (which became the title track of his 1970 triple album), "Something" and "Old Brown Shoe". The latter was re-recorded by the Beatles in April 1969 and issued as the B-side to "The Ballad of John and Yoko" the following month. All three of these Harrison demos were later featured on Anthology 3.
During the sessions for the medley, McCartney recorded "Come and Get It", playing all the instruments. It was assumed to be a demo recording for another artist but McCartney later said that he originally intended to put it on Abbey Road. It was instead covered by Badfinger, while McCartney's original recording appeared on Anthology 3.
The original backing track to "Something", featuring a piano-led coda, and "You Never Give Me Your Money", which leads into a fast rock-n-roll jam session, have appeared on bootlegs.
Cover photo
Apple Records creative director Kosh designed the album cover. It is the only original UK Beatles album sleeve to show neither the artist name nor the album title on its front cover, which was Kosh's idea, despite EMI claiming the record would not sell without this information. He later explained that "we didn't need to write the band's name on the cover ... They were the most famous band in the world". The front cover was a photograph of the group on a zebra crossing based on ideas that McCartney sketched and taken on 8 August 1969 outside EMI Studios on Abbey Road. At 11:35 that morning, photographer Iain Macmillan was given only ten minutes to take the photo while he stood on a step-ladder and a policeman held up traffic behind the camera. Macmillan took six photographs, which McCartney examined with a magnifying glass before deciding which would be used on the album sleeve.
In the image selected by McCartney, the group walk across the street in single file from left to right, with Lennon leading, followed by Starr, McCartney, and Harrison. McCartney is barefoot and out of step with the others. Except for Harrison, the group are wearing suits designed by Tommy Nutter. A white Volkswagen Beetle is to the left of the picture, parked next to the zebra crossing, which belonged to one of the people living in the block of flats across from the recording studio. After the album was released, the number plate (LMW 281F) was repeatedly stolen from the car. In 2004, news sources published a claim made by retired American salesman Paul Cole that he was the man standing on the pavement to the right of the picture.
Release
In mid-1969, Lennon formed a new group, the Plastic Ono Band, in part because the Beatles had rejected his song "Cold Turkey". While Harrison worked with such artists as Leon Russell, Doris Troy, Preston and Delaney & Bonnie through to the end of the year, McCartney took a hiatus from the group after his daughter Mary was born on 28 August. On 20 September, Lennon told McCartney, Starr, and business manager Allen Klein (Harrison was not present) he was leaving the group, (or in his words, he wanted a divorce) six days before Abbey Road was released. Apple released "Something" backed with "Come Together" in the US on 6 October 1969. Release of the single in the UK followed on 31 October, while Lennon released the Plastic Ono Band's "Cold Turkey" the same month.
The Beatles did little promotion of Abbey Road directly, and no public announcement was made of the band's split until McCartney announced he was leaving the group in April 1970. By this time, the Get Back project (by now retitled Let It Be) had been re-examined, with overdubs and mixing sessions continuing into 1970. Therefore, Let It Be became the last album to be finished and released by the Beatles, although its recording had begun before Abbey Road.
Abbey Road sold four million copies in its first two months of release. In the UK, the album debuted at number one, where it remained for 11 weeks before being displaced for one week by the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed. The following week (which was Christmas), Abbey Road returned to the top for another six weeks (completing a total of 17 weeks) before being replaced by Led Zeppelin II. Altogether, it spent 81 weeks on the UK albums chart. Reaction overseas was similar. In the US, the album spent 11 weeks at number one on the Billboard Top LPs chart. It was the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) best-selling album of 1969. In Japan, it was one of the longest-charting albums to date, remaining in the top 100 for 298 weeks during the 1970s.
Critical reception
Contemporary
Abbey Road initially received mixed reviews from music critics, who criticised the production's artificial sounds and viewed its music as inauthentic. William Mann of The Times said that the album will "be called gimmicky by people who want a record to sound exactly like a live performance", although he considered it to be "teem[ing] with musical invention" and added: "Nice as Come Together and Harrison's Something are – they are minor pleasures in the context of the whole disc ... Side Two is marvellous ..." Ed Ward of Rolling Stone called the album "complicated instead of complex" and felt that the Moog synthesizer "disembodies and artificializes" the band's sound, adding that they "create a sound that could not possibly exist outside the studio". While he found the medley on side two to be their "most impressive music" since Rubber Soul, Nik Cohn of The New York Times said that, "individually", the album's songs are "nothing special". Albert Goldman of Life magazine wrote that Abbey Road "is not one of the Beatles' great albums" and, despite some "lovely" phrases and "stirring" segues, side two's suite "seems symbolic of the Beatles' latest phase, which might be described as the round-the-clock production of disposable music effects".
Conversely, Chris Welch wrote in Melody Maker: "the truth is, their latest LP is just a natural born gas, entirely free of pretension, deep meanings or symbolism ... While production is simple compared to past intricacies, it is still extremely sophisticated and inventive." Derek Jewell of The Sunday Times found the album "refreshingly terse and unpretentious", and although he lamented the band's "cod-1920s jokes (Maxwell's Silver Hammer) and ... Ringo's obligatory nursery arias (Octopus's Garden)", he considered that Abbey Road "touches higher peaks than did their last album". John Mendelsohn, writing for Rolling Stone, called it "breathtakingly recorded" and praised side two especially, equating it to "the whole of Sgt. Pepper" and stating, "That the Beatles can unify seemingly countless musical fragments and lyrical doodlings into a uniformly wonderful suite ... seems potent testimony that no, they've far from lost it, and no, they haven't stopped trying."
While covering the Rolling Stones' 1969 American tour for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau reported from a meeting with Greil Marcus in Berkeley that "opinion has shifted against the Beatles. Everyone is putting down Abbey Road." Shortly afterwards, in Los Angeles, he wrote that his colleague Ellen Willis had grown to love the record, adding: "Damned if she isn't right – flawed but fine. Because the world is round it turns her on. Charlie Watts tells us he likes it too."
Retrospective
Many critics have since cited Abbey Road as the Beatles' greatest album. In a retrospective review, Nicole Pensiero of PopMatters called it "an amazingly cohesive piece of music, innovative and timeless". Mark Kemp of Paste viewed the album as being "among The Beatles' finest works, even if it foreshadows the cigarette-lighter-waving arena rock that technically skilled but critically maligned artists from Journey to Meatloaf would belabor throughout the '70s and '80s". Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph dubbed it the Beatles' "last love letter to the world" and praised its "big, modern sound", calling it "lush, rich, smooth, epic, emotional and utterly gorgeous".
AllMusic's Richie Unterberger felt that the album shared Sgt. Peppers "faux-conceptual forms", but had "stronger compositions", and wrote of its standing in the band's catalogue: "Whether Abbey Road is the Beatles' best work is debatable, but it's certainly the most immaculately produced (with the possible exception of Sgt. Pepper) and most tightly constructed." Ian MacDonald gave a mixed opinion of the album, noting that several tracks had been written at least a year previously, and would possibly have been unsuitable without being integrated into the medley on side two. He did, however, praise the production, particularly the sound of Starr's bass drum.
Abbey Road received high rankings in several "best albums in history" polls by critics and publications. It was voted number 8 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000). Time included it in their 2006 list of the All-Time 100 Albums. In 2009, readers of Rolling Stone named Abbey Road the greatest Beatles album. In 2020, the magazine ranked the album at number 5 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", the highest Beatles record on the list; a previous version of the list from 2012 had ranked it at number 14. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Legacy
Abbey Road crossing and "Paul is dead"
The image of the Beatles on the Abbey Road crossing has become one of the most famous and imitated in recording history. The crossing is a popular destination for Beatles fans, and a webcam has operated there since 2011. In December 2010, the crossing was given grade II listed status for its "cultural and historical importance"; the Abbey Road studios themselves had been given similar status earlier in the year.
Shortly after the album's release, the cover became part of the "Paul is dead" theory that was spreading across college campuses in the US. According to followers of the rumour, the cover depicted the Beatles walking out of a cemetery in a funeral procession. The procession was led by Lennon dressed in white as a religious figure; Starr was dressed in black as the undertaker; McCartney, out of step with the others, was a barefoot corpse; and Harrison dressed in denim was the gravedigger. The left-handed McCartney is holding a cigarette in his right hand, indicating that he is an imposter, and part of the number plate on the Volkswagen parked on the street is 281F (misread as 28IF), meaning that McCartney would have been 28 if he had lived – despite the fact that he was only 27 at the time of the photo and subsequent release of the record. The escalation of the "Paul is dead" rumour became the subject of intense analysis on mainstream radio and contributed to Abbey Roads commercial success in the US. Lennon was interviewed in London by New York's WMCA, and he ridiculed the rumour but conceded that it was invaluable publicity for the album.
The cover image has been parodied on several occasions, including by McCartney on his 1993 live album Paul Is Live. On the cover of its October 1977 issue, the satirical magazine National Lampoon depicted the four Beatles flattened along the zebra crossing, with a road roller driving away up the street. The Red Hot Chili Peppers' The Abbey Road E.P. parodies the cover, with the band walking near-naked across a similar zebra crossing. In 2003, several US poster companies airbrushed McCartney's cigarette out of the image without permission from Apple or McCartney. In 2013, Kolkata Police launched a traffic safety awareness advertisement against jaywalking, using the cover and a caption that read: "If they can, why can't you?"
Cover versions and influence
The songs on Abbey Road have been covered many times and the album itself has been covered in its entirety. One month after Abbey Roads release, George Benson recorded a cover version of the album called The Other Side of Abbey Road. Later in 1969 Booker T. & the M.G.'s recorded McLemore Avenue (the location in Memphis of Stax Records) which covered the Abbey Road songs and had a similar cover photo.
While matching albums such as Sgt. Pepper in terms of popularity, Abbey Road failed to repeat the Beatles' earlier achievements in galvanising their rivals to imitate them. In author Peter Doggett's description, "Too contrived for the rock underground to copy, too complex for the bubblegum pop brigade to copy, the album influenced no one – except [Paul McCartney]", who spent years trying to emulate its scope in his solo career. Writing for Classic Rock in 2014, Jon Anderson of the progressive rock band Yes said his group were constantly influenced by the Beatles from Revolver onwards, but it was the feeling that side two was "one complete idea" that inspired him to create long-form pieces of music.
Several artists have covered some or all of the side-two medley, including Phil Collins (for the Martin/Beatles tribute album In My Life), The String Cheese Incident, Transatlantic and Tenacious D (who performed the medley with Phish keyboardist Page McConnell). Furthur, a jam band including former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, played the entire Abbey Road album during its Spring Tour 2011. It began with a "Come Together" opener at Boston on 4 March and ended with the entire medley in New York City on 15 March, including "Her Majesty" as an encore.
Continued sales and reissues
In June 1970, Allen Klein reported that Abbey Road was the Beatles' best-selling album in the US with sales of about five million. By 1992, Abbey Road had sold nine million copies. The album became the ninth-most downloaded on the iTunes Store a week after it was released there on 16 November 2010. A CNN report stated it was the best-selling vinyl album of 2011. It is the first album from the 1960s to sell over five million albums since 1991 when Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales. In the US, the album had sold 7,177,797 copies by the end of the 1970s. , the album had sold over 31 million copies worldwide and is one of the band's best-selling albums. In October 2019, Abbey Road re-entered the UK charts, again hitting number one.
Abbey Road has remained in print since its first release in 1969. The original album was released on 26 September in the UK and 1 October in the US on Apple Records. It was reissued as a limited edition picture disc on vinyl in the US by Capitol on 27 December 1978, while a CD reissue of the album was released in 1987, with a remastered version appearing in 2009. The remaster included additional photographs with additional liner notes and the first, limited edition, run also included a short documentary about the making of the album.
In 2001, Abbey Road was certified 12× platinum by the RIAA. The album continues to be reissued on vinyl. It was included as part of the Beatles' Collector's Crate series in September 2009 and saw a remastered LP release on 180-gram vinyl in 2012.
A super deluxe version of the album, which featured new mixes by Giles Martin, was released in September 2019 to celebrate the original album's 50th anniversary.
As of October 2019, Abbey Road has sold 2,240,608 pure sales in United Kingdom and overall all consumed sales stand at 2,327,230 units. Post 1994 sales stand at 827,329.
Track listing
Notes
"Her Majesty" appears as a hidden track after "The End" and 14 seconds of silence. Later releases of the album included the song on the track listing, except the vinyl editions.
Some cassette tape versions in the UK and US had "Come Together" and "Here Comes the Sun" swapped to even out the playing time of each side.
Personnel
According to Mark Lewisohn, Ian MacDonald, Barry Miles, Kevin Howlett, and Geoff Emerick.
The Beatles
John Lennon – lead, harmony and background vocals; rhythm, lead and acoustic guitars; acoustic and electric pianos, Moog synthesizer; white noise generator and sound effects; percussion
Paul McCartney – lead, harmony and background vocals; bass, rhythm, lead and acoustic guitars; acoustic and electric pianos, Moog synthesizer; sound effects; wind chimes, handclaps and percussion
George Harrison – harmony and background vocals; lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars; bass on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "Oh Darling" and "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight"; harmonium and Moog synthesizer; handclaps and percussion; lead vocals (on "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun")
Ringo Starr – drums and percussion; background vocals; lead vocals (on "Octopus's Garden")
Additional musicians
George Martin – harpsichord, organ, percussion
Billy Preston – Hammond organ (on "Something" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)")
Mal Evans – anvil on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
Production
"Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with George Harrison)
"Golden Slumbers", "Carry That Weight" and "The End" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with Paul McCartney)
Produced by George Martin (with the Beatles)
Recorded by Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald
Assistant engineering by Alan Parsons
Mixed by Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald and George Martin (with the Beatles)
Moog programming by Mike Vickers
Charts
Original release
1987 reissue
2009 reissue
2019 reissue
Certifications
Release history
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
External links
Beatles comments on each song
Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick on Abbey Road – A track-by-track walkthrough
Live webcam at the Abbey Road zebra crossing
The Beatles y la foto de la portada de Abbey Road
1969 albums
The Beatles albums
Apple Records albums
Albums produced by George Martin
Albums recorded at Olympic Sound Studios
Albums recorded at Trident Studios
Albums arranged by George Martin
Albums conducted by George Martin
Albums produced by Chris Thomas (record producer)
Albums produced by George Harrison
Albums produced by John Lennon
Albums produced by Paul McCartney
Albums produced by Ringo Starr
Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients
Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical | false | [
"Allen Klein (born April 26, 1938) is a pioneer in gelotology and the therapeutic humor movement. In 1974, Klein's wife was only 34 years old when she died of liver disease, and the aspect where she had kept her sense of humor all the way to the end inspired Klein to give up his previous career as a theater and television scene designer and to study human development. Klein is an American author and lecturer on the stress relieving benefits of humor and on gallows humor. Among other positions, Klein was the 2005-2006 president of The Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor.\n\nPublications \n\nKlein has written 8 books on the therapeutic benefits of humor, happiness and positivity.\n\nThe Healing Power of Humor: Techniques for Getting through Loss, Setbacks, Upsets, Disappointments, Difficulties, Trials, Tribulations, and All That Not-So-Funny Stuff \nThe Courage to Laugh: Humor, Hope, and Healing in the Face of Death and Dying \nLearning to Laugh When You Feel Like Crying: Embracing Life After Loss \nL.A.U.G.H.: Using Humor and Play to Help Clients Cope with Stress, Anger, Frustration, and more \nYou Can't Ruin My Day: 52 Wake-Up Calls to Turn Any Situation Around \nSecrets Kids Know...That Adults Oughta Learn \nEmbracing Life After Loss \nThe Awe Factor \n\nIn addition, he has edited several books of inspirational quotations. They are:\nChange Your Life!: A Little Book of Big Ideas (foreword by Jack Canfield) \nInspiration for a Lifetime \nThe Art of Living Joyfully (endorsed by SARK) \nAlways Look on the Bright Side \nHaving the Time of Your Life \nMom's the Word \nWord of Love \nPositive Thoughts for Troubling Times \nThe Joy of Simplicity\n\nQuotes \n\nSource:\n\"Humor can help you cope with the unbearable so that you can stay on the bright side of things until the bright side actually comes along.\"\n\"Humor does not diminish the pain - it makes the space around it get bigger.\"\n\"When we are dealing with death we are constantly being dragged down by the event: Humor diverts our attention and lifts our sagging spirits.\"\n\"Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world. Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak. *Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor, and your picture begins to lighten up.\"\n\"The hardest thing you can do is smile when you are ill, in pain, or depressed. But this no-cost remedy is a necessary first half-step if you are to start on the road to recovery.\"\n\nAwards \n2007 Hunter College, The City University of New York, Hall of Fame honoree\nCertified Speaking Professional designation from the National Speakers Association\nToastmasters International Communication and Leadership Award\n2009 Doug Fletcher Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n \n Allen Klein's website\nJeffrey Mishlove interview with Allen Klein\n\n\"Laugh Your Way to Health\" New Dimensions Radio interview\n\"Healing with Humor: Those Who Laugh, Last\" Mother Earth News\n\"Sebastopol Author Allen Klein Shares His Secrets to Happiness\"\n\n1938 births\nLiving people\nHumor researchers\nAmerican male writers\nWriters from New York City",
"Eclipse Award for Outstanding Owner is an American Thoroughbred horse racing honor for racehorse owners. Created in 1971, it is part of the Eclipse Awards program and is awarded annually.\n\nPast winners: \n1971 : Mr. & Mrs. E. E. Fogelson\n1972 : No award\n1973 : No award\n1974 : Dan Lasater\n1975 : Dan Lasater\n1976 : Dan Lasater\n1977 : Maxwell Gluck\n1978 : Harbor View Farm\n1979 : Harbor View Farm\n1980 : Bertram & Diana Firestone\n1981 : Dotsam Stable\n1982 : Viola Sommer\n1983 : John A. Franks\n1984 : John A. Franks\n1985 : Mr. & Mrs. Gene Klein\n1986 : Mr. & Mrs. Gene Klein\n1987 : Mr. & Mrs. Gene Klein\n1988 : Ogden Phipps\n1989 : Ogden Phipps\n1990 : Frances A. Genter\n1991 : Sam-Son Farm\n1992 : Juddmonte Farms\n1993 : John A. Franks\n1994 : John A. Franks\n1995 : Allen E. Paulson\n\n1996 : Allen E. Paulson\n1997 : Carolyn Hine\n1998 : Frank Stronach\n1999 : Frank Stronach\n2000 : Frank Stronach\n2001 : Richard A. Englander\n2002 : Richard A. Englander\n2003 : Juddmonte Farms\n2004 : Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey\n2005 : Michael J. Gill\n2006 : Lael Stables & Darley Stables (tied)\n2007 : Shadwell Stable\n2008 : Stronach Stables\n2009 : Godolphin Racing\n2010 : WinStar Farm\n2011 : Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey\n2012 : Godolphin Racing\n2013 : Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey\n2014 : Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey\n2015 : Zayat Stables\n2016 : Juddmonte Farms\n2017 : Juddmonte Farms\n2018 : Hronis Racing\n2019 : Klaravich Stables and William H. Lawrence\n2020 : Godolphin\n2021 : Godolphin\n\nReferences\n The Eclipse Awards at the Thoroughbred Racing Associations of America, Inc.\n The Bloodhorse.com Champion's history charts\n\n \n \nHorse racing awards\nHorse racing in the United States"
]
|
[
"Abbey Road",
"Medley",
"Does Medley refer to a song on the album?",
"Side two contains a 16-minute medley of eight short songs, recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin.",
"Were the 8 songs previously recorded or new?",
"Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3.",
"Did anyone besides McCartney and Martin have a hand in creating the song?",
"Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track,",
"Did Medley win any awards?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics.",
"When was the song recorded?",
"Side two contains a 16-minute medley of eight short songs, recorded over July and August",
"Who is Allen Klein?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_8105eda42e114746b1837acf728441f2_1 | Was the song popular? | 8 | Was the song Medley popular? | Abbey Road | Side two contains a 16-minute medley of eight short songs, recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin. Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3. While the idea for the medley was McCartney's, Martin claims credit for some structure, adding he "wanted to get John and Paul to think more seriously about their music". The first track recorded for the medley was the opening number, "You Never Give Me Your Money". McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. However, MacDonald doubts this given that the backing track, recorded on 6 May at Olympic Studios, predated the worst altercations between Klein and McCartney. The track is a suite of varying styles, ranging from a piano-led ballad at the start to arpeggiated guitars at the end. Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track, which Beatles author Walter Everett considers his favourite Lennon guitar contribution. This song transitions into Lennon's "Sun King" which, like "Because", showcases Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies. Following it are Lennon's "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during the Beatles' 1968 trip to India) and "Polythene Pam". These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan entered McCartney's residence via his bathroom window), "Golden Slumbers" (based on Thomas Dekker's 17th-century poem set to new music), "Carry That Weight" (reprising elements from "You Never Give Me Your Money", and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and closing with "The End". "The End" features Starr's only drum solo in the Beatles' catalogue (the drums are mixed across two tracks in "true stereo", unlike most releases at that time where they were hard panned left or right). Fifty-four seconds into the song are 18 bars of lead guitar: the first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, with the sequence repeating. Harrison suggested the idea of a guitar solo in the track, Lennon decided they should trade solos and McCartney elected to go first. The solos were cut live against the existing backing track in one take. Immediately after Lennon's third and final solo, the piano chords of the final part of the song begin. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". This section was taped separately to the first, and required the piano to be re-recorded by McCartney, which was done on 18 August. An alternative version of the song, with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (with Starr's drum solo heard in the background), appears on the Anthology 3 album and the 2012 digital-only compilation album Tomorrow Never Knows. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Abbey Road is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969 by Apple Records. Named after Abbey Road, London, the location of EMI Studios, the cover features the group walking across the street's zebra crossing, an image that became one of the most famous and imitated in popular music. The album's initially mixed reviews were contrasted by its immediate commercial success, topping record charts in the UK and US. The single "Something" / "Come Together" was released in October and topped the US charts.
The album incorporates genres such as blues, rock and pop, and makes prominent use of Moog synthesizer, sounds filtered through a Leslie speaker, and tom-tom drums. It is the Beatles' only album recorded exclusively through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, which afforded a clearer and brighter sound than the group's previous records. Side two contains a medley of shorter song fragments. The sessions also produced a non-album single, "The Ballad of John and Yoko" backed with "Old Brown Shoe".
Producer George Martin returned on the condition that the Beatles adhere to the discipline of their earlier records. They found the album's recording more enjoyable than the preceding Get Back sessions, but personal and business issues still affected the working environment. Production lasted from February to August 1969, and the closing track "The End" marked the final occasion that all four members recorded together. John Lennon privately left the group six days before the album's release; Paul McCartney publicly declared the band's break-up the following April.
Upon release, detractors found Abbey Road to be inauthentic and bemoaned the production's artificial effects. Since then, many critics have hailed the album as the Beatles' finest; in particular, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" are considered among the best songs George Harrison wrote for the group. The album has also been ranked as one of the Beatles' best-selling, including a multi-platinum certification by the RIAA. Shortly after its release, the cover photograph fuelled rumours of McCartney's purported death. EMI Studios was also renamed Abbey Road Studios in honour of the album. A deluxe version of the album was released in 2019. In 2020, it was ranked fifth in Rolling Stones list of the greatest albums of all time.
Background
After the tense and unpleasant recording sessions for the proposed Get Back album, Paul McCartney suggested to music producer George Martin that the group get together and make an album "the way we used to do it", free of the conflict that had begun during sessions for The Beatles (also known as the "White Album"). Martin agreed, but on the strict condition that all the group – particularly John Lennon – allow him to produce the record in the same manner as earlier albums and that discipline would be adhered to. No one was entirely sure that the work was going to be the group's last, though George Harrison said "it felt as if we were reaching the end of the line".
Production
Recording history
The first sessions for Abbey Road began on 22 February 1969, only three weeks after the Get Back sessions, in Trident Studios. There, the group recorded a backing track for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" with Billy Preston accompanying them on Hammond organ. No further group recording occurred until April because of Ringo Starr's commitments on the film The Magic Christian. After a small amount of work that month and a session for "You Never Give Me Your Money" on 6 May, the group took an eight-week break before recommencing on 2 July. Recording continued through July and August, and the last backing track, for "Because", was taped on 1 August. Overdubs continued through the month, with the final sequencing of the album coming together on 20 August the last time all four Beatles were present in a studio together.
McCartney, Starr and Martin have reported positive recollections of the sessions, while Harrison said, "we did actually perform like musicians again". Lennon and McCartney had enjoyed working together on the non-album single "The Ballad of John and Yoko" in April, sharing friendly banter between takes, and some of this camaraderie carried over to the Abbey Road sessions. Nevertheless, there was a significant amount of tension in the group. According to Ian MacDonald, McCartney had an acrimonious argument with Lennon during the sessions. Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, had become a permanent presence at Beatles' recordings and clashed with other members. Halfway through recording in June, Lennon and Ono were involved in a car accident. A doctor told Ono to rest in bed, so Lennon had one installed in the studio so she could observe the recording process from there.
During the sessions, Lennon expressed a desire to have all of his songs on one side of the album, and McCartney's on the other. The album's two halves represented a compromise: Lennon wanted a traditional release with distinct and unrelated songs while McCartney and Martin wanted to continue their thematic approach from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by incorporating a medley. Lennon ultimately said that he disliked Abbey Road as a whole and felt that it lacked authenticity, calling McCartney's contributions "[music] for the grannies to dig" and not "real songs", and describing the medley as "junk ... just bits of songs thrown together".
Technical aspects
Abbey Road was recorded on eight-track reel-to-reel tape machines rather than the four-track machines that were used for earlier Beatles albums such as Sgt Pepper, and was the first Beatles album not to be issued in mono. The album makes prominent use of guitar played through a Leslie speaker, and of the Moog synthesizer. The Moog is not merely used as a background effect but sometimes plays a central role, as in "Because", where it is used for the middle eight. It is also prominent on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Here Comes the Sun". The synthesizer was introduced to the band by Harrison, who acquired one in November 1968 and used it to create his album Electronic Sound. Starr made more prominent use of the tom-toms on Abbey Road, later saying the album was "tom-tom madness ... I went nuts on the toms."
Abbey Road was also the first and only Beatles album to be entirely recorded through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, the TG12345 Mk I, as opposed to earlier thermionic valve-based REDD desks. The TG console also allowed better support for eight-track recording, facilitating the Beatles' considerable use of overdubbing. Emerick recalls that the TG desk used to record the album had individual limiters and compressors on each audio channel and noted that the overall sound was "softer" than the earlier valve desks. In his study of the role of the TG12345 in the Beatles' sound on Abbey Road, music historian Kenneth Womack observes that "the expansive sound palette and mixing capabilities of the TG12345 enabled George Martin and Geoff Emerick to imbue the Beatles' sound with greater definition and clarity. The warmth of solid-state recording also afforded their music with brighter tonalities and a deeper low end that distinguished Abbey Road from the rest of their corpus, providing listeners with an abiding sense that the Beatles' final long-player was markedly different."
Alan Parsons worked as an assistant engineer on the album. He later went on to engineer Pink Floyd's landmark album The Dark Side of the Moon and produce many popular albums himself with the Alan Parsons Project. John Kurlander also assisted on many of the sessions, and went on to become a successful engineer and producer, most noteworthy for his success on the scores for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
Songs
Side one
"Come Together"
"Come Together" was an expansion of "Let's Get It Together", a song Lennon originally wrote for Timothy Leary's California gubernatorial campaign against Ronald Reagan. A rough version of the lyrics for "Come Together" was written at Lennon's and Ono's second bed-in event in Montreal.
Beatles author Jonathan Gould suggested that the song has only a single "pariah-like protagonist" and Lennon was "painting another sardonic self-portrait". MacDonald has suggested that the "juju eyeballs" has been claimed to refer to Dr John and "spinal cracker" to Ono. The song was later the subject of a lawsuit brought against Lennon by Morris Levy because the opening line in "Come Together" – "Here come old flat-top" – was admittedly lifted from a line in Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me". A settlement was reached in 1973 in which Lennon promised to record three songs from Levy's publishing catalogue for his next album.
"Come Together" was later released as a double A-side single with "Something". In the liner notes to the compilation album Love, Martin described the track as "a simple song but it stands out because of the sheer brilliance of the performers".
"Something"
Harrison was inspired to write "Something" during sessions for the White Album by listening to label-mate James Taylor's "Something in the Way She Moves" from his album James Taylor. After the lyrics were refined during the Let It Be sessions (tapes reveal Lennon giving Harrison some songwriting advice during its composition), the song was initially given to Joe Cocker, but was subsequently recorded for Abbey Road. Cocker's version appeared on his album Joe Cocker! that November.
"Something" was Lennon's favourite song on the album, and McCartney considered it the best song Harrison had written. Though the song was written by Harrison, Frank Sinatra once commented that it was his favourite Lennon–McCartney composition and "the greatest love song ever written". Lennon contributed piano to the recording and while most of the part was removed, traces of it remain in the final cut, notably on the middle eight, before Harrison's guitar solo.
The song was issued as a double A-side single with "Come Together" in October 1969 and topped the US charts for one week, becoming the Beatles' first number-one single that was not a Lennon–McCartney composition. It was also the first Beatles single from an album already released in the UK. Apple's Neil Aspinall filmed a promotional video, which combined separate footage of the Beatles and their wives.
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer", McCartney's first song on the album, was first performed by the Beatles during the Let It Be sessions (as seen in the film). He wrote the song after the group's trip to India in 1968 and wanted to record it for the White Album, but it was rejected by the others as "too complicated".
The recording was fraught with tension between band members, as McCartney annoyed others by insisting on a perfect performance. The track was the first Lennon was invited to work on following his car accident, but he hated it and declined to do so. According to engineer Geoff Emerick, Lennon said it was "more of Paul's granny music" and left the session. He spent the next two weeks with Ono and did not return to the studio until the backing track for "Come Together" was laid down on 21 July. Harrison was also tired of the song, saying "we had to play it over and over again until Paul liked it. It was a real drag". Starr was more sympathetic to the song. "It was granny music", he admitted, "but we needed stuff like that on our album so other people would listen to it". Longtime roadie Mal Evans played the anvil sound in the chorus. This track also makes use of Harrison's Moog synthesizer, played by McCartney.
"Oh! Darling"
"Oh! Darling" was written by McCartney in the doo-wop style, like contemporary work by Frank Zappa. It was tried at the Get Back sessions, and a version appears on Anthology 3. It was subsequently re-recorded in April, with overdubs in July and August.
McCartney attempted recording the lead vocal only once a day. He said: "I came into the studios early every day for a week to sing it by myself because at first my voice was too clear. I wanted it to sound as though I'd been performing it on stage all week." Lennon thought he should have sung it, remarking that it was more his style.
"Octopus's Garden"
As was the case with most of the Beatles' albums, Starr sang lead vocal on one track. "Octopus's Garden" is his second and last solo composition released on any album by the band. It was inspired by a trip with his family to Sardinia aboard Peter Sellers's yacht after Starr left the band for two weeks during the sessions for the White Album. Starr received a full songwriting credit and composed most of the lyrics, although the song's melodic structure was partly written in the studio by Harrison. The pair would later collaborate as writers on Starr's solo singles "It Don't Come Easy", "Back Off Boogaloo" and "Photograph".
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)"
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)" was written by Lennon about his relationship with Ono, and he made a deliberate choice to keep the lyrics simple and concise. Author Tom Maginnis writes that the song had a progressive rock influence, with its unusual length and structure, repeating guitar riff, and white noise effects, though he noted the "I Want You" section has a straightforward blues structure.
The finished song is a combination of two different recording attempts. The first attempt occurred in February 1969, almost immediately after the Get Back/Let It Be sessions with Billy Preston. This was subsequently combined with a second version made during the Abbey Road sessions proper in April. The two sections together ran to nearly eight minutes, making it the Beatles' second-longest released track. Lennon used Harrison's Moog synthesizer with a white noise setting to create a "wind" effect that was overdubbed on the second half of the track. During the final edit, Lennon told Emerick to "cut it right there" at 7 minutes and 44 seconds, creating a sudden, jarring silence that concludes the first side of Abbey Road (the recording tape would have run out within 20 seconds as it was). The final mixing and editing of the track occurred on 20 August 1969, the last day all four Beatles were together in the studio.
Side two
"Here Comes the Sun"
"Here Comes the Sun" was written by Harrison in Eric Clapton's garden in Surrey during a break from stressful band business meetings. The basic track was recorded on 7 July 1969. Harrison sang lead and played acoustic guitar, McCartney provided backing vocals and played bass and Starr played the drums. Lennon was still recuperating from his car accident and did not perform on the track. Martin provided an orchestral arrangement in collaboration with Harrison, who overdubbed a Moog synthesizer part on 19 August, immediately before the final mix.
Though not released as a single, the song attracted attention and critical praise, and was included on the compilation 1967–1970. It has been featured several times on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, having been chosen by Sandie Shaw, Jerry Springer, Boris Johnson and Elaine Paige. The Daily Telegraph's Martin Chilton said it was "almost impossible not to sing along to". Since digital downloads have become eligible to chart, it reached number 56 in 2010 after the Beatles' back catalogue was released on iTunes. It is also the most streamed Beatles song on Spotify.
Harrison recorded a guitar solo for this track that did not appear in the final mix. It was rediscovered in 2012, and footage of Martin and Harrison's son Dhani listening to it in the studio was released on the DVD of Living in the Material World.
"Because"
"Because" was inspired by Lennon listening to Ono playing Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" on the piano. He recalled he was "lying on the sofa in our house, listening to Yoko play ... Suddenly, I said, 'Can you play those chords backward?' She did, and I wrote 'Because' around them." The track features three-part harmonies by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, which were then triple-tracked to give nine voices in the final mix. The group considered the vocals to be some of the hardest and most complex they attempted. Harrison played the Moog synthesizer, and Martin played the harpsichord that opens the track.
Medley
The remainder of side two consists of a 16-minute medley of eight short songs (known during the recording sessions as "The Long One"), recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin. Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3. While the idea for the medley was McCartney's, Martin claims credit for some structure, adding he "wanted to get John and Paul to think more seriously about their music".
The first track recorded for the medley was the opening number, "You Never Give Me Your Money". McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. However, MacDonald doubts this, given that the backing track, recorded on 6 May at Olympic Studios, predated the worst altercations between Klein and McCartney. The track is a suite of varying styles, ranging from a piano-led ballad at the start to arpeggiated guitars at the end. Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track.
This song transitions into Lennon's "Sun King" which, like "Because", showcases Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies. Following it are Lennon's "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during the Beatles' 1968 trip to India) and "Polythene Pam". These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan entered McCartney's residence via his bathroom window), "Golden Slumbers" (based on Thomas Dekker's 17th-century poem set to new music), "Carry That Weight" (reprising elements from "You Never Give Me Your Money", and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and closing with "The End".
"The End" features Starr's only drum solo in the Beatles' catalogue (the drums are mixed across two tracks in "true stereo", unlike most releases at that time where they were hard panned left or right). Fifty-four seconds into the song are 18 bars of lead guitar: the first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, and the sequence is repeated two more times. Harrison suggested the idea of a guitar solo in the track, Lennon decided they should trade solos and McCartney elected to go first. The solos were cut live against the existing backing track in one take. Immediately after Lennon's third and final solo, the piano chords of the final part of the song begin. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". This section was taped separately from the first, and required the piano to be re-recorded by McCartney, which was done on 18 August. An alternative version of the song, with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (and Starr's drum solo heard in the background), appears on the Anthology 3 album and the 2012 digital-only compilation album Tomorrow Never Knows.
Musicologist Walter Everett interprets that most of the lyrics on side two's medley deal with "selfishness and self-gratification – the financial complaints in 'You Never Give Me Your Money,' the miserliness of Mr. Mustard, the holding back of the pillow in 'Carry That Weight,' the desire that some second person will visit the singer's dreams – perhaps the 'one sweet dream' of 'You Never Give Me Your Money'? – in 'The End.'" Everett adds that the medley's "selfish moments" are played in the context of the tonal centre of A, while "generosity" is expressed in songs where C major is central. The medley concludes with a "great compromise in the 'negotiations'" in "The End", which serves as a structurally balanced coda. In response to the repeated A-major choruses of "love you", McCartney sings in realisation that there is as much self-gratifying love ("the love you take") as there is of the generous love ("the love you make"), in A major and C major, respectively.
"Her Majesty"
"Her Majesty" was recorded by McCartney on 2 July when he arrived before the rest of the group at Abbey Road. It was originally included in a rough mix of the side two medley (and officially available in this form for the first time on the album's 3CD Super Deluxe edition box set), appearing between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam". McCartney disliked the way the medley sounded when it included "Her Majesty", so he asked for it to be cut. The second engineer, John Kurlander, had been instructed by George Martin not to throw out anything, so after McCartney left, he attached the track to the end of the master tape after 20 seconds of silence. The tape box bore an instruction to leave "Her Majesty" off the final product, but the next day when mastering engineer Malcolm Davies received the tape, he (also trained not to throw anything away) cut a playback lacquer of the whole sequence, including "Her Majesty". The Beatles liked this effect and included it on the album.
"Her Majesty" opens with the final, crashing chord of "Mean Mr. Mustard", while the final note remained buried in the mix of "Polythene Pam", as a result of being snipped off the reel during a rough mix of the medley on 30 July. The medley was subsequently mixed again from scratch although the song was not touched again and still appears in its rough mix on the album.
Original US and UK pressings of Abbey Road do not list "Her Majesty" on the album's cover nor on the record label, making it a hidden track. The song title appears on the inlay card and disc of the 1987 remastered CD reissue, as track 17. It also appears on the sleeve, booklet and disc of the 2009 remastered CD reissue, but not on the cover or record label of the 2012 vinyl reissue.
Unreleased material
Three days after the session for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", Harrison recorded solo demos of "All Things Must Pass" (which became the title track of his 1970 triple album), "Something" and "Old Brown Shoe". The latter was re-recorded by the Beatles in April 1969 and issued as the B-side to "The Ballad of John and Yoko" the following month. All three of these Harrison demos were later featured on Anthology 3.
During the sessions for the medley, McCartney recorded "Come and Get It", playing all the instruments. It was assumed to be a demo recording for another artist but McCartney later said that he originally intended to put it on Abbey Road. It was instead covered by Badfinger, while McCartney's original recording appeared on Anthology 3.
The original backing track to "Something", featuring a piano-led coda, and "You Never Give Me Your Money", which leads into a fast rock-n-roll jam session, have appeared on bootlegs.
Cover photo
Apple Records creative director Kosh designed the album cover. It is the only original UK Beatles album sleeve to show neither the artist name nor the album title on its front cover, which was Kosh's idea, despite EMI claiming the record would not sell without this information. He later explained that "we didn't need to write the band's name on the cover ... They were the most famous band in the world". The front cover was a photograph of the group on a zebra crossing based on ideas that McCartney sketched and taken on 8 August 1969 outside EMI Studios on Abbey Road. At 11:35 that morning, photographer Iain Macmillan was given only ten minutes to take the photo while he stood on a step-ladder and a policeman held up traffic behind the camera. Macmillan took six photographs, which McCartney examined with a magnifying glass before deciding which would be used on the album sleeve.
In the image selected by McCartney, the group walk across the street in single file from left to right, with Lennon leading, followed by Starr, McCartney, and Harrison. McCartney is barefoot and out of step with the others. Except for Harrison, the group are wearing suits designed by Tommy Nutter. A white Volkswagen Beetle is to the left of the picture, parked next to the zebra crossing, which belonged to one of the people living in the block of flats across from the recording studio. After the album was released, the number plate (LMW 281F) was repeatedly stolen from the car. In 2004, news sources published a claim made by retired American salesman Paul Cole that he was the man standing on the pavement to the right of the picture.
Release
In mid-1969, Lennon formed a new group, the Plastic Ono Band, in part because the Beatles had rejected his song "Cold Turkey". While Harrison worked with such artists as Leon Russell, Doris Troy, Preston and Delaney & Bonnie through to the end of the year, McCartney took a hiatus from the group after his daughter Mary was born on 28 August. On 20 September, Lennon told McCartney, Starr, and business manager Allen Klein (Harrison was not present) he was leaving the group, (or in his words, he wanted a divorce) six days before Abbey Road was released. Apple released "Something" backed with "Come Together" in the US on 6 October 1969. Release of the single in the UK followed on 31 October, while Lennon released the Plastic Ono Band's "Cold Turkey" the same month.
The Beatles did little promotion of Abbey Road directly, and no public announcement was made of the band's split until McCartney announced he was leaving the group in April 1970. By this time, the Get Back project (by now retitled Let It Be) had been re-examined, with overdubs and mixing sessions continuing into 1970. Therefore, Let It Be became the last album to be finished and released by the Beatles, although its recording had begun before Abbey Road.
Abbey Road sold four million copies in its first two months of release. In the UK, the album debuted at number one, where it remained for 11 weeks before being displaced for one week by the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed. The following week (which was Christmas), Abbey Road returned to the top for another six weeks (completing a total of 17 weeks) before being replaced by Led Zeppelin II. Altogether, it spent 81 weeks on the UK albums chart. Reaction overseas was similar. In the US, the album spent 11 weeks at number one on the Billboard Top LPs chart. It was the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) best-selling album of 1969. In Japan, it was one of the longest-charting albums to date, remaining in the top 100 for 298 weeks during the 1970s.
Critical reception
Contemporary
Abbey Road initially received mixed reviews from music critics, who criticised the production's artificial sounds and viewed its music as inauthentic. William Mann of The Times said that the album will "be called gimmicky by people who want a record to sound exactly like a live performance", although he considered it to be "teem[ing] with musical invention" and added: "Nice as Come Together and Harrison's Something are – they are minor pleasures in the context of the whole disc ... Side Two is marvellous ..." Ed Ward of Rolling Stone called the album "complicated instead of complex" and felt that the Moog synthesizer "disembodies and artificializes" the band's sound, adding that they "create a sound that could not possibly exist outside the studio". While he found the medley on side two to be their "most impressive music" since Rubber Soul, Nik Cohn of The New York Times said that, "individually", the album's songs are "nothing special". Albert Goldman of Life magazine wrote that Abbey Road "is not one of the Beatles' great albums" and, despite some "lovely" phrases and "stirring" segues, side two's suite "seems symbolic of the Beatles' latest phase, which might be described as the round-the-clock production of disposable music effects".
Conversely, Chris Welch wrote in Melody Maker: "the truth is, their latest LP is just a natural born gas, entirely free of pretension, deep meanings or symbolism ... While production is simple compared to past intricacies, it is still extremely sophisticated and inventive." Derek Jewell of The Sunday Times found the album "refreshingly terse and unpretentious", and although he lamented the band's "cod-1920s jokes (Maxwell's Silver Hammer) and ... Ringo's obligatory nursery arias (Octopus's Garden)", he considered that Abbey Road "touches higher peaks than did their last album". John Mendelsohn, writing for Rolling Stone, called it "breathtakingly recorded" and praised side two especially, equating it to "the whole of Sgt. Pepper" and stating, "That the Beatles can unify seemingly countless musical fragments and lyrical doodlings into a uniformly wonderful suite ... seems potent testimony that no, they've far from lost it, and no, they haven't stopped trying."
While covering the Rolling Stones' 1969 American tour for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau reported from a meeting with Greil Marcus in Berkeley that "opinion has shifted against the Beatles. Everyone is putting down Abbey Road." Shortly afterwards, in Los Angeles, he wrote that his colleague Ellen Willis had grown to love the record, adding: "Damned if she isn't right – flawed but fine. Because the world is round it turns her on. Charlie Watts tells us he likes it too."
Retrospective
Many critics have since cited Abbey Road as the Beatles' greatest album. In a retrospective review, Nicole Pensiero of PopMatters called it "an amazingly cohesive piece of music, innovative and timeless". Mark Kemp of Paste viewed the album as being "among The Beatles' finest works, even if it foreshadows the cigarette-lighter-waving arena rock that technically skilled but critically maligned artists from Journey to Meatloaf would belabor throughout the '70s and '80s". Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph dubbed it the Beatles' "last love letter to the world" and praised its "big, modern sound", calling it "lush, rich, smooth, epic, emotional and utterly gorgeous".
AllMusic's Richie Unterberger felt that the album shared Sgt. Peppers "faux-conceptual forms", but had "stronger compositions", and wrote of its standing in the band's catalogue: "Whether Abbey Road is the Beatles' best work is debatable, but it's certainly the most immaculately produced (with the possible exception of Sgt. Pepper) and most tightly constructed." Ian MacDonald gave a mixed opinion of the album, noting that several tracks had been written at least a year previously, and would possibly have been unsuitable without being integrated into the medley on side two. He did, however, praise the production, particularly the sound of Starr's bass drum.
Abbey Road received high rankings in several "best albums in history" polls by critics and publications. It was voted number 8 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000). Time included it in their 2006 list of the All-Time 100 Albums. In 2009, readers of Rolling Stone named Abbey Road the greatest Beatles album. In 2020, the magazine ranked the album at number 5 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", the highest Beatles record on the list; a previous version of the list from 2012 had ranked it at number 14. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Legacy
Abbey Road crossing and "Paul is dead"
The image of the Beatles on the Abbey Road crossing has become one of the most famous and imitated in recording history. The crossing is a popular destination for Beatles fans, and a webcam has operated there since 2011. In December 2010, the crossing was given grade II listed status for its "cultural and historical importance"; the Abbey Road studios themselves had been given similar status earlier in the year.
Shortly after the album's release, the cover became part of the "Paul is dead" theory that was spreading across college campuses in the US. According to followers of the rumour, the cover depicted the Beatles walking out of a cemetery in a funeral procession. The procession was led by Lennon dressed in white as a religious figure; Starr was dressed in black as the undertaker; McCartney, out of step with the others, was a barefoot corpse; and Harrison dressed in denim was the gravedigger. The left-handed McCartney is holding a cigarette in his right hand, indicating that he is an imposter, and part of the number plate on the Volkswagen parked on the street is 281F (misread as 28IF), meaning that McCartney would have been 28 if he had lived – despite the fact that he was only 27 at the time of the photo and subsequent release of the record. The escalation of the "Paul is dead" rumour became the subject of intense analysis on mainstream radio and contributed to Abbey Roads commercial success in the US. Lennon was interviewed in London by New York's WMCA, and he ridiculed the rumour but conceded that it was invaluable publicity for the album.
The cover image has been parodied on several occasions, including by McCartney on his 1993 live album Paul Is Live. On the cover of its October 1977 issue, the satirical magazine National Lampoon depicted the four Beatles flattened along the zebra crossing, with a road roller driving away up the street. The Red Hot Chili Peppers' The Abbey Road E.P. parodies the cover, with the band walking near-naked across a similar zebra crossing. In 2003, several US poster companies airbrushed McCartney's cigarette out of the image without permission from Apple or McCartney. In 2013, Kolkata Police launched a traffic safety awareness advertisement against jaywalking, using the cover and a caption that read: "If they can, why can't you?"
Cover versions and influence
The songs on Abbey Road have been covered many times and the album itself has been covered in its entirety. One month after Abbey Roads release, George Benson recorded a cover version of the album called The Other Side of Abbey Road. Later in 1969 Booker T. & the M.G.'s recorded McLemore Avenue (the location in Memphis of Stax Records) which covered the Abbey Road songs and had a similar cover photo.
While matching albums such as Sgt. Pepper in terms of popularity, Abbey Road failed to repeat the Beatles' earlier achievements in galvanising their rivals to imitate them. In author Peter Doggett's description, "Too contrived for the rock underground to copy, too complex for the bubblegum pop brigade to copy, the album influenced no one – except [Paul McCartney]", who spent years trying to emulate its scope in his solo career. Writing for Classic Rock in 2014, Jon Anderson of the progressive rock band Yes said his group were constantly influenced by the Beatles from Revolver onwards, but it was the feeling that side two was "one complete idea" that inspired him to create long-form pieces of music.
Several artists have covered some or all of the side-two medley, including Phil Collins (for the Martin/Beatles tribute album In My Life), The String Cheese Incident, Transatlantic and Tenacious D (who performed the medley with Phish keyboardist Page McConnell). Furthur, a jam band including former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, played the entire Abbey Road album during its Spring Tour 2011. It began with a "Come Together" opener at Boston on 4 March and ended with the entire medley in New York City on 15 March, including "Her Majesty" as an encore.
Continued sales and reissues
In June 1970, Allen Klein reported that Abbey Road was the Beatles' best-selling album in the US with sales of about five million. By 1992, Abbey Road had sold nine million copies. The album became the ninth-most downloaded on the iTunes Store a week after it was released there on 16 November 2010. A CNN report stated it was the best-selling vinyl album of 2011. It is the first album from the 1960s to sell over five million albums since 1991 when Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales. In the US, the album had sold 7,177,797 copies by the end of the 1970s. , the album had sold over 31 million copies worldwide and is one of the band's best-selling albums. In October 2019, Abbey Road re-entered the UK charts, again hitting number one.
Abbey Road has remained in print since its first release in 1969. The original album was released on 26 September in the UK and 1 October in the US on Apple Records. It was reissued as a limited edition picture disc on vinyl in the US by Capitol on 27 December 1978, while a CD reissue of the album was released in 1987, with a remastered version appearing in 2009. The remaster included additional photographs with additional liner notes and the first, limited edition, run also included a short documentary about the making of the album.
In 2001, Abbey Road was certified 12× platinum by the RIAA. The album continues to be reissued on vinyl. It was included as part of the Beatles' Collector's Crate series in September 2009 and saw a remastered LP release on 180-gram vinyl in 2012.
A super deluxe version of the album, which featured new mixes by Giles Martin, was released in September 2019 to celebrate the original album's 50th anniversary.
As of October 2019, Abbey Road has sold 2,240,608 pure sales in United Kingdom and overall all consumed sales stand at 2,327,230 units. Post 1994 sales stand at 827,329.
Track listing
Notes
"Her Majesty" appears as a hidden track after "The End" and 14 seconds of silence. Later releases of the album included the song on the track listing, except the vinyl editions.
Some cassette tape versions in the UK and US had "Come Together" and "Here Comes the Sun" swapped to even out the playing time of each side.
Personnel
According to Mark Lewisohn, Ian MacDonald, Barry Miles, Kevin Howlett, and Geoff Emerick.
The Beatles
John Lennon – lead, harmony and background vocals; rhythm, lead and acoustic guitars; acoustic and electric pianos, Moog synthesizer; white noise generator and sound effects; percussion
Paul McCartney – lead, harmony and background vocals; bass, rhythm, lead and acoustic guitars; acoustic and electric pianos, Moog synthesizer; sound effects; wind chimes, handclaps and percussion
George Harrison – harmony and background vocals; lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars; bass on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "Oh Darling" and "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight"; harmonium and Moog synthesizer; handclaps and percussion; lead vocals (on "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun")
Ringo Starr – drums and percussion; background vocals; lead vocals (on "Octopus's Garden")
Additional musicians
George Martin – harpsichord, organ, percussion
Billy Preston – Hammond organ (on "Something" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)")
Mal Evans – anvil on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
Production
"Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with George Harrison)
"Golden Slumbers", "Carry That Weight" and "The End" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with Paul McCartney)
Produced by George Martin (with the Beatles)
Recorded by Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald
Assistant engineering by Alan Parsons
Mixed by Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald and George Martin (with the Beatles)
Moog programming by Mike Vickers
Charts
Original release
1987 reissue
2009 reissue
2019 reissue
Certifications
Release history
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
External links
Beatles comments on each song
Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick on Abbey Road – A track-by-track walkthrough
Live webcam at the Abbey Road zebra crossing
The Beatles y la foto de la portada de Abbey Road
1969 albums
The Beatles albums
Apple Records albums
Albums produced by George Martin
Albums recorded at Olympic Sound Studios
Albums recorded at Trident Studios
Albums arranged by George Martin
Albums conducted by George Martin
Albums produced by Chris Thomas (record producer)
Albums produced by George Harrison
Albums produced by John Lennon
Albums produced by Paul McCartney
Albums produced by Ringo Starr
Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients
Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical | false | [
"\"May There Always Be Sunshine\" ( or ) is a popular Soviet children's song created in 1962. The music was composed by Arkady Ostrovsky and the lyrics written by Lev Oshanin. Korney Chukovsky, a writer and immensely popular children's poet, later wrote that the inspiration for the song had been the four lines of the refrain, which were composed in 1928 by the four-year-old boy Kostya Barannikov.\n\nThe song was first performed in the Good Morning! () radio show in July 1962 by Maya Kristalinskaya. Performed in 1963 at the Sopot International Song Festival by Tamara Miansarova, the song earned her first prize there and immediately became popular throughout the USSR and in other countries too. It was frequently sung by Young Pioneers at their camps and school meetings, as well as by Little Octobrists in primary schools, and even by pre-school children. The song was widely regarded in the Soviet Union as expressing the people's desire for peace.\n\nLyrics \nThe song expresses the yearning for lasting peace by millions of people, young and old. In war, the lyrics say, there are no winners. For our sake, and especially for our children's sake, we must achieve peace and remove the dark clouds that now cover the sun.\n\nInternational versions \nThe song was translated into English by Tom Botting. The song (or at least its chorus) has been sung in English by Pete Seeger, and is featured on the live album Together in Concert recorded in 1975 with Arlo Guthrie.\n\nThe song was translated into German by Ilse and Hans Naumilkat and Manfred Streubel (as \"Immer lebe die Sonne\") and was popular among Ernst Thälmann Pioneers.\n\nThe song was also very popular among Finnish Pioneers as \"Paistaa aurinko aina\".\n\nIt was also used by the Estonian Pioneers, the Estonian translation being \"Olgu jääv meile päike\" by Heljo Mänd. The most popular recording of it, is by the popular singer Georg Ots.\n\nHebrew lyrics were written for the song by composer Gidi Koren. It was recorded (Hebrew title: אלוהים שמור על אמא) and made popular by his Israeli folk group, The Brothers and the Sisters.\n\nIn popular culture \nThe tune was used in the song \"Gabrielle\" by the Hootenanny Singers, led by Björn Ulvaeus. When this version became a hit in 1964, the lyrics were translated and performed by the group in Swedish, German, Finnish, Italian, Dutch, and English.\n\nCharlotte Diamond, the Canadian children's musician included the song in her 1985 album 10 Carrot Diamond. The chorus is sung in English, Russian, French, Spanish, German, and Cantonese with the instrumental accompaniment changing musical styles for each culture.\n\nRaffi sang the original chorus and translations into English, Spanish and French on his album Let's Play. There is also an instrumental outro of the other song's title after this song.\n\nThis song was included in a medley during the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.\n\nIn 2021, a rock version of this song was created for the cinematic trailer for the mobile WW2 game \"Warpath\"\n\nSee also\n List of anti-war songs\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n \n \n Eintrag im Songlexikon \n\nRussian children's songs\n1962 songs\n1962 in the Soviet Union\nVladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization\nPioneer movement\nSoviet songs\nAnti-war songs",
"Atin Cu Pung Singsing is a traditional Filipino folk song from Central Luzon, Philippines in Kapampangan sung by adults and children. The origin of the song is unknown, and there was a debate whether it was pre-historic or colonial. But its melody is most likely from the 18th century as it was similar to Spanish and Mexican folk songs of the era.\nThe folk song, it presents a woman as its main character and a man as a secondary character. The woman in the song was looking for a missing ring given by her mother and offers her love as a prize for the man who could find it.\n\nIn popular culture \nThe folk song was interpreted by Filipino popular artists such as Lea Salonga in Ryan Cayabyab's Bahaghari album, Freddie Aguilar and Nora Aunor. It was also performed by different orchestras and brass bands.\n\nIn 1985, Filipino film Virgin Forest directed by Peque Gallaga, the folk song was sung by adventurers while sailing in the Pampanga River.\n\nThe popular Filipino children song Ako ay May Lobo (literally: \"I have a Balloon\") is sung in the same melody of the folk song.\n\nReferences\n\nPhilippine folk songs\nSongwriter unknown\nYear of song unknown"
]
|
[
"Hoodoo Gurus",
"Crank through to the Bullet (1994-1998)"
]
| C_da6a0f440dea4a23acec6efe7171249b_0 | What happened in 1994? | 1 | What happened in 1994 for the band Hoodoo Gurus ? | Hoodoo Gurus | They followed Kinky with Crank in 1994. The 'Crank' world tour took the Gurus through USA, Canada, Europe and included a one-month tour of Brazil. Faulkner also composed the soundtrack to Laurie McInnes' 1994 feature film Broken Highway. In 1995, the Gurus collaborated with The Masters Apprentices frontman Jim Keays on an updated rendition of "Turn Up Your Radio". The song was included on a new Masters' Best of album, as well as being issued as a single. In 1996 they moved to Mushroom Records for the release of their next album, Blue Cave. The band then undertook a national tour of Australian tour with US outfit The Posies and local band Drop City. Touring commitments were curtailed when Kingsmill severed tendons and nerves in his arm as a result of an onstage accident. Once Kingsmill recovered, the Gurus completed their 'Circus Maximus' Australian tour by end of 1996. In January 1997, Faulkner announced that the band would be breaking up in December. March was the Gurus undertake another tour of Brazil, where they played a concert in front of 40,000 people. The Gurus commenced their final Australian tour, the three-month 'Spit the Dummy' tour, in October 1997. The tour coincided with the release of the double compilation album Armchair Gurus/Electric Chair, which made No. 29 on the national chart. The band played its final show in Melbourne on 11 January 1998. The show made up for dates missed during December 1997, when Faulkner was ill. In November 1998 Mushroom had issued the Hoodoo Gurus' live album, Bite the Bullet. The songs had been recorded during the band's 'Spit the Dummy' farewell tour. The standard, single album version was joined by a limited edition, triple CD version subtitled Director's Cut. It included the additional CDs, Doppelganger (a collection of live-to-air Broadcasts from between 1983-1996) and Bubble and Squeak (a collection of outtakes and oddities). Although Hoodoo Gurus officially split in 1998 they signed with Acadia Records, who released the band's career-spanning compilation Ampology in October 2000. CANNOTANSWER | The 'Crank' world tour took the Gurus through USA, Canada, Europe and included a one-month tour of Brazil. | Hoodoo Gurus are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1981, by the mainstay Dave Faulkner (songwriter, lead singer and guitarist) and later joined by Richard Grossman (bass), Mark Kingsmill (drums), and Brad Shepherd (guitar, vocals, harmonica). Their popularity peaked in the mid- to late 1980s with albums Mars Needs Guitars!, Blow Your Cool! and Magnum Cum Louder.
Hoodoo Gurus had a string of pop-rock singles including "Leilani" (1982), "Tojo" (1983), "My Girl" (1983), "I Want You Back" (1984), "Bittersweet", "Like Wow – Wipeout", and "What's My Scene?". After touring the United States from 1984 onward they gained popularity on the U.S. college rock circuit with the singles "Come Anytime" (1989) reaching no. 1 and "Miss Freelove '69" (1991) reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The Hoodoo Gurus' biggest Australian single was their 1987 top-3 song "What's My Scene?". The song was parodied for the National Rugby League 2000s theme "That's My Team".
The Hoodoo Gurus were inducted into the Australia's 2007 ARIA Hall of Fame. The band's induction announcement stated that the Gurus were one of the most "inventive, lyrically smart and exciting" bands from Australia. From 1960s power pop and garage punk to hard rock and funky psychedelic kitsch, the group's music stood out from Sydney's Detroit-inspired bands.
History
1981–1983: Formation
Three Hoodoo Gurus founders were from Perth protopunk and punk bands: Dave Faulkner (guitars) was a former member of the legendary Manikins left after a fallout with frontman Robbie Porritt. James Baker (drums) of The Victims; while Baker had been with Roddy Radalj (aka Roddy Ray'Da) (guitars) in The Scientists. The fourth founding member, Kimble Rendall (guitars) was formerly in Sydney punk rockers XL Capris. The three guitarists Faulkner, Rendall and Radalj met at an end-of-1980 New Year's Eve party and were joined by Baker to form Le Hoodoo Gurus.
Le Hoodoo Gurus unorthodox line-up of three guitars and no bass player, fused pop melodies, punk guitars and an American trash culture ethic. This was captured on their first single, "Leilani", released in October 1982, on Phantom Records. This told the story of a maiden sacrificed to the gods and an erupting volcano while her true love looked on helplessly. They dropped the 'Le', to become Hoodoo Gurus, not long after the single's release. As the Hoodoo Gurus, they gave their first ever performance on a segment of the kids' TV program Simon Townsend's Wonder World; this was followed by a performance alongside a man and his singing dog, on The Don Lane Show.
Rendall left in 1982 before the release of "Leilani", and went on to become a music video and film director. Rendall was second unit director on the latter two Matrix films, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, as well as I, Robot. Rendall also directed the slasher film, Cut in 2000. Rendall was effectively replaced by Clyde Bramley (bass guitar, backing vocals) from Sydney bands The Hitmen and Super K.
Radalj was not happy with Rendall's leaving or Faulkner's greater influence and left the Gurus. He was replaced by ex-Fun Things guitarist Brad Shepherd, who had been Bramley's flatmate. Bramley and Shepherd had both been in The Hitmen and Super K. Faulkner wrote "I Want You Back" in response to Radalj's public dissatisfaction with the Gurus. Radalj went on to perform with a number of other acts, including The Johnnys, Love Rodeo, The Dubrovniks and Roddy Ray'Da & the Surfin' Caesars. As Roddy Ray'Da, he released Lost, Lonely and Vicious in 1990, Orgazmatazz a year later and Mouthful of Chicken in 1993.
1983–1984: Stoneage Romeos
Gurus new line-up (Baker, Bramley, Faulkner and Shepherd) recorded the band's first album in 1984, Stoneage Romeos. The title came from a 1955 Three Stooges short Stone Age Romeos. The album was dedicated to characters from Get Smart, F-Troop and Petticoat Junction. They were awarded 'Best Debut Album' of 1984 at the July 1985 Countdown Music Awards. When Stoneage Romeos was released in America it stayed at number 1 in the Alternative/College charts for seven weeks, becoming one of the most played albums for the year on the college network.
Initially a cult inner-city act, their popularity expanded due to regular airplay on radio station Triple J and nationwide pop TV show Countdown from mid-1983. Their breakthrough single "My Girl" was accompanied by a video clip featuring a dog trainer with his once champion greyhound. Members of Spiderbait described seeing the video for the first time as "a beautiful, classic pop song". Some viewers insisted the song was "written about a dog". This was closely followed by "I Want You Back", which featured animated plastic model dinosaurs. Both videos were aired frequently raising the group's profile around the country.
Original drummer James Baker was sacked from the band in August 1984 and was replaced by Mark Kingsmill (The Hitmen, New Christs, Screaming Tribesmen, Hellcats and Super K). Based on the success of Stoneage Romeos the Hoodoo Gurus, with their new drummer, then embarked on their first tour of the United States in late 1984.
1985–1993: From Mars to Kinky
Following the US tour the Hoodoo Gurus went into the studio and recorded their second album, Mars Needs Guitars! (1985). The title was a twist on a Sci Fi B movie titled Mars Needs Women. The album's first single, "Bittersweet", had a more subdued regular-looking video. The Hoodoo Gurus played Europe and the United States including sell-out shows at London's Hammersmith Palais and a two-month tour as special guests with The Bangles.
Baker's firing upset some fans and critics. Despite subsequent fan speculation about the single "Poison Pen, songwriter Faulkner said it was not about band issues but rather about a relationship that had turned bitter. Baker had been involved with The Beasts of Bourbon as a side project from 1983 and now concentrated on their 1984 album The Axeman's Jazz, subsequently he founded James Baker Experience and The Dubrovniks (latter two included Radalj), Novakill and eventually The Painkillers.
Gurus' peak of popularity was in the mid-to-late 1980s with the albums Mars Needs Guitars!, Blow Your Cool! and Magnum Cum Louder. The albums reached no. 140 (1986), no. 120 (1987) and no. 101 (1989) on the American Billboard 200 album charts respectively. The band's 1987 'Blow Your Cool' concert tour took them to 19 countries playing 204 venues. A concert from the Ritz in New York City was broadcast by MTV America. The 'Magnum Cum Louder' tour in 1990, with dates in Europe, America and Australasia; included Japan for the first time. Based on their extensive touring of America, the band gained a solid following in the U.S. with regular exposure on US college radio (and later MTV's 120 Minutes) and even developed a big fan base in Brazil. The third album Blow Your Cool! let go of some of the peripheral quirkiness and just concentrated on the band's pop power. Members of their international peer group The Bangles and Dream Syndicate contributed backing vocals to some songs. Then, Hoodoo Gurus decided to opt out of its record contract, tying up the group in legal wranglings for more than a year. In 1988 Richard Grossman (ex Matt Finish, Divinyls) replaced Clyde Bramley on bass. The most stable line-up of Faulkner, Grossman, Kingsmill, and Shepherd saw Hoodoo Gurus from 1988 to the break-up in January 1998.
After two albums under their new contract, Magnum Cum Louder and 1991's Kinky, which reached no. 101 and 172 on the American Billboard 200 album charts respectively the band then released in 1992 two compilations at once, Electric Soup, which contained the band's hits and Gorilla Biscuit, which was made up of B-sides and rarities.
Kinky provided the single "Miss Freelove '69" which reached no. 19 on the ARIA Singles Chart, and no. 3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1991. Another single of the same year "1000 Miles Away" reached no. 37 in Australia. It was adopted by the crew of Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Canberra as its unofficial anthem in 1993, playing it whenever its ships left port. Hoodoo Gurus played a concert, including "1000 Miles Away", on-board HMAS Canberra during its last voyage prior to decommissioning in 2005.
Crank through to the Bullet (1994–1998)
They followed Kinky with Crank in 1994. The 'Crank' world tour took the Gurus through USA, Canada, Europe and included a one-month tour of Brazil. Faulkner also composed the soundtrack to Laurie McInnes' 1994 feature film Broken Highway. In 1995, the Gurus collaborated with The Masters Apprentices frontman Jim Keays on an updated rendition of "Turn Up Your Radio". The song was included on a new Masters' Best of album, as well as being issued as a single.
In 1996 they moved to Mushroom Records for the release of their next album, Blue Cave. The band then undertook a national tour of Australian tour with US outfit The Posies and local band Drop City. Touring commitments were curtailed when Kingsmill severed tendons and nerves in his arm as a result of an onstage accident. Once Kingsmill recovered, the Gurus completed their 'Circus Maximus' Australian tour by end of 1996. In January 1997, Faulkner announced that the band would be breaking up in December. March saw the Gurus undertake another tour of Brazil, where they played a concert in front of 40,000 people. The Gurus commenced their final Australian tour, the three-month 'Spit the Dummy' tour, in October 1997. The tour coincided with the release of the double compilation album Armchair Gurus/Electric Chair, which made no. 29 on the national chart. The band played its final show in Melbourne on 11 January 1998. The show made up for dates missed during December 1997, when Faulkner was ill.
In November 1998 Mushroom issued the Hoodoo Gurus' live album, Bite the Bullet. The songs had been recorded during the band's 'Spit the Dummy' farewell tour. The standard, single album version was joined by a limited edition, triple CD version subtitled Director’s Cut. It included the additional CDs, Doppelgänger (a collection of live-to-air Broadcasts from between 1983 and 1996) and Bubble and Squeak (a collection of outtakes and oddities).<ref>
Hoodoo Gurus toured during 2007 including several US dates, kicking off at the South By Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival in Austin, Texas (see SXSW photo above), performances in Europe, including the Azkena Festival (Spain). This was followed by a national tour of Australia called 'Clash of the Titans' with The Stems and Radio Birdman. Their tour poster depicts the three bands as 'Heavyweights' of the Australian music scene. Another solo tour started late in 2007 (including performances at the Apollo Bay Music Festival, Splendour in the Grass, Meredith Music Festival, and the St Kilda Festival) and continued into 2008. There are tentative plans to release a new album in 2009, although little material has been written so far. In June 2008 The Age newspaper commemorated 50 years of Australian rock 'n' roll (the anniversary of the release of Johnny O'Keefe's "Wild One") by selecting the Top 50 Australian Albums, with Stoneage Romeo coming in at no. 5 on the list. The Hoodoo Gurus performed at the Glastonbury Festival in the United Kingdom on 29 June 2008.
Hoodoo Gurus performed on 14 March 2009 for Sound Relief at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Sound Relief was a benefit concert for victims of the Victorian Bushfire Crisis and the Queensland Floods. Appearing with Hoodoo Gurus at the Sydney concert were, Coldplay, Eskimo Joe, Icehouse, Jet, Josh Pyke, Little Birdy, The Presets, Wolfmother, You Am I and additional artists.
In March 2009 the Hoodoo Gurus also signed a new recording contract with Sony Music Australia, the deal includes the band's back catalogue as well as a new album, the band's ninth and the first since the release of Mach Schau in 2004. Brad Shepherd said it had the potential to be "a career defining record". During the process of writing the album Dave Faulkner said in reference to the eclectic mix of songs ready for the album that "rather than stopping myself writing something, I just didn't artificially force myself to write in any direction". The album was originally scheduled for release in September 2009 but they were not happy with the final mix. Hoodoo Gurus then sent their songs off to Durango, Colorado, where Ed Stasium, who worked on the band's previous albums Kinky and Crank worked with Faulkner. Faulkner flew to the US after Hoodoo Gurus performed in Japan, their first performances there in over 20 years.
In August 2009 it was revealed that Shepherd had been diagnosed with cancer and was recovering from recent surgery. It was his second cancer diagnosis, having had a melanoma removed five years earlier.
The first single from their new album, "Crackin' Up", was released in December 2009 and received some airplay on Australian radio stations. The album, Purity of Essence, was released on 16 March 2010 in Australia and internationally on 11 May 2010.
On 3 October 2010, Hoodoo Gurus toured to London, UK, performing at O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire.
In 2011, they were inducted into the Music Victoria Hall of Fame.
In April 2012 the band played a series of concerts titled Dig it Up! in Australian capital cities, to celebrate 30 years since the release of their debut single "Leilani". At the concerts, the band performed the whole of their debut album Stoneage Romeos and other hits. Also playing as part of the Dig It Up! tour were Australian bands Died Pretty and The Hard Ons, as well as international bands such as Redd Kross, The Sonics and The Fleshtones.
2013–present: Continued performances and Chariot of the Gods
In April 2013, the band hosted invitational concerts across the Australian capital cities, performing Mars Needs Guitars, and will be joined by Blue Öyster Cult, Flamin' Groovies, Buzzcocks, and Peter Case.
2014 saw the release of Gravy Train, an EP featuring three new songs and a remake of their first single "Leilani".
In January 2015, it was announced that Kingsmill would be retiring from the band. His last performances were on 22 and 23 May 2015, at the "Be My Guru – Evolution Revolution" concerts at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum, performed as the opening to the city's annual Vivid Festival. The concerts reunited all eight past and present band members for a two-hour set covering their beginnings as Le Hoodoo Gurus in 1982 all the way through to 2010's Purity of Essence.
The band headlined the 'A Day on the Green' concert series in March 2016, with Sunnyboys, Violent Femmes, Died Pretty, and Ratcat.
In early 2018, the group announced a vinyl reissue campaign called the Hoodoo Gurus Record Club, entailing the reissue on coloured vinyl of their back catalogue up to Purity of Essence, which also included the album the group recorded as the Persian Rugs in 2000. The first release through the campaign was Stoneage Romeos on 1 June 2018, with a general public release on 7 September.
On 26 May 2018, the group held a benefit concert for the Tatra bushfire with artists The Badloves, 1927 and local talents Daniel Champagne, Corey Legge, The Figmentz, Erin McMahon, and Melanie Horsnell. The 'Band Together' concert sold out and ticket sales helped raise over half of the $250,000 target towards helping residents affected by the bushfire in March 2018.
On 13 January 2019, Hoodoo Gurus headlined the 'Under the Southern Stars' concert tour of five states starting off at Hastings, Victoria, with performances in Tasmania, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia scheduled throughout January. Appearing with Hoodoo Gurus at the Hastings concert were Eskimo Joe, You Am I, The Superjesus, British India, The Getaway Plan and Scott Darlow.
In July 2020, the band released the single "Hung Out to Dry". The song will feature on the Gurus' tenth studio album, Chariot of the Gods.
Members
Current members
Dave Faulkner – vocals, guitar, keyboards (1981–1998, 2003–present)
Brad Shepherd – guitar, vocals, harmonica (1982–1998, 2003–present)
Richard Grossman – bass guitar, backing vocals (1988–1998, 2003–present)
Nik Rieth – drums (2015–present)
Former members
James Baker – drums (1981–1984, 2014)
Roddy Radalj – guitar, backing vocals (1981–1982, 2014)
Kimble Rendall – bass guitar, backing vocals (1981–1982, 2014)
Clyde Bramley – bass guitar, backing vocals (1982–1988, 2014)
Mark Kingsmill – drums (1984–1998, 2003–2015)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
1984: Stoneage Romeos
1985: Mars Needs Guitars!
1987: Blow Your Cool!
1989: Magnum Cum Louder
1991: Kinky
1994: Crank
1996: Blue Cave
2004: Mach Schau
2010: Purity of Essence
2022: Chariot of the Gods
Awards and nominations
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987. Rowe was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007.
|-
| 1993
| Electric Soup / Gorilla Biscuit – Paul McNeil, Richard All
| Best Cover Art
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1996
| "Waking Up Tired"
| Best Video
|
|-
| Blue Cave
| Best Pop Release
|
|-
| 1997
| "Down on Me" – Charles Fisher
| Producer of the Year
|
|-
| 2005
| Tunnel Vision
| Best Music DVD
|
|-
| 2007
| Hoodoo Gurus
| ARIA Hall of Fame
|
|-
The Age EG Awards
The Age EG Awards are an annual awards night celebrating Victorian music. They commenced in 2005.
|-
| 2011 || Hoodoo Gurus || Hall of Fame ||
|-
Countdown Australian Music Awards
Countdown was an Australian pop music TV series on national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974 to 1987, it presented music awards from 1979 to 1987, initially in conjunction with magazine TV Week. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards.
|-
| 1983
| Charles Fisher for work with Hoodoo Gurus
| Best Record Producer
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |1984
| Stoneage Romeos
| Best Debut Album
|
|-
References
External links
– official site
Hoodoo Gurus at MySpace
Hoodoo Gurus at AMO
Hoodoo Gurus' Dave Faulkner interview, in Rocker magazine, 2012
Hoodoo Gurus career-spanning article at One Week One Band, April 2012
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Musical groups established in 1981
Australian alternative rock groups
Australian new wave musical groups
Jangle pop groups
Musical groups from Sydney
Pub rock musical groups
College rock musical groups | 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 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"
]
|
[
"Hoodoo Gurus",
"Crank through to the Bullet (1994-1998)",
"What happened in 1994?",
"The 'Crank' world tour took the Gurus through USA, Canada, Europe and included a one-month tour of Brazil."
]
| C_da6a0f440dea4a23acec6efe7171249b_0 | What songs were on the Crank album? | 2 | What songs were on the Crank through to the Bullet album by Hoodoo Gurus ? | Hoodoo Gurus | They followed Kinky with Crank in 1994. The 'Crank' world tour took the Gurus through USA, Canada, Europe and included a one-month tour of Brazil. Faulkner also composed the soundtrack to Laurie McInnes' 1994 feature film Broken Highway. In 1995, the Gurus collaborated with The Masters Apprentices frontman Jim Keays on an updated rendition of "Turn Up Your Radio". The song was included on a new Masters' Best of album, as well as being issued as a single. In 1996 they moved to Mushroom Records for the release of their next album, Blue Cave. The band then undertook a national tour of Australian tour with US outfit The Posies and local band Drop City. Touring commitments were curtailed when Kingsmill severed tendons and nerves in his arm as a result of an onstage accident. Once Kingsmill recovered, the Gurus completed their 'Circus Maximus' Australian tour by end of 1996. In January 1997, Faulkner announced that the band would be breaking up in December. March was the Gurus undertake another tour of Brazil, where they played a concert in front of 40,000 people. The Gurus commenced their final Australian tour, the three-month 'Spit the Dummy' tour, in October 1997. The tour coincided with the release of the double compilation album Armchair Gurus/Electric Chair, which made No. 29 on the national chart. The band played its final show in Melbourne on 11 January 1998. The show made up for dates missed during December 1997, when Faulkner was ill. In November 1998 Mushroom had issued the Hoodoo Gurus' live album, Bite the Bullet. The songs had been recorded during the band's 'Spit the Dummy' farewell tour. The standard, single album version was joined by a limited edition, triple CD version subtitled Director's Cut. It included the additional CDs, Doppelganger (a collection of live-to-air Broadcasts from between 1983-1996) and Bubble and Squeak (a collection of outtakes and oddities). Although Hoodoo Gurus officially split in 1998 they signed with Acadia Records, who released the band's career-spanning compilation Ampology in October 2000. CANNOTANSWER | Faulkner also composed the soundtrack to Laurie McInnes' 1994 feature film Broken Highway. In 1995, | Hoodoo Gurus are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1981, by the mainstay Dave Faulkner (songwriter, lead singer and guitarist) and later joined by Richard Grossman (bass), Mark Kingsmill (drums), and Brad Shepherd (guitar, vocals, harmonica). Their popularity peaked in the mid- to late 1980s with albums Mars Needs Guitars!, Blow Your Cool! and Magnum Cum Louder.
Hoodoo Gurus had a string of pop-rock singles including "Leilani" (1982), "Tojo" (1983), "My Girl" (1983), "I Want You Back" (1984), "Bittersweet", "Like Wow – Wipeout", and "What's My Scene?". After touring the United States from 1984 onward they gained popularity on the U.S. college rock circuit with the singles "Come Anytime" (1989) reaching no. 1 and "Miss Freelove '69" (1991) reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The Hoodoo Gurus' biggest Australian single was their 1987 top-3 song "What's My Scene?". The song was parodied for the National Rugby League 2000s theme "That's My Team".
The Hoodoo Gurus were inducted into the Australia's 2007 ARIA Hall of Fame. The band's induction announcement stated that the Gurus were one of the most "inventive, lyrically smart and exciting" bands from Australia. From 1960s power pop and garage punk to hard rock and funky psychedelic kitsch, the group's music stood out from Sydney's Detroit-inspired bands.
History
1981–1983: Formation
Three Hoodoo Gurus founders were from Perth protopunk and punk bands: Dave Faulkner (guitars) was a former member of the legendary Manikins left after a fallout with frontman Robbie Porritt. James Baker (drums) of The Victims; while Baker had been with Roddy Radalj (aka Roddy Ray'Da) (guitars) in The Scientists. The fourth founding member, Kimble Rendall (guitars) was formerly in Sydney punk rockers XL Capris. The three guitarists Faulkner, Rendall and Radalj met at an end-of-1980 New Year's Eve party and were joined by Baker to form Le Hoodoo Gurus.
Le Hoodoo Gurus unorthodox line-up of three guitars and no bass player, fused pop melodies, punk guitars and an American trash culture ethic. This was captured on their first single, "Leilani", released in October 1982, on Phantom Records. This told the story of a maiden sacrificed to the gods and an erupting volcano while her true love looked on helplessly. They dropped the 'Le', to become Hoodoo Gurus, not long after the single's release. As the Hoodoo Gurus, they gave their first ever performance on a segment of the kids' TV program Simon Townsend's Wonder World; this was followed by a performance alongside a man and his singing dog, on The Don Lane Show.
Rendall left in 1982 before the release of "Leilani", and went on to become a music video and film director. Rendall was second unit director on the latter two Matrix films, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, as well as I, Robot. Rendall also directed the slasher film, Cut in 2000. Rendall was effectively replaced by Clyde Bramley (bass guitar, backing vocals) from Sydney bands The Hitmen and Super K.
Radalj was not happy with Rendall's leaving or Faulkner's greater influence and left the Gurus. He was replaced by ex-Fun Things guitarist Brad Shepherd, who had been Bramley's flatmate. Bramley and Shepherd had both been in The Hitmen and Super K. Faulkner wrote "I Want You Back" in response to Radalj's public dissatisfaction with the Gurus. Radalj went on to perform with a number of other acts, including The Johnnys, Love Rodeo, The Dubrovniks and Roddy Ray'Da & the Surfin' Caesars. As Roddy Ray'Da, he released Lost, Lonely and Vicious in 1990, Orgazmatazz a year later and Mouthful of Chicken in 1993.
1983–1984: Stoneage Romeos
Gurus new line-up (Baker, Bramley, Faulkner and Shepherd) recorded the band's first album in 1984, Stoneage Romeos. The title came from a 1955 Three Stooges short Stone Age Romeos. The album was dedicated to characters from Get Smart, F-Troop and Petticoat Junction. They were awarded 'Best Debut Album' of 1984 at the July 1985 Countdown Music Awards. When Stoneage Romeos was released in America it stayed at number 1 in the Alternative/College charts for seven weeks, becoming one of the most played albums for the year on the college network.
Initially a cult inner-city act, their popularity expanded due to regular airplay on radio station Triple J and nationwide pop TV show Countdown from mid-1983. Their breakthrough single "My Girl" was accompanied by a video clip featuring a dog trainer with his once champion greyhound. Members of Spiderbait described seeing the video for the first time as "a beautiful, classic pop song". Some viewers insisted the song was "written about a dog". This was closely followed by "I Want You Back", which featured animated plastic model dinosaurs. Both videos were aired frequently raising the group's profile around the country.
Original drummer James Baker was sacked from the band in August 1984 and was replaced by Mark Kingsmill (The Hitmen, New Christs, Screaming Tribesmen, Hellcats and Super K). Based on the success of Stoneage Romeos the Hoodoo Gurus, with their new drummer, then embarked on their first tour of the United States in late 1984.
1985–1993: From Mars to Kinky
Following the US tour the Hoodoo Gurus went into the studio and recorded their second album, Mars Needs Guitars! (1985). The title was a twist on a Sci Fi B movie titled Mars Needs Women. The album's first single, "Bittersweet", had a more subdued regular-looking video. The Hoodoo Gurus played Europe and the United States including sell-out shows at London's Hammersmith Palais and a two-month tour as special guests with The Bangles.
Baker's firing upset some fans and critics. Despite subsequent fan speculation about the single "Poison Pen, songwriter Faulkner said it was not about band issues but rather about a relationship that had turned bitter. Baker had been involved with The Beasts of Bourbon as a side project from 1983 and now concentrated on their 1984 album The Axeman's Jazz, subsequently he founded James Baker Experience and The Dubrovniks (latter two included Radalj), Novakill and eventually The Painkillers.
Gurus' peak of popularity was in the mid-to-late 1980s with the albums Mars Needs Guitars!, Blow Your Cool! and Magnum Cum Louder. The albums reached no. 140 (1986), no. 120 (1987) and no. 101 (1989) on the American Billboard 200 album charts respectively. The band's 1987 'Blow Your Cool' concert tour took them to 19 countries playing 204 venues. A concert from the Ritz in New York City was broadcast by MTV America. The 'Magnum Cum Louder' tour in 1990, with dates in Europe, America and Australasia; included Japan for the first time. Based on their extensive touring of America, the band gained a solid following in the U.S. with regular exposure on US college radio (and later MTV's 120 Minutes) and even developed a big fan base in Brazil. The third album Blow Your Cool! let go of some of the peripheral quirkiness and just concentrated on the band's pop power. Members of their international peer group The Bangles and Dream Syndicate contributed backing vocals to some songs. Then, Hoodoo Gurus decided to opt out of its record contract, tying up the group in legal wranglings for more than a year. In 1988 Richard Grossman (ex Matt Finish, Divinyls) replaced Clyde Bramley on bass. The most stable line-up of Faulkner, Grossman, Kingsmill, and Shepherd saw Hoodoo Gurus from 1988 to the break-up in January 1998.
After two albums under their new contract, Magnum Cum Louder and 1991's Kinky, which reached no. 101 and 172 on the American Billboard 200 album charts respectively the band then released in 1992 two compilations at once, Electric Soup, which contained the band's hits and Gorilla Biscuit, which was made up of B-sides and rarities.
Kinky provided the single "Miss Freelove '69" which reached no. 19 on the ARIA Singles Chart, and no. 3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1991. Another single of the same year "1000 Miles Away" reached no. 37 in Australia. It was adopted by the crew of Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Canberra as its unofficial anthem in 1993, playing it whenever its ships left port. Hoodoo Gurus played a concert, including "1000 Miles Away", on-board HMAS Canberra during its last voyage prior to decommissioning in 2005.
Crank through to the Bullet (1994–1998)
They followed Kinky with Crank in 1994. The 'Crank' world tour took the Gurus through USA, Canada, Europe and included a one-month tour of Brazil. Faulkner also composed the soundtrack to Laurie McInnes' 1994 feature film Broken Highway. In 1995, the Gurus collaborated with The Masters Apprentices frontman Jim Keays on an updated rendition of "Turn Up Your Radio". The song was included on a new Masters' Best of album, as well as being issued as a single.
In 1996 they moved to Mushroom Records for the release of their next album, Blue Cave. The band then undertook a national tour of Australian tour with US outfit The Posies and local band Drop City. Touring commitments were curtailed when Kingsmill severed tendons and nerves in his arm as a result of an onstage accident. Once Kingsmill recovered, the Gurus completed their 'Circus Maximus' Australian tour by end of 1996. In January 1997, Faulkner announced that the band would be breaking up in December. March saw the Gurus undertake another tour of Brazil, where they played a concert in front of 40,000 people. The Gurus commenced their final Australian tour, the three-month 'Spit the Dummy' tour, in October 1997. The tour coincided with the release of the double compilation album Armchair Gurus/Electric Chair, which made no. 29 on the national chart. The band played its final show in Melbourne on 11 January 1998. The show made up for dates missed during December 1997, when Faulkner was ill.
In November 1998 Mushroom issued the Hoodoo Gurus' live album, Bite the Bullet. The songs had been recorded during the band's 'Spit the Dummy' farewell tour. The standard, single album version was joined by a limited edition, triple CD version subtitled Director’s Cut. It included the additional CDs, Doppelgänger (a collection of live-to-air Broadcasts from between 1983 and 1996) and Bubble and Squeak (a collection of outtakes and oddities).<ref>
Hoodoo Gurus toured during 2007 including several US dates, kicking off at the South By Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival in Austin, Texas (see SXSW photo above), performances in Europe, including the Azkena Festival (Spain). This was followed by a national tour of Australia called 'Clash of the Titans' with The Stems and Radio Birdman. Their tour poster depicts the three bands as 'Heavyweights' of the Australian music scene. Another solo tour started late in 2007 (including performances at the Apollo Bay Music Festival, Splendour in the Grass, Meredith Music Festival, and the St Kilda Festival) and continued into 2008. There are tentative plans to release a new album in 2009, although little material has been written so far. In June 2008 The Age newspaper commemorated 50 years of Australian rock 'n' roll (the anniversary of the release of Johnny O'Keefe's "Wild One") by selecting the Top 50 Australian Albums, with Stoneage Romeo coming in at no. 5 on the list. The Hoodoo Gurus performed at the Glastonbury Festival in the United Kingdom on 29 June 2008.
Hoodoo Gurus performed on 14 March 2009 for Sound Relief at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Sound Relief was a benefit concert for victims of the Victorian Bushfire Crisis and the Queensland Floods. Appearing with Hoodoo Gurus at the Sydney concert were, Coldplay, Eskimo Joe, Icehouse, Jet, Josh Pyke, Little Birdy, The Presets, Wolfmother, You Am I and additional artists.
In March 2009 the Hoodoo Gurus also signed a new recording contract with Sony Music Australia, the deal includes the band's back catalogue as well as a new album, the band's ninth and the first since the release of Mach Schau in 2004. Brad Shepherd said it had the potential to be "a career defining record". During the process of writing the album Dave Faulkner said in reference to the eclectic mix of songs ready for the album that "rather than stopping myself writing something, I just didn't artificially force myself to write in any direction". The album was originally scheduled for release in September 2009 but they were not happy with the final mix. Hoodoo Gurus then sent their songs off to Durango, Colorado, where Ed Stasium, who worked on the band's previous albums Kinky and Crank worked with Faulkner. Faulkner flew to the US after Hoodoo Gurus performed in Japan, their first performances there in over 20 years.
In August 2009 it was revealed that Shepherd had been diagnosed with cancer and was recovering from recent surgery. It was his second cancer diagnosis, having had a melanoma removed five years earlier.
The first single from their new album, "Crackin' Up", was released in December 2009 and received some airplay on Australian radio stations. The album, Purity of Essence, was released on 16 March 2010 in Australia and internationally on 11 May 2010.
On 3 October 2010, Hoodoo Gurus toured to London, UK, performing at O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire.
In 2011, they were inducted into the Music Victoria Hall of Fame.
In April 2012 the band played a series of concerts titled Dig it Up! in Australian capital cities, to celebrate 30 years since the release of their debut single "Leilani". At the concerts, the band performed the whole of their debut album Stoneage Romeos and other hits. Also playing as part of the Dig It Up! tour were Australian bands Died Pretty and The Hard Ons, as well as international bands such as Redd Kross, The Sonics and The Fleshtones.
2013–present: Continued performances and Chariot of the Gods
In April 2013, the band hosted invitational concerts across the Australian capital cities, performing Mars Needs Guitars, and will be joined by Blue Öyster Cult, Flamin' Groovies, Buzzcocks, and Peter Case.
2014 saw the release of Gravy Train, an EP featuring three new songs and a remake of their first single "Leilani".
In January 2015, it was announced that Kingsmill would be retiring from the band. His last performances were on 22 and 23 May 2015, at the "Be My Guru – Evolution Revolution" concerts at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum, performed as the opening to the city's annual Vivid Festival. The concerts reunited all eight past and present band members for a two-hour set covering their beginnings as Le Hoodoo Gurus in 1982 all the way through to 2010's Purity of Essence.
The band headlined the 'A Day on the Green' concert series in March 2016, with Sunnyboys, Violent Femmes, Died Pretty, and Ratcat.
In early 2018, the group announced a vinyl reissue campaign called the Hoodoo Gurus Record Club, entailing the reissue on coloured vinyl of their back catalogue up to Purity of Essence, which also included the album the group recorded as the Persian Rugs in 2000. The first release through the campaign was Stoneage Romeos on 1 June 2018, with a general public release on 7 September.
On 26 May 2018, the group held a benefit concert for the Tatra bushfire with artists The Badloves, 1927 and local talents Daniel Champagne, Corey Legge, The Figmentz, Erin McMahon, and Melanie Horsnell. The 'Band Together' concert sold out and ticket sales helped raise over half of the $250,000 target towards helping residents affected by the bushfire in March 2018.
On 13 January 2019, Hoodoo Gurus headlined the 'Under the Southern Stars' concert tour of five states starting off at Hastings, Victoria, with performances in Tasmania, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia scheduled throughout January. Appearing with Hoodoo Gurus at the Hastings concert were Eskimo Joe, You Am I, The Superjesus, British India, The Getaway Plan and Scott Darlow.
In July 2020, the band released the single "Hung Out to Dry". The song will feature on the Gurus' tenth studio album, Chariot of the Gods.
Members
Current members
Dave Faulkner – vocals, guitar, keyboards (1981–1998, 2003–present)
Brad Shepherd – guitar, vocals, harmonica (1982–1998, 2003–present)
Richard Grossman – bass guitar, backing vocals (1988–1998, 2003–present)
Nik Rieth – drums (2015–present)
Former members
James Baker – drums (1981–1984, 2014)
Roddy Radalj – guitar, backing vocals (1981–1982, 2014)
Kimble Rendall – bass guitar, backing vocals (1981–1982, 2014)
Clyde Bramley – bass guitar, backing vocals (1982–1988, 2014)
Mark Kingsmill – drums (1984–1998, 2003–2015)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
1984: Stoneage Romeos
1985: Mars Needs Guitars!
1987: Blow Your Cool!
1989: Magnum Cum Louder
1991: Kinky
1994: Crank
1996: Blue Cave
2004: Mach Schau
2010: Purity of Essence
2022: Chariot of the Gods
Awards and nominations
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987. Rowe was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007.
|-
| 1993
| Electric Soup / Gorilla Biscuit – Paul McNeil, Richard All
| Best Cover Art
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1996
| "Waking Up Tired"
| Best Video
|
|-
| Blue Cave
| Best Pop Release
|
|-
| 1997
| "Down on Me" – Charles Fisher
| Producer of the Year
|
|-
| 2005
| Tunnel Vision
| Best Music DVD
|
|-
| 2007
| Hoodoo Gurus
| ARIA Hall of Fame
|
|-
The Age EG Awards
The Age EG Awards are an annual awards night celebrating Victorian music. They commenced in 2005.
|-
| 2011 || Hoodoo Gurus || Hall of Fame ||
|-
Countdown Australian Music Awards
Countdown was an Australian pop music TV series on national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974 to 1987, it presented music awards from 1979 to 1987, initially in conjunction with magazine TV Week. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards.
|-
| 1983
| Charles Fisher for work with Hoodoo Gurus
| Best Record Producer
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |1984
| Stoneage Romeos
| Best Debut Album
|
|-
References
External links
– official site
Hoodoo Gurus at MySpace
Hoodoo Gurus at AMO
Hoodoo Gurus' Dave Faulkner interview, in Rocker magazine, 2012
Hoodoo Gurus career-spanning article at One Week One Band, April 2012
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Musical groups established in 1981
Australian alternative rock groups
Australian new wave musical groups
Jangle pop groups
Musical groups from Sydney
Pub rock musical groups
College rock musical groups | true | [
"\"Crank the System\" is the lead single by the Australian nu metal band Superheist from their first album The Prize Recruit. It was issued ahead of the album on 27 November 2000 on Shock Records' imprint Pivotal Records. The track was co-written by all five Superheist members and peaked at No. 45 on the ARIA Singles Chart. The album and single were produced by Kalju Tonuma.\n\nThe B-side includes a grindcore version of the main song, then \"Two Faced\", \"Pulse\", \"Move the Fuck Around\" and \"Bullet for You\" – an early demo of the next single from the album. This song was later reworked into \"Bullet\".\n\nBackground \n\nIn mid-1999 Superheist toured nationally backing Sepultura, but shortly their bass guitarist, Simon \"Si\" Durrant left and returned to his home town of Adelaide where he joined a short-lived project, Screwface:13. He was replaced on bass guitar by Andrew Corey Dedman. After the band's first EP, 8 Miles High, later works were more defined in their sound and tone – high energy and more traditional nu metal – as seen on The Prize Recruit. \"Crank the System\", which appeared in November 2000, was their first single with Dedman and also their first for the new Shock Records subsidiary label, Pivotal Records. The track was co-written by all five members, Richard William \"DW\" Norton on lead guitar, backing vocals; Roderick \"Burger\" McLeod on lead vocals; Sean Robert P Pentecost on drums; Fetah Sabawi on synthesisers and samplers; and Dedman. It peaked at No. 45 on the ARIA Singles Chart. The album and single were produced by Kalju Tonuma.\n\nTrack listing\n\nAUS CD single SHAGCD7052\n\"Crank the System\" – 3:51\n\"Crank the System [Fit for Mum Mix]\" – 3:51\n\"Bullet for You\" – 4:03\n\"Two Faced [live on JJJ]\" – 3:50\n\"Pulse [live on JJJ]\" – 3:38\n\"Move the Fuck Around\" – 0:24\n\nReferences \n\nSuperheist songs\n2000 singles\n2000 songs",
"\"Crank\" is a song by English alternative rock band Catherine Wheel, released 28 June 1993 by Fontana Records. It was the first single from their 1993 album Chrome.\n\nThe song reached No. 66 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 5 in the US on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart.\n\nTrack listing\n UK 12\" vinyl picture disc\n \"Crank\" – 3:46\n \"Black Metallic\" (Peel Session 1991) – 7:55\n \"Painful Thing\" (Peel Session 1991) – 5:52\n Netherlands CD single\n \"Crank\" – 3:45\n \"Come Back Again\" – 4:24\n UK CD single 1\n \"Crank\" – 3:45\n \"La La Lala La\" – 5:26\n \"Pleasure\" – 5:22\n \"Tongue Twisted\" – 4:50\n UK CD single 2\n \"Crank\" – 3:45\n \"La La Lala La\" – 5:26\n \"Something Strange\" – 1:46\n UK CD single 3\n \"Crank\" – 3:45\n \"Pleasure\" – 5:22\n \"Tongue Twisted\" – 4:50\n UK cassette single (same two tracks on each side)\n \"Crank\" – 3:45\n \"Come Back Again\" – 4:24\n\nPersonnel\nCatherine Wheel\nRob Dickinson – vocals, guitar\nBrian Futter – vocals, guitar\nDave Hawes – bass\nNeil Sims – drums, percussion\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n1993 singles\n1993 songs\nFontana Records singles\nSong recordings produced by Gil Norton\nCatherine Wheel songs"
]
|
[
"Hoodoo Gurus",
"Crank through to the Bullet (1994-1998)",
"What happened in 1994?",
"The 'Crank' world tour took the Gurus through USA, Canada, Europe and included a one-month tour of Brazil.",
"What songs were on the Crank album?",
"Faulkner also composed the soundtrack to Laurie McInnes' 1994 feature film Broken Highway. In 1995,"
]
| C_da6a0f440dea4a23acec6efe7171249b_0 | What happened in 1995? | 3 | What happened in 1995 for the band Hoodoo Gurus ? | Hoodoo Gurus | They followed Kinky with Crank in 1994. The 'Crank' world tour took the Gurus through USA, Canada, Europe and included a one-month tour of Brazil. Faulkner also composed the soundtrack to Laurie McInnes' 1994 feature film Broken Highway. In 1995, the Gurus collaborated with The Masters Apprentices frontman Jim Keays on an updated rendition of "Turn Up Your Radio". The song was included on a new Masters' Best of album, as well as being issued as a single. In 1996 they moved to Mushroom Records for the release of their next album, Blue Cave. The band then undertook a national tour of Australian tour with US outfit The Posies and local band Drop City. Touring commitments were curtailed when Kingsmill severed tendons and nerves in his arm as a result of an onstage accident. Once Kingsmill recovered, the Gurus completed their 'Circus Maximus' Australian tour by end of 1996. In January 1997, Faulkner announced that the band would be breaking up in December. March was the Gurus undertake another tour of Brazil, where they played a concert in front of 40,000 people. The Gurus commenced their final Australian tour, the three-month 'Spit the Dummy' tour, in October 1997. The tour coincided with the release of the double compilation album Armchair Gurus/Electric Chair, which made No. 29 on the national chart. The band played its final show in Melbourne on 11 January 1998. The show made up for dates missed during December 1997, when Faulkner was ill. In November 1998 Mushroom had issued the Hoodoo Gurus' live album, Bite the Bullet. The songs had been recorded during the band's 'Spit the Dummy' farewell tour. The standard, single album version was joined by a limited edition, triple CD version subtitled Director's Cut. It included the additional CDs, Doppelganger (a collection of live-to-air Broadcasts from between 1983-1996) and Bubble and Squeak (a collection of outtakes and oddities). Although Hoodoo Gurus officially split in 1998 they signed with Acadia Records, who released the band's career-spanning compilation Ampology in October 2000. CANNOTANSWER | In 1995, the Gurus collaborated with The Masters Apprentices frontman Jim Keays on an updated rendition of "Turn Up Your Radio". | Hoodoo Gurus are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1981, by the mainstay Dave Faulkner (songwriter, lead singer and guitarist) and later joined by Richard Grossman (bass), Mark Kingsmill (drums), and Brad Shepherd (guitar, vocals, harmonica). Their popularity peaked in the mid- to late 1980s with albums Mars Needs Guitars!, Blow Your Cool! and Magnum Cum Louder.
Hoodoo Gurus had a string of pop-rock singles including "Leilani" (1982), "Tojo" (1983), "My Girl" (1983), "I Want You Back" (1984), "Bittersweet", "Like Wow – Wipeout", and "What's My Scene?". After touring the United States from 1984 onward they gained popularity on the U.S. college rock circuit with the singles "Come Anytime" (1989) reaching no. 1 and "Miss Freelove '69" (1991) reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The Hoodoo Gurus' biggest Australian single was their 1987 top-3 song "What's My Scene?". The song was parodied for the National Rugby League 2000s theme "That's My Team".
The Hoodoo Gurus were inducted into the Australia's 2007 ARIA Hall of Fame. The band's induction announcement stated that the Gurus were one of the most "inventive, lyrically smart and exciting" bands from Australia. From 1960s power pop and garage punk to hard rock and funky psychedelic kitsch, the group's music stood out from Sydney's Detroit-inspired bands.
History
1981–1983: Formation
Three Hoodoo Gurus founders were from Perth protopunk and punk bands: Dave Faulkner (guitars) was a former member of the legendary Manikins left after a fallout with frontman Robbie Porritt. James Baker (drums) of The Victims; while Baker had been with Roddy Radalj (aka Roddy Ray'Da) (guitars) in The Scientists. The fourth founding member, Kimble Rendall (guitars) was formerly in Sydney punk rockers XL Capris. The three guitarists Faulkner, Rendall and Radalj met at an end-of-1980 New Year's Eve party and were joined by Baker to form Le Hoodoo Gurus.
Le Hoodoo Gurus unorthodox line-up of three guitars and no bass player, fused pop melodies, punk guitars and an American trash culture ethic. This was captured on their first single, "Leilani", released in October 1982, on Phantom Records. This told the story of a maiden sacrificed to the gods and an erupting volcano while her true love looked on helplessly. They dropped the 'Le', to become Hoodoo Gurus, not long after the single's release. As the Hoodoo Gurus, they gave their first ever performance on a segment of the kids' TV program Simon Townsend's Wonder World; this was followed by a performance alongside a man and his singing dog, on The Don Lane Show.
Rendall left in 1982 before the release of "Leilani", and went on to become a music video and film director. Rendall was second unit director on the latter two Matrix films, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, as well as I, Robot. Rendall also directed the slasher film, Cut in 2000. Rendall was effectively replaced by Clyde Bramley (bass guitar, backing vocals) from Sydney bands The Hitmen and Super K.
Radalj was not happy with Rendall's leaving or Faulkner's greater influence and left the Gurus. He was replaced by ex-Fun Things guitarist Brad Shepherd, who had been Bramley's flatmate. Bramley and Shepherd had both been in The Hitmen and Super K. Faulkner wrote "I Want You Back" in response to Radalj's public dissatisfaction with the Gurus. Radalj went on to perform with a number of other acts, including The Johnnys, Love Rodeo, The Dubrovniks and Roddy Ray'Da & the Surfin' Caesars. As Roddy Ray'Da, he released Lost, Lonely and Vicious in 1990, Orgazmatazz a year later and Mouthful of Chicken in 1993.
1983–1984: Stoneage Romeos
Gurus new line-up (Baker, Bramley, Faulkner and Shepherd) recorded the band's first album in 1984, Stoneage Romeos. The title came from a 1955 Three Stooges short Stone Age Romeos. The album was dedicated to characters from Get Smart, F-Troop and Petticoat Junction. They were awarded 'Best Debut Album' of 1984 at the July 1985 Countdown Music Awards. When Stoneage Romeos was released in America it stayed at number 1 in the Alternative/College charts for seven weeks, becoming one of the most played albums for the year on the college network.
Initially a cult inner-city act, their popularity expanded due to regular airplay on radio station Triple J and nationwide pop TV show Countdown from mid-1983. Their breakthrough single "My Girl" was accompanied by a video clip featuring a dog trainer with his once champion greyhound. Members of Spiderbait described seeing the video for the first time as "a beautiful, classic pop song". Some viewers insisted the song was "written about a dog". This was closely followed by "I Want You Back", which featured animated plastic model dinosaurs. Both videos were aired frequently raising the group's profile around the country.
Original drummer James Baker was sacked from the band in August 1984 and was replaced by Mark Kingsmill (The Hitmen, New Christs, Screaming Tribesmen, Hellcats and Super K). Based on the success of Stoneage Romeos the Hoodoo Gurus, with their new drummer, then embarked on their first tour of the United States in late 1984.
1985–1993: From Mars to Kinky
Following the US tour the Hoodoo Gurus went into the studio and recorded their second album, Mars Needs Guitars! (1985). The title was a twist on a Sci Fi B movie titled Mars Needs Women. The album's first single, "Bittersweet", had a more subdued regular-looking video. The Hoodoo Gurus played Europe and the United States including sell-out shows at London's Hammersmith Palais and a two-month tour as special guests with The Bangles.
Baker's firing upset some fans and critics. Despite subsequent fan speculation about the single "Poison Pen, songwriter Faulkner said it was not about band issues but rather about a relationship that had turned bitter. Baker had been involved with The Beasts of Bourbon as a side project from 1983 and now concentrated on their 1984 album The Axeman's Jazz, subsequently he founded James Baker Experience and The Dubrovniks (latter two included Radalj), Novakill and eventually The Painkillers.
Gurus' peak of popularity was in the mid-to-late 1980s with the albums Mars Needs Guitars!, Blow Your Cool! and Magnum Cum Louder. The albums reached no. 140 (1986), no. 120 (1987) and no. 101 (1989) on the American Billboard 200 album charts respectively. The band's 1987 'Blow Your Cool' concert tour took them to 19 countries playing 204 venues. A concert from the Ritz in New York City was broadcast by MTV America. The 'Magnum Cum Louder' tour in 1990, with dates in Europe, America and Australasia; included Japan for the first time. Based on their extensive touring of America, the band gained a solid following in the U.S. with regular exposure on US college radio (and later MTV's 120 Minutes) and even developed a big fan base in Brazil. The third album Blow Your Cool! let go of some of the peripheral quirkiness and just concentrated on the band's pop power. Members of their international peer group The Bangles and Dream Syndicate contributed backing vocals to some songs. Then, Hoodoo Gurus decided to opt out of its record contract, tying up the group in legal wranglings for more than a year. In 1988 Richard Grossman (ex Matt Finish, Divinyls) replaced Clyde Bramley on bass. The most stable line-up of Faulkner, Grossman, Kingsmill, and Shepherd saw Hoodoo Gurus from 1988 to the break-up in January 1998.
After two albums under their new contract, Magnum Cum Louder and 1991's Kinky, which reached no. 101 and 172 on the American Billboard 200 album charts respectively the band then released in 1992 two compilations at once, Electric Soup, which contained the band's hits and Gorilla Biscuit, which was made up of B-sides and rarities.
Kinky provided the single "Miss Freelove '69" which reached no. 19 on the ARIA Singles Chart, and no. 3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1991. Another single of the same year "1000 Miles Away" reached no. 37 in Australia. It was adopted by the crew of Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Canberra as its unofficial anthem in 1993, playing it whenever its ships left port. Hoodoo Gurus played a concert, including "1000 Miles Away", on-board HMAS Canberra during its last voyage prior to decommissioning in 2005.
Crank through to the Bullet (1994–1998)
They followed Kinky with Crank in 1994. The 'Crank' world tour took the Gurus through USA, Canada, Europe and included a one-month tour of Brazil. Faulkner also composed the soundtrack to Laurie McInnes' 1994 feature film Broken Highway. In 1995, the Gurus collaborated with The Masters Apprentices frontman Jim Keays on an updated rendition of "Turn Up Your Radio". The song was included on a new Masters' Best of album, as well as being issued as a single.
In 1996 they moved to Mushroom Records for the release of their next album, Blue Cave. The band then undertook a national tour of Australian tour with US outfit The Posies and local band Drop City. Touring commitments were curtailed when Kingsmill severed tendons and nerves in his arm as a result of an onstage accident. Once Kingsmill recovered, the Gurus completed their 'Circus Maximus' Australian tour by end of 1996. In January 1997, Faulkner announced that the band would be breaking up in December. March saw the Gurus undertake another tour of Brazil, where they played a concert in front of 40,000 people. The Gurus commenced their final Australian tour, the three-month 'Spit the Dummy' tour, in October 1997. The tour coincided with the release of the double compilation album Armchair Gurus/Electric Chair, which made no. 29 on the national chart. The band played its final show in Melbourne on 11 January 1998. The show made up for dates missed during December 1997, when Faulkner was ill.
In November 1998 Mushroom issued the Hoodoo Gurus' live album, Bite the Bullet. The songs had been recorded during the band's 'Spit the Dummy' farewell tour. The standard, single album version was joined by a limited edition, triple CD version subtitled Director’s Cut. It included the additional CDs, Doppelgänger (a collection of live-to-air Broadcasts from between 1983 and 1996) and Bubble and Squeak (a collection of outtakes and oddities).<ref>
Hoodoo Gurus toured during 2007 including several US dates, kicking off at the South By Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival in Austin, Texas (see SXSW photo above), performances in Europe, including the Azkena Festival (Spain). This was followed by a national tour of Australia called 'Clash of the Titans' with The Stems and Radio Birdman. Their tour poster depicts the three bands as 'Heavyweights' of the Australian music scene. Another solo tour started late in 2007 (including performances at the Apollo Bay Music Festival, Splendour in the Grass, Meredith Music Festival, and the St Kilda Festival) and continued into 2008. There are tentative plans to release a new album in 2009, although little material has been written so far. In June 2008 The Age newspaper commemorated 50 years of Australian rock 'n' roll (the anniversary of the release of Johnny O'Keefe's "Wild One") by selecting the Top 50 Australian Albums, with Stoneage Romeo coming in at no. 5 on the list. The Hoodoo Gurus performed at the Glastonbury Festival in the United Kingdom on 29 June 2008.
Hoodoo Gurus performed on 14 March 2009 for Sound Relief at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Sound Relief was a benefit concert for victims of the Victorian Bushfire Crisis and the Queensland Floods. Appearing with Hoodoo Gurus at the Sydney concert were, Coldplay, Eskimo Joe, Icehouse, Jet, Josh Pyke, Little Birdy, The Presets, Wolfmother, You Am I and additional artists.
In March 2009 the Hoodoo Gurus also signed a new recording contract with Sony Music Australia, the deal includes the band's back catalogue as well as a new album, the band's ninth and the first since the release of Mach Schau in 2004. Brad Shepherd said it had the potential to be "a career defining record". During the process of writing the album Dave Faulkner said in reference to the eclectic mix of songs ready for the album that "rather than stopping myself writing something, I just didn't artificially force myself to write in any direction". The album was originally scheduled for release in September 2009 but they were not happy with the final mix. Hoodoo Gurus then sent their songs off to Durango, Colorado, where Ed Stasium, who worked on the band's previous albums Kinky and Crank worked with Faulkner. Faulkner flew to the US after Hoodoo Gurus performed in Japan, their first performances there in over 20 years.
In August 2009 it was revealed that Shepherd had been diagnosed with cancer and was recovering from recent surgery. It was his second cancer diagnosis, having had a melanoma removed five years earlier.
The first single from their new album, "Crackin' Up", was released in December 2009 and received some airplay on Australian radio stations. The album, Purity of Essence, was released on 16 March 2010 in Australia and internationally on 11 May 2010.
On 3 October 2010, Hoodoo Gurus toured to London, UK, performing at O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire.
In 2011, they were inducted into the Music Victoria Hall of Fame.
In April 2012 the band played a series of concerts titled Dig it Up! in Australian capital cities, to celebrate 30 years since the release of their debut single "Leilani". At the concerts, the band performed the whole of their debut album Stoneage Romeos and other hits. Also playing as part of the Dig It Up! tour were Australian bands Died Pretty and The Hard Ons, as well as international bands such as Redd Kross, The Sonics and The Fleshtones.
2013–present: Continued performances and Chariot of the Gods
In April 2013, the band hosted invitational concerts across the Australian capital cities, performing Mars Needs Guitars, and will be joined by Blue Öyster Cult, Flamin' Groovies, Buzzcocks, and Peter Case.
2014 saw the release of Gravy Train, an EP featuring three new songs and a remake of their first single "Leilani".
In January 2015, it was announced that Kingsmill would be retiring from the band. His last performances were on 22 and 23 May 2015, at the "Be My Guru – Evolution Revolution" concerts at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum, performed as the opening to the city's annual Vivid Festival. The concerts reunited all eight past and present band members for a two-hour set covering their beginnings as Le Hoodoo Gurus in 1982 all the way through to 2010's Purity of Essence.
The band headlined the 'A Day on the Green' concert series in March 2016, with Sunnyboys, Violent Femmes, Died Pretty, and Ratcat.
In early 2018, the group announced a vinyl reissue campaign called the Hoodoo Gurus Record Club, entailing the reissue on coloured vinyl of their back catalogue up to Purity of Essence, which also included the album the group recorded as the Persian Rugs in 2000. The first release through the campaign was Stoneage Romeos on 1 June 2018, with a general public release on 7 September.
On 26 May 2018, the group held a benefit concert for the Tatra bushfire with artists The Badloves, 1927 and local talents Daniel Champagne, Corey Legge, The Figmentz, Erin McMahon, and Melanie Horsnell. The 'Band Together' concert sold out and ticket sales helped raise over half of the $250,000 target towards helping residents affected by the bushfire in March 2018.
On 13 January 2019, Hoodoo Gurus headlined the 'Under the Southern Stars' concert tour of five states starting off at Hastings, Victoria, with performances in Tasmania, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia scheduled throughout January. Appearing with Hoodoo Gurus at the Hastings concert were Eskimo Joe, You Am I, The Superjesus, British India, The Getaway Plan and Scott Darlow.
In July 2020, the band released the single "Hung Out to Dry". The song will feature on the Gurus' tenth studio album, Chariot of the Gods.
Members
Current members
Dave Faulkner – vocals, guitar, keyboards (1981–1998, 2003–present)
Brad Shepherd – guitar, vocals, harmonica (1982–1998, 2003–present)
Richard Grossman – bass guitar, backing vocals (1988–1998, 2003–present)
Nik Rieth – drums (2015–present)
Former members
James Baker – drums (1981–1984, 2014)
Roddy Radalj – guitar, backing vocals (1981–1982, 2014)
Kimble Rendall – bass guitar, backing vocals (1981–1982, 2014)
Clyde Bramley – bass guitar, backing vocals (1982–1988, 2014)
Mark Kingsmill – drums (1984–1998, 2003–2015)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
1984: Stoneage Romeos
1985: Mars Needs Guitars!
1987: Blow Your Cool!
1989: Magnum Cum Louder
1991: Kinky
1994: Crank
1996: Blue Cave
2004: Mach Schau
2010: Purity of Essence
2022: Chariot of the Gods
Awards and nominations
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987. Rowe was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007.
|-
| 1993
| Electric Soup / Gorilla Biscuit – Paul McNeil, Richard All
| Best Cover Art
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1996
| "Waking Up Tired"
| Best Video
|
|-
| Blue Cave
| Best Pop Release
|
|-
| 1997
| "Down on Me" – Charles Fisher
| Producer of the Year
|
|-
| 2005
| Tunnel Vision
| Best Music DVD
|
|-
| 2007
| Hoodoo Gurus
| ARIA Hall of Fame
|
|-
The Age EG Awards
The Age EG Awards are an annual awards night celebrating Victorian music. They commenced in 2005.
|-
| 2011 || Hoodoo Gurus || Hall of Fame ||
|-
Countdown Australian Music Awards
Countdown was an Australian pop music TV series on national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974 to 1987, it presented music awards from 1979 to 1987, initially in conjunction with magazine TV Week. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards.
|-
| 1983
| Charles Fisher for work with Hoodoo Gurus
| Best Record Producer
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |1984
| Stoneage Romeos
| Best Debut Album
|
|-
References
External links
– official site
Hoodoo Gurus at MySpace
Hoodoo Gurus at AMO
Hoodoo Gurus' Dave Faulkner interview, in Rocker magazine, 2012
Hoodoo Gurus career-spanning article at One Week One Band, April 2012
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Musical groups established in 1981
Australian alternative rock groups
Australian new wave musical groups
Jangle pop groups
Musical groups from Sydney
Pub rock musical groups
College rock musical groups | 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 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"
]
|
[
"Hoodoo Gurus",
"Crank through to the Bullet (1994-1998)",
"What happened in 1994?",
"The 'Crank' world tour took the Gurus through USA, Canada, Europe and included a one-month tour of Brazil.",
"What songs were on the Crank album?",
"Faulkner also composed the soundtrack to Laurie McInnes' 1994 feature film Broken Highway. In 1995,",
"What happened in 1995?",
"In 1995, the Gurus collaborated with The Masters Apprentices frontman Jim Keays on an updated rendition of \"Turn Up Your Radio\"."
]
| C_da6a0f440dea4a23acec6efe7171249b_0 | Did they win any awards? | 4 | Did Hoodoo Gurus win any awards? | Hoodoo Gurus | They followed Kinky with Crank in 1994. The 'Crank' world tour took the Gurus through USA, Canada, Europe and included a one-month tour of Brazil. Faulkner also composed the soundtrack to Laurie McInnes' 1994 feature film Broken Highway. In 1995, the Gurus collaborated with The Masters Apprentices frontman Jim Keays on an updated rendition of "Turn Up Your Radio". The song was included on a new Masters' Best of album, as well as being issued as a single. In 1996 they moved to Mushroom Records for the release of their next album, Blue Cave. The band then undertook a national tour of Australian tour with US outfit The Posies and local band Drop City. Touring commitments were curtailed when Kingsmill severed tendons and nerves in his arm as a result of an onstage accident. Once Kingsmill recovered, the Gurus completed their 'Circus Maximus' Australian tour by end of 1996. In January 1997, Faulkner announced that the band would be breaking up in December. March was the Gurus undertake another tour of Brazil, where they played a concert in front of 40,000 people. The Gurus commenced their final Australian tour, the three-month 'Spit the Dummy' tour, in October 1997. The tour coincided with the release of the double compilation album Armchair Gurus/Electric Chair, which made No. 29 on the national chart. The band played its final show in Melbourne on 11 January 1998. The show made up for dates missed during December 1997, when Faulkner was ill. In November 1998 Mushroom had issued the Hoodoo Gurus' live album, Bite the Bullet. The songs had been recorded during the band's 'Spit the Dummy' farewell tour. The standard, single album version was joined by a limited edition, triple CD version subtitled Director's Cut. It included the additional CDs, Doppelganger (a collection of live-to-air Broadcasts from between 1983-1996) and Bubble and Squeak (a collection of outtakes and oddities). Although Hoodoo Gurus officially split in 1998 they signed with Acadia Records, who released the band's career-spanning compilation Ampology in October 2000. CANNOTANSWER | In 1996 they moved to Mushroom Records for the release of their next album, Blue Cave. | Hoodoo Gurus are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1981, by the mainstay Dave Faulkner (songwriter, lead singer and guitarist) and later joined by Richard Grossman (bass), Mark Kingsmill (drums), and Brad Shepherd (guitar, vocals, harmonica). Their popularity peaked in the mid- to late 1980s with albums Mars Needs Guitars!, Blow Your Cool! and Magnum Cum Louder.
Hoodoo Gurus had a string of pop-rock singles including "Leilani" (1982), "Tojo" (1983), "My Girl" (1983), "I Want You Back" (1984), "Bittersweet", "Like Wow – Wipeout", and "What's My Scene?". After touring the United States from 1984 onward they gained popularity on the U.S. college rock circuit with the singles "Come Anytime" (1989) reaching no. 1 and "Miss Freelove '69" (1991) reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The Hoodoo Gurus' biggest Australian single was their 1987 top-3 song "What's My Scene?". The song was parodied for the National Rugby League 2000s theme "That's My Team".
The Hoodoo Gurus were inducted into the Australia's 2007 ARIA Hall of Fame. The band's induction announcement stated that the Gurus were one of the most "inventive, lyrically smart and exciting" bands from Australia. From 1960s power pop and garage punk to hard rock and funky psychedelic kitsch, the group's music stood out from Sydney's Detroit-inspired bands.
History
1981–1983: Formation
Three Hoodoo Gurus founders were from Perth protopunk and punk bands: Dave Faulkner (guitars) was a former member of the legendary Manikins left after a fallout with frontman Robbie Porritt. James Baker (drums) of The Victims; while Baker had been with Roddy Radalj (aka Roddy Ray'Da) (guitars) in The Scientists. The fourth founding member, Kimble Rendall (guitars) was formerly in Sydney punk rockers XL Capris. The three guitarists Faulkner, Rendall and Radalj met at an end-of-1980 New Year's Eve party and were joined by Baker to form Le Hoodoo Gurus.
Le Hoodoo Gurus unorthodox line-up of three guitars and no bass player, fused pop melodies, punk guitars and an American trash culture ethic. This was captured on their first single, "Leilani", released in October 1982, on Phantom Records. This told the story of a maiden sacrificed to the gods and an erupting volcano while her true love looked on helplessly. They dropped the 'Le', to become Hoodoo Gurus, not long after the single's release. As the Hoodoo Gurus, they gave their first ever performance on a segment of the kids' TV program Simon Townsend's Wonder World; this was followed by a performance alongside a man and his singing dog, on The Don Lane Show.
Rendall left in 1982 before the release of "Leilani", and went on to become a music video and film director. Rendall was second unit director on the latter two Matrix films, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, as well as I, Robot. Rendall also directed the slasher film, Cut in 2000. Rendall was effectively replaced by Clyde Bramley (bass guitar, backing vocals) from Sydney bands The Hitmen and Super K.
Radalj was not happy with Rendall's leaving or Faulkner's greater influence and left the Gurus. He was replaced by ex-Fun Things guitarist Brad Shepherd, who had been Bramley's flatmate. Bramley and Shepherd had both been in The Hitmen and Super K. Faulkner wrote "I Want You Back" in response to Radalj's public dissatisfaction with the Gurus. Radalj went on to perform with a number of other acts, including The Johnnys, Love Rodeo, The Dubrovniks and Roddy Ray'Da & the Surfin' Caesars. As Roddy Ray'Da, he released Lost, Lonely and Vicious in 1990, Orgazmatazz a year later and Mouthful of Chicken in 1993.
1983–1984: Stoneage Romeos
Gurus new line-up (Baker, Bramley, Faulkner and Shepherd) recorded the band's first album in 1984, Stoneage Romeos. The title came from a 1955 Three Stooges short Stone Age Romeos. The album was dedicated to characters from Get Smart, F-Troop and Petticoat Junction. They were awarded 'Best Debut Album' of 1984 at the July 1985 Countdown Music Awards. When Stoneage Romeos was released in America it stayed at number 1 in the Alternative/College charts for seven weeks, becoming one of the most played albums for the year on the college network.
Initially a cult inner-city act, their popularity expanded due to regular airplay on radio station Triple J and nationwide pop TV show Countdown from mid-1983. Their breakthrough single "My Girl" was accompanied by a video clip featuring a dog trainer with his once champion greyhound. Members of Spiderbait described seeing the video for the first time as "a beautiful, classic pop song". Some viewers insisted the song was "written about a dog". This was closely followed by "I Want You Back", which featured animated plastic model dinosaurs. Both videos were aired frequently raising the group's profile around the country.
Original drummer James Baker was sacked from the band in August 1984 and was replaced by Mark Kingsmill (The Hitmen, New Christs, Screaming Tribesmen, Hellcats and Super K). Based on the success of Stoneage Romeos the Hoodoo Gurus, with their new drummer, then embarked on their first tour of the United States in late 1984.
1985–1993: From Mars to Kinky
Following the US tour the Hoodoo Gurus went into the studio and recorded their second album, Mars Needs Guitars! (1985). The title was a twist on a Sci Fi B movie titled Mars Needs Women. The album's first single, "Bittersweet", had a more subdued regular-looking video. The Hoodoo Gurus played Europe and the United States including sell-out shows at London's Hammersmith Palais and a two-month tour as special guests with The Bangles.
Baker's firing upset some fans and critics. Despite subsequent fan speculation about the single "Poison Pen, songwriter Faulkner said it was not about band issues but rather about a relationship that had turned bitter. Baker had been involved with The Beasts of Bourbon as a side project from 1983 and now concentrated on their 1984 album The Axeman's Jazz, subsequently he founded James Baker Experience and The Dubrovniks (latter two included Radalj), Novakill and eventually The Painkillers.
Gurus' peak of popularity was in the mid-to-late 1980s with the albums Mars Needs Guitars!, Blow Your Cool! and Magnum Cum Louder. The albums reached no. 140 (1986), no. 120 (1987) and no. 101 (1989) on the American Billboard 200 album charts respectively. The band's 1987 'Blow Your Cool' concert tour took them to 19 countries playing 204 venues. A concert from the Ritz in New York City was broadcast by MTV America. The 'Magnum Cum Louder' tour in 1990, with dates in Europe, America and Australasia; included Japan for the first time. Based on their extensive touring of America, the band gained a solid following in the U.S. with regular exposure on US college radio (and later MTV's 120 Minutes) and even developed a big fan base in Brazil. The third album Blow Your Cool! let go of some of the peripheral quirkiness and just concentrated on the band's pop power. Members of their international peer group The Bangles and Dream Syndicate contributed backing vocals to some songs. Then, Hoodoo Gurus decided to opt out of its record contract, tying up the group in legal wranglings for more than a year. In 1988 Richard Grossman (ex Matt Finish, Divinyls) replaced Clyde Bramley on bass. The most stable line-up of Faulkner, Grossman, Kingsmill, and Shepherd saw Hoodoo Gurus from 1988 to the break-up in January 1998.
After two albums under their new contract, Magnum Cum Louder and 1991's Kinky, which reached no. 101 and 172 on the American Billboard 200 album charts respectively the band then released in 1992 two compilations at once, Electric Soup, which contained the band's hits and Gorilla Biscuit, which was made up of B-sides and rarities.
Kinky provided the single "Miss Freelove '69" which reached no. 19 on the ARIA Singles Chart, and no. 3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1991. Another single of the same year "1000 Miles Away" reached no. 37 in Australia. It was adopted by the crew of Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Canberra as its unofficial anthem in 1993, playing it whenever its ships left port. Hoodoo Gurus played a concert, including "1000 Miles Away", on-board HMAS Canberra during its last voyage prior to decommissioning in 2005.
Crank through to the Bullet (1994–1998)
They followed Kinky with Crank in 1994. The 'Crank' world tour took the Gurus through USA, Canada, Europe and included a one-month tour of Brazil. Faulkner also composed the soundtrack to Laurie McInnes' 1994 feature film Broken Highway. In 1995, the Gurus collaborated with The Masters Apprentices frontman Jim Keays on an updated rendition of "Turn Up Your Radio". The song was included on a new Masters' Best of album, as well as being issued as a single.
In 1996 they moved to Mushroom Records for the release of their next album, Blue Cave. The band then undertook a national tour of Australian tour with US outfit The Posies and local band Drop City. Touring commitments were curtailed when Kingsmill severed tendons and nerves in his arm as a result of an onstage accident. Once Kingsmill recovered, the Gurus completed their 'Circus Maximus' Australian tour by end of 1996. In January 1997, Faulkner announced that the band would be breaking up in December. March saw the Gurus undertake another tour of Brazil, where they played a concert in front of 40,000 people. The Gurus commenced their final Australian tour, the three-month 'Spit the Dummy' tour, in October 1997. The tour coincided with the release of the double compilation album Armchair Gurus/Electric Chair, which made no. 29 on the national chart. The band played its final show in Melbourne on 11 January 1998. The show made up for dates missed during December 1997, when Faulkner was ill.
In November 1998 Mushroom issued the Hoodoo Gurus' live album, Bite the Bullet. The songs had been recorded during the band's 'Spit the Dummy' farewell tour. The standard, single album version was joined by a limited edition, triple CD version subtitled Director’s Cut. It included the additional CDs, Doppelgänger (a collection of live-to-air Broadcasts from between 1983 and 1996) and Bubble and Squeak (a collection of outtakes and oddities).<ref>
Hoodoo Gurus toured during 2007 including several US dates, kicking off at the South By Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival in Austin, Texas (see SXSW photo above), performances in Europe, including the Azkena Festival (Spain). This was followed by a national tour of Australia called 'Clash of the Titans' with The Stems and Radio Birdman. Their tour poster depicts the three bands as 'Heavyweights' of the Australian music scene. Another solo tour started late in 2007 (including performances at the Apollo Bay Music Festival, Splendour in the Grass, Meredith Music Festival, and the St Kilda Festival) and continued into 2008. There are tentative plans to release a new album in 2009, although little material has been written so far. In June 2008 The Age newspaper commemorated 50 years of Australian rock 'n' roll (the anniversary of the release of Johnny O'Keefe's "Wild One") by selecting the Top 50 Australian Albums, with Stoneage Romeo coming in at no. 5 on the list. The Hoodoo Gurus performed at the Glastonbury Festival in the United Kingdom on 29 June 2008.
Hoodoo Gurus performed on 14 March 2009 for Sound Relief at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Sound Relief was a benefit concert for victims of the Victorian Bushfire Crisis and the Queensland Floods. Appearing with Hoodoo Gurus at the Sydney concert were, Coldplay, Eskimo Joe, Icehouse, Jet, Josh Pyke, Little Birdy, The Presets, Wolfmother, You Am I and additional artists.
In March 2009 the Hoodoo Gurus also signed a new recording contract with Sony Music Australia, the deal includes the band's back catalogue as well as a new album, the band's ninth and the first since the release of Mach Schau in 2004. Brad Shepherd said it had the potential to be "a career defining record". During the process of writing the album Dave Faulkner said in reference to the eclectic mix of songs ready for the album that "rather than stopping myself writing something, I just didn't artificially force myself to write in any direction". The album was originally scheduled for release in September 2009 but they were not happy with the final mix. Hoodoo Gurus then sent their songs off to Durango, Colorado, where Ed Stasium, who worked on the band's previous albums Kinky and Crank worked with Faulkner. Faulkner flew to the US after Hoodoo Gurus performed in Japan, their first performances there in over 20 years.
In August 2009 it was revealed that Shepherd had been diagnosed with cancer and was recovering from recent surgery. It was his second cancer diagnosis, having had a melanoma removed five years earlier.
The first single from their new album, "Crackin' Up", was released in December 2009 and received some airplay on Australian radio stations. The album, Purity of Essence, was released on 16 March 2010 in Australia and internationally on 11 May 2010.
On 3 October 2010, Hoodoo Gurus toured to London, UK, performing at O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire.
In 2011, they were inducted into the Music Victoria Hall of Fame.
In April 2012 the band played a series of concerts titled Dig it Up! in Australian capital cities, to celebrate 30 years since the release of their debut single "Leilani". At the concerts, the band performed the whole of their debut album Stoneage Romeos and other hits. Also playing as part of the Dig It Up! tour were Australian bands Died Pretty and The Hard Ons, as well as international bands such as Redd Kross, The Sonics and The Fleshtones.
2013–present: Continued performances and Chariot of the Gods
In April 2013, the band hosted invitational concerts across the Australian capital cities, performing Mars Needs Guitars, and will be joined by Blue Öyster Cult, Flamin' Groovies, Buzzcocks, and Peter Case.
2014 saw the release of Gravy Train, an EP featuring three new songs and a remake of their first single "Leilani".
In January 2015, it was announced that Kingsmill would be retiring from the band. His last performances were on 22 and 23 May 2015, at the "Be My Guru – Evolution Revolution" concerts at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum, performed as the opening to the city's annual Vivid Festival. The concerts reunited all eight past and present band members for a two-hour set covering their beginnings as Le Hoodoo Gurus in 1982 all the way through to 2010's Purity of Essence.
The band headlined the 'A Day on the Green' concert series in March 2016, with Sunnyboys, Violent Femmes, Died Pretty, and Ratcat.
In early 2018, the group announced a vinyl reissue campaign called the Hoodoo Gurus Record Club, entailing the reissue on coloured vinyl of their back catalogue up to Purity of Essence, which also included the album the group recorded as the Persian Rugs in 2000. The first release through the campaign was Stoneage Romeos on 1 June 2018, with a general public release on 7 September.
On 26 May 2018, the group held a benefit concert for the Tatra bushfire with artists The Badloves, 1927 and local talents Daniel Champagne, Corey Legge, The Figmentz, Erin McMahon, and Melanie Horsnell. The 'Band Together' concert sold out and ticket sales helped raise over half of the $250,000 target towards helping residents affected by the bushfire in March 2018.
On 13 January 2019, Hoodoo Gurus headlined the 'Under the Southern Stars' concert tour of five states starting off at Hastings, Victoria, with performances in Tasmania, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia scheduled throughout January. Appearing with Hoodoo Gurus at the Hastings concert were Eskimo Joe, You Am I, The Superjesus, British India, The Getaway Plan and Scott Darlow.
In July 2020, the band released the single "Hung Out to Dry". The song will feature on the Gurus' tenth studio album, Chariot of the Gods.
Members
Current members
Dave Faulkner – vocals, guitar, keyboards (1981–1998, 2003–present)
Brad Shepherd – guitar, vocals, harmonica (1982–1998, 2003–present)
Richard Grossman – bass guitar, backing vocals (1988–1998, 2003–present)
Nik Rieth – drums (2015–present)
Former members
James Baker – drums (1981–1984, 2014)
Roddy Radalj – guitar, backing vocals (1981–1982, 2014)
Kimble Rendall – bass guitar, backing vocals (1981–1982, 2014)
Clyde Bramley – bass guitar, backing vocals (1982–1988, 2014)
Mark Kingsmill – drums (1984–1998, 2003–2015)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
1984: Stoneage Romeos
1985: Mars Needs Guitars!
1987: Blow Your Cool!
1989: Magnum Cum Louder
1991: Kinky
1994: Crank
1996: Blue Cave
2004: Mach Schau
2010: Purity of Essence
2022: Chariot of the Gods
Awards and nominations
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987. Rowe was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007.
|-
| 1993
| Electric Soup / Gorilla Biscuit – Paul McNeil, Richard All
| Best Cover Art
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1996
| "Waking Up Tired"
| Best Video
|
|-
| Blue Cave
| Best Pop Release
|
|-
| 1997
| "Down on Me" – Charles Fisher
| Producer of the Year
|
|-
| 2005
| Tunnel Vision
| Best Music DVD
|
|-
| 2007
| Hoodoo Gurus
| ARIA Hall of Fame
|
|-
The Age EG Awards
The Age EG Awards are an annual awards night celebrating Victorian music. They commenced in 2005.
|-
| 2011 || Hoodoo Gurus || Hall of Fame ||
|-
Countdown Australian Music Awards
Countdown was an Australian pop music TV series on national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974 to 1987, it presented music awards from 1979 to 1987, initially in conjunction with magazine TV Week. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards.
|-
| 1983
| Charles Fisher for work with Hoodoo Gurus
| Best Record Producer
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |1984
| Stoneage Romeos
| Best Debut Album
|
|-
References
External links
– official site
Hoodoo Gurus at MySpace
Hoodoo Gurus at AMO
Hoodoo Gurus' Dave Faulkner interview, in Rocker magazine, 2012
Hoodoo Gurus career-spanning article at One Week One Band, April 2012
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Musical groups established in 1981
Australian alternative rock groups
Australian new wave musical groups
Jangle pop groups
Musical groups from Sydney
Pub rock musical groups
College rock musical groups | 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 African National Congress was a political party in Trinidad and Tobago. The party first contested national elections in 1961, when it received just 0.5% of the vote and failed to win a seat. They did not put forward any candidates for the 1966 elections, but returned for the 1971 elections, in which they received 2.4% of the vote, but again failed to win a seat as the People's National Movement won all 36. The party did not contest any further elections.\n\nReferences\n\nDefunct political parties in Trinidad and Tobago"
]
|
[
"Hoodoo Gurus",
"Crank through to the Bullet (1994-1998)",
"What happened in 1994?",
"The 'Crank' world tour took the Gurus through USA, Canada, Europe and included a one-month tour of Brazil.",
"What songs were on the Crank album?",
"Faulkner also composed the soundtrack to Laurie McInnes' 1994 feature film Broken Highway. In 1995,",
"What happened in 1995?",
"In 1995, the Gurus collaborated with The Masters Apprentices frontman Jim Keays on an updated rendition of \"Turn Up Your Radio\".",
"Did they win any awards?",
"In 1996 they moved to Mushroom Records for the release of their next album, Blue Cave."
]
| C_da6a0f440dea4a23acec6efe7171249b_0 | Did they release other albums through Mushroom Records? | 5 | Did Hoodoo Gurus release other albums than Blue Cave through Mushroom Records? | Hoodoo Gurus | They followed Kinky with Crank in 1994. The 'Crank' world tour took the Gurus through USA, Canada, Europe and included a one-month tour of Brazil. Faulkner also composed the soundtrack to Laurie McInnes' 1994 feature film Broken Highway. In 1995, the Gurus collaborated with The Masters Apprentices frontman Jim Keays on an updated rendition of "Turn Up Your Radio". The song was included on a new Masters' Best of album, as well as being issued as a single. In 1996 they moved to Mushroom Records for the release of their next album, Blue Cave. The band then undertook a national tour of Australian tour with US outfit The Posies and local band Drop City. Touring commitments were curtailed when Kingsmill severed tendons and nerves in his arm as a result of an onstage accident. Once Kingsmill recovered, the Gurus completed their 'Circus Maximus' Australian tour by end of 1996. In January 1997, Faulkner announced that the band would be breaking up in December. March was the Gurus undertake another tour of Brazil, where they played a concert in front of 40,000 people. The Gurus commenced their final Australian tour, the three-month 'Spit the Dummy' tour, in October 1997. The tour coincided with the release of the double compilation album Armchair Gurus/Electric Chair, which made No. 29 on the national chart. The band played its final show in Melbourne on 11 January 1998. The show made up for dates missed during December 1997, when Faulkner was ill. In November 1998 Mushroom had issued the Hoodoo Gurus' live album, Bite the Bullet. The songs had been recorded during the band's 'Spit the Dummy' farewell tour. The standard, single album version was joined by a limited edition, triple CD version subtitled Director's Cut. It included the additional CDs, Doppelganger (a collection of live-to-air Broadcasts from between 1983-1996) and Bubble and Squeak (a collection of outtakes and oddities). Although Hoodoo Gurus officially split in 1998 they signed with Acadia Records, who released the band's career-spanning compilation Ampology in October 2000. CANNOTANSWER | In 1996 they moved to Mushroom Records for the release of their next album, Blue Cave. | Hoodoo Gurus are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1981, by the mainstay Dave Faulkner (songwriter, lead singer and guitarist) and later joined by Richard Grossman (bass), Mark Kingsmill (drums), and Brad Shepherd (guitar, vocals, harmonica). Their popularity peaked in the mid- to late 1980s with albums Mars Needs Guitars!, Blow Your Cool! and Magnum Cum Louder.
Hoodoo Gurus had a string of pop-rock singles including "Leilani" (1982), "Tojo" (1983), "My Girl" (1983), "I Want You Back" (1984), "Bittersweet", "Like Wow – Wipeout", and "What's My Scene?". After touring the United States from 1984 onward they gained popularity on the U.S. college rock circuit with the singles "Come Anytime" (1989) reaching no. 1 and "Miss Freelove '69" (1991) reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The Hoodoo Gurus' biggest Australian single was their 1987 top-3 song "What's My Scene?". The song was parodied for the National Rugby League 2000s theme "That's My Team".
The Hoodoo Gurus were inducted into the Australia's 2007 ARIA Hall of Fame. The band's induction announcement stated that the Gurus were one of the most "inventive, lyrically smart and exciting" bands from Australia. From 1960s power pop and garage punk to hard rock and funky psychedelic kitsch, the group's music stood out from Sydney's Detroit-inspired bands.
History
1981–1983: Formation
Three Hoodoo Gurus founders were from Perth protopunk and punk bands: Dave Faulkner (guitars) was a former member of the legendary Manikins left after a fallout with frontman Robbie Porritt. James Baker (drums) of The Victims; while Baker had been with Roddy Radalj (aka Roddy Ray'Da) (guitars) in The Scientists. The fourth founding member, Kimble Rendall (guitars) was formerly in Sydney punk rockers XL Capris. The three guitarists Faulkner, Rendall and Radalj met at an end-of-1980 New Year's Eve party and were joined by Baker to form Le Hoodoo Gurus.
Le Hoodoo Gurus unorthodox line-up of three guitars and no bass player, fused pop melodies, punk guitars and an American trash culture ethic. This was captured on their first single, "Leilani", released in October 1982, on Phantom Records. This told the story of a maiden sacrificed to the gods and an erupting volcano while her true love looked on helplessly. They dropped the 'Le', to become Hoodoo Gurus, not long after the single's release. As the Hoodoo Gurus, they gave their first ever performance on a segment of the kids' TV program Simon Townsend's Wonder World; this was followed by a performance alongside a man and his singing dog, on The Don Lane Show.
Rendall left in 1982 before the release of "Leilani", and went on to become a music video and film director. Rendall was second unit director on the latter two Matrix films, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, as well as I, Robot. Rendall also directed the slasher film, Cut in 2000. Rendall was effectively replaced by Clyde Bramley (bass guitar, backing vocals) from Sydney bands The Hitmen and Super K.
Radalj was not happy with Rendall's leaving or Faulkner's greater influence and left the Gurus. He was replaced by ex-Fun Things guitarist Brad Shepherd, who had been Bramley's flatmate. Bramley and Shepherd had both been in The Hitmen and Super K. Faulkner wrote "I Want You Back" in response to Radalj's public dissatisfaction with the Gurus. Radalj went on to perform with a number of other acts, including The Johnnys, Love Rodeo, The Dubrovniks and Roddy Ray'Da & the Surfin' Caesars. As Roddy Ray'Da, he released Lost, Lonely and Vicious in 1990, Orgazmatazz a year later and Mouthful of Chicken in 1993.
1983–1984: Stoneage Romeos
Gurus new line-up (Baker, Bramley, Faulkner and Shepherd) recorded the band's first album in 1984, Stoneage Romeos. The title came from a 1955 Three Stooges short Stone Age Romeos. The album was dedicated to characters from Get Smart, F-Troop and Petticoat Junction. They were awarded 'Best Debut Album' of 1984 at the July 1985 Countdown Music Awards. When Stoneage Romeos was released in America it stayed at number 1 in the Alternative/College charts for seven weeks, becoming one of the most played albums for the year on the college network.
Initially a cult inner-city act, their popularity expanded due to regular airplay on radio station Triple J and nationwide pop TV show Countdown from mid-1983. Their breakthrough single "My Girl" was accompanied by a video clip featuring a dog trainer with his once champion greyhound. Members of Spiderbait described seeing the video for the first time as "a beautiful, classic pop song". Some viewers insisted the song was "written about a dog". This was closely followed by "I Want You Back", which featured animated plastic model dinosaurs. Both videos were aired frequently raising the group's profile around the country.
Original drummer James Baker was sacked from the band in August 1984 and was replaced by Mark Kingsmill (The Hitmen, New Christs, Screaming Tribesmen, Hellcats and Super K). Based on the success of Stoneage Romeos the Hoodoo Gurus, with their new drummer, then embarked on their first tour of the United States in late 1984.
1985–1993: From Mars to Kinky
Following the US tour the Hoodoo Gurus went into the studio and recorded their second album, Mars Needs Guitars! (1985). The title was a twist on a Sci Fi B movie titled Mars Needs Women. The album's first single, "Bittersweet", had a more subdued regular-looking video. The Hoodoo Gurus played Europe and the United States including sell-out shows at London's Hammersmith Palais and a two-month tour as special guests with The Bangles.
Baker's firing upset some fans and critics. Despite subsequent fan speculation about the single "Poison Pen, songwriter Faulkner said it was not about band issues but rather about a relationship that had turned bitter. Baker had been involved with The Beasts of Bourbon as a side project from 1983 and now concentrated on their 1984 album The Axeman's Jazz, subsequently he founded James Baker Experience and The Dubrovniks (latter two included Radalj), Novakill and eventually The Painkillers.
Gurus' peak of popularity was in the mid-to-late 1980s with the albums Mars Needs Guitars!, Blow Your Cool! and Magnum Cum Louder. The albums reached no. 140 (1986), no. 120 (1987) and no. 101 (1989) on the American Billboard 200 album charts respectively. The band's 1987 'Blow Your Cool' concert tour took them to 19 countries playing 204 venues. A concert from the Ritz in New York City was broadcast by MTV America. The 'Magnum Cum Louder' tour in 1990, with dates in Europe, America and Australasia; included Japan for the first time. Based on their extensive touring of America, the band gained a solid following in the U.S. with regular exposure on US college radio (and later MTV's 120 Minutes) and even developed a big fan base in Brazil. The third album Blow Your Cool! let go of some of the peripheral quirkiness and just concentrated on the band's pop power. Members of their international peer group The Bangles and Dream Syndicate contributed backing vocals to some songs. Then, Hoodoo Gurus decided to opt out of its record contract, tying up the group in legal wranglings for more than a year. In 1988 Richard Grossman (ex Matt Finish, Divinyls) replaced Clyde Bramley on bass. The most stable line-up of Faulkner, Grossman, Kingsmill, and Shepherd saw Hoodoo Gurus from 1988 to the break-up in January 1998.
After two albums under their new contract, Magnum Cum Louder and 1991's Kinky, which reached no. 101 and 172 on the American Billboard 200 album charts respectively the band then released in 1992 two compilations at once, Electric Soup, which contained the band's hits and Gorilla Biscuit, which was made up of B-sides and rarities.
Kinky provided the single "Miss Freelove '69" which reached no. 19 on the ARIA Singles Chart, and no. 3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1991. Another single of the same year "1000 Miles Away" reached no. 37 in Australia. It was adopted by the crew of Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Canberra as its unofficial anthem in 1993, playing it whenever its ships left port. Hoodoo Gurus played a concert, including "1000 Miles Away", on-board HMAS Canberra during its last voyage prior to decommissioning in 2005.
Crank through to the Bullet (1994–1998)
They followed Kinky with Crank in 1994. The 'Crank' world tour took the Gurus through USA, Canada, Europe and included a one-month tour of Brazil. Faulkner also composed the soundtrack to Laurie McInnes' 1994 feature film Broken Highway. In 1995, the Gurus collaborated with The Masters Apprentices frontman Jim Keays on an updated rendition of "Turn Up Your Radio". The song was included on a new Masters' Best of album, as well as being issued as a single.
In 1996 they moved to Mushroom Records for the release of their next album, Blue Cave. The band then undertook a national tour of Australian tour with US outfit The Posies and local band Drop City. Touring commitments were curtailed when Kingsmill severed tendons and nerves in his arm as a result of an onstage accident. Once Kingsmill recovered, the Gurus completed their 'Circus Maximus' Australian tour by end of 1996. In January 1997, Faulkner announced that the band would be breaking up in December. March saw the Gurus undertake another tour of Brazil, where they played a concert in front of 40,000 people. The Gurus commenced their final Australian tour, the three-month 'Spit the Dummy' tour, in October 1997. The tour coincided with the release of the double compilation album Armchair Gurus/Electric Chair, which made no. 29 on the national chart. The band played its final show in Melbourne on 11 January 1998. The show made up for dates missed during December 1997, when Faulkner was ill.
In November 1998 Mushroom issued the Hoodoo Gurus' live album, Bite the Bullet. The songs had been recorded during the band's 'Spit the Dummy' farewell tour. The standard, single album version was joined by a limited edition, triple CD version subtitled Director’s Cut. It included the additional CDs, Doppelgänger (a collection of live-to-air Broadcasts from between 1983 and 1996) and Bubble and Squeak (a collection of outtakes and oddities).<ref>
Hoodoo Gurus toured during 2007 including several US dates, kicking off at the South By Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival in Austin, Texas (see SXSW photo above), performances in Europe, including the Azkena Festival (Spain). This was followed by a national tour of Australia called 'Clash of the Titans' with The Stems and Radio Birdman. Their tour poster depicts the three bands as 'Heavyweights' of the Australian music scene. Another solo tour started late in 2007 (including performances at the Apollo Bay Music Festival, Splendour in the Grass, Meredith Music Festival, and the St Kilda Festival) and continued into 2008. There are tentative plans to release a new album in 2009, although little material has been written so far. In June 2008 The Age newspaper commemorated 50 years of Australian rock 'n' roll (the anniversary of the release of Johnny O'Keefe's "Wild One") by selecting the Top 50 Australian Albums, with Stoneage Romeo coming in at no. 5 on the list. The Hoodoo Gurus performed at the Glastonbury Festival in the United Kingdom on 29 June 2008.
Hoodoo Gurus performed on 14 March 2009 for Sound Relief at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Sound Relief was a benefit concert for victims of the Victorian Bushfire Crisis and the Queensland Floods. Appearing with Hoodoo Gurus at the Sydney concert were, Coldplay, Eskimo Joe, Icehouse, Jet, Josh Pyke, Little Birdy, The Presets, Wolfmother, You Am I and additional artists.
In March 2009 the Hoodoo Gurus also signed a new recording contract with Sony Music Australia, the deal includes the band's back catalogue as well as a new album, the band's ninth and the first since the release of Mach Schau in 2004. Brad Shepherd said it had the potential to be "a career defining record". During the process of writing the album Dave Faulkner said in reference to the eclectic mix of songs ready for the album that "rather than stopping myself writing something, I just didn't artificially force myself to write in any direction". The album was originally scheduled for release in September 2009 but they were not happy with the final mix. Hoodoo Gurus then sent their songs off to Durango, Colorado, where Ed Stasium, who worked on the band's previous albums Kinky and Crank worked with Faulkner. Faulkner flew to the US after Hoodoo Gurus performed in Japan, their first performances there in over 20 years.
In August 2009 it was revealed that Shepherd had been diagnosed with cancer and was recovering from recent surgery. It was his second cancer diagnosis, having had a melanoma removed five years earlier.
The first single from their new album, "Crackin' Up", was released in December 2009 and received some airplay on Australian radio stations. The album, Purity of Essence, was released on 16 March 2010 in Australia and internationally on 11 May 2010.
On 3 October 2010, Hoodoo Gurus toured to London, UK, performing at O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire.
In 2011, they were inducted into the Music Victoria Hall of Fame.
In April 2012 the band played a series of concerts titled Dig it Up! in Australian capital cities, to celebrate 30 years since the release of their debut single "Leilani". At the concerts, the band performed the whole of their debut album Stoneage Romeos and other hits. Also playing as part of the Dig It Up! tour were Australian bands Died Pretty and The Hard Ons, as well as international bands such as Redd Kross, The Sonics and The Fleshtones.
2013–present: Continued performances and Chariot of the Gods
In April 2013, the band hosted invitational concerts across the Australian capital cities, performing Mars Needs Guitars, and will be joined by Blue Öyster Cult, Flamin' Groovies, Buzzcocks, and Peter Case.
2014 saw the release of Gravy Train, an EP featuring three new songs and a remake of their first single "Leilani".
In January 2015, it was announced that Kingsmill would be retiring from the band. His last performances were on 22 and 23 May 2015, at the "Be My Guru – Evolution Revolution" concerts at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum, performed as the opening to the city's annual Vivid Festival. The concerts reunited all eight past and present band members for a two-hour set covering their beginnings as Le Hoodoo Gurus in 1982 all the way through to 2010's Purity of Essence.
The band headlined the 'A Day on the Green' concert series in March 2016, with Sunnyboys, Violent Femmes, Died Pretty, and Ratcat.
In early 2018, the group announced a vinyl reissue campaign called the Hoodoo Gurus Record Club, entailing the reissue on coloured vinyl of their back catalogue up to Purity of Essence, which also included the album the group recorded as the Persian Rugs in 2000. The first release through the campaign was Stoneage Romeos on 1 June 2018, with a general public release on 7 September.
On 26 May 2018, the group held a benefit concert for the Tatra bushfire with artists The Badloves, 1927 and local talents Daniel Champagne, Corey Legge, The Figmentz, Erin McMahon, and Melanie Horsnell. The 'Band Together' concert sold out and ticket sales helped raise over half of the $250,000 target towards helping residents affected by the bushfire in March 2018.
On 13 January 2019, Hoodoo Gurus headlined the 'Under the Southern Stars' concert tour of five states starting off at Hastings, Victoria, with performances in Tasmania, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia scheduled throughout January. Appearing with Hoodoo Gurus at the Hastings concert were Eskimo Joe, You Am I, The Superjesus, British India, The Getaway Plan and Scott Darlow.
In July 2020, the band released the single "Hung Out to Dry". The song will feature on the Gurus' tenth studio album, Chariot of the Gods.
Members
Current members
Dave Faulkner – vocals, guitar, keyboards (1981–1998, 2003–present)
Brad Shepherd – guitar, vocals, harmonica (1982–1998, 2003–present)
Richard Grossman – bass guitar, backing vocals (1988–1998, 2003–present)
Nik Rieth – drums (2015–present)
Former members
James Baker – drums (1981–1984, 2014)
Roddy Radalj – guitar, backing vocals (1981–1982, 2014)
Kimble Rendall – bass guitar, backing vocals (1981–1982, 2014)
Clyde Bramley – bass guitar, backing vocals (1982–1988, 2014)
Mark Kingsmill – drums (1984–1998, 2003–2015)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
1984: Stoneage Romeos
1985: Mars Needs Guitars!
1987: Blow Your Cool!
1989: Magnum Cum Louder
1991: Kinky
1994: Crank
1996: Blue Cave
2004: Mach Schau
2010: Purity of Essence
2022: Chariot of the Gods
Awards and nominations
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987. Rowe was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007.
|-
| 1993
| Electric Soup / Gorilla Biscuit – Paul McNeil, Richard All
| Best Cover Art
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1996
| "Waking Up Tired"
| Best Video
|
|-
| Blue Cave
| Best Pop Release
|
|-
| 1997
| "Down on Me" – Charles Fisher
| Producer of the Year
|
|-
| 2005
| Tunnel Vision
| Best Music DVD
|
|-
| 2007
| Hoodoo Gurus
| ARIA Hall of Fame
|
|-
The Age EG Awards
The Age EG Awards are an annual awards night celebrating Victorian music. They commenced in 2005.
|-
| 2011 || Hoodoo Gurus || Hall of Fame ||
|-
Countdown Australian Music Awards
Countdown was an Australian pop music TV series on national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974 to 1987, it presented music awards from 1979 to 1987, initially in conjunction with magazine TV Week. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards.
|-
| 1983
| Charles Fisher for work with Hoodoo Gurus
| Best Record Producer
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |1984
| Stoneage Romeos
| Best Debut Album
|
|-
References
External links
– official site
Hoodoo Gurus at MySpace
Hoodoo Gurus at AMO
Hoodoo Gurus' Dave Faulkner interview, in Rocker magazine, 2012
Hoodoo Gurus career-spanning article at One Week One Band, April 2012
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Musical groups established in 1981
Australian alternative rock groups
Australian new wave musical groups
Jangle pop groups
Musical groups from Sydney
Pub rock musical groups
College rock musical groups | true | [
"A&E Records is a United Kingdom-based record label imprint, owned by Warner Music Group (WMG). It operates under the WEA International group of labels at WMG.\n\nA&E Records was formalised in May 2003, when the NewsCorp Music Group of independent record labels (comprising Mushroom Records UK, Infectious Records, Ultimate Dilemma, Perfecto and 48K) were absorbed into WMG's East West after 20 months of negotiations, with all of its roster transferring over. In November 2004, A&E Records was realigned, and transferred across the company to within the Warner Bros label.\n\nHistory\n\nA&E Records was formalised on 19 May 2003, with all of Mushroom Records UK and Infectious' artist roster transferring over to the East West imprint, including its new signings The Darkness, Funeral for a Friend and Freeform Five, while Korda Marshall took up the position of managing director with the label. WMG completed its acquisition of Mushroom Records for around $15m (£9.2m) and East West absorbed the functions of Mushroom, which was closed the week prior. East West immediately re-issued its new artists back catalogue albums through A&E Records and Warner Strategic Marketing distribution.\n\nThe following year, from 25 June 2004, East West was subject to the rebranding as one of WMG's two frontline UK labels, changing to Atlantic Records (the other label WEA London becoming Warner Bros). On 14 November of that year, Marshall became managing director of Warner Bros. A&E Records was realigned, and transferred across the company to Warner Bros. The Infectious brand name and logo also transferred from Atlantic, along with Ash, Garbage and Muse.\n\nA&E Records has continued to release records by Garbage (until 2007) and Timo Maas and to release Muse records through sub-label Helium 3. The role of Infectious within Warner Bros has been decreased and not including Ash releases, is being used for launching newly signed acts such as The Subways and Larrikin Love. Former parent Festival Mushroom Records was acquired by WMG on 21 October 2005 and its labels and artists absorbed into Warner Music Australia, however none of those artists have been transferred to A&E Records.\n\nA&E Records discography\n\nAlbums\n\nMushroom Records UK\n\nMushroom Records UK was set up in London in 1993 by Gary Ashley, as an offshoot of the Australian independent label Mushroom Records, which had been formed in 1972 by Michael Gudinski and Ray Evans in Melbourne. Mushroom Records UK was intended mainly to serve the UK with Australian musical imports. Marshall had previously been RCA's head of A&R, and had left the company to establish his own Infectious Records which he aligned under Mushroom Records UK.\n\nThe label's first worldwide signing was US rock group Garbage, who became the flagship for the label, achieving multi-million sales with their first album release. Concerned that they were only known in the United Kingdom for the Neighbours theme (composed by Mushroom Music Publishing), to move away from the association, Mushroom founded the Discordant label for the sole purpose of launching Garbage. Although following their debut single, Garbage were reconciled with the main label, a few Australian acts such as Garageland and Deadstar were licensed to Discordant.\n\nMushroom had early success with Australian singer Peter Andre, while retaining a diverse roster signing UK acts such as The Wildhearts, and importing Australian acts such as Deni Hines, Christian Fry, Ween, Antenna, Sister2Sister, VAST and Yothu Yindi. Several acts were signed to Infectious Records, including Ash, Symposium, My Vitriol, Cable, Seafood, Elevator Suite and Pop Will Eat Itself, while Mushroom licensed local signing Muse from Taste Media. Sub labels Perfecto had successes with Paul Oakenfold and offshoot label 48K artist Timo Maas; sister label Ultimate Dilemma also had Zero 7, Magnet and Roots Manuva on its books. In 1999, Mushroom Records UK was one of only two labels who wanted to sign singer Kylie Minogue (ultimately she chose to sign to Parlophone).\n\nWith these acts charting highly brought Mushroom to the front stage of music in the UK, with an initial £5,000 turnover increasing to £23m over its 10 years, however Marshall began to extricate Mushroom UK from the Mushroom family during 2001, after the parent company had been sold in 1999 to Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp, and merged with his Festival Records to form Festival Mushroom Records. Mushroom Records UK was slowly wound down as negotiations crystallised; its last release was the Garbage single \"Shut Your Mouth\" in September 2002.\n\nMushroom Records UK discography\n\nAlbums\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n WMG.com – Warner Music Group official site\n\nRecord labels established in 2003\nBritish record labels\nWarner Music labels\nIFPI members",
"The Best of Renee Geyer 1973-1998 is the third greatest hits album by Australian musician Renée Geyer. It was released in May 1998 by Mushroom Records. \nThe album was re-released in August 2004 under the title The Definitive Collection 1973-1998.\n\nTrack listing\n\nWeekly charts\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n1998 greatest hits albums\nRenée Geyer albums\nMushroom Records compilation albums\nCompilation albums by Australian artists\nAlbums produced by Joe Camilleri"
]
|
[
"The Apples in Stereo",
"1994-1995: Hypnotic Suggestion and Fun Trick Noisemaker"
]
| C_bb5692211f37444eb499f77b75cc7155_0 | Who is McIntyre's favorite band? | 1 | Who is McIntyre's favorite band? | The Apples in Stereo | Several conflicts would lead Parfitt to leave the band in early 1994. John Hill, a former bandmate of McIntyre's, would join the band as a rhythm guitarist while Schneider began to grow more comfortable playing lead guitar. It was also at this time that Schneider began to take stronger creative control of the band, shifting its sound from its stronger rock qualities to a spacier pop sound. The band started work on a debut full-length album, but it instead became Hypnotic Suggestion, a second EP. However, after SpinART Records offered to buy the band an 8-track in return for an album, new plans for an LP arose. In mid-1994, after Hypnotic Suggestion, McIntyre would be the second to leave the band, due to a number of personal distresses as well as stylistic changes that arose with Parfitt's departure. Having great difficulty finding a new permanent bassist, the band would rotate a number of frequent bass contributors, including Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Kurt Heasley of The Lilys, Kyle Jones, Joel Richardson, and Joel Evans. Jim McIntyre would also occasionally guest on bass. This continued to be the makeup of the band as they toured the country in late 1994, recording the first half of their new album in Glendora, California. In early 1995, the band finished the album, Fun Trick Noisemaker, at Kyle Jones's house (the birthplace of Schneider's Pet Sounds Studio). Now with a full-length LP to support, the band began touring again. Eric Allen, whom the band had previously auditioned as a guitarist after the departure of Chris Parfitt, joined the band as a much welcomed permanent bassist. Late 1995, Schneider relocated Pet Sounds Studio to Jim McIntyre's house. McIntyre continued to be involved in the recording and engineering of the band's albums until the mid-2000s. A significantly different band from the original 1992 four-piece, the official name of the band gradually became "The Apples in Stereo", with the "in stereo" usually somewhat under-emphasized, whether in lower-case or in parentheses. Schneider described this in an interview: "It's very clearcut, actually: we're The Apples, the music's in stereo. It's not actually the band name - it's a step back from it, a band name once removed. We're The Apples, in stereo. Kind of like a TV show, 'in stereo!' That always seemed to be a really big deal, that it was in stereo." McIntyre later remarked, "It's cool the name changed cause the Apples and the Apples in Stereo were really two different entities." CANNOTANSWER | Hypnotic Suggestion, | The Apples in Stereo, styled as The Apples in stereo, are an American rock band associated with Elephant Six Collective, a group of bands also including Neutral Milk Hotel, The Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, Of Montreal, and Circulatory System. The band is largely a product of lead vocalist/guitarist/producer Robert Schneider, who writes the majority of the band's music and lyrics. Currently, The Apples in Stereo also includes longstanding members John Hill (rhythm guitar) and Eric Allen (bass), as well as more recent members John Dufilho (drums), John Ferguson (keyboards), and Ben Phelan (keyboards/guitar/trumpet).
The band's sound draws comparisons to the psychedelic rock of The Beatles and The Beach Boys during the 1960s, as well as to bands such as Electric Light Orchestra and Pavement, and also draws from lo-fi, garage rock, new wave, R&B, bubblegum pop, power pop, punk, electro-pop and experimental music.
The band is also well known for their appearance in a The Powerpuff Girls music video performing the song "Signal in the Sky (Let's Go)". It aired immediately after the show's seventh episode of season 4, "Superfriends", which was based on the song's lyrics. The band has appeared widely in television and film, including performances on The Colbert Report, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Last Call with Carson Daly, guest hosting on MTV, song placements in numerous television shows, commercials and motion pictures, the performance of the single "Energy" by the contestants on American Idol, and a song recorded for children's show Yo Gabba Gabba.
Band history
1991–1993: The Apples
In late 1991, Robert Schneider met Jim McIntyre on a commuter bus in Denver, Colorado. Schneider had recently moved to Colorado from Ruston, Louisiana, and often initiated conversations with McIntyre. When Schneider asked McIntyre what his music interests were, McIntyre named his favorite band: The Beach Boys — a band Schneider was particularly fond of. Realizing that they shared many musical interests, McIntyre introduced Schneider to Hilarie Sidney. McIntyre already had a band called Von Hemmling in which McIntyre played bass and Sidney played drums. With Schneider, they discussed the idea of starting a band and perhaps a recording label. Schneider later met Chris Parfitt, who at the time was also already in a band (which Schneider unsuccessfully auditioned for on bass). Schneider and Parfitt also became friends, however, and toyed with the idea of having a rock band similar to The Velvet Underground or Black Sabbath, with production qualities similar to that of The Beach Boys.
Schneider then spent two weeks in Athens, Georgia recording music and spending time with his childhood friends Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss and Jeff Mangum. He discussed the idea of starting a record label with them (which soon became The Elephant 6 Recording Company). It was also at this time that the name "The Apples" came about, inspired by the Pink Floyd song "Apples and Oranges".
The earliest incarnation of the band began to form in 1992 upon Schneider's return to Denver, first between Schneider and Parfitt, both of whom played guitar. The two recruited McIntyre and Sidney during the autumn of that year, practicing material through the winter. Their first few live shows took place the following January, many of which were with the band Felt Pilotes. From February to April 1993, the band recorded their debut 7" EP, Tidal Wave, and released it in June as the first record ever to bear the Elephant 6 logo.
1994–1995: Hypnotic Suggestion and Fun Trick Noisemaker
Several conflicts would lead Parfitt to leave the band in early 1994. John Hill, a former bandmate of McIntyre's, would join the band as a rhythm guitarist while Schneider began to grow more comfortable playing lead guitar. It was also at this time that Schneider began to take stronger creative control of the band, shifting its sound from its stronger rock qualities to a spacier pop sound. The band started work on a debut album, but it instead became Hypnotic Suggestion, a second EP. However, after SpinART Records offered to buy the band an 8-track in return for an album, new plans for an LP arose.
In mid-1994, after Hypnotic Suggestion, McIntyre would be the second to leave the band, due to a number of personal distresses as well as stylistic changes that arose with Parfitt's departure. Having great difficulty finding a new permanent bassist, the band would rotate a number of frequent bass contributors, including Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Kurt Heasley of The Lilys, Kyle Jones, Joel Richardson, and Joel Evans. Jim McIntyre would also occasionally guest on bass. This continued to be the makeup of the band as they toured the country in late 1994, recording the first half of their new album in Glendora, California. In early 1995, the band finished the album, Fun Trick Noisemaker, at Kyle Jones's house (the birthplace of Schneider's Pet Sounds Studio).
Now with a LP to support, the band began touring again. Eric Allen, whom the band had previously auditioned as a guitarist after the departure of Chris Parfitt, joined the band as a much welcomed permanent bassist. Late 1995, Schneider relocated Pet Sounds Studio to Jim McIntyre's house. McIntyre continued to be involved in the recording and engineering of the band's albums until the mid-2000s.
A significantly different band from the original 1992 four-piece, the official name of the band gradually became "The Apples in Stereo", with the "in stereo" usually somewhat under-emphasized, whether in lower-case or in parentheses. Schneider described this in an interview: "It's very clearcut, actually: we're The Apples, the music's in stereo. It's not actually the band name – it's a step back from it, a band name once removed. We're The Apples, in stereo. Kind of like a TV show, 'in stereo!' That always seemed to be a really big deal, that it was in stereo." McIntyre later remarked, "It's cool the name changed cause the Apples and the Apples in Stereo were really two different entities."
1996–2005: Tone Soul Evolution to Velocity of Sound
The band continued touring through 1996, playing in Japan for the first time. Several early recording sessions were held at Pet Sounds for the band's second album, Tone Soul Evolution, but the members were dissatisfied with the quality of the recordings. The majority of the album's songs were re-recorded at Studio .45 in Hartford, Connecticut before the album's release. In 1998, Chris McDuffie joined the band, playing various instruments including organs, synthesizers and assorted percussion. He would leave the band before Velocity of Sound was released in 2002.
Several more albums were released by the band through the years, including the psychedelic "concept EP", Her Wallpaper Reverie, The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone and Velocity of Sound; both of the latter of which were progressively aimed at capturing the live sound of the band, which continued to tighten as they continued to perform hundreds of live shows (about 100 a year). In particular, the 2002 album Velocity of Sound rejects most of the psych-pop production sensibilities that would come to be associated with the band, instead featuring stripped-down production and sparse, rock instrumentation.
The band members would also continue to pursue careers in side bands and solo projects, with Schneider producing several albums for Elephant 6 artists. Schneider and drummer Hilarie Sidney were married for a time, with a son Max born in 2000. They have since been divorced.
The band went on a brief hiatus during 2004 as Schneider released the debut album from a new band called Ulysses and Sidney released the debut album from her new band The High Water Marks; both were released on Eenie Meenie Records. In 2005, The Apples in Stereo contributed "Liza Jane" to the Eenie Meenie compilation, Dimension Mix. It was also around this time that news began to circulate among various websites concerning the band's next studio album.
2006–2008: New Magnetic Wonder and evolving lineup
In August 2006, longtime drummer Hilarie Sidney officially announced her departure from the band during the band's closing set at the Athens Popfest music festival in Athens, Georgia. Her replacement, John Dufilho, lead singer and principal songwriter of The Deathray Davies, was announced in October 2006. 2006 touring member Bill Doss of The Olivia Tremor Control also quietly joined the band "officially" as its new keyboardist. John Ferguson of Big Fresh and Ulysses joined the Apples in 2007, also playing keyboards, and wearing a Doctor Who-esque space suit on stage.
In December 2006, Robert Schneider appeared on the popular television show The Colbert Report singing the song "Stephen Stephen" recorded by The Apples in Stereo to glorify the show's host Stephen Colbert, to kick off a guitar solo contest between Colbert and Chris Funk of The Decemberists.
On February 6, 2007, The Apples in Stereo released their sixth studio LP, New Magnetic Wonder. Finishing a ten-year deal with spinART Records, New Magnetic Wonder was the premiere release on Simian Records, a newly formed record label founded by Elijah Wood. This was followed by a long-awaited b-sides and rarities compilation titled Electronic Projects for Musicians, released on April 1.
In 2008, spinART Records went out of business. Rights for all major releases by The Apples in Stereo on the label were subsequently acquired by One Little Indian Records, and have since reverted to the band. In a recent interview, Schneider noted that the band's EPs have yet to have been re-released, but will likely be collected for another compilation. Such a compilation would probably include the re-releases of Look Away + 4, Let's Go! and a number of non-album songs released alongside New Magnetic Wonder.
On August 4, 2008, the band appeared again on The Colbert Report. They performed their song Can You Feel It? to promote the release of the Japanese picture disc.
In early 2008, their song "Same Old Drag" won in The 7th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Pop/Rock Song. The same year Apples in Stereo were nominated for Independent Music Awards Pop/Rock Album of the Year. The band members also joined the 9th annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians' careers.
2009–2011: #1 Hits Explosion and Travellers in Space and Time
Yep Roc released #1 Hits Explosion, an Apples in Stereo best-of album, on September 1, 2009.
In late 2008, PepsiCo released an advertisement with their song "Energy" off of their album New Magnetic Wonder.
In early 2009, Robert appeared on ABC News's segment called "amplified" and gave some short performances of songs from New Magnetic Wonder and a song from his project "Robert Bobbert and the bubble machine" and he described the album as sounding like early 1970s R&B as it would sound played by aliens and emanating from an alien spaceship.He also confirmed that the band was recording their new album at Trout Recording in Brooklyn, New York. In interviews in Billboard magazine and other press outlets,
In April 2009, the single "Energy" from New Magnetic Wonder was performed by the contestants on the television show American Idol.
The result was the band's seventh album Travellers in Space and Time, released on April 20, 2010 on Simian Records. Described by Schneider as a "retro-futuristic" concept album intended as a time capsule for listeners of the future, Travellers has drawn comparisons to the style of Electric Light Orchestra. The record is the first Apples in Stereo album without Hilarie Sidney, making Schneider the last founding member remaining in the group, although John Hill joined before "in stereo" was added to the name. The band was invited by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he curated in March 2012 in Minehead, England.
Schneider announced in May 2012 that The Apples in Stereo had begun work on a new album, described as being "a very, very different sort of album."
In recent years, Schneider has explored a number of experimental music projects, such as the Teletron mind-controlled synthesizer and Non-Pythagorean scale of his own invention.
2012–present: Death of Bill Doss, hiatus and future
The death of Bill Doss, the band's keyboardist as well as the co-founder of fellow Elephant 6 band The Olivia Tremor Control, was announced on July 31, 2012. The cause of death was an aneurysm. Schneider released a statement saying, "I am heartbroken by the loss of my life-long friend, collaborator and band-mate. My world will never be the same without the wonderful, funny, supremely creative Bill Doss."
The band went into hiatus in the fall of 2012, after Doss' death and Schneider's acceptance into the PhD program in Mathematics at Emory University. In 2013, Phish started covering the Apples in Stereo song "Energy."
In early 2017, Schneider hinted at a new album called The Bicycle Day. He stated on Facebook that "Apples are working on a concept record called The Bicycle Day but it is too deep of a task to finish while I'm in graduate school... it isn't a pop record though ... (Air-Sea Dolphin and my band Spaceflyte with John Ferguson are the new pop projects though)". On August 10, 2017, the Apples played their first show since 2012 as a headlining act at the Athens Popfest music festival in Athens, Georgia with Marshmallow Coast, Antlered Auntlord, and Waxahatchee as prior performers.
In 2018, Schneider received a PhD in mathematics from Emory.
Band members
Current members
Robert Schneider - guitar, French horn, lead vocals (1992–present)
John Hill - guitar, xylophone (1994–present)
Eric Allen - bass, harmonica (1995–present)
John Dufilho - drums, harp (2006–present)
John Ferguson - vocals, keyboards, panflute (2007–present)
Former members
Hilarie Sidney - drums, vocals (1992-2006)
Jim McIntyre - bass (1992-1994)
Chris Parfitt - guitar (1992-1994)
Chris McDuffie - keyboards (1998-2002)
Bill Doss - vocals, keyboards, ukulele (2006-2012; died 2012)
Timeline
Selected discography
Fun Trick Noisemaker (1995)
Science Faire (1996)
Tone Soul Evolution (1997)
Her Wallpaper Reverie (1999)
The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone (2000)
Velocity of Sound (2002)
New Magnetic Wonder (2007)
Electronic Projects for Musicians (2008)
Travellers in Space and Time (2010)
References
External links
The Apples in Stereo at Elephant6.com
Tractor Beam Management
Apples in Stereo entry at Trouser Press
The Apples in Stereo at Live Music Archive
Interview with the Cornell Daily Sun
Step Through the Portal
The Elephant 6 Recording Company artists
Musical groups from Denver
Lo-fi music groups
Musical groups established in 1992
Independent Music Awards winners
Indie pop groups from Colorado
Indie rock musical groups from Colorado
Psychedelic pop music groups
American power pop groups
SpinART Records artists
Yep Roc Records artists | true | [
"\"Hilo March\" is a Hawaiian popular song written by Joseph Kapeau Ae`a and originally was called \"Ke Ala Tuberose\". It has been covered by a number of musicians, Polynesian and non-Polynesian alike. It was also used in the soundtrack of SpongeBob SquarePants (arranged by The Hawaiian Serenaders as \"Hilo March\", and arragnged by Kapono Beamer as \"Old Hilo March\").\n\nAbout the song\nIt has been adopted as the school song by the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Along with another popular song, \"Aloha ʻOe\", every person from child to senior citizen know is said to the words and music to these songs. Originally the song was called \"Ke Ala Tuberose\" and was composed by Joseph Kapeau Ae`a, who was a member of the Royal Hawaiian Band and also a friend of Princess Liliuokalani. The princess requested Ae`a and the band come to Hilo and that is where he composed the song. In August 1881, the title was changed from \"Ke Ala Tuberose\" to \"Hilo March\" and played by the Royal Hawaiian band under Captain Henri Berger's direction. Besides being a favorite of the Royal Hawaiian band and its popularity in the Islands, it has been picked up as a favorite by many steel guitarists on the mainland. The lyrics of the song tell of Hilo's beauty as well as the beauty of the Lehua flower.\n\nCovers\nIt has been covered by artists such as Trevor Edmondson, Christopher Homer & Raney Van Vink, the Four Hawaiians, Lani McIntyre and his Aloha Islanders, the Mena Moeria Minstrels, Tau Moe's Original Hawaiians, Johnny Pineapple And His Orchestra, Hank Snow, Bashful Brother Oswald, and Bill Wolfgramme and his Islanders\n\nReferences\n\nHawaiian songs\nSymbols of Hawaii\nOceanian anthems\nYear of song missing\nOkeh Records singles",
"Von Hemmling is the solo project of Jim McIntyre and one of many experimental music projects associated with The Elephant 6 Recording Company. Though Jim McIntyre is the band's primary performer, Hilarie Sidney and John Hill have both been members of Von Hemmling before becoming members of The Apples in Stereo. Other frequent collaborators include Rich Sandoval, Rob Greene, Dane Terry, Mike Snowden, John Ferguson, Trevor Tremaine and Mike Buckley. Von Hemmling was named by Denver artist Little Fyodor, in a conversation where Don Henley was mistakenly heard as \"Von Hemmling\"\n\nDiscography\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOfficial site\nVon Hemmling at Elephant6.com\nVon Hemmling at MySpace\n6 Questions with Jim McIntyre at Optical Atlas\n\nThe Elephant 6 Recording Company artists"
]
|
[
"The Apples in Stereo",
"1994-1995: Hypnotic Suggestion and Fun Trick Noisemaker",
"Who is McIntyre's favorite band?",
"Hypnotic Suggestion,"
]
| C_bb5692211f37444eb499f77b75cc7155_0 | Where did the band meet? | 2 | Where did The Apples meet? | The Apples in Stereo | Several conflicts would lead Parfitt to leave the band in early 1994. John Hill, a former bandmate of McIntyre's, would join the band as a rhythm guitarist while Schneider began to grow more comfortable playing lead guitar. It was also at this time that Schneider began to take stronger creative control of the band, shifting its sound from its stronger rock qualities to a spacier pop sound. The band started work on a debut full-length album, but it instead became Hypnotic Suggestion, a second EP. However, after SpinART Records offered to buy the band an 8-track in return for an album, new plans for an LP arose. In mid-1994, after Hypnotic Suggestion, McIntyre would be the second to leave the band, due to a number of personal distresses as well as stylistic changes that arose with Parfitt's departure. Having great difficulty finding a new permanent bassist, the band would rotate a number of frequent bass contributors, including Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Kurt Heasley of The Lilys, Kyle Jones, Joel Richardson, and Joel Evans. Jim McIntyre would also occasionally guest on bass. This continued to be the makeup of the band as they toured the country in late 1994, recording the first half of their new album in Glendora, California. In early 1995, the band finished the album, Fun Trick Noisemaker, at Kyle Jones's house (the birthplace of Schneider's Pet Sounds Studio). Now with a full-length LP to support, the band began touring again. Eric Allen, whom the band had previously auditioned as a guitarist after the departure of Chris Parfitt, joined the band as a much welcomed permanent bassist. Late 1995, Schneider relocated Pet Sounds Studio to Jim McIntyre's house. McIntyre continued to be involved in the recording and engineering of the band's albums until the mid-2000s. A significantly different band from the original 1992 four-piece, the official name of the band gradually became "The Apples in Stereo", with the "in stereo" usually somewhat under-emphasized, whether in lower-case or in parentheses. Schneider described this in an interview: "It's very clearcut, actually: we're The Apples, the music's in stereo. It's not actually the band name - it's a step back from it, a band name once removed. We're The Apples, in stereo. Kind of like a TV show, 'in stereo!' That always seemed to be a really big deal, that it was in stereo." McIntyre later remarked, "It's cool the name changed cause the Apples and the Apples in Stereo were really two different entities." CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | The Apples in Stereo, styled as The Apples in stereo, are an American rock band associated with Elephant Six Collective, a group of bands also including Neutral Milk Hotel, The Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, Of Montreal, and Circulatory System. The band is largely a product of lead vocalist/guitarist/producer Robert Schneider, who writes the majority of the band's music and lyrics. Currently, The Apples in Stereo also includes longstanding members John Hill (rhythm guitar) and Eric Allen (bass), as well as more recent members John Dufilho (drums), John Ferguson (keyboards), and Ben Phelan (keyboards/guitar/trumpet).
The band's sound draws comparisons to the psychedelic rock of The Beatles and The Beach Boys during the 1960s, as well as to bands such as Electric Light Orchestra and Pavement, and also draws from lo-fi, garage rock, new wave, R&B, bubblegum pop, power pop, punk, electro-pop and experimental music.
The band is also well known for their appearance in a The Powerpuff Girls music video performing the song "Signal in the Sky (Let's Go)". It aired immediately after the show's seventh episode of season 4, "Superfriends", which was based on the song's lyrics. The band has appeared widely in television and film, including performances on The Colbert Report, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Last Call with Carson Daly, guest hosting on MTV, song placements in numerous television shows, commercials and motion pictures, the performance of the single "Energy" by the contestants on American Idol, and a song recorded for children's show Yo Gabba Gabba.
Band history
1991–1993: The Apples
In late 1991, Robert Schneider met Jim McIntyre on a commuter bus in Denver, Colorado. Schneider had recently moved to Colorado from Ruston, Louisiana, and often initiated conversations with McIntyre. When Schneider asked McIntyre what his music interests were, McIntyre named his favorite band: The Beach Boys — a band Schneider was particularly fond of. Realizing that they shared many musical interests, McIntyre introduced Schneider to Hilarie Sidney. McIntyre already had a band called Von Hemmling in which McIntyre played bass and Sidney played drums. With Schneider, they discussed the idea of starting a band and perhaps a recording label. Schneider later met Chris Parfitt, who at the time was also already in a band (which Schneider unsuccessfully auditioned for on bass). Schneider and Parfitt also became friends, however, and toyed with the idea of having a rock band similar to The Velvet Underground or Black Sabbath, with production qualities similar to that of The Beach Boys.
Schneider then spent two weeks in Athens, Georgia recording music and spending time with his childhood friends Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss and Jeff Mangum. He discussed the idea of starting a record label with them (which soon became The Elephant 6 Recording Company). It was also at this time that the name "The Apples" came about, inspired by the Pink Floyd song "Apples and Oranges".
The earliest incarnation of the band began to form in 1992 upon Schneider's return to Denver, first between Schneider and Parfitt, both of whom played guitar. The two recruited McIntyre and Sidney during the autumn of that year, practicing material through the winter. Their first few live shows took place the following January, many of which were with the band Felt Pilotes. From February to April 1993, the band recorded their debut 7" EP, Tidal Wave, and released it in June as the first record ever to bear the Elephant 6 logo.
1994–1995: Hypnotic Suggestion and Fun Trick Noisemaker
Several conflicts would lead Parfitt to leave the band in early 1994. John Hill, a former bandmate of McIntyre's, would join the band as a rhythm guitarist while Schneider began to grow more comfortable playing lead guitar. It was also at this time that Schneider began to take stronger creative control of the band, shifting its sound from its stronger rock qualities to a spacier pop sound. The band started work on a debut album, but it instead became Hypnotic Suggestion, a second EP. However, after SpinART Records offered to buy the band an 8-track in return for an album, new plans for an LP arose.
In mid-1994, after Hypnotic Suggestion, McIntyre would be the second to leave the band, due to a number of personal distresses as well as stylistic changes that arose with Parfitt's departure. Having great difficulty finding a new permanent bassist, the band would rotate a number of frequent bass contributors, including Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Kurt Heasley of The Lilys, Kyle Jones, Joel Richardson, and Joel Evans. Jim McIntyre would also occasionally guest on bass. This continued to be the makeup of the band as they toured the country in late 1994, recording the first half of their new album in Glendora, California. In early 1995, the band finished the album, Fun Trick Noisemaker, at Kyle Jones's house (the birthplace of Schneider's Pet Sounds Studio).
Now with a LP to support, the band began touring again. Eric Allen, whom the band had previously auditioned as a guitarist after the departure of Chris Parfitt, joined the band as a much welcomed permanent bassist. Late 1995, Schneider relocated Pet Sounds Studio to Jim McIntyre's house. McIntyre continued to be involved in the recording and engineering of the band's albums until the mid-2000s.
A significantly different band from the original 1992 four-piece, the official name of the band gradually became "The Apples in Stereo", with the "in stereo" usually somewhat under-emphasized, whether in lower-case or in parentheses. Schneider described this in an interview: "It's very clearcut, actually: we're The Apples, the music's in stereo. It's not actually the band name – it's a step back from it, a band name once removed. We're The Apples, in stereo. Kind of like a TV show, 'in stereo!' That always seemed to be a really big deal, that it was in stereo." McIntyre later remarked, "It's cool the name changed cause the Apples and the Apples in Stereo were really two different entities."
1996–2005: Tone Soul Evolution to Velocity of Sound
The band continued touring through 1996, playing in Japan for the first time. Several early recording sessions were held at Pet Sounds for the band's second album, Tone Soul Evolution, but the members were dissatisfied with the quality of the recordings. The majority of the album's songs were re-recorded at Studio .45 in Hartford, Connecticut before the album's release. In 1998, Chris McDuffie joined the band, playing various instruments including organs, synthesizers and assorted percussion. He would leave the band before Velocity of Sound was released in 2002.
Several more albums were released by the band through the years, including the psychedelic "concept EP", Her Wallpaper Reverie, The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone and Velocity of Sound; both of the latter of which were progressively aimed at capturing the live sound of the band, which continued to tighten as they continued to perform hundreds of live shows (about 100 a year). In particular, the 2002 album Velocity of Sound rejects most of the psych-pop production sensibilities that would come to be associated with the band, instead featuring stripped-down production and sparse, rock instrumentation.
The band members would also continue to pursue careers in side bands and solo projects, with Schneider producing several albums for Elephant 6 artists. Schneider and drummer Hilarie Sidney were married for a time, with a son Max born in 2000. They have since been divorced.
The band went on a brief hiatus during 2004 as Schneider released the debut album from a new band called Ulysses and Sidney released the debut album from her new band The High Water Marks; both were released on Eenie Meenie Records. In 2005, The Apples in Stereo contributed "Liza Jane" to the Eenie Meenie compilation, Dimension Mix. It was also around this time that news began to circulate among various websites concerning the band's next studio album.
2006–2008: New Magnetic Wonder and evolving lineup
In August 2006, longtime drummer Hilarie Sidney officially announced her departure from the band during the band's closing set at the Athens Popfest music festival in Athens, Georgia. Her replacement, John Dufilho, lead singer and principal songwriter of The Deathray Davies, was announced in October 2006. 2006 touring member Bill Doss of The Olivia Tremor Control also quietly joined the band "officially" as its new keyboardist. John Ferguson of Big Fresh and Ulysses joined the Apples in 2007, also playing keyboards, and wearing a Doctor Who-esque space suit on stage.
In December 2006, Robert Schneider appeared on the popular television show The Colbert Report singing the song "Stephen Stephen" recorded by The Apples in Stereo to glorify the show's host Stephen Colbert, to kick off a guitar solo contest between Colbert and Chris Funk of The Decemberists.
On February 6, 2007, The Apples in Stereo released their sixth studio LP, New Magnetic Wonder. Finishing a ten-year deal with spinART Records, New Magnetic Wonder was the premiere release on Simian Records, a newly formed record label founded by Elijah Wood. This was followed by a long-awaited b-sides and rarities compilation titled Electronic Projects for Musicians, released on April 1.
In 2008, spinART Records went out of business. Rights for all major releases by The Apples in Stereo on the label were subsequently acquired by One Little Indian Records, and have since reverted to the band. In a recent interview, Schneider noted that the band's EPs have yet to have been re-released, but will likely be collected for another compilation. Such a compilation would probably include the re-releases of Look Away + 4, Let's Go! and a number of non-album songs released alongside New Magnetic Wonder.
On August 4, 2008, the band appeared again on The Colbert Report. They performed their song Can You Feel It? to promote the release of the Japanese picture disc.
In early 2008, their song "Same Old Drag" won in The 7th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Pop/Rock Song. The same year Apples in Stereo were nominated for Independent Music Awards Pop/Rock Album of the Year. The band members also joined the 9th annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians' careers.
2009–2011: #1 Hits Explosion and Travellers in Space and Time
Yep Roc released #1 Hits Explosion, an Apples in Stereo best-of album, on September 1, 2009.
In late 2008, PepsiCo released an advertisement with their song "Energy" off of their album New Magnetic Wonder.
In early 2009, Robert appeared on ABC News's segment called "amplified" and gave some short performances of songs from New Magnetic Wonder and a song from his project "Robert Bobbert and the bubble machine" and he described the album as sounding like early 1970s R&B as it would sound played by aliens and emanating from an alien spaceship.He also confirmed that the band was recording their new album at Trout Recording in Brooklyn, New York. In interviews in Billboard magazine and other press outlets,
In April 2009, the single "Energy" from New Magnetic Wonder was performed by the contestants on the television show American Idol.
The result was the band's seventh album Travellers in Space and Time, released on April 20, 2010 on Simian Records. Described by Schneider as a "retro-futuristic" concept album intended as a time capsule for listeners of the future, Travellers has drawn comparisons to the style of Electric Light Orchestra. The record is the first Apples in Stereo album without Hilarie Sidney, making Schneider the last founding member remaining in the group, although John Hill joined before "in stereo" was added to the name. The band was invited by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he curated in March 2012 in Minehead, England.
Schneider announced in May 2012 that The Apples in Stereo had begun work on a new album, described as being "a very, very different sort of album."
In recent years, Schneider has explored a number of experimental music projects, such as the Teletron mind-controlled synthesizer and Non-Pythagorean scale of his own invention.
2012–present: Death of Bill Doss, hiatus and future
The death of Bill Doss, the band's keyboardist as well as the co-founder of fellow Elephant 6 band The Olivia Tremor Control, was announced on July 31, 2012. The cause of death was an aneurysm. Schneider released a statement saying, "I am heartbroken by the loss of my life-long friend, collaborator and band-mate. My world will never be the same without the wonderful, funny, supremely creative Bill Doss."
The band went into hiatus in the fall of 2012, after Doss' death and Schneider's acceptance into the PhD program in Mathematics at Emory University. In 2013, Phish started covering the Apples in Stereo song "Energy."
In early 2017, Schneider hinted at a new album called The Bicycle Day. He stated on Facebook that "Apples are working on a concept record called The Bicycle Day but it is too deep of a task to finish while I'm in graduate school... it isn't a pop record though ... (Air-Sea Dolphin and my band Spaceflyte with John Ferguson are the new pop projects though)". On August 10, 2017, the Apples played their first show since 2012 as a headlining act at the Athens Popfest music festival in Athens, Georgia with Marshmallow Coast, Antlered Auntlord, and Waxahatchee as prior performers.
In 2018, Schneider received a PhD in mathematics from Emory.
Band members
Current members
Robert Schneider - guitar, French horn, lead vocals (1992–present)
John Hill - guitar, xylophone (1994–present)
Eric Allen - bass, harmonica (1995–present)
John Dufilho - drums, harp (2006–present)
John Ferguson - vocals, keyboards, panflute (2007–present)
Former members
Hilarie Sidney - drums, vocals (1992-2006)
Jim McIntyre - bass (1992-1994)
Chris Parfitt - guitar (1992-1994)
Chris McDuffie - keyboards (1998-2002)
Bill Doss - vocals, keyboards, ukulele (2006-2012; died 2012)
Timeline
Selected discography
Fun Trick Noisemaker (1995)
Science Faire (1996)
Tone Soul Evolution (1997)
Her Wallpaper Reverie (1999)
The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone (2000)
Velocity of Sound (2002)
New Magnetic Wonder (2007)
Electronic Projects for Musicians (2008)
Travellers in Space and Time (2010)
References
External links
The Apples in Stereo at Elephant6.com
Tractor Beam Management
Apples in Stereo entry at Trouser Press
The Apples in Stereo at Live Music Archive
Interview with the Cornell Daily Sun
Step Through the Portal
The Elephant 6 Recording Company artists
Musical groups from Denver
Lo-fi music groups
Musical groups established in 1992
Independent Music Awards winners
Indie pop groups from Colorado
Indie rock musical groups from Colorado
Psychedelic pop music groups
American power pop groups
SpinART Records artists
Yep Roc Records artists | false | [
"Chip Walbert (aka xCHIPxSEM) is a musician from Miami, Florida. He is best known for playing guitar in Until The End, Where Fear and Weapons Meet, and Destro.\n\nHistory \nWalbert became active in the South Florida hardcore punk scene in 1995 and started his first band, Destro, in 1997 with high school friends Roy Ugarte, and future Glasseater guitarist, Ariel Arro. The band went on a brief hiatus in 1998 and he formed xMore Than Everx which only played a few shows. Destro started up again in late 1998 after drummer Ully and singer Manny left. New drummer Julio Marin of Promise No Tomorrow and later of Glasseater joined as did vocalist Kenn Marshall. The band recorded 2 records, an EP and a full length, played Hellfest 2000 and 2001 as well as Furnace Fest 2000 before breaking up in 2002. Walbert then formed All Hell Breaks Loose with members of Santa Sangre and Target Nevada. In 2002, Walbert also joined Where Fear and Weapons Meet and Until the End with Morning Again's John Wylie.\n\nIn 2003, he started Dance Floor Justice with Alex Leon of Target Nevada, All Hell Breaks Loose and Hockey Temper. In November 2004, drummer Joe Lamadrid suddenly died which prompted All Hell Breaks Loose to disband. He later played guitar in No Excuses, a Tallahassee-based straight edge hardcore band. As of 2018, Walbert was the guitarist for the South Florida band Phantom Drive.\n\nHe is also a collector of band t-shirts, especially of 1990s hardcore bands.\n\nRelated bands \n\n Destro: 1997 – 2002\n xMore Than Everx: 1998<\n All Hell Breaks Loose: 2001 - 2004, 2006–present\n Where Fear and Weapons Meet: 2002 - 2004\n Until The End: 2002 - 2005\n Dance Floor Justice: 2003–Present\n Best Wishes: 2007\n No Excuses: 2007–Present\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Walbert's Blog on South Florida Hardcore\n Hows Your Edge Tradelist\n\nLiving people\nMusicians from Miami\nAmerican rock guitarists\nAmerican male guitarists\nGuitarists from Florida\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nMorning Again members",
"Where Fear and Weapons Meet was a hardcore punk band from South Florida. The group's first EP appeared in 1998; they followed it with a full-length in 1999, both on Revelation Records, and won nationwide exposure. They then released a split with Comin' Correct before returning with another full-length, Unstoppable, on Triple Crown Records. Their final release was Control, in 2003.\n\nIn June 2012, it was announced that the band will reunite the following October at the Bringin' It Back For The Kids Fest 2 in Pompano Beach, Florida.\n\nDiscography\n Where Fear and Weapons Meet EP (Revelation Records, 1998)\n The Weapon (Revelation Records, 1999)\n Split (Temperance Records, 2000)\n Unstoppable (Triple Crown Records, 2001)\n Control (Eulogy Recordings, 2003)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Where Fear and Weapons Meet on Eulogy Records\n Where Fear and Weapons Meet on Revelation Records\n\nMusical groups from Fort Lauderdale, Florida\nAmerican metalcore musical groups\nMusical groups established in 1998\nMusical groups disestablished in 2004\nMusical groups reestablished in 2012\nTriple Crown Records artists\n1998 establishments in Florida"
]
|
[
"The Apples in Stereo",
"1994-1995: Hypnotic Suggestion and Fun Trick Noisemaker",
"Who is McIntyre's favorite band?",
"Hypnotic Suggestion,",
"Where did the band meet?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_bb5692211f37444eb499f77b75cc7155_0 | Who else was a member of the band? | 3 | Together with McIntyre, who else was a member of The Apples? | The Apples in Stereo | Several conflicts would lead Parfitt to leave the band in early 1994. John Hill, a former bandmate of McIntyre's, would join the band as a rhythm guitarist while Schneider began to grow more comfortable playing lead guitar. It was also at this time that Schneider began to take stronger creative control of the band, shifting its sound from its stronger rock qualities to a spacier pop sound. The band started work on a debut full-length album, but it instead became Hypnotic Suggestion, a second EP. However, after SpinART Records offered to buy the band an 8-track in return for an album, new plans for an LP arose. In mid-1994, after Hypnotic Suggestion, McIntyre would be the second to leave the band, due to a number of personal distresses as well as stylistic changes that arose with Parfitt's departure. Having great difficulty finding a new permanent bassist, the band would rotate a number of frequent bass contributors, including Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Kurt Heasley of The Lilys, Kyle Jones, Joel Richardson, and Joel Evans. Jim McIntyre would also occasionally guest on bass. This continued to be the makeup of the band as they toured the country in late 1994, recording the first half of their new album in Glendora, California. In early 1995, the band finished the album, Fun Trick Noisemaker, at Kyle Jones's house (the birthplace of Schneider's Pet Sounds Studio). Now with a full-length LP to support, the band began touring again. Eric Allen, whom the band had previously auditioned as a guitarist after the departure of Chris Parfitt, joined the band as a much welcomed permanent bassist. Late 1995, Schneider relocated Pet Sounds Studio to Jim McIntyre's house. McIntyre continued to be involved in the recording and engineering of the band's albums until the mid-2000s. A significantly different band from the original 1992 four-piece, the official name of the band gradually became "The Apples in Stereo", with the "in stereo" usually somewhat under-emphasized, whether in lower-case or in parentheses. Schneider described this in an interview: "It's very clearcut, actually: we're The Apples, the music's in stereo. It's not actually the band name - it's a step back from it, a band name once removed. We're The Apples, in stereo. Kind of like a TV show, 'in stereo!' That always seemed to be a really big deal, that it was in stereo." McIntyre later remarked, "It's cool the name changed cause the Apples and the Apples in Stereo were really two different entities." CANNOTANSWER | Parfitt | The Apples in Stereo, styled as The Apples in stereo, are an American rock band associated with Elephant Six Collective, a group of bands also including Neutral Milk Hotel, The Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, Of Montreal, and Circulatory System. The band is largely a product of lead vocalist/guitarist/producer Robert Schneider, who writes the majority of the band's music and lyrics. Currently, The Apples in Stereo also includes longstanding members John Hill (rhythm guitar) and Eric Allen (bass), as well as more recent members John Dufilho (drums), John Ferguson (keyboards), and Ben Phelan (keyboards/guitar/trumpet).
The band's sound draws comparisons to the psychedelic rock of The Beatles and The Beach Boys during the 1960s, as well as to bands such as Electric Light Orchestra and Pavement, and also draws from lo-fi, garage rock, new wave, R&B, bubblegum pop, power pop, punk, electro-pop and experimental music.
The band is also well known for their appearance in a The Powerpuff Girls music video performing the song "Signal in the Sky (Let's Go)". It aired immediately after the show's seventh episode of season 4, "Superfriends", which was based on the song's lyrics. The band has appeared widely in television and film, including performances on The Colbert Report, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Last Call with Carson Daly, guest hosting on MTV, song placements in numerous television shows, commercials and motion pictures, the performance of the single "Energy" by the contestants on American Idol, and a song recorded for children's show Yo Gabba Gabba.
Band history
1991–1993: The Apples
In late 1991, Robert Schneider met Jim McIntyre on a commuter bus in Denver, Colorado. Schneider had recently moved to Colorado from Ruston, Louisiana, and often initiated conversations with McIntyre. When Schneider asked McIntyre what his music interests were, McIntyre named his favorite band: The Beach Boys — a band Schneider was particularly fond of. Realizing that they shared many musical interests, McIntyre introduced Schneider to Hilarie Sidney. McIntyre already had a band called Von Hemmling in which McIntyre played bass and Sidney played drums. With Schneider, they discussed the idea of starting a band and perhaps a recording label. Schneider later met Chris Parfitt, who at the time was also already in a band (which Schneider unsuccessfully auditioned for on bass). Schneider and Parfitt also became friends, however, and toyed with the idea of having a rock band similar to The Velvet Underground or Black Sabbath, with production qualities similar to that of The Beach Boys.
Schneider then spent two weeks in Athens, Georgia recording music and spending time with his childhood friends Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss and Jeff Mangum. He discussed the idea of starting a record label with them (which soon became The Elephant 6 Recording Company). It was also at this time that the name "The Apples" came about, inspired by the Pink Floyd song "Apples and Oranges".
The earliest incarnation of the band began to form in 1992 upon Schneider's return to Denver, first between Schneider and Parfitt, both of whom played guitar. The two recruited McIntyre and Sidney during the autumn of that year, practicing material through the winter. Their first few live shows took place the following January, many of which were with the band Felt Pilotes. From February to April 1993, the band recorded their debut 7" EP, Tidal Wave, and released it in June as the first record ever to bear the Elephant 6 logo.
1994–1995: Hypnotic Suggestion and Fun Trick Noisemaker
Several conflicts would lead Parfitt to leave the band in early 1994. John Hill, a former bandmate of McIntyre's, would join the band as a rhythm guitarist while Schneider began to grow more comfortable playing lead guitar. It was also at this time that Schneider began to take stronger creative control of the band, shifting its sound from its stronger rock qualities to a spacier pop sound. The band started work on a debut album, but it instead became Hypnotic Suggestion, a second EP. However, after SpinART Records offered to buy the band an 8-track in return for an album, new plans for an LP arose.
In mid-1994, after Hypnotic Suggestion, McIntyre would be the second to leave the band, due to a number of personal distresses as well as stylistic changes that arose with Parfitt's departure. Having great difficulty finding a new permanent bassist, the band would rotate a number of frequent bass contributors, including Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Kurt Heasley of The Lilys, Kyle Jones, Joel Richardson, and Joel Evans. Jim McIntyre would also occasionally guest on bass. This continued to be the makeup of the band as they toured the country in late 1994, recording the first half of their new album in Glendora, California. In early 1995, the band finished the album, Fun Trick Noisemaker, at Kyle Jones's house (the birthplace of Schneider's Pet Sounds Studio).
Now with a LP to support, the band began touring again. Eric Allen, whom the band had previously auditioned as a guitarist after the departure of Chris Parfitt, joined the band as a much welcomed permanent bassist. Late 1995, Schneider relocated Pet Sounds Studio to Jim McIntyre's house. McIntyre continued to be involved in the recording and engineering of the band's albums until the mid-2000s.
A significantly different band from the original 1992 four-piece, the official name of the band gradually became "The Apples in Stereo", with the "in stereo" usually somewhat under-emphasized, whether in lower-case or in parentheses. Schneider described this in an interview: "It's very clearcut, actually: we're The Apples, the music's in stereo. It's not actually the band name – it's a step back from it, a band name once removed. We're The Apples, in stereo. Kind of like a TV show, 'in stereo!' That always seemed to be a really big deal, that it was in stereo." McIntyre later remarked, "It's cool the name changed cause the Apples and the Apples in Stereo were really two different entities."
1996–2005: Tone Soul Evolution to Velocity of Sound
The band continued touring through 1996, playing in Japan for the first time. Several early recording sessions were held at Pet Sounds for the band's second album, Tone Soul Evolution, but the members were dissatisfied with the quality of the recordings. The majority of the album's songs were re-recorded at Studio .45 in Hartford, Connecticut before the album's release. In 1998, Chris McDuffie joined the band, playing various instruments including organs, synthesizers and assorted percussion. He would leave the band before Velocity of Sound was released in 2002.
Several more albums were released by the band through the years, including the psychedelic "concept EP", Her Wallpaper Reverie, The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone and Velocity of Sound; both of the latter of which were progressively aimed at capturing the live sound of the band, which continued to tighten as they continued to perform hundreds of live shows (about 100 a year). In particular, the 2002 album Velocity of Sound rejects most of the psych-pop production sensibilities that would come to be associated with the band, instead featuring stripped-down production and sparse, rock instrumentation.
The band members would also continue to pursue careers in side bands and solo projects, with Schneider producing several albums for Elephant 6 artists. Schneider and drummer Hilarie Sidney were married for a time, with a son Max born in 2000. They have since been divorced.
The band went on a brief hiatus during 2004 as Schneider released the debut album from a new band called Ulysses and Sidney released the debut album from her new band The High Water Marks; both were released on Eenie Meenie Records. In 2005, The Apples in Stereo contributed "Liza Jane" to the Eenie Meenie compilation, Dimension Mix. It was also around this time that news began to circulate among various websites concerning the band's next studio album.
2006–2008: New Magnetic Wonder and evolving lineup
In August 2006, longtime drummer Hilarie Sidney officially announced her departure from the band during the band's closing set at the Athens Popfest music festival in Athens, Georgia. Her replacement, John Dufilho, lead singer and principal songwriter of The Deathray Davies, was announced in October 2006. 2006 touring member Bill Doss of The Olivia Tremor Control also quietly joined the band "officially" as its new keyboardist. John Ferguson of Big Fresh and Ulysses joined the Apples in 2007, also playing keyboards, and wearing a Doctor Who-esque space suit on stage.
In December 2006, Robert Schneider appeared on the popular television show The Colbert Report singing the song "Stephen Stephen" recorded by The Apples in Stereo to glorify the show's host Stephen Colbert, to kick off a guitar solo contest between Colbert and Chris Funk of The Decemberists.
On February 6, 2007, The Apples in Stereo released their sixth studio LP, New Magnetic Wonder. Finishing a ten-year deal with spinART Records, New Magnetic Wonder was the premiere release on Simian Records, a newly formed record label founded by Elijah Wood. This was followed by a long-awaited b-sides and rarities compilation titled Electronic Projects for Musicians, released on April 1.
In 2008, spinART Records went out of business. Rights for all major releases by The Apples in Stereo on the label were subsequently acquired by One Little Indian Records, and have since reverted to the band. In a recent interview, Schneider noted that the band's EPs have yet to have been re-released, but will likely be collected for another compilation. Such a compilation would probably include the re-releases of Look Away + 4, Let's Go! and a number of non-album songs released alongside New Magnetic Wonder.
On August 4, 2008, the band appeared again on The Colbert Report. They performed their song Can You Feel It? to promote the release of the Japanese picture disc.
In early 2008, their song "Same Old Drag" won in The 7th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Pop/Rock Song. The same year Apples in Stereo were nominated for Independent Music Awards Pop/Rock Album of the Year. The band members also joined the 9th annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians' careers.
2009–2011: #1 Hits Explosion and Travellers in Space and Time
Yep Roc released #1 Hits Explosion, an Apples in Stereo best-of album, on September 1, 2009.
In late 2008, PepsiCo released an advertisement with their song "Energy" off of their album New Magnetic Wonder.
In early 2009, Robert appeared on ABC News's segment called "amplified" and gave some short performances of songs from New Magnetic Wonder and a song from his project "Robert Bobbert and the bubble machine" and he described the album as sounding like early 1970s R&B as it would sound played by aliens and emanating from an alien spaceship.He also confirmed that the band was recording their new album at Trout Recording in Brooklyn, New York. In interviews in Billboard magazine and other press outlets,
In April 2009, the single "Energy" from New Magnetic Wonder was performed by the contestants on the television show American Idol.
The result was the band's seventh album Travellers in Space and Time, released on April 20, 2010 on Simian Records. Described by Schneider as a "retro-futuristic" concept album intended as a time capsule for listeners of the future, Travellers has drawn comparisons to the style of Electric Light Orchestra. The record is the first Apples in Stereo album without Hilarie Sidney, making Schneider the last founding member remaining in the group, although John Hill joined before "in stereo" was added to the name. The band was invited by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he curated in March 2012 in Minehead, England.
Schneider announced in May 2012 that The Apples in Stereo had begun work on a new album, described as being "a very, very different sort of album."
In recent years, Schneider has explored a number of experimental music projects, such as the Teletron mind-controlled synthesizer and Non-Pythagorean scale of his own invention.
2012–present: Death of Bill Doss, hiatus and future
The death of Bill Doss, the band's keyboardist as well as the co-founder of fellow Elephant 6 band The Olivia Tremor Control, was announced on July 31, 2012. The cause of death was an aneurysm. Schneider released a statement saying, "I am heartbroken by the loss of my life-long friend, collaborator and band-mate. My world will never be the same without the wonderful, funny, supremely creative Bill Doss."
The band went into hiatus in the fall of 2012, after Doss' death and Schneider's acceptance into the PhD program in Mathematics at Emory University. In 2013, Phish started covering the Apples in Stereo song "Energy."
In early 2017, Schneider hinted at a new album called The Bicycle Day. He stated on Facebook that "Apples are working on a concept record called The Bicycle Day but it is too deep of a task to finish while I'm in graduate school... it isn't a pop record though ... (Air-Sea Dolphin and my band Spaceflyte with John Ferguson are the new pop projects though)". On August 10, 2017, the Apples played their first show since 2012 as a headlining act at the Athens Popfest music festival in Athens, Georgia with Marshmallow Coast, Antlered Auntlord, and Waxahatchee as prior performers.
In 2018, Schneider received a PhD in mathematics from Emory.
Band members
Current members
Robert Schneider - guitar, French horn, lead vocals (1992–present)
John Hill - guitar, xylophone (1994–present)
Eric Allen - bass, harmonica (1995–present)
John Dufilho - drums, harp (2006–present)
John Ferguson - vocals, keyboards, panflute (2007–present)
Former members
Hilarie Sidney - drums, vocals (1992-2006)
Jim McIntyre - bass (1992-1994)
Chris Parfitt - guitar (1992-1994)
Chris McDuffie - keyboards (1998-2002)
Bill Doss - vocals, keyboards, ukulele (2006-2012; died 2012)
Timeline
Selected discography
Fun Trick Noisemaker (1995)
Science Faire (1996)
Tone Soul Evolution (1997)
Her Wallpaper Reverie (1999)
The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone (2000)
Velocity of Sound (2002)
New Magnetic Wonder (2007)
Electronic Projects for Musicians (2008)
Travellers in Space and Time (2010)
References
External links
The Apples in Stereo at Elephant6.com
Tractor Beam Management
Apples in Stereo entry at Trouser Press
The Apples in Stereo at Live Music Archive
Interview with the Cornell Daily Sun
Step Through the Portal
The Elephant 6 Recording Company artists
Musical groups from Denver
Lo-fi music groups
Musical groups established in 1992
Independent Music Awards winners
Indie pop groups from Colorado
Indie rock musical groups from Colorado
Psychedelic pop music groups
American power pop groups
SpinART Records artists
Yep Roc Records artists | true | [
"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",
"\"Used to Be in Love\" is a song by Australian indie-pop band The Jungle Giants. It was released in March 2018 as the fourth and final single from the band's third studio album Quiet Ferocity. The single was certified platinum in Australia in December 2019.\n\nBand member Sam Hales said \"When we first recorded this song it wasn't even a dance song. The song was being super stubborn and I told it, 'If you don't want to get on the bus and go to the beach with everyone else then you can stay at home.' But then we put a 4x4 dance pattern in the song and it became something else entirely.\"\n\nAt the Queensland Music Awards of 2019, \"Used to Be in Love\" won Rock Song of the Year.\n\nTrack listing\nDigital download\n \"Used to Be in Love\" – 3:42\n\nCertifications\n\nReferences\n\n2017 songs\n2018 singles\nThe Jungle Giants songs"
]
|
[
"The Apples in Stereo",
"1994-1995: Hypnotic Suggestion and Fun Trick Noisemaker",
"Who is McIntyre's favorite band?",
"Hypnotic Suggestion,",
"Where did the band meet?",
"I don't know.",
"Who else was a member of the band?",
"Parfitt"
]
| C_bb5692211f37444eb499f77b75cc7155_0 | What year did the band start? | 4 | What year did The Apples start? | The Apples in Stereo | Several conflicts would lead Parfitt to leave the band in early 1994. John Hill, a former bandmate of McIntyre's, would join the band as a rhythm guitarist while Schneider began to grow more comfortable playing lead guitar. It was also at this time that Schneider began to take stronger creative control of the band, shifting its sound from its stronger rock qualities to a spacier pop sound. The band started work on a debut full-length album, but it instead became Hypnotic Suggestion, a second EP. However, after SpinART Records offered to buy the band an 8-track in return for an album, new plans for an LP arose. In mid-1994, after Hypnotic Suggestion, McIntyre would be the second to leave the band, due to a number of personal distresses as well as stylistic changes that arose with Parfitt's departure. Having great difficulty finding a new permanent bassist, the band would rotate a number of frequent bass contributors, including Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Kurt Heasley of The Lilys, Kyle Jones, Joel Richardson, and Joel Evans. Jim McIntyre would also occasionally guest on bass. This continued to be the makeup of the band as they toured the country in late 1994, recording the first half of their new album in Glendora, California. In early 1995, the band finished the album, Fun Trick Noisemaker, at Kyle Jones's house (the birthplace of Schneider's Pet Sounds Studio). Now with a full-length LP to support, the band began touring again. Eric Allen, whom the band had previously auditioned as a guitarist after the departure of Chris Parfitt, joined the band as a much welcomed permanent bassist. Late 1995, Schneider relocated Pet Sounds Studio to Jim McIntyre's house. McIntyre continued to be involved in the recording and engineering of the band's albums until the mid-2000s. A significantly different band from the original 1992 four-piece, the official name of the band gradually became "The Apples in Stereo", with the "in stereo" usually somewhat under-emphasized, whether in lower-case or in parentheses. Schneider described this in an interview: "It's very clearcut, actually: we're The Apples, the music's in stereo. It's not actually the band name - it's a step back from it, a band name once removed. We're The Apples, in stereo. Kind of like a TV show, 'in stereo!' That always seemed to be a really big deal, that it was in stereo." McIntyre later remarked, "It's cool the name changed cause the Apples and the Apples in Stereo were really two different entities." CANNOTANSWER | early 1994. | The Apples in Stereo, styled as The Apples in stereo, are an American rock band associated with Elephant Six Collective, a group of bands also including Neutral Milk Hotel, The Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, Of Montreal, and Circulatory System. The band is largely a product of lead vocalist/guitarist/producer Robert Schneider, who writes the majority of the band's music and lyrics. Currently, The Apples in Stereo also includes longstanding members John Hill (rhythm guitar) and Eric Allen (bass), as well as more recent members John Dufilho (drums), John Ferguson (keyboards), and Ben Phelan (keyboards/guitar/trumpet).
The band's sound draws comparisons to the psychedelic rock of The Beatles and The Beach Boys during the 1960s, as well as to bands such as Electric Light Orchestra and Pavement, and also draws from lo-fi, garage rock, new wave, R&B, bubblegum pop, power pop, punk, electro-pop and experimental music.
The band is also well known for their appearance in a The Powerpuff Girls music video performing the song "Signal in the Sky (Let's Go)". It aired immediately after the show's seventh episode of season 4, "Superfriends", which was based on the song's lyrics. The band has appeared widely in television and film, including performances on The Colbert Report, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Last Call with Carson Daly, guest hosting on MTV, song placements in numerous television shows, commercials and motion pictures, the performance of the single "Energy" by the contestants on American Idol, and a song recorded for children's show Yo Gabba Gabba.
Band history
1991–1993: The Apples
In late 1991, Robert Schneider met Jim McIntyre on a commuter bus in Denver, Colorado. Schneider had recently moved to Colorado from Ruston, Louisiana, and often initiated conversations with McIntyre. When Schneider asked McIntyre what his music interests were, McIntyre named his favorite band: The Beach Boys — a band Schneider was particularly fond of. Realizing that they shared many musical interests, McIntyre introduced Schneider to Hilarie Sidney. McIntyre already had a band called Von Hemmling in which McIntyre played bass and Sidney played drums. With Schneider, they discussed the idea of starting a band and perhaps a recording label. Schneider later met Chris Parfitt, who at the time was also already in a band (which Schneider unsuccessfully auditioned for on bass). Schneider and Parfitt also became friends, however, and toyed with the idea of having a rock band similar to The Velvet Underground or Black Sabbath, with production qualities similar to that of The Beach Boys.
Schneider then spent two weeks in Athens, Georgia recording music and spending time with his childhood friends Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss and Jeff Mangum. He discussed the idea of starting a record label with them (which soon became The Elephant 6 Recording Company). It was also at this time that the name "The Apples" came about, inspired by the Pink Floyd song "Apples and Oranges".
The earliest incarnation of the band began to form in 1992 upon Schneider's return to Denver, first between Schneider and Parfitt, both of whom played guitar. The two recruited McIntyre and Sidney during the autumn of that year, practicing material through the winter. Their first few live shows took place the following January, many of which were with the band Felt Pilotes. From February to April 1993, the band recorded their debut 7" EP, Tidal Wave, and released it in June as the first record ever to bear the Elephant 6 logo.
1994–1995: Hypnotic Suggestion and Fun Trick Noisemaker
Several conflicts would lead Parfitt to leave the band in early 1994. John Hill, a former bandmate of McIntyre's, would join the band as a rhythm guitarist while Schneider began to grow more comfortable playing lead guitar. It was also at this time that Schneider began to take stronger creative control of the band, shifting its sound from its stronger rock qualities to a spacier pop sound. The band started work on a debut album, but it instead became Hypnotic Suggestion, a second EP. However, after SpinART Records offered to buy the band an 8-track in return for an album, new plans for an LP arose.
In mid-1994, after Hypnotic Suggestion, McIntyre would be the second to leave the band, due to a number of personal distresses as well as stylistic changes that arose with Parfitt's departure. Having great difficulty finding a new permanent bassist, the band would rotate a number of frequent bass contributors, including Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Kurt Heasley of The Lilys, Kyle Jones, Joel Richardson, and Joel Evans. Jim McIntyre would also occasionally guest on bass. This continued to be the makeup of the band as they toured the country in late 1994, recording the first half of their new album in Glendora, California. In early 1995, the band finished the album, Fun Trick Noisemaker, at Kyle Jones's house (the birthplace of Schneider's Pet Sounds Studio).
Now with a LP to support, the band began touring again. Eric Allen, whom the band had previously auditioned as a guitarist after the departure of Chris Parfitt, joined the band as a much welcomed permanent bassist. Late 1995, Schneider relocated Pet Sounds Studio to Jim McIntyre's house. McIntyre continued to be involved in the recording and engineering of the band's albums until the mid-2000s.
A significantly different band from the original 1992 four-piece, the official name of the band gradually became "The Apples in Stereo", with the "in stereo" usually somewhat under-emphasized, whether in lower-case or in parentheses. Schneider described this in an interview: "It's very clearcut, actually: we're The Apples, the music's in stereo. It's not actually the band name – it's a step back from it, a band name once removed. We're The Apples, in stereo. Kind of like a TV show, 'in stereo!' That always seemed to be a really big deal, that it was in stereo." McIntyre later remarked, "It's cool the name changed cause the Apples and the Apples in Stereo were really two different entities."
1996–2005: Tone Soul Evolution to Velocity of Sound
The band continued touring through 1996, playing in Japan for the first time. Several early recording sessions were held at Pet Sounds for the band's second album, Tone Soul Evolution, but the members were dissatisfied with the quality of the recordings. The majority of the album's songs were re-recorded at Studio .45 in Hartford, Connecticut before the album's release. In 1998, Chris McDuffie joined the band, playing various instruments including organs, synthesizers and assorted percussion. He would leave the band before Velocity of Sound was released in 2002.
Several more albums were released by the band through the years, including the psychedelic "concept EP", Her Wallpaper Reverie, The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone and Velocity of Sound; both of the latter of which were progressively aimed at capturing the live sound of the band, which continued to tighten as they continued to perform hundreds of live shows (about 100 a year). In particular, the 2002 album Velocity of Sound rejects most of the psych-pop production sensibilities that would come to be associated with the band, instead featuring stripped-down production and sparse, rock instrumentation.
The band members would also continue to pursue careers in side bands and solo projects, with Schneider producing several albums for Elephant 6 artists. Schneider and drummer Hilarie Sidney were married for a time, with a son Max born in 2000. They have since been divorced.
The band went on a brief hiatus during 2004 as Schneider released the debut album from a new band called Ulysses and Sidney released the debut album from her new band The High Water Marks; both were released on Eenie Meenie Records. In 2005, The Apples in Stereo contributed "Liza Jane" to the Eenie Meenie compilation, Dimension Mix. It was also around this time that news began to circulate among various websites concerning the band's next studio album.
2006–2008: New Magnetic Wonder and evolving lineup
In August 2006, longtime drummer Hilarie Sidney officially announced her departure from the band during the band's closing set at the Athens Popfest music festival in Athens, Georgia. Her replacement, John Dufilho, lead singer and principal songwriter of The Deathray Davies, was announced in October 2006. 2006 touring member Bill Doss of The Olivia Tremor Control also quietly joined the band "officially" as its new keyboardist. John Ferguson of Big Fresh and Ulysses joined the Apples in 2007, also playing keyboards, and wearing a Doctor Who-esque space suit on stage.
In December 2006, Robert Schneider appeared on the popular television show The Colbert Report singing the song "Stephen Stephen" recorded by The Apples in Stereo to glorify the show's host Stephen Colbert, to kick off a guitar solo contest between Colbert and Chris Funk of The Decemberists.
On February 6, 2007, The Apples in Stereo released their sixth studio LP, New Magnetic Wonder. Finishing a ten-year deal with spinART Records, New Magnetic Wonder was the premiere release on Simian Records, a newly formed record label founded by Elijah Wood. This was followed by a long-awaited b-sides and rarities compilation titled Electronic Projects for Musicians, released on April 1.
In 2008, spinART Records went out of business. Rights for all major releases by The Apples in Stereo on the label were subsequently acquired by One Little Indian Records, and have since reverted to the band. In a recent interview, Schneider noted that the band's EPs have yet to have been re-released, but will likely be collected for another compilation. Such a compilation would probably include the re-releases of Look Away + 4, Let's Go! and a number of non-album songs released alongside New Magnetic Wonder.
On August 4, 2008, the band appeared again on The Colbert Report. They performed their song Can You Feel It? to promote the release of the Japanese picture disc.
In early 2008, their song "Same Old Drag" won in The 7th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Pop/Rock Song. The same year Apples in Stereo were nominated for Independent Music Awards Pop/Rock Album of the Year. The band members also joined the 9th annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians' careers.
2009–2011: #1 Hits Explosion and Travellers in Space and Time
Yep Roc released #1 Hits Explosion, an Apples in Stereo best-of album, on September 1, 2009.
In late 2008, PepsiCo released an advertisement with their song "Energy" off of their album New Magnetic Wonder.
In early 2009, Robert appeared on ABC News's segment called "amplified" and gave some short performances of songs from New Magnetic Wonder and a song from his project "Robert Bobbert and the bubble machine" and he described the album as sounding like early 1970s R&B as it would sound played by aliens and emanating from an alien spaceship.He also confirmed that the band was recording their new album at Trout Recording in Brooklyn, New York. In interviews in Billboard magazine and other press outlets,
In April 2009, the single "Energy" from New Magnetic Wonder was performed by the contestants on the television show American Idol.
The result was the band's seventh album Travellers in Space and Time, released on April 20, 2010 on Simian Records. Described by Schneider as a "retro-futuristic" concept album intended as a time capsule for listeners of the future, Travellers has drawn comparisons to the style of Electric Light Orchestra. The record is the first Apples in Stereo album without Hilarie Sidney, making Schneider the last founding member remaining in the group, although John Hill joined before "in stereo" was added to the name. The band was invited by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he curated in March 2012 in Minehead, England.
Schneider announced in May 2012 that The Apples in Stereo had begun work on a new album, described as being "a very, very different sort of album."
In recent years, Schneider has explored a number of experimental music projects, such as the Teletron mind-controlled synthesizer and Non-Pythagorean scale of his own invention.
2012–present: Death of Bill Doss, hiatus and future
The death of Bill Doss, the band's keyboardist as well as the co-founder of fellow Elephant 6 band The Olivia Tremor Control, was announced on July 31, 2012. The cause of death was an aneurysm. Schneider released a statement saying, "I am heartbroken by the loss of my life-long friend, collaborator and band-mate. My world will never be the same without the wonderful, funny, supremely creative Bill Doss."
The band went into hiatus in the fall of 2012, after Doss' death and Schneider's acceptance into the PhD program in Mathematics at Emory University. In 2013, Phish started covering the Apples in Stereo song "Energy."
In early 2017, Schneider hinted at a new album called The Bicycle Day. He stated on Facebook that "Apples are working on a concept record called The Bicycle Day but it is too deep of a task to finish while I'm in graduate school... it isn't a pop record though ... (Air-Sea Dolphin and my band Spaceflyte with John Ferguson are the new pop projects though)". On August 10, 2017, the Apples played their first show since 2012 as a headlining act at the Athens Popfest music festival in Athens, Georgia with Marshmallow Coast, Antlered Auntlord, and Waxahatchee as prior performers.
In 2018, Schneider received a PhD in mathematics from Emory.
Band members
Current members
Robert Schneider - guitar, French horn, lead vocals (1992–present)
John Hill - guitar, xylophone (1994–present)
Eric Allen - bass, harmonica (1995–present)
John Dufilho - drums, harp (2006–present)
John Ferguson - vocals, keyboards, panflute (2007–present)
Former members
Hilarie Sidney - drums, vocals (1992-2006)
Jim McIntyre - bass (1992-1994)
Chris Parfitt - guitar (1992-1994)
Chris McDuffie - keyboards (1998-2002)
Bill Doss - vocals, keyboards, ukulele (2006-2012; died 2012)
Timeline
Selected discography
Fun Trick Noisemaker (1995)
Science Faire (1996)
Tone Soul Evolution (1997)
Her Wallpaper Reverie (1999)
The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone (2000)
Velocity of Sound (2002)
New Magnetic Wonder (2007)
Electronic Projects for Musicians (2008)
Travellers in Space and Time (2010)
References
External links
The Apples in Stereo at Elephant6.com
Tractor Beam Management
Apples in Stereo entry at Trouser Press
The Apples in Stereo at Live Music Archive
Interview with the Cornell Daily Sun
Step Through the Portal
The Elephant 6 Recording Company artists
Musical groups from Denver
Lo-fi music groups
Musical groups established in 1992
Independent Music Awards winners
Indie pop groups from Colorado
Indie rock musical groups from Colorado
Psychedelic pop music groups
American power pop groups
SpinART Records artists
Yep Roc Records artists | true | [
"False Start was a power pop/rock band from Auckland, New Zealand, that formed in the winter of 2005. They were signed to Deadboy Records/Universal.\n\nHistory \n\nIn June 2005, False Start won the Henderson regional heat of Battle of the Bands, going on to claim first equal in the Primal final, out of over a hundred Auckland bands. Adding to their early success, False Start's Goodbye Summer EP sold out on the first night of sales, their record debuting at No. 3 on the Real Groovy National chart. Shortly after False Start signed to Deadboy Records with distribution/backing from Universal Music NZ.\n\nThey released their first single, \"Don't Walk Away\" from the EP titled Goodbye Summer EP and a mini album entitled Adore Tu Ser..... There is also a four-track acoustic mini album titled Tealight For Burma.\n\nSince forming their band, False Start have shared the stage with numerous local and international acts such as Fall Out Boy, Good Charlotte, Story of the Year, Funeral for a Friend, Aiden, Rise Against, The Used and many more. They have also toured extensively throughout New Zealand and Australia.\n\nFalse Start played at the Auckland Big Day Out 2008 on the Local Produce Stage. False Start also did a cover of \"4ever\" by The Veronicas.\n\nIn August 2008, False Start released their second studio album named Through The Looking Glass which includes the single \"Four Letter Lie\". The band opened for Escape The Fate in support of this album.\n\nIn September 2008, Vaughn announced he was leaving along with David a few months later in November.\n\nOn 3 June 2010, False Start posted on their Myspace that 2010 would be their last year as a band before breaking up, each member going their separate ways.\n\nFalse Start reunited with the original lineup in April 2017 for a show in Auckland.\n\nDiscography\n\nStudio albums\nAdore Tu Ser\nThrough The Looking Glass\n\nEPs\nGoodbye Summer EP\nBeginnings...\n\nOther albums\nTealight For Burma\n\nSingles\n\nBand members \nAndrew Morrison – Vocals\nJim Marshall - Guitar\nKev Roberts - Drums\nDavid Wong - Bass\nVaughn Phillips - Guitar\n\nPast members\n\nAshley Wills \nPascal Jarry \nCraigen Durrant\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nOfficial Myspace\nOfficial Webstore\nOfficial Buzznet\n\nNew Zealand rock music groups\nPower pop groups",
"Look What I Did is an American band, formed in 2001 in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. The band is known for its intense live show, described by Cincinnati CityBeat as a \"live act capable of unleashing a scary, uncontrolled intensity bordering on dangerous,\" and oft-satirical eccentric lyrics.\n\nHistory\nIn 2003, the band added a second guitar player, Aaron \"Skeet\" Childress, formerly of National Green, and relocated to Los Angeles, California. At this time they also released their first recording, an independently recorded, financed, and released LP, My First Time, on their own Clockrock Recordings. Despite its limited pressing, the record received many features from ezines such as theprp.com, loudside.com, and Opuszine.com. \n\nIn early 2008, the band signed a deal with new label Modernist Movement. The album Atlas Drugged was released on February 9, 2010 via Modernist Movement Recordings. Atlas Drugged was also produced by Brian Virtue. Decibel magazine referred to the band in a review of Atlas Drugged, \"Look What I Did crush on political philosophers, put Latin words in their song titles and generally get off on being a bunch of wiseasses to spazzed-out Adderall punk.\"\n\nZanzibar III: Analog Prison was named the Best Metal Album of 2015 by The Nashville Scene.\n\nThe band released a full new song ''If I Were You I Wouldn't'' in January 2016 on their YouTube account, followed by Fireball in June 2016, their first songs released since 'Zanzibar III : Analog Prison'.\n\nThe band was named after friend's child said the phrase 'Mommy, look what I did', about a drawing to her mother when Barry was talking to her over the phone discussing what the band's name should be.\n\nIn September 2020, the band announced that Evan Brewer has joined the band on bass, replacing Chad Omen, with new music underway in the studio.\n\nDiscography\n\nStudio albums\n2003: My First Time (Clockrock Recordings)\n2005: Minuteman for the Moment (Combat Records)\n2010: Atlas Drugged (Modernist Movement Recordings)\n2014: Zanzibar III: Analog Prison (So Say We All Records)\n2019: Sympathy Porn (So Say We All Records)\n\nVideography\n\"Minuteman for the Moment\" (2005)\n\"Fade to Daft\" (2010)\n\"I'm Majoring in Psychology\" (2010)\n\"Serf Song\" (2010)\n\"Pussy Comitatus\" (2011)\n\"Sebastian's Analog Prison\" (2013)\n\"Wait, Don't Jump\" (2015)\n\"If I Were You I Wouldn't\" (2016)\n\"Hands Off My Snacks\" (2019)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nLook What I Did official website\nMusic on Reverbnation \nLook What I Did on Spotify\n[ Look What I Did @ Allmusic.com]\n\nMNRK Music Group artists\nMusical groups established in 2001"
]
|
[
"The Apples in Stereo",
"1994-1995: Hypnotic Suggestion and Fun Trick Noisemaker",
"Who is McIntyre's favorite band?",
"Hypnotic Suggestion,",
"Where did the band meet?",
"I don't know.",
"Who else was a member of the band?",
"Parfitt",
"What year did the band start?",
"early 1994."
]
| C_bb5692211f37444eb499f77b75cc7155_0 | What year did they release their first album? | 5 | What year did The Apples release their first album? | The Apples in Stereo | Several conflicts would lead Parfitt to leave the band in early 1994. John Hill, a former bandmate of McIntyre's, would join the band as a rhythm guitarist while Schneider began to grow more comfortable playing lead guitar. It was also at this time that Schneider began to take stronger creative control of the band, shifting its sound from its stronger rock qualities to a spacier pop sound. The band started work on a debut full-length album, but it instead became Hypnotic Suggestion, a second EP. However, after SpinART Records offered to buy the band an 8-track in return for an album, new plans for an LP arose. In mid-1994, after Hypnotic Suggestion, McIntyre would be the second to leave the band, due to a number of personal distresses as well as stylistic changes that arose with Parfitt's departure. Having great difficulty finding a new permanent bassist, the band would rotate a number of frequent bass contributors, including Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Kurt Heasley of The Lilys, Kyle Jones, Joel Richardson, and Joel Evans. Jim McIntyre would also occasionally guest on bass. This continued to be the makeup of the band as they toured the country in late 1994, recording the first half of their new album in Glendora, California. In early 1995, the band finished the album, Fun Trick Noisemaker, at Kyle Jones's house (the birthplace of Schneider's Pet Sounds Studio). Now with a full-length LP to support, the band began touring again. Eric Allen, whom the band had previously auditioned as a guitarist after the departure of Chris Parfitt, joined the band as a much welcomed permanent bassist. Late 1995, Schneider relocated Pet Sounds Studio to Jim McIntyre's house. McIntyre continued to be involved in the recording and engineering of the band's albums until the mid-2000s. A significantly different band from the original 1992 four-piece, the official name of the band gradually became "The Apples in Stereo", with the "in stereo" usually somewhat under-emphasized, whether in lower-case or in parentheses. Schneider described this in an interview: "It's very clearcut, actually: we're The Apples, the music's in stereo. It's not actually the band name - it's a step back from it, a band name once removed. We're The Apples, in stereo. Kind of like a TV show, 'in stereo!' That always seemed to be a really big deal, that it was in stereo." McIntyre later remarked, "It's cool the name changed cause the Apples and the Apples in Stereo were really two different entities." CANNOTANSWER | In early 1995, the band finished the album, | The Apples in Stereo, styled as The Apples in stereo, are an American rock band associated with Elephant Six Collective, a group of bands also including Neutral Milk Hotel, The Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, Of Montreal, and Circulatory System. The band is largely a product of lead vocalist/guitarist/producer Robert Schneider, who writes the majority of the band's music and lyrics. Currently, The Apples in Stereo also includes longstanding members John Hill (rhythm guitar) and Eric Allen (bass), as well as more recent members John Dufilho (drums), John Ferguson (keyboards), and Ben Phelan (keyboards/guitar/trumpet).
The band's sound draws comparisons to the psychedelic rock of The Beatles and The Beach Boys during the 1960s, as well as to bands such as Electric Light Orchestra and Pavement, and also draws from lo-fi, garage rock, new wave, R&B, bubblegum pop, power pop, punk, electro-pop and experimental music.
The band is also well known for their appearance in a The Powerpuff Girls music video performing the song "Signal in the Sky (Let's Go)". It aired immediately after the show's seventh episode of season 4, "Superfriends", which was based on the song's lyrics. The band has appeared widely in television and film, including performances on The Colbert Report, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Last Call with Carson Daly, guest hosting on MTV, song placements in numerous television shows, commercials and motion pictures, the performance of the single "Energy" by the contestants on American Idol, and a song recorded for children's show Yo Gabba Gabba.
Band history
1991–1993: The Apples
In late 1991, Robert Schneider met Jim McIntyre on a commuter bus in Denver, Colorado. Schneider had recently moved to Colorado from Ruston, Louisiana, and often initiated conversations with McIntyre. When Schneider asked McIntyre what his music interests were, McIntyre named his favorite band: The Beach Boys — a band Schneider was particularly fond of. Realizing that they shared many musical interests, McIntyre introduced Schneider to Hilarie Sidney. McIntyre already had a band called Von Hemmling in which McIntyre played bass and Sidney played drums. With Schneider, they discussed the idea of starting a band and perhaps a recording label. Schneider later met Chris Parfitt, who at the time was also already in a band (which Schneider unsuccessfully auditioned for on bass). Schneider and Parfitt also became friends, however, and toyed with the idea of having a rock band similar to The Velvet Underground or Black Sabbath, with production qualities similar to that of The Beach Boys.
Schneider then spent two weeks in Athens, Georgia recording music and spending time with his childhood friends Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss and Jeff Mangum. He discussed the idea of starting a record label with them (which soon became The Elephant 6 Recording Company). It was also at this time that the name "The Apples" came about, inspired by the Pink Floyd song "Apples and Oranges".
The earliest incarnation of the band began to form in 1992 upon Schneider's return to Denver, first between Schneider and Parfitt, both of whom played guitar. The two recruited McIntyre and Sidney during the autumn of that year, practicing material through the winter. Their first few live shows took place the following January, many of which were with the band Felt Pilotes. From February to April 1993, the band recorded their debut 7" EP, Tidal Wave, and released it in June as the first record ever to bear the Elephant 6 logo.
1994–1995: Hypnotic Suggestion and Fun Trick Noisemaker
Several conflicts would lead Parfitt to leave the band in early 1994. John Hill, a former bandmate of McIntyre's, would join the band as a rhythm guitarist while Schneider began to grow more comfortable playing lead guitar. It was also at this time that Schneider began to take stronger creative control of the band, shifting its sound from its stronger rock qualities to a spacier pop sound. The band started work on a debut album, but it instead became Hypnotic Suggestion, a second EP. However, after SpinART Records offered to buy the band an 8-track in return for an album, new plans for an LP arose.
In mid-1994, after Hypnotic Suggestion, McIntyre would be the second to leave the band, due to a number of personal distresses as well as stylistic changes that arose with Parfitt's departure. Having great difficulty finding a new permanent bassist, the band would rotate a number of frequent bass contributors, including Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Kurt Heasley of The Lilys, Kyle Jones, Joel Richardson, and Joel Evans. Jim McIntyre would also occasionally guest on bass. This continued to be the makeup of the band as they toured the country in late 1994, recording the first half of their new album in Glendora, California. In early 1995, the band finished the album, Fun Trick Noisemaker, at Kyle Jones's house (the birthplace of Schneider's Pet Sounds Studio).
Now with a LP to support, the band began touring again. Eric Allen, whom the band had previously auditioned as a guitarist after the departure of Chris Parfitt, joined the band as a much welcomed permanent bassist. Late 1995, Schneider relocated Pet Sounds Studio to Jim McIntyre's house. McIntyre continued to be involved in the recording and engineering of the band's albums until the mid-2000s.
A significantly different band from the original 1992 four-piece, the official name of the band gradually became "The Apples in Stereo", with the "in stereo" usually somewhat under-emphasized, whether in lower-case or in parentheses. Schneider described this in an interview: "It's very clearcut, actually: we're The Apples, the music's in stereo. It's not actually the band name – it's a step back from it, a band name once removed. We're The Apples, in stereo. Kind of like a TV show, 'in stereo!' That always seemed to be a really big deal, that it was in stereo." McIntyre later remarked, "It's cool the name changed cause the Apples and the Apples in Stereo were really two different entities."
1996–2005: Tone Soul Evolution to Velocity of Sound
The band continued touring through 1996, playing in Japan for the first time. Several early recording sessions were held at Pet Sounds for the band's second album, Tone Soul Evolution, but the members were dissatisfied with the quality of the recordings. The majority of the album's songs were re-recorded at Studio .45 in Hartford, Connecticut before the album's release. In 1998, Chris McDuffie joined the band, playing various instruments including organs, synthesizers and assorted percussion. He would leave the band before Velocity of Sound was released in 2002.
Several more albums were released by the band through the years, including the psychedelic "concept EP", Her Wallpaper Reverie, The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone and Velocity of Sound; both of the latter of which were progressively aimed at capturing the live sound of the band, which continued to tighten as they continued to perform hundreds of live shows (about 100 a year). In particular, the 2002 album Velocity of Sound rejects most of the psych-pop production sensibilities that would come to be associated with the band, instead featuring stripped-down production and sparse, rock instrumentation.
The band members would also continue to pursue careers in side bands and solo projects, with Schneider producing several albums for Elephant 6 artists. Schneider and drummer Hilarie Sidney were married for a time, with a son Max born in 2000. They have since been divorced.
The band went on a brief hiatus during 2004 as Schneider released the debut album from a new band called Ulysses and Sidney released the debut album from her new band The High Water Marks; both were released on Eenie Meenie Records. In 2005, The Apples in Stereo contributed "Liza Jane" to the Eenie Meenie compilation, Dimension Mix. It was also around this time that news began to circulate among various websites concerning the band's next studio album.
2006–2008: New Magnetic Wonder and evolving lineup
In August 2006, longtime drummer Hilarie Sidney officially announced her departure from the band during the band's closing set at the Athens Popfest music festival in Athens, Georgia. Her replacement, John Dufilho, lead singer and principal songwriter of The Deathray Davies, was announced in October 2006. 2006 touring member Bill Doss of The Olivia Tremor Control also quietly joined the band "officially" as its new keyboardist. John Ferguson of Big Fresh and Ulysses joined the Apples in 2007, also playing keyboards, and wearing a Doctor Who-esque space suit on stage.
In December 2006, Robert Schneider appeared on the popular television show The Colbert Report singing the song "Stephen Stephen" recorded by The Apples in Stereo to glorify the show's host Stephen Colbert, to kick off a guitar solo contest between Colbert and Chris Funk of The Decemberists.
On February 6, 2007, The Apples in Stereo released their sixth studio LP, New Magnetic Wonder. Finishing a ten-year deal with spinART Records, New Magnetic Wonder was the premiere release on Simian Records, a newly formed record label founded by Elijah Wood. This was followed by a long-awaited b-sides and rarities compilation titled Electronic Projects for Musicians, released on April 1.
In 2008, spinART Records went out of business. Rights for all major releases by The Apples in Stereo on the label were subsequently acquired by One Little Indian Records, and have since reverted to the band. In a recent interview, Schneider noted that the band's EPs have yet to have been re-released, but will likely be collected for another compilation. Such a compilation would probably include the re-releases of Look Away + 4, Let's Go! and a number of non-album songs released alongside New Magnetic Wonder.
On August 4, 2008, the band appeared again on The Colbert Report. They performed their song Can You Feel It? to promote the release of the Japanese picture disc.
In early 2008, their song "Same Old Drag" won in The 7th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Pop/Rock Song. The same year Apples in Stereo were nominated for Independent Music Awards Pop/Rock Album of the Year. The band members also joined the 9th annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians' careers.
2009–2011: #1 Hits Explosion and Travellers in Space and Time
Yep Roc released #1 Hits Explosion, an Apples in Stereo best-of album, on September 1, 2009.
In late 2008, PepsiCo released an advertisement with their song "Energy" off of their album New Magnetic Wonder.
In early 2009, Robert appeared on ABC News's segment called "amplified" and gave some short performances of songs from New Magnetic Wonder and a song from his project "Robert Bobbert and the bubble machine" and he described the album as sounding like early 1970s R&B as it would sound played by aliens and emanating from an alien spaceship.He also confirmed that the band was recording their new album at Trout Recording in Brooklyn, New York. In interviews in Billboard magazine and other press outlets,
In April 2009, the single "Energy" from New Magnetic Wonder was performed by the contestants on the television show American Idol.
The result was the band's seventh album Travellers in Space and Time, released on April 20, 2010 on Simian Records. Described by Schneider as a "retro-futuristic" concept album intended as a time capsule for listeners of the future, Travellers has drawn comparisons to the style of Electric Light Orchestra. The record is the first Apples in Stereo album without Hilarie Sidney, making Schneider the last founding member remaining in the group, although John Hill joined before "in stereo" was added to the name. The band was invited by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he curated in March 2012 in Minehead, England.
Schneider announced in May 2012 that The Apples in Stereo had begun work on a new album, described as being "a very, very different sort of album."
In recent years, Schneider has explored a number of experimental music projects, such as the Teletron mind-controlled synthesizer and Non-Pythagorean scale of his own invention.
2012–present: Death of Bill Doss, hiatus and future
The death of Bill Doss, the band's keyboardist as well as the co-founder of fellow Elephant 6 band The Olivia Tremor Control, was announced on July 31, 2012. The cause of death was an aneurysm. Schneider released a statement saying, "I am heartbroken by the loss of my life-long friend, collaborator and band-mate. My world will never be the same without the wonderful, funny, supremely creative Bill Doss."
The band went into hiatus in the fall of 2012, after Doss' death and Schneider's acceptance into the PhD program in Mathematics at Emory University. In 2013, Phish started covering the Apples in Stereo song "Energy."
In early 2017, Schneider hinted at a new album called The Bicycle Day. He stated on Facebook that "Apples are working on a concept record called The Bicycle Day but it is too deep of a task to finish while I'm in graduate school... it isn't a pop record though ... (Air-Sea Dolphin and my band Spaceflyte with John Ferguson are the new pop projects though)". On August 10, 2017, the Apples played their first show since 2012 as a headlining act at the Athens Popfest music festival in Athens, Georgia with Marshmallow Coast, Antlered Auntlord, and Waxahatchee as prior performers.
In 2018, Schneider received a PhD in mathematics from Emory.
Band members
Current members
Robert Schneider - guitar, French horn, lead vocals (1992–present)
John Hill - guitar, xylophone (1994–present)
Eric Allen - bass, harmonica (1995–present)
John Dufilho - drums, harp (2006–present)
John Ferguson - vocals, keyboards, panflute (2007–present)
Former members
Hilarie Sidney - drums, vocals (1992-2006)
Jim McIntyre - bass (1992-1994)
Chris Parfitt - guitar (1992-1994)
Chris McDuffie - keyboards (1998-2002)
Bill Doss - vocals, keyboards, ukulele (2006-2012; died 2012)
Timeline
Selected discography
Fun Trick Noisemaker (1995)
Science Faire (1996)
Tone Soul Evolution (1997)
Her Wallpaper Reverie (1999)
The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone (2000)
Velocity of Sound (2002)
New Magnetic Wonder (2007)
Electronic Projects for Musicians (2008)
Travellers in Space and Time (2010)
References
External links
The Apples in Stereo at Elephant6.com
Tractor Beam Management
Apples in Stereo entry at Trouser Press
The Apples in Stereo at Live Music Archive
Interview with the Cornell Daily Sun
Step Through the Portal
The Elephant 6 Recording Company artists
Musical groups from Denver
Lo-fi music groups
Musical groups established in 1992
Independent Music Awards winners
Indie pop groups from Colorado
Indie rock musical groups from Colorado
Psychedelic pop music groups
American power pop groups
SpinART Records artists
Yep Roc Records artists | true | [
"\"What I Did for Love\" is a song from the musical A Chorus Line (music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban). It was quickly recognized for its show-business potential outside Broadway and was picked up by popular singers to include in their performances in their club and television appearances. Both female and male singers have made it an inclusion in their recorded albums to great effect. The Daily Telegraph described it as a \"big anthem\".\n\nSynopsis within A Chorus Line\nIn the penultimate scene of the production, one of the dancers, Paul San Marco, has suffered a career-ending injury. The remaining dancers, gathered together onstage, are asked what they would do if they were told they could no longer dance. Diana Morales, in reply, sings this anthem, which considers loss philosophically, with an undefeated optimism; all the other dancers concur. Whatever happens, they will be free of regret. What they did in their careers, they did for love, and their talent, no matter how great, was only theirs \"to borrow,\" was to be only temporary and would someday be gone. However, the love of performing is never gone, and they are all pointed toward tomorrow.\n\nNotable versions\nBeverly Bremers' version, was released as a single in 1975.\nEydie Gormé - a single release in 1976 (US AC #23).\nBing Crosby - for his album Beautiful Memories (1977)\nEngelbert Humperdinck - for his album Miracles (1977).\nGrace Jones - for her debut album Portfolio (1977)\nJack Jones - in his 1975 album What I Did for Love (US AC #25, Canada AC #23).\nJohnny Mathis - Feelings (1975)\nBill Hayes - for his album From Me To You With Love (1976)\nMarcia Hines - see below\nPeggy Lee - for her album Peggy (1977)\nPetula Clark - a single release in 1975.\nShirley Bassey - Love, Life and Feelings (1976)\nRobert Goulet - in his album You're Something Special (1978).\nElaine Paige - included in her album Stages (1983)\nHoward Keel - for his album Just for You (1988).\nJosh Groban - for his album Stages (2015)\nMe First and the Gimme Gimmes - from their album Are A Drag (1999)\n\nMarcia Hines' version\n\nMarcia Hines recorded and released a version as the lead single from her third studio album, Ladies and Gentlemen (1977). The song peaked at number 6 on the Kent Music Report, becoming Hines' third top 10 single in Australia.\n\nAt the 1978 Australian Record Awards, the song won Hines Female Vocalist of the Year.\n\nTrack listing\n 7\" Single (MS-507)\nSide A \"What I Did for Love\" - 3:15\nSide B \"A Love Story\" (Robie Porter) - 3:31\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\nSongs from A Chorus Line\n1975 songs\n1975 singles\n1977 singles\nMarcia Hines songs\nBeverly Bremers songs\nColumbia Records singles\nGrace Jones songs\nSongs written by Marvin Hamlisch",
"I Divide are a British rock band from Exeter. They released their debut album titled Last One Standing on 14 April 2014\n\nHistory\n\n2011-14: Early years and What's Worth More\nThe band was formed in 2011 in Exeter, England with original members; Kristen Hughes, Dave Mooney, Tom Kavanagh, Henry Selley and Josh Wreford.\n\nThey released their first mini album, titled 'What's Worth More', the same year in October independently. After the release, the band entered the Red Bull 'Bedroom Jam' tenement in early 2014, and in April, the band won the tournament, making them the 12th band to do so. Later that year, the band was announced as a support act for Funeral for a Friend's UK tour during January and February 2013. The band signed to 'Destroy Everything Records' in March 2013 when the label itself was announced.\n\n2014-present: Last One Standing\nThe band announced their debut album in February 2014, where they revealed the album's title, 'Last One Standing', its artwork, its track listing and its release date, being 14 April the same year. In March and early April, the band supported post-hardcore band Yashin on their UK tour.\n\nBefore 'Last One Standing' was released, it was made available for streaming online one week prior. When the album was finally released, it entered the UK's top 40 Rock and Metal albums chart at 34. After the album's release, the band toured with British rock band Blitz Kids as a support act in support of the release.\n\nMembers\nKristen Hughes – bass\nDave Mooney – drums\nTom Kavanagh – lead vocals\nHenry Selley – guitar\nJosh Wreford – guitar, backing vocals\n\nDiscography\n\nAlbums\n\nStudio albums\n\nMini albums\n\nSingles\n\nMusic videos\n\nReferences\n\nMusical groups established in 2011\nBritish post-hardcore musical groups\n2011 establishments in England"
]
|
[
"The Apples in Stereo",
"1994-1995: Hypnotic Suggestion and Fun Trick Noisemaker",
"Who is McIntyre's favorite band?",
"Hypnotic Suggestion,",
"Where did the band meet?",
"I don't know.",
"Who else was a member of the band?",
"Parfitt",
"What year did the band start?",
"early 1994.",
"What year did they release their first album?",
"In early 1995, the band finished the album,"
]
| C_bb5692211f37444eb499f77b75cc7155_0 | Which bands are they similar to? | 6 | Which bands are The Apples similar to? | The Apples in Stereo | Several conflicts would lead Parfitt to leave the band in early 1994. John Hill, a former bandmate of McIntyre's, would join the band as a rhythm guitarist while Schneider began to grow more comfortable playing lead guitar. It was also at this time that Schneider began to take stronger creative control of the band, shifting its sound from its stronger rock qualities to a spacier pop sound. The band started work on a debut full-length album, but it instead became Hypnotic Suggestion, a second EP. However, after SpinART Records offered to buy the band an 8-track in return for an album, new plans for an LP arose. In mid-1994, after Hypnotic Suggestion, McIntyre would be the second to leave the band, due to a number of personal distresses as well as stylistic changes that arose with Parfitt's departure. Having great difficulty finding a new permanent bassist, the band would rotate a number of frequent bass contributors, including Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Kurt Heasley of The Lilys, Kyle Jones, Joel Richardson, and Joel Evans. Jim McIntyre would also occasionally guest on bass. This continued to be the makeup of the band as they toured the country in late 1994, recording the first half of their new album in Glendora, California. In early 1995, the band finished the album, Fun Trick Noisemaker, at Kyle Jones's house (the birthplace of Schneider's Pet Sounds Studio). Now with a full-length LP to support, the band began touring again. Eric Allen, whom the band had previously auditioned as a guitarist after the departure of Chris Parfitt, joined the band as a much welcomed permanent bassist. Late 1995, Schneider relocated Pet Sounds Studio to Jim McIntyre's house. McIntyre continued to be involved in the recording and engineering of the band's albums until the mid-2000s. A significantly different band from the original 1992 four-piece, the official name of the band gradually became "The Apples in Stereo", with the "in stereo" usually somewhat under-emphasized, whether in lower-case or in parentheses. Schneider described this in an interview: "It's very clearcut, actually: we're The Apples, the music's in stereo. It's not actually the band name - it's a step back from it, a band name once removed. We're The Apples, in stereo. Kind of like a TV show, 'in stereo!' That always seemed to be a really big deal, that it was in stereo." McIntyre later remarked, "It's cool the name changed cause the Apples and the Apples in Stereo were really two different entities." CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | The Apples in Stereo, styled as The Apples in stereo, are an American rock band associated with Elephant Six Collective, a group of bands also including Neutral Milk Hotel, The Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, Of Montreal, and Circulatory System. The band is largely a product of lead vocalist/guitarist/producer Robert Schneider, who writes the majority of the band's music and lyrics. Currently, The Apples in Stereo also includes longstanding members John Hill (rhythm guitar) and Eric Allen (bass), as well as more recent members John Dufilho (drums), John Ferguson (keyboards), and Ben Phelan (keyboards/guitar/trumpet).
The band's sound draws comparisons to the psychedelic rock of The Beatles and The Beach Boys during the 1960s, as well as to bands such as Electric Light Orchestra and Pavement, and also draws from lo-fi, garage rock, new wave, R&B, bubblegum pop, power pop, punk, electro-pop and experimental music.
The band is also well known for their appearance in a The Powerpuff Girls music video performing the song "Signal in the Sky (Let's Go)". It aired immediately after the show's seventh episode of season 4, "Superfriends", which was based on the song's lyrics. The band has appeared widely in television and film, including performances on The Colbert Report, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Last Call with Carson Daly, guest hosting on MTV, song placements in numerous television shows, commercials and motion pictures, the performance of the single "Energy" by the contestants on American Idol, and a song recorded for children's show Yo Gabba Gabba.
Band history
1991–1993: The Apples
In late 1991, Robert Schneider met Jim McIntyre on a commuter bus in Denver, Colorado. Schneider had recently moved to Colorado from Ruston, Louisiana, and often initiated conversations with McIntyre. When Schneider asked McIntyre what his music interests were, McIntyre named his favorite band: The Beach Boys — a band Schneider was particularly fond of. Realizing that they shared many musical interests, McIntyre introduced Schneider to Hilarie Sidney. McIntyre already had a band called Von Hemmling in which McIntyre played bass and Sidney played drums. With Schneider, they discussed the idea of starting a band and perhaps a recording label. Schneider later met Chris Parfitt, who at the time was also already in a band (which Schneider unsuccessfully auditioned for on bass). Schneider and Parfitt also became friends, however, and toyed with the idea of having a rock band similar to The Velvet Underground or Black Sabbath, with production qualities similar to that of The Beach Boys.
Schneider then spent two weeks in Athens, Georgia recording music and spending time with his childhood friends Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss and Jeff Mangum. He discussed the idea of starting a record label with them (which soon became The Elephant 6 Recording Company). It was also at this time that the name "The Apples" came about, inspired by the Pink Floyd song "Apples and Oranges".
The earliest incarnation of the band began to form in 1992 upon Schneider's return to Denver, first between Schneider and Parfitt, both of whom played guitar. The two recruited McIntyre and Sidney during the autumn of that year, practicing material through the winter. Their first few live shows took place the following January, many of which were with the band Felt Pilotes. From February to April 1993, the band recorded their debut 7" EP, Tidal Wave, and released it in June as the first record ever to bear the Elephant 6 logo.
1994–1995: Hypnotic Suggestion and Fun Trick Noisemaker
Several conflicts would lead Parfitt to leave the band in early 1994. John Hill, a former bandmate of McIntyre's, would join the band as a rhythm guitarist while Schneider began to grow more comfortable playing lead guitar. It was also at this time that Schneider began to take stronger creative control of the band, shifting its sound from its stronger rock qualities to a spacier pop sound. The band started work on a debut album, but it instead became Hypnotic Suggestion, a second EP. However, after SpinART Records offered to buy the band an 8-track in return for an album, new plans for an LP arose.
In mid-1994, after Hypnotic Suggestion, McIntyre would be the second to leave the band, due to a number of personal distresses as well as stylistic changes that arose with Parfitt's departure. Having great difficulty finding a new permanent bassist, the band would rotate a number of frequent bass contributors, including Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Kurt Heasley of The Lilys, Kyle Jones, Joel Richardson, and Joel Evans. Jim McIntyre would also occasionally guest on bass. This continued to be the makeup of the band as they toured the country in late 1994, recording the first half of their new album in Glendora, California. In early 1995, the band finished the album, Fun Trick Noisemaker, at Kyle Jones's house (the birthplace of Schneider's Pet Sounds Studio).
Now with a LP to support, the band began touring again. Eric Allen, whom the band had previously auditioned as a guitarist after the departure of Chris Parfitt, joined the band as a much welcomed permanent bassist. Late 1995, Schneider relocated Pet Sounds Studio to Jim McIntyre's house. McIntyre continued to be involved in the recording and engineering of the band's albums until the mid-2000s.
A significantly different band from the original 1992 four-piece, the official name of the band gradually became "The Apples in Stereo", with the "in stereo" usually somewhat under-emphasized, whether in lower-case or in parentheses. Schneider described this in an interview: "It's very clearcut, actually: we're The Apples, the music's in stereo. It's not actually the band name – it's a step back from it, a band name once removed. We're The Apples, in stereo. Kind of like a TV show, 'in stereo!' That always seemed to be a really big deal, that it was in stereo." McIntyre later remarked, "It's cool the name changed cause the Apples and the Apples in Stereo were really two different entities."
1996–2005: Tone Soul Evolution to Velocity of Sound
The band continued touring through 1996, playing in Japan for the first time. Several early recording sessions were held at Pet Sounds for the band's second album, Tone Soul Evolution, but the members were dissatisfied with the quality of the recordings. The majority of the album's songs were re-recorded at Studio .45 in Hartford, Connecticut before the album's release. In 1998, Chris McDuffie joined the band, playing various instruments including organs, synthesizers and assorted percussion. He would leave the band before Velocity of Sound was released in 2002.
Several more albums were released by the band through the years, including the psychedelic "concept EP", Her Wallpaper Reverie, The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone and Velocity of Sound; both of the latter of which were progressively aimed at capturing the live sound of the band, which continued to tighten as they continued to perform hundreds of live shows (about 100 a year). In particular, the 2002 album Velocity of Sound rejects most of the psych-pop production sensibilities that would come to be associated with the band, instead featuring stripped-down production and sparse, rock instrumentation.
The band members would also continue to pursue careers in side bands and solo projects, with Schneider producing several albums for Elephant 6 artists. Schneider and drummer Hilarie Sidney were married for a time, with a son Max born in 2000. They have since been divorced.
The band went on a brief hiatus during 2004 as Schneider released the debut album from a new band called Ulysses and Sidney released the debut album from her new band The High Water Marks; both were released on Eenie Meenie Records. In 2005, The Apples in Stereo contributed "Liza Jane" to the Eenie Meenie compilation, Dimension Mix. It was also around this time that news began to circulate among various websites concerning the band's next studio album.
2006–2008: New Magnetic Wonder and evolving lineup
In August 2006, longtime drummer Hilarie Sidney officially announced her departure from the band during the band's closing set at the Athens Popfest music festival in Athens, Georgia. Her replacement, John Dufilho, lead singer and principal songwriter of The Deathray Davies, was announced in October 2006. 2006 touring member Bill Doss of The Olivia Tremor Control also quietly joined the band "officially" as its new keyboardist. John Ferguson of Big Fresh and Ulysses joined the Apples in 2007, also playing keyboards, and wearing a Doctor Who-esque space suit on stage.
In December 2006, Robert Schneider appeared on the popular television show The Colbert Report singing the song "Stephen Stephen" recorded by The Apples in Stereo to glorify the show's host Stephen Colbert, to kick off a guitar solo contest between Colbert and Chris Funk of The Decemberists.
On February 6, 2007, The Apples in Stereo released their sixth studio LP, New Magnetic Wonder. Finishing a ten-year deal with spinART Records, New Magnetic Wonder was the premiere release on Simian Records, a newly formed record label founded by Elijah Wood. This was followed by a long-awaited b-sides and rarities compilation titled Electronic Projects for Musicians, released on April 1.
In 2008, spinART Records went out of business. Rights for all major releases by The Apples in Stereo on the label were subsequently acquired by One Little Indian Records, and have since reverted to the band. In a recent interview, Schneider noted that the band's EPs have yet to have been re-released, but will likely be collected for another compilation. Such a compilation would probably include the re-releases of Look Away + 4, Let's Go! and a number of non-album songs released alongside New Magnetic Wonder.
On August 4, 2008, the band appeared again on The Colbert Report. They performed their song Can You Feel It? to promote the release of the Japanese picture disc.
In early 2008, their song "Same Old Drag" won in The 7th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Pop/Rock Song. The same year Apples in Stereo were nominated for Independent Music Awards Pop/Rock Album of the Year. The band members also joined the 9th annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians' careers.
2009–2011: #1 Hits Explosion and Travellers in Space and Time
Yep Roc released #1 Hits Explosion, an Apples in Stereo best-of album, on September 1, 2009.
In late 2008, PepsiCo released an advertisement with their song "Energy" off of their album New Magnetic Wonder.
In early 2009, Robert appeared on ABC News's segment called "amplified" and gave some short performances of songs from New Magnetic Wonder and a song from his project "Robert Bobbert and the bubble machine" and he described the album as sounding like early 1970s R&B as it would sound played by aliens and emanating from an alien spaceship.He also confirmed that the band was recording their new album at Trout Recording in Brooklyn, New York. In interviews in Billboard magazine and other press outlets,
In April 2009, the single "Energy" from New Magnetic Wonder was performed by the contestants on the television show American Idol.
The result was the band's seventh album Travellers in Space and Time, released on April 20, 2010 on Simian Records. Described by Schneider as a "retro-futuristic" concept album intended as a time capsule for listeners of the future, Travellers has drawn comparisons to the style of Electric Light Orchestra. The record is the first Apples in Stereo album without Hilarie Sidney, making Schneider the last founding member remaining in the group, although John Hill joined before "in stereo" was added to the name. The band was invited by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he curated in March 2012 in Minehead, England.
Schneider announced in May 2012 that The Apples in Stereo had begun work on a new album, described as being "a very, very different sort of album."
In recent years, Schneider has explored a number of experimental music projects, such as the Teletron mind-controlled synthesizer and Non-Pythagorean scale of his own invention.
2012–present: Death of Bill Doss, hiatus and future
The death of Bill Doss, the band's keyboardist as well as the co-founder of fellow Elephant 6 band The Olivia Tremor Control, was announced on July 31, 2012. The cause of death was an aneurysm. Schneider released a statement saying, "I am heartbroken by the loss of my life-long friend, collaborator and band-mate. My world will never be the same without the wonderful, funny, supremely creative Bill Doss."
The band went into hiatus in the fall of 2012, after Doss' death and Schneider's acceptance into the PhD program in Mathematics at Emory University. In 2013, Phish started covering the Apples in Stereo song "Energy."
In early 2017, Schneider hinted at a new album called The Bicycle Day. He stated on Facebook that "Apples are working on a concept record called The Bicycle Day but it is too deep of a task to finish while I'm in graduate school... it isn't a pop record though ... (Air-Sea Dolphin and my band Spaceflyte with John Ferguson are the new pop projects though)". On August 10, 2017, the Apples played their first show since 2012 as a headlining act at the Athens Popfest music festival in Athens, Georgia with Marshmallow Coast, Antlered Auntlord, and Waxahatchee as prior performers.
In 2018, Schneider received a PhD in mathematics from Emory.
Band members
Current members
Robert Schneider - guitar, French horn, lead vocals (1992–present)
John Hill - guitar, xylophone (1994–present)
Eric Allen - bass, harmonica (1995–present)
John Dufilho - drums, harp (2006–present)
John Ferguson - vocals, keyboards, panflute (2007–present)
Former members
Hilarie Sidney - drums, vocals (1992-2006)
Jim McIntyre - bass (1992-1994)
Chris Parfitt - guitar (1992-1994)
Chris McDuffie - keyboards (1998-2002)
Bill Doss - vocals, keyboards, ukulele (2006-2012; died 2012)
Timeline
Selected discography
Fun Trick Noisemaker (1995)
Science Faire (1996)
Tone Soul Evolution (1997)
Her Wallpaper Reverie (1999)
The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone (2000)
Velocity of Sound (2002)
New Magnetic Wonder (2007)
Electronic Projects for Musicians (2008)
Travellers in Space and Time (2010)
References
External links
The Apples in Stereo at Elephant6.com
Tractor Beam Management
Apples in Stereo entry at Trouser Press
The Apples in Stereo at Live Music Archive
Interview with the Cornell Daily Sun
Step Through the Portal
The Elephant 6 Recording Company artists
Musical groups from Denver
Lo-fi music groups
Musical groups established in 1992
Independent Music Awards winners
Indie pop groups from Colorado
Indie rock musical groups from Colorado
Psychedelic pop music groups
American power pop groups
SpinART Records artists
Yep Roc Records artists | false | [
"A resistance band is an elastic band used for strength training. They are also commonly used in physical therapy, specifically by convalescents of muscular injuries, including cardiac rehab patients to allow slow rebuilding of strength.\n\nHistory\nOriginating in the early 20th century, the bands were originally made from surgical tubing and the exercises conducted for muscle rehabilitation, and resistance band training is now used widely as part of general fitness and strength training. Their flexibility in use and light weight are a significant advantage for many users.\n\nTypically the bands are color coded to show different levels of resistance and users need to select an appropriate level. Code colors vary between brands.\n\nAlso available are loop bands as well as tubing without handles and bands set up with handles [a common option for many purchasers]. Some types allow handles to be clipped on the band or loop.\n\nResistance bands are simple to use and their light weight allows people to easily carry them if travelling and continue with routine sessions for strength training.\n\nAlthough there are many different forms of exercises for the bands, the resistance of the band as well as number of repetitions are the main variables used to lower or increase the intensity of the workout. In 2014, researchers found that the Bench Press and the resistance band Push-up, at similar stress levels, produced similar strength gains.\n\nTypes of Resistance Bands\n\nReferences\n\nExercise equipment",
"Bands are a form of formal neckwear, worn by some clergy and lawyers, and with some forms of academic dress. They take the form of two oblong pieces of cloth, usually though not invariably white, which are tied to the neck. When worn by clergy, they typically are attached to a clerical collar. The word bands is usually plural because they require two similar parts and did not come as one piece of cloth. Those worn by clergy are often called preaching bands or Geneva bands; those worn by lawyers are called barrister's bands or, more usually in Ireland and Canada, tabs. Preaching bands symbolize the two tablets of the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses.\n\nRuffs were popular in the sixteenth century, and remained so until the late 1640s, alongside the more fashionable standing and falling bands. Ruffs, like bands, were sewn to a fairly deep neck-band. They could be either standing or falling ruffs. Standing ruffs were common with legal, and official dress till comparatively late. Falling ruffs were popular .\n\nOrigin\n\nIn the early sixteenth century bands referred to the shirt neck-band under a ruff. For the rest of the century, when ruffs were still worn, and in the seventeenth century, bands referred to all the variations of this neckwear. All bands or collars arose from a standing neck-band of varying heights. They were tied at the throat with band-strings ending in tiny tassels or crochet-covered balls.\n\nBands were adopted in England for legal, official, ecclesiastical, and academical use in the mid-seventeenth century. They varied from those worn by priests (very long, of cambric or linen, and reaching over the chest), to the much shorter ecclesiastical bands of black gauze with white hem showing on the outside. Both were developments of the seventeenth century lay collar.\n\nClerical, legal and academic costume\nBands varied from small white turn-down collars and ruffs to point lace bands, depending upon fashion, until the mid-seventeenth century, when plain white bands came to be the invariable neck-wear of all judges, serjeants, barristers, students, clergy, and academics.\n\nThe bands are two strips of bleached holland or similar material, falling down the front from the collar. Plain linen 'falling bands', developed from the falling collar, replaced the ruff about 1640. By 1650 they were universal. Originally in the form of a wide collar, tied with a lace in front, by the 1680s they had diminished to the traditional form of two rectangles of linen tied at the throat.\n\nBands did not become academically significant until they were abandoned as an ordinary lay fashion after the Restoration in 1660. They became identified as specifically applicable to clerical, legal and academic individuals in the early eighteenth century, when they became longer and narrower in form.\n\nFrom the eighteenth century judges and Queen's Counsel took to wearing lace jabots instead of bands at courts and leveés. Bands are now worn by judges, Queen's Counsel, (utter) barristers, solicitors, court officials, certain public officials, university officials and less frequently also by graduands (for example, they are compulsory for male Cambridge graduands, and optional for women). These also form part of the full dress of Queen's Counsel, circuit judges, and the Lord Chief Justice. Mourning bands, which have a double pleat running down the middle of each wing or tongue, are still used by barristers. \n\nBy the end of the seventeenth century Queen's Counsel wore richly laced cravats. From the later part of the eighteenth century they wore bands instead of the cravat as undress. In the eighteenth century a lace fall was often used as an alternative to the bands by judges in full dress.\n\nBoth falling and standing bands were usually white, lace or lace-edged cambric or silk, but both might be plain.\n\nThe standing bands, a semi-circular collar, the curved edge standing up round the back of the head. While the straight horizontal edges in front met under the chin and were tied by band-strings, the collar occasionally was worn turned down. It was supported on a wire frame attached to the neck of the doublet behind. The starched collar rested on this. It was usually of linen, but also lawn and lace. They were popular for a quarter of a century.\n\nThe soft, unstiffened collar draped over the shoulders of the doublet were called falling-bands. Until the Civil War barristers wore falling bands, also known as a rabat, with about six tabs arranged one upon the other, and having the appearance of ruffs rather than bands. They differed from the bands of the clergy of that period in that they were not poked as the latter were. Lawyers took to modern bands about the middle of the seventeenth century. They continued in ecclesiastical use well into the nineteenth century in the smaller, linen strip or tab form- short-bands. These are retained by some priests of the Church of England, academics, lawyers, and ministers of the Church of Scotland, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and the English non-conformist churches, such as the Methodist tradition.\n\nBands were adopted early in the eighteenth century, by parish clerks and dissenting ministers, as well as by clergymen of the established churches in Europe. The bands were fairly wide, set close together. The outer white edge is the hemmed linen fabric which, being turned over onto itself three times, is opaque.\n\nThe falling bands, worn 1540s to 1670s, could take three forms. Firstly, a small turned-down collar from a high neck-band, with an inverted v-or pyramidal-shaped spread under the chin and tied by band-strings sometimes visible but usually concealed. They were plain, or lace edged. These were popular 1590 to 1605, especially in military or Puritan circles, reappearing 1620–1650, when they were usually larger. Secondly, they could take the form of a wide collar, spreading horizontally from side to side across the shoulder, with the band-strings as formerly. These were popular 1630s to 1640s. Thirdly, a deep collar or bib, square-cut, spreading down the chest, the front borders meeting edge to edge flat, or with an inverted box-pleat. The corners were square or frequently rounded after 1660. Broad lace borders were usual. With the band-strings as formerly, these were popular 1640s to 1670s.\n\nRelation to neckties\nThe cravat or neckcloth was popular 1665–1730. It was a large square or triangle of linen, lawn, silk, or muslin, often starched, with the ends usually bordered with lace, or decorated with tasselled beads, and tied loosely beneath the chin. Formal cravats were always plain white, otherwise they could be coloured or patterned. \nTying the cravat in a bow was popular circa 1665. Fastening with a cravat-string was popular circa 1671. By 1680–1690 the cravat was worn falling over a stiffened ornamental cravat-string. 1695–1700 saw the Steinkirk style, with the front ends twisted and the terminals either passed through a buttonhole or attached with a brooch to one side of the coat. The cravat was popular until the 1740s, and with the elderly thereafter.\n\nIn the 1840s several types of cravat were in use, the most traditional being a large bow with pointed ends. The variety of neckwear became very much greater in the 1890s. The scarf, formerly known as the kerchief, was also worn. In the 1890s neckties became popular, commonly in a butterfly- or batswing-shape bow. By the 1850s separate, starched, collars were standard, these reaching three inches in height by the 1890s.\n\nUntil about 1950, apart from short-sleeved, open-necked sports wear, day shirts always had a long sleeve with cuffs, closed by links or buttons, and with a neck-band with separate collar fastened by studs, or an attached collar. The attached collar is now dominant. The result is that bands are rarely used by graduates, who prefer the contemporary down turn collar and neck tie.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nFootnotes\n\nBibliography\n\nFurther reading\n\n \n\nAnglican vestments\nProtestant vestments\nJudicial clothing\nNeckwear"
]
|
[
"The Apples in Stereo",
"1994-1995: Hypnotic Suggestion and Fun Trick Noisemaker",
"Who is McIntyre's favorite band?",
"Hypnotic Suggestion,",
"Where did the band meet?",
"I don't know.",
"Who else was a member of the band?",
"Parfitt",
"What year did the band start?",
"early 1994.",
"What year did they release their first album?",
"In early 1995, the band finished the album,",
"Which bands are they similar to?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_bb5692211f37444eb499f77b75cc7155_0 | How did the band get it's name? | 7 | How did The Apples get their name? | The Apples in Stereo | Several conflicts would lead Parfitt to leave the band in early 1994. John Hill, a former bandmate of McIntyre's, would join the band as a rhythm guitarist while Schneider began to grow more comfortable playing lead guitar. It was also at this time that Schneider began to take stronger creative control of the band, shifting its sound from its stronger rock qualities to a spacier pop sound. The band started work on a debut full-length album, but it instead became Hypnotic Suggestion, a second EP. However, after SpinART Records offered to buy the band an 8-track in return for an album, new plans for an LP arose. In mid-1994, after Hypnotic Suggestion, McIntyre would be the second to leave the band, due to a number of personal distresses as well as stylistic changes that arose with Parfitt's departure. Having great difficulty finding a new permanent bassist, the band would rotate a number of frequent bass contributors, including Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Kurt Heasley of The Lilys, Kyle Jones, Joel Richardson, and Joel Evans. Jim McIntyre would also occasionally guest on bass. This continued to be the makeup of the band as they toured the country in late 1994, recording the first half of their new album in Glendora, California. In early 1995, the band finished the album, Fun Trick Noisemaker, at Kyle Jones's house (the birthplace of Schneider's Pet Sounds Studio). Now with a full-length LP to support, the band began touring again. Eric Allen, whom the band had previously auditioned as a guitarist after the departure of Chris Parfitt, joined the band as a much welcomed permanent bassist. Late 1995, Schneider relocated Pet Sounds Studio to Jim McIntyre's house. McIntyre continued to be involved in the recording and engineering of the band's albums until the mid-2000s. A significantly different band from the original 1992 four-piece, the official name of the band gradually became "The Apples in Stereo", with the "in stereo" usually somewhat under-emphasized, whether in lower-case or in parentheses. Schneider described this in an interview: "It's very clearcut, actually: we're The Apples, the music's in stereo. It's not actually the band name - it's a step back from it, a band name once removed. We're The Apples, in stereo. Kind of like a TV show, 'in stereo!' That always seemed to be a really big deal, that it was in stereo." McIntyre later remarked, "It's cool the name changed cause the Apples and the Apples in Stereo were really two different entities." CANNOTANSWER | It's very clearcut, actually: we're The Apples, the music's in stereo. It's not actually the band name | The Apples in Stereo, styled as The Apples in stereo, are an American rock band associated with Elephant Six Collective, a group of bands also including Neutral Milk Hotel, The Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, Of Montreal, and Circulatory System. The band is largely a product of lead vocalist/guitarist/producer Robert Schneider, who writes the majority of the band's music and lyrics. Currently, The Apples in Stereo also includes longstanding members John Hill (rhythm guitar) and Eric Allen (bass), as well as more recent members John Dufilho (drums), John Ferguson (keyboards), and Ben Phelan (keyboards/guitar/trumpet).
