by Robert Wilkinson
We open our musical birthday weekend cruising to a vast variety of great music! Our show features Motown, the Doors, the Killers, and the electric blues of Gary Clark Junior!
February 15 is the birthday of a guitar wizard who has been called “the future of Texas blues,” as well as another legend who is one of the greatest songwriters in history. Add the drummer for the Killers, and another legend who had a birthday on Feb 12, and we have a diverse show tonight!
We’ll open this dance with the music of the blazing star we know as Gary Clark Jr. Many have not heard of this Austin legend who has been breaking BIG the past few years. While he’s mainly a blues cat, he also holds his own with the best in any genre!
Here's a little from Wikipedia: Gary Clark, Jr. (February 15, 1984) is an American Grammy-winning guitarist and actor based in Austin, Texas. Described as being the future of Texas blues, Clark's resume has included sharing the stage with various legends of rock and roll. He has stated that he is "influenced by blues, jazz, soul [and] country, as well as hip hop"
I mainly found videos of Gary playing some great blues. This guy smokes, so please take this opportunity to check out one of the newest bright lights going today!
We’ll begin with a Beatles tune delivered up by two of the best guitar players alive! Here’s a great live performance by Gary, Joe Walsh, and Dave Grohl delivering one of the truly smoking versions of George’s classic “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
From the Blues Kitchen in London, Gary cranking out the blues standard “Catfish Blues”
And since the comparisons have been everywhere since he hit the stage, I’ll include another classic version of the tune, performed live in 1967 in Stockholm by the Master! Jimi Hendrix - “Catfish Blues”
I found the original! From 1941, Robert Petway singing “Catfish Blues”
Back to Gary! From the 2012 Mountain Jam Festival, Gary delivering an homage to the Master with “Third Stone From the Sun”
It’s the blues! From the 2010 Crossroads Festival, "Bright Lights"
From the 2013 Crossroads Festival, with Doyle Bramhall II, “She’s All Right”With John Mayer, two virtuosos with dueling blues guitars in an awesome 6 minute version of "Born Under A Bad Sign"
Last year’s Dec 2016 live performance in LA is still gone, but this one is great “If Trouble Was Money”
From LeLive, “Things Are Changin’” and “Freight Train”
On The Roadhouse broadcast by KEXP Seattle, a full 24 minutes of Gary live in the studio! Gary Clark Jr. performing “When My Train Pulls In,” “Don't Owe You a Thing,” “Bright Lights,” and “Shotgun Man”
From Nov 2013, an entire one hour show! Gary Clark Jr. at the House of Blues in New Orleans
From Portugal in 2013, a full hour of Gary Clark Jr. at the Super Bock Super Rock Festival
We’ll close with a great clip of our tune on the show Concerts in Austin with Strings Attached. Here “the future of Texas blues” offers up “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
For our encores, two entire shows from 2016! First, an hour of Gary Clark Jr. Live at Glastonbury - 2016
Our second encore features an hour of Gary Clark Jr. Live at Pink Pop - 2016
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At this point, we’ll take a short break from track lists to celebrate the birthdays of Ray Manzarek (February 12, 1939 – May 20, 2013) and Ronnie Vannucci (February 15, 1976). I’ve celebrated the work of both these extraordinary talents in other birthday tributes, so rather than just repost the links here, if you want to hear Ray’s keyboard wizardry with the Doors, please check out Saturday Night Attitude Dancing to Doors and Jazz Fusion Celebrating the 2023 Birthday of Robbie Krieger.
Here I’ll give a nod to how Ronnie came to the Killers. When Brandon Flowers (June 21, 1981) met Dave Keuning (March 28, 1976), the Las Vegas band "The Killers" was formed, and went through a number of drummers until they found Ronnie, who brought inspiration and discipline to the group. The Killers’ music has been called an amalgam of Brit synth pop and Indie Rock, a sound where "Kinks meet Billy Idol"/"ELO meets the Cure" creates a new style. It’s also been noted it’s a new interpretation of the "BIG Sound" style that the Boss and U2 bring to their versions of guitar-and-melody driven stadium rock.
In any case, The Killers have given us a style of music imitated by many who came after them, but never pulled it off the way this band has! If you want to hear more about this multi-international award winning group backed by Ronnie’s drumming, please check out Happy 2022 Birthday to Brandon Flowers of the Killers. If you want a short take on this band, here's their 2013 version of a Cole Porter classic said to be one of the 100 greatest cowboy songs ever written, "Don't Fence Me In."
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We also send up a huge happy and merry to the great Motown songwriter Brian Holland (February 15, 1941). Along with his brother Eddie Holland (October 30, 1939) and Lamont Dozier (June 16, 1941), these brothers made Motown into Hitsville USA!
Between the early writing and production of Smokey Robinson, and the later era of psychedelic soul of Norman Whitfield, Motown had one of the best songwriting teams in history. Eddie Holland, along with Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier, co-wrote and/or produced 14 US Billboard #1 hits and 4 number ones in the UK as part of the Holland-Dozier-Holland team at Motown. Brian was the team's musical arranger and producer. This awesome talent has written or co-written 145 hits in US and 78 in the UK, and many of the greatest of the greats rode his hits to the top of the charts!
He wrote some of the greatest tunes in history, so kick back and enjoy the best of Motown! Of course, there are many more than these, but I figure there’s no way to get all of them in! I also chose to give you the originals, and not the many different versions done of all of these by different bands throughout history. "You Keep Me Hanging On" has been done by so many acts it would have taken the entire tribute!
Speaking of that song, let’s begin with the Supremes, who got off to a quick start in 1963 with “When the Love Light Starts Shining Through His Eyes” (#23 pop, #2 R&B)
Then in 1964, Holland-Dozier-Holland began a run of 10 #1 pop hits with this Supremes’ smash hit "Where Did Our Love Go"
We continue the string of #1s with another one from Dutch tv in 1964, “Baby Love” (from the same concert as the first song) and “Come See About Me.” (#1 US, #2 R&B)
This next hit kicked off 1965! From Ready Steady Go in 1965, a fantastic live performance of “Stop in the Name of Love” (#1 US, #2 R&B) And from The Hollywood Palace in 1965, another great live vocal performance to a backing track of “Stop in the Name of Love”
Another live television performance, this time of their 1965 #1 hit “Back in My Arms Again”
This one only made it to #11 US and #6 R&B, the upbeat million selling “Nothing but Heartaches”
They followed that with another which went to the top of the charts! From Hullabaloo in 1965, “I Hear A Symphony” (#1 US, #2 R&B)
They closed 1965 with this major hit! From The Sammy Davis Jr. Show in 1966, “My World Is Empty Without You Babe”
1966 continued their string of hits beginning with “Love is Like an Itching in My Heart” (#9 US, #7 R&B)
They followed that with another #1 hit! From September 1966 on The Ed Sullivan Show, the infinitely danceable “You Can’t Hurry Love”
Just after that, another #1 hit! On The Hollywood Palace tv show in 1966, here’s a live performance of “You Keep Me Hanging On” and “Somewhere.”
From the early days at Motown in 1962, he wrote this hit for Mary Wells! Based on the classic rock and roll 1-6-4-5 progression, "I've Got A Notion," and in 1964 wrote this smooth groove! "Whisper You Love Me Boy."
1963, 1964, 1965, and 1966 was good to the team! Here’s what the team came up with for Marvelous Marvin Gaye! From 1963, “Can I Get A Witness” and from 1964, “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)”
The team also wrote some great hits for Martha and the Vandellas!
“Come And Get These Memories" (#6 R&B), which we'll follow with their biggest, "Heatwave" (#1 R&B, #4 pop).
Here’s an updated clip featuring the Funk Brothers who backed the original tune recorded at Hitsville USA. The first part features a 2002 performance by Joan Osborne backed by the Funk Brothers, which moves into the original video clip of Martha and the Vandellas linked above. This song is still one of the best of the best! “Heat Wave”
Live in Detroit in 1964 for the Motortown Revue, here’s a great audio only track of Martha and the Vandellas doing their hit “Quicksand” (#8 pop)
From 1965 on Ready Steady Go, a great live performance of “Nowhere to Run”
From 1965, set in a Detroit car factory, Martha and the Vandellas lip synching to “Nowhere to Run”From 1967 on Shebang!, “Jimmy Mack”
Eddie, his brother, and Lamont Dozier created some HUGE hits for the Four Tops!
Live in France in 1967, “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)”
From TV Oz in 1993, the Four Tops very live and in the groove, offering up their first hit from way back when, the smooth soul sound of “Baby I Need Your Lovin’”
Here’s the original studio version, backing a Four Tops 1966 television lip-synched performance, of “Baby I Need Your Lovin’” From the same show, their third hit “Same Old Song”
Here's another great television appearance on Hullabaloo in 1965 performed to a backing instrumental track! For your stomping pleasure, their 1965 smash hit "Something About You Baby"
In 1970 Swinging London, this is live! Their second hit was all over the airwaves, and we knew something big was happening! “Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)”
Live on b/w television in 1967, “Standing In The Shadows of Love”
“Bernadette”We’ll close with a few more Holland-Dozier-Holland hits from other acts! First, the Isley Brothers cranking out “This Old Heart of Mine.”
We now go back to the beginning! Here Eddie performs an early hit! “Leaving Here”
The Who picked up the song in their “Maximum R&B” period and performed it on their Live at the BBC sessions! “Leaving Here"
We’ll segue into his huge hit for the Marvelettes, “Too Many Fish In The Sea” Here’s Mitch Ryder’s version of “Too Many Fish In The Sea”
We’ll close this dance with one of his best! Smokey Robinson and the Miracles scored big with the next one. Live in London at the The Sound of Motown tv show in 1965, Smokey and the Miracles crank up the infinitely danceable “Mickey’s Monkey” (The clip of the song on Ready Steady Go in 1965 has disappeared).
While Smokey’s version, well, smoked, the Rascals cranked out their own exciting version! Last year I had a television performance of this tune, but it’s disappeared. For our first encore, Felix and the Rascals cranking out “Mickey’s Monkey.” (The original clip also has “Turn on Your Love Light” as the second song, but it’s disappeared.)
For the next encore, we fast forward to the Greek Theater in LA in October 2013 for a reunited Rascals doing what they do best, and sounding great! “Mickey’s Monkey”
Happy Birthday, beautiful Soul Brother Brian Holland! Your music is part of the great American songbook. Not a bad gig for a guy from Detroit!
© Copyright 2023 Robert Wilkinson
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