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 and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — an exhibition entitled Monet in Conversation — in his role as an influencer for American artists in Paris (including John Singer Sargent, Childe Hassam and many others) — is at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri to March 23rd.
The Duck Pond (Theodore Robinson)
YOUR WEEKEND READ #1 is this autobiographical essay by Ron Filipkowski — a former prosecutor and Republican, telling the story of how he became a Democrat: first by becoming a criminal defense attorney, then seeing how Barack Obama was treated ... and then seeing people he respected fall into the cult.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Kumiko the Cat — a New Hampshire kitteh who went missing eight months ago but — thanks to her microchip — has been reunited after being trapped 700 miles away in … Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Kumiko the Cat
TRAVEL NOTES — the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis is accessed by large commercial aircraft only on St. Kitts. One travel writer notes that those taking a 6-min water taxi ride to Nevis will find quiet, uncrowded beaches for the next two years … until an expanded runway opens up at the small Nevis airport, which will allow for direct US flights.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Sphinx the Cat — a feral kitteh at NYC’s Rikers Island prison, among those cared for by a retired employee who helps stabilize the island’s population, facilitates adoptions and hopes to see inmates be able to train as veterinary technicians for a future career.
Sphinx the Rikers Cat
BRAIN TEASER — try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #2 is this essay by Jay Kuo on the sacking of the chair of House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) by Speaker Johnson, who said that the panel “needs a fresh start” … but which the well-respected Mike Turner said he was told were “concerns from Mar-a-Lago” … and other commentators note there were probably concerns … from the Kremlin.
OLDER-YOUNGER BROTHERS? — two rock musicians: the late English bassist Andy Fraser (from John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, plus the band Free; co-composer of their 1970 hit single “All Right Now”) and Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett.
Andy Fraser (1952-2015)
Kirk Hammett (b 1962)
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… on New Year’s Eve, the music world lost (at age 83) not a household name … indeed, the All Music Guide’s Steve Kurutz describes the songwriter, producer and performer Don Nix as “one of the more obscure figures in Southern soul and rock” — yet was influential for several decades and deserves more recognition.
Born in Memphis in 1941 (and whose brother became a recording engineer himself), Nix attended high school along with Steve Cropper and (the late) Duck Dunn — who years later were to become ½ of Booker T & the MG’s. After a stint in the US Army, he returned to Memphis to become a saxophonist in the Mar-Keys (along with Cropper and Dunn).
Their 1961 (largely) instrumental hit Last Night featured the band’s brass section prominently, and the band went on the road to capitalize on it. Yet success was elusive, and Nix left to become a session musician for Stax Records. (The Mar-Keys eventually morphed into the Booker T & the MG’s house band at Stax, before they eventually also became stars in their own right).
In the mid-60’s, he became friends with Leon Russell, who secured him a spot in Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars, backing such bands as Gary Lewis & the Playboys. Russell also recommended him as a record producer, which enabled him to oversee recording sessions by bluesmen Freddie King, Charlie Musselwhite and Albert King. He also got more into songwriting, with some bands recording them.
In 1970, he signed as a recording artist by Leon Russell and released two albums In God We Trust as well as Living by the Days a year later. Neither sold well, although he did become popular with other musicians. His 1973 album Hoboes, Heroes and Street Corner has two songs (Black Cat Moan and Sweet, Sweet Surrender) that Jeff Beck recorded with his band Beck, Bogert & Appice in December 1972. Throughout the 1970’s, Nix became an in-demand producer — helping to organize George Harrison’s 1971 Concert for Bangladesh — yet largely left the music business in the 1980’s.
He relocated to Nashville in the 1990’s and began working again as a producer. In this century he began recording again, with musicians such as Brian May (of Queen) and his old bandmate Steve Cropper on a 2002 album. His final album was from 2008, Passing Through.
In 2019, Don Nix admitted to an interviewer that he had sadly been undergoing a loss of vision , saying, "I just bought me an 82-inch TV, and if I sit about five feet in front of it I can almost make out what's going on, but I can't drive or read or use the internet. But I don't care because I've seen it all, already."
In 1997 he published his memoirs Road Stories & Recipes as well as a follow-up in 2015, Memphis Man: Living High, Laying Low and had a 2019 exhibit of his many photographs (of famous musicians) at the Stax Records Museum in Memphis (which is an excellent place to visit). As noted, he died on New Year’s Eve at the age of 83. He was elected to the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2023, where he was inducted by Peter Frampton.
Besides the songs performed by others, it is the breadth of those whom he has produced that may be his greatest claim-to-fame. Besides those already noted, it includes: Delaney & Bonnie, Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers, Eric Clapton, John Mayall and Lonnie Mack, for starters.
A young Don Nix ….
… and years later
His most famous song (written in the late 1960’s) became a rock & roll standard. Going Down was first recorded by the band Moloch in 1969. Among those covering it (either on record or live) are Deep Purple, Freddie King, Bryan Ferry, Pearl Jam, Stevie Ray Vaughn, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Sammy Hagar and the Rolling Stones — and is also the title of a fifteen-minute career documentary.
My favorite version: by the Jeff Beck Group, from 1972 — not the earlier lineup (with Rod Stewart and Ron Wood), but instead with vocalist Bob Tench, veteran piano sideman Max Middleton and drummer Cozy Powell.