Unusual Rock Trivia?

[SubHuman]

Puff the Magic Dragon
A song made popular by the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary in 1963.

The song is believed by many to refer to smoking marijuana, yet according to its author, Leonard "Lenny" Lipton, it's a simple sentimental song about the loss of childhood and nothing more.

In 1958 Lenny Lipton graduated from high school and headed off to college at Cornell in Ithaca. He came to the realization that he was not a little kid anymore and never would be; that made him sad.

One night in 1959 Lenny headed for the Cornell library. He had just turned nineteen. He found a book of poems by Ogden Nash, one of which discussed a Really-o Truly-o Dragon. After he was finished he left the library and went to visit his friend Lenny Edelstein.

Lenny Lipton was thinking again about the loss of his carefree childhood days, and he was inspired by the poems he had been reading earlier in the evening. So he decided to write a poem of his own. He wrote for about three minutes and felt somewhat soothed. He left the poem in Peter's typewriter, and then left.

Peter returned and saw the sheet of paper in the typewriter. He was a singer/performer/concert organizer, he liked what he saw and put some music to it, and later began to use it in some of his performances.

Peter later joined a group and used the song. It became more and more popular, and eventually the group recorded it. Within a few years it had become a top ten pop song. Peter went back and tracked down Lenny Lipton, who was by that time a counselor at a summer camp. Peter added Lenny Lipton's name as a co-writer, and Lipton has done well with the royalties he has received ever since.

Peter was Peter Yarrow, and his group was Peter, Paul and Mary. The song reached number 2 on the charts early in 1963.

Urban Dictionary: magic dragon

 

[Indiedog]

Puff the Magic Dragon
A song made popular by the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary in 1963.

The song is believed by many to refer to smoking marijuana, yet according to its author, Leonard "Lenny" Lipton, it's a simple sentimental song about the loss of childhood and nothing more.

In 1958 Lenny Lipton graduated from high school and headed off to college at Cornell in Ithaca. He came to the realization that he was not a little kid anymore and never would be; that made him sad.

One night in 1959 Lenny headed for the Cornell library. He had just turned nineteen. He found a book of poems by Ogden Nash, one of which discussed a Really-o Truly-o Dragon. After he was finished he left the library and went to visit his friend Lenny Edelstein.

Lenny Lipton was thinking again about the loss of his carefree childhood days, and he was inspired by the poems he had been reading earlier in the evening. So he decided to write a poem of his own. He wrote for about three minutes and felt somewhat soothed. He left the poem in Peter's typewriter, and then left.

Peter returned and saw the sheet of paper in the typewriter. He was a singer/performer/concert organizer, he liked what he saw and put some music to it, and later began to use it in some of his performances.

Peter later joined a group and used the song. It became more and more popular, and eventually the group recorded it. Within a few years it had become a top ten pop song. Peter went back and tracked down Lenny Lipton, who was by that time a counselor at a summer camp. Peter added Lenny Lipton's name as a co-writer, and Lipton has done well with the royalties he has received ever since.

Peter was Peter Yarrow, and his group was Peter, Paul and Mary. The song reached number 2 on the charts early in 1963.

Urban Dictionary: magic dragon

As far as I remember, it was the first bit of music that really connected with me. I was really smitten with it, and had the 45 RPM. A pal of mine down the block cracked it one day when we were playing, so I think it was also one of the first times I experienced a real sense of anger and loss from “ownership”

 

[IMMusicRulz]

Lars Ulrich of Metallica has listed Look At Yourself by Uriah Heep as one of his favorite albums.

 

[SubHuman]

Invalid Link Removed

That's Elvis Costello on the left from 1972. Elvis went by the name D.P. MacManus back then and Rusty was their pub/rock band from 50 years ago with fellow singer and songwriter Allan Mayes, who now resides in Texas. The group, according to Costello's notes, was playing up to five or six nights a week during the summer of 1972, tossing some originals into sets that included mutually favored songs by Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Randy Newman and others, as well as Brinsley Schwarz, a Costello (then D.P. MacManus) favorite.

Rusty broke up during 1973 when Costello moved to London, but its 50th anniversary has spurred him and Mayes to "make the record we would have cut when we were 18 if anyone had let us."
In other words...it's a brand new recording that was just released June 2022 from two band mates that never released a real album back in 1972 but decided to try to re-capture their roots in a spur of the moment project.

And while it's hard to know quite what those aspiring teenagers would have sounded like at that point, the results on The Resurrection of Rust make you wish that someone had. There's an easy kind of shorthand in the way Costello and Mayes sing with each other on the six-track EP, but don't for a minute think it's some casual toss off. They're serious enough about it that Costello enlisted his band, the Imposters, to be part of The Resurrection, while Brinsley Schwarz (and later Graham Parker & the Rumour) keyboardist Bob Andrews recreates his Hammond organ and piano parts on the former's "Surrender to the Rhythm."

I just listened to the album and I'll admit I never was a huge Costello fan but the album The Resurrection of Rust has a casual looseness about the recording/tracks and it captures "fairly well" 2 long lost friends re-living their original joy of performing and recording.

The songs can even sound a little sloppy at times indicating a live studio recording. It's a refreshing break from some of the "perfect" recordings that are so common today.

 

[TyBo]

Invalid Link Removed

That's Elvis Costello on the left from 1972. Elvis went by the name D.P. MacManus back then and Rusty was their pub/rock band from 50 years ago with fellow singer and songwriter Allan Mayes, who now resides in Texas. The group, according to Costello's notes, was playing up to five or six nights a week during the summer of 1972, tossing some originals into sets that included mutually favored songs by Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Randy Newman and others, as well as Brinsley Schwarz, a Costello (then D.P. MacManus) favorite.

Rusty broke up during 1973 when Costello moved to London, but its 50th anniversary has spurred him and Mayes to "make the record we would have cut when we were 18 if anyone had let us."
In other words...it's a brand new recording that was just released June 2022 from two band mates that never released a real album back in 1972 but decided to try to re-capture their roots in a spur of the moment project.

And while it's hard to know quite what those aspiring teenagers would have sounded like at that point, the results on The Resurrection of Rust make you wish that someone had. There's an easy kind of shorthand in the way Costello and Mayes sing with each other on the six-track EP, but don't for a minute think it's some casual toss off. They're serious enough about it that Costello enlisted his band, the Imposters, to be part of The Resurrection, while Brinsley Schwarz (and later Graham Parker & the Rumour) keyboardist Bob Andrews recreates his Hammond organ and piano parts on the former's "Surrender to the Rhythm."

I just listened to the album and I'll admit I never was a huge Costello fan but the album The Resurrection of Rust has a casual looseness about the recording/tracks and it captures "fairly well" 2 long lost friends re-living their original joy of performing and recording.

The songs can even sound a little sloppy at times indicating a live studio recording. It's a refreshing break from some of the "perfect" recordings that are so common today.

"Surrender to the Rhythm" ... yep, got the type of rhythm I could pretty much bop to all night.

 

[IMMusicRulz]

Satellite of Love, the spaceship off of Mystery Science Theater 3000, is actually named after a song off of Lou Reed’s classic 1972 album Transformer.

 

[roccobass]

Boz Burrell was originally recruited into King Crimson as its vocalist. He was shifted to bass when the one they hired abruptly left.

 

[MonetBass]

Satellite of Love, the spaceship off of Mystery Science Theater 3000, is actually named after a song off of Lou Reed’s classic 1972 album Transformer.

I like U2's cover of that song:

 

[Bob_Ross]

Boz Burrell was originally recruited into King Crimson as its vocalist. He was shifted to bass when the one they hired abruptly left.

The story goes that King Crimson's guitarist/leader Robert Fripp taught Burrell how to play all the bass parts on the Islands album "parrot style" ...playing them verbatim for him until he could repeat them back verbatim.
It was always unclear to me whether Burrell had any experience with a fretted instrument prior to that.

 

[IMMusicRulz]

Boz Burrell was originally recruited into King Crimson as its vocalist. He was shifted to bass when the one they hired abruptly left.

He also was recruited once to sing lead vocals for The Who.

 

[roccobass]

He also was recruited once to sing lead vocals for The Who.

He was a lot more talented than most people thought!

 

[GregC]

He also was recruited once to sing lead vocals for The Who.

Really? When? I Googled but didn't find anything.

 

[Michedelic]

Invalid Link Removed

That's Elvis Costello on the left from 1972. Elvis went by the name D.P. MacManus back then and Rusty was their pub/rock band from 50 years ago with fellow singer and songwriter Allan Mayes, who now resides in Texas. The group, according to Costello's notes, was playing up to five or six nights a week during the summer of 1972, tossing some originals into sets that included mutually favored songs by Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Randy Newman and others, as well as Brinsley Schwarz, a Costello (then D.P. MacManus) favorite.

Rusty broke up during 1973 when Costello moved to London, but its 50th anniversary has spurred him and Mayes to "make the record we would have cut when we were 18 if anyone had let us."
In other words...it's a brand new recording that was just released June 2022 from two band mates that never released a real album back in 1972 but decided to try to re-capture their roots in a spur of the moment project.

And while it's hard to know quite what those aspiring teenagers would have sounded like at that point, the results on The Resurrection of Rust make you wish that someone had. There's an easy kind of shorthand in the way Costello and Mayes sing with each other on the six-track EP, but don't for a minute think it's some casual toss off. They're serious enough about it that Costello enlisted his band, the Imposters, to be part of The Resurrection, while Brinsley Schwarz (and later Graham Parker & the Rumour) keyboardist Bob Andrews recreates his Hammond organ and piano parts on the former's "Surrender to the Rhythm."

I just listened to the album and I'll admit I never was a huge Costello fan but the album The Resurrection of Rust has a casual looseness about the recording/tracks and it captures "fairly well" 2 long lost friends re-living their original joy of performing and recording.

The songs can even sound a little sloppy at times indicating a live studio recording. It's a refreshing break from some of the "perfect" recordings that are so common today.

Add to that the Brinsley Schwarz bass player was Nick Lowe, who had already written this staple of the Costello catalogue…

..and of course shepherded young Declan through the earliest part of his career.

 

[Michedelic]

The story goes that King Crimson's guitarist/leader Robert Fripp taught Burrell how to play all the bass parts on the Islands album "parrot style" ...playing them verbatim for him until he could repeat them back verbatim.
It was always unclear to me whether Burrell had any experience with a fretted instrument prior to that.

I think he played basic guitar, at least.
He was no stranger to recording…

…also had a band, Boz People, with Ian McLagen before he joined the Small Faces.

 

[Michedelic]

Really? When? I Googled but didn't find anything.

There was a point in ‘65 when Roger and the rest of the band were not getting along, and he was almost out on his ass. Considering how tight The Who and Small Faces were at the time, and Boz’s association with McLagen, I could see Pete possibly considering him as a replacement.

 

[SubHuman]

"This Diamond Ring" is a 1965 song written by Al Kooper, Bob Brass and Irwin Levine. The original demo was sung by Jimmy Radcliffe. It was first released as a single by Sammy Ambrose, then by Gary Lewis & the Playboys.
Lewis' version charted first, number 101 on the January 2, 1965, Billboard "Bubbling Under" chart. Both versions charted on January 9, Lewis still at number 101 and Ambrose at number 117. Ambrose dropped off the chart at that point, but Lewis made number 65 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the next week (January 16) and his version continued to climb until it reached number 1 on February 20, 1965.

The session drummer was Hal Blaine, Joe Osborn played bass and Leon Russell played keyboards and arranged the music. The song was produced by Snuff Garrett. Lewis has denied claims that the Playboys did not play on the record and says that not only was the band largely self-contained, but the Wrecking Crew session musicians only came to do overdubs or solos.
Although it has been his biggest commercial success as a songwriter, Al Kooper has reportedly stated many times that he was unhappy with the record. He originally hoped the song would be recorded by a group like The Drifters and based on the original demo of the song as recorded by Jimmy Radcliffe. Kooper would later re-visit the song, recording a funky version for his 1976 album Act Like Nothing's Wrong.

 

[IMMusicRulz]

The child who appears in the video for Styx single Show Me The Way is actually James Cotton, the son of Poco guitarist Paul Cotton.

 

[IMMusicRulz]

Look very closely at the back cover of Jethro Tull’s War Child and you’ll see the woman dressed as the ringmaster is actually Shona Learoyd Anderson, Ian’s wife. Shona also photographed the back cover of the Jethro album Heavy Horses and sang backing vocals on a Steeleye Span album Ian helped produce.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

The touring keyboard player for Heaven 17, Berenice Scott, appeared on UK pop programme Top of the Pops, but prior to birth. She is the daughter of Robin Scott who was part of 'M' of 'Pop Muzik' fame in 1979, and his wife Birgit appeared too, pregnant with Berenice.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

XTC's Magic Roundabout in part celebrates Swindon's 'Magic Roundabout', in XTC's home town. It has 5 subsidiary roundabouts. The song is in 5/4.