Yep, it’s that time of year….. The countdown has officially begun…… We’re already two days past Thanksgiving, and, only 26 days away from Christmas (add +7 if you want to skip Christmas and go directly to celebrating New Years – Hic!)…….

People never fail to amaze me……. On the sad side, I heard a Walmart employee was trampled to death upon opening the doors by crazed shoppers, and, three people were shot when a employee at a Toys-R-Us attempted to breakup an argument between customers…… They said it might have been gang related?…… Anyone out there know any gang members who shop at Toys-R-Us?……. If I were a gang member, I don’t think I would want it known that I hung out at Toys-R-Us…… Maybe that’s why they were shooting at each other – fighting over a copy of “Resident Evil 4” or “Guitar Heroes”….. It’s a crazy World out there and it no longer belongs to Arthur Brown…… It might be advisable to get a concealed weapons permit before you go shopping this year, just to be on the safer side……..

To all the wonderful people I know, please remember it’s the THOUGHT that counts (I hope they buy this line, as I am, like most this year, running tight – so the presents will be light)……

So-o-o-o, happy shopping and “Happy Holler-days“ to everyone….. The “Hollering” starts when the charges start rolling in from the melted plastic you used to buy all those presents…..

It’s time for my semi annual visit to the Great White MR Central NW division. I will be in country 10 Dec thru 14 Dec I look forward to seeing Jek and Tarn and Meeting the rest of you. Hope to be at Jek’s lair on the 12th or 13th with spot inspections through out. Shape up I’m comin’. See ya soon.

A very Happy Thanksgiving Day to all the MRambler community! Everyone have a great day with your loved ones, and, let the happiness continue thoughout the holiday season…… Gobble – Gobble……

While noodling with friends MR was pulled under buy a large catfish. When

asked to hold

up one finger if he needed help, two if he was OK, MR held up his middle finger which was his last sighting.

Mitch Mitchell, drummer for Hendrix, found dead
I feel like the official “rock coroner” of MR Central.

Nov. 12, 2008, 8:24 PM EST

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Mitch Mitchell, drummer for the legendary Jimi Hendrix Experience of the 1960s and the group’s last surviving member, was found dead in his hotel room early Wednesday. He was 61.

Mitchell was a powerful force on the Hendrix band’s 1967 debut album “Are You Experienced?” as well as the trio’s albums “Electric Ladyland” and “Axis: Bold As Love.” He had an explosive drumming style that can be heard in hard-charging songs such as “Fire” and “Manic Depression.”

The Englishman had been drumming for the Experience Hendrix Tour, which performed Friday in Portland. It was the last stop on the West Coast part of the tour.

Hendrix died in 1970. Bass player Noel Redding died in 2003.

An employee at Portland’s Benson Hotel called police after discovering Mitchell’s body.

Erin Patrick, a deputy medical examiner, said Mitchell apparently died of natural causes. An autopsy was planned.

“He was a wonderful man, a brilliant musician and a true friend,” said Janie Hendrix, chief executive of the Experience Hendrix Tour and Jimi Hendrix’ stepsister. “His role in shaping the sound of the Jimi Hendrix Experience cannot be underestimated.”

Bob Merlis, a spokesman for the tour, said Mitchell had stayed in Portland for a four-day vacation and planned to leave Wednesday.

“It was a devastating surprise,” Merlis said. “Nobody drummed like he did.”

He said he saw Mitchell perform two weeks ago in Los Angeles, and the drummer appeared to be healthy and upbeat.

Merlis said the tour was designed to bring together veteran musicians who had known Hendrix — like Mitchell — and younger artists, such as Grammy-nominated winner Jonny Lang, who have been influenced by him.

Blues-rock guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who is 31 and was part of the tour, said Mitchell was to the drums what Hendrix was to the guitar.

“Today many of us have lost a dear friend, and the world has lost a rock n’ roll hero,” he said.

Mitchell was a one-of-a-kind drummer whose “jazz-tinged” style was influenced by Max Roach and Elvin Jones, Merlis said.

The work was a vital part of both the Jimi Hendrix Experience in the 1960s and the Experience Hendrix Tour that ended last week, he said.

“If Jimi Hendrix were still alive,” Merlis said, “he would have acknowledged that.”

During his career Mitchell played with the best in the business — not just Hendrix, but also Eric Clapton, John Lennon, Keith Richards, Jack Bruce, Jeff Beck, Muddy Waters and others.

Mitchell was a member of a later version of the Jimi Hendrix Experience that performed the closing set of the Woodstock Festival in August 1969 — where Hendrix played a psychedelic version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the band launched into “Purple Haze.”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience was inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame in 1992. According to the Hall of Fame, Mitchell was born July 9, 1947, in Ealing, England.

Terry Stewart, chief executive of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, said Mitchell transformed his instrument from a “strictly percussive element to a lead instrument.”

“His interplay with Jimi Hendrix’s guitar on songs like ‘Fire’ is truly amazing,” Stewart said Wednesday. “Mitch Mitchell had a massive influence on rock ‘n’ roll drumming and took it to new heights.”

Hendrix, Redding and Mitchell held their first rehearsal in October 1966, according to the Hall of Fame’s Web site.

In an interview last month with the Boston Herald, Mitchell said he met Hendrix “in this sleazy little club.”

“We did some Chuck Berry and took it from there,” Mitchell told the newspaper. “I suppose it worked.”

The list goes on: Geez some of us must be getting old

LONDON – Jimmy Carl Black, who went from drummer in Frank Zappa’s avant-garde Mothers of Invention to doughnut shop worker and house painter, has died at age 70.

Black died Saturday of cancer in Siegsdorf, Germany, said Roddie Gilliard, a British musician who performed with him.

Black had Cheyenne ancestry; his greatest fame came from a line ad-libbed on the Mothers of Invention’s third album, “We’re Only In It for the Money,” which made fun of hippies.

“Hi, boys and girls,” he said. “I’m Jimmy Carl Black and I’m the Indian of the group.”

Early on, Black played backing music for strippers. In 1964, he was playing in a Los Angeles band called the Soul Giants when it recruited Zappa as lead guitarist.

Zappa took over, changed the group’s name and, according to Black, boasted that “if you guys learn my music, I’ll make you rich and famous.”

“He took care of half of that promise, because I’m damn sure I didn’t get rich,” Black recalled.

The Mothers satirized pop music and gloried in their weirdness and their eagerness to offend even their own fans. “You think we’re singing ’bout someone else but you’re plastic people,” they sang on their 1967 album, “Absolutely Free.”

He credited Zappa, who died in 1993, with introducing him to modern classical music and teaching him complex rhythms.

After Zappa disbanded The Mothers of Invention in 1969, Black played in a rock and blues band called Geronimo Black. The band flopped and in 1972 Black worked in a doughnut shop in Texas.

In 1975, Black played with the experimental rocker Captain Beefhart. He appeared as Lonesome Cowboy Burt in Zappa’s film “200 Motels,” and in 1980 he worked on several songs for Zappa’s “You Are What You Is.”

“I had a really good time with Frank at that time and he really treated me great. I even got paid,” Black said.

Born James Inkanish Jr. on Feb. 1, 1938 in El Paso, Texas, the drummer and vocalist changed his name to Jimmy Carl Black after his stepfather, Carl Black. Despite his fame, he often had to work day jobs. In the 1980s, he formed a house-painting company in Texas with British singer Arthur Brown, who had a hit as “the god of hell fire.”

Black moved to Italy in 1992, then to Germany in 1995, finding enough work to survive as a musician.

He is survived by his wife, Monika, whom he married in 1995 following the death of his second wife, three sons and three daughters.

A fundraiser planned in London for Black will go ahead on Sunday, Gilliard said Wednesday

Unbelievable. Exxon Mobil just reported the biggest profit ever for a U.S. company. It raked in a billion dollars a week in pure profit in the July-September period, 58% more than a year ago.

I don’t know whether to admire the accomplishment or hurl.

Crude prices hit an all-time high during the quarter, which helped boost Exxon’s profit even though its production actually fell 8% from last year. With that kind of demand, Exxon execs are shrugging off the economic storm felling other companies right now.

I had heard this in the late sixties, but had never heard anything about since…….until now.
This is from the News.OK website:

A rock-and-roll mystery has finally been solved.

For years, record album liners noted Buddy Holly and The Crickets recorded four songs at the Officers Club at Tinker Air Force Base — including the hit single, “Maybe Baby” — during the wee hours of Sept. 29, 1957. However, no one at Tinker was able to verify this happened.

“We get several calls during the year about this,” said Tinker spokesman Ron Mullan. “Our historian has searched records and copies of our newsletter. But there is no proof this ever happened.”

Until now.

“I do remember recording those songs there,” said Jerry Allison, the Crickets’ original drummer, who lives in Nashville.

Crickets producer Norman Petty was booked Sept. 28 at the club with the Norman Petty Trio, Allison said.

“I think Norman had the same machine he had at the studio with him, a monaural Ampex machine,” he said. “He listened through headphones to get the mix.”

The Crickets were scheduled to perform at the Oklahoma City Municipal Auditorium on Sept. 29 as one of the acts with the Show of Stars ’57.

“They thought we were a black act when they first booked it. So it was perfect we were big fans of Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, the Drifters and Clyde McPhatter,” Allison said.

Buddy’s mom and dad were in the audience that night, the only time they ever saw Buddy perform outside his hometown of Lubbock, Texas.

Researcher verifies account
Oklahoma Buddy Holly researcher Graham Pugh said he saw a copy of airline tickets documenting the Crickets’ arrival at Will Rogers Field on Sept. 28, 1957.

“Jerry Allison and Nikki Sullivan have both verified to me that Norman met them at the airport and drove them to Tinker,” Pugh said. The group spent the night in guest quarters.

“They attended the closing night at the Oklahoma State Fair,” Pugh said. “Then they were taken back to the Officers Club for a late night recording session.”

Album liner notes show the Crickets recorded “Maybe Baby,” “You’ve Got Love,” “An Empty Cup” and “Rock Me My Baby” during an all-night session.

The next day, Holly and the Crickets were invited to Sunday dinner at the home of an Oklahoma City couple who lived near the Capitol, Pugh said.

After the recording session at Tinker, Petty took the tapes back to his studio in Clovis, N.M., to add background vocals.

“We never thought of ourselves as a vocal group. Still don’t. We’re a band,” Allison said. “Norman overdubbed the picks on the whole first ‘Chirping Crickets’ album. I wasn’t thrilled with it myself, and Buddy wasn’t crazy about it.”

In 1992, another Oklahoma Holly researcher, Kevin Terry, presented a plaque with an original 45 rpm record of “Maybe Baby” that was placed in the Officers Club at Tinker. But Pugh said a new club manager later ordered the plaque be removed. He said a worker at the club rescued the plaque from the trash and gave it to him for safe keeping.

“If they would like to have it back I would be happy to present it to them,” Pugh said.

Almost 17 months later, on Feb. 3, 1959 — the date known as “The Day the Music Died” — Holly, The Big Bopper and Richie Valens were killed in a plane crash following a concert in Clear Lake, Iowa.

The Crickets are being inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame on Tuesday.

It’s awful quiet out there.

You all must be

deep in thought figuring out who to elect.

Yep, MRambler is one year older (and odder) as of today…… I’m not giving out my age, although I’m pretty sure it’s at least one year older than dirt!….. I declare a day of serious R&R for the all in the Community……. Feel free to tell one and all that MRambler gave you the day off……. I really doubt if that will carry much weight, but, who knows, anyway, enjoy the day – I plan to not plan anything all day long……

Oh, Yeah, I hereby wish all MRambler Community members Happy Birthday….. This wish is good until my B-Day next year……. So-o-o, when your birthday rolls around you can’t say MRambler forgot to remember your B-Day……

For all you blues aficiandos:

http://bluesexcuse.southburnett.com.au/blueswayoflife.htm

Richard Wright: Wish You Were Here
Posted Mon Sep 15, 2008 12:40pm PDT by Billy Altman in Stop The Presses!

The news that founding Pink Floyd member Richard Wright has passed away from cancer at age 65 will no doubt bring a barrage of stories detailing the assorted onstage/offstage twists and turns of the group’s long career. And make no mistake: Over the years, the group’s combination of both the bizarre and the bitter when it came to their internal affairs was as much a source of fascination to their legions of fans as their often brilliant music, which have generated enough album/CD sales that if laid end to end would probably stretch from the London architecture school where they first met in the early 1960s all the way to that dark side of the moon and back again–and probably a few round trip’s worth at that.

Trips, of course, of both the physical and mental variety, were what Pink Floyd’s earliest recordings such as “Interstellar Overdrive” and “Astronomy Domine” were all about–especially in the day-gloed days before their original guiding force guitarist Syd Barrett went on a few too many of them and had to leave the group. And while the emergence of bass player/songwriter Roger Waters and Barrett’s skilled replacement David Gilmour certainly led the way for Floyd’s ascension in the 1970s as one of rock’s premier acts with 1973’s aforementioned Dark Side or 1979’s epic The Wall, it was in many respects Richard Wright’s expansive keyboards that served as the musical compass that allowed Pink Floyd to continually (as the song said) “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun.”

Those familiar with the band’s history probably know that it was during the recording of The Wall that the increasingly difficult to work with Waters forced Wright out of the band as an “official” member, leading to an increasingly period in the 1980s in which the keyboardist toured with his own group–as a salaried accompanist. It wasn’t until the latter part of the decade after Waters finally left the band–and unsuccessfully sued Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason over rights to the Pink Floyd name–that Wright rejoined as a full member. (In the interim Wright released a solo album, fittingly titled Identity.)

Anyone who saw Wright perform alongside Gilmour, Mason and yes, Waters, too, in their short but power-packed set at the Live 8 megaconcert in England in 2005 can attest to the still potent collective sound made by this ever-strange quartet of players.

Well, Oklahoma City stole Seattle’s basketball team, and, now the State of Oklahoma is sending in ground troops in the form of OU football players and fanatic fans for an assault on the University of Washington’s stadium….. I heard they had orders to bring the stadium back with them!…… Rumors?…. Maybe….. With my Seattle connections, my big problem is who to root for….. Not being a super football fanatic like most Oklahomans, I’m flipping a coin for the winner as either way would be acceptable to me…… Huskysooner and Jek may also have problems with who to cheer for……

GO HUSKIES – BOOMER SOONER!….. Maybe it’ll be a tie……

I have plenty of others, like The Jim Rome Show, but I mean musically. What may be “guilty” or embarrassing to one may not be to another. You don’t have to list them all at once, but I’ll get the ball rolling….

The Very Best of Hall and Oates has been getting a lot of play on my iPod. “You’re out of touch, I’m out of time….”

Next!

Wind Egg. “An egg without a shell. Dr. Johnson’s notion that the wind egg does not contain

the principle of life is no more correct than the superstition that the hen that lays it was impregnated, like ‘Thracian mares,’ by the wind. The usual cause of such

eggs is that the hen is too fat.”

Thanks to the BIG BOOK for clearing that up.,