Legacy Categories - The Hip Quotient

Led Zeppelin in The White House! The Song Will Never Be the Same.

Post author:Dana Spiardi
Post category:Brits Beyond The Beatles & Stones
Post comments:2 Comments
Post published:November 5, 2015

Been a long time, been a long time, been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time….since the musical machinations of Led Zeppelin first set my turntable needle ablaze. Zeppelin - the first band cited by audio engineers as the loudest on earth - was perhaps the most enigmatic mega-group in rock. Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegün, who signed them to his label, said, "Peter Grant, their manager…kept them hidden in a shroud of mystery. They became the most unapproachable band in rock history." Rumors abounded for years about devil worship, Faustian bargains and wild sex orgies involving fresh fish. Yet, despite their reputation, there they were, at the White House on Sunday night - guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, and bassist John Paul Jones - receiving Kennedy Center Honors medals from President Barack Obama

Mr. DeMille, He’s Ready for his Close-up: Gram on Film

Post author:Dana Spiardi
Post category:Cool Country Cats & Fab Folkies Film, TV, Stage, Media
Post comments:2 Comments
Post published:November 5, 2015

Honky tonk honey Gram Parsons loved being in the spotlight. Whether he was singing and strumming on stage or posing for the camera in fancy finery and eyeliner, he was always the most exotic cat in the room. With his pretty face, Southern charm, and puppy-dog charisma, I believe he might have been just as adept at acting as he…

I A.M. What I Am: Breakfast of Champions with KDKA

Post author:Dana Spiardi
Post category:Rants, Reflections, Ruminations Teenage Wasteland
Post comments:1 Comment
Post published:November 2, 2015

As a kid I had breakfast every morning with the 50,000-watt Godzilla of all AM radio stations - KDKA 1020, Pittsburgh, PA. The first commercial radio station in the world, launched by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, turns 95 years old today. My dad always had our kitchen radio tuned to 1020 on the dial. There was no fighting him on…

Who is Gram Parsons…And Why Does Yer Blogger Keep Writing About Him?

Post author:Dana Spiardi
Post category:American Bands and Artists Cool Country Cats & Fab Folkies
Post comments:4 Comments
Post published:September 19, 2015

I’ve read six books about a singer/songwriter that some of you may barely recognize or recall: Gram Parsons. Six books. And three more that feature him prominently. I begin each book hoping to understand how and why such an enormously gifted musical visionary chose, or was predestined, to recklessly self-destruct at such a young age. The biographies present a wealth of information: about how this well-mannered Southern boy pioneered and popularized the merging of country sounds with rock, rhythm and folk...about his influence on artists as diverse as The Rolling Stones and Elvis Costello...about how he put Emmylou Harris on the map. But all the books end the same way: with Gram dead at age 26 from a heroin overdose in a bleak desert motel room on September 19, 1973. His tragic-romantic personal history rattles my brain. His music rattles my soul.

The Beatles and The Stones: Beasts of Beard-dom

Post author:Dana Spiardi
Post category:Art, Fashion, Design Beatles Rolling Stones
Post comments:0 Comments
Post published:August 26, 2015

"She asks me why I'm just a hairy guy. I'm hairy noon and night. Hair that's a fright. I'm hairy high and low. Don't ask me why. Don't know." Those words from the Broadway musical "Hair" pretty much summed up the "let it all hang out, let it all hang long" philosophy of the '60s. When it came to facial hair, The Beatles were a bit more adventurous than The Rolling Stones. But in the end, Mick proved to be the furriest of them all. Here's a little something for World Beard Day 2105.