Deep Purple Founder And Keyboardist Jon Lord Dies At 71

Jon Lord: God Of The Hammond Organ, June 9, 1941 – July 16, 2012

More and more of the people I grew up admiring are leaving us. In the last couple of weeks actor Ernest Borgnine, Encyclopedia Brown author Donald Sobol and director William Asher died and on Monday, July 16, 2012 the announcement of Jon Lord’s sudden death really hit home.

Lord who had been battling pancreatic cancer, died unexpectedly at the London Clinic of a pulmonary embolism. He leaves behind his second wife Vickie, their daughter, Amy, and Sara, his daughter with his first wife Judith Feldman whom he married in 1969 and divorced in 1981.

I grew up admiring Deep Purple and they have always been one of my favorite bands. I had seen them perform live which was a very festive and loud experience. After seeing them live I came away with the first hand knowledge that Jon Lord was without a doubt one of the most exciting and greatest rock keyboard players ever.

Being an extremely amateur musician myself, there are two things I wish I had the ability to do. One is to play stride style piano like James Johnson or Fats Waller and the other is to flawlessly play the guitar solo or keyboard solo to Deep Purple’s driving locomotive of a song, Highway Star.

Jon Lord was a classically trained musician and that training always came through in Deep Purple’s music. The structure of many of the bands songs are clearly classically influenced and this is due to the fact that both Lord and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore drew a lot of their inspiration from the classical realm.

(l-r) Ian Paice, Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore, Roger Glover, Jon Lord

In rock n’ roll there are many talented composers that are not great performers. There are great live bands, without good original songs. Then, there are phenomenal studio bands who can’t cut it live. During the height of their fame in the 1970’s, I don’t think there was a more talented group of individuals playing together as a band than Deep Purple. What I mean is each individual was a virtuoso in his own right, a master at their instrument. Together they were able to write great songs, record them in the studio and play them effortlessly with an edge in front of a live audience as few rock bands could. To do any one of these three things well is an accomplishment. Deep Purple was in a rare class as they did all three. Continue reading →

Arena and Stadium Names – Stupid As Ever

4 Replies

Is Every Arena Owner A Corporate Whore?

Looking at Rush’s upcoming concert tour of North America I noticed something interesting. Take a look at this schedule:

Sep -7

Sep -9

Sep-11

Sep-13

Sep-15

Sep-18

Sep-20

Sep-22

Sep-24

Sep-26

Sep-28

Sep-30

Oct-10

Oct-12

Oct-14

Oct-16

Oct-18

Oct-20

Oct-22

Oct-24

Oct-26

Oct-28

Oct-30

*Nov-1

Nov-3

Nov-13

Nov-15

Nov-17

Nov-19

Nov-23

Nov-25

Nov-28

Nov-30

Dec-2

Manchester,NH

Washington, DC

Pittsburgh, PA

Indianapolis, IN

Chicago, IL

Detroit, MI

Columbus, OH

St. Louis, MO

Minneapolis,MN

Winnipeg, MB

Saskatoon, SK

Edmonton, AB

Bridgeport, CT

Philadelphia, PA

Toronto, ON

Montreal, QC

Newark, NJ

Brooklyn, NY

Boston, MA

Buffalo, NY

Cleveland, OH

Charlotte, NC

Atlanta, GA

Tampa, FL

Seattle, WA

San Jose, CA

Anaheim, CA

Los Angeles, CA

Las Vegas, NV

Phoenix, AZ

Dallas, TX

San Antonio, TX

Houston, TX

Verizon Wireless Arena

Jiffy Lube Live Amphitheater

CONSOL Energy Center

Bankers Life Fieldhouse

United Center

Palace of Auburn Hills

Nationwide Arena

Scottrade Center

Target Center

MTS Centre

Credit Union Centre

Rexall Place

Webster Bank Arena

Wells Fargo Center

Air Canada Centre

Bell Centre

Prudential Center

Barclays Center

TD Garden

First Niagara Center

Quicken Loans Arena

Time Warner Cable Arena

Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre

1-800-ASK-GARY Amphitheatre

KeyArena

HP Pavilion

Honda Center

Gibson Amphitheatre

MGM Grand Garden Arena

US Airways Center

American Airlines Center

AT&T Center

Toyota Center

Out of 34 venues only one arena is not named after some corporation (The Palace in Michigan).

No arena except The Palace has the name of the city it is located in or attaches the local sports team to its name. Virtually every arena has sold its “naming rights.” Yes, arenas today still have unique names if you consider auto companies, airlines, tech companies, mega-banks and their ilk to be representative of the city.

If someone asked me where The Quicken Loans Arena, The Jiffy-Lube Live Amphitheater or The Honda Center was I’d be hard pressed to tell you. What do these corporate names say about the cities and the arenas they stuck their names on?

