Legends, Icons and Rebels

The other day I came across a terrific coffee table book in the library. "Legends, Icons and Rebels" covers amazing artists like Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash, Aretha Franklin, The Beatles, Louis Armstrong, Bob Marley, Buddy Holly, Joni Mitchell, Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, Curtis Mayfield, Billie Holiday, Little Richard, Hank Williams, Frank Sinatra, Marvin Gaye, Carole King, Sam Cooke, Louis Jordan, The Beach Boys, Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown, Patsy Cline, Otis Redding, Nat King Cole, Stevie Wonder, and Bob Dylan.

The book comes with two CD'S that feature all of the aforementioned artists. The layout and look of the book is fantastic! Very vibrant and cool. Kind of like a picture book for adults. This is the type of book perfect for a rainy day like today. To order this book , Please click here.

Thanks for reading.

-Fred

Chris Isaak Puts On A Show

It's July 22 as I write this and I see some of you probably caught Chris Isaak at the Desert Diamond Casino on the 18th, because there are now waiting lists on all of his albums here at the Pima County Public Library. I was also at the show and wanted to share my review. This was my third time seeing Chris Isaak and his band, the first time being in 1991 at the county fairgrounds on a chilly night and the second time in 2011 at AVA on a very hot July night.

Chris Isaak: In Love Again

I still remember the first time I heard Chris Isaak, way back in 1990. I was working in the back room at

Main and the radio was turned on at low volume. I heard this haunting melody, this voice, and wondered, "Wow, what is that?" It was "Wicked Game", a song I'm sure most of you have heard. The video is also pretty famous (or infamous; I always like to say every American male of a certain age is familiar with the video!) I remember going to Zip's to pick up the cd that Wicked Game was on (Heart Shaped World), but they didn't have it. They did have the album that was released previous to Heart Shaped World, the self-titled Chris Isaak (1986). There are some great tracks on that one, including "Blue Hotel", "You Owe Me Some Kind of Love" (awesome video), "Lover's Game", and "Lie To Me". In some ways I think this album has held up better over the years than Heart Shaped World.

Here's my "I met Chris Isaak" story. "Wicked Game" was quickly becoming a huge single...

Graham Nash: Howard Stern Interview

Last month I listened to a wonderful segment on The Howard Stern Show in which he interviewed Graham Nash to promote his new biography which the library now owns. For over an hour, Mr. Nash, w/ his guitar in hand, shared a very endearing lecture on the fantastic musical world that he lived in and witnessed. He played over 6 songs and talked about meeting The Beatles, to leaving The Hollies, to forming Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, to explaining why Joni Mitchell was the love of his life. This was one of the finest interviews I've heard in a long time. Keep reading to learn more.

No Nepotism Here: Children of famous muscians who actually have talent.

The other night I caught Ziggy Marley (son of Bob Marley) on Late Night w/Jimmy Kimmel. I was a big fan of his music in the 80's and 90's and then lost track of him. He performed two songs. A new single which sadly, was not my cup of tea. But then he played one of his classics "Tomorrow People" and afterward I ran to my CD collection to find my "Conscious Party" CD by Ziggy Marley And The Melody Makers.
 This got me thinking, how many children of accomplished musicians are out there who are actually talented?
I came up with a short list off the top of my head. Read on to check out the list and hopefully reserve some of the music that our library carries.

Pretty Cool, and...Meh. Or: Pat Benatar and Cheap Trick

Hi boys and girls--

I went to the Pat Benatar and Cheap Trick show at AVA on June 16. I had been wanting to see Pat Benatar for years and finally got my chance. A big reason I loved Pat Benatar when I was a kid was that she was a woman singing in a more male-sounding style of music. She sounded so strong, so confident, and so cool, and I thought, "Wow. I wanna be her!" I still remember when Hit Me With Your

Best Shot came out and I just thought it was the greatest song. Here's the funny thing:  Benatar was the opening act for Cheap Trick, and I think most people (myself included) thought it would be the other way around. Benatar walked out onstage and opened with All Fired Up, one of her later hits. Her guitar player (who is also her husband), Neil Giraldo (also known as Spyder) had some really great looking guitars and I really liked his sound. She performed Hit Me With Your Best Shot (of course) and the crowd really got into it. Other songs she performed included Love Is A Battlefield, We Belong, Promises In The Dark, and Hell Is For Children. If you're not familiar with this song, it's a song she wrote nearly thirty years ago about child abuse. As she explained to the crowd, "We will continue to perform this song at every show we do until every child is safe." I had tears in my eyes and chills down my spine while they played this one.

As Benatar's set came to a close, I started to panic. She hadn't done the ONE song I really wanted to hear....

From The Sky Down (or, a brief history of U2)

"We have to go away and dream it all up again..." said U2's Bono at the band's famous 1989 New Year's Eve shows in Dublin. The band had spent the previous 2 years in the hurricane that was the Joshua Tree album and tour, during which time they became the world's most famous rock and roll band. From The Sky Down documents both this time period and the recording of Achtung Baby. The band members talk about how difficult aspects of this time were and that they became the band "too stupid to enjoy their own success." They also were dealing with changes in their personal lives, most notably The Edge's disintegrating marriage and subsequent divorce, which affected the band members deeply since they had all grown up together.

After taking some time off the band reconvened in 1991 to start recording the follow-up to The Joshua Tree, which became Achtung Baby, considered by many to be U2's best album, although I consider it a toss-up between it and The Joshua Tree. (I'll digress here and explain why...if I'm in an "American" mood, it's The Joshua Tree, and if I'm feeling more "European" it's Achtung Baby.) From The Sky Down documents the recording process, both with archival footage and with recent interviews with both Bono and The Edge. As a long-time fan, most of what's discussed in this DVD isn't news to me, but seeing the archival footage is pretty cool. If you're a casual fan or don't know much about the band at all it may come as news that there was serious internal strife within the band during the recording of Achtung Baby, enough that the band nearly broke up.