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It's not just in the political arena: even a latter-day media star may have some unforeseen antecedents:
FATHER-SON? - Johnny Henshaw-Jacobs from the "Airplane!" films (as portrayed by the late Stephen Stucker) and newly-famous JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater.
Cue the movie tag-lines. Well, perhaps before you do: stop 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 - an exhibition focusing on the later works of Salvador Dali is at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia through January 9th, 2011.
A RECENT CARTOON by Tom Tomorrow examines "GOP Reality Denial".
YOU'VE HEARD of EXTREME SPORTS - but the recent annual Sauna World Championships in Finland actually claimed the life of a Russian contestant.
END of an ERA - as you've probably read, the comic strip Cathy will come to an end in early October .... and a case of Scotch from an expedition by Ernest Shackleton is being thawed out after having being frozen in Antarctic ice for more than a century.
MONDAY's CHILD is the 1st of five this week who are winners of Britain's Rescue Cat Awards 2010 - the Ultimate Survivor category winner is Purrdy the Cat who survived a horrific start in life after being born on an unscrupulous breeding farm.
SIGN of the TIMES - long before this recession, I've always been skeptical of stories in the business press about how employers "just can't find workers". The blogger Kevin Drum saw a three-part example recently:
The Wall Street Journal reports that even with unemployment at 9.5%, employers are having trouble finding workers ....in Bloomington, Illinois, machine shop Mechanical Devices can't find the workers it needs to handle a sharp jump in business. Job fairs run by airline Emirates attract fewer applicants in the U.S. than in other countries. Truck-stop operator Pilot Flying J says job postings don't elicit many more applicants than when the unemployment rate was below 5%.
Sounds puzzling. Unless you read the rest of the story. The truck stop job, it turns out, pays minimum wage. The airline job requires you to move to Dubai. And the machine shop company pays only $13/hour but requires people with very specific skills. When they set up a ten-week training course of their own, they got plenty of applicants and 16 out of 24 graduated. But apparently we've gotten to the point where blue collar employers are barely willing to invest even ten weeks in training new workers for high-skill entry level positions.
ART NOTES - an exhibit entitled A Shot in the Dark is at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota through January 30th, 2011.
HISTORY NOTES - the BBC examines the rise and fall of the laundromat in Britain (where the number of them has fallen by three-quarters the past twenty-five years).
POLITICAL NOTES - though it might seem incongruous: an international conference for various right-wing nationalist parties just took place in Tokyo.
TUESDAY's CHILD is the 2nd of five this week who are winners of Britain's Rescue Cat Awards 2010 - the Best Friends category winner is Oscar the Cat who made a massive difference to the lives of the elderly at the care home where he was adopted.
FINANCIAL NOTES - along with Paul Krugman, Canadian business writer Brian Milner notes the conventional wisdom (that bond vigilantes would punish governments that failed to rein-in deficits) - but also that anyone following that advice lost money.
HISTORY NOTES - having passed a year-long series of practical and written tests, Giorgia Boscolo is now the first woman licensed as a gondolier in Venice, Italy.
SEPARATED at BIRTH - New Jersey GOP governor Chris Christie and the character Billy Halleck from Stephen King's "Thinner" (as portrayed by Robert John Burke).
ARCHITECTURE NOTES - at age 75: the international architect Albert Speer - yes, the namesake son of the Nazi regime's chief architect - believes many post-war German architectural failures (and not just in East Germany) stemmed from trying to completely break with history. Understandable, he knows: yet which went astray.
ART NOTES - works by the late minimalist artist Sol LeWitt are at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, new York through November 8th.
FILM NOTES - long believed to be an Austrian, some of his countrymen were taken aback to learn that the actor Christoph Waltz - who won an Oscar for his supporting role in "Inglourious Basterds" - is in fact, a citizen of Germany.
MUSIC NOTES - while slowing down his touring schedule as he approaches age 90: the Hall of Fame pianist Dave Brubeck still found the time to perform at the Litchfield Jazz Festival in his adopted state of Connecticut.
WEDNESDAY's CHILD is the 3rd of five this week who are winners of Britain's Rescue Cat Awards 2010 - the Hero Cat category winner is Bobby the Cat who comforts Lyn Stewart (who suffers from numerous auto accident maladies) by getting close to her face and patting her mouth, which brings Lyn out of her paralysis.
TRAVEL NOTES - as the hometown of the Beatles: Liverpool, England celebrates the 50th anniversary of the band's first concert (August 18th, 1960) this week.
FATHER-SON? - Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mexican film star/director Gael Garcia Bernal ("The Motorcycle Diaries").
MUSEUM NOTES - after having to close just one month after its inauguration this past January (due to the Chilean earthquake) that nation's Museum of Memory and Human Rights - constructed under former president Michelle Bachelet, whose family suffered under the Pinochet dictatorship - has finally re-opened.
ART NOTES - an exhibit entitled Mestizo: Collections & Cultural Fusions is at the Northwest Museum of Art & Culture in Spokane, Washington though December 4th.
FOOD NOTES - the Guardian newspaper in Britain has selected the 50 best cookbooks of all time as judged by a select panel.
EDUCATION NOTES - excessive workloads and the often dual-role of both teaching class and managing a school in Ireland is discouraging prospective candidates from applying for jobs as school principal.
THURSDAY's CHILD is the 4th of five this week who are winners of Britain's Rescue Cat Awards 2010 - the Most Incredible Story category winner is Marmite the Cat who provided vital support to Lindsey Davies during a difficult pregnancy last year. Of the five: Marmite also won the overall title of Rescue Cat of the Year 2010.
BUSINESS NOTES - a case has come before the Denmark Supreme Court - contesting a previous ruling that the pop singer Lina Rafn cannot take a full deduction for clothing purchased for on-stage performances.
BOOK NOTES - a new biography of the author Jack London - whose short story To Build a Fire is my favorite work of his - notes both his racialism and his socialism as part of his make-up.
SEPARATED at BIRTH - former governor Michael Dukakis and Mr. (Fred) Rogers.
PHOTOGRAPHY NOTES - an Englishman in New York has a photo gallery at this link of other UK ex-pats, both famous and otherwise.
ANYONE CONSIDERING holding a beach funeral in the UK - where your loved one's remains are washed out to sea - needs careful timing to avoid holidaymakers.
FRIDAY's CHILD is the last of five this week who are winners of Britain's Rescue Cat Awards 2010 - the Purina Lifetime Achievement Award went to Tess the Cat who has proved a lifeline to Samantha Marshall (who suffers from a personality disorder which makes it difficult for her to form relationships and communicate). Tess has helped give her strength in her bleakest moments the past 10 years.
......and finally, for a song of the week ............... over the past few weeks, I've looked at several musicians who fall under the "What If?" category (Tammi Terrell, Tommy Bolin) often from dying too young. There's one other musician who did not die young, but suffered a temporary setback at a most inopportune time. Certainly Carl Perkins went on to have a successful career (practically defining the word rockabilly) yet what-could-have-been has to be included in any biography of his. Perhaps we should just enjoy what did come forth: as Tom Petty wrote, "If you want to play Fifties rock & roll, you can either play like Chuck Berry: or you can play like Carl Perkins".
Growing up in a sharecropping family north of Memphis, Tennessee, a young Carl Perkins learned about music by listening to the Grand Ole Opry (with Bill Monroe as an early influence) and learning the guitar from a black field hand named John Westbrook. By his teens, Carl formed the Perkins Brothers Band (with brothers Jay on guitar and Clayton on bass). On the honky-tonk circuit of Tennessee, Carl Perkins paid particular attention to the dance floor: adapting his songwriting to the styles that garnered an audience reaction.
And it was an uptempo version of Bill Monroe's Blue Moon of Kentucky that first brought the band to regional prominence. Perkins often sent demos to New York record companies, who in the early 1950's had no inclination towards what he was playing. Yet it was hearing Elvis Presley's version of Blue Moon of Kentucky on the radio that convinced Perkins he was on the right track. And it was off to audition for Sam Phillips at Sun Studios in Memphis in October, 1954.
He didn't gain a contract then (and Phillips wasn't interested in Jay Perkins) but Phillips was taken with Carl's voice and guitar and told him to write more material. As contrasted later with Johnny Cash, Phillips sensed that Carl was more suited for a more rocking style - and when as a twenty-two year-old Carl Perkins updated the song Movie Magg - which he had written as a thirteen year-old - Sam Phillips released that in March of 1955.
The rest of the year proceeded along with the Perkins Band playing tours throughout the South, often alongside Elvis Presley, and sometimes with Johnny Cash. It was during these tours that Carl Perkins observed a dancer in a tavern get angry with his date over part of his apparel. And in December 1955, Sam Philips released Carl Perkins' Blue Suede Shoes after suggesting that Carl amend one line to go, cat, go from "go, man, go". Three months later, "Blue Suede Shoes," a tune that borrowed stylistically from pop, country, and R&B music, sat at the top of all charts, the first record to accomplish such a feat. It also achieved these honors: #95 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, plus inclusion in 2006 in the National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress and also made the NPR 1000 of important American musical works of the 20th Century.
In March 1956, Perkins and his band left Norfolk, Virginia in March, 1956 en route to New York, where they were due to perform the tune on both the Perry Como as well as Ed Sullivan shows ... when fate intervened to change history. In Delaware their car rammed the back of a poultry truck, resulting in severe injuries for all involved. In deference to their friendship, Presley waited until Perkins' version had peaked to release his own, which eventually reached #20. But Presley was the one who performed it on the Milton Berle and Dorsey Brothers Shows (while Perkins was in traction) and whose career skyrocketed nationwide. Presley would still have achieved the success he did (his being single was a definite advantage) but how high might Perkins (who wrote his own songs and was also a noted guitarist) might have achieved had he not been laid-up and been first on TV?
He returned to touring after several weeks, and went on to release several songs that defined his role as the king of rockabilly - Matchbox plus "Boppin' the Blues", Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby, "Dixie Fried" and "All Mama's Children" to name a few. At the recording session for Matchbox, an hour-long jam session arose where Perkins was joined by Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and (for a time) Johnny Cash. The Million Dollar Quartet was eventually released as an album, and eventually made it to Broadway as a play.
But Perkins had trouble following-up with songs that captured more than a regional audience; his sound was more authentically Southern and less pop before that became a non-factor. In addition, he was depressed over his brother Jay's death from cancer, battled alcoholism and restricted his touring over seeing increasing violence spawned by rowdy shows. He left Sun for Columbia in 1958, enticed by a higher royalty rate: but his sound suffered further under Columbia's tight control over studio time, unlike Sam Phillips' experimental ways. And so his career treaded water for a few years ... until a 1964 offer to tour Britain (with Chuck Berry) became his first break in years.
He was startled to learn that - instead of being an also-ran - the shows were sold out every night, as much for Carl as it was for Chuck. Re-invigorated, he accepted the invitation of The Beatles to attend a party given in his honor - and he saw them record several of his songs, more than any other composer's work they covered.
He was able to overcome his alcoholism, buoyed by his friend Johnny Cash hiring him as part of the Tennessee Three through much of the 1970's, and appearing on Johnny's 1969-1971 TV show in particular. A famous moment came when Eric Clapton appeared - and joined Carl and Johnny in a rendition of Matchbox in 1970. And when Bob Dylan was stuck halfway through writing a song that was intended for Nashville Skyline, Perkins was able to complete Champaign, Illinois - at which point Dylan told him "the song is yours", which Perkins included on his 1969 On Top album.
His 'comeback' status was complete in the 1980's when roots music groups such as the Stray Cats and The Blasters revived his era of music, and Perkins began touring extensively with several of his sons. In 1985, a 30th anniversary of Blue Suede Shoes appeared as a Cinemax special, where he was joined onstage in London by members of Britain's rock hierarchy (including George Harrison and Ringo Starr). And he reunited with Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis in 1986 at Sun Studios in Memphis to record Class of 55 (with Roy Orbison taking the place of Presley).
Carl Perkins' autobiography Go, Cat, Go was released in 1995, with an album of the same name shortly thereafter. He was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1991, and Carl Perkins died in January, 1998 at the age of 65. He was ranked number 69 on the list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time by Rolling Stone in 2004, and was inducted into three Halls of Fame: Rockabilly plus the Nashville Songwriters in 1985 and Rock & Roll in 1987. It seems he did reach the top, after all.
Of all of his songs, my favorite was the "B" side of Blue Suede Shoes back in 1956: Honey, Don't! (fair-use extract below) was the only song not only recorded by The Beatles - but also either recorded or performed by each of the Fab Four individually. And below you can hear the original Sun recording.
Well how come you say you will when you won't?
Say you do, baby, when you don't?
Let me know, honey, how you feel
Tell the truth: now is love real?
Well sometimes I love you on a Saturday night
Sunday morning you don't look right
You've been out painting the town
Uh-huh baby, been stepping around
Oh well, honey don't
Honey don't
Say you will when you won't:
Uh-huh honey, don't
