you asked:


I mean, what made someone originally think of it or what brought about this idea in peoples’ heads??

Cynthia

Peter Cross asked:


Thomas Edison made the first recording of a human voice on December 6, 1877, but he did not record a singer. The first great singer to be recorded was Enrico Caruso, and he made over 250 sound recordings. There may have been singers prior to Caruso who were even better virtuosos but we have no way of knowing that because sound recording is the definitive judge of a singer’s ability. In recording studios, it has often been said that “tape don’t lie”. Even the best recording engineers cannot make a good singer sound like a great singer. Skipping briefly through the jazz era, a few great singers who deserve honorable mention are Billy Holiday, Al Jolson, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby and Tony Bennett. The concept of what constitutes a great singer is subjective, but the key qualities a great singer must possess are range, timing, phrasing, pitch, timbre, emotional impact and originality of style.

Elvis Presley was the first great rock and roll singer. His first hit record in 1954 entitled That’s All Right was a blues song written by Arthur Crudup and it proved that Elvis had a unique quality in his voice. Songs like Jailhouse Rock and All Shook Up demonstrated that Elvis was the epitome of rock and roll, and songs like Are You Lonesome Tonight and Can’t Help Falling in Love showed the world that Elvis could put the emotion of love into a vocal track with intense male sexuality. With one of his last blazing bursts of energy in 1972, Elvis proved that he was still a hunk-a hunk-a Burning Love during his twilight years. Elvis can be credited for breaking down the racial barrier that existed for black singers within the record companies in the 1950’s. Little Richard said, “He was an integrator. Elvis was a blessing. They wouldn’t let black music through. He opened the door for black music.” Elvis opened many doors. He let Pandora out of her box and girls all over the country began to scream at the very sight of Elvis. Much has been written about the King of Rock and Roll and his impact on our culture, but the focus of this article is on a unique vocal quality that has not received attention. Elvis pioneered many instantly memorable vocal mannerisms that shall hereinafter be collectively referred to as the rock and roll vocal schtick. It is possible that Elvis picked up his vocal schtick from Otis Blackwell, the songwriter who wrote many of Elvis’ early hit records, because Otis sang his original songs on the demos that Elvis listened to and Otis originated much of the phrasing that Elvis recorded. But much water has passed under the bridge since those days and we may never know whether the Memphis chicken’s schtick preceded the Otis egg.

The word “schtick” is derived from a Yiddish word and it refers to various bits of business that cause an entertainer to be instantly memorable. Prior to Elvis introducing the concept into rock and roll, it was very common in the movie business for actors to achieve fame by virtue of their schtick. Jack Benny became notorious for being stingy and a bad violin player even though in real life, he tipped lavishly and he was an expert violin player. Groucho Marx had his stooped strutting, his lascivious eyebrow raising, and his cigar. Elvis had his gyrating hips and his out of control, shaking leg, but he also put a new kind of mannerism into his singing. On All Shook Up, he turned “Mm mm mm, oh oh oh, yeah yeah yeah!” into a memorable chorus, predating the Beatles famous yeah yeah yeah’s by about 10 years. Predating Elvis by four years, Fats Domino had already developed his signature vocal style by the time he hit the R & B charts in 1950 with The Fat Man which sold over a million copies. One year after Elvis opened the door with That’s All Right, Fats crossed over into the mainstream with Ain’t That a Shame in 1955, and soon millions of people found their threeee-ill on Blueberry heeee-ill. That there is rock and roll vocal schtick in a nutshell, and countless singers picked right up on the groove.

In the 1950’s, original vocal styles literally oozed out of the radio every day. Tony Williams, the lead singer for The Platters, was a truly great singer who had it all - range, timing, phrasing, pitch, timbre, emotional impact and originality of style. As a professionally trained singer, Tony was able to express the emotional essence of previously recorded songs like Smoke Gets in Your Eyes with professional style and grace, but he also influenced the new rock and roll vocal style. In the number one selling hit record, Only You, Tony could have sung the words “Only you can make this change in me” using straightforward and traditional phrasing, but instead he sung “cand-a make this change in me” and threw in a bit of schtick. Marty Robbins and Ben E. King were also two seminal rock and roll singers who embodied all the qualities that define a great singer. There were many other outstanding singers during the 1950’s but the most sublime singer of them all was Smokey Robinson. In addition to every other quality previously discussed, Smokey sang complex blues melismas as if God told him the secret and said “Smokey, you will make everybody think this is easy.” Nobody can sing like Smokey Robinson, nobody can duplicate his vocals, and when Linda Ronstadt recorded her version of Ooh Baby Baby, she had to white out his melismas because she had too much sense to even try to duplicate him. Buddy Holly, among his many achievements, may be credited for introducing the hiccup into rock and roll vocals (fantastic schtick). But the award for Most Outrageous Rock and Roll Schtick of All Time goes to Little Richard for “a wop-bop-a-loo-mop alop-bam-boom” and his earth shaking, high pitched woo’s that Paul McCartney duplicated with enormous commercial success. Other great primal rock and roll singers of the 1950’s who deserve Most Honorable Mention include Roy Orbison, Brenda Lee, Del Shannon, Jimmy Jones, Frankie Valli, and the list goes on and on.

The great singers of rock and roll peaked during the 1960’s and 1970’s with John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin. Robert Plant’s 12 year career with Led Zeppelin began with the band’s formation in 1968 and continued until John Bonham’s death in 1980. That fatal day may have been the turning point in the history of great rock and roll singers because even though some very good singers achieved fame and success after 1980, none are in the same exalted league with the Great Ones. Discussing each of the great singers could generate an entire article for each one of them, but suffice it to say that history has already passed judgment on them and declared their venerable status. In terms of the key vocal qualities defined in the first paragraph of this page, Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin must also receive honorable mention. But in terms of the sheer number of hit records and brilliant vocals that incorporate all the qualities of a world class singer, Paul McCartney is arguably the best rock and roll singer of all time. It’s always nice to end a treatise with a provocative pronouncement like that one, and then to immediately disappear into oblivion before anyone can throw a tomato.



Tom

Rozie 13 asked:


I remember reading in a book that there was a core group of girls who slept outside Paul McCartney’s London house back in the 60’s, and every now and then he’d toss them stuff or play a song for them - they were almost like an honor guard of obsessed fans. Any information?

Randall

Silveral asked:


Who do you admire? Why does the world take notice of them and not us? Do they have a common way to become a winner in their field? If so then what is the secret formula?

Purpose

Winning celebrities all have a clear vision a guiding purpose a light at the end of their tunnel that keeps them going day after day on their path. These celebrities get what they want because they know exactly what they want. They can feel and sense it, they experience it in their minds and their hearts. They can see it in their minds eye and describe it as if it were there already there. Conversely most of us think that we will be laughed at, if we talk about what we want, we become afraid of looking foolish and stupid, instead we dare not to dream! Try to take a risk today and dream of your North Star, let it guide you on your path.

Core

Celebrity Winners have another big secret. They surround themselves with winners. They find people that want them to win. They know that if you surround yourself with a core of talent then that talent can be focused. Top Celebrities find and develop a team to help them, a human ship with the celebrity at the helm. Winning celebrities acknowledge that cannot do everything themselves so they find and complement their talents with a good team to help move them on. They find team members who are successful in their own fields. Such a team may consist of , accountants, lawyers, publicist, and managers, make up artists, writers, producers and fitness/life coaches.

Aims for Life

Just like a business has a business plan, winning celebrities have a clear plan that they follow. They know what to do and when to do it with uncanny timing. However, they do this because it is in their plan. They are implementing this plan day after day. It may not be as formulaic at a timeline or a map but their own life plans works just as well for them. It shows the steps they have to take on life’s journey to get them to their destination. Such a plan may be drawn up with the team supporting the celebrity. Each plan starts out small with baby steps. This ensures early success. As the celebrity becomes accustomed to their map and the steps, then more momentum is built up. This plan is nearly always written down. You often see these winners carrying a diary or a some sort or a flow chart that shows them were they are on their journey in life. I am not suggesting that you create a business plan for your life but rather create a written strategy that keeps you on your path and prevents you taking detours. With such a plan in place it is a case of following the plan and taking one planed step at a time.

Priorities and Goals

With a plan in place winning celebrities often organize themselves with hierarchical things to do. They are the type of people that get organized and have a sense of what has to be done first. They have a knack of knowing what is important and what is fluff. If a higher priority is being ignored they can drop everything a allocate their resources to priority one. Priority two, three and four are put to one side for later attention. If they find they are distracted with meaningless unimportant work they will stop what they are doing and get back to their top priority and get back to the plan and work on that priority and nothing else. Sometimes an even higher priority takes over e.g. your child gets sick at school, or you are suddenly involved in some sort of emergency on the highway. These things happen and winning celebrities deal with them quickly and efficiently. They then get back to their highest priority on their plan.

Reality

Winning Celebrities do not have room in their lives for denial, fitful fancies or fiction. They often deal with life like a child, in the moment, dealing with life as it comes day to day. Rather than setting themselves up for a fall by deluding themselves with impossible dreams they rely on what is do-able, and ignore what in not. When criticized as we all are they do not become defensible rather they absorb the input and feedback and treat it not as an attack on them but as away to improve. At the same time they are able to distinguish what feedback is useful and what is trash. Winning Celebrities know what they can do and what they cannot do because they remain truthful to themselves. No kidding and accepting impossible challenges. They just do their thing to the best of their ability. Their attitude is if I know the problems, then I can plan to deal with them.

Flexibility

Celebrities who consistently win sometimes take what I call missteps. Not mistakes but missteps. Just like a marathon runner who takes a wrong turn, winning celebrities acknowledge the error and self correct to get back on track. They do not waste time saying that they are a failure and get all upset about the misstep. Instead they get on with fixing the mistake, or misstep. These winning celebrities like the marathon runner who takes a misstep and goes the wrong way, they just let it go and carry on, getting back on track in the right direction. One step at a time. If they their path is blocked then like a marathathon runner who has come up against a hole in the ground, then they find a new path around the problem and carry on.

Zeal

Winning celebrities who play to win always have a deep passion about what they are doing. Once focused they become excited about what they are doing. They get energized and eager to get on with taking the steps of their chosen path. To them it is the pursuit of the chosen goal that excites them. It does not become a job or another day at work it becomes their very existence. They are having fun. They can’t wait to get to work the next day for this is who they are, this is what they are, and this is them. They love what they do and do what they love. They have a purpose, a passion a dream that they are living one step at a time day by day.

Chance

Celebrities are consistent winners who are willing to take risks. Do not misunderstand, this does not mean that they are foolhardy and reckless. This means that they take calculated risks. They go out of their comfort zone in order to succeed at new challenges. They take the plunge into the unknown. They leave behind the safe world of mundane existence and venture forth as pioneers in their field. They are they explores of life trying out new things. They find new ways to do what has been done before. They realize that people become legacy bound. “It’s they way we have always operated our business” someone might say. A winning celebrity will answer. Can we do this any other way? Can we do the opposite? Can we change? They go against the crowd mentality, for that is where no one has been before. Warren Buffet made his fortune by daring to invest his money when others were fleeing the markets, he bought when prices were low. He knew prices would come back someday and he was rewarded for the risk he took. Likewise J.K. Rowling dared to write seven books about a child wizard, not one book like others would have done but seven books. The result was that Book publishers fought over this unknown authoress who scribbled in a cafe. Who could have thought that a totally unknown stranger could write a play script for a violent film and then make and star in it himself. Sylvester Stalone did just that when he wrote the script for Rocky. All of these celebrities have dared to take risks others would shy away from, they stepped out of the comfort zone and became winners as a result.

Achievement

Winning Celebrities always take action. Because these people are not afraid of risk and because they have a do-able plan they are certain of their path. How many of us procrastinate and talk of what could be done. Winning celebrities get on because they do not procrastinate, they are just working their plan and prioritizing. Just like the Nike slogan, they “Just do it”. The action that they take is not one off. Instead it is consistent and relentless, day in day out. They remain focused even if their initial actions fail to get results. This is because they know that in society rewards are not given up lightly. The winning celebrities mantra is if one action does the job great, but if it takes ten actions then fair enough. How many of us believe in the once in a lifetime action to fix all our woes. The Beatles did not write hit song after hit song as many people believe, instead between the band members, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Star and George Harrison they wrote and recorded almost 365 songs. Not 20-30 top ten hits as most people believe. The Beatles new they would be successful if they just kept on schedule.

In fact Paul McCartney kept a daily journal; in which he would write down what he was going to do that day. This was on top of all the other stuff like concerts and sound recordings. The work ethic was relentless, the rest is history.

Self Ruling

Winning celebrities know that the most important resource they have is themselves. Winning celebrities actively manage their physical, emotional, and mental well-being as they know how important such things are. They keep their life in balance, not becoming workaholics. They keep themselves from burnout as much as they can. The ones who do not are the ones who fall by the wayside and become another has been. Although I’ve said they all have an important passion that drives them on they also know how to keep this life passion in check. Winning celebrities will not languish in a job that is dead end, or stay in a sick and draining relationship. They take care of number one first, because it is they who are the one who gets the results they desire. They only get such results if they are complete in health both mentally and physically, not high on drugs or alcohol because they worked themselves into the ground. How many sixty year olds can run around a stage like Mick Jagger if they are not fit?

Conclusions

All of these qualities sound too much to some then tough. If you are one of those people who just gives up then I’m sorry you just will not amount to much in life. You are driftwood a loss going with the flow. If this sounds uncomfortable then that is great because you have just taken the first step and acknowledged your anger and realized you can be better. The great thing is that we all can have these winning strategies if we take the time to understand hoe to apply them to our own life. We to can become winners within our own field of expertise. Celebrities are just like you and me they do not have a monopoly on life skills nor do you. The very same skills can be found all around us. Try looking at school teachers, doctors, community workers and the countless others that do their thing. Following their chosen paths. One day they to will be great! Maybe you already do some of the things outlined above, then great.



Edwin

Jay Nault asked:


Paul McCartney tickets, in one form or another, have been available for decades. McCartney’s life is one of the most interesting in the music world, and his music is revered. Even now, as he nears his mid-60’s, McCartney still draws a huge crowd wherever he plays, which is why the music world is once again abuzz in his regard, as he’s hitting the stage once again. A look at his life will help to explain how he became such an icon.

Early Life

James Paul McCartney was born in Liverpool, England on June 18, 1942. His lifestyle was anything but extravagant as a child, as his mother was a midwife and his father made even less money working at a cotton company. However, McCartney did get to experience the “other side” of life, as his mother’s jobs allowed the family to live in the homes where she worked. This exposure would have a lasting effect on McCartney’s view of life.

McCartney was an intelligent child, as he was one of the few children who passed an entrance exam that allowed him to enroll at the highly-respected Liverpool Institute, where he would meet someone who would play a large role in his life - George Harrison, who rode the bus to school with him and lived one block away from McCartney at the time.

McCartney was also exposed to music early, as a long line of relatives were musical by nature. His father was a trumpet and piano player who had his own jazz band. His grandfather played in a brass band, and these interests led Paul’s father to bring Paul to several concerts of different genres as a child.

McCartney encountered struggle and tragedy early in life, however, as his mother passed way from ****** cancer when Paul was only 14, and it hit him hard. He decided to throw himself into music on an even deeper level, and he wanted to learn the guitar. He traded his trumpet that his father had given him for a guitar, and he still owns his first guitar today.

Musical Career

As Paul entered his teen-aged years, he began to play local music competitions, which is where he met someone named John Lennon. McCartney and Lennon instantly found common musical ground, and they began to play in a series of small bands. This led to the ultimate formation of some band called the Beatles, and all they were was the hottest-selling rock and roll band of all-time.

After an historic ten-year run with the Beatles, Paul decided to venture out on his own. Given his fame, Paul McCartney tickets were instantly in demand, and his first solo album, McCartney, was released within weeks of the Beatles’ split. McCartney eventually settled in with a new band, which he called Wings, and his future wife Linda was the keyboard player. Wings was a smashing success as well, producing 15 albums over the next ten years and selling millions of records worldwide.

In 1980, Paul decided to work as a solo artist exclusively after another run of ten years with Wings. He has released dozens of albums, and his singing and songwriting skills have never waned.

Personal Life

McCartney’s personal life was filled with happiness and tragedy. He was married to Linda for 30 years, and it was a happy time in his life. However, ****** cancer once again reared its ugly head into Paul’s life, as it claimed Linda as a victim in 1998.

Paul later married model Heather Mills in 2002, and they had a child together. Once again, though, tragedy struck as the two separated and moved towards a divorce in 2006. The divorce proceedings got nasty early, and the ultimate solution will leave a lasting emotional scar on both parties.

Overall, McCartney’s accomplishments and talents could fill its own entire series of books. He remains a social crusader for many causes, and he is still active on the music scene. Paul McCartney tickets are a chance to see not only a musical, but a cultural and historical icon.



Karl

Mark Kirby asked:


If you’re like most people, you probably think that you need a mind-expanding experience like you need a hole in the head. There are others – artists, intrepid explorers of the mind – who would say the opposite, that you need a hole in the head in order to have drug-free, altered states of consciousness and to experience the clarity and exhilaration of perception that one did as a child.

The act of boring a hole in the skull for such purposes is called trepanation. This subject is thoroughly explored in the documentary film A Hole In The Head, directed by Eli Kabillio and conceived and produced by Cevin Soling, leader of the post everything rock band The Love Kills Theory. Inspired by an offhand comment and following a trail of rumors, Mr. Soling discovered a group of people, trepanauts if you will, who practice this form of surgery that had been prevalent in ancient civilizations found in Africa, South America and the Far East. This surgery is thought to increase blood flow to the brain thus making it function the way it does before the skull completely forms and hardens with age.

In this film we hear comments from those who have had trepanation by choice – and one who had it by accident – and swear by its benefits, as well as those in the scientific community who think it is a bogus and dangerous practice used by wackos who are just after the next high. It is a fascinating film that does what documentaries are meant to do: bore through the flesh and bone of a topic and explore its nooks and crannies in the pursuit of truth.

http://www.holeintheheadmovie.com

http://www.myspace.com/trepanation

http://www.youtube.com/trepanned

[Mark Kirby] Why did you produce this movie?

[Cevin Soling] I had read an interview with Paul McCartney in Musician magazine where he talked about having dinner with John Lennon, who suggested that they both get trepanned. Lennon was always on the look out for all sorts of ways to “expand consciousness” and exorcize demons while McCartney, who was also curious, tended to be more skeptical, as he was in this instance. Generally, interviewers always asked the same questions to the Beatles, and hence, gotten the same answers, so this reference to trepanation was fascinating for being an aberration in addition to its content.

The subject reappeared for me when I saw Donna Kossy’s book, Kooks, where she seemed to indicate that while the practice is extremely unconventional, there might actually be some benefit from it. That was the part that intrigued me since I am not interested in pathology or freak shows, but am fascinated by intellectual potential. After doing further research, I learned that skulls have been found all over the world with holes cut into them dating back as far as 10,000 years, and that these holes were made while the people were alive and most lived many years with a hole. There are theories as to why it was done, but it still persists as an anthropological riddle in the situations where it wasn’t done in response to head trauma. In addition, there weren’t any conclusive studies on the effects of trepanation on brain function and I wanted to see if there was a correlation and if, perhaps, this might have been a reason for prehistoric trepanation.

Spoiler alert: in this film you will see a lot of skulls with holes. Some are damn big, too. And there will be blood, so this film is not for those who are particularly squeamish. But the filmmaking style is so academic and unassuming, while still being entertaining, that you feel like you’re watching a BBC documentary and not some reality T.V. show. One never gets the sense that there is a filmmaker smirking at or mocking the people interviewed. This should be normal in a documentary but with FOX news, CNN and the advocacy style of Michael Moore (“Fahrenheit 911,” “Sicko”) lowering or raising the bar, depending on one’s point of view, this fairness stands out, and refreshingly so.

[Mark Kirby] Tell me about the director, Eli Kabillio. How did he become involved in your project?

[Cevin Soling] Eli was a friend of a friend who I hired to do the camera, lighting and sound. I had the idea, and tracked down all the people and set up and conducted all of the interviews and did all the research. Once we completed filming, I had no idea what you were supposed to do next because I had no film background at that time. Eli was so intrigued by the project that he ran with it without any expectations for payment and oversaw the editing, including tracking down stock footage. Eli got the director credit even though the project was mine because of the post production work he did where he gave the movie its form. He also is responsible for getting it sold to Discovery, so I am very appreciative for that, too.

After that project, Eli and I became partners and friends. I don’t think I have ever met anyone with his work ethic. He hardly ever sleeps. We worked together on a few more projects and then focused on our own things independently. In addition to the many films he directed and produced, he handled all the company business and has a family. Recently, we amicably went our separate ways and I formed Spectacle Films.

[Mark Kirby] How does this film project relate to your philosophical interests, especially Situationism?

[Cevin Soling] I think the goal of philosophy, or any intellectual discipline, is to improve the human condition. I see the Situationist movement as an attempt to raise awareness so people can improve the quality of their lives and trepanation is also an earnest attempt to find a way to improve one’s state.

[Mark Kirby] The people who have had the surgery in the movie are such characters. How did you find them?

[Cevin Soling] Those people were the pioneers. They were the first to study the practice and perform the procedure on themselves. Their names were easy to find since their efforts have been documented, it just took a bit of detective work to track them all down and persistence to get them to agree to talk on camera after they had been treated so unfairly by the press.

[Mark Kirby] The people who were interviewed seem sane and intelligent. How were they off-camera?

[Cevin Soling] Without exception, they were all incredibly friendly, generous, and enthusiastic about their lives in general. They are sane, intelligent, and warmhearted people. Some were initially guarded about discussing trepanation due to brutal press they had received in the past, and I was proud to present their positions without bias.

[Mark Kirby] How would a person who wants to find a doctor or hospital who is willing to do – or knows about – this procedure?

[Cevin Soling] Generally, they can’t and that is a big issue for the people who advocate this procedure. There was a doctor in Mexico who performed this on demand, but his practice got shut down as a result.

[Mark Kirby] Do you feel that the skepticism toward trepanation is rooted in actual science or is it part of our culture’s mistrust and disdain for consciousness raising and exploration?

[Cevin Soling] That is an excellent question. I think it is both. First, the science isn’t there because it hasn’t been something most researchers have had the inclination to study. This does not mean that science won’t someday prove (or disprove) the efficacy of the procedure. In fact, one of the people who had the procedure done has been spearheading research with a prominent Russian physician that has been yielding some promising results. Even if that research leads to an article published in JAMA, I don’t think there would be a response to make the practice available.

There are several reasons for this: one is due to what Thomas Kuhn described as the need for a paradigm shift with regards to scientific revolutions, and the other is that doctors are only trained to repair something that is not functioning properly. The notion of performing a procedure that provides enhancement is typically seen as taboo. Whether that harkens back to a response to **** medical experimentation or fear over opening a can of worms with regards to biological eugenics, there are certainly reasons for concern.

The argument levied against that by the trepanned is that the procedure is a corrective restoration of consciousness to the time before the sutures on our skull sealed around the age of eighteen. In general, though, consciousness is not seen to fall within the domain of the medical profession beyond whether you are conscious or unconscious. For politicians, the only socially acceptable way to alter ones consciousness is through religion.

[Mark Kirby] The subjects in the film and the filmmakers themselves specifically request that you don’t try this at home. It could be dangerous and is probably not covered by health insurance. Does it work? Check out the film and hear what the people who have done it have to say and judge for yourself. And remember this: medical science, at various times over the years has stated with complete assuredness the following concepts: black people have smaller skulls and brains than people of European descent, Puerto Ricans are a mongrel race with degenerate genes, women are emotionally unstable and depressed because they lack a penis, and insanity is caused by demons. Okay, that last one might be true.

A Hole In The head is now available on DVD, visit http://www.holeintheheadmovie.com



Joan