[ Mountain ]
Music
Over The Hills And Far Away
1974 — Led Zeppelin
Houses Of The Holy
((( LISTEN )))
— Songcatcher (2000)
“When The Mountains Cry”
“Appalachian Hills” b/ Driftwood Fire
Musicologist — Doctor Lily Penleric (Janet McTeer) has been denied a promotion in the male-dominated music department of her university. Frustrated and determined to get her academic due, she heads to Appalachia with nothing more than a recording device, curiosity, and a determination to document the story of Appalachia Mountain Music.
• INSIDE (CONTENTS)
• PICTURES IN TIME (PHOTOGRAPHY HISTORY)
— dave.
A Grave Time
@ the Crossroads
1930 — Hot Rails To Hell
The Mississippi Delta
where Robert Johnson Sold His Soul.
— Crossroads (1986)
Steve Vai vs. Ralph Macchio (Ry Cooder) video
1930 — Devil Music
Robert Johnson — Hellhound On His Trail
Mississippi Delta Blues
Muddy Waters (Chicago to New Orleans) Blues Documentary
The Devil’s Wife
b/ Ladell McLin
((video))
— dave.
2005 — — Ladell McLin played Alligator Alley, a small (150-seat) bar in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Three days after Hurricane Katrina made a direct hit on Fort Lauderdale, McLin’s electric show was powered by a generator Alligator Alley had rented to open the bar, while the most of the other seven businesses were without power, and still boarded shut, closed.
Also that night, Ladell ironically “thanked” Katrina for having mostly spared Fort Lauderdale any major devastation. This in his introducing “Stormy Monday,” a tune he added to the set, acknowledging the passing of the storm.
(Stormy) MONDAY
AUGUST 29, 2005
b/ Ladell McLin
“The Devil’s Wife“ b/Ladell McLin ((video))
Ladell McLin (Chicago to New Orleans) French Documentary
“It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad World” b/Ani DiFranco ((page))
Ani DiFranco (Mississippi River Documentary)
• SCOTT PUTESKY “RUNNING WITH THE DEVIL
Born 100 years ago in rural Mississippi, the blues singer and guitarist Robert Johnson garnered little attention during his lifetime, but was rediscovered and whose importance was realized in the 1960s. It was then that Robert Johnson was heard by those Rock N Roll players we call “legends” today.According to legend, Johnson sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his mighty talent, the talent he showed on street corners and in Jukes throughout the Mississippi Delta, and the talent on the 29 songs Johnson recorded between 1936 and 1937. Famously partial to women and whiskey, It has always been alleged that Johnson was poisoned by a lover’s jealous boyfriend or husband.• Mississippi River (Intro) CGEE Multi-Media
— Robert Johnson (1936/1937)
A Grave Time
The Great Depression.
The Federal Music Project (FMP), part of
Federal Project Number One, employed musicians, conductors and composers during the depression, and also for art’s sake, created the Composers Forum Laboratory, and hundreds of music programs and schools all across America.
Importantly, in addition to its educational mission, the FMP also hired thousands of out-of-work musicians, created a number of National Orchestras and bands, and produced Music Festivals and Concerts in all 50, United States.
Gun Metal Blues
b/ Living Colour (Shade)
(((video)))
— dave.
100 YEARS AFTER
2016 — Living Colour played its interpretation of Robert Johnson’s “Preacher Blues” at the King Of The Delta Blues’ 100th Birthday Celebration at the Apollo Theater in New York City. Uptown in Harlem. (The Harlem Renaissance)
The Meaning of Music
TThe FMP also sponsored the academic research of American Traditional Music and Folk Songs, a practice now called ethnomusicology.
Musicology b/ Prince (2003)
In the latter domain the Federal Music Project did notable studies on Cowboy (Western); Creole (New Orleans); and what was then termed Negro music (Jazz & Blues).
During the Great Depression, many people visited these symphonies to forget about the economic hardship of the time.
Alan Lomax
1940 — ETHNOMUSICOLOGY
Academic Field Worker
An American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of 20th Century folk music. He was also a musician, folklorist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activist, oral historian, and film-maker. Lomax produced recordings, concerts, and radio shows in the United States and in England, and played an important role in preserving folk music traditions in both countries. He was credited with driving the American and British Folk Revivals of the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s.
He first collected material and made recordings with his father, John A. Lomax,also a Folklorist and Collector.
After working with his father, Lomax went out alone, and partnered with a number of collaborators, recording thousands of songs and interviews for the Archive of American Folk Song, which he directed/curated at the Library of Congress. (aluminum and acetate discs)
•NATIVE LANDS b/ Will Calhoun
Among the artists Lomax is credited with discovering and bringing to a wider audience include blues guitarist Robert Johnson, protest singer Woody Guthrie, folk artist Pete Seeger, country musician Burl Ives, and country blues singer Lead Belly, among many others. “Alan scraped by the whole time, and left with no money,” said Don Fleming, director of Lomax’s Association for Culture Equity. “He did it out of the passion he had for it, and found ways to fund projects that were closest to his heart.”
During the Great Depression, many people attended the FMP/WPA National Symphonies, happy to escape, for a moment, the feeling of hopelessness, while suffering the economic hardship of the time.
Hard Times
b/Curtis Mayfield
There’s No Place Like America Today (1975)
((play))
World’s Highest Standard of Living (1937)
•Mississippi River (1938) Gov’t Documentary
THE RIVER is a 1938 short documentary film which shows the importance of the Mississippi River to the United States, and how farming and timber practices had caused topsoil to be swept down the river and into the Gulf of Mexico, leading to catastrophic floods and impoverishing farmers. It ends by briefly describing how the Tennessee Valley Authority project was beginning to reverse these problems. It was written and directed by Pare Lorentz and, like Lorentz’s earlier documentary The Plow That Broke the Plains, was also selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”, going into the registry in 1990. The film won the “best documentary” category at the 1938 Venice International Film Festival. Both films have notable scores by Virgil Thomson that are still heard as concert suites. The film was narrated by the American baritone Thomas Hardie Chalmers. Thomson’s score also references his concert work Symphony on a Hymn Tune. The River later served as the score for the 1983 TV movie The Day After. The two films were sponsored by the U.S. government and specifically the Resettlement Administration (RA) to raise awareness about the New Deal. The RA was folded into the Farm Security Administration in 1937, so The River was officially an FSA production. There is also a companion book, The River. The text was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in that year. he River represents Pare Lorentz’ greatest achievement as a filmmaker. Made in 1938, the film is similar in premise to The Plow That Broke the Plains. Where that film traced the history of the Great Plains and the abuse of the land that led to the creation of the Dust Bowl, The River documented the history of the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Inspired by a map that hung in the office of the Secretary of Agriculture, the filmed traced the path of the tributaries that merged together to form the great Mississippi River. Lorentz set to work filming The River in 1936. In his film, Lorentz wanted to show that only through the building of dams could the country hope to control the Mississippi River and put it to use in helping the American people, instead of allowing its flood waters to wreck havoc, destroying crops and property. While he attempted to show the ways in which the rivers had been misused, the film also stands as a paean to the American natural landscape and the rich history with which it is imbued. In his second film for the Resettlement Administration, Lorentz used many of the stylistic techniques that he had developed in The Plow That Broke the Plains. He combined stunning visuals, a magnificent score by Virgil Thomson and his own moving narration to paint a vivid portrait of the necessity of the work of the Tennessee Valley Authority. The River built on the lessons that Lorentz learned in making The Plow That Broke the Plains, both stylistic and bureaucratic. The River was filmed in fourteen states, as opposed to five in which footage was shot in the making of The Plow That Broke the Plains, with a considerably larger crew and the budget two and one half times the size of the first film. The River was both a critical and commercial success. Although it was not nominated for an Academy Award, it won the Venice Film Festival in 1938, beating among others Leni Riefenstahl’s highly acclaimed film Olympiad. Lorentz was also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for the poetic narration that he composed for the film. We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example like: “01:00:12:00 — President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.” This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
Jacques Cousteau documentary …
Robert Johnson (1911-1938)
Born 100 years ago in rural Mississippi, the blues singer and guitarist Robert Johnson garnered little attention during his lifetime but was rediscovered in the 1960s, influencing numerous rock and roll pioneers. According to legend, Johnson sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his mighty talent, which he demonstrated on street corners throughout the Mississippi Delta and in the 29 songs he recorded between 1936 and 1937. Famously partial to women and whiskey, Johnson was allegedly poisoned by a lover’s jealous boyfriend or husband.
Brian Jones (1942-1969)
A founding member of the Rolling Stones along with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Brian Jones developed a severe substance abuse problem that by the mid-1960s had taken a toll on his health, landed him in jail and alienated him from his bandmates. He was forced out of the group in June 1969. The following month, Jones was found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool; police reported that he had drowned while under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Recently, new evidence has suggested that foul play may have had a hand in his death at age 27.
Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson (1943-1970)
Known as Blind Owl because of his poor vision, Alan Wilson (first on left) headed up the American blues band Canned Heat, which performed at Woodstock in 1969. A songwriter, guitarist and harmonica player, he famously re-taught the aging blues legend Son House, who had been living in obscurity for decades, how to play his own songs. Wilson, who struggled with mental illness and had previously attempted suicide, succumbed to a drug overdose in September 1970, becoming the first of three acclaimed musicians to die at age 27 that year.
Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970)
Remembered as one of the greatest electric guitarists in history, Jimi Hendrix revolutionized rock and roll as both an artist and a producer during his brief four-year career. He died in London in September 1970, asphyxiating on his own vomit while sleeping. His girlfriend claimed that Hendrix, a heavy drug user who was particularly fond of LSD, had washed down a handful of sleeping pills with red wine before going to bed.
Janis Joplin (1943-1970)
Born in Texas, Janis Joplin won over the San Francisco music scene with her bluesy vocals and powerful stage presence, first as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist. Despite multiple attempts to get clean, she became increasingly addicted to heroin and alcohol as her career skyrocketed. She died of a heroin overdose in October 1970, less than three weeks after the death of fellow rock icon Jimi Hendrix.
Jim Morrison (1943-1971)
A poet and avid reader of philosophy, Jim Morrison rose to prominence as the lead singer and lyricist of The Doors, a band he founded with a friend in 1965. By 1969, his drinking had become a problem, making him late for performances and fueling raucous onstage behavior. In July 1971, Morrison died of a heart attack apparently caused by a heroin overdose while living in Paris. It is thought that he mistook the drug for cocaine and snorted a fatal amount.
Ron “Pigpen” McKernan (1945-1973)
A founding member of the Grateful Dead, Ron McKernan, who went by the nickname Pigpen, did not share his bandmates’ predilection for LSD and other psychedelic drugs. However, his heavy drinking caused him to develop cirrhosis in 1970, and by 1972 his health had become so fragile he could no longer tour. He died of an internal hemorrhage in March 1973.
Kurt Cobain (1967-1994)
An icon of the Seattle grunge scene, Kurt Cobain formed Nirvana with a friend in 1985; the band achieved mainstream success in the early 1990s. Under a glaring public spotlight, Cobain struggled with mental illness, chronic health problems and heroin addiction. He committed suicide in April 1994, leaving behind his wife, the musician Courtney Love, and their baby daughter.
Amy Winehouse (1983-2011)
An English singer-songwriter whose powerful voice and unique style won her numerous awards and honors, Amy Winehouse battled drug and alcohol addiction for years. Her substance abuse problems were frequent tabloid fodder and inspired some of her songs, most notably the hit “Rehab.” On July 23, 2011, Winehouse was found dead in her London apartment, becoming the latest musician to have their career cut tragically short at age 27.
