Music

“Linus and Lucy,” Los Straightjackets version of “Peanuts” theme song

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Dangerous Minds

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The luchador-masked garage/surf band Los Straitjackets have been a popular live act for over 20 years, thanks to tight musicianship and energetic, theatrical stage shows. They’re known for sharing stages with other showy, dynamic performers like the burleque troupe The Pontani Sisters, but lately they’ve begun working with someone altogether different—Nick Lowe, the great songwriter and producer who lived the transition from pub rock to New Wave and beyond. Los Straitjackets were a feature of Lowe’s Quality Holiday Revue tour last year, and will be again this year. 

That album will contain Los Straitjackets’ version of the immortal Vince Guaraldi number “Linus and Lucky,” famous as the theme music from the PeanutsTV specials, starting with A Charlie Brown Christmas 50 years ago. Thanks to the Peanuts connection, that song is by far pianist Guaraldi’s best-known work, and there are abundant covers out there, by artists as varied as yuppie jazz institution Wynton Marsalis and indefatigable skate-punks JFA. But if it’s all you know of him, do yourself a favor and pick up Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus or even just a best-of. He was pretty amazing.

Los Straitjackets are hardly strangers to holiday music—in the late ‘90s, a Straitjackets Christmas appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien was an annual tradition, and in 2002 they released ‘Tis the Season for Los Straitjackets. Guitarist Gregorio El Grande discussed the appeal “Linus and Lucy” held for the band to DM in an email exchange:

We listen to all different kinds of instrumental music and always loved the Vince Guaraldi score for A Charlie Brown Christmas. One of the discoveries working on “Linus and Lucy” was finding out the opening riff sounds exactly like the opening riff in “You Really Got Me by The Kinks” when you rock it up. You would never think of those two songs being similar! The best thing about covering this song is seeing everybody doing the Peanuts dances when we play it.

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Rockin Batman theme by Link Wray and his Raymen

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Fred Lincoln “Link” Wray Jr (May 2, 1929 – November 5, 2005) was an American rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and vocalist who first came to popularity in the late 1950s.

Building on the overdriven, distorted electric guitar sound of early electric blues records, his 1958 instrumental hit “Rumble” by Link Wray and his Ray Men invented “the power chord, the major modus operandi of modern rock guitarists”,making possible “punk and heavy rock”. Rolling Stone placed Wray at number 45 of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. In 2013 he was announced as a nominee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

 

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Joe Satriani: master of the guitar strings

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Joseph “Joe” Satriani (born July 15, 1956) is an American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. Early in his career, Satriani worked as a guitar instructor, with many of his former students achieving fame, such as Steve Vai, Larry LaLonde, Rick Hunolt, Kirk Hammett, Andy Timmons, Charlie Hunter, Kevin Cadogan, and Alex Skolnick; he then went on to have a successful solo music career. He is a 15-time Grammy Award nominee and has sold over 10 million albums, making him the biggest-selling instrumental rock guitarist of all time.

In 1988, Satriani was recruited by Mick Jagger as lead guitarist for his first solo tour. In 1994, Satriani toured with Deep Purple as the lead guitarist. He has worked with a range of guitarists during the G3 tour, which he founded in 1995. His G3 collaborators have included Vai, LaLonde, Timmons, Steve Lukather, John Petrucci, Eric Johnson, Yngwie Malmsteen, Brian May, Patrick Rondat, Paul Gilbert, Adrian Legg, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Steve Morse and Robert Fripp. Satriani has been the lead guitarist for the supergroup Chickenfoot since co-founding the band in 2008. Since 1988, he has been using his own signature guitars, the Ibanez JS Series, which are sold in music stores worldwide. He has also collaborated with Vox to create his own wah, delay, overdrive and distortion pedals as well as a collaboration with Marshall Amplification for the creation of his own signature series amplifier head, the JVM410HJS.

 

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Satriani is considered to be a highly technical guitarist, and has been referred to as a top guitar virtuoso. Satriani has mastered many performance techniques on electric guitar, including legato, two-handed tapping and arpeggio tapping, volume swells, harmonics and extreme whammy bar effects. During fast passages, Satriani favors a legato technique (achieved primarily through hammer-ons and pull-offs) that yields smooth and flowing runs. He is also adept at other speed-related techniques such as rapid alternate picking and sweep picking. Satriani was influenced by blues-rock guitar icons such as Jimi Hendrix, Brian May, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore and Jeff Beck, as well as jazz fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth.

Fats Domino Gone to the High House

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Antoine Dominique “Fats” Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017) was an American pianist and singer-songwriter of Louisiana Creole descent. He had 35 records in the U.S. Billboard Top 40, and five of his pre-1955 records sold more than a million copies, being certified gold.
From 1955-60, he had eleven top 10 hits and his record sales were reportedly surpassed only by Elvis Presley. During his career, Domino sold over 65 million records. His musical style was based on traditional rhythm and blues, accompanied by saxophones, bass, piano, electric guitar, and drums.

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Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, the eighth and final child of Antoine Caliste Domino (1879–1964) and Marie-Donatille Gros (1886–1971). The Domino family was of French Creole background. Louisiana Creole was his first language.
Antoine was born at home with the assistance of his grandmother, a midwife. His name was initially given as Anthony on his birth certificate but was later corrected. His family had newly arrived in the Lower Ninth Ward from Vacherie, Louisiana. His father was a violin player.
He attended the Louis B. Macarty School for less than four grades, leaving to start work as a helper to an ice delivery man. Domino learned to play the piano from his brother-in-law, the jazz guitarist Harrison Verrett, while studying shipping management at his local community college.
The artist was married to Rosemary Domino from 1947 until her death in 2008 and was the father of eight children. Even after his success he continued to live in his old neighborhood, the lower Ninth Ward, until after Hurricane Katrina, when he moved to a suburb of New Orleans.

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My favourite Fats song

Rock Stars and Musicians that died at age 27, very bizarre

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The number of rockers who were taken from us too early in life — whether by accident, violence or misadventure — is obviously far too large. The fact that so many of the biggest and most influential talents in rock history died at the age of 27 is even more bizarre, and when you think about it, downright creepy.

Over the years, the stories behind the deaths of the members of this so called “27 club” have grown more and more inflated and outrageous, with everything from legal cover-ups to elaborate hoaxes and even deals with the devil trotted out to try and make some sense of these tragic losses.

Together with our friends at Loudwire, we try to distinguish fact from fiction regarding these sad stories on the following list of Rockers Who Died at Age 27.

 Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison all died at the age of 27 between 1969 and 1971. At the time, the coincidence gave rise to some comment but it was not until the death of Kurt Cobain, about two and a half decades later, that the idea of a “27 Club” began to catch on in public perception.

According to Hendrix and Cobain biographer Charles R. Cross, the growing importance of the media—Internet, television and magazines—and the response to an interview of Cobain’s mother were jointly responsible for such theories. An excerpt from a statement that Cobain’s mother, Wendy Fradenburg Cobain O’Connor, made in the Aberdeen, Washington newspaper The Daily World—”Now he’s gone and joined that stupid club. I told him not to join that stupid club.”—referred to Hendrix, Joplin, and Morrison dying at the same age, according to Cross. Other authors share his view. On the other hand, Josh Hunter and Eric Segalstad, writer of The 27s: The Greatest Myth of Rock & Roll, assumed that Cobain’s mother referred to the death of his two uncles and his great uncle, who all committed suicide. According to Cross, the events have led a “set of conspiracy theorists [to suggest] the absurd notion that Kurt Cobain intentionally timed his death so he could join the 27 Club”.

In 2011, seventeen years after Cobain’s death, Amy Winehouse died at the age of 27, and there was a large amount of media attention devoted to the club once again. Three years earlier, she had expressed a fear of dying at that age.

People identified as being in the 27 Club

Name Date of death Official cause of death Fame Age
Levy, Alexandre January 17, 1892 Unknown Composer, pianist and conductor 27 years, days  
Chauvin, Louis March 26, 1908 Neurosyphilitic sclerosis Ragtime musician 27 years, 13 days  
Johnson, Robert August 16, 1938 Poisoning (Strychnine) Blues singer and musician who recorded a very influential set of 29 songs. 27 years, 100 days  
Nat Jaffe August 5, 1945 Complications from high blood pressure Swing jazz pianist 27 years, 216 days  
Jesse Belvin February 6, 1960 Traffic collision (car) R&B singer, pianist and songwriter 27 years, 53 days  
Lewis, Rudy 01964-05-20-0000May 20, 1964 Drug overdose Vocalist of the Drifters 27 years, 271 days  
Henderson, Joe October 24, 1964 Heart attack R&B and gospel singer 27 years, 183 days  
Hale, Malcolm ! 01968-10-31-0000October 31, 1968 Poisoning (carbon monoxide) Original member and lead guitarist of Spanky and Our Gang 27 years, 166 days  
Pride, Dickie March 26, 1969 Drug overdose (sleeping pills) Rock and roll singer 27 years, 156 days  
Jones, Brian 01969-07-03-0000July 3, 1969 Drowning(coroner’s report states “death by misadventure”) Rolling Stones founder, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist 27 years, 125 days  
Wilson, Alan “Blind Owl” 01970-09-03-0000September 3, 1970 Drug overdose (barbiturate), possible suicide Leader, singer and primary composer of Canned Heat 27 years, 61 days  
Hendrix, Jimi September 18, 1970 Asphyxiation Pioneering electric guitarist, singer and songwriter for the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band of Gypsys 27 years, 295 days  
Joplin, Janis October 4, 1970 Drug overdose (probable, heroin) Lead vocalist and songwriter for Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Kozmic Blues Band and Full Tilt Boogie Band 27 years, 258 days  
Arlester “Dyke” Christian March 13, 1971 Murdered Frontman, vocalist and bassist of Dyke and the Blazers 27 years, 273 days  
Morrison, Jim 01971-07-03-0000July 3, 1971 Heart failure Singer, lyricist, and leader of the Doors 27 years, 207 days  
Jones, Linda March 14, 1972 Complications from diabetes Soul singer 27 years, 91 days  
Harvey, Leslie May 3, 1972 Electrocution Guitarist for Stone the Crows and brother of Alex Harvey 27 years, 233 days  
Ron “Pigpen” McKernan March 8, 1973 Gastrointestinal hemorrhage Founding member, keyboardist and singer of the Grateful Dead 27 years, 181 days  
Roger Lee Durham July 27, 1973 Fell off a horse and died from the injuries Singer and percussionist of Bloodstone 27 years, 163 days  
Yohn, Wallace !Wallace Yohn 01974-08-12-0000August 12, 1974 Plane crash Organ player of Chase 27 years, 212 days  
Alexander, Dave February 10, 1975 Pulmonary edema Bassist for the Stooges 27 years, 252 days  
Ham, Pete April 24, 1975 Suicide by hanging Keyboardist and guitarist, leader of Badfinger 27 years, 362 days  
Thain, Gary December 8, 1975 Drug overdose (heroin) Former bassist of Uriah Heep and the Keef Hartley Band 27 years, 207 days  
Cecilia August 2, 1976 Traffic collision (car) Singer 27 years, 296 days  
Köllen, Helmut May 3, 1977 Poisoning (carbon monoxide) Bassist for 1970s prog rock band Triumvirat 27 years, 27 days  
Bell, Chris December 27, 1978 Traffic collision (car) Singer-songwriter and guitarist of power pop band Big Star and solo 27 years, 349 days  
Miller, Jacob March 23, 1980 Traffic collision (car) Reggae artist and lead singer for Inner Circle 27 years, 324 days  
Boon, D. December 22, 1985 Traffic collision (van) Guitarist, lead singer of punk band the Minutemen 27 years 266 days  
Bashlachev, Alexander February 17, 1988 Fall from a height, probable suicide Poet, rock musician and songwriter 27 years 266 days  
Basquiat, Jean-Michel August 12, 1988 Drug overdose (Speedball) Painter and graffiti artist; formed the band Gray 27 years, 234 days  
de Freitas, Pete June 14, 1989 Traffic collision (motorcycle) Drummer for Echo & the Bunnymen 27 years, 346 days  
Zapata, Mia July 7, 1993 Murdered Lead singer of the Gits 27 years, 316 days  
Cobain, Kurt April 5, 1994 c. Suicide by gunshot Founding member, lead singer, guitarist and songwriter for Nirvana 27 years, 44 days  
Pfaff, Kristen June 16, 1994 Drug overdose (heroin) Bass guitarist for Hole and Janitor Joe 27 years, 21 days  
Edwards, Richey February 1, 1995 Disappeared; officially presumed dead November 23, 2008 Lyricist and guitarist for Manic Street Preachers 27 years, 41 days  
Pat, Fat February 3, 1998 Murdered American rapper and member of Screwed Up Click 27 years, 61 days  
Tah, Freaky 01999-03-28-0000March 28, 1999 Murdered American rapper and member of the hip hop group Lost Boyz 27 years, 318 days  
Kami June 21, 1999 Subarachnoid hemorrhage Drummer for Malice Mizer 27 years, 140 days  
Bueno, Rodrigo June 24, 2000 Traffic collision (car) Cuarteto singer 27 years, 31 days  
Sean Patrick McCabe August 28, 2000 Asphyxiation Lead singer of Ink & Dagger 27 years, 289 days  
Maria Serrano Serrano November 24, 2001 Plane crash (Crossair Flight 3597) Background singer for Passion Fruit 27 years, 363 days  
Ward, Jeremy Michael May 25, 2003 Drug overdose (heroin) The Mars Volta and De Facto sound manipulator 27 years, 20 days  
Ottoson, Bryan !Bryan Ottoson 02005-04-19-0000April 19, 2005 Drug overdose (prescription medication) Guitarist for American Head Charge 27 years, 32 days  
Elizalde, Valentín November 26, 2006 Murdered Mexican banda singer 27 years, 297 days  
Winehouse, Amy 02011-07-23-0000July 23, 2011 Poisoning (alcohol) Singer-songwriter 27 years, 312 days  
Richard Turner August 11, 2011 Cardiac arrest Trumpet player, collaborator with Friendly Fires 27 years, 12 days  
Nicole Bogner January 6, 2012 Undisclosed illness Singer for Visions of Atlantis 27 years 290 days  
Soroush “Looloosh” Farazmand November 11, 2013 Murdered Guitarist for the Yellow Dogs 27 years, 11 days  
Monkey Black April 30, 2014 Murdered Dominican rapper and singer 27 years  278 days  
Slađa Guduraš ! December 10, 2014 Road accident Bosnian pop singer and actress 27 years, 121 day

“But my life, my lover, my lady is the sea”

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There’s a port on a western bay
And it serves a hundred ships a day
Lonely sailors pass the time away
And talk about their homes

And there’s a girl in this harbor town
And she works layin’ whiskey down
They say, Brandy, fetch another round
She serves them whiskey and wine

The sailors say: “Brandy, you’re a fine girl” (you’re a fine girl)
“What a good wife you would be” (such a fine girl)
“Yeah, your eyes could steal a sailor from the sea”

Brandy wears a braided chain
Made of finest silver from the North of Spain
A locket that bears the name
Of the man that Brandy loved

He came on a summer’s day
Bringin’ gifts from far away
But he made it clear he couldn’t stay
No harbor was his home

The sailors say: “Brandy, you’re a fine girl” (you’re a fine girl)
“What a good wife you would be” (such a fine girl)
“But my life, my lover, my lady is the sea”

Yeah, Brandy used to watch his eyes
When he told his sailor stories
She could feel the ocean fall and rise
She saw its ragin’ glory
But he had always told the truth, Lord, he was an honest man
And Brandy does her best to understand

At night when the bars close down
Brandy walks through a silent town
And loves a man who’s not around
She still can hear him say

She hears him say “Brandy, you’re a fine girl” (you’re a fine girl)
“What a good wife you would be” (such a fine girl)
“But my life, my lover, my lady is the sea”
It is, yes it is,
He said, “Brandy, you’re a fine girl” (you’re a fine girl)
“What a good wife you would be” (such a fine girl)
“But my life, my lover, my lady is the sea”