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This Just In...
Kevin Fischer is an award-winning veteran broadcaster who has been seen and heard on Milwaukee TV and radio stations for nearly three decades.
Kevin, who is a legislative aide to state Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), can be seen offering his views on the news on the public affairs program, “INTERchange,” on Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10. He lives with his wife, Jennifer, in Franklin.
Friday Night Live
By Kevin Fischer
Friday, Jul 11 2008, 11:30 PM
Tonight on our summer concert series, Friday Night Live, Legends of R&B on The Midnight Special. Our first guest, Billy Preston. From billypreston.net:
Billy Preston's career has spanned five decades, starting as a child prodigy playing the movie role of young W.C. Handy and then playing organ for the likes of Ray Charles and Little Richard. His accomplishments are highlighted by a string of hits, including collaborating with some of the most celebrated names in the music industry, The Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, The Jackson Five, Sly and the Family Stone, Barbara Streisand, Sammy Davis Jr., Quincy Jones and perhaps the most famous of all, The Beatles.
Billy's relationship with The Beatles led to his signing with Apple Records in the 60's. Billy is widely acknowledged as the "Fifth Beatle" having been the only party to ever hand his name included in the label credits of the "Let It Be" and the "Abbey Road" albums as well as the landmark "White Album". Billy also appeared with them in the films "The Complete Beatles" and "Let It Be" as well as performing as part of them during their historic rooftop final concert.
In the late '60s Billy worked with John Lennon and Yoko Ono on their solo "Plastic Ono Band" album as well as Ringo Starr's solo single "Oh My My" and he participated in George Harrison's American Tour. In addition Billy Preston was a leading character in the movie "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" also featuring Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees, performing a stunning version of "Get Back."
Preston's name and fame were solidified as a solo artist when he scored a string of Number 1 hit singles including the Grammy winning "Outta Space", "Will It Go Round In Circles", "Nothing From Nothing" and "Space Race."
Next up, the Maestro with the deep voice. From answers.com:
Barry White was known as "the Walrus of Love," a nickname that encompassed his size, his deep voice and his reputation as one of R&B's most romantic singers. White grew up in Los Angeles and got into the music business at an early age. By the late 1960s he organized and produced a girl group called Love Unlimited, whose 1972 hit "Walkin' in the Rain With the One I Love" featured Barry's voice through a telephone. His own debut album, I've Got So Much To Give (1973), included the hit "I'm Gonna Love Ya Just a Little More, Baby." White's distinctive, smooth bass voice was backed by the Love Unlimited Orchestra, and during the '70s he had several hits, including "Love's Theme," a slickly-produced soul song that signalled the beginning of the disco era. During the '80s his career waned, but in the '90s his career was revived, thanks in part to appearances on the TV shows Ally McBeal and The Simpsons. After selling millions of records over three decades, White won his first Grammy with his album Staying Power (1999).
You're watching Friday Night Live. Tonight's theme is Legendary R & B artists featured on NBC's "The Midnight Special." The appearances are from the mid-1970's. From lourawls.com:
Lou’s voice is as distinctive and instantly recognizable as any in music. It all began on December 1, 1933, in Chicago with the birth of a boy, who would become the legendary Lou Rawls. From Lou’s early days in gospel, his collaborations with Sam Cooke, “The Dick Clark Show” at the Hollywood Bowl in 1959, the opening for The Beatles in 1966 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, his monologues in the 1970s that presaged rap music to becoming a “crossover” artist before the term was invented, there has been one constant in Lou Rawls’ career––a voice that one critic proclaimed was “sweet as sugar, soft as velvet, strong as steel, smooth as butter.” In 1971 Lou's popularity could be measured by the fact that he won the Downbeat magazine poll for favorite male vocalist, besting perennial champ Frank Sinatra, who has praised Rawls for having "the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game." The 1970s began with a second Grammy win for Natural Man. But, then came disco and Rawls, a symbol of quality and a relevance that transcended trendiness, balked. "A lyric has to mean something to me, something that has happened to me. I try to look for songs people can relate to because I know the man on the corner waiting for the bus has to hear it and say, 'Yeah that's right.'"
In 1975 while other artists succumbed to the beat, Lou moved to Philadelphia International, the Mecca of producers/songwriters Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, and their renowned Philly sound. His integrity was rewarded the next year when "You'll Never Find (Another Love Like Mine)" became Lou's biggest hit.
For my dad, who loved this song....
And finally tonight, the Godfather of Soul, the Hardest Working Man in Show Business......James Brown. From biography.com:
Combining gospel and blues roots with a stage presentation that mixed calculated hysteria and absolute musical precision, he emerged by 1962 as the leading star in rhythm and blues and one of its key innovators.
During the late 1960s Brown's ambiguous racial politics made him an emblematic figure for both moderate and radical movements. His 1968 recording, ‘Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud’, became an anthem of the Black Power movement. By the early 1970s he had become one of the first black entertainers to assume complete control of his own career, and this remains an enduring aspect of his legacy. An inaugural member of the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame (1986), the next year his recording ‘Living in America’ won a Grammy for best rhythm & blues performance.
Watch Brown take charge with his audience....
Billy Preston, the exuberant keyboardist who landed gigs with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and enjoyed his own hit singles in the 70's died January 12, 2006. His longtime manager, Joyce Moore said a heart infection in November of 2005 left him in a coma, and he never regained consciousness. Preston was 59.
Barry White suffered for years from high blood pressure that led to kidney failure. At the time of his death he was waiting for a kidney transplant and had also suffered a stroke. White died on July 4, 2003. He was 58.
Hospitalized in December of 2005 for treatment of lung and brain cancer, Lou Ralws died January 6, 2006 with his wife, Nina at his bedside. Rawls was 72.
James Brown died of congestive heart failure at the age of 73. His personal manager, Charles Bobbit told reporters, "The most difficult thing is for me to stand here without him. We were a team." Pausing to fight back tears, Bobbit said he was at Brown's bedside when he died. Brown told him, "I'm going away tonight." Then he took three long, quiet breaths, and closed his eyes, Bobbit said. Brown died on Christmas Day, 2006.
That's Friday Night Live for this week. Goodnight.
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