Grandfather Clock

I'm sure you have seen a "grandfather clock." maybe your grandfather had one. My grandparents had a logically named mantle clock on their mantle. So why did this tall piece of furniture clock take on the name "grandfather?"

A grandfather clock (also known as a longcase clock, tall-case clock, grandfather's clock, or floor clock) is a tall, freestanding, weight-driven pendulum clock with the pendulum held inside the tower or waist of the case.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the origin of the name is a popular 1876 song "My Grandfather's Clock" which gave the common name "grandfather clock" being applied to the longcase clock. 

The song was composed by American songwriter Henry Clay Work who saw one in The George Hotel in Piercebridge, England. He was told that when the first owner of the clock died, the clock became inaccurate. When the second owner died, the clock stopped working altogether. The odd story inspired him to write the song.

Grandfather clocks are tall. Possibly as tall or taller than your grandfather. They are usually at least 1.9 meters (6 feet - 3 inches). Later, there were made clocks referred to as "grandmother" and "granddaughter" clocks, which are shorter in height.

Goodnight, Texas

Goodnight, Texas plays a kind of music that might be termed today as "Americana" but is just as easily put on a shelf with folk or folk-rock bands.

Their clever and often enigimatic lyrics are up front on most songs and the instrumentation has a simple complexity that benefits from multiple listenings. 

The band is Scott Griffin Padden (Drums), Adam Nash (Guitar, Pedal Steel, Fiddle), Chris Sugiura (Bass) and founding members and songwriting vocalists Avi Vinocur (Lead Vocals, Mandolin, Guitar, Banjo) Patrick Dyer Wolf (Lead Vocals, Banjo, Guitar).

Patrick & Avi

The band's name is an actual town in Texas east of Amarillo, though neither Avi or Patrick come from there or had any connection to the place. In its earliest duo configuration, the two were on opposite coasts. Avi was in San Francisco and Patrick was in Chapel Hil, North Carolina. Looking at a map, they found Goodnight in the State of Texas to be the place between them. 

The town is named for Charles Goodnight who is often referred to as the "Father of the Texas Panhandle" and is said to have been "the most romantic man living, not only in West Texas, but in the entire West." If you watch the series 1883, Taylor Sheridan's character is Charles Goodnight.

  ===

2022 marks the release of the band’s fourth album How Long Will It Take Them To Die.

You can find out more about the band, tour dates, buy music and stream their songs on their official and strangely domained website at hiwearegoodnighttexashowareyou.com
and on Spotify. 

Band Photos: Brittany Powers

Nautical Terms part 2

Image: Darkmoon_Art

In part one of my posts about nautical terms, I focused on terms about competency that have come from the nautical world. I also found several expressions for incompetency that come from that world.

Have you heard about someone who is over a barrel? To be "over a barrel" has come to mean to be left without choice or in someone else's power. Its nautical origin first appeared in the late-19th century. It referred to the actual situation of being draped over a barrel, either to empty the lungs of someone who has been close to drowning, or to give a flogging. in either case the person is in a helpless position and under someone else's control.

The expression has softened in meaning and now used to refer to anyone in a situation where they have little choice.

When we say that someone or something "ran afoul," we are also referencing a nautical expression. To run afoul in nautical terms means to collide or become entangled with something. One boat can run afoul of another or one small boat can run afoul of something like seaweed.

Currently, it is more commonly used to be in severe disagreement, trouble, or difficulty with someone or something, such as running afoul of the law.  

This expression originated in the late 1600s when it was applied to a vessel colliding or becoming entangled with another vessel, but it went into non-nautical usage around the same time and both senses remain current.

"Scraping the bottom of the barrel" means using something of very poor quality because that is all that is left. It has a quite literal origin from 17th-century ships when sailors would scrape empty barrels used to store salted meat to recover any remaining scraps. Away from ships, it can mean to obtain the last dregs of something or to procure someone or something that is of inferior quality.

And there are still at least 50 more nautical terms and sailing phrases that have enriched our language.

blurb

I was recently asked to write a blurb for a friend's soon-to-be-published book. It's an odd word "blurb" and so I had to investigate its origin.

These brief expressions of praise and enticing descriptions of what's inside a book often appear on the book's cover or dust jacket. 

The word was coined in 1907 by the American humorist Frank Gelett Burgess in mocking the excessive praise printed on book jackets. He used "blurb" on a dummy dust jacket of his book Are You a Bromide? *. A picture of a woman there was named “Miss Belinda Blurb” and her quote was “YES, this is a ‘BLURB’!”  Another blurb on the jacket was "... when you've READ this masterpiece, you'll know what a BOOK is...."

Burgess did not invent the practice of putting that praise on a cover, but his joking word for it has become the accepted term for it still today.

* Bonus: a bromide here means a boring or platitudinous person  - the word comes from chemistry.  

More at merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/word-history-blurb-publishing

Toad the Wet Sprocket

Toad the Wet Sprocket, House of Blues, Downtown Disney 2014.

Toad the Wet Sprocket is an American alternative rock band formed in 1986. They didn't have a band name and their first gig was approaching. They chose the name "Toad the Wet Sprocket" as a joke and temporarily, but vocalist Glen Phillips later called it "a joke that went on too long." 

The name had been used once before, by a short-lived British blues band of the late 1970s whose track "Blues in A" appeared on the 1980 Metal for Muthas compilation. The earlier band had split up when the American band was formed and they were unaware that the name had ever been used by another band.

The name comes from a Monty Python comedy sketch. The bit was called "Rock Notes" and was about a newscaster delivering a nonsensical music news report. Python member Eric Idle, the sketch's original performer, said in 1999 that when he wrote the sketch about rock musicians, he tried to think of a name that would be so silly nobody would ever use it. He was shocked when he was driving in Los Angeles and heard a DJ say that a song was performed by Toad the Wet Sprocket.

The band is comprised of Glen Phillips (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, mandolin), Todd Nichols (lead guitar, mandolin, backing vocals), Dean Dinning (bass guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), and Randy Guss (drums, percussion).

They had chart success in the 1990s with singles that included "Walk on the Ocean", "All I Want", "Something's Always Wrong", "Fall Down", and "Good Intentions". 

The band broke up in 1998 to pursue other projects; however, they began touring the United States again in 2006 for short-run tours each summer in small venues. In December 2010, the band announced their official reunion as a full-time working band and started writing songs for their first studio album of new material since 1997.

   

Updated April 2020

A Perfect Storm

Image: WikiImages

The phrase "a perfect storm" has multiple uses but they all originate from the same basic meaning. The commonality is that any "perfect storm" is an event in which a rare combination of circumstances drastically aggravates the event. 

The most literal use of the term is in weather forecasting. It refers to an unusually severe storm that results from a rare combination of meteorological phenomena. It is somewhat ironic since a perfect storm is often deadly and hardly "perfect" to those affected by it.

The phrase entered our vocabulary when a 1997 book, The Perfect Storm, and in 2000 a popular movie adaptation entered the mainstream. 

Sebastian Junger planned to write a book about the 1991 Halloween Nor'easter storm which was technically an "extratropical cyclone." While researching for the book, Junger learned that the event was the confluence of three different weather-related phenomena which a meteorologist told him was the "perfect situation" to generate such a storm. Junger then coined the phrase perfect storm and use it as the title of his 1997 book.

Since the book and movie's release, the phrase has grown to mean any event where a situation is aggravated drastically by an exceptionally rare combination of circumstances.

Despite Junger coining the weather-related perfect storm, the Oxford English Dictionary has published references going back to 1718 for "perfect storm." The earliest citations use the phrase in the sense of "absolute" or "complete." For example, in Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair, he writes "in the midst of a perfect storm of sympathy.

There is even an 1850 meteorological use of the phrase describing "A perfect storm of thunder and lightning all over England."

Today, a "perfect storm" most often means a worst-case scenario, such as its use during the financial crisis of 2007–2008 to describe the terribly "perfect" combination of circumstances that allowed the crisis to occur.

Nautical terms part one

 

Image by Brigitte Werner from Pixabay

As with my earlier posts on terms that come from the world of printing, such is the case with nautical terms that entered the language in some form. I gained some inspiration for this post from an essay by Hester Blum about her brief voyage on a 19th-century whaling ship.

"Think of all the idioms for competency that come from seafaring: knowing the ropes, crackerjack, all told, first rate, flying colors. There are plenty of nautical expressions for incompetency, too: deadwood, over a barrel, run afoul, scraping the bottom of the barrel. My expertise in the language and literature of sailing does not necessarily translate to manual or experiential fluency, nor did I expect it to."

Some of these terms have fallen out of fashion. As a child, I would hear adults tell us kids to "pipe down" meaning to get quiet. Aboard a ship, the boatswain's pipe, or whistle, is used to summon a crew, relay orders and dismiss them. To dismiss a crew, the boatswain piped and the command "pipe down" is given. After dismissal, things were quiet and the command became associated with quieting down or making less noise.

Boatswain's whistle, pipe, or bosun's pipe

The phrase “know the ropes” comes from sailing where ropes, or lines, are important to navigating and steering the ship. One who knows the ropes has experience in sailing.

"Crackerjack" isn't just a snack food that appeared in the 1890s. In the late 19th-century crack and jack were merged into a new word. Cracker is an elongation of crack which is an adjective meaning "expert" or "superior" that dates from the 18th century, as in "He is a crack shot with a rifle." Even earlier, "crack" was a noun meaning "something superior" and a verb meaning "to boast." 

"Jack" has been used for "man" since the mid-1500s. We find it in the expression "jack-of-all-trades" and in nautical terms as "Jack Tar" to mean a sailor. (The "tar" comes from the coating on ropes.) Crackerjack entered English as a noun referring to "a person or thing of marked excellence," and then was used as an adjective. 

"All told" is an idiom we don't hear very much these days. It means with everything or everyone taken into account. "All told there will be 75 people attending." It was once used on board ships to indicate all were present.

"First-rate" has its origin in the rating "A1" which was used to mean "having the highest qualifications" in reference to commercial ships. Lloyd's of London used this rating system. Shipping was very important in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries, and Lloyd's rating system became known beyond shipping to mean "of the finest quality" or "first-rate."

The term "flying colors," as in "she passed the test with flying colors" and "showing your true colors" to mean to reveal one's character (usually used in a negative way) both come from a sailing practice. At one time, ships hoisted their national flags ("fly their colors") before commencing battle, BUT some ships would carry flags from many countries and hoist "false flags" to confuse or mislead their enemies rather than show their "true colors."

Toto

Toto (stylized as TOTO) was formed in 1977 in Los Angeles.  Toto is known for a musical style that combines elements of pop, rock, soul, funk, progressive rock, hard rock, R&B, blues and jazz. Having released 14 studio albums and sold over 40 million records worldwide. The group has received several Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2009. 

Toto by W. W. Denslow
from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

In the early 1980s, band members told the press that the band was named after the dog in The Wizard of Oz. The other origin story is that Jeff Porcaro had written TOTO on one of their demos just to be a marker on the tapes. Bassist David Hungate saw it and said that “in toto” was Latin for “in all, totally, entirely, or all-encompassing.” That might have been a secondary reason to stick with it. It was also easy to remember.

Toto from the Falling in Between Tour (Milan, 2006)

David Paich and Jeff Porcaro were session musicians on several albums and decided to form a band. They put together the group produced the band's eponymous debut album in 1978. It had a Top 5 single "Hold the Line." But their more global fame came with Toto IV (1982) with hits "Africa" and "Rosanna" which reached number 2. Band members played on many other bands' albums as session players throughout the 80s.

 

Soft Machine

 

Soft Machine in a 1970 promo photo

Soft Machine is an English rock band formed in 1966 in Canterbury. they were one of the first British psychedelic acts. They moved into a more progressive rock and jazz fusion sound. According to bassist Hugh Hopper, "We weren't consciously playing jazz-rock. It was more a case of not wanting to sound like other bands. We certainly didn't want a guitarist." Though there were several guitarists in the band's numerous incarnations including Andy Summers, Kevin Ayers, and John Etheridge, but an organ, saxophone, flute, and various keyboards have always been part of their sound.

