Monthly Archives: November 2016

Super Star! (new Blog for Dec 12/16)

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Leon_Russell_1973-1

Sadly, one of my favorite artists Leon Russell (pictured) passed away recently. Leon if you don’t know played piano on almost every hit that came out of LA during the 60’s and 70’s. Some of the artists he recorded with included Jan & Dean, the Beach Boys, the Byrds, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Bob Dylan, Joe Cocker, Bobby Darin, and even Frank Sinatra. I would have given anything to have been there when he and the Chairman first met. (pictured above) He was a huge part of Phil Spector’s “wall of sound” and played on all the Ronettes, the Crystals, and Ike & Turner records. Cher who was just a kid singing backup on some Phil Spector sessions claims that Leon was very quiet and never said a word to anybody. Nobody really cared about his lack of communication because he was so good on the piano that they just wanted him to play on their sessions. The story goes however that he showed up for a session one day drunk and for the first time ever was just jibber jabbing to everyone. Phil Spector who was trying to cut a record finally shouted at him “Leon, do you have any idea what the word respect means” Leon stopped talking immediately and proceeded to climb up on the piano where he shouted back at him, “Phil do you know what the words fuck off mean.” His surprising outburst caused all the musicians to start howling with laughter so the rest of the session was up for grabs.
 
MORE STUFF…
 
I find that liberals are kinda easier to get all worked up than are conservatives.
 
Speaking of Liberals it is a well know fact that Conservatives and Liberals will listen and/ or watch right wing stuff but only Liberals will tolerate left wing banter. Are you listening Colbert or are you OK with being in last place?
 
Falling in love will be the best and worst thing that will ever happen to you.
 
Love doesn’t need to be perfect it just needs to be true love.
 
There’s an old adage that claims that if you treat a lady like a whore and a whore like a lady you’ll do well with women. Figuring out which is which may be the hardest part.
 
After visiting the DMV or the Post Office how would you vote on increasing their benefits?
 
What we know is true but don’t understand why becomes the most puzzling of all.
 
Have you ever noticed that people who have a financial interest in something are the last to realize that part of it is evil?
 
I truly believe that Trump ran for president just to see if he could and now is going … What the hell have I done?
 
My Father never told me what kind of a man he was, he showed me every day.
 
The reason there are so many malpractice suits is because most Doctors didn’t graduate anywhere near the top of their class.
 
You’re usually very good at doing things you love to do.
 
Geeks should resist new stuff until they have all our computers running as well as cars.
 
He who controls the language controls the budget. We don’t Bing or Yahoo things we Google them.
 
The radio stations that actually have people listening to them rather than just hearing them make all the money.
 
The weaker your signal the stronger your programming needs to be.
 
You can do it if you can dream it but dreaming it is the hard part.
 
Thomas Jefferson claimed that peace was only that glorious moment when people were reloading.
 
You start losing all your rights the moment you enter the building you work in.
 
You are measured by how much more you did after you did what you were expected to do.
 
There are two types of people in the world, those who make promises and those who keep them.
 
Buffalo’s Mark Levy claimed that the reason Hitler didn’t win the war was because he couldn’t win on the road.
 
What day is it that there is no mattress sale going on.
 
Yogi Berra claimed that he never said all the things that he said. I know the feeling Yogi.
 
When I first got into radio I disliked weekends because that’s when I got to do normal things. Why would I want to do that?
 
I understand that even the very liberal Hollywood types turn into fascists once their bottom line is threatened.
 
It should be as hard to get welfare as it is getting a paycheck.

When the pro athlete’s ladies switched to Range Rovers I figure that pretty well did the Escalades in.

I thought Matt Moore the back up QB for the Dolphins looked a little silly wearing black stuff under his eyes in the rain.

For sneak peeks at new Blogs go to GeorgeJohns.com and on Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

That’s Life! (new blog for December 5/16)

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Jimmy-Bowen-1When Frank Sinatra hired Jimmy Bowen (pictured) to head up his new label called Reprise they quickly booked a studio to do their first session. Jimmy back in the day had a few medium sized hits of his own and also had been the bass player on Buddy Knox’s million seller “Party Doll” so he knew what a hit sounded like. Frank, as usual, brought in the Nelson Riddle orchestra for the session but when they were done Jimmy asked Frank if he would mind doing it again with his band. The folks who hung out with Sinatra were shocked because they knew from experience that he seldom did any retakes let alone a whole album. Jimmy was on his honeymoon at Reprise so frank agreed to do the session again with folks like Leon Russell on piano, Glen Campbell on guitar, and Hal Blain on drums. I would have given anything to have seen the meeting between Frank and Leon Russell as they prepared to record “Strangers In The Night.” Frank wisely chose the session using Jimmy’s band for the album which became his biggest seller. He never recorded with Nelson Riddle again and Jimmy went on to produce a newcomer by the name of Garth Brooks.
 
A FEW OTHER THINGS I WAS THINKING ABOUT…
 
No matter the economy we always have enough money for war don’t we.
 
As John Houston once said, “all an air talent needs on air is sincerity and if they can fake that then they should head to Hollywood and stop messing around with radio. Hollywood pays a lot more.”
 
Why do radio people when they are writing about their radio station on Facebook assume we know what city it’s located in?
 
Has any Republican ever smoked weed?
 
Being thankful without saying it ain’t no use to anyone. When I was growing up I remember my folks believing every word the government said, but I sure don’t.
 
Why does free WiFi always seems to be down?
 
Things really aren’t usually black or white they’re mostly gray.
 
I know a lot about radio and very little about much else but like most folks I have opinions about everything.
 
Hey radio did you ever notice that when a show on Broadway is unsuccessful they close it down.
 
How come you hear about very few ISIS attacks on Israel. I guess they know what would happen.
 
Speaking of Israel, why don’t we just let them do what their enemies want to do to them, they don’t need our protection or are we actually protecting everyone else from them? 
 
Sometimes silence speaks louder than words.
 
Unfortunately, you don’t get to choose what laws you’ll obey.
 
Everything that happens is not good but there is some good in everything that happens.
 
No one is more sensitive than I am but it must not be the sensitivity women are looking for otherwise I’d have a bunch of them.
 
Being stereotyped as being racist ’cause I’m white tends to make me racist.
 
I don’t handle being ignored as well as I should but then who does.
 
Few people realize that Bernie also won the popular vote which gave him the same results as Hillary ended up with.
 
Nobody ever said, “excuse me” as they hurtled towards success.
 
The only advice that people are willing to listen to is advice about stuff they already agree with.
 
Balancing the budget is easy if you don’t have the power to do so.
 
Good memories are the greatest gift one could ever receive.
 
If you are unable to change things it may be time to change yourself.
 
I wonder how long it will take ’05 to mean 2005 instead of 1905?
 
Creativity is usually used to create a reason to do something you really want to do or an excuse when you don’t want to.
 
The desire for money is so strong that it can even change the rules of religion. What say you about that Mr. Pope?
 

The best and worst thing that will ever happen to you is falling in love but the joy that it even happened far outweighs the sadness of its ending.

 

For a peek at a few Blogs under construction go to GeorgeJohns.com. On Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio.

 

In Flanders Fields – Bruce Walker (The Jury)

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poppies

During the Great War, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrea, a Canadian from Guelph Ontario was at the gravesite of his good friend Alex Hemer to pay his last respects when he noticed that the only thing growing amongst all the crosses were poppies. As he sadly gazed around at the final resting place of his friend and the rest of the fallen soldiers buried there, he was inspired to write his immortal poem “In Flanders Fields.”
My old bandmate from The Jury, Bruce Walker (shown below) after enduring the butchering of Mr. McCrea’s poem at a Remembrance Day service recently, decided upon returning home to plug in his guitar and give the famous poem a melody. Bruce dedicates his version of “In Flanders Fields” to all the fallen soldiers from all wars.
Beautiful and haunting work Bruce and know this, the rest of the “The Jury” were there with you in spirit as you recorded it. geo

 

 

Hallelujah ! (new Blog for Nov 28/16)

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Bathsheba-1

With the recent passing of Leonard Cohen I was reminded that he actually wrote one of my favorite songs which is called “Hallelujah.” The song is about King David who even though he was one of God’s favorites and was even strong enough to defeat Goliath he was no match for Bathsheba. One evening while gazing out upon his domain from the roof of his palace there in the moonlight he noticed Bathsheba bathing on the roof of the next building. Unable to resist her charms he rushed over to join her. lord knows what happened next except to say that soon thereafter this almost perfect man in thought and deed sent her husband to the front lines where he perished in battle. David then took Bathsheba as his wife in battle which probably produced the wisest king of all, Soloman.
My point in all of this is that no matter how strong, powerful, nor how connected a man may be, there’s probably a beautiful woman out there somewhere thinking that it may be time to bring him to his knees. Just ask Sampson! (hear Leonard’s story as told in song by clicking on the link below)

JUST A FEW MORE THINGS BEFORE I GO…

Nothing’s changed at all, it’s still like Socrates said, “it’s what’s above the bottom line that causes the bottom line.”

The more I know now the more I now realise how little I really know.
 
Unfortunately you will do many more things out of anger than you’ll do out of love.
 
Trying to get even may end up throwing your whole life out of ballance.
 
No sense learing something new if you ain’t using what you already know.
 
Should we really trust all the rich guys in congress to decide what they should tax rich people?
 
You’re usually pretty good at doing the things that you love to do.
 
You are measured by how much more you did after completing what you were expected to do.
 
There is no such thing as a quiet drunk.
 
There are two types of people, those who make promises and those who keep them.
 
When things get real bad the only thing you can count on is that they could get a lot worse.
 
I’ve been a grandfather now for almost 12 years and both of my daughters are still wondering when I’m gonna start acting like it.
 
One of the scariest things you’ll ever hear is “we need to talk right now!”
 
When in doubt of the authenticity of a legendary story always go with the legend.
 
Swapping “U” for “I” usually results in increased ratings.
 
Speaking of ratings, they consist of the listening habits of mostly passive people whereas radio is programmed and sold by “alpha” types. I wonder how that’s working out for everybody?
 
Seeing as most comedians are left handed maybe I should give up on this radio thing and just tell jokes.
 
The more you desire the more thou shall reap.
 
The more people you like will result in more people liking you.
 
You are who you talk and hang out with.
 
In the 60’s a fully loaded car cost less than 1/3 your yearly salary but now a stripped down one costs more than you make.
 
You need to start dreaming today what you want tomorrow to look like.
 
If voting really changed anything I’m sure it would be illegal.
 
It should be as difficult to get a welfare check as it is a paycheck.
 
What channel is news without an agenda on?
 
It’s senseless to try and solve problems of situations you don’t control.
 
Being afraid to make a mistake is the biggest mistake of all. 
 
For a peek at some upcoming Blogs go to GeorgeJohns.com. On Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio.