Terry Bradshaw isn’t just a multi-Super Bowl Champion and a Hall of Fame quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Oh no, my friend, he’s also FOX television’s host for the NFL Sunday pre-game show.
But if you’re a classic country music fan, you may remember him as a successful country music artist. In 1976, Terry had a Top 20 country hit with his version of the Hank Williams classic I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.
https://youtu.be/XTwS0WiKkqU
In 1972, Moses Znaimer commissioned singer-songwriter Tommy Ambrose and ad-guru Gary Gray to create a love song about Toronto which would be used as the theme music for a new local UHF Television station called Citytv.
The result was “People City”, an ode to Toronto’s burgeoning multicultural fabric and character, championed by then Mayor David Crombie as a possible official song for the city itself.
The Toronto which “People City” forecast came to exist, but sadly the song ebbed into history. 45 years later, Moses Znaimer, Tommy Ambrose, Gary Gray and David Crombie reflect on the era, the song, and its bittersweet legacy.
People City: Toronto's Lost Anthem (2017) from Retrontario on Vimeo.
Think you’re a well-rounded music aficionado? You’ve barely scratched the surface. Whether it’s Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis or Lauryn Hill – there’s always a few musical blindspots that you’re yet to properly explore.
The 100 Albums Scratch Poster covers a wide spectrum of musical styles – everything from jazz and hip-hop to good old fashioned rock n’ roll. This carefully curated mix of seminal music moments and modern classics is certain to expand your musical horizons.
Scratch away the foil panels to show off the albums you’ve already heard, then use the remainder as your very own musical bucket list. Thanks to the wonders (or horrors, depending how you see it) of Spotify you no longer even have to buy the albums, so you can work your way through them all in no time.
Kidrobot and The Andy Warhol Foundation have teamed up to create an iconic look at an iconic game with the collectible Andy Warhol Campbell’s Soup Can Chess Set. This chess set features Andy Warhol’s iconic Campbell’s Soup Cans as chess pieces on a pop of color chess board complete with felt accents. Each vinyl 3-inch Campbells soup can is labeled and printed on top with its corresponding piece to bring a pop art look to any game room. Get this collectible and interactive art piece today.
Via NPR:
Can you believe it? Yes, those are The Roots packed behind the Tiny Desk. Black Thought, Questlove and the crew carved out a few hours in their hectic Tonight Show schedule to visit NPR headquarters in Washington D.C. Why travel four hours for a 12-minute concert when you own the late-night airwaves? The answer can be found in the lyrics to The Roots’ new song, “It Ain’t Fair.”
Armed with the incredible vocalist Bilal, The Roots performed the signature track from Detroit, a film about the race riots in 1967. “It Ain’t Fair” glares unflinchingly, takes a knee and raises a fist against the societal construct that has systematically denied equality of experience to those “presumed inferior,” to quote one of Bilal’s verses. And it achieves all this while covering its heart with its right hand. This reflective hymn tenderly yanks your heart strings and offers a window into the ethos of those who would like to stand for the flag but cannot in good principle, lest these same evils continue to exist.
Those lucky enough to be in the Tiny Desk audience witnessed masters at work. Black Thought is truly one of the most intelligent emcees ever, and his razor-sharp lyricism was on full display. Questlove, a musical and cultural historian nonpareil, was both a metronomical and moral anchor. It felt like the culmination of decades of academic rigor and boom-bap sessions, fittingly backed by a seven-piece horn section. Bilal’s falsetto-laced vocals and warm resonance evoked powerful messaging reminiscent of Curtis Mayfield’s “Don’t Worry,” delivered with the eccentricity of Prince.
Late last year, Common premiered “Letter to the Free” at the Tiny Desk and later won an Emmy for the song. It wouldn’t surprise me if “It Ain’t Fair” becomes another award-winning performance when the Oscars roll around early next year. This is a song that deserves to be heard in the millions of households that watch The Roots every night.
All photos by Mini’s Memories. You can contact her at minismemories@hotmail.com
Scrap Wood City transformed a cheap tennis racket into a fully functional 3-strong electric guitar. John McEnroe would love this!
Here’s musician Davie504 playing 25 different bass guitars from his collection to form a single, cohesive bass solo. Stick around for #24…
We are beyond excited to officially launch the LEGO Ideas 21312 Women of NASA to store shelves around the world.
The 231 element set designed by Maia Weinstock (20tauri) features 4 inspiring women of NASA as well as vignettes depicting their important contributions or areas of expertise in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The 4 women include astronomer and educator Nancy Grace Roman, computer scientist and entrepreneur Margaret Hamilton, astronaut, physicist and entrepreneur Sally Ride and astronaut, physician and engineer Mae Jemison.
