Aware that my summer holidays are here, George offered to take up some of the slack with a few Namesakes Guest Posts. This will help me reach the end of August without spending every day in front of a computer. Thank you, George.
More bletherings and bobbins from me, and this week it’s about bands called The Blue Notes, or Blue Notes. The Bloo Noates are of course excluded.
(Shame, I was a fan of their 1984 white label.)
THE BLUE NOTES #1
The obvious group first, with Harold Melvin as a member. Known as the Blue Notes from 1954 until ca. 1972. Harold has been described as starting the group, but maybe Bernard Williams disagreed with that and stormed out, forming his own group, The Original Blue Notes (see the post-script to this article). This probably dates from the late 1960s (before Harold added his name to the group title).
THE BLUE NOTES #2
Lacking Harold and Teddy, the remaining Blue Notes carried on, but that Continuity Blue Notes is not your next group. Instead, these soulful Blue Notes from the Bahamas...
THE BLUE NOTES #3
Enough soul, let’s have some jazz (said no-one, ever). South Africa now, and unlike other writers, I am not inflicting a 12 minute noodling-nonsense piece on you, just this sax-heavy sub-5 minute piece (I would struggle to call it a tune). I’m not really encouraging you to play this one, am I?
THE BLUE NOTES #4
Staying in South Africa, for a very agreeable song from these Blue Notes...
THE BLUE NOTES #5
THE BLUE NOTES #6
Some terrible soppy crooning Blue Notes now. (Can you listen to this without wanting to vomit at its hideous lyric?)
THE BLUE NOTES #7
(They definitely have today's coolest band photo.)
Fellow cat-owners: I would not advise you to get what seems to be an inflatable seat like the one Helga is sitting on, or indeed any inflatable seat.
THE BLUE NOTES #8
THE BLUE NOTES #9
(If we're talking about rules, George, I should point out the one about playing Christmas songs in July! Particularly ones that start with acapella "bells".)
(Especially when this was available instead...!)
THE BLUENOTES #10
A twangy rock and roll group are next up. And it could be argued I’m stretching the rules to allow this one, but it’s worth it...
(I refer you back to the Christmas rule. This one is fine though.)
THE BLUE NOTES #11
Vancouver (Canada), for the penultimate group, for some low-fi indie...
THE BLUE NOTES #12
Finally, some more jazz to brighten up your day (and this is not a cover that splendid ABC song*). And you can get the entire album legally for nothing!
(*No, it's a cover of the old Burt Bacharach standard.)
Some of the above songs have made it on to vol. 234 of my Downloads series.
So that’s twelve Blue Notes to tune your ears to. And twelve is now the number of our tribe with the arrival of Freckles the chicken.
(I'd love to see a chicken with freckles.)
Shoehorn-in-a-tune time: Original Blue Notes singer Bernie Williams released a belting single with his Original Blue Notes, an absolutely toptastic piece of northern soul...
Many thanks to Rol for posting this, and thanks to anyone who reads it.
And thank you to George for his excellent service as always... although I did find a couple of Blue Notes he missed / chose to ignore because they didn't fit his Maths-teachery obsession with rules...
BLUE NOTES #13
Scratchy old Virginian soul band from 1968...
LOS BLUE NOTES #14
Surprised George missed these Mexican Blue Notes from the 70s, with their snazzy blue suits.
Actually, there were loads more Blue Notes acting as backing groups for lead singers - and if it wasn't the summer holidays, I'd probably wade through them too in search of nuggets... but George has done a good enough job filtering the wheat from the chaff, I think, this week. If you want to investigate further, put "Blue Notes" into the artists section of discogs and fill your boots!
Thanks again, George.
Which blue notes are worthy of note... and which just leave you blue?
