If you went into almost any recording studio in the 60's and 70's you would find that line rubber stamped somewhere. On a wall, an instrument or a piece of sheet music. Blaine was the most in-demand drummer of that era. He passed away Monday of natural causes at his home in California. The amount of records he played on is extraordinary…bu the quality of the records is equally amazing. He estimated that he played on over 35,000 recordings including 6000 singles! As a member of the so-called “Wrecking Crew” the most in demand group of studio musicians in Los Angeles he also sat in on scores of hit singles for bands like the Beach Boys, Mamas & Papas and the 5th Dimension. Lets start with this stat…he played on six straight Grammy Award Winning records of the Year from 1966-71. 'A Taste of Honey”, Strangers in the Night”, Up, Up and Away”, Mrs. Robinson”, Aquarius-Let The Sun Shine In” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. He slao played on iconic songs like 'Be My Baby” the Phil Spector produced hit for the Ronettes and 38 #1 songs ranging from Johnny Angel to Love Will Keep Us Together. Those number 1's included classics like Good Vibrations, Help Me Rhonda, Mr Tambourine Man, These Boots are Made For Walking, Cracklin Rosie, The Way We Were, Indian Reservation and Top Of The World.
He started his career playing in big bands with Count Basie and unlike many of his jazz friends, he liked playing on the new thing called Rock & Roll. Here is a scene from the studio sessions for Good Vibrations:
Its an incredible body of work that, with the onset of technology, will probably never be equaled.
Hey, Lord Of The Rings fans…are you ready for the backstory of the author?
We will say goodbye to Mark Simon…long time baseball coach and teacher in the DC Everest district. Simon took over the DCE baseball program in the 1980's and coached into the 2000's before health problems forced him to retire. He was a baseball guy and a teacher through and through. He played minor league ball in the Twins organization and also helped found the Everest Merchants and played and coached for them as well. If you drove by the field that bore his name you would invariably see him on his tractor making that field one of the best in the state. When you coached or played against a Mark Simon team you would know they would do the fundamentals well including bunting which, of course, has become a lost art. He was a good guy.
Quotes Of The Day
“If Anderson Cooper had said the same horrific things about women that Tucker Carlson had said, Donald Trump would have tweeted about it 95 times already, and the GOp would be calling for a House resolution against CNN.”-Ed Krassenstein
“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes is VERY impressive. Don't remotely agree with all she proposes. Very glad she is in Congress. Proud she beat a senior DEM who had no connection with District voters. She is growing in stature and power in part because of the IDIOTIC attacks on her.”-General Barry McCaffrey
“Q:Why is the Green New Deal getting a vote in the Senate when HR1 is not? A: Because I get to decide what we vote on.'-Mitch McConnell
“He doesnt want to vote on something smart that could help more Americans excesise their right to vote and begin to get excessive special money out of politics. Why? Very simple-he benefits from a more corrupt and less voter friendly system, always has.”-Amy McGrath
“When voters wonder whats wrong with Washington-this is it. If our campaign finance reform and anti-corruption bill doesnt have enough votes in the Senate, let's see it. That one man could deny a vote on a good goernance bill he fears shows the problem with our system.”-Abigail Spanberger
“Today we learned an actual human sex trafficker sold Chinese execs access to Trump, and all Twitter is talking about is individual tweets about Ann Coulter and Alyssa Milano. We deserve our dumb death.”-Zach Bornstein
Songs Of The Day (how bout a couple of Hal Blaine faves)
