Trump has already shown his dedication to excluding undesirables from the Republican Party and the nation’s party as he tries to “Make America Great Again”. You know the list: illegal Mexicans, Temporary Muslims, Syrians who can’t prove they are Christians. No need to go on.
But since his P.N. status has firmed up in the last week or so, he is adding to his exclusive Do Not Admit lists some who used to have memberships, like Republican officials, those who opposed him, those who have insulted him, those who annoy him.
So, for example, from the MSNBC interview on May 4 reported by RealClearPolitics:
TRUMP: Well first of all, Ed Rollins, and others, have been so tremendous. You know, we talked about the negatives, the Krauthammers who are, you now, people that they have problems, they have real problems. But – and George Will that nobody reads or nobody listens to. But I’ll tell you what, I have had such incredible support and I’ll tell you — I’m going to be making a decision over the next week.
The question is, I do love self-funding. I don’t want anything for myself. But we do need money for the party. The party will come together. I don’t think it’s imperative that the entire party come together. I don’t want everybody. I don’t even want certain people that were extraordinarily nasty. Let them go their own way. Let them wait eight years or let them wait 16 years or whatever, because I think we’re going to have a great success against, probably Hillary because the system is totally rigged against Bernie. I mean, totally rigged against him. So probably we’re going to have Hillary.
So, only real Republicans. And definitely not the Bushes, father, son, and brother. Incidentally wiping out all living Republican ex-presidents. And no loser Romney, for sure. But little V.P. Danny Quayle is O.K. So is almost-V.P. Sarah P. Maybe even Ran-For-P Bob Dole and John McCain. Paul Ryan may be getting ready to kiss the ring politically, as he already does elsewhere spiritually, being a man of firm and uncompromising principle.
Purges of the formerly faithful are nothing new in politics. One of the most excellent ways of producing unity is to reduce the acreage under the tent. It makes it easier to patrol for camel’s noses sticking in where they don’t belong. Great Authority leaders in other countries have demonstrated facility and flexibility with this procedure for decades: Putin, Kim Jong-un, Hussein, Idi Amin, and Stalin among the very best.
A good first step is a formal I.D. mechanism like an Enemies List, such as Richard Nixon used to such advantage only 40 years ago. It makes it easier to get everybody on the same page, and offers chilling efficiency in enforcing the leader’s Will at the Top. So it is no surprise that there are now reports floating around of an embryonic Trump Enemies list, to make sure consultants and advisors of the wrong sort are frozen out od jobs, contracts, and other campaign goodies. Then on to the others who stand in the way of progress.
Trump is nothing if not a Grand Visionary, even if he changes some policy intentions twice before breakfast (not quite as facile as the White Queen just yet). So besides dark and suspicious foreigners, religious adherents of the Muslim persuasion, and insufficiently devout Republicans, Trump is also keen on excusing other kinds of Americans from his party to be. Certainly political protestors. You know the “Rough ‘Em Up”, Throw ‘Em Out” crowd from the rally season.
And there is another fairly large group, most of whom will not be welcome under the Trump Tent for reasons of character.
Donald Trump on the Blacks from Jason Parham article on July 24, 2015, nearly a year ago:
The Collected Quotes of Donald Trump on “the Blacks”
“A well-educated black has a tremendous advantage over a well-educated white in terms of the job market. I think sometimes a black may think they don’t have an advantage or this and that… I’ve said on one occasion, even about myself, if I were starting off today, I would love to be a well-educated black, because I believe they do have an actual advantage.’’ (1989)
“Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.” (1991)
“Laziness is a trait in blacks.” (1991)
“I have a great relationship with the blacks. I’ve always had a great relationship with the blacks.” (2011)
“Sadly, because president Obama has done such a poor job as president, you won’t see another black president for generations!” (2014)
“Our great African American President hasn’t exactly had a positive impact on the thugs who are so happily and openly destroying Baltimore.” (2015)
“And if you look at black and African American youth, to a point where they’ve never done more poorly. There’s no spirit.” (2015)
“And, you know, I have a great relationship with African Americans, as you possibly have heard. I just have great respect for them and you know they like me.” (2015)
DT has actually been fairly careful himself in public this past year with his direct comments about African-Americans in general. Of course he has had to criticize protestors who happened to be black, and President Obama’s awful performance, as an African- American, in failing to benefit other blacks by providing jobs, motivating youth, and protecting Baltimore. This is sort of a post-modern dog whistle vehicle. His supporters, as well as fellow travelers like David Duke, White Power folks, White Supremacists, and others, can decode the messages just fine.
