The baseball lockout continues, but Lonnie’s Jukebox is open for business and spinning records by a special guest. Continue reading
Hot Stove #184 – Octogenarian Update – Carole King is 80 Today
Rock And Roll
R & B High School (Pem-Day)
Two weeks ago, the New Yorker ran an excellent article about Pembroke-Country Day School, an all-boys private school in Kansas City (later to be merged into a coed school now known as Pembroke Hill). The author, 1973 Pem-Day graduate David Owen, tells the story of how primarily white senior classes from the 1960s booked rhythm and blues acts to play at their proms. Owen also adds context related to race and segregation in music and schools in those times. Click here for the article, but you may hit a paywall.
Hot Stove #170 – The Everly Brothers
Don Everly died last Saturday at the age of 84. His brother Phil died in 2014 at the age of 74. Continue reading
Gregorian Chants in Hot Stove – Daily Theme Songs for KC’s Stay-At-Home Order (2020)
On March 24, 2020, Kansas City became subject to a Stay-At-Home order issued by Mayor Quinton Lucas. The order was in force until May 15, 2020.
Each morning of the order, Kansas City Star sportswriter Vahe Gregorian tweeted a theme song to start the day. Continue reading
Hot Stove #130 – Little Richard – The Architect of Rock ‘n’ Roll
This is Day 56 of our self-quarantine and Day 49 of KC’s Stay-At-Home order (currently set to end this coming Friday on May 15).
As of last Friday, I was working on some Royals nostalgia for this Hot Stove edition. On Saturday morning, Joe Downs gave me the news that Little Richard had died. So I made a pivot. Continue reading
Hot Stove #75 – Bill Shapiro and Cyprus Avenue – 40 Years of Rock ‘n’ Roll
My thanks to those Hot Stove readers who got through my three (long) installments on baseball collusion. Despite the best efforts of my editor/wife Rita, I still often drift to posts that fit the dreaded TLDR designation. I had not heard of that term until last week when Hollis Hanover filled me in. It is internet shorthand for “Too Long. Didn’t Read.”
So I’m going to make a change. This long post will be about rock ‘n’ roll.
Hot Stove #58 – Fats Domino – RIP – Ain’t That a Shame
Great games last night on Sunday Night Football. The Steelers beat the Lions 20-15 and the Astros beat the Dodgers 13-12.
It looked like the Astros would win in regulation, leading 12-9 with little time left. But the Dodgers kicked a field goal in the ninth to force the game to overtime. The Astros won the tiebreaker in the 10th.
Hot Stove #36 – Chuck Berry and Lonnie’s Jukebox
Rita and I were in Phoenix last week to visit friends of long standing, Larry and Diana Brewer. Di has been my friend since before high school and Larry was my Sigma Nu fraternity brother at college. I introduced them and most of the time they thank me. Di and I also had lunch with fellow 1959 Van Horn grad Jan Clemens, another Arizona transplant from KC. Long ago, I danced at teen-town with Di and Jan. To Chuck Berry. When those songs were originally released. This past weekend, Chuck Berry died at the age of 90. So I just have to take a break from baseball posting and talk about Chuck. I’ll be back soon to talk about the Royals free agents and TV money in baseball.
Hot Stove #29 – Leonard Cohen – Rita’s Story
I hope you don’t mind, but I am interrupting my baseball posts to share a story about singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen who passed away earlier this month. For a good brief piece on Leonard’s career, click on the arrow at the top of this NPR report, (3:25).
Many of you on the Hot Stove mailing list were also part of Rita’s village in 2012-2013, and so you will be familiar with part of this story.
Hot Stove #15 – Prince of Baseball
Prince of Baseball: The death of the music artist Prince this past week was widely noted, including on baseball diamonds. Prince songs were played in many stadiums and several players changed their walk-up songs to honor Prince. Alex Rodriquez used a different Prince song for each of his four at-bats (0-2 and 2 walks). Over the years, Prince’s hometown team, the Twins, have welcomed new players with a ritual where the player sings excerpts from Prince’s “Little Red Corvette” (click here, 39 seconds). The song is about a one night stand with a fast woman (she being his “Little Red Corvette”) – my generation’s version was Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene” (“why can’t you be true…”). General Motors ran its own tribute ad: