by Robert Wilkinson
Today we dance to celebrate the birthdays of two historic trail blazing Scorpios. The first is one of the greatest lights of all time, the man who saved the world from polio, Dr. Jonas Salk. The second begins our series of birthday tributes to Scorpio musicians, a man who is one of the most influential guitarists of the past 60 years, the legendary Hank Marvin of the Shadows.
We’ll get the non-musical honors out of the way before we begin the music! The amazing Dr. Jonas Salk (October 28, 1914 – June 23, 1995) was one of the greatest doctors ever to look into a microscope! He saved the world from polio with his pioneering vaccine, and changed the lives of millions of people forever.
What's remarkable is that he refused to patent his polio vaccine, because “his sole focus had been to develop a safe and effective vaccine as rapidly as possible, with no interest in personal profit. When he was asked in a televised interview who owned the patent to the vaccine, Salk replied: ‘There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?’”
I had the rare privilege of doing a chart session for him back in the early 90s, and we hung out on the phone later and talked for hours about his questions, which I answered as best as I could. It was metaphysics meets meta-biology, and I just wish he had lived longer, since we had an instant rapport. His last written work, which he sent me, dealt with the nature of cellular consciousness itself, pattern replicability, and the energy fields behind all life, and we had only begun our dialog when he checked out.
He died about 23 years ago while on another major quest trying to find a cure for HIV, and to the end of his life pushed the boundaries of science, life, healing, and meta-biology. We should all be so relentless in pursuing things for the greater good of humanity! Thanks for everything, Jonas. You were one of the best of all time.
You can find out more about this remarkable man for the ages by checking out Wikipedia on Jonas Salk.
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And now, the great Hank Marvin (28 October 1941). If you don't know who the Shadows were, they were a British group that set the standard, along with the Ventures, Link Wray, and Dick Dale, for the entire instrumental music boom of the early 60s. This was a time when such groups as the Tornados, Chantays, Marketts, Surfaris, the Champs, Johnny and the Hurricanes, and Duane Eddy, along with the "Big Three" already mentioned, did instrumental versions of the hits of the era as well as their own original compositions, weaving a tapestry of guitar heavy melodies that impacted music ever since.
The Shadows set the standard. They did the original "Apache," along with all the other great instrumental songs of the era, including "Telstar," "Wipeout," "Ghost Riders in the Sky," and too many other gear fab tunes to count. Hank Marvin was/is the lead guitarist, and so for your remembrance and enjoyment, here are the Shadows!
Apache was No 1 for The Shadows in 1960 for six weeks. Here's a very early clip of The Shadows doing the classic "Apache."
Here’s a two parter. From 1961, the Shadows on “Crackerjack” performing “The Frightened City,” “FBI,” and “Dance On.” The second part of the clip features the Shadows with Cliff Richard at the 1964 NME concert doing “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On”
From April 1962, the Rudi Carell Show on Dutch TV. "Wonderful Land."
From 1964, "Sleepwalk '64
Also from 1964 on Belgian television, great footage! "Apache"
From 1965, the Shads on television performing "The War Lord."
From 1969, a great live performance of “Apache”
From 1979, "Cavatina."
From Top of the Pops in 1980, the Shadows live delivering "Riders In The Sky."
From 1981, the Shads live delivering up the 1954 Johnny Smith tune that the Ventures took to #2 in 1960, “Walk Don’t Run”
The Shadows live in 1981 on a programme called 'Razzamataz' doing the famous "Telstar."
This is an amazing performance, and given Hank's smooth as silk playing, you can hear where Mark Knopfler got the inspiration for his particular guitar style! If you don't play one other video today, check this one out!!! For your enjoyment, the stunningly beautiful rocker written by Mike Oldfield (remember "Tubular Bells") performed in 1986 by Hank Marvin and the Shadows, "Moonlight Shadow."
From The Shadows on The Pebble Mill Show in 1986, another great version of "Moonlight Shadow."
I found a great performance by Mike Oldfield of this beautiful tune live in London in 1998! Here's the man who wrote this magnificent piece, accompanied by stunning vocals by Pepsi Demacque, doing "Moonlight Shadow."
From an earlier era, an acoustic take live in 1985 by Mike Oldfield with vocals by Maggie Reilly of "Moonlight Shadow."
For our final Oldfield performance, here's the VH1 live performance of "Moonlight Shadow" (His closing lead lines are amazing!)
Back to the Shadows! I found it again! This is a great 55 minute set of a live stage performance in Liverpool (Liverpool Empire) England in 1989, so enjoy the Shads at their finest!
The Shadows – 30 Years – Liverpool Empire 1989
Here are a couple from the same 1989 show if you don’t have the time to see the entire show. Here are the Shadows doing "Shadoogie." and "Dance On."
Here are some real gems! Besides being hit makers on their own, The Shadows were also the backup band for Cliff Richard, one of the most popular performers in England in the late 50s and early 60s. This set the sound for pop music in the UK at the time, and was a huge influence on three young skiffle players by the names of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison.
In 1958, "Move It" broke rock and roll wide open in the UK, and opened the door for 10,000 guitarists to give it a try! For your enjoyment, from March 1960, Cliff Richard and the Shadows doing their 1958 #1 hit "Move It" (Check out those scandalously sexy moves! It was 1960 Great Britain, you know.;-))
From 1960, Cliff and the Shads live on television cranking out the Ray Charles classic, “What’d I Say”
From May 1960, Cliff and the Shads getting down on tv with “Willie and the Hand Jive”
Also from 1960, Cliff Richard & The Shadows doing "Gee Whiz It's You"
Last year I had a collection of three performance clips from television in 1960, but it’s disappeared. So instead here are individual video clips of “A Teenager Romance,” followed by “Mean Woman Blues,” then “Love,” and “Down the Line”
We now take a slight detour, since the Shadows were still cranking out hits even without Cliff in that era! Here’s a mashup of early performance footage set to the studio version of “Man of Mystery”
Back to Sir Cliff! From the same era, "Nine Times Out of Ten." (Hank’s lead break really smokes!)
From 1962, Cliff Richard and the Shadows on television boppin’ to “Do You Want To Dance”
From the 1962 Royal Variety Show, here are the Shads and Cliff live performing “Wonderful Land” and “The Young Ones”
In Paris, here are a couple of good ones! "The Lonely One" and "I Got A Woman."
From 1965 in the Netherlands, Cliff Richard and the Shadows doing "What I'd Say."
From 1965, Cliff and the Shads doing “Lucky Lips”
Last year I had the Shads’ 1981 Royal Command Performance with Cliff performing “Apache,” “Willie and the Hand Jive,” and “We Don’t Talk Anymore,” but it’s nowhere to be found.
Here they are again in 2008, cranking out their hits at the Royal Variety Show in the Palladium, Cliff Richard and the Shadows live doing "The Young Ones," "Willie and the Hand Jive," and "Move It."
A twangy studio version of a Cliff Richards rocker!"She's Gone."
We’ll close this Cliff Richard set with 2 great shows! First, from 1984, an hour and 35 of Cliff Richard and the Shadows Live at the NEC 1984
For our second set, a 45 minute show from 2009 in Dublin! Cliff Richard and the Shadows – 50th Anniversary Show 2009
The following are all studio versions set to still pictures of the Shadows doing some of the greatest hits of the day. Here they are doing the great Ventures hit "Walk Don't Run."
From 1960, "The Stranger."
From 1962, the Shads covering the great Link Wray tune "Rumble."
From 1963, "Atlantis"
From 1965, "Stingray."
Here's the studio version of the classic "Perfidia."
Here's a live version of "Perfidia."
Another slowed down studio version of "Perfidia."
From Hank's Guitar Player tour & from Hank's Marvin at The Movie's, Hank doing the legendary Ennio Morricone composition, "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly."
From Cliff Richard's Countdown to the Millenium concert in 2000, here's the Master Guitarist doing the great "Apache."
The Shads live in Cardiff on the Final Tour 2004! Here are Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch & Brian Bennet doing "Geronimo."
From 1998, Hank and his son Ben doing the Shadows’ 1961 hit “The Savage”
Here’s an amazing live performance by Hank and Ben performing Jean Michel Jarre’s “Oxygene”
2 years ago I had a clip of Hank and his son Ben in 2004 doing “Sleepwalk,” but this year it’s nowhere to be found. So instead, we have a great clip from 1994 of Hank and Ben, accompanied by Brian Bennett and his son Warren Bennett with bassist Mark Griffiths in a live performance of ”Move It,” “Apache,” and "Sleepwalk"
I also found this great clip from 1995 of Hank, Ben, and Warren performing ”The Young Ones” and “Traveling Light.”
We’ll close this quintet of father/son rock and roll clips with Hank and Ben on GMTV doing a great acoustic version of “Eleanor Rigby”In a fitting close to this birthday tribute, here are two English guitar legends doing what they do best! For your enjoyment, a 1985 live performance by Dire Straits and Hank Marvin doing "Going Home."
For an encore, a great score! Here's a one hour plus of Hank being interviewed about how he came to his style of playing, with clips of his performances throughout the years. Enjoy! Just Hank Marvin - 1997
Mister Hank Marvin, many thanks for setting the standard so long ago, and inspiring so many great British and American guitarists! May you rock on!!
© Copyright 2018 Robert Wilkinson
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