I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous holiday weekend.
ART NOTES - a retrospective of the works by the French painter Gustave Caillebotte are at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. through October 4th.
SPORTING NOTES - today will see the championship match of the Women's World Cup, with a re-match of the last World Cup final: the USA vs. Japan. Both teams reached the final with some luck, as the US defeated Germany carrying-the-play, yet receiving some beneficial calls. And Japan advanced (with a 2-1 victory) after an English defender (heartbreakingly) accidentally deflected the ball into her own goal in the last minute. (England salvaged the bronze medal yesterday with a 1-0 victory over Germany).
And this will be shown on free TV (the Fox broadcast channel, where you see NFL games) beginning at 7:00 PM Eastern (4:00 PM Pacific) today.
THURSDAY's CHILD is the late Tama the Cat - a Japanese kitteh who saved an obscure rural railway line from financial ruin, and who earned posthumous status of a Shinto goddess with her recent death at age sixteen.
WHILE BOTH CANDIDATES are from right-of-center parties, the next general election in Poland this coming October will see two women vying to become the next prime minister.
AN INTERESTING READ is this essay by Ben Miller (a senior policy analyst at the New America Foundation) on for-profit colleges - where he argues that they served a valuable niche at one time, then decided to go big via Wall Street ... where the trouble started.
FRIDAY's CHILD works on rodent patrol at the Los Angeles Flower Market - where rats chewed on the flowers, leaving them unable to be sold ... until they brought-in some feral cats ..... now, the rodents merely smell the presence of kittehs, and stay away in the first place.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with an update of some past TC diaries of mine ...... namely, the upcoming "Man from U.N.C.L.E" film, some Canadian mayors facing legal problems, FIFA president Sepp Blatter (afraid to travel to Canada for today's World Cup final) and the convicted Italian cruise ship captain Francesco Schettino ... who has a new book out.
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC. Bonus: here is the quiz from the previous week as I did not post then.
SEPARATED at BIRTH - two star pitchers: the New York Mets' Rookie of the Year winner Jacob deGrom and the San Francisco Giants' Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum ... who has (subsequently) cut his hair.
...... and finally, for a song of the week .............................. it has been nearly thirty-five years since the death of the singer/songwriter Tim Hardin - someone who achieved prominence in the 1960's, only to have an old heroin habit dog him for much of his life, with little output in the decade before his death at only age 39. It's a classic "What could have been?" question, as his material appealed to performers and fans across the musical spectrum. But his blend of old-time blues and folk (often performing with jazz sidemen) left a body of work that endures in the voices of others, and helped pave the way for the modern singer-songwriter.
The Eugene, Oregon native dropped out of high school to join the Marine Corps, spending part of 1959 as a military adviser in Vietnam and this is where he first used heroin. After his discharge in 1961, he dropped out of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and began performing at the burgeoning Greenwich Village coffeehouse scene, before moving to Boston in 1963. His early style was more blues-oriented (think Mose Allison) than some of his contemporaries, but he had influences from country musician Lefty Frizzel to fellow folksinger Karen Dalton - also, alas, a heroin user.
He was noticed by producer Erik Jacobsen (who went on to produce the Lovin' Spoonful and Chris Isaak later on). Jacobsen arranged a recording session in New York for Columbia Records, but the label wasn't happy with the tapes and so he was let go. He relocated to Los Angeles where he met his future wife Susan Morss (who had appeared in the "Young Marrieds" TV series. He did have a good eye for talent: using vibist Gary Burton (soon to be a jazz star and future dean of the Berklee School of Music in Boston) as well as John Sebastian (before he formed the Lovin' Spoonful) on his recordings.
Returning to New York, he received a recording deal from Verve Records, having now developed a confessional-style way of singing, and they liked his tapes enough to release his 1966 debut album Tim Hardin 1 with only Misty Roses - covered by Sonny & Cher, Peggy Lee and Johnny Mathis - receiving much radio airplay.
But several others spawned cover versions by others, including How Can We Hang On to a Dream? (by Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Echo & the Bunnymen) plus Don't Make Promises (by Marianne Faithfull, Gary Puckett & the Union Gap, Ricky Nelson and the Kingston Trio) and finally Reason to Believe - performed by many but always associated with Rod Stewart.
About this time, his earliest studio recordings (1964) were purchased and released on Atco Records; entitled This is Tim Hardin - this had less original writings and showcased his earlier Dave Van Ronk-style blues, such as "Stagger Lee", "House of the Rising Sun" and Willie Dixon's "Hoochie Coochie Man".
1967 saw the release of Tim Hardin 2 which proved to be the apex of his career. It had some other popular songs, such as "Red Balloon" (performed by Ricky Nelson and the Small Faces) as well as a tribute to his wife Susan, "Lady Came from Baltimore" (recorded by Joan Baez and Bobby Darin and performed by Bob Dylan, although Dylan never recorded it) - notwithstanding that Hardin's wife Susan actually came from New Jersey.
Yet the demons inside him began to take over Tim Hardin by the end of the decade. He suffered not only from his drug abuse, but also by a case of pleurisy (inflammation of the lungs) as well as stage fright. He had difficulty making his shows, and had bouts of violence with his wife, who eventually left him along with their son.
He released a live album with jazzers such as bassist Eddie Gomez, and appeared at Woodstock with future members of the jazz band Oregon - Ralph Towner (guitar and piano) and Glen Moore (bass) - although Hardin needed a dose of methadone to get over his stage fright. His last American recording was 1971's Bird on a Wire - with a fine rendition of the title track classic from Leonard Cohen, as well as "Georgia On My Mind" from Hoagy Carmichael.
He moved between the US and England over the next few years - in England, he could legally obtain methadone as a registered heroin addict. And he did one interesting 1973 release there called Nine - once again choosing interesting sidemen such as Peter Frampton and members of The Strawbs and included a cover of Fire & Rain by James Taylor.
But he could never shake his drug habit; even selling the rights to his music in a desperate way to feed his habit. Tim Hardin died in December, 1980 in Los Angeles of a heroin overdose (at only age 39) and was buried in his native Oregon. The Essential, Classic Hardin is as good a retrospective album as there is.
Though Tim Hardin only had one Top 40 hit (to be mentioned shortly) he had several songs loved by others - and besides "Reason to Believe", his other classic tune was 1967's If I Were a Carpenter - a tune with somewhat hokey lyrics that I nonetheless came to love. Hardin sang it as a solo piece, and it proved to be an immense hit for Bobby Darin - and perhaps in a sense of justice, Hardin's only Top 40 success came with a cover of "Simple Song of Freedom" written by ... Bobby Darin.
Some other popular solo voice covers came from the likes of Neil Diamond, Dan Fogelberg, Robert Plant and Harry Belafonte - and at this link you can listen to one by the Small Faces singer Steve Marriott.
But Johnny & June Cash turned the song into a call-and-response duet version, which was also how Willie Nelson & Sheryl Crow later performed it.
Below are examples of both: the original Tim Hardin solo voice version and an interesting duet featuring the French rock star Johnny Hallyday & Emmylou Harris - sang partly in French - from 1984.
If I were a carpenter
and you were a lady
Would you marry me anyway?
would you have my baby?
If a miller were my trade
at a mill wheel grinding
Would you miss your color box?
your soft shoes shining?
Save my love through loneliness
save my love through sorrow
I give you my only-ness
come give me your tomorrow