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FATHER-SON? - rock singer Sammy Hagar (Montrose, Van Halen) and TV host Guy Fieri (Food Network).
.... for which Sammy Hagar says he is a 'closet restaurateur' and Guy Fieri is a 'closet rock star' .. and the two have collaborated, unsurprisingly.
Happy New Year, everyone - why not begin by stopping in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
ART NOTES - this year promises to be a busy one for works by the English artist Damien Hirst - commencing with Hirst's complete Spot Paintings being exhibited at all eleven branches of the Gagosian Galleries worldwide from January 12th through February 18th (first photo) .....
....... and then a career retrospective (second photo) at the Tate Modern gallery in London from April 4th through September 9th.
EIGHT YEARS before the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" beckoned Americans to watch their Olympic hockey team battle the Soviets - and Bill Clinton believes that more Arkansans watched their first hockey game that day than any other - Canadian citizens were glued to their sets to watch the 8-game Summit Series against the Soviets. In the US, I recall watching the Soviet feed for the games in Moscow, where the on-screen TV graphic scoreline read "CCCP" vs. ..... "Kahaha".
The newly-christened NBC Sports Network the other day premiered the first US-produced documentary of that 1972 thriller, and how Paul Henderson's last-minute series-winning goal has made him a national hero to this day. See it if you can: it's a reminder that the Cold War in the West wasn't limited to the US.
WEDNESDAY's CHILD is Matilda the Cat - one of the resident kittehs at New York's landmark Algonquin Hotel (where the famous Algonquin Round Table was led by Dorothy Parker) - and cats have long been marketed by the hotel as part of its appeal (with even non-guests seeking the kittehs).
Alas, Matilda has now had to be segregated due to a complaint to the Health Board - for now, Matilda has moved to a cat spa due to a four-month hotel renovation.
JUSTICE NOTES - sixty years after the English mathematician Alan Turing was convicted of 'gross indecency' (i.e., being gay) he will be featured on a Royal Mail stamp for his vital work in cracking World War II codes.
POLITICAL NOTES - the musician Youssou N'Dour - perhaps best known for his duet with Peter Gabriel on the song Shaking the Tree - has announced he is running in February's presidential elections in Senegal.
.......... and Ron Howard - the American film director.
FAMILY VALUES HYPOCRITES are hardly limited to the USA: as the former head of the youth wing of Norway's Progress Party - a far-right party that (among other things) strongly opposed the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2008 (questioning how children would "cope" with the law) - has been indicted over allegations he ....... secretly filmed naked boys and had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy.
ART NOTES - an exhibition (consisting of historic maps, photographs, prints and original manuscripts) commemorating the 200th anniversary of the commission that devised Manhattan's famous street grid is on display at the Museum of the City of New York through April 15th.
RELIGION NOTES - a 17-century Mohawk woman (who tended to the sick and elderly) will soon be canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church. Yet in a discussion reminiscent of a baseball player (who played for multiple teams) being elected to the Hall of Fame but then unsure which team's cap will be portrayed - there is disagreement over whether Kateri Tekakwitha should be considered American, Canadian .... or because no border existed then, simply North American.
LEGAL NOTES - a new law has gone into effect allowing stores, bars and restaurants in Italy to open and close whenever they please.
THURSDAY's CHILD is Eclipse the Cat - an Ohio kitteh who survived a four-hour, 200-mile ride under the hood of a Ford Eclipse, yet escaped with relatively minor burns.
LEST YOU THINK this only takes place in the New World: an auxiliary bishop of Dublin, Ireland writes about how 'the undocumented' are being forced to live in fear on the margins of Irish society.
BUSINESS NOTES - a professor of entrepreneurship at England's Warwick Graduate Business School has co-authored an award-winning paper which argues that three role models for entrepreneurs are the jazz band leaders Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and Art Blakey - and the differing styles of managing their band members that each utilized.
FRIDAY's CHILD is Abby the Cat - a Washington state kitteh watching over her minions, it would appear.
......and finally, for a song of the week ............... in reading a few weeks ago about the illness of the band's lead singer: with the future of The Troggs seemingly at an end, it might do well to look at their time in the sun - and how many more recent bands cite them as an influence.
The original name of this southern England band was The Troglodytes - that morphed into a simpler name. It was formed in 1964 by lead singer Reginald Ball, who took the stage name Reg Presley (for some unexplained reason), Dave Wright and Chris Britton on guitar, Pete Staples on bass and Ronnie Bond on drums. They were signed in 1965 by producer Larry Page after he was sent a tape of The Troggs claiming they could sing "You Really Got Me" better than The Kinks (which Page managed). After telling them to work on their performance and come back in a year (which they did) they released one single Lost Girl .... before fate intervened.
Larry Page had travelled to New York, where he heard a demo by The Wild Ones - a house band for a discotheque run by Richard Burton's ex-wife Sybil. They had recorded a song written by the singer-songwriter Chip Taylor - but whose real name is James Voight and is the brother of actor Jon Voight and the uncle of Angelina Jolie. (Chip Taylor also wrote a different popular tune Angel of the Morning which became a hit for Merrilee Rush originally and Juice Newton years later).
Larry Page added an uncommon instrument called the ocarina as a solo instrument, and the result was the single Wild Thing - which rose in 1966 to #2 in the UK and #1 in the US. Every young rock guitarist can play its three chords, and when Jimi Hendrix performed it at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival (declaring it the "English/American combined anthem" before burning his guitar) - the song became a part of history, ranked as #257 as part of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The "B" side of the single was With a Girl Like You - which reached #1 in the UK, #29 in the US - and was one of several songs to follow written by the band (in an era when that was uncommon) and which Reg Presley said he imagined when he was still a bricklayer.
The Troggs had started off well in Britain, but success in the US was hampered by two factors: one was a dispute over labels (not unusual, as many UK labels had to rely on trans-Atlantic distribution agreements back then) which delayed US releases over legal battles. The second was that the band did not tour in the US until 1968, when the music scene was changing rapidly.
The band was changing, itself: as their early Kinks/garage style was becoming more melodic and pop-oriented. In late 1966, they released the song I Can't Control Myself - which, strange as it seems now given the song's pop sound, was banned by some radio stations as being too raunchy (although Reg Presley denied the song was explicit).
They went on to have several more singles in Britain, including "Anyway that You Want Me", "Night of the Long Grass" and "Surprise, Surprise" before splitting-up in the spring of 1969 (and several of the band members went on to record solo albums). A 12-minute studio tape (known as the Troggs Tapes informally) featuring the band arguing is thought to have inspired the writers of the film This is Spinal Tap later on.
The band reformed in the 1970's and remained together in an off-and-on-again fashion, with a few new members over the years. With old manager Larry Page, they did a rather offbeat version of the Beach Boys tune Good Vibrations but which failed to chart.
While retaining a British and European audience over the years, their one moment-in-the-sun in the US came in 1992, when the band REM - just one of the bands who cite The Troggs as influences - invited The Troggs to record a joint album of new material entitled Athens Andover - named after Andover, England (where the Troggs hail from) and Athens, Georgia (REM's hometown and where the album was recorded).
Two original members (Reg Presley and Chris Britton) have performed along with Pete Lucas and Dave Maggs in the past few years with The Troggs (second set of photos, below) while two original members have died: drummer Ronnie Bond in 1992 and guitarist Dave Wright in 2008. The last gig the band performed was in Germany last month, before Reg Presley suffered a stroke in mid-December at the age of 70.
The Troggs fan club secretary reports that Reg is home and recuperating, but has decided to "finally retire after 40 odd years of performing and entertaining audiences all over the world".
Even if that's it for the band: their legacy is strong, with performers such as Iggy Pop, The Buzzcocks and The Ramones citing the band as an influence (along with REM as previously noted). For their songs: the MC5 recorded "I Want You" on their album "Kick Out the Jams" and "With a Girl Like You" was used in the films "Shine" as well as "Flirting" starring Nicole Kidman.
And whenever you hear "Wild Thing" sampled, it isn't the Chip Taylor, Wild Ones or even Jimi Hendrix version you'll hear. As long as there are garage bands forming, The Troggs will serve a useful purpose.
Of all of their songs, my favorite was their last US hit (#7) from 1968: Love is All Around represented the high-point of their later, more pop-oriented sound (even using strings) and the song was featured in the films "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (from 1994) and "Love Actually" (from 2003). It was also performed by REM, and even showcased on an "MTV Unplugged" appearance. And below you can listen to it.
It's written on the wind
It's everywhere I go
So if you really love me
Come on and let it show
You gave your promise to me
And I gave mine to you
I need someone beside me
In everything I do
You know I love you
I always will
My mind's made up
By the way that I feel
There's no beginning
There'll be no end
Cause on my love
You can depend