The band's name comes from the novel The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. His "soft machine" is another name for the human body. Burroughs has said that he was interested in how control mechanisms invade the body.

The main plot appears in chapter VII, "The Mayan Caper." It concerns a secret agent who has the ability to change bodies or metamorphose his own body using "U.T." (undifferentiated tissue). He makes a time travel machine and takes on a gang of Mayan priests. 

It is a strange novel and influenced by Burroughs' own drug experimentation. Perhaps the band was intrigued by his composing method known as the cut-up technique. Burroughs had written about a thousand pages earlier which he cut and pasted to create this novel and others.

They never achieved much commercial success, but the band is considered by critics to have been an influential rock band, if only as an "underground" band with a kind of cult following.

In the 1970s, there were several alternative offshoots of the band formed including the Soft Heap, Soft Head and Soft Ware.

 

Bad Company

The original Bad Company lineup in 1976

 (L to R) Boz Burrell, Paul Rodgers, Simon Kirke, Mick Ralphs

"Bad Company" is a song by the hard rock band also called Bad Company that was released as the third single from their debut album, the eponymous Bad Company in 1974.

This English hard rock band was formed in London in 1973 by singer Paul Rodgers and guitarist Mick Ralphs, later adding drummer Simon Kirke and bassist Boz Burrell.

Throughout the 1970s, they were very successful with their first three albums, Bad Company (1974), Straight Shooter (1975), and Run with the Pack (1976).

Their best-known singles were "Bad Company", "Can't Get Enough", "Good Lovin' Gone Bad", "Feel Like Makin' Love", "Ready for Love", "Shooting Star", and "Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy." all of which still get "classic rock" radio airplay.

I had always heard that the inspiration for the band's name was the 1972 modern Western film, Bad Company, starring Jeff Bridges. The film is about a group of young men who flee the draft during the American Civil War to seek their fortune and freedom on the Western American frontier.

The song "Bad Company" certainly suggests that film:

A company always on the run
A destiny, oh it's the rising sun
I was born, a shotgun in my hands
Behind the gun
I'll make my final stand, yeah
That's why they call me
Bad company...
Rebel souls
Deserters we've been called
Chose a gun
And threw away the song...

As far as the name of the band itself, Paul Rodgers stated in an interview with Spinner.com, that the idea came from a book of Victorian morals that showed a picture of an innocent kid looking up at an unsavory character leaning against a lamp post with a caption that read "beware of bad company."

Bad Company was considered to be a "supergroup" since it was made up of two former members of Free (Rodgers and Kirke), former Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs; and ex-King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell. 

Since 2011, the band has toured with various combinations of original and temporary members.

DISCOGRAPHY
Bad Company (1974)
Straight Shooter (1975)
Run with the Pack (1976)
Burnin' Sky (1977)
Desolation Angels (1979)
Rough Diamonds (1982)
Fame and Fortune (1986)
Dangerous Age (1988)
Holy Water (1990)
Here Comes Trouble (1992)
Company of Strangers (1995)
Stories Told & Untold (1996)

Holy Toledo, Holy Mackerel, Holy Smoke and Holy Cow

The Roman Catholic Primate Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo
(Catedral Primada Santa María de Toledo)

I have heard "Holy Toledo" used as an exclamation of surprise, as in "Holy Toledo, have you seen the price of that stock today?" On the old Batman television show, Robin was rather fond of using 'Holy' sayings during the show. It is a rather old-fashioned expression but its origin is much older.

The expression does refer to Toledo, Spain (not Toledo, Ohio, USA) which became one of the great centers of Christian culture after its liberation from the Moors in 1085. It was the city where Christianity got its first hold in Spain and is often called the Holy City of Toledo in literature.

I'm not sure how relevant it is to the origin, but I also read that Toledo steel was used in medieval swords and was renowned for its quality, and some of those Holy Toldeo swords were used to fight the Infidels.

But there are odd other usages of the expression that are less than religious. For example, in show business, "Holy Week" (the week leading up to Easter) was once considered the worst week at the box office and a Hollