Free Republic

'If you wish to launch a humdinger of an argument – and one you might win – sidle up to just about any 1960s rock fan and offer the opinion that it was not the Beatles, the Stones, Pink Floyd, Hendrix, the Velvet Underground or the Byrds who were the key sonic inventors of the decade. Nope: wasn't any of those collectives of aural innovation who did quite what the Yardbirds did in terms of overhauling sound, never mind that they couldn't keep a steady lineup and were pretty much unclassifiable, save as the dudes who influenced everybody else and...

Contained in the article regarding the fundraiser for the police officers involved in the Freddie Gray case is a description of Al Jolson by the Fraternal Order of Police as an "iconic racist figure." Nothing could be further from the truth and such an egregious slander should not have been allowed to appear in a major daily newspaper ("Venue cancels fundraiser for officers in Gray case," July 23). It is true that Jolson, as did many of his contemporaries, performed in blackface which was originally a racist form of entertainment growing out of the minstrel shows of the 19th century....

On July 25, 1788, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completed his Symphony No. 40 in G minor, the second to last of his symphonies. To Robert Schumann in the 19th century, the symphony was a work of "Grecian lightness and grace," while for a later writer, Alfred Einstein, there are passages that "plunge to the abyss of the soul." Such ambiguity is perhaps apt for one of the greatest works of a composer whose music so frequently defies adequate description. The symphony is cast in the usual four movements; the opening Molto allegro immediately announces something unusual by starting not with characteristic...

~Favorite Listen-Hear Song's~ The Cascades Rhythm of the Falling Rain *Video* Mike & The Mechanics - Silent running *Video*

On Broadcast 2606 (L-0820-1), Marius B. Winter & His Orchestra plays "Never Swat A Fly," a song from the Fox film titled "Just Imagine" (1930).

Dave Somerville, founder and lead singer of the popular 1950s rock-n-roll band The Diamonds, died Wednesday in California at age 81. Tagged with the moniker "Diamond Dave," Somerville discovered The Diamonds during a talent show audition in 1953; he signed on as their coach and then became their lead singer, Billboard reported. Somerville told Tom Meros in an interview that he was a radio engineer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. in Toronto, Canada, when he saw four guys lined up to audition in a hallway. He asked them to sing a song and started working with the quartet.

A non-political thread just for the heck and beauty of it. I offer for your consideration Johann Sebastian Bach's Well Tempered Clavier. From the Wikipedia Entry: The Well Tempered Clavier is a collection of solo keyboard music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. He gave the title to a book of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys, dated 1722, composed "for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning, and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study". Bach later compiled a second book of the same kind, dated 1742, with the...

In a new interview with The Times, former Runaways member Jackie Fuchs further explains the rape allegations she made recently against the band's former manager, Kim Fowley. Rumors have long circulated around the late Los Angeles rock impresario. Last week, though, a new chapter was opened when Fuchs, the former bass player of the 1970s teen group, claimed that Fowley, the band's manager, raped her when she was 16 years old.

3 Doors Down frontman Brad Arnold recently stopped singing mid-performance to kick out a male fan for hitting a woman in the audience during the band's July 14 concert in Broomfield, Colorado according to a Friday, July 17 report from Mashable. Brad Arnold spotted the man being abusive to the female in the audience and went off on the man. “Hang on, hang on, hang on. Hey, hey homie. You don’t hit a woman,” Arnold yelled to the man. “You just pushed a woman out of the way to get in a fight, you d**k! Get him the hell out...

Through this kind of decision making, McGraw also supported the campaign of gun control candidate Barack Obama in 2008. He told People Magazine: It’s innate in me to be a blue-dog Democrat. I’m not saying I’m right or wrong, but that’s what I am. My wife and I and our family will do everything we can to support Obama. I like his ideas, I like his energy, and I like the statement he would make for our country to the world.

DETROIT (AP) - General Motors says it will continue sponsoring Kid Rock's summer tour despite a Detroit activist group's request that the automaker cut financial ties with the musician if he displays a Confederate flag during performances. The National Action Network and representatives from GM's Chevrolet brand will meet this week. Kid Rock, who was born Robert Ritchie, has been criticized in the past for displaying the flag on stage. South Carolina removed the flag from its Statehouse weeks after the shooting deaths of nine people at a historically black church. The man charged in the shooting is shown in...

HOUSTON, TX – A new song by two of Houston’s own cranks out the bass, all while beating down boundaries. The unlikely duo of gangster rapper Slim Thug, and preacher Joel Osteen is breaking the internet as much for their pairing, as for their musical message. Slim, a member of Osteen’s Lakewood Church for many years, used clips of the pastor on “Chuuch”, a song on the rappers latest release “Hogg Life Volume 2″. And while mixing religion and rap might not be the norm, for many the sermon and the song are a perfect fit. The message of the...

Click HERE for YouTube video. Warning: There are a few mild curse words in the video.

Live Aid celebrates its official 30th anniversary today, but there’s only one star from the famous Wembley show that stands out in our minds. That’s Freddie Mercury who performed the most epic of epic sets with Queen on July 13th 1985. For a solid 25 minutes Freddie had the entire Wembley stadium on their feet, as well as 1.5 billion viewers at home, and it has gone down in history as arguably his greatest ever performance. So whether you wait until your lunch break, or stick your headphones on now, you won’t regret the time you spent watching Freddie Mercury...

Ted Nugent and Kid Rock have teamed up to record a song in support of the Confederate flag. The song, titled “Kiss My Rebel A$$,” was reportedly written and recorded in the space of a day after Nugent, seeing that Kid Rock had invited anyone protesting his use of the flag at his concerts to “kiss my aSS,” reached out to express his support via text message. “When you get a text from the Nuge, you know you’ve done something right,” laughed Rock during a joint appearance the two made on WWJ Newsradio 950. Added Nugent, “Rock ‘n’ roll ain’t...

When we talk of guitar playing it is often in the text of rock and roll and what immediately comes to mind for most folks is the driving and powerful popular classics of Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones and others. Because guitar playing and rock music most always conjure up the hits that made us stomp our feet and dance. A former hard rocker and “party ‘til you puke” concert consumer myself, I don’t quarrel with any of the hard rockers getting their due. But, just for fun on a slow Saturday night I’d like to offer up a couple of...

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~Favorite Crime Song's~ Folsom Prison Blues • Original • Johnny Cash • 1955 *Video* Robert Earl Keen Whenever Kindness Fails *Video*

Heavy metal was the No. 1-selling music genre in 1989, and parents feared the worst: that Satan worship, drug use, loads of sex, and suicide went along with it, write researchers in the journal Self and Identity. Records were burned, "Parental Advisory" warning labels were born, and some '90s research suggested that teens who were into metal had a boatload of problems. And then decades passed. How did those metalheads turn out? Pretty OK, found the team led by Humboldt State University psychologist Tasha Howe, reports Billboard. It found that while middle-aged metalheads were more likely to have engaged in...

I have no affiliation with the author-I just thought this was cute-anyone know the name of the piece of music?Little Girl & Musician