In The Wall Street Journal this week, my "Anatomy of a Song" column too an in-depth look at T. Rex's Bang a Gong (Get It On) (go here). I interviewed the great Tony Visconti (the song's producer and David Bowie's long-time producer) and drummer Bill Legend, the last surviving member of T. Rex from the early 1970s. Get It On launched the glam-rock movement and predates Bowie's Ziggy Stardust.
Here's Marc Bolan, who died in an auto accident in 1977, and the rest of T. Rex in December 1971 on the BBC's Top of the Pops...
Also in the WSJ, I interviewed Wolfgang Puck for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section on growing up in Austria (go here). Wolfgang talked about his cruel stepfather, why he vowed never to set foot in the house again after he left at age 14 and the day he contemplated suicide at the prospect of having to return home.
Here's Wolfgang on his favorite dessert...
Catch me on SiriusXM on Wednesday from 9 to 10 a.m. (EDT). I'll be on with Feedback co-hosts Nik Carter and Lori Majewski to talk about my "Anatomy of a Song" column on T. Rex's "Get It On." Feedback is on the VOLUME network on channel 106.
More JazzWax. If you want to comment on a JazzWax post or are curious about what other readers are saying, join us at Facebook at Marc JazzWax Myers. Want to be among the first to read my WSJ columns? You'll find them on Twitter first at Marc Myers @ JazzWax.
Joe Alterman performed at New York's Birdland earlier this month. Here's Joe live...
Nancy Wilson. Here's Nancy Wilson for Stroh's beer. Even singing in an ad, Nancy could knock you out. Hard to imagine that more than one take was needed...
Here's another ad by Nancy for Stroh's...
And here's the finished jingle captured in the first clip...
Carol Sloane. Here's a photo that Carol posted at her Facebook page with the following text: "On my first gig at age 14 as the singer with the Ed Drew Orchestra. That's Ed himself, at Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet Ballroom in Cranston, R.I. I thought I was so sophisticated!
Leonard Feather. Last week, Bob Waldman sent along the following:
"Hi Marc, you probably know about this, but I was thrilled to discover this week that Leonard Feather’s scrapbooks have been digitized, along with audio tapes of his Blindfold Test responses.
You can find them here.
Also, the Johnny Mercer Foundation has posted online copies of Capitol Records’s Capitol News Magazine (1943-52) and its successor, Music Views (1952-59). Go here. For more information, go here.
Shirley Scott radio. "Symphony Sid" Gribetz on Sunday will present a five-hour radio broadcast celebrating the career of jazz organist and pianist Shirley Scott on WKCR-FM from 2 to 7 p.m. You can listen to Sid's "Jazz Profiles" from anywhere in the world on your phone or computer by going here.
West Coast jazz. The Los Angeles Jazz Institute is holding one of its extraordinary concert festivals from May 24 to May 26. The list of participants is too long to mention in this space, but you can read all about it by going here.
What the heck. Here's Booker T. and the MGs in 1971 performing Melting Pot...
Oddball album cover of the week.
Why beat around the pitch when you can get right to the point. So many of these albums from the late 1950s and '60s had titles loaded with innuendo—Music for Two Lovers in Love, Music for Reminiscing, Music for Relaxing and so on. Here, we have an album positioned as an audio mickey. Wonder what the cover title might be if the album were marketed to her and the music was geared to get him to go home. Perhaps "Music to Call it a Night," "Music When No Means No" or "Music His Wife Loves Most."
