S.F. Sorrow
	Artist: The Pretty Things

S.F. Sorrow was released the same week as The Beatles' White Album, The Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet and The Kinks' The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. Pretty hard to get attention with that kind of competition. Nevertheless, it definitely stands up there with those classics. It was recorded at Abbey Road and is one of the first rock operas (although Pete Townsend claims that it had no influence on him whatsoever). Hope your week got started on the right foot!

About 15 years before he passed away in 1982, I got to spend some time with Texas blues original Lightnin' Hopkins. He was playing dates in the Village and I was seeing him a lot and I asked him if he would come out and play my school, Stony Brook, which he did. He had had a tremendous influence on the most important American artists of the time, from Jimi Hendrix to the Dead. (He was a little too rootsy for the British blues afficianados but was a fave of Roky Erickson's band, the Thirteenth Floor Elevators.) I can't remember which album "What's the Matter Now? originally came from; I got it off Anthology: Mojo Hand Rhino released in 1993.

By the time Nuremberg-born Johann Pachelbel died in 1706 at the age of 52, he had cemented his place as one of the most important composers of the Baroque era, mostly for his work developing the chorale prelude and fugue. The only composition he wrote that is still a "hit" today is the Canon in D, a piece of chamber music he scored for 3 violins and a basso continuo (normally an organ and cello). It may blow your mind to know that Pachelbel's chord progression from this piece was ripped off by a wide array of popular arists of late, including the Pet Shop Boys and the Village People ("Go West"), Oasis ("Don't Look Back in Anger"), Coolio ("C U When U Get There"), and Happa-tai ("Yatta"). See if you can recognize any of them in this performance by the London Chamber Orchestra:

Last year I stumbled around the not-dangerous-anymore Meatpacking District just north of the Village in Manhattan looking for my friend David's studio. I met a really smart young girl from Russia when I got there. She was funny and she had a really good voice. Now that her record has been released, I've come to realize she is also an amazing songwriter. Her name is Regina Spektor and this song, "On the Radio," isn't on the radio-- but should be.

 Here's Woods homepage...

He's considered one of the finest Parker influenced Alto players ever. He even married Charlie's ex-wife. I had the privilege to see him in the Village in the 80's and he did not disappoint. There's nothing like seeing the last set on a week day--with a small audience that's really into it with a true master. He burned down the house..Phil played the famous sax solo on Billy Joel's " Just the Way You Are."

The master blues-man. I went to see him in the Village for my birthday back in the 80's and what a treat that was. He has such a unique sound that any affectionado can tell you it's Stanley after two notes...He played with the legendary Jimmy Smith on a ton of records...

Sugar is a classic tune.