Sad to say Trump’s oldest son, DT Jr. is somewhat less adept than Daddy. Feeling his Cheerios, so to speak. For example, on Fox & Friends February 29, 2016 he said:
Host Ainsley Earhardt pointed out that some celebrities “don’t think he’s going to make America great” — as Trump’s campaign slogan and baseball caps promise.
Fox News showed video clips of Whoopi Goldberg, Al Sharpton and Raven-Symoné — all of whom are black — vowing to move to another country if Trump or another Republican won.
“I’ll buy them their airfare,” Trump Jr. said, laughing. “I’m more than happy to chip in.”
Eric Trump said their criticism might actually “be the greatest endorsement ever,” and his brother agreed that criticism from political enemy only strengthened support for their father.
So far as I know, there was no campaign rewrite pr clean-up attempt later to explain that it was all in fun, just a joke, the boys didn’t really mean it. A caustic viewer might observe this could be a prime example of the apple not falling far from the tree, twice over spanning generations.
To wit: DT’s father, Fred, was arrested by police in New York City at a KKK rally in 1927 (per the New York Times, that hotbed of yellow journalism). Further, that iconic American folk singer Woody Guthrie lived in a Fred Trump apartment in Brooklyn (Coney Island) in 1950 and actually wrote a song decrying the lily-white color line there.*
Woody Guthrie Video (1947) playing Greenback Dollar and John Henry
That Fred and Donald together were sued by the Federal Government for racial discrimination against blacks in their housing developments in the 1970’s (and lost).
As DT has been known to say “Genes will out.” For the scientifically minded among you, there is a harsh lesson from animal and plant husbandry at play here. If a particular population is aging and suffering from a declining proportion in numbers, to enforce further restrictive coupling practices generally leads to fewer offspring, inherited damage to the gene pool, more disease in surviving adults, and significant life-span reductions. The Four Horsemen of Population Apocalypse scenario. Something to ponder if you want to shrink the Tent we all share.
Oh yeah, and second son Eric got in on the TV fun as well, saying Trump viewed these black comments as ‘endorsements’, chortling happily along with his brother and the host. Kind of like DT’s boast that he has a great relationship with blacks.
So you can add African-Americans to those who can expect a chilly reception in the putative all-American Trump Tent. We haven’t even gotten to the 11-million or so of those already in America’s Tent, whose tickets are about to be cancelled by the Circus Patrol.
Keep A-Knockin’ (But You Can’t Come In)
All of this Sturm und Drang (a good Germanic term) over whose ticket is genuine can give you a giant headache. A weary bystander needs a little cheering up. A lighter touch from the 1930’s and the 1957 early rock-and-roll classic version by Little Richard might work.
Little Richard in Concert (1957)
Listen to Little Richard rock the house.
From the Wikipedia entry about the song:
“Keep A-Knockin’ (But You Can’t Come In)” is a popular song that has been recorded by a variety of musicians over the years. The lyrics concern a lover at the door who won’t be admitted—in some versions because someone else is already there, but in most others because the knocking lover has behaved badly.
Early versions are sometimes credited to Perry Bradford and J. Mayo Williams. Variations were recorded by James “Boodle It” Wiggins in 1928, Lil Johnson in 1935, Milton Brown in 1936 and Louis Jordan in 1939. A similar lyrical theme appears in “Open the Door, Richard” from 1946, but from the viewpoint of the one knocking.
In 1957, when Little Richard recorded it as an up-tempo rock and roll song “Keep A-Knockin'” reached number two on the U.S. R&B charts and number eight on the U.S. pop charts. His version is usually credited to Penman (Richard’s legal name), Williams, and Mays
Rolling Stone magazine later ranked “Keep A-Knockin'” at number 442 in its list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.
For those with an historical bent, here is the Swing Jazz styling from 20 years earlier in 1939, by Louis Jordan and his sextet.** Listen to that sax, man. Perfect.
Jazz is the quintessential American music art form. Our people are world famous for it. It is a cultural crown jewel for America, precious beyond measure. All Americans justly take pride in the unmatched musical creativity and range of our jazz artists and composers.
Foundational, essential, and integral to the richness and success of this musical form are African-Americans and their life experiences in America, above all other groups. Period.
The lyrics are dead simple. The magic comes from the playing and improvisation.
Keep a-knockin’ but you can’t come in
Keep a-knockin’ but you can’t come in
Keep a-knockin’ but you can’t come in
Come back tomorrow night and try it again
You said you love me but you can’t come in
You said you love me but you can’t come in (wooooo)
You said you love me but you can’t come in
Come back tomorrow night and try it again (woow)
Rock and Roll and White Covers
The second great American musical art form is Rock and Roll. Little Richard had the first American rock and roll hit version of Keep A-Knocking in 1957, but his version was followed two years later by the Everly Brothers cover in 1959.
Here are the Everly Brothers Singing Keep A Knocking’ (But You Can’t Come in)
From the Wikipedia entry on the Everly Brothers, Don and Phil:
The Everly Brothers were American country-influenced rock and roll singers, known for steel-string guitar and close harmony singing. Isaac Donald “Don” Everly (born February 1, 1937) and Phillip “Phil” Everly (January 19, 1939 – January 3, 2014) were elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001.
Don was born in Brownie, Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, in 1937, and Phil two years later in Chicago, Illinois. Their parents were Isaac Milford “Ike” Everly, Jr. (1908–1975), a guitar player, and Margaret Embry Everly. Margaret was 15 when she married Ike, who was 26. Ike worked in coal mines from age 14, but his father encouraged him to pursue his love of music. Ike and Margaret began singing together. The Everly brothers spent most of their childhood in Shenandoah, Iowa. They attended Longfellow Elementary School in Waterloo, Iowa, for a year, but then moved to Shenandoah in 1944, where they remained through early high school.
Ike Everly had a show on KMA and KFNF in Shenandoah in the mid-1940s, first with his wife and then with their sons. The brothers sang on the radio as “Little Donnie and Baby Boy Phil.” The family sang as the Everly Family.
The family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1953, where the brothers attended West High School. In 1955, the family moved to Madison, Tennessee, while the brothers moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Don had graduated from high school in 1955, and Phil attended Peabody Demonstration School in Nashville, from which he graduated in 1957. Both could now focus on recording.
Little Donnie and Baby Boy Phil were on the radio singing and playing music with their family from 1944 on. They were Appalachian born and bred. They lived in Kentucky, Iowa, and Tennessee (Knoxville, Nashville). Their daddy started out as a coal miner. They were there near the start of rock and roll. They were white boys from Trump country.*** Look at those fancy hairdos.
Phil and Don Everly (1960)
[Now here’s a Pop Quiz for extra credit. Little Richard has a reputations as a very flamboyant artist and performer. More than one parental group pursed their lips and other parts when he was around. The Everly Brothers in the 1950’s were good old boys. Compare the hairstyles of Little Richard (1957) just above and this picture of the Everly Brothers (1960) as an index of likely good behavior. I ask you, ‘Whose male hairstyle is the more flamboyant, that of Little Richard or Phil and Don’s Pompadour style?” Now, considering Dad’s crew cut, which artist would you want to prohibit your teenage daughter from watching a concert, as a member of the general audience?]Just as happened with the origins of jazz 50 years earlier, there is no American Rock and Roll without essential black and white artists and intertwined influences. Period. Musicians, black and white, figured out how to blend them and make it work together, before the rest of the country.
Older folks, moms and dads, were mistrustful, resentful, fearful, and wary. But the music was much too good. The music was what mattered. The rhythm and beat grabbed hold of you and wouldn’t let go. The Youngsters listened and danced, they did it anyway. The country survived.
In 1959 Trump was already a teenager in New York City. It is unimaginable that he missed out on the rock and roll wave and its social lessons. His racial positioning today is either feigned for a fading audience, or he is suffering serious oxygen deprivation and memory loss from silted, concrete-lined cerebral arteries in his own brain.
Trump and I are near contemporaries. When I went off to college in the mid 1960’s, one of the very first LP albums I bought at the college bookstore was The Very Best of the Everly Brothers album (WS 1554 issued in 1967). The grooves on that record were nearly worn through from being played over and over on my proudest college possessions.
My stereo components included a Dual 1019 SK turntable with dust cover, and a pair of AR-3 speakers. We thought Cambridge, MA must be the epicenter of the college stereo universe given the quality of the equipment made just down the road. The turntable and speakers were quite expensive, and it took a good chunk of all my liquid reserve capital to afford them. They were worth every penny for the hundreds of hours of pleasure they supplied. They lasted throughtrump knocking years of heavy use, more than a decade, without breaking.
Dual Model 1019 SK Turntable (circa 1967)
As for the sounds on that Everly Brothers album, at the remove of 50 years, I can picture the stuffed chair in my dorm room living area, and still hear the music clearly in my head. Cathy’s Clown and Wake Up, Little Suzie spoke straight to the heart. So did Crying in the Rain.
Maybe Trump’s Political Edifice is More Like a Tower Than a Tent
Perhaps a tent is too flexible a structure to provide a proper comparison for Trump’s people container. He is big on rigid walls, so how about a skyscraper dominating the landscape? After all he has promised us all a big, beautiful wall, and tells us he will maker it higher and higher every time A Mexican politician refuses to pay for it. (take that Vicente Fox, you wily Mexican ex-El Presidente).
In that case, what Trump’s exclusion tendencies bring to mind is the 1974 disaster blockbuster film “The Towering Inferno” from producer Irwin Allen.
Doug Roberts, Architect, returns from a long vacation to find work nearly completed on his skyscraper. He goes to the party that night concerned he’s found that his wiring specifications have not been followed and that the building continues to develop short circuits. When the fire begins, Michael O’Halloran is the chief on duty as a series of daring rescues punctuate the terror of a building too tall to have a fire successfully fought from the ground.
From the Wikipedia entry for The Towering Inferno:
The Towering Inferno is a 1974 American action drama disaster film produced by Irwin Allen featuring an all-star cast led by Paul Newman and Steve McQueen.**** it was adapted by Stirling Silliphant from a pair of novels.
The film was a critical success, earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and was the highest-grossing film released in 1974. The film was nominated for eight Oscars in all, winning three.
In addition to McQueen and Newman, the cast includes William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Susan Blakely, Richard Chamberlain, O. J. Simpson, Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner, Susan Flannery, Gregory Sierra, Dabney Coleman and, in her final film, Jennifer Jones.
Architect Doug Roberts (Paul Newman) returns to San Francisco for the dedication of the Glass Tower, which he designed for owner James Duncan (William Holden). At 138 stories, it is the world’s tallest building. Shortly after his arrival, an electrical short starts an undetected fire on the 81st floor.
During the dedication ceremony, public relations chief Dan Bigelow is ordered to turn on the tower’s exterior lights to impress the guests and dignitaries. The lighting overloads the electrical system and Roberts orders it shut off. Smoke is seen on the 81st floor and the San Francisco Fire Department is summoned.
Roberts reports the fire to a dismissive Duncan, who refuses to order an evacuation. Ill-equipped firefighters arrive to tackle the blaze. SFFD Chief Michael O’Halloran (Steve McQueen) forces Duncan to evacuate the guests in the Promenade Room on the 135th floor, directing them to express elevators.
Then the action really heats up. There are explosions, a fire flash-over, helicopter crash, an elevator dangling on a cable, and C-4 to blow the rooftop water tanks, to name just some of the disaster bits, before the end.
After the drama is played out, Roberts says to fiancée Susan (Faye Dunaway) that he does not know what will become of the building, and perhaps it should be left in its fire-damaged state as “a kind of shrine to all the bullshit in the world”.
So Trump Duncan is the Builder of the World’s tallest building, his electrical contractor cut significant corners during construction to save money, as owner he insisted on a big splashy opening without proper safeguards, he dismisses reports of critical problems, and watches his building become a smoldering ruin.
Perhaps a better appellation for the Trump Army folks would be Blazing Inferno, instead of Towering Inferno. The third group of items in this dictionary entry for synonyms of blazing is, after all,
angry, excited, fervent, frenzied, fuming, furious, impassioned, incensed, passionate, raging, seething
Sounds like a pretty good summary of their current emotional temperature. It doesn’t help much with understanding the root cause of their feelings, but it outlines the intensity they experience inside the safety of the Trump rhetorical structure.
The only problem is there’s a fire on the way up and down from the 81st floor of the Trump Tower Building, and the girders are melting. As Hero Fire Chief O’Halloran (Steve McQueen) puts it on the phone at 0.12 of the movie trailer: “It’s Out of Control. It’s Coming Your Way.”
Watch the trailer for The Towering Inferno on YouTube
To bring the nation’s political fires under control, we all need more than loudly-voiced declarations. “Trust me, I’ll do so great” or “I’ll do so great , it will be boring” or “I will win so much, you’ll get tired of winning” or “I’ll be flexible, and I can negotiate anything with anybody” Don’t you worry about this little old fire now.
Sometimes, you just need some mindless escapism. Like when you are immersed for too long in the 2016 political conflagration. Where the movie ends at 2 hours 45 minutes, and then you can rest.
Maybe the best anyone can hope for until November 8th, is to play your favorite music and watch some old movies.
At least the country isn’t likely to burn down or blow up in the meantime. We hope.
*From the New York Times on January 25, 2016:
More than a half-century ago, the folk singer Woody Guthrie signed a lease in an apartment complex in Brooklyn. He soon had bitter words for his landlord: Donald J. Trump’s father, Fred C. Trump.
Mr. Guthrie, in writings uncovered by a scholar working on a book, invoked “Old Man Trump” while suggesting that blacks were unwelcome as tenants in the Trump apartment complex, near Coney Island.
“He thought that Fred Trump was one who stirs up racial hate, and implicitly profits from it,” the scholar, Will Kaufman, a professor of American literature and culture at the University of Central Lancashire in Britain, said in an interview.
Mr. Kaufman said he came across Mr. Guthrie’s writings about Fred Trump while he was doing research at the Woody Guthrie Center’s archives in Oklahoma. He wrote about his findings last week for The Conversation, a news website.
In December 1950, Mr. Guthrie signed a lease at the Beach Haven apartment complex, Mr. Kaufman wrote in his piece. Soon, Mr. Guthrie was “lamenting the bigotry that pervaded his new, lily-white neighborhood,” he wrote, with words like these:
I suppose
Old Man Trump knows
Just how much
Racial Hate
he stirred up
In the bloodpot of human hearts
When he drawed
That color line
Here at his
Eighteen hundred family project
Mr. Guthrie even reworked his song “I Ain’t Got No Home” into a critique of Fred Trump, according to Mr. Kaufman:
Beach Haven ain’t my home!
I just can’t pay this rent!
My money’s down the drain!
And my soul is badly bent!
Beach Haven looks like heaven
Where no black ones come to roam!
No, no, no! Old Man Trump!
Old Beach Haven ain’t my home!
Mr. Guthrie died in 1967, and in the 1970s, the Justice Department sued the Trumps, accusing them of discriminating against blacks. (A settlement was eventually reached; at the time, Trump Management noted the agreement did not constitute an admission of guilt.)
A spokeswoman for Donald Trump declined to comment on Mr. Guthrie’s writings.
Yes, shocking, I know. Just Shocking! And poor Fred Trump not here to defend his honor, and his son at a loss for words (and stories). Just Shocking!
**From the Wikipedia entry on Jazz musician Louis Jordan:
Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was a pioneering American musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as “The King of the Jukebox”, he was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the later years of the swing era.
Jordan was one of the most successful African-American musicians of the 20th century, ranking fifth in the list of the all-time most successful black recording artists according to Billboard magazine’s chart methodology. Though comprehensive sales figures are not available, he scored at least four million-selling hits during his career. Jordan regularly topped the R&B “race” charts, and was one of the first black recording artists to achieve a significant crossover in popularity into the mainstream (predominantly white) American audience, scoring simultaneous Top Ten hits on the white pop charts on several occasions. After Duke Ellington and Count Basie, Louis Jordan was probably the most popular and successful African-American bandleader of his day.
Jordan was a talented singer with great comedic flair, and he fronted his own band for more than twenty years. He duetted with some of the biggest solo singing stars of his day, including Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Jordan was also an actor and a major black film personality—he appeared in dozens of “soundies” (promotional film clips), made numerous cameos in mainstream features and short films, and starred in two musical feature films made especially for him. He was an instrumentalist who played all forms of the saxophone, but specialized in the alto, in addition to playing piano and clarinet. A productive songwriter, he wrote or co-wrote many songs that became influential classics of 20th-century popular music.
Although Jordan began his career in big-band swing jazz in the 1930s, he became famous as one of the leading practitioners, innovators and popularizers of “jump blues”, a swinging, up-tempo, dance-oriented hybrid of jazz, blues and boogie-woogie. Typically performed by smaller bands consisting of five or six players, jump music featured shouted, highly syncopated vocals and earthy, comedic lyrics on contemporary urban themes. It strongly emphasized the rhythm section of piano, bass and drums; after the mid-1940s, this mix was often augmented by electric guitar. Jordan’s band also pioneered the use of electric organ.
With his dynamic Tympany Five bands, Jordan mapped out the main parameters of the classic R&B, urban blues and early rock’n’roll genres with a series of hugely influential 78 rpm discs for the Decca label. These recordings presaged many of the styles of black popular music in the late 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and exerted a huge influence on many leading performers in these genres. Many of his records were produced by Milt Gabler, who went on to refine and develop the qualities of Jordan’s recordings in his later production work with Bill Haley, including “Rock Around the Clock”.
***From the Wikipedia entry on the Everly Brothers:
While in Knoxville, the brothers caught the attention of family friend Chet Atkins, manager of RCA Victor’s studio in Nashville. The brothers became a duo and moved to Nashville. Despite affiliation with RCA, Atkins arranged for the Everly Brothers to record for Columbia Records in early 1956. Their “Keep a-Lovin’ Me,” which Don wrote, flopped, and they were dropped from the Columbia label.
Atkins introduced them to Wesley Rose, of Acuff-Rose music publishers. The Everlys signed and made a recording in February 1957. “Bye Bye Love” had been rejected by 30 other acts. Their record reached No. 2 on the pop charts, behind Elvis Presley’s “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear”, and No. 1 on the country and No. 5 on the R&B charts. The song became the Everly Brothers’ first million-seller
Working with the Bryants, they had hits in the United States and the United Kingdom, the biggest being “Wake Up Little Susie”, “All I Have to Do Is Dream”, “Bird Dog”, and “Problems”. The Everlys also succeeded as songwriters, especially with Don’s “(Till) I Kissed You”, which hit No. 4 on the United States pop charts.
The brothers toured with Buddy Holly in 1957 and 1958. According to Holly’s biographer Philip Norman, they were responsible for persuading Holly and the Crickets to change their outfits from Levi’s and T-shirts to the Everlys’ Ivy League suits. Don said Holly wrote “Wishing” for them. Phil said, “We were all from the South. We’d started in country music.” Although some sources say Phil Everly was one of Holly’s pallbearers in February 1959, Phil said in 1986 that he attended the funeral and sat with Holly’s family but was not a pallbearer. Don did not attend, saying, “I couldn’t go to the funeral. I couldn’t go anywhere. I just took to my bed.”
In the late 1950s, the Everly Brothers were the rock and roll youth movement’s addition to close harmony vocal groups, many of which were family bands. They influenced rock groups of the 1960s. The Beatles, the Beach Boys, and Simon & Garfunkel[ developed their early styles by performing Everly covers. The Bee Gees, the Hollies, and other rock and roll groups that feature harmony singing were also influenced.
The Everly Brothers had 35 Billboard Top-100 singles, 26 in the top 40. They hold the record for the most Top-100 singles by any duo and trail Hall & Oates for the most Top-40 singles by a duo. In the UK, they had 30 chart singles, 29 in the top 40, 13 top 10, and 4 at No. 1 between 1957 and 1984. They had 12 top-40 albums between 1960 and 2009.
In 1986, the Everly Brothers were among the first 10 artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They were introduced by Neil Young, who observed that every musical group he belonged to had tried and failed to copy the Everly Brothers’ harmonies.
In 1997, the brothers were awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. They were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004.Their contribution has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. The Everly Brothers have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Blvd. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the Everly Brothers No. 33 on its list of the “100 greatest artists of all time”. They are also No. 43 on the list of UK Best selling singles artists of all time.
****From the IMDb entry about The Towering Inferno (1974):
Paul Newman later regretted his decision to co-star with Steve McQueen because of the rivalry between the two, created by Steve. As a result, the fireman role dominates Newman’s architect. Three contributing factors are 1) Both characters have the same number of lines (at McQueen’s insistence); 2) McQueen’s character doesn’t appear until 43 minutes into the film. As a result, Newman had used almost half his lines before McQueen enters. And 3) the fire chief is the authoritative hero who outranks and captures center stage over all other characters.
During filming, Newman was quoted as saying, “For the 1st time, I fell for the goddamn numbers. I did this turkey for a million and 10% of the gross, but it’s the 1st and last time, I swear.” He later collaborated with Irwin Allen on When Time Ran Out (1980).
Sounds like someone out Trumped Paul Newman. Will some of Trump’s Primary Army wake to a serious dose of Buyer’s Remorse, as the actual election nears?
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