Legacy Recordings

WISH WILLIE A HAPPY 75th BIRTHDAY!  (part 2) **

Today’s True Outlaw Stories come from Willie’s longtime drummer Paul English.

For many years, he was the guy who collected money from the shady club managers after shows.   As you might expect, it’s not the easist job in the world, but Paul always knew creative ways to get what was due them.   Expect to hear about forklifts, phone booths and briefcases full of cash.

Recommended: Willie Nelson: One Hell of a Ride

Producer: Joyride Media

** Legend has it Willie’s actual physical birthday is 4/29/33, even though his birth certificate and drivers license says 4/30/33.  That gives us two days to celebrate one of our country’s great music legends.

 

 Standard Podcast [3:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This segment covers The Clash’s Combat Rock , and their first US pop hit, “Rock The Casbah.” The band hits some bumpy road with the members just being “burned out” as Joe Strummer explains. Their final album comes about not without hardship, with the release of Topper Headon and then Mick Jones shortly after.

Recommended: Clash Live: Revolution Rock

Producer: Joyride Media

 

 Standard Podcast [5:51m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The new 2-CD Tapestry “Legacy Edition”  includes a bonus disc of the album’s 12 tracks performed live by King as just solo vocal and piano arrangements. Our third episode starts with clips of “It’s Too Late” and “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” from this release. Between the music, King comments on her career performing this repertoire. She also discusses how her songs and on-stage confidence developed from her early Troubadour gigs to headlining major venues after Tapestry became a big hit. Journalist David Wild also comments on the successful intimacy of her recent “Living Room” tours.

Recommended: Tapestry (Legacy Edition)

Producer: Joyride Media

 

 Standard Podcast [8:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

WISH WILLIE A HAPPY 75th BIRTHDAY!  **

We now bring you more of Willie Nelson’s regular cast of characters, led by tour manager Poodie Locke.

Harmonica player Mickey Raphael is spot on when he says, “Poodie was our first roadie…now he’s bigger than life… everybody know Poodie more than any of us. ”

Mickey also talks about lighting director Bud Rock, who lucked out of being aboard “the plane” while touring with Lynyrd Skynyrd, and legendary character Ben Dorsey, who once worked as John Wayne’s valet.

Rhapsody playlist:
Bubbles in My Beer, Seven Spanish Angels, When I’ve Sung My Last Hillbilly Song, Still is Still Moving to Me

Recommended: Willie Nelson: One Hell of a Ride

Producer: Joyride Media

Willie Nelson’s road manager, Poodie Locke - Austin, TX, March 2008.

Photo: John Rosenfelder.

** Legend has it Willie’s actual physical birthday is 4/29/33, even though his birth certificate and drivers license says 4/30/33.  That gives us two days to celebrate one of our country’s great music legends.

 

 Standard Podcast [3:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Willie Nelson’s True Outlaw Stories continue by introducing you to Willie’s longtime drummer, Paul English, as immortalized in Willie’s classic song, “Me and Paul.” When Paul joined the band in 1966, he also became the guy who handled the money after the shows.

Willie’s road manager, Poodie Locke and harmonica player Mickey Raphael discuss Paul’s role as the boss/judge on tour, and the guns he carried to help him deal with the shady club owners.

Paul is also very grateful of the opportunities Willie gave him. When asked what he would be doing if not on tour with Willie, Paul says his answer is always, “Time…I’d be doing time. I would have killed something somewhere.”

Featured songs on Rhapsody:
“The Harder they Come,” “Me and Paul,” “Nite Life,” “If You’ve Got the Money I Got the Time.”

Recomended: Willie Nelson: One Hell of a Ride

Producer: Joyride Media

Producer Paul Chuffo (holding microphone) interviews Paul English (right) in Austin, TX, March 2008. English’s brother, Bill is on the couch to the left.

Photo: John Rosenfelder.

 

 Standard Podcast [3:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Willie Nelson Podcast series now shifts from the MY OWN PECULIAR WAY biography pieces to TRUE OUTLAW STORIES.

Willie Nelson and and his longitme band members, road crew and friends bring us aboard Willie’s “Time-Tube” to give us all a unique look at life on tour with Willie Nelson. Host Rodney Crowell introduces the unique characters from Willie’s “band of gypsies” as go down the highway.

In this first piece, Willie reveals, “my whole family is about half-gypsy.” Despite the many traveling musicians in his family, his grandma had different ideas about how far from home Willie should go to play gigs. Thankfully, he convinced her otherwise, and 40-years later, he’s still on the road.

Featured songs: “On the Road Again”, “Texas in My Soul”, “My Own Peculiar Way”

Recomended: Willie Nelson: One Hell of a Ride

Producer: Joyride Media

 

 Standard Podcast [3:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this segment, members of The Clash discuss how London Calling was recorded. Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine / Audioslave / The Nightwatchman) explains what he took from The Clash, and how they were an inspiration to him as far as combining political ideals with music. Also explored is the making and release of The Clash’s triple album, Sandinista!

Recommended: Clash Live: Revolution Rock

Producer: Joyride Media

 

 Standard Podcast [8:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Graham Nash lived near Carole King in LA’s Laurel Canyon area, a fertile ground for many artists of the late 1960s and early 1970s. In our second episode of the Tapestry series, Nash describes some of the common inspirations of that scene and how King applied those ideas to her own music. It was there that King met Danny Kortchmar and the other musicians in their band, The City, who would eventually back Carole King and James Taylor during the sessions for both Tapestry and Taylor’s Sweet Baby James.

As King was developing her new songs for “Tapestry,” album producer Lou Adler and journalist David Wild contrast aspects of the recording that were either collaborative or from Carole King’s own soul. Music includes clips of “It’s Too Late” (#1 for five weeks), “Home Again” and the album’s title track.

Recommended: Tapestry (Legacy Edition)

Producer: Joyride Media

 

 Standard Podcast [7:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In the early/mid 1970s, Willie Nelson knew he was “on to something” in Austin, TX, but still had to deal with the Nashville music biz when making records. If RCA, his label at the time, wanted to add strings to make Willie’s records sound more commercial, there was nothing he could to stop them. His only recourse was to let his contract expire and move on to another label that would give him full artistic control.

After a brief, two-album stint at Atlantic Records, Willie Nelson finally got what he wanted when he moved to CBS Records with his 1975 album, Red Headed Stranger. It wasn’t what they thought would be commercial, but it ended up being Willie’s first #1 album. The more Willie did things his own way, the more records he sold, and struck gold again a few years later with jazz standards on the LP Stardust.

[Editors Note: The irony is not lost on the Legacy Podcasters here at Sony BMG Music, the current home of both the RCA and CBS labels. We’re sure Willie notices, too.]

Recomended: Willie Nelson: One Hell of a Ride

Producer: Joyride Media

 

 Standard Podcast [7:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Carole King’s Tapestry is one of pop music’s all-time landmark albums. Soon after it’s 1971 release, it spent 15 weeks at #1 on Billboard’s pop album chart, and then stayed on that chart for six full years. Our three part podcast series goes behind the making of this classic, and how Carole King developed from a songwriter for other artists to one of the premiere singer/songwriters of her time.

In our first episode, Carole King remembers her first musical experiences in high-school as part of the honor-students-on-the-street-corner group “The Cosines.” She also recalls her early days writing songs for other artists at New York’s Brill Building. She and then-husband Gerry Goffin scored their first hit as writers in 1961 when The Shirelles recorded “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow. Journalist David Wild comments on how that song progressed from it’s girl-group era innocence to the more mature, piano/vocal arrangement King recorded for Tapestry a decade later after she divorced Gerry Goffin.

Producer Lou Adler also details how she wrote Aretha Franklin’s hit “Natural Woman,” another song she revised on Tapestry. Singer/songwriter Graham Nash, also discusses the honesty of King’s music, and how her songwriting was influenced by her own personal struggles.

Recommended: Tapestry (Legacy Edition)

Producer: Joyride Media

 

 Standard Podcast [8:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download