Music

Well, it is St. Patrick’s Day and the think I hate most about the holiday is the droning of bagpipes.  To me, bagpipes are the most irritating instrument to listen to, especially when they are dragged out for police funerals…oh lordy, they make me wanna cringe! Yet it is the very nature of a droning bagpipe when applied to Jazz by Rufus Harley that makes the instrument take on a new life. Harley recorded four Joel Dorn-produced albums for Atlantic Records in the late 1960s and this tune was actually released as a single.  The four albums were collected together a few years ago onto a limited edition 2-CD set released by Rhino Handmade called “Courage: The Atlantic Recordings.” Harley had the knack for taking the limited range of the bagpipes and applying them to a new medium, making them sound like a soprano sax. Hearing him fly on material as varied as Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme,” “Chim Chim Cheree” from the film “Mary Poppins,” “Eight Miles High” by The Byrds and Henry Mancini’s classic “Moon River” are indeed sonic marvels to behold. Harley remained active on the Jazz circuit until his death in 2006 working as a sideman with Sonny Rollins and Herbie Mann, and recording with Laurie Anderson (on the album “Big Science”) and The Roots.

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Prudence was, of course, actress Mia Farrow’s sister. They were in attendance in India studying Transcendental Meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi along with The Beatles, Donovan and Mike Love of the Beach Boys. Prudence was very serious about TM and spent most of her time in her room meditating. Beatle John was concerned for her wellbeing and wrote this song inviting her to come out to play. Prudence went on to become a teacher and still practices TM to this day. The song appeared on “The Beatles” better known as “The White Album” from 1968 and features Paul McCartney on drums because a frustrated Ringo had walked out of the sessions — and the band — for a few days.

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America doesn’t have the same relationship with Polly Jean Harvey as does England. Here her albums are met with a shrug except by a fervent minority who wait on her every word. Over the pond, her latest record topped most of the critic’s lists for best album of last year. Her “Let England Shake” album was a stunner and probably the most England-centric record she’s ever made. It is indeed a potent record right up there with her best albums including “Rid Of Me,” “To Bring You My Love,” “Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea” and “White Chalk.”

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Tune in to http://zecomradio.com/ tonight at 6:PM PST as The 3D RadioActivity rings in the new year with “Bell” songs.  No dead ringers in this set of music.
If you like what you are hearing, be sure to tell your friends!  If you can’t tune in at that hour, then look for it on the new 3D Radio chronicle website with all of the old shows.  Simply go to http://www.archive.org/details/The3dRadioactivity

To keep up to date with all of the latest news, be sure to tune in to Facebook for

The 3D RadioActivity

…Uncle Marty

“It’s not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.”
…Marilyn Monroe
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Mission of Burma came up in a late 1970s Boston independent music scene that really hadn’t been developed yet and released a handful of singles. They really were ahead of their time as far as having no framework for record distribution, publicity and all of what goes with it for them to succeed. They were a four-piece band whose lead singer, Roger Miller, suffered from tinnitus and whose sound man, Martin Swope, served as a fourth band member creating tape loops on the fly from the sound board as the rest of the band performed on stage. This was all before the days of sampling. Their brand of “Dada Punk” was singularly their own and as a result they never really reached a larger audience, but remain to this day a highly influential band. This song comes from their 1982 album “Vs.” The band reunited in 2002 and continues to tour and record new albums.

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