lyrics of the month

blowing in the wind - bob dylan

How many roads must a man walk downBefore you call him a man?

Yes, n how many seas must a white dove sailBefore she sleeps in the sand?

Yes, n how many times must the cannon balls flyBefore theyre forever banned?

The answer, my friend , is blowin in the wind,The answer is blowin in the wind.

How many times must a man look upBefore he can see the sky?

Yes, n how many ears must one man haveBefore he can hear people cry?

Yes, n how many deaths will it take till he knowsThat too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind,The answer is blowin in the wind.

How many years can a mountain existBefore its washed to the sea?

Yes, n how many years can some people existBefore theyre allowed to be free?

Yes, n how many times can a man turn his head,Pretending he just doesnt see?

The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind,The answer is blowin in the wind.

artist of the month

The artist who has caught my attention lately and whom i will present to you as the artist of the month in the first edition of catch the wind
is
the man who pennned down these words -
"i will bring you gold apples and grapes made of rubys that have shown in the eyes of the prince of the breeze"
i m talkin about Donovan Phillips Leitch
or known as donovan by all his fans .

Donovan Leitch was born near Glasgow, but moved down to St. Albans as a child. He was 'discovered' by his managers-to-be on the South coast folk scene in 1964. He came to national prominence in March 1965 when his first single, "Catch The Wind" charted in the wake of a three-week residency on TV's "Ready Steady Go!". An equally successful second single, "Colours", an album, and the "Universal Soldier" EP put the 18-year-old singer squarely in the folk camp, an image that was re-enforced by peaked cap, denims, and motto-bearing acoustic guitar.
In late 1965, Donovan hooked up with manager Allen Klein and a new producer, Mickie Most (who also worked with the Animals, Herman's Hermits, and Lulu), who steered the young singer away from acoustic folk and into psychedelic pop.
Some critics suggested that the early Donovan was just a poor imitation of Dylan, but his second album, "Fairy-tale", saw him in transition to a more distinctive style. Alongside further folk offerings were meditative pastoral songs like "Jersey Thursday" and the jazz-influenced "Sunny Goodge Street".
That was to be Donovan's last U.K. release for nearly fourteen months. Legal and managerial problems were to blame and the situation was exacerbated by his decision to work with Mickie Most, an independent producer whose work was generally licensed to EMI in Britain, not Donovan's label, Pye. But in the States the hassles were ironed out by the spring of 1966 and the first collaboration with Most, "Sunshine Superman" was released there in the summer. At home, the negotiations dragged on and the single did not appear until the end of the year.
The period between 1966 and 1969 was to produce Donovan's most original and enduring body of work. For early sessions, he was sometimes assisted by John Cameron, whose tasteful arrangements avoided the excesses of many contemporary musical directors. Further input came from top sessionmen like Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, as well as seasoned jazz and folk players like flautist Harold McNair and bassist Danny Thompson. Drawing inspiration from jazz, blues and the traditional music of the British Isles - and generally featuring the guitar-dominated sound typical of the era - Donovan created music that put him at the forefront of the rock scene for a heady couple of years.
"Sunshine Superman" was one of the earliest, and finest, examples of psychedelic pop, and there were plenty of songs of equal worth on the U.S. album of the same title. His next U.S. album, "Mellow Yellow", (containing a Paul McCartney cameo), saw Donovan incorporating vaudeville and more overt jazz elements, as well as simplifying his lyrical approach and reaffirming his enthusiasm for all things pastoral. But because of the delay in the release of the "Sunshine Superman" single in the U.K., these two albums were condensed into one set for the home market, and several U.S. singles went unreleased there.
Donovan's next album, "A Gift From A Flower To A Garden", was released virtually simultaneously on both sides of the Atlantic. This lavish boxed double album marked a further simplification in Donovan's approach and it epitomised that brief period of love, peace and naivety often referred to as 'flower power'. Donovan had flung himself into the spirit of the times with such enthusiasm that he was disadvantaged when the competition moved towards a more progressive style of rock at odds with the singles chart.
Adopting a heavier approach, the "Hurdy Gurdy Man", featuring Jeff Beck on guitar, found Donovan harking back temporarily to the psych sound of the "Sunshine Superman" album. Subsequent singles like "Atlantis" and "Barabajagal" placed him in the rock mainstream, rather than at its cutting edge.
Donovan and Most parted company in 1969, and though the singer was able to sustain his albums success into the early Seventies, the hit singles had dried up. A reunion with Most on the album,"Cosmic Wheels" gave Donovan his last commercial success on an international scale.
After a while though, his full-length efforts began to sound unduly repetitive and overly florid. By the end of the Sixties, Donovan had begun to fade and struggle for relevancy.
Around 1970, he had achieved everything he could have possibly dreamed of. There was nowhere else to go. Donovan walked onto a BA jet in Tokyo and out of a tax plan called a "drop-out year" where he was going to earn millions. It had ended. He came home to his cottage in England, married Linda Lawrence, his great love and teenage muse, and walked away from fame, the Rolls Royce, and the mansion.
They went to Joshua Tree in the California desert for much of the '70s and brought up the children as an alternative family. In '83, he stopped making records completely.
By 1990, Donovan had gone into the studio again and started recording ideas. Producer Rick Rubin had been working with Tom Petty, who was playing one of Donovan's songs. Rick said, "I've always wanted to record Donovan." Petty said, "Why don't you phone him up?" So he did. The result was a new album, released in 1996, called "Sutras" and a world wide tour.
January, 2004 saw the release of another album called "1964", which features recordings of Donovan from that year, made before his string of hit records. The collection shows his early guitar work and command of folk-blues traditions, including originals written and recorded by the age of eighteen. A new studio album called "Beat Café" was also in the works for mid summer of '04. In 2005, Donovan was still touring the United States.
In a way, Donovan embodied his era, his best work matches any British music of the mid-Sixties. Certainly he wasn't as deep as Dylan, but the acoustic tracks he recorded in the mid-'60s, were affecting, thoughtful, and tuneful, especially considering he was still in his teens at the time.

my personal favourite are catch the wind and jennifer juniper .
each song has a unique mellifluous taste to it.
while catch the wind would be lying strongly on its rhythm guitaring and soft nostalgic yet refreshing poetry ,jennifer juniper is a song i will listen to simply because it is the cutest song i have come across since quite a time.
some other noticaeble songs are
1) atlantis
2) sunshine uperman
3) colors
4) wear your love like heaven
5) hutdy gurdy man
6) espitle to dippy
7) celeste
8)celia of the seals
9) universal soldier
10) sailing homeward

genre of the month

musical genre of the month


in this edition we will have a look at the most mystifying form of music. blues. for all you blues fan you would know this only too well how the blues becomes the pinnance between the dulcet sleepy eyes and the starry horizon thourgh the window,or the between the soul and a pinching melancholic moment .

Blues is a music genre based on the use of the blues chord progressions and the blue notes. Though several blues forms exist, the 12-bar blues chord progressions are the most frequently encountered. Blue notes are sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of themajor scale for expressive purposes. Blues emerged at the end of the 19th century as an accessible form of self-expression in african_american communities of the United states from spirituals , work songs,field hollers, shouts and chants and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The use of blue notes and the prominence of call and response patterns in the music and lyrics are indicative of African traditions. The blues influenced later American and Western popular music, as the blues form became a basic pattern of jazz, rhythm and blues, bluegrass and rock and roll. In the 1960s and 1970s, blues evolved into a hybrid form called blues rock. In the 1990s, punk bluesappeared as an outgrowth of the blues rock and punk movements.
The term "the blues" refers to the "the blue devils", meaning melancholy and sadness; an early use of the term in this sense is found in Georgecolman's one-act farce Blue Devils (1798).Though the use of the phrase in African Americanmay be older, it has been attested to since 1912, when Harts Wind's "Dallas blues" became the first copyrighted Blues composition.
Lyrics


Robert Johnson, an influential Delta bluesmusician
The traditional blues verse was probably a single line, repeated four times. It was only later that the current, most common structure of a line, repeated once and then followed by a single line conclusion, became standard. Two of the first published blues songs, however, Dallas blues (1912) and ST.Louis blues(1914), each featured lines repeated twice, followed by an "answer" line, played over 12 bars of music. W.C Handy wrote that he adopted this convention to avoid the monotony of lines repeated three times. These lines were often sung following a pattern closer to a rhythmic talk than to a melody. Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative. The singer voiced his or her "personal woes in a world of harsh reality: a lost love, the cruelty of police officers, oppression at the hands of white folk, [and] hard times." Typical authority figures often include train conductor, judge, landlord/lady, captain (boss), and chief of police.
Author Ed Morales has claimed that Yoruba mythology played a part in early blues, citing Robert Johnson's "cross road blues" as a "thinly veiled reference to Eleggua, the orisha in charge of the crossroads". However, many seminal blues artists such as charley patton, or Skip James had in their repertoire several religious songs or spirituals.Reverand Gary Davis and blind willis are examples of artists often categorized as blues musicians for their music but whose lyrics clearly belong to the spirituals.
Although the blues gained an association with misery and oppression, the blues could also be humorous and raunchy as well:
"Rebecca, Rebecca, get your big legs off of me,
Rebecca, Rebecca, get your big legs off of me,
It may be sending you baby, but it's worrying the hell out of me."
From Big Joe's Turner "Rebecca", a compilation of traditional blues lyrics
Hoku, blues celebrated both comedic lyrical content and a boisterous, farcical performance style. Tampa's red's classic "Tight Like That" is a sly wordplay with the double meaning of being "tight" with someone coupled with a more salacious physical familiarity. Lyrical content of music became slightly simpler in post war-blues in which focus was often almost exclusively on singer's relationship woes or sexual worries. Many lyrical themes that frequently appeared in pre-war blues such as economic depression, farming, devils, gambling, magic, floods and dry periods were less common post war blues.



Ten blues artists you would want to lend an ear

Ten: Robert Johnson (1911 - 1938) Before any of the blues players on this list, there was Robert Johnson. He is considered to be the "grandfather of rock'n' roll" and he wrote Crossroads a good four decades before people heard Eric Clapton playing it. Clapton called Johnson "the most important blues musician who ever lived"* (*quote from Wikipedia). Unfortunately Johnson's life was cut short by an angry husband.
"I went down to the crossroads, I tried to flag a ride".

Nine: Elmore James (1918-1963) "The King of the Slide Guitar", Elmore James was a great guitar player and singer of the blues. I have some greatest hits collections of Elmore James and his four disc set the Fire & Enjoy Sessions. One of his most popular songs was Dust My Broom (written by Robert Johnson). James had a raw sound that really hits you with his accompanying slide guitar skills.
" I'm gonna get up in the mornin I believe I'll dust my broom" .


Eight: Howlin' Wolf (1910-1976) His real name was Chester Arthur Burnett, but this large Mississippi blues man has an unmistable deep growling voice that earning him his nickname Howlin' Wolf. With songs like Spoonful and Little Red Rooster he influenced future generations of rock n' roll. Howlin Wolf has been covered by The Rolling Stones, Megadeth, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Stevie Ray Vaughn, George Thorogood and PJ Harvey.

"one little spoon of your precious love is good enough for me, men lie about that spoonful, some cry about that spoonful, some die about that spoonful, everybody fight about a spoonful that spoon, that spoon that spoonful."

Seven: Sam 'Lightin' Hopkins (1912-1982) Texas blues man 'Lightin' Hopkins was first discovered by me in a compilation called Mojo Hand. Two discs of awesome blues guitar and vocals. He has a rough gritty sound that makes you feel the blues, and his guitar work is incredible.
"I'm goin to Louisiana and get me a mojo hand, I'm gonna fix my woman, so she can't have no other man".

Six: Muddy Waters (1915-1983) Even people who don't know the blues know the name Muddy Waters. He is considered as one of the greatest blues players of all time and the father of the Chicago Blues. His real name was McKinley Morganfield. That info is from Wikipedia. All I can add to it is that a disc of Muddy Waters was one that turned me onto the blues, and many more followed including a big box set of Muddy himself, and most of the artists on this list.
"now when I was a young boy at the age of five my mother said I'll be the greatest man alive. And now I'm a man You know the riff".


Five: Stevie Ray Vaughn (1954-1990) One of the greatest guitar players of all time (no. 7 in a 2003 Rolling Stones list,. Any artist that can cover Hendrix and make it sound great has my respect. He was a highly influential blues musician, and brought blues to generations of rock n roll fans not familiar with the others on this list.
" she's my sweet little thang...she's my pride and joy, she's my sweet little baby I'm her little lover boy"/

Four: Willie Dixon (1915-1992) This former Golden Gloves heavyweight champion was not only a blues singer and bass player, he WROTE many of the most popular blues songs that still exist in rock n' roll today, including tracks like Bring it on Home, Built for Comfort, Evil, Hoochie Coochie Man, I Ain't Superstitious, I can't Quit you Baby, I just want to make love to you, Little Red Rooster, Spoonful, Walkin the Blues, You Shook Me and You Need Love. Led Zeppelin's Whole Lot of Love now credits Dixon for the song after a 1985 lawsuit was settled. (info on Willie Dixon culled from Wikipedia) .
"you know you shook me, you shook me all night long, whoa you shook me pretty mama, you shook me all night long".


Three: Albert Collins (1932-1993) Known as the Master of the Telecaster or The Iceman, Albert Collins was truly a talented blues guitar player. You can see and hear for yourself, some of Collins last shows were preserved for prosperity months before his demise the iceman at mount fiji. The sound of Collins Telecaster is very distinct, he is a great lead guitar player. every Monday mornin' .
"I drink black coffee and I clear my head, because every Sunday night without you baby, it's blue Monday, you know baby you know my soul is dead".

Two: John Lee Hooker (1917-2001) Boom Boom Boom, one of this legendary blues mans songsBoogie chillunwas taken note for note and lyric for lyric by Led Zeppelin in The Lemon Song. He has simple blues compositions that are raw and gritty. You may have seen him play himself in The Blues Brothers. Even in his later years, he continued to release great albums like Mr. lucky.
" one night I was layin down, I heard mama n papa talkin, I heard papa tell mama, let that boy boogie woogie".

One: B.B. King (1925 - ?) The King of the Blues is the only artist on this list that is still rocking today. B.B. King performed last year on his 80the birthday bash tour, and the man can still play that unmistakable blues guitar on Lucille and has a voice that fills a concert hall. If you want a taste of how great B.B. sounded live you could check out chronicles a box set of three live concert CDs. B.B. King has not slowed down in recording great music either as his recent "reflections" proves.
"The thrill is gone baby, the thrill is gone away, you know you done me wrong baby, and you'll be sorry someday".