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On this day, 9th July 1962, Bob Dylan recorded ‘Blowin’ In the Wind’ at Columbia Recording Studios in New York City during an afternoon session.

This version was filmed on Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour in ‘76 and features his old friend and former partner, folk singer and political activist, Joan Baez, as the pair perform the song as a duet.

When they first met, at Gerde’s Folk City in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1961, Baez was a successful folk signer/songwriter and her star on the rise, while Dylan was new on the scene, freshly arrived in New York after dropping out of university in Minnesota.

By the time Dylan was touring the Rolling Thunder Revue, with Baez as a guest performer, he was a hugely successful singer/songwriter with a back catalogue laden with hit albums and singles. Nice of him to remember his old friends!

NC

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Time to bring the sunshine!

I can’t be the only person fed up with this continual rain so I thought today we could all do with Groove Armada bringing some sunshine music into our lives.

Since forming in the mid 90s the ‘Armada have been a staple of the UK and International festival scene, bouncing crowds around from London to Sydney, and nearly everywhere in between, with their crowd pleasing, horn laden, party sets. And ‘Superstylin’ is their party closer extraordinaire

The guys from Groove Armada love festivals so much that they started their own, Lovebox, in 2002. The festival was originally a 1 day-er held on Clapham Common, before moving to Victoria Park in East London in 2005, expanding to 2 days in the process. The line-ups have always been sensational, mixing legends with the cream of up and coming talent from across the musical spectrum.

Good work, gentlemen!

NC

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Today’s Press Rewind is taken from a television special, The Three Degrees at The Royal Albert Hall, recorded in October 1979, which saw them backed by a well-known local band, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

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The trio must have developed a bit of a soft spot for the UK, after being asked to play Prince Charles’s 30th birthday at Buckingham Palace they were then invited to attend the pre-wedding party for his marriage to Lady Diana in 1981.

NC

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Happy 4th of July to all of you out there! In celebration we have found a live version of ‘America’ by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, performed at free benefit concert the duo put on in 1981 in New York’s Central Park in front of 500, 000 people. The concert was staged to raise funds to redevelop and maintain a disused space in the Big Apple’s Manhattan.

America first featured on their 1968 album, Bookends. The song was then released as a B-side in 1971, and then again as a single to in 1972 to coincide with the release of Simon and Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits, creeping on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #97.

The song describes a trip east though America by two young lovers as they traverse from Michigan to Pittsburgh, and then onto the New Jersey Turnpike leading them to New York City.

Wikipedia mentions that the song is notable as one of few rock (Simon and Garfunkel are rock?) records with completely unrhymed lyrics.

NC

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Today we feature two American greats coming together for a VH1 Storytellers hoedown, a veritable all star, country singing, guitar playing, bonanza.

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On 12th May 1997 Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson recorded an extremely special ‘special’, with each of them performing their own classic tracks, ably supported by the other on guitar, and then coming together for some classic duets. Enjoy…

NC

Daryl Hall and John Oates met at Temple University, in the US City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, in 1967. A shared love of the same music saw them initially performing together in an array of R&B and doo wop groups.

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This is a fabulous rendition of their massive Maneater, recorded live at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey, as part of the Liberty Concert. The Liberty Concert was a benefit event to help the restoration of the Statue of Liberty. It became a major music event drawing an estimated crowd of over 60,000 people.

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Talking of fabulous, check out Daryl’s hair!

NC

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Today we are wishing a very Happy Birthday to Senor Mick Jones, a founding member and stalwart of The Only Band That Mattered, The Clash.

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Michael Geoffrey “Mick” Jones was born 56 years ago today, June 26, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. As a teenager he attended the Stand School in Tulse Hill, Lambeth, before going to art college to find himself a band.

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When Mick was 21 he and Paul Simonon were introduced to one Joe Strummer and the rest, as they say, is history.

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Happy birthday Mick, we salute you!

NC