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  • I was sent this link and so I listened to them all tonight.

    https://www.marineband.marines.mil/A...ucmNE3q6gcnLQ/

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    • Well folks, it has been a truly shit couple of weeks for the Australian music industry. On the weekend a veteran entertainment reporter was discussing Judith Durham and pointed out that she was one of only two people in the industry he had never heard a bad word about - the other was Olivia Newton-John. The universe has a fucked sense of humour. While I wouldn't call myself a 'fan', this is the music of my childhood. I remember going to see Grease and Xanadu as a kid. So, time for another of my musical obits. Hopefully the last for a while.

      It is fair to say ONJ (name long, BF tired) had an unusual background for anyone, let alone a pop star. Her grandfather was Nobel Prize winnng German physicist Max Born. In the late 1930s he & his family fled Nazi anti-semitism for the safety of England. There his daughter Irene met Brinley Newton-John, a german-speaking Welsh MI5 officer who worked on the Enigma project and was involved in detaining Rudolf Hess. After the war he turned to teaching, getting a post at the University of Melbourne in 1956, when ONJ was 8. Not the typical pop star start to life.

      By her mid teens she was regularly performing in talent shows & on TV. On one of these shows she met lifelong friend & musical partner Pat Carroll and John Farrar, who would go on to marry Carroll, join the famous Shadows and produce most of ONJ's hits. She won a talent competition that allowed her to move to London in her teens. After years of hard work and a false dawn as part of a failed attempt by music legend Don Kirshner to create another Monkees-style group with a movie crossover, she finally hit the charts with this version of a Bob Dylan song:



      This established ONJ's niche - 'wholesome' country/adult contemporary. It took a couple of years and a lot of success in Australia & the UK, but that style finally got her noticed in America with this Grammy winning top 10 hit:



      From there ONJ's career took off. Before finally moving to the US she competed in the 1974 Eurovision, coming 4th behind a little known Swedish quartet of whom nothing more would be heard. Once in the US she had hit after hit on the country, adult contemporary and regular charts. Her success even caused a rift within country music. Her greatest song from this period was written by fellow Australian Peter Allen (and serial hit maker Jeff Barry) in the wake of his divorce from Liza Minnelli. It was her first US number one and secured two more Grammys:



      Her next big career change came courtesy of a dinner party held by fellow US-based Australian Helen Reddy where she met Alan Carr, who was casting for the movie adaptation of Grease. While she was reluctant, he was convinced that despite being almost 30 & Australian she would be perfect for the role of Sandy. Commenting today, director Randal Kleisner said that it was her presence and her chemistry with John Travolta that turned the film from the predicted summer hit to a blockbuster with a soundtrack album that sold 28 million copies. She and Travolta remained friends.



      Her next movie was Xanadu, and while the film was a disaster, the soundtrack was another big seller. It produced her biggest US hit so far and was also where she met her future husband:



      Her next album cashed in on the raunchier image begun in Grease and produced an even bigger hit. Courtesy in part to a funny video that referenced the aerobics craze this spent 10 weeks at no.1 and was one of the bigest selling songs of the decade:



      From this remarkable high the decline was fairly rapid. While there were a few more hits, by the mid-80s ONJ had become a mother and music had moved on. She continued to record and make films occasionally, but much of her attention went into an LA boutique called Koala Blue, run with her friend Pat Carroll. In 1992 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, the disease that eventually killed her. While her music and film may be her best known legacy, her work to fund cancer treatment is her greatest. She used millions of her own money and raised millions more, setting up a cancer treatment centre in Australia.

      The outporing of sadness following today's announcement is a reminder of how loved she was here and outside Australia. A very sad day.
      sigpic

      Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C C

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      • Originally posted by tbm3fan View Post
        I was sent this link and so I listened to them all tonight.

        https://www.marineband.marines.mil/A...ucmNE3q6gcnLQ/
        If you ever find yourself in DC in summertime it is worth your while to go to the Marine Barracks Torchlight Tattoo. Amazing! When I was in high school we had season tickets in the VIP section...thanks Dad...and for someone who wanted to be a future Military Officer it was Disneyworld!
        “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
        Mark Twain

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        • Pete, I knew as soon as I logged in and saw your name under What Song Are You Listening Too it'd be a tribute to Olivia Newton John...and you did her proud.

          She exploded when I was in high school and only got better. She was an amazing talent.

          BTW her father was a British Intelligence Officer in WW 2 who worked on the Enigma Project and her mother a German Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany.

          Rest in peace, Olivia!
          “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
          Mark Twain

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          • Wasn't a country music fan so rarely heard country music in the 70's unless the song could cross over like one from Johnny Cash. So her first song that I heard was Honestly I Love You in 1974 when 20. Actually, for me it was a lot like the bubble gum music at the end of the 60's. Then, as was their habit, the AM stations overplayed the song making me go "not again!" Then Grease came along, which I wouldn't have gone to see, except for Travolta after Saturday Night Fever and before that his stint on Welcome Back Kotter. That was the last I was aware of her since my musical tastes were far removed from her style. May she rest in peace...

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            • With al lthe music deaths this last 2 weeks this thread has taken a slightly morbid turn, so I thought I'd post something I've been listening to by people who didn't die this week....before getting back to the obits (yep, there's more).

              The Tedeschi/Trucks band is a sort of musical Brady Bunch, but good. Before they married Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi were highly respected blues musicians. Trucks, the nephew of Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks, formed his own band at age 15 & spent a number of years playing guitar with the Allman Bros as well. Susan Tedeschi is not only a great guitarist, but has a wonderfully soulful voice. In 2001 the couple married, and in 2007 they joined their bands to make one BIG band.

              I saw them live a few years back and they were brilliant. Part way through teh set Tedeschi temporarily lost her voice & left the stage. The band began to jam to fill time. At some point I realized that what they were playing was a Miles Davis tune from his electric period. SO. COOL! I was LOVING it. What blues/soul band suddenly transforms itself into a 70s Miles Davis unit???

              Anyway, they recently recorded a live show where they played the entirety of Derek & the Dominoes Layla & other assorted love songs live. It is great fun. Give it a listen (I think most or all of it is available on youtube).




              sigpic

              Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C C

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              • Fifteen years after posting their first single, the girls are back.

                Girls Generation

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                • Should they still be called GIRLS? They are all over 30 . Maybe Women's Generation?

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                  • Well, they still make me a dirty old man.
                    Chimo

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                    • I'm sorry, they all sound like the Smurfs and they all look like 'Asian' Barbie! I've always had trouble taking any band regardless of nationality etc that came out of the 'Boy/Girl Band manufacturing machine seriously.
                      Last edited by Monash; 20 Aug 22,, 02:58.
                      If you are emotionally invested in 'believing' something is true you have lost the ability to tell if it is true.

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                      • Originally posted by Officer of Engineers View Post
                        Well, they still make me a dirty old man.
                        I've always preferred the term 'older man with excellent taste'.
                        If you are emotionally invested in 'believing' something is true you have lost the ability to tell if it is true.

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                        • Originally posted by Gun Grape View Post
                          Should they still be called GIRLS? They are all over 30 . Maybe Women's Generation?
                          You certainly have an interesting repertoire

                          I'm surprised you missed this one or have you. With a 13 year old son and Filipina wife I can't escape this stuff but I have to say he isn't bad. As for me I am an incredibly smart old man who married a younger Filipina dancer.

                          Last edited by tbm3fan; 20 Aug 22,, 00:59.

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                          • People loved him or hated him, with me it was just nostalgia when I came across this:
                            Tiny Tim tiptoeing through the tulips!


                            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfLU3Mv_O9w
                            When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. - Anais Nin

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                            • Originally posted by Amled View Post
                              People loved him or hated him, with me it was just nostalgia when I came across this:
                              Tiny Tim tiptoeing through the tulips!


                              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfLU3Mv_O9w
                              I remember him from his first appearance on "Laugh In' in 1968 but he didn't sing Tip Toe that first time. I also really believe Dick Martin was completely in the dark by what was happening given the look on his face

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                              • Originally posted by tbm3fan View Post

                                I remember him from his first appearance on "Laugh In' in 1968 but he didn't sing Tip Toe that first time. I also really believe Dick Martin was completely in the dark by what was happening given the look on his face
                                I remember him on Carson…a late night snow day incidence. He was…an acquired taste. Paved the way for Weird Al!
                                “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
                                Mark Twain

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