Sometimes it is really interesting to see where your interest in music comes from. Often an event not meant to, will instill an interest in long lost music. I loved how when Guardians of the Galaxy came out lots of students suddenly started asking me about the music included in the film. Many of you watched the amazing “Avengers Endgame” this last spring. The opening of the film was a wonderful deep space scene of characters Tony Stark and Nebula and featured a piece of music that most of you had never heard before. It was a 50 year old class rock cut called Dear Mr. Fantasy by the band Traffic. It came off of their debut album “Mr. Fantasy”. Traffic featured Steve Winwood fresh off of his run with the Spencer Davis Group. He was just 19 years old but sounded like he had been singing for decades. Winwood would go on to front Traffic for a decade and they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. It was a band that was quite revered by other musicians for being well ahead of their time.
Rolling Stone Magazine loved their debut album which was released on Island Records. This was the label of legendary record man Chris Blackwell. He had one of the best ears for new talent in the business. He was willing to give Traffic a shot and after they split up Winwood went on to form Blind Faith with Eric Clapton who featured heavily in last week’s selection by Cream. After that he reformed Traffic and they hit it really big with the albums “John Barleycorn Must Die” and “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” which we featured last year. Low Spark was very brave in that it was an open verbal attack on the guys who ran the music industry and their fast talking ways. Hence the name, The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys. Most of them were not bright enough to realize he was making fun of them. After that he went solo and just ruled the airwaves in the 1980’s with a huge solo release called “Back in the High Life”.
Everyone should join the Khan Academy class for this cocurse. You cn do it at this link:
https://www.khanacademy.org/join/4Q8MWDVX
One problem that comes up every year in this class is learning the names of the polyatomic ions and elements. This is the alphabet that we use in chemistry and must be known as well as the letters we use to spell words. It is something that happens ion the second chapter. If you are interested in getting ahead here are some ideas. Make your flash cards now and start learning long before you need to.
The first set is of the names of the polyatomic ions. Make one card for each of the polyatomic ions listed in table four on page four of this handout. A good is example is Hydroxide on one side and OH— on the other.