Nowadays Olive Can't Even Write

Today marks twenty years since former Jethro Tull Keyboardist Dee Palmer changed her name as part of her transition from male to female.  Before joining the band as a full-time member, she worked for them behind the scenes as a composer starting in 1968. She helped to pen the horn and string arrangements on   "Move on Alone" off of the album This Was. She, along with most of the other members, departed the band in 1980. The only remaining members that stayed were Ian Anderson and Martin Barre. Source: Jethro Tull's Official Website She and fellow JT member John Evan formed a band known as Tallis, however, they were not commercially successful and she went back to film scoring and working as a session musician. Palmer, who was also intersex, was born with genital ambiguity. She spent her youth struggling with gender dysphoria as a result, and had had several surgeries (the last one taking place at age 28). Her dysphoria was repressed until after the death of her wife, Magg...

 On January 14, 1980, Rush released their seventh studio album, Permanent Waves .  Following a six-week break after the conclusion of their eight month tour in support of Hemispheres , Rush began to write material for Permanent Waves in July 1979 at Lakewoods Farm in Flesherton, Ontario. The band followed a pretty solid routine, starting with Alex Lifeson cooking the three breakfast every morning, followed by Neil Peart walking down to a nearby cottage to write lyrics while Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson stayed behind and worked out musical ideas they had. Within days,  "The Spirit of Radio" , "Jacob's Ladder" , and "Freewill"  were put down and ready to be recorded. Image courtesy of Wikipedia In September of the same year, they traveled to Morin-Heights, Quebec to record the album at Le Studio. Many of their following albums, which include Moving Pictures (1981), Signals (1982), Grace Under Pressure (1984), Show of Hands ( 1988), Presto (1989), Roll the...

January 7, 2023 - Today marks 3 years since the death of one of the world's best drummers, Neil Elwood Peart OC. He was 67 years old at the time of his death. Peart has cemented himself in music history as one of the best drummers to have existed during his time with Rush. Although he had gotten his start in adolescence working with various regional bands, it wasn't until he joined Rush in 1974 that he was able to attain his dream of being a full-time musician (although the members did struggle financially for the first few years). Later, in 1983, he became the youngest drummer to be inducted into the Modern Drummer Readers Poll Hall of Fame at the age of 30. Source: The Fordham Ram /Twitter He had a wide range of artists he took inspiration from, such as Pete Thomas, John Bonham, Stewart Copeland, Phil Collins, Buddy Rich, Billy Cobham, Keith Moon, and more. He also influenced countless drummers himself, and along with the other members of Rush, has become a musical hero to ma...

Today we remember Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett, co-founder and former member of Pink Floyd, who would have been 77 years old today.  Source: The Pink Floyd HyperBase /Aubrey Powell As a musician, Barrett was a rather innovative guitarist before the peak of his decline, known for mixing slide guitar with echo using a lighter and delay pedal to create a lot of the sounds present in Pink Floyd's music. In the same vein, he loved exploring different effects, and playing around with distortion, feedback, and dissonance as well. As a vocalist, he sang with a heavy southern English accent, and was often cited as one of the first to do so in rock music. Many artists, such as Paul McCartney, Marc Bolan, the Flaming Lips, David Bowie, have all cited him as an influence on their work.  Barrett was active as a musician for nine years, from 1963 to 1974 before disappearing from the public eye permanently. According to his sister, Rosemary Breen, he dedicated himself to painting and took ...

December 21, 2022 - Today marks a special holiday for Rush fans - it's international Rush day! In reference to their legendary 1976  album " 2112 ", this unofficial holiday's date makes it a bigger celebration of the album than the its actual release date, as well as a rather popular day for Rush fans all over the world to crack out their albums, merch, and memorabilia. My plans this year will be very much tied with my plans for Yule, but there's no way I could miss a holiday for one of my favorite bands! Source: Wikipedia Although " 2112 " isn't the first album I had heard from them, it played a deeply important part in my discovery of Rush. It became part of my regular rotation of albums in my sophomore year of high school, alongside " Moving Pictures " and their self-titled album. Now, as an adult, I can happily say that none of these albums have left said rotation to this day. I've already pestered my own mom (who is also a fan) abo...

On this day in 1979, Pink Floyd released " The Wall ", a progressive rock opera following the story of a jaded rock star named Pink who creates a sort of "wall" between him and the rest of the world due to self-imposed isolation. Although it initially received mixed reviews, it is now rightfully regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time and even got its own movie in 1982. Image Credit: Amazon Music This album is one of the few that I hold particularly close. My mom raised me on Pink Floyd's music and often made a lot of references to their music, particularly to the end of " Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) ", when Roger Waters could be heard yelling "If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?!" when I wouldn't eat my dinner. Being a child who perceives everything in a literal sense, as well as being an American, one could understand how disappoin...