The band's sound draws comparisons to the psychedelic rock of The Beatles and The Beach Boys during the 1960s, as well as to bands such as Electric Light Orchestra and Pavement, and also draws from lo-fi, garage rock, new wave, R&B, bubblegum pop, power pop, punk, electro-pop and experimental music.
The band is also well known for their appearance in a The Powerpuff Girls music video performing the song "Signal in the Sky (Let's Go)". It aired immediately after the show's seventh episode of season 4, "Superfriends", which was based on the song's lyrics. The band has appeared widely in television and film, including performances on The Colbert Report, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Last Call with Carson Daly, guest hosting on MTV, song placements in numerous television shows, commercials and motion pictures, the performance of the single "Energy" by the contestants on American Idol, and a song recorded for children's show Yo Gabba Gabba.
Band history
1991–1993: The Apples
In late 1991, Robert Schneider met Jim McIntyre on a commuter bus in Denver, Colorado. Schneider had recently moved to Colorado from Ruston, Louisiana, and often initiated conversations with McIntyre. When Schneider asked McIntyre what his music interests were, McIntyre named his favorite band: The Beach Boys — a band Schneider was particularly fond of. Realizing that they shared many musical interests, McIntyre introduced Schneider to Hilarie Sidney. McIntyre already had a band called Von Hemmling in which McIntyre played bass and Sidney played drums. With Schneider, they discussed the idea of starting a band and perhaps a recording label. Schneider later met Chris Parfitt, who at the time was also already in a band (which Schneider unsuccessfully auditioned for on bass). Schneider and Parfitt also became friends, however, and toyed with the idea of having a rock band similar to The Velvet Underground or Black Sabbath, with production qualities similar to that of The Beach Boys.
Schneider then spent two weeks in Athens, Georgia recording music and spending time with his childhood friends Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss and Jeff Mangum. He discussed the idea of starting a record label with them (which soon became The Elephant 6 Recording Company). It was also at this time that the name "The Apples" came about, inspired by the Pink Floyd song "Apples and Oranges".
The earliest incarnation of the band began to form in 1992 upon Schneider's return to Denver, first between Schneider and Parfitt, both of whom played guitar. The two recruited McIntyre and Sidney during the autumn of that year, practicing material through the winter. Their first few live shows took place the following January, many of which were with the band Felt Pilotes. From February to April 1993, the band recorded their debut 7" EP, Tidal Wave, and released it in June as the first record ever to bear the Elephant 6 logo.
1994–1995: Hypnotic Suggestion and Fun Trick Noisemaker
Several conflicts would lead Parfitt to leave the band in early 1994. John Hill, a former bandmate of McIntyre's, would join the band as a rhythm guitarist while Schneider began to grow more comfortable playing lead guitar. It was also at this time that Schneider began to take stronger creative control of the band, shifting its sound from its stronger rock qualities to a spacier pop sound. The band started work on a debut album, but it instead became Hypnotic Suggestion, a second EP. However, after SpinART Records offered to buy the band an 8-track in return for an album, new plans for an LP arose.
In mid-1994, after Hypnotic Suggestion, McIntyre would be the second to leave the band, due to a number of personal distresses as well as stylistic changes that arose with Parfitt's departure. Having great difficulty finding a new permanent bassist, the band would rotate a number of frequent bass contributors, including Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Kurt Heasley of The Lilys, Kyle Jones, Joel Richardson, and Joel Evans. Jim McIntyre would also occasionally guest on bass. This continued to be the makeup of the band as they toured the country in late 1994, recording the first half of their new album in Glendora, California. In early 1995, the band finished the album, Fun Trick Noisemaker, at Kyle Jones's house (the birthplace of Schneider's Pet Sounds Studio).
Now with a LP to support, the band began touring again. Eric Allen, whom the band had previously auditioned as a guitarist after the departure of Chris Parfitt, joined the band as a much welcomed permanent bassist. Late 1995, Schneider relocated Pet Sounds Studio to Jim McIntyre's house. McIntyre continued to be involved in the recording and engineering of the band's albums until the mid-2000s.
A significantly different band from the original 1992 four-piece, the official name of the band gradually became "The Apples in Stereo", with the "in stereo" usually somewhat under-emphasized, whether in lower-case or in parentheses. Schneider described this in an interview: "It's very clearcut, actually: we're The Apples, the music's in stereo. It's not actually the band name – it's a step back from it, a band name once removed. We're The Apples, in stereo. Kind of like a TV show, 'in stereo!' That always seemed to be a really big deal, that it was in stereo." McIntyre later remarked, "It's cool the name changed cause the Apples and the Apples in Stereo were really two different entities."
1996–2005: Tone Soul Evolution to Velocity of Sound
The band continued touring through 1996, playing in Japan for the first time. Several early recording sessions were held at Pet Sounds for the band's second album, Tone Soul Evolution, but the members were dissatisfied with the quality of the recordings. The majority of the album's songs were re-recorded at Studio .45 in Hartford, Connecticut before the album's release. In 1998, Chris McDuffie joined the band, playing various instruments including organs, synthesizers and assorted percussion. He would leave the band before Velocity of Sound was released in 2002.
Several more albums were released by the band through the years, including the psychedelic "concept EP", Her Wallpaper Reverie, The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone and Velocity of Sound; both of the latter of which were progressively aimed at capturing the live sound of the band, which continued to tighten as they continued to perform hundreds of live shows (about 100 a year). In particular, the 2002 album Velocity of Sound rejects most of the psych-pop production sensibilities that would come to be associated with the band, instead featuring stripped-down production and sparse, rock instrumentation.
The band members would also continue to pursue careers in side bands and solo projects, with Schneider producing several albums for Elephant 6 artists. Schneider and drummer Hilarie Sidney were married for a time, with a son Max born in 2000. They have since been divorced.
The band went on a brief hiatus during 2004 as Schneider released the debut album from a new band called Ulysses and Sidney released the debut album from her new band The High Water Marks; both were released on Eenie Meenie Records. In 2005, The Apples in Stereo contributed "Liza Jane" to the Eenie Meenie compilation, Dimension Mix. It was also around this time that news began to circulate among various websites concerning the band's next studio album.
2006–2008: New Magnetic Wonder and evolving lineup
In August 2006, longtime drummer Hilarie Sidney officially announced her departure from the band during the band's closing set at the Athens Popfest music festival in Athens, Georgia. Her replacement, John Dufilho, lead singer and principal songwriter of The Deathray Davies, was announced in October 2006. 2006 touring member Bill Doss of The Olivia Tremor Control also quietly joined the band "officially" as its new keyboardist. John Ferguson of Big Fresh and Ulysses joined the Apples in 2007, also playing keyboards, and wearing a Doctor Who-esque space suit on stage.
In December 2006, Robert Schneider appeared on the popular television show The Colbert Report singing the song "Stephen Stephen" recorded by The Apples in Stereo to glorify the show's host Stephen Colbert, to kick off a guitar solo contest between Colbert and Chris Funk of The Decemberists.
On February 6, 2007, The Apples in Stereo released their sixth studio LP, New Magnetic Wonder. Finishing a ten-year deal with spinART Records, New Magnetic Wonder was the premiere release on Simian Records, a newly formed record label founded by Elijah Wood. This was followed by a long-awaited b-sides and rarities compilation titled Electronic Projects for Musicians, released on April 1.
In 2008, spinART Records went out of business. Rights for all major releases by The Apples in Stereo on the label were subsequently acquired by One Little Indian Records, and have since reverted to the band. In a recent interview, Schneider noted that the band's EPs have yet to have been re-released, but will likely be collected for another compilation. Such a compilation would probably include the re-releases of Look Away + 4, Let's Go! and a number of non-album songs released alongside New Magnetic Wonder.
On August 4, 2008, the band appeared again on The Colbert Report. They performed their song Can You Feel It? to promote the release of the Japanese picture disc.
In early 2008, their song "Same Old Drag" won in The 7th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Pop/Rock Song. The same year Apples in Stereo were nominated for Independent Music Awards Pop/Rock Album of the Year. The band members also joined the 9th annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians' careers.
2009–2011: #1 Hits Explosion and Travellers in Space and Time
Yep Roc released #1 Hits Explosion, an Apples in Stereo best-of album, on September 1, 2009.
In late 2008, PepsiCo released an advertisement with their song "Energy" off of their album New Magnetic Wonder.
In early 2009, Robert appeared on ABC News's segment called "amplified" and gave some short performances of songs from New Magnetic Wonder and a song from his project "Robert Bobbert and the bubble machine" and he described the album as sounding like early 1970s R&B as it would sound played by aliens and emanating from an alien spaceship.He also confirmed that the band was recording their new album at Trout Recording in Brooklyn, New York. In interviews in Billboard magazine and other press outlets,
In April 2009, the single "Energy" from New Magnetic Wonder was performed by the contestants on the television show American Idol.
The result was the band's seventh album Travellers in Space and Time, released on April 20, 2010 on Simian Records. Described by Schneider as a "retro-futuristic" concept album intended as a time capsule for listeners of the future, Travellers has drawn comparisons to the style of Electric Light Orchestra. The record is the first Apples in Stereo album without Hilarie Sidney, making Schneider the last founding member remaining in the group, although John Hill joined before "in stereo" was added to the name. The band was invited by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he curated in March 2012 in Minehead, England.
Schneider announced in May 2012 that The Apples in Stereo had begun work on a new album, described as being "a very, very different sort of album."
In recent years, Schneider has explored a number of experimental music projects, such as the Teletron mind-controlled synthesizer and Non-Pythagorean scale of his own invention.
2012–present: Death of Bill Doss, hiatus and future
The death of Bill Doss, the band's keyboardist as well as the co-founder of fellow Elephant 6 band The Olivia Tremor Control, was announced on July 31, 2012. The cause of death was an aneurysm. Schneider released a statement saying, "I am heartbroken by the loss of my life-long friend, collaborator and band-mate. My world will never be the same without the wonderful, funny, supremely creative Bill Doss."
The band went into hiatus in the fall of 2012, after Doss' death and Schneider's acceptance into the PhD program in Mathematics at Emory University. In 2013, Phish started covering the Apples in Stereo song "Energy."
In early 2017, Schneider hinted at a new album called The Bicycle Day. He stated on Facebook that "Apples are working on a concept record called The Bicycle Day but it is too deep of a task to finish while I'm in graduate school... it isn't a pop record though ... (Air-Sea Dolphin and my band Spaceflyte with John Ferguson are the new pop projects though)". On August 10, 2017, the Apples played their first show since 2012 as a headlining act at the Athens Popfest music festival in Athens, Georgia with Marshmallow Coast, Antlered Auntlord, and Waxahatchee as prior performers.
In 2018, Schneider received a PhD in mathematics from Emory.
Band members
Current members
Robert Schneider - guitar, French horn, lead vocals (1992–present)
John Hill - guitar, xylophone (1994–present)
Eric Allen - bass, harmonica (1995–present)
John Dufilho - drums, harp (2006–present)
John Ferguson - vocals, keyboards, panflute (2007–present)
Former members
Hilarie Sidney - drums, vocals (1992-2006)
Jim McIntyre - bass (1992-1994)
Chris Parfitt - guitar (1992-1994)
Chris McDuffie - keyboards (1998-2002)
Bill Doss - vocals, keyboards, ukulele (2006-2012; died 2012)
Timeline
Selected discography
Fun Trick Noisemaker (1995)
Science Faire (1996)
Tone Soul Evolution (1997)
Her Wallpaper Reverie (1999)
The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone (2000)
Velocity of Sound (2002)
New Magnetic Wonder (2007)
Electronic Projects for Musicians (2008)
Travellers in Space and Time (2010)
References
External links
The Apples in Stereo at Elephant6.com
Tractor Beam Management
Apples in Stereo entry at Trouser Press
The Apples in Stereo at Live Music Archive
Interview with the Cornell Daily Sun
Step Through the Portal
The Elephant 6 Recording Company artists
Musical groups from Denver
Lo-fi music groups
Musical groups established in 1992
Independent Music Awards winners
Indie pop groups from Colorado
Indie rock musical groups from Colorado
Psychedelic pop music groups
American power pop groups
SpinART Records artists
Yep Roc Records artists | false | [
"\"How Do I Get Close\" is a song released by the British rock group, the Kinks. Released on the band's critically panned LP, UK Jive, the song was written by the band's main songwriter, Ray Davies.\n\nRelease and reception\n\"How Do I Get Close\" was first released on the Kinks' album UK Jive. UK Jive failed to make an impression on fans and critics alike, as the album failed to chart in the UK and only reached No. 122 in America. However, despite the failure of the album and the lead UK single, \"Down All the Days (Till 1992)\", \"How Do I Get Close\" was released as the second British single from the album, backed with \"Down All the Days (Till 1992)\". The single failed to chart. The single was also released in America (backed with \"War is Over\"), where, although it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100, it hit No. 21 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, the highest on that chart since \"Working At The Factory\" in 1986. \"How Do I Get Close\" also appeared on the compilation album Lost & Found (1986-1989).\n\nStephen Thomas Erlewine cited \"How Do I Get Close\" as a highlight from both UK Jive and Lost & Found (1986-1989).\n\nReferences\n\nThe Kinks songs\n1990 singles\nSongs written by Ray Davies\nSong recordings produced by Ray Davies\n1989 songs\nMCA Records singles",
"\"I Only Lie When I Love You\" is a song by English hard rock band Royal Blood, released as the second overall single from their second studio album How Did We Get So Dark? on June 8, 2017.\n\nThe song was written by the band and was produced by Jolyon Thomas and Tom Dalgety with Royal Blood. It reached number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart and number sixteen on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart, becoming the band's second-most successful single on the latter chart.\n\nPromotion \nThe track was released as the third overall single from the band's second album How Did We Get So Dark? released on June 8, 2017. It was later serviced to U.S. rock radio formats as the second U.S. radio single on October 3, 2017.\n\nMusic video \nThe music video for \"I Only Lie When I Love You\" was released on June 8, 2017 and was directed by Pascal Teixeira. It features the band performing on a white backdrop and a rolling shot that features distorted angles of the band.\n\nPersonnel\nMike Kerr – vocals, bass, keyboards, production\nBen Thatcher – drums, percussion, piano, production\nJolyon Thomas – production, engineering\nDrew Bang – engineering\nTom Dalgety – mixing\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\"I Only Lie When I Love You\" music video on YouTube\n\n2017 songs\n2017 singles\nRoyal Blood (band) songs\nWarner Records singles\nSong recordings produced by Tom Dalgety"
]
|
[
"The Apples in Stereo",
"1994-1995: Hypnotic Suggestion and Fun Trick Noisemaker",
"Who is McIntyre's favorite band?",
"Hypnotic Suggestion,",
"Where did the band meet?",
"I don't know.",
"Who else was a member of the band?",
"Parfitt",
"What year did the band start?",
"early 1994.",
"What year did they release their first album?",
"In early 1995, the band finished the album,",
"Which bands are they similar to?",
"I don't know.",
"How did the band get it's name?",
"It's very clearcut, actually: we're The Apples, the music's in stereo. It's not actually the band name"
]
| C_bb5692211f37444eb499f77b75cc7155_0 | Did they ever make a record label? | 8 | Did The Apples ever make a record label? | The Apples in Stereo | Several conflicts would lead Parfitt to leave the band in early 1994. John Hill, a former bandmate of McIntyre's, would join the band as a rhythm guitarist while Schneider began to grow more comfortable playing lead guitar. It was also at this time that Schneider began to take stronger creative control of the band, shifting its sound from its stronger rock qualities to a spacier pop sound. The band started work on a debut full-length album, but it instead became Hypnotic Suggestion, a second EP. However, after SpinART Records offered to buy the band an 8-track in return for an album, new plans for an LP arose. In mid-1994, after Hypnotic Suggestion, McIntyre would be the second to leave the band, due to a number of personal distresses as well as stylistic changes that arose with Parfitt's departure. Having great difficulty finding a new permanent bassist, the band would rotate a number of frequent bass contributors, including Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Kurt Heasley of The Lilys, Kyle Jones, Joel Richardson, and Joel Evans. Jim McIntyre would also occasionally guest on bass. This continued to be the makeup of the band as they toured the country in late 1994, recording the first half of their new album in Glendora, California. In early 1995, the band finished the album, Fun Trick Noisemaker, at Kyle Jones's house (the birthplace of Schneider's Pet Sounds Studio). Now with a full-length LP to support, the band began touring again. Eric Allen, whom the band had previously auditioned as a guitarist after the departure of Chris Parfitt, joined the band as a much welcomed permanent bassist. Late 1995, Schneider relocated Pet Sounds Studio to Jim McIntyre's house. McIntyre continued to be involved in the recording and engineering of the band's albums until the mid-2000s. A significantly different band from the original 1992 four-piece, the official name of the band gradually became "The Apples in Stereo", with the "in stereo" usually somewhat under-emphasized, whether in lower-case or in parentheses. Schneider described this in an interview: "It's very clearcut, actually: we're The Apples, the music's in stereo. It's not actually the band name - it's a step back from it, a band name once removed. We're The Apples, in stereo. Kind of like a TV show, 'in stereo!' That always seemed to be a really big deal, that it was in stereo." McIntyre later remarked, "It's cool the name changed cause the Apples and the Apples in Stereo were really two different entities." CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | The Apples in Stereo, styled as The Apples in stereo, are an American rock band associated with Elephant Six Collective, a group of bands also including Neutral Milk Hotel, The Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, Of Montreal, and Circulatory System. The band is largely a product of lead vocalist/guitarist/producer Robert Schneider, who writes the majority of the band's music and lyrics. Currently, The Apples in Stereo also includes longstanding members John Hill (rhythm guitar) and Eric Allen (bass), as well as more recent members John Dufilho (drums), John Ferguson (keyboards), and Ben Phelan (keyboards/guitar/trumpet).
The band's sound draws comparisons to the psychedelic rock of The Beatles and The Beach Boys during the 1960s, as well as to bands such as Electric Light Orchestra and Pavement, and also draws from lo-fi, garage rock, new wave, R&B, bubblegum pop, power pop, punk, electro-pop and experimental music.
The band is also well known for their appearance in a The Powerpuff Girls music video performing the song "Signal in the Sky (Let's Go)". It aired immediately after the show's seventh episode of season 4, "Superfriends", which was based on the song's lyrics. The band has appeared widely in television and film, including performances on The Colbert Report, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Last Call with Carson Daly, guest hosting on MTV, song placements in numerous television shows, commercials and motion pictures, the performance of the single "Energy" by the contestants on American Idol, and a song recorded for children's show Yo Gabba Gabba.
Band history
1991–1993: The Apples
In late 1991, Robert Schneider met Jim McIntyre on a commuter bus in Denver, Colorado. Schneider had recently moved to Colorado from Ruston, Louisiana, and often initiated conversations with McIntyre. When Schneider asked McIntyre what his music interests were, McIntyre named his favorite band: The Beach Boys — a band Schneider was particularly fond of. Realizing that they shared many musical interests, McIntyre introduced Schneider to Hilarie Sidney. McIntyre already had a band called Von Hemmling in which McIntyre played bass and Sidney played drums. With Schneider, they discussed the idea of starting a band and perhaps a recording label. Schneider later met Chris Parfitt, who at the time was also already in a band (which Schneider unsuccessfully auditioned for on bass). Schneider and Parfitt also became friends, however, and toyed with the idea of having a rock band similar to The Velvet Underground or Black Sabbath, with production qualities similar to that of The Beach Boys.
Schneider then spent two weeks in Athens, Georgia recording music and spending time with his childhood friends Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss and Jeff Mangum. He discussed the idea of starting a record label with them (which soon became The Elephant 6 Recording Company). It was also at this time that the name "The Apples" came about, inspired by the Pink Floyd song "Apples and Oranges".
The earliest incarnation of the band began to form in 1992 upon Schneider's return to Denver, first between Schneider and Parfitt, both of whom played guitar. The two recruited McIntyre and Sidney during the autumn of that year, practicing material through the winter. Their first few live shows took place the following January, many of which were with the band Felt Pilotes. From February to April 1993, the band recorded their debut 7" EP, Tidal Wave, and released it in June as the first record ever to bear the Elephant 6 logo.
1994–1995: Hypnotic Suggestion and Fun Trick Noisemaker
Several conflicts would lead Parfitt to leave the band in early 1994. John Hill, a former bandmate of McIntyre's, would join the band as a rhythm guitarist while Schneider began to grow more comfortable playing lead guitar. It was also at this time that Schneider began to take stronger creative control of the band, shifting its sound from its stronger rock qualities to a spacier pop sound. The band started work on a debut album, but it instead became Hypnotic Suggestion, a second EP. However, after SpinART Records offered to buy the band an 8-track in return for an album, new plans for an LP arose.
In mid-1994, after Hypnotic Suggestion, McIntyre would be the second to leave the band, due to a number of personal distresses as well as stylistic changes that arose with Parfitt's departure. Having great difficulty finding a new permanent bassist, the band would rotate a number of frequent bass contributors, including Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Kurt Heasley of The Lilys, Kyle Jones, Joel Richardson, and Joel Evans. Jim McIntyre would also occasionally guest on bass. This continued to be the makeup of the band as they toured the country in late 1994, recording the first half of their new album in Glendora, California. In early 1995, the band finished the album, Fun Trick Noisemaker, at Kyle Jones's house (the birthplace of Schneider's Pet Sounds Studio).
Now with a LP to support, the band began touring again. Eric Allen, whom the band had previously auditioned as a guitarist after the departure of Chris Parfitt, joined the band as a much welcomed permanent bassist. Late 1995, Schneider relocated Pet Sounds Studio to Jim McIntyre's house. McIntyre continued to be involved in the recording and engineering of the band's albums until the mid-2000s.
A significantly different band from the original 1992 four-piece, the official name of the band gradually became "The Apples in Stereo", with the "in stereo" usually somewhat under-emphasized, whether in lower-case or in parentheses. Schneider described this in an interview: "It's very clearcut, actually: we're The Apples, the music's in stereo. It's not actually the band name – it's a step back from it, a band name once removed. We're The Apples, in stereo. Kind of like a TV show, 'in stereo!' That always seemed to be a really big deal, that it was in stereo." McIntyre later remarked, "It's cool the name changed cause the Apples and the Apples in Stereo were really two different entities."
1996–2005: Tone Soul Evolution to Velocity of Sound
The band continued touring through 1996, playing in Japan for the first time. Several early recording sessions were held at Pet Sounds for the band's second album, Tone Soul Evolution, but the members were dissatisfied with the quality of the recordings. The majority of the album's songs were re-recorded at Studio .45 in Hartford, Connecticut before the album's release. In 1998, Chris McDuffie joined the band, playing various instruments including organs, synthesizers and assorted percussion. He would leave the band before Velocity of Sound was released in 2002.
Several more albums were released by the band through the years, including the psychedelic "concept EP", Her Wallpaper Reverie, The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone and Velocity of Sound; both of the latter of which were progressively aimed at capturing the live sound of the band, which continued to tighten as they continued to perform hundreds of live shows (about 100 a year). In particular, the 2002 album Velocity of Sound rejects most of the psych-pop production sensibilities that would come to be associated with the band, instead featuring stripped-down production and sparse, rock instrumentation.
The band members would also continue to pursue careers in side bands and solo projects, with Schneider producing several albums for Elephant 6 artists. Schneider and drummer Hilarie Sidney were married for a time, with a son Max born in 2000. They have since been divorced.
The band went on a brief hiatus during 2004 as Schneider released the debut album from a new band called Ulysses and Sidney released the debut album from her new band The High Water Marks; both were released on Eenie Meenie Records. In 2005, The Apples in Stereo contributed "Liza Jane" to the Eenie Meenie compilation, Dimension Mix. It was also around this time that news began to circulate among various websites concerning the band's next studio album.
2006–2008: New Magnetic Wonder and evolving lineup
In August 2006, longtime drummer Hilarie Sidney officially announced her departure from the band during the band's closing set at the Athens Popfest music festival in Athens, Georgia. Her replacement, John Dufilho, lead singer and principal songwriter of The Deathray Davies, was announced in October 2006. 2006 touring member Bill Doss of The Olivia Tremor Control also quietly joined the band "officially" as its new keyboardist. John Ferguson of Big Fresh and Ulysses joined the Apples in 2007, also playing keyboards, and wearing a Doctor Who-esque space suit on stage.
In December 2006, Robert Schneider appeared on the popular television show The Colbert Report singing the song "Stephen Stephen" recorded by The Apples in Stereo to glorify the show's host Stephen Colbert, to kick off a guitar solo contest between Colbert and Chris Funk of The Decemberists.
On February 6, 2007, The Apples in Stereo released their sixth studio LP, New Magnetic Wonder. Finishing a ten-year deal with spinART Records, New Magnetic Wonder was the premiere release on Simian Records, a newly formed record label founded by Elijah Wood. This was followed by a long-awaited b-sides and rarities compilation titled Electronic Projects for Musicians, released on April 1.
In 2008, spinART Records went out of business. Rights for all major releases by The Apples in Stereo on the label were subsequently acquired by One Little Indian Records, and have since reverted to the band. In a recent interview, Schneider noted that the band's EPs have yet to have been re-released, but will likely be collected for another compilation. Such a compilation would probably include the re-releases of Look Away + 4, Let's Go! and a number of non-album songs released alongside New Magnetic Wonder.
On August 4, 2008, the band appeared again on The Colbert Report. They performed their song Can You Feel It? to promote the release of the Japanese picture disc.
In early 2008, their song "Same Old Drag" won in The 7th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Pop/Rock Song. The same year Apples in Stereo were nominated for Independent Music Awards Pop/Rock Album of the Year. The band members also joined the 9th annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians' careers.
2009–2011: #1 Hits Explosion and Travellers in Space and Time
Yep Roc released #1 Hits Explosion, an Apples in Stereo best-of album, on September 1, 2009.
In late 2008, PepsiCo released an advertisement with their song "Energy" off of their album New Magnetic Wonder.
In early 2009, Robert appeared on ABC News's segment called "amplified" and gave some short performances of songs from New Magnetic Wonder and a song from his project "Robert Bobbert and the bubble machine" and he described the album as sounding like early 1970s R&B as it would sound played by aliens and emanating from an alien spaceship.He also confirmed that the band was recording their new album at Trout Recording in Brooklyn, New York. In interviews in Billboard magazine and other press outlets,
In April 2009, the single "Energy" from New Magnetic Wonder was performed by the contestants on the television show American Idol.
The result was the band's seventh album Travellers in Space and Time, released on April 20, 2010 on Simian Records. Described by Schneider as a "retro-futuristic" concept album intended as a time capsule for listeners of the future, Travellers has drawn comparisons to the style of Electric Light Orchestra. The record is the first Apples in Stereo album without Hilarie Sidney, making Schneider the last founding member remaining in the group, although John Hill joined before "in stereo" was added to the name. The band was invited by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he curated in March 2012 in Minehead, England.
Schneider announced in May 2012 that The Apples in Stereo had begun work on a new album, described as being "a very, very different sort of album."
In recent years, Schneider has explored a number of experimental music projects, such as the Teletron mind-controlled synthesizer and Non-Pythagorean scale of his own invention.
2012–present: Death of Bill Doss, hiatus and future
The death of Bill Doss, the band's keyboardist as well as the co-founder of fellow Elephant 6 band The Olivia Tremor Control, was announced on July 31, 2012. The cause of death was an aneurysm. Schneider released a statement saying, "I am heartbroken by the loss of my life-long friend, collaborator and band-mate. My world will never be the same without the wonderful, funny, supremely creative Bill Doss."
The band went into hiatus in the fall of 2012, after Doss' death and Schneider's acceptance into the PhD program in Mathematics at Emory University. In 2013, Phish started covering the Apples in Stereo song "Energy."
In early 2017, Schneider hinted at a new album called The Bicycle Day. He stated on Facebook that "Apples are working on a concept record called The Bicycle Day but it is too deep of a task to finish while I'm in graduate school... it isn't a pop record though ... (Air-Sea Dolphin and my band Spaceflyte with John Ferguson are the new pop projects though)". On August 10, 2017, the Apples played their first show since 2012 as a headlining act at the Athens Popfest music festival in Athens, Georgia with Marshmallow Coast, Antlered Auntlord, and Waxahatchee as prior performers.
In 2018, Schneider received a PhD in mathematics from Emory.
Band members
Current members
Robert Schneider - guitar, French horn, lead vocals (1992–present)
John Hill - guitar, xylophone (1994–present)
Eric Allen - bass, harmonica (1995–present)
John Dufilho - drums, harp (2006–present)
John Ferguson - vocals, keyboards, panflute (2007–present)
Former members
Hilarie Sidney - drums, vocals (1992-2006)
Jim McIntyre - bass (1992-1994)
Chris Parfitt - guitar (1992-1994)
Chris McDuffie - keyboards (1998-2002)
Bill Doss - vocals, keyboards, ukulele (2006-2012; died 2012)
Timeline
Selected discography
Fun Trick Noisemaker (1995)
Science Faire (1996)
Tone Soul Evolution (1997)
Her Wallpaper Reverie (1999)
The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone (2000)
Velocity of Sound (2002)
New Magnetic Wonder (2007)
Electronic Projects for Musicians (2008)
Travellers in Space and Time (2010)
References
External links
The Apples in Stereo at Elephant6.com
Tractor Beam Management
Apples in Stereo entry at Trouser Press
The Apples in Stereo at Live Music Archive
Interview with the Cornell Daily Sun
Step Through the Portal
The Elephant 6 Recording Company artists
Musical groups from Denver
Lo-fi music groups
Musical groups established in 1992
Independent Music Awards winners
Indie pop groups from Colorado
Indie rock musical groups from Colorado
Psychedelic pop music groups
American power pop groups
SpinART Records artists
Yep Roc Records artists | false | [
"Spark Records was a record label started by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller around 1954 in Los Angeles, California. Artists released on Spark Records included Willy & Ruth, The Sly Fox, Ervin \"Big Boy\" Groves, and The Robins. Leiber and Stoller eventually decided that while they wanted to write songs and make records, but did not want to deal with the mechanics of publishing records, so they sold the label to Atlantic Records.\n\nSee also \n List of record labels\n\nSources\n\nRecord labels established in 1954\nDefunct record labels of the United States",
"SRC (Street Records Corporation) is an American record label created by former Loud Records CEO Steve Rifkind. It was a subsidiary of Universal Music Group and was distributed through Republic Records.\n\nCompany history\nSRC was founded by Steve Rifkind in 2001. In 2002, he was ousted from his CEO position from Loud. Although he already had SRC, he made it a bigger priority and sign an exclusive distribution deal with Universal. The label was much like Loud Records, a hip hop and R&B label. The first move with the label was signing David Banner, a rapper from Jackson, Mississippi. With Banner as their flagship artist, SRC soared to great heights behind his 2003 debut. The label was instantly hailed as the second-coming of Interscope Records, due to the obvious similarities. The hit single \"Like A Pimp,\" would make the label a household name within the hip hop community. During the year of 2003, the label would hit paydirt after hearing tapes from Senegalese singer, Akon, who they would immediately sign to their label. In 2004, Akon would release his multi-platinum debut album, Trouble. In early 2004, they signed a deal to distribute material from the rap supergroup, Terror Squad. SRC would go on to release all albums from Remy Ma and the group Terror Squad, itself. In the summer of 2004, SRC would become home to the hit single, \"Lean Back,\" by Fat Joe and Remy Ma. After these releases, SRC had established itself among the other heavyweight record labels in hip hop music. In 2005, the label granted Akon his own label Konvict Muzik. The deal brought more artists on to the label and a hit album from Akon.\n\nLoud deal and later successes \nIn June 2007, Sony Music resurrected Rifkind's original label, Loud Records. Loud had been home to many of the more popular hip hop acts of the time, but would shut down operations in 2004. After the resurrection of Loud, Rifkind would buy the label and make it a subsidiary of SRC. His first act after re-gaining the label was, as he did fifteen years earlier, signing the Wu-Tang Clan. In August 2010 Rifkind signed rapper Joell Ortiz in a deal with SRC Records and Universal Motown Records. The label had a deal with Universal Republic Records, later the label was reverted to Republic Records.\n\nOn July 29, 2012, Steve Rifkind announced that he was leaving Universal Records on September 1, 2012.\n\nLabels under SRC\n Terror Squad Entertainment (before 2007)\n Loud Records\n UpFront Records\n Konvict Muzik\n\nRoster\n Kool G. Rap\n David Banner\n Shontelle\n Melanie Fiona\n Ray J\n Aubrey O'Day\n DJ Webstar\n Majic Massey\n\nSRC discography\n David Banner – Mississippi: The Album (2003)\n Baby Bash – Tha Smokin' Nephew (2003)\n David Banner – MTA2: Baptized in Dirty Water (2003)\n Akon – Trouble (2004)\n Terror Squad – True Story (2004)\n Ric A Che- Lack of Communication (2004)\n Baby Bash – Super Saucy (2005)\n David Banner – Certified (2005)\n Remy Ma – There's Something About Remy (2006)\n Akon – Konvicted (2006)\n Pharoahe Monch – Desire (2007)\n Grandaddy Souf – Chasing My Dream (2007)\n Keith Sweat – The Sweat Hotel (2007)\n Wu-Tang Clan – 8 Diagrams (2007)\n Lil' Baza Featuring DJ Gayness (2008)\n David Banner – The Greatest Story Ever Told(2008)\n Shontelle – Shontelligence (2008)\n Akon – Freedom (2008)\n Lala Man – September (2008)\n Heavy Mojo – Blow Out The Sound (2009)\n Asher Roth – Asleep in the Bread Aisle (2009)\n Melanie Fiona – The Bridge (2009)\n Shontelle - No Gravity (2010)\n Melanie Fiona - The MF Life (2012)\n\nSee also\n List of record labels\n List of SRC artists\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official SRC Records website\n\n \nDefunct record labels of the United States\nHip hop record labels\nNew York (state) record labels\n \nRecord labels established in 2002\nRecord labels disestablished in 2012\n2002 establishments in New York (state)\nLabels distributed by Universal Music Group"
]
|
[
"Tin Machine",
"1988-89: First album and tour"
]
| C_9d71042505bd46adb2a9dff2c991687e_1 | when was their first album released? | 1 | when was Tin Machine's first album released? | Tin Machine | The band's self-titled first album was recorded in late 1988 and early 1989. It produced mixed but generally positive reviews upon release in May 1989, picking up favourable comparisons with Bowie's two more recent solo albums. Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart, but sales quickly tailed off. Gabrels claimed in 1991 that album sales from the first album were "ten times better" than he had anticipated. At the time of the release of the album, Bowie was enthusiastic about the band and the work they'd done, and felt that band had in them "another two albums at least." Contrary to common reports, the band's first live performance together wasn't at the International Rock Awards Show on 31 May 1989. Prior to that show, the band played an unannounced show in Nassau. Bowie recalled "We showed up at a club in Nassau where we were recording and did four or five songs. We went down to the club and just did 'em." Added Gabrels, "We just walked up on stage and you could hear all these voices whispering, 'That's David Bowie! No, it can't be David Bowie, he's got a beard!'" The band recognized that some fans and critics didn't like Bowie's new role in the band. Said Tony Sales, "Mainly, people are pissed off because David's not doing 'David Bowie.'" Bowie confirmed that Tin Machine live shows would be "non-theatrical" in contrast to his most recent tour. The band undertook a low-key tour in small venues between 14 June and 3 July 1989, before further recording sessions in Sydney, Australia. During these sessions Tin Machine contributed to a surfing compilation album, Beyond the Beach, with a new instrumental song titled "Needles on the Beach". CANNOTANSWER | release in May 1989, | Tin Machine were a British–American hard rock supergroup formed in 1988, notable for being fronted by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. The band consisted of Bowie on lead vocals, sax, and guitar; Reeves Gabrels on guitar and vocals; Tony Fox Sales on bass and vocals; and Hunt Sales on drums and vocals. Tony and Hunt had previously performed alongside Bowie as part of Iggy Pop's backing band during his 1977 tour for The Idiot. Kevin Armstrong played additional guitar and keyboards on the band's first studio album and first tour, and American guitarist Eric Schermerhorn played on the second tour and live album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby (1992).
Drummer Hunt Sales said that the band's name "reflects the sound of the band," and Bowie stated that he and his band members joined up "to make the kind of music that we enjoyed listening to" and to rejuvenate himself artistically.
The band recorded two studio albums and one live album before dissolving in 1992, after which Bowie returned to his solo career. By the end of 2012, they had reportedly sold two million albums. Bowie would later credit his time with Tin Machine as instrumental in revitalising his career after the 1980s.
History
1987–88: Band genesis
The album Never Let Me Down (1987) and subsequent Glass Spider Tour had left critics unimpressed, and Bowie was aware of his low standing. Eager to return to making music for himself rather than the mainstream audience he had acquired following the Let's Dance album,
Bowie looked around for collaborators to work with. He briefly worked with Bon Jovi producer Bruce Fairbairn in Los Angeles, recording a few tracks, including a demo of "Lucy Can't Dance" (which was eventually re-recorded and released on Bowie's 1993 solo album Black Tie White Noise) and a version of Bob Dylan's song "Like A Rolling Stone", but this did not bear much fruit, and the Dylan cover was passed to his friend Mick Ronson, where it was released on his posthumous album Heaven and Hull (1994). Soon after, Bowie began collaborating with Reeves Gabrels, who pushed the singer to rediscover his experimental side.
Bowie and Gabrels had initially met through Gabrels' then-wife Sara Terry, who was part of the press staff for the North American leg of Bowie's 1987 Glass Spider world tour. The two men had struck up a friendship when Gabrels visited at several tour venues. Notably, their relationship began as a social one, as Gabrels didn't mention that he himself was a musician. Common interests in popular culture and the visual arts provided more than enough to talk about, Gabrels explained in later interviews, and also because he was in his wife's workplace, he felt it wasn't appropriate to bring up his own music. At the tour's end, Bowie kindly asked Terry if he could do anything for her. In response, Terry gave Bowie a tape of Gabrels' guitar playing. Months later, after listening to the tape, Bowie phoned Gabrels to invite him to get together to play and write. Bowie told him that he felt he had "lost his vision" and was looking for ways to get it back. After a month working together, Gabrels asked Bowie what he wanted of him, and, according to Gabrels, Bowie said "Basically, I need somebody that can do a combination of Beck, Hendrix, Belew and Fripp, with a little Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King thrown in. Then, when I’m not singing, you take the ball and do something with it, and when you hand the ball back to me, it might not even be the same ball."
The first public fruits of Bowie and Gabrels working together came with a new arrangement by Gabrels of the song "Look Back in Anger" which Bowie had written with Brian Eno in 1979 for the album Lodger. The occasion was a benefit show at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) on 1 July 1988 at which Bowie had been invited to perform with the avant-garde dance troupe La La La Human Steps. Bowie sang, played and danced with troupe members while in lighted grottoes upstage three musicians (Gabrels on guitar, Kevin Armstrong on guitar, and Erdal Kızılçay on bass) played the new minute score that Gabrels created from the 3-minute song; the new material included drums programmed by Kızılçay. "We went into the studio to rearrange it," said Bowie in a filmed interview; "I like the hard-edged wall of guitar sound that we put into it."
Gabrels recalled that early on, they weren't sure who they'd work with. They discussed working with Terry Bozzio on drums and Percy Jones on bass. But Bowie, who had run into Tony Sales in Los Angeles at a wrap party for his Glass Spider Tour, convinced Tony to call his brother Hunt so they could work together again, as Tony and Hunt had performed with David Bowie in support of Iggy Pop in the late 1970s. Tony recalled that Bowie was "thinking about getting a band together — something together. He didn't know exactly what he wanted to do, but he wanted Hunt and I to meet Reeves and maybe we could all write together, come up with something."
Bowie himself was surprised with how things came together with the band, saying, "I'd never wanted to be in a band until we got together. And as we were getting together, it wasn't really occurring to me that this is what I wanted to do. It took a week or so of actually being in the studio and working, and then I think we fully realized the potential, musically, for what we were doing and wanted to stick with it. I was quite happy to go off and make a solo album. I was quite excited about a couple of things I was doing, which I brought into the band and which were irrevocably changed. But that's the nature of the band."
Bowie was pleased that the band members clicked, calling the ease at which the personalities came together "inspired guesswork". Hunt and Tony, the two sons of comic Soupy Sales, kept the mood jovial during recording sessions and interviews. Bowie later rejected the idea that Reeves, Hunt and Tony were backing members of his band. "The Sales brothers would never accept having another boss. They are far too stubborn and aware of their own needs. They're not in the market to be anybody's backing band, either of them. You do not fuck with the Sales brothers, or Reeves Gabrels." Gabrels said that Bowie came in one day while the group was first forming and said, "I think this has got to be a band. Everybody's got input. Everybody's writing. You guys don't listen to me anyway." The band split profits four ways, no one was on a salary and each member paid for his own expenses. Bowie also clarified that "the band will cease to exist the moment it ceases to be a musical experience for any of us. None of us wanted to get into the kind of situation where you find yourself making albums because you're contracted to." The group setup allowed Bowie a certain level of anonymity, and to that end, Bowie stipulated that all four members divide interviews equally between them and that in the cases where he was interviewed, that another member of the band be present as well. He made a point to clarify that he didn't invite the others to join "his" band, rather, "the band literally came together."
The Sales brothers moved the tone of the sessions away from art-rock and more towards hard rock, and Bowie looked to one of his favorite bands at the time, Pixies, for inspiration. The Sales brothers heckled Bowie into greater spontaneity, with most songs recorded in one take, and lyrics left unpolished, thus giving the band a ragged, punk rock edge. On tour, Bowie said of the band and its music, "This is not music to get up and have breakfast to by any means. And we're not the most comfortable band in the world to watch. If you're looking for a dance band, we ain't it."
In contemporary interviews, the band claimed their musical influences were Gene Krupa, Charlie Mingus, Jimi Hendrix, Glenn Branca, Mountain, Cream, and the Jeff Beck Group.
According to Bowie, the group decided when they formed that they'd play from album to album, and that "if we were still getting on with each other – which was the priority – that we'd continue."
Band name
The group chose the name Tin Machine after one of the songs they had written. Tony Sales joked that, as all four members were divorced when the band formed, originally the band was going to be called "The Four Divorcés" or "Alimony Inc." Gabrels suggested calling the band "White Noise", but Bowie dismissed it as too "racist". Other names that were considered and discarded included "Leather Weasel" and "The Emperor's New Clothes". Gabrels later elaborated on the real name choice, saying the band's name "worked on a number of levels for us. The archaic – the idea of tin, which is still everywhere: tin cans, when you go to the supermarket; when you walk down the street you find rusting tin. It's such a supposedly archaic material, but it's everywhere. Sort of like the idea of us playing this music and not using drum machines and sequencers and things like that. There's a point at which it connects. At least for us. And the final thing, for lack of a better name."
1988–89: First album and tour
The band's self-titled first album was recorded in late 1988 and early 1989. It produced mixed but generally positive reviews upon release in May 1989, picking up favourable comparisons with Bowie's two more recent solo albums. Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart, but sales quickly tailed off. Gabrels claimed in 1991 that album sales from the first album were "ten times better" than he had anticipated. At the time of the release of the album, Bowie was enthusiastic about the band and the work they'd done, and felt that band had in them "another two albums at least."
Contrary to common reports, the band's first live performance together wasn't at the International Rock Awards Show on 31 May 1989. Prior to that show, the band played an unannounced show in Nassau. Bowie recalled "We showed up at a club in Nassau where we were recording and did four or five songs. We went down to the club and just did 'em." Added Gabrels, "We just walked up on stage and you could hear all these voices whispering, 'That's David Bowie! No, it can't be David Bowie, he's got a beard!'"
The band recognized that some fans and critics didn't like Bowie's new role in the band. Said Tony Sales, "Mainly, people are pissed off because David's not doing 'David Bowie.'" Bowie confirmed that Tin Machine live shows would be "non-theatrical" in contrast to his most recent tour.
The band undertook a low-key tour in small venues between 14 June and 3 July 1989, before further recording sessions in Sydney, Australia. During these sessions Tin Machine contributed to a surfing compilation album, Beyond the Beach, with a new instrumental song titled "Needles on the Beach". A partial recording of their show from this tour recorded at La Cigale in Paris on 25 June 1989 was released digitally in August 2019.
1990–91: Second album and tour
The group then went on hiatus while Bowie conducted his solo Sound+Vision Tour. In December 1990, Bowie split from EMI. Hunt Sales said that EMI "kind of freaked out a little bit at the strident, single-less Tin Machine debut", which partially explained why Bowie switched music labels. In March 1991, the band signed to Victory Music, a new label launched by JVC and distributed worldwide by London Records and PolyGram, and recorded more new material. This was combined with tracks from the Sydney sessions to form the Tin Machine II album. The album was described as "just as impure and twisted [as their first album], but more R&B and less abrasive." Gabrels explained the change between the first and second album was because by the second album, "we knew one another as musicians. ... It wasn't as dense. And we actually left more room, I think for David to come up with some interesting melodies. There was more room for vocals on this record."
In late 1991 Bowie reiterated that he was still happy being in the band during that time, stating "I'm content. … I'm deriving a great deal of fulfillment from working with Tin Machine", and band-mate Gabrels agreed, saying "we're doing exactly what we wanted to do." During press performances for songs on the album, Gabrels played his guitar with a vibrator and for a performance on BBC's Top of the Pops, who banned the use of the vibrator, he mimed playing his guitar with a chocolate éclair.
In early August 1991, the band began promotional performances for the album, starting with TV appearances in the UK. From 5 October 1991 to 17 February 1992, the group went on their It's My Life Tour, which was a longer tour than their first. The band was joined on this tour by guitarist Eric Schermerhorn. On 23 November 1991, the band was the musical guest during Saturday Night Lives 17th season.
1992: Live album and dissolution
Tracks from the "It's My Life" tour were released on the July 1992 album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby. The album did not sell well and there was speculation that the failure of this album to achieve commercial success was among the reasons that the band ultimately broke up. As early as 1990, Bowie knew he'd be going back to solo work, although not because he disliked working with the band. He said "I have very definite ideas of what I want to do as a solo artist, which I'll be starting on probably late next year [1991], again completely different, hopefully, from what I've done before." Shortly after the release of Oy Vey, Baby, Bowie returned to solo recording with his single "Real Cool World", but he maintained intentions to return to the studio with Tin Machine in 1993 for a third album. These plans would fail to come to fruition, however, and the band shortly thereafter dissolved. There were allegations that Hunt Sales' growing drug addiction was responsible for the band's end, but of Tin Machine's dissolution, Bowie merely said "personal problems within the band became the reason for its demise. It’s not for me to talk about them, but it became physically impossible for us to carry on. And that was pretty sad really."
Band legacy
The band earned mixed reviews during their short career. In later years, critics have reappraised the band more warmly and Tin Machine have been found "unjustly" harshly reviewed. One critic suggested that part of the reason for its poor reception was that Tin Machine's music was somewhat ahead of its time, and that the band "explored alternative and grunge before the styles were even widely known to exist." Another critic agreed, with yet another suggesting that Tin Machine and Bowie were "merely ahead of the curve. A prophet, a voice in the desert predicting the coming of Nirvana. At the time, Nirvana was toiling in Seattle obscurity, pushing its debut Bleach on Sub Pop at every dive it played." Tim Palmer, after producing Tin Machine's two studio albums, would go on to mix Pearl Jam's grunge album Ten in 1991, and later recalled to Gabrels that he had come into the studio one day to find Pearl Jam listening to Tin Machine's "Heaven's in Here".
In 1996, Bowie reflected on his time with Tin Machine: "For better or worse it helped me to pin down what I did and didn’t enjoy about being an artist. It helped me, I feel, to recover as an artist. And I do feel that for the past few years I’ve been absolutely in charge of my artistic path again. I’m working to my own criteria. I’m not doing anything I would feel ashamed of in the future, or that I would look back on and say my heart wasn’t in that."
In 1997, when asked if he thought the band was still underrated, Bowie said, "It's going to be interesting, isn't it? As the songs creep out in different forms over the years, I assume that eventually it'll be evaluated in a different way. I'm not sure people will ever be sympathetic to it entirely. But as the years go by, I think they'll be less hostile. I think it was quite a brave band and I think there were some extremely good pieces of work done. And I think they'll kind of show themselves over time." Bowie and Gabrels re-recorded a few Tin Machine tracks during this time, including "I Can't Read" and "Baby Universal", with the former being released on the soundtrack to the movie The Ice Storm (1997) and both as a part of Bowie's posthumous Is It Any Wonder? (2020).
By the end of the 20th century, Bowie looked back at his time with the band as invaluable, saying "I had to kick-start my engine again in music. There'd been a wobbly moment where I could quite easily have gone reclusive and just worked on visual stuff, paint and sculpt and all that. I had made a lot of money: I thought, well, I could just bugger off and do my Gauguin in Tahiti bit now. But then what do you do – re-emerge at 60 somewhere? So I look back on the Tin Machine years with great fondness. They charged me up. I can’t tell you how much."
Despite some reports to the contrary, Bowie stated several times over his years with Tin Machine that he was happy working in the band. Bowie used his time with the band as a way to revitalize himself and his career, which he would later in March 1997 call a "lifeline", citing Reeves Gabrels as a source of his new-found energy and direction:
Personnel
David Bowie – lead vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, saxophone
Reeves Gabrels – electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals
Tony Fox Sales – bass guitar, backing vocals
Hunt Sales – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Singles
Other appearances
Music videos
Music video films
Live concert films
References
See also
List of musical supergroups
Citations
External links
Tin Machine's live performance at the 1989 International Rock Awards (Youtube)
British hard rock musical groups
American hard rock musical groups
Rock music supergroups
Musical groups established in 1988
Musical groups disestablished in 1992
EMI Records artists
David Bowie | true | [
"Young Dumb Thrills is the sixth studio album from English pop rock band McFly. Their first studio album since 2010 (in nearly ten years), the album was released on 13 November 2020, and is their first under record label BMG.\n\nThe album debuted at number 2 in the UK selling 20,750 in its first week. It became the band's highest charting album since Wonderland in 2005.\n\nBackground\nIn November 2010, McFly released their fifth studio album, Above the Noise, which became their lowest charting album in the UK. This was followed by a compilation album, Memory Lane: The Best of McFly, in November 2012. In 2013, McFly's sixth studio album was put on hold when they teamed up with Matt Willis and James Bourne from Busted to form the supergroup McBusted. After two years of touring and a self-titled album, Willis and Bourne's former bandmate Charlie Simpson agreed to return to Busted, thus bringing McBusted to an end.\n\nOn 3 July 2020, McFly announced The Lost Songs, a collection of demo recordings and their first collection of unreleased material in nearly a decade. That same month, the band revealed that their long-awaited sixth studio album would be called Young Dumb Thrills, and also announced \"Happiness\" as its lead single. The track \"Wild and Young\" was initially going to be released as part of Danny Jones' debut solo album, but was used for McFly's comeback album when the band reunited instead.\n\nSingles\n\"Happiness\" was released as the album's lead single on 20 July 2020.\n\n\"Growing Up\" featuring Mark Hoppus was the second, released on 4 September 2020. Judd stated on Twitter that this was a promotional single, and not an official single. It failed to chart on the UK Singles Top 100 but debuted and peaked at number 80 on the Official Singles Sales Chart Top 100 on 11 September 2020.\n\n\"Tonight Is the Night\" was the third single, released on 1 October 2020.\n\n\"You’re Not Special\" is the fourth single, released 21 January 2021.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2020 albums\nMcFly albums",
"Ultrabeat: The Album is the début self-titled album by the British dance act Ultrabeat. It was released on 10 September 2007 (four years after their first single) with All Around the World records. The album was a major chart success in the UK Album Chart as it reached #8 in its first week.\n\nBackground\nThe long-anticipated album comes over four years after their first single \"Pretty Green Eyes\" was released. According to AATW, the album was delayed for so long because Ultrabeat kept producing new tracks and re-changing the album to accommodate the new material, and also going away to places such as Miami and Ibiza delayed the album as well. It was originally, supposed to be called Better than Life: The Album and was meant to be released around the same time as the \"Better than Life\" single. There was many speculation after this over whether an Ultrabeat album would materialise, until the summer of 2007 when AATW announced on their website that it was getting released in September 2007, and would include all their hits and more. Some of the tracks that never made it on to the album were songs called \"Stay with Me\", and Re-Con songs \"Free Again\" and \"Let It Show\".\n\nRelease\n\nWhen the album was released, it charted at #8 in its first week and stayed in the Top 20 for a further three weeks, and the release of the album coincided with Ultrabeat supporting Cascada on their tour of the UK. The Album was released in Australia on 8 December 2007, with Central Station records, and in the UK, \"I Wanna Touch You\" was the next single released after the album, which came out at the start of 2008.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel\nUltrabeat\n Mike Di Scala – producer, vocals\n Ian Redman – additional producer\n Chris Henry – additional producer\n\nProduction\n Darren Styles – additional producer (on tracks 3 & 7)\n Wayne Donnelly – additional producer (on track 13)\n\nAdditional musicians\n Rebecca Rudd – vocals (on tracks 3, 5, 7 & 10)\n Darren Styles – keyboards (on tracks 3 & 7)\n\nOther personnel\n Universal – distribution\n Absolute – marketing\n\nChart performance\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official artist profile (aatw.com)\n \n \n\n2007 debut albums\nAll Around the World Productions albums\nUltrabeat albums"
]
|
[
"Tin Machine",
"1988-89: First album and tour",
"when was their first album released?",
"release in May 1989,"
]
| C_9d71042505bd46adb2a9dff2c991687e_1 | what was the album called? | 2 | what was Tin Machine's first album called? | Tin Machine | The band's self-titled first album was recorded in late 1988 and early 1989. It produced mixed but generally positive reviews upon release in May 1989, picking up favourable comparisons with Bowie's two more recent solo albums. Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart, but sales quickly tailed off. Gabrels claimed in 1991 that album sales from the first album were "ten times better" than he had anticipated. At the time of the release of the album, Bowie was enthusiastic about the band and the work they'd done, and felt that band had in them "another two albums at least." Contrary to common reports, the band's first live performance together wasn't at the International Rock Awards Show on 31 May 1989. Prior to that show, the band played an unannounced show in Nassau. Bowie recalled "We showed up at a club in Nassau where we were recording and did four or five songs. We went down to the club and just did 'em." Added Gabrels, "We just walked up on stage and you could hear all these voices whispering, 'That's David Bowie! No, it can't be David Bowie, he's got a beard!'" The band recognized that some fans and critics didn't like Bowie's new role in the band. Said Tony Sales, "Mainly, people are pissed off because David's not doing 'David Bowie.'" Bowie confirmed that Tin Machine live shows would be "non-theatrical" in contrast to his most recent tour. The band undertook a low-key tour in small venues between 14 June and 3 July 1989, before further recording sessions in Sydney, Australia. During these sessions Tin Machine contributed to a surfing compilation album, Beyond the Beach, with a new instrumental song titled "Needles on the Beach". CANNOTANSWER | self-titled first album | Tin Machine were a British–American hard rock supergroup formed in 1988, notable for being fronted by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. The band consisted of Bowie on lead vocals, sax, and guitar; Reeves Gabrels on guitar and vocals; Tony Fox Sales on bass and vocals; and Hunt Sales on drums and vocals. Tony and Hunt had previously performed alongside Bowie as part of Iggy Pop's backing band during his 1977 tour for The Idiot. Kevin Armstrong played additional guitar and keyboards on the band's first studio album and first tour, and American guitarist Eric Schermerhorn played on the second tour and live album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby (1992).
Drummer Hunt Sales said that the band's name "reflects the sound of the band," and Bowie stated that he and his band members joined up "to make the kind of music that we enjoyed listening to" and to rejuvenate himself artistically.
The band recorded two studio albums and one live album before dissolving in 1992, after which Bowie returned to his solo career. By the end of 2012, they had reportedly sold two million albums. Bowie would later credit his time with Tin Machine as instrumental in revitalising his career after the 1980s.
History
1987–88: Band genesis
The album Never Let Me Down (1987) and subsequent Glass Spider Tour had left critics unimpressed, and Bowie was aware of his low standing. Eager to return to making music for himself rather than the mainstream audience he had acquired following the Let's Dance album,
Bowie looked around for collaborators to work with. He briefly worked with Bon Jovi producer Bruce Fairbairn in Los Angeles, recording a few tracks, including a demo of "Lucy Can't Dance" (which was eventually re-recorded and released on Bowie's 1993 solo album Black Tie White Noise) and a version of Bob Dylan's song "Like A Rolling Stone", but this did not bear much fruit, and the Dylan cover was passed to his friend Mick Ronson, where it was released on his posthumous album Heaven and Hull (1994). Soon after, Bowie began collaborating with Reeves Gabrels, who pushed the singer to rediscover his experimental side.
Bowie and Gabrels had initially met through Gabrels' then-wife Sara Terry, who was part of the press staff for the North American leg of Bowie's 1987 Glass Spider world tour. The two men had struck up a friendship when Gabrels visited at several tour venues. Notably, their relationship began as a social one, as Gabrels didn't mention that he himself was a musician. Common interests in popular culture and the visual arts provided more than enough to talk about, Gabrels explained in later interviews, and also because he was in his wife's workplace, he felt it wasn't appropriate to bring up his own music. At the tour's end, Bowie kindly asked Terry if he could do anything for her. In response, Terry gave Bowie a tape of Gabrels' guitar playing. Months later, after listening to the tape, Bowie phoned Gabrels to invite him to get together to play and write. Bowie told him that he felt he had "lost his vision" and was looking for ways to get it back. After a month working together, Gabrels asked Bowie what he wanted of him, and, according to Gabrels, Bowie said "Basically, I need somebody that can do a combination of Beck, Hendrix, Belew and Fripp, with a little Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King thrown in. Then, when I’m not singing, you take the ball and do something with it, and when you hand the ball back to me, it might not even be the same ball."
The first public fruits of Bowie and Gabrels working together came with a new arrangement by Gabrels of the song "Look Back in Anger" which Bowie had written with Brian Eno in 1979 for the album Lodger. The occasion was a benefit show at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) on 1 July 1988 at which Bowie had been invited to perform with the avant-garde dance troupe La La La Human Steps. Bowie sang, played and danced with troupe members while in lighted grottoes upstage three musicians (Gabrels on guitar, Kevin Armstrong on guitar, and Erdal Kızılçay on bass) played the new minute score that Gabrels created from the 3-minute song; the new material included drums programmed by Kızılçay. "We went into the studio to rearrange it," said Bowie in a filmed interview; "I like the hard-edged wall of guitar sound that we put into it."
Gabrels recalled that early on, they weren't sure who they'd work with. They discussed working with Terry Bozzio on drums and Percy Jones on bass. But Bowie, who had run into Tony Sales in Los Angeles at a wrap party for his Glass Spider Tour, convinced Tony to call his brother Hunt so they could work together again, as Tony and Hunt had performed with David Bowie in support of Iggy Pop in the late 1970s. Tony recalled that Bowie was "thinking about getting a band together — something together. He didn't know exactly what he wanted to do, but he wanted Hunt and I to meet Reeves and maybe we could all write together, come up with something."
Bowie himself was surprised with how things came together with the band, saying, "I'd never wanted to be in a band until we got together. And as we were getting together, it wasn't really occurring to me that this is what I wanted to do. It took a week or so of actually being in the studio and working, and then I think we fully realized the potential, musically, for what we were doing and wanted to stick with it. I was quite happy to go off and make a solo album. I was quite excited about a couple of things I was doing, which I brought into the band and which were irrevocably changed. But that's the nature of the band."
Bowie was pleased that the band members clicked, calling the ease at which the personalities came together "inspired guesswork". Hunt and Tony, the two sons of comic Soupy Sales, kept the mood jovial during recording sessions and interviews. Bowie later rejected the idea that Reeves, Hunt and Tony were backing members of his band. "The Sales brothers would never accept having another boss. They are far too stubborn and aware of their own needs. They're not in the market to be anybody's backing band, either of them. You do not fuck with the Sales brothers, or Reeves Gabrels." Gabrels said that Bowie came in one day while the group was first forming and said, "I think this has got to be a band. Everybody's got input. Everybody's writing. You guys don't listen to me anyway." The band split profits four ways, no one was on a salary and each member paid for his own expenses. Bowie also clarified that "the band will cease to exist the moment it ceases to be a musical experience for any of us. None of us wanted to get into the kind of situation where you find yourself making albums because you're contracted to." The group setup allowed Bowie a certain level of anonymity, and to that end, Bowie stipulated that all four members divide interviews equally between them and that in the cases where he was interviewed, that another member of the band be present as well. He made a point to clarify that he didn't invite the others to join "his" band, rather, "the band literally came together."
The Sales brothers moved the tone of the sessions away from art-rock and more towards hard rock, and Bowie looked to one of his favorite bands at the time, Pixies, for inspiration. The Sales brothers heckled Bowie into greater spontaneity, with most songs recorded in one take, and lyrics left unpolished, thus giving the band a ragged, punk rock edge. On tour, Bowie said of the band and its music, "This is not music to get up and have breakfast to by any means. And we're not the most comfortable band in the world to watch. If you're looking for a dance band, we ain't it."
In contemporary interviews, the band claimed their musical influences were Gene Krupa, Charlie Mingus, Jimi Hendrix, Glenn Branca, Mountain, Cream, and the Jeff Beck Group.
According to Bowie, the group decided when they formed that they'd play from album to album, and that "if we were still getting on with each other – which was the priority – that we'd continue."
Band name
The group chose the name Tin Machine after one of the songs they had written. Tony Sales joked that, as all four members were divorced when the band formed, originally the band was going to be called "The Four Divorcés" or "Alimony Inc." Gabrels suggested calling the band "White Noise", but Bowie dismissed it as too "racist". Other names that were considered and discarded included "Leather Weasel" and "The Emperor's New Clothes". Gabrels later elaborated on the real name choice, saying the band's name "worked on a number of levels for us. The archaic – the idea of tin, which is still everywhere: tin cans, when you go to the supermarket; when you walk down the street you find rusting tin. It's such a supposedly archaic material, but it's everywhere. Sort of like the idea of us playing this music and not using drum machines and sequencers and things like that. There's a point at which it connects. At least for us. And the final thing, for lack of a better name."
1988–89: First album and tour
The band's self-titled first album was recorded in late 1988 and early 1989. It produced mixed but generally positive reviews upon release in May 1989, picking up favourable comparisons with Bowie's two more recent solo albums. Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart, but sales quickly tailed off. Gabrels claimed in 1991 that album sales from the first album were "ten times better" than he had anticipated. At the time of the release of the album, Bowie was enthusiastic about the band and the work they'd done, and felt that band had in them "another two albums at least."
Contrary to common reports, the band's first live performance together wasn't at the International Rock Awards Show on 31 May 1989. Prior to that show, the band played an unannounced show in Nassau. Bowie recalled "We showed up at a club in Nassau where we were recording and did four or five songs. We went down to the club and just did 'em." Added Gabrels, "We just walked up on stage and you could hear all these voices whispering, 'That's David Bowie! No, it can't be David Bowie, he's got a beard!'"
The band recognized that some fans and critics didn't like Bowie's new role in the band. Said Tony Sales, "Mainly, people are pissed off because David's not doing 'David Bowie.'" Bowie confirmed that Tin Machine live shows would be "non-theatrical" in contrast to his most recent tour.
The band undertook a low-key tour in small venues between 14 June and 3 July 1989, before further recording sessions in Sydney, Australia. During these sessions Tin Machine contributed to a surfing compilation album, Beyond the Beach, with a new instrumental song titled "Needles on the Beach". A partial recording of their show from this tour recorded at La Cigale in Paris on 25 June 1989 was released digitally in August 2019.
1990–91: Second album and tour
The group then went on hiatus while Bowie conducted his solo Sound+Vision Tour. In December 1990, Bowie split from EMI. Hunt Sales said that EMI "kind of freaked out a little bit at the strident, single-less Tin Machine debut", which partially explained why Bowie switched music labels. In March 1991, the band signed to Victory Music, a new label launched by JVC and distributed worldwide by London Records and PolyGram, and recorded more new material. This was combined with tracks from the Sydney sessions to form the Tin Machine II album. The album was described as "just as impure and twisted [as their first album], but more R&B and less abrasive." Gabrels explained the change between the first and second album was because by the second album, "we knew one another as musicians. ... It wasn't as dense. And we actually left more room, I think for David to come up with some interesting melodies. There was more room for vocals on this record."
In late 1991 Bowie reiterated that he was still happy being in the band during that time, stating "I'm content. … I'm deriving a great deal of fulfillment from working with Tin Machine", and band-mate Gabrels agreed, saying "we're doing exactly what we wanted to do." During press performances for songs on the album, Gabrels played his guitar with a vibrator and for a performance on BBC's Top of the Pops, who banned the use of the vibrator, he mimed playing his guitar with a chocolate éclair.
In early August 1991, the band began promotional performances for the album, starting with TV appearances in the UK. From 5 October 1991 to 17 February 1992, the group went on their It's My Life Tour, which was a longer tour than their first. The band was joined on this tour by guitarist Eric Schermerhorn. On 23 November 1991, the band was the musical guest during Saturday Night Lives 17th season.
1992: Live album and dissolution
Tracks from the "It's My Life" tour were released on the July 1992 album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby. The album did not sell well and there was speculation that the failure of this album to achieve commercial success was among the reasons that the band ultimately broke up. As early as 1990, Bowie knew he'd be going back to solo work, although not because he disliked working with the band. He said "I have very definite ideas of what I want to do as a solo artist, which I'll be starting on probably late next year [1991], again completely different, hopefully, from what I've done before." Shortly after the release of Oy Vey, Baby, Bowie returned to solo recording with his single "Real Cool World", but he maintained intentions to return to the studio with Tin Machine in 1993 for a third album. These plans would fail to come to fruition, however, and the band shortly thereafter dissolved. There were allegations that Hunt Sales' growing drug addiction was responsible for the band's end, but of Tin Machine's dissolution, Bowie merely said "personal problems within the band became the reason for its demise. It’s not for me to talk about them, but it became physically impossible for us to carry on. And that was pretty sad really."
Band legacy
The band earned mixed reviews during their short career. In later years, critics have reappraised the band more warmly and Tin Machine have been found "unjustly" harshly reviewed. One critic suggested that part of the reason for its poor reception was that Tin Machine's music was somewhat ahead of its time, and that the band "explored alternative and grunge before the styles were even widely known to exist." Another critic agreed, with yet another suggesting that Tin Machine and Bowie were "merely ahead of the curve. A prophet, a voice in the desert predicting the coming of Nirvana. At the time, Nirvana was toiling in Seattle obscurity, pushing its debut Bleach on Sub Pop at every dive it played." Tim Palmer, after producing Tin Machine's two studio albums, would go on to mix Pearl Jam's grunge album Ten in 1991, and later recalled to Gabrels that he had come into the studio one day to find Pearl Jam listening to Tin Machine's "Heaven's in Here".
In 1996, Bowie reflected on his time with Tin Machine: "For better or worse it helped me to pin down what I did and didn’t enjoy about being an artist. It helped me, I feel, to recover as an artist. And I do feel that for the past few years I’ve been absolutely in charge of my artistic path again. I’m working to my own criteria. I’m not doing anything I would feel ashamed of in the future, or that I would look back on and say my heart wasn’t in that."
In 1997, when asked if he thought the band was still underrated, Bowie said, "It's going to be interesting, isn't it? As the songs creep out in different forms over the years, I assume that eventually it'll be evaluated in a different way. I'm not sure people will ever be sympathetic to it entirely. But as the years go by, I think they'll be less hostile. I think it was quite a brave band and I think there were some extremely good pieces of work done. And I think they'll kind of show themselves over time." Bowie and Gabrels re-recorded a few Tin Machine tracks during this time, including "I Can't Read" and "Baby Universal", with the former being released on the soundtrack to the movie The Ice Storm (1997) and both as a part of Bowie's posthumous Is It Any Wonder? (2020).
By the end of the 20th century, Bowie looked back at his time with the band as invaluable, saying "I had to kick-start my engine again in music. There'd been a wobbly moment where I could quite easily have gone reclusive and just worked on visual stuff, paint and sculpt and all that. I had made a lot of money: I thought, well, I could just bugger off and do my Gauguin in Tahiti bit now. But then what do you do – re-emerge at 60 somewhere? So I look back on the Tin Machine years with great fondness. They charged me up. I can’t tell you how much."
Despite some reports to the contrary, Bowie stated several times over his years with Tin Machine that he was happy working in the band. Bowie used his time with the band as a way to revitalize himself and his career, which he would later in March 1997 call a "lifeline", citing Reeves Gabrels as a source of his new-found energy and direction:
Personnel
David Bowie – lead vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, saxophone
Reeves Gabrels – electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals
Tony Fox Sales – bass guitar, backing vocals
Hunt Sales – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Singles
Other appearances
Music videos
Music video films
Live concert films
References
See also
List of musical supergroups
Citations
External links
Tin Machine's live performance at the 1989 International Rock Awards (Youtube)
British hard rock musical groups
American hard rock musical groups
Rock music supergroups
Musical groups established in 1988
Musical groups disestablished in 1992
EMI Records artists
David Bowie | true | [
"Open is the first solo studio album by the English recording artist Shaznay Lewis, following the break up of the girl group All Saints. Released by London Records on 19 July 2004, it peaked at number 22 on the UK Albums Chart.\n\nAbout the album\nThe title Open was chosen by Lewis while she was recording in the studio because she was \"opened\" to many new ideas at the time.\n\nIt includes two singles, \"Never Felt Like This Before\" and \"You\". Lewis was reportedly going to release a third single, \"Nasty Boy\", in March 2005, but this was a rumour.\n\nTrack #3 was originally called \"Never Felt Like This Before\" and the single and video were released under that name as well. However, on the album the title has been changed to \"I Never Felt Like This Before\".\n\nThere was an additional track called \"Don't Know What to Say\" which was removed from the album before it was released. It was removed because it was said to have been a weak song. The album (without any promotion) seems to have been re-released, as \"Don't Know What to Say\" is now an added track on the album. This change can be seen on the HMV website.\n\nThe final track, \"Now You're Gone\", was originally called \"Crying\" but was changed before the album was released. The song is included on the Shaznay Lewis Album Sampler which has five songs taken from Open; however, \"Mr. Dawg\" and \"You\" are both rough demos different from the album versions both vocally and melodically.\n\nTrack listing\nCredits adapted from the liner notes of Open.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n2004 debut albums\nAlbums produced by Rick Nowels",
"Myriam is the second studio album by Myriam. On her website it is also called \"Myriam: Lo que Soy, lo que Pretendo y lo que Fui\" (Myriam: What I Am, What I Pretend and What I Was) making reference to the lyrics of the album's first single \"Hasta El Limite\". It includes eleven songs with the collaboration of Tiziano Ferro, Leonel (ex Sin Bandera). Again Myriam co-wrote a song along with Estrella. In this album Myriam brought a more fresh concept, almost 100% pop genre with a little touches of flamenco. It was released in July, 2004.\n\nAlbum information\nIt was recorded in Argentina and the producer was Cachorro López who had also worked with Julieta Venegas. Myriam's career was at a low point, as she was being criticized for her third place in Desafio de Estrellas, but all that was eclipsed by the success of this album. \"Hasta el Limite\" was the first single from the album; it was Myriam's first song with a promotional video, and stayed in the charts for more than 6 months. The second single was \"Porque Soy Mujer\" which was written by Myriam and her ex-classmate Estrella.\n\nThe album was a commercial success. Within two weeks of the launch date it reached gold status in Mexico, and sold more than 200,000 copies certificating 2× Platinum. The album was a Latin success in USA selling gold status, 50,000 copies.\n\nTrack listing\n\nReferences\n\n2003 albums\nMyriam Montemayor Cruz albums"
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"when was their first album released?",
"release in May 1989,",
"what was the album called?",
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| C_9d71042505bd46adb2a9dff2c991687e_1 | did it do well on the charts? | 3 | did self-titled first album do well on the charts? | Tin Machine | The band's self-titled first album was recorded in late 1988 and early 1989. It produced mixed but generally positive reviews upon release in May 1989, picking up favourable comparisons with Bowie's two more recent solo albums. Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart, but sales quickly tailed off. Gabrels claimed in 1991 that album sales from the first album were "ten times better" than he had anticipated. At the time of the release of the album, Bowie was enthusiastic about the band and the work they'd done, and felt that band had in them "another two albums at least." Contrary to common reports, the band's first live performance together wasn't at the International Rock Awards Show on 31 May 1989. Prior to that show, the band played an unannounced show in Nassau. Bowie recalled "We showed up at a club in Nassau where we were recording and did four or five songs. We went down to the club and just did 'em." Added Gabrels, "We just walked up on stage and you could hear all these voices whispering, 'That's David Bowie! No, it can't be David Bowie, he's got a beard!'" The band recognized that some fans and critics didn't like Bowie's new role in the band. Said Tony Sales, "Mainly, people are pissed off because David's not doing 'David Bowie.'" Bowie confirmed that Tin Machine live shows would be "non-theatrical" in contrast to his most recent tour. The band undertook a low-key tour in small venues between 14 June and 3 July 1989, before further recording sessions in Sydney, Australia. During these sessions Tin Machine contributed to a surfing compilation album, Beyond the Beach, with a new instrumental song titled "Needles on the Beach". CANNOTANSWER | Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart, | Tin Machine were a British–American hard rock supergroup formed in 1988, notable for being fronted by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. The band consisted of Bowie on lead vocals, sax, and guitar; Reeves Gabrels on guitar and vocals; Tony Fox Sales on bass and vocals; and Hunt Sales on drums and vocals. Tony and Hunt had previously performed alongside Bowie as part of Iggy Pop's backing band during his 1977 tour for The Idiot. Kevin Armstrong played additional guitar and keyboards on the band's first studio album and first tour, and American guitarist Eric Schermerhorn played on the second tour and live album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby (1992).
Drummer Hunt Sales said that the band's name "reflects the sound of the band," and Bowie stated that he and his band members joined up "to make the kind of music that we enjoyed listening to" and to rejuvenate himself artistically.
The band recorded two studio albums and one live album before dissolving in 1992, after which Bowie returned to his solo career. By the end of 2012, they had reportedly sold two million albums. Bowie would later credit his time with Tin Machine as instrumental in revitalising his career after the 1980s.
History
1987–88: Band genesis
The album Never Let Me Down (1987) and subsequent Glass Spider Tour had left critics unimpressed, and Bowie was aware of his low standing. Eager to return to making music for himself rather than the mainstream audience he had acquired following the Let's Dance album,
Bowie looked around for collaborators to work with. He briefly worked with Bon Jovi producer Bruce Fairbairn in Los Angeles, recording a few tracks, including a demo of "Lucy Can't Dance" (which was eventually re-recorded and released on Bowie's 1993 solo album Black Tie White Noise) and a version of Bob Dylan's song "Like A Rolling Stone", but this did not bear much fruit, and the Dylan cover was passed to his friend Mick Ronson, where it was released on his posthumous album Heaven and Hull (1994). Soon after, Bowie began collaborating with Reeves Gabrels, who pushed the singer to rediscover his experimental side.
Bowie and Gabrels had initially met through Gabrels' then-wife Sara Terry, who was part of the press staff for the North American leg of Bowie's 1987 Glass Spider world tour. The two men had struck up a friendship when Gabrels visited at several tour venues. Notably, their relationship began as a social one, as Gabrels didn't mention that he himself was a musician. Common interests in popular culture and the visual arts provided more than enough to talk about, Gabrels explained in later interviews, and also because he was in his wife's workplace, he felt it wasn't appropriate to bring up his own music. At the tour's end, Bowie kindly asked Terry if he could do anything for her. In response, Terry gave Bowie a tape of Gabrels' guitar playing. Months later, after listening to the tape, Bowie phoned Gabrels to invite him to get together to play and write. Bowie told him that he felt he had "lost his vision" and was looking for ways to get it back. After a month working together, Gabrels asked Bowie what he wanted of him, and, according to Gabrels, Bowie said "Basically, I need somebody that can do a combination of Beck, Hendrix, Belew and Fripp, with a little Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King thrown in. Then, when I’m not singing, you take the ball and do something with it, and when you hand the ball back to me, it might not even be the same ball."
The first public fruits of Bowie and Gabrels working together came with a new arrangement by Gabrels of the song "Look Back in Anger" which Bowie had written with Brian Eno in 1979 for the album Lodger. The occasion was a benefit show at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) on 1 July 1988 at which Bowie had been invited to perform with the avant-garde dance troupe La La La Human Steps. Bowie sang, played and danced with troupe members while in lighted grottoes upstage three musicians (Gabrels on guitar, Kevin Armstrong on guitar, and Erdal Kızılçay on bass) played the new minute score that Gabrels created from the 3-minute song; the new material included drums programmed by Kızılçay. "We went into the studio to rearrange it," said Bowie in a filmed interview; "I like the hard-edged wall of guitar sound that we put into it."
Gabrels recalled that early on, they weren't sure who they'd work with. They discussed working with Terry Bozzio on drums and Percy Jones on bass. But Bowie, who had run into Tony Sales in Los Angeles at a wrap party for his Glass Spider Tour, convinced Tony to call his brother Hunt so they could work together again, as Tony and Hunt had performed with David Bowie in support of Iggy Pop in the late 1970s. Tony recalled that Bowie was "thinking about getting a band together — something together. He didn't know exactly what he wanted to do, but he wanted Hunt and I to meet Reeves and maybe we could all write together, come up with something."
Bowie himself was surprised with how things came together with the band, saying, "I'd never wanted to be in a band until we got together. And as we were getting together, it wasn't really occurring to me that this is what I wanted to do. It took a week or so of actually being in the studio and working, and then I think we fully realized the potential, musically, for what we were doing and wanted to stick with it. I was quite happy to go off and make a solo album. I was quite excited about a couple of things I was doing, which I brought into the band and which were irrevocably changed. But that's the nature of the band."
Bowie was pleased that the band members clicked, calling the ease at which the personalities came together "inspired guesswork". Hunt and Tony, the two sons of comic Soupy Sales, kept the mood jovial during recording sessions and interviews. Bowie later rejected the idea that Reeves, Hunt and Tony were backing members of his band. "The Sales brothers would never accept having another boss. They are far too stubborn and aware of their own needs. They're not in the market to be anybody's backing band, either of them. You do not fuck with the Sales brothers, or Reeves Gabrels." Gabrels said that Bowie came in one day while the group was first forming and said, "I think this has got to be a band. Everybody's got input. Everybody's writing. You guys don't listen to me anyway." The band split profits four ways, no one was on a salary and each member paid for his own expenses. Bowie also clarified that "the band will cease to exist the moment it ceases to be a musical experience for any of us. None of us wanted to get into the kind of situation where you find yourself making albums because you're contracted to." The group setup allowed Bowie a certain level of anonymity, and to that end, Bowie stipulated that all four members divide interviews equally between them and that in the cases where he was interviewed, that another member of the band be present as well. He made a point to clarify that he didn't invite the others to join "his" band, rather, "the band literally came together."
The Sales brothers moved the tone of the sessions away from art-rock and more towards hard rock, and Bowie looked to one of his favorite bands at the time, Pixies, for inspiration. The Sales brothers heckled Bowie into greater spontaneity, with most songs recorded in one take, and lyrics left unpolished, thus giving the band a ragged, punk rock edge. On tour, Bowie said of the band and its music, "This is not music to get up and have breakfast to by any means. And we're not the most comfortable band in the world to watch. If you're looking for a dance band, we ain't it."
In contemporary interviews, the band claimed their musical influences were Gene Krupa, Charlie Mingus, Jimi Hendrix, Glenn Branca, Mountain, Cream, and the Jeff Beck Group.
According to Bowie, the group decided when they formed that they'd play from album to album, and that "if we were still getting on with each other – which was the priority – that we'd continue."
Band name
The group chose the name Tin Machine after one of the songs they had written. Tony Sales joked that, as all four members were divorced when the band formed, originally the band was going to be called "The Four Divorcés" or "Alimony Inc." Gabrels suggested calling the band "White Noise", but Bowie dismissed it as too "racist". Other names that were considered and discarded included "Leather Weasel" and "The Emperor's New Clothes". Gabrels later elaborated on the real name choice, saying the band's name "worked on a number of levels for us. The archaic – the idea of tin, which is still everywhere: tin cans, when you go to the supermarket; when you walk down the street you find rusting tin. It's such a supposedly archaic material, but it's everywhere. Sort of like the idea of us playing this music and not using drum machines and sequencers and things like that. There's a point at which it connects. At least for us. And the final thing, for lack of a better name."
1988–89: First album and tour
The band's self-titled first album was recorded in late 1988 and early 1989. It produced mixed but generally positive reviews upon release in May 1989, picking up favourable comparisons with Bowie's two more recent solo albums. Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart, but sales quickly tailed off. Gabrels claimed in 1991 that album sales from the first album were "ten times better" than he had anticipated. At the time of the release of the album, Bowie was enthusiastic about the band and the work they'd done, and felt that band had in them "another two albums at least."
Contrary to common reports, the band's first live performance together wasn't at the International Rock Awards Show on 31 May 1989. Prior to that show, the band played an unannounced show in Nassau. Bowie recalled "We showed up at a club in Nassau where we were recording and did four or five songs. We went down to the club and just did 'em." Added Gabrels, "We just walked up on stage and you could hear all these voices whispering, 'That's David Bowie! No, it can't be David Bowie, he's got a beard!'"
The band recognized that some fans and critics didn't like Bowie's new role in the band. Said Tony Sales, "Mainly, people are pissed off because David's not doing 'David Bowie.'" Bowie confirmed that Tin Machine live shows would be "non-theatrical" in contrast to his most recent tour.
The band undertook a low-key tour in small venues between 14 June and 3 July 1989, before further recording sessions in Sydney, Australia. During these sessions Tin Machine contributed to a surfing compilation album, Beyond the Beach, with a new instrumental song titled "Needles on the Beach". A partial recording of their show from this tour recorded at La Cigale in Paris on 25 June 1989 was released digitally in August 2019.
1990–91: Second album and tour
The group then went on hiatus while Bowie conducted his solo Sound+Vision Tour. In December 1990, Bowie split from EMI. Hunt Sales said that EMI "kind of freaked out a little bit at the strident, single-less Tin Machine debut", which partially explained why Bowie switched music labels. In March 1991, the band signed to Victory Music, a new label launched by JVC and distributed worldwide by London Records and PolyGram, and recorded more new material. This was combined with tracks from the Sydney sessions to form the Tin Machine II album. The album was described as "just as impure and twisted [as their first album], but more R&B and less abrasive." Gabrels explained the change between the first and second album was because by the second album, "we knew one another as musicians. ... It wasn't as dense. And we actually left more room, I think for David to come up with some interesting melodies. There was more room for vocals on this record."
In late 1991 Bowie reiterated that he was still happy being in the band during that time, stating "I'm content. … I'm deriving a great deal of fulfillment from working with Tin Machine", and band-mate Gabrels agreed, saying "we're doing exactly what we wanted to do." During press performances for songs on the album, Gabrels played his guitar with a vibrator and for a performance on BBC's Top of the Pops, who banned the use of the vibrator, he mimed playing his guitar with a chocolate éclair.
In early August 1991, the band began promotional performances for the album, starting with TV appearances in the UK. From 5 October 1991 to 17 February 1992, the group went on their It's My Life Tour, which was a longer tour than their first. The band was joined on this tour by guitarist Eric Schermerhorn. On 23 November 1991, the band was the musical guest during Saturday Night Lives 17th season.
1992: Live album and dissolution
Tracks from the "It's My Life" tour were released on the July 1992 album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby. The album did not sell well and there was speculation that the failure of this album to achieve commercial success was among the reasons that the band ultimately broke up. As early as 1990, Bowie knew he'd be going back to solo work, although not because he disliked working with the band. He said "I have very definite ideas of what I want to do as a solo artist, which I'll be starting on probably late next year [1991], again completely different, hopefully, from what I've done before." Shortly after the release of Oy Vey, Baby, Bowie returned to solo recording with his single "Real Cool World", but he maintained intentions to return to the studio with Tin Machine in 1993 for a third album. These plans would fail to come to fruition, however, and the band shortly thereafter dissolved. There were allegations that Hunt Sales' growing drug addiction was responsible for the band's end, but of Tin Machine's dissolution, Bowie merely said "personal problems within the band became the reason for its demise. It’s not for me to talk about them, but it became physically impossible for us to carry on. And that was pretty sad really."
Band legacy
The band earned mixed reviews during their short career. In later years, critics have reappraised the band more warmly and Tin Machine have been found "unjustly" harshly reviewed. One critic suggested that part of the reason for its poor reception was that Tin Machine's music was somewhat ahead of its time, and that the band "explored alternative and grunge before the styles were even widely known to exist." Another critic agreed, with yet another suggesting that Tin Machine and Bowie were "merely ahead of the curve. A prophet, a voice in the desert predicting the coming of Nirvana. At the time, Nirvana was toiling in Seattle obscurity, pushing its debut Bleach on Sub Pop at every dive it played." Tim Palmer, after producing Tin Machine's two studio albums, would go on to mix Pearl Jam's grunge album Ten in 1991, and later recalled to Gabrels that he had come into the studio one day to find Pearl Jam listening to Tin Machine's "Heaven's in Here".
In 1996, Bowie reflected on his time with Tin Machine: "For better or worse it helped me to pin down what I did and didn’t enjoy about being an artist. It helped me, I feel, to recover as an artist. And I do feel that for the past few years I’ve been absolutely in charge of my artistic path again. I’m working to my own criteria. I’m not doing anything I would feel ashamed of in the future, or that I would look back on and say my heart wasn’t in that."
In 1997, when asked if he thought the band was still underrated, Bowie said, "It's going to be interesting, isn't it? As the songs creep out in different forms over the years, I assume that eventually it'll be evaluated in a different way. I'm not sure people will ever be sympathetic to it entirely. But as the years go by, I think they'll be less hostile. I think it was quite a brave band and I think there were some extremely good pieces of work done. And I think they'll kind of show themselves over time." Bowie and Gabrels re-recorded a few Tin Machine tracks during this time, including "I Can't Read" and "Baby Universal", with the former being released on the soundtrack to the movie The Ice Storm (1997) and both as a part of Bowie's posthumous Is It Any Wonder? (2020).
By the end of the 20th century, Bowie looked back at his time with the band as invaluable, saying "I had to kick-start my engine again in music. There'd been a wobbly moment where I could quite easily have gone reclusive and just worked on visual stuff, paint and sculpt and all that. I had made a lot of money: I thought, well, I could just bugger off and do my Gauguin in Tahiti bit now. But then what do you do – re-emerge at 60 somewhere? So I look back on the Tin Machine years with great fondness. They charged me up. I can’t tell you how much."
Despite some reports to the contrary, Bowie stated several times over his years with Tin Machine that he was happy working in the band. Bowie used his time with the band as a way to revitalize himself and his career, which he would later in March 1997 call a "lifeline", citing Reeves Gabrels as a source of his new-found energy and direction:
Personnel
David Bowie – lead vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, saxophone
Reeves Gabrels – electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals
Tony Fox Sales – bass guitar, backing vocals
Hunt Sales – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Singles
Other appearances
Music videos
Music video films
Live concert films
References
See also
List of musical supergroups
Citations
External links
Tin Machine's live performance at the 1989 International Rock Awards (Youtube)
British hard rock musical groups
American hard rock musical groups
Rock music supergroups
Musical groups established in 1988
Musical groups disestablished in 1992
EMI Records artists
David Bowie | true | [
"Treddin' on Thin Ice is the debut album by UK grime artist Wiley released on XL Recordings. It was released on 26 April 2004. The album is seen as a critical success in grime music with an enduring and influential forward facing sound. However, commercially the album did not do as well, with one single (\"Wot Do U Call It\", a song addressing the debate over the categorization of grime) making the top 40 in the UK music charts.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCertifications\n\nReferences\n\n2004 debut albums\nWiley (musician) albums\nXL Recordings albums",
"\"Do The Limbo Dance\" is a song by American actor and singer David Hasselhoff. It was released in July 1991 as the lead single from Hasselhoff's fifth studio album David (1991). The song was produced by Jack White, and written by him and Charles Blackwell. The song was a huge hit in Austria, where it reached number one.\n\nRelease and promotion\n\"Do The Limbo Dance\" was released in July 1990, and Hasselhoff performed the song live on several TV shows across Europe, including Kultnacht in Germany and Le monde est la vous in France. The song went on to became part of the set-list of Hasselhoff's concert tours, starting with the Dreams Come True Tour in November 1991.\n\nChart performance\nIn Austria, \"Do The Limbo Dance\" debuted at number 25, and reached number one on its seventh week, becoming Hasselhoff's second chart-topper single in the country, following \"Looking for Freedom\" (1988), and remained for a total of 28 weeks, and later certified Gold in the country. The song also did well in Germany, where it peaked at number 12 and remained for 22 weeks. In Switzerland, the song peaked at number 19 and remained for eight weeks. It also reached number 35 on the European Hot 100 Singles.\n\nTrack listing\n \"Do The Limbo Dance\" (Long Version) — 5:20\n \"Do The Limbo Dance\" (Radio Version) — 3:55\n \"Do The Limbo Dance\" (Instrumental) — 3:55\n\nCharts and sales\n\nWeekly charts\n\nCertifications and sales\n\nYear-end charts\n\nDecade-end charts\n\nReferences\n\n1991 singles\nDavid Hasselhoff songs\nSongs written by Jack White (music producer)"
]
|
[
"Tin Machine",
"1988-89: First album and tour",
"when was their first album released?",
"release in May 1989,",
"what was the album called?",
"self-titled first album",
"did it do well on the charts?",
"Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart,"
]
| C_9d71042505bd46adb2a9dff2c991687e_1 | what about in the US? | 4 | Did self-titled first album do well in the US? | Tin Machine | The band's self-titled first album was recorded in late 1988 and early 1989. It produced mixed but generally positive reviews upon release in May 1989, picking up favourable comparisons with Bowie's two more recent solo albums. Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart, but sales quickly tailed off. Gabrels claimed in 1991 that album sales from the first album were "ten times better" than he had anticipated. At the time of the release of the album, Bowie was enthusiastic about the band and the work they'd done, and felt that band had in them "another two albums at least." Contrary to common reports, the band's first live performance together wasn't at the International Rock Awards Show on 31 May 1989. Prior to that show, the band played an unannounced show in Nassau. Bowie recalled "We showed up at a club in Nassau where we were recording and did four or five songs. We went down to the club and just did 'em." Added Gabrels, "We just walked up on stage and you could hear all these voices whispering, 'That's David Bowie! No, it can't be David Bowie, he's got a beard!'" The band recognized that some fans and critics didn't like Bowie's new role in the band. Said Tony Sales, "Mainly, people are pissed off because David's not doing 'David Bowie.'" Bowie confirmed that Tin Machine live shows would be "non-theatrical" in contrast to his most recent tour. The band undertook a low-key tour in small venues between 14 June and 3 July 1989, before further recording sessions in Sydney, Australia. During these sessions Tin Machine contributed to a surfing compilation album, Beyond the Beach, with a new instrumental song titled "Needles on the Beach". CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Tin Machine were a British–American hard rock supergroup formed in 1988, notable for being fronted by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. The band consisted of Bowie on lead vocals, sax, and guitar; Reeves Gabrels on guitar and vocals; Tony Fox Sales on bass and vocals; and Hunt Sales on drums and vocals. Tony and Hunt had previously performed alongside Bowie as part of Iggy Pop's backing band during his 1977 tour for The Idiot. Kevin Armstrong played additional guitar and keyboards on the band's first studio album and first tour, and American guitarist Eric Schermerhorn played on the second tour and live album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby (1992).
Drummer Hunt Sales said that the band's name "reflects the sound of the band," and Bowie stated that he and his band members joined up "to make the kind of music that we enjoyed listening to" and to rejuvenate himself artistically.
The band recorded two studio albums and one live album before dissolving in 1992, after which Bowie returned to his solo career. By the end of 2012, they had reportedly sold two million albums. Bowie would later credit his time with Tin Machine as instrumental in revitalising his career after the 1980s.
History
1987–88: Band genesis
The album Never Let Me Down (1987) and subsequent Glass Spider Tour had left critics unimpressed, and Bowie was aware of his low standing. Eager to return to making music for himself rather than the mainstream audience he had acquired following the Let's Dance album,
Bowie looked around for collaborators to work with. He briefly worked with Bon Jovi producer Bruce Fairbairn in Los Angeles, recording a few tracks, including a demo of "Lucy Can't Dance" (which was eventually re-recorded and released on Bowie's 1993 solo album Black Tie White Noise) and a version of Bob Dylan's song "Like A Rolling Stone", but this did not bear much fruit, and the Dylan cover was passed to his friend Mick Ronson, where it was released on his posthumous album Heaven and Hull (1994). Soon after, Bowie began collaborating with Reeves Gabrels, who pushed the singer to rediscover his experimental side.
Bowie and Gabrels had initially met through Gabrels' then-wife Sara Terry, who was part of the press staff for the North American leg of Bowie's 1987 Glass Spider world tour. The two men had struck up a friendship when Gabrels visited at several tour venues. Notably, their relationship began as a social one, as Gabrels didn't mention that he himself was a musician. Common interests in popular culture and the visual arts provided more than enough to talk about, Gabrels explained in later interviews, and also because he was in his wife's workplace, he felt it wasn't appropriate to bring up his own music. At the tour's end, Bowie kindly asked Terry if he could do anything for her. In response, Terry gave Bowie a tape of Gabrels' guitar playing. Months later, after listening to the tape, Bowie phoned Gabrels to invite him to get together to play and write. Bowie told him that he felt he had "lost his vision" and was looking for ways to get it back. After a month working together, Gabrels asked Bowie what he wanted of him, and, according to Gabrels, Bowie said "Basically, I need somebody that can do a combination of Beck, Hendrix, Belew and Fripp, with a little Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King thrown in. Then, when I’m not singing, you take the ball and do something with it, and when you hand the ball back to me, it might not even be the same ball."
The first public fruits of Bowie and Gabrels working together came with a new arrangement by Gabrels of the song "Look Back in Anger" which Bowie had written with Brian Eno in 1979 for the album Lodger. The occasion was a benefit show at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) on 1 July 1988 at which Bowie had been invited to perform with the avant-garde dance troupe La La La Human Steps. Bowie sang, played and danced with troupe members while in lighted grottoes upstage three musicians (Gabrels on guitar, Kevin Armstrong on guitar, and Erdal Kızılçay on bass) played the new minute score that Gabrels created from the 3-minute song; the new material included drums programmed by Kızılçay. "We went into the studio to rearrange it," said Bowie in a filmed interview; "I like the hard-edged wall of guitar sound that we put into it."
Gabrels recalled that early on, they weren't sure who they'd work with. They discussed working with Terry Bozzio on drums and Percy Jones on bass. But Bowie, who had run into Tony Sales in Los Angeles at a wrap party for his Glass Spider Tour, convinced Tony to call his brother Hunt so they could work together again, as Tony and Hunt had performed with David Bowie in support of Iggy Pop in the late 1970s. Tony recalled that Bowie was "thinking about getting a band together — something together. He didn't know exactly what he wanted to do, but he wanted Hunt and I to meet Reeves and maybe we could all write together, come up with something."
Bowie himself was surprised with how things came together with the band, saying, "I'd never wanted to be in a band until we got together. And as we were getting together, it wasn't really occurring to me that this is what I wanted to do. It took a week or so of actually being in the studio and working, and then I think we fully realized the potential, musically, for what we were doing and wanted to stick with it. I was quite happy to go off and make a solo album. I was quite excited about a couple of things I was doing, which I brought into the band and which were irrevocably changed. But that's the nature of the band."
Bowie was pleased that the band members clicked, calling the ease at which the personalities came together "inspired guesswork". Hunt and Tony, the two sons of comic Soupy Sales, kept the mood jovial during recording sessions and interviews. Bowie later rejected the idea that Reeves, Hunt and Tony were backing members of his band. "The Sales brothers would never accept having another boss. They are far too stubborn and aware of their own needs. They're not in the market to be anybody's backing band, either of them. You do not fuck with the Sales brothers, or Reeves Gabrels." Gabrels said that Bowie came in one day while the group was first forming and said, "I think this has got to be a band. Everybody's got input. Everybody's writing. You guys don't listen to me anyway." The band split profits four ways, no one was on a salary and each member paid for his own expenses. Bowie also clarified that "the band will cease to exist the moment it ceases to be a musical experience for any of us. None of us wanted to get into the kind of situation where you find yourself making albums because you're contracted to." The group setup allowed Bowie a certain level of anonymity, and to that end, Bowie stipulated that all four members divide interviews equally between them and that in the cases where he was interviewed, that another member of the band be present as well. He made a point to clarify that he didn't invite the others to join "his" band, rather, "the band literally came together."
The Sales brothers moved the tone of the sessions away from art-rock and more towards hard rock, and Bowie looked to one of his favorite bands at the time, Pixies, for inspiration. The Sales brothers heckled Bowie into greater spontaneity, with most songs recorded in one take, and lyrics left unpolished, thus giving the band a ragged, punk rock edge. On tour, Bowie said of the band and its music, "This is not music to get up and have breakfast to by any means. And we're not the most comfortable band in the world to watch. If you're looking for a dance band, we ain't it."
In contemporary interviews, the band claimed their musical influences were Gene Krupa, Charlie Mingus, Jimi Hendrix, Glenn Branca, Mountain, Cream, and the Jeff Beck Group.
According to Bowie, the group decided when they formed that they'd play from album to album, and that "if we were still getting on with each other – which was the priority – that we'd continue."
Band name
The group chose the name Tin Machine after one of the songs they had written. Tony Sales joked that, as all four members were divorced when the band formed, originally the band was going to be called "The Four Divorcés" or "Alimony Inc." Gabrels suggested calling the band "White Noise", but Bowie dismissed it as too "racist". Other names that were considered and discarded included "Leather Weasel" and "The Emperor's New Clothes". Gabrels later elaborated on the real name choice, saying the band's name "worked on a number of levels for us. The archaic – the idea of tin, which is still everywhere: tin cans, when you go to the supermarket; when you walk down the street you find rusting tin. It's such a supposedly archaic material, but it's everywhere. Sort of like the idea of us playing this music and not using drum machines and sequencers and things like that. There's a point at which it connects. At least for us. And the final thing, for lack of a better name."
1988–89: First album and tour
The band's self-titled first album was recorded in late 1988 and early 1989. It produced mixed but generally positive reviews upon release in May 1989, picking up favourable comparisons with Bowie's two more recent solo albums. Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart, but sales quickly tailed off. Gabrels claimed in 1991 that album sales from the first album were "ten times better" than he had anticipated. At the time of the release of the album, Bowie was enthusiastic about the band and the work they'd done, and felt that band had in them "another two albums at least."
Contrary to common reports, the band's first live performance together wasn't at the International Rock Awards Show on 31 May 1989. Prior to that show, the band played an unannounced show in Nassau. Bowie recalled "We showed up at a club in Nassau where we were recording and did four or five songs. We went down to the club and just did 'em." Added Gabrels, "We just walked up on stage and you could hear all these voices whispering, 'That's David Bowie! No, it can't be David Bowie, he's got a beard!'"
The band recognized that some fans and critics didn't like Bowie's new role in the band. Said Tony Sales, "Mainly, people are pissed off because David's not doing 'David Bowie.'" Bowie confirmed that Tin Machine live shows would be "non-theatrical" in contrast to his most recent tour.
The band undertook a low-key tour in small venues between 14 June and 3 July 1989, before further recording sessions in Sydney, Australia. During these sessions Tin Machine contributed to a surfing compilation album, Beyond the Beach, with a new instrumental song titled "Needles on the Beach". A partial recording of their show from this tour recorded at La Cigale in Paris on 25 June 1989 was released digitally in August 2019.
1990–91: Second album and tour
The group then went on hiatus while Bowie conducted his solo Sound+Vision Tour. In December 1990, Bowie split from EMI. Hunt Sales said that EMI "kind of freaked out a little bit at the strident, single-less Tin Machine debut", which partially explained why Bowie switched music labels. In March 1991, the band signed to Victory Music, a new label launched by JVC and distributed worldwide by London Records and PolyGram, and recorded more new material. This was combined with tracks from the Sydney sessions to form the Tin Machine II album. The album was described as "just as impure and twisted [as their first album], but more R&B and less abrasive." Gabrels explained the change between the first and second album was because by the second album, "we knew one another as musicians. ... It wasn't as dense. And we actually left more room, I think for David to come up with some interesting melodies. There was more room for vocals on this record."
In late 1991 Bowie reiterated that he was still happy being in the band during that time, stating "I'm content. … I'm deriving a great deal of fulfillment from working with Tin Machine", and band-mate Gabrels agreed, saying "we're doing exactly what we wanted to do." During press performances for songs on the album, Gabrels played his guitar with a vibrator and for a performance on BBC's Top of the Pops, who banned the use of the vibrator, he mimed playing his guitar with a chocolate éclair.
In early August 1991, the band began promotional performances for the album, starting with TV appearances in the UK. From 5 October 1991 to 17 February 1992, the group went on their It's My Life Tour, which was a longer tour than their first. The band was joined on this tour by guitarist Eric Schermerhorn. On 23 November 1991, the band was the musical guest during Saturday Night Lives 17th season.
1992: Live album and dissolution
Tracks from the "It's My Life" tour were released on the July 1992 album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby. The album did not sell well and there was speculation that the failure of this album to achieve commercial success was among the reasons that the band ultimately broke up. As early as 1990, Bowie knew he'd be going back to solo work, although not because he disliked working with the band. He said "I have very definite ideas of what I want to do as a solo artist, which I'll be starting on probably late next year [1991], again completely different, hopefully, from what I've done before." Shortly after the release of Oy Vey, Baby, Bowie returned to solo recording with his single "Real Cool World", but he maintained intentions to return to the studio with Tin Machine in 1993 for a third album. These plans would fail to come to fruition, however, and the band shortly thereafter dissolved. There were allegations that Hunt Sales' growing drug addiction was responsible for the band's end, but of Tin Machine's dissolution, Bowie merely said "personal problems within the band became the reason for its demise. It’s not for me to talk about them, but it became physically impossible for us to carry on. And that was pretty sad really."
Band legacy
The band earned mixed reviews during their short career. In later years, critics have reappraised the band more warmly and Tin Machine have been found "unjustly" harshly reviewed. One critic suggested that part of the reason for its poor reception was that Tin Machine's music was somewhat ahead of its time, and that the band "explored alternative and grunge before the styles were even widely known to exist." Another critic agreed, with yet another suggesting that Tin Machine and Bowie were "merely ahead of the curve. A prophet, a voice in the desert predicting the coming of Nirvana. At the time, Nirvana was toiling in Seattle obscurity, pushing its debut Bleach on Sub Pop at every dive it played." Tim Palmer, after producing Tin Machine's two studio albums, would go on to mix Pearl Jam's grunge album Ten in 1991, and later recalled to Gabrels that he had come into the studio one day to find Pearl Jam listening to Tin Machine's "Heaven's in Here".
In 1996, Bowie reflected on his time with Tin Machine: "For better or worse it helped me to pin down what I did and didn’t enjoy about being an artist. It helped me, I feel, to recover as an artist. And I do feel that for the past few years I’ve been absolutely in charge of my artistic path again. I’m working to my own criteria. I’m not doing anything I would feel ashamed of in the future, or that I would look back on and say my heart wasn’t in that."
In 1997, when asked if he thought the band was still underrated, Bowie said, "It's going to be interesting, isn't it? As the songs creep out in different forms over the years, I assume that eventually it'll be evaluated in a different way. I'm not sure people will ever be sympathetic to it entirely. But as the years go by, I think they'll be less hostile. I think it was quite a brave band and I think there were some extremely good pieces of work done. And I think they'll kind of show themselves over time." Bowie and Gabrels re-recorded a few Tin Machine tracks during this time, including "I Can't Read" and "Baby Universal", with the former being released on the soundtrack to the movie The Ice Storm (1997) and both as a part of Bowie's posthumous Is It Any Wonder? (2020).
By the end of the 20th century, Bowie looked back at his time with the band as invaluable, saying "I had to kick-start my engine again in music. There'd been a wobbly moment where I could quite easily have gone reclusive and just worked on visual stuff, paint and sculpt and all that. I had made a lot of money: I thought, well, I could just bugger off and do my Gauguin in Tahiti bit now. But then what do you do – re-emerge at 60 somewhere? So I look back on the Tin Machine years with great fondness. They charged me up. I can’t tell you how much."
Despite some reports to the contrary, Bowie stated several times over his years with Tin Machine that he was happy working in the band. Bowie used his time with the band as a way to revitalize himself and his career, which he would later in March 1997 call a "lifeline", citing Reeves Gabrels as a source of his new-found energy and direction:
Personnel
David Bowie – lead vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, saxophone
Reeves Gabrels – electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals
Tony Fox Sales – bass guitar, backing vocals
Hunt Sales – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Singles
Other appearances
Music videos
Music video films
Live concert films
References
See also
List of musical supergroups
Citations
External links
Tin Machine's live performance at the 1989 International Rock Awards (Youtube)
British hard rock musical groups
American hard rock musical groups
Rock music supergroups
Musical groups established in 1988
Musical groups disestablished in 1992
EMI Records artists
David Bowie | false | [
"\"What About Us\" is a single released by British-Irish girl group the Saturdays. Their first international single, it is the lead single from their first American-only release EP, Chasing the Saturdays (2013). It also acts as the second single from their fourth studio album Living for the Weekend (2013). The single was first released in the United States and Canada on 18 December 2012 via digital download, before being released in the United Kingdom on 16 March 2013 via CD single and digital download. The single was written by Camille Purcell, Ollie Jacobs, Philip Jacobs. There are two different versions of the track which have been recorded and released: a solo version, which was released exclusively in the US and Canada, and a version featuring Jamaican rapper Sean Paul, which was released internationally. Music critics gave the song positive feedback, but questioned the heavily auto-tuned chorus and the move away from the group's traditional sound.\n\nA music video was released for the song was published and released via the Saturdays' Vevo account on 11 January 2013. The video was filmed in Los Angeles, where the band were filming their US reality series, Chasing the Saturdays, which is broadcast through E!. An acoustic version of \"Somebody Else's Life\", which can be heard on the opening titles of the show, was released as a B-side. The Saturdays went on to a promotional tour in order to get the song \"out there\" in the United States, and appeared on a number of different chat shows including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Jeff Probst Show, Fashion Police, Chelsea Lately and The Today Show in New York City. They later went on to a promotional tour in the UK, visiting radio stations around the country.\n\n\"What About Us\" gained commercial success, debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart to become the Saturdays' twelfth UK top 10 single and first ever number-one. In Ireland, the song debuted at number six on the Irish Singles Chart, gaining the group their fifth top 10 single there. With first-week sales of 114,000 copies and 40,000 copies more sold than their closest competitor to number one, \"What About Us\" was the fastest-selling single of 2013 in the UK until it was overtaken by Naughty Boy's \"La La La\" two months later. In December 2013, it was announced as the eleventh fastest-selling single of the year overall. As of August 2014, the song has sold over 400,000 copies in the UK. On 23 December 2013, Mollie King posted a photo on Instagram of her holding a 500,000 sales plaque from their record label, with the message that \"What About Us\" had sold over 500,000 copies in UK and USA, with 120,000 copies in the US alone even without charting on the Billboard Hot 100.\n\nBackground \n\nIn 2012, it was announced that the Saturdays had received an offer to star in their own reality television programme, Chasing the Saturdays, broadcast through E! Network. While filming their show, the band began visiting the recording studio, where they began work with Rodney \"Darkchild\" Jerkins.\n\nThe Saturdays felt comfortable with their US labels, and thanked them for not only giving them a chance in North America, but for making them feel at ease and welcome which took a lot of \"weight of our shoulders\". The band said they have always respected the labels due to the massive success they've had with artists. The band had been working with Demi Lovato in the recording studio.\n\nComposition\n\n\"What About Us\" was written and produced by Ollie Jacobs and acts as the Saturdays first single to be released in North America where it could appear on the Billboard Hot 100 and Canadian Hot 100. In America its release coincided with their TV show, Chasing the Saturdays. The track is the band's fourteenth single to be released in the United Kingdom and Ireland and the track is a dance-pop song. Before the release of the song, Mollie King said that the band were excited to share the track as they had the song \"for months\" She said: \"I can't wait for everyone to hear it and to get to perform it. I'm just so excited about this one, I think it's going down really well.\" The band said they didn't want to change their type of music just for the American public and would stick to their roots and the genre they enjoyed to perform. King spoke: \"We've always made a point that we don't want to change to go to America. We wanted to go over as we are and if they like us, they like us and if they don't, they don't!\" King said that the track is reggae pop music, a little different from what band usually record, but the track is still really \"dancey\" and \"upbeat\", as well a good song to dance to on either stage or at a club. When Una Healy was asked what the song was about she said that she \"did not know\" what the song was exactly about. \"To be honest I was trying to figure out the other day what exactly it's about. I could bullshit away telling you, but I really don't know. But I think it's all about someone driving you crazy.\" She said she \"thinks\" that 'What About Us' part means \"me and you getting together\". She did point out that she did know that the song was about \"making you happy\" and that the track was good for the summer and will get you on the dancefloor. The band teased saying that \"What About Us\" is a pop track, and that is a good indication of what the expect from the album, and that they've paired up with Diane Warren to record a few ballads and not just pop tracks. \"What About Us\" is the only collaboration on the album.\n\nRelease\n\"What About Us\" was confirmed as the Saturdays' first single to be released in North America, and would be released on 18 December 2012 to coincide with their American reality show, Chasing the Saturdays. It was also revealed that the track would be released as the lead single from the band's North America released only Extended play, Chasing the Saturdays, which was named after the show. Some critics said that releasing \"What About Us\" from an EP for the US market was a \"wise decision\". One critic said: For, throwing out a traditional release on the back of a show that isn't (yet) a hit would ultimately be setting them up for failure. What's more, the EP allows their \"storyline\" for the next season of the show (should there be one) to revolve around recording an album. In the United Kingdom, it was revealed that \"What About Us\" would be the follow-up single from \"30 Days\" in the UK and Ireland, and therefore would not be the lead single from the band's fourth studio album. The band announced that before the release of the album, there would be another single release from the album. The follow-up single was revealed to be titled \"Gentleman\".\n\nJust like all the band's previous singles, the record was accepted by all A-Lists at radio stations. The UK and Ireland version of the track features a guest rap from Sean Paul. Whereas the North American version does not feature vocals from Sean Paul and only vocals from the band. The original version of the track last 3 minutes and 24 seconds, whereas the version which features Sean Paul lasts 3 minutes and 40 seconds. The single was released with B-side, an Acoustic version of a brand new track, \"Somebody Else's Life\", which is the opening theme to Chasing the Saturdays. \"What About Us\" was released as a digital download EP, and this featured the single version which features Sean Paul, the solo version and the B-side track. Upon the release in North America, there was a digital remixes EP which featured remixes of \"What About Us\" by a number of DJs including: Seamus Haji, Guy Scheiman, the Buzz Junkies and 2nd Adventure and this was also made available to purchase on 18 December 2012. While in the UK, the CD single was made available to be from stores from 18 March 2013. On the CD single featured \"What About Us\", the B-side \"Somebody Else's Life\".\n\nThe band decided to release \"What About Us\" differently between the United Kingdom and the United States, \"What About Us\" was released onto the charts without any airplay and without a music video accompanying the release, something the band experienced in the UK, with \"Notorious\". Whereas in the UK, \"What About Us\" was released with airplay and the music video being released before the release of the single. During this time, Frankie Sandford became ambassadors for mental health after Sandford battled depression. The band said they choose \"What About Us\" to be the lead single in the US and follow-up single from \"30 Days\" because they all loved it once they demoed it and it gave them a \"really good feeling\" They also said it is a fresh start for a new album, with a \"reggae vibe\", but still a pop record. The Saturdays said that Sean Paul was \"perfect\" for the UK version of the song. They said that he was \"just so nice\" and that he would be present during some of the promotional performances when the single was released.\n\nCritical reception\nRobert Copsey of Digital Spy said that Rochelle Humes asks in a \"curious Jamaican-flecked timbre\" during the intro of \"What About Us\". During the lyrics \"Oh why are we are waiting so long I'm suffocating\", and he went on to say that it is in reference to \"man-related drama\" and also pointing out that there is plenty of that on their reality series, Chasing the Saturdays. Copsey later went on to tip the band for their first number-one single as he said: \"but we suspect it could also be a sly wink at their enduring quest for a number one single\". He said that track was \"radio-friendly\" due to the \"trace beats\" and \"demanding their contrary lover to give up the hard-to-get schtick sharpish\". Although he didn't think that the song was \"original\" enough for the band, but is \"strangely addictive\" and he would be happy to see the song at the top of the charts.\n\n4Music described the song as a \"electro-pop affair with a bucket-load of synths thrown in for good measure. It's quite good, but we wonder if they should reconsider this single choice if they truly want to launch an invasion on America's charts.\" Idolator wrote a mixed review criticizing the track for lacking the group's signature style; \"While the beat is pounding enough to nab the girls a chart hit, it doesn’t feel true to the spirit of The Sats. Then again, maybe it isn’t supposed to.\" Jessica Sager from PopCrush also touched on the departure from their original sound; \"It’s a pretty big departure from their usual sugary oeuvre, but not necessarily in a bad way.\" She went on to praise Sean Paul's feature; \"His presence on the track gives it an air of authenticity and fun, but pretty much only during his own verses and interjections.\" However, she criticised the mediocre attempt at dialect the groups sing in throughout the track; \"When the Saturdays try to emulate island tones, it sounds a little awkward and they start out like that right off the bat, but go in and out of the undistinguished dialect throughout the song.\" She also felt that the heavily Auto-Tuned chorus was not need; \"The Auto-Tune seems extraneous, because the Saturdays can actually sing well without it.\" She end the review by labeling their latest effort as \"generic\" and \"not the best the Saturdays have to offer\", also rating it two and a half stars out of five.\n\nCommercial reception\n\"What About Us\" debuted at number 44 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart for the week dated 8 December 2012. This marks their first ever chart entry in the United States and it has since peaked at number twenty-seven. The song debuted at number 79 on the Canadian Hot 100, becoming the highest Canadian debut for a new artist in 2013.\n\nThe Saturdays admitted that they did not want to get their hopes up on debuting at number one on the UK Singles Charts due to being beaten to number-one three times before with \"Forever Is Over\", \"Just Can't Get Enough\" and \"Missing You\", after being number one on the Official Chart Update. During the latter two occasions, it was rapper Flo Rida who had pushed them back to numbers two and three respectively. It was revealed that the Saturdays had knocked Justin Timberlake's \"Mirrors\" off the number-one spot on the UK Singles Chart. This became the band's first ever number-one single in the United Kingdom, it also became Sean Paul's second number one in the United Kingdom after being featured on \"Breathe\" in 2003. For every one copy that Timberlake's \"Mirrors\" sold, the Saturdays sold two more copies of \"What About Us\". \"What About Us\" sold 114,000 copies in the first week of release, making it, at the time, the fastest selling single of 2013. The track sold 40,000 copies more than Timberlake, who was pushed back to number-two on the UK Singles Charts. The band said they were thrilled to be the UK's number-one with \"What About Us\". They went on to thanking their fans for supporting the single and supporting them for the past five years.\n\n\"What About Us\" debuted at number six on the Irish Singles Chart, marking the band's fifth top ten single in that country. \"What About Us\" made its debut at number thirty-six on the New Zealand Singles Chart.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video for \"What About Us\" was filmed during the summer of 2012 in Los Angeles, while the Saturdays were filming their reality television series. The North American version of the video was released via the Saturdays' official Vevo account on YouTube on 11 January 2013. A variant of the video, featuring vocals and additional scenes of the women with Sean Paul, was later released on 5 February 2013.\n\nLive performances and promotion\nThe Saturdays appeared in a number of nightclubs throughout 2012 in the United States performing \"What About Us\" along other hits. On 14 January 2013, the group made their first televised performance of the single on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It was their first performance done on American television. On 16 January, the girls performed \"What About Us\" on The Today Show in New York City. Along with the performances, they appeared on chat shows such as Chelsea Lately, Daybreak, Fashion Police, Lorraine, The Jeff Probst Show, Loose Women, Alan Carr: Chatty Man, Sunday Brunch and What's Cooking? to promote the single.\n\nTrack listings\nUS digital download\n\"What About Us\" - 3:24\n\nCD Single - UK Version Only\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) - 3:40\n\"What About Us\" - 3:24\n\"Somebody Else's Life\" (Acoustic) - 3:18\n\nUS Digital remixes EP\n\"What About Us\" (Seamus Haji Radio Edit) - 3:06\n\"What About Us\" (Seamus Haji Club Mix) - 6:35\n\"What About Us\" (Seamus Haji Dub) - 6:49\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Radio Edit) - 3:59\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Club Mix) - 7:35\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Dub) - 7:20\n\"What About Us\" (The Buzz Junkies Radio Edit) - 3:23\n\"What About Us\" (The Buzz Junkies Club Mix) - 4:32\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) - 4:32\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Radio Edit) - 4:24\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Club Mix) - 6:36\n\nEurope and Oceania EP - digital download\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) - 3:40\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) [The Buzz Junkies Radio Edit] - 3:23\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) [Seamus Haji Radio Edit] - 3:37\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Radio Edit) - 3:58\n\"What About Us\" (Extended Mix) - 3:49 (only available through pre-order)\n\nUK Digital Remixes EP\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Club Mix) - 7:35\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Club Mix) - 6:36\n\"What About Us\" (Seamus Haji Club Mix) - 6:35\n\"What About Us\" (The Buzz Junkies Club Mix) - 4:32\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Radio Edit) - 4:24\n\nRevamped Version\n\"What About Us\" - 3:24\n\"Somebody Else's Life\" (Acoustic) - 3:18\n\"What About Us\" (Extended Mix) - 3:49\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Radio Edit) - 4:24\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Radio Edit) - 3:58\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) - 4:32\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) [The Buzz Junkies Radio Edit] - 3:23\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) [Seamus Haji Radio Edit] - 3:37\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Club Mix) - 6:36\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Club Mix) - 7:35\n\"What About Us\" (The Buzz Junkies Club Mix) - 4:32\n\"What About Us\" (Seamus Haji Club Mix) - 6:35\n\nCredits and personnel\n\"What About Us\" was recorded at Rollover Studios in London.\n\nOllie Jacobs a.k.a. Art Bastian ~ Songwriter, Producer, Vocal Producer, Mix Engineer\n\nPhillip Jacobs ~ co-writer\nCamille Purcell ~ co-writer\nThe Saturdays ~ vocals\nSean Paul ~ guest vocalist\n\nCharts and certifications\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nCertifications\n\nRelease and radio history\n\nSee also\n\nList of UK Singles Chart number ones of the 2010s\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n feat. Sean Paul\n\nThe Saturdays songs\nSean Paul songs\n2012 singles\nDance-pop songs\nNumber-one singles in Scotland\nUK Singles Chart number-one singles\nSongs written by Camille Purcell\n2012 songs\nFascination Records singles\nSongs written by Ollie Jacobs",
"\"What About Us\" is a song recorded by the American singer-songwriter Pink for her seventh studio album Beautiful Trauma (2017). RCA Records released the song for digital download and streaming on August 10, 2017, as the album's lead single. The song, which written by Pink, Johnny McDaid, and its producer Steve Mac, is an electronic dance music (EDM) track with upbeat dance production that blends repetitive chords, synthesizers, and drum machine beats. Pink, who was inspired by the politics of the time, composed it as a political protest song with poetic and inclusive lyrics. The song's lyrics explore Pink's belief the US government had failed people and sends a message about those who feel unheard or forgotten.\n\nMusic critics gave \"What About Us\" mostly positive reviews; many of them commended the production and Pink's vocal performance while others appreciated the song's political message and the anthemic nature of the composition. It peaked at number 13 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and gave Pink her record-breaking ninth number-one song on the Adult Pop Songs chart, surpassing Katy Perry as the soloist with the most chart-topping songs on the chart. The song also reached number one on the national charts of eight countries, including Australia, Poland and Switzerland, and peaked within the top 10 in 12 other territories, including Canada and the United Kingdom. \"What About Us\" was nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.\n\nAn accompanying music video for \"What About Us\" was directed by Georgia Hudson and released on August 16, 2017. It depicts Pink and members of minority groups performing several choreographed routines in an abandoned city while being chased by searchlights from hovering helicopters. The video received positive reviews from critics, who praised the choreography and the representation of oppressed groups, as well as the song's political theme. To promote the song, Pink performed it live at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, on Saturday Night Live, and on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, among other televised appearances, as well as her Beautiful Trauma World Tour (2018–2019). The song has been covered several times during live performances by other artists, including Kelly Clarkson and Liam Payne.\n\nWriting and inspiration\n\nAfter conducting The Truth About Love Tour (2013–2014) in support of her sixth studio album The Truth About Love (2012), Pink took a nearly-four-year hiatus to focus on her personal life and find inspiration. During the hiatus, she concentrated on her family and living \"a normal life\", which influenced her music. Fifty songs were composed throughout the development of Beautiful Trauma, including \"What About Us\".\n\n\"What About Us\" was written by Pink, Johnny McDaid and Steve Mac, and was produced by Mac. In an interview with Vulture, Pink talked about the experience of writing the song, stating, \"it was just another day I was angry about what's happening in the world\". The singer decided to have discussions and anecdotes with McDaid to develop ideas for the album's songs; McDaid said Pink had \"so much to say\" and expressed herself \"really profoundly\". \"What About Us\" was written and recorded during the session; according to Pink, \"those are those kinds of songs where it just falls out of you, that's why I think you're just a vessel when you're being creative\".\n\nWhen asked about the creation of the song, McDaid said:\nFrom my perspective the creation of it is about looking into yourself, interacting. It's like alchemy, you know, you interact with the person there in the room and ... these things, these ideas come out and what the ideas are for [Pink] are probably different to even the person hearing it. And that's the beauty of her, she really allows people to receive her music the way they do.\n\nComposition and lyrical interpretation\n\n\"What About Us\" is an upbeat EDM song, with a length of four minutes and twenty-nine seconds. The synthesizer-heavy production of the song makes use of \"pounding\" drums, \"glistening\" keyboards, and a \"pulsating\" dance beat. It draws influences from four on the floor, club, and electronic music. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com, \"What About Us\" is set in the time signature of common time and is composed in the key of A major with a moderate tempo of 114 beats per minute. It follows a chord progression of Fm–D–A with Pink's vocals spanning one and a half octaves, going from A to E.\n\nMusic journalists noted \"What About Us\" starts as a ballad with piano and acoustic arrangements, and appears at first to be about a relationship. Mike Nied of Idolator described the song as \"part break-up anthem, part political call to arms\". Gil Kaufman of Billboard shared a similar sentiment, saying the lyrics can be interpreted as \"commenting on the state of the world, or the state of the heart\". Pink described the song as a political protest song that provides social commentary on her belief the US government had failed people. According to Pink, the \"more sophisticated\" nature of the song stems from the poetic and inclusive lyrics, which send a message about people around the world who feel ignored or forgotten. The track also took inspiration from the 2016 United States presidential election and the current political state.\n\nIn an interview with Billboard, McDaid said \"What About Us\" \"is a question ... not an instruction\", and the unclear question is \"essential to its brilliance\". According to him, Mac's technique of using repetitive chords can be compared with a heartbeat or a mantra, giving the song a sense of \"this incredible, epic celebration\" and unity. In \"What About Us\", Pink asks urgent questions during the \"insistent\" and \"soaring\" chorus, singing, \"What about us?/ What about all the times you said you had the answers?/ What about us?/ What about all the broken happy ever afters?\". Ross McNeilage of MTV and Justin Moran of Out both noted political undertones behind the lyrics; McNeilage said they can \"definitely be taken as an anthem of resistance to the current state of political affairs\" while Moran said the questions are addressed to \"a dishonest political leader\".\n\nRelease and artwork\nPrior to the single's release in July 2017, Pink teased it on her social media page using a recording made on the set of the music video . Pink officially announced the release date of \"What About Us\" on July 24, 2017, posting a picture on her social media. The image shows the singer, seen from behind, standing in front of a city landscape and a police car. Pink later unveiled the single's artwork, which is a black-and-white picture that shows her in a group with \"beautifully diverse\" models. The picture was photographed by Ryan Aylsworth.\n\n\"What About Us\" was released for digital download and streaming on August 10, 2017, by RCA Records as the lead single from Beautiful Trauma, along with the pre-order of the album. An accompanying lyric video was uploaded to Pink's YouTube channel simultaneously with the song's release. RCA Records also released the track to Italian contemporary hit radio stations on the same day. A CD single was released in Germany on August 18, 2017, through Sony Music. On September 15, 2017, a remix EP with four versions of \"What About Us\" was released for digital download and streaming in several countries. On October 20 of the same year, a remix of the song by Dutch DJ Tiësto was made available for digital download.\n\nCritical reception\n\"What About Us\" was met with mostly positive reviews from music critics. Althea Legaspi of Rolling Stone considered it an \"emotional dance floor anthem\". Writing for The New York Times, Caryn Ganz commended the track and highlighted Pink's vocals, saying, \"she lets the emotion in her tremendous voice do the heavy lifting, shifting from wonder to frustration to anger\". Vulture writer Dee Lockett was impressed by the song's upbeat production in contrast with the lyrics about \"capturing such a desperate mood\". Louise Bruton from The Irish Times said the song's message addresses \"the marginalised and the mistreated\".\n\nWhile reviewing Beautiful Trauma, Mike Nied of Idolator praised \"What About Us\" for being an \"insightful statement\" and lauded the \"effortlessly cool\" production. Mike Wass, also from Idolator, favored the track's blending of acoustic and electronic elements, and praised Pink for being able to create a political song \"without being obnoxious\". Lewis Corner of Gay Times called the track \"a scaling anthem ready for an arena show\". Labeling \"What About Us\" an \"empowering ballad\", Raisa Bruner from Time said the song marks a departure from Pink's \"bombastic tendencies\" and showcases \"the depth of [Pink's] feelings\" as well as her powerful voice. Allison Bowsher of Much said the song is \"her most politically and socially conscious song to date\".\n\nIn his review of Beautiful Trauma for Variety, Chris Willman labeled the song a \"sad dance-floor thumper\" with beseeching, \"soul-searching\" lyrics. Hilary Hughes of MTV News praised the song's production, stating it sounds \"steady, dance floor-ready\", and positively compared the song to Coldplay's \"A Sky Full of Stars\" (2015). Andrew Unterberger from Billboard also noted similarities between the \"spectral EDM foray\" of \"What About Us\" and \"A Sky Full of Stars\". According to Unterberger, the \"anthemic\" song also has themes of \"hurt, anger and fear\". Deeming the track as a \"political anthem\", Moran complimented the powerful message of \"honest desperation and untouchable strength\". In his review of the album, Slant Magazines Josh Hurst called the song \"spacy [and] atmospheric\".\n\nFor Lauren Moraski from HuffPost, \"What About Us\" was a \"strong pop song that showcases Pink's vocal chops\". Chris Gerard from the Washington Blade described it as a \"yearning, emotional anthem\" and noted Pink's \"sincere and deeply felt\" vocals, saying the song is \"among the finest singles\" of her career. ABC News critic Allan Raible named \"What About Us\" one of the standout tracks from Beautiful Trauma and wrote Pink's vocal performance gives it a \"surprisingly organic heft\". The Guardians Gavin Haynes labeled the song as \"the worst sort of Katy Perry anthemics about how we're all just 'rockets pointed up at the stars'\". \"What About Us\" received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Solo Performance at the 60th Annual ceremony.\n\nCommercial performance\n\nIn the US, \"What About Us\" debuted at number 82 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending August 26, 2017, although it was released during the last day of the tracking week. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the song sold 16,000 copies in its first day of release, entering the US Digital Songs chart at number 30. After its first full week of tracking, \"What About Us\" peaked at number three on the chart and rose to number 29 on the Hot 100, selling 55,000 copies and becoming Pink's 23rd top 40 song on the chart. The track later peaked at number 13 on the Hot 100 following the release of Beautiful Trauma. \"What About Us\" debuted on the US Radio Songs chart at number 41 with 30 million audience impressions and peaked at number three on the chart. It also peaked at number 10 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart for the week ending November 11, 2017.\n\n\"What About Us\" became Pink's ninth song to reach number one on the US Adult Pop Songs chart, breaking her tie with Katy Perry and giving Pink the distinction of being the solo artist with the most chart-topping songs, as well as placing her second on the list of artists with the most number one singles on the chart behind Maroon 5. It also topped the Adult Contemporary chart, becoming Pink's fourth number-one single on the chart. \"What About Us\" also peaked at number one on the US Dance Club Songs chart on October 28, 2017, aided by remixes from Cash Cash, Barry Harris, and Madison Mars, among others. In October 2017, Nielsen SoundScan reported the song had sold 290,226 copies in the US. It was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling 1,000,000 certified units in the country. In Canada, the song peaked at number six on the Canadian Hot 100 and ultimately received a triple platinum certification from Music Canada (MC) for accumulating 320,000 equivalent sales units.\n\n\"What About Us\" entered the UK Singles Chart at number 83 for the issue date of August 17, 2017, and rose to number 5 the following week, selling 22,816 units and becoming Pink's 19th top 10 song in the United Kingdom. The track peaked at number three in the fourth week, selling 33,584 units and spending three non-consecutive weeks at its peak position. The song was later certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for accumulating sales of 1,200,000 units in the UK. \"What About Us\" also experienced commercial success in mainland Europe, topping the charts in eight countries, including Poland and Switzerland. The song reached the top 10 in 12 other countries, including Austria, Germany, and Italy. In France it was certified platinum by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP) for accumulating 133,333 equivalent sales units in France.\n\nIn Australia, \"What About Us\" debuted at number one on the ARIA Singles Chart, where it remained for two consecutive weeks as Pink's ninth number-one single in Australia. The song has since been certified four-times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), signifying sales of 280,000 equivalent units in Australia. The song peaked at number nine on the New Zealand Top 40 Singles chart on the report dated October 23, 2017. It was later awarded a platinum certification by Recorded Music NZ (RMNZ) for sales of over 30,000 equivalent units in the country.\n\nMusic video\n\nBackground and development\nThe music video for \"What About Us\" was directed by Georgia Hudson and produced by Sacha Smith. In an interview with Promo News, Hudson said she wanted to record an \"emotional dance film\". The video includes several dance routines that were choreographed by Nick Florez and RJ Durell, who are known collectively as the GoldenBoyz. According to Hudson, this allowed the dancers to express \"their frustration and feeling towards the current political climate\", demonstrating a sense of \"expression [and] community\".\n\nKim Bowen and Elise Navidad chose outfits inspired by the UK art school scene, which were described as a fusion of \"grunge with folk, or punk with tie-dye and sportswear\". Explaining the dance scene involving two men, Hudson said she had the idea \"to illustrate a condensed version of the course of a relationship\". The scene grows in intensity and is set in a space for them to behave \"animalistic, ... raw and unexpected\". The final desert dance \"moved [Pink] to tears\" and was inspired by a dream she had. Steve Annis used a helicopter as a top light for the video, which operated with 40-80mm zoom lenses. Hudson called the use of the helicopter \"a totally unique experience\". The music video was released on August 16, 2017.\n\nSynopsis\n\nThe main theme of the music video is a lost generation of abandoned and unheard people uniting through dance, symbolizing love. The video commences with a series of interspersed scenes that show an urban area, a helicopter police chase, two men hugging, a group of social outcasts consoling one another, and Pink staring into the camera while her hair is shaved off. The video's soundtrack includes samples of people protesting racism and police brutality, as well as political speeches, including the keynote speech and introducing US presidential candidate Donald Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Christie's speech crossfades as a man says, \"We are going to reject hate! We are going to reject racism!\".\n\nAs the song opens, Pink, with a diverse group of people, dances in a parking lot surrounded by abandoned police cars with flashing lights. When the chorus begins, the video cuts to a scene in which Pink and minority groups, including immigrants and same-sex couples, stare into the spotlight of a helicopter hovering overhead; they are the only population of the bleak, abandoned city in which the video is set. In the following scene, a gay couple struggle, fight and embrace while a helicopter hovers overhead with a searchlight. Interspersed scenes show Pink singing and wearing a black hoodie with gold sequin pants, and her hair in a triple ponytail. Pink and her dancers then dance in a diner. Pink, wearing a silver jacket, then stands on top of a car. At the end of the video, Pink and her dancers perform in the desert. During the final scene, a man's voice says; \"now is the time to protect our community\".\n\nCritical reception\nThe music video was met with positive reviews from critics. Eric King of Entertainment Weekly said the video emphasizes the song's political message and praised the \"powerful same-sex dance routine\", saying, \"It's an emotive watch, and one that makes a clear statement about life for minorities in Trump's America\". Rolling Stone writer Daniel Kreps called the video \"stirring\" and likening the storyline and concept to \"those whose rights are in danger in Trump's America: immigrants, same-sex couples, minorities and more\". Lyndsey Havens from Billboard described the video as \"wild\" and \"heavy on hard-hitting dance moves\". Taylor Henderson of Pride said Pink's consistently releases music videos that \"tell stories with choreography\" and said the video is \"a timely and incredible addition to Pink's catalogue of hits\". Wass called the video \"a call for acceptance and togetherness\", and said it is \"[her] most choreography-heavy video in years\". Maeve McDermott of USA Today said the video gives a different meaning to the song and can be seen as \"a message to those in power from the people they left behind\". McNeilage praised the video for being a political \"direct protest\" while writing \"the two male dancers' beautiful performances is a clear highlight\". Bowsher likened the contemporary dance theme of the \"What About Us\" music video with the video for Pink's 2012 single \"Try\". She commended the use of dance as \"an effort to connect people on a different level\" and a way to express fear, sadness, and despair.\n\nLive performances\n\nPink performed \"What About Us\" live for the first time at Waldbühne in Berlin, Germany, on August 11, 2017. During Pink's headline set at the V Festival that year, she performed the song with older material. At the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, Pink was presented with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award and sang the song as part of a greatest-hits medley. Her performance was met with positive reviews by critics. Hughes said the performance included \"some of the most breathtaking choreography of the night\" while Nicholas Hautman of Us Weekly praised the \"impressive dance break\" and the singer's \"impeccable vocals\".\n\nPink delivered the next performance of \"What About Us\" of The Ellen DeGeneres Show on September 6, 2017. Two days later, Pink performed the song for BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge. She was a main headliner at the 2017 Kaaboo Del Mar Festival, where her setlist included a performance of \"What About Us\". On September 22 of that year, Pink performed a medley of \"Raise Your Glass\", \"What About Us\", \"Funhouse\", \"Just Like Fire\", and \"So What\" at the iHeartRadio Music Festival.\n\nOn Saturday Night Live on October 14, 2017, Pink performed \"What About Us\" wearing a brown tweed vest, a jacket, and large gold hoop earrings. Two days later, the singer performed the song on Good Morning America. On October 22, 2017, she performed the song during CBS Radio's \"We Can Survive\" benefit concert for breast cancer awareness at the Hollywood Bowl. On November 1, 2017, Pink appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and sang \"What About Us\". She appeared on The Late Late Show with James Corden in the Carpool Karaoke segment on November 15 of that year, singing \"What About Us\" along with older songs.\n\nIn the UK, Pink promoted Beautiful Trauma by performing \"What About Us\" on The Graham Norton Show on December 1, 2017. She performed the song live on the finale of the 14th series of The X Factor UK two days later. On December 5, 2017, Pink traveled to France and performed a concert at the Élysée Montmartre in Paris as part of the NRJ Music Tour, with her setlist including \"What About Us\". The singer later appeared on French television show Quotidien, where she was interviewed and performed \"What About Us\". On December 10, 2017, Pink performed the song on The Voice of Germany. The track was also performed as part of the Beautiful Trauma World Tour (2018–2019), where it was preceded by a video interlude that features Pink talking about the Me Too movement, gay marriage, and inclusion.\n\nCover versions\nDutch singer Davina Michelle covered \"What About Us\" in August 2017. After watching the performance as part of Glamours \"You Sang My Song\" video series, Pink was impressed and praised her cover, saying, \"That is better than I will ever sound\". On November 3, 2017, English singer Liam Payne performed a stripped-down version of \"What About Us\" as part of the BBC's music television series Sounds Like Friday Night; Kesha Watson of Much praised his cover, saying, \"Payne handled himself very well, adding his own flare and pulling it off perfectly\". In January 2018, Spanish singer Miriam Rodríguez covered the song for the ninth series of television music competition series Operación Triunfo. In November 2019, American singer Kelly Clarkson covered \"What About Us\" on her talk show The Kelly Clarkson Show; as part of the \"Kellyoke\" segment. Meredith Kile of Entertainment Tonight said Clarkson's voice \"fits perfectly\" into a version of the song and that her performance \"[reminded] us to keep fighting for those happy ever afters\".\n\nTrack listings\n\nCredits and personnel\nManagement\n Published by EMI Blackwood Music, Inc./P!nk Inside Publishing (BMI), Spirit B-Unique Polar Patrol Songs obo Spirit B-Unique Polar Patrol (BMI) (adm. by Kobalt Music Ltd.), Rokstone Music Limited (PRS) under exclusive to Universal Music Publishing Limited (ASCAP)\n Engineered at The Village Studios, Los Angeles, CA & Rokstone Studios, London\n Mixed at MixStar Studios, Virginia Beach, VA\n\nPersonnel\n\n Pink songwriter, primary vocals\n Johnny McDaid songwriter, guitars\n Steve Mac songwriter, producer, keyboards\n Chris Laws drums, engineering\n Dann Pursey engineering\n Gabe Burch engineering assistant\n Matt Dyson engineering assistant\n Serban Ghenea mixing\n John Hanes engineered for mix\n\nCredits adapted from the liner notes of \"What About Us\".\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nMonthly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nCertifications\n\nRelease history\n\nSee also\n List of number-one singles of 2017 (Australia)\n List of number-one songs of the 2010s (Czech Republic)\n List of number-one singles of 2017 (Poland)\n List of number-one singles of 2017 (Slovenia)\n List of number-one hits of 2017 (Switzerland)\n List of number-one dance singles of 2017 (U.S.)\n List of Adult Top 40 number-one songs of the 2010s\n List of Billboard Adult Contemporary number ones of 2018\n\nReferences\n\n2017 songs\n2017 singles\n2010s ballads\nDutch Top 40 number-one singles\nNumber-one singles in Australia\nNumber-one singles in Poland\nNumber-one singles in Scotland\nNumber-one singles in Switzerland\nPink (singer) songs\nPop ballads\nProtest songs\nRCA Records singles\nSongs written by Johnny McDaid\nSongs written by Pink (singer)\nSongs written by Steve Mac\nSong recordings produced by Steve Mac"
]
|
[
"Tin Machine",
"1988-89: First album and tour",
"when was their first album released?",
"release in May 1989,",
"what was the album called?",
"self-titled first album",
"did it do well on the charts?",
"Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart,",
"what about in the US?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_9d71042505bd46adb2a9dff2c991687e_1 | what label company were they using? | 5 | what label company were Tin Machine using? | Tin Machine | The band's self-titled first album was recorded in late 1988 and early 1989. It produced mixed but generally positive reviews upon release in May 1989, picking up favourable comparisons with Bowie's two more recent solo albums. Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart, but sales quickly tailed off. Gabrels claimed in 1991 that album sales from the first album were "ten times better" than he had anticipated. At the time of the release of the album, Bowie was enthusiastic about the band and the work they'd done, and felt that band had in them "another two albums at least." Contrary to common reports, the band's first live performance together wasn't at the International Rock Awards Show on 31 May 1989. Prior to that show, the band played an unannounced show in Nassau. Bowie recalled "We showed up at a club in Nassau where we were recording and did four or five songs. We went down to the club and just did 'em." Added Gabrels, "We just walked up on stage and you could hear all these voices whispering, 'That's David Bowie! No, it can't be David Bowie, he's got a beard!'" The band recognized that some fans and critics didn't like Bowie's new role in the band. Said Tony Sales, "Mainly, people are pissed off because David's not doing 'David Bowie.'" Bowie confirmed that Tin Machine live shows would be "non-theatrical" in contrast to his most recent tour. The band undertook a low-key tour in small venues between 14 June and 3 July 1989, before further recording sessions in Sydney, Australia. During these sessions Tin Machine contributed to a surfing compilation album, Beyond the Beach, with a new instrumental song titled "Needles on the Beach". CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Tin Machine were a British–American hard rock supergroup formed in 1988, notable for being fronted by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. The band consisted of Bowie on lead vocals, sax, and guitar; Reeves Gabrels on guitar and vocals; Tony Fox Sales on bass and vocals; and Hunt Sales on drums and vocals. Tony and Hunt had previously performed alongside Bowie as part of Iggy Pop's backing band during his 1977 tour for The Idiot. Kevin Armstrong played additional guitar and keyboards on the band's first studio album and first tour, and American guitarist Eric Schermerhorn played on the second tour and live album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby (1992).
Drummer Hunt Sales said that the band's name "reflects the sound of the band," and Bowie stated that he and his band members joined up "to make the kind of music that we enjoyed listening to" and to rejuvenate himself artistically.
The band recorded two studio albums and one live album before dissolving in 1992, after which Bowie returned to his solo career. By the end of 2012, they had reportedly sold two million albums. Bowie would later credit his time with Tin Machine as instrumental in revitalising his career after the 1980s.
History
1987–88: Band genesis
The album Never Let Me Down (1987) and subsequent Glass Spider Tour had left critics unimpressed, and Bowie was aware of his low standing. Eager to return to making music for himself rather than the mainstream audience he had acquired following the Let's Dance album,
Bowie looked around for collaborators to work with. He briefly worked with Bon Jovi producer Bruce Fairbairn in Los Angeles, recording a few tracks, including a demo of "Lucy Can't Dance" (which was eventually re-recorded and released on Bowie's 1993 solo album Black Tie White Noise) and a version of Bob Dylan's song "Like A Rolling Stone", but this did not bear much fruit, and the Dylan cover was passed to his friend Mick Ronson, where it was released on his posthumous album Heaven and Hull (1994). Soon after, Bowie began collaborating with Reeves Gabrels, who pushed the singer to rediscover his experimental side.
Bowie and Gabrels had initially met through Gabrels' then-wife Sara Terry, who was part of the press staff for the North American leg of Bowie's 1987 Glass Spider world tour. The two men had struck up a friendship when Gabrels visited at several tour venues. Notably, their relationship began as a social one, as Gabrels didn't mention that he himself was a musician. Common interests in popular culture and the visual arts provided more than enough to talk about, Gabrels explained in later interviews, and also because he was in his wife's workplace, he felt it wasn't appropriate to bring up his own music. At the tour's end, Bowie kindly asked Terry if he could do anything for her. In response, Terry gave Bowie a tape of Gabrels' guitar playing. Months later, after listening to the tape, Bowie phoned Gabrels to invite him to get together to play and write. Bowie told him that he felt he had "lost his vision" and was looking for ways to get it back. After a month working together, Gabrels asked Bowie what he wanted of him, and, according to Gabrels, Bowie said "Basically, I need somebody that can do a combination of Beck, Hendrix, Belew and Fripp, with a little Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King thrown in. Then, when I’m not singing, you take the ball and do something with it, and when you hand the ball back to me, it might not even be the same ball."
The first public fruits of Bowie and Gabrels working together came with a new arrangement by Gabrels of the song "Look Back in Anger" which Bowie had written with Brian Eno in 1979 for the album Lodger. The occasion was a benefit show at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) on 1 July 1988 at which Bowie had been invited to perform with the avant-garde dance troupe La La La Human Steps. Bowie sang, played and danced with troupe members while in lighted grottoes upstage three musicians (Gabrels on guitar, Kevin Armstrong on guitar, and Erdal Kızılçay on bass) played the new minute score that Gabrels created from the 3-minute song; the new material included drums programmed by Kızılçay. "We went into the studio to rearrange it," said Bowie in a filmed interview; "I like the hard-edged wall of guitar sound that we put into it."
Gabrels recalled that early on, they weren't sure who they'd work with. They discussed working with Terry Bozzio on drums and Percy Jones on bass. But Bowie, who had run into Tony Sales in Los Angeles at a wrap party for his Glass Spider Tour, convinced Tony to call his brother Hunt so they could work together again, as Tony and Hunt had performed with David Bowie in support of Iggy Pop in the late 1970s. Tony recalled that Bowie was "thinking about getting a band together — something together. He didn't know exactly what he wanted to do, but he wanted Hunt and I to meet Reeves and maybe we could all write together, come up with something."
Bowie himself was surprised with how things came together with the band, saying, "I'd never wanted to be in a band until we got together. And as we were getting together, it wasn't really occurring to me that this is what I wanted to do. It took a week or so of actually being in the studio and working, and then I think we fully realized the potential, musically, for what we were doing and wanted to stick with it. I was quite happy to go off and make a solo album. I was quite excited about a couple of things I was doing, which I brought into the band and which were irrevocably changed. But that's the nature of the band."
Bowie was pleased that the band members clicked, calling the ease at which the personalities came together "inspired guesswork". Hunt and Tony, the two sons of comic Soupy Sales, kept the mood jovial during recording sessions and interviews. Bowie later rejected the idea that Reeves, Hunt and Tony were backing members of his band. "The Sales brothers would never accept having another boss. They are far too stubborn and aware of their own needs. They're not in the market to be anybody's backing band, either of them. You do not fuck with the Sales brothers, or Reeves Gabrels." Gabrels said that Bowie came in one day while the group was first forming and said, "I think this has got to be a band. Everybody's got input. Everybody's writing. You guys don't listen to me anyway." The band split profits four ways, no one was on a salary and each member paid for his own expenses. Bowie also clarified that "the band will cease to exist the moment it ceases to be a musical experience for any of us. None of us wanted to get into the kind of situation where you find yourself making albums because you're contracted to." The group setup allowed Bowie a certain level of anonymity, and to that end, Bowie stipulated that all four members divide interviews equally between them and that in the cases where he was interviewed, that another member of the band be present as well. He made a point to clarify that he didn't invite the others to join "his" band, rather, "the band literally came together."
The Sales brothers moved the tone of the sessions away from art-rock and more towards hard rock, and Bowie looked to one of his favorite bands at the time, Pixies, for inspiration. The Sales brothers heckled Bowie into greater spontaneity, with most songs recorded in one take, and lyrics left unpolished, thus giving the band a ragged, punk rock edge. On tour, Bowie said of the band and its music, "This is not music to get up and have breakfast to by any means. And we're not the most comfortable band in the world to watch. If you're looking for a dance band, we ain't it."
In contemporary interviews, the band claimed their musical influences were Gene Krupa, Charlie Mingus, Jimi Hendrix, Glenn Branca, Mountain, Cream, and the Jeff Beck Group.
According to Bowie, the group decided when they formed that they'd play from album to album, and that "if we were still getting on with each other – which was the priority – that we'd continue."
Band name
The group chose the name Tin Machine after one of the songs they had written. Tony Sales joked that, as all four members were divorced when the band formed, originally the band was going to be called "The Four Divorcés" or "Alimony Inc." Gabrels suggested calling the band "White Noise", but Bowie dismissed it as too "racist". Other names that were considered and discarded included "Leather Weasel" and "The Emperor's New Clothes". Gabrels later elaborated on the real name choice, saying the band's name "worked on a number of levels for us. The archaic – the idea of tin, which is still everywhere: tin cans, when you go to the supermarket; when you walk down the street you find rusting tin. It's such a supposedly archaic material, but it's everywhere. Sort of like the idea of us playing this music and not using drum machines and sequencers and things like that. There's a point at which it connects. At least for us. And the final thing, for lack of a better name."
1988–89: First album and tour
The band's self-titled first album was recorded in late 1988 and early 1989. It produced mixed but generally positive reviews upon release in May 1989, picking up favourable comparisons with Bowie's two more recent solo albums. Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart, but sales quickly tailed off. Gabrels claimed in 1991 that album sales from the first album were "ten times better" than he had anticipated. At the time of the release of the album, Bowie was enthusiastic about the band and the work they'd done, and felt that band had in them "another two albums at least."
Contrary to common reports, the band's first live performance together wasn't at the International Rock Awards Show on 31 May 1989. Prior to that show, the band played an unannounced show in Nassau. Bowie recalled "We showed up at a club in Nassau where we were recording and did four or five songs. We went down to the club and just did 'em." Added Gabrels, "We just walked up on stage and you could hear all these voices whispering, 'That's David Bowie! No, it can't be David Bowie, he's got a beard!'"
The band recognized that some fans and critics didn't like Bowie's new role in the band. Said Tony Sales, "Mainly, people are pissed off because David's not doing 'David Bowie.'" Bowie confirmed that Tin Machine live shows would be "non-theatrical" in contrast to his most recent tour.
The band undertook a low-key tour in small venues between 14 June and 3 July 1989, before further recording sessions in Sydney, Australia. During these sessions Tin Machine contributed to a surfing compilation album, Beyond the Beach, with a new instrumental song titled "Needles on the Beach". A partial recording of their show from this tour recorded at La Cigale in Paris on 25 June 1989 was released digitally in August 2019.
1990–91: Second album and tour
The group then went on hiatus while Bowie conducted his solo Sound+Vision Tour. In December 1990, Bowie split from EMI. Hunt Sales said that EMI "kind of freaked out a little bit at the strident, single-less Tin Machine debut", which partially explained why Bowie switched music labels. In March 1991, the band signed to Victory Music, a new label launched by JVC and distributed worldwide by London Records and PolyGram, and recorded more new material. This was combined with tracks from the Sydney sessions to form the Tin Machine II album. The album was described as "just as impure and twisted [as their first album], but more R&B and less abrasive." Gabrels explained the change between the first and second album was because by the second album, "we knew one another as musicians. ... It wasn't as dense. And we actually left more room, I think for David to come up with some interesting melodies. There was more room for vocals on this record."
In late 1991 Bowie reiterated that he was still happy being in the band during that time, stating "I'm content. … I'm deriving a great deal of fulfillment from working with Tin Machine", and band-mate Gabrels agreed, saying "we're doing exactly what we wanted to do." During press performances for songs on the album, Gabrels played his guitar with a vibrator and for a performance on BBC's Top of the Pops, who banned the use of the vibrator, he mimed playing his guitar with a chocolate éclair.
In early August 1991, the band began promotional performances for the album, starting with TV appearances in the UK. From 5 October 1991 to 17 February 1992, the group went on their It's My Life Tour, which was a longer tour than their first. The band was joined on this tour by guitarist Eric Schermerhorn. On 23 November 1991, the band was the musical guest during Saturday Night Lives 17th season.
1992: Live album and dissolution
Tracks from the "It's My Life" tour were released on the July 1992 album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby. The album did not sell well and there was speculation that the failure of this album to achieve commercial success was among the reasons that the band ultimately broke up. As early as 1990, Bowie knew he'd be going back to solo work, although not because he disliked working with the band. He said "I have very definite ideas of what I want to do as a solo artist, which I'll be starting on probably late next year [1991], again completely different, hopefully, from what I've done before." Shortly after the release of Oy Vey, Baby, Bowie returned to solo recording with his single "Real Cool World", but he maintained intentions to return to the studio with Tin Machine in 1993 for a third album. These plans would fail to come to fruition, however, and the band shortly thereafter dissolved. There were allegations that Hunt Sales' growing drug addiction was responsible for the band's end, but of Tin Machine's dissolution, Bowie merely said "personal problems within the band became the reason for its demise. It’s not for me to talk about them, but it became physically impossible for us to carry on. And that was pretty sad really."
Band legacy
The band earned mixed reviews during their short career. In later years, critics have reappraised the band more warmly and Tin Machine have been found "unjustly" harshly reviewed. One critic suggested that part of the reason for its poor reception was that Tin Machine's music was somewhat ahead of its time, and that the band "explored alternative and grunge before the styles were even widely known to exist." Another critic agreed, with yet another suggesting that Tin Machine and Bowie were "merely ahead of the curve. A prophet, a voice in the desert predicting the coming of Nirvana. At the time, Nirvana was toiling in Seattle obscurity, pushing its debut Bleach on Sub Pop at every dive it played." Tim Palmer, after producing Tin Machine's two studio albums, would go on to mix Pearl Jam's grunge album Ten in 1991, and later recalled to Gabrels that he had come into the studio one day to find Pearl Jam listening to Tin Machine's "Heaven's in Here".
In 1996, Bowie reflected on his time with Tin Machine: "For better or worse it helped me to pin down what I did and didn’t enjoy about being an artist. It helped me, I feel, to recover as an artist. And I do feel that for the past few years I’ve been absolutely in charge of my artistic path again. I’m working to my own criteria. I’m not doing anything I would feel ashamed of in the future, or that I would look back on and say my heart wasn’t in that."
In 1997, when asked if he thought the band was still underrated, Bowie said, "It's going to be interesting, isn't it? As the songs creep out in different forms over the years, I assume that eventually it'll be evaluated in a different way. I'm not sure people will ever be sympathetic to it entirely. But as the years go by, I think they'll be less hostile. I think it was quite a brave band and I think there were some extremely good pieces of work done. And I think they'll kind of show themselves over time." Bowie and Gabrels re-recorded a few Tin Machine tracks during this time, including "I Can't Read" and "Baby Universal", with the former being released on the soundtrack to the movie The Ice Storm (1997) and both as a part of Bowie's posthumous Is It Any Wonder? (2020).
By the end of the 20th century, Bowie looked back at his time with the band as invaluable, saying "I had to kick-start my engine again in music. There'd been a wobbly moment where I could quite easily have gone reclusive and just worked on visual stuff, paint and sculpt and all that. I had made a lot of money: I thought, well, I could just bugger off and do my Gauguin in Tahiti bit now. But then what do you do – re-emerge at 60 somewhere? So I look back on the Tin Machine years with great fondness. They charged me up. I can’t tell you how much."
Despite some reports to the contrary, Bowie stated several times over his years with Tin Machine that he was happy working in the band. Bowie used his time with the band as a way to revitalize himself and his career, which he would later in March 1997 call a "lifeline", citing Reeves Gabrels as a source of his new-found energy and direction:
Personnel
David Bowie – lead vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, saxophone
Reeves Gabrels – electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals
Tony Fox Sales – bass guitar, backing vocals
Hunt Sales – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Singles
Other appearances
Music videos
Music video films
Live concert films
References
See also
List of musical supergroups
Citations
External links
Tin Machine's live performance at the 1989 International Rock Awards (Youtube)
British hard rock musical groups
American hard rock musical groups
Rock music supergroups
Musical groups established in 1988
Musical groups disestablished in 1992
EMI Records artists
David Bowie | false | [
"Switchflicker Records is an independent British record label based in Manchester, England. The company was established in 2000 by Jayne Compton.\n\nPerformers signed to the label include Divine David, Chloe Poems and formerly The Ting Tings, who launched their career at the label.\n\nIn 2008, members of The Ting Tings wrote critical comments on their blog about what they believe to be inflated prices charged by the label for their single, \"That's Not My Name\", asserting that the company was \"cashing in\" on the band's success at the expense of their fans. The label responded in a published statement, noting that they were doing nothing wrong as they owned the stock and were selling remaining copies in line with the record's value at the time: \n\nFollowing this dispute, The Ting Tings signed with Columbia Records, having received assurances from Columbia that they would retain sufficient artistic control over their music.\n\nReferences\n\nBritish record labels",
"In linguistics, referential indeterminacy is a situation in which different people vary in naming objects. For example, William Labov studied this effect using illustrations of different drinking vessels to see what people would label as \"cups\" and what people would label as \"mugs\".\n\nSee also\nIdiolect\n\nLinguistics"
]
|
[
"Tin Machine",
"1988-89: First album and tour",
"when was their first album released?",
"release in May 1989,",
"what was the album called?",
"self-titled first album",
"did it do well on the charts?",
"Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart,",
"what about in the US?",
"I don't know.",
"what label company were they using?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_9d71042505bd46adb2a9dff2c991687e_1 | did they have any live performances? | 6 | did Tin Machine have any live performances? | Tin Machine | The band's self-titled first album was recorded in late 1988 and early 1989. It produced mixed but generally positive reviews upon release in May 1989, picking up favourable comparisons with Bowie's two more recent solo albums. Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart, but sales quickly tailed off. Gabrels claimed in 1991 that album sales from the first album were "ten times better" than he had anticipated. At the time of the release of the album, Bowie was enthusiastic about the band and the work they'd done, and felt that band had in them "another two albums at least." Contrary to common reports, the band's first live performance together wasn't at the International Rock Awards Show on 31 May 1989. Prior to that show, the band played an unannounced show in Nassau. Bowie recalled "We showed up at a club in Nassau where we were recording and did four or five songs. We went down to the club and just did 'em." Added Gabrels, "We just walked up on stage and you could hear all these voices whispering, 'That's David Bowie! No, it can't be David Bowie, he's got a beard!'" The band recognized that some fans and critics didn't like Bowie's new role in the band. Said Tony Sales, "Mainly, people are pissed off because David's not doing 'David Bowie.'" Bowie confirmed that Tin Machine live shows would be "non-theatrical" in contrast to his most recent tour. The band undertook a low-key tour in small venues between 14 June and 3 July 1989, before further recording sessions in Sydney, Australia. During these sessions Tin Machine contributed to a surfing compilation album, Beyond the Beach, with a new instrumental song titled "Needles on the Beach". CANNOTANSWER | the band played an unannounced show in Nassau. | Tin Machine were a British–American hard rock supergroup formed in 1988, notable for being fronted by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. The band consisted of Bowie on lead vocals, sax, and guitar; Reeves Gabrels on guitar and vocals; Tony Fox Sales on bass and vocals; and Hunt Sales on drums and vocals. Tony and Hunt had previously performed alongside Bowie as part of Iggy Pop's backing band during his 1977 tour for The Idiot. Kevin Armstrong played additional guitar and keyboards on the band's first studio album and first tour, and American guitarist Eric Schermerhorn played on the second tour and live album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby (1992).
Drummer Hunt Sales said that the band's name "reflects the sound of the band," and Bowie stated that he and his band members joined up "to make the kind of music that we enjoyed listening to" and to rejuvenate himself artistically.
The band recorded two studio albums and one live album before dissolving in 1992, after which Bowie returned to his solo career. By the end of 2012, they had reportedly sold two million albums. Bowie would later credit his time with Tin Machine as instrumental in revitalising his career after the 1980s.
History
1987–88: Band genesis
The album Never Let Me Down (1987) and subsequent Glass Spider Tour had left critics unimpressed, and Bowie was aware of his low standing. Eager to return to making music for himself rather than the mainstream audience he had acquired following the Let's Dance album,
Bowie looked around for collaborators to work with. He briefly worked with Bon Jovi producer Bruce Fairbairn in Los Angeles, recording a few tracks, including a demo of "Lucy Can't Dance" (which was eventually re-recorded and released on Bowie's 1993 solo album Black Tie White Noise) and a version of Bob Dylan's song "Like A Rolling Stone", but this did not bear much fruit, and the Dylan cover was passed to his friend Mick Ronson, where it was released on his posthumous album Heaven and Hull (1994). Soon after, Bowie began collaborating with Reeves Gabrels, who pushed the singer to rediscover his experimental side.
Bowie and Gabrels had initially met through Gabrels' then-wife Sara Terry, who was part of the press staff for the North American leg of Bowie's 1987 Glass Spider world tour. The two men had struck up a friendship when Gabrels visited at several tour venues. Notably, their relationship began as a social one, as Gabrels didn't mention that he himself was a musician. Common interests in popular culture and the visual arts provided more than enough to talk about, Gabrels explained in later interviews, and also because he was in his wife's workplace, he felt it wasn't appropriate to bring up his own music. At the tour's end, Bowie kindly asked Terry if he could do anything for her. In response, Terry gave Bowie a tape of Gabrels' guitar playing. Months later, after listening to the tape, Bowie phoned Gabrels to invite him to get together to play and write. Bowie told him that he felt he had "lost his vision" and was looking for ways to get it back. After a month working together, Gabrels asked Bowie what he wanted of him, and, according to Gabrels, Bowie said "Basically, I need somebody that can do a combination of Beck, Hendrix, Belew and Fripp, with a little Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King thrown in. Then, when I’m not singing, you take the ball and do something with it, and when you hand the ball back to me, it might not even be the same ball."
The first public fruits of Bowie and Gabrels working together came with a new arrangement by Gabrels of the song "Look Back in Anger" which Bowie had written with Brian Eno in 1979 for the album Lodger. The occasion was a benefit show at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) on 1 July 1988 at which Bowie had been invited to perform with the avant-garde dance troupe La La La Human Steps. Bowie sang, played and danced with troupe members while in lighted grottoes upstage three musicians (Gabrels on guitar, Kevin Armstrong on guitar, and Erdal Kızılçay on bass) played the new minute score that Gabrels created from the 3-minute song; the new material included drums programmed by Kızılçay. "We went into the studio to rearrange it," said Bowie in a filmed interview; "I like the hard-edged wall of guitar sound that we put into it."
Gabrels recalled that early on, they weren't sure who they'd work with. They discussed working with Terry Bozzio on drums and Percy Jones on bass. But Bowie, who had run into Tony Sales in Los Angeles at a wrap party for his Glass Spider Tour, convinced Tony to call his brother Hunt so they could work together again, as Tony and Hunt had performed with David Bowie in support of Iggy Pop in the late 1970s. Tony recalled that Bowie was "thinking about getting a band together — something together. He didn't know exactly what he wanted to do, but he wanted Hunt and I to meet Reeves and maybe we could all write together, come up with something."
Bowie himself was surprised with how things came together with the band, saying, "I'd never wanted to be in a band until we got together. And as we were getting together, it wasn't really occurring to me that this is what I wanted to do. It took a week or so of actually being in the studio and working, and then I think we fully realized the potential, musically, for what we were doing and wanted to stick with it. I was quite happy to go off and make a solo album. I was quite excited about a couple of things I was doing, which I brought into the band and which were irrevocably changed. But that's the nature of the band."
Bowie was pleased that the band members clicked, calling the ease at which the personalities came together "inspired guesswork". Hunt and Tony, the two sons of comic Soupy Sales, kept the mood jovial during recording sessions and interviews. Bowie later rejected the idea that Reeves, Hunt and Tony were backing members of his band. "The Sales brothers would never accept having another boss. They are far too stubborn and aware of their own needs. They're not in the market to be anybody's backing band, either of them. You do not fuck with the Sales brothers, or Reeves Gabrels." Gabrels said that Bowie came in one day while the group was first forming and said, "I think this has got to be a band. Everybody's got input. Everybody's writing. You guys don't listen to me anyway." The band split profits four ways, no one was on a salary and each member paid for his own expenses. Bowie also clarified that "the band will cease to exist the moment it ceases to be a musical experience for any of us. None of us wanted to get into the kind of situation where you find yourself making albums because you're contracted to." The group setup allowed Bowie a certain level of anonymity, and to that end, Bowie stipulated that all four members divide interviews equally between them and that in the cases where he was interviewed, that another member of the band be present as well. He made a point to clarify that he didn't invite the others to join "his" band, rather, "the band literally came together."
The Sales brothers moved the tone of the sessions away from art-rock and more towards hard rock, and Bowie looked to one of his favorite bands at the time, Pixies, for inspiration. The Sales brothers heckled Bowie into greater spontaneity, with most songs recorded in one take, and lyrics left unpolished, thus giving the band a ragged, punk rock edge. On tour, Bowie said of the band and its music, "This is not music to get up and have breakfast to by any means. And we're not the most comfortable band in the world to watch. If you're looking for a dance band, we ain't it."
In contemporary interviews, the band claimed their musical influences were Gene Krupa, Charlie Mingus, Jimi Hendrix, Glenn Branca, Mountain, Cream, and the Jeff Beck Group.
According to Bowie, the group decided when they formed that they'd play from album to album, and that "if we were still getting on with each other – which was the priority – that we'd continue."
Band name
The group chose the name Tin Machine after one of the songs they had written. Tony Sales joked that, as all four members were divorced when the band formed, originally the band was going to be called "The Four Divorcés" or "Alimony Inc." Gabrels suggested calling the band "White Noise", but Bowie dismissed it as too "racist". Other names that were considered and discarded included "Leather Weasel" and "The Emperor's New Clothes". Gabrels later elaborated on the real name choice, saying the band's name "worked on a number of levels for us. The archaic – the idea of tin, which is still everywhere: tin cans, when you go to the supermarket; when you walk down the street you find rusting tin. It's such a supposedly archaic material, but it's everywhere. Sort of like the idea of us playing this music and not using drum machines and sequencers and things like that. There's a point at which it connects. At least for us. And the final thing, for lack of a better name."
1988–89: First album and tour
The band's self-titled first album was recorded in late 1988 and early 1989. It produced mixed but generally positive reviews upon release in May 1989, picking up favourable comparisons with Bowie's two more recent solo albums. Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart, but sales quickly tailed off. Gabrels claimed in 1991 that album sales from the first album were "ten times better" than he had anticipated. At the time of the release of the album, Bowie was enthusiastic about the band and the work they'd done, and felt that band had in them "another two albums at least."
Contrary to common reports, the band's first live performance together wasn't at the International Rock Awards Show on 31 May 1989. Prior to that show, the band played an unannounced show in Nassau. Bowie recalled "We showed up at a club in Nassau where we were recording and did four or five songs. We went down to the club and just did 'em." Added Gabrels, "We just walked up on stage and you could hear all these voices whispering, 'That's David Bowie! No, it can't be David Bowie, he's got a beard!'"
The band recognized that some fans and critics didn't like Bowie's new role in the band. Said Tony Sales, "Mainly, people are pissed off because David's not doing 'David Bowie.'" Bowie confirmed that Tin Machine live shows would be "non-theatrical" in contrast to his most recent tour.
The band undertook a low-key tour in small venues between 14 June and 3 July 1989, before further recording sessions in Sydney, Australia. During these sessions Tin Machine contributed to a surfing compilation album, Beyond the Beach, with a new instrumental song titled "Needles on the Beach". A partial recording of their show from this tour recorded at La Cigale in Paris on 25 June 1989 was released digitally in August 2019.
1990–91: Second album and tour
The group then went on hiatus while Bowie conducted his solo Sound+Vision Tour. In December 1990, Bowie split from EMI. Hunt Sales said that EMI "kind of freaked out a little bit at the strident, single-less Tin Machine debut", which partially explained why Bowie switched music labels. In March 1991, the band signed to Victory Music, a new label launched by JVC and distributed worldwide by London Records and PolyGram, and recorded more new material. This was combined with tracks from the Sydney sessions to form the Tin Machine II album. The album was described as "just as impure and twisted [as their first album], but more R&B and less abrasive." Gabrels explained the change between the first and second album was because by the second album, "we knew one another as musicians. ... It wasn't as dense. And we actually left more room, I think for David to come up with some interesting melodies. There was more room for vocals on this record."
In late 1991 Bowie reiterated that he was still happy being in the band during that time, stating "I'm content. … I'm deriving a great deal of fulfillment from working with Tin Machine", and band-mate Gabrels agreed, saying "we're doing exactly what we wanted to do." During press performances for songs on the album, Gabrels played his guitar with a vibrator and for a performance on BBC's Top of the Pops, who banned the use of the vibrator, he mimed playing his guitar with a chocolate éclair.
In early August 1991, the band began promotional performances for the album, starting with TV appearances in the UK. From 5 October 1991 to 17 February 1992, the group went on their It's My Life Tour, which was a longer tour than their first. The band was joined on this tour by guitarist Eric Schermerhorn. On 23 November 1991, the band was the musical guest during Saturday Night Lives 17th season.
1992: Live album and dissolution
Tracks from the "It's My Life" tour were released on the July 1992 album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby. The album did not sell well and there was speculation that the failure of this album to achieve commercial success was among the reasons that the band ultimately broke up. As early as 1990, Bowie knew he'd be going back to solo work, although not because he disliked working with the band. He said "I have very definite ideas of what I want to do as a solo artist, which I'll be starting on probably late next year [1991], again completely different, hopefully, from what I've done before." Shortly after the release of Oy Vey, Baby, Bowie returned to solo recording with his single "Real Cool World", but he maintained intentions to return to the studio with Tin Machine in 1993 for a third album. These plans would fail to come to fruition, however, and the band shortly thereafter dissolved. There were allegations that Hunt Sales' growing drug addiction was responsible for the band's end, but of Tin Machine's dissolution, Bowie merely said "personal problems within the band became the reason for its demise. It’s not for me to talk about them, but it became physically impossible for us to carry on. And that was pretty sad really."
Band legacy
The band earned mixed reviews during their short career. In later years, critics have reappraised the band more warmly and Tin Machine have been found "unjustly" harshly reviewed. One critic suggested that part of the reason for its poor reception was that Tin Machine's music was somewhat ahead of its time, and that the band "explored alternative and grunge before the styles were even widely known to exist." Another critic agreed, with yet another suggesting that Tin Machine and Bowie were "merely ahead of the curve. A prophet, a voice in the desert predicting the coming of Nirvana. At the time, Nirvana was toiling in Seattle obscurity, pushing its debut Bleach on Sub Pop at every dive it played." Tim Palmer, after producing Tin Machine's two studio albums, would go on to mix Pearl Jam's grunge album Ten in 1991, and later recalled to Gabrels that he had come into the studio one day to find Pearl Jam listening to Tin Machine's "Heaven's in Here".
In 1996, Bowie reflected on his time with Tin Machine: "For better or worse it helped me to pin down what I did and didn’t enjoy about being an artist. It helped me, I feel, to recover as an artist. And I do feel that for the past few years I’ve been absolutely in charge of my artistic path again. I’m working to my own criteria. I’m not doing anything I would feel ashamed of in the future, or that I would look back on and say my heart wasn’t in that."
In 1997, when asked if he thought the band was still underrated, Bowie said, "It's going to be interesting, isn't it? As the songs creep out in different forms over the years, I assume that eventually it'll be evaluated in a different way. I'm not sure people will ever be sympathetic to it entirely. But as the years go by, I think they'll be less hostile. I think it was quite a brave band and I think there were some extremely good pieces of work done. And I think they'll kind of show themselves over time." Bowie and Gabrels re-recorded a few Tin Machine tracks during this time, including "I Can't Read" and "Baby Universal", with the former being released on the soundtrack to the movie The Ice Storm (1997) and both as a part of Bowie's posthumous Is It Any Wonder? (2020).
By the end of the 20th century, Bowie looked back at his time with the band as invaluable, saying "I had to kick-start my engine again in music. There'd been a wobbly moment where I could quite easily have gone reclusive and just worked on visual stuff, paint and sculpt and all that. I had made a lot of money: I thought, well, I could just bugger off and do my Gauguin in Tahiti bit now. But then what do you do – re-emerge at 60 somewhere? So I look back on the Tin Machine years with great fondness. They charged me up. I can’t tell you how much."
Despite some reports to the contrary, Bowie stated several times over his years with Tin Machine that he was happy working in the band. Bowie used his time with the band as a way to revitalize himself and his career, which he would later in March 1997 call a "lifeline", citing Reeves Gabrels as a source of his new-found energy and direction:
Personnel
David Bowie – lead vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, saxophone
Reeves Gabrels – electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals
Tony Fox Sales – bass guitar, backing vocals
Hunt Sales – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Singles
Other appearances
Music videos
Music video films
Live concert films
References
See also
List of musical supergroups
Citations
External links
Tin Machine's live performance at the 1989 International Rock Awards (Youtube)
British hard rock musical groups
American hard rock musical groups
Rock music supergroups
Musical groups established in 1988
Musical groups disestablished in 1992
EMI Records artists
David Bowie | true | [
"Ike & Tina Turner's Festival of Live Performances is a live album released by Kent Records in January 1970. It was recorded during their stint at Kent in the mid-1960s.\n\nBackground \nAt the time of the recording Ike & Tina Turner were touring vigorously on the Chitlin Circuit. They already had a string of hits by 1962, and simultaneously they were establishing themselves as \"one of the most potent live acts on the R&B circuit.\" They released various live albums in the 1960s which did better on the charts than their studio albums. Opening for the Rolling Stones on their 1969 American tour helped sell the duo to a major market. After they achieved mainstream success, Kent Records, one of the many labels they recorded for in the 1960s released Ike & Tina Turner's Festival of Live Performances in 1970.\n\nCritical reception \n\nBillboard (February 21, 1970): The husband-wife soul duo of Ike & Tina Turner are everyday these days, especially on the charts where their incredible brand of pop-soul excitement has finally been realized after years as also-rans. Their live performances at the Fillmore and Madison Square Garden did the trick, but Kent presents the team as they were when 'live' meant clubs and smaller audiences of devoted fans.Record World (February 28, 1970): \"After paying their dues, and it was a large amount, Ike and Tina are finally full-fledged members of the hot artist organization. All these sides were recorded live and some will say that's the only way to enjoy the sizzling duo and their Ikettes.\"\n\nRon Wynn at AllMusic stated that \"they were still a hungry, eager, galvanizing band then, and even performed with energy and fire on mundane filler.\"\n\nReissues \nThe album was reissued in France by Disques Festival on the double vinyl The Great Album Of Ike And Tina Turner in 1974.\n\nIke & Tina Turner's Festival of Live Performances was reissued on CD by RockBeat Records in 2011 with two additional tracks.\n\nTrack listing\n\nReferences \n\n1970 live albums\nIke & Tina Turner live albums\nKent Records albums",
"Homogenic Live is a live album by Icelandic singer Björk, collecting her favorite performances from her 1997-99 Homogenic Tour. It was Björk’s first tour to have soundboard recordings and thus the first of her live CDs to feature a wide variety of performances taken from different dates and venues throughout a single tour. Originally released in the 5 disc Live Box set in 2003, Homogenic Live was later released separately on 1 June 2004 by One Little Indian records.\n\nBackground\n\nBjörk did not have soundboard recordings for her first two concert tours. When compiling material for those tours’ corresponding live albums, she had to use audio taken from pre-mixed videotaped performances.\n\nBeginning with the Homogenic Tour, she began collecting soundboard recordings with each section of her touring band mixed separately. During the Homogenic Tour, several microphones captured the Icelandic String Octet (as evidenced on the concert film, Live in Cambridge) while Mark Bell’s electronic equipment was fed directly into the mixer. This recording technique allows for a greater clarity of sound and a certain deal of control in the mixing process, allowing the audio technician to raise or lower the different elements, be they the performer’s vocals, the different sections of the touring band or even the crowd. Homogenic Live is Björk’s first live album to be mixed in such a way.\n\nReception\n\nCritics praised Homogenic Live. Comparing it to Björk’s previous live albums, Scott Plagenhoef for Pitchfork complimented the stripped down strings and electronics setting, saying it “could have left (Björk) potentially vulnerable, but she fills the empty space with the full force of her voice… In the end, the renditions seem more assured and well-conceived…” than on both Debut and Post Live. AllMusic wrote that “the relatively spare instrumentation allows Björk to take her songs down slightly different paths while retaining the heart of the studio recordings” and that “Björk’s voice shines throughout.” PopMatters criticized the slew of releases Björk was putting out at the time but agreed that the live album was a historical record \"of the beauty and majesty of Björk’s voice and her compositions,\" while ultimately concluding that as a companion project to its \"landmark\" parent album Homogenic, it \"failed to offer any new insights into the inner workings of Björk and her live experience.\"\n\nTrack list\n\nReferences\n\n2004 live albums\nBjörk albums\nOne Little Independent Records albums\nAlbums produced by Björk"
]
|
[
"Tin Machine",
"1988-89: First album and tour",
"when was their first album released?",
"release in May 1989,",
"what was the album called?",
"self-titled first album",
"did it do well on the charts?",
"Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart,",
"what about in the US?",
"I don't know.",
"what label company were they using?",
"I don't know.",
"did they have any live performances?",
"the band played an unannounced show in Nassau."
]
| C_9d71042505bd46adb2a9dff2c991687e_1 | and where else did they play? | 7 | and where else did Tin Machine play aside from Nassau? | Tin Machine | The band's self-titled first album was recorded in late 1988 and early 1989. It produced mixed but generally positive reviews upon release in May 1989, picking up favourable comparisons with Bowie's two more recent solo albums. Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart, but sales quickly tailed off. Gabrels claimed in 1991 that album sales from the first album were "ten times better" than he had anticipated. At the time of the release of the album, Bowie was enthusiastic about the band and the work they'd done, and felt that band had in them "another two albums at least." Contrary to common reports, the band's first live performance together wasn't at the International Rock Awards Show on 31 May 1989. Prior to that show, the band played an unannounced show in Nassau. Bowie recalled "We showed up at a club in Nassau where we were recording and did four or five songs. We went down to the club and just did 'em." Added Gabrels, "We just walked up on stage and you could hear all these voices whispering, 'That's David Bowie! No, it can't be David Bowie, he's got a beard!'" The band recognized that some fans and critics didn't like Bowie's new role in the band. Said Tony Sales, "Mainly, people are pissed off because David's not doing 'David Bowie.'" Bowie confirmed that Tin Machine live shows would be "non-theatrical" in contrast to his most recent tour. The band undertook a low-key tour in small venues between 14 June and 3 July 1989, before further recording sessions in Sydney, Australia. During these sessions Tin Machine contributed to a surfing compilation album, Beyond the Beach, with a new instrumental song titled "Needles on the Beach". CANNOTANSWER | International Rock Awards Show | Tin Machine were a British–American hard rock supergroup formed in 1988, notable for being fronted by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. The band consisted of Bowie on lead vocals, sax, and guitar; Reeves Gabrels on guitar and vocals; Tony Fox Sales on bass and vocals; and Hunt Sales on drums and vocals. Tony and Hunt had previously performed alongside Bowie as part of Iggy Pop's backing band during his 1977 tour for The Idiot. Kevin Armstrong played additional guitar and keyboards on the band's first studio album and first tour, and American guitarist Eric Schermerhorn played on the second tour and live album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby (1992).
Drummer Hunt Sales said that the band's name "reflects the sound of the band," and Bowie stated that he and his band members joined up "to make the kind of music that we enjoyed listening to" and to rejuvenate himself artistically.
The band recorded two studio albums and one live album before dissolving in 1992, after which Bowie returned to his solo career. By the end of 2012, they had reportedly sold two million albums. Bowie would later credit his time with Tin Machine as instrumental in revitalising his career after the 1980s.
History
1987–88: Band genesis
The album Never Let Me Down (1987) and subsequent Glass Spider Tour had left critics unimpressed, and Bowie was aware of his low standing. Eager to return to making music for himself rather than the mainstream audience he had acquired following the Let's Dance album,
Bowie looked around for collaborators to work with. He briefly worked with Bon Jovi producer Bruce Fairbairn in Los Angeles, recording a few tracks, including a demo of "Lucy Can't Dance" (which was eventually re-recorded and released on Bowie's 1993 solo album Black Tie White Noise) and a version of Bob Dylan's song "Like A Rolling Stone", but this did not bear much fruit, and the Dylan cover was passed to his friend Mick Ronson, where it was released on his posthumous album Heaven and Hull (1994). Soon after, Bowie began collaborating with Reeves Gabrels, who pushed the singer to rediscover his experimental side.
Bowie and Gabrels had initially met through Gabrels' then-wife Sara Terry, who was part of the press staff for the North American leg of Bowie's 1987 Glass Spider world tour. The two men had struck up a friendship when Gabrels visited at several tour venues. Notably, their relationship began as a social one, as Gabrels didn't mention that he himself was a musician. Common interests in popular culture and the visual arts provided more than enough to talk about, Gabrels explained in later interviews, and also because he was in his wife's workplace, he felt it wasn't appropriate to bring up his own music. At the tour's end, Bowie kindly asked Terry if he could do anything for her. In response, Terry gave Bowie a tape of Gabrels' guitar playing. Months later, after listening to the tape, Bowie phoned Gabrels to invite him to get together to play and write. Bowie told him that he felt he had "lost his vision" and was looking for ways to get it back. After a month working together, Gabrels asked Bowie what he wanted of him, and, according to Gabrels, Bowie said "Basically, I need somebody that can do a combination of Beck, Hendrix, Belew and Fripp, with a little Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King thrown in. Then, when I’m not singing, you take the ball and do something with it, and when you hand the ball back to me, it might not even be the same ball."
The first public fruits of Bowie and Gabrels working together came with a new arrangement by Gabrels of the song "Look Back in Anger" which Bowie had written with Brian Eno in 1979 for the album Lodger. The occasion was a benefit show at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) on 1 July 1988 at which Bowie had been invited to perform with the avant-garde dance troupe La La La Human Steps. Bowie sang, played and danced with troupe members while in lighted grottoes upstage three musicians (Gabrels on guitar, Kevin Armstrong on guitar, and Erdal Kızılçay on bass) played the new minute score that Gabrels created from the 3-minute song; the new material included drums programmed by Kızılçay. "We went into the studio to rearrange it," said Bowie in a filmed interview; "I like the hard-edged wall of guitar sound that we put into it."
Gabrels recalled that early on, they weren't sure who they'd work with. They discussed working with Terry Bozzio on drums and Percy Jones on bass. But Bowie, who had run into Tony Sales in Los Angeles at a wrap party for his Glass Spider Tour, convinced Tony to call his brother Hunt so they could work together again, as Tony and Hunt had performed with David Bowie in support of Iggy Pop in the late 1970s. Tony recalled that Bowie was "thinking about getting a band together — something together. He didn't know exactly what he wanted to do, but he wanted Hunt and I to meet Reeves and maybe we could all write together, come up with something."
Bowie himself was surprised with how things came together with the band, saying, "I'd never wanted to be in a band until we got together. And as we were getting together, it wasn't really occurring to me that this is what I wanted to do. It took a week or so of actually being in the studio and working, and then I think we fully realized the potential, musically, for what we were doing and wanted to stick with it. I was quite happy to go off and make a solo album. I was quite excited about a couple of things I was doing, which I brought into the band and which were irrevocably changed. But that's the nature of the band."
Bowie was pleased that the band members clicked, calling the ease at which the personalities came together "inspired guesswork". Hunt and Tony, the two sons of comic Soupy Sales, kept the mood jovial during recording sessions and interviews. Bowie later rejected the idea that Reeves, Hunt and Tony were backing members of his band. "The Sales brothers would never accept having another boss. They are far too stubborn and aware of their own needs. They're not in the market to be anybody's backing band, either of them. You do not fuck with the Sales brothers, or Reeves Gabrels." Gabrels said that Bowie came in one day while the group was first forming and said, "I think this has got to be a band. Everybody's got input. Everybody's writing. You guys don't listen to me anyway." The band split profits four ways, no one was on a salary and each member paid for his own expenses. Bowie also clarified that "the band will cease to exist the moment it ceases to be a musical experience for any of us. None of us wanted to get into the kind of situation where you find yourself making albums because you're contracted to." The group setup allowed Bowie a certain level of anonymity, and to that end, Bowie stipulated that all four members divide interviews equally between them and that in the cases where he was interviewed, that another member of the band be present as well. He made a point to clarify that he didn't invite the others to join "his" band, rather, "the band literally came together."
The Sales brothers moved the tone of the sessions away from art-rock and more towards hard rock, and Bowie looked to one of his favorite bands at the time, Pixies, for inspiration. The Sales brothers heckled Bowie into greater spontaneity, with most songs recorded in one take, and lyrics left unpolished, thus giving the band a ragged, punk rock edge. On tour, Bowie said of the band and its music, "This is not music to get up and have breakfast to by any means. And we're not the most comfortable band in the world to watch. If you're looking for a dance band, we ain't it."
In contemporary interviews, the band claimed their musical influences were Gene Krupa, Charlie Mingus, Jimi Hendrix, Glenn Branca, Mountain, Cream, and the Jeff Beck Group.
According to Bowie, the group decided when they formed that they'd play from album to album, and that "if we were still getting on with each other – which was the priority – that we'd continue."
Band name
The group chose the name Tin Machine after one of the songs they had written. Tony Sales joked that, as all four members were divorced when the band formed, originally the band was going to be called "The Four Divorcés" or "Alimony Inc." Gabrels suggested calling the band "White Noise", but Bowie dismissed it as too "racist". Other names that were considered and discarded included "Leather Weasel" and "The Emperor's New Clothes". Gabrels later elaborated on the real name choice, saying the band's name "worked on a number of levels for us. The archaic – the idea of tin, which is still everywhere: tin cans, when you go to the supermarket; when you walk down the street you find rusting tin. It's such a supposedly archaic material, but it's everywhere. Sort of like the idea of us playing this music and not using drum machines and sequencers and things like that. There's a point at which it connects. At least for us. And the final thing, for lack of a better name."
1988–89: First album and tour
The band's self-titled first album was recorded in late 1988 and early 1989. It produced mixed but generally positive reviews upon release in May 1989, picking up favourable comparisons with Bowie's two more recent solo albums. Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart, but sales quickly tailed off. Gabrels claimed in 1991 that album sales from the first album were "ten times better" than he had anticipated. At the time of the release of the album, Bowie was enthusiastic about the band and the work they'd done, and felt that band had in them "another two albums at least."
Contrary to common reports, the band's first live performance together wasn't at the International Rock Awards Show on 31 May 1989. Prior to that show, the band played an unannounced show in Nassau. Bowie recalled "We showed up at a club in Nassau where we were recording and did four or five songs. We went down to the club and just did 'em." Added Gabrels, "We just walked up on stage and you could hear all these voices whispering, 'That's David Bowie! No, it can't be David Bowie, he's got a beard!'"
The band recognized that some fans and critics didn't like Bowie's new role in the band. Said Tony Sales, "Mainly, people are pissed off because David's not doing 'David Bowie.'" Bowie confirmed that Tin Machine live shows would be "non-theatrical" in contrast to his most recent tour.
The band undertook a low-key tour in small venues between 14 June and 3 July 1989, before further recording sessions in Sydney, Australia. During these sessions Tin Machine contributed to a surfing compilation album, Beyond the Beach, with a new instrumental song titled "Needles on the Beach". A partial recording of their show from this tour recorded at La Cigale in Paris on 25 June 1989 was released digitally in August 2019.
1990–91: Second album and tour
The group then went on hiatus while Bowie conducted his solo Sound+Vision Tour. In December 1990, Bowie split from EMI. Hunt Sales said that EMI "kind of freaked out a little bit at the strident, single-less Tin Machine debut", which partially explained why Bowie switched music labels. In March 1991, the band signed to Victory Music, a new label launched by JVC and distributed worldwide by London Records and PolyGram, and recorded more new material. This was combined with tracks from the Sydney sessions to form the Tin Machine II album. The album was described as "just as impure and twisted [as their first album], but more R&B and less abrasive." Gabrels explained the change between the first and second album was because by the second album, "we knew one another as musicians. ... It wasn't as dense. And we actually left more room, I think for David to come up with some interesting melodies. There was more room for vocals on this record."
In late 1991 Bowie reiterated that he was still happy being in the band during that time, stating "I'm content. … I'm deriving a great deal of fulfillment from working with Tin Machine", and band-mate Gabrels agreed, saying "we're doing exactly what we wanted to do." During press performances for songs on the album, Gabrels played his guitar with a vibrator and for a performance on BBC's Top of the Pops, who banned the use of the vibrator, he mimed playing his guitar with a chocolate éclair.
In early August 1991, the band began promotional performances for the album, starting with TV appearances in the UK. From 5 October 1991 to 17 February 1992, the group went on their It's My Life Tour, which was a longer tour than their first. The band was joined on this tour by guitarist Eric Schermerhorn. On 23 November 1991, the band was the musical guest during Saturday Night Lives 17th season.
1992: Live album and dissolution
Tracks from the "It's My Life" tour were released on the July 1992 album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby. The album did not sell well and there was speculation that the failure of this album to achieve commercial success was among the reasons that the band ultimately broke up. As early as 1990, Bowie knew he'd be going back to solo work, although not because he disliked working with the band. He said "I have very definite ideas of what I want to do as a solo artist, which I'll be starting on probably late next year [1991], again completely different, hopefully, from what I've done before." Shortly after the release of Oy Vey, Baby, Bowie returned to solo recording with his single "Real Cool World", but he maintained intentions to return to the studio with Tin Machine in 1993 for a third album. These plans would fail to come to fruition, however, and the band shortly thereafter dissolved. There were allegations that Hunt Sales' growing drug addiction was responsible for the band's end, but of Tin Machine's dissolution, Bowie merely said "personal problems within the band became the reason for its demise. It’s not for me to talk about them, but it became physically impossible for us to carry on. And that was pretty sad really."
Band legacy
The band earned mixed reviews during their short career. In later years, critics have reappraised the band more warmly and Tin Machine have been found "unjustly" harshly reviewed. One critic suggested that part of the reason for its poor reception was that Tin Machine's music was somewhat ahead of its time, and that the band "explored alternative and grunge before the styles were even widely known to exist." Another critic agreed, with yet another suggesting that Tin Machine and Bowie were "merely ahead of the curve. A prophet, a voice in the desert predicting the coming of Nirvana. At the time, Nirvana was toiling in Seattle obscurity, pushing its debut Bleach on Sub Pop at every dive it played." Tim Palmer, after producing Tin Machine's two studio albums, would go on to mix Pearl Jam's grunge album Ten in 1991, and later recalled to Gabrels that he had come into the studio one day to find Pearl Jam listening to Tin Machine's "Heaven's in Here".
In 1996, Bowie reflected on his time with Tin Machine: "For better or worse it helped me to pin down what I did and didn’t enjoy about being an artist. It helped me, I feel, to recover as an artist. And I do feel that for the past few years I’ve been absolutely in charge of my artistic path again. I’m working to my own criteria. I’m not doing anything I would feel ashamed of in the future, or that I would look back on and say my heart wasn’t in that."
In 1997, when asked if he thought the band was still underrated, Bowie said, "It's going to be interesting, isn't it? As the songs creep out in different forms over the years, I assume that eventually it'll be evaluated in a different way. I'm not sure people will ever be sympathetic to it entirely. But as the years go by, I think they'll be less hostile. I think it was quite a brave band and I think there were some extremely good pieces of work done. And I think they'll kind of show themselves over time." Bowie and Gabrels re-recorded a few Tin Machine tracks during this time, including "I Can't Read" and "Baby Universal", with the former being released on the soundtrack to the movie The Ice Storm (1997) and both as a part of Bowie's posthumous Is It Any Wonder? (2020).
By the end of the 20th century, Bowie looked back at his time with the band as invaluable, saying "I had to kick-start my engine again in music. There'd been a wobbly moment where I could quite easily have gone reclusive and just worked on visual stuff, paint and sculpt and all that. I had made a lot of money: I thought, well, I could just bugger off and do my Gauguin in Tahiti bit now. But then what do you do – re-emerge at 60 somewhere? So I look back on the Tin Machine years with great fondness. They charged me up. I can’t tell you how much."
Despite some reports to the contrary, Bowie stated several times over his years with Tin Machine that he was happy working in the band. Bowie used his time with the band as a way to revitalize himself and his career, which he would later in March 1997 call a "lifeline", citing Reeves Gabrels as a source of his new-found energy and direction:
Personnel
David Bowie – lead vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, saxophone
Reeves Gabrels – electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals
Tony Fox Sales – bass guitar, backing vocals
Hunt Sales – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Singles
Other appearances
Music videos
Music video films
Live concert films
References
See also
List of musical supergroups
Citations
External links
Tin Machine's live performance at the 1989 International Rock Awards (Youtube)
British hard rock musical groups
American hard rock musical groups
Rock music supergroups
Musical groups established in 1988
Musical groups disestablished in 1992
EMI Records artists
David Bowie | true | [
"Robert Else (17 November 1876 – 16 September 1955) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Derbyshire in 1901 and 1903.\n\nElse was born at Lea, Holloway, Derbyshire, the son of John Else and his wife Henrietta Lowe. His father was a bobbin maker and in 1881 they were all living with his grandparents at the Old Hat Factory in Wirksworth. Else made his debut for Derbyshire in May 1901 against Surrey, when his scores were 1 and 2. He played again that season against the South Africans when he opened the batting scoring a duck in the first innings and surviving the whole of the second innings for 6 not out. He did not play again until July 1903 when against London County he took a wicket and made his top score of 28. He played his last two matches in 1903 and made little impression in them.\n\nElse was a left-hand batsman and played ten innings in five first-class matches with an average of 7.3 and a top score of 28. He bowled fifteen overs and took 1 first-class wicket for 61 runs in total.\n\nElse died at Broomhill, Sheffield, Yorkshire at the age of 78.\n\nReferences\n\n1876 births\n1955 deaths\nDerbyshire cricketers\nEnglish cricketers\nPeople from Dethick, Lea and Holloway",
"Fredrick Else (31 March 193320 July 2015) was an English footballer, who played as a goalkeeper. Else gained over 600 professional appearances in his career playing for three clubs, Preston North End, Blackburn Rovers and Barrow.\n\nClub career\nElse was born in Golborne near Wigan on 31 March 1933. Whilst on national service in the north-east he played for amateur club Axwell Park Colliery Welfare in the Derwent Valley League. He attracted the attention of Football League teams and signed as a junior for Preston North End in 1951, and as a professional in 1953. He made his debut for Preston against Manchester City in 1954, but was restricted to 14 appearances over his first three seasons. He eventually became first choice, displacing George Thompson, and played 238 times for North End. During this time Preston's most successful season came in 1957–58, when the club finished as runners up in Division One.\n\nThe 1960–61 season ended in relegation for Preston and Else was sold to neighbours Blackburn Rovers for £20,000. Else became a first choice for Blackburn straight away and played 221 times for the club. A collarbone injury in 1964–65 resulted in a period out of the game, though Else returned to regain the goalkeeper's jersey at Blackburn. Nonetheless the team were relegated the following season and Else was released. During the summer of 1966 Else signed with Barrow of the Fourth Division. Else became part of Barrow's most successful team, with the side winning promotion to the Third Division in his first season there. Else was Barrow's first choice keeper for the entire period that they were in the third division, and played 148 league matches for the club. He retired from football after Barrow's relegation in 1970 following a leg infection. His final season included a brief stint as caretaker manager at Barrow.\n\nHonours\n Football League Division One Runner-up 1957–1958\n Football League Division Four Promotion 1966–1967\n\nInternational career\nElse has been described by fans of the clubs that he played for as one of the best English goalkeepers never to win a full international cap. He did, however, make one appearance for the England B team in 1957 against Scotland B, as well as participating in a Football Association touring side of 1961.\n\nPersonal life and death\nElse met his wife Marjorie in 1949 in Douglas on the Isle of Man. They married when Else was 22 and Marjorie 20, on 29 October 1955, a Saturday morning. The wedding was held in Marjorie's home town of Blackpool and the date was chosen so that the couple could marry in the morning and Else could then travel either to Deepdale, to play for Preston North End's reserve team, or to Bloomfield Road where Preston's first team was due to be playing Blackpool F.C. In the event Else was selected for the reserves and the couple had to travel by bus to Preston.\n\nAfter retiring from football, Else remained in Barrow-in-Furness, becoming a geography and maths teacher at a local secondary school. He retired from teaching in 1999 and moved to Cyprus, though still attended some Barrow matches. Else died in Barrow-in-Furness on 20 July 2015, aged 82.\n\nReferences\n\n2015 deaths\n1933 births\nBarrow A.F.C. managers\nBarrow A.F.C. players\nBlackburn Rovers F.C. players\nPreston North End F.C. players\nPeople from Golborne\nEnglish footballers\nAssociation football goalkeepers\nSchoolteachers from Cumbria\nEnglish Football League players\nEngland B international footballers\nEnglish football managers"
]
|
[
"Tin Machine",
"1988-89: First album and tour",
"when was their first album released?",
"release in May 1989,",
"what was the album called?",
"self-titled first album",
"did it do well on the charts?",
"Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart,",
"what about in the US?",
"I don't know.",
"what label company were they using?",
"I don't know.",
"did they have any live performances?",
"the band played an unannounced show in Nassau.",
"and where else did they play?",
"International Rock Awards Show"
]
| C_9d71042505bd46adb2a9dff2c991687e_1 | did they produce another album after that? | 8 | did Tin Machine produce another album other than self-titled first album? | Tin Machine | The band's self-titled first album was recorded in late 1988 and early 1989. It produced mixed but generally positive reviews upon release in May 1989, picking up favourable comparisons with Bowie's two more recent solo albums. Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart, but sales quickly tailed off. Gabrels claimed in 1991 that album sales from the first album were "ten times better" than he had anticipated. At the time of the release of the album, Bowie was enthusiastic about the band and the work they'd done, and felt that band had in them "another two albums at least." Contrary to common reports, the band's first live performance together wasn't at the International Rock Awards Show on 31 May 1989. Prior to that show, the band played an unannounced show in Nassau. Bowie recalled "We showed up at a club in Nassau where we were recording and did four or five songs. We went down to the club and just did 'em." Added Gabrels, "We just walked up on stage and you could hear all these voices whispering, 'That's David Bowie! No, it can't be David Bowie, he's got a beard!'" The band recognized that some fans and critics didn't like Bowie's new role in the band. Said Tony Sales, "Mainly, people are pissed off because David's not doing 'David Bowie.'" Bowie confirmed that Tin Machine live shows would be "non-theatrical" in contrast to his most recent tour. The band undertook a low-key tour in small venues between 14 June and 3 July 1989, before further recording sessions in Sydney, Australia. During these sessions Tin Machine contributed to a surfing compilation album, Beyond the Beach, with a new instrumental song titled "Needles on the Beach". CANNOTANSWER | Beyond the Beach, | Tin Machine were a British–American hard rock supergroup formed in 1988, notable for being fronted by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. The band consisted of Bowie on lead vocals, sax, and guitar; Reeves Gabrels on guitar and vocals; Tony Fox Sales on bass and vocals; and Hunt Sales on drums and vocals. Tony and Hunt had previously performed alongside Bowie as part of Iggy Pop's backing band during his 1977 tour for The Idiot. Kevin Armstrong played additional guitar and keyboards on the band's first studio album and first tour, and American guitarist Eric Schermerhorn played on the second tour and live album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby (1992).
Drummer Hunt Sales said that the band's name "reflects the sound of the band," and Bowie stated that he and his band members joined up "to make the kind of music that we enjoyed listening to" and to rejuvenate himself artistically.
The band recorded two studio albums and one live album before dissolving in 1992, after which Bowie returned to his solo career. By the end of 2012, they had reportedly sold two million albums. Bowie would later credit his time with Tin Machine as instrumental in revitalising his career after the 1980s.
History
1987–88: Band genesis
The album Never Let Me Down (1987) and subsequent Glass Spider Tour had left critics unimpressed, and Bowie was aware of his low standing. Eager to return to making music for himself rather than the mainstream audience he had acquired following the Let's Dance album,
Bowie looked around for collaborators to work with. He briefly worked with Bon Jovi producer Bruce Fairbairn in Los Angeles, recording a few tracks, including a demo of "Lucy Can't Dance" (which was eventually re-recorded and released on Bowie's 1993 solo album Black Tie White Noise) and a version of Bob Dylan's song "Like A Rolling Stone", but this did not bear much fruit, and the Dylan cover was passed to his friend Mick Ronson, where it was released on his posthumous album Heaven and Hull (1994). Soon after, Bowie began collaborating with Reeves Gabrels, who pushed the singer to rediscover his experimental side.
Bowie and Gabrels had initially met through Gabrels' then-wife Sara Terry, who was part of the press staff for the North American leg of Bowie's 1987 Glass Spider world tour. The two men had struck up a friendship when Gabrels visited at several tour venues. Notably, their relationship began as a social one, as Gabrels didn't mention that he himself was a musician. Common interests in popular culture and the visual arts provided more than enough to talk about, Gabrels explained in later interviews, and also because he was in his wife's workplace, he felt it wasn't appropriate to bring up his own music. At the tour's end, Bowie kindly asked Terry if he could do anything for her. In response, Terry gave Bowie a tape of Gabrels' guitar playing. Months later, after listening to the tape, Bowie phoned Gabrels to invite him to get together to play and write. Bowie told him that he felt he had "lost his vision" and was looking for ways to get it back. After a month working together, Gabrels asked Bowie what he wanted of him, and, according to Gabrels, Bowie said "Basically, I need somebody that can do a combination of Beck, Hendrix, Belew and Fripp, with a little Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King thrown in. Then, when I’m not singing, you take the ball and do something with it, and when you hand the ball back to me, it might not even be the same ball."
The first public fruits of Bowie and Gabrels working together came with a new arrangement by Gabrels of the song "Look Back in Anger" which Bowie had written with Brian Eno in 1979 for the album Lodger. The occasion was a benefit show at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) on 1 July 1988 at which Bowie had been invited to perform with the avant-garde dance troupe La La La Human Steps. Bowie sang, played and danced with troupe members while in lighted grottoes upstage three musicians (Gabrels on guitar, Kevin Armstrong on guitar, and Erdal Kızılçay on bass) played the new minute score that Gabrels created from the 3-minute song; the new material included drums programmed by Kızılçay. "We went into the studio to rearrange it," said Bowie in a filmed interview; "I like the hard-edged wall of guitar sound that we put into it."
Gabrels recalled that early on, they weren't sure who they'd work with. They discussed working with Terry Bozzio on drums and Percy Jones on bass. But Bowie, who had run into Tony Sales in Los Angeles at a wrap party for his Glass Spider Tour, convinced Tony to call his brother Hunt so they could work together again, as Tony and Hunt had performed with David Bowie in support of Iggy Pop in the late 1970s. Tony recalled that Bowie was "thinking about getting a band together — something together. He didn't know exactly what he wanted to do, but he wanted Hunt and I to meet Reeves and maybe we could all write together, come up with something."
Bowie himself was surprised with how things came together with the band, saying, "I'd never wanted to be in a band until we got together. And as we were getting together, it wasn't really occurring to me that this is what I wanted to do. It took a week or so of actually being in the studio and working, and then I think we fully realized the potential, musically, for what we were doing and wanted to stick with it. I was quite happy to go off and make a solo album. I was quite excited about a couple of things I was doing, which I brought into the band and which were irrevocably changed. But that's the nature of the band."
Bowie was pleased that the band members clicked, calling the ease at which the personalities came together "inspired guesswork". Hunt and Tony, the two sons of comic Soupy Sales, kept the mood jovial during recording sessions and interviews. Bowie later rejected the idea that Reeves, Hunt and Tony were backing members of his band. "The Sales brothers would never accept having another boss. They are far too stubborn and aware of their own needs. They're not in the market to be anybody's backing band, either of them. You do not fuck with the Sales brothers, or Reeves Gabrels." Gabrels said that Bowie came in one day while the group was first forming and said, "I think this has got to be a band. Everybody's got input. Everybody's writing. You guys don't listen to me anyway." The band split profits four ways, no one was on a salary and each member paid for his own expenses. Bowie also clarified that "the band will cease to exist the moment it ceases to be a musical experience for any of us. None of us wanted to get into the kind of situation where you find yourself making albums because you're contracted to." The group setup allowed Bowie a certain level of anonymity, and to that end, Bowie stipulated that all four members divide interviews equally between them and that in the cases where he was interviewed, that another member of the band be present as well. He made a point to clarify that he didn't invite the others to join "his" band, rather, "the band literally came together."
The Sales brothers moved the tone of the sessions away from art-rock and more towards hard rock, and Bowie looked to one of his favorite bands at the time, Pixies, for inspiration. The Sales brothers heckled Bowie into greater spontaneity, with most songs recorded in one take, and lyrics left unpolished, thus giving the band a ragged, punk rock edge. On tour, Bowie said of the band and its music, "This is not music to get up and have breakfast to by any means. And we're not the most comfortable band in the world to watch. If you're looking for a dance band, we ain't it."
In contemporary interviews, the band claimed their musical influences were Gene Krupa, Charlie Mingus, Jimi Hendrix, Glenn Branca, Mountain, Cream, and the Jeff Beck Group.
According to Bowie, the group decided when they formed that they'd play from album to album, and that "if we were still getting on with each other – which was the priority – that we'd continue."
Band name
The group chose the name Tin Machine after one of the songs they had written. Tony Sales joked that, as all four members were divorced when the band formed, originally the band was going to be called "The Four Divorcés" or "Alimony Inc." Gabrels suggested calling the band "White Noise", but Bowie dismissed it as too "racist". Other names that were considered and discarded included "Leather Weasel" and "The Emperor's New Clothes". Gabrels later elaborated on the real name choice, saying the band's name "worked on a number of levels for us. The archaic – the idea of tin, which is still everywhere: tin cans, when you go to the supermarket; when you walk down the street you find rusting tin. It's such a supposedly archaic material, but it's everywhere. Sort of like the idea of us playing this music and not using drum machines and sequencers and things like that. There's a point at which it connects. At least for us. And the final thing, for lack of a better name."
1988–89: First album and tour
The band's self-titled first album was recorded in late 1988 and early 1989. It produced mixed but generally positive reviews upon release in May 1989, picking up favourable comparisons with Bowie's two more recent solo albums. Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart, but sales quickly tailed off. Gabrels claimed in 1991 that album sales from the first album were "ten times better" than he had anticipated. At the time of the release of the album, Bowie was enthusiastic about the band and the work they'd done, and felt that band had in them "another two albums at least."
Contrary to common reports, the band's first live performance together wasn't at the International Rock Awards Show on 31 May 1989. Prior to that show, the band played an unannounced show in Nassau. Bowie recalled "We showed up at a club in Nassau where we were recording and did four or five songs. We went down to the club and just did 'em." Added Gabrels, "We just walked up on stage and you could hear all these voices whispering, 'That's David Bowie! No, it can't be David Bowie, he's got a beard!'"
The band recognized that some fans and critics didn't like Bowie's new role in the band. Said Tony Sales, "Mainly, people are pissed off because David's not doing 'David Bowie.'" Bowie confirmed that Tin Machine live shows would be "non-theatrical" in contrast to his most recent tour.
The band undertook a low-key tour in small venues between 14 June and 3 July 1989, before further recording sessions in Sydney, Australia. During these sessions Tin Machine contributed to a surfing compilation album, Beyond the Beach, with a new instrumental song titled "Needles on the Beach". A partial recording of their show from this tour recorded at La Cigale in Paris on 25 June 1989 was released digitally in August 2019.
1990–91: Second album and tour
The group then went on hiatus while Bowie conducted his solo Sound+Vision Tour. In December 1990, Bowie split from EMI. Hunt Sales said that EMI "kind of freaked out a little bit at the strident, single-less Tin Machine debut", which partially explained why Bowie switched music labels. In March 1991, the band signed to Victory Music, a new label launched by JVC and distributed worldwide by London Records and PolyGram, and recorded more new material. This was combined with tracks from the Sydney sessions to form the Tin Machine II album. The album was described as "just as impure and twisted [as their first album], but more R&B and less abrasive." Gabrels explained the change between the first and second album was because by the second album, "we knew one another as musicians. ... It wasn't as dense. And we actually left more room, I think for David to come up with some interesting melodies. There was more room for vocals on this record."
In late 1991 Bowie reiterated that he was still happy being in the band during that time, stating "I'm content. … I'm deriving a great deal of fulfillment from working with Tin Machine", and band-mate Gabrels agreed, saying "we're doing exactly what we wanted to do." During press performances for songs on the album, Gabrels played his guitar with a vibrator and for a performance on BBC's Top of the Pops, who banned the use of the vibrator, he mimed playing his guitar with a chocolate éclair.
In early August 1991, the band began promotional performances for the album, starting with TV appearances in the UK. From 5 October 1991 to 17 February 1992, the group went on their It's My Life Tour, which was a longer tour than their first. The band was joined on this tour by guitarist Eric Schermerhorn. On 23 November 1991, the band was the musical guest during Saturday Night Lives 17th season.
1992: Live album and dissolution
Tracks from the "It's My Life" tour were released on the July 1992 album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby. The album did not sell well and there was speculation that the failure of this album to achieve commercial success was among the reasons that the band ultimately broke up. As early as 1990, Bowie knew he'd be going back to solo work, although not because he disliked working with the band. He said "I have very definite ideas of what I want to do as a solo artist, which I'll be starting on probably late next year [1991], again completely different, hopefully, from what I've done before." Shortly after the release of Oy Vey, Baby, Bowie returned to solo recording with his single "Real Cool World", but he maintained intentions to return to the studio with Tin Machine in 1993 for a third album. These plans would fail to come to fruition, however, and the band shortly thereafter dissolved. There were allegations that Hunt Sales' growing drug addiction was responsible for the band's end, but of Tin Machine's dissolution, Bowie merely said "personal problems within the band became the reason for its demise. It’s not for me to talk about them, but it became physically impossible for us to carry on. And that was pretty sad really."
Band legacy
The band earned mixed reviews during their short career. In later years, critics have reappraised the band more warmly and Tin Machine have been found "unjustly" harshly reviewed. One critic suggested that part of the reason for its poor reception was that Tin Machine's music was somewhat ahead of its time, and that the band "explored alternative and grunge before the styles were even widely known to exist." Another critic agreed, with yet another suggesting that Tin Machine and Bowie were "merely ahead of the curve. A prophet, a voice in the desert predicting the coming of Nirvana. At the time, Nirvana was toiling in Seattle obscurity, pushing its debut Bleach on Sub Pop at every dive it played." Tim Palmer, after producing Tin Machine's two studio albums, would go on to mix Pearl Jam's grunge album Ten in 1991, and later recalled to Gabrels that he had come into the studio one day to find Pearl Jam listening to Tin Machine's "Heaven's in Here".
In 1996, Bowie reflected on his time with Tin Machine: "For better or worse it helped me to pin down what I did and didn’t enjoy about being an artist. It helped me, I feel, to recover as an artist. And I do feel that for the past few years I’ve been absolutely in charge of my artistic path again. I’m working to my own criteria. I’m not doing anything I would feel ashamed of in the future, or that I would look back on and say my heart wasn’t in that."
In 1997, when asked if he thought the band was still underrated, Bowie said, "It's going to be interesting, isn't it? As the songs creep out in different forms over the years, I assume that eventually it'll be evaluated in a different way. I'm not sure people will ever be sympathetic to it entirely. But as the years go by, I think they'll be less hostile. I think it was quite a brave band and I think there were some extremely good pieces of work done. And I think they'll kind of show themselves over time." Bowie and Gabrels re-recorded a few Tin Machine tracks during this time, including "I Can't Read" and "Baby Universal", with the former being released on the soundtrack to the movie The Ice Storm (1997) and both as a part of Bowie's posthumous Is It Any Wonder? (2020).
By the end of the 20th century, Bowie looked back at his time with the band as invaluable, saying "I had to kick-start my engine again in music. There'd been a wobbly moment where I could quite easily have gone reclusive and just worked on visual stuff, paint and sculpt and all that. I had made a lot of money: I thought, well, I could just bugger off and do my Gauguin in Tahiti bit now. But then what do you do – re-emerge at 60 somewhere? So I look back on the Tin Machine years with great fondness. They charged me up. I can’t tell you how much."
Despite some reports to the contrary, Bowie stated several times over his years with Tin Machine that he was happy working in the band. Bowie used his time with the band as a way to revitalize himself and his career, which he would later in March 1997 call a "lifeline", citing Reeves Gabrels as a source of his new-found energy and direction:
Personnel
David Bowie – lead vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, saxophone
Reeves Gabrels – electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals
Tony Fox Sales – bass guitar, backing vocals
Hunt Sales – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Singles
Other appearances
Music videos
Music video films
Live concert films
References
See also
List of musical supergroups
Citations
External links
Tin Machine's live performance at the 1989 International Rock Awards (Youtube)
British hard rock musical groups
American hard rock musical groups
Rock music supergroups
Musical groups established in 1988
Musical groups disestablished in 1992
EMI Records artists
David Bowie | true | [
"Dual Core is a hip hop duo composed of American rapper int eighty (David Martinjak) and British producer c64 (Chris Hunger). Their music is often categorised as nerdcore (a subgenre of hip hop music).\n\nHistory\nMartinjak, from Cincinnati, met Hunger, from Manchester, in 2003 on an online music forum. They collaborate via the internet to produce their music. Hunger produces beats and sends the files to Martinjak, who records his vocals and uploads them to a server, Hunger downloads these files and uses them to mix the tracks. Dual Core are unusual for a nerdcore act in that it is composed of a rapper and a producer; most nerdcore rappers also produce their own beats. Martinjak and Hunger did not physically meet until after 2007. The song \"All the Things\" appears in 2016 video game Watch Dogs 2.\n\nBand members\n int eighty (sometimes \"int80\") — David Martinjak\n c64 — Chris Hunger\n\nint eighty's stage name is based on an x86 assembly instruction (\"technically 'int 0x80.'\") while c64 refers to both the Commodore 64 computer and a combination of his first initial and his height (6 ft 4 in).\n\nDiscography\n Zero One (2007) - album\n Super Powers (2007) - compilation album\n Lost Reality (2008) - album\n Next Level (2009) - album\n All The Things (2012) - album\n Downtime (2017) - album\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n Official website\n \n\nNerdcore artists\nMusical groups established in 2007\nHip hop duos",
"Jeannie Seely is a studio album by American country music artist Jeannie Seely. The album was released in 1990 on Faux Paw Productions and Shadpoke Records. The album was produced by Seely as well. The project was Seely's first studio album in eight years and second eponymous album to be released. It would be one of several studio records she would record during the 1990s.\n\nBackground and release\nJeannie Seely was recorded between 1989 and 1990. It was the first album to be produced by Seely herself. Some of her future releases would also be self-produced. The album consisted of ten tracks. Among the album's tracks was a re-recording of \"Don't Touch Me\", Seely's signature song. It was the second time that Seely had re-recorded the tune. Another track on the album was a cover version of Michael Bolton's hit \"When I'm Back on My Feet Again\". Another song on the album, \"Healing Hands of Time\", was composed by Willie Nelson. The project also included six tracks that were written or co-written by Seely.\n\nJeannie Seely was released in 1990 on Faux Paw Productions and Shadpoke Productions. These two companies had been founded by Seely. The album was released as a cassette with five songs on each side of the device. The album marked Seely's first studio release in eight years and second eponymous album to be issued. The album did not produce any known singles nor did it reach any peak positions on the Billboard music charts.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel\nAll credits are adapted from the liner notes of Jeannie Seely.\n\n Jeannie Seely – lead vocals, producer\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n1990 albums\nAlbums produced by Jeannie Seely\nJeannie Seely albums"
]
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[
"The Cult",
"Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991-1994)"
]
| C_4b2e5d61579045e7ae891ff8b3295557_1 | What was the ceremony? | 1 | What was the ceremony regarding The Cult? | The Cult | In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album. During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and James Kottak played bass and drums respectively. During the actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play drums, with Charley Drayton on bass, and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men reportedly rarely even being in the studio together during recording. The resulting album Ceremony was released to mixed responses. The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. Only two official singles were released from the record: "Wild Hearted Son" (UK No. 34, Canada No. 41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK No. 50), although "White" was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was released as a single (as "Dulce Salvacion") in Argentina in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was released in Spain. The Cult's Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in 1991 and North America in 1992. In 1991 the Cult played a show at the Marquee Club in London, which was recorded and released in February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete bootleg video of this show is also in circulation. The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, for alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted Son". This lawsuit delayed the release of Ceremony in many countries including South Korea and Thailand, which did not see the record's release until late 1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey until the Cult played several shows in Istanbul in June 1993. A world tour followed with backing from future Thin Lizzy drummer Michael Lee and bassist Kinley Wolfe, and keyboardist John Sinclair returning one last time, and the Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 31. Following the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits compilation which debuted at No. 1 on the British charts and later went to number one in Portugal, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and recruited Craig Adams (the Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic. CANNOTANSWER | album Ceremony | The Cult are an English rock band formed in 1983 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury's previous band Southern Death Cult. They gained a dedicated following in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s as a post-punk/gothic rock band, with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking into the mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s establishing themselves as a hard rock band with singles such as "Love Removal Machine". Since its initial formation in 1983, the band have had various line-ups; the longest-serving members are Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, who are also the band's two songwriters.
The Cult's debut studio album Dreamtime was released in 1984 to moderate success, with its lead single "Spiritwalker" reaching No. 1 on the UK Indie Chart. Their second studio album, Love (1985), was even more successful, charting at No. 4 in the UK and including singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary" and "Rain". The band's third album, Electric (1987), launched them new heights of success, also peaking at No. 4 in the UK and charting highly in other territories, and spawned the hit singles "Love Removal Machine", "Lil' Devil" and "Wild Flower". On that album, The Cult supplemented their post-punk sound with hard rock; the polish on this new sound was facilitated by producer Rick Rubin. After moving to Los Angeles, California, where the band has been based for the remainder of their career, The Cult continued the musical experimentation of Electric with its follow-up album Sonic Temple (1989), which marked their first collaboration with Bob Rock, who would produce several of the band's subsequent albums. Sonic Temple was their most successful album to that point, entering the Top 10 on the UK and US charts, and included one of the band's most popular songs "Fire Woman".
By the time of their fifth album Ceremony (1991), tensions and creative differences began to surface among the band members. This resulted in the recording sessions for Ceremony being held without a stable lineup, leaving Astbury and Duffy as the only two official members left, and featuring support from session musicians on bass and drums. The ongoing tension had carried over within the next four years, during which they released one more studio album, The Cult (1994), and called it quits in 1995. The Cult reformed in 1999 and released their seventh album Beyond Good and Evil two years later. The commercial failure of the album and resurfaced tensions led to the band going back on hiatus in 2002. They resumed activity in 2006, and have since released three more studio albums: Born into This (2007), Choice of Weapon (2012), and Hidden City (2016).
History
Early history (1981–1984)
The band's origins can be traced to 1981, in Bradford, Yorkshire, where vocalist and songwriter Ian Astbury formed a band called Southern Death Cult. The name was chosen with a double meaning, and was derived from the 14th-century Native American religion, the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex or Southern Death Cult as it was sometimes known, from the Mississippi delta area, but it was also a stab at what the band viewed was the centralisation of power in Southern England (including that of the music industry); there has long been a perceived notion of a North–South divide based on social, historic and economic reasons. Astbury was joined by Buzz Burrows (guitar), Barry Jepson (bass) and Aki Nawaz Qureshi (drums); they performed their first show at the Queen's Hall in their hometown of Bradford on 29 October 1981. The band were at the forefront of an emerging style of music, in the form of post-punk and gothic rock, they achieved critical acclaim from the press and music fans.
The band signed to independent record label Situation Two, an offshoot of Beggars Banquet Records, and released a three-track, triple A-side single, Moya, during this period. They toured through England headlining some shows and touring with Bauhaus and Theatre of Hate. The band played their final performance in Manchester during February 1983, meaning after only sixteen months the band was over. A compilation named The Southern Death Cult was released, this being a collection of the single, radio sessions with John Peel for Radio One and live performances - one of which an audience member recorded with a tape recorder.
In April 1983, Astbury teamed up with guitarist Billy Duffy and formed the band "Death Cult". Duffy had been in the Nosebleeds (along with Morrissey), Lonesome No More and then Theatre of Hate. In addition to Astbury and Duffy, the band also included Jamie Stewart (bass) and Raymond Taylor Smith (later known as Ray Mondo) (drums), both from the Harrow, London based post-punk band, Ritual. Death Cult made their live debut in Oslo, Norway on 25 July 1983 and also released the Death Cult EP in the same month, then toured through mainland Europe and Scotland. In September 1983, Mondo was deported to his home country of Sierra Leone and replaced by Nigel Preston, formerly of Theatre of Hate. The single "Gods Zoo" was released in October 1983. Another European tour, with UK dates, followed that autumn. To tone down their name's gothic connotations and gain broader appeal, the band changed its name to "the Cult" in January 1984 before appearing on the (UK) Channel 4 television show, The Tube.
The Cult's first studio record, Dreamtime, was recorded at Rockfield Studios, in Monmouth, Wales in 1984. The record was to be produced by Joe Julian, but after recording the drum tracks, the band decided to replace him with John Brand. Brand produced the record, but guitarist Duffy has said the drum tracks were produced by Julian, as Preston had become unreliable.
The band recorded the songs which later became known as "Butterflies", "(The) Gimmick", "A Flower in the Desert", "Horse Nation", "Spiritwalker", "Bad Medicine (Waltz)", "Dreamtime", "With Love" (later known as "Ship of Fools", and also "Sea and Sky"), "Bone Bag", "Too Young", "83rd Dream", and one untitled outtake. It is unknown what the outtake was, or whether it was developed into a song at a later date. Songs like "Horse Nation" showed Astbury's intense interest in Native American issues, with the lyrics to "Horse Nation", "See them prancing, they come neighing, to a horse nation", taken almost verbatim from the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, while "Spiritwalker" dealt with shamanism, and the record's title and title track are overtly influenced by Australian Aboriginal beliefs.
On 4 April 1984, the Cult released the single "Spiritwalker", which reached No. 1 on the independent charts in the UK, and acted as a teaser for their forthcoming album Dreamtime. This was followed that summer by a second single, "Go West (Crazy Spinning Circles)", before the release of Dreamtime in September; the album reached No. 21 in the UK, and sold over 100,000 copies in the UK alone. On 12 July 1984, the band recorded five songs at the BBC Maida Vale 5 studio for a Richard Skinner session. Before and after the album's release, the Cult toured throughout Europe and England before recording another single, "Ressurection Joe" (UK No. 74), released that December. Following a Christmas support slot with Big Country, the Cult toured Europe with support from the Mission (then called the Sisterhood). Dreamtime was released initially only in the UK, but after its success, and as the Cult's popularity grew worldwide, it was issued in approximately 30 countries.
Mainstream success (1985–1990)
In May 1985, the Cult released their fourth single, "She Sells Sanctuary", which peaked at No. 15 in the UK and spent 23 weeks in the Top 100. The song was recently voted No. 18 in VH1's Indie 100. In June 1985, following his increasingly erratic behaviour, Preston was fired from the band. Big Country's drummer Mark Brzezicki was picked to replace Preston, and was also included in the video for "She Sells Sanctuary". The Cult then finished recording their second album, Love in July and August 1985. The band's music and image shifted from their punk-oriented roots to 1960s psychedelia influences. Love was a chart success, peaking at No. 4 in the UK and selling 100,000 copies there toward a total of 500,000 copies throughout Europe, as well as 100,000 in Australia and 500,000 copies in the United States. Love reached number 20 on the charts in The Netherlands, where it remained for 32 weeks. To date, the record has sold over two and a half million copies worldwide.
From late September 1985 to June 1986, the band went on a worldwide tour with new drummer Les Warner (who had played with Julian Lennon and Johnny Thunders). Two more singles from the Love album followed; "Rain" (charting in the UK at No. 17) and "Revolution" (charting in the UK at No. 30). Neither charted in the US. Another single, "Nirvana", was issued only in Poland. The album version of "Rain", as well as the remix "(Here Comes the) Rain", were used in the Italian horror film Dèmoni 2. Once back in England, the band booked themselves into the Manor Studios in Oxfordshire, with producer Steve Brown (who had produced Love), and recorded over a dozen new songs. The band were unhappy with the sound of their new album, titled Peace, and they decided to go to New York so producer Rick Rubin could remix the first single, "Love Removal Machine".
Rubin agreed to work with the band, but only if they rerecorded the song. Rubin eventually talked them into rerecording the entire album. The band's record company, Beggars Banquet, was displeased with this, as two months and £250,000 had already been spent on the record. However, after hearing the initial New York recording, Beggars Banquet agreed to proceed. The first single, "Love Removal Machine", was released in February 1987, and the new version of the album appeared in April that year, now renamed as Electric, reaching No. 4 and eventually outselling Love. The band toured with Kid Chaos (also known as "Haggis" and "The Kid") on bass, with Stewart on rhythm guitar. Two more singles, "Lil Devil" and "Wild Flower", were released during 1987. A few tracks from the original Peace album appeared on the single versions of "Love Removal Machine", and "Lil Devil". The full Peace album would not be released until 2000, when it was included as Disc 3 of the Rare Cult box set.
In the US, the Cult, now consisting of Astbury, Duffy, Stewart, Warner and Kid Chaos, were supported by the then-unknown Guns N' Roses. The band also appeared at Roskilde Festival in Denmark in June 1987. When the world tour wound through Australia, the band wrecked £30,000 worth of equipment, and as a result they could not tour Japan, as no company would rent them new equipment. At the end of the tour the Electric album had been certified Gold in the UK, and sold roughly 3 million copies worldwide, but the band were barely speaking to each other by then. Haggis left the band at the end of the Electric tour to form the Four Horsemen for Rubin's Def American label. Astbury and Duffy fired Warner and their management team Grant/Edwards, and moved to Los Angeles with original bassist Stewart. Warner sued the band several times for his firing, as well as for what he felt were unpaid royalties due to him for his performance on the Electric album, resulting in lengthy court battles. The Cult signed a new management deal and wrote 21 new songs for their next record.
For the next album, Stewart returned to playing bass, and John Webster was brought in to play keyboards. The band used Chris Taylor to play drums during rehearsals and record the demos, with future Kiss drummer Eric Singer performing during the second demo recording sessions. The Cult eventually recruited session-drummer Mickey Curry to fill the drumming role and Aerosmith sound engineer, Bob Rock, to produce. Recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from October to December 1988, the Sonic Temple record went Top 10 in both the UK and the US, where it was certified Gold and Platinum respectively. The band went on tour in support of the new album and new single "Fire Woman" (UK No. 15) (NZ No. 1), with yet another new drummer, Matt Sorum, and Webster as keyboard player. The next single, "Edie (Ciao Baby)" (UK No. 25) has become a regular song at concerts for many years.
In Europe, the band toured with Aerosmith, and in the US, after releasing another single "Sun King" (UK No. 42), they spent 1989 touring in support of Metallica before heading out on their own headlining tour later that same year. A fourth single, "Sweet Soul Sister" (UK No. 38), was released in February 1990, with the video having been filmed at Wembley Arena, London, on 25 November 1989. "Sweet Soul Sister" was partially written in Paris and was inspired by the bohemian lifestyle of that city. Released as a single in February 1990, the song was another hit in the UK, and reportedly reached number one on the rock charts in Brazil. After playing a show in Atlanta, Georgia, in February 1990, the band's management told Astbury that his father had just died of cancer. As a result, the remainder of the tour was cancelled after a final leg of shows were performed in April. After the tour ended, the band were on the verge of splitting due to Stewart retiring and moving to Canada to be with his wife, and Sorum leaving to join Guns N' Roses.
In 1990, Astbury organized the Gathering of the Tribes festival in Los Angeles and San Francisco with artists such as Soundgarden, Ice-T, Indigo Girls, Queen Latifah, Iggy Pop, the Charlatans, the Cramps and Public Enemy appearing. This two-day festival drew 40,000 people. Also in 1990, a ten CD box set was released in the UK, containing rare songs from the Cult's singles. The CDs in this box set were all issued as picture discs with rice paper covers, housed in a white box called "Singles Collection", or a black box called "E.P. Collection '84 - '90". In 1991, director Oliver Stone offered Astbury the role of Jim Morrison in Stone's film The Doors. He declined the role because he was not happy with the way Morrison was represented in the film, and the role was ultimately played by Val Kilmer.
Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991–1993)
In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album. During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and James Kottak played bass and drums, respectively. During the actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play drums, with Charley Drayton on bass, and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men reportedly rarely even being in the studio together during recording. The resulting album Ceremony was released to mixed responses. The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. Only two official singles were released from the record: "Wild Hearted Son" (UK No. 34, Canada No. 41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK No. 50), although "White" was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was released as a single (as "Dulce Salvación") in Argentina in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was released in Spain.
The Cult's Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in 1991 and North America in 1992. In 1991 the Cult played a show at the Marquee Club in London, which was recorded and released in February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete bootleg video of this show is also in circulation.
The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, for alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. The parents stated that the boy felt he had been cursed by the band's burning of his image, and was "emotionally scarred." This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted Son". This lawsuit delayed the release of Ceremony in many countries including South Korea and Thailand, which did not see the record's release until late 1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey until the Cult played several shows in Istanbul in June 1993.
A world tour followed with backing from drummer Michael Lee (Page & Plant, Little Angels), bassist Kinley "Barney" Wolfe (Lord Tracy, Black Oak Arkansas), and keyboardist John Sinclair (Ozzy Osbourne, Uriah Heep) returning one last time, and the Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 28. Following the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits compilation which debuted at No. 1 on the British charts and later went to number one in Portugal, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and recruited Craig Adams (the Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic.
The Cult and first breakup (1994–1998)
With the same line-up still in place, the band released The Cult in October 1994, produced by Bob Rock. The self-titled album is commonly referred to as the "Black Sheep" album by fans of the group, due to the image of a black sheep on the front cover. Astbury referred to the record as a collection of "very personal and very revealing" songs about his life, with the subject matter ranging from sexual abuse at the age of 15, to the death of Nigel Preston, to his directionless years spent in Glasgow in the late 1970s.
The record achieved little success, only reaching No. 69 in the US and No. 21 in the UK. Duffy remarked that he thought that the record wouldn't sell well due to the offensive lyrics. The record went to number one in Portugal also, but quickly dropped out of sight. The single "Coming Down (Drug Tongue)" was released with the band going on tour in support of the new album. Only one more single, "Star", was officially released with a live appearance on UK TV show The Word. "Star" began life in 1986 as "Tom Petty" and was recorded at the "Sonic Temple" demo sessions as "Starchild", being dropped by the band during rehearsals. In 1993 the song was resurrected and was finally completed for the record in 1994 as, just simply, "Star".
When the band began the Beauty's On The Streets tour in winter 1994, they augmented the line up with James Stevenson on rhythm guitar. As with the Ceremony record several years earlier, no other official singles were released, but several other songs were released on a strictly limited basis: "Sacred Life" was released in Spain and the Netherlands, "Be Free" was issued in Canada and France, "Saints Are Down" was issued in Greece, but none of the songs gained much commercial success. During this tour, the Cult made their first ever appearance in Norway.
During the Black Rain tour of South America in spring of 1995, despite the fact that several more new songs had already been recorded, the tour was cancelled after an appearance in Rio de Janeiro in March, and the band split up citing unspecified problems on a recent South American tour. Astbury started up a garage band called Holy Barbarians a few months later. The band made their debut at the 100 Club in London in February 1996 and released their first (and only) record in May 1996, and toured throughout North America and Europe for the rest of 1996. The band started writing material for a second record in 1997, but the band was dissolved and Astbury began writing and recording a solo record. Throughout 1997 and 1998 Astbury recorded his solo record, originally to be titled Natural Born Guerilla, later called High Time Amplifier. Ultimately the record remained unreleased until June 2000 when it was released under the name Spirit\Light\Speed. Astbury played one solo concert in 1999.
In November 1996, a number of CD reissues were released: the band's American record company released High Octane Cult, a slightly updated greatest hits compilation released only in the US and Japan; The Southern Death Cult, a remastered edition of the fifteen-song compilation CD; a ten-song compilation CD by Death Cult called Ghost Dance, consisting of the untitled four-song EP, the single "God's Zoo", and four unreleased songs from a radio broadcast; and a remastered repackaging of the Dreamtime album, containing only the ten original songs from the record in their original playing order and almost completely different but original artwork. Dreamtime Live at the Lyceum was also remastered and issued on video and for the first time on CD, with the one unreleased song from the concert, "Gimmick".
First reunion, Beyond Good and Evil and second hiatus (1999–2005)
In 1999, Astbury and Duffy reformed the Cult with Matt Sorum and ex-Porno for Pyros bassist Martyn LeNoble. Their first official concert was at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in June 1999, after having rehearsed at shows in the Los Angeles area. The band's 1999 Cult Rising reunion tour resulted in a sold out 30 date tour of the US, ending with 8 consecutive sold out nights at the LA House of Blues. In 2000, the band toured South Africa for the first time, and North and South America, and contributed the song "Painted on My Heart" to the soundtrack of the movie Gone In 60 Seconds. The song was featured prominently and the melody was fused into parts of the score. In June, Astbury's long-delayed solo record was finally released as Spirit\Light\Speed, but it failed to gain much success. In November 2000, another authorised greatest hits compilation was released, Pure Cult: The Singles 1984–1995, along with an accompanying DVD, which was later certified gold in Canada. The Cult, as well as Ian Astbury, performed on separate tracks on the Doors tribute album, Stoned Immaculate: The Music of The Doors, covering "Wild Child" and "Touch Me".
In November 2000, Beggars Banquet released 15,000 copies of a six-disc boxset (with a bonus seventh disc of remixes for the first 5000 copies) titled Rare Cult. The box set consists of album out-takes, demos, radio broadcasts, and album B-sides. It is most notable for including the previously unreleased "Peace" album in its entirety. In 2001, the band signed to Atlantic Records and recorded a new album, Beyond Good and Evil, originally being produced by Mick Jones of Foreigner, until Jones bowed out to tour with Foreigner. Astbury and Duffy co-wrote a song with Jones, an odd occurrence, as in the past, neither Astbury or Duffy would co-write their material. Bob Rock was the producer, with Martyn LeNoble and Chris Wyse as recording bassists, as Mike Dimkich played rhythm guitar on tour, and Matt Sorum returning as drummer. Although Sorum has previously toured with the band on the Sonic Temple tour in 1989, this was the first time that he had recorded a studio album with the band.
However Beyond Good and Evil was not the comeback record the band had hoped for. Despite reaching No. 37 in the US, No. 22 in Canada, and No. 25 in Spain, sales quickly dropped, only selling roughly 500,000 copies worldwide. The first single "Rise", reached No. 41 in the US, and No. 2 on the mainstream rock charts, but Atlantic Records quickly pulled the song from radio playlists. Astbury would later describe the experience with Atlantic to be "soul destroying", after Atlantic tried to tamper with the lyrics, the record cover, and choice of singles from the record.
After the first single from the record, the band's working relationship with Atlantic was on paper only, with Atlantic pulling "Rise" from the radio stations playlists, and stopping all promotion of the record. The second single "Breathe" was only released as a radio station promo, and the final single "True Believers" was only on a compilation sampler disc released in January 2002 (after the Cult's tour had already ended). Despite "True Believers" receiving radio airplay in Australia, both singles went largely unnoticed, and both Astbury and Duffy walked away from the project. LeNoble rejoined the band for the initial dates in early 2001, and Billy Morrison filled in on bass for the majority of the 2001 tour.
The European tour of 2001 was canceled, largely due to security concerns after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the band flew back to the US to tour again with Aerosmith. But the eleven-week tour was considered by fans to be a disaster, as the band played only a brief rundown of their greatest hits. In October 2001, a show at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles was filmed for release on DVD. After the tour ended in December 2001, the band took most of 2002 off, apart from a few shows in the US to promote the release of the DVD, with Scott Garrett and Craig Adams rejoining the band.
Despite the commercial disappointment of Beyond Good and Evil and the supporting tour, the band was voted "Comeback of the Year" by Metal Edge readers in the magazine's 2001 Readers' Choice Awards.
In late 2002, Ian Astbury declared the Cult to be "on ice" indefinitely, after performing a brief series of dates in October 2002 to promote the release of the Music Without Fear DVD. During this second hiatus, Astbury performed as a member of the Doors (later dubbed the Doors of the 21st Century, later still renamed D21c, and most recently known as Riders on the Storm) with two of the original members of that group. D21c was sued numerous times, both by Jim Morrison's family and by drummer John Densmore. Astbury supposedly started work on recording another solo album that later became the backbone for the Cult's Born into This.
At the same time, Duffy was part of Coloursound with bassist Craig Adams and ex-Alarm frontman Mike Peters, then Dead Men Walking (again with Peters) and later Cardboard Vampyres. Sorum became a member of the hard rock supergroup Velvet Revolver. In 2003, all of the Cult's records were issued on CD, with several bonus tracks being issued on the Russian, Belarusian, and Lithuanian versions. These eastern European releases had many printing mistakes on the jacket sleeves and lyric inserts. In October 2004, all of the Cult's records were again remastered and issued again on CD, this time in Japan in different cardboard foldout sleeves. "She Sells Sanctuary" appeared in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, playing on rock station V-Rock.
Second reunion, Born Into This and Capsule EPs (2006–2010)
Despite Astbury's previous statement from 2004 that a reunion would not happen, The Cult announced in January 2006 that they were reuniting for "some limited gigs" throughout the year. A month later, the band made their first live appearance in three-and-a-half years on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Their lineup consisted of Astbury (vocals), Duffy (lead guitar), John Tempesta (drums), Dimkich (rhythm guitar) and Wyse (returning as bassist). Their first stage show was held in March 2006 in San Francisco, California, at The Fillmore. The entire tour was recorded by Instant Live and sold after each show. In May, they did an eight date tour in Canada. Later that summer, they toured central and eastern Europe and played their first concerts in Bulgaria, Poland and Serbia. An eleven-date UK tour followed as well as several more dates in the United States, finishing with a South American tour in December. That year, Duffy began the band Circus Diablo with Billy Morrison, Sorum, Brett Scallions and Ricky Warwick.
During these tours, the band occasionally played an extended set, including several songs the band had not performed in decades: "King Contrary Man" and "Hollow Man", neither of which had been performed since 1987; also, "Libertine" was performed approximately three times, for the first time since 2000, and "Brother Wolf, Sister Moon", which was only performed one time since 1986 (for this particular song, the band played an abridged version which has never been performed before or since)
Astbury announced in February 2007 that he was leaving Riders on the Storm and returning to the Cult. He stated: "I have decided to move on and focus on my own music and legacy." The Cult was featured on Stuffmagazine.com's list of ultimate air guitar players. On 21 March 2007, it was announced that the band would be touring Europe with the Who. The first confirmed tour date was in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in early June, with at least a dozen shows set to follow. The band played a gig in London's West End at the CC Club on 7 June 2007, along with nearly two dozen shows across continental Europe during summer. The tour also includes the first performance in Romania and Croatia.
On 29 May 2007, the band signed a deal with major metal label Roadrunner Records. Their 8th studio album, titled Born into This was released on 16 October, and was produced by Martin "Youth" Glover, bass player for Killing Joke. Born into This was released as regular single disc and limited edition double disc, the second disk being a bonus 5-track CD holding the following tracks: "Stand Alone", "War Pony Destroyer", "I Assassin (Demo)", "Sound of Destruction (Demo)" and "Savages (Extended Version)". Prior to the album's release, the band played festival and headline dates, and supported the Who in Europe through summer 2007, with a US headline tour to follow.
The band's appearance at Irving Plaza in New York City in early November 2006 was filmed and was released in 2007. The Cult New York City, issued by Fontana North and is the Cult's first high definition DVD release. Meanwhile, Astbury lent vocals on two tracks of the 2007 Unkle album "War Stories", one of them being the first single from the album, "Burn My Shadow".
The band performed a UK and European tour in late-February and early-March 2008. On 24 March, they began their North American tour including a major 13-city tour in Canada. During September 2008, the Cult did a brief series of dates in the northeast United States, and they toured in Brazil as part of the South American tour in October 2008. As of May 2008, according to The Gauntlet, the Cult are currently unsigned and no longer under contract with Roadrunner Records. In October 2008, it was announced that the Cult would headline the inaugural Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Antonio, to be run 16 November 2008. The Cult announced plans for a tour showcasing their 1985 Love album across the US and then the UK in October where they will play at the Royal Albert Hall.
Coinciding with the remastered Love album and four-disc Omnibus boxed set, the Cult kicked off the long-awaited Love Live Tour in late summer. Performing their classic Love album in its entirety, each show was played with the Love tracks opening with "Nirvana" to "Black Angel". A quick intermission followed, then other Cult hits were played (varying by venue): "Sun King", "Dirty Little Rock Star", "Electric Ocean", "Illuminated". Then followed the favorites "Fire Woman", "Lil Devil", "Wild Flower", and lastly "Love Removal Machine". In the evening of 10 October 2009 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the band performed a second encore with original Cult bassist Jamie Stewart and drummer Mark Brzezicki, who played drums with the band during the Love album recording sessions in July and August 1985. The band sold Love Live USB flash drives for each show during the tour.
The Cult entered 2010 continuing their Love Live Tour and announcing more dates in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan. The band finished recording a four-track "Capsule" with producer Chris Goss. Capsule 1 was said to be the first of three or four to be released sometime in summer 2010. Release formats include CD-DVD dualdisc, 12-inch vinyl, and digital downloads. Capsule 1 was released on 14 September 2010. The band officially announced the release of its first new studio recording since 2007, "Every Man And Woman Is A Star". The new single was released through the iTunes Store on 31 July 2010.
On 1 August 2010, the band played the sold-out music festival Sonisphere, which marked their first UK performance since the tour for their Love album. During the performance they debuted their new single, "Every Man and Woman is a Star", which was released on 1 August 2010. On 14 September 2010 the band embarked on a new U.S. tour and released Capsule 1 in conjunction with media technology company Aderra Inc. and made it available in multiple formats including a CD-DVD DualDisc, USB flash drive, 12 inch vinyl, FLAC download and MP3 download. The collection includes a short film made by singer Ian Astbury and Rick Rogers.
On 26 October 2010 the band and Aderra Inc. announced the release of a new song, "Embers", for 1 November 2010 and Capsule 2 available through their web store on 16 November 2010. Pictures from the Cult's tour stop in Chicago on 28 October 2010 can be seen at a local radio station website.
On 17 September 2010, the band performed live at the Fall Frenzy concert at the Tempe Beach Park in Tempe, Arizona. Other bands that played at this concert were Stone Temple Pilots, Shinedown, and Sevendust.
On 4 December 2010, the band performed a live set for Guitar Center Sessions on DirecTV. The episode included an interview with the band by program host, Nic Harcourt.
Choice of Weapon and Hidden City (2011–2017)
During the Cult's concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on 21 January 2011 Ian Astbury declared that the Cult would be recording a new album directly after the tour. They also announced that they would be working with Chris Goss, who performed with Masters of Reality as a supporting act the same evening. On 11 May 2011, it was announced that the Cult were signed to Cooking Vinyl Records, who will release the new album in early 2012. Commented guitarist Billy Duffy: "We are very much looking forward to returning to our U.K. roots in many ways working with Cooking Vinyl." Vocalist Ian Astbury added, "We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Cooking Vinyl." By May 2011, the band had been writing and recording new demos at its Witch Mountain studio hideaway in the Hollywood Hills, and began recording their new album at Hollywood Recording Studios. In October 2011, bassist Chris Wyse stated the album was almost finished and expected to be released in April 2012. Chris also described it as a "Zep/Stooges mix of energy."
On 29 November 2011, it was announced that the album would be produced by Bob Rock, who provided the same role on Sonic Temple, The Cult and Beyond Good and Evil. The album, entitled Choice of Weapon, was released on 22 May 2012. The band partnered with Rolling Stone to premiere the first song from the album titled Lucifer on 30 January. On 5 February 2012, the Cult song "She Sells Sanctuary" was used as the soundtrack for a Budweiser commercial in a mashup with Flo Rida aired during Super Bowl XLVI. In May 2012 the Cult appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and played "For The Animals".
On 28 September 2012, it was announced that the band would release Weapon of Choice, a "prequel" album to accompany the band's latest album, Choice of Weapon. The digital-only release, available exclusively on iTunes for two months only beginning 16 October, features the songs that were ultimately included in "Choice Of Weapon" at an earlier stage of development. Explaining the motivations behind the release, singer Ian Astbury said that "These songs were turned over and over, forged in long rehearsals and writing sessions, and emanated from challenges both personal and professional. We put our guts into this; [Producer Chris] Goss was able to create an environment where the songs were born through playing and turning over lyrics, through hard work and intense sessions." Astbury added "These songs have an integrity and rawness of their own. In many ways it's a different album to the one we released and reveals the foundations of 'Choice Of Weapon'. We were able to close the doors and begin to explore spaces we had not been in for a while." The song "Twisted and Bleeding" was made available for free download at the band's website ahead of the full digital release.
On 20 June 2013, the band announced the release of Electric-Peace which comprises the entire Electric album plus the Peace album which was previously released on the now discontinued Rare Cult box set in 2000. It is due for release in the US on 30 July. In 2013 Mike Dimkich left the band and joined Bad Religion to cover for guitarist Greg Hetson. James Stevenson, from the Beauty's On The Streets tour in 1994, replaced Dimkich as the Cult's rhythm guitarist.
In March 2013, Billy Duffy told the Argentinan journalist Fabrizio Pedrotti that the Cult had begun work on a new album for a 2014 release. The band were expected to begin work on the album after they finish their 2013 world tour, where they played the Electric album in its entirety. In August 2014, Billy added that the next album, which was not expected to be released before 2015 at the earliest, "will be more guitar heavy".
On 5 November 2015, it was announced that The Cult would release their new album, entitled Hidden City, on 5 February 2016. The album is said to be the final part of a trilogy that began with Born into This, and marks the fifth time Bob Rock had produced a Cult album. The band also announced that they had hired Australian-born bassist Grant Fitzpatrick (ex-Mink) as the replacement for Chris Wyse. Chris Chaney (Jane's Addiction, Camp Freddy) and producer Bob Rock performed session bass on the album. In support of Hidden City, The Cult opened for Guns N' Roses on the Not in This Lifetime... Tour.
In an October 2016 interview with PopMatters journalist J.C. Maçek III, Cult guitarist Billy Duffy spoke of the band's playlist while on tour, saying "Obviously you want to make an impactful [show]," he continues. "There are some practical, pragmatic decisions made. If you're playing to a crowd who are not very familiar with you, there's no point of going too deep but we do always make sure we play a new song. Like on Guns N' Roses' [tour] we had fifty minutes which is ten songs all in. So, you know we just made sure that in those ten songs we played 'Deeply Ordered Chaos' which we’re proud of and it makes a certain statement. And it just alerts people to the fact that, yes, we have made a record in the last 30 years. You know and that's a good thing. Psychologically, that's the blood transfusion that we need. And we're very mindful, we have a very loyal fan base. We don't pander as you well know."
Upcoming eleventh studio album (2018–present)
In an April 2018 interview with Guitar World, guitarist Billy Duffy was asked if another album from The Cult was in the works. He replied, "Never say never! Ian and I enjoy the process of making new music, and we feel it's vital to keep the band healthy, even if it's pretty much in the law of diminishing returns area now. Who knows if it will be a whole album a series of singles or an EP? I can say new Cult music will be forthcoming, but these days we don't rush it as there's no point. Quality is key. We are past the point of having to release stuff so if we feel it's good enough, then we will release it in some shape or another."
On 2 April 2018, a tour of the United States of America called "Revolution 3 Tour" was announced for the summer. They performed as one of the three headliners, along with Stone Temple Pilots and Bush.
In April 2019, The Cult announced that they would celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of their fourth album Sonic Temple with a world tour, which began on 2 May in Houston, Texas and was expected to wrap up in 2020.
In a June 2019 interview with LA Weekly, vocalist Ian Astbury stated that The Cult were "long overdue" to release new music. He was quoted as saying: "We do have some stuff we've been working on, but it's yet to see the light of day." Six months later, Astbury told Atlantic City Weekly that the band was going to start working on new music in 2020: "We've got a few pieces lying around in various stages of completion. The intention is to get together in the New Year and take a look at what we've got and decide how we are going to go about moving forward. It's an essential part of any creative lifeblood." On May 6, 2020, The Cult announced on their Twitter page that they had signed to Black Hill Records.
On August 15, 2020, Duffy announced on his Twitter that the band were recording their new album with producer Tom Dalgety at Rockfield Studios, where The Cult had recorded their debut album Dreamtime 36 years earlier.
In support of their new album, The Cult will embark on a co-headlining six-date UK tour with Alice Cooper in May and June 2022.
Influences
Duffy and Astbury cited among their influences a lot of different bands "from the Doors to Led Zeppelin. We literally went from the front of our record collections to the back. And then along the way we were drawn in by the likes of Public Image Ltd, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees. You might not hear it in the music but it's there." They also cited Bauhaus among many other post-punk influences. Duffy also praised Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers for a major performance he attended in 1977 and Siouxsie and the Banshees whom "always had great guitar players with killer riffs." Duffy also hailed AC/DC for "the power of a good three chord riff", Pete Townshend of the Who "in terms of commitment to stage performing" and Brian May of Queen for using "‘echoplex’ tape delays to orchestrate his own solo".
Musical style
According to music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the band fuse a "hardcore punk revivalist" sound with the "pseudo-mysticism ... of the Doors and Uriah Heep and the guitar-orchestrations of Led Zeppelin and The Cure ... while adding touches of post-punk goth rock". In 1985 Astbury said, "Our music is just melodies and guitars. We're like Big Country and U2, only better!".
Members
Current members
Ian Astbury – lead vocals, occasional percussion/guitar
Billy Duffy – lead and rhythm guitars, backing vocals
John Tempesta – drums, percussion
Grant Fitzpatrick – bass, backing vocals
Damon Fox – keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Discography
Dreamtime (1984)
Love (1985)
Electric (1987)
Sonic Temple (1989)
Ceremony (1991)
The Cult (1994)
Beyond Good and Evil (2001)
Born into This (2007)
Choice of Weapon (2012)
Hidden City (2016)
References
External links
Official website
Billy Duffy official website
Musical groups established in 1983
Situation Two artists
Beggars Banquet Records artists
Sire Records artists
Musical groups from Bradford
English post-punk music groups
English gothic rock groups
English hard rock musical groups
English heavy metal musical groups
English glam metal musical groups | true | [
"The Sword of Osman (; ) was an important sword of state used during the enthronement ceremony () of the sultans of the Ottoman Empire. This particular type of enthronement ceremony was the Ottoman variant of the Bay'ah. The sword was named after Osman I, founder of the Ottoman dynasty. \n\nThe girding of the Sword of Osman was a vital ceremony and took place within two weeks of a sultan's ascension to the throne. The practice started when Osman I was girt with the sword of Islam by his mentor and father-in-law Sheikh Edebali. The girding was held at the tomb complex at Eyüp, on the Golden Horn waterway in the capital Constantinople. Even though the journey from Topkapı Palace (where the sultan resided) to the Golden Horn was short, the sultan would board a boat amid much pomp to go there. The Eyüp tomb complex was built by Mehmed II in honour of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, a companion of Muhammad who had died during the first Muslim Siege of Constantinople in the 7th century. The sword girding thus occurred on what was regarded as sacred grounds and linked the newly-enthroned sultan to his 13th-century ancestors and to Muhammad himself. \n\nThe fact that the emblem by which a sultan was enthroned consisted of a sword was highly symbolic. It showed that the office with which he was invested was first and foremost that of a warrior. The Sword of Osman was girded on to the new sultan by the Sharif of Konya, a Mevlevi dervish, who was summoned to Constantinople for that purpose. Such a privilege was reserved to the men of this Sufi order from the time Osman I had established his residence in Sögüt in 1299, before the capital was moved to Bursa and later to Constantinople.\n\nUntil the late 19th century, non-Muslims were banned from entering the Eyüp Mosque and witnessing the girding ceremony. The first to depart from that tradition was Mehmed V, whose girding ceremony was open to people of different faiths. Held on 10 May 1909, it was attended by representatives of all the religious communities present in the empire, notably the Sheikh ul-Islam, Greek Patriarch, the chief rabbi and a representative of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The fact that non-Muslims were allowed to see the ceremony enabled The New York Times to write an extremely-detailed account of it. Mehmed V's brother and successor, Mehmed VI, whose girding ceremony was held on 4 July 1918, went even further by allowing the ceremony to be filmed. Since he was the last reigning Ottoman sultan, that is the only such ceremony that was ever put on film. The Sword of Osman is held in the Imperial Treasury section of Topkapı Palace.\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n\nCeremonial weapons\nOsman\nIndividual weapons\nOttoman clothing\nRegalia\nTopkapı Palace",
"The Golden Joystick Awards, also known as the People's Gaming Awards, is a video game award ceremony; it awards the best video games of the year, as voted for originally by the British general public, but is now a global event that can be voted for by anyone online via GamesRadar+. , the ceremony was in its 39th year. It is the longest-running video game award ceremony, launched in 1983, and the second-oldest video game award ceremony after the Arcade Awards, launched in 1981.\n\nThe awards were initially focused on PC computer games, but were later extended to include console games as well, owing to the success of video game consoles such as the Sega Master System and the Sega Mega Drive in the United Kingdom. The ceremony is not directly related to the golden joystick prize given away to successful contestants on GamesMaster, a British television show, but both properties belong to Future plc.\n\nIn 2021, the Golden Joystick Awards celebrated 50 Years Of Games and the 1971 launch of Computer Space, by asking the public to vote for the Ultimate Game Of All Time, which was won by Dark Souls. The Best Gaming Hardware of All Time award was won by the Personal Computer and accepted by Gabe Newell.\n\nWinners\n\n1983\nAwards were presented by DJ Dave Lee Travis at a ceremony in London's Berkeley Square.\n\n1984\nAwards were presented by Jools Holland, at a ceremony on in London.\n\n1985\nAwards were presented by Jools Holland, at a ceremony on a Thames Riverboat.\n\n1986\nThe ceremony took place at Cadogan Hall.\n\n1987\nAwards were presented by Chris Tarrant.\n\n1988\nThe ceremony took place at Kensington Roof Gardens.\n\n1989\n\nThe ceremony took place at Kensington Roof Gardens, 11 April 1990.\n\n1990\nThe ceremony took place at Kensington Roof Gardens, 4 April 1991.\n\n1991\nThe ceremony took place at Hyde Park Hotel, London, on 7 April 1992.\n\n1992\nThe ceremony took place at Kensington, London, in May 1993.\n\n1994\nThe ceremony took place in London, on 16 May 1994.\n\n1996/1997\nThe ceremony took place at Café de Paris, in November 1997.\n\n2002\nThe 2002 ceremony took place at the Dorchester Hotel on 25 October 2002 and was hosted by Jonathan Ross (best known for presenting Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and Japanorama).\n\n2003\nThe 2003 ceremony took place at the Park Lane Hilton on 28 November 2003 and was hosted by Phill Jupitus.\n\n2004\nThe 2004 ceremony took place at the Park Lane Hilton on 5 November 2004 and was hosted by Matt Lucas.\n\n2005\nThe 2005 ceremony took place at the Park Lane Hilton on 4 November 2005 and was hosted by Jimmy Carr.\n\n2006\nThe 2006 ceremony took place at the Park Lane Hilton on 27 October 2006 and was hosted by Emma Griffiths.\n\n2007\nThe 2007 ceremony took place at the Park Lane Hilton on 26 October 2007 and was hosted by David Mitchell.\n\n2008\nThe 2008 ceremony took place at the Park Lane Hilton on 31 October 2008 and was hosted by Frankie Boyle.\n\n2009\nThe 2009 ceremony took place at the Park Lane Hilton on 30 October 2009 and was hosted by Sean Lock.\n\n2010\nThe 2010 ceremony took place at the Bridge Park Plaza on 29 October 2010 and was hosted by Rich Hall.\n\n2011\nThe 2011 ceremony took place at the Bridge Park Plaza on 21 October 2011 and was hosted by Seann Walsh.\n\n2012\nThe 2012 ceremony took place at the Bridge Park Plaza on 26 October 2012 and was hosted by Ed Byrne.\n\n2013\nThe 2013 ceremony took place at the indigO2 on 25 October 2013 and was hosted by Ed Byrne.\n\n2014\nThe 2014 ceremony took place at the indigO2 on 24 October 2014 and was hosted by Ed Byrne.\n\n2015\nThe 2015 ceremony took place at the indigO2 on 30 October 2015 and was hosted by Danny Wallace.\n\n2016\nThe 2016 ceremony took place at the indigO2 on 18 November 2016 and was hosted by James Veitch.\n\n2017\nThe 2017 ceremony took place at Bloomsbury Big Top on 17 November 2017 and was hosted by Danny Wallace.\n\n2018\nThe 2018 ceremony took place at Bloomsbury Big Top on 16 November 2018, and was hosted by Danny Wallace.\n\n2019 \nThe 2019 ceremony took place at Bloomsbury Big Top on 16 November 2019.\n\n2020 \nThe 2020 ceremony took place digitally on 24 November 2020 and was hosted by Laura Bailey and Travis Willingham.\n\n2021 \nThe 2021 ceremony took place on 23 November 2021 and was hosted by Nolan North and Emily Rose.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n Official website\n\n1983 establishments in the United Kingdom\nAwards established in 1983\nBritish science and technology awards\nVideo game awards\nVideo game events\nVideo gaming in the United Kingdom"
]
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[
"The Cult",
"Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991-1994)",
"What was the ceremony?",
"album Ceremony"
]
| C_4b2e5d61579045e7ae891ff8b3295557_1 | when was it released? | 2 | when was The Cult album Ceremony released? | The Cult | In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album. During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and James Kottak played bass and drums respectively. During the actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play drums, with Charley Drayton on bass, and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men reportedly rarely even being in the studio together during recording. The resulting album Ceremony was released to mixed responses. The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. Only two official singles were released from the record: "Wild Hearted Son" (UK No. 34, Canada No. 41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK No. 50), although "White" was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was released as a single (as "Dulce Salvacion") in Argentina in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was released in Spain. The Cult's Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in 1991 and North America in 1992. In 1991 the Cult played a show at the Marquee Club in London, which was recorded and released in February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete bootleg video of this show is also in circulation. The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, for alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted Son". This lawsuit delayed the release of Ceremony in many countries including South Korea and Thailand, which did not see the record's release until late 1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey until the Cult played several shows in Istanbul in June 1993. A world tour followed with backing from future Thin Lizzy drummer Michael Lee and bassist Kinley Wolfe, and keyboardist John Sinclair returning one last time, and the Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 31. Following the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits compilation which debuted at No. 1 on the British charts and later went to number one in Portugal, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and recruited Craig Adams (the Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic. CANNOTANSWER | 1991, | The Cult are an English rock band formed in 1983 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury's previous band Southern Death Cult. They gained a dedicated following in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s as a post-punk/gothic rock band, with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking into the mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s establishing themselves as a hard rock band with singles such as "Love Removal Machine". Since its initial formation in 1983, the band have had various line-ups; the longest-serving members are Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, who are also the band's two songwriters.
The Cult's debut studio album Dreamtime was released in 1984 to moderate success, with its lead single "Spiritwalker" reaching No. 1 on the UK Indie Chart. Their second studio album, Love (1985), was even more successful, charting at No. 4 in the UK and including singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary" and "Rain". The band's third album, Electric (1987), launched them new heights of success, also peaking at No. 4 in the UK and charting highly in other territories, and spawned the hit singles "Love Removal Machine", "Lil' Devil" and "Wild Flower". On that album, The Cult supplemented their post-punk sound with hard rock; the polish on this new sound was facilitated by producer Rick Rubin. After moving to Los Angeles, California, where the band has been based for the remainder of their career, The Cult continued the musical experimentation of Electric with its follow-up album Sonic Temple (1989), which marked their first collaboration with Bob Rock, who would produce several of the band's subsequent albums. Sonic Temple was their most successful album to that point, entering the Top 10 on the UK and US charts, and included one of the band's most popular songs "Fire Woman".
By the time of their fifth album Ceremony (1991), tensions and creative differences began to surface among the band members. This resulted in the recording sessions for Ceremony being held without a stable lineup, leaving Astbury and Duffy as the only two official members left, and featuring support from session musicians on bass and drums. The ongoing tension had carried over within the next four years, during which they released one more studio album, The Cult (1994), and called it quits in 1995. The Cult reformed in 1999 and released their seventh album Beyond Good and Evil two years later. The commercial failure of the album and resurfaced tensions led to the band going back on hiatus in 2002. They resumed activity in 2006, and have since released three more studio albums: Born into This (2007), Choice of Weapon (2012), and Hidden City (2016).
History
Early history (1981–1984)
The band's origins can be traced to 1981, in Bradford, Yorkshire, where vocalist and songwriter Ian Astbury formed a band called Southern Death Cult. The name was chosen with a double meaning, and was derived from the 14th-century Native American religion, the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex or Southern Death Cult as it was sometimes known, from the Mississippi delta area, but it was also a stab at what the band viewed was the centralisation of power in Southern England (including that of the music industry); there has long been a perceived notion of a North–South divide based on social, historic and economic reasons. Astbury was joined by Buzz Burrows (guitar), Barry Jepson (bass) and Aki Nawaz Qureshi (drums); they performed their first show at the Queen's Hall in their hometown of Bradford on 29 October 1981. The band were at the forefront of an emerging style of music, in the form of post-punk and gothic rock, they achieved critical acclaim from the press and music fans.
The band signed to independent record label Situation Two, an offshoot of Beggars Banquet Records, and released a three-track, triple A-side single, Moya, during this period. They toured through England headlining some shows and touring with Bauhaus and Theatre of Hate. The band played their final performance in Manchester during February 1983, meaning after only sixteen months the band was over. A compilation named The Southern Death Cult was released, this being a collection of the single, radio sessions with John Peel for Radio One and live performances - one of which an audience member recorded with a tape recorder.
In April 1983, Astbury teamed up with guitarist Billy Duffy and formed the band "Death Cult". Duffy had been in the Nosebleeds (along with Morrissey), Lonesome No More and then Theatre of Hate. In addition to Astbury and Duffy, the band also included Jamie Stewart (bass) and Raymond Taylor Smith (later known as Ray Mondo) (drums), both from the Harrow, London based post-punk band, Ritual. Death Cult made their live debut in Oslo, Norway on 25 July 1983 and also released the Death Cult EP in the same month, then toured through mainland Europe and Scotland. In September 1983, Mondo was deported to his home country of Sierra Leone and replaced by Nigel Preston, formerly of Theatre of Hate. The single "Gods Zoo" was released in October 1983. Another European tour, with UK dates, followed that autumn. To tone down their name's gothic connotations and gain broader appeal, the band changed its name to "the Cult" in January 1984 before appearing on the (UK) Channel 4 television show, The Tube.
The Cult's first studio record, Dreamtime, was recorded at Rockfield Studios, in Monmouth, Wales in 1984. The record was to be produced by Joe Julian, but after recording the drum tracks, the band decided to replace him with John Brand. Brand produced the record, but guitarist Duffy has said the drum tracks were produced by Julian, as Preston had become unreliable.
The band recorded the songs which later became known as "Butterflies", "(The) Gimmick", "A Flower in the Desert", "Horse Nation", "Spiritwalker", "Bad Medicine (Waltz)", "Dreamtime", "With Love" (later known as "Ship of Fools", and also "Sea and Sky"), "Bone Bag", "Too Young", "83rd Dream", and one untitled outtake. It is unknown what the outtake was, or whether it was developed into a song at a later date. Songs like "Horse Nation" showed Astbury's intense interest in Native American issues, with the lyrics to "Horse Nation", "See them prancing, they come neighing, to a horse nation", taken almost verbatim from the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, while "Spiritwalker" dealt with shamanism, and the record's title and title track are overtly influenced by Australian Aboriginal beliefs.
On 4 April 1984, the Cult released the single "Spiritwalker", which reached No. 1 on the independent charts in the UK, and acted as a teaser for their forthcoming album Dreamtime. This was followed that summer by a second single, "Go West (Crazy Spinning Circles)", before the release of Dreamtime in September; the album reached No. 21 in the UK, and sold over 100,000 copies in the UK alone. On 12 July 1984, the band recorded five songs at the BBC Maida Vale 5 studio for a Richard Skinner session. Before and after the album's release, the Cult toured throughout Europe and England before recording another single, "Ressurection Joe" (UK No. 74), released that December. Following a Christmas support slot with Big Country, the Cult toured Europe with support from the Mission (then called the Sisterhood). Dreamtime was released initially only in the UK, but after its success, and as the Cult's popularity grew worldwide, it was issued in approximately 30 countries.
Mainstream success (1985–1990)
In May 1985, the Cult released their fourth single, "She Sells Sanctuary", which peaked at No. 15 in the UK and spent 23 weeks in the Top 100. The song was recently voted No. 18 in VH1's Indie 100. In June 1985, following his increasingly erratic behaviour, Preston was fired from the band. Big Country's drummer Mark Brzezicki was picked to replace Preston, and was also included in the video for "She Sells Sanctuary". The Cult then finished recording their second album, Love in July and August 1985. The band's music and image shifted from their punk-oriented roots to 1960s psychedelia influences. Love was a chart success, peaking at No. 4 in the UK and selling 100,000 copies there toward a total of 500,000 copies throughout Europe, as well as 100,000 in Australia and 500,000 copies in the United States. Love reached number 20 on the charts in The Netherlands, where it remained for 32 weeks. To date, the record has sold over two and a half million copies worldwide.
From late September 1985 to June 1986, the band went on a worldwide tour with new drummer Les Warner (who had played with Julian Lennon and Johnny Thunders). Two more singles from the Love album followed; "Rain" (charting in the UK at No. 17) and "Revolution" (charting in the UK at No. 30). Neither charted in the US. Another single, "Nirvana", was issued only in Poland. The album version of "Rain", as well as the remix "(Here Comes the) Rain", were used in the Italian horror film Dèmoni 2. Once back in England, the band booked themselves into the Manor Studios in Oxfordshire, with producer Steve Brown (who had produced Love), and recorded over a dozen new songs. The band were unhappy with the sound of their new album, titled Peace, and they decided to go to New York so producer Rick Rubin could remix the first single, "Love Removal Machine".
Rubin agreed to work with the band, but only if they rerecorded the song. Rubin eventually talked them into rerecording the entire album. The band's record company, Beggars Banquet, was displeased with this, as two months and £250,000 had already been spent on the record. However, after hearing the initial New York recording, Beggars Banquet agreed to proceed. The first single, "Love Removal Machine", was released in February 1987, and the new version of the album appeared in April that year, now renamed as Electric, reaching No. 4 and eventually outselling Love. The band toured with Kid Chaos (also known as "Haggis" and "The Kid") on bass, with Stewart on rhythm guitar. Two more singles, "Lil Devil" and "Wild Flower", were released during 1987. A few tracks from the original Peace album appeared on the single versions of "Love Removal Machine", and "Lil Devil". The full Peace album would not be released until 2000, when it was included as Disc 3 of the Rare Cult box set.
In the US, the Cult, now consisting of Astbury, Duffy, Stewart, Warner and Kid Chaos, were supported by the then-unknown Guns N' Roses. The band also appeared at Roskilde Festival in Denmark in June 1987. When the world tour wound through Australia, the band wrecked £30,000 worth of equipment, and as a result they could not tour Japan, as no company would rent them new equipment. At the end of the tour the Electric album had been certified Gold in the UK, and sold roughly 3 million copies worldwide, but the band were barely speaking to each other by then. Haggis left the band at the end of the Electric tour to form the Four Horsemen for Rubin's Def American label. Astbury and Duffy fired Warner and their management team Grant/Edwards, and moved to Los Angeles with original bassist Stewart. Warner sued the band several times for his firing, as well as for what he felt were unpaid royalties due to him for his performance on the Electric album, resulting in lengthy court battles. The Cult signed a new management deal and wrote 21 new songs for their next record.
For the next album, Stewart returned to playing bass, and John Webster was brought in to play keyboards. The band used Chris Taylor to play drums during rehearsals and record the demos, with future Kiss drummer Eric Singer performing during the second demo recording sessions. The Cult eventually recruited session-drummer Mickey Curry to fill the drumming role and Aerosmith sound engineer, Bob Rock, to produce. Recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from October to December 1988, the Sonic Temple record went Top 10 in both the UK and the US, where it was certified Gold and Platinum respectively. The band went on tour in support of the new album and new single "Fire Woman" (UK No. 15) (NZ No. 1), with yet another new drummer, Matt Sorum, and Webster as keyboard player. The next single, "Edie (Ciao Baby)" (UK No. 25) has become a regular song at concerts for many years.
In Europe, the band toured with Aerosmith, and in the US, after releasing another single "Sun King" (UK No. 42), they spent 1989 touring in support of Metallica before heading out on their own headlining tour later that same year. A fourth single, "Sweet Soul Sister" (UK No. 38), was released in February 1990, with the video having been filmed at Wembley Arena, London, on 25 November 1989. "Sweet Soul Sister" was partially written in Paris and was inspired by the bohemian lifestyle of that city. Released as a single in February 1990, the song was another hit in the UK, and reportedly reached number one on the rock charts in Brazil. After playing a show in Atlanta, Georgia, in February 1990, the band's management told Astbury that his father had just died of cancer. As a result, the remainder of the tour was cancelled after a final leg of shows were performed in April. After the tour ended, the band were on the verge of splitting due to Stewart retiring and moving to Canada to be with his wife, and Sorum leaving to join Guns N' Roses.
In 1990, Astbury organized the Gathering of the Tribes festival in Los Angeles and San Francisco with artists such as Soundgarden, Ice-T, Indigo Girls, Queen Latifah, Iggy Pop, the Charlatans, the Cramps and Public Enemy appearing. This two-day festival drew 40,000 people. Also in 1990, a ten CD box set was released in the UK, containing rare songs from the Cult's singles. The CDs in this box set were all issued as picture discs with rice paper covers, housed in a white box called "Singles Collection", or a black box called "E.P. Collection '84 - '90". In 1991, director Oliver Stone offered Astbury the role of Jim Morrison in Stone's film The Doors. He declined the role because he was not happy with the way Morrison was represented in the film, and the role was ultimately played by Val Kilmer.
Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991–1993)
In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album. During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and James Kottak played bass and drums, respectively. During the actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play drums, with Charley Drayton on bass, and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men reportedly rarely even being in the studio together during recording. The resulting album Ceremony was released to mixed responses. The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. Only two official singles were released from the record: "Wild Hearted Son" (UK No. 34, Canada No. 41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK No. 50), although "White" was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was released as a single (as "Dulce Salvación") in Argentina in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was released in Spain.
The Cult's Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in 1991 and North America in 1992. In 1991 the Cult played a show at the Marquee Club in London, which was recorded and released in February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete bootleg video of this show is also in circulation.
The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, for alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. The parents stated that the boy felt he had been cursed by the band's burning of his image, and was "emotionally scarred." This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted Son". This lawsuit delayed the release of Ceremony in many countries including South Korea and Thailand, which did not see the record's release until late 1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey until the Cult played several shows in Istanbul in June 1993.
A world tour followed with backing from drummer Michael Lee (Page & Plant, Little Angels), bassist Kinley "Barney" Wolfe (Lord Tracy, Black Oak Arkansas), and keyboardist John Sinclair (Ozzy Osbourne, Uriah Heep) returning one last time, and the Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 28. Following the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits compilation which debuted at No. 1 on the British charts and later went to number one in Portugal, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and recruited Craig Adams (the Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic.
The Cult and first breakup (1994–1998)
With the same line-up still in place, the band released The Cult in October 1994, produced by Bob Rock. The self-titled album is commonly referred to as the "Black Sheep" album by fans of the group, due to the image of a black sheep on the front cover. Astbury referred to the record as a collection of "very personal and very revealing" songs about his life, with the subject matter ranging from sexual abuse at the age of 15, to the death of Nigel Preston, to his directionless years spent in Glasgow in the late 1970s.
The record achieved little success, only reaching No. 69 in the US and No. 21 in the UK. Duffy remarked that he thought that the record wouldn't sell well due to the offensive lyrics. The record went to number one in Portugal also, but quickly dropped out of sight. The single "Coming Down (Drug Tongue)" was released with the band going on tour in support of the new album. Only one more single, "Star", was officially released with a live appearance on UK TV show The Word. "Star" began life in 1986 as "Tom Petty" and was recorded at the "Sonic Temple" demo sessions as "Starchild", being dropped by the band during rehearsals. In 1993 the song was resurrected and was finally completed for the record in 1994 as, just simply, "Star".
When the band began the Beauty's On The Streets tour in winter 1994, they augmented the line up with James Stevenson on rhythm guitar. As with the Ceremony record several years earlier, no other official singles were released, but several other songs were released on a strictly limited basis: "Sacred Life" was released in Spain and the Netherlands, "Be Free" was issued in Canada and France, "Saints Are Down" was issued in Greece, but none of the songs gained much commercial success. During this tour, the Cult made their first ever appearance in Norway.
During the Black Rain tour of South America in spring of 1995, despite the fact that several more new songs had already been recorded, the tour was cancelled after an appearance in Rio de Janeiro in March, and the band split up citing unspecified problems on a recent South American tour. Astbury started up a garage band called Holy Barbarians a few months later. The band made their debut at the 100 Club in London in February 1996 and released their first (and only) record in May 1996, and toured throughout North America and Europe for the rest of 1996. The band started writing material for a second record in 1997, but the band was dissolved and Astbury began writing and recording a solo record. Throughout 1997 and 1998 Astbury recorded his solo record, originally to be titled Natural Born Guerilla, later called High Time Amplifier. Ultimately the record remained unreleased until June 2000 when it was released under the name Spirit\Light\Speed. Astbury played one solo concert in 1999.
In November 1996, a number of CD reissues were released: the band's American record company released High Octane Cult, a slightly updated greatest hits compilation released only in the US and Japan; The Southern Death Cult, a remastered edition of the fifteen-song compilation CD; a ten-song compilation CD by Death Cult called Ghost Dance, consisting of the untitled four-song EP, the single "God's Zoo", and four unreleased songs from a radio broadcast; and a remastered repackaging of the Dreamtime album, containing only the ten original songs from the record in their original playing order and almost completely different but original artwork. Dreamtime Live at the Lyceum was also remastered and issued on video and for the first time on CD, with the one unreleased song from the concert, "Gimmick".
First reunion, Beyond Good and Evil and second hiatus (1999–2005)
In 1999, Astbury and Duffy reformed the Cult with Matt Sorum and ex-Porno for Pyros bassist Martyn LeNoble. Their first official concert was at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in June 1999, after having rehearsed at shows in the Los Angeles area. The band's 1999 Cult Rising reunion tour resulted in a sold out 30 date tour of the US, ending with 8 consecutive sold out nights at the LA House of Blues. In 2000, the band toured South Africa for the first time, and North and South America, and contributed the song "Painted on My Heart" to the soundtrack of the movie Gone In 60 Seconds. The song was featured prominently and the melody was fused into parts of the score. In June, Astbury's long-delayed solo record was finally released as Spirit\Light\Speed, but it failed to gain much success. In November 2000, another authorised greatest hits compilation was released, Pure Cult: The Singles 1984–1995, along with an accompanying DVD, which was later certified gold in Canada. The Cult, as well as Ian Astbury, performed on separate tracks on the Doors tribute album, Stoned Immaculate: The Music of The Doors, covering "Wild Child" and "Touch Me".
In November 2000, Beggars Banquet released 15,000 copies of a six-disc boxset (with a bonus seventh disc of remixes for the first 5000 copies) titled Rare Cult. The box set consists of album out-takes, demos, radio broadcasts, and album B-sides. It is most notable for including the previously unreleased "Peace" album in its entirety. In 2001, the band signed to Atlantic Records and recorded a new album, Beyond Good and Evil, originally being produced by Mick Jones of Foreigner, until Jones bowed out to tour with Foreigner. Astbury and Duffy co-wrote a song with Jones, an odd occurrence, as in the past, neither Astbury or Duffy would co-write their material. Bob Rock was the producer, with Martyn LeNoble and Chris Wyse as recording bassists, as Mike Dimkich played rhythm guitar on tour, and Matt Sorum returning as drummer. Although Sorum has previously toured with the band on the Sonic Temple tour in 1989, this was the first time that he had recorded a studio album with the band.
However Beyond Good and Evil was not the comeback record the band had hoped for. Despite reaching No. 37 in the US, No. 22 in Canada, and No. 25 in Spain, sales quickly dropped, only selling roughly 500,000 copies worldwide. The first single "Rise", reached No. 41 in the US, and No. 2 on the mainstream rock charts, but Atlantic Records quickly pulled the song from radio playlists. Astbury would later describe the experience with Atlantic to be "soul destroying", after Atlantic tried to tamper with the lyrics, the record cover, and choice of singles from the record.
After the first single from the record, the band's working relationship with Atlantic was on paper only, with Atlantic pulling "Rise" from the radio stations playlists, and stopping all promotion of the record. The second single "Breathe" was only released as a radio station promo, and the final single "True Believers" was only on a compilation sampler disc released in January 2002 (after the Cult's tour had already ended). Despite "True Believers" receiving radio airplay in Australia, both singles went largely unnoticed, and both Astbury and Duffy walked away from the project. LeNoble rejoined the band for the initial dates in early 2001, and Billy Morrison filled in on bass for the majority of the 2001 tour.
The European tour of 2001 was canceled, largely due to security concerns after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the band flew back to the US to tour again with Aerosmith. But the eleven-week tour was considered by fans to be a disaster, as the band played only a brief rundown of their greatest hits. In October 2001, a show at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles was filmed for release on DVD. After the tour ended in December 2001, the band took most of 2002 off, apart from a few shows in the US to promote the release of the DVD, with Scott Garrett and Craig Adams rejoining the band.
Despite the commercial disappointment of Beyond Good and Evil and the supporting tour, the band was voted "Comeback of the Year" by Metal Edge readers in the magazine's 2001 Readers' Choice Awards.
In late 2002, Ian Astbury declared the Cult to be "on ice" indefinitely, after performing a brief series of dates in October 2002 to promote the release of the Music Without Fear DVD. During this second hiatus, Astbury performed as a member of the Doors (later dubbed the Doors of the 21st Century, later still renamed D21c, and most recently known as Riders on the Storm) with two of the original members of that group. D21c was sued numerous times, both by Jim Morrison's family and by drummer John Densmore. Astbury supposedly started work on recording another solo album that later became the backbone for the Cult's Born into This.
At the same time, Duffy was part of Coloursound with bassist Craig Adams and ex-Alarm frontman Mike Peters, then Dead Men Walking (again with Peters) and later Cardboard Vampyres. Sorum became a member of the hard rock supergroup Velvet Revolver. In 2003, all of the Cult's records were issued on CD, with several bonus tracks being issued on the Russian, Belarusian, and Lithuanian versions. These eastern European releases had many printing mistakes on the jacket sleeves and lyric inserts. In October 2004, all of the Cult's records were again remastered and issued again on CD, this time in Japan in different cardboard foldout sleeves. "She Sells Sanctuary" appeared in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, playing on rock station V-Rock.
Second reunion, Born Into This and Capsule EPs (2006–2010)
Despite Astbury's previous statement from 2004 that a reunion would not happen, The Cult announced in January 2006 that they were reuniting for "some limited gigs" throughout the year. A month later, the band made their first live appearance in three-and-a-half years on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Their lineup consisted of Astbury (vocals), Duffy (lead guitar), John Tempesta (drums), Dimkich (rhythm guitar) and Wyse (returning as bassist). Their first stage show was held in March 2006 in San Francisco, California, at The Fillmore. The entire tour was recorded by Instant Live and sold after each show. In May, they did an eight date tour in Canada. Later that summer, they toured central and eastern Europe and played their first concerts in Bulgaria, Poland and Serbia. An eleven-date UK tour followed as well as several more dates in the United States, finishing with a South American tour in December. That year, Duffy began the band Circus Diablo with Billy Morrison, Sorum, Brett Scallions and Ricky Warwick.
During these tours, the band occasionally played an extended set, including several songs the band had not performed in decades: "King Contrary Man" and "Hollow Man", neither of which had been performed since 1987; also, "Libertine" was performed approximately three times, for the first time since 2000, and "Brother Wolf, Sister Moon", which was only performed one time since 1986 (for this particular song, the band played an abridged version which has never been performed before or since)
Astbury announced in February 2007 that he was leaving Riders on the Storm and returning to the Cult. He stated: "I have decided to move on and focus on my own music and legacy." The Cult was featured on Stuffmagazine.com's list of ultimate air guitar players. On 21 March 2007, it was announced that the band would be touring Europe with the Who. The first confirmed tour date was in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in early June, with at least a dozen shows set to follow. The band played a gig in London's West End at the CC Club on 7 June 2007, along with nearly two dozen shows across continental Europe during summer. The tour also includes the first performance in Romania and Croatia.
On 29 May 2007, the band signed a deal with major metal label Roadrunner Records. Their 8th studio album, titled Born into This was released on 16 October, and was produced by Martin "Youth" Glover, bass player for Killing Joke. Born into This was released as regular single disc and limited edition double disc, the second disk being a bonus 5-track CD holding the following tracks: "Stand Alone", "War Pony Destroyer", "I Assassin (Demo)", "Sound of Destruction (Demo)" and "Savages (Extended Version)". Prior to the album's release, the band played festival and headline dates, and supported the Who in Europe through summer 2007, with a US headline tour to follow.
The band's appearance at Irving Plaza in New York City in early November 2006 was filmed and was released in 2007. The Cult New York City, issued by Fontana North and is the Cult's first high definition DVD release. Meanwhile, Astbury lent vocals on two tracks of the 2007 Unkle album "War Stories", one of them being the first single from the album, "Burn My Shadow".
The band performed a UK and European tour in late-February and early-March 2008. On 24 March, they began their North American tour including a major 13-city tour in Canada. During September 2008, the Cult did a brief series of dates in the northeast United States, and they toured in Brazil as part of the South American tour in October 2008. As of May 2008, according to The Gauntlet, the Cult are currently unsigned and no longer under contract with Roadrunner Records. In October 2008, it was announced that the Cult would headline the inaugural Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Antonio, to be run 16 November 2008. The Cult announced plans for a tour showcasing their 1985 Love album across the US and then the UK in October where they will play at the Royal Albert Hall.
Coinciding with the remastered Love album and four-disc Omnibus boxed set, the Cult kicked off the long-awaited Love Live Tour in late summer. Performing their classic Love album in its entirety, each show was played with the Love tracks opening with "Nirvana" to "Black Angel". A quick intermission followed, then other Cult hits were played (varying by venue): "Sun King", "Dirty Little Rock Star", "Electric Ocean", "Illuminated". Then followed the favorites "Fire Woman", "Lil Devil", "Wild Flower", and lastly "Love Removal Machine". In the evening of 10 October 2009 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the band performed a second encore with original Cult bassist Jamie Stewart and drummer Mark Brzezicki, who played drums with the band during the Love album recording sessions in July and August 1985. The band sold Love Live USB flash drives for each show during the tour.
The Cult entered 2010 continuing their Love Live Tour and announcing more dates in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan. The band finished recording a four-track "Capsule" with producer Chris Goss. Capsule 1 was said to be the first of three or four to be released sometime in summer 2010. Release formats include CD-DVD dualdisc, 12-inch vinyl, and digital downloads. Capsule 1 was released on 14 September 2010. The band officially announced the release of its first new studio recording since 2007, "Every Man And Woman Is A Star". The new single was released through the iTunes Store on 31 July 2010.
On 1 August 2010, the band played the sold-out music festival Sonisphere, which marked their first UK performance since the tour for their Love album. During the performance they debuted their new single, "Every Man and Woman is a Star", which was released on 1 August 2010. On 14 September 2010 the band embarked on a new U.S. tour and released Capsule 1 in conjunction with media technology company Aderra Inc. and made it available in multiple formats including a CD-DVD DualDisc, USB flash drive, 12 inch vinyl, FLAC download and MP3 download. The collection includes a short film made by singer Ian Astbury and Rick Rogers.
On 26 October 2010 the band and Aderra Inc. announced the release of a new song, "Embers", for 1 November 2010 and Capsule 2 available through their web store on 16 November 2010. Pictures from the Cult's tour stop in Chicago on 28 October 2010 can be seen at a local radio station website.
On 17 September 2010, the band performed live at the Fall Frenzy concert at the Tempe Beach Park in Tempe, Arizona. Other bands that played at this concert were Stone Temple Pilots, Shinedown, and Sevendust.
On 4 December 2010, the band performed a live set for Guitar Center Sessions on DirecTV. The episode included an interview with the band by program host, Nic Harcourt.
Choice of Weapon and Hidden City (2011–2017)
During the Cult's concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on 21 January 2011 Ian Astbury declared that the Cult would be recording a new album directly after the tour. They also announced that they would be working with Chris Goss, who performed with Masters of Reality as a supporting act the same evening. On 11 May 2011, it was announced that the Cult were signed to Cooking Vinyl Records, who will release the new album in early 2012. Commented guitarist Billy Duffy: "We are very much looking forward to returning to our U.K. roots in many ways working with Cooking Vinyl." Vocalist Ian Astbury added, "We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Cooking Vinyl." By May 2011, the band had been writing and recording new demos at its Witch Mountain studio hideaway in the Hollywood Hills, and began recording their new album at Hollywood Recording Studios. In October 2011, bassist Chris Wyse stated the album was almost finished and expected to be released in April 2012. Chris also described it as a "Zep/Stooges mix of energy."
On 29 November 2011, it was announced that the album would be produced by Bob Rock, who provided the same role on Sonic Temple, The Cult and Beyond Good and Evil. The album, entitled Choice of Weapon, was released on 22 May 2012. The band partnered with Rolling Stone to premiere the first song from the album titled Lucifer on 30 January. On 5 February 2012, the Cult song "She Sells Sanctuary" was used as the soundtrack for a Budweiser commercial in a mashup with Flo Rida aired during Super Bowl XLVI. In May 2012 the Cult appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and played "For The Animals".
On 28 September 2012, it was announced that the band would release Weapon of Choice, a "prequel" album to accompany the band's latest album, Choice of Weapon. The digital-only release, available exclusively on iTunes for two months only beginning 16 October, features the songs that were ultimately included in "Choice Of Weapon" at an earlier stage of development. Explaining the motivations behind the release, singer Ian Astbury said that "These songs were turned over and over, forged in long rehearsals and writing sessions, and emanated from challenges both personal and professional. We put our guts into this; [Producer Chris] Goss was able to create an environment where the songs were born through playing and turning over lyrics, through hard work and intense sessions." Astbury added "These songs have an integrity and rawness of their own. In many ways it's a different album to the one we released and reveals the foundations of 'Choice Of Weapon'. We were able to close the doors and begin to explore spaces we had not been in for a while." The song "Twisted and Bleeding" was made available for free download at the band's website ahead of the full digital release.
On 20 June 2013, the band announced the release of Electric-Peace which comprises the entire Electric album plus the Peace album which was previously released on the now discontinued Rare Cult box set in 2000. It is due for release in the US on 30 July. In 2013 Mike Dimkich left the band and joined Bad Religion to cover for guitarist Greg Hetson. James Stevenson, from the Beauty's On The Streets tour in 1994, replaced Dimkich as the Cult's rhythm guitarist.
In March 2013, Billy Duffy told the Argentinan journalist Fabrizio Pedrotti that the Cult had begun work on a new album for a 2014 release. The band were expected to begin work on the album after they finish their 2013 world tour, where they played the Electric album in its entirety. In August 2014, Billy added that the next album, which was not expected to be released before 2015 at the earliest, "will be more guitar heavy".
On 5 November 2015, it was announced that The Cult would release their new album, entitled Hidden City, on 5 February 2016. The album is said to be the final part of a trilogy that began with Born into This, and marks the fifth time Bob Rock had produced a Cult album. The band also announced that they had hired Australian-born bassist Grant Fitzpatrick (ex-Mink) as the replacement for Chris Wyse. Chris Chaney (Jane's Addiction, Camp Freddy) and producer Bob Rock performed session bass on the album. In support of Hidden City, The Cult opened for Guns N' Roses on the Not in This Lifetime... Tour.
In an October 2016 interview with PopMatters journalist J.C. Maçek III, Cult guitarist Billy Duffy spoke of the band's playlist while on tour, saying "Obviously you want to make an impactful [show]," he continues. "There are some practical, pragmatic decisions made. If you're playing to a crowd who are not very familiar with you, there's no point of going too deep but we do always make sure we play a new song. Like on Guns N' Roses' [tour] we had fifty minutes which is ten songs all in. So, you know we just made sure that in those ten songs we played 'Deeply Ordered Chaos' which we’re proud of and it makes a certain statement. And it just alerts people to the fact that, yes, we have made a record in the last 30 years. You know and that's a good thing. Psychologically, that's the blood transfusion that we need. And we're very mindful, we have a very loyal fan base. We don't pander as you well know."
Upcoming eleventh studio album (2018–present)
In an April 2018 interview with Guitar World, guitarist Billy Duffy was asked if another album from The Cult was in the works. He replied, "Never say never! Ian and I enjoy the process of making new music, and we feel it's vital to keep the band healthy, even if it's pretty much in the law of diminishing returns area now. Who knows if it will be a whole album a series of singles or an EP? I can say new Cult music will be forthcoming, but these days we don't rush it as there's no point. Quality is key. We are past the point of having to release stuff so if we feel it's good enough, then we will release it in some shape or another."
On 2 April 2018, a tour of the United States of America called "Revolution 3 Tour" was announced for the summer. They performed as one of the three headliners, along with Stone Temple Pilots and Bush.
In April 2019, The Cult announced that they would celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of their fourth album Sonic Temple with a world tour, which began on 2 May in Houston, Texas and was expected to wrap up in 2020.
In a June 2019 interview with LA Weekly, vocalist Ian Astbury stated that The Cult were "long overdue" to release new music. He was quoted as saying: "We do have some stuff we've been working on, but it's yet to see the light of day." Six months later, Astbury told Atlantic City Weekly that the band was going to start working on new music in 2020: "We've got a few pieces lying around in various stages of completion. The intention is to get together in the New Year and take a look at what we've got and decide how we are going to go about moving forward. It's an essential part of any creative lifeblood." On May 6, 2020, The Cult announced on their Twitter page that they had signed to Black Hill Records.
On August 15, 2020, Duffy announced on his Twitter that the band were recording their new album with producer Tom Dalgety at Rockfield Studios, where The Cult had recorded their debut album Dreamtime 36 years earlier.
In support of their new album, The Cult will embark on a co-headlining six-date UK tour with Alice Cooper in May and June 2022.
Influences
Duffy and Astbury cited among their influences a lot of different bands "from the Doors to Led Zeppelin. We literally went from the front of our record collections to the back. And then along the way we were drawn in by the likes of Public Image Ltd, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees. You might not hear it in the music but it's there." They also cited Bauhaus among many other post-punk influences. Duffy also praised Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers for a major performance he attended in 1977 and Siouxsie and the Banshees whom "always had great guitar players with killer riffs." Duffy also hailed AC/DC for "the power of a good three chord riff", Pete Townshend of the Who "in terms of commitment to stage performing" and Brian May of Queen for using "‘echoplex’ tape delays to orchestrate his own solo".
Musical style
According to music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the band fuse a "hardcore punk revivalist" sound with the "pseudo-mysticism ... of the Doors and Uriah Heep and the guitar-orchestrations of Led Zeppelin and The Cure ... while adding touches of post-punk goth rock". In 1985 Astbury said, "Our music is just melodies and guitars. We're like Big Country and U2, only better!".
Members
Current members
Ian Astbury – lead vocals, occasional percussion/guitar
Billy Duffy – lead and rhythm guitars, backing vocals
John Tempesta – drums, percussion
Grant Fitzpatrick – bass, backing vocals
Damon Fox – keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Discography
Dreamtime (1984)
Love (1985)
Electric (1987)
Sonic Temple (1989)
Ceremony (1991)
The Cult (1994)
Beyond Good and Evil (2001)
Born into This (2007)
Choice of Weapon (2012)
Hidden City (2016)
References
External links
Official website
Billy Duffy official website
Musical groups established in 1983
Situation Two artists
Beggars Banquet Records artists
Sire Records artists
Musical groups from Bradford
English post-punk music groups
English gothic rock groups
English hard rock musical groups
English heavy metal musical groups
English glam metal musical groups | true | [
"When the Bough Breaks is the second solo album from Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward. It was originally released on April 27, 1997, on Cleopatra Records.\n\nTrack listing\n\"Hate\" – 5:00\n\"Children Killing Children\" – 3:51\n\"Growth\" – 5:45\n\"When I was a Child\" – 4:54\n\"Please Help Mommy (She's a Junkie)\" – 6:40\n\"Shine\" – 5:06\n\"Step Lightly (On the Grass)\" – 5:59\n\"Love & Innocence\" – 1:00\n\"Animals\" – 6:32\n\"Nighthawks Stars & Pines\" – 6:45\n\"Try Life\" – 5:35\n\"When the Bough Breaks\" – 9:45\n\nCD Cleopatra CL9981 (US 1997)\n\nMusicians\n\nBill Ward - vocals, lyrics, musical arrangements\nKeith Lynch - guitars\nPaul Ill - bass, double bass, synthesizer, tape loops\nRonnie Ciago - drums\n\nCover art and reprint issues\n\nAs originally released, this album featured cover art that had two roses on it. After it was released, Bill Ward (as with Ward One, his first solo album) stated on his website that the released cover art was not the correct one that was intended to be released. Additionally, the liner notes for the original printing had lyrics that were so small, most people needed a magnifying glass to read them. This was eventually corrected in 2000 when the version of the album with Bill on the cover from the 70's was released. The album was later on released in a special digipak style of case, but this was later said to be released prematurely, and was withdrawn.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nWhen the Bough Breaks at Bill Ward's site\nWhen the Bough Breaks at Black Sabbath Online\n\nBill Ward (musician) albums\nBlack Sabbath\n1997 albums\nCleopatra Records albums",
"Joseph Jin Dechen (; June 19, 1919 – November 21, 2002) was a Chinese Catholic priest and Bishop Emeritus of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nanyang.\n\nBiography\nHe was ordained a priest in 1944. In 1958, he was arrested for the first time and sentenced to life in prison. This sentence was settled and he was released in 1973. In December 1981, when he was Bishop Emeritus in Roman Catholic Diocese of Nanyang, he was again arrested, charged with resistance to abortion and birth control, and was sentenced to 15 years of prison and five years of subsequent loss of political rights on July 27, 1982. He was detained in the Third Province Prison in Yu County (now Yuzhou), near Zhengzhou in Henan, and was pardoned and released in May 1992 and ordered to stay in his village Jinjiajiang, near Nanyang. He was out of weakness when he was released from prison.\n\nReferences\n\n1919 births\n2002 deaths\n20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in China"
]
|
[
"The Cult",
"Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991-1994)",
"What was the ceremony?",
"album Ceremony",
"when was it released?",
"1991,"
]
| C_4b2e5d61579045e7ae891ff8b3295557_1 | was it well received? | 3 | was The Cult album Ceremony well received? | The Cult | In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album. During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and James Kottak played bass and drums respectively. During the actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play drums, with Charley Drayton on bass, and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men reportedly rarely even being in the studio together during recording. The resulting album Ceremony was released to mixed responses. The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. Only two official singles were released from the record: "Wild Hearted Son" (UK No. 34, Canada No. 41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK No. 50), although "White" was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was released as a single (as "Dulce Salvacion") in Argentina in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was released in Spain. The Cult's Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in 1991 and North America in 1992. In 1991 the Cult played a show at the Marquee Club in London, which was recorded and released in February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete bootleg video of this show is also in circulation. The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, for alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted Son". This lawsuit delayed the release of Ceremony in many countries including South Korea and Thailand, which did not see the record's release until late 1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey until the Cult played several shows in Istanbul in June 1993. A world tour followed with backing from future Thin Lizzy drummer Michael Lee and bassist Kinley Wolfe, and keyboardist John Sinclair returning one last time, and the Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 31. Following the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits compilation which debuted at No. 1 on the British charts and later went to number one in Portugal, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and recruited Craig Adams (the Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic. CANNOTANSWER | The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. | The Cult are an English rock band formed in 1983 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury's previous band Southern Death Cult. They gained a dedicated following in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s as a post-punk/gothic rock band, with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking into the mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s establishing themselves as a hard rock band with singles such as "Love Removal Machine". Since its initial formation in 1983, the band have had various line-ups; the longest-serving members are Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, who are also the band's two songwriters.
The Cult's debut studio album Dreamtime was released in 1984 to moderate success, with its lead single "Spiritwalker" reaching No. 1 on the UK Indie Chart. Their second studio album, Love (1985), was even more successful, charting at No. 4 in the UK and including singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary" and "Rain". The band's third album, Electric (1987), launched them new heights of success, also peaking at No. 4 in the UK and charting highly in other territories, and spawned the hit singles "Love Removal Machine", "Lil' Devil" and "Wild Flower". On that album, The Cult supplemented their post-punk sound with hard rock; the polish on this new sound was facilitated by producer Rick Rubin. After moving to Los Angeles, California, where the band has been based for the remainder of their career, The Cult continued the musical experimentation of Electric with its follow-up album Sonic Temple (1989), which marked their first collaboration with Bob Rock, who would produce several of the band's subsequent albums. Sonic Temple was their most successful album to that point, entering the Top 10 on the UK and US charts, and included one of the band's most popular songs "Fire Woman".
By the time of their fifth album Ceremony (1991), tensions and creative differences began to surface among the band members. This resulted in the recording sessions for Ceremony being held without a stable lineup, leaving Astbury and Duffy as the only two official members left, and featuring support from session musicians on bass and drums. The ongoing tension had carried over within the next four years, during which they released one more studio album, The Cult (1994), and called it quits in 1995. The Cult reformed in 1999 and released their seventh album Beyond Good and Evil two years later. The commercial failure of the album and resurfaced tensions led to the band going back on hiatus in 2002. They resumed activity in 2006, and have since released three more studio albums: Born into This (2007), Choice of Weapon (2012), and Hidden City (2016).
History
Early history (1981–1984)
The band's origins can be traced to 1981, in Bradford, Yorkshire, where vocalist and songwriter Ian Astbury formed a band called Southern Death Cult. The name was chosen with a double meaning, and was derived from the 14th-century Native American religion, the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex or Southern Death Cult as it was sometimes known, from the Mississippi delta area, but it was also a stab at what the band viewed was the centralisation of power in Southern England (including that of the music industry); there has long been a perceived notion of a North–South divide based on social, historic and economic reasons. Astbury was joined by Buzz Burrows (guitar), Barry Jepson (bass) and Aki Nawaz Qureshi (drums); they performed their first show at the Queen's Hall in their hometown of Bradford on 29 October 1981. The band were at the forefront of an emerging style of music, in the form of post-punk and gothic rock, they achieved critical acclaim from the press and music fans.
The band signed to independent record label Situation Two, an offshoot of Beggars Banquet Records, and released a three-track, triple A-side single, Moya, during this period. They toured through England headlining some shows and touring with Bauhaus and Theatre of Hate. The band played their final performance in Manchester during February 1983, meaning after only sixteen months the band was over. A compilation named The Southern Death Cult was released, this being a collection of the single, radio sessions with John Peel for Radio One and live performances - one of which an audience member recorded with a tape recorder.
In April 1983, Astbury teamed up with guitarist Billy Duffy and formed the band "Death Cult". Duffy had been in the Nosebleeds (along with Morrissey), Lonesome No More and then Theatre of Hate. In addition to Astbury and Duffy, the band also included Jamie Stewart (bass) and Raymond Taylor Smith (later known as Ray Mondo) (drums), both from the Harrow, London based post-punk band, Ritual. Death Cult made their live debut in Oslo, Norway on 25 July 1983 and also released the Death Cult EP in the same month, then toured through mainland Europe and Scotland. In September 1983, Mondo was deported to his home country of Sierra Leone and replaced by Nigel Preston, formerly of Theatre of Hate. The single "Gods Zoo" was released in October 1983. Another European tour, with UK dates, followed that autumn. To tone down their name's gothic connotations and gain broader appeal, the band changed its name to "the Cult" in January 1984 before appearing on the (UK) Channel 4 television show, The Tube.
The Cult's first studio record, Dreamtime, was recorded at Rockfield Studios, in Monmouth, Wales in 1984. The record was to be produced by Joe Julian, but after recording the drum tracks, the band decided to replace him with John Brand. Brand produced the record, but guitarist Duffy has said the drum tracks were produced by Julian, as Preston had become unreliable.
The band recorded the songs which later became known as "Butterflies", "(The) Gimmick", "A Flower in the Desert", "Horse Nation", "Spiritwalker", "Bad Medicine (Waltz)", "Dreamtime", "With Love" (later known as "Ship of Fools", and also "Sea and Sky"), "Bone Bag", "Too Young", "83rd Dream", and one untitled outtake. It is unknown what the outtake was, or whether it was developed into a song at a later date. Songs like "Horse Nation" showed Astbury's intense interest in Native American issues, with the lyrics to "Horse Nation", "See them prancing, they come neighing, to a horse nation", taken almost verbatim from the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, while "Spiritwalker" dealt with shamanism, and the record's title and title track are overtly influenced by Australian Aboriginal beliefs.
On 4 April 1984, the Cult released the single "Spiritwalker", which reached No. 1 on the independent charts in the UK, and acted as a teaser for their forthcoming album Dreamtime. This was followed that summer by a second single, "Go West (Crazy Spinning Circles)", before the release of Dreamtime in September; the album reached No. 21 in the UK, and sold over 100,000 copies in the UK alone. On 12 July 1984, the band recorded five songs at the BBC Maida Vale 5 studio for a Richard Skinner session. Before and after the album's release, the Cult toured throughout Europe and England before recording another single, "Ressurection Joe" (UK No. 74), released that December. Following a Christmas support slot with Big Country, the Cult toured Europe with support from the Mission (then called the Sisterhood). Dreamtime was released initially only in the UK, but after its success, and as the Cult's popularity grew worldwide, it was issued in approximately 30 countries.
Mainstream success (1985–1990)
In May 1985, the Cult released their fourth single, "She Sells Sanctuary", which peaked at No. 15 in the UK and spent 23 weeks in the Top 100. The song was recently voted No. 18 in VH1's Indie 100. In June 1985, following his increasingly erratic behaviour, Preston was fired from the band. Big Country's drummer Mark Brzezicki was picked to replace Preston, and was also included in the video for "She Sells Sanctuary". The Cult then finished recording their second album, Love in July and August 1985. The band's music and image shifted from their punk-oriented roots to 1960s psychedelia influences. Love was a chart success, peaking at No. 4 in the UK and selling 100,000 copies there toward a total of 500,000 copies throughout Europe, as well as 100,000 in Australia and 500,000 copies in the United States. Love reached number 20 on the charts in The Netherlands, where it remained for 32 weeks. To date, the record has sold over two and a half million copies worldwide.
From late September 1985 to June 1986, the band went on a worldwide tour with new drummer Les Warner (who had played with Julian Lennon and Johnny Thunders). Two more singles from the Love album followed; "Rain" (charting in the UK at No. 17) and "Revolution" (charting in the UK at No. 30). Neither charted in the US. Another single, "Nirvana", was issued only in Poland. The album version of "Rain", as well as the remix "(Here Comes the) Rain", were used in the Italian horror film Dèmoni 2. Once back in England, the band booked themselves into the Manor Studios in Oxfordshire, with producer Steve Brown (who had produced Love), and recorded over a dozen new songs. The band were unhappy with the sound of their new album, titled Peace, and they decided to go to New York so producer Rick Rubin could remix the first single, "Love Removal Machine".
Rubin agreed to work with the band, but only if they rerecorded the song. Rubin eventually talked them into rerecording the entire album. The band's record company, Beggars Banquet, was displeased with this, as two months and £250,000 had already been spent on the record. However, after hearing the initial New York recording, Beggars Banquet agreed to proceed. The first single, "Love Removal Machine", was released in February 1987, and the new version of the album appeared in April that year, now renamed as Electric, reaching No. 4 and eventually outselling Love. The band toured with Kid Chaos (also known as "Haggis" and "The Kid") on bass, with Stewart on rhythm guitar. Two more singles, "Lil Devil" and "Wild Flower", were released during 1987. A few tracks from the original Peace album appeared on the single versions of "Love Removal Machine", and "Lil Devil". The full Peace album would not be released until 2000, when it was included as Disc 3 of the Rare Cult box set.
In the US, the Cult, now consisting of Astbury, Duffy, Stewart, Warner and Kid Chaos, were supported by the then-unknown Guns N' Roses. The band also appeared at Roskilde Festival in Denmark in June 1987. When the world tour wound through Australia, the band wrecked £30,000 worth of equipment, and as a result they could not tour Japan, as no company would rent them new equipment. At the end of the tour the Electric album had been certified Gold in the UK, and sold roughly 3 million copies worldwide, but the band were barely speaking to each other by then. Haggis left the band at the end of the Electric tour to form the Four Horsemen for Rubin's Def American label. Astbury and Duffy fired Warner and their management team Grant/Edwards, and moved to Los Angeles with original bassist Stewart. Warner sued the band several times for his firing, as well as for what he felt were unpaid royalties due to him for his performance on the Electric album, resulting in lengthy court battles. The Cult signed a new management deal and wrote 21 new songs for their next record.
For the next album, Stewart returned to playing bass, and John Webster was brought in to play keyboards. The band used Chris Taylor to play drums during rehearsals and record the demos, with future Kiss drummer Eric Singer performing during the second demo recording sessions. The Cult eventually recruited session-drummer Mickey Curry to fill the drumming role and Aerosmith sound engineer, Bob Rock, to produce. Recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from October to December 1988, the Sonic Temple record went Top 10 in both the UK and the US, where it was certified Gold and Platinum respectively. The band went on tour in support of the new album and new single "Fire Woman" (UK No. 15) (NZ No. 1), with yet another new drummer, Matt Sorum, and Webster as keyboard player. The next single, "Edie (Ciao Baby)" (UK No. 25) has become a regular song at concerts for many years.
In Europe, the band toured with Aerosmith, and in the US, after releasing another single "Sun King" (UK No. 42), they spent 1989 touring in support of Metallica before heading out on their own headlining tour later that same year. A fourth single, "Sweet Soul Sister" (UK No. 38), was released in February 1990, with the video having been filmed at Wembley Arena, London, on 25 November 1989. "Sweet Soul Sister" was partially written in Paris and was inspired by the bohemian lifestyle of that city. Released as a single in February 1990, the song was another hit in the UK, and reportedly reached number one on the rock charts in Brazil. After playing a show in Atlanta, Georgia, in February 1990, the band's management told Astbury that his father had just died of cancer. As a result, the remainder of the tour was cancelled after a final leg of shows were performed in April. After the tour ended, the band were on the verge of splitting due to Stewart retiring and moving to Canada to be with his wife, and Sorum leaving to join Guns N' Roses.
In 1990, Astbury organized the Gathering of the Tribes festival in Los Angeles and San Francisco with artists such as Soundgarden, Ice-T, Indigo Girls, Queen Latifah, Iggy Pop, the Charlatans, the Cramps and Public Enemy appearing. This two-day festival drew 40,000 people. Also in 1990, a ten CD box set was released in the UK, containing rare songs from the Cult's singles. The CDs in this box set were all issued as picture discs with rice paper covers, housed in a white box called "Singles Collection", or a black box called "E.P. Collection '84 - '90". In 1991, director Oliver Stone offered Astbury the role of Jim Morrison in Stone's film The Doors. He declined the role because he was not happy with the way Morrison was represented in the film, and the role was ultimately played by Val Kilmer.
Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991–1993)
In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album. During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and James Kottak played bass and drums, respectively. During the actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play drums, with Charley Drayton on bass, and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men reportedly rarely even being in the studio together during recording. The resulting album Ceremony was released to mixed responses. The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. Only two official singles were released from the record: "Wild Hearted Son" (UK No. 34, Canada No. 41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK No. 50), although "White" was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was released as a single (as "Dulce Salvación") in Argentina in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was released in Spain.
The Cult's Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in 1991 and North America in 1992. In 1991 the Cult played a show at the Marquee Club in London, which was recorded and released in February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete bootleg video of this show is also in circulation.
The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, for alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. The parents stated that the boy felt he had been cursed by the band's burning of his image, and was "emotionally scarred." This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted Son". This lawsuit delayed the release of Ceremony in many countries including South Korea and Thailand, which did not see the record's release until late 1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey until the Cult played several shows in Istanbul in June 1993.
A world tour followed with backing from drummer Michael Lee (Page & Plant, Little Angels), bassist Kinley "Barney" Wolfe (Lord Tracy, Black Oak Arkansas), and keyboardist John Sinclair (Ozzy Osbourne, Uriah Heep) returning one last time, and the Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 28. Following the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits compilation which debuted at No. 1 on the British charts and later went to number one in Portugal, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and recruited Craig Adams (the Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic.
The Cult and first breakup (1994–1998)
With the same line-up still in place, the band released The Cult in October 1994, produced by Bob Rock. The self-titled album is commonly referred to as the "Black Sheep" album by fans of the group, due to the image of a black sheep on the front cover. Astbury referred to the record as a collection of "very personal and very revealing" songs about his life, with the subject matter ranging from sexual abuse at the age of 15, to the death of Nigel Preston, to his directionless years spent in Glasgow in the late 1970s.
The record achieved little success, only reaching No. 69 in the US and No. 21 in the UK. Duffy remarked that he thought that the record wouldn't sell well due to the offensive lyrics. The record went to number one in Portugal also, but quickly dropped out of sight. The single "Coming Down (Drug Tongue)" was released with the band going on tour in support of the new album. Only one more single, "Star", was officially released with a live appearance on UK TV show The Word. "Star" began life in 1986 as "Tom Petty" and was recorded at the "Sonic Temple" demo sessions as "Starchild", being dropped by the band during rehearsals. In 1993 the song was resurrected and was finally completed for the record in 1994 as, just simply, "Star".
When the band began the Beauty's On The Streets tour in winter 1994, they augmented the line up with James Stevenson on rhythm guitar. As with the Ceremony record several years earlier, no other official singles were released, but several other songs were released on a strictly limited basis: "Sacred Life" was released in Spain and the Netherlands, "Be Free" was issued in Canada and France, "Saints Are Down" was issued in Greece, but none of the songs gained much commercial success. During this tour, the Cult made their first ever appearance in Norway.
During the Black Rain tour of South America in spring of 1995, despite the fact that several more new songs had already been recorded, the tour was cancelled after an appearance in Rio de Janeiro in March, and the band split up citing unspecified problems on a recent South American tour. Astbury started up a garage band called Holy Barbarians a few months later. The band made their debut at the 100 Club in London in February 1996 and released their first (and only) record in May 1996, and toured throughout North America and Europe for the rest of 1996. The band started writing material for a second record in 1997, but the band was dissolved and Astbury began writing and recording a solo record. Throughout 1997 and 1998 Astbury recorded his solo record, originally to be titled Natural Born Guerilla, later called High Time Amplifier. Ultimately the record remained unreleased until June 2000 when it was released under the name Spirit\Light\Speed. Astbury played one solo concert in 1999.
In November 1996, a number of CD reissues were released: the band's American record company released High Octane Cult, a slightly updated greatest hits compilation released only in the US and Japan; The Southern Death Cult, a remastered edition of the fifteen-song compilation CD; a ten-song compilation CD by Death Cult called Ghost Dance, consisting of the untitled four-song EP, the single "God's Zoo", and four unreleased songs from a radio broadcast; and a remastered repackaging of the Dreamtime album, containing only the ten original songs from the record in their original playing order and almost completely different but original artwork. Dreamtime Live at the Lyceum was also remastered and issued on video and for the first time on CD, with the one unreleased song from the concert, "Gimmick".
First reunion, Beyond Good and Evil and second hiatus (1999–2005)
In 1999, Astbury and Duffy reformed the Cult with Matt Sorum and ex-Porno for Pyros bassist Martyn LeNoble. Their first official concert was at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in June 1999, after having rehearsed at shows in the Los Angeles area. The band's 1999 Cult Rising reunion tour resulted in a sold out 30 date tour of the US, ending with 8 consecutive sold out nights at the LA House of Blues. In 2000, the band toured South Africa for the first time, and North and South America, and contributed the song "Painted on My Heart" to the soundtrack of the movie Gone In 60 Seconds. The song was featured prominently and the melody was fused into parts of the score. In June, Astbury's long-delayed solo record was finally released as Spirit\Light\Speed, but it failed to gain much success. In November 2000, another authorised greatest hits compilation was released, Pure Cult: The Singles 1984–1995, along with an accompanying DVD, which was later certified gold in Canada. The Cult, as well as Ian Astbury, performed on separate tracks on the Doors tribute album, Stoned Immaculate: The Music of The Doors, covering "Wild Child" and "Touch Me".
In November 2000, Beggars Banquet released 15,000 copies of a six-disc boxset (with a bonus seventh disc of remixes for the first 5000 copies) titled Rare Cult. The box set consists of album out-takes, demos, radio broadcasts, and album B-sides. It is most notable for including the previously unreleased "Peace" album in its entirety. In 2001, the band signed to Atlantic Records and recorded a new album, Beyond Good and Evil, originally being produced by Mick Jones of Foreigner, until Jones bowed out to tour with Foreigner. Astbury and Duffy co-wrote a song with Jones, an odd occurrence, as in the past, neither Astbury or Duffy would co-write their material. Bob Rock was the producer, with Martyn LeNoble and Chris Wyse as recording bassists, as Mike Dimkich played rhythm guitar on tour, and Matt Sorum returning as drummer. Although Sorum has previously toured with the band on the Sonic Temple tour in 1989, this was the first time that he had recorded a studio album with the band.
However Beyond Good and Evil was not the comeback record the band had hoped for. Despite reaching No. 37 in the US, No. 22 in Canada, and No. 25 in Spain, sales quickly dropped, only selling roughly 500,000 copies worldwide. The first single "Rise", reached No. 41 in the US, and No. 2 on the mainstream rock charts, but Atlantic Records quickly pulled the song from radio playlists. Astbury would later describe the experience with Atlantic to be "soul destroying", after Atlantic tried to tamper with the lyrics, the record cover, and choice of singles from the record.
After the first single from the record, the band's working relationship with Atlantic was on paper only, with Atlantic pulling "Rise" from the radio stations playlists, and stopping all promotion of the record. The second single "Breathe" was only released as a radio station promo, and the final single "True Believers" was only on a compilation sampler disc released in January 2002 (after the Cult's tour had already ended). Despite "True Believers" receiving radio airplay in Australia, both singles went largely unnoticed, and both Astbury and Duffy walked away from the project. LeNoble rejoined the band for the initial dates in early 2001, and Billy Morrison filled in on bass for the majority of the 2001 tour.
The European tour of 2001 was canceled, largely due to security concerns after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the band flew back to the US to tour again with Aerosmith. But the eleven-week tour was considered by fans to be a disaster, as the band played only a brief rundown of their greatest hits. In October 2001, a show at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles was filmed for release on DVD. After the tour ended in December 2001, the band took most of 2002 off, apart from a few shows in the US to promote the release of the DVD, with Scott Garrett and Craig Adams rejoining the band.
Despite the commercial disappointment of Beyond Good and Evil and the supporting tour, the band was voted "Comeback of the Year" by Metal Edge readers in the magazine's 2001 Readers' Choice Awards.
In late 2002, Ian Astbury declared the Cult to be "on ice" indefinitely, after performing a brief series of dates in October 2002 to promote the release of the Music Without Fear DVD. During this second hiatus, Astbury performed as a member of the Doors (later dubbed the Doors of the 21st Century, later still renamed D21c, and most recently known as Riders on the Storm) with two of the original members of that group. D21c was sued numerous times, both by Jim Morrison's family and by drummer John Densmore. Astbury supposedly started work on recording another solo album that later became the backbone for the Cult's Born into This.
At the same time, Duffy was part of Coloursound with bassist Craig Adams and ex-Alarm frontman Mike Peters, then Dead Men Walking (again with Peters) and later Cardboard Vampyres. Sorum became a member of the hard rock supergroup Velvet Revolver. In 2003, all of the Cult's records were issued on CD, with several bonus tracks being issued on the Russian, Belarusian, and Lithuanian versions. These eastern European releases had many printing mistakes on the jacket sleeves and lyric inserts. In October 2004, all of the Cult's records were again remastered and issued again on CD, this time in Japan in different cardboard foldout sleeves. "She Sells Sanctuary" appeared in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, playing on rock station V-Rock.
Second reunion, Born Into This and Capsule EPs (2006–2010)
Despite Astbury's previous statement from 2004 that a reunion would not happen, The Cult announced in January 2006 that they were reuniting for "some limited gigs" throughout the year. A month later, the band made their first live appearance in three-and-a-half years on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Their lineup consisted of Astbury (vocals), Duffy (lead guitar), John Tempesta (drums), Dimkich (rhythm guitar) and Wyse (returning as bassist). Their first stage show was held in March 2006 in San Francisco, California, at The Fillmore. The entire tour was recorded by Instant Live and sold after each show. In May, they did an eight date tour in Canada. Later that summer, they toured central and eastern Europe and played their first concerts in Bulgaria, Poland and Serbia. An eleven-date UK tour followed as well as several more dates in the United States, finishing with a South American tour in December. That year, Duffy began the band Circus Diablo with Billy Morrison, Sorum, Brett Scallions and Ricky Warwick.
During these tours, the band occasionally played an extended set, including several songs the band had not performed in decades: "King Contrary Man" and "Hollow Man", neither of which had been performed since 1987; also, "Libertine" was performed approximately three times, for the first time since 2000, and "Brother Wolf, Sister Moon", which was only performed one time since 1986 (for this particular song, the band played an abridged version which has never been performed before or since)
Astbury announced in February 2007 that he was leaving Riders on the Storm and returning to the Cult. He stated: "I have decided to move on and focus on my own music and legacy." The Cult was featured on Stuffmagazine.com's list of ultimate air guitar players. On 21 March 2007, it was announced that the band would be touring Europe with the Who. The first confirmed tour date was in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in early June, with at least a dozen shows set to follow. The band played a gig in London's West End at the CC Club on 7 June 2007, along with nearly two dozen shows across continental Europe during summer. The tour also includes the first performance in Romania and Croatia.
On 29 May 2007, the band signed a deal with major metal label Roadrunner Records. Their 8th studio album, titled Born into This was released on 16 October, and was produced by Martin "Youth" Glover, bass player for Killing Joke. Born into This was released as regular single disc and limited edition double disc, the second disk being a bonus 5-track CD holding the following tracks: "Stand Alone", "War Pony Destroyer", "I Assassin (Demo)", "Sound of Destruction (Demo)" and "Savages (Extended Version)". Prior to the album's release, the band played festival and headline dates, and supported the Who in Europe through summer 2007, with a US headline tour to follow.
The band's appearance at Irving Plaza in New York City in early November 2006 was filmed and was released in 2007. The Cult New York City, issued by Fontana North and is the Cult's first high definition DVD release. Meanwhile, Astbury lent vocals on two tracks of the 2007 Unkle album "War Stories", one of them being the first single from the album, "Burn My Shadow".
The band performed a UK and European tour in late-February and early-March 2008. On 24 March, they began their North American tour including a major 13-city tour in Canada. During September 2008, the Cult did a brief series of dates in the northeast United States, and they toured in Brazil as part of the South American tour in October 2008. As of May 2008, according to The Gauntlet, the Cult are currently unsigned and no longer under contract with Roadrunner Records. In October 2008, it was announced that the Cult would headline the inaugural Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Antonio, to be run 16 November 2008. The Cult announced plans for a tour showcasing their 1985 Love album across the US and then the UK in October where they will play at the Royal Albert Hall.
Coinciding with the remastered Love album and four-disc Omnibus boxed set, the Cult kicked off the long-awaited Love Live Tour in late summer. Performing their classic Love album in its entirety, each show was played with the Love tracks opening with "Nirvana" to "Black Angel". A quick intermission followed, then other Cult hits were played (varying by venue): "Sun King", "Dirty Little Rock Star", "Electric Ocean", "Illuminated". Then followed the favorites "Fire Woman", "Lil Devil", "Wild Flower", and lastly "Love Removal Machine". In the evening of 10 October 2009 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the band performed a second encore with original Cult bassist Jamie Stewart and drummer Mark Brzezicki, who played drums with the band during the Love album recording sessions in July and August 1985. The band sold Love Live USB flash drives for each show during the tour.
The Cult entered 2010 continuing their Love Live Tour and announcing more dates in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan. The band finished recording a four-track "Capsule" with producer Chris Goss. Capsule 1 was said to be the first of three or four to be released sometime in summer 2010. Release formats include CD-DVD dualdisc, 12-inch vinyl, and digital downloads. Capsule 1 was released on 14 September 2010. The band officially announced the release of its first new studio recording since 2007, "Every Man And Woman Is A Star". The new single was released through the iTunes Store on 31 July 2010.
On 1 August 2010, the band played the sold-out music festival Sonisphere, which marked their first UK performance since the tour for their Love album. During the performance they debuted their new single, "Every Man and Woman is a Star", which was released on 1 August 2010. On 14 September 2010 the band embarked on a new U.S. tour and released Capsule 1 in conjunction with media technology company Aderra Inc. and made it available in multiple formats including a CD-DVD DualDisc, USB flash drive, 12 inch vinyl, FLAC download and MP3 download. The collection includes a short film made by singer Ian Astbury and Rick Rogers.
On 26 October 2010 the band and Aderra Inc. announced the release of a new song, "Embers", for 1 November 2010 and Capsule 2 available through their web store on 16 November 2010. Pictures from the Cult's tour stop in Chicago on 28 October 2010 can be seen at a local radio station website.
On 17 September 2010, the band performed live at the Fall Frenzy concert at the Tempe Beach Park in Tempe, Arizona. Other bands that played at this concert were Stone Temple Pilots, Shinedown, and Sevendust.
On 4 December 2010, the band performed a live set for Guitar Center Sessions on DirecTV. The episode included an interview with the band by program host, Nic Harcourt.
Choice of Weapon and Hidden City (2011–2017)
During the Cult's concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on 21 January 2011 Ian Astbury declared that the Cult would be recording a new album directly after the tour. They also announced that they would be working with Chris Goss, who performed with Masters of Reality as a supporting act the same evening. On 11 May 2011, it was announced that the Cult were signed to Cooking Vinyl Records, who will release the new album in early 2012. Commented guitarist Billy Duffy: "We are very much looking forward to returning to our U.K. roots in many ways working with Cooking Vinyl." Vocalist Ian Astbury added, "We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Cooking Vinyl." By May 2011, the band had been writing and recording new demos at its Witch Mountain studio hideaway in the Hollywood Hills, and began recording their new album at Hollywood Recording Studios. In October 2011, bassist Chris Wyse stated the album was almost finished and expected to be released in April 2012. Chris also described it as a "Zep/Stooges mix of energy."
On 29 November 2011, it was announced that the album would be produced by Bob Rock, who provided the same role on Sonic Temple, The Cult and Beyond Good and Evil. The album, entitled Choice of Weapon, was released on 22 May 2012. The band partnered with Rolling Stone to premiere the first song from the album titled Lucifer on 30 January. On 5 February 2012, the Cult song "She Sells Sanctuary" was used as the soundtrack for a Budweiser commercial in a mashup with Flo Rida aired during Super Bowl XLVI. In May 2012 the Cult appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and played "For The Animals".
On 28 September 2012, it was announced that the band would release Weapon of Choice, a "prequel" album to accompany the band's latest album, Choice of Weapon. The digital-only release, available exclusively on iTunes for two months only beginning 16 October, features the songs that were ultimately included in "Choice Of Weapon" at an earlier stage of development. Explaining the motivations behind the release, singer Ian Astbury said that "These songs were turned over and over, forged in long rehearsals and writing sessions, and emanated from challenges both personal and professional. We put our guts into this; [Producer Chris] Goss was able to create an environment where the songs were born through playing and turning over lyrics, through hard work and intense sessions." Astbury added "These songs have an integrity and rawness of their own. In many ways it's a different album to the one we released and reveals the foundations of 'Choice Of Weapon'. We were able to close the doors and begin to explore spaces we had not been in for a while." The song "Twisted and Bleeding" was made available for free download at the band's website ahead of the full digital release.
On 20 June 2013, the band announced the release of Electric-Peace which comprises the entire Electric album plus the Peace album which was previously released on the now discontinued Rare Cult box set in 2000. It is due for release in the US on 30 July. In 2013 Mike Dimkich left the band and joined Bad Religion to cover for guitarist Greg Hetson. James Stevenson, from the Beauty's On The Streets tour in 1994, replaced Dimkich as the Cult's rhythm guitarist.
In March 2013, Billy Duffy told the Argentinan journalist Fabrizio Pedrotti that the Cult had begun work on a new album for a 2014 release. The band were expected to begin work on the album after they finish their 2013 world tour, where they played the Electric album in its entirety. In August 2014, Billy added that the next album, which was not expected to be released before 2015 at the earliest, "will be more guitar heavy".
On 5 November 2015, it was announced that The Cult would release their new album, entitled Hidden City, on 5 February 2016. The album is said to be the final part of a trilogy that began with Born into This, and marks the fifth time Bob Rock had produced a Cult album. The band also announced that they had hired Australian-born bassist Grant Fitzpatrick (ex-Mink) as the replacement for Chris Wyse. Chris Chaney (Jane's Addiction, Camp Freddy) and producer Bob Rock performed session bass on the album. In support of Hidden City, The Cult opened for Guns N' Roses on the Not in This Lifetime... Tour.
In an October 2016 interview with PopMatters journalist J.C. Maçek III, Cult guitarist Billy Duffy spoke of the band's playlist while on tour, saying "Obviously you want to make an impactful [show]," he continues. "There are some practical, pragmatic decisions made. If you're playing to a crowd who are not very familiar with you, there's no point of going too deep but we do always make sure we play a new song. Like on Guns N' Roses' [tour] we had fifty minutes which is ten songs all in. So, you know we just made sure that in those ten songs we played 'Deeply Ordered Chaos' which we’re proud of and it makes a certain statement. And it just alerts people to the fact that, yes, we have made a record in the last 30 years. You know and that's a good thing. Psychologically, that's the blood transfusion that we need. And we're very mindful, we have a very loyal fan base. We don't pander as you well know."
Upcoming eleventh studio album (2018–present)
In an April 2018 interview with Guitar World, guitarist Billy Duffy was asked if another album from The Cult was in the works. He replied, "Never say never! Ian and I enjoy the process of making new music, and we feel it's vital to keep the band healthy, even if it's pretty much in the law of diminishing returns area now. Who knows if it will be a whole album a series of singles or an EP? I can say new Cult music will be forthcoming, but these days we don't rush it as there's no point. Quality is key. We are past the point of having to release stuff so if we feel it's good enough, then we will release it in some shape or another."
On 2 April 2018, a tour of the United States of America called "Revolution 3 Tour" was announced for the summer. They performed as one of the three headliners, along with Stone Temple Pilots and Bush.
In April 2019, The Cult announced that they would celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of their fourth album Sonic Temple with a world tour, which began on 2 May in Houston, Texas and was expected to wrap up in 2020.
In a June 2019 interview with LA Weekly, vocalist Ian Astbury stated that The Cult were "long overdue" to release new music. He was quoted as saying: "We do have some stuff we've been working on, but it's yet to see the light of day." Six months later, Astbury told Atlantic City Weekly that the band was going to start working on new music in 2020: "We've got a few pieces lying around in various stages of completion. The intention is to get together in the New Year and take a look at what we've got and decide how we are going to go about moving forward. It's an essential part of any creative lifeblood." On May 6, 2020, The Cult announced on their Twitter page that they had signed to Black Hill Records.
On August 15, 2020, Duffy announced on his Twitter that the band were recording their new album with producer Tom Dalgety at Rockfield Studios, where The Cult had recorded their debut album Dreamtime 36 years earlier.
In support of their new album, The Cult will embark on a co-headlining six-date UK tour with Alice Cooper in May and June 2022.
Influences
Duffy and Astbury cited among their influences a lot of different bands "from the Doors to Led Zeppelin. We literally went from the front of our record collections to the back. And then along the way we were drawn in by the likes of Public Image Ltd, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees. You might not hear it in the music but it's there." They also cited Bauhaus among many other post-punk influences. Duffy also praised Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers for a major performance he attended in 1977 and Siouxsie and the Banshees whom "always had great guitar players with killer riffs." Duffy also hailed AC/DC for "the power of a good three chord riff", Pete Townshend of the Who "in terms of commitment to stage performing" and Brian May of Queen for using "‘echoplex’ tape delays to orchestrate his own solo".
Musical style
According to music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the band fuse a "hardcore punk revivalist" sound with the "pseudo-mysticism ... of the Doors and Uriah Heep and the guitar-orchestrations of Led Zeppelin and The Cure ... while adding touches of post-punk goth rock". In 1985 Astbury said, "Our music is just melodies and guitars. We're like Big Country and U2, only better!".
Members
Current members
Ian Astbury – lead vocals, occasional percussion/guitar
Billy Duffy – lead and rhythm guitars, backing vocals
John Tempesta – drums, percussion
Grant Fitzpatrick – bass, backing vocals
Damon Fox – keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Discography
Dreamtime (1984)
Love (1985)
Electric (1987)
Sonic Temple (1989)
Ceremony (1991)
The Cult (1994)
Beyond Good and Evil (2001)
Born into This (2007)
Choice of Weapon (2012)
Hidden City (2016)
References
External links
Official website
Billy Duffy official website
Musical groups established in 1983
Situation Two artists
Beggars Banquet Records artists
Sire Records artists
Musical groups from Bradford
English post-punk music groups
English gothic rock groups
English hard rock musical groups
English heavy metal musical groups
English glam metal musical groups | false | [
"The Piano Sonata No. 6, Op. 13, by Samuil Feinberg was composed in 1923. The piece received its premiere on 4 September 1925 at the Festival of Contemporary Music in Venice. Its premiere was attended by famous composers of the time such as Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg. Feinberg's composition was well-received, and would remain his only piano sonata to receive a wide publication.\n\nHistory\nThe sonata received its premiere on 4 September 1925 at the Festival of Contemporary Music in Venice, with Feinberg himself as the soloist. The piece was well received and even resulted in some publicity when the Dutch journal De Telegraaf pitted Feinberg's composition against the Piano Sonata of Igor Stravinsky, who was also in attendance of the festival.\n\nStructure and content\nThe 6th sonata encompasses a single movement, usually lasting around 15 minutes\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nFeinberg 06\n1923 compositions",
"Goodnight Already! is a children's book series by American author Jory John, illustrated by Benji Davies and published by HarperCollins. The series includes four books: Goodnight Already! (2014), I Love You Already! (2015), Come Home Already! (2017), and All Right Already! (2018).\n\nGoodnight Already! \nGoodnight Already! was published December 2, 2014.\n\nThe book received positive reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly, as well as a mediocre review from Kirkus Reviews. It also received the following accolades:\n\n Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Picture Books (2015)\n E. B. White Read-Aloud Honor Book (2015)\n\nI Love You Already! \nI Love You Already! was published December 22, 2015.\n\nThe book received positive reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist, as well as a mediocre review from Kirkus Reviews.\n\nCome Home Already! \nCome Home Already! was published December 5, 2017.\n\nThe book received a positive review from Kirkus Reviews and was named one of Bank Street College of Education's Best Children's Books of the Year (2018).\n\nAll Right Already! \nAll Right Already! was published November 13, 2018.\n\nThe book received a positive review from School Library Journal.\n\nReferences \n\nHarperCollins books\nSeries of children's books"
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"Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991-1994)",
"What was the ceremony?",
"album Ceremony",
"when was it released?",
"1991,",
"was it well received?",
"The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide."
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| C_4b2e5d61579045e7ae891ff8b3295557_1 | when did the lawsuit come about? | 4 | when did the lawsuit regarding The Cult come about? | The Cult | In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album. During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and James Kottak played bass and drums respectively. During the actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play drums, with Charley Drayton on bass, and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men reportedly rarely even being in the studio together during recording. The resulting album Ceremony was released to mixed responses. The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. Only two official singles were released from the record: "Wild Hearted Son" (UK No. 34, Canada No. 41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK No. 50), although "White" was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was released as a single (as "Dulce Salvacion") in Argentina in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was released in Spain. The Cult's Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in 1991 and North America in 1992. In 1991 the Cult played a show at the Marquee Club in London, which was recorded and released in February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete bootleg video of this show is also in circulation. The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, for alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted Son". This lawsuit delayed the release of Ceremony in many countries including South Korea and Thailand, which did not see the record's release until late 1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey until the Cult played several shows in Istanbul in June 1993. A world tour followed with backing from future Thin Lizzy drummer Michael Lee and bassist Kinley Wolfe, and keyboardist John Sinclair returning one last time, and the Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 31. Following the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits compilation which debuted at No. 1 on the British charts and later went to number one in Portugal, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and recruited Craig Adams (the Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic. CANNOTANSWER | 1992, | The Cult are an English rock band formed in 1983 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury's previous band Southern Death Cult. They gained a dedicated following in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s as a post-punk/gothic rock band, with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking into the mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s establishing themselves as a hard rock band with singles such as "Love Removal Machine". Since its initial formation in 1983, the band have had various line-ups; the longest-serving members are Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, who are also the band's two songwriters.
The Cult's debut studio album Dreamtime was released in 1984 to moderate success, with its lead single "Spiritwalker" reaching No. 1 on the UK Indie Chart. Their second studio album, Love (1985), was even more successful, charting at No. 4 in the UK and including singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary" and "Rain". The band's third album, Electric (1987), launched them new heights of success, also peaking at No. 4 in the UK and charting highly in other territories, and spawned the hit singles "Love Removal Machine", "Lil' Devil" and "Wild Flower". On that album, The Cult supplemented their post-punk sound with hard rock; the polish on this new sound was facilitated by producer Rick Rubin. After moving to Los Angeles, California, where the band has been based for the remainder of their career, The Cult continued the musical experimentation of Electric with its follow-up album Sonic Temple (1989), which marked their first collaboration with Bob Rock, who would produce several of the band's subsequent albums. Sonic Temple was their most successful album to that point, entering the Top 10 on the UK and US charts, and included one of the band's most popular songs "Fire Woman".
By the time of their fifth album Ceremony (1991), tensions and creative differences began to surface among the band members. This resulted in the recording sessions for Ceremony being held without a stable lineup, leaving Astbury and Duffy as the only two official members left, and featuring support from session musicians on bass and drums. The ongoing tension had carried over within the next four years, during which they released one more studio album, The Cult (1994), and called it quits in 1995. The Cult reformed in 1999 and released their seventh album Beyond Good and Evil two years later. The commercial failure of the album and resurfaced tensions led to the band going back on hiatus in 2002. They resumed activity in 2006, and have since released three more studio albums: Born into This (2007), Choice of Weapon (2012), and Hidden City (2016).
History
Early history (1981–1984)
The band's origins can be traced to 1981, in Bradford, Yorkshire, where vocalist and songwriter Ian Astbury formed a band called Southern Death Cult. The name was chosen with a double meaning, and was derived from the 14th-century Native American religion, the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex or Southern Death Cult as it was sometimes known, from the Mississippi delta area, but it was also a stab at what the band viewed was the centralisation of power in Southern England (including that of the music industry); there has long been a perceived notion of a North–South divide based on social, historic and economic reasons. Astbury was joined by Buzz Burrows (guitar), Barry Jepson (bass) and Aki Nawaz Qureshi (drums); they performed their first show at the Queen's Hall in their hometown of Bradford on 29 October 1981. The band were at the forefront of an emerging style of music, in the form of post-punk and gothic rock, they achieved critical acclaim from the press and music fans.
The band signed to independent record label Situation Two, an offshoot of Beggars Banquet Records, and released a three-track, triple A-side single, Moya, during this period. They toured through England headlining some shows and touring with Bauhaus and Theatre of Hate. The band played their final performance in Manchester during February 1983, meaning after only sixteen months the band was over. A compilation named The Southern Death Cult was released, this being a collection of the single, radio sessions with John Peel for Radio One and live performances - one of which an audience member recorded with a tape recorder.
In April 1983, Astbury teamed up with guitarist Billy Duffy and formed the band "Death Cult". Duffy had been in the Nosebleeds (along with Morrissey), Lonesome No More and then Theatre of Hate. In addition to Astbury and Duffy, the band also included Jamie Stewart (bass) and Raymond Taylor Smith (later known as Ray Mondo) (drums), both from the Harrow, London based post-punk band, Ritual. Death Cult made their live debut in Oslo, Norway on 25 July 1983 and also released the Death Cult EP in the same month, then toured through mainland Europe and Scotland. In September 1983, Mondo was deported to his home country of Sierra Leone and replaced by Nigel Preston, formerly of Theatre of Hate. The single "Gods Zoo" was released in October 1983. Another European tour, with UK dates, followed that autumn. To tone down their name's gothic connotations and gain broader appeal, the band changed its name to "the Cult" in January 1984 before appearing on the (UK) Channel 4 television show, The Tube.
The Cult's first studio record, Dreamtime, was recorded at Rockfield Studios, in Monmouth, Wales in 1984. The record was to be produced by Joe Julian, but after recording the drum tracks, the band decided to replace him with John Brand. Brand produced the record, but guitarist Duffy has said the drum tracks were produced by Julian, as Preston had become unreliable.
The band recorded the songs which later became known as "Butterflies", "(The) Gimmick", "A Flower in the Desert", "Horse Nation", "Spiritwalker", "Bad Medicine (Waltz)", "Dreamtime", "With Love" (later known as "Ship of Fools", and also "Sea and Sky"), "Bone Bag", "Too Young", "83rd Dream", and one untitled outtake. It is unknown what the outtake was, or whether it was developed into a song at a later date. Songs like "Horse Nation" showed Astbury's intense interest in Native American issues, with the lyrics to "Horse Nation", "See them prancing, they come neighing, to a horse nation", taken almost verbatim from the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, while "Spiritwalker" dealt with shamanism, and the record's title and title track are overtly influenced by Australian Aboriginal beliefs.
On 4 April 1984, the Cult released the single "Spiritwalker", which reached No. 1 on the independent charts in the UK, and acted as a teaser for their forthcoming album Dreamtime. This was followed that summer by a second single, "Go West (Crazy Spinning Circles)", before the release of Dreamtime in September; the album reached No. 21 in the UK, and sold over 100,000 copies in the UK alone. On 12 July 1984, the band recorded five songs at the BBC Maida Vale 5 studio for a Richard Skinner session. Before and after the album's release, the Cult toured throughout Europe and England before recording another single, "Ressurection Joe" (UK No. 74), released that December. Following a Christmas support slot with Big Country, the Cult toured Europe with support from the Mission (then called the Sisterhood). Dreamtime was released initially only in the UK, but after its success, and as the Cult's popularity grew worldwide, it was issued in approximately 30 countries.
Mainstream success (1985–1990)
In May 1985, the Cult released their fourth single, "She Sells Sanctuary", which peaked at No. 15 in the UK and spent 23 weeks in the Top 100. The song was recently voted No. 18 in VH1's Indie 100. In June 1985, following his increasingly erratic behaviour, Preston was fired from the band. Big Country's drummer Mark Brzezicki was picked to replace Preston, and was also included in the video for "She Sells Sanctuary". The Cult then finished recording their second album, Love in July and August 1985. The band's music and image shifted from their punk-oriented roots to 1960s psychedelia influences. Love was a chart success, peaking at No. 4 in the UK and selling 100,000 copies there toward a total of 500,000 copies throughout Europe, as well as 100,000 in Australia and 500,000 copies in the United States. Love reached number 20 on the charts in The Netherlands, where it remained for 32 weeks. To date, the record has sold over two and a half million copies worldwide.
From late September 1985 to June 1986, the band went on a worldwide tour with new drummer Les Warner (who had played with Julian Lennon and Johnny Thunders). Two more singles from the Love album followed; "Rain" (charting in the UK at No. 17) and "Revolution" (charting in the UK at No. 30). Neither charted in the US. Another single, "Nirvana", was issued only in Poland. The album version of "Rain", as well as the remix "(Here Comes the) Rain", were used in the Italian horror film Dèmoni 2. Once back in England, the band booked themselves into the Manor Studios in Oxfordshire, with producer Steve Brown (who had produced Love), and recorded over a dozen new songs. The band were unhappy with the sound of their new album, titled Peace, and they decided to go to New York so producer Rick Rubin could remix the first single, "Love Removal Machine".
Rubin agreed to work with the band, but only if they rerecorded the song. Rubin eventually talked them into rerecording the entire album. The band's record company, Beggars Banquet, was displeased with this, as two months and £250,000 had already been spent on the record. However, after hearing the initial New York recording, Beggars Banquet agreed to proceed. The first single, "Love Removal Machine", was released in February 1987, and the new version of the album appeared in April that year, now renamed as Electric, reaching No. 4 and eventually outselling Love. The band toured with Kid Chaos (also known as "Haggis" and "The Kid") on bass, with Stewart on rhythm guitar. Two more singles, "Lil Devil" and "Wild Flower", were released during 1987. A few tracks from the original Peace album appeared on the single versions of "Love Removal Machine", and "Lil Devil". The full Peace album would not be released until 2000, when it was included as Disc 3 of the Rare Cult box set.
In the US, the Cult, now consisting of Astbury, Duffy, Stewart, Warner and Kid Chaos, were supported by the then-unknown Guns N' Roses. The band also appeared at Roskilde Festival in Denmark in June 1987. When the world tour wound through Australia, the band wrecked £30,000 worth of equipment, and as a result they could not tour Japan, as no company would rent them new equipment. At the end of the tour the Electric album had been certified Gold in the UK, and sold roughly 3 million copies worldwide, but the band were barely speaking to each other by then. Haggis left the band at the end of the Electric tour to form the Four Horsemen for Rubin's Def American label. Astbury and Duffy fired Warner and their management team Grant/Edwards, and moved to Los Angeles with original bassist Stewart. Warner sued the band several times for his firing, as well as for what he felt were unpaid royalties due to him for his performance on the Electric album, resulting in lengthy court battles. The Cult signed a new management deal and wrote 21 new songs for their next record.
For the next album, Stewart returned to playing bass, and John Webster was brought in to play keyboards. The band used Chris Taylor to play drums during rehearsals and record the demos, with future Kiss drummer Eric Singer performing during the second demo recording sessions. The Cult eventually recruited session-drummer Mickey Curry to fill the drumming role and Aerosmith sound engineer, Bob Rock, to produce. Recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from October to December 1988, the Sonic Temple record went Top 10 in both the UK and the US, where it was certified Gold and Platinum respectively. The band went on tour in support of the new album and new single "Fire Woman" (UK No. 15) (NZ No. 1), with yet another new drummer, Matt Sorum, and Webster as keyboard player. The next single, "Edie (Ciao Baby)" (UK No. 25) has become a regular song at concerts for many years.
In Europe, the band toured with Aerosmith, and in the US, after releasing another single "Sun King" (UK No. 42), they spent 1989 touring in support of Metallica before heading out on their own headlining tour later that same year. A fourth single, "Sweet Soul Sister" (UK No. 38), was released in February 1990, with the video having been filmed at Wembley Arena, London, on 25 November 1989. "Sweet Soul Sister" was partially written in Paris and was inspired by the bohemian lifestyle of that city. Released as a single in February 1990, the song was another hit in the UK, and reportedly reached number one on the rock charts in Brazil. After playing a show in Atlanta, Georgia, in February 1990, the band's management told Astbury that his father had just died of cancer. As a result, the remainder of the tour was cancelled after a final leg of shows were performed in April. After the tour ended, the band were on the verge of splitting due to Stewart retiring and moving to Canada to be with his wife, and Sorum leaving to join Guns N' Roses.
In 1990, Astbury organized the Gathering of the Tribes festival in Los Angeles and San Francisco with artists such as Soundgarden, Ice-T, Indigo Girls, Queen Latifah, Iggy Pop, the Charlatans, the Cramps and Public Enemy appearing. This two-day festival drew 40,000 people. Also in 1990, a ten CD box set was released in the UK, containing rare songs from the Cult's singles. The CDs in this box set were all issued as picture discs with rice paper covers, housed in a white box called "Singles Collection", or a black box called "E.P. Collection '84 - '90". In 1991, director Oliver Stone offered Astbury the role of Jim Morrison in Stone's film The Doors. He declined the role because he was not happy with the way Morrison was represented in the film, and the role was ultimately played by Val Kilmer.
Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991–1993)
In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album. During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and James Kottak played bass and drums, respectively. During the actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play drums, with Charley Drayton on bass, and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men reportedly rarely even being in the studio together during recording. The resulting album Ceremony was released to mixed responses. The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. Only two official singles were released from the record: "Wild Hearted Son" (UK No. 34, Canada No. 41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK No. 50), although "White" was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was released as a single (as "Dulce Salvación") in Argentina in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was released in Spain.
The Cult's Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in 1991 and North America in 1992. In 1991 the Cult played a show at the Marquee Club in London, which was recorded and released in February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete bootleg video of this show is also in circulation.
The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, for alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. The parents stated that the boy felt he had been cursed by the band's burning of his image, and was "emotionally scarred." This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted Son". This lawsuit delayed the release of Ceremony in many countries including South Korea and Thailand, which did not see the record's release until late 1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey until the Cult played several shows in Istanbul in June 1993.
A world tour followed with backing from drummer Michael Lee (Page & Plant, Little Angels), bassist Kinley "Barney" Wolfe (Lord Tracy, Black Oak Arkansas), and keyboardist John Sinclair (Ozzy Osbourne, Uriah Heep) returning one last time, and the Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 28. Following the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits compilation which debuted at No. 1 on the British charts and later went to number one in Portugal, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and recruited Craig Adams (the Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic.
The Cult and first breakup (1994–1998)
With the same line-up still in place, the band released The Cult in October 1994, produced by Bob Rock. The self-titled album is commonly referred to as the "Black Sheep" album by fans of the group, due to the image of a black sheep on the front cover. Astbury referred to the record as a collection of "very personal and very revealing" songs about his life, with the subject matter ranging from sexual abuse at the age of 15, to the death of Nigel Preston, to his directionless years spent in Glasgow in the late 1970s.
The record achieved little success, only reaching No. 69 in the US and No. 21 in the UK. Duffy remarked that he thought that the record wouldn't sell well due to the offensive lyrics. The record went to number one in Portugal also, but quickly dropped out of sight. The single "Coming Down (Drug Tongue)" was released with the band going on tour in support of the new album. Only one more single, "Star", was officially released with a live appearance on UK TV show The Word. "Star" began life in 1986 as "Tom Petty" and was recorded at the "Sonic Temple" demo sessions as "Starchild", being dropped by the band during rehearsals. In 1993 the song was resurrected and was finally completed for the record in 1994 as, just simply, "Star".
When the band began the Beauty's On The Streets tour in winter 1994, they augmented the line up with James Stevenson on rhythm guitar. As with the Ceremony record several years earlier, no other official singles were released, but several other songs were released on a strictly limited basis: "Sacred Life" was released in Spain and the Netherlands, "Be Free" was issued in Canada and France, "Saints Are Down" was issued in Greece, but none of the songs gained much commercial success. During this tour, the Cult made their first ever appearance in Norway.
During the Black Rain tour of South America in spring of 1995, despite the fact that several more new songs had already been recorded, the tour was cancelled after an appearance in Rio de Janeiro in March, and the band split up citing unspecified problems on a recent South American tour. Astbury started up a garage band called Holy Barbarians a few months later. The band made their debut at the 100 Club in London in February 1996 and released their first (and only) record in May 1996, and toured throughout North America and Europe for the rest of 1996. The band started writing material for a second record in 1997, but the band was dissolved and Astbury began writing and recording a solo record. Throughout 1997 and 1998 Astbury recorded his solo record, originally to be titled Natural Born Guerilla, later called High Time Amplifier. Ultimately the record remained unreleased until June 2000 when it was released under the name Spirit\Light\Speed. Astbury played one solo concert in 1999.
In November 1996, a number of CD reissues were released: the band's American record company released High Octane Cult, a slightly updated greatest hits compilation released only in the US and Japan; The Southern Death Cult, a remastered edition of the fifteen-song compilation CD; a ten-song compilation CD by Death Cult called Ghost Dance, consisting of the untitled four-song EP, the single "God's Zoo", and four unreleased songs from a radio broadcast; and a remastered repackaging of the Dreamtime album, containing only the ten original songs from the record in their original playing order and almost completely different but original artwork. Dreamtime Live at the Lyceum was also remastered and issued on video and for the first time on CD, with the one unreleased song from the concert, "Gimmick".
First reunion, Beyond Good and Evil and second hiatus (1999–2005)
In 1999, Astbury and Duffy reformed the Cult with Matt Sorum and ex-Porno for Pyros bassist Martyn LeNoble. Their first official concert was at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in June 1999, after having rehearsed at shows in the Los Angeles area. The band's 1999 Cult Rising reunion tour resulted in a sold out 30 date tour of the US, ending with 8 consecutive sold out nights at the LA House of Blues. In 2000, the band toured South Africa for the first time, and North and South America, and contributed the song "Painted on My Heart" to the soundtrack of the movie Gone In 60 Seconds. The song was featured prominently and the melody was fused into parts of the score. In June, Astbury's long-delayed solo record was finally released as Spirit\Light\Speed, but it failed to gain much success. In November 2000, another authorised greatest hits compilation was released, Pure Cult: The Singles 1984–1995, along with an accompanying DVD, which was later certified gold in Canada. The Cult, as well as Ian Astbury, performed on separate tracks on the Doors tribute album, Stoned Immaculate: The Music of The Doors, covering "Wild Child" and "Touch Me".
In November 2000, Beggars Banquet released 15,000 copies of a six-disc boxset (with a bonus seventh disc of remixes for the first 5000 copies) titled Rare Cult. The box set consists of album out-takes, demos, radio broadcasts, and album B-sides. It is most notable for including the previously unreleased "Peace" album in its entirety. In 2001, the band signed to Atlantic Records and recorded a new album, Beyond Good and Evil, originally being produced by Mick Jones of Foreigner, until Jones bowed out to tour with Foreigner. Astbury and Duffy co-wrote a song with Jones, an odd occurrence, as in the past, neither Astbury or Duffy would co-write their material. Bob Rock was the producer, with Martyn LeNoble and Chris Wyse as recording bassists, as Mike Dimkich played rhythm guitar on tour, and Matt Sorum returning as drummer. Although Sorum has previously toured with the band on the Sonic Temple tour in 1989, this was the first time that he had recorded a studio album with the band.
However Beyond Good and Evil was not the comeback record the band had hoped for. Despite reaching No. 37 in the US, No. 22 in Canada, and No. 25 in Spain, sales quickly dropped, only selling roughly 500,000 copies worldwide. The first single "Rise", reached No. 41 in the US, and No. 2 on the mainstream rock charts, but Atlantic Records quickly pulled the song from radio playlists. Astbury would later describe the experience with Atlantic to be "soul destroying", after Atlantic tried to tamper with the lyrics, the record cover, and choice of singles from the record.
After the first single from the record, the band's working relationship with Atlantic was on paper only, with Atlantic pulling "Rise" from the radio stations playlists, and stopping all promotion of the record. The second single "Breathe" was only released as a radio station promo, and the final single "True Believers" was only on a compilation sampler disc released in January 2002 (after the Cult's tour had already ended). Despite "True Believers" receiving radio airplay in Australia, both singles went largely unnoticed, and both Astbury and Duffy walked away from the project. LeNoble rejoined the band for the initial dates in early 2001, and Billy Morrison filled in on bass for the majority of the 2001 tour.
The European tour of 2001 was canceled, largely due to security concerns after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the band flew back to the US to tour again with Aerosmith. But the eleven-week tour was considered by fans to be a disaster, as the band played only a brief rundown of their greatest hits. In October 2001, a show at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles was filmed for release on DVD. After the tour ended in December 2001, the band took most of 2002 off, apart from a few shows in the US to promote the release of the DVD, with Scott Garrett and Craig Adams rejoining the band.
Despite the commercial disappointment of Beyond Good and Evil and the supporting tour, the band was voted "Comeback of the Year" by Metal Edge readers in the magazine's 2001 Readers' Choice Awards.
In late 2002, Ian Astbury declared the Cult to be "on ice" indefinitely, after performing a brief series of dates in October 2002 to promote the release of the Music Without Fear DVD. During this second hiatus, Astbury performed as a member of the Doors (later dubbed the Doors of the 21st Century, later still renamed D21c, and most recently known as Riders on the Storm) with two of the original members of that group. D21c was sued numerous times, both by Jim Morrison's family and by drummer John Densmore. Astbury supposedly started work on recording another solo album that later became the backbone for the Cult's Born into This.
At the same time, Duffy was part of Coloursound with bassist Craig Adams and ex-Alarm frontman Mike Peters, then Dead Men Walking (again with Peters) and later Cardboard Vampyres. Sorum became a member of the hard rock supergroup Velvet Revolver. In 2003, all of the Cult's records were issued on CD, with several bonus tracks being issued on the Russian, Belarusian, and Lithuanian versions. These eastern European releases had many printing mistakes on the jacket sleeves and lyric inserts. In October 2004, all of the Cult's records were again remastered and issued again on CD, this time in Japan in different cardboard foldout sleeves. "She Sells Sanctuary" appeared in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, playing on rock station V-Rock.
Second reunion, Born Into This and Capsule EPs (2006–2010)
Despite Astbury's previous statement from 2004 that a reunion would not happen, The Cult announced in January 2006 that they were reuniting for "some limited gigs" throughout the year. A month later, the band made their first live appearance in three-and-a-half years on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Their lineup consisted of Astbury (vocals), Duffy (lead guitar), John Tempesta (drums), Dimkich (rhythm guitar) and Wyse (returning as bassist). Their first stage show was held in March 2006 in San Francisco, California, at The Fillmore. The entire tour was recorded by Instant Live and sold after each show. In May, they did an eight date tour in Canada. Later that summer, they toured central and eastern Europe and played their first concerts in Bulgaria, Poland and Serbia. An eleven-date UK tour followed as well as several more dates in the United States, finishing with a South American tour in December. That year, Duffy began the band Circus Diablo with Billy Morrison, Sorum, Brett Scallions and Ricky Warwick.
During these tours, the band occasionally played an extended set, including several songs the band had not performed in decades: "King Contrary Man" and "Hollow Man", neither of which had been performed since 1987; also, "Libertine" was performed approximately three times, for the first time since 2000, and "Brother Wolf, Sister Moon", which was only performed one time since 1986 (for this particular song, the band played an abridged version which has never been performed before or since)
Astbury announced in February 2007 that he was leaving Riders on the Storm and returning to the Cult. He stated: "I have decided to move on and focus on my own music and legacy." The Cult was featured on Stuffmagazine.com's list of ultimate air guitar players. On 21 March 2007, it was announced that the band would be touring Europe with the Who. The first confirmed tour date was in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in early June, with at least a dozen shows set to follow. The band played a gig in London's West End at the CC Club on 7 June 2007, along with nearly two dozen shows across continental Europe during summer. The tour also includes the first performance in Romania and Croatia.
On 29 May 2007, the band signed a deal with major metal label Roadrunner Records. Their 8th studio album, titled Born into This was released on 16 October, and was produced by Martin "Youth" Glover, bass player for Killing Joke. Born into This was released as regular single disc and limited edition double disc, the second disk being a bonus 5-track CD holding the following tracks: "Stand Alone", "War Pony Destroyer", "I Assassin (Demo)", "Sound of Destruction (Demo)" and "Savages (Extended Version)". Prior to the album's release, the band played festival and headline dates, and supported the Who in Europe through summer 2007, with a US headline tour to follow.
The band's appearance at Irving Plaza in New York City in early November 2006 was filmed and was released in 2007. The Cult New York City, issued by Fontana North and is the Cult's first high definition DVD release. Meanwhile, Astbury lent vocals on two tracks of the 2007 Unkle album "War Stories", one of them being the first single from the album, "Burn My Shadow".
The band performed a UK and European tour in late-February and early-March 2008. On 24 March, they began their North American tour including a major 13-city tour in Canada. During September 2008, the Cult did a brief series of dates in the northeast United States, and they toured in Brazil as part of the South American tour in October 2008. As of May 2008, according to The Gauntlet, the Cult are currently unsigned and no longer under contract with Roadrunner Records. In October 2008, it was announced that the Cult would headline the inaugural Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Antonio, to be run 16 November 2008. The Cult announced plans for a tour showcasing their 1985 Love album across the US and then the UK in October where they will play at the Royal Albert Hall.
Coinciding with the remastered Love album and four-disc Omnibus boxed set, the Cult kicked off the long-awaited Love Live Tour in late summer. Performing their classic Love album in its entirety, each show was played with the Love tracks opening with "Nirvana" to "Black Angel". A quick intermission followed, then other Cult hits were played (varying by venue): "Sun King", "Dirty Little Rock Star", "Electric Ocean", "Illuminated". Then followed the favorites "Fire Woman", "Lil Devil", "Wild Flower", and lastly "Love Removal Machine". In the evening of 10 October 2009 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the band performed a second encore with original Cult bassist Jamie Stewart and drummer Mark Brzezicki, who played drums with the band during the Love album recording sessions in July and August 1985. The band sold Love Live USB flash drives for each show during the tour.
The Cult entered 2010 continuing their Love Live Tour and announcing more dates in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan. The band finished recording a four-track "Capsule" with producer Chris Goss. Capsule 1 was said to be the first of three or four to be released sometime in summer 2010. Release formats include CD-DVD dualdisc, 12-inch vinyl, and digital downloads. Capsule 1 was released on 14 September 2010. The band officially announced the release of its first new studio recording since 2007, "Every Man And Woman Is A Star". The new single was released through the iTunes Store on 31 July 2010.
On 1 August 2010, the band played the sold-out music festival Sonisphere, which marked their first UK performance since the tour for their Love album. During the performance they debuted their new single, "Every Man and Woman is a Star", which was released on 1 August 2010. On 14 September 2010 the band embarked on a new U.S. tour and released Capsule 1 in conjunction with media technology company Aderra Inc. and made it available in multiple formats including a CD-DVD DualDisc, USB flash drive, 12 inch vinyl, FLAC download and MP3 download. The collection includes a short film made by singer Ian Astbury and Rick Rogers.
On 26 October 2010 the band and Aderra Inc. announced the release of a new song, "Embers", for 1 November 2010 and Capsule 2 available through their web store on 16 November 2010. Pictures from the Cult's tour stop in Chicago on 28 October 2010 can be seen at a local radio station website.
On 17 September 2010, the band performed live at the Fall Frenzy concert at the Tempe Beach Park in Tempe, Arizona. Other bands that played at this concert were Stone Temple Pilots, Shinedown, and Sevendust.
On 4 December 2010, the band performed a live set for Guitar Center Sessions on DirecTV. The episode included an interview with the band by program host, Nic Harcourt.
Choice of Weapon and Hidden City (2011–2017)
During the Cult's concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on 21 January 2011 Ian Astbury declared that the Cult would be recording a new album directly after the tour. They also announced that they would be working with Chris Goss, who performed with Masters of Reality as a supporting act the same evening. On 11 May 2011, it was announced that the Cult were signed to Cooking Vinyl Records, who will release the new album in early 2012. Commented guitarist Billy Duffy: "We are very much looking forward to returning to our U.K. roots in many ways working with Cooking Vinyl." Vocalist Ian Astbury added, "We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Cooking Vinyl." By May 2011, the band had been writing and recording new demos at its Witch Mountain studio hideaway in the Hollywood Hills, and began recording their new album at Hollywood Recording Studios. In October 2011, bassist Chris Wyse stated the album was almost finished and expected to be released in April 2012. Chris also described it as a "Zep/Stooges mix of energy."
On 29 November 2011, it was announced that the album would be produced by Bob Rock, who provided the same role on Sonic Temple, The Cult and Beyond Good and Evil. The album, entitled Choice of Weapon, was released on 22 May 2012. The band partnered with Rolling Stone to premiere the first song from the album titled Lucifer on 30 January. On 5 February 2012, the Cult song "She Sells Sanctuary" was used as the soundtrack for a Budweiser commercial in a mashup with Flo Rida aired during Super Bowl XLVI. In May 2012 the Cult appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and played "For The Animals".
On 28 September 2012, it was announced that the band would release Weapon of Choice, a "prequel" album to accompany the band's latest album, Choice of Weapon. The digital-only release, available exclusively on iTunes for two months only beginning 16 October, features the songs that were ultimately included in "Choice Of Weapon" at an earlier stage of development. Explaining the motivations behind the release, singer Ian Astbury said that "These songs were turned over and over, forged in long rehearsals and writing sessions, and emanated from challenges both personal and professional. We put our guts into this; [Producer Chris] Goss was able to create an environment where the songs were born through playing and turning over lyrics, through hard work and intense sessions." Astbury added "These songs have an integrity and rawness of their own. In many ways it's a different album to the one we released and reveals the foundations of 'Choice Of Weapon'. We were able to close the doors and begin to explore spaces we had not been in for a while." The song "Twisted and Bleeding" was made available for free download at the band's website ahead of the full digital release.
On 20 June 2013, the band announced the release of Electric-Peace which comprises the entire Electric album plus the Peace album which was previously released on the now discontinued Rare Cult box set in 2000. It is due for release in the US on 30 July. In 2013 Mike Dimkich left the band and joined Bad Religion to cover for guitarist Greg Hetson. James Stevenson, from the Beauty's On The Streets tour in 1994, replaced Dimkich as the Cult's rhythm guitarist.
In March 2013, Billy Duffy told the Argentinan journalist Fabrizio Pedrotti that the Cult had begun work on a new album for a 2014 release. The band were expected to begin work on the album after they finish their 2013 world tour, where they played the Electric album in its entirety. In August 2014, Billy added that the next album, which was not expected to be released before 2015 at the earliest, "will be more guitar heavy".
On 5 November 2015, it was announced that The Cult would release their new album, entitled Hidden City, on 5 February 2016. The album is said to be the final part of a trilogy that began with Born into This, and marks the fifth time Bob Rock had produced a Cult album. The band also announced that they had hired Australian-born bassist Grant Fitzpatrick (ex-Mink) as the replacement for Chris Wyse. Chris Chaney (Jane's Addiction, Camp Freddy) and producer Bob Rock performed session bass on the album. In support of Hidden City, The Cult opened for Guns N' Roses on the Not in This Lifetime... Tour.
In an October 2016 interview with PopMatters journalist J.C. Maçek III, Cult guitarist Billy Duffy spoke of the band's playlist while on tour, saying "Obviously you want to make an impactful [show]," he continues. "There are some practical, pragmatic decisions made. If you're playing to a crowd who are not very familiar with you, there's no point of going too deep but we do always make sure we play a new song. Like on Guns N' Roses' [tour] we had fifty minutes which is ten songs all in. So, you know we just made sure that in those ten songs we played 'Deeply Ordered Chaos' which we’re proud of and it makes a certain statement. And it just alerts people to the fact that, yes, we have made a record in the last 30 years. You know and that's a good thing. Psychologically, that's the blood transfusion that we need. And we're very mindful, we have a very loyal fan base. We don't pander as you well know."
Upcoming eleventh studio album (2018–present)
In an April 2018 interview with Guitar World, guitarist Billy Duffy was asked if another album from The Cult was in the works. He replied, "Never say never! Ian and I enjoy the process of making new music, and we feel it's vital to keep the band healthy, even if it's pretty much in the law of diminishing returns area now. Who knows if it will be a whole album a series of singles or an EP? I can say new Cult music will be forthcoming, but these days we don't rush it as there's no point. Quality is key. We are past the point of having to release stuff so if we feel it's good enough, then we will release it in some shape or another."
On 2 April 2018, a tour of the United States of America called "Revolution 3 Tour" was announced for the summer. They performed as one of the three headliners, along with Stone Temple Pilots and Bush.
In April 2019, The Cult announced that they would celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of their fourth album Sonic Temple with a world tour, which began on 2 May in Houston, Texas and was expected to wrap up in 2020.
In a June 2019 interview with LA Weekly, vocalist Ian Astbury stated that The Cult were "long overdue" to release new music. He was quoted as saying: "We do have some stuff we've been working on, but it's yet to see the light of day." Six months later, Astbury told Atlantic City Weekly that the band was going to start working on new music in 2020: "We've got a few pieces lying around in various stages of completion. The intention is to get together in the New Year and take a look at what we've got and decide how we are going to go about moving forward. It's an essential part of any creative lifeblood." On May 6, 2020, The Cult announced on their Twitter page that they had signed to Black Hill Records.
On August 15, 2020, Duffy announced on his Twitter that the band were recording their new album with producer Tom Dalgety at Rockfield Studios, where The Cult had recorded their debut album Dreamtime 36 years earlier.
In support of their new album, The Cult will embark on a co-headlining six-date UK tour with Alice Cooper in May and June 2022.
Influences
Duffy and Astbury cited among their influences a lot of different bands "from the Doors to Led Zeppelin. We literally went from the front of our record collections to the back. And then along the way we were drawn in by the likes of Public Image Ltd, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees. You might not hear it in the music but it's there." They also cited Bauhaus among many other post-punk influences. Duffy also praised Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers for a major performance he attended in 1977 and Siouxsie and the Banshees whom "always had great guitar players with killer riffs." Duffy also hailed AC/DC for "the power of a good three chord riff", Pete Townshend of the Who "in terms of commitment to stage performing" and Brian May of Queen for using "‘echoplex’ tape delays to orchestrate his own solo".
Musical style
According to music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the band fuse a "hardcore punk revivalist" sound with the "pseudo-mysticism ... of the Doors and Uriah Heep and the guitar-orchestrations of Led Zeppelin and The Cure ... while adding touches of post-punk goth rock". In 1985 Astbury said, "Our music is just melodies and guitars. We're like Big Country and U2, only better!".
Members
Current members
Ian Astbury – lead vocals, occasional percussion/guitar
Billy Duffy – lead and rhythm guitars, backing vocals
John Tempesta – drums, percussion
Grant Fitzpatrick – bass, backing vocals
Damon Fox – keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Discography
Dreamtime (1984)
Love (1985)
Electric (1987)
Sonic Temple (1989)
Ceremony (1991)
The Cult (1994)
Beyond Good and Evil (2001)
Born into This (2007)
Choice of Weapon (2012)
Hidden City (2016)
References
External links
Official website
Billy Duffy official website
Musical groups established in 1983
Situation Two artists
Beggars Banquet Records artists
Sire Records artists
Musical groups from Bradford
English post-punk music groups
English gothic rock groups
English hard rock musical groups
English heavy metal musical groups
English glam metal musical groups | true | [
"Havasupai Elementary School is a Bureau of Indian Education (BIE)-operated K–6 school in Supai, Arizona. It serves the Havasupai Indian Reservation.\n\nIt was formerly a K-8 school.\n\nHistory\n\nIn 2017 Alden Woods of the Arizona Republic wrote that it \"stands out as the worst school\" in the BIE. Woods cited \"a rotation of principals and a regular teacher shortage\", the latter which resulted in sporadic weeklong closures, or as the janitor being a substitute teacher, according to a lawsuit filed against the BIE that year. According to the lawsuit, teachers often did not finish the academic year. Woods also cited a lack of a school library, no after-school activities, and the lowest scores in mathematics and English among BIE schools despite only teaching those subjects. The school was intended to also teach the Havasupai language and the culture of the Havasupai tribe, but it did not, according to the lawsuit.\n\nThe lawsuit was filed in January 2017. Steven P. Logan, a U.S. district judge, allowed the lawsuit to proceed in March. A settlement was agreed upon in October 2020.\n\nStudent body\nIn 2011 it, then still a K-8, had 94 students.\n\n the school had 70 students, with around 35 classified as having special needs. Despite the high number of special needs students, the school offered no special needs services.\n\n about 20% of the students eventually get high school diplomas.\n\nFacility\nThe building has one story.\n\nIn 2011, to alleviate overpopulation, the BIE arranged to have a modular classroom airlifted into sections to Havasupai Elementary, where it would be assembled.\n\nAcademic performance\nThe students were in the third percentile for mathematics and the first percentile for reading during the 2012–2013 school year.\n\nStudent discipline\nIn 2017 Alia Wong of The Atlantic wrote \"Students are repeatedly suspended or referred to law enforcement\".\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n\nExternal links\n \n Lawsuit - Alternate link\n\nPublic elementary schools in Arizona\nSchools in Coconino County, Arizona\nPublic K–8 schools in Arizona\nNative American schools in Arizona",
"Vamos a Cuba (Spanish, 'Let's Go to Cuba') is a children's book about Cuba.\n\nCritics say that the book does not accurately represent life in the communist state. When Miami-Dade County Public Schools attempted to remove this book from the public school's library system the ACLU filed a lawsuit saying that it was a violation of the First Amendment.\n\nA federal appeals court ruled that the Miami-Dade School Board did not violate the Constitution in 2006 when it removed a controversial children's book about Cuba from the public schools' library system.\n\nIn a 2-1 decision, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta said the board did not breach the First Amendment, and ordered a Miami federal judge to lift a preliminary injunction that had allowed Vamos a Cuba to be checked out from school libraries.\n\nThe US Supreme Court declined to hear the legal challenge, so the book removal stands.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nWPLG news article\nACLU's legal argument\n\n2001 children's books\nBooks about Cuba\nChildren's non-fiction books\nAmerican picture books\nSpanish-language books"
]
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[
"The Cult",
"Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991-1994)",
"What was the ceremony?",
"album Ceremony",
"when was it released?",
"1991,",
"was it well received?",
"The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide.",
"when did the lawsuit come about?",
"1992,"
]
| C_4b2e5d61579045e7ae891ff8b3295557_1 | what was it about? | 5 | what was the lawsuit regarding The Cult about? | The Cult | In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album. During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and James Kottak played bass and drums respectively. During the actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play drums, with Charley Drayton on bass, and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men reportedly rarely even being in the studio together during recording. The resulting album Ceremony was released to mixed responses. The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. Only two official singles were released from the record: "Wild Hearted Son" (UK No. 34, Canada No. 41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK No. 50), although "White" was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was released as a single (as "Dulce Salvacion") in Argentina in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was released in Spain. The Cult's Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in 1991 and North America in 1992. In 1991 the Cult played a show at the Marquee Club in London, which was recorded and released in February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete bootleg video of this show is also in circulation. The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, for alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted Son". This lawsuit delayed the release of Ceremony in many countries including South Korea and Thailand, which did not see the record's release until late 1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey until the Cult played several shows in Istanbul in June 1993. A world tour followed with backing from future Thin Lizzy drummer Michael Lee and bassist Kinley Wolfe, and keyboardist John Sinclair returning one last time, and the Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 31. Following the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits compilation which debuted at No. 1 on the British charts and later went to number one in Portugal, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and recruited Craig Adams (the Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic. CANNOTANSWER | The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, | The Cult are an English rock band formed in 1983 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury's previous band Southern Death Cult. They gained a dedicated following in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s as a post-punk/gothic rock band, with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking into the mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s establishing themselves as a hard rock band with singles such as "Love Removal Machine". Since its initial formation in 1983, the band have had various line-ups; the longest-serving members are Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, who are also the band's two songwriters.
The Cult's debut studio album Dreamtime was released in 1984 to moderate success, with its lead single "Spiritwalker" reaching No. 1 on the UK Indie Chart. Their second studio album, Love (1985), was even more successful, charting at No. 4 in the UK and including singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary" and "Rain". The band's third album, Electric (1987), launched them new heights of success, also peaking at No. 4 in the UK and charting highly in other territories, and spawned the hit singles "Love Removal Machine", "Lil' Devil" and "Wild Flower". On that album, The Cult supplemented their post-punk sound with hard rock; the polish on this new sound was facilitated by producer Rick Rubin. After moving to Los Angeles, California, where the band has been based for the remainder of their career, The Cult continued the musical experimentation of Electric with its follow-up album Sonic Temple (1989), which marked their first collaboration with Bob Rock, who would produce several of the band's subsequent albums. Sonic Temple was their most successful album to that point, entering the Top 10 on the UK and US charts, and included one of the band's most popular songs "Fire Woman".
By the time of their fifth album Ceremony (1991), tensions and creative differences began to surface among the band members. This resulted in the recording sessions for Ceremony being held without a stable lineup, leaving Astbury and Duffy as the only two official members left, and featuring support from session musicians on bass and drums. The ongoing tension had carried over within the next four years, during which they released one more studio album, The Cult (1994), and called it quits in 1995. The Cult reformed in 1999 and released their seventh album Beyond Good and Evil two years later. The commercial failure of the album and resurfaced tensions led to the band going back on hiatus in 2002. They resumed activity in 2006, and have since released three more studio albums: Born into This (2007), Choice of Weapon (2012), and Hidden City (2016).
History
Early history (1981–1984)
The band's origins can be traced to 1981, in Bradford, Yorkshire, where vocalist and songwriter Ian Astbury formed a band called Southern Death Cult. The name was chosen with a double meaning, and was derived from the 14th-century Native American religion, the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex or Southern Death Cult as it was sometimes known, from the Mississippi delta area, but it was also a stab at what the band viewed was the centralisation of power in Southern England (including that of the music industry); there has long been a perceived notion of a North–South divide based on social, historic and economic reasons. Astbury was joined by Buzz Burrows (guitar), Barry Jepson (bass) and Aki Nawaz Qureshi (drums); they performed their first show at the Queen's Hall in their hometown of Bradford on 29 October 1981. The band were at the forefront of an emerging style of music, in the form of post-punk and gothic rock, they achieved critical acclaim from the press and music fans.
The band signed to independent record label Situation Two, an offshoot of Beggars Banquet Records, and released a three-track, triple A-side single, Moya, during this period. They toured through England headlining some shows and touring with Bauhaus and Theatre of Hate. The band played their final performance in Manchester during February 1983, meaning after only sixteen months the band was over. A compilation named The Southern Death Cult was released, this being a collection of the single, radio sessions with John Peel for Radio One and live performances - one of which an audience member recorded with a tape recorder.
In April 1983, Astbury teamed up with guitarist Billy Duffy and formed the band "Death Cult". Duffy had been in the Nosebleeds (along with Morrissey), Lonesome No More and then Theatre of Hate. In addition to Astbury and Duffy, the band also included Jamie Stewart (bass) and Raymond Taylor Smith (later known as Ray Mondo) (drums), both from the Harrow, London based post-punk band, Ritual. Death Cult made their live debut in Oslo, Norway on 25 July 1983 and also released the Death Cult EP in the same month, then toured through mainland Europe and Scotland. In September 1983, Mondo was deported to his home country of Sierra Leone and replaced by Nigel Preston, formerly of Theatre of Hate. The single "Gods Zoo" was released in October 1983. Another European tour, with UK dates, followed that autumn. To tone down their name's gothic connotations and gain broader appeal, the band changed its name to "the Cult" in January 1984 before appearing on the (UK) Channel 4 television show, The Tube.
The Cult's first studio record, Dreamtime, was recorded at Rockfield Studios, in Monmouth, Wales in 1984. The record was to be produced by Joe Julian, but after recording the drum tracks, the band decided to replace him with John Brand. Brand produced the record, but guitarist Duffy has said the drum tracks were produced by Julian, as Preston had become unreliable.
The band recorded the songs which later became known as "Butterflies", "(The) Gimmick", "A Flower in the Desert", "Horse Nation", "Spiritwalker", "Bad Medicine (Waltz)", "Dreamtime", "With Love" (later known as "Ship of Fools", and also "Sea and Sky"), "Bone Bag", "Too Young", "83rd Dream", and one untitled outtake. It is unknown what the outtake was, or whether it was developed into a song at a later date. Songs like "Horse Nation" showed Astbury's intense interest in Native American issues, with the lyrics to "Horse Nation", "See them prancing, they come neighing, to a horse nation", taken almost verbatim from the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, while "Spiritwalker" dealt with shamanism, and the record's title and title track are overtly influenced by Australian Aboriginal beliefs.
On 4 April 1984, the Cult released the single "Spiritwalker", which reached No. 1 on the independent charts in the UK, and acted as a teaser for their forthcoming album Dreamtime. This was followed that summer by a second single, "Go West (Crazy Spinning Circles)", before the release of Dreamtime in September; the album reached No. 21 in the UK, and sold over 100,000 copies in the UK alone. On 12 July 1984, the band recorded five songs at the BBC Maida Vale 5 studio for a Richard Skinner session. Before and after the album's release, the Cult toured throughout Europe and England before recording another single, "Ressurection Joe" (UK No. 74), released that December. Following a Christmas support slot with Big Country, the Cult toured Europe with support from the Mission (then called the Sisterhood). Dreamtime was released initially only in the UK, but after its success, and as the Cult's popularity grew worldwide, it was issued in approximately 30 countries.
Mainstream success (1985–1990)
In May 1985, the Cult released their fourth single, "She Sells Sanctuary", which peaked at No. 15 in the UK and spent 23 weeks in the Top 100. The song was recently voted No. 18 in VH1's Indie 100. In June 1985, following his increasingly erratic behaviour, Preston was fired from the band. Big Country's drummer Mark Brzezicki was picked to replace Preston, and was also included in the video for "She Sells Sanctuary". The Cult then finished recording their second album, Love in July and August 1985. The band's music and image shifted from their punk-oriented roots to 1960s psychedelia influences. Love was a chart success, peaking at No. 4 in the UK and selling 100,000 copies there toward a total of 500,000 copies throughout Europe, as well as 100,000 in Australia and 500,000 copies in the United States. Love reached number 20 on the charts in The Netherlands, where it remained for 32 weeks. To date, the record has sold over two and a half million copies worldwide.
From late September 1985 to June 1986, the band went on a worldwide tour with new drummer Les Warner (who had played with Julian Lennon and Johnny Thunders). Two more singles from the Love album followed; "Rain" (charting in the UK at No. 17) and "Revolution" (charting in the UK at No. 30). Neither charted in the US. Another single, "Nirvana", was issued only in Poland. The album version of "Rain", as well as the remix "(Here Comes the) Rain", were used in the Italian horror film Dèmoni 2. Once back in England, the band booked themselves into the Manor Studios in Oxfordshire, with producer Steve Brown (who had produced Love), and recorded over a dozen new songs. The band were unhappy with the sound of their new album, titled Peace, and they decided to go to New York so producer Rick Rubin could remix the first single, "Love Removal Machine".
Rubin agreed to work with the band, but only if they rerecorded the song. Rubin eventually talked them into rerecording the entire album. The band's record company, Beggars Banquet, was displeased with this, as two months and £250,000 had already been spent on the record. However, after hearing the initial New York recording, Beggars Banquet agreed to proceed. The first single, "Love Removal Machine", was released in February 1987, and the new version of the album appeared in April that year, now renamed as Electric, reaching No. 4 and eventually outselling Love. The band toured with Kid Chaos (also known as "Haggis" and "The Kid") on bass, with Stewart on rhythm guitar. Two more singles, "Lil Devil" and "Wild Flower", were released during 1987. A few tracks from the original Peace album appeared on the single versions of "Love Removal Machine", and "Lil Devil". The full Peace album would not be released until 2000, when it was included as Disc 3 of the Rare Cult box set.
In the US, the Cult, now consisting of Astbury, Duffy, Stewart, Warner and Kid Chaos, were supported by the then-unknown Guns N' Roses. The band also appeared at Roskilde Festival in Denmark in June 1987. When the world tour wound through Australia, the band wrecked £30,000 worth of equipment, and as a result they could not tour Japan, as no company would rent them new equipment. At the end of the tour the Electric album had been certified Gold in the UK, and sold roughly 3 million copies worldwide, but the band were barely speaking to each other by then. Haggis left the band at the end of the Electric tour to form the Four Horsemen for Rubin's Def American label. Astbury and Duffy fired Warner and their management team Grant/Edwards, and moved to Los Angeles with original bassist Stewart. Warner sued the band several times for his firing, as well as for what he felt were unpaid royalties due to him for his performance on the Electric album, resulting in lengthy court battles. The Cult signed a new management deal and wrote 21 new songs for their next record.
For the next album, Stewart returned to playing bass, and John Webster was brought in to play keyboards. The band used Chris Taylor to play drums during rehearsals and record the demos, with future Kiss drummer Eric Singer performing during the second demo recording sessions. The Cult eventually recruited session-drummer Mickey Curry to fill the drumming role and Aerosmith sound engineer, Bob Rock, to produce. Recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from October to December 1988, the Sonic Temple record went Top 10 in both the UK and the US, where it was certified Gold and Platinum respectively. The band went on tour in support of the new album and new single "Fire Woman" (UK No. 15) (NZ No. 1), with yet another new drummer, Matt Sorum, and Webster as keyboard player. The next single, "Edie (Ciao Baby)" (UK No. 25) has become a regular song at concerts for many years.
In Europe, the band toured with Aerosmith, and in the US, after releasing another single "Sun King" (UK No. 42), they spent 1989 touring in support of Metallica before heading out on their own headlining tour later that same year. A fourth single, "Sweet Soul Sister" (UK No. 38), was released in February 1990, with the video having been filmed at Wembley Arena, London, on 25 November 1989. "Sweet Soul Sister" was partially written in Paris and was inspired by the bohemian lifestyle of that city. Released as a single in February 1990, the song was another hit in the UK, and reportedly reached number one on the rock charts in Brazil. After playing a show in Atlanta, Georgia, in February 1990, the band's management told Astbury that his father had just died of cancer. As a result, the remainder of the tour was cancelled after a final leg of shows were performed in April. After the tour ended, the band were on the verge of splitting due to Stewart retiring and moving to Canada to be with his wife, and Sorum leaving to join Guns N' Roses.
In 1990, Astbury organized the Gathering of the Tribes festival in Los Angeles and San Francisco with artists such as Soundgarden, Ice-T, Indigo Girls, Queen Latifah, Iggy Pop, the Charlatans, the Cramps and Public Enemy appearing. This two-day festival drew 40,000 people. Also in 1990, a ten CD box set was released in the UK, containing rare songs from the Cult's singles. The CDs in this box set were all issued as picture discs with rice paper covers, housed in a white box called "Singles Collection", or a black box called "E.P. Collection '84 - '90". In 1991, director Oliver Stone offered Astbury the role of Jim Morrison in Stone's film The Doors. He declined the role because he was not happy with the way Morrison was represented in the film, and the role was ultimately played by Val Kilmer.
Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991–1993)
In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album. During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and James Kottak played bass and drums, respectively. During the actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play drums, with Charley Drayton on bass, and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men reportedly rarely even being in the studio together during recording. The resulting album Ceremony was released to mixed responses. The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. Only two official singles were released from the record: "Wild Hearted Son" (UK No. 34, Canada No. 41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK No. 50), although "White" was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was released as a single (as "Dulce Salvación") in Argentina in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was released in Spain.
The Cult's Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in 1991 and North America in 1992. In 1991 the Cult played a show at the Marquee Club in London, which was recorded and released in February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete bootleg video of this show is also in circulation.
The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, for alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. The parents stated that the boy felt he had been cursed by the band's burning of his image, and was "emotionally scarred." This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted Son". This lawsuit delayed the release of Ceremony in many countries including South Korea and Thailand, which did not see the record's release until late 1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey until the Cult played several shows in Istanbul in June 1993.
A world tour followed with backing from drummer Michael Lee (Page & Plant, Little Angels), bassist Kinley "Barney" Wolfe (Lord Tracy, Black Oak Arkansas), and keyboardist John Sinclair (Ozzy Osbourne, Uriah Heep) returning one last time, and the Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 28. Following the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits compilation which debuted at No. 1 on the British charts and later went to number one in Portugal, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and recruited Craig Adams (the Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic.
The Cult and first breakup (1994–1998)
With the same line-up still in place, the band released The Cult in October 1994, produced by Bob Rock. The self-titled album is commonly referred to as the "Black Sheep" album by fans of the group, due to the image of a black sheep on the front cover. Astbury referred to the record as a collection of "very personal and very revealing" songs about his life, with the subject matter ranging from sexual abuse at the age of 15, to the death of Nigel Preston, to his directionless years spent in Glasgow in the late 1970s.
The record achieved little success, only reaching No. 69 in the US and No. 21 in the UK. Duffy remarked that he thought that the record wouldn't sell well due to the offensive lyrics. The record went to number one in Portugal also, but quickly dropped out of sight. The single "Coming Down (Drug Tongue)" was released with the band going on tour in support of the new album. Only one more single, "Star", was officially released with a live appearance on UK TV show The Word. "Star" began life in 1986 as "Tom Petty" and was recorded at the "Sonic Temple" demo sessions as "Starchild", being dropped by the band during rehearsals. In 1993 the song was resurrected and was finally completed for the record in 1994 as, just simply, "Star".
When the band began the Beauty's On The Streets tour in winter 1994, they augmented the line up with James Stevenson on rhythm guitar. As with the Ceremony record several years earlier, no other official singles were released, but several other songs were released on a strictly limited basis: "Sacred Life" was released in Spain and the Netherlands, "Be Free" was issued in Canada and France, "Saints Are Down" was issued in Greece, but none of the songs gained much commercial success. During this tour, the Cult made their first ever appearance in Norway.
During the Black Rain tour of South America in spring of 1995, despite the fact that several more new songs had already been recorded, the tour was cancelled after an appearance in Rio de Janeiro in March, and the band split up citing unspecified problems on a recent South American tour. Astbury started up a garage band called Holy Barbarians a few months later. The band made their debut at the 100 Club in London in February 1996 and released their first (and only) record in May 1996, and toured throughout North America and Europe for the rest of 1996. The band started writing material for a second record in 1997, but the band was dissolved and Astbury began writing and recording a solo record. Throughout 1997 and 1998 Astbury recorded his solo record, originally to be titled Natural Born Guerilla, later called High Time Amplifier. Ultimately the record remained unreleased until June 2000 when it was released under the name Spirit\Light\Speed. Astbury played one solo concert in 1999.
In November 1996, a number of CD reissues were released: the band's American record company released High Octane Cult, a slightly updated greatest hits compilation released only in the US and Japan; The Southern Death Cult, a remastered edition of the fifteen-song compilation CD; a ten-song compilation CD by Death Cult called Ghost Dance, consisting of the untitled four-song EP, the single "God's Zoo", and four unreleased songs from a radio broadcast; and a remastered repackaging of the Dreamtime album, containing only the ten original songs from the record in their original playing order and almost completely different but original artwork. Dreamtime Live at the Lyceum was also remastered and issued on video and for the first time on CD, with the one unreleased song from the concert, "Gimmick".
First reunion, Beyond Good and Evil and second hiatus (1999–2005)
In 1999, Astbury and Duffy reformed the Cult with Matt Sorum and ex-Porno for Pyros bassist Martyn LeNoble. Their first official concert was at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in June 1999, after having rehearsed at shows in the Los Angeles area. The band's 1999 Cult Rising reunion tour resulted in a sold out 30 date tour of the US, ending with 8 consecutive sold out nights at the LA House of Blues. In 2000, the band toured South Africa for the first time, and North and South America, and contributed the song "Painted on My Heart" to the soundtrack of the movie Gone In 60 Seconds. The song was featured prominently and the melody was fused into parts of the score. In June, Astbury's long-delayed solo record was finally released as Spirit\Light\Speed, but it failed to gain much success. In November 2000, another authorised greatest hits compilation was released, Pure Cult: The Singles 1984–1995, along with an accompanying DVD, which was later certified gold in Canada. The Cult, as well as Ian Astbury, performed on separate tracks on the Doors tribute album, Stoned Immaculate: The Music of The Doors, covering "Wild Child" and "Touch Me".
In November 2000, Beggars Banquet released 15,000 copies of a six-disc boxset (with a bonus seventh disc of remixes for the first 5000 copies) titled Rare Cult. The box set consists of album out-takes, demos, radio broadcasts, and album B-sides. It is most notable for including the previously unreleased "Peace" album in its entirety. In 2001, the band signed to Atlantic Records and recorded a new album, Beyond Good and Evil, originally being produced by Mick Jones of Foreigner, until Jones bowed out to tour with Foreigner. Astbury and Duffy co-wrote a song with Jones, an odd occurrence, as in the past, neither Astbury or Duffy would co-write their material. Bob Rock was the producer, with Martyn LeNoble and Chris Wyse as recording bassists, as Mike Dimkich played rhythm guitar on tour, and Matt Sorum returning as drummer. Although Sorum has previously toured with the band on the Sonic Temple tour in 1989, this was the first time that he had recorded a studio album with the band.
However Beyond Good and Evil was not the comeback record the band had hoped for. Despite reaching No. 37 in the US, No. 22 in Canada, and No. 25 in Spain, sales quickly dropped, only selling roughly 500,000 copies worldwide. The first single "Rise", reached No. 41 in the US, and No. 2 on the mainstream rock charts, but Atlantic Records quickly pulled the song from radio playlists. Astbury would later describe the experience with Atlantic to be "soul destroying", after Atlantic tried to tamper with the lyrics, the record cover, and choice of singles from the record.
After the first single from the record, the band's working relationship with Atlantic was on paper only, with Atlantic pulling "Rise" from the radio stations playlists, and stopping all promotion of the record. The second single "Breathe" was only released as a radio station promo, and the final single "True Believers" was only on a compilation sampler disc released in January 2002 (after the Cult's tour had already ended). Despite "True Believers" receiving radio airplay in Australia, both singles went largely unnoticed, and both Astbury and Duffy walked away from the project. LeNoble rejoined the band for the initial dates in early 2001, and Billy Morrison filled in on bass for the majority of the 2001 tour.
The European tour of 2001 was canceled, largely due to security concerns after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the band flew back to the US to tour again with Aerosmith. But the eleven-week tour was considered by fans to be a disaster, as the band played only a brief rundown of their greatest hits. In October 2001, a show at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles was filmed for release on DVD. After the tour ended in December 2001, the band took most of 2002 off, apart from a few shows in the US to promote the release of the DVD, with Scott Garrett and Craig Adams rejoining the band.
Despite the commercial disappointment of Beyond Good and Evil and the supporting tour, the band was voted "Comeback of the Year" by Metal Edge readers in the magazine's 2001 Readers' Choice Awards.
In late 2002, Ian Astbury declared the Cult to be "on ice" indefinitely, after performing a brief series of dates in October 2002 to promote the release of the Music Without Fear DVD. During this second hiatus, Astbury performed as a member of the Doors (later dubbed the Doors of the 21st Century, later still renamed D21c, and most recently known as Riders on the Storm) with two of the original members of that group. D21c was sued numerous times, both by Jim Morrison's family and by drummer John Densmore. Astbury supposedly started work on recording another solo album that later became the backbone for the Cult's Born into This.
At the same time, Duffy was part of Coloursound with bassist Craig Adams and ex-Alarm frontman Mike Peters, then Dead Men Walking (again with Peters) and later Cardboard Vampyres. Sorum became a member of the hard rock supergroup Velvet Revolver. In 2003, all of the Cult's records were issued on CD, with several bonus tracks being issued on the Russian, Belarusian, and Lithuanian versions. These eastern European releases had many printing mistakes on the jacket sleeves and lyric inserts. In October 2004, all of the Cult's records were again remastered and issued again on CD, this time in Japan in different cardboard foldout sleeves. "She Sells Sanctuary" appeared in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, playing on rock station V-Rock.
Second reunion, Born Into This and Capsule EPs (2006–2010)
Despite Astbury's previous statement from 2004 that a reunion would not happen, The Cult announced in January 2006 that they were reuniting for "some limited gigs" throughout the year. A month later, the band made their first live appearance in three-and-a-half years on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Their lineup consisted of Astbury (vocals), Duffy (lead guitar), John Tempesta (drums), Dimkich (rhythm guitar) and Wyse (returning as bassist). Their first stage show was held in March 2006 in San Francisco, California, at The Fillmore. The entire tour was recorded by Instant Live and sold after each show. In May, they did an eight date tour in Canada. Later that summer, they toured central and eastern Europe and played their first concerts in Bulgaria, Poland and Serbia. An eleven-date UK tour followed as well as several more dates in the United States, finishing with a South American tour in December. That year, Duffy began the band Circus Diablo with Billy Morrison, Sorum, Brett Scallions and Ricky Warwick.
During these tours, the band occasionally played an extended set, including several songs the band had not performed in decades: "King Contrary Man" and "Hollow Man", neither of which had been performed since 1987; also, "Libertine" was performed approximately three times, for the first time since 2000, and "Brother Wolf, Sister Moon", which was only performed one time since 1986 (for this particular song, the band played an abridged version which has never been performed before or since)
Astbury announced in February 2007 that he was leaving Riders on the Storm and returning to the Cult. He stated: "I have decided to move on and focus on my own music and legacy." The Cult was featured on Stuffmagazine.com's list of ultimate air guitar players. On 21 March 2007, it was announced that the band would be touring Europe with the Who. The first confirmed tour date was in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in early June, with at least a dozen shows set to follow. The band played a gig in London's West End at the CC Club on 7 June 2007, along with nearly two dozen shows across continental Europe during summer. The tour also includes the first performance in Romania and Croatia.
On 29 May 2007, the band signed a deal with major metal label Roadrunner Records. Their 8th studio album, titled Born into This was released on 16 October, and was produced by Martin "Youth" Glover, bass player for Killing Joke. Born into This was released as regular single disc and limited edition double disc, the second disk being a bonus 5-track CD holding the following tracks: "Stand Alone", "War Pony Destroyer", "I Assassin (Demo)", "Sound of Destruction (Demo)" and "Savages (Extended Version)". Prior to the album's release, the band played festival and headline dates, and supported the Who in Europe through summer 2007, with a US headline tour to follow.
The band's appearance at Irving Plaza in New York City in early November 2006 was filmed and was released in 2007. The Cult New York City, issued by Fontana North and is the Cult's first high definition DVD release. Meanwhile, Astbury lent vocals on two tracks of the 2007 Unkle album "War Stories", one of them being the first single from the album, "Burn My Shadow".
The band performed a UK and European tour in late-February and early-March 2008. On 24 March, they began their North American tour including a major 13-city tour in Canada. During September 2008, the Cult did a brief series of dates in the northeast United States, and they toured in Brazil as part of the South American tour in October 2008. As of May 2008, according to The Gauntlet, the Cult are currently unsigned and no longer under contract with Roadrunner Records. In October 2008, it was announced that the Cult would headline the inaugural Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Antonio, to be run 16 November 2008. The Cult announced plans for a tour showcasing their 1985 Love album across the US and then the UK in October where they will play at the Royal Albert Hall.
Coinciding with the remastered Love album and four-disc Omnibus boxed set, the Cult kicked off the long-awaited Love Live Tour in late summer. Performing their classic Love album in its entirety, each show was played with the Love tracks opening with "Nirvana" to "Black Angel". A quick intermission followed, then other Cult hits were played (varying by venue): "Sun King", "Dirty Little Rock Star", "Electric Ocean", "Illuminated". Then followed the favorites "Fire Woman", "Lil Devil", "Wild Flower", and lastly "Love Removal Machine". In the evening of 10 October 2009 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the band performed a second encore with original Cult bassist Jamie Stewart and drummer Mark Brzezicki, who played drums with the band during the Love album recording sessions in July and August 1985. The band sold Love Live USB flash drives for each show during the tour.
The Cult entered 2010 continuing their Love Live Tour and announcing more dates in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan. The band finished recording a four-track "Capsule" with producer Chris Goss. Capsule 1 was said to be the first of three or four to be released sometime in summer 2010. Release formats include CD-DVD dualdisc, 12-inch vinyl, and digital downloads. Capsule 1 was released on 14 September 2010. The band officially announced the release of its first new studio recording since 2007, "Every Man And Woman Is A Star". The new single was released through the iTunes Store on 31 July 2010.
On 1 August 2010, the band played the sold-out music festival Sonisphere, which marked their first UK performance since the tour for their Love album. During the performance they debuted their new single, "Every Man and Woman is a Star", which was released on 1 August 2010. On 14 September 2010 the band embarked on a new U.S. tour and released Capsule 1 in conjunction with media technology company Aderra Inc. and made it available in multiple formats including a CD-DVD DualDisc, USB flash drive, 12 inch vinyl, FLAC download and MP3 download. The collection includes a short film made by singer Ian Astbury and Rick Rogers.
On 26 October 2010 the band and Aderra Inc. announced the release of a new song, "Embers", for 1 November 2010 and Capsule 2 available through their web store on 16 November 2010. Pictures from the Cult's tour stop in Chicago on 28 October 2010 can be seen at a local radio station website.
On 17 September 2010, the band performed live at the Fall Frenzy concert at the Tempe Beach Park in Tempe, Arizona. Other bands that played at this concert were Stone Temple Pilots, Shinedown, and Sevendust.
On 4 December 2010, the band performed a live set for Guitar Center Sessions on DirecTV. The episode included an interview with the band by program host, Nic Harcourt.
Choice of Weapon and Hidden City (2011–2017)
During the Cult's concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on 21 January 2011 Ian Astbury declared that the Cult would be recording a new album directly after the tour. They also announced that they would be working with Chris Goss, who performed with Masters of Reality as a supporting act the same evening. On 11 May 2011, it was announced that the Cult were signed to Cooking Vinyl Records, who will release the new album in early 2012. Commented guitarist Billy Duffy: "We are very much looking forward to returning to our U.K. roots in many ways working with Cooking Vinyl." Vocalist Ian Astbury added, "We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Cooking Vinyl." By May 2011, the band had been writing and recording new demos at its Witch Mountain studio hideaway in the Hollywood Hills, and began recording their new album at Hollywood Recording Studios. In October 2011, bassist Chris Wyse stated the album was almost finished and expected to be released in April 2012. Chris also described it as a "Zep/Stooges mix of energy."
On 29 November 2011, it was announced that the album would be produced by Bob Rock, who provided the same role on Sonic Temple, The Cult and Beyond Good and Evil. The album, entitled Choice of Weapon, was released on 22 May 2012. The band partnered with Rolling Stone to premiere the first song from the album titled Lucifer on 30 January. On 5 February 2012, the Cult song "She Sells Sanctuary" was used as the soundtrack for a Budweiser commercial in a mashup with Flo Rida aired during Super Bowl XLVI. In May 2012 the Cult appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and played "For The Animals".
On 28 September 2012, it was announced that the band would release Weapon of Choice, a "prequel" album to accompany the band's latest album, Choice of Weapon. The digital-only release, available exclusively on iTunes for two months only beginning 16 October, features the songs that were ultimately included in "Choice Of Weapon" at an earlier stage of development. Explaining the motivations behind the release, singer Ian Astbury said that "These songs were turned over and over, forged in long rehearsals and writing sessions, and emanated from challenges both personal and professional. We put our guts into this; [Producer Chris] Goss was able to create an environment where the songs were born through playing and turning over lyrics, through hard work and intense sessions." Astbury added "These songs have an integrity and rawness of their own. In many ways it's a different album to the one we released and reveals the foundations of 'Choice Of Weapon'. We were able to close the doors and begin to explore spaces we had not been in for a while." The song "Twisted and Bleeding" was made available for free download at the band's website ahead of the full digital release.
On 20 June 2013, the band announced the release of Electric-Peace which comprises the entire Electric album plus the Peace album which was previously released on the now discontinued Rare Cult box set in 2000. It is due for release in the US on 30 July. In 2013 Mike Dimkich left the band and joined Bad Religion to cover for guitarist Greg Hetson. James Stevenson, from the Beauty's On The Streets tour in 1994, replaced Dimkich as the Cult's rhythm guitarist.
In March 2013, Billy Duffy told the Argentinan journalist Fabrizio Pedrotti that the Cult had begun work on a new album for a 2014 release. The band were expected to begin work on the album after they finish their 2013 world tour, where they played the Electric album in its entirety. In August 2014, Billy added that the next album, which was not expected to be released before 2015 at the earliest, "will be more guitar heavy".
On 5 November 2015, it was announced that The Cult would release their new album, entitled Hidden City, on 5 February 2016. The album is said to be the final part of a trilogy that began with Born into This, and marks the fifth time Bob Rock had produced a Cult album. The band also announced that they had hired Australian-born bassist Grant Fitzpatrick (ex-Mink) as the replacement for Chris Wyse. Chris Chaney (Jane's Addiction, Camp Freddy) and producer Bob Rock performed session bass on the album. In support of Hidden City, The Cult opened for Guns N' Roses on the Not in This Lifetime... Tour.
In an October 2016 interview with PopMatters journalist J.C. Maçek III, Cult guitarist Billy Duffy spoke of the band's playlist while on tour, saying "Obviously you want to make an impactful [show]," he continues. "There are some practical, pragmatic decisions made. If you're playing to a crowd who are not very familiar with you, there's no point of going too deep but we do always make sure we play a new song. Like on Guns N' Roses' [tour] we had fifty minutes which is ten songs all in. So, you know we just made sure that in those ten songs we played 'Deeply Ordered Chaos' which we’re proud of and it makes a certain statement. And it just alerts people to the fact that, yes, we have made a record in the last 30 years. You know and that's a good thing. Psychologically, that's the blood transfusion that we need. And we're very mindful, we have a very loyal fan base. We don't pander as you well know."
Upcoming eleventh studio album (2018–present)
In an April 2018 interview with Guitar World, guitarist Billy Duffy was asked if another album from The Cult was in the works. He replied, "Never say never! Ian and I enjoy the process of making new music, and we feel it's vital to keep the band healthy, even if it's pretty much in the law of diminishing returns area now. Who knows if it will be a whole album a series of singles or an EP? I can say new Cult music will be forthcoming, but these days we don't rush it as there's no point. Quality is key. We are past the point of having to release stuff so if we feel it's good enough, then we will release it in some shape or another."
On 2 April 2018, a tour of the United States of America called "Revolution 3 Tour" was announced for the summer. They performed as one of the three headliners, along with Stone Temple Pilots and Bush.
In April 2019, The Cult announced that they would celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of their fourth album Sonic Temple with a world tour, which began on 2 May in Houston, Texas and was expected to wrap up in 2020.
In a June 2019 interview with LA Weekly, vocalist Ian Astbury stated that The Cult were "long overdue" to release new music. He was quoted as saying: "We do have some stuff we've been working on, but it's yet to see the light of day." Six months later, Astbury told Atlantic City Weekly that the band was going to start working on new music in 2020: "We've got a few pieces lying around in various stages of completion. The intention is to get together in the New Year and take a look at what we've got and decide how we are going to go about moving forward. It's an essential part of any creative lifeblood." On May 6, 2020, The Cult announced on their Twitter page that they had signed to Black Hill Records.
On August 15, 2020, Duffy announced on his Twitter that the band were recording their new album with producer Tom Dalgety at Rockfield Studios, where The Cult had recorded their debut album Dreamtime 36 years earlier.
In support of their new album, The Cult will embark on a co-headlining six-date UK tour with Alice Cooper in May and June 2022.
Influences
Duffy and Astbury cited among their influences a lot of different bands "from the Doors to Led Zeppelin. We literally went from the front of our record collections to the back. And then along the way we were drawn in by the likes of Public Image Ltd, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees. You might not hear it in the music but it's there." They also cited Bauhaus among many other post-punk influences. Duffy also praised Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers for a major performance he attended in 1977 and Siouxsie and the Banshees whom "always had great guitar players with killer riffs." Duffy also hailed AC/DC for "the power of a good three chord riff", Pete Townshend of the Who "in terms of commitment to stage performing" and Brian May of Queen for using "‘echoplex’ tape delays to orchestrate his own solo".
Musical style
According to music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the band fuse a "hardcore punk revivalist" sound with the "pseudo-mysticism ... of the Doors and Uriah Heep and the guitar-orchestrations of Led Zeppelin and The Cure ... while adding touches of post-punk goth rock". In 1985 Astbury said, "Our music is just melodies and guitars. We're like Big Country and U2, only better!".
Members
Current members
Ian Astbury – lead vocals, occasional percussion/guitar
Billy Duffy – lead and rhythm guitars, backing vocals
John Tempesta – drums, percussion
Grant Fitzpatrick – bass, backing vocals
Damon Fox – keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Discography
Dreamtime (1984)
Love (1985)
Electric (1987)
Sonic Temple (1989)
Ceremony (1991)
The Cult (1994)
Beyond Good and Evil (2001)
Born into This (2007)
Choice of Weapon (2012)
Hidden City (2016)
References
External links
Official website
Billy Duffy official website
Musical groups established in 1983
Situation Two artists
Beggars Banquet Records artists
Sire Records artists
Musical groups from Bradford
English post-punk music groups
English gothic rock groups
English hard rock musical groups
English heavy metal musical groups
English glam metal musical groups | true | [
"\"What About Us\" is a single released by British-Irish girl group the Saturdays. Their first international single, it is the lead single from their first American-only release EP, Chasing the Saturdays (2013). It also acts as the second single from their fourth studio album Living for the Weekend (2013). The single was first released in the United States and Canada on 18 December 2012 via digital download, before being released in the United Kingdom on 16 March 2013 via CD single and digital download. The single was written by Camille Purcell, Ollie Jacobs, Philip Jacobs. There are two different versions of the track which have been recorded and released: a solo version, which was released exclusively in the US and Canada, and a version featuring Jamaican rapper Sean Paul, which was released internationally. Music critics gave the song positive feedback, but questioned the heavily auto-tuned chorus and the move away from the group's traditional sound.\n\nA music video was released for the song was published and released via the Saturdays' Vevo account on 11 January 2013. The video was filmed in Los Angeles, where the band were filming their US reality series, Chasing the Saturdays, which is broadcast through E!. An acoustic version of \"Somebody Else's Life\", which can be heard on the opening titles of the show, was released as a B-side. The Saturdays went on to a promotional tour in order to get the song \"out there\" in the United States, and appeared on a number of different chat shows including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Jeff Probst Show, Fashion Police, Chelsea Lately and The Today Show in New York City. They later went on to a promotional tour in the UK, visiting radio stations around the country.\n\n\"What About Us\" gained commercial success, debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart to become the Saturdays' twelfth UK top 10 single and first ever number-one. In Ireland, the song debuted at number six on the Irish Singles Chart, gaining the group their fifth top 10 single there. With first-week sales of 114,000 copies and 40,000 copies more sold than their closest competitor to number one, \"What About Us\" was the fastest-selling single of 2013 in the UK until it was overtaken by Naughty Boy's \"La La La\" two months later. In December 2013, it was announced as the eleventh fastest-selling single of the year overall. As of August 2014, the song has sold over 400,000 copies in the UK. On 23 December 2013, Mollie King posted a photo on Instagram of her holding a 500,000 sales plaque from their record label, with the message that \"What About Us\" had sold over 500,000 copies in UK and USA, with 120,000 copies in the US alone even without charting on the Billboard Hot 100.\n\nBackground \n\nIn 2012, it was announced that the Saturdays had received an offer to star in their own reality television programme, Chasing the Saturdays, broadcast through E! Network. While filming their show, the band began visiting the recording studio, where they began work with Rodney \"Darkchild\" Jerkins.\n\nThe Saturdays felt comfortable with their US labels, and thanked them for not only giving them a chance in North America, but for making them feel at ease and welcome which took a lot of \"weight of our shoulders\". The band said they have always respected the labels due to the massive success they've had with artists. The band had been working with Demi Lovato in the recording studio.\n\nComposition\n\n\"What About Us\" was written and produced by Ollie Jacobs and acts as the Saturdays first single to be released in North America where it could appear on the Billboard Hot 100 and Canadian Hot 100. In America its release coincided with their TV show, Chasing the Saturdays. The track is the band's fourteenth single to be released in the United Kingdom and Ireland and the track is a dance-pop song. Before the release of the song, Mollie King said that the band were excited to share the track as they had the song \"for months\" She said: \"I can't wait for everyone to hear it and to get to perform it. I'm just so excited about this one, I think it's going down really well.\" The band said they didn't want to change their type of music just for the American public and would stick to their roots and the genre they enjoyed to perform. King spoke: \"We've always made a point that we don't want to change to go to America. We wanted to go over as we are and if they like us, they like us and if they don't, they don't!\" King said that the track is reggae pop music, a little different from what band usually record, but the track is still really \"dancey\" and \"upbeat\", as well a good song to dance to on either stage or at a club. When Una Healy was asked what the song was about she said that she \"did not know\" what the song was exactly about. \"To be honest I was trying to figure out the other day what exactly it's about. I could bullshit away telling you, but I really don't know. But I think it's all about someone driving you crazy.\" She said she \"thinks\" that 'What About Us' part means \"me and you getting together\". She did point out that she did know that the song was about \"making you happy\" and that the track was good for the summer and will get you on the dancefloor. The band teased saying that \"What About Us\" is a pop track, and that is a good indication of what the expect from the album, and that they've paired up with Diane Warren to record a few ballads and not just pop tracks. \"What About Us\" is the only collaboration on the album.\n\nRelease\n\"What About Us\" was confirmed as the Saturdays' first single to be released in North America, and would be released on 18 December 2012 to coincide with their American reality show, Chasing the Saturdays. It was also revealed that the track would be released as the lead single from the band's North America released only Extended play, Chasing the Saturdays, which was named after the show. Some critics said that releasing \"What About Us\" from an EP for the US market was a \"wise decision\". One critic said: For, throwing out a traditional release on the back of a show that isn't (yet) a hit would ultimately be setting them up for failure. What's more, the EP allows their \"storyline\" for the next season of the show (should there be one) to revolve around recording an album. In the United Kingdom, it was revealed that \"What About Us\" would be the follow-up single from \"30 Days\" in the UK and Ireland, and therefore would not be the lead single from the band's fourth studio album. The band announced that before the release of the album, there would be another single release from the album. The follow-up single was revealed to be titled \"Gentleman\".\n\nJust like all the band's previous singles, the record was accepted by all A-Lists at radio stations. The UK and Ireland version of the track features a guest rap from Sean Paul. Whereas the North American version does not feature vocals from Sean Paul and only vocals from the band. The original version of the track last 3 minutes and 24 seconds, whereas the version which features Sean Paul lasts 3 minutes and 40 seconds. The single was released with B-side, an Acoustic version of a brand new track, \"Somebody Else's Life\", which is the opening theme to Chasing the Saturdays. \"What About Us\" was released as a digital download EP, and this featured the single version which features Sean Paul, the solo version and the B-side track. Upon the release in North America, there was a digital remixes EP which featured remixes of \"What About Us\" by a number of DJs including: Seamus Haji, Guy Scheiman, the Buzz Junkies and 2nd Adventure and this was also made available to purchase on 18 December 2012. While in the UK, the CD single was made available to be from stores from 18 March 2013. On the CD single featured \"What About Us\", the B-side \"Somebody Else's Life\".\n\nThe band decided to release \"What About Us\" differently between the United Kingdom and the United States, \"What About Us\" was released onto the charts without any airplay and without a music video accompanying the release, something the band experienced in the UK, with \"Notorious\". Whereas in the UK, \"What About Us\" was released with airplay and the music video being released before the release of the single. During this time, Frankie Sandford became ambassadors for mental health after Sandford battled depression. The band said they choose \"What About Us\" to be the lead single in the US and follow-up single from \"30 Days\" because they all loved it once they demoed it and it gave them a \"really good feeling\" They also said it is a fresh start for a new album, with a \"reggae vibe\", but still a pop record. The Saturdays said that Sean Paul was \"perfect\" for the UK version of the song. They said that he was \"just so nice\" and that he would be present during some of the promotional performances when the single was released.\n\nCritical reception\nRobert Copsey of Digital Spy said that Rochelle Humes asks in a \"curious Jamaican-flecked timbre\" during the intro of \"What About Us\". During the lyrics \"Oh why are we are waiting so long I'm suffocating\", and he went on to say that it is in reference to \"man-related drama\" and also pointing out that there is plenty of that on their reality series, Chasing the Saturdays. Copsey later went on to tip the band for their first number-one single as he said: \"but we suspect it could also be a sly wink at their enduring quest for a number one single\". He said that track was \"radio-friendly\" due to the \"trace beats\" and \"demanding their contrary lover to give up the hard-to-get schtick sharpish\". Although he didn't think that the song was \"original\" enough for the band, but is \"strangely addictive\" and he would be happy to see the song at the top of the charts.\n\n4Music described the song as a \"electro-pop affair with a bucket-load of synths thrown in for good measure. It's quite good, but we wonder if they should reconsider this single choice if they truly want to launch an invasion on America's charts.\" Idolator wrote a mixed review criticizing the track for lacking the group's signature style; \"While the beat is pounding enough to nab the girls a chart hit, it doesn’t feel true to the spirit of The Sats. Then again, maybe it isn’t supposed to.\" Jessica Sager from PopCrush also touched on the departure from their original sound; \"It’s a pretty big departure from their usual sugary oeuvre, but not necessarily in a bad way.\" She went on to praise Sean Paul's feature; \"His presence on the track gives it an air of authenticity and fun, but pretty much only during his own verses and interjections.\" However, she criticised the mediocre attempt at dialect the groups sing in throughout the track; \"When the Saturdays try to emulate island tones, it sounds a little awkward and they start out like that right off the bat, but go in and out of the undistinguished dialect throughout the song.\" She also felt that the heavily Auto-Tuned chorus was not need; \"The Auto-Tune seems extraneous, because the Saturdays can actually sing well without it.\" She end the review by labeling their latest effort as \"generic\" and \"not the best the Saturdays have to offer\", also rating it two and a half stars out of five.\n\nCommercial reception\n\"What About Us\" debuted at number 44 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart for the week dated 8 December 2012. This marks their first ever chart entry in the United States and it has since peaked at number twenty-seven. The song debuted at number 79 on the Canadian Hot 100, becoming the highest Canadian debut for a new artist in 2013.\n\nThe Saturdays admitted that they did not want to get their hopes up on debuting at number one on the UK Singles Charts due to being beaten to number-one three times before with \"Forever Is Over\", \"Just Can't Get Enough\" and \"Missing You\", after being number one on the Official Chart Update. During the latter two occasions, it was rapper Flo Rida who had pushed them back to numbers two and three respectively. It was revealed that the Saturdays had knocked Justin Timberlake's \"Mirrors\" off the number-one spot on the UK Singles Chart. This became the band's first ever number-one single in the United Kingdom, it also became Sean Paul's second number one in the United Kingdom after being featured on \"Breathe\" in 2003. For every one copy that Timberlake's \"Mirrors\" sold, the Saturdays sold two more copies of \"What About Us\". \"What About Us\" sold 114,000 copies in the first week of release, making it, at the time, the fastest selling single of 2013. The track sold 40,000 copies more than Timberlake, who was pushed back to number-two on the UK Singles Charts. The band said they were thrilled to be the UK's number-one with \"What About Us\". They went on to thanking their fans for supporting the single and supporting them for the past five years.\n\n\"What About Us\" debuted at number six on the Irish Singles Chart, marking the band's fifth top ten single in that country. \"What About Us\" made its debut at number thirty-six on the New Zealand Singles Chart.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video for \"What About Us\" was filmed during the summer of 2012 in Los Angeles, while the Saturdays were filming their reality television series. The North American version of the video was released via the Saturdays' official Vevo account on YouTube on 11 January 2013. A variant of the video, featuring vocals and additional scenes of the women with Sean Paul, was later released on 5 February 2013.\n\nLive performances and promotion\nThe Saturdays appeared in a number of nightclubs throughout 2012 in the United States performing \"What About Us\" along other hits. On 14 January 2013, the group made their first televised performance of the single on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It was their first performance done on American television. On 16 January, the girls performed \"What About Us\" on The Today Show in New York City. Along with the performances, they appeared on chat shows such as Chelsea Lately, Daybreak, Fashion Police, Lorraine, The Jeff Probst Show, Loose Women, Alan Carr: Chatty Man, Sunday Brunch and What's Cooking? to promote the single.\n\nTrack listings\nUS digital download\n\"What About Us\" - 3:24\n\nCD Single - UK Version Only\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) - 3:40\n\"What About Us\" - 3:24\n\"Somebody Else's Life\" (Acoustic) - 3:18\n\nUS Digital remixes EP\n\"What About Us\" (Seamus Haji Radio Edit) - 3:06\n\"What About Us\" (Seamus Haji Club Mix) - 6:35\n\"What About Us\" (Seamus Haji Dub) - 6:49\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Radio Edit) - 3:59\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Club Mix) - 7:35\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Dub) - 7:20\n\"What About Us\" (The Buzz Junkies Radio Edit) - 3:23\n\"What About Us\" (The Buzz Junkies Club Mix) - 4:32\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) - 4:32\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Radio Edit) - 4:24\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Club Mix) - 6:36\n\nEurope and Oceania EP - digital download\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) - 3:40\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) [The Buzz Junkies Radio Edit] - 3:23\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) [Seamus Haji Radio Edit] - 3:37\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Radio Edit) - 3:58\n\"What About Us\" (Extended Mix) - 3:49 (only available through pre-order)\n\nUK Digital Remixes EP\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Club Mix) - 7:35\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Club Mix) - 6:36\n\"What About Us\" (Seamus Haji Club Mix) - 6:35\n\"What About Us\" (The Buzz Junkies Club Mix) - 4:32\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Radio Edit) - 4:24\n\nRevamped Version\n\"What About Us\" - 3:24\n\"Somebody Else's Life\" (Acoustic) - 3:18\n\"What About Us\" (Extended Mix) - 3:49\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Radio Edit) - 4:24\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Radio Edit) - 3:58\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) - 4:32\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) [The Buzz Junkies Radio Edit] - 3:23\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) [Seamus Haji Radio Edit] - 3:37\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Club Mix) - 6:36\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Club Mix) - 7:35\n\"What About Us\" (The Buzz Junkies Club Mix) - 4:32\n\"What About Us\" (Seamus Haji Club Mix) - 6:35\n\nCredits and personnel\n\"What About Us\" was recorded at Rollover Studios in London.\n\nOllie Jacobs a.k.a. Art Bastian ~ Songwriter, Producer, Vocal Producer, Mix Engineer\n\nPhillip Jacobs ~ co-writer\nCamille Purcell ~ co-writer\nThe Saturdays ~ vocals\nSean Paul ~ guest vocalist\n\nCharts and certifications\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nCertifications\n\nRelease and radio history\n\nSee also\n\nList of UK Singles Chart number ones of the 2010s\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n feat. Sean Paul\n\nThe Saturdays songs\nSean Paul songs\n2012 singles\nDance-pop songs\nNumber-one singles in Scotland\nUK Singles Chart number-one singles\nSongs written by Camille Purcell\n2012 songs\nFascination Records singles\nSongs written by Ollie Jacobs",
"No Turning Back: The Story So Far is the first compilation album by Shannon Noll. The album includes tracks from Noll's three studio albums to date, That's What I'm Talking About (2004), Lift (2005) and Turn It Up (2008) and five brand new tracks. The album was released in September 2008 and peaked at number 7 on the ARIA Charts, becoming Noll's fourth consecutive top ten album.\n\nUpon released, Noll said \"It was only once we started talking about the idea that it sank in how many singles there's been, from \"What About Me\" right through to \"Loud\" and \"In Pieces\". All these songs mean so much to me and showcase a journey that I've been through with my songwriting and recording, my career in general. It's great to have the new songs on the album, as they are just a taste of what we've got planned for next year!\"\n\nSingles\nThe first single taken from the album was \"Summertime\", which was originally by 2007 Canadian Idol Brian Melo. The track peaked at number 54 on the ARIA Chart.\n\nTrack listing\n\"Summertime\" – 3:42\n\"Shine\" – 3:34\n\"Lift\" – 3:56\n\"Lonely\" – 4:42\n\"Now I Run\" – 3:44\n\"What About Me\" – 3:21\n\"Drive\" – 3:58\n\"Learn to Fly\" – 4:09\n\"Don't Give Up\" (with Natalie Bassingthwaighte) – 4:40\n\"Loud\" – 3:10\n\"In Pieces\" – 3:32\n\"Tomorrow\" – 3:57\n\"No Turning Back\" – 3:43\n\"Crash\" – 3:21\n\"You're Never Alone\" – 5:01\n\"Sorry Is Just Too Late\" (featuring Kari Kimmel) (iTunes exclusive bonus track) – 3:54\n\nDisc 2 (DVD edition)\n\"What About Me\"\n\"Drive\"\n\"Learn to Fly\"\n\"Lonely\"\n\"Shine\"\n\"Lift\"\n\"Now I Run\"\n\"Loud\"\n\"In Pieces\"\n\"Don't Give Up\" (with Natalie Bassingthwaighte)\n\nOmissions\nThe compilation omits the following singles:\n \"Rise Up\" with Australian Idol Top 12 (2003) – was a collaborative single and is not considered part of Noll's official discography.\n \"New Beginning\" (2004) – was a radio-only single release from That's What I'm Talking About.\n \"C'mon Aussie C'mon\" (2004) – was a charity single only.\n \"Twelve Days of Christmas\" with Dreamtime Christmas All-Stars (2004) – was a collaborative single and is not considered part of Noll's official discography.\n \"Everybody Needs a Little Help\" (2008) – was a radio-only single release from Turn It Up.\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\nShannon Noll albums\nSony BMG albums\n2008 greatest hits albums\nCompilation albums by Australian artists"
]
|
[
"The Cult",
"Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991-1994)",
"What was the ceremony?",
"album Ceremony",
"when was it released?",
"1991,",
"was it well received?",
"The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide.",
"when did the lawsuit come about?",
"1992,",
"what was it about?",
" The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony,"
]
| C_4b2e5d61579045e7ae891ff8b3295557_1 | did they have permission to use the image? | 6 | did The Cult have permission to use the image of the Native American boy on the cover of the album Ceremony? | The Cult | In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album. During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and James Kottak played bass and drums respectively. During the actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play drums, with Charley Drayton on bass, and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men reportedly rarely even being in the studio together during recording. The resulting album Ceremony was released to mixed responses. The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. Only two official singles were released from the record: "Wild Hearted Son" (UK No. 34, Canada No. 41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK No. 50), although "White" was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was released as a single (as "Dulce Salvacion") in Argentina in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was released in Spain. The Cult's Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in 1991 and North America in 1992. In 1991 the Cult played a show at the Marquee Club in London, which was recorded and released in February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete bootleg video of this show is also in circulation. The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, for alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted Son". This lawsuit delayed the release of Ceremony in many countries including South Korea and Thailand, which did not see the record's release until late 1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey until the Cult played several shows in Istanbul in June 1993. A world tour followed with backing from future Thin Lizzy drummer Michael Lee and bassist Kinley Wolfe, and keyboardist John Sinclair returning one last time, and the Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 31. Following the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits compilation which debuted at No. 1 on the British charts and later went to number one in Portugal, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and recruited Craig Adams (the Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic. CANNOTANSWER | alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. | The Cult are an English rock band formed in 1983 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury's previous band Southern Death Cult. They gained a dedicated following in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s as a post-punk/gothic rock band, with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking into the mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s establishing themselves as a hard rock band with singles such as "Love Removal Machine". Since its initial formation in 1983, the band have had various line-ups; the longest-serving members are Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, who are also the band's two songwriters.
The Cult's debut studio album Dreamtime was released in 1984 to moderate success, with its lead single "Spiritwalker" reaching No. 1 on the UK Indie Chart. Their second studio album, Love (1985), was even more successful, charting at No. 4 in the UK and including singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary" and "Rain". The band's third album, Electric (1987), launched them new heights of success, also peaking at No. 4 in the UK and charting highly in other territories, and spawned the hit singles "Love Removal Machine", "Lil' Devil" and "Wild Flower". On that album, The Cult supplemented their post-punk sound with hard rock; the polish on this new sound was facilitated by producer Rick Rubin. After moving to Los Angeles, California, where the band has been based for the remainder of their career, The Cult continued the musical experimentation of Electric with its follow-up album Sonic Temple (1989), which marked their first collaboration with Bob Rock, who would produce several of the band's subsequent albums. Sonic Temple was their most successful album to that point, entering the Top 10 on the UK and US charts, and included one of the band's most popular songs "Fire Woman".
By the time of their fifth album Ceremony (1991), tensions and creative differences began to surface among the band members. This resulted in the recording sessions for Ceremony being held without a stable lineup, leaving Astbury and Duffy as the only two official members left, and featuring support from session musicians on bass and drums. The ongoing tension had carried over within the next four years, during which they released one more studio album, The Cult (1994), and called it quits in 1995. The Cult reformed in 1999 and released their seventh album Beyond Good and Evil two years later. The commercial failure of the album and resurfaced tensions led to the band going back on hiatus in 2002. They resumed activity in 2006, and have since released three more studio albums: Born into This (2007), Choice of Weapon (2012), and Hidden City (2016).
History
Early history (1981–1984)
The band's origins can be traced to 1981, in Bradford, Yorkshire, where vocalist and songwriter Ian Astbury formed a band called Southern Death Cult. The name was chosen with a double meaning, and was derived from the 14th-century Native American religion, the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex or Southern Death Cult as it was sometimes known, from the Mississippi delta area, but it was also a stab at what the band viewed was the centralisation of power in Southern England (including that of the music industry); there has long been a perceived notion of a North–South divide based on social, historic and economic reasons. Astbury was joined by Buzz Burrows (guitar), Barry Jepson (bass) and Aki Nawaz Qureshi (drums); they performed their first show at the Queen's Hall in their hometown of Bradford on 29 October 1981. The band were at the forefront of an emerging style of music, in the form of post-punk and gothic rock, they achieved critical acclaim from the press and music fans.
The band signed to independent record label Situation Two, an offshoot of Beggars Banquet Records, and released a three-track, triple A-side single, Moya, during this period. They toured through England headlining some shows and touring with Bauhaus and Theatre of Hate. The band played their final performance in Manchester during February 1983, meaning after only sixteen months the band was over. A compilation named The Southern Death Cult was released, this being a collection of the single, radio sessions with John Peel for Radio One and live performances - one of which an audience member recorded with a tape recorder.
In April 1983, Astbury teamed up with guitarist Billy Duffy and formed the band "Death Cult". Duffy had been in the Nosebleeds (along with Morrissey), Lonesome No More and then Theatre of Hate. In addition to Astbury and Duffy, the band also included Jamie Stewart (bass) and Raymond Taylor Smith (later known as Ray Mondo) (drums), both from the Harrow, London based post-punk band, Ritual. Death Cult made their live debut in Oslo, Norway on 25 July 1983 and also released the Death Cult EP in the same month, then toured through mainland Europe and Scotland. In September 1983, Mondo was deported to his home country of Sierra Leone and replaced by Nigel Preston, formerly of Theatre of Hate. The single "Gods Zoo" was released in October 1983. Another European tour, with UK dates, followed that autumn. To tone down their name's gothic connotations and gain broader appeal, the band changed its name to "the Cult" in January 1984 before appearing on the (UK) Channel 4 television show, The Tube.
The Cult's first studio record, Dreamtime, was recorded at Rockfield Studios, in Monmouth, Wales in 1984. The record was to be produced by Joe Julian, but after recording the drum tracks, the band decided to replace him with John Brand. Brand produced the record, but guitarist Duffy has said the drum tracks were produced by Julian, as Preston had become unreliable.
The band recorded the songs which later became known as "Butterflies", "(The) Gimmick", "A Flower in the Desert", "Horse Nation", "Spiritwalker", "Bad Medicine (Waltz)", "Dreamtime", "With Love" (later known as "Ship of Fools", and also "Sea and Sky"), "Bone Bag", "Too Young", "83rd Dream", and one untitled outtake. It is unknown what the outtake was, or whether it was developed into a song at a later date. Songs like "Horse Nation" showed Astbury's intense interest in Native American issues, with the lyrics to "Horse Nation", "See them prancing, they come neighing, to a horse nation", taken almost verbatim from the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, while "Spiritwalker" dealt with shamanism, and the record's title and title track are overtly influenced by Australian Aboriginal beliefs.
On 4 April 1984, the Cult released the single "Spiritwalker", which reached No. 1 on the independent charts in the UK, and acted as a teaser for their forthcoming album Dreamtime. This was followed that summer by a second single, "Go West (Crazy Spinning Circles)", before the release of Dreamtime in September; the album reached No. 21 in the UK, and sold over 100,000 copies in the UK alone. On 12 July 1984, the band recorded five songs at the BBC Maida Vale 5 studio for a Richard Skinner session. Before and after the album's release, the Cult toured throughout Europe and England before recording another single, "Ressurection Joe" (UK No. 74), released that December. Following a Christmas support slot with Big Country, the Cult toured Europe with support from the Mission (then called the Sisterhood). Dreamtime was released initially only in the UK, but after its success, and as the Cult's popularity grew worldwide, it was issued in approximately 30 countries.
Mainstream success (1985–1990)
In May 1985, the Cult released their fourth single, "She Sells Sanctuary", which peaked at No. 15 in the UK and spent 23 weeks in the Top 100. The song was recently voted No. 18 in VH1's Indie 100. In June 1985, following his increasingly erratic behaviour, Preston was fired from the band. Big Country's drummer Mark Brzezicki was picked to replace Preston, and was also included in the video for "She Sells Sanctuary". The Cult then finished recording their second album, Love in July and August 1985. The band's music and image shifted from their punk-oriented roots to 1960s psychedelia influences. Love was a chart success, peaking at No. 4 in the UK and selling 100,000 copies there toward a total of 500,000 copies throughout Europe, as well as 100,000 in Australia and 500,000 copies in the United States. Love reached number 20 on the charts in The Netherlands, where it remained for 32 weeks. To date, the record has sold over two and a half million copies worldwide.
From late September 1985 to June 1986, the band went on a worldwide tour with new drummer Les Warner (who had played with Julian Lennon and Johnny Thunders). Two more singles from the Love album followed; "Rain" (charting in the UK at No. 17) and "Revolution" (charting in the UK at No. 30). Neither charted in the US. Another single, "Nirvana", was issued only in Poland. The album version of "Rain", as well as the remix "(Here Comes the) Rain", were used in the Italian horror film Dèmoni 2. Once back in England, the band booked themselves into the Manor Studios in Oxfordshire, with producer Steve Brown (who had produced Love), and recorded over a dozen new songs. The band were unhappy with the sound of their new album, titled Peace, and they decided to go to New York so producer Rick Rubin could remix the first single, "Love Removal Machine".
Rubin agreed to work with the band, but only if they rerecorded the song. Rubin eventually talked them into rerecording the entire album. The band's record company, Beggars Banquet, was displeased with this, as two months and £250,000 had already been spent on the record. However, after hearing the initial New York recording, Beggars Banquet agreed to proceed. The first single, "Love Removal Machine", was released in February 1987, and the new version of the album appeared in April that year, now renamed as Electric, reaching No. 4 and eventually outselling Love. The band toured with Kid Chaos (also known as "Haggis" and "The Kid") on bass, with Stewart on rhythm guitar. Two more singles, "Lil Devil" and "Wild Flower", were released during 1987. A few tracks from the original Peace album appeared on the single versions of "Love Removal Machine", and "Lil Devil". The full Peace album would not be released until 2000, when it was included as Disc 3 of the Rare Cult box set.
In the US, the Cult, now consisting of Astbury, Duffy, Stewart, Warner and Kid Chaos, were supported by the then-unknown Guns N' Roses. The band also appeared at Roskilde Festival in Denmark in June 1987. When the world tour wound through Australia, the band wrecked £30,000 worth of equipment, and as a result they could not tour Japan, as no company would rent them new equipment. At the end of the tour the Electric album had been certified Gold in the UK, and sold roughly 3 million copies worldwide, but the band were barely speaking to each other by then. Haggis left the band at the end of the Electric tour to form the Four Horsemen for Rubin's Def American label. Astbury and Duffy fired Warner and their management team Grant/Edwards, and moved to Los Angeles with original bassist Stewart. Warner sued the band several times for his firing, as well as for what he felt were unpaid royalties due to him for his performance on the Electric album, resulting in lengthy court battles. The Cult signed a new management deal and wrote 21 new songs for their next record.
For the next album, Stewart returned to playing bass, and John Webster was brought in to play keyboards. The band used Chris Taylor to play drums during rehearsals and record the demos, with future Kiss drummer Eric Singer performing during the second demo recording sessions. The Cult eventually recruited session-drummer Mickey Curry to fill the drumming role and Aerosmith sound engineer, Bob Rock, to produce. Recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from October to December 1988, the Sonic Temple record went Top 10 in both the UK and the US, where it was certified Gold and Platinum respectively. The band went on tour in support of the new album and new single "Fire Woman" (UK No. 15) (NZ No. 1), with yet another new drummer, Matt Sorum, and Webster as keyboard player. The next single, "Edie (Ciao Baby)" (UK No. 25) has become a regular song at concerts for many years.
In Europe, the band toured with Aerosmith, and in the US, after releasing another single "Sun King" (UK No. 42), they spent 1989 touring in support of Metallica before heading out on their own headlining tour later that same year. A fourth single, "Sweet Soul Sister" (UK No. 38), was released in February 1990, with the video having been filmed at Wembley Arena, London, on 25 November 1989. "Sweet Soul Sister" was partially written in Paris and was inspired by the bohemian lifestyle of that city. Released as a single in February 1990, the song was another hit in the UK, and reportedly reached number one on the rock charts in Brazil. After playing a show in Atlanta, Georgia, in February 1990, the band's management told Astbury that his father had just died of cancer. As a result, the remainder of the tour was cancelled after a final leg of shows were performed in April. After the tour ended, the band were on the verge of splitting due to Stewart retiring and moving to Canada to be with his wife, and Sorum leaving to join Guns N' Roses.
In 1990, Astbury organized the Gathering of the Tribes festival in Los Angeles and San Francisco with artists such as Soundgarden, Ice-T, Indigo Girls, Queen Latifah, Iggy Pop, the Charlatans, the Cramps and Public Enemy appearing. This two-day festival drew 40,000 people. Also in 1990, a ten CD box set was released in the UK, containing rare songs from the Cult's singles. The CDs in this box set were all issued as picture discs with rice paper covers, housed in a white box called "Singles Collection", or a black box called "E.P. Collection '84 - '90". In 1991, director Oliver Stone offered Astbury the role of Jim Morrison in Stone's film The Doors. He declined the role because he was not happy with the way Morrison was represented in the film, and the role was ultimately played by Val Kilmer.
Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991–1993)
In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album. During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and James Kottak played bass and drums, respectively. During the actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play drums, with Charley Drayton on bass, and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men reportedly rarely even being in the studio together during recording. The resulting album Ceremony was released to mixed responses. The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. Only two official singles were released from the record: "Wild Hearted Son" (UK No. 34, Canada No. 41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK No. 50), although "White" was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was released as a single (as "Dulce Salvación") in Argentina in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was released in Spain.
The Cult's Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in 1991 and North America in 1992. In 1991 the Cult played a show at the Marquee Club in London, which was recorded and released in February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete bootleg video of this show is also in circulation.
The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, for alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. The parents stated that the boy felt he had been cursed by the band's burning of his image, and was "emotionally scarred." This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted Son". This lawsuit delayed the release of Ceremony in many countries including South Korea and Thailand, which did not see the record's release until late 1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey until the Cult played several shows in Istanbul in June 1993.
A world tour followed with backing from drummer Michael Lee (Page & Plant, Little Angels), bassist Kinley "Barney" Wolfe (Lord Tracy, Black Oak Arkansas), and keyboardist John Sinclair (Ozzy Osbourne, Uriah Heep) returning one last time, and the Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 28. Following the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits compilation which debuted at No. 1 on the British charts and later went to number one in Portugal, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and recruited Craig Adams (the Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic.
The Cult and first breakup (1994–1998)
With the same line-up still in place, the band released The Cult in October 1994, produced by Bob Rock. The self-titled album is commonly referred to as the "Black Sheep" album by fans of the group, due to the image of a black sheep on the front cover. Astbury referred to the record as a collection of "very personal and very revealing" songs about his life, with the subject matter ranging from sexual abuse at the age of 15, to the death of Nigel Preston, to his directionless years spent in Glasgow in the late 1970s.
The record achieved little success, only reaching No. 69 in the US and No. 21 in the UK. Duffy remarked that he thought that the record wouldn't sell well due to the offensive lyrics. The record went to number one in Portugal also, but quickly dropped out of sight. The single "Coming Down (Drug Tongue)" was released with the band going on tour in support of the new album. Only one more single, "Star", was officially released with a live appearance on UK TV show The Word. "Star" began life in 1986 as "Tom Petty" and was recorded at the "Sonic Temple" demo sessions as "Starchild", being dropped by the band during rehearsals. In 1993 the song was resurrected and was finally completed for the record in 1994 as, just simply, "Star".
When the band began the Beauty's On The Streets tour in winter 1994, they augmented the line up with James Stevenson on rhythm guitar. As with the Ceremony record several years earlier, no other official singles were released, but several other songs were released on a strictly limited basis: "Sacred Life" was released in Spain and the Netherlands, "Be Free" was issued in Canada and France, "Saints Are Down" was issued in Greece, but none of the songs gained much commercial success. During this tour, the Cult made their first ever appearance in Norway.
During the Black Rain tour of South America in spring of 1995, despite the fact that several more new songs had already been recorded, the tour was cancelled after an appearance in Rio de Janeiro in March, and the band split up citing unspecified problems on a recent South American tour. Astbury started up a garage band called Holy Barbarians a few months later. The band made their debut at the 100 Club in London in February 1996 and released their first (and only) record in May 1996, and toured throughout North America and Europe for the rest of 1996. The band started writing material for a second record in 1997, but the band was dissolved and Astbury began writing and recording a solo record. Throughout 1997 and 1998 Astbury recorded his solo record, originally to be titled Natural Born Guerilla, later called High Time Amplifier. Ultimately the record remained unreleased until June 2000 when it was released under the name Spirit\Light\Speed. Astbury played one solo concert in 1999.
In November 1996, a number of CD reissues were released: the band's American record company released High Octane Cult, a slightly updated greatest hits compilation released only in the US and Japan; The Southern Death Cult, a remastered edition of the fifteen-song compilation CD; a ten-song compilation CD by Death Cult called Ghost Dance, consisting of the untitled four-song EP, the single "God's Zoo", and four unreleased songs from a radio broadcast; and a remastered repackaging of the Dreamtime album, containing only the ten original songs from the record in their original playing order and almost completely different but original artwork. Dreamtime Live at the Lyceum was also remastered and issued on video and for the first time on CD, with the one unreleased song from the concert, "Gimmick".
First reunion, Beyond Good and Evil and second hiatus (1999–2005)
In 1999, Astbury and Duffy reformed the Cult with Matt Sorum and ex-Porno for Pyros bassist Martyn LeNoble. Their first official concert was at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in June 1999, after having rehearsed at shows in the Los Angeles area. The band's 1999 Cult Rising reunion tour resulted in a sold out 30 date tour of the US, ending with 8 consecutive sold out nights at the LA House of Blues. In 2000, the band toured South Africa for the first time, and North and South America, and contributed the song "Painted on My Heart" to the soundtrack of the movie Gone In 60 Seconds. The song was featured prominently and the melody was fused into parts of the score. In June, Astbury's long-delayed solo record was finally released as Spirit\Light\Speed, but it failed to gain much success. In November 2000, another authorised greatest hits compilation was released, Pure Cult: The Singles 1984–1995, along with an accompanying DVD, which was later certified gold in Canada. The Cult, as well as Ian Astbury, performed on separate tracks on the Doors tribute album, Stoned Immaculate: The Music of The Doors, covering "Wild Child" and "Touch Me".
In November 2000, Beggars Banquet released 15,000 copies of a six-disc boxset (with a bonus seventh disc of remixes for the first 5000 copies) titled Rare Cult. The box set consists of album out-takes, demos, radio broadcasts, and album B-sides. It is most notable for including the previously unreleased "Peace" album in its entirety. In 2001, the band signed to Atlantic Records and recorded a new album, Beyond Good and Evil, originally being produced by Mick Jones of Foreigner, until Jones bowed out to tour with Foreigner. Astbury and Duffy co-wrote a song with Jones, an odd occurrence, as in the past, neither Astbury or Duffy would co-write their material. Bob Rock was the producer, with Martyn LeNoble and Chris Wyse as recording bassists, as Mike Dimkich played rhythm guitar on tour, and Matt Sorum returning as drummer. Although Sorum has previously toured with the band on the Sonic Temple tour in 1989, this was the first time that he had recorded a studio album with the band.
However Beyond Good and Evil was not the comeback record the band had hoped for. Despite reaching No. 37 in the US, No. 22 in Canada, and No. 25 in Spain, sales quickly dropped, only selling roughly 500,000 copies worldwide. The first single "Rise", reached No. 41 in the US, and No. 2 on the mainstream rock charts, but Atlantic Records quickly pulled the song from radio playlists. Astbury would later describe the experience with Atlantic to be "soul destroying", after Atlantic tried to tamper with the lyrics, the record cover, and choice of singles from the record.
After the first single from the record, the band's working relationship with Atlantic was on paper only, with Atlantic pulling "Rise" from the radio stations playlists, and stopping all promotion of the record. The second single "Breathe" was only released as a radio station promo, and the final single "True Believers" was only on a compilation sampler disc released in January 2002 (after the Cult's tour had already ended). Despite "True Believers" receiving radio airplay in Australia, both singles went largely unnoticed, and both Astbury and Duffy walked away from the project. LeNoble rejoined the band for the initial dates in early 2001, and Billy Morrison filled in on bass for the majority of the 2001 tour.
The European tour of 2001 was canceled, largely due to security concerns after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the band flew back to the US to tour again with Aerosmith. But the eleven-week tour was considered by fans to be a disaster, as the band played only a brief rundown of their greatest hits. In October 2001, a show at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles was filmed for release on DVD. After the tour ended in December 2001, the band took most of 2002 off, apart from a few shows in the US to promote the release of the DVD, with Scott Garrett and Craig Adams rejoining the band.
Despite the commercial disappointment of Beyond Good and Evil and the supporting tour, the band was voted "Comeback of the Year" by Metal Edge readers in the magazine's 2001 Readers' Choice Awards.
In late 2002, Ian Astbury declared the Cult to be "on ice" indefinitely, after performing a brief series of dates in October 2002 to promote the release of the Music Without Fear DVD. During this second hiatus, Astbury performed as a member of the Doors (later dubbed the Doors of the 21st Century, later still renamed D21c, and most recently known as Riders on the Storm) with two of the original members of that group. D21c was sued numerous times, both by Jim Morrison's family and by drummer John Densmore. Astbury supposedly started work on recording another solo album that later became the backbone for the Cult's Born into This.
At the same time, Duffy was part of Coloursound with bassist Craig Adams and ex-Alarm frontman Mike Peters, then Dead Men Walking (again with Peters) and later Cardboard Vampyres. Sorum became a member of the hard rock supergroup Velvet Revolver. In 2003, all of the Cult's records were issued on CD, with several bonus tracks being issued on the Russian, Belarusian, and Lithuanian versions. These eastern European releases had many printing mistakes on the jacket sleeves and lyric inserts. In October 2004, all of the Cult's records were again remastered and issued again on CD, this time in Japan in different cardboard foldout sleeves. "She Sells Sanctuary" appeared in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, playing on rock station V-Rock.
Second reunion, Born Into This and Capsule EPs (2006–2010)
Despite Astbury's previous statement from 2004 that a reunion would not happen, The Cult announced in January 2006 that they were reuniting for "some limited gigs" throughout the year. A month later, the band made their first live appearance in three-and-a-half years on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Their lineup consisted of Astbury (vocals), Duffy (lead guitar), John Tempesta (drums), Dimkich (rhythm guitar) and Wyse (returning as bassist). Their first stage show was held in March 2006 in San Francisco, California, at The Fillmore. The entire tour was recorded by Instant Live and sold after each show. In May, they did an eight date tour in Canada. Later that summer, they toured central and eastern Europe and played their first concerts in Bulgaria, Poland and Serbia. An eleven-date UK tour followed as well as several more dates in the United States, finishing with a South American tour in December. That year, Duffy began the band Circus Diablo with Billy Morrison, Sorum, Brett Scallions and Ricky Warwick.
During these tours, the band occasionally played an extended set, including several songs the band had not performed in decades: "King Contrary Man" and "Hollow Man", neither of which had been performed since 1987; also, "Libertine" was performed approximately three times, for the first time since 2000, and "Brother Wolf, Sister Moon", which was only performed one time since 1986 (for this particular song, the band played an abridged version which has never been performed before or since)
Astbury announced in February 2007 that he was leaving Riders on the Storm and returning to the Cult. He stated: "I have decided to move on and focus on my own music and legacy." The Cult was featured on Stuffmagazine.com's list of ultimate air guitar players. On 21 March 2007, it was announced that the band would be touring Europe with the Who. The first confirmed tour date was in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in early June, with at least a dozen shows set to follow. The band played a gig in London's West End at the CC Club on 7 June 2007, along with nearly two dozen shows across continental Europe during summer. The tour also includes the first performance in Romania and Croatia.
On 29 May 2007, the band signed a deal with major metal label Roadrunner Records. Their 8th studio album, titled Born into This was released on 16 October, and was produced by Martin "Youth" Glover, bass player for Killing Joke. Born into This was released as regular single disc and limited edition double disc, the second disk being a bonus 5-track CD holding the following tracks: "Stand Alone", "War Pony Destroyer", "I Assassin (Demo)", "Sound of Destruction (Demo)" and "Savages (Extended Version)". Prior to the album's release, the band played festival and headline dates, and supported the Who in Europe through summer 2007, with a US headline tour to follow.
The band's appearance at Irving Plaza in New York City in early November 2006 was filmed and was released in 2007. The Cult New York City, issued by Fontana North and is the Cult's first high definition DVD release. Meanwhile, Astbury lent vocals on two tracks of the 2007 Unkle album "War Stories", one of them being the first single from the album, "Burn My Shadow".
The band performed a UK and European tour in late-February and early-March 2008. On 24 March, they began their North American tour including a major 13-city tour in Canada. During September 2008, the Cult did a brief series of dates in the northeast United States, and they toured in Brazil as part of the South American tour in October 2008. As of May 2008, according to The Gauntlet, the Cult are currently unsigned and no longer under contract with Roadrunner Records. In October 2008, it was announced that the Cult would headline the inaugural Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Antonio, to be run 16 November 2008. The Cult announced plans for a tour showcasing their 1985 Love album across the US and then the UK in October where they will play at the Royal Albert Hall.
Coinciding with the remastered Love album and four-disc Omnibus boxed set, the Cult kicked off the long-awaited Love Live Tour in late summer. Performing their classic Love album in its entirety, each show was played with the Love tracks opening with "Nirvana" to "Black Angel". A quick intermission followed, then other Cult hits were played (varying by venue): "Sun King", "Dirty Little Rock Star", "Electric Ocean", "Illuminated". Then followed the favorites "Fire Woman", "Lil Devil", "Wild Flower", and lastly "Love Removal Machine". In the evening of 10 October 2009 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the band performed a second encore with original Cult bassist Jamie Stewart and drummer Mark Brzezicki, who played drums with the band during the Love album recording sessions in July and August 1985. The band sold Love Live USB flash drives for each show during the tour.
The Cult entered 2010 continuing their Love Live Tour and announcing more dates in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan. The band finished recording a four-track "Capsule" with producer Chris Goss. Capsule 1 was said to be the first of three or four to be released sometime in summer 2010. Release formats include CD-DVD dualdisc, 12-inch vinyl, and digital downloads. Capsule 1 was released on 14 September 2010. The band officially announced the release of its first new studio recording since 2007, "Every Man And Woman Is A Star". The new single was released through the iTunes Store on 31 July 2010.
On 1 August 2010, the band played the sold-out music festival Sonisphere, which marked their first UK performance since the tour for their Love album. During the performance they debuted their new single, "Every Man and Woman is a Star", which was released on 1 August 2010. On 14 September 2010 the band embarked on a new U.S. tour and released Capsule 1 in conjunction with media technology company Aderra Inc. and made it available in multiple formats including a CD-DVD DualDisc, USB flash drive, 12 inch vinyl, FLAC download and MP3 download. The collection includes a short film made by singer Ian Astbury and Rick Rogers.
On 26 October 2010 the band and Aderra Inc. announced the release of a new song, "Embers", for 1 November 2010 and Capsule 2 available through their web store on 16 November 2010. Pictures from the Cult's tour stop in Chicago on 28 October 2010 can be seen at a local radio station website.
On 17 September 2010, the band performed live at the Fall Frenzy concert at the Tempe Beach Park in Tempe, Arizona. Other bands that played at this concert were Stone Temple Pilots, Shinedown, and Sevendust.
On 4 December 2010, the band performed a live set for Guitar Center Sessions on DirecTV. The episode included an interview with the band by program host, Nic Harcourt.
Choice of Weapon and Hidden City (2011–2017)
During the Cult's concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on 21 January 2011 Ian Astbury declared that the Cult would be recording a new album directly after the tour. They also announced that they would be working with Chris Goss, who performed with Masters of Reality as a supporting act the same evening. On 11 May 2011, it was announced that the Cult were signed to Cooking Vinyl Records, who will release the new album in early 2012. Commented guitarist Billy Duffy: "We are very much looking forward to returning to our U.K. roots in many ways working with Cooking Vinyl." Vocalist Ian Astbury added, "We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Cooking Vinyl." By May 2011, the band had been writing and recording new demos at its Witch Mountain studio hideaway in the Hollywood Hills, and began recording their new album at Hollywood Recording Studios. In October 2011, bassist Chris Wyse stated the album was almost finished and expected to be released in April 2012. Chris also described it as a "Zep/Stooges mix of energy."
On 29 November 2011, it was announced that the album would be produced by Bob Rock, who provided the same role on Sonic Temple, The Cult and Beyond Good and Evil. The album, entitled Choice of Weapon, was released on 22 May 2012. The band partnered with Rolling Stone to premiere the first song from the album titled Lucifer on 30 January. On 5 February 2012, the Cult song "She Sells Sanctuary" was used as the soundtrack for a Budweiser commercial in a mashup with Flo Rida aired during Super Bowl XLVI. In May 2012 the Cult appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and played "For The Animals".
On 28 September 2012, it was announced that the band would release Weapon of Choice, a "prequel" album to accompany the band's latest album, Choice of Weapon. The digital-only release, available exclusively on iTunes for two months only beginning 16 October, features the songs that were ultimately included in "Choice Of Weapon" at an earlier stage of development. Explaining the motivations behind the release, singer Ian Astbury said that "These songs were turned over and over, forged in long rehearsals and writing sessions, and emanated from challenges both personal and professional. We put our guts into this; [Producer Chris] Goss was able to create an environment where the songs were born through playing and turning over lyrics, through hard work and intense sessions." Astbury added "These songs have an integrity and rawness of their own. In many ways it's a different album to the one we released and reveals the foundations of 'Choice Of Weapon'. We were able to close the doors and begin to explore spaces we had not been in for a while." The song "Twisted and Bleeding" was made available for free download at the band's website ahead of the full digital release.
On 20 June 2013, the band announced the release of Electric-Peace which comprises the entire Electric album plus the Peace album which was previously released on the now discontinued Rare Cult box set in 2000. It is due for release in the US on 30 July. In 2013 Mike Dimkich left the band and joined Bad Religion to cover for guitarist Greg Hetson. James Stevenson, from the Beauty's On The Streets tour in 1994, replaced Dimkich as the Cult's rhythm guitarist.
In March 2013, Billy Duffy told the Argentinan journalist Fabrizio Pedrotti that the Cult had begun work on a new album for a 2014 release. The band were expected to begin work on the album after they finish their 2013 world tour, where they played the Electric album in its entirety. In August 2014, Billy added that the next album, which was not expected to be released before 2015 at the earliest, "will be more guitar heavy".
On 5 November 2015, it was announced that The Cult would release their new album, entitled Hidden City, on 5 February 2016. The album is said to be the final part of a trilogy that began with Born into This, and marks the fifth time Bob Rock had produced a Cult album. The band also announced that they had hired Australian-born bassist Grant Fitzpatrick (ex-Mink) as the replacement for Chris Wyse. Chris Chaney (Jane's Addiction, Camp Freddy) and producer Bob Rock performed session bass on the album. In support of Hidden City, The Cult opened for Guns N' Roses on the Not in This Lifetime... Tour.
In an October 2016 interview with PopMatters journalist J.C. Maçek III, Cult guitarist Billy Duffy spoke of the band's playlist while on tour, saying "Obviously you want to make an impactful [show]," he continues. "There are some practical, pragmatic decisions made. If you're playing to a crowd who are not very familiar with you, there's no point of going too deep but we do always make sure we play a new song. Like on Guns N' Roses' [tour] we had fifty minutes which is ten songs all in. So, you know we just made sure that in those ten songs we played 'Deeply Ordered Chaos' which we’re proud of and it makes a certain statement. And it just alerts people to the fact that, yes, we have made a record in the last 30 years. You know and that's a good thing. Psychologically, that's the blood transfusion that we need. And we're very mindful, we have a very loyal fan base. We don't pander as you well know."
Upcoming eleventh studio album (2018–present)
In an April 2018 interview with Guitar World, guitarist Billy Duffy was asked if another album from The Cult was in the works. He replied, "Never say never! Ian and I enjoy the process of making new music, and we feel it's vital to keep the band healthy, even if it's pretty much in the law of diminishing returns area now. Who knows if it will be a whole album a series of singles or an EP? I can say new Cult music will be forthcoming, but these days we don't rush it as there's no point. Quality is key. We are past the point of having to release stuff so if we feel it's good enough, then we will release it in some shape or another."
On 2 April 2018, a tour of the United States of America called "Revolution 3 Tour" was announced for the summer. They performed as one of the three headliners, along with Stone Temple Pilots and Bush.
In April 2019, The Cult announced that they would celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of their fourth album Sonic Temple with a world tour, which began on 2 May in Houston, Texas and was expected to wrap up in 2020.
In a June 2019 interview with LA Weekly, vocalist Ian Astbury stated that The Cult were "long overdue" to release new music. He was quoted as saying: "We do have some stuff we've been working on, but it's yet to see the light of day." Six months later, Astbury told Atlantic City Weekly that the band was going to start working on new music in 2020: "We've got a few pieces lying around in various stages of completion. The intention is to get together in the New Year and take a look at what we've got and decide how we are going to go about moving forward. It's an essential part of any creative lifeblood." On May 6, 2020, The Cult announced on their Twitter page that they had signed to Black Hill Records.
On August 15, 2020, Duffy announced on his Twitter that the band were recording their new album with producer Tom Dalgety at Rockfield Studios, where The Cult had recorded their debut album Dreamtime 36 years earlier.
In support of their new album, The Cult will embark on a co-headlining six-date UK tour with Alice Cooper in May and June 2022.
Influences
Duffy and Astbury cited among their influences a lot of different bands "from the Doors to Led Zeppelin. We literally went from the front of our record collections to the back. And then along the way we were drawn in by the likes of Public Image Ltd, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees. You might not hear it in the music but it's there." They also cited Bauhaus among many other post-punk influences. Duffy also praised Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers for a major performance he attended in 1977 and Siouxsie and the Banshees whom "always had great guitar players with killer riffs." Duffy also hailed AC/DC for "the power of a good three chord riff", Pete Townshend of the Who "in terms of commitment to stage performing" and Brian May of Queen for using "‘echoplex’ tape delays to orchestrate his own solo".
Musical style
According to music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the band fuse a "hardcore punk revivalist" sound with the "pseudo-mysticism ... of the Doors and Uriah Heep and the guitar-orchestrations of Led Zeppelin and The Cure ... while adding touches of post-punk goth rock". In 1985 Astbury said, "Our music is just melodies and guitars. We're like Big Country and U2, only better!".
Members
Current members
Ian Astbury – lead vocals, occasional percussion/guitar
Billy Duffy – lead and rhythm guitars, backing vocals
John Tempesta – drums, percussion
Grant Fitzpatrick – bass, backing vocals
Damon Fox – keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Discography
Dreamtime (1984)
Love (1985)
Electric (1987)
Sonic Temple (1989)
Ceremony (1991)
The Cult (1994)
Beyond Good and Evil (2001)
Born into This (2007)
Choice of Weapon (2012)
Hidden City (2016)
References
External links
Official website
Billy Duffy official website
Musical groups established in 1983
Situation Two artists
Beggars Banquet Records artists
Sire Records artists
Musical groups from Bradford
English post-punk music groups
English gothic rock groups
English hard rock musical groups
English heavy metal musical groups
English glam metal musical groups | true | [
"Success Kid is an Internet meme featuring a baby clenching a fistful of sand with a determined facial expression. It began in 2007 and eventually became known as \"Success Kid\". The popularity of the image led CNN to describe Sammy Griner, the boy depicted in the photo, as \"likely the Internet's most famous baby\". In addition to popular use on social media, the image has been licensed for commercial use, and was used by the White House to promote immigration reform. In mid 2015, the Griner family used it to promote a GoFundMe campaign for money to pay for the father’s kidney transplant.\n\nHistory \nThe meme originated in 2007, after Laney Griner uploaded to Flickr a photograph of her son Sam trying to eat sand. The meme gained initial popularity captioned \"I Hate Sandcastles\", suggesting that the boy had just destroyed another child's sandcastle. Eventually, the interpretation of the image shifted, focusing on the boy's facial expression and clenched fist as a gesture of self-congratulation, adding captions that boasted of small personal victories and good fortune. Laney Griner disliked the \"I Hate Sandcastles\" meme as she felt it made her son – who in fact loved sandcastles – look like a bully, but she embraced the \"Success Kid\" concept.\n\nAfter the meme became popular, Laney Griner licensed the picture to Getty Images, a stock photo agency, but decided to license it herself instead. She copyrighted the image in 2012, and since licensed the images to various advertisers. He appeared in an ad for Vitamin Water as well as billboards for Virgin Mobile UK, for a fee that website Search Engine Journal described as \"significant\". In 2013, she hired \"meme manager\" Ben Lashes to represent her son and his likeness, which led to deals to have the image put on t-shirts sold by Hot Topic, for Radio Shack to use the picture around its corporate offices, and to have him appear on Xbox screensavers. Griner also had licensed the image for use by Barack Obama's presidential staff in 2013 as part of an immigration reform campaign. The tweet included a link to a report that suggested that immigration reform could lead to cutting the US deficit by nearly $200 billion within 10 years, and was intended to raise support for the legislation in Congress. The usage of the meme was met with mixed reception on Twitter.\n\nGriner has also taken action against those that have used the image without authorization. A fireworks company featured the image on one of its products without permission, and she sued, taking issue both with the fact that they were profiting from her son's likeness and the fact that he appeared to be endorsing an age-inappropriate product. In January 2020, Laney Griner issued a cease and desist letter to United States Representative Steve King after he had used the Success Kid image as part of a fundraising campaign without her permission.\n\nIn 2012, Justin and Laney Griner spoke at a conference connected with ROFLCon about the challenges of raising a child and protecting that child's brand at the same time. They have been criticized by people who claimed that they were exploiting their son, which Laney has answered by saying that she had no control over whether the meme spread, and stated that she was not worried about backlash because \"there are more people getting joy out of the picture than anything else.\"\n\nGoFundMe campaign \nShortly before Sammy Griner's birth, his father Justin was diagnosed with kidney failure, for which he received dialysis for four hours per session, three days a week. In April 2015, Laney Griner launched a GoFundMe campaign, hoping to raise $75,000 to help pay for his medical care and an eventual kidney transplant. She was initially reluctant to associate the campaign with the \"Success Kid\" meme, wishing for it to focus on her husband's medical need, but changed her mind, and in the first five days it received donations of nearly $9,000 from 300 people. The campaign was linked to on the website Reddit, bringing the total to more than $83,000 in a few days. The story was picked up by several news media outlets, including ABC News, CNN, BuzzFeed, and Time, The Huffington Post, and others. In August 2015 ABC News reported that Justin had received a transplant, was doing well post surgery, and was recovering at home.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n2007 works\n2000s photographs\nInternet memes introduced in 2007\nInternet memes introduced in the 2000s\nColor photographs",
"Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 1 is the debut mixtape by American rapper Cardi B. It was released on March 7, 2016, by KSR. \nCardi B has been sued by a model for allegedly using his image on the mixtape's cover artwork without his permission.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCover art\nThe album's cover, designed by graphic artist Timm Gooden, depicts Cardi B receiving cunnilingus from a tattooed man while drinking from a bottle of Corona Extra beer. The image is actually a photomontage in which a tattoo belonging to Kevin Brophy Jr. was digitally composited onto the body of the uncredited male model who posed for the photo; Brophy later claimed that that tattoo image was used without his permission and that his likeness was appropriated in \"a misleading, offensive, humiliating and provocatively sexual way\". Brophy has filed suit in California over the unauthorized use of his image, and in December 2020 the court rejected Cardi B's motion for summary judgment on the basis of fair use, sending the case to a jury.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2016 mixtape albums\nCardi B albums\nDebut mixtape albums"
]
|
[
"The Cult",
"Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991-1994)",
"What was the ceremony?",
"album Ceremony",
"when was it released?",
"1991,",
"was it well received?",
"The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide.",
"when did the lawsuit come about?",
"1992,",
"what was it about?",
" The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony,",
"did they have permission to use the image?",
"alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image."
]
| C_4b2e5d61579045e7ae891ff8b3295557_1 | was the lawsuit successful? | 7 | was the lawsuit against The Cult regarding the album Ceremony, successful? | The Cult | In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album. During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and James Kottak played bass and drums respectively. During the actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play drums, with Charley Drayton on bass, and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men reportedly rarely even being in the studio together during recording. The resulting album Ceremony was released to mixed responses. The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. Only two official singles were released from the record: "Wild Hearted Son" (UK No. 34, Canada No. 41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK No. 50), although "White" was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was released as a single (as "Dulce Salvacion") in Argentina in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was released in Spain. The Cult's Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in 1991 and North America in 1992. In 1991 the Cult played a show at the Marquee Club in London, which was recorded and released in February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete bootleg video of this show is also in circulation. The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, for alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted Son". This lawsuit delayed the release of Ceremony in many countries including South Korea and Thailand, which did not see the record's release until late 1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey until the Cult played several shows in Istanbul in June 1993. A world tour followed with backing from future Thin Lizzy drummer Michael Lee and bassist Kinley Wolfe, and keyboardist John Sinclair returning one last time, and the Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 31. Following the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits compilation which debuted at No. 1 on the British charts and later went to number one in Portugal, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and recruited Craig Adams (the Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | The Cult are an English rock band formed in 1983 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury's previous band Southern Death Cult. They gained a dedicated following in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s as a post-punk/gothic rock band, with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking into the mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s establishing themselves as a hard rock band with singles such as "Love Removal Machine". Since its initial formation in 1983, the band have had various line-ups; the longest-serving members are Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, who are also the band's two songwriters.
The Cult's debut studio album Dreamtime was released in 1984 to moderate success, with its lead single "Spiritwalker" reaching No. 1 on the UK Indie Chart. Their second studio album, Love (1985), was even more successful, charting at No. 4 in the UK and including singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary" and "Rain". The band's third album, Electric (1987), launched them new heights of success, also peaking at No. 4 in the UK and charting highly in other territories, and spawned the hit singles "Love Removal Machine", "Lil' Devil" and "Wild Flower". On that album, The Cult supplemented their post-punk sound with hard rock; the polish on this new sound was facilitated by producer Rick Rubin. After moving to Los Angeles, California, where the band has been based for the remainder of their career, The Cult continued the musical experimentation of Electric with its follow-up album Sonic Temple (1989), which marked their first collaboration with Bob Rock, who would produce several of the band's subsequent albums. Sonic Temple was their most successful album to that point, entering the Top 10 on the UK and US charts, and included one of the band's most popular songs "Fire Woman".
By the time of their fifth album Ceremony (1991), tensions and creative differences began to surface among the band members. This resulted in the recording sessions for Ceremony being held without a stable lineup, leaving Astbury and Duffy as the only two official members left, and featuring support from session musicians on bass and drums. The ongoing tension had carried over within the next four years, during which they released one more studio album, The Cult (1994), and called it quits in 1995. The Cult reformed in 1999 and released their seventh album Beyond Good and Evil two years later. The commercial failure of the album and resurfaced tensions led to the band going back on hiatus in 2002. They resumed activity in 2006, and have since released three more studio albums: Born into This (2007), Choice of Weapon (2012), and Hidden City (2016).
History
Early history (1981–1984)
The band's origins can be traced to 1981, in Bradford, Yorkshire, where vocalist and songwriter Ian Astbury formed a band called Southern Death Cult. The name was chosen with a double meaning, and was derived from the 14th-century Native American religion, the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex or Southern Death Cult as it was sometimes known, from the Mississippi delta area, but it was also a stab at what the band viewed was the centralisation of power in Southern England (including that of the music industry); there has long been a perceived notion of a North–South divide based on social, historic and economic reasons. Astbury was joined by Buzz Burrows (guitar), Barry Jepson (bass) and Aki Nawaz Qureshi (drums); they performed their first show at the Queen's Hall in their hometown of Bradford on 29 October 1981. The band were at the forefront of an emerging style of music, in the form of post-punk and gothic rock, they achieved critical acclaim from the press and music fans.
The band signed to independent record label Situation Two, an offshoot of Beggars Banquet Records, and released a three-track, triple A-side single, Moya, during this period. They toured through England headlining some shows and touring with Bauhaus and Theatre of Hate. The band played their final performance in Manchester during February 1983, meaning after only sixteen months the band was over. A compilation named The Southern Death Cult was released, this being a collection of the single, radio sessions with John Peel for Radio One and live performances - one of which an audience member recorded with a tape recorder.
In April 1983, Astbury teamed up with guitarist Billy Duffy and formed the band "Death Cult". Duffy had been in the Nosebleeds (along with Morrissey), Lonesome No More and then Theatre of Hate. In addition to Astbury and Duffy, the band also included Jamie Stewart (bass) and Raymond Taylor Smith (later known as Ray Mondo) (drums), both from the Harrow, London based post-punk band, Ritual. Death Cult made their live debut in Oslo, Norway on 25 July 1983 and also released the Death Cult EP in the same month, then toured through mainland Europe and Scotland. In September 1983, Mondo was deported to his home country of Sierra Leone and replaced by Nigel Preston, formerly of Theatre of Hate. The single "Gods Zoo" was released in October 1983. Another European tour, with UK dates, followed that autumn. To tone down their name's gothic connotations and gain broader appeal, the band changed its name to "the Cult" in January 1984 before appearing on the (UK) Channel 4 television show, The Tube.
The Cult's first studio record, Dreamtime, was recorded at Rockfield Studios, in Monmouth, Wales in 1984. The record was to be produced by Joe Julian, but after recording the drum tracks, the band decided to replace him with John Brand. Brand produced the record, but guitarist Duffy has said the drum tracks were produced by Julian, as Preston had become unreliable.
The band recorded the songs which later became known as "Butterflies", "(The) Gimmick", "A Flower in the Desert", "Horse Nation", "Spiritwalker", "Bad Medicine (Waltz)", "Dreamtime", "With Love" (later known as "Ship of Fools", and also "Sea and Sky"), "Bone Bag", "Too Young", "83rd Dream", and one untitled outtake. It is unknown what the outtake was, or whether it was developed into a song at a later date. Songs like "Horse Nation" showed Astbury's intense interest in Native American issues, with the lyrics to "Horse Nation", "See them prancing, they come neighing, to a horse nation", taken almost verbatim from the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, while "Spiritwalker" dealt with shamanism, and the record's title and title track are overtly influenced by Australian Aboriginal beliefs.
On 4 April 1984, the Cult released the single "Spiritwalker", which reached No. 1 on the independent charts in the UK, and acted as a teaser for their forthcoming album Dreamtime. This was followed that summer by a second single, "Go West (Crazy Spinning Circles)", before the release of Dreamtime in September; the album reached No. 21 in the UK, and sold over 100,000 copies in the UK alone. On 12 July 1984, the band recorded five songs at the BBC Maida Vale 5 studio for a Richard Skinner session. Before and after the album's release, the Cult toured throughout Europe and England before recording another single, "Ressurection Joe" (UK No. 74), released that December. Following a Christmas support slot with Big Country, the Cult toured Europe with support from the Mission (then called the Sisterhood). Dreamtime was released initially only in the UK, but after its success, and as the Cult's popularity grew worldwide, it was issued in approximately 30 countries.
Mainstream success (1985–1990)
In May 1985, the Cult released their fourth single, "She Sells Sanctuary", which peaked at No. 15 in the UK and spent 23 weeks in the Top 100. The song was recently voted No. 18 in VH1's Indie 100. In June 1985, following his increasingly erratic behaviour, Preston was fired from the band. Big Country's drummer Mark Brzezicki was picked to replace Preston, and was also included in the video for "She Sells Sanctuary". The Cult then finished recording their second album, Love in July and August 1985. The band's music and image shifted from their punk-oriented roots to 1960s psychedelia influences. Love was a chart success, peaking at No. 4 in the UK and selling 100,000 copies there toward a total of 500,000 copies throughout Europe, as well as 100,000 in Australia and 500,000 copies in the United States. Love reached number 20 on the charts in The Netherlands, where it remained for 32 weeks. To date, the record has sold over two and a half million copies worldwide.
From late September 1985 to June 1986, the band went on a worldwide tour with new drummer Les Warner (who had played with Julian Lennon and Johnny Thunders). Two more singles from the Love album followed; "Rain" (charting in the UK at No. 17) and "Revolution" (charting in the UK at No. 30). Neither charted in the US. Another single, "Nirvana", was issued only in Poland. The album version of "Rain", as well as the remix "(Here Comes the) Rain", were used in the Italian horror film Dèmoni 2. Once back in England, the band booked themselves into the Manor Studios in Oxfordshire, with producer Steve Brown (who had produced Love), and recorded over a dozen new songs. The band were unhappy with the sound of their new album, titled Peace, and they decided to go to New York so producer Rick Rubin could remix the first single, "Love Removal Machine".
Rubin agreed to work with the band, but only if they rerecorded the song. Rubin eventually talked them into rerecording the entire album. The band's record company, Beggars Banquet, was displeased with this, as two months and £250,000 had already been spent on the record. However, after hearing the initial New York recording, Beggars Banquet agreed to proceed. The first single, "Love Removal Machine", was released in February 1987, and the new version of the album appeared in April that year, now renamed as Electric, reaching No. 4 and eventually outselling Love. The band toured with Kid Chaos (also known as "Haggis" and "The Kid") on bass, with Stewart on rhythm guitar. Two more singles, "Lil Devil" and "Wild Flower", were released during 1987. A few tracks from the original Peace album appeared on the single versions of "Love Removal Machine", and "Lil Devil". The full Peace album would not be released until 2000, when it was included as Disc 3 of the Rare Cult box set.
In the US, the Cult, now consisting of Astbury, Duffy, Stewart, Warner and Kid Chaos, were supported by the then-unknown Guns N' Roses. The band also appeared at Roskilde Festival in Denmark in June 1987. When the world tour wound through Australia, the band wrecked £30,000 worth of equipment, and as a result they could not tour Japan, as no company would rent them new equipment. At the end of the tour the Electric album had been certified Gold in the UK, and sold roughly 3 million copies worldwide, but the band were barely speaking to each other by then. Haggis left the band at the end of the Electric tour to form the Four Horsemen for Rubin's Def American label. Astbury and Duffy fired Warner and their management team Grant/Edwards, and moved to Los Angeles with original bassist Stewart. Warner sued the band several times for his firing, as well as for what he felt were unpaid royalties due to him for his performance on the Electric album, resulting in lengthy court battles. The Cult signed a new management deal and wrote 21 new songs for their next record.
For the next album, Stewart returned to playing bass, and John Webster was brought in to play keyboards. The band used Chris Taylor to play drums during rehearsals and record the demos, with future Kiss drummer Eric Singer performing during the second demo recording sessions. The Cult eventually recruited session-drummer Mickey Curry to fill the drumming role and Aerosmith sound engineer, Bob Rock, to produce. Recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from October to December 1988, the Sonic Temple record went Top 10 in both the UK and the US, where it was certified Gold and Platinum respectively. The band went on tour in support of the new album and new single "Fire Woman" (UK No. 15) (NZ No. 1), with yet another new drummer, Matt Sorum, and Webster as keyboard player. The next single, "Edie (Ciao Baby)" (UK No. 25) has become a regular song at concerts for many years.
In Europe, the band toured with Aerosmith, and in the US, after releasing another single "Sun King" (UK No. 42), they spent 1989 touring in support of Metallica before heading out on their own headlining tour later that same year. A fourth single, "Sweet Soul Sister" (UK No. 38), was released in February 1990, with the video having been filmed at Wembley Arena, London, on 25 November 1989. "Sweet Soul Sister" was partially written in Paris and was inspired by the bohemian lifestyle of that city. Released as a single in February 1990, the song was another hit in the UK, and reportedly reached number one on the rock charts in Brazil. After playing a show in Atlanta, Georgia, in February 1990, the band's management told Astbury that his father had just died of cancer. As a result, the remainder of the tour was cancelled after a final leg of shows were performed in April. After the tour ended, the band were on the verge of splitting due to Stewart retiring and moving to Canada to be with his wife, and Sorum leaving to join Guns N' Roses.
In 1990, Astbury organized the Gathering of the Tribes festival in Los Angeles and San Francisco with artists such as Soundgarden, Ice-T, Indigo Girls, Queen Latifah, Iggy Pop, the Charlatans, the Cramps and Public Enemy appearing. This two-day festival drew 40,000 people. Also in 1990, a ten CD box set was released in the UK, containing rare songs from the Cult's singles. The CDs in this box set were all issued as picture discs with rice paper covers, housed in a white box called "Singles Collection", or a black box called "E.P. Collection '84 - '90". In 1991, director Oliver Stone offered Astbury the role of Jim Morrison in Stone's film The Doors. He declined the role because he was not happy with the way Morrison was represented in the film, and the role was ultimately played by Val Kilmer.
Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991–1993)
In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album. During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and James Kottak played bass and drums, respectively. During the actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play drums, with Charley Drayton on bass, and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men reportedly rarely even being in the studio together during recording. The resulting album Ceremony was released to mixed responses. The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. Only two official singles were released from the record: "Wild Hearted Son" (UK No. 34, Canada No. 41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK No. 50), although "White" was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was released as a single (as "Dulce Salvación") in Argentina in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was released in Spain.
The Cult's Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in 1991 and North America in 1992. In 1991 the Cult played a show at the Marquee Club in London, which was recorded and released in February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete bootleg video of this show is also in circulation.
The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, for alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. The parents stated that the boy felt he had been cursed by the band's burning of his image, and was "emotionally scarred." This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted Son". This lawsuit delayed the release of Ceremony in many countries including South Korea and Thailand, which did not see the record's release until late 1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey until the Cult played several shows in Istanbul in June 1993.
A world tour followed with backing from drummer Michael Lee (Page & Plant, Little Angels), bassist Kinley "Barney" Wolfe (Lord Tracy, Black Oak Arkansas), and keyboardist John Sinclair (Ozzy Osbourne, Uriah Heep) returning one last time, and the Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 28. Following the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits compilation which debuted at No. 1 on the British charts and later went to number one in Portugal, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and recruited Craig Adams (the Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic.
The Cult and first breakup (1994–1998)
With the same line-up still in place, the band released The Cult in October 1994, produced by Bob Rock. The self-titled album is commonly referred to as the "Black Sheep" album by fans of the group, due to the image of a black sheep on the front cover. Astbury referred to the record as a collection of "very personal and very revealing" songs about his life, with the subject matter ranging from sexual abuse at the age of 15, to the death of Nigel Preston, to his directionless years spent in Glasgow in the late 1970s.
The record achieved little success, only reaching No. 69 in the US and No. 21 in the UK. Duffy remarked that he thought that the record wouldn't sell well due to the offensive lyrics. The record went to number one in Portugal also, but quickly dropped out of sight. The single "Coming Down (Drug Tongue)" was released with the band going on tour in support of the new album. Only one more single, "Star", was officially released with a live appearance on UK TV show The Word. "Star" began life in 1986 as "Tom Petty" and was recorded at the "Sonic Temple" demo sessions as "Starchild", being dropped by the band during rehearsals. In 1993 the song was resurrected and was finally completed for the record in 1994 as, just simply, "Star".
When the band began the Beauty's On The Streets tour in winter 1994, they augmented the line up with James Stevenson on rhythm guitar. As with the Ceremony record several years earlier, no other official singles were released, but several other songs were released on a strictly limited basis: "Sacred Life" was released in Spain and the Netherlands, "Be Free" was issued in Canada and France, "Saints Are Down" was issued in Greece, but none of the songs gained much commercial success. During this tour, the Cult made their first ever appearance in Norway.
During the Black Rain tour of South America in spring of 1995, despite the fact that several more new songs had already been recorded, the tour was cancelled after an appearance in Rio de Janeiro in March, and the band split up citing unspecified problems on a recent South American tour. Astbury started up a garage band called Holy Barbarians a few months later. The band made their debut at the 100 Club in London in February 1996 and released their first (and only) record in May 1996, and toured throughout North America and Europe for the rest of 1996. The band started writing material for a second record in 1997, but the band was dissolved and Astbury began writing and recording a solo record. Throughout 1997 and 1998 Astbury recorded his solo record, originally to be titled Natural Born Guerilla, later called High Time Amplifier. Ultimately the record remained unreleased until June 2000 when it was released under the name Spirit\Light\Speed. Astbury played one solo concert in 1999.
In November 1996, a number of CD reissues were released: the band's American record company released High Octane Cult, a slightly updated greatest hits compilation released only in the US and Japan; The Southern Death Cult, a remastered edition of the fifteen-song compilation CD; a ten-song compilation CD by Death Cult called Ghost Dance, consisting of the untitled four-song EP, the single "God's Zoo", and four unreleased songs from a radio broadcast; and a remastered repackaging of the Dreamtime album, containing only the ten original songs from the record in their original playing order and almost completely different but original artwork. Dreamtime Live at the Lyceum was also remastered and issued on video and for the first time on CD, with the one unreleased song from the concert, "Gimmick".
First reunion, Beyond Good and Evil and second hiatus (1999–2005)
In 1999, Astbury and Duffy reformed the Cult with Matt Sorum and ex-Porno for Pyros bassist Martyn LeNoble. Their first official concert was at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in June 1999, after having rehearsed at shows in the Los Angeles area. The band's 1999 Cult Rising reunion tour resulted in a sold out 30 date tour of the US, ending with 8 consecutive sold out nights at the LA House of Blues. In 2000, the band toured South Africa for the first time, and North and South America, and contributed the song "Painted on My Heart" to the soundtrack of the movie Gone In 60 Seconds. The song was featured prominently and the melody was fused into parts of the score. In June, Astbury's long-delayed solo record was finally released as Spirit\Light\Speed, but it failed to gain much success. In November 2000, another authorised greatest hits compilation was released, Pure Cult: The Singles 1984–1995, along with an accompanying DVD, which was later certified gold in Canada. The Cult, as well as Ian Astbury, performed on separate tracks on the Doors tribute album, Stoned Immaculate: The Music of The Doors, covering "Wild Child" and "Touch Me".
In November 2000, Beggars Banquet released 15,000 copies of a six-disc boxset (with a bonus seventh disc of remixes for the first 5000 copies) titled Rare Cult. The box set consists of album out-takes, demos, radio broadcasts, and album B-sides. It is most notable for including the previously unreleased "Peace" album in its entirety. In 2001, the band signed to Atlantic Records and recorded a new album, Beyond Good and Evil, originally being produced by Mick Jones of Foreigner, until Jones bowed out to tour with Foreigner. Astbury and Duffy co-wrote a song with Jones, an odd occurrence, as in the past, neither Astbury or Duffy would co-write their material. Bob Rock was the producer, with Martyn LeNoble and Chris Wyse as recording bassists, as Mike Dimkich played rhythm guitar on tour, and Matt Sorum returning as drummer. Although Sorum has previously toured with the band on the Sonic Temple tour in 1989, this was the first time that he had recorded a studio album with the band.
However Beyond Good and Evil was not the comeback record the band had hoped for. Despite reaching No. 37 in the US, No. 22 in Canada, and No. 25 in Spain, sales quickly dropped, only selling roughly 500,000 copies worldwide. The first single "Rise", reached No. 41 in the US, and No. 2 on the mainstream rock charts, but Atlantic Records quickly pulled the song from radio playlists. Astbury would later describe the experience with Atlantic to be "soul destroying", after Atlantic tried to tamper with the lyrics, the record cover, and choice of singles from the record.
After the first single from the record, the band's working relationship with Atlantic was on paper only, with Atlantic pulling "Rise" from the radio stations playlists, and stopping all promotion of the record. The second single "Breathe" was only released as a radio station promo, and the final single "True Believers" was only on a compilation sampler disc released in January 2002 (after the Cult's tour had already ended). Despite "True Believers" receiving radio airplay in Australia, both singles went largely unnoticed, and both Astbury and Duffy walked away from the project. LeNoble rejoined the band for the initial dates in early 2001, and Billy Morrison filled in on bass for the majority of the 2001 tour.
The European tour of 2001 was canceled, largely due to security concerns after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the band flew back to the US to tour again with Aerosmith. But the eleven-week tour was considered by fans to be a disaster, as the band played only a brief rundown of their greatest hits. In October 2001, a show at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles was filmed for release on DVD. After the tour ended in December 2001, the band took most of 2002 off, apart from a few shows in the US to promote the release of the DVD, with Scott Garrett and Craig Adams rejoining the band.
Despite the commercial disappointment of Beyond Good and Evil and the supporting tour, the band was voted "Comeback of the Year" by Metal Edge readers in the magazine's 2001 Readers' Choice Awards.
In late 2002, Ian Astbury declared the Cult to be "on ice" indefinitely, after performing a brief series of dates in October 2002 to promote the release of the Music Without Fear DVD. During this second hiatus, Astbury performed as a member of the Doors (later dubbed the Doors of the 21st Century, later still renamed D21c, and most recently known as Riders on the Storm) with two of the original members of that group. D21c was sued numerous times, both by Jim Morrison's family and by drummer John Densmore. Astbury supposedly started work on recording another solo album that later became the backbone for the Cult's Born into This.
At the same time, Duffy was part of Coloursound with bassist Craig Adams and ex-Alarm frontman Mike Peters, then Dead Men Walking (again with Peters) and later Cardboard Vampyres. Sorum became a member of the hard rock supergroup Velvet Revolver. In 2003, all of the Cult's records were issued on CD, with several bonus tracks being issued on the Russian, Belarusian, and Lithuanian versions. These eastern European releases had many printing mistakes on the jacket sleeves and lyric inserts. In October 2004, all of the Cult's records were again remastered and issued again on CD, this time in Japan in different cardboard foldout sleeves. "She Sells Sanctuary" appeared in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, playing on rock station V-Rock.
Second reunion, Born Into This and Capsule EPs (2006–2010)
Despite Astbury's previous statement from 2004 that a reunion would not happen, The Cult announced in January 2006 that they were reuniting for "some limited gigs" throughout the year. A month later, the band made their first live appearance in three-and-a-half years on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Their lineup consisted of Astbury (vocals), Duffy (lead guitar), John Tempesta (drums), Dimkich (rhythm guitar) and Wyse (returning as bassist). Their first stage show was held in March 2006 in San Francisco, California, at The Fillmore. The entire tour was recorded by Instant Live and sold after each show. In May, they did an eight date tour in Canada. Later that summer, they toured central and eastern Europe and played their first concerts in Bulgaria, Poland and Serbia. An eleven-date UK tour followed as well as several more dates in the United States, finishing with a South American tour in December. That year, Duffy began the band Circus Diablo with Billy Morrison, Sorum, Brett Scallions and Ricky Warwick.
During these tours, the band occasionally played an extended set, including several songs the band had not performed in decades: "King Contrary Man" and "Hollow Man", neither of which had been performed since 1987; also, "Libertine" was performed approximately three times, for the first time since 2000, and "Brother Wolf, Sister Moon", which was only performed one time since 1986 (for this particular song, the band played an abridged version which has never been performed before or since)
Astbury announced in February 2007 that he was leaving Riders on the Storm and returning to the Cult. He stated: "I have decided to move on and focus on my own music and legacy." The Cult was featured on Stuffmagazine.com's list of ultimate air guitar players. On 21 March 2007, it was announced that the band would be touring Europe with the Who. The first confirmed tour date was in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in early June, with at least a dozen shows set to follow. The band played a gig in London's West End at the CC Club on 7 June 2007, along with nearly two dozen shows across continental Europe during summer. The tour also includes the first performance in Romania and Croatia.
On 29 May 2007, the band signed a deal with major metal label Roadrunner Records. Their 8th studio album, titled Born into This was released on 16 October, and was produced by Martin "Youth" Glover, bass player for Killing Joke. Born into This was released as regular single disc and limited edition double disc, the second disk being a bonus 5-track CD holding the following tracks: "Stand Alone", "War Pony Destroyer", "I Assassin (Demo)", "Sound of Destruction (Demo)" and "Savages (Extended Version)". Prior to the album's release, the band played festival and headline dates, and supported the Who in Europe through summer 2007, with a US headline tour to follow.
The band's appearance at Irving Plaza in New York City in early November 2006 was filmed and was released in 2007. The Cult New York City, issued by Fontana North and is the Cult's first high definition DVD release. Meanwhile, Astbury lent vocals on two tracks of the 2007 Unkle album "War Stories", one of them being the first single from the album, "Burn My Shadow".
The band performed a UK and European tour in late-February and early-March 2008. On 24 March, they began their North American tour including a major 13-city tour in Canada. During September 2008, the Cult did a brief series of dates in the northeast United States, and they toured in Brazil as part of the South American tour in October 2008. As of May 2008, according to The Gauntlet, the Cult are currently unsigned and no longer under contract with Roadrunner Records. In October 2008, it was announced that the Cult would headline the inaugural Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Antonio, to be run 16 November 2008. The Cult announced plans for a tour showcasing their 1985 Love album across the US and then the UK in October where they will play at the Royal Albert Hall.
Coinciding with the remastered Love album and four-disc Omnibus boxed set, the Cult kicked off the long-awaited Love Live Tour in late summer. Performing their classic Love album in its entirety, each show was played with the Love tracks opening with "Nirvana" to "Black Angel". A quick intermission followed, then other Cult hits were played (varying by venue): "Sun King", "Dirty Little Rock Star", "Electric Ocean", "Illuminated". Then followed the favorites "Fire Woman", "Lil Devil", "Wild Flower", and lastly "Love Removal Machine". In the evening of 10 October 2009 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the band performed a second encore with original Cult bassist Jamie Stewart and drummer Mark Brzezicki, who played drums with the band during the Love album recording sessions in July and August 1985. The band sold Love Live USB flash drives for each show during the tour.
The Cult entered 2010 continuing their Love Live Tour and announcing more dates in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan. The band finished recording a four-track "Capsule" with producer Chris Goss. Capsule 1 was said to be the first of three or four to be released sometime in summer 2010. Release formats include CD-DVD dualdisc, 12-inch vinyl, and digital downloads. Capsule 1 was released on 14 September 2010. The band officially announced the release of its first new studio recording since 2007, "Every Man And Woman Is A Star". The new single was released through the iTunes Store on 31 July 2010.
On 1 August 2010, the band played the sold-out music festival Sonisphere, which marked their first UK performance since the tour for their Love album. During the performance they debuted their new single, "Every Man and Woman is a Star", which was released on 1 August 2010. On 14 September 2010 the band embarked on a new U.S. tour and released Capsule 1 in conjunction with media technology company Aderra Inc. and made it available in multiple formats including a CD-DVD DualDisc, USB flash drive, 12 inch vinyl, FLAC download and MP3 download. The collection includes a short film made by singer Ian Astbury and Rick Rogers.
On 26 October 2010 the band and Aderra Inc. announced the release of a new song, "Embers", for 1 November 2010 and Capsule 2 available through their web store on 16 November 2010. Pictures from the Cult's tour stop in Chicago on 28 October 2010 can be seen at a local radio station website.
On 17 September 2010, the band performed live at the Fall Frenzy concert at the Tempe Beach Park in Tempe, Arizona. Other bands that played at this concert were Stone Temple Pilots, Shinedown, and Sevendust.
On 4 December 2010, the band performed a live set for Guitar Center Sessions on DirecTV. The episode included an interview with the band by program host, Nic Harcourt.
Choice of Weapon and Hidden City (2011–2017)
During the Cult's concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on 21 January 2011 Ian Astbury declared that the Cult would be recording a new album directly after the tour. They also announced that they would be working with Chris Goss, who performed with Masters of Reality as a supporting act the same evening. On 11 May 2011, it was announced that the Cult were signed to Cooking Vinyl Records, who will release the new album in early 2012. Commented guitarist Billy Duffy: "We are very much looking forward to returning to our U.K. roots in many ways working with Cooking Vinyl." Vocalist Ian Astbury added, "We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Cooking Vinyl." By May 2011, the band had been writing and recording new demos at its Witch Mountain studio hideaway in the Hollywood Hills, and began recording their new album at Hollywood Recording Studios. In October 2011, bassist Chris Wyse stated the album was almost finished and expected to be released in April 2012. Chris also described it as a "Zep/Stooges mix of energy."
On 29 November 2011, it was announced that the album would be produced by Bob Rock, who provided the same role on Sonic Temple, The Cult and Beyond Good and Evil. The album, entitled Choice of Weapon, was released on 22 May 2012. The band partnered with Rolling Stone to premiere the first song from the album titled Lucifer on 30 January. On 5 February 2012, the Cult song "She Sells Sanctuary" was used as the soundtrack for a Budweiser commercial in a mashup with Flo Rida aired during Super Bowl XLVI. In May 2012 the Cult appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and played "For The Animals".
On 28 September 2012, it was announced that the band would release Weapon of Choice, a "prequel" album to accompany the band's latest album, Choice of Weapon. The digital-only release, available exclusively on iTunes for two months only beginning 16 October, features the songs that were ultimately included in "Choice Of Weapon" at an earlier stage of development. Explaining the motivations behind the release, singer Ian Astbury said that "These songs were turned over and over, forged in long rehearsals and writing sessions, and emanated from challenges both personal and professional. We put our guts into this; [Producer Chris] Goss was able to create an environment where the songs were born through playing and turning over lyrics, through hard work and intense sessions." Astbury added "These songs have an integrity and rawness of their own. In many ways it's a different album to the one we released and reveals the foundations of 'Choice Of Weapon'. We were able to close the doors and begin to explore spaces we had not been in for a while." The song "Twisted and Bleeding" was made available for free download at the band's website ahead of the full digital release.
On 20 June 2013, the band announced the release of Electric-Peace which comprises the entire Electric album plus the Peace album which was previously released on the now discontinued Rare Cult box set in 2000. It is due for release in the US on 30 July. In 2013 Mike Dimkich left the band and joined Bad Religion to cover for guitarist Greg Hetson. James Stevenson, from the Beauty's On The Streets tour in 1994, replaced Dimkich as the Cult's rhythm guitarist.
In March 2013, Billy Duffy told the Argentinan journalist Fabrizio Pedrotti that the Cult had begun work on a new album for a 2014 release. The band were expected to begin work on the album after they finish their 2013 world tour, where they played the Electric album in its entirety. In August 2014, Billy added that the next album, which was not expected to be released before 2015 at the earliest, "will be more guitar heavy".
On 5 November 2015, it was announced that The Cult would release their new album, entitled Hidden City, on 5 February 2016. The album is said to be the final part of a trilogy that began with Born into This, and marks the fifth time Bob Rock had produced a Cult album. The band also announced that they had hired Australian-born bassist Grant Fitzpatrick (ex-Mink) as the replacement for Chris Wyse. Chris Chaney (Jane's Addiction, Camp Freddy) and producer Bob Rock performed session bass on the album. In support of Hidden City, The Cult opened for Guns N' Roses on the Not in This Lifetime... Tour.
In an October 2016 interview with PopMatters journalist J.C. Maçek III, Cult guitarist Billy Duffy spoke of the band's playlist while on tour, saying "Obviously you want to make an impactful [show]," he continues. "There are some practical, pragmatic decisions made. If you're playing to a crowd who are not very familiar with you, there's no point of going too deep but we do always make sure we play a new song. Like on Guns N' Roses' [tour] we had fifty minutes which is ten songs all in. So, you know we just made sure that in those ten songs we played 'Deeply Ordered Chaos' which we’re proud of and it makes a certain statement. And it just alerts people to the fact that, yes, we have made a record in the last 30 years. You know and that's a good thing. Psychologically, that's the blood transfusion that we need. And we're very mindful, we have a very loyal fan base. We don't pander as you well know."
Upcoming eleventh studio album (2018–present)
In an April 2018 interview with Guitar World, guitarist Billy Duffy was asked if another album from The Cult was in the works. He replied, "Never say never! Ian and I enjoy the process of making new music, and we feel it's vital to keep the band healthy, even if it's pretty much in the law of diminishing returns area now. Who knows if it will be a whole album a series of singles or an EP? I can say new Cult music will be forthcoming, but these days we don't rush it as there's no point. Quality is key. We are past the point of having to release stuff so if we feel it's good enough, then we will release it in some shape or another."
On 2 April 2018, a tour of the United States of America called "Revolution 3 Tour" was announced for the summer. They performed as one of the three headliners, along with Stone Temple Pilots and Bush.
In April 2019, The Cult announced that they would celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of their fourth album Sonic Temple with a world tour, which began on 2 May in Houston, Texas and was expected to wrap up in 2020.
In a June 2019 interview with LA Weekly, vocalist Ian Astbury stated that The Cult were "long overdue" to release new music. He was quoted as saying: "We do have some stuff we've been working on, but it's yet to see the light of day." Six months later, Astbury told Atlantic City Weekly that the band was going to start working on new music in 2020: "We've got a few pieces lying around in various stages of completion. The intention is to get together in the New Year and take a look at what we've got and decide how we are going to go about moving forward. It's an essential part of any creative lifeblood." On May 6, 2020, The Cult announced on their Twitter page that they had signed to Black Hill Records.
On August 15, 2020, Duffy announced on his Twitter that the band were recording their new album with producer Tom Dalgety at Rockfield Studios, where The Cult had recorded their debut album Dreamtime 36 years earlier.
In support of their new album, The Cult will embark on a co-headlining six-date UK tour with Alice Cooper in May and June 2022.
Influences
Duffy and Astbury cited among their influences a lot of different bands "from the Doors to Led Zeppelin. We literally went from the front of our record collections to the back. And then along the way we were drawn in by the likes of Public Image Ltd, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees. You might not hear it in the music but it's there." They also cited Bauhaus among many other post-punk influences. Duffy also praised Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers for a major performance he attended in 1977 and Siouxsie and the Banshees whom "always had great guitar players with killer riffs." Duffy also hailed AC/DC for "the power of a good three chord riff", Pete Townshend of the Who "in terms of commitment to stage performing" and Brian May of Queen for using "‘echoplex’ tape delays to orchestrate his own solo".
Musical style
According to music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the band fuse a "hardcore punk revivalist" sound with the "pseudo-mysticism ... of the Doors and Uriah Heep and the guitar-orchestrations of Led Zeppelin and The Cure ... while adding touches of post-punk goth rock". In 1985 Astbury said, "Our music is just melodies and guitars. We're like Big Country and U2, only better!".
Members
Current members
Ian Astbury – lead vocals, occasional percussion/guitar
Billy Duffy – lead and rhythm guitars, backing vocals
John Tempesta – drums, percussion
Grant Fitzpatrick – bass, backing vocals
Damon Fox – keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Discography
Dreamtime (1984)
Love (1985)
Electric (1987)
Sonic Temple (1989)
Ceremony (1991)
The Cult (1994)
Beyond Good and Evil (2001)
Born into This (2007)
Choice of Weapon (2012)
Hidden City (2016)
References
External links
Official website
Billy Duffy official website
Musical groups established in 1983
Situation Two artists
Beggars Banquet Records artists
Sire Records artists
Musical groups from Bradford
English post-punk music groups
English gothic rock groups
English hard rock musical groups
English heavy metal musical groups
English glam metal musical groups | false | [
"Ladies' Night is a play by the New Zealand writers Stephen Sinclair and Anthony McCarten about a group of unemployed workers who develop a male strip show.\n\nPerformances\nIt was first performed in December 1987 at Auckland's Mercury Theatre and is the most commercially successful play in New Zealand's theatre history. It had several national sell-out tours in the UK since 1990 and has been translated into sixteen languages. It continues to play worldwide to popular acclaim. In 2001, the Paris production at the Théâtre Rive Gauche in a French adaptation by Jacques Collard received the Molière Award for Best Comedy.\n\nDevelopment\nThe first season was workshopped with the actors for month before opening, with the season rapidly selling out. Actors included Bruce Hopkins, Michael Lawrence, Shane Dawson, Nigel Harbrow, Ross Duncan and Alison Bruce.\n\nFull Monty lawsuit\nIn 1998, McCarten launched a multimillion-pound lawsuit in California, US, against the producers of the 1997 film The Full Monty, which has a strikingly similar theme and was the highest-grossing British film at the time. It was dismissed because the film had been made in the United Kingdom. \n\nThus, McCarten and Sinclair filed a £180 million British lawsuit against the producers of The Full Monty in 1998. They claim that the film blatantly infringed on their play Ladies Night, which toured both Britain and New Zealand. Anthony McCarten and Stephen Sinclair created a website containing their play in response to statements from the producers of The Full Monty that claimed the two productions were not alike. The underlying rights were attributed to co-producer, Paul Bucknor, and the lawsuit was settled out of court; as part of the agreement, the website containing Ladies Night was shut down.\n\nReferences\n\n1987 plays\nNew Zealand plays",
"Windjammer Surf Racers was a steel racing roller coaster located at Knott's Berry Farm amusement park in Buena Park, California. It sat on the former spot of Wacky Soap Box Racers. The ride was plagued with mechanical issues and only operated sporadically from 1997 to 2000, leading to a lawsuit being filed against the manufacturer, TOGO.\n\nHistory\nOn September 26, 1996, Knott's Berry Farm announced a new roller coaster for the 1997 season called Windjammer Surf Racers. It opened to the public on March 26, 1997. Windjammer experienced mechanical issues early on. Within a few weeks of operation, the ride needed several major repairs costing over $2 million. It also quickly gained a negative reputation for being rough, as the over-the-shoulder restraints lacked padding. The racing coaster would also frequently stall in reportedly \"slight breezes\".\n\nIn 1999, an apparel company challenged the coaster's name, which was temporarily changed to \"Jammer\" until the dispute was resolved. In 2000, Knott's Berry Farm filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer, TOGO, suing for $17 million in damages. Knott's claimed that TOGO poorly engineered the coaster preventing successful operation during its three years. They reported problems including poor track design, defective safety restraints, and wrinkles in the main frame of the trains. The park also claimed that the ride's design flaws prevented operation during medium winds, sometimes stalling even during slight breezes, which Knott's called an \"embarrassment.\" The ride remained closed during the lawsuit as evidence, but Knott's was unable to complete a sale of the ride. TOGO shut their American offices down in March 2001 after filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.\n\nIn June 2001, the park erected construction walls surrounding Windjammer Surf Racers, and the nearby Headspin scrambler ride was relocated. Windjammer was demolished the following month in July 2001. A hydraulically-launched roller coaster called Xcelerator, was built in its place for the following season.\n\nRide experience\nWindjammer Surf Racers was a unique coaster; it involved small Wild Mouse-like trains running on a full size track. There were two independent tracks (red and yellow) that were constructed parallel to each other, in which the purpose of the ride was to pit both tracks in a race against each other. The coaster's rider load/unloading platform did not have an airgate system to keep queuing guests clear from advancing vehicles within the station.\n\nThe ride was dressed as a tribute to the fabled Southern California beach culture, complete with towering palms trees, beach sand, a miniature lagoon, a scaled-down lifeguard watch tower, and other beach-worthy props. The on-ride photograph sales booth was built into the side of a scaled-down replica of a yacht.\n\nLayout\n\nAfter both trains exited the station, they headed up a chain lift hill. A right turn led into a drop on both tracks. After reaching the bottom of each drop, both sides reached a maximum speed of before entering a vertical loop. The trains went through several turns and drops and a helix finale before stopping on the final brake run and returning to the station.\n\nLawsuit\nWindjammer Surf Racers did not run frequently because it was plagued with mechanical problems. Just a few weeks into operation, several parts had to be replaced. Knott's Berry Farm spent about $2 million on repairs and inspections alone. Knott's eventually sued TOGO, seeking $17 million in damages, though the lawsuit was eventually rejected. Knott's claimed that TOGO poorly engineered the coaster which prevented successful operation during its three years. They reported problems including poor track design, defective safety restraints, and wrinkles in the main frame of the trains. The park also claimed that the ride's design flaws prevented operation during medium winds, sometimes stalling even during slight breezes, which Knott's called an \"embarrassment.\"\n\nThe ride remained closed during the lawsuit as evidence. When Knott's was unable to complete a sale of the ride, it was dismantled in July 2001. In November 2003, the jury rejected Knott's lawsuit in favor of TOGO International.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nWindjammer Surf Racers at Thrill Network\nPictures/Ride History\nDeconstruction Photos at Westcoaster.\n\nSteel roller coasters\nFormer roller coasters in California\nRoller coasters operated by Cedar Fair"
]
|
[
"The Cult",
"Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991-1994)",
"What was the ceremony?",
"album Ceremony",
"when was it released?",
"1991,",
"was it well received?",
"The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide.",
"when did the lawsuit come about?",
"1992,",
"what was it about?",
" The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony,",
"did they have permission to use the image?",
"alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image.",
"was the lawsuit successful?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_4b2e5d61579045e7ae891ff8b3295557_1 | were there any singles released on ceremony? | 8 | were there any singles released from The Cult album ceremony? | The Cult | In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album. During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and James Kottak played bass and drums respectively. During the actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play drums, with Charley Drayton on bass, and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men reportedly rarely even being in the studio together during recording. The resulting album Ceremony was released to mixed responses. The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. Only two official singles were released from the record: "Wild Hearted Son" (UK No. 34, Canada No. 41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK No. 50), although "White" was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was released as a single (as "Dulce Salvacion") in Argentina in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was released in Spain. The Cult's Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in 1991 and North America in 1992. In 1991 the Cult played a show at the Marquee Club in London, which was recorded and released in February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete bootleg video of this show is also in circulation. The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, for alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted Son". This lawsuit delayed the release of Ceremony in many countries including South Korea and Thailand, which did not see the record's release until late 1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey until the Cult played several shows in Istanbul in June 1993. A world tour followed with backing from future Thin Lizzy drummer Michael Lee and bassist Kinley Wolfe, and keyboardist John Sinclair returning one last time, and the Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 31. Following the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits compilation which debuted at No. 1 on the British charts and later went to number one in Portugal, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and recruited Craig Adams (the Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic. CANNOTANSWER | "Wild Hearted Son". | The Cult are an English rock band formed in 1983 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury's previous band Southern Death Cult. They gained a dedicated following in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s as a post-punk/gothic rock band, with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking into the mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s establishing themselves as a hard rock band with singles such as "Love Removal Machine". Since its initial formation in 1983, the band have had various line-ups; the longest-serving members are Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, who are also the band's two songwriters.
The Cult's debut studio album Dreamtime was released in 1984 to moderate success, with its lead single "Spiritwalker" reaching No. 1 on the UK Indie Chart. Their second studio album, Love (1985), was even more successful, charting at No. 4 in the UK and including singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary" and "Rain". The band's third album, Electric (1987), launched them new heights of success, also peaking at No. 4 in the UK and charting highly in other territories, and spawned the hit singles "Love Removal Machine", "Lil' Devil" and "Wild Flower". On that album, The Cult supplemented their post-punk sound with hard rock; the polish on this new sound was facilitated by producer Rick Rubin. After moving to Los Angeles, California, where the band has been based for the remainder of their career, The Cult continued the musical experimentation of Electric with its follow-up album Sonic Temple (1989), which marked their first collaboration with Bob Rock, who would produce several of the band's subsequent albums. Sonic Temple was their most successful album to that point, entering the Top 10 on the UK and US charts, and included one of the band's most popular songs "Fire Woman".
By the time of their fifth album Ceremony (1991), tensions and creative differences began to surface among the band members. This resulted in the recording sessions for Ceremony being held without a stable lineup, leaving Astbury and Duffy as the only two official members left, and featuring support from session musicians on bass and drums. The ongoing tension had carried over within the next four years, during which they released one more studio album, The Cult (1994), and called it quits in 1995. The Cult reformed in 1999 and released their seventh album Beyond Good and Evil two years later. The commercial failure of the album and resurfaced tensions led to the band going back on hiatus in 2002. They resumed activity in 2006, and have since released three more studio albums: Born into This (2007), Choice of Weapon (2012), and Hidden City (2016).
History
Early history (1981–1984)
The band's origins can be traced to 1981, in Bradford, Yorkshire, where vocalist and songwriter Ian Astbury formed a band called Southern Death Cult. The name was chosen with a double meaning, and was derived from the 14th-century Native American religion, the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex or Southern Death Cult as it was sometimes known, from the Mississippi delta area, but it was also a stab at what the band viewed was the centralisation of power in Southern England (including that of the music industry); there has long been a perceived notion of a North–South divide based on social, historic and economic reasons. Astbury was joined by Buzz Burrows (guitar), Barry Jepson (bass) and Aki Nawaz Qureshi (drums); they performed their first show at the Queen's Hall in their hometown of Bradford on 29 October 1981. The band were at the forefront of an emerging style of music, in the form of post-punk and gothic rock, they achieved critical acclaim from the press and music fans.
The band signed to independent record label Situation Two, an offshoot of Beggars Banquet Records, and released a three-track, triple A-side single, Moya, during this period. They toured through England headlining some shows and touring with Bauhaus and Theatre of Hate. The band played their final performance in Manchester during February 1983, meaning after only sixteen months the band was over. A compilation named The Southern Death Cult was released, this being a collection of the single, radio sessions with John Peel for Radio One and live performances - one of which an audience member recorded with a tape recorder.
In April 1983, Astbury teamed up with guitarist Billy Duffy and formed the band "Death Cult". Duffy had been in the Nosebleeds (along with Morrissey), Lonesome No More and then Theatre of Hate. In addition to Astbury and Duffy, the band also included Jamie Stewart (bass) and Raymond Taylor Smith (later known as Ray Mondo) (drums), both from the Harrow, London based post-punk band, Ritual. Death Cult made their live debut in Oslo, Norway on 25 July 1983 and also released the Death Cult EP in the same month, then toured through mainland Europe and Scotland. In September 1983, Mondo was deported to his home country of Sierra Leone and replaced by Nigel Preston, formerly of Theatre of Hate. The single "Gods Zoo" was released in October 1983. Another European tour, with UK dates, followed that autumn. To tone down their name's gothic connotations and gain broader appeal, the band changed its name to "the Cult" in January 1984 before appearing on the (UK) Channel 4 television show, The Tube.
The Cult's first studio record, Dreamtime, was recorded at Rockfield Studios, in Monmouth, Wales in 1984. The record was to be produced by Joe Julian, but after recording the drum tracks, the band decided to replace him with John Brand. Brand produced the record, but guitarist Duffy has said the drum tracks were produced by Julian, as Preston had become unreliable.
The band recorded the songs which later became known as "Butterflies", "(The) Gimmick", "A Flower in the Desert", "Horse Nation", "Spiritwalker", "Bad Medicine (Waltz)", "Dreamtime", "With Love" (later known as "Ship of Fools", and also "Sea and Sky"), "Bone Bag", "Too Young", "83rd Dream", and one untitled outtake. It is unknown what the outtake was, or whether it was developed into a song at a later date. Songs like "Horse Nation" showed Astbury's intense interest in Native American issues, with the lyrics to "Horse Nation", "See them prancing, they come neighing, to a horse nation", taken almost verbatim from the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, while "Spiritwalker" dealt with shamanism, and the record's title and title track are overtly influenced by Australian Aboriginal beliefs.
On 4 April 1984, the Cult released the single "Spiritwalker", which reached No. 1 on the independent charts in the UK, and acted as a teaser for their forthcoming album Dreamtime. This was followed that summer by a second single, "Go West (Crazy Spinning Circles)", before the release of Dreamtime in September; the album reached No. 21 in the UK, and sold over 100,000 copies in the UK alone. On 12 July 1984, the band recorded five songs at the BBC Maida Vale 5 studio for a Richard Skinner session. Before and after the album's release, the Cult toured throughout Europe and England before recording another single, "Ressurection Joe" (UK No. 74), released that December. Following a Christmas support slot with Big Country, the Cult toured Europe with support from the Mission (then called the Sisterhood). Dreamtime was released initially only in the UK, but after its success, and as the Cult's popularity grew worldwide, it was issued in approximately 30 countries.
Mainstream success (1985–1990)
In May 1985, the Cult released their fourth single, "She Sells Sanctuary", which peaked at No. 15 in the UK and spent 23 weeks in the Top 100. The song was recently voted No. 18 in VH1's Indie 100. In June 1985, following his increasingly erratic behaviour, Preston was fired from the band. Big Country's drummer Mark Brzezicki was picked to replace Preston, and was also included in the video for "She Sells Sanctuary". The Cult then finished recording their second album, Love in July and August 1985. The band's music and image shifted from their punk-oriented roots to 1960s psychedelia influences. Love was a chart success, peaking at No. 4 in the UK and selling 100,000 copies there toward a total of 500,000 copies throughout Europe, as well as 100,000 in Australia and 500,000 copies in the United States. Love reached number 20 on the charts in The Netherlands, where it remained for 32 weeks. To date, the record has sold over two and a half million copies worldwide.
From late September 1985 to June 1986, the band went on a worldwide tour with new drummer Les Warner (who had played with Julian Lennon and Johnny Thunders). Two more singles from the Love album followed; "Rain" (charting in the UK at No. 17) and "Revolution" (charting in the UK at No. 30). Neither charted in the US. Another single, "Nirvana", was issued only in Poland. The album version of "Rain", as well as the remix "(Here Comes the) Rain", were used in the Italian horror film Dèmoni 2. Once back in England, the band booked themselves into the Manor Studios in Oxfordshire, with producer Steve Brown (who had produced Love), and recorded over a dozen new songs. The band were unhappy with the sound of their new album, titled Peace, and they decided to go to New York so producer Rick Rubin could remix the first single, "Love Removal Machine".
Rubin agreed to work with the band, but only if they rerecorded the song. Rubin eventually talked them into rerecording the entire album. The band's record company, Beggars Banquet, was displeased with this, as two months and £250,000 had already been spent on the record. However, after hearing the initial New York recording, Beggars Banquet agreed to proceed. The first single, "Love Removal Machine", was released in February 1987, and the new version of the album appeared in April that year, now renamed as Electric, reaching No. 4 and eventually outselling Love. The band toured with Kid Chaos (also known as "Haggis" and "The Kid") on bass, with Stewart on rhythm guitar. Two more singles, "Lil Devil" and "Wild Flower", were released during 1987. A few tracks from the original Peace album appeared on the single versions of "Love Removal Machine", and "Lil Devil". The full Peace album would not be released until 2000, when it was included as Disc 3 of the Rare Cult box set.
In the US, the Cult, now consisting of Astbury, Duffy, Stewart, Warner and Kid Chaos, were supported by the then-unknown Guns N' Roses. The band also appeared at Roskilde Festival in Denmark in June 1987. When the world tour wound through Australia, the band wrecked £30,000 worth of equipment, and as a result they could not tour Japan, as no company would rent them new equipment. At the end of the tour the Electric album had been certified Gold in the UK, and sold roughly 3 million copies worldwide, but the band were barely speaking to each other by then. Haggis left the band at the end of the Electric tour to form the Four Horsemen for Rubin's Def American label. Astbury and Duffy fired Warner and their management team Grant/Edwards, and moved to Los Angeles with original bassist Stewart. Warner sued the band several times for his firing, as well as for what he felt were unpaid royalties due to him for his performance on the Electric album, resulting in lengthy court battles. The Cult signed a new management deal and wrote 21 new songs for their next record.
For the next album, Stewart returned to playing bass, and John Webster was brought in to play keyboards. The band used Chris Taylor to play drums during rehearsals and record the demos, with future Kiss drummer Eric Singer performing during the second demo recording sessions. The Cult eventually recruited session-drummer Mickey Curry to fill the drumming role and Aerosmith sound engineer, Bob Rock, to produce. Recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from October to December 1988, the Sonic Temple record went Top 10 in both the UK and the US, where it was certified Gold and Platinum respectively. The band went on tour in support of the new album and new single "Fire Woman" (UK No. 15) (NZ No. 1), with yet another new drummer, Matt Sorum, and Webster as keyboard player. The next single, "Edie (Ciao Baby)" (UK No. 25) has become a regular song at concerts for many years.
In Europe, the band toured with Aerosmith, and in the US, after releasing another single "Sun King" (UK No. 42), they spent 1989 touring in support of Metallica before heading out on their own headlining tour later that same year. A fourth single, "Sweet Soul Sister" (UK No. 38), was released in February 1990, with the video having been filmed at Wembley Arena, London, on 25 November 1989. "Sweet Soul Sister" was partially written in Paris and was inspired by the bohemian lifestyle of that city. Released as a single in February 1990, the song was another hit in the UK, and reportedly reached number one on the rock charts in Brazil. After playing a show in Atlanta, Georgia, in February 1990, the band's management told Astbury that his father had just died of cancer. As a result, the remainder of the tour was cancelled after a final leg of shows were performed in April. After the tour ended, the band were on the verge of splitting due to Stewart retiring and moving to Canada to be with his wife, and Sorum leaving to join Guns N' Roses.
In 1990, Astbury organized the Gathering of the Tribes festival in Los Angeles and San Francisco with artists such as Soundgarden, Ice-T, Indigo Girls, Queen Latifah, Iggy Pop, the Charlatans, the Cramps and Public Enemy appearing. This two-day festival drew 40,000 people. Also in 1990, a ten CD box set was released in the UK, containing rare songs from the Cult's singles. The CDs in this box set were all issued as picture discs with rice paper covers, housed in a white box called "Singles Collection", or a black box called "E.P. Collection '84 - '90". In 1991, director Oliver Stone offered Astbury the role of Jim Morrison in Stone's film The Doors. He declined the role because he was not happy with the way Morrison was represented in the film, and the role was ultimately played by Val Kilmer.
Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991–1993)
In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album. During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and James Kottak played bass and drums, respectively. During the actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play drums, with Charley Drayton on bass, and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men reportedly rarely even being in the studio together during recording. The resulting album Ceremony was released to mixed responses. The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. Only two official singles were released from the record: "Wild Hearted Son" (UK No. 34, Canada No. 41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK No. 50), although "White" was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was released as a single (as "Dulce Salvación") in Argentina in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was released in Spain.
The Cult's Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in 1991 and North America in 1992. In 1991 the Cult played a show at the Marquee Club in London, which was recorded and released in February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete bootleg video of this show is also in circulation.
The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, for alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. The parents stated that the boy felt he had been cursed by the band's burning of his image, and was "emotionally scarred." This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted Son". This lawsuit delayed the release of Ceremony in many countries including South Korea and Thailand, which did not see the record's release until late 1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey until the Cult played several shows in Istanbul in June 1993.
A world tour followed with backing from drummer Michael Lee (Page & Plant, Little Angels), bassist Kinley "Barney" Wolfe (Lord Tracy, Black Oak Arkansas), and keyboardist John Sinclair (Ozzy Osbourne, Uriah Heep) returning one last time, and the Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 28. Following the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits compilation which debuted at No. 1 on the British charts and later went to number one in Portugal, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and recruited Craig Adams (the Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic.
The Cult and first breakup (1994–1998)
With the same line-up still in place, the band released The Cult in October 1994, produced by Bob Rock. The self-titled album is commonly referred to as the "Black Sheep" album by fans of the group, due to the image of a black sheep on the front cover. Astbury referred to the record as a collection of "very personal and very revealing" songs about his life, with the subject matter ranging from sexual abuse at the age of 15, to the death of Nigel Preston, to his directionless years spent in Glasgow in the late 1970s.
The record achieved little success, only reaching No. 69 in the US and No. 21 in the UK. Duffy remarked that he thought that the record wouldn't sell well due to the offensive lyrics. The record went to number one in Portugal also, but quickly dropped out of sight. The single "Coming Down (Drug Tongue)" was released with the band going on tour in support of the new album. Only one more single, "Star", was officially released with a live appearance on UK TV show The Word. "Star" began life in 1986 as "Tom Petty" and was recorded at the "Sonic Temple" demo sessions as "Starchild", being dropped by the band during rehearsals. In 1993 the song was resurrected and was finally completed for the record in 1994 as, just simply, "Star".
When the band began the Beauty's On The Streets tour in winter 1994, they augmented the line up with James Stevenson on rhythm guitar. As with the Ceremony record several years earlier, no other official singles were released, but several other songs were released on a strictly limited basis: "Sacred Life" was released in Spain and the Netherlands, "Be Free" was issued in Canada and France, "Saints Are Down" was issued in Greece, but none of the songs gained much commercial success. During this tour, the Cult made their first ever appearance in Norway.
During the Black Rain tour of South America in spring of 1995, despite the fact that several more new songs had already been recorded, the tour was cancelled after an appearance in Rio de Janeiro in March, and the band split up citing unspecified problems on a recent South American tour. Astbury started up a garage band called Holy Barbarians a few months later. The band made their debut at the 100 Club in London in February 1996 and released their first (and only) record in May 1996, and toured throughout North America and Europe for the rest of 1996. The band started writing material for a second record in 1997, but the band was dissolved and Astbury began writing and recording a solo record. Throughout 1997 and 1998 Astbury recorded his solo record, originally to be titled Natural Born Guerilla, later called High Time Amplifier. Ultimately the record remained unreleased until June 2000 when it was released under the name Spirit\Light\Speed. Astbury played one solo concert in 1999.
In November 1996, a number of CD reissues were released: the band's American record company released High Octane Cult, a slightly updated greatest hits compilation released only in the US and Japan; The Southern Death Cult, a remastered edition of the fifteen-song compilation CD; a ten-song compilation CD by Death Cult called Ghost Dance, consisting of the untitled four-song EP, the single "God's Zoo", and four unreleased songs from a radio broadcast; and a remastered repackaging of the Dreamtime album, containing only the ten original songs from the record in their original playing order and almost completely different but original artwork. Dreamtime Live at the Lyceum was also remastered and issued on video and for the first time on CD, with the one unreleased song from the concert, "Gimmick".
First reunion, Beyond Good and Evil and second hiatus (1999–2005)
In 1999, Astbury and Duffy reformed the Cult with Matt Sorum and ex-Porno for Pyros bassist Martyn LeNoble. Their first official concert was at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in June 1999, after having rehearsed at shows in the Los Angeles area. The band's 1999 Cult Rising reunion tour resulted in a sold out 30 date tour of the US, ending with 8 consecutive sold out nights at the LA House of Blues. In 2000, the band toured South Africa for the first time, and North and South America, and contributed the song "Painted on My Heart" to the soundtrack of the movie Gone In 60 Seconds. The song was featured prominently and the melody was fused into parts of the score. In June, Astbury's long-delayed solo record was finally released as Spirit\Light\Speed, but it failed to gain much success. In November 2000, another authorised greatest hits compilation was released, Pure Cult: The Singles 1984–1995, along with an accompanying DVD, which was later certified gold in Canada. The Cult, as well as Ian Astbury, performed on separate tracks on the Doors tribute album, Stoned Immaculate: The Music of The Doors, covering "Wild Child" and "Touch Me".
In November 2000, Beggars Banquet released 15,000 copies of a six-disc boxset (with a bonus seventh disc of remixes for the first 5000 copies) titled Rare Cult. The box set consists of album out-takes, demos, radio broadcasts, and album B-sides. It is most notable for including the previously unreleased "Peace" album in its entirety. In 2001, the band signed to Atlantic Records and recorded a new album, Beyond Good and Evil, originally being produced by Mick Jones of Foreigner, until Jones bowed out to tour with Foreigner. Astbury and Duffy co-wrote a song with Jones, an odd occurrence, as in the past, neither Astbury or Duffy would co-write their material. Bob Rock was the producer, with Martyn LeNoble and Chris Wyse as recording bassists, as Mike Dimkich played rhythm guitar on tour, and Matt Sorum returning as drummer. Although Sorum has previously toured with the band on the Sonic Temple tour in 1989, this was the first time that he had recorded a studio album with the band.
However Beyond Good and Evil was not the comeback record the band had hoped for. Despite reaching No. 37 in the US, No. 22 in Canada, and No. 25 in Spain, sales quickly dropped, only selling roughly 500,000 copies worldwide. The first single "Rise", reached No. 41 in the US, and No. 2 on the mainstream rock charts, but Atlantic Records quickly pulled the song from radio playlists. Astbury would later describe the experience with Atlantic to be "soul destroying", after Atlantic tried to tamper with the lyrics, the record cover, and choice of singles from the record.
After the first single from the record, the band's working relationship with Atlantic was on paper only, with Atlantic pulling "Rise" from the radio stations playlists, and stopping all promotion of the record. The second single "Breathe" was only released as a radio station promo, and the final single "True Believers" was only on a compilation sampler disc released in January 2002 (after the Cult's tour had already ended). Despite "True Believers" receiving radio airplay in Australia, both singles went largely unnoticed, and both Astbury and Duffy walked away from the project. LeNoble rejoined the band for the initial dates in early 2001, and Billy Morrison filled in on bass for the majority of the 2001 tour.
The European tour of 2001 was canceled, largely due to security concerns after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the band flew back to the US to tour again with Aerosmith. But the eleven-week tour was considered by fans to be a disaster, as the band played only a brief rundown of their greatest hits. In October 2001, a show at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles was filmed for release on DVD. After the tour ended in December 2001, the band took most of 2002 off, apart from a few shows in the US to promote the release of the DVD, with Scott Garrett and Craig Adams rejoining the band.
Despite the commercial disappointment of Beyond Good and Evil and the supporting tour, the band was voted "Comeback of the Year" by Metal Edge readers in the magazine's 2001 Readers' Choice Awards.
In late 2002, Ian Astbury declared the Cult to be "on ice" indefinitely, after performing a brief series of dates in October 2002 to promote the release of the Music Without Fear DVD. During this second hiatus, Astbury performed as a member of the Doors (later dubbed the Doors of the 21st Century, later still renamed D21c, and most recently known as Riders on the Storm) with two of the original members of that group. D21c was sued numerous times, both by Jim Morrison's family and by drummer John Densmore. Astbury supposedly started work on recording another solo album that later became the backbone for the Cult's Born into This.
At the same time, Duffy was part of Coloursound with bassist Craig Adams and ex-Alarm frontman Mike Peters, then Dead Men Walking (again with Peters) and later Cardboard Vampyres. Sorum became a member of the hard rock supergroup Velvet Revolver. In 2003, all of the Cult's records were issued on CD, with several bonus tracks being issued on the Russian, Belarusian, and Lithuanian versions. These eastern European releases had many printing mistakes on the jacket sleeves and lyric inserts. In October 2004, all of the Cult's records were again remastered and issued again on CD, this time in Japan in different cardboard foldout sleeves. "She Sells Sanctuary" appeared in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, playing on rock station V-Rock.
Second reunion, Born Into This and Capsule EPs (2006–2010)
Despite Astbury's previous statement from 2004 that a reunion would not happen, The Cult announced in January 2006 that they were reuniting for "some limited gigs" throughout the year. A month later, the band made their first live appearance in three-and-a-half years on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Their lineup consisted of Astbury (vocals), Duffy (lead guitar), John Tempesta (drums), Dimkich (rhythm guitar) and Wyse (returning as bassist). Their first stage show was held in March 2006 in San Francisco, California, at The Fillmore. The entire tour was recorded by Instant Live and sold after each show. In May, they did an eight date tour in Canada. Later that summer, they toured central and eastern Europe and played their first concerts in Bulgaria, Poland and Serbia. An eleven-date UK tour followed as well as several more dates in the United States, finishing with a South American tour in December. That year, Duffy began the band Circus Diablo with Billy Morrison, Sorum, Brett Scallions and Ricky Warwick.
During these tours, the band occasionally played an extended set, including several songs the band had not performed in decades: "King Contrary Man" and "Hollow Man", neither of which had been performed since 1987; also, "Libertine" was performed approximately three times, for the first time since 2000, and "Brother Wolf, Sister Moon", which was only performed one time since 1986 (for this particular song, the band played an abridged version which has never been performed before or since)
Astbury announced in February 2007 that he was leaving Riders on the Storm and returning to the Cult. He stated: "I have decided to move on and focus on my own music and legacy." The Cult was featured on Stuffmagazine.com's list of ultimate air guitar players. On 21 March 2007, it was announced that the band would be touring Europe with the Who. The first confirmed tour date was in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in early June, with at least a dozen shows set to follow. The band played a gig in London's West End at the CC Club on 7 June 2007, along with nearly two dozen shows across continental Europe during summer. The tour also includes the first performance in Romania and Croatia.
On 29 May 2007, the band signed a deal with major metal label Roadrunner Records. Their 8th studio album, titled Born into This was released on 16 October, and was produced by Martin "Youth" Glover, bass player for Killing Joke. Born into This was released as regular single disc and limited edition double disc, the second disk being a bonus 5-track CD holding the following tracks: "Stand Alone", "War Pony Destroyer", "I Assassin (Demo)", "Sound of Destruction (Demo)" and "Savages (Extended Version)". Prior to the album's release, the band played festival and headline dates, and supported the Who in Europe through summer 2007, with a US headline tour to follow.
The band's appearance at Irving Plaza in New York City in early November 2006 was filmed and was released in 2007. The Cult New York City, issued by Fontana North and is the Cult's first high definition DVD release. Meanwhile, Astbury lent vocals on two tracks of the 2007 Unkle album "War Stories", one of them being the first single from the album, "Burn My Shadow".
The band performed a UK and European tour in late-February and early-March 2008. On 24 March, they began their North American tour including a major 13-city tour in Canada. During September 2008, the Cult did a brief series of dates in the northeast United States, and they toured in Brazil as part of the South American tour in October 2008. As of May 2008, according to The Gauntlet, the Cult are currently unsigned and no longer under contract with Roadrunner Records. In October 2008, it was announced that the Cult would headline the inaugural Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Antonio, to be run 16 November 2008. The Cult announced plans for a tour showcasing their 1985 Love album across the US and then the UK in October where they will play at the Royal Albert Hall.
Coinciding with the remastered Love album and four-disc Omnibus boxed set, the Cult kicked off the long-awaited Love Live Tour in late summer. Performing their classic Love album in its entirety, each show was played with the Love tracks opening with "Nirvana" to "Black Angel". A quick intermission followed, then other Cult hits were played (varying by venue): "Sun King", "Dirty Little Rock Star", "Electric Ocean", "Illuminated". Then followed the favorites "Fire Woman", "Lil Devil", "Wild Flower", and lastly "Love Removal Machine". In the evening of 10 October 2009 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the band performed a second encore with original Cult bassist Jamie Stewart and drummer Mark Brzezicki, who played drums with the band during the Love album recording sessions in July and August 1985. The band sold Love Live USB flash drives for each show during the tour.
The Cult entered 2010 continuing their Love Live Tour and announcing more dates in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan. The band finished recording a four-track "Capsule" with producer Chris Goss. Capsule 1 was said to be the first of three or four to be released sometime in summer 2010. Release formats include CD-DVD dualdisc, 12-inch vinyl, and digital downloads. Capsule 1 was released on 14 September 2010. The band officially announced the release of its first new studio recording since 2007, "Every Man And Woman Is A Star". The new single was released through the iTunes Store on 31 July 2010.
On 1 August 2010, the band played the sold-out music festival Sonisphere, which marked their first UK performance since the tour for their Love album. During the performance they debuted their new single, "Every Man and Woman is a Star", which was released on 1 August 2010. On 14 September 2010 the band embarked on a new U.S. tour and released Capsule 1 in conjunction with media technology company Aderra Inc. and made it available in multiple formats including a CD-DVD DualDisc, USB flash drive, 12 inch vinyl, FLAC download and MP3 download. The collection includes a short film made by singer Ian Astbury and Rick Rogers.
On 26 October 2010 the band and Aderra Inc. announced the release of a new song, "Embers", for 1 November 2010 and Capsule 2 available through their web store on 16 November 2010. Pictures from the Cult's tour stop in Chicago on 28 October 2010 can be seen at a local radio station website.
On 17 September 2010, the band performed live at the Fall Frenzy concert at the Tempe Beach Park in Tempe, Arizona. Other bands that played at this concert were Stone Temple Pilots, Shinedown, and Sevendust.
On 4 December 2010, the band performed a live set for Guitar Center Sessions on DirecTV. The episode included an interview with the band by program host, Nic Harcourt.
Choice of Weapon and Hidden City (2011–2017)
During the Cult's concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on 21 January 2011 Ian Astbury declared that the Cult would be recording a new album directly after the tour. They also announced that they would be working with Chris Goss, who performed with Masters of Reality as a supporting act the same evening. On 11 May 2011, it was announced that the Cult were signed to Cooking Vinyl Records, who will release the new album in early 2012. Commented guitarist Billy Duffy: "We are very much looking forward to returning to our U.K. roots in many ways working with Cooking Vinyl." Vocalist Ian Astbury added, "We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Cooking Vinyl." By May 2011, the band had been writing and recording new demos at its Witch Mountain studio hideaway in the Hollywood Hills, and began recording their new album at Hollywood Recording Studios. In October 2011, bassist Chris Wyse stated the album was almost finished and expected to be released in April 2012. Chris also described it as a "Zep/Stooges mix of energy."
On 29 November 2011, it was announced that the album would be produced by Bob Rock, who provided the same role on Sonic Temple, The Cult and Beyond Good and Evil. The album, entitled Choice of Weapon, was released on 22 May 2012. The band partnered with Rolling Stone to premiere the first song from the album titled Lucifer on 30 January. On 5 February 2012, the Cult song "She Sells Sanctuary" was used as the soundtrack for a Budweiser commercial in a mashup with Flo Rida aired during Super Bowl XLVI. In May 2012 the Cult appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and played "For The Animals".
On 28 September 2012, it was announced that the band would release Weapon of Choice, a "prequel" album to accompany the band's latest album, Choice of Weapon. The digital-only release, available exclusively on iTunes for two months only beginning 16 October, features the songs that were ultimately included in "Choice Of Weapon" at an earlier stage of development. Explaining the motivations behind the release, singer Ian Astbury said that "These songs were turned over and over, forged in long rehearsals and writing sessions, and emanated from challenges both personal and professional. We put our guts into this; [Producer Chris] Goss was able to create an environment where the songs were born through playing and turning over lyrics, through hard work and intense sessions." Astbury added "These songs have an integrity and rawness of their own. In many ways it's a different album to the one we released and reveals the foundations of 'Choice Of Weapon'. We were able to close the doors and begin to explore spaces we had not been in for a while." The song "Twisted and Bleeding" was made available for free download at the band's website ahead of the full digital release.
On 20 June 2013, the band announced the release of Electric-Peace which comprises the entire Electric album plus the Peace album which was previously released on the now discontinued Rare Cult box set in 2000. It is due for release in the US on 30 July. In 2013 Mike Dimkich left the band and joined Bad Religion to cover for guitarist Greg Hetson. James Stevenson, from the Beauty's On The Streets tour in 1994, replaced Dimkich as the Cult's rhythm guitarist.
In March 2013, Billy Duffy told the Argentinan journalist Fabrizio Pedrotti that the Cult had begun work on a new album for a 2014 release. The band were expected to begin work on the album after they finish their 2013 world tour, where they played the Electric album in its entirety. In August 2014, Billy added that the next album, which was not expected to be released before 2015 at the earliest, "will be more guitar heavy".
On 5 November 2015, it was announced that The Cult would release their new album, entitled Hidden City, on 5 February 2016. The album is said to be the final part of a trilogy that began with Born into This, and marks the fifth time Bob Rock had produced a Cult album. The band also announced that they had hired Australian-born bassist Grant Fitzpatrick (ex-Mink) as the replacement for Chris Wyse. Chris Chaney (Jane's Addiction, Camp Freddy) and producer Bob Rock performed session bass on the album. In support of Hidden City, The Cult opened for Guns N' Roses on the Not in This Lifetime... Tour.
In an October 2016 interview with PopMatters journalist J.C. Maçek III, Cult guitarist Billy Duffy spoke of the band's playlist while on tour, saying "Obviously you want to make an impactful [show]," he continues. "There are some practical, pragmatic decisions made. If you're playing to a crowd who are not very familiar with you, there's no point of going too deep but we do always make sure we play a new song. Like on Guns N' Roses' [tour] we had fifty minutes which is ten songs all in. So, you know we just made sure that in those ten songs we played 'Deeply Ordered Chaos' which we’re proud of and it makes a certain statement. And it just alerts people to the fact that, yes, we have made a record in the last 30 years. You know and that's a good thing. Psychologically, that's the blood transfusion that we need. And we're very mindful, we have a very loyal fan base. We don't pander as you well know."
Upcoming eleventh studio album (2018–present)
In an April 2018 interview with Guitar World, guitarist Billy Duffy was asked if another album from The Cult was in the works. He replied, "Never say never! Ian and I enjoy the process of making new music, and we feel it's vital to keep the band healthy, even if it's pretty much in the law of diminishing returns area now. Who knows if it will be a whole album a series of singles or an EP? I can say new Cult music will be forthcoming, but these days we don't rush it as there's no point. Quality is key. We are past the point of having to release stuff so if we feel it's good enough, then we will release it in some shape or another."
On 2 April 2018, a tour of the United States of America called "Revolution 3 Tour" was announced for the summer. They performed as one of the three headliners, along with Stone Temple Pilots and Bush.
In April 2019, The Cult announced that they would celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of their fourth album Sonic Temple with a world tour, which began on 2 May in Houston, Texas and was expected to wrap up in 2020.
In a June 2019 interview with LA Weekly, vocalist Ian Astbury stated that The Cult were "long overdue" to release new music. He was quoted as saying: "We do have some stuff we've been working on, but it's yet to see the light of day." Six months later, Astbury told Atlantic City Weekly that the band was going to start working on new music in 2020: "We've got a few pieces lying around in various stages of completion. The intention is to get together in the New Year and take a look at what we've got and decide how we are going to go about moving forward. It's an essential part of any creative lifeblood." On May 6, 2020, The Cult announced on their Twitter page that they had signed to Black Hill Records.
On August 15, 2020, Duffy announced on his Twitter that the band were recording their new album with producer Tom Dalgety at Rockfield Studios, where The Cult had recorded their debut album Dreamtime 36 years earlier.
In support of their new album, The Cult will embark on a co-headlining six-date UK tour with Alice Cooper in May and June 2022.
Influences
Duffy and Astbury cited among their influences a lot of different bands "from the Doors to Led Zeppelin. We literally went from the front of our record collections to the back. And then along the way we were drawn in by the likes of Public Image Ltd, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees. You might not hear it in the music but it's there." They also cited Bauhaus among many other post-punk influences. Duffy also praised Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers for a major performance he attended in 1977 and Siouxsie and the Banshees whom "always had great guitar players with killer riffs." Duffy also hailed AC/DC for "the power of a good three chord riff", Pete Townshend of the Who "in terms of commitment to stage performing" and Brian May of Queen for using "‘echoplex’ tape delays to orchestrate his own solo".
Musical style
According to music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the band fuse a "hardcore punk revivalist" sound with the "pseudo-mysticism ... of the Doors and Uriah Heep and the guitar-orchestrations of Led Zeppelin and The Cure ... while adding touches of post-punk goth rock". In 1985 Astbury said, "Our music is just melodies and guitars. We're like Big Country and U2, only better!".
Members
Current members
Ian Astbury – lead vocals, occasional percussion/guitar
Billy Duffy – lead and rhythm guitars, backing vocals
John Tempesta – drums, percussion
Grant Fitzpatrick – bass, backing vocals
Damon Fox – keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Discography
Dreamtime (1984)
Love (1985)
Electric (1987)
Sonic Temple (1989)
Ceremony (1991)
The Cult (1994)
Beyond Good and Evil (2001)
Born into This (2007)
Choice of Weapon (2012)
Hidden City (2016)
References
External links
Official website
Billy Duffy official website
Musical groups established in 1983
Situation Two artists
Beggars Banquet Records artists
Sire Records artists
Musical groups from Bradford
English post-punk music groups
English gothic rock groups
English hard rock musical groups
English heavy metal musical groups
English glam metal musical groups | true | [
"\"I Still Believe\" is the ninth single by UK-based songwriter Frank Turner, and the first of his fourth EP Rock & Roll. It was released on 28 October 2010. \"I Still Believe\" had a limited release of 500 7\" vinyl's for the 2012 Record Store Day on 21 April. The B-Side to the vinyl is Frank's cover of Queen's \"Somebody to Love\". Both of which were released digitally a week later on 30 April.\n\nThe song was also featured on his fourth studio album England Keep My Bones. It also appeared on Isles of Wonder, the soundtrack album of the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony.\n\nUpon its re-release in 2012, it reached No. 40 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Turner's first top 40 hit.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2010 singles\nFrank Turner songs\nXtra Mile Recordings singles\n2010 songs\nSongs written by Frank Turner",
"\"Start a Fire\" is a song by American rapper Lil Wayne featuring American singer Christina Milian. It was released on November 24, 2014 by Young Money Entertainment, Cash Money Records and Republic Records.\n\nRelease and promotion\nThe song was released on November 24, 2014 on iTunes. The song was also released on Spotify, make it available to stream online. One day before the release date, Lil Wayne premiered the single at 42nd American Music Awards ceremony with Christina Milian.\n\nLive performance\nAs Lil Wayne promoted the single, he performed the song at 42nd American Music Awards with Christina Milian. On YouTube, there is a video of the performing of Lil Wayne and Christina Milian at 42nd AMA and available worldwide.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2014 singles\n2014 songs\nLil Wayne songs\nCash Money Records singles\nSongs written by Lil Wayne\nSongs written by Christina Milian"
]
|
[
"The Cult",
"Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991-1994)",
"What was the ceremony?",
"album Ceremony",
"when was it released?",
"1991,",
"was it well received?",
"The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide.",
"when did the lawsuit come about?",
"1992,",
"what was it about?",
" The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony,",
"did they have permission to use the image?",
"alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image.",
"was the lawsuit successful?",
"I don't know.",
"were there any singles released on ceremony?",
"\"Wild Hearted Son\"."
]
| C_4b2e5d61579045e7ae891ff8b3295557_1 | what was the ablum about? | 9 | what was the cult album Ceremony about? | The Cult | In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album. During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and James Kottak played bass and drums respectively. During the actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play drums, with Charley Drayton on bass, and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men reportedly rarely even being in the studio together during recording. The resulting album Ceremony was released to mixed responses. The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. Only two official singles were released from the record: "Wild Hearted Son" (UK No. 34, Canada No. 41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK No. 50), although "White" was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was released as a single (as "Dulce Salvacion") in Argentina in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was released in Spain. The Cult's Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in 1991 and North America in 1992. In 1991 the Cult played a show at the Marquee Club in London, which was recorded and released in February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete bootleg video of this show is also in circulation. The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, for alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted Son". This lawsuit delayed the release of Ceremony in many countries including South Korea and Thailand, which did not see the record's release until late 1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey until the Cult played several shows in Istanbul in June 1993. A world tour followed with backing from future Thin Lizzy drummer Michael Lee and bassist Kinley Wolfe, and keyboardist John Sinclair returning one last time, and the Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 31. Following the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits compilation which debuted at No. 1 on the British charts and later went to number one in Portugal, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and recruited Craig Adams (the Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | The Cult are an English rock band formed in 1983 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury's previous band Southern Death Cult. They gained a dedicated following in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s as a post-punk/gothic rock band, with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking into the mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s establishing themselves as a hard rock band with singles such as "Love Removal Machine". Since its initial formation in 1983, the band have had various line-ups; the longest-serving members are Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, who are also the band's two songwriters.
The Cult's debut studio album Dreamtime was released in 1984 to moderate success, with its lead single "Spiritwalker" reaching No. 1 on the UK Indie Chart. Their second studio album, Love (1985), was even more successful, charting at No. 4 in the UK and including singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary" and "Rain". The band's third album, Electric (1987), launched them new heights of success, also peaking at No. 4 in the UK and charting highly in other territories, and spawned the hit singles "Love Removal Machine", "Lil' Devil" and "Wild Flower". On that album, The Cult supplemented their post-punk sound with hard rock; the polish on this new sound was facilitated by producer Rick Rubin. After moving to Los Angeles, California, where the band has been based for the remainder of their career, The Cult continued the musical experimentation of Electric with its follow-up album Sonic Temple (1989), which marked their first collaboration with Bob Rock, who would produce several of the band's subsequent albums. Sonic Temple was their most successful album to that point, entering the Top 10 on the UK and US charts, and included one of the band's most popular songs "Fire Woman".
By the time of their fifth album Ceremony (1991), tensions and creative differences began to surface among the band members. This resulted in the recording sessions for Ceremony being held without a stable lineup, leaving Astbury and Duffy as the only two official members left, and featuring support from session musicians on bass and drums. The ongoing tension had carried over within the next four years, during which they released one more studio album, The Cult (1994), and called it quits in 1995. The Cult reformed in 1999 and released their seventh album Beyond Good and Evil two years later. The commercial failure of the album and resurfaced tensions led to the band going back on hiatus in 2002. They resumed activity in 2006, and have since released three more studio albums: Born into This (2007), Choice of Weapon (2012), and Hidden City (2016).
History
Early history (1981–1984)
The band's origins can be traced to 1981, in Bradford, Yorkshire, where vocalist and songwriter Ian Astbury formed a band called Southern Death Cult. The name was chosen with a double meaning, and was derived from the 14th-century Native American religion, the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex or Southern Death Cult as it was sometimes known, from the Mississippi delta area, but it was also a stab at what the band viewed was the centralisation of power in Southern England (including that of the music industry); there has long been a perceived notion of a North–South divide based on social, historic and economic reasons. Astbury was joined by Buzz Burrows (guitar), Barry Jepson (bass) and Aki Nawaz Qureshi (drums); they performed their first show at the Queen's Hall in their hometown of Bradford on 29 October 1981. The band were at the forefront of an emerging style of music, in the form of post-punk and gothic rock, they achieved critical acclaim from the press and music fans.
The band signed to independent record label Situation Two, an offshoot of Beggars Banquet Records, and released a three-track, triple A-side single, Moya, during this period. They toured through England headlining some shows and touring with Bauhaus and Theatre of Hate. The band played their final performance in Manchester during February 1983, meaning after only sixteen months the band was over. A compilation named The Southern Death Cult was released, this being a collection of the single, radio sessions with John Peel for Radio One and live performances - one of which an audience member recorded with a tape recorder.
In April 1983, Astbury teamed up with guitarist Billy Duffy and formed the band "Death Cult". Duffy had been in the Nosebleeds (along with Morrissey), Lonesome No More and then Theatre of Hate. In addition to Astbury and Duffy, the band also included Jamie Stewart (bass) and Raymond Taylor Smith (later known as Ray Mondo) (drums), both from the Harrow, London based post-punk band, Ritual. Death Cult made their live debut in Oslo, Norway on 25 July 1983 and also released the Death Cult EP in the same month, then toured through mainland Europe and Scotland. In September 1983, Mondo was deported to his home country of Sierra Leone and replaced by Nigel Preston, formerly of Theatre of Hate. The single "Gods Zoo" was released in October 1983. Another European tour, with UK dates, followed that autumn. To tone down their name's gothic connotations and gain broader appeal, the band changed its name to "the Cult" in January 1984 before appearing on the (UK) Channel 4 television show, The Tube.
The Cult's first studio record, Dreamtime, was recorded at Rockfield Studios, in Monmouth, Wales in 1984. The record was to be produced by Joe Julian, but after recording the drum tracks, the band decided to replace him with John Brand. Brand produced the record, but guitarist Duffy has said the drum tracks were produced by Julian, as Preston had become unreliable.
The band recorded the songs which later became known as "Butterflies", "(The) Gimmick", "A Flower in the Desert", "Horse Nation", "Spiritwalker", "Bad Medicine (Waltz)", "Dreamtime", "With Love" (later known as "Ship of Fools", and also "Sea and Sky"), "Bone Bag", "Too Young", "83rd Dream", and one untitled outtake. It is unknown what the outtake was, or whether it was developed into a song at a later date. Songs like "Horse Nation" showed Astbury's intense interest in Native American issues, with the lyrics to "Horse Nation", "See them prancing, they come neighing, to a horse nation", taken almost verbatim from the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, while "Spiritwalker" dealt with shamanism, and the record's title and title track are overtly influenced by Australian Aboriginal beliefs.
On 4 April 1984, the Cult released the single "Spiritwalker", which reached No. 1 on the independent charts in the UK, and acted as a teaser for their forthcoming album Dreamtime. This was followed that summer by a second single, "Go West (Crazy Spinning Circles)", before the release of Dreamtime in September; the album reached No. 21 in the UK, and sold over 100,000 copies in the UK alone. On 12 July 1984, the band recorded five songs at the BBC Maida Vale 5 studio for a Richard Skinner session. Before and after the album's release, the Cult toured throughout Europe and England before recording another single, "Ressurection Joe" (UK No. 74), released that December. Following a Christmas support slot with Big Country, the Cult toured Europe with support from the Mission (then called the Sisterhood). Dreamtime was released initially only in the UK, but after its success, and as the Cult's popularity grew worldwide, it was issued in approximately 30 countries.
Mainstream success (1985–1990)
In May 1985, the Cult released their fourth single, "She Sells Sanctuary", which peaked at No. 15 in the UK and spent 23 weeks in the Top 100. The song was recently voted No. 18 in VH1's Indie 100. In June 1985, following his increasingly erratic behaviour, Preston was fired from the band. Big Country's drummer Mark Brzezicki was picked to replace Preston, and was also included in the video for "She Sells Sanctuary". The Cult then finished recording their second album, Love in July and August 1985. The band's music and image shifted from their punk-oriented roots to 1960s psychedelia influences. Love was a chart success, peaking at No. 4 in the UK and selling 100,000 copies there toward a total of 500,000 copies throughout Europe, as well as 100,000 in Australia and 500,000 copies in the United States. Love reached number 20 on the charts in The Netherlands, where it remained for 32 weeks. To date, the record has sold over two and a half million copies worldwide.
From late September 1985 to June 1986, the band went on a worldwide tour with new drummer Les Warner (who had played with Julian Lennon and Johnny Thunders). Two more singles from the Love album followed; "Rain" (charting in the UK at No. 17) and "Revolution" (charting in the UK at No. 30). Neither charted in the US. Another single, "Nirvana", was issued only in Poland. The album version of "Rain", as well as the remix "(Here Comes the) Rain", were used in the Italian horror film Dèmoni 2. Once back in England, the band booked themselves into the Manor Studios in Oxfordshire, with producer Steve Brown (who had produced Love), and recorded over a dozen new songs. The band were unhappy with the sound of their new album, titled Peace, and they decided to go to New York so producer Rick Rubin could remix the first single, "Love Removal Machine".
Rubin agreed to work with the band, but only if they rerecorded the song. Rubin eventually talked them into rerecording the entire album. The band's record company, Beggars Banquet, was displeased with this, as two months and £250,000 had already been spent on the record. However, after hearing the initial New York recording, Beggars Banquet agreed to proceed. The first single, "Love Removal Machine", was released in February 1987, and the new version of the album appeared in April that year, now renamed as Electric, reaching No. 4 and eventually outselling Love. The band toured with Kid Chaos (also known as "Haggis" and "The Kid") on bass, with Stewart on rhythm guitar. Two more singles, "Lil Devil" and "Wild Flower", were released during 1987. A few tracks from the original Peace album appeared on the single versions of "Love Removal Machine", and "Lil Devil". The full Peace album would not be released until 2000, when it was included as Disc 3 of the Rare Cult box set.
In the US, the Cult, now consisting of Astbury, Duffy, Stewart, Warner and Kid Chaos, were supported by the then-unknown Guns N' Roses. The band also appeared at Roskilde Festival in Denmark in June 1987. When the world tour wound through Australia, the band wrecked £30,000 worth of equipment, and as a result they could not tour Japan, as no company would rent them new equipment. At the end of the tour the Electric album had been certified Gold in the UK, and sold roughly 3 million copies worldwide, but the band were barely speaking to each other by then. Haggis left the band at the end of the Electric tour to form the Four Horsemen for Rubin's Def American label. Astbury and Duffy fired Warner and their management team Grant/Edwards, and moved to Los Angeles with original bassist Stewart. Warner sued the band several times for his firing, as well as for what he felt were unpaid royalties due to him for his performance on the Electric album, resulting in lengthy court battles. The Cult signed a new management deal and wrote 21 new songs for their next record.
For the next album, Stewart returned to playing bass, and John Webster was brought in to play keyboards. The band used Chris Taylor to play drums during rehearsals and record the demos, with future Kiss drummer Eric Singer performing during the second demo recording sessions. The Cult eventually recruited session-drummer Mickey Curry to fill the drumming role and Aerosmith sound engineer, Bob Rock, to produce. Recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from October to December 1988, the Sonic Temple record went Top 10 in both the UK and the US, where it was certified Gold and Platinum respectively. The band went on tour in support of the new album and new single "Fire Woman" (UK No. 15) (NZ No. 1), with yet another new drummer, Matt Sorum, and Webster as keyboard player. The next single, "Edie (Ciao Baby)" (UK No. 25) has become a regular song at concerts for many years.
In Europe, the band toured with Aerosmith, and in the US, after releasing another single "Sun King" (UK No. 42), they spent 1989 touring in support of Metallica before heading out on their own headlining tour later that same year. A fourth single, "Sweet Soul Sister" (UK No. 38), was released in February 1990, with the video having been filmed at Wembley Arena, London, on 25 November 1989. "Sweet Soul Sister" was partially written in Paris and was inspired by the bohemian lifestyle of that city. Released as a single in February 1990, the song was another hit in the UK, and reportedly reached number one on the rock charts in Brazil. After playing a show in Atlanta, Georgia, in February 1990, the band's management told Astbury that his father had just died of cancer. As a result, the remainder of the tour was cancelled after a final leg of shows were performed in April. After the tour ended, the band were on the verge of splitting due to Stewart retiring and moving to Canada to be with his wife, and Sorum leaving to join Guns N' Roses.
In 1990, Astbury organized the Gathering of the Tribes festival in Los Angeles and San Francisco with artists such as Soundgarden, Ice-T, Indigo Girls, Queen Latifah, Iggy Pop, the Charlatans, the Cramps and Public Enemy appearing. This two-day festival drew 40,000 people. Also in 1990, a ten CD box set was released in the UK, containing rare songs from the Cult's singles. The CDs in this box set were all issued as picture discs with rice paper covers, housed in a white box called "Singles Collection", or a black box called "E.P. Collection '84 - '90". In 1991, director Oliver Stone offered Astbury the role of Jim Morrison in Stone's film The Doors. He declined the role because he was not happy with the way Morrison was represented in the film, and the role was ultimately played by Val Kilmer.
Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991–1993)
In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album. During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and James Kottak played bass and drums, respectively. During the actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play drums, with Charley Drayton on bass, and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men reportedly rarely even being in the studio together during recording. The resulting album Ceremony was released to mixed responses. The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. Only two official singles were released from the record: "Wild Hearted Son" (UK No. 34, Canada No. 41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK No. 50), although "White" was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was released as a single (as "Dulce Salvación") in Argentina in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was released in Spain.
The Cult's Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in 1991 and North America in 1992. In 1991 the Cult played a show at the Marquee Club in London, which was recorded and released in February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete bootleg video of this show is also in circulation.
The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, for alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. The parents stated that the boy felt he had been cursed by the band's burning of his image, and was "emotionally scarred." This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted Son". This lawsuit delayed the release of Ceremony in many countries including South Korea and Thailand, which did not see the record's release until late 1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey until the Cult played several shows in Istanbul in June 1993.
A world tour followed with backing from drummer Michael Lee (Page & Plant, Little Angels), bassist Kinley "Barney" Wolfe (Lord Tracy, Black Oak Arkansas), and keyboardist John Sinclair (Ozzy Osbourne, Uriah Heep) returning one last time, and the Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 28. Following the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits compilation which debuted at No. 1 on the British charts and later went to number one in Portugal, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and recruited Craig Adams (the Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic.
The Cult and first breakup (1994–1998)
With the same line-up still in place, the band released The Cult in October 1994, produced by Bob Rock. The self-titled album is commonly referred to as the "Black Sheep" album by fans of the group, due to the image of a black sheep on the front cover. Astbury referred to the record as a collection of "very personal and very revealing" songs about his life, with the subject matter ranging from sexual abuse at the age of 15, to the death of Nigel Preston, to his directionless years spent in Glasgow in the late 1970s.
The record achieved little success, only reaching No. 69 in the US and No. 21 in the UK. Duffy remarked that he thought that the record wouldn't sell well due to the offensive lyrics. The record went to number one in Portugal also, but quickly dropped out of sight. The single "Coming Down (Drug Tongue)" was released with the band going on tour in support of the new album. Only one more single, "Star", was officially released with a live appearance on UK TV show The Word. "Star" began life in 1986 as "Tom Petty" and was recorded at the "Sonic Temple" demo sessions as "Starchild", being dropped by the band during rehearsals. In 1993 the song was resurrected and was finally completed for the record in 1994 as, just simply, "Star".
When the band began the Beauty's On The Streets tour in winter 1994, they augmented the line up with James Stevenson on rhythm guitar. As with the Ceremony record several years earlier, no other official singles were released, but several other songs were released on a strictly limited basis: "Sacred Life" was released in Spain and the Netherlands, "Be Free" was issued in Canada and France, "Saints Are Down" was issued in Greece, but none of the songs gained much commercial success. During this tour, the Cult made their first ever appearance in Norway.
During the Black Rain tour of South America in spring of 1995, despite the fact that several more new songs had already been recorded, the tour was cancelled after an appearance in Rio de Janeiro in March, and the band split up citing unspecified problems on a recent South American tour. Astbury started up a garage band called Holy Barbarians a few months later. The band made their debut at the 100 Club in London in February 1996 and released their first (and only) record in May 1996, and toured throughout North America and Europe for the rest of 1996. The band started writing material for a second record in 1997, but the band was dissolved and Astbury began writing and recording a solo record. Throughout 1997 and 1998 Astbury recorded his solo record, originally to be titled Natural Born Guerilla, later called High Time Amplifier. Ultimately the record remained unreleased until June 2000 when it was released under the name Spirit\Light\Speed. Astbury played one solo concert in 1999.
In November 1996, a number of CD reissues were released: the band's American record company released High Octane Cult, a slightly updated greatest hits compilation released only in the US and Japan; The Southern Death Cult, a remastered edition of the fifteen-song compilation CD; a ten-song compilation CD by Death Cult called Ghost Dance, consisting of the untitled four-song EP, the single "God's Zoo", and four unreleased songs from a radio broadcast; and a remastered repackaging of the Dreamtime album, containing only the ten original songs from the record in their original playing order and almost completely different but original artwork. Dreamtime Live at the Lyceum was also remastered and issued on video and for the first time on CD, with the one unreleased song from the concert, "Gimmick".
First reunion, Beyond Good and Evil and second hiatus (1999–2005)
In 1999, Astbury and Duffy reformed the Cult with Matt Sorum and ex-Porno for Pyros bassist Martyn LeNoble. Their first official concert was at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in June 1999, after having rehearsed at shows in the Los Angeles area. The band's 1999 Cult Rising reunion tour resulted in a sold out 30 date tour of the US, ending with 8 consecutive sold out nights at the LA House of Blues. In 2000, the band toured South Africa for the first time, and North and South America, and contributed the song "Painted on My Heart" to the soundtrack of the movie Gone In 60 Seconds. The song was featured prominently and the melody was fused into parts of the score. In June, Astbury's long-delayed solo record was finally released as Spirit\Light\Speed, but it failed to gain much success. In November 2000, another authorised greatest hits compilation was released, Pure Cult: The Singles 1984–1995, along with an accompanying DVD, which was later certified gold in Canada. The Cult, as well as Ian Astbury, performed on separate tracks on the Doors tribute album, Stoned Immaculate: The Music of The Doors, covering "Wild Child" and "Touch Me".
In November 2000, Beggars Banquet released 15,000 copies of a six-disc boxset (with a bonus seventh disc of remixes for the first 5000 copies) titled Rare Cult. The box set consists of album out-takes, demos, radio broadcasts, and album B-sides. It is most notable for including the previously unreleased "Peace" album in its entirety. In 2001, the band signed to Atlantic Records and recorded a new album, Beyond Good and Evil, originally being produced by Mick Jones of Foreigner, until Jones bowed out to tour with Foreigner. Astbury and Duffy co-wrote a song with Jones, an odd occurrence, as in the past, neither Astbury or Duffy would co-write their material. Bob Rock was the producer, with Martyn LeNoble and Chris Wyse as recording bassists, as Mike Dimkich played rhythm guitar on tour, and Matt Sorum returning as drummer. Although Sorum has previously toured with the band on the Sonic Temple tour in 1989, this was the first time that he had recorded a studio album with the band.
However Beyond Good and Evil was not the comeback record the band had hoped for. Despite reaching No. 37 in the US, No. 22 in Canada, and No. 25 in Spain, sales quickly dropped, only selling roughly 500,000 copies worldwide. The first single "Rise", reached No. 41 in the US, and No. 2 on the mainstream rock charts, but Atlantic Records quickly pulled the song from radio playlists. Astbury would later describe the experience with Atlantic to be "soul destroying", after Atlantic tried to tamper with the lyrics, the record cover, and choice of singles from the record.
After the first single from the record, the band's working relationship with Atlantic was on paper only, with Atlantic pulling "Rise" from the radio stations playlists, and stopping all promotion of the record. The second single "Breathe" was only released as a radio station promo, and the final single "True Believers" was only on a compilation sampler disc released in January 2002 (after the Cult's tour had already ended). Despite "True Believers" receiving radio airplay in Australia, both singles went largely unnoticed, and both Astbury and Duffy walked away from the project. LeNoble rejoined the band for the initial dates in early 2001, and Billy Morrison filled in on bass for the majority of the 2001 tour.
The European tour of 2001 was canceled, largely due to security concerns after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the band flew back to the US to tour again with Aerosmith. But the eleven-week tour was considered by fans to be a disaster, as the band played only a brief rundown of their greatest hits. In October 2001, a show at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles was filmed for release on DVD. After the tour ended in December 2001, the band took most of 2002 off, apart from a few shows in the US to promote the release of the DVD, with Scott Garrett and Craig Adams rejoining the band.
Despite the commercial disappointment of Beyond Good and Evil and the supporting tour, the band was voted "Comeback of the Year" by Metal Edge readers in the magazine's 2001 Readers' Choice Awards.
In late 2002, Ian Astbury declared the Cult to be "on ice" indefinitely, after performing a brief series of dates in October 2002 to promote the release of the Music Without Fear DVD. During this second hiatus, Astbury performed as a member of the Doors (later dubbed the Doors of the 21st Century, later still renamed D21c, and most recently known as Riders on the Storm) with two of the original members of that group. D21c was sued numerous times, both by Jim Morrison's family and by drummer John Densmore. Astbury supposedly started work on recording another solo album that later became the backbone for the Cult's Born into This.
At the same time, Duffy was part of Coloursound with bassist Craig Adams and ex-Alarm frontman Mike Peters, then Dead Men Walking (again with Peters) and later Cardboard Vampyres. Sorum became a member of the hard rock supergroup Velvet Revolver. In 2003, all of the Cult's records were issued on CD, with several bonus tracks being issued on the Russian, Belarusian, and Lithuanian versions. These eastern European releases had many printing mistakes on the jacket sleeves and lyric inserts. In October 2004, all of the Cult's records were again remastered and issued again on CD, this time in Japan in different cardboard foldout sleeves. "She Sells Sanctuary" appeared in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, playing on rock station V-Rock.
Second reunion, Born Into This and Capsule EPs (2006–2010)
Despite Astbury's previous statement from 2004 that a reunion would not happen, The Cult announced in January 2006 that they were reuniting for "some limited gigs" throughout the year. A month later, the band made their first live appearance in three-and-a-half years on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Their lineup consisted of Astbury (vocals), Duffy (lead guitar), John Tempesta (drums), Dimkich (rhythm guitar) and Wyse (returning as bassist). Their first stage show was held in March 2006 in San Francisco, California, at The Fillmore. The entire tour was recorded by Instant Live and sold after each show. In May, they did an eight date tour in Canada. Later that summer, they toured central and eastern Europe and played their first concerts in Bulgaria, Poland and Serbia. An eleven-date UK tour followed as well as several more dates in the United States, finishing with a South American tour in December. That year, Duffy began the band Circus Diablo with Billy Morrison, Sorum, Brett Scallions and Ricky Warwick.
During these tours, the band occasionally played an extended set, including several songs the band had not performed in decades: "King Contrary Man" and "Hollow Man", neither of which had been performed since 1987; also, "Libertine" was performed approximately three times, for the first time since 2000, and "Brother Wolf, Sister Moon", which was only performed one time since 1986 (for this particular song, the band played an abridged version which has never been performed before or since)
Astbury announced in February 2007 that he was leaving Riders on the Storm and returning to the Cult. He stated: "I have decided to move on and focus on my own music and legacy." The Cult was featured on Stuffmagazine.com's list of ultimate air guitar players. On 21 March 2007, it was announced that the band would be touring Europe with the Who. The first confirmed tour date was in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in early June, with at least a dozen shows set to follow. The band played a gig in London's West End at the CC Club on 7 June 2007, along with nearly two dozen shows across continental Europe during summer. The tour also includes the first performance in Romania and Croatia.
On 29 May 2007, the band signed a deal with major metal label Roadrunner Records. Their 8th studio album, titled Born into This was released on 16 October, and was produced by Martin "Youth" Glover, bass player for Killing Joke. Born into This was released as regular single disc and limited edition double disc, the second disk being a bonus 5-track CD holding the following tracks: "Stand Alone", "War Pony Destroyer", "I Assassin (Demo)", "Sound of Destruction (Demo)" and "Savages (Extended Version)". Prior to the album's release, the band played festival and headline dates, and supported the Who in Europe through summer 2007, with a US headline tour to follow.
The band's appearance at Irving Plaza in New York City in early November 2006 was filmed and was released in 2007. The Cult New York City, issued by Fontana North and is the Cult's first high definition DVD release. Meanwhile, Astbury lent vocals on two tracks of the 2007 Unkle album "War Stories", one of them being the first single from the album, "Burn My Shadow".
The band performed a UK and European tour in late-February and early-March 2008. On 24 March, they began their North American tour including a major 13-city tour in Canada. During September 2008, the Cult did a brief series of dates in the northeast United States, and they toured in Brazil as part of the South American tour in October 2008. As of May 2008, according to The Gauntlet, the Cult are currently unsigned and no longer under contract with Roadrunner Records. In October 2008, it was announced that the Cult would headline the inaugural Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Antonio, to be run 16 November 2008. The Cult announced plans for a tour showcasing their 1985 Love album across the US and then the UK in October where they will play at the Royal Albert Hall.
Coinciding with the remastered Love album and four-disc Omnibus boxed set, the Cult kicked off the long-awaited Love Live Tour in late summer. Performing their classic Love album in its entirety, each show was played with the Love tracks opening with "Nirvana" to "Black Angel". A quick intermission followed, then other Cult hits were played (varying by venue): "Sun King", "Dirty Little Rock Star", "Electric Ocean", "Illuminated". Then followed the favorites "Fire Woman", "Lil Devil", "Wild Flower", and lastly "Love Removal Machine". In the evening of 10 October 2009 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the band performed a second encore with original Cult bassist Jamie Stewart and drummer Mark Brzezicki, who played drums with the band during the Love album recording sessions in July and August 1985. The band sold Love Live USB flash drives for each show during the tour.
The Cult entered 2010 continuing their Love Live Tour and announcing more dates in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan. The band finished recording a four-track "Capsule" with producer Chris Goss. Capsule 1 was said to be the first of three or four to be released sometime in summer 2010. Release formats include CD-DVD dualdisc, 12-inch vinyl, and digital downloads. Capsule 1 was released on 14 September 2010. The band officially announced the release of its first new studio recording since 2007, "Every Man And Woman Is A Star". The new single was released through the iTunes Store on 31 July 2010.
On 1 August 2010, the band played the sold-out music festival Sonisphere, which marked their first UK performance since the tour for their Love album. During the performance they debuted their new single, "Every Man and Woman is a Star", which was released on 1 August 2010. On 14 September 2010 the band embarked on a new U.S. tour and released Capsule 1 in conjunction with media technology company Aderra Inc. and made it available in multiple formats including a CD-DVD DualDisc, USB flash drive, 12 inch vinyl, FLAC download and MP3 download. The collection includes a short film made by singer Ian Astbury and Rick Rogers.
On 26 October 2010 the band and Aderra Inc. announced the release of a new song, "Embers", for 1 November 2010 and Capsule 2 available through their web store on 16 November 2010. Pictures from the Cult's tour stop in Chicago on 28 October 2010 can be seen at a local radio station website.
On 17 September 2010, the band performed live at the Fall Frenzy concert at the Tempe Beach Park in Tempe, Arizona. Other bands that played at this concert were Stone Temple Pilots, Shinedown, and Sevendust.
On 4 December 2010, the band performed a live set for Guitar Center Sessions on DirecTV. The episode included an interview with the band by program host, Nic Harcourt.
Choice of Weapon and Hidden City (2011–2017)
During the Cult's concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on 21 January 2011 Ian Astbury declared that the Cult would be recording a new album directly after the tour. They also announced that they would be working with Chris Goss, who performed with Masters of Reality as a supporting act the same evening. On 11 May 2011, it was announced that the Cult were signed to Cooking Vinyl Records, who will release the new album in early 2012. Commented guitarist Billy Duffy: "We are very much looking forward to returning to our U.K. roots in many ways working with Cooking Vinyl." Vocalist Ian Astbury added, "We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Cooking Vinyl." By May 2011, the band had been writing and recording new demos at its Witch Mountain studio hideaway in the Hollywood Hills, and began recording their new album at Hollywood Recording Studios. In October 2011, bassist Chris Wyse stated the album was almost finished and expected to be released in April 2012. Chris also described it as a "Zep/Stooges mix of energy."
On 29 November 2011, it was announced that the album would be produced by Bob Rock, who provided the same role on Sonic Temple, The Cult and Beyond Good and Evil. The album, entitled Choice of Weapon, was released on 22 May 2012. The band partnered with Rolling Stone to premiere the first song from the album titled Lucifer on 30 January. On 5 February 2012, the Cult song "She Sells Sanctuary" was used as the soundtrack for a Budweiser commercial in a mashup with Flo Rida aired during Super Bowl XLVI. In May 2012 the Cult appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and played "For The Animals".
On 28 September 2012, it was announced that the band would release Weapon of Choice, a "prequel" album to accompany the band's latest album, Choice of Weapon. The digital-only release, available exclusively on iTunes for two months only beginning 16 October, features the songs that were ultimately included in "Choice Of Weapon" at an earlier stage of development. Explaining the motivations behind the release, singer Ian Astbury said that "These songs were turned over and over, forged in long rehearsals and writing sessions, and emanated from challenges both personal and professional. We put our guts into this; [Producer Chris] Goss was able to create an environment where the songs were born through playing and turning over lyrics, through hard work and intense sessions." Astbury added "These songs have an integrity and rawness of their own. In many ways it's a different album to the one we released and reveals the foundations of 'Choice Of Weapon'. We were able to close the doors and begin to explore spaces we had not been in for a while." The song "Twisted and Bleeding" was made available for free download at the band's website ahead of the full digital release.
On 20 June 2013, the band announced the release of Electric-Peace which comprises the entire Electric album plus the Peace album which was previously released on the now discontinued Rare Cult box set in 2000. It is due for release in the US on 30 July. In 2013 Mike Dimkich left the band and joined Bad Religion to cover for guitarist Greg Hetson. James Stevenson, from the Beauty's On The Streets tour in 1994, replaced Dimkich as the Cult's rhythm guitarist.
In March 2013, Billy Duffy told the Argentinan journalist Fabrizio Pedrotti that the Cult had begun work on a new album for a 2014 release. The band were expected to begin work on the album after they finish their 2013 world tour, where they played the Electric album in its entirety. In August 2014, Billy added that the next album, which was not expected to be released before 2015 at the earliest, "will be more guitar heavy".
On 5 November 2015, it was announced that The Cult would release their new album, entitled Hidden City, on 5 February 2016. The album is said to be the final part of a trilogy that began with Born into This, and marks the fifth time Bob Rock had produced a Cult album. The band also announced that they had hired Australian-born bassist Grant Fitzpatrick (ex-Mink) as the replacement for Chris Wyse. Chris Chaney (Jane's Addiction, Camp Freddy) and producer Bob Rock performed session bass on the album. In support of Hidden City, The Cult opened for Guns N' Roses on the Not in This Lifetime... Tour.
In an October 2016 interview with PopMatters journalist J.C. Maçek III, Cult guitarist Billy Duffy spoke of the band's playlist while on tour, saying "Obviously you want to make an impactful [show]," he continues. "There are some practical, pragmatic decisions made. If you're playing to a crowd who are not very familiar with you, there's no point of going too deep but we do always make sure we play a new song. Like on Guns N' Roses' [tour] we had fifty minutes which is ten songs all in. So, you know we just made sure that in those ten songs we played 'Deeply Ordered Chaos' which we’re proud of and it makes a certain statement. And it just alerts people to the fact that, yes, we have made a record in the last 30 years. You know and that's a good thing. Psychologically, that's the blood transfusion that we need. And we're very mindful, we have a very loyal fan base. We don't pander as you well know."
Upcoming eleventh studio album (2018–present)
In an April 2018 interview with Guitar World, guitarist Billy Duffy was asked if another album from The Cult was in the works. He replied, "Never say never! Ian and I enjoy the process of making new music, and we feel it's vital to keep the band healthy, even if it's pretty much in the law of diminishing returns area now. Who knows if it will be a whole album a series of singles or an EP? I can say new Cult music will be forthcoming, but these days we don't rush it as there's no point. Quality is key. We are past the point of having to release stuff so if we feel it's good enough, then we will release it in some shape or another."
On 2 April 2018, a tour of the United States of America called "Revolution 3 Tour" was announced for the summer. They performed as one of the three headliners, along with Stone Temple Pilots and Bush.
In April 2019, The Cult announced that they would celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of their fourth album Sonic Temple with a world tour, which began on 2 May in Houston, Texas and was expected to wrap up in 2020.
In a June 2019 interview with LA Weekly, vocalist Ian Astbury stated that The Cult were "long overdue" to release new music. He was quoted as saying: "We do have some stuff we've been working on, but it's yet to see the light of day." Six months later, Astbury told Atlantic City Weekly that the band was going to start working on new music in 2020: "We've got a few pieces lying around in various stages of completion. The intention is to get together in the New Year and take a look at what we've got and decide how we are going to go about moving forward. It's an essential part of any creative lifeblood." On May 6, 2020, The Cult announced on their Twitter page that they had signed to Black Hill Records.
On August 15, 2020, Duffy announced on his Twitter that the band were recording their new album with producer Tom Dalgety at Rockfield Studios, where The Cult had recorded their debut album Dreamtime 36 years earlier.
In support of their new album, The Cult will embark on a co-headlining six-date UK tour with Alice Cooper in May and June 2022.
Influences
Duffy and Astbury cited among their influences a lot of different bands "from the Doors to Led Zeppelin. We literally went from the front of our record collections to the back. And then along the way we were drawn in by the likes of Public Image Ltd, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees. You might not hear it in the music but it's there." They also cited Bauhaus among many other post-punk influences. Duffy also praised Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers for a major performance he attended in 1977 and Siouxsie and the Banshees whom "always had great guitar players with killer riffs." Duffy also hailed AC/DC for "the power of a good three chord riff", Pete Townshend of the Who "in terms of commitment to stage performing" and Brian May of Queen for using "‘echoplex’ tape delays to orchestrate his own solo".
Musical style
According to music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the band fuse a "hardcore punk revivalist" sound with the "pseudo-mysticism ... of the Doors and Uriah Heep and the guitar-orchestrations of Led Zeppelin and The Cure ... while adding touches of post-punk goth rock". In 1985 Astbury said, "Our music is just melodies and guitars. We're like Big Country and U2, only better!".
Members
Current members
Ian Astbury – lead vocals, occasional percussion/guitar
Billy Duffy – lead and rhythm guitars, backing vocals
John Tempesta – drums, percussion
Grant Fitzpatrick – bass, backing vocals
Damon Fox – keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Discography
Dreamtime (1984)
Love (1985)
Electric (1987)
Sonic Temple (1989)
Ceremony (1991)
The Cult (1994)
Beyond Good and Evil (2001)
Born into This (2007)
Choice of Weapon (2012)
Hidden City (2016)
References
External links
Official website
Billy Duffy official website
Musical groups established in 1983
Situation Two artists
Beggars Banquet Records artists
Sire Records artists
Musical groups from Bradford
English post-punk music groups
English gothic rock groups
English hard rock musical groups
English heavy metal musical groups
English glam metal musical groups | false | [
"Duplex! is a children's music band from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada that claims influences from urban folk to punk rock. The members range in birth years from 1967 to 2002; both toddler Abe Caruso and noted Canadian musician Veda Hille played on the debut album.\n\nHistory\nDuplex! formed in 2005 in Vancouver, as part of a recording project organized by Veda Hille. The adult members were Annie Wilkinson, Justin Kellam, Sierra Terhoch, Matt Caruso, Shaun Brodie and Veda Hille. The band also included teenager Saoirse Soley and toddler Abe Caruso. They and released their debut album, Ablum, through Mint Records, the same year. Some of the songs were written by children.\n\nThe band's second album, Worser, was released in 2009 in Mint Records.\n\nSee also\n\nMusic of Canada\nCanadian rock\nList of Canadian musicians\nList of bands from Canada\n:Category:Canadian musical groups\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nOfficial site\nMint Records Duplex! biography\n\nMusical groups established in 2005\nChild musical groups\nCanadian children's musical groups\nMusical groups from Vancouver\nMint Records artists\n2005 establishments in British Columbia",
"\"What About Us\" is a single released by British-Irish girl group the Saturdays. Their first international single, it is the lead single from their first American-only release EP, Chasing the Saturdays (2013). It also acts as the second single from their fourth studio album Living for the Weekend (2013). The single was first released in the United States and Canada on 18 December 2012 via digital download, before being released in the United Kingdom on 16 March 2013 via CD single and digital download. The single was written by Camille Purcell, Ollie Jacobs, Philip Jacobs. There are two different versions of the track which have been recorded and released: a solo version, which was released exclusively in the US and Canada, and a version featuring Jamaican rapper Sean Paul, which was released internationally. Music critics gave the song positive feedback, but questioned the heavily auto-tuned chorus and the move away from the group's traditional sound.\n\nA music video was released for the song was published and released via the Saturdays' Vevo account on 11 January 2013. The video was filmed in Los Angeles, where the band were filming their US reality series, Chasing the Saturdays, which is broadcast through E!. An acoustic version of \"Somebody Else's Life\", which can be heard on the opening titles of the show, was released as a B-side. The Saturdays went on to a promotional tour in order to get the song \"out there\" in the United States, and appeared on a number of different chat shows including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Jeff Probst Show, Fashion Police, Chelsea Lately and The Today Show in New York City. They later went on to a promotional tour in the UK, visiting radio stations around the country.\n\n\"What About Us\" gained commercial success, debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart to become the Saturdays' twelfth UK top 10 single and first ever number-one. In Ireland, the song debuted at number six on the Irish Singles Chart, gaining the group their fifth top 10 single there. With first-week sales of 114,000 copies and 40,000 copies more sold than their closest competitor to number one, \"What About Us\" was the fastest-selling single of 2013 in the UK until it was overtaken by Naughty Boy's \"La La La\" two months later. In December 2013, it was announced as the eleventh fastest-selling single of the year overall. As of August 2014, the song has sold over 400,000 copies in the UK. On 23 December 2013, Mollie King posted a photo on Instagram of her holding a 500,000 sales plaque from their record label, with the message that \"What About Us\" had sold over 500,000 copies in UK and USA, with 120,000 copies in the US alone even without charting on the Billboard Hot 100.\n\nBackground \n\nIn 2012, it was announced that the Saturdays had received an offer to star in their own reality television programme, Chasing the Saturdays, broadcast through E! Network. While filming their show, the band began visiting the recording studio, where they began work with Rodney \"Darkchild\" Jerkins.\n\nThe Saturdays felt comfortable with their US labels, and thanked them for not only giving them a chance in North America, but for making them feel at ease and welcome which took a lot of \"weight of our shoulders\". The band said they have always respected the labels due to the massive success they've had with artists. The band had been working with Demi Lovato in the recording studio.\n\nComposition\n\n\"What About Us\" was written and produced by Ollie Jacobs and acts as the Saturdays first single to be released in North America where it could appear on the Billboard Hot 100 and Canadian Hot 100. In America its release coincided with their TV show, Chasing the Saturdays. The track is the band's fourteenth single to be released in the United Kingdom and Ireland and the track is a dance-pop song. Before the release of the song, Mollie King said that the band were excited to share the track as they had the song \"for months\" She said: \"I can't wait for everyone to hear it and to get to perform it. I'm just so excited about this one, I think it's going down really well.\" The band said they didn't want to change their type of music just for the American public and would stick to their roots and the genre they enjoyed to perform. King spoke: \"We've always made a point that we don't want to change to go to America. We wanted to go over as we are and if they like us, they like us and if they don't, they don't!\" King said that the track is reggae pop music, a little different from what band usually record, but the track is still really \"dancey\" and \"upbeat\", as well a good song to dance to on either stage or at a club. When Una Healy was asked what the song was about she said that she \"did not know\" what the song was exactly about. \"To be honest I was trying to figure out the other day what exactly it's about. I could bullshit away telling you, but I really don't know. But I think it's all about someone driving you crazy.\" She said she \"thinks\" that 'What About Us' part means \"me and you getting together\". She did point out that she did know that the song was about \"making you happy\" and that the track was good for the summer and will get you on the dancefloor. The band teased saying that \"What About Us\" is a pop track, and that is a good indication of what the expect from the album, and that they've paired up with Diane Warren to record a few ballads and not just pop tracks. \"What About Us\" is the only collaboration on the album.\n\nRelease\n\"What About Us\" was confirmed as the Saturdays' first single to be released in North America, and would be released on 18 December 2012 to coincide with their American reality show, Chasing the Saturdays. It was also revealed that the track would be released as the lead single from the band's North America released only Extended play, Chasing the Saturdays, which was named after the show. Some critics said that releasing \"What About Us\" from an EP for the US market was a \"wise decision\". One critic said: For, throwing out a traditional release on the back of a show that isn't (yet) a hit would ultimately be setting them up for failure. What's more, the EP allows their \"storyline\" for the next season of the show (should there be one) to revolve around recording an album. In the United Kingdom, it was revealed that \"What About Us\" would be the follow-up single from \"30 Days\" in the UK and Ireland, and therefore would not be the lead single from the band's fourth studio album. The band announced that before the release of the album, there would be another single release from the album. The follow-up single was revealed to be titled \"Gentleman\".\n\nJust like all the band's previous singles, the record was accepted by all A-Lists at radio stations. The UK and Ireland version of the track features a guest rap from Sean Paul. Whereas the North American version does not feature vocals from Sean Paul and only vocals from the band. The original version of the track last 3 minutes and 24 seconds, whereas the version which features Sean Paul lasts 3 minutes and 40 seconds. The single was released with B-side, an Acoustic version of a brand new track, \"Somebody Else's Life\", which is the opening theme to Chasing the Saturdays. \"What About Us\" was released as a digital download EP, and this featured the single version which features Sean Paul, the solo version and the B-side track. Upon the release in North America, there was a digital remixes EP which featured remixes of \"What About Us\" by a number of DJs including: Seamus Haji, Guy Scheiman, the Buzz Junkies and 2nd Adventure and this was also made available to purchase on 18 December 2012. While in the UK, the CD single was made available to be from stores from 18 March 2013. On the CD single featured \"What About Us\", the B-side \"Somebody Else's Life\".\n\nThe band decided to release \"What About Us\" differently between the United Kingdom and the United States, \"What About Us\" was released onto the charts without any airplay and without a music video accompanying the release, something the band experienced in the UK, with \"Notorious\". Whereas in the UK, \"What About Us\" was released with airplay and the music video being released before the release of the single. During this time, Frankie Sandford became ambassadors for mental health after Sandford battled depression. The band said they choose \"What About Us\" to be the lead single in the US and follow-up single from \"30 Days\" because they all loved it once they demoed it and it gave them a \"really good feeling\" They also said it is a fresh start for a new album, with a \"reggae vibe\", but still a pop record. The Saturdays said that Sean Paul was \"perfect\" for the UK version of the song. They said that he was \"just so nice\" and that he would be present during some of the promotional performances when the single was released.\n\nCritical reception\nRobert Copsey of Digital Spy said that Rochelle Humes asks in a \"curious Jamaican-flecked timbre\" during the intro of \"What About Us\". During the lyrics \"Oh why are we are waiting so long I'm suffocating\", and he went on to say that it is in reference to \"man-related drama\" and also pointing out that there is plenty of that on their reality series, Chasing the Saturdays. Copsey later went on to tip the band for their first number-one single as he said: \"but we suspect it could also be a sly wink at their enduring quest for a number one single\". He said that track was \"radio-friendly\" due to the \"trace beats\" and \"demanding their contrary lover to give up the hard-to-get schtick sharpish\". Although he didn't think that the song was \"original\" enough for the band, but is \"strangely addictive\" and he would be happy to see the song at the top of the charts.\n\n4Music described the song as a \"electro-pop affair with a bucket-load of synths thrown in for good measure. It's quite good, but we wonder if they should reconsider this single choice if they truly want to launch an invasion on America's charts.\" Idolator wrote a mixed review criticizing the track for lacking the group's signature style; \"While the beat is pounding enough to nab the girls a chart hit, it doesn’t feel true to the spirit of The Sats. Then again, maybe it isn’t supposed to.\" Jessica Sager from PopCrush also touched on the departure from their original sound; \"It’s a pretty big departure from their usual sugary oeuvre, but not necessarily in a bad way.\" She went on to praise Sean Paul's feature; \"His presence on the track gives it an air of authenticity and fun, but pretty much only during his own verses and interjections.\" However, she criticised the mediocre attempt at dialect the groups sing in throughout the track; \"When the Saturdays try to emulate island tones, it sounds a little awkward and they start out like that right off the bat, but go in and out of the undistinguished dialect throughout the song.\" She also felt that the heavily Auto-Tuned chorus was not need; \"The Auto-Tune seems extraneous, because the Saturdays can actually sing well without it.\" She end the review by labeling their latest effort as \"generic\" and \"not the best the Saturdays have to offer\", also rating it two and a half stars out of five.\n\nCommercial reception\n\"What About Us\" debuted at number 44 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart for the week dated 8 December 2012. This marks their first ever chart entry in the United States and it has since peaked at number twenty-seven. The song debuted at number 79 on the Canadian Hot 100, becoming the highest Canadian debut for a new artist in 2013.\n\nThe Saturdays admitted that they did not want to get their hopes up on debuting at number one on the UK Singles Charts due to being beaten to number-one three times before with \"Forever Is Over\", \"Just Can't Get Enough\" and \"Missing You\", after being number one on the Official Chart Update. During the latter two occasions, it was rapper Flo Rida who had pushed them back to numbers two and three respectively. It was revealed that the Saturdays had knocked Justin Timberlake's \"Mirrors\" off the number-one spot on the UK Singles Chart. This became the band's first ever number-one single in the United Kingdom, it also became Sean Paul's second number one in the United Kingdom after being featured on \"Breathe\" in 2003. For every one copy that Timberlake's \"Mirrors\" sold, the Saturdays sold two more copies of \"What About Us\". \"What About Us\" sold 114,000 copies in the first week of release, making it, at the time, the fastest selling single of 2013. The track sold 40,000 copies more than Timberlake, who was pushed back to number-two on the UK Singles Charts. The band said they were thrilled to be the UK's number-one with \"What About Us\". They went on to thanking their fans for supporting the single and supporting them for the past five years.\n\n\"What About Us\" debuted at number six on the Irish Singles Chart, marking the band's fifth top ten single in that country. \"What About Us\" made its debut at number thirty-six on the New Zealand Singles Chart.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video for \"What About Us\" was filmed during the summer of 2012 in Los Angeles, while the Saturdays were filming their reality television series. The North American version of the video was released via the Saturdays' official Vevo account on YouTube on 11 January 2013. A variant of the video, featuring vocals and additional scenes of the women with Sean Paul, was later released on 5 February 2013.\n\nLive performances and promotion\nThe Saturdays appeared in a number of nightclubs throughout 2012 in the United States performing \"What About Us\" along other hits. On 14 January 2013, the group made their first televised performance of the single on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It was their first performance done on American television. On 16 January, the girls performed \"What About Us\" on The Today Show in New York City. Along with the performances, they appeared on chat shows such as Chelsea Lately, Daybreak, Fashion Police, Lorraine, The Jeff Probst Show, Loose Women, Alan Carr: Chatty Man, Sunday Brunch and What's Cooking? to promote the single.\n\nTrack listings\nUS digital download\n\"What About Us\" - 3:24\n\nCD Single - UK Version Only\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) - 3:40\n\"What About Us\" - 3:24\n\"Somebody Else's Life\" (Acoustic) - 3:18\n\nUS Digital remixes EP\n\"What About Us\" (Seamus Haji Radio Edit) - 3:06\n\"What About Us\" (Seamus Haji Club Mix) - 6:35\n\"What About Us\" (Seamus Haji Dub) - 6:49\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Radio Edit) - 3:59\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Club Mix) - 7:35\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Dub) - 7:20\n\"What About Us\" (The Buzz Junkies Radio Edit) - 3:23\n\"What About Us\" (The Buzz Junkies Club Mix) - 4:32\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) - 4:32\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Radio Edit) - 4:24\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Club Mix) - 6:36\n\nEurope and Oceania EP - digital download\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) - 3:40\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) [The Buzz Junkies Radio Edit] - 3:23\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) [Seamus Haji Radio Edit] - 3:37\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Radio Edit) - 3:58\n\"What About Us\" (Extended Mix) - 3:49 (only available through pre-order)\n\nUK Digital Remixes EP\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Club Mix) - 7:35\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Club Mix) - 6:36\n\"What About Us\" (Seamus Haji Club Mix) - 6:35\n\"What About Us\" (The Buzz Junkies Club Mix) - 4:32\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Radio Edit) - 4:24\n\nRevamped Version\n\"What About Us\" - 3:24\n\"Somebody Else's Life\" (Acoustic) - 3:18\n\"What About Us\" (Extended Mix) - 3:49\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Radio Edit) - 4:24\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Radio Edit) - 3:58\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) - 4:32\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) [The Buzz Junkies Radio Edit] - 3:23\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) [Seamus Haji Radio Edit] - 3:37\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Club Mix) - 6:36\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Club Mix) - 7:35\n\"What About Us\" (The Buzz Junkies Club Mix) - 4:32\n\"What About Us\" (Seamus Haji Club Mix) - 6:35\n\nCredits and personnel\n\"What About Us\" was recorded at Rollover Studios in London.\n\nOllie Jacobs a.k.a. Art Bastian ~ Songwriter, Producer, Vocal Producer, Mix Engineer\n\nPhillip Jacobs ~ co-writer\nCamille Purcell ~ co-writer\nThe Saturdays ~ vocals\nSean Paul ~ guest vocalist\n\nCharts and certifications\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nCertifications\n\nRelease and radio history\n\nSee also\n\nList of UK Singles Chart number ones of the 2010s\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n feat. Sean Paul\n\nThe Saturdays songs\nSean Paul songs\n2012 singles\nDance-pop songs\nNumber-one singles in Scotland\nUK Singles Chart number-one singles\nSongs written by Camille Purcell\n2012 songs\nFascination Records singles\nSongs written by Ollie Jacobs"
]
|
[
"The Cult",
"Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991-1994)",
"What was the ceremony?",
"album Ceremony",
"when was it released?",
"1991,",
"was it well received?",
"The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide.",
"when did the lawsuit come about?",
"1992,",
"what was it about?",
" The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony,",
"did they have permission to use the image?",
"alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image.",
"was the lawsuit successful?",
"I don't know.",
"were there any singles released on ceremony?",
"\"Wild Hearted Son\".",
"what was the ablum about?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_4b2e5d61579045e7ae891ff8b3295557_1 | anything else notable about the article? | 10 | anything else notable about The Cult and the album Ceremony other than the lawsuit? | The Cult | In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album. During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and James Kottak played bass and drums respectively. During the actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play drums, with Charley Drayton on bass, and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men reportedly rarely even being in the studio together during recording. The resulting album Ceremony was released to mixed responses. The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. Only two official singles were released from the record: "Wild Hearted Son" (UK No. 34, Canada No. 41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK No. 50), although "White" was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was released as a single (as "Dulce Salvacion") in Argentina in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was released in Spain. The Cult's Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in 1991 and North America in 1992. In 1991 the Cult played a show at the Marquee Club in London, which was recorded and released in February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete bootleg video of this show is also in circulation. The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, for alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted Son". This lawsuit delayed the release of Ceremony in many countries including South Korea and Thailand, which did not see the record's release until late 1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey until the Cult played several shows in Istanbul in June 1993. A world tour followed with backing from future Thin Lizzy drummer Michael Lee and bassist Kinley Wolfe, and keyboardist John Sinclair returning one last time, and the Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 31. Following the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits compilation which debuted at No. 1 on the British charts and later went to number one in Portugal, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and recruited Craig Adams (the Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic. CANNOTANSWER | A world tour followed | The Cult are an English rock band formed in 1983 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury's previous band Southern Death Cult. They gained a dedicated following in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s as a post-punk/gothic rock band, with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking into the mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s establishing themselves as a hard rock band with singles such as "Love Removal Machine". Since its initial formation in 1983, the band have had various line-ups; the longest-serving members are Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, who are also the band's two songwriters.
The Cult's debut studio album Dreamtime was released in 1984 to moderate success, with its lead single "Spiritwalker" reaching No. 1 on the UK Indie Chart. Their second studio album, Love (1985), was even more successful, charting at No. 4 in the UK and including singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary" and "Rain". The band's third album, Electric (1987), launched them new heights of success, also peaking at No. 4 in the UK and charting highly in other territories, and spawned the hit singles "Love Removal Machine", "Lil' Devil" and "Wild Flower". On that album, The Cult supplemented their post-punk sound with hard rock; the polish on this new sound was facilitated by producer Rick Rubin. After moving to Los Angeles, California, where the band has been based for the remainder of their career, The Cult continued the musical experimentation of Electric with its follow-up album Sonic Temple (1989), which marked their first collaboration with Bob Rock, who would produce several of the band's subsequent albums. Sonic Temple was their most successful album to that point, entering the Top 10 on the UK and US charts, and included one of the band's most popular songs "Fire Woman".
By the time of their fifth album Ceremony (1991), tensions and creative differences began to surface among the band members. This resulted in the recording sessions for Ceremony being held without a stable lineup, leaving Astbury and Duffy as the only two official members left, and featuring support from session musicians on bass and drums. The ongoing tension had carried over within the next four years, during which they released one more studio album, The Cult (1994), and called it quits in 1995. The Cult reformed in 1999 and released their seventh album Beyond Good and Evil two years later. The commercial failure of the album and resurfaced tensions led to the band going back on hiatus in 2002. They resumed activity in 2006, and have since released three more studio albums: Born into This (2007), Choice of Weapon (2012), and Hidden City (2016).
History
Early history (1981–1984)
The band's origins can be traced to 1981, in Bradford, Yorkshire, where vocalist and songwriter Ian Astbury formed a band called Southern Death Cult. The name was chosen with a double meaning, and was derived from the 14th-century Native American religion, the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex or Southern Death Cult as it was sometimes known, from the Mississippi delta area, but it was also a stab at what the band viewed was the centralisation of power in Southern England (including that of the music industry); there has long been a perceived notion of a North–South divide based on social, historic and economic reasons. Astbury was joined by Buzz Burrows (guitar), Barry Jepson (bass) and Aki Nawaz Qureshi (drums); they performed their first show at the Queen's Hall in their hometown of Bradford on 29 October 1981. The band were at the forefront of an emerging style of music, in the form of post-punk and gothic rock, they achieved critical acclaim from the press and music fans.
The band signed to independent record label Situation Two, an offshoot of Beggars Banquet Records, and released a three-track, triple A-side single, Moya, during this period. They toured through England headlining some shows and touring with Bauhaus and Theatre of Hate. The band played their final performance in Manchester during February 1983, meaning after only sixteen months the band was over. A compilation named The Southern Death Cult was released, this being a collection of the single, radio sessions with John Peel for Radio One and live performances - one of which an audience member recorded with a tape recorder.
In April 1983, Astbury teamed up with guitarist Billy Duffy and formed the band "Death Cult". Duffy had been in the Nosebleeds (along with Morrissey), Lonesome No More and then Theatre of Hate. In addition to Astbury and Duffy, the band also included Jamie Stewart (bass) and Raymond Taylor Smith (later known as Ray Mondo) (drums), both from the Harrow, London based post-punk band, Ritual. Death Cult made their live debut in Oslo, Norway on 25 July 1983 and also released the Death Cult EP in the same month, then toured through mainland Europe and Scotland. In September 1983, Mondo was deported to his home country of Sierra Leone and replaced by Nigel Preston, formerly of Theatre of Hate. The single "Gods Zoo" was released in October 1983. Another European tour, with UK dates, followed that autumn. To tone down their name's gothic connotations and gain broader appeal, the band changed its name to "the Cult" in January 1984 before appearing on the (UK) Channel 4 television show, The Tube.
The Cult's first studio record, Dreamtime, was recorded at Rockfield Studios, in Monmouth, Wales in 1984. The record was to be produced by Joe Julian, but after recording the drum tracks, the band decided to replace him with John Brand. Brand produced the record, but guitarist Duffy has said the drum tracks were produced by Julian, as Preston had become unreliable.
The band recorded the songs which later became known as "Butterflies", "(The) Gimmick", "A Flower in the Desert", "Horse Nation", "Spiritwalker", "Bad Medicine (Waltz)", "Dreamtime", "With Love" (later known as "Ship of Fools", and also "Sea and Sky"), "Bone Bag", "Too Young", "83rd Dream", and one untitled outtake. It is unknown what the outtake was, or whether it was developed into a song at a later date. Songs like "Horse Nation" showed Astbury's intense interest in Native American issues, with the lyrics to "Horse Nation", "See them prancing, they come neighing, to a horse nation", taken almost verbatim from the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, while "Spiritwalker" dealt with shamanism, and the record's title and title track are overtly influenced by Australian Aboriginal beliefs.
On 4 April 1984, the Cult released the single "Spiritwalker", which reached No. 1 on the independent charts in the UK, and acted as a teaser for their forthcoming album Dreamtime. This was followed that summer by a second single, "Go West (Crazy Spinning Circles)", before the release of Dreamtime in September; the album reached No. 21 in the UK, and sold over 100,000 copies in the UK alone. On 12 July 1984, the band recorded five songs at the BBC Maida Vale 5 studio for a Richard Skinner session. Before and after the album's release, the Cult toured throughout Europe and England before recording another single, "Ressurection Joe" (UK No. 74), released that December. Following a Christmas support slot with Big Country, the Cult toured Europe with support from the Mission (then called the Sisterhood). Dreamtime was released initially only in the UK, but after its success, and as the Cult's popularity grew worldwide, it was issued in approximately 30 countries.
Mainstream success (1985–1990)
In May 1985, the Cult released their fourth single, "She Sells Sanctuary", which peaked at No. 15 in the UK and spent 23 weeks in the Top 100. The song was recently voted No. 18 in VH1's Indie 100. In June 1985, following his increasingly erratic behaviour, Preston was fired from the band. Big Country's drummer Mark Brzezicki was picked to replace Preston, and was also included in the video for "She Sells Sanctuary". The Cult then finished recording their second album, Love in July and August 1985. The band's music and image shifted from their punk-oriented roots to 1960s psychedelia influences. Love was a chart success, peaking at No. 4 in the UK and selling 100,000 copies there toward a total of 500,000 copies throughout Europe, as well as 100,000 in Australia and 500,000 copies in the United States. Love reached number 20 on the charts in The Netherlands, where it remained for 32 weeks. To date, the record has sold over two and a half million copies worldwide.
From late September 1985 to June 1986, the band went on a worldwide tour with new drummer Les Warner (who had played with Julian Lennon and Johnny Thunders). Two more singles from the Love album followed; "Rain" (charting in the UK at No. 17) and "Revolution" (charting in the UK at No. 30). Neither charted in the US. Another single, "Nirvana", was issued only in Poland. The album version of "Rain", as well as the remix "(Here Comes the) Rain", were used in the Italian horror film Dèmoni 2. Once back in England, the band booked themselves into the Manor Studios in Oxfordshire, with producer Steve Brown (who had produced Love), and recorded over a dozen new songs. The band were unhappy with the sound of their new album, titled Peace, and they decided to go to New York so producer Rick Rubin could remix the first single, "Love Removal Machine".
Rubin agreed to work with the band, but only if they rerecorded the song. Rubin eventually talked them into rerecording the entire album. The band's record company, Beggars Banquet, was displeased with this, as two months and £250,000 had already been spent on the record. However, after hearing the initial New York recording, Beggars Banquet agreed to proceed. The first single, "Love Removal Machine", was released in February 1987, and the new version of the album appeared in April that year, now renamed as Electric, reaching No. 4 and eventually outselling Love. The band toured with Kid Chaos (also known as "Haggis" and "The Kid") on bass, with Stewart on rhythm guitar. Two more singles, "Lil Devil" and "Wild Flower", were released during 1987. A few tracks from the original Peace album appeared on the single versions of "Love Removal Machine", and "Lil Devil". The full Peace album would not be released until 2000, when it was included as Disc 3 of the Rare Cult box set.
In the US, the Cult, now consisting of Astbury, Duffy, Stewart, Warner and Kid Chaos, were supported by the then-unknown Guns N' Roses. The band also appeared at Roskilde Festival in Denmark in June 1987. When the world tour wound through Australia, the band wrecked £30,000 worth of equipment, and as a result they could not tour Japan, as no company would rent them new equipment. At the end of the tour the Electric album had been certified Gold in the UK, and sold roughly 3 million copies worldwide, but the band were barely speaking to each other by then. Haggis left the band at the end of the Electric tour to form the Four Horsemen for Rubin's Def American label. Astbury and Duffy fired Warner and their management team Grant/Edwards, and moved to Los Angeles with original bassist Stewart. Warner sued the band several times for his firing, as well as for what he felt were unpaid royalties due to him for his performance on the Electric album, resulting in lengthy court battles. The Cult signed a new management deal and wrote 21 new songs for their next record.
For the next album, Stewart returned to playing bass, and John Webster was brought in to play keyboards. The band used Chris Taylor to play drums during rehearsals and record the demos, with future Kiss drummer Eric Singer performing during the second demo recording sessions. The Cult eventually recruited session-drummer Mickey Curry to fill the drumming role and Aerosmith sound engineer, Bob Rock, to produce. Recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from October to December 1988, the Sonic Temple record went Top 10 in both the UK and the US, where it was certified Gold and Platinum respectively. The band went on tour in support of the new album and new single "Fire Woman" (UK No. 15) (NZ No. 1), with yet another new drummer, Matt Sorum, and Webster as keyboard player. The next single, "Edie (Ciao Baby)" (UK No. 25) has become a regular song at concerts for many years.
In Europe, the band toured with Aerosmith, and in the US, after releasing another single "Sun King" (UK No. 42), they spent 1989 touring in support of Metallica before heading out on their own headlining tour later that same year. A fourth single, "Sweet Soul Sister" (UK No. 38), was released in February 1990, with the video having been filmed at Wembley Arena, London, on 25 November 1989. "Sweet Soul Sister" was partially written in Paris and was inspired by the bohemian lifestyle of that city. Released as a single in February 1990, the song was another hit in the UK, and reportedly reached number one on the rock charts in Brazil. After playing a show in Atlanta, Georgia, in February 1990, the band's management told Astbury that his father had just died of cancer. As a result, the remainder of the tour was cancelled after a final leg of shows were performed in April. After the tour ended, the band were on the verge of splitting due to Stewart retiring and moving to Canada to be with his wife, and Sorum leaving to join Guns N' Roses.
In 1990, Astbury organized the Gathering of the Tribes festival in Los Angeles and San Francisco with artists such as Soundgarden, Ice-T, Indigo Girls, Queen Latifah, Iggy Pop, the Charlatans, the Cramps and Public Enemy appearing. This two-day festival drew 40,000 people. Also in 1990, a ten CD box set was released in the UK, containing rare songs from the Cult's singles. The CDs in this box set were all issued as picture discs with rice paper covers, housed in a white box called "Singles Collection", or a black box called "E.P. Collection '84 - '90". In 1991, director Oliver Stone offered Astbury the role of Jim Morrison in Stone's film The Doors. He declined the role because he was not happy with the way Morrison was represented in the film, and the role was ultimately played by Val Kilmer.
Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991–1993)
In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album. During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and James Kottak played bass and drums, respectively. During the actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play drums, with Charley Drayton on bass, and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men reportedly rarely even being in the studio together during recording. The resulting album Ceremony was released to mixed responses. The album climbed to US No. 34, but sales were not as impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one million copies worldwide. Only two official singles were released from the record: "Wild Hearted Son" (UK No. 34, Canada No. 41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK No. 50), although "White" was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was released as a single (as "Dulce Salvación") in Argentina in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was released in Spain.
The Cult's Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in 1991 and North America in 1992. In 1991 the Cult played a show at the Marquee Club in London, which was recorded and released in February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete bootleg video of this show is also in circulation.
The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy pictured on the cover of Ceremony, for alleged exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image. The parents stated that the boy felt he had been cursed by the band's burning of his image, and was "emotionally scarred." This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted Son". This lawsuit delayed the release of Ceremony in many countries including South Korea and Thailand, which did not see the record's release until late 1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey until the Cult played several shows in Istanbul in June 1993.
A world tour followed with backing from drummer Michael Lee (Page & Plant, Little Angels), bassist Kinley "Barney" Wolfe (Lord Tracy, Black Oak Arkansas), and keyboardist John Sinclair (Ozzy Osbourne, Uriah Heep) returning one last time, and the Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 28. Following the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits compilation which debuted at No. 1 on the British charts and later went to number one in Portugal, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and recruited Craig Adams (the Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic.
The Cult and first breakup (1994–1998)
With the same line-up still in place, the band released The Cult in October 1994, produced by Bob Rock. The self-titled album is commonly referred to as the "Black Sheep" album by fans of the group, due to the image of a black sheep on the front cover. Astbury referred to the record as a collection of "very personal and very revealing" songs about his life, with the subject matter ranging from sexual abuse at the age of 15, to the death of Nigel Preston, to his directionless years spent in Glasgow in the late 1970s.
The record achieved little success, only reaching No. 69 in the US and No. 21 in the UK. Duffy remarked that he thought that the record wouldn't sell well due to the offensive lyrics. The record went to number one in Portugal also, but quickly dropped out of sight. The single "Coming Down (Drug Tongue)" was released with the band going on tour in support of the new album. Only one more single, "Star", was officially released with a live appearance on UK TV show The Word. "Star" began life in 1986 as "Tom Petty" and was recorded at the "Sonic Temple" demo sessions as "Starchild", being dropped by the band during rehearsals. In 1993 the song was resurrected and was finally completed for the record in 1994 as, just simply, "Star".
When the band began the Beauty's On The Streets tour in winter 1994, they augmented the line up with James Stevenson on rhythm guitar. As with the Ceremony record several years earlier, no other official singles were released, but several other songs were released on a strictly limited basis: "Sacred Life" was released in Spain and the Netherlands, "Be Free" was issued in Canada and France, "Saints Are Down" was issued in Greece, but none of the songs gained much commercial success. During this tour, the Cult made their first ever appearance in Norway.
During the Black Rain tour of South America in spring of 1995, despite the fact that several more new songs had already been recorded, the tour was cancelled after an appearance in Rio de Janeiro in March, and the band split up citing unspecified problems on a recent South American tour. Astbury started up a garage band called Holy Barbarians a few months later. The band made their debut at the 100 Club in London in February 1996 and released their first (and only) record in May 1996, and toured throughout North America and Europe for the rest of 1996. The band started writing material for a second record in 1997, but the band was dissolved and Astbury began writing and recording a solo record. Throughout 1997 and 1998 Astbury recorded his solo record, originally to be titled Natural Born Guerilla, later called High Time Amplifier. Ultimately the record remained unreleased until June 2000 when it was released under the name Spirit\Light\Speed. Astbury played one solo concert in 1999.
In November 1996, a number of CD reissues were released: the band's American record company released High Octane Cult, a slightly updated greatest hits compilation released only in the US and Japan; The Southern Death Cult, a remastered edition of the fifteen-song compilation CD; a ten-song compilation CD by Death Cult called Ghost Dance, consisting of the untitled four-song EP, the single "God's Zoo", and four unreleased songs from a radio broadcast; and a remastered repackaging of the Dreamtime album, containing only the ten original songs from the record in their original playing order and almost completely different but original artwork. Dreamtime Live at the Lyceum was also remastered and issued on video and for the first time on CD, with the one unreleased song from the concert, "Gimmick".
First reunion, Beyond Good and Evil and second hiatus (1999–2005)
In 1999, Astbury and Duffy reformed the Cult with Matt Sorum and ex-Porno for Pyros bassist Martyn LeNoble. Their first official concert was at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in June 1999, after having rehearsed at shows in the Los Angeles area. The band's 1999 Cult Rising reunion tour resulted in a sold out 30 date tour of the US, ending with 8 consecutive sold out nights at the LA House of Blues. In 2000, the band toured South Africa for the first time, and North and South America, and contributed the song "Painted on My Heart" to the soundtrack of the movie Gone In 60 Seconds. The song was featured prominently and the melody was fused into parts of the score. In June, Astbury's long-delayed solo record was finally released as Spirit\Light\Speed, but it failed to gain much success. In November 2000, another authorised greatest hits compilation was released, Pure Cult: The Singles 1984–1995, along with an accompanying DVD, which was later certified gold in Canada. The Cult, as well as Ian Astbury, performed on separate tracks on the Doors tribute album, Stoned Immaculate: The Music of The Doors, covering "Wild Child" and "Touch Me".
In November 2000, Beggars Banquet released 15,000 copies of a six-disc boxset (with a bonus seventh disc of remixes for the first 5000 copies) titled Rare Cult. The box set consists of album out-takes, demos, radio broadcasts, and album B-sides. It is most notable for including the previously unreleased "Peace" album in its entirety. In 2001, the band signed to Atlantic Records and recorded a new album, Beyond Good and Evil, originally being produced by Mick Jones of Foreigner, until Jones bowed out to tour with Foreigner. Astbury and Duffy co-wrote a song with Jones, an odd occurrence, as in the past, neither Astbury or Duffy would co-write their material. Bob Rock was the producer, with Martyn LeNoble and Chris Wyse as recording bassists, as Mike Dimkich played rhythm guitar on tour, and Matt Sorum returning as drummer. Although Sorum has previously toured with the band on the Sonic Temple tour in 1989, this was the first time that he had recorded a studio album with the band.
However Beyond Good and Evil was not the comeback record the band had hoped for. Despite reaching No. 37 in the US, No. 22 in Canada, and No. 25 in Spain, sales quickly dropped, only selling roughly 500,000 copies worldwide. The first single "Rise", reached No. 41 in the US, and No. 2 on the mainstream rock charts, but Atlantic Records quickly pulled the song from radio playlists. Astbury would later describe the experience with Atlantic to be "soul destroying", after Atlantic tried to tamper with the lyrics, the record cover, and choice of singles from the record.
After the first single from the record, the band's working relationship with Atlantic was on paper only, with Atlantic pulling "Rise" from the radio stations playlists, and stopping all promotion of the record. The second single "Breathe" was only released as a radio station promo, and the final single "True Believers" was only on a compilation sampler disc released in January 2002 (after the Cult's tour had already ended). Despite "True Believers" receiving radio airplay in Australia, both singles went largely unnoticed, and both Astbury and Duffy walked away from the project. LeNoble rejoined the band for the initial dates in early 2001, and Billy Morrison filled in on bass for the majority of the 2001 tour.
The European tour of 2001 was canceled, largely due to security concerns after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the band flew back to the US to tour again with Aerosmith. But the eleven-week tour was considered by fans to be a disaster, as the band played only a brief rundown of their greatest hits. In October 2001, a show at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles was filmed for release on DVD. After the tour ended in December 2001, the band took most of 2002 off, apart from a few shows in the US to promote the release of the DVD, with Scott Garrett and Craig Adams rejoining the band.
Despite the commercial disappointment of Beyond Good and Evil and the supporting tour, the band was voted "Comeback of the Year" by Metal Edge readers in the magazine's 2001 Readers' Choice Awards.
In late 2002, Ian Astbury declared the Cult to be "on ice" indefinitely, after performing a brief series of dates in October 2002 to promote the release of the Music Without Fear DVD. During this second hiatus, Astbury performed as a member of the Doors (later dubbed the Doors of the 21st Century, later still renamed D21c, and most recently known as Riders on the Storm) with two of the original members of that group. D21c was sued numerous times, both by Jim Morrison's family and by drummer John Densmore. Astbury supposedly started work on recording another solo album that later became the backbone for the Cult's Born into This.
At the same time, Duffy was part of Coloursound with bassist Craig Adams and ex-Alarm frontman Mike Peters, then Dead Men Walking (again with Peters) and later Cardboard Vampyres. Sorum became a member of the hard rock supergroup Velvet Revolver. In 2003, all of the Cult's records were issued on CD, with several bonus tracks being issued on the Russian, Belarusian, and Lithuanian versions. These eastern European releases had many printing mistakes on the jacket sleeves and lyric inserts. In October 2004, all of the Cult's records were again remastered and issued again on CD, this time in Japan in different cardboard foldout sleeves. "She Sells Sanctuary" appeared in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, playing on rock station V-Rock.
Second reunion, Born Into This and Capsule EPs (2006–2010)
Despite Astbury's previous statement from 2004 that a reunion would not happen, The Cult announced in January 2006 that they were reuniting for "some limited gigs" throughout the year. A month later, the band made their first live appearance in three-and-a-half years on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Their lineup consisted of Astbury (vocals), Duffy (lead guitar), John Tempesta (drums), Dimkich (rhythm guitar) and Wyse (returning as bassist). Their first stage show was held in March 2006 in San Francisco, California, at The Fillmore. The entire tour was recorded by Instant Live and sold after each show. In May, they did an eight date tour in Canada. Later that summer, they toured central and eastern Europe and played their first concerts in Bulgaria, Poland and Serbia. An eleven-date UK tour followed as well as several more dates in the United States, finishing with a South American tour in December. That year, Duffy began the band Circus Diablo with Billy Morrison, Sorum, Brett Scallions and Ricky Warwick.
During these tours, the band occasionally played an extended set, including several songs the band had not performed in decades: "King Contrary Man" and "Hollow Man", neither of which had been performed since 1987; also, "Libertine" was performed approximately three times, for the first time since 2000, and "Brother Wolf, Sister Moon", which was only performed one time since 1986 (for this particular song, the band played an abridged version which has never been performed before or since)
Astbury announced in February 2007 that he was leaving Riders on the Storm and returning to the Cult. He stated: "I have decided to move on and focus on my own music and legacy." The Cult was featured on Stuffmagazine.com's list of ultimate air guitar players. On 21 March 2007, it was announced that the band would be touring Europe with the Who. The first confirmed tour date was in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in early June, with at least a dozen shows set to follow. The band played a gig in London's West End at the CC Club on 7 June 2007, along with nearly two dozen shows across continental Europe during summer. The tour also includes the first performance in Romania and Croatia.
On 29 May 2007, the band signed a deal with major metal label Roadrunner Records. Their 8th studio album, titled Born into This was released on 16 October, and was produced by Martin "Youth" Glover, bass player for Killing Joke. Born into This was released as regular single disc and limited edition double disc, the second disk being a bonus 5-track CD holding the following tracks: "Stand Alone", "War Pony Destroyer", "I Assassin (Demo)", "Sound of Destruction (Demo)" and "Savages (Extended Version)". Prior to the album's release, the band played festival and headline dates, and supported the Who in Europe through summer 2007, with a US headline tour to follow.
The band's appearance at Irving Plaza in New York City in early November 2006 was filmed and was released in 2007. The Cult New York City, issued by Fontana North and is the Cult's first high definition DVD release. Meanwhile, Astbury lent vocals on two tracks of the 2007 Unkle album "War Stories", one of them being the first single from the album, "Burn My Shadow".
The band performed a UK and European tour in late-February and early-March 2008. On 24 March, they began their North American tour including a major 13-city tour in Canada. During September 2008, the Cult did a brief series of dates in the northeast United States, and they toured in Brazil as part of the South American tour in October 2008. As of May 2008, according to The Gauntlet, the Cult are currently unsigned and no longer under contract with Roadrunner Records. In October 2008, it was announced that the Cult would headline the inaugural Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Antonio, to be run 16 November 2008. The Cult announced plans for a tour showcasing their 1985 Love album across the US and then the UK in October where they will play at the Royal Albert Hall.
Coinciding with the remastered Love album and four-disc Omnibus boxed set, the Cult kicked off the long-awaited Love Live Tour in late summer. Performing their classic Love album in its entirety, each show was played with the Love tracks opening with "Nirvana" to "Black Angel". A quick intermission followed, then other Cult hits were played (varying by venue): "Sun King", "Dirty Little Rock Star", "Electric Ocean", "Illuminated". Then followed the favorites "Fire Woman", "Lil Devil", "Wild Flower", and lastly "Love Removal Machine". In the evening of 10 October 2009 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the band performed a second encore with original Cult bassist Jamie Stewart and drummer Mark Brzezicki, who played drums with the band during the Love album recording sessions in July and August 1985. The band sold Love Live USB flash drives for each show during the tour.
The Cult entered 2010 continuing their Love Live Tour and announcing more dates in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan. The band finished recording a four-track "Capsule" with producer Chris Goss. Capsule 1 was said to be the first of three or four to be released sometime in summer 2010. Release formats include CD-DVD dualdisc, 12-inch vinyl, and digital downloads. Capsule 1 was released on 14 September 2010. The band officially announced the release of its first new studio recording since 2007, "Every Man And Woman Is A Star". The new single was released through the iTunes Store on 31 July 2010.
On 1 August 2010, the band played the sold-out music festival Sonisphere, which marked their first UK performance since the tour for their Love album. During the performance they debuted their new single, "Every Man and Woman is a Star", which was released on 1 August 2010. On 14 September 2010 the band embarked on a new U.S. tour and released Capsule 1 in conjunction with media technology company Aderra Inc. and made it available in multiple formats including a CD-DVD DualDisc, USB flash drive, 12 inch vinyl, FLAC download and MP3 download. The collection includes a short film made by singer Ian Astbury and Rick Rogers.
On 26 October 2010 the band and Aderra Inc. announced the release of a new song, "Embers", for 1 November 2010 and Capsule 2 available through their web store on 16 November 2010. Pictures from the Cult's tour stop in Chicago on 28 October 2010 can be seen at a local radio station website.
On 17 September 2010, the band performed live at the Fall Frenzy concert at the Tempe Beach Park in Tempe, Arizona. Other bands that played at this concert were Stone Temple Pilots, Shinedown, and Sevendust.
On 4 December 2010, the band performed a live set for Guitar Center Sessions on DirecTV. The episode included an interview with the band by program host, Nic Harcourt.
Choice of Weapon and Hidden City (2011–2017)
During the Cult's concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on 21 January 2011 Ian Astbury declared that the Cult would be recording a new album directly after the tour. They also announced that they would be working with Chris Goss, who performed with Masters of Reality as a supporting act the same evening. On 11 May 2011, it was announced that the Cult were signed to Cooking Vinyl Records, who will release the new album in early 2012. Commented guitarist Billy Duffy: "We are very much looking forward to returning to our U.K. roots in many ways working with Cooking Vinyl." Vocalist Ian Astbury added, "We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Cooking Vinyl." By May 2011, the band had been writing and recording new demos at its Witch Mountain studio hideaway in the Hollywood Hills, and began recording their new album at Hollywood Recording Studios. In October 2011, bassist Chris Wyse stated the album was almost finished and expected to be released in April 2012. Chris also described it as a "Zep/Stooges mix of energy."
On 29 November 2011, it was announced that the album would be produced by Bob Rock, who provided the same role on Sonic Temple, The Cult and Beyond Good and Evil. The album, entitled Choice of Weapon, was released on 22 May 2012. The band partnered with Rolling Stone to premiere the first song from the album titled Lucifer on 30 January. On 5 February 2012, the Cult song "She Sells Sanctuary" was used as the soundtrack for a Budweiser commercial in a mashup with Flo Rida aired during Super Bowl XLVI. In May 2012 the Cult appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and played "For The Animals".
On 28 September 2012, it was announced that the band would release Weapon of Choice, a "prequel" album to accompany the band's latest album, Choice of Weapon. The digital-only release, available exclusively on iTunes for two months only beginning 16 October, features the songs that were ultimately included in "Choice Of Weapon" at an earlier stage of development. Explaining the motivations behind the release, singer Ian Astbury said that "These songs were turned over and over, forged in long rehearsals and writing sessions, and emanated from challenges both personal and professional. We put our guts into this; [Producer Chris] Goss was able to create an environment where the songs were born through playing and turning over lyrics, through hard work and intense sessions." Astbury added "These songs have an integrity and rawness of their own. In many ways it's a different album to the one we released and reveals the foundations of 'Choice Of Weapon'. We were able to close the doors and begin to explore spaces we had not been in for a while." The song "Twisted and Bleeding" was made available for free download at the band's website ahead of the full digital release.
On 20 June 2013, the band announced the release of Electric-Peace which comprises the entire Electric album plus the Peace album which was previously released on the now discontinued Rare Cult box set in 2000. It is due for release in the US on 30 July. In 2013 Mike Dimkich left the band and joined Bad Religion to cover for guitarist Greg Hetson. James Stevenson, from the Beauty's On The Streets tour in 1994, replaced Dimkich as the Cult's rhythm guitarist.
In March 2013, Billy Duffy told the Argentinan journalist Fabrizio Pedrotti that the Cult had begun work on a new album for a 2014 release. The band were expected to begin work on the album after they finish their 2013 world tour, where they played the Electric album in its entirety. In August 2014, Billy added that the next album, which was not expected to be released before 2015 at the earliest, "will be more guitar heavy".
On 5 November 2015, it was announced that The Cult would release their new album, entitled Hidden City, on 5 February 2016. The album is said to be the final part of a trilogy that began with Born into This, and marks the fifth time Bob Rock had produced a Cult album. The band also announced that they had hired Australian-born bassist Grant Fitzpatrick (ex-Mink) as the replacement for Chris Wyse. Chris Chaney (Jane's Addiction, Camp Freddy) and producer Bob Rock performed session bass on the album. In support of Hidden City, The Cult opened for Guns N' Roses on the Not in This Lifetime... Tour.
In an October 2016 interview with PopMatters journalist J.C. Maçek III, Cult guitarist Billy Duffy spoke of the band's playlist while on tour, saying "Obviously you want to make an impactful [show]," he continues. "There are some practical, pragmatic decisions made. If you're playing to a crowd who are not very familiar with you, there's no point of going too deep but we do always make sure we play a new song. Like on Guns N' Roses' [tour] we had fifty minutes which is ten songs all in. So, you know we just made sure that in those ten songs we played 'Deeply Ordered Chaos' which we’re proud of and it makes a certain statement. And it just alerts people to the fact that, yes, we have made a record in the last 30 years. You know and that's a good thing. Psychologically, that's the blood transfusion that we need. And we're very mindful, we have a very loyal fan base. We don't pander as you well know."
Upcoming eleventh studio album (2018–present)
In an April 2018 interview with Guitar World, guitarist Billy Duffy was asked if another album from The Cult was in the works. He replied, "Never say never! Ian and I enjoy the process of making new music, and we feel it's vital to keep the band healthy, even if it's pretty much in the law of diminishing returns area now. Who knows if it will be a whole album a series of singles or an EP? I can say new Cult music will be forthcoming, but these days we don't rush it as there's no point. Quality is key. We are past the point of having to release stuff so if we feel it's good enough, then we will release it in some shape or another."
On 2 April 2018, a tour of the United States of America called "Revolution 3 Tour" was announced for the summer. They performed as one of the three headliners, along with Stone Temple Pilots and Bush.
In April 2019, The Cult announced that they would celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of their fourth album Sonic Temple with a world tour, which began on 2 May in Houston, Texas and was expected to wrap up in 2020.
In a June 2019 interview with LA Weekly, vocalist Ian Astbury stated that The Cult were "long overdue" to release new music. He was quoted as saying: "We do have some stuff we've been working on, but it's yet to see the light of day." Six months later, Astbury told Atlantic City Weekly that the band was going to start working on new music in 2020: "We've got a few pieces lying around in various stages of completion. The intention is to get together in the New Year and take a look at what we've got and decide how we are going to go about moving forward. It's an essential part of any creative lifeblood." On May 6, 2020, The Cult announced on their Twitter page that they had signed to Black Hill Records.
On August 15, 2020, Duffy announced on his Twitter that the band were recording their new album with producer Tom Dalgety at Rockfield Studios, where The Cult had recorded their debut album Dreamtime 36 years earlier.
In support of their new album, The Cult will embark on a co-headlining six-date UK tour with Alice Cooper in May and June 2022.
Influences
Duffy and Astbury cited among their influences a lot of different bands "from the Doors to Led Zeppelin. We literally went from the front of our record collections to the back. And then along the way we were drawn in by the likes of Public Image Ltd, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees. You might not hear it in the music but it's there." They also cited Bauhaus among many other post-punk influences. Duffy also praised Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers for a major performance he attended in 1977 and Siouxsie and the Banshees whom "always had great guitar players with killer riffs." Duffy also hailed AC/DC for "the power of a good three chord riff", Pete Townshend of the Who "in terms of commitment to stage performing" and Brian May of Queen for using "‘echoplex’ tape delays to orchestrate his own solo".
Musical style
According to music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the band fuse a "hardcore punk revivalist" sound with the "pseudo-mysticism ... of the Doors and Uriah Heep and the guitar-orchestrations of Led Zeppelin and The Cure ... while adding touches of post-punk goth rock". In 1985 Astbury said, "Our music is just melodies and guitars. We're like Big Country and U2, only better!".
Members
Current members
Ian Astbury – lead vocals, occasional percussion/guitar
Billy Duffy – lead and rhythm guitars, backing vocals
John Tempesta – drums, percussion
Grant Fitzpatrick – bass, backing vocals
Damon Fox – keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Discography
Dreamtime (1984)
Love (1985)
Electric (1987)
Sonic Temple (1989)
Ceremony (1991)
The Cult (1994)
Beyond Good and Evil (2001)
Born into This (2007)
Choice of Weapon (2012)
Hidden City (2016)
References
External links
Official website
Billy Duffy official website
Musical groups established in 1983
Situation Two artists
Beggars Banquet Records artists
Sire Records artists
Musical groups from Bradford
English post-punk music groups
English gothic rock groups
English hard rock musical groups
English heavy metal musical groups
English glam metal musical groups | true | [
"\"If You Can Do Anything Else\" is a song written by Billy Livsey and Don Schlitz, and recorded by American country music artist George Strait. It was released in February 2001 as the third and final single from his self-titled album. The song reached number 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in July 2001. It also peaked at number 51 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.\n\nContent\nThe song is about man who is giving his woman the option to leave him. He gives her many different options for all the things she can do. At the end he gives her the option to stay with him if she really can’t find anything else to do. He says he will be alright if she leaves, but really it seems he wants her to stay.\n\nChart performance\n\"If You Can Do Anything Else\" debuted at number 60 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of March 3, 2001.\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\n2001 singles\n2000 songs\nGeorge Strait songs\nSongs written by Billy Livsey\nSongs written by Don Schlitz\nSong recordings produced by Tony Brown (record producer)\nMCA Nashville Records singles",
"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"
]
|
[
"Cat Power",
"2012-present: Sun and other projects"
]
| C_485132b30b2146a1a958b58fa2a5ee5b_0 | What occurred in 2012? | 1 | What occurred in 2012 regarding Cat Power? | Cat Power | In February 2012, Marshall cancelled a scheduled appearance in Tel Aviv, Israel, citing "much confusion" and that she felt "sick in her spirit." She had faced calls to boycott the Jewish state over its conflict with Palestine. Two months later, she cancelled her appearance at the Coachella Music Festival, claiming that she "didn't think it was fair to play Coachella while my new album is not yet finished," also hinting that her forthcoming record is "almost done" and will see release later in 2012. Marshall's ninth studio album, titled Sun, was released on September 3, 2012, with lead single "Ruin" being released as a free download at Matador Record's store on June 20, 2012. The album features prominent electronica elements and arrangements, which Marshall incorporated into the "really slow guitar-based songs" she had originally written. In a review published on September 4, 2012 on Consequence of Sound, Sun was praised as a unique album and received a four-star rating. In summation, reviewer Sarah Grant wrote that Marshall's 2012 release is "a passionate pop album of electronic music filtered through a singer-songwriter's soul." The album debuted at a career chart-high of No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling over 23,000 copies on its opening week. Marshall revealed in an interview on an Australian radio station, Triple J, that an Australian tour had been confirmed to occur in 2013. On July 28, 2017, Marshall announced on Instagram that her tenth studio album was "ready to go", although she did not disclose its title or expected release date. It will be her first album since 2012's Sun. CANNOTANSWER | Marshall's ninth studio album, titled Sun, was released | Charlyn Marie "Chan" Marshall ( ; born January 21, 1972), better known by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, occasional actress, and model. Cat Power was originally the name of Marshall's first band, but has become her stage name as a solo artist.
Born in Atlanta, Marshall was raised throughout the southern United States, and began performing in local bands in Atlanta in the early 1990s. After opening for Liz Phair in 1993, she worked with Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and Tim Foljahn of Two Dollar Guitar, with whom she recorded her first two albums, Dear Sir (1995) and Myra Lee (1996), on the same day in 1994. In 1996, she signed with Matador Records, and released a third album of new material with Shelley and Foljahn, What Would the Community Think. Following this, she released the critically acclaimed Moon Pix (1998), recorded with members of Dirty Three, and The Covers Record (2000), a collection of sparsely arranged cover songs.
After a brief hiatus she released You Are Free (2003), featuring guest musicians Dave Grohl and Eddie Vedder, followed by the soul-influenced The Greatest (2006), recorded with numerous Memphis studio musicians. A second album of cover tracks, Jukebox, was released in 2008. In 2012 she released the self-produced Sun, which debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200, the highest-charting album of her career to date.
Critics have noted the constant evolution of Cat Power's sound, with a mix of punk, folk and blues on her earliest albums, and elements of soul and other genres more prevalent in her later material.
Early life
Charlyn Marie Marshall was born January 21, 1972, in Atlanta, Georgia, the second child of Charlie Marshall, a blues musician and pianist, and Myra Lee Marshall ( Russell). She has one older sister, Miranda ("Mandy"). Her parents divorced in 1979 and remarried shortly thereafter. Her mother remarried and had a son, Lenny, and the family traveled around often because of her stepfather's profession.
Marshall attended ten different schools throughout the Southern U.S. in Greensboro; Bartlett and Memphis and throughout Georgia and South Carolina. At times she was left in the care of her grandmother. She was not allowed to buy records when she was growing up, but she listened to her stepfather's record collection, which included artists Otis Redding, Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Rolling Stones, as well as her parents' records, which included Black Flag, Sister Sledge, and Barry White. In sixth grade, she adopted the nickname Chan (pronounced "Shawn"), which she would later use professionally. When she was 13, she listened to the Smiths, the Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees. She had to save up to buy cassettes and the first one she got was a record by the Misfits. At age 16, she became estranged from her mother, and had no further contact with her until she was 24.
Religion was a large part of Marshall's upbringing; her father was a Jehovah's Witness, though she attended Southern Baptist churches with her grandmother, where she began singing while learning hymns.
Career
1992–1995: Beginnings
Marshall's first instrument was a 1950s Silvertone guitar, which she taught herself to play. While working in a pizzeria, she began playing music in Atlanta in the late-1980s with Glen Thrasher, Marc Moore, Damon Moore and Fletcher Liegerot, who would get together for jam sessions in a basement. The group were booked for a show and had to come up with a name quickly; after seeing a man wearing a Caterpillar trucker cap that read: "Cat Diesel Power", Marshall chose Cat Power as the name of the band.
While in Atlanta, Marshall played her first live shows as support to her friends' bands, including Magic Bone and Opal Foxx Quartet. In a 2007 interview, she explained that the music itself was more experimental and that playing shows was often an opportunity for her and her friends "to get drunk and take drugs". A number of her local peers became entrenched in heroin use. After the death of her boyfriend, and the subsequent loss of her best friend to AIDS, Marshall relocated to New York City in 1992 with Glen Thrasher. A new boyfriend helped her get a job in a restaurant.
Thrasher introduced her to New York's free jazz and experimental music scene. After attending a concert by Anthony Braxton, she gave her first New York show of improvisational music at a warehouse in Brooklyn. One of her shows during this period was as the support act to Man or Astro-man? and consisted of her playing a two-string guitar and singing the word "no" for 15 minutes. Around this time, she met the band God Is My Co-Pilot, who assisted with the release of her first single, "Headlights", in a limited run of 500 copies on their Making of Americans label.
Marshall recorded simultaneously her first two albums Dear Sir and Myra Lee in December 1994 in a small basement studio near Mott Street in New York City, with guitarist Tim Foljahn and Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley; Marshall and Shelley had initially met after she played a show opening for Liz Phair in 1993. A total of 20 songs were recorded in a single day by the trio, all of which were split into two records, making up Dear Sir and Myra Lee, released respectively in October 1995 and March 1996. Although Dear Sir is considered Marshall's debut album, it is more the length of an EP.
1996–2003: Early Matador releases
In 1996, Marshall signed to Matador Records and in September released her third album, What Would the Community Think, which she recorded in Memphis, Tennessee, in February 1996. The album was produced by Shelley and again featured Shelley and Foljahn as backing musicians, and spawned a single and music video, "Nude as the News" about the abortion she had at the age of 20. Critics cited the album as evidence of her maturation as a singer and songwriter from the "dense and cathartic" material of her first two releases.
After the release of What Would the Community Think, Marshall took a trip to South Africa, after which she left New York City and moved to Portland, Oregon, where she found temporary employment as a babysitter. In the spring of 1997, Marshall relocated with her then-boyfriend, musician Bill Callahan, to a rural farmhouse in Prosperity, South Carolina. After experiencing a hypnogogic nightmare while alone in the farmhouse, Marshall wrote six new songs that would go on to make up the bulk of her following album, Moon Pix (1998), which she recorded at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne, Australia, with backing musicians Mick Turner and Jim White of the Australian band Dirty Three. Moon Pix was well received by critics, and along with an accompanying music video for the song "Cross Bones Style", helped her gain further recognition. Rolling Stone would later describe it as her 'breakthrough' record.
In 1999 where Marshall performed in a series of shows where she provided musical accompaniment to the silent movie The Passion of Joan of Arc. The shows combined original material and covers, some of which would be released on Marshall's fifth album, The Covers Record in 2000. The songs were recorded during two sessions in the summer of 1998 and fall of 1999. Additionally, she performed eleven covers during a Peel session broadcast on June 18, 2000 that included own interpretations of Bob Dylan's "Hard Times in New York Town" and Oasis's "Wonderwall". Her contract with Matador for 2000's The Covers Album reportedly consisted of a Post-it note signed by herself and the company's founder.
During the early-2000s, Marshall was embraced by the fashion industry for her "neo grunge" look, and seen as a muse by designers Marc Jacobs and Nicolas Ghesquière. In 2001 she modeled in New York magazines fall fashion issue and was photographed by her friends Mark Borthwick and Katja Rahlwes, who featured her in Purple magazine alongside Catherine Deneuve.
In February 2003, Marshall released You Are Free, her first album of original material in five years. The album, which featured guest musicians such as Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl, and Warren Ellis, became the first charting Cat Power album, reaching 105 on the Billboard 200. A music video directed by Brett Vapnek was released for the song "He War". Marshall toured extensively through 2003 and 2004, playing shows in Europe, Brazil, the U.S. and Australia. During this period, Marshall's live performances had become erratic and unpredictable, and a 2003 The New Yorker article suggested: "It is foolhardy to describe a Cat Power event as a concert," citing "rambling confessions" and "[talking] to a friend's baby from the stage." Marshall later attributed this period to a drinking problem. Around the time of the release of You Are Free, Marshall purchased a house in South Beach, Miami.
2004–2011: Mainstream success
In October 2004, Matador released the DVD film Speaking for Trees, which featured a continuous, nearly two-hour static shot of Marshall performing with her guitar in a woodland. The set was accompanied by an audio CD containing the 18-minute song "Willie Deadwilder", featuring M. Ward also on guitar.
On January 22, 2006, Marshall released her seventh album, The Greatest, a Southern soul-influenced album of new material featuring veteran Memphis studio musicians, including Mabon "Teenie" Hodges, Leroy Hodges, David Smith, and Steve Potts. The album debuted at 34 on the Billboard 200 and critics noted its relatively "polished and accessible" sound, predicting it was "going to gain her a lot of new fans." The Greatest met with critical acclaim, and won the 2006 Shortlist Music Prize, making Marshall the first woman to win the honor. It was also named the number 6 best album of 2006 by Rolling Stone Magazine.
Simultaneously, Marshall collaborated with several other musicians on different projects, including Mick Collins on a recording of Ludwig Rellstab's poem "Auf Dem Strom" for the film Wayne County Ramblin; a duet with singer-model Karen Elson on an English cover of Serge Gainsbourg's "Je t'aime... moi non plus" for the tribute album Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited (2007); lead vocals on the Ensemble track "Disown, Delete"; and a reworked version of "Revelations" with Yoko Ono for Ono's 2007 album Yes, I'm a Witch.
In the fall of 2006, Marshall became a celebrity spokesperson for a line of jewelry from Chanel, after being seen by Karl Lagerfeld smoking a cigarette outside the Mercer Hotel in New York. Lagerfeld chose Cat Power for the soundtrack to his spring 2007 fashion show. He also photographed Marshall for a Purple feature.
In 2007, Marshall contributed songs to the soundtrack of Ethan Hawke's film The Hottest State, recording with Jesse Harris and Terry Manning, and the Academy Award-winning film Juno. The same year, she made her feature film debut acting in My Blueberry Nights opposite Jude Law, appearing in a small role. She also appeared in the role of a postal worker in Doug Aitken's MoMA installation Sleepwalkers, which followed the nocturnal lives of five city dwellers. Also in 2007, she featured on Faithless' album track A Kind of Peace.
In January 2008, Marshall released her second covers album, Jukebox. Recorded with her recently assembled "Dirty Delta Blues Band", which consisted of Judah Bauer from the Blues Explosion, Gregg Foreman of The Delta 72, Erik Paparazzi of Lizard Music and Jim White of Dirty Three, the album featured the original song "Song to Bobby", Marshall's tribute to Bob Dylan, and a reworking of the Moon Pix song "Metal Heart". She also collaborated with Beck and producer Danger Mouse on the album Modern Guilt (2008): She contributed backing vocals to two tracks, "Orphans" and "Walls". The album was released in July of that year.
In September 2008, Marshall and members of the Dirty Delta Blues (Erik Paparazzi and Gregg Foreman) recorded their version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" for a Lincoln car commercial. In 2013, Cat Power's version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" was used in Apple's Christmas commercial "Misunderstood". In December 2008, she released Dark End of the Street, an EP consisting of songs left over from the Jukebox sessions. In 2009, she provided backing vocals on Marianne Faithfull's cover of "Hold On, Hold On" by Neko Case on the 2009 album Easy Come Easy Go. In 2011, she also featured as guest vocalist on "Tonight You Belong to Me" on Eddie Vedder's Ukulele Songs.
2012–2018: Sun and Wanderer
In February 2012, Marshall cancelled a scheduled appearance in Tel Aviv, Israel, citing "much confusion" and that she felt "sick in her spirit." She had faced calls to boycott the country over its conflict with Palestine. Two months later, she cancelled her appearance at the Coachella Music Festival, claiming that she "didn't think it was fair to play Coachella while my new album is not yet finished," also hinting that her forthcoming record is "almost done" and will see release later in 2012. Marshall's ninth studio album, Sun, was released in September 2012, after releasing the lead single "Ruin" as a free download the previous June. The album features prominent electronica elements and arrangements, which Marshall incorporated into the "really slow guitar-based songs" she had originally written. In a review published on September 4, 2012, on Consequence of Sound, Sun was praised as a unique album and received a four-star rating. In summation, reviewer Sarah Grant wrote that Marshall's 2012 release is "a passionate pop album of electronic music filtered through a singer-songwriter's soul." The album debuted at a career chart-high of No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling over 23,000 copies on its opening week.
In July 2015, it was announced that Marshall would be providing narration for the documentary Janis: Little Girl Blue directed by Amy J. Berg, which revolves around the life of Janis Joplin and premiered at the 2015 Venice Film Festival. On television, Marshall starred on China, IL, in the hourlong musical special "Magical Pet". Marshall performs three original songs written by creator Brad Neely.
On July 28, 2017, Marshall announced on Instagram that her tenth studio album was "ready to go", although she did not disclose its title or expected release date.
On March 20, 2018, it was announced that Marshall would perform a Moon Pix 20th anniversary concert at Sydney Opera House, which occurred from May 25 to June 16 and featured album collaborators Jim White and Mick Turner.
On July 18, 2018, Marshall announced her 10th studio album, Wanderer, and shared the title track as an introduction to the album. She released two more singles, "Woman" featuring Lana Del Rey on August 15 and a cover of Rihanna's "Stay" on September 18, before the album was released on October 5, 2018, through Domino Recording Company. It was her first to not be released on Matador Records since 1996. According to Marshall, Matador were not happy with the recordings for Wanader, they wanted her to rerecord it and make it sound more commercial. She embarked on a world tour in promotion of the album in September.
Power embarked on a US arena tour in August 2021 supporting Alanis Morissette and Garbage. She was a last-minute addition to the lineup, after original opening act Liz Phair canceled her appearances. Power contributed four new songs to the soundtrack of the 2021 film Flag Day. Her eleventh studio album, Covers, was released on January 14, 2022, and will be supported by a US tour.
Personal life
In 2005, Marshall entered a relationship with actor Giovanni Ribisi, and resided with Ribisi and his daughter in Los Angeles. They also had a rental house in Malibu where she had a studio. Following the release of The Greatest, Marshall canceled her impending spring 2006 tour, and used the hiatus to recover from mental health issues. As part of her recovery, she was admitted to the psychiatric ward at Mount Sinai Medical Center & Miami Heart Institute, leaving after a week. Marshall gave a first person account of her breakdown in an interview for the November 2006 issue of Spin.
In June 2012, it was reported that Marshall had ended her relationship with Ribisi, and the completion of her upcoming record had coincided with their breakup: "I cut my hair off three days [after the breakup], got on a plane to France, and finished the shit." Shortly after the release of Sun, Marshall began having trouble breathing and was hospitalized multiple times, though doctors were unable to diagnose her. "I thought I was dying," she recounted. "They told me they were going to put me in a coma to save my lungs. My friend came to visit and told me I'd made the Billboard Top 10 and all I could think was: 'I don't want to die.'" Marshall was subsequently diagnosed with hereditary angioedema, an immune disorder that causes sporadic swelling of the face and throat due to C1 esterase inhibitor deficiency. In September 2012, she stated she had been hospitalized due to the condition over eight times, which led her to cancel her European tour.
In April 2015, Marshall announced that she had recently given birth to a son, but did not name the child's father.
Artistry
Musical style
Marshall's releases as Cat Power have frequently been noted by critics for their somber, blues-influenced instrumentation and melancholy lyrics, leading LA Weekly to dub her the "queen of sadcore". Marshall, however, claims her music is often misinterpreted, and that many of her songs are "not sad, [but] triumphant." She has recounted blues, old soul music, British rock 'n' roll, as well as hymns and gospel music as being integral influences on her.
Cat Power's early releases have been described as blending elements of punk, folk, and blues, while her later releases (post-2000) began to incorporate more sophisticated arrangements and production. The Greatest (2006), Marshall's seventh release, was heavily soul-influenced and incorporated R&B elements; the Memphis Rhythm Band provided backing instrumentation on the album. Unlike her previous releases, which featured sparse guitar and piano arrangements, The Greatest was described by Marshall biographer Sarah Goodman as her first "full-blown studio record with sophisticated production and senior players backing [Marshall] up."
Performances
Marshall's live shows have been known for their unpolished and often erratic nature, with songs beginning and ending abruptly or blending into one another without clear transitions. She has also cut short performances without explanation. On some occasions this has been attributed to stage fright and the influence of alcohol. Marshall spoke openly about suffering from severe bouts of stage fright, specifically in her early career, and admitted that her stage fright stemmed from issues regarding depression, alcoholism, and substance abuse.
By 2006, she had found new collaborators and had stopped drinking. Marshall's performance style became more enthusiastic and professional; a review in Salon noted that she was "delivering onstage", and called The Greatest "polished and sweetly upbeat".
Philanthropy
A live version of the gospel song "Amazing Grace"—culled from a performance with the Dirty Delta Blues band—was released on the charity compilation Dark Was the Night. Released by independent British label 4AD on February 17, 2009, the set benefited the Red Hot Organization, an international charity dedicated to raising funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS. She also appeared in a PETA ad, encouraging people to spay and neuter their pets.
On December 25, 2011, Marshall released a reworking of the What Would the Community Think track "King Rides By" for download from her official website, with all proceeds from sales of the track being donated to The Festival of Children Foundation and The Ali Forney Center. A music video directed by Giovanni Ribisi and featuring Filipino boxer and politician Manny Pacquiao was released to promote the song.
Discography
Studio albums
Dear Sir (1995)
Myra Lee (1996)
What Would the Community Think (1996)
Moon Pix (1998)
The Covers Record (2000)
You Are Free (2003)
The Greatest (2006)
Jukebox (2008)
Sun (2012)
Wanderer (2018)
Covers (2022)
Filmography
Awards and nominations
Won: Shortlist Music Prize for The Greatest
Nominated: Best International Female Solo Artist, 2007 BRIT Awards
Nominated: Best Art Vinyl for Jukebox
Nominated: Best International Female Solo Artist, 2013 BRIT Awards
Nominated: Best Cinematography for "Where Is My Love?", 2007 Antville Music Video Awards
Nominated: Comeback of the Year, 2018 Rober Awards Music Prize
Nominated: Best Foreign Solo Act, Wanderer Best Foreign Album, 2019 Sweden GAFFA Awards
Nominated: Best Pop Video - International for "Go Up", 2017 UK Music Video Awards
References
Sources
External links
1972 births
American alternative rock musicians
American women singer-songwriters
American women rock singers
Living people
Alternative rock singers
Alternative rock guitarists
Alternative rock pianists
Guitarists from Georgia (U.S. state)
Winners of the Shortlist Music Prize
Musicians from Atlanta
People from Prosperity, South Carolina
21st-century American women guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
20th-century American women guitarists
20th-century American guitarists
21st-century American women pianists
21st-century American pianists
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
20th-century American pianists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
Singer-songwriters from South Carolina
Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state) | false | [
"The Rappenkrieg was a conflict that lasted from July 1612 until September 1614 in the Further Austrian district of Breisgau. It involved the Austrian rulers putting down a peasant uprising. The uprising occurred in what is now the Swiss Canton of Aargau and in the southern portion of what is now the German State of Baden-Württemberg. It is not to be confused with the Rappenkrieg in Basel-Stadt, Switzerland (1591–1594), although it had similar causes.\n\nSee also\n Battles of the Old Swiss Confederacy\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1610s conflicts\n17th-century rebellions\n1610s in Germany\nPeasant revolts\nConflicts in 1612\nConflicts in 1613\nConflicts in 1614",
"The 1920-22 Jabal al-Gharbi civil war was a conflict which occurred in the Nafusa Mountains and surrounding areas, in what is today the country of Libya, fought between local tribal leaders competing for political offices in the Tripolitanian Republic.\n\nReferences\n\nCivil wars involving the states and peoples of Africa\nConflicts in 1920\nHistory of Tripolitania\n1920 in Libya"
]
|
[
"Cat Power",
"2012-present: Sun and other projects",
"What occurred in 2012?",
"Marshall's ninth studio album, titled Sun, was released"
]
| C_485132b30b2146a1a958b58fa2a5ee5b_0 | What is a single from the album? | 2 | What is a single from the album, Sun? | Cat Power | In February 2012, Marshall cancelled a scheduled appearance in Tel Aviv, Israel, citing "much confusion" and that she felt "sick in her spirit." She had faced calls to boycott the Jewish state over its conflict with Palestine. Two months later, she cancelled her appearance at the Coachella Music Festival, claiming that she "didn't think it was fair to play Coachella while my new album is not yet finished," also hinting that her forthcoming record is "almost done" and will see release later in 2012. Marshall's ninth studio album, titled Sun, was released on September 3, 2012, with lead single "Ruin" being released as a free download at Matador Record's store on June 20, 2012. The album features prominent electronica elements and arrangements, which Marshall incorporated into the "really slow guitar-based songs" she had originally written. In a review published on September 4, 2012 on Consequence of Sound, Sun was praised as a unique album and received a four-star rating. In summation, reviewer Sarah Grant wrote that Marshall's 2012 release is "a passionate pop album of electronic music filtered through a singer-songwriter's soul." The album debuted at a career chart-high of No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling over 23,000 copies on its opening week. Marshall revealed in an interview on an Australian radio station, Triple J, that an Australian tour had been confirmed to occur in 2013. On July 28, 2017, Marshall announced on Instagram that her tenth studio album was "ready to go", although she did not disclose its title or expected release date. It will be her first album since 2012's Sun. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Charlyn Marie "Chan" Marshall ( ; born January 21, 1972), better known by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, occasional actress, and model. Cat Power was originally the name of Marshall's first band, but has become her stage name as a solo artist.
Born in Atlanta, Marshall was raised throughout the southern United States, and began performing in local bands in Atlanta in the early 1990s. After opening for Liz Phair in 1993, she worked with Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and Tim Foljahn of Two Dollar Guitar, with whom she recorded her first two albums, Dear Sir (1995) and Myra Lee (1996), on the same day in 1994. In 1996, she signed with Matador Records, and released a third album of new material with Shelley and Foljahn, What Would the Community Think. Following this, she released the critically acclaimed Moon Pix (1998), recorded with members of Dirty Three, and The Covers Record (2000), a collection of sparsely arranged cover songs.
After a brief hiatus she released You Are Free (2003), featuring guest musicians Dave Grohl and Eddie Vedder, followed by the soul-influenced The Greatest (2006), recorded with numerous Memphis studio musicians. A second album of cover tracks, Jukebox, was released in 2008. In 2012 she released the self-produced Sun, which debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200, the highest-charting album of her career to date.
Critics have noted the constant evolution of Cat Power's sound, with a mix of punk, folk and blues on her earliest albums, and elements of soul and other genres more prevalent in her later material.
Early life
Charlyn Marie Marshall was born January 21, 1972, in Atlanta, Georgia, the second child of Charlie Marshall, a blues musician and pianist, and Myra Lee Marshall ( Russell). She has one older sister, Miranda ("Mandy"). Her parents divorced in 1979 and remarried shortly thereafter. Her mother remarried and had a son, Lenny, and the family traveled around often because of her stepfather's profession.
Marshall attended ten different schools throughout the Southern U.S. in Greensboro; Bartlett and Memphis and throughout Georgia and South Carolina. At times she was left in the care of her grandmother. She was not allowed to buy records when she was growing up, but she listened to her stepfather's record collection, which included artists Otis Redding, Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Rolling Stones, as well as her parents' records, which included Black Flag, Sister Sledge, and Barry White. In sixth grade, she adopted the nickname Chan (pronounced "Shawn"), which she would later use professionally. When she was 13, she listened to the Smiths, the Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees. She had to save up to buy cassettes and the first one she got was a record by the Misfits. At age 16, she became estranged from her mother, and had no further contact with her until she was 24.
Religion was a large part of Marshall's upbringing; her father was a Jehovah's Witness, though she attended Southern Baptist churches with her grandmother, where she began singing while learning hymns.
Career
1992–1995: Beginnings
Marshall's first instrument was a 1950s Silvertone guitar, which she taught herself to play. While working in a pizzeria, she began playing music in Atlanta in the late-1980s with Glen Thrasher, Marc Moore, Damon Moore and Fletcher Liegerot, who would get together for jam sessions in a basement. The group were booked for a show and had to come up with a name quickly; after seeing a man wearing a Caterpillar trucker cap that read: "Cat Diesel Power", Marshall chose Cat Power as the name of the band.
While in Atlanta, Marshall played her first live shows as support to her friends' bands, including Magic Bone and Opal Foxx Quartet. In a 2007 interview, she explained that the music itself was more experimental and that playing shows was often an opportunity for her and her friends "to get drunk and take drugs". A number of her local peers became entrenched in heroin use. After the death of her boyfriend, and the subsequent loss of her best friend to AIDS, Marshall relocated to New York City in 1992 with Glen Thrasher. A new boyfriend helped her get a job in a restaurant.
Thrasher introduced her to New York's free jazz and experimental music scene. After attending a concert by Anthony Braxton, she gave her first New York show of improvisational music at a warehouse in Brooklyn. One of her shows during this period was as the support act to Man or Astro-man? and consisted of her playing a two-string guitar and singing the word "no" for 15 minutes. Around this time, she met the band God Is My Co-Pilot, who assisted with the release of her first single, "Headlights", in a limited run of 500 copies on their Making of Americans label.
Marshall recorded simultaneously her first two albums Dear Sir and Myra Lee in December 1994 in a small basement studio near Mott Street in New York City, with guitarist Tim Foljahn and Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley; Marshall and Shelley had initially met after she played a show opening for Liz Phair in 1993. A total of 20 songs were recorded in a single day by the trio, all of which were split into two records, making up Dear Sir and Myra Lee, released respectively in October 1995 and March 1996. Although Dear Sir is considered Marshall's debut album, it is more the length of an EP.
1996–2003: Early Matador releases
In 1996, Marshall signed to Matador Records and in September released her third album, What Would the Community Think, which she recorded in Memphis, Tennessee, in February 1996. The album was produced by Shelley and again featured Shelley and Foljahn as backing musicians, and spawned a single and music video, "Nude as the News" about the abortion she had at the age of 20. Critics cited the album as evidence of her maturation as a singer and songwriter from the "dense and cathartic" material of her first two releases.
After the release of What Would the Community Think, Marshall took a trip to South Africa, after which she left New York City and moved to Portland, Oregon, where she found temporary employment as a babysitter. In the spring of 1997, Marshall relocated with her then-boyfriend, musician Bill Callahan, to a rural farmhouse in Prosperity, South Carolina. After experiencing a hypnogogic nightmare while alone in the farmhouse, Marshall wrote six new songs that would go on to make up the bulk of her following album, Moon Pix (1998), which she recorded at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne, Australia, with backing musicians Mick Turner and Jim White of the Australian band Dirty Three. Moon Pix was well received by critics, and along with an accompanying music video for the song "Cross Bones Style", helped her gain further recognition. Rolling Stone would later describe it as her 'breakthrough' record.
In 1999 where Marshall performed in a series of shows where she provided musical accompaniment to the silent movie The Passion of Joan of Arc. The shows combined original material and covers, some of which would be released on Marshall's fifth album, The Covers Record in 2000. The songs were recorded during two sessions in the summer of 1998 and fall of 1999. Additionally, she performed eleven covers during a Peel session broadcast on June 18, 2000 that included own interpretations of Bob Dylan's "Hard Times in New York Town" and Oasis's "Wonderwall". Her contract with Matador for 2000's The Covers Album reportedly consisted of a Post-it note signed by herself and the company's founder.
During the early-2000s, Marshall was embraced by the fashion industry for her "neo grunge" look, and seen as a muse by designers Marc Jacobs and Nicolas Ghesquière. In 2001 she modeled in New York magazines fall fashion issue and was photographed by her friends Mark Borthwick and Katja Rahlwes, who featured her in Purple magazine alongside Catherine Deneuve.
In February 2003, Marshall released You Are Free, her first album of original material in five years. The album, which featured guest musicians such as Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl, and Warren Ellis, became the first charting Cat Power album, reaching 105 on the Billboard 200. A music video directed by Brett Vapnek was released for the song "He War". Marshall toured extensively through 2003 and 2004, playing shows in Europe, Brazil, the U.S. and Australia. During this period, Marshall's live performances had become erratic and unpredictable, and a 2003 The New Yorker article suggested: "It is foolhardy to describe a Cat Power event as a concert," citing "rambling confessions" and "[talking] to a friend's baby from the stage." Marshall later attributed this period to a drinking problem. Around the time of the release of You Are Free, Marshall purchased a house in South Beach, Miami.
2004–2011: Mainstream success
In October 2004, Matador released the DVD film Speaking for Trees, which featured a continuous, nearly two-hour static shot of Marshall performing with her guitar in a woodland. The set was accompanied by an audio CD containing the 18-minute song "Willie Deadwilder", featuring M. Ward also on guitar.
On January 22, 2006, Marshall released her seventh album, The Greatest, a Southern soul-influenced album of new material featuring veteran Memphis studio musicians, including Mabon "Teenie" Hodges, Leroy Hodges, David Smith, and Steve Potts. The album debuted at 34 on the Billboard 200 and critics noted its relatively "polished and accessible" sound, predicting it was "going to gain her a lot of new fans." The Greatest met with critical acclaim, and won the 2006 Shortlist Music Prize, making Marshall the first woman to win the honor. It was also named the number 6 best album of 2006 by Rolling Stone Magazine.
Simultaneously, Marshall collaborated with several other musicians on different projects, including Mick Collins on a recording of Ludwig Rellstab's poem "Auf Dem Strom" for the film Wayne County Ramblin; a duet with singer-model Karen Elson on an English cover of Serge Gainsbourg's "Je t'aime... moi non plus" for the tribute album Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited (2007); lead vocals on the Ensemble track "Disown, Delete"; and a reworked version of "Revelations" with Yoko Ono for Ono's 2007 album Yes, I'm a Witch.
In the fall of 2006, Marshall became a celebrity spokesperson for a line of jewelry from Chanel, after being seen by Karl Lagerfeld smoking a cigarette outside the Mercer Hotel in New York. Lagerfeld chose Cat Power for the soundtrack to his spring 2007 fashion show. He also photographed Marshall for a Purple feature.
In 2007, Marshall contributed songs to the soundtrack of Ethan Hawke's film The Hottest State, recording with Jesse Harris and Terry Manning, and the Academy Award-winning film Juno. The same year, she made her feature film debut acting in My Blueberry Nights opposite Jude Law, appearing in a small role. She also appeared in the role of a postal worker in Doug Aitken's MoMA installation Sleepwalkers, which followed the nocturnal lives of five city dwellers. Also in 2007, she featured on Faithless' album track A Kind of Peace.
In January 2008, Marshall released her second covers album, Jukebox. Recorded with her recently assembled "Dirty Delta Blues Band", which consisted of Judah Bauer from the Blues Explosion, Gregg Foreman of The Delta 72, Erik Paparazzi of Lizard Music and Jim White of Dirty Three, the album featured the original song "Song to Bobby", Marshall's tribute to Bob Dylan, and a reworking of the Moon Pix song "Metal Heart". She also collaborated with Beck and producer Danger Mouse on the album Modern Guilt (2008): She contributed backing vocals to two tracks, "Orphans" and "Walls". The album was released in July of that year.
In September 2008, Marshall and members of the Dirty Delta Blues (Erik Paparazzi and Gregg Foreman) recorded their version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" for a Lincoln car commercial. In 2013, Cat Power's version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" was used in Apple's Christmas commercial "Misunderstood". In December 2008, she released Dark End of the Street, an EP consisting of songs left over from the Jukebox sessions. In 2009, she provided backing vocals on Marianne Faithfull's cover of "Hold On, Hold On" by Neko Case on the 2009 album Easy Come Easy Go. In 2011, she also featured as guest vocalist on "Tonight You Belong to Me" on Eddie Vedder's Ukulele Songs.
2012–2018: Sun and Wanderer
In February 2012, Marshall cancelled a scheduled appearance in Tel Aviv, Israel, citing "much confusion" and that she felt "sick in her spirit." She had faced calls to boycott the country over its conflict with Palestine. Two months later, she cancelled her appearance at the Coachella Music Festival, claiming that she "didn't think it was fair to play Coachella while my new album is not yet finished," also hinting that her forthcoming record is "almost done" and will see release later in 2012. Marshall's ninth studio album, Sun, was released in September 2012, after releasing the lead single "Ruin" as a free download the previous June. The album features prominent electronica elements and arrangements, which Marshall incorporated into the "really slow guitar-based songs" she had originally written. In a review published on September 4, 2012, on Consequence of Sound, Sun was praised as a unique album and received a four-star rating. In summation, reviewer Sarah Grant wrote that Marshall's 2012 release is "a passionate pop album of electronic music filtered through a singer-songwriter's soul." The album debuted at a career chart-high of No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling over 23,000 copies on its opening week.
In July 2015, it was announced that Marshall would be providing narration for the documentary Janis: Little Girl Blue directed by Amy J. Berg, which revolves around the life of Janis Joplin and premiered at the 2015 Venice Film Festival. On television, Marshall starred on China, IL, in the hourlong musical special "Magical Pet". Marshall performs three original songs written by creator Brad Neely.
On July 28, 2017, Marshall announced on Instagram that her tenth studio album was "ready to go", although she did not disclose its title or expected release date.
On March 20, 2018, it was announced that Marshall would perform a Moon Pix 20th anniversary concert at Sydney Opera House, which occurred from May 25 to June 16 and featured album collaborators Jim White and Mick Turner.
On July 18, 2018, Marshall announced her 10th studio album, Wanderer, and shared the title track as an introduction to the album. She released two more singles, "Woman" featuring Lana Del Rey on August 15 and a cover of Rihanna's "Stay" on September 18, before the album was released on October 5, 2018, through Domino Recording Company. It was her first to not be released on Matador Records since 1996. According to Marshall, Matador were not happy with the recordings for Wanader, they wanted her to rerecord it and make it sound more commercial. She embarked on a world tour in promotion of the album in September.
Power embarked on a US arena tour in August 2021 supporting Alanis Morissette and Garbage. She was a last-minute addition to the lineup, after original opening act Liz Phair canceled her appearances. Power contributed four new songs to the soundtrack of the 2021 film Flag Day. Her eleventh studio album, Covers, was released on January 14, 2022, and will be supported by a US tour.
Personal life
In 2005, Marshall entered a relationship with actor Giovanni Ribisi, and resided with Ribisi and his daughter in Los Angeles. They also had a rental house in Malibu where she had a studio. Following the release of The Greatest, Marshall canceled her impending spring 2006 tour, and used the hiatus to recover from mental health issues. As part of her recovery, she was admitted to the psychiatric ward at Mount Sinai Medical Center & Miami Heart Institute, leaving after a week. Marshall gave a first person account of her breakdown in an interview for the November 2006 issue of Spin.
In June 2012, it was reported that Marshall had ended her relationship with Ribisi, and the completion of her upcoming record had coincided with their breakup: "I cut my hair off three days [after the breakup], got on a plane to France, and finished the shit." Shortly after the release of Sun, Marshall began having trouble breathing and was hospitalized multiple times, though doctors were unable to diagnose her. "I thought I was dying," she recounted. "They told me they were going to put me in a coma to save my lungs. My friend came to visit and told me I'd made the Billboard Top 10 and all I could think was: 'I don't want to die.'" Marshall was subsequently diagnosed with hereditary angioedema, an immune disorder that causes sporadic swelling of the face and throat due to C1 esterase inhibitor deficiency. In September 2012, she stated she had been hospitalized due to the condition over eight times, which led her to cancel her European tour.
In April 2015, Marshall announced that she had recently given birth to a son, but did not name the child's father.
Artistry
Musical style
Marshall's releases as Cat Power have frequently been noted by critics for their somber, blues-influenced instrumentation and melancholy lyrics, leading LA Weekly to dub her the "queen of sadcore". Marshall, however, claims her music is often misinterpreted, and that many of her songs are "not sad, [but] triumphant." She has recounted blues, old soul music, British rock 'n' roll, as well as hymns and gospel music as being integral influences on her.
Cat Power's early releases have been described as blending elements of punk, folk, and blues, while her later releases (post-2000) began to incorporate more sophisticated arrangements and production. The Greatest (2006), Marshall's seventh release, was heavily soul-influenced and incorporated R&B elements; the Memphis Rhythm Band provided backing instrumentation on the album. Unlike her previous releases, which featured sparse guitar and piano arrangements, The Greatest was described by Marshall biographer Sarah Goodman as her first "full-blown studio record with sophisticated production and senior players backing [Marshall] up."
Performances
Marshall's live shows have been known for their unpolished and often erratic nature, with songs beginning and ending abruptly or blending into one another without clear transitions. She has also cut short performances without explanation. On some occasions this has been attributed to stage fright and the influence of alcohol. Marshall spoke openly about suffering from severe bouts of stage fright, specifically in her early career, and admitted that her stage fright stemmed from issues regarding depression, alcoholism, and substance abuse.
By 2006, she had found new collaborators and had stopped drinking. Marshall's performance style became more enthusiastic and professional; a review in Salon noted that she was "delivering onstage", and called The Greatest "polished and sweetly upbeat".
Philanthropy
A live version of the gospel song "Amazing Grace"—culled from a performance with the Dirty Delta Blues band—was released on the charity compilation Dark Was the Night. Released by independent British label 4AD on February 17, 2009, the set benefited the Red Hot Organization, an international charity dedicated to raising funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS. She also appeared in a PETA ad, encouraging people to spay and neuter their pets.
On December 25, 2011, Marshall released a reworking of the What Would the Community Think track "King Rides By" for download from her official website, with all proceeds from sales of the track being donated to The Festival of Children Foundation and The Ali Forney Center. A music video directed by Giovanni Ribisi and featuring Filipino boxer and politician Manny Pacquiao was released to promote the song.
Discography
Studio albums
Dear Sir (1995)
Myra Lee (1996)
What Would the Community Think (1996)
Moon Pix (1998)
The Covers Record (2000)
You Are Free (2003)
The Greatest (2006)
Jukebox (2008)
Sun (2012)
Wanderer (2018)
Covers (2022)
Filmography
Awards and nominations
Won: Shortlist Music Prize for The Greatest
Nominated: Best International Female Solo Artist, 2007 BRIT Awards
Nominated: Best Art Vinyl for Jukebox
Nominated: Best International Female Solo Artist, 2013 BRIT Awards
Nominated: Best Cinematography for "Where Is My Love?", 2007 Antville Music Video Awards
Nominated: Comeback of the Year, 2018 Rober Awards Music Prize
Nominated: Best Foreign Solo Act, Wanderer Best Foreign Album, 2019 Sweden GAFFA Awards
Nominated: Best Pop Video - International for "Go Up", 2017 UK Music Video Awards
References
Sources
External links
1972 births
American alternative rock musicians
American women singer-songwriters
American women rock singers
Living people
Alternative rock singers
Alternative rock guitarists
Alternative rock pianists
Guitarists from Georgia (U.S. state)
Winners of the Shortlist Music Prize
Musicians from Atlanta
People from Prosperity, South Carolina
21st-century American women guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
20th-century American women guitarists
20th-century American guitarists
21st-century American women pianists
21st-century American pianists
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
20th-century American pianists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
Singer-songwriters from South Carolina
Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state) | false | [
"\"What Is Love\" is a song by Haddaway. \n\nWhat Is Love may also refer to:\n\nBooks\nWhat Is Love?, 1928 novel by E. M. Delafield\n What Is Love? (picture book), a 2021 picture book written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Carson Ellis\n\nFilm and television\n Nishwartha Bhalobasa (What Is Love), a 2013 Bangladeshi film directed by Ananta Jalil\n What Is Love (TV series), 2012 Taiwanese series\n Just Only Love, a 2018 Japanese film also known as What Is Love?\n\nMusic\n\nAlbums\n What Is Love? (Andrea Marcovicci album), 1992\n What Is Love? (Never Shout Never album), 2010\n What Is Love? (Clean Bandit album), 2018\n What Is Love? (EP) by Twice, 2018\n\nSongs\n \"What Is Love?\", a song recorded by The Playmates, 1959\n \"What Is Love?\" (Howard Jones song), 1983\n \"What Is Love\" (En Vogue song), 1993\n \"What Is Love\", a song by Exo from the 2012 EP Mama\n \"What Is Love?\", a song by Irving Berlin\n \"(What Is) Love?\", a song by Jennifer Lopez from the 2011 album Love?\n \"What Is Love?\", a song by Dr. Nathaniel Irvin III and Roman Irvin, Janelle Monáe from soundtrack of Rio 2\n \"What Is Love\", a song by Take That from the 2008 album The Circus\n \"What Is Love?\", a song by Johnny \"Guitar\" Watson\n \"What Is Love?\", a song by Debbie Harry\n \"What Is Love?\", a song by Sound Tribe Sector 9\n \"What Is Love\", a single by Miriam Makeba from the 1967 album Pata Pata\n \"What Is Love?\" (Twice song), 2018\n \"What Is Love\" (V. Bozeman song), 2015\n\nSee also\n What's Love (disambiguation)",
"\"All We Need Is Love\" is a 2014 song by Australian singer Ricki-Lee Coulter.\n\nAll We Need Is Love may also refer to:\nAll We Need Is Love (album), an album by Stefanie Heinzmann\n\"All We Need Is Love\", a 2000 single by Landsholdet, the Denmark national football team\n\"All We Need Is Love\", a song by Ric Ocasek from the 1991 album Fireball Zone\n\"All We Need Is Love\", a song by Elizabeth Cook from the album This Side of the Moon\n\"All We Need Is Love\", a song by the Leningrad Cowboys from the 2011 album Buena Vodka Social Club\n\"All We Need Is Love (Christmas in the Yard)\", a song by The Big Yard Family featuring Shaggy from Now That's What I Call Christmas!\n\"All We Need Is Love\", a 1977 single by Kelly Marie"
]
|
[
"Cat Power",
"2012-present: Sun and other projects",
"What occurred in 2012?",
"Marshall's ninth studio album, titled Sun, was released",
"What is a single from the album?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_485132b30b2146a1a958b58fa2a5ee5b_0 | There was no songs released from the Sun album? | 3 | There were no songs released from the Sun album? | Cat Power | In February 2012, Marshall cancelled a scheduled appearance in Tel Aviv, Israel, citing "much confusion" and that she felt "sick in her spirit." She had faced calls to boycott the Jewish state over its conflict with Palestine. Two months later, she cancelled her appearance at the Coachella Music Festival, claiming that she "didn't think it was fair to play Coachella while my new album is not yet finished," also hinting that her forthcoming record is "almost done" and will see release later in 2012. Marshall's ninth studio album, titled Sun, was released on September 3, 2012, with lead single "Ruin" being released as a free download at Matador Record's store on June 20, 2012. The album features prominent electronica elements and arrangements, which Marshall incorporated into the "really slow guitar-based songs" she had originally written. In a review published on September 4, 2012 on Consequence of Sound, Sun was praised as a unique album and received a four-star rating. In summation, reviewer Sarah Grant wrote that Marshall's 2012 release is "a passionate pop album of electronic music filtered through a singer-songwriter's soul." The album debuted at a career chart-high of No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling over 23,000 copies on its opening week. Marshall revealed in an interview on an Australian radio station, Triple J, that an Australian tour had been confirmed to occur in 2013. On July 28, 2017, Marshall announced on Instagram that her tenth studio album was "ready to go", although she did not disclose its title or expected release date. It will be her first album since 2012's Sun. CANNOTANSWER | lead single "Ruin" | Charlyn Marie "Chan" Marshall ( ; born January 21, 1972), better known by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, occasional actress, and model. Cat Power was originally the name of Marshall's first band, but has become her stage name as a solo artist.
Born in Atlanta, Marshall was raised throughout the southern United States, and began performing in local bands in Atlanta in the early 1990s. After opening for Liz Phair in 1993, she worked with Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and Tim Foljahn of Two Dollar Guitar, with whom she recorded her first two albums, Dear Sir (1995) and Myra Lee (1996), on the same day in 1994. In 1996, she signed with Matador Records, and released a third album of new material with Shelley and Foljahn, What Would the Community Think. Following this, she released the critically acclaimed Moon Pix (1998), recorded with members of Dirty Three, and The Covers Record (2000), a collection of sparsely arranged cover songs.
After a brief hiatus she released You Are Free (2003), featuring guest musicians Dave Grohl and Eddie Vedder, followed by the soul-influenced The Greatest (2006), recorded with numerous Memphis studio musicians. A second album of cover tracks, Jukebox, was released in 2008. In 2012 she released the self-produced Sun, which debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200, the highest-charting album of her career to date.
Critics have noted the constant evolution of Cat Power's sound, with a mix of punk, folk and blues on her earliest albums, and elements of soul and other genres more prevalent in her later material.
Early life
Charlyn Marie Marshall was born January 21, 1972, in Atlanta, Georgia, the second child of Charlie Marshall, a blues musician and pianist, and Myra Lee Marshall ( Russell). She has one older sister, Miranda ("Mandy"). Her parents divorced in 1979 and remarried shortly thereafter. Her mother remarried and had a son, Lenny, and the family traveled around often because of her stepfather's profession.
Marshall attended ten different schools throughout the Southern U.S. in Greensboro; Bartlett and Memphis and throughout Georgia and South Carolina. At times she was left in the care of her grandmother. She was not allowed to buy records when she was growing up, but she listened to her stepfather's record collection, which included artists Otis Redding, Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Rolling Stones, as well as her parents' records, which included Black Flag, Sister Sledge, and Barry White. In sixth grade, she adopted the nickname Chan (pronounced "Shawn"), which she would later use professionally. When she was 13, she listened to the Smiths, the Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees. She had to save up to buy cassettes and the first one she got was a record by the Misfits. At age 16, she became estranged from her mother, and had no further contact with her until she was 24.
Religion was a large part of Marshall's upbringing; her father was a Jehovah's Witness, though she attended Southern Baptist churches with her grandmother, where she began singing while learning hymns.
Career
1992–1995: Beginnings
Marshall's first instrument was a 1950s Silvertone guitar, which she taught herself to play. While working in a pizzeria, she began playing music in Atlanta in the late-1980s with Glen Thrasher, Marc Moore, Damon Moore and Fletcher Liegerot, who would get together for jam sessions in a basement. The group were booked for a show and had to come up with a name quickly; after seeing a man wearing a Caterpillar trucker cap that read: "Cat Diesel Power", Marshall chose Cat Power as the name of the band.
While in Atlanta, Marshall played her first live shows as support to her friends' bands, including Magic Bone and Opal Foxx Quartet. In a 2007 interview, she explained that the music itself was more experimental and that playing shows was often an opportunity for her and her friends "to get drunk and take drugs". A number of her local peers became entrenched in heroin use. After the death of her boyfriend, and the subsequent loss of her best friend to AIDS, Marshall relocated to New York City in 1992 with Glen Thrasher. A new boyfriend helped her get a job in a restaurant.
Thrasher introduced her to New York's free jazz and experimental music scene. After attending a concert by Anthony Braxton, she gave her first New York show of improvisational music at a warehouse in Brooklyn. One of her shows during this period was as the support act to Man or Astro-man? and consisted of her playing a two-string guitar and singing the word "no" for 15 minutes. Around this time, she met the band God Is My Co-Pilot, who assisted with the release of her first single, "Headlights", in a limited run of 500 copies on their Making of Americans label.
Marshall recorded simultaneously her first two albums Dear Sir and Myra Lee in December 1994 in a small basement studio near Mott Street in New York City, with guitarist Tim Foljahn and Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley; Marshall and Shelley had initially met after she played a show opening for Liz Phair in 1993. A total of 20 songs were recorded in a single day by the trio, all of which were split into two records, making up Dear Sir and Myra Lee, released respectively in October 1995 and March 1996. Although Dear Sir is considered Marshall's debut album, it is more the length of an EP.
1996–2003: Early Matador releases
In 1996, Marshall signed to Matador Records and in September released her third album, What Would the Community Think, which she recorded in Memphis, Tennessee, in February 1996. The album was produced by Shelley and again featured Shelley and Foljahn as backing musicians, and spawned a single and music video, "Nude as the News" about the abortion she had at the age of 20. Critics cited the album as evidence of her maturation as a singer and songwriter from the "dense and cathartic" material of her first two releases.
After the release of What Would the Community Think, Marshall took a trip to South Africa, after which she left New York City and moved to Portland, Oregon, where she found temporary employment as a babysitter. In the spring of 1997, Marshall relocated with her then-boyfriend, musician Bill Callahan, to a rural farmhouse in Prosperity, South Carolina. After experiencing a hypnogogic nightmare while alone in the farmhouse, Marshall wrote six new songs that would go on to make up the bulk of her following album, Moon Pix (1998), which she recorded at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne, Australia, with backing musicians Mick Turner and Jim White of the Australian band Dirty Three. Moon Pix was well received by critics, and along with an accompanying music video for the song "Cross Bones Style", helped her gain further recognition. Rolling Stone would later describe it as her 'breakthrough' record.
In 1999 where Marshall performed in a series of shows where she provided musical accompaniment to the silent movie The Passion of Joan of Arc. The shows combined original material and covers, some of which would be released on Marshall's fifth album, The Covers Record in 2000. The songs were recorded during two sessions in the summer of 1998 and fall of 1999. Additionally, she performed eleven covers during a Peel session broadcast on June 18, 2000 that included own interpretations of Bob Dylan's "Hard Times in New York Town" and Oasis's "Wonderwall". Her contract with Matador for 2000's The Covers Album reportedly consisted of a Post-it note signed by herself and the company's founder.
During the early-2000s, Marshall was embraced by the fashion industry for her "neo grunge" look, and seen as a muse by designers Marc Jacobs and Nicolas Ghesquière. In 2001 she modeled in New York magazines fall fashion issue and was photographed by her friends Mark Borthwick and Katja Rahlwes, who featured her in Purple magazine alongside Catherine Deneuve.
In February 2003, Marshall released You Are Free, her first album of original material in five years. The album, which featured guest musicians such as Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl, and Warren Ellis, became the first charting Cat Power album, reaching 105 on the Billboard 200. A music video directed by Brett Vapnek was released for the song "He War". Marshall toured extensively through 2003 and 2004, playing shows in Europe, Brazil, the U.S. and Australia. During this period, Marshall's live performances had become erratic and unpredictable, and a 2003 The New Yorker article suggested: "It is foolhardy to describe a Cat Power event as a concert," citing "rambling confessions" and "[talking] to a friend's baby from the stage." Marshall later attributed this period to a drinking problem. Around the time of the release of You Are Free, Marshall purchased a house in South Beach, Miami.
2004–2011: Mainstream success
In October 2004, Matador released the DVD film Speaking for Trees, which featured a continuous, nearly two-hour static shot of Marshall performing with her guitar in a woodland. The set was accompanied by an audio CD containing the 18-minute song "Willie Deadwilder", featuring M. Ward also on guitar.
On January 22, 2006, Marshall released her seventh album, The Greatest, a Southern soul-influenced album of new material featuring veteran Memphis studio musicians, including Mabon "Teenie" Hodges, Leroy Hodges, David Smith, and Steve Potts. The album debuted at 34 on the Billboard 200 and critics noted its relatively "polished and accessible" sound, predicting it was "going to gain her a lot of new fans." The Greatest met with critical acclaim, and won the 2006 Shortlist Music Prize, making Marshall the first woman to win the honor. It was also named the number 6 best album of 2006 by Rolling Stone Magazine.
Simultaneously, Marshall collaborated with several other musicians on different projects, including Mick Collins on a recording of Ludwig Rellstab's poem "Auf Dem Strom" for the film Wayne County Ramblin; a duet with singer-model Karen Elson on an English cover of Serge Gainsbourg's "Je t'aime... moi non plus" for the tribute album Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited (2007); lead vocals on the Ensemble track "Disown, Delete"; and a reworked version of "Revelations" with Yoko Ono for Ono's 2007 album Yes, I'm a Witch.
In the fall of 2006, Marshall became a celebrity spokesperson for a line of jewelry from Chanel, after being seen by Karl Lagerfeld smoking a cigarette outside the Mercer Hotel in New York. Lagerfeld chose Cat Power for the soundtrack to his spring 2007 fashion show. He also photographed Marshall for a Purple feature.
In 2007, Marshall contributed songs to the soundtrack of Ethan Hawke's film The Hottest State, recording with Jesse Harris and Terry Manning, and the Academy Award-winning film Juno. The same year, she made her feature film debut acting in My Blueberry Nights opposite Jude Law, appearing in a small role. She also appeared in the role of a postal worker in Doug Aitken's MoMA installation Sleepwalkers, which followed the nocturnal lives of five city dwellers. Also in 2007, she featured on Faithless' album track A Kind of Peace.
In January 2008, Marshall released her second covers album, Jukebox. Recorded with her recently assembled "Dirty Delta Blues Band", which consisted of Judah Bauer from the Blues Explosion, Gregg Foreman of The Delta 72, Erik Paparazzi of Lizard Music and Jim White of Dirty Three, the album featured the original song "Song to Bobby", Marshall's tribute to Bob Dylan, and a reworking of the Moon Pix song "Metal Heart". She also collaborated with Beck and producer Danger Mouse on the album Modern Guilt (2008): She contributed backing vocals to two tracks, "Orphans" and "Walls". The album was released in July of that year.
In September 2008, Marshall and members of the Dirty Delta Blues (Erik Paparazzi and Gregg Foreman) recorded their version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" for a Lincoln car commercial. In 2013, Cat Power's version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" was used in Apple's Christmas commercial "Misunderstood". In December 2008, she released Dark End of the Street, an EP consisting of songs left over from the Jukebox sessions. In 2009, she provided backing vocals on Marianne Faithfull's cover of "Hold On, Hold On" by Neko Case on the 2009 album Easy Come Easy Go. In 2011, she also featured as guest vocalist on "Tonight You Belong to Me" on Eddie Vedder's Ukulele Songs.
2012–2018: Sun and Wanderer
In February 2012, Marshall cancelled a scheduled appearance in Tel Aviv, Israel, citing "much confusion" and that she felt "sick in her spirit." She had faced calls to boycott the country over its conflict with Palestine. Two months later, she cancelled her appearance at the Coachella Music Festival, claiming that she "didn't think it was fair to play Coachella while my new album is not yet finished," also hinting that her forthcoming record is "almost done" and will see release later in 2012. Marshall's ninth studio album, Sun, was released in September 2012, after releasing the lead single "Ruin" as a free download the previous June. The album features prominent electronica elements and arrangements, which Marshall incorporated into the "really slow guitar-based songs" she had originally written. In a review published on September 4, 2012, on Consequence of Sound, Sun was praised as a unique album and received a four-star rating. In summation, reviewer Sarah Grant wrote that Marshall's 2012 release is "a passionate pop album of electronic music filtered through a singer-songwriter's soul." The album debuted at a career chart-high of No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling over 23,000 copies on its opening week.
In July 2015, it was announced that Marshall would be providing narration for the documentary Janis: Little Girl Blue directed by Amy J. Berg, which revolves around the life of Janis Joplin and premiered at the 2015 Venice Film Festival. On television, Marshall starred on China, IL, in the hourlong musical special "Magical Pet". Marshall performs three original songs written by creator Brad Neely.
On July 28, 2017, Marshall announced on Instagram that her tenth studio album was "ready to go", although she did not disclose its title or expected release date.
On March 20, 2018, it was announced that Marshall would perform a Moon Pix 20th anniversary concert at Sydney Opera House, which occurred from May 25 to June 16 and featured album collaborators Jim White and Mick Turner.
On July 18, 2018, Marshall announced her 10th studio album, Wanderer, and shared the title track as an introduction to the album. She released two more singles, "Woman" featuring Lana Del Rey on August 15 and a cover of Rihanna's "Stay" on September 18, before the album was released on October 5, 2018, through Domino Recording Company. It was her first to not be released on Matador Records since 1996. According to Marshall, Matador were not happy with the recordings for Wanader, they wanted her to rerecord it and make it sound more commercial. She embarked on a world tour in promotion of the album in September.
Power embarked on a US arena tour in August 2021 supporting Alanis Morissette and Garbage. She was a last-minute addition to the lineup, after original opening act Liz Phair canceled her appearances. Power contributed four new songs to the soundtrack of the 2021 film Flag Day. Her eleventh studio album, Covers, was released on January 14, 2022, and will be supported by a US tour.
Personal life
In 2005, Marshall entered a relationship with actor Giovanni Ribisi, and resided with Ribisi and his daughter in Los Angeles. They also had a rental house in Malibu where she had a studio. Following the release of The Greatest, Marshall canceled her impending spring 2006 tour, and used the hiatus to recover from mental health issues. As part of her recovery, she was admitted to the psychiatric ward at Mount Sinai Medical Center & Miami Heart Institute, leaving after a week. Marshall gave a first person account of her breakdown in an interview for the November 2006 issue of Spin.
In June 2012, it was reported that Marshall had ended her relationship with Ribisi, and the completion of her upcoming record had coincided with their breakup: "I cut my hair off three days [after the breakup], got on a plane to France, and finished the shit." Shortly after the release of Sun, Marshall began having trouble breathing and was hospitalized multiple times, though doctors were unable to diagnose her. "I thought I was dying," she recounted. "They told me they were going to put me in a coma to save my lungs. My friend came to visit and told me I'd made the Billboard Top 10 and all I could think was: 'I don't want to die.'" Marshall was subsequently diagnosed with hereditary angioedema, an immune disorder that causes sporadic swelling of the face and throat due to C1 esterase inhibitor deficiency. In September 2012, she stated she had been hospitalized due to the condition over eight times, which led her to cancel her European tour.
In April 2015, Marshall announced that she had recently given birth to a son, but did not name the child's father.
Artistry
Musical style
Marshall's releases as Cat Power have frequently been noted by critics for their somber, blues-influenced instrumentation and melancholy lyrics, leading LA Weekly to dub her the "queen of sadcore". Marshall, however, claims her music is often misinterpreted, and that many of her songs are "not sad, [but] triumphant." She has recounted blues, old soul music, British rock 'n' roll, as well as hymns and gospel music as being integral influences on her.
Cat Power's early releases have been described as blending elements of punk, folk, and blues, while her later releases (post-2000) began to incorporate more sophisticated arrangements and production. The Greatest (2006), Marshall's seventh release, was heavily soul-influenced and incorporated R&B elements; the Memphis Rhythm Band provided backing instrumentation on the album. Unlike her previous releases, which featured sparse guitar and piano arrangements, The Greatest was described by Marshall biographer Sarah Goodman as her first "full-blown studio record with sophisticated production and senior players backing [Marshall] up."
Performances
Marshall's live shows have been known for their unpolished and often erratic nature, with songs beginning and ending abruptly or blending into one another without clear transitions. She has also cut short performances without explanation. On some occasions this has been attributed to stage fright and the influence of alcohol. Marshall spoke openly about suffering from severe bouts of stage fright, specifically in her early career, and admitted that her stage fright stemmed from issues regarding depression, alcoholism, and substance abuse.
By 2006, she had found new collaborators and had stopped drinking. Marshall's performance style became more enthusiastic and professional; a review in Salon noted that she was "delivering onstage", and called The Greatest "polished and sweetly upbeat".
Philanthropy
A live version of the gospel song "Amazing Grace"—culled from a performance with the Dirty Delta Blues band—was released on the charity compilation Dark Was the Night. Released by independent British label 4AD on February 17, 2009, the set benefited the Red Hot Organization, an international charity dedicated to raising funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS. She also appeared in a PETA ad, encouraging people to spay and neuter their pets.
On December 25, 2011, Marshall released a reworking of the What Would the Community Think track "King Rides By" for download from her official website, with all proceeds from sales of the track being donated to The Festival of Children Foundation and The Ali Forney Center. A music video directed by Giovanni Ribisi and featuring Filipino boxer and politician Manny Pacquiao was released to promote the song.
Discography
Studio albums
Dear Sir (1995)
Myra Lee (1996)
What Would the Community Think (1996)
Moon Pix (1998)
The Covers Record (2000)
You Are Free (2003)
The Greatest (2006)
Jukebox (2008)
Sun (2012)
Wanderer (2018)
Covers (2022)
Filmography
Awards and nominations
Won: Shortlist Music Prize for The Greatest
Nominated: Best International Female Solo Artist, 2007 BRIT Awards
Nominated: Best Art Vinyl for Jukebox
Nominated: Best International Female Solo Artist, 2013 BRIT Awards
Nominated: Best Cinematography for "Where Is My Love?", 2007 Antville Music Video Awards
Nominated: Comeback of the Year, 2018 Rober Awards Music Prize
Nominated: Best Foreign Solo Act, Wanderer Best Foreign Album, 2019 Sweden GAFFA Awards
Nominated: Best Pop Video - International for "Go Up", 2017 UK Music Video Awards
References
Sources
External links
1972 births
American alternative rock musicians
American women singer-songwriters
American women rock singers
Living people
Alternative rock singers
Alternative rock guitarists
Alternative rock pianists
Guitarists from Georgia (U.S. state)
Winners of the Shortlist Music Prize
Musicians from Atlanta
People from Prosperity, South Carolina
21st-century American women guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
20th-century American women guitarists
20th-century American guitarists
21st-century American women pianists
21st-century American pianists
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
20th-century American pianists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
Singer-songwriters from South Carolina
Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state) | true | [
"Koda Kumi Driving Hit's 9: Special Edition is the eleventh remix album released by Japanese singer-songwriter Koda Kumi, and ninth in the Driving Hit's series – the others being Koda Kumi Remix Album (2006) and Beach Mix (2012). The album was released on February 20, 2019, and peaked at No. 24 on the Oricon Albums Chart.\n\nThe album was released as a 3-disc set, with the first disc containing remixes from her studio album DNA, and second and third discs containing various songs from previous remix albums.\n\nInformation\nKoda Kumi Driving Hit's 9: Special Edition is the ninth Driving Hit's remix album released by Koda, and eleventh overall remix album. It debuted at No. 24 for the week.\n\nThe album was released as a three-disc set, with limited editions containing special goods, including a sun visor organizer pouch. \n\nMany of the songs on the first disc contained remixes of songs from her 2018 studio album DNA, with only three of the fifteen tracks being remixes of prior songs. Those included were \"Someday\" from Best: Second Session (2006), and \"I'll Be There\" and \"Koi no Tsubomi\" from Black Cherry (2006). Artist Remo-Con became responsible for editing the songs on discs two and three into a non-stop mix. The album had two separate remixes of \"Hush\", track No. 2 from DNA.\n\nWhile various songs from previous Driving Hit's albums were included, only one song was pulled from her first in the series, Koda Kumi Driving Hit's (2010): the Prog5 Mirrorball Remix of her 2005 song \"Butterfly\". Twelve remix artists performed for the album, including KATFYR, Yuto, both who worked with Koda on her prior remix album, Joe Iron, iamSHUM and Litefeet.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2019 remix albums\nJapanese-language remix albums\nKoda Kumi albums\nRhythm Zone remix albums",
"\"She's The Sun\" is a song by German band Scooter. It was released in August 2000 as the second and last single from their seventh studio album Sheffield.\n\nContent\nThe drumloop in \"She's The Sun\" is sampled from the introduction of Led Zeppelin's version of \"When the Levee Breaks\", taken from the 1971 album Led Zeppelin IV. \"Sunrise (Ratty's Inferno)\" was used as the basis for \"Sunrise (Here I Am)\", the 2001 début single from Scooter's side project Ratty.\n\nTrack listing\nCD Single\n\"She's The Sun\" [Radio Edit] (3:44)\n\"She's The Sun\" [Extended] (4:52)\n\"Sunrise (Ratty's Inferno)\" (5:39)\n\"She's The Sun\" Video (4:00)\n\nLimited Edition CD Single\n\"She's The Sun\" [Radio Edit] (3:44)\n\"She's The Sun\" [Extended] (4:52)\n\"Sunrise (Ratty's Inferno)\" (5:39)\n\"H.P. for your Answering Machine Vol. 1\" (0:10)\n\"H.P. for your Answering Machine Vol. 2\" (0:06)\n\"She's The Sun\" Video (4:00)\n\nChart performance\n\nReferences\n\nScooter (band) songs\n2000 singles\nSongs written by H.P. Baxxter\nSongs written by Rick J. Jordan\n2000 songs\nSongs written by Jens Thele"
]
|
[
"Cat Power",
"2012-present: Sun and other projects",
"What occurred in 2012?",
"Marshall's ninth studio album, titled Sun, was released",
"What is a single from the album?",
"I don't know.",
"There was no songs released from the Sun album?",
"lead single \"Ruin\""
]
| C_485132b30b2146a1a958b58fa2a5ee5b_0 | When was the song released? | 4 | When was the song "Ruin" released? | Cat Power | In February 2012, Marshall cancelled a scheduled appearance in Tel Aviv, Israel, citing "much confusion" and that she felt "sick in her spirit." She had faced calls to boycott the Jewish state over its conflict with Palestine. Two months later, she cancelled her appearance at the Coachella Music Festival, claiming that she "didn't think it was fair to play Coachella while my new album is not yet finished," also hinting that her forthcoming record is "almost done" and will see release later in 2012. Marshall's ninth studio album, titled Sun, was released on September 3, 2012, with lead single "Ruin" being released as a free download at Matador Record's store on June 20, 2012. The album features prominent electronica elements and arrangements, which Marshall incorporated into the "really slow guitar-based songs" she had originally written. In a review published on September 4, 2012 on Consequence of Sound, Sun was praised as a unique album and received a four-star rating. In summation, reviewer Sarah Grant wrote that Marshall's 2012 release is "a passionate pop album of electronic music filtered through a singer-songwriter's soul." The album debuted at a career chart-high of No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling over 23,000 copies on its opening week. Marshall revealed in an interview on an Australian radio station, Triple J, that an Australian tour had been confirmed to occur in 2013. On July 28, 2017, Marshall announced on Instagram that her tenth studio album was "ready to go", although she did not disclose its title or expected release date. It will be her first album since 2012's Sun. CANNOTANSWER | June 20, 2012. | Charlyn Marie "Chan" Marshall ( ; born January 21, 1972), better known by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, occasional actress, and model. Cat Power was originally the name of Marshall's first band, but has become her stage name as a solo artist.
Born in Atlanta, Marshall was raised throughout the southern United States, and began performing in local bands in Atlanta in the early 1990s. After opening for Liz Phair in 1993, she worked with Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and Tim Foljahn of Two Dollar Guitar, with whom she recorded her first two albums, Dear Sir (1995) and Myra Lee (1996), on the same day in 1994. In 1996, she signed with Matador Records, and released a third album of new material with Shelley and Foljahn, What Would the Community Think. Following this, she released the critically acclaimed Moon Pix (1998), recorded with members of Dirty Three, and The Covers Record (2000), a collection of sparsely arranged cover songs.
After a brief hiatus she released You Are Free (2003), featuring guest musicians Dave Grohl and Eddie Vedder, followed by the soul-influenced The Greatest (2006), recorded with numerous Memphis studio musicians. A second album of cover tracks, Jukebox, was released in 2008. In 2012 she released the self-produced Sun, which debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200, the highest-charting album of her career to date.
Critics have noted the constant evolution of Cat Power's sound, with a mix of punk, folk and blues on her earliest albums, and elements of soul and other genres more prevalent in her later material.
Early life
Charlyn Marie Marshall was born January 21, 1972, in Atlanta, Georgia, the second child of Charlie Marshall, a blues musician and pianist, and Myra Lee Marshall ( Russell). She has one older sister, Miranda ("Mandy"). Her parents divorced in 1979 and remarried shortly thereafter. Her mother remarried and had a son, Lenny, and the family traveled around often because of her stepfather's profession.
Marshall attended ten different schools throughout the Southern U.S. in Greensboro; Bartlett and Memphis and throughout Georgia and South Carolina. At times she was left in the care of her grandmother. She was not allowed to buy records when she was growing up, but she listened to her stepfather's record collection, which included artists Otis Redding, Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Rolling Stones, as well as her parents' records, which included Black Flag, Sister Sledge, and Barry White. In sixth grade, she adopted the nickname Chan (pronounced "Shawn"), which she would later use professionally. When she was 13, she listened to the Smiths, the Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees. She had to save up to buy cassettes and the first one she got was a record by the Misfits. At age 16, she became estranged from her mother, and had no further contact with her until she was 24.
Religion was a large part of Marshall's upbringing; her father was a Jehovah's Witness, though she attended Southern Baptist churches with her grandmother, where she began singing while learning hymns.
Career
1992–1995: Beginnings
Marshall's first instrument was a 1950s Silvertone guitar, which she taught herself to play. While working in a pizzeria, she began playing music in Atlanta in the late-1980s with Glen Thrasher, Marc Moore, Damon Moore and Fletcher Liegerot, who would get together for jam sessions in a basement. The group were booked for a show and had to come up with a name quickly; after seeing a man wearing a Caterpillar trucker cap that read: "Cat Diesel Power", Marshall chose Cat Power as the name of the band.
While in Atlanta, Marshall played her first live shows as support to her friends' bands, including Magic Bone and Opal Foxx Quartet. In a 2007 interview, she explained that the music itself was more experimental and that playing shows was often an opportunity for her and her friends "to get drunk and take drugs". A number of her local peers became entrenched in heroin use. After the death of her boyfriend, and the subsequent loss of her best friend to AIDS, Marshall relocated to New York City in 1992 with Glen Thrasher. A new boyfriend helped her get a job in a restaurant.
Thrasher introduced her to New York's free jazz and experimental music scene. After attending a concert by Anthony Braxton, she gave her first New York show of improvisational music at a warehouse in Brooklyn. One of her shows during this period was as the support act to Man or Astro-man? and consisted of her playing a two-string guitar and singing the word "no" for 15 minutes. Around this time, she met the band God Is My Co-Pilot, who assisted with the release of her first single, "Headlights", in a limited run of 500 copies on their Making of Americans label.
Marshall recorded simultaneously her first two albums Dear Sir and Myra Lee in December 1994 in a small basement studio near Mott Street in New York City, with guitarist Tim Foljahn and Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley; Marshall and Shelley had initially met after she played a show opening for Liz Phair in 1993. A total of 20 songs were recorded in a single day by the trio, all of which were split into two records, making up Dear Sir and Myra Lee, released respectively in October 1995 and March 1996. Although Dear Sir is considered Marshall's debut album, it is more the length of an EP.
1996–2003: Early Matador releases
In 1996, Marshall signed to Matador Records and in September released her third album, What Would the Community Think, which she recorded in Memphis, Tennessee, in February 1996. The album was produced by Shelley and again featured Shelley and Foljahn as backing musicians, and spawned a single and music video, "Nude as the News" about the abortion she had at the age of 20. Critics cited the album as evidence of her maturation as a singer and songwriter from the "dense and cathartic" material of her first two releases.
After the release of What Would the Community Think, Marshall took a trip to South Africa, after which she left New York City and moved to Portland, Oregon, where she found temporary employment as a babysitter. In the spring of 1997, Marshall relocated with her then-boyfriend, musician Bill Callahan, to a rural farmhouse in Prosperity, South Carolina. After experiencing a hypnogogic nightmare while alone in the farmhouse, Marshall wrote six new songs that would go on to make up the bulk of her following album, Moon Pix (1998), which she recorded at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne, Australia, with backing musicians Mick Turner and Jim White of the Australian band Dirty Three. Moon Pix was well received by critics, and along with an accompanying music video for the song "Cross Bones Style", helped her gain further recognition. Rolling Stone would later describe it as her 'breakthrough' record.
In 1999 where Marshall performed in a series of shows where she provided musical accompaniment to the silent movie The Passion of Joan of Arc. The shows combined original material and covers, some of which would be released on Marshall's fifth album, The Covers Record in 2000. The songs were recorded during two sessions in the summer of 1998 and fall of 1999. Additionally, she performed eleven covers during a Peel session broadcast on June 18, 2000 that included own interpretations of Bob Dylan's "Hard Times in New York Town" and Oasis's "Wonderwall". Her contract with Matador for 2000's The Covers Album reportedly consisted of a Post-it note signed by herself and the company's founder.
During the early-2000s, Marshall was embraced by the fashion industry for her "neo grunge" look, and seen as a muse by designers Marc Jacobs and Nicolas Ghesquière. In 2001 she modeled in New York magazines fall fashion issue and was photographed by her friends Mark Borthwick and Katja Rahlwes, who featured her in Purple magazine alongside Catherine Deneuve.
In February 2003, Marshall released You Are Free, her first album of original material in five years. The album, which featured guest musicians such as Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl, and Warren Ellis, became the first charting Cat Power album, reaching 105 on the Billboard 200. A music video directed by Brett Vapnek was released for the song "He War". Marshall toured extensively through 2003 and 2004, playing shows in Europe, Brazil, the U.S. and Australia. During this period, Marshall's live performances had become erratic and unpredictable, and a 2003 The New Yorker article suggested: "It is foolhardy to describe a Cat Power event as a concert," citing "rambling confessions" and "[talking] to a friend's baby from the stage." Marshall later attributed this period to a drinking problem. Around the time of the release of You Are Free, Marshall purchased a house in South Beach, Miami.
2004–2011: Mainstream success
In October 2004, Matador released the DVD film Speaking for Trees, which featured a continuous, nearly two-hour static shot of Marshall performing with her guitar in a woodland. The set was accompanied by an audio CD containing the 18-minute song "Willie Deadwilder", featuring M. Ward also on guitar.
On January 22, 2006, Marshall released her seventh album, The Greatest, a Southern soul-influenced album of new material featuring veteran Memphis studio musicians, including Mabon "Teenie" Hodges, Leroy Hodges, David Smith, and Steve Potts. The album debuted at 34 on the Billboard 200 and critics noted its relatively "polished and accessible" sound, predicting it was "going to gain her a lot of new fans." The Greatest met with critical acclaim, and won the 2006 Shortlist Music Prize, making Marshall the first woman to win the honor. It was also named the number 6 best album of 2006 by Rolling Stone Magazine.
Simultaneously, Marshall collaborated with several other musicians on different projects, including Mick Collins on a recording of Ludwig Rellstab's poem "Auf Dem Strom" for the film Wayne County Ramblin; a duet with singer-model Karen Elson on an English cover of Serge Gainsbourg's "Je t'aime... moi non plus" for the tribute album Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited (2007); lead vocals on the Ensemble track "Disown, Delete"; and a reworked version of "Revelations" with Yoko Ono for Ono's 2007 album Yes, I'm a Witch.
In the fall of 2006, Marshall became a celebrity spokesperson for a line of jewelry from Chanel, after being seen by Karl Lagerfeld smoking a cigarette outside the Mercer Hotel in New York. Lagerfeld chose Cat Power for the soundtrack to his spring 2007 fashion show. He also photographed Marshall for a Purple feature.
In 2007, Marshall contributed songs to the soundtrack of Ethan Hawke's film The Hottest State, recording with Jesse Harris and Terry Manning, and the Academy Award-winning film Juno. The same year, she made her feature film debut acting in My Blueberry Nights opposite Jude Law, appearing in a small role. She also appeared in the role of a postal worker in Doug Aitken's MoMA installation Sleepwalkers, which followed the nocturnal lives of five city dwellers. Also in 2007, she featured on Faithless' album track A Kind of Peace.
In January 2008, Marshall released her second covers album, Jukebox. Recorded with her recently assembled "Dirty Delta Blues Band", which consisted of Judah Bauer from the Blues Explosion, Gregg Foreman of The Delta 72, Erik Paparazzi of Lizard Music and Jim White of Dirty Three, the album featured the original song "Song to Bobby", Marshall's tribute to Bob Dylan, and a reworking of the Moon Pix song "Metal Heart". She also collaborated with Beck and producer Danger Mouse on the album Modern Guilt (2008): She contributed backing vocals to two tracks, "Orphans" and "Walls". The album was released in July of that year.
In September 2008, Marshall and members of the Dirty Delta Blues (Erik Paparazzi and Gregg Foreman) recorded their version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" for a Lincoln car commercial. In 2013, Cat Power's version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" was used in Apple's Christmas commercial "Misunderstood". In December 2008, she released Dark End of the Street, an EP consisting of songs left over from the Jukebox sessions. In 2009, she provided backing vocals on Marianne Faithfull's cover of "Hold On, Hold On" by Neko Case on the 2009 album Easy Come Easy Go. In 2011, she also featured as guest vocalist on "Tonight You Belong to Me" on Eddie Vedder's Ukulele Songs.
2012–2018: Sun and Wanderer
In February 2012, Marshall cancelled a scheduled appearance in Tel Aviv, Israel, citing "much confusion" and that she felt "sick in her spirit." She had faced calls to boycott the country over its conflict with Palestine. Two months later, she cancelled her appearance at the Coachella Music Festival, claiming that she "didn't think it was fair to play Coachella while my new album is not yet finished," also hinting that her forthcoming record is "almost done" and will see release later in 2012. Marshall's ninth studio album, Sun, was released in September 2012, after releasing the lead single "Ruin" as a free download the previous June. The album features prominent electronica elements and arrangements, which Marshall incorporated into the "really slow guitar-based songs" she had originally written. In a review published on September 4, 2012, on Consequence of Sound, Sun was praised as a unique album and received a four-star rating. In summation, reviewer Sarah Grant wrote that Marshall's 2012 release is "a passionate pop album of electronic music filtered through a singer-songwriter's soul." The album debuted at a career chart-high of No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling over 23,000 copies on its opening week.
In July 2015, it was announced that Marshall would be providing narration for the documentary Janis: Little Girl Blue directed by Amy J. Berg, which revolves around the life of Janis Joplin and premiered at the 2015 Venice Film Festival. On television, Marshall starred on China, IL, in the hourlong musical special "Magical Pet". Marshall performs three original songs written by creator Brad Neely.
On July 28, 2017, Marshall announced on Instagram that her tenth studio album was "ready to go", although she did not disclose its title or expected release date.
On March 20, 2018, it was announced that Marshall would perform a Moon Pix 20th anniversary concert at Sydney Opera House, which occurred from May 25 to June 16 and featured album collaborators Jim White and Mick Turner.
On July 18, 2018, Marshall announced her 10th studio album, Wanderer, and shared the title track as an introduction to the album. She released two more singles, "Woman" featuring Lana Del Rey on August 15 and a cover of Rihanna's "Stay" on September 18, before the album was released on October 5, 2018, through Domino Recording Company. It was her first to not be released on Matador Records since 1996. According to Marshall, Matador were not happy with the recordings for Wanader, they wanted her to rerecord it and make it sound more commercial. She embarked on a world tour in promotion of the album in September.
Power embarked on a US arena tour in August 2021 supporting Alanis Morissette and Garbage. She was a last-minute addition to the lineup, after original opening act Liz Phair canceled her appearances. Power contributed four new songs to the soundtrack of the 2021 film Flag Day. Her eleventh studio album, Covers, was released on January 14, 2022, and will be supported by a US tour.
Personal life
In 2005, Marshall entered a relationship with actor Giovanni Ribisi, and resided with Ribisi and his daughter in Los Angeles. They also had a rental house in Malibu where she had a studio. Following the release of The Greatest, Marshall canceled her impending spring 2006 tour, and used the hiatus to recover from mental health issues. As part of her recovery, she was admitted to the psychiatric ward at Mount Sinai Medical Center & Miami Heart Institute, leaving after a week. Marshall gave a first person account of her breakdown in an interview for the November 2006 issue of Spin.
In June 2012, it was reported that Marshall had ended her relationship with Ribisi, and the completion of her upcoming record had coincided with their breakup: "I cut my hair off three days [after the breakup], got on a plane to France, and finished the shit." Shortly after the release of Sun, Marshall began having trouble breathing and was hospitalized multiple times, though doctors were unable to diagnose her. "I thought I was dying," she recounted. "They told me they were going to put me in a coma to save my lungs. My friend came to visit and told me I'd made the Billboard Top 10 and all I could think was: 'I don't want to die.'" Marshall was subsequently diagnosed with hereditary angioedema, an immune disorder that causes sporadic swelling of the face and throat due to C1 esterase inhibitor deficiency. In September 2012, she stated she had been hospitalized due to the condition over eight times, which led her to cancel her European tour.
In April 2015, Marshall announced that she had recently given birth to a son, but did not name the child's father.
Artistry
Musical style
Marshall's releases as Cat Power have frequently been noted by critics for their somber, blues-influenced instrumentation and melancholy lyrics, leading LA Weekly to dub her the "queen of sadcore". Marshall, however, claims her music is often misinterpreted, and that many of her songs are "not sad, [but] triumphant." She has recounted blues, old soul music, British rock 'n' roll, as well as hymns and gospel music as being integral influences on her.
Cat Power's early releases have been described as blending elements of punk, folk, and blues, while her later releases (post-2000) began to incorporate more sophisticated arrangements and production. The Greatest (2006), Marshall's seventh release, was heavily soul-influenced and incorporated R&B elements; the Memphis Rhythm Band provided backing instrumentation on the album. Unlike her previous releases, which featured sparse guitar and piano arrangements, The Greatest was described by Marshall biographer Sarah Goodman as her first "full-blown studio record with sophisticated production and senior players backing [Marshall] up."
Performances
Marshall's live shows have been known for their unpolished and often erratic nature, with songs beginning and ending abruptly or blending into one another without clear transitions. She has also cut short performances without explanation. On some occasions this has been attributed to stage fright and the influence of alcohol. Marshall spoke openly about suffering from severe bouts of stage fright, specifically in her early career, and admitted that her stage fright stemmed from issues regarding depression, alcoholism, and substance abuse.
By 2006, she had found new collaborators and had stopped drinking. Marshall's performance style became more enthusiastic and professional; a review in Salon noted that she was "delivering onstage", and called The Greatest "polished and sweetly upbeat".
Philanthropy
A live version of the gospel song "Amazing Grace"—culled from a performance with the Dirty Delta Blues band—was released on the charity compilation Dark Was the Night. Released by independent British label 4AD on February 17, 2009, the set benefited the Red Hot Organization, an international charity dedicated to raising funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS. She also appeared in a PETA ad, encouraging people to spay and neuter their pets.
On December 25, 2011, Marshall released a reworking of the What Would the Community Think track "King Rides By" for download from her official website, with all proceeds from sales of the track being donated to The Festival of Children Foundation and The Ali Forney Center. A music video directed by Giovanni Ribisi and featuring Filipino boxer and politician Manny Pacquiao was released to promote the song.
Discography
Studio albums
Dear Sir (1995)
Myra Lee (1996)
What Would the Community Think (1996)
Moon Pix (1998)
The Covers Record (2000)
You Are Free (2003)
The Greatest (2006)
Jukebox (2008)
Sun (2012)
Wanderer (2018)
Covers (2022)
Filmography
Awards and nominations
Won: Shortlist Music Prize for The Greatest
Nominated: Best International Female Solo Artist, 2007 BRIT Awards
Nominated: Best Art Vinyl for Jukebox
Nominated: Best International Female Solo Artist, 2013 BRIT Awards
Nominated: Best Cinematography for "Where Is My Love?", 2007 Antville Music Video Awards
Nominated: Comeback of the Year, 2018 Rober Awards Music Prize
Nominated: Best Foreign Solo Act, Wanderer Best Foreign Album, 2019 Sweden GAFFA Awards
Nominated: Best Pop Video - International for "Go Up", 2017 UK Music Video Awards
References
Sources
External links
1972 births
American alternative rock musicians
American women singer-songwriters
American women rock singers
Living people
Alternative rock singers
Alternative rock guitarists
Alternative rock pianists
Guitarists from Georgia (U.S. state)
Winners of the Shortlist Music Prize
Musicians from Atlanta
People from Prosperity, South Carolina
21st-century American women guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
20th-century American women guitarists
20th-century American guitarists
21st-century American women pianists
21st-century American pianists
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
20th-century American pianists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
Singer-songwriters from South Carolina
Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state) | false | [
"\"When It Rains, It Really Pours\" is a song originally written and recorded by Billy \"The Kid\" Emerson. His version, titled \"When It Rains It Pours\", was released by Sun Records in 1954. The song was later recorded by Elvis Presley in 1957, but not released until 1965 on the album Elvis for Everyone.\n\nEmerson's version\nThe song was recorded on October 27, 1954 at Sun Recording Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Sam Phillips was the producer. It was released on January 8, 1955 as Sun 214, as the B-side to the song \"Move Baby Move\" which did not chart.\n\nPersonnel at the season were Emerson, piano: Elven Parr, guitar: Robert Prindell, drums: Charles Smith, alto sax: Bennie Moore, tenor sax: and Luther Taylor, trumpet.\n\nPresley's recordings\nPresley had initially attempted to record the song while at Sun Records in November 1955, with Elvis and Scotty Moore on guitars, Bill Black on bass and Johnny Bernero on drums, but it was never completed as his contract with Sun was sold to RCA Records around the same time. The tapes of all Presley's Sun recordings were handed to RCA as part of the deal, with most of them being included on albums released shortly afterwards. Presley's 1955 recording of \"When It Rains, It Really Pours\", however, was not released. It was lost for several years until 1982 when it was found and finally released officially on the 1983 compilation album Elvis: A Legendary Performer Volume 4.\n\nPresley was recorded performing the song during the Million Dollar Quartet session on December 4, 1956.\n\nOn February 24, 1957 Presley again recorded the song, this time for RCA. This version also went unreleased until it appeared on the 1965 album Elvis for Everyone. The musicians on this session were Moore and Presley on guitars, Black on bass, Fontana on drums, Dudley Brooks on piano and the Jordanaires singing backup.\n\nIn 1968, during rehearsals for the television special Elvis, Presley was recorded singing it as a potential song for the show. Although the song was not chosen for the special, the rehearsal was released on The Complete '68 Comeback Special CD released in 2008.\n\nReferences\n\nElvis Presley songs\n1954 songs\nSongs written by Billy \"The Kid\" Emerson",
"\"When the Shit Goes Down\" (\"When the Ship Goes Down\" on edited versions) is a song by American hip hop group Cypress Hill. The song was released as the second single from the group's second studio album, Black Sunday. The single was released exclusively in Australia and Europe.\n\nTrack listing\nEuropean 12\"\n\nEuropean promo single\n\nEuropean maxi single\n\nAustralian maxi single\n\nCharts\n\nIn popular culture\n The song was used in the 2001 film Bully.\n An edited version of the song was used in the 2007 film Freedom Writers.\n The song was used in the pilot episode of Hello Ladies.\n The song was featured in the 2013 film This Is the End.\n The song was used in a second-season episode of The Affair.\n The song was featured in the 2018 film Mid90s.\n The song was used in the episode \"Ezekiel Patrol\" of the 2019 TV series Doom Patrol.\nThe song was used in the 2019 film Guns Akimbo.\n\nReferences\n\n1993 songs\n1993 singles\nCypress Hill songs\nRuffhouse Records singles\nColumbia Records singles\nHardcore hip hop songs\nSongs written by DJ Muggs\nSongs written by B-Real\nSong recordings produced by DJ Muggs"
]
|
[
"José Martí",
"Legacy"
]
| C_9f9c3397a7114f4cabea4c4c25bbba4c_0 | What are some of Marti's most significant works? | 1 | What are some of Marti's most significant works? | José Martí | Marti's dedication to the cause of Cuban independence and his passionate belief in democracy and justice has made him a hero for all Cubans, a symbol of unity, the "Apostle", a great leader. His ultimate goal of building a democratic, just, and stable republic in Cuba and his obsession with the practical execution of this goal led him to become the most charismatic leader of the 1895 colonial revolution. His work with the Cuban emigre community, enlisting the support of Cuban workers and socialist leaders to form the Cuban Revolutionary Party, put into motion the Cuban war of independence. His foresight into the future, shown in his warnings against American political interests for Cuba, was confirmed by the swift occupation of Cuba by the United States following the Spanish-American War. His belief in the inseparability of Cuban and Latin American sovereignty and the expression thereof in his writings have contributed to the shape of the modern Latin American Identity. His works are a cornerstone of Latin American and political literature and his prolific contributions to the fields of journalism, poetry, and prose are highly acclaimed. Marti's writings on the concepts of Cuban nationalism fuelled the 1895 revolution and have continued to inform conflicting visions of the Cuban nation. The Cuban nation-state under Fidel Castro consistently claimed Marti as a crucial inspiration for its Communist revolutionary government. During Castro's regime, the politics and death of Marti were used to justify certain actions of the Cuban state. The Cuban government claimed that Marti had supported a single party system, creating a precedent for an all-powerful communist government. Castro used this explanation throughout the late 20th century to deter Cuban citizens from demanding a multiparty system. The vast amount of writing that Marti produced in his lifetime makes it difficult to determine his exact political ideology, but his major goal was the liberation of Cuba from Spain and the establishment of a democratic republican government. Despite Marti never having supported communism or single party systems, Cuban leaders repeatedly claimed that Marti's Partido Revolucionario Cubano was a "forerunner of the Communist Party". Marti's nuanced, often ambivalent positions on the most important issues of his day have led Marxist interpreters to see a class conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie as the main theme of his works, while others, namely the Cuban diasporic communities in Miami and elsewhere have identified a liberal-capitalist emphasis. These Cuban exiles still honor Marti as a figure of hope for the Cuban nation in exile and condemn Castro's regime for manipulating his works and creating a "Castroite Marti" to justify its "intolerance and abridgments of human rights". His writings thus remain a key ideological weapon in the battle over the fate of the Cuban nation. One further example of his legacy is that his name has been chosen for several institutions or NGOs from various countries, such as Romania, where a public school from Bucharest and the Romanian-Cuban Friendship Association from Targoviste are both named "Jose Marti". A gigantic statue was unveiled on his 123rd birth anniversary and President Raul Castro was present at the ceremony. CANNOTANSWER | Marti's dedication to the cause of Cuban independence and his passionate belief in democracy and justice has made him a hero for all Cubans, | José Julián Martí Pérez (; January 28, 1853 – May 19, 1895) was a Cuban nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the liberation of his country. He was also an important figure in Latin American literature. He was very politically active and is considered an important philosopher and political theorist. Through his writings and political activity, he became a symbol of Cuba's bid for independence from the Spanish Empire in the 19th century, and is referred to as the "Apostle of Cuban Independence". From adolescence, he dedicated his life to the promotion of liberty, political independence for Cuba, and intellectual independence for all Spanish Americans; his death was used as a cry for Cuban independence from Spain by both the Cuban revolutionaries and those Cubans previously reluctant to start a revolt.
Born in Havana, Spanish Empire, Martí began his political activism at an early age. He traveled extensively in Spain, Latin America, and the United States, raising awareness and support for the cause of Cuban independence. His unification of the Cuban émigré community, particularly in Florida, was crucial to the success of the Cuban War of Independence against Spain. He was a key figure in the planning and execution of this war, as well as the designer of the Cuban Revolutionary Party and its ideology. He died in military action during the Battle of Dos Ríos on May 19, 1895. Martí is considered one of the great turn-of-the-century Latin American intellectuals. His written works include a series of poems, essays, letters, lectures, novel, and a children's magazine.
He wrote for numerous Latin American and American newspapers; he also founded a number of newspapers. His newspaper Patria was an important instrument in his campaign for Cuban independence. After his death, one of his poems from the book, Versos Sencillos (Simple Verses) was adapted to the song "Guantanamera", which has become the definitive patriotic song of Cuba. The concepts of freedom, liberty, and democracy are prominent themes in all of his works, which were influential on the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío and the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral. Following the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Martí's ideology became a major driving force in Cuban politics. He is also regarded as Cuba's "martyr."
Life
Early life, Cuba: 1853–70
José Julián Martí Pérez was born on January 28, 1853, in Havana, at 41 Paula Street, to Spanish parents, a Valencian father, Mariano Martí Navarro, and Leonor Pérez Cabrera, a native of the Canary Islands. Martí was the elder brother to seven sisters: Leonor, Mariana, María del Carmen, María del Pilar, Rita Amelia, Antonia and Dolores. He was baptized on February 12 in Santo Ángel Custodio church. When he was four, his family moved from Cuba to Valencia, Spain, but two years later they returned to the island where they enrolled José at a local public school, in the Santa Clara neighborhood where his father worked as a prison guard.
In 1865, he enrolled in the Escuela de Instrucción Primaria Superior Municipal de Varones that was headed by Rafael María de Mendive. Mendive was influential in the development of Martí's political philosophies. Also instrumental in his development of a social and political conscience was his best friend Fermín Valdés Domínguez, the son of a wealthy slave-owning family. In April the same year, after hearing the news of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Martí and other young students expressed their pain—through group mourning—for the death of a man who had decreed the abolition of slavery in the United States. In 1866, Martí entered the Instituto de Segunda Enseñanza where Mendive financed his studies.
Martí signed up at the Escuela Profesional de Pintura y Escultura de La Habana (Professional School for Painting and Sculpture of Havana) in September 1867, known as San Alejandro, to take drawing classes. He hoped to flourish in this area but did not find commercial success. In 1867, he also entered the school of San Pablo, established and managed by Mendive, where he enrolled for the second and third years of his bachelor's degree and assisted Mendive with the school's administrative tasks. In April 1868, his poem dedicated to Mendive's wife, A Micaela. En la Muerte de Miguel Ángel appeared in Guanabacoa's newspaper El Álbum.
When the Ten Years' War broke out in Cuba in 1868, clubs of supporters for the Cuban nationalist cause formed all over Cuba, and José and his friend Fermín joined them. Martí had a precocious desire for the independence and freedom of Cuba. He started writing poems about this vision, while, at the same time, trying to do something to achieve this dream. In 1869, he published his first political writings in the only edition of the newspaper El Diablo Cojuelo, published by Fermín Valdés Domínguez. That same year he published "Abdala", a patriotic drama in verse form in the one-volume La Patria Libre newspaper, which he published himself. "Abdala" is about a fictional country called Nubia which struggles for liberation. His sonnet "10 de Octubre", later to become one of his most famous poems, was also written during that year, and was published later in his school newspaper.
In March of that year, colonial authorities shut down the school, interrupting Martí's studies. He came to resent Spanish rule of his homeland at an early age; likewise, he developed a hatred of slavery, which was still practiced in Cuba.
On October 21, 1869, aged 16, he was arrested and incarcerated in the national jail, following an accusation of treason and bribery from the Spanish government upon the discovery of a "reproving" letter, which Martí and Fermín had written to a friend when the friend joined the Spanish army. More than four months later, Martí confessed to the charges and was condemned to six years in prison. His mother tried to free her son (who at 16 was still a minor) by writing letters to the government, and his father went to a lawyer friend for legal support, but these efforts failed. Eventually, Martí fell ill; his legs were severely lacerated by the chains that bound him. As a result, he was transferred to another part of Cuba known as Isla de Pinos instead of further imprisonment. Following that, the Spanish authorities decided to exile him to Spain. In Spain, Martí, who was 18 at the time, was allowed to continue his studies with the hopes that studying in Spain would renew his loyalty to Spain.
Spain: 1871–74
In January 1871, Martí embarked on the steam ship Guipuzcoa, which took him from Havana to Cádiz. He settled in Madrid in a guesthouse in Desengaño St. #10. Arriving at the capitol he contacted fellow Cuban Carlos Sauvalle, who had been deported to Spain a year before Martí and whose house served as a center of reunions for Cubans in exile. On March 24, Cádiz's newspaper La Soberania Nacional, published Martí's article "Castillo" in which he recalled the sufferings of a friend he met in prison. This article would be reprinted in Sevilla's La Cuestión Cubana and New York's La República. At this time, Martí registered himself as a member of independent studies in the law faculty of the Central University of Madrid. While studying here, Martí openly participated in discourse on the Cuban issue, debating through the Spanish press and circulating documents protesting Spanish activities in Cuba.
Martí's maltreatment at the hands of the Spaniards and consequent deportation to Spain in 1871 inspired a tract, Political Imprisonment in Cuba, published in July. This pamphlet's purpose was to move the Spanish public to do something about its government's brutalities in Cuba and promoted the issue of Cuban independence. In September, from the pages of El Jurado Federal, Martí and Sauvalle accused the newspaper La Prensa of having calumniated the Cuban residents in Madrid. During his stay in Madrid, Martí frequented the Ateneo and the National Library, the Café de los Artistas, and the British, Swiss and Iberian breweries. In November he became sick and had an operation, paid for by Sauvalle.
On November 27, 1871, eight medical students, who had been accused (without evidence) of the desecration of a Spanish grave, were executed in Havana. In June 1872, Fermín Valdés was arrested because of the November 27 incident. His sentence of six years of jail was pardoned, and he was exiled to Spain where he reunited with Martí. On November 27, 1872, the printed matter Dia 27 de Noviembre de 1871 (27 November 1871) written by Martí and signed by Fermín Valdés Domínguez and Pedro J. de la Torre circulated Madrid. A group of Cubans held a funeral in the Caballero de Gracia church, the first anniversary of the medical students' execution.
In 1873, Martí's "A mis Hermanos Muertos el 27 de Noviembre" was published by Fermín Valdés. In February, for the first time, the Cuban flag appeared in Madrid, hanging from Martí's balcony in Concepción Jerónima, where he lived for a few years. In the same month, the Proclamation of the First Spanish Republic by the Cortes on February 11, 1873 reaffirmed Cuba as inseparable to Spain, Martí responded with an essay, The Spanish Republic and the Cuban Revolution, and sent it to the Prime Minister, pointing out that this new freely elected body of deputies that had proclaimed a republic based on democracy had been hypocritical not to grant Cuba its independence. He sent examples of his work to Nestor Ponce de Leon, a member of the Junta Central Revolucionaria de Nueva York (Central revolutionary committee of New York), to whom he would express his will to collaborate on the fight for the independence of Cuba.
In May, he moved to Zaragoza, accompanied by Fermín Valdés to continue his studies in law at the Universidad Literaria. The newspaper La Cuestión Cubana of Sevilla, published numerous articles from Martí.
In June 1874, Martí graduated with a degree in Civil Law and Canon Law. In August he signed up as an external student at the Facultad de Filosofia y Letras de Zaragoza, where he finished his degree by October. In November he returned to Madrid and then left to Paris. There he met Auguste Vacquerie, a poet, and Victor Hugo. In December 1874 he embarked from Le Havre for Mexico. Prevented from returning to Cuba, Martí went instead to Mexico and Guatemala. During these travels, he taught and wrote, advocating continuously for Cuba's independence.
México and Guatemala: 1875–78
In 1875, Martí lived on Calle Moneda in Mexico City near the Zócalo, a prestigious address of the time. One floor above him lived Manuel Antonio Mercado, Secretary of the Distrito Federal, who became one of Martí's best friends. On March 2, 1875, he published his first article for Vicente Villada's Revista Universal, a broadsheet discussing politics, literature, and general business commerce. On March 12, his Spanish translation of Hugo's Mes Fils (1874) began serialization in Revista Universal. Martí then joined the editorial staff, editing the Boletín section of the publication.
In these writings, he expressed his opinions about current events in Mexico. On May 27, in the newspaper Revista Universal, he responded to the anti-Cuban-independence arguments in La Colonia Española, a newspaper for Spanish citizens living in Mexico. In December, Sociedad Gorostiza (Gorostiza Society), a group of writers and artists, accepted Martí as a member, where he met his future wife, Carmen Zayas Bazán, during his frequent visits to her Cuban father's house to meet with the Gorostiza group.
On January 1, 1876, in Oaxaca, elements opposed to Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada's government, led by Gen. Porfirio Díaz, proclaimed the Plan de Tuxtepec, which instigated a bloody civil war. Martí and Mexican colleagues established the Sociedad Alarcón, composed of dramatists, actors, and critics. At this point, Martí began collaborating with the newspaper El Socialista as leader of the Gran Círculo Obrero (Great Labor Circle) organization of liberals and reformists who supported Lerdo de Tejada. In March, the newspaper proposed a series of candidates as delegates, including Martí, to the first Congreso Obrero, or congress of the workers. On June 4, La Sociedad Esperanza de Empleados (Employees' Hope Society) designated Martí as delegate to the Congreso Obrero. On December 7, Martí published his article Alea Jacta Est in the newspaper El Federalista, bitterly criticizing the Porfiristas' armed assault upon the constitutional government in place. On December 16, he published the article "Extranjero" (foreigner; abroad), in which he repeated his denunciation of the Porfiristas and bade farewell to Mexico.
In 1877, using his second name and second surname Julián Pérez as pseudonym, Martí embarked for Havana, hoping to arrange to move his family away to Mexico City from Havana. He returned to Mexico, however, entering at the port of Progreso from which, via Isla de Mujeres and Belize, he travelled south to progressive Guatemala City. He took residence in the prosperous suburb of Ciudad Vieja, home of Guatemala's artists and intelligentsia of the day, on Cuarta Avenida (Fourth Avenue), 3 km south of Guatemala City. While there, he was commissioned by the government to write the play Patria y Libertad (Drama Indio) (Country and Liberty (an Indian Drama)). He met personally the president, Justo Rufino Barrios, about this project. On April 22, the newspaper El Progreso published his article "Los códigos Nuevos" (The New Laws) pertaining to the then newly enacted Civil Code. On May 29, he was appointed head of the Department of French, English, Italian and German Literature, History and Philosophy, on the faculty of philosophy and arts of the Universidad Nacional. On July 25, he lectured for the opening evening of the literary society 'Sociedad Literaria El Porvenir', at the Teatro Colón (the since-renamed Teatro Nacional), at which function he was appointed vice-president of the Society, and acquiring the moniker "el doctor torrente," or Doctor Torrent, in view of his rhetorical style. Martí taught composition classes free at the Academia de Niñas de Centroamérica girls' academy, among whose students he enthralled young María García Granados y Saborío, daughter of Guatemalan president Miguel García Granados. The schoolgirl's crush was unrequited, however, as he went again to México, where he met Carmen Zayas Bazán and whom he later married.
In 1878, Martí returned to Guatemala and published his book Guatemala, edited in Mexico. On May 10, socialite María García Granados died of lung disease; her unrequited love for Martí branded her, poignantly, as 'la niña de Guatemala, la que se murió de amor' (the Guatemalan girl who died of love). Following her death, Martí returned to Cuba. There, he resigned signing the Pact of Zanjón which ended the Cuban Ten Years' War, but had no effect on Cuba's status as a colony. He met Afro-Cuban revolutionary Juan Gualberto Gómez, who would be his lifelong partner in the independence struggle and a stalwart defender of his legacy during this same journey. He married Carmen Zayas Bazán on Havana's Calle Tulipán Street at this time. In October, his application to practice law in Cuba was refused, and thereafter he immersed himself in radical efforts, such as for the Comité Revolucionario Cubano de Nueva York (Cuban Revolutionary Committee of New York). On November 22, 1878 his son José Francisco, known fondly as "Pepito", was born.
United States and Venezuela: 1880–90
In 1881, after a brief stay in New York, Martí travelled to Venezuela and founded in Caracas the Revista Venezolana, or Venezuelan Review. The journal incurred the wrath of Venezuela's dictator, Antonio Guzmán Blanco, and Martí was forced to return to New York. There, Martí joined General Calixto García's Cuban revolutionary committee, composed of Cuban exiles advocating independence. Here Martí openly supported Cuba's struggle for liberation, and worked as a journalist for La Nación of Buenos Aires and for several Central American journals, especially La Opinion Liberal in Mexico City. The article "El ajusticiamiento de Guiteau," an account of President Garfield's murderer's trial, was published in La Opinion Liberal in 1881, and later selected for inclusion in The Library of America's anthology of American True Crime writing. In addition, Martí wrote poems and translated novels to Spanish. He worked for Appleton and Company and, "on his own, translated and published Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona. His repertory of original work included plays, a novel, poetry, a children's magazine, La Edad de Oro, and a newspaper, Patria, which became the official organ of the Cuban Revolutionary party". He also served as a consul for Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay. Throughout this work, he preached the "freedom of Cuba with an enthusiasm that swelled the ranks of those eager to strive with him for it".
Tension existed within the Cuban revolutionary committee between Martí and his military compatriots. Martí feared a military dictatorship would be established in Cuba upon independence, and suspected Dominican-born General Máximo Gómez of having these intentions. Martí knew that the independence of Cuba needed time and careful planning. Ultimately, Martí refused to cooperate with Máximo Gómez and Antonio Maceo Grajales, two Cuban military leaders from the Ten Years' War, when they wanted to invade immediately in 1884. Martí knew that it was too early to attempt to win back Cuba, and later events proved him right.
United States, Central America and the West Indies: 1891–94
On January 1, 1891, Martí's essay "Nuestra America" was published in New York's Revista Ilustrada, and on the 30th of that month in Mexico's El Partido Liberal. He actively participated in the Conferencia Monetaria Internacional (The International Monetary Conference) in New York during that time as well. On June 30 his wife and son arrived in New York. After a short time, during which Carmen Zayas Bazán realized that Martí's dedication to Cuban independence surpassed that of supporting his family, she returned to Havana with her son on August 27. Martí would never see them again. The fact that his wife never shared the convictions central to his life was an enormous personal tragedy for Martí. He turned for solace to Carmen Miyares de Mantilla, a Venezuelan who ran a boarding house in New York, and he is presumed to be the father of her daughter María Mantilla, who was in turn the mother of the actor Cesar Romero, who proudly claimed to be Martí's grandson. In September Martí became sick again. He intervened in the commemorative acts of The Independents, causing the Spanish consul in New York to complain to the Argentine and Uruguayan governments. Consequently, Martí resigned from the Argentinean, Paraguayan, and Uruguayan consulates. In October he published his book Versos Sencillos.
On November 26 he was invited by the Club Ignacio Agramonte, an organization founded by Cuban immigrants in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida, to a celebration to collect funding for the cause of Cuban independence. There he gave a lecture known as "Con Todos, y para el Bien de Todos", which was reprinted in Spanish language newspapers and periodicals across the United States. The following night, another lecture, " Los Pinos Nuevos", was given by Martí in another Tampa gathering in honor of the medical students killed in Cuba in 1871. In November artist Herman Norman painted a portrait of José Martí.
On January 5, 1892, Martí participated in a reunion of the emigration representatives, in Cayo Hueso (Key West), the Cuban community where the Bases del Partido Revolucionario (Basis of the Cuban Revolutionary Party) was passed. He began the process of organizing the newly formed party. To raise support and collect funding for the independence movement, he visited tobacco factories, where he gave speeches to the workers and united them in the cause. In March 1892 the first edition of the Patria newspaper, related to the Cuban Revolutionary Party, was published, funded and directed by Martí. During Martí's Key West years, his secretary was Dolores Castellanos (1870-1948), a Cuban-American woman born in Key West, who also served as president of the Protectoras de la Patria: Club Político de Cubanas, a Cuban women's political club in support of Martí's cause, and for whom Martí wrote a poem titled "A Dolores Castellanos." On April 8, he was chosen delegate of the Cuban Revolutionary Party by the Cayo Hueso Club in Tampa and New York.
From July to September 1892 he traveled through Florida, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica on an organization mission among the exiled Cubans. On this mission, Martí made numerous speeches and visited various tobacco factories. On December 16 he was poisoned in Tampa.
In 1893, Martí traveled through the United States, Central America and the West Indies, visiting different Cuban clubs. His visits were received with a growing enthusiasm and raised badly needed funds for the revolutionary cause. On May 24 he met Rubén Darío, the Nicaraguan poet in a theatre act in Hardman Hall, New York City. On June 3 he had an interview with Máximo Gómez in Montecristi, Dominican Republic, where they planned the uprising. In July he met with General Antonio Maceo Grajales in San Jose, Costa Rica.
In 1894 he continued traveling for propagation and organizing the revolutionary movement. On January 27 he published "A Cuba!" in the newspaper Patria where he denounced collusion between the Spanish and American interests. In July he visited the president of the Mexican Republic, Porfirio Díaz, and travelled to Veracruz. In August he prepared and arranged the armed expedition that would begin the Cuban revolution.
Return to Cuba: 1895
On January 12, 1895, the North American authorities stopped the steamship Lagonda and two other suspicious ships, Amadis and Baracoa, at the port of Fernandina in Florida, confiscating weapons and ruining Plan de Fernandina (Fernandina Plan). On January 29, Martí drew up the order of the uprising, signing it with general Jose Maria Rodriguez and Enrique Collazo. Juan Gualberto Gómez was assigned to orchestrate war preparations for La Habana Province, and was able to work right under the noses of the relatively unconcerned Spanish authorities. Martí decided to move to Montecristi, Dominican Republic to join Máximo Gómez and to plan out the uprising.
The uprising finally took place on February 24, 1895. A month later, Martí and Máximo Gómez declared the Manifesto de Montecristi, an "exposition of the purposes and principles of the Cuban revolution". Martí had persuaded Gómez to lead an expedition into Cuba.
Before leaving for Cuba, Martí wrote his "literary will" on April 1, 1895, leaving his personal papers and manuscripts to Gonzalo de Quesada, with instructions for editing. Knowing that the majority of his writing in newspapers in Honduras, Uruguay, and Chile would disappear over time, Martí instructed Quesada to arrange his papers in volumes. The volumes were to be arranged in the following way: volumes one and two, North Americas; volume three, Hispanic Americas; volume four, North American Scenes; volume five, Books about the Americas (this included both North and South America); volume six, Literature, education and painting. Another volume included his poetry.
The expedition, composed of Martí, Gómez, Ángel Guerra, Francisco Borreo, Cesar Salas and Marcos del Rosario, left Montecristi for Cuba on April 1, 1895. Despite delays and desertion by some members, they got to Cuba, landing at Playitas, near Cape Maisí and Imías, Cuba, on April 11. Once there, they made contact with the Cuban rebels, who were headed by the Maceo brothers, and started fighting against Spanish troops. The revolt did not go as planned, "mainly because the call to revolution received no immediate, spontaneous support from the masses." By May 13, the expedition reached Dos Rios. On May 19, Gomez faced Ximenez de Sandoval's troops and ordered Martí to stay with the rearguard, but Martí became separated from the bulk of the Cuban forces, and entered the Spanish line.
Death
José Martí was killed in battle against Spanish troops at the Battle of Dos Ríos, near the confluence of the rivers Contramaestre and Cauto, on May 19, 1895. Gómez had recognized that the Spaniards had a strong position between palm trees, so he ordered his men to disengage. Martí was alone and seeing a young courier ride by said: "Joven, ¡a la carga!" meaning: "Young man, charge!" This was around midday, and he was dressed in a black jacket while riding a white horse, which made him an easy target for the Spanish. After Martí was shot, the young trooper, Angel de la Guardia, lost his horse and returned to report the loss. The Spanish took possession of the body, buried it close by, then exhumed the body upon realization of its identity. He was buried in Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba. Many have argued that Maceo and others had always spurned Martí for never participating in combat, which may have compelled Martí to that ill-fated two-man charge. Some of his Versos Sencillos can seem premonition-like: "No me entierren en lo oscuro/
A morir como un traidor/
Yo soy bueno y como bueno/
Moriré de cara al sol."
("Do not bury me in darkness / to die like a traitor / I am good, and as a good man /
I will die facing the sun.")
The death of Martí was a blow to the "aspirations of the Cuban rebels, inside and outside of the island, but the fighting continued with alternating successes and failures until the entry of the United States into the war in 1898".
Political ideology
Liberalism
Martí's political ideas were shaped by his early encounter with Krausist liberalism and its defense of spirituality and solidarity. Radical liberalism in Latin America during this time period often took on a nationalist and anti-imperialist cast, as shown by the examples of Francisco Bilbao in Chile, Benito Juárez in Mexico, José Santos Zelaya in Nicaragua, and Ramón Emeterio Betances in Puerto Rico, whom Martí deeply admired and considered one of his teachers. An increasingly radicalized liberalism emphasizing democratic participation, economic equality, national sovereignty, and supplemented by his exposure to doctrines such as Georgism, remained the dominant basis of Martí's outlook.
Cuban independence
Martí wrote extensively about Spanish colonial control and the threat of US expansionism into Cuba. To him, it was unnatural that Cuba was controlled and oppressed by the Spanish government, when it had its own unique identity and culture. In his pamphlet from February 11, 1873, called "The Spanish Republic and the Cuban Revolution", he argued that "Cubans do not live as Spaniards live.... They are nourished by a different system of trade, have links with different countries, and express their happiness through quite contrary customs. There are no common aspirations or identical goals linking the two peoples, or beloved memories to unite them. ... Peoples are only united by ties of fraternity and love.".
Slavery
Martí opposed slavery and criticized Spain for failing to abolish it. In a speech to Cuban immigrants in Steck Hall, New York, on January 24, 1879, he stated that the war against Spain needed to be fought, recalled the heroism and suffering of the Ten Years' War, which, he declared, had qualified Cuba as a real nation with a right to independence. Spain had not ratified the conditions of the peace treaty, had falsified elections, continued excessive taxation, and had failed to abolish slavery. Cuba needed to be free.
Revolutionary tactics
Martí proposed in a letter to Máximo Gómez in 1882 the formation of a revolutionary party, which he considered essential in the prevention of Cuba falling back on the Home Rule Party (Partido Autonomista) after the Pact of Zanjón. The Home Rule Party was a peace-seeking party that would stop short of the outright independence that Martí thought Cuba needed. But he was aware that there were social divisions in Cuba, especially racial divisions, that needed to be addressed as well. He thought war was necessary to achieve Cuba's freedom, despite his basic ideology of conciliation, respect, dignity, and balance. The establishment of the patria (fatherland) with a good government would unite Cubans of all social classes and colours in harmony. Together with other Cubans resident in New York, Martí started laying the grounds for the Revolutionary Party, stressing the need for a democratic organization as the basic structure before any military leaders were to join. The military would have to subordinate themselves to the interests of the fatherland. Gómez later rejoined Martí's plans, promising to comply.
Martí's consolidation of support among the Cuban expatriates, especially in Florida, was key in the planning and execution of the invasion of Cuba. His speeches to Cuban tobacco workers in Tampa and Key West motivated and united them; this is considered the most important political achievement of his life. At this point he refined his ideological platform, basing it on a Cuba held together by pride in being Cuban, a society that ensured "the welfare and prosperity of all Cubans" independently of class, occupation or race. Faith in the cause could not die, and the military would not try for domination. All pro-independence Cubans would participate, with no sector predominating. From this he established the Cuban Revolutionary Party in early 1892.
Martí and the CRP were devoted to secretly organizing the anti-Spanish war. Martí's newspaper, Patria, was a key instrument of this campaign, where Martí delineated his final plans for Cuba. Through this medium he argued against the exploitative colonialism of Spain in Cuba, criticized the Home Rule (Autonomista) Party for having aims that fell considerably short of full independence, and warned against U.S. annexationism which he felt could only be prevented by Cuba's successful independence. He specified his plans for the future Cuban Republic, a multi-class and multi-racial democratic republic based on universal suffrage, with an egalitarian economic base to develop fully Cuba's productive resources and an equitable distribution of land among citizens, with enlightened and virtuous politicians.
From Martí's 'Campaign Diaries', written during the final expedition in Cuba, it seems evident that Martí would have reached the highest position in the future Republic of Arms. This was not to be; his death occurred before the Assembly of Cuba was set up. Until his last minute, Martí dedicated his life to achieve full independence for Cuba. His uncompromising belief in democracy and freedom for his fatherland is what characterized his political ideology.
United States
Martí demonstrated an anti-imperialist attitude from an early age, and was convinced that the United States posed a danger for Latin America. While critiquing the United States for its stereotypes of Latin Americans and preoccupation with capitalism, Martí also drew parallels with the American Revolution and the nationalist movement in Cuba. At the same time, he recognized the advantages of the European or North American civilizations, which were open to the reforms that Latin American countries needed in order to detach themselves from the colonial heritage of Spain. Martí's distrust of North American politics had developed during the 1880s, due to the intervention threats that loomed on Mexico and Guatemala, and indirectly on Cuba's future. Over time Martí became increasingly alarmed about the United States' intentions for Cuba. The United States desperately needed new markets for its industrial products because of the economic crisis it was experiencing, and the media was talking about the purchase of Cuba from Spain. Cuba was a profitable, fertile country with an important strategic position in the Gulf of Mexico. Martí felt that the interests of Cuba's future lay with its sister nations in Latin America, and were opposite to those of the United States.
Another trait that Martí admired was the work ethic that characterized North American society. On various occasions Martí conveyed his deep admiration for the immigrant-based society, "whose principal aspiration he interpreted as being to construct a truly modern country, based upon hard work and progressive ideas." Martí stated that he was "never surprised in any country of the world [he had] visited. Here [he] was surprised... [he] remarked that no one stood quietly on the corners, no door was shut an instant, no man was quiet. [He] stopped [him]self, [he] looked respectfully on this people, and [he] said goodbye forever to that lazy life and poetical inutility of our European countries".
Although Martí opposed US intervention in Cuba, he found American society to be so great that he believed Latin America should consider imitating the United States. Martí argued that if the US "could reach such a high standard of living in so short a time, and despite, too, its lack of unifying traditions, could not the same be expected of Latin America?" However, Martí believed US expansionism represented Spanish American republics' "greatest danger." Martí was amazed at how education was directed towards helping the development of the nation and once again encouraged Latin American countries to follow the example set by North American society. At the same time, he criticized the elitist educational systems of Cuba and the rest of Latin America. Often, Martí recommended countries in Latin America to "send representatives to learn more relevant techniques in the United States". Once this was done, Martí hoped that this representatives would bring a "much-needed modernization to the Latin American agricultural policies".
However, not everything in the United States was to be admired by Martí. When it came to politics Martí wrote that politics in the US had "adopted a carnival atmosphere... especially during election time". He saw acts of corruption among candidates, such as bribing "the constituents with vast quantities of beer, while impressive parades wound their way through New York's crowded streets, past masses of billboards, all exhorting the public to vote for the different political candidates". Martí criticized and condemned the elites of the United States as they "pulled the main political strings behind the scenes". According to Martí, the elites "deserved severe censure" as they were the biggest threat to the "ideals with which the United States was first conceived".
Martí started to believe that the US had abused its potential. Racism was abundant. Different races were being discriminated against; political life "was both cynically regarded by the public at large and widely abused by 'professional politicians'; industrial magnates and powerful labor groups faced each other menacingly". All of this convinced Martí that a large-scale social conflict was imminent in the United States.
On the positive side, Martí was astonished by the "inviolable right of freedom of speech which all U.S. citizens possessed". Martí applauded the United States' Constitution which allowed freedom of speech to all its citizens, no matter what political beliefs they had. In May 1883, while attending political meetings he heard "the call for revolution – and more specifically the destruction of the capitalist system". Martí was amazed that the country maintained freedom of speech even with respect to calls that "could have led to its own destruction". Martí also gave his support to the women's suffrage movements, and was "pleased that women here [took] advantage of this privilege in order to make their voices heard". According to Martí, free speech was essential if any nation was to be civilized and he expressed his "profound admiration for these many basic liberties and opportunities open to the vast majority of U.S. citizens".
The works of Martí contain many comparisons between the ways of life of North and Latin America. The former was seen as "hardy, 'soulless', and, at times, cruel society, but one which, nevertheless, had been based upon a firm foundation of liberty and on a tradition of liberty". Although North American society had its flaws, they tended to be "of minor importance when compared to the broad sweep of social inequality, and to the widespread abuse of power prevalent in Latin America".
Once it became apparent that the United States were actually going to purchase Cuba and intended to Americanize it, Martí "spoke out loudly and bravely against such action, stating the opinion of many Cubans on the United States of America."
Latin American identity
José Martí as a liberator believed that the Latin American countries needed to know the reality of their own history. Martí also saw the necessity of a country having its own literature. These reflections started in Mexico from 1875 and are connected to the Mexican Reform, where prominent liberals like Ignacio Manuel Altamirano and Guillermo Prieto had situated themselves in front of a cultural renovation in Mexico, taking on the same approach as Esteban Echeverría thirty years before in Argentina. In the second "Boletin" that Martí published in the Revista Universal (May 11, 1875) one can already see Martí's approach, which was fundamentally Latin American. His wish to build a national or Latin American identity was nothing new or unusual in those days; however, no Latin-American intellectual of that time had approached as clearly as Martí the task of building a national identity. He insisted on the necessity of building institutions and laws that matched the natural elements of each country, and recalled the failure of the applications of French and American civil codes in the new Latin American republics. Martí believed that "el hombre del sur", the man of the South, should choose an appropriate development strategy matching his character, the peculiarity of his culture and history, and the nature that determined his being.
Writings
Martí as a writer covered a range of genres. In addition to producing newspaper articles and keeping up an extensive correspondence (his letters are included in the collection of his complete works), he wrote a serialized novel, composed poetry, wrote essays, and published four issues of a children's magazine, La Edad de Oro(The Golden Age, 1889). His essays and articles occupy more than fifty volumes of his complete works. His prose was extensively read and influenced the modernist generation, especially the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío, whom Martí called "my son" when they met in New York in 1893.
Martí did not publish any books: only two notebooks (Cuadernos) of verses, in editions outside of the market, and a number of political tracts. The rest (an enormous amount) was left dispersed in numerous newspapers and magazines, in letters, in diaries and personal notes, in other unedited texts, in frequently improvised speeches, and some lost forever. Five years after his death, the first volume of his Obras was published. A novel appeared in this collection in 1911: Amistad funesta, which Martí had made known was published under a pseudonym in 1885. In 1913, also in this edition, his third poetic collection that he had kept unedited: Versos Libres. His Diario de Campaña (Campaign Diary) was published in 1941. Later still, in 1980, Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Mejía Sánchez produced a set of about thirty of Martí's articles written for the Mexican newspaper El Partido Liberal that weren't included in any of his so-called Obras Completas editions. From 1882 to 1891, Martí collaborated in La Nación, a Buenos Aires newspaper. His texts from La Nación have been collected in Anuario del centro de Estudios Martíanos.
Over the course of his journalistic career, he wrote for numerous newspapers, starting with El Diablo Cojuelo (The Limping Devil) and La Patria Libre (The Free Fatherland), both of which he helped to found in 1869 in Cuba and which established the extent of his political commitment and vision for Cuba. In Spain he wrote for La Colonia Española,in Mexico for La Revista Universal, and in Venezuela for Revista Venezolana, which he founded. In New York he contributed to Venezuelan periodical La Opinión Nacional, Buenos Aires newspaper La Nación, Mexico's La Opinion Liberal, and The Hour from the U.S.
The first critical edition of Martí's complete works began to appear in 1983 in José Martí: Obras completas. Edición crítica. The critical edition of his complete poems was published in 1985 in José Martí: Poesía completa. Edición critica.
Volume two of his Obras Completas includes his famous essay 'Nuestra America' which "comprises a variety of subjects relating to Spanish America about which Martí studied and wrote. Here it is noted that after Cuba his interest was directed mostly to Guatemala, Mexico and Venezuela. The various sections of this part are about general matters and international conferences; economic, social and political questions; literature and art; agrarian and industrial problems; immigration; education; relations with the United States and Spanish America; travel notes".
According to Martí, the intention behind the publication of "La edad de oro" was "so that American children may know how people used to live, and how they live nowadays, in the United States and in other countries; how many things are made, such as glass and iron, steam engines and suspension bridges and electric light; so that when a child sees a coloured stone he will know why the stone is coloured. ... We shall tell them about everything which is done in factories, where things happen which are stranger and more interesting than the magic in fairy stories. These things are real magic, more marvelous than any. ... We write for children because it is they who know how to love, because it is children who are the hope for the world".
Martí's "Versos Sencillos" was written "in the town of Haines Falls, New York, where his doctor has sent [him] to regain his strength 'where streams flowed and clouds gathered in upon themeselves'". The poetry encountered in this work is "in many [ways] autobiographical and allows readers to see Martí the man and the patriot and to judge what was important to him at a crucial time in Cuban history".
Martí's writings reflected his own views both socially and politically. "Cultivo Una Rosa Blanca" is one of his poems that emphasize his views in hopes of betterment for society:
This poem is a clear description of Martí's societal hopes for his homeland. Within the poem, he talks about how regardless of the person, whether kind or cruel he cultivates a white rose, meaning that he remains peaceful. This coincides with his ideology about establishing unity amongst the people, more so those of Cuba, through a common identity, with no regards to ethnic and racial differences. This doctrine could be accomplished if one treated his enemy with peace as he would treat a friend. The kindness of one person should be shared with all people, regardless of personal conflict. By following the moral that lies within "Cultivo Rosa Blanca", Martí's vision of Cuban solidarity could be possible, creating a more peaceful society that would emanate through future generations.
After his breakthrough in Cuba literature, José Martí went on to contribute his works to newspapers, magazines, and books that reflected his political and social views. Because of his early death, Martí was unable to publish a vast collection of poetry; even so, his literary contributions have made him a renowned figure in literature, influencing many writers, and people in general, to aspire to follow in the footsteps of Martí.
Style
Martí's style of writing is difficult to categorize. He used many aphorisms—short, memorable lines that convey truth and/or wisdom—and long complex sentences. He is considered a major contributor to the Spanish American literary movement known as Modernismo and has been linked to Latin American consciousness of the modern age and modernity. His chronicles combined elements of literary portraiture, dramatic narration, and a dioramic scope. His poetry contained "fresh and astonishing images along with deceptively simple sentiments". As an orator (for he made many speeches) he was known for his cascading structure, powerful aphorisms, and detailed descriptions. More important than his style is how he uses that style to put into service his ideas, making "advanced" convincing notions. Throughout his writing he made reference to historical figures and events, and used constant allusions to literature, current news and cultural matters. For this reason, he may be difficult to read and translate.
His didactic spirit encouraged him to establish a magazine for children, La Edad de Oro (1889) which contained a short essay titled "Tres Heroes" (three heroes), representative of his talent to adapt his expression to his audience; in this case, to make the young reader conscious of and amazed by the extraordinary bravery of the three men, Bolivar, Hidalgo, and San Martín. This is his style to teach delightfully.
Translation
José Martí is universally honored as a great poet, patriot and martyr of Cuban Independence, but he was also a translator of some note. Although he translated literary material for the sheer joy of it, much of the translating he did was imposed on him by economic necessity during his many years of exile in the United States. Martí learned English at an early age, and had begun to translate at thirteen. He continued translating for the rest of his life, including his time as a student in Spain, although the period of his greatest productivity was during his stay in New York from 1880 until he returned to Cuba in 1895.
In New York he was what is known today as a "freelancer," as well as an "in house" translator. He translated several books for the publishing house of D. Appleton, and did a series of translations for newspapers. As a revolutionary activist in Cuba's long struggle for independence he translated into English a number of articles and pamphlets supporting that movement. In addition to fluent English, Martí also spoke French, Italian, Latin and Classical Greek fluently, the latter learned so he could read the Greek classical works in the original.
There was clearly a dichotomy in Martí's feeling about the kind of work he was translating. Like many professionals, he undertook for money translation tasks which had little intellectual or emotional appeal for him. Although Martí never presented a systematic theory of translation nor did he write extensively about his approach to translation, he did jot down occasional thoughts on the subject, showcasing his awareness of the translator's dilemma of the faithful versus the beautiful and stating that "translation should be natural, so that it appears that the book were written in the language to which it has been translated".
Modernism
The modernists, in general, use a subjective language. Martí's stylistic creed is part of the necessity to de-codify the logic rigor and the linguistic construction and to eliminate the intellectual, abstract and systematic expression. There is the deliberate intention and awareness to expand the expressive system of the language. The style changes the form of thinking. Without falling into unilateralism, Martí values the expression because language is an impression and a feeling through the form. Modernism mostly searches for the visions and realities, the expression takes in the impressions, the state of mind, without reflection and without concept. This is the law of subjectivity. We can see this in works of Martí, one of the first modernists, who conceives the literary task like an invisible unity, an expressive totality, considering the style like "a form of the content" (forma del contenido).
The difference that Martí established between prose and poetry are conceptual. Poetry, as he believes, is a language of the permanent subjective: the intuition and the vision. The prose is an instrument and a method of spreading the ideas, and has the goal of elevating, encouraging and animating these ideas rather than having the expression of tearing up the heart, complaining and moaning. The prose is a service to his people.
Martí produces a system of specific signs "an ideological code" (código ideológico). These symbols claim their moral value and construct signs of ethic conduct. Martí's modernism was a spiritual attitude that was reflected on the language. All his writing defines his moral world. One could also say that his ideological and spiritual sphere is fortified in his writing.
The difference between Martí and other modernist initiators such as Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera, Julian del Casal, and José Asunción Silva (and the similarity between him and Manuel González Prada) lies in the profound and transcendent value that he gave to literature, converting prose into an article or the work of a journalist. This hard work was important in giving literature authentic and independent value and distancing it from mere formal amusement. Manuel Gutiérez Nájera, Rubén Darío, Miguel de Unamuno and José Enrique Rodó saved the Martínian articles, which will have an endless value in the writings of the American continent.
Apart from Martínian articles. essay writing and literature starts to authorize itself as an alternative and privileged way to talk about politics. Literature starts to apply itself the only hermeneutics able to resolve the enigmas of a Latin American identity.
Legacy
Symbol of Cuban independence
Martí's dedication to the cause of Cuban independence and his passionate belief in democracy and justice has made him a hero for all Cubans, a symbol of unity, the "Apostle", a great leader. His writings have created a platform for all that he went through during the duration of this period in time. His ultimate goal of building a democratic, just, and stable republic in Cuba and his obsession with the practical execution of this goal led him to become the most charismatic leader of the 1895 colonial revolution. His work with the Cuban émigré community, enlisting the support of Cuban workers and socialist leaders to form the Cuban Revolutionary Party, put into motion the Cuban war of independence. His foresight into the future, shown in his warnings against American political interests for Cuba, was confirmed by the swift occupation of Cuba by the United States following the Spanish–American War. His belief in the inseparability of Cuban and Latin American sovereignty and the expression thereof in his writings have contributed to the shape of the modern Latin American Identity. Through his beliefs for Cuban and Latin American sovereignty, Cuba revolted on former allies. This is why Cuba became an independent nation. His works are a cornerstone of Latin American and political literature and his prolific contributions to the fields of journalism, poetry, and prose are highly acclaimed.
Influence on the Cuban Communist Party
Despite the history of post-1959 Cuba's affiliation as a Communist state, it has been acknowledged that it is in fact Martí's ideology which serves as the main driving force of the ruling Cuban Communist Party. Regarded as Cuba's "martyr" and "patron saint," several landmarks in Cuba are dedicated to Martí. Following his death in 2016, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who played a major role in promoting Martí's image in Revolutionary Cuba, was buried next to Martí in Santiago. Martí's writings on the concepts of Cuban nationalism fuelled the 1895 revolution and have continued to inform conflicting visions of the Cuban nation. The Cuban nation-state under Fidel Castro consistently claimed Martí as a crucial inspiration for its Communist revolutionary government. During Castro's tenure, the politics and death of Martí were used to justify certain actions of the Cuban state. The Cuban government claimed that Martí had supported a single party system, creating a precedent for a communist government.
The vast amount of writing that Martí produced in his lifetime makes it difficult to determine his exact political ideology, but his major goal was the liberation of Cuba from Spain and the establishment of a democratic republican government. Despite Martí never having supported communism or single party systems, Cuban leaders repeatedly claimed that Martí's Partido Revolucionario Cubano was a "forerunner of the Communist Party".
Martí's nuanced, often ambivalent positions on the most important issues of his day have led Marxist interpreters to see a class conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie as the main theme of his works, while others, namely the Cuban diasporic communities in Miami and elsewhere have identified a liberal-capitalist emphasis. These Cuban exiles still honor Martí as a figure of hope for the Cuban nation in exile and condemn Castro's government for manipulating his works and creating a "Castroite Martí" to justify its "intolerance and abridgments of human rights". His writings thus remain a key ideological weapon in the battle over the fate of the Cuban nation.
Memorials and tributes
José Martí International Airport, Havana's international airport, is named after Martí. A statue of Martí was unveiled in Havana on his 123rd birth anniversary, with President Raúl Castro attending the ceremony. The José Martí Memorial in the Vedado neighborhood of Havana includes a 109-m tower and is the largest monument in the world dedicated to a writer.
The National Association of Hispanic Publications, a non-profit organization to promote Hispanic publications, each year designates the José Martí Awards for excellence in Hispanic media.
On the waterfront of Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, a city that José Martí visited three times, a power station is named after him. The home where he resided during his final visit in 1895 bears a marble plaque. Place José Martí (José Martí Square), featuring a bust of the poet, was inaugurated in 2014.
In Romania, a Bucharest public school and the Romanian-Cuban Friendship Association from Targoviste are both named "Jose Martí".
List of selected works
Martí's fundamental works published during his life
1869 January: Abdala
1869 January: "10 de octubre"
1871: El presidio político en Cuba
1873: La República Española ante la revolución cubana
1875: Amor con amor se paga
1882: Ismaelillo
1882 February: Ryan vs. Sullivan
1882 February: Un incendio
1882 July: El ajusticiamiento de Guiteau
1883 January: "Batallas de la Paz"
1883 March: " Que son graneros humanos"
1883 March: Karl Marx ha muerto
1883 March:El Puente de Brooklyn
1883 September: "En Coney Island se vacía Nueva York"
1883 December:" Los políticos de oficio"
1883 December: "Bufalo Bil"
1884 April:"Los caminadores"
1884 November: Norteamericanos
1884 November:El juego de pelota de pies
1885: Amistad funesta
1885 January:Teatro en Nueva York
1885 '"Una gran rosa de bronce encendida" 1885 March:Los fundadores de la constitución 1885 June: "Somos pueblo original" 1885 August: "Los políticos tiene sus púgiles" 1886 May: Las revueltas anarquistas de Chicago 1886 September: " La ensenanza" 1886 October: "La Estatua de la Libertad"
1887 April: El poeta Walt Whitman 1887 April: El Madison Square 1887 November: Ejecución de los dirigentes anarquistas de Chicago 1887 November: La gran Nevada 1888 May: El ferrocarril elevado 1888 August: Verano en Nueva York 1888 November: " Ojos abiertos, y gargantas secas" 1888 November: "Amanece y ya es fragor" 1889: 'La edad de oro'
1889 May: El centenario de George Washington 1889 July: Bañistas 1889 August: "Nube Roja" 1889 September: "La caza de negros" 1890 November: " El jardín de las orquídeas" 1891 October:Versos Sencillos 1891 January: "Nuestra América" 1894 January: " ¡A Cuba!" 1895: Manifiesto de Montecristi- coauthor with Máximo GómezMartí's major posthumous works
Adúltera Versos libresSee also
International José Martí Prize
Radio y Televisión Martí
José Rizal, Philippine national hero also executed by the Spanish in 1896
Bust of José Martí, Houston, Texas
Monument to José Martí, Madrid, Spain
Guantanamera
Notes
References
Abel, Christopher. José Martí: Revolutionary Democrat. London: Athlone. 1986.
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Cairo, Ana. Jose Marti y la novela de la cultura cubana. Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. 2003.
De La Cuesta, Leonel Antonio. Martí, Traductor. Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca. 1996.
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Fidalgo, Jose Antonio. "El Doctor Fermín Valdés-Domínguez, Hombre de Ciencias y Su Posible Influencia Recíproca Con José Martí" Cuadernos de Historia de la Salud Pública 1998 (84) pp. 26–34
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Kirk, John M. José Martí, Mentor of the Cuban Nation. Tampa: University Presses of Florida, c1983.
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Martí, José, Manuel A.Tellechea Versos Sencillos. U of Houston: Arte Público Press, 1997
Morukian, Maria. "Cubanidad: Survival of Cuban Culture Identity in the 21st Century".
Nassif, Ricardo. "Jose Martí (1853–95) ". Originally published in Prospects:the quarterly review of comparative education(Paris, UNESCO: International Bureau of Education), vol. XXIV, no. 1/2, 1994, pp. 107–19
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Pérez-Galdós Ortiz, Víctor. José Martí: Visión de un Hombre Universal. Barcelona: Puvill Libros Ltd. 1999.
Quiroz, Alfonso. "The Cuban Republic and José Martí: reception and use of a national symbol". Lexington Books, 2006
Ripoll, Carlos. Jose Marti and the United States, and the Marxist interpretation of Cuban History. New Jersey: Transaction Inc. 1984.
Ronning, C. Neale. Jose Marti and the emigre colony in Key West. New York: Praeger. 1990.
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Schulman, Ivan A. Símbolo y color en la obra de José Martí. Editorial Gredos, 1960.
Scott, Rebecca J. "Explaining Abolition: Contradiction, Adaptation, and Challenge in Cuban Slave Society, 1860–1886". Comparative Studies in Society and History,'' Vol. 26, No. 1 (Jan., 1984), pp. 83–111
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Vincent, Jon S. "Jose Marti: Surrealist or Seer?" Latin American Research Review, Vol. 13, No. 1 (1978), pp. 178–81.
External links
Obras completas de José Martí (Index to Complete Works; Spanish)
José Martí (.cu)
José Martí (.org)
Romero Family Papers Regarding José Martí and books by José Martí fully and freely available from the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC)
Fernandina Expedition
1853 births
1895 deaths
19th-century Cuban poets
19th-century journalists
19th-century translators
American writers of Cuban descent
Anti-Americanism
Cuban children's writers
Cuban essayists
Cuban expatriates in Guatemala
Cuban expatriates in the United States
Cuban independence activists
Cuban male poets
Cuban people of Canarian descent
Cuban people of Catalan descent
Cuban people of Spanish descent
Cuban philosophers
Cuban revolutionaries
Cuban soldiers
Cuban translators
English–Spanish translators
Hispanic and Latino American journalists
History of Key West, Florida
History of Tampa, Florida
Male essayists
Male journalists
Modernist writers
Partido Auténtico politicians
People from Havana
People killed in action
Political philosophers
University of Zaragoza alumni | false | [
"Rock-n-Roller (sometimes stylised Rock N' Roller) is the second album from Canadian singer-songwriter Suzie McNeil, released on November 4, 2008. It was reissued the following year as Rock-n-Roller: Reloaded to feature an additional song, a cover of Saving Jane's \"Supergirl.\" Three singles released from the album, including the aforementioned \"Supergirl\", which became McNeil's most successful single to date when it peaked at No. 26 on the Canadian Hot 100.\n\nCritical reception\n\nThe album received mixed to positive reviews from music critics. Matthew Chisling from AllMusic labelled the album \"almost as good\" as Broken & Beautiful, explaining that in spite of Rock-n-Roller being generally \"quite excellent\", \"the repetitiveness of some tracks limits their overall quality.\" The staff of Metro Canada gave a more negative review, describing the material as \"sterile\" and \"so L.A.\" Ranking the album two stars out of five, the newspaper remarked that \"this should be the kind of music that never goes out of style [...] But it only works if you have something new and special to offer.\"\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nSingles\n\nCredits and personnel\n\nGeneral\n \nExecutive Producer – Bits Productions\nProduced by Marti Frederiksen for Poppy Productions\n\nTracks 1, 3, 7, 8, 10 mixed by Brian Paturalski for Red Room Studios\nTracks 6 and 11 mixed by Marti Frederiksen\nTracks 2, 4, 5, and 8 mixed by Marti Frederiksen & Brian Paturalski\n\nAdditional production and recording on tracks 3 and 10 by Jason Paige\nAdditional engineering on tracks 9 and 11 by Johnny Coppollino\n\nMastered by David Donnelly at DNA Mastering\n\nTrack by track\n\"Let's Go\" – Vocals & background vocals – Suzie McNeil; Guitars, Bass, Keys, Percussion - Marti Frederiksen; Drums – Ryan Brown\n\"I Wanna Know\" – Vocals & background vocals – Suzie McNeil; Guitar, Bass, Keys, Percussion, BG Vocal - Marti Frederiksen; Strings – Eliza James; Sax – Alex Budman\n\"Don't Tell Me Goodbye\" – Vocals – Suzie McNeil; Background Vocals – Suzie McNeil, Jason Paige, Marti Frederiksen, Scott Walters; Guitar, Bass, Keys - Jason Paige; Drums – Ryan Brown\n\"Fast Lane\" – Vocals & background vocals – Suzie McNeil; Guitars, Bass, Keys - Marti Frederiksen; Drums – Ryan Brown\n\"Believe\" – Vocals – Suzie McNeil; Piano – Russ Irwin; Strings – Eliza James; Guitar – Marti Frederiksen\n\"For You\" – Vocals & background vocals – Suzie McNeil; Guitars, Bass, Percussion - Marti Frederiksen; Drums, Glochenspiel – Ryan Brown; Piano – Jason Paige\n\"Free\" – Vocals & background vocals – Suzie McNeil; Guitars, Bass, Keys, Percussion - Marti Frederiksen; Drums – Ryan Brown\n\"Help Me Out\" – Vocals & background vocals – Suzie McNeil; Guitars, Bass, - Marti Frederiksen; Drums – Ryan Brown; Keys – Holly Knight\n\"Naturally\" – Vocals – Suzie McNeil; Background Vocals – Suzie McNeil, Jason Paige; Bass – Marti Frederiksen; Guitar, Keys - Jason Paige; Drums – Ryan Brown; Strings – Eliza James; Trumpets – Gabriel Johnson\n\"What Ur Getting Into\" – Vocals – Suzie McNeil; Background Vocals – Suzie McNeil, Marti Frederiksen; Drums, Guitar, Bass, Keys, Percussion - Marti Frederiksen\n\nReferences\n\n2008 albums\nSuzie McNeil albums\nUniversal Music Canada albums",
"Virgil Marti (born 1962) is an American visual artist recognized for his installations blending fine art, design, and decor from a range of styles and periods. Marti’s immersive sculptural environments, often evoking nature and the landscape, combine references from high culture with decorative, flamboyant, or psychedelic imagery, materials, and objects of personal significance.\n\nThe artist’s sculptures and installations have been featured in museums and galleries internationally since the 1990s. Marti was selected to participate in the 2004 Whitney Biennial. The artist has been awarded the Art Matters Fellowship, the Pew Fellowship in the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award. Marti was the second invited artist in the Katherine Stein Sachs and Keith L. Sachs Curator Program at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania. Marti was a Master Printer and Project Coordinator at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA. The artist has been a Senior Visiting Critic in the MFA Program at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, and a faculty member at Tyler School of Art.\n\nEducation \nMarti received a B.F.A in painting from the School of Fine Arts at Washington University, and an M.F.A. in painting from Tyler School of Art at Temple University. In 1990 Marti studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.\n\nEarly Work \nMarti was interested in challenging distinctions between fine art and decoration while studying painting at Tyler School of Art. He began stretching patterned fabrics onto customized painting stretchers creating painting-sculpture hybrids, some of which visually approximated cushions or furniture. Marti also stretched the fabric directly onto the wall, achieving the effect of wallpaper and forming an environment for the objects he was making. Evolving from this early work, Marti experimented with designing and printing his own wallpaper while an apprentice at Philadelphia’s Fabric Workshop and Museum in 1992. During this time, the artist produced his well-known work, Bully Wallpaper (1992) -- black-light sensitive “psychedelic-colored wallpaper” in French toile style, which in place of pastoral scenes, had yearbook portraits of all the boys who had tormented Marti in junior high school printed among its floral patterns. The writer Samantha Dyllan Mitchell notes, “this project is a clear predecessor to [Marti’s] later endeavors, combining a serious devotion to style and design throughout history with a distinctly personal contemporary perspective.” Marti’s Bully Wallpaper (1992) was first shown in the boiler room of the Community Education Center, Philadelphia and was conceived with this space in mind. The work was later exhibited at the Paley Gallery, Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia in 1992. In 1999 the Holly Solomon Gallery displayed Marti’s Bully Wallpaper at the Armory Show. In 2009 it was installed in the men’s room of Philadelphia’s Fabric Workshop and Museum while Marti was a resident artist.\n\nIn the early 1990s, Marti further incorporated decor into his artistic practice through collaborations with the artist Stuart Netsky. Netsky and Marti sewed fabric pillow shams embroidered with “one-line quotations culled from notorious figures of pop culture.” These Shams, presented as part of an installation, were a “tongue-in-cheek” commentary on queer culture and interior decoration.\n\nIn 1995 Marti transformed a prison cell at the disused Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia for the exhibition Prison Sentences: The Prison as Site/The Prison As Subject, organized by Julie Courtney and Todd Gilens. Marti’s site-specific installation, For Oscar Wilde, was an homage to the writer imprisoned for moral indecency in 19th-century England. Marti decorated the prison cell in a “William Morris-inspired design of Wilde’s day and fashioned an aesthetically pleasing cell...with beauty as one of its central themes.” Nature, both organic and artificial, dominated Marti’s installation -- “a meandering path” made from a border of silk lilies in full bloom lead to the doorway of the cell where the walls were covered with silkscreen printed floral wallpaper of the artist’s design.\n\nImmersive installations \nMarti fabricated a full-scale immersive domestic environment for his first major installation created for the group show You Talkin’ To Me (1996) at the ICA Philadelphia. A version of this installation, Hot Tub (1998) was shown New York City’s Thread Waxing Space in 1998. Marti’s installation transformed the gallery into a “brazenly tacky” domestic interior set in the 1970s complete with a hot tub, “smoked mirrors, electric candle flames, and deep-pile shag”. Artforum critic Frances Richard notes, “In Marti’s deftly kitschy installation,...a number of interesting issues coalesce—domestic space as social palimpsest, the Warholian appeal of mass-produced taste, and an appreciation for what curator Lia Gangitano refers to as “the purgatory” of suburbia. Most satisfying, however, is Marti’s understanding of the subtle ways in which a sculptural environment manipulates the physical perceptions of its audience.”\n\nFor his 2001 solo exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, juxtaposed with the museum’s 19th-century architecture designed by Frank Furness, Marti installed fluorescent wallpaper glowing under black-light, depicting a ‘psychedelic landscape’ of palm trees and waterfalls, which artist and critic Eileen Neff observed -- 'caused a visceral jolt'. Neff writes, “the scene announced the kind of botanical anomalies Marti finds in the recollected landscapes of Frederic Church as well as the geographical peculiarities in some panoramas of nineteenth-century ‘scenics.’ But Marti’s take on transporting wallpaper also evoked the psychedelic vernacular of the ’60s and ’70s and awakened the viewer's sense of nostalgia.”\n\nBy “pushing the decorative to visceral extremes, usually leading back to nature in some distorted form,” Marti’s installations offer a context where elements of decor and design recalled from his own upbringing or personal history, that are considered lowbrow, ugly, or flamboyant, can belong.\n\nGrow Room \nMarti’s 2002 immersive installation Grow Room conjuring both Whistler's Peacock Room as well as ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, was the inaugural exhibition at New York’s Participant Inc. Marti lined the walls with reflective Mylar screen printed with images of artificial flowers—poppies, roses, hydrangeas, among images of macrame spiderwebs based on scientific photographs “of webs spun by spiders who had been fed drugs.” From the gallery’s ceiling, the artist suspended chandeliers made from colored resin casts of deer antlers with blossoms at the tips. Reviewing the exhibition for The New York Times, critic Holland Cotter notes, “the outcome is a merging of pop culture, art history, weird science and adolescent fantasy.”\n\nMarti presented a second version of Grow Room at the 2004 Whitney Biennial.\n\nMarti also used reflective mylar screen printed with images of flowers and macrame spiderwebs illuminated by colorful resin antler chandeliers in his installation The Flowers of Romance (2003) at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia. Marti presented a version of this installation in a group exhibition at The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburg in 2004.\n\nInstallations incorporating artworks from museum collections\n\nSet Pieces \nIn 2010 Marti was asked to curate an exhibition for the ICA Philadelphia. Utilizing his process for creating his own artworks, Marti mined the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s collection and restaged paintings, decorative art, and sculpture “knowingly confusing high and low, period and contemporary, formal and informal design.” Marti’s arrangements were informed by some of his favorite films including ‘Citizen Kane’, ‘Last Year at Marienbad’, ‘The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant’, ‘L’Avventura’, and 'Nashville'.\n\nMatrix 167 Ode to a Hippie \nMarti’s 2013 solo exhibition at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT, MATRIX 167 Ode to a Hippie, “explored the lingering romantic notions” of the English Romantic poet John Keats and American artist Paul Thek - both sources of creative inspiration for Marti. Marti’s site-specific installation included Keats’ death mask which is held in the collection of the Atheneum as well as the poet’s life mask borrowed for the exhibition from a private collection. Marti’s pairing of Keats’ life and death mask was inspired by Thek’s installation The Tomb (1967), later known as Death of a Hippie. Marti’s Wadsworth installation featured his wall-mounted “looking glasses” - ornate mirror-shaped forms referencing late 18th century Chippendale-style mirrors. Marti’s ‘mirror’ façades have a trompe l’oeil wood grain surface and silver finish that captures only subtle shifts in light, thwarting the expectation of a true reflection. Marti tints the mirrors in horizontal bands, “suggestive of Color Field paintings”, using colors that reference a range of inspirations including the dramatic skies in the paintings of Frederick Church, Thomas Cole, and James Hamilton, as well as “1960s counter-culture aesthetics.” The Wadsworth installation “explored life and death\" through an inventive evocation of an English garden with shrines, a faux natural setting embellished with “hippie-craft” elements, alongside Marti's sculptural faux wood furniture made from cement.\n\nMarti re-presented the Keats death mask in Forest Park, the artist’s 2014 solo exhibition at Locks Gallery, Philadelphia. A catalogue accompanied the Locks Gallery exhibition with an essay by art critic Hilarie Sheets.\n\nOther exhibitions \nIn 2007, Marti exhibited sculptures in the form of bright, ornate chandeliers and dramatic gold 'bone curtains' in a joint exhibition with artist Pae White at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.\n\nIn 2017 Marti’s work was featured in the Barnes Foundation’s exhibition, Person of the Crowd: The Contemporary Art of Flânerie. The artist created two identical circular 'poufs' --banquettes-in-the-round upholstered in a mixture of textured fabrics. Marti’s poufs often function as symbolic portraits in the artist’s installations. Marti titled the Barnes’ work Doppelganger (2017), installing one of the plush poufs in the Barnes Collection Gallery for the duration of the exhibition, while its 'twin' traveled to four indoor and outdoor locations across the city of Philadelphia.\n\nMarti also included fabric poufs, ‘looking glasses’, and faux swag wallpaper in the 2019 group show Less is A Bore curated by Jenelle Porter at the ICA Boston.\n\nIn 2019 Marti was the subject of a solo exhibition at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI. An element of landscape connected the works in the exhibition, which had at its center, a glass terrarium that Marti created in the 1970s, surrounded by bric-a-brac objects collected by the artist, a ‘horizon colored’ candle, stretched soda bottles, fabric poufs, a chandelier, and tire with a rainbow trim.\n\nPublic artworks \nIn 2000, Marti’s large-scale public artwork Couch (2000), a 30-foot long upholstered sofa with tasseled throw pillows was installed in the Ardmore Station, Ardmore, PA. In 2013 Marti’s large-scale sculptural installation Five Standards (Dazzle) was permanently installed at Philadelphia’s Navy Yards. Marti’s sculpture Anomalous Cloud made of polished stainless steel and mirrored acrylic, suggesting an “abstracted thought bubble”, floats like a “geometric cloud” from the ceiling of the 36th floor of the Comcast Technology Center building in Philadelphia. A chandelier by Marti is on long-term loan to the ICA Philadelphia and is currently installed in the entrance to the museum.\n\nExhibitions \nVirgil Marti's work has been exhibited at institutions including White Columns, New York; The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia; the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Participant Inc., New York; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia; Visual Arts Center, Richmond; the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center, Millville; Montreal Biennial, Montreal; The Galleries at Moore College of Art and Design; the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia; MoMa P.S. 1, New York. Marti has had exhibitions at the Holly Solomon Gallery, New York; Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York; and Locks Gallery, Philadelphia.\n\nPersonal life \nBorn in Saint Louis, Missouri in 1962, Marti currently lives in Philadelphia.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n https://www.academia.edu/28606082/Auther_Wallpaper_the_Decorative_and_Contemporary_Installation_Art\n https://www.thewadsworth.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/WA-MATRIX-167-Brochure-4.1-pages-FINAL.pdf\n https://isbnsearch.org/isbn/1881390160\n https://hirshhorn.si.edu/dynamic/archives/Directions_Virgil_Marti_Pae_White.pdf\nhttps://update.comcast.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/dlm_uploads/2019/10/ComcastTechnologyCenter.pdf\n\n1962 births\nLiving people\nAmerican artists\nAmerican installation artists\nSkowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture alumni"
]
|
[
"José Martí",
"Legacy",
"What are some of Marti's most significant works?",
"Marti's dedication to the cause of Cuban independence and his passionate belief in democracy and justice has made him a hero for all Cubans,"
]
| C_9f9c3397a7114f4cabea4c4c25bbba4c_0 | How did he contribute to Cuban independence? | 2 | How did Marti contribute to Cuban independence? | José Martí | Marti's dedication to the cause of Cuban independence and his passionate belief in democracy and justice has made him a hero for all Cubans, a symbol of unity, the "Apostle", a great leader. His ultimate goal of building a democratic, just, and stable republic in Cuba and his obsession with the practical execution of this goal led him to become the most charismatic leader of the 1895 colonial revolution. His work with the Cuban emigre community, enlisting the support of Cuban workers and socialist leaders to form the Cuban Revolutionary Party, put into motion the Cuban war of independence. His foresight into the future, shown in his warnings against American political interests for Cuba, was confirmed by the swift occupation of Cuba by the United States following the Spanish-American War. His belief in the inseparability of Cuban and Latin American sovereignty and the expression thereof in his writings have contributed to the shape of the modern Latin American Identity. His works are a cornerstone of Latin American and political literature and his prolific contributions to the fields of journalism, poetry, and prose are highly acclaimed. Marti's writings on the concepts of Cuban nationalism fuelled the 1895 revolution and have continued to inform conflicting visions of the Cuban nation. The Cuban nation-state under Fidel Castro consistently claimed Marti as a crucial inspiration for its Communist revolutionary government. During Castro's regime, the politics and death of Marti were used to justify certain actions of the Cuban state. The Cuban government claimed that Marti had supported a single party system, creating a precedent for an all-powerful communist government. Castro used this explanation throughout the late 20th century to deter Cuban citizens from demanding a multiparty system. The vast amount of writing that Marti produced in his lifetime makes it difficult to determine his exact political ideology, but his major goal was the liberation of Cuba from Spain and the establishment of a democratic republican government. Despite Marti never having supported communism or single party systems, Cuban leaders repeatedly claimed that Marti's Partido Revolucionario Cubano was a "forerunner of the Communist Party". Marti's nuanced, often ambivalent positions on the most important issues of his day have led Marxist interpreters to see a class conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie as the main theme of his works, while others, namely the Cuban diasporic communities in Miami and elsewhere have identified a liberal-capitalist emphasis. These Cuban exiles still honor Marti as a figure of hope for the Cuban nation in exile and condemn Castro's regime for manipulating his works and creating a "Castroite Marti" to justify its "intolerance and abridgments of human rights". His writings thus remain a key ideological weapon in the battle over the fate of the Cuban nation. One further example of his legacy is that his name has been chosen for several institutions or NGOs from various countries, such as Romania, where a public school from Bucharest and the Romanian-Cuban Friendship Association from Targoviste are both named "Jose Marti". A gigantic statue was unveiled on his 123rd birth anniversary and President Raul Castro was present at the ceremony. CANNOTANSWER | become the most charismatic leader of the 1895 colonial revolution. | José Julián Martí Pérez (; January 28, 1853 – May 19, 1895) was a Cuban nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the liberation of his country. He was also an important figure in Latin American literature. He was very politically active and is considered an important philosopher and political theorist. Through his writings and political activity, he became a symbol of Cuba's bid for independence from the Spanish Empire in the 19th century, and is referred to as the "Apostle of Cuban Independence". From adolescence, he dedicated his life to the promotion of liberty, political independence for Cuba, and intellectual independence for all Spanish Americans; his death was used as a cry for Cuban independence from Spain by both the Cuban revolutionaries and those Cubans previously reluctant to start a revolt.
Born in Havana, Spanish Empire, Martí began his political activism at an early age. He traveled extensively in Spain, Latin America, and the United States, raising awareness and support for the cause of Cuban independence. His unification of the Cuban émigré community, particularly in Florida, was crucial to the success of the Cuban War of Independence against Spain. He was a key figure in the planning and execution of this war, as well as the designer of the Cuban Revolutionary Party and its ideology. He died in military action during the Battle of Dos Ríos on May 19, 1895. Martí is considered one of the great turn-of-the-century Latin American intellectuals. His written works include a series of poems, essays, letters, lectures, novel, and a children's magazine.
He wrote for numerous Latin American and American newspapers; he also founded a number of newspapers. His newspaper Patria was an important instrument in his campaign for Cuban independence. After his death, one of his poems from the book, Versos Sencillos (Simple Verses) was adapted to the song "Guantanamera", which has become the definitive patriotic song of Cuba. The concepts of freedom, liberty, and democracy are prominent themes in all of his works, which were influential on the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío and the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral. Following the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Martí's ideology became a major driving force in Cuban politics. He is also regarded as Cuba's "martyr."
Life
Early life, Cuba: 1853–70
José Julián Martí Pérez was born on January 28, 1853, in Havana, at 41 Paula Street, to Spanish parents, a Valencian father, Mariano Martí Navarro, and Leonor Pérez Cabrera, a native of the Canary Islands. Martí was the elder brother to seven sisters: Leonor, Mariana, María del Carmen, María del Pilar, Rita Amelia, Antonia and Dolores. He was baptized on February 12 in Santo Ángel Custodio church. When he was four, his family moved from Cuba to Valencia, Spain, but two years later they returned to the island where they enrolled José at a local public school, in the Santa Clara neighborhood where his father worked as a prison guard.
In 1865, he enrolled in the Escuela de Instrucción Primaria Superior Municipal de Varones that was headed by Rafael María de Mendive. Mendive was influential in the development of Martí's political philosophies. Also instrumental in his development of a social and political conscience was his best friend Fermín Valdés Domínguez, the son of a wealthy slave-owning family. In April the same year, after hearing the news of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Martí and other young students expressed their pain—through group mourning—for the death of a man who had decreed the abolition of slavery in the United States. In 1866, Martí entered the Instituto de Segunda Enseñanza where Mendive financed his studies.
Martí signed up at the Escuela Profesional de Pintura y Escultura de La Habana (Professional School for Painting and Sculpture of Havana) in September 1867, known as San Alejandro, to take drawing classes. He hoped to flourish in this area but did not find commercial success. In 1867, he also entered the school of San Pablo, established and managed by Mendive, where he enrolled for the second and third years of his bachelor's degree and assisted Mendive with the school's administrative tasks. In April 1868, his poem dedicated to Mendive's wife, A Micaela. En la Muerte de Miguel Ángel appeared in Guanabacoa's newspaper El Álbum.
When the Ten Years' War broke out in Cuba in 1868, clubs of supporters for the Cuban nationalist cause formed all over Cuba, and José and his friend Fermín joined them. Martí had a precocious desire for the independence and freedom of Cuba. He started writing poems about this vision, while, at the same time, trying to do something to achieve this dream. In 1869, he published his first political writings in the only edition of the newspaper El Diablo Cojuelo, published by Fermín Valdés Domínguez. That same year he published "Abdala", a patriotic drama in verse form in the one-volume La Patria Libre newspaper, which he published himself. "Abdala" is about a fictional country called Nubia which struggles for liberation. His sonnet "10 de Octubre", later to become one of his most famous poems, was also written during that year, and was published later in his school newspaper.
In March of that year, colonial authorities shut down the school, interrupting Martí's studies. He came to resent Spanish rule of his homeland at an early age; likewise, he developed a hatred of slavery, which was still practiced in Cuba.
On October 21, 1869, aged 16, he was arrested and incarcerated in the national jail, following an accusation of treason and bribery from the Spanish government upon the discovery of a "reproving" letter, which Martí and Fermín had written to a friend when the friend joined the Spanish army. More than four months later, Martí confessed to the charges and was condemned to six years in prison. His mother tried to free her son (who at 16 was still a minor) by writing letters to the government, and his father went to a lawyer friend for legal support, but these efforts failed. Eventually, Martí fell ill; his legs were severely lacerated by the chains that bound him. As a result, he was transferred to another part of Cuba known as Isla de Pinos instead of further imprisonment. Following that, the Spanish authorities decided to exile him to Spain. In Spain, Martí, who was 18 at the time, was allowed to continue his studies with the hopes that studying in Spain would renew his loyalty to Spain.
Spain: 1871–74
In January 1871, Martí embarked on the steam ship Guipuzcoa, which took him from Havana to Cádiz. He settled in Madrid in a guesthouse in Desengaño St. #10. Arriving at the capitol he contacted fellow Cuban Carlos Sauvalle, who had been deported to Spain a year before Martí and whose house served as a center of reunions for Cubans in exile. On March 24, Cádiz's newspaper La Soberania Nacional, published Martí's article "Castillo" in which he recalled the sufferings of a friend he met in prison. This article would be reprinted in Sevilla's La Cuestión Cubana and New York's La República. At this time, Martí registered himself as a member of independent studies in the law faculty of the Central University of Madrid. While studying here, Martí openly participated in discourse on the Cuban issue, debating through the Spanish press and circulating documents protesting Spanish activities in Cuba.
Martí's maltreatment at the hands of the Spaniards and consequent deportation to Spain in 1871 inspired a tract, Political Imprisonment in Cuba, published in July. This pamphlet's purpose was to move the Spanish public to do something about its government's brutalities in Cuba and promoted the issue of Cuban independence. In September, from the pages of El Jurado Federal, Martí and Sauvalle accused the newspaper La Prensa of having calumniated the Cuban residents in Madrid. During his stay in Madrid, Martí frequented the Ateneo and the National Library, the Café de los Artistas, and the British, Swiss and Iberian breweries. In November he became sick and had an operation, paid for by Sauvalle.
On November 27, 1871, eight medical students, who had been accused (without evidence) of the desecration of a Spanish grave, were executed in Havana. In June 1872, Fermín Valdés was arrested because of the November 27 incident. His sentence of six years of jail was pardoned, and he was exiled to Spain where he reunited with Martí. On November 27, 1872, the printed matter Dia 27 de Noviembre de 1871 (27 November 1871) written by Martí and signed by Fermín Valdés Domínguez and Pedro J. de la Torre circulated Madrid. A group of Cubans held a funeral in the Caballero de Gracia church, the first anniversary of the medical students' execution.
In 1873, Martí's "A mis Hermanos Muertos el 27 de Noviembre" was published by Fermín Valdés. In February, for the first time, the Cuban flag appeared in Madrid, hanging from Martí's balcony in Concepción Jerónima, where he lived for a few years. In the same month, the Proclamation of the First Spanish Republic by the Cortes on February 11, 1873 reaffirmed Cuba as inseparable to Spain, Martí responded with an essay, The Spanish Republic and the Cuban Revolution, and sent it to the Prime Minister, pointing out that this new freely elected body of deputies that had proclaimed a republic based on democracy had been hypocritical not to grant Cuba its independence. He sent examples of his work to Nestor Ponce de Leon, a member of the Junta Central Revolucionaria de Nueva York (Central revolutionary committee of New York), to whom he would express his will to collaborate on the fight for the independence of Cuba.
In May, he moved to Zaragoza, accompanied by Fermín Valdés to continue his studies in law at the Universidad Literaria. The newspaper La Cuestión Cubana of Sevilla, published numerous articles from Martí.
In June 1874, Martí graduated with a degree in Civil Law and Canon Law. In August he signed up as an external student at the Facultad de Filosofia y Letras de Zaragoza, where he finished his degree by October. In November he returned to Madrid and then left to Paris. There he met Auguste Vacquerie, a poet, and Victor Hugo. In December 1874 he embarked from Le Havre for Mexico. Prevented from returning to Cuba, Martí went instead to Mexico and Guatemala. During these travels, he taught and wrote, advocating continuously for Cuba's independence.
México and Guatemala: 1875–78
In 1875, Martí lived on Calle Moneda in Mexico City near the Zócalo, a prestigious address of the time. One floor above him lived Manuel Antonio Mercado, Secretary of the Distrito Federal, who became one of Martí's best friends. On March 2, 1875, he published his first article for Vicente Villada's Revista Universal, a broadsheet discussing politics, literature, and general business commerce. On March 12, his Spanish translation of Hugo's Mes Fils (1874) began serialization in Revista Universal. Martí then joined the editorial staff, editing the Boletín section of the publication.
In these writings, he expressed his opinions about current events in Mexico. On May 27, in the newspaper Revista Universal, he responded to the anti-Cuban-independence arguments in La Colonia Española, a newspaper for Spanish citizens living in Mexico. In December, Sociedad Gorostiza (Gorostiza Society), a group of writers and artists, accepted Martí as a member, where he met his future wife, Carmen Zayas Bazán, during his frequent visits to her Cuban father's house to meet with the Gorostiza group.
On January 1, 1876, in Oaxaca, elements opposed to Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada's government, led by Gen. Porfirio Díaz, proclaimed the Plan de Tuxtepec, which instigated a bloody civil war. Martí and Mexican colleagues established the Sociedad Alarcón, composed of dramatists, actors, and critics. At this point, Martí began collaborating with the newspaper El Socialista as leader of the Gran Círculo Obrero (Great Labor Circle) organization of liberals and reformists who supported Lerdo de Tejada. In March, the newspaper proposed a series of candidates as delegates, including Martí, to the first Congreso Obrero, or congress of the workers. On June 4, La Sociedad Esperanza de Empleados (Employees' Hope Society) designated Martí as delegate to the Congreso Obrero. On December 7, Martí published his article Alea Jacta Est in the newspaper El Federalista, bitterly criticizing the Porfiristas' armed assault upon the constitutional government in place. On December 16, he published the article "Extranjero" (foreigner; abroad), in which he repeated his denunciation of the Porfiristas and bade farewell to Mexico.
In 1877, using his second name and second surname Julián Pérez as pseudonym, Martí embarked for Havana, hoping to arrange to move his family away to Mexico City from Havana. He returned to Mexico, however, entering at the port of Progreso from which, via Isla de Mujeres and Belize, he travelled south to progressive Guatemala City. He took residence in the prosperous suburb of Ciudad Vieja, home of Guatemala's artists and intelligentsia of the day, on Cuarta Avenida (Fourth Avenue), 3 km south of Guatemala City. While there, he was commissioned by the government to write the play Patria y Libertad (Drama Indio) (Country and Liberty (an Indian Drama)). He met personally the president, Justo Rufino Barrios, about this project. On April 22, the newspaper El Progreso published his article "Los códigos Nuevos" (The New Laws) pertaining to the then newly enacted Civil Code. On May 29, he was appointed head of the Department of French, English, Italian and German Literature, History and Philosophy, on the faculty of philosophy and arts of the Universidad Nacional. On July 25, he lectured for the opening evening of the literary society 'Sociedad Literaria El Porvenir', at the Teatro Colón (the since-renamed Teatro Nacional), at which function he was appointed vice-president of the Society, and acquiring the moniker "el doctor torrente," or Doctor Torrent, in view of his rhetorical style. Martí taught composition classes free at the Academia de Niñas de Centroamérica girls' academy, among whose students he enthralled young María García Granados y Saborío, daughter of Guatemalan president Miguel García Granados. The schoolgirl's crush was unrequited, however, as he went again to México, where he met Carmen Zayas Bazán and whom he later married.
In 1878, Martí returned to Guatemala and published his book Guatemala, edited in Mexico. On May 10, socialite María García Granados died of lung disease; her unrequited love for Martí branded her, poignantly, as 'la niña de Guatemala, la que se murió de amor' (the Guatemalan girl who died of love). Following her death, Martí returned to Cuba. There, he resigned signing the Pact of Zanjón which ended the Cuban Ten Years' War, but had no effect on Cuba's status as a colony. He met Afro-Cuban revolutionary Juan Gualberto Gómez, who would be his lifelong partner in the independence struggle and a stalwart defender of his legacy during this same journey. He married Carmen Zayas Bazán on Havana's Calle Tulipán Street at this time. In October, his application to practice law in Cuba was refused, and thereafter he immersed himself in radical efforts, such as for the Comité Revolucionario Cubano de Nueva York (Cuban Revolutionary Committee of New York). On November 22, 1878 his son José Francisco, known fondly as "Pepito", was born.
United States and Venezuela: 1880–90
In 1881, after a brief stay in New York, Martí travelled to Venezuela and founded in Caracas the Revista Venezolana, or Venezuelan Review. The journal incurred the wrath of Venezuela's dictator, Antonio Guzmán Blanco, and Martí was forced to return to New York. There, Martí joined General Calixto García's Cuban revolutionary committee, composed of Cuban exiles advocating independence. Here Martí openly supported Cuba's struggle for liberation, and worked as a journalist for La Nación of Buenos Aires and for several Central American journals, especially La Opinion Liberal in Mexico City. The article "El ajusticiamiento de Guiteau," an account of President Garfield's murderer's trial, was published in La Opinion Liberal in 1881, and later selected for inclusion in The Library of America's anthology of American True Crime writing. In addition, Martí wrote poems and translated novels to Spanish. He worked for Appleton and Company and, "on his own, translated and published Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona. His repertory of original work included plays, a novel, poetry, a children's magazine, La Edad de Oro, and a newspaper, Patria, which became the official organ of the Cuban Revolutionary party". He also served as a consul for Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay. Throughout this work, he preached the "freedom of Cuba with an enthusiasm that swelled the ranks of those eager to strive with him for it".
Tension existed within the Cuban revolutionary committee between Martí and his military compatriots. Martí feared a military dictatorship would be established in Cuba upon independence, and suspected Dominican-born General Máximo Gómez of having these intentions. Martí knew that the independence of Cuba needed time and careful planning. Ultimately, Martí refused to cooperate with Máximo Gómez and Antonio Maceo Grajales, two Cuban military leaders from the Ten Years' War, when they wanted to invade immediately in 1884. Martí knew that it was too early to attempt to win back Cuba, and later events proved him right.
United States, Central America and the West Indies: 1891–94
On January 1, 1891, Martí's essay "Nuestra America" was published in New York's Revista Ilustrada, and on the 30th of that month in Mexico's El Partido Liberal. He actively participated in the Conferencia Monetaria Internacional (The International Monetary Conference) in New York during that time as well. On June 30 his wife and son arrived in New York. After a short time, during which Carmen Zayas Bazán realized that Martí's dedication to Cuban independence surpassed that of supporting his family, she returned to Havana with her son on August 27. Martí would never see them again. The fact that his wife never shared the convictions central to his life was an enormous personal tragedy for Martí. He turned for solace to Carmen Miyares de Mantilla, a Venezuelan who ran a boarding house in New York, and he is presumed to be the father of her daughter María Mantilla, who was in turn the mother of the actor Cesar Romero, who proudly claimed to be Martí's grandson. In September Martí became sick again. He intervened in the commemorative acts of The Independents, causing the Spanish consul in New York to complain to the Argentine and Uruguayan governments. Consequently, Martí resigned from the Argentinean, Paraguayan, and Uruguayan consulates. In October he published his book Versos Sencillos.
On November 26 he was invited by the Club Ignacio Agramonte, an organization founded by Cuban immigrants in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida, to a celebration to collect funding for the cause of Cuban independence. There he gave a lecture known as "Con Todos, y para el Bien de Todos", which was reprinted in Spanish language newspapers and periodicals across the United States. The following night, another lecture, " Los Pinos Nuevos", was given by Martí in another Tampa gathering in honor of the medical students killed in Cuba in 1871. In November artist Herman Norman painted a portrait of José Martí.
On January 5, 1892, Martí participated in a reunion of the emigration representatives, in Cayo Hueso (Key West), the Cuban community where the Bases del Partido Revolucionario (Basis of the Cuban Revolutionary Party) was passed. He began the process of organizing the newly formed party. To raise support and collect funding for the independence movement, he visited tobacco factories, where he gave speeches to the workers and united them in the cause. In March 1892 the first edition of the Patria newspaper, related to the Cuban Revolutionary Party, was published, funded and directed by Martí. During Martí's Key West years, his secretary was Dolores Castellanos (1870-1948), a Cuban-American woman born in Key West, who also served as president of the Protectoras de la Patria: Club Político de Cubanas, a Cuban women's political club in support of Martí's cause, and for whom Martí wrote a poem titled "A Dolores Castellanos." On April 8, he was chosen delegate of the Cuban Revolutionary Party by the Cayo Hueso Club in Tampa and New York.
From July to September 1892 he traveled through Florida, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica on an organization mission among the exiled Cubans. On this mission, Martí made numerous speeches and visited various tobacco factories. On December 16 he was poisoned in Tampa.
In 1893, Martí traveled through the United States, Central America and the West Indies, visiting different Cuban clubs. His visits were received with a growing enthusiasm and raised badly needed funds for the revolutionary cause. On May 24 he met Rubén Darío, the Nicaraguan poet in a theatre act in Hardman Hall, New York City. On June 3 he had an interview with Máximo Gómez in Montecristi, Dominican Republic, where they planned the uprising. In July he met with General Antonio Maceo Grajales in San Jose, Costa Rica.
In 1894 he continued traveling for propagation and organizing the revolutionary movement. On January 27 he published "A Cuba!" in the newspaper Patria where he denounced collusion between the Spanish and American interests. In July he visited the president of the Mexican Republic, Porfirio Díaz, and travelled to Veracruz. In August he prepared and arranged the armed expedition that would begin the Cuban revolution.
Return to Cuba: 1895
On January 12, 1895, the North American authorities stopped the steamship Lagonda and two other suspicious ships, Amadis and Baracoa, at the port of Fernandina in Florida, confiscating weapons and ruining Plan de Fernandina (Fernandina Plan). On January 29, Martí drew up the order of the uprising, signing it with general Jose Maria Rodriguez and Enrique Collazo. Juan Gualberto Gómez was assigned to orchestrate war preparations for La Habana Province, and was able to work right under the noses of the relatively unconcerned Spanish authorities. Martí decided to move to Montecristi, Dominican Republic to join Máximo Gómez and to plan out the uprising.
The uprising finally took place on February 24, 1895. A month later, Martí and Máximo Gómez declared the Manifesto de Montecristi, an "exposition of the purposes and principles of the Cuban revolution". Martí had persuaded Gómez to lead an expedition into Cuba.
Before leaving for Cuba, Martí wrote his "literary will" on April 1, 1895, leaving his personal papers and manuscripts to Gonzalo de Quesada, with instructions for editing. Knowing that the majority of his writing in newspapers in Honduras, Uruguay, and Chile would disappear over time, Martí instructed Quesada to arrange his papers in volumes. The volumes were to be arranged in the following way: volumes one and two, North Americas; volume three, Hispanic Americas; volume four, North American Scenes; volume five, Books about the Americas (this included both North and South America); volume six, Literature, education and painting. Another volume included his poetry.
The expedition, composed of Martí, Gómez, Ángel Guerra, Francisco Borreo, Cesar Salas and Marcos del Rosario, left Montecristi for Cuba on April 1, 1895. Despite delays and desertion by some members, they got to Cuba, landing at Playitas, near Cape Maisí and Imías, Cuba, on April 11. Once there, they made contact with the Cuban rebels, who were headed by the Maceo brothers, and started fighting against Spanish troops. The revolt did not go as planned, "mainly because the call to revolution received no immediate, spontaneous support from the masses." By May 13, the expedition reached Dos Rios. On May 19, Gomez faced Ximenez de Sandoval's troops and ordered Martí to stay with the rearguard, but Martí became separated from the bulk of the Cuban forces, and entered the Spanish line.
Death
José Martí was killed in battle against Spanish troops at the Battle of Dos Ríos, near the confluence of the rivers Contramaestre and Cauto, on May 19, 1895. Gómez had recognized that the Spaniards had a strong position between palm trees, so he ordered his men to disengage. Martí was alone and seeing a young courier ride by said: "Joven, ¡a la carga!" meaning: "Young man, charge!" This was around midday, and he was dressed in a black jacket while riding a white horse, which made him an easy target for the Spanish. After Martí was shot, the young trooper, Angel de la Guardia, lost his horse and returned to report the loss. The Spanish took possession of the body, buried it close by, then exhumed the body upon realization of its identity. He was buried in Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba. Many have argued that Maceo and others had always spurned Martí for never participating in combat, which may have compelled Martí to that ill-fated two-man charge. Some of his Versos Sencillos can seem premonition-like: "No me entierren en lo oscuro/
A morir como un traidor/
Yo soy bueno y como bueno/
Moriré de cara al sol."
("Do not bury me in darkness / to die like a traitor / I am good, and as a good man /
I will die facing the sun.")
The death of Martí was a blow to the "aspirations of the Cuban rebels, inside and outside of the island, but the fighting continued with alternating successes and failures until the entry of the United States into the war in 1898".
Political ideology
Liberalism
Martí's political ideas were shaped by his early encounter with Krausist liberalism and its defense of spirituality and solidarity. Radical liberalism in Latin America during this time period often took on a nationalist and anti-imperialist cast, as shown by the examples of Francisco Bilbao in Chile, Benito Juárez in Mexico, José Santos Zelaya in Nicaragua, and Ramón Emeterio Betances in Puerto Rico, whom Martí deeply admired and considered one of his teachers. An increasingly radicalized liberalism emphasizing democratic participation, economic equality, national sovereignty, and supplemented by his exposure to doctrines such as Georgism, remained the dominant basis of Martí's outlook.
Cuban independence
Martí wrote extensively about Spanish colonial control and the threat of US expansionism into Cuba. To him, it was unnatural that Cuba was controlled and oppressed by the Spanish government, when it had its own unique identity and culture. In his pamphlet from February 11, 1873, called "The Spanish Republic and the Cuban Revolution", he argued that "Cubans do not live as Spaniards live.... They are nourished by a different system of trade, have links with different countries, and express their happiness through quite contrary customs. There are no common aspirations or identical goals linking the two peoples, or beloved memories to unite them. ... Peoples are only united by ties of fraternity and love.".
Slavery
Martí opposed slavery and criticized Spain for failing to abolish it. In a speech to Cuban immigrants in Steck Hall, New York, on January 24, 1879, he stated that the war against Spain needed to be fought, recalled the heroism and suffering of the Ten Years' War, which, he declared, had qualified Cuba as a real nation with a right to independence. Spain had not ratified the conditions of the peace treaty, had falsified elections, continued excessive taxation, and had failed to abolish slavery. Cuba needed to be free.
Revolutionary tactics
Martí proposed in a letter to Máximo Gómez in 1882 the formation of a revolutionary party, which he considered essential in the prevention of Cuba falling back on the Home Rule Party (Partido Autonomista) after the Pact of Zanjón. The Home Rule Party was a peace-seeking party that would stop short of the outright independence that Martí thought Cuba needed. But he was aware that there were social divisions in Cuba, especially racial divisions, that needed to be addressed as well. He thought war was necessary to achieve Cuba's freedom, despite his basic ideology of conciliation, respect, dignity, and balance. The establishment of the patria (fatherland) with a good government would unite Cubans of all social classes and colours in harmony. Together with other Cubans resident in New York, Martí started laying the grounds for the Revolutionary Party, stressing the need for a democratic organization as the basic structure before any military leaders were to join. The military would have to subordinate themselves to the interests of the fatherland. Gómez later rejoined Martí's plans, promising to comply.
Martí's consolidation of support among the Cuban expatriates, especially in Florida, was key in the planning and execution of the invasion of Cuba. His speeches to Cuban tobacco workers in Tampa and Key West motivated and united them; this is considered the most important political achievement of his life. At this point he refined his ideological platform, basing it on a Cuba held together by pride in being Cuban, a society that ensured "the welfare and prosperity of all Cubans" independently of class, occupation or race. Faith in the cause could not die, and the military would not try for domination. All pro-independence Cubans would participate, with no sector predominating. From this he established the Cuban Revolutionary Party in early 1892.
Martí and the CRP were devoted to secretly organizing the anti-Spanish war. Martí's newspaper, Patria, was a key instrument of this campaign, where Martí delineated his final plans for Cuba. Through this medium he argued against the exploitative colonialism of Spain in Cuba, criticized the Home Rule (Autonomista) Party for having aims that fell considerably short of full independence, and warned against U.S. annexationism which he felt could only be prevented by Cuba's successful independence. He specified his plans for the future Cuban Republic, a multi-class and multi-racial democratic republic based on universal suffrage, with an egalitarian economic base to develop fully Cuba's productive resources and an equitable distribution of land among citizens, with enlightened and virtuous politicians.
From Martí's 'Campaign Diaries', written during the final expedition in Cuba, it seems evident that Martí would have reached the highest position in the future Republic of Arms. This was not to be; his death occurred before the Assembly of Cuba was set up. Until his last minute, Martí dedicated his life to achieve full independence for Cuba. His uncompromising belief in democracy and freedom for his fatherland is what characterized his political ideology.
United States
Martí demonstrated an anti-imperialist attitude from an early age, and was convinced that the United States posed a danger for Latin America. While critiquing the United States for its stereotypes of Latin Americans and preoccupation with capitalism, Martí also drew parallels with the American Revolution and the nationalist movement in Cuba. At the same time, he recognized the advantages of the European or North American civilizations, which were open to the reforms that Latin American countries needed in order to detach themselves from the colonial heritage of Spain. Martí's distrust of North American politics had developed during the 1880s, due to the intervention threats that loomed on Mexico and Guatemala, and indirectly on Cuba's future. Over time Martí became increasingly alarmed about the United States' intentions for Cuba. The United States desperately needed new markets for its industrial products because of the economic crisis it was experiencing, and the media was talking about the purchase of Cuba from Spain. Cuba was a profitable, fertile country with an important strategic position in the Gulf of Mexico. Martí felt that the interests of Cuba's future lay with its sister nations in Latin America, and were opposite to those of the United States.
Another trait that Martí admired was the work ethic that characterized North American society. On various occasions Martí conveyed his deep admiration for the immigrant-based society, "whose principal aspiration he interpreted as being to construct a truly modern country, based upon hard work and progressive ideas." Martí stated that he was "never surprised in any country of the world [he had] visited. Here [he] was surprised... [he] remarked that no one stood quietly on the corners, no door was shut an instant, no man was quiet. [He] stopped [him]self, [he] looked respectfully on this people, and [he] said goodbye forever to that lazy life and poetical inutility of our European countries".
Although Martí opposed US intervention in Cuba, he found American society to be so great that he believed Latin America should consider imitating the United States. Martí argued that if the US "could reach such a high standard of living in so short a time, and despite, too, its lack of unifying traditions, could not the same be expected of Latin America?" However, Martí believed US expansionism represented Spanish American republics' "greatest danger." Martí was amazed at how education was directed towards helping the development of the nation and once again encouraged Latin American countries to follow the example set by North American society. At the same time, he criticized the elitist educational systems of Cuba and the rest of Latin America. Often, Martí recommended countries in Latin America to "send representatives to learn more relevant techniques in the United States". Once this was done, Martí hoped that this representatives would bring a "much-needed modernization to the Latin American agricultural policies".
However, not everything in the United States was to be admired by Martí. When it came to politics Martí wrote that politics in the US had "adopted a carnival atmosphere... especially during election time". He saw acts of corruption among candidates, such as bribing "the constituents with vast quantities of beer, while impressive parades wound their way through New York's crowded streets, past masses of billboards, all exhorting the public to vote for the different political candidates". Martí criticized and condemned the elites of the United States as they "pulled the main political strings behind the scenes". According to Martí, the elites "deserved severe censure" as they were the biggest threat to the "ideals with which the United States was first conceived".
Martí started to believe that the US had abused its potential. Racism was abundant. Different races were being discriminated against; political life "was both cynically regarded by the public at large and widely abused by 'professional politicians'; industrial magnates and powerful labor groups faced each other menacingly". All of this convinced Martí that a large-scale social conflict was imminent in the United States.
On the positive side, Martí was astonished by the "inviolable right of freedom of speech which all U.S. citizens possessed". Martí applauded the United States' Constitution which allowed freedom of speech to all its citizens, no matter what political beliefs they had. In May 1883, while attending political meetings he heard "the call for revolution – and more specifically the destruction of the capitalist system". Martí was amazed that the country maintained freedom of speech even with respect to calls that "could have led to its own destruction". Martí also gave his support to the women's suffrage movements, and was "pleased that women here [took] advantage of this privilege in order to make their voices heard". According to Martí, free speech was essential if any nation was to be civilized and he expressed his "profound admiration for these many basic liberties and opportunities open to the vast majority of U.S. citizens".
The works of Martí contain many comparisons between the ways of life of North and Latin America. The former was seen as "hardy, 'soulless', and, at times, cruel society, but one which, nevertheless, had been based upon a firm foundation of liberty and on a tradition of liberty". Although North American society had its flaws, they tended to be "of minor importance when compared to the broad sweep of social inequality, and to the widespread abuse of power prevalent in Latin America".
Once it became apparent that the United States were actually going to purchase Cuba and intended to Americanize it, Martí "spoke out loudly and bravely against such action, stating the opinion of many Cubans on the United States of America."
Latin American identity
José Martí as a liberator believed that the Latin American countries needed to know the reality of their own history. Martí also saw the necessity of a country having its own literature. These reflections started in Mexico from 1875 and are connected to the Mexican Reform, where prominent liberals like Ignacio Manuel Altamirano and Guillermo Prieto had situated themselves in front of a cultural renovation in Mexico, taking on the same approach as Esteban Echeverría thirty years before in Argentina. In the second "Boletin" that Martí published in the Revista Universal (May 11, 1875) one can already see Martí's approach, which was fundamentally Latin American. His wish to build a national or Latin American identity was nothing new or unusual in those days; however, no Latin-American intellectual of that time had approached as clearly as Martí the task of building a national identity. He insisted on the necessity of building institutions and laws that matched the natural elements of each country, and recalled the failure of the applications of French and American civil codes in the new Latin American republics. Martí believed that "el hombre del sur", the man of the South, should choose an appropriate development strategy matching his character, the peculiarity of his culture and history, and the nature that determined his being.
Writings
Martí as a writer covered a range of genres. In addition to producing newspaper articles and keeping up an extensive correspondence (his letters are included in the collection of his complete works), he wrote a serialized novel, composed poetry, wrote essays, and published four issues of a children's magazine, La Edad de Oro(The Golden Age, 1889). His essays and articles occupy more than fifty volumes of his complete works. His prose was extensively read and influenced the modernist generation, especially the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío, whom Martí called "my son" when they met in New York in 1893.
Martí did not publish any books: only two notebooks (Cuadernos) of verses, in editions outside of the market, and a number of political tracts. The rest (an enormous amount) was left dispersed in numerous newspapers and magazines, in letters, in diaries and personal notes, in other unedited texts, in frequently improvised speeches, and some lost forever. Five years after his death, the first volume of his Obras was published. A novel appeared in this collection in 1911: Amistad funesta, which Martí had made known was published under a pseudonym in 1885. In 1913, also in this edition, his third poetic collection that he had kept unedited: Versos Libres. His Diario de Campaña (Campaign Diary) was published in 1941. Later still, in 1980, Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Mejía Sánchez produced a set of about thirty of Martí's articles written for the Mexican newspaper El Partido Liberal that weren't included in any of his so-called Obras Completas editions. From 1882 to 1891, Martí collaborated in La Nación, a Buenos Aires newspaper. His texts from La Nación have been collected in Anuario del centro de Estudios Martíanos.
Over the course of his journalistic career, he wrote for numerous newspapers, starting with El Diablo Cojuelo (The Limping Devil) and La Patria Libre (The Free Fatherland), both of which he helped to found in 1869 in Cuba and which established the extent of his political commitment and vision for Cuba. In Spain he wrote for La Colonia Española,in Mexico for La Revista Universal, and in Venezuela for Revista Venezolana, which he founded. In New York he contributed to Venezuelan periodical La Opinión Nacional, Buenos Aires newspaper La Nación, Mexico's La Opinion Liberal, and The Hour from the U.S.
The first critical edition of Martí's complete works began to appear in 1983 in José Martí: Obras completas. Edición crítica. The critical edition of his complete poems was published in 1985 in José Martí: Poesía completa. Edición critica.
Volume two of his Obras Completas includes his famous essay 'Nuestra America' which "comprises a variety of subjects relating to Spanish America about which Martí studied and wrote. Here it is noted that after Cuba his interest was directed mostly to Guatemala, Mexico and Venezuela. The various sections of this part are about general matters and international conferences; economic, social and political questions; literature and art; agrarian and industrial problems; immigration; education; relations with the United States and Spanish America; travel notes".
According to Martí, the intention behind the publication of "La edad de oro" was "so that American children may know how people used to live, and how they live nowadays, in the United States and in other countries; how many things are made, such as glass and iron, steam engines and suspension bridges and electric light; so that when a child sees a coloured stone he will know why the stone is coloured. ... We shall tell them about everything which is done in factories, where things happen which are stranger and more interesting than the magic in fairy stories. These things are real magic, more marvelous than any. ... We write for children because it is they who know how to love, because it is children who are the hope for the world".
Martí's "Versos Sencillos" was written "in the town of Haines Falls, New York, where his doctor has sent [him] to regain his strength 'where streams flowed and clouds gathered in upon themeselves'". The poetry encountered in this work is "in many [ways] autobiographical and allows readers to see Martí the man and the patriot and to judge what was important to him at a crucial time in Cuban history".
Martí's writings reflected his own views both socially and politically. "Cultivo Una Rosa Blanca" is one of his poems that emphasize his views in hopes of betterment for society:
This poem is a clear description of Martí's societal hopes for his homeland. Within the poem, he talks about how regardless of the person, whether kind or cruel he cultivates a white rose, meaning that he remains peaceful. This coincides with his ideology about establishing unity amongst the people, more so those of Cuba, through a common identity, with no regards to ethnic and racial differences. This doctrine could be accomplished if one treated his enemy with peace as he would treat a friend. The kindness of one person should be shared with all people, regardless of personal conflict. By following the moral that lies within "Cultivo Rosa Blanca", Martí's vision of Cuban solidarity could be possible, creating a more peaceful society that would emanate through future generations.
After his breakthrough in Cuba literature, José Martí went on to contribute his works to newspapers, magazines, and books that reflected his political and social views. Because of his early death, Martí was unable to publish a vast collection of poetry; even so, his literary contributions have made him a renowned figure in literature, influencing many writers, and people in general, to aspire to follow in the footsteps of Martí.
Style
Martí's style of writing is difficult to categorize. He used many aphorisms—short, memorable lines that convey truth and/or wisdom—and long complex sentences. He is considered a major contributor to the Spanish American literary movement known as Modernismo and has been linked to Latin American consciousness of the modern age and modernity. His chronicles combined elements of literary portraiture, dramatic narration, and a dioramic scope. His poetry contained "fresh and astonishing images along with deceptively simple sentiments". As an orator (for he made many speeches) he was known for his cascading structure, powerful aphorisms, and detailed descriptions. More important than his style is how he uses that style to put into service his ideas, making "advanced" convincing notions. Throughout his writing he made reference to historical figures and events, and used constant allusions to literature, current news and cultural matters. For this reason, he may be difficult to read and translate.
His didactic spirit encouraged him to establish a magazine for children, La Edad de Oro (1889) which contained a short essay titled "Tres Heroes" (three heroes), representative of his talent to adapt his expression to his audience; in this case, to make the young reader conscious of and amazed by the extraordinary bravery of the three men, Bolivar, Hidalgo, and San Martín. This is his style to teach delightfully.
Translation
José Martí is universally honored as a great poet, patriot and martyr of Cuban Independence, but he was also a translator of some note. Although he translated literary material for the sheer joy of it, much of the translating he did was imposed on him by economic necessity during his many years of exile in the United States. Martí learned English at an early age, and had begun to translate at thirteen. He continued translating for the rest of his life, including his time as a student in Spain, although the period of his greatest productivity was during his stay in New York from 1880 until he returned to Cuba in 1895.
In New York he was what is known today as a "freelancer," as well as an "in house" translator. He translated several books for the publishing house of D. Appleton, and did a series of translations for newspapers. As a revolutionary activist in Cuba's long struggle for independence he translated into English a number of articles and pamphlets supporting that movement. In addition to fluent English, Martí also spoke French, Italian, Latin and Classical Greek fluently, the latter learned so he could read the Greek classical works in the original.
There was clearly a dichotomy in Martí's feeling about the kind of work he was translating. Like many professionals, he undertook for money translation tasks which had little intellectual or emotional appeal for him. Although Martí never presented a systematic theory of translation nor did he write extensively about his approach to translation, he did jot down occasional thoughts on the subject, showcasing his awareness of the translator's dilemma of the faithful versus the beautiful and stating that "translation should be natural, so that it appears that the book were written in the language to which it has been translated".
Modernism
The modernists, in general, use a subjective language. Martí's stylistic creed is part of the necessity to de-codify the logic rigor and the linguistic construction and to eliminate the intellectual, abstract and systematic expression. There is the deliberate intention and awareness to expand the expressive system of the language. The style changes the form of thinking. Without falling into unilateralism, Martí values the expression because language is an impression and a feeling through the form. Modernism mostly searches for the visions and realities, the expression takes in the impressions, the state of mind, without reflection and without concept. This is the law of subjectivity. We can see this in works of Martí, one of the first modernists, who conceives the literary task like an invisible unity, an expressive totality, considering the style like "a form of the content" (forma del contenido).
The difference that Martí established between prose and poetry are conceptual. Poetry, as he believes, is a language of the permanent subjective: the intuition and the vision. The prose is an instrument and a method of spreading the ideas, and has the goal of elevating, encouraging and animating these ideas rather than having the expression of tearing up the heart, complaining and moaning. The prose is a service to his people.
Martí produces a system of specific signs "an ideological code" (código ideológico). These symbols claim their moral value and construct signs of ethic conduct. Martí's modernism was a spiritual attitude that was reflected on the language. All his writing defines his moral world. One could also say that his ideological and spiritual sphere is fortified in his writing.
The difference between Martí and other modernist initiators such as Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera, Julian del Casal, and José Asunción Silva (and the similarity between him and Manuel González Prada) lies in the profound and transcendent value that he gave to literature, converting prose into an article or the work of a journalist. This hard work was important in giving literature authentic and independent value and distancing it from mere formal amusement. Manuel Gutiérez Nájera, Rubén Darío, Miguel de Unamuno and José Enrique Rodó saved the Martínian articles, which will have an endless value in the writings of the American continent.
Apart from Martínian articles. essay writing and literature starts to authorize itself as an alternative and privileged way to talk about politics. Literature starts to apply itself the only hermeneutics able to resolve the enigmas of a Latin American identity.
Legacy
Symbol of Cuban independence
Martí's dedication to the cause of Cuban independence and his passionate belief in democracy and justice has made him a hero for all Cubans, a symbol of unity, the "Apostle", a great leader. His writings have created a platform for all that he went through during the duration of this period in time. His ultimate goal of building a democratic, just, and stable republic in Cuba and his obsession with the practical execution of this goal led him to become the most charismatic leader of the 1895 colonial revolution. His work with the Cuban émigré community, enlisting the support of Cuban workers and socialist leaders to form the Cuban Revolutionary Party, put into motion the Cuban war of independence. His foresight into the future, shown in his warnings against American political interests for Cuba, was confirmed by the swift occupation of Cuba by the United States following the Spanish–American War. His belief in the inseparability of Cuban and Latin American sovereignty and the expression thereof in his writings have contributed to the shape of the modern Latin American Identity. Through his beliefs for Cuban and Latin American sovereignty, Cuba revolted on former allies. This is why Cuba became an independent nation. His works are a cornerstone of Latin American and political literature and his prolific contributions to the fields of journalism, poetry, and prose are highly acclaimed.
Influence on the Cuban Communist Party
Despite the history of post-1959 Cuba's affiliation as a Communist state, it has been acknowledged that it is in fact Martí's ideology which serves as the main driving force of the ruling Cuban Communist Party. Regarded as Cuba's "martyr" and "patron saint," several landmarks in Cuba are dedicated to Martí. Following his death in 2016, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who played a major role in promoting Martí's image in Revolutionary Cuba, was buried next to Martí in Santiago. Martí's writings on the concepts of Cuban nationalism fuelled the 1895 revolution and have continued to inform conflicting visions of the Cuban nation. The Cuban nation-state under Fidel Castro consistently claimed Martí as a crucial inspiration for its Communist revolutionary government. During Castro's tenure, the politics and death of Martí were used to justify certain actions of the Cuban state. The Cuban government claimed that Martí had supported a single party system, creating a precedent for a communist government.
The vast amount of writing that Martí produced in his lifetime makes it difficult to determine his exact political ideology, but his major goal was the liberation of Cuba from Spain and the establishment of a democratic republican government. Despite Martí never having supported communism or single party systems, Cuban leaders repeatedly claimed that Martí's Partido Revolucionario Cubano was a "forerunner of the Communist Party".
Martí's nuanced, often ambivalent positions on the most important issues of his day have led Marxist interpreters to see a class conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie as the main theme of his works, while others, namely the Cuban diasporic communities in Miami and elsewhere have identified a liberal-capitalist emphasis. These Cuban exiles still honor Martí as a figure of hope for the Cuban nation in exile and condemn Castro's government for manipulating his works and creating a "Castroite Martí" to justify its "intolerance and abridgments of human rights". His writings thus remain a key ideological weapon in the battle over the fate of the Cuban nation.
Memorials and tributes
José Martí International Airport, Havana's international airport, is named after Martí. A statue of Martí was unveiled in Havana on his 123rd birth anniversary, with President Raúl Castro attending the ceremony. The José Martí Memorial in the Vedado neighborhood of Havana includes a 109-m tower and is the largest monument in the world dedicated to a writer.
The National Association of Hispanic Publications, a non-profit organization to promote Hispanic publications, each year designates the José Martí Awards for excellence in Hispanic media.
On the waterfront of Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, a city that José Martí visited three times, a power station is named after him. The home where he resided during his final visit in 1895 bears a marble plaque. Place José Martí (José Martí Square), featuring a bust of the poet, was inaugurated in 2014.
In Romania, a Bucharest public school and the Romanian-Cuban Friendship Association from Targoviste are both named "Jose Martí".
List of selected works
Martí's fundamental works published during his life
1869 January: Abdala
1869 January: "10 de octubre"
1871: El presidio político en Cuba
1873: La República Española ante la revolución cubana
1875: Amor con amor se paga
1882: Ismaelillo
1882 February: Ryan vs. Sullivan
1882 February: Un incendio
1882 July: El ajusticiamiento de Guiteau
1883 January: "Batallas de la Paz"
1883 March: " Que son graneros humanos"
1883 March: Karl Marx ha muerto
1883 March:El Puente de Brooklyn
1883 September: "En Coney Island se vacía Nueva York"
1883 December:" Los políticos de oficio"
1883 December: "Bufalo Bil"
1884 April:"Los caminadores"
1884 November: Norteamericanos
1884 November:El juego de pelota de pies
1885: Amistad funesta
1885 January:Teatro en Nueva York
1885 '"Una gran rosa de bronce encendida" 1885 March:Los fundadores de la constitución 1885 June: "Somos pueblo original" 1885 August: "Los políticos tiene sus púgiles" 1886 May: Las revueltas anarquistas de Chicago 1886 September: " La ensenanza" 1886 October: "La Estatua de la Libertad"
1887 April: El poeta Walt Whitman 1887 April: El Madison Square 1887 November: Ejecución de los dirigentes anarquistas de Chicago 1887 November: La gran Nevada 1888 May: El ferrocarril elevado 1888 August: Verano en Nueva York 1888 November: " Ojos abiertos, y gargantas secas" 1888 November: "Amanece y ya es fragor" 1889: 'La edad de oro'
1889 May: El centenario de George Washington 1889 July: Bañistas 1889 August: "Nube Roja" 1889 September: "La caza de negros" 1890 November: " El jardín de las orquídeas" 1891 October:Versos Sencillos 1891 January: "Nuestra América" 1894 January: " ¡A Cuba!" 1895: Manifiesto de Montecristi- coauthor with Máximo GómezMartí's major posthumous works
Adúltera Versos libresSee also
International José Martí Prize
Radio y Televisión Martí
José Rizal, Philippine national hero also executed by the Spanish in 1896
Bust of José Martí, Houston, Texas
Monument to José Martí, Madrid, Spain
Guantanamera
Notes
References
Abel, Christopher. José Martí: Revolutionary Democrat. London: Athlone. 1986.
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Cairo, Ana. Jose Marti y la novela de la cultura cubana. Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. 2003.
De La Cuesta, Leonel Antonio. Martí, Traductor. Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca. 1996.
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Fidalgo, Jose Antonio. "El Doctor Fermín Valdés-Domínguez, Hombre de Ciencias y Su Posible Influencia Recíproca Con José Martí" Cuadernos de Historia de la Salud Pública 1998 (84) pp. 26–34
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Kirk, John M. José Martí, Mentor of the Cuban Nation. Tampa: University Presses of Florida, c1983.
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Martí, José, Manuel A.Tellechea Versos Sencillos. U of Houston: Arte Público Press, 1997
Morukian, Maria. "Cubanidad: Survival of Cuban Culture Identity in the 21st Century".
Nassif, Ricardo. "Jose Martí (1853–95) ". Originally published in Prospects:the quarterly review of comparative education(Paris, UNESCO: International Bureau of Education), vol. XXIV, no. 1/2, 1994, pp. 107–19
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Pérez-Galdós Ortiz, Víctor. José Martí: Visión de un Hombre Universal. Barcelona: Puvill Libros Ltd. 1999.
Quiroz, Alfonso. "The Cuban Republic and José Martí: reception and use of a national symbol". Lexington Books, 2006
Ripoll, Carlos. Jose Marti and the United States, and the Marxist interpretation of Cuban History. New Jersey: Transaction Inc. 1984.
Ronning, C. Neale. Jose Marti and the emigre colony in Key West. New York: Praeger. 1990.
.
Schulman, Ivan A. Símbolo y color en la obra de José Martí. Editorial Gredos, 1960.
Scott, Rebecca J. "Explaining Abolition: Contradiction, Adaptation, and Challenge in Cuban Slave Society, 1860–1886". Comparative Studies in Society and History,'' Vol. 26, No. 1 (Jan., 1984), pp. 83–111
.
.
Vincent, Jon S. "Jose Marti: Surrealist or Seer?" Latin American Research Review, Vol. 13, No. 1 (1978), pp. 178–81.
External links
Obras completas de José Martí (Index to Complete Works; Spanish)
José Martí (.cu)
José Martí (.org)
Romero Family Papers Regarding José Martí and books by José Martí fully and freely available from the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC)
Fernandina Expedition
1853 births
1895 deaths
19th-century Cuban poets
19th-century journalists
19th-century translators
American writers of Cuban descent
Anti-Americanism
Cuban children's writers
Cuban essayists
Cuban expatriates in Guatemala
Cuban expatriates in the United States
Cuban independence activists
Cuban male poets
Cuban people of Canarian descent
Cuban people of Catalan descent
Cuban people of Spanish descent
Cuban philosophers
Cuban revolutionaries
Cuban soldiers
Cuban translators
English–Spanish translators
Hispanic and Latino American journalists
History of Key West, Florida
History of Tampa, Florida
Male essayists
Male journalists
Modernist writers
Partido Auténtico politicians
People from Havana
People killed in action
Political philosophers
University of Zaragoza alumni | true | [
"Julio Sanguily Garritte was a Cuban independence activist and patriot. He was a Major General of the Cuban Liberation Army during the Cuban War of Independence. He was appointed head, in commission, of the division of Cuba and Bayamo . Major General. He landed with Maceo for \"Duaba\". He participated in the Ten Years' War and protested with Maceo in Baraguá in defense of the total and definitive independence of Cuba.\n\nOrigins\nJulio Sanguily Garritte was born in Havana, on November 9 , 1845 . He was the second of three male children of a marriage of French origin.\n\nHis older brother, Guillermo Sanguily , emigrated from Cuba years before the outbreak of the Ten Years' War.\n\nHis younger brother, Manuel Sanguily, would participate with Julio in the Ten Years' War and in the preparations for the Cuban War of Independence.\n\nTen Years' War\nHe participated in the Ten Years' War in December 1868 , landing in Camagüey, together with his brother Manuel, on the Galvanic expedition .\n\nBeing brigadier, was captured by the Spanish on the 8th of October of 1871 and rescued by the forces of Major General Ignacio Agramonte to the next day which would later be known as the . \n\nHe reached the rank of Major General of the Liberation Army of Cuba on May 1 , 1872 . He then received a cut by a machete in the foot, being crippled for the rest of his life, despite which, he continued in the war. As a result of these injuries, his assistants had to help him mount and dismount the horse.\n\nHe left the country with his brother, Manuel Sanguily in 1876 , to recover from his injuries and to search for weapons and supplies in the United States.\n\nFertile Truce and Cuban War of Independence\nDuring the Fertile Truce, he remained linked to the Cuban independence clubs in the United States. Over time, he acquired American citizenship. He participated in various conspiracies, including the failed conspiracy that is historically known as the Manganese Peace, which occurred in 1890.\n\nHe could not participate in the Cuban War of Independence, as he was captured by the Spanish before the uprising in 1895. He was only released in 1898 and joined an expedition that landed in Cuba that year, towards the end of the Spanish-American War.\n\nLater Years\nDuring the Cuban Republic he did not intervene in politics, nor did he hold public office, unlike his brother Manuel. He died in Havana on March 23 , 1906, at the age of 60.\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\nEncyclopedic Dictionary of Military History of Cuba. Part 1 (1510 - 1898) Volume I Biographies. Olive Green Editions. City of Havana, 2004.\n\n1845 births\n1903 deaths\nCuban generals\nPeople of the Ten Years' War\n19th-century Cuban military personnel\nCuban independence activists",
"Alfredo Arango was a Cuban baseball player in the Cuban League who played with Almendares from 1885 to 1887 and Habana in 1890-1891.\n\nArango played in six games for Almendares in the 1885-1886 season, finishing with a .292 batting average. In nine games in 1887, he hit .395. Arango returned for a final Cuban League season in 1890 with Habana. \n\nHe later played a role in the Cuban War of Independence. In February 1895, he joined the independence movement in Havana, but was captured and sent to Spain. From there he escaped to Paris and joined Calixto García's forces. \n\nArango was named to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1951.\n\nReferences\n\nCuban League players\nPeople of the Cuban War of Independence\nAlmendares (baseball) players\nHabana players\nYear of birth missing\nYear of death missing"
]
|
[
"José Martí",
"Legacy",
"What are some of Marti's most significant works?",
"Marti's dedication to the cause of Cuban independence and his passionate belief in democracy and justice has made him a hero for all Cubans,",
"How did he contribute to Cuban independence?",
"become the most charismatic leader of the 1895 colonial revolution."
]
| C_9f9c3397a7114f4cabea4c4c25bbba4c_0 | Is he remembered for any contributions outside of Cuba? | 3 | Is Marti remembered for any contributions outside of Cuba? | José Martí | Marti's dedication to the cause of Cuban independence and his passionate belief in democracy and justice has made him a hero for all Cubans, a symbol of unity, the "Apostle", a great leader. His ultimate goal of building a democratic, just, and stable republic in Cuba and his obsession with the practical execution of this goal led him to become the most charismatic leader of the 1895 colonial revolution. His work with the Cuban emigre community, enlisting the support of Cuban workers and socialist leaders to form the Cuban Revolutionary Party, put into motion the Cuban war of independence. His foresight into the future, shown in his warnings against American political interests for Cuba, was confirmed by the swift occupation of Cuba by the United States following the Spanish-American War. His belief in the inseparability of Cuban and Latin American sovereignty and the expression thereof in his writings have contributed to the shape of the modern Latin American Identity. His works are a cornerstone of Latin American and political literature and his prolific contributions to the fields of journalism, poetry, and prose are highly acclaimed. Marti's writings on the concepts of Cuban nationalism fuelled the 1895 revolution and have continued to inform conflicting visions of the Cuban nation. The Cuban nation-state under Fidel Castro consistently claimed Marti as a crucial inspiration for its Communist revolutionary government. During Castro's regime, the politics and death of Marti were used to justify certain actions of the Cuban state. The Cuban government claimed that Marti had supported a single party system, creating a precedent for an all-powerful communist government. Castro used this explanation throughout the late 20th century to deter Cuban citizens from demanding a multiparty system. The vast amount of writing that Marti produced in his lifetime makes it difficult to determine his exact political ideology, but his major goal was the liberation of Cuba from Spain and the establishment of a democratic republican government. Despite Marti never having supported communism or single party systems, Cuban leaders repeatedly claimed that Marti's Partido Revolucionario Cubano was a "forerunner of the Communist Party". Marti's nuanced, often ambivalent positions on the most important issues of his day have led Marxist interpreters to see a class conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie as the main theme of his works, while others, namely the Cuban diasporic communities in Miami and elsewhere have identified a liberal-capitalist emphasis. These Cuban exiles still honor Marti as a figure of hope for the Cuban nation in exile and condemn Castro's regime for manipulating his works and creating a "Castroite Marti" to justify its "intolerance and abridgments of human rights". His writings thus remain a key ideological weapon in the battle over the fate of the Cuban nation. One further example of his legacy is that his name has been chosen for several institutions or NGOs from various countries, such as Romania, where a public school from Bucharest and the Romanian-Cuban Friendship Association from Targoviste are both named "Jose Marti". A gigantic statue was unveiled on his 123rd birth anniversary and President Raul Castro was present at the ceremony. CANNOTANSWER | His foresight into the future, shown in his warnings against American political interests for Cuba, was confirmed by the swift occupation of Cuba | José Julián Martí Pérez (; January 28, 1853 – May 19, 1895) was a Cuban nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the liberation of his country. He was also an important figure in Latin American literature. He was very politically active and is considered an important philosopher and political theorist. Through his writings and political activity, he became a symbol of Cuba's bid for independence from the Spanish Empire in the 19th century, and is referred to as the "Apostle of Cuban Independence". From adolescence, he dedicated his life to the promotion of liberty, political independence for Cuba, and intellectual independence for all Spanish Americans; his death was used as a cry for Cuban independence from Spain by both the Cuban revolutionaries and those Cubans previously reluctant to start a revolt.
Born in Havana, Spanish Empire, Martí began his political activism at an early age. He traveled extensively in Spain, Latin America, and the United States, raising awareness and support for the cause of Cuban independence. His unification of the Cuban émigré community, particularly in Florida, was crucial to the success of the Cuban War of Independence against Spain. He was a key figure in the planning and execution of this war, as well as the designer of the Cuban Revolutionary Party and its ideology. He died in military action during the Battle of Dos Ríos on May 19, 1895. Martí is considered one of the great turn-of-the-century Latin American intellectuals. His written works include a series of poems, essays, letters, lectures, novel, and a children's magazine.
He wrote for numerous Latin American and American newspapers; he also founded a number of newspapers. His newspaper Patria was an important instrument in his campaign for Cuban independence. After his death, one of his poems from the book, Versos Sencillos (Simple Verses) was adapted to the song "Guantanamera", which has become the definitive patriotic song of Cuba. The concepts of freedom, liberty, and democracy are prominent themes in all of his works, which were influential on the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío and the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral. Following the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Martí's ideology became a major driving force in Cuban politics. He is also regarded as Cuba's "martyr."
Life
Early life, Cuba: 1853–70
José Julián Martí Pérez was born on January 28, 1853, in Havana, at 41 Paula Street, to Spanish parents, a Valencian father, Mariano Martí Navarro, and Leonor Pérez Cabrera, a native of the Canary Islands. Martí was the elder brother to seven sisters: Leonor, Mariana, María del Carmen, María del Pilar, Rita Amelia, Antonia and Dolores. He was baptized on February 12 in Santo Ángel Custodio church. When he was four, his family moved from Cuba to Valencia, Spain, but two years later they returned to the island where they enrolled José at a local public school, in the Santa Clara neighborhood where his father worked as a prison guard.
In 1865, he enrolled in the Escuela de Instrucción Primaria Superior Municipal de Varones that was headed by Rafael María de Mendive. Mendive was influential in the development of Martí's political philosophies. Also instrumental in his development of a social and political conscience was his best friend Fermín Valdés Domínguez, the son of a wealthy slave-owning family. In April the same year, after hearing the news of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Martí and other young students expressed their pain—through group mourning—for the death of a man who had decreed the abolition of slavery in the United States. In 1866, Martí entered the Instituto de Segunda Enseñanza where Mendive financed his studies.
Martí signed up at the Escuela Profesional de Pintura y Escultura de La Habana (Professional School for Painting and Sculpture of Havana) in September 1867, known as San Alejandro, to take drawing classes. He hoped to flourish in this area but did not find commercial success. In 1867, he also entered the school of San Pablo, established and managed by Mendive, where he enrolled for the second and third years of his bachelor's degree and assisted Mendive with the school's administrative tasks. In April 1868, his poem dedicated to Mendive's wife, A Micaela. En la Muerte de Miguel Ángel appeared in Guanabacoa's newspaper El Álbum.
When the Ten Years' War broke out in Cuba in 1868, clubs of supporters for the Cuban nationalist cause formed all over Cuba, and José and his friend Fermín joined them. Martí had a precocious desire for the independence and freedom of Cuba. He started writing poems about this vision, while, at the same time, trying to do something to achieve this dream. In 1869, he published his first political writings in the only edition of the newspaper El Diablo Cojuelo, published by Fermín Valdés Domínguez. That same year he published "Abdala", a patriotic drama in verse form in the one-volume La Patria Libre newspaper, which he published himself. "Abdala" is about a fictional country called Nubia which struggles for liberation. His sonnet "10 de Octubre", later to become one of his most famous poems, was also written during that year, and was published later in his school newspaper.
In March of that year, colonial authorities shut down the school, interrupting Martí's studies. He came to resent Spanish rule of his homeland at an early age; likewise, he developed a hatred of slavery, which was still practiced in Cuba.
On October 21, 1869, aged 16, he was arrested and incarcerated in the national jail, following an accusation of treason and bribery from the Spanish government upon the discovery of a "reproving" letter, which Martí and Fermín had written to a friend when the friend joined the Spanish army. More than four months later, Martí confessed to the charges and was condemned to six years in prison. His mother tried to free her son (who at 16 was still a minor) by writing letters to the government, and his father went to a lawyer friend for legal support, but these efforts failed. Eventually, Martí fell ill; his legs were severely lacerated by the chains that bound him. As a result, he was transferred to another part of Cuba known as Isla de Pinos instead of further imprisonment. Following that, the Spanish authorities decided to exile him to Spain. In Spain, Martí, who was 18 at the time, was allowed to continue his studies with the hopes that studying in Spain would renew his loyalty to Spain.
Spain: 1871–74
In January 1871, Martí embarked on the steam ship Guipuzcoa, which took him from Havana to Cádiz. He settled in Madrid in a guesthouse in Desengaño St. #10. Arriving at the capitol he contacted fellow Cuban Carlos Sauvalle, who had been deported to Spain a year before Martí and whose house served as a center of reunions for Cubans in exile. On March 24, Cádiz's newspaper La Soberania Nacional, published Martí's article "Castillo" in which he recalled the sufferings of a friend he met in prison. This article would be reprinted in Sevilla's La Cuestión Cubana and New York's La República. At this time, Martí registered himself as a member of independent studies in the law faculty of the Central University of Madrid. While studying here, Martí openly participated in discourse on the Cuban issue, debating through the Spanish press and circulating documents protesting Spanish activities in Cuba.
Martí's maltreatment at the hands of the Spaniards and consequent deportation to Spain in 1871 inspired a tract, Political Imprisonment in Cuba, published in July. This pamphlet's purpose was to move the Spanish public to do something about its government's brutalities in Cuba and promoted the issue of Cuban independence. In September, from the pages of El Jurado Federal, Martí and Sauvalle accused the newspaper La Prensa of having calumniated the Cuban residents in Madrid. During his stay in Madrid, Martí frequented the Ateneo and the National Library, the Café de los Artistas, and the British, Swiss and Iberian breweries. In November he became sick and had an operation, paid for by Sauvalle.
On November 27, 1871, eight medical students, who had been accused (without evidence) of the desecration of a Spanish grave, were executed in Havana. In June 1872, Fermín Valdés was arrested because of the November 27 incident. His sentence of six years of jail was pardoned, and he was exiled to Spain where he reunited with Martí. On November 27, 1872, the printed matter Dia 27 de Noviembre de 1871 (27 November 1871) written by Martí and signed by Fermín Valdés Domínguez and Pedro J. de la Torre circulated Madrid. A group of Cubans held a funeral in the Caballero de Gracia church, the first anniversary of the medical students' execution.
In 1873, Martí's "A mis Hermanos Muertos el 27 de Noviembre" was published by Fermín Valdés. In February, for the first time, the Cuban flag appeared in Madrid, hanging from Martí's balcony in Concepción Jerónima, where he lived for a few years. In the same month, the Proclamation of the First Spanish Republic by the Cortes on February 11, 1873 reaffirmed Cuba as inseparable to Spain, Martí responded with an essay, The Spanish Republic and the Cuban Revolution, and sent it to the Prime Minister, pointing out that this new freely elected body of deputies that had proclaimed a republic based on democracy had been hypocritical not to grant Cuba its independence. He sent examples of his work to Nestor Ponce de Leon, a member of the Junta Central Revolucionaria de Nueva York (Central revolutionary committee of New York), to whom he would express his will to collaborate on the fight for the independence of Cuba.
In May, he moved to Zaragoza, accompanied by Fermín Valdés to continue his studies in law at the Universidad Literaria. The newspaper La Cuestión Cubana of Sevilla, published numerous articles from Martí.
In June 1874, Martí graduated with a degree in Civil Law and Canon Law. In August he signed up as an external student at the Facultad de Filosofia y Letras de Zaragoza, where he finished his degree by October. In November he returned to Madrid and then left to Paris. There he met Auguste Vacquerie, a poet, and Victor Hugo. In December 1874 he embarked from Le Havre for Mexico. Prevented from returning to Cuba, Martí went instead to Mexico and Guatemala. During these travels, he taught and wrote, advocating continuously for Cuba's independence.
México and Guatemala: 1875–78
In 1875, Martí lived on Calle Moneda in Mexico City near the Zócalo, a prestigious address of the time. One floor above him lived Manuel Antonio Mercado, Secretary of the Distrito Federal, who became one of Martí's best friends. On March 2, 1875, he published his first article for Vicente Villada's Revista Universal, a broadsheet discussing politics, literature, and general business commerce. On March 12, his Spanish translation of Hugo's Mes Fils (1874) began serialization in Revista Universal. Martí then joined the editorial staff, editing the Boletín section of the publication.
In these writings, he expressed his opinions about current events in Mexico. On May 27, in the newspaper Revista Universal, he responded to the anti-Cuban-independence arguments in La Colonia Española, a newspaper for Spanish citizens living in Mexico. In December, Sociedad Gorostiza (Gorostiza Society), a group of writers and artists, accepted Martí as a member, where he met his future wife, Carmen Zayas Bazán, during his frequent visits to her Cuban father's house to meet with the Gorostiza group.
On January 1, 1876, in Oaxaca, elements opposed to Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada's government, led by Gen. Porfirio Díaz, proclaimed the Plan de Tuxtepec, which instigated a bloody civil war. Martí and Mexican colleagues established the Sociedad Alarcón, composed of dramatists, actors, and critics. At this point, Martí began collaborating with the newspaper El Socialista as leader of the Gran Círculo Obrero (Great Labor Circle) organization of liberals and reformists who supported Lerdo de Tejada. In March, the newspaper proposed a series of candidates as delegates, including Martí, to the first Congreso Obrero, or congress of the workers. On June 4, La Sociedad Esperanza de Empleados (Employees' Hope Society) designated Martí as delegate to the Congreso Obrero. On December 7, Martí published his article Alea Jacta Est in the newspaper El Federalista, bitterly criticizing the Porfiristas' armed assault upon the constitutional government in place. On December 16, he published the article "Extranjero" (foreigner; abroad), in which he repeated his denunciation of the Porfiristas and bade farewell to Mexico.
In 1877, using his second name and second surname Julián Pérez as pseudonym, Martí embarked for Havana, hoping to arrange to move his family away to Mexico City from Havana. He returned to Mexico, however, entering at the port of Progreso from which, via Isla de Mujeres and Belize, he travelled south to progressive Guatemala City. He took residence in the prosperous suburb of Ciudad Vieja, home of Guatemala's artists and intelligentsia of the day, on Cuarta Avenida (Fourth Avenue), 3 km south of Guatemala City. While there, he was commissioned by the government to write the play Patria y Libertad (Drama Indio) (Country and Liberty (an Indian Drama)). He met personally the president, Justo Rufino Barrios, about this project. On April 22, the newspaper El Progreso published his article "Los códigos Nuevos" (The New Laws) pertaining to the then newly enacted Civil Code. On May 29, he was appointed head of the Department of French, English, Italian and German Literature, History and Philosophy, on the faculty of philosophy and arts of the Universidad Nacional. On July 25, he lectured for the opening evening of the literary society 'Sociedad Literaria El Porvenir', at the Teatro Colón (the since-renamed Teatro Nacional), at which function he was appointed vice-president of the Society, and acquiring the moniker "el doctor torrente," or Doctor Torrent, in view of his rhetorical style. Martí taught composition classes free at the Academia de Niñas de Centroamérica girls' academy, among whose students he enthralled young María García Granados y Saborío, daughter of Guatemalan president Miguel García Granados. The schoolgirl's crush was unrequited, however, as he went again to México, where he met Carmen Zayas Bazán and whom he later married.
In 1878, Martí returned to Guatemala and published his book Guatemala, edited in Mexico. On May 10, socialite María García Granados died of lung disease; her unrequited love for Martí branded her, poignantly, as 'la niña de Guatemala, la que se murió de amor' (the Guatemalan girl who died of love). Following her death, Martí returned to Cuba. There, he resigned signing the Pact of Zanjón which ended the Cuban Ten Years' War, but had no effect on Cuba's status as a colony. He met Afro-Cuban revolutionary Juan Gualberto Gómez, who would be his lifelong partner in the independence struggle and a stalwart defender of his legacy during this same journey. He married Carmen Zayas Bazán on Havana's Calle Tulipán Street at this time. In October, his application to practice law in Cuba was refused, and thereafter he immersed himself in radical efforts, such as for the Comité Revolucionario Cubano de Nueva York (Cuban Revolutionary Committee of New York). On November 22, 1878 his son José Francisco, known fondly as "Pepito", was born.
United States and Venezuela: 1880–90
In 1881, after a brief stay in New York, Martí travelled to Venezuela and founded in Caracas the Revista Venezolana, or Venezuelan Review. The journal incurred the wrath of Venezuela's dictator, Antonio Guzmán Blanco, and Martí was forced to return to New York. There, Martí joined General Calixto García's Cuban revolutionary committee, composed of Cuban exiles advocating independence. Here Martí openly supported Cuba's struggle for liberation, and worked as a journalist for La Nación of Buenos Aires and for several Central American journals, especially La Opinion Liberal in Mexico City. The article "El ajusticiamiento de Guiteau," an account of President Garfield's murderer's trial, was published in La Opinion Liberal in 1881, and later selected for inclusion in The Library of America's anthology of American True Crime writing. In addition, Martí wrote poems and translated novels to Spanish. He worked for Appleton and Company and, "on his own, translated and published Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona. His repertory of original work included plays, a novel, poetry, a children's magazine, La Edad de Oro, and a newspaper, Patria, which became the official organ of the Cuban Revolutionary party". He also served as a consul for Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay. Throughout this work, he preached the "freedom of Cuba with an enthusiasm that swelled the ranks of those eager to strive with him for it".
Tension existed within the Cuban revolutionary committee between Martí and his military compatriots. Martí feared a military dictatorship would be established in Cuba upon independence, and suspected Dominican-born General Máximo Gómez of having these intentions. Martí knew that the independence of Cuba needed time and careful planning. Ultimately, Martí refused to cooperate with Máximo Gómez and Antonio Maceo Grajales, two Cuban military leaders from the Ten Years' War, when they wanted to invade immediately in 1884. Martí knew that it was too early to attempt to win back Cuba, and later events proved him right.
United States, Central America and the West Indies: 1891–94
On January 1, 1891, Martí's essay "Nuestra America" was published in New York's Revista Ilustrada, and on the 30th of that month in Mexico's El Partido Liberal. He actively participated in the Conferencia Monetaria Internacional (The International Monetary Conference) in New York during that time as well. On June 30 his wife and son arrived in New York. After a short time, during which Carmen Zayas Bazán realized that Martí's dedication to Cuban independence surpassed that of supporting his family, she returned to Havana with her son on August 27. Martí would never see them again. The fact that his wife never shared the convictions central to his life was an enormous personal tragedy for Martí. He turned for solace to Carmen Miyares de Mantilla, a Venezuelan who ran a boarding house in New York, and he is presumed to be the father of her daughter María Mantilla, who was in turn the mother of the actor Cesar Romero, who proudly claimed to be Martí's grandson. In September Martí became sick again. He intervened in the commemorative acts of The Independents, causing the Spanish consul in New York to complain to the Argentine and Uruguayan governments. Consequently, Martí resigned from the Argentinean, Paraguayan, and Uruguayan consulates. In October he published his book Versos Sencillos.
On November 26 he was invited by the Club Ignacio Agramonte, an organization founded by Cuban immigrants in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida, to a celebration to collect funding for the cause of Cuban independence. There he gave a lecture known as "Con Todos, y para el Bien de Todos", which was reprinted in Spanish language newspapers and periodicals across the United States. The following night, another lecture, " Los Pinos Nuevos", was given by Martí in another Tampa gathering in honor of the medical students killed in Cuba in 1871. In November artist Herman Norman painted a portrait of José Martí.
On January 5, 1892, Martí participated in a reunion of the emigration representatives, in Cayo Hueso (Key West), the Cuban community where the Bases del Partido Revolucionario (Basis of the Cuban Revolutionary Party) was passed. He began the process of organizing the newly formed party. To raise support and collect funding for the independence movement, he visited tobacco factories, where he gave speeches to the workers and united them in the cause. In March 1892 the first edition of the Patria newspaper, related to the Cuban Revolutionary Party, was published, funded and directed by Martí. During Martí's Key West years, his secretary was Dolores Castellanos (1870-1948), a Cuban-American woman born in Key West, who also served as president of the Protectoras de la Patria: Club Político de Cubanas, a Cuban women's political club in support of Martí's cause, and for whom Martí wrote a poem titled "A Dolores Castellanos." On April 8, he was chosen delegate of the Cuban Revolutionary Party by the Cayo Hueso Club in Tampa and New York.
From July to September 1892 he traveled through Florida, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica on an organization mission among the exiled Cubans. On this mission, Martí made numerous speeches and visited various tobacco factories. On December 16 he was poisoned in Tampa.
In 1893, Martí traveled through the United States, Central America and the West Indies, visiting different Cuban clubs. His visits were received with a growing enthusiasm and raised badly needed funds for the revolutionary cause. On May 24 he met Rubén Darío, the Nicaraguan poet in a theatre act in Hardman Hall, New York City. On June 3 he had an interview with Máximo Gómez in Montecristi, Dominican Republic, where they planned the uprising. In July he met with General Antonio Maceo Grajales in San Jose, Costa Rica.
In 1894 he continued traveling for propagation and organizing the revolutionary movement. On January 27 he published "A Cuba!" in the newspaper Patria where he denounced collusion between the Spanish and American interests. In July he visited the president of the Mexican Republic, Porfirio Díaz, and travelled to Veracruz. In August he prepared and arranged the armed expedition that would begin the Cuban revolution.
Return to Cuba: 1895
On January 12, 1895, the North American authorities stopped the steamship Lagonda and two other suspicious ships, Amadis and Baracoa, at the port of Fernandina in Florida, confiscating weapons and ruining Plan de Fernandina (Fernandina Plan). On January 29, Martí drew up the order of the uprising, signing it with general Jose Maria Rodriguez and Enrique Collazo. Juan Gualberto Gómez was assigned to orchestrate war preparations for La Habana Province, and was able to work right under the noses of the relatively unconcerned Spanish authorities. Martí decided to move to Montecristi, Dominican Republic to join Máximo Gómez and to plan out the uprising.
The uprising finally took place on February 24, 1895. A month later, Martí and Máximo Gómez declared the Manifesto de Montecristi, an "exposition of the purposes and principles of the Cuban revolution". Martí had persuaded Gómez to lead an expedition into Cuba.
Before leaving for Cuba, Martí wrote his "literary will" on April 1, 1895, leaving his personal papers and manuscripts to Gonzalo de Quesada, with instructions for editing. Knowing that the majority of his writing in newspapers in Honduras, Uruguay, and Chile would disappear over time, Martí instructed Quesada to arrange his papers in volumes. The volumes were to be arranged in the following way: volumes one and two, North Americas; volume three, Hispanic Americas; volume four, North American Scenes; volume five, Books about the Americas (this included both North and South America); volume six, Literature, education and painting. Another volume included his poetry.
The expedition, composed of Martí, Gómez, Ángel Guerra, Francisco Borreo, Cesar Salas and Marcos del Rosario, left Montecristi for Cuba on April 1, 1895. Despite delays and desertion by some members, they got to Cuba, landing at Playitas, near Cape Maisí and Imías, Cuba, on April 11. Once there, they made contact with the Cuban rebels, who were headed by the Maceo brothers, and started fighting against Spanish troops. The revolt did not go as planned, "mainly because the call to revolution received no immediate, spontaneous support from the masses." By May 13, the expedition reached Dos Rios. On May 19, Gomez faced Ximenez de Sandoval's troops and ordered Martí to stay with the rearguard, but Martí became separated from the bulk of the Cuban forces, and entered the Spanish line.
Death
José Martí was killed in battle against Spanish troops at the Battle of Dos Ríos, near the confluence of the rivers Contramaestre and Cauto, on May 19, 1895. Gómez had recognized that the Spaniards had a strong position between palm trees, so he ordered his men to disengage. Martí was alone and seeing a young courier ride by said: "Joven, ¡a la carga!" meaning: "Young man, charge!" This was around midday, and he was dressed in a black jacket while riding a white horse, which made him an easy target for the Spanish. After Martí was shot, the young trooper, Angel de la Guardia, lost his horse and returned to report the loss. The Spanish took possession of the body, buried it close by, then exhumed the body upon realization of its identity. He was buried in Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba. Many have argued that Maceo and others had always spurned Martí for never participating in combat, which may have compelled Martí to that ill-fated two-man charge. Some of his Versos Sencillos can seem premonition-like: "No me entierren en lo oscuro/
A morir como un traidor/
Yo soy bueno y como bueno/
Moriré de cara al sol."
("Do not bury me in darkness / to die like a traitor / I am good, and as a good man /
I will die facing the sun.")
The death of Martí was a blow to the "aspirations of the Cuban rebels, inside and outside of the island, but the fighting continued with alternating successes and failures until the entry of the United States into the war in 1898".
Political ideology
Liberalism
Martí's political ideas were shaped by his early encounter with Krausist liberalism and its defense of spirituality and solidarity. Radical liberalism in Latin America during this time period often took on a nationalist and anti-imperialist cast, as shown by the examples of Francisco Bilbao in Chile, Benito Juárez in Mexico, José Santos Zelaya in Nicaragua, and Ramón Emeterio Betances in Puerto Rico, whom Martí deeply admired and considered one of his teachers. An increasingly radicalized liberalism emphasizing democratic participation, economic equality, national sovereignty, and supplemented by his exposure to doctrines such as Georgism, remained the dominant basis of Martí's outlook.
Cuban independence
Martí wrote extensively about Spanish colonial control and the threat of US expansionism into Cuba. To him, it was unnatural that Cuba was controlled and oppressed by the Spanish government, when it had its own unique identity and culture. In his pamphlet from February 11, 1873, called "The Spanish Republic and the Cuban Revolution", he argued that "Cubans do not live as Spaniards live.... They are nourished by a different system of trade, have links with different countries, and express their happiness through quite contrary customs. There are no common aspirations or identical goals linking the two peoples, or beloved memories to unite them. ... Peoples are only united by ties of fraternity and love.".
Slavery
Martí opposed slavery and criticized Spain for failing to abolish it. In a speech to Cuban immigrants in Steck Hall, New York, on January 24, 1879, he stated that the war against Spain needed to be fought, recalled the heroism and suffering of the Ten Years' War, which, he declared, had qualified Cuba as a real nation with a right to independence. Spain had not ratified the conditions of the peace treaty, had falsified elections, continued excessive taxation, and had failed to abolish slavery. Cuba needed to be free.
Revolutionary tactics
Martí proposed in a letter to Máximo Gómez in 1882 the formation of a revolutionary party, which he considered essential in the prevention of Cuba falling back on the Home Rule Party (Partido Autonomista) after the Pact of Zanjón. The Home Rule Party was a peace-seeking party that would stop short of the outright independence that Martí thought Cuba needed. But he was aware that there were social divisions in Cuba, especially racial divisions, that needed to be addressed as well. He thought war was necessary to achieve Cuba's freedom, despite his basic ideology of conciliation, respect, dignity, and balance. The establishment of the patria (fatherland) with a good government would unite Cubans of all social classes and colours in harmony. Together with other Cubans resident in New York, Martí started laying the grounds for the Revolutionary Party, stressing the need for a democratic organization as the basic structure before any military leaders were to join. The military would have to subordinate themselves to the interests of the fatherland. Gómez later rejoined Martí's plans, promising to comply.
Martí's consolidation of support among the Cuban expatriates, especially in Florida, was key in the planning and execution of the invasion of Cuba. His speeches to Cuban tobacco workers in Tampa and Key West motivated and united them; this is considered the most important political achievement of his life. At this point he refined his ideological platform, basing it on a Cuba held together by pride in being Cuban, a society that ensured "the welfare and prosperity of all Cubans" independently of class, occupation or race. Faith in the cause could not die, and the military would not try for domination. All pro-independence Cubans would participate, with no sector predominating. From this he established the Cuban Revolutionary Party in early 1892.
Martí and the CRP were devoted to secretly organizing the anti-Spanish war. Martí's newspaper, Patria, was a key instrument of this campaign, where Martí delineated his final plans for Cuba. Through this medium he argued against the exploitative colonialism of Spain in Cuba, criticized the Home Rule (Autonomista) Party for having aims that fell considerably short of full independence, and warned against U.S. annexationism which he felt could only be prevented by Cuba's successful independence. He specified his plans for the future Cuban Republic, a multi-class and multi-racial democratic republic based on universal suffrage, with an egalitarian economic base to develop fully Cuba's productive resources and an equitable distribution of land among citizens, with enlightened and virtuous politicians.
From Martí's 'Campaign Diaries', written during the final expedition in Cuba, it seems evident that Martí would have reached the highest position in the future Republic of Arms. This was not to be; his death occurred before the Assembly of Cuba was set up. Until his last minute, Martí dedicated his life to achieve full independence for Cuba. His uncompromising belief in democracy and freedom for his fatherland is what characterized his political ideology.
United States
Martí demonstrated an anti-imperialist attitude from an early age, and was convinced that the United States posed a danger for Latin America. While critiquing the United States for its stereotypes of Latin Americans and preoccupation with capitalism, Martí also drew parallels with the American Revolution and the nationalist movement in Cuba. At the same time, he recognized the advantages of the European or North American civilizations, which were open to the reforms that Latin American countries needed in order to detach themselves from the colonial heritage of Spain. Martí's distrust of North American politics had developed during the 1880s, due to the intervention threats that loomed on Mexico and Guatemala, and indirectly on Cuba's future. Over time Martí became increasingly alarmed about the United States' intentions for Cuba. The United States desperately needed new markets for its industrial products because of the economic crisis it was experiencing, and the media was talking about the purchase of Cuba from Spain. Cuba was a profitable, fertile country with an important strategic position in the Gulf of Mexico. Martí felt that the interests of Cuba's future lay with its sister nations in Latin America, and were opposite to those of the United States.
Another trait that Martí admired was the work ethic that characterized North American society. On various occasions Martí conveyed his deep admiration for the immigrant-based society, "whose principal aspiration he interpreted as being to construct a truly modern country, based upon hard work and progressive ideas." Martí stated that he was "never surprised in any country of the world [he had] visited. Here [he] was surprised... [he] remarked that no one stood quietly on the corners, no door was shut an instant, no man was quiet. [He] stopped [him]self, [he] looked respectfully on this people, and [he] said goodbye forever to that lazy life and poetical inutility of our European countries".
Although Martí opposed US intervention in Cuba, he found American society to be so great that he believed Latin America should consider imitating the United States. Martí argued that if the US "could reach such a high standard of living in so short a time, and despite, too, its lack of unifying traditions, could not the same be expected of Latin America?" However, Martí believed US expansionism represented Spanish American republics' "greatest danger." Martí was amazed at how education was directed towards helping the development of the nation and once again encouraged Latin American countries to follow the example set by North American society. At the same time, he criticized the elitist educational systems of Cuba and the rest of Latin America. Often, Martí recommended countries in Latin America to "send representatives to learn more relevant techniques in the United States". Once this was done, Martí hoped that this representatives would bring a "much-needed modernization to the Latin American agricultural policies".
However, not everything in the United States was to be admired by Martí. When it came to politics Martí wrote that politics in the US had "adopted a carnival atmosphere... especially during election time". He saw acts of corruption among candidates, such as bribing "the constituents with vast quantities of beer, while impressive parades wound their way through New York's crowded streets, past masses of billboards, all exhorting the public to vote for the different political candidates". Martí criticized and condemned the elites of the United States as they "pulled the main political strings behind the scenes". According to Martí, the elites "deserved severe censure" as they were the biggest threat to the "ideals with which the United States was first conceived".
Martí started to believe that the US had abused its potential. Racism was abundant. Different races were being discriminated against; political life "was both cynically regarded by the public at large and widely abused by 'professional politicians'; industrial magnates and powerful labor groups faced each other menacingly". All of this convinced Martí that a large-scale social conflict was imminent in the United States.
On the positive side, Martí was astonished by the "inviolable right of freedom of speech which all U.S. citizens possessed". Martí applauded the United States' Constitution which allowed freedom of speech to all its citizens, no matter what political beliefs they had. In May 1883, while attending political meetings he heard "the call for revolution – and more specifically the destruction of the capitalist system". Martí was amazed that the country maintained freedom of speech even with respect to calls that "could have led to its own destruction". Martí also gave his support to the women's suffrage movements, and was "pleased that women here [took] advantage of this privilege in order to make their voices heard". According to Martí, free speech was essential if any nation was to be civilized and he expressed his "profound admiration for these many basic liberties and opportunities open to the vast majority of U.S. citizens".
The works of Martí contain many comparisons between the ways of life of North and Latin America. The former was seen as "hardy, 'soulless', and, at times, cruel society, but one which, nevertheless, had been based upon a firm foundation of liberty and on a tradition of liberty". Although North American society had its flaws, they tended to be "of minor importance when compared to the broad sweep of social inequality, and to the widespread abuse of power prevalent in Latin America".
Once it became apparent that the United States were actually going to purchase Cuba and intended to Americanize it, Martí "spoke out loudly and bravely against such action, stating the opinion of many Cubans on the United States of America."
Latin American identity
José Martí as a liberator believed that the Latin American countries needed to know the reality of their own history. Martí also saw the necessity of a country having its own literature. These reflections started in Mexico from 1875 and are connected to the Mexican Reform, where prominent liberals like Ignacio Manuel Altamirano and Guillermo Prieto had situated themselves in front of a cultural renovation in Mexico, taking on the same approach as Esteban Echeverría thirty years before in Argentina. In the second "Boletin" that Martí published in the Revista Universal (May 11, 1875) one can already see Martí's approach, which was fundamentally Latin American. His wish to build a national or Latin American identity was nothing new or unusual in those days; however, no Latin-American intellectual of that time had approached as clearly as Martí the task of building a national identity. He insisted on the necessity of building institutions and laws that matched the natural elements of each country, and recalled the failure of the applications of French and American civil codes in the new Latin American republics. Martí believed that "el hombre del sur", the man of the South, should choose an appropriate development strategy matching his character, the peculiarity of his culture and history, and the nature that determined his being.
Writings
Martí as a writer covered a range of genres. In addition to producing newspaper articles and keeping up an extensive correspondence (his letters are included in the collection of his complete works), he wrote a serialized novel, composed poetry, wrote essays, and published four issues of a children's magazine, La Edad de Oro(The Golden Age, 1889). His essays and articles occupy more than fifty volumes of his complete works. His prose was extensively read and influenced the modernist generation, especially the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío, whom Martí called "my son" when they met in New York in 1893.
Martí did not publish any books: only two notebooks (Cuadernos) of verses, in editions outside of the market, and a number of political tracts. The rest (an enormous amount) was left dispersed in numerous newspapers and magazines, in letters, in diaries and personal notes, in other unedited texts, in frequently improvised speeches, and some lost forever. Five years after his death, the first volume of his Obras was published. A novel appeared in this collection in 1911: Amistad funesta, which Martí had made known was published under a pseudonym in 1885. In 1913, also in this edition, his third poetic collection that he had kept unedited: Versos Libres. His Diario de Campaña (Campaign Diary) was published in 1941. Later still, in 1980, Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Mejía Sánchez produced a set of about thirty of Martí's articles written for the Mexican newspaper El Partido Liberal that weren't included in any of his so-called Obras Completas editions. From 1882 to 1891, Martí collaborated in La Nación, a Buenos Aires newspaper. His texts from La Nación have been collected in Anuario del centro de Estudios Martíanos.
Over the course of his journalistic career, he wrote for numerous newspapers, starting with El Diablo Cojuelo (The Limping Devil) and La Patria Libre (The Free Fatherland), both of which he helped to found in 1869 in Cuba and which established the extent of his political commitment and vision for Cuba. In Spain he wrote for La Colonia Española,in Mexico for La Revista Universal, and in Venezuela for Revista Venezolana, which he founded. In New York he contributed to Venezuelan periodical La Opinión Nacional, Buenos Aires newspaper La Nación, Mexico's La Opinion Liberal, and The Hour from the U.S.
The first critical edition of Martí's complete works began to appear in 1983 in José Martí: Obras completas. Edición crítica. The critical edition of his complete poems was published in 1985 in José Martí: Poesía completa. Edición critica.
Volume two of his Obras Completas includes his famous essay 'Nuestra America' which "comprises a variety of subjects relating to Spanish America about which Martí studied and wrote. Here it is noted that after Cuba his interest was directed mostly to Guatemala, Mexico and Venezuela. The various sections of this part are about general matters and international conferences; economic, social and political questions; literature and art; agrarian and industrial problems; immigration; education; relations with the United States and Spanish America; travel notes".
According to Martí, the intention behind the publication of "La edad de oro" was "so that American children may know how people used to live, and how they live nowadays, in the United States and in other countries; how many things are made, such as glass and iron, steam engines and suspension bridges and electric light; so that when a child sees a coloured stone he will know why the stone is coloured. ... We shall tell them about everything which is done in factories, where things happen which are stranger and more interesting than the magic in fairy stories. These things are real magic, more marvelous than any. ... We write for children because it is they who know how to love, because it is children who are the hope for the world".
Martí's "Versos Sencillos" was written "in the town of Haines Falls, New York, where his doctor has sent [him] to regain his strength 'where streams flowed and clouds gathered in upon themeselves'". The poetry encountered in this work is "in many [ways] autobiographical and allows readers to see Martí the man and the patriot and to judge what was important to him at a crucial time in Cuban history".
Martí's writings reflected his own views both socially and politically. "Cultivo Una Rosa Blanca" is one of his poems that emphasize his views in hopes of betterment for society:
This poem is a clear description of Martí's societal hopes for his homeland. Within the poem, he talks about how regardless of the person, whether kind or cruel he cultivates a white rose, meaning that he remains peaceful. This coincides with his ideology about establishing unity amongst the people, more so those of Cuba, through a common identity, with no regards to ethnic and racial differences. This doctrine could be accomplished if one treated his enemy with peace as he would treat a friend. The kindness of one person should be shared with all people, regardless of personal conflict. By following the moral that lies within "Cultivo Rosa Blanca", Martí's vision of Cuban solidarity could be possible, creating a more peaceful society that would emanate through future generations.
After his breakthrough in Cuba literature, José Martí went on to contribute his works to newspapers, magazines, and books that reflected his political and social views. Because of his early death, Martí was unable to publish a vast collection of poetry; even so, his literary contributions have made him a renowned figure in literature, influencing many writers, and people in general, to aspire to follow in the footsteps of Martí.
Style
Martí's style of writing is difficult to categorize. He used many aphorisms—short, memorable lines that convey truth and/or wisdom—and long complex sentences. He is considered a major contributor to the Spanish American literary movement known as Modernismo and has been linked to Latin American consciousness of the modern age and modernity. His chronicles combined elements of literary portraiture, dramatic narration, and a dioramic scope. His poetry contained "fresh and astonishing images along with deceptively simple sentiments". As an orator (for he made many speeches) he was known for his cascading structure, powerful aphorisms, and detailed descriptions. More important than his style is how he uses that style to put into service his ideas, making "advanced" convincing notions. Throughout his writing he made reference to historical figures and events, and used constant allusions to literature, current news and cultural matters. For this reason, he may be difficult to read and translate.
His didactic spirit encouraged him to establish a magazine for children, La Edad de Oro (1889) which contained a short essay titled "Tres Heroes" (three heroes), representative of his talent to adapt his expression to his audience; in this case, to make the young reader conscious of and amazed by the extraordinary bravery of the three men, Bolivar, Hidalgo, and San Martín. This is his style to teach delightfully.
Translation
José Martí is universally honored as a great poet, patriot and martyr of Cuban Independence, but he was also a translator of some note. Although he translated literary material for the sheer joy of it, much of the translating he did was imposed on him by economic necessity during his many years of exile in the United States. Martí learned English at an early age, and had begun to translate at thirteen. He continued translating for the rest of his life, including his time as a student in Spain, although the period of his greatest productivity was during his stay in New York from 1880 until he returned to Cuba in 1895.
In New York he was what is known today as a "freelancer," as well as an "in house" translator. He translated several books for the publishing house of D. Appleton, and did a series of translations for newspapers. As a revolutionary activist in Cuba's long struggle for independence he translated into English a number of articles and pamphlets supporting that movement. In addition to fluent English, Martí also spoke French, Italian, Latin and Classical Greek fluently, the latter learned so he could read the Greek classical works in the original.
There was clearly a dichotomy in Martí's feeling about the kind of work he was translating. Like many professionals, he undertook for money translation tasks which had little intellectual or emotional appeal for him. Although Martí never presented a systematic theory of translation nor did he write extensively about his approach to translation, he did jot down occasional thoughts on the subject, showcasing his awareness of the translator's dilemma of the faithful versus the beautiful and stating that "translation should be natural, so that it appears that the book were written in the language to which it has been translated".
Modernism
The modernists, in general, use a subjective language. Martí's stylistic creed is part of the necessity to de-codify the logic rigor and the linguistic construction and to eliminate the intellectual, abstract and systematic expression. There is the deliberate intention and awareness to expand the expressive system of the language. The style changes the form of thinking. Without falling into unilateralism, Martí values the expression because language is an impression and a feeling through the form. Modernism mostly searches for the visions and realities, the expression takes in the impressions, the state of mind, without reflection and without concept. This is the law of subjectivity. We can see this in works of Martí, one of the first modernists, who conceives the literary task like an invisible unity, an expressive totality, considering the style like "a form of the content" (forma del contenido).
The difference that Martí established between prose and poetry are conceptual. Poetry, as he believes, is a language of the permanent subjective: the intuition and the vision. The prose is an instrument and a method of spreading the ideas, and has the goal of elevating, encouraging and animating these ideas rather than having the expression of tearing up the heart, complaining and moaning. The prose is a service to his people.
Martí produces a system of specific signs "an ideological code" (código ideológico). These symbols claim their moral value and construct signs of ethic conduct. Martí's modernism was a spiritual attitude that was reflected on the language. All his writing defines his moral world. One could also say that his ideological and spiritual sphere is fortified in his writing.
The difference between Martí and other modernist initiators such as Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera, Julian del Casal, and José Asunción Silva (and the similarity between him and Manuel González Prada) lies in the profound and transcendent value that he gave to literature, converting prose into an article or the work of a journalist. This hard work was important in giving literature authentic and independent value and distancing it from mere formal amusement. Manuel Gutiérez Nájera, Rubén Darío, Miguel de Unamuno and José Enrique Rodó saved the Martínian articles, which will have an endless value in the writings of the American continent.
Apart from Martínian articles. essay writing and literature starts to authorize itself as an alternative and privileged way to talk about politics. Literature starts to apply itself the only hermeneutics able to resolve the enigmas of a Latin American identity.
Legacy
Symbol of Cuban independence
Martí's dedication to the cause of Cuban independence and his passionate belief in democracy and justice has made him a hero for all Cubans, a symbol of unity, the "Apostle", a great leader. His writings have created a platform for all that he went through during the duration of this period in time. His ultimate goal of building a democratic, just, and stable republic in Cuba and his obsession with the practical execution of this goal led him to become the most charismatic leader of the 1895 colonial revolution. His work with the Cuban émigré community, enlisting the support of Cuban workers and socialist leaders to form the Cuban Revolutionary Party, put into motion the Cuban war of independence. His foresight into the future, shown in his warnings against American political interests for Cuba, was confirmed by the swift occupation of Cuba by the United States following the Spanish–American War. His belief in the inseparability of Cuban and Latin American sovereignty and the expression thereof in his writings have contributed to the shape of the modern Latin American Identity. Through his beliefs for Cuban and Latin American sovereignty, Cuba revolted on former allies. This is why Cuba became an independent nation. His works are a cornerstone of Latin American and political literature and his prolific contributions to the fields of journalism, poetry, and prose are highly acclaimed.
Influence on the Cuban Communist Party
Despite the history of post-1959 Cuba's affiliation as a Communist state, it has been acknowledged that it is in fact Martí's ideology which serves as the main driving force of the ruling Cuban Communist Party. Regarded as Cuba's "martyr" and "patron saint," several landmarks in Cuba are dedicated to Martí. Following his death in 2016, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who played a major role in promoting Martí's image in Revolutionary Cuba, was buried next to Martí in Santiago. Martí's writings on the concepts of Cuban nationalism fuelled the 1895 revolution and have continued to inform conflicting visions of the Cuban nation. The Cuban nation-state under Fidel Castro consistently claimed Martí as a crucial inspiration for its Communist revolutionary government. During Castro's tenure, the politics and death of Martí were used to justify certain actions of the Cuban state. The Cuban government claimed that Martí had supported a single party system, creating a precedent for a communist government.
The vast amount of writing that Martí produced in his lifetime makes it difficult to determine his exact political ideology, but his major goal was the liberation of Cuba from Spain and the establishment of a democratic republican government. Despite Martí never having supported communism or single party systems, Cuban leaders repeatedly claimed that Martí's Partido Revolucionario Cubano was a "forerunner of the Communist Party".
Martí's nuanced, often ambivalent positions on the most important issues of his day have led Marxist interpreters to see a class conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie as the main theme of his works, while others, namely the Cuban diasporic communities in Miami and elsewhere have identified a liberal-capitalist emphasis. These Cuban exiles still honor Martí as a figure of hope for the Cuban nation in exile and condemn Castro's government for manipulating his works and creating a "Castroite Martí" to justify its "intolerance and abridgments of human rights". His writings thus remain a key ideological weapon in the battle over the fate of the Cuban nation.
Memorials and tributes
José Martí International Airport, Havana's international airport, is named after Martí. A statue of Martí was unveiled in Havana on his 123rd birth anniversary, with President Raúl Castro attending the ceremony. The José Martí Memorial in the Vedado neighborhood of Havana includes a 109-m tower and is the largest monument in the world dedicated to a writer.
The National Association of Hispanic Publications, a non-profit organization to promote Hispanic publications, each year designates the José Martí Awards for excellence in Hispanic media.
On the waterfront of Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, a city that José Martí visited three times, a power station is named after him. The home where he resided during his final visit in 1895 bears a marble plaque. Place José Martí (José Martí Square), featuring a bust of the poet, was inaugurated in 2014.
In Romania, a Bucharest public school and the Romanian-Cuban Friendship Association from Targoviste are both named "Jose Martí".
List of selected works
Martí's fundamental works published during his life
1869 January: Abdala
1869 January: "10 de octubre"
1871: El presidio político en Cuba
1873: La República Española ante la revolución cubana
1875: Amor con amor se paga
1882: Ismaelillo
1882 February: Ryan vs. Sullivan
1882 February: Un incendio
1882 July: El ajusticiamiento de Guiteau
1883 January: "Batallas de la Paz"
1883 March: " Que son graneros humanos"
1883 March: Karl Marx ha muerto
1883 March:El Puente de Brooklyn
1883 September: "En Coney Island se vacía Nueva York"
1883 December:" Los políticos de oficio"
1883 December: "Bufalo Bil"
1884 April:"Los caminadores"
1884 November: Norteamericanos
1884 November:El juego de pelota de pies
1885: Amistad funesta
1885 January:Teatro en Nueva York
1885 '"Una gran rosa de bronce encendida" 1885 March:Los fundadores de la constitución 1885 June: "Somos pueblo original" 1885 August: "Los políticos tiene sus púgiles" 1886 May: Las revueltas anarquistas de Chicago 1886 September: " La ensenanza" 1886 October: "La Estatua de la Libertad"
1887 April: El poeta Walt Whitman 1887 April: El Madison Square 1887 November: Ejecución de los dirigentes anarquistas de Chicago 1887 November: La gran Nevada 1888 May: El ferrocarril elevado 1888 August: Verano en Nueva York 1888 November: " Ojos abiertos, y gargantas secas" 1888 November: "Amanece y ya es fragor" 1889: 'La edad de oro'
1889 May: El centenario de George Washington 1889 July: Bañistas 1889 August: "Nube Roja" 1889 September: "La caza de negros" 1890 November: " El jardín de las orquídeas" 1891 October:Versos Sencillos 1891 January: "Nuestra América" 1894 January: " ¡A Cuba!" 1895: Manifiesto de Montecristi- coauthor with Máximo GómezMartí's major posthumous works
Adúltera Versos libresSee also
International José Martí Prize
Radio y Televisión Martí
José Rizal, Philippine national hero also executed by the Spanish in 1896
Bust of José Martí, Houston, Texas
Monument to José Martí, Madrid, Spain
Guantanamera
Notes
References
Abel, Christopher. José Martí: Revolutionary Democrat. London: Athlone. 1986.
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Cairo, Ana. Jose Marti y la novela de la cultura cubana. Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. 2003.
De La Cuesta, Leonel Antonio. Martí, Traductor. Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca. 1996.
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Fidalgo, Jose Antonio. "El Doctor Fermín Valdés-Domínguez, Hombre de Ciencias y Su Posible Influencia Recíproca Con José Martí" Cuadernos de Historia de la Salud Pública 1998 (84) pp. 26–34
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Kirk, John M. José Martí, Mentor of the Cuban Nation. Tampa: University Presses of Florida, c1983.
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Martí, José, Manuel A.Tellechea Versos Sencillos. U of Houston: Arte Público Press, 1997
Morukian, Maria. "Cubanidad: Survival of Cuban Culture Identity in the 21st Century".
Nassif, Ricardo. "Jose Martí (1853–95) ". Originally published in Prospects:the quarterly review of comparative education(Paris, UNESCO: International Bureau of Education), vol. XXIV, no. 1/2, 1994, pp. 107–19
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Pérez-Galdós Ortiz, Víctor. José Martí: Visión de un Hombre Universal. Barcelona: Puvill Libros Ltd. 1999.
Quiroz, Alfonso. "The Cuban Republic and José Martí: reception and use of a national symbol". Lexington Books, 2006
Ripoll, Carlos. Jose Marti and the United States, and the Marxist interpretation of Cuban History. New Jersey: Transaction Inc. 1984.
Ronning, C. Neale. Jose Marti and the emigre colony in Key West. New York: Praeger. 1990.
.
Schulman, Ivan A. Símbolo y color en la obra de José Martí. Editorial Gredos, 1960.
Scott, Rebecca J. "Explaining Abolition: Contradiction, Adaptation, and Challenge in Cuban Slave Society, 1860–1886". Comparative Studies in Society and History,'' Vol. 26, No. 1 (Jan., 1984), pp. 83–111
.
.
Vincent, Jon S. "Jose Marti: Surrealist or Seer?" Latin American Research Review, Vol. 13, No. 1 (1978), pp. 178–81.
External links
Obras completas de José Martí (Index to Complete Works; Spanish)
José Martí (.cu)
José Martí (.org)
Romero Family Papers Regarding José Martí and books by José Martí fully and freely available from the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC)
Fernandina Expedition
1853 births
1895 deaths
19th-century Cuban poets
19th-century journalists
19th-century translators
American writers of Cuban descent
Anti-Americanism
Cuban children's writers
Cuban essayists
Cuban expatriates in Guatemala
Cuban expatriates in the United States
Cuban independence activists
Cuban male poets
Cuban people of Canarian descent
Cuban people of Catalan descent
Cuban people of Spanish descent
Cuban philosophers
Cuban revolutionaries
Cuban soldiers
Cuban translators
English–Spanish translators
Hispanic and Latino American journalists
History of Key West, Florida
History of Tampa, Florida
Male essayists
Male journalists
Modernist writers
Partido Auténtico politicians
People from Havana
People killed in action
Political philosophers
University of Zaragoza alumni | true | [
"Taxation in Cuba is regulated by the Law 113 of 2012. The law establishes the form and basis of taxation in Cuba.\n\nIncome tax \n\nIncome tax is levied to natural persons who engage on economic activities outside employment for the government. For those persons, there are two tax regimes: one is based on accounted profits, and the other is a fixed monthly fee adjusted per occupation.\n\nThe tax regime based on accounted profits is imposed to people with income over 100000 CUP (equivalent to USD 4000) and to people in some particular occupations, for example food retailing. In this regime, deductions are allowed for costs up to a limit arbitrarily set by the Minister of Finances, but also for other taxes and some base deductions.\n\nThe second form is imposed to the rest of the retailers, and does not require that the entrepreneur do any kind of accounting. This form of tax is possible because the Cuban legislation only allows for rudimentary forms of economic association involving very few people, also, the kinds of activity per occupation and the occupations themselves are limited per law\n\nThe Finance Minister sets preliminary monthly tax quotas based on occupation. If the amount of the preliminary tax paid during the fiscal year is higher than the final tax according to income and tax rate, no tax refund is made. That is, tax refunds are not made in any case.\n\nIncome for remittances from abroad to natural persons is not taxed, but income for contracts taken abroad is taxed at a 4% rate without right to any deductions.\n\nReferences \n\nEconomy of Cuba",
"The R W B Stephens Medal is a prize from the Institute of Acoustics named after Dr Ray Stephens, the first President of the Institute of Acoustics. His main interests lay in physical acoustics but he is remembered by generations of students for his continuing work in education. The medal is awarded in odd-numbered years for outstanding contributions to acoustics research or education.\n\nList of recipients\nSource: Institute of Acoustics\n\nSee also\n\n List of physics awards\n\nReferences\n\nPhysics awards\nBritish science and technology awards"
]
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"What are some of Marti's most significant works?",
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"How did he contribute to Cuban independence?",
"become the most charismatic leader of the 1895 colonial revolution.",
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| C_9f9c3397a7114f4cabea4c4c25bbba4c_0 | Besides his political contributions, what other things have been part of his legacy? | 4 | Besides Marti's political contributions, what other things have been part of his legacy? | José Martí | Marti's dedication to the cause of Cuban independence and his passionate belief in democracy and justice has made him a hero for all Cubans, a symbol of unity, the "Apostle", a great leader. His ultimate goal of building a democratic, just, and stable republic in Cuba and his obsession with the practical execution of this goal led him to become the most charismatic leader of the 1895 colonial revolution. His work with the Cuban emigre community, enlisting the support of Cuban workers and socialist leaders to form the Cuban Revolutionary Party, put into motion the Cuban war of independence. His foresight into the future, shown in his warnings against American political interests for Cuba, was confirmed by the swift occupation of Cuba by the United States following the Spanish-American War. His belief in the inseparability of Cuban and Latin American sovereignty and the expression thereof in his writings have contributed to the shape of the modern Latin American Identity. His works are a cornerstone of Latin American and political literature and his prolific contributions to the fields of journalism, poetry, and prose are highly acclaimed. Marti's writings on the concepts of Cuban nationalism fuelled the 1895 revolution and have continued to inform conflicting visions of the Cuban nation. The Cuban nation-state under Fidel Castro consistently claimed Marti as a crucial inspiration for its Communist revolutionary government. During Castro's regime, the politics and death of Marti were used to justify certain actions of the Cuban state. The Cuban government claimed that Marti had supported a single party system, creating a precedent for an all-powerful communist government. Castro used this explanation throughout the late 20th century to deter Cuban citizens from demanding a multiparty system. The vast amount of writing that Marti produced in his lifetime makes it difficult to determine his exact political ideology, but his major goal was the liberation of Cuba from Spain and the establishment of a democratic republican government. Despite Marti never having supported communism or single party systems, Cuban leaders repeatedly claimed that Marti's Partido Revolucionario Cubano was a "forerunner of the Communist Party". Marti's nuanced, often ambivalent positions on the most important issues of his day have led Marxist interpreters to see a class conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie as the main theme of his works, while others, namely the Cuban diasporic communities in Miami and elsewhere have identified a liberal-capitalist emphasis. These Cuban exiles still honor Marti as a figure of hope for the Cuban nation in exile and condemn Castro's regime for manipulating his works and creating a "Castroite Marti" to justify its "intolerance and abridgments of human rights". His writings thus remain a key ideological weapon in the battle over the fate of the Cuban nation. One further example of his legacy is that his name has been chosen for several institutions or NGOs from various countries, such as Romania, where a public school from Bucharest and the Romanian-Cuban Friendship Association from Targoviste are both named "Jose Marti". A gigantic statue was unveiled on his 123rd birth anniversary and President Raul Castro was present at the ceremony. CANNOTANSWER | His works are a cornerstone of Latin American and political literature and his prolific contributions to the fields of journalism, poetry, and prose are highly acclaimed. | José Julián Martí Pérez (; January 28, 1853 – May 19, 1895) was a Cuban nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the liberation of his country. He was also an important figure in Latin American literature. He was very politically active and is considered an important philosopher and political theorist. Through his writings and political activity, he became a symbol of Cuba's bid for independence from the Spanish Empire in the 19th century, and is referred to as the "Apostle of Cuban Independence". From adolescence, he dedicated his life to the promotion of liberty, political independence for Cuba, and intellectual independence for all Spanish Americans; his death was used as a cry for Cuban independence from Spain by both the Cuban revolutionaries and those Cubans previously reluctant to start a revolt.
Born in Havana, Spanish Empire, Martí began his political activism at an early age. He traveled extensively in Spain, Latin America, and the United States, raising awareness and support for the cause of Cuban independence. His unification of the Cuban émigré community, particularly in Florida, was crucial to the success of the Cuban War of Independence against Spain. He was a key figure in the planning and execution of this war, as well as the designer of the Cuban Revolutionary Party and its ideology. He died in military action during the Battle of Dos Ríos on May 19, 1895. Martí is considered one of the great turn-of-the-century Latin American intellectuals. His written works include a series of poems, essays, letters, lectures, novel, and a children's magazine.
He wrote for numerous Latin American and American newspapers; he also founded a number of newspapers. His newspaper Patria was an important instrument in his campaign for Cuban independence. After his death, one of his poems from the book, Versos Sencillos (Simple Verses) was adapted to the song "Guantanamera", which has become the definitive patriotic song of Cuba. The concepts of freedom, liberty, and democracy are prominent themes in all of his works, which were influential on the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío and the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral. Following the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Martí's ideology became a major driving force in Cuban politics. He is also regarded as Cuba's "martyr."
Life
Early life, Cuba: 1853–70
José Julián Martí Pérez was born on January 28, 1853, in Havana, at 41 Paula Street, to Spanish parents, a Valencian father, Mariano Martí Navarro, and Leonor Pérez Cabrera, a native of the Canary Islands. Martí was the elder brother to seven sisters: Leonor, Mariana, María del Carmen, María del Pilar, Rita Amelia, Antonia and Dolores. He was baptized on February 12 in Santo Ángel Custodio church. When he was four, his family moved from Cuba to Valencia, Spain, but two years later they returned to the island where they enrolled José at a local public school, in the Santa Clara neighborhood where his father worked as a prison guard.
In 1865, he enrolled in the Escuela de Instrucción Primaria Superior Municipal de Varones that was headed by Rafael María de Mendive. Mendive was influential in the development of Martí's political philosophies. Also instrumental in his development of a social and political conscience was his best friend Fermín Valdés Domínguez, the son of a wealthy slave-owning family. In April the same year, after hearing the news of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Martí and other young students expressed their pain—through group mourning—for the death of a man who had decreed the abolition of slavery in the United States. In 1866, Martí entered the Instituto de Segunda Enseñanza where Mendive financed his studies.
Martí signed up at the Escuela Profesional de Pintura y Escultura de La Habana (Professional School for Painting and Sculpture of Havana) in September 1867, known as San Alejandro, to take drawing classes. He hoped to flourish in this area but did not find commercial success. In 1867, he also entered the school of San Pablo, established and managed by Mendive, where he enrolled for the second and third years of his bachelor's degree and assisted Mendive with the school's administrative tasks. In April 1868, his poem dedicated to Mendive's wife, A Micaela. En la Muerte de Miguel Ángel appeared in Guanabacoa's newspaper El Álbum.
When the Ten Years' War broke out in Cuba in 1868, clubs of supporters for the Cuban nationalist cause formed all over Cuba, and José and his friend Fermín joined them. Martí had a precocious desire for the independence and freedom of Cuba. He started writing poems about this vision, while, at the same time, trying to do something to achieve this dream. In 1869, he published his first political writings in the only edition of the newspaper El Diablo Cojuelo, published by Fermín Valdés Domínguez. That same year he published "Abdala", a patriotic drama in verse form in the one-volume La Patria Libre newspaper, which he published himself. "Abdala" is about a fictional country called Nubia which struggles for liberation. His sonnet "10 de Octubre", later to become one of his most famous poems, was also written during that year, and was published later in his school newspaper.
In March of that year, colonial authorities shut down the school, interrupting Martí's studies. He came to resent Spanish rule of his homeland at an early age; likewise, he developed a hatred of slavery, which was still practiced in Cuba.
On October 21, 1869, aged 16, he was arrested and incarcerated in the national jail, following an accusation of treason and bribery from the Spanish government upon the discovery of a "reproving" letter, which Martí and Fermín had written to a friend when the friend joined the Spanish army. More than four months later, Martí confessed to the charges and was condemned to six years in prison. His mother tried to free her son (who at 16 was still a minor) by writing letters to the government, and his father went to a lawyer friend for legal support, but these efforts failed. Eventually, Martí fell ill; his legs were severely lacerated by the chains that bound him. As a result, he was transferred to another part of Cuba known as Isla de Pinos instead of further imprisonment. Following that, the Spanish authorities decided to exile him to Spain. In Spain, Martí, who was 18 at the time, was allowed to continue his studies with the hopes that studying in Spain would renew his loyalty to Spain.
Spain: 1871–74
In January 1871, Martí embarked on the steam ship Guipuzcoa, which took him from Havana to Cádiz. He settled in Madrid in a guesthouse in Desengaño St. #10. Arriving at the capitol he contacted fellow Cuban Carlos Sauvalle, who had been deported to Spain a year before Martí and whose house served as a center of reunions for Cubans in exile. On March 24, Cádiz's newspaper La Soberania Nacional, published Martí's article "Castillo" in which he recalled the sufferings of a friend he met in prison. This article would be reprinted in Sevilla's La Cuestión Cubana and New York's La República. At this time, Martí registered himself as a member of independent studies in the law faculty of the Central University of Madrid. While studying here, Martí openly participated in discourse on the Cuban issue, debating through the Spanish press and circulating documents protesting Spanish activities in Cuba.
Martí's maltreatment at the hands of the Spaniards and consequent deportation to Spain in 1871 inspired a tract, Political Imprisonment in Cuba, published in July. This pamphlet's purpose was to move the Spanish public to do something about its government's brutalities in Cuba and promoted the issue of Cuban independence. In September, from the pages of El Jurado Federal, Martí and Sauvalle accused the newspaper La Prensa of having calumniated the Cuban residents in Madrid. During his stay in Madrid, Martí frequented the Ateneo and the National Library, the Café de los Artistas, and the British, Swiss and Iberian breweries. In November he became sick and had an operation, paid for by Sauvalle.
On November 27, 1871, eight medical students, who had been accused (without evidence) of the desecration of a Spanish grave, were executed in Havana. In June 1872, Fermín Valdés was arrested because of the November 27 incident. His sentence of six years of jail was pardoned, and he was exiled to Spain where he reunited with Martí. On November 27, 1872, the printed matter Dia 27 de Noviembre de 1871 (27 November 1871) written by Martí and signed by Fermín Valdés Domínguez and Pedro J. de la Torre circulated Madrid. A group of Cubans held a funeral in the Caballero de Gracia church, the first anniversary of the medical students' execution.
In 1873, Martí's "A mis Hermanos Muertos el 27 de Noviembre" was published by Fermín Valdés. In February, for the first time, the Cuban flag appeared in Madrid, hanging from Martí's balcony in Concepción Jerónima, where he lived for a few years. In the same month, the Proclamation of the First Spanish Republic by the Cortes on February 11, 1873 reaffirmed Cuba as inseparable to Spain, Martí responded with an essay, The Spanish Republic and the Cuban Revolution, and sent it to the Prime Minister, pointing out that this new freely elected body of deputies that had proclaimed a republic based on democracy had been hypocritical not to grant Cuba its independence. He sent examples of his work to Nestor Ponce de Leon, a member of the Junta Central Revolucionaria de Nueva York (Central revolutionary committee of New York), to whom he would express his will to collaborate on the fight for the independence of Cuba.
In May, he moved to Zaragoza, accompanied by Fermín Valdés to continue his studies in law at the Universidad Literaria. The newspaper La Cuestión Cubana of Sevilla, published numerous articles from Martí.
In June 1874, Martí graduated with a degree in Civil Law and Canon Law. In August he signed up as an external student at the Facultad de Filosofia y Letras de Zaragoza, where he finished his degree by October. In November he returned to Madrid and then left to Paris. There he met Auguste Vacquerie, a poet, and Victor Hugo. In December 1874 he embarked from Le Havre for Mexico. Prevented from returning to Cuba, Martí went instead to Mexico and Guatemala. During these travels, he taught and wrote, advocating continuously for Cuba's independence.
México and Guatemala: 1875–78
In 1875, Martí lived on Calle Moneda in Mexico City near the Zócalo, a prestigious address of the time. One floor above him lived Manuel Antonio Mercado, Secretary of the Distrito Federal, who became one of Martí's best friends. On March 2, 1875, he published his first article for Vicente Villada's Revista Universal, a broadsheet discussing politics, literature, and general business commerce. On March 12, his Spanish translation of Hugo's Mes Fils (1874) began serialization in Revista Universal. Martí then joined the editorial staff, editing the Boletín section of the publication.
In these writings, he expressed his opinions about current events in Mexico. On May 27, in the newspaper Revista Universal, he responded to the anti-Cuban-independence arguments in La Colonia Española, a newspaper for Spanish citizens living in Mexico. In December, Sociedad Gorostiza (Gorostiza Society), a group of writers and artists, accepted Martí as a member, where he met his future wife, Carmen Zayas Bazán, during his frequent visits to her Cuban father's house to meet with the Gorostiza group.
On January 1, 1876, in Oaxaca, elements opposed to Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada's government, led by Gen. Porfirio Díaz, proclaimed the Plan de Tuxtepec, which instigated a bloody civil war. Martí and Mexican colleagues established the Sociedad Alarcón, composed of dramatists, actors, and critics. At this point, Martí began collaborating with the newspaper El Socialista as leader of the Gran Círculo Obrero (Great Labor Circle) organization of liberals and reformists who supported Lerdo de Tejada. In March, the newspaper proposed a series of candidates as delegates, including Martí, to the first Congreso Obrero, or congress of the workers. On June 4, La Sociedad Esperanza de Empleados (Employees' Hope Society) designated Martí as delegate to the Congreso Obrero. On December 7, Martí published his article Alea Jacta Est in the newspaper El Federalista, bitterly criticizing the Porfiristas' armed assault upon the constitutional government in place. On December 16, he published the article "Extranjero" (foreigner; abroad), in which he repeated his denunciation of the Porfiristas and bade farewell to Mexico.
In 1877, using his second name and second surname Julián Pérez as pseudonym, Martí embarked for Havana, hoping to arrange to move his family away to Mexico City from Havana. He returned to Mexico, however, entering at the port of Progreso from which, via Isla de Mujeres and Belize, he travelled south to progressive Guatemala City. He took residence in the prosperous suburb of Ciudad Vieja, home of Guatemala's artists and intelligentsia of the day, on Cuarta Avenida (Fourth Avenue), 3 km south of Guatemala City. While there, he was commissioned by the government to write the play Patria y Libertad (Drama Indio) (Country and Liberty (an Indian Drama)). He met personally the president, Justo Rufino Barrios, about this project. On April 22, the newspaper El Progreso published his article "Los códigos Nuevos" (The New Laws) pertaining to the then newly enacted Civil Code. On May 29, he was appointed head of the Department of French, English, Italian and German Literature, History and Philosophy, on the faculty of philosophy and arts of the Universidad Nacional. On July 25, he lectured for the opening evening of the literary society 'Sociedad Literaria El Porvenir', at the Teatro Colón (the since-renamed Teatro Nacional), at which function he was appointed vice-president of the Society, and acquiring the moniker "el doctor torrente," or Doctor Torrent, in view of his rhetorical style. Martí taught composition classes free at the Academia de Niñas de Centroamérica girls' academy, among whose students he enthralled young María García Granados y Saborío, daughter of Guatemalan president Miguel García Granados. The schoolgirl's crush was unrequited, however, as he went again to México, where he met Carmen Zayas Bazán and whom he later married.
In 1878, Martí returned to Guatemala and published his book Guatemala, edited in Mexico. On May 10, socialite María García Granados died of lung disease; her unrequited love for Martí branded her, poignantly, as 'la niña de Guatemala, la que se murió de amor' (the Guatemalan girl who died of love). Following her death, Martí returned to Cuba. There, he resigned signing the Pact of Zanjón which ended the Cuban Ten Years' War, but had no effect on Cuba's status as a colony. He met Afro-Cuban revolutionary Juan Gualberto Gómez, who would be his lifelong partner in the independence struggle and a stalwart defender of his legacy during this same journey. He married Carmen Zayas Bazán on Havana's Calle Tulipán Street at this time. In October, his application to practice law in Cuba was refused, and thereafter he immersed himself in radical efforts, such as for the Comité Revolucionario Cubano de Nueva York (Cuban Revolutionary Committee of New York). On November 22, 1878 his son José Francisco, known fondly as "Pepito", was born.
United States and Venezuela: 1880–90
In 1881, after a brief stay in New York, Martí travelled to Venezuela and founded in Caracas the Revista Venezolana, or Venezuelan Review. The journal incurred the wrath of Venezuela's dictator, Antonio Guzmán Blanco, and Martí was forced to return to New York. There, Martí joined General Calixto García's Cuban revolutionary committee, composed of Cuban exiles advocating independence. Here Martí openly supported Cuba's struggle for liberation, and worked as a journalist for La Nación of Buenos Aires and for several Central American journals, especially La Opinion Liberal in Mexico City. The article "El ajusticiamiento de Guiteau," an account of President Garfield's murderer's trial, was published in La Opinion Liberal in 1881, and later selected for inclusion in The Library of America's anthology of American True Crime writing. In addition, Martí wrote poems and translated novels to Spanish. He worked for Appleton and Company and, "on his own, translated and published Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona. His repertory of original work included plays, a novel, poetry, a children's magazine, La Edad de Oro, and a newspaper, Patria, which became the official organ of the Cuban Revolutionary party". He also served as a consul for Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay. Throughout this work, he preached the "freedom of Cuba with an enthusiasm that swelled the ranks of those eager to strive with him for it".
Tension existed within the Cuban revolutionary committee between Martí and his military compatriots. Martí feared a military dictatorship would be established in Cuba upon independence, and suspected Dominican-born General Máximo Gómez of having these intentions. Martí knew that the independence of Cuba needed time and careful planning. Ultimately, Martí refused to cooperate with Máximo Gómez and Antonio Maceo Grajales, two Cuban military leaders from the Ten Years' War, when they wanted to invade immediately in 1884. Martí knew that it was too early to attempt to win back Cuba, and later events proved him right.
United States, Central America and the West Indies: 1891–94
On January 1, 1891, Martí's essay "Nuestra America" was published in New York's Revista Ilustrada, and on the 30th of that month in Mexico's El Partido Liberal. He actively participated in the Conferencia Monetaria Internacional (The International Monetary Conference) in New York during that time as well. On June 30 his wife and son arrived in New York. After a short time, during which Carmen Zayas Bazán realized that Martí's dedication to Cuban independence surpassed that of supporting his family, she returned to Havana with her son on August 27. Martí would never see them again. The fact that his wife never shared the convictions central to his life was an enormous personal tragedy for Martí. He turned for solace to Carmen Miyares de Mantilla, a Venezuelan who ran a boarding house in New York, and he is presumed to be the father of her daughter María Mantilla, who was in turn the mother of the actor Cesar Romero, who proudly claimed to be Martí's grandson. In September Martí became sick again. He intervened in the commemorative acts of The Independents, causing the Spanish consul in New York to complain to the Argentine and Uruguayan governments. Consequently, Martí resigned from the Argentinean, Paraguayan, and Uruguayan consulates. In October he published his book Versos Sencillos.
On November 26 he was invited by the Club Ignacio Agramonte, an organization founded by Cuban immigrants in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida, to a celebration to collect funding for the cause of Cuban independence. There he gave a lecture known as "Con Todos, y para el Bien de Todos", which was reprinted in Spanish language newspapers and periodicals across the United States. The following night, another lecture, " Los Pinos Nuevos", was given by Martí in another Tampa gathering in honor of the medical students killed in Cuba in 1871. In November artist Herman Norman painted a portrait of José Martí.
On January 5, 1892, Martí participated in a reunion of the emigration representatives, in Cayo Hueso (Key West), the Cuban community where the Bases del Partido Revolucionario (Basis of the Cuban Revolutionary Party) was passed. He began the process of organizing the newly formed party. To raise support and collect funding for the independence movement, he visited tobacco factories, where he gave speeches to the workers and united them in the cause. In March 1892 the first edition of the Patria newspaper, related to the Cuban Revolutionary Party, was published, funded and directed by Martí. During Martí's Key West years, his secretary was Dolores Castellanos (1870-1948), a Cuban-American woman born in Key West, who also served as president of the Protectoras de la Patria: Club Político de Cubanas, a Cuban women's political club in support of Martí's cause, and for whom Martí wrote a poem titled "A Dolores Castellanos." On April 8, he was chosen delegate of the Cuban Revolutionary Party by the Cayo Hueso Club in Tampa and New York.
From July to September 1892 he traveled through Florida, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica on an organization mission among the exiled Cubans. On this mission, Martí made numerous speeches and visited various tobacco factories. On December 16 he was poisoned in Tampa.
In 1893, Martí traveled through the United States, Central America and the West Indies, visiting different Cuban clubs. His visits were received with a growing enthusiasm and raised badly needed funds for the revolutionary cause. On May 24 he met Rubén Darío, the Nicaraguan poet in a theatre act in Hardman Hall, New York City. On June 3 he had an interview with Máximo Gómez in Montecristi, Dominican Republic, where they planned the uprising. In July he met with General Antonio Maceo Grajales in San Jose, Costa Rica.
In 1894 he continued traveling for propagation and organizing the revolutionary movement. On January 27 he published "A Cuba!" in the newspaper Patria where he denounced collusion between the Spanish and American interests. In July he visited the president of the Mexican Republic, Porfirio Díaz, and travelled to Veracruz. In August he prepared and arranged the armed expedition that would begin the Cuban revolution.
Return to Cuba: 1895
On January 12, 1895, the North American authorities stopped the steamship Lagonda and two other suspicious ships, Amadis and Baracoa, at the port of Fernandina in Florida, confiscating weapons and ruining Plan de Fernandina (Fernandina Plan). On January 29, Martí drew up the order of the uprising, signing it with general Jose Maria Rodriguez and Enrique Collazo. Juan Gualberto Gómez was assigned to orchestrate war preparations for La Habana Province, and was able to work right under the noses of the relatively unconcerned Spanish authorities. Martí decided to move to Montecristi, Dominican Republic to join Máximo Gómez and to plan out the uprising.
The uprising finally took place on February 24, 1895. A month later, Martí and Máximo Gómez declared the Manifesto de Montecristi, an "exposition of the purposes and principles of the Cuban revolution". Martí had persuaded Gómez to lead an expedition into Cuba.
Before leaving for Cuba, Martí wrote his "literary will" on April 1, 1895, leaving his personal papers and manuscripts to Gonzalo de Quesada, with instructions for editing. Knowing that the majority of his writing in newspapers in Honduras, Uruguay, and Chile would disappear over time, Martí instructed Quesada to arrange his papers in volumes. The volumes were to be arranged in the following way: volumes one and two, North Americas; volume three, Hispanic Americas; volume four, North American Scenes; volume five, Books about the Americas (this included both North and South America); volume six, Literature, education and painting. Another volume included his poetry.
The expedition, composed of Martí, Gómez, Ángel Guerra, Francisco Borreo, Cesar Salas and Marcos del Rosario, left Montecristi for Cuba on April 1, 1895. Despite delays and desertion by some members, they got to Cuba, landing at Playitas, near Cape Maisí and Imías, Cuba, on April 11. Once there, they made contact with the Cuban rebels, who were headed by the Maceo brothers, and started fighting against Spanish troops. The revolt did not go as planned, "mainly because the call to revolution received no immediate, spontaneous support from the masses." By May 13, the expedition reached Dos Rios. On May 19, Gomez faced Ximenez de Sandoval's troops and ordered Martí to stay with the rearguard, but Martí became separated from the bulk of the Cuban forces, and entered the Spanish line.
Death
José Martí was killed in battle against Spanish troops at the Battle of Dos Ríos, near the confluence of the rivers Contramaestre and Cauto, on May 19, 1895. Gómez had recognized that the Spaniards had a strong position between palm trees, so he ordered his men to disengage. Martí was alone and seeing a young courier ride by said: "Joven, ¡a la carga!" meaning: "Young man, charge!" This was around midday, and he was dressed in a black jacket while riding a white horse, which made him an easy target for the Spanish. After Martí was shot, the young trooper, Angel de la Guardia, lost his horse and returned to report the loss. The Spanish took possession of the body, buried it close by, then exhumed the body upon realization of its identity. He was buried in Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba. Many have argued that Maceo and others had always spurned Martí for never participating in combat, which may have compelled Martí to that ill-fated two-man charge. Some of his Versos Sencillos can seem premonition-like: "No me entierren en lo oscuro/
A morir como un traidor/
Yo soy bueno y como bueno/
Moriré de cara al sol."
("Do not bury me in darkness / to die like a traitor / I am good, and as a good man /
I will die facing the sun.")
The death of Martí was a blow to the "aspirations of the Cuban rebels, inside and outside of the island, but the fighting continued with alternating successes and failures until the entry of the United States into the war in 1898".
Political ideology
Liberalism
Martí's political ideas were shaped by his early encounter with Krausist liberalism and its defense of spirituality and solidarity. Radical liberalism in Latin America during this time period often took on a nationalist and anti-imperialist cast, as shown by the examples of Francisco Bilbao in Chile, Benito Juárez in Mexico, José Santos Zelaya in Nicaragua, and Ramón Emeterio Betances in Puerto Rico, whom Martí deeply admired and considered one of his teachers. An increasingly radicalized liberalism emphasizing democratic participation, economic equality, national sovereignty, and supplemented by his exposure to doctrines such as Georgism, remained the dominant basis of Martí's outlook.
Cuban independence
Martí wrote extensively about Spanish colonial control and the threat of US expansionism into Cuba. To him, it was unnatural that Cuba was controlled and oppressed by the Spanish government, when it had its own unique identity and culture. In his pamphlet from February 11, 1873, called "The Spanish Republic and the Cuban Revolution", he argued that "Cubans do not live as Spaniards live.... They are nourished by a different system of trade, have links with different countries, and express their happiness through quite contrary customs. There are no common aspirations or identical goals linking the two peoples, or beloved memories to unite them. ... Peoples are only united by ties of fraternity and love.".
Slavery
Martí opposed slavery and criticized Spain for failing to abolish it. In a speech to Cuban immigrants in Steck Hall, New York, on January 24, 1879, he stated that the war against Spain needed to be fought, recalled the heroism and suffering of the Ten Years' War, which, he declared, had qualified Cuba as a real nation with a right to independence. Spain had not ratified the conditions of the peace treaty, had falsified elections, continued excessive taxation, and had failed to abolish slavery. Cuba needed to be free.
Revolutionary tactics
Martí proposed in a letter to Máximo Gómez in 1882 the formation of a revolutionary party, which he considered essential in the prevention of Cuba falling back on the Home Rule Party (Partido Autonomista) after the Pact of Zanjón. The Home Rule Party was a peace-seeking party that would stop short of the outright independence that Martí thought Cuba needed. But he was aware that there were social divisions in Cuba, especially racial divisions, that needed to be addressed as well. He thought war was necessary to achieve Cuba's freedom, despite his basic ideology of conciliation, respect, dignity, and balance. The establishment of the patria (fatherland) with a good government would unite Cubans of all social classes and colours in harmony. Together with other Cubans resident in New York, Martí started laying the grounds for the Revolutionary Party, stressing the need for a democratic organization as the basic structure before any military leaders were to join. The military would have to subordinate themselves to the interests of the fatherland. Gómez later rejoined Martí's plans, promising to comply.
Martí's consolidation of support among the Cuban expatriates, especially in Florida, was key in the planning and execution of the invasion of Cuba. His speeches to Cuban tobacco workers in Tampa and Key West motivated and united them; this is considered the most important political achievement of his life. At this point he refined his ideological platform, basing it on a Cuba held together by pride in being Cuban, a society that ensured "the welfare and prosperity of all Cubans" independently of class, occupation or race. Faith in the cause could not die, and the military would not try for domination. All pro-independence Cubans would participate, with no sector predominating. From this he established the Cuban Revolutionary Party in early 1892.
Martí and the CRP were devoted to secretly organizing the anti-Spanish war. Martí's newspaper, Patria, was a key instrument of this campaign, where Martí delineated his final plans for Cuba. Through this medium he argued against the exploitative colonialism of Spain in Cuba, criticized the Home Rule (Autonomista) Party for having aims that fell considerably short of full independence, and warned against U.S. annexationism which he felt could only be prevented by Cuba's successful independence. He specified his plans for the future Cuban Republic, a multi-class and multi-racial democratic republic based on universal suffrage, with an egalitarian economic base to develop fully Cuba's productive resources and an equitable distribution of land among citizens, with enlightened and virtuous politicians.
From Martí's 'Campaign Diaries', written during the final expedition in Cuba, it seems evident that Martí would have reached the highest position in the future Republic of Arms. This was not to be; his death occurred before the Assembly of Cuba was set up. Until his last minute, Martí dedicated his life to achieve full independence for Cuba. His uncompromising belief in democracy and freedom for his fatherland is what characterized his political ideology.
United States
Martí demonstrated an anti-imperialist attitude from an early age, and was convinced that the United States posed a danger for Latin America. While critiquing the United States for its stereotypes of Latin Americans and preoccupation with capitalism, Martí also drew parallels with the American Revolution and the nationalist movement in Cuba. At the same time, he recognized the advantages of the European or North American civilizations, which were open to the reforms that Latin American countries needed in order to detach themselves from the colonial heritage of Spain. Martí's distrust of North American politics had developed during the 1880s, due to the intervention threats that loomed on Mexico and Guatemala, and indirectly on Cuba's future. Over time Martí became increasingly alarmed about the United States' intentions for Cuba. The United States desperately needed new markets for its industrial products because of the economic crisis it was experiencing, and the media was talking about the purchase of Cuba from Spain. Cuba was a profitable, fertile country with an important strategic position in the Gulf of Mexico. Martí felt that the interests of Cuba's future lay with its sister nations in Latin America, and were opposite to those of the United States.
Another trait that Martí admired was the work ethic that characterized North American society. On various occasions Martí conveyed his deep admiration for the immigrant-based society, "whose principal aspiration he interpreted as being to construct a truly modern country, based upon hard work and progressive ideas." Martí stated that he was "never surprised in any country of the world [he had] visited. Here [he] was surprised... [he] remarked that no one stood quietly on the corners, no door was shut an instant, no man was quiet. [He] stopped [him]self, [he] looked respectfully on this people, and [he] said goodbye forever to that lazy life and poetical inutility of our European countries".
Although Martí opposed US intervention in Cuba, he found American society to be so great that he believed Latin America should consider imitating the United States. Martí argued that if the US "could reach such a high standard of living in so short a time, and despite, too, its lack of unifying traditions, could not the same be expected of Latin America?" However, Martí believed US expansionism represented Spanish American republics' "greatest danger." Martí was amazed at how education was directed towards helping the development of the nation and once again encouraged Latin American countries to follow the example set by North American society. At the same time, he criticized the elitist educational systems of Cuba and the rest of Latin America. Often, Martí recommended countries in Latin America to "send representatives to learn more relevant techniques in the United States". Once this was done, Martí hoped that this representatives would bring a "much-needed modernization to the Latin American agricultural policies".
However, not everything in the United States was to be admired by Martí. When it came to politics Martí wrote that politics in the US had "adopted a carnival atmosphere... especially during election time". He saw acts of corruption among candidates, such as bribing "the constituents with vast quantities of beer, while impressive parades wound their way through New York's crowded streets, past masses of billboards, all exhorting the public to vote for the different political candidates". Martí criticized and condemned the elites of the United States as they "pulled the main political strings behind the scenes". According to Martí, the elites "deserved severe censure" as they were the biggest threat to the "ideals with which the United States was first conceived".
Martí started to believe that the US had abused its potential. Racism was abundant. Different races were being discriminated against; political life "was both cynically regarded by the public at large and widely abused by 'professional politicians'; industrial magnates and powerful labor groups faced each other menacingly". All of this convinced Martí that a large-scale social conflict was imminent in the United States.
On the positive side, Martí was astonished by the "inviolable right of freedom of speech which all U.S. citizens possessed". Martí applauded the United States' Constitution which allowed freedom of speech to all its citizens, no matter what political beliefs they had. In May 1883, while attending political meetings he heard "the call for revolution – and more specifically the destruction of the capitalist system". Martí was amazed that the country maintained freedom of speech even with respect to calls that "could have led to its own destruction". Martí also gave his support to the women's suffrage movements, and was "pleased that women here [took] advantage of this privilege in order to make their voices heard". According to Martí, free speech was essential if any nation was to be civilized and he expressed his "profound admiration for these many basic liberties and opportunities open to the vast majority of U.S. citizens".
The works of Martí contain many comparisons between the ways of life of North and Latin America. The former was seen as "hardy, 'soulless', and, at times, cruel society, but one which, nevertheless, had been based upon a firm foundation of liberty and on a tradition of liberty". Although North American society had its flaws, they tended to be "of minor importance when compared to the broad sweep of social inequality, and to the widespread abuse of power prevalent in Latin America".
Once it became apparent that the United States were actually going to purchase Cuba and intended to Americanize it, Martí "spoke out loudly and bravely against such action, stating the opinion of many Cubans on the United States of America."
Latin American identity
José Martí as a liberator believed that the Latin American countries needed to know the reality of their own history. Martí also saw the necessity of a country having its own literature. These reflections started in Mexico from 1875 and are connected to the Mexican Reform, where prominent liberals like Ignacio Manuel Altamirano and Guillermo Prieto had situated themselves in front of a cultural renovation in Mexico, taking on the same approach as Esteban Echeverría thirty years before in Argentina. In the second "Boletin" that Martí published in the Revista Universal (May 11, 1875) one can already see Martí's approach, which was fundamentally Latin American. His wish to build a national or Latin American identity was nothing new or unusual in those days; however, no Latin-American intellectual of that time had approached as clearly as Martí the task of building a national identity. He insisted on the necessity of building institutions and laws that matched the natural elements of each country, and recalled the failure of the applications of French and American civil codes in the new Latin American republics. Martí believed that "el hombre del sur", the man of the South, should choose an appropriate development strategy matching his character, the peculiarity of his culture and history, and the nature that determined his being.
Writings
Martí as a writer covered a range of genres. In addition to producing newspaper articles and keeping up an extensive correspondence (his letters are included in the collection of his complete works), he wrote a serialized novel, composed poetry, wrote essays, and published four issues of a children's magazine, La Edad de Oro(The Golden Age, 1889). His essays and articles occupy more than fifty volumes of his complete works. His prose was extensively read and influenced the modernist generation, especially the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío, whom Martí called "my son" when they met in New York in 1893.
Martí did not publish any books: only two notebooks (Cuadernos) of verses, in editions outside of the market, and a number of political tracts. The rest (an enormous amount) was left dispersed in numerous newspapers and magazines, in letters, in diaries and personal notes, in other unedited texts, in frequently improvised speeches, and some lost forever. Five years after his death, the first volume of his Obras was published. A novel appeared in this collection in 1911: Amistad funesta, which Martí had made known was published under a pseudonym in 1885. In 1913, also in this edition, his third poetic collection that he had kept unedited: Versos Libres. His Diario de Campaña (Campaign Diary) was published in 1941. Later still, in 1980, Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Mejía Sánchez produced a set of about thirty of Martí's articles written for the Mexican newspaper El Partido Liberal that weren't included in any of his so-called Obras Completas editions. From 1882 to 1891, Martí collaborated in La Nación, a Buenos Aires newspaper. His texts from La Nación have been collected in Anuario del centro de Estudios Martíanos.
Over the course of his journalistic career, he wrote for numerous newspapers, starting with El Diablo Cojuelo (The Limping Devil) and La Patria Libre (The Free Fatherland), both of which he helped to found in 1869 in Cuba and which established the extent of his political commitment and vision for Cuba. In Spain he wrote for La Colonia Española,in Mexico for La Revista Universal, and in Venezuela for Revista Venezolana, which he founded. In New York he contributed to Venezuelan periodical La Opinión Nacional, Buenos Aires newspaper La Nación, Mexico's La Opinion Liberal, and The Hour from the U.S.
The first critical edition of Martí's complete works began to appear in 1983 in José Martí: Obras completas. Edición crítica. The critical edition of his complete poems was published in 1985 in José Martí: Poesía completa. Edición critica.
Volume two of his Obras Completas includes his famous essay 'Nuestra America' which "comprises a variety of subjects relating to Spanish America about which Martí studied and wrote. Here it is noted that after Cuba his interest was directed mostly to Guatemala, Mexico and Venezuela. The various sections of this part are about general matters and international conferences; economic, social and political questions; literature and art; agrarian and industrial problems; immigration; education; relations with the United States and Spanish America; travel notes".
According to Martí, the intention behind the publication of "La edad de oro" was "so that American children may know how people used to live, and how they live nowadays, in the United States and in other countries; how many things are made, such as glass and iron, steam engines and suspension bridges and electric light; so that when a child sees a coloured stone he will know why the stone is coloured. ... We shall tell them about everything which is done in factories, where things happen which are stranger and more interesting than the magic in fairy stories. These things are real magic, more marvelous than any. ... We write for children because it is they who know how to love, because it is children who are the hope for the world".
Martí's "Versos Sencillos" was written "in the town of Haines Falls, New York, where his doctor has sent [him] to regain his strength 'where streams flowed and clouds gathered in upon themeselves'". The poetry encountered in this work is "in many [ways] autobiographical and allows readers to see Martí the man and the patriot and to judge what was important to him at a crucial time in Cuban history".
Martí's writings reflected his own views both socially and politically. "Cultivo Una Rosa Blanca" is one of his poems that emphasize his views in hopes of betterment for society:
This poem is a clear description of Martí's societal hopes for his homeland. Within the poem, he talks about how regardless of the person, whether kind or cruel he cultivates a white rose, meaning that he remains peaceful. This coincides with his ideology about establishing unity amongst the people, more so those of Cuba, through a common identity, with no regards to ethnic and racial differences. This doctrine could be accomplished if one treated his enemy with peace as he would treat a friend. The kindness of one person should be shared with all people, regardless of personal conflict. By following the moral that lies within "Cultivo Rosa Blanca", Martí's vision of Cuban solidarity could be possible, creating a more peaceful society that would emanate through future generations.
After his breakthrough in Cuba literature, José Martí went on to contribute his works to newspapers, magazines, and books that reflected his political and social views. Because of his early death, Martí was unable to publish a vast collection of poetry; even so, his literary contributions have made him a renowned figure in literature, influencing many writers, and people in general, to aspire to follow in the footsteps of Martí.
Style
Martí's style of writing is difficult to categorize. He used many aphorisms—short, memorable lines that convey truth and/or wisdom—and long complex sentences. He is considered a major contributor to the Spanish American literary movement known as Modernismo and has been linked to Latin American consciousness of the modern age and modernity. His chronicles combined elements of literary portraiture, dramatic narration, and a dioramic scope. His poetry contained "fresh and astonishing images along with deceptively simple sentiments". As an orator (for he made many speeches) he was known for his cascading structure, powerful aphorisms, and detailed descriptions. More important than his style is how he uses that style to put into service his ideas, making "advanced" convincing notions. Throughout his writing he made reference to historical figures and events, and used constant allusions to literature, current news and cultural matters. For this reason, he may be difficult to read and translate.
His didactic spirit encouraged him to establish a magazine for children, La Edad de Oro (1889) which contained a short essay titled "Tres Heroes" (three heroes), representative of his talent to adapt his expression to his audience; in this case, to make the young reader conscious of and amazed by the extraordinary bravery of the three men, Bolivar, Hidalgo, and San Martín. This is his style to teach delightfully.
Translation
José Martí is universally honored as a great poet, patriot and martyr of Cuban Independence, but he was also a translator of some note. Although he translated literary material for the sheer joy of it, much of the translating he did was imposed on him by economic necessity during his many years of exile in the United States. Martí learned English at an early age, and had begun to translate at thirteen. He continued translating for the rest of his life, including his time as a student in Spain, although the period of his greatest productivity was during his stay in New York from 1880 until he returned to Cuba in 1895.
In New York he was what is known today as a "freelancer," as well as an "in house" translator. He translated several books for the publishing house of D. Appleton, and did a series of translations for newspapers. As a revolutionary activist in Cuba's long struggle for independence he translated into English a number of articles and pamphlets supporting that movement. In addition to fluent English, Martí also spoke French, Italian, Latin and Classical Greek fluently, the latter learned so he could read the Greek classical works in the original.
There was clearly a dichotomy in Martí's feeling about the kind of work he was translating. Like many professionals, he undertook for money translation tasks which had little intellectual or emotional appeal for him. Although Martí never presented a systematic theory of translation nor did he write extensively about his approach to translation, he did jot down occasional thoughts on the subject, showcasing his awareness of the translator's dilemma of the faithful versus the beautiful and stating that "translation should be natural, so that it appears that the book were written in the language to which it has been translated".
Modernism
The modernists, in general, use a subjective language. Martí's stylistic creed is part of the necessity to de-codify the logic rigor and the linguistic construction and to eliminate the intellectual, abstract and systematic expression. There is the deliberate intention and awareness to expand the expressive system of the language. The style changes the form of thinking. Without falling into unilateralism, Martí values the expression because language is an impression and a feeling through the form. Modernism mostly searches for the visions and realities, the expression takes in the impressions, the state of mind, without reflection and without concept. This is the law of subjectivity. We can see this in works of Martí, one of the first modernists, who conceives the literary task like an invisible unity, an expressive totality, considering the style like "a form of the content" (forma del contenido).
The difference that Martí established between prose and poetry are conceptual. Poetry, as he believes, is a language of the permanent subjective: the intuition and the vision. The prose is an instrument and a method of spreading the ideas, and has the goal of elevating, encouraging and animating these ideas rather than having the expression of tearing up the heart, complaining and moaning. The prose is a service to his people.
Martí produces a system of specific signs "an ideological code" (código ideológico). These symbols claim their moral value and construct signs of ethic conduct. Martí's modernism was a spiritual attitude that was reflected on the language. All his writing defines his moral world. One could also say that his ideological and spiritual sphere is fortified in his writing.
The difference between Martí and other modernist initiators such as Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera, Julian del Casal, and José Asunción Silva (and the similarity between him and Manuel González Prada) lies in the profound and transcendent value that he gave to literature, converting prose into an article or the work of a journalist. This hard work was important in giving literature authentic and independent value and distancing it from mere formal amusement. Manuel Gutiérez Nájera, Rubén Darío, Miguel de Unamuno and José Enrique Rodó saved the Martínian articles, which will have an endless value in the writings of the American continent.
Apart from Martínian articles. essay writing and literature starts to authorize itself as an alternative and privileged way to talk about politics. Literature starts to apply itself the only hermeneutics able to resolve the enigmas of a Latin American identity.
Legacy
Symbol of Cuban independence
Martí's dedication to the cause of Cuban independence and his passionate belief in democracy and justice has made him a hero for all Cubans, a symbol of unity, the "Apostle", a great leader. His writings have created a platform for all that he went through during the duration of this period in time. His ultimate goal of building a democratic, just, and stable republic in Cuba and his obsession with the practical execution of this goal led him to become the most charismatic leader of the 1895 colonial revolution. His work with the Cuban émigré community, enlisting the support of Cuban workers and socialist leaders to form the Cuban Revolutionary Party, put into motion the Cuban war of independence. His foresight into the future, shown in his warnings against American political interests for Cuba, was confirmed by the swift occupation of Cuba by the United States following the Spanish–American War. His belief in the inseparability of Cuban and Latin American sovereignty and the expression thereof in his writings have contributed to the shape of the modern Latin American Identity. Through his beliefs for Cuban and Latin American sovereignty, Cuba revolted on former allies. This is why Cuba became an independent nation. His works are a cornerstone of Latin American and political literature and his prolific contributions to the fields of journalism, poetry, and prose are highly acclaimed.
Influence on the Cuban Communist Party
Despite the history of post-1959 Cuba's affiliation as a Communist state, it has been acknowledged that it is in fact Martí's ideology which serves as the main driving force of the ruling Cuban Communist Party. Regarded as Cuba's "martyr" and "patron saint," several landmarks in Cuba are dedicated to Martí. Following his death in 2016, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who played a major role in promoting Martí's image in Revolutionary Cuba, was buried next to Martí in Santiago. Martí's writings on the concepts of Cuban nationalism fuelled the 1895 revolution and have continued to inform conflicting visions of the Cuban nation. The Cuban nation-state under Fidel Castro consistently claimed Martí as a crucial inspiration for its Communist revolutionary government. During Castro's tenure, the politics and death of Martí were used to justify certain actions of the Cuban state. The Cuban government claimed that Martí had supported a single party system, creating a precedent for a communist government.
The vast amount of writing that Martí produced in his lifetime makes it difficult to determine his exact political ideology, but his major goal was the liberation of Cuba from Spain and the establishment of a democratic republican government. Despite Martí never having supported communism or single party systems, Cuban leaders repeatedly claimed that Martí's Partido Revolucionario Cubano was a "forerunner of the Communist Party".
Martí's nuanced, often ambivalent positions on the most important issues of his day have led Marxist interpreters to see a class conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie as the main theme of his works, while others, namely the Cuban diasporic communities in Miami and elsewhere have identified a liberal-capitalist emphasis. These Cuban exiles still honor Martí as a figure of hope for the Cuban nation in exile and condemn Castro's government for manipulating his works and creating a "Castroite Martí" to justify its "intolerance and abridgments of human rights". His writings thus remain a key ideological weapon in the battle over the fate of the Cuban nation.
Memorials and tributes
José Martí International Airport, Havana's international airport, is named after Martí. A statue of Martí was unveiled in Havana on his 123rd birth anniversary, with President Raúl Castro attending the ceremony. The José Martí Memorial in the Vedado neighborhood of Havana includes a 109-m tower and is the largest monument in the world dedicated to a writer.
The National Association of Hispanic Publications, a non-profit organization to promote Hispanic publications, each year designates the José Martí Awards for excellence in Hispanic media.
On the waterfront of Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, a city that José Martí visited three times, a power station is named after him. The home where he resided during his final visit in 1895 bears a marble plaque. Place José Martí (José Martí Square), featuring a bust of the poet, was inaugurated in 2014.
In Romania, a Bucharest public school and the Romanian-Cuban Friendship Association from Targoviste are both named "Jose Martí".
List of selected works
Martí's fundamental works published during his life
1869 January: Abdala
1869 January: "10 de octubre"
1871: El presidio político en Cuba
1873: La República Española ante la revolución cubana
1875: Amor con amor se paga
1882: Ismaelillo
1882 February: Ryan vs. Sullivan
1882 February: Un incendio
1882 July: El ajusticiamiento de Guiteau
1883 January: "Batallas de la Paz"
1883 March: " Que son graneros humanos"
1883 March: Karl Marx ha muerto
1883 March:El Puente de Brooklyn
1883 September: "En Coney Island se vacía Nueva York"
1883 December:" Los políticos de oficio"
1883 December: "Bufalo Bil"
1884 April:"Los caminadores"
1884 November: Norteamericanos
1884 November:El juego de pelota de pies
1885: Amistad funesta
1885 January:Teatro en Nueva York
1885 '"Una gran rosa de bronce encendida" 1885 March:Los fundadores de la constitución 1885 June: "Somos pueblo original" 1885 August: "Los políticos tiene sus púgiles" 1886 May: Las revueltas anarquistas de Chicago 1886 September: " La ensenanza" 1886 October: "La Estatua de la Libertad"
1887 April: El poeta Walt Whitman 1887 April: El Madison Square 1887 November: Ejecución de los dirigentes anarquistas de Chicago 1887 November: La gran Nevada 1888 May: El ferrocarril elevado 1888 August: Verano en Nueva York 1888 November: " Ojos abiertos, y gargantas secas" 1888 November: "Amanece y ya es fragor" 1889: 'La edad de oro'
1889 May: El centenario de George Washington 1889 July: Bañistas 1889 August: "Nube Roja" 1889 September: "La caza de negros" 1890 November: " El jardín de las orquídeas" 1891 October:Versos Sencillos 1891 January: "Nuestra América" 1894 January: " ¡A Cuba!" 1895: Manifiesto de Montecristi- coauthor with Máximo GómezMartí's major posthumous works
Adúltera Versos libresSee also
International José Martí Prize
Radio y Televisión Martí
José Rizal, Philippine national hero also executed by the Spanish in 1896
Bust of José Martí, Houston, Texas
Monument to José Martí, Madrid, Spain
Guantanamera
Notes
References
Abel, Christopher. José Martí: Revolutionary Democrat. London: Athlone. 1986.
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Cairo, Ana. Jose Marti y la novela de la cultura cubana. Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. 2003.
De La Cuesta, Leonel Antonio. Martí, Traductor. Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca. 1996.
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Fidalgo, Jose Antonio. "El Doctor Fermín Valdés-Domínguez, Hombre de Ciencias y Su Posible Influencia Recíproca Con José Martí" Cuadernos de Historia de la Salud Pública 1998 (84) pp. 26–34
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Kirk, John M. José Martí, Mentor of the Cuban Nation. Tampa: University Presses of Florida, c1983.
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Martí, José, Manuel A.Tellechea Versos Sencillos. U of Houston: Arte Público Press, 1997
Morukian, Maria. "Cubanidad: Survival of Cuban Culture Identity in the 21st Century".
Nassif, Ricardo. "Jose Martí (1853–95) ". Originally published in Prospects:the quarterly review of comparative education(Paris, UNESCO: International Bureau of Education), vol. XXIV, no. 1/2, 1994, pp. 107–19
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Pérez-Galdós Ortiz, Víctor. José Martí: Visión de un Hombre Universal. Barcelona: Puvill Libros Ltd. 1999.
Quiroz, Alfonso. "The Cuban Republic and José Martí: reception and use of a national symbol". Lexington Books, 2006
Ripoll, Carlos. Jose Marti and the United States, and the Marxist interpretation of Cuban History. New Jersey: Transaction Inc. 1984.
Ronning, C. Neale. Jose Marti and the emigre colony in Key West. New York: Praeger. 1990.
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Schulman, Ivan A. Símbolo y color en la obra de José Martí. Editorial Gredos, 1960.
Scott, Rebecca J. "Explaining Abolition: Contradiction, Adaptation, and Challenge in Cuban Slave Society, 1860–1886". Comparative Studies in Society and History,'' Vol. 26, No. 1 (Jan., 1984), pp. 83–111
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Vincent, Jon S. "Jose Marti: Surrealist or Seer?" Latin American Research Review, Vol. 13, No. 1 (1978), pp. 178–81.
External links
Obras completas de José Martí (Index to Complete Works; Spanish)
José Martí (.cu)
José Martí (.org)
Romero Family Papers Regarding José Martí and books by José Martí fully and freely available from the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC)
Fernandina Expedition
1853 births
1895 deaths
19th-century Cuban poets
19th-century journalists
19th-century translators
American writers of Cuban descent
Anti-Americanism
Cuban children's writers
Cuban essayists
Cuban expatriates in Guatemala
Cuban expatriates in the United States
Cuban independence activists
Cuban male poets
Cuban people of Canarian descent
Cuban people of Catalan descent
Cuban people of Spanish descent
Cuban philosophers
Cuban revolutionaries
Cuban soldiers
Cuban translators
English–Spanish translators
Hispanic and Latino American journalists
History of Key West, Florida
History of Tampa, Florida
Male essayists
Male journalists
Modernist writers
Partido Auténtico politicians
People from Havana
People killed in action
Political philosophers
University of Zaragoza alumni | true | [
"Blackstone Legacy is the debut album by trumpeter Woody Shaw recorded in 1970 and released on the Contemporary label.\n\nMoved by the highly charged political sensibilities among creative artists during the latter part of the 1960s and early 1970s, Shaw's message for Blackstone Legacy spoke to the social and political ills of his time. In the liner notes to Blackstone Legacy, Shaw states:\n\n“This album is dedicated to the youth who will benefit mankind. To the youth who are constantly aware of the turmoil in which the world is and who are trying to right all these wrongs – whether in music or in speech or in any other way of positive work.\n \nThis album is dedicated to the freedom of Black people all over the world. And it’s dedicated to the people in the ghettos here. The ‘stone’ in the title is the image of strength. I grew up in a ghetto – funky houses, rats and roaches, stinking hallways. I’ve seen all of that, and I’ve seen people overcome all of that. This music is meant to be a light of hope, a sound of strength and of coming through. It’s one for the ghetto.\n \nWe’re trying to express what’s happening in the world today as we – a new breed of young musicians – feel it. I mean the different tensions in the world, the ridiculous war in Vietnam, the oppression of poor people in this, a country of such wealth. The cats on this date usually discuss these things, but we’re all also trying to reach a state of spiritual enlightenment in which we’re continually aware of what’s happening but react in a positive way. The music in this album, you see, expresses strength – confidence that we’ll overcome these things.”\n\nReception\n\nMichael G. Nastos of Allmusic called the album, \"Truly a landmark recording, and a pivot point in the history of post-modern music\".\n\nTrack listing \nAll compositions by Woody Shaw except as indicated\n \"Blackstone Legacy\" - 16:08 \n \"Think On Me\" (George Cables) - 10:45 \n \"Lost and Found\" - 11:57\n \"New World\" (Cables) - 18:30\n \"Boo-Ann's Grand\" - 14:25\n \"A Deed for Dolphy\" - 8:56\n\nPersonnel \nWoody Shaw - trumpet \nGary Bartz - alto saxophone, soprano saxophone\nBennie Maupin - tenor saxophone, bass clarinet\nGeorge Cables - piano, electric piano\nRon Carter - bass\nClint Houston - electric bass\nLenny White - drums\n\nReferences \n\nWoody Shaw albums\n1971 debut albums\nContemporary Records albums",
"Hispanicisms in English are words or phrases from Spanish influence on English. For a number of historical, political and cultural reasons, Hispanicisms in English are less widespread than anglicisms in Spanish. Nevertheless, they are very notable in certain areas of the United States, such as the U.S.-Mexican border, Southern Florida, and certain neighborhoods of large cities in the Northeast.\n\nOver the centuries Spanish has made many lexical contributions to English, and continues to do so. Some of these contributions have been directly from Spanish words, and in other cases Spanish has served as the conduit for words which originated in other languages with a special relationship to Spanish, such as Arabic and the Indian languages of the New World. Things and customs which originated in the Spanish-speaking world, (such as bullfighting, typical dances, special foods) are also obvious generators of Hispanicisms in English. Some words have special historical significance, such as \"guerrilla\" (the word used by Napoleon's forces to describe the way the Spanish fought in the Peninsular War), or the term \"fifth column\" which as quinta columna was used by a Spanish Civil War general to label his covert supporters in Madrid as he laid siege to it. Many geographic place names in the United States have Spanish origins as a legacy of the time when these regions were under Spanish or Mexican control, or as indicators that Hispanic explorers passed that way. Pei notes, for example that three dangerous rocks on the Alaskan coast bear the names Abreojo, Alárgate, and Quita Sueño.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n Child, Jack. Introduction to Spanish Translation. Lanham: University Press of America, 1992.\n Larson, Mildred. Meaning-Based Translation. Lanham: University Press of America, 1984.\n Nida, Eugene A. Language, Structure and Translation. Stanford: Stanford University Press,1975.\n Vázquez-Ayora, Gerardo. Introducción a la Traductología. Washington: Georgetown University Press, 1977.\n\nForms of English\nEnglish language\nSpanish language\nTranslation"
]
|
[
"Joe Walsh",
"Public service"
]
| C_040d7718872f46c387a6014808d463a3_0 | What charities did Joe Walsh work with? | 1 | What charities did Joe Walsh work with? | Joe Walsh | Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008. Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s. Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!" In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things." In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., Keith Urban to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid - a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson. CANNOTANSWER | Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. | Joseph Fidler Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American rock singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has been a member of three successful rock bands: James Gang, Eagles, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Walsh was also part of the New Zealand band Herbs. In the 1990s, he was a member of the short-lived supergroup The Best.
Walsh has also experienced success both as a solo artist and as a prolific session musician, being featured on a wide array of other artists' recordings. In 2011, Rolling Stone placed him at the No. 54 spot on its list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
In the mid-1960s, after attending Kent State University, Walsh played with several local Ohio-based bands before reaching a national audience as a member of the James Gang, whose hit song "Funk #49" highlighted his skill as both a guitarist and singer. Roger Abramson, a concert producer and artist manager, signed the James Gang to a management agreement with BPI in Cleveland. After leaving the James Gang in 1972, he formed Barnstorm with Joe Vitale, a college friend from Ohio, and Kenny Passarelli, a bassist from Colorado, where Walsh had moved after leaving Ohio. While the band stayed together for three albums over three years, its works were marketed as Walsh solo projects. The last Barnstorm album, 1974's So What contained significant guest contributions from several members of the Eagles, a group that had recently hired Walsh's producer, Bill Szymczyk.
At Szymczyk's suggestion, Walsh joined the Eagles in 1975 as the band's guitarist and keyboardist following the departure of their founding member Bernie Leadon, with Hotel California being his first album with the band. In 1998, a reader's poll conducted by Guitarist magazine selected the guitar solos on the track "Hotel California" by Walsh and Don Felder as the best guitar solos of all time. Guitar World magazine listed it at eighth of the Top 100 Guitar Solos.
Besides his work with his several bands, he has released 12 solo studio albums, six compilation albums, and two live albums. His solo hits include "Rocky Mountain Way", "Life's Been Good", "All Night Long", "A Life of Illusion", and "Ordinary Average Guy".
As a member of the Eagles, Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, and into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001. The Eagles are considered to be one of the most influential bands of the 1970s, and they remain one of the best-selling American bands in the history of popular music. His creative contribution to music has received praise from many of the best rock guitarists, including Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, who said, "He has a tremendous feel for the instrument. I've loved his style since the early James Gang." Eric Clapton said that "He's one of the best guitarists to surface in some time. I don't listen to many records, but I listen to his." The Who's guitarist, Pete Townshend, said "Joe Walsh is a fluid and intelligent player. There're not many like that around."
Early life and education
Joseph Fidler Walsh was born on November 20, 1947, in Wichita, Kansas. His father, Lt. Robert Newton Fidler, was a flight instructor for the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star in the United States Air Force and died in a plane crash in Okinawa on 22 July 1949. Walsh's mother was a classically trained pianist of Scottish and German ancestry. Walsh was adopted by his stepfather at the age of five and given his stepfather's surname, but retained Fidler as his middle name. In the 1950s, it was common practice for Social Security, school registration, and health records for children to take the name of their stepfather.
Walsh and his family lived in Columbus, Ohio, for a number of years during his youth. When Walsh was twelve years old, his family moved to New York City. Later, Walsh moved to Montclair, New Jersey, and he attended Montclair High School, where he played oboe in the school band.
Walsh got his first guitar at the age of 10, and upon learning The Ventures' "Walk Don't Run", decided that he wanted to pursue a career as a guitarist. Inspired by the success of the Beatles, he replaced Bruce Hoffman as the bass player in the locally popular group, the Nomads in Madison, New Jersey, beginning his career as a rock musician. After high school, Walsh attended Kent State University, where he spent time in various bands playing around the Cleveland area, including the Measles. The Measles recorded for Super K Productions' Ohio Express the songs "I Find I Think of You", "And It's True", and "Maybe" (an instrumental version of "And It's True"). Walsh majored in English and minored in music; he was present during the Kent State massacre in 1970. Walsh commented in 2012: "Being at the shootings really affected me profoundly. I decided that maybe I don't need a degree that bad." After one term, he dropped out of college to pursue his musical career.
Musical career
1965–1967: The Measles (Joe Walsh years)
The Measles, an Ohio garage bar band, were formed in 1965 by four Kent State University students, one of whom was Joe Walsh. Two tracks on the Ohio Express' Beg Borrow and Steal album, "I Find I Think Of You" and "And It's True" (both featuring Joe Walsh vocals) were actually recorded by the Measles, led by Walsh. Additionally, an instrumental version of "And It's True" was recorded by the Measles, re-titled "Maybe" and released as the B-side of the "Beg Borrow and Steal" single.
1968–1971: James Gang
Around Christmas 1967, James Gang guitarist Glenn Schwartz, who turned out to be AWOL from the army and was breaking up with his wife, decided to leave the band to move to California, where he ended up forming the band Pacific Gas & Electric. Days later, Walsh, a friend of Schwartz's, knocked on Jim Fox's door and asked to be given a tryout as Schwartz's replacement. Walsh was accepted and the band continued as a five piece for a short time until Phil Giallombardo, who was still in high school at the time, left. Bill Jeric and Walsh worked together on guitar parts, but Jeric left as well in the spring of 1968. He was replaced by a returning Ronnie Silverman, who had been discharged from the military.
In May 1968, the group played a concert in Detroit at the Grande Ballroom, opening for Cream. At the last minute, Silverman told the others that he would not join them at the show. The band, desperately in need of the money, took to the stage as a trio. They liked their sound as a threesome and decided to remain that way.
In 1968, the band signed with manager Mark Barger, who was handling the career of fellow Ohio outfit the Lemon Pipers, who had just scored a big hit with "Green Tambourine." Barger put the Gang in touch with ABC Records staff producer Bill Szymczyk, who signed them to ABC's new Bluesway Records subsidiary in January 1969.
They released their debut album, Yer' Album, in 1969. In November 1969, bassist Tom Kriss decided he was no longer into the music and left to be replaced by Dale Peters, who was brought in from a group called The Case of E.T. Hooley. The addition of Peters created the most successful incarnation of the James Gang. Walsh proved to be the band's star attraction, noted for his innovative rhythm playing and creative guitar riffs. In particular he was known for hot-wiring the pick-ups on his electric guitars to create his trademark "attack" sound. The James Gang had several minor hits and became an early album-oriented rock staple for the next two years. It was during 1969 that Walsh sold his Les Paul Guitar to Jimmy Page. Later in 1969, the group's record producer, Szymczyk, arranged for the band to appear in the "electric Western" film Zachariah, with two James Gang songs, "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever," also being used. For the recording of these two songs, vocalist Kenny Weiss was brought in to allow Walsh to focus on his guitar playing; he was gone by the time the group arrived in Mexico to shoot their movie scenes. "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever" later reappeared as bonus tracks on the 2000 re-release of The James Gang Greatest Hits.
Shortly before the release of their second album James Gang Rides Again, the James Gang opened a show for the Who in Pittsburgh. Their guitarist Pete Townshend met with the James Gang before they left and was impressed enough to invite them on the Who's subsequent European tour. When Walsh was asked about this he said that, "Pete's a very melodic player and so am I. He told me that he appreciated my playing. I was flattered beyond belief because I didn't think I was that good."
The James Gang's next two albums, James Gang Rides Again (1970) and Thirds (1971), produced such classics as "Funk #49" and "Walk Away". The album James Gang Live at Carnegie Hall was Walsh's last album with them, as he became dissatisfied with the band's limitations.
The two remaining members, Peters and Fox, carried on with the lead vocalist Roy Kenner and guitarist Domenic Troiano (both ex-members of the Canadian band Bush) for two albums, Straight Shooter and Passin' Thru, both released in 1972. But in recent interviews, Fox stated that things did not work out musically with Troiano as hoped, so he left the band in 1973 and joined the Guess Who.
1971–1975: Barnstorm
In December 1971, Walsh left the James Gang. Steve Marriott, frontman guitarist of Humble Pie, invited him to move to England and join his band, which Peter Frampton had left, but Walsh declined. Instead he moved to Colorado and formed a band called Barnstorm, with drummer and multi-instrumentalist Joe Vitale, and bassist Kenny Passarelli, although both of their albums credited Walsh as a solo artist. They started recording their debut album immediately after forming, but at the time there were only Walsh and Vitale on these sessions. Chuck Rainey did the first bass tracks on the album but these were soon replaced by Passarelli. Walsh and Barnstorm released their debut album, the eponymous Barnstorm, in October 1972. After taking a cue from Townshend, Walsh utilized the ARP Odyssey synthesizer to great effect on such songs as "Mother Says" and "Here We Go". Walsh also experimented with acoustic guitar, slide guitar, effects pedals, fuzzbox, talk box, and keyboards as well as running his guitar straight into a Leslie speaker 122 to get swirly, organ-like guitar tones. The album was a critical success, but had only moderate commercial success. The follow-up, The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get, released in June 1973, was marketed under Walsh's name (although officially a Barnstorm album) and was their commercial breakthrough. It peaked at No. 6 on the US Billboard chart. The first and leading single, "Rocky Mountain Way", received heavy airplay and reached No. 23 on the US Top 40 chart. It featured new member, keyboardist Rocke Grace, and Walsh shared the vocals and songwriting with the other three members of the band. As a result, a variety of styles are explored on this album. There are elements of blues, jazz, folk, pop, and Caribbean music. In 1974, Barnstorm disbanded and Walsh continued as a solo artist.
In late 1974, Walsh played slide guitar on Vitale's debut solo album Roller Coaster Weekend. Walsh was taught the slide technique by Duane Allman, who played on Eric Clapton's Layla of Derek and the Dominos.
Barnstorm's last tour was spring 1975, shortly after Joe joined The Eagles.
1975–1980: Eagles
In 1975, Walsh was invited to join The Eagles as founding member Bernie Leadon's replacement. There was some initial concern as to Walsh's ability to fit in with the band, as he was considered far too "wild" for The Eagles, especially by their drummer and co-lead vocalist, Don Henley.
Released on December 8, 1976, Hotel California was the band's fifth studio album and the first to feature Walsh. The album took a year and a half to complete, a process which, along with touring, drained the band.
The second single from the album was the eponymous title track, which topped the charts in May 1977 and became one of the Eagles' signature songs next to "Take It Easy" and "Desperado". It features Henley on lead vocals, with a guitar duet performed by Felder and Walsh.
The hard rock "Life in the Fast Lane", released on May 3, 1977, was based on a riff by Walsh. It reached No. 11 on the charts and helped establish Walsh's position in the band.
Hotel California is the last album to feature founding member Randy Meisner, who abruptly left the band after the 1977 tour. He was replaced by the same musician who had succeeded him in Poco, Timothy B. Schmit.
In 1977, the band, minus Don Felder, performed instrumental work and backing vocals for Randy Newman's album Little Criminals, including "Short People," which has backing vocals by Frey and Schmit.
The Eagles went into the recording studio in 1977 to begin work on their next album, The Long Run. The album took two years to complete. The Long Run was released on September 24, 1979. Considered a disappointment by some music critics for failing to live up to Hotel California, it proved a huge commercial hit nonetheless; the album topped the charts and sold 7 million copies. In addition, it included three Top 10 singles—"Heartache Tonight", the title track and "I Can't Tell You Why". "In The City" by Walsh also received considerable airplay. The band also recorded two Christmas songs during these sessions, "Funky New Year" and "Please Come Home for Christmas" which was released as a single in 1978 and reached No. 18 on the charts. In 1980, the band broke up.
1973–2012: solo career
Walsh has released twelve solo studio albums.
In December 1974, Walsh released his first solo album that was not considered a Barnstorm project, So What, which contained more introspective material such as "Help Me Through the Night" and "Song For Emma", a tribute to Walsh's daughter who had been killed in a car accident that April. On a few tracks, Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner of the Eagles contributed backing vocals.
In March 1976, Walsh released a live album, You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind, which also featured the Eagles.
As the Eagles struggled to record their follow-up to Hotel California, Walsh re-ignited his solo career with the critically well-received album, But Seriously, Folks... in May 1978. It contained the single "Life's Been Good", his comedic depiction of rock stardom, which peaked at No. 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and remains to date his biggest solo hit. Walsh also contributed "In the City" to The Warriors soundtrack in 1979, a song penned and sung by Walsh that was later rerecorded for the Eagles' studio album, The Long Run.
Following the break up of the Eagles in July 1980, Walsh continued to release solo albums throughout the 1980s, but sales did not meet the same level of his earlier successes.
There Goes the Neighborhood was Walsh's first album since the demise of the Eagles, and it peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200. The album only spawned one single, "A Life of Illusion", which became one of Walsh's most popular songs. The single also topped the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, in 1981.
"A Life of Illusion" was recorded in 1973 with Walsh's first solo band Barnstorm but was not completed. The overdubs and final mixes were completed during the There Goes the Neighborhood sessions and released on the album. The promotional video for the track shows the making of the album's cover. This song also appeared in the opening credits of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and appears as the first song on its soundtrack.
In May 1983, Walsh released You Bought It – You Name It; the album was received negatively by the majority of music critics, while other reviewers noted good points to the album. It was also not as successful as Walsh's previous albums, peaking at No. 48 on the Billboard 200. Walsh found moderate success with the single "Space Age Whiz Kids", about the pinnacle of the 1980s video arcade craze. The album contains hard rock songs such as "I Can Play That Rock & Roll" and a cover of the Dick Haymes track, "Love Letters". It also contains more introspective material such as "Class of '65", and contains a song titled "I.L.B.T.s", an acronym for "I Like Big Tits".
Walsh's new girlfriend Stevie Nicks was involved in his next album, The Confessor. Her old friend Keith Olsen was hired to produce the album and the musicians were prolific LA session musicians including: Jim Keltner, Mike Porcaro, Waddy Wachtel, Randy Newman, Alan Pasqua and many other musicians that Walsh had never worked with before.
In 1987, Walsh released his final solo album of the 1980s, Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning, and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead vocalist Jimi Jamison, but the album was a commercial disappointment.
In 1991, Ordinary Average Guy, his ninth solo studio album, and its title track single, were released on the Epic label. The album features Ringo Starr, Jimi Jamison, and drummer Joe Vitale from Walsh's former band Barnstorm. Vitale also sings the lead vocals on the final track of the album, "School Days".
In 1992, Walsh released what appeared to be his final album (until 2012), Songs for a Dying Planet, his tenth solo studio album. Like its predecessor, it was released on the Epic label. Keen to re-establish himself after receiving some poor reviews for his previous album, Walsh enlisted his former producer Bill Szymczyk. At the end of the track "Certain Situations" you can hear a Morse code message that says "Register and vote for me". His song "Vote for Me" was a minor success, peaking at No. 10 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
Walsh's song "One Day at a Time" was released in 2012 and details his struggles with alcohol and drug abuse earlier in his career. The song appeared on Walsh's album Analog Man, which was released on June 5, 2012. The album was co-produced by Jeff Lynne, with Tommy Lee James co-writing some of the album's tracks.
Eagles reunion
An Eagles country tribute album titled Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles was released in 1993, thirteen years after the break up. Travis Tritt insisted on having the Long Run-era Eagles in his video for "Take It Easy" and they agreed. Following years of public speculation, the band formally reunited the following year. The line-up comprised the five Long Run-era members—Frey, Henley, Walsh, Felder, and Schmit—supplemented by Scott Crago (drums), John Corey (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), Timothy Drury (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals) and Al Garth (saxophone, violin) on stage.
"For the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation," announced Frey at their first live performance in April 1994. The ensuing tour spawned a live album titled Hell Freezes Over (named for Henley's recurring statement that the band would get back together "when hell freezes over"), which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. It included four new studio songs, with "Get Over It" and "Love Will Keep Us Alive" both becoming Top 40 hits. The album proved as successful as the tour, selling 6 million copies in the U.S. The tour was interrupted in September 1994 because of Frey's serious recurrence of diverticulitis, but it resumed in 1995 and continued into 1996. In 1998, the Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the induction ceremony, all seven Eagles members (Frey, Henley, Leadon, Meisner, Felder, Walsh, and Schmit) played together for two songs, "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California". Several subsequent reunion tours followed (without Leadon or Meisner), notable for their record-setting ticket prices.
The Eagles performed at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Paradise, Nevada on December 28 and 29, 1999, followed by a concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on December 31. These concerts marked the last time Felder played with the band and these shows (including a planned video release) later formed a part of a lawsuit filed by Felder against his former band members.
The concert recordings were released on CD as part of the four-disc Selected Works: 1972–1999 box set in November 2000. Along with the millennium concert, this set included the band's hit singles, album tracks and outtakes from The Long Run sessions. Selected Works received platinum certification from the RIAA in 2002.
The band resumed touring in 2001, with a line-up consisting of Frey, Henley, Walsh and Schmit, along with Steuart Smith (guitars, mandolin, keyboards, backing vocals; essentially taking over Felder's role), Michael Thompson (keyboards, trombone), Will Hollis (keyboards, backing vocals), Scott Crago (drums, percussion), Bill Armstrong (horns), Al Garth (saxophone, violin), Christian Mostert (saxophone) and Greg Smith (saxophone, percussion).
In 2003, the Eagles released a greatest hits album, The Very Best Of. The two-disc compilation was the first that encompassed their entire career, from Eagles to Hell Freezes Over. It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard charts and eventually gained triple platinum status. The album includes a new single, the September 11 attacks-themed "Hole in the World". Also in 2003, Warren Zevon, a longtime Eagles friend, began work on his final album, The Wind, with the assistance of Henley, Walsh and Schmit.
On June 14, 2005, the Eagles released a new 2-DVD set titled Farewell 1 Tour-Live from Melbourne, featuring two new songs: Frey's "No More Cloudy Days" and Walsh's "One Day at a Time". A special edition 2006 release exclusive to Walmart and affiliated stores includes a bonus audio CD with three new songs: a studio version of "No More Cloudy Days", "Fast Company" and "Do Something".
In 2007, the Eagles consisted of Frey, Henley, Walsh, and Schmit. On August 20, 2007, "How Long", written by J. D. Souther, was released as a single to radio with an accompanying online video at Yahoo! Music. It debuted on television on Country Music Television during the Top 20 Countdown on August 23, 2007. The band had performed the song as part of their live sets in the early to mid-1970s, but did not record it at the time because Souther wanted to reserve it for use on his first solo album. Souther had previously worked with the Eagles, co-writing some of their biggest hits, including "Best of My Love", "Victim of Love", "Heartache Tonight" and "New Kid in Town".
On October 30, 2007, the Eagles released Long Road Out of Eden, their first album of all-new material since 1979. For the first year after the album's release, it was available in the U.S. only via the band's website, at Walmart and at Sam's Club stores. It was commercially available through traditional retail outlets in other countries. The album debuted at number 1 in the U.S., the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Norway. It became their third studio album and seventh release overall to be certified at least seven times platinum by the RIAA. Henley told CNN that "This is probably the last Eagles album that we'll ever make." The Eagles made their awards show debut on November 7, 2007, when they performed "How Long" live at the Country Music Association Awards.
On January 28, 2008, the second single of Long Road Out of Eden was released. "Busy Being Fabulous" peaked at No. 28 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and at No. 12 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. The Eagles won their fifth Grammy in 2007, in the category Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "How Long".
On March 20, 2008, the Eagles launched their world tour in support of Long Road Out of Eden at The O2 Arena in London. The Long Road Out of Eden Tour concluded the American portion of the tour at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah on May 9, 2009. It was the first concert ever held in the new soccer stadium. The tour traveled to Europe, with its final concert date on July 22, 2009, in Lisbon. The band spent the summer of 2010 touring North American stadiums with the Dixie Chicks and Keith Urban. The tour expanded to England as the headline act of the Hop Farm Festival on July 1, 2011.
Asked in November 2010 whether the Eagles were planning a follow-up to Long Road Out of Eden, Schmit replied, "My first reaction would be: no way. But I said that before the last one, so you never really know. Bands are a fragile entity and you never know what's going to happen. It took a long time to do that last album, over a span of years, really, and it took a lot out of us. We took a year off at one point. I'm not sure if we're able to do that again. I wouldn't close the door on it, but I don't know." Walsh said in 2010 that there might be one more album before the band "wraps it up".
In February 2013, the Eagles released a career spanning documentary called History of the Eagles and kicked off the supporting tour with 11 arena dates from July 6 to 25. Henley said that the tour, which would continue until 2015, "could very well be our last... we're gonna include at least one former band member in this tour and kinda go back to the roots, and how we created some of these songs. We're gonna break it down to the fundamentals and then take it up to where it is now."
Original Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon also appeared on the tour. Walsh stated, "Bernie's brilliant, I never really got a chance to play with him, but we've been in contact. We see him from time to time, and I'm really glad he's coming because it's going to take the show up a notch, and I'm really looking forward to playing with him, finally." It has been reported that former members Randy Meisner and Don Felder will not appear. Meisner had been invited but could not participate due to health problems, while Felder was reportedly not invited due to ongoing legal disputes with the band.
Other bands
In late 1984, Walsh was contacted by Australian musician Paul Christie, the former bassist for Mondo Rock. Christie invited him to come to Australia to perform with the Party Boys, an all-star band with a floating membership of well-known Australian rock musicians. These included the critically acclaimed guitarist Kevin Borich, with whom Walsh became good friends. Walsh accepted and performed with the Party Boys on their late-1984–early-1985 Australian tour and appeared on their live album, You Need Professional Help. He remained in Australia for some time after the tour, putting together the short-lived touring band "Creatures From America", with Waddy Wachtel (guitar), Rick Rosas (bass guitar) and Australian drummer Richard Harvey (Divinyls, the Party Boys) In 1987, Walsh returned to the United States to work on his album Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead singer Jimi Jamison. After the album's commercial disappointment, Walsh decided to return to Australia in 1989 to tour with another incarnation of the Party Boys. Walsh also toured with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band in 1989 and 1992, alternating a handful of his best-known songs with Starr's and tunes by other of the members of the All-Starr Band. In 1989, Walsh recorded a MTV Unplugged with the R&B musician Dr. John. Also in 1989 Walsh filmed a live concert from the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles with Etta James and Albert Collins, called Jazzvisions: Jump the Blues Away.
While producing their Homegrown album in 1989, Walsh briefly joined New Zealand reggae band Herbs. Although he had left by the time of its 1990 release, he still appears as lead singer on two tracks, "Up All Night" and "It's Alright". The album includes the first recording of his "Ordinary Average Guys" (sung by late Herbs bassist Charlie Tumahai), which subsequently became a solo hit for Walsh as "Ordinary Average Guy".
In late 1990, Walsh was part of a band called the Best, along with keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist John Entwistle, guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and drummer Simon Phillips. The band performed several shows in Hawaii and Japan, with a live video resulting.
In 1993, Walsh teamed up with Glenn Frey for the "Party of Two" tour in the United States.
In 1996, James Gang did a reunion for the Democratic president, Bill Clinton. The band consisted of their "classic" line-up (Walsh, Peters, Fox), and they performed at the Cleveland State University Convocation Center on November 4, 1996.
In 1998, ABC wanted to use a classic rock song rock for Monday Night Football that year, so they asked Walsh to rewrite the lyrics to "Rocky Mountain Way" for the quarterback John Elway of the Denver Broncos. "Rocky Mountain Elway" was the new title of the song and Walsh appeared in a video that ABC showed on Monday Night Football.
2000s and 2010s
In June 2004, Walsh performed at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, Texas. He was also featured in September 2004 at the Strat Pack, a concert held in London, England, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar. In 2006, Walsh reunited with Jim Fox and Dale Peters of the James Gang for new recordings and a 15-date summer reunion tour. The tour lasted into the fall.
In 2008, Walsh appeared on the Carvin 60th Anniversary Celebration DVD as a celebrity endorser. In the recorded interview, he highly praised Carvin Guitars and claims that the bridge design is "just like the first Les Paul models. I can't even get Gibson to reissue it".
Kent State University awarded Walsh an honorary degree in music in December 2001. In May 2012, the Berklee College of Music awarded Walsh, along with other members of the Eagles, an honorary doctorate for his accomplishments in the field of music.
Notable appearances
In 1974, Walsh produced Dan Fogelberg's Souvenirs album and played the guitar, electric guitar, 12 string guitar, ARP bass and provided backing vocals. He also contacted Graham Nash to sing harmony vocals on "Part of the Plan", which helped send the album to No. 17 on the 1975 Billboard album chart.
In 1973 Walsh supplied the slide guitar solo on Michael Stanley's song "Rosewood Bitters." Walsh later lifted part of that solo and used it prominently in the Eagles' hit "Life in the Fast Lane."
In 1981, Walsh and former Barnstorm bandmate, Joe Vitale, went to work on old friend John Entwistle's fifth solo album Too Late the Hero, whenever they were free to work on it. The album turned out to become John Entwistle's best-charting solo album, with hit singles "Talk Dirty" and "Too Late the Hero".
Walsh was a background musician (1st guitar solo) on Eagles band member Don Henley's 1982 hit "Dirty Laundry" (listed as such in the liner notes of I Can't Stand Still and Actual Miles: Henley's Greatest Hits). Walsh has also contributed to albums by: Ringo Starr; America; REO Speedwagon; Jay Ferguson; Andy Gibb; Wilson Phillips; Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Steve Winwood; and on the Richard Marx hit "Don't Mean Nothing".
Walsh was a regular guest DJ on Los Angeles radio station KLOS during the mid-1980s. They had a Saturday evening feature, with celebrity guest-hosts taking over the microphone (Walsh was the guest host far more frequently than any other). He was also a frequent guest and guest-host of Detroit and Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl.
Onscreen, Walsh has appeared in: The Blues Brothers, Promised Land, The Drew Carey Show, Duckman, MADtv, Live from Daryl's House, Rock the Cradle and Zachariah.
In October 2004, Walsh undertook speaking engagements in New Zealand to warn against the dangers of substance abuse. He said the visit was a "thank you" to people who took him to Otatara Pa when he toured New Zealand with reggae band Herbs while under heavy alcohol and cocaine addictions in 1989, an experience he has cited as the beginning of a long journey back to good health. At Otatara Pa in 2004 Walsh said, "This is a special place, and it is very special to me. It was here on a visit many years ago, up on the hills, that I had a moment of clarity. I don't understand it, but I reconnected with my soul, and I remembered who I used to be. I admitted I had problems and I had to do something about it. It was the beginning of my recovery from my addiction to alcohol and drugs, and when I got back to America it gave me the courage to seek help."
On February 12, 2012, Walsh appeared on stage with Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, and McCartney's band at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to close out the Grammy Awards show. Walsh also appeared on the 60th Episode of Live from Daryl's House with Daryl Hall, which premiered on November 15, 2012.
On February 9, 2014, Walsh was featured in several songs on the CBS special The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles.
In 2014, Walsh made a guest appearance on Foo Fighters' eighth studio album Sonic Highways.
On May 24, 2016, Walsh appeared on NBC's The Voice in which he played slide guitar, talk box and performed Rocky Mountain Way with contestant Laith Al-Saadi.
He appeared on an episode of 'The Conners' on 19 January 2022. He played Aldo's father.
Influences
Walsh cites influences and with rock music / pop music bands and guitarists with whom many he has encountered and met on concert tours: Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Jeff Beck, the Beatles, Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, Ritchie Blackmore and Deep Purple, Manfred Mann, Duane Allman and The Allman Brothers, Ronnie Wood and The Faces, Pete Townshend and The Who, and The Ventures. In turn, he has influenced Dan Fogelberg, Maroon 5, Kenny Chesney, Jonny Lang, Blitzen Trapper, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and George Thorogood. Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band taught Walsh how to play the slide guitar.
Public service
Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008.
Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.
Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!"
In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things."
In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry, including the Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., and Keith Urban, to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid – a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson.
Personal life
Walsh has been married five times. He was married briefly to Margie Walsh in the 1960s, to Stefany Rhodes from 1971 to 1978, to Juanita Boyer from 1980 to 1988, and to Denise Driscoll from 1999 to 2006. Walsh married Marjorie Bach (sister of Barbara Bach and sister-in-law of Ringo Starr) in Los Angeles on December 13, 2008. Another sister-in-law, Susan Walsh, has been a missing person since 1996.
Walsh's daughter Lucy Walsh is a musician who has worked with Ashlee Simpson and others. She released her debut solo album, Lost in the Lights, in spring 2007.
Walsh's eldest daughter, Emma Kristen, was born in 1971 and died in 1974 at 3 years of age as a result of injuries suffered in an automobile accident on her way to nursery school. Her story inspired the track "Song for Emma" on Walsh's solo album So What released later that year. In her memory, he had a fountain and memorial plaque placed in a park in which she played: North Boulder Park in Boulder, Colorado. He has said that the album name So What was a result of Emma's death: that nothing else seemed meaningful or important in the months that followed. The strain eventually contributed to Walsh's divorce from his second wife Stefany. While touring with singer Stevie Nicks in 1984, Walsh took Nicks to the park's fountain; Nicks subsequently immortalized this story in her song "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?" on her 1985 album Rock A Little. Nicks told the UK's The Daily Telegraph in 2007 that Walsh had been "the great love of my life". "Joe and I broke up because of the coke," she elaborated to Q. "He told my friend and singer Sharon [Celani], 'I'm leaving Stevie, because I'm afraid that one of us is going to die. And the other one won't be able to save the other person, because our cocaine habit has become so over the top now that neither of us can live through this. So the only way to save both of us is for me to leave.'"
Walsh admits to struggling with alcohol and drug addictions for most of his early career and has been in recovery since 1993. In 1989, while touring with New Zealand band Herbs, Walsh experienced an "epiphany" during a visit to Otatara Pa, an ancient Māori pā site in the Hawke's Bay region. In 2004, on a return visit to New Zealand, Walsh described the experience and hailed it as the beginning of his recovery from his addiction. Walsh related the story that in 1994, he woke up after blacking out on an airplane to Paris. When he arrived, he had his passport, but did not remember getting on the plane. That was his turning point, and he has been sober ever since.
While living in New York City, Walsh began a lifelong interest in amateur radio. He holds an Amateur Extra Class Amateur Radio License, and his station callsign is WB6ACU. In 2006, he donated an autographed guitar to the ARRL in Newington, Connecticut, for its charity auction. He has also been involved with the group's "Big Project," which brings amateur radio into schools. Walsh has included Morse Code messages in his albums on two occasions: once on the album Barnstorm ("Register and Vote"), and later on Songs for a Dying Planet ("Register and Vote for Me"). Walsh provides the theme song (which includes Morse code) for the TWiT podcast Ham Nation (debuting in 2011), and he appeared as a guest in the first podcast, as well as episode 400.
Instruments
Jimmy Page's sunburst 1959 Gibson Les Paul, better known as his "Number 1" was originally owned by Walsh and was sold to Page in 1969.
In 1970, Walsh gave a 1959 Gretsch 6120 to the Who's lead guitarist Pete Townshend. Townshend used the Gretsch in the studio to record tracks on albums such as Who's Next and Quadrophenia.
Select other guitars
1959 Gibson Les Paul that was given/sold to Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page in April 1969
Carvin DC4, CT6, CT4, CS4, and other various models.
Duesenberg Starplayer Alliance - Walsh has an Alliance guitar co-developed with him
Amplifiers
Marshall 50 watt Plexi
Discography
The Measles
Singles:
1965: Casting My Spell/Bye Birdie Fly
1966: Kicks/No Baby At All
The Ohio Express
1967: Beg, Borrow And Steal - I Find I Think Of You composed by Joe Walsh and played by his band The Measles.
James Gang
Studio albums:
1969: Yer' Album
1970: James Gang Rides Again
1971: Thirds
Live album:
1971: James Gang Live in Concert
Compilation:
1973: The Best Of James Gang Featuring Joe Walsh
Barnstorm
Studio albums:
1972: Barnstorm
1973: The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get
Eagles
Studio albums:
1976: Hotel California
1979: The Long Run
2007: Long Road out of Eden
Live albums:
1980: Eagles Live
1994: Hell Freezes Over
2020: Live from the Forum MMXVIII
Solo
Collaborations
Indianola Mississippi Seeds - B.B. King (1970)
L.A. Midnight - B.B. King (1972)
The Kids & Me - Billy Preston (1974)
Souvenirs - Dan Fogelberg (1974)
Act Like Nothing's Wrong - Al Kooper (1976)
Stone Alone - Bill Wyman (1976)
A Night on the Town - Rod Stewart (1976)
Nether Lands - Dan Fogelberg (1977)
Little Criminals - Randy Newman (1977)
Earth & Sky - Graham Nash (1980)
Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School - Warren Zevon (1980)
Wild Heart of the Young - Karla Bonoff (1982)
I Can't Stand Still - Don Henley (1982)
Back in the High Life - Steve Winwood (1986)
Richard Marx - Richard Marx (1987)
Red House - Albert King (1991)
The Fire Inside - Bob Seger (1991)
Vertical Man - Ringo Starr (1998)
The Wild - Warren Zevon (2003)
Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates - Kenny Chesney (2007)
Y Not - Ringo Starr (2010)
Ringo 2012 - Ringo Starr (2012)
Postcards from Paradise - Ringo Starr (2015)
Give More Love - Ringo Starr (2017)
What's My Name - Ringo Starr (2019)
Threads - Sheryl Crow (2019)
Filmography
Film
1971: Zachariah Film de George Englund. With Don Johnson: Himself with The James Gang.
1980: The Blues Brothers: A prisoner dancing on a table.
1990: The Best - DVD With Keith Emerson, Jeff Baxter, Joe Walsh, John Entwistle, Simon Phillips: Himself.
Television
Mad TV, as himself, in Episode 1.2 (1995)
Promised land, as R.J., "The Prodigy" (1996)
Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man, voicing himself, "They Craved Duckman's Brain!" (1996) and "Love! Anger! Kvetching!" (1997)
The Drew Carey Show, 7 episodes as Ed ("Drewstock" (1997), "In Ramada Da Vida" (1998), "Golden Boy" (1998), "Drew Between the Rock and a Hard Place" (1998), "Boy Party/Girl Party" (1999), "Steve and Mimi Get Married" (1999), "Drew's in a Coma" (2001))
Drew Carey's Improv All-Stars, guest (2001)
Rock the Cradle (2008), a reality show, the father of contestant Lucy Walsh
Wicked City, as a director, "Running With the Devil" (2015)
Criminal Minds, as himself, "The Sandman" (2016)
Better Things, as himself "Hair of the Dog" (2016)
The Connors, Jesse, "Patriarchs and Goddesses" (2022)
Awards
As a member of The Eagles, Walsh has won five Grammy Awards:
(1977) Record of the Year: "Hotel California" (single)
(1977) Best Arrangement for Voices: "New Kid in Town"
(1979) Best Rock Vocal performance by a Duo or Group: "Heartache Tonight"
(2008) Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: "How Long"
(2009) Best Pop Instrumental Performance: "I Dreamed There Was No War"
Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998
Walsh was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001.
See also
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart
Further reading
Walsh, Joe (1996). Look What I Did! And Then Some .... Hal Leonard Corporation.
Lemco, Steve (2011). Joe & Me''. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
References
External links
1947 births
Living people
Amateur radio people
Record producers from Kansas
American rock guitarists
American male guitarists
American tenors
American rock singers
American male singer-songwriters
American rock songwriters
20th-century American singers
21st-century American composers
21st-century American keyboardists
21st-century American singers
20th-century American composers
American session musicians
American rock keyboardists
American rock pianists
American male pianists
American multi-instrumentalists
20th-century American male actors
American male film actors
Blues rock musicians
Eagles (band) members
The Party Boys members
Musicians from Wichita, Kansas
Kent State University alumni
Musicians from Columbus, Ohio
Montclair High School (New Jersey) alumni
People from Montclair, New Jersey
Writers from Wichita, Kansas
Asylum Records artists
Atlantic Records artists
ABC Records artists
Epic Records artists
Dunhill Records artists
Warner Records artists
MCA Records artists
Fantasy Records artists
The Orchard Records artists
Lead guitarists
Slide guitarists
Grammy Award winners
American people of German descent
American people of Scottish descent
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Singer-songwriters from New Jersey
Male actors from Ohio
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from Kansas
Actors from Wichita, Kansas
American expatriates in Australia
Members
James Gang members
Guitarists from Kansas
Guitarists from Ohio
Guitarists from New Jersey
Kennedy Center honorees
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American pianists
Barnstorm (band) members
The Best (band) members
Singer-songwriters from Kansas | true | [
"Look What I Did! is a compilation album by American rock musician Joe Walsh, released on May 23, 1995. The 2-CD set contains 34 songs from multiple albums spanning from 1968 through 1993, and offers tracks from both Walsh's solo work and when he recorded with the band James Gang.\n\nReception\n\nWriting for Allmusic, critic Daevid Jehnzen wrote the album \"features almost every worthwhile song the guitarist ever recorded...\"\n\nTrack listing\nAll songs written by Joe Walsh except where otherwise indicated.\n\nDisc 1\n\nDisc 2\n\nReferences \n\nJoe Walsh albums\n1995 compilation albums\nMCA Records compilation albums",
"Joe Walsh's Greatest Hits – Little Did He Know... is a compilation released by guitarist Joe Walsh. It contains his best-known solo songs as well as those he recorded with the James Gang and Barnstorm, but it does not contain material he released as a member of the Eagles. The remastered reissue of the compilation Joe Walsh: The Definitive Collection (2006) has the same cover art except for differing text above the photo and no text below the photo.\n\nCritical reception\nWriting for AllMusic, critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote of the album \"The double-disc Look What I Did! was simply too much for anyone but the dedicated Joe Walsh fan, which makes the release of the 15-song, single-disc Joe Walsh's Greatest Hits: Little Did He Know so welcome. Drawing highlights from his solo career and his early records with the James Gang, Greatest Hits contains almost every song that most fans would want\".\n\nTrack listing\nAll songs written by Joe Walsh, except as noted.\n\nProduction\nCompiled & Coordinated by: Joe Walsh, David Spero, Andy McKaie\nRemastering: Bill Szymczyk\nPhotography: Tom Wright\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1997 greatest hits albums\nJoe Walsh albums"
]
|
[
"Joe Walsh",
"Public service",
"What charities did Joe Walsh work with?",
"Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks."
]
| C_040d7718872f46c387a6014808d463a3_0 | What does he do to help conserve the environment in Santa Cruz? | 2 | What does Joe Walsh do to help conserve the environment in Santa Cruz? | Joe Walsh | Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008. Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s. Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!" In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things." In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., Keith Urban to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid - a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson. CANNOTANSWER | He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s. | Joseph Fidler Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American rock singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has been a member of three successful rock bands: James Gang, Eagles, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Walsh was also part of the New Zealand band Herbs. In the 1990s, he was a member of the short-lived supergroup The Best.
Walsh has also experienced success both as a solo artist and as a prolific session musician, being featured on a wide array of other artists' recordings. In 2011, Rolling Stone placed him at the No. 54 spot on its list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
In the mid-1960s, after attending Kent State University, Walsh played with several local Ohio-based bands before reaching a national audience as a member of the James Gang, whose hit song "Funk #49" highlighted his skill as both a guitarist and singer. Roger Abramson, a concert producer and artist manager, signed the James Gang to a management agreement with BPI in Cleveland. After leaving the James Gang in 1972, he formed Barnstorm with Joe Vitale, a college friend from Ohio, and Kenny Passarelli, a bassist from Colorado, where Walsh had moved after leaving Ohio. While the band stayed together for three albums over three years, its works were marketed as Walsh solo projects. The last Barnstorm album, 1974's So What contained significant guest contributions from several members of the Eagles, a group that had recently hired Walsh's producer, Bill Szymczyk.
At Szymczyk's suggestion, Walsh joined the Eagles in 1975 as the band's guitarist and keyboardist following the departure of their founding member Bernie Leadon, with Hotel California being his first album with the band. In 1998, a reader's poll conducted by Guitarist magazine selected the guitar solos on the track "Hotel California" by Walsh and Don Felder as the best guitar solos of all time. Guitar World magazine listed it at eighth of the Top 100 Guitar Solos.
Besides his work with his several bands, he has released 12 solo studio albums, six compilation albums, and two live albums. His solo hits include "Rocky Mountain Way", "Life's Been Good", "All Night Long", "A Life of Illusion", and "Ordinary Average Guy".
As a member of the Eagles, Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, and into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001. The Eagles are considered to be one of the most influential bands of the 1970s, and they remain one of the best-selling American bands in the history of popular music. His creative contribution to music has received praise from many of the best rock guitarists, including Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, who said, "He has a tremendous feel for the instrument. I've loved his style since the early James Gang." Eric Clapton said that "He's one of the best guitarists to surface in some time. I don't listen to many records, but I listen to his." The Who's guitarist, Pete Townshend, said "Joe Walsh is a fluid and intelligent player. There're not many like that around."
Early life and education
Joseph Fidler Walsh was born on November 20, 1947, in Wichita, Kansas. His father, Lt. Robert Newton Fidler, was a flight instructor for the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star in the United States Air Force and died in a plane crash in Okinawa on 22 July 1949. Walsh's mother was a classically trained pianist of Scottish and German ancestry. Walsh was adopted by his stepfather at the age of five and given his stepfather's surname, but retained Fidler as his middle name. In the 1950s, it was common practice for Social Security, school registration, and health records for children to take the name of their stepfather.
Walsh and his family lived in Columbus, Ohio, for a number of years during his youth. When Walsh was twelve years old, his family moved to New York City. Later, Walsh moved to Montclair, New Jersey, and he attended Montclair High School, where he played oboe in the school band.
Walsh got his first guitar at the age of 10, and upon learning The Ventures' "Walk Don't Run", decided that he wanted to pursue a career as a guitarist. Inspired by the success of the Beatles, he replaced Bruce Hoffman as the bass player in the locally popular group, the Nomads in Madison, New Jersey, beginning his career as a rock musician. After high school, Walsh attended Kent State University, where he spent time in various bands playing around the Cleveland area, including the Measles. The Measles recorded for Super K Productions' Ohio Express the songs "I Find I Think of You", "And It's True", and "Maybe" (an instrumental version of "And It's True"). Walsh majored in English and minored in music; he was present during the Kent State massacre in 1970. Walsh commented in 2012: "Being at the shootings really affected me profoundly. I decided that maybe I don't need a degree that bad." After one term, he dropped out of college to pursue his musical career.
Musical career
1965–1967: The Measles (Joe Walsh years)
The Measles, an Ohio garage bar band, were formed in 1965 by four Kent State University students, one of whom was Joe Walsh. Two tracks on the Ohio Express' Beg Borrow and Steal album, "I Find I Think Of You" and "And It's True" (both featuring Joe Walsh vocals) were actually recorded by the Measles, led by Walsh. Additionally, an instrumental version of "And It's True" was recorded by the Measles, re-titled "Maybe" and released as the B-side of the "Beg Borrow and Steal" single.
1968–1971: James Gang
Around Christmas 1967, James Gang guitarist Glenn Schwartz, who turned out to be AWOL from the army and was breaking up with his wife, decided to leave the band to move to California, where he ended up forming the band Pacific Gas & Electric. Days later, Walsh, a friend of Schwartz's, knocked on Jim Fox's door and asked to be given a tryout as Schwartz's replacement. Walsh was accepted and the band continued as a five piece for a short time until Phil Giallombardo, who was still in high school at the time, left. Bill Jeric and Walsh worked together on guitar parts, but Jeric left as well in the spring of 1968. He was replaced by a returning Ronnie Silverman, who had been discharged from the military.
In May 1968, the group played a concert in Detroit at the Grande Ballroom, opening for Cream. At the last minute, Silverman told the others that he would not join them at the show. The band, desperately in need of the money, took to the stage as a trio. They liked their sound as a threesome and decided to remain that way.
In 1968, the band signed with manager Mark Barger, who was handling the career of fellow Ohio outfit the Lemon Pipers, who had just scored a big hit with "Green Tambourine." Barger put the Gang in touch with ABC Records staff producer Bill Szymczyk, who signed them to ABC's new Bluesway Records subsidiary in January 1969.
They released their debut album, Yer' Album, in 1969. In November 1969, bassist Tom Kriss decided he was no longer into the music and left to be replaced by Dale Peters, who was brought in from a group called The Case of E.T. Hooley. The addition of Peters created the most successful incarnation of the James Gang. Walsh proved to be the band's star attraction, noted for his innovative rhythm playing and creative guitar riffs. In particular he was known for hot-wiring the pick-ups on his electric guitars to create his trademark "attack" sound. The James Gang had several minor hits and became an early album-oriented rock staple for the next two years. It was during 1969 that Walsh sold his Les Paul Guitar to Jimmy Page. Later in 1969, the group's record producer, Szymczyk, arranged for the band to appear in the "electric Western" film Zachariah, with two James Gang songs, "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever," also being used. For the recording of these two songs, vocalist Kenny Weiss was brought in to allow Walsh to focus on his guitar playing; he was gone by the time the group arrived in Mexico to shoot their movie scenes. "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever" later reappeared as bonus tracks on the 2000 re-release of The James Gang Greatest Hits.
Shortly before the release of their second album James Gang Rides Again, the James Gang opened a show for the Who in Pittsburgh. Their guitarist Pete Townshend met with the James Gang before they left and was impressed enough to invite them on the Who's subsequent European tour. When Walsh was asked about this he said that, "Pete's a very melodic player and so am I. He told me that he appreciated my playing. I was flattered beyond belief because I didn't think I was that good."
The James Gang's next two albums, James Gang Rides Again (1970) and Thirds (1971), produced such classics as "Funk #49" and "Walk Away". The album James Gang Live at Carnegie Hall was Walsh's last album with them, as he became dissatisfied with the band's limitations.
The two remaining members, Peters and Fox, carried on with the lead vocalist Roy Kenner and guitarist Domenic Troiano (both ex-members of the Canadian band Bush) for two albums, Straight Shooter and Passin' Thru, both released in 1972. But in recent interviews, Fox stated that things did not work out musically with Troiano as hoped, so he left the band in 1973 and joined the Guess Who.
1971–1975: Barnstorm
In December 1971, Walsh left the James Gang. Steve Marriott, frontman guitarist of Humble Pie, invited him to move to England and join his band, which Peter Frampton had left, but Walsh declined. Instead he moved to Colorado and formed a band called Barnstorm, with drummer and multi-instrumentalist Joe Vitale, and bassist Kenny Passarelli, although both of their albums credited Walsh as a solo artist. They started recording their debut album immediately after forming, but at the time there were only Walsh and Vitale on these sessions. Chuck Rainey did the first bass tracks on the album but these were soon replaced by Passarelli. Walsh and Barnstorm released their debut album, the eponymous Barnstorm, in October 1972. After taking a cue from Townshend, Walsh utilized the ARP Odyssey synthesizer to great effect on such songs as "Mother Says" and "Here We Go". Walsh also experimented with acoustic guitar, slide guitar, effects pedals, fuzzbox, talk box, and keyboards as well as running his guitar straight into a Leslie speaker 122 to get swirly, organ-like guitar tones. The album was a critical success, but had only moderate commercial success. The follow-up, The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get, released in June 1973, was marketed under Walsh's name (although officially a Barnstorm album) and was their commercial breakthrough. It peaked at No. 6 on the US Billboard chart. The first and leading single, "Rocky Mountain Way", received heavy airplay and reached No. 23 on the US Top 40 chart. It featured new member, keyboardist Rocke Grace, and Walsh shared the vocals and songwriting with the other three members of the band. As a result, a variety of styles are explored on this album. There are elements of blues, jazz, folk, pop, and Caribbean music. In 1974, Barnstorm disbanded and Walsh continued as a solo artist.
In late 1974, Walsh played slide guitar on Vitale's debut solo album Roller Coaster Weekend. Walsh was taught the slide technique by Duane Allman, who played on Eric Clapton's Layla of Derek and the Dominos.
Barnstorm's last tour was spring 1975, shortly after Joe joined The Eagles.
1975–1980: Eagles
In 1975, Walsh was invited to join The Eagles as founding member Bernie Leadon's replacement. There was some initial concern as to Walsh's ability to fit in with the band, as he was considered far too "wild" for The Eagles, especially by their drummer and co-lead vocalist, Don Henley.
Released on December 8, 1976, Hotel California was the band's fifth studio album and the first to feature Walsh. The album took a year and a half to complete, a process which, along with touring, drained the band.
The second single from the album was the eponymous title track, which topped the charts in May 1977 and became one of the Eagles' signature songs next to "Take It Easy" and "Desperado". It features Henley on lead vocals, with a guitar duet performed by Felder and Walsh.
The hard rock "Life in the Fast Lane", released on May 3, 1977, was based on a riff by Walsh. It reached No. 11 on the charts and helped establish Walsh's position in the band.
Hotel California is the last album to feature founding member Randy Meisner, who abruptly left the band after the 1977 tour. He was replaced by the same musician who had succeeded him in Poco, Timothy B. Schmit.
In 1977, the band, minus Don Felder, performed instrumental work and backing vocals for Randy Newman's album Little Criminals, including "Short People," which has backing vocals by Frey and Schmit.
The Eagles went into the recording studio in 1977 to begin work on their next album, The Long Run. The album took two years to complete. The Long Run was released on September 24, 1979. Considered a disappointment by some music critics for failing to live up to Hotel California, it proved a huge commercial hit nonetheless; the album topped the charts and sold 7 million copies. In addition, it included three Top 10 singles—"Heartache Tonight", the title track and "I Can't Tell You Why". "In The City" by Walsh also received considerable airplay. The band also recorded two Christmas songs during these sessions, "Funky New Year" and "Please Come Home for Christmas" which was released as a single in 1978 and reached No. 18 on the charts. In 1980, the band broke up.
1973–2012: solo career
Walsh has released twelve solo studio albums.
In December 1974, Walsh released his first solo album that was not considered a Barnstorm project, So What, which contained more introspective material such as "Help Me Through the Night" and "Song For Emma", a tribute to Walsh's daughter who had been killed in a car accident that April. On a few tracks, Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner of the Eagles contributed backing vocals.
In March 1976, Walsh released a live album, You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind, which also featured the Eagles.
As the Eagles struggled to record their follow-up to Hotel California, Walsh re-ignited his solo career with the critically well-received album, But Seriously, Folks... in May 1978. It contained the single "Life's Been Good", his comedic depiction of rock stardom, which peaked at No. 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and remains to date his biggest solo hit. Walsh also contributed "In the City" to The Warriors soundtrack in 1979, a song penned and sung by Walsh that was later rerecorded for the Eagles' studio album, The Long Run.
Following the break up of the Eagles in July 1980, Walsh continued to release solo albums throughout the 1980s, but sales did not meet the same level of his earlier successes.
There Goes the Neighborhood was Walsh's first album since the demise of the Eagles, and it peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200. The album only spawned one single, "A Life of Illusion", which became one of Walsh's most popular songs. The single also topped the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, in 1981.
"A Life of Illusion" was recorded in 1973 with Walsh's first solo band Barnstorm but was not completed. The overdubs and final mixes were completed during the There Goes the Neighborhood sessions and released on the album. The promotional video for the track shows the making of the album's cover. This song also appeared in the opening credits of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and appears as the first song on its soundtrack.
In May 1983, Walsh released You Bought It – You Name It; the album was received negatively by the majority of music critics, while other reviewers noted good points to the album. It was also not as successful as Walsh's previous albums, peaking at No. 48 on the Billboard 200. Walsh found moderate success with the single "Space Age Whiz Kids", about the pinnacle of the 1980s video arcade craze. The album contains hard rock songs such as "I Can Play That Rock & Roll" and a cover of the Dick Haymes track, "Love Letters". It also contains more introspective material such as "Class of '65", and contains a song titled "I.L.B.T.s", an acronym for "I Like Big Tits".
Walsh's new girlfriend Stevie Nicks was involved in his next album, The Confessor. Her old friend Keith Olsen was hired to produce the album and the musicians were prolific LA session musicians including: Jim Keltner, Mike Porcaro, Waddy Wachtel, Randy Newman, Alan Pasqua and many other musicians that Walsh had never worked with before.
In 1987, Walsh released his final solo album of the 1980s, Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning, and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead vocalist Jimi Jamison, but the album was a commercial disappointment.
In 1991, Ordinary Average Guy, his ninth solo studio album, and its title track single, were released on the Epic label. The album features Ringo Starr, Jimi Jamison, and drummer Joe Vitale from Walsh's former band Barnstorm. Vitale also sings the lead vocals on the final track of the album, "School Days".
In 1992, Walsh released what appeared to be his final album (until 2012), Songs for a Dying Planet, his tenth solo studio album. Like its predecessor, it was released on the Epic label. Keen to re-establish himself after receiving some poor reviews for his previous album, Walsh enlisted his former producer Bill Szymczyk. At the end of the track "Certain Situations" you can hear a Morse code message that says "Register and vote for me". His song "Vote for Me" was a minor success, peaking at No. 10 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
Walsh's song "One Day at a Time" was released in 2012 and details his struggles with alcohol and drug abuse earlier in his career. The song appeared on Walsh's album Analog Man, which was released on June 5, 2012. The album was co-produced by Jeff Lynne, with Tommy Lee James co-writing some of the album's tracks.
Eagles reunion
An Eagles country tribute album titled Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles was released in 1993, thirteen years after the break up. Travis Tritt insisted on having the Long Run-era Eagles in his video for "Take It Easy" and they agreed. Following years of public speculation, the band formally reunited the following year. The line-up comprised the five Long Run-era members—Frey, Henley, Walsh, Felder, and Schmit—supplemented by Scott Crago (drums), John Corey (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), Timothy Drury (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals) and Al Garth (saxophone, violin) on stage.
"For the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation," announced Frey at their first live performance in April 1994. The ensuing tour spawned a live album titled Hell Freezes Over (named for Henley's recurring statement that the band would get back together "when hell freezes over"), which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. It included four new studio songs, with "Get Over It" and "Love Will Keep Us Alive" both becoming Top 40 hits. The album proved as successful as the tour, selling 6 million copies in the U.S. The tour was interrupted in September 1994 because of Frey's serious recurrence of diverticulitis, but it resumed in 1995 and continued into 1996. In 1998, the Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the induction ceremony, all seven Eagles members (Frey, Henley, Leadon, Meisner, Felder, Walsh, and Schmit) played together for two songs, "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California". Several subsequent reunion tours followed (without Leadon or Meisner), notable for their record-setting ticket prices.
The Eagles performed at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Paradise, Nevada on December 28 and 29, 1999, followed by a concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on December 31. These concerts marked the last time Felder played with the band and these shows (including a planned video release) later formed a part of a lawsuit filed by Felder against his former band members.
The concert recordings were released on CD as part of the four-disc Selected Works: 1972–1999 box set in November 2000. Along with the millennium concert, this set included the band's hit singles, album tracks and outtakes from The Long Run sessions. Selected Works received platinum certification from the RIAA in 2002.
The band resumed touring in 2001, with a line-up consisting of Frey, Henley, Walsh and Schmit, along with Steuart Smith (guitars, mandolin, keyboards, backing vocals; essentially taking over Felder's role), Michael Thompson (keyboards, trombone), Will Hollis (keyboards, backing vocals), Scott Crago (drums, percussion), Bill Armstrong (horns), Al Garth (saxophone, violin), Christian Mostert (saxophone) and Greg Smith (saxophone, percussion).
In 2003, the Eagles released a greatest hits album, The Very Best Of. The two-disc compilation was the first that encompassed their entire career, from Eagles to Hell Freezes Over. It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard charts and eventually gained triple platinum status. The album includes a new single, the September 11 attacks-themed "Hole in the World". Also in 2003, Warren Zevon, a longtime Eagles friend, began work on his final album, The Wind, with the assistance of Henley, Walsh and Schmit.
On June 14, 2005, the Eagles released a new 2-DVD set titled Farewell 1 Tour-Live from Melbourne, featuring two new songs: Frey's "No More Cloudy Days" and Walsh's "One Day at a Time". A special edition 2006 release exclusive to Walmart and affiliated stores includes a bonus audio CD with three new songs: a studio version of "No More Cloudy Days", "Fast Company" and "Do Something".
In 2007, the Eagles consisted of Frey, Henley, Walsh, and Schmit. On August 20, 2007, "How Long", written by J. D. Souther, was released as a single to radio with an accompanying online video at Yahoo! Music. It debuted on television on Country Music Television during the Top 20 Countdown on August 23, 2007. The band had performed the song as part of their live sets in the early to mid-1970s, but did not record it at the time because Souther wanted to reserve it for use on his first solo album. Souther had previously worked with the Eagles, co-writing some of their biggest hits, including "Best of My Love", "Victim of Love", "Heartache Tonight" and "New Kid in Town".
On October 30, 2007, the Eagles released Long Road Out of Eden, their first album of all-new material since 1979. For the first year after the album's release, it was available in the U.S. only via the band's website, at Walmart and at Sam's Club stores. It was commercially available through traditional retail outlets in other countries. The album debuted at number 1 in the U.S., the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Norway. It became their third studio album and seventh release overall to be certified at least seven times platinum by the RIAA. Henley told CNN that "This is probably the last Eagles album that we'll ever make." The Eagles made their awards show debut on November 7, 2007, when they performed "How Long" live at the Country Music Association Awards.
On January 28, 2008, the second single of Long Road Out of Eden was released. "Busy Being Fabulous" peaked at No. 28 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and at No. 12 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. The Eagles won their fifth Grammy in 2007, in the category Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "How Long".
On March 20, 2008, the Eagles launched their world tour in support of Long Road Out of Eden at The O2 Arena in London. The Long Road Out of Eden Tour concluded the American portion of the tour at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah on May 9, 2009. It was the first concert ever held in the new soccer stadium. The tour traveled to Europe, with its final concert date on July 22, 2009, in Lisbon. The band spent the summer of 2010 touring North American stadiums with the Dixie Chicks and Keith Urban. The tour expanded to England as the headline act of the Hop Farm Festival on July 1, 2011.
Asked in November 2010 whether the Eagles were planning a follow-up to Long Road Out of Eden, Schmit replied, "My first reaction would be: no way. But I said that before the last one, so you never really know. Bands are a fragile entity and you never know what's going to happen. It took a long time to do that last album, over a span of years, really, and it took a lot out of us. We took a year off at one point. I'm not sure if we're able to do that again. I wouldn't close the door on it, but I don't know." Walsh said in 2010 that there might be one more album before the band "wraps it up".
In February 2013, the Eagles released a career spanning documentary called History of the Eagles and kicked off the supporting tour with 11 arena dates from July 6 to 25. Henley said that the tour, which would continue until 2015, "could very well be our last... we're gonna include at least one former band member in this tour and kinda go back to the roots, and how we created some of these songs. We're gonna break it down to the fundamentals and then take it up to where it is now."
Original Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon also appeared on the tour. Walsh stated, "Bernie's brilliant, I never really got a chance to play with him, but we've been in contact. We see him from time to time, and I'm really glad he's coming because it's going to take the show up a notch, and I'm really looking forward to playing with him, finally." It has been reported that former members Randy Meisner and Don Felder will not appear. Meisner had been invited but could not participate due to health problems, while Felder was reportedly not invited due to ongoing legal disputes with the band.
Other bands
In late 1984, Walsh was contacted by Australian musician Paul Christie, the former bassist for Mondo Rock. Christie invited him to come to Australia to perform with the Party Boys, an all-star band with a floating membership of well-known Australian rock musicians. These included the critically acclaimed guitarist Kevin Borich, with whom Walsh became good friends. Walsh accepted and performed with the Party Boys on their late-1984–early-1985 Australian tour and appeared on their live album, You Need Professional Help. He remained in Australia for some time after the tour, putting together the short-lived touring band "Creatures From America", with Waddy Wachtel (guitar), Rick Rosas (bass guitar) and Australian drummer Richard Harvey (Divinyls, the Party Boys) In 1987, Walsh returned to the United States to work on his album Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead singer Jimi Jamison. After the album's commercial disappointment, Walsh decided to return to Australia in 1989 to tour with another incarnation of the Party Boys. Walsh also toured with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band in 1989 and 1992, alternating a handful of his best-known songs with Starr's and tunes by other of the members of the All-Starr Band. In 1989, Walsh recorded a MTV Unplugged with the R&B musician Dr. John. Also in 1989 Walsh filmed a live concert from the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles with Etta James and Albert Collins, called Jazzvisions: Jump the Blues Away.
While producing their Homegrown album in 1989, Walsh briefly joined New Zealand reggae band Herbs. Although he had left by the time of its 1990 release, he still appears as lead singer on two tracks, "Up All Night" and "It's Alright". The album includes the first recording of his "Ordinary Average Guys" (sung by late Herbs bassist Charlie Tumahai), which subsequently became a solo hit for Walsh as "Ordinary Average Guy".
In late 1990, Walsh was part of a band called the Best, along with keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist John Entwistle, guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and drummer Simon Phillips. The band performed several shows in Hawaii and Japan, with a live video resulting.
In 1993, Walsh teamed up with Glenn Frey for the "Party of Two" tour in the United States.
In 1996, James Gang did a reunion for the Democratic president, Bill Clinton. The band consisted of their "classic" line-up (Walsh, Peters, Fox), and they performed at the Cleveland State University Convocation Center on November 4, 1996.
In 1998, ABC wanted to use a classic rock song rock for Monday Night Football that year, so they asked Walsh to rewrite the lyrics to "Rocky Mountain Way" for the quarterback John Elway of the Denver Broncos. "Rocky Mountain Elway" was the new title of the song and Walsh appeared in a video that ABC showed on Monday Night Football.
2000s and 2010s
In June 2004, Walsh performed at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, Texas. He was also featured in September 2004 at the Strat Pack, a concert held in London, England, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar. In 2006, Walsh reunited with Jim Fox and Dale Peters of the James Gang for new recordings and a 15-date summer reunion tour. The tour lasted into the fall.
In 2008, Walsh appeared on the Carvin 60th Anniversary Celebration DVD as a celebrity endorser. In the recorded interview, he highly praised Carvin Guitars and claims that the bridge design is "just like the first Les Paul models. I can't even get Gibson to reissue it".
Kent State University awarded Walsh an honorary degree in music in December 2001. In May 2012, the Berklee College of Music awarded Walsh, along with other members of the Eagles, an honorary doctorate for his accomplishments in the field of music.
Notable appearances
In 1974, Walsh produced Dan Fogelberg's Souvenirs album and played the guitar, electric guitar, 12 string guitar, ARP bass and provided backing vocals. He also contacted Graham Nash to sing harmony vocals on "Part of the Plan", which helped send the album to No. 17 on the 1975 Billboard album chart.
In 1973 Walsh supplied the slide guitar solo on Michael Stanley's song "Rosewood Bitters." Walsh later lifted part of that solo and used it prominently in the Eagles' hit "Life in the Fast Lane."
In 1981, Walsh and former Barnstorm bandmate, Joe Vitale, went to work on old friend John Entwistle's fifth solo album Too Late the Hero, whenever they were free to work on it. The album turned out to become John Entwistle's best-charting solo album, with hit singles "Talk Dirty" and "Too Late the Hero".
Walsh was a background musician (1st guitar solo) on Eagles band member Don Henley's 1982 hit "Dirty Laundry" (listed as such in the liner notes of I Can't Stand Still and Actual Miles: Henley's Greatest Hits). Walsh has also contributed to albums by: Ringo Starr; America; REO Speedwagon; Jay Ferguson; Andy Gibb; Wilson Phillips; Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Steve Winwood; and on the Richard Marx hit "Don't Mean Nothing".
Walsh was a regular guest DJ on Los Angeles radio station KLOS during the mid-1980s. They had a Saturday evening feature, with celebrity guest-hosts taking over the microphone (Walsh was the guest host far more frequently than any other). He was also a frequent guest and guest-host of Detroit and Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl.
Onscreen, Walsh has appeared in: The Blues Brothers, Promised Land, The Drew Carey Show, Duckman, MADtv, Live from Daryl's House, Rock the Cradle and Zachariah.
In October 2004, Walsh undertook speaking engagements in New Zealand to warn against the dangers of substance abuse. He said the visit was a "thank you" to people who took him to Otatara Pa when he toured New Zealand with reggae band Herbs while under heavy alcohol and cocaine addictions in 1989, an experience he has cited as the beginning of a long journey back to good health. At Otatara Pa in 2004 Walsh said, "This is a special place, and it is very special to me. It was here on a visit many years ago, up on the hills, that I had a moment of clarity. I don't understand it, but I reconnected with my soul, and I remembered who I used to be. I admitted I had problems and I had to do something about it. It was the beginning of my recovery from my addiction to alcohol and drugs, and when I got back to America it gave me the courage to seek help."
On February 12, 2012, Walsh appeared on stage with Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, and McCartney's band at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to close out the Grammy Awards show. Walsh also appeared on the 60th Episode of Live from Daryl's House with Daryl Hall, which premiered on November 15, 2012.
On February 9, 2014, Walsh was featured in several songs on the CBS special The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles.
In 2014, Walsh made a guest appearance on Foo Fighters' eighth studio album Sonic Highways.
On May 24, 2016, Walsh appeared on NBC's The Voice in which he played slide guitar, talk box and performed Rocky Mountain Way with contestant Laith Al-Saadi.
He appeared on an episode of 'The Conners' on 19 January 2022. He played Aldo's father.
Influences
Walsh cites influences and with rock music / pop music bands and guitarists with whom many he has encountered and met on concert tours: Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Jeff Beck, the Beatles, Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, Ritchie Blackmore and Deep Purple, Manfred Mann, Duane Allman and The Allman Brothers, Ronnie Wood and The Faces, Pete Townshend and The Who, and The Ventures. In turn, he has influenced Dan Fogelberg, Maroon 5, Kenny Chesney, Jonny Lang, Blitzen Trapper, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and George Thorogood. Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band taught Walsh how to play the slide guitar.
Public service
Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008.
Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.
Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!"
In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things."
In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry, including the Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., and Keith Urban, to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid – a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson.
Personal life
Walsh has been married five times. He was married briefly to Margie Walsh in the 1960s, to Stefany Rhodes from 1971 to 1978, to Juanita Boyer from 1980 to 1988, and to Denise Driscoll from 1999 to 2006. Walsh married Marjorie Bach (sister of Barbara Bach and sister-in-law of Ringo Starr) in Los Angeles on December 13, 2008. Another sister-in-law, Susan Walsh, has been a missing person since 1996.
Walsh's daughter Lucy Walsh is a musician who has worked with Ashlee Simpson and others. She released her debut solo album, Lost in the Lights, in spring 2007.
Walsh's eldest daughter, Emma Kristen, was born in 1971 and died in 1974 at 3 years of age as a result of injuries suffered in an automobile accident on her way to nursery school. Her story inspired the track "Song for Emma" on Walsh's solo album So What released later that year. In her memory, he had a fountain and memorial plaque placed in a park in which she played: North Boulder Park in Boulder, Colorado. He has said that the album name So What was a result of Emma's death: that nothing else seemed meaningful or important in the months that followed. The strain eventually contributed to Walsh's divorce from his second wife Stefany. While touring with singer Stevie Nicks in 1984, Walsh took Nicks to the park's fountain; Nicks subsequently immortalized this story in her song "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?" on her 1985 album Rock A Little. Nicks told the UK's The Daily Telegraph in 2007 that Walsh had been "the great love of my life". "Joe and I broke up because of the coke," she elaborated to Q. "He told my friend and singer Sharon [Celani], 'I'm leaving Stevie, because I'm afraid that one of us is going to die. And the other one won't be able to save the other person, because our cocaine habit has become so over the top now that neither of us can live through this. So the only way to save both of us is for me to leave.'"
Walsh admits to struggling with alcohol and drug addictions for most of his early career and has been in recovery since 1993. In 1989, while touring with New Zealand band Herbs, Walsh experienced an "epiphany" during a visit to Otatara Pa, an ancient Māori pā site in the Hawke's Bay region. In 2004, on a return visit to New Zealand, Walsh described the experience and hailed it as the beginning of his recovery from his addiction. Walsh related the story that in 1994, he woke up after blacking out on an airplane to Paris. When he arrived, he had his passport, but did not remember getting on the plane. That was his turning point, and he has been sober ever since.
While living in New York City, Walsh began a lifelong interest in amateur radio. He holds an Amateur Extra Class Amateur Radio License, and his station callsign is WB6ACU. In 2006, he donated an autographed guitar to the ARRL in Newington, Connecticut, for its charity auction. He has also been involved with the group's "Big Project," which brings amateur radio into schools. Walsh has included Morse Code messages in his albums on two occasions: once on the album Barnstorm ("Register and Vote"), and later on Songs for a Dying Planet ("Register and Vote for Me"). Walsh provides the theme song (which includes Morse code) for the TWiT podcast Ham Nation (debuting in 2011), and he appeared as a guest in the first podcast, as well as episode 400.
Instruments
Jimmy Page's sunburst 1959 Gibson Les Paul, better known as his "Number 1" was originally owned by Walsh and was sold to Page in 1969.
In 1970, Walsh gave a 1959 Gretsch 6120 to the Who's lead guitarist Pete Townshend. Townshend used the Gretsch in the studio to record tracks on albums such as Who's Next and Quadrophenia.
Select other guitars
1959 Gibson Les Paul that was given/sold to Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page in April 1969
Carvin DC4, CT6, CT4, CS4, and other various models.
Duesenberg Starplayer Alliance - Walsh has an Alliance guitar co-developed with him
Amplifiers
Marshall 50 watt Plexi
Discography
The Measles
Singles:
1965: Casting My Spell/Bye Birdie Fly
1966: Kicks/No Baby At All
The Ohio Express
1967: Beg, Borrow And Steal - I Find I Think Of You composed by Joe Walsh and played by his band The Measles.
James Gang
Studio albums:
1969: Yer' Album
1970: James Gang Rides Again
1971: Thirds
Live album:
1971: James Gang Live in Concert
Compilation:
1973: The Best Of James Gang Featuring Joe Walsh
Barnstorm
Studio albums:
1972: Barnstorm
1973: The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get
Eagles
Studio albums:
1976: Hotel California
1979: The Long Run
2007: Long Road out of Eden
Live albums:
1980: Eagles Live
1994: Hell Freezes Over
2020: Live from the Forum MMXVIII
Solo
Collaborations
Indianola Mississippi Seeds - B.B. King (1970)
L.A. Midnight - B.B. King (1972)
The Kids & Me - Billy Preston (1974)
Souvenirs - Dan Fogelberg (1974)
Act Like Nothing's Wrong - Al Kooper (1976)
Stone Alone - Bill Wyman (1976)
A Night on the Town - Rod Stewart (1976)
Nether Lands - Dan Fogelberg (1977)
Little Criminals - Randy Newman (1977)
Earth & Sky - Graham Nash (1980)
Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School - Warren Zevon (1980)
Wild Heart of the Young - Karla Bonoff (1982)
I Can't Stand Still - Don Henley (1982)
Back in the High Life - Steve Winwood (1986)
Richard Marx - Richard Marx (1987)
Red House - Albert King (1991)
The Fire Inside - Bob Seger (1991)
Vertical Man - Ringo Starr (1998)
The Wild - Warren Zevon (2003)
Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates - Kenny Chesney (2007)
Y Not - Ringo Starr (2010)
Ringo 2012 - Ringo Starr (2012)
Postcards from Paradise - Ringo Starr (2015)
Give More Love - Ringo Starr (2017)
What's My Name - Ringo Starr (2019)
Threads - Sheryl Crow (2019)
Filmography
Film
1971: Zachariah Film de George Englund. With Don Johnson: Himself with The James Gang.
1980: The Blues Brothers: A prisoner dancing on a table.
1990: The Best - DVD With Keith Emerson, Jeff Baxter, Joe Walsh, John Entwistle, Simon Phillips: Himself.
Television
Mad TV, as himself, in Episode 1.2 (1995)
Promised land, as R.J., "The Prodigy" (1996)
Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man, voicing himself, "They Craved Duckman's Brain!" (1996) and "Love! Anger! Kvetching!" (1997)
The Drew Carey Show, 7 episodes as Ed ("Drewstock" (1997), "In Ramada Da Vida" (1998), "Golden Boy" (1998), "Drew Between the Rock and a Hard Place" (1998), "Boy Party/Girl Party" (1999), "Steve and Mimi Get Married" (1999), "Drew's in a Coma" (2001))
Drew Carey's Improv All-Stars, guest (2001)
Rock the Cradle (2008), a reality show, the father of contestant Lucy Walsh
Wicked City, as a director, "Running With the Devil" (2015)
Criminal Minds, as himself, "The Sandman" (2016)
Better Things, as himself "Hair of the Dog" (2016)
The Connors, Jesse, "Patriarchs and Goddesses" (2022)
Awards
As a member of The Eagles, Walsh has won five Grammy Awards:
(1977) Record of the Year: "Hotel California" (single)
(1977) Best Arrangement for Voices: "New Kid in Town"
(1979) Best Rock Vocal performance by a Duo or Group: "Heartache Tonight"
(2008) Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: "How Long"
(2009) Best Pop Instrumental Performance: "I Dreamed There Was No War"
Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998
Walsh was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001.
See also
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart
Further reading
Walsh, Joe (1996). Look What I Did! And Then Some .... Hal Leonard Corporation.
Lemco, Steve (2011). Joe & Me''. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
References
External links
1947 births
Living people
Amateur radio people
Record producers from Kansas
American rock guitarists
American male guitarists
American tenors
American rock singers
American male singer-songwriters
American rock songwriters
20th-century American singers
21st-century American composers
21st-century American keyboardists
21st-century American singers
20th-century American composers
American session musicians
American rock keyboardists
American rock pianists
American male pianists
American multi-instrumentalists
20th-century American male actors
American male film actors
Blues rock musicians
Eagles (band) members
The Party Boys members
Musicians from Wichita, Kansas
Kent State University alumni
Musicians from Columbus, Ohio
Montclair High School (New Jersey) alumni
People from Montclair, New Jersey
Writers from Wichita, Kansas
Asylum Records artists
Atlantic Records artists
ABC Records artists
Epic Records artists
Dunhill Records artists
Warner Records artists
MCA Records artists
Fantasy Records artists
The Orchard Records artists
Lead guitarists
Slide guitarists
Grammy Award winners
American people of German descent
American people of Scottish descent
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Singer-songwriters from New Jersey
Male actors from Ohio
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from Kansas
Actors from Wichita, Kansas
American expatriates in Australia
Members
James Gang members
Guitarists from Kansas
Guitarists from Ohio
Guitarists from New Jersey
Kennedy Center honorees
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American pianists
Barnstorm (band) members
The Best (band) members
Singer-songwriters from Kansas | true | [
"The Santa Cruz Island Horse was a feral horse on Santa Cruz Island, descended from horses originally brought by Spanish settlers in 1830. Horses were removed from the island in 1998. In 1999, a breeding program was started to conserve the breed.\n\nThe horses are bred at El Campeon Farms in Thousand Oaks, California, until today .\n\nReferences\n\nHorse breeds\nFeral horses\nEndangered species",
"Santa Cruz Futebol Clube, usually known as Santa Cruz or Santa Cruz de Natal, is a Brazilian football club from Natal, Rio Grande do Norte.\n\nHistory\nOriginally founded in 1934 as Santa Cruz Esporte e Cultura, the club won one Campeonato Potiguar in 1943 before ceasing activities in the early 1960s. In 1965, the club was refounded as Santa Cruz Futebol Clube.\n\nSanta Cruz subsequently spent more than 30 years without playing, only returning to amateur competitions in 2011. Four years later, the club entered in the second division of the Potiguar, finishing second and missing out promotion as only the champion moved up to the first division.\n\nIn 2017, after being crowned champions of the second division in the previous year, Santa Cruz returned to the first division after more than 50 years, and narrowly avoided relegation. In 2018, the club finished in an impressive 3rd place, qualifying to the following year's Série D and the Copa do Brasil.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nFNF team profile \nSoccerway team profile\n\nAssociation football clubs established in 1934\n1934 establishments in Brazil\nAssociation football clubs established in 1965\n1965 establishments in Brazil\nFootball clubs in Rio Grande do Norte"
]
|
[
"Joe Walsh",
"Public service",
"What charities did Joe Walsh work with?",
"Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks.",
"What does he do to help conserve the environment in Santa Cruz?",
"He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s."
]
| C_040d7718872f46c387a6014808d463a3_0 | What other charities is he involved with? | 3 | What charities other than Santa Cruz Island Foundation is Joe Walsh involved with? | Joe Walsh | Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008. Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s. Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!" In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things." In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., Keith Urban to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid - a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson. CANNOTANSWER | He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. | Joseph Fidler Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American rock singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has been a member of three successful rock bands: James Gang, Eagles, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Walsh was also part of the New Zealand band Herbs. In the 1990s, he was a member of the short-lived supergroup The Best.
Walsh has also experienced success both as a solo artist and as a prolific session musician, being featured on a wide array of other artists' recordings. In 2011, Rolling Stone placed him at the No. 54 spot on its list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
In the mid-1960s, after attending Kent State University, Walsh played with several local Ohio-based bands before reaching a national audience as a member of the James Gang, whose hit song "Funk #49" highlighted his skill as both a guitarist and singer. Roger Abramson, a concert producer and artist manager, signed the James Gang to a management agreement with BPI in Cleveland. After leaving the James Gang in 1972, he formed Barnstorm with Joe Vitale, a college friend from Ohio, and Kenny Passarelli, a bassist from Colorado, where Walsh had moved after leaving Ohio. While the band stayed together for three albums over three years, its works were marketed as Walsh solo projects. The last Barnstorm album, 1974's So What contained significant guest contributions from several members of the Eagles, a group that had recently hired Walsh's producer, Bill Szymczyk.
At Szymczyk's suggestion, Walsh joined the Eagles in 1975 as the band's guitarist and keyboardist following the departure of their founding member Bernie Leadon, with Hotel California being his first album with the band. In 1998, a reader's poll conducted by Guitarist magazine selected the guitar solos on the track "Hotel California" by Walsh and Don Felder as the best guitar solos of all time. Guitar World magazine listed it at eighth of the Top 100 Guitar Solos.
Besides his work with his several bands, he has released 12 solo studio albums, six compilation albums, and two live albums. His solo hits include "Rocky Mountain Way", "Life's Been Good", "All Night Long", "A Life of Illusion", and "Ordinary Average Guy".
As a member of the Eagles, Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, and into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001. The Eagles are considered to be one of the most influential bands of the 1970s, and they remain one of the best-selling American bands in the history of popular music. His creative contribution to music has received praise from many of the best rock guitarists, including Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, who said, "He has a tremendous feel for the instrument. I've loved his style since the early James Gang." Eric Clapton said that "He's one of the best guitarists to surface in some time. I don't listen to many records, but I listen to his." The Who's guitarist, Pete Townshend, said "Joe Walsh is a fluid and intelligent player. There're not many like that around."
Early life and education
Joseph Fidler Walsh was born on November 20, 1947, in Wichita, Kansas. His father, Lt. Robert Newton Fidler, was a flight instructor for the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star in the United States Air Force and died in a plane crash in Okinawa on 22 July 1949. Walsh's mother was a classically trained pianist of Scottish and German ancestry. Walsh was adopted by his stepfather at the age of five and given his stepfather's surname, but retained Fidler as his middle name. In the 1950s, it was common practice for Social Security, school registration, and health records for children to take the name of their stepfather.
Walsh and his family lived in Columbus, Ohio, for a number of years during his youth. When Walsh was twelve years old, his family moved to New York City. Later, Walsh moved to Montclair, New Jersey, and he attended Montclair High School, where he played oboe in the school band.
Walsh got his first guitar at the age of 10, and upon learning The Ventures' "Walk Don't Run", decided that he wanted to pursue a career as a guitarist. Inspired by the success of the Beatles, he replaced Bruce Hoffman as the bass player in the locally popular group, the Nomads in Madison, New Jersey, beginning his career as a rock musician. After high school, Walsh attended Kent State University, where he spent time in various bands playing around the Cleveland area, including the Measles. The Measles recorded for Super K Productions' Ohio Express the songs "I Find I Think of You", "And It's True", and "Maybe" (an instrumental version of "And It's True"). Walsh majored in English and minored in music; he was present during the Kent State massacre in 1970. Walsh commented in 2012: "Being at the shootings really affected me profoundly. I decided that maybe I don't need a degree that bad." After one term, he dropped out of college to pursue his musical career.
Musical career
1965–1967: The Measles (Joe Walsh years)
The Measles, an Ohio garage bar band, were formed in 1965 by four Kent State University students, one of whom was Joe Walsh. Two tracks on the Ohio Express' Beg Borrow and Steal album, "I Find I Think Of You" and "And It's True" (both featuring Joe Walsh vocals) were actually recorded by the Measles, led by Walsh. Additionally, an instrumental version of "And It's True" was recorded by the Measles, re-titled "Maybe" and released as the B-side of the "Beg Borrow and Steal" single.
1968–1971: James Gang
Around Christmas 1967, James Gang guitarist Glenn Schwartz, who turned out to be AWOL from the army and was breaking up with his wife, decided to leave the band to move to California, where he ended up forming the band Pacific Gas & Electric. Days later, Walsh, a friend of Schwartz's, knocked on Jim Fox's door and asked to be given a tryout as Schwartz's replacement. Walsh was accepted and the band continued as a five piece for a short time until Phil Giallombardo, who was still in high school at the time, left. Bill Jeric and Walsh worked together on guitar parts, but Jeric left as well in the spring of 1968. He was replaced by a returning Ronnie Silverman, who had been discharged from the military.
In May 1968, the group played a concert in Detroit at the Grande Ballroom, opening for Cream. At the last minute, Silverman told the others that he would not join them at the show. The band, desperately in need of the money, took to the stage as a trio. They liked their sound as a threesome and decided to remain that way.
In 1968, the band signed with manager Mark Barger, who was handling the career of fellow Ohio outfit the Lemon Pipers, who had just scored a big hit with "Green Tambourine." Barger put the Gang in touch with ABC Records staff producer Bill Szymczyk, who signed them to ABC's new Bluesway Records subsidiary in January 1969.
They released their debut album, Yer' Album, in 1969. In November 1969, bassist Tom Kriss decided he was no longer into the music and left to be replaced by Dale Peters, who was brought in from a group called The Case of E.T. Hooley. The addition of Peters created the most successful incarnation of the James Gang. Walsh proved to be the band's star attraction, noted for his innovative rhythm playing and creative guitar riffs. In particular he was known for hot-wiring the pick-ups on his electric guitars to create his trademark "attack" sound. The James Gang had several minor hits and became an early album-oriented rock staple for the next two years. It was during 1969 that Walsh sold his Les Paul Guitar to Jimmy Page. Later in 1969, the group's record producer, Szymczyk, arranged for the band to appear in the "electric Western" film Zachariah, with two James Gang songs, "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever," also being used. For the recording of these two songs, vocalist Kenny Weiss was brought in to allow Walsh to focus on his guitar playing; he was gone by the time the group arrived in Mexico to shoot their movie scenes. "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever" later reappeared as bonus tracks on the 2000 re-release of The James Gang Greatest Hits.
Shortly before the release of their second album James Gang Rides Again, the James Gang opened a show for the Who in Pittsburgh. Their guitarist Pete Townshend met with the James Gang before they left and was impressed enough to invite them on the Who's subsequent European tour. When Walsh was asked about this he said that, "Pete's a very melodic player and so am I. He told me that he appreciated my playing. I was flattered beyond belief because I didn't think I was that good."
The James Gang's next two albums, James Gang Rides Again (1970) and Thirds (1971), produced such classics as "Funk #49" and "Walk Away". The album James Gang Live at Carnegie Hall was Walsh's last album with them, as he became dissatisfied with the band's limitations.
The two remaining members, Peters and Fox, carried on with the lead vocalist Roy Kenner and guitarist Domenic Troiano (both ex-members of the Canadian band Bush) for two albums, Straight Shooter and Passin' Thru, both released in 1972. But in recent interviews, Fox stated that things did not work out musically with Troiano as hoped, so he left the band in 1973 and joined the Guess Who.
1971–1975: Barnstorm
In December 1971, Walsh left the James Gang. Steve Marriott, frontman guitarist of Humble Pie, invited him to move to England and join his band, which Peter Frampton had left, but Walsh declined. Instead he moved to Colorado and formed a band called Barnstorm, with drummer and multi-instrumentalist Joe Vitale, and bassist Kenny Passarelli, although both of their albums credited Walsh as a solo artist. They started recording their debut album immediately after forming, but at the time there were only Walsh and Vitale on these sessions. Chuck Rainey did the first bass tracks on the album but these were soon replaced by Passarelli. Walsh and Barnstorm released their debut album, the eponymous Barnstorm, in October 1972. After taking a cue from Townshend, Walsh utilized the ARP Odyssey synthesizer to great effect on such songs as "Mother Says" and "Here We Go". Walsh also experimented with acoustic guitar, slide guitar, effects pedals, fuzzbox, talk box, and keyboards as well as running his guitar straight into a Leslie speaker 122 to get swirly, organ-like guitar tones. The album was a critical success, but had only moderate commercial success. The follow-up, The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get, released in June 1973, was marketed under Walsh's name (although officially a Barnstorm album) and was their commercial breakthrough. It peaked at No. 6 on the US Billboard chart. The first and leading single, "Rocky Mountain Way", received heavy airplay and reached No. 23 on the US Top 40 chart. It featured new member, keyboardist Rocke Grace, and Walsh shared the vocals and songwriting with the other three members of the band. As a result, a variety of styles are explored on this album. There are elements of blues, jazz, folk, pop, and Caribbean music. In 1974, Barnstorm disbanded and Walsh continued as a solo artist.
In late 1974, Walsh played slide guitar on Vitale's debut solo album Roller Coaster Weekend. Walsh was taught the slide technique by Duane Allman, who played on Eric Clapton's Layla of Derek and the Dominos.
Barnstorm's last tour was spring 1975, shortly after Joe joined The Eagles.
1975–1980: Eagles
In 1975, Walsh was invited to join The Eagles as founding member Bernie Leadon's replacement. There was some initial concern as to Walsh's ability to fit in with the band, as he was considered far too "wild" for The Eagles, especially by their drummer and co-lead vocalist, Don Henley.
Released on December 8, 1976, Hotel California was the band's fifth studio album and the first to feature Walsh. The album took a year and a half to complete, a process which, along with touring, drained the band.
The second single from the album was the eponymous title track, which topped the charts in May 1977 and became one of the Eagles' signature songs next to "Take It Easy" and "Desperado". It features Henley on lead vocals, with a guitar duet performed by Felder and Walsh.
The hard rock "Life in the Fast Lane", released on May 3, 1977, was based on a riff by Walsh. It reached No. 11 on the charts and helped establish Walsh's position in the band.
Hotel California is the last album to feature founding member Randy Meisner, who abruptly left the band after the 1977 tour. He was replaced by the same musician who had succeeded him in Poco, Timothy B. Schmit.
In 1977, the band, minus Don Felder, performed instrumental work and backing vocals for Randy Newman's album Little Criminals, including "Short People," which has backing vocals by Frey and Schmit.
The Eagles went into the recording studio in 1977 to begin work on their next album, The Long Run. The album took two years to complete. The Long Run was released on September 24, 1979. Considered a disappointment by some music critics for failing to live up to Hotel California, it proved a huge commercial hit nonetheless; the album topped the charts and sold 7 million copies. In addition, it included three Top 10 singles—"Heartache Tonight", the title track and "I Can't Tell You Why". "In The City" by Walsh also received considerable airplay. The band also recorded two Christmas songs during these sessions, "Funky New Year" and "Please Come Home for Christmas" which was released as a single in 1978 and reached No. 18 on the charts. In 1980, the band broke up.
1973–2012: solo career
Walsh has released twelve solo studio albums.
In December 1974, Walsh released his first solo album that was not considered a Barnstorm project, So What, which contained more introspective material such as "Help Me Through the Night" and "Song For Emma", a tribute to Walsh's daughter who had been killed in a car accident that April. On a few tracks, Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner of the Eagles contributed backing vocals.
In March 1976, Walsh released a live album, You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind, which also featured the Eagles.
As the Eagles struggled to record their follow-up to Hotel California, Walsh re-ignited his solo career with the critically well-received album, But Seriously, Folks... in May 1978. It contained the single "Life's Been Good", his comedic depiction of rock stardom, which peaked at No. 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and remains to date his biggest solo hit. Walsh also contributed "In the City" to The Warriors soundtrack in 1979, a song penned and sung by Walsh that was later rerecorded for the Eagles' studio album, The Long Run.
Following the break up of the Eagles in July 1980, Walsh continued to release solo albums throughout the 1980s, but sales did not meet the same level of his earlier successes.
There Goes the Neighborhood was Walsh's first album since the demise of the Eagles, and it peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200. The album only spawned one single, "A Life of Illusion", which became one of Walsh's most popular songs. The single also topped the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, in 1981.
"A Life of Illusion" was recorded in 1973 with Walsh's first solo band Barnstorm but was not completed. The overdubs and final mixes were completed during the There Goes the Neighborhood sessions and released on the album. The promotional video for the track shows the making of the album's cover. This song also appeared in the opening credits of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and appears as the first song on its soundtrack.
In May 1983, Walsh released You Bought It – You Name It; the album was received negatively by the majority of music critics, while other reviewers noted good points to the album. It was also not as successful as Walsh's previous albums, peaking at No. 48 on the Billboard 200. Walsh found moderate success with the single "Space Age Whiz Kids", about the pinnacle of the 1980s video arcade craze. The album contains hard rock songs such as "I Can Play That Rock & Roll" and a cover of the Dick Haymes track, "Love Letters". It also contains more introspective material such as "Class of '65", and contains a song titled "I.L.B.T.s", an acronym for "I Like Big Tits".
Walsh's new girlfriend Stevie Nicks was involved in his next album, The Confessor. Her old friend Keith Olsen was hired to produce the album and the musicians were prolific LA session musicians including: Jim Keltner, Mike Porcaro, Waddy Wachtel, Randy Newman, Alan Pasqua and many other musicians that Walsh had never worked with before.
In 1987, Walsh released his final solo album of the 1980s, Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning, and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead vocalist Jimi Jamison, but the album was a commercial disappointment.
In 1991, Ordinary Average Guy, his ninth solo studio album, and its title track single, were released on the Epic label. The album features Ringo Starr, Jimi Jamison, and drummer Joe Vitale from Walsh's former band Barnstorm. Vitale also sings the lead vocals on the final track of the album, "School Days".
In 1992, Walsh released what appeared to be his final album (until 2012), Songs for a Dying Planet, his tenth solo studio album. Like its predecessor, it was released on the Epic label. Keen to re-establish himself after receiving some poor reviews for his previous album, Walsh enlisted his former producer Bill Szymczyk. At the end of the track "Certain Situations" you can hear a Morse code message that says "Register and vote for me". His song "Vote for Me" was a minor success, peaking at No. 10 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
Walsh's song "One Day at a Time" was released in 2012 and details his struggles with alcohol and drug abuse earlier in his career. The song appeared on Walsh's album Analog Man, which was released on June 5, 2012. The album was co-produced by Jeff Lynne, with Tommy Lee James co-writing some of the album's tracks.
Eagles reunion
An Eagles country tribute album titled Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles was released in 1993, thirteen years after the break up. Travis Tritt insisted on having the Long Run-era Eagles in his video for "Take It Easy" and they agreed. Following years of public speculation, the band formally reunited the following year. The line-up comprised the five Long Run-era members—Frey, Henley, Walsh, Felder, and Schmit—supplemented by Scott Crago (drums), John Corey (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), Timothy Drury (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals) and Al Garth (saxophone, violin) on stage.
"For the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation," announced Frey at their first live performance in April 1994. The ensuing tour spawned a live album titled Hell Freezes Over (named for Henley's recurring statement that the band would get back together "when hell freezes over"), which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. It included four new studio songs, with "Get Over It" and "Love Will Keep Us Alive" both becoming Top 40 hits. The album proved as successful as the tour, selling 6 million copies in the U.S. The tour was interrupted in September 1994 because of Frey's serious recurrence of diverticulitis, but it resumed in 1995 and continued into 1996. In 1998, the Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the induction ceremony, all seven Eagles members (Frey, Henley, Leadon, Meisner, Felder, Walsh, and Schmit) played together for two songs, "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California". Several subsequent reunion tours followed (without Leadon or Meisner), notable for their record-setting ticket prices.
The Eagles performed at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Paradise, Nevada on December 28 and 29, 1999, followed by a concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on December 31. These concerts marked the last time Felder played with the band and these shows (including a planned video release) later formed a part of a lawsuit filed by Felder against his former band members.
The concert recordings were released on CD as part of the four-disc Selected Works: 1972–1999 box set in November 2000. Along with the millennium concert, this set included the band's hit singles, album tracks and outtakes from The Long Run sessions. Selected Works received platinum certification from the RIAA in 2002.
The band resumed touring in 2001, with a line-up consisting of Frey, Henley, Walsh and Schmit, along with Steuart Smith (guitars, mandolin, keyboards, backing vocals; essentially taking over Felder's role), Michael Thompson (keyboards, trombone), Will Hollis (keyboards, backing vocals), Scott Crago (drums, percussion), Bill Armstrong (horns), Al Garth (saxophone, violin), Christian Mostert (saxophone) and Greg Smith (saxophone, percussion).
In 2003, the Eagles released a greatest hits album, The Very Best Of. The two-disc compilation was the first that encompassed their entire career, from Eagles to Hell Freezes Over. It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard charts and eventually gained triple platinum status. The album includes a new single, the September 11 attacks-themed "Hole in the World". Also in 2003, Warren Zevon, a longtime Eagles friend, began work on his final album, The Wind, with the assistance of Henley, Walsh and Schmit.
On June 14, 2005, the Eagles released a new 2-DVD set titled Farewell 1 Tour-Live from Melbourne, featuring two new songs: Frey's "No More Cloudy Days" and Walsh's "One Day at a Time". A special edition 2006 release exclusive to Walmart and affiliated stores includes a bonus audio CD with three new songs: a studio version of "No More Cloudy Days", "Fast Company" and "Do Something".
In 2007, the Eagles consisted of Frey, Henley, Walsh, and Schmit. On August 20, 2007, "How Long", written by J. D. Souther, was released as a single to radio with an accompanying online video at Yahoo! Music. It debuted on television on Country Music Television during the Top 20 Countdown on August 23, 2007. The band had performed the song as part of their live sets in the early to mid-1970s, but did not record it at the time because Souther wanted to reserve it for use on his first solo album. Souther had previously worked with the Eagles, co-writing some of their biggest hits, including "Best of My Love", "Victim of Love", "Heartache Tonight" and "New Kid in Town".
On October 30, 2007, the Eagles released Long Road Out of Eden, their first album of all-new material since 1979. For the first year after the album's release, it was available in the U.S. only via the band's website, at Walmart and at Sam's Club stores. It was commercially available through traditional retail outlets in other countries. The album debuted at number 1 in the U.S., the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Norway. It became their third studio album and seventh release overall to be certified at least seven times platinum by the RIAA. Henley told CNN that "This is probably the last Eagles album that we'll ever make." The Eagles made their awards show debut on November 7, 2007, when they performed "How Long" live at the Country Music Association Awards.
On January 28, 2008, the second single of Long Road Out of Eden was released. "Busy Being Fabulous" peaked at No. 28 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and at No. 12 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. The Eagles won their fifth Grammy in 2007, in the category Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "How Long".
On March 20, 2008, the Eagles launched their world tour in support of Long Road Out of Eden at The O2 Arena in London. The Long Road Out of Eden Tour concluded the American portion of the tour at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah on May 9, 2009. It was the first concert ever held in the new soccer stadium. The tour traveled to Europe, with its final concert date on July 22, 2009, in Lisbon. The band spent the summer of 2010 touring North American stadiums with the Dixie Chicks and Keith Urban. The tour expanded to England as the headline act of the Hop Farm Festival on July 1, 2011.
Asked in November 2010 whether the Eagles were planning a follow-up to Long Road Out of Eden, Schmit replied, "My first reaction would be: no way. But I said that before the last one, so you never really know. Bands are a fragile entity and you never know what's going to happen. It took a long time to do that last album, over a span of years, really, and it took a lot out of us. We took a year off at one point. I'm not sure if we're able to do that again. I wouldn't close the door on it, but I don't know." Walsh said in 2010 that there might be one more album before the band "wraps it up".
In February 2013, the Eagles released a career spanning documentary called History of the Eagles and kicked off the supporting tour with 11 arena dates from July 6 to 25. Henley said that the tour, which would continue until 2015, "could very well be our last... we're gonna include at least one former band member in this tour and kinda go back to the roots, and how we created some of these songs. We're gonna break it down to the fundamentals and then take it up to where it is now."
Original Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon also appeared on the tour. Walsh stated, "Bernie's brilliant, I never really got a chance to play with him, but we've been in contact. We see him from time to time, and I'm really glad he's coming because it's going to take the show up a notch, and I'm really looking forward to playing with him, finally." It has been reported that former members Randy Meisner and Don Felder will not appear. Meisner had been invited but could not participate due to health problems, while Felder was reportedly not invited due to ongoing legal disputes with the band.
Other bands
In late 1984, Walsh was contacted by Australian musician Paul Christie, the former bassist for Mondo Rock. Christie invited him to come to Australia to perform with the Party Boys, an all-star band with a floating membership of well-known Australian rock musicians. These included the critically acclaimed guitarist Kevin Borich, with whom Walsh became good friends. Walsh accepted and performed with the Party Boys on their late-1984–early-1985 Australian tour and appeared on their live album, You Need Professional Help. He remained in Australia for some time after the tour, putting together the short-lived touring band "Creatures From America", with Waddy Wachtel (guitar), Rick Rosas (bass guitar) and Australian drummer Richard Harvey (Divinyls, the Party Boys) In 1987, Walsh returned to the United States to work on his album Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead singer Jimi Jamison. After the album's commercial disappointment, Walsh decided to return to Australia in 1989 to tour with another incarnation of the Party Boys. Walsh also toured with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band in 1989 and 1992, alternating a handful of his best-known songs with Starr's and tunes by other of the members of the All-Starr Band. In 1989, Walsh recorded a MTV Unplugged with the R&B musician Dr. John. Also in 1989 Walsh filmed a live concert from the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles with Etta James and Albert Collins, called Jazzvisions: Jump the Blues Away.
While producing their Homegrown album in 1989, Walsh briefly joined New Zealand reggae band Herbs. Although he had left by the time of its 1990 release, he still appears as lead singer on two tracks, "Up All Night" and "It's Alright". The album includes the first recording of his "Ordinary Average Guys" (sung by late Herbs bassist Charlie Tumahai), which subsequently became a solo hit for Walsh as "Ordinary Average Guy".
In late 1990, Walsh was part of a band called the Best, along with keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist John Entwistle, guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and drummer Simon Phillips. The band performed several shows in Hawaii and Japan, with a live video resulting.
In 1993, Walsh teamed up with Glenn Frey for the "Party of Two" tour in the United States.
In 1996, James Gang did a reunion for the Democratic president, Bill Clinton. The band consisted of their "classic" line-up (Walsh, Peters, Fox), and they performed at the Cleveland State University Convocation Center on November 4, 1996.
In 1998, ABC wanted to use a classic rock song rock for Monday Night Football that year, so they asked Walsh to rewrite the lyrics to "Rocky Mountain Way" for the quarterback John Elway of the Denver Broncos. "Rocky Mountain Elway" was the new title of the song and Walsh appeared in a video that ABC showed on Monday Night Football.
2000s and 2010s
In June 2004, Walsh performed at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, Texas. He was also featured in September 2004 at the Strat Pack, a concert held in London, England, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar. In 2006, Walsh reunited with Jim Fox and Dale Peters of the James Gang for new recordings and a 15-date summer reunion tour. The tour lasted into the fall.
In 2008, Walsh appeared on the Carvin 60th Anniversary Celebration DVD as a celebrity endorser. In the recorded interview, he highly praised Carvin Guitars and claims that the bridge design is "just like the first Les Paul models. I can't even get Gibson to reissue it".
Kent State University awarded Walsh an honorary degree in music in December 2001. In May 2012, the Berklee College of Music awarded Walsh, along with other members of the Eagles, an honorary doctorate for his accomplishments in the field of music.
Notable appearances
In 1974, Walsh produced Dan Fogelberg's Souvenirs album and played the guitar, electric guitar, 12 string guitar, ARP bass and provided backing vocals. He also contacted Graham Nash to sing harmony vocals on "Part of the Plan", which helped send the album to No. 17 on the 1975 Billboard album chart.
In 1973 Walsh supplied the slide guitar solo on Michael Stanley's song "Rosewood Bitters." Walsh later lifted part of that solo and used it prominently in the Eagles' hit "Life in the Fast Lane."
In 1981, Walsh and former Barnstorm bandmate, Joe Vitale, went to work on old friend John Entwistle's fifth solo album Too Late the Hero, whenever they were free to work on it. The album turned out to become John Entwistle's best-charting solo album, with hit singles "Talk Dirty" and "Too Late the Hero".
Walsh was a background musician (1st guitar solo) on Eagles band member Don Henley's 1982 hit "Dirty Laundry" (listed as such in the liner notes of I Can't Stand Still and Actual Miles: Henley's Greatest Hits). Walsh has also contributed to albums by: Ringo Starr; America; REO Speedwagon; Jay Ferguson; Andy Gibb; Wilson Phillips; Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Steve Winwood; and on the Richard Marx hit "Don't Mean Nothing".
Walsh was a regular guest DJ on Los Angeles radio station KLOS during the mid-1980s. They had a Saturday evening feature, with celebrity guest-hosts taking over the microphone (Walsh was the guest host far more frequently than any other). He was also a frequent guest and guest-host of Detroit and Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl.
Onscreen, Walsh has appeared in: The Blues Brothers, Promised Land, The Drew Carey Show, Duckman, MADtv, Live from Daryl's House, Rock the Cradle and Zachariah.
In October 2004, Walsh undertook speaking engagements in New Zealand to warn against the dangers of substance abuse. He said the visit was a "thank you" to people who took him to Otatara Pa when he toured New Zealand with reggae band Herbs while under heavy alcohol and cocaine addictions in 1989, an experience he has cited as the beginning of a long journey back to good health. At Otatara Pa in 2004 Walsh said, "This is a special place, and it is very special to me. It was here on a visit many years ago, up on the hills, that I had a moment of clarity. I don't understand it, but I reconnected with my soul, and I remembered who I used to be. I admitted I had problems and I had to do something about it. It was the beginning of my recovery from my addiction to alcohol and drugs, and when I got back to America it gave me the courage to seek help."
On February 12, 2012, Walsh appeared on stage with Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, and McCartney's band at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to close out the Grammy Awards show. Walsh also appeared on the 60th Episode of Live from Daryl's House with Daryl Hall, which premiered on November 15, 2012.
On February 9, 2014, Walsh was featured in several songs on the CBS special The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles.
In 2014, Walsh made a guest appearance on Foo Fighters' eighth studio album Sonic Highways.
On May 24, 2016, Walsh appeared on NBC's The Voice in which he played slide guitar, talk box and performed Rocky Mountain Way with contestant Laith Al-Saadi.
He appeared on an episode of 'The Conners' on 19 January 2022. He played Aldo's father.
Influences
Walsh cites influences and with rock music / pop music bands and guitarists with whom many he has encountered and met on concert tours: Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Jeff Beck, the Beatles, Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, Ritchie Blackmore and Deep Purple, Manfred Mann, Duane Allman and The Allman Brothers, Ronnie Wood and The Faces, Pete Townshend and The Who, and The Ventures. In turn, he has influenced Dan Fogelberg, Maroon 5, Kenny Chesney, Jonny Lang, Blitzen Trapper, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and George Thorogood. Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band taught Walsh how to play the slide guitar.
Public service
Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008.
Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.
Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!"
In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things."
In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry, including the Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., and Keith Urban, to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid – a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson.
Personal life
Walsh has been married five times. He was married briefly to Margie Walsh in the 1960s, to Stefany Rhodes from 1971 to 1978, to Juanita Boyer from 1980 to 1988, and to Denise Driscoll from 1999 to 2006. Walsh married Marjorie Bach (sister of Barbara Bach and sister-in-law of Ringo Starr) in Los Angeles on December 13, 2008. Another sister-in-law, Susan Walsh, has been a missing person since 1996.
Walsh's daughter Lucy Walsh is a musician who has worked with Ashlee Simpson and others. She released her debut solo album, Lost in the Lights, in spring 2007.
Walsh's eldest daughter, Emma Kristen, was born in 1971 and died in 1974 at 3 years of age as a result of injuries suffered in an automobile accident on her way to nursery school. Her story inspired the track "Song for Emma" on Walsh's solo album So What released later that year. In her memory, he had a fountain and memorial plaque placed in a park in which she played: North Boulder Park in Boulder, Colorado. He has said that the album name So What was a result of Emma's death: that nothing else seemed meaningful or important in the months that followed. The strain eventually contributed to Walsh's divorce from his second wife Stefany. While touring with singer Stevie Nicks in 1984, Walsh took Nicks to the park's fountain; Nicks subsequently immortalized this story in her song "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?" on her 1985 album Rock A Little. Nicks told the UK's The Daily Telegraph in 2007 that Walsh had been "the great love of my life". "Joe and I broke up because of the coke," she elaborated to Q. "He told my friend and singer Sharon [Celani], 'I'm leaving Stevie, because I'm afraid that one of us is going to die. And the other one won't be able to save the other person, because our cocaine habit has become so over the top now that neither of us can live through this. So the only way to save both of us is for me to leave.'"
Walsh admits to struggling with alcohol and drug addictions for most of his early career and has been in recovery since 1993. In 1989, while touring with New Zealand band Herbs, Walsh experienced an "epiphany" during a visit to Otatara Pa, an ancient Māori pā site in the Hawke's Bay region. In 2004, on a return visit to New Zealand, Walsh described the experience and hailed it as the beginning of his recovery from his addiction. Walsh related the story that in 1994, he woke up after blacking out on an airplane to Paris. When he arrived, he had his passport, but did not remember getting on the plane. That was his turning point, and he has been sober ever since.
While living in New York City, Walsh began a lifelong interest in amateur radio. He holds an Amateur Extra Class Amateur Radio License, and his station callsign is WB6ACU. In 2006, he donated an autographed guitar to the ARRL in Newington, Connecticut, for its charity auction. He has also been involved with the group's "Big Project," which brings amateur radio into schools. Walsh has included Morse Code messages in his albums on two occasions: once on the album Barnstorm ("Register and Vote"), and later on Songs for a Dying Planet ("Register and Vote for Me"). Walsh provides the theme song (which includes Morse code) for the TWiT podcast Ham Nation (debuting in 2011), and he appeared as a guest in the first podcast, as well as episode 400.
Instruments
Jimmy Page's sunburst 1959 Gibson Les Paul, better known as his "Number 1" was originally owned by Walsh and was sold to Page in 1969.
In 1970, Walsh gave a 1959 Gretsch 6120 to the Who's lead guitarist Pete Townshend. Townshend used the Gretsch in the studio to record tracks on albums such as Who's Next and Quadrophenia.
Select other guitars
1959 Gibson Les Paul that was given/sold to Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page in April 1969
Carvin DC4, CT6, CT4, CS4, and other various models.
Duesenberg Starplayer Alliance - Walsh has an Alliance guitar co-developed with him
Amplifiers
Marshall 50 watt Plexi
Discography
The Measles
Singles:
1965: Casting My Spell/Bye Birdie Fly
1966: Kicks/No Baby At All
The Ohio Express
1967: Beg, Borrow And Steal - I Find I Think Of You composed by Joe Walsh and played by his band The Measles.
James Gang
Studio albums:
1969: Yer' Album
1970: James Gang Rides Again
1971: Thirds
Live album:
1971: James Gang Live in Concert
Compilation:
1973: The Best Of James Gang Featuring Joe Walsh
Barnstorm
Studio albums:
1972: Barnstorm
1973: The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get
Eagles
Studio albums:
1976: Hotel California
1979: The Long Run
2007: Long Road out of Eden
Live albums:
1980: Eagles Live
1994: Hell Freezes Over
2020: Live from the Forum MMXVIII
Solo
Collaborations
Indianola Mississippi Seeds - B.B. King (1970)
L.A. Midnight - B.B. King (1972)
The Kids & Me - Billy Preston (1974)
Souvenirs - Dan Fogelberg (1974)
Act Like Nothing's Wrong - Al Kooper (1976)
Stone Alone - Bill Wyman (1976)
A Night on the Town - Rod Stewart (1976)
Nether Lands - Dan Fogelberg (1977)
Little Criminals - Randy Newman (1977)
Earth & Sky - Graham Nash (1980)
Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School - Warren Zevon (1980)
Wild Heart of the Young - Karla Bonoff (1982)
I Can't Stand Still - Don Henley (1982)
Back in the High Life - Steve Winwood (1986)
Richard Marx - Richard Marx (1987)
Red House - Albert King (1991)
The Fire Inside - Bob Seger (1991)
Vertical Man - Ringo Starr (1998)
The Wild - Warren Zevon (2003)
Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates - Kenny Chesney (2007)
Y Not - Ringo Starr (2010)
Ringo 2012 - Ringo Starr (2012)
Postcards from Paradise - Ringo Starr (2015)
Give More Love - Ringo Starr (2017)
What's My Name - Ringo Starr (2019)
Threads - Sheryl Crow (2019)
Filmography
Film
1971: Zachariah Film de George Englund. With Don Johnson: Himself with The James Gang.
1980: The Blues Brothers: A prisoner dancing on a table.
1990: The Best - DVD With Keith Emerson, Jeff Baxter, Joe Walsh, John Entwistle, Simon Phillips: Himself.
Television
Mad TV, as himself, in Episode 1.2 (1995)
Promised land, as R.J., "The Prodigy" (1996)
Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man, voicing himself, "They Craved Duckman's Brain!" (1996) and "Love! Anger! Kvetching!" (1997)
The Drew Carey Show, 7 episodes as Ed ("Drewstock" (1997), "In Ramada Da Vida" (1998), "Golden Boy" (1998), "Drew Between the Rock and a Hard Place" (1998), "Boy Party/Girl Party" (1999), "Steve and Mimi Get Married" (1999), "Drew's in a Coma" (2001))
Drew Carey's Improv All-Stars, guest (2001)
Rock the Cradle (2008), a reality show, the father of contestant Lucy Walsh
Wicked City, as a director, "Running With the Devil" (2015)
Criminal Minds, as himself, "The Sandman" (2016)
Better Things, as himself "Hair of the Dog" (2016)
The Connors, Jesse, "Patriarchs and Goddesses" (2022)
Awards
As a member of The Eagles, Walsh has won five Grammy Awards:
(1977) Record of the Year: "Hotel California" (single)
(1977) Best Arrangement for Voices: "New Kid in Town"
(1979) Best Rock Vocal performance by a Duo or Group: "Heartache Tonight"
(2008) Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: "How Long"
(2009) Best Pop Instrumental Performance: "I Dreamed There Was No War"
Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998
Walsh was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001.
See also
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart
Further reading
Walsh, Joe (1996). Look What I Did! And Then Some .... Hal Leonard Corporation.
Lemco, Steve (2011). Joe & Me''. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
References
External links
1947 births
Living people
Amateur radio people
Record producers from Kansas
American rock guitarists
American male guitarists
American tenors
American rock singers
American male singer-songwriters
American rock songwriters
20th-century American singers
21st-century American composers
21st-century American keyboardists
21st-century American singers
20th-century American composers
American session musicians
American rock keyboardists
American rock pianists
American male pianists
American multi-instrumentalists
20th-century American male actors
American male film actors
Blues rock musicians
Eagles (band) members
The Party Boys members
Musicians from Wichita, Kansas
Kent State University alumni
Musicians from Columbus, Ohio
Montclair High School (New Jersey) alumni
People from Montclair, New Jersey
Writers from Wichita, Kansas
Asylum Records artists
Atlantic Records artists
ABC Records artists
Epic Records artists
Dunhill Records artists
Warner Records artists
MCA Records artists
Fantasy Records artists
The Orchard Records artists
Lead guitarists
Slide guitarists
Grammy Award winners
American people of German descent
American people of Scottish descent
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Singer-songwriters from New Jersey
Male actors from Ohio
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from Kansas
Actors from Wichita, Kansas
American expatriates in Australia
Members
James Gang members
Guitarists from Kansas
Guitarists from Ohio
Guitarists from New Jersey
Kennedy Center honorees
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American pianists
Barnstorm (band) members
The Best (band) members
Singer-songwriters from Kansas | true | [
"SoccerGrow is a soccer charity aimed at supporting the international soccer community, specifically lower-income regions. SoccerGrow was started in June 2008 by the founders of the soccer retailer SoccerPro, with the intention of getting its customer base involved with soccer charity work. SoccerGrow works with other charities, such as Kicks for Kenya, by donating soccer products to them to distribute.\n\nPurpose statement\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n SoccerGrow.org\n SoccerPro.com\n\nCharities based in Missouri\nSports organizations of the United States\nSoccer in Missouri\nSports charities\nOrganizations based in Columbia, Missouri",
"Child Health International (CHI) is a Winchester (UK)-based charity, involved in improving the healthcare of children in Russia, Eastern Europe and a new project to help children with cystic fibrosis in India. It was founded as the International Integrated Health Association in 1992 by Roy and Dorothea Ridgway, the parents of a child with cystic fibrosis.\n\nThe charity's senior medical advisor is Dr Julian Legg, a paediatric consultant who is also head of the paediatric respiratory department at Southampton Children's Hospital. Mr Jim Hopwood is the current chairman.\n\nOdessa University awarded Roy Ridgway a posthumous honorary doctorate for the charity's work helping Ukrainian children with cystic fibrosis and heart problems.\n\nExternal links\nChild Health International Official web site\n\nReferences\n\nOrganizations established in 1992\nHealth charities in the United Kingdom\nCharities based in Hampshire\nCystic fibrosis organizations\nOrganizations for children with health issues"
]
|
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"Joe Walsh",
"Public service",
"What charities did Joe Walsh work with?",
"Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks.",
"What does he do to help conserve the environment in Santa Cruz?",
"He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.",
"What other charities is he involved with?",
"He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas."
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| C_040d7718872f46c387a6014808d463a3_0 | How else did he help the public through charities? | 4 | How else did Joe Walsh help the public through charities in addition to his work with displaced women? | Joe Walsh | Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008. Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s. Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!" In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things." In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., Keith Urban to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid - a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson. CANNOTANSWER | Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008. | Joseph Fidler Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American rock singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has been a member of three successful rock bands: James Gang, Eagles, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Walsh was also part of the New Zealand band Herbs. In the 1990s, he was a member of the short-lived supergroup The Best.
Walsh has also experienced success both as a solo artist and as a prolific session musician, being featured on a wide array of other artists' recordings. In 2011, Rolling Stone placed him at the No. 54 spot on its list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
In the mid-1960s, after attending Kent State University, Walsh played with several local Ohio-based bands before reaching a national audience as a member of the James Gang, whose hit song "Funk #49" highlighted his skill as both a guitarist and singer. Roger Abramson, a concert producer and artist manager, signed the James Gang to a management agreement with BPI in Cleveland. After leaving the James Gang in 1972, he formed Barnstorm with Joe Vitale, a college friend from Ohio, and Kenny Passarelli, a bassist from Colorado, where Walsh had moved after leaving Ohio. While the band stayed together for three albums over three years, its works were marketed as Walsh solo projects. The last Barnstorm album, 1974's So What contained significant guest contributions from several members of the Eagles, a group that had recently hired Walsh's producer, Bill Szymczyk.
At Szymczyk's suggestion, Walsh joined the Eagles in 1975 as the band's guitarist and keyboardist following the departure of their founding member Bernie Leadon, with Hotel California being his first album with the band. In 1998, a reader's poll conducted by Guitarist magazine selected the guitar solos on the track "Hotel California" by Walsh and Don Felder as the best guitar solos of all time. Guitar World magazine listed it at eighth of the Top 100 Guitar Solos.
Besides his work with his several bands, he has released 12 solo studio albums, six compilation albums, and two live albums. His solo hits include "Rocky Mountain Way", "Life's Been Good", "All Night Long", "A Life of Illusion", and "Ordinary Average Guy".
As a member of the Eagles, Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, and into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001. The Eagles are considered to be one of the most influential bands of the 1970s, and they remain one of the best-selling American bands in the history of popular music. His creative contribution to music has received praise from many of the best rock guitarists, including Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, who said, "He has a tremendous feel for the instrument. I've loved his style since the early James Gang." Eric Clapton said that "He's one of the best guitarists to surface in some time. I don't listen to many records, but I listen to his." The Who's guitarist, Pete Townshend, said "Joe Walsh is a fluid and intelligent player. There're not many like that around."
Early life and education
Joseph Fidler Walsh was born on November 20, 1947, in Wichita, Kansas. His father, Lt. Robert Newton Fidler, was a flight instructor for the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star in the United States Air Force and died in a plane crash in Okinawa on 22 July 1949. Walsh's mother was a classically trained pianist of Scottish and German ancestry. Walsh was adopted by his stepfather at the age of five and given his stepfather's surname, but retained Fidler as his middle name. In the 1950s, it was common practice for Social Security, school registration, and health records for children to take the name of their stepfather.
Walsh and his family lived in Columbus, Ohio, for a number of years during his youth. When Walsh was twelve years old, his family moved to New York City. Later, Walsh moved to Montclair, New Jersey, and he attended Montclair High School, where he played oboe in the school band.
Walsh got his first guitar at the age of 10, and upon learning The Ventures' "Walk Don't Run", decided that he wanted to pursue a career as a guitarist. Inspired by the success of the Beatles, he replaced Bruce Hoffman as the bass player in the locally popular group, the Nomads in Madison, New Jersey, beginning his career as a rock musician. After high school, Walsh attended Kent State University, where he spent time in various bands playing around the Cleveland area, including the Measles. The Measles recorded for Super K Productions' Ohio Express the songs "I Find I Think of You", "And It's True", and "Maybe" (an instrumental version of "And It's True"). Walsh majored in English and minored in music; he was present during the Kent State massacre in 1970. Walsh commented in 2012: "Being at the shootings really affected me profoundly. I decided that maybe I don't need a degree that bad." After one term, he dropped out of college to pursue his musical career.
Musical career
1965–1967: The Measles (Joe Walsh years)
The Measles, an Ohio garage bar band, were formed in 1965 by four Kent State University students, one of whom was Joe Walsh. Two tracks on the Ohio Express' Beg Borrow and Steal album, "I Find I Think Of You" and "And It's True" (both featuring Joe Walsh vocals) were actually recorded by the Measles, led by Walsh. Additionally, an instrumental version of "And It's True" was recorded by the Measles, re-titled "Maybe" and released as the B-side of the "Beg Borrow and Steal" single.
1968–1971: James Gang
Around Christmas 1967, James Gang guitarist Glenn Schwartz, who turned out to be AWOL from the army and was breaking up with his wife, decided to leave the band to move to California, where he ended up forming the band Pacific Gas & Electric. Days later, Walsh, a friend of Schwartz's, knocked on Jim Fox's door and asked to be given a tryout as Schwartz's replacement. Walsh was accepted and the band continued as a five piece for a short time until Phil Giallombardo, who was still in high school at the time, left. Bill Jeric and Walsh worked together on guitar parts, but Jeric left as well in the spring of 1968. He was replaced by a returning Ronnie Silverman, who had been discharged from the military.
In May 1968, the group played a concert in Detroit at the Grande Ballroom, opening for Cream. At the last minute, Silverman told the others that he would not join them at the show. The band, desperately in need of the money, took to the stage as a trio. They liked their sound as a threesome and decided to remain that way.
In 1968, the band signed with manager Mark Barger, who was handling the career of fellow Ohio outfit the Lemon Pipers, who had just scored a big hit with "Green Tambourine." Barger put the Gang in touch with ABC Records staff producer Bill Szymczyk, who signed them to ABC's new Bluesway Records subsidiary in January 1969.
They released their debut album, Yer' Album, in 1969. In November 1969, bassist Tom Kriss decided he was no longer into the music and left to be replaced by Dale Peters, who was brought in from a group called The Case of E.T. Hooley. The addition of Peters created the most successful incarnation of the James Gang. Walsh proved to be the band's star attraction, noted for his innovative rhythm playing and creative guitar riffs. In particular he was known for hot-wiring the pick-ups on his electric guitars to create his trademark "attack" sound. The James Gang had several minor hits and became an early album-oriented rock staple for the next two years. It was during 1969 that Walsh sold his Les Paul Guitar to Jimmy Page. Later in 1969, the group's record producer, Szymczyk, arranged for the band to appear in the "electric Western" film Zachariah, with two James Gang songs, "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever," also being used. For the recording of these two songs, vocalist Kenny Weiss was brought in to allow Walsh to focus on his guitar playing; he was gone by the time the group arrived in Mexico to shoot their movie scenes. "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever" later reappeared as bonus tracks on the 2000 re-release of The James Gang Greatest Hits.
Shortly before the release of their second album James Gang Rides Again, the James Gang opened a show for the Who in Pittsburgh. Their guitarist Pete Townshend met with the James Gang before they left and was impressed enough to invite them on the Who's subsequent European tour. When Walsh was asked about this he said that, "Pete's a very melodic player and so am I. He told me that he appreciated my playing. I was flattered beyond belief because I didn't think I was that good."
The James Gang's next two albums, James Gang Rides Again (1970) and Thirds (1971), produced such classics as "Funk #49" and "Walk Away". The album James Gang Live at Carnegie Hall was Walsh's last album with them, as he became dissatisfied with the band's limitations.
The two remaining members, Peters and Fox, carried on with the lead vocalist Roy Kenner and guitarist Domenic Troiano (both ex-members of the Canadian band Bush) for two albums, Straight Shooter and Passin' Thru, both released in 1972. But in recent interviews, Fox stated that things did not work out musically with Troiano as hoped, so he left the band in 1973 and joined the Guess Who.
1971–1975: Barnstorm
In December 1971, Walsh left the James Gang. Steve Marriott, frontman guitarist of Humble Pie, invited him to move to England and join his band, which Peter Frampton had left, but Walsh declined. Instead he moved to Colorado and formed a band called Barnstorm, with drummer and multi-instrumentalist Joe Vitale, and bassist Kenny Passarelli, although both of their albums credited Walsh as a solo artist. They started recording their debut album immediately after forming, but at the time there were only Walsh and Vitale on these sessions. Chuck Rainey did the first bass tracks on the album but these were soon replaced by Passarelli. Walsh and Barnstorm released their debut album, the eponymous Barnstorm, in October 1972. After taking a cue from Townshend, Walsh utilized the ARP Odyssey synthesizer to great effect on such songs as "Mother Says" and "Here We Go". Walsh also experimented with acoustic guitar, slide guitar, effects pedals, fuzzbox, talk box, and keyboards as well as running his guitar straight into a Leslie speaker 122 to get swirly, organ-like guitar tones. The album was a critical success, but had only moderate commercial success. The follow-up, The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get, released in June 1973, was marketed under Walsh's name (although officially a Barnstorm album) and was their commercial breakthrough. It peaked at No. 6 on the US Billboard chart. The first and leading single, "Rocky Mountain Way", received heavy airplay and reached No. 23 on the US Top 40 chart. It featured new member, keyboardist Rocke Grace, and Walsh shared the vocals and songwriting with the other three members of the band. As a result, a variety of styles are explored on this album. There are elements of blues, jazz, folk, pop, and Caribbean music. In 1974, Barnstorm disbanded and Walsh continued as a solo artist.
In late 1974, Walsh played slide guitar on Vitale's debut solo album Roller Coaster Weekend. Walsh was taught the slide technique by Duane Allman, who played on Eric Clapton's Layla of Derek and the Dominos.
Barnstorm's last tour was spring 1975, shortly after Joe joined The Eagles.
1975–1980: Eagles
In 1975, Walsh was invited to join The Eagles as founding member Bernie Leadon's replacement. There was some initial concern as to Walsh's ability to fit in with the band, as he was considered far too "wild" for The Eagles, especially by their drummer and co-lead vocalist, Don Henley.
Released on December 8, 1976, Hotel California was the band's fifth studio album and the first to feature Walsh. The album took a year and a half to complete, a process which, along with touring, drained the band.
The second single from the album was the eponymous title track, which topped the charts in May 1977 and became one of the Eagles' signature songs next to "Take It Easy" and "Desperado". It features Henley on lead vocals, with a guitar duet performed by Felder and Walsh.
The hard rock "Life in the Fast Lane", released on May 3, 1977, was based on a riff by Walsh. It reached No. 11 on the charts and helped establish Walsh's position in the band.
Hotel California is the last album to feature founding member Randy Meisner, who abruptly left the band after the 1977 tour. He was replaced by the same musician who had succeeded him in Poco, Timothy B. Schmit.
In 1977, the band, minus Don Felder, performed instrumental work and backing vocals for Randy Newman's album Little Criminals, including "Short People," which has backing vocals by Frey and Schmit.
The Eagles went into the recording studio in 1977 to begin work on their next album, The Long Run. The album took two years to complete. The Long Run was released on September 24, 1979. Considered a disappointment by some music critics for failing to live up to Hotel California, it proved a huge commercial hit nonetheless; the album topped the charts and sold 7 million copies. In addition, it included three Top 10 singles—"Heartache Tonight", the title track and "I Can't Tell You Why". "In The City" by Walsh also received considerable airplay. The band also recorded two Christmas songs during these sessions, "Funky New Year" and "Please Come Home for Christmas" which was released as a single in 1978 and reached No. 18 on the charts. In 1980, the band broke up.
1973–2012: solo career
Walsh has released twelve solo studio albums.
In December 1974, Walsh released his first solo album that was not considered a Barnstorm project, So What, which contained more introspective material such as "Help Me Through the Night" and "Song For Emma", a tribute to Walsh's daughter who had been killed in a car accident that April. On a few tracks, Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner of the Eagles contributed backing vocals.
In March 1976, Walsh released a live album, You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind, which also featured the Eagles.
As the Eagles struggled to record their follow-up to Hotel California, Walsh re-ignited his solo career with the critically well-received album, But Seriously, Folks... in May 1978. It contained the single "Life's Been Good", his comedic depiction of rock stardom, which peaked at No. 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and remains to date his biggest solo hit. Walsh also contributed "In the City" to The Warriors soundtrack in 1979, a song penned and sung by Walsh that was later rerecorded for the Eagles' studio album, The Long Run.
Following the break up of the Eagles in July 1980, Walsh continued to release solo albums throughout the 1980s, but sales did not meet the same level of his earlier successes.
There Goes the Neighborhood was Walsh's first album since the demise of the Eagles, and it peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200. The album only spawned one single, "A Life of Illusion", which became one of Walsh's most popular songs. The single also topped the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, in 1981.
"A Life of Illusion" was recorded in 1973 with Walsh's first solo band Barnstorm but was not completed. The overdubs and final mixes were completed during the There Goes the Neighborhood sessions and released on the album. The promotional video for the track shows the making of the album's cover. This song also appeared in the opening credits of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and appears as the first song on its soundtrack.
In May 1983, Walsh released You Bought It – You Name It; the album was received negatively by the majority of music critics, while other reviewers noted good points to the album. It was also not as successful as Walsh's previous albums, peaking at No. 48 on the Billboard 200. Walsh found moderate success with the single "Space Age Whiz Kids", about the pinnacle of the 1980s video arcade craze. The album contains hard rock songs such as "I Can Play That Rock & Roll" and a cover of the Dick Haymes track, "Love Letters". It also contains more introspective material such as "Class of '65", and contains a song titled "I.L.B.T.s", an acronym for "I Like Big Tits".
Walsh's new girlfriend Stevie Nicks was involved in his next album, The Confessor. Her old friend Keith Olsen was hired to produce the album and the musicians were prolific LA session musicians including: Jim Keltner, Mike Porcaro, Waddy Wachtel, Randy Newman, Alan Pasqua and many other musicians that Walsh had never worked with before.
In 1987, Walsh released his final solo album of the 1980s, Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning, and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead vocalist Jimi Jamison, but the album was a commercial disappointment.
In 1991, Ordinary Average Guy, his ninth solo studio album, and its title track single, were released on the Epic label. The album features Ringo Starr, Jimi Jamison, and drummer Joe Vitale from Walsh's former band Barnstorm. Vitale also sings the lead vocals on the final track of the album, "School Days".
In 1992, Walsh released what appeared to be his final album (until 2012), Songs for a Dying Planet, his tenth solo studio album. Like its predecessor, it was released on the Epic label. Keen to re-establish himself after receiving some poor reviews for his previous album, Walsh enlisted his former producer Bill Szymczyk. At the end of the track "Certain Situations" you can hear a Morse code message that says "Register and vote for me". His song "Vote for Me" was a minor success, peaking at No. 10 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
Walsh's song "One Day at a Time" was released in 2012 and details his struggles with alcohol and drug abuse earlier in his career. The song appeared on Walsh's album Analog Man, which was released on June 5, 2012. The album was co-produced by Jeff Lynne, with Tommy Lee James co-writing some of the album's tracks.
Eagles reunion
An Eagles country tribute album titled Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles was released in 1993, thirteen years after the break up. Travis Tritt insisted on having the Long Run-era Eagles in his video for "Take It Easy" and they agreed. Following years of public speculation, the band formally reunited the following year. The line-up comprised the five Long Run-era members—Frey, Henley, Walsh, Felder, and Schmit—supplemented by Scott Crago (drums), John Corey (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), Timothy Drury (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals) and Al Garth (saxophone, violin) on stage.
"For the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation," announced Frey at their first live performance in April 1994. The ensuing tour spawned a live album titled Hell Freezes Over (named for Henley's recurring statement that the band would get back together "when hell freezes over"), which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. It included four new studio songs, with "Get Over It" and "Love Will Keep Us Alive" both becoming Top 40 hits. The album proved as successful as the tour, selling 6 million copies in the U.S. The tour was interrupted in September 1994 because of Frey's serious recurrence of diverticulitis, but it resumed in 1995 and continued into 1996. In 1998, the Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the induction ceremony, all seven Eagles members (Frey, Henley, Leadon, Meisner, Felder, Walsh, and Schmit) played together for two songs, "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California". Several subsequent reunion tours followed (without Leadon or Meisner), notable for their record-setting ticket prices.
The Eagles performed at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Paradise, Nevada on December 28 and 29, 1999, followed by a concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on December 31. These concerts marked the last time Felder played with the band and these shows (including a planned video release) later formed a part of a lawsuit filed by Felder against his former band members.
The concert recordings were released on CD as part of the four-disc Selected Works: 1972–1999 box set in November 2000. Along with the millennium concert, this set included the band's hit singles, album tracks and outtakes from The Long Run sessions. Selected Works received platinum certification from the RIAA in 2002.
The band resumed touring in 2001, with a line-up consisting of Frey, Henley, Walsh and Schmit, along with Steuart Smith (guitars, mandolin, keyboards, backing vocals; essentially taking over Felder's role), Michael Thompson (keyboards, trombone), Will Hollis (keyboards, backing vocals), Scott Crago (drums, percussion), Bill Armstrong (horns), Al Garth (saxophone, violin), Christian Mostert (saxophone) and Greg Smith (saxophone, percussion).
In 2003, the Eagles released a greatest hits album, The Very Best Of. The two-disc compilation was the first that encompassed their entire career, from Eagles to Hell Freezes Over. It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard charts and eventually gained triple platinum status. The album includes a new single, the September 11 attacks-themed "Hole in the World". Also in 2003, Warren Zevon, a longtime Eagles friend, began work on his final album, The Wind, with the assistance of Henley, Walsh and Schmit.
On June 14, 2005, the Eagles released a new 2-DVD set titled Farewell 1 Tour-Live from Melbourne, featuring two new songs: Frey's "No More Cloudy Days" and Walsh's "One Day at a Time". A special edition 2006 release exclusive to Walmart and affiliated stores includes a bonus audio CD with three new songs: a studio version of "No More Cloudy Days", "Fast Company" and "Do Something".
In 2007, the Eagles consisted of Frey, Henley, Walsh, and Schmit. On August 20, 2007, "How Long", written by J. D. Souther, was released as a single to radio with an accompanying online video at Yahoo! Music. It debuted on television on Country Music Television during the Top 20 Countdown on August 23, 2007. The band had performed the song as part of their live sets in the early to mid-1970s, but did not record it at the time because Souther wanted to reserve it for use on his first solo album. Souther had previously worked with the Eagles, co-writing some of their biggest hits, including "Best of My Love", "Victim of Love", "Heartache Tonight" and "New Kid in Town".
On October 30, 2007, the Eagles released Long Road Out of Eden, their first album of all-new material since 1979. For the first year after the album's release, it was available in the U.S. only via the band's website, at Walmart and at Sam's Club stores. It was commercially available through traditional retail outlets in other countries. The album debuted at number 1 in the U.S., the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Norway. It became their third studio album and seventh release overall to be certified at least seven times platinum by the RIAA. Henley told CNN that "This is probably the last Eagles album that we'll ever make." The Eagles made their awards show debut on November 7, 2007, when they performed "How Long" live at the Country Music Association Awards.
On January 28, 2008, the second single of Long Road Out of Eden was released. "Busy Being Fabulous" peaked at No. 28 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and at No. 12 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. The Eagles won their fifth Grammy in 2007, in the category Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "How Long".
On March 20, 2008, the Eagles launched their world tour in support of Long Road Out of Eden at The O2 Arena in London. The Long Road Out of Eden Tour concluded the American portion of the tour at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah on May 9, 2009. It was the first concert ever held in the new soccer stadium. The tour traveled to Europe, with its final concert date on July 22, 2009, in Lisbon. The band spent the summer of 2010 touring North American stadiums with the Dixie Chicks and Keith Urban. The tour expanded to England as the headline act of the Hop Farm Festival on July 1, 2011.
Asked in November 2010 whether the Eagles were planning a follow-up to Long Road Out of Eden, Schmit replied, "My first reaction would be: no way. But I said that before the last one, so you never really know. Bands are a fragile entity and you never know what's going to happen. It took a long time to do that last album, over a span of years, really, and it took a lot out of us. We took a year off at one point. I'm not sure if we're able to do that again. I wouldn't close the door on it, but I don't know." Walsh said in 2010 that there might be one more album before the band "wraps it up".
In February 2013, the Eagles released a career spanning documentary called History of the Eagles and kicked off the supporting tour with 11 arena dates from July 6 to 25. Henley said that the tour, which would continue until 2015, "could very well be our last... we're gonna include at least one former band member in this tour and kinda go back to the roots, and how we created some of these songs. We're gonna break it down to the fundamentals and then take it up to where it is now."
Original Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon also appeared on the tour. Walsh stated, "Bernie's brilliant, I never really got a chance to play with him, but we've been in contact. We see him from time to time, and I'm really glad he's coming because it's going to take the show up a notch, and I'm really looking forward to playing with him, finally." It has been reported that former members Randy Meisner and Don Felder will not appear. Meisner had been invited but could not participate due to health problems, while Felder was reportedly not invited due to ongoing legal disputes with the band.
Other bands
In late 1984, Walsh was contacted by Australian musician Paul Christie, the former bassist for Mondo Rock. Christie invited him to come to Australia to perform with the Party Boys, an all-star band with a floating membership of well-known Australian rock musicians. These included the critically acclaimed guitarist Kevin Borich, with whom Walsh became good friends. Walsh accepted and performed with the Party Boys on their late-1984–early-1985 Australian tour and appeared on their live album, You Need Professional Help. He remained in Australia for some time after the tour, putting together the short-lived touring band "Creatures From America", with Waddy Wachtel (guitar), Rick Rosas (bass guitar) and Australian drummer Richard Harvey (Divinyls, the Party Boys) In 1987, Walsh returned to the United States to work on his album Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead singer Jimi Jamison. After the album's commercial disappointment, Walsh decided to return to Australia in 1989 to tour with another incarnation of the Party Boys. Walsh also toured with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band in 1989 and 1992, alternating a handful of his best-known songs with Starr's and tunes by other of the members of the All-Starr Band. In 1989, Walsh recorded a MTV Unplugged with the R&B musician Dr. John. Also in 1989 Walsh filmed a live concert from the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles with Etta James and Albert Collins, called Jazzvisions: Jump the Blues Away.
While producing their Homegrown album in 1989, Walsh briefly joined New Zealand reggae band Herbs. Although he had left by the time of its 1990 release, he still appears as lead singer on two tracks, "Up All Night" and "It's Alright". The album includes the first recording of his "Ordinary Average Guys" (sung by late Herbs bassist Charlie Tumahai), which subsequently became a solo hit for Walsh as "Ordinary Average Guy".
In late 1990, Walsh was part of a band called the Best, along with keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist John Entwistle, guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and drummer Simon Phillips. The band performed several shows in Hawaii and Japan, with a live video resulting.
In 1993, Walsh teamed up with Glenn Frey for the "Party of Two" tour in the United States.
In 1996, James Gang did a reunion for the Democratic president, Bill Clinton. The band consisted of their "classic" line-up (Walsh, Peters, Fox), and they performed at the Cleveland State University Convocation Center on November 4, 1996.
In 1998, ABC wanted to use a classic rock song rock for Monday Night Football that year, so they asked Walsh to rewrite the lyrics to "Rocky Mountain Way" for the quarterback John Elway of the Denver Broncos. "Rocky Mountain Elway" was the new title of the song and Walsh appeared in a video that ABC showed on Monday Night Football.
2000s and 2010s
In June 2004, Walsh performed at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, Texas. He was also featured in September 2004 at the Strat Pack, a concert held in London, England, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar. In 2006, Walsh reunited with Jim Fox and Dale Peters of the James Gang for new recordings and a 15-date summer reunion tour. The tour lasted into the fall.
In 2008, Walsh appeared on the Carvin 60th Anniversary Celebration DVD as a celebrity endorser. In the recorded interview, he highly praised Carvin Guitars and claims that the bridge design is "just like the first Les Paul models. I can't even get Gibson to reissue it".
Kent State University awarded Walsh an honorary degree in music in December 2001. In May 2012, the Berklee College of Music awarded Walsh, along with other members of the Eagles, an honorary doctorate for his accomplishments in the field of music.
Notable appearances
In 1974, Walsh produced Dan Fogelberg's Souvenirs album and played the guitar, electric guitar, 12 string guitar, ARP bass and provided backing vocals. He also contacted Graham Nash to sing harmony vocals on "Part of the Plan", which helped send the album to No. 17 on the 1975 Billboard album chart.
In 1973 Walsh supplied the slide guitar solo on Michael Stanley's song "Rosewood Bitters." Walsh later lifted part of that solo and used it prominently in the Eagles' hit "Life in the Fast Lane."
In 1981, Walsh and former Barnstorm bandmate, Joe Vitale, went to work on old friend John Entwistle's fifth solo album Too Late the Hero, whenever they were free to work on it. The album turned out to become John Entwistle's best-charting solo album, with hit singles "Talk Dirty" and "Too Late the Hero".
Walsh was a background musician (1st guitar solo) on Eagles band member Don Henley's 1982 hit "Dirty Laundry" (listed as such in the liner notes of I Can't Stand Still and Actual Miles: Henley's Greatest Hits). Walsh has also contributed to albums by: Ringo Starr; America; REO Speedwagon; Jay Ferguson; Andy Gibb; Wilson Phillips; Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Steve Winwood; and on the Richard Marx hit "Don't Mean Nothing".
Walsh was a regular guest DJ on Los Angeles radio station KLOS during the mid-1980s. They had a Saturday evening feature, with celebrity guest-hosts taking over the microphone (Walsh was the guest host far more frequently than any other). He was also a frequent guest and guest-host of Detroit and Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl.
Onscreen, Walsh has appeared in: The Blues Brothers, Promised Land, The Drew Carey Show, Duckman, MADtv, Live from Daryl's House, Rock the Cradle and Zachariah.
In October 2004, Walsh undertook speaking engagements in New Zealand to warn against the dangers of substance abuse. He said the visit was a "thank you" to people who took him to Otatara Pa when he toured New Zealand with reggae band Herbs while under heavy alcohol and cocaine addictions in 1989, an experience he has cited as the beginning of a long journey back to good health. At Otatara Pa in 2004 Walsh said, "This is a special place, and it is very special to me. It was here on a visit many years ago, up on the hills, that I had a moment of clarity. I don't understand it, but I reconnected with my soul, and I remembered who I used to be. I admitted I had problems and I had to do something about it. It was the beginning of my recovery from my addiction to alcohol and drugs, and when I got back to America it gave me the courage to seek help."
On February 12, 2012, Walsh appeared on stage with Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, and McCartney's band at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to close out the Grammy Awards show. Walsh also appeared on the 60th Episode of Live from Daryl's House with Daryl Hall, which premiered on November 15, 2012.
On February 9, 2014, Walsh was featured in several songs on the CBS special The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles.
In 2014, Walsh made a guest appearance on Foo Fighters' eighth studio album Sonic Highways.
On May 24, 2016, Walsh appeared on NBC's The Voice in which he played slide guitar, talk box and performed Rocky Mountain Way with contestant Laith Al-Saadi.
He appeared on an episode of 'The Conners' on 19 January 2022. He played Aldo's father.
Influences
Walsh cites influences and with rock music / pop music bands and guitarists with whom many he has encountered and met on concert tours: Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Jeff Beck, the Beatles, Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, Ritchie Blackmore and Deep Purple, Manfred Mann, Duane Allman and The Allman Brothers, Ronnie Wood and The Faces, Pete Townshend and The Who, and The Ventures. In turn, he has influenced Dan Fogelberg, Maroon 5, Kenny Chesney, Jonny Lang, Blitzen Trapper, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and George Thorogood. Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band taught Walsh how to play the slide guitar.
Public service
Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008.
Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.
Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!"
In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things."
In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry, including the Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., and Keith Urban, to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid – a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson.
Personal life
Walsh has been married five times. He was married briefly to Margie Walsh in the 1960s, to Stefany Rhodes from 1971 to 1978, to Juanita Boyer from 1980 to 1988, and to Denise Driscoll from 1999 to 2006. Walsh married Marjorie Bach (sister of Barbara Bach and sister-in-law of Ringo Starr) in Los Angeles on December 13, 2008. Another sister-in-law, Susan Walsh, has been a missing person since 1996.
Walsh's daughter Lucy Walsh is a musician who has worked with Ashlee Simpson and others. She released her debut solo album, Lost in the Lights, in spring 2007.
Walsh's eldest daughter, Emma Kristen, was born in 1971 and died in 1974 at 3 years of age as a result of injuries suffered in an automobile accident on her way to nursery school. Her story inspired the track "Song for Emma" on Walsh's solo album So What released later that year. In her memory, he had a fountain and memorial plaque placed in a park in which she played: North Boulder Park in Boulder, Colorado. He has said that the album name So What was a result of Emma's death: that nothing else seemed meaningful or important in the months that followed. The strain eventually contributed to Walsh's divorce from his second wife Stefany. While touring with singer Stevie Nicks in 1984, Walsh took Nicks to the park's fountain; Nicks subsequently immortalized this story in her song "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?" on her 1985 album Rock A Little. Nicks told the UK's The Daily Telegraph in 2007 that Walsh had been "the great love of my life". "Joe and I broke up because of the coke," she elaborated to Q. "He told my friend and singer Sharon [Celani], 'I'm leaving Stevie, because I'm afraid that one of us is going to die. And the other one won't be able to save the other person, because our cocaine habit has become so over the top now that neither of us can live through this. So the only way to save both of us is for me to leave.'"
Walsh admits to struggling with alcohol and drug addictions for most of his early career and has been in recovery since 1993. In 1989, while touring with New Zealand band Herbs, Walsh experienced an "epiphany" during a visit to Otatara Pa, an ancient Māori pā site in the Hawke's Bay region. In 2004, on a return visit to New Zealand, Walsh described the experience and hailed it as the beginning of his recovery from his addiction. Walsh related the story that in 1994, he woke up after blacking out on an airplane to Paris. When he arrived, he had his passport, but did not remember getting on the plane. That was his turning point, and he has been sober ever since.
While living in New York City, Walsh began a lifelong interest in amateur radio. He holds an Amateur Extra Class Amateur Radio License, and his station callsign is WB6ACU. In 2006, he donated an autographed guitar to the ARRL in Newington, Connecticut, for its charity auction. He has also been involved with the group's "Big Project," which brings amateur radio into schools. Walsh has included Morse Code messages in his albums on two occasions: once on the album Barnstorm ("Register and Vote"), and later on Songs for a Dying Planet ("Register and Vote for Me"). Walsh provides the theme song (which includes Morse code) for the TWiT podcast Ham Nation (debuting in 2011), and he appeared as a guest in the first podcast, as well as episode 400.
Instruments
Jimmy Page's sunburst 1959 Gibson Les Paul, better known as his "Number 1" was originally owned by Walsh and was sold to Page in 1969.
In 1970, Walsh gave a 1959 Gretsch 6120 to the Who's lead guitarist Pete Townshend. Townshend used the Gretsch in the studio to record tracks on albums such as Who's Next and Quadrophenia.
Select other guitars
1959 Gibson Les Paul that was given/sold to Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page in April 1969
Carvin DC4, CT6, CT4, CS4, and other various models.
Duesenberg Starplayer Alliance - Walsh has an Alliance guitar co-developed with him
Amplifiers
Marshall 50 watt Plexi
Discography
The Measles
Singles:
1965: Casting My Spell/Bye Birdie Fly
1966: Kicks/No Baby At All
The Ohio Express
1967: Beg, Borrow And Steal - I Find I Think Of You composed by Joe Walsh and played by his band The Measles.
James Gang
Studio albums:
1969: Yer' Album
1970: James Gang Rides Again
1971: Thirds
Live album:
1971: James Gang Live in Concert
Compilation:
1973: The Best Of James Gang Featuring Joe Walsh
Barnstorm
Studio albums:
1972: Barnstorm
1973: The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get
Eagles
Studio albums:
1976: Hotel California
1979: The Long Run
2007: Long Road out of Eden
Live albums:
1980: Eagles Live
1994: Hell Freezes Over
2020: Live from the Forum MMXVIII
Solo
Collaborations
Indianola Mississippi Seeds - B.B. King (1970)
L.A. Midnight - B.B. King (1972)
The Kids & Me - Billy Preston (1974)
Souvenirs - Dan Fogelberg (1974)
Act Like Nothing's Wrong - Al Kooper (1976)
Stone Alone - Bill Wyman (1976)
A Night on the Town - Rod Stewart (1976)
Nether Lands - Dan Fogelberg (1977)
Little Criminals - Randy Newman (1977)
Earth & Sky - Graham Nash (1980)
Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School - Warren Zevon (1980)
Wild Heart of the Young - Karla Bonoff (1982)
I Can't Stand Still - Don Henley (1982)
Back in the High Life - Steve Winwood (1986)
Richard Marx - Richard Marx (1987)
Red House - Albert King (1991)
The Fire Inside - Bob Seger (1991)
Vertical Man - Ringo Starr (1998)
The Wild - Warren Zevon (2003)
Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates - Kenny Chesney (2007)
Y Not - Ringo Starr (2010)
Ringo 2012 - Ringo Starr (2012)
Postcards from Paradise - Ringo Starr (2015)
Give More Love - Ringo Starr (2017)
What's My Name - Ringo Starr (2019)
Threads - Sheryl Crow (2019)
Filmography
Film
1971: Zachariah Film de George Englund. With Don Johnson: Himself with The James Gang.
1980: The Blues Brothers: A prisoner dancing on a table.
1990: The Best - DVD With Keith Emerson, Jeff Baxter, Joe Walsh, John Entwistle, Simon Phillips: Himself.
Television
Mad TV, as himself, in Episode 1.2 (1995)
Promised land, as R.J., "The Prodigy" (1996)
Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man, voicing himself, "They Craved Duckman's Brain!" (1996) and "Love! Anger! Kvetching!" (1997)
The Drew Carey Show, 7 episodes as Ed ("Drewstock" (1997), "In Ramada Da Vida" (1998), "Golden Boy" (1998), "Drew Between the Rock and a Hard Place" (1998), "Boy Party/Girl Party" (1999), "Steve and Mimi Get Married" (1999), "Drew's in a Coma" (2001))
Drew Carey's Improv All-Stars, guest (2001)
Rock the Cradle (2008), a reality show, the father of contestant Lucy Walsh
Wicked City, as a director, "Running With the Devil" (2015)
Criminal Minds, as himself, "The Sandman" (2016)
Better Things, as himself "Hair of the Dog" (2016)
The Connors, Jesse, "Patriarchs and Goddesses" (2022)
Awards
As a member of The Eagles, Walsh has won five Grammy Awards:
(1977) Record of the Year: "Hotel California" (single)
(1977) Best Arrangement for Voices: "New Kid in Town"
(1979) Best Rock Vocal performance by a Duo or Group: "Heartache Tonight"
(2008) Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: "How Long"
(2009) Best Pop Instrumental Performance: "I Dreamed There Was No War"
Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998
Walsh was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001.
See also
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart
Further reading
Walsh, Joe (1996). Look What I Did! And Then Some .... Hal Leonard Corporation.
Lemco, Steve (2011). Joe & Me''. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
References
External links
1947 births
Living people
Amateur radio people
Record producers from Kansas
American rock guitarists
American male guitarists
American tenors
American rock singers
American male singer-songwriters
American rock songwriters
20th-century American singers
21st-century American composers
21st-century American keyboardists
21st-century American singers
20th-century American composers
American session musicians
American rock keyboardists
American rock pianists
American male pianists
American multi-instrumentalists
20th-century American male actors
American male film actors
Blues rock musicians
Eagles (band) members
The Party Boys members
Musicians from Wichita, Kansas
Kent State University alumni
Musicians from Columbus, Ohio
Montclair High School (New Jersey) alumni
People from Montclair, New Jersey
Writers from Wichita, Kansas
Asylum Records artists
Atlantic Records artists
ABC Records artists
Epic Records artists
Dunhill Records artists
Warner Records artists
MCA Records artists
Fantasy Records artists
The Orchard Records artists
Lead guitarists
Slide guitarists
Grammy Award winners
American people of German descent
American people of Scottish descent
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Singer-songwriters from New Jersey
Male actors from Ohio
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from Kansas
Actors from Wichita, Kansas
American expatriates in Australia
Members
James Gang members
Guitarists from Kansas
Guitarists from Ohio
Guitarists from New Jersey
Kennedy Center honorees
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American pianists
Barnstorm (band) members
The Best (band) members
Singer-songwriters from Kansas | true | [
"Charities Directorate of Canada is part of the Federal Ministry of National Revenue, and is responsible for reviewing the applications for charity registration, and auditing and maintaining accountability through education and responsible enforcement. They work to count and monitor the registered charities operating in Canada in the fairest way possible.\nAs of December 2014, there were 86 193 charities registered in the directorate.\nThe Directorate is located in Ottawa, in the Canadian Revenue Agency offices.\n\nCharity status\n\nDefinition \nTo gain charity status, organizations must first register with the federal Canadian Revenue Agency under the Income Tax Act. To be eligible for charitable tax status, charities need to provide a public benefit, such as poverty relief or education, and they are limited in their business and political activities, including making profit or engaging in partisan behavior. These limitations are to ensure charities keep to their primary goals and don't abuse their special status.\n\nBenefits \nCharitable status grants organizations exemption from income tax and provides the power to issue donation receipts, eligibility to receive gifts from fellow registered charities, and exempts goods and services provided by the charity from sales tax.\n\nSpecial donor status \nCertain donees have the ability to issue their own donation receipts like the Registered Canadian Amateur athletic association (RCAAA), foreign charities accepting gifts from her Majesty the Queen, universities outside of Canada and the United Nations.\n\nObligations \nRegistered charities have obligations linked to the status: they must devote and maintain control and direction of all of their resources while keeping them aligned with their purpose, they must file their T3010 Registered Charity Information Return annually, keep reliable records and books of activities, and they must maintain their status as a Canadian legal entity.\n\nPolitical action \nThere are limitations as to how registered charities can intervene in political affairs. Political activities must be coordinated or subordinate to the charity's purpose, in no way partisan, and they must provide records of expenses related to such activities in their T3010 forms. The Directorate defines political activities as encouraging and mobilizing the public to try to change specific public policy, law or government decisions, or to engage in partisan activities. Public awareness and education are considered acceptable by the Canada Revenue Agency, as long as the information is sound and the content is not overly emotive. Public policy dialogue and development activities by charities (PPDDAs) by poverty relief, education, or religious organizations reinforce the charity's purpose if they are related to its stated purpose and provide a benefit to the public (see Policy statement CPS-024, Guidelines for registering a charity: Meeting the public benefit test)”.\n\nLegislation\n\nEstablishing Law \nThe Charities Directorate of the Canadian Revenue Agency is delegated authority by the Minister of National Revenue to enforce provisions on registered charities and qualified donees under the Canadian Income Tax Act.\n\nActivities of the Directorate\n\nEnsuring Compliance\nThe Charities Directorate is responsible for federal regulations on registered charities in Canada under the Income Tax Act, particularly compliance with information reporting requirements to maintain transparency and public accountability (Prime Minister mandate letter to relevant minister:. To enable compliance with the Income Tax Act, registered charities must issue donation receipts for individual and corporate donations and are required to file annual tax returns. Compliance measures include education letters; compliance agreements, sanctions, including financial penalties; suspension of charities’ tax-receipting privileges as well as their status as qualified donees; and ultimately the revocation of charitable registration. The Directorate has the power to revoke the status of registered charities if they fail to file annual information returns, fail to spend their resources primarily on public benefit purposes, engage in partisan political activities, issue false gift receipts, or make gifts to other registered charities conditional on gifts in kind.\nThe Charities Directorate auditing program is intended to maintain public confidence in registered charities. Beginning in the 2000s, the Charities Directorate has increased its unofficial mandate to include education of charities on regulatory compliance although this is still minimal.\n\nInformation Collection\nThe main activity of the CRA is the collection of the T3010 annual information return which describes the activities of all registered charities over the year. The T3010 form also provides information to the public about registered charities' activities.\nThe T1236 form, Qualified Donees Worksheet, provides detailed information about the money given from one registered charity to another.\n\nInformation Publishing\nAs of 2019, the Canadian Revenue Agency website provides a search function to the public to check the status Canadian charities in order to help individuals' donation decision making. The contact information, activities, and financial information of all registered charities are available.\nThere has also been a wave of modernization through the use of open data as a means of accountability, published in 2018 in the report \"OPENING CANADA’S T3010 CHARITY INFORMATION RETURN DATA\".\nAs of 2013, the CRA has made efforts to be more transparent by making a data portal (https://open.canada.ca/en) available to Canadians, as a means for researchers to gather information on Canadian charities.\n\nHistory and Recent Developments\nIn 1967, the first registration of charities with the government occurred through the Canadian Revenue Agency, this led to the creation of the branch that would later deal with the eligibility and regulation of registered charities.\n\nOn December 13, 2018, Bill C-86 received Royal Assent, which allows charities in the directorate to pursue political activities and policy-making as long as it is in line with the charities' purpose; except for direct or indirect action concerning political parties or public office candidates.\n\nIn 2013, the Director General released a statement giving an overview of how the Directorate works and recent statistics of efficiency. In 2014, the second update of the kind was released, covering new initiatives by the Directorate, along with an updated list of tools and statistics. In 2015, the last of these updates was posted. It presents an overview of legislative updates, auditing guidelines, specific limitations and staff changes.\n\nIn 2019, the CRA amended its definition of political activities; now only requesting if the organization had any public policy dialogue and development activities (PPDAs) and to explain them.\nRecent controversy over the ability of U.S. donors to give to Canadian organizations could influence important crossborder issues, in particular oil pipelines, and has raised accusations of foreign intervention into Canadian affairs. Canadian federal tax legislation differentiates between Canadian nonprofit organizations and registered charities; Canadian nonprofit organizations (but not registered charities) can seek funding from US donors.\n\nReferences\n\nSources\n (\"OPENING CANADA’S T3010 CHARITY INFORMATION RETURN DATA Accountability of Charities through Open Data\")\n\nExternal links\n Charities and giving\n\nCanadian taxation government bodies\nCharity in Canada\nCharity regulators",
"GamCare is an independent UK charity which provides information, advice and support for anyone affected by problem gambling across England, Scotland and Wales. The organisation was established in 1997.\n\nAbout GamCare \nGamCare provides a variety of services for problem gamblers and others who are impacted by someone else's gambling. The organisation operates the National Gambling HelpLine on Freephone 0808 8020 133 or via web chat through their website, provides online help and free face-to-face treatment across England, Scotland and Wales through a partner network. GamCare also provides training and materials to the gambling industry to improve social responsibility and player protection. Training programmes provide attendees with vital insights on how to recognise the signs of problem gambling behaviour and advice on how to interact with players to achieve a positive outcome.\n\nThe Safer Gambling Standard \nThe Safer Gambling Standard is the social responsibility quality standard for licensed gambling operators. The Standard is a set of best practice standards developed out of a combination of academic evidence in Responsible Gambling practices, GamCare service user input, and GamCare’s knowledge and experience from over 20 years of work with those affected by problem gambling, and the gambling industry itself.\n\nGamCare Youth Services \nGamCare provides a Youth Outreach Programme offering interactive workshops for young people as well as training for the professionals that support them, (such as teachers, youth workers etc).\n\nGamCare and Samaritans together developed a suite of training materials for gambling businesses, to raise awareness of the risk of gambling-related suicide and to give gambling staff the skills and confidence to support customers who may be at risk.\n\nSee also \nGamblers Anonymous\nProblem gambling\nUK Gambling Commission\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nGamCare Website\n\nCharities based in London\nProblem gambling organizations\nSocial welfare charities based in the United Kingdom"
]
|
[
"Joe Walsh",
"Public service",
"What charities did Joe Walsh work with?",
"Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks.",
"What does he do to help conserve the environment in Santa Cruz?",
"He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.",
"What other charities is he involved with?",
"He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas.",
"How else did he help the public through charities?",
"Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008."
]
| C_040d7718872f46c387a6014808d463a3_0 | What else did he do for the charities? | 5 | What else did Joe Walsh do for the charities in addition to funding the scholarship at Kent State? | Joe Walsh | Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008. Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s. Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!" In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things." In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., Keith Urban to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid - a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson. CANNOTANSWER | In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., Keith Urban to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid - | Joseph Fidler Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American rock singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has been a member of three successful rock bands: James Gang, Eagles, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Walsh was also part of the New Zealand band Herbs. In the 1990s, he was a member of the short-lived supergroup The Best.
Walsh has also experienced success both as a solo artist and as a prolific session musician, being featured on a wide array of other artists' recordings. In 2011, Rolling Stone placed him at the No. 54 spot on its list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
In the mid-1960s, after attending Kent State University, Walsh played with several local Ohio-based bands before reaching a national audience as a member of the James Gang, whose hit song "Funk #49" highlighted his skill as both a guitarist and singer. Roger Abramson, a concert producer and artist manager, signed the James Gang to a management agreement with BPI in Cleveland. After leaving the James Gang in 1972, he formed Barnstorm with Joe Vitale, a college friend from Ohio, and Kenny Passarelli, a bassist from Colorado, where Walsh had moved after leaving Ohio. While the band stayed together for three albums over three years, its works were marketed as Walsh solo projects. The last Barnstorm album, 1974's So What contained significant guest contributions from several members of the Eagles, a group that had recently hired Walsh's producer, Bill Szymczyk.
At Szymczyk's suggestion, Walsh joined the Eagles in 1975 as the band's guitarist and keyboardist following the departure of their founding member Bernie Leadon, with Hotel California being his first album with the band. In 1998, a reader's poll conducted by Guitarist magazine selected the guitar solos on the track "Hotel California" by Walsh and Don Felder as the best guitar solos of all time. Guitar World magazine listed it at eighth of the Top 100 Guitar Solos.
Besides his work with his several bands, he has released 12 solo studio albums, six compilation albums, and two live albums. His solo hits include "Rocky Mountain Way", "Life's Been Good", "All Night Long", "A Life of Illusion", and "Ordinary Average Guy".
As a member of the Eagles, Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, and into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001. The Eagles are considered to be one of the most influential bands of the 1970s, and they remain one of the best-selling American bands in the history of popular music. His creative contribution to music has received praise from many of the best rock guitarists, including Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, who said, "He has a tremendous feel for the instrument. I've loved his style since the early James Gang." Eric Clapton said that "He's one of the best guitarists to surface in some time. I don't listen to many records, but I listen to his." The Who's guitarist, Pete Townshend, said "Joe Walsh is a fluid and intelligent player. There're not many like that around."
Early life and education
Joseph Fidler Walsh was born on November 20, 1947, in Wichita, Kansas. His father, Lt. Robert Newton Fidler, was a flight instructor for the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star in the United States Air Force and died in a plane crash in Okinawa on 22 July 1949. Walsh's mother was a classically trained pianist of Scottish and German ancestry. Walsh was adopted by his stepfather at the age of five and given his stepfather's surname, but retained Fidler as his middle name. In the 1950s, it was common practice for Social Security, school registration, and health records for children to take the name of their stepfather.
Walsh and his family lived in Columbus, Ohio, for a number of years during his youth. When Walsh was twelve years old, his family moved to New York City. Later, Walsh moved to Montclair, New Jersey, and he attended Montclair High School, where he played oboe in the school band.
Walsh got his first guitar at the age of 10, and upon learning The Ventures' "Walk Don't Run", decided that he wanted to pursue a career as a guitarist. Inspired by the success of the Beatles, he replaced Bruce Hoffman as the bass player in the locally popular group, the Nomads in Madison, New Jersey, beginning his career as a rock musician. After high school, Walsh attended Kent State University, where he spent time in various bands playing around the Cleveland area, including the Measles. The Measles recorded for Super K Productions' Ohio Express the songs "I Find I Think of You", "And It's True", and "Maybe" (an instrumental version of "And It's True"). Walsh majored in English and minored in music; he was present during the Kent State massacre in 1970. Walsh commented in 2012: "Being at the shootings really affected me profoundly. I decided that maybe I don't need a degree that bad." After one term, he dropped out of college to pursue his musical career.
Musical career
1965–1967: The Measles (Joe Walsh years)
The Measles, an Ohio garage bar band, were formed in 1965 by four Kent State University students, one of whom was Joe Walsh. Two tracks on the Ohio Express' Beg Borrow and Steal album, "I Find I Think Of You" and "And It's True" (both featuring Joe Walsh vocals) were actually recorded by the Measles, led by Walsh. Additionally, an instrumental version of "And It's True" was recorded by the Measles, re-titled "Maybe" and released as the B-side of the "Beg Borrow and Steal" single.
1968–1971: James Gang
Around Christmas 1967, James Gang guitarist Glenn Schwartz, who turned out to be AWOL from the army and was breaking up with his wife, decided to leave the band to move to California, where he ended up forming the band Pacific Gas & Electric. Days later, Walsh, a friend of Schwartz's, knocked on Jim Fox's door and asked to be given a tryout as Schwartz's replacement. Walsh was accepted and the band continued as a five piece for a short time until Phil Giallombardo, who was still in high school at the time, left. Bill Jeric and Walsh worked together on guitar parts, but Jeric left as well in the spring of 1968. He was replaced by a returning Ronnie Silverman, who had been discharged from the military.
In May 1968, the group played a concert in Detroit at the Grande Ballroom, opening for Cream. At the last minute, Silverman told the others that he would not join them at the show. The band, desperately in need of the money, took to the stage as a trio. They liked their sound as a threesome and decided to remain that way.
In 1968, the band signed with manager Mark Barger, who was handling the career of fellow Ohio outfit the Lemon Pipers, who had just scored a big hit with "Green Tambourine." Barger put the Gang in touch with ABC Records staff producer Bill Szymczyk, who signed them to ABC's new Bluesway Records subsidiary in January 1969.
They released their debut album, Yer' Album, in 1969. In November 1969, bassist Tom Kriss decided he was no longer into the music and left to be replaced by Dale Peters, who was brought in from a group called The Case of E.T. Hooley. The addition of Peters created the most successful incarnation of the James Gang. Walsh proved to be the band's star attraction, noted for his innovative rhythm playing and creative guitar riffs. In particular he was known for hot-wiring the pick-ups on his electric guitars to create his trademark "attack" sound. The James Gang had several minor hits and became an early album-oriented rock staple for the next two years. It was during 1969 that Walsh sold his Les Paul Guitar to Jimmy Page. Later in 1969, the group's record producer, Szymczyk, arranged for the band to appear in the "electric Western" film Zachariah, with two James Gang songs, "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever," also being used. For the recording of these two songs, vocalist Kenny Weiss was brought in to allow Walsh to focus on his guitar playing; he was gone by the time the group arrived in Mexico to shoot their movie scenes. "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever" later reappeared as bonus tracks on the 2000 re-release of The James Gang Greatest Hits.
Shortly before the release of their second album James Gang Rides Again, the James Gang opened a show for the Who in Pittsburgh. Their guitarist Pete Townshend met with the James Gang before they left and was impressed enough to invite them on the Who's subsequent European tour. When Walsh was asked about this he said that, "Pete's a very melodic player and so am I. He told me that he appreciated my playing. I was flattered beyond belief because I didn't think I was that good."
The James Gang's next two albums, James Gang Rides Again (1970) and Thirds (1971), produced such classics as "Funk #49" and "Walk Away". The album James Gang Live at Carnegie Hall was Walsh's last album with them, as he became dissatisfied with the band's limitations.
The two remaining members, Peters and Fox, carried on with the lead vocalist Roy Kenner and guitarist Domenic Troiano (both ex-members of the Canadian band Bush) for two albums, Straight Shooter and Passin' Thru, both released in 1972. But in recent interviews, Fox stated that things did not work out musically with Troiano as hoped, so he left the band in 1973 and joined the Guess Who.
1971–1975: Barnstorm
In December 1971, Walsh left the James Gang. Steve Marriott, frontman guitarist of Humble Pie, invited him to move to England and join his band, which Peter Frampton had left, but Walsh declined. Instead he moved to Colorado and formed a band called Barnstorm, with drummer and multi-instrumentalist Joe Vitale, and bassist Kenny Passarelli, although both of their albums credited Walsh as a solo artist. They started recording their debut album immediately after forming, but at the time there were only Walsh and Vitale on these sessions. Chuck Rainey did the first bass tracks on the album but these were soon replaced by Passarelli. Walsh and Barnstorm released their debut album, the eponymous Barnstorm, in October 1972. After taking a cue from Townshend, Walsh utilized the ARP Odyssey synthesizer to great effect on such songs as "Mother Says" and "Here We Go". Walsh also experimented with acoustic guitar, slide guitar, effects pedals, fuzzbox, talk box, and keyboards as well as running his guitar straight into a Leslie speaker 122 to get swirly, organ-like guitar tones. The album was a critical success, but had only moderate commercial success. The follow-up, The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get, released in June 1973, was marketed under Walsh's name (although officially a Barnstorm album) and was their commercial breakthrough. It peaked at No. 6 on the US Billboard chart. The first and leading single, "Rocky Mountain Way", received heavy airplay and reached No. 23 on the US Top 40 chart. It featured new member, keyboardist Rocke Grace, and Walsh shared the vocals and songwriting with the other three members of the band. As a result, a variety of styles are explored on this album. There are elements of blues, jazz, folk, pop, and Caribbean music. In 1974, Barnstorm disbanded and Walsh continued as a solo artist.
In late 1974, Walsh played slide guitar on Vitale's debut solo album Roller Coaster Weekend. Walsh was taught the slide technique by Duane Allman, who played on Eric Clapton's Layla of Derek and the Dominos.
Barnstorm's last tour was spring 1975, shortly after Joe joined The Eagles.
1975–1980: Eagles
In 1975, Walsh was invited to join The Eagles as founding member Bernie Leadon's replacement. There was some initial concern as to Walsh's ability to fit in with the band, as he was considered far too "wild" for The Eagles, especially by their drummer and co-lead vocalist, Don Henley.
Released on December 8, 1976, Hotel California was the band's fifth studio album and the first to feature Walsh. The album took a year and a half to complete, a process which, along with touring, drained the band.
The second single from the album was the eponymous title track, which topped the charts in May 1977 and became one of the Eagles' signature songs next to "Take It Easy" and "Desperado". It features Henley on lead vocals, with a guitar duet performed by Felder and Walsh.
The hard rock "Life in the Fast Lane", released on May 3, 1977, was based on a riff by Walsh. It reached No. 11 on the charts and helped establish Walsh's position in the band.
Hotel California is the last album to feature founding member Randy Meisner, who abruptly left the band after the 1977 tour. He was replaced by the same musician who had succeeded him in Poco, Timothy B. Schmit.
In 1977, the band, minus Don Felder, performed instrumental work and backing vocals for Randy Newman's album Little Criminals, including "Short People," which has backing vocals by Frey and Schmit.
The Eagles went into the recording studio in 1977 to begin work on their next album, The Long Run. The album took two years to complete. The Long Run was released on September 24, 1979. Considered a disappointment by some music critics for failing to live up to Hotel California, it proved a huge commercial hit nonetheless; the album topped the charts and sold 7 million copies. In addition, it included three Top 10 singles—"Heartache Tonight", the title track and "I Can't Tell You Why". "In The City" by Walsh also received considerable airplay. The band also recorded two Christmas songs during these sessions, "Funky New Year" and "Please Come Home for Christmas" which was released as a single in 1978 and reached No. 18 on the charts. In 1980, the band broke up.
1973–2012: solo career
Walsh has released twelve solo studio albums.
In December 1974, Walsh released his first solo album that was not considered a Barnstorm project, So What, which contained more introspective material such as "Help Me Through the Night" and "Song For Emma", a tribute to Walsh's daughter who had been killed in a car accident that April. On a few tracks, Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner of the Eagles contributed backing vocals.
In March 1976, Walsh released a live album, You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind, which also featured the Eagles.
As the Eagles struggled to record their follow-up to Hotel California, Walsh re-ignited his solo career with the critically well-received album, But Seriously, Folks... in May 1978. It contained the single "Life's Been Good", his comedic depiction of rock stardom, which peaked at No. 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and remains to date his biggest solo hit. Walsh also contributed "In the City" to The Warriors soundtrack in 1979, a song penned and sung by Walsh that was later rerecorded for the Eagles' studio album, The Long Run.
Following the break up of the Eagles in July 1980, Walsh continued to release solo albums throughout the 1980s, but sales did not meet the same level of his earlier successes.
There Goes the Neighborhood was Walsh's first album since the demise of the Eagles, and it peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200. The album only spawned one single, "A Life of Illusion", which became one of Walsh's most popular songs. The single also topped the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, in 1981.
"A Life of Illusion" was recorded in 1973 with Walsh's first solo band Barnstorm but was not completed. The overdubs and final mixes were completed during the There Goes the Neighborhood sessions and released on the album. The promotional video for the track shows the making of the album's cover. This song also appeared in the opening credits of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and appears as the first song on its soundtrack.
In May 1983, Walsh released You Bought It – You Name It; the album was received negatively by the majority of music critics, while other reviewers noted good points to the album. It was also not as successful as Walsh's previous albums, peaking at No. 48 on the Billboard 200. Walsh found moderate success with the single "Space Age Whiz Kids", about the pinnacle of the 1980s video arcade craze. The album contains hard rock songs such as "I Can Play That Rock & Roll" and a cover of the Dick Haymes track, "Love Letters". It also contains more introspective material such as "Class of '65", and contains a song titled "I.L.B.T.s", an acronym for "I Like Big Tits".
Walsh's new girlfriend Stevie Nicks was involved in his next album, The Confessor. Her old friend Keith Olsen was hired to produce the album and the musicians were prolific LA session musicians including: Jim Keltner, Mike Porcaro, Waddy Wachtel, Randy Newman, Alan Pasqua and many other musicians that Walsh had never worked with before.
In 1987, Walsh released his final solo album of the 1980s, Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning, and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead vocalist Jimi Jamison, but the album was a commercial disappointment.
In 1991, Ordinary Average Guy, his ninth solo studio album, and its title track single, were released on the Epic label. The album features Ringo Starr, Jimi Jamison, and drummer Joe Vitale from Walsh's former band Barnstorm. Vitale also sings the lead vocals on the final track of the album, "School Days".
In 1992, Walsh released what appeared to be his final album (until 2012), Songs for a Dying Planet, his tenth solo studio album. Like its predecessor, it was released on the Epic label. Keen to re-establish himself after receiving some poor reviews for his previous album, Walsh enlisted his former producer Bill Szymczyk. At the end of the track "Certain Situations" you can hear a Morse code message that says "Register and vote for me". His song "Vote for Me" was a minor success, peaking at No. 10 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
Walsh's song "One Day at a Time" was released in 2012 and details his struggles with alcohol and drug abuse earlier in his career. The song appeared on Walsh's album Analog Man, which was released on June 5, 2012. The album was co-produced by Jeff Lynne, with Tommy Lee James co-writing some of the album's tracks.
Eagles reunion
An Eagles country tribute album titled Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles was released in 1993, thirteen years after the break up. Travis Tritt insisted on having the Long Run-era Eagles in his video for "Take It Easy" and they agreed. Following years of public speculation, the band formally reunited the following year. The line-up comprised the five Long Run-era members—Frey, Henley, Walsh, Felder, and Schmit—supplemented by Scott Crago (drums), John Corey (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), Timothy Drury (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals) and Al Garth (saxophone, violin) on stage.
"For the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation," announced Frey at their first live performance in April 1994. The ensuing tour spawned a live album titled Hell Freezes Over (named for Henley's recurring statement that the band would get back together "when hell freezes over"), which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. It included four new studio songs, with "Get Over It" and "Love Will Keep Us Alive" both becoming Top 40 hits. The album proved as successful as the tour, selling 6 million copies in the U.S. The tour was interrupted in September 1994 because of Frey's serious recurrence of diverticulitis, but it resumed in 1995 and continued into 1996. In 1998, the Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the induction ceremony, all seven Eagles members (Frey, Henley, Leadon, Meisner, Felder, Walsh, and Schmit) played together for two songs, "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California". Several subsequent reunion tours followed (without Leadon or Meisner), notable for their record-setting ticket prices.
The Eagles performed at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Paradise, Nevada on December 28 and 29, 1999, followed by a concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on December 31. These concerts marked the last time Felder played with the band and these shows (including a planned video release) later formed a part of a lawsuit filed by Felder against his former band members.
The concert recordings were released on CD as part of the four-disc Selected Works: 1972–1999 box set in November 2000. Along with the millennium concert, this set included the band's hit singles, album tracks and outtakes from The Long Run sessions. Selected Works received platinum certification from the RIAA in 2002.
The band resumed touring in 2001, with a line-up consisting of Frey, Henley, Walsh and Schmit, along with Steuart Smith (guitars, mandolin, keyboards, backing vocals; essentially taking over Felder's role), Michael Thompson (keyboards, trombone), Will Hollis (keyboards, backing vocals), Scott Crago (drums, percussion), Bill Armstrong (horns), Al Garth (saxophone, violin), Christian Mostert (saxophone) and Greg Smith (saxophone, percussion).
In 2003, the Eagles released a greatest hits album, The Very Best Of. The two-disc compilation was the first that encompassed their entire career, from Eagles to Hell Freezes Over. It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard charts and eventually gained triple platinum status. The album includes a new single, the September 11 attacks-themed "Hole in the World". Also in 2003, Warren Zevon, a longtime Eagles friend, began work on his final album, The Wind, with the assistance of Henley, Walsh and Schmit.
On June 14, 2005, the Eagles released a new 2-DVD set titled Farewell 1 Tour-Live from Melbourne, featuring two new songs: Frey's "No More Cloudy Days" and Walsh's "One Day at a Time". A special edition 2006 release exclusive to Walmart and affiliated stores includes a bonus audio CD with three new songs: a studio version of "No More Cloudy Days", "Fast Company" and "Do Something".
In 2007, the Eagles consisted of Frey, Henley, Walsh, and Schmit. On August 20, 2007, "How Long", written by J. D. Souther, was released as a single to radio with an accompanying online video at Yahoo! Music. It debuted on television on Country Music Television during the Top 20 Countdown on August 23, 2007. The band had performed the song as part of their live sets in the early to mid-1970s, but did not record it at the time because Souther wanted to reserve it for use on his first solo album. Souther had previously worked with the Eagles, co-writing some of their biggest hits, including "Best of My Love", "Victim of Love", "Heartache Tonight" and "New Kid in Town".
On October 30, 2007, the Eagles released Long Road Out of Eden, their first album of all-new material since 1979. For the first year after the album's release, it was available in the U.S. only via the band's website, at Walmart and at Sam's Club stores. It was commercially available through traditional retail outlets in other countries. The album debuted at number 1 in the U.S., the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Norway. It became their third studio album and seventh release overall to be certified at least seven times platinum by the RIAA. Henley told CNN that "This is probably the last Eagles album that we'll ever make." The Eagles made their awards show debut on November 7, 2007, when they performed "How Long" live at the Country Music Association Awards.
On January 28, 2008, the second single of Long Road Out of Eden was released. "Busy Being Fabulous" peaked at No. 28 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and at No. 12 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. The Eagles won their fifth Grammy in 2007, in the category Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "How Long".
On March 20, 2008, the Eagles launched their world tour in support of Long Road Out of Eden at The O2 Arena in London. The Long Road Out of Eden Tour concluded the American portion of the tour at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah on May 9, 2009. It was the first concert ever held in the new soccer stadium. The tour traveled to Europe, with its final concert date on July 22, 2009, in Lisbon. The band spent the summer of 2010 touring North American stadiums with the Dixie Chicks and Keith Urban. The tour expanded to England as the headline act of the Hop Farm Festival on July 1, 2011.
Asked in November 2010 whether the Eagles were planning a follow-up to Long Road Out of Eden, Schmit replied, "My first reaction would be: no way. But I said that before the last one, so you never really know. Bands are a fragile entity and you never know what's going to happen. It took a long time to do that last album, over a span of years, really, and it took a lot out of us. We took a year off at one point. I'm not sure if we're able to do that again. I wouldn't close the door on it, but I don't know." Walsh said in 2010 that there might be one more album before the band "wraps it up".
In February 2013, the Eagles released a career spanning documentary called History of the Eagles and kicked off the supporting tour with 11 arena dates from July 6 to 25. Henley said that the tour, which would continue until 2015, "could very well be our last... we're gonna include at least one former band member in this tour and kinda go back to the roots, and how we created some of these songs. We're gonna break it down to the fundamentals and then take it up to where it is now."
Original Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon also appeared on the tour. Walsh stated, "Bernie's brilliant, I never really got a chance to play with him, but we've been in contact. We see him from time to time, and I'm really glad he's coming because it's going to take the show up a notch, and I'm really looking forward to playing with him, finally." It has been reported that former members Randy Meisner and Don Felder will not appear. Meisner had been invited but could not participate due to health problems, while Felder was reportedly not invited due to ongoing legal disputes with the band.
Other bands
In late 1984, Walsh was contacted by Australian musician Paul Christie, the former bassist for Mondo Rock. Christie invited him to come to Australia to perform with the Party Boys, an all-star band with a floating membership of well-known Australian rock musicians. These included the critically acclaimed guitarist Kevin Borich, with whom Walsh became good friends. Walsh accepted and performed with the Party Boys on their late-1984–early-1985 Australian tour and appeared on their live album, You Need Professional Help. He remained in Australia for some time after the tour, putting together the short-lived touring band "Creatures From America", with Waddy Wachtel (guitar), Rick Rosas (bass guitar) and Australian drummer Richard Harvey (Divinyls, the Party Boys) In 1987, Walsh returned to the United States to work on his album Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead singer Jimi Jamison. After the album's commercial disappointment, Walsh decided to return to Australia in 1989 to tour with another incarnation of the Party Boys. Walsh also toured with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band in 1989 and 1992, alternating a handful of his best-known songs with Starr's and tunes by other of the members of the All-Starr Band. In 1989, Walsh recorded a MTV Unplugged with the R&B musician Dr. John. Also in 1989 Walsh filmed a live concert from the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles with Etta James and Albert Collins, called Jazzvisions: Jump the Blues Away.
While producing their Homegrown album in 1989, Walsh briefly joined New Zealand reggae band Herbs. Although he had left by the time of its 1990 release, he still appears as lead singer on two tracks, "Up All Night" and "It's Alright". The album includes the first recording of his "Ordinary Average Guys" (sung by late Herbs bassist Charlie Tumahai), which subsequently became a solo hit for Walsh as "Ordinary Average Guy".
In late 1990, Walsh was part of a band called the Best, along with keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist John Entwistle, guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and drummer Simon Phillips. The band performed several shows in Hawaii and Japan, with a live video resulting.
In 1993, Walsh teamed up with Glenn Frey for the "Party of Two" tour in the United States.
In 1996, James Gang did a reunion for the Democratic president, Bill Clinton. The band consisted of their "classic" line-up (Walsh, Peters, Fox), and they performed at the Cleveland State University Convocation Center on November 4, 1996.
In 1998, ABC wanted to use a classic rock song rock for Monday Night Football that year, so they asked Walsh to rewrite the lyrics to "Rocky Mountain Way" for the quarterback John Elway of the Denver Broncos. "Rocky Mountain Elway" was the new title of the song and Walsh appeared in a video that ABC showed on Monday Night Football.
2000s and 2010s
In June 2004, Walsh performed at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, Texas. He was also featured in September 2004 at the Strat Pack, a concert held in London, England, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar. In 2006, Walsh reunited with Jim Fox and Dale Peters of the James Gang for new recordings and a 15-date summer reunion tour. The tour lasted into the fall.
In 2008, Walsh appeared on the Carvin 60th Anniversary Celebration DVD as a celebrity endorser. In the recorded interview, he highly praised Carvin Guitars and claims that the bridge design is "just like the first Les Paul models. I can't even get Gibson to reissue it".
Kent State University awarded Walsh an honorary degree in music in December 2001. In May 2012, the Berklee College of Music awarded Walsh, along with other members of the Eagles, an honorary doctorate for his accomplishments in the field of music.
Notable appearances
In 1974, Walsh produced Dan Fogelberg's Souvenirs album and played the guitar, electric guitar, 12 string guitar, ARP bass and provided backing vocals. He also contacted Graham Nash to sing harmony vocals on "Part of the Plan", which helped send the album to No. 17 on the 1975 Billboard album chart.
In 1973 Walsh supplied the slide guitar solo on Michael Stanley's song "Rosewood Bitters." Walsh later lifted part of that solo and used it prominently in the Eagles' hit "Life in the Fast Lane."
In 1981, Walsh and former Barnstorm bandmate, Joe Vitale, went to work on old friend John Entwistle's fifth solo album Too Late the Hero, whenever they were free to work on it. The album turned out to become John Entwistle's best-charting solo album, with hit singles "Talk Dirty" and "Too Late the Hero".
Walsh was a background musician (1st guitar solo) on Eagles band member Don Henley's 1982 hit "Dirty Laundry" (listed as such in the liner notes of I Can't Stand Still and Actual Miles: Henley's Greatest Hits). Walsh has also contributed to albums by: Ringo Starr; America; REO Speedwagon; Jay Ferguson; Andy Gibb; Wilson Phillips; Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Steve Winwood; and on the Richard Marx hit "Don't Mean Nothing".
Walsh was a regular guest DJ on Los Angeles radio station KLOS during the mid-1980s. They had a Saturday evening feature, with celebrity guest-hosts taking over the microphone (Walsh was the guest host far more frequently than any other). He was also a frequent guest and guest-host of Detroit and Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl.
Onscreen, Walsh has appeared in: The Blues Brothers, Promised Land, The Drew Carey Show, Duckman, MADtv, Live from Daryl's House, Rock the Cradle and Zachariah.
In October 2004, Walsh undertook speaking engagements in New Zealand to warn against the dangers of substance abuse. He said the visit was a "thank you" to people who took him to Otatara Pa when he toured New Zealand with reggae band Herbs while under heavy alcohol and cocaine addictions in 1989, an experience he has cited as the beginning of a long journey back to good health. At Otatara Pa in 2004 Walsh said, "This is a special place, and it is very special to me. It was here on a visit many years ago, up on the hills, that I had a moment of clarity. I don't understand it, but I reconnected with my soul, and I remembered who I used to be. I admitted I had problems and I had to do something about it. It was the beginning of my recovery from my addiction to alcohol and drugs, and when I got back to America it gave me the courage to seek help."
On February 12, 2012, Walsh appeared on stage with Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, and McCartney's band at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to close out the Grammy Awards show. Walsh also appeared on the 60th Episode of Live from Daryl's House with Daryl Hall, which premiered on November 15, 2012.
On February 9, 2014, Walsh was featured in several songs on the CBS special The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles.
In 2014, Walsh made a guest appearance on Foo Fighters' eighth studio album Sonic Highways.
On May 24, 2016, Walsh appeared on NBC's The Voice in which he played slide guitar, talk box and performed Rocky Mountain Way with contestant Laith Al-Saadi.
He appeared on an episode of 'The Conners' on 19 January 2022. He played Aldo's father.
Influences
Walsh cites influences and with rock music / pop music bands and guitarists with whom many he has encountered and met on concert tours: Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Jeff Beck, the Beatles, Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, Ritchie Blackmore and Deep Purple, Manfred Mann, Duane Allman and The Allman Brothers, Ronnie Wood and The Faces, Pete Townshend and The Who, and The Ventures. In turn, he has influenced Dan Fogelberg, Maroon 5, Kenny Chesney, Jonny Lang, Blitzen Trapper, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and George Thorogood. Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band taught Walsh how to play the slide guitar.
Public service
Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008.
Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.
Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!"
In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things."
In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry, including the Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., and Keith Urban, to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid – a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson.
Personal life
Walsh has been married five times. He was married briefly to Margie Walsh in the 1960s, to Stefany Rhodes from 1971 to 1978, to Juanita Boyer from 1980 to 1988, and to Denise Driscoll from 1999 to 2006. Walsh married Marjorie Bach (sister of Barbara Bach and sister-in-law of Ringo Starr) in Los Angeles on December 13, 2008. Another sister-in-law, Susan Walsh, has been a missing person since 1996.
Walsh's daughter Lucy Walsh is a musician who has worked with Ashlee Simpson and others. She released her debut solo album, Lost in the Lights, in spring 2007.
Walsh's eldest daughter, Emma Kristen, was born in 1971 and died in 1974 at 3 years of age as a result of injuries suffered in an automobile accident on her way to nursery school. Her story inspired the track "Song for Emma" on Walsh's solo album So What released later that year. In her memory, he had a fountain and memorial plaque placed in a park in which she played: North Boulder Park in Boulder, Colorado. He has said that the album name So What was a result of Emma's death: that nothing else seemed meaningful or important in the months that followed. The strain eventually contributed to Walsh's divorce from his second wife Stefany. While touring with singer Stevie Nicks in 1984, Walsh took Nicks to the park's fountain; Nicks subsequently immortalized this story in her song "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?" on her 1985 album Rock A Little. Nicks told the UK's The Daily Telegraph in 2007 that Walsh had been "the great love of my life". "Joe and I broke up because of the coke," she elaborated to Q. "He told my friend and singer Sharon [Celani], 'I'm leaving Stevie, because I'm afraid that one of us is going to die. And the other one won't be able to save the other person, because our cocaine habit has become so over the top now that neither of us can live through this. So the only way to save both of us is for me to leave.'"
Walsh admits to struggling with alcohol and drug addictions for most of his early career and has been in recovery since 1993. In 1989, while touring with New Zealand band Herbs, Walsh experienced an "epiphany" during a visit to Otatara Pa, an ancient Māori pā site in the Hawke's Bay region. In 2004, on a return visit to New Zealand, Walsh described the experience and hailed it as the beginning of his recovery from his addiction. Walsh related the story that in 1994, he woke up after blacking out on an airplane to Paris. When he arrived, he had his passport, but did not remember getting on the plane. That was his turning point, and he has been sober ever since.
While living in New York City, Walsh began a lifelong interest in amateur radio. He holds an Amateur Extra Class Amateur Radio License, and his station callsign is WB6ACU. In 2006, he donated an autographed guitar to the ARRL in Newington, Connecticut, for its charity auction. He has also been involved with the group's "Big Project," which brings amateur radio into schools. Walsh has included Morse Code messages in his albums on two occasions: once on the album Barnstorm ("Register and Vote"), and later on Songs for a Dying Planet ("Register and Vote for Me"). Walsh provides the theme song (which includes Morse code) for the TWiT podcast Ham Nation (debuting in 2011), and he appeared as a guest in the first podcast, as well as episode 400.
Instruments
Jimmy Page's sunburst 1959 Gibson Les Paul, better known as his "Number 1" was originally owned by Walsh and was sold to Page in 1969.
In 1970, Walsh gave a 1959 Gretsch 6120 to the Who's lead guitarist Pete Townshend. Townshend used the Gretsch in the studio to record tracks on albums such as Who's Next and Quadrophenia.
Select other guitars
1959 Gibson Les Paul that was given/sold to Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page in April 1969
Carvin DC4, CT6, CT4, CS4, and other various models.
Duesenberg Starplayer Alliance - Walsh has an Alliance guitar co-developed with him
Amplifiers
Marshall 50 watt Plexi
Discography
The Measles
Singles:
1965: Casting My Spell/Bye Birdie Fly
1966: Kicks/No Baby At All
The Ohio Express
1967: Beg, Borrow And Steal - I Find I Think Of You composed by Joe Walsh and played by his band The Measles.
James Gang
Studio albums:
1969: Yer' Album
1970: James Gang Rides Again
1971: Thirds
Live album:
1971: James Gang Live in Concert
Compilation:
1973: The Best Of James Gang Featuring Joe Walsh
Barnstorm
Studio albums:
1972: Barnstorm
1973: The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get
Eagles
Studio albums:
1976: Hotel California
1979: The Long Run
2007: Long Road out of Eden
Live albums:
1980: Eagles Live
1994: Hell Freezes Over
2020: Live from the Forum MMXVIII
Solo
Collaborations
Indianola Mississippi Seeds - B.B. King (1970)
L.A. Midnight - B.B. King (1972)
The Kids & Me - Billy Preston (1974)
Souvenirs - Dan Fogelberg (1974)
Act Like Nothing's Wrong - Al Kooper (1976)
Stone Alone - Bill Wyman (1976)
A Night on the Town - Rod Stewart (1976)
Nether Lands - Dan Fogelberg (1977)
Little Criminals - Randy Newman (1977)
Earth & Sky - Graham Nash (1980)
Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School - Warren Zevon (1980)
Wild Heart of the Young - Karla Bonoff (1982)
I Can't Stand Still - Don Henley (1982)
Back in the High Life - Steve Winwood (1986)
Richard Marx - Richard Marx (1987)
Red House - Albert King (1991)
The Fire Inside - Bob Seger (1991)
Vertical Man - Ringo Starr (1998)
The Wild - Warren Zevon (2003)
Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates - Kenny Chesney (2007)
Y Not - Ringo Starr (2010)
Ringo 2012 - Ringo Starr (2012)
Postcards from Paradise - Ringo Starr (2015)
Give More Love - Ringo Starr (2017)
What's My Name - Ringo Starr (2019)
Threads - Sheryl Crow (2019)
Filmography
Film
1971: Zachariah Film de George Englund. With Don Johnson: Himself with The James Gang.
1980: The Blues Brothers: A prisoner dancing on a table.
1990: The Best - DVD With Keith Emerson, Jeff Baxter, Joe Walsh, John Entwistle, Simon Phillips: Himself.
Television
Mad TV, as himself, in Episode 1.2 (1995)
Promised land, as R.J., "The Prodigy" (1996)
Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man, voicing himself, "They Craved Duckman's Brain!" (1996) and "Love! Anger! Kvetching!" (1997)
The Drew Carey Show, 7 episodes as Ed ("Drewstock" (1997), "In Ramada Da Vida" (1998), "Golden Boy" (1998), "Drew Between the Rock and a Hard Place" (1998), "Boy Party/Girl Party" (1999), "Steve and Mimi Get Married" (1999), "Drew's in a Coma" (2001))
Drew Carey's Improv All-Stars, guest (2001)
Rock the Cradle (2008), a reality show, the father of contestant Lucy Walsh
Wicked City, as a director, "Running With the Devil" (2015)
Criminal Minds, as himself, "The Sandman" (2016)
Better Things, as himself "Hair of the Dog" (2016)
The Connors, Jesse, "Patriarchs and Goddesses" (2022)
Awards
As a member of The Eagles, Walsh has won five Grammy Awards:
(1977) Record of the Year: "Hotel California" (single)
(1977) Best Arrangement for Voices: "New Kid in Town"
(1979) Best Rock Vocal performance by a Duo or Group: "Heartache Tonight"
(2008) Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: "How Long"
(2009) Best Pop Instrumental Performance: "I Dreamed There Was No War"
Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998
Walsh was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001.
See also
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart
Further reading
Walsh, Joe (1996). Look What I Did! And Then Some .... Hal Leonard Corporation.
Lemco, Steve (2011). Joe & Me''. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
References
External links
1947 births
Living people
Amateur radio people
Record producers from Kansas
American rock guitarists
American male guitarists
American tenors
American rock singers
American male singer-songwriters
American rock songwriters
20th-century American singers
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Musicians from Wichita, Kansas
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Members
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Kennedy Center honorees
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Barnstorm (band) members
The Best (band) members
Singer-songwriters from Kansas | false | [
"This is the discography of R&B/Hip hop soul trio, Total.\n\nAlbums\n\nStudio albums\n\nSingles\n\n Notes\n Did not chart on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart (Billboard rules at the time prevented album cuts from charting). Chart peak listed represents the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart.\n\nFeatured singles\n\nGuest appearances\n\nSoundtracks\n\nVideography\n From Total (1996)\n No One Else\n No One Else (Puff Daddy Remix)\n Kissin' You\n Kissin' You / Oh Honey\n Can't You See\n Can't You See (Bad Boy Remix)\n Do You Think About Us\n From Kima, Keisha, and Pam (1998)\n Trippin'\n Sitting Home\n From Soul Food (soundtrack) (1997)\n What About Us? (1997)\n As Guest Artists\n LL Cool J - Loungin' (Who Do U Love?) (1995)\nNotorious B.I.G. \"Hypnotize\" (Pam)\nNotorious B.I.G \"Juicy\" (Keisha & Kima)\n Mase - What You Want (1997)\n Foxy Brown - I Can't (1998)\n Tony Touch - I Wonder Why (He's The Greatest DJ) (2000)\n Cameos\n Craig Mack - Flava In Ya Ear (Remix) (Keisha from Total) (1994)\n The Notorious B.I.G. - One More Chance/Stay With Me (1994)\nSoul For Real - Every Little Thing I Do (1995)\n 112 - Only You - Bad Boy Remix (Keisha from Total) (1996)\n Missy Elliott - The Rain (Supa Supa Fly) (1997)\n Jerome - Too Old For Me (Keisha from Total) (1997)\nLil' Kim - Not Tonight (Remix) (1997)\nThe Lox - We'll Always Love Big Poppa (1998)\nThe Bad Boy Family - You (2001) [Featuring Pam & Keisha]\n\nReferences\n\nTotal discography\nHip hop discographies\nRhythm and blues discographies",
"The ICT Hub was a project in the UK that aimed to support voluntary and community-based organisations in England with their technology needs. It was set up in 2005 and closed in 2008.\n\nThe Hub worked to create sustainable environment whereby charities and community groups can benefit from the use of information and communications technology (ICT).\n\nSmaller organisations can benefit enormously from effective use of technology, whether this is by building a website to communicate with its beneficiaries, or creating a database to manage its members. However charitable organisations often do not have the funds or expertise to implement technological solutions successfully.\n\nThe ICT Hub aimed to help charities overcome these barriers. To achieve this the Hub offered services and support including:\n\nEducational events and seminars\nPublications that cover all aspects of ICT\nCircuit Rider – mobile IT technicians who offer low cost IT support\nIT volunteers – professionals who give up their time to help charities implement technology solutions\nAccessibility audits for charities\nOnline resources and useful information\nRegional champions - individuals in each of the English regions who offer local advice and support e.g. Regional ICT Champion for Yorkshire and Humber\nHelpdesk – a free telephone number where charities can be signposted to services and support in their local area\n\nThe ICT Hub was part of the UK’s Home Office ChangeUp programme for strengthening the capacity of the voluntary and community sector. Funding for the ICT Hub ended March 2008.\n\nThe Hub consisted of a partnership of organisations:\n\nNAVCA (National Association for Voluntary and Community Action)\nAbilityNet\nNCVO (National Council for Voluntary Organisations)\nLasa (London Advice Services Alliance)\niT4Communities\n Media Trust\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nThe ICT Hub website\nThe ITpedia Knowledgebase\nLasa\nNAVCA There is also a Wikipedia page explaining what a Council for Voluntary Service is.\niT4Communities\nNCVO, the National Council of Voluntary Organisations\nRegional ICT Champion for Yorkshire and Humber\n\n2005 establishments in England\n2008 disestablishments in England\nInformation technology organisations based in the United Kingdom"
]
|
[
"Joe Walsh",
"Public service",
"What charities did Joe Walsh work with?",
"Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks.",
"What does he do to help conserve the environment in Santa Cruz?",
"He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.",
"What other charities is he involved with?",
"He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas.",
"How else did he help the public through charities?",
"Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008.",
"What else did he do for the charities?",
"In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., Keith Urban to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid -"
]
| C_040d7718872f46c387a6014808d463a3_0 | What was his role with the charities? | 6 | What was Joe Walsh's role with the charities? | Joe Walsh | Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008. Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s. Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!" In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things." In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., Keith Urban to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid - a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson. CANNOTANSWER | Walsh contacted others in the music industry | Joseph Fidler Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American rock singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has been a member of three successful rock bands: James Gang, Eagles, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Walsh was also part of the New Zealand band Herbs. In the 1990s, he was a member of the short-lived supergroup The Best.
Walsh has also experienced success both as a solo artist and as a prolific session musician, being featured on a wide array of other artists' recordings. In 2011, Rolling Stone placed him at the No. 54 spot on its list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
In the mid-1960s, after attending Kent State University, Walsh played with several local Ohio-based bands before reaching a national audience as a member of the James Gang, whose hit song "Funk #49" highlighted his skill as both a guitarist and singer. Roger Abramson, a concert producer and artist manager, signed the James Gang to a management agreement with BPI in Cleveland. After leaving the James Gang in 1972, he formed Barnstorm with Joe Vitale, a college friend from Ohio, and Kenny Passarelli, a bassist from Colorado, where Walsh had moved after leaving Ohio. While the band stayed together for three albums over three years, its works were marketed as Walsh solo projects. The last Barnstorm album, 1974's So What contained significant guest contributions from several members of the Eagles, a group that had recently hired Walsh's producer, Bill Szymczyk.
At Szymczyk's suggestion, Walsh joined the Eagles in 1975 as the band's guitarist and keyboardist following the departure of their founding member Bernie Leadon, with Hotel California being his first album with the band. In 1998, a reader's poll conducted by Guitarist magazine selected the guitar solos on the track "Hotel California" by Walsh and Don Felder as the best guitar solos of all time. Guitar World magazine listed it at eighth of the Top 100 Guitar Solos.
Besides his work with his several bands, he has released 12 solo studio albums, six compilation albums, and two live albums. His solo hits include "Rocky Mountain Way", "Life's Been Good", "All Night Long", "A Life of Illusion", and "Ordinary Average Guy".
As a member of the Eagles, Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, and into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001. The Eagles are considered to be one of the most influential bands of the 1970s, and they remain one of the best-selling American bands in the history of popular music. His creative contribution to music has received praise from many of the best rock guitarists, including Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, who said, "He has a tremendous feel for the instrument. I've loved his style since the early James Gang." Eric Clapton said that "He's one of the best guitarists to surface in some time. I don't listen to many records, but I listen to his." The Who's guitarist, Pete Townshend, said "Joe Walsh is a fluid and intelligent player. There're not many like that around."
Early life and education
Joseph Fidler Walsh was born on November 20, 1947, in Wichita, Kansas. His father, Lt. Robert Newton Fidler, was a flight instructor for the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star in the United States Air Force and died in a plane crash in Okinawa on 22 July 1949. Walsh's mother was a classically trained pianist of Scottish and German ancestry. Walsh was adopted by his stepfather at the age of five and given his stepfather's surname, but retained Fidler as his middle name. In the 1950s, it was common practice for Social Security, school registration, and health records for children to take the name of their stepfather.
Walsh and his family lived in Columbus, Ohio, for a number of years during his youth. When Walsh was twelve years old, his family moved to New York City. Later, Walsh moved to Montclair, New Jersey, and he attended Montclair High School, where he played oboe in the school band.
Walsh got his first guitar at the age of 10, and upon learning The Ventures' "Walk Don't Run", decided that he wanted to pursue a career as a guitarist. Inspired by the success of the Beatles, he replaced Bruce Hoffman as the bass player in the locally popular group, the Nomads in Madison, New Jersey, beginning his career as a rock musician. After high school, Walsh attended Kent State University, where he spent time in various bands playing around the Cleveland area, including the Measles. The Measles recorded for Super K Productions' Ohio Express the songs "I Find I Think of You", "And It's True", and "Maybe" (an instrumental version of "And It's True"). Walsh majored in English and minored in music; he was present during the Kent State massacre in 1970. Walsh commented in 2012: "Being at the shootings really affected me profoundly. I decided that maybe I don't need a degree that bad." After one term, he dropped out of college to pursue his musical career.
Musical career
1965–1967: The Measles (Joe Walsh years)
The Measles, an Ohio garage bar band, were formed in 1965 by four Kent State University students, one of whom was Joe Walsh. Two tracks on the Ohio Express' Beg Borrow and Steal album, "I Find I Think Of You" and "And It's True" (both featuring Joe Walsh vocals) were actually recorded by the Measles, led by Walsh. Additionally, an instrumental version of "And It's True" was recorded by the Measles, re-titled "Maybe" and released as the B-side of the "Beg Borrow and Steal" single.
1968–1971: James Gang
Around Christmas 1967, James Gang guitarist Glenn Schwartz, who turned out to be AWOL from the army and was breaking up with his wife, decided to leave the band to move to California, where he ended up forming the band Pacific Gas & Electric. Days later, Walsh, a friend of Schwartz's, knocked on Jim Fox's door and asked to be given a tryout as Schwartz's replacement. Walsh was accepted and the band continued as a five piece for a short time until Phil Giallombardo, who was still in high school at the time, left. Bill Jeric and Walsh worked together on guitar parts, but Jeric left as well in the spring of 1968. He was replaced by a returning Ronnie Silverman, who had been discharged from the military.
In May 1968, the group played a concert in Detroit at the Grande Ballroom, opening for Cream. At the last minute, Silverman told the others that he would not join them at the show. The band, desperately in need of the money, took to the stage as a trio. They liked their sound as a threesome and decided to remain that way.
In 1968, the band signed with manager Mark Barger, who was handling the career of fellow Ohio outfit the Lemon Pipers, who had just scored a big hit with "Green Tambourine." Barger put the Gang in touch with ABC Records staff producer Bill Szymczyk, who signed them to ABC's new Bluesway Records subsidiary in January 1969.
They released their debut album, Yer' Album, in 1969. In November 1969, bassist Tom Kriss decided he was no longer into the music and left to be replaced by Dale Peters, who was brought in from a group called The Case of E.T. Hooley. The addition of Peters created the most successful incarnation of the James Gang. Walsh proved to be the band's star attraction, noted for his innovative rhythm playing and creative guitar riffs. In particular he was known for hot-wiring the pick-ups on his electric guitars to create his trademark "attack" sound. The James Gang had several minor hits and became an early album-oriented rock staple for the next two years. It was during 1969 that Walsh sold his Les Paul Guitar to Jimmy Page. Later in 1969, the group's record producer, Szymczyk, arranged for the band to appear in the "electric Western" film Zachariah, with two James Gang songs, "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever," also being used. For the recording of these two songs, vocalist Kenny Weiss was brought in to allow Walsh to focus on his guitar playing; he was gone by the time the group arrived in Mexico to shoot their movie scenes. "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever" later reappeared as bonus tracks on the 2000 re-release of The James Gang Greatest Hits.
Shortly before the release of their second album James Gang Rides Again, the James Gang opened a show for the Who in Pittsburgh. Their guitarist Pete Townshend met with the James Gang before they left and was impressed enough to invite them on the Who's subsequent European tour. When Walsh was asked about this he said that, "Pete's a very melodic player and so am I. He told me that he appreciated my playing. I was flattered beyond belief because I didn't think I was that good."
The James Gang's next two albums, James Gang Rides Again (1970) and Thirds (1971), produced such classics as "Funk #49" and "Walk Away". The album James Gang Live at Carnegie Hall was Walsh's last album with them, as he became dissatisfied with the band's limitations.
The two remaining members, Peters and Fox, carried on with the lead vocalist Roy Kenner and guitarist Domenic Troiano (both ex-members of the Canadian band Bush) for two albums, Straight Shooter and Passin' Thru, both released in 1972. But in recent interviews, Fox stated that things did not work out musically with Troiano as hoped, so he left the band in 1973 and joined the Guess Who.
1971–1975: Barnstorm
In December 1971, Walsh left the James Gang. Steve Marriott, frontman guitarist of Humble Pie, invited him to move to England and join his band, which Peter Frampton had left, but Walsh declined. Instead he moved to Colorado and formed a band called Barnstorm, with drummer and multi-instrumentalist Joe Vitale, and bassist Kenny Passarelli, although both of their albums credited Walsh as a solo artist. They started recording their debut album immediately after forming, but at the time there were only Walsh and Vitale on these sessions. Chuck Rainey did the first bass tracks on the album but these were soon replaced by Passarelli. Walsh and Barnstorm released their debut album, the eponymous Barnstorm, in October 1972. After taking a cue from Townshend, Walsh utilized the ARP Odyssey synthesizer to great effect on such songs as "Mother Says" and "Here We Go". Walsh also experimented with acoustic guitar, slide guitar, effects pedals, fuzzbox, talk box, and keyboards as well as running his guitar straight into a Leslie speaker 122 to get swirly, organ-like guitar tones. The album was a critical success, but had only moderate commercial success. The follow-up, The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get, released in June 1973, was marketed under Walsh's name (although officially a Barnstorm album) and was their commercial breakthrough. It peaked at No. 6 on the US Billboard chart. The first and leading single, "Rocky Mountain Way", received heavy airplay and reached No. 23 on the US Top 40 chart. It featured new member, keyboardist Rocke Grace, and Walsh shared the vocals and songwriting with the other three members of the band. As a result, a variety of styles are explored on this album. There are elements of blues, jazz, folk, pop, and Caribbean music. In 1974, Barnstorm disbanded and Walsh continued as a solo artist.
In late 1974, Walsh played slide guitar on Vitale's debut solo album Roller Coaster Weekend. Walsh was taught the slide technique by Duane Allman, who played on Eric Clapton's Layla of Derek and the Dominos.
Barnstorm's last tour was spring 1975, shortly after Joe joined The Eagles.
1975–1980: Eagles
In 1975, Walsh was invited to join The Eagles as founding member Bernie Leadon's replacement. There was some initial concern as to Walsh's ability to fit in with the band, as he was considered far too "wild" for The Eagles, especially by their drummer and co-lead vocalist, Don Henley.
Released on December 8, 1976, Hotel California was the band's fifth studio album and the first to feature Walsh. The album took a year and a half to complete, a process which, along with touring, drained the band.
The second single from the album was the eponymous title track, which topped the charts in May 1977 and became one of the Eagles' signature songs next to "Take It Easy" and "Desperado". It features Henley on lead vocals, with a guitar duet performed by Felder and Walsh.
The hard rock "Life in the Fast Lane", released on May 3, 1977, was based on a riff by Walsh. It reached No. 11 on the charts and helped establish Walsh's position in the band.
Hotel California is the last album to feature founding member Randy Meisner, who abruptly left the band after the 1977 tour. He was replaced by the same musician who had succeeded him in Poco, Timothy B. Schmit.
In 1977, the band, minus Don Felder, performed instrumental work and backing vocals for Randy Newman's album Little Criminals, including "Short People," which has backing vocals by Frey and Schmit.
The Eagles went into the recording studio in 1977 to begin work on their next album, The Long Run. The album took two years to complete. The Long Run was released on September 24, 1979. Considered a disappointment by some music critics for failing to live up to Hotel California, it proved a huge commercial hit nonetheless; the album topped the charts and sold 7 million copies. In addition, it included three Top 10 singles—"Heartache Tonight", the title track and "I Can't Tell You Why". "In The City" by Walsh also received considerable airplay. The band also recorded two Christmas songs during these sessions, "Funky New Year" and "Please Come Home for Christmas" which was released as a single in 1978 and reached No. 18 on the charts. In 1980, the band broke up.
1973–2012: solo career
Walsh has released twelve solo studio albums.
In December 1974, Walsh released his first solo album that was not considered a Barnstorm project, So What, which contained more introspective material such as "Help Me Through the Night" and "Song For Emma", a tribute to Walsh's daughter who had been killed in a car accident that April. On a few tracks, Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner of the Eagles contributed backing vocals.
In March 1976, Walsh released a live album, You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind, which also featured the Eagles.
As the Eagles struggled to record their follow-up to Hotel California, Walsh re-ignited his solo career with the critically well-received album, But Seriously, Folks... in May 1978. It contained the single "Life's Been Good", his comedic depiction of rock stardom, which peaked at No. 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and remains to date his biggest solo hit. Walsh also contributed "In the City" to The Warriors soundtrack in 1979, a song penned and sung by Walsh that was later rerecorded for the Eagles' studio album, The Long Run.
Following the break up of the Eagles in July 1980, Walsh continued to release solo albums throughout the 1980s, but sales did not meet the same level of his earlier successes.
There Goes the Neighborhood was Walsh's first album since the demise of the Eagles, and it peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200. The album only spawned one single, "A Life of Illusion", which became one of Walsh's most popular songs. The single also topped the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, in 1981.
"A Life of Illusion" was recorded in 1973 with Walsh's first solo band Barnstorm but was not completed. The overdubs and final mixes were completed during the There Goes the Neighborhood sessions and released on the album. The promotional video for the track shows the making of the album's cover. This song also appeared in the opening credits of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and appears as the first song on its soundtrack.
In May 1983, Walsh released You Bought It – You Name It; the album was received negatively by the majority of music critics, while other reviewers noted good points to the album. It was also not as successful as Walsh's previous albums, peaking at No. 48 on the Billboard 200. Walsh found moderate success with the single "Space Age Whiz Kids", about the pinnacle of the 1980s video arcade craze. The album contains hard rock songs such as "I Can Play That Rock & Roll" and a cover of the Dick Haymes track, "Love Letters". It also contains more introspective material such as "Class of '65", and contains a song titled "I.L.B.T.s", an acronym for "I Like Big Tits".
Walsh's new girlfriend Stevie Nicks was involved in his next album, The Confessor. Her old friend Keith Olsen was hired to produce the album and the musicians were prolific LA session musicians including: Jim Keltner, Mike Porcaro, Waddy Wachtel, Randy Newman, Alan Pasqua and many other musicians that Walsh had never worked with before.
In 1987, Walsh released his final solo album of the 1980s, Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning, and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead vocalist Jimi Jamison, but the album was a commercial disappointment.
In 1991, Ordinary Average Guy, his ninth solo studio album, and its title track single, were released on the Epic label. The album features Ringo Starr, Jimi Jamison, and drummer Joe Vitale from Walsh's former band Barnstorm. Vitale also sings the lead vocals on the final track of the album, "School Days".
In 1992, Walsh released what appeared to be his final album (until 2012), Songs for a Dying Planet, his tenth solo studio album. Like its predecessor, it was released on the Epic label. Keen to re-establish himself after receiving some poor reviews for his previous album, Walsh enlisted his former producer Bill Szymczyk. At the end of the track "Certain Situations" you can hear a Morse code message that says "Register and vote for me". His song "Vote for Me" was a minor success, peaking at No. 10 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
Walsh's song "One Day at a Time" was released in 2012 and details his struggles with alcohol and drug abuse earlier in his career. The song appeared on Walsh's album Analog Man, which was released on June 5, 2012. The album was co-produced by Jeff Lynne, with Tommy Lee James co-writing some of the album's tracks.
Eagles reunion
An Eagles country tribute album titled Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles was released in 1993, thirteen years after the break up. Travis Tritt insisted on having the Long Run-era Eagles in his video for "Take It Easy" and they agreed. Following years of public speculation, the band formally reunited the following year. The line-up comprised the five Long Run-era members—Frey, Henley, Walsh, Felder, and Schmit—supplemented by Scott Crago (drums), John Corey (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), Timothy Drury (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals) and Al Garth (saxophone, violin) on stage.
"For the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation," announced Frey at their first live performance in April 1994. The ensuing tour spawned a live album titled Hell Freezes Over (named for Henley's recurring statement that the band would get back together "when hell freezes over"), which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. It included four new studio songs, with "Get Over It" and "Love Will Keep Us Alive" both becoming Top 40 hits. The album proved as successful as the tour, selling 6 million copies in the U.S. The tour was interrupted in September 1994 because of Frey's serious recurrence of diverticulitis, but it resumed in 1995 and continued into 1996. In 1998, the Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the induction ceremony, all seven Eagles members (Frey, Henley, Leadon, Meisner, Felder, Walsh, and Schmit) played together for two songs, "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California". Several subsequent reunion tours followed (without Leadon or Meisner), notable for their record-setting ticket prices.
The Eagles performed at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Paradise, Nevada on December 28 and 29, 1999, followed by a concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on December 31. These concerts marked the last time Felder played with the band and these shows (including a planned video release) later formed a part of a lawsuit filed by Felder against his former band members.
The concert recordings were released on CD as part of the four-disc Selected Works: 1972–1999 box set in November 2000. Along with the millennium concert, this set included the band's hit singles, album tracks and outtakes from The Long Run sessions. Selected Works received platinum certification from the RIAA in 2002.
The band resumed touring in 2001, with a line-up consisting of Frey, Henley, Walsh and Schmit, along with Steuart Smith (guitars, mandolin, keyboards, backing vocals; essentially taking over Felder's role), Michael Thompson (keyboards, trombone), Will Hollis (keyboards, backing vocals), Scott Crago (drums, percussion), Bill Armstrong (horns), Al Garth (saxophone, violin), Christian Mostert (saxophone) and Greg Smith (saxophone, percussion).
In 2003, the Eagles released a greatest hits album, The Very Best Of. The two-disc compilation was the first that encompassed their entire career, from Eagles to Hell Freezes Over. It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard charts and eventually gained triple platinum status. The album includes a new single, the September 11 attacks-themed "Hole in the World". Also in 2003, Warren Zevon, a longtime Eagles friend, began work on his final album, The Wind, with the assistance of Henley, Walsh and Schmit.
On June 14, 2005, the Eagles released a new 2-DVD set titled Farewell 1 Tour-Live from Melbourne, featuring two new songs: Frey's "No More Cloudy Days" and Walsh's "One Day at a Time". A special edition 2006 release exclusive to Walmart and affiliated stores includes a bonus audio CD with three new songs: a studio version of "No More Cloudy Days", "Fast Company" and "Do Something".
In 2007, the Eagles consisted of Frey, Henley, Walsh, and Schmit. On August 20, 2007, "How Long", written by J. D. Souther, was released as a single to radio with an accompanying online video at Yahoo! Music. It debuted on television on Country Music Television during the Top 20 Countdown on August 23, 2007. The band had performed the song as part of their live sets in the early to mid-1970s, but did not record it at the time because Souther wanted to reserve it for use on his first solo album. Souther had previously worked with the Eagles, co-writing some of their biggest hits, including "Best of My Love", "Victim of Love", "Heartache Tonight" and "New Kid in Town".
On October 30, 2007, the Eagles released Long Road Out of Eden, their first album of all-new material since 1979. For the first year after the album's release, it was available in the U.S. only via the band's website, at Walmart and at Sam's Club stores. It was commercially available through traditional retail outlets in other countries. The album debuted at number 1 in the U.S., the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Norway. It became their third studio album and seventh release overall to be certified at least seven times platinum by the RIAA. Henley told CNN that "This is probably the last Eagles album that we'll ever make." The Eagles made their awards show debut on November 7, 2007, when they performed "How Long" live at the Country Music Association Awards.
On January 28, 2008, the second single of Long Road Out of Eden was released. "Busy Being Fabulous" peaked at No. 28 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and at No. 12 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. The Eagles won their fifth Grammy in 2007, in the category Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "How Long".
On March 20, 2008, the Eagles launched their world tour in support of Long Road Out of Eden at The O2 Arena in London. The Long Road Out of Eden Tour concluded the American portion of the tour at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah on May 9, 2009. It was the first concert ever held in the new soccer stadium. The tour traveled to Europe, with its final concert date on July 22, 2009, in Lisbon. The band spent the summer of 2010 touring North American stadiums with the Dixie Chicks and Keith Urban. The tour expanded to England as the headline act of the Hop Farm Festival on July 1, 2011.
Asked in November 2010 whether the Eagles were planning a follow-up to Long Road Out of Eden, Schmit replied, "My first reaction would be: no way. But I said that before the last one, so you never really know. Bands are a fragile entity and you never know what's going to happen. It took a long time to do that last album, over a span of years, really, and it took a lot out of us. We took a year off at one point. I'm not sure if we're able to do that again. I wouldn't close the door on it, but I don't know." Walsh said in 2010 that there might be one more album before the band "wraps it up".
In February 2013, the Eagles released a career spanning documentary called History of the Eagles and kicked off the supporting tour with 11 arena dates from July 6 to 25. Henley said that the tour, which would continue until 2015, "could very well be our last... we're gonna include at least one former band member in this tour and kinda go back to the roots, and how we created some of these songs. We're gonna break it down to the fundamentals and then take it up to where it is now."
Original Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon also appeared on the tour. Walsh stated, "Bernie's brilliant, I never really got a chance to play with him, but we've been in contact. We see him from time to time, and I'm really glad he's coming because it's going to take the show up a notch, and I'm really looking forward to playing with him, finally." It has been reported that former members Randy Meisner and Don Felder will not appear. Meisner had been invited but could not participate due to health problems, while Felder was reportedly not invited due to ongoing legal disputes with the band.
Other bands
In late 1984, Walsh was contacted by Australian musician Paul Christie, the former bassist for Mondo Rock. Christie invited him to come to Australia to perform with the Party Boys, an all-star band with a floating membership of well-known Australian rock musicians. These included the critically acclaimed guitarist Kevin Borich, with whom Walsh became good friends. Walsh accepted and performed with the Party Boys on their late-1984–early-1985 Australian tour and appeared on their live album, You Need Professional Help. He remained in Australia for some time after the tour, putting together the short-lived touring band "Creatures From America", with Waddy Wachtel (guitar), Rick Rosas (bass guitar) and Australian drummer Richard Harvey (Divinyls, the Party Boys) In 1987, Walsh returned to the United States to work on his album Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead singer Jimi Jamison. After the album's commercial disappointment, Walsh decided to return to Australia in 1989 to tour with another incarnation of the Party Boys. Walsh also toured with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band in 1989 and 1992, alternating a handful of his best-known songs with Starr's and tunes by other of the members of the All-Starr Band. In 1989, Walsh recorded a MTV Unplugged with the R&B musician Dr. John. Also in 1989 Walsh filmed a live concert from the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles with Etta James and Albert Collins, called Jazzvisions: Jump the Blues Away.
While producing their Homegrown album in 1989, Walsh briefly joined New Zealand reggae band Herbs. Although he had left by the time of its 1990 release, he still appears as lead singer on two tracks, "Up All Night" and "It's Alright". The album includes the first recording of his "Ordinary Average Guys" (sung by late Herbs bassist Charlie Tumahai), which subsequently became a solo hit for Walsh as "Ordinary Average Guy".
In late 1990, Walsh was part of a band called the Best, along with keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist John Entwistle, guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and drummer Simon Phillips. The band performed several shows in Hawaii and Japan, with a live video resulting.
In 1993, Walsh teamed up with Glenn Frey for the "Party of Two" tour in the United States.
In 1996, James Gang did a reunion for the Democratic president, Bill Clinton. The band consisted of their "classic" line-up (Walsh, Peters, Fox), and they performed at the Cleveland State University Convocation Center on November 4, 1996.
In 1998, ABC wanted to use a classic rock song rock for Monday Night Football that year, so they asked Walsh to rewrite the lyrics to "Rocky Mountain Way" for the quarterback John Elway of the Denver Broncos. "Rocky Mountain Elway" was the new title of the song and Walsh appeared in a video that ABC showed on Monday Night Football.
2000s and 2010s
In June 2004, Walsh performed at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, Texas. He was also featured in September 2004 at the Strat Pack, a concert held in London, England, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar. In 2006, Walsh reunited with Jim Fox and Dale Peters of the James Gang for new recordings and a 15-date summer reunion tour. The tour lasted into the fall.
In 2008, Walsh appeared on the Carvin 60th Anniversary Celebration DVD as a celebrity endorser. In the recorded interview, he highly praised Carvin Guitars and claims that the bridge design is "just like the first Les Paul models. I can't even get Gibson to reissue it".
Kent State University awarded Walsh an honorary degree in music in December 2001. In May 2012, the Berklee College of Music awarded Walsh, along with other members of the Eagles, an honorary doctorate for his accomplishments in the field of music.
Notable appearances
In 1974, Walsh produced Dan Fogelberg's Souvenirs album and played the guitar, electric guitar, 12 string guitar, ARP bass and provided backing vocals. He also contacted Graham Nash to sing harmony vocals on "Part of the Plan", which helped send the album to No. 17 on the 1975 Billboard album chart.
In 1973 Walsh supplied the slide guitar solo on Michael Stanley's song "Rosewood Bitters." Walsh later lifted part of that solo and used it prominently in the Eagles' hit "Life in the Fast Lane."
In 1981, Walsh and former Barnstorm bandmate, Joe Vitale, went to work on old friend John Entwistle's fifth solo album Too Late the Hero, whenever they were free to work on it. The album turned out to become John Entwistle's best-charting solo album, with hit singles "Talk Dirty" and "Too Late the Hero".
Walsh was a background musician (1st guitar solo) on Eagles band member Don Henley's 1982 hit "Dirty Laundry" (listed as such in the liner notes of I Can't Stand Still and Actual Miles: Henley's Greatest Hits). Walsh has also contributed to albums by: Ringo Starr; America; REO Speedwagon; Jay Ferguson; Andy Gibb; Wilson Phillips; Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Steve Winwood; and on the Richard Marx hit "Don't Mean Nothing".
Walsh was a regular guest DJ on Los Angeles radio station KLOS during the mid-1980s. They had a Saturday evening feature, with celebrity guest-hosts taking over the microphone (Walsh was the guest host far more frequently than any other). He was also a frequent guest and guest-host of Detroit and Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl.
Onscreen, Walsh has appeared in: The Blues Brothers, Promised Land, The Drew Carey Show, Duckman, MADtv, Live from Daryl's House, Rock the Cradle and Zachariah.
In October 2004, Walsh undertook speaking engagements in New Zealand to warn against the dangers of substance abuse. He said the visit was a "thank you" to people who took him to Otatara Pa when he toured New Zealand with reggae band Herbs while under heavy alcohol and cocaine addictions in 1989, an experience he has cited as the beginning of a long journey back to good health. At Otatara Pa in 2004 Walsh said, "This is a special place, and it is very special to me. It was here on a visit many years ago, up on the hills, that I had a moment of clarity. I don't understand it, but I reconnected with my soul, and I remembered who I used to be. I admitted I had problems and I had to do something about it. It was the beginning of my recovery from my addiction to alcohol and drugs, and when I got back to America it gave me the courage to seek help."
On February 12, 2012, Walsh appeared on stage with Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, and McCartney's band at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to close out the Grammy Awards show. Walsh also appeared on the 60th Episode of Live from Daryl's House with Daryl Hall, which premiered on November 15, 2012.
On February 9, 2014, Walsh was featured in several songs on the CBS special The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles.
In 2014, Walsh made a guest appearance on Foo Fighters' eighth studio album Sonic Highways.
On May 24, 2016, Walsh appeared on NBC's The Voice in which he played slide guitar, talk box and performed Rocky Mountain Way with contestant Laith Al-Saadi.
He appeared on an episode of 'The Conners' on 19 January 2022. He played Aldo's father.
Influences
Walsh cites influences and with rock music / pop music bands and guitarists with whom many he has encountered and met on concert tours: Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Jeff Beck, the Beatles, Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, Ritchie Blackmore and Deep Purple, Manfred Mann, Duane Allman and The Allman Brothers, Ronnie Wood and The Faces, Pete Townshend and The Who, and The Ventures. In turn, he has influenced Dan Fogelberg, Maroon 5, Kenny Chesney, Jonny Lang, Blitzen Trapper, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and George Thorogood. Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band taught Walsh how to play the slide guitar.
Public service
Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008.
Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.
Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!"
In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things."
In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry, including the Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., and Keith Urban, to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid – a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson.
Personal life
Walsh has been married five times. He was married briefly to Margie Walsh in the 1960s, to Stefany Rhodes from 1971 to 1978, to Juanita Boyer from 1980 to 1988, and to Denise Driscoll from 1999 to 2006. Walsh married Marjorie Bach (sister of Barbara Bach and sister-in-law of Ringo Starr) in Los Angeles on December 13, 2008. Another sister-in-law, Susan Walsh, has been a missing person since 1996.
Walsh's daughter Lucy Walsh is a musician who has worked with Ashlee Simpson and others. She released her debut solo album, Lost in the Lights, in spring 2007.
Walsh's eldest daughter, Emma Kristen, was born in 1971 and died in 1974 at 3 years of age as a result of injuries suffered in an automobile accident on her way to nursery school. Her story inspired the track "Song for Emma" on Walsh's solo album So What released later that year. In her memory, he had a fountain and memorial plaque placed in a park in which she played: North Boulder Park in Boulder, Colorado. He has said that the album name So What was a result of Emma's death: that nothing else seemed meaningful or important in the months that followed. The strain eventually contributed to Walsh's divorce from his second wife Stefany. While touring with singer Stevie Nicks in 1984, Walsh took Nicks to the park's fountain; Nicks subsequently immortalized this story in her song "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?" on her 1985 album Rock A Little. Nicks told the UK's The Daily Telegraph in 2007 that Walsh had been "the great love of my life". "Joe and I broke up because of the coke," she elaborated to Q. "He told my friend and singer Sharon [Celani], 'I'm leaving Stevie, because I'm afraid that one of us is going to die. And the other one won't be able to save the other person, because our cocaine habit has become so over the top now that neither of us can live through this. So the only way to save both of us is for me to leave.'"
Walsh admits to struggling with alcohol and drug addictions for most of his early career and has been in recovery since 1993. In 1989, while touring with New Zealand band Herbs, Walsh experienced an "epiphany" during a visit to Otatara Pa, an ancient Māori pā site in the Hawke's Bay region. In 2004, on a return visit to New Zealand, Walsh described the experience and hailed it as the beginning of his recovery from his addiction. Walsh related the story that in 1994, he woke up after blacking out on an airplane to Paris. When he arrived, he had his passport, but did not remember getting on the plane. That was his turning point, and he has been sober ever since.
While living in New York City, Walsh began a lifelong interest in amateur radio. He holds an Amateur Extra Class Amateur Radio License, and his station callsign is WB6ACU. In 2006, he donated an autographed guitar to the ARRL in Newington, Connecticut, for its charity auction. He has also been involved with the group's "Big Project," which brings amateur radio into schools. Walsh has included Morse Code messages in his albums on two occasions: once on the album Barnstorm ("Register and Vote"), and later on Songs for a Dying Planet ("Register and Vote for Me"). Walsh provides the theme song (which includes Morse code) for the TWiT podcast Ham Nation (debuting in 2011), and he appeared as a guest in the first podcast, as well as episode 400.
Instruments
Jimmy Page's sunburst 1959 Gibson Les Paul, better known as his "Number 1" was originally owned by Walsh and was sold to Page in 1969.
In 1970, Walsh gave a 1959 Gretsch 6120 to the Who's lead guitarist Pete Townshend. Townshend used the Gretsch in the studio to record tracks on albums such as Who's Next and Quadrophenia.
Select other guitars
1959 Gibson Les Paul that was given/sold to Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page in April 1969
Carvin DC4, CT6, CT4, CS4, and other various models.
Duesenberg Starplayer Alliance - Walsh has an Alliance guitar co-developed with him
Amplifiers
Marshall 50 watt Plexi
Discography
The Measles
Singles:
1965: Casting My Spell/Bye Birdie Fly
1966: Kicks/No Baby At All
The Ohio Express
1967: Beg, Borrow And Steal - I Find I Think Of You composed by Joe Walsh and played by his band The Measles.
James Gang
Studio albums:
1969: Yer' Album
1970: James Gang Rides Again
1971: Thirds
Live album:
1971: James Gang Live in Concert
Compilation:
1973: The Best Of James Gang Featuring Joe Walsh
Barnstorm
Studio albums:
1972: Barnstorm
1973: The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get
Eagles
Studio albums:
1976: Hotel California
1979: The Long Run
2007: Long Road out of Eden
Live albums:
1980: Eagles Live
1994: Hell Freezes Over
2020: Live from the Forum MMXVIII
Solo
Collaborations
Indianola Mississippi Seeds - B.B. King (1970)
L.A. Midnight - B.B. King (1972)
The Kids & Me - Billy Preston (1974)
Souvenirs - Dan Fogelberg (1974)
Act Like Nothing's Wrong - Al Kooper (1976)
Stone Alone - Bill Wyman (1976)
A Night on the Town - Rod Stewart (1976)
Nether Lands - Dan Fogelberg (1977)
Little Criminals - Randy Newman (1977)
Earth & Sky - Graham Nash (1980)
Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School - Warren Zevon (1980)
Wild Heart of the Young - Karla Bonoff (1982)
I Can't Stand Still - Don Henley (1982)
Back in the High Life - Steve Winwood (1986)
Richard Marx - Richard Marx (1987)
Red House - Albert King (1991)
The Fire Inside - Bob Seger (1991)
Vertical Man - Ringo Starr (1998)
The Wild - Warren Zevon (2003)
Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates - Kenny Chesney (2007)
Y Not - Ringo Starr (2010)
Ringo 2012 - Ringo Starr (2012)
Postcards from Paradise - Ringo Starr (2015)
Give More Love - Ringo Starr (2017)
What's My Name - Ringo Starr (2019)
Threads - Sheryl Crow (2019)
Filmography
Film
1971: Zachariah Film de George Englund. With Don Johnson: Himself with The James Gang.
1980: The Blues Brothers: A prisoner dancing on a table.
1990: The Best - DVD With Keith Emerson, Jeff Baxter, Joe Walsh, John Entwistle, Simon Phillips: Himself.
Television
Mad TV, as himself, in Episode 1.2 (1995)
Promised land, as R.J., "The Prodigy" (1996)
Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man, voicing himself, "They Craved Duckman's Brain!" (1996) and "Love! Anger! Kvetching!" (1997)
The Drew Carey Show, 7 episodes as Ed ("Drewstock" (1997), "In Ramada Da Vida" (1998), "Golden Boy" (1998), "Drew Between the Rock and a Hard Place" (1998), "Boy Party/Girl Party" (1999), "Steve and Mimi Get Married" (1999), "Drew's in a Coma" (2001))
Drew Carey's Improv All-Stars, guest (2001)
Rock the Cradle (2008), a reality show, the father of contestant Lucy Walsh
Wicked City, as a director, "Running With the Devil" (2015)
Criminal Minds, as himself, "The Sandman" (2016)
Better Things, as himself "Hair of the Dog" (2016)
The Connors, Jesse, "Patriarchs and Goddesses" (2022)
Awards
As a member of The Eagles, Walsh has won five Grammy Awards:
(1977) Record of the Year: "Hotel California" (single)
(1977) Best Arrangement for Voices: "New Kid in Town"
(1979) Best Rock Vocal performance by a Duo or Group: "Heartache Tonight"
(2008) Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: "How Long"
(2009) Best Pop Instrumental Performance: "I Dreamed There Was No War"
Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998
Walsh was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001.
See also
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart
Further reading
Walsh, Joe (1996). Look What I Did! And Then Some .... Hal Leonard Corporation.
Lemco, Steve (2011). Joe & Me''. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
References
External links
1947 births
Living people
Amateur radio people
Record producers from Kansas
American rock guitarists
American male guitarists
American tenors
American rock singers
American male singer-songwriters
American rock songwriters
20th-century American singers
21st-century American composers
21st-century American keyboardists
21st-century American singers
20th-century American composers
American session musicians
American rock keyboardists
American rock pianists
American male pianists
American multi-instrumentalists
20th-century American male actors
American male film actors
Blues rock musicians
Eagles (band) members
The Party Boys members
Musicians from Wichita, Kansas
Kent State University alumni
Musicians from Columbus, Ohio
Montclair High School (New Jersey) alumni
People from Montclair, New Jersey
Writers from Wichita, Kansas
Asylum Records artists
Atlantic Records artists
ABC Records artists
Epic Records artists
Dunhill Records artists
Warner Records artists
MCA Records artists
Fantasy Records artists
The Orchard Records artists
Lead guitarists
Slide guitarists
Grammy Award winners
American people of German descent
American people of Scottish descent
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Singer-songwriters from New Jersey
Male actors from Ohio
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from Kansas
Actors from Wichita, Kansas
American expatriates in Australia
Members
James Gang members
Guitarists from Kansas
Guitarists from Ohio
Guitarists from New Jersey
Kennedy Center honorees
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American pianists
Barnstorm (band) members
The Best (band) members
Singer-songwriters from Kansas | true | [
"National Association of State Charities Officials (NASCO) is an American association of state charity regulators and assistant attorneys general that provides an interstate forum for cooperative efforts on state charity regulation.\n\nHistory\nIn 1979 when NASCO was established, there was a \"patchwork of state laws governing charities.\" NASCO \"informally merged\" with the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG)in 1984.\n\nAnnual conferences\nNASCO works with the NAAG Charities Committee to facilitate training and annual seminars. The large annual conferences are considered to be the NASCO's \"most significant activity.\" These conferences include a Public Day which includes participation from \"nonprofit leaders, professional counselors and advisers, and academics\" in conversations about \"the latest trends and enforcement priorities of state-level charities regulators\".\n\nGive & Take: Consumers, Contributions, and Charity Conference (2017)\nIn March 2017 NASCO and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) co-facilitated a conference entitled \"Give & Take: Consumers, Contributions, and Charity Conference.\"\n\nThe Evolving World of State Charities Regulation (2016)\nThe October 16, 2016 \"Public Day\" focused on \"non-traditional models of philanthropy; regulation of donor-advised funds, endowments, and restricted gifts; top issues in corporate governance and the importance of nonprofit board education; new tools for the nonprofit sector; current trends in cybersecurity and how to handle data breaches.\" There was also an update on \"the collaboration between the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and regulators from all 50 states and the District of Columbia in the historic civil suit against four cancer charities in 2015\". The Reynolds cancer charities, were America's worst charities, a series of \"sham charities\" run by James T. Reynolds along with friends and family members. The Cancer Fund of America was listed in the Times/CIR 2013 report as the second worst charity in the United States. The three others investigated by the FTC in 2015 were the Cancer Support Services, Children's Cancer Fund of America, and the Breast Cancer Society.\n\n2015\nAt the Public Day of the 2015 Conference it was noted that the Internal Revenue Service had taken a \" a less active role in the monitoring and regulation of the nation's nonprofits\". The responsibility had shifted to State regulators who enforce State laws.\n\nCharities & Regulators, Doing More With Less During Hard Economic Times (2010)\nIn September - October 2010, the theme of the conference was \"Charities & Regulators, Doing More With Less During Hard Economic Times\" which included \"an \"Inside the Beltway\" update of nonprofit initiatives from federal regulators and the U.S. Senate Finance Committee as well as panels addressing the role of government in oversight of nonprofit governance, how best to measure what makes an effective charity, and the creation and regulation of innovative fundraising strategies.\"\n\nReferences\n\nFraud in the United States",
"The Charities Regulator () is the operational name of the Charities Regulatory Authority, the statutory authority responsible for the regulation of charities in Ireland. The organisation is made up of a board, with four sub-committees, and as of 2019, a staff of 38, including a chief executive.\n\nThe Charities Act of 2009 provided for the establishment of the regulator and the dissolution of a predecessor body, among other matters, but the authority was not actually established until October 2014. The 2009 act was a major reform of the legal framework for the registration and regulation of charities in Ireland, superseding a range of earlier acts back to the 17th century, and various common and case law provisions. The act made major changes to the registration of charities; it also empowered the regulator to investigate the affairs of any charitable organisation, although some of these powers were only commenced later. Several high profile investigations have followed.\n\nHistory\n\nPrevious regulatory regime\nTwo statutory bodies were previously the principal overseers of charitable activity in Ireland, but with limited roles. One, the Commissioners of Charitable Donations and Bequests (Ireland) or Commissioners of Charitable Donations and Bequests for Ireland, was established in the 19th century, with thirteen commissioners, two senior officials and eleven appointed figures, and had a role in advising charitable trustees, appointment of new trustees, alienation and investment of certain assets, and dealing with aspects of bequests to charities. The other, the Revenue Commissioners, the Irish government agency principally responsible for taxation, was given responsibility for granting charitable tax exemptions (in the form of \"CHY numbers\") to organisations fulfilling certain “public benefit” criteria. Approximately 8,000 organisations with CHY numbers were registered with the Revenue Commissioners by the time of the formation of the Charities Regulator.\n\nNew regime\nThe Charities Act (debated from 2007 as the \"Charities Bill\") was passed in 2009, and provided for the creation of the Charities Regulatory Authority and an appeals tribunal, the transfer of powers from the Commissioners of Donations and Bequests and the dissolution of that body, the establishment of a public register of charities, and other matters. However, it was not commenced for some years, for what the relevant minister, Alan Shatter, described as \"financial reasons\".\n\nThere were \"high-profile scandals\" in several charities in 2013 and early 2014. These controversies included the alleged use of donations and state funding (intended to provide services at charities like the Rehab Group and Central Remedial Clinic) to pay high salaries, lease cars and contribute to the pension funds of charity management. On foot of these, the regulator commenced operations on a \"shadow basis\" in early 2014, with a board appointed on a non-statutory basis. The first chairperson was the chair of the Charity Committee of Chartered Accountants Ireland, Conor Woods, and the first chief executive was Úna Ní Dhubhghaill. The board included at least two charity sector figures, Fergus Finlay of Barnardos and Ann Fitzgerald of Cork’s Simon Community. \n\nThe authority was eventually formally established 16 October 2014, when the Minister for Justice and Equality issued a ministerial commencement order. The regulator was initially empowered to undertake reactive investigations (in the event of a complaint or whistleblowing allegation) and, from 2016, \"in the wake of the Console charity scandal\" these enforcement powers were expanded to include proactive investigations.\n\nScope\nThe regulator oversees registered charities, and can pursue bodies falsely claiming to be charities. Ireland’s non-governmental organisation sector comprises over 32,000 bodies, but only 10,470 of these were registered charities at the end of 2019. The basic requirement for charitable status and registration with the regulator is public benefit, which excludes bodies primarily established for the benefit of those who become members, such as most sports clubs, credit unions, and trade unions and professional associations. Three specific charitable purposes are defined – relief of poverty, education and the advancement of religion, and the Charities Act (2009) details a dozen further examples under an \"other community benefit\" heading. These include community welfare and development, integration of the disadvantaged, promotion of health and conflict resolution, protection of the environment and animals, and advancement of the arts and culture, heritage or science. The advancement of human rights was effectively excluded, though in 2015 an Oireachtas committee recommended that this be added as a charitable cause. Political parties are also excluded. Almost all schools are required to register with the regulator. \n\nThe regulator deals with entities registered as companies (generally of the company limited by guarantee form), with charitable trusts, and with unincorporated bodies, including most schools, parishes and local youth groups. For those registered as companies, the regulator exchanges data with the Companies Registration Office, and can refer concerns to the Director of Corporate Enforcement.\n\nFunctions\nThe Charities Regulator was established to \"increase public trust\" in the charitable sector and is responsible for maintaining the Register of Charities. All organisations authorised as tax-exempt charities by the Revenue Commissioners at the time of the regulator's establishment were deemed authorised for the purposes of the new regulatory regime, and more than 2,500 further charities have registered since commencement. It is an offence for an organisation to describe itself as a charity if it is not registered with the regulator. Elements of the register are available to the public through the regulator's website.\n\nThe regulator is also responsible for \"ensuring accountability\", and as part of this, for receiving and reviewing the annual financial returns of charities, pursuing complaints made against charities (of which there were 531 in 2017), appointing investigators into the operation of charities, and taking specific actions (including the replacement of trustees or involvement of law enforcement) depending on the outcome of investigations. Bodies to which the regulator can refer findings include the Garda Síochána, the Revenue Commissioners, the Director of Corporate Enforcement and the Competition Authority.\n\nAside from registration, the regulator works to educate trustees and the public, to support charity development, and to share information on the charity sector. It provides guidelines and model constitutional documents, but does not have authority to control one of the main sources of controversy in the charity scandals of 2013-2014, terms and conditions of charity staff, including salaries.\n\nStructure and funding\nThe functions of the Charities Regulator are overseen by its 12-person board, and conducted (as of 2019) by a staff of 38, including a chief executive, a director of regulation and five business unit heads. \n\nThe regulator is funded by the Oireachtas through the exchequer. It is also authorised to levy fees on charities (and in 2018 a 100 euro registration fee was proposed). The regulator is entitled to recover the costs of investigative or enforcement actions from the person or persons involved, in the event of a conviction.\n\nCharity Appeals Tribunal\nAn appellate body was provided for in the Charities Act of 2009, and established in 2016. It sat for the first time in 2019, dismissing a case.\n\nSee also\n Charity Commission for Northern Ireland\n Charity Commission for England and Wales\n Scottish Charity Regulator\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nCharity regulators\nCharity in the Republic of Ireland\n2014 establishments in Ireland"
]
|
[
"Joe Walsh",
"Public service",
"What charities did Joe Walsh work with?",
"Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks.",
"What does he do to help conserve the environment in Santa Cruz?",
"He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.",
"What other charities is he involved with?",
"He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas.",
"How else did he help the public through charities?",
"Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008.",
"What else did he do for the charities?",
"In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., Keith Urban to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid -",
"What was his role with the charities?",
"Walsh contacted others in the music industry"
]
| C_040d7718872f46c387a6014808d463a3_0 | What other charity did he sponsor? | 7 | What other charity did Joe Walsh sponsor in addition to his work with VetsAid? | Joe Walsh | Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008. Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s. Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!" In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things." In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., Keith Urban to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid - a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson. CANNOTANSWER | In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. | Joseph Fidler Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American rock singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has been a member of three successful rock bands: James Gang, Eagles, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Walsh was also part of the New Zealand band Herbs. In the 1990s, he was a member of the short-lived supergroup The Best.
Walsh has also experienced success both as a solo artist and as a prolific session musician, being featured on a wide array of other artists' recordings. In 2011, Rolling Stone placed him at the No. 54 spot on its list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
In the mid-1960s, after attending Kent State University, Walsh played with several local Ohio-based bands before reaching a national audience as a member of the James Gang, whose hit song "Funk #49" highlighted his skill as both a guitarist and singer. Roger Abramson, a concert producer and artist manager, signed the James Gang to a management agreement with BPI in Cleveland. After leaving the James Gang in 1972, he formed Barnstorm with Joe Vitale, a college friend from Ohio, and Kenny Passarelli, a bassist from Colorado, where Walsh had moved after leaving Ohio. While the band stayed together for three albums over three years, its works were marketed as Walsh solo projects. The last Barnstorm album, 1974's So What contained significant guest contributions from several members of the Eagles, a group that had recently hired Walsh's producer, Bill Szymczyk.
At Szymczyk's suggestion, Walsh joined the Eagles in 1975 as the band's guitarist and keyboardist following the departure of their founding member Bernie Leadon, with Hotel California being his first album with the band. In 1998, a reader's poll conducted by Guitarist magazine selected the guitar solos on the track "Hotel California" by Walsh and Don Felder as the best guitar solos of all time. Guitar World magazine listed it at eighth of the Top 100 Guitar Solos.
Besides his work with his several bands, he has released 12 solo studio albums, six compilation albums, and two live albums. His solo hits include "Rocky Mountain Way", "Life's Been Good", "All Night Long", "A Life of Illusion", and "Ordinary Average Guy".
As a member of the Eagles, Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, and into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001. The Eagles are considered to be one of the most influential bands of the 1970s, and they remain one of the best-selling American bands in the history of popular music. His creative contribution to music has received praise from many of the best rock guitarists, including Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, who said, "He has a tremendous feel for the instrument. I've loved his style since the early James Gang." Eric Clapton said that "He's one of the best guitarists to surface in some time. I don't listen to many records, but I listen to his." The Who's guitarist, Pete Townshend, said "Joe Walsh is a fluid and intelligent player. There're not many like that around."
Early life and education
Joseph Fidler Walsh was born on November 20, 1947, in Wichita, Kansas. His father, Lt. Robert Newton Fidler, was a flight instructor for the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star in the United States Air Force and died in a plane crash in Okinawa on 22 July 1949. Walsh's mother was a classically trained pianist of Scottish and German ancestry. Walsh was adopted by his stepfather at the age of five and given his stepfather's surname, but retained Fidler as his middle name. In the 1950s, it was common practice for Social Security, school registration, and health records for children to take the name of their stepfather.
Walsh and his family lived in Columbus, Ohio, for a number of years during his youth. When Walsh was twelve years old, his family moved to New York City. Later, Walsh moved to Montclair, New Jersey, and he attended Montclair High School, where he played oboe in the school band.
Walsh got his first guitar at the age of 10, and upon learning The Ventures' "Walk Don't Run", decided that he wanted to pursue a career as a guitarist. Inspired by the success of the Beatles, he replaced Bruce Hoffman as the bass player in the locally popular group, the Nomads in Madison, New Jersey, beginning his career as a rock musician. After high school, Walsh attended Kent State University, where he spent time in various bands playing around the Cleveland area, including the Measles. The Measles recorded for Super K Productions' Ohio Express the songs "I Find I Think of You", "And It's True", and "Maybe" (an instrumental version of "And It's True"). Walsh majored in English and minored in music; he was present during the Kent State massacre in 1970. Walsh commented in 2012: "Being at the shootings really affected me profoundly. I decided that maybe I don't need a degree that bad." After one term, he dropped out of college to pursue his musical career.
Musical career
1965–1967: The Measles (Joe Walsh years)
The Measles, an Ohio garage bar band, were formed in 1965 by four Kent State University students, one of whom was Joe Walsh. Two tracks on the Ohio Express' Beg Borrow and Steal album, "I Find I Think Of You" and "And It's True" (both featuring Joe Walsh vocals) were actually recorded by the Measles, led by Walsh. Additionally, an instrumental version of "And It's True" was recorded by the Measles, re-titled "Maybe" and released as the B-side of the "Beg Borrow and Steal" single.
1968–1971: James Gang
Around Christmas 1967, James Gang guitarist Glenn Schwartz, who turned out to be AWOL from the army and was breaking up with his wife, decided to leave the band to move to California, where he ended up forming the band Pacific Gas & Electric. Days later, Walsh, a friend of Schwartz's, knocked on Jim Fox's door and asked to be given a tryout as Schwartz's replacement. Walsh was accepted and the band continued as a five piece for a short time until Phil Giallombardo, who was still in high school at the time, left. Bill Jeric and Walsh worked together on guitar parts, but Jeric left as well in the spring of 1968. He was replaced by a returning Ronnie Silverman, who had been discharged from the military.
In May 1968, the group played a concert in Detroit at the Grande Ballroom, opening for Cream. At the last minute, Silverman told the others that he would not join them at the show. The band, desperately in need of the money, took to the stage as a trio. They liked their sound as a threesome and decided to remain that way.
In 1968, the band signed with manager Mark Barger, who was handling the career of fellow Ohio outfit the Lemon Pipers, who had just scored a big hit with "Green Tambourine." Barger put the Gang in touch with ABC Records staff producer Bill Szymczyk, who signed them to ABC's new Bluesway Records subsidiary in January 1969.
They released their debut album, Yer' Album, in 1969. In November 1969, bassist Tom Kriss decided he was no longer into the music and left to be replaced by Dale Peters, who was brought in from a group called The Case of E.T. Hooley. The addition of Peters created the most successful incarnation of the James Gang. Walsh proved to be the band's star attraction, noted for his innovative rhythm playing and creative guitar riffs. In particular he was known for hot-wiring the pick-ups on his electric guitars to create his trademark "attack" sound. The James Gang had several minor hits and became an early album-oriented rock staple for the next two years. It was during 1969 that Walsh sold his Les Paul Guitar to Jimmy Page. Later in 1969, the group's record producer, Szymczyk, arranged for the band to appear in the "electric Western" film Zachariah, with two James Gang songs, "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever," also being used. For the recording of these two songs, vocalist Kenny Weiss was brought in to allow Walsh to focus on his guitar playing; he was gone by the time the group arrived in Mexico to shoot their movie scenes. "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever" later reappeared as bonus tracks on the 2000 re-release of The James Gang Greatest Hits.
Shortly before the release of their second album James Gang Rides Again, the James Gang opened a show for the Who in Pittsburgh. Their guitarist Pete Townshend met with the James Gang before they left and was impressed enough to invite them on the Who's subsequent European tour. When Walsh was asked about this he said that, "Pete's a very melodic player and so am I. He told me that he appreciated my playing. I was flattered beyond belief because I didn't think I was that good."
The James Gang's next two albums, James Gang Rides Again (1970) and Thirds (1971), produced such classics as "Funk #49" and "Walk Away". The album James Gang Live at Carnegie Hall was Walsh's last album with them, as he became dissatisfied with the band's limitations.
The two remaining members, Peters and Fox, carried on with the lead vocalist Roy Kenner and guitarist Domenic Troiano (both ex-members of the Canadian band Bush) for two albums, Straight Shooter and Passin' Thru, both released in 1972. But in recent interviews, Fox stated that things did not work out musically with Troiano as hoped, so he left the band in 1973 and joined the Guess Who.
1971–1975: Barnstorm
In December 1971, Walsh left the James Gang. Steve Marriott, frontman guitarist of Humble Pie, invited him to move to England and join his band, which Peter Frampton had left, but Walsh declined. Instead he moved to Colorado and formed a band called Barnstorm, with drummer and multi-instrumentalist Joe Vitale, and bassist Kenny Passarelli, although both of their albums credited Walsh as a solo artist. They started recording their debut album immediately after forming, but at the time there were only Walsh and Vitale on these sessions. Chuck Rainey did the first bass tracks on the album but these were soon replaced by Passarelli. Walsh and Barnstorm released their debut album, the eponymous Barnstorm, in October 1972. After taking a cue from Townshend, Walsh utilized the ARP Odyssey synthesizer to great effect on such songs as "Mother Says" and "Here We Go". Walsh also experimented with acoustic guitar, slide guitar, effects pedals, fuzzbox, talk box, and keyboards as well as running his guitar straight into a Leslie speaker 122 to get swirly, organ-like guitar tones. The album was a critical success, but had only moderate commercial success. The follow-up, The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get, released in June 1973, was marketed under Walsh's name (although officially a Barnstorm album) and was their commercial breakthrough. It peaked at No. 6 on the US Billboard chart. The first and leading single, "Rocky Mountain Way", received heavy airplay and reached No. 23 on the US Top 40 chart. It featured new member, keyboardist Rocke Grace, and Walsh shared the vocals and songwriting with the other three members of the band. As a result, a variety of styles are explored on this album. There are elements of blues, jazz, folk, pop, and Caribbean music. In 1974, Barnstorm disbanded and Walsh continued as a solo artist.
In late 1974, Walsh played slide guitar on Vitale's debut solo album Roller Coaster Weekend. Walsh was taught the slide technique by Duane Allman, who played on Eric Clapton's Layla of Derek and the Dominos.
Barnstorm's last tour was spring 1975, shortly after Joe joined The Eagles.
1975–1980: Eagles
In 1975, Walsh was invited to join The Eagles as founding member Bernie Leadon's replacement. There was some initial concern as to Walsh's ability to fit in with the band, as he was considered far too "wild" for The Eagles, especially by their drummer and co-lead vocalist, Don Henley.
Released on December 8, 1976, Hotel California was the band's fifth studio album and the first to feature Walsh. The album took a year and a half to complete, a process which, along with touring, drained the band.
The second single from the album was the eponymous title track, which topped the charts in May 1977 and became one of the Eagles' signature songs next to "Take It Easy" and "Desperado". It features Henley on lead vocals, with a guitar duet performed by Felder and Walsh.
The hard rock "Life in the Fast Lane", released on May 3, 1977, was based on a riff by Walsh. It reached No. 11 on the charts and helped establish Walsh's position in the band.
Hotel California is the last album to feature founding member Randy Meisner, who abruptly left the band after the 1977 tour. He was replaced by the same musician who had succeeded him in Poco, Timothy B. Schmit.
In 1977, the band, minus Don Felder, performed instrumental work and backing vocals for Randy Newman's album Little Criminals, including "Short People," which has backing vocals by Frey and Schmit.
The Eagles went into the recording studio in 1977 to begin work on their next album, The Long Run. The album took two years to complete. The Long Run was released on September 24, 1979. Considered a disappointment by some music critics for failing to live up to Hotel California, it proved a huge commercial hit nonetheless; the album topped the charts and sold 7 million copies. In addition, it included three Top 10 singles—"Heartache Tonight", the title track and "I Can't Tell You Why". "In The City" by Walsh also received considerable airplay. The band also recorded two Christmas songs during these sessions, "Funky New Year" and "Please Come Home for Christmas" which was released as a single in 1978 and reached No. 18 on the charts. In 1980, the band broke up.
1973–2012: solo career
Walsh has released twelve solo studio albums.
In December 1974, Walsh released his first solo album that was not considered a Barnstorm project, So What, which contained more introspective material such as "Help Me Through the Night" and "Song For Emma", a tribute to Walsh's daughter who had been killed in a car accident that April. On a few tracks, Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner of the Eagles contributed backing vocals.
In March 1976, Walsh released a live album, You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind, which also featured the Eagles.
As the Eagles struggled to record their follow-up to Hotel California, Walsh re-ignited his solo career with the critically well-received album, But Seriously, Folks... in May 1978. It contained the single "Life's Been Good", his comedic depiction of rock stardom, which peaked at No. 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and remains to date his biggest solo hit. Walsh also contributed "In the City" to The Warriors soundtrack in 1979, a song penned and sung by Walsh that was later rerecorded for the Eagles' studio album, The Long Run.
Following the break up of the Eagles in July 1980, Walsh continued to release solo albums throughout the 1980s, but sales did not meet the same level of his earlier successes.
There Goes the Neighborhood was Walsh's first album since the demise of the Eagles, and it peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200. The album only spawned one single, "A Life of Illusion", which became one of Walsh's most popular songs. The single also topped the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, in 1981.
"A Life of Illusion" was recorded in 1973 with Walsh's first solo band Barnstorm but was not completed. The overdubs and final mixes were completed during the There Goes the Neighborhood sessions and released on the album. The promotional video for the track shows the making of the album's cover. This song also appeared in the opening credits of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and appears as the first song on its soundtrack.
In May 1983, Walsh released You Bought It – You Name It; the album was received negatively by the majority of music critics, while other reviewers noted good points to the album. It was also not as successful as Walsh's previous albums, peaking at No. 48 on the Billboard 200. Walsh found moderate success with the single "Space Age Whiz Kids", about the pinnacle of the 1980s video arcade craze. The album contains hard rock songs such as "I Can Play That Rock & Roll" and a cover of the Dick Haymes track, "Love Letters". It also contains more introspective material such as "Class of '65", and contains a song titled "I.L.B.T.s", an acronym for "I Like Big Tits".
Walsh's new girlfriend Stevie Nicks was involved in his next album, The Confessor. Her old friend Keith Olsen was hired to produce the album and the musicians were prolific LA session musicians including: Jim Keltner, Mike Porcaro, Waddy Wachtel, Randy Newman, Alan Pasqua and many other musicians that Walsh had never worked with before.
In 1987, Walsh released his final solo album of the 1980s, Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning, and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead vocalist Jimi Jamison, but the album was a commercial disappointment.
In 1991, Ordinary Average Guy, his ninth solo studio album, and its title track single, were released on the Epic label. The album features Ringo Starr, Jimi Jamison, and drummer Joe Vitale from Walsh's former band Barnstorm. Vitale also sings the lead vocals on the final track of the album, "School Days".
In 1992, Walsh released what appeared to be his final album (until 2012), Songs for a Dying Planet, his tenth solo studio album. Like its predecessor, it was released on the Epic label. Keen to re-establish himself after receiving some poor reviews for his previous album, Walsh enlisted his former producer Bill Szymczyk. At the end of the track "Certain Situations" you can hear a Morse code message that says "Register and vote for me". His song "Vote for Me" was a minor success, peaking at No. 10 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
Walsh's song "One Day at a Time" was released in 2012 and details his struggles with alcohol and drug abuse earlier in his career. The song appeared on Walsh's album Analog Man, which was released on June 5, 2012. The album was co-produced by Jeff Lynne, with Tommy Lee James co-writing some of the album's tracks.
Eagles reunion
An Eagles country tribute album titled Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles was released in 1993, thirteen years after the break up. Travis Tritt insisted on having the Long Run-era Eagles in his video for "Take It Easy" and they agreed. Following years of public speculation, the band formally reunited the following year. The line-up comprised the five Long Run-era members—Frey, Henley, Walsh, Felder, and Schmit—supplemented by Scott Crago (drums), John Corey (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), Timothy Drury (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals) and Al Garth (saxophone, violin) on stage.
"For the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation," announced Frey at their first live performance in April 1994. The ensuing tour spawned a live album titled Hell Freezes Over (named for Henley's recurring statement that the band would get back together "when hell freezes over"), which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. It included four new studio songs, with "Get Over It" and "Love Will Keep Us Alive" both becoming Top 40 hits. The album proved as successful as the tour, selling 6 million copies in the U.S. The tour was interrupted in September 1994 because of Frey's serious recurrence of diverticulitis, but it resumed in 1995 and continued into 1996. In 1998, the Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the induction ceremony, all seven Eagles members (Frey, Henley, Leadon, Meisner, Felder, Walsh, and Schmit) played together for two songs, "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California". Several subsequent reunion tours followed (without Leadon or Meisner), notable for their record-setting ticket prices.
The Eagles performed at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Paradise, Nevada on December 28 and 29, 1999, followed by a concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on December 31. These concerts marked the last time Felder played with the band and these shows (including a planned video release) later formed a part of a lawsuit filed by Felder against his former band members.
The concert recordings were released on CD as part of the four-disc Selected Works: 1972–1999 box set in November 2000. Along with the millennium concert, this set included the band's hit singles, album tracks and outtakes from The Long Run sessions. Selected Works received platinum certification from the RIAA in 2002.
The band resumed touring in 2001, with a line-up consisting of Frey, Henley, Walsh and Schmit, along with Steuart Smith (guitars, mandolin, keyboards, backing vocals; essentially taking over Felder's role), Michael Thompson (keyboards, trombone), Will Hollis (keyboards, backing vocals), Scott Crago (drums, percussion), Bill Armstrong (horns), Al Garth (saxophone, violin), Christian Mostert (saxophone) and Greg Smith (saxophone, percussion).
In 2003, the Eagles released a greatest hits album, The Very Best Of. The two-disc compilation was the first that encompassed their entire career, from Eagles to Hell Freezes Over. It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard charts and eventually gained triple platinum status. The album includes a new single, the September 11 attacks-themed "Hole in the World". Also in 2003, Warren Zevon, a longtime Eagles friend, began work on his final album, The Wind, with the assistance of Henley, Walsh and Schmit.
On June 14, 2005, the Eagles released a new 2-DVD set titled Farewell 1 Tour-Live from Melbourne, featuring two new songs: Frey's "No More Cloudy Days" and Walsh's "One Day at a Time". A special edition 2006 release exclusive to Walmart and affiliated stores includes a bonus audio CD with three new songs: a studio version of "No More Cloudy Days", "Fast Company" and "Do Something".
In 2007, the Eagles consisted of Frey, Henley, Walsh, and Schmit. On August 20, 2007, "How Long", written by J. D. Souther, was released as a single to radio with an accompanying online video at Yahoo! Music. It debuted on television on Country Music Television during the Top 20 Countdown on August 23, 2007. The band had performed the song as part of their live sets in the early to mid-1970s, but did not record it at the time because Souther wanted to reserve it for use on his first solo album. Souther had previously worked with the Eagles, co-writing some of their biggest hits, including "Best of My Love", "Victim of Love", "Heartache Tonight" and "New Kid in Town".
On October 30, 2007, the Eagles released Long Road Out of Eden, their first album of all-new material since 1979. For the first year after the album's release, it was available in the U.S. only via the band's website, at Walmart and at Sam's Club stores. It was commercially available through traditional retail outlets in other countries. The album debuted at number 1 in the U.S., the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Norway. It became their third studio album and seventh release overall to be certified at least seven times platinum by the RIAA. Henley told CNN that "This is probably the last Eagles album that we'll ever make." The Eagles made their awards show debut on November 7, 2007, when they performed "How Long" live at the Country Music Association Awards.
On January 28, 2008, the second single of Long Road Out of Eden was released. "Busy Being Fabulous" peaked at No. 28 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and at No. 12 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. The Eagles won their fifth Grammy in 2007, in the category Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "How Long".
On March 20, 2008, the Eagles launched their world tour in support of Long Road Out of Eden at The O2 Arena in London. The Long Road Out of Eden Tour concluded the American portion of the tour at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah on May 9, 2009. It was the first concert ever held in the new soccer stadium. The tour traveled to Europe, with its final concert date on July 22, 2009, in Lisbon. The band spent the summer of 2010 touring North American stadiums with the Dixie Chicks and Keith Urban. The tour expanded to England as the headline act of the Hop Farm Festival on July 1, 2011.
Asked in November 2010 whether the Eagles were planning a follow-up to Long Road Out of Eden, Schmit replied, "My first reaction would be: no way. But I said that before the last one, so you never really know. Bands are a fragile entity and you never know what's going to happen. It took a long time to do that last album, over a span of years, really, and it took a lot out of us. We took a year off at one point. I'm not sure if we're able to do that again. I wouldn't close the door on it, but I don't know." Walsh said in 2010 that there might be one more album before the band "wraps it up".
In February 2013, the Eagles released a career spanning documentary called History of the Eagles and kicked off the supporting tour with 11 arena dates from July 6 to 25. Henley said that the tour, which would continue until 2015, "could very well be our last... we're gonna include at least one former band member in this tour and kinda go back to the roots, and how we created some of these songs. We're gonna break it down to the fundamentals and then take it up to where it is now."
Original Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon also appeared on the tour. Walsh stated, "Bernie's brilliant, I never really got a chance to play with him, but we've been in contact. We see him from time to time, and I'm really glad he's coming because it's going to take the show up a notch, and I'm really looking forward to playing with him, finally." It has been reported that former members Randy Meisner and Don Felder will not appear. Meisner had been invited but could not participate due to health problems, while Felder was reportedly not invited due to ongoing legal disputes with the band.
Other bands
In late 1984, Walsh was contacted by Australian musician Paul Christie, the former bassist for Mondo Rock. Christie invited him to come to Australia to perform with the Party Boys, an all-star band with a floating membership of well-known Australian rock musicians. These included the critically acclaimed guitarist Kevin Borich, with whom Walsh became good friends. Walsh accepted and performed with the Party Boys on their late-1984–early-1985 Australian tour and appeared on their live album, You Need Professional Help. He remained in Australia for some time after the tour, putting together the short-lived touring band "Creatures From America", with Waddy Wachtel (guitar), Rick Rosas (bass guitar) and Australian drummer Richard Harvey (Divinyls, the Party Boys) In 1987, Walsh returned to the United States to work on his album Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead singer Jimi Jamison. After the album's commercial disappointment, Walsh decided to return to Australia in 1989 to tour with another incarnation of the Party Boys. Walsh also toured with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band in 1989 and 1992, alternating a handful of his best-known songs with Starr's and tunes by other of the members of the All-Starr Band. In 1989, Walsh recorded a MTV Unplugged with the R&B musician Dr. John. Also in 1989 Walsh filmed a live concert from the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles with Etta James and Albert Collins, called Jazzvisions: Jump the Blues Away.
While producing their Homegrown album in 1989, Walsh briefly joined New Zealand reggae band Herbs. Although he had left by the time of its 1990 release, he still appears as lead singer on two tracks, "Up All Night" and "It's Alright". The album includes the first recording of his "Ordinary Average Guys" (sung by late Herbs bassist Charlie Tumahai), which subsequently became a solo hit for Walsh as "Ordinary Average Guy".
In late 1990, Walsh was part of a band called the Best, along with keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist John Entwistle, guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and drummer Simon Phillips. The band performed several shows in Hawaii and Japan, with a live video resulting.
In 1993, Walsh teamed up with Glenn Frey for the "Party of Two" tour in the United States.
In 1996, James Gang did a reunion for the Democratic president, Bill Clinton. The band consisted of their "classic" line-up (Walsh, Peters, Fox), and they performed at the Cleveland State University Convocation Center on November 4, 1996.
In 1998, ABC wanted to use a classic rock song rock for Monday Night Football that year, so they asked Walsh to rewrite the lyrics to "Rocky Mountain Way" for the quarterback John Elway of the Denver Broncos. "Rocky Mountain Elway" was the new title of the song and Walsh appeared in a video that ABC showed on Monday Night Football.
2000s and 2010s
In June 2004, Walsh performed at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, Texas. He was also featured in September 2004 at the Strat Pack, a concert held in London, England, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar. In 2006, Walsh reunited with Jim Fox and Dale Peters of the James Gang for new recordings and a 15-date summer reunion tour. The tour lasted into the fall.
In 2008, Walsh appeared on the Carvin 60th Anniversary Celebration DVD as a celebrity endorser. In the recorded interview, he highly praised Carvin Guitars and claims that the bridge design is "just like the first Les Paul models. I can't even get Gibson to reissue it".
Kent State University awarded Walsh an honorary degree in music in December 2001. In May 2012, the Berklee College of Music awarded Walsh, along with other members of the Eagles, an honorary doctorate for his accomplishments in the field of music.
Notable appearances
In 1974, Walsh produced Dan Fogelberg's Souvenirs album and played the guitar, electric guitar, 12 string guitar, ARP bass and provided backing vocals. He also contacted Graham Nash to sing harmony vocals on "Part of the Plan", which helped send the album to No. 17 on the 1975 Billboard album chart.
In 1973 Walsh supplied the slide guitar solo on Michael Stanley's song "Rosewood Bitters." Walsh later lifted part of that solo and used it prominently in the Eagles' hit "Life in the Fast Lane."
In 1981, Walsh and former Barnstorm bandmate, Joe Vitale, went to work on old friend John Entwistle's fifth solo album Too Late the Hero, whenever they were free to work on it. The album turned out to become John Entwistle's best-charting solo album, with hit singles "Talk Dirty" and "Too Late the Hero".
Walsh was a background musician (1st guitar solo) on Eagles band member Don Henley's 1982 hit "Dirty Laundry" (listed as such in the liner notes of I Can't Stand Still and Actual Miles: Henley's Greatest Hits). Walsh has also contributed to albums by: Ringo Starr; America; REO Speedwagon; Jay Ferguson; Andy Gibb; Wilson Phillips; Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Steve Winwood; and on the Richard Marx hit "Don't Mean Nothing".
Walsh was a regular guest DJ on Los Angeles radio station KLOS during the mid-1980s. They had a Saturday evening feature, with celebrity guest-hosts taking over the microphone (Walsh was the guest host far more frequently than any other). He was also a frequent guest and guest-host of Detroit and Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl.
Onscreen, Walsh has appeared in: The Blues Brothers, Promised Land, The Drew Carey Show, Duckman, MADtv, Live from Daryl's House, Rock the Cradle and Zachariah.
In October 2004, Walsh undertook speaking engagements in New Zealand to warn against the dangers of substance abuse. He said the visit was a "thank you" to people who took him to Otatara Pa when he toured New Zealand with reggae band Herbs while under heavy alcohol and cocaine addictions in 1989, an experience he has cited as the beginning of a long journey back to good health. At Otatara Pa in 2004 Walsh said, "This is a special place, and it is very special to me. It was here on a visit many years ago, up on the hills, that I had a moment of clarity. I don't understand it, but I reconnected with my soul, and I remembered who I used to be. I admitted I had problems and I had to do something about it. It was the beginning of my recovery from my addiction to alcohol and drugs, and when I got back to America it gave me the courage to seek help."
On February 12, 2012, Walsh appeared on stage with Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, and McCartney's band at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to close out the Grammy Awards show. Walsh also appeared on the 60th Episode of Live from Daryl's House with Daryl Hall, which premiered on November 15, 2012.
On February 9, 2014, Walsh was featured in several songs on the CBS special The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles.
In 2014, Walsh made a guest appearance on Foo Fighters' eighth studio album Sonic Highways.
On May 24, 2016, Walsh appeared on NBC's The Voice in which he played slide guitar, talk box and performed Rocky Mountain Way with contestant Laith Al-Saadi.
He appeared on an episode of 'The Conners' on 19 January 2022. He played Aldo's father.
Influences
Walsh cites influences and with rock music / pop music bands and guitarists with whom many he has encountered and met on concert tours: Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Jeff Beck, the Beatles, Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, Ritchie Blackmore and Deep Purple, Manfred Mann, Duane Allman and The Allman Brothers, Ronnie Wood and The Faces, Pete Townshend and The Who, and The Ventures. In turn, he has influenced Dan Fogelberg, Maroon 5, Kenny Chesney, Jonny Lang, Blitzen Trapper, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and George Thorogood. Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band taught Walsh how to play the slide guitar.
Public service
Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008.
Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.
Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!"
In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things."
In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry, including the Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., and Keith Urban, to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid – a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson.
Personal life
Walsh has been married five times. He was married briefly to Margie Walsh in the 1960s, to Stefany Rhodes from 1971 to 1978, to Juanita Boyer from 1980 to 1988, and to Denise Driscoll from 1999 to 2006. Walsh married Marjorie Bach (sister of Barbara Bach and sister-in-law of Ringo Starr) in Los Angeles on December 13, 2008. Another sister-in-law, Susan Walsh, has been a missing person since 1996.
Walsh's daughter Lucy Walsh is a musician who has worked with Ashlee Simpson and others. She released her debut solo album, Lost in the Lights, in spring 2007.
Walsh's eldest daughter, Emma Kristen, was born in 1971 and died in 1974 at 3 years of age as a result of injuries suffered in an automobile accident on her way to nursery school. Her story inspired the track "Song for Emma" on Walsh's solo album So What released later that year. In her memory, he had a fountain and memorial plaque placed in a park in which she played: North Boulder Park in Boulder, Colorado. He has said that the album name So What was a result of Emma's death: that nothing else seemed meaningful or important in the months that followed. The strain eventually contributed to Walsh's divorce from his second wife Stefany. While touring with singer Stevie Nicks in 1984, Walsh took Nicks to the park's fountain; Nicks subsequently immortalized this story in her song "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?" on her 1985 album Rock A Little. Nicks told the UK's The Daily Telegraph in 2007 that Walsh had been "the great love of my life". "Joe and I broke up because of the coke," she elaborated to Q. "He told my friend and singer Sharon [Celani], 'I'm leaving Stevie, because I'm afraid that one of us is going to die. And the other one won't be able to save the other person, because our cocaine habit has become so over the top now that neither of us can live through this. So the only way to save both of us is for me to leave.'"
Walsh admits to struggling with alcohol and drug addictions for most of his early career and has been in recovery since 1993. In 1989, while touring with New Zealand band Herbs, Walsh experienced an "epiphany" during a visit to Otatara Pa, an ancient Māori pā site in the Hawke's Bay region. In 2004, on a return visit to New Zealand, Walsh described the experience and hailed it as the beginning of his recovery from his addiction. Walsh related the story that in 1994, he woke up after blacking out on an airplane to Paris. When he arrived, he had his passport, but did not remember getting on the plane. That was his turning point, and he has been sober ever since.
While living in New York City, Walsh began a lifelong interest in amateur radio. He holds an Amateur Extra Class Amateur Radio License, and his station callsign is WB6ACU. In 2006, he donated an autographed guitar to the ARRL in Newington, Connecticut, for its charity auction. He has also been involved with the group's "Big Project," which brings amateur radio into schools. Walsh has included Morse Code messages in his albums on two occasions: once on the album Barnstorm ("Register and Vote"), and later on Songs for a Dying Planet ("Register and Vote for Me"). Walsh provides the theme song (which includes Morse code) for the TWiT podcast Ham Nation (debuting in 2011), and he appeared as a guest in the first podcast, as well as episode 400.
Instruments
Jimmy Page's sunburst 1959 Gibson Les Paul, better known as his "Number 1" was originally owned by Walsh and was sold to Page in 1969.
In 1970, Walsh gave a 1959 Gretsch 6120 to the Who's lead guitarist Pete Townshend. Townshend used the Gretsch in the studio to record tracks on albums such as Who's Next and Quadrophenia.
Select other guitars
1959 Gibson Les Paul that was given/sold to Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page in April 1969
Carvin DC4, CT6, CT4, CS4, and other various models.
Duesenberg Starplayer Alliance - Walsh has an Alliance guitar co-developed with him
Amplifiers
Marshall 50 watt Plexi
Discography
The Measles
Singles:
1965: Casting My Spell/Bye Birdie Fly
1966: Kicks/No Baby At All
The Ohio Express
1967: Beg, Borrow And Steal - I Find I Think Of You composed by Joe Walsh and played by his band The Measles.
James Gang
Studio albums:
1969: Yer' Album
1970: James Gang Rides Again
1971: Thirds
Live album:
1971: James Gang Live in Concert
Compilation:
1973: The Best Of James Gang Featuring Joe Walsh
Barnstorm
Studio albums:
1972: Barnstorm
1973: The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get
Eagles
Studio albums:
1976: Hotel California
1979: The Long Run
2007: Long Road out of Eden
Live albums:
1980: Eagles Live
1994: Hell Freezes Over
2020: Live from the Forum MMXVIII
Solo
Collaborations
Indianola Mississippi Seeds - B.B. King (1970)
L.A. Midnight - B.B. King (1972)
The Kids & Me - Billy Preston (1974)
Souvenirs - Dan Fogelberg (1974)
Act Like Nothing's Wrong - Al Kooper (1976)
Stone Alone - Bill Wyman (1976)
A Night on the Town - Rod Stewart (1976)
Nether Lands - Dan Fogelberg (1977)
Little Criminals - Randy Newman (1977)
Earth & Sky - Graham Nash (1980)
Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School - Warren Zevon (1980)
Wild Heart of the Young - Karla Bonoff (1982)
I Can't Stand Still - Don Henley (1982)
Back in the High Life - Steve Winwood (1986)
Richard Marx - Richard Marx (1987)
Red House - Albert King (1991)
The Fire Inside - Bob Seger (1991)
Vertical Man - Ringo Starr (1998)
The Wild - Warren Zevon (2003)
Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates - Kenny Chesney (2007)
Y Not - Ringo Starr (2010)
Ringo 2012 - Ringo Starr (2012)
Postcards from Paradise - Ringo Starr (2015)
Give More Love - Ringo Starr (2017)
What's My Name - Ringo Starr (2019)
Threads - Sheryl Crow (2019)
Filmography
Film
1971: Zachariah Film de George Englund. With Don Johnson: Himself with The James Gang.
1980: The Blues Brothers: A prisoner dancing on a table.
1990: The Best - DVD With Keith Emerson, Jeff Baxter, Joe Walsh, John Entwistle, Simon Phillips: Himself.
Television
Mad TV, as himself, in Episode 1.2 (1995)
Promised land, as R.J., "The Prodigy" (1996)
Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man, voicing himself, "They Craved Duckman's Brain!" (1996) and "Love! Anger! Kvetching!" (1997)
The Drew Carey Show, 7 episodes as Ed ("Drewstock" (1997), "In Ramada Da Vida" (1998), "Golden Boy" (1998), "Drew Between the Rock and a Hard Place" (1998), "Boy Party/Girl Party" (1999), "Steve and Mimi Get Married" (1999), "Drew's in a Coma" (2001))
Drew Carey's Improv All-Stars, guest (2001)
Rock the Cradle (2008), a reality show, the father of contestant Lucy Walsh
Wicked City, as a director, "Running With the Devil" (2015)
Criminal Minds, as himself, "The Sandman" (2016)
Better Things, as himself "Hair of the Dog" (2016)
The Connors, Jesse, "Patriarchs and Goddesses" (2022)
Awards
As a member of The Eagles, Walsh has won five Grammy Awards:
(1977) Record of the Year: "Hotel California" (single)
(1977) Best Arrangement for Voices: "New Kid in Town"
(1979) Best Rock Vocal performance by a Duo or Group: "Heartache Tonight"
(2008) Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: "How Long"
(2009) Best Pop Instrumental Performance: "I Dreamed There Was No War"
Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998
Walsh was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001.
See also
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart
Further reading
Walsh, Joe (1996). Look What I Did! And Then Some .... Hal Leonard Corporation.
Lemco, Steve (2011). Joe & Me''. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
References
External links
1947 births
Living people
Amateur radio people
Record producers from Kansas
American rock guitarists
American male guitarists
American tenors
American rock singers
American male singer-songwriters
American rock songwriters
20th-century American singers
21st-century American composers
21st-century American keyboardists
21st-century American singers
20th-century American composers
American session musicians
American rock keyboardists
American rock pianists
American male pianists
American multi-instrumentalists
20th-century American male actors
American male film actors
Blues rock musicians
Eagles (band) members
The Party Boys members
Musicians from Wichita, Kansas
Kent State University alumni
Musicians from Columbus, Ohio
Montclair High School (New Jersey) alumni
People from Montclair, New Jersey
Writers from Wichita, Kansas
Asylum Records artists
Atlantic Records artists
ABC Records artists
Epic Records artists
Dunhill Records artists
Warner Records artists
MCA Records artists
Fantasy Records artists
The Orchard Records artists
Lead guitarists
Slide guitarists
Grammy Award winners
American people of German descent
American people of Scottish descent
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Singer-songwriters from New Jersey
Male actors from Ohio
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from Kansas
Actors from Wichita, Kansas
American expatriates in Australia
Members
James Gang members
Guitarists from Kansas
Guitarists from Ohio
Guitarists from New Jersey
Kennedy Center honorees
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American pianists
Barnstorm (band) members
The Best (band) members
Singer-songwriters from Kansas | true | [
"The Singapore Community Shield (also known as the AIA Community Shield due to sponsorship reasons; formerly the Charity Shield) is the curtain-raiser to the football season in Singapore. The match is contested between the champions of the previous Singapore Premier League season and the Singapore Cup winners. In a situation when the same team wins both competition, then it is contested between the Singapore Premier League's champions and runners-up.\n\nThe Community Shield (known then as the Charity Shield) was first contested in 2008. In the inaugural match, the Singapore Armed Forces defeated Home United 5–4 on penalties following a 1–1 draw. The Shield first doubled up as the season’s opening fixture in 2014 and remained so for all subsequent editions, except 2019 and 2020.\n\nGreat Eastern is the co-sponsor for the Community Shield since 2008 and becomes the main sponsor in 2017. Yeo's is the other co-sponsor for the Community Shield from 2008 till 2016.\n\nOn 23 February 2019, Football Association of Singapore (FAS) announced that AIA Singapore as the new title sponsor of the Singapore Premier League and Community Shield as part of a two-year agreement.\n\nPast results\n\nPerformance by Clubs\n\nSee also\n\n Singapore Premier League\n Singapore Cup\n Singapore League Cup\n Football Association of Singapore\n List of football clubs in Singapore\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Arch-rivals SAFFC and Home to clash for inaugural Singapore Charity Shield\n Warriors clinch inaugural Singapore Charity Shield\n \n\nSingapore\nFootball competitions in Singapore\n2008 establishments in Singapore\nRecurring sporting events established in 2008",
"Ripple was a non-profit click-to-donate internet site and search engine which passed 100% of its revenue to other charities. Launched on May 4, 2007, they generated revenue through sponsorship and advertisements. Ripple.org was named #23 in BRW Top 100 web 2.0 sites of 2008.\n\nThe co-founders of Ripple were Jehan Ratnatunga, Matthew Tilleard, Mack Nevill and Simon Griffiths, a graduate from Melbourne University.\n\nAs of March 2017 Ripple.org only contains a link to WaterAid Australia.\n\nFeatures\nThe Ripple web site generated revenue through clicking and search.\n\nA user could click to choose a preferred form of charity, bringing up an advertisement from a sponsor. The sponsor paid Ripple every time an advertisement is viewed, Ripple assigns the sponsor payment to the charity of the web user's choice.\n\nUsers could use the in-built search engine, powered by Google Co-op. Each search generated advertising revenue.\n\nRipple also had an interface through online social networks such as Facebook and MySpace. Users were able to add applets that function in the same way as the Ripple web site to their profiles and display how philanthropic they are via a 'contributions' count.\n\nImpact\nRipple supported the WaterAid Australia, Oxfam, Oaktree Foundation, and the Grameen Foundation. In 2008, Matthew Tilleard expressed the goal of adding a \"carbon charity\" and including up to ten charities on the site. Although the affiliate marketing and search interface techniques are not new, donating all proceeds to charity is rare, according to Lia Timson writing in The Age.\n\nSee also\nFreerice\nThe Hunger Site\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nClick-to-donate sites\nOrganizations established in 2007\nDefunct websites"
]
|
[
"Joe Walsh",
"Public service",
"What charities did Joe Walsh work with?",
"Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks.",
"What does he do to help conserve the environment in Santa Cruz?",
"He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.",
"What other charities is he involved with?",
"He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas.",
"How else did he help the public through charities?",
"Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008.",
"What else did he do for the charities?",
"In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., Keith Urban to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid -",
"What was his role with the charities?",
"Walsh contacted others in the music industry",
"What other charity did he sponsor?",
"In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office."
]
| C_040d7718872f46c387a6014808d463a3_0 | What political office was he considering? | 8 | What political office was Joe Walsh considering? | Joe Walsh | Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008. Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s. Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!" In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things." In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., Keith Urban to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid - a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson. CANNOTANSWER | "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. | Joseph Fidler Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American rock singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has been a member of three successful rock bands: James Gang, Eagles, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Walsh was also part of the New Zealand band Herbs. In the 1990s, he was a member of the short-lived supergroup The Best.
Walsh has also experienced success both as a solo artist and as a prolific session musician, being featured on a wide array of other artists' recordings. In 2011, Rolling Stone placed him at the No. 54 spot on its list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
In the mid-1960s, after attending Kent State University, Walsh played with several local Ohio-based bands before reaching a national audience as a member of the James Gang, whose hit song "Funk #49" highlighted his skill as both a guitarist and singer. Roger Abramson, a concert producer and artist manager, signed the James Gang to a management agreement with BPI in Cleveland. After leaving the James Gang in 1972, he formed Barnstorm with Joe Vitale, a college friend from Ohio, and Kenny Passarelli, a bassist from Colorado, where Walsh had moved after leaving Ohio. While the band stayed together for three albums over three years, its works were marketed as Walsh solo projects. The last Barnstorm album, 1974's So What contained significant guest contributions from several members of the Eagles, a group that had recently hired Walsh's producer, Bill Szymczyk.
At Szymczyk's suggestion, Walsh joined the Eagles in 1975 as the band's guitarist and keyboardist following the departure of their founding member Bernie Leadon, with Hotel California being his first album with the band. In 1998, a reader's poll conducted by Guitarist magazine selected the guitar solos on the track "Hotel California" by Walsh and Don Felder as the best guitar solos of all time. Guitar World magazine listed it at eighth of the Top 100 Guitar Solos.
Besides his work with his several bands, he has released 12 solo studio albums, six compilation albums, and two live albums. His solo hits include "Rocky Mountain Way", "Life's Been Good", "All Night Long", "A Life of Illusion", and "Ordinary Average Guy".
As a member of the Eagles, Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, and into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001. The Eagles are considered to be one of the most influential bands of the 1970s, and they remain one of the best-selling American bands in the history of popular music. His creative contribution to music has received praise from many of the best rock guitarists, including Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, who said, "He has a tremendous feel for the instrument. I've loved his style since the early James Gang." Eric Clapton said that "He's one of the best guitarists to surface in some time. I don't listen to many records, but I listen to his." The Who's guitarist, Pete Townshend, said "Joe Walsh is a fluid and intelligent player. There're not many like that around."
Early life and education
Joseph Fidler Walsh was born on November 20, 1947, in Wichita, Kansas. His father, Lt. Robert Newton Fidler, was a flight instructor for the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star in the United States Air Force and died in a plane crash in Okinawa on 22 July 1949. Walsh's mother was a classically trained pianist of Scottish and German ancestry. Walsh was adopted by his stepfather at the age of five and given his stepfather's surname, but retained Fidler as his middle name. In the 1950s, it was common practice for Social Security, school registration, and health records for children to take the name of their stepfather.
Walsh and his family lived in Columbus, Ohio, for a number of years during his youth. When Walsh was twelve years old, his family moved to New York City. Later, Walsh moved to Montclair, New Jersey, and he attended Montclair High School, where he played oboe in the school band.
Walsh got his first guitar at the age of 10, and upon learning The Ventures' "Walk Don't Run", decided that he wanted to pursue a career as a guitarist. Inspired by the success of the Beatles, he replaced Bruce Hoffman as the bass player in the locally popular group, the Nomads in Madison, New Jersey, beginning his career as a rock musician. After high school, Walsh attended Kent State University, where he spent time in various bands playing around the Cleveland area, including the Measles. The Measles recorded for Super K Productions' Ohio Express the songs "I Find I Think of You", "And It's True", and "Maybe" (an instrumental version of "And It's True"). Walsh majored in English and minored in music; he was present during the Kent State massacre in 1970. Walsh commented in 2012: "Being at the shootings really affected me profoundly. I decided that maybe I don't need a degree that bad." After one term, he dropped out of college to pursue his musical career.
Musical career
1965–1967: The Measles (Joe Walsh years)
The Measles, an Ohio garage bar band, were formed in 1965 by four Kent State University students, one of whom was Joe Walsh. Two tracks on the Ohio Express' Beg Borrow and Steal album, "I Find I Think Of You" and "And It's True" (both featuring Joe Walsh vocals) were actually recorded by the Measles, led by Walsh. Additionally, an instrumental version of "And It's True" was recorded by the Measles, re-titled "Maybe" and released as the B-side of the "Beg Borrow and Steal" single.
1968–1971: James Gang
Around Christmas 1967, James Gang guitarist Glenn Schwartz, who turned out to be AWOL from the army and was breaking up with his wife, decided to leave the band to move to California, where he ended up forming the band Pacific Gas & Electric. Days later, Walsh, a friend of Schwartz's, knocked on Jim Fox's door and asked to be given a tryout as Schwartz's replacement. Walsh was accepted and the band continued as a five piece for a short time until Phil Giallombardo, who was still in high school at the time, left. Bill Jeric and Walsh worked together on guitar parts, but Jeric left as well in the spring of 1968. He was replaced by a returning Ronnie Silverman, who had been discharged from the military.
In May 1968, the group played a concert in Detroit at the Grande Ballroom, opening for Cream. At the last minute, Silverman told the others that he would not join them at the show. The band, desperately in need of the money, took to the stage as a trio. They liked their sound as a threesome and decided to remain that way.
In 1968, the band signed with manager Mark Barger, who was handling the career of fellow Ohio outfit the Lemon Pipers, who had just scored a big hit with "Green Tambourine." Barger put the Gang in touch with ABC Records staff producer Bill Szymczyk, who signed them to ABC's new Bluesway Records subsidiary in January 1969.
They released their debut album, Yer' Album, in 1969. In November 1969, bassist Tom Kriss decided he was no longer into the music and left to be replaced by Dale Peters, who was brought in from a group called The Case of E.T. Hooley. The addition of Peters created the most successful incarnation of the James Gang. Walsh proved to be the band's star attraction, noted for his innovative rhythm playing and creative guitar riffs. In particular he was known for hot-wiring the pick-ups on his electric guitars to create his trademark "attack" sound. The James Gang had several minor hits and became an early album-oriented rock staple for the next two years. It was during 1969 that Walsh sold his Les Paul Guitar to Jimmy Page. Later in 1969, the group's record producer, Szymczyk, arranged for the band to appear in the "electric Western" film Zachariah, with two James Gang songs, "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever," also being used. For the recording of these two songs, vocalist Kenny Weiss was brought in to allow Walsh to focus on his guitar playing; he was gone by the time the group arrived in Mexico to shoot their movie scenes. "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever" later reappeared as bonus tracks on the 2000 re-release of The James Gang Greatest Hits.
Shortly before the release of their second album James Gang Rides Again, the James Gang opened a show for the Who in Pittsburgh. Their guitarist Pete Townshend met with the James Gang before they left and was impressed enough to invite them on the Who's subsequent European tour. When Walsh was asked about this he said that, "Pete's a very melodic player and so am I. He told me that he appreciated my playing. I was flattered beyond belief because I didn't think I was that good."
The James Gang's next two albums, James Gang Rides Again (1970) and Thirds (1971), produced such classics as "Funk #49" and "Walk Away". The album James Gang Live at Carnegie Hall was Walsh's last album with them, as he became dissatisfied with the band's limitations.
The two remaining members, Peters and Fox, carried on with the lead vocalist Roy Kenner and guitarist Domenic Troiano (both ex-members of the Canadian band Bush) for two albums, Straight Shooter and Passin' Thru, both released in 1972. But in recent interviews, Fox stated that things did not work out musically with Troiano as hoped, so he left the band in 1973 and joined the Guess Who.
1971–1975: Barnstorm
In December 1971, Walsh left the James Gang. Steve Marriott, frontman guitarist of Humble Pie, invited him to move to England and join his band, which Peter Frampton had left, but Walsh declined. Instead he moved to Colorado and formed a band called Barnstorm, with drummer and multi-instrumentalist Joe Vitale, and bassist Kenny Passarelli, although both of their albums credited Walsh as a solo artist. They started recording their debut album immediately after forming, but at the time there were only Walsh and Vitale on these sessions. Chuck Rainey did the first bass tracks on the album but these were soon replaced by Passarelli. Walsh and Barnstorm released their debut album, the eponymous Barnstorm, in October 1972. After taking a cue from Townshend, Walsh utilized the ARP Odyssey synthesizer to great effect on such songs as "Mother Says" and "Here We Go". Walsh also experimented with acoustic guitar, slide guitar, effects pedals, fuzzbox, talk box, and keyboards as well as running his guitar straight into a Leslie speaker 122 to get swirly, organ-like guitar tones. The album was a critical success, but had only moderate commercial success. The follow-up, The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get, released in June 1973, was marketed under Walsh's name (although officially a Barnstorm album) and was their commercial breakthrough. It peaked at No. 6 on the US Billboard chart. The first and leading single, "Rocky Mountain Way", received heavy airplay and reached No. 23 on the US Top 40 chart. It featured new member, keyboardist Rocke Grace, and Walsh shared the vocals and songwriting with the other three members of the band. As a result, a variety of styles are explored on this album. There are elements of blues, jazz, folk, pop, and Caribbean music. In 1974, Barnstorm disbanded and Walsh continued as a solo artist.
In late 1974, Walsh played slide guitar on Vitale's debut solo album Roller Coaster Weekend. Walsh was taught the slide technique by Duane Allman, who played on Eric Clapton's Layla of Derek and the Dominos.
Barnstorm's last tour was spring 1975, shortly after Joe joined The Eagles.
1975–1980: Eagles
In 1975, Walsh was invited to join The Eagles as founding member Bernie Leadon's replacement. There was some initial concern as to Walsh's ability to fit in with the band, as he was considered far too "wild" for The Eagles, especially by their drummer and co-lead vocalist, Don Henley.
Released on December 8, 1976, Hotel California was the band's fifth studio album and the first to feature Walsh. The album took a year and a half to complete, a process which, along with touring, drained the band.
The second single from the album was the eponymous title track, which topped the charts in May 1977 and became one of the Eagles' signature songs next to "Take It Easy" and "Desperado". It features Henley on lead vocals, with a guitar duet performed by Felder and Walsh.
The hard rock "Life in the Fast Lane", released on May 3, 1977, was based on a riff by Walsh. It reached No. 11 on the charts and helped establish Walsh's position in the band.
Hotel California is the last album to feature founding member Randy Meisner, who abruptly left the band after the 1977 tour. He was replaced by the same musician who had succeeded him in Poco, Timothy B. Schmit.
In 1977, the band, minus Don Felder, performed instrumental work and backing vocals for Randy Newman's album Little Criminals, including "Short People," which has backing vocals by Frey and Schmit.
The Eagles went into the recording studio in 1977 to begin work on their next album, The Long Run. The album took two years to complete. The Long Run was released on September 24, 1979. Considered a disappointment by some music critics for failing to live up to Hotel California, it proved a huge commercial hit nonetheless; the album topped the charts and sold 7 million copies. In addition, it included three Top 10 singles—"Heartache Tonight", the title track and "I Can't Tell You Why". "In The City" by Walsh also received considerable airplay. The band also recorded two Christmas songs during these sessions, "Funky New Year" and "Please Come Home for Christmas" which was released as a single in 1978 and reached No. 18 on the charts. In 1980, the band broke up.
1973–2012: solo career
Walsh has released twelve solo studio albums.
In December 1974, Walsh released his first solo album that was not considered a Barnstorm project, So What, which contained more introspective material such as "Help Me Through the Night" and "Song For Emma", a tribute to Walsh's daughter who had been killed in a car accident that April. On a few tracks, Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner of the Eagles contributed backing vocals.
In March 1976, Walsh released a live album, You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind, which also featured the Eagles.
As the Eagles struggled to record their follow-up to Hotel California, Walsh re-ignited his solo career with the critically well-received album, But Seriously, Folks... in May 1978. It contained the single "Life's Been Good", his comedic depiction of rock stardom, which peaked at No. 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and remains to date his biggest solo hit. Walsh also contributed "In the City" to The Warriors soundtrack in 1979, a song penned and sung by Walsh that was later rerecorded for the Eagles' studio album, The Long Run.
Following the break up of the Eagles in July 1980, Walsh continued to release solo albums throughout the 1980s, but sales did not meet the same level of his earlier successes.
There Goes the Neighborhood was Walsh's first album since the demise of the Eagles, and it peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200. The album only spawned one single, "A Life of Illusion", which became one of Walsh's most popular songs. The single also topped the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, in 1981.
"A Life of Illusion" was recorded in 1973 with Walsh's first solo band Barnstorm but was not completed. The overdubs and final mixes were completed during the There Goes the Neighborhood sessions and released on the album. The promotional video for the track shows the making of the album's cover. This song also appeared in the opening credits of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and appears as the first song on its soundtrack.
In May 1983, Walsh released You Bought It – You Name It; the album was received negatively by the majority of music critics, while other reviewers noted good points to the album. It was also not as successful as Walsh's previous albums, peaking at No. 48 on the Billboard 200. Walsh found moderate success with the single "Space Age Whiz Kids", about the pinnacle of the 1980s video arcade craze. The album contains hard rock songs such as "I Can Play That Rock & Roll" and a cover of the Dick Haymes track, "Love Letters". It also contains more introspective material such as "Class of '65", and contains a song titled "I.L.B.T.s", an acronym for "I Like Big Tits".
Walsh's new girlfriend Stevie Nicks was involved in his next album, The Confessor. Her old friend Keith Olsen was hired to produce the album and the musicians were prolific LA session musicians including: Jim Keltner, Mike Porcaro, Waddy Wachtel, Randy Newman, Alan Pasqua and many other musicians that Walsh had never worked with before.
In 1987, Walsh released his final solo album of the 1980s, Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning, and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead vocalist Jimi Jamison, but the album was a commercial disappointment.
In 1991, Ordinary Average Guy, his ninth solo studio album, and its title track single, were released on the Epic label. The album features Ringo Starr, Jimi Jamison, and drummer Joe Vitale from Walsh's former band Barnstorm. Vitale also sings the lead vocals on the final track of the album, "School Days".
In 1992, Walsh released what appeared to be his final album (until 2012), Songs for a Dying Planet, his tenth solo studio album. Like its predecessor, it was released on the Epic label. Keen to re-establish himself after receiving some poor reviews for his previous album, Walsh enlisted his former producer Bill Szymczyk. At the end of the track "Certain Situations" you can hear a Morse code message that says "Register and vote for me". His song "Vote for Me" was a minor success, peaking at No. 10 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
Walsh's song "One Day at a Time" was released in 2012 and details his struggles with alcohol and drug abuse earlier in his career. The song appeared on Walsh's album Analog Man, which was released on June 5, 2012. The album was co-produced by Jeff Lynne, with Tommy Lee James co-writing some of the album's tracks.
Eagles reunion
An Eagles country tribute album titled Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles was released in 1993, thirteen years after the break up. Travis Tritt insisted on having the Long Run-era Eagles in his video for "Take It Easy" and they agreed. Following years of public speculation, the band formally reunited the following year. The line-up comprised the five Long Run-era members—Frey, Henley, Walsh, Felder, and Schmit—supplemented by Scott Crago (drums), John Corey (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), Timothy Drury (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals) and Al Garth (saxophone, violin) on stage.
"For the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation," announced Frey at their first live performance in April 1994. The ensuing tour spawned a live album titled Hell Freezes Over (named for Henley's recurring statement that the band would get back together "when hell freezes over"), which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. It included four new studio songs, with "Get Over It" and "Love Will Keep Us Alive" both becoming Top 40 hits. The album proved as successful as the tour, selling 6 million copies in the U.S. The tour was interrupted in September 1994 because of Frey's serious recurrence of diverticulitis, but it resumed in 1995 and continued into 1996. In 1998, the Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the induction ceremony, all seven Eagles members (Frey, Henley, Leadon, Meisner, Felder, Walsh, and Schmit) played together for two songs, "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California". Several subsequent reunion tours followed (without Leadon or Meisner), notable for their record-setting ticket prices.
The Eagles performed at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Paradise, Nevada on December 28 and 29, 1999, followed by a concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on December 31. These concerts marked the last time Felder played with the band and these shows (including a planned video release) later formed a part of a lawsuit filed by Felder against his former band members.
The concert recordings were released on CD as part of the four-disc Selected Works: 1972–1999 box set in November 2000. Along with the millennium concert, this set included the band's hit singles, album tracks and outtakes from The Long Run sessions. Selected Works received platinum certification from the RIAA in 2002.
The band resumed touring in 2001, with a line-up consisting of Frey, Henley, Walsh and Schmit, along with Steuart Smith (guitars, mandolin, keyboards, backing vocals; essentially taking over Felder's role), Michael Thompson (keyboards, trombone), Will Hollis (keyboards, backing vocals), Scott Crago (drums, percussion), Bill Armstrong (horns), Al Garth (saxophone, violin), Christian Mostert (saxophone) and Greg Smith (saxophone, percussion).
In 2003, the Eagles released a greatest hits album, The Very Best Of. The two-disc compilation was the first that encompassed their entire career, from Eagles to Hell Freezes Over. It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard charts and eventually gained triple platinum status. The album includes a new single, the September 11 attacks-themed "Hole in the World". Also in 2003, Warren Zevon, a longtime Eagles friend, began work on his final album, The Wind, with the assistance of Henley, Walsh and Schmit.
On June 14, 2005, the Eagles released a new 2-DVD set titled Farewell 1 Tour-Live from Melbourne, featuring two new songs: Frey's "No More Cloudy Days" and Walsh's "One Day at a Time". A special edition 2006 release exclusive to Walmart and affiliated stores includes a bonus audio CD with three new songs: a studio version of "No More Cloudy Days", "Fast Company" and "Do Something".
In 2007, the Eagles consisted of Frey, Henley, Walsh, and Schmit. On August 20, 2007, "How Long", written by J. D. Souther, was released as a single to radio with an accompanying online video at Yahoo! Music. It debuted on television on Country Music Television during the Top 20 Countdown on August 23, 2007. The band had performed the song as part of their live sets in the early to mid-1970s, but did not record it at the time because Souther wanted to reserve it for use on his first solo album. Souther had previously worked with the Eagles, co-writing some of their biggest hits, including "Best of My Love", "Victim of Love", "Heartache Tonight" and "New Kid in Town".
On October 30, 2007, the Eagles released Long Road Out of Eden, their first album of all-new material since 1979. For the first year after the album's release, it was available in the U.S. only via the band's website, at Walmart and at Sam's Club stores. It was commercially available through traditional retail outlets in other countries. The album debuted at number 1 in the U.S., the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Norway. It became their third studio album and seventh release overall to be certified at least seven times platinum by the RIAA. Henley told CNN that "This is probably the last Eagles album that we'll ever make." The Eagles made their awards show debut on November 7, 2007, when they performed "How Long" live at the Country Music Association Awards.
On January 28, 2008, the second single of Long Road Out of Eden was released. "Busy Being Fabulous" peaked at No. 28 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and at No. 12 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. The Eagles won their fifth Grammy in 2007, in the category Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "How Long".
On March 20, 2008, the Eagles launched their world tour in support of Long Road Out of Eden at The O2 Arena in London. The Long Road Out of Eden Tour concluded the American portion of the tour at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah on May 9, 2009. It was the first concert ever held in the new soccer stadium. The tour traveled to Europe, with its final concert date on July 22, 2009, in Lisbon. The band spent the summer of 2010 touring North American stadiums with the Dixie Chicks and Keith Urban. The tour expanded to England as the headline act of the Hop Farm Festival on July 1, 2011.
Asked in November 2010 whether the Eagles were planning a follow-up to Long Road Out of Eden, Schmit replied, "My first reaction would be: no way. But I said that before the last one, so you never really know. Bands are a fragile entity and you never know what's going to happen. It took a long time to do that last album, over a span of years, really, and it took a lot out of us. We took a year off at one point. I'm not sure if we're able to do that again. I wouldn't close the door on it, but I don't know." Walsh said in 2010 that there might be one more album before the band "wraps it up".
In February 2013, the Eagles released a career spanning documentary called History of the Eagles and kicked off the supporting tour with 11 arena dates from July 6 to 25. Henley said that the tour, which would continue until 2015, "could very well be our last... we're gonna include at least one former band member in this tour and kinda go back to the roots, and how we created some of these songs. We're gonna break it down to the fundamentals and then take it up to where it is now."
Original Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon also appeared on the tour. Walsh stated, "Bernie's brilliant, I never really got a chance to play with him, but we've been in contact. We see him from time to time, and I'm really glad he's coming because it's going to take the show up a notch, and I'm really looking forward to playing with him, finally." It has been reported that former members Randy Meisner and Don Felder will not appear. Meisner had been invited but could not participate due to health problems, while Felder was reportedly not invited due to ongoing legal disputes with the band.
Other bands
In late 1984, Walsh was contacted by Australian musician Paul Christie, the former bassist for Mondo Rock. Christie invited him to come to Australia to perform with the Party Boys, an all-star band with a floating membership of well-known Australian rock musicians. These included the critically acclaimed guitarist Kevin Borich, with whom Walsh became good friends. Walsh accepted and performed with the Party Boys on their late-1984–early-1985 Australian tour and appeared on their live album, You Need Professional Help. He remained in Australia for some time after the tour, putting together the short-lived touring band "Creatures From America", with Waddy Wachtel (guitar), Rick Rosas (bass guitar) and Australian drummer Richard Harvey (Divinyls, the Party Boys) In 1987, Walsh returned to the United States to work on his album Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead singer Jimi Jamison. After the album's commercial disappointment, Walsh decided to return to Australia in 1989 to tour with another incarnation of the Party Boys. Walsh also toured with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band in 1989 and 1992, alternating a handful of his best-known songs with Starr's and tunes by other of the members of the All-Starr Band. In 1989, Walsh recorded a MTV Unplugged with the R&B musician Dr. John. Also in 1989 Walsh filmed a live concert from the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles with Etta James and Albert Collins, called Jazzvisions: Jump the Blues Away.
While producing their Homegrown album in 1989, Walsh briefly joined New Zealand reggae band Herbs. Although he had left by the time of its 1990 release, he still appears as lead singer on two tracks, "Up All Night" and "It's Alright". The album includes the first recording of his "Ordinary Average Guys" (sung by late Herbs bassist Charlie Tumahai), which subsequently became a solo hit for Walsh as "Ordinary Average Guy".
In late 1990, Walsh was part of a band called the Best, along with keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist John Entwistle, guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and drummer Simon Phillips. The band performed several shows in Hawaii and Japan, with a live video resulting.
In 1993, Walsh teamed up with Glenn Frey for the "Party of Two" tour in the United States.
In 1996, James Gang did a reunion for the Democratic president, Bill Clinton. The band consisted of their "classic" line-up (Walsh, Peters, Fox), and they performed at the Cleveland State University Convocation Center on November 4, 1996.
In 1998, ABC wanted to use a classic rock song rock for Monday Night Football that year, so they asked Walsh to rewrite the lyrics to "Rocky Mountain Way" for the quarterback John Elway of the Denver Broncos. "Rocky Mountain Elway" was the new title of the song and Walsh appeared in a video that ABC showed on Monday Night Football.
2000s and 2010s
In June 2004, Walsh performed at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, Texas. He was also featured in September 2004 at the Strat Pack, a concert held in London, England, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar. In 2006, Walsh reunited with Jim Fox and Dale Peters of the James Gang for new recordings and a 15-date summer reunion tour. The tour lasted into the fall.
In 2008, Walsh appeared on the Carvin 60th Anniversary Celebration DVD as a celebrity endorser. In the recorded interview, he highly praised Carvin Guitars and claims that the bridge design is "just like the first Les Paul models. I can't even get Gibson to reissue it".
Kent State University awarded Walsh an honorary degree in music in December 2001. In May 2012, the Berklee College of Music awarded Walsh, along with other members of the Eagles, an honorary doctorate for his accomplishments in the field of music.
Notable appearances
In 1974, Walsh produced Dan Fogelberg's Souvenirs album and played the guitar, electric guitar, 12 string guitar, ARP bass and provided backing vocals. He also contacted Graham Nash to sing harmony vocals on "Part of the Plan", which helped send the album to No. 17 on the 1975 Billboard album chart.
In 1973 Walsh supplied the slide guitar solo on Michael Stanley's song "Rosewood Bitters." Walsh later lifted part of that solo and used it prominently in the Eagles' hit "Life in the Fast Lane."
In 1981, Walsh and former Barnstorm bandmate, Joe Vitale, went to work on old friend John Entwistle's fifth solo album Too Late the Hero, whenever they were free to work on it. The album turned out to become John Entwistle's best-charting solo album, with hit singles "Talk Dirty" and "Too Late the Hero".
Walsh was a background musician (1st guitar solo) on Eagles band member Don Henley's 1982 hit "Dirty Laundry" (listed as such in the liner notes of I Can't Stand Still and Actual Miles: Henley's Greatest Hits). Walsh has also contributed to albums by: Ringo Starr; America; REO Speedwagon; Jay Ferguson; Andy Gibb; Wilson Phillips; Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Steve Winwood; and on the Richard Marx hit "Don't Mean Nothing".
Walsh was a regular guest DJ on Los Angeles radio station KLOS during the mid-1980s. They had a Saturday evening feature, with celebrity guest-hosts taking over the microphone (Walsh was the guest host far more frequently than any other). He was also a frequent guest and guest-host of Detroit and Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl.
Onscreen, Walsh has appeared in: The Blues Brothers, Promised Land, The Drew Carey Show, Duckman, MADtv, Live from Daryl's House, Rock the Cradle and Zachariah.
In October 2004, Walsh undertook speaking engagements in New Zealand to warn against the dangers of substance abuse. He said the visit was a "thank you" to people who took him to Otatara Pa when he toured New Zealand with reggae band Herbs while under heavy alcohol and cocaine addictions in 1989, an experience he has cited as the beginning of a long journey back to good health. At Otatara Pa in 2004 Walsh said, "This is a special place, and it is very special to me. It was here on a visit many years ago, up on the hills, that I had a moment of clarity. I don't understand it, but I reconnected with my soul, and I remembered who I used to be. I admitted I had problems and I had to do something about it. It was the beginning of my recovery from my addiction to alcohol and drugs, and when I got back to America it gave me the courage to seek help."
On February 12, 2012, Walsh appeared on stage with Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, and McCartney's band at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to close out the Grammy Awards show. Walsh also appeared on the 60th Episode of Live from Daryl's House with Daryl Hall, which premiered on November 15, 2012.
On February 9, 2014, Walsh was featured in several songs on the CBS special The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles.
In 2014, Walsh made a guest appearance on Foo Fighters' eighth studio album Sonic Highways.
On May 24, 2016, Walsh appeared on NBC's The Voice in which he played slide guitar, talk box and performed Rocky Mountain Way with contestant Laith Al-Saadi.
He appeared on an episode of 'The Conners' on 19 January 2022. He played Aldo's father.
Influences
Walsh cites influences and with rock music / pop music bands and guitarists with whom many he has encountered and met on concert tours: Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Jeff Beck, the Beatles, Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, Ritchie Blackmore and Deep Purple, Manfred Mann, Duane Allman and The Allman Brothers, Ronnie Wood and The Faces, Pete Townshend and The Who, and The Ventures. In turn, he has influenced Dan Fogelberg, Maroon 5, Kenny Chesney, Jonny Lang, Blitzen Trapper, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and George Thorogood. Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band taught Walsh how to play the slide guitar.
Public service
Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008.
Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.
Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!"
In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things."
In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry, including the Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., and Keith Urban, to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid – a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson.
Personal life
Walsh has been married five times. He was married briefly to Margie Walsh in the 1960s, to Stefany Rhodes from 1971 to 1978, to Juanita Boyer from 1980 to 1988, and to Denise Driscoll from 1999 to 2006. Walsh married Marjorie Bach (sister of Barbara Bach and sister-in-law of Ringo Starr) in Los Angeles on December 13, 2008. Another sister-in-law, Susan Walsh, has been a missing person since 1996.
Walsh's daughter Lucy Walsh is a musician who has worked with Ashlee Simpson and others. She released her debut solo album, Lost in the Lights, in spring 2007.
Walsh's eldest daughter, Emma Kristen, was born in 1971 and died in 1974 at 3 years of age as a result of injuries suffered in an automobile accident on her way to nursery school. Her story inspired the track "Song for Emma" on Walsh's solo album So What released later that year. In her memory, he had a fountain and memorial plaque placed in a park in which she played: North Boulder Park in Boulder, Colorado. He has said that the album name So What was a result of Emma's death: that nothing else seemed meaningful or important in the months that followed. The strain eventually contributed to Walsh's divorce from his second wife Stefany. While touring with singer Stevie Nicks in 1984, Walsh took Nicks to the park's fountain; Nicks subsequently immortalized this story in her song "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?" on her 1985 album Rock A Little. Nicks told the UK's The Daily Telegraph in 2007 that Walsh had been "the great love of my life". "Joe and I broke up because of the coke," she elaborated to Q. "He told my friend and singer Sharon [Celani], 'I'm leaving Stevie, because I'm afraid that one of us is going to die. And the other one won't be able to save the other person, because our cocaine habit has become so over the top now that neither of us can live through this. So the only way to save both of us is for me to leave.'"
Walsh admits to struggling with alcohol and drug addictions for most of his early career and has been in recovery since 1993. In 1989, while touring with New Zealand band Herbs, Walsh experienced an "epiphany" during a visit to Otatara Pa, an ancient Māori pā site in the Hawke's Bay region. In 2004, on a return visit to New Zealand, Walsh described the experience and hailed it as the beginning of his recovery from his addiction. Walsh related the story that in 1994, he woke up after blacking out on an airplane to Paris. When he arrived, he had his passport, but did not remember getting on the plane. That was his turning point, and he has been sober ever since.
While living in New York City, Walsh began a lifelong interest in amateur radio. He holds an Amateur Extra Class Amateur Radio License, and his station callsign is WB6ACU. In 2006, he donated an autographed guitar to the ARRL in Newington, Connecticut, for its charity auction. He has also been involved with the group's "Big Project," which brings amateur radio into schools. Walsh has included Morse Code messages in his albums on two occasions: once on the album Barnstorm ("Register and Vote"), and later on Songs for a Dying Planet ("Register and Vote for Me"). Walsh provides the theme song (which includes Morse code) for the TWiT podcast Ham Nation (debuting in 2011), and he appeared as a guest in the first podcast, as well as episode 400.
Instruments
Jimmy Page's sunburst 1959 Gibson Les Paul, better known as his "Number 1" was originally owned by Walsh and was sold to Page in 1969.
In 1970, Walsh gave a 1959 Gretsch 6120 to the Who's lead guitarist Pete Townshend. Townshend used the Gretsch in the studio to record tracks on albums such as Who's Next and Quadrophenia.
Select other guitars
1959 Gibson Les Paul that was given/sold to Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page in April 1969
Carvin DC4, CT6, CT4, CS4, and other various models.
Duesenberg Starplayer Alliance - Walsh has an Alliance guitar co-developed with him
Amplifiers
Marshall 50 watt Plexi
Discography
The Measles
Singles:
1965: Casting My Spell/Bye Birdie Fly
1966: Kicks/No Baby At All
The Ohio Express
1967: Beg, Borrow And Steal - I Find I Think Of You composed by Joe Walsh and played by his band The Measles.
James Gang
Studio albums:
1969: Yer' Album
1970: James Gang Rides Again
1971: Thirds
Live album:
1971: James Gang Live in Concert
Compilation:
1973: The Best Of James Gang Featuring Joe Walsh
Barnstorm
Studio albums:
1972: Barnstorm
1973: The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get
Eagles
Studio albums:
1976: Hotel California
1979: The Long Run
2007: Long Road out of Eden
Live albums:
1980: Eagles Live
1994: Hell Freezes Over
2020: Live from the Forum MMXVIII
Solo
Collaborations
Indianola Mississippi Seeds - B.B. King (1970)
L.A. Midnight - B.B. King (1972)
The Kids & Me - Billy Preston (1974)
Souvenirs - Dan Fogelberg (1974)
Act Like Nothing's Wrong - Al Kooper (1976)
Stone Alone - Bill Wyman (1976)
A Night on the Town - Rod Stewart (1976)
Nether Lands - Dan Fogelberg (1977)
Little Criminals - Randy Newman (1977)
Earth & Sky - Graham Nash (1980)
Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School - Warren Zevon (1980)
Wild Heart of the Young - Karla Bonoff (1982)
I Can't Stand Still - Don Henley (1982)
Back in the High Life - Steve Winwood (1986)
Richard Marx - Richard Marx (1987)
Red House - Albert King (1991)
The Fire Inside - Bob Seger (1991)
Vertical Man - Ringo Starr (1998)
The Wild - Warren Zevon (2003)
Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates - Kenny Chesney (2007)
Y Not - Ringo Starr (2010)
Ringo 2012 - Ringo Starr (2012)
Postcards from Paradise - Ringo Starr (2015)
Give More Love - Ringo Starr (2017)
What's My Name - Ringo Starr (2019)
Threads - Sheryl Crow (2019)
Filmography
Film
1971: Zachariah Film de George Englund. With Don Johnson: Himself with The James Gang.
1980: The Blues Brothers: A prisoner dancing on a table.
1990: The Best - DVD With Keith Emerson, Jeff Baxter, Joe Walsh, John Entwistle, Simon Phillips: Himself.
Television
Mad TV, as himself, in Episode 1.2 (1995)
Promised land, as R.J., "The Prodigy" (1996)
Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man, voicing himself, "They Craved Duckman's Brain!" (1996) and "Love! Anger! Kvetching!" (1997)
The Drew Carey Show, 7 episodes as Ed ("Drewstock" (1997), "In Ramada Da Vida" (1998), "Golden Boy" (1998), "Drew Between the Rock and a Hard Place" (1998), "Boy Party/Girl Party" (1999), "Steve and Mimi Get Married" (1999), "Drew's in a Coma" (2001))
Drew Carey's Improv All-Stars, guest (2001)
Rock the Cradle (2008), a reality show, the father of contestant Lucy Walsh
Wicked City, as a director, "Running With the Devil" (2015)
Criminal Minds, as himself, "The Sandman" (2016)
Better Things, as himself "Hair of the Dog" (2016)
The Connors, Jesse, "Patriarchs and Goddesses" (2022)
Awards
As a member of The Eagles, Walsh has won five Grammy Awards:
(1977) Record of the Year: "Hotel California" (single)
(1977) Best Arrangement for Voices: "New Kid in Town"
(1979) Best Rock Vocal performance by a Duo or Group: "Heartache Tonight"
(2008) Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: "How Long"
(2009) Best Pop Instrumental Performance: "I Dreamed There Was No War"
Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998
Walsh was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001.
See also
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart
Further reading
Walsh, Joe (1996). Look What I Did! And Then Some .... Hal Leonard Corporation.
Lemco, Steve (2011). Joe & Me''. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
References
External links
1947 births
Living people
Amateur radio people
Record producers from Kansas
American rock guitarists
American male guitarists
American tenors
American rock singers
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American rock songwriters
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American male pianists
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20th-century American male actors
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The Party Boys members
Musicians from Wichita, Kansas
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Musicians from Columbus, Ohio
Montclair High School (New Jersey) alumni
People from Montclair, New Jersey
Writers from Wichita, Kansas
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Members
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The Best (band) members
Singer-songwriters from Kansas | true | [
"Zhong Mian (; born May 1963) is a Chinese politician from Sichuan province who served as the executive vice governor of the province between 2013 and 2015; since May 2015, he has served as the Deputy Party Secretary of Yunnan province.\n\nZhong was born in Qianwei County in Sichuan province. He studied political economics at Sichuan Finance College (now part of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics) and graduated in 1984. He joined the Communist Party while attending university. He then worked in the provincial policy research office, then the provincial finance and economics office. He then was made a political secretary working in the provincial Party Committee General Office. In 1995, he was named Communist Party Secretary of the city of Emeishan, and a Party Standing Committee member of Leshan. In August 1997 he was elevated to deputy party chief of Leshan, then executive deputy mayor in 2000. In May 2000, he was named head of the Tourism Department of Sichuan, during this time he earned a doctorate degree in economics.\n\nIn February 2003, he was named party chief of Ziyang, then in February 2007, the Secretary-General of the Party Committee, and a member of the provincial Party Standing Committee. In January 2008 he was made vice governor of Sichuan, then in February 2013, he was named executive vice governor. In April 2015, he was named Deputy Communist Party Secretary of Yunnan, replacing the disgraced Qiu He. In 2016, Zhong was transferred to Guizhou to become vice-governor, in what was seen as a demotion.\n\nZhong was a delegate to the 17th and 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.\n\nReferences \n\nPeople from Leshan\n1963 births\nLiving people\nPolitical office-holders in Sichuan\nPolitical office-holders in Yunnan\nSouthwestern University of Finance and Economics alumni",
"William N. McNair (November 7, 1880 – September 13, 1948), served as the 49th Mayor of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1934 to 1936.\n\nEarly life\nOriginally from Middletown, Pennsylvania, McNair graduated from Gettysburg College in 1900, earned a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1903, and became an attorney in Pittsburgh in 1904. He tried his hand at politics several times, losing successive elections before finally winning office.\n\nPittsburgh politics\nAt the city's highest office in 1934, it was soon apparent though why McNair had never won a public office before. McNair almost from the beginning had a confrontational relationship with City Council. At first much of his antics were viewed as the actions of a man that cared about the \"little guy\"; soon though much of his actions just ground the city's ability to govern to a halt in heated, endless and dramatic debate over the most nuanced issues. During his fractious leadership McNair even set up his office in the ornate lobby of the City-County Building to display his \"independence\" from council and the city bureaucracy.\n\nHe continued to be a lightning rod during his administration, being arrested at one point for refusing to return what a judge found to be an unlawful fine he had assessed a citizen. On November 27, 1934 Governor George Earle cut off funds to the city after continued difficulty dealing with McNair. Later when he received word that the governor was considering impeachment proceedings against him he installed a bed in the mayor's office and conducted press conferences from it. In 1936, he traveled to Washington, D.C., and took part in congressional hearings on taxes. His position of repealing all federal taxes at the time was voiced so zealously that a New York Times report recounts a Capitol Police Officer was called before McNair voluntarily left the hearing.\n\nThe most fateful event for his political career took the city by force on St. Patrick's day 1936 when it suffered from the worst flooding in its history. The event and the chaotic nature that McNair had plunged the city into sealed his fate. Political opponents accused him of impropriety in various dealings, and he was jailed for three days in April on charges of operating a numbers game.\n\nHe resigned on a whim on October 6, 1936, promptly rescinded his resignation then demanded to once again be sworn in as mayor, but by that time the city council and the rest of the city had grown tired of his controversial leadership, choosing instead to validate his earlier resignation and let Cornelius Scully assume the mayor's office.\n\nLater life\nMcNair became a sort of political sideshow after he left office, continuing to run for offices unsuccessfully and giving political speeches and rallies for various causes. He died in St. Louis, Missouri in 1948 during a political rally and is buried in Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nPost-Gazette article\nReading Eagle article\n \n\n1880 births\n1948 deaths\nMayors of Pittsburgh\nPennsylvania Democrats\nUniversity of Michigan Law School alumni\nBurials at Allegheny Cemetery\n20th-century American politicians\nPeople from Middletown, Pennsylvania"
]
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[
"Joe Walsh",
"Public service",
"What charities did Joe Walsh work with?",
"Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks.",
"What does he do to help conserve the environment in Santa Cruz?",
"He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.",
"What other charities is he involved with?",
"He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas.",
"How else did he help the public through charities?",
"Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008.",
"What else did he do for the charities?",
"In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., Keith Urban to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid -",
"What was his role with the charities?",
"Walsh contacted others in the music industry",
"What other charity did he sponsor?",
"In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office.",
"What political office was he considering?",
"\"I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress,\" Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C."
]
| C_040d7718872f46c387a6014808d463a3_0 | Did he every run for Congress? | 9 | Did Joe Walsh ever run for Congress? | Joe Walsh | Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008. Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s. Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!" In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things." In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., Keith Urban to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid - a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson. CANNOTANSWER | In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!" | Joseph Fidler Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American rock singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has been a member of three successful rock bands: James Gang, Eagles, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Walsh was also part of the New Zealand band Herbs. In the 1990s, he was a member of the short-lived supergroup The Best.
Walsh has also experienced success both as a solo artist and as a prolific session musician, being featured on a wide array of other artists' recordings. In 2011, Rolling Stone placed him at the No. 54 spot on its list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
In the mid-1960s, after attending Kent State University, Walsh played with several local Ohio-based bands before reaching a national audience as a member of the James Gang, whose hit song "Funk #49" highlighted his skill as both a guitarist and singer. Roger Abramson, a concert producer and artist manager, signed the James Gang to a management agreement with BPI in Cleveland. After leaving the James Gang in 1972, he formed Barnstorm with Joe Vitale, a college friend from Ohio, and Kenny Passarelli, a bassist from Colorado, where Walsh had moved after leaving Ohio. While the band stayed together for three albums over three years, its works were marketed as Walsh solo projects. The last Barnstorm album, 1974's So What contained significant guest contributions from several members of the Eagles, a group that had recently hired Walsh's producer, Bill Szymczyk.
At Szymczyk's suggestion, Walsh joined the Eagles in 1975 as the band's guitarist and keyboardist following the departure of their founding member Bernie Leadon, with Hotel California being his first album with the band. In 1998, a reader's poll conducted by Guitarist magazine selected the guitar solos on the track "Hotel California" by Walsh and Don Felder as the best guitar solos of all time. Guitar World magazine listed it at eighth of the Top 100 Guitar Solos.
Besides his work with his several bands, he has released 12 solo studio albums, six compilation albums, and two live albums. His solo hits include "Rocky Mountain Way", "Life's Been Good", "All Night Long", "A Life of Illusion", and "Ordinary Average Guy".
As a member of the Eagles, Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, and into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001. The Eagles are considered to be one of the most influential bands of the 1970s, and they remain one of the best-selling American bands in the history of popular music. His creative contribution to music has received praise from many of the best rock guitarists, including Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, who said, "He has a tremendous feel for the instrument. I've loved his style since the early James Gang." Eric Clapton said that "He's one of the best guitarists to surface in some time. I don't listen to many records, but I listen to his." The Who's guitarist, Pete Townshend, said "Joe Walsh is a fluid and intelligent player. There're not many like that around."
Early life and education
Joseph Fidler Walsh was born on November 20, 1947, in Wichita, Kansas. His father, Lt. Robert Newton Fidler, was a flight instructor for the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star in the United States Air Force and died in a plane crash in Okinawa on 22 July 1949. Walsh's mother was a classically trained pianist of Scottish and German ancestry. Walsh was adopted by his stepfather at the age of five and given his stepfather's surname, but retained Fidler as his middle name. In the 1950s, it was common practice for Social Security, school registration, and health records for children to take the name of their stepfather.
Walsh and his family lived in Columbus, Ohio, for a number of years during his youth. When Walsh was twelve years old, his family moved to New York City. Later, Walsh moved to Montclair, New Jersey, and he attended Montclair High School, where he played oboe in the school band.
Walsh got his first guitar at the age of 10, and upon learning The Ventures' "Walk Don't Run", decided that he wanted to pursue a career as a guitarist. Inspired by the success of the Beatles, he replaced Bruce Hoffman as the bass player in the locally popular group, the Nomads in Madison, New Jersey, beginning his career as a rock musician. After high school, Walsh attended Kent State University, where he spent time in various bands playing around the Cleveland area, including the Measles. The Measles recorded for Super K Productions' Ohio Express the songs "I Find I Think of You", "And It's True", and "Maybe" (an instrumental version of "And It's True"). Walsh majored in English and minored in music; he was present during the Kent State massacre in 1970. Walsh commented in 2012: "Being at the shootings really affected me profoundly. I decided that maybe I don't need a degree that bad." After one term, he dropped out of college to pursue his musical career.
Musical career
1965–1967: The Measles (Joe Walsh years)
The Measles, an Ohio garage bar band, were formed in 1965 by four Kent State University students, one of whom was Joe Walsh. Two tracks on the Ohio Express' Beg Borrow and Steal album, "I Find I Think Of You" and "And It's True" (both featuring Joe Walsh vocals) were actually recorded by the Measles, led by Walsh. Additionally, an instrumental version of "And It's True" was recorded by the Measles, re-titled "Maybe" and released as the B-side of the "Beg Borrow and Steal" single.
1968–1971: James Gang
Around Christmas 1967, James Gang guitarist Glenn Schwartz, who turned out to be AWOL from the army and was breaking up with his wife, decided to leave the band to move to California, where he ended up forming the band Pacific Gas & Electric. Days later, Walsh, a friend of Schwartz's, knocked on Jim Fox's door and asked to be given a tryout as Schwartz's replacement. Walsh was accepted and the band continued as a five piece for a short time until Phil Giallombardo, who was still in high school at the time, left. Bill Jeric and Walsh worked together on guitar parts, but Jeric left as well in the spring of 1968. He was replaced by a returning Ronnie Silverman, who had been discharged from the military.
In May 1968, the group played a concert in Detroit at the Grande Ballroom, opening for Cream. At the last minute, Silverman told the others that he would not join them at the show. The band, desperately in need of the money, took to the stage as a trio. They liked their sound as a threesome and decided to remain that way.
In 1968, the band signed with manager Mark Barger, who was handling the career of fellow Ohio outfit the Lemon Pipers, who had just scored a big hit with "Green Tambourine." Barger put the Gang in touch with ABC Records staff producer Bill Szymczyk, who signed them to ABC's new Bluesway Records subsidiary in January 1969.
They released their debut album, Yer' Album, in 1969. In November 1969, bassist Tom Kriss decided he was no longer into the music and left to be replaced by Dale Peters, who was brought in from a group called The Case of E.T. Hooley. The addition of Peters created the most successful incarnation of the James Gang. Walsh proved to be the band's star attraction, noted for his innovative rhythm playing and creative guitar riffs. In particular he was known for hot-wiring the pick-ups on his electric guitars to create his trademark "attack" sound. The James Gang had several minor hits and became an early album-oriented rock staple for the next two years. It was during 1969 that Walsh sold his Les Paul Guitar to Jimmy Page. Later in 1969, the group's record producer, Szymczyk, arranged for the band to appear in the "electric Western" film Zachariah, with two James Gang songs, "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever," also being used. For the recording of these two songs, vocalist Kenny Weiss was brought in to allow Walsh to focus on his guitar playing; he was gone by the time the group arrived in Mexico to shoot their movie scenes. "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever" later reappeared as bonus tracks on the 2000 re-release of The James Gang Greatest Hits.
Shortly before the release of their second album James Gang Rides Again, the James Gang opened a show for the Who in Pittsburgh. Their guitarist Pete Townshend met with the James Gang before they left and was impressed enough to invite them on the Who's subsequent European tour. When Walsh was asked about this he said that, "Pete's a very melodic player and so am I. He told me that he appreciated my playing. I was flattered beyond belief because I didn't think I was that good."
The James Gang's next two albums, James Gang Rides Again (1970) and Thirds (1971), produced such classics as "Funk #49" and "Walk Away". The album James Gang Live at Carnegie Hall was Walsh's last album with them, as he became dissatisfied with the band's limitations.
The two remaining members, Peters and Fox, carried on with the lead vocalist Roy Kenner and guitarist Domenic Troiano (both ex-members of the Canadian band Bush) for two albums, Straight Shooter and Passin' Thru, both released in 1972. But in recent interviews, Fox stated that things did not work out musically with Troiano as hoped, so he left the band in 1973 and joined the Guess Who.
1971–1975: Barnstorm
In December 1971, Walsh left the James Gang. Steve Marriott, frontman guitarist of Humble Pie, invited him to move to England and join his band, which Peter Frampton had left, but Walsh declined. Instead he moved to Colorado and formed a band called Barnstorm, with drummer and multi-instrumentalist Joe Vitale, and bassist Kenny Passarelli, although both of their albums credited Walsh as a solo artist. They started recording their debut album immediately after forming, but at the time there were only Walsh and Vitale on these sessions. Chuck Rainey did the first bass tracks on the album but these were soon replaced by Passarelli. Walsh and Barnstorm released their debut album, the eponymous Barnstorm, in October 1972. After taking a cue from Townshend, Walsh utilized the ARP Odyssey synthesizer to great effect on such songs as "Mother Says" and "Here We Go". Walsh also experimented with acoustic guitar, slide guitar, effects pedals, fuzzbox, talk box, and keyboards as well as running his guitar straight into a Leslie speaker 122 to get swirly, organ-like guitar tones. The album was a critical success, but had only moderate commercial success. The follow-up, The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get, released in June 1973, was marketed under Walsh's name (although officially a Barnstorm album) and was their commercial breakthrough. It peaked at No. 6 on the US Billboard chart. The first and leading single, "Rocky Mountain Way", received heavy airplay and reached No. 23 on the US Top 40 chart. It featured new member, keyboardist Rocke Grace, and Walsh shared the vocals and songwriting with the other three members of the band. As a result, a variety of styles are explored on this album. There are elements of blues, jazz, folk, pop, and Caribbean music. In 1974, Barnstorm disbanded and Walsh continued as a solo artist.
In late 1974, Walsh played slide guitar on Vitale's debut solo album Roller Coaster Weekend. Walsh was taught the slide technique by Duane Allman, who played on Eric Clapton's Layla of Derek and the Dominos.
Barnstorm's last tour was spring 1975, shortly after Joe joined The Eagles.
1975–1980: Eagles
In 1975, Walsh was invited to join The Eagles as founding member Bernie Leadon's replacement. There was some initial concern as to Walsh's ability to fit in with the band, as he was considered far too "wild" for The Eagles, especially by their drummer and co-lead vocalist, Don Henley.
Released on December 8, 1976, Hotel California was the band's fifth studio album and the first to feature Walsh. The album took a year and a half to complete, a process which, along with touring, drained the band.
The second single from the album was the eponymous title track, which topped the charts in May 1977 and became one of the Eagles' signature songs next to "Take It Easy" and "Desperado". It features Henley on lead vocals, with a guitar duet performed by Felder and Walsh.
The hard rock "Life in the Fast Lane", released on May 3, 1977, was based on a riff by Walsh. It reached No. 11 on the charts and helped establish Walsh's position in the band.
Hotel California is the last album to feature founding member Randy Meisner, who abruptly left the band after the 1977 tour. He was replaced by the same musician who had succeeded him in Poco, Timothy B. Schmit.
In 1977, the band, minus Don Felder, performed instrumental work and backing vocals for Randy Newman's album Little Criminals, including "Short People," which has backing vocals by Frey and Schmit.
The Eagles went into the recording studio in 1977 to begin work on their next album, The Long Run. The album took two years to complete. The Long Run was released on September 24, 1979. Considered a disappointment by some music critics for failing to live up to Hotel California, it proved a huge commercial hit nonetheless; the album topped the charts and sold 7 million copies. In addition, it included three Top 10 singles—"Heartache Tonight", the title track and "I Can't Tell You Why". "In The City" by Walsh also received considerable airplay. The band also recorded two Christmas songs during these sessions, "Funky New Year" and "Please Come Home for Christmas" which was released as a single in 1978 and reached No. 18 on the charts. In 1980, the band broke up.
1973–2012: solo career
Walsh has released twelve solo studio albums.
In December 1974, Walsh released his first solo album that was not considered a Barnstorm project, So What, which contained more introspective material such as "Help Me Through the Night" and "Song For Emma", a tribute to Walsh's daughter who had been killed in a car accident that April. On a few tracks, Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner of the Eagles contributed backing vocals.
In March 1976, Walsh released a live album, You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind, which also featured the Eagles.
As the Eagles struggled to record their follow-up to Hotel California, Walsh re-ignited his solo career with the critically well-received album, But Seriously, Folks... in May 1978. It contained the single "Life's Been Good", his comedic depiction of rock stardom, which peaked at No. 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and remains to date his biggest solo hit. Walsh also contributed "In the City" to The Warriors soundtrack in 1979, a song penned and sung by Walsh that was later rerecorded for the Eagles' studio album, The Long Run.
Following the break up of the Eagles in July 1980, Walsh continued to release solo albums throughout the 1980s, but sales did not meet the same level of his earlier successes.
There Goes the Neighborhood was Walsh's first album since the demise of the Eagles, and it peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200. The album only spawned one single, "A Life of Illusion", which became one of Walsh's most popular songs. The single also topped the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, in 1981.
"A Life of Illusion" was recorded in 1973 with Walsh's first solo band Barnstorm but was not completed. The overdubs and final mixes were completed during the There Goes the Neighborhood sessions and released on the album. The promotional video for the track shows the making of the album's cover. This song also appeared in the opening credits of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and appears as the first song on its soundtrack.
In May 1983, Walsh released You Bought It – You Name It; the album was received negatively by the majority of music critics, while other reviewers noted good points to the album. It was also not as successful as Walsh's previous albums, peaking at No. 48 on the Billboard 200. Walsh found moderate success with the single "Space Age Whiz Kids", about the pinnacle of the 1980s video arcade craze. The album contains hard rock songs such as "I Can Play That Rock & Roll" and a cover of the Dick Haymes track, "Love Letters". It also contains more introspective material such as "Class of '65", and contains a song titled "I.L.B.T.s", an acronym for "I Like Big Tits".
Walsh's new girlfriend Stevie Nicks was involved in his next album, The Confessor. Her old friend Keith Olsen was hired to produce the album and the musicians were prolific LA session musicians including: Jim Keltner, Mike Porcaro, Waddy Wachtel, Randy Newman, Alan Pasqua and many other musicians that Walsh had never worked with before.
In 1987, Walsh released his final solo album of the 1980s, Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning, and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead vocalist Jimi Jamison, but the album was a commercial disappointment.
In 1991, Ordinary Average Guy, his ninth solo studio album, and its title track single, were released on the Epic label. The album features Ringo Starr, Jimi Jamison, and drummer Joe Vitale from Walsh's former band Barnstorm. Vitale also sings the lead vocals on the final track of the album, "School Days".
In 1992, Walsh released what appeared to be his final album (until 2012), Songs for a Dying Planet, his tenth solo studio album. Like its predecessor, it was released on the Epic label. Keen to re-establish himself after receiving some poor reviews for his previous album, Walsh enlisted his former producer Bill Szymczyk. At the end of the track "Certain Situations" you can hear a Morse code message that says "Register and vote for me". His song "Vote for Me" was a minor success, peaking at No. 10 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
Walsh's song "One Day at a Time" was released in 2012 and details his struggles with alcohol and drug abuse earlier in his career. The song appeared on Walsh's album Analog Man, which was released on June 5, 2012. The album was co-produced by Jeff Lynne, with Tommy Lee James co-writing some of the album's tracks.
Eagles reunion
An Eagles country tribute album titled Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles was released in 1993, thirteen years after the break up. Travis Tritt insisted on having the Long Run-era Eagles in his video for "Take It Easy" and they agreed. Following years of public speculation, the band formally reunited the following year. The line-up comprised the five Long Run-era members—Frey, Henley, Walsh, Felder, and Schmit—supplemented by Scott Crago (drums), John Corey (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), Timothy Drury (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals) and Al Garth (saxophone, violin) on stage.
"For the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation," announced Frey at their first live performance in April 1994. The ensuing tour spawned a live album titled Hell Freezes Over (named for Henley's recurring statement that the band would get back together "when hell freezes over"), which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. It included four new studio songs, with "Get Over It" and "Love Will Keep Us Alive" both becoming Top 40 hits. The album proved as successful as the tour, selling 6 million copies in the U.S. The tour was interrupted in September 1994 because of Frey's serious recurrence of diverticulitis, but it resumed in 1995 and continued into 1996. In 1998, the Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the induction ceremony, all seven Eagles members (Frey, Henley, Leadon, Meisner, Felder, Walsh, and Schmit) played together for two songs, "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California". Several subsequent reunion tours followed (without Leadon or Meisner), notable for their record-setting ticket prices.
The Eagles performed at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Paradise, Nevada on December 28 and 29, 1999, followed by a concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on December 31. These concerts marked the last time Felder played with the band and these shows (including a planned video release) later formed a part of a lawsuit filed by Felder against his former band members.
The concert recordings were released on CD as part of the four-disc Selected Works: 1972–1999 box set in November 2000. Along with the millennium concert, this set included the band's hit singles, album tracks and outtakes from The Long Run sessions. Selected Works received platinum certification from the RIAA in 2002.
The band resumed touring in 2001, with a line-up consisting of Frey, Henley, Walsh and Schmit, along with Steuart Smith (guitars, mandolin, keyboards, backing vocals; essentially taking over Felder's role), Michael Thompson (keyboards, trombone), Will Hollis (keyboards, backing vocals), Scott Crago (drums, percussion), Bill Armstrong (horns), Al Garth (saxophone, violin), Christian Mostert (saxophone) and Greg Smith (saxophone, percussion).
In 2003, the Eagles released a greatest hits album, The Very Best Of. The two-disc compilation was the first that encompassed their entire career, from Eagles to Hell Freezes Over. It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard charts and eventually gained triple platinum status. The album includes a new single, the September 11 attacks-themed "Hole in the World". Also in 2003, Warren Zevon, a longtime Eagles friend, began work on his final album, The Wind, with the assistance of Henley, Walsh and Schmit.
On June 14, 2005, the Eagles released a new 2-DVD set titled Farewell 1 Tour-Live from Melbourne, featuring two new songs: Frey's "No More Cloudy Days" and Walsh's "One Day at a Time". A special edition 2006 release exclusive to Walmart and affiliated stores includes a bonus audio CD with three new songs: a studio version of "No More Cloudy Days", "Fast Company" and "Do Something".
In 2007, the Eagles consisted of Frey, Henley, Walsh, and Schmit. On August 20, 2007, "How Long", written by J. D. Souther, was released as a single to radio with an accompanying online video at Yahoo! Music. It debuted on television on Country Music Television during the Top 20 Countdown on August 23, 2007. The band had performed the song as part of their live sets in the early to mid-1970s, but did not record it at the time because Souther wanted to reserve it for use on his first solo album. Souther had previously worked with the Eagles, co-writing some of their biggest hits, including "Best of My Love", "Victim of Love", "Heartache Tonight" and "New Kid in Town".
On October 30, 2007, the Eagles released Long Road Out of Eden, their first album of all-new material since 1979. For the first year after the album's release, it was available in the U.S. only via the band's website, at Walmart and at Sam's Club stores. It was commercially available through traditional retail outlets in other countries. The album debuted at number 1 in the U.S., the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Norway. It became their third studio album and seventh release overall to be certified at least seven times platinum by the RIAA. Henley told CNN that "This is probably the last Eagles album that we'll ever make." The Eagles made their awards show debut on November 7, 2007, when they performed "How Long" live at the Country Music Association Awards.
On January 28, 2008, the second single of Long Road Out of Eden was released. "Busy Being Fabulous" peaked at No. 28 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and at No. 12 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. The Eagles won their fifth Grammy in 2007, in the category Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "How Long".
On March 20, 2008, the Eagles launched their world tour in support of Long Road Out of Eden at The O2 Arena in London. The Long Road Out of Eden Tour concluded the American portion of the tour at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah on May 9, 2009. It was the first concert ever held in the new soccer stadium. The tour traveled to Europe, with its final concert date on July 22, 2009, in Lisbon. The band spent the summer of 2010 touring North American stadiums with the Dixie Chicks and Keith Urban. The tour expanded to England as the headline act of the Hop Farm Festival on July 1, 2011.
Asked in November 2010 whether the Eagles were planning a follow-up to Long Road Out of Eden, Schmit replied, "My first reaction would be: no way. But I said that before the last one, so you never really know. Bands are a fragile entity and you never know what's going to happen. It took a long time to do that last album, over a span of years, really, and it took a lot out of us. We took a year off at one point. I'm not sure if we're able to do that again. I wouldn't close the door on it, but I don't know." Walsh said in 2010 that there might be one more album before the band "wraps it up".
In February 2013, the Eagles released a career spanning documentary called History of the Eagles and kicked off the supporting tour with 11 arena dates from July 6 to 25. Henley said that the tour, which would continue until 2015, "could very well be our last... we're gonna include at least one former band member in this tour and kinda go back to the roots, and how we created some of these songs. We're gonna break it down to the fundamentals and then take it up to where it is now."
Original Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon also appeared on the tour. Walsh stated, "Bernie's brilliant, I never really got a chance to play with him, but we've been in contact. We see him from time to time, and I'm really glad he's coming because it's going to take the show up a notch, and I'm really looking forward to playing with him, finally." It has been reported that former members Randy Meisner and Don Felder will not appear. Meisner had been invited but could not participate due to health problems, while Felder was reportedly not invited due to ongoing legal disputes with the band.
Other bands
In late 1984, Walsh was contacted by Australian musician Paul Christie, the former bassist for Mondo Rock. Christie invited him to come to Australia to perform with the Party Boys, an all-star band with a floating membership of well-known Australian rock musicians. These included the critically acclaimed guitarist Kevin Borich, with whom Walsh became good friends. Walsh accepted and performed with the Party Boys on their late-1984–early-1985 Australian tour and appeared on their live album, You Need Professional Help. He remained in Australia for some time after the tour, putting together the short-lived touring band "Creatures From America", with Waddy Wachtel (guitar), Rick Rosas (bass guitar) and Australian drummer Richard Harvey (Divinyls, the Party Boys) In 1987, Walsh returned to the United States to work on his album Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead singer Jimi Jamison. After the album's commercial disappointment, Walsh decided to return to Australia in 1989 to tour with another incarnation of the Party Boys. Walsh also toured with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band in 1989 and 1992, alternating a handful of his best-known songs with Starr's and tunes by other of the members of the All-Starr Band. In 1989, Walsh recorded a MTV Unplugged with the R&B musician Dr. John. Also in 1989 Walsh filmed a live concert from the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles with Etta James and Albert Collins, called Jazzvisions: Jump the Blues Away.
While producing their Homegrown album in 1989, Walsh briefly joined New Zealand reggae band Herbs. Although he had left by the time of its 1990 release, he still appears as lead singer on two tracks, "Up All Night" and "It's Alright". The album includes the first recording of his "Ordinary Average Guys" (sung by late Herbs bassist Charlie Tumahai), which subsequently became a solo hit for Walsh as "Ordinary Average Guy".
In late 1990, Walsh was part of a band called the Best, along with keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist John Entwistle, guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and drummer Simon Phillips. The band performed several shows in Hawaii and Japan, with a live video resulting.
In 1993, Walsh teamed up with Glenn Frey for the "Party of Two" tour in the United States.
In 1996, James Gang did a reunion for the Democratic president, Bill Clinton. The band consisted of their "classic" line-up (Walsh, Peters, Fox), and they performed at the Cleveland State University Convocation Center on November 4, 1996.
In 1998, ABC wanted to use a classic rock song rock for Monday Night Football that year, so they asked Walsh to rewrite the lyrics to "Rocky Mountain Way" for the quarterback John Elway of the Denver Broncos. "Rocky Mountain Elway" was the new title of the song and Walsh appeared in a video that ABC showed on Monday Night Football.
2000s and 2010s
In June 2004, Walsh performed at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, Texas. He was also featured in September 2004 at the Strat Pack, a concert held in London, England, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar. In 2006, Walsh reunited with Jim Fox and Dale Peters of the James Gang for new recordings and a 15-date summer reunion tour. The tour lasted into the fall.
In 2008, Walsh appeared on the Carvin 60th Anniversary Celebration DVD as a celebrity endorser. In the recorded interview, he highly praised Carvin Guitars and claims that the bridge design is "just like the first Les Paul models. I can't even get Gibson to reissue it".
Kent State University awarded Walsh an honorary degree in music in December 2001. In May 2012, the Berklee College of Music awarded Walsh, along with other members of the Eagles, an honorary doctorate for his accomplishments in the field of music.
Notable appearances
In 1974, Walsh produced Dan Fogelberg's Souvenirs album and played the guitar, electric guitar, 12 string guitar, ARP bass and provided backing vocals. He also contacted Graham Nash to sing harmony vocals on "Part of the Plan", which helped send the album to No. 17 on the 1975 Billboard album chart.
In 1973 Walsh supplied the slide guitar solo on Michael Stanley's song "Rosewood Bitters." Walsh later lifted part of that solo and used it prominently in the Eagles' hit "Life in the Fast Lane."
In 1981, Walsh and former Barnstorm bandmate, Joe Vitale, went to work on old friend John Entwistle's fifth solo album Too Late the Hero, whenever they were free to work on it. The album turned out to become John Entwistle's best-charting solo album, with hit singles "Talk Dirty" and "Too Late the Hero".
Walsh was a background musician (1st guitar solo) on Eagles band member Don Henley's 1982 hit "Dirty Laundry" (listed as such in the liner notes of I Can't Stand Still and Actual Miles: Henley's Greatest Hits). Walsh has also contributed to albums by: Ringo Starr; America; REO Speedwagon; Jay Ferguson; Andy Gibb; Wilson Phillips; Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Steve Winwood; and on the Richard Marx hit "Don't Mean Nothing".
Walsh was a regular guest DJ on Los Angeles radio station KLOS during the mid-1980s. They had a Saturday evening feature, with celebrity guest-hosts taking over the microphone (Walsh was the guest host far more frequently than any other). He was also a frequent guest and guest-host of Detroit and Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl.
Onscreen, Walsh has appeared in: The Blues Brothers, Promised Land, The Drew Carey Show, Duckman, MADtv, Live from Daryl's House, Rock the Cradle and Zachariah.
In October 2004, Walsh undertook speaking engagements in New Zealand to warn against the dangers of substance abuse. He said the visit was a "thank you" to people who took him to Otatara Pa when he toured New Zealand with reggae band Herbs while under heavy alcohol and cocaine addictions in 1989, an experience he has cited as the beginning of a long journey back to good health. At Otatara Pa in 2004 Walsh said, "This is a special place, and it is very special to me. It was here on a visit many years ago, up on the hills, that I had a moment of clarity. I don't understand it, but I reconnected with my soul, and I remembered who I used to be. I admitted I had problems and I had to do something about it. It was the beginning of my recovery from my addiction to alcohol and drugs, and when I got back to America it gave me the courage to seek help."
On February 12, 2012, Walsh appeared on stage with Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, and McCartney's band at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to close out the Grammy Awards show. Walsh also appeared on the 60th Episode of Live from Daryl's House with Daryl Hall, which premiered on November 15, 2012.
On February 9, 2014, Walsh was featured in several songs on the CBS special The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles.
In 2014, Walsh made a guest appearance on Foo Fighters' eighth studio album Sonic Highways.
On May 24, 2016, Walsh appeared on NBC's The Voice in which he played slide guitar, talk box and performed Rocky Mountain Way with contestant Laith Al-Saadi.
He appeared on an episode of 'The Conners' on 19 January 2022. He played Aldo's father.
Influences
Walsh cites influences and with rock music / pop music bands and guitarists with whom many he has encountered and met on concert tours: Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Jeff Beck, the Beatles, Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, Ritchie Blackmore and Deep Purple, Manfred Mann, Duane Allman and The Allman Brothers, Ronnie Wood and The Faces, Pete Townshend and The Who, and The Ventures. In turn, he has influenced Dan Fogelberg, Maroon 5, Kenny Chesney, Jonny Lang, Blitzen Trapper, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and George Thorogood. Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band taught Walsh how to play the slide guitar.
Public service
Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008.
Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.
Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!"
In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things."
In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry, including the Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., and Keith Urban, to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid – a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson.
Personal life
Walsh has been married five times. He was married briefly to Margie Walsh in the 1960s, to Stefany Rhodes from 1971 to 1978, to Juanita Boyer from 1980 to 1988, and to Denise Driscoll from 1999 to 2006. Walsh married Marjorie Bach (sister of Barbara Bach and sister-in-law of Ringo Starr) in Los Angeles on December 13, 2008. Another sister-in-law, Susan Walsh, has been a missing person since 1996.
Walsh's daughter Lucy Walsh is a musician who has worked with Ashlee Simpson and others. She released her debut solo album, Lost in the Lights, in spring 2007.
Walsh's eldest daughter, Emma Kristen, was born in 1971 and died in 1974 at 3 years of age as a result of injuries suffered in an automobile accident on her way to nursery school. Her story inspired the track "Song for Emma" on Walsh's solo album So What released later that year. In her memory, he had a fountain and memorial plaque placed in a park in which she played: North Boulder Park in Boulder, Colorado. He has said that the album name So What was a result of Emma's death: that nothing else seemed meaningful or important in the months that followed. The strain eventually contributed to Walsh's divorce from his second wife Stefany. While touring with singer Stevie Nicks in 1984, Walsh took Nicks to the park's fountain; Nicks subsequently immortalized this story in her song "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?" on her 1985 album Rock A Little. Nicks told the UK's The Daily Telegraph in 2007 that Walsh had been "the great love of my life". "Joe and I broke up because of the coke," she elaborated to Q. "He told my friend and singer Sharon [Celani], 'I'm leaving Stevie, because I'm afraid that one of us is going to die. And the other one won't be able to save the other person, because our cocaine habit has become so over the top now that neither of us can live through this. So the only way to save both of us is for me to leave.'"
Walsh admits to struggling with alcohol and drug addictions for most of his early career and has been in recovery since 1993. In 1989, while touring with New Zealand band Herbs, Walsh experienced an "epiphany" during a visit to Otatara Pa, an ancient Māori pā site in the Hawke's Bay region. In 2004, on a return visit to New Zealand, Walsh described the experience and hailed it as the beginning of his recovery from his addiction. Walsh related the story that in 1994, he woke up after blacking out on an airplane to Paris. When he arrived, he had his passport, but did not remember getting on the plane. That was his turning point, and he has been sober ever since.
While living in New York City, Walsh began a lifelong interest in amateur radio. He holds an Amateur Extra Class Amateur Radio License, and his station callsign is WB6ACU. In 2006, he donated an autographed guitar to the ARRL in Newington, Connecticut, for its charity auction. He has also been involved with the group's "Big Project," which brings amateur radio into schools. Walsh has included Morse Code messages in his albums on two occasions: once on the album Barnstorm ("Register and Vote"), and later on Songs for a Dying Planet ("Register and Vote for Me"). Walsh provides the theme song (which includes Morse code) for the TWiT podcast Ham Nation (debuting in 2011), and he appeared as a guest in the first podcast, as well as episode 400.
Instruments
Jimmy Page's sunburst 1959 Gibson Les Paul, better known as his "Number 1" was originally owned by Walsh and was sold to Page in 1969.
In 1970, Walsh gave a 1959 Gretsch 6120 to the Who's lead guitarist Pete Townshend. Townshend used the Gretsch in the studio to record tracks on albums such as Who's Next and Quadrophenia.
Select other guitars
1959 Gibson Les Paul that was given/sold to Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page in April 1969
Carvin DC4, CT6, CT4, CS4, and other various models.
Duesenberg Starplayer Alliance - Walsh has an Alliance guitar co-developed with him
Amplifiers
Marshall 50 watt Plexi
Discography
The Measles
Singles:
1965: Casting My Spell/Bye Birdie Fly
1966: Kicks/No Baby At All
The Ohio Express
1967: Beg, Borrow And Steal - I Find I Think Of You composed by Joe Walsh and played by his band The Measles.
James Gang
Studio albums:
1969: Yer' Album
1970: James Gang Rides Again
1971: Thirds
Live album:
1971: James Gang Live in Concert
Compilation:
1973: The Best Of James Gang Featuring Joe Walsh
Barnstorm
Studio albums:
1972: Barnstorm
1973: The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get
Eagles
Studio albums:
1976: Hotel California
1979: The Long Run
2007: Long Road out of Eden
Live albums:
1980: Eagles Live
1994: Hell Freezes Over
2020: Live from the Forum MMXVIII
Solo
Collaborations
Indianola Mississippi Seeds - B.B. King (1970)
L.A. Midnight - B.B. King (1972)
The Kids & Me - Billy Preston (1974)
Souvenirs - Dan Fogelberg (1974)
Act Like Nothing's Wrong - Al Kooper (1976)
Stone Alone - Bill Wyman (1976)
A Night on the Town - Rod Stewart (1976)
Nether Lands - Dan Fogelberg (1977)
Little Criminals - Randy Newman (1977)
Earth & Sky - Graham Nash (1980)
Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School - Warren Zevon (1980)
Wild Heart of the Young - Karla Bonoff (1982)
I Can't Stand Still - Don Henley (1982)
Back in the High Life - Steve Winwood (1986)
Richard Marx - Richard Marx (1987)
Red House - Albert King (1991)
The Fire Inside - Bob Seger (1991)
Vertical Man - Ringo Starr (1998)
The Wild - Warren Zevon (2003)
Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates - Kenny Chesney (2007)
Y Not - Ringo Starr (2010)
Ringo 2012 - Ringo Starr (2012)
Postcards from Paradise - Ringo Starr (2015)
Give More Love - Ringo Starr (2017)
What's My Name - Ringo Starr (2019)
Threads - Sheryl Crow (2019)
Filmography
Film
1971: Zachariah Film de George Englund. With Don Johnson: Himself with The James Gang.
1980: The Blues Brothers: A prisoner dancing on a table.
1990: The Best - DVD With Keith Emerson, Jeff Baxter, Joe Walsh, John Entwistle, Simon Phillips: Himself.
Television
Mad TV, as himself, in Episode 1.2 (1995)
Promised land, as R.J., "The Prodigy" (1996)
Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man, voicing himself, "They Craved Duckman's Brain!" (1996) and "Love! Anger! Kvetching!" (1997)
The Drew Carey Show, 7 episodes as Ed ("Drewstock" (1997), "In Ramada Da Vida" (1998), "Golden Boy" (1998), "Drew Between the Rock and a Hard Place" (1998), "Boy Party/Girl Party" (1999), "Steve and Mimi Get Married" (1999), "Drew's in a Coma" (2001))
Drew Carey's Improv All-Stars, guest (2001)
Rock the Cradle (2008), a reality show, the father of contestant Lucy Walsh
Wicked City, as a director, "Running With the Devil" (2015)
Criminal Minds, as himself, "The Sandman" (2016)
Better Things, as himself "Hair of the Dog" (2016)
The Connors, Jesse, "Patriarchs and Goddesses" (2022)
Awards
As a member of The Eagles, Walsh has won five Grammy Awards:
(1977) Record of the Year: "Hotel California" (single)
(1977) Best Arrangement for Voices: "New Kid in Town"
(1979) Best Rock Vocal performance by a Duo or Group: "Heartache Tonight"
(2008) Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: "How Long"
(2009) Best Pop Instrumental Performance: "I Dreamed There Was No War"
Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998
Walsh was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001.
See also
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart
Further reading
Walsh, Joe (1996). Look What I Did! And Then Some .... Hal Leonard Corporation.
Lemco, Steve (2011). Joe & Me''. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
References
External links
1947 births
Living people
Amateur radio people
Record producers from Kansas
American rock guitarists
American male guitarists
American tenors
American rock singers
American male singer-songwriters
American rock songwriters
20th-century American singers
21st-century American composers
21st-century American keyboardists
21st-century American singers
20th-century American composers
American session musicians
American rock keyboardists
American rock pianists
American male pianists
American multi-instrumentalists
20th-century American male actors
American male film actors
Blues rock musicians
Eagles (band) members
The Party Boys members
Musicians from Wichita, Kansas
Kent State University alumni
Musicians from Columbus, Ohio
Montclair High School (New Jersey) alumni
People from Montclair, New Jersey
Writers from Wichita, Kansas
Asylum Records artists
Atlantic Records artists
ABC Records artists
Epic Records artists
Dunhill Records artists
Warner Records artists
MCA Records artists
Fantasy Records artists
The Orchard Records artists
Lead guitarists
Slide guitarists
Grammy Award winners
American people of German descent
American people of Scottish descent
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Singer-songwriters from New Jersey
Male actors from Ohio
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from Kansas
Actors from Wichita, Kansas
American expatriates in Australia
Members
James Gang members
Guitarists from Kansas
Guitarists from Ohio
Guitarists from New Jersey
Kennedy Center honorees
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American pianists
Barnstorm (band) members
The Best (band) members
Singer-songwriters from Kansas | true | [
"Elections to the United States House of Representatives in Florida were held for two seats in the 53rd Congress. These elections were held at the same time as the 1892 presidential election and election for governor.\n\nBackground\nFlorida's congressional delegation had been dominated by Democrats since 1884, with the Republicans losing every Congressional election since then. In 1890, a new party, the People's Party, also known as the Populists, had been established, winning nine seats in the House.\n\nElection results\nThe Republicans did not run any candidates for Congress in 1892. The new People's Party made its first appearance in Florida's congressional elections this year. Robert Bullock (D) of the did not run for renomination.\n\nSee also\nUnited States House of Representatives elections, 1892\n\nReferences\n\n1892\nFlorida\nUnited States House of Representatives",
"The European Congress of Radiology (Europäischer Röntgenkongress) is an annual meeting in Europe for radiologists from around the world. Founded in 1967, the Congress is run by Verein Europäischer Röntgenkongress’ (ECR).\n\nHistory \nWhen the congress was founded in 1967, it was held every four years in a different location. However, this format did not allow for the creation of a consistent group of experienced radiologists responsible for the preparation of the congress. Furthermore, the radiological community in Europe wanted to create a common platform for European radiologists.\n\nIn 1985, a committee chaired by Prof. Dr. Josef Lissner from Munich (Germany) was established to re-organise the Congress. The committee recommended holding the congress every two years in the same location, Vienna (Austria) . The society ‘Verein Europäischer Röntgenkongress’ (ECR) was founded, and a congress-organising institution was established at the Medical Academy of Vienna.The first ‘new’ Congress opened on Saturday, September 15, 1991 under the presidency of Prof. Dr. Lissner. It attracted more than 9,000 participants.\n\nIn 1999, the ECR changed the congress to an annual event. ,\n\nDescription \nThe Congress is the largest radiological meeting in Europe with more than 28,000 participants from around 100 countries and 4,000 scientific papers and exhibits. To answer growing demand, the ECR has developed EPOS, an online electronic presentation system and ECR Online, providing coverage of the majority of sessions via live video streaming.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n EPOS\n ECR Online,\n\nExternal links\n History of the congress from the European Society of Radiology \n Official Website\n\nMedical conferences\nRadiology organizations\nEuropean medical and health organizations"
]
|
[
"Joe Walsh",
"Public service",
"What charities did Joe Walsh work with?",
"Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks.",
"What does he do to help conserve the environment in Santa Cruz?",
"He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.",
"What other charities is he involved with?",
"He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas.",
"How else did he help the public through charities?",
"Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008.",
"What else did he do for the charities?",
"In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., Keith Urban to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid -",
"What was his role with the charities?",
"Walsh contacted others in the music industry",
"What other charity did he sponsor?",
"In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office.",
"What political office was he considering?",
"\"I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress,\" Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C.",
"Did he every run for Congress?",
"In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan \"We Want Our Money Back!\""
]
| C_040d7718872f46c387a6014808d463a3_0 | Did he win? | 10 | Did Joe Walsh win his bid for Vice President? | Joe Walsh | Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008. Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s. Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!" In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things." In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., Keith Urban to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid - a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Joseph Fidler Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American rock singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has been a member of three successful rock bands: James Gang, Eagles, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Walsh was also part of the New Zealand band Herbs. In the 1990s, he was a member of the short-lived supergroup The Best.
Walsh has also experienced success both as a solo artist and as a prolific session musician, being featured on a wide array of other artists' recordings. In 2011, Rolling Stone placed him at the No. 54 spot on its list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
In the mid-1960s, after attending Kent State University, Walsh played with several local Ohio-based bands before reaching a national audience as a member of the James Gang, whose hit song "Funk #49" highlighted his skill as both a guitarist and singer. Roger Abramson, a concert producer and artist manager, signed the James Gang to a management agreement with BPI in Cleveland. After leaving the James Gang in 1972, he formed Barnstorm with Joe Vitale, a college friend from Ohio, and Kenny Passarelli, a bassist from Colorado, where Walsh had moved after leaving Ohio. While the band stayed together for three albums over three years, its works were marketed as Walsh solo projects. The last Barnstorm album, 1974's So What contained significant guest contributions from several members of the Eagles, a group that had recently hired Walsh's producer, Bill Szymczyk.
At Szymczyk's suggestion, Walsh joined the Eagles in 1975 as the band's guitarist and keyboardist following the departure of their founding member Bernie Leadon, with Hotel California being his first album with the band. In 1998, a reader's poll conducted by Guitarist magazine selected the guitar solos on the track "Hotel California" by Walsh and Don Felder as the best guitar solos of all time. Guitar World magazine listed it at eighth of the Top 100 Guitar Solos.
Besides his work with his several bands, he has released 12 solo studio albums, six compilation albums, and two live albums. His solo hits include "Rocky Mountain Way", "Life's Been Good", "All Night Long", "A Life of Illusion", and "Ordinary Average Guy".
As a member of the Eagles, Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, and into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001. The Eagles are considered to be one of the most influential bands of the 1970s, and they remain one of the best-selling American bands in the history of popular music. His creative contribution to music has received praise from many of the best rock guitarists, including Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, who said, "He has a tremendous feel for the instrument. I've loved his style since the early James Gang." Eric Clapton said that "He's one of the best guitarists to surface in some time. I don't listen to many records, but I listen to his." The Who's guitarist, Pete Townshend, said "Joe Walsh is a fluid and intelligent player. There're not many like that around."
Early life and education
Joseph Fidler Walsh was born on November 20, 1947, in Wichita, Kansas. His father, Lt. Robert Newton Fidler, was a flight instructor for the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star in the United States Air Force and died in a plane crash in Okinawa on 22 July 1949. Walsh's mother was a classically trained pianist of Scottish and German ancestry. Walsh was adopted by his stepfather at the age of five and given his stepfather's surname, but retained Fidler as his middle name. In the 1950s, it was common practice for Social Security, school registration, and health records for children to take the name of their stepfather.
Walsh and his family lived in Columbus, Ohio, for a number of years during his youth. When Walsh was twelve years old, his family moved to New York City. Later, Walsh moved to Montclair, New Jersey, and he attended Montclair High School, where he played oboe in the school band.
Walsh got his first guitar at the age of 10, and upon learning The Ventures' "Walk Don't Run", decided that he wanted to pursue a career as a guitarist. Inspired by the success of the Beatles, he replaced Bruce Hoffman as the bass player in the locally popular group, the Nomads in Madison, New Jersey, beginning his career as a rock musician. After high school, Walsh attended Kent State University, where he spent time in various bands playing around the Cleveland area, including the Measles. The Measles recorded for Super K Productions' Ohio Express the songs "I Find I Think of You", "And It's True", and "Maybe" (an instrumental version of "And It's True"). Walsh majored in English and minored in music; he was present during the Kent State massacre in 1970. Walsh commented in 2012: "Being at the shootings really affected me profoundly. I decided that maybe I don't need a degree that bad." After one term, he dropped out of college to pursue his musical career.
Musical career
1965–1967: The Measles (Joe Walsh years)
The Measles, an Ohio garage bar band, were formed in 1965 by four Kent State University students, one of whom was Joe Walsh. Two tracks on the Ohio Express' Beg Borrow and Steal album, "I Find I Think Of You" and "And It's True" (both featuring Joe Walsh vocals) were actually recorded by the Measles, led by Walsh. Additionally, an instrumental version of "And It's True" was recorded by the Measles, re-titled "Maybe" and released as the B-side of the "Beg Borrow and Steal" single.
1968–1971: James Gang
Around Christmas 1967, James Gang guitarist Glenn Schwartz, who turned out to be AWOL from the army and was breaking up with his wife, decided to leave the band to move to California, where he ended up forming the band Pacific Gas & Electric. Days later, Walsh, a friend of Schwartz's, knocked on Jim Fox's door and asked to be given a tryout as Schwartz's replacement. Walsh was accepted and the band continued as a five piece for a short time until Phil Giallombardo, who was still in high school at the time, left. Bill Jeric and Walsh worked together on guitar parts, but Jeric left as well in the spring of 1968. He was replaced by a returning Ronnie Silverman, who had been discharged from the military.
In May 1968, the group played a concert in Detroit at the Grande Ballroom, opening for Cream. At the last minute, Silverman told the others that he would not join them at the show. The band, desperately in need of the money, took to the stage as a trio. They liked their sound as a threesome and decided to remain that way.
In 1968, the band signed with manager Mark Barger, who was handling the career of fellow Ohio outfit the Lemon Pipers, who had just scored a big hit with "Green Tambourine." Barger put the Gang in touch with ABC Records staff producer Bill Szymczyk, who signed them to ABC's new Bluesway Records subsidiary in January 1969.
They released their debut album, Yer' Album, in 1969. In November 1969, bassist Tom Kriss decided he was no longer into the music and left to be replaced by Dale Peters, who was brought in from a group called The Case of E.T. Hooley. The addition of Peters created the most successful incarnation of the James Gang. Walsh proved to be the band's star attraction, noted for his innovative rhythm playing and creative guitar riffs. In particular he was known for hot-wiring the pick-ups on his electric guitars to create his trademark "attack" sound. The James Gang had several minor hits and became an early album-oriented rock staple for the next two years. It was during 1969 that Walsh sold his Les Paul Guitar to Jimmy Page. Later in 1969, the group's record producer, Szymczyk, arranged for the band to appear in the "electric Western" film Zachariah, with two James Gang songs, "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever," also being used. For the recording of these two songs, vocalist Kenny Weiss was brought in to allow Walsh to focus on his guitar playing; he was gone by the time the group arrived in Mexico to shoot their movie scenes. "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever" later reappeared as bonus tracks on the 2000 re-release of The James Gang Greatest Hits.
Shortly before the release of their second album James Gang Rides Again, the James Gang opened a show for the Who in Pittsburgh. Their guitarist Pete Townshend met with the James Gang before they left and was impressed enough to invite them on the Who's subsequent European tour. When Walsh was asked about this he said that, "Pete's a very melodic player and so am I. He told me that he appreciated my playing. I was flattered beyond belief because I didn't think I was that good."
The James Gang's next two albums, James Gang Rides Again (1970) and Thirds (1971), produced such classics as "Funk #49" and "Walk Away". The album James Gang Live at Carnegie Hall was Walsh's last album with them, as he became dissatisfied with the band's limitations.
The two remaining members, Peters and Fox, carried on with the lead vocalist Roy Kenner and guitarist Domenic Troiano (both ex-members of the Canadian band Bush) for two albums, Straight Shooter and Passin' Thru, both released in 1972. But in recent interviews, Fox stated that things did not work out musically with Troiano as hoped, so he left the band in 1973 and joined the Guess Who.
1971–1975: Barnstorm
In December 1971, Walsh left the James Gang. Steve Marriott, frontman guitarist of Humble Pie, invited him to move to England and join his band, which Peter Frampton had left, but Walsh declined. Instead he moved to Colorado and formed a band called Barnstorm, with drummer and multi-instrumentalist Joe Vitale, and bassist Kenny Passarelli, although both of their albums credited Walsh as a solo artist. They started recording their debut album immediately after forming, but at the time there were only Walsh and Vitale on these sessions. Chuck Rainey did the first bass tracks on the album but these were soon replaced by Passarelli. Walsh and Barnstorm released their debut album, the eponymous Barnstorm, in October 1972. After taking a cue from Townshend, Walsh utilized the ARP Odyssey synthesizer to great effect on such songs as "Mother Says" and "Here We Go". Walsh also experimented with acoustic guitar, slide guitar, effects pedals, fuzzbox, talk box, and keyboards as well as running his guitar straight into a Leslie speaker 122 to get swirly, organ-like guitar tones. The album was a critical success, but had only moderate commercial success. The follow-up, The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get, released in June 1973, was marketed under Walsh's name (although officially a Barnstorm album) and was their commercial breakthrough. It peaked at No. 6 on the US Billboard chart. The first and leading single, "Rocky Mountain Way", received heavy airplay and reached No. 23 on the US Top 40 chart. It featured new member, keyboardist Rocke Grace, and Walsh shared the vocals and songwriting with the other three members of the band. As a result, a variety of styles are explored on this album. There are elements of blues, jazz, folk, pop, and Caribbean music. In 1974, Barnstorm disbanded and Walsh continued as a solo artist.
In late 1974, Walsh played slide guitar on Vitale's debut solo album Roller Coaster Weekend. Walsh was taught the slide technique by Duane Allman, who played on Eric Clapton's Layla of Derek and the Dominos.
Barnstorm's last tour was spring 1975, shortly after Joe joined The Eagles.
1975–1980: Eagles
In 1975, Walsh was invited to join The Eagles as founding member Bernie Leadon's replacement. There was some initial concern as to Walsh's ability to fit in with the band, as he was considered far too "wild" for The Eagles, especially by their drummer and co-lead vocalist, Don Henley.
Released on December 8, 1976, Hotel California was the band's fifth studio album and the first to feature Walsh. The album took a year and a half to complete, a process which, along with touring, drained the band.
The second single from the album was the eponymous title track, which topped the charts in May 1977 and became one of the Eagles' signature songs next to "Take It Easy" and "Desperado". It features Henley on lead vocals, with a guitar duet performed by Felder and Walsh.
The hard rock "Life in the Fast Lane", released on May 3, 1977, was based on a riff by Walsh. It reached No. 11 on the charts and helped establish Walsh's position in the band.
Hotel California is the last album to feature founding member Randy Meisner, who abruptly left the band after the 1977 tour. He was replaced by the same musician who had succeeded him in Poco, Timothy B. Schmit.
In 1977, the band, minus Don Felder, performed instrumental work and backing vocals for Randy Newman's album Little Criminals, including "Short People," which has backing vocals by Frey and Schmit.
The Eagles went into the recording studio in 1977 to begin work on their next album, The Long Run. The album took two years to complete. The Long Run was released on September 24, 1979. Considered a disappointment by some music critics for failing to live up to Hotel California, it proved a huge commercial hit nonetheless; the album topped the charts and sold 7 million copies. In addition, it included three Top 10 singles—"Heartache Tonight", the title track and "I Can't Tell You Why". "In The City" by Walsh also received considerable airplay. The band also recorded two Christmas songs during these sessions, "Funky New Year" and "Please Come Home for Christmas" which was released as a single in 1978 and reached No. 18 on the charts. In 1980, the band broke up.
1973–2012: solo career
Walsh has released twelve solo studio albums.
In December 1974, Walsh released his first solo album that was not considered a Barnstorm project, So What, which contained more introspective material such as "Help Me Through the Night" and "Song For Emma", a tribute to Walsh's daughter who had been killed in a car accident that April. On a few tracks, Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner of the Eagles contributed backing vocals.
In March 1976, Walsh released a live album, You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind, which also featured the Eagles.
As the Eagles struggled to record their follow-up to Hotel California, Walsh re-ignited his solo career with the critically well-received album, But Seriously, Folks... in May 1978. It contained the single "Life's Been Good", his comedic depiction of rock stardom, which peaked at No. 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and remains to date his biggest solo hit. Walsh also contributed "In the City" to The Warriors soundtrack in 1979, a song penned and sung by Walsh that was later rerecorded for the Eagles' studio album, The Long Run.
Following the break up of the Eagles in July 1980, Walsh continued to release solo albums throughout the 1980s, but sales did not meet the same level of his earlier successes.
There Goes the Neighborhood was Walsh's first album since the demise of the Eagles, and it peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200. The album only spawned one single, "A Life of Illusion", which became one of Walsh's most popular songs. The single also topped the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, in 1981.
"A Life of Illusion" was recorded in 1973 with Walsh's first solo band Barnstorm but was not completed. The overdubs and final mixes were completed during the There Goes the Neighborhood sessions and released on the album. The promotional video for the track shows the making of the album's cover. This song also appeared in the opening credits of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and appears as the first song on its soundtrack.
In May 1983, Walsh released You Bought It – You Name It; the album was received negatively by the majority of music critics, while other reviewers noted good points to the album. It was also not as successful as Walsh's previous albums, peaking at No. 48 on the Billboard 200. Walsh found moderate success with the single "Space Age Whiz Kids", about the pinnacle of the 1980s video arcade craze. The album contains hard rock songs such as "I Can Play That Rock & Roll" and a cover of the Dick Haymes track, "Love Letters". It also contains more introspective material such as "Class of '65", and contains a song titled "I.L.B.T.s", an acronym for "I Like Big Tits".
Walsh's new girlfriend Stevie Nicks was involved in his next album, The Confessor. Her old friend Keith Olsen was hired to produce the album and the musicians were prolific LA session musicians including: Jim Keltner, Mike Porcaro, Waddy Wachtel, Randy Newman, Alan Pasqua and many other musicians that Walsh had never worked with before.
In 1987, Walsh released his final solo album of the 1980s, Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning, and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead vocalist Jimi Jamison, but the album was a commercial disappointment.
In 1991, Ordinary Average Guy, his ninth solo studio album, and its title track single, were released on the Epic label. The album features Ringo Starr, Jimi Jamison, and drummer Joe Vitale from Walsh's former band Barnstorm. Vitale also sings the lead vocals on the final track of the album, "School Days".
In 1992, Walsh released what appeared to be his final album (until 2012), Songs for a Dying Planet, his tenth solo studio album. Like its predecessor, it was released on the Epic label. Keen to re-establish himself after receiving some poor reviews for his previous album, Walsh enlisted his former producer Bill Szymczyk. At the end of the track "Certain Situations" you can hear a Morse code message that says "Register and vote for me". His song "Vote for Me" was a minor success, peaking at No. 10 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
Walsh's song "One Day at a Time" was released in 2012 and details his struggles with alcohol and drug abuse earlier in his career. The song appeared on Walsh's album Analog Man, which was released on June 5, 2012. The album was co-produced by Jeff Lynne, with Tommy Lee James co-writing some of the album's tracks.
Eagles reunion
An Eagles country tribute album titled Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles was released in 1993, thirteen years after the break up. Travis Tritt insisted on having the Long Run-era Eagles in his video for "Take It Easy" and they agreed. Following years of public speculation, the band formally reunited the following year. The line-up comprised the five Long Run-era members—Frey, Henley, Walsh, Felder, and Schmit—supplemented by Scott Crago (drums), John Corey (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), Timothy Drury (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals) and Al Garth (saxophone, violin) on stage.
"For the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation," announced Frey at their first live performance in April 1994. The ensuing tour spawned a live album titled Hell Freezes Over (named for Henley's recurring statement that the band would get back together "when hell freezes over"), which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. It included four new studio songs, with "Get Over It" and "Love Will Keep Us Alive" both becoming Top 40 hits. The album proved as successful as the tour, selling 6 million copies in the U.S. The tour was interrupted in September 1994 because of Frey's serious recurrence of diverticulitis, but it resumed in 1995 and continued into 1996. In 1998, the Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the induction ceremony, all seven Eagles members (Frey, Henley, Leadon, Meisner, Felder, Walsh, and Schmit) played together for two songs, "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California". Several subsequent reunion tours followed (without Leadon or Meisner), notable for their record-setting ticket prices.
The Eagles performed at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Paradise, Nevada on December 28 and 29, 1999, followed by a concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on December 31. These concerts marked the last time Felder played with the band and these shows (including a planned video release) later formed a part of a lawsuit filed by Felder against his former band members.
The concert recordings were released on CD as part of the four-disc Selected Works: 1972–1999 box set in November 2000. Along with the millennium concert, this set included the band's hit singles, album tracks and outtakes from The Long Run sessions. Selected Works received platinum certification from the RIAA in 2002.
The band resumed touring in 2001, with a line-up consisting of Frey, Henley, Walsh and Schmit, along with Steuart Smith (guitars, mandolin, keyboards, backing vocals; essentially taking over Felder's role), Michael Thompson (keyboards, trombone), Will Hollis (keyboards, backing vocals), Scott Crago (drums, percussion), Bill Armstrong (horns), Al Garth (saxophone, violin), Christian Mostert (saxophone) and Greg Smith (saxophone, percussion).
In 2003, the Eagles released a greatest hits album, The Very Best Of. The two-disc compilation was the first that encompassed their entire career, from Eagles to Hell Freezes Over. It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard charts and eventually gained triple platinum status. The album includes a new single, the September 11 attacks-themed "Hole in the World". Also in 2003, Warren Zevon, a longtime Eagles friend, began work on his final album, The Wind, with the assistance of Henley, Walsh and Schmit.
On June 14, 2005, the Eagles released a new 2-DVD set titled Farewell 1 Tour-Live from Melbourne, featuring two new songs: Frey's "No More Cloudy Days" and Walsh's "One Day at a Time". A special edition 2006 release exclusive to Walmart and affiliated stores includes a bonus audio CD with three new songs: a studio version of "No More Cloudy Days", "Fast Company" and "Do Something".
In 2007, the Eagles consisted of Frey, Henley, Walsh, and Schmit. On August 20, 2007, "How Long", written by J. D. Souther, was released as a single to radio with an accompanying online video at Yahoo! Music. It debuted on television on Country Music Television during the Top 20 Countdown on August 23, 2007. The band had performed the song as part of their live sets in the early to mid-1970s, but did not record it at the time because Souther wanted to reserve it for use on his first solo album. Souther had previously worked with the Eagles, co-writing some of their biggest hits, including "Best of My Love", "Victim of Love", "Heartache Tonight" and "New Kid in Town".
On October 30, 2007, the Eagles released Long Road Out of Eden, their first album of all-new material since 1979. For the first year after the album's release, it was available in the U.S. only via the band's website, at Walmart and at Sam's Club stores. It was commercially available through traditional retail outlets in other countries. The album debuted at number 1 in the U.S., the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Norway. It became their third studio album and seventh release overall to be certified at least seven times platinum by the RIAA. Henley told CNN that "This is probably the last Eagles album that we'll ever make." The Eagles made their awards show debut on November 7, 2007, when they performed "How Long" live at the Country Music Association Awards.
On January 28, 2008, the second single of Long Road Out of Eden was released. "Busy Being Fabulous" peaked at No. 28 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and at No. 12 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. The Eagles won their fifth Grammy in 2007, in the category Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "How Long".
On March 20, 2008, the Eagles launched their world tour in support of Long Road Out of Eden at The O2 Arena in London. The Long Road Out of Eden Tour concluded the American portion of the tour at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah on May 9, 2009. It was the first concert ever held in the new soccer stadium. The tour traveled to Europe, with its final concert date on July 22, 2009, in Lisbon. The band spent the summer of 2010 touring North American stadiums with the Dixie Chicks and Keith Urban. The tour expanded to England as the headline act of the Hop Farm Festival on July 1, 2011.
Asked in November 2010 whether the Eagles were planning a follow-up to Long Road Out of Eden, Schmit replied, "My first reaction would be: no way. But I said that before the last one, so you never really know. Bands are a fragile entity and you never know what's going to happen. It took a long time to do that last album, over a span of years, really, and it took a lot out of us. We took a year off at one point. I'm not sure if we're able to do that again. I wouldn't close the door on it, but I don't know." Walsh said in 2010 that there might be one more album before the band "wraps it up".
In February 2013, the Eagles released a career spanning documentary called History of the Eagles and kicked off the supporting tour with 11 arena dates from July 6 to 25. Henley said that the tour, which would continue until 2015, "could very well be our last... we're gonna include at least one former band member in this tour and kinda go back to the roots, and how we created some of these songs. We're gonna break it down to the fundamentals and then take it up to where it is now."
Original Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon also appeared on the tour. Walsh stated, "Bernie's brilliant, I never really got a chance to play with him, but we've been in contact. We see him from time to time, and I'm really glad he's coming because it's going to take the show up a notch, and I'm really looking forward to playing with him, finally." It has been reported that former members Randy Meisner and Don Felder will not appear. Meisner had been invited but could not participate due to health problems, while Felder was reportedly not invited due to ongoing legal disputes with the band.
Other bands
In late 1984, Walsh was contacted by Australian musician Paul Christie, the former bassist for Mondo Rock. Christie invited him to come to Australia to perform with the Party Boys, an all-star band with a floating membership of well-known Australian rock musicians. These included the critically acclaimed guitarist Kevin Borich, with whom Walsh became good friends. Walsh accepted and performed with the Party Boys on their late-1984–early-1985 Australian tour and appeared on their live album, You Need Professional Help. He remained in Australia for some time after the tour, putting together the short-lived touring band "Creatures From America", with Waddy Wachtel (guitar), Rick Rosas (bass guitar) and Australian drummer Richard Harvey (Divinyls, the Party Boys) In 1987, Walsh returned to the United States to work on his album Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead singer Jimi Jamison. After the album's commercial disappointment, Walsh decided to return to Australia in 1989 to tour with another incarnation of the Party Boys. Walsh also toured with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band in 1989 and 1992, alternating a handful of his best-known songs with Starr's and tunes by other of the members of the All-Starr Band. In 1989, Walsh recorded a MTV Unplugged with the R&B musician Dr. John. Also in 1989 Walsh filmed a live concert from the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles with Etta James and Albert Collins, called Jazzvisions: Jump the Blues Away.
While producing their Homegrown album in 1989, Walsh briefly joined New Zealand reggae band Herbs. Although he had left by the time of its 1990 release, he still appears as lead singer on two tracks, "Up All Night" and "It's Alright". The album includes the first recording of his "Ordinary Average Guys" (sung by late Herbs bassist Charlie Tumahai), which subsequently became a solo hit for Walsh as "Ordinary Average Guy".
In late 1990, Walsh was part of a band called the Best, along with keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist John Entwistle, guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and drummer Simon Phillips. The band performed several shows in Hawaii and Japan, with a live video resulting.
In 1993, Walsh teamed up with Glenn Frey for the "Party of Two" tour in the United States.
In 1996, James Gang did a reunion for the Democratic president, Bill Clinton. The band consisted of their "classic" line-up (Walsh, Peters, Fox), and they performed at the Cleveland State University Convocation Center on November 4, 1996.
In 1998, ABC wanted to use a classic rock song rock for Monday Night Football that year, so they asked Walsh to rewrite the lyrics to "Rocky Mountain Way" for the quarterback John Elway of the Denver Broncos. "Rocky Mountain Elway" was the new title of the song and Walsh appeared in a video that ABC showed on Monday Night Football.
2000s and 2010s
In June 2004, Walsh performed at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, Texas. He was also featured in September 2004 at the Strat Pack, a concert held in London, England, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar. In 2006, Walsh reunited with Jim Fox and Dale Peters of the James Gang for new recordings and a 15-date summer reunion tour. The tour lasted into the fall.
In 2008, Walsh appeared on the Carvin 60th Anniversary Celebration DVD as a celebrity endorser. In the recorded interview, he highly praised Carvin Guitars and claims that the bridge design is "just like the first Les Paul models. I can't even get Gibson to reissue it".
Kent State University awarded Walsh an honorary degree in music in December 2001. In May 2012, the Berklee College of Music awarded Walsh, along with other members of the Eagles, an honorary doctorate for his accomplishments in the field of music.
Notable appearances
In 1974, Walsh produced Dan Fogelberg's Souvenirs album and played the guitar, electric guitar, 12 string guitar, ARP bass and provided backing vocals. He also contacted Graham Nash to sing harmony vocals on "Part of the Plan", which helped send the album to No. 17 on the 1975 Billboard album chart.
In 1973 Walsh supplied the slide guitar solo on Michael Stanley's song "Rosewood Bitters." Walsh later lifted part of that solo and used it prominently in the Eagles' hit "Life in the Fast Lane."
In 1981, Walsh and former Barnstorm bandmate, Joe Vitale, went to work on old friend John Entwistle's fifth solo album Too Late the Hero, whenever they were free to work on it. The album turned out to become John Entwistle's best-charting solo album, with hit singles "Talk Dirty" and "Too Late the Hero".
Walsh was a background musician (1st guitar solo) on Eagles band member Don Henley's 1982 hit "Dirty Laundry" (listed as such in the liner notes of I Can't Stand Still and Actual Miles: Henley's Greatest Hits). Walsh has also contributed to albums by: Ringo Starr; America; REO Speedwagon; Jay Ferguson; Andy Gibb; Wilson Phillips; Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Steve Winwood; and on the Richard Marx hit "Don't Mean Nothing".
Walsh was a regular guest DJ on Los Angeles radio station KLOS during the mid-1980s. They had a Saturday evening feature, with celebrity guest-hosts taking over the microphone (Walsh was the guest host far more frequently than any other). He was also a frequent guest and guest-host of Detroit and Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl.
Onscreen, Walsh has appeared in: The Blues Brothers, Promised Land, The Drew Carey Show, Duckman, MADtv, Live from Daryl's House, Rock the Cradle and Zachariah.
In October 2004, Walsh undertook speaking engagements in New Zealand to warn against the dangers of substance abuse. He said the visit was a "thank you" to people who took him to Otatara Pa when he toured New Zealand with reggae band Herbs while under heavy alcohol and cocaine addictions in 1989, an experience he has cited as the beginning of a long journey back to good health. At Otatara Pa in 2004 Walsh said, "This is a special place, and it is very special to me. It was here on a visit many years ago, up on the hills, that I had a moment of clarity. I don't understand it, but I reconnected with my soul, and I remembered who I used to be. I admitted I had problems and I had to do something about it. It was the beginning of my recovery from my addiction to alcohol and drugs, and when I got back to America it gave me the courage to seek help."
On February 12, 2012, Walsh appeared on stage with Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, and McCartney's band at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to close out the Grammy Awards show. Walsh also appeared on the 60th Episode of Live from Daryl's House with Daryl Hall, which premiered on November 15, 2012.
On February 9, 2014, Walsh was featured in several songs on the CBS special The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles.
In 2014, Walsh made a guest appearance on Foo Fighters' eighth studio album Sonic Highways.
On May 24, 2016, Walsh appeared on NBC's The Voice in which he played slide guitar, talk box and performed Rocky Mountain Way with contestant Laith Al-Saadi.
He appeared on an episode of 'The Conners' on 19 January 2022. He played Aldo's father.
Influences
Walsh cites influences and with rock music / pop music bands and guitarists with whom many he has encountered and met on concert tours: Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Jeff Beck, the Beatles, Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, Ritchie Blackmore and Deep Purple, Manfred Mann, Duane Allman and The Allman Brothers, Ronnie Wood and The Faces, Pete Townshend and The Who, and The Ventures. In turn, he has influenced Dan Fogelberg, Maroon 5, Kenny Chesney, Jonny Lang, Blitzen Trapper, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and George Thorogood. Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band taught Walsh how to play the slide guitar.
Public service
Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008.
Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.
Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!"
In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things."
In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry, including the Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., and Keith Urban, to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid – a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson.
Personal life
Walsh has been married five times. He was married briefly to Margie Walsh in the 1960s, to Stefany Rhodes from 1971 to 1978, to Juanita Boyer from 1980 to 1988, and to Denise Driscoll from 1999 to 2006. Walsh married Marjorie Bach (sister of Barbara Bach and sister-in-law of Ringo Starr) in Los Angeles on December 13, 2008. Another sister-in-law, Susan Walsh, has been a missing person since 1996.
Walsh's daughter Lucy Walsh is a musician who has worked with Ashlee Simpson and others. She released her debut solo album, Lost in the Lights, in spring 2007.
Walsh's eldest daughter, Emma Kristen, was born in 1971 and died in 1974 at 3 years of age as a result of injuries suffered in an automobile accident on her way to nursery school. Her story inspired the track "Song for Emma" on Walsh's solo album So What released later that year. In her memory, he had a fountain and memorial plaque placed in a park in which she played: North Boulder Park in Boulder, Colorado. He has said that the album name So What was a result of Emma's death: that nothing else seemed meaningful or important in the months that followed. The strain eventually contributed to Walsh's divorce from his second wife Stefany. While touring with singer Stevie Nicks in 1984, Walsh took Nicks to the park's fountain; Nicks subsequently immortalized this story in her song "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?" on her 1985 album Rock A Little. Nicks told the UK's The Daily Telegraph in 2007 that Walsh had been "the great love of my life". "Joe and I broke up because of the coke," she elaborated to Q. "He told my friend and singer Sharon [Celani], 'I'm leaving Stevie, because I'm afraid that one of us is going to die. And the other one won't be able to save the other person, because our cocaine habit has become so over the top now that neither of us can live through this. So the only way to save both of us is for me to leave.'"
Walsh admits to struggling with alcohol and drug addictions for most of his early career and has been in recovery since 1993. In 1989, while touring with New Zealand band Herbs, Walsh experienced an "epiphany" during a visit to Otatara Pa, an ancient Māori pā site in the Hawke's Bay region. In 2004, on a return visit to New Zealand, Walsh described the experience and hailed it as the beginning of his recovery from his addiction. Walsh related the story that in 1994, he woke up after blacking out on an airplane to Paris. When he arrived, he had his passport, but did not remember getting on the plane. That was his turning point, and he has been sober ever since.
While living in New York City, Walsh began a lifelong interest in amateur radio. He holds an Amateur Extra Class Amateur Radio License, and his station callsign is WB6ACU. In 2006, he donated an autographed guitar to the ARRL in Newington, Connecticut, for its charity auction. He has also been involved with the group's "Big Project," which brings amateur radio into schools. Walsh has included Morse Code messages in his albums on two occasions: once on the album Barnstorm ("Register and Vote"), and later on Songs for a Dying Planet ("Register and Vote for Me"). Walsh provides the theme song (which includes Morse code) for the TWiT podcast Ham Nation (debuting in 2011), and he appeared as a guest in the first podcast, as well as episode 400.
Instruments
Jimmy Page's sunburst 1959 Gibson Les Paul, better known as his "Number 1" was originally owned by Walsh and was sold to Page in 1969.
In 1970, Walsh gave a 1959 Gretsch 6120 to the Who's lead guitarist Pete Townshend. Townshend used the Gretsch in the studio to record tracks on albums such as Who's Next and Quadrophenia.
Select other guitars
1959 Gibson Les Paul that was given/sold to Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page in April 1969
Carvin DC4, CT6, CT4, CS4, and other various models.
Duesenberg Starplayer Alliance - Walsh has an Alliance guitar co-developed with him
Amplifiers
Marshall 50 watt Plexi
Discography
The Measles
Singles:
1965: Casting My Spell/Bye Birdie Fly
1966: Kicks/No Baby At All
The Ohio Express
1967: Beg, Borrow And Steal - I Find I Think Of You composed by Joe Walsh and played by his band The Measles.
James Gang
Studio albums:
1969: Yer' Album
1970: James Gang Rides Again
1971: Thirds
Live album:
1971: James Gang Live in Concert
Compilation:
1973: The Best Of James Gang Featuring Joe Walsh
Barnstorm
Studio albums:
1972: Barnstorm
1973: The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get
Eagles
Studio albums:
1976: Hotel California
1979: The Long Run
2007: Long Road out of Eden
Live albums:
1980: Eagles Live
1994: Hell Freezes Over
2020: Live from the Forum MMXVIII
Solo
Collaborations
Indianola Mississippi Seeds - B.B. King (1970)
L.A. Midnight - B.B. King (1972)
The Kids & Me - Billy Preston (1974)
Souvenirs - Dan Fogelberg (1974)
Act Like Nothing's Wrong - Al Kooper (1976)
Stone Alone - Bill Wyman (1976)
A Night on the Town - Rod Stewart (1976)
Nether Lands - Dan Fogelberg (1977)
Little Criminals - Randy Newman (1977)
Earth & Sky - Graham Nash (1980)
Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School - Warren Zevon (1980)
Wild Heart of the Young - Karla Bonoff (1982)
I Can't Stand Still - Don Henley (1982)
Back in the High Life - Steve Winwood (1986)
Richard Marx - Richard Marx (1987)
Red House - Albert King (1991)
The Fire Inside - Bob Seger (1991)
Vertical Man - Ringo Starr (1998)
The Wild - Warren Zevon (2003)
Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates - Kenny Chesney (2007)
Y Not - Ringo Starr (2010)
Ringo 2012 - Ringo Starr (2012)
Postcards from Paradise - Ringo Starr (2015)
Give More Love - Ringo Starr (2017)
What's My Name - Ringo Starr (2019)
Threads - Sheryl Crow (2019)
Filmography
Film
1971: Zachariah Film de George Englund. With Don Johnson: Himself with The James Gang.
1980: The Blues Brothers: A prisoner dancing on a table.
1990: The Best - DVD With Keith Emerson, Jeff Baxter, Joe Walsh, John Entwistle, Simon Phillips: Himself.
Television
Mad TV, as himself, in Episode 1.2 (1995)
Promised land, as R.J., "The Prodigy" (1996)
Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man, voicing himself, "They Craved Duckman's Brain!" (1996) and "Love! Anger! Kvetching!" (1997)
The Drew Carey Show, 7 episodes as Ed ("Drewstock" (1997), "In Ramada Da Vida" (1998), "Golden Boy" (1998), "Drew Between the Rock and a Hard Place" (1998), "Boy Party/Girl Party" (1999), "Steve and Mimi Get Married" (1999), "Drew's in a Coma" (2001))
Drew Carey's Improv All-Stars, guest (2001)
Rock the Cradle (2008), a reality show, the father of contestant Lucy Walsh
Wicked City, as a director, "Running With the Devil" (2015)
Criminal Minds, as himself, "The Sandman" (2016)
Better Things, as himself "Hair of the Dog" (2016)
The Connors, Jesse, "Patriarchs and Goddesses" (2022)
Awards
As a member of The Eagles, Walsh has won five Grammy Awards:
(1977) Record of the Year: "Hotel California" (single)
(1977) Best Arrangement for Voices: "New Kid in Town"
(1979) Best Rock Vocal performance by a Duo or Group: "Heartache Tonight"
(2008) Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: "How Long"
(2009) Best Pop Instrumental Performance: "I Dreamed There Was No War"
Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998
Walsh was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001.
See also
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart
Further reading
Walsh, Joe (1996). Look What I Did! And Then Some .... Hal Leonard Corporation.
Lemco, Steve (2011). Joe & Me''. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
References
External links
1947 births
Living people
Amateur radio people
Record producers from Kansas
American rock guitarists
American male guitarists
American tenors
American rock singers
American male singer-songwriters
American rock songwriters
20th-century American singers
21st-century American composers
21st-century American keyboardists
21st-century American singers
20th-century American composers
American session musicians
American rock keyboardists
American rock pianists
American male pianists
American multi-instrumentalists
20th-century American male actors
American male film actors
Blues rock musicians
Eagles (band) members
The Party Boys members
Musicians from Wichita, Kansas
Kent State University alumni
Musicians from Columbus, Ohio
Montclair High School (New Jersey) alumni
People from Montclair, New Jersey
Writers from Wichita, Kansas
Asylum Records artists
Atlantic Records artists
ABC Records artists
Epic Records artists
Dunhill Records artists
Warner Records artists
MCA Records artists
Fantasy Records artists
The Orchard Records artists
Lead guitarists
Slide guitarists
Grammy Award winners
American people of German descent
American people of Scottish descent
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Singer-songwriters from New Jersey
Male actors from Ohio
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from Kansas
Actors from Wichita, Kansas
American expatriates in Australia
Members
James Gang members
Guitarists from Kansas
Guitarists from Ohio
Guitarists from New Jersey
Kennedy Center honorees
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American pianists
Barnstorm (band) members
The Best (band) members
Singer-songwriters from Kansas | false | [
"Karl Cordin (born 3 November 1948) is an Austrian former alpine skier who did only compete in Downhill Races; he competed in the 1972 Winter Olympics, becoming 7th silver medal at FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 1970 in downhill.\n\nBiography\nCording did win three World Cup races: on February 21, 1970, at Jackson Hole, on December 20th, 1970, at Val-d’Isère, and on December 18, 1973, at Zell am See; he did become five-times second and twice third too. He also could achieve the Downhill World Cup in 1969-70.\nHe won the silver medal in the FIS Alpine Skiing World Championships 1970 and became fourth in the FIS Alpine Skiing World Championships 1974; in both races he was overtaken by a racer with a higher number. In 1970, he was in lead (and it looked that he could gain the gold medal) - but Bernhard Russi did win. In 1974, he was on the way to win the bronze medal, but Willi Frommelt did catch it.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1948 births\nLiving people\nAustrian male alpine skiers\nOlympic alpine skiers of Austria\nAlpine skiers at the 1972 Winter Olympics\nFIS Alpine Ski World Cup champions",
"The 1972 UEFA European Under-23 Championship, which spanned two years (1970–72) had 23 entrants. Czechoslovakia U-23s won the competition.\n\nThe 23 national teams were divided into eight groups. The group winners played off against each other on a two-legged home-and-away basis until the winner was decided. There was no finals tournament or 3rd-place playoff.\n\nQualifying Stage\n\nDraw\nThe allocation of teams into qualifying groups was based on that of UEFA Euro 1972 qualifying tournament with several changes, reflecting the absence of some nations:\n Group 2 and 8 had the same competing nations\n Group 1 did not include Wales\n Group 3 did not include England and Malta\n Group 4 did not include Northern Ireland and Cyprus\n Group 5 did not include Belgium and Scotland\n Group 6 did not include Republic of Ireland\n Group 7 did not include Luxembourg\n\nGroup 1\n\nGroup 2\n\nGroup 3\n\nGroup 4\n\nGroup 5\n\nGroup 6\n\nGroup 7\n\nGroup 8\n\nKnockout Stages\n{|width=100%\n|valign=\"center\"|\nQuarter Finals\n Bulgaria 2–2 Netherlands\n Netherlands 0–0 Bulgaria\n Bulgaria 2–0 Netherlands\n2–2: win playoff match\n\n Denmark 2–0 Greece\n Greece 5–0 Denmark\n win 5–2 on aggregate\n\n Soviet Union 3–1 West Germany\n West Germany 0–0 Soviet Union\n win 3–1 on aggregate\n\n Sweden 1–0 Czechoslovakia\n Czechoslovakia 3–1 Sweden\n win 3–2 on aggregate|width=\"5%\"| \n|valign=\"center\"|\nSemi Finals\n Czechoslovakia 2–0 Greece\n Greece 2–1 Czechoslovakia win 3–2 on aggregate Soviet Union 4–0 Bulgaria\n Bulgaria 3–3 Soviet Union win 7–3 on aggregate|width=\"5%\"| \n|valign=\"center\"|\nFinal\n Soviet Union 2–2 Czechoslovakia\n Czechoslovakia 3–1 Soviet Union win 5–3 on aggregate finish as Champions\n|}\n\nSee also\n UEFA European Under-21 Championship\n\nExternal links\n RSSSF Results Archive at rsssf.com\n\nUEFA European Under-21 Championship\n1970–71 in European football\n1971–72 in European football\n1972 in youth association football"
]
|
[
"Good Night, and Good Luck",
"Reception"
]
| C_b52df1f3ac914bd3bd15ba7af59ec591_0 | What was the reception of the film? | 1 | What was the reception of the film Good Night, and Good Luck? | Good Night, and Good Luck | The film was critically acclaimed upon release. It was named "Best Reviewed Film of 2005 in Limited Release" by Rotten Tomatoes, where it achieved a 93% positive review rating, based on reviews from 217 critics. The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Director (Clooney), and Actor (Strathairn). Roger Ebert, in his Chicago Sun-Times review, contends that "the movie is not really about the abuses of McCarthy, but about the process by which Murrow and his team eventually brought about his downfall (some would say his self-destruction). It is like a morality play, from which we learn how journalists should behave. It shows Murrow as fearless, but not flawless." Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton from the ABC show At the Movies each gave the film five stars, making Good Night, and Good Luck the only other film besides Brokeback Mountain to receive such a score from the hosts in 2005. Both described the film as "beautiful" but also praised Clooney for the film's importance. Margaret commented that "[The film] is so important, because it's about things that are really vital today, like the responsibility of the press and examining the press' role in forming opinion." David noted "Though [the film] is in black-and-white, there's nothing monochromatic about Clooney's passion for his subject or the importance of his message." Jack Shafer, a libertarian-leaning columnist for the online magazine Slate, accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography of Murrow. Clooney's film gives the impression that Murrow brought down McCarthy single-handedly, while Shafer notes that in reality much of the mainstream media, many Democrats and some of McCarthy's Republican peers were condemning him before Murrow. Furthermore, Shafer writes, evidence obtained via the declassified Venona espionage program confirmed that many Soviet agents and sympathizers were in fact in positions of influence in the U.S. government, a disclosure the film entirely overlooks: "Clooney and company ignore the material that might argue against their simple-minded thesis about Murrow, the era, and the press to produce an after-school special". One complaint about the film among test audiences was their belief that the actor playing McCarthy was too over the top, not realizing that the film used actual archive footage of McCarthy himself. CANNOTANSWER | The film was critically acclaimed upon release. It was named "Best Reviewed Film of 2005 in Limited Release" | Good Night, and Good Luck (stylized as good night, and good luck.) is a 2005 historical drama film directed by George Clooney, and starring David Strathairn, Patricia Clarkson, Clooney, Jeff Daniels, Robert Downey Jr., and Frank Langella. The film was written by Clooney and Grant Heslov, and portrays the conflict between veteran radio and television journalist Edward R. Murrow (Strathairn) and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, especially relating to the anti-Communist Senator's actions with the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Although released in black and white, it was filmed on color film stock, but on a grayscale set, and was color-corrected to black and white during post-production. It focuses on the theme of media responsibility, and also addresses what occurs when the media offers a voice of dissent from government policy. The movie takes its title (which ends with a period or full stop) from the line with which Murrow routinely signed off his broadcasts.
The film received critical acclaim for Clooney's direction, the writing, cinematography, production design, and performances (particularly Strathairn's). It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Strathairn.
Plot
The setting is 1953, during the early days of television broadcast journalism. Edward R. Murrow, along with his news team, producer Fred Friendly and reporter Joseph Wershba, learn of U.S. Air Force officer Milo Radulovich, who is being forcibly discharged because of family members being known communists and his refusal to denounce them.
Interest is piqued when it is found that the compilation of charges at Radulovich's hearing was in a sealed envelope and nobody saw them. Murrow presents the story to CBS News' director, Sig Mickelson, who warns Murrow that the story will bring serious accusations and repercussions to CBS and their sponsors, some of whom have government contracts. He reluctantly allows the story to air, which gains positive responses from the public. Murrow also tries to ease the worries of his colleague, Don Hollenbeck, who is struggling with both the strain of his recent divorce and attacks from newspaper writer Jack O'Brian, who is accusing him of being biased in his news reporting and being a "pinko".
Wershba is then given an envelope suggesting that Murrow has previously interacted with the Soviets and used to be on their payroll. CBS's Chief Executive, William Paley, brings this up with Murrow. He warns him that if any members of his staff are associated with Communism in any way, however remotely, they would have to recuse themselves from Murrow's next story. They were planning to make a direct attack on Senator Joseph McCarthy and his crusade against Communist infiltration in the U.S. government, which some denounce as a witch hunt. Friendly and Murrow gather their staff together, and when one of the team members voluntarily excuses himself because his ex-wife had attended Communist meetings before they even met, Murrow concludes that this kind of fear is what McCarthy wants. The team stays together and presents the story, which becomes highly praised by the public and the press, with the exception of Jack O'Brian, who continues to attack both Murrow and especially Hollenbeck on their supposed support of communism. Hollenbeck pleads with Murrow to go after O'Brian, but Murrow reluctantly tells him that he cannot attack O'Brian while he is busy going after McCarthy.
As the team turns their focus to a filmed hearing of Annie Lee Moss, a Pentagon communication worker accused of being a Communist based on her name appearing on a list seen by an FBI infiltrator of the American Communist Party, they receive the news that Milo Radulovich is being reinstated by the Air Force, citing no direct evidence supporting any connections with Communism. McCarthy then asks for the opportunity to speak for himself on Murrow's show, which Murrow allows. McCarthy openly accuses Murrow of being a Communist, citing several pieces of evidence that seem to support it. Murrow broadcasts a rebuttal the following week, easily disproving McCarthy's accusations and pointing out that McCarthy didn't do anything to defend himself other than accuse anyone who opposes him as being either a Communist or a Communist sympathizer.
A few days later, the news arrives that the U.S. Senate is investigating McCarthy, which means the imminent end of his crusade. As the team celebrates, Friendly and Murrow learn that Hollenbeck has died by suicide. Paley then tells Murrow and Friendly that their news program's air time is going to be severely cut, citing the high costs of the show's production, along with Murrow's attacks on controversial topics. Also, Joe Wershba and his wife Shirley, who have been concealing their marriage due to CBS forbidding co-workers from being married, are approached by Mickelson, who tells them that everyone knows of their marriage and that he will allow one of them to resign to save face, which Joe agrees to do.
The film is framed by performance of the speech given by Murrow to the Radio and Television News Directors Association at "A Salute to Edward R. Murrow" on October 25, 1958, in which he harshly admonishes his audience not to squander the potential of television to inform and educate the public, so that it does not become only "wires and lights in a box".
Cast
David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow, journalist and host of the CBS television program See It Now
George Clooney as Fred W. Friendly, coproducer with Murrow of See It Now
Robert Downey Jr., as Joseph Wershba, writer, editor, and correspondent for CBS News
Patricia Clarkson as Shirley Wershba
Frank Langella as William Paley, chief executive of CBS
Jeff Daniels as Sig Mickelson, director of CBS News
Tate Donovan as Jesse Zousmer
Ray Wise as Don Hollenbeck, journalist for CBS News; accused in the press of being a "pinko".
Helen Slayton-Hughes as Mary
Alex Borstein as Natalie
Thomas McCarthy as Palmer Williams
Rose Abdoo as Mili Lerner
Reed Diamond as John Aaron
Matt Ross as Eddie Scott
Grant Heslov as Don Hewitt, director of See It Now
Glenn Morshower as Colonel Anderson
Don Creech as Colonel Jenkins
Robert John Burke as Charlie Mack
Robert Knepper as Don Surine
Dianne Reeves as Jazz Singer
JD Cullum as Stage Manager
Peter Jacobson as Jimmy
Simon Helberg as CBS Page
Joseph McCarthy (archive footage) as himself
Liberace (archive footage) as himself
Roy Cohn (archive footage) as himself
Dwight D. Eisenhower (archive footage) as himself
Production
In September 2005, Clooney explained his interest in the story to an audience at the New York Film Festival: "I thought it was a good time to raise the idea of using fear to stifle political debate." Having majored in journalism in college, Clooney was well-versed in the subject matter. His father, Nick Clooney, was a television journalist for many years, appearing as an anchorman in Cincinnati, Ohio; Salt Lake City, Utah; Los Angeles, California; and Buffalo, New York. The elder Clooney also ran for Congress in 2004.
George Clooney was paid $1 each for writing, directing, and acting in Good Night, and Good Luck., which cost $7.5 million to make. Due to an injury he received on the set of Syriana a few months earlier, Clooney could not pass the tests to be insured. He then mortgaged his own house in Los Angeles in order to make the film. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and former eBay president Jeffrey Skoll invested money in the project as executive producers. The film ultimately grossed more than $54 million worldwide.
The CBS offices and studios seen in the movie were all sets on a sound stage. To accomplish a pair of scenes showing characters going up an elevator, different "floors" of the building were laid out on the same level. The "elevator" was actually built on a large turntable at the intersection of the two floor sets, and rotated once the doors were closed. When the doors reopened, the actors appeared to be in a different location. In doing so, the movie exercised a bit of dramatic license—the CBS executive offices at the time were located at 485 Madison Avenue. CBS News was located in an office building just north of Grand Central Terminal (demolished and now the site of the MetLife Building); and the See It Now studio was located in Grand Central Terminal itself, above the waiting room. For dramatic effect, all three areas were depicted as being in the same building.
Clooney and producer Grant Heslov decided to use only archival footage of Joseph McCarthy in his depiction. As all of that footage was black-and-white, that determined the color scheme of the film. A young Robert F. Kennedy is also shown in the movie during McCarthy's hearing sessions. He was then a staff member on the Senate subcommittee chaired by McCarthy.
Music
A small jazz combo starring jazz singer Dianne Reeves was hired to record the soundtrack to the movie. This combo (Peter Martin, Christoph Luty, Jeff Hamilton and Matt Catingub) was featured in the movie in several scenes; for example, in one scene the newsmen pass a studio where she is recording with the rest of the band. The CD is Dianne Reeves's second featuring jazz standards (including "How High the Moon", "I've Got My Eyes on You", "Too Close For Comfort", "Straighten Up and Fly Right" and "One for My Baby"), and it won the Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack to Good Night, and Good Luck. was released on September 27, 2005. The film's score was composed by Jim Papoulis.
Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 93% based on 226 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critics consensus states: "A passionate and concise cinematic civics lesson, Good Night, and Good Luck has plenty to say about today's political and cultural climate, and its ensemble cast is stellar." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100 based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Director (Clooney), and Actor (Strathairn).
Roger Ebert, in his Chicago Sun-Times review, contends that "the movie is not really about the abuses of McCarthy, but about the process by which Murrow and his team eventually brought about his downfall (some would say his self-destruction). It is like a morality play, from which we learn how journalists should behave. It shows Murrow as fearless, but not flawless." Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's film review show At the Movies each gave the film five stars, making Good Night, and Good Luck the only other film besides Brokeback Mountain to receive such a score from the hosts in 2005. Both described the film as "beautiful", but also praised Clooney for the film's importance. Pomeranz commented that, "[The film] is so important, because it's about things that are really vital today, like the responsibility of the press and examining the press' role in forming opinion." David noted: "Though [the film] is in black-and-white, there's nothing monochromatic about Clooney's passion for his subject or the importance of his message."
Jack Shafer, at the time a libertarian-leaning columnist for the online magazine Slate, accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography of Murrow. Clooney's film gives the impression that Murrow brought down McCarthy single-handedly, while Shafer notes that in reality much of the mainstream media, many Democrats and some Republicans were condemning him before Murrow. Furthermore, Shafer writes, evidence obtained via the declassified Venona espionage program confirmed that many Soviet agents and sympathizers were in fact in positions of influence in the U.S. government, a disclosure the film entirely overlooks: "Clooney and company ignore the material that might argue against their simple-minded thesis about Murrow, the era, and the press to produce an after school special".
One complaint about the film among test audiences was their belief that the actor playing McCarthy was too over the top, not realizing that the film used actual archive footage of McCarthy himself.
Awards and nominations
The film was nominated for six Academy Awards at the 2006 Academy Awards, for six BAFTAs at the 2005 BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globes at the 2006 Golden Globe Awards. The American Film Institute named Good Night, and Good Luck. as one of the Top Ten Movies of 2005.
See also
History of television
Tail Gunner Joe-a 1977 TV movie starring Peter Boyle as Joseph McCarthy
Red Scare
References
External links
Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album
2005 films
2000s historical drama films
2000s political drama films
American black-and-white films
American films
American historical drama films
American political drama films
Drama films based on actual events
English-language films
European Film Awards winners (films)
Films about freedom of expression
Films set in the 1950s
Films about journalists
Films about McCarthyism
Films about television
Films about the Hollywood blacklist
Films directed by George Clooney
Films produced by Grant Heslov
Films set in 1953
Films set in 1958
Films set in New York City
Films with screenplays by George Clooney
Films with screenplays by Grant Heslov
Lionsgate films
Participant Media films
Procedural films
Warner Independent Pictures films
Warner Bros. films
Biographical films about journalists | false | [
"Sunset Range is a 1935 American Western film directed by Ray McCarey and starring Hoot Gibson. The film received a mostly positive reception, with praise for Gibson's acting and delivery of humor in what was his first western film in two years.\n\nThe film was regarded by some as being the \"high point\" in the filmmaking activity of the First Division Pictures studio, alongside another western, Rainbow's End, in the same year.\n\nPlot \n\nThe story starts in New York City before the westerners, led by Reasonin' Bates, travel to Arizona to outsmart gangsters in the east. The plot revolves around Bonnie, who gets involved in a case of kidnap and unknowingly hides ransom money. The ranch she owns is managed by Bates, who saves both her and the ransom money from the villain Grant.\n\nCast\n\nCasting \nGibson was cast in the leading role of Reasonin' Bates in what was his first western film in two years and the first since he had signed for First Division Pictures. The role was a departure from his usual western films, instead acting in a story with comedy and drama which was described as being one of his best performances. Gibson, who was a stunt performer in films prior to starring in westerns, performed \"many feats of daring\" in the film.\n\nThe villain Grant was played by Walter McGrail, who was well known in that type of character role in many previous western movies.\n\nReception \nThe Sydney Morning Herald noted that despite the film's \"exciting opening\", the film became \"leisurely\" and described the acting, dialogue and humor as \"feeble\". The Intelligencer Journal offered a more positive review of the film, suggesting that it \"will satisfy every theatregoer with entertainment and thrills\", noting that the film had much comedy and dramatic situations which made for excitement. A positive assessment was also given by The News and Observer, suggesting that the film was \"one of the finest westerns ever made\" which was packed with \"fast action, fast shooting and hard riding from beginning to end\". The Reading Times had considerably praise for Gibson's performance, noting it was one of his best and that he proves himself as being an excellent rider with his handling of comedy and drama. The Casper Star-Tribune also praised the film, remarking that the film takes the audience \"back to the real days of motion pictures\", with praise for Gibson's delivery of humor and noting that he \"has never been better than he appears in 'Sunset Range'\".\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n1935 films\nAmerican films\nEnglish-language films\nAmerican black-and-white films\n1935 Western (genre) films\nAmerican Western (genre) films\nFilms directed by Ray McCarey",
"Land of Oblivion (original French title: La Terre outragée) is a 2011 film by director Michale Boganim. It is concerned with the immediate local effects of the Chernobyl disaster.\n\nPlot\nApril 26, 1986, day when the accident at the Chernobyl disaster power plant shocked the whole world. Technological progress was cursed by millions, and for such as Anya, Chernobyl was a personal disaster — she was widowed on her wedding day; for such as Valery, Chernobyl — a synonym for lost childhood and a crippled future. Endless battle with yourself and fruitless search for what is worth living, it's not all the tests that had to go through the main characters.\n\nCast\n Olga Kurylenko (Anya)\n Andrzej Chyra (Aleksei)\n Ilya Iosifov (Valery in aged 16)\n Sergei Strelnikov (Dmitri)\n Vyacheslav Slanko (Nikolay)\n Nicolas Wanczycki (Patrick)\n\nReception\nThe film was selected to Venice film festival 2011 and to Toronto film festival and another 50 festivals all over he world.\n\"La Terre Outragée will turn heads. This beautifully textured drama about the Chernobyl disaster and its long-term legacy was shot on location, giving the film a shocking sense of immediacy. The camera captures the sobering reality of the environmental catastrophe that devastated Ukraine. But the eerily vacant landscape is only a backdrop to the human cost of the tragedy, which is what director and writer Michale Boganim focuses on in her authoritative feature debut\".FRom Toronto film festival Pierce Handling.\nCritical reception for Land of Oblivion was very good , with Variety praising the movie's production design. The French release was a critical success. 3.7 /5 . Allociné. The film was highly praised in Japan when released after Fukushima disaster . Indiewire's The Playlist stating that \"it does slowly find its rhythm, and so the film rather eloquently builds a picture not just of the lives shattered by disaster, but also these after-lives that are defined by it.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n \n\n2011 films\n2010s disaster films\nFrench films\nFrench drama films\nFrench disaster films\nUkrainian-language films\nRussian-language films\nDrama films based on actual events\n2011 drama films"
]
|
[
"Good Night, and Good Luck",
"Reception",
"What was the reception of the film?",
"The film was critically acclaimed upon release. It was named \"Best Reviewed Film of 2005 in Limited Release\""
]
| C_b52df1f3ac914bd3bd15ba7af59ec591_0 | Did the film have any negative reviews? | 2 | Did the film Good Night, and Good Luck have any negative reviews? | Good Night, and Good Luck | The film was critically acclaimed upon release. It was named "Best Reviewed Film of 2005 in Limited Release" by Rotten Tomatoes, where it achieved a 93% positive review rating, based on reviews from 217 critics. The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Director (Clooney), and Actor (Strathairn). Roger Ebert, in his Chicago Sun-Times review, contends that "the movie is not really about the abuses of McCarthy, but about the process by which Murrow and his team eventually brought about his downfall (some would say his self-destruction). It is like a morality play, from which we learn how journalists should behave. It shows Murrow as fearless, but not flawless." Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton from the ABC show At the Movies each gave the film five stars, making Good Night, and Good Luck the only other film besides Brokeback Mountain to receive such a score from the hosts in 2005. Both described the film as "beautiful" but also praised Clooney for the film's importance. Margaret commented that "[The film] is so important, because it's about things that are really vital today, like the responsibility of the press and examining the press' role in forming opinion." David noted "Though [the film] is in black-and-white, there's nothing monochromatic about Clooney's passion for his subject or the importance of his message." Jack Shafer, a libertarian-leaning columnist for the online magazine Slate, accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography of Murrow. Clooney's film gives the impression that Murrow brought down McCarthy single-handedly, while Shafer notes that in reality much of the mainstream media, many Democrats and some of McCarthy's Republican peers were condemning him before Murrow. Furthermore, Shafer writes, evidence obtained via the declassified Venona espionage program confirmed that many Soviet agents and sympathizers were in fact in positions of influence in the U.S. government, a disclosure the film entirely overlooks: "Clooney and company ignore the material that might argue against their simple-minded thesis about Murrow, the era, and the press to produce an after-school special". One complaint about the film among test audiences was their belief that the actor playing McCarthy was too over the top, not realizing that the film used actual archive footage of McCarthy himself. CANNOTANSWER | Jack Shafer, a libertarian-leaning columnist for the online magazine Slate, accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography of Murrow. | Good Night, and Good Luck (stylized as good night, and good luck.) is a 2005 historical drama film directed by George Clooney, and starring David Strathairn, Patricia Clarkson, Clooney, Jeff Daniels, Robert Downey Jr., and Frank Langella. The film was written by Clooney and Grant Heslov, and portrays the conflict between veteran radio and television journalist Edward R. Murrow (Strathairn) and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, especially relating to the anti-Communist Senator's actions with the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Although released in black and white, it was filmed on color film stock, but on a grayscale set, and was color-corrected to black and white during post-production. It focuses on the theme of media responsibility, and also addresses what occurs when the media offers a voice of dissent from government policy. The movie takes its title (which ends with a period or full stop) from the line with which Murrow routinely signed off his broadcasts.
The film received critical acclaim for Clooney's direction, the writing, cinematography, production design, and performances (particularly Strathairn's). It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Strathairn.
Plot
The setting is 1953, during the early days of television broadcast journalism. Edward R. Murrow, along with his news team, producer Fred Friendly and reporter Joseph Wershba, learn of U.S. Air Force officer Milo Radulovich, who is being forcibly discharged because of family members being known communists and his refusal to denounce them.
Interest is piqued when it is found that the compilation of charges at Radulovich's hearing was in a sealed envelope and nobody saw them. Murrow presents the story to CBS News' director, Sig Mickelson, who warns Murrow that the story will bring serious accusations and repercussions to CBS and their sponsors, some of whom have government contracts. He reluctantly allows the story to air, which gains positive responses from the public. Murrow also tries to ease the worries of his colleague, Don Hollenbeck, who is struggling with both the strain of his recent divorce and attacks from newspaper writer Jack O'Brian, who is accusing him of being biased in his news reporting and being a "pinko".
Wershba is then given an envelope suggesting that Murrow has previously interacted with the Soviets and used to be on their payroll. CBS's Chief Executive, William Paley, brings this up with Murrow. He warns him that if any members of his staff are associated with Communism in any way, however remotely, they would have to recuse themselves from Murrow's next story. They were planning to make a direct attack on Senator Joseph McCarthy and his crusade against Communist infiltration in the U.S. government, which some denounce as a witch hunt. Friendly and Murrow gather their staff together, and when one of the team members voluntarily excuses himself because his ex-wife had attended Communist meetings before they even met, Murrow concludes that this kind of fear is what McCarthy wants. The team stays together and presents the story, which becomes highly praised by the public and the press, with the exception of Jack O'Brian, who continues to attack both Murrow and especially Hollenbeck on their supposed support of communism. Hollenbeck pleads with Murrow to go after O'Brian, but Murrow reluctantly tells him that he cannot attack O'Brian while he is busy going after McCarthy.
As the team turns their focus to a filmed hearing of Annie Lee Moss, a Pentagon communication worker accused of being a Communist based on her name appearing on a list seen by an FBI infiltrator of the American Communist Party, they receive the news that Milo Radulovich is being reinstated by the Air Force, citing no direct evidence supporting any connections with Communism. McCarthy then asks for the opportunity to speak for himself on Murrow's show, which Murrow allows. McCarthy openly accuses Murrow of being a Communist, citing several pieces of evidence that seem to support it. Murrow broadcasts a rebuttal the following week, easily disproving McCarthy's accusations and pointing out that McCarthy didn't do anything to defend himself other than accuse anyone who opposes him as being either a Communist or a Communist sympathizer.
A few days later, the news arrives that the U.S. Senate is investigating McCarthy, which means the imminent end of his crusade. As the team celebrates, Friendly and Murrow learn that Hollenbeck has died by suicide. Paley then tells Murrow and Friendly that their news program's air time is going to be severely cut, citing the high costs of the show's production, along with Murrow's attacks on controversial topics. Also, Joe Wershba and his wife Shirley, who have been concealing their marriage due to CBS forbidding co-workers from being married, are approached by Mickelson, who tells them that everyone knows of their marriage and that he will allow one of them to resign to save face, which Joe agrees to do.
The film is framed by performance of the speech given by Murrow to the Radio and Television News Directors Association at "A Salute to Edward R. Murrow" on October 25, 1958, in which he harshly admonishes his audience not to squander the potential of television to inform and educate the public, so that it does not become only "wires and lights in a box".
Cast
David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow, journalist and host of the CBS television program See It Now
George Clooney as Fred W. Friendly, coproducer with Murrow of See It Now
Robert Downey Jr., as Joseph Wershba, writer, editor, and correspondent for CBS News
Patricia Clarkson as Shirley Wershba
Frank Langella as William Paley, chief executive of CBS
Jeff Daniels as Sig Mickelson, director of CBS News
Tate Donovan as Jesse Zousmer
Ray Wise as Don Hollenbeck, journalist for CBS News; accused in the press of being a "pinko".
Helen Slayton-Hughes as Mary
Alex Borstein as Natalie
Thomas McCarthy as Palmer Williams
Rose Abdoo as Mili Lerner
Reed Diamond as John Aaron
Matt Ross as Eddie Scott
Grant Heslov as Don Hewitt, director of See It Now
Glenn Morshower as Colonel Anderson
Don Creech as Colonel Jenkins
Robert John Burke as Charlie Mack
Robert Knepper as Don Surine
Dianne Reeves as Jazz Singer
JD Cullum as Stage Manager
Peter Jacobson as Jimmy
Simon Helberg as CBS Page
Joseph McCarthy (archive footage) as himself
Liberace (archive footage) as himself
Roy Cohn (archive footage) as himself
Dwight D. Eisenhower (archive footage) as himself
Production
In September 2005, Clooney explained his interest in the story to an audience at the New York Film Festival: "I thought it was a good time to raise the idea of using fear to stifle political debate." Having majored in journalism in college, Clooney was well-versed in the subject matter. His father, Nick Clooney, was a television journalist for many years, appearing as an anchorman in Cincinnati, Ohio; Salt Lake City, Utah; Los Angeles, California; and Buffalo, New York. The elder Clooney also ran for Congress in 2004.
George Clooney was paid $1 each for writing, directing, and acting in Good Night, and Good Luck., which cost $7.5 million to make. Due to an injury he received on the set of Syriana a few months earlier, Clooney could not pass the tests to be insured. He then mortgaged his own house in Los Angeles in order to make the film. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and former eBay president Jeffrey Skoll invested money in the project as executive producers. The film ultimately grossed more than $54 million worldwide.
The CBS offices and studios seen in the movie were all sets on a sound stage. To accomplish a pair of scenes showing characters going up an elevator, different "floors" of the building were laid out on the same level. The "elevator" was actually built on a large turntable at the intersection of the two floor sets, and rotated once the doors were closed. When the doors reopened, the actors appeared to be in a different location. In doing so, the movie exercised a bit of dramatic license—the CBS executive offices at the time were located at 485 Madison Avenue. CBS News was located in an office building just north of Grand Central Terminal (demolished and now the site of the MetLife Building); and the See It Now studio was located in Grand Central Terminal itself, above the waiting room. For dramatic effect, all three areas were depicted as being in the same building.
Clooney and producer Grant Heslov decided to use only archival footage of Joseph McCarthy in his depiction. As all of that footage was black-and-white, that determined the color scheme of the film. A young Robert F. Kennedy is also shown in the movie during McCarthy's hearing sessions. He was then a staff member on the Senate subcommittee chaired by McCarthy.
Music
A small jazz combo starring jazz singer Dianne Reeves was hired to record the soundtrack to the movie. This combo (Peter Martin, Christoph Luty, Jeff Hamilton and Matt Catingub) was featured in the movie in several scenes; for example, in one scene the newsmen pass a studio where she is recording with the rest of the band. The CD is Dianne Reeves's second featuring jazz standards (including "How High the Moon", "I've Got My Eyes on You", "Too Close For Comfort", "Straighten Up and Fly Right" and "One for My Baby"), and it won the Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack to Good Night, and Good Luck. was released on September 27, 2005. The film's score was composed by Jim Papoulis.
Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 93% based on 226 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critics consensus states: "A passionate and concise cinematic civics lesson, Good Night, and Good Luck has plenty to say about today's political and cultural climate, and its ensemble cast is stellar." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100 based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Director (Clooney), and Actor (Strathairn).
Roger Ebert, in his Chicago Sun-Times review, contends that "the movie is not really about the abuses of McCarthy, but about the process by which Murrow and his team eventually brought about his downfall (some would say his self-destruction). It is like a morality play, from which we learn how journalists should behave. It shows Murrow as fearless, but not flawless." Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's film review show At the Movies each gave the film five stars, making Good Night, and Good Luck the only other film besides Brokeback Mountain to receive such a score from the hosts in 2005. Both described the film as "beautiful", but also praised Clooney for the film's importance. Pomeranz commented that, "[The film] is so important, because it's about things that are really vital today, like the responsibility of the press and examining the press' role in forming opinion." David noted: "Though [the film] is in black-and-white, there's nothing monochromatic about Clooney's passion for his subject or the importance of his message."
Jack Shafer, at the time a libertarian-leaning columnist for the online magazine Slate, accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography of Murrow. Clooney's film gives the impression that Murrow brought down McCarthy single-handedly, while Shafer notes that in reality much of the mainstream media, many Democrats and some Republicans were condemning him before Murrow. Furthermore, Shafer writes, evidence obtained via the declassified Venona espionage program confirmed that many Soviet agents and sympathizers were in fact in positions of influence in the U.S. government, a disclosure the film entirely overlooks: "Clooney and company ignore the material that might argue against their simple-minded thesis about Murrow, the era, and the press to produce an after school special".
One complaint about the film among test audiences was their belief that the actor playing McCarthy was too over the top, not realizing that the film used actual archive footage of McCarthy himself.
Awards and nominations
The film was nominated for six Academy Awards at the 2006 Academy Awards, for six BAFTAs at the 2005 BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globes at the 2006 Golden Globe Awards. The American Film Institute named Good Night, and Good Luck. as one of the Top Ten Movies of 2005.
See also
History of television
Tail Gunner Joe-a 1977 TV movie starring Peter Boyle as Joseph McCarthy
Red Scare
References
External links
Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album
2005 films
2000s historical drama films
2000s political drama films
American black-and-white films
American films
American historical drama films
American political drama films
Drama films based on actual events
English-language films
European Film Awards winners (films)
Films about freedom of expression
Films set in the 1950s
Films about journalists
Films about McCarthyism
Films about television
Films about the Hollywood blacklist
Films directed by George Clooney
Films produced by Grant Heslov
Films set in 1953
Films set in 1958
Films set in New York City
Films with screenplays by George Clooney
Films with screenplays by Grant Heslov
Lionsgate films
Participant Media films
Procedural films
Warner Independent Pictures films
Warner Bros. films
Biographical films about journalists | false | [
"On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, a film has a rating of 100% if each professional review recorded by the website is, overall, assessed as positive rather than negative.\n\nCriteria\nThe percentage is based on the film's reviews aggregated by the website and assessed as positive or negative, and when all aggregated reviews are positive, the film has a 100% rating. Listed below are films with 100% ratings that have a critics' consensus or have been reviewed by at least twenty film critics. Many of these films, particularly those with a high number of positive reviews, have achieved wide critical acclaim and are often considered among the best films ever made. A number of these films also appear on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies lists, but there are many others and several entries with dozens of positive reviews, which are considered surprising to some experts. To date, Leave No Trace holds the site's record, with a rating of 100% and 248 positive reviews.\n\nLoss of perfect rating\nThe 100% rating is vulnerable to a film critic gaming the system by purposely submitting a negative review. For example, Lady Bird had a 100% rating based on 196 positive reviews when film critic Cole Smithey submitted a negative review solely in response to the perfect rating. To date, Lady Bird has a 99% rating with 394 positive reviews and four negative reviews. Paddington 2 held a perfect rating from its release in 2017 until film critic Eddie Harrison published a negative review in June 2021. The film has a 99% rating with 247 reviews, with one negative review from the aforementioned critic. The 100% rating could also be affected by rediscovering negative reviews, as in the case with Citizen Kane when an 80-year-old negative review from the Chicago Tribune affected its former 100% rating with 115 reviews.\n\nList\n\nSee also \n List of films considered the best\n List of films considered the worst\n List of films with a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes\n AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)\n\nReferences \n\nRotten Tomatoes\nRotten Tomatoes",
"Ninjababy is a 2021 Norwegian dramedy film directed by Yngvild Sve Flikke, from a screenplay by Johan Fasting, based on Inga H Sætre's graphic novel Fallteknikk. The film stars Kristine Thorp, Arthur Berning and Nader Khademi.\n\nThe film had its worldwide premiere at the 2021 Tromsø International Film Festival on January 18, 2021 and will have an international premiere at the 71st Berlin International Film Festival in the Generation 14plus section.\n\nPlot\n\nCast\n Kristine Thorp as Rakel\n Arthur Berning\n Nader Khademi\n\nReception \nThe review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes surveyed and, categorizing the reviews as positive or negative, assessed 5 as positive and 0 as negative for a 100% rating. Among the reviews, it determined an average rating of 7 out of 10.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n \n\nNorwegian-language films\nNorwegian films\nNorwegian drama films"
]
|
[
"Good Night, and Good Luck",
"Reception",
"What was the reception of the film?",
"The film was critically acclaimed upon release. It was named \"Best Reviewed Film of 2005 in Limited Release\"",
"Did the film have any negative reviews?",
"Jack Shafer, a libertarian-leaning columnist for the online magazine Slate, accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography of Murrow."
]
| C_b52df1f3ac914bd3bd15ba7af59ec591_0 | What was a positive review of the film? | 3 | What was a positive review of the film Good Night, and Good Luck? | Good Night, and Good Luck | The film was critically acclaimed upon release. It was named "Best Reviewed Film of 2005 in Limited Release" by Rotten Tomatoes, where it achieved a 93% positive review rating, based on reviews from 217 critics. The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Director (Clooney), and Actor (Strathairn). Roger Ebert, in his Chicago Sun-Times review, contends that "the movie is not really about the abuses of McCarthy, but about the process by which Murrow and his team eventually brought about his downfall (some would say his self-destruction). It is like a morality play, from which we learn how journalists should behave. It shows Murrow as fearless, but not flawless." Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton from the ABC show At the Movies each gave the film five stars, making Good Night, and Good Luck the only other film besides Brokeback Mountain to receive such a score from the hosts in 2005. Both described the film as "beautiful" but also praised Clooney for the film's importance. Margaret commented that "[The film] is so important, because it's about things that are really vital today, like the responsibility of the press and examining the press' role in forming opinion." David noted "Though [the film] is in black-and-white, there's nothing monochromatic about Clooney's passion for his subject or the importance of his message." Jack Shafer, a libertarian-leaning columnist for the online magazine Slate, accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography of Murrow. Clooney's film gives the impression that Murrow brought down McCarthy single-handedly, while Shafer notes that in reality much of the mainstream media, many Democrats and some of McCarthy's Republican peers were condemning him before Murrow. Furthermore, Shafer writes, evidence obtained via the declassified Venona espionage program confirmed that many Soviet agents and sympathizers were in fact in positions of influence in the U.S. government, a disclosure the film entirely overlooks: "Clooney and company ignore the material that might argue against their simple-minded thesis about Murrow, the era, and the press to produce an after-school special". One complaint about the film among test audiences was their belief that the actor playing McCarthy was too over the top, not realizing that the film used actual archive footage of McCarthy himself. CANNOTANSWER | "[The film] is so important, because it's about things that are really vital today, like the responsibility of the press and examining the press' role in forming opinion." | Good Night, and Good Luck (stylized as good night, and good luck.) is a 2005 historical drama film directed by George Clooney, and starring David Strathairn, Patricia Clarkson, Clooney, Jeff Daniels, Robert Downey Jr., and Frank Langella. The film was written by Clooney and Grant Heslov, and portrays the conflict between veteran radio and television journalist Edward R. Murrow (Strathairn) and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, especially relating to the anti-Communist Senator's actions with the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Although released in black and white, it was filmed on color film stock, but on a grayscale set, and was color-corrected to black and white during post-production. It focuses on the theme of media responsibility, and also addresses what occurs when the media offers a voice of dissent from government policy. The movie takes its title (which ends with a period or full stop) from the line with which Murrow routinely signed off his broadcasts.
The film received critical acclaim for Clooney's direction, the writing, cinematography, production design, and performances (particularly Strathairn's). It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Strathairn.
Plot
The setting is 1953, during the early days of television broadcast journalism. Edward R. Murrow, along with his news team, producer Fred Friendly and reporter Joseph Wershba, learn of U.S. Air Force officer Milo Radulovich, who is being forcibly discharged because of family members being known communists and his refusal to denounce them.
Interest is piqued when it is found that the compilation of charges at Radulovich's hearing was in a sealed envelope and nobody saw them. Murrow presents the story to CBS News' director, Sig Mickelson, who warns Murrow that the story will bring serious accusations and repercussions to CBS and their sponsors, some of whom have government contracts. He reluctantly allows the story to air, which gains positive responses from the public. Murrow also tries to ease the worries of his colleague, Don Hollenbeck, who is struggling with both the strain of his recent divorce and attacks from newspaper writer Jack O'Brian, who is accusing him of being biased in his news reporting and being a "pinko".
Wershba is then given an envelope suggesting that Murrow has previously interacted with the Soviets and used to be on their payroll. CBS's Chief Executive, William Paley, brings this up with Murrow. He warns him that if any members of his staff are associated with Communism in any way, however remotely, they would have to recuse themselves from Murrow's next story. They were planning to make a direct attack on Senator Joseph McCarthy and his crusade against Communist infiltration in the U.S. government, which some denounce as a witch hunt. Friendly and Murrow gather their staff together, and when one of the team members voluntarily excuses himself because his ex-wife had attended Communist meetings before they even met, Murrow concludes that this kind of fear is what McCarthy wants. The team stays together and presents the story, which becomes highly praised by the public and the press, with the exception of Jack O'Brian, who continues to attack both Murrow and especially Hollenbeck on their supposed support of communism. Hollenbeck pleads with Murrow to go after O'Brian, but Murrow reluctantly tells him that he cannot attack O'Brian while he is busy going after McCarthy.
As the team turns their focus to a filmed hearing of Annie Lee Moss, a Pentagon communication worker accused of being a Communist based on her name appearing on a list seen by an FBI infiltrator of the American Communist Party, they receive the news that Milo Radulovich is being reinstated by the Air Force, citing no direct evidence supporting any connections with Communism. McCarthy then asks for the opportunity to speak for himself on Murrow's show, which Murrow allows. McCarthy openly accuses Murrow of being a Communist, citing several pieces of evidence that seem to support it. Murrow broadcasts a rebuttal the following week, easily disproving McCarthy's accusations and pointing out that McCarthy didn't do anything to defend himself other than accuse anyone who opposes him as being either a Communist or a Communist sympathizer.
A few days later, the news arrives that the U.S. Senate is investigating McCarthy, which means the imminent end of his crusade. As the team celebrates, Friendly and Murrow learn that Hollenbeck has died by suicide. Paley then tells Murrow and Friendly that their news program's air time is going to be severely cut, citing the high costs of the show's production, along with Murrow's attacks on controversial topics. Also, Joe Wershba and his wife Shirley, who have been concealing their marriage due to CBS forbidding co-workers from being married, are approached by Mickelson, who tells them that everyone knows of their marriage and that he will allow one of them to resign to save face, which Joe agrees to do.
The film is framed by performance of the speech given by Murrow to the Radio and Television News Directors Association at "A Salute to Edward R. Murrow" on October 25, 1958, in which he harshly admonishes his audience not to squander the potential of television to inform and educate the public, so that it does not become only "wires and lights in a box".
Cast
David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow, journalist and host of the CBS television program See It Now
George Clooney as Fred W. Friendly, coproducer with Murrow of See It Now
Robert Downey Jr., as Joseph Wershba, writer, editor, and correspondent for CBS News
Patricia Clarkson as Shirley Wershba
Frank Langella as William Paley, chief executive of CBS
Jeff Daniels as Sig Mickelson, director of CBS News
Tate Donovan as Jesse Zousmer
Ray Wise as Don Hollenbeck, journalist for CBS News; accused in the press of being a "pinko".
Helen Slayton-Hughes as Mary
Alex Borstein as Natalie
Thomas McCarthy as Palmer Williams
Rose Abdoo as Mili Lerner
Reed Diamond as John Aaron
Matt Ross as Eddie Scott
Grant Heslov as Don Hewitt, director of See It Now
Glenn Morshower as Colonel Anderson
Don Creech as Colonel Jenkins
Robert John Burke as Charlie Mack
Robert Knepper as Don Surine
Dianne Reeves as Jazz Singer
JD Cullum as Stage Manager
Peter Jacobson as Jimmy
Simon Helberg as CBS Page
Joseph McCarthy (archive footage) as himself
Liberace (archive footage) as himself
Roy Cohn (archive footage) as himself
Dwight D. Eisenhower (archive footage) as himself
Production
In September 2005, Clooney explained his interest in the story to an audience at the New York Film Festival: "I thought it was a good time to raise the idea of using fear to stifle political debate." Having majored in journalism in college, Clooney was well-versed in the subject matter. His father, Nick Clooney, was a television journalist for many years, appearing as an anchorman in Cincinnati, Ohio; Salt Lake City, Utah; Los Angeles, California; and Buffalo, New York. The elder Clooney also ran for Congress in 2004.
George Clooney was paid $1 each for writing, directing, and acting in Good Night, and Good Luck., which cost $7.5 million to make. Due to an injury he received on the set of Syriana a few months earlier, Clooney could not pass the tests to be insured. He then mortgaged his own house in Los Angeles in order to make the film. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and former eBay president Jeffrey Skoll invested money in the project as executive producers. The film ultimately grossed more than $54 million worldwide.
The CBS offices and studios seen in the movie were all sets on a sound stage. To accomplish a pair of scenes showing characters going up an elevator, different "floors" of the building were laid out on the same level. The "elevator" was actually built on a large turntable at the intersection of the two floor sets, and rotated once the doors were closed. When the doors reopened, the actors appeared to be in a different location. In doing so, the movie exercised a bit of dramatic license—the CBS executive offices at the time were located at 485 Madison Avenue. CBS News was located in an office building just north of Grand Central Terminal (demolished and now the site of the MetLife Building); and the See It Now studio was located in Grand Central Terminal itself, above the waiting room. For dramatic effect, all three areas were depicted as being in the same building.
Clooney and producer Grant Heslov decided to use only archival footage of Joseph McCarthy in his depiction. As all of that footage was black-and-white, that determined the color scheme of the film. A young Robert F. Kennedy is also shown in the movie during McCarthy's hearing sessions. He was then a staff member on the Senate subcommittee chaired by McCarthy.
Music
A small jazz combo starring jazz singer Dianne Reeves was hired to record the soundtrack to the movie. This combo (Peter Martin, Christoph Luty, Jeff Hamilton and Matt Catingub) was featured in the movie in several scenes; for example, in one scene the newsmen pass a studio where she is recording with the rest of the band. The CD is Dianne Reeves's second featuring jazz standards (including "How High the Moon", "I've Got My Eyes on You", "Too Close For Comfort", "Straighten Up and Fly Right" and "One for My Baby"), and it won the Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack to Good Night, and Good Luck. was released on September 27, 2005. The film's score was composed by Jim Papoulis.
Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 93% based on 226 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critics consensus states: "A passionate and concise cinematic civics lesson, Good Night, and Good Luck has plenty to say about today's political and cultural climate, and its ensemble cast is stellar." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100 based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Director (Clooney), and Actor (Strathairn).
Roger Ebert, in his Chicago Sun-Times review, contends that "the movie is not really about the abuses of McCarthy, but about the process by which Murrow and his team eventually brought about his downfall (some would say his self-destruction). It is like a morality play, from which we learn how journalists should behave. It shows Murrow as fearless, but not flawless." Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's film review show At the Movies each gave the film five stars, making Good Night, and Good Luck the only other film besides Brokeback Mountain to receive such a score from the hosts in 2005. Both described the film as "beautiful", but also praised Clooney for the film's importance. Pomeranz commented that, "[The film] is so important, because it's about things that are really vital today, like the responsibility of the press and examining the press' role in forming opinion." David noted: "Though [the film] is in black-and-white, there's nothing monochromatic about Clooney's passion for his subject or the importance of his message."
Jack Shafer, at the time a libertarian-leaning columnist for the online magazine Slate, accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography of Murrow. Clooney's film gives the impression that Murrow brought down McCarthy single-handedly, while Shafer notes that in reality much of the mainstream media, many Democrats and some Republicans were condemning him before Murrow. Furthermore, Shafer writes, evidence obtained via the declassified Venona espionage program confirmed that many Soviet agents and sympathizers were in fact in positions of influence in the U.S. government, a disclosure the film entirely overlooks: "Clooney and company ignore the material that might argue against their simple-minded thesis about Murrow, the era, and the press to produce an after school special".
One complaint about the film among test audiences was their belief that the actor playing McCarthy was too over the top, not realizing that the film used actual archive footage of McCarthy himself.
Awards and nominations
The film was nominated for six Academy Awards at the 2006 Academy Awards, for six BAFTAs at the 2005 BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globes at the 2006 Golden Globe Awards. The American Film Institute named Good Night, and Good Luck. as one of the Top Ten Movies of 2005.
See also
History of television
Tail Gunner Joe-a 1977 TV movie starring Peter Boyle as Joseph McCarthy
Red Scare
References
External links
Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album
2005 films
2000s historical drama films
2000s political drama films
American black-and-white films
American films
American historical drama films
American political drama films
Drama films based on actual events
English-language films
European Film Awards winners (films)
Films about freedom of expression
Films set in the 1950s
Films about journalists
Films about McCarthyism
Films about television
Films about the Hollywood blacklist
Films directed by George Clooney
Films produced by Grant Heslov
Films set in 1953
Films set in 1958
Films set in New York City
Films with screenplays by George Clooney
Films with screenplays by Grant Heslov
Lionsgate films
Participant Media films
Procedural films
Warner Independent Pictures films
Warner Bros. films
Biographical films about journalists | true | [
"Martha & Ethel is a 1994 documentary film directed by Jyll Johnstone. It premiered at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. It was subsequently nominated for a Directors Guild of America award, losing to Steve James for Hoop Dreams. The film was distributed in theaters by Sony Pictures Classics and on home video by Columbia TriStar Home Video.\n\nSynopsis\nMartha & Ethel tells the stories of two women in their 80s: a German-Catholic woman named Martha and an African-American woman named Ethel, the former nannies of director/producer Jyll Johnstone and co-producer Barbara Ettinger. It examines each woman’s background and hiring into affluent New York families. The Johnstone and Ettinger children, now grown, reflect on how Martha and Ethel played formative—and often confusing—roles in their lives.\n\nReception\nUpon release, the film received mostly positive reviews. It currently (as of August 2009) maintains a 100% \"freshness\" rating on review aggregation website rottentomatoes.com, based on five reviews. Roger Ebert gave the film three stars and called it \"as fascinating for what it doesn't say as for what it does.\"\n\nExternal links\n \n \n Film Summary on Canobie Films website\n Washington Post Review of the film\n New York Times Review of the film\n Variety's Analysis of the film\n\nReferences\n\n1994 films\nAmerican documentary films\nAmerican films",
"2040 is a 2019 Australian documentary directed by and starring Damon Gameau. The film looks at the effects of climate change over the next 20 years and what technologies that exist today can reverse the effects.\n\nSynopsis\n2040 follows Gameau's imagining of a future for his four-year old daughter Velvet, where climate change has been solved. Described as “an exercise in fact-based dreaming” the film is structured as a letter to his daughter whereby Gameau travels around the world investigating numerous solutions that can contribute towards climate mitigation and imagining what a future would be like where they have been implemented at scale. In choosing what to feature in the film, Gameau restricted it to solutions that are either already available or have a realistic potential to greatly contribute to reversing climate change by the year 2040. The film features interviews with numerous academics, ecological experts and entrepreneurs and covers five broad areas. \n\nIt examines how renewable energy, like rooftop solar, have enabled micro-grids to form in Bangladesh enabling communities to produce, own and trade their own energy. The film addresses mobility and how a move away from car-ownership through self-driving cars and ride-sharing can enable the redesign of urban areas by promoting green spaces and more livable cities. \n\nIt also examines the role of agriculture and how a shift towards regenerative agricultural practices can not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also contribute to carbon sequestration while enabling greater resilience, such as through increased water retention. The climate benefits of adopting plant-rich diets are also discussed. \n\nThe film also looks at the many uses of seaweeds and how bringing seaweed ecosystems to the open ocean through Marine Permaculture can enable the sustainable harvest of seaweeds and fish to help guarantee food security while regenerating marine life and sequestering carbon. \n\nFinally, Gameau considers the cascading societal benefits of the empowerment of women and girls, notably through education, as it enables women to have greater control over their life-decisions thereby providing a non-coercive, human-rights based means to reduce population growth.\n\nCast\nAlong with Gameau, the film features interviews with Paul Hawken, Kate Raworth, Tony Seba, Neel Tahmane, Eric Toensmeier, Genevieve Bell, Brian Von Herzen, Amanda Cahill, Colin Seis and Helena Norberg-Hodge.\n\nReception\n2040 received a positive response from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that of 22 film critics had given the film a positive review, with a rating average of . The site's critics' consensus reads: \"With 2040, documentarian Damon Gameau entertainingly surveys possible solutions to the climate change crisis, offering an unusually optimistic way forward.\"\n\nIn his review for The Guardian, Luke Buckmaster was generally positive, saying \"Damon Gameau’s upbeat documentary predicts our best selves saving the planet but would have been better as a TV series\". Although doubtful of Gameau’s on-screen persona, Ben Kenigsberg of the New York Times was mostly positive describing it as an “accessible, informative and optimistic look at solutions to the climate crisis”. In a review oriented towards parents, Sandie Angulo Chen of Commonsense Media was also positive, giving the film a four-star review in a review that emphasised its educational value and positive messaging. \n\nThe film received international attention, having been selected for the Seattle, Stockholm, Berlin and Gold Coast film festivals.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\nWhat's your 2040? website\n\n2019 films\nAustralian documentary films\nAustralian films\nDocumentary films about global warming\nMadman Entertainment"
]
|
[
"Good Night, and Good Luck",
"Reception",
"What was the reception of the film?",
"The film was critically acclaimed upon release. It was named \"Best Reviewed Film of 2005 in Limited Release\"",
"Did the film have any negative reviews?",
"Jack Shafer, a libertarian-leaning columnist for the online magazine Slate, accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography of Murrow.",
"What was a positive review of the film?",
"\"[The film] is so important, because it's about things that are really vital today, like the responsibility of the press and examining the press' role in forming opinion.\""
]
| C_b52df1f3ac914bd3bd15ba7af59ec591_0 | Did the film win any awards? | 4 | Did the film Good Night, and Good Luck win any awards? | Good Night, and Good Luck | The film was critically acclaimed upon release. It was named "Best Reviewed Film of 2005 in Limited Release" by Rotten Tomatoes, where it achieved a 93% positive review rating, based on reviews from 217 critics. The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Director (Clooney), and Actor (Strathairn). Roger Ebert, in his Chicago Sun-Times review, contends that "the movie is not really about the abuses of McCarthy, but about the process by which Murrow and his team eventually brought about his downfall (some would say his self-destruction). It is like a morality play, from which we learn how journalists should behave. It shows Murrow as fearless, but not flawless." Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton from the ABC show At the Movies each gave the film five stars, making Good Night, and Good Luck the only other film besides Brokeback Mountain to receive such a score from the hosts in 2005. Both described the film as "beautiful" but also praised Clooney for the film's importance. Margaret commented that "[The film] is so important, because it's about things that are really vital today, like the responsibility of the press and examining the press' role in forming opinion." David noted "Though [the film] is in black-and-white, there's nothing monochromatic about Clooney's passion for his subject or the importance of his message." Jack Shafer, a libertarian-leaning columnist for the online magazine Slate, accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography of Murrow. Clooney's film gives the impression that Murrow brought down McCarthy single-handedly, while Shafer notes that in reality much of the mainstream media, many Democrats and some of McCarthy's Republican peers were condemning him before Murrow. Furthermore, Shafer writes, evidence obtained via the declassified Venona espionage program confirmed that many Soviet agents and sympathizers were in fact in positions of influence in the U.S. government, a disclosure the film entirely overlooks: "Clooney and company ignore the material that might argue against their simple-minded thesis about Murrow, the era, and the press to produce an after-school special". One complaint about the film among test audiences was their belief that the actor playing McCarthy was too over the top, not realizing that the film used actual archive footage of McCarthy himself. CANNOTANSWER | The film received six Academy Award nominations, | Good Night, and Good Luck (stylized as good night, and good luck.) is a 2005 historical drama film directed by George Clooney, and starring David Strathairn, Patricia Clarkson, Clooney, Jeff Daniels, Robert Downey Jr., and Frank Langella. The film was written by Clooney and Grant Heslov, and portrays the conflict between veteran radio and television journalist Edward R. Murrow (Strathairn) and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, especially relating to the anti-Communist Senator's actions with the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Although released in black and white, it was filmed on color film stock, but on a grayscale set, and was color-corrected to black and white during post-production. It focuses on the theme of media responsibility, and also addresses what occurs when the media offers a voice of dissent from government policy. The movie takes its title (which ends with a period or full stop) from the line with which Murrow routinely signed off his broadcasts.
The film received critical acclaim for Clooney's direction, the writing, cinematography, production design, and performances (particularly Strathairn's). It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Strathairn.
Plot
The setting is 1953, during the early days of television broadcast journalism. Edward R. Murrow, along with his news team, producer Fred Friendly and reporter Joseph Wershba, learn of U.S. Air Force officer Milo Radulovich, who is being forcibly discharged because of family members being known communists and his refusal to denounce them.
Interest is piqued when it is found that the compilation of charges at Radulovich's hearing was in a sealed envelope and nobody saw them. Murrow presents the story to CBS News' director, Sig Mickelson, who warns Murrow that the story will bring serious accusations and repercussions to CBS and their sponsors, some of whom have government contracts. He reluctantly allows the story to air, which gains positive responses from the public. Murrow also tries to ease the worries of his colleague, Don Hollenbeck, who is struggling with both the strain of his recent divorce and attacks from newspaper writer Jack O'Brian, who is accusing him of being biased in his news reporting and being a "pinko".
Wershba is then given an envelope suggesting that Murrow has previously interacted with the Soviets and used to be on their payroll. CBS's Chief Executive, William Paley, brings this up with Murrow. He warns him that if any members of his staff are associated with Communism in any way, however remotely, they would have to recuse themselves from Murrow's next story. They were planning to make a direct attack on Senator Joseph McCarthy and his crusade against Communist infiltration in the U.S. government, which some denounce as a witch hunt. Friendly and Murrow gather their staff together, and when one of the team members voluntarily excuses himself because his ex-wife had attended Communist meetings before they even met, Murrow concludes that this kind of fear is what McCarthy wants. The team stays together and presents the story, which becomes highly praised by the public and the press, with the exception of Jack O'Brian, who continues to attack both Murrow and especially Hollenbeck on their supposed support of communism. Hollenbeck pleads with Murrow to go after O'Brian, but Murrow reluctantly tells him that he cannot attack O'Brian while he is busy going after McCarthy.
As the team turns their focus to a filmed hearing of Annie Lee Moss, a Pentagon communication worker accused of being a Communist based on her name appearing on a list seen by an FBI infiltrator of the American Communist Party, they receive the news that Milo Radulovich is being reinstated by the Air Force, citing no direct evidence supporting any connections with Communism. McCarthy then asks for the opportunity to speak for himself on Murrow's show, which Murrow allows. McCarthy openly accuses Murrow of being a Communist, citing several pieces of evidence that seem to support it. Murrow broadcasts a rebuttal the following week, easily disproving McCarthy's accusations and pointing out that McCarthy didn't do anything to defend himself other than accuse anyone who opposes him as being either a Communist or a Communist sympathizer.
A few days later, the news arrives that the U.S. Senate is investigating McCarthy, which means the imminent end of his crusade. As the team celebrates, Friendly and Murrow learn that Hollenbeck has died by suicide. Paley then tells Murrow and Friendly that their news program's air time is going to be severely cut, citing the high costs of the show's production, along with Murrow's attacks on controversial topics. Also, Joe Wershba and his wife Shirley, who have been concealing their marriage due to CBS forbidding co-workers from being married, are approached by Mickelson, who tells them that everyone knows of their marriage and that he will allow one of them to resign to save face, which Joe agrees to do.
The film is framed by performance of the speech given by Murrow to the Radio and Television News Directors Association at "A Salute to Edward R. Murrow" on October 25, 1958, in which he harshly admonishes his audience not to squander the potential of television to inform and educate the public, so that it does not become only "wires and lights in a box".
Cast
David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow, journalist and host of the CBS television program See It Now
George Clooney as Fred W. Friendly, coproducer with Murrow of See It Now
Robert Downey Jr., as Joseph Wershba, writer, editor, and correspondent for CBS News
Patricia Clarkson as Shirley Wershba
Frank Langella as William Paley, chief executive of CBS
Jeff Daniels as Sig Mickelson, director of CBS News
Tate Donovan as Jesse Zousmer
Ray Wise as Don Hollenbeck, journalist for CBS News; accused in the press of being a "pinko".
Helen Slayton-Hughes as Mary
Alex Borstein as Natalie
Thomas McCarthy as Palmer Williams
Rose Abdoo as Mili Lerner
Reed Diamond as John Aaron
Matt Ross as Eddie Scott
Grant Heslov as Don Hewitt, director of See It Now
Glenn Morshower as Colonel Anderson
Don Creech as Colonel Jenkins
Robert John Burke as Charlie Mack
Robert Knepper as Don Surine
Dianne Reeves as Jazz Singer
JD Cullum as Stage Manager
Peter Jacobson as Jimmy
Simon Helberg as CBS Page
Joseph McCarthy (archive footage) as himself
Liberace (archive footage) as himself
Roy Cohn (archive footage) as himself
Dwight D. Eisenhower (archive footage) as himself
Production
In September 2005, Clooney explained his interest in the story to an audience at the New York Film Festival: "I thought it was a good time to raise the idea of using fear to stifle political debate." Having majored in journalism in college, Clooney was well-versed in the subject matter. His father, Nick Clooney, was a television journalist for many years, appearing as an anchorman in Cincinnati, Ohio; Salt Lake City, Utah; Los Angeles, California; and Buffalo, New York. The elder Clooney also ran for Congress in 2004.
George Clooney was paid $1 each for writing, directing, and acting in Good Night, and Good Luck., which cost $7.5 million to make. Due to an injury he received on the set of Syriana a few months earlier, Clooney could not pass the tests to be insured. He then mortgaged his own house in Los Angeles in order to make the film. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and former eBay president Jeffrey Skoll invested money in the project as executive producers. The film ultimately grossed more than $54 million worldwide.
The CBS offices and studios seen in the movie were all sets on a sound stage. To accomplish a pair of scenes showing characters going up an elevator, different "floors" of the building were laid out on the same level. The "elevator" was actually built on a large turntable at the intersection of the two floor sets, and rotated once the doors were closed. When the doors reopened, the actors appeared to be in a different location. In doing so, the movie exercised a bit of dramatic license—the CBS executive offices at the time were located at 485 Madison Avenue. CBS News was located in an office building just north of Grand Central Terminal (demolished and now the site of the MetLife Building); and the See It Now studio was located in Grand Central Terminal itself, above the waiting room. For dramatic effect, all three areas were depicted as being in the same building.
Clooney and producer Grant Heslov decided to use only archival footage of Joseph McCarthy in his depiction. As all of that footage was black-and-white, that determined the color scheme of the film. A young Robert F. Kennedy is also shown in the movie during McCarthy's hearing sessions. He was then a staff member on the Senate subcommittee chaired by McCarthy.
Music
A small jazz combo starring jazz singer Dianne Reeves was hired to record the soundtrack to the movie. This combo (Peter Martin, Christoph Luty, Jeff Hamilton and Matt Catingub) was featured in the movie in several scenes; for example, in one scene the newsmen pass a studio where she is recording with the rest of the band. The CD is Dianne Reeves's second featuring jazz standards (including "How High the Moon", "I've Got My Eyes on You", "Too Close For Comfort", "Straighten Up and Fly Right" and "One for My Baby"), and it won the Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack to Good Night, and Good Luck. was released on September 27, 2005. The film's score was composed by Jim Papoulis.
Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 93% based on 226 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critics consensus states: "A passionate and concise cinematic civics lesson, Good Night, and Good Luck has plenty to say about today's political and cultural climate, and its ensemble cast is stellar." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100 based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Director (Clooney), and Actor (Strathairn).
Roger Ebert, in his Chicago Sun-Times review, contends that "the movie is not really about the abuses of McCarthy, but about the process by which Murrow and his team eventually brought about his downfall (some would say his self-destruction). It is like a morality play, from which we learn how journalists should behave. It shows Murrow as fearless, but not flawless." Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's film review show At the Movies each gave the film five stars, making Good Night, and Good Luck the only other film besides Brokeback Mountain to receive such a score from the hosts in 2005. Both described the film as "beautiful", but also praised Clooney for the film's importance. Pomeranz commented that, "[The film] is so important, because it's about things that are really vital today, like the responsibility of the press and examining the press' role in forming opinion." David noted: "Though [the film] is in black-and-white, there's nothing monochromatic about Clooney's passion for his subject or the importance of his message."
Jack Shafer, at the time a libertarian-leaning columnist for the online magazine Slate, accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography of Murrow. Clooney's film gives the impression that Murrow brought down McCarthy single-handedly, while Shafer notes that in reality much of the mainstream media, many Democrats and some Republicans were condemning him before Murrow. Furthermore, Shafer writes, evidence obtained via the declassified Venona espionage program confirmed that many Soviet agents and sympathizers were in fact in positions of influence in the U.S. government, a disclosure the film entirely overlooks: "Clooney and company ignore the material that might argue against their simple-minded thesis about Murrow, the era, and the press to produce an after school special".
One complaint about the film among test audiences was their belief that the actor playing McCarthy was too over the top, not realizing that the film used actual archive footage of McCarthy himself.
Awards and nominations
The film was nominated for six Academy Awards at the 2006 Academy Awards, for six BAFTAs at the 2005 BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globes at the 2006 Golden Globe Awards. The American Film Institute named Good Night, and Good Luck. as one of the Top Ten Movies of 2005.
See also
History of television
Tail Gunner Joe-a 1977 TV movie starring Peter Boyle as Joseph McCarthy
Red Scare
References
External links
Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album
2005 films
2000s historical drama films
2000s political drama films
American black-and-white films
American films
American historical drama films
American political drama films
Drama films based on actual events
English-language films
European Film Awards winners (films)
Films about freedom of expression
Films set in the 1950s
Films about journalists
Films about McCarthyism
Films about television
Films about the Hollywood blacklist
Films directed by George Clooney
Films produced by Grant Heslov
Films set in 1953
Films set in 1958
Films set in New York City
Films with screenplays by George Clooney
Films with screenplays by Grant Heslov
Lionsgate films
Participant Media films
Procedural films
Warner Independent Pictures films
Warner Bros. films
Biographical films about journalists | 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 3rd Academy Awards were awarded to films completed and screened released between August 1, 1929, and July 31, 1930, by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.\n\nAll Quiet on the Western Front was the first film to win both Best Picture and Best Director, a feat that would become common in later years. Lewis Milestone became the first person to win two Oscars, having won Best Director – Comedy at the 1st Academy Awards.\n\nThe Love Parade received six nominations, the greatest number of any film to that point. However, it did not win in any category.\n\nBest Sound Recording was introduced this year, making it the first new category since the inception of the Oscars. It was awarded to Douglas Shearer, brother of Best Actress winner Norma Shearer, making them the first sibling winners in Oscar history.\n\nThis was also the first Academy Awards ceremony to be filmed. It is unknown where it was filmed at, but what was filmed was Universal Pictures co-founder and president Carl Laemmle winning a special Academy Award for All Quiet on the Western Front which was given to him by Louis B. Mayer, who was vice president of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at the time, Norma Shearer winning her Best Actress award, and screenwriter Frances Marion winning the Academy Award for Best Writing Achievement for The Big House.\n\nAwards \n\nWinners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.\n\nMultiple nominations and awards \n\nThe following eight films received multiple nominations:\n\n 6 nominations: The Love Parade\n 4 nominations: All Quiet on the Western Front, The Big House and The Divorcee\n 3 nominations: Disraeli and Anna Christie\n 2 nominations: Bulldog Drummond and Romance\n\nThe following two films received multiple awards:\n\n 2 awards: All Quiet on the Western Front and The Big House\n\nSee also \n\n 1929 in film\n 1930 in film\n\nReferences\n\nAcademy Awards ceremonies\n1929 film awards\n1930 film awards\n1930 in American cinema\nAcademy Awards\nNovember 1930 events"
]
|
[
"Good Night, and Good Luck",
"Reception",
"What was the reception of the film?",
"The film was critically acclaimed upon release. It was named \"Best Reviewed Film of 2005 in Limited Release\"",
"Did the film have any negative reviews?",
"Jack Shafer, a libertarian-leaning columnist for the online magazine Slate, accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography of Murrow.",
"What was a positive review of the film?",
"\"[The film] is so important, because it's about things that are really vital today, like the responsibility of the press and examining the press' role in forming opinion.\"",
"Did the film win any awards?",
"The film received six Academy Award nominations,"
]
| C_b52df1f3ac914bd3bd15ba7af59ec591_0 | Did it win an Academy Award? | 5 | Did Good Night, and Good Luck win an Academy Award? | Good Night, and Good Luck | The film was critically acclaimed upon release. It was named "Best Reviewed Film of 2005 in Limited Release" by Rotten Tomatoes, where it achieved a 93% positive review rating, based on reviews from 217 critics. The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Director (Clooney), and Actor (Strathairn). Roger Ebert, in his Chicago Sun-Times review, contends that "the movie is not really about the abuses of McCarthy, but about the process by which Murrow and his team eventually brought about his downfall (some would say his self-destruction). It is like a morality play, from which we learn how journalists should behave. It shows Murrow as fearless, but not flawless." Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton from the ABC show At the Movies each gave the film five stars, making Good Night, and Good Luck the only other film besides Brokeback Mountain to receive such a score from the hosts in 2005. Both described the film as "beautiful" but also praised Clooney for the film's importance. Margaret commented that "[The film] is so important, because it's about things that are really vital today, like the responsibility of the press and examining the press' role in forming opinion." David noted "Though [the film] is in black-and-white, there's nothing monochromatic about Clooney's passion for his subject or the importance of his message." Jack Shafer, a libertarian-leaning columnist for the online magazine Slate, accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography of Murrow. Clooney's film gives the impression that Murrow brought down McCarthy single-handedly, while Shafer notes that in reality much of the mainstream media, many Democrats and some of McCarthy's Republican peers were condemning him before Murrow. Furthermore, Shafer writes, evidence obtained via the declassified Venona espionage program confirmed that many Soviet agents and sympathizers were in fact in positions of influence in the U.S. government, a disclosure the film entirely overlooks: "Clooney and company ignore the material that might argue against their simple-minded thesis about Murrow, the era, and the press to produce an after-school special". One complaint about the film among test audiences was their belief that the actor playing McCarthy was too over the top, not realizing that the film used actual archive footage of McCarthy himself. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Good Night, and Good Luck (stylized as good night, and good luck.) is a 2005 historical drama film directed by George Clooney, and starring David Strathairn, Patricia Clarkson, Clooney, Jeff Daniels, Robert Downey Jr., and Frank Langella. The film was written by Clooney and Grant Heslov, and portrays the conflict between veteran radio and television journalist Edward R. Murrow (Strathairn) and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, especially relating to the anti-Communist Senator's actions with the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Although released in black and white, it was filmed on color film stock, but on a grayscale set, and was color-corrected to black and white during post-production. It focuses on the theme of media responsibility, and also addresses what occurs when the media offers a voice of dissent from government policy. The movie takes its title (which ends with a period or full stop) from the line with which Murrow routinely signed off his broadcasts.
The film received critical acclaim for Clooney's direction, the writing, cinematography, production design, and performances (particularly Strathairn's). It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Strathairn.
Plot
The setting is 1953, during the early days of television broadcast journalism. Edward R. Murrow, along with his news team, producer Fred Friendly and reporter Joseph Wershba, learn of U.S. Air Force officer Milo Radulovich, who is being forcibly discharged because of family members being known communists and his refusal to denounce them.
Interest is piqued when it is found that the compilation of charges at Radulovich's hearing was in a sealed envelope and nobody saw them. Murrow presents the story to CBS News' director, Sig Mickelson, who warns Murrow that the story will bring serious accusations and repercussions to CBS and their sponsors, some of whom have government contracts. He reluctantly allows the story to air, which gains positive responses from the public. Murrow also tries to ease the worries of his colleague, Don Hollenbeck, who is struggling with both the strain of his recent divorce and attacks from newspaper writer Jack O'Brian, who is accusing him of being biased in his news reporting and being a "pinko".
Wershba is then given an envelope suggesting that Murrow has previously interacted with the Soviets and used to be on their payroll. CBS's Chief Executive, William Paley, brings this up with Murrow. He warns him that if any members of his staff are associated with Communism in any way, however remotely, they would have to recuse themselves from Murrow's next story. They were planning to make a direct attack on Senator Joseph McCarthy and his crusade against Communist infiltration in the U.S. government, which some denounce as a witch hunt. Friendly and Murrow gather their staff together, and when one of the team members voluntarily excuses himself because his ex-wife had attended Communist meetings before they even met, Murrow concludes that this kind of fear is what McCarthy wants. The team stays together and presents the story, which becomes highly praised by the public and the press, with the exception of Jack O'Brian, who continues to attack both Murrow and especially Hollenbeck on their supposed support of communism. Hollenbeck pleads with Murrow to go after O'Brian, but Murrow reluctantly tells him that he cannot attack O'Brian while he is busy going after McCarthy.
As the team turns their focus to a filmed hearing of Annie Lee Moss, a Pentagon communication worker accused of being a Communist based on her name appearing on a list seen by an FBI infiltrator of the American Communist Party, they receive the news that Milo Radulovich is being reinstated by the Air Force, citing no direct evidence supporting any connections with Communism. McCarthy then asks for the opportunity to speak for himself on Murrow's show, which Murrow allows. McCarthy openly accuses Murrow of being a Communist, citing several pieces of evidence that seem to support it. Murrow broadcasts a rebuttal the following week, easily disproving McCarthy's accusations and pointing out that McCarthy didn't do anything to defend himself other than accuse anyone who opposes him as being either a Communist or a Communist sympathizer.
A few days later, the news arrives that the U.S. Senate is investigating McCarthy, which means the imminent end of his crusade. As the team celebrates, Friendly and Murrow learn that Hollenbeck has died by suicide. Paley then tells Murrow and Friendly that their news program's air time is going to be severely cut, citing the high costs of the show's production, along with Murrow's attacks on controversial topics. Also, Joe Wershba and his wife Shirley, who have been concealing their marriage due to CBS forbidding co-workers from being married, are approached by Mickelson, who tells them that everyone knows of their marriage and that he will allow one of them to resign to save face, which Joe agrees to do.
The film is framed by performance of the speech given by Murrow to the Radio and Television News Directors Association at "A Salute to Edward R. Murrow" on October 25, 1958, in which he harshly admonishes his audience not to squander the potential of television to inform and educate the public, so that it does not become only "wires and lights in a box".
Cast
David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow, journalist and host of the CBS television program See It Now
George Clooney as Fred W. Friendly, coproducer with Murrow of See It Now
Robert Downey Jr., as Joseph Wershba, writer, editor, and correspondent for CBS News
Patricia Clarkson as Shirley Wershba
Frank Langella as William Paley, chief executive of CBS
Jeff Daniels as Sig Mickelson, director of CBS News
Tate Donovan as Jesse Zousmer
Ray Wise as Don Hollenbeck, journalist for CBS News; accused in the press of being a "pinko".
Helen Slayton-Hughes as Mary
Alex Borstein as Natalie
Thomas McCarthy as Palmer Williams
Rose Abdoo as Mili Lerner
Reed Diamond as John Aaron
Matt Ross as Eddie Scott
Grant Heslov as Don Hewitt, director of See It Now
Glenn Morshower as Colonel Anderson
Don Creech as Colonel Jenkins
Robert John Burke as Charlie Mack
Robert Knepper as Don Surine
Dianne Reeves as Jazz Singer
JD Cullum as Stage Manager
Peter Jacobson as Jimmy
Simon Helberg as CBS Page
Joseph McCarthy (archive footage) as himself
Liberace (archive footage) as himself
Roy Cohn (archive footage) as himself
Dwight D. Eisenhower (archive footage) as himself
Production
In September 2005, Clooney explained his interest in the story to an audience at the New York Film Festival: "I thought it was a good time to raise the idea of using fear to stifle political debate." Having majored in journalism in college, Clooney was well-versed in the subject matter. His father, Nick Clooney, was a television journalist for many years, appearing as an anchorman in Cincinnati, Ohio; Salt Lake City, Utah; Los Angeles, California; and Buffalo, New York. The elder Clooney also ran for Congress in 2004.
George Clooney was paid $1 each for writing, directing, and acting in Good Night, and Good Luck., which cost $7.5 million to make. Due to an injury he received on the set of Syriana a few months earlier, Clooney could not pass the tests to be insured. He then mortgaged his own house in Los Angeles in order to make the film. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and former eBay president Jeffrey Skoll invested money in the project as executive producers. The film ultimately grossed more than $54 million worldwide.
The CBS offices and studios seen in the movie were all sets on a sound stage. To accomplish a pair of scenes showing characters going up an elevator, different "floors" of the building were laid out on the same level. The "elevator" was actually built on a large turntable at the intersection of the two floor sets, and rotated once the doors were closed. When the doors reopened, the actors appeared to be in a different location. In doing so, the movie exercised a bit of dramatic license—the CBS executive offices at the time were located at 485 Madison Avenue. CBS News was located in an office building just north of Grand Central Terminal (demolished and now the site of the MetLife Building); and the See It Now studio was located in Grand Central Terminal itself, above the waiting room. For dramatic effect, all three areas were depicted as being in the same building.
Clooney and producer Grant Heslov decided to use only archival footage of Joseph McCarthy in his depiction. As all of that footage was black-and-white, that determined the color scheme of the film. A young Robert F. Kennedy is also shown in the movie during McCarthy's hearing sessions. He was then a staff member on the Senate subcommittee chaired by McCarthy.
Music
A small jazz combo starring jazz singer Dianne Reeves was hired to record the soundtrack to the movie. This combo (Peter Martin, Christoph Luty, Jeff Hamilton and Matt Catingub) was featured in the movie in several scenes; for example, in one scene the newsmen pass a studio where she is recording with the rest of the band. The CD is Dianne Reeves's second featuring jazz standards (including "How High the Moon", "I've Got My Eyes on You", "Too Close For Comfort", "Straighten Up and Fly Right" and "One for My Baby"), and it won the Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack to Good Night, and Good Luck. was released on September 27, 2005. The film's score was composed by Jim Papoulis.
Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 93% based on 226 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critics consensus states: "A passionate and concise cinematic civics lesson, Good Night, and Good Luck has plenty to say about today's political and cultural climate, and its ensemble cast is stellar." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100 based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Director (Clooney), and Actor (Strathairn).
Roger Ebert, in his Chicago Sun-Times review, contends that "the movie is not really about the abuses of McCarthy, but about the process by which Murrow and his team eventually brought about his downfall (some would say his self-destruction). It is like a morality play, from which we learn how journalists should behave. It shows Murrow as fearless, but not flawless." Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's film review show At the Movies each gave the film five stars, making Good Night, and Good Luck the only other film besides Brokeback Mountain to receive such a score from the hosts in 2005. Both described the film as "beautiful", but also praised Clooney for the film's importance. Pomeranz commented that, "[The film] is so important, because it's about things that are really vital today, like the responsibility of the press and examining the press' role in forming opinion." David noted: "Though [the film] is in black-and-white, there's nothing monochromatic about Clooney's passion for his subject or the importance of his message."
Jack Shafer, at the time a libertarian-leaning columnist for the online magazine Slate, accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography of Murrow. Clooney's film gives the impression that Murrow brought down McCarthy single-handedly, while Shafer notes that in reality much of the mainstream media, many Democrats and some Republicans were condemning him before Murrow. Furthermore, Shafer writes, evidence obtained via the declassified Venona espionage program confirmed that many Soviet agents and sympathizers were in fact in positions of influence in the U.S. government, a disclosure the film entirely overlooks: "Clooney and company ignore the material that might argue against their simple-minded thesis about Murrow, the era, and the press to produce an after school special".
One complaint about the film among test audiences was their belief that the actor playing McCarthy was too over the top, not realizing that the film used actual archive footage of McCarthy himself.
Awards and nominations
The film was nominated for six Academy Awards at the 2006 Academy Awards, for six BAFTAs at the 2005 BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globes at the 2006 Golden Globe Awards. The American Film Institute named Good Night, and Good Luck. as one of the Top Ten Movies of 2005.
See also
History of television
Tail Gunner Joe-a 1977 TV movie starring Peter Boyle as Joseph McCarthy
Red Scare
References
External links
Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album
2005 films
2000s historical drama films
2000s political drama films
American black-and-white films
American films
American historical drama films
American political drama films
Drama films based on actual events
English-language films
European Film Awards winners (films)
Films about freedom of expression
Films set in the 1950s
Films about journalists
Films about McCarthyism
Films about television
Films about the Hollywood blacklist
Films directed by George Clooney
Films produced by Grant Heslov
Films set in 1953
Films set in 1958
Films set in New York City
Films with screenplays by George Clooney
Films with screenplays by Grant Heslov
Lionsgate films
Participant Media films
Procedural films
Warner Independent Pictures films
Warner Bros. films
Biographical films about journalists | false | [
"Ralph Dawson (April 18, 1897 in Westborough, Massachusetts – November 15, 1962) was an American film editor who also did some acting, directing, and screenwriting. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing four times, and won the Award three times.\n\nSelected filmography as editor\n1925: Lady of the Night\n1928: The Singing Fool with co-editor Harold McCord\n1928: Tenderloin\n1929: Stark Mad\n1929: The Desert Song\n1930: Under a Texas Moon\n1931: The Mad Genius\n1933: Girl Missing\n1934: Something Always Happens with co-editor Bert Bates\n1934: The Life of the Party\n1935: A Midsummer Night's Dream - First Academy Award\n1936: Anthony Adverse - Second Academy Award win\n1936: The Story of Louis Pasteur\n1937: The Prince and the Pauper\n1938: The Adventures of Robin Hood - Third Academy Award win\n1938: Four Daughters\n1939: Daughters Courageous\n1939: Espionage Agent\n1941: The Great Lie\n1942: Kings Row \n1942: Larceny, Inc.\n1944: The Adventures of Mark Twain\n1944: Mr. Skeffington\n1945: Saratoga Trunk\n1948: An Act of Murder\n1950: Harvey \n1952: The Lusty Men\n1954: The High and the Mighty - Fourth Academy Award nomination\n\nExternal links\n\nAmerican film editors\nBest Film Editing Academy Award winners\n1897 births\n1962 deaths",
"Alex Henning is a visual effects supervisor.\n\nOn January 24, 2012, he was nominated for an Oscar for the film Hugo, which he did win at the 84th Academy Awards in the category of Best Visual Effects. His win was shared with Ben Grossmann, Robert Legato, and Joss Williams.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nLiving people\nVisual effects supervisors\nBest Visual Effects Academy Award winners\nYear of birth missing (living people)"
]
|
[
"Good Night, and Good Luck",
"Reception",
"What was the reception of the film?",
"The film was critically acclaimed upon release. It was named \"Best Reviewed Film of 2005 in Limited Release\"",
"Did the film have any negative reviews?",
"Jack Shafer, a libertarian-leaning columnist for the online magazine Slate, accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography of Murrow.",
"What was a positive review of the film?",
"\"[The film] is so important, because it's about things that are really vital today, like the responsibility of the press and examining the press' role in forming opinion.\"",
"Did the film win any awards?",
"The film received six Academy Award nominations,",
"Did it win an Academy Award?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_b52df1f3ac914bd3bd15ba7af59ec591_0 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 6 | Besides the film Good Night, and Good Luck's six Academy Award nominations, the negative review from the magazine Slate, and the film being named "Best Reviewed Film of 2005 in Limited Release", are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | Good Night, and Good Luck | The film was critically acclaimed upon release. It was named "Best Reviewed Film of 2005 in Limited Release" by Rotten Tomatoes, where it achieved a 93% positive review rating, based on reviews from 217 critics. The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Director (Clooney), and Actor (Strathairn). Roger Ebert, in his Chicago Sun-Times review, contends that "the movie is not really about the abuses of McCarthy, but about the process by which Murrow and his team eventually brought about his downfall (some would say his self-destruction). It is like a morality play, from which we learn how journalists should behave. It shows Murrow as fearless, but not flawless." Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton from the ABC show At the Movies each gave the film five stars, making Good Night, and Good Luck the only other film besides Brokeback Mountain to receive such a score from the hosts in 2005. Both described the film as "beautiful" but also praised Clooney for the film's importance. Margaret commented that "[The film] is so important, because it's about things that are really vital today, like the responsibility of the press and examining the press' role in forming opinion." David noted "Though [the film] is in black-and-white, there's nothing monochromatic about Clooney's passion for his subject or the importance of his message." Jack Shafer, a libertarian-leaning columnist for the online magazine Slate, accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography of Murrow. Clooney's film gives the impression that Murrow brought down McCarthy single-handedly, while Shafer notes that in reality much of the mainstream media, many Democrats and some of McCarthy's Republican peers were condemning him before Murrow. Furthermore, Shafer writes, evidence obtained via the declassified Venona espionage program confirmed that many Soviet agents and sympathizers were in fact in positions of influence in the U.S. government, a disclosure the film entirely overlooks: "Clooney and company ignore the material that might argue against their simple-minded thesis about Murrow, the era, and the press to produce an after-school special". One complaint about the film among test audiences was their belief that the actor playing McCarthy was too over the top, not realizing that the film used actual archive footage of McCarthy himself. CANNOTANSWER | Rotten Tomatoes, where it achieved a 93% positive review rating, based on reviews from 217 critics. | Good Night, and Good Luck (stylized as good night, and good luck.) is a 2005 historical drama film directed by George Clooney, and starring David Strathairn, Patricia Clarkson, Clooney, Jeff Daniels, Robert Downey Jr., and Frank Langella. The film was written by Clooney and Grant Heslov, and portrays the conflict between veteran radio and television journalist Edward R. Murrow (Strathairn) and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, especially relating to the anti-Communist Senator's actions with the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Although released in black and white, it was filmed on color film stock, but on a grayscale set, and was color-corrected to black and white during post-production. It focuses on the theme of media responsibility, and also addresses what occurs when the media offers a voice of dissent from government policy. The movie takes its title (which ends with a period or full stop) from the line with which Murrow routinely signed off his broadcasts.
The film received critical acclaim for Clooney's direction, the writing, cinematography, production design, and performances (particularly Strathairn's). It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Strathairn.
Plot
The setting is 1953, during the early days of television broadcast journalism. Edward R. Murrow, along with his news team, producer Fred Friendly and reporter Joseph Wershba, learn of U.S. Air Force officer Milo Radulovich, who is being forcibly discharged because of family members being known communists and his refusal to denounce them.
Interest is piqued when it is found that the compilation of charges at Radulovich's hearing was in a sealed envelope and nobody saw them. Murrow presents the story to CBS News' director, Sig Mickelson, who warns Murrow that the story will bring serious accusations and repercussions to CBS and their sponsors, some of whom have government contracts. He reluctantly allows the story to air, which gains positive responses from the public. Murrow also tries to ease the worries of his colleague, Don Hollenbeck, who is struggling with both the strain of his recent divorce and attacks from newspaper writer Jack O'Brian, who is accusing him of being biased in his news reporting and being a "pinko".
Wershba is then given an envelope suggesting that Murrow has previously interacted with the Soviets and used to be on their payroll. CBS's Chief Executive, William Paley, brings this up with Murrow. He warns him that if any members of his staff are associated with Communism in any way, however remotely, they would have to recuse themselves from Murrow's next story. They were planning to make a direct attack on Senator Joseph McCarthy and his crusade against Communist infiltration in the U.S. government, which some denounce as a witch hunt. Friendly and Murrow gather their staff together, and when one of the team members voluntarily excuses himself because his ex-wife had attended Communist meetings before they even met, Murrow concludes that this kind of fear is what McCarthy wants. The team stays together and presents the story, which becomes highly praised by the public and the press, with the exception of Jack O'Brian, who continues to attack both Murrow and especially Hollenbeck on their supposed support of communism. Hollenbeck pleads with Murrow to go after O'Brian, but Murrow reluctantly tells him that he cannot attack O'Brian while he is busy going after McCarthy.
As the team turns their focus to a filmed hearing of Annie Lee Moss, a Pentagon communication worker accused of being a Communist based on her name appearing on a list seen by an FBI infiltrator of the American Communist Party, they receive the news that Milo Radulovich is being reinstated by the Air Force, citing no direct evidence supporting any connections with Communism. McCarthy then asks for the opportunity to speak for himself on Murrow's show, which Murrow allows. McCarthy openly accuses Murrow of being a Communist, citing several pieces of evidence that seem to support it. Murrow broadcasts a rebuttal the following week, easily disproving McCarthy's accusations and pointing out that McCarthy didn't do anything to defend himself other than accuse anyone who opposes him as being either a Communist or a Communist sympathizer.
A few days later, the news arrives that the U.S. Senate is investigating McCarthy, which means the imminent end of his crusade. As the team celebrates, Friendly and Murrow learn that Hollenbeck has died by suicide. Paley then tells Murrow and Friendly that their news program's air time is going to be severely cut, citing the high costs of the show's production, along with Murrow's attacks on controversial topics. Also, Joe Wershba and his wife Shirley, who have been concealing their marriage due to CBS forbidding co-workers from being married, are approached by Mickelson, who tells them that everyone knows of their marriage and that he will allow one of them to resign to save face, which Joe agrees to do.
The film is framed by performance of the speech given by Murrow to the Radio and Television News Directors Association at "A Salute to Edward R. Murrow" on October 25, 1958, in which he harshly admonishes his audience not to squander the potential of television to inform and educate the public, so that it does not become only "wires and lights in a box".
Cast
David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow, journalist and host of the CBS television program See It Now
George Clooney as Fred W. Friendly, coproducer with Murrow of See It Now
Robert Downey Jr., as Joseph Wershba, writer, editor, and correspondent for CBS News
Patricia Clarkson as Shirley Wershba
Frank Langella as William Paley, chief executive of CBS
Jeff Daniels as Sig Mickelson, director of CBS News
Tate Donovan as Jesse Zousmer
Ray Wise as Don Hollenbeck, journalist for CBS News; accused in the press of being a "pinko".
Helen Slayton-Hughes as Mary
Alex Borstein as Natalie
Thomas McCarthy as Palmer Williams
Rose Abdoo as Mili Lerner
Reed Diamond as John Aaron
Matt Ross as Eddie Scott
Grant Heslov as Don Hewitt, director of See It Now
Glenn Morshower as Colonel Anderson
Don Creech as Colonel Jenkins
Robert John Burke as Charlie Mack
Robert Knepper as Don Surine
Dianne Reeves as Jazz Singer
JD Cullum as Stage Manager
Peter Jacobson as Jimmy
Simon Helberg as CBS Page
Joseph McCarthy (archive footage) as himself
Liberace (archive footage) as himself
Roy Cohn (archive footage) as himself
Dwight D. Eisenhower (archive footage) as himself
Production
In September 2005, Clooney explained his interest in the story to an audience at the New York Film Festival: "I thought it was a good time to raise the idea of using fear to stifle political debate." Having majored in journalism in college, Clooney was well-versed in the subject matter. His father, Nick Clooney, was a television journalist for many years, appearing as an anchorman in Cincinnati, Ohio; Salt Lake City, Utah; Los Angeles, California; and Buffalo, New York. The elder Clooney also ran for Congress in 2004.
George Clooney was paid $1 each for writing, directing, and acting in Good Night, and Good Luck., which cost $7.5 million to make. Due to an injury he received on the set of Syriana a few months earlier, Clooney could not pass the tests to be insured. He then mortgaged his own house in Los Angeles in order to make the film. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and former eBay president Jeffrey Skoll invested money in the project as executive producers. The film ultimately grossed more than $54 million worldwide.
The CBS offices and studios seen in the movie were all sets on a sound stage. To accomplish a pair of scenes showing characters going up an elevator, different "floors" of the building were laid out on the same level. The "elevator" was actually built on a large turntable at the intersection of the two floor sets, and rotated once the doors were closed. When the doors reopened, the actors appeared to be in a different location. In doing so, the movie exercised a bit of dramatic license—the CBS executive offices at the time were located at 485 Madison Avenue. CBS News was located in an office building just north of Grand Central Terminal (demolished and now the site of the MetLife Building); and the See It Now studio was located in Grand Central Terminal itself, above the waiting room. For dramatic effect, all three areas were depicted as being in the same building.
Clooney and producer Grant Heslov decided to use only archival footage of Joseph McCarthy in his depiction. As all of that footage was black-and-white, that determined the color scheme of the film. A young Robert F. Kennedy is also shown in the movie during McCarthy's hearing sessions. He was then a staff member on the Senate subcommittee chaired by McCarthy.
Music
A small jazz combo starring jazz singer Dianne Reeves was hired to record the soundtrack to the movie. This combo (Peter Martin, Christoph Luty, Jeff Hamilton and Matt Catingub) was featured in the movie in several scenes; for example, in one scene the newsmen pass a studio where she is recording with the rest of the band. The CD is Dianne Reeves's second featuring jazz standards (including "How High the Moon", "I've Got My Eyes on You", "Too Close For Comfort", "Straighten Up and Fly Right" and "One for My Baby"), and it won the Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack to Good Night, and Good Luck. was released on September 27, 2005. The film's score was composed by Jim Papoulis.
Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 93% based on 226 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critics consensus states: "A passionate and concise cinematic civics lesson, Good Night, and Good Luck has plenty to say about today's political and cultural climate, and its ensemble cast is stellar." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100 based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Director (Clooney), and Actor (Strathairn).
Roger Ebert, in his Chicago Sun-Times review, contends that "the movie is not really about the abuses of McCarthy, but about the process by which Murrow and his team eventually brought about his downfall (some would say his self-destruction). It is like a morality play, from which we learn how journalists should behave. It shows Murrow as fearless, but not flawless." Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's film review show At the Movies each gave the film five stars, making Good Night, and Good Luck the only other film besides Brokeback Mountain to receive such a score from the hosts in 2005. Both described the film as "beautiful", but also praised Clooney for the film's importance. Pomeranz commented that, "[The film] is so important, because it's about things that are really vital today, like the responsibility of the press and examining the press' role in forming opinion." David noted: "Though [the film] is in black-and-white, there's nothing monochromatic about Clooney's passion for his subject or the importance of his message."
Jack Shafer, at the time a libertarian-leaning columnist for the online magazine Slate, accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography of Murrow. Clooney's film gives the impression that Murrow brought down McCarthy single-handedly, while Shafer notes that in reality much of the mainstream media, many Democrats and some Republicans were condemning him before Murrow. Furthermore, Shafer writes, evidence obtained via the declassified Venona espionage program confirmed that many Soviet agents and sympathizers were in fact in positions of influence in the U.S. government, a disclosure the film entirely overlooks: "Clooney and company ignore the material that might argue against their simple-minded thesis about Murrow, the era, and the press to produce an after school special".
One complaint about the film among test audiences was their belief that the actor playing McCarthy was too over the top, not realizing that the film used actual archive footage of McCarthy himself.
Awards and nominations
The film was nominated for six Academy Awards at the 2006 Academy Awards, for six BAFTAs at the 2005 BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globes at the 2006 Golden Globe Awards. The American Film Institute named Good Night, and Good Luck. as one of the Top Ten Movies of 2005.
See also
History of television
Tail Gunner Joe-a 1977 TV movie starring Peter Boyle as Joseph McCarthy
Red Scare
References
External links
Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album
2005 films
2000s historical drama films
2000s political drama films
American black-and-white films
American films
American historical drama films
American political drama films
Drama films based on actual events
English-language films
European Film Awards winners (films)
Films about freedom of expression
Films set in the 1950s
Films about journalists
Films about McCarthyism
Films about television
Films about the Hollywood blacklist
Films directed by George Clooney
Films produced by Grant Heslov
Films set in 1953
Films set in 1958
Films set in New York City
Films with screenplays by George Clooney
Films with screenplays by Grant Heslov
Lionsgate films
Participant Media films
Procedural films
Warner Independent Pictures films
Warner Bros. films
Biographical films about journalists | false | [
"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"
]
|
[
"Charlie Chaplin",
"Background and childhood hardship"
]
| C_90c2ef6570c647dfb80560e53db82e47_1 | What was his biggest childhood hardship? | 1 | What was Charlie Chaplin's biggest childhood hardship? | Charlie Chaplin | Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889 to Hannah Chaplin (born Hannah Harriet Pedlingham Hill) and Charles Chaplin Sr. There is no official record of his birth, although Chaplin believed he was born at East Street, Walworth, in South London. His mother and father had married four years previously, at which time Charles Sr. became the legal carer of Hannah's illegitimate son, Sydney John Hill. At the time of his birth, Chaplin's parents were both music hall entertainers. Hannah, the daughter of a shoemaker, had a brief and unsuccessful career under the stage name Lily Harley, while Charles Sr., a butcher's son, was a popular singer. Although they never divorced, Chaplin's parents were estranged by around 1891. The following year, Hannah gave birth to a third son - George Wheeler Dryden - fathered by the music hall entertainer Leo Dryden. The child was taken by Dryden at six months old, and did not re-enter Chaplin's life for 30 years. Chaplin's childhood was fraught with poverty and hardship, making his eventual trajectory "the most dramatic of all the rags to riches stories ever told" according to his authorised biographer David Robinson. Chaplin's early years were spent with his mother and brother Sydney in the London district of Kennington; Hannah had no means of income, other than occasional nursing and dressmaking, and Chaplin Sr. provided no financial support. As the situation deteriorated, Chaplin was sent to Lambeth Workhouse when he was seven years old. The council housed him at the Central London District School for paupers, which Chaplin remembered as "a forlorn existence". He was briefly reunited with his mother 18 months later, before Hannah was forced to readmit her family to the workhouse in July 1898. The boys were promptly sent to Norwood Schools, another institution for destitute children. In September 1898, Hannah was committed to Cane Hill mental asylum - she had developed a psychosis seemingly brought on by an infection of syphilis and malnutrition. For the two months she was there, Chaplin and his brother Sydney were sent to live with their father, whom the young boys scarcely knew. Charles Sr. was by then a severe alcoholic, and life there was bad enough to provoke a visit from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Chaplin's father died two years later, at 38 years old, from cirrhosis of the liver. Hannah entered a period of remission but, in May 1903, became ill again. Chaplin, then 14, had the task of taking his mother to the infirmary, from where she was sent back to Cane Hill. He lived alone for several days, searching for food and occasionally sleeping rough, until Sydney - who had enrolled in the Navy two years earlier - returned. Hannah was released from the asylum eight months later, but in March 1905, her illness returned, this time permanently. "There was nothing we could do but accept poor mother's fate", Chaplin later wrote, and she remained in care until her death in 1928. CANNOTANSWER | March 1905, her illness returned, this time permanently. | Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered one of the film industry's most important figures. His career spanned more than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977, and encompassed both adulation and controversy.
Chaplin's childhood in London was one of poverty and hardship. His father was absent and his mother struggled financially - he was sent to a workhouse twice before age nine. When he was 14, his mother was committed to a mental asylum. Chaplin began performing at an early age, touring music halls and later working as a stage actor and comedian. At 19, he was signed to the Fred Karno company, which took him to America. He was scouted for the film industry and began appearing in 1914 for Keystone Studios. He soon developed the Tramp persona and attracted a large fan base. He directed his own films and continued to hone his craft as he moved to the Essanay, Mutual, and First National corporations. By 1918, he was one of the world's best-known figures.
In 1919, Chaplin co-founded distribution company United Artists, which gave him complete control over his films. His first feature-length film was The Kid (1921), followed by A Woman of Paris (1923), The Gold Rush (1925), and The Circus (1928). He initially refused to move to sound films in the 1930s, instead producing City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936) without dialogue. His first sound film was The Great Dictator (1940), which satirised Adolf Hitler. The 1940s were marked with controversy for Chaplin, and his popularity declined rapidly. He was accused of communist sympathies, and some members of the press and public were scandalized by his involvement in a paternity suit and marriages to much younger women. An FBI investigation was opened, and Chaplin was forced to leave the United States and settle in Switzerland. He abandoned the Tramp in his later films, which include Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Limelight (1952), A King in New York (1957), and A Countess from Hong Kong (1967).
Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in, and composed the music for most of his films. He was a perfectionist, and his financial independence enabled him to spend years on the development and production of a picture. His films are characterised by slapstick combined with pathos, typified in the Tramp's struggles against adversity. Many contain social and political themes, as well as autobiographical elements. He received an Honorary Academy Award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century" in 1972, as part of a renewed appreciation for his work. He continues to be held in high regard, with The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, and The Great Dictator often ranked on lists of the greatest films.
Biography
1889–1913: early years
Background and childhood hardship
Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889 to Hannah Chaplin (née Hill) and Charles Chaplin Sr., both of whom had Romanichal heritage. There is no official record of his birth, although Chaplin believed he was born at East Street, Walworth, in South London. His parents had married four years previously, at which time Charles Sr. became the legal guardian of Hannah's illegitimate son, Sydney John Hill. At the time of his birth, Chaplin's parents were both music hall entertainers. Hannah, the daughter of a shoemaker, had a brief and unsuccessful career under the stage name Lily Harley, while Charles Sr., a butcher's son, was a popular singer. Although they never divorced, Chaplin's parents were estranged by around 1891. The following year, Hannah gave birth to a third son, George Wheeler Dryden, fathered by the music hall entertainer Leo Dryden. The child was taken by Dryden at six months old, and did not re-enter Chaplin's life for thirty years.
Chaplin's childhood was fraught with poverty and hardship, making his eventual trajectory "the most dramatic of all the rags to riches stories ever told" according to his authorised biographer David Robinson. Chaplin's early years were spent with his mother and brother Sydney in the London district of Kennington; Hannah had no means of income, other than occasional nursing and dressmaking, and Chaplin Sr. provided no financial support. As the situation deteriorated, Chaplin was sent to Lambeth Workhouse when he was seven years old. The council housed him at the Central London District School for paupers, which Chaplin remembered as "a forlorn existence". He was briefly reunited with his mother 18 months later, before Hannah was forced to readmit her family to the workhouse in July 1898. The boys were promptly sent to Norwood Schools, another institution for destitute children.
In September 1898, Hannah was committed to Cane Hill mental asylum; she had developed a psychosis seemingly brought on by an infection of syphilis and malnutrition. For the two months she was there, Chaplin and his brother Sydney were sent to live with their father, whom the young boys scarcely knew. Charles Sr. was by then a severe alcoholic, and life there was bad enough to provoke a visit from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Chaplin's father died two years later, at 38 years old, from cirrhosis of the liver.
Hannah entered a period of remission but, in May 1903, became ill again. Chaplin, then 14, had the task of taking his mother to the infirmary, from where she was sent back to Cane Hill. He lived alone for several days, searching for food and occasionally sleeping rough, until Sydneywho had joined the Navy two years earlierreturned. Hannah was released from the asylum eight months later, but in March 1905, her illness returned, this time permanently. "There was nothing we could do but accept poor mother's fate", Chaplin later wrote, and she remained in care until her death in 1928.
Young performer
Between his time in the poor schools and his mother succumbing to mental illness, Chaplin began to perform on stage. He later recalled making his first amateur appearance at the age of five years, when he took over from Hannah one night in Aldershot. This was an isolated occurrence, but by the time he was nine Chaplin had, with his mother's encouragement, grown interested in performing. He later wrote: "[she] imbued me with the feeling that I had some sort of talent". Through his father's connections, Chaplin became a member of the Eight Lancashire Lads clog-dancing troupe, with whom he toured English music halls throughout 1899 and 1900. Chaplin worked hard, and the act was popular with audiences, but he was not satisfied with dancing and wished to form a comedy act.
In the years Chaplin was touring with the Eight Lancashire Lads, his mother ensured that he still attended school but, by age 13, he had abandoned education. He supported himself with a range of jobs, while nursing his ambition to become an actor. At 14, shortly after his mother's relapse, he registered with a theatrical agency in London's West End. The manager sensed potential in Chaplin, who was promptly given his first role as a newsboy in Harry Arthur Saintsbury's Jim, a Romance of Cockayne. It opened in July 1903, but the show was unsuccessful and closed after two weeks. Chaplin's comic performance, however, was singled out for praise in many of the reviews.
Saintsbury secured a role for Chaplin in Charles Frohman's production of Sherlock Holmes, where he played Billy the pageboy in three nationwide tours. His performance was so well received that he was called to London to play the role alongside William Gillette, the original Holmes. "It was like tidings from heaven", Chaplin recalled. At 16 years old, Chaplin starred in the play's West End production at the Duke of York's Theatre from October to December 1905. He completed one final tour of Sherlock Holmes in early 1906, before leaving the play after more than two-and-a-half years.
Stage comedy and vaudeville
Chaplin soon found work with a new company and went on tour with his brother, who was also pursuing an acting career, in a comedy sketch called Repairs. In May 1906, Chaplin joined the juvenile act Casey's Circus, where he developed popular burlesque pieces and was soon the star of the show. By the time the act finished touring in July 1907, the 18-year-old had become an accomplished comedic performer. He struggled to find more work, however, and a brief attempt at a solo act was a failure.
Meanwhile, Sydney Chaplin had joined Fred Karno's prestigious comedy company in 1906 and, by 1908, he was one of their key performers. In February, he managed to secure a two-week trial for his younger brother. Karno was initially wary, and considered Chaplin a "pale, puny, sullen-looking youngster" who "looked much too shy to do any good in the theatre". However, the teenager made an impact on his first night at the London Coliseum and he was quickly signed to a contract. Chaplin began by playing a series of minor parts, eventually progressing to starring roles in 1909. In April 1910, he was given the lead in a new sketch, Jimmy the Fearless. It was a big success, and Chaplin received considerable press attention.
Karno selected his new star to join the section of the company, one that also included Stan Laurel, that toured North America's vaudeville circuit. The young comedian headed the show and impressed reviewers, being described as "one of the best pantomime artists ever seen here". His most successful role was a drunk called the "Inebriate Swell", which drew him significant recognition. The tour lasted 21 months, and the troupe returned to England in June 1912. Chaplin recalled that he "had a disquieting feeling of sinking back into a depressing commonplaceness" and was, therefore, delighted when a new tour began in October.
1914–1917: entering films
Keystone
Six months into the second American tour, Chaplin was invited to join the New York Motion Picture Company. A representative who had seen his performances thought he could replace Fred Mace, a star of their Keystone Studios who intended to leave. Chaplin thought the Keystone comedies "a crude mélange of rough and rumble", but liked the idea of working in films and rationalised: "Besides, it would mean a new life." He met with the company and signed a $150-per-week contract in September 1913. Chaplin arrived in Los Angeles in early December, and began working for the Keystone studio on 5January 1914.
Chaplin's boss was Mack Sennett, who initially expressed concern that the 24-year-old looked too young. He was not used in a picture until late January, during which time Chaplin attempted to learn the processes of filmmaking. The one-reeler Making a Living marked his film acting debut and was released on 2February 1914. Chaplin strongly disliked the picture, but one review picked him out as "a comedian of the first water". For his second appearance in front of the camera, Chaplin selected the costume with which he became identified. He described the process in his autobiography:
The film was Mabel's Strange Predicament, but "the Tramp" character, as it became known, debuted to audiences in Kid Auto Races at Veniceshot later than Mabel's Strange Predicament but released two days earlier on 7February 1914. Chaplin adopted the character as his screen persona and attempted to make suggestions for the films he appeared in. These ideas were dismissed by his directors. During the filming of his 11th picture, Mabel at the Wheel, he clashed with director Mabel Normand and was almost released from his contract. Sennett kept him on, however, when he received orders from exhibitors for more Chaplin films. Sennett also allowed Chaplin to direct his next film himself after Chaplin promised to pay $1,500 ($ in dollars) if the film was unsuccessful.
Caught in the Rain, issued 4May 1914, was Chaplin's directorial debut and was highly successful. Thereafter he directed almost every short film in which he appeared for Keystone, at the rate of approximately one per week, a period which he later remembered as the most exciting time of his career. Chaplin's films introduced a slower form of comedy than the typical Keystone farce, and he developed a large fan base. In November 1914, he had a supporting role in the first feature length comedy film, Tillie's Punctured Romance, directed by Sennett and starring Marie Dressler, which was a commercial success and increased his popularity. When Chaplin's contract came up for renewal at the end of the year, he asked for $1,000 a week an amount Sennett refused as too large.
Essanay
The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company of Chicago sent Chaplin an offer of $1,250 a week with a signing bonus of $10,000. He joined the studio in late December 1914, where he began forming a stock company of regular players, actors he worked with again and again, including Ben Turpin, Leo White, Bud Jamison, Paddy McGuire, Fred Goodwins, and Billy Armstrong. He soon recruited a leading lady, Edna Purviance, whom Chaplin met in a café and hired on account of her beauty. She went on to appear in 35 films with Chaplin over eight years; the pair also formed a romantic relationship that lasted into 1917.
Chaplin asserted a high level of control over his pictures and started to put more time and care into each film. There was a month-long interval between the release of his second production, A Night Out, and his third, The Champion. The final seven of Chaplin's 14 Essanay films were all produced at this slower pace. Chaplin also began to alter his screen persona, which had attracted some criticism at Keystone for its "mean, crude, and brutish" nature. The character became more gentle and romantic; The Tramp (April 1915) was considered a particular turning point in his development. The use of pathos was developed further with The Bank, in which Chaplin created a sad ending. Robinson notes that this was an innovation in comedy films, and marked the time when serious critics began to appreciate Chaplin's work. At Essanay, writes film scholar Simon Louvish, Chaplin "found the themes and the settings that would define the Tramp's world".
During 1915, Chaplin became a cultural phenomenon. Shops were stocked with Chaplin merchandise, he was featured in cartoons and comic strips, and several songs were written about him. In July, a journalist for Motion Picture Magazine wrote that "Chaplinitis" had spread across America. As his fame grew worldwide, he became the film industry's first international star. When the Essanay contract ended in December 1915, Chaplin, fully aware of his popularity, requested a $150,000 signing bonus from his next studio. He received several offers, including Universal, Fox, and Vitagraph, the best of which came from the Mutual Film Corporation at $10,000 a week.
Mutual
A contract was negotiated with Mutual that amounted to $670,000 a year, which Robinson says made Chaplinat 26 years oldone of the highest paid people in the world. The high salary shocked the public and was widely reported in the press. John R. Freuler, the studio president, explained: "We can afford to pay Mr. Chaplin this large sum annually because the public wants Chaplin and will pay for him."
Mutual gave Chaplin his own Los Angeles studio to work in, which opened in March 1916. He added two key members to his stock company, Albert Austin and Eric Campbell, and produced a series of elaborate two-reelers: The Floorwalker, The Fireman, The Vagabond, One A.M., and The Count. For The Pawnshop, he recruited the actor Henry Bergman, who was to work with Chaplin for 30 years. Behind the Screen and The Rink completed Chaplin's releases for 1916. The Mutual contract stipulated that he release a two-reel film every four weeks, which he had managed to achieve. With the new year, however, Chaplin began to demand more time. He made only four more films for Mutual over the first ten months of 1917: Easy Street, The Cure, The Immigrant, and The Adventurer. With their careful construction, these films are considered by Chaplin scholars to be among his finest work. Later in life, Chaplin referred to his Mutual years as the happiest period of his career. However, Chaplin also felt that those films became increasingly formulaic over the period of the contract, and he was increasingly dissatisfied with the working conditions encouraging that.
Chaplin was attacked in the British media for not fighting in the First World War. He defended himself, claiming that he would fight for Britain if called and had registered for the American draft, but he was not summoned by either country. Despite this criticism Chaplin was a favourite with the troops, and his popularity continued to grow worldwide. Harper's Weekly reported that the name of Charlie Chaplin was "a part of the common language of almost every country", and that the Tramp image was "universally familiar". In 1917, professional Chaplin imitators were so widespread that he took legal action, and it was reported that nine out of ten men who attended costume parties, did so dressed as the Tramp. The same year, a study by the Boston Society for Psychical Research concluded that Chaplin was "an American obsession". The actress Minnie Maddern Fiske wrote that "a constantly increasing body of cultured, artistic people are beginning to regard the young English buffoon, Charles Chaplin, as an extraordinary artist, as well as a comic genius".
1918–1922: First National
In January 1918, Chaplin was visited by leading British singer and comedian Harry Lauder, and the two acted in a short film together.
Mutual was patient with Chaplin's decreased rate of output, and the contract ended amicably. With his aforementioned concern about the declining quality of his films because of contract scheduling stipulations, Chaplin's primary concern in finding a new distributor was independence; Sydney Chaplin, then his business manager, told the press, "Charlie [must] be allowed all the time he needs and all the money for producing [films] the way he wants... It is quality, not quantity, we are after." In June 1917, Chaplin signed to complete eight films for First National Exhibitors' Circuit in return for $1million. He chose to build his own studio, situated on five acres of land off Sunset Boulevard, with production facilities of the highest order. It was completed in January 1918, and Chaplin was given freedom over the making of his pictures.
A Dog's Life, released April 1918, was the first film under the new contract. In it, Chaplin demonstrated his increasing concern with story construction and his treatment of the Tramp as "a sort of Pierrot". The film was described by Louis Delluc as "cinema's first total work of art". Chaplin then embarked on the Third Liberty Bond campaign, touring the United States for one month to raise money for the Allies of the First World War. He also produced a short propaganda film at his own expense, donated to the government for fund-raising, called The Bond. Chaplin's next release was war-based, placing the Tramp in the trenches for Shoulder Arms. Associates warned him against making a comedy about the war but, as he later recalled: "Dangerous or not, the idea excited me." He spent four months filming the picture, which was released in October 1918 with great success.
United Artists, Mildred Harris, and The Kid
After the release of Shoulder Arms, Chaplin requested more money from First National, which was refused. Frustrated with their lack of concern for quality, and worried about rumours of a possible merger between the company and Famous Players-Lasky, Chaplin joined forces with Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and D. W. Griffith to form a new distribution company, United Artists, in January 1919. The arrangement was revolutionary in the film industry, as it enabled the four partnersall creative artiststo personally fund their pictures and have complete control. Chaplin was eager to start with the new company and offered to buy out his contract with First National. They refused and insisted that he complete the final six films owed.
Before the creation of United Artists, Chaplin married for the first time. The 16-year-old actress Mildred Harris had revealed that she was pregnant with his child, and in September 1918, he married her quietly in Los Angeles to avoid controversy. Soon after, the pregnancy was found to be false. Chaplin was unhappy with the union and, feeling that marriage stunted his creativity, struggled over the production of his film Sunnyside. Harris was by then legitimately pregnant, and on 7July 1919, gave birth to a son. Norman Spencer Chaplin was born malformed and died three days later. The marriage ended in April 1920, with Chaplin explaining in his autobiography that they were "irreconcilably mismated".
Losing the child, plus his own childhood experiences, are thought to have influenced Chaplin's next film, which turned the Tramp into the caretaker of a young boy. For this new venture, Chaplin also wished to do more than comedy and, according to Louvish, "make his mark on a changed world". Filming on The Kid began in August 1919, with four-year-old Jackie Coogan his co-star. The Kid was in production for nine months until May 1920 and, at 68 minutes, it was Chaplin's longest picture to date. Dealing with issues of poverty and parent–child separation, The Kid was one of the earliest films to combine comedy and drama. It was released in January 1921 with instant success, and, by 1924, had been screened in over 50 countries.
Chaplin spent five months on his next film, the two-reeler The Idle Class. Work on the picture was for a time delayed by more turmoil in his personal life. First National had on April 12 announced Chaplin's engagement to the actress May Collins, whom he had hired to be his secretary at the studio. By early June, however, Chaplin "suddenly decided he could scarcely stand to be in the same room" as Collins, but instead of breaking off the engagement directly, he "stopped coming in to work, sending word that he was suffering from a bad case of influenza, which May knew to be a lie."
Ultimately work on the film resumed, and following its September 1921 release, Chaplin chose to return to England for the first time in almost a decade. He wrote a book about his journey, titled My Wonderful Visit. He then worked to fulfil his First National contract, releasing Pay Day in February 1922. The Pilgrim, his final short film, was delayed by distribution disagreements with the studio and released a year later.
1923–1938: silent features
A Woman of Paris and The Gold Rush
Having fulfilled his First National contract, Chaplin was free to make his first picture as an independent producer. In November 1922, he began filming A Woman of Paris, a romantic drama about ill-fated lovers. Chaplin intended it to be a star-making vehicle for Edna Purviance, and did not appear in the picture himself other than in a brief, uncredited cameo. He wished the film to have a realistic feel and directed his cast to give restrained performances. In real life, he explained, "men and women try to hide their emotions rather than seek to express them". A Woman of Paris premiered in September 1923 and was acclaimed for its innovative, subtle approach. The public, however, seemed to have little interest in a Chaplin film without Chaplin, and it was a box office disappointment. The filmmaker was hurt by this failurehe had long wanted to produce a dramatic film and was proud of the resultand soon withdrew A Woman of Paris from circulation.
Chaplin returned to comedy for his next project. Setting his standards high, he told himself "This next film must be an epic! The Greatest!" Inspired by a photograph of the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush, and later the story of the Donner Party of 1846–1847, he made what Geoffrey Macnab calls "an epic comedy out of grim subject matter". In The Gold Rush, the Tramp is a lonely prospector fighting adversity and looking for love. With Georgia Hale as his leading lady, Chaplin began filming the picture in February 1924. Its elaborate production, costing almost $1million, included location shooting in the Truckee mountains in Nevada with 600 extras, extravagant sets, and special effects. The last scene was shot in May 1925 after 15 months of filming.
Chaplin felt The Gold Rush was the best film he had made. It opened in August 1925 and became one of the highest-grossing films of the silent era with a U.S. box-office of $5million. The comedy contains some of Chaplin's most famous sequences, such as the Tramp eating his shoe and the "Dance of the Rolls". Macnab has called it "the quintessential Chaplin film". Chaplin stated at its release, "This is the picture that I want to be remembered by".
Lita Grey and The Circus
While making The Gold Rush, Chaplin married for the second time. Mirroring the circumstances of his first union, Lita Grey was a teenage actress, originally set to star in the film, whose surprise announcement of pregnancy forced Chaplin into marriage. She was 16 and he was 35, meaning Chaplin could have been charged with statutory rape under California law. He therefore arranged a discreet marriage in Mexico on 25 November 1924. They originally met during her childhood and she had previously appeared in his works The Kid and The Idle Class. Their first son, Charles Spencer Chaplin III, was born on 5May 1925, followed by Sydney Earl Chaplin on 30 March 1926. On 6 July 1925, Chaplin became the first movie star to be featured on a Time magazine cover.
It was an unhappy marriage, and Chaplin spent long hours at the studio to avoid seeing his wife. In November 1926, Grey took the children and left the family home. A bitter divorce followed, in which Grey's applicationaccusing Chaplin of infidelity, abuse, and of harbouring "perverted sexual desires"was leaked to the press. Chaplin was reported to be in a state of nervous breakdown, as the story became headline news and groups formed across America calling for his films to be banned. Eager to end the case without further scandal, Chaplin's lawyers agreed to a cash settlement of $600,000the largest awarded by American courts at that time. His fan base was strong enough to survive the incident, and it was soon forgotten, but Chaplin was deeply affected by it.
Before the divorce suit was filed, Chaplin had begun work on a new film, The Circus. He built a story around the idea of walking a tightrope while besieged by monkeys, and turned the Tramp into the accidental star of a circus. Filming was suspended for ten months while he dealt with the divorce scandal, and it was generally a trouble-ridden production. Finally completed in October 1927, The Circus was released in January 1928 to a positive reception. At the 1st Academy Awards, Chaplin was given a special trophy "For versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing The Circus". Despite its success, he permanently associated the film with the stress of its production; Chaplin omitted The Circus from his autobiography, and struggled to work on it when he recorded the score in his later years.
City Lights
By the time The Circus was released, Hollywood had witnessed the introduction of sound films. Chaplin was cynical about this new medium and the technical shortcomings it presented, believing that "talkies" lacked the artistry of silent films. He was also hesitant to change the formula that had brought him such success, and feared that giving the Tramp a voice would limit his international appeal. He, therefore, rejected the new Hollywood craze and began work on a new silent film. Chaplin was nonetheless anxious about this decision and remained so throughout the film's production.
When filming began at the end of 1928, Chaplin had been working on the story for almost a year. City Lights followed the Tramp's love for a blind flower girl (played by Virginia Cherrill) and his efforts to raise money for her sight-saving operation. It was a challenging production that lasted 21 months, with Chaplin later confessing that he "had worked himself into a neurotic state of wanting perfection". One advantage Chaplin found in sound technology was the opportunity to record a musical score for the film, which he composed himself.
Chaplin finished editing City Lights in December 1930, by which time silent films were an anachronism. A preview before an unsuspecting public audience was not a success, but a showing for the press produced positive reviews. One journalist wrote, "Nobody in the world but Charlie Chaplin could have done it. He is the only person that has that peculiar something called 'audience appeal' in sufficient quality to defy the popular penchant for movies that talk." Given its general release in January 1931, City Lights proved to be a popular and financial success, eventually grossing over $3million. The British Film Institute cites it as Chaplin's finest accomplishment, and the critic James Agee hails the closing scene as "the greatest piece of acting and the highest moment in movies". City Lights became Chaplin's personal favourite of his films and remained so throughout his life.
Travels, Paulette Goddard, and Modern Times
City Lights had been a success, but Chaplin was unsure if he could make another picture without dialogue. He remained convinced that sound would not work in his films, but was also "obsessed by a depressing fear of being old-fashioned". In this state of uncertainty, early in 1931, the comedian decided to take a holiday and ended up travelling for 16 months. He spent months travelling Western Europe, including extended stays in France and Switzerland, and spontaneously decided to visit Japan. The day after he arrived in Japan, Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi was assassinated by ultra-nationalists in the May 15 Incident. The group's original plan had been to provoke a war with the United States by assassinating Chaplin at a welcome reception organised by the prime minister, but the plan had been foiled due to delayed public announcement of the event's date.
In his autobiography, Chaplin recalled that on his return to Los Angeles, "I was confused and without plan, restless and conscious of an extreme loneliness". He briefly considered retiring and moving to China. Chaplin's loneliness was relieved when he met 21-year-old actress Paulette Goddard in July 1932, and the pair began a relationship. He was not ready to commit to a film, however, and focused on writing a serial about his travels (published in Woman's Home Companion). The trip had been a stimulating experience for Chaplin, including meetings with several prominent thinkers, and he became increasingly interested in world affairs. The state of labour in America troubled him, and he feared that capitalism and machinery in the workplace would increase unemployment levels. It was these concerns that stimulated Chaplin to develop his new film.
Modern Times was announced by Chaplin as "a satire on certain phases of our industrial life". Featuring the Tramp and Goddard as they endure the Great Depression, it took ten and a half months to film. Chaplin intended to use spoken dialogue but changed his mind during rehearsals. Like its predecessor, Modern Times employed sound effects but almost no speaking. Chaplin's performance of a gibberish song did, however, give the Tramp a voice for the only time on film. After recording the music, Chaplin released Modern Times in February 1936. It was his first feature in 15 years to adopt political references and social realism, a factor that attracted considerable press coverage despite Chaplin's attempts to downplay the issue. The film earned less at the box-office than his previous features and received mixed reviews, as some viewers disliked the politicising. Today, Modern Times is seen by the British Film Institute as one of Chaplin's "great features", while David Robinson says it shows the filmmaker at "his unrivalled peak as a creator of visual comedy".
Following the release of Modern Times, Chaplin left with Goddard for a trip to the Far East. The couple had refused to comment on the nature of their relationship, and it was not known whether they were married or not. Sometime later, Chaplin revealed that they married in Canton during this trip. By 1938, the couple had drifted apart, as both focused heavily on their work, although Goddard was again his leading lady in his next feature film, The Great Dictator. She eventually divorced Chaplin in Mexico in 1942, citing incompatibility and separation for more than a year.
1939–1952: controversies and fading popularity
The Great Dictator
The 1940s saw Chaplin face a series of controversies, both in his work and in his personal life, which changed his fortunes and severely affected his popularity in the United States. The first of these was his growing boldness in expressing his political beliefs. Deeply disturbed by the surge of militaristic nationalism in 1930s world politics, Chaplin found that he could not keep these issues out of his work. Parallels between himself and Adolf Hitler had been widely noted: the pair were born four days apart, both had risen from poverty to world prominence, and Hitler wore the same toothbrush moustache as Chaplin. It was this physical resemblance that supplied the plot for Chaplin's next film, The Great Dictator, which directly satirised Hitler and attacked fascism.
Chaplin spent two years developing the script and began filming in September 1939, six days after Britain declared war on Germany. He had submitted to using spoken dialogue, partly out of acceptance that he had no other choice, but also because he recognised it as a better method for delivering a political message. Making a comedy about Hitler was seen as highly controversial, but Chaplin's financial independence allowed him to take the risk. "I was determined to go ahead", he later wrote, "for Hitler must be laughed at." Chaplin replaced the Tramp (while wearing similar attire) with "A Jewish Barber", a reference to the Nazi party's belief that he was Jewish. In a dual performance, he also played the dictator "Adenoid Hynkel", who parodied Hitler.
The Great Dictator spent a year in production and was released in October 1940. The film generated a vast amount of publicity, with a critic for The New York Times calling it "the most eagerly awaited picture of the year", and it was one of the biggest money-makers of the era. The ending was unpopular, however, and generated controversy. Chaplin concluded the film with a five-minute speech in which he abandoned his barber character, looked directly into the camera, and pleaded against war and fascism. Charles J. Maland has identified this overt preaching as triggering a decline in Chaplin's popularity, and writes, "Henceforth, no movie fan would ever be able to separate the dimension of politics from [his] star image". Nevertheless, both Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt liked the film, which they saw at private screenings before its release. Roosevelt subsequently invited Chaplin to read the film's final speech over the radio during his January 1941 inauguration, with the speech becoming a "hit" of the celebration. Chaplin was often invited to other patriotic functions to read the speech to audiences during the years of the war. The Great Dictator received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor.
Legal troubles and Oona O'Neill
In the mid-1940s, Chaplin was involved in a series of trials that occupied most of his time and significantly affected his public image. The troubles stemmed from his affair with an aspiring actress named Joan Barry, with whom he was involved intermittently between June 1941 and the autumn of 1942. Barry, who displayed obsessive behaviour and was twice arrested after they separated, reappeared the following year and announced that she was pregnant with Chaplin's child. As Chaplin denied the claim, Barry filed a paternity suit against him.
The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), J. Edgar Hoover, who had long been suspicious of Chaplin's political leanings, used the opportunity to generate negative publicity about him. As part of a smear campaign to damage Chaplin's image, the FBI named him in four indictments related to the Barry case. Most serious of these was an alleged violation of the Mann Act, which prohibits the transportation of women across state boundaries for sexual purposes. Historian Otto Friedrich called this an "absurd prosecution" of an "ancient statute", yet if Chaplin was found guilty, he faced 23 years in jail. Three charges lacked sufficient evidence to proceed to court, but the Mann Act trial began on 21 March 1944. Chaplin was acquitted two weeks later, on4 April. The case was frequently headline news, with Newsweek calling it the "biggest public relations scandal since the Fatty Arbuckle murder trial in 1921".
Barry's child, Carol Ann, was born in October 1943, and the paternity suit went to court in December 1944. After two arduous trials, in which the prosecuting lawyer accused him of "moral turpitude", Chaplin was declared to be the father. Evidence from blood tests that indicated otherwise were not admissible, and the judge ordered Chaplin to pay child support until Carol Ann turned 21. Media coverage of the suit was influenced by the FBI, which fed information to gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, and Chaplin was portrayed in an overwhelmingly critical light.
The controversy surrounding Chaplin increased whentwo weeks after the paternity suit was filedit was announced that he had married his newest protégée, 18-year-old Oona O'Neill, the daughter of American playwright Eugene O'Neill. Chaplin, then 54, had been introduced to her by a film agent seven months earlier. In his autobiography, Chaplin described meeting O'Neill as "the happiest event of my life", and claimed to have found "perfect love". Chaplin's son, Charles Jr., reported that Oona "worshipped" his father. The couple remained married until Chaplin's death, and had eight children over 18 years: Geraldine Leigh (b. July 1944), Michael John (b. March 1946), Josephine Hannah (b. March 1949), Victoria (b. May 1951), Eugene Anthony (b. August 1953), Jane Cecil (b. May 1957), Annette Emily (b. December 1959), and Christopher James (b. July 1962).
Monsieur Verdoux and communist accusations
Chaplin claimed that the Barry trials had "crippled [his] creativeness", and it was some time before he began working again. In April 1946, he finally began filming a project that had been in development since 1942. Monsieur Verdoux was a black comedy, the story of a French bank clerk, Verdoux (Chaplin), who loses his job and begins marrying and murdering wealthy widows to support his family. Chaplin's inspiration for the project came from Orson Welles, who wanted him to star in a film about the French serial killer Henri Désiré Landru. Chaplin decided that the concept would "make a wonderful comedy", and paid Welles $5,000 for the idea.
Chaplin again vocalised his political views in Monsieur Verdoux, criticising capitalism and arguing that the world encourages mass killing through wars and weapons of mass destruction. Because of this, the film met with controversy when it was released in April 1947; Chaplin was booed at the premiere, and there were calls for a boycott. Monsieur Verdoux was the first Chaplin release that failed both critically and commercially in the United States. It was more successful abroad, and Chaplin's screenplay was nominated at the Academy Awards. He was proud of the film, writing in his autobiography, "Monsieur Verdoux is the cleverest and most brilliant film I have yet made."
The negative reaction to Monsieur Verdoux was largely the result of changes in Chaplin's public image. Along with damage of the Joan Barry scandal, he was publicly accused of being a communist. His political activity had heightened during World War II, when he campaigned for the opening of a Second Front to help the Soviet Union and supported various Soviet–American friendship groups. He was also friendly with several suspected communists, and attended functions given by Soviet diplomats in Los Angeles. In the political climate of 1940s America, such activities meant Chaplin was considered, as Larcher writes, "dangerously progressive and amoral". The FBI wanted him out of the country, and launched an official investigation in early 1947.
Chaplin denied being a communist, instead calling himself a "peacemonger", but felt the government's effort to suppress the ideology was an unacceptable infringement of civil liberties. Unwilling to be quiet about the issue, he openly protested against the trials of Communist Party members and the activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Chaplin received a subpoena to appear before HUAC but was not called to testify. As his activities were widely reported in the press, and Cold War fears grew, questions were raised over his failure to take American citizenship. Calls were made for him to be deported; in one extreme and widely published example, Representative John E. Rankin, who helped establish HUAC, told Congress in June 1947: "[Chaplin's] very life in Hollywood is detrimental to the moral fabric of America. [If he is deported]... his loathsome pictures can be kept from before the eyes of the American youth. He should be deported and gotten rid of at once."
In 2003, declassified British archives belonging to the British Foreign Office revealed that George Orwell secretly accused Chaplin of being a secret communist and a friend of the USSR. Chaplin's name was one of 35 Orwell gave to the Information Research Department (IRD), a secret British Cold War propaganda department which worked closely with the CIA, according to a 1949 document known as Orwell's list. Chaplin was not the only actor in America Orwell accused of being a secret communist. He also described American civil-rights leader and actor Paul Robeson as being "anti-white".
Limelight and banning from the United States
Although Chaplin remained politically active in the years following the failure of Monsieur Verdoux, his next film, about a forgotten music hall comedian and a young ballerina in Edwardian London, was devoid of political themes. Limelight was heavily autobiographical, alluding not only to Chaplin's childhood and the lives of his parents, but also to his loss of popularity in the United States. The cast included various members of his family, including his five oldest children and his half-brother, Wheeler Dryden.
Filming began in November 1951, by which time Chaplin had spent three years working on the story. He aimed for a more serious tone than any of his previous films, regularly using the word "melancholy" when explaining his plans to his co-star Claire Bloom. Limelight featured a cameo appearance from Buster Keaton, whom Chaplin cast as his stage partner in a pantomime scene. This marked the only time the comedians worked together in a feature film.
Chaplin decided to hold the world premiere of Limelight in London, since it was the setting of the film. As he left Los Angeles, he expressed a premonition that he would not be returning. At New York, he boarded the with his family on 18 September 1952. The next day, United States Attorney General James P. McGranery revoked Chaplin's re-entry permit and stated that he would have to submit to an interview concerning his political views and moral behaviour to re-enter the US. Although McGranery told the press that he had "a pretty good case against Chaplin", Maland has concluded, on the basis of the FBI files that were released in the 1980s, that the US government had no real evidence to prevent Chaplin's re-entry. It is likely that he would have gained entry if he had applied for it. However, when Chaplin received a cablegram informing him of the news, he privately decided to cut his ties with the United States:
Because all of his property remained in America, Chaplin refrained from saying anything negative about the incident to the press. The scandal attracted vast attention, but Chaplin and his film were warmly received in Europe. In America, the hostility towards him continued, and, although it received some positive reviews, Limelight was subjected to a wide-scale boycott. Reflecting on this, Maland writes that Chaplin's fall, from an "unprecedented" level of popularity, "may be the most dramatic in the history of stardom in America".
1953–1977: European years
Move to Switzerland and A King in New York
Chaplin did not attempt to return to the United States after his re-entry permit was revoked, and instead sent his wife to settle his affairs. The couple decided to settle in Switzerland and, in January 1953, the family moved into their permanent home: Manoir de Ban, a estate overlooking Lake Geneva in Corsier-sur-Vevey. Chaplin put his Beverly Hills house and studio up for sale in March, and surrendered his re-entry permit in April. The next year, his wife renounced her US citizenship and became a British citizen. Chaplin severed the last of his professional ties with the United States in 1955, when he sold the remainder of his stock in United Artists, which had been in financial difficulty since the early 1940s.
Chaplin remained a controversial figure throughout the 1950s, especially after he was awarded the International Peace Prize by the communist-led World Peace Council, and after his meetings with Zhou Enlai and Nikita Khrushchev. He began developing his first European film, A King in New York, in 1954. Casting himself as an exiled king who seeks asylum in the United States, Chaplin included several of his recent experiences in the screenplay. His son, Michael, was cast as a boy whose parents are targeted by the FBI, while Chaplin's character faces accusations of communism. The political satire parodied HUAC and attacked elements of 1950s cultureincluding consumerism, plastic surgery, and wide-screen cinema. In a review, the playwright John Osborne called it Chaplin's "most bitter" and "most openly personal" film. In a 1957 interview, when asked to clarify his political views, Chaplin stated "As for politics, I am an anarchist. I hate government and rulesand fetters... People must be free."
Chaplin founded a new production company, Attica, and used Shepperton Studios for the shooting. Filming in England proved a difficult experience, as he was used to his own Hollywood studio and familiar crew, and no longer had limitless production time. According to Robinson, this had an effect on the quality of the film. A King in New York was released in September 1957, and received mixed reviews. Chaplin banned American journalists from its Paris première and decided not to release the film in the United States. This severely limited its revenue, although it achieved moderate commercial success in Europe. A King in New York was not shown in America until 1973.
Final works and renewed appreciation
In the last two decades of his career, Chaplin concentrated on re-editing and scoring his old films for re-release, along with securing their ownership and distribution rights. In an interview he granted in 1959, the year of his 70th birthday, Chaplin stated that there was still "room for the Little Man in the atomic age". The first of these re-releases was The Chaplin Revue (1959), which included new versions of A Dog's Life, Shoulder Arms, and The Pilgrim.
In America, the political atmosphere began to change and attention was once again directed to Chaplin's films instead of his views. In July 1962, The New York Times published an editorial stating that "we do not believe the Republic would be in danger if yesterday's unforgotten little tramp were allowed to amble down the gangplank of a steamer or plane in an American port". The same month, Chaplin was invested with the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the universities of Oxford and Durham. In November 1963, the Plaza Theater in New York started a year-long series of Chaplin's films, including Monsieur Verdoux and Limelight, which gained excellent reviews from American critics. September 1964 saw the release of Chaplin's memoirs, My Autobiography, which he had been working on since 1957. The 500-page book became a worldwide best-seller. It focused on his early years and personal life, and was criticised for lacking information on his film career.
Shortly after the publication of his memoirs, Chaplin began work on A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), a romantic comedy based on a script he had written for Paulette Goddard in the 1930s. Set on an ocean liner, it starred Marlon Brando as an American ambassador and Sophia Loren as a stowaway found in his cabin. The film differed from Chaplin's earlier productions in several aspects. It was his first to use Technicolor and the widescreen format, while he concentrated on directing and appeared on-screen only in a cameo role as a seasick steward. He also signed a deal with Universal Pictures and appointed his assistant, Jerome Epstein, as the producer. Chaplin was paid $600,000 director's fee as well as a percentage of the gross receipts. A Countess from Hong Kong premiered in January 1967, to unfavourable reviews, and was a box-office failure. Chaplin was deeply hurt by the negative reaction to the film, which turned out to be his last.
Chaplin suffered a series of minor strokes in the late 1960s, which marked the beginning of a slow decline in his health. Despite the setbacks, he was soon writing a new film script, The Freak, a story of a winged girl found in South America, which he intended as a starring vehicle for his daughter, Victoria. His fragile health prevented the project from being realised. In the early 1970s, Chaplin concentrated on re-releasing his old films, including The Kid and The Circus. In 1971, he was made a Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour at the Cannes Film Festival. The following year, he was honoured with a special award by the Venice Film Festival.
In 1972, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences offered Chaplin an Honorary Award, which Robinson sees as a sign that America "wanted to make amends". Chaplin was initially hesitant about accepting but decided to return to the US for the first time in 20 years. The visit attracted a large amount of press coverage and, at the Academy Awards gala, he was given a 12-minute standing ovation, the longest in the Academy's history. Visibly emotional, Chaplin accepted his award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century".
Although Chaplin still had plans for future film projects, by the mid-1970s he was very frail. He experienced several further strokes, which made it difficult for him to communicate, and he had to use a wheelchair. His final projects were compiling a pictorial autobiography, My Life in Pictures (1974) and scoring A Woman of Paris for re-release in 1976. He also appeared in a documentary about his life, The Gentleman Tramp (1975), directed by Richard Patterson. In the 1975 New Year Honours, Chaplin was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II, though he was too weak to kneel and received the honour in his wheelchair.
Death
By October 1977, Chaplin's health had declined to the point that he needed constant care. In the early morning of 25 December 1977, Chaplin died at home after suffering a stroke in his sleep. He was 88 years old. The funeral, on 27 December, was a small and private Anglican ceremony, according to his wishes. Chaplin was interred in the Corsier-sur-Vevey cemetery. Among the film industry's tributes, director René Clair wrote, "He was a monument of the cinema, of all countries and all times... the most beautiful gift the cinema made to us." Actor Bob Hope declared, "We were lucky to have lived in his time." Chaplin left more than $100 million to his widow.
On 1 March 1978, Chaplin's coffin was dug up and stolen from its grave by Roman Wardas and Gantcho Ganev. The body was held for ransom in an attempt to extort money from his widow, Oona Chaplin. The pair were caught in a large police operation in May, and Chaplin's coffin was found buried in a field in the nearby village of Noville. It was re-interred in the Corsier cemetery in a reinforced concrete vault.
Filmmaking
Influences
Chaplin believed his first influence to be his mother, who entertained him as a child by sitting at the window and mimicking passers-by: "it was through watching her that I learned not only how to express emotions with my hands and face, but also how to observe and study people." Chaplin's early years in music hall allowed him to see stage comedians at work; he also attended the Christmas pantomimes at Drury Lane, where he studied the art of clowning through performers like Dan Leno. Chaplin's years with the Fred Karno company had a formative effect on him as an actor and filmmaker. Simon Louvish writes that the company was his "training ground", and it was here that Chaplin learned to vary the pace of his comedy. The concept of mixing pathos with slapstick was learnt from Karno, who also used elements of absurdity that became familiar in Chaplin's gags. From the film industry, Chaplin drew upon the work of the French comedian Max Linder, whose films he greatly admired. In developing the Tramp costume and persona, he was likely inspired by the American vaudeville scene, where tramp characters were common.
Method
Chaplin never spoke more than cursorily about his filmmaking methods, claiming such a thing would be tantamount to a magician spoiling his own illusion. Little was known about his working process throughout his lifetime, but research from film historiansparticularly the findings of Kevin Brownlow and David Gill that were presented in the three-part documentary Unknown Chaplin (1983)has since revealed his unique working method.
Until he began making spoken dialogue films with The Great Dictator, Chaplin never shot from a completed script. Many of his early films began with only a vague premise, for example "Charlie enters a health spa" or "Charlie works in a pawn shop". He then had sets constructed and worked with his stock company to improvise gags and "business" using them, almost always working the ideas out on film. As ideas were accepted and discarded, a narrative structure would emerge, frequently requiring Chaplin to reshoot an already-completed scene that might have otherwise contradicted the story. From A Woman of Paris onward Chaplin began the filming process with a prepared plot, but Robinson writes that every film up to Modern Times "went through many metamorphoses and permutations before the story took its final form".
Producing films in this manner meant Chaplin took longer to complete his pictures than almost any other filmmaker at the time. If he was out of ideas, he often took a break from the shoot, which could last for days, while keeping the studio ready for when inspiration returned. Delaying the process further was Chaplin's rigorous perfectionism. According to his friend Ivor Montagu, "nothing but perfection would be right" for the filmmaker. Because he personally funded his films, Chaplin was at liberty to strive for this goal and shoot as many takes as he wished. The number was often excessive, for instance 53 takes for every finished take in The Kid. For The Immigrant, a 20-minute short, Chaplin shot 40,000 feet of filmenough for a feature-length.
Describing his working method as "sheer perseverance to the point of madness", Chaplin would be completely consumed by the production of a picture. Robinson writes that even in Chaplin's later years, his work continued "to take precedence over everything and everyone else". The combination of story improvisation and relentless perfectionismwhich resulted in days of effort and thousands of feet of film being wasted, all at enormous expenseoften proved taxing for Chaplin who, in frustration, would lash out at his actors and crew.
Chaplin exercised complete control over his pictures, to the extent that he would act out the other roles for his cast, expecting them to imitate him exactly. He personally edited all of his films, trawling through the large amounts of footage to create the exact picture he wanted. As a result of his complete independence, he was identified by the film historian Andrew Sarris as one of the first auteur filmmakers. Chaplin did receive help, notably from his long-time cinematographer Roland Totheroh, brother Sydney Chaplin, and various assistant directors such as Harry Crocker and Charles Reisner.
Style and themes
While Chaplin's comedic style is broadly defined as slapstick, it is considered restrained and intelligent, with the film historian Philip Kemp describing his work as a mix of "deft, balletic physical comedy and thoughtful, situation-based gags". Chaplin diverged from conventional slapstick by slowing the pace and exhausting each scene of its comic potential, with more focus on developing the viewer's relationship to the characters. Unlike conventional slapstick comedies, Robinson states that the comic moments in Chaplin's films centre on the Tramp's attitude to the things happening to him: the humour does not come from the Tramp bumping into a tree, but from his lifting his hat to the tree in apology. Dan Kamin writes that Chaplin's "quirky mannerisms" and "serious demeanour in the midst of slapstick action" are other key aspects of his comedy, while the surreal transformation of objects and the employment of in-camera trickery are also common features. His signature style consisted of gestural idiosyncracies like askew derby hat, drooping shoulders, deflated chest and dangling arms and tilted back pelvis to enrich the comic persona of his 'tramp' character. His shabby but neat clothing and incessant grooming behaviour along with his geometrical walk and movement gave his onscreen characters a puppet-like quality.
Chaplin's silent films typically follow the Tramp's efforts to survive in a hostile world. The character lives in poverty and is frequently treated badly, but remains kind and upbeat; defying his social position, he strives to be seen as a gentleman. As Chaplin said in 1925, "The whole point of the Little Fellow is that no matter how down on his ass he is, no matter how well the jackals succeed in tearing him apart, he's still a man of dignity." The Tramp defies authority figures and "gives as good as he gets", leading Robinson and Louvish to see him as a representative for the underprivilegedan "everyman turned heroic saviour". Hansmeyer notes that several of Chaplin's films end with "the homeless and lonely Tramp [walking] optimistically... into the sunset... to continue his journey."
The infusion of pathos is a well-known aspect of Chaplin's work, and Larcher notes his reputation for "[inducing] laughter and tears". Sentimentality in his films comes from a variety of sources, with Louvish pinpointing "personal failure, society's strictures, economic disaster, and the elements". Chaplin sometimes drew on tragic events when creating his films, as in the case of The Gold Rush (1925), which was inspired by the fate of the Donner Party. Constance B. Kuriyama has identified serious underlying themes in the early comedies, such as greed (The Gold Rush) and loss (The Kid). Chaplin also touched on controversial issues: immigration (The Immigrant, 1917); illegitimacy (The Kid, 1921); and drug use (Easy Street, 1917). He often explored these topics ironically, making comedy out of suffering.
Social commentary was a feature of Chaplin's films from early in his career, as he portrayed the underdog in a sympathetic light and highlighted the difficulties of the poor. Later, as he developed a keen interest in economics and felt obliged to publicise his views, Chaplin began incorporating overtly political messages into his films. Modern Times (1936) depicted factory workers in dismal conditions, The Great Dictator (1940) parodied Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and ended in a speech against nationalism, Monsieur Verdoux (1947) criticised war and capitalism, and A King in New York (1957) attacked McCarthyism.
Several of Chaplin's films incorporate autobiographical elements, and the psychologist Sigmund Freud believed that Chaplin "always plays only himself as he was in his dismal youth". The Kid is thought to reflect Chaplin's childhood trauma of being sent into an orphanage, the main characters in Limelight (1952) contain elements from the lives of his parents, and A King in New York references Chaplin's experiences of being shunned by the United States. Many of his sets, especially in street scenes, bear a strong similarity to Kennington, where he grew up. Stephen M. Weissman has argued that Chaplin's problematic relationship with his mentally ill mother was often reflected in his female characters and the Tramp's desire to save them.
Regarding the structure of Chaplin's films, the scholar Gerald Mast sees them as consisting of sketches tied together by the same theme and setting, rather than having a tightly unified storyline. Visually, his films are simple and economic, with scenes portrayed as if set on a stage. His approach to filming was described by the art director Eugène Lourié: "Chaplin did not think in 'artistic' images when he was shooting. He believed that action is the main thing. The camera is there to photograph the actors". In his autobiography, Chaplin wrote, "Simplicity is best... pompous effects slow up action, are boring and unpleasant... The camera should not intrude." This approach has prompted criticism, since the 1940s, for being "old fashioned", while the film scholar Donald McCaffrey sees it as an indication that Chaplin never completely understood film as a medium. Kamin, however, comments that Chaplin's comedic talent would not be enough to remain funny on screen if he did not have an "ability to conceive and direct scenes specifically for the film medium".
Composing
Chaplin developed a passion for music as a child and taught himself to play the piano, violin, and cello. He considered the musical accompaniment of a film to be important, and from A Woman of Paris onwards he took an increasing interest in this area. With the advent of sound technology, Chaplin began using a synchronised orchestral soundtrackcomposed by himselffor City Lights (1931). He thereafter composed the scores for all of his films, and from the late 1950s to his death, he scored all of his silent features and some of his short films.
As Chaplin was not a trained musician, he could not read sheet music and needed the help of professional composers, such as David Raksin, Raymond Rasch and Eric James, when creating his scores. Musical directors were employed to oversee the recording process, such as Alfred Newman for City Lights. Although some critics have claimed that credit for his film music should be given to the composers who worked with him, Raksinwho worked with Chaplin on Modern Timesstressed Chaplin's creative position and active participation in the composing process. This process, which could take months, would start with Chaplin describing to the composer(s) exactly what he wanted and singing or playing tunes he had improvised on the piano. These tunes were then developed further in a close collaboration among the composer(s) and Chaplin. According to film historian Jeffrey Vance, "although he relied upon associates to arrange varied and complex instrumentation, the musical imperative is his, and not a note in a Chaplin musical score was placed there without his assent."
Chaplin's compositions produced three popular songs. "Smile", composed originally for Modern Times (1936) and later set to lyrics by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons, was a hit for Nat King Cole in 1954. For Limelight, Chaplin composed "Terry's Theme", which was popularised by Jimmy Young as "Eternally" (1952). Finally, "This Is My Song", performed by Petula Clark for A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), reached number one on the UK and other European charts. Chaplin also received his only competitive Oscar for his composition work, as the Limelight theme won an Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1973 following the film's re-release.
Legacy
In 1998, the film critic Andrew Sarris called Chaplin "arguably the single most important artist produced by the cinema, certainly its most extraordinary performer and probably still its most universal icon". He is described by the British Film Institute as "a towering figure in world culture", and was included in Time magazine's list of the "100 Most Important People of the 20th Century" for the "laughter [he brought] to millions" and because he "more or less invented global recognizability and helped turn an industry into an art". In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Chaplin as the 10th greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema. Chaplin was voted No. 2 of the "Greatest Movie Stars of the 20th Century" poll and No. 4 on the "Greatest Directors of the 20th Century" poll conducted by Japanese film magazine Kinema Junpo.
The image of the Tramp has become a part of cultural history; according to Simon Louvish, the character is recognisable to people who have never seen a Chaplin film, and in places where his films are never shown. The critic Leonard Maltin has written of the "unique" and "indelible" nature of the Tramp, and argued that no other comedian matched his "worldwide impact". Praising the character, Richard Schickel suggests that Chaplin's films with the Tramp contain the most "eloquent, richly comedic expressions of the human spirit" in movie history. Memorabilia connected to the character still fetches large sums in auctions: in 2006 a bowler hat and a bamboo cane that were part of the Tramp's costume were bought for $140,000 in a Los Angeles auction.
As a filmmaker, Chaplin is considered a pioneer and one of the most influential figures of the early twentieth century. He is often credited as one of the medium's first artists. Film historian Mark Cousins has written that Chaplin "changed not only the imagery of cinema, but also its sociology and grammar" and claims that Chaplin was as important to the development of comedy as a genre as D.W. Griffith was to drama. He was the first to popularise feature-length comedy and to slow down the pace of action, adding pathos and subtlety to it. Although his work is mostly classified as slapstick, Chaplin's drama A Woman of Paris (1923) was a major influence on Ernst Lubitsch's film The Marriage Circle (1924) and thus played a part in the development of "sophisticated comedy". According to David Robinson, Chaplin's innovations were "rapidly assimilated to become part of the common practice of film craft". Filmmakers who cited Chaplin as an influence include Federico Fellini (who called Chaplin "a sort of Adam, from whom we are all descended"), Jacques Tati ("Without him I would never have made a film"), René Clair ("He inspired practically every filmmaker"), François Truffaut ("My religion is cinema. I believe in Charlie Chaplin…"), Michael Powell, Billy Wilder, Vittorio De Sica, and Richard Attenborough. Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky praised Chaplin as "the only person to have gone down into cinematic history without any shadow of a doubt. The films he left behind can never grow old." Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray said about Chaplin "If there is any name which can be said to symbolize cinema—it is Charlie Chaplin… I am sure Chaplin's name will survive even if the cinema ceases to exist as a medium of artistic expression. Chaplin is truly immortal." French auteur Jean Renoir's favourite filmmaker was Chaplin.
Chaplin also strongly influenced the work of later comedians. Marcel Marceau said he was inspired to become a mime artist after watching Chaplin, while the actor Raj Kapoor based his screen persona on the Tramp. Mark Cousins has also detected Chaplin's comedic style in the French character Monsieur Hulot and the Italian character Totò. In other fields, Chaplin helped inspire the cartoon characters Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse, and was an influence on the Dada art movement. As one of the founding members of United Artists, Chaplin also had a role in the development of the film industry. Gerald Mast has written that although UA never became a major company like MGM or Paramount Pictures, the idea that directors could produce their own films was "years ahead of its time".
In 1992, the Sight & Sound Critics' Top Ten Poll ranked Chaplin at No. 5 in its list of "Top 10 Directors" of all time. In the 21st century, several of Chaplin's films are still regarded as classics and among the greatest ever made. The 2012 Sight & Sound poll, which compiles "top ten" ballots from film critics and directors to determine each group's most acclaimed films,
saw City Lights rank among the critics' top 50, Modern Times inside the top 100, and The Great Dictator and The Gold Rush placed in the top 250. The top 100 films as voted on by directors included Modern Times at number 22, City Lights at number 30, and The Gold Rush at number 91. Every one of Chaplin's features received a vote. Chaplin was ranked at No. 35 on Empire magazine's "Top 40 Greatest Directors of All-Time" list in 2005. In 2007, the American Film Institute named City Lights the 11th greatest American film of all time, while The Gold Rush and Modern Times again ranked in the top 100. Books about Chaplin continue to be published regularly, and he is a popular subject for media scholars and film archivists. Many of Chaplin's film have had a DVD and Blu-ray release.
Chaplin's legacy is managed on behalf of his children by the Chaplin office, located in Paris. The office represents Association Chaplin, founded by some of his children "to protect the name, image and moral rights" to his body of work, Roy Export SAS, which owns the copyright to most of his films made after 1918, and Bubbles Incorporated S.A., which owns the copyrights to his image and name. Their central archive is held at the archives of Montreux, Switzerland and scanned versions of its contents, including 83,630 images, 118 scripts, 976 manuscripts, 7,756 letters, and thousands of other documents, are available for research purposes at the Chaplin Research Centre at the Cineteca di Bologna. The photographic archive, which includes approximately 10,000 photographs from Chaplin's life and career, is kept at the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland. The British Film Institute has also established the Charles Chaplin Research Foundation, and the first international Charles Chaplin Conference was held in London in July 2005. Elements for many of Chaplin's films are held by the Academy Film Archive as part of the Roy Export Chaplin Collection.
Commemoration and tributes
Chaplin's final home, Manoir de Ban in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland, has been converted into a museum named "Chaplin's World". It opened on 17 April 2016 after fifteen years of development, and is described by Reuters as "an interactive museum showcasing the life and works of Charlie Chaplin". On the 128th anniversary of his birth, a record-setting 662 people dressed as the Tramp in an event organised by the museum. Previously, the Museum of the Moving Image in London held a permanent display on Chaplin, and hosted a dedicated exhibition to his life and career in 1988. The London Film Museum hosted an exhibition called Charlie ChaplinThe Great Londoner, from 2010 until 2013.
In London, a statue of Chaplin as the Tramp, sculpted by John Doubleday and unveiled in 1981, is located in Leicester Square. The city also includes a road named after him in central London, "Charlie Chaplin Walk", which is the location of the BFI IMAX. There are nine blue plaques memorialising Chaplin in London, Hampshire, and Yorkshire. The Swiss town of Vevey named a park in his honour in 1980 and erected a statue there in 1982. In 2011, two large murals depicting Chaplin on two 14-storey buildings were also unveiled in Vevey. Chaplin has also been honoured by the Irish town of Waterville, where he spent several summers with his family in the 1960s. A statue was erected in 1998; since 2011, the town has been host to the annual Charlie Chaplin Comedy Film Festival, which was founded to celebrate Chaplin's legacy and to showcase new comic talent.
In other tributes, a minor planet, 3623 Chaplin (discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Karachkina in 1981) is named after Charlie. Throughout the 1980s, the Tramp image was used by IBM to advertise their personal computers. Chaplin's 100th birthday anniversary in 1989 was marked with several events around the world, and on 15 April 2011, a day before his 122nd birthday, Google celebrated him with a special Google Doodle video on its global and other country-wide homepages. Many countries, spanning six continents, have honoured Chaplin with a postal stamp.
Characterisations
Chaplin is the subject of a biographical film, Chaplin (1992) directed by Richard Attenborough, and starring Robert Downey Jr. in the title role and Geraldine Chaplin playing Hannah Chaplin. He is also a character in the historical drama film The Cat's Meow (2001), played by Eddie Izzard, and in the made-for-television movie The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980), played by Clive Revill. A television series about Chaplin's childhood, Young Charlie Chaplin, ran on PBS in 1989, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program. The French film The Price of Fame (2014) is a fictionalised account of the robbery of Chaplin's grave.
Chaplin's life has also been the subject of several stage productions. Two musicals, Little Tramp and Chaplin, were produced in the early 1990s. In 2006, Thomas Meehan and Christopher Curtis created another musical, Limelight: The Story of Charlie Chaplin, which was first performed at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego in 2010. It was adapted for Broadway two years later, re-titled ChaplinA Musical. Chaplin was portrayed by Robert McClure in both productions. In 2013, two plays about Chaplin premiered in Finland: Chaplin at the Svenska Teatern, and Kulkuri (The Tramp) at the Tampere Workers' Theatre.
Chaplin has also been characterised in literary fiction. He is the protagonist of Robert Coover's short story "Charlie in the House of Rue" (1980; reprinted in Coover's 1987 collection A Night at the Movies), and of Glen David Gold's Sunnyside (2009), a historical novel set in the First World War period. A day in Chaplin's life in 1909 is dramatised in the chapter titled "Modern Times" in Alan Moore's Jerusalem (2016), a novel set in the author's home town of Northampton, England.
Chaplin was brought to life in a comic strip bearing his name that ran for 30 years in the British pre-war humorous comic Funny Wonder. Begun in 1915, the strip was drawn primarily by Bertie Brown; it was one of the earliest comic strips inspired by the popularity of a celebrity. A similar strip, Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers, by Stuart Carothers and later Elzie C. Segar, was syndicated in the United States from March 29, 1915 until September 16, 1917. In France in 1922, Raoul Thomen created the comic strip Les Aventures Acrobatiques de Charlot ("Charlot's Acrobatic Adventures"). Thomen's strip ran in French children's magazines for nearly 20 years. Charlot's comic strip adventures were continued by other artists, lasting until 1963. The strip was collected in many albums.
Awards and recognition
Chaplin received many awards and honours, especially later in life. In the 1975 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE). He was also awarded honorary Doctor of Letters degrees by the University of Oxford and the University of Durham in 1962. In 1965, he and Ingmar Bergman were joint winners of the Erasmus Prize and, in 1971, he was appointed a Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour by the French government.
From the film industry, Chaplin received a special Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1972, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lincoln Center Film Society the same year. The latter has since been presented annually to filmmakers as The Chaplin Award. Chaplin was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1972, having been previously excluded because of his political beliefs.
Chaplin received three Academy Awards: an Honorary Award for "versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing, and producing The Circus" in 1929, a second Honorary Award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century" in 1972, and a Best Score award in 1973 for Limelight (shared with Ray Rasch and Larry Russell). He was further nominated in the Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture (as producer) categories for The Great Dictator, and received another Best Original Screenplay nomination for Monsieur Verdoux. In 1976, Chaplin was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).
Six of Chaplin's films have been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress: The Immigrant (1917), The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940).
Filmography
Directed features:
The Kid (1921)
A Woman of Paris (1923)
The Gold Rush (1925)
The Circus (1928)
City Lights (1931)
Modern Times (1936)
The Great Dictator (1940)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Limelight (1952)
A King in New York (1957)
A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)
See also
Buster Keaton
Harold Lloyd
References
Footnotes
Citations
Works cited
External links
by Association Chaplin
The Charlie Chaplin Archive Online catalogue of Chaplin's professional and personal archives at the Cineteca di Bologna, Italy
Chaplin's World Museum at the Manoir de Ban, Switzerland
Chaplin's file at the Federal Bureau of Investigation website
1889 births
1977 deaths
19th-century English people
20th-century British male musicians
20th-century English screenwriters
20th-century English businesspeople
20th-century English comedians
20th-century English male actors
Academy Honorary Award recipients
Actors awarded knighthoods
British anti-capitalists
Articles containing video clips
BAFTA fellows
Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners
British anti-fascists
British film production company founders
British male comedy actors
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Cinema pioneers
Comedy film directors
Composers awarded knighthoods
British people of Irish descent
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English anarchists
English autobiographers
English expatriates in Switzerland
English expatriates in the United States
English film directors
English film editors
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English film score composers
English male child actors
English male comedians
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History of the London Borough of Lambeth
Hollywood history and culture
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Male actors from London
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People from Lambeth
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Silent film comedians
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Vaudeville performers | true | [
"My Father's Rifle: A Childhood in Kurdistan is a novella by Kurdish screenplay writer, writer, and film director Hiner Saleem (2004, ). The novella is a fictionalized account of Saleem's childhood in Kurdistan. \n\nHiner's Novella is a capture of War in a child's prospective. As every Kurdish child, Hiner's childhood was painted by War, lost identity, and the hardship life of any man born in this land, Kurdistan! \n\nKurdish literature",
"Up from Where We've Come is a book by veteran musician Charles Wright who led the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band during the 1970s. It covers his early years, battling hardship and racism in America's South through to his future in music.\n\nBackground\nTold in Wright's own style, it tells of a young boy from a large family that worked on a cotton plantation that was owned by a cruel sharecropper. It covers his childhood years through to his finding fame as a musician. \n\nIt gives an intimate account of his family's life and their struggle and having to deal with issues such as racism. It tells what it was like for a black family in Clarksdale, Mississippi, who sharecroppers during the 1940s. It also follows his move to Los Angeles where he would have his musical future.\n\nIt was edited by Scott Galloway and published in 2016 by A Million $ Worth of Memories Records.\n\nAppearances and reviews\nOn February 24, 2016, Wright appeared at LA's Southwest College Black History Month to talk about his book. He was interviewed by Aaron Robinson for Consciousness Magazine where Robinson asked him about the book and he said he was filling link between slavery and sharecropping. \n\nOn August 20 that year, he appeared at the Leimert Park Book Fair for its tenth anniversary. Alongside Matty Rich, Wight talked about his book. On May 19, 2018, he was at the William Grant Still Arts Center to sign copies of the book.\n\nThe book has had positive ratings at Goodreads.\n\nReferences\n\n2015 non-fiction books\nAmerican autobiographies\nAfrican-American autobiographies\nBooks about race and ethnicity\nCulture of the Southern United States\nRacism in the United States"
]
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[
"Charlie Chaplin",
"Background and childhood hardship",
"What was his biggest childhood hardship?",
"March 1905, her illness returned, this time permanently."
]
| C_90c2ef6570c647dfb80560e53db82e47_1 | did his parents die when he was young? | 2 | Did Charlie Chaplin's parents die when he was young? | Charlie Chaplin | Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889 to Hannah Chaplin (born Hannah Harriet Pedlingham Hill) and Charles Chaplin Sr. There is no official record of his birth, although Chaplin believed he was born at East Street, Walworth, in South London. His mother and father had married four years previously, at which time Charles Sr. became the legal carer of Hannah's illegitimate son, Sydney John Hill. At the time of his birth, Chaplin's parents were both music hall entertainers. Hannah, the daughter of a shoemaker, had a brief and unsuccessful career under the stage name Lily Harley, while Charles Sr., a butcher's son, was a popular singer. Although they never divorced, Chaplin's parents were estranged by around 1891. The following year, Hannah gave birth to a third son - George Wheeler Dryden - fathered by the music hall entertainer Leo Dryden. The child was taken by Dryden at six months old, and did not re-enter Chaplin's life for 30 years. Chaplin's childhood was fraught with poverty and hardship, making his eventual trajectory "the most dramatic of all the rags to riches stories ever told" according to his authorised biographer David Robinson. Chaplin's early years were spent with his mother and brother Sydney in the London district of Kennington; Hannah had no means of income, other than occasional nursing and dressmaking, and Chaplin Sr. provided no financial support. As the situation deteriorated, Chaplin was sent to Lambeth Workhouse when he was seven years old. The council housed him at the Central London District School for paupers, which Chaplin remembered as "a forlorn existence". He was briefly reunited with his mother 18 months later, before Hannah was forced to readmit her family to the workhouse in July 1898. The boys were promptly sent to Norwood Schools, another institution for destitute children. In September 1898, Hannah was committed to Cane Hill mental asylum - she had developed a psychosis seemingly brought on by an infection of syphilis and malnutrition. For the two months she was there, Chaplin and his brother Sydney were sent to live with their father, whom the young boys scarcely knew. Charles Sr. was by then a severe alcoholic, and life there was bad enough to provoke a visit from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Chaplin's father died two years later, at 38 years old, from cirrhosis of the liver. Hannah entered a period of remission but, in May 1903, became ill again. Chaplin, then 14, had the task of taking his mother to the infirmary, from where she was sent back to Cane Hill. He lived alone for several days, searching for food and occasionally sleeping rough, until Sydney - who had enrolled in the Navy two years earlier - returned. Hannah was released from the asylum eight months later, but in March 1905, her illness returned, this time permanently. "There was nothing we could do but accept poor mother's fate", Chaplin later wrote, and she remained in care until her death in 1928. CANNOTANSWER | There was nothing we could do but accept poor mother's fate", | Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered one of the film industry's most important figures. His career spanned more than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977, and encompassed both adulation and controversy.
Chaplin's childhood in London was one of poverty and hardship. His father was absent and his mother struggled financially - he was sent to a workhouse twice before age nine. When he was 14, his mother was committed to a mental asylum. Chaplin began performing at an early age, touring music halls and later working as a stage actor and comedian. At 19, he was signed to the Fred Karno company, which took him to America. He was scouted for the film industry and began appearing in 1914 for Keystone Studios. He soon developed the Tramp persona and attracted a large fan base. He directed his own films and continued to hone his craft as he moved to the Essanay, Mutual, and First National corporations. By 1918, he was one of the world's best-known figures.
In 1919, Chaplin co-founded distribution company United Artists, which gave him complete control over his films. His first feature-length film was The Kid (1921), followed by A Woman of Paris (1923), The Gold Rush (1925), and The Circus (1928). He initially refused to move to sound films in the 1930s, instead producing City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936) without dialogue. His first sound film was The Great Dictator (1940), which satirised Adolf Hitler. The 1940s were marked with controversy for Chaplin, and his popularity declined rapidly. He was accused of communist sympathies, and some members of the press and public were scandalized by his involvement in a paternity suit and marriages to much younger women. An FBI investigation was opened, and Chaplin was forced to leave the United States and settle in Switzerland. He abandoned the Tramp in his later films, which include Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Limelight (1952), A King in New York (1957), and A Countess from Hong Kong (1967).
Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in, and composed the music for most of his films. He was a perfectionist, and his financial independence enabled him to spend years on the development and production of a picture. His films are characterised by slapstick combined with pathos, typified in the Tramp's struggles against adversity. Many contain social and political themes, as well as autobiographical elements. He received an Honorary Academy Award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century" in 1972, as part of a renewed appreciation for his work. He continues to be held in high regard, with The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, and The Great Dictator often ranked on lists of the greatest films.
Biography
1889–1913: early years
Background and childhood hardship
Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889 to Hannah Chaplin (née Hill) and Charles Chaplin Sr., both of whom had Romanichal heritage. There is no official record of his birth, although Chaplin believed he was born at East Street, Walworth, in South London. His parents had married four years previously, at which time Charles Sr. became the legal guardian of Hannah's illegitimate son, Sydney John Hill. At the time of his birth, Chaplin's parents were both music hall entertainers. Hannah, the daughter of a shoemaker, had a brief and unsuccessful career under the stage name Lily Harley, while Charles Sr., a butcher's son, was a popular singer. Although they never divorced, Chaplin's parents were estranged by around 1891. The following year, Hannah gave birth to a third son, George Wheeler Dryden, fathered by the music hall entertainer Leo Dryden. The child was taken by Dryden at six months old, and did not re-enter Chaplin's life for thirty years.
Chaplin's childhood was fraught with poverty and hardship, making his eventual trajectory "the most dramatic of all the rags to riches stories ever told" according to his authorised biographer David Robinson. Chaplin's early years were spent with his mother and brother Sydney in the London district of Kennington; Hannah had no means of income, other than occasional nursing and dressmaking, and Chaplin Sr. provided no financial support. As the situation deteriorated, Chaplin was sent to Lambeth Workhouse when he was seven years old. The council housed him at the Central London District School for paupers, which Chaplin remembered as "a forlorn existence". He was briefly reunited with his mother 18 months later, before Hannah was forced to readmit her family to the workhouse in July 1898. The boys were promptly sent to Norwood Schools, another institution for destitute children.
In September 1898, Hannah was committed to Cane Hill mental asylum; she had developed a psychosis seemingly brought on by an infection of syphilis and malnutrition. For the two months she was there, Chaplin and his brother Sydney were sent to live with their father, whom the young boys scarcely knew. Charles Sr. was by then a severe alcoholic, and life there was bad enough to provoke a visit from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Chaplin's father died two years later, at 38 years old, from cirrhosis of the liver.
Hannah entered a period of remission but, in May 1903, became ill again. Chaplin, then 14, had the task of taking his mother to the infirmary, from where she was sent back to Cane Hill. He lived alone for several days, searching for food and occasionally sleeping rough, until Sydneywho had joined the Navy two years earlierreturned. Hannah was released from the asylum eight months later, but in March 1905, her illness returned, this time permanently. "There was nothing we could do but accept poor mother's fate", Chaplin later wrote, and she remained in care until her death in 1928.
Young performer
Between his time in the poor schools and his mother succumbing to mental illness, Chaplin began to perform on stage. He later recalled making his first amateur appearance at the age of five years, when he took over from Hannah one night in Aldershot. This was an isolated occurrence, but by the time he was nine Chaplin had, with his mother's encouragement, grown interested in performing. He later wrote: "[she] imbued me with the feeling that I had some sort of talent". Through his father's connections, Chaplin became a member of the Eight Lancashire Lads clog-dancing troupe, with whom he toured English music halls throughout 1899 and 1900. Chaplin worked hard, and the act was popular with audiences, but he was not satisfied with dancing and wished to form a comedy act.
In the years Chaplin was touring with the Eight Lancashire Lads, his mother ensured that he still attended school but, by age 13, he had abandoned education. He supported himself with a range of jobs, while nursing his ambition to become an actor. At 14, shortly after his mother's relapse, he registered with a theatrical agency in London's West End. The manager sensed potential in Chaplin, who was promptly given his first role as a newsboy in Harry Arthur Saintsbury's Jim, a Romance of Cockayne. It opened in July 1903, but the show was unsuccessful and closed after two weeks. Chaplin's comic performance, however, was singled out for praise in many of the reviews.
Saintsbury secured a role for Chaplin in Charles Frohman's production of Sherlock Holmes, where he played Billy the pageboy in three nationwide tours. His performance was so well received that he was called to London to play the role alongside William Gillette, the original Holmes. "It was like tidings from heaven", Chaplin recalled. At 16 years old, Chaplin starred in the play's West End production at the Duke of York's Theatre from October to December 1905. He completed one final tour of Sherlock Holmes in early 1906, before leaving the play after more than two-and-a-half years.
Stage comedy and vaudeville
Chaplin soon found work with a new company and went on tour with his brother, who was also pursuing an acting career, in a comedy sketch called Repairs. In May 1906, Chaplin joined the juvenile act Casey's Circus, where he developed popular burlesque pieces and was soon the star of the show. By the time the act finished touring in July 1907, the 18-year-old had become an accomplished comedic performer. He struggled to find more work, however, and a brief attempt at a solo act was a failure.
Meanwhile, Sydney Chaplin had joined Fred Karno's prestigious comedy company in 1906 and, by 1908, he was one of their key performers. In February, he managed to secure a two-week trial for his younger brother. Karno was initially wary, and considered Chaplin a "pale, puny, sullen-looking youngster" who "looked much too shy to do any good in the theatre". However, the teenager made an impact on his first night at the London Coliseum and he was quickly signed to a contract. Chaplin began by playing a series of minor parts, eventually progressing to starring roles in 1909. In April 1910, he was given the lead in a new sketch, Jimmy the Fearless. It was a big success, and Chaplin received considerable press attention.
Karno selected his new star to join the section of the company, one that also included Stan Laurel, that toured North America's vaudeville circuit. The young comedian headed the show and impressed reviewers, being described as "one of the best pantomime artists ever seen here". His most successful role was a drunk called the "Inebriate Swell", which drew him significant recognition. The tour lasted 21 months, and the troupe returned to England in June 1912. Chaplin recalled that he "had a disquieting feeling of sinking back into a depressing commonplaceness" and was, therefore, delighted when a new tour began in October.
1914–1917: entering films
Keystone
Six months into the second American tour, Chaplin was invited to join the New York Motion Picture Company. A representative who had seen his performances thought he could replace Fred Mace, a star of their Keystone Studios who intended to leave. Chaplin thought the Keystone comedies "a crude mélange of rough and rumble", but liked the idea of working in films and rationalised: "Besides, it would mean a new life." He met with the company and signed a $150-per-week contract in September 1913. Chaplin arrived in Los Angeles in early December, and began working for the Keystone studio on 5January 1914.
Chaplin's boss was Mack Sennett, who initially expressed concern that the 24-year-old looked too young. He was not used in a picture until late January, during which time Chaplin attempted to learn the processes of filmmaking. The one-reeler Making a Living marked his film acting debut and was released on 2February 1914. Chaplin strongly disliked the picture, but one review picked him out as "a comedian of the first water". For his second appearance in front of the camera, Chaplin selected the costume with which he became identified. He described the process in his autobiography:
The film was Mabel's Strange Predicament, but "the Tramp" character, as it became known, debuted to audiences in Kid Auto Races at Veniceshot later than Mabel's Strange Predicament but released two days earlier on 7February 1914. Chaplin adopted the character as his screen persona and attempted to make suggestions for the films he appeared in. These ideas were dismissed by his directors. During the filming of his 11th picture, Mabel at the Wheel, he clashed with director Mabel Normand and was almost released from his contract. Sennett kept him on, however, when he received orders from exhibitors for more Chaplin films. Sennett also allowed Chaplin to direct his next film himself after Chaplin promised to pay $1,500 ($ in dollars) if the film was unsuccessful.
Caught in the Rain, issued 4May 1914, was Chaplin's directorial debut and was highly successful. Thereafter he directed almost every short film in which he appeared for Keystone, at the rate of approximately one per week, a period which he later remembered as the most exciting time of his career. Chaplin's films introduced a slower form of comedy than the typical Keystone farce, and he developed a large fan base. In November 1914, he had a supporting role in the first feature length comedy film, Tillie's Punctured Romance, directed by Sennett and starring Marie Dressler, which was a commercial success and increased his popularity. When Chaplin's contract came up for renewal at the end of the year, he asked for $1,000 a week an amount Sennett refused as too large.
Essanay
The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company of Chicago sent Chaplin an offer of $1,250 a week with a signing bonus of $10,000. He joined the studio in late December 1914, where he began forming a stock company of regular players, actors he worked with again and again, including Ben Turpin, Leo White, Bud Jamison, Paddy McGuire, Fred Goodwins, and Billy Armstrong. He soon recruited a leading lady, Edna Purviance, whom Chaplin met in a café and hired on account of her beauty. She went on to appear in 35 films with Chaplin over eight years; the pair also formed a romantic relationship that lasted into 1917.
Chaplin asserted a high level of control over his pictures and started to put more time and care into each film. There was a month-long interval between the release of his second production, A Night Out, and his third, The Champion. The final seven of Chaplin's 14 Essanay films were all produced at this slower pace. Chaplin also began to alter his screen persona, which had attracted some criticism at Keystone for its "mean, crude, and brutish" nature. The character became more gentle and romantic; The Tramp (April 1915) was considered a particular turning point in his development. The use of pathos was developed further with The Bank, in which Chaplin created a sad ending. Robinson notes that this was an innovation in comedy films, and marked the time when serious critics began to appreciate Chaplin's work. At Essanay, writes film scholar Simon Louvish, Chaplin "found the themes and the settings that would define the Tramp's world".
During 1915, Chaplin became a cultural phenomenon. Shops were stocked with Chaplin merchandise, he was featured in cartoons and comic strips, and several songs were written about him. In July, a journalist for Motion Picture Magazine wrote that "Chaplinitis" had spread across America. As his fame grew worldwide, he became the film industry's first international star. When the Essanay contract ended in December 1915, Chaplin, fully aware of his popularity, requested a $150,000 signing bonus from his next studio. He received several offers, including Universal, Fox, and Vitagraph, the best of which came from the Mutual Film Corporation at $10,000 a week.
Mutual
A contract was negotiated with Mutual that amounted to $670,000 a year, which Robinson says made Chaplinat 26 years oldone of the highest paid people in the world. The high salary shocked the public and was widely reported in the press. John R. Freuler, the studio president, explained: "We can afford to pay Mr. Chaplin this large sum annually because the public wants Chaplin and will pay for him."
Mutual gave Chaplin his own Los Angeles studio to work in, which opened in March 1916. He added two key members to his stock company, Albert Austin and Eric Campbell, and produced a series of elaborate two-reelers: The Floorwalker, The Fireman, The Vagabond, One A.M., and The Count. For The Pawnshop, he recruited the actor Henry Bergman, who was to work with Chaplin for 30 years. Behind the Screen and The Rink completed Chaplin's releases for 1916. The Mutual contract stipulated that he release a two-reel film every four weeks, which he had managed to achieve. With the new year, however, Chaplin began to demand more time. He made only four more films for Mutual over the first ten months of 1917: Easy Street, The Cure, The Immigrant, and The Adventurer. With their careful construction, these films are considered by Chaplin scholars to be among his finest work. Later in life, Chaplin referred to his Mutual years as the happiest period of his career. However, Chaplin also felt that those films became increasingly formulaic over the period of the contract, and he was increasingly dissatisfied with the working conditions encouraging that.
Chaplin was attacked in the British media for not fighting in the First World War. He defended himself, claiming that he would fight for Britain if called and had registered for the American draft, but he was not summoned by either country. Despite this criticism Chaplin was a favourite with the troops, and his popularity continued to grow worldwide. Harper's Weekly reported that the name of Charlie Chaplin was "a part of the common language of almost every country", and that the Tramp image was "universally familiar". In 1917, professional Chaplin imitators were so widespread that he took legal action, and it was reported that nine out of ten men who attended costume parties, did so dressed as the Tramp. The same year, a study by the Boston Society for Psychical Research concluded that Chaplin was "an American obsession". The actress Minnie Maddern Fiske wrote that "a constantly increasing body of cultured, artistic people are beginning to regard the young English buffoon, Charles Chaplin, as an extraordinary artist, as well as a comic genius".
1918–1922: First National
In January 1918, Chaplin was visited by leading British singer and comedian Harry Lauder, and the two acted in a short film together.
Mutual was patient with Chaplin's decreased rate of output, and the contract ended amicably. With his aforementioned concern about the declining quality of his films because of contract scheduling stipulations, Chaplin's primary concern in finding a new distributor was independence; Sydney Chaplin, then his business manager, told the press, "Charlie [must] be allowed all the time he needs and all the money for producing [films] the way he wants... It is quality, not quantity, we are after." In June 1917, Chaplin signed to complete eight films for First National Exhibitors' Circuit in return for $1million. He chose to build his own studio, situated on five acres of land off Sunset Boulevard, with production facilities of the highest order. It was completed in January 1918, and Chaplin was given freedom over the making of his pictures.
A Dog's Life, released April 1918, was the first film under the new contract. In it, Chaplin demonstrated his increasing concern with story construction and his treatment of the Tramp as "a sort of Pierrot". The film was described by Louis Delluc as "cinema's first total work of art". Chaplin then embarked on the Third Liberty Bond campaign, touring the United States for one month to raise money for the Allies of the First World War. He also produced a short propaganda film at his own expense, donated to the government for fund-raising, called The Bond. Chaplin's next release was war-based, placing the Tramp in the trenches for Shoulder Arms. Associates warned him against making a comedy about the war but, as he later recalled: "Dangerous or not, the idea excited me." He spent four months filming the picture, which was released in October 1918 with great success.
United Artists, Mildred Harris, and The Kid
After the release of Shoulder Arms, Chaplin requested more money from First National, which was refused. Frustrated with their lack of concern for quality, and worried about rumours of a possible merger between the company and Famous Players-Lasky, Chaplin joined forces with Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and D. W. Griffith to form a new distribution company, United Artists, in January 1919. The arrangement was revolutionary in the film industry, as it enabled the four partnersall creative artiststo personally fund their pictures and have complete control. Chaplin was eager to start with the new company and offered to buy out his contract with First National. They refused and insisted that he complete the final six films owed.
Before the creation of United Artists, Chaplin married for the first time. The 16-year-old actress Mildred Harris had revealed that she was pregnant with his child, and in September 1918, he married her quietly in Los Angeles to avoid controversy. Soon after, the pregnancy was found to be false. Chaplin was unhappy with the union and, feeling that marriage stunted his creativity, struggled over the production of his film Sunnyside. Harris was by then legitimately pregnant, and on 7July 1919, gave birth to a son. Norman Spencer Chaplin was born malformed and died three days later. The marriage ended in April 1920, with Chaplin explaining in his autobiography that they were "irreconcilably mismated".
Losing the child, plus his own childhood experiences, are thought to have influenced Chaplin's next film, which turned the Tramp into the caretaker of a young boy. For this new venture, Chaplin also wished to do more than comedy and, according to Louvish, "make his mark on a changed world". Filming on The Kid began in August 1919, with four-year-old Jackie Coogan his co-star. The Kid was in production for nine months until May 1920 and, at 68 minutes, it was Chaplin's longest picture to date. Dealing with issues of poverty and parent–child separation, The Kid was one of the earliest films to combine comedy and drama. It was released in January 1921 with instant success, and, by 1924, had been screened in over 50 countries.
Chaplin spent five months on his next film, the two-reeler The Idle Class. Work on the picture was for a time delayed by more turmoil in his personal life. First National had on April 12 announced Chaplin's engagement to the actress May Collins, whom he had hired to be his secretary at the studio. By early June, however, Chaplin "suddenly decided he could scarcely stand to be in the same room" as Collins, but instead of breaking off the engagement directly, he "stopped coming in to work, sending word that he was suffering from a bad case of influenza, which May knew to be a lie."
Ultimately work on the film resumed, and following its September 1921 release, Chaplin chose to return to England for the first time in almost a decade. He wrote a book about his journey, titled My Wonderful Visit. He then worked to fulfil his First National contract, releasing Pay Day in February 1922. The Pilgrim, his final short film, was delayed by distribution disagreements with the studio and released a year later.
1923–1938: silent features
A Woman of Paris and The Gold Rush
Having fulfilled his First National contract, Chaplin was free to make his first picture as an independent producer. In November 1922, he began filming A Woman of Paris, a romantic drama about ill-fated lovers. Chaplin intended it to be a star-making vehicle for Edna Purviance, and did not appear in the picture himself other than in a brief, uncredited cameo. He wished the film to have a realistic feel and directed his cast to give restrained performances. In real life, he explained, "men and women try to hide their emotions rather than seek to express them". A Woman of Paris premiered in September 1923 and was acclaimed for its innovative, subtle approach. The public, however, seemed to have little interest in a Chaplin film without Chaplin, and it was a box office disappointment. The filmmaker was hurt by this failurehe had long wanted to produce a dramatic film and was proud of the resultand soon withdrew A Woman of Paris from circulation.
Chaplin returned to comedy for his next project. Setting his standards high, he told himself "This next film must be an epic! The Greatest!" Inspired by a photograph of the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush, and later the story of the Donner Party of 1846–1847, he made what Geoffrey Macnab calls "an epic comedy out of grim subject matter". In The Gold Rush, the Tramp is a lonely prospector fighting adversity and looking for love. With Georgia Hale as his leading lady, Chaplin began filming the picture in February 1924. Its elaborate production, costing almost $1million, included location shooting in the Truckee mountains in Nevada with 600 extras, extravagant sets, and special effects. The last scene was shot in May 1925 after 15 months of filming.
Chaplin felt The Gold Rush was the best film he had made. It opened in August 1925 and became one of the highest-grossing films of the silent era with a U.S. box-office of $5million. The comedy contains some of Chaplin's most famous sequences, such as the Tramp eating his shoe and the "Dance of the Rolls". Macnab has called it "the quintessential Chaplin film". Chaplin stated at its release, "This is the picture that I want to be remembered by".
Lita Grey and The Circus
While making The Gold Rush, Chaplin married for the second time. Mirroring the circumstances of his first union, Lita Grey was a teenage actress, originally set to star in the film, whose surprise announcement of pregnancy forced Chaplin into marriage. She was 16 and he was 35, meaning Chaplin could have been charged with statutory rape under California law. He therefore arranged a discreet marriage in Mexico on 25 November 1924. They originally met during her childhood and she had previously appeared in his works The Kid and The Idle Class. Their first son, Charles Spencer Chaplin III, was born on 5May 1925, followed by Sydney Earl Chaplin on 30 March 1926. On 6 July 1925, Chaplin became the first movie star to be featured on a Time magazine cover.
It was an unhappy marriage, and Chaplin spent long hours at the studio to avoid seeing his wife. In November 1926, Grey took the children and left the family home. A bitter divorce followed, in which Grey's applicationaccusing Chaplin of infidelity, abuse, and of harbouring "perverted sexual desires"was leaked to the press. Chaplin was reported to be in a state of nervous breakdown, as the story became headline news and groups formed across America calling for his films to be banned. Eager to end the case without further scandal, Chaplin's lawyers agreed to a cash settlement of $600,000the largest awarded by American courts at that time. His fan base was strong enough to survive the incident, and it was soon forgotten, but Chaplin was deeply affected by it.
Before the divorce suit was filed, Chaplin had begun work on a new film, The Circus. He built a story around the idea of walking a tightrope while besieged by monkeys, and turned the Tramp into the accidental star of a circus. Filming was suspended for ten months while he dealt with the divorce scandal, and it was generally a trouble-ridden production. Finally completed in October 1927, The Circus was released in January 1928 to a positive reception. At the 1st Academy Awards, Chaplin was given a special trophy "For versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing The Circus". Despite its success, he permanently associated the film with the stress of its production; Chaplin omitted The Circus from his autobiography, and struggled to work on it when he recorded the score in his later years.
City Lights
By the time The Circus was released, Hollywood had witnessed the introduction of sound films. Chaplin was cynical about this new medium and the technical shortcomings it presented, believing that "talkies" lacked the artistry of silent films. He was also hesitant to change the formula that had brought him such success, and feared that giving the Tramp a voice would limit his international appeal. He, therefore, rejected the new Hollywood craze and began work on a new silent film. Chaplin was nonetheless anxious about this decision and remained so throughout the film's production.
When filming began at the end of 1928, Chaplin had been working on the story for almost a year. City Lights followed the Tramp's love for a blind flower girl (played by Virginia Cherrill) and his efforts to raise money for her sight-saving operation. It was a challenging production that lasted 21 months, with Chaplin later confessing that he "had worked himself into a neurotic state of wanting perfection". One advantage Chaplin found in sound technology was the opportunity to record a musical score for the film, which he composed himself.
Chaplin finished editing City Lights in December 1930, by which time silent films were an anachronism. A preview before an unsuspecting public audience was not a success, but a showing for the press produced positive reviews. One journalist wrote, "Nobody in the world but Charlie Chaplin could have done it. He is the only person that has that peculiar something called 'audience appeal' in sufficient quality to defy the popular penchant for movies that talk." Given its general release in January 1931, City Lights proved to be a popular and financial success, eventually grossing over $3million. The British Film Institute cites it as Chaplin's finest accomplishment, and the critic James Agee hails the closing scene as "the greatest piece of acting and the highest moment in movies". City Lights became Chaplin's personal favourite of his films and remained so throughout his life.
Travels, Paulette Goddard, and Modern Times
City Lights had been a success, but Chaplin was unsure if he could make another picture without dialogue. He remained convinced that sound would not work in his films, but was also "obsessed by a depressing fear of being old-fashioned". In this state of uncertainty, early in 1931, the comedian decided to take a holiday and ended up travelling for 16 months. He spent months travelling Western Europe, including extended stays in France and Switzerland, and spontaneously decided to visit Japan. The day after he arrived in Japan, Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi was assassinated by ultra-nationalists in the May 15 Incident. The group's original plan had been to provoke a war with the United States by assassinating Chaplin at a welcome reception organised by the prime minister, but the plan had been foiled due to delayed public announcement of the event's date.
In his autobiography, Chaplin recalled that on his return to Los Angeles, "I was confused and without plan, restless and conscious of an extreme loneliness". He briefly considered retiring and moving to China. Chaplin's loneliness was relieved when he met 21-year-old actress Paulette Goddard in July 1932, and the pair began a relationship. He was not ready to commit to a film, however, and focused on writing a serial about his travels (published in Woman's Home Companion). The trip had been a stimulating experience for Chaplin, including meetings with several prominent thinkers, and he became increasingly interested in world affairs. The state of labour in America troubled him, and he feared that capitalism and machinery in the workplace would increase unemployment levels. It was these concerns that stimulated Chaplin to develop his new film.
Modern Times was announced by Chaplin as "a satire on certain phases of our industrial life". Featuring the Tramp and Goddard as they endure the Great Depression, it took ten and a half months to film. Chaplin intended to use spoken dialogue but changed his mind during rehearsals. Like its predecessor, Modern Times employed sound effects but almost no speaking. Chaplin's performance of a gibberish song did, however, give the Tramp a voice for the only time on film. After recording the music, Chaplin released Modern Times in February 1936. It was his first feature in 15 years to adopt political references and social realism, a factor that attracted considerable press coverage despite Chaplin's attempts to downplay the issue. The film earned less at the box-office than his previous features and received mixed reviews, as some viewers disliked the politicising. Today, Modern Times is seen by the British Film Institute as one of Chaplin's "great features", while David Robinson says it shows the filmmaker at "his unrivalled peak as a creator of visual comedy".
Following the release of Modern Times, Chaplin left with Goddard for a trip to the Far East. The couple had refused to comment on the nature of their relationship, and it was not known whether they were married or not. Sometime later, Chaplin revealed that they married in Canton during this trip. By 1938, the couple had drifted apart, as both focused heavily on their work, although Goddard was again his leading lady in his next feature film, The Great Dictator. She eventually divorced Chaplin in Mexico in 1942, citing incompatibility and separation for more than a year.
1939–1952: controversies and fading popularity
The Great Dictator
The 1940s saw Chaplin face a series of controversies, both in his work and in his personal life, which changed his fortunes and severely affected his popularity in the United States. The first of these was his growing boldness in expressing his political beliefs. Deeply disturbed by the surge of militaristic nationalism in 1930s world politics, Chaplin found that he could not keep these issues out of his work. Parallels between himself and Adolf Hitler had been widely noted: the pair were born four days apart, both had risen from poverty to world prominence, and Hitler wore the same toothbrush moustache as Chaplin. It was this physical resemblance that supplied the plot for Chaplin's next film, The Great Dictator, which directly satirised Hitler and attacked fascism.
Chaplin spent two years developing the script and began filming in September 1939, six days after Britain declared war on Germany. He had submitted to using spoken dialogue, partly out of acceptance that he had no other choice, but also because he recognised it as a better method for delivering a political message. Making a comedy about Hitler was seen as highly controversial, but Chaplin's financial independence allowed him to take the risk. "I was determined to go ahead", he later wrote, "for Hitler must be laughed at." Chaplin replaced the Tramp (while wearing similar attire) with "A Jewish Barber", a reference to the Nazi party's belief that he was Jewish. In a dual performance, he also played the dictator "Adenoid Hynkel", who parodied Hitler.
The Great Dictator spent a year in production and was released in October 1940. The film generated a vast amount of publicity, with a critic for The New York Times calling it "the most eagerly awaited picture of the year", and it was one of the biggest money-makers of the era. The ending was unpopular, however, and generated controversy. Chaplin concluded the film with a five-minute speech in which he abandoned his barber character, looked directly into the camera, and pleaded against war and fascism. Charles J. Maland has identified this overt preaching as triggering a decline in Chaplin's popularity, and writes, "Henceforth, no movie fan would ever be able to separate the dimension of politics from [his] star image". Nevertheless, both Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt liked the film, which they saw at private screenings before its release. Roosevelt subsequently invited Chaplin to read the film's final speech over the radio during his January 1941 inauguration, with the speech becoming a "hit" of the celebration. Chaplin was often invited to other patriotic functions to read the speech to audiences during the years of the war. The Great Dictator received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor.
Legal troubles and Oona O'Neill
In the mid-1940s, Chaplin was involved in a series of trials that occupied most of his time and significantly affected his public image. The troubles stemmed from his affair with an aspiring actress named Joan Barry, with whom he was involved intermittently between June 1941 and the autumn of 1942. Barry, who displayed obsessive behaviour and was twice arrested after they separated, reappeared the following year and announced that she was pregnant with Chaplin's child. As Chaplin denied the claim, Barry filed a paternity suit against him.
The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), J. Edgar Hoover, who had long been suspicious of Chaplin's political leanings, used the opportunity to generate negative publicity about him. As part of a smear campaign to damage Chaplin's image, the FBI named him in four indictments related to the Barry case. Most serious of these was an alleged violation of the Mann Act, which prohibits the transportation of women across state boundaries for sexual purposes. Historian Otto Friedrich called this an "absurd prosecution" of an "ancient statute", yet if Chaplin was found guilty, he faced 23 years in jail. Three charges lacked sufficient evidence to proceed to court, but the Mann Act trial began on 21 March 1944. Chaplin was acquitted two weeks later, on4 April. The case was frequently headline news, with Newsweek calling it the "biggest public relations scandal since the Fatty Arbuckle murder trial in 1921".
Barry's child, Carol Ann, was born in October 1943, and the paternity suit went to court in December 1944. After two arduous trials, in which the prosecuting lawyer accused him of "moral turpitude", Chaplin was declared to be the father. Evidence from blood tests that indicated otherwise were not admissible, and the judge ordered Chaplin to pay child support until Carol Ann turned 21. Media coverage of the suit was influenced by the FBI, which fed information to gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, and Chaplin was portrayed in an overwhelmingly critical light.
The controversy surrounding Chaplin increased whentwo weeks after the paternity suit was filedit was announced that he had married his newest protégée, 18-year-old Oona O'Neill, the daughter of American playwright Eugene O'Neill. Chaplin, then 54, had been introduced to her by a film agent seven months earlier. In his autobiography, Chaplin described meeting O'Neill as "the happiest event of my life", and claimed to have found "perfect love". Chaplin's son, Charles Jr., reported that Oona "worshipped" his father. The couple remained married until Chaplin's death, and had eight children over 18 years: Geraldine Leigh (b. July 1944), Michael John (b. March 1946), Josephine Hannah (b. March 1949), Victoria (b. May 1951), Eugene Anthony (b. August 1953), Jane Cecil (b. May 1957), Annette Emily (b. December 1959), and Christopher James (b. July 1962).
Monsieur Verdoux and communist accusations
Chaplin claimed that the Barry trials had "crippled [his] creativeness", and it was some time before he began working again. In April 1946, he finally began filming a project that had been in development since 1942. Monsieur Verdoux was a black comedy, the story of a French bank clerk, Verdoux (Chaplin), who loses his job and begins marrying and murdering wealthy widows to support his family. Chaplin's inspiration for the project came from Orson Welles, who wanted him to star in a film about the French serial killer Henri Désiré Landru. Chaplin decided that the concept would "make a wonderful comedy", and paid Welles $5,000 for the idea.
Chaplin again vocalised his political views in Monsieur Verdoux, criticising capitalism and arguing that the world encourages mass killing through wars and weapons of mass destruction. Because of this, the film met with controversy when it was released in April 1947; Chaplin was booed at the premiere, and there were calls for a boycott. Monsieur Verdoux was the first Chaplin release that failed both critically and commercially in the United States. It was more successful abroad, and Chaplin's screenplay was nominated at the Academy Awards. He was proud of the film, writing in his autobiography, "Monsieur Verdoux is the cleverest and most brilliant film I have yet made."
The negative reaction to Monsieur Verdoux was largely the result of changes in Chaplin's public image. Along with damage of the Joan Barry scandal, he was publicly accused of being a communist. His political activity had heightened during World War II, when he campaigned for the opening of a Second Front to help the Soviet Union and supported various Soviet–American friendship groups. He was also friendly with several suspected communists, and attended functions given by Soviet diplomats in Los Angeles. In the political climate of 1940s America, such activities meant Chaplin was considered, as Larcher writes, "dangerously progressive and amoral". The FBI wanted him out of the country, and launched an official investigation in early 1947.
Chaplin denied being a communist, instead calling himself a "peacemonger", but felt the government's effort to suppress the ideology was an unacceptable infringement of civil liberties. Unwilling to be quiet about the issue, he openly protested against the trials of Communist Party members and the activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Chaplin received a subpoena to appear before HUAC but was not called to testify. As his activities were widely reported in the press, and Cold War fears grew, questions were raised over his failure to take American citizenship. Calls were made for him to be deported; in one extreme and widely published example, Representative John E. Rankin, who helped establish HUAC, told Congress in June 1947: "[Chaplin's] very life in Hollywood is detrimental to the moral fabric of America. [If he is deported]... his loathsome pictures can be kept from before the eyes of the American youth. He should be deported and gotten rid of at once."
In 2003, declassified British archives belonging to the British Foreign Office revealed that George Orwell secretly accused Chaplin of being a secret communist and a friend of the USSR. Chaplin's name was one of 35 Orwell gave to the Information Research Department (IRD), a secret British Cold War propaganda department which worked closely with the CIA, according to a 1949 document known as Orwell's list. Chaplin was not the only actor in America Orwell accused of being a secret communist. He also described American civil-rights leader and actor Paul Robeson as being "anti-white".
Limelight and banning from the United States
Although Chaplin remained politically active in the years following the failure of Monsieur Verdoux, his next film, about a forgotten music hall comedian and a young ballerina in Edwardian London, was devoid of political themes. Limelight was heavily autobiographical, alluding not only to Chaplin's childhood and the lives of his parents, but also to his loss of popularity in the United States. The cast included various members of his family, including his five oldest children and his half-brother, Wheeler Dryden.
Filming began in November 1951, by which time Chaplin had spent three years working on the story. He aimed for a more serious tone than any of his previous films, regularly using the word "melancholy" when explaining his plans to his co-star Claire Bloom. Limelight featured a cameo appearance from Buster Keaton, whom Chaplin cast as his stage partner in a pantomime scene. This marked the only time the comedians worked together in a feature film.
Chaplin decided to hold the world premiere of Limelight in London, since it was the setting of the film. As he left Los Angeles, he expressed a premonition that he would not be returning. At New York, he boarded the with his family on 18 September 1952. The next day, United States Attorney General James P. McGranery revoked Chaplin's re-entry permit and stated that he would have to submit to an interview concerning his political views and moral behaviour to re-enter the US. Although McGranery told the press that he had "a pretty good case against Chaplin", Maland has concluded, on the basis of the FBI files that were released in the 1980s, that the US government had no real evidence to prevent Chaplin's re-entry. It is likely that he would have gained entry if he had applied for it. However, when Chaplin received a cablegram informing him of the news, he privately decided to cut his ties with the United States:
Because all of his property remained in America, Chaplin refrained from saying anything negative about the incident to the press. The scandal attracted vast attention, but Chaplin and his film were warmly received in Europe. In America, the hostility towards him continued, and, although it received some positive reviews, Limelight was subjected to a wide-scale boycott. Reflecting on this, Maland writes that Chaplin's fall, from an "unprecedented" level of popularity, "may be the most dramatic in the history of stardom in America".
1953–1977: European years
Move to Switzerland and A King in New York
Chaplin did not attempt to return to the United States after his re-entry permit was revoked, and instead sent his wife to settle his affairs. The couple decided to settle in Switzerland and, in January 1953, the family moved into their permanent home: Manoir de Ban, a estate overlooking Lake Geneva in Corsier-sur-Vevey. Chaplin put his Beverly Hills house and studio up for sale in March, and surrendered his re-entry permit in April. The next year, his wife renounced her US citizenship and became a British citizen. Chaplin severed the last of his professional ties with the United States in 1955, when he sold the remainder of his stock in United Artists, which had been in financial difficulty since the early 1940s.
Chaplin remained a controversial figure throughout the 1950s, especially after he was awarded the International Peace Prize by the communist-led World Peace Council, and after his meetings with Zhou Enlai and Nikita Khrushchev. He began developing his first European film, A King in New York, in 1954. Casting himself as an exiled king who seeks asylum in the United States, Chaplin included several of his recent experiences in the screenplay. His son, Michael, was cast as a boy whose parents are targeted by the FBI, while Chaplin's character faces accusations of communism. The political satire parodied HUAC and attacked elements of 1950s cultureincluding consumerism, plastic surgery, and wide-screen cinema. In a review, the playwright John Osborne called it Chaplin's "most bitter" and "most openly personal" film. In a 1957 interview, when asked to clarify his political views, Chaplin stated "As for politics, I am an anarchist. I hate government and rulesand fetters... People must be free."
Chaplin founded a new production company, Attica, and used Shepperton Studios for the shooting. Filming in England proved a difficult experience, as he was used to his own Hollywood studio and familiar crew, and no longer had limitless production time. According to Robinson, this had an effect on the quality of the film. A King in New York was released in September 1957, and received mixed reviews. Chaplin banned American journalists from its Paris première and decided not to release the film in the United States. This severely limited its revenue, although it achieved moderate commercial success in Europe. A King in New York was not shown in America until 1973.
Final works and renewed appreciation
In the last two decades of his career, Chaplin concentrated on re-editing and scoring his old films for re-release, along with securing their ownership and distribution rights. In an interview he granted in 1959, the year of his 70th birthday, Chaplin stated that there was still "room for the Little Man in the atomic age". The first of these re-releases was The Chaplin Revue (1959), which included new versions of A Dog's Life, Shoulder Arms, and The Pilgrim.
In America, the political atmosphere began to change and attention was once again directed to Chaplin's films instead of his views. In July 1962, The New York Times published an editorial stating that "we do not believe the Republic would be in danger if yesterday's unforgotten little tramp were allowed to amble down the gangplank of a steamer or plane in an American port". The same month, Chaplin was invested with the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the universities of Oxford and Durham. In November 1963, the Plaza Theater in New York started a year-long series of Chaplin's films, including Monsieur Verdoux and Limelight, which gained excellent reviews from American critics. September 1964 saw the release of Chaplin's memoirs, My Autobiography, which he had been working on since 1957. The 500-page book became a worldwide best-seller. It focused on his early years and personal life, and was criticised for lacking information on his film career.
Shortly after the publication of his memoirs, Chaplin began work on A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), a romantic comedy based on a script he had written for Paulette Goddard in the 1930s. Set on an ocean liner, it starred Marlon Brando as an American ambassador and Sophia Loren as a stowaway found in his cabin. The film differed from Chaplin's earlier productions in several aspects. It was his first to use Technicolor and the widescreen format, while he concentrated on directing and appeared on-screen only in a cameo role as a seasick steward. He also signed a deal with Universal Pictures and appointed his assistant, Jerome Epstein, as the producer. Chaplin was paid $600,000 director's fee as well as a percentage of the gross receipts. A Countess from Hong Kong premiered in January 1967, to unfavourable reviews, and was a box-office failure. Chaplin was deeply hurt by the negative reaction to the film, which turned out to be his last.
Chaplin suffered a series of minor strokes in the late 1960s, which marked the beginning of a slow decline in his health. Despite the setbacks, he was soon writing a new film script, The Freak, a story of a winged girl found in South America, which he intended as a starring vehicle for his daughter, Victoria. His fragile health prevented the project from being realised. In the early 1970s, Chaplin concentrated on re-releasing his old films, including The Kid and The Circus. In 1971, he was made a Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour at the Cannes Film Festival. The following year, he was honoured with a special award by the Venice Film Festival.
In 1972, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences offered Chaplin an Honorary Award, which Robinson sees as a sign that America "wanted to make amends". Chaplin was initially hesitant about accepting but decided to return to the US for the first time in 20 years. The visit attracted a large amount of press coverage and, at the Academy Awards gala, he was given a 12-minute standing ovation, the longest in the Academy's history. Visibly emotional, Chaplin accepted his award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century".
Although Chaplin still had plans for future film projects, by the mid-1970s he was very frail. He experienced several further strokes, which made it difficult for him to communicate, and he had to use a wheelchair. His final projects were compiling a pictorial autobiography, My Life in Pictures (1974) and scoring A Woman of Paris for re-release in 1976. He also appeared in a documentary about his life, The Gentleman Tramp (1975), directed by Richard Patterson. In the 1975 New Year Honours, Chaplin was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II, though he was too weak to kneel and received the honour in his wheelchair.
Death
By October 1977, Chaplin's health had declined to the point that he needed constant care. In the early morning of 25 December 1977, Chaplin died at home after suffering a stroke in his sleep. He was 88 years old. The funeral, on 27 December, was a small and private Anglican ceremony, according to his wishes. Chaplin was interred in the Corsier-sur-Vevey cemetery. Among the film industry's tributes, director René Clair wrote, "He was a monument of the cinema, of all countries and all times... the most beautiful gift the cinema made to us." Actor Bob Hope declared, "We were lucky to have lived in his time." Chaplin left more than $100 million to his widow.
On 1 March 1978, Chaplin's coffin was dug up and stolen from its grave by Roman Wardas and Gantcho Ganev. The body was held for ransom in an attempt to extort money from his widow, Oona Chaplin. The pair were caught in a large police operation in May, and Chaplin's coffin was found buried in a field in the nearby village of Noville. It was re-interred in the Corsier cemetery in a reinforced concrete vault.
Filmmaking
Influences
Chaplin believed his first influence to be his mother, who entertained him as a child by sitting at the window and mimicking passers-by: "it was through watching her that I learned not only how to express emotions with my hands and face, but also how to observe and study people." Chaplin's early years in music hall allowed him to see stage comedians at work; he also attended the Christmas pantomimes at Drury Lane, where he studied the art of clowning through performers like Dan Leno. Chaplin's years with the Fred Karno company had a formative effect on him as an actor and filmmaker. Simon Louvish writes that the company was his "training ground", and it was here that Chaplin learned to vary the pace of his comedy. The concept of mixing pathos with slapstick was learnt from Karno, who also used elements of absurdity that became familiar in Chaplin's gags. From the film industry, Chaplin drew upon the work of the French comedian Max Linder, whose films he greatly admired. In developing the Tramp costume and persona, he was likely inspired by the American vaudeville scene, where tramp characters were common.
Method
Chaplin never spoke more than cursorily about his filmmaking methods, claiming such a thing would be tantamount to a magician spoiling his own illusion. Little was known about his working process throughout his lifetime, but research from film historiansparticularly the findings of Kevin Brownlow and David Gill that were presented in the three-part documentary Unknown Chaplin (1983)has since revealed his unique working method.
Until he began making spoken dialogue films with The Great Dictator, Chaplin never shot from a completed script. Many of his early films began with only a vague premise, for example "Charlie enters a health spa" or "Charlie works in a pawn shop". He then had sets constructed and worked with his stock company to improvise gags and "business" using them, almost always working the ideas out on film. As ideas were accepted and discarded, a narrative structure would emerge, frequently requiring Chaplin to reshoot an already-completed scene that might have otherwise contradicted the story. From A Woman of Paris onward Chaplin began the filming process with a prepared plot, but Robinson writes that every film up to Modern Times "went through many metamorphoses and permutations before the story took its final form".
Producing films in this manner meant Chaplin took longer to complete his pictures than almost any other filmmaker at the time. If he was out of ideas, he often took a break from the shoot, which could last for days, while keeping the studio ready for when inspiration returned. Delaying the process further was Chaplin's rigorous perfectionism. According to his friend Ivor Montagu, "nothing but perfection would be right" for the filmmaker. Because he personally funded his films, Chaplin was at liberty to strive for this goal and shoot as many takes as he wished. The number was often excessive, for instance 53 takes for every finished take in The Kid. For The Immigrant, a 20-minute short, Chaplin shot 40,000 feet of filmenough for a feature-length.
Describing his working method as "sheer perseverance to the point of madness", Chaplin would be completely consumed by the production of a picture. Robinson writes that even in Chaplin's later years, his work continued "to take precedence over everything and everyone else". The combination of story improvisation and relentless perfectionismwhich resulted in days of effort and thousands of feet of film being wasted, all at enormous expenseoften proved taxing for Chaplin who, in frustration, would lash out at his actors and crew.
Chaplin exercised complete control over his pictures, to the extent that he would act out the other roles for his cast, expecting them to imitate him exactly. He personally edited all of his films, trawling through the large amounts of footage to create the exact picture he wanted. As a result of his complete independence, he was identified by the film historian Andrew Sarris as one of the first auteur filmmakers. Chaplin did receive help, notably from his long-time cinematographer Roland Totheroh, brother Sydney Chaplin, and various assistant directors such as Harry Crocker and Charles Reisner.
Style and themes
While Chaplin's comedic style is broadly defined as slapstick, it is considered restrained and intelligent, with the film historian Philip Kemp describing his work as a mix of "deft, balletic physical comedy and thoughtful, situation-based gags". Chaplin diverged from conventional slapstick by slowing the pace and exhausting each scene of its comic potential, with more focus on developing the viewer's relationship to the characters. Unlike conventional slapstick comedies, Robinson states that the comic moments in Chaplin's films centre on the Tramp's attitude to the things happening to him: the humour does not come from the Tramp bumping into a tree, but from his lifting his hat to the tree in apology. Dan Kamin writes that Chaplin's "quirky mannerisms" and "serious demeanour in the midst of slapstick action" are other key aspects of his comedy, while the surreal transformation of objects and the employment of in-camera trickery are also common features. His signature style consisted of gestural idiosyncracies like askew derby hat, drooping shoulders, deflated chest and dangling arms and tilted back pelvis to enrich the comic persona of his 'tramp' character. His shabby but neat clothing and incessant grooming behaviour along with his geometrical walk and movement gave his onscreen characters a puppet-like quality.
Chaplin's silent films typically follow the Tramp's efforts to survive in a hostile world. The character lives in poverty and is frequently treated badly, but remains kind and upbeat; defying his social position, he strives to be seen as a gentleman. As Chaplin said in 1925, "The whole point of the Little Fellow is that no matter how down on his ass he is, no matter how well the jackals succeed in tearing him apart, he's still a man of dignity." The Tramp defies authority figures and "gives as good as he gets", leading Robinson and Louvish to see him as a representative for the underprivilegedan "everyman turned heroic saviour". Hansmeyer notes that several of Chaplin's films end with "the homeless and lonely Tramp [walking] optimistically... into the sunset... to continue his journey."
The infusion of pathos is a well-known aspect of Chaplin's work, and Larcher notes his reputation for "[inducing] laughter and tears". Sentimentality in his films comes from a variety of sources, with Louvish pinpointing "personal failure, society's strictures, economic disaster, and the elements". Chaplin sometimes drew on tragic events when creating his films, as in the case of The Gold Rush (1925), which was inspired by the fate of the Donner Party. Constance B. Kuriyama has identified serious underlying themes in the early comedies, such as greed (The Gold Rush) and loss (The Kid). Chaplin also touched on controversial issues: immigration (The Immigrant, 1917); illegitimacy (The Kid, 1921); and drug use (Easy Street, 1917). He often explored these topics ironically, making comedy out of suffering.
Social commentary was a feature of Chaplin's films from early in his career, as he portrayed the underdog in a sympathetic light and highlighted the difficulties of the poor. Later, as he developed a keen interest in economics and felt obliged to publicise his views, Chaplin began incorporating overtly political messages into his films. Modern Times (1936) depicted factory workers in dismal conditions, The Great Dictator (1940) parodied Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and ended in a speech against nationalism, Monsieur Verdoux (1947) criticised war and capitalism, and A King in New York (1957) attacked McCarthyism.
Several of Chaplin's films incorporate autobiographical elements, and the psychologist Sigmund Freud believed that Chaplin "always plays only himself as he was in his dismal youth". The Kid is thought to reflect Chaplin's childhood trauma of being sent into an orphanage, the main characters in Limelight (1952) contain elements from the lives of his parents, and A King in New York references Chaplin's experiences of being shunned by the United States. Many of his sets, especially in street scenes, bear a strong similarity to Kennington, where he grew up. Stephen M. Weissman has argued that Chaplin's problematic relationship with his mentally ill mother was often reflected in his female characters and the Tramp's desire to save them.
Regarding the structure of Chaplin's films, the scholar Gerald Mast sees them as consisting of sketches tied together by the same theme and setting, rather than having a tightly unified storyline. Visually, his films are simple and economic, with scenes portrayed as if set on a stage. His approach to filming was described by the art director Eugène Lourié: "Chaplin did not think in 'artistic' images when he was shooting. He believed that action is the main thing. The camera is there to photograph the actors". In his autobiography, Chaplin wrote, "Simplicity is best... pompous effects slow up action, are boring and unpleasant... The camera should not intrude." This approach has prompted criticism, since the 1940s, for being "old fashioned", while the film scholar Donald McCaffrey sees it as an indication that Chaplin never completely understood film as a medium. Kamin, however, comments that Chaplin's comedic talent would not be enough to remain funny on screen if he did not have an "ability to conceive and direct scenes specifically for the film medium".
Composing
Chaplin developed a passion for music as a child and taught himself to play the piano, violin, and cello. He considered the musical accompaniment of a film to be important, and from A Woman of Paris onwards he took an increasing interest in this area. With the advent of sound technology, Chaplin began using a synchronised orchestral soundtrackcomposed by himselffor City Lights (1931). He thereafter composed the scores for all of his films, and from the late 1950s to his death, he scored all of his silent features and some of his short films.
As Chaplin was not a trained musician, he could not read sheet music and needed the help of professional composers, such as David Raksin, Raymond Rasch and Eric James, when creating his scores. Musical directors were employed to oversee the recording process, such as Alfred Newman for City Lights. Although some critics have claimed that credit for his film music should be given to the composers who worked with him, Raksinwho worked with Chaplin on Modern Timesstressed Chaplin's creative position and active participation in the composing process. This process, which could take months, would start with Chaplin describing to the composer(s) exactly what he wanted and singing or playing tunes he had improvised on the piano. These tunes were then developed further in a close collaboration among the composer(s) and Chaplin. According to film historian Jeffrey Vance, "although he relied upon associates to arrange varied and complex instrumentation, the musical imperative is his, and not a note in a Chaplin musical score was placed there without his assent."
Chaplin's compositions produced three popular songs. "Smile", composed originally for Modern Times (1936) and later set to lyrics by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons, was a hit for Nat King Cole in 1954. For Limelight, Chaplin composed "Terry's Theme", which was popularised by Jimmy Young as "Eternally" (1952). Finally, "This Is My Song", performed by Petula Clark for A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), reached number one on the UK and other European charts. Chaplin also received his only competitive Oscar for his composition work, as the Limelight theme won an Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1973 following the film's re-release.
Legacy
In 1998, the film critic Andrew Sarris called Chaplin "arguably the single most important artist produced by the cinema, certainly its most extraordinary performer and probably still its most universal icon". He is described by the British Film Institute as "a towering figure in world culture", and was included in Time magazine's list of the "100 Most Important People of the 20th Century" for the "laughter [he brought] to millions" and because he "more or less invented global recognizability and helped turn an industry into an art". In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Chaplin as the 10th greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema. Chaplin was voted No. 2 of the "Greatest Movie Stars of the 20th Century" poll and No. 4 on the "Greatest Directors of the 20th Century" poll conducted by Japanese film magazine Kinema Junpo.
The image of the Tramp has become a part of cultural history; according to Simon Louvish, the character is recognisable to people who have never seen a Chaplin film, and in places where his films are never shown. The critic Leonard Maltin has written of the "unique" and "indelible" nature of the Tramp, and argued that no other comedian matched his "worldwide impact". Praising the character, Richard Schickel suggests that Chaplin's films with the Tramp contain the most "eloquent, richly comedic expressions of the human spirit" in movie history. Memorabilia connected to the character still fetches large sums in auctions: in 2006 a bowler hat and a bamboo cane that were part of the Tramp's costume were bought for $140,000 in a Los Angeles auction.
As a filmmaker, Chaplin is considered a pioneer and one of the most influential figures of the early twentieth century. He is often credited as one of the medium's first artists. Film historian Mark Cousins has written that Chaplin "changed not only the imagery of cinema, but also its sociology and grammar" and claims that Chaplin was as important to the development of comedy as a genre as D.W. Griffith was to drama. He was the first to popularise feature-length comedy and to slow down the pace of action, adding pathos and subtlety to it. Although his work is mostly classified as slapstick, Chaplin's drama A Woman of Paris (1923) was a major influence on Ernst Lubitsch's film The Marriage Circle (1924) and thus played a part in the development of "sophisticated comedy". According to David Robinson, Chaplin's innovations were "rapidly assimilated to become part of the common practice of film craft". Filmmakers who cited Chaplin as an influence include Federico Fellini (who called Chaplin "a sort of Adam, from whom we are all descended"), Jacques Tati ("Without him I would never have made a film"), René Clair ("He inspired practically every filmmaker"), François Truffaut ("My religion is cinema. I believe in Charlie Chaplin…"), Michael Powell, Billy Wilder, Vittorio De Sica, and Richard Attenborough. Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky praised Chaplin as "the only person to have gone down into cinematic history without any shadow of a doubt. The films he left behind can never grow old." Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray said about Chaplin "If there is any name which can be said to symbolize cinema—it is Charlie Chaplin… I am sure Chaplin's name will survive even if the cinema ceases to exist as a medium of artistic expression. Chaplin is truly immortal." French auteur Jean Renoir's favourite filmmaker was Chaplin.
Chaplin also strongly influenced the work of later comedians. Marcel Marceau said he was inspired to become a mime artist after watching Chaplin, while the actor Raj Kapoor based his screen persona on the Tramp. Mark Cousins has also detected Chaplin's comedic style in the French character Monsieur Hulot and the Italian character Totò. In other fields, Chaplin helped inspire the cartoon characters Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse, and was an influence on the Dada art movement. As one of the founding members of United Artists, Chaplin also had a role in the development of the film industry. Gerald Mast has written that although UA never became a major company like MGM or Paramount Pictures, the idea that directors could produce their own films was "years ahead of its time".
In 1992, the Sight & Sound Critics' Top Ten Poll ranked Chaplin at No. 5 in its list of "Top 10 Directors" of all time. In the 21st century, several of Chaplin's films are still regarded as classics and among the greatest ever made. The 2012 Sight & Sound poll, which compiles "top ten" ballots from film critics and directors to determine each group's most acclaimed films,
saw City Lights rank among the critics' top 50, Modern Times inside the top 100, and The Great Dictator and The Gold Rush placed in the top 250. The top 100 films as voted on by directors included Modern Times at number 22, City Lights at number 30, and The Gold Rush at number 91. Every one of Chaplin's features received a vote. Chaplin was ranked at No. 35 on Empire magazine's "Top 40 Greatest Directors of All-Time" list in 2005. In 2007, the American Film Institute named City Lights the 11th greatest American film of all time, while The Gold Rush and Modern Times again ranked in the top 100. Books about Chaplin continue to be published regularly, and he is a popular subject for media scholars and film archivists. Many of Chaplin's film have had a DVD and Blu-ray release.
Chaplin's legacy is managed on behalf of his children by the Chaplin office, located in Paris. The office represents Association Chaplin, founded by some of his children "to protect the name, image and moral rights" to his body of work, Roy Export SAS, which owns the copyright to most of his films made after 1918, and Bubbles Incorporated S.A., which owns the copyrights to his image and name. Their central archive is held at the archives of Montreux, Switzerland and scanned versions of its contents, including 83,630 images, 118 scripts, 976 manuscripts, 7,756 letters, and thousands of other documents, are available for research purposes at the Chaplin Research Centre at the Cineteca di Bologna. The photographic archive, which includes approximately 10,000 photographs from Chaplin's life and career, is kept at the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland. The British Film Institute has also established the Charles Chaplin Research Foundation, and the first international Charles Chaplin Conference was held in London in July 2005. Elements for many of Chaplin's films are held by the Academy Film Archive as part of the Roy Export Chaplin Collection.
Commemoration and tributes
Chaplin's final home, Manoir de Ban in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland, has been converted into a museum named "Chaplin's World". It opened on 17 April 2016 after fifteen years of development, and is described by Reuters as "an interactive museum showcasing the life and works of Charlie Chaplin". On the 128th anniversary of his birth, a record-setting 662 people dressed as the Tramp in an event organised by the museum. Previously, the Museum of the Moving Image in London held a permanent display on Chaplin, and hosted a dedicated exhibition to his life and career in 1988. The London Film Museum hosted an exhibition called Charlie ChaplinThe Great Londoner, from 2010 until 2013.
In London, a statue of Chaplin as the Tramp, sculpted by John Doubleday and unveiled in 1981, is located in Leicester Square. The city also includes a road named after him in central London, "Charlie Chaplin Walk", which is the location of the BFI IMAX. There are nine blue plaques memorialising Chaplin in London, Hampshire, and Yorkshire. The Swiss town of Vevey named a park in his honour in 1980 and erected a statue there in 1982. In 2011, two large murals depicting Chaplin on two 14-storey buildings were also unveiled in Vevey. Chaplin has also been honoured by the Irish town of Waterville, where he spent several summers with his family in the 1960s. A statue was erected in 1998; since 2011, the town has been host to the annual Charlie Chaplin Comedy Film Festival, which was founded to celebrate Chaplin's legacy and to showcase new comic talent.
In other tributes, a minor planet, 3623 Chaplin (discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Karachkina in 1981) is named after Charlie. Throughout the 1980s, the Tramp image was used by IBM to advertise their personal computers. Chaplin's 100th birthday anniversary in 1989 was marked with several events around the world, and on 15 April 2011, a day before his 122nd birthday, Google celebrated him with a special Google Doodle video on its global and other country-wide homepages. Many countries, spanning six continents, have honoured Chaplin with a postal stamp.
Characterisations
Chaplin is the subject of a biographical film, Chaplin (1992) directed by Richard Attenborough, and starring Robert Downey Jr. in the title role and Geraldine Chaplin playing Hannah Chaplin. He is also a character in the historical drama film The Cat's Meow (2001), played by Eddie Izzard, and in the made-for-television movie The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980), played by Clive Revill. A television series about Chaplin's childhood, Young Charlie Chaplin, ran on PBS in 1989, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program. The French film The Price of Fame (2014) is a fictionalised account of the robbery of Chaplin's grave.
Chaplin's life has also been the subject of several stage productions. Two musicals, Little Tramp and Chaplin, were produced in the early 1990s. In 2006, Thomas Meehan and Christopher Curtis created another musical, Limelight: The Story of Charlie Chaplin, which was first performed at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego in 2010. It was adapted for Broadway two years later, re-titled ChaplinA Musical. Chaplin was portrayed by Robert McClure in both productions. In 2013, two plays about Chaplin premiered in Finland: Chaplin at the Svenska Teatern, and Kulkuri (The Tramp) at the Tampere Workers' Theatre.
Chaplin has also been characterised in literary fiction. He is the protagonist of Robert Coover's short story "Charlie in the House of Rue" (1980; reprinted in Coover's 1987 collection A Night at the Movies), and of Glen David Gold's Sunnyside (2009), a historical novel set in the First World War period. A day in Chaplin's life in 1909 is dramatised in the chapter titled "Modern Times" in Alan Moore's Jerusalem (2016), a novel set in the author's home town of Northampton, England.
Chaplin was brought to life in a comic strip bearing his name that ran for 30 years in the British pre-war humorous comic Funny Wonder. Begun in 1915, the strip was drawn primarily by Bertie Brown; it was one of the earliest comic strips inspired by the popularity of a celebrity. A similar strip, Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers, by Stuart Carothers and later Elzie C. Segar, was syndicated in the United States from March 29, 1915 until September 16, 1917. In France in 1922, Raoul Thomen created the comic strip Les Aventures Acrobatiques de Charlot ("Charlot's Acrobatic Adventures"). Thomen's strip ran in French children's magazines for nearly 20 years. Charlot's comic strip adventures were continued by other artists, lasting until 1963. The strip was collected in many albums.
Awards and recognition
Chaplin received many awards and honours, especially later in life. In the 1975 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE). He was also awarded honorary Doctor of Letters degrees by the University of Oxford and the University of Durham in 1962. In 1965, he and Ingmar Bergman were joint winners of the Erasmus Prize and, in 1971, he was appointed a Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour by the French government.
From the film industry, Chaplin received a special Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1972, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lincoln Center Film Society the same year. The latter has since been presented annually to filmmakers as The Chaplin Award. Chaplin was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1972, having been previously excluded because of his political beliefs.
Chaplin received three Academy Awards: an Honorary Award for "versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing, and producing The Circus" in 1929, a second Honorary Award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century" in 1972, and a Best Score award in 1973 for Limelight (shared with Ray Rasch and Larry Russell). He was further nominated in the Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture (as producer) categories for The Great Dictator, and received another Best Original Screenplay nomination for Monsieur Verdoux. In 1976, Chaplin was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).
Six of Chaplin's films have been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress: The Immigrant (1917), The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940).
Filmography
Directed features:
The Kid (1921)
A Woman of Paris (1923)
The Gold Rush (1925)
The Circus (1928)
City Lights (1931)
Modern Times (1936)
The Great Dictator (1940)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Limelight (1952)
A King in New York (1957)
A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)
See also
Buster Keaton
Harold Lloyd
References
Footnotes
Citations
Works cited
External links
by Association Chaplin
The Charlie Chaplin Archive Online catalogue of Chaplin's professional and personal archives at the Cineteca di Bologna, Italy
Chaplin's World Museum at the Manoir de Ban, Switzerland
Chaplin's file at the Federal Bureau of Investigation website
1889 births
1977 deaths
19th-century English people
20th-century British male musicians
20th-century English screenwriters
20th-century English businesspeople
20th-century English comedians
20th-century English male actors
Academy Honorary Award recipients
Actors awarded knighthoods
British anti-capitalists
Articles containing video clips
BAFTA fellows
Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners
British anti-fascists
British film production company founders
British male comedy actors
British mimes
Cinema pioneers
Comedy film directors
Composers awarded knighthoods
British people of Irish descent
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English expatriates in Switzerland
English expatriates in the United States
English film directors
English film editors
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English male child actors
English male comedians
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English male silent film actors
History of the London Borough of Lambeth
Hollywood history and culture
Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Male actors from London
Music hall performers
People from Lambeth
People from Southwark
Silent film comedians
Silent film directors
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Slapstick comedians
United Artists
Vaudeville performers | true | [
"Hamilton's Quest was a Canadian television series that ran from 1986 to 1988.\n\nPlot\nA young man discovers, after his parents die in an accident on his 18th birthday, that he was actually not their biological son. The man, Sonny Hamilton (John Pyper-Ferguson), was bewildered by this turn of events and discusses his feelings with Stickman Wilkins, owner of the local pool hall and occasional mystic. Inspired by Stickman's search for roots, Sonny sets off on his own quest for his natural parents.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1986 Canadian television series debuts\n1988 Canadian television series endings\n1980s Canadian drama television series",
"Boy Interrupted is a 2009 documentary filmed by Perry Films. The film is based on the life of Evan Perry, who experienced bipolar depression from a young age. The documentary was filmed throughout Evan's life, because whenever his parents, Dana and Hart Perry, consulted a psychiatrist about Evan's suicidal comments or other signs of mental illness, the psychiatrists did not believe that their son was depressed. The footage was originally meant to show the healthcare professionals what was happening in Evan's life and to help them access the treatment Evan needed.\n\nEvan was diagnosed with depression at age 5, and he was later diagnosed with bipolar depression. Despite the treatment and medication received, he ended up killing himself in 2005 at age 15. Evan Perry had a family medical history involving serious mental illnesses. This documentary mostly focused on how his bipolar depression affected him and those who loved him.\n\nAbout four years after Evan's death, the documentary was shown at the Sundance Film Festival and released on television and DVD.\n\nStory\n\nEarly childhood \nEvan was very loving towards his family and others. At school, he was always the model student, behaving very well and being helpful. When he was four years old, he started telling his mom that he wanted to kill himself. It shocked her because at that age, she thought kids would not even know what death is, and he did not seem sad when he was talking about dying. In kindergarten, Evan said he wanted to kill himself in front of the whole class. The teacher told his parents, and Hart and Dana Perry took him to see a therapist.\n\nIn 1995, mental health professionals were uncertain whether young children could be depressed. Dana Perry, a professional filmmaker, knew that psychiatrists would not believe everything she told them about her son. At this point, she decided to film as much as she could from Evan's life, especially when he talked about suicide.\n\nAt age 5, Evan Perry was diagnosed with depression, and he was prescribed Prozac. The medication did not seem to be working, but it was their only choice, so they decided to give it time. Evan was very much into filming, just like his parents. At home he would make skits with his brothers and film vacations, and at school he would make plays. Most of his plays were about death.\n\nBy the time Evan was 7 years old, he started behaving like a teenager. His responses were really short towards his family, he was listening to Nirvana, he was writing songs about suicide, demons, and pain, and he would lock himself in his room away from everyone. His parents knew this behavior wasn't normal at this age, and they were concerned, but there wasn't much they could do.\n\nMiddle childhood \nWhen Evan was 10 years old he started attending Pk Yonge School and made his first attempt to commit suicide. He was at school and he sneaked off to the roof while everyone was at the playground below. He was standing on the ledge very calmly and one of his teachers was able to get him down from the roof while his parents got there. When his parents picked him up, they went straight to the Four Winds which is a mental institution. There they diagnosed him with Bipolar depression. His whole stay there, Evan kept saying that he simply did it for attention, however they knew it was just his way of getting the attention off of him. Evan was prescribed a dosage of lithium to help with the chemical imbalance in his brain. When Evan was stable enough to leave the institution, his parents sent him to Wellspring which is a home for troubled kids like Evan. At Wellspring he ran away his first night, but eventually he gave in and let himself get help. Evan became a boy again, he was no longer behaving like a broody teenager, he was playing games outside like every other kid would do. His family also went to Wellspring for family therapy, so that they could all learn to communicate and understand Evan. He seemed to be getting better, he seemed healthier and happier so he was taken out of Wellspring and was sent to York prep school.\n\nAdolescence \nAt this school Evan became very involved, he made many friends and he would go out and have fun. Evan also got back into filming and he would make productions with his friends. None of his friends could tell that Evan had bipolar depression, the only time they noticed something off was closer to the time when he committed suicide. Many years passed and Evan was doing great at his school, his social life was great and he was very close to his family. When Evan was 15 he asked to be taken off the Lithium, his parents thought it could work if he gradually came off the medication. Little by little they reduced his dosage with the approval of his therapist, at first he seemed to be doing okay, but then his symptoms began to worsen quickly. He didn't want to go out as much anymore, he was behaving differently and his parents decided it'd be best if he went back on the full dosage. They made an appointment with his therapist to alter his lithium dosage. Three days before his appointment, Evan got into an argument with his mom about doing his homework, he locked himself in his room but his dad did go to check on him and saw that he was doing homework. His dad was putting his little brother to sleep and looked into Evan's room again a few minutes after talking to him about doing his homework. Evan wasn't in his room, and the window was open. Evan had jumped out his window and left a numbered list of reasons to live and die for, then deciding that dying was his solution.\n\nFamily\n\nHart Perry (father) \nEvan's father had a brother who was diagnosed with bipolar depression and committed suicide at the age of 21. Because of this, he did everything he could to prevent the same outcome for his son, Evan Perry. Hart did everything he could to make Evan happy, he would film with him, he would go to therapy with Evan, and he was very supportive. On the day that Evan committed suicide, Hart was the one that found him at the bottom, despite him previously checking in on Evan 5 minutes before, he couldn't stop the outcome.\n\nDana Perry (mother) \nEvan's mother was equally supportive of Evan, and it was her idea to film everything going on in Evan's life so that therapists would believe her and would have a better idea of what is going on. When Evan was five years old he actually explained to his mother how he was going to commit suicide, very detailed as well. She recorded it and put it in the documentary and it shows Evan climbing onto his bed and showing his mom how he was going to hang himself from the roof of his room. Dana Perry was very caring towards her son and tried everything she could to stop his story from ending so soon.\n\nNicholas Perry (brother) \nNicholas Perry was Evan's half brother from the dads side of the family. Throughout the documentary, Nicholas explained how most of the songs Evan wrote were very relatable for someone Nick's age. Nicholas was more than 5 years older than Evan, so while Evan was 7 years old, writing songs about his inner pain and demons in his head, Nicholas was in high school and experiencing this. However, there is a certain level of normality when a teenager experiences these thoughts compared to a seven year old. When Evan committed suicide, Nicholas rushed over to the Perry's house to be there for them. When the suicide note was discovered and Nicholas read it, he realized that everything Evan was experiencing was common. Evan was scared of failing, he wanted to fit in, and he was insecure. Nicholas along with every teenager feels this at one point or another, Evan just felt it to a different intensity. Because of this, Nicholas felt responsible to some degree, he believed that if he had talked to Evan and told him that it was perfectly normal and ok to feel that way then Evan would've been saved.\n\nProduction\nThe film was made by the boy's parents, director Dana Perry and cinematographer Hart Perry. It was made for HBO Documentary Films, being shown on TV and released on DVD. It was also shown at Sundance in January 2009.\n\nCritical response\nVariety noted that because of his parents' occupations, they did a good job in recording his life, and produced an \"elegiac little gem\". The Philadelphia Inquirer called it a \"remarkable, deeply unsettling documentary\", scoring it 3/4 stars. The Movie Blog criticised the production quality, but found that the film still \"communicated effectively and with a lot of emotion\". SI Live suggested that the boy's story perhaps did not merit a documentary, but it was \"valuable viewing\" in that it would educate people a little about mental illness.\n\nRotten Tomatoes records three positive reviews and no negative.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n2009 films\nDocumentary films about suicide\nHBO documentary films\nAmerican films\nFilms about bipolar disorder"
]
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"March 1905, her illness returned, this time permanently.",
"did his parents die when he was young?",
"There was nothing we could do but accept poor mother's fate\","
]
| C_90c2ef6570c647dfb80560e53db82e47_1 | Where was he born? | 3 | Where was Charlie Chaplin born? | Charlie Chaplin | Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889 to Hannah Chaplin (born Hannah Harriet Pedlingham Hill) and Charles Chaplin Sr. There is no official record of his birth, although Chaplin believed he was born at East Street, Walworth, in South London. His mother and father had married four years previously, at which time Charles Sr. became the legal carer of Hannah's illegitimate son, Sydney John Hill. At the time of his birth, Chaplin's parents were both music hall entertainers. Hannah, the daughter of a shoemaker, had a brief and unsuccessful career under the stage name Lily Harley, while Charles Sr., a butcher's son, was a popular singer. Although they never divorced, Chaplin's parents were estranged by around 1891. The following year, Hannah gave birth to a third son - George Wheeler Dryden - fathered by the music hall entertainer Leo Dryden. The child was taken by Dryden at six months old, and did not re-enter Chaplin's life for 30 years. Chaplin's childhood was fraught with poverty and hardship, making his eventual trajectory "the most dramatic of all the rags to riches stories ever told" according to his authorised biographer David Robinson. Chaplin's early years were spent with his mother and brother Sydney in the London district of Kennington; Hannah had no means of income, other than occasional nursing and dressmaking, and Chaplin Sr. provided no financial support. As the situation deteriorated, Chaplin was sent to Lambeth Workhouse when he was seven years old. The council housed him at the Central London District School for paupers, which Chaplin remembered as "a forlorn existence". He was briefly reunited with his mother 18 months later, before Hannah was forced to readmit her family to the workhouse in July 1898. The boys were promptly sent to Norwood Schools, another institution for destitute children. In September 1898, Hannah was committed to Cane Hill mental asylum - she had developed a psychosis seemingly brought on by an infection of syphilis and malnutrition. For the two months she was there, Chaplin and his brother Sydney were sent to live with their father, whom the young boys scarcely knew. Charles Sr. was by then a severe alcoholic, and life there was bad enough to provoke a visit from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Chaplin's father died two years later, at 38 years old, from cirrhosis of the liver. Hannah entered a period of remission but, in May 1903, became ill again. Chaplin, then 14, had the task of taking his mother to the infirmary, from where she was sent back to Cane Hill. He lived alone for several days, searching for food and occasionally sleeping rough, until Sydney - who had enrolled in the Navy two years earlier - returned. Hannah was released from the asylum eight months later, but in March 1905, her illness returned, this time permanently. "There was nothing we could do but accept poor mother's fate", Chaplin later wrote, and she remained in care until her death in 1928. CANNOTANSWER | There is no official record of his birth, although Chaplin believed he was born at East Street, Walworth, in South London. | Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered one of the film industry's most important figures. His career spanned more than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977, and encompassed both adulation and controversy.
Chaplin's childhood in London was one of poverty and hardship. His father was absent and his mother struggled financially - he was sent to a workhouse twice before age nine. When he was 14, his mother was committed to a mental asylum. Chaplin began performing at an early age, touring music halls and later working as a stage actor and comedian. At 19, he was signed to the Fred Karno company, which took him to America. He was scouted for the film industry and began appearing in 1914 for Keystone Studios. He soon developed the Tramp persona and attracted a large fan base. He directed his own films and continued to hone his craft as he moved to the Essanay, Mutual, and First National corporations. By 1918, he was one of the world's best-known figures.
In 1919, Chaplin co-founded distribution company United Artists, which gave him complete control over his films. His first feature-length film was The Kid (1921), followed by A Woman of Paris (1923), The Gold Rush (1925), and The Circus (1928). He initially refused to move to sound films in the 1930s, instead producing City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936) without dialogue. His first sound film was The Great Dictator (1940), which satirised Adolf Hitler. The 1940s were marked with controversy for Chaplin, and his popularity declined rapidly. He was accused of communist sympathies, and some members of the press and public were scandalized by his involvement in a paternity suit and marriages to much younger women. An FBI investigation was opened, and Chaplin was forced to leave the United States and settle in Switzerland. He abandoned the Tramp in his later films, which include Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Limelight (1952), A King in New York (1957), and A Countess from Hong Kong (1967).
Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in, and composed the music for most of his films. He was a perfectionist, and his financial independence enabled him to spend years on the development and production of a picture. His films are characterised by slapstick combined with pathos, typified in the Tramp's struggles against adversity. Many contain social and political themes, as well as autobiographical elements. He received an Honorary Academy Award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century" in 1972, as part of a renewed appreciation for his work. He continues to be held in high regard, with The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, and The Great Dictator often ranked on lists of the greatest films.
Biography
1889–1913: early years
Background and childhood hardship
Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889 to Hannah Chaplin (née Hill) and Charles Chaplin Sr., both of whom had Romanichal heritage. There is no official record of his birth, although Chaplin believed he was born at East Street, Walworth, in South London. His parents had married four years previously, at which time Charles Sr. became the legal guardian of Hannah's illegitimate son, Sydney John Hill. At the time of his birth, Chaplin's parents were both music hall entertainers. Hannah, the daughter of a shoemaker, had a brief and unsuccessful career under the stage name Lily Harley, while Charles Sr., a butcher's son, was a popular singer. Although they never divorced, Chaplin's parents were estranged by around 1891. The following year, Hannah gave birth to a third son, George Wheeler Dryden, fathered by the music hall entertainer Leo Dryden. The child was taken by Dryden at six months old, and did not re-enter Chaplin's life for thirty years.
Chaplin's childhood was fraught with poverty and hardship, making his eventual trajectory "the most dramatic of all the rags to riches stories ever told" according to his authorised biographer David Robinson. Chaplin's early years were spent with his mother and brother Sydney in the London district of Kennington; Hannah had no means of income, other than occasional nursing and dressmaking, and Chaplin Sr. provided no financial support. As the situation deteriorated, Chaplin was sent to Lambeth Workhouse when he was seven years old. The council housed him at the Central London District School for paupers, which Chaplin remembered as "a forlorn existence". He was briefly reunited with his mother 18 months later, before Hannah was forced to readmit her family to the workhouse in July 1898. The boys were promptly sent to Norwood Schools, another institution for destitute children.
In September 1898, Hannah was committed to Cane Hill mental asylum; she had developed a psychosis seemingly brought on by an infection of syphilis and malnutrition. For the two months she was there, Chaplin and his brother Sydney were sent to live with their father, whom the young boys scarcely knew. Charles Sr. was by then a severe alcoholic, and life there was bad enough to provoke a visit from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Chaplin's father died two years later, at 38 years old, from cirrhosis of the liver.
Hannah entered a period of remission but, in May 1903, became ill again. Chaplin, then 14, had the task of taking his mother to the infirmary, from where she was sent back to Cane Hill. He lived alone for several days, searching for food and occasionally sleeping rough, until Sydneywho had joined the Navy two years earlierreturned. Hannah was released from the asylum eight months later, but in March 1905, her illness returned, this time permanently. "There was nothing we could do but accept poor mother's fate", Chaplin later wrote, and she remained in care until her death in 1928.
Young performer
Between his time in the poor schools and his mother succumbing to mental illness, Chaplin began to perform on stage. He later recalled making his first amateur appearance at the age of five years, when he took over from Hannah one night in Aldershot. This was an isolated occurrence, but by the time he was nine Chaplin had, with his mother's encouragement, grown interested in performing. He later wrote: "[she] imbued me with the feeling that I had some sort of talent". Through his father's connections, Chaplin became a member of the Eight Lancashire Lads clog-dancing troupe, with whom he toured English music halls throughout 1899 and 1900. Chaplin worked hard, and the act was popular with audiences, but he was not satisfied with dancing and wished to form a comedy act.
In the years Chaplin was touring with the Eight Lancashire Lads, his mother ensured that he still attended school but, by age 13, he had abandoned education. He supported himself with a range of jobs, while nursing his ambition to become an actor. At 14, shortly after his mother's relapse, he registered with a theatrical agency in London's West End. The manager sensed potential in Chaplin, who was promptly given his first role as a newsboy in Harry Arthur Saintsbury's Jim, a Romance of Cockayne. It opened in July 1903, but the show was unsuccessful and closed after two weeks. Chaplin's comic performance, however, was singled out for praise in many of the reviews.
Saintsbury secured a role for Chaplin in Charles Frohman's production of Sherlock Holmes, where he played Billy the pageboy in three nationwide tours. His performance was so well received that he was called to London to play the role alongside William Gillette, the original Holmes. "It was like tidings from heaven", Chaplin recalled. At 16 years old, Chaplin starred in the play's West End production at the Duke of York's Theatre from October to December 1905. He completed one final tour of Sherlock Holmes in early 1906, before leaving the play after more than two-and-a-half years.
Stage comedy and vaudeville
Chaplin soon found work with a new company and went on tour with his brother, who was also pursuing an acting career, in a comedy sketch called Repairs. In May 1906, Chaplin joined the juvenile act Casey's Circus, where he developed popular burlesque pieces and was soon the star of the show. By the time the act finished touring in July 1907, the 18-year-old had become an accomplished comedic performer. He struggled to find more work, however, and a brief attempt at a solo act was a failure.
Meanwhile, Sydney Chaplin had joined Fred Karno's prestigious comedy company in 1906 and, by 1908, he was one of their key performers. In February, he managed to secure a two-week trial for his younger brother. Karno was initially wary, and considered Chaplin a "pale, puny, sullen-looking youngster" who "looked much too shy to do any good in the theatre". However, the teenager made an impact on his first night at the London Coliseum and he was quickly signed to a contract. Chaplin began by playing a series of minor parts, eventually progressing to starring roles in 1909. In April 1910, he was given the lead in a new sketch, Jimmy the Fearless. It was a big success, and Chaplin received considerable press attention.
Karno selected his new star to join the section of the company, one that also included Stan Laurel, that toured North America's vaudeville circuit. The young comedian headed the show and impressed reviewers, being described as "one of the best pantomime artists ever seen here". His most successful role was a drunk called the "Inebriate Swell", which drew him significant recognition. The tour lasted 21 months, and the troupe returned to England in June 1912. Chaplin recalled that he "had a disquieting feeling of sinking back into a depressing commonplaceness" and was, therefore, delighted when a new tour began in October.
1914–1917: entering films
Keystone
Six months into the second American tour, Chaplin was invited to join the New York Motion Picture Company. A representative who had seen his performances thought he could replace Fred Mace, a star of their Keystone Studios who intended to leave. Chaplin thought the Keystone comedies "a crude mélange of rough and rumble", but liked the idea of working in films and rationalised: "Besides, it would mean a new life." He met with the company and signed a $150-per-week contract in September 1913. Chaplin arrived in Los Angeles in early December, and began working for the Keystone studio on 5January 1914.
Chaplin's boss was Mack Sennett, who initially expressed concern that the 24-year-old looked too young. He was not used in a picture until late January, during which time Chaplin attempted to learn the processes of filmmaking. The one-reeler Making a Living marked his film acting debut and was released on 2February 1914. Chaplin strongly disliked the picture, but one review picked him out as "a comedian of the first water". For his second appearance in front of the camera, Chaplin selected the costume with which he became identified. He described the process in his autobiography:
The film was Mabel's Strange Predicament, but "the Tramp" character, as it became known, debuted to audiences in Kid Auto Races at Veniceshot later than Mabel's Strange Predicament but released two days earlier on 7February 1914. Chaplin adopted the character as his screen persona and attempted to make suggestions for the films he appeared in. These ideas were dismissed by his directors. During the filming of his 11th picture, Mabel at the Wheel, he clashed with director Mabel Normand and was almost released from his contract. Sennett kept him on, however, when he received orders from exhibitors for more Chaplin films. Sennett also allowed Chaplin to direct his next film himself after Chaplin promised to pay $1,500 ($ in dollars) if the film was unsuccessful.
Caught in the Rain, issued 4May 1914, was Chaplin's directorial debut and was highly successful. Thereafter he directed almost every short film in which he appeared for Keystone, at the rate of approximately one per week, a period which he later remembered as the most exciting time of his career. Chaplin's films introduced a slower form of comedy than the typical Keystone farce, and he developed a large fan base. In November 1914, he had a supporting role in the first feature length comedy film, Tillie's Punctured Romance, directed by Sennett and starring Marie Dressler, which was a commercial success and increased his popularity. When Chaplin's contract came up for renewal at the end of the year, he asked for $1,000 a week an amount Sennett refused as too large.
Essanay
The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company of Chicago sent Chaplin an offer of $1,250 a week with a signing bonus of $10,000. He joined the studio in late December 1914, where he began forming a stock company of regular players, actors he worked with again and again, including Ben Turpin, Leo White, Bud Jamison, Paddy McGuire, Fred Goodwins, and Billy Armstrong. He soon recruited a leading lady, Edna Purviance, whom Chaplin met in a café and hired on account of her beauty. She went on to appear in 35 films with Chaplin over eight years; the pair also formed a romantic relationship that lasted into 1917.
Chaplin asserted a high level of control over his pictures and started to put more time and care into each film. There was a month-long interval between the release of his second production, A Night Out, and his third, The Champion. The final seven of Chaplin's 14 Essanay films were all produced at this slower pace. Chaplin also began to alter his screen persona, which had attracted some criticism at Keystone for its "mean, crude, and brutish" nature. The character became more gentle and romantic; The Tramp (April 1915) was considered a particular turning point in his development. The use of pathos was developed further with The Bank, in which Chaplin created a sad ending. Robinson notes that this was an innovation in comedy films, and marked the time when serious critics began to appreciate Chaplin's work. At Essanay, writes film scholar Simon Louvish, Chaplin "found the themes and the settings that would define the Tramp's world".
During 1915, Chaplin became a cultural phenomenon. Shops were stocked with Chaplin merchandise, he was featured in cartoons and comic strips, and several songs were written about him. In July, a journalist for Motion Picture Magazine wrote that "Chaplinitis" had spread across America. As his fame grew worldwide, he became the film industry's first international star. When the Essanay contract ended in December 1915, Chaplin, fully aware of his popularity, requested a $150,000 signing bonus from his next studio. He received several offers, including Universal, Fox, and Vitagraph, the best of which came from the Mutual Film Corporation at $10,000 a week.
Mutual
A contract was negotiated with Mutual that amounted to $670,000 a year, which Robinson says made Chaplinat 26 years oldone of the highest paid people in the world. The high salary shocked the public and was widely reported in the press. John R. Freuler, the studio president, explained: "We can afford to pay Mr. Chaplin this large sum annually because the public wants Chaplin and will pay for him."
Mutual gave Chaplin his own Los Angeles studio to work in, which opened in March 1916. He added two key members to his stock company, Albert Austin and Eric Campbell, and produced a series of elaborate two-reelers: The Floorwalker, The Fireman, The Vagabond, One A.M., and The Count. For The Pawnshop, he recruited the actor Henry Bergman, who was to work with Chaplin for 30 years. Behind the Screen and The Rink completed Chaplin's releases for 1916. The Mutual contract stipulated that he release a two-reel film every four weeks, which he had managed to achieve. With the new year, however, Chaplin began to demand more time. He made only four more films for Mutual over the first ten months of 1917: Easy Street, The Cure, The Immigrant, and The Adventurer. With their careful construction, these films are considered by Chaplin scholars to be among his finest work. Later in life, Chaplin referred to his Mutual years as the happiest period of his career. However, Chaplin also felt that those films became increasingly formulaic over the period of the contract, and he was increasingly dissatisfied with the working conditions encouraging that.
Chaplin was attacked in the British media for not fighting in the First World War. He defended himself, claiming that he would fight for Britain if called and had registered for the American draft, but he was not summoned by either country. Despite this criticism Chaplin was a favourite with the troops, and his popularity continued to grow worldwide. Harper's Weekly reported that the name of Charlie Chaplin was "a part of the common language of almost every country", and that the Tramp image was "universally familiar". In 1917, professional Chaplin imitators were so widespread that he took legal action, and it was reported that nine out of ten men who attended costume parties, did so dressed as the Tramp. The same year, a study by the Boston Society for Psychical Research concluded that Chaplin was "an American obsession". The actress Minnie Maddern Fiske wrote that "a constantly increasing body of cultured, artistic people are beginning to regard the young English buffoon, Charles Chaplin, as an extraordinary artist, as well as a comic genius".
1918–1922: First National
In January 1918, Chaplin was visited by leading British singer and comedian Harry Lauder, and the two acted in a short film together.
Mutual was patient with Chaplin's decreased rate of output, and the contract ended amicably. With his aforementioned concern about the declining quality of his films because of contract scheduling stipulations, Chaplin's primary concern in finding a new distributor was independence; Sydney Chaplin, then his business manager, told the press, "Charlie [must] be allowed all the time he needs and all the money for producing [films] the way he wants... It is quality, not quantity, we are after." In June 1917, Chaplin signed to complete eight films for First National Exhibitors' Circuit in return for $1million. He chose to build his own studio, situated on five acres of land off Sunset Boulevard, with production facilities of the highest order. It was completed in January 1918, and Chaplin was given freedom over the making of his pictures.
A Dog's Life, released April 1918, was the first film under the new contract. In it, Chaplin demonstrated his increasing concern with story construction and his treatment of the Tramp as "a sort of Pierrot". The film was described by Louis Delluc as "cinema's first total work of art". Chaplin then embarked on the Third Liberty Bond campaign, touring the United States for one month to raise money for the Allies of the First World War. He also produced a short propaganda film at his own expense, donated to the government for fund-raising, called The Bond. Chaplin's next release was war-based, placing the Tramp in the trenches for Shoulder Arms. Associates warned him against making a comedy about the war but, as he later recalled: "Dangerous or not, the idea excited me." He spent four months filming the picture, which was released in October 1918 with great success.
United Artists, Mildred Harris, and The Kid
After the release of Shoulder Arms, Chaplin requested more money from First National, which was refused. Frustrated with their lack of concern for quality, and worried about rumours of a possible merger between the company and Famous Players-Lasky, Chaplin joined forces with Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and D. W. Griffith to form a new distribution company, United Artists, in January 1919. The arrangement was revolutionary in the film industry, as it enabled the four partnersall creative artiststo personally fund their pictures and have complete control. Chaplin was eager to start with the new company and offered to buy out his contract with First National. They refused and insisted that he complete the final six films owed.
Before the creation of United Artists, Chaplin married for the first time. The 16-year-old actress Mildred Harris had revealed that she was pregnant with his child, and in September 1918, he married her quietly in Los Angeles to avoid controversy. Soon after, the pregnancy was found to be false. Chaplin was unhappy with the union and, feeling that marriage stunted his creativity, struggled over the production of his film Sunnyside. Harris was by then legitimately pregnant, and on 7July 1919, gave birth to a son. Norman Spencer Chaplin was born malformed and died three days later. The marriage ended in April 1920, with Chaplin explaining in his autobiography that they were "irreconcilably mismated".
Losing the child, plus his own childhood experiences, are thought to have influenced Chaplin's next film, which turned the Tramp into the caretaker of a young boy. For this new venture, Chaplin also wished to do more than comedy and, according to Louvish, "make his mark on a changed world". Filming on The Kid began in August 1919, with four-year-old Jackie Coogan his co-star. The Kid was in production for nine months until May 1920 and, at 68 minutes, it was Chaplin's longest picture to date. Dealing with issues of poverty and parent–child separation, The Kid was one of the earliest films to combine comedy and drama. It was released in January 1921 with instant success, and, by 1924, had been screened in over 50 countries.
Chaplin spent five months on his next film, the two-reeler The Idle Class. Work on the picture was for a time delayed by more turmoil in his personal life. First National had on April 12 announced Chaplin's engagement to the actress May Collins, whom he had hired to be his secretary at the studio. By early June, however, Chaplin "suddenly decided he could scarcely stand to be in the same room" as Collins, but instead of breaking off the engagement directly, he "stopped coming in to work, sending word that he was suffering from a bad case of influenza, which May knew to be a lie."
Ultimately work on the film resumed, and following its September 1921 release, Chaplin chose to return to England for the first time in almost a decade. He wrote a book about his journey, titled My Wonderful Visit. He then worked to fulfil his First National contract, releasing Pay Day in February 1922. The Pilgrim, his final short film, was delayed by distribution disagreements with the studio and released a year later.
1923–1938: silent features
A Woman of Paris and The Gold Rush
Having fulfilled his First National contract, Chaplin was free to make his first picture as an independent producer. In November 1922, he began filming A Woman of Paris, a romantic drama about ill-fated lovers. Chaplin intended it to be a star-making vehicle for Edna Purviance, and did not appear in the picture himself other than in a brief, uncredited cameo. He wished the film to have a realistic feel and directed his cast to give restrained performances. In real life, he explained, "men and women try to hide their emotions rather than seek to express them". A Woman of Paris premiered in September 1923 and was acclaimed for its innovative, subtle approach. The public, however, seemed to have little interest in a Chaplin film without Chaplin, and it was a box office disappointment. The filmmaker was hurt by this failurehe had long wanted to produce a dramatic film and was proud of the resultand soon withdrew A Woman of Paris from circulation.
Chaplin returned to comedy for his next project. Setting his standards high, he told himself "This next film must be an epic! The Greatest!" Inspired by a photograph of the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush, and later the story of the Donner Party of 1846–1847, he made what Geoffrey Macnab calls "an epic comedy out of grim subject matter". In The Gold Rush, the Tramp is a lonely prospector fighting adversity and looking for love. With Georgia Hale as his leading lady, Chaplin began filming the picture in February 1924. Its elaborate production, costing almost $1million, included location shooting in the Truckee mountains in Nevada with 600 extras, extravagant sets, and special effects. The last scene was shot in May 1925 after 15 months of filming.
Chaplin felt The Gold Rush was the best film he had made. It opened in August 1925 and became one of the highest-grossing films of the silent era with a U.S. box-office of $5million. The comedy contains some of Chaplin's most famous sequences, such as the Tramp eating his shoe and the "Dance of the Rolls". Macnab has called it "the quintessential Chaplin film". Chaplin stated at its release, "This is the picture that I want to be remembered by".
Lita Grey and The Circus
While making The Gold Rush, Chaplin married for the second time. Mirroring the circumstances of his first union, Lita Grey was a teenage actress, originally set to star in the film, whose surprise announcement of pregnancy forced Chaplin into marriage. She was 16 and he was 35, meaning Chaplin could have been charged with statutory rape under California law. He therefore arranged a discreet marriage in Mexico on 25 November 1924. They originally met during her childhood and she had previously appeared in his works The Kid and The Idle Class. Their first son, Charles Spencer Chaplin III, was born on 5May 1925, followed by Sydney Earl Chaplin on 30 March 1926. On 6 July 1925, Chaplin became the first movie star to be featured on a Time magazine cover.
It was an unhappy marriage, and Chaplin spent long hours at the studio to avoid seeing his wife. In November 1926, Grey took the children and left the family home. A bitter divorce followed, in which Grey's applicationaccusing Chaplin of infidelity, abuse, and of harbouring "perverted sexual desires"was leaked to the press. Chaplin was reported to be in a state of nervous breakdown, as the story became headline news and groups formed across America calling for his films to be banned. Eager to end the case without further scandal, Chaplin's lawyers agreed to a cash settlement of $600,000the largest awarded by American courts at that time. His fan base was strong enough to survive the incident, and it was soon forgotten, but Chaplin was deeply affected by it.
Before the divorce suit was filed, Chaplin had begun work on a new film, The Circus. He built a story around the idea of walking a tightrope while besieged by monkeys, and turned the Tramp into the accidental star of a circus. Filming was suspended for ten months while he dealt with the divorce scandal, and it was generally a trouble-ridden production. Finally completed in October 1927, The Circus was released in January 1928 to a positive reception. At the 1st Academy Awards, Chaplin was given a special trophy "For versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing The Circus". Despite its success, he permanently associated the film with the stress of its production; Chaplin omitted The Circus from his autobiography, and struggled to work on it when he recorded the score in his later years.
City Lights
By the time The Circus was released, Hollywood had witnessed the introduction of sound films. Chaplin was cynical about this new medium and the technical shortcomings it presented, believing that "talkies" lacked the artistry of silent films. He was also hesitant to change the formula that had brought him such success, and feared that giving the Tramp a voice would limit his international appeal. He, therefore, rejected the new Hollywood craze and began work on a new silent film. Chaplin was nonetheless anxious about this decision and remained so throughout the film's production.
When filming began at the end of 1928, Chaplin had been working on the story for almost a year. City Lights followed the Tramp's love for a blind flower girl (played by Virginia Cherrill) and his efforts to raise money for her sight-saving operation. It was a challenging production that lasted 21 months, with Chaplin later confessing that he "had worked himself into a neurotic state of wanting perfection". One advantage Chaplin found in sound technology was the opportunity to record a musical score for the film, which he composed himself.
Chaplin finished editing City Lights in December 1930, by which time silent films were an anachronism. A preview before an unsuspecting public audience was not a success, but a showing for the press produced positive reviews. One journalist wrote, "Nobody in the world but Charlie Chaplin could have done it. He is the only person that has that peculiar something called 'audience appeal' in sufficient quality to defy the popular penchant for movies that talk." Given its general release in January 1931, City Lights proved to be a popular and financial success, eventually grossing over $3million. The British Film Institute cites it as Chaplin's finest accomplishment, and the critic James Agee hails the closing scene as "the greatest piece of acting and the highest moment in movies". City Lights became Chaplin's personal favourite of his films and remained so throughout his life.
Travels, Paulette Goddard, and Modern Times
City Lights had been a success, but Chaplin was unsure if he could make another picture without dialogue. He remained convinced that sound would not work in his films, but was also "obsessed by a depressing fear of being old-fashioned". In this state of uncertainty, early in 1931, the comedian decided to take a holiday and ended up travelling for 16 months. He spent months travelling Western Europe, including extended stays in France and Switzerland, and spontaneously decided to visit Japan. The day after he arrived in Japan, Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi was assassinated by ultra-nationalists in the May 15 Incident. The group's original plan had been to provoke a war with the United States by assassinating Chaplin at a welcome reception organised by the prime minister, but the plan had been foiled due to delayed public announcement of the event's date.
In his autobiography, Chaplin recalled that on his return to Los Angeles, "I was confused and without plan, restless and conscious of an extreme loneliness". He briefly considered retiring and moving to China. Chaplin's loneliness was relieved when he met 21-year-old actress Paulette Goddard in July 1932, and the pair began a relationship. He was not ready to commit to a film, however, and focused on writing a serial about his travels (published in Woman's Home Companion). The trip had been a stimulating experience for Chaplin, including meetings with several prominent thinkers, and he became increasingly interested in world affairs. The state of labour in America troubled him, and he feared that capitalism and machinery in the workplace would increase unemployment levels. It was these concerns that stimulated Chaplin to develop his new film.
Modern Times was announced by Chaplin as "a satire on certain phases of our industrial life". Featuring the Tramp and Goddard as they endure the Great Depression, it took ten and a half months to film. Chaplin intended to use spoken dialogue but changed his mind during rehearsals. Like its predecessor, Modern Times employed sound effects but almost no speaking. Chaplin's performance of a gibberish song did, however, give the Tramp a voice for the only time on film. After recording the music, Chaplin released Modern Times in February 1936. It was his first feature in 15 years to adopt political references and social realism, a factor that attracted considerable press coverage despite Chaplin's attempts to downplay the issue. The film earned less at the box-office than his previous features and received mixed reviews, as some viewers disliked the politicising. Today, Modern Times is seen by the British Film Institute as one of Chaplin's "great features", while David Robinson says it shows the filmmaker at "his unrivalled peak as a creator of visual comedy".
Following the release of Modern Times, Chaplin left with Goddard for a trip to the Far East. The couple had refused to comment on the nature of their relationship, and it was not known whether they were married or not. Sometime later, Chaplin revealed that they married in Canton during this trip. By 1938, the couple had drifted apart, as both focused heavily on their work, although Goddard was again his leading lady in his next feature film, The Great Dictator. She eventually divorced Chaplin in Mexico in 1942, citing incompatibility and separation for more than a year.
1939–1952: controversies and fading popularity
The Great Dictator
The 1940s saw Chaplin face a series of controversies, both in his work and in his personal life, which changed his fortunes and severely affected his popularity in the United States. The first of these was his growing boldness in expressing his political beliefs. Deeply disturbed by the surge of militaristic nationalism in 1930s world politics, Chaplin found that he could not keep these issues out of his work. Parallels between himself and Adolf Hitler had been widely noted: the pair were born four days apart, both had risen from poverty to world prominence, and Hitler wore the same toothbrush moustache as Chaplin. It was this physical resemblance that supplied the plot for Chaplin's next film, The Great Dictator, which directly satirised Hitler and attacked fascism.
Chaplin spent two years developing the script and began filming in September 1939, six days after Britain declared war on Germany. He had submitted to using spoken dialogue, partly out of acceptance that he had no other choice, but also because he recognised it as a better method for delivering a political message. Making a comedy about Hitler was seen as highly controversial, but Chaplin's financial independence allowed him to take the risk. "I was determined to go ahead", he later wrote, "for Hitler must be laughed at." Chaplin replaced the Tramp (while wearing similar attire) with "A Jewish Barber", a reference to the Nazi party's belief that he was Jewish. In a dual performance, he also played the dictator "Adenoid Hynkel", who parodied Hitler.
The Great Dictator spent a year in production and was released in October 1940. The film generated a vast amount of publicity, with a critic for The New York Times calling it "the most eagerly awaited picture of the year", and it was one of the biggest money-makers of the era. The ending was unpopular, however, and generated controversy. Chaplin concluded the film with a five-minute speech in which he abandoned his barber character, looked directly into the camera, and pleaded against war and fascism. Charles J. Maland has identified this overt preaching as triggering a decline in Chaplin's popularity, and writes, "Henceforth, no movie fan would ever be able to separate the dimension of politics from [his] star image". Nevertheless, both Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt liked the film, which they saw at private screenings before its release. Roosevelt subsequently invited Chaplin to read the film's final speech over the radio during his January 1941 inauguration, with the speech becoming a "hit" of the celebration. Chaplin was often invited to other patriotic functions to read the speech to audiences during the years of the war. The Great Dictator received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor.
Legal troubles and Oona O'Neill
In the mid-1940s, Chaplin was involved in a series of trials that occupied most of his time and significantly affected his public image. The troubles stemmed from his affair with an aspiring actress named Joan Barry, with whom he was involved intermittently between June 1941 and the autumn of 1942. Barry, who displayed obsessive behaviour and was twice arrested after they separated, reappeared the following year and announced that she was pregnant with Chaplin's child. As Chaplin denied the claim, Barry filed a paternity suit against him.
The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), J. Edgar Hoover, who had long been suspicious of Chaplin's political leanings, used the opportunity to generate negative publicity about him. As part of a smear campaign to damage Chaplin's image, the FBI named him in four indictments related to the Barry case. Most serious of these was an alleged violation of the Mann Act, which prohibits the transportation of women across state boundaries for sexual purposes. Historian Otto Friedrich called this an "absurd prosecution" of an "ancient statute", yet if Chaplin was found guilty, he faced 23 years in jail. Three charges lacked sufficient evidence to proceed to court, but the Mann Act trial began on 21 March 1944. Chaplin was acquitted two weeks later, on4 April. The case was frequently headline news, with Newsweek calling it the "biggest public relations scandal since the Fatty Arbuckle murder trial in 1921".
Barry's child, Carol Ann, was born in October 1943, and the paternity suit went to court in December 1944. After two arduous trials, in which the prosecuting lawyer accused him of "moral turpitude", Chaplin was declared to be the father. Evidence from blood tests that indicated otherwise were not admissible, and the judge ordered Chaplin to pay child support until Carol Ann turned 21. Media coverage of the suit was influenced by the FBI, which fed information to gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, and Chaplin was portrayed in an overwhelmingly critical light.
The controversy surrounding Chaplin increased whentwo weeks after the paternity suit was filedit was announced that he had married his newest protégée, 18-year-old Oona O'Neill, the daughter of American playwright Eugene O'Neill. Chaplin, then 54, had been introduced to her by a film agent seven months earlier. In his autobiography, Chaplin described meeting O'Neill as "the happiest event of my life", and claimed to have found "perfect love". Chaplin's son, Charles Jr., reported that Oona "worshipped" his father. The couple remained married until Chaplin's death, and had eight children over 18 years: Geraldine Leigh (b. July 1944), Michael John (b. March 1946), Josephine Hannah (b. March 1949), Victoria (b. May 1951), Eugene Anthony (b. August 1953), Jane Cecil (b. May 1957), Annette Emily (b. December 1959), and Christopher James (b. July 1962).
Monsieur Verdoux and communist accusations
Chaplin claimed that the Barry trials had "crippled [his] creativeness", and it was some time before he began working again. In April 1946, he finally began filming a project that had been in development since 1942. Monsieur Verdoux was a black comedy, the story of a French bank clerk, Verdoux (Chaplin), who loses his job and begins marrying and murdering wealthy widows to support his family. Chaplin's inspiration for the project came from Orson Welles, who wanted him to star in a film about the French serial killer Henri Désiré Landru. Chaplin decided that the concept would "make a wonderful comedy", and paid Welles $5,000 for the idea.
Chaplin again vocalised his political views in Monsieur Verdoux, criticising capitalism and arguing that the world encourages mass killing through wars and weapons of mass destruction. Because of this, the film met with controversy when it was released in April 1947; Chaplin was booed at the premiere, and there were calls for a boycott. Monsieur Verdoux was the first Chaplin release that failed both critically and commercially in the United States. It was more successful abroad, and Chaplin's screenplay was nominated at the Academy Awards. He was proud of the film, writing in his autobiography, "Monsieur Verdoux is the cleverest and most brilliant film I have yet made."
The negative reaction to Monsieur Verdoux was largely the result of changes in Chaplin's public image. Along with damage of the Joan Barry scandal, he was publicly accused of being a communist. His political activity had heightened during World War II, when he campaigned for the opening of a Second Front to help the Soviet Union and supported various Soviet–American friendship groups. He was also friendly with several suspected communists, and attended functions given by Soviet diplomats in Los Angeles. In the political climate of 1940s America, such activities meant Chaplin was considered, as Larcher writes, "dangerously progressive and amoral". The FBI wanted him out of the country, and launched an official investigation in early 1947.
Chaplin denied being a communist, instead calling himself a "peacemonger", but felt the government's effort to suppress the ideology was an unacceptable infringement of civil liberties. Unwilling to be quiet about the issue, he openly protested against the trials of Communist Party members and the activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Chaplin received a subpoena to appear before HUAC but was not called to testify. As his activities were widely reported in the press, and Cold War fears grew, questions were raised over his failure to take American citizenship. Calls were made for him to be deported; in one extreme and widely published example, Representative John E. Rankin, who helped establish HUAC, told Congress in June 1947: "[Chaplin's] very life in Hollywood is detrimental to the moral fabric of America. [If he is deported]... his loathsome pictures can be kept from before the eyes of the American youth. He should be deported and gotten rid of at once."
In 2003, declassified British archives belonging to the British Foreign Office revealed that George Orwell secretly accused Chaplin of being a secret communist and a friend of the USSR. Chaplin's name was one of 35 Orwell gave to the Information Research Department (IRD), a secret British Cold War propaganda department which worked closely with the CIA, according to a 1949 document known as Orwell's list. Chaplin was not the only actor in America Orwell accused of being a secret communist. He also described American civil-rights leader and actor Paul Robeson as being "anti-white".
Limelight and banning from the United States
Although Chaplin remained politically active in the years following the failure of Monsieur Verdoux, his next film, about a forgotten music hall comedian and a young ballerina in Edwardian London, was devoid of political themes. Limelight was heavily autobiographical, alluding not only to Chaplin's childhood and the lives of his parents, but also to his loss of popularity in the United States. The cast included various members of his family, including his five oldest children and his half-brother, Wheeler Dryden.
Filming began in November 1951, by which time Chaplin had spent three years working on the story. He aimed for a more serious tone than any of his previous films, regularly using the word "melancholy" when explaining his plans to his co-star Claire Bloom. Limelight featured a cameo appearance from Buster Keaton, whom Chaplin cast as his stage partner in a pantomime scene. This marked the only time the comedians worked together in a feature film.
Chaplin decided to hold the world premiere of Limelight in London, since it was the setting of the film. As he left Los Angeles, he expressed a premonition that he would not be returning. At New York, he boarded the with his family on 18 September 1952. The next day, United States Attorney General James P. McGranery revoked Chaplin's re-entry permit and stated that he would have to submit to an interview concerning his political views and moral behaviour to re-enter the US. Although McGranery told the press that he had "a pretty good case against Chaplin", Maland has concluded, on the basis of the FBI files that were released in the 1980s, that the US government had no real evidence to prevent Chaplin's re-entry. It is likely that he would have gained entry if he had applied for it. However, when Chaplin received a cablegram informing him of the news, he privately decided to cut his ties with the United States:
Because all of his property remained in America, Chaplin refrained from saying anything negative about the incident to the press. The scandal attracted vast attention, but Chaplin and his film were warmly received in Europe. In America, the hostility towards him continued, and, although it received some positive reviews, Limelight was subjected to a wide-scale boycott. Reflecting on this, Maland writes that Chaplin's fall, from an "unprecedented" level of popularity, "may be the most dramatic in the history of stardom in America".
1953–1977: European years
Move to Switzerland and A King in New York
Chaplin did not attempt to return to the United States after his re-entry permit was revoked, and instead sent his wife to settle his affairs. The couple decided to settle in Switzerland and, in January 1953, the family moved into their permanent home: Manoir de Ban, a estate overlooking Lake Geneva in Corsier-sur-Vevey. Chaplin put his Beverly Hills house and studio up for sale in March, and surrendered his re-entry permit in April. The next year, his wife renounced her US citizenship and became a British citizen. Chaplin severed the last of his professional ties with the United States in 1955, when he sold the remainder of his stock in United Artists, which had been in financial difficulty since the early 1940s.
Chaplin remained a controversial figure throughout the 1950s, especially after he was awarded the International Peace Prize by the communist-led World Peace Council, and after his meetings with Zhou Enlai and Nikita Khrushchev. He began developing his first European film, A King in New York, in 1954. Casting himself as an exiled king who seeks asylum in the United States, Chaplin included several of his recent experiences in the screenplay. His son, Michael, was cast as a boy whose parents are targeted by the FBI, while Chaplin's character faces accusations of communism. The political satire parodied HUAC and attacked elements of 1950s cultureincluding consumerism, plastic surgery, and wide-screen cinema. In a review, the playwright John Osborne called it Chaplin's "most bitter" and "most openly personal" film. In a 1957 interview, when asked to clarify his political views, Chaplin stated "As for politics, I am an anarchist. I hate government and rulesand fetters... People must be free."
Chaplin founded a new production company, Attica, and used Shepperton Studios for the shooting. Filming in England proved a difficult experience, as he was used to his own Hollywood studio and familiar crew, and no longer had limitless production time. According to Robinson, this had an effect on the quality of the film. A King in New York was released in September 1957, and received mixed reviews. Chaplin banned American journalists from its Paris première and decided not to release the film in the United States. This severely limited its revenue, although it achieved moderate commercial success in Europe. A King in New York was not shown in America until 1973.
Final works and renewed appreciation
In the last two decades of his career, Chaplin concentrated on re-editing and scoring his old films for re-release, along with securing their ownership and distribution rights. In an interview he granted in 1959, the year of his 70th birthday, Chaplin stated that there was still "room for the Little Man in the atomic age". The first of these re-releases was The Chaplin Revue (1959), which included new versions of A Dog's Life, Shoulder Arms, and The Pilgrim.
In America, the political atmosphere began to change and attention was once again directed to Chaplin's films instead of his views. In July 1962, The New York Times published an editorial stating that "we do not believe the Republic would be in danger if yesterday's unforgotten little tramp were allowed to amble down the gangplank of a steamer or plane in an American port". The same month, Chaplin was invested with the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the universities of Oxford and Durham. In November 1963, the Plaza Theater in New York started a year-long series of Chaplin's films, including Monsieur Verdoux and Limelight, which gained excellent reviews from American critics. September 1964 saw the release of Chaplin's memoirs, My Autobiography, which he had been working on since 1957. The 500-page book became a worldwide best-seller. It focused on his early years and personal life, and was criticised for lacking information on his film career.
Shortly after the publication of his memoirs, Chaplin began work on A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), a romantic comedy based on a script he had written for Paulette Goddard in the 1930s. Set on an ocean liner, it starred Marlon Brando as an American ambassador and Sophia Loren as a stowaway found in his cabin. The film differed from Chaplin's earlier productions in several aspects. It was his first to use Technicolor and the widescreen format, while he concentrated on directing and appeared on-screen only in a cameo role as a seasick steward. He also signed a deal with Universal Pictures and appointed his assistant, Jerome Epstein, as the producer. Chaplin was paid $600,000 director's fee as well as a percentage of the gross receipts. A Countess from Hong Kong premiered in January 1967, to unfavourable reviews, and was a box-office failure. Chaplin was deeply hurt by the negative reaction to the film, which turned out to be his last.
Chaplin suffered a series of minor strokes in the late 1960s, which marked the beginning of a slow decline in his health. Despite the setbacks, he was soon writing a new film script, The Freak, a story of a winged girl found in South America, which he intended as a starring vehicle for his daughter, Victoria. His fragile health prevented the project from being realised. In the early 1970s, Chaplin concentrated on re-releasing his old films, including The Kid and The Circus. In 1971, he was made a Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour at the Cannes Film Festival. The following year, he was honoured with a special award by the Venice Film Festival.
In 1972, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences offered Chaplin an Honorary Award, which Robinson sees as a sign that America "wanted to make amends". Chaplin was initially hesitant about accepting but decided to return to the US for the first time in 20 years. The visit attracted a large amount of press coverage and, at the Academy Awards gala, he was given a 12-minute standing ovation, the longest in the Academy's history. Visibly emotional, Chaplin accepted his award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century".
Although Chaplin still had plans for future film projects, by the mid-1970s he was very frail. He experienced several further strokes, which made it difficult for him to communicate, and he had to use a wheelchair. His final projects were compiling a pictorial autobiography, My Life in Pictures (1974) and scoring A Woman of Paris for re-release in 1976. He also appeared in a documentary about his life, The Gentleman Tramp (1975), directed by Richard Patterson. In the 1975 New Year Honours, Chaplin was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II, though he was too weak to kneel and received the honour in his wheelchair.
Death
By October 1977, Chaplin's health had declined to the point that he needed constant care. In the early morning of 25 December 1977, Chaplin died at home after suffering a stroke in his sleep. He was 88 years old. The funeral, on 27 December, was a small and private Anglican ceremony, according to his wishes. Chaplin was interred in the Corsier-sur-Vevey cemetery. Among the film industry's tributes, director René Clair wrote, "He was a monument of the cinema, of all countries and all times... the most beautiful gift the cinema made to us." Actor Bob Hope declared, "We were lucky to have lived in his time." Chaplin left more than $100 million to his widow.
On 1 March 1978, Chaplin's coffin was dug up and stolen from its grave by Roman Wardas and Gantcho Ganev. The body was held for ransom in an attempt to extort money from his widow, Oona Chaplin. The pair were caught in a large police operation in May, and Chaplin's coffin was found buried in a field in the nearby village of Noville. It was re-interred in the Corsier cemetery in a reinforced concrete vault.
Filmmaking
Influences
Chaplin believed his first influence to be his mother, who entertained him as a child by sitting at the window and mimicking passers-by: "it was through watching her that I learned not only how to express emotions with my hands and face, but also how to observe and study people." Chaplin's early years in music hall allowed him to see stage comedians at work; he also attended the Christmas pantomimes at Drury Lane, where he studied the art of clowning through performers like Dan Leno. Chaplin's years with the Fred Karno company had a formative effect on him as an actor and filmmaker. Simon Louvish writes that the company was his "training ground", and it was here that Chaplin learned to vary the pace of his comedy. The concept of mixing pathos with slapstick was learnt from Karno, who also used elements of absurdity that became familiar in Chaplin's gags. From the film industry, Chaplin drew upon the work of the French comedian Max Linder, whose films he greatly admired. In developing the Tramp costume and persona, he was likely inspired by the American vaudeville scene, where tramp characters were common.
Method
Chaplin never spoke more than cursorily about his filmmaking methods, claiming such a thing would be tantamount to a magician spoiling his own illusion. Little was known about his working process throughout his lifetime, but research from film historiansparticularly the findings of Kevin Brownlow and David Gill that were presented in the three-part documentary Unknown Chaplin (1983)has since revealed his unique working method.
Until he began making spoken dialogue films with The Great Dictator, Chaplin never shot from a completed script. Many of his early films began with only a vague premise, for example "Charlie enters a health spa" or "Charlie works in a pawn shop". He then had sets constructed and worked with his stock company to improvise gags and "business" using them, almost always working the ideas out on film. As ideas were accepted and discarded, a narrative structure would emerge, frequently requiring Chaplin to reshoot an already-completed scene that might have otherwise contradicted the story. From A Woman of Paris onward Chaplin began the filming process with a prepared plot, but Robinson writes that every film up to Modern Times "went through many metamorphoses and permutations before the story took its final form".
Producing films in this manner meant Chaplin took longer to complete his pictures than almost any other filmmaker at the time. If he was out of ideas, he often took a break from the shoot, which could last for days, while keeping the studio ready for when inspiration returned. Delaying the process further was Chaplin's rigorous perfectionism. According to his friend Ivor Montagu, "nothing but perfection would be right" for the filmmaker. Because he personally funded his films, Chaplin was at liberty to strive for this goal and shoot as many takes as he wished. The number was often excessive, for instance 53 takes for every finished take in The Kid. For The Immigrant, a 20-minute short, Chaplin shot 40,000 feet of filmenough for a feature-length.
Describing his working method as "sheer perseverance to the point of madness", Chaplin would be completely consumed by the production of a picture. Robinson writes that even in Chaplin's later years, his work continued "to take precedence over everything and everyone else". The combination of story improvisation and relentless perfectionismwhich resulted in days of effort and thousands of feet of film being wasted, all at enormous expenseoften proved taxing for Chaplin who, in frustration, would lash out at his actors and crew.
Chaplin exercised complete control over his pictures, to the extent that he would act out the other roles for his cast, expecting them to imitate him exactly. He personally edited all of his films, trawling through the large amounts of footage to create the exact picture he wanted. As a result of his complete independence, he was identified by the film historian Andrew Sarris as one of the first auteur filmmakers. Chaplin did receive help, notably from his long-time cinematographer Roland Totheroh, brother Sydney Chaplin, and various assistant directors such as Harry Crocker and Charles Reisner.
Style and themes
While Chaplin's comedic style is broadly defined as slapstick, it is considered restrained and intelligent, with the film historian Philip Kemp describing his work as a mix of "deft, balletic physical comedy and thoughtful, situation-based gags". Chaplin diverged from conventional slapstick by slowing the pace and exhausting each scene of its comic potential, with more focus on developing the viewer's relationship to the characters. Unlike conventional slapstick comedies, Robinson states that the comic moments in Chaplin's films centre on the Tramp's attitude to the things happening to him: the humour does not come from the Tramp bumping into a tree, but from his lifting his hat to the tree in apology. Dan Kamin writes that Chaplin's "quirky mannerisms" and "serious demeanour in the midst of slapstick action" are other key aspects of his comedy, while the surreal transformation of objects and the employment of in-camera trickery are also common features. His signature style consisted of gestural idiosyncracies like askew derby hat, drooping shoulders, deflated chest and dangling arms and tilted back pelvis to enrich the comic persona of his 'tramp' character. His shabby but neat clothing and incessant grooming behaviour along with his geometrical walk and movement gave his onscreen characters a puppet-like quality.
Chaplin's silent films typically follow the Tramp's efforts to survive in a hostile world. The character lives in poverty and is frequently treated badly, but remains kind and upbeat; defying his social position, he strives to be seen as a gentleman. As Chaplin said in 1925, "The whole point of the Little Fellow is that no matter how down on his ass he is, no matter how well the jackals succeed in tearing him apart, he's still a man of dignity." The Tramp defies authority figures and "gives as good as he gets", leading Robinson and Louvish to see him as a representative for the underprivilegedan "everyman turned heroic saviour". Hansmeyer notes that several of Chaplin's films end with "the homeless and lonely Tramp [walking] optimistically... into the sunset... to continue his journey."
The infusion of pathos is a well-known aspect of Chaplin's work, and Larcher notes his reputation for "[inducing] laughter and tears". Sentimentality in his films comes from a variety of sources, with Louvish pinpointing "personal failure, society's strictures, economic disaster, and the elements". Chaplin sometimes drew on tragic events when creating his films, as in the case of The Gold Rush (1925), which was inspired by the fate of the Donner Party. Constance B. Kuriyama has identified serious underlying themes in the early comedies, such as greed (The Gold Rush) and loss (The Kid). Chaplin also touched on controversial issues: immigration (The Immigrant, 1917); illegitimacy (The Kid, 1921); and drug use (Easy Street, 1917). He often explored these topics ironically, making comedy out of suffering.
Social commentary was a feature of Chaplin's films from early in his career, as he portrayed the underdog in a sympathetic light and highlighted the difficulties of the poor. Later, as he developed a keen interest in economics and felt obliged to publicise his views, Chaplin began incorporating overtly political messages into his films. Modern Times (1936) depicted factory workers in dismal conditions, The Great Dictator (1940) parodied Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and ended in a speech against nationalism, Monsieur Verdoux (1947) criticised war and capitalism, and A King in New York (1957) attacked McCarthyism.
Several of Chaplin's films incorporate autobiographical elements, and the psychologist Sigmund Freud believed that Chaplin "always plays only himself as he was in his dismal youth". The Kid is thought to reflect Chaplin's childhood trauma of being sent into an orphanage, the main characters in Limelight (1952) contain elements from the lives of his parents, and A King in New York references Chaplin's experiences of being shunned by the United States. Many of his sets, especially in street scenes, bear a strong similarity to Kennington, where he grew up. Stephen M. Weissman has argued that Chaplin's problematic relationship with his mentally ill mother was often reflected in his female characters and the Tramp's desire to save them.
Regarding the structure of Chaplin's films, the scholar Gerald Mast sees them as consisting of sketches tied together by the same theme and setting, rather than having a tightly unified storyline. Visually, his films are simple and economic, with scenes portrayed as if set on a stage. His approach to filming was described by the art director Eugène Lourié: "Chaplin did not think in 'artistic' images when he was shooting. He believed that action is the main thing. The camera is there to photograph the actors". In his autobiography, Chaplin wrote, "Simplicity is best... pompous effects slow up action, are boring and unpleasant... The camera should not intrude." This approach has prompted criticism, since the 1940s, for being "old fashioned", while the film scholar Donald McCaffrey sees it as an indication that Chaplin never completely understood film as a medium. Kamin, however, comments that Chaplin's comedic talent would not be enough to remain funny on screen if he did not have an "ability to conceive and direct scenes specifically for the film medium".
Composing
Chaplin developed a passion for music as a child and taught himself to play the piano, violin, and cello. He considered the musical accompaniment of a film to be important, and from A Woman of Paris onwards he took an increasing interest in this area. With the advent of sound technology, Chaplin began using a synchronised orchestral soundtrackcomposed by himselffor City Lights (1931). He thereafter composed the scores for all of his films, and from the late 1950s to his death, he scored all of his silent features and some of his short films.
As Chaplin was not a trained musician, he could not read sheet music and needed the help of professional composers, such as David Raksin, Raymond Rasch and Eric James, when creating his scores. Musical directors were employed to oversee the recording process, such as Alfred Newman for City Lights. Although some critics have claimed that credit for his film music should be given to the composers who worked with him, Raksinwho worked with Chaplin on Modern Timesstressed Chaplin's creative position and active participation in the composing process. This process, which could take months, would start with Chaplin describing to the composer(s) exactly what he wanted and singing or playing tunes he had improvised on the piano. These tunes were then developed further in a close collaboration among the composer(s) and Chaplin. According to film historian Jeffrey Vance, "although he relied upon associates to arrange varied and complex instrumentation, the musical imperative is his, and not a note in a Chaplin musical score was placed there without his assent."
Chaplin's compositions produced three popular songs. "Smile", composed originally for Modern Times (1936) and later set to lyrics by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons, was a hit for Nat King Cole in 1954. For Limelight, Chaplin composed "Terry's Theme", which was popularised by Jimmy Young as "Eternally" (1952). Finally, "This Is My Song", performed by Petula Clark for A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), reached number one on the UK and other European charts. Chaplin also received his only competitive Oscar for his composition work, as the Limelight theme won an Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1973 following the film's re-release.
Legacy
In 1998, the film critic Andrew Sarris called Chaplin "arguably the single most important artist produced by the cinema, certainly its most extraordinary performer and probably still its most universal icon". He is described by the British Film Institute as "a towering figure in world culture", and was included in Time magazine's list of the "100 Most Important People of the 20th Century" for the "laughter [he brought] to millions" and because he "more or less invented global recognizability and helped turn an industry into an art". In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Chaplin as the 10th greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema. Chaplin was voted No. 2 of the "Greatest Movie Stars of the 20th Century" poll and No. 4 on the "Greatest Directors of the 20th Century" poll conducted by Japanese film magazine Kinema Junpo.
The image of the Tramp has become a part of cultural history; according to Simon Louvish, the character is recognisable to people who have never seen a Chaplin film, and in places where his films are never shown. The critic Leonard Maltin has written of the "unique" and "indelible" nature of the Tramp, and argued that no other comedian matched his "worldwide impact". Praising the character, Richard Schickel suggests that Chaplin's films with the Tramp contain the most "eloquent, richly comedic expressions of the human spirit" in movie history. Memorabilia connected to the character still fetches large sums in auctions: in 2006 a bowler hat and a bamboo cane that were part of the Tramp's costume were bought for $140,000 in a Los Angeles auction.
As a filmmaker, Chaplin is considered a pioneer and one of the most influential figures of the early twentieth century. He is often credited as one of the medium's first artists. Film historian Mark Cousins has written that Chaplin "changed not only the imagery of cinema, but also its sociology and grammar" and claims that Chaplin was as important to the development of comedy as a genre as D.W. Griffith was to drama. He was the first to popularise feature-length comedy and to slow down the pace of action, adding pathos and subtlety to it. Although his work is mostly classified as slapstick, Chaplin's drama A Woman of Paris (1923) was a major influence on Ernst Lubitsch's film The Marriage Circle (1924) and thus played a part in the development of "sophisticated comedy". According to David Robinson, Chaplin's innovations were "rapidly assimilated to become part of the common practice of film craft". Filmmakers who cited Chaplin as an influence include Federico Fellini (who called Chaplin "a sort of Adam, from whom we are all descended"), Jacques Tati ("Without him I would never have made a film"), René Clair ("He inspired practically every filmmaker"), François Truffaut ("My religion is cinema. I believe in Charlie Chaplin…"), Michael Powell, Billy Wilder, Vittorio De Sica, and Richard Attenborough. Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky praised Chaplin as "the only person to have gone down into cinematic history without any shadow of a doubt. The films he left behind can never grow old." Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray said about Chaplin "If there is any name which can be said to symbolize cinema—it is Charlie Chaplin… I am sure Chaplin's name will survive even if the cinema ceases to exist as a medium of artistic expression. Chaplin is truly immortal." French auteur Jean Renoir's favourite filmmaker was Chaplin.
Chaplin also strongly influenced the work of later comedians. Marcel Marceau said he was inspired to become a mime artist after watching Chaplin, while the actor Raj Kapoor based his screen persona on the Tramp. Mark Cousins has also detected Chaplin's comedic style in the French character Monsieur Hulot and the Italian character Totò. In other fields, Chaplin helped inspire the cartoon characters Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse, and was an influence on the Dada art movement. As one of the founding members of United Artists, Chaplin also had a role in the development of the film industry. Gerald Mast has written that although UA never became a major company like MGM or Paramount Pictures, the idea that directors could produce their own films was "years ahead of its time".
In 1992, the Sight & Sound Critics' Top Ten Poll ranked Chaplin at No. 5 in its list of "Top 10 Directors" of all time. In the 21st century, several of Chaplin's films are still regarded as classics and among the greatest ever made. The 2012 Sight & Sound poll, which compiles "top ten" ballots from film critics and directors to determine each group's most acclaimed films,
saw City Lights rank among the critics' top 50, Modern Times inside the top 100, and The Great Dictator and The Gold Rush placed in the top 250. The top 100 films as voted on by directors included Modern Times at number 22, City Lights at number 30, and The Gold Rush at number 91. Every one of Chaplin's features received a vote. Chaplin was ranked at No. 35 on Empire magazine's "Top 40 Greatest Directors of All-Time" list in 2005. In 2007, the American Film Institute named City Lights the 11th greatest American film of all time, while The Gold Rush and Modern Times again ranked in the top 100. Books about Chaplin continue to be published regularly, and he is a popular subject for media scholars and film archivists. Many of Chaplin's film have had a DVD and Blu-ray release.
Chaplin's legacy is managed on behalf of his children by the Chaplin office, located in Paris. The office represents Association Chaplin, founded by some of his children "to protect the name, image and moral rights" to his body of work, Roy Export SAS, which owns the copyright to most of his films made after 1918, and Bubbles Incorporated S.A., which owns the copyrights to his image and name. Their central archive is held at the archives of Montreux, Switzerland and scanned versions of its contents, including 83,630 images, 118 scripts, 976 manuscripts, 7,756 letters, and thousands of other documents, are available for research purposes at the Chaplin Research Centre at the Cineteca di Bologna. The photographic archive, which includes approximately 10,000 photographs from Chaplin's life and career, is kept at the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland. The British Film Institute has also established the Charles Chaplin Research Foundation, and the first international Charles Chaplin Conference was held in London in July 2005. Elements for many of Chaplin's films are held by the Academy Film Archive as part of the Roy Export Chaplin Collection.
Commemoration and tributes
Chaplin's final home, Manoir de Ban in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland, has been converted into a museum named "Chaplin's World". It opened on 17 April 2016 after fifteen years of development, and is described by Reuters as "an interactive museum showcasing the life and works of Charlie Chaplin". On the 128th anniversary of his birth, a record-setting 662 people dressed as the Tramp in an event organised by the museum. Previously, the Museum of the Moving Image in London held a permanent display on Chaplin, and hosted a dedicated exhibition to his life and career in 1988. The London Film Museum hosted an exhibition called Charlie ChaplinThe Great Londoner, from 2010 until 2013.
In London, a statue of Chaplin as the Tramp, sculpted by John Doubleday and unveiled in 1981, is located in Leicester Square. The city also includes a road named after him in central London, "Charlie Chaplin Walk", which is the location of the BFI IMAX. There are nine blue plaques memorialising Chaplin in London, Hampshire, and Yorkshire. The Swiss town of Vevey named a park in his honour in 1980 and erected a statue there in 1982. In 2011, two large murals depicting Chaplin on two 14-storey buildings were also unveiled in Vevey. Chaplin has also been honoured by the Irish town of Waterville, where he spent several summers with his family in the 1960s. A statue was erected in 1998; since 2011, the town has been host to the annual Charlie Chaplin Comedy Film Festival, which was founded to celebrate Chaplin's legacy and to showcase new comic talent.
In other tributes, a minor planet, 3623 Chaplin (discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Karachkina in 1981) is named after Charlie. Throughout the 1980s, the Tramp image was used by IBM to advertise their personal computers. Chaplin's 100th birthday anniversary in 1989 was marked with several events around the world, and on 15 April 2011, a day before his 122nd birthday, Google celebrated him with a special Google Doodle video on its global and other country-wide homepages. Many countries, spanning six continents, have honoured Chaplin with a postal stamp.
Characterisations
Chaplin is the subject of a biographical film, Chaplin (1992) directed by Richard Attenborough, and starring Robert Downey Jr. in the title role and Geraldine Chaplin playing Hannah Chaplin. He is also a character in the historical drama film The Cat's Meow (2001), played by Eddie Izzard, and in the made-for-television movie The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980), played by Clive Revill. A television series about Chaplin's childhood, Young Charlie Chaplin, ran on PBS in 1989, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program. The French film The Price of Fame (2014) is a fictionalised account of the robbery of Chaplin's grave.
Chaplin's life has also been the subject of several stage productions. Two musicals, Little Tramp and Chaplin, were produced in the early 1990s. In 2006, Thomas Meehan and Christopher Curtis created another musical, Limelight: The Story of Charlie Chaplin, which was first performed at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego in 2010. It was adapted for Broadway two years later, re-titled ChaplinA Musical. Chaplin was portrayed by Robert McClure in both productions. In 2013, two plays about Chaplin premiered in Finland: Chaplin at the Svenska Teatern, and Kulkuri (The Tramp) at the Tampere Workers' Theatre.
Chaplin has also been characterised in literary fiction. He is the protagonist of Robert Coover's short story "Charlie in the House of Rue" (1980; reprinted in Coover's 1987 collection A Night at the Movies), and of Glen David Gold's Sunnyside (2009), a historical novel set in the First World War period. A day in Chaplin's life in 1909 is dramatised in the chapter titled "Modern Times" in Alan Moore's Jerusalem (2016), a novel set in the author's home town of Northampton, England.
Chaplin was brought to life in a comic strip bearing his name that ran for 30 years in the British pre-war humorous comic Funny Wonder. Begun in 1915, the strip was drawn primarily by Bertie Brown; it was one of the earliest comic strips inspired by the popularity of a celebrity. A similar strip, Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers, by Stuart Carothers and later Elzie C. Segar, was syndicated in the United States from March 29, 1915 until September 16, 1917. In France in 1922, Raoul Thomen created the comic strip Les Aventures Acrobatiques de Charlot ("Charlot's Acrobatic Adventures"). Thomen's strip ran in French children's magazines for nearly 20 years. Charlot's comic strip adventures were continued by other artists, lasting until 1963. The strip was collected in many albums.
Awards and recognition
Chaplin received many awards and honours, especially later in life. In the 1975 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE). He was also awarded honorary Doctor of Letters degrees by the University of Oxford and the University of Durham in 1962. In 1965, he and Ingmar Bergman were joint winners of the Erasmus Prize and, in 1971, he was appointed a Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour by the French government.
From the film industry, Chaplin received a special Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1972, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lincoln Center Film Society the same year. The latter has since been presented annually to filmmakers as The Chaplin Award. Chaplin was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1972, having been previously excluded because of his political beliefs.
Chaplin received three Academy Awards: an Honorary Award for "versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing, and producing The Circus" in 1929, a second Honorary Award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century" in 1972, and a Best Score award in 1973 for Limelight (shared with Ray Rasch and Larry Russell). He was further nominated in the Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture (as producer) categories for The Great Dictator, and received another Best Original Screenplay nomination for Monsieur Verdoux. In 1976, Chaplin was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).
Six of Chaplin's films have been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress: The Immigrant (1917), The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940).
Filmography
Directed features:
The Kid (1921)
A Woman of Paris (1923)
The Gold Rush (1925)
The Circus (1928)
City Lights (1931)
Modern Times (1936)
The Great Dictator (1940)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Limelight (1952)
A King in New York (1957)
A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)
See also
Buster Keaton
Harold Lloyd
References
Footnotes
Citations
Works cited
External links
by Association Chaplin
The Charlie Chaplin Archive Online catalogue of Chaplin's professional and personal archives at the Cineteca di Bologna, Italy
Chaplin's World Museum at the Manoir de Ban, Switzerland
Chaplin's file at the Federal Bureau of Investigation website
1889 births
1977 deaths
19th-century English people
20th-century British male musicians
20th-century English screenwriters
20th-century English businesspeople
20th-century English comedians
20th-century English male actors
Academy Honorary Award recipients
Actors awarded knighthoods
British anti-capitalists
Articles containing video clips
BAFTA fellows
Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners
British anti-fascists
British film production company founders
British male comedy actors
British mimes
Cinema pioneers
Comedy film directors
Composers awarded knighthoods
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English film directors
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History of the London Borough of Lambeth
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Male actors from London
Music hall performers
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Silent film comedians
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United Artists
Vaudeville performers | true | [
"Miguel Skrobot (Warsaw, 1873 – Curitiba, February 20, 1912) was a businessman Brazilian of Polish origin.\n\nMiguel Skrobot was born in 1873, in Warsaw, Poland, to José Skrobot and Rosa Skrobot. When he was 18 he migrated to Brazil and settled in Curitiba as a merchant.\n\nHe married Maria Pansardi, who was born in Tibagi, Paraná, to Italian immigrants, and she bore him three children. He kept a steam-powered factory where he worked on grinding and toasting coffee beans under the \"Rio Branco\" brand, located on the spot where today stands the square called Praça Zacarias (square located in the center of Curitiba). He also owned a grocery store near Praça Tiradentes (also a square in the center of Curitiba, where the city was born). He died an early death, when he was 39, on February 20, 1912.\n\nReferences\n\n1873 births\n1912 deaths\nBrazilian businesspeople\nPeople from Curitiba\nPolish emigrants to Brazil",
"Adolf von Rauch (22 April 1798 - 12 December 1882) was a German paper manufacturer in Heilbronn, where he was born and died and where he was a major builder of social housing.\n\nPapermakers\n1798 births\n1882 deaths\nPeople from Heilbronn"
]
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"March 1905, her illness returned, this time permanently.",
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"There was nothing we could do but accept poor mother's fate\",",
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"There is no official record of his birth, although Chaplin believed he was born at East Street, Walworth, in South London."
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| C_90c2ef6570c647dfb80560e53db82e47_1 | What other hardships did he experience? | 4 | What other hardships did Charlie Chaplin experience besides his mother's illness? | Charlie Chaplin | Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889 to Hannah Chaplin (born Hannah Harriet Pedlingham Hill) and Charles Chaplin Sr. There is no official record of his birth, although Chaplin believed he was born at East Street, Walworth, in South London. His mother and father had married four years previously, at which time Charles Sr. became the legal carer of Hannah's illegitimate son, Sydney John Hill. At the time of his birth, Chaplin's parents were both music hall entertainers. Hannah, the daughter of a shoemaker, had a brief and unsuccessful career under the stage name Lily Harley, while Charles Sr., a butcher's son, was a popular singer. Although they never divorced, Chaplin's parents were estranged by around 1891. The following year, Hannah gave birth to a third son - George Wheeler Dryden - fathered by the music hall entertainer Leo Dryden. The child was taken by Dryden at six months old, and did not re-enter Chaplin's life for 30 years. Chaplin's childhood was fraught with poverty and hardship, making his eventual trajectory "the most dramatic of all the rags to riches stories ever told" according to his authorised biographer David Robinson. Chaplin's early years were spent with his mother and brother Sydney in the London district of Kennington; Hannah had no means of income, other than occasional nursing and dressmaking, and Chaplin Sr. provided no financial support. As the situation deteriorated, Chaplin was sent to Lambeth Workhouse when he was seven years old. The council housed him at the Central London District School for paupers, which Chaplin remembered as "a forlorn existence". He was briefly reunited with his mother 18 months later, before Hannah was forced to readmit her family to the workhouse in July 1898. The boys were promptly sent to Norwood Schools, another institution for destitute children. In September 1898, Hannah was committed to Cane Hill mental asylum - she had developed a psychosis seemingly brought on by an infection of syphilis and malnutrition. For the two months she was there, Chaplin and his brother Sydney were sent to live with their father, whom the young boys scarcely knew. Charles Sr. was by then a severe alcoholic, and life there was bad enough to provoke a visit from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Chaplin's father died two years later, at 38 years old, from cirrhosis of the liver. Hannah entered a period of remission but, in May 1903, became ill again. Chaplin, then 14, had the task of taking his mother to the infirmary, from where she was sent back to Cane Hill. He lived alone for several days, searching for food and occasionally sleeping rough, until Sydney - who had enrolled in the Navy two years earlier - returned. Hannah was released from the asylum eight months later, but in March 1905, her illness returned, this time permanently. "There was nothing we could do but accept poor mother's fate", Chaplin later wrote, and she remained in care until her death in 1928. CANNOTANSWER | He lived alone for several days, searching for food and occasionally sleeping rough, | Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered one of the film industry's most important figures. His career spanned more than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977, and encompassed both adulation and controversy.
Chaplin's childhood in London was one of poverty and hardship. His father was absent and his mother struggled financially - he was sent to a workhouse twice before age nine. When he was 14, his mother was committed to a mental asylum. Chaplin began performing at an early age, touring music halls and later working as a stage actor and comedian. At 19, he was signed to the Fred Karno company, which took him to America. He was scouted for the film industry and began appearing in 1914 for Keystone Studios. He soon developed the Tramp persona and attracted a large fan base. He directed his own films and continued to hone his craft as he moved to the Essanay, Mutual, and First National corporations. By 1918, he was one of the world's best-known figures.
In 1919, Chaplin co-founded distribution company United Artists, which gave him complete control over his films. His first feature-length film was The Kid (1921), followed by A Woman of Paris (1923), The Gold Rush (1925), and The Circus (1928). He initially refused to move to sound films in the 1930s, instead producing City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936) without dialogue. His first sound film was The Great Dictator (1940), which satirised Adolf Hitler. The 1940s were marked with controversy for Chaplin, and his popularity declined rapidly. He was accused of communist sympathies, and some members of the press and public were scandalized by his involvement in a paternity suit and marriages to much younger women. An FBI investigation was opened, and Chaplin was forced to leave the United States and settle in Switzerland. He abandoned the Tramp in his later films, which include Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Limelight (1952), A King in New York (1957), and A Countess from Hong Kong (1967).
Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in, and composed the music for most of his films. He was a perfectionist, and his financial independence enabled him to spend years on the development and production of a picture. His films are characterised by slapstick combined with pathos, typified in the Tramp's struggles against adversity. Many contain social and political themes, as well as autobiographical elements. He received an Honorary Academy Award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century" in 1972, as part of a renewed appreciation for his work. He continues to be held in high regard, with The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, and The Great Dictator often ranked on lists of the greatest films.
Biography
1889–1913: early years
Background and childhood hardship
Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889 to Hannah Chaplin (née Hill) and Charles Chaplin Sr., both of whom had Romanichal heritage. There is no official record of his birth, although Chaplin believed he was born at East Street, Walworth, in South London. His parents had married four years previously, at which time Charles Sr. became the legal guardian of Hannah's illegitimate son, Sydney John Hill. At the time of his birth, Chaplin's parents were both music hall entertainers. Hannah, the daughter of a shoemaker, had a brief and unsuccessful career under the stage name Lily Harley, while Charles Sr., a butcher's son, was a popular singer. Although they never divorced, Chaplin's parents were estranged by around 1891. The following year, Hannah gave birth to a third son, George Wheeler Dryden, fathered by the music hall entertainer Leo Dryden. The child was taken by Dryden at six months old, and did not re-enter Chaplin's life for thirty years.
Chaplin's childhood was fraught with poverty and hardship, making his eventual trajectory "the most dramatic of all the rags to riches stories ever told" according to his authorised biographer David Robinson. Chaplin's early years were spent with his mother and brother Sydney in the London district of Kennington; Hannah had no means of income, other than occasional nursing and dressmaking, and Chaplin Sr. provided no financial support. As the situation deteriorated, Chaplin was sent to Lambeth Workhouse when he was seven years old. The council housed him at the Central London District School for paupers, which Chaplin remembered as "a forlorn existence". He was briefly reunited with his mother 18 months later, before Hannah was forced to readmit her family to the workhouse in July 1898. The boys were promptly sent to Norwood Schools, another institution for destitute children.
In September 1898, Hannah was committed to Cane Hill mental asylum; she had developed a psychosis seemingly brought on by an infection of syphilis and malnutrition. For the two months she was there, Chaplin and his brother Sydney were sent to live with their father, whom the young boys scarcely knew. Charles Sr. was by then a severe alcoholic, and life there was bad enough to provoke a visit from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Chaplin's father died two years later, at 38 years old, from cirrhosis of the liver.
Hannah entered a period of remission but, in May 1903, became ill again. Chaplin, then 14, had the task of taking his mother to the infirmary, from where she was sent back to Cane Hill. He lived alone for several days, searching for food and occasionally sleeping rough, until Sydneywho had joined the Navy two years earlierreturned. Hannah was released from the asylum eight months later, but in March 1905, her illness returned, this time permanently. "There was nothing we could do but accept poor mother's fate", Chaplin later wrote, and she remained in care until her death in 1928.
Young performer
Between his time in the poor schools and his mother succumbing to mental illness, Chaplin began to perform on stage. He later recalled making his first amateur appearance at the age of five years, when he took over from Hannah one night in Aldershot. This was an isolated occurrence, but by the time he was nine Chaplin had, with his mother's encouragement, grown interested in performing. He later wrote: "[she] imbued me with the feeling that I had some sort of talent". Through his father's connections, Chaplin became a member of the Eight Lancashire Lads clog-dancing troupe, with whom he toured English music halls throughout 1899 and 1900. Chaplin worked hard, and the act was popular with audiences, but he was not satisfied with dancing and wished to form a comedy act.
In the years Chaplin was touring with the Eight Lancashire Lads, his mother ensured that he still attended school but, by age 13, he had abandoned education. He supported himself with a range of jobs, while nursing his ambition to become an actor. At 14, shortly after his mother's relapse, he registered with a theatrical agency in London's West End. The manager sensed potential in Chaplin, who was promptly given his first role as a newsboy in Harry Arthur Saintsbury's Jim, a Romance of Cockayne. It opened in July 1903, but the show was unsuccessful and closed after two weeks. Chaplin's comic performance, however, was singled out for praise in many of the reviews.
Saintsbury secured a role for Chaplin in Charles Frohman's production of Sherlock Holmes, where he played Billy the pageboy in three nationwide tours. His performance was so well received that he was called to London to play the role alongside William Gillette, the original Holmes. "It was like tidings from heaven", Chaplin recalled. At 16 years old, Chaplin starred in the play's West End production at the Duke of York's Theatre from October to December 1905. He completed one final tour of Sherlock Holmes in early 1906, before leaving the play after more than two-and-a-half years.
Stage comedy and vaudeville
Chaplin soon found work with a new company and went on tour with his brother, who was also pursuing an acting career, in a comedy sketch called Repairs. In May 1906, Chaplin joined the juvenile act Casey's Circus, where he developed popular burlesque pieces and was soon the star of the show. By the time the act finished touring in July 1907, the 18-year-old had become an accomplished comedic performer. He struggled to find more work, however, and a brief attempt at a solo act was a failure.
Meanwhile, Sydney Chaplin had joined Fred Karno's prestigious comedy company in 1906 and, by 1908, he was one of their key performers. In February, he managed to secure a two-week trial for his younger brother. Karno was initially wary, and considered Chaplin a "pale, puny, sullen-looking youngster" who "looked much too shy to do any good in the theatre". However, the teenager made an impact on his first night at the London Coliseum and he was quickly signed to a contract. Chaplin began by playing a series of minor parts, eventually progressing to starring roles in 1909. In April 1910, he was given the lead in a new sketch, Jimmy the Fearless. It was a big success, and Chaplin received considerable press attention.
Karno selected his new star to join the section of the company, one that also included Stan Laurel, that toured North America's vaudeville circuit. The young comedian headed the show and impressed reviewers, being described as "one of the best pantomime artists ever seen here". His most successful role was a drunk called the "Inebriate Swell", which drew him significant recognition. The tour lasted 21 months, and the troupe returned to England in June 1912. Chaplin recalled that he "had a disquieting feeling of sinking back into a depressing commonplaceness" and was, therefore, delighted when a new tour began in October.
1914–1917: entering films
Keystone
Six months into the second American tour, Chaplin was invited to join the New York Motion Picture Company. A representative who had seen his performances thought he could replace Fred Mace, a star of their Keystone Studios who intended to leave. Chaplin thought the Keystone comedies "a crude mélange of rough and rumble", but liked the idea of working in films and rationalised: "Besides, it would mean a new life." He met with the company and signed a $150-per-week contract in September 1913. Chaplin arrived in Los Angeles in early December, and began working for the Keystone studio on 5January 1914.
Chaplin's boss was Mack Sennett, who initially expressed concern that the 24-year-old looked too young. He was not used in a picture until late January, during which time Chaplin attempted to learn the processes of filmmaking. The one-reeler Making a Living marked his film acting debut and was released on 2February 1914. Chaplin strongly disliked the picture, but one review picked him out as "a comedian of the first water". For his second appearance in front of the camera, Chaplin selected the costume with which he became identified. He described the process in his autobiography:
The film was Mabel's Strange Predicament, but "the Tramp" character, as it became known, debuted to audiences in Kid Auto Races at Veniceshot later than Mabel's Strange Predicament but released two days earlier on 7February 1914. Chaplin adopted the character as his screen persona and attempted to make suggestions for the films he appeared in. These ideas were dismissed by his directors. During the filming of his 11th picture, Mabel at the Wheel, he clashed with director Mabel Normand and was almost released from his contract. Sennett kept him on, however, when he received orders from exhibitors for more Chaplin films. Sennett also allowed Chaplin to direct his next film himself after Chaplin promised to pay $1,500 ($ in dollars) if the film was unsuccessful.
Caught in the Rain, issued 4May 1914, was Chaplin's directorial debut and was highly successful. Thereafter he directed almost every short film in which he appeared for Keystone, at the rate of approximately one per week, a period which he later remembered as the most exciting time of his career. Chaplin's films introduced a slower form of comedy than the typical Keystone farce, and he developed a large fan base. In November 1914, he had a supporting role in the first feature length comedy film, Tillie's Punctured Romance, directed by Sennett and starring Marie Dressler, which was a commercial success and increased his popularity. When Chaplin's contract came up for renewal at the end of the year, he asked for $1,000 a week an amount Sennett refused as too large.
Essanay
The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company of Chicago sent Chaplin an offer of $1,250 a week with a signing bonus of $10,000. He joined the studio in late December 1914, where he began forming a stock company of regular players, actors he worked with again and again, including Ben Turpin, Leo White, Bud Jamison, Paddy McGuire, Fred Goodwins, and Billy Armstrong. He soon recruited a leading lady, Edna Purviance, whom Chaplin met in a café and hired on account of her beauty. She went on to appear in 35 films with Chaplin over eight years; the pair also formed a romantic relationship that lasted into 1917.
Chaplin asserted a high level of control over his pictures and started to put more time and care into each film. There was a month-long interval between the release of his second production, A Night Out, and his third, The Champion. The final seven of Chaplin's 14 Essanay films were all produced at this slower pace. Chaplin also began to alter his screen persona, which had attracted some criticism at Keystone for its "mean, crude, and brutish" nature. The character became more gentle and romantic; The Tramp (April 1915) was considered a particular turning point in his development. The use of pathos was developed further with The Bank, in which Chaplin created a sad ending. Robinson notes that this was an innovation in comedy films, and marked the time when serious critics began to appreciate Chaplin's work. At Essanay, writes film scholar Simon Louvish, Chaplin "found the themes and the settings that would define the Tramp's world".
During 1915, Chaplin became a cultural phenomenon. Shops were stocked with Chaplin merchandise, he was featured in cartoons and comic strips, and several songs were written about him. In July, a journalist for Motion Picture Magazine wrote that "Chaplinitis" had spread across America. As his fame grew worldwide, he became the film industry's first international star. When the Essanay contract ended in December 1915, Chaplin, fully aware of his popularity, requested a $150,000 signing bonus from his next studio. He received several offers, including Universal, Fox, and Vitagraph, the best of which came from the Mutual Film Corporation at $10,000 a week.
Mutual
A contract was negotiated with Mutual that amounted to $670,000 a year, which Robinson says made Chaplinat 26 years oldone of the highest paid people in the world. The high salary shocked the public and was widely reported in the press. John R. Freuler, the studio president, explained: "We can afford to pay Mr. Chaplin this large sum annually because the public wants Chaplin and will pay for him."
Mutual gave Chaplin his own Los Angeles studio to work in, which opened in March 1916. He added two key members to his stock company, Albert Austin and Eric Campbell, and produced a series of elaborate two-reelers: The Floorwalker, The Fireman, The Vagabond, One A.M., and The Count. For The Pawnshop, he recruited the actor Henry Bergman, who was to work with Chaplin for 30 years. Behind the Screen and The Rink completed Chaplin's releases for 1916. The Mutual contract stipulated that he release a two-reel film every four weeks, which he had managed to achieve. With the new year, however, Chaplin began to demand more time. He made only four more films for Mutual over the first ten months of 1917: Easy Street, The Cure, The Immigrant, and The Adventurer. With their careful construction, these films are considered by Chaplin scholars to be among his finest work. Later in life, Chaplin referred to his Mutual years as the happiest period of his career. However, Chaplin also felt that those films became increasingly formulaic over the period of the contract, and he was increasingly dissatisfied with the working conditions encouraging that.
Chaplin was attacked in the British media for not fighting in the First World War. He defended himself, claiming that he would fight for Britain if called and had registered for the American draft, but he was not summoned by either country. Despite this criticism Chaplin was a favourite with the troops, and his popularity continued to grow worldwide. Harper's Weekly reported that the name of Charlie Chaplin was "a part of the common language of almost every country", and that the Tramp image was "universally familiar". In 1917, professional Chaplin imitators were so widespread that he took legal action, and it was reported that nine out of ten men who attended costume parties, did so dressed as the Tramp. The same year, a study by the Boston Society for Psychical Research concluded that Chaplin was "an American obsession". The actress Minnie Maddern Fiske wrote that "a constantly increasing body of cultured, artistic people are beginning to regard the young English buffoon, Charles Chaplin, as an extraordinary artist, as well as a comic genius".
1918–1922: First National
In January 1918, Chaplin was visited by leading British singer and comedian Harry Lauder, and the two acted in a short film together.
Mutual was patient with Chaplin's decreased rate of output, and the contract ended amicably. With his aforementioned concern about the declining quality of his films because of contract scheduling stipulations, Chaplin's primary concern in finding a new distributor was independence; Sydney Chaplin, then his business manager, told the press, "Charlie [must] be allowed all the time he needs and all the money for producing [films] the way he wants... It is quality, not quantity, we are after." In June 1917, Chaplin signed to complete eight films for First National Exhibitors' Circuit in return for $1million. He chose to build his own studio, situated on five acres of land off Sunset Boulevard, with production facilities of the highest order. It was completed in January 1918, and Chaplin was given freedom over the making of his pictures.
A Dog's Life, released April 1918, was the first film under the new contract. In it, Chaplin demonstrated his increasing concern with story construction and his treatment of the Tramp as "a sort of Pierrot". The film was described by Louis Delluc as "cinema's first total work of art". Chaplin then embarked on the Third Liberty Bond campaign, touring the United States for one month to raise money for the Allies of the First World War. He also produced a short propaganda film at his own expense, donated to the government for fund-raising, called The Bond. Chaplin's next release was war-based, placing the Tramp in the trenches for Shoulder Arms. Associates warned him against making a comedy about the war but, as he later recalled: "Dangerous or not, the idea excited me." He spent four months filming the picture, which was released in October 1918 with great success.
United Artists, Mildred Harris, and The Kid
After the release of Shoulder Arms, Chaplin requested more money from First National, which was refused. Frustrated with their lack of concern for quality, and worried about rumours of a possible merger between the company and Famous Players-Lasky, Chaplin joined forces with Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and D. W. Griffith to form a new distribution company, United Artists, in January 1919. The arrangement was revolutionary in the film industry, as it enabled the four partnersall creative artiststo personally fund their pictures and have complete control. Chaplin was eager to start with the new company and offered to buy out his contract with First National. They refused and insisted that he complete the final six films owed.
Before the creation of United Artists, Chaplin married for the first time. The 16-year-old actress Mildred Harris had revealed that she was pregnant with his child, and in September 1918, he married her quietly in Los Angeles to avoid controversy. Soon after, the pregnancy was found to be false. Chaplin was unhappy with the union and, feeling that marriage stunted his creativity, struggled over the production of his film Sunnyside. Harris was by then legitimately pregnant, and on 7July 1919, gave birth to a son. Norman Spencer Chaplin was born malformed and died three days later. The marriage ended in April 1920, with Chaplin explaining in his autobiography that they were "irreconcilably mismated".
Losing the child, plus his own childhood experiences, are thought to have influenced Chaplin's next film, which turned the Tramp into the caretaker of a young boy. For this new venture, Chaplin also wished to do more than comedy and, according to Louvish, "make his mark on a changed world". Filming on The Kid began in August 1919, with four-year-old Jackie Coogan his co-star. The Kid was in production for nine months until May 1920 and, at 68 minutes, it was Chaplin's longest picture to date. Dealing with issues of poverty and parent–child separation, The Kid was one of the earliest films to combine comedy and drama. It was released in January 1921 with instant success, and, by 1924, had been screened in over 50 countries.
Chaplin spent five months on his next film, the two-reeler The Idle Class. Work on the picture was for a time delayed by more turmoil in his personal life. First National had on April 12 announced Chaplin's engagement to the actress May Collins, whom he had hired to be his secretary at the studio. By early June, however, Chaplin "suddenly decided he could scarcely stand to be in the same room" as Collins, but instead of breaking off the engagement directly, he "stopped coming in to work, sending word that he was suffering from a bad case of influenza, which May knew to be a lie."
Ultimately work on the film resumed, and following its September 1921 release, Chaplin chose to return to England for the first time in almost a decade. He wrote a book about his journey, titled My Wonderful Visit. He then worked to fulfil his First National contract, releasing Pay Day in February 1922. The Pilgrim, his final short film, was delayed by distribution disagreements with the studio and released a year later.
1923–1938: silent features
A Woman of Paris and The Gold Rush
Having fulfilled his First National contract, Chaplin was free to make his first picture as an independent producer. In November 1922, he began filming A Woman of Paris, a romantic drama about ill-fated lovers. Chaplin intended it to be a star-making vehicle for Edna Purviance, and did not appear in the picture himself other than in a brief, uncredited cameo. He wished the film to have a realistic feel and directed his cast to give restrained performances. In real life, he explained, "men and women try to hide their emotions rather than seek to express them". A Woman of Paris premiered in September 1923 and was acclaimed for its innovative, subtle approach. The public, however, seemed to have little interest in a Chaplin film without Chaplin, and it was a box office disappointment. The filmmaker was hurt by this failurehe had long wanted to produce a dramatic film and was proud of the resultand soon withdrew A Woman of Paris from circulation.
Chaplin returned to comedy for his next project. Setting his standards high, he told himself "This next film must be an epic! The Greatest!" Inspired by a photograph of the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush, and later the story of the Donner Party of 1846–1847, he made what Geoffrey Macnab calls "an epic comedy out of grim subject matter". In The Gold Rush, the Tramp is a lonely prospector fighting adversity and looking for love. With Georgia Hale as his leading lady, Chaplin began filming the picture in February 1924. Its elaborate production, costing almost $1million, included location shooting in the Truckee mountains in Nevada with 600 extras, extravagant sets, and special effects. The last scene was shot in May 1925 after 15 months of filming.
Chaplin felt The Gold Rush was the best film he had made. It opened in August 1925 and became one of the highest-grossing films of the silent era with a U.S. box-office of $5million. The comedy contains some of Chaplin's most famous sequences, such as the Tramp eating his shoe and the "Dance of the Rolls". Macnab has called it "the quintessential Chaplin film". Chaplin stated at its release, "This is the picture that I want to be remembered by".
Lita Grey and The Circus
While making The Gold Rush, Chaplin married for the second time. Mirroring the circumstances of his first union, Lita Grey was a teenage actress, originally set to star in the film, whose surprise announcement of pregnancy forced Chaplin into marriage. She was 16 and he was 35, meaning Chaplin could have been charged with statutory rape under California law. He therefore arranged a discreet marriage in Mexico on 25 November 1924. They originally met during her childhood and she had previously appeared in his works The Kid and The Idle Class. Their first son, Charles Spencer Chaplin III, was born on 5May 1925, followed by Sydney Earl Chaplin on 30 March 1926. On 6 July 1925, Chaplin became the first movie star to be featured on a Time magazine cover.
It was an unhappy marriage, and Chaplin spent long hours at the studio to avoid seeing his wife. In November 1926, Grey took the children and left the family home. A bitter divorce followed, in which Grey's applicationaccusing Chaplin of infidelity, abuse, and of harbouring "perverted sexual desires"was leaked to the press. Chaplin was reported to be in a state of nervous breakdown, as the story became headline news and groups formed across America calling for his films to be banned. Eager to end the case without further scandal, Chaplin's lawyers agreed to a cash settlement of $600,000the largest awarded by American courts at that time. His fan base was strong enough to survive the incident, and it was soon forgotten, but Chaplin was deeply affected by it.
Before the divorce suit was filed, Chaplin had begun work on a new film, The Circus. He built a story around the idea of walking a tightrope while besieged by monkeys, and turned the Tramp into the accidental star of a circus. Filming was suspended for ten months while he dealt with the divorce scandal, and it was generally a trouble-ridden production. Finally completed in October 1927, The Circus was released in January 1928 to a positive reception. At the 1st Academy Awards, Chaplin was given a special trophy "For versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing The Circus". Despite its success, he permanently associated the film with the stress of its production; Chaplin omitted The Circus from his autobiography, and struggled to work on it when he recorded the score in his later years.
City Lights
By the time The Circus was released, Hollywood had witnessed the introduction of sound films. Chaplin was cynical about this new medium and the technical shortcomings it presented, believing that "talkies" lacked the artistry of silent films. He was also hesitant to change the formula that had brought him such success, and feared that giving the Tramp a voice would limit his international appeal. He, therefore, rejected the new Hollywood craze and began work on a new silent film. Chaplin was nonetheless anxious about this decision and remained so throughout the film's production.
When filming began at the end of 1928, Chaplin had been working on the story for almost a year. City Lights followed the Tramp's love for a blind flower girl (played by Virginia Cherrill) and his efforts to raise money for her sight-saving operation. It was a challenging production that lasted 21 months, with Chaplin later confessing that he "had worked himself into a neurotic state of wanting perfection". One advantage Chaplin found in sound technology was the opportunity to record a musical score for the film, which he composed himself.
Chaplin finished editing City Lights in December 1930, by which time silent films were an anachronism. A preview before an unsuspecting public audience was not a success, but a showing for the press produced positive reviews. One journalist wrote, "Nobody in the world but Charlie Chaplin could have done it. He is the only person that has that peculiar something called 'audience appeal' in sufficient quality to defy the popular penchant for movies that talk." Given its general release in January 1931, City Lights proved to be a popular and financial success, eventually grossing over $3million. The British Film Institute cites it as Chaplin's finest accomplishment, and the critic James Agee hails the closing scene as "the greatest piece of acting and the highest moment in movies". City Lights became Chaplin's personal favourite of his films and remained so throughout his life.
Travels, Paulette Goddard, and Modern Times
City Lights had been a success, but Chaplin was unsure if he could make another picture without dialogue. He remained convinced that sound would not work in his films, but was also "obsessed by a depressing fear of being old-fashioned". In this state of uncertainty, early in 1931, the comedian decided to take a holiday and ended up travelling for 16 months. He spent months travelling Western Europe, including extended stays in France and Switzerland, and spontaneously decided to visit Japan. The day after he arrived in Japan, Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi was assassinated by ultra-nationalists in the May 15 Incident. The group's original plan had been to provoke a war with the United States by assassinating Chaplin at a welcome reception organised by the prime minister, but the plan had been foiled due to delayed public announcement of the event's date.
In his autobiography, Chaplin recalled that on his return to Los Angeles, "I was confused and without plan, restless and conscious of an extreme loneliness". He briefly considered retiring and moving to China. Chaplin's loneliness was relieved when he met 21-year-old actress Paulette Goddard in July 1932, and the pair began a relationship. He was not ready to commit to a film, however, and focused on writing a serial about his travels (published in Woman's Home Companion). The trip had been a stimulating experience for Chaplin, including meetings with several prominent thinkers, and he became increasingly interested in world affairs. The state of labour in America troubled him, and he feared that capitalism and machinery in the workplace would increase unemployment levels. It was these concerns that stimulated Chaplin to develop his new film.
Modern Times was announced by Chaplin as "a satire on certain phases of our industrial life". Featuring the Tramp and Goddard as they endure the Great Depression, it took ten and a half months to film. Chaplin intended to use spoken dialogue but changed his mind during rehearsals. Like its predecessor, Modern Times employed sound effects but almost no speaking. Chaplin's performance of a gibberish song did, however, give the Tramp a voice for the only time on film. After recording the music, Chaplin released Modern Times in February 1936. It was his first feature in 15 years to adopt political references and social realism, a factor that attracted considerable press coverage despite Chaplin's attempts to downplay the issue. The film earned less at the box-office than his previous features and received mixed reviews, as some viewers disliked the politicising. Today, Modern Times is seen by the British Film Institute as one of Chaplin's "great features", while David Robinson says it shows the filmmaker at "his unrivalled peak as a creator of visual comedy".
Following the release of Modern Times, Chaplin left with Goddard for a trip to the Far East. The couple had refused to comment on the nature of their relationship, and it was not known whether they were married or not. Sometime later, Chaplin revealed that they married in Canton during this trip. By 1938, the couple had drifted apart, as both focused heavily on their work, although Goddard was again his leading lady in his next feature film, The Great Dictator. She eventually divorced Chaplin in Mexico in 1942, citing incompatibility and separation for more than a year.
1939–1952: controversies and fading popularity
The Great Dictator
The 1940s saw Chaplin face a series of controversies, both in his work and in his personal life, which changed his fortunes and severely affected his popularity in the United States. The first of these was his growing boldness in expressing his political beliefs. Deeply disturbed by the surge of militaristic nationalism in 1930s world politics, Chaplin found that he could not keep these issues out of his work. Parallels between himself and Adolf Hitler had been widely noted: the pair were born four days apart, both had risen from poverty to world prominence, and Hitler wore the same toothbrush moustache as Chaplin. It was this physical resemblance that supplied the plot for Chaplin's next film, The Great Dictator, which directly satirised Hitler and attacked fascism.
Chaplin spent two years developing the script and began filming in September 1939, six days after Britain declared war on Germany. He had submitted to using spoken dialogue, partly out of acceptance that he had no other choice, but also because he recognised it as a better method for delivering a political message. Making a comedy about Hitler was seen as highly controversial, but Chaplin's financial independence allowed him to take the risk. "I was determined to go ahead", he later wrote, "for Hitler must be laughed at." Chaplin replaced the Tramp (while wearing similar attire) with "A Jewish Barber", a reference to the Nazi party's belief that he was Jewish. In a dual performance, he also played the dictator "Adenoid Hynkel", who parodied Hitler.
The Great Dictator spent a year in production and was released in October 1940. The film generated a vast amount of publicity, with a critic for The New York Times calling it "the most eagerly awaited picture of the year", and it was one of the biggest money-makers of the era. The ending was unpopular, however, and generated controversy. Chaplin concluded the film with a five-minute speech in which he abandoned his barber character, looked directly into the camera, and pleaded against war and fascism. Charles J. Maland has identified this overt preaching as triggering a decline in Chaplin's popularity, and writes, "Henceforth, no movie fan would ever be able to separate the dimension of politics from [his] star image". Nevertheless, both Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt liked the film, which they saw at private screenings before its release. Roosevelt subsequently invited Chaplin to read the film's final speech over the radio during his January 1941 inauguration, with the speech becoming a "hit" of the celebration. Chaplin was often invited to other patriotic functions to read the speech to audiences during the years of the war. The Great Dictator received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor.
Legal troubles and Oona O'Neill
In the mid-1940s, Chaplin was involved in a series of trials that occupied most of his time and significantly affected his public image. The troubles stemmed from his affair with an aspiring actress named Joan Barry, with whom he was involved intermittently between June 1941 and the autumn of 1942. Barry, who displayed obsessive behaviour and was twice arrested after they separated, reappeared the following year and announced that she was pregnant with Chaplin's child. As Chaplin denied the claim, Barry filed a paternity suit against him.
The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), J. Edgar Hoover, who had long been suspicious of Chaplin's political leanings, used the opportunity to generate negative publicity about him. As part of a smear campaign to damage Chaplin's image, the FBI named him in four indictments related to the Barry case. Most serious of these was an alleged violation of the Mann Act, which prohibits the transportation of women across state boundaries for sexual purposes. Historian Otto Friedrich called this an "absurd prosecution" of an "ancient statute", yet if Chaplin was found guilty, he faced 23 years in jail. Three charges lacked sufficient evidence to proceed to court, but the Mann Act trial began on 21 March 1944. Chaplin was acquitted two weeks later, on4 April. The case was frequently headline news, with Newsweek calling it the "biggest public relations scandal since the Fatty Arbuckle murder trial in 1921".
Barry's child, Carol Ann, was born in October 1943, and the paternity suit went to court in December 1944. After two arduous trials, in which the prosecuting lawyer accused him of "moral turpitude", Chaplin was declared to be the father. Evidence from blood tests that indicated otherwise were not admissible, and the judge ordered Chaplin to pay child support until Carol Ann turned 21. Media coverage of the suit was influenced by the FBI, which fed information to gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, and Chaplin was portrayed in an overwhelmingly critical light.
The controversy surrounding Chaplin increased whentwo weeks after the paternity suit was filedit was announced that he had married his newest protégée, 18-year-old Oona O'Neill, the daughter of American playwright Eugene O'Neill. Chaplin, then 54, had been introduced to her by a film agent seven months earlier. In his autobiography, Chaplin described meeting O'Neill as "the happiest event of my life", and claimed to have found "perfect love". Chaplin's son, Charles Jr., reported that Oona "worshipped" his father. The couple remained married until Chaplin's death, and had eight children over 18 years: Geraldine Leigh (b. July 1944), Michael John (b. March 1946), Josephine Hannah (b. March 1949), Victoria (b. May 1951), Eugene Anthony (b. August 1953), Jane Cecil (b. May 1957), Annette Emily (b. December 1959), and Christopher James (b. July 1962).
Monsieur Verdoux and communist accusations
Chaplin claimed that the Barry trials had "crippled [his] creativeness", and it was some time before he began working again. In April 1946, he finally began filming a project that had been in development since 1942. Monsieur Verdoux was a black comedy, the story of a French bank clerk, Verdoux (Chaplin), who loses his job and begins marrying and murdering wealthy widows to support his family. Chaplin's inspiration for the project came from Orson Welles, who wanted him to star in a film about the French serial killer Henri Désiré Landru. Chaplin decided that the concept would "make a wonderful comedy", and paid Welles $5,000 for the idea.
Chaplin again vocalised his political views in Monsieur Verdoux, criticising capitalism and arguing that the world encourages mass killing through wars and weapons of mass destruction. Because of this, the film met with controversy when it was released in April 1947; Chaplin was booed at the premiere, and there were calls for a boycott. Monsieur Verdoux was the first Chaplin release that failed both critically and commercially in the United States. It was more successful abroad, and Chaplin's screenplay was nominated at the Academy Awards. He was proud of the film, writing in his autobiography, "Monsieur Verdoux is the cleverest and most brilliant film I have yet made."
The negative reaction to Monsieur Verdoux was largely the result of changes in Chaplin's public image. Along with damage of the Joan Barry scandal, he was publicly accused of being a communist. His political activity had heightened during World War II, when he campaigned for the opening of a Second Front to help the Soviet Union and supported various Soviet–American friendship groups. He was also friendly with several suspected communists, and attended functions given by Soviet diplomats in Los Angeles. In the political climate of 1940s America, such activities meant Chaplin was considered, as Larcher writes, "dangerously progressive and amoral". The FBI wanted him out of the country, and launched an official investigation in early 1947.
Chaplin denied being a communist, instead calling himself a "peacemonger", but felt the government's effort to suppress the ideology was an unacceptable infringement of civil liberties. Unwilling to be quiet about the issue, he openly protested against the trials of Communist Party members and the activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Chaplin received a subpoena to appear before HUAC but was not called to testify. As his activities were widely reported in the press, and Cold War fears grew, questions were raised over his failure to take American citizenship. Calls were made for him to be deported; in one extreme and widely published example, Representative John E. Rankin, who helped establish HUAC, told Congress in June 1947: "[Chaplin's] very life in Hollywood is detrimental to the moral fabric of America. [If he is deported]... his loathsome pictures can be kept from before the eyes of the American youth. He should be deported and gotten rid of at once."
In 2003, declassified British archives belonging to the British Foreign Office revealed that George Orwell secretly accused Chaplin of being a secret communist and a friend of the USSR. Chaplin's name was one of 35 Orwell gave to the Information Research Department (IRD), a secret British Cold War propaganda department which worked closely with the CIA, according to a 1949 document known as Orwell's list. Chaplin was not the only actor in America Orwell accused of being a secret communist. He also described American civil-rights leader and actor Paul Robeson as being "anti-white".
Limelight and banning from the United States
Although Chaplin remained politically active in the years following the failure of Monsieur Verdoux, his next film, about a forgotten music hall comedian and a young ballerina in Edwardian London, was devoid of political themes. Limelight was heavily autobiographical, alluding not only to Chaplin's childhood and the lives of his parents, but also to his loss of popularity in the United States. The cast included various members of his family, including his five oldest children and his half-brother, Wheeler Dryden.
Filming began in November 1951, by which time Chaplin had spent three years working on the story. He aimed for a more serious tone than any of his previous films, regularly using the word "melancholy" when explaining his plans to his co-star Claire Bloom. Limelight featured a cameo appearance from Buster Keaton, whom Chaplin cast as his stage partner in a pantomime scene. This marked the only time the comedians worked together in a feature film.
Chaplin decided to hold the world premiere of Limelight in London, since it was the setting of the film. As he left Los Angeles, he expressed a premonition that he would not be returning. At New York, he boarded the with his family on 18 September 1952. The next day, United States Attorney General James P. McGranery revoked Chaplin's re-entry permit and stated that he would have to submit to an interview concerning his political views and moral behaviour to re-enter the US. Although McGranery told the press that he had "a pretty good case against Chaplin", Maland has concluded, on the basis of the FBI files that were released in the 1980s, that the US government had no real evidence to prevent Chaplin's re-entry. It is likely that he would have gained entry if he had applied for it. However, when Chaplin received a cablegram informing him of the news, he privately decided to cut his ties with the United States:
Because all of his property remained in America, Chaplin refrained from saying anything negative about the incident to the press. The scandal attracted vast attention, but Chaplin and his film were warmly received in Europe. In America, the hostility towards him continued, and, although it received some positive reviews, Limelight was subjected to a wide-scale boycott. Reflecting on this, Maland writes that Chaplin's fall, from an "unprecedented" level of popularity, "may be the most dramatic in the history of stardom in America".
1953–1977: European years
Move to Switzerland and A King in New York
Chaplin did not attempt to return to the United States after his re-entry permit was revoked, and instead sent his wife to settle his affairs. The couple decided to settle in Switzerland and, in January 1953, the family moved into their permanent home: Manoir de Ban, a estate overlooking Lake Geneva in Corsier-sur-Vevey. Chaplin put his Beverly Hills house and studio up for sale in March, and surrendered his re-entry permit in April. The next year, his wife renounced her US citizenship and became a British citizen. Chaplin severed the last of his professional ties with the United States in 1955, when he sold the remainder of his stock in United Artists, which had been in financial difficulty since the early 1940s.
Chaplin remained a controversial figure throughout the 1950s, especially after he was awarded the International Peace Prize by the communist-led World Peace Council, and after his meetings with Zhou Enlai and Nikita Khrushchev. He began developing his first European film, A King in New York, in 1954. Casting himself as an exiled king who seeks asylum in the United States, Chaplin included several of his recent experiences in the screenplay. His son, Michael, was cast as a boy whose parents are targeted by the FBI, while Chaplin's character faces accusations of communism. The political satire parodied HUAC and attacked elements of 1950s cultureincluding consumerism, plastic surgery, and wide-screen cinema. In a review, the playwright John Osborne called it Chaplin's "most bitter" and "most openly personal" film. In a 1957 interview, when asked to clarify his political views, Chaplin stated "As for politics, I am an anarchist. I hate government and rulesand fetters... People must be free."
Chaplin founded a new production company, Attica, and used Shepperton Studios for the shooting. Filming in England proved a difficult experience, as he was used to his own Hollywood studio and familiar crew, and no longer had limitless production time. According to Robinson, this had an effect on the quality of the film. A King in New York was released in September 1957, and received mixed reviews. Chaplin banned American journalists from its Paris première and decided not to release the film in the United States. This severely limited its revenue, although it achieved moderate commercial success in Europe. A King in New York was not shown in America until 1973.
Final works and renewed appreciation
In the last two decades of his career, Chaplin concentrated on re-editing and scoring his old films for re-release, along with securing their ownership and distribution rights. In an interview he granted in 1959, the year of his 70th birthday, Chaplin stated that there was still "room for the Little Man in the atomic age". The first of these re-releases was The Chaplin Revue (1959), which included new versions of A Dog's Life, Shoulder Arms, and The Pilgrim.
In America, the political atmosphere began to change and attention was once again directed to Chaplin's films instead of his views. In July 1962, The New York Times published an editorial stating that "we do not believe the Republic would be in danger if yesterday's unforgotten little tramp were allowed to amble down the gangplank of a steamer or plane in an American port". The same month, Chaplin was invested with the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the universities of Oxford and Durham. In November 1963, the Plaza Theater in New York started a year-long series of Chaplin's films, including Monsieur Verdoux and Limelight, which gained excellent reviews from American critics. September 1964 saw the release of Chaplin's memoirs, My Autobiography, which he had been working on since 1957. The 500-page book became a worldwide best-seller. It focused on his early years and personal life, and was criticised for lacking information on his film career.
Shortly after the publication of his memoirs, Chaplin began work on A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), a romantic comedy based on a script he had written for Paulette Goddard in the 1930s. Set on an ocean liner, it starred Marlon Brando as an American ambassador and Sophia Loren as a stowaway found in his cabin. The film differed from Chaplin's earlier productions in several aspects. It was his first to use Technicolor and the widescreen format, while he concentrated on directing and appeared on-screen only in a cameo role as a seasick steward. He also signed a deal with Universal Pictures and appointed his assistant, Jerome Epstein, as the producer. Chaplin was paid $600,000 director's fee as well as a percentage of the gross receipts. A Countess from Hong Kong premiered in January 1967, to unfavourable reviews, and was a box-office failure. Chaplin was deeply hurt by the negative reaction to the film, which turned out to be his last.
Chaplin suffered a series of minor strokes in the late 1960s, which marked the beginning of a slow decline in his health. Despite the setbacks, he was soon writing a new film script, The Freak, a story of a winged girl found in South America, which he intended as a starring vehicle for his daughter, Victoria. His fragile health prevented the project from being realised. In the early 1970s, Chaplin concentrated on re-releasing his old films, including The Kid and The Circus. In 1971, he was made a Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour at the Cannes Film Festival. The following year, he was honoured with a special award by the Venice Film Festival.
In 1972, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences offered Chaplin an Honorary Award, which Robinson sees as a sign that America "wanted to make amends". Chaplin was initially hesitant about accepting but decided to return to the US for the first time in 20 years. The visit attracted a large amount of press coverage and, at the Academy Awards gala, he was given a 12-minute standing ovation, the longest in the Academy's history. Visibly emotional, Chaplin accepted his award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century".
Although Chaplin still had plans for future film projects, by the mid-1970s he was very frail. He experienced several further strokes, which made it difficult for him to communicate, and he had to use a wheelchair. His final projects were compiling a pictorial autobiography, My Life in Pictures (1974) and scoring A Woman of Paris for re-release in 1976. He also appeared in a documentary about his life, The Gentleman Tramp (1975), directed by Richard Patterson. In the 1975 New Year Honours, Chaplin was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II, though he was too weak to kneel and received the honour in his wheelchair.
Death
By October 1977, Chaplin's health had declined to the point that he needed constant care. In the early morning of 25 December 1977, Chaplin died at home after suffering a stroke in his sleep. He was 88 years old. The funeral, on 27 December, was a small and private Anglican ceremony, according to his wishes. Chaplin was interred in the Corsier-sur-Vevey cemetery. Among the film industry's tributes, director René Clair wrote, "He was a monument of the cinema, of all countries and all times... the most beautiful gift the cinema made to us." Actor Bob Hope declared, "We were lucky to have lived in his time." Chaplin left more than $100 million to his widow.
On 1 March 1978, Chaplin's coffin was dug up and stolen from its grave by Roman Wardas and Gantcho Ganev. The body was held for ransom in an attempt to extort money from his widow, Oona Chaplin. The pair were caught in a large police operation in May, and Chaplin's coffin was found buried in a field in the nearby village of Noville. It was re-interred in the Corsier cemetery in a reinforced concrete vault.
Filmmaking
Influences
Chaplin believed his first influence to be his mother, who entertained him as a child by sitting at the window and mimicking passers-by: "it was through watching her that I learned not only how to express emotions with my hands and face, but also how to observe and study people." Chaplin's early years in music hall allowed him to see stage comedians at work; he also attended the Christmas pantomimes at Drury Lane, where he studied the art of clowning through performers like Dan Leno. Chaplin's years with the Fred Karno company had a formative effect on him as an actor and filmmaker. Simon Louvish writes that the company was his "training ground", and it was here that Chaplin learned to vary the pace of his comedy. The concept of mixing pathos with slapstick was learnt from Karno, who also used elements of absurdity that became familiar in Chaplin's gags. From the film industry, Chaplin drew upon the work of the French comedian Max Linder, whose films he greatly admired. In developing the Tramp costume and persona, he was likely inspired by the American vaudeville scene, where tramp characters were common.
Method
Chaplin never spoke more than cursorily about his filmmaking methods, claiming such a thing would be tantamount to a magician spoiling his own illusion. Little was known about his working process throughout his lifetime, but research from film historiansparticularly the findings of Kevin Brownlow and David Gill that were presented in the three-part documentary Unknown Chaplin (1983)has since revealed his unique working method.
Until he began making spoken dialogue films with The Great Dictator, Chaplin never shot from a completed script. Many of his early films began with only a vague premise, for example "Charlie enters a health spa" or "Charlie works in a pawn shop". He then had sets constructed and worked with his stock company to improvise gags and "business" using them, almost always working the ideas out on film. As ideas were accepted and discarded, a narrative structure would emerge, frequently requiring Chaplin to reshoot an already-completed scene that might have otherwise contradicted the story. From A Woman of Paris onward Chaplin began the filming process with a prepared plot, but Robinson writes that every film up to Modern Times "went through many metamorphoses and permutations before the story took its final form".
Producing films in this manner meant Chaplin took longer to complete his pictures than almost any other filmmaker at the time. If he was out of ideas, he often took a break from the shoot, which could last for days, while keeping the studio ready for when inspiration returned. Delaying the process further was Chaplin's rigorous perfectionism. According to his friend Ivor Montagu, "nothing but perfection would be right" for the filmmaker. Because he personally funded his films, Chaplin was at liberty to strive for this goal and shoot as many takes as he wished. The number was often excessive, for instance 53 takes for every finished take in The Kid. For The Immigrant, a 20-minute short, Chaplin shot 40,000 feet of filmenough for a feature-length.
Describing his working method as "sheer perseverance to the point of madness", Chaplin would be completely consumed by the production of a picture. Robinson writes that even in Chaplin's later years, his work continued "to take precedence over everything and everyone else". The combination of story improvisation and relentless perfectionismwhich resulted in days of effort and thousands of feet of film being wasted, all at enormous expenseoften proved taxing for Chaplin who, in frustration, would lash out at his actors and crew.
Chaplin exercised complete control over his pictures, to the extent that he would act out the other roles for his cast, expecting them to imitate him exactly. He personally edited all of his films, trawling through the large amounts of footage to create the exact picture he wanted. As a result of his complete independence, he was identified by the film historian Andrew Sarris as one of the first auteur filmmakers. Chaplin did receive help, notably from his long-time cinematographer Roland Totheroh, brother Sydney Chaplin, and various assistant directors such as Harry Crocker and Charles Reisner.
Style and themes
While Chaplin's comedic style is broadly defined as slapstick, it is considered restrained and intelligent, with the film historian Philip Kemp describing his work as a mix of "deft, balletic physical comedy and thoughtful, situation-based gags". Chaplin diverged from conventional slapstick by slowing the pace and exhausting each scene of its comic potential, with more focus on developing the viewer's relationship to the characters. Unlike conventional slapstick comedies, Robinson states that the comic moments in Chaplin's films centre on the Tramp's attitude to the things happening to him: the humour does not come from the Tramp bumping into a tree, but from his lifting his hat to the tree in apology. Dan Kamin writes that Chaplin's "quirky mannerisms" and "serious demeanour in the midst of slapstick action" are other key aspects of his comedy, while the surreal transformation of objects and the employment of in-camera trickery are also common features. His signature style consisted of gestural idiosyncracies like askew derby hat, drooping shoulders, deflated chest and dangling arms and tilted back pelvis to enrich the comic persona of his 'tramp' character. His shabby but neat clothing and incessant grooming behaviour along with his geometrical walk and movement gave his onscreen characters a puppet-like quality.
Chaplin's silent films typically follow the Tramp's efforts to survive in a hostile world. The character lives in poverty and is frequently treated badly, but remains kind and upbeat; defying his social position, he strives to be seen as a gentleman. As Chaplin said in 1925, "The whole point of the Little Fellow is that no matter how down on his ass he is, no matter how well the jackals succeed in tearing him apart, he's still a man of dignity." The Tramp defies authority figures and "gives as good as he gets", leading Robinson and Louvish to see him as a representative for the underprivilegedan "everyman turned heroic saviour". Hansmeyer notes that several of Chaplin's films end with "the homeless and lonely Tramp [walking] optimistically... into the sunset... to continue his journey."
The infusion of pathos is a well-known aspect of Chaplin's work, and Larcher notes his reputation for "[inducing] laughter and tears". Sentimentality in his films comes from a variety of sources, with Louvish pinpointing "personal failure, society's strictures, economic disaster, and the elements". Chaplin sometimes drew on tragic events when creating his films, as in the case of The Gold Rush (1925), which was inspired by the fate of the Donner Party. Constance B. Kuriyama has identified serious underlying themes in the early comedies, such as greed (The Gold Rush) and loss (The Kid). Chaplin also touched on controversial issues: immigration (The Immigrant, 1917); illegitimacy (The Kid, 1921); and drug use (Easy Street, 1917). He often explored these topics ironically, making comedy out of suffering.
Social commentary was a feature of Chaplin's films from early in his career, as he portrayed the underdog in a sympathetic light and highlighted the difficulties of the poor. Later, as he developed a keen interest in economics and felt obliged to publicise his views, Chaplin began incorporating overtly political messages into his films. Modern Times (1936) depicted factory workers in dismal conditions, The Great Dictator (1940) parodied Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and ended in a speech against nationalism, Monsieur Verdoux (1947) criticised war and capitalism, and A King in New York (1957) attacked McCarthyism.
Several of Chaplin's films incorporate autobiographical elements, and the psychologist Sigmund Freud believed that Chaplin "always plays only himself as he was in his dismal youth". The Kid is thought to reflect Chaplin's childhood trauma of being sent into an orphanage, the main characters in Limelight (1952) contain elements from the lives of his parents, and A King in New York references Chaplin's experiences of being shunned by the United States. Many of his sets, especially in street scenes, bear a strong similarity to Kennington, where he grew up. Stephen M. Weissman has argued that Chaplin's problematic relationship with his mentally ill mother was often reflected in his female characters and the Tramp's desire to save them.
Regarding the structure of Chaplin's films, the scholar Gerald Mast sees them as consisting of sketches tied together by the same theme and setting, rather than having a tightly unified storyline. Visually, his films are simple and economic, with scenes portrayed as if set on a stage. His approach to filming was described by the art director Eugène Lourié: "Chaplin did not think in 'artistic' images when he was shooting. He believed that action is the main thing. The camera is there to photograph the actors". In his autobiography, Chaplin wrote, "Simplicity is best... pompous effects slow up action, are boring and unpleasant... The camera should not intrude." This approach has prompted criticism, since the 1940s, for being "old fashioned", while the film scholar Donald McCaffrey sees it as an indication that Chaplin never completely understood film as a medium. Kamin, however, comments that Chaplin's comedic talent would not be enough to remain funny on screen if he did not have an "ability to conceive and direct scenes specifically for the film medium".
Composing
Chaplin developed a passion for music as a child and taught himself to play the piano, violin, and cello. He considered the musical accompaniment of a film to be important, and from A Woman of Paris onwards he took an increasing interest in this area. With the advent of sound technology, Chaplin began using a synchronised orchestral soundtrackcomposed by himselffor City Lights (1931). He thereafter composed the scores for all of his films, and from the late 1950s to his death, he scored all of his silent features and some of his short films.
As Chaplin was not a trained musician, he could not read sheet music and needed the help of professional composers, such as David Raksin, Raymond Rasch and Eric James, when creating his scores. Musical directors were employed to oversee the recording process, such as Alfred Newman for City Lights. Although some critics have claimed that credit for his film music should be given to the composers who worked with him, Raksinwho worked with Chaplin on Modern Timesstressed Chaplin's creative position and active participation in the composing process. This process, which could take months, would start with Chaplin describing to the composer(s) exactly what he wanted and singing or playing tunes he had improvised on the piano. These tunes were then developed further in a close collaboration among the composer(s) and Chaplin. According to film historian Jeffrey Vance, "although he relied upon associates to arrange varied and complex instrumentation, the musical imperative is his, and not a note in a Chaplin musical score was placed there without his assent."
Chaplin's compositions produced three popular songs. "Smile", composed originally for Modern Times (1936) and later set to lyrics by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons, was a hit for Nat King Cole in 1954. For Limelight, Chaplin composed "Terry's Theme", which was popularised by Jimmy Young as "Eternally" (1952). Finally, "This Is My Song", performed by Petula Clark for A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), reached number one on the UK and other European charts. Chaplin also received his only competitive Oscar for his composition work, as the Limelight theme won an Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1973 following the film's re-release.
Legacy
In 1998, the film critic Andrew Sarris called Chaplin "arguably the single most important artist produced by the cinema, certainly its most extraordinary performer and probably still its most universal icon". He is described by the British Film Institute as "a towering figure in world culture", and was included in Time magazine's list of the "100 Most Important People of the 20th Century" for the "laughter [he brought] to millions" and because he "more or less invented global recognizability and helped turn an industry into an art". In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Chaplin as the 10th greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema. Chaplin was voted No. 2 of the "Greatest Movie Stars of the 20th Century" poll and No. 4 on the "Greatest Directors of the 20th Century" poll conducted by Japanese film magazine Kinema Junpo.
The image of the Tramp has become a part of cultural history; according to Simon Louvish, the character is recognisable to people who have never seen a Chaplin film, and in places where his films are never shown. The critic Leonard Maltin has written of the "unique" and "indelible" nature of the Tramp, and argued that no other comedian matched his "worldwide impact". Praising the character, Richard Schickel suggests that Chaplin's films with the Tramp contain the most "eloquent, richly comedic expressions of the human spirit" in movie history. Memorabilia connected to the character still fetches large sums in auctions: in 2006 a bowler hat and a bamboo cane that were part of the Tramp's costume were bought for $140,000 in a Los Angeles auction.
As a filmmaker, Chaplin is considered a pioneer and one of the most influential figures of the early twentieth century. He is often credited as one of the medium's first artists. Film historian Mark Cousins has written that Chaplin "changed not only the imagery of cinema, but also its sociology and grammar" and claims that Chaplin was as important to the development of comedy as a genre as D.W. Griffith was to drama. He was the first to popularise feature-length comedy and to slow down the pace of action, adding pathos and subtlety to it. Although his work is mostly classified as slapstick, Chaplin's drama A Woman of Paris (1923) was a major influence on Ernst Lubitsch's film The Marriage Circle (1924) and thus played a part in the development of "sophisticated comedy". According to David Robinson, Chaplin's innovations were "rapidly assimilated to become part of the common practice of film craft". Filmmakers who cited Chaplin as an influence include Federico Fellini (who called Chaplin "a sort of Adam, from whom we are all descended"), Jacques Tati ("Without him I would never have made a film"), René Clair ("He inspired practically every filmmaker"), François Truffaut ("My religion is cinema. I believe in Charlie Chaplin…"), Michael Powell, Billy Wilder, Vittorio De Sica, and Richard Attenborough. Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky praised Chaplin as "the only person to have gone down into cinematic history without any shadow of a doubt. The films he left behind can never grow old." Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray said about Chaplin "If there is any name which can be said to symbolize cinema—it is Charlie Chaplin… I am sure Chaplin's name will survive even if the cinema ceases to exist as a medium of artistic expression. Chaplin is truly immortal." French auteur Jean Renoir's favourite filmmaker was Chaplin.
Chaplin also strongly influenced the work of later comedians. Marcel Marceau said he was inspired to become a mime artist after watching Chaplin, while the actor Raj Kapoor based his screen persona on the Tramp. Mark Cousins has also detected Chaplin's comedic style in the French character Monsieur Hulot and the Italian character Totò. In other fields, Chaplin helped inspire the cartoon characters Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse, and was an influence on the Dada art movement. As one of the founding members of United Artists, Chaplin also had a role in the development of the film industry. Gerald Mast has written that although UA never became a major company like MGM or Paramount Pictures, the idea that directors could produce their own films was "years ahead of its time".
In 1992, the Sight & Sound Critics' Top Ten Poll ranked Chaplin at No. 5 in its list of "Top 10 Directors" of all time. In the 21st century, several of Chaplin's films are still regarded as classics and among the greatest ever made. The 2012 Sight & Sound poll, which compiles "top ten" ballots from film critics and directors to determine each group's most acclaimed films,
saw City Lights rank among the critics' top 50, Modern Times inside the top 100, and The Great Dictator and The Gold Rush placed in the top 250. The top 100 films as voted on by directors included Modern Times at number 22, City Lights at number 30, and The Gold Rush at number 91. Every one of Chaplin's features received a vote. Chaplin was ranked at No. 35 on Empire magazine's "Top 40 Greatest Directors of All-Time" list in 2005. In 2007, the American Film Institute named City Lights the 11th greatest American film of all time, while The Gold Rush and Modern Times again ranked in the top 100. Books about Chaplin continue to be published regularly, and he is a popular subject for media scholars and film archivists. Many of Chaplin's film have had a DVD and Blu-ray release.
Chaplin's legacy is managed on behalf of his children by the Chaplin office, located in Paris. The office represents Association Chaplin, founded by some of his children "to protect the name, image and moral rights" to his body of work, Roy Export SAS, which owns the copyright to most of his films made after 1918, and Bubbles Incorporated S.A., which owns the copyrights to his image and name. Their central archive is held at the archives of Montreux, Switzerland and scanned versions of its contents, including 83,630 images, 118 scripts, 976 manuscripts, 7,756 letters, and thousands of other documents, are available for research purposes at the Chaplin Research Centre at the Cineteca di Bologna. The photographic archive, which includes approximately 10,000 photographs from Chaplin's life and career, is kept at the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland. The British Film Institute has also established the Charles Chaplin Research Foundation, and the first international Charles Chaplin Conference was held in London in July 2005. Elements for many of Chaplin's films are held by the Academy Film Archive as part of the Roy Export Chaplin Collection.
Commemoration and tributes
Chaplin's final home, Manoir de Ban in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland, has been converted into a museum named "Chaplin's World". It opened on 17 April 2016 after fifteen years of development, and is described by Reuters as "an interactive museum showcasing the life and works of Charlie Chaplin". On the 128th anniversary of his birth, a record-setting 662 people dressed as the Tramp in an event organised by the museum. Previously, the Museum of the Moving Image in London held a permanent display on Chaplin, and hosted a dedicated exhibition to his life and career in 1988. The London Film Museum hosted an exhibition called Charlie ChaplinThe Great Londoner, from 2010 until 2013.
In London, a statue of Chaplin as the Tramp, sculpted by John Doubleday and unveiled in 1981, is located in Leicester Square. The city also includes a road named after him in central London, "Charlie Chaplin Walk", which is the location of the BFI IMAX. There are nine blue plaques memorialising Chaplin in London, Hampshire, and Yorkshire. The Swiss town of Vevey named a park in his honour in 1980 and erected a statue there in 1982. In 2011, two large murals depicting Chaplin on two 14-storey buildings were also unveiled in Vevey. Chaplin has also been honoured by the Irish town of Waterville, where he spent several summers with his family in the 1960s. A statue was erected in 1998; since 2011, the town has been host to the annual Charlie Chaplin Comedy Film Festival, which was founded to celebrate Chaplin's legacy and to showcase new comic talent.
In other tributes, a minor planet, 3623 Chaplin (discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Karachkina in 1981) is named after Charlie. Throughout the 1980s, the Tramp image was used by IBM to advertise their personal computers. Chaplin's 100th birthday anniversary in 1989 was marked with several events around the world, and on 15 April 2011, a day before his 122nd birthday, Google celebrated him with a special Google Doodle video on its global and other country-wide homepages. Many countries, spanning six continents, have honoured Chaplin with a postal stamp.
Characterisations
Chaplin is the subject of a biographical film, Chaplin (1992) directed by Richard Attenborough, and starring Robert Downey Jr. in the title role and Geraldine Chaplin playing Hannah Chaplin. He is also a character in the historical drama film The Cat's Meow (2001), played by Eddie Izzard, and in the made-for-television movie The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980), played by Clive Revill. A television series about Chaplin's childhood, Young Charlie Chaplin, ran on PBS in 1989, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program. The French film The Price of Fame (2014) is a fictionalised account of the robbery of Chaplin's grave.
Chaplin's life has also been the subject of several stage productions. Two musicals, Little Tramp and Chaplin, were produced in the early 1990s. In 2006, Thomas Meehan and Christopher Curtis created another musical, Limelight: The Story of Charlie Chaplin, which was first performed at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego in 2010. It was adapted for Broadway two years later, re-titled ChaplinA Musical. Chaplin was portrayed by Robert McClure in both productions. In 2013, two plays about Chaplin premiered in Finland: Chaplin at the Svenska Teatern, and Kulkuri (The Tramp) at the Tampere Workers' Theatre.
Chaplin has also been characterised in literary fiction. He is the protagonist of Robert Coover's short story "Charlie in the House of Rue" (1980; reprinted in Coover's 1987 collection A Night at the Movies), and of Glen David Gold's Sunnyside (2009), a historical novel set in the First World War period. A day in Chaplin's life in 1909 is dramatised in the chapter titled "Modern Times" in Alan Moore's Jerusalem (2016), a novel set in the author's home town of Northampton, England.
Chaplin was brought to life in a comic strip bearing his name that ran for 30 years in the British pre-war humorous comic Funny Wonder. Begun in 1915, the strip was drawn primarily by Bertie Brown; it was one of the earliest comic strips inspired by the popularity of a celebrity. A similar strip, Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers, by Stuart Carothers and later Elzie C. Segar, was syndicated in the United States from March 29, 1915 until September 16, 1917. In France in 1922, Raoul Thomen created the comic strip Les Aventures Acrobatiques de Charlot ("Charlot's Acrobatic Adventures"). Thomen's strip ran in French children's magazines for nearly 20 years. Charlot's comic strip adventures were continued by other artists, lasting until 1963. The strip was collected in many albums.
Awards and recognition
Chaplin received many awards and honours, especially later in life. In the 1975 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE). He was also awarded honorary Doctor of Letters degrees by the University of Oxford and the University of Durham in 1962. In 1965, he and Ingmar Bergman were joint winners of the Erasmus Prize and, in 1971, he was appointed a Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour by the French government.
From the film industry, Chaplin received a special Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1972, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lincoln Center Film Society the same year. The latter has since been presented annually to filmmakers as The Chaplin Award. Chaplin was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1972, having been previously excluded because of his political beliefs.
Chaplin received three Academy Awards: an Honorary Award for "versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing, and producing The Circus" in 1929, a second Honorary Award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century" in 1972, and a Best Score award in 1973 for Limelight (shared with Ray Rasch and Larry Russell). He was further nominated in the Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture (as producer) categories for The Great Dictator, and received another Best Original Screenplay nomination for Monsieur Verdoux. In 1976, Chaplin was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).
Six of Chaplin's films have been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress: The Immigrant (1917), The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940).
Filmography
Directed features:
The Kid (1921)
A Woman of Paris (1923)
The Gold Rush (1925)
The Circus (1928)
City Lights (1931)
Modern Times (1936)
The Great Dictator (1940)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Limelight (1952)
A King in New York (1957)
A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)
See also
Buster Keaton
Harold Lloyd
References
Footnotes
Citations
Works cited
External links
by Association Chaplin
The Charlie Chaplin Archive Online catalogue of Chaplin's professional and personal archives at the Cineteca di Bologna, Italy
Chaplin's World Museum at the Manoir de Ban, Switzerland
Chaplin's file at the Federal Bureau of Investigation website
1889 births
1977 deaths
19th-century English people
20th-century British male musicians
20th-century English screenwriters
20th-century English businesspeople
20th-century English comedians
20th-century English male actors
Academy Honorary Award recipients
Actors awarded knighthoods
British anti-capitalists
Articles containing video clips
BAFTA fellows
Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners
British anti-fascists
British film production company founders
British male comedy actors
British mimes
Cinema pioneers
Comedy film directors
Composers awarded knighthoods
British people of Irish descent
British people of English descent
British people of Romani descent
English people of Irish descent
English anarchists
English autobiographers
English expatriates in Switzerland
English expatriates in the United States
English film directors
English film editors
English film producers
English film score composers
English male child actors
English male comedians
English male film actors
English male film score composers
English male screenwriters
English male silent film actors
History of the London Borough of Lambeth
Hollywood history and culture
Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Male actors from London
Music hall performers
People from Lambeth
People from Southwark
Silent film comedians
Silent film directors
Silent film producers
Slapstick comedians
United Artists
Vaudeville performers | true | [
"The Hardships of the English Laws in Relation to Wives: With an Explanation of the Original Curse of Subjection Passed upon the Woman: In an Humble Address to the Legislature (1735) is a legal treatise by Sarah Chapone on the oppression of married women, styled as an address to Parliament. It was originally published anonymously, but scholarship has confirmed that Chapone was the author. \n\nThe Hardships, which was written at a time of political crisis in England, argues that the position of married women under the legal doctrine of coverture was analogous to slavery. Present-day scholars have noted philosophical analogies with republican theory and currents of Christian feminism in the work.\n\nHistorical background \nThe Hardships was composed in the wake of the Excise Crisis of 1733. The controversy involved customs duties imposed at the instance of Robert Walpole, who hoped to reduce land taxes (disfavoured by the gentry, who were the majority of MPs at the time) by making up the shortfall with tariffs imposed on tobacco imports. This change met with fierce opposition. \n\nDuring the Crisis, political pamphleteers had argued that if one's property—and, hence, one's person—were subject to interference by another, one was not free. Broad suggests that that these pamphlets, and the views of liberty they introduced, should be understood as part of the conceptual background to the Hardships.\n\nPublication history \nHardships was originally published anonymously in London in 1735. Scholars have confirmed that Chapone was the author. Portions of the work were reprinted in The Gentleman's Magazine in 1741.\n\nArgument \nChapone outlines the argument at the beginning of Hardships in three propositions:I. That the Estate of Wives is more than Slavery itself.\n\nII. That Wives may be made Prisoners for Life at the Discretion of their Domestic Governors, whose Power … bears no Manner of Proportion to that Degree of Authority, which is vested in any other set of Men in England. …\n\nIII. That Wives have no Property, neither in their own Persons, Children, or Fortunes.\n\nCommentary\n\nAs a legal treatise \n\nThe Hardships is an argument against coverture and other forms of oppression. Chapone canvasses both English law and foreign equivalents, arguing that English law in the mid-18th century put women in a less favourable position than either Roman or Portuguese law. Her discussion of Portuguese law, which, at the time, was relatively progressive with regard to women's rights, was unusual. Generally speaking, non-Lusophone works did not consider Portuguese sources.\n\nChapone suggests that English wives were more oppressed than members of a harem. She argues that the law permits husbands to treat their wives essentially as they wish, without fear of legal consequence, and advocates for 'just and reasonable safeguards for a married woman's personal property and property in her children'. She placed a particular emphasis on this latter point.\n\nIt is not clear whether the Hardships paints an accurate portrait of women's legal situation in England in the mid-18th century. Bailey notes that, while the common law doctrine of coverture was deeply limiting, '[t]hree other jurisdictions – equity, ecclesiastical law and customary law – gave women individual rights, redress and opportunities for litigation'.\n\nAs philosophy and protofeminist theory \nBroad argues that the Hardships develops a 'republican concept of liberty', according to which women should be both free from domination in the marital context and free to develop their own personalities free from undue interference.\n\nOrr argues that Anglican theology was an influence on the Hardships. She notes (following Barbara J. Todd) that Patrick Delany's text Revelation Examined with Candour (1732) was in the background of Chapone's work, and that Jeremy Taylor's views on marriage were likely also important to the theory of the Hardships.\n\nOrr further claims that 'the theological framework is essential for understanding Chapone's feminism'. She suggests that, on Chapone's view, any threat to the status of Christianity in society—such as that posed by Deism, which Chapone also critiqued in her Remarks on Mrs. Muilman's Letter to the Right Honourable the Earl of Chesterfield (1750)—would induce husbands to abandon a Christian attitude towards their wives, and thereby indulge in the worst excesses that the English law allowed. \n\nIn the Hardships, Chapone critiques the sexist views of William Wollaston, who argued that women were naturally inferior to men. She also expresses dissatisfaction with the theory of Thomas Hobbes.\n\nNotes\n\nExplanatory notes\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n\nFurther reading \n A recent scholarly edition of Chapone's Hardships, including contemporary responses and criticism.\n A collection of early modern legal treatises on the rights of women, including the Hardships.\n\nExternal links \n Complete text of (1735 edition)\n\n1735 books\nLegal treatises",
"The Wood-Sprite is a story by Vladimir Nabokov, originally published in Russian in 1921. It was his first published story.\n\nSummary\nThe story is told in first-person narration and recounts the narrator's experience when he was visited, at his desk, by a \"hunched, gray\" wood-sprite, \"powdered with the pollen of the frosty, starry night.\" The creature tells of his own exile from Russia and the hardships he has endured as a result. After a candle blows out, the narrator turns on the light only to be left alone with a \"subtle scent in the room, of birch, of humid moss...\"\n\nReferences\n\nShort stories by Vladimir Nabokov\n1921 short stories"
]
|
[
"David Rockefeller",
"Political connections"
]
| C_46d11ac9d2d343dfa2d6010b9b429ed6_1 | What was David political connections? | 1 | What was David Rockefeller's political connections? | David Rockefeller | Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower. At times he served as an unofficial emissary on high-level business. Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1968, he declined an offer from his brother Nelson Rockefeller, then governor of New York, to appoint him to Robert F. Kennedy's Senate seat after Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, a post Nelson also offered to their nephew John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV. President Jimmy Carter offered him the position of United States Secretary of the Treasury but he declined. Rockefeller was criticized for befriending foreign autocrats in order to expand Chase interests in their countries. The New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in 2002 that Rockefeller "spent his life in the club of the ruling class and was loyal to members of the club, no matter what they did." He noted that Rockefeller had cut profitable deals with "oil-rich dictators", "Soviet party bosses" and "Chinese perpetrators of the Cultural Revolution". Rockefeller met Henry Kissinger in 1954, when Kissinger was appointed a director of a seminal Council on Foreign Relations study group on nuclear weapons, of which David Rockefeller was a member. He named Kissinger to the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and consulted with him frequently, with the subjects including the Chase Bank's interests in Chile and the possibility of the election of Salvador Allende in 1970. Rockefeller supported his "opening of China" initiative in 1971 as it afforded banking opportunities for the Chase Bank. Though a lifelong Republican and party contributor, he was a member of the moderate "Rockefeller Republicans" that arose out of the political ambitions and public policy stance of his brother Nelson. In 2006 he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care, that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders. CANNOTANSWER | Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower. | David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017) was an American investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of the Rockefeller family, and family patriarch from July 2004 until his death in March 2017. Rockefeller was the fifth son and youngest child of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and a grandson of John D. Rockefeller and Laura Spelman Rockefeller.
He was noted for his wide-ranging political connections and foreign travel, in which he met with many foreign leaders. His fortune was estimated at $3.3 billion at the time of his death in March 2017.
Early life
Rockefeller was born in New York City, New York. He grew up in an eight-story house at 10 West 54th Street, the tallest private residence ever built in the city. Rockefeller was the youngest of six children born to financier John Davison Rockefeller Jr. and socialite Abigail Greene "Abby" Aldrich. John Jr. was the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John Davison Rockefeller Sr. and schoolteacher Laura Celestia "Cettie" Spelman. Abby was a daughter of Rhode Island U.S. Senator Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich and Abigail Pearce Truman "Abby" Chapman. David's five elder siblings were Abby, John III, Nelson, Laurance, and Winthrop.
Rockefeller attended the experimental Lincoln School at 123rd Street in Harlem.
Education
In 1936, Rockefeller graduated cum laude from Harvard University, where he worked as an editor on The Harvard Crimson. He also studied economics for a year at Harvard and then a year at the London School of Economics (LSE). At LSE he first met the future President John F. Kennedy (although he had earlier been his contemporary at Harvard) and once dated Kennedy's sister Kathleen.
During his time abroad, Rockefeller briefly worked in the London branch of what was to become the Chase Manhattan Bank.
After returning to the U.S. to complete his graduate studies, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1940.
Career
Government service
After completing his studies in Chicago, he became secretary to New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia for eighteen months in a "dollar a year" public service position. Although the mayor pointed out to the press that Rockefeller was only one of 60 interns in the city government, his working space was, in fact, the vacant office of the deputy mayor. From 1941 to 1942, Rockefeller was assistant regional director of the United States Office of Defense, Health and Welfare Services.
Military
Rockefeller enlisted in the U.S. Army and entered Officer Candidate School in 1943; he was ultimately promoted to Captain in 1945. During World War II he served in North Africa and France (he spoke fluent French) for military intelligence setting up political and economic intelligence units. He served as a "Ritchie Boy" secret unit specially trained at Fort Ritchie, Maryland. For seven months he also served as an assistant military attaché at the American Embassy in Paris. During this period, he called on family contacts and Standard Oil executives for assistance.
Banking
In 1946, Rockefeller joined the staff of the longtime family-associated Chase National Bank. The chairman at that time was Rockefeller's uncle Winthrop W. Aldrich. The Chase Bank was primarily a wholesale bank, dealing with other prominent financial institutions and major corporate clients such as General Electric (which had, through its RCA affiliate, leased prominent space and become a crucial first tenant of Rockefeller Center in 1930). The bank also is closely associated with and has financed the oil industry, having longstanding connections with its board of directors to the successor companies of Standard Oil, especially Exxon Mobil. Chase National became the Chase Manhattan Bank in 1955 and shifted significantly into consumer banking. It is now called JPMorgan Chase.
Rockefeller started as an assistant manager in the foreign department. There he financed international trade in a number of commodities, such as coffee, sugar and metals. This position also maintained relationships with more than 1,000 correspondent banks throughout the world. He served in other positions and became president in 1960. He was both chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan from 1969 to 1980 and remained chairman until 1981. He was also, as recently as 1980, the single largest individual shareholder of the bank, holding 1.7% of its shares.
During his term as CEO, Chase spread internationally and became a central component of the world's financial system due to its global network of correspondent banks, the largest in the world. In 1973, Chase established the first branch of an American bank in Moscow, in the then Soviet Union. That year Rockefeller traveled to China, resulting in his bank becoming the National Bank of China's first correspondent bank in the U.S.
Also during this period, Chase Manhattan expanded its influence over many non-financial corporations. A 1979 study titled "The Significance of Bank Control over Large Corporations" provided an estimate for which large U.S.-based financial institutions had the most control over other corporations. The study finds that: "The Rockefeller-controlled Chase Manhattan Bank tops the list, controlling 16 companies."He was faulted for spending excessive amounts of time abroad, and during his tenure as CEO the bank had more troubled loans than any other major bank. Chase owned more New York City securities in the mid-1970s, when the city was nearing bankruptcy. A scandal erupted in 1974 when an audit found that losses from bond trading had been understated, and in 1975 the bank was branded a "problem bank" by the Federal Reserve.
From 1974 to 1976, Chase earnings fell 36 percent while those of its biggest rivals rose 12 to 31 percent. The bank's earnings more than doubled between 1976 and 1980, far outpacing its rival Citibank in return on assets. By 1981 the bank's finances were restored to full health.
In November 1979, while chairman of the Chase Bank, Rockefeller became embroiled in an international incident when he and Henry Kissinger, along with John J. McCloy and Rockefeller aides, persuaded President Jimmy Carter through the United States Department of State to admit the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, into the United States for hospital treatment for lymphoma. This action directly precipitated what is known as the Iran hostage crisis and placed Rockefeller under intense media scrutiny (particularly from The New York Times) for the first time in his public life.
Rockefeller retired from active management of the bank in 1981, succeeded by his protégé Willard C. Butcher. Former Chase chairman John J. McCloy said at the time that he believed Rockefeller would not go down in history as a great banker but rather as a "real personality, as a distinguished and loyal member of the community".
Political connections
Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower. At times he served as an unofficial emissary on high-level business. Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev.
In 1968, he declined an offer from his brother Nelson Rockefeller, then governor of New York, to appoint him to Robert F. Kennedy's Senate seat after Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, a post Nelson also offered to their nephew John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV. President Jimmy Carter offered him the position of United States Secretary of the Treasury but he declined.
Rockefeller was criticized for befriending foreign autocrats in order to expand Chase interests in their countries. The New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in 2002 that Rockefeller "spent his life in the club of the ruling class and was loyal to members of the club, no matter what they did." He noted that Rockefeller had cut profitable deals with "oil-rich dictators", "Soviet party bosses" and "Chinese perpetrators of the Cultural Revolution".
Rockefeller met Henry Kissinger in 1954, when Kissinger was appointed a director of a seminal Council on Foreign Relations study group on nuclear weapons, of which David Rockefeller was a member. He named Kissinger to the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and consulted with him frequently, with the subjects including the Chase Bank's interests in Chile and the possibility of the election of Salvador Allende in 1970. Rockefeller supported his "opening of China" initiative in 1971 as it afforded banking opportunities for the Chase Bank.
Though a lifelong Republican and party contributor, he was a member of the moderate "Rockefeller Republicans" that arose out of the political ambitions and public policy stance of his brother Nelson. In 2006, he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care, that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders.
Central Intelligence Agency ties
Rockefeller was acquainted with Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Allen Dulles and his brother, Eisenhower administration Secretary of State John Foster Dulles—who was an in-law of the family—since his college years. It was in Rockefeller Center that Allen Dulles had set up his WWII operational center after Pearl Harbor, liaising closely with MI6, which also had their principal U.S. operation in the Center. He also knew and associated with the former CIA director Richard Helms as well as Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt Jr., a Chase Bank employee and former CIA agent whose first cousin, CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt Jr., was involved in the Iran coup of 1953. Also in 1953, he had befriended William Bundy, a pivotal CIA analyst for nine years in the 1950s, who became the Agency liaison to the National Security Council, and a subsequent lifelong friend. Moreover, in Cary Reich's biography of his brother Nelson, a former CIA agent states that David was extensively briefed on covert intelligence operations by himself and other Agency division chiefs, under the direction of David's "friend and confidant", CIA Director Allen Dulles.
Policy groups
In 1964, along with other American business figures such as Sol Linowitz, Rockefeller founded the non-profit International Executive Service Corps which encourages developing nations to promote private enterprise. In 1979, he formed the Partnership for New York City, a not-for-profit membership organization of New York businessmen. In 1992, he was selected as a leading member of the Russian-American Bankers Forum, an advisory group set up by the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to advise Russia on the modernization of its banking system, with the full endorsement of President Boris Yeltsin.
Rockefeller had a lifelong association with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) when he joined as a director in 1949. In 1965, Rockefeller and other businessmen formed the Council of the Americas to stimulate and support economic integration in the Americas. In 1992, at a Council sponsored forum, Rockefeller proposed a "Western Hemisphere free trade area", which became the Free Trade Area of the Americas in a Miami summit in 1994. His and the Council's chief liaison to President Bill Clinton in order to garner support for this initiative was through Clinton's chief of staff, Mack McLarty, whose consultancy firm Kissinger McLarty Associates is a corporate member of the Council, while McLarty himself is on the board of directors. He was also a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, including 1948, when Alger Hiss was president.
Displeased with the refusal of Bilderberg Group meetings to include Japan, Rockefeller helped found the Trilateral Commission in July 1973.
Later career
After the war and alongside his work at Chase, Rockefeller took a more active role in his family's business dealings. Working with his brothers in the two floors of Rockefeller Center known as Room 5600, he reorganized the family's myriad business and philanthropic ventures. The men kept regular "brothers' meetings" where they made decisions on matters of common interest and reported on noteworthy events in each of their lives. Rockefeller served as secretary to the group, making notes of each meeting. The notes are now in the family archive and will be released in the future. Following the deaths of his brothers, Winthrop (1973), John III (1978), Nelson (1979), and Laurance (2004), David became sole head of the family (with the important involvement of his elder son, David Jr.).
Rockefeller ensured that selected members of the fourth generation, known generically as the cousins, became directly involved in the family's institutions. This involved inviting them to be more active in the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the principal foundation established in 1940 by the five brothers and their one sister. The extended family also became involved in their own philanthropic organization, formed in 1967 and primarily established by third-generation members, called the Rockefeller Family Fund.
In the 1980s, Rockefeller became embroiled in controversy over the mortgaging and sale of Rockefeller Center to Japanese interests. In 1985, the Rockefeller family mortgaged the property for $1.3 billion, with $300 million of that going to the family. In 1989, 51 percent of the property, later increased to 80 percent, was sold to Mitsubishi Estate Company of Japan. This action was criticized for surrendering a major U.S. landmark to foreign interests. In 2000, Rockefeller presided over the final sale of Rockefeller Center to Tishman Speyer Properties, along with the Crown family of Chicago, which ended the more than 70 years of direct family financial association with Rockefeller Center.
In 2005, he gave $100 million to the Museum of Modern Art and $100 million to Rockefeller University, two of the most prominent family institutions; as well as $10 million to Harvard and $5 million to Colonial Williamsburg. In 2006, he pledged $225 million to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund upon his death, the largest gift in the Fund's history. The money will be used to create the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund, to support projects that improve access to health care, conduct research on international finance and trade, fight poverty, and support sustainable development, as well as to a program that fosters dialogue between Muslim and Western nations. Rockefeller donated $100 million to Harvard University in 2008. The New York Times estimated in November 2006 that his total charitable donations amount to $900 million over his lifetime, a figure that was substantiated by a monograph on the family's overall benefactions, entitled The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
He published Memoirs in 2002, the only time a member of the Rockefeller family has written an autobiography.
Rockefeller was a noted internationalist.
Rockefeller's will requires his estate, once assets are liquidated, to donate over $700 million to various non-profits, including Rockefeller University, the Museum of Modern Art and Harvard. The largest donation will be either $250 million or the remaining balance of the estate that will fund the launch of the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund.
Personal life
In 1940, Rockefeller married Margaret "Peggy" McGrath, who died in 1996. They had six children:
David Rockefeller Jr. (born July 24, 1941) – vice chairman, Rockefeller Family & Associates (the family office, Room 5600); chairman of Rockefeller Financial Services; Trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation; former chairman of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Rockefeller & Co., Inc., among many other family institutions.
Abigail Aldrich "Abby" Rockefeller (born 1943) – economist and feminist. Eldest and most rebellious daughter, she was drawn to Marxism and was an ardent admirer of Fidel Castro and a late 1960s/early 1970s radical feminist who belonged to the organization Female Liberation, later forming a splinter group called Cell 16. An environmentalist and ecologist, she was an active supporter of the women's liberation movement.
Neva Rockefeller (born 1944) – economist and philanthropist. She is director of the Global Development and Environment Institute; trustee and vice chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Director of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Margaret Dulany "Peggy" Rockefeller (born 1947) – founder of the Synergos Institute in 1986; Board member of the Council on Foreign Relations; serves on the Advisory Committee of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University.
Richard Gilder Rockefeller (1949–2014) – physician and philanthropist; chairman of the United States advisory board of the international aid group Doctors Without Borders; trustee and chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Eileen Rockefeller (born February 26, 1952) – venture philanthropist; Founding Chair of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, established in New York City in 2002.
Death
Rockefeller died in his sleep from congestive heart failure on March 20, 2017, at his home in Pocantico Hills, New York. He was 101 years old.
Wealth
At the time of his death, Forbes estimated Rockefeller's net worth was $3.3 billion. Initially, most of his wealth had come to him via the family trusts created by his father, which were administered by Room 5600 and the Chase Bank. In turn, most of these trusts were held as shares in the successor companies of Standard Oil, as well as diverse real estate investment partnerships, such as the expansive Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, which he later sold for considerable profit, retaining only an indirect stake. In addition, he was or had been a partner in various properties such as Caneel Bay, a resort development in the Virgin Islands; a cattle ranch in Argentina; and a sheep ranch in Australia.
Another major source of asset wealth was his art collection, ranging from impressionist to postmodern, which he developed through the influence upon him of his mother Abby and her establishment, with two associates, of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1929. The collection, valued at several hundred million dollars, was auctioned in the spring of 2018, with proceeds going to several designated nonprofit organizations, including Rockefeller University, Harvard University, the Museum of Modern Art, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Maine Coast Heritage Trust.
Residences
Rockefeller's principal residence was at "Hudson Pines", on the family estate in Pocantico Hills, New York. He also had a Manhattan residence at 146 East 65th Street, as well as a country residence (known as "Four Winds") at a farm in Livingston, New York (Columbia County), where his wife raised Simmenthal beef cattle. He also maintained a summer home, "Ringing Point," at Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island off the Maine coast. In May 2015, he donated one thousand acres of land in Seal Harbor to the Mount Desert Land and Garden Preserve. He also owned a large estate on the French island of St. Barth, and along with the Rothschild family, was one of the earliest developers and tourists on the island in the 1950s. The home was very modern and was located in the Colombier district, known to many as the most beautiful section of the island. It has changed hands several times over the years, and is the single largest private parcel on the island, encompassing the entire Baie de Colombier. Many years ago, the Rockefeller family donated the land in the initial creation of the Saint-Barth "Zone Verte," or Green Zone, which is an area which cannot be developed. The property also includes a private dock in the port of Gustavia as at the time the estate was developed, there were no roads to the property and the only way to get there was by boat; David Rockefeller would moor his yacht at his private dock in Gustavia before transferring to the Colombier estate in a smaller boat as the bay could not accommodate his yacht. The property was recently listed for over $100 million, but is not currently used as a residence and the main house has fallen into disrepair. There is also a dock in the Baie de Colombier. It is not known what the current owners' intentions are.
The Kykuit section of the Rockefeller family compound is the location of The Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund established by David and his four brothers in 1940 which was created when the Fund leased the area from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1991.
Non-governmental leadership positions
Council on Foreign Relations – Honorary Chairman
Americas Society – Founder and Honorary Chairman
Trilateral Commission – Founder and Honorary North American Chairman
Bilderberg Meetings – Only member of the Member Advisory Group
The New York Young Republican Club – Board Member
Awards
Presidential Medal of Freedom (1998);
U.S. Legion of Merit (1945);
French Legion of Honor (1945);
U.S. Army Commendation Ribbon (1945);
Commander of the Brazilian Order of the Southern Cross (1956);
Charles Evans Hughes award NCCJ, (1974);
George C. Marshall Foundation Award (1999);
Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy (2001);
Synergos Bridging Leadership Award (2003);
The Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur (2000);
C. Walter Nichols Award, New York University (1970);
World Brotherhood Award, Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1953);
Award of Merit from the American Institute of Architects (1965);
Medal of Honor for City Planning, American Institute of Architects (1968);
World Monuments Fund's Hadrian Award (for preservation of art and architecture) (1994);
National Institute of Social Sciences Gold Medal Award (1967 – awarded to all 5 brothers);
United States Council for International Business (USCIB) International Leadership Award (1983);
The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award (1965).
References
Sources
Further reading
The Rockefeller File, Gary Allen, ´76 Press, Seal Beach California, 1976.
The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family, John Ensor Harr and Peter J. Johnson. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988.
The Rockefeller Conscience: An American Family in Public and in Private, John Ensor Harr and Peter J. Johnson, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992.
The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer 1908–1958, Cary Reich, New York: Doubleday, 1996.
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller: The Woman in the Family, Bernice Kert, New York: Random House, 1993.
Those Rockefeller Brothers: An Informal Biography of Five Extraordinary Young Men, Joe Alex Morris, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953.
The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty, Peter Collier and David Horowitz, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1976.
The American Establishment, Leonard Silk and Mark Silk, New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1980.
American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission, Stephen Gill, Boston: Cambridge University Press, Reprint Edition, 1991.
The Chase: The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., 1945–1985, John Donald Wilson, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1986.
Wriston: Walter Wriston, Citibank, and the Rise and Fall of American Financial Supremacy, Phillip L. Zweig, New York: Crown Publishers, 1995.
Paul Volcker: The Making of a Financial Legend, Joseph B. Treaster, New York: Wiley, 2004.
Financier: The Biography of André Meyer; A Story of Money, Power, and the Reshaping of American Business, Cary Reich, New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1983.
Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996, Peter Grose, New York: Council on Foreign Relations: 1996.
Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy, Laurence H. Shoup, and William Minter, New York: Authors Choice Press, (Reprint), 2004.
Cloak of Green: The Links between Key Environmental Groups, Government and Big Business, Elaine Dewar, New York: Lorimer, 1995.
The Shah's Last Ride, William Shawcross, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York City's World Trade Center, Eric Darton, New York: Basic Books, 1999.
The Rich and the Super-Rich: A Study in the Power of Money Today, Ferdinand Lundberg, New York: Lyle Stuart; Reprint Edition, 1988.
Interlock: The untold story of American banks, oil interests, the Shah's money, debts, and the astounding connections between them, Mark Hulbert, New York: Richardson & Snyder; 1st edition, 1982.
The Money Lenders: Bankers and a World in Turmoil, Anthony Sampson, New York: Viking Press, 1982.
The Chairman: John J. McCloy – The Making of the American Establishment, Kai Bird, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
External links
The Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC): Selected Biography
Rockefeller Brothers Fund Official Web site
1915 births
2017 deaths
Alumni of the London School of Economics
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Ritchie Boys
World Trade Center | true | [
"Alleanza Nazzjonali Republikana (ANR) (National Republican Alliance) was a Maltese pressure group formed in 2005 with Martin Degiorgio, Philip Beattie and Paul Salomone as its spokespersons.\n\nIt had been described as \"far-right\" and was thought to have connections with the political party Imperium Europa. However, the Alliance disclaimed any such connections , describing itself as \"a conservative, Christian-inspired, nationalist political pressure group\" .\n\nThe Alliance organised two demonstrations against illegal immigration in Valletta in 2005 and 2006. It faded with the creation of the National Action party in 2007.\n\nPolitics of Malta\nPolitical organisations based in Malta\nPolitical advocacy groups in Malta\nOrganizations established in 2005",
"Dreams Die Hard is an autobiographical book published in 1982 and re-issued in 1993 by David Harris, a prominent anti-Vietnam War activist during the 1960s.\n\nThe book chronicles the experiences of three men (Harris, Allard Lowenstein, and Dennis Sweeney) amid the political and social tumult of the 1960s, as well as the aftermath of these experiences. Specifically, paranoid schizophrenia and two decades of accumulated disillusionment and homophobia eventually led a deranged Sweeney to murder Lowenstein.\n\nOne-term Congressman Lowenstein, \"the world's oldest student activist,\" had, by his forties, lived decades in various political arenas. From the Mississippi Freedom Summer project in the Deep South, to the Dump Johnson campaign of 1968, Allard was passionate and well-connected in liberal circles. He was most likely bisexual before the word was current.,\n\nHarris's detailed and historical narration, written in an attempt to explain the lives of each of the characters, discusses how the three activists began their affiliations at Stanford University, and continued through the turbulent decade.\n\nLowenstein's sexual orientation reappears throughout the book and serves as one of many connections between the three main figures: both Harris and Sweeney rejected overt passes from Lowenstein; Harris's reaction was thoughtful, empathetic, and verbal; but Sweeney's reaction was decidedly irrational and physical and ended in murder.\n\nDreams Die Hard was adapted into a two-act play of the same name by John Binder which was first produced at the Met Theater in Hollywood in 1995.\n\nReferences\n\nDavid Harris, Dreams Die Hard: Three Men's Journey Through the Sixties (New York: St. Martin's/Marek, 1982). \nDavid Harris, Dreams Die Hard: Three Men's Journey Through the Sixties (San Francisco: Mercury House, 1993). \n\n1982 books\nPolitical autobiographies\nOpposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War"
]
|
[
"David Rockefeller",
"Political connections",
"What was David political connections?",
"Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower."
]
| C_46d11ac9d2d343dfa2d6010b9b429ed6_1 | Which other names of people he met were mentioned? | 2 | Besides Dwight D. Eisenhower, which other names of people David Rockefeller met were mentioned? | David Rockefeller | Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower. At times he served as an unofficial emissary on high-level business. Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1968, he declined an offer from his brother Nelson Rockefeller, then governor of New York, to appoint him to Robert F. Kennedy's Senate seat after Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, a post Nelson also offered to their nephew John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV. President Jimmy Carter offered him the position of United States Secretary of the Treasury but he declined. Rockefeller was criticized for befriending foreign autocrats in order to expand Chase interests in their countries. The New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in 2002 that Rockefeller "spent his life in the club of the ruling class and was loyal to members of the club, no matter what they did." He noted that Rockefeller had cut profitable deals with "oil-rich dictators", "Soviet party bosses" and "Chinese perpetrators of the Cultural Revolution". Rockefeller met Henry Kissinger in 1954, when Kissinger was appointed a director of a seminal Council on Foreign Relations study group on nuclear weapons, of which David Rockefeller was a member. He named Kissinger to the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and consulted with him frequently, with the subjects including the Chase Bank's interests in Chile and the possibility of the election of Salvador Allende in 1970. Rockefeller supported his "opening of China" initiative in 1971 as it afforded banking opportunities for the Chase Bank. Though a lifelong Republican and party contributor, he was a member of the moderate "Rockefeller Republicans" that arose out of the political ambitions and public policy stance of his brother Nelson. In 2006 he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care, that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders. CANNOTANSWER | Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev. | David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017) was an American investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of the Rockefeller family, and family patriarch from July 2004 until his death in March 2017. Rockefeller was the fifth son and youngest child of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and a grandson of John D. Rockefeller and Laura Spelman Rockefeller.
He was noted for his wide-ranging political connections and foreign travel, in which he met with many foreign leaders. His fortune was estimated at $3.3 billion at the time of his death in March 2017.
Early life
Rockefeller was born in New York City, New York. He grew up in an eight-story house at 10 West 54th Street, the tallest private residence ever built in the city. Rockefeller was the youngest of six children born to financier John Davison Rockefeller Jr. and socialite Abigail Greene "Abby" Aldrich. John Jr. was the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John Davison Rockefeller Sr. and schoolteacher Laura Celestia "Cettie" Spelman. Abby was a daughter of Rhode Island U.S. Senator Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich and Abigail Pearce Truman "Abby" Chapman. David's five elder siblings were Abby, John III, Nelson, Laurance, and Winthrop.
Rockefeller attended the experimental Lincoln School at 123rd Street in Harlem.
Education
In 1936, Rockefeller graduated cum laude from Harvard University, where he worked as an editor on The Harvard Crimson. He also studied economics for a year at Harvard and then a year at the London School of Economics (LSE). At LSE he first met the future President John F. Kennedy (although he had earlier been his contemporary at Harvard) and once dated Kennedy's sister Kathleen.
During his time abroad, Rockefeller briefly worked in the London branch of what was to become the Chase Manhattan Bank.
After returning to the U.S. to complete his graduate studies, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1940.
Career
Government service
After completing his studies in Chicago, he became secretary to New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia for eighteen months in a "dollar a year" public service position. Although the mayor pointed out to the press that Rockefeller was only one of 60 interns in the city government, his working space was, in fact, the vacant office of the deputy mayor. From 1941 to 1942, Rockefeller was assistant regional director of the United States Office of Defense, Health and Welfare Services.
Military
Rockefeller enlisted in the U.S. Army and entered Officer Candidate School in 1943; he was ultimately promoted to Captain in 1945. During World War II he served in North Africa and France (he spoke fluent French) for military intelligence setting up political and economic intelligence units. He served as a "Ritchie Boy" secret unit specially trained at Fort Ritchie, Maryland. For seven months he also served as an assistant military attaché at the American Embassy in Paris. During this period, he called on family contacts and Standard Oil executives for assistance.
Banking
In 1946, Rockefeller joined the staff of the longtime family-associated Chase National Bank. The chairman at that time was Rockefeller's uncle Winthrop W. Aldrich. The Chase Bank was primarily a wholesale bank, dealing with other prominent financial institutions and major corporate clients such as General Electric (which had, through its RCA affiliate, leased prominent space and become a crucial first tenant of Rockefeller Center in 1930). The bank also is closely associated with and has financed the oil industry, having longstanding connections with its board of directors to the successor companies of Standard Oil, especially Exxon Mobil. Chase National became the Chase Manhattan Bank in 1955 and shifted significantly into consumer banking. It is now called JPMorgan Chase.
Rockefeller started as an assistant manager in the foreign department. There he financed international trade in a number of commodities, such as coffee, sugar and metals. This position also maintained relationships with more than 1,000 correspondent banks throughout the world. He served in other positions and became president in 1960. He was both chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan from 1969 to 1980 and remained chairman until 1981. He was also, as recently as 1980, the single largest individual shareholder of the bank, holding 1.7% of its shares.
During his term as CEO, Chase spread internationally and became a central component of the world's financial system due to its global network of correspondent banks, the largest in the world. In 1973, Chase established the first branch of an American bank in Moscow, in the then Soviet Union. That year Rockefeller traveled to China, resulting in his bank becoming the National Bank of China's first correspondent bank in the U.S.
Also during this period, Chase Manhattan expanded its influence over many non-financial corporations. A 1979 study titled "The Significance of Bank Control over Large Corporations" provided an estimate for which large U.S.-based financial institutions had the most control over other corporations. The study finds that: "The Rockefeller-controlled Chase Manhattan Bank tops the list, controlling 16 companies."He was faulted for spending excessive amounts of time abroad, and during his tenure as CEO the bank had more troubled loans than any other major bank. Chase owned more New York City securities in the mid-1970s, when the city was nearing bankruptcy. A scandal erupted in 1974 when an audit found that losses from bond trading had been understated, and in 1975 the bank was branded a "problem bank" by the Federal Reserve.
From 1974 to 1976, Chase earnings fell 36 percent while those of its biggest rivals rose 12 to 31 percent. The bank's earnings more than doubled between 1976 and 1980, far outpacing its rival Citibank in return on assets. By 1981 the bank's finances were restored to full health.
In November 1979, while chairman of the Chase Bank, Rockefeller became embroiled in an international incident when he and Henry Kissinger, along with John J. McCloy and Rockefeller aides, persuaded President Jimmy Carter through the United States Department of State to admit the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, into the United States for hospital treatment for lymphoma. This action directly precipitated what is known as the Iran hostage crisis and placed Rockefeller under intense media scrutiny (particularly from The New York Times) for the first time in his public life.
Rockefeller retired from active management of the bank in 1981, succeeded by his protégé Willard C. Butcher. Former Chase chairman John J. McCloy said at the time that he believed Rockefeller would not go down in history as a great banker but rather as a "real personality, as a distinguished and loyal member of the community".
Political connections
Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower. At times he served as an unofficial emissary on high-level business. Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev.
In 1968, he declined an offer from his brother Nelson Rockefeller, then governor of New York, to appoint him to Robert F. Kennedy's Senate seat after Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, a post Nelson also offered to their nephew John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV. President Jimmy Carter offered him the position of United States Secretary of the Treasury but he declined.
Rockefeller was criticized for befriending foreign autocrats in order to expand Chase interests in their countries. The New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in 2002 that Rockefeller "spent his life in the club of the ruling class and was loyal to members of the club, no matter what they did." He noted that Rockefeller had cut profitable deals with "oil-rich dictators", "Soviet party bosses" and "Chinese perpetrators of the Cultural Revolution".
Rockefeller met Henry Kissinger in 1954, when Kissinger was appointed a director of a seminal Council on Foreign Relations study group on nuclear weapons, of which David Rockefeller was a member. He named Kissinger to the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and consulted with him frequently, with the subjects including the Chase Bank's interests in Chile and the possibility of the election of Salvador Allende in 1970. Rockefeller supported his "opening of China" initiative in 1971 as it afforded banking opportunities for the Chase Bank.
Though a lifelong Republican and party contributor, he was a member of the moderate "Rockefeller Republicans" that arose out of the political ambitions and public policy stance of his brother Nelson. In 2006, he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care, that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders.
Central Intelligence Agency ties
Rockefeller was acquainted with Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Allen Dulles and his brother, Eisenhower administration Secretary of State John Foster Dulles—who was an in-law of the family—since his college years. It was in Rockefeller Center that Allen Dulles had set up his WWII operational center after Pearl Harbor, liaising closely with MI6, which also had their principal U.S. operation in the Center. He also knew and associated with the former CIA director Richard Helms as well as Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt Jr., a Chase Bank employee and former CIA agent whose first cousin, CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt Jr., was involved in the Iran coup of 1953. Also in 1953, he had befriended William Bundy, a pivotal CIA analyst for nine years in the 1950s, who became the Agency liaison to the National Security Council, and a subsequent lifelong friend. Moreover, in Cary Reich's biography of his brother Nelson, a former CIA agent states that David was extensively briefed on covert intelligence operations by himself and other Agency division chiefs, under the direction of David's "friend and confidant", CIA Director Allen Dulles.
Policy groups
In 1964, along with other American business figures such as Sol Linowitz, Rockefeller founded the non-profit International Executive Service Corps which encourages developing nations to promote private enterprise. In 1979, he formed the Partnership for New York City, a not-for-profit membership organization of New York businessmen. In 1992, he was selected as a leading member of the Russian-American Bankers Forum, an advisory group set up by the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to advise Russia on the modernization of its banking system, with the full endorsement of President Boris Yeltsin.
Rockefeller had a lifelong association with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) when he joined as a director in 1949. In 1965, Rockefeller and other businessmen formed the Council of the Americas to stimulate and support economic integration in the Americas. In 1992, at a Council sponsored forum, Rockefeller proposed a "Western Hemisphere free trade area", which became the Free Trade Area of the Americas in a Miami summit in 1994. His and the Council's chief liaison to President Bill Clinton in order to garner support for this initiative was through Clinton's chief of staff, Mack McLarty, whose consultancy firm Kissinger McLarty Associates is a corporate member of the Council, while McLarty himself is on the board of directors. He was also a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, including 1948, when Alger Hiss was president.
Displeased with the refusal of Bilderberg Group meetings to include Japan, Rockefeller helped found the Trilateral Commission in July 1973.
Later career
After the war and alongside his work at Chase, Rockefeller took a more active role in his family's business dealings. Working with his brothers in the two floors of Rockefeller Center known as Room 5600, he reorganized the family's myriad business and philanthropic ventures. The men kept regular "brothers' meetings" where they made decisions on matters of common interest and reported on noteworthy events in each of their lives. Rockefeller served as secretary to the group, making notes of each meeting. The notes are now in the family archive and will be released in the future. Following the deaths of his brothers, Winthrop (1973), John III (1978), Nelson (1979), and Laurance (2004), David became sole head of the family (with the important involvement of his elder son, David Jr.).
Rockefeller ensured that selected members of the fourth generation, known generically as the cousins, became directly involved in the family's institutions. This involved inviting them to be more active in the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the principal foundation established in 1940 by the five brothers and their one sister. The extended family also became involved in their own philanthropic organization, formed in 1967 and primarily established by third-generation members, called the Rockefeller Family Fund.
In the 1980s, Rockefeller became embroiled in controversy over the mortgaging and sale of Rockefeller Center to Japanese interests. In 1985, the Rockefeller family mortgaged the property for $1.3 billion, with $300 million of that going to the family. In 1989, 51 percent of the property, later increased to 80 percent, was sold to Mitsubishi Estate Company of Japan. This action was criticized for surrendering a major U.S. landmark to foreign interests. In 2000, Rockefeller presided over the final sale of Rockefeller Center to Tishman Speyer Properties, along with the Crown family of Chicago, which ended the more than 70 years of direct family financial association with Rockefeller Center.
In 2005, he gave $100 million to the Museum of Modern Art and $100 million to Rockefeller University, two of the most prominent family institutions; as well as $10 million to Harvard and $5 million to Colonial Williamsburg. In 2006, he pledged $225 million to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund upon his death, the largest gift in the Fund's history. The money will be used to create the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund, to support projects that improve access to health care, conduct research on international finance and trade, fight poverty, and support sustainable development, as well as to a program that fosters dialogue between Muslim and Western nations. Rockefeller donated $100 million to Harvard University in 2008. The New York Times estimated in November 2006 that his total charitable donations amount to $900 million over his lifetime, a figure that was substantiated by a monograph on the family's overall benefactions, entitled The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
He published Memoirs in 2002, the only time a member of the Rockefeller family has written an autobiography.
Rockefeller was a noted internationalist.
Rockefeller's will requires his estate, once assets are liquidated, to donate over $700 million to various non-profits, including Rockefeller University, the Museum of Modern Art and Harvard. The largest donation will be either $250 million or the remaining balance of the estate that will fund the launch of the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund.
Personal life
In 1940, Rockefeller married Margaret "Peggy" McGrath, who died in 1996. They had six children:
David Rockefeller Jr. (born July 24, 1941) – vice chairman, Rockefeller Family & Associates (the family office, Room 5600); chairman of Rockefeller Financial Services; Trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation; former chairman of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Rockefeller & Co., Inc., among many other family institutions.
Abigail Aldrich "Abby" Rockefeller (born 1943) – economist and feminist. Eldest and most rebellious daughter, she was drawn to Marxism and was an ardent admirer of Fidel Castro and a late 1960s/early 1970s radical feminist who belonged to the organization Female Liberation, later forming a splinter group called Cell 16. An environmentalist and ecologist, she was an active supporter of the women's liberation movement.
Neva Rockefeller (born 1944) – economist and philanthropist. She is director of the Global Development and Environment Institute; trustee and vice chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Director of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Margaret Dulany "Peggy" Rockefeller (born 1947) – founder of the Synergos Institute in 1986; Board member of the Council on Foreign Relations; serves on the Advisory Committee of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University.
Richard Gilder Rockefeller (1949–2014) – physician and philanthropist; chairman of the United States advisory board of the international aid group Doctors Without Borders; trustee and chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Eileen Rockefeller (born February 26, 1952) – venture philanthropist; Founding Chair of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, established in New York City in 2002.
Death
Rockefeller died in his sleep from congestive heart failure on March 20, 2017, at his home in Pocantico Hills, New York. He was 101 years old.
Wealth
At the time of his death, Forbes estimated Rockefeller's net worth was $3.3 billion. Initially, most of his wealth had come to him via the family trusts created by his father, which were administered by Room 5600 and the Chase Bank. In turn, most of these trusts were held as shares in the successor companies of Standard Oil, as well as diverse real estate investment partnerships, such as the expansive Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, which he later sold for considerable profit, retaining only an indirect stake. In addition, he was or had been a partner in various properties such as Caneel Bay, a resort development in the Virgin Islands; a cattle ranch in Argentina; and a sheep ranch in Australia.
Another major source of asset wealth was his art collection, ranging from impressionist to postmodern, which he developed through the influence upon him of his mother Abby and her establishment, with two associates, of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1929. The collection, valued at several hundred million dollars, was auctioned in the spring of 2018, with proceeds going to several designated nonprofit organizations, including Rockefeller University, Harvard University, the Museum of Modern Art, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Maine Coast Heritage Trust.
Residences
Rockefeller's principal residence was at "Hudson Pines", on the family estate in Pocantico Hills, New York. He also had a Manhattan residence at 146 East 65th Street, as well as a country residence (known as "Four Winds") at a farm in Livingston, New York (Columbia County), where his wife raised Simmenthal beef cattle. He also maintained a summer home, "Ringing Point," at Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island off the Maine coast. In May 2015, he donated one thousand acres of land in Seal Harbor to the Mount Desert Land and Garden Preserve. He also owned a large estate on the French island of St. Barth, and along with the Rothschild family, was one of the earliest developers and tourists on the island in the 1950s. The home was very modern and was located in the Colombier district, known to many as the most beautiful section of the island. It has changed hands several times over the years, and is the single largest private parcel on the island, encompassing the entire Baie de Colombier. Many years ago, the Rockefeller family donated the land in the initial creation of the Saint-Barth "Zone Verte," or Green Zone, which is an area which cannot be developed. The property also includes a private dock in the port of Gustavia as at the time the estate was developed, there were no roads to the property and the only way to get there was by boat; David Rockefeller would moor his yacht at his private dock in Gustavia before transferring to the Colombier estate in a smaller boat as the bay could not accommodate his yacht. The property was recently listed for over $100 million, but is not currently used as a residence and the main house has fallen into disrepair. There is also a dock in the Baie de Colombier. It is not known what the current owners' intentions are.
The Kykuit section of the Rockefeller family compound is the location of The Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund established by David and his four brothers in 1940 which was created when the Fund leased the area from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1991.
Non-governmental leadership positions
Council on Foreign Relations – Honorary Chairman
Americas Society – Founder and Honorary Chairman
Trilateral Commission – Founder and Honorary North American Chairman
Bilderberg Meetings – Only member of the Member Advisory Group
The New York Young Republican Club – Board Member
Awards
Presidential Medal of Freedom (1998);
U.S. Legion of Merit (1945);
French Legion of Honor (1945);
U.S. Army Commendation Ribbon (1945);
Commander of the Brazilian Order of the Southern Cross (1956);
Charles Evans Hughes award NCCJ, (1974);
George C. Marshall Foundation Award (1999);
Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy (2001);
Synergos Bridging Leadership Award (2003);
The Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur (2000);
C. Walter Nichols Award, New York University (1970);
World Brotherhood Award, Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1953);
Award of Merit from the American Institute of Architects (1965);
Medal of Honor for City Planning, American Institute of Architects (1968);
World Monuments Fund's Hadrian Award (for preservation of art and architecture) (1994);
National Institute of Social Sciences Gold Medal Award (1967 – awarded to all 5 brothers);
United States Council for International Business (USCIB) International Leadership Award (1983);
The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award (1965).
References
Sources
Further reading
The Rockefeller File, Gary Allen, ´76 Press, Seal Beach California, 1976.
The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family, John Ensor Harr and Peter J. Johnson. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988.
The Rockefeller Conscience: An American Family in Public and in Private, John Ensor Harr and Peter J. Johnson, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992.
The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer 1908–1958, Cary Reich, New York: Doubleday, 1996.
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller: The Woman in the Family, Bernice Kert, New York: Random House, 1993.
Those Rockefeller Brothers: An Informal Biography of Five Extraordinary Young Men, Joe Alex Morris, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953.
The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty, Peter Collier and David Horowitz, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1976.
The American Establishment, Leonard Silk and Mark Silk, New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1980.
American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission, Stephen Gill, Boston: Cambridge University Press, Reprint Edition, 1991.
The Chase: The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., 1945–1985, John Donald Wilson, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1986.
Wriston: Walter Wriston, Citibank, and the Rise and Fall of American Financial Supremacy, Phillip L. Zweig, New York: Crown Publishers, 1995.
Paul Volcker: The Making of a Financial Legend, Joseph B. Treaster, New York: Wiley, 2004.
Financier: The Biography of André Meyer; A Story of Money, Power, and the Reshaping of American Business, Cary Reich, New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1983.
Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996, Peter Grose, New York: Council on Foreign Relations: 1996.
Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy, Laurence H. Shoup, and William Minter, New York: Authors Choice Press, (Reprint), 2004.
Cloak of Green: The Links between Key Environmental Groups, Government and Big Business, Elaine Dewar, New York: Lorimer, 1995.
The Shah's Last Ride, William Shawcross, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York City's World Trade Center, Eric Darton, New York: Basic Books, 1999.
The Rich and the Super-Rich: A Study in the Power of Money Today, Ferdinand Lundberg, New York: Lyle Stuart; Reprint Edition, 1988.
Interlock: The untold story of American banks, oil interests, the Shah's money, debts, and the astounding connections between them, Mark Hulbert, New York: Richardson & Snyder; 1st edition, 1982.
The Money Lenders: Bankers and a World in Turmoil, Anthony Sampson, New York: Viking Press, 1982.
The Chairman: John J. McCloy – The Making of the American Establishment, Kai Bird, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
External links
The Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC): Selected Biography
Rockefeller Brothers Fund Official Web site
1915 births
2017 deaths
Alumni of the London School of Economics
American art collectors
American autobiographers
American bankers
American billionaires
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American chief executives of financial services companies
American memoirists
United States Army personnel of World War II
Philanthropists from New York (state)
Giving Pledgers
21st-century philanthropists
Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur
Harvard University alumni
JPMorgan Chase employees
Members of the New York Yacht Club
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Military personnel from New York City
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Ritchie Boys
World Trade Center | true | [
"The gens Luciena was a minor family at Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned in the final century of the Republic.\n\nOrigin\nThe nomen Lucienus appears to belong to a class of names derived from other names, including those of other gentilicia. It might therefore be derived from the praenomen Lucius, or the corresponding nomen. Nomina ending in -enus were characteristic of Umbrian.\n\nMembers\n\n Lucienus, a senator, was a friend of Marcus Terentius Varro, and one of the speakers in Varro's dialogue, Rerum Rusticarum. He is apparently the same person mentioned by Cicero in a letter to Atticus.\n Lucius Lucienus, the father of Lucius Lucienus Rufus.\n Lucius Lucienus L. f. Rufus, a young man buried at Rome.\n Lucius Lucienus Ɔ. l. Diocles, a freedman of the Lucieni, mentioned in the same inscription as Lucius Lucienus Rufus.\n Luciena L. l. Philema, a freedwoman of the Lucieni, mentioned in the same inscription as Lucius Lucienus Rufus.\n Quintus Lucienus Ɔ. l. Dicaeus, a freedman of the Lucieni, mentioned in an inscription at Rome.\n\nSee also\n List of Roman gentes\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n Marcus Terentius Varro, Rerum Rusticarum (Rural Matters).\n Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum.\n Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849).\n Theodor Mommsen et alii, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (The Body of Latin Inscriptions, abbreviated \"CIL\"), Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1853–present).\n Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities, Harry Thurston Peck, ed. (Second Edition, 1897).\n\nRoman gentes",
"The Naga Kingdom is the territory of a hardy and warlike tribe called Nagas. They were also considered one of the supernatural races like the Kinnaras.\n\nEtymology \nThe word Naga in the Sanskrit language means snake or serpent. It seems likely that the Naga people were a serpent-worshipping group who were later described as serpents themselves in ancient Indian literature.\n\nReferences in Mahabharata\n\nMahabharata epic begins with history of Nagas, in astonishing detail, spanning the initial chapters in the first book (Adi Parva). These chapters were distributed into three sub-volumes called Paushya, Pauloma and Astika.\n\nNaga races\n MBh (1,57)\n\nNaga race in north-west India was almost exterminated by Janamejaya, the Kuru king in Arjuna's line, who conducted the massacre of Nagas at Takshasila. This massacre was stopped by Astika, a Brahmin who was son of Manasa the sister of all Nagas and Sage Jaratkaru. The names of the principal Nagas known widely for their achievements, and slain by Janamejaya is mentioned at (1,57). They were described to be belonging to different Naga races:-\n\n Takshaka's Race :- Puchchandaka, Mandalaka, Pindasektri, Ravenaka; Uchochikha, Carava, Bhangas, Vilwatejas, Virohana; Sili, Salakara, Muka, Sukumara, Pravepana, Mudgara, Sisuroman, Suroman and Mahahanu. (Takshaka's son Aswasena is mentioned as belonging to the Airavata's race at (8,90). This could mean that Takshaka's race, was a branch of Airavata's race.)\n\nKauravya's Race :- Aryaka, Kundala Veni, Veniskandha, Kumarka, Vahuka, Sringavera, Dhurtaka, Pratara and Astaka.\n(Kauravya's race is mentioned as a branch of Airavata's race at (1,216).\n\nDhrutarashtra's Race :- Sankukarna, Pitharaka, Kuthara, Sukhana, and Shechaka; Purnangada, Purnamukha, Prahasa, Shakuni, Dari, Amahatha, Kumathaka, Sushena, Vyaya, Bhairava, Mundavedanga, Pisanga, Udraparaka, Rishabha, Vegavat, Pindaraka; Raktanga, Sarvasaranga, Samriddha, Patha and Vasaka; Varahaka, Viranaka, Suchitra, Chitravegika, Parasara, Tarunaka, Maniskandha and Aruni. (Dhritarashtra was Airavata's younger brother (1,3).)\n\n Nagas, Pannagas and Uragas\n\nNagas were mentioned as born of Surasa and Pannagas another Naga race, was mentioned as born of Kadru at (1,66). Pannagas and Nagas were mentioned as separate but related Naga races at (3,85). Pannagas were mentioned to denote Nagas at (3-172,180,289) (7-142) (9,45) (12,47) (13,98) Nagas destroyed by Arjuna at Khadavaprstha is described as Pannagas (5,124). Pannagas and Uragas were mentioned as separate but related races at (6,65). Uragas were mentioned to denote Nagas at (1-1,172) (3-167,179,187,223) (many other references) Uragas and Nagas were mentioned as separate but related Naga races at (3,158) -in Yaksha territory; also at (7-160,198)\nAt (1,172) is mentioned that Uragas along with Yakshas, Rakshasas, Gandharvas, Pisachas and Danavas as aware of the history of Arya kings.\n\nThe names of the principal Naga Chiefs\nAt (1,35) (Birth of Nagas) the name of principal Naga chiefs were mentioned as:-\n\nSesha (Naga Ananta) was the foremost, and then Vasuki. Then were born Airavata, Takshaka, Karkotaka (linked with Nala, king of Nishadha), Dhananjaya, Kalakeya (was also mentioned as an Asura clan), the serpent Mani, Purana, Pinjaraka, and Elapatra, Vamana, Nila, Anila, Kalmasha, Savala, Aryaka, Ugra, Kalasapotaka, Suramukha, Dadhimukha, Vimalapindaka, Apta, Karotaka, Samkha, Valisikha, Nisthanaka, Hemaguha, Nahusha (Nahusha was also described as a king in the Lunar Dynasty; Pururavas (first king of Lunar dynasty) -> Ayus - > Nahusha), Pingala, Vahyakarna, Hastipada, Mudgarapindaka, Kamvala Aswatara, Kaliyaka, Vritta, Samvartaka, Padma, Mahapadma, Sankhamukha, Kushmandaka, Kshemaka, Pindaraka, Karavira, Pushpadanshtraka, Vilwaka, Vilwapandara, Mushikada, Sankhasiras, Purnabhadra, Haridraka, Aparajita, Jyotika, Srivaha, Kauravya, Dhrutarashtra (also mentioned as a Gandharva king), Sankhapinda, Virajas, Suvahu, Salipinda, Prabhakara, Hastipinda, Pitharaka, Sumuksha, Kaunapashana, Kuthara, Kunjara, Kumuda, Kumudaksha, Tittri, Halika, Kardama, Vahumulaka, Karkara, Akarkara, Kundodara, and Mahodara.\n\nAt (5,103) (Matali's history) the name of principal Naga chiefs were mentioned as:-\n\nVasuki, Takshaka, Karkotaka, Dhanjaya, Kaliya (linked with river Yamuna and Vasudeva Krishna), Nahusha (also a king belonging to Lunar Dynasty), Aswatara, Vakyakunda, Mani, Apurana, Khaga, Vamana, Elapatra, Kukura, Kukuna, Aryaka (linked with Bhima), Nandaka, Kalasa, Potaka, Kalilasaka, Pinjaraka, Airavata, Sumanmukha, Dadhimukha, Sankha, Nanda, Upanandaka, Apta, Kotaraka, Sikhi, Nishthuraka, Tittiri, Hastibhadra, Kumuda, Maylapindaka, the two Padmas, Pundarika, Pushpa, Mudgaraparnaka, Karavira, Pitharaka, Samvritta, Vritta, Pindara, Vilwapatra, Mushikada, Sirishaka, Dilipa, Sankha-sirsha, Jyotishka, Aparajita, Kauravya, Dhrutarashtra, Kuhara, Krisaka, Virajas, Dharana, Savahu, Mukhara, Jaya, Vidhira, Andha, Visundi, Virasa, and Sarasa.\n\n'At (14,4) (Last moments of Bala Rama) the name of principal Naga chiefs were mentioned as:-Karkotaka and Vasuki and Takshaka and Prithusravas and Varuna and Kunjara, and Misri and Sankha and Kumuda and Pundarika, Dhrutarashtra, and Hrada and Kratha and Sitikantha of fierce energy, and Chakramanda and Atishanda, Durmukha, and Amvarisha, and king VarunaAt (1,65) (Genesis) the names of the sons of Kadru were mentioned as:-Sesha or Ananta, Vasuki, Takshaka, Kumara, and Kulika are known to be the sons of Kadru.At (2,9) Nagas linked with Varuna were mentioned as:-Vasuki, Takshaka, and the Naga called Airavata, Krishna and Lohita (see Lauhitya), Padma, Chitra, Kamvala, Aswatara, Dhrutarashtra, Valahaka, Matimat, Kundadhara, Karkotaka, Dhananjaya, Panimat, Kundaka, Prahlada, Mushikada and Janamejaya wait upon Varuna. Many Asuras also is mentioned as waiting upon Varuna. Nagas, Daityas (a clan of Asuras), Sadhyas and inferior Devas were mentioned to follow Varuna (3,41).\n\nProminent Nagas\n\nNaga King Takshaka\n\nActs of Pandava Arjuna and Naga Takshaka was the cause of enmity between Kuru kings and Nagas. Arjuna killed Takshaka's wife who dwelled in the Khandava Forest. Takshaka killed Parikshit the grandson of Arjuna by poisoning him in league with Shringi. King Janamejaya conducted a massacre of Nagas to avenge his father Parikshit's death. Later a sage named Astika ended this enmity between Kurus and Nagas.\n\nNaga King Nahusha\nNahusha is mentioned as a Naga at (1,35) (5,103).\n\nAt (13,99) Nahusha is mentioned as ruling even the Deva territories, and later degraded to the status of a Naga king. It is repeated at (12,342). The history of Nahusha becoming the king of Deva territories is mentioned at (5-11 to 17). He was powerful and renowned. Power corrupted him and he was later banished from the throne of Deva territories. It seems he later lived as a small king of the Naga race. Yayati (a king of Lunar Dynasty) is mentioned as his son at many places in Mahabharata. Thus, it seems, he later became known as a king belonging to the Lunar Dynasty of kings in ancient India.\n\nA snake (a viper) attacked and afflicted Bhima in a forest called Visakhayupa, situated at the source of river Yamuna. This incident is mentioned at (3,176). At (3,178) that snake is described as Nahusha. He is mentioned here as the son of Ayus (Pururavas (first king of Lunar Dynasty) -> Ayus -> Nahusha), thus he becomes a forefather of the Pandavas. This raises a doubt whether the lunar race of kings originally branched from the Naga race of kings. Many kings in the line of Purus and Kurus, all being branches of the lunar race, like Dhritarashtra and Janamejaya also were mentioned as Nagas at various places. Kuru city Hastinapura also is some times mentioned as Nagapura (one of its meaning being the city of Nagas).\n In Book 12 and 13 Nahusha is mentioned as a learned king conversing with many sages like Bhrigu, Chyavana and Agastya\n\nNaga chief Aryaka \nNagawanshi Aryaka (sansk. आर्यक) was mentioned to be a member of Naga king Vasuki's palace. He was described as related to Pandava Bhima. He was the grandfather of the father of Kunti, the mother of Bhima. He recognized Bhima as his kinsmen when the Nagas rescued Bhima, a boy then, and brought him to the palace of Vasuki. Bhima was food-poisoned, tied up and thrown into river Ganges at a place called Pramanakoti, by Duryodhana (1,128).\n\nAryaka is mentioned to have born in the race of Kauravya. Kauravya is born in the race of Airavata. Aryaka's son was named Chikura. Chikura was slain by a Suparna. Chikura's wife was the daughter of a Naga named Vamana. Chikura's son was named Sumukha. Matali, the charioteer of Deva king Indra, after wandering several regions of underworld with Narada for bridegroom, chose Sumuka as his daughter Gunakesi's husband (5,103).\n\nNaga Prince Iravan\n\nDuring a 12-year-long pilgrimage over the whole of India, Arjuna, leaving Indraprastha, arrived at the source of the Ganga (now known as Rishikesh) where it entered the plains. There he met a Naga woman, Ulūpī. She took Arjuna to the mansion of Kauravya, king of the Nagas. Kauravya himself was mentioned as an Airavata. Arjuna spent one night with Ulūpī and came back from the palace of Kauravya to the region where the Ganga enters the plains (1,216).\n\nUlūpī's former husband was slain by a Suparna and she was childless. A son named Iravan was born to Arjuna and Ulūpī. But Ulūpī's brother hated Arjuna since he destroyed the Nagas dwelling in Khandava forest and so abandoned Ulūpī and his son.\n\nIravan grew in the territory of Nagas, protected by his mother. Later when Arjuna visited the region to the northeast of the Naga territories, he went and met Arjuna. He accepted him as his beloved son, and asked him to render assistance in battle when required. Iravan entered the Kurukshetra War with an excellent cavalry force driven by Naga warriors (6,91). He participated in the war (6-84,91) and was slain by the Rakshasa Alamvusa, the son of Risyasringa (6,91).\n\n Ulūpī is mentioned as interacting with Arjuna's another son Vabhruvahana, born of another wife Chitrangada at (14,79).\n Ulūpī and Chitrangada are mentioned as being accepted into the palace of Hastinapura at (14,88)\n Ulūpī and Chitrangada are mentioned with other wives of the Pandavas at (15,1).\n Ulūpī and Chitrangada are mentioned as departing, when Pandavas set for their last journey (17,1).\n A weapon used in Kurukshetra War is named a Naga weapon (8,53).\n\nOther Nagas\n Naga Karkotaka is mentioned as interacting with Nishadha king Nala (3-66,79).\n Vasudeva Krishna is mentioned to end the reign of a Naga (his name was Kaliya as per Bhagavata Purana) in the river Yamuna (4,22).\n A Naga named Renuka is mentioned at (13,132).\n Baladeva (Bala Rama ?) is mentioned as a Naga at (13,132).\n Bala Rama, the stepbrother of Vasudeva Krishna, is linked with Naga race, at (16,4).\n Bala Rama is linked with Sesha at (1,67).\n\nIntermixing of other Indian races with Naga race\n Naga Nahusha is also mentioned as a king in the Lunar Dynasty of Arya Kings (3,178).\n A king named Riksha in the race of Puru (a branch of Lunar Dynasti is mentioned as marrying the daughter of a Naga in the race of Takshaka (1,95).\n Naga Aryaka is described as the grandfather of Kunti's father. Kunti is the mother of Pandavas. (1,128).\n Iravat was mentioned as the son of Arjuna and a Naga woman named Uloopi, born in the race of Airavata (6,91).\n Sage Somasrava, the priest of Janamejaya was the son of a Brahmin named Srutasrava and a Naga woman. (1,3).\n Sage Astika was the son of a sage in the race of Yayavara Brahmins (1,13) and a Naga woman (sister of Vasuki) (1-14,15,48). Though but a boy, he had great gravity and intelligence. And he was reared with great care in the palace of the Nagas (1,48). He prevented the massacre of the Naga race by Janamejaya (1-15,56).\n\nOther references\n The Daitya heroes Sunda and Upasunda defeated the Devas, Yakshas, Rakshasas, Nagas and Arya kings. (1-212,214)\n Rakshasa king Ravana also defeated all of them (3,289).\n Naga women were mentioned to be very beautiful (3,263) (4,9) (6,105).\n In the Harivamsa, Karkotaka and his Nagas were mentioned to be vanquished by Kartavirya Arjuna, the thousand human armed Chandravanshi Yadava King of Haihayas.\n Yakshas, and Rakshasas, and Nagas were mentioned to use 17 types of crops for their food'. This crops were mentioned as produced by a king named Prithu, the son of Vena (12,58).\n At (14,44) the word Uraga is used to denote all the reptile-species and the word Naga'' is used to denote all snakes, where it mentions Nagas are the foremost among the Uragas.\n\nSee also\nList of Nagas\nLauhitya Kingdom\nTamil Naga tribes \nNair\n Rajbhar\n Bhar\nGaruda\n Kingdoms of Ancient India\n Mucalinda\n Nagas\n\nReferences\n\n Mahabharata of Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa, translated to English by Kisari Mohan Ganguli\n\nKingdoms in the Mahabharata\nHimalayan kingdoms (Puranas)"
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"David Rockefeller",
"Political connections",
"What was David political connections?",
"Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower.",
"Which other names of people he met were mentioned?",
"Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev."
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| C_46d11ac9d2d343dfa2d6010b9b429ed6_1 | Did he win any award? | 3 | Did David Rockefeller win any award? | David Rockefeller | Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower. At times he served as an unofficial emissary on high-level business. Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1968, he declined an offer from his brother Nelson Rockefeller, then governor of New York, to appoint him to Robert F. Kennedy's Senate seat after Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, a post Nelson also offered to their nephew John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV. President Jimmy Carter offered him the position of United States Secretary of the Treasury but he declined. Rockefeller was criticized for befriending foreign autocrats in order to expand Chase interests in their countries. The New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in 2002 that Rockefeller "spent his life in the club of the ruling class and was loyal to members of the club, no matter what they did." He noted that Rockefeller had cut profitable deals with "oil-rich dictators", "Soviet party bosses" and "Chinese perpetrators of the Cultural Revolution". Rockefeller met Henry Kissinger in 1954, when Kissinger was appointed a director of a seminal Council on Foreign Relations study group on nuclear weapons, of which David Rockefeller was a member. He named Kissinger to the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and consulted with him frequently, with the subjects including the Chase Bank's interests in Chile and the possibility of the election of Salvador Allende in 1970. Rockefeller supported his "opening of China" initiative in 1971 as it afforded banking opportunities for the Chase Bank. Though a lifelong Republican and party contributor, he was a member of the moderate "Rockefeller Republicans" that arose out of the political ambitions and public policy stance of his brother Nelson. In 2006 he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care, that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017) was an American investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of the Rockefeller family, and family patriarch from July 2004 until his death in March 2017. Rockefeller was the fifth son and youngest child of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and a grandson of John D. Rockefeller and Laura Spelman Rockefeller.
He was noted for his wide-ranging political connections and foreign travel, in which he met with many foreign leaders. His fortune was estimated at $3.3 billion at the time of his death in March 2017.
Early life
Rockefeller was born in New York City, New York. He grew up in an eight-story house at 10 West 54th Street, the tallest private residence ever built in the city. Rockefeller was the youngest of six children born to financier John Davison Rockefeller Jr. and socialite Abigail Greene "Abby" Aldrich. John Jr. was the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John Davison Rockefeller Sr. and schoolteacher Laura Celestia "Cettie" Spelman. Abby was a daughter of Rhode Island U.S. Senator Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich and Abigail Pearce Truman "Abby" Chapman. David's five elder siblings were Abby, John III, Nelson, Laurance, and Winthrop.
Rockefeller attended the experimental Lincoln School at 123rd Street in Harlem.
Education
In 1936, Rockefeller graduated cum laude from Harvard University, where he worked as an editor on The Harvard Crimson. He also studied economics for a year at Harvard and then a year at the London School of Economics (LSE). At LSE he first met the future President John F. Kennedy (although he had earlier been his contemporary at Harvard) and once dated Kennedy's sister Kathleen.
During his time abroad, Rockefeller briefly worked in the London branch of what was to become the Chase Manhattan Bank.
After returning to the U.S. to complete his graduate studies, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1940.
Career
Government service
After completing his studies in Chicago, he became secretary to New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia for eighteen months in a "dollar a year" public service position. Although the mayor pointed out to the press that Rockefeller was only one of 60 interns in the city government, his working space was, in fact, the vacant office of the deputy mayor. From 1941 to 1942, Rockefeller was assistant regional director of the United States Office of Defense, Health and Welfare Services.
Military
Rockefeller enlisted in the U.S. Army and entered Officer Candidate School in 1943; he was ultimately promoted to Captain in 1945. During World War II he served in North Africa and France (he spoke fluent French) for military intelligence setting up political and economic intelligence units. He served as a "Ritchie Boy" secret unit specially trained at Fort Ritchie, Maryland. For seven months he also served as an assistant military attaché at the American Embassy in Paris. During this period, he called on family contacts and Standard Oil executives for assistance.
Banking
In 1946, Rockefeller joined the staff of the longtime family-associated Chase National Bank. The chairman at that time was Rockefeller's uncle Winthrop W. Aldrich. The Chase Bank was primarily a wholesale bank, dealing with other prominent financial institutions and major corporate clients such as General Electric (which had, through its RCA affiliate, leased prominent space and become a crucial first tenant of Rockefeller Center in 1930). The bank also is closely associated with and has financed the oil industry, having longstanding connections with its board of directors to the successor companies of Standard Oil, especially Exxon Mobil. Chase National became the Chase Manhattan Bank in 1955 and shifted significantly into consumer banking. It is now called JPMorgan Chase.
Rockefeller started as an assistant manager in the foreign department. There he financed international trade in a number of commodities, such as coffee, sugar and metals. This position also maintained relationships with more than 1,000 correspondent banks throughout the world. He served in other positions and became president in 1960. He was both chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan from 1969 to 1980 and remained chairman until 1981. He was also, as recently as 1980, the single largest individual shareholder of the bank, holding 1.7% of its shares.
During his term as CEO, Chase spread internationally and became a central component of the world's financial system due to its global network of correspondent banks, the largest in the world. In 1973, Chase established the first branch of an American bank in Moscow, in the then Soviet Union. That year Rockefeller traveled to China, resulting in his bank becoming the National Bank of China's first correspondent bank in the U.S.
Also during this period, Chase Manhattan expanded its influence over many non-financial corporations. A 1979 study titled "The Significance of Bank Control over Large Corporations" provided an estimate for which large U.S.-based financial institutions had the most control over other corporations. The study finds that: "The Rockefeller-controlled Chase Manhattan Bank tops the list, controlling 16 companies."He was faulted for spending excessive amounts of time abroad, and during his tenure as CEO the bank had more troubled loans than any other major bank. Chase owned more New York City securities in the mid-1970s, when the city was nearing bankruptcy. A scandal erupted in 1974 when an audit found that losses from bond trading had been understated, and in 1975 the bank was branded a "problem bank" by the Federal Reserve.
From 1974 to 1976, Chase earnings fell 36 percent while those of its biggest rivals rose 12 to 31 percent. The bank's earnings more than doubled between 1976 and 1980, far outpacing its rival Citibank in return on assets. By 1981 the bank's finances were restored to full health.
In November 1979, while chairman of the Chase Bank, Rockefeller became embroiled in an international incident when he and Henry Kissinger, along with John J. McCloy and Rockefeller aides, persuaded President Jimmy Carter through the United States Department of State to admit the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, into the United States for hospital treatment for lymphoma. This action directly precipitated what is known as the Iran hostage crisis and placed Rockefeller under intense media scrutiny (particularly from The New York Times) for the first time in his public life.
Rockefeller retired from active management of the bank in 1981, succeeded by his protégé Willard C. Butcher. Former Chase chairman John J. McCloy said at the time that he believed Rockefeller would not go down in history as a great banker but rather as a "real personality, as a distinguished and loyal member of the community".
Political connections
Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower. At times he served as an unofficial emissary on high-level business. Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev.
In 1968, he declined an offer from his brother Nelson Rockefeller, then governor of New York, to appoint him to Robert F. Kennedy's Senate seat after Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, a post Nelson also offered to their nephew John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV. President Jimmy Carter offered him the position of United States Secretary of the Treasury but he declined.
Rockefeller was criticized for befriending foreign autocrats in order to expand Chase interests in their countries. The New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in 2002 that Rockefeller "spent his life in the club of the ruling class and was loyal to members of the club, no matter what they did." He noted that Rockefeller had cut profitable deals with "oil-rich dictators", "Soviet party bosses" and "Chinese perpetrators of the Cultural Revolution".
Rockefeller met Henry Kissinger in 1954, when Kissinger was appointed a director of a seminal Council on Foreign Relations study group on nuclear weapons, of which David Rockefeller was a member. He named Kissinger to the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and consulted with him frequently, with the subjects including the Chase Bank's interests in Chile and the possibility of the election of Salvador Allende in 1970. Rockefeller supported his "opening of China" initiative in 1971 as it afforded banking opportunities for the Chase Bank.
Though a lifelong Republican and party contributor, he was a member of the moderate "Rockefeller Republicans" that arose out of the political ambitions and public policy stance of his brother Nelson. In 2006, he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care, that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders.
Central Intelligence Agency ties
Rockefeller was acquainted with Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Allen Dulles and his brother, Eisenhower administration Secretary of State John Foster Dulles—who was an in-law of the family—since his college years. It was in Rockefeller Center that Allen Dulles had set up his WWII operational center after Pearl Harbor, liaising closely with MI6, which also had their principal U.S. operation in the Center. He also knew and associated with the former CIA director Richard Helms as well as Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt Jr., a Chase Bank employee and former CIA agent whose first cousin, CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt Jr., was involved in the Iran coup of 1953. Also in 1953, he had befriended William Bundy, a pivotal CIA analyst for nine years in the 1950s, who became the Agency liaison to the National Security Council, and a subsequent lifelong friend. Moreover, in Cary Reich's biography of his brother Nelson, a former CIA agent states that David was extensively briefed on covert intelligence operations by himself and other Agency division chiefs, under the direction of David's "friend and confidant", CIA Director Allen Dulles.
Policy groups
In 1964, along with other American business figures such as Sol Linowitz, Rockefeller founded the non-profit International Executive Service Corps which encourages developing nations to promote private enterprise. In 1979, he formed the Partnership for New York City, a not-for-profit membership organization of New York businessmen. In 1992, he was selected as a leading member of the Russian-American Bankers Forum, an advisory group set up by the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to advise Russia on the modernization of its banking system, with the full endorsement of President Boris Yeltsin.
Rockefeller had a lifelong association with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) when he joined as a director in 1949. In 1965, Rockefeller and other businessmen formed the Council of the Americas to stimulate and support economic integration in the Americas. In 1992, at a Council sponsored forum, Rockefeller proposed a "Western Hemisphere free trade area", which became the Free Trade Area of the Americas in a Miami summit in 1994. His and the Council's chief liaison to President Bill Clinton in order to garner support for this initiative was through Clinton's chief of staff, Mack McLarty, whose consultancy firm Kissinger McLarty Associates is a corporate member of the Council, while McLarty himself is on the board of directors. He was also a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, including 1948, when Alger Hiss was president.
Displeased with the refusal of Bilderberg Group meetings to include Japan, Rockefeller helped found the Trilateral Commission in July 1973.
Later career
After the war and alongside his work at Chase, Rockefeller took a more active role in his family's business dealings. Working with his brothers in the two floors of Rockefeller Center known as Room 5600, he reorganized the family's myriad business and philanthropic ventures. The men kept regular "brothers' meetings" where they made decisions on matters of common interest and reported on noteworthy events in each of their lives. Rockefeller served as secretary to the group, making notes of each meeting. The notes are now in the family archive and will be released in the future. Following the deaths of his brothers, Winthrop (1973), John III (1978), Nelson (1979), and Laurance (2004), David became sole head of the family (with the important involvement of his elder son, David Jr.).
Rockefeller ensured that selected members of the fourth generation, known generically as the cousins, became directly involved in the family's institutions. This involved inviting them to be more active in the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the principal foundation established in 1940 by the five brothers and their one sister. The extended family also became involved in their own philanthropic organization, formed in 1967 and primarily established by third-generation members, called the Rockefeller Family Fund.
In the 1980s, Rockefeller became embroiled in controversy over the mortgaging and sale of Rockefeller Center to Japanese interests. In 1985, the Rockefeller family mortgaged the property for $1.3 billion, with $300 million of that going to the family. In 1989, 51 percent of the property, later increased to 80 percent, was sold to Mitsubishi Estate Company of Japan. This action was criticized for surrendering a major U.S. landmark to foreign interests. In 2000, Rockefeller presided over the final sale of Rockefeller Center to Tishman Speyer Properties, along with the Crown family of Chicago, which ended the more than 70 years of direct family financial association with Rockefeller Center.
In 2005, he gave $100 million to the Museum of Modern Art and $100 million to Rockefeller University, two of the most prominent family institutions; as well as $10 million to Harvard and $5 million to Colonial Williamsburg. In 2006, he pledged $225 million to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund upon his death, the largest gift in the Fund's history. The money will be used to create the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund, to support projects that improve access to health care, conduct research on international finance and trade, fight poverty, and support sustainable development, as well as to a program that fosters dialogue between Muslim and Western nations. Rockefeller donated $100 million to Harvard University in 2008. The New York Times estimated in November 2006 that his total charitable donations amount to $900 million over his lifetime, a figure that was substantiated by a monograph on the family's overall benefactions, entitled The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
He published Memoirs in 2002, the only time a member of the Rockefeller family has written an autobiography.
Rockefeller was a noted internationalist.
Rockefeller's will requires his estate, once assets are liquidated, to donate over $700 million to various non-profits, including Rockefeller University, the Museum of Modern Art and Harvard. The largest donation will be either $250 million or the remaining balance of the estate that will fund the launch of the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund.
Personal life
In 1940, Rockefeller married Margaret "Peggy" McGrath, who died in 1996. They had six children:
David Rockefeller Jr. (born July 24, 1941) – vice chairman, Rockefeller Family & Associates (the family office, Room 5600); chairman of Rockefeller Financial Services; Trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation; former chairman of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Rockefeller & Co., Inc., among many other family institutions.
Abigail Aldrich "Abby" Rockefeller (born 1943) – economist and feminist. Eldest and most rebellious daughter, she was drawn to Marxism and was an ardent admirer of Fidel Castro and a late 1960s/early 1970s radical feminist who belonged to the organization Female Liberation, later forming a splinter group called Cell 16. An environmentalist and ecologist, she was an active supporter of the women's liberation movement.
Neva Rockefeller (born 1944) – economist and philanthropist. She is director of the Global Development and Environment Institute; trustee and vice chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Director of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Margaret Dulany "Peggy" Rockefeller (born 1947) – founder of the Synergos Institute in 1986; Board member of the Council on Foreign Relations; serves on the Advisory Committee of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University.
Richard Gilder Rockefeller (1949–2014) – physician and philanthropist; chairman of the United States advisory board of the international aid group Doctors Without Borders; trustee and chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Eileen Rockefeller (born February 26, 1952) – venture philanthropist; Founding Chair of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, established in New York City in 2002.
Death
Rockefeller died in his sleep from congestive heart failure on March 20, 2017, at his home in Pocantico Hills, New York. He was 101 years old.
Wealth
At the time of his death, Forbes estimated Rockefeller's net worth was $3.3 billion. Initially, most of his wealth had come to him via the family trusts created by his father, which were administered by Room 5600 and the Chase Bank. In turn, most of these trusts were held as shares in the successor companies of Standard Oil, as well as diverse real estate investment partnerships, such as the expansive Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, which he later sold for considerable profit, retaining only an indirect stake. In addition, he was or had been a partner in various properties such as Caneel Bay, a resort development in the Virgin Islands; a cattle ranch in Argentina; and a sheep ranch in Australia.
Another major source of asset wealth was his art collection, ranging from impressionist to postmodern, which he developed through the influence upon him of his mother Abby and her establishment, with two associates, of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1929. The collection, valued at several hundred million dollars, was auctioned in the spring of 2018, with proceeds going to several designated nonprofit organizations, including Rockefeller University, Harvard University, the Museum of Modern Art, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Maine Coast Heritage Trust.
Residences
Rockefeller's principal residence was at "Hudson Pines", on the family estate in Pocantico Hills, New York. He also had a Manhattan residence at 146 East 65th Street, as well as a country residence (known as "Four Winds") at a farm in Livingston, New York (Columbia County), where his wife raised Simmenthal beef cattle. He also maintained a summer home, "Ringing Point," at Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island off the Maine coast. In May 2015, he donated one thousand acres of land in Seal Harbor to the Mount Desert Land and Garden Preserve. He also owned a large estate on the French island of St. Barth, and along with the Rothschild family, was one of the earliest developers and tourists on the island in the 1950s. The home was very modern and was located in the Colombier district, known to many as the most beautiful section of the island. It has changed hands several times over the years, and is the single largest private parcel on the island, encompassing the entire Baie de Colombier. Many years ago, the Rockefeller family donated the land in the initial creation of the Saint-Barth "Zone Verte," or Green Zone, which is an area which cannot be developed. The property also includes a private dock in the port of Gustavia as at the time the estate was developed, there were no roads to the property and the only way to get there was by boat; David Rockefeller would moor his yacht at his private dock in Gustavia before transferring to the Colombier estate in a smaller boat as the bay could not accommodate his yacht. The property was recently listed for over $100 million, but is not currently used as a residence and the main house has fallen into disrepair. There is also a dock in the Baie de Colombier. It is not known what the current owners' intentions are.
The Kykuit section of the Rockefeller family compound is the location of The Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund established by David and his four brothers in 1940 which was created when the Fund leased the area from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1991.
Non-governmental leadership positions
Council on Foreign Relations – Honorary Chairman
Americas Society – Founder and Honorary Chairman
Trilateral Commission – Founder and Honorary North American Chairman
Bilderberg Meetings – Only member of the Member Advisory Group
The New York Young Republican Club – Board Member
Awards
Presidential Medal of Freedom (1998);
U.S. Legion of Merit (1945);
French Legion of Honor (1945);
U.S. Army Commendation Ribbon (1945);
Commander of the Brazilian Order of the Southern Cross (1956);
Charles Evans Hughes award NCCJ, (1974);
George C. Marshall Foundation Award (1999);
Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy (2001);
Synergos Bridging Leadership Award (2003);
The Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur (2000);
C. Walter Nichols Award, New York University (1970);
World Brotherhood Award, Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1953);
Award of Merit from the American Institute of Architects (1965);
Medal of Honor for City Planning, American Institute of Architects (1968);
World Monuments Fund's Hadrian Award (for preservation of art and architecture) (1994);
National Institute of Social Sciences Gold Medal Award (1967 – awarded to all 5 brothers);
United States Council for International Business (USCIB) International Leadership Award (1983);
The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award (1965).
References
Sources
Further reading
The Rockefeller File, Gary Allen, ´76 Press, Seal Beach California, 1976.
The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family, John Ensor Harr and Peter J. Johnson. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988.
The Rockefeller Conscience: An American Family in Public and in Private, John Ensor Harr and Peter J. Johnson, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992.
The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer 1908–1958, Cary Reich, New York: Doubleday, 1996.
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller: The Woman in the Family, Bernice Kert, New York: Random House, 1993.
Those Rockefeller Brothers: An Informal Biography of Five Extraordinary Young Men, Joe Alex Morris, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953.
The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty, Peter Collier and David Horowitz, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1976.
The American Establishment, Leonard Silk and Mark Silk, New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1980.
American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission, Stephen Gill, Boston: Cambridge University Press, Reprint Edition, 1991.
The Chase: The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., 1945–1985, John Donald Wilson, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1986.
Wriston: Walter Wriston, Citibank, and the Rise and Fall of American Financial Supremacy, Phillip L. Zweig, New York: Crown Publishers, 1995.
Paul Volcker: The Making of a Financial Legend, Joseph B. Treaster, New York: Wiley, 2004.
Financier: The Biography of André Meyer; A Story of Money, Power, and the Reshaping of American Business, Cary Reich, New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1983.
Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996, Peter Grose, New York: Council on Foreign Relations: 1996.
Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy, Laurence H. Shoup, and William Minter, New York: Authors Choice Press, (Reprint), 2004.
Cloak of Green: The Links between Key Environmental Groups, Government and Big Business, Elaine Dewar, New York: Lorimer, 1995.
The Shah's Last Ride, William Shawcross, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York City's World Trade Center, Eric Darton, New York: Basic Books, 1999.
The Rich and the Super-Rich: A Study in the Power of Money Today, Ferdinand Lundberg, New York: Lyle Stuart; Reprint Edition, 1988.
Interlock: The untold story of American banks, oil interests, the Shah's money, debts, and the astounding connections between them, Mark Hulbert, New York: Richardson & Snyder; 1st edition, 1982.
The Money Lenders: Bankers and a World in Turmoil, Anthony Sampson, New York: Viking Press, 1982.
The Chairman: John J. McCloy – The Making of the American Establishment, Kai Bird, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
External links
The Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC): Selected Biography
Rockefeller Brothers Fund Official Web site
1915 births
2017 deaths
Alumni of the London School of Economics
American art collectors
American autobiographers
American bankers
American billionaires
American centenarians
American chief executives of financial services companies
American memoirists
United States Army personnel of World War II
Philanthropists from New York (state)
Giving Pledgers
21st-century philanthropists
Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur
Harvard University alumni
JPMorgan Chase employees
Members of the New York Yacht Club
Members of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group
Men centenarians
Military personnel from New York City
New York (state) Republicans
People associated with the Museum of Modern Art (New York City)
Writers from Manhattan
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Recipients of the Legion of Merit
Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller family
Winthrop family
Rockefeller Foundation people
University of Chicago alumni
Honorary Fellows of the London School of Economics
United States Army officers
Chairs of the Council on Foreign Relations
Members of the Council on Foreign Relations
Ritchie Boys
World Trade Center | false | [
"Han Jin-won (, born 1986) is a South Korean screenwriter. He is best known for his work on Parasite as writer, which earned him critical appraisal and recognition including an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay at the 92nd Academy Awards in 2020. He shared this award with Bong Joon-ho, and this made the two of them the first Asian writers to win any screenwriting Academy Award.\n\nFilmography\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\n1986 births\nLiving people\nBest Original Screenplay Academy Award winners\nBest Original Screenplay BAFTA Award winners\nSouth Korean screenwriters",
"Alex Henning is a visual effects supervisor.\n\nOn January 24, 2012, he was nominated for an Oscar for the film Hugo, which he did win at the 84th Academy Awards in the category of Best Visual Effects. His win was shared with Ben Grossmann, Robert Legato, and Joss Williams.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nLiving people\nVisual effects supervisors\nBest Visual Effects Academy Award winners\nYear of birth missing (living people)"
]
|
[
"David Rockefeller",
"Political connections",
"What was David political connections?",
"Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower.",
"Which other names of people he met were mentioned?",
"Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev.",
"Did he win any award?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_46d11ac9d2d343dfa2d6010b9b429ed6_1 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 4 | Besides Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev, are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | David Rockefeller | Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower. At times he served as an unofficial emissary on high-level business. Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1968, he declined an offer from his brother Nelson Rockefeller, then governor of New York, to appoint him to Robert F. Kennedy's Senate seat after Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, a post Nelson also offered to their nephew John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV. President Jimmy Carter offered him the position of United States Secretary of the Treasury but he declined. Rockefeller was criticized for befriending foreign autocrats in order to expand Chase interests in their countries. The New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in 2002 that Rockefeller "spent his life in the club of the ruling class and was loyal to members of the club, no matter what they did." He noted that Rockefeller had cut profitable deals with "oil-rich dictators", "Soviet party bosses" and "Chinese perpetrators of the Cultural Revolution". Rockefeller met Henry Kissinger in 1954, when Kissinger was appointed a director of a seminal Council on Foreign Relations study group on nuclear weapons, of which David Rockefeller was a member. He named Kissinger to the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and consulted with him frequently, with the subjects including the Chase Bank's interests in Chile and the possibility of the election of Salvador Allende in 1970. Rockefeller supported his "opening of China" initiative in 1971 as it afforded banking opportunities for the Chase Bank. Though a lifelong Republican and party contributor, he was a member of the moderate "Rockefeller Republicans" that arose out of the political ambitions and public policy stance of his brother Nelson. In 2006 he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care, that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders. CANNOTANSWER | Nelson. In 2006 he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care, | David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017) was an American investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of the Rockefeller family, and family patriarch from July 2004 until his death in March 2017. Rockefeller was the fifth son and youngest child of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and a grandson of John D. Rockefeller and Laura Spelman Rockefeller.
He was noted for his wide-ranging political connections and foreign travel, in which he met with many foreign leaders. His fortune was estimated at $3.3 billion at the time of his death in March 2017.
Early life
Rockefeller was born in New York City, New York. He grew up in an eight-story house at 10 West 54th Street, the tallest private residence ever built in the city. Rockefeller was the youngest of six children born to financier John Davison Rockefeller Jr. and socialite Abigail Greene "Abby" Aldrich. John Jr. was the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John Davison Rockefeller Sr. and schoolteacher Laura Celestia "Cettie" Spelman. Abby was a daughter of Rhode Island U.S. Senator Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich and Abigail Pearce Truman "Abby" Chapman. David's five elder siblings were Abby, John III, Nelson, Laurance, and Winthrop.
Rockefeller attended the experimental Lincoln School at 123rd Street in Harlem.
Education
In 1936, Rockefeller graduated cum laude from Harvard University, where he worked as an editor on The Harvard Crimson. He also studied economics for a year at Harvard and then a year at the London School of Economics (LSE). At LSE he first met the future President John F. Kennedy (although he had earlier been his contemporary at Harvard) and once dated Kennedy's sister Kathleen.
During his time abroad, Rockefeller briefly worked in the London branch of what was to become the Chase Manhattan Bank.
After returning to the U.S. to complete his graduate studies, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1940.
Career
Government service
After completing his studies in Chicago, he became secretary to New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia for eighteen months in a "dollar a year" public service position. Although the mayor pointed out to the press that Rockefeller was only one of 60 interns in the city government, his working space was, in fact, the vacant office of the deputy mayor. From 1941 to 1942, Rockefeller was assistant regional director of the United States Office of Defense, Health and Welfare Services.
Military
Rockefeller enlisted in the U.S. Army and entered Officer Candidate School in 1943; he was ultimately promoted to Captain in 1945. During World War II he served in North Africa and France (he spoke fluent French) for military intelligence setting up political and economic intelligence units. He served as a "Ritchie Boy" secret unit specially trained at Fort Ritchie, Maryland. For seven months he also served as an assistant military attaché at the American Embassy in Paris. During this period, he called on family contacts and Standard Oil executives for assistance.
Banking
In 1946, Rockefeller joined the staff of the longtime family-associated Chase National Bank. The chairman at that time was Rockefeller's uncle Winthrop W. Aldrich. The Chase Bank was primarily a wholesale bank, dealing with other prominent financial institutions and major corporate clients such as General Electric (which had, through its RCA affiliate, leased prominent space and become a crucial first tenant of Rockefeller Center in 1930). The bank also is closely associated with and has financed the oil industry, having longstanding connections with its board of directors to the successor companies of Standard Oil, especially Exxon Mobil. Chase National became the Chase Manhattan Bank in 1955 and shifted significantly into consumer banking. It is now called JPMorgan Chase.
Rockefeller started as an assistant manager in the foreign department. There he financed international trade in a number of commodities, such as coffee, sugar and metals. This position also maintained relationships with more than 1,000 correspondent banks throughout the world. He served in other positions and became president in 1960. He was both chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan from 1969 to 1980 and remained chairman until 1981. He was also, as recently as 1980, the single largest individual shareholder of the bank, holding 1.7% of its shares.
During his term as CEO, Chase spread internationally and became a central component of the world's financial system due to its global network of correspondent banks, the largest in the world. In 1973, Chase established the first branch of an American bank in Moscow, in the then Soviet Union. That year Rockefeller traveled to China, resulting in his bank becoming the National Bank of China's first correspondent bank in the U.S.
Also during this period, Chase Manhattan expanded its influence over many non-financial corporations. A 1979 study titled "The Significance of Bank Control over Large Corporations" provided an estimate for which large U.S.-based financial institutions had the most control over other corporations. The study finds that: "The Rockefeller-controlled Chase Manhattan Bank tops the list, controlling 16 companies."He was faulted for spending excessive amounts of time abroad, and during his tenure as CEO the bank had more troubled loans than any other major bank. Chase owned more New York City securities in the mid-1970s, when the city was nearing bankruptcy. A scandal erupted in 1974 when an audit found that losses from bond trading had been understated, and in 1975 the bank was branded a "problem bank" by the Federal Reserve.
From 1974 to 1976, Chase earnings fell 36 percent while those of its biggest rivals rose 12 to 31 percent. The bank's earnings more than doubled between 1976 and 1980, far outpacing its rival Citibank in return on assets. By 1981 the bank's finances were restored to full health.
In November 1979, while chairman of the Chase Bank, Rockefeller became embroiled in an international incident when he and Henry Kissinger, along with John J. McCloy and Rockefeller aides, persuaded President Jimmy Carter through the United States Department of State to admit the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, into the United States for hospital treatment for lymphoma. This action directly precipitated what is known as the Iran hostage crisis and placed Rockefeller under intense media scrutiny (particularly from The New York Times) for the first time in his public life.
Rockefeller retired from active management of the bank in 1981, succeeded by his protégé Willard C. Butcher. Former Chase chairman John J. McCloy said at the time that he believed Rockefeller would not go down in history as a great banker but rather as a "real personality, as a distinguished and loyal member of the community".
Political connections
Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower. At times he served as an unofficial emissary on high-level business. Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev.
In 1968, he declined an offer from his brother Nelson Rockefeller, then governor of New York, to appoint him to Robert F. Kennedy's Senate seat after Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, a post Nelson also offered to their nephew John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV. President Jimmy Carter offered him the position of United States Secretary of the Treasury but he declined.
Rockefeller was criticized for befriending foreign autocrats in order to expand Chase interests in their countries. The New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in 2002 that Rockefeller "spent his life in the club of the ruling class and was loyal to members of the club, no matter what they did." He noted that Rockefeller had cut profitable deals with "oil-rich dictators", "Soviet party bosses" and "Chinese perpetrators of the Cultural Revolution".
Rockefeller met Henry Kissinger in 1954, when Kissinger was appointed a director of a seminal Council on Foreign Relations study group on nuclear weapons, of which David Rockefeller was a member. He named Kissinger to the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and consulted with him frequently, with the subjects including the Chase Bank's interests in Chile and the possibility of the election of Salvador Allende in 1970. Rockefeller supported his "opening of China" initiative in 1971 as it afforded banking opportunities for the Chase Bank.
Though a lifelong Republican and party contributor, he was a member of the moderate "Rockefeller Republicans" that arose out of the political ambitions and public policy stance of his brother Nelson. In 2006, he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care, that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders.
Central Intelligence Agency ties
Rockefeller was acquainted with Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Allen Dulles and his brother, Eisenhower administration Secretary of State John Foster Dulles—who was an in-law of the family—since his college years. It was in Rockefeller Center that Allen Dulles had set up his WWII operational center after Pearl Harbor, liaising closely with MI6, which also had their principal U.S. operation in the Center. He also knew and associated with the former CIA director Richard Helms as well as Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt Jr., a Chase Bank employee and former CIA agent whose first cousin, CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt Jr., was involved in the Iran coup of 1953. Also in 1953, he had befriended William Bundy, a pivotal CIA analyst for nine years in the 1950s, who became the Agency liaison to the National Security Council, and a subsequent lifelong friend. Moreover, in Cary Reich's biography of his brother Nelson, a former CIA agent states that David was extensively briefed on covert intelligence operations by himself and other Agency division chiefs, under the direction of David's "friend and confidant", CIA Director Allen Dulles.
Policy groups
In 1964, along with other American business figures such as Sol Linowitz, Rockefeller founded the non-profit International Executive Service Corps which encourages developing nations to promote private enterprise. In 1979, he formed the Partnership for New York City, a not-for-profit membership organization of New York businessmen. In 1992, he was selected as a leading member of the Russian-American Bankers Forum, an advisory group set up by the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to advise Russia on the modernization of its banking system, with the full endorsement of President Boris Yeltsin.
Rockefeller had a lifelong association with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) when he joined as a director in 1949. In 1965, Rockefeller and other businessmen formed the Council of the Americas to stimulate and support economic integration in the Americas. In 1992, at a Council sponsored forum, Rockefeller proposed a "Western Hemisphere free trade area", which became the Free Trade Area of the Americas in a Miami summit in 1994. His and the Council's chief liaison to President Bill Clinton in order to garner support for this initiative was through Clinton's chief of staff, Mack McLarty, whose consultancy firm Kissinger McLarty Associates is a corporate member of the Council, while McLarty himself is on the board of directors. He was also a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, including 1948, when Alger Hiss was president.
Displeased with the refusal of Bilderberg Group meetings to include Japan, Rockefeller helped found the Trilateral Commission in July 1973.
Later career
After the war and alongside his work at Chase, Rockefeller took a more active role in his family's business dealings. Working with his brothers in the two floors of Rockefeller Center known as Room 5600, he reorganized the family's myriad business and philanthropic ventures. The men kept regular "brothers' meetings" where they made decisions on matters of common interest and reported on noteworthy events in each of their lives. Rockefeller served as secretary to the group, making notes of each meeting. The notes are now in the family archive and will be released in the future. Following the deaths of his brothers, Winthrop (1973), John III (1978), Nelson (1979), and Laurance (2004), David became sole head of the family (with the important involvement of his elder son, David Jr.).
Rockefeller ensured that selected members of the fourth generation, known generically as the cousins, became directly involved in the family's institutions. This involved inviting them to be more active in the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the principal foundation established in 1940 by the five brothers and their one sister. The extended family also became involved in their own philanthropic organization, formed in 1967 and primarily established by third-generation members, called the Rockefeller Family Fund.
In the 1980s, Rockefeller became embroiled in controversy over the mortgaging and sale of Rockefeller Center to Japanese interests. In 1985, the Rockefeller family mortgaged the property for $1.3 billion, with $300 million of that going to the family. In 1989, 51 percent of the property, later increased to 80 percent, was sold to Mitsubishi Estate Company of Japan. This action was criticized for surrendering a major U.S. landmark to foreign interests. In 2000, Rockefeller presided over the final sale of Rockefeller Center to Tishman Speyer Properties, along with the Crown family of Chicago, which ended the more than 70 years of direct family financial association with Rockefeller Center.
In 2005, he gave $100 million to the Museum of Modern Art and $100 million to Rockefeller University, two of the most prominent family institutions; as well as $10 million to Harvard and $5 million to Colonial Williamsburg. In 2006, he pledged $225 million to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund upon his death, the largest gift in the Fund's history. The money will be used to create the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund, to support projects that improve access to health care, conduct research on international finance and trade, fight poverty, and support sustainable development, as well as to a program that fosters dialogue between Muslim and Western nations. Rockefeller donated $100 million to Harvard University in 2008. The New York Times estimated in November 2006 that his total charitable donations amount to $900 million over his lifetime, a figure that was substantiated by a monograph on the family's overall benefactions, entitled The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
He published Memoirs in 2002, the only time a member of the Rockefeller family has written an autobiography.
Rockefeller was a noted internationalist.
Rockefeller's will requires his estate, once assets are liquidated, to donate over $700 million to various non-profits, including Rockefeller University, the Museum of Modern Art and Harvard. The largest donation will be either $250 million or the remaining balance of the estate that will fund the launch of the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund.
Personal life
In 1940, Rockefeller married Margaret "Peggy" McGrath, who died in 1996. They had six children:
David Rockefeller Jr. (born July 24, 1941) – vice chairman, Rockefeller Family & Associates (the family office, Room 5600); chairman of Rockefeller Financial Services; Trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation; former chairman of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Rockefeller & Co., Inc., among many other family institutions.
Abigail Aldrich "Abby" Rockefeller (born 1943) – economist and feminist. Eldest and most rebellious daughter, she was drawn to Marxism and was an ardent admirer of Fidel Castro and a late 1960s/early 1970s radical feminist who belonged to the organization Female Liberation, later forming a splinter group called Cell 16. An environmentalist and ecologist, she was an active supporter of the women's liberation movement.
Neva Rockefeller (born 1944) – economist and philanthropist. She is director of the Global Development and Environment Institute; trustee and vice chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Director of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Margaret Dulany "Peggy" Rockefeller (born 1947) – founder of the Synergos Institute in 1986; Board member of the Council on Foreign Relations; serves on the Advisory Committee of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University.
Richard Gilder Rockefeller (1949–2014) – physician and philanthropist; chairman of the United States advisory board of the international aid group Doctors Without Borders; trustee and chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Eileen Rockefeller (born February 26, 1952) – venture philanthropist; Founding Chair of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, established in New York City in 2002.
Death
Rockefeller died in his sleep from congestive heart failure on March 20, 2017, at his home in Pocantico Hills, New York. He was 101 years old.
Wealth
At the time of his death, Forbes estimated Rockefeller's net worth was $3.3 billion. Initially, most of his wealth had come to him via the family trusts created by his father, which were administered by Room 5600 and the Chase Bank. In turn, most of these trusts were held as shares in the successor companies of Standard Oil, as well as diverse real estate investment partnerships, such as the expansive Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, which he later sold for considerable profit, retaining only an indirect stake. In addition, he was or had been a partner in various properties such as Caneel Bay, a resort development in the Virgin Islands; a cattle ranch in Argentina; and a sheep ranch in Australia.
Another major source of asset wealth was his art collection, ranging from impressionist to postmodern, which he developed through the influence upon him of his mother Abby and her establishment, with two associates, of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1929. The collection, valued at several hundred million dollars, was auctioned in the spring of 2018, with proceeds going to several designated nonprofit organizations, including Rockefeller University, Harvard University, the Museum of Modern Art, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Maine Coast Heritage Trust.
Residences
Rockefeller's principal residence was at "Hudson Pines", on the family estate in Pocantico Hills, New York. He also had a Manhattan residence at 146 East 65th Street, as well as a country residence (known as "Four Winds") at a farm in Livingston, New York (Columbia County), where his wife raised Simmenthal beef cattle. He also maintained a summer home, "Ringing Point," at Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island off the Maine coast. In May 2015, he donated one thousand acres of land in Seal Harbor to the Mount Desert Land and Garden Preserve. He also owned a large estate on the French island of St. Barth, and along with the Rothschild family, was one of the earliest developers and tourists on the island in the 1950s. The home was very modern and was located in the Colombier district, known to many as the most beautiful section of the island. It has changed hands several times over the years, and is the single largest private parcel on the island, encompassing the entire Baie de Colombier. Many years ago, the Rockefeller family donated the land in the initial creation of the Saint-Barth "Zone Verte," or Green Zone, which is an area which cannot be developed. The property also includes a private dock in the port of Gustavia as at the time the estate was developed, there were no roads to the property and the only way to get there was by boat; David Rockefeller would moor his yacht at his private dock in Gustavia before transferring to the Colombier estate in a smaller boat as the bay could not accommodate his yacht. The property was recently listed for over $100 million, but is not currently used as a residence and the main house has fallen into disrepair. There is also a dock in the Baie de Colombier. It is not known what the current owners' intentions are.
The Kykuit section of the Rockefeller family compound is the location of The Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund established by David and his four brothers in 1940 which was created when the Fund leased the area from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1991.
Non-governmental leadership positions
Council on Foreign Relations – Honorary Chairman
Americas Society – Founder and Honorary Chairman
Trilateral Commission – Founder and Honorary North American Chairman
Bilderberg Meetings – Only member of the Member Advisory Group
The New York Young Republican Club – Board Member
Awards
Presidential Medal of Freedom (1998);
U.S. Legion of Merit (1945);
French Legion of Honor (1945);
U.S. Army Commendation Ribbon (1945);
Commander of the Brazilian Order of the Southern Cross (1956);
Charles Evans Hughes award NCCJ, (1974);
George C. Marshall Foundation Award (1999);
Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy (2001);
Synergos Bridging Leadership Award (2003);
The Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur (2000);
C. Walter Nichols Award, New York University (1970);
World Brotherhood Award, Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1953);
Award of Merit from the American Institute of Architects (1965);
Medal of Honor for City Planning, American Institute of Architects (1968);
World Monuments Fund's Hadrian Award (for preservation of art and architecture) (1994);
National Institute of Social Sciences Gold Medal Award (1967 – awarded to all 5 brothers);
United States Council for International Business (USCIB) International Leadership Award (1983);
The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award (1965).
References
Sources
Further reading
The Rockefeller File, Gary Allen, ´76 Press, Seal Beach California, 1976.
The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family, John Ensor Harr and Peter J. Johnson. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988.
The Rockefeller Conscience: An American Family in Public and in Private, John Ensor Harr and Peter J. Johnson, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992.
The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer 1908–1958, Cary Reich, New York: Doubleday, 1996.
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller: The Woman in the Family, Bernice Kert, New York: Random House, 1993.
Those Rockefeller Brothers: An Informal Biography of Five Extraordinary Young Men, Joe Alex Morris, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953.
The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty, Peter Collier and David Horowitz, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1976.
The American Establishment, Leonard Silk and Mark Silk, New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1980.
American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission, Stephen Gill, Boston: Cambridge University Press, Reprint Edition, 1991.
The Chase: The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., 1945–1985, John Donald Wilson, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1986.
Wriston: Walter Wriston, Citibank, and the Rise and Fall of American Financial Supremacy, Phillip L. Zweig, New York: Crown Publishers, 1995.
Paul Volcker: The Making of a Financial Legend, Joseph B. Treaster, New York: Wiley, 2004.
Financier: The Biography of André Meyer; A Story of Money, Power, and the Reshaping of American Business, Cary Reich, New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1983.
Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996, Peter Grose, New York: Council on Foreign Relations: 1996.
Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy, Laurence H. Shoup, and William Minter, New York: Authors Choice Press, (Reprint), 2004.
Cloak of Green: The Links between Key Environmental Groups, Government and Big Business, Elaine Dewar, New York: Lorimer, 1995.
The Shah's Last Ride, William Shawcross, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York City's World Trade Center, Eric Darton, New York: Basic Books, 1999.
The Rich and the Super-Rich: A Study in the Power of Money Today, Ferdinand Lundberg, New York: Lyle Stuart; Reprint Edition, 1988.
Interlock: The untold story of American banks, oil interests, the Shah's money, debts, and the astounding connections between them, Mark Hulbert, New York: Richardson & Snyder; 1st edition, 1982.
The Money Lenders: Bankers and a World in Turmoil, Anthony Sampson, New York: Viking Press, 1982.
The Chairman: John J. McCloy – The Making of the American Establishment, Kai Bird, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
External links
The Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC): Selected Biography
Rockefeller Brothers Fund Official Web site
1915 births
2017 deaths
Alumni of the London School of Economics
American art collectors
American autobiographers
American bankers
American billionaires
American centenarians
American chief executives of financial services companies
American memoirists
United States Army personnel of World War II
Philanthropists from New York (state)
Giving Pledgers
21st-century philanthropists
Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur
Harvard University alumni
JPMorgan Chase employees
Members of the New York Yacht Club
Members of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group
Men centenarians
Military personnel from New York City
New York (state) Republicans
People associated with the Museum of Modern Art (New York City)
Writers from Manhattan
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Recipients of the Legion of Merit
Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller family
Winthrop family
Rockefeller Foundation people
University of Chicago alumni
Honorary Fellows of the London School of Economics
United States Army officers
Chairs of the Council on Foreign Relations
Members of the Council on Foreign Relations
Ritchie Boys
World Trade Center | false | [
"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"
]
|
[
"David Rockefeller",
"Political connections",
"What was David political connections?",
"Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower.",
"Which other names of people he met were mentioned?",
"Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev.",
"Did he win any award?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Nelson. In 2006 he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care,"
]
| C_46d11ac9d2d343dfa2d6010b9b429ed6_1 | Where did they form the group? | 5 | Where did David Rockefeller form the fund-raising group? | David Rockefeller | Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower. At times he served as an unofficial emissary on high-level business. Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1968, he declined an offer from his brother Nelson Rockefeller, then governor of New York, to appoint him to Robert F. Kennedy's Senate seat after Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, a post Nelson also offered to their nephew John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV. President Jimmy Carter offered him the position of United States Secretary of the Treasury but he declined. Rockefeller was criticized for befriending foreign autocrats in order to expand Chase interests in their countries. The New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in 2002 that Rockefeller "spent his life in the club of the ruling class and was loyal to members of the club, no matter what they did." He noted that Rockefeller had cut profitable deals with "oil-rich dictators", "Soviet party bosses" and "Chinese perpetrators of the Cultural Revolution". Rockefeller met Henry Kissinger in 1954, when Kissinger was appointed a director of a seminal Council on Foreign Relations study group on nuclear weapons, of which David Rockefeller was a member. He named Kissinger to the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and consulted with him frequently, with the subjects including the Chase Bank's interests in Chile and the possibility of the election of Salvador Allende in 1970. Rockefeller supported his "opening of China" initiative in 1971 as it afforded banking opportunities for the Chase Bank. Though a lifelong Republican and party contributor, he was a member of the moderate "Rockefeller Republicans" that arose out of the political ambitions and public policy stance of his brother Nelson. In 2006 he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care, that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders. CANNOTANSWER | Washington, | David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017) was an American investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of the Rockefeller family, and family patriarch from July 2004 until his death in March 2017. Rockefeller was the fifth son and youngest child of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and a grandson of John D. Rockefeller and Laura Spelman Rockefeller.
He was noted for his wide-ranging political connections and foreign travel, in which he met with many foreign leaders. His fortune was estimated at $3.3 billion at the time of his death in March 2017.
Early life
Rockefeller was born in New York City, New York. He grew up in an eight-story house at 10 West 54th Street, the tallest private residence ever built in the city. Rockefeller was the youngest of six children born to financier John Davison Rockefeller Jr. and socialite Abigail Greene "Abby" Aldrich. John Jr. was the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John Davison Rockefeller Sr. and schoolteacher Laura Celestia "Cettie" Spelman. Abby was a daughter of Rhode Island U.S. Senator Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich and Abigail Pearce Truman "Abby" Chapman. David's five elder siblings were Abby, John III, Nelson, Laurance, and Winthrop.
Rockefeller attended the experimental Lincoln School at 123rd Street in Harlem.
Education
In 1936, Rockefeller graduated cum laude from Harvard University, where he worked as an editor on The Harvard Crimson. He also studied economics for a year at Harvard and then a year at the London School of Economics (LSE). At LSE he first met the future President John F. Kennedy (although he had earlier been his contemporary at Harvard) and once dated Kennedy's sister Kathleen.
During his time abroad, Rockefeller briefly worked in the London branch of what was to become the Chase Manhattan Bank.
After returning to the U.S. to complete his graduate studies, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1940.
Career
Government service
After completing his studies in Chicago, he became secretary to New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia for eighteen months in a "dollar a year" public service position. Although the mayor pointed out to the press that Rockefeller was only one of 60 interns in the city government, his working space was, in fact, the vacant office of the deputy mayor. From 1941 to 1942, Rockefeller was assistant regional director of the United States Office of Defense, Health and Welfare Services.
Military
Rockefeller enlisted in the U.S. Army and entered Officer Candidate School in 1943; he was ultimately promoted to Captain in 1945. During World War II he served in North Africa and France (he spoke fluent French) for military intelligence setting up political and economic intelligence units. He served as a "Ritchie Boy" secret unit specially trained at Fort Ritchie, Maryland. For seven months he also served as an assistant military attaché at the American Embassy in Paris. During this period, he called on family contacts and Standard Oil executives for assistance.
Banking
In 1946, Rockefeller joined the staff of the longtime family-associated Chase National Bank. The chairman at that time was Rockefeller's uncle Winthrop W. Aldrich. The Chase Bank was primarily a wholesale bank, dealing with other prominent financial institutions and major corporate clients such as General Electric (which had, through its RCA affiliate, leased prominent space and become a crucial first tenant of Rockefeller Center in 1930). The bank also is closely associated with and has financed the oil industry, having longstanding connections with its board of directors to the successor companies of Standard Oil, especially Exxon Mobil. Chase National became the Chase Manhattan Bank in 1955 and shifted significantly into consumer banking. It is now called JPMorgan Chase.
Rockefeller started as an assistant manager in the foreign department. There he financed international trade in a number of commodities, such as coffee, sugar and metals. This position also maintained relationships with more than 1,000 correspondent banks throughout the world. He served in other positions and became president in 1960. He was both chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan from 1969 to 1980 and remained chairman until 1981. He was also, as recently as 1980, the single largest individual shareholder of the bank, holding 1.7% of its shares.
During his term as CEO, Chase spread internationally and became a central component of the world's financial system due to its global network of correspondent banks, the largest in the world. In 1973, Chase established the first branch of an American bank in Moscow, in the then Soviet Union. That year Rockefeller traveled to China, resulting in his bank becoming the National Bank of China's first correspondent bank in the U.S.
Also during this period, Chase Manhattan expanded its influence over many non-financial corporations. A 1979 study titled "The Significance of Bank Control over Large Corporations" provided an estimate for which large U.S.-based financial institutions had the most control over other corporations. The study finds that: "The Rockefeller-controlled Chase Manhattan Bank tops the list, controlling 16 companies."He was faulted for spending excessive amounts of time abroad, and during his tenure as CEO the bank had more troubled loans than any other major bank. Chase owned more New York City securities in the mid-1970s, when the city was nearing bankruptcy. A scandal erupted in 1974 when an audit found that losses from bond trading had been understated, and in 1975 the bank was branded a "problem bank" by the Federal Reserve.
From 1974 to 1976, Chase earnings fell 36 percent while those of its biggest rivals rose 12 to 31 percent. The bank's earnings more than doubled between 1976 and 1980, far outpacing its rival Citibank in return on assets. By 1981 the bank's finances were restored to full health.
In November 1979, while chairman of the Chase Bank, Rockefeller became embroiled in an international incident when he and Henry Kissinger, along with John J. McCloy and Rockefeller aides, persuaded President Jimmy Carter through the United States Department of State to admit the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, into the United States for hospital treatment for lymphoma. This action directly precipitated what is known as the Iran hostage crisis and placed Rockefeller under intense media scrutiny (particularly from The New York Times) for the first time in his public life.
Rockefeller retired from active management of the bank in 1981, succeeded by his protégé Willard C. Butcher. Former Chase chairman John J. McCloy said at the time that he believed Rockefeller would not go down in history as a great banker but rather as a "real personality, as a distinguished and loyal member of the community".
Political connections
Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower. At times he served as an unofficial emissary on high-level business. Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev.
In 1968, he declined an offer from his brother Nelson Rockefeller, then governor of New York, to appoint him to Robert F. Kennedy's Senate seat after Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, a post Nelson also offered to their nephew John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV. President Jimmy Carter offered him the position of United States Secretary of the Treasury but he declined.
Rockefeller was criticized for befriending foreign autocrats in order to expand Chase interests in their countries. The New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in 2002 that Rockefeller "spent his life in the club of the ruling class and was loyal to members of the club, no matter what they did." He noted that Rockefeller had cut profitable deals with "oil-rich dictators", "Soviet party bosses" and "Chinese perpetrators of the Cultural Revolution".
Rockefeller met Henry Kissinger in 1954, when Kissinger was appointed a director of a seminal Council on Foreign Relations study group on nuclear weapons, of which David Rockefeller was a member. He named Kissinger to the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and consulted with him frequently, with the subjects including the Chase Bank's interests in Chile and the possibility of the election of Salvador Allende in 1970. Rockefeller supported his "opening of China" initiative in 1971 as it afforded banking opportunities for the Chase Bank.
Though a lifelong Republican and party contributor, he was a member of the moderate "Rockefeller Republicans" that arose out of the political ambitions and public policy stance of his brother Nelson. In 2006, he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care, that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders.
Central Intelligence Agency ties
Rockefeller was acquainted with Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Allen Dulles and his brother, Eisenhower administration Secretary of State John Foster Dulles—who was an in-law of the family—since his college years. It was in Rockefeller Center that Allen Dulles had set up his WWII operational center after Pearl Harbor, liaising closely with MI6, which also had their principal U.S. operation in the Center. He also knew and associated with the former CIA director Richard Helms as well as Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt Jr., a Chase Bank employee and former CIA agent whose first cousin, CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt Jr., was involved in the Iran coup of 1953. Also in 1953, he had befriended William Bundy, a pivotal CIA analyst for nine years in the 1950s, who became the Agency liaison to the National Security Council, and a subsequent lifelong friend. Moreover, in Cary Reich's biography of his brother Nelson, a former CIA agent states that David was extensively briefed on covert intelligence operations by himself and other Agency division chiefs, under the direction of David's "friend and confidant", CIA Director Allen Dulles.
Policy groups
In 1964, along with other American business figures such as Sol Linowitz, Rockefeller founded the non-profit International Executive Service Corps which encourages developing nations to promote private enterprise. In 1979, he formed the Partnership for New York City, a not-for-profit membership organization of New York businessmen. In 1992, he was selected as a leading member of the Russian-American Bankers Forum, an advisory group set up by the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to advise Russia on the modernization of its banking system, with the full endorsement of President Boris Yeltsin.
Rockefeller had a lifelong association with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) when he joined as a director in 1949. In 1965, Rockefeller and other businessmen formed the Council of the Americas to stimulate and support economic integration in the Americas. In 1992, at a Council sponsored forum, Rockefeller proposed a "Western Hemisphere free trade area", which became the Free Trade Area of the Americas in a Miami summit in 1994. His and the Council's chief liaison to President Bill Clinton in order to garner support for this initiative was through Clinton's chief of staff, Mack McLarty, whose consultancy firm Kissinger McLarty Associates is a corporate member of the Council, while McLarty himself is on the board of directors. He was also a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, including 1948, when Alger Hiss was president.
Displeased with the refusal of Bilderberg Group meetings to include Japan, Rockefeller helped found the Trilateral Commission in July 1973.
Later career
After the war and alongside his work at Chase, Rockefeller took a more active role in his family's business dealings. Working with his brothers in the two floors of Rockefeller Center known as Room 5600, he reorganized the family's myriad business and philanthropic ventures. The men kept regular "brothers' meetings" where they made decisions on matters of common interest and reported on noteworthy events in each of their lives. Rockefeller served as secretary to the group, making notes of each meeting. The notes are now in the family archive and will be released in the future. Following the deaths of his brothers, Winthrop (1973), John III (1978), Nelson (1979), and Laurance (2004), David became sole head of the family (with the important involvement of his elder son, David Jr.).
Rockefeller ensured that selected members of the fourth generation, known generically as the cousins, became directly involved in the family's institutions. This involved inviting them to be more active in the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the principal foundation established in 1940 by the five brothers and their one sister. The extended family also became involved in their own philanthropic organization, formed in 1967 and primarily established by third-generation members, called the Rockefeller Family Fund.
In the 1980s, Rockefeller became embroiled in controversy over the mortgaging and sale of Rockefeller Center to Japanese interests. In 1985, the Rockefeller family mortgaged the property for $1.3 billion, with $300 million of that going to the family. In 1989, 51 percent of the property, later increased to 80 percent, was sold to Mitsubishi Estate Company of Japan. This action was criticized for surrendering a major U.S. landmark to foreign interests. In 2000, Rockefeller presided over the final sale of Rockefeller Center to Tishman Speyer Properties, along with the Crown family of Chicago, which ended the more than 70 years of direct family financial association with Rockefeller Center.
In 2005, he gave $100 million to the Museum of Modern Art and $100 million to Rockefeller University, two of the most prominent family institutions; as well as $10 million to Harvard and $5 million to Colonial Williamsburg. In 2006, he pledged $225 million to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund upon his death, the largest gift in the Fund's history. The money will be used to create the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund, to support projects that improve access to health care, conduct research on international finance and trade, fight poverty, and support sustainable development, as well as to a program that fosters dialogue between Muslim and Western nations. Rockefeller donated $100 million to Harvard University in 2008. The New York Times estimated in November 2006 that his total charitable donations amount to $900 million over his lifetime, a figure that was substantiated by a monograph on the family's overall benefactions, entitled The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
He published Memoirs in 2002, the only time a member of the Rockefeller family has written an autobiography.
Rockefeller was a noted internationalist.
Rockefeller's will requires his estate, once assets are liquidated, to donate over $700 million to various non-profits, including Rockefeller University, the Museum of Modern Art and Harvard. The largest donation will be either $250 million or the remaining balance of the estate that will fund the launch of the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund.
Personal life
In 1940, Rockefeller married Margaret "Peggy" McGrath, who died in 1996. They had six children:
David Rockefeller Jr. (born July 24, 1941) – vice chairman, Rockefeller Family & Associates (the family office, Room 5600); chairman of Rockefeller Financial Services; Trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation; former chairman of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Rockefeller & Co., Inc., among many other family institutions.
Abigail Aldrich "Abby" Rockefeller (born 1943) – economist and feminist. Eldest and most rebellious daughter, she was drawn to Marxism and was an ardent admirer of Fidel Castro and a late 1960s/early 1970s radical feminist who belonged to the organization Female Liberation, later forming a splinter group called Cell 16. An environmentalist and ecologist, she was an active supporter of the women's liberation movement.
Neva Rockefeller (born 1944) – economist and philanthropist. She is director of the Global Development and Environment Institute; trustee and vice chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Director of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Margaret Dulany "Peggy" Rockefeller (born 1947) – founder of the Synergos Institute in 1986; Board member of the Council on Foreign Relations; serves on the Advisory Committee of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University.
Richard Gilder Rockefeller (1949–2014) – physician and philanthropist; chairman of the United States advisory board of the international aid group Doctors Without Borders; trustee and chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Eileen Rockefeller (born February 26, 1952) – venture philanthropist; Founding Chair of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, established in New York City in 2002.
Death
Rockefeller died in his sleep from congestive heart failure on March 20, 2017, at his home in Pocantico Hills, New York. He was 101 years old.
Wealth
At the time of his death, Forbes estimated Rockefeller's net worth was $3.3 billion. Initially, most of his wealth had come to him via the family trusts created by his father, which were administered by Room 5600 and the Chase Bank. In turn, most of these trusts were held as shares in the successor companies of Standard Oil, as well as diverse real estate investment partnerships, such as the expansive Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, which he later sold for considerable profit, retaining only an indirect stake. In addition, he was or had been a partner in various properties such as Caneel Bay, a resort development in the Virgin Islands; a cattle ranch in Argentina; and a sheep ranch in Australia.
Another major source of asset wealth was his art collection, ranging from impressionist to postmodern, which he developed through the influence upon him of his mother Abby and her establishment, with two associates, of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1929. The collection, valued at several hundred million dollars, was auctioned in the spring of 2018, with proceeds going to several designated nonprofit organizations, including Rockefeller University, Harvard University, the Museum of Modern Art, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Maine Coast Heritage Trust.
Residences
Rockefeller's principal residence was at "Hudson Pines", on the family estate in Pocantico Hills, New York. He also had a Manhattan residence at 146 East 65th Street, as well as a country residence (known as "Four Winds") at a farm in Livingston, New York (Columbia County), where his wife raised Simmenthal beef cattle. He also maintained a summer home, "Ringing Point," at Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island off the Maine coast. In May 2015, he donated one thousand acres of land in Seal Harbor to the Mount Desert Land and Garden Preserve. He also owned a large estate on the French island of St. Barth, and along with the Rothschild family, was one of the earliest developers and tourists on the island in the 1950s. The home was very modern and was located in the Colombier district, known to many as the most beautiful section of the island. It has changed hands several times over the years, and is the single largest private parcel on the island, encompassing the entire Baie de Colombier. Many years ago, the Rockefeller family donated the land in the initial creation of the Saint-Barth "Zone Verte," or Green Zone, which is an area which cannot be developed. The property also includes a private dock in the port of Gustavia as at the time the estate was developed, there were no roads to the property and the only way to get there was by boat; David Rockefeller would moor his yacht at his private dock in Gustavia before transferring to the Colombier estate in a smaller boat as the bay could not accommodate his yacht. The property was recently listed for over $100 million, but is not currently used as a residence and the main house has fallen into disrepair. There is also a dock in the Baie de Colombier. It is not known what the current owners' intentions are.
The Kykuit section of the Rockefeller family compound is the location of The Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund established by David and his four brothers in 1940 which was created when the Fund leased the area from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1991.
Non-governmental leadership positions
Council on Foreign Relations – Honorary Chairman
Americas Society – Founder and Honorary Chairman
Trilateral Commission – Founder and Honorary North American Chairman
Bilderberg Meetings – Only member of the Member Advisory Group
The New York Young Republican Club – Board Member
Awards
Presidential Medal of Freedom (1998);
U.S. Legion of Merit (1945);
French Legion of Honor (1945);
U.S. Army Commendation Ribbon (1945);
Commander of the Brazilian Order of the Southern Cross (1956);
Charles Evans Hughes award NCCJ, (1974);
George C. Marshall Foundation Award (1999);
Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy (2001);
Synergos Bridging Leadership Award (2003);
The Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur (2000);
C. Walter Nichols Award, New York University (1970);
World Brotherhood Award, Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1953);
Award of Merit from the American Institute of Architects (1965);
Medal of Honor for City Planning, American Institute of Architects (1968);
World Monuments Fund's Hadrian Award (for preservation of art and architecture) (1994);
National Institute of Social Sciences Gold Medal Award (1967 – awarded to all 5 brothers);
United States Council for International Business (USCIB) International Leadership Award (1983);
The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award (1965).
References
Sources
Further reading
The Rockefeller File, Gary Allen, ´76 Press, Seal Beach California, 1976.
The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family, John Ensor Harr and Peter J. Johnson. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988.
The Rockefeller Conscience: An American Family in Public and in Private, John Ensor Harr and Peter J. Johnson, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992.
The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer 1908–1958, Cary Reich, New York: Doubleday, 1996.
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller: The Woman in the Family, Bernice Kert, New York: Random House, 1993.
Those Rockefeller Brothers: An Informal Biography of Five Extraordinary Young Men, Joe Alex Morris, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953.
The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty, Peter Collier and David Horowitz, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1976.
The American Establishment, Leonard Silk and Mark Silk, New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1980.
American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission, Stephen Gill, Boston: Cambridge University Press, Reprint Edition, 1991.
The Chase: The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., 1945–1985, John Donald Wilson, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1986.
Wriston: Walter Wriston, Citibank, and the Rise and Fall of American Financial Supremacy, Phillip L. Zweig, New York: Crown Publishers, 1995.
Paul Volcker: The Making of a Financial Legend, Joseph B. Treaster, New York: Wiley, 2004.
Financier: The Biography of André Meyer; A Story of Money, Power, and the Reshaping of American Business, Cary Reich, New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1983.
Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996, Peter Grose, New York: Council on Foreign Relations: 1996.
Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy, Laurence H. Shoup, and William Minter, New York: Authors Choice Press, (Reprint), 2004.
Cloak of Green: The Links between Key Environmental Groups, Government and Big Business, Elaine Dewar, New York: Lorimer, 1995.
The Shah's Last Ride, William Shawcross, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York City's World Trade Center, Eric Darton, New York: Basic Books, 1999.
The Rich and the Super-Rich: A Study in the Power of Money Today, Ferdinand Lundberg, New York: Lyle Stuart; Reprint Edition, 1988.
Interlock: The untold story of American banks, oil interests, the Shah's money, debts, and the astounding connections between them, Mark Hulbert, New York: Richardson & Snyder; 1st edition, 1982.
The Money Lenders: Bankers and a World in Turmoil, Anthony Sampson, New York: Viking Press, 1982.
The Chairman: John J. McCloy – The Making of the American Establishment, Kai Bird, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
External links
The Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC): Selected Biography
Rockefeller Brothers Fund Official Web site
1915 births
2017 deaths
Alumni of the London School of Economics
American art collectors
American autobiographers
American bankers
American billionaires
American centenarians
American chief executives of financial services companies
American memoirists
United States Army personnel of World War II
Philanthropists from New York (state)
Giving Pledgers
21st-century philanthropists
Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur
Harvard University alumni
JPMorgan Chase employees
Members of the New York Yacht Club
Members of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group
Men centenarians
Military personnel from New York City
New York (state) Republicans
People associated with the Museum of Modern Art (New York City)
Writers from Manhattan
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Recipients of the Legion of Merit
Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller family
Winthrop family
Rockefeller Foundation people
University of Chicago alumni
Honorary Fellows of the London School of Economics
United States Army officers
Chairs of the Council on Foreign Relations
Members of the Council on Foreign Relations
Ritchie Boys
World Trade Center | true | [
"Havering Residents Association (HRA) is a group of residents' associations and registered political party in London, England. It is active in the London Borough of Havering and forms a 17-councillor group on Havering London Borough Council. At the 2014 London borough council elections they were the second largest party on Havering Council, largest elected residents group in London, and the fourth largest political party represented on all London borough councils. Not all residents groups in Havering are affiliated to the HRA, usually indicating this by standing as 'independent resident' candidates. In 2014 eight members of the Havering Residents Association group split off to form the East Havering Residents Group.\n\nHavering London Borough Council\nThe residents association is represented on Havering London Borough Council where they are the second largest party and opposition group.\n\n2010 election\nAt the 2010 London borough council elections the Havering Residents Association stood candidates in 15 of the 18 wards in Havering. 12 of the 45 candidates were elected as councillors.\n\nThe following were elected/stood in each ward of Havering:\n\nThey did not have candidates in Rainham and Wennington, or South Hornchurch where other residents groups had candidates. Councillors elected from those wards form a separate 'independent resident' group on Havering Council. No residents candidates stood in Brooklands.\n\n2014 election\nAt the 2014 London borough council elections the Havering Residents Association stood candidates in 12 of the 18 wards, with 34 candidates of which 19 were elected.\n\n2014 split\nIn 2014 eight members of the Havering Residents Association group, including the leader Clarence Barrett, split off to form East Havering Residents Group.\n\nLondon Assembly\nHavering Residents Association stood a candidate for the Havering and Redbridge constituency at the 2000 London Assembly elections and received 12,831 votes. They have not contested any further London Assembly elections.\n\nReferences\n\nLocally based political parties in England\nPolitics of the London Borough of Havering\nPolitics of the London Borough of Redbridge",
"The Environmental Integrity Group (EIG) is a negotiation group consisting of 6 parties to the UNFCCC. When it was formed in 2000, it only consisted of Switzerland, Korea, and Mexico.\n\nHistory \nThe Environmental Integrity Group was initiated by Switzerland during the negotiations of the Kyoto Protocol, where only party groups were allowed to negotiate. Switzerland was not part of any group and they did not want to join the Umbrella Group. So Switzerland declared to form the EIG and invited other independent parties to join.\n\nJoint Submissions \n 2016 on matters of the Global Stock Take (GST)\n\nMembers \n 2000 (founding member)\n 2000 (founding member)\n 2000 (founding member)\n 20?? \n 20?? \n 2017\n\nLiterature and References\nLiterature\nEmily Laur: Who is the Environmental Integrity Group?, In: Digital Lotus: Thursday, March 24, 2016.\n\n'References\n\nUnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change"
]
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[
"David Rockefeller",
"Political connections",
"What was David political connections?",
"Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower.",
"Which other names of people he met were mentioned?",
"Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev.",
"Did he win any award?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Nelson. In 2006 he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care,",
"Where did they form the group?",
"Washington,"
]
| C_46d11ac9d2d343dfa2d6010b9b429ed6_1 | What is the aim of the group? | 6 | What is the aim of the fund-raising group? | David Rockefeller | Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower. At times he served as an unofficial emissary on high-level business. Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1968, he declined an offer from his brother Nelson Rockefeller, then governor of New York, to appoint him to Robert F. Kennedy's Senate seat after Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, a post Nelson also offered to their nephew John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV. President Jimmy Carter offered him the position of United States Secretary of the Treasury but he declined. Rockefeller was criticized for befriending foreign autocrats in order to expand Chase interests in their countries. The New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in 2002 that Rockefeller "spent his life in the club of the ruling class and was loyal to members of the club, no matter what they did." He noted that Rockefeller had cut profitable deals with "oil-rich dictators", "Soviet party bosses" and "Chinese perpetrators of the Cultural Revolution". Rockefeller met Henry Kissinger in 1954, when Kissinger was appointed a director of a seminal Council on Foreign Relations study group on nuclear weapons, of which David Rockefeller was a member. He named Kissinger to the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and consulted with him frequently, with the subjects including the Chase Bank's interests in Chile and the possibility of the election of Salvador Allende in 1970. Rockefeller supported his "opening of China" initiative in 1971 as it afforded banking opportunities for the Chase Bank. Though a lifelong Republican and party contributor, he was a member of the moderate "Rockefeller Republicans" that arose out of the political ambitions and public policy stance of his brother Nelson. In 2006 he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care, that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders. CANNOTANSWER | that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders. | David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017) was an American investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of the Rockefeller family, and family patriarch from July 2004 until his death in March 2017. Rockefeller was the fifth son and youngest child of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and a grandson of John D. Rockefeller and Laura Spelman Rockefeller.
He was noted for his wide-ranging political connections and foreign travel, in which he met with many foreign leaders. His fortune was estimated at $3.3 billion at the time of his death in March 2017.
Early life
Rockefeller was born in New York City, New York. He grew up in an eight-story house at 10 West 54th Street, the tallest private residence ever built in the city. Rockefeller was the youngest of six children born to financier John Davison Rockefeller Jr. and socialite Abigail Greene "Abby" Aldrich. John Jr. was the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John Davison Rockefeller Sr. and schoolteacher Laura Celestia "Cettie" Spelman. Abby was a daughter of Rhode Island U.S. Senator Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich and Abigail Pearce Truman "Abby" Chapman. David's five elder siblings were Abby, John III, Nelson, Laurance, and Winthrop.
Rockefeller attended the experimental Lincoln School at 123rd Street in Harlem.
Education
In 1936, Rockefeller graduated cum laude from Harvard University, where he worked as an editor on The Harvard Crimson. He also studied economics for a year at Harvard and then a year at the London School of Economics (LSE). At LSE he first met the future President John F. Kennedy (although he had earlier been his contemporary at Harvard) and once dated Kennedy's sister Kathleen.
During his time abroad, Rockefeller briefly worked in the London branch of what was to become the Chase Manhattan Bank.
After returning to the U.S. to complete his graduate studies, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1940.
Career
Government service
After completing his studies in Chicago, he became secretary to New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia for eighteen months in a "dollar a year" public service position. Although the mayor pointed out to the press that Rockefeller was only one of 60 interns in the city government, his working space was, in fact, the vacant office of the deputy mayor. From 1941 to 1942, Rockefeller was assistant regional director of the United States Office of Defense, Health and Welfare Services.
Military
Rockefeller enlisted in the U.S. Army and entered Officer Candidate School in 1943; he was ultimately promoted to Captain in 1945. During World War II he served in North Africa and France (he spoke fluent French) for military intelligence setting up political and economic intelligence units. He served as a "Ritchie Boy" secret unit specially trained at Fort Ritchie, Maryland. For seven months he also served as an assistant military attaché at the American Embassy in Paris. During this period, he called on family contacts and Standard Oil executives for assistance.
Banking
In 1946, Rockefeller joined the staff of the longtime family-associated Chase National Bank. The chairman at that time was Rockefeller's uncle Winthrop W. Aldrich. The Chase Bank was primarily a wholesale bank, dealing with other prominent financial institutions and major corporate clients such as General Electric (which had, through its RCA affiliate, leased prominent space and become a crucial first tenant of Rockefeller Center in 1930). The bank also is closely associated with and has financed the oil industry, having longstanding connections with its board of directors to the successor companies of Standard Oil, especially Exxon Mobil. Chase National became the Chase Manhattan Bank in 1955 and shifted significantly into consumer banking. It is now called JPMorgan Chase.
Rockefeller started as an assistant manager in the foreign department. There he financed international trade in a number of commodities, such as coffee, sugar and metals. This position also maintained relationships with more than 1,000 correspondent banks throughout the world. He served in other positions and became president in 1960. He was both chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan from 1969 to 1980 and remained chairman until 1981. He was also, as recently as 1980, the single largest individual shareholder of the bank, holding 1.7% of its shares.
During his term as CEO, Chase spread internationally and became a central component of the world's financial system due to its global network of correspondent banks, the largest in the world. In 1973, Chase established the first branch of an American bank in Moscow, in the then Soviet Union. That year Rockefeller traveled to China, resulting in his bank becoming the National Bank of China's first correspondent bank in the U.S.
Also during this period, Chase Manhattan expanded its influence over many non-financial corporations. A 1979 study titled "The Significance of Bank Control over Large Corporations" provided an estimate for which large U.S.-based financial institutions had the most control over other corporations. The study finds that: "The Rockefeller-controlled Chase Manhattan Bank tops the list, controlling 16 companies."He was faulted for spending excessive amounts of time abroad, and during his tenure as CEO the bank had more troubled loans than any other major bank. Chase owned more New York City securities in the mid-1970s, when the city was nearing bankruptcy. A scandal erupted in 1974 when an audit found that losses from bond trading had been understated, and in 1975 the bank was branded a "problem bank" by the Federal Reserve.
From 1974 to 1976, Chase earnings fell 36 percent while those of its biggest rivals rose 12 to 31 percent. The bank's earnings more than doubled between 1976 and 1980, far outpacing its rival Citibank in return on assets. By 1981 the bank's finances were restored to full health.
In November 1979, while chairman of the Chase Bank, Rockefeller became embroiled in an international incident when he and Henry Kissinger, along with John J. McCloy and Rockefeller aides, persuaded President Jimmy Carter through the United States Department of State to admit the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, into the United States for hospital treatment for lymphoma. This action directly precipitated what is known as the Iran hostage crisis and placed Rockefeller under intense media scrutiny (particularly from The New York Times) for the first time in his public life.
Rockefeller retired from active management of the bank in 1981, succeeded by his protégé Willard C. Butcher. Former Chase chairman John J. McCloy said at the time that he believed Rockefeller would not go down in history as a great banker but rather as a "real personality, as a distinguished and loyal member of the community".
Political connections
Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower. At times he served as an unofficial emissary on high-level business. Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev.
In 1968, he declined an offer from his brother Nelson Rockefeller, then governor of New York, to appoint him to Robert F. Kennedy's Senate seat after Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, a post Nelson also offered to their nephew John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV. President Jimmy Carter offered him the position of United States Secretary of the Treasury but he declined.
Rockefeller was criticized for befriending foreign autocrats in order to expand Chase interests in their countries. The New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in 2002 that Rockefeller "spent his life in the club of the ruling class and was loyal to members of the club, no matter what they did." He noted that Rockefeller had cut profitable deals with "oil-rich dictators", "Soviet party bosses" and "Chinese perpetrators of the Cultural Revolution".
Rockefeller met Henry Kissinger in 1954, when Kissinger was appointed a director of a seminal Council on Foreign Relations study group on nuclear weapons, of which David Rockefeller was a member. He named Kissinger to the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and consulted with him frequently, with the subjects including the Chase Bank's interests in Chile and the possibility of the election of Salvador Allende in 1970. Rockefeller supported his "opening of China" initiative in 1971 as it afforded banking opportunities for the Chase Bank.
Though a lifelong Republican and party contributor, he was a member of the moderate "Rockefeller Republicans" that arose out of the political ambitions and public policy stance of his brother Nelson. In 2006, he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care, that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders.
Central Intelligence Agency ties
Rockefeller was acquainted with Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Allen Dulles and his brother, Eisenhower administration Secretary of State John Foster Dulles—who was an in-law of the family—since his college years. It was in Rockefeller Center that Allen Dulles had set up his WWII operational center after Pearl Harbor, liaising closely with MI6, which also had their principal U.S. operation in the Center. He also knew and associated with the former CIA director Richard Helms as well as Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt Jr., a Chase Bank employee and former CIA agent whose first cousin, CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt Jr., was involved in the Iran coup of 1953. Also in 1953, he had befriended William Bundy, a pivotal CIA analyst for nine years in the 1950s, who became the Agency liaison to the National Security Council, and a subsequent lifelong friend. Moreover, in Cary Reich's biography of his brother Nelson, a former CIA agent states that David was extensively briefed on covert intelligence operations by himself and other Agency division chiefs, under the direction of David's "friend and confidant", CIA Director Allen Dulles.
Policy groups
In 1964, along with other American business figures such as Sol Linowitz, Rockefeller founded the non-profit International Executive Service Corps which encourages developing nations to promote private enterprise. In 1979, he formed the Partnership for New York City, a not-for-profit membership organization of New York businessmen. In 1992, he was selected as a leading member of the Russian-American Bankers Forum, an advisory group set up by the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to advise Russia on the modernization of its banking system, with the full endorsement of President Boris Yeltsin.
Rockefeller had a lifelong association with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) when he joined as a director in 1949. In 1965, Rockefeller and other businessmen formed the Council of the Americas to stimulate and support economic integration in the Americas. In 1992, at a Council sponsored forum, Rockefeller proposed a "Western Hemisphere free trade area", which became the Free Trade Area of the Americas in a Miami summit in 1994. His and the Council's chief liaison to President Bill Clinton in order to garner support for this initiative was through Clinton's chief of staff, Mack McLarty, whose consultancy firm Kissinger McLarty Associates is a corporate member of the Council, while McLarty himself is on the board of directors. He was also a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, including 1948, when Alger Hiss was president.
Displeased with the refusal of Bilderberg Group meetings to include Japan, Rockefeller helped found the Trilateral Commission in July 1973.
Later career
After the war and alongside his work at Chase, Rockefeller took a more active role in his family's business dealings. Working with his brothers in the two floors of Rockefeller Center known as Room 5600, he reorganized the family's myriad business and philanthropic ventures. The men kept regular "brothers' meetings" where they made decisions on matters of common interest and reported on noteworthy events in each of their lives. Rockefeller served as secretary to the group, making notes of each meeting. The notes are now in the family archive and will be released in the future. Following the deaths of his brothers, Winthrop (1973), John III (1978), Nelson (1979), and Laurance (2004), David became sole head of the family (with the important involvement of his elder son, David Jr.).
Rockefeller ensured that selected members of the fourth generation, known generically as the cousins, became directly involved in the family's institutions. This involved inviting them to be more active in the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the principal foundation established in 1940 by the five brothers and their one sister. The extended family also became involved in their own philanthropic organization, formed in 1967 and primarily established by third-generation members, called the Rockefeller Family Fund.
In the 1980s, Rockefeller became embroiled in controversy over the mortgaging and sale of Rockefeller Center to Japanese interests. In 1985, the Rockefeller family mortgaged the property for $1.3 billion, with $300 million of that going to the family. In 1989, 51 percent of the property, later increased to 80 percent, was sold to Mitsubishi Estate Company of Japan. This action was criticized for surrendering a major U.S. landmark to foreign interests. In 2000, Rockefeller presided over the final sale of Rockefeller Center to Tishman Speyer Properties, along with the Crown family of Chicago, which ended the more than 70 years of direct family financial association with Rockefeller Center.
In 2005, he gave $100 million to the Museum of Modern Art and $100 million to Rockefeller University, two of the most prominent family institutions; as well as $10 million to Harvard and $5 million to Colonial Williamsburg. In 2006, he pledged $225 million to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund upon his death, the largest gift in the Fund's history. The money will be used to create the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund, to support projects that improve access to health care, conduct research on international finance and trade, fight poverty, and support sustainable development, as well as to a program that fosters dialogue between Muslim and Western nations. Rockefeller donated $100 million to Harvard University in 2008. The New York Times estimated in November 2006 that his total charitable donations amount to $900 million over his lifetime, a figure that was substantiated by a monograph on the family's overall benefactions, entitled The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
He published Memoirs in 2002, the only time a member of the Rockefeller family has written an autobiography.
Rockefeller was a noted internationalist.
Rockefeller's will requires his estate, once assets are liquidated, to donate over $700 million to various non-profits, including Rockefeller University, the Museum of Modern Art and Harvard. The largest donation will be either $250 million or the remaining balance of the estate that will fund the launch of the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund.
Personal life
In 1940, Rockefeller married Margaret "Peggy" McGrath, who died in 1996. They had six children:
David Rockefeller Jr. (born July 24, 1941) – vice chairman, Rockefeller Family & Associates (the family office, Room 5600); chairman of Rockefeller Financial Services; Trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation; former chairman of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Rockefeller & Co., Inc., among many other family institutions.
Abigail Aldrich "Abby" Rockefeller (born 1943) – economist and feminist. Eldest and most rebellious daughter, she was drawn to Marxism and was an ardent admirer of Fidel Castro and a late 1960s/early 1970s radical feminist who belonged to the organization Female Liberation, later forming a splinter group called Cell 16. An environmentalist and ecologist, she was an active supporter of the women's liberation movement.
Neva Rockefeller (born 1944) – economist and philanthropist. She is director of the Global Development and Environment Institute; trustee and vice chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Director of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Margaret Dulany "Peggy" Rockefeller (born 1947) – founder of the Synergos Institute in 1986; Board member of the Council on Foreign Relations; serves on the Advisory Committee of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University.
Richard Gilder Rockefeller (1949–2014) – physician and philanthropist; chairman of the United States advisory board of the international aid group Doctors Without Borders; trustee and chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Eileen Rockefeller (born February 26, 1952) – venture philanthropist; Founding Chair of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, established in New York City in 2002.
Death
Rockefeller died in his sleep from congestive heart failure on March 20, 2017, at his home in Pocantico Hills, New York. He was 101 years old.
Wealth
At the time of his death, Forbes estimated Rockefeller's net worth was $3.3 billion. Initially, most of his wealth had come to him via the family trusts created by his father, which were administered by Room 5600 and the Chase Bank. In turn, most of these trusts were held as shares in the successor companies of Standard Oil, as well as diverse real estate investment partnerships, such as the expansive Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, which he later sold for considerable profit, retaining only an indirect stake. In addition, he was or had been a partner in various properties such as Caneel Bay, a resort development in the Virgin Islands; a cattle ranch in Argentina; and a sheep ranch in Australia.
Another major source of asset wealth was his art collection, ranging from impressionist to postmodern, which he developed through the influence upon him of his mother Abby and her establishment, with two associates, of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1929. The collection, valued at several hundred million dollars, was auctioned in the spring of 2018, with proceeds going to several designated nonprofit organizations, including Rockefeller University, Harvard University, the Museum of Modern Art, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Maine Coast Heritage Trust.
Residences
Rockefeller's principal residence was at "Hudson Pines", on the family estate in Pocantico Hills, New York. He also had a Manhattan residence at 146 East 65th Street, as well as a country residence (known as "Four Winds") at a farm in Livingston, New York (Columbia County), where his wife raised Simmenthal beef cattle. He also maintained a summer home, "Ringing Point," at Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island off the Maine coast. In May 2015, he donated one thousand acres of land in Seal Harbor to the Mount Desert Land and Garden Preserve. He also owned a large estate on the French island of St. Barth, and along with the Rothschild family, was one of the earliest developers and tourists on the island in the 1950s. The home was very modern and was located in the Colombier district, known to many as the most beautiful section of the island. It has changed hands several times over the years, and is the single largest private parcel on the island, encompassing the entire Baie de Colombier. Many years ago, the Rockefeller family donated the land in the initial creation of the Saint-Barth "Zone Verte," or Green Zone, which is an area which cannot be developed. The property also includes a private dock in the port of Gustavia as at the time the estate was developed, there were no roads to the property and the only way to get there was by boat; David Rockefeller would moor his yacht at his private dock in Gustavia before transferring to the Colombier estate in a smaller boat as the bay could not accommodate his yacht. The property was recently listed for over $100 million, but is not currently used as a residence and the main house has fallen into disrepair. There is also a dock in the Baie de Colombier. It is not known what the current owners' intentions are.
The Kykuit section of the Rockefeller family compound is the location of The Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund established by David and his four brothers in 1940 which was created when the Fund leased the area from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1991.
Non-governmental leadership positions
Council on Foreign Relations – Honorary Chairman
Americas Society – Founder and Honorary Chairman
Trilateral Commission – Founder and Honorary North American Chairman
Bilderberg Meetings – Only member of the Member Advisory Group
The New York Young Republican Club – Board Member
Awards
Presidential Medal of Freedom (1998);
U.S. Legion of Merit (1945);
French Legion of Honor (1945);
U.S. Army Commendation Ribbon (1945);
Commander of the Brazilian Order of the Southern Cross (1956);
Charles Evans Hughes award NCCJ, (1974);
George C. Marshall Foundation Award (1999);
Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy (2001);
Synergos Bridging Leadership Award (2003);
The Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur (2000);
C. Walter Nichols Award, New York University (1970);
World Brotherhood Award, Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1953);
Award of Merit from the American Institute of Architects (1965);
Medal of Honor for City Planning, American Institute of Architects (1968);
World Monuments Fund's Hadrian Award (for preservation of art and architecture) (1994);
National Institute of Social Sciences Gold Medal Award (1967 – awarded to all 5 brothers);
United States Council for International Business (USCIB) International Leadership Award (1983);
The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award (1965).
References
Sources
Further reading
The Rockefeller File, Gary Allen, ´76 Press, Seal Beach California, 1976.
The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family, John Ensor Harr and Peter J. Johnson. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988.
The Rockefeller Conscience: An American Family in Public and in Private, John Ensor Harr and Peter J. Johnson, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992.
The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer 1908–1958, Cary Reich, New York: Doubleday, 1996.
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller: The Woman in the Family, Bernice Kert, New York: Random House, 1993.
Those Rockefeller Brothers: An Informal Biography of Five Extraordinary Young Men, Joe Alex Morris, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953.
The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty, Peter Collier and David Horowitz, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1976.
The American Establishment, Leonard Silk and Mark Silk, New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1980.
American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission, Stephen Gill, Boston: Cambridge University Press, Reprint Edition, 1991.
The Chase: The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., 1945–1985, John Donald Wilson, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1986.
Wriston: Walter Wriston, Citibank, and the Rise and Fall of American Financial Supremacy, Phillip L. Zweig, New York: Crown Publishers, 1995.
Paul Volcker: The Making of a Financial Legend, Joseph B. Treaster, New York: Wiley, 2004.
Financier: The Biography of André Meyer; A Story of Money, Power, and the Reshaping of American Business, Cary Reich, New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1983.
Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996, Peter Grose, New York: Council on Foreign Relations: 1996.
Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy, Laurence H. Shoup, and William Minter, New York: Authors Choice Press, (Reprint), 2004.
Cloak of Green: The Links between Key Environmental Groups, Government and Big Business, Elaine Dewar, New York: Lorimer, 1995.
The Shah's Last Ride, William Shawcross, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York City's World Trade Center, Eric Darton, New York: Basic Books, 1999.
The Rich and the Super-Rich: A Study in the Power of Money Today, Ferdinand Lundberg, New York: Lyle Stuart; Reprint Edition, 1988.
Interlock: The untold story of American banks, oil interests, the Shah's money, debts, and the astounding connections between them, Mark Hulbert, New York: Richardson & Snyder; 1st edition, 1982.
The Money Lenders: Bankers and a World in Turmoil, Anthony Sampson, New York: Viking Press, 1982.
The Chairman: John J. McCloy – The Making of the American Establishment, Kai Bird, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
External links
The Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC): Selected Biography
Rockefeller Brothers Fund Official Web site
1915 births
2017 deaths
Alumni of the London School of Economics
American art collectors
American autobiographers
American bankers
American billionaires
American centenarians
American chief executives of financial services companies
American memoirists
United States Army personnel of World War II
Philanthropists from New York (state)
Giving Pledgers
21st-century philanthropists
Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur
Harvard University alumni
JPMorgan Chase employees
Members of the New York Yacht Club
Members of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group
Men centenarians
Military personnel from New York City
New York (state) Republicans
People associated with the Museum of Modern Art (New York City)
Writers from Manhattan
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Recipients of the Legion of Merit
Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller family
Winthrop family
Rockefeller Foundation people
University of Chicago alumni
Honorary Fellows of the London School of Economics
United States Army officers
Chairs of the Council on Foreign Relations
Members of the Council on Foreign Relations
Ritchie Boys
World Trade Center | true | [
"AIM Altitude (Aircraft Interiors Manufacturers) is a main British manufacturer of aircraft cabins, and their components, for airliners.\n\nHistory\nThe original company was registered on 24 June 1940. It became known as AIM Aviation in 1990.\n\nW.Henshall & Sons Ltd made components for aircraft interiors. By the 1970s, the company was known as Henshall Group, which also contained Fliteform of Heathrow. \n\nIn 1978 the Aircraft Interiors Manufacturers Group was formed from four companies.\nBy the 1980s the group was called AIM Group plc, and contained Jecco Aviation of Dorset. AIM Group was listed on the London Stock Exchange in March 1982, valuing the group at £14.7m\n\nIn the 1960s, British European Airways (BEA) carried their equipment. In the 1990s it sponsored the Air League Flying Scholarship competition.\n\nAIM Aviation became AIM Altitude in 2014.\n\nStructure\nIt is situated to the west of the A318 in Byfleet in Surrey, between the M25 and A318, and close to the River Wey. Byfleet & New Haw railway station is around 300 metres to the north.\n\nDivisions\n AIM Research & Development was in West Sussex\n Henshall Bonded Assemblies of Cambridge became AIM Composites, and made fire-proof fabrics with Nomex; AIM Composites is now off the A10 on the Denny End Industrial Estate in Denny End in South Cambridgeshire\n Jecco Aviation of Dorset made aircraft seating; Jecco was founded in 1926.\n\nProducts\nIn the 1980s, the company was experienced with fitting interiors for the British Aerospace 146, Boeing 737 and BAC One-Eleven. It also makes interiors for helicopters.\n\nSee also\n Aerolux of Lancashire\n B/E Aerospace of the USA\n Bucher Group of Switzerland\n Diehl Stiftung of Germany\n JAMCO of Japan\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n AIM Altitude\n\nAircraft cabin components\nAircraft component manufacturers of the United Kingdom\nBritish companies established in 1940\nCompanies based in Cambridgeshire\nCompanies based in Surrey\nManufacturing companies established in 1940\nSouth Cambridgeshire District",
"Jihad Media Battalion is a terrorist organization active in South America. The group is among a number of Jihadi groups active in the Tri-Border Area (TBA) of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina.\n\nFounding\nThe group was founded following the 2003 invasion of Iraq and is understood to be an offshoot of the Islamic State of Iraq. The group's primary aim was to disseminate videos of insurgents in Iraq, including videos suicide bombings as well as messages from leaders of the insurgence. The group's video messages are understood to have been of somewhat better quality than the videos produced in Iraq.\n\nLeadership\nAccording to the Brazilian Federal Police, the head of the group is a Lebanese national named K H A who was arrested by the Brazilian authorities in 2009. Ali, who was based in Brazil, was suspected of financing terrorism. According to the Brazilian magazine Veja, Ali ran an internet cafe in São Paulo while running what is described as \"Al-Qaeda's online communications arm\" having a reach in 17 countries, disseminating communications from Al-Qaeda's leadership and publicizing terror attacks.\n\nReferences\n\nTerrorism in Brazil\nJihadist groups"
]
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[
"David Rockefeller",
"Political connections",
"What was David political connections?",
"Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower.",
"Which other names of people he met were mentioned?",
"Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev.",
"Did he win any award?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Nelson. In 2006 he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care,",
"Where did they form the group?",
"Washington,",
"What is the aim of the group?",
"that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders."
]
| C_46d11ac9d2d343dfa2d6010b9b429ed6_1 | Did he have any critics? | 7 | Did David Rockefeller have any critics? | David Rockefeller | Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower. At times he served as an unofficial emissary on high-level business. Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1968, he declined an offer from his brother Nelson Rockefeller, then governor of New York, to appoint him to Robert F. Kennedy's Senate seat after Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, a post Nelson also offered to their nephew John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV. President Jimmy Carter offered him the position of United States Secretary of the Treasury but he declined. Rockefeller was criticized for befriending foreign autocrats in order to expand Chase interests in their countries. The New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in 2002 that Rockefeller "spent his life in the club of the ruling class and was loyal to members of the club, no matter what they did." He noted that Rockefeller had cut profitable deals with "oil-rich dictators", "Soviet party bosses" and "Chinese perpetrators of the Cultural Revolution". Rockefeller met Henry Kissinger in 1954, when Kissinger was appointed a director of a seminal Council on Foreign Relations study group on nuclear weapons, of which David Rockefeller was a member. He named Kissinger to the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and consulted with him frequently, with the subjects including the Chase Bank's interests in Chile and the possibility of the election of Salvador Allende in 1970. Rockefeller supported his "opening of China" initiative in 1971 as it afforded banking opportunities for the Chase Bank. Though a lifelong Republican and party contributor, he was a member of the moderate "Rockefeller Republicans" that arose out of the political ambitions and public policy stance of his brother Nelson. In 2006 he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care, that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders. CANNOTANSWER | The New York Times columnist David Brooks | David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017) was an American investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of the Rockefeller family, and family patriarch from July 2004 until his death in March 2017. Rockefeller was the fifth son and youngest child of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and a grandson of John D. Rockefeller and Laura Spelman Rockefeller.
He was noted for his wide-ranging political connections and foreign travel, in which he met with many foreign leaders. His fortune was estimated at $3.3 billion at the time of his death in March 2017.
Early life
Rockefeller was born in New York City, New York. He grew up in an eight-story house at 10 West 54th Street, the tallest private residence ever built in the city. Rockefeller was the youngest of six children born to financier John Davison Rockefeller Jr. and socialite Abigail Greene "Abby" Aldrich. John Jr. was the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John Davison Rockefeller Sr. and schoolteacher Laura Celestia "Cettie" Spelman. Abby was a daughter of Rhode Island U.S. Senator Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich and Abigail Pearce Truman "Abby" Chapman. David's five elder siblings were Abby, John III, Nelson, Laurance, and Winthrop.
Rockefeller attended the experimental Lincoln School at 123rd Street in Harlem.
Education
In 1936, Rockefeller graduated cum laude from Harvard University, where he worked as an editor on The Harvard Crimson. He also studied economics for a year at Harvard and then a year at the London School of Economics (LSE). At LSE he first met the future President John F. Kennedy (although he had earlier been his contemporary at Harvard) and once dated Kennedy's sister Kathleen.
During his time abroad, Rockefeller briefly worked in the London branch of what was to become the Chase Manhattan Bank.
After returning to the U.S. to complete his graduate studies, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1940.
Career
Government service
After completing his studies in Chicago, he became secretary to New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia for eighteen months in a "dollar a year" public service position. Although the mayor pointed out to the press that Rockefeller was only one of 60 interns in the city government, his working space was, in fact, the vacant office of the deputy mayor. From 1941 to 1942, Rockefeller was assistant regional director of the United States Office of Defense, Health and Welfare Services.
Military
Rockefeller enlisted in the U.S. Army and entered Officer Candidate School in 1943; he was ultimately promoted to Captain in 1945. During World War II he served in North Africa and France (he spoke fluent French) for military intelligence setting up political and economic intelligence units. He served as a "Ritchie Boy" secret unit specially trained at Fort Ritchie, Maryland. For seven months he also served as an assistant military attaché at the American Embassy in Paris. During this period, he called on family contacts and Standard Oil executives for assistance.
Banking
In 1946, Rockefeller joined the staff of the longtime family-associated Chase National Bank. The chairman at that time was Rockefeller's uncle Winthrop W. Aldrich. The Chase Bank was primarily a wholesale bank, dealing with other prominent financial institutions and major corporate clients such as General Electric (which had, through its RCA affiliate, leased prominent space and become a crucial first tenant of Rockefeller Center in 1930). The bank also is closely associated with and has financed the oil industry, having longstanding connections with its board of directors to the successor companies of Standard Oil, especially Exxon Mobil. Chase National became the Chase Manhattan Bank in 1955 and shifted significantly into consumer banking. It is now called JPMorgan Chase.
Rockefeller started as an assistant manager in the foreign department. There he financed international trade in a number of commodities, such as coffee, sugar and metals. This position also maintained relationships with more than 1,000 correspondent banks throughout the world. He served in other positions and became president in 1960. He was both chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan from 1969 to 1980 and remained chairman until 1981. He was also, as recently as 1980, the single largest individual shareholder of the bank, holding 1.7% of its shares.
During his term as CEO, Chase spread internationally and became a central component of the world's financial system due to its global network of correspondent banks, the largest in the world. In 1973, Chase established the first branch of an American bank in Moscow, in the then Soviet Union. That year Rockefeller traveled to China, resulting in his bank becoming the National Bank of China's first correspondent bank in the U.S.
Also during this period, Chase Manhattan expanded its influence over many non-financial corporations. A 1979 study titled "The Significance of Bank Control over Large Corporations" provided an estimate for which large U.S.-based financial institutions had the most control over other corporations. The study finds that: "The Rockefeller-controlled Chase Manhattan Bank tops the list, controlling 16 companies."He was faulted for spending excessive amounts of time abroad, and during his tenure as CEO the bank had more troubled loans than any other major bank. Chase owned more New York City securities in the mid-1970s, when the city was nearing bankruptcy. A scandal erupted in 1974 when an audit found that losses from bond trading had been understated, and in 1975 the bank was branded a "problem bank" by the Federal Reserve.
From 1974 to 1976, Chase earnings fell 36 percent while those of its biggest rivals rose 12 to 31 percent. The bank's earnings more than doubled between 1976 and 1980, far outpacing its rival Citibank in return on assets. By 1981 the bank's finances were restored to full health.
In November 1979, while chairman of the Chase Bank, Rockefeller became embroiled in an international incident when he and Henry Kissinger, along with John J. McCloy and Rockefeller aides, persuaded President Jimmy Carter through the United States Department of State to admit the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, into the United States for hospital treatment for lymphoma. This action directly precipitated what is known as the Iran hostage crisis and placed Rockefeller under intense media scrutiny (particularly from The New York Times) for the first time in his public life.
Rockefeller retired from active management of the bank in 1981, succeeded by his protégé Willard C. Butcher. Former Chase chairman John J. McCloy said at the time that he believed Rockefeller would not go down in history as a great banker but rather as a "real personality, as a distinguished and loyal member of the community".
Political connections
Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower. At times he served as an unofficial emissary on high-level business. Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev.
In 1968, he declined an offer from his brother Nelson Rockefeller, then governor of New York, to appoint him to Robert F. Kennedy's Senate seat after Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, a post Nelson also offered to their nephew John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV. President Jimmy Carter offered him the position of United States Secretary of the Treasury but he declined.
Rockefeller was criticized for befriending foreign autocrats in order to expand Chase interests in their countries. The New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in 2002 that Rockefeller "spent his life in the club of the ruling class and was loyal to members of the club, no matter what they did." He noted that Rockefeller had cut profitable deals with "oil-rich dictators", "Soviet party bosses" and "Chinese perpetrators of the Cultural Revolution".
Rockefeller met Henry Kissinger in 1954, when Kissinger was appointed a director of a seminal Council on Foreign Relations study group on nuclear weapons, of which David Rockefeller was a member. He named Kissinger to the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and consulted with him frequently, with the subjects including the Chase Bank's interests in Chile and the possibility of the election of Salvador Allende in 1970. Rockefeller supported his "opening of China" initiative in 1971 as it afforded banking opportunities for the Chase Bank.
Though a lifelong Republican and party contributor, he was a member of the moderate "Rockefeller Republicans" that arose out of the political ambitions and public policy stance of his brother Nelson. In 2006, he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care, that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders.
Central Intelligence Agency ties
Rockefeller was acquainted with Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Allen Dulles and his brother, Eisenhower administration Secretary of State John Foster Dulles—who was an in-law of the family—since his college years. It was in Rockefeller Center that Allen Dulles had set up his WWII operational center after Pearl Harbor, liaising closely with MI6, which also had their principal U.S. operation in the Center. He also knew and associated with the former CIA director Richard Helms as well as Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt Jr., a Chase Bank employee and former CIA agent whose first cousin, CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt Jr., was involved in the Iran coup of 1953. Also in 1953, he had befriended William Bundy, a pivotal CIA analyst for nine years in the 1950s, who became the Agency liaison to the National Security Council, and a subsequent lifelong friend. Moreover, in Cary Reich's biography of his brother Nelson, a former CIA agent states that David was extensively briefed on covert intelligence operations by himself and other Agency division chiefs, under the direction of David's "friend and confidant", CIA Director Allen Dulles.
Policy groups
In 1964, along with other American business figures such as Sol Linowitz, Rockefeller founded the non-profit International Executive Service Corps which encourages developing nations to promote private enterprise. In 1979, he formed the Partnership for New York City, a not-for-profit membership organization of New York businessmen. In 1992, he was selected as a leading member of the Russian-American Bankers Forum, an advisory group set up by the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to advise Russia on the modernization of its banking system, with the full endorsement of President Boris Yeltsin.
Rockefeller had a lifelong association with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) when he joined as a director in 1949. In 1965, Rockefeller and other businessmen formed the Council of the Americas to stimulate and support economic integration in the Americas. In 1992, at a Council sponsored forum, Rockefeller proposed a "Western Hemisphere free trade area", which became the Free Trade Area of the Americas in a Miami summit in 1994. His and the Council's chief liaison to President Bill Clinton in order to garner support for this initiative was through Clinton's chief of staff, Mack McLarty, whose consultancy firm Kissinger McLarty Associates is a corporate member of the Council, while McLarty himself is on the board of directors. He was also a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, including 1948, when Alger Hiss was president.
Displeased with the refusal of Bilderberg Group meetings to include Japan, Rockefeller helped found the Trilateral Commission in July 1973.
Later career
After the war and alongside his work at Chase, Rockefeller took a more active role in his family's business dealings. Working with his brothers in the two floors of Rockefeller Center known as Room 5600, he reorganized the family's myriad business and philanthropic ventures. The men kept regular "brothers' meetings" where they made decisions on matters of common interest and reported on noteworthy events in each of their lives. Rockefeller served as secretary to the group, making notes of each meeting. The notes are now in the family archive and will be released in the future. Following the deaths of his brothers, Winthrop (1973), John III (1978), Nelson (1979), and Laurance (2004), David became sole head of the family (with the important involvement of his elder son, David Jr.).
Rockefeller ensured that selected members of the fourth generation, known generically as the cousins, became directly involved in the family's institutions. This involved inviting them to be more active in the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the principal foundation established in 1940 by the five brothers and their one sister. The extended family also became involved in their own philanthropic organization, formed in 1967 and primarily established by third-generation members, called the Rockefeller Family Fund.
In the 1980s, Rockefeller became embroiled in controversy over the mortgaging and sale of Rockefeller Center to Japanese interests. In 1985, the Rockefeller family mortgaged the property for $1.3 billion, with $300 million of that going to the family. In 1989, 51 percent of the property, later increased to 80 percent, was sold to Mitsubishi Estate Company of Japan. This action was criticized for surrendering a major U.S. landmark to foreign interests. In 2000, Rockefeller presided over the final sale of Rockefeller Center to Tishman Speyer Properties, along with the Crown family of Chicago, which ended the more than 70 years of direct family financial association with Rockefeller Center.
In 2005, he gave $100 million to the Museum of Modern Art and $100 million to Rockefeller University, two of the most prominent family institutions; as well as $10 million to Harvard and $5 million to Colonial Williamsburg. In 2006, he pledged $225 million to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund upon his death, the largest gift in the Fund's history. The money will be used to create the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund, to support projects that improve access to health care, conduct research on international finance and trade, fight poverty, and support sustainable development, as well as to a program that fosters dialogue between Muslim and Western nations. Rockefeller donated $100 million to Harvard University in 2008. The New York Times estimated in November 2006 that his total charitable donations amount to $900 million over his lifetime, a figure that was substantiated by a monograph on the family's overall benefactions, entitled The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
He published Memoirs in 2002, the only time a member of the Rockefeller family has written an autobiography.
Rockefeller was a noted internationalist.
Rockefeller's will requires his estate, once assets are liquidated, to donate over $700 million to various non-profits, including Rockefeller University, the Museum of Modern Art and Harvard. The largest donation will be either $250 million or the remaining balance of the estate that will fund the launch of the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund.
Personal life
In 1940, Rockefeller married Margaret "Peggy" McGrath, who died in 1996. They had six children:
David Rockefeller Jr. (born July 24, 1941) – vice chairman, Rockefeller Family & Associates (the family office, Room 5600); chairman of Rockefeller Financial Services; Trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation; former chairman of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Rockefeller & Co., Inc., among many other family institutions.
Abigail Aldrich "Abby" Rockefeller (born 1943) – economist and feminist. Eldest and most rebellious daughter, she was drawn to Marxism and was an ardent admirer of Fidel Castro and a late 1960s/early 1970s radical feminist who belonged to the organization Female Liberation, later forming a splinter group called Cell 16. An environmentalist and ecologist, she was an active supporter of the women's liberation movement.
Neva Rockefeller (born 1944) – economist and philanthropist. She is director of the Global Development and Environment Institute; trustee and vice chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Director of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Margaret Dulany "Peggy" Rockefeller (born 1947) – founder of the Synergos Institute in 1986; Board member of the Council on Foreign Relations; serves on the Advisory Committee of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University.
Richard Gilder Rockefeller (1949–2014) – physician and philanthropist; chairman of the United States advisory board of the international aid group Doctors Without Borders; trustee and chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Eileen Rockefeller (born February 26, 1952) – venture philanthropist; Founding Chair of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, established in New York City in 2002.
Death
Rockefeller died in his sleep from congestive heart failure on March 20, 2017, at his home in Pocantico Hills, New York. He was 101 years old.
Wealth
At the time of his death, Forbes estimated Rockefeller's net worth was $3.3 billion. Initially, most of his wealth had come to him via the family trusts created by his father, which were administered by Room 5600 and the Chase Bank. In turn, most of these trusts were held as shares in the successor companies of Standard Oil, as well as diverse real estate investment partnerships, such as the expansive Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, which he later sold for considerable profit, retaining only an indirect stake. In addition, he was or had been a partner in various properties such as Caneel Bay, a resort development in the Virgin Islands; a cattle ranch in Argentina; and a sheep ranch in Australia.
Another major source of asset wealth was his art collection, ranging from impressionist to postmodern, which he developed through the influence upon him of his mother Abby and her establishment, with two associates, of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1929. The collection, valued at several hundred million dollars, was auctioned in the spring of 2018, with proceeds going to several designated nonprofit organizations, including Rockefeller University, Harvard University, the Museum of Modern Art, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Maine Coast Heritage Trust.
Residences
Rockefeller's principal residence was at "Hudson Pines", on the family estate in Pocantico Hills, New York. He also had a Manhattan residence at 146 East 65th Street, as well as a country residence (known as "Four Winds") at a farm in Livingston, New York (Columbia County), where his wife raised Simmenthal beef cattle. He also maintained a summer home, "Ringing Point," at Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island off the Maine coast. In May 2015, he donated one thousand acres of land in Seal Harbor to the Mount Desert Land and Garden Preserve. He also owned a large estate on the French island of St. Barth, and along with the Rothschild family, was one of the earliest developers and tourists on the island in the 1950s. The home was very modern and was located in the Colombier district, known to many as the most beautiful section of the island. It has changed hands several times over the years, and is the single largest private parcel on the island, encompassing the entire Baie de Colombier. Many years ago, the Rockefeller family donated the land in the initial creation of the Saint-Barth "Zone Verte," or Green Zone, which is an area which cannot be developed. The property also includes a private dock in the port of Gustavia as at the time the estate was developed, there were no roads to the property and the only way to get there was by boat; David Rockefeller would moor his yacht at his private dock in Gustavia before transferring to the Colombier estate in a smaller boat as the bay could not accommodate his yacht. The property was recently listed for over $100 million, but is not currently used as a residence and the main house has fallen into disrepair. There is also a dock in the Baie de Colombier. It is not known what the current owners' intentions are.
The Kykuit section of the Rockefeller family compound is the location of The Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund established by David and his four brothers in 1940 which was created when the Fund leased the area from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1991.
Non-governmental leadership positions
Council on Foreign Relations – Honorary Chairman
Americas Society – Founder and Honorary Chairman
Trilateral Commission – Founder and Honorary North American Chairman
Bilderberg Meetings – Only member of the Member Advisory Group
The New York Young Republican Club – Board Member
Awards
Presidential Medal of Freedom (1998);
U.S. Legion of Merit (1945);
French Legion of Honor (1945);
U.S. Army Commendation Ribbon (1945);
Commander of the Brazilian Order of the Southern Cross (1956);
Charles Evans Hughes award NCCJ, (1974);
George C. Marshall Foundation Award (1999);
Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy (2001);
Synergos Bridging Leadership Award (2003);
The Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur (2000);
C. Walter Nichols Award, New York University (1970);
World Brotherhood Award, Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1953);
Award of Merit from the American Institute of Architects (1965);
Medal of Honor for City Planning, American Institute of Architects (1968);
World Monuments Fund's Hadrian Award (for preservation of art and architecture) (1994);
National Institute of Social Sciences Gold Medal Award (1967 – awarded to all 5 brothers);
United States Council for International Business (USCIB) International Leadership Award (1983);
The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award (1965).
References
Sources
Further reading
The Rockefeller File, Gary Allen, ´76 Press, Seal Beach California, 1976.
The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family, John Ensor Harr and Peter J. Johnson. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988.
The Rockefeller Conscience: An American Family in Public and in Private, John Ensor Harr and Peter J. Johnson, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992.
The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer 1908–1958, Cary Reich, New York: Doubleday, 1996.
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller: The Woman in the Family, Bernice Kert, New York: Random House, 1993.
Those Rockefeller Brothers: An Informal Biography of Five Extraordinary Young Men, Joe Alex Morris, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953.
The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty, Peter Collier and David Horowitz, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1976.
The American Establishment, Leonard Silk and Mark Silk, New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1980.
American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission, Stephen Gill, Boston: Cambridge University Press, Reprint Edition, 1991.
The Chase: The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., 1945–1985, John Donald Wilson, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1986.
Wriston: Walter Wriston, Citibank, and the Rise and Fall of American Financial Supremacy, Phillip L. Zweig, New York: Crown Publishers, 1995.
Paul Volcker: The Making of a Financial Legend, Joseph B. Treaster, New York: Wiley, 2004.
Financier: The Biography of André Meyer; A Story of Money, Power, and the Reshaping of American Business, Cary Reich, New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1983.
Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996, Peter Grose, New York: Council on Foreign Relations: 1996.
Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy, Laurence H. Shoup, and William Minter, New York: Authors Choice Press, (Reprint), 2004.
Cloak of Green: The Links between Key Environmental Groups, Government and Big Business, Elaine Dewar, New York: Lorimer, 1995.
The Shah's Last Ride, William Shawcross, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York City's World Trade Center, Eric Darton, New York: Basic Books, 1999.
The Rich and the Super-Rich: A Study in the Power of Money Today, Ferdinand Lundberg, New York: Lyle Stuart; Reprint Edition, 1988.
Interlock: The untold story of American banks, oil interests, the Shah's money, debts, and the astounding connections between them, Mark Hulbert, New York: Richardson & Snyder; 1st edition, 1982.
The Money Lenders: Bankers and a World in Turmoil, Anthony Sampson, New York: Viking Press, 1982.
The Chairman: John J. McCloy – The Making of the American Establishment, Kai Bird, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
External links
The Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC): Selected Biography
Rockefeller Brothers Fund Official Web site
1915 births
2017 deaths
Alumni of the London School of Economics
American art collectors
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American bankers
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Philanthropists from New York (state)
Giving Pledgers
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Harvard University alumni
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Members of the New York Yacht Club
Members of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group
Men centenarians
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Writers from Manhattan
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Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Rockefeller Center
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Ritchie Boys
World Trade Center | true | [
"Remo D'Souza (born Ramesh Gopi; 2 April 1974), is an Indian choreographer, actor, and film director.\n\nPersonal life\nD'Souza hails from Olavakkode, Palakkad, Kerala, and was born on April 2, 1974, in Bangalore to a chef in the Indian Air Force, and Madhvi Laxmi. He has an elder brother, Ganesh, and four sisters. He did his schooling at the Air Force School, Jamnagar, Gujarat. During his school days, he was an athlete and won prizes in the 100 meter race.\n\nRemo D'souza studied in Jamnagar, Gujarat. He did his 12th from there and during his HSC board exam, he realized that he didn't have any interest in studies. He immediately left school and went to Mumbai, but his father wanted him to join the Indian Air Force. Whatever he has learned about dance until now is on his own. He learned to dance by watching movies, music videos, etc. He would rather say Michael Jackson is his guru as he used to copy his steps watching his dance on the television and then choreograph his own steps by adding something extra.\n\nHe is married to Lizelle, an Anglo-Indian from Mumbai. Lizelle is a costume designer who has designed costumes for many television shows. They have two sons, Dhruv and Gabriel. Currently D'Souza lives with his family, in Andheri West, Mumbai. She also works with him and helps him in various projects. \n\nOn 11 December 2020, D'Souza suffered a heart attack and was admitted to the ICU of Kokilaben Hospital, Mumbai.\n\nCareer\nD'Souza is a choreographer in Bollywood films and music videos. He has choreographed a number of films. Remo made his television debut with the dance reality show Dance India Dance (DID) along with choreographer Terence Lewis and Geeta Kapoor as judges and mentors. They trained 18 contestants in dance form of ballet, acrobatics, mid-air dancing, contemporary, Bollywood and hip-hop. He made his directorial debut with the comedy film F.A.L.T.U, which received a positive response from critics.\n\nRemo's next directorial venture was the coming-of-age 3D dance-based film ABCD: Any Body Can Dance which starring Prabhu Deva, Dharmesh Yelande, Lauren Gottlieb, Salman Yusuff Khan and Punit Pathak. ABCD received positive reviews from critics and the film's soundtrack also received positive response from critics.\n\nIn 2015, Remo directed the second installment of the ABCD franchise, titled Disney's ABCD 2. It stars Varun Dhawan, Shraddha Kapoor, Prabhu Deva, Raghav Juyal, Lauren Gottlieb, Dharmesh Yelande and Punit Pathak, the film explores the career journey of Suresh and Vernon of the \"fictitious dance crew\" Kings United India, who went on to win the World Hip Hop Dance Championship in San Diego. The film received positive reviews from critics and the film's soundtrack also received a positive response from critics.\n\nLater, he appeared on of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa with the Indian actress Madhuri Dixit and director Karan Johar. He was also the \"super judge\" on the prime time dance show Dance Plus on Star Plus, along with host Raghav Juyal and team captains Dharmesh Yelande, Shakti Mohan, and Punit Pathak.\n\nIn 2016, Remo directed A Flying Jatt, It was released on 24 August 2016, which starring Tiger Shroff, Jacqueline Fernandez, and Nathan Jones. The film tells the story of an ordinary man (Shroff) who gains superpowers. The film received mixed reviews from critics and Anupama Chopra from the Hindustan Times gave the film 1.5 stars out of 5 and said \"The first half of A Flying Jatt has moments of fun – I loved that despite being a superhero he has a fear of heights, so he flies very close to the ground. But post-interval, laughter takes a back seat.\n\nLater, he judged the of Dance Plus along with host Raghav Juyal and team captains Dharmesh Yelande, Shakti Mohan, and Punit Pathak. He then appeared as a judge on the reality show Dance Champions opposite Terence Lewis.\n\nHe also directed Race 3 the film featured Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Jacqueline Fernandez, Daisy Shah, Saqib Saleem and Freddy Daruwala. Race 3 was an internationally mounted saga of a family that deals in borderline crime. It was released on 15 June 2018 coinciding with Eid Though the movie received negative reviews, it was a box office success collecting over ₹178.98 crores in India and approximately ₹303 crores worldwide.\n\nD'Souza judged of Dance Plus along with host Raghav Juyal, Sugandha Mishra and team captains Dharmesh Yelande, Shakti Mohan , Suresh Mukund , Karishma Chawan , and Punit Pathak. \n\nIn 2020, Remo directed the third installment of ABCD Franchise titled ''Street Dancer 3D which retained some of original casts including Varun Dhawan, Shraddha Kapoor, Prabhu Deva, Raghav Juyal, Dharmesh Yelande, Punit Pathak and added Nora Fatehi , Salman Yusuff Khan and Varthika Jha. The film tells the story of two rival dance groups, despise each other and participate in a dance battle. Later, they decide to join hands for a greater cause. It was released on 24 January 2020 and received positive reviews from critics. The film has a worldwide gross collection of ₹97 crores and the film's soundtrack also received a positive response from critics.\n\nAwards\n\nFilmography\n\nChoreography\n\nTelevision\n\nMusic videos\nHere are the music videos directed by Remo\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n \n\nIndian choreographers\n1974 births\nLiving people\nIndian male dancers\nPopping dancers\nDancers from Karnataka\nArtists from Bangalore\nBest Choreography National Film Award winners",
"Modernization theory is the predominant explanation for emergence of nationalism among scholars of nationalism. Prominent modernization scholars, such as Ernest Gellner, Benedict Anderson and Eric Hobsbawn, argue that nationalism is a phenomenon that arose with the processes of modernization during the late 18th century. Processes that lead to the emergence of nationalism include industrialization and democratic revolutions.\n\nModernization theory stands in contrast to primordialism and perennialism, which hold that nations are biological, innate phenomena or that they have ancient roots. Critics such as Anthony D. Smith and Philip Gorski argue that nationalisms did exist prior to modernity. Critics have argued that modernization theory's applicability to nationalism in European colonies is limited, as more modernized colonies did not undergo nationalist mobilization earlier.\n\nSee also \n\n Primordialism\n Gellner's theory of nationalism\n Ethnosymbolism\n Modernization theory\n Nationalism studies\n Social constructivism\n\nReferences \n\nSociocultural evolution theory\nModernity\nNationalism studies"
]
|
[
"David Rockefeller",
"Political connections",
"What was David political connections?",
"Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower.",
"Which other names of people he met were mentioned?",
"Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev.",
"Did he win any award?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Nelson. In 2006 he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care,",
"Where did they form the group?",
"Washington,",
"What is the aim of the group?",
"that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders.",
"Did he have any critics?",
"The New York Times columnist David Brooks"
]
| C_46d11ac9d2d343dfa2d6010b9b429ed6_1 | What was his critique? | 8 | What was David Rockefeller critique? | David Rockefeller | Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower. At times he served as an unofficial emissary on high-level business. Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1968, he declined an offer from his brother Nelson Rockefeller, then governor of New York, to appoint him to Robert F. Kennedy's Senate seat after Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, a post Nelson also offered to their nephew John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV. President Jimmy Carter offered him the position of United States Secretary of the Treasury but he declined. Rockefeller was criticized for befriending foreign autocrats in order to expand Chase interests in their countries. The New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in 2002 that Rockefeller "spent his life in the club of the ruling class and was loyal to members of the club, no matter what they did." He noted that Rockefeller had cut profitable deals with "oil-rich dictators", "Soviet party bosses" and "Chinese perpetrators of the Cultural Revolution". Rockefeller met Henry Kissinger in 1954, when Kissinger was appointed a director of a seminal Council on Foreign Relations study group on nuclear weapons, of which David Rockefeller was a member. He named Kissinger to the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and consulted with him frequently, with the subjects including the Chase Bank's interests in Chile and the possibility of the election of Salvador Allende in 1970. Rockefeller supported his "opening of China" initiative in 1971 as it afforded banking opportunities for the Chase Bank. Though a lifelong Republican and party contributor, he was a member of the moderate "Rockefeller Republicans" that arose out of the political ambitions and public policy stance of his brother Nelson. In 2006 he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care, that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders. CANNOTANSWER | wrote in 2002 that Rockefeller "spent his life in the club of the ruling class and was loyal to members of the club, no matter what they did. | David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017) was an American investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of the Rockefeller family, and family patriarch from July 2004 until his death in March 2017. Rockefeller was the fifth son and youngest child of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and a grandson of John D. Rockefeller and Laura Spelman Rockefeller.
He was noted for his wide-ranging political connections and foreign travel, in which he met with many foreign leaders. His fortune was estimated at $3.3 billion at the time of his death in March 2017.
Early life
Rockefeller was born in New York City, New York. He grew up in an eight-story house at 10 West 54th Street, the tallest private residence ever built in the city. Rockefeller was the youngest of six children born to financier John Davison Rockefeller Jr. and socialite Abigail Greene "Abby" Aldrich. John Jr. was the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John Davison Rockefeller Sr. and schoolteacher Laura Celestia "Cettie" Spelman. Abby was a daughter of Rhode Island U.S. Senator Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich and Abigail Pearce Truman "Abby" Chapman. David's five elder siblings were Abby, John III, Nelson, Laurance, and Winthrop.
Rockefeller attended the experimental Lincoln School at 123rd Street in Harlem.
Education
In 1936, Rockefeller graduated cum laude from Harvard University, where he worked as an editor on The Harvard Crimson. He also studied economics for a year at Harvard and then a year at the London School of Economics (LSE). At LSE he first met the future President John F. Kennedy (although he had earlier been his contemporary at Harvard) and once dated Kennedy's sister Kathleen.
During his time abroad, Rockefeller briefly worked in the London branch of what was to become the Chase Manhattan Bank.
After returning to the U.S. to complete his graduate studies, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1940.
Career
Government service
After completing his studies in Chicago, he became secretary to New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia for eighteen months in a "dollar a year" public service position. Although the mayor pointed out to the press that Rockefeller was only one of 60 interns in the city government, his working space was, in fact, the vacant office of the deputy mayor. From 1941 to 1942, Rockefeller was assistant regional director of the United States Office of Defense, Health and Welfare Services.
Military
Rockefeller enlisted in the U.S. Army and entered Officer Candidate School in 1943; he was ultimately promoted to Captain in 1945. During World War II he served in North Africa and France (he spoke fluent French) for military intelligence setting up political and economic intelligence units. He served as a "Ritchie Boy" secret unit specially trained at Fort Ritchie, Maryland. For seven months he also served as an assistant military attaché at the American Embassy in Paris. During this period, he called on family contacts and Standard Oil executives for assistance.
Banking
In 1946, Rockefeller joined the staff of the longtime family-associated Chase National Bank. The chairman at that time was Rockefeller's uncle Winthrop W. Aldrich. The Chase Bank was primarily a wholesale bank, dealing with other prominent financial institutions and major corporate clients such as General Electric (which had, through its RCA affiliate, leased prominent space and become a crucial first tenant of Rockefeller Center in 1930). The bank also is closely associated with and has financed the oil industry, having longstanding connections with its board of directors to the successor companies of Standard Oil, especially Exxon Mobil. Chase National became the Chase Manhattan Bank in 1955 and shifted significantly into consumer banking. It is now called JPMorgan Chase.
Rockefeller started as an assistant manager in the foreign department. There he financed international trade in a number of commodities, such as coffee, sugar and metals. This position also maintained relationships with more than 1,000 correspondent banks throughout the world. He served in other positions and became president in 1960. He was both chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan from 1969 to 1980 and remained chairman until 1981. He was also, as recently as 1980, the single largest individual shareholder of the bank, holding 1.7% of its shares.
During his term as CEO, Chase spread internationally and became a central component of the world's financial system due to its global network of correspondent banks, the largest in the world. In 1973, Chase established the first branch of an American bank in Moscow, in the then Soviet Union. That year Rockefeller traveled to China, resulting in his bank becoming the National Bank of China's first correspondent bank in the U.S.
Also during this period, Chase Manhattan expanded its influence over many non-financial corporations. A 1979 study titled "The Significance of Bank Control over Large Corporations" provided an estimate for which large U.S.-based financial institutions had the most control over other corporations. The study finds that: "The Rockefeller-controlled Chase Manhattan Bank tops the list, controlling 16 companies."He was faulted for spending excessive amounts of time abroad, and during his tenure as CEO the bank had more troubled loans than any other major bank. Chase owned more New York City securities in the mid-1970s, when the city was nearing bankruptcy. A scandal erupted in 1974 when an audit found that losses from bond trading had been understated, and in 1975 the bank was branded a "problem bank" by the Federal Reserve.
From 1974 to 1976, Chase earnings fell 36 percent while those of its biggest rivals rose 12 to 31 percent. The bank's earnings more than doubled between 1976 and 1980, far outpacing its rival Citibank in return on assets. By 1981 the bank's finances were restored to full health.
In November 1979, while chairman of the Chase Bank, Rockefeller became embroiled in an international incident when he and Henry Kissinger, along with John J. McCloy and Rockefeller aides, persuaded President Jimmy Carter through the United States Department of State to admit the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, into the United States for hospital treatment for lymphoma. This action directly precipitated what is known as the Iran hostage crisis and placed Rockefeller under intense media scrutiny (particularly from The New York Times) for the first time in his public life.
Rockefeller retired from active management of the bank in 1981, succeeded by his protégé Willard C. Butcher. Former Chase chairman John J. McCloy said at the time that he believed Rockefeller would not go down in history as a great banker but rather as a "real personality, as a distinguished and loyal member of the community".
Political connections
Rockefeller traveled widely and met with both foreign rulers and U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower. At times he served as an unofficial emissary on high-level business. Among the foreign leaders he met were Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mikhail Gorbachev.
In 1968, he declined an offer from his brother Nelson Rockefeller, then governor of New York, to appoint him to Robert F. Kennedy's Senate seat after Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, a post Nelson also offered to their nephew John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV. President Jimmy Carter offered him the position of United States Secretary of the Treasury but he declined.
Rockefeller was criticized for befriending foreign autocrats in order to expand Chase interests in their countries. The New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in 2002 that Rockefeller "spent his life in the club of the ruling class and was loyal to members of the club, no matter what they did." He noted that Rockefeller had cut profitable deals with "oil-rich dictators", "Soviet party bosses" and "Chinese perpetrators of the Cultural Revolution".
Rockefeller met Henry Kissinger in 1954, when Kissinger was appointed a director of a seminal Council on Foreign Relations study group on nuclear weapons, of which David Rockefeller was a member. He named Kissinger to the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and consulted with him frequently, with the subjects including the Chase Bank's interests in Chile and the possibility of the election of Salvador Allende in 1970. Rockefeller supported his "opening of China" initiative in 1971 as it afforded banking opportunities for the Chase Bank.
Though a lifelong Republican and party contributor, he was a member of the moderate "Rockefeller Republicans" that arose out of the political ambitions and public policy stance of his brother Nelson. In 2006, he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care, that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders.
Central Intelligence Agency ties
Rockefeller was acquainted with Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Allen Dulles and his brother, Eisenhower administration Secretary of State John Foster Dulles—who was an in-law of the family—since his college years. It was in Rockefeller Center that Allen Dulles had set up his WWII operational center after Pearl Harbor, liaising closely with MI6, which also had their principal U.S. operation in the Center. He also knew and associated with the former CIA director Richard Helms as well as Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt Jr., a Chase Bank employee and former CIA agent whose first cousin, CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt Jr., was involved in the Iran coup of 1953. Also in 1953, he had befriended William Bundy, a pivotal CIA analyst for nine years in the 1950s, who became the Agency liaison to the National Security Council, and a subsequent lifelong friend. Moreover, in Cary Reich's biography of his brother Nelson, a former CIA agent states that David was extensively briefed on covert intelligence operations by himself and other Agency division chiefs, under the direction of David's "friend and confidant", CIA Director Allen Dulles.
Policy groups
In 1964, along with other American business figures such as Sol Linowitz, Rockefeller founded the non-profit International Executive Service Corps which encourages developing nations to promote private enterprise. In 1979, he formed the Partnership for New York City, a not-for-profit membership organization of New York businessmen. In 1992, he was selected as a leading member of the Russian-American Bankers Forum, an advisory group set up by the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to advise Russia on the modernization of its banking system, with the full endorsement of President Boris Yeltsin.
Rockefeller had a lifelong association with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) when he joined as a director in 1949. In 1965, Rockefeller and other businessmen formed the Council of the Americas to stimulate and support economic integration in the Americas. In 1992, at a Council sponsored forum, Rockefeller proposed a "Western Hemisphere free trade area", which became the Free Trade Area of the Americas in a Miami summit in 1994. His and the Council's chief liaison to President Bill Clinton in order to garner support for this initiative was through Clinton's chief of staff, Mack McLarty, whose consultancy firm Kissinger McLarty Associates is a corporate member of the Council, while McLarty himself is on the board of directors. He was also a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, including 1948, when Alger Hiss was president.
Displeased with the refusal of Bilderberg Group meetings to include Japan, Rockefeller helped found the Trilateral Commission in July 1973.
Later career
After the war and alongside his work at Chase, Rockefeller took a more active role in his family's business dealings. Working with his brothers in the two floors of Rockefeller Center known as Room 5600, he reorganized the family's myriad business and philanthropic ventures. The men kept regular "brothers' meetings" where they made decisions on matters of common interest and reported on noteworthy events in each of their lives. Rockefeller served as secretary to the group, making notes of each meeting. The notes are now in the family archive and will be released in the future. Following the deaths of his brothers, Winthrop (1973), John III (1978), Nelson (1979), and Laurance (2004), David became sole head of the family (with the important involvement of his elder son, David Jr.).
Rockefeller ensured that selected members of the fourth generation, known generically as the cousins, became directly involved in the family's institutions. This involved inviting them to be more active in the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the principal foundation established in 1940 by the five brothers and their one sister. The extended family also became involved in their own philanthropic organization, formed in 1967 and primarily established by third-generation members, called the Rockefeller Family Fund.
In the 1980s, Rockefeller became embroiled in controversy over the mortgaging and sale of Rockefeller Center to Japanese interests. In 1985, the Rockefeller family mortgaged the property for $1.3 billion, with $300 million of that going to the family. In 1989, 51 percent of the property, later increased to 80 percent, was sold to Mitsubishi Estate Company of Japan. This action was criticized for surrendering a major U.S. landmark to foreign interests. In 2000, Rockefeller presided over the final sale of Rockefeller Center to Tishman Speyer Properties, along with the Crown family of Chicago, which ended the more than 70 years of direct family financial association with Rockefeller Center.
In 2005, he gave $100 million to the Museum of Modern Art and $100 million to Rockefeller University, two of the most prominent family institutions; as well as $10 million to Harvard and $5 million to Colonial Williamsburg. In 2006, he pledged $225 million to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund upon his death, the largest gift in the Fund's history. The money will be used to create the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund, to support projects that improve access to health care, conduct research on international finance and trade, fight poverty, and support sustainable development, as well as to a program that fosters dialogue between Muslim and Western nations. Rockefeller donated $100 million to Harvard University in 2008. The New York Times estimated in November 2006 that his total charitable donations amount to $900 million over his lifetime, a figure that was substantiated by a monograph on the family's overall benefactions, entitled The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
He published Memoirs in 2002, the only time a member of the Rockefeller family has written an autobiography.
Rockefeller was a noted internationalist.
Rockefeller's will requires his estate, once assets are liquidated, to donate over $700 million to various non-profits, including Rockefeller University, the Museum of Modern Art and Harvard. The largest donation will be either $250 million or the remaining balance of the estate that will fund the launch of the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund.
Personal life
In 1940, Rockefeller married Margaret "Peggy" McGrath, who died in 1996. They had six children:
David Rockefeller Jr. (born July 24, 1941) – vice chairman, Rockefeller Family & Associates (the family office, Room 5600); chairman of Rockefeller Financial Services; Trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation; former chairman of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Rockefeller & Co., Inc., among many other family institutions.
Abigail Aldrich "Abby" Rockefeller (born 1943) – economist and feminist. Eldest and most rebellious daughter, she was drawn to Marxism and was an ardent admirer of Fidel Castro and a late 1960s/early 1970s radical feminist who belonged to the organization Female Liberation, later forming a splinter group called Cell 16. An environmentalist and ecologist, she was an active supporter of the women's liberation movement.
Neva Rockefeller (born 1944) – economist and philanthropist. She is director of the Global Development and Environment Institute; trustee and vice chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Director of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Margaret Dulany "Peggy" Rockefeller (born 1947) – founder of the Synergos Institute in 1986; Board member of the Council on Foreign Relations; serves on the Advisory Committee of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University.
Richard Gilder Rockefeller (1949–2014) – physician and philanthropist; chairman of the United States advisory board of the international aid group Doctors Without Borders; trustee and chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Eileen Rockefeller (born February 26, 1952) – venture philanthropist; Founding Chair of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, established in New York City in 2002.
Death
Rockefeller died in his sleep from congestive heart failure on March 20, 2017, at his home in Pocantico Hills, New York. He was 101 years old.
Wealth
At the time of his death, Forbes estimated Rockefeller's net worth was $3.3 billion. Initially, most of his wealth had come to him via the family trusts created by his father, which were administered by Room 5600 and the Chase Bank. In turn, most of these trusts were held as shares in the successor companies of Standard Oil, as well as diverse real estate investment partnerships, such as the expansive Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, which he later sold for considerable profit, retaining only an indirect stake. In addition, he was or had been a partner in various properties such as Caneel Bay, a resort development in the Virgin Islands; a cattle ranch in Argentina; and a sheep ranch in Australia.
Another major source of asset wealth was his art collection, ranging from impressionist to postmodern, which he developed through the influence upon him of his mother Abby and her establishment, with two associates, of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1929. The collection, valued at several hundred million dollars, was auctioned in the spring of 2018, with proceeds going to several designated nonprofit organizations, including Rockefeller University, Harvard University, the Museum of Modern Art, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Maine Coast Heritage Trust.
Residences
Rockefeller's principal residence was at "Hudson Pines", on the family estate in Pocantico Hills, New York. He also had a Manhattan residence at 146 East 65th Street, as well as a country residence (known as "Four Winds") at a farm in Livingston, New York (Columbia County), where his wife raised Simmenthal beef cattle. He also maintained a summer home, "Ringing Point," at Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island off the Maine coast. In May 2015, he donated one thousand acres of land in Seal Harbor to the Mount Desert Land and Garden Preserve. He also owned a large estate on the French island of St. Barth, and along with the Rothschild family, was one of the earliest developers and tourists on the island in the 1950s. The home was very modern and was located in the Colombier district, known to many as the most beautiful section of the island. It has changed hands several times over the years, and is the single largest private parcel on the island, encompassing the entire Baie de Colombier. Many years ago, the Rockefeller family donated the land in the initial creation of the Saint-Barth "Zone Verte," or Green Zone, which is an area which cannot be developed. The property also includes a private dock in the port of Gustavia as at the time the estate was developed, there were no roads to the property and the only way to get there was by boat; David Rockefeller would moor his yacht at his private dock in Gustavia before transferring to the Colombier estate in a smaller boat as the bay could not accommodate his yacht. The property was recently listed for over $100 million, but is not currently used as a residence and the main house has fallen into disrepair. There is also a dock in the Baie de Colombier. It is not known what the current owners' intentions are.
The Kykuit section of the Rockefeller family compound is the location of The Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund established by David and his four brothers in 1940 which was created when the Fund leased the area from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1991.
Non-governmental leadership positions
Council on Foreign Relations – Honorary Chairman
Americas Society – Founder and Honorary Chairman
Trilateral Commission – Founder and Honorary North American Chairman
Bilderberg Meetings – Only member of the Member Advisory Group
The New York Young Republican Club – Board Member
Awards
Presidential Medal of Freedom (1998);
U.S. Legion of Merit (1945);
French Legion of Honor (1945);
U.S. Army Commendation Ribbon (1945);
Commander of the Brazilian Order of the Southern Cross (1956);
Charles Evans Hughes award NCCJ, (1974);
George C. Marshall Foundation Award (1999);
Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy (2001);
Synergos Bridging Leadership Award (2003);
The Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur (2000);
C. Walter Nichols Award, New York University (1970);
World Brotherhood Award, Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1953);
Award of Merit from the American Institute of Architects (1965);
Medal of Honor for City Planning, American Institute of Architects (1968);
World Monuments Fund's Hadrian Award (for preservation of art and architecture) (1994);
National Institute of Social Sciences Gold Medal Award (1967 – awarded to all 5 brothers);
United States Council for International Business (USCIB) International Leadership Award (1983);
The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award (1965).
References
Sources
Further reading
The Rockefeller File, Gary Allen, ´76 Press, Seal Beach California, 1976.
The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family, John Ensor Harr and Peter J. Johnson. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988.
The Rockefeller Conscience: An American Family in Public and in Private, John Ensor Harr and Peter J. Johnson, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992.
The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer 1908–1958, Cary Reich, New York: Doubleday, 1996.
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller: The Woman in the Family, Bernice Kert, New York: Random House, 1993.
Those Rockefeller Brothers: An Informal Biography of Five Extraordinary Young Men, Joe Alex Morris, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953.
The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty, Peter Collier and David Horowitz, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1976.
The American Establishment, Leonard Silk and Mark Silk, New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1980.
American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission, Stephen Gill, Boston: Cambridge University Press, Reprint Edition, 1991.
The Chase: The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., 1945–1985, John Donald Wilson, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1986.
Wriston: Walter Wriston, Citibank, and the Rise and Fall of American Financial Supremacy, Phillip L. Zweig, New York: Crown Publishers, 1995.
Paul Volcker: The Making of a Financial Legend, Joseph B. Treaster, New York: Wiley, 2004.
Financier: The Biography of André Meyer; A Story of Money, Power, and the Reshaping of American Business, Cary Reich, New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1983.
Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996, Peter Grose, New York: Council on Foreign Relations: 1996.
Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy, Laurence H. Shoup, and William Minter, New York: Authors Choice Press, (Reprint), 2004.
Cloak of Green: The Links between Key Environmental Groups, Government and Big Business, Elaine Dewar, New York: Lorimer, 1995.
The Shah's Last Ride, William Shawcross, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York City's World Trade Center, Eric Darton, New York: Basic Books, 1999.
The Rich and the Super-Rich: A Study in the Power of Money Today, Ferdinand Lundberg, New York: Lyle Stuart; Reprint Edition, 1988.
Interlock: The untold story of American banks, oil interests, the Shah's money, debts, and the astounding connections between them, Mark Hulbert, New York: Richardson & Snyder; 1st edition, 1982.
The Money Lenders: Bankers and a World in Turmoil, Anthony Sampson, New York: Viking Press, 1982.
The Chairman: John J. McCloy – The Making of the American Establishment, Kai Bird, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
External links
The Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC): Selected Biography
Rockefeller Brothers Fund Official Web site
1915 births
2017 deaths
Alumni of the London School of Economics
American art collectors
American autobiographers
American bankers
American billionaires
American centenarians
American chief executives of financial services companies
American memoirists
United States Army personnel of World War II
Philanthropists from New York (state)
Giving Pledgers
21st-century philanthropists
Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur
Harvard University alumni
JPMorgan Chase employees
Members of the New York Yacht Club
Members of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group
Men centenarians
Military personnel from New York City
New York (state) Republicans
People associated with the Museum of Modern Art (New York City)
Writers from Manhattan
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Recipients of the Legion of Merit
Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller family
Winthrop family
Rockefeller Foundation people
University of Chicago alumni
Honorary Fellows of the London School of Economics
United States Army officers
Chairs of the Council on Foreign Relations
Members of the Council on Foreign Relations
Ritchie Boys
World Trade Center | false | [
"Critique of political economy or critique of economy refers to a form of critique that questions and or rejects the naturalized social categories which those who critique political economy claim make up the economy. Critics of political economy also tend to critique economists for what they claim is their usage of unrealistic axioms that doesn't correspond to reality, faulty historical assumptions, as well as normative use of certain social categories and abstractions (e.g. claims regarding the economy as some kind of societal a priori category).\n\nThose who engage in critique of economy tend to reject the view that the economy, is to be understood as something transhistorical, but rather argue that it is a as relatively new mode of resource distribution which emerged along with modernity. Therefore, the economy, is seen as merely one type of historically specific way to distribute resources.\n\nCritics of economy critique the given status of the economy itself, and hence don't aim to create theories regarding how to administer economies.\n\nCritics of economy commonly view what is most commonly referred to as the economy as being bundles of metaphysical concepts, as well as societal and normative practices, rather than being the result of any \"self-evident\" or proclaimed \"economic laws\". Hence they also tend to consider the views which are commonplace within the field of economics as faulty, or simply as pseudoscience.\n\nThere are multiple critiques of political economy today, but what they have in common is critique of what critics of political economy tend to view as dogma, i.e. claims of \"the economy\" as a necessary and transhistorical societal category.\n\nRuskin's critique of political economy \n\nIn the 1860s, John Ruskin published his essay Unto This Last which he came to view as his central work. The essay was originally written as a series of publications in a magazine, which ended up having to suspend the publications, due to the severe controversy the articles caused. While Ruskin is generally known as an important art critic, his study of the history of art was a component that gave him some insight into the pre-modern societies of the Middle Ages, and their social organization which he was able to contrast to his contemporary condition. Ruskin attempted to mobilize a methodological/scientific critique of new political economy, as it was envisaged by the classical economists.\n\nRuskin viewed \"the economy\" as a kind of \"collective mental lapse or collective concussion\", and he viewed the emphasis on precision in industry as a kind of slavery. Due to the fact that Ruskin regarded the political economy of his time as \"mad\", he said that it interested him as much as \"a science of gymnastics which had as its axiom that human beings in fact didn't have skeletons\". Ruskin declared that economics rests on positions that are exactly the same. According to Ruskin, these axioms resemble thinking, not that human beings do not have skeletons, but rather that they consist entirely of skeletons. Ruskin wrote that he didn't oppose the truth value of this theory, he merely wrote that he denied that it could be successfully implemented in the world in the state it was in. He took issue with the ideas of \"natural laws\", \"economic man\" and the prevailing notion of \"value\" and aimed to point out the inconsistencies in the thinking of the economists. As well as critiqued Mill for thinking that ‘the opinions of the public’ was reflected adequately by market prices.\n\nRuskin also coined the term 'Illth' to refer to unproductive wealth. Ruskin is not well known as a political thinker today but, when in 1906 a journalist asked the first generation of Labour MPs which book had most inspired them, Unto This Last emerged as an undisputed chart-topper.\n\nCriticism of Ruskin's analysis \nMarx and Engels regarded much of Ruskin's critique as reactionary. His idealization of the Middle Ages made them reject him as a \"feudal utopian\".\n\nMarx's critique of political economy \n\nKarl Marx is probably the most famous critic of political economy, with his three volume magnum opus Capital: A Critique of Political Economy as one of his most famous books. However Marx's companion Friedrich Engels also engaged in critique of political economy in his 1844 Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy, which helped lay down some of the foundation for what Marx was to take further. Marx's critique of political economy encompasses the study and exposition of the mode of production and ideology of bourgeois society, and its critique of [\"real abstraction\"], that is, the fundamental \"economic\", i.e., social categories present within what for Marx is the capitalist mode of production, for example abstract labour. In contrast to the classics of political economy, Marx was concerned with lifting the ideological veil of surface phenomena and exposing the norms, axioms, social relations, institutions and so on, that reproduced capital.\n\nThe central works in Marx's critique of political economy are Grundrisse, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy and Das Kapital. Marx's works are often explicitly named for example: A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, or Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Marx also cited Engels' article Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy several times in Das Kapital. However Trotskyists and other Leninists tend to implicitly or explicitly argue that these works constitute and or contain \"economical theories\" which can be studied independently. This was also the common understanding of Marx's work on economy that was put forward by Soviet orthodoxy. Since this is the case, it remains a matter of controversy whether Marx's critique of political economy is to be understood as a critique of the political economy or, according to the orthodox interpretation another theory of economics. The critique of political economy is considered the most important and central project within marxism which has led to, and continues to lead to a large number of advanced approaches within and outside academic circles.\n\nContemporary Marxian critique of political economy \nRegarding contemporary Marxian critiques of political economy, these are generally accompanied by a rejection of more the more naturalistically influenced readings of Marx, as well as other readings later deemed (\"worldview marxism\"), that was popularized as late as toward the end of the 20th century.\n\nAccording to some scholars in this field, contemporary critiques of political economy and contemporary German Ökonomiekritik have been at least partly neglected in the anglophone world.\n\nFoundational concepts in Marx critique of political economy \n\n Labour and capital are historically specific forms of social relations, and labour is not the source of all wealth.\n Labour is the other side of the same coin as capital, labour presupposes capital, and capital presupposes labour.\n Money is not in any way something transhistorical or \"natural\" (which goes for the whole economy as well as the other categories specific to the mode of production), and gains its value/are constituted due to social relations rather than any inherent qualities.\n The individual doesn't exist in some form of vacuum but is rather enmeshed in social relations.\n\nMarx critique of the quasi-religious and ahistorical methodology of economists \nMarx described the view of contemporaneous economists and theologians on social phenomena as similarly unscientific.\n\nMarx continued to emphasize the ahistorical thought of the modern economists in the Grundrisse, where he among other endeavors, critiqued the liberal economist Mill.\n\nMarx also viewed the viewpoints which implicitly regarded the institutions of modernity as transhistorical as fundamentally deprived of historical understanding.\n\nAccording to Jacques Rancière, what Marx understood, and what the economists failed to recognize was that the value-form is not something essential, but merely a part of the capitalist mode of production.\n\nOn scientifically adequate research \nMarx also offered a critique regarding the idea of people being able to conduct scientific research in this domain. Or, as he stated it himself:\n\nOn vulgar economists \nMarx also used to criticize the false critique of political economy of his contemporaries. Something he did, sometimes even more forcefully, than he critiqued the classical, and hence 'vulgar' economists. He for example rejected Lasalle's 'iron and inexorable law' of wages, which he simply regarded as mere phraseology. As well as Proudhon's attempts to do what Hegel did for religion, law, etc., for political economy, as well as regarding what is social as subjective, and what was societal as merely subjective abstractions. In Marx's view, the errors of these authors led the workers' movement astray.\n\nInterpretations of Marx's critique of political economy \nSome scholars view Marx's critique as being a critique of commodity fetishism and the manner in which this concept expresses a criticism of modernity and its modes of socialization. Other scholars who engage with Marx's critique of political economy affirm the critique might assume a more Kantian sense, which transforms \"Marx's work into a foray concerning the imminent antinomies that lie at the heart of capitalism, where politics and economy intertwine in impossible ways.\"\n\nContemporary scholarship\n\nBaudrillard \nThe sociologist and philosopher Jean Baudrillard has developed a critique of Marx political economy in his 1973 book Le Miroir de la production. He views Marx as being stuck in the very categories he wanted to critique, in particular production. In contrast to this, Baudrillard rather places emphasis on consumption. Baudrillard claims that the structure of the very sign is ingrained in very core of the commodity form. He claims that it establishes itself socially, as a total medium, a system which administers all social exchange. In Baudrillard's words, “[Marxism] convinces men that they are alienated by the sale of their labor power, thus censoring the [...] hypothesis that they might be alienated as labor power.”\n\nFisher \nMark Fisher critiqued economics, claiming that is was a bourgeois \"science\", that molded reality after its presuppositions, rather than critically examined reality. As he stated it himself:\n\n\"From the start, “economy” was the object-cause of a bourgeois “science”, which hyperstitionally bootstrapped itself into existence, and then bent and melted the matter of this and every other world to fit its presuppositions — the greatest theocratic achievement in a history that was never human, an immense conjuring trick which works all the better because it came shrouded in that damp grey English and Scottish empiricism which claimed to have seen off all gods.\"\n\nFeminist critique of political economy \nThere has been a growing literature of feminist viewpoints in new critique of political economy in recent years.\n\nDifferences between critics of economy and critics of economical issues \nOne may differentiate between those who engage in critique of political economy, which takes on a more ontological character, where authors criticise the fundamental concepts and social categories which reproduce the economy as an entity. While other authors, which the critics of political economy would consider only to deal with the surface phenomena of \"the economy\", have a naturalized understanding of these social processes.\n\nHence the epistemological differences between critics of economy and economists can also at times be very large.\n\nIn the eyes of the critics of political economy, the critics of economic issues merely critique \"certain practices\" in attempts to implicitly or explicitly 'rescue' the political economy; these authors might for example propose universal basic income or to implement a planned economy.\n\nList of critics of political economy\n\nContemporary\n\nSociologists \n\n Orlando Patterson, John Cowles professor of sociology at Harvard University has claimed that economics is a pseudoscience.\n\nPhilosophers \n\n Mark Fisher\n Slavoj Žižek\n\nHistorians \n\n Moishe Postone\n\nHistorical\n\nHistorians \n\n Roman Rozdolsky.\n\nPoets \n\n Carl Jonas Love Almqvist\n August Strindberg\n\nOthers \n\n Paul Lafargue.\n\nSee also \n\n Critique of labour\n Emancipation of Labour\n Hans-Georg Backhaus\n Helmut Reichelt\n Neue Marx-Lektüre\n\nNotes and references \n\n \n\n Johnsdotter S, Carlbom A, editors. Goda sanningar: debattklimatet och den kritiska forskningens villkor. Lund: Nordic Academic Press; 2010.\n Braudel F. Kapitalismens dynamik. (La Dynamique du Capitalisme) [Ny utg.]. Göteborg: Daidalos; 2001.\n Ankarloo D, editor. Marx ekonomikritik. Stockholm: Tidskriftsföreningen Fronesis; 2008.\n Eklund K. Vår ekonomi: en introduktion till världsekonomin. Upplaga 15. Lund: Studentlitteratur; 2020.\n Tidskriftsföreningen Fronesis. Arbete. Stockholm: Tidskriftsfören. Fronesis; 2002.\n Baudrillard J. The Mirror of Production. Telos Press; 1975.\n Marx K. Till kritiken av den politiska ekonomin. [Ny utg.]. Göteborg: Proletärkultur; 1981.\n\nFurther reading\n\nArticles\n\nGeneral articles \n\n (In Swedish) - Mortensen, Anders - Att göra \"penningens genius till sin slaf\". Om Carl Jonas Love Almqvists romantiska ekonomikritik - Vetenskapssocieteten i Lund. Årsbok.\n\nScholarly articles \n\n Granberg, Magnus \"Reactionary radicalism and the analysis of worker subjectivity in Marx’s critique of political economy\"\n\nBooks\n\nCritique of political economy \n\n Baudrillard, Jean - The Mirror of Production\n Baudrillard, Jean - For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign\n Gibson-Graham, J. K. - The End of Capitalism (As We Knew It): A Feminist Critique of Political Economy\n Bernard Steigler - For a New Critique of Political Economy\n\nOn Marx critique of political economy \n\n Murray, Patrick (2016), The mismeasure of wealth - Essays on Marx and social form. - Brill\n Pepperell, Nicole (2010), Disassembling Capital, RMIT University\n Postone, Moishe (1993) - Time labour and social domination\n\nNeue Marx-Lektüre\n\nHistory \n\n Bryer, Robert - Accounting for History in Marx's Capital: The Missing Link\n Kurz, Robert, 1943-2012, Schwarzbuch Kapitalismus: ein Abgesang auf die Marktwirtschaft (also known as: The Satanic Mills) - 2009 - Erweit. Neuasg. \n Pilling, Geoff - Marx's Capital, Philosophy and Political Economy\n\nClassic works \n\n \n Marx, Karl - Grundrisse\n Ruskin, John, Unto this Last LibriVox.\n\nEssays \n\n Postone, Moishe - Necessity, Labor and Time: A Reinterpretation of the Marxian Critique of Capitalism\n\nExternal links \n\n 1995-2004 Conference Papers - Critique Of Political Economy / International Working Group on Value Theory (COPE- IWGVT)\n A collection of material related to Marx critique of political economy\n Critique of Political Economy - a 2016 edition of the philosophy journal: crisis and critique\n (A lecture regarding Marx's critique of political economy.)\n Translated texts from a contemporary German group critical of political economy.\n\nCritique of political economy\nPhilosophy of economics\nSocial philosophy",
"The Holy Family () is a book written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in November 1844. The book is a critique of the Young Hegelians and their trend of thought, which was very popular in academic circles at the time. The title was a suggestion by the publisher and is meant as a sarcastic reference to the Bauer Brothers and their supporters. The book created a controversy with much of the press and caused Bruno Bauer to refute the book in an article which was published in Wigand's Vierteljahrsschrift in 1845. Bauer claimed that Marx and Engels misunderstood what he was saying. Marx later replied to his response with his own article that was published in the journal Gesellschaftsspiegel in January 1846. Marx also discussed the argument in chapter 2 of The German Ideology.\n\nHistory\nDuring Engels' short stay in Paris (1844), Marx suggested that they should write together a critique of the rage of their day, the Young Hegelians. While accomplishing their plan, the first joint writing project between the two men was accomplished and thus the beginning of their friendship.\n\nAfter conversing, they began drawing up plans for a book about the Young Hegelian trend of thought very popular in academic circles. Agreeing to co-author the Foreword, they divided up the other sections. Engels finished his assigned chapters before leaving Paris. Marx had the larger share of work, and he completed it by the end of November 1844. Marx would draw from his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, on which he had been working the spring and summer of 1844.\n\nThe foremost title line—\"The Holy Family\"—was added at the suggestion of the book publisher Lowenthal. It is a sarcastic reference to the Bauer brothers (Bruno and Edgar) and their supporters amongst the Hegelians who had attempted a critical renovation of Christianity, hence the subtitle a \"Critique of Critical Critique.\" Later Marx will continue this sarcasm by referring to them as Saint Bruno, Saint Max (Stirner), etc.\n\nThe book made something of a splash in the newspapers. One paper noted that it expressed socialist views since it criticized the \"inadequacy of any half-measures directed at eliminating the social ailments of our time.\" The conservative press immediately recognized the radical elements inherent in its many arguments. One paper wrote that, in The Holy Family, \"every line preaches revolt... against the state, the church, the family, legality, religion and property.\" It also noted that \"prominence is given to the most radical and the most open communism, and this is all the more dangerous as Mr. Marx cannot be denied either extremely broad knowledge or the ability to make use of the polemical arsenal of Hegel's logic, what is customarily called 'iron logic.'\"\n\nExternal links\nComplete German text (Die Heilige Familie)\nComplete English text (The Holy Family or Critique of Critical Criticism. Against Bruno Bauer and Company)\nComplete English text in PDF format\n\n1844 non-fiction books\nBooks by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels"
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