Springsteen Pt. 5 - Born In The USA
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Category: Dr. J's Blog
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Published: Wednesday, 10 May 2017 08:04
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Written by Gary Johnson
During the year-long River Tour, Bruce Springsteen had become very interested in America's history; a subject that he said bored him in school. He read several acclaimed books on the topic that seemed to hold some of the essential pieces to a question he was posing in some of his songs; what does it mean to be an American?
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Rick Nelson Pt. 4: "The Crash"
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Category: Dr. J's Blog
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Published: Sunday, 23 April 2017 06:48
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Written by Gary Johnson
In 1976 Rick Nelson’s new manager, Greg McDonald, landed him a new recording contract with Epic Records. He also learned from the Nelson family’s longtime representatives that Rick was in financial trouble. McDonald discovered that Rick’s music career with the Stone Canyon Band had actually lost money over the years and he was nearly broke.
Despite not earning, Rick’s family had an extravagant lifestyle: enjoying expensive vacations, buying sports cars, extensive renovations to homes, and reckless spending by both Rick and Kris. Neither had much financial sense, purchases were always paid for by business managers. Rick didn’t even write a check until he was in his 40’s.
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Rick Nelson Pt. 3: "Stone Canyon Days"
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Category: Dr. J's Blog
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Published: Thursday, 20 April 2017 13:06
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Written by Gary Johnson
It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when the genre known as country rock began. During rock and roll’s first decade, recordings by country artists including Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, and Marty Robbins, to name just a few, were regularly found on Billboard’s Hot 100. That seemed to change somewhat after the British Invasion, but the Beatles had recorded a number of country covers including Carl Perkins’ “Honey Don’t” and Buck Owens’ “Act Naturally”, as well as original compositions like “I’ll Cry Instead”, and “I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party” as early as 1964. In 1966, the Rolling Stones included their first country song, “High and Dry”, on the Aftermath album. That same year, Bob Dylan recorded almost the entire Blonde on Blonde album in Nashville, using some of country music’s top studio musicians.
Rick Nelson’s two country music albums, Bright Lights and Country Music from 1966 and Country Fever from 1967 would seem to have put him at the cutting edge, but that was not the case. Rick was no longer part of the music mainstream, and neither of the albums charted. His only glimpse of success from his country music experiment was his cover of Doug Kershaw’s “Louisiana Man”. The single reached # 76 on Billboard’s Country Music Chart, but the credit for being one of the originators of country rock would, for the most part, go to others.
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