Approximately The One Millionth Blog/Article Dedicated to the Late, Great B.B.King His Top Songs (Finished 5/16/2015)

Hello,

Rest in Peace Riley B. King- you will be missed!

Mr. King (featuring Robert Cray) "Playin' With My Friends":

"Everyday I Have The Blues":

Justifiably so, this song is considered his best song, "The Thrill Is Gone":

"Hummingbird":

"You Upset Me Baby":



"How Blue Can You Get":

"I Like To Live The Love":



"Sweet Sixteen":

"Paying The Cost To Be The Boss":

U2 and B.B. King "When Love Comes To Town":

B.B. King and Friends in concert:

The setlist:

1) "Intro"
2) "Why I Sing the Blues" (featuring Phil Collins, Albert King, Etta James, Billy Ocean, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Gladys Knight and rest of the friends.)
3) "Please Send Me Someone to Love" (featuring Gladys Knight)
4) "The Thrill Is Gone" (featuring Eric Clapton and Phil Collins)
5) "I'd Rather Go Blind" (featuring Etta James and Dr. John)
6) "When Something Is Wrong With My Baby" (featuring Billy Ocean)
7) "The Sky Is Crying" (featuring Stevie Ray Vaughn)
8) "Something's Got a Hold on Me" (featuring Etta James)
9) "In the Midnight Hour" (featuring Billy Ocean, )
10) "Ain't Nobody's Business" (featuring Gladys Knight, Chaka Kahn and Etta James)
11) "Let the Good Times Roll" (featuring all friends)
12) "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" (featuring all friends)
13) Jam (fades to end)

Line up :

B.B. King
Eric Clapton
Phil Collinns
Gladys Knight
Albert King
Steve Ray Vaughan
Etta James
Paul Butterfield
Dr. John
Chaka Kahn
Billy Ocean

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Best of the Continually Awesome C's, Part 2: CCR, CSN, Cinderella, Johnny Cash and Others

Hello,

With apologies to Cage The Elephant, The Church, Alice Cooper (although I'll see him in concert in a few months), Clutch, Children of Bodom, Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus, Coheed and Cambria, Cypress Hill, Cringe, Roseanne Cash, Jimmy Cliff, George Clinton, Canned Heat and Corrosion of Conformity. Some of those people have good songs, but I'm just not feeling it in this blog. Miley Cyrus had some good songs on a previous CD, but her latest vibe is pure skank. I'm not interested in giving her more attention for that.

It looks like from the songs that I've collected so far I'll eventually have 3 or 4 C blogs. I call these my alphabet blogs. Although previously I said I wouldn't, it looks like I'll be writing a third B blog. Also I'll be writing a second A blog and maybe a third A blog.

Many of these artists could have several songs as their best song, for Kelly Clarkson, Cinderella, Phil Collins and Johnny Cash I decided not even to try and confine them to one song.

Again for the most part these songs are my favorite song by that particular musician. Sometimes I picked a song that I didn't think got enough love or perhaps just another great song other than their most famous song.

One of my favorite songs of all-time, Peter Cetera's "The Glory of Love":

Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son":

C+C Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now):

Here's an example of what I was talking about above, Crowded House's most famous song is "Don't Dream It's Over". However "Something So Strong" is a perfectly great song as well:

"Rock The Casbah" is a great song. "Should I Stay Or Go" is a great song and a great question. "London Calling" is both a great song and CD. However The Clash were more than just those songs, they also were "This Is Radio Clash":

Crosby, Stills and Nash "Southern Cross":

Camper Van Beethoven's "Pictures of Matchstick Men":

Jane Child's "Don't Wanna Fall In Love":

Kelly Clarkson's "Because of You":

"Behind These Hazel Eyes":

"Breakaway":

Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me":

Phil Collins' "Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)":

And I know my go to Phil Collins song is that song, so I decided to include "In The Air Tonight":

Counting Crows' "Rain King":

Tracy Chapman's "Baby Can I Hold You":

Circa Zero's "Levitation":

I only decided tonight to add multiple songs for Cinderella. It was a rough day at work and I'm in desperate need of rock and roll therapy. Then I got home and there was some other shit going on, so my apologies.

Cinderella's "Somebody Save Me":



Cinderella's "Nobody's Fool":



"Gypsy Road":



Let's just go with a full concert, Cinderella live in Japan 1987:

Eric Church's "Springsteen":

Johnny Cash (with June Carter Cash) 1) "Jackson":

2) "A Boy Named Sue":

3) "The Man Comes Around":



4) "Folsom Prison Blues":



Mark Chesnutt's "I Just Wanted You To Know":

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Super Sad, But Still, Amazing Songs (Updated May 13th, 2015)

Hello,

I was going to write my continually awesome songs of C musicians 2, I call these my alphabet blogs. I left my notebook with all the list of all those songs at work. I've got it organized just like I want, so I'm postponing that blog for now. I've been thinking about posting a blog about some of the greatest sad songs of all-time. I even started started working on that list and Youtube suggested many other great songs. While working on this blog I'll be cheering on the Clippers to thump the lame Rockets again. I'll try to find some sad music to fit tonight's Rocket demise. Sadly the Rockets were able to delay the inevitable and now will be even more humiliated more on Thursday. Go Clippers!

These aren't the sad sort of heartbreak songs, these are very sad songs about some terrible things and people. Bad parents, people who made decisions and paying the emotional cost and songs that are just sad.

The death of the Rockets season isn't as sad as this song, actually the Rockets losing brings a lot of joy. Fake superstar Dwight Howard fails again. Terry Jacks' "Seasons In The Sun":

John Michael Montgomery's "The Little Girl":

Mary Chapin Carpenter's "This Shirt":

One of the saddest songs of all-time, it's a song that will be high on my personal top 100. I'll be counting down my personal Top 100 starting around Memorial Day weekend. Of course more than just one of these songs will be in my Top 100. Dolly Parton's "Me and Little Andy":

I knew that Youtube would make good recommendations for great songs for this blog, this is one of those. This is Harry Chapin's "Cats In The Cradle":

Don McLean's "American Pie":

Miranda Lambert's "The House That Made Me":

Miranda Lambert "Over You":

The Band Perry's "If I Die Young":

Martina McBride's "Concrete Angel":

Yes, I noticed this was mostly 70's songs and country music. I tried to think of songs from other genres that would be appropriate. Thus Blink-182's "Adam's Song":

Elton John's "Sad Songs (Say So Much)":

Elton John's tribute to Marilyn Monroe, "Candle In The Wind":

The sad but hopeful Michael Jackson song "Man In The Mirror":

USA for Africa "We Are The World":



This is a heartbreak song, but it's more than a heartbreak song. It's also a wistful look at the past. Green Day's "Whatsername":



Sufjan Stevens "Casimir Pulaski Day":



Gordon Lightfoot "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald":



One of the sadder days in American history, the death of four innocent students at Kent State. Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth":



Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction":



Kermit The Frog's "The Rainbow Connection":

Sad, nostalgic and bittersweet all in one song, The Kinks' "Come Dancing":

Hopefully I'll be writing the second C alphabet blog tomorrow night.

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Best of the Continually Awesome C's: Part 1: The Cars, The Cure, Neneh Cherry, Commodores + Others

Hello,

With apologies to Cage The Elephant, The Church, Alice Cooper (although I'll be seeing him in concert in few months), Clutch, Children of Bodom, Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus, Coheed and Cambria, Cypress Hill, Cringe, Roseanne Cash, Jimmy Cliff, George Clinton, Canned Heat and Corrosion of Conformity. Some of those people have good songs, but I'm just not feeling in this blog. Miley Cyrus had some good songs on a previous CD, but her latest vibe is pure skank. I'm not interested in giving her more space for that.

It looks like from what I've collected so far I'll eventually have 3 or 4 of the C blogs. Although I said I wouldn't, it looks like I'll be writing a third B's blog. Also I'll be writing a second A's blog and maybe a third blog.

My favorite Cracker song isn't "Low", but "Shake Some Action":

Belinda Carlisle, she'll be back when I work on the letter G for The Go-Go's. But my favorite song of her solo career is "Heaven Is A Place On Earth":

The Civil Wars' "Barton Hollow":

Christopher Cross' "Arthur's Theme (The Best You Can Do)":

One of the best beginnings of any song ever is in the first 55 seconds of this song: The Cure's "Just Like Heaven":

Patsy Cline's "Back In Baby's Arms":

I had to go with a different song for Michael Crawford other than "Phantom of the Opera" as I already mentioned that for letter B in his duet with Sarah Brightman. However I'm going to go with another "Phantom" song in "Music Of The Night": 

Cornershop's "Brimful of Asha":

Cursive's "The Sun and Moon":

The Cars' "Tonight She Comes":

Neneh Cherry's "Kisses On The Wind":

Cranberries' "Ridiculous Thoughts":

Commodores "Still":

Candlebox's "Far Behind":

John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band's "On The Dark Side":

Brandi Carlile's "The Story":

Obviously the Commodores, The Cars andChicago could have several songs as their best song. For those 3 bands I just picked one of their better songs. For Chicago I picked 3 of about 20 songs that could be their "best" song. "Feelin' Stronger Every Day":



"25 Or 6 To 4":



"Along Comes A Woman":

themusicaddict

The Best of the Bodacious B's, the Best Song of Artists Whose Name Starts With B (Part 2) Shirley Bassey, Black Box and Others

Hello,

This is part 2 of this blog, the previous B blog has 17 artists, this blog has 17 artists. No, I won't be making a part 3. However musicians whose name starts with M may break into three blogs. Solo artists or bands that start with M: Madonna (probably the greatest 80's and on female artist), two amazing rock bands in Metallica and Motley Crue, other great rock bands over the years like Meat Loaf, Eddie Money, My Chemical Romance and Mumford & Sons. Probably the greatest reggae artist ever in Bob Marley, also Paul McCartney, another great 80's and on artist in George Michael and the former Smiths singer Morrissey and 90's rock firebrand Alanis Morrissette. That doesn't even include Mighty Mighty Bosstones, John Mellencamp, Muse, Montgomery Gentry and Midnight Oil.

The Black Eyed Peas' "Rock That Body":

James has many great songs, but let's be honest "You're Beautiful" was over played. I can't go with that song. James Blunt's "Give Me Some Love":

Shirley Bassey's "Big Spender" (this is a great live version, but it's only about half of the video):

James Brown's "Living In America":

Sarah Brightman's (featuring Michael Crawford) "Phantom of the Opera":

George Benson's "Give Me The Night" (this song runs on about 45 seconds too long):

Band of Skulls "I Know What I Am":

How many times do you think Jimmy Buffet has sung "Margaritaville"?:

Lindsey Buckingham's "Go Insane":

Clint Black's "Where Are You Now":

Breeders "Cannonball":

Laura Branigan's "Gloria":

Bowling For Soup's "1985":

Luke Bryan's "I Don't Want This Night To End":

Anita Baker's "Giving You The Best I Got":

Black Box's "Ride On Time":

Billy and The Beaters "If At This Moment":

themusicaddict

The Best of the Bodacious B's, the Best Song of Artists Whose Name Starts With B (Part 1): Boston, Beastie Boys, Beach Boys and Others (Updated May 8th, 2015)

Hello,

Best songs by some of the best artists whose name starts with B.

My favorite band growing up and somehow I forget when I originally posted this blog. Blondie's "Heart of Glass":

Pat Benatar "We Live For Love":

Blink-182 "What's My Age Again":

"All The Small Things":

Boston "Foreplay/ Long Time":

David Bowie "Suffragette City":

Belle Stars "Iko Iko" (Remix):

Beastie Boys "Inergalactic":

I couldn't decide which one of these songs is my favorite Beach Boys song, but I found a video containing both songs "Wouldn't It Be Nice" & "Good Vibrations" (Live from Live Aid in Philadelphia, 1985"):

Bananarama "Cruel Summer":

Bee Gees "Stayin' Alive":

Bee Gees "Tragedy":

Berlin "Take My Breath Away":

Black Stone Cherry "Stay":

The Band Perry "Done":

Big and Rich "Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy)":

Big Audio Dynamite "The Globe":

Boom Crash Opera "Onion Skin":

Bobby Brown "Every Little Step":

Some of the the below bands I've never been a big fan of, only one hit or no hit wonders and or got way too much love over the years. I do have one hit wonders above, but that one hit still strikes a chord with me now. With apologies to Alicia Bridges, Bow Wow Wow, Beck, Baltimora (we'll always have "Tarzan Boy"), Bronski Beat, Basia, Boomtown Rats, Black Sabbath, The Beatles, Bang Tango, Bon Jovi, Bush, Blur, Black Keys, Laura Branigan, Sebastian Bach, Barenaked Ladies, Bloc Party, The B-52s and Michael Bolton (okay maybe not an apology to him).

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Review of Molly Guptill Manning's "When Books Went To War" (Updated and Completed May 17th, 2015

Hello,

My review of Molly Guptill Mannings's "When Books Went To War: The Stories That Helped Us Win World War 2" will be at the end of this blog. First I want to share some of the details I discovered while I read this book. But so far I've loved this book, it's so amazing how much books helped in the World War 2 victory. Thanks to all of those that did all that hard work to make the lives of those engaged in the war effort just a bit easier and more enjoyable.

Note: I've paraphrased and directly quoted a lot from Manning's book- blame all mistakes on me.

I'd like to thank NetGalley.com and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for granting me early access to read this book. Sadly I didn't take full advantage of that so I would like to thank Davis County (Utah) Library System for having this book available to check out.

On May 10th, 1933 German students made their way to the Bebelplatz. Over 80,000 people were gathered to behold a sure to be spectacular sight. From "When Books Went To War: The Stories That Helped Us Win World War 2": In the center of the Bebelplatz, a massive pyre of crossed logs, twelve feet long and five feet high, awaited. As the first revelers arrived, they threw their torches onto this particular structure. Blue flames shot skyward. It was a breathtaking sight. Soon the skeleton of logs erupted into a glowing mass of fire."

The number of books burned is unknown, but safe to say it was probably in the thousands. Books by authors such as Freud, Emil Ludwig (who wrote books about Napoleon and Bismarck) and Erich Maria Remarque ("All Quiet On The Western Front") were burned for such things as 'high treason against Germany" and "denigrating the German language and the nation's ideals".

Some sobering stats from this book:

- "By 1938, the Nazis had banned eighteen categories of books, 4,175 titles and the complete works of 565 authors, many of whom were Jewish."

- Hitler created the Einsaztstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR). "In Eastern Europe the ERR burned a staggering 375 archives, 402 museums, 531 institutes and 957 libraries".

- "It is estimated that the Nazis destroyed half of all books in Czechoslovakia and Poland, and fifty-five million tomes in Russia."

- "Nazis had banned and burned more than 100 million books and caused fearful citizens to hide or destroy many more."

Indeed while America was doing what it could to collect book for soldiers the Nazi's were in a book burning mode. There's a monument in Berlin's Bebelplatz that commemorates the Nazi book burnings of 1933. From Manning's book: "Set into the plaza's cobblestones is a glass plate covering a subterranean room lined with empty bookshelves." I love the symbolism of that.

"When Books Went To War" starts out with a excerpt from a soldier's letter to author Betsy Smith about how her book "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" has helped deal with the bad things of World War 2. That was likely one of the 120 million free books given out to soldiers and then passed from hand to hand, even as the books got more and more battered.

We learn a lot about how much effort the USA put into getting ready for WW2, including drafting people before building the structures they used for military training. These books were called Armed Service Editions (ASE). Explained how the books were made, their influence and how much joy they brought to GIs shivering in their foxholes. One of my favorite lines in the book: Americans "marched toward victory in Europe in 1945, they were carrying tens of thousands of copies of titles that were forbidden in the lands they walked on."

Details about the American Library Association's goal to collect 10 million books via the National Defense Book Campaign (NDBC) in 1942. Some of the important names in this whole process included Althea Warren. She was the first person hired to run this campaign, but she could only take 4 months from her job. So she gave her all in the 4 months she had. Following the Pearl Harbor attacks, the campaign was renamed the Victory Book Campaign. Warren was replaced by close friend John Connor. In April, 1942 book donations had reached 6.6 million volumes. Another key name is Marie Loizeaux, who served as the publicity director for this campaign.

But it wasn't enough so President Roosevelt made a VBC declaration. The efforts of common people and celebrities made a noticeable impact. Almost 9 million volumes had been collected by the end of April, 1942. Books were great as they were relatively cheap, small, portable and helped soldiers while away a lot of hours of boredom.

"Within one month of the ninth anniversary of the Berlin book burning, another million books were collected by the VBC." Despite pressure the VBC didn't back down and allow excessive censorship of these books. Many people noted the irony of that.

The book later mentions how later Armed Services Editions (ASE) helped soldiers who were preparing to land on Normandy Beach on June 6th, 1944. Books were created to be easy on soldiers eyes in poor lighting and obviously stressful conditions. In fact when "The Great Gatsby" was first released it was considered a flop. "But when this book was printed as an ASE in October, 1945, it won the hearts of an army of men. Their praise reverberated back home, and "The Great Gatsby" was rescued from obscurity and since has become an American literary classic."

Also later Overseas Editions were used to bring back books to where Nazism had briefly ruled. These books and programs also helped lead to the GI Bill, that helped hundreds of thousands of veterans get free educations.

This book is a very solid look into the Armed Service Editions and similar programs of World War 2. The book was just about the perfect length, there was already a bit too much repetition. I loved how Manning reminded us of WW2 history as she wrote about the ASEs and how the two worked together. I would definitely recommend this book to lovers of history and fans of reading worldwide. The power of the written word was powerful back then and still serves as a powerful force today. Thanks to Molly Guptil Manning for sharing this fascinating history.

themusicaddict