Up until the 1970’s most arenas and stadiums were clearly defined: The Boston Garden; Detroit Olympia; The Montreal Forum; Memorial Stadium in Baltimore; The Spectrum in Philadelphia; Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto; Buffalo Memorial Auditorium; Pittsburgh Civic Arena – and on and on it went for traditional names. The Buffalo Bills were one of the first to do a naming rights deal with Rich Stadium in 1972 and the practice picked up steam in the 1990’s to the point of obliterating almost all historic stadium and arena names. Corporate naming rights are now expected if a new facility opens up. Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #14

1 Reply

Edward G. Robinson – The Hatchet Man 1932

If it seems preposterous that Edward G. Robinson (left) would be cast as a Chinese hitman, then consider that all the leads of this 1932 film The Hatchet Man, directed by William Wellman, are Caucasian.

Robinson, seen here standing next to character actor Dudley Digges, plays Wong Low Get, an anti-hero assassin, in this story about Tong Wars in Chinatown.

The movie is occasionally shown on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and is worth watching because Robinson turns in a fine performance, even if he doesn’t even slightly resemble someone of Asian descent.

Spotlight On “America” – A Band With A Name For Playing Live

4 Replies

America – Performing Live

Unfairly labeled second rate Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young imitators by many music critics, America was able to crack the music charts in the early to mid 1970’s with a string of pop rock hits. Their influences ran from The Beatles to The Beach Boys to Jackson Browne.

Guitarists, singers and songwriters all, the trio of Dewey Bunnell, Gerry Beckley and Dan Peek crafted songs that have stood the test of time. Originally staples of AM radio and now relegated to light FM and background supermarket music play-lists, the band deserves a better fate. Their tight harmonies and musical abilities are quite honestly underrated. Especially live. Continue reading →

Honoring Lou Gehrig, His Monument Unveiled – 1941

The Day The Yankees Paid Their Final Tribute To The “Iron Horse”

This monument ceremony seen below was supposed to take place July 4 1941, on the two year anniversary of Lou Gehrig Day in 1939.

Many baseball fans know that the New York Yankees began the tradition of Old-Timers Day with a ceremony on July 4, 1939 to honor Lou Gehrig, the “Iron Horse.” On that day, the Yankees brought together Lou’s old teammates to show their deep admiration for a man who exemplified everything the Yankees were about. At the last minute Gehrig was asked to say something to the packed house at Yankee Stadium.

The words he said, now known as, “The Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth” speech, live on in immortality because it was completely spontaneous and from the heart.

What you may not know, is that you really have never heard or seen that speech.

You have only seen or heard small portions of Gehrig’s speech, because believe it or not, there is not one extant movie or audio recording of Gehrig’s complete speech. Only snippets.

As incredible as it sounds with all those newsreel cameras present to record the activities at Yankee Stadium, no complete version of the speech has surfaced in all these years. Continue reading →

Get Your Cheap Thrills 1960’s Style

The First $2 Billion Bank

1 Reply

Chase Bank Had Two Billion Dollars In Deposits During The Depression

In New York City on June 30, 1930 The Chase National bank announced it had deposits of $2,065,434,000.

It was the first time in history that any bank’s deposits had topped the two billion dollar figure.

Chase achieved this lofty figure by a series of mergers. Continue reading →

Babe Ruth, Dewayne Wise And Mistakes Umpires Make

Old New York in Photos #19 – First Traffic Light Signals

12 Replies

First Traffic Light Signals – Fifth Avenue and 34th Street, 1922

The Beginning of New York City’s Traffic Lights

This ornate traffic light at 34th Street, was one of seven put up in New York City on the heavily traveled Fifth Avenue in 1922.

The city had experimented with traffic signals in 1917 when a device invented by an engineer, Foster Milliken, was installed at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. The device was a revolving flashlight that would flash signals as red to stop and green for go. This may sound ridiculous now, but in the early days of traffic signals there was no standard for color relating to traffic. Continue reading →

The Forgotten Brooklyn Elevated Train Crash Of 1923

6 Replies

June 25, 1923 Intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues

“Those who died were fortunate it seemed to me when I looked inside the cars. As long as I live I can never forget it. All the people were in a mass there, struggling and screaming, with blood running over them. They all seemed to be bleeding or stained with blood. One woman’s head was terribly cut on top, and one jaw seemed to be crushed in. The hand of another woman was almost cut off. One woman I took out through a window died a few minutes after I carried her into the post office. I can’t forget the inside of those cars. They looked like my idea of purgatory.” – Traffic Officer Joseph J. Ryan who was on the scene immediately after the crash.

This incredible accident happened 89 years ago, Monday, June 25, 1923 as two cars of the BMT derailed and plunged 35 feet into the street at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues in Brooklyn. Continue reading →