Max A Million Max A Million |
1-4-2014 07:20 AM |
RIP PHIL EVERLY
http://www.brianmay.com/brian/brianssb/brianssbjan14a.html#04
*Sat 04 Jan 14**
RIP PHIL EVERLY
Direct link
So Sad
Phil and Don - around 1958 ?
Somehow, although it might seem corny to use this song title, I can't get it out of my mind tonight. It's about 3 am, the time when normally I'm awake writing or E-mailing, or restoring photographs, or just keeping the fingers in trim on my old acoustic guitar. It's the oddest thing, and so sad. Only last night at about this time I was strumming the old Everly Brothers hit of that name, and in my head I could still hear every note played by every instrument on the track, and sing every nuance of the two parts that Don and Phil Everly sang all those years ago. When we're young, we soak up up the things we love like a sponge, and the music of the Everlies, which thrilled me to the core when I was a boy, will be in my head til I die. Kerry Ellis and I agreed a couple of weeks ago that So Sad was going to be one of the new songs in our set, when we resume the Candlelight concerts in February. So I was working on some arrangement ideas, but keeping very close to the essence of the original - I'm a purist when it comes to things like that. Even the way the Everlies performed the song in their reunion days didn't feel right to me. I wanted the wonderful unblushing naive bite of the way it was done on that 7-inch piece of black vinyl in a blue and white lined sleeve, probably in one take, and certainly with no overdubs, auto tune, or edits. So I was singing the parts one at a time, planning to record some ideas.
And tonight, about 3 am, I hear that Phil is gone. I feel like a huge piece of my youth just melted away. I loved, loved those guys, and still do. From the Everly Brothers I learned to play rhythm guitar (a lot of people don't have that experience these days), and I learned every note of both parts they sang - normally Phil taking the top part and Don the lower. From this I learned how two-part harmonies work - how different emotions are evoked using different sequences of intervals, how to find the moments that chill your spine, and avoid the 'easy' too-sweet harmonies that would make it sound trite. I know for sure that The Beatles learned a lot from the Everlies too - they too had a powerful innate understanding of how these things could be made to work (I knew it the first time I heard 'Love Me Do' on the radio - and compare the wonderful diverging harmonies of Please Please Me with the Everlies' Cathy's Clown).
I could probably write a book on the music of the fabulous Everly Brothers, but you'll find echoes of their influence in a lot of our old Queen songs, and perhaps that is the best tribute. But if you're curious and want a real trip through a glittering canon of quintessential 1950s-60s era gold-plated Pop, right now, find the Everly Brothers hits some place, imagine the last 50 years never happened, and give yourself a treat. Bye Bye Love, Wake Up Little Susie, Dream (ouch!), Crying in the Rain, I Wonder If I Care As Much, Always It's You, Til I Kissed You … I'm sure they are all there on-line. I'm not looking at any lists … all this stuff lives in my head as one of my most treasured memories. It's pure joy.
I never met them. Wish I had. But they will always be my heroes. I don't think they will know who I am, but my heartfelt condolences to Phil's wife, his family and friends, and of course to Don. I can't imagine how that must be. So hard, So sad.
RIP Phil Everly … you were magic. I have tears in my eyes.
Bri
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j vel Phil Everly ............ 74 |
1-4-2014 07:34 AM |
http://entertainment.time.com/2014/01/03/phil-everly-half-of-pioneer-rock-duo-dies-at-74/?xid=rss-topstories
(LOS ANGELES) — Phil Everly, who with his brother Don formed an influential harmony duo that touched the hearts and sparked the imaginations of rock ‘n’ roll singers for decades, including the Beatles and Bob Dylan, died Friday. He was 74.
Everly died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at a Burbank hospital, said his son Jason Everly.
Phil and Don Everly helped draw the blueprint of rock ‘n’ roll in the late 1950s and 1960s with a high harmony that captured the yearning and angst of a nation of teenage baby boomers looking for a way to express themselves beyond the simple platitudes of the pop music of the day.
The Beatles, early in their career, once referred to themselves as “the English Everly Brothers.” And Bob Dylan once said, “We owe these guys everything. They started it all.”
The Everlys’ hit records included the then-titilating “Wake Up Little Susie” and the universally identifiable “Bye Bye Love,” each featuring their twined voices with lyrics that mirrored the fatalism of country music and a rocking backbeat that more upbeat pop. These sounds and ideas would be warped by their devotees into a new kind of music that would ricochet around the world.
In all, their career spanned five decades, although they performed separately from 1973 to 1983. In their heyday between 1957 and 1962, they had 19 top 40 hits.
The two broke up amid quarrelling in 1973 after 16 years of hits, then reunited in 1983, “sealing it with a hug,” Phil Everly said.
Although their number of hit records declined in the late 1980s, they made successful concert tours in this country and Europe.
They were inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, the same year they had a hit pop-country record, “Born Yesterday.”
Don Everly was born in 1937 in Brownie, Ky., to Ike and Margaret Everly, who were folk and country music singers. Phil Everly was born to the couple on Jan. 19, 1939, in Chicago where the Everlys moved to from Brownie when Ike grew tired of working in the coal mines.
The brothers began singing country music in 1945 on their family’s radio show in Shenandoah, Iowa.
Their career breakthrough came when they moved to Nashville in the mid-1950s and signed a recording contract with New York-based Cadence Records.
Their breakup came dramatically during a concert at Knott’s Berry Farm in California. Phil Everly threw his guitar down and walked off, prompting Don Everly to tell the crowd, “The Everly Brothers died 10 years ago.”
During their breakup, they pursued solo singing careers with little fanfare. Phil also appeared in the Clint Eastwood movie “Every Which Way but Loose.” Don made a couple of records with friends in Nashville, performed in local nightclubs and played guitar and sang background vocals on recording sessions.
Don Everly said in a 1986 Associated Press interview that the two were successful because “we never followed trends. We did what we liked and followed our instincts. Rock ‘n’ roll did survive, and we were right about that. Country did survive, and we were right about that. You can mix the two but people said we couldn’t.”
In 1988, the brothers began hosting an annual homecoming benefit concert in Central City, Ky., to raise money for the area.
Read more: Phil Everly, Half of Pioneer Rock Duo, Dies at 74 | TIME.com http://entertainment.time.com/2014/01/03/phil-everly-half-of-pioneer-rock-duo-dies-at-74/#ixzz2pRLWD7Jq
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