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"He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother": The Story of a Song

By Bruce Janu -
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We all have those songs which touch us in certain ways. Music has that ability---to stir emotions, to wrangle memories. We have the tendency to claim songs as our own for what they do within us. For me, no song is more poignant and powerful than “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.” The song was written by Bobby Scott and Bob Russell, their only collaboration as songwriters. Russell was dying of cancer at the time and his lyrics for this song would be the last he ever wrote. The origin of the phrase is unknown, but it did appear as the title of an article in Kiwanis magazine in 1924 and then later became the motto for Father Flanagan’s Boy’s Town in the 1940s. Written in the late 60s, the song conjures images of the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam. In fact, every year when I teach Vietnam, I use music to tell the story and “He Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother” highlights 1970, the year of it’s release. However, for me, the song has nothing to do with Vietnam. For me, the song i...
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Alien Sex Fiend and Time Zone--This Friday on Mix Tape Memories

By Bruce Janu -
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This was my favorite mix tape from the 1980s; it was the one I was most proud of.  We all had mix tapes like that:  the ones we cranked up in the car when we drove with the windows down, showing off our taste in music.    This was the tape that made me feel cool, in my highschool--"look at me, I'm an individual"---way. This is the tape with Alien Sex Fiend. I bought that Alien Sex Fiend album at a record store in Northbrook.  I didn't know anything about them.  Just thought it would be cool to own.  It's not very good, yet I put a couple of tracks on this mix---probably just to show that I was "cutting edge,"  or something like that.  The album is called "Who's Been Sleeping in My Brain?" and contains some classic punk/death metal songs, such as " Drive My Rocket (Up Uranus) ."  Don't worry, that one is not on this mix. But " Black Rabbit " is. The mix begins with a classic 80s song that really captures the s...
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Music for Lovers Only: Sherriff Bufford T. Justice Does Music

By Bruce Janu -
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Jackie Gleason was a very versatile entertainer.  I first became acquainted with Jackie Gleason not through Ralph Kramden from The Honeymooners , but through Sherriff Buford T. Justice from the Cannonball Run movies.  It wasn't until I was a teenager when I first watched The Honeymooners and was blown away by the comic timing of the entire cast.  I remember thinking, "They sure don't make shows like this anymore." Now, in my forties, I have become acquainted with another side of Jackie Gleason:  musical conductor and composer. In the early 1950s, Jackie Gleason put together a popular series of instrumental albums that catered to mood.  The first was  Music for Lovers Only , which was originally released in 1952.  A longer, stereo version came out in 1954.  I just happened to pick up a decent copy of that album at Half Price Books for fifty cents. The cover features a close up of a table, two empty wine glasses in the background.  A p...
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