You can get your copy of the 21312 Women of NASA set from the LEGO Shop today for a recommended retail price of USD 24.99 / EURO 24.99* / GBP 19.99.
Neil Young + Promise Of The Real will release their new studio album The Visitor on Friday, December 1, 2017 in stores and via all digital music retailers. The vinyl edition will follow on on January 5, 2018. The digital pre-order grants an instant grat download of the new track “Already Great.”
When Neil Young entered Shangri La Studio with the band Promise Of The Real a few months ago, there were a lot of images and feelings careening around his soul. The country was heading in a direction Young had never seen, even though up until then he thought he’d seen it all. But something different was happening, and it had gotten inside his music. “I’m a Canadian by the way and I love the USA,” he sings on the first song “Already Great.” The ethos of The Visitor can be summed up in the refrain of “Already Great” where Young insists, “Already great, you’re already great. You’re the promise land, the helping hand. No wall. No hate. No fascist USA. WHOSE STREET? OUR STREET.” From those words, Neil Young was ready to take a musical journey on his new album The Visitor like he had never taken before. It was one where he’d even surprise himself, always the mark of a creative leap. By the end of the recording sessions, he knew he’d made his most diverse album going all the way back to Harvest in 1972, when America was also in the throes of becoming unhinged. Neil Young didn’t blink then, and he is not blinking now.
Listen below for “Already Great.”
The Visitor is an intriguing and always exciting peek into the mind and heart of one of rock & roll’s true seekers. Neil Young has wandered a wide path since coming to Los Angeles from Canada over 50 years ago. During those many decades he has established an immediately apparent individualism that cannot be predicted. Young has often said that when things become ordinary, he’s ready to shake things up and head for new ground. It has always been what marks Young’s music. His new songs, whether it’s a mashup of spoken word and rock & roll on “Fly By Night” or the heart-stopping beauty of “Forever,” once again ask listeners to stay open and ready for whatever comes through the open channels of the man and his unstoppable band.
Listening to an album like The Visitor is not unlike taking off on a cross-country trip without a map. There is no way to tell where the destination will lead or what will be encountered. At one moment the savage rock of “Stand Tall” lead into Caribbean and Latin musical strains rising through on “Carnival,” only to turn around to embrace the blues on “Digging a Hole.” There is also the modern funk-rock of “When Bad Got Good,” the anthemic “Children of Destiny” and the spirit-tugging strength of “Change of Heart” to ensure the musical travels remain full of wonder. With the unlimited ability of Promise of the Real, featuring Lukas and Michah Nelson along with Corey McCormick, Anthony Logerfo and Tato Melgar, the passionate power of their playing pushes the songs to maximum expression. There are very few rock bands now who can go to as many places as this outfit and always deliver their own distinct identity.
The closing song on The Visitor feels like a prayer for today and tomorrow. In “Forever,” Neil Young sings “Earth is like a church without a preacher, the people have to pray for themselves.” These lines, and everything else on this landmark release point to the future in a way that sounds the alarm for troubled times but at the same time offers hope that, once again, music can help lead the way to understanding and hopefully a better place.
Today Neil Young walks in his own footsteps, just as he has done since his first days venturing into neighborhood clubs in Canada when he was still a teenager. He has a guitar, he has a voice and he has songs that express a unique way of looking at the world. And once again he is ready to tell us where we’ve been and just maybe where we might be heading. By listening we can join together and share the challenges and find a way forward together. Once again.
See the full tracklisting below.
In 2015, Neil Young + Promise Of The Real released The Monsanto Years. It bowed at #2 on the Billboard Top 200, #4 on the Billboard Rock Albums Chart, and #2 on the Billboard Folk Albums Chart. It received acclaim from Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and more. They followed up The Monsanto Years with 2016’s live album, Earth. The Visitor is the next step on their collective journey together.
The Visitor Tracklisting:
Side 1
1. Already Great
2. Fly By Night Deal
3. Almost Always
4. Stand Tall
Side 2.
5. Change Of Heart
6. Carnival
7. Diggin’ A Hole
Side 3
8. Children Of Destiny
9. When Bad Got Good
10. Forever
Follow us on Instagram @thatericalper
Eric Alper is a 6-time nominee for Publicist of the Year during Canadian Music Week and has overseen the publicity campaigns for over 183 JUNO Award-nominated albums (and 16 in 2025), 45 Grammy-nominated albums, including 47 JUNO Award, 58 Canadian Folk Music Award, 126 Maple Blues Award-winning albums and is also truly honoured to work with some of the biggest and most important artists of our time.
Contact me: eric@thatericalper.com
© Copyright - That Eric Alper
