Black Fighting Men in Vietnam

Artist: Black Fighting Men Recorded Live In Vietnam

LP: Guess Who's Coming Home

Side One

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Side Two

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Guess Who's Coming Home. It isn't Sidney Poitier. Here's a different sort of Motown Sound from 1972 that I found at Daybreak Records a few weeks ago. It's fascinating that the record is presented as a warning to America that thousands of black men who have been trained in combat and who are handy with weapons will soon be returning to the USA and demanding their equality. At the same time, it's depressing to see what little progress in race relations we've made as a country over the past 45 years. We still can't get past the color of peoples' skin when deciding how to treat them, and are basically in the same place now as we were then. 

I was hoping to get this posted on Veteran's Day, but unfortunately I'm a few minutes late. Happy Veteran's Day to all those who have served, putting their lives on the line and into the indelicate hands of those deciding when and where and how the USA will go to war.

Charles Aznavour [1924-2018]

Artist: Charles Aznavour

LP: Charles Aznavour Canta en Español, Volumen 2
Song: "Isabelle"
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Song: "Si Tu Me Llevas"
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I was bummed a few days ago to read that Charles Aznavour had died earlier this month, at the age of 94. Born in France of Armenian immigrant parents, Charles' birth name was Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian, which admittedly doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. With a career in music and film spanning over 70 years, Aznavour was one of the most popular performers in the history of France. People sometimes called him the French Frank Sinatra! Charles wrote more than 1,000 songs during his career, and he claims to be one of the first to write about controversial subjects like homosexuality, referring to his lovely/sad 1972 song "What Makes a Man?" Also, he often performed with Liza Minnelli, which is pretty gay too.

I was a little surprised to discover that I don't actually own any French-language records by this international legend—only one where he sings in English and two on which he's singing in Español. Here are a couple of songs from one of the latter. (I chose this one because he's smoking on the cover, so he at least looks really French even if he's not actually singing that way.) Click here to find everything you've ever wanted to know about the life and career of Snr Aznavour, and read his New York Times obituary here. And then go here for a photo of Charles when he was very young.

Charles Aznavour

[ May 22, 1924 — October 1, 2018 ]

We will miss you, Charles.

Camillo

Artist: Camillo

LP: 7" single

Song: "Sag Warum (Oh Why)" 
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Song: "Dein Zug Fährt Ab" 
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"It's a lovely Sunday afternoon for playing the piano," I thought to myself. But first I had to clear all the records out of the way that had accumulated on top of and around the thing since the last time I played it. This 1959 4-track Camillo single is one of the things I discovered while digging out my Czerny "finger dexterity" sheet music, op. 740. More melancholy autumn-time mood music, if you ask me—Camillo, I mean...not Czerny.

[ Camillo Felgen: November 17, 1920 — July 16, 2005 ]

Bobby Womack [1944-2014]

Artist: Bobby Womack

LP: BW Goes C&W

Song: "Don't Make This the Last Date"
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Song: "I Take It on Home"
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I'm interrupting my ongoing and seemingly endless marathon of postings of stuff I found on my Southern Road Trip to remember talented singer, writer, and musician Bobby Womack; he passed away last Friday at age 70. Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1944 to Friendly and Naomi Womack (he was a musical minister at the local Baptist church; she played the organ), Bobby first made music with his brothers in a group called, appropriately, The Womack Brothers. Bobby mastered the guitar and went on to play with other musicians (he's featured on Aretha Franklin's "Lady Soul" LP) releasing his first solo record, "Fly Me to the Moon," in 1968. Bobby was making regular appearances on the pop and R&B singles charts in the early-to-mid 1970s, finally going Country & Western with the album featured here, released in 1976. (Unfortunately, none of Bobby's C&W songs were hits.) While battling drug addiction and numerous health problems in the decades that followed, Bobby continued making glorious music—his latest, to be released sometime later this year, is titled "The Best Is Yet to Come." You can read all about Bobby Womack's life, career and his complicated personal life (ask him about the time his wife shot him after catching him in bed with her teenage daughter) on Wikipedia here. You can find his full discography here and there's a moving obituary for Mr. Womack on the Rolling Stone website here.

Bobby Womack

[ March 4, 1944 — June 27, 2014 ]

We will miss you, Bobby.

Danyel Gerard

Artist: Danyel Gerard

LP: Danyel Gerard

Song: "The Face of a Clown"

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As you can see from the photo of Mr. Gerard on the cover of this 1972 self-titled LP, he's the tortured European artist type. And after listening to "The Face of a Clown," you'll see he's actually had it pretty rough. And if that's not bad enough, he was also once a choirboy at Notre Dame. Things did get a little better though after he became a pop star, landed an international hit with his song "Butterfly," and then retired into the shadows to live off his royalties. You can read more about Danyel Gerard here.

Phyllis Diller [1917-2012]

Artist: Phyllis Diller

LP: Phyllis Diller Laughs

Track: "Driving Downtown"

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Last week I called Phyllis and told her that I had one of her LPs I'd been wanting to post here, and she said was dying to be featured on my blog. Phyllis first came to public attention when she appeared on Groucho Marx's televised quiz show "You Bet Your Life," after which she paved the way...well, it's hard to imagine Phyllis Diller paving anything. Phyllis blazed the trail, shall we say, for women in standup comedy for generations to come. (Phyllis was nothing if not a blazer.) Ten interesting facts about Phyllis Diller: 1.) She was born in Lima, Ohio. (I've been there!) 2.) She was an accomplished concert pianist and played with over 100 orchestras throughout the country in the 1970s and early '80s. 3.) She also played the saxophone. 4.) In 1967 she starred with her friend Bob Hope in a terrible, terrible movie called EIGHT ON THE LAM. 5.) In 1979 she auditioned for director Blake Edwards in hopes of starring in his new movie, but the part went to Bo Derek instead. 6.) For some reason this guy shows up when you Google images of "Phyllis Diller pianist." 7.) Diller went under the knife for plastic surgery fifteen times during her life. 8.) She was born 3 months and 11 days after the United States of America declared war on Germany in WWI. 9.) Her "Phyllis Diller Laughs" LP was recorded at the Bon Soir nightclub in NYC's Greenwich Village 52 years ago, in March of 1961. 10.) Phyllis used to joke that she never made it on "Who's Who," but she did end up on "What's That." You can read all about Phyllis Diller's brilliant career on Wikipedia here and go here to find a nice obituary for her in the New York Times.

Phyllis Diller

[July 17, 1917 — August 20, 2012]

We will miss you, Phyllis...probably even more than we'll miss Kitty or Chavela.

Ulf Lundell

 Artist: Ulf Lundell

LP: Vargmåne

Song: "Jesse James Mötor Kärleken"

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After learning his first guitar chords from his older sister's boyfriend and then later working as a postman while sending his songs to record labels, singer-author-artist-composer Ulf Lundell burst onto the Scandinavian music scene in 1975 with "Vargmåne (Wolf Moon)" and immediately became known as "Sweden's Bob Dylan." You can read more about Ulf Lundell and see his complete discography here, visit his official website here, and find an English translation of the "Jesse James Mötor Kärleken" song lyrics here. I recently discovered another neat picture of Ulf—along with photos of Finn, Wojciech, Roger, Mike, and the other guys—on the album's inside sleeve, so I'll include those here soon.