Hey, kids, welcome to the Phile for a Thursday. How are you? Me? I'm too tired to be tired. It's the second day after the midterm elections and a LOT has happened. In bad news, the GOP still has control of the Senate, the lovely Beto O'Rourke lose to Ted Cruz (aka the Zodiac Killer), and power house Andrew Gillum conceded to Ron DeSantis in the Florida gubernatorial race (at only a 1% margin). Also, somehow a dead brothel owner won a Nevada state assembly seat (oh, 2018). However, there's a lot of good news as well! Democrats have now taken control of the House 221 seats (vs. 198 Republican seats), and there have been a lot of historic firsts. Michigan's Rashida Tlaib and Minnesota's Ilhan Omar won seats as the first Muslim women in Congress. New York's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez broke a record as the youngest woman in Congress. New Mexico's Deb Haaland and Kansas' Sharice Davids both made history as the first Native American women elected to Congress. Ayanna Pressley won as Massachusetts' first black congresswoman. In Colorado, Jared Polis became the first openly gay Governor in the U.S.! Lou Leon Guerrero became the first woman governor of Guam (and flipped from red to blue). Veronica Escobar and Sylvia Garcia made history as Texas's first two Latina congresswomen, and that's just the tip of the iceberg! As you can imagine, and you likely experienced yourself... the results of the 2018 midterm elections brought on a LOT of emotions. There was disappointment, cynicism, bursts of hope, absurdism... pretty much any reaction you can muster.
So, mere hours after the polls closed in the 2018 election, President Donald Trump forced his Attorney General to resign, which is a fancy way of saying "fired him." Pundits, lawyers, and people who read the Wikipedia page for "Watergate" are launching the country into a constitutional crisis and giving the newly elected Democratic House majority something to look at when they take over the judiciary committee. In sending Jeff Sessions back to the North Pole, Trump installed an acting AG who has called special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into the Trump campaign a "witch hunt," just as any innocent person would. If that's not scary enough, the new acting AG also stans the Dave Matthews band.
This is an existential threat to Mueller, and probably because he is an existential Trump. At least it's the season where Sessions will be able to find plenty of work as an Elf on the Shelf.
In what is already three national crises ago, but still a big fucking deal, White House press secretary revoked CNN reporter Jim Acosta's press pass as a distraction from the fact that Trump fired his Attorney General as a distraction from the fact that his party got wiped out in the House. At a bonkers press conference that sounded like he was free-associating on Sigmund Freud's couch, Donald Trump freaked out at Acosta, calling him a "rude, terrible person" and dispatching a White House intern to yank his microphone away. A few hours later, Acosta announced on Twitter that he was denied access to the White House and his "hard pass" had been revoked. To justify the flagrantly authoritarian move, Sanders tweeted out a video that was LITERALLY EDITED BY INFOWARS, sped up to make Acosta seem violent. Yes, the White House is co-opting the national movement condemning violence against women in order to ban a journalist, and it would be more believable had the president not bragged about grabbing women by the pussy and put an attempted rapist on the Supreme Court. Fellow journalist are sticking up for Acosta, analyzing the video shot by shot like it's the Zapruder film. Alarm bells are going off, and people who have read George Orwell are calling it straight-up Orwellian. That's a pretty nice First Amendment you got there. It would be a shame if something happened to it.
Another Halloween just passed... and with it, another round of regrettable costumes. Sure, it's embarrassing to have a "wardrobe malfunction" where your costume falls apart, or when no one understands the pun it represents. But unquestionably worse is a costume that's insensitive or racist in nature. Every year I go over this... and every year, people don't listen! The latest faux pas comes from a group of teachers in Idaho who dressed as Mexicans and the border wall. Yes, you read that correctly: they dressed as Mexicans and the border wall. Here's photo evidence...
People were downright pissed, as you might expect. Who thought those costumes, or that post, were appropriate at all? The mind: it is boggled. I think we're good on "ethnic" costumes until hmmm forever. They're not funny or imaginative. You could dress as ANYTHING and you choose to belittle someone's culture? Miss me with that.
I would imagine that being the mother of a crying baby is hard anywhere, at any time. But there are few spots where your crying baby feels like more of a spectacle than on an airplane. There you are, enclosed in this metal tube flying through the air with a few hundred exhausted people trying to fall asleep to The Illusionist, and your baby is screaming louder than the airplane engine itself. This scenario truly sounds like hell, which makes the story I'm about to tell you even more notable. When a mom found her hands full of crying baby aboard a recent Philippine Airlines Express plane, the 24-year-old flight attendant Patrisha Organo swooped in and saved the day in the most unexpected way. Basically, upon hearing the distressed baby, Organo went to check on the mother... and soon discovered the exhausted mother was out of formula. Rather than leave her to handle the baby alone, Organo took her help a step further and brainstormed a solution. Since there was no formula milk on board the flight, Organo asked her superior, Sheryl Villaflor, if it would be okay for her to breastfeed the mother's baby. With the permission of both her boss and the mother, Villaflor was able to breastfeed the baby into a peaceful slumber, effectively saving the nerves of the mother and a whole flight of people. She shared the story on Facebook, where it quickly went viral. This is truly the ultimate example of going above and beyond for your passengers' experience.
Recently I stayed in a hotel and was sure glad the hotel was like this with scrambled elevator buttons.
Why?! You know, there are times people got their asses saved by a total stranger. Not all humans are the worst. Like this chef who gave his favorite customer the ultimate dream: a sushi self portrait.
So, I was thinking of getting another tattoo but someone else had the same idea as I did...
Hahaha. Do you know what makes me laugh? Old people wearing inappropriate t-shirts such as this woman...
I love dogs but some dogs sure can be assholes...
If he could talk he'd say, ""Ummm I need this mat."
In a world that constantly feels like it's in the throes of hell, is there anything more comforting than lounging in your pajamas and binging episodes of "The Great British Bake Off"?! I haven't seen the show yet but after seeing this still I kinda wanna...
Did you watch CNN on election night? I was surprised when I saw what the Democratic agenda was...
Hahahahaha. Okay, so, one of the best things about the Internet is you can see porn and so easily. The problem though is you might decide to go look at porn instead of reading this Phile. So I thought what if I showed a porn pic here... But I don't want you to get in trouble so I came to a solution.
You're welcome, ladies. Hey, it's Thursday... you know what that means.
Damn it! I hate eye pics like that. Okay, wanna play a new game? It's...
Me: Hi, Jeff, welcome back to the Phile. How are you?
Jeff: It's always good to be back on the Phile. How's it going, Jason?
Me: Pretty good. Before we talk football I know you're a big Queen fan... did you see Bohemian Rhapsody? What did you think? I have not seen it yet.
Jeff: Of course I saw it! I saw it first chance I got. And I absolutely loved it. The performances of everyone in the band were spot, especially the guy playing Brian May. Is it 100 % accurate? Nope, but most biopics alter timelines to add some drama. I would highly recommend it!
Me: So, I thought this was funny... Bills fans started a GoFundMe to buyout remainder of Nathan Peterman’s contract so he’ll retire. That's real... look...
Me: How do you think he'll feel? How would you feel if you were Peterman?
Jeff: That is kind of sad. But to be fair, I don't blame him. Peterman has not exactly been a good QB. And Buffalo has been suffering for a while. If I was Nathan Peterman, that would motivate me. But more than anything that would annoy the crap out of me. I'd be angry!
Me: Did you see or hear Jets fans and Dolphins fans don’t like it each other. As both teams struggled to put up any points on the field, Jets and Dolphins fans brawled it out in the stands, resulting in multiple fan ejections. Look...
Jeff: Judging by the actual results of the game, it looks like there was more action in the stands then there was on the field and that's just sad.
Me: Have you ever seen a fight at a game?
Jeff: No, in all the sporting events I've been to I have never seen a fight in the stands. And that's impressive because I've been to all four sports in Philadelphia.
Me: Hahahaha. Crazy people. I didn't see any fights at the Falcons/Giants game at all a few weeks ago. What NFL news do you have?
Jeff: It's been a slow news week. The Saints ended the Rams undefeated season. They were the last team to lose. And if the Saints aren't a scary enough team right now they might be bringing in former Cowboys WR Dez Bryant. And it's looking like the Steelers might finally be getting Leveon Bell back. Not that they missed him as he whined about being a millionaire and not getting more money. I hope they sit him on the bench all game.
Me: Okay, so Britain has taken over another team...
Me: What do you think?
Jeff: Oh, that's not a bad logo. I like that one!
Me: Okay, so, you were catching up to me... how did we do last week? Are you ahead?
Jeff: In the immortal words of LL Cool J, don't call it a comeback! Yes I have taken back the lead. I went 2-0 with a Steeler win when you went 1-1 with the Giants on bye week. I'm in the lead now by 2 points. Again, I'm only winning cause of the Steelers record. You have the better prediction record though.
Me: Damn Steelers. Let's do this week's picks... I say Eagles by 5 and Packers by 4. What do you say?
Jeff: My picks for the week are Saints by 7 and Falcons by 3.
Me: Okay, my friend, I will see you next Thursday.
Jeff: Have a good week!
Hmmm... if you spot the Mindphuck let me know. I have to say it's a pretty tricky one. Alright, so, do you ever lie? There's this guy that told a little lie and it ended up consuming his life. No, not Trump. Anyway, this guy reached out to me and wanted to come on the Phile and come clean. I thought why not. So, please welcome to the Phile for the first time...
Me: Hey, Chip, welcome to the Phile. So, what do you want to tell us?
Chip: Hi, Jason. I want to say that I could play the piano.
Me: Really?
Chip: Well, I never thought it would come up and I was safe with my lie. If it did come up, more often than I thought it would.
Me: So, what did you do?
Chip: I had to make up an excuse to not play, and people started to think I was lying about how to play. Eventually I took some lesson so that if it came up again I could actually play something and not look like I'm completely full of shit.
Me: How did that work out for you?
Chip: It paid off, and after I moved from that area I never told anyone I could play piano again.
Me: Good for you, Chip. Thanks for telling us. Chip Cooin, kids, the world's worse liar.
You don't have to be British to laugh at this meme, but it will bloody well help.
Hahahahahahahahaha. Hey, do you know what's the best?
Here's proof that you can't escape passing wind, even after you're dead! Up to three hours after the body dies, gasses continue to escape from both ends of the digestive tract, resulting in burping or farting noises. This phenomenon is due to muscles contracting and expanding before rigor mortis sets in.
The man who created the Pringles can, Fredric Baur, was so proud of his invention that he had some of his ashes buried in one when he died in 2008.
The midterm elections ain't over yet! The Georgia governor election between Oprah's friend Stacey Abrams and shameless voter suppressor Brian Kemp could be headed for a runoff. Florida Senator Bill Nelson is calling for a recount against Voldemort. Senate races in Arizona and Montana remain too close to call. While Texas voters rejected Sexiest Man Alive Beto O'Rourke in favor of the Republican whose face looks like an armpit, and racist Ron DeSantis squeaked out a tight win against heartthrob Andrew Gillum, the Democrats won control of the House of Representatives, and that's a big fucking deal. While Republicans padded their Senate majority and Trumpian rhetoric had a good night statewide, that doesn't change the fact that Democrats now have subpoena power, and that the majority of Americans wanted an end to the one-party rule. President Trump, however, is celebrating the results as a total win, and people are wondering if he's simply projecting confidence or doesn't realize what is actually going on. Is being rejected by Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin a "tremendous success"? "Tremendous success" for whom? Does he know what the House of Representatives does? Is Trump lying, or does he not understand that he's in trouble? Both possibilities are equally likely.
Today's pheatured guest is an English singer, songwriter, pianist and founder and lead singer of the rock band Procol Harum whose latest release "Still There'll Be More: An Anthology 1967-2017" is available on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify. Please welcome to the Phile... Gary Brooker.
Me: Hello, Gary, welcome to the Phile, sir. How are you?
Gary: I'm good, Jason, how are you?
Me: I'm okay. Man, Procol Harum is older than I am. Haha. You guys just released a box set with eight discs. Is that your biggest release ever?
Gary: Yes, I think that's the best package that's ever been really. People have put out the "best ofs" and put out things like that, but this is a very comprehensive line up of CDs of recorded things from '67 up to 2017. There's DVDs in the package as well, which are quite interesting. There's a wonderful book in it.
Me: I was gonna pheature the book in the Phile's Book Club but didn't know who wrote it, sir. Did you write the book?
Gary: No. My wife is a good archivist for me. She found a lot of photographs, posters and newspaper articles and things which ended up being scattered around things. I think Patrick Humphries wrote some of the book and Roland Clare has written some of the comprehensive look at the different tracks that are on there. These are people that know their protocol.
Me: A lot of the discs are live shows and broadcast material which is cool. Did you have a lot of this stuff already?
Gary: Yes, I had some of it already around just waiting for the right day and the right company that wanted to have it all. They were interested in what I had. Finding all the posters, finding all the photographs and finding also what tapes were knocking about was all part of doing it. The presentation in the end was marvelous.
Me: Did you have to do a lot of restoration of the music?
Gary: Well, I left that to the experts. It is what we call remastering, another word I had found a quarter of each tape at home and had to treat those very carefully in case they fall apart. I just had the check that the actual sound of them could be made just slightly good overall. Nothing was remixed from the overall tracks or anything like that.
Me: Did you put everything you have on this release or is there other stuff you didn't release that could be on other releases?
Gary: Well, I think they probably could do another entire set one day, but we'll have to see. They had to choose, they had to stop somewhere. You can't have everything in the package, you can't have it endless. We couldn't have 25 CDs in it or 15 DVDs either. There's a bit more around.
Me: Cool. Okay, I have to mention "Whiter Shade of Pale," which was one of my dads favorite songs and one of mine. Before that you were in a band called the Paramounts with Robin Trower who also went with you to Procol Harum, am I right?
Gary: Yes.
Me: How long have you been playing music, Gary?
Gary: I think we've been playing since we were in school. We turned professional about '63, and the Paramounts went on to about 1966. It seemed a very, very long time. Of course at the end of the day if we started when we were about thirteen wasn't all that long.
Me: How did the original line-up of Procol Harum come about other than you and Robin?
Gary: Well, what do you call the original line-up?
Me: The group that recorded your first album.
Gary: Okay, well, B.J. Wilson was also a part of Paramounts. What happened was when Procol Harum was first ready to make a record we thought, myself, Dave Knights was on the bass, Matthew Fisher was on the organ and we had another guitarist and drummer. In fact, when we went to the studios and started making our first album the producer thought in fact they weren't quite cutting it once we got into the very demanding situation in the studio making an album so he thought we cannot carry on with these two and we had to replace them. I couldn't think of anybody else, the only people I could think of was B.J. Wilson on the drums and Robin Trower on the guitar. Perhaps because I knew them and they were old mates. I can't remember if anybody else came along and tried out but when B.J. came up and played with Procol and the producer was there he said, "These guys are great. Okay." That's what made our first record and went on.
Me: "Whiter Shade of Pale" went to straight to number one. You started from the top really, so, what did you think after that?
Gary: We definitely started off at the top, and we thought we have to move up from there. It was internationally known as well, we weren't just popular in the U.K. or even America, it was internationally known so it was a massive smash.
Me: Why do you think it became such a hit, Gary?
Gary: Part of it was it was very different I think it also came with a certain time with the atmosphere.
Me: Looking at your catalogue preparing for this interview I see you wrote a lot of songs about the sea... you must love the sea, am I right?
Gary: Some of it is in the lyrics of course, Keith Reid's lyrics. I was never a sailor but I'd grown up by the sea, and liked to stare out at the ocean. It was always just quite calming, it gives me a lot of movement. If suddenly something is set on a ship be it tales or pirates or whatever, then you got drama. It could be calming or it could be violent and dramatic. It's all involved there in things that could happen on the sea. If that sounds a bit vague then I'm sorry.
Me: You have done a lot of music with orchestra's and had orchestra's on your albums. Did you have formal training for arranging and stuff like that or is that something you just picked up?
Gary: I picked it up so I was self taught.
Me: That's really cool, Gary. You're a musical genius, right?
Gary: Well, I had to learn it of course. I had a friend who played on "A Salty Dog" who was a viola player and advised me. I did have to learn where an instrument sounded. They make different sounds in different registers, that's the trouble. I had to know that to make the richness of the sound to make them sound high and squeak. I had to take all that in, and of course right when I got to a bigger orchestra with french horns, trumpets and trombones, and wood wind instruments there's a whole lot more to learn.
Me: Procol Harum was the first band to tour with an orchestra. Did they travel on the road with you or did you use any pick-up musicians?
Gary: No, we've never done that. We've played with many orchestras over the decades, or over the fifty years. I say we have never done it, but we have toured Denmark with the Danish Radio Orchestra and a big choir. I think Denmark's not a very big country and I thought many nights they drove back to Copenhagen.
Me: Over the years back then Procol Harum went through a lot of personnel changes. was it hard to get the new members to learn the song or keep the band tooled?
Gary: No, I've always been there, up to 1977 B.J. Wilson was always there. we had a change after "A Salty Dog" where Fisher went, because he never liked playing anyway, didn't like touring. He went and we then went and changed the bass player at that time as well. We got Chris Copping in who actually was in the Paramounts actually. He played both bass and organ. Then we had a change, Dave Ball came in, and of course Robin Trower left after "Broken Barricades," Dave Ball came in then Mick Graham came in. I think we had tree guitarists in that first decade. I supposed we had three different guitars and three different organists at that point. Everybody else seemed to stay and be more or less the same.
Me: How long has your current line-up been around?
Gary: Well, the most recent arrival is probably Geoff Dunn on the drums but he's been with us over a decade.
Me: Reading your bio I was surprised to see you played in Eric Clapton's band. How did that come about?
Gary: Well, he was a near neighbour of mine in England. I had played with him, or he had been playing with me, in doing blues in pubs. That was our association in that point. We got on very well, I knew all the tunes he knew and he knew all the tunes that I knew. Whenever one of us started up we knew what was going to be played and we played with gusto and with enjoyment. One day he said, "Would you like to come play in my band?" I said, "Yeah, that'll be nice." I wasn't doing much, so that's what I did, I went and played in Eric's band. I was with him from about 1980 to about '83, something like that.
Me: Your voice still sounds great, sir. Is there a reason for that?
Gary: Well, I smoke the right tobacco, drink the right alcohol. I am quite careful, I can't especially these days burn the candle at both ends and be able to sing five nights in a row, singing for two hours or more. I have to bare in mind that of I abuse myself then I'm going to pay. I have to sing every night, all I need is something to go wrong, like get a cold, or something like that it can all go wrong. So I'm just very careful.
Me: The title of the box set is "Still There'll Be More." Will there be more?
Gary: Well, at this moment there is. This is a massive anthology from over fifty years. It's a great time to have it out because we just celebrated fifty years of Procol Harum. It's the best time to have it out. It's a very well put together package so yes, there will be more, I could assure you of that. Some of the last tracks on this package are from 2017, studio tracks I believe. So, we're still there. Our intent is yes, there will be more, but I don't think we want to leave it too long, before something new. We like to get into the studio again in the very near future and put down some new songs. Just keep that going.
Me: You have also been married for fifty years, which is amazing and rare in the rock world. My parents were married the whole time 'til they passed away. What is the secret, Gary?
Gary: Well, I think they have to be right, don't they? You have to pick the right woman and she has to pick the right man. They have to go together in some way. You have to ride through any upsets you may have, but we never had any great big upsets at all. There's never been other women, there's never been other men. Your wife has to be a supporter, especially in rock. I don't think if you're a wife, my wife is not certainly, I don't think you could be jealous. I'm away for weeks at the time and meeting lots of different people, women even. You have to trust somebody and if you are jealous and thought I wonder if he's been doing this or that your life would be a nightmare. My wife, bless her, has never been like that. Also we've together since before Procol Harum, in other words she never married because I was a famous musician.
Me: That's good. Gary, thanks so much for being on the Phile. Please come back again soon. I wish you continued success.
Gary: Thank you very much.
Whew! That was a long entry. That about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to my guests Jeff Trelewicz and of course Gary Brooker. The Phile will be back on Monday with the legendary Mavis Staples. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye.
Not if it pleases me. No, you can't stop me, not if it pleases me. - Graham Parker
No comments:
Post a Comment