BOTH SIDES OF THE GUN: June 2013

Monday, June 17, 2013

Birthday #131

Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971)

In 1917, Stravinsky met the great artist Pablo Picasso in Italy. While visiting him, Picasso drew a picture of Stravinsky. Igor packed it in his luggage to bring back to Switzerland.
When the customs officer inspected the suitcase, he thought the portrait was a spy plan. Their conversation went like this:

"What is this sketch?"
"My portrait drawn by Picasso."
"Nonsense. It must be a plan."
"Yes - the plan of my face."

The official believed that Stravinsky was a spy carrying a secret military plan.
The composer called on his friends at the British Embassy to identify him and get the picture back.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

exposed

"Rock 'N' Roll Exposed"

The Photography of Bob Gruen

1945….Cole Porter.

Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre. After a slow start, he began to achieve success in the 1920s, and by the 1930s he was one of the major songwriters for the Broadway musical stage. Unlike many successful Broadway composers, Porter wrote the lyrics as well as the music for his songs.

After a serious horseback riding accident in 1937, Porter was left disabled and in constant pain, but he continued to work. His shows of the early 1940s did not contain the lasting hits of his best work of the 1920s and 30s, but in 1948 he made a triumphant comeback with his most successful musical, Kiss Me, Kate. It won the first Tony Award for best musical.

Porter's other musicals include Fifty Million Frenchmen, DuBarry Was a Lady, Anything Goes, Can-Can and Silk Stockings. His numerous hit songs include "Night and Day", "I Get a Kick Out of You", "Well, Did You Evah!", "I've Got You Under My Skin", "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" and "You're the Top". He also composed scores for films from the 1930s to the 1950s, including Born to Dance (1936), which featured the songs "You'd Be So Easy to Love" and "I've Got You Under My Skin"; Rosalie (1937), which featured "In the Still of the Night"; High Society (1956), which included "True Love"; and Les Girls(1957). Many artists have recorded Porter songs, and dozens have released entire albums of his songs.[ In 1956 American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald released Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook. In 1972 she released another collection, Ella Loves Cole. Among the many album collections of Porter songs are the following: Oscar Peterson Plays the Cole Porter Songbook (1959); Anita O'Day Swings Cole Porter with Billy May (1959); All Through the Night: Julie London Sings the Choicest of Cole Porter (1965); Rosemary Clooney Sings the Music of Cole Porter (1982); and Anything Goes: Stephane Grappelli & Yo-Yo Ma Play (Mostly) Cole Porter (1989 In 1990 Dionne Warwick released Dionne Sings Cole Porter.[106] In that same year, Red Hot + Blue was released as a benefit CD for AIDS research and featured 20 Cole Porter songs recorded by artists such as U2, Annie Lennox, and Shane MacGowan. Additional recording collections include Frank Sinatra Sings the Select Cole Porter (1996) ] and John Barrowman Swings Cole Porter (2004; Barrowman played "Jack" in the 2004 film De-Lovely Other singers who have paid tribute to Porter include the Swedish pop music group Gyllene Tider, which recorded a song called Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång (That girl from the Cole Porter song) in 1982. He is referenced in the merengue song "The Call of the Wild" by David Byrne on his 1989 album Rei Momo. He is also mentioned in the song "Tonite It Shows" by Mercury Rev on their 1998 album Deserter's Songs.

Cole Albert Porter 6.9.1891 – 10.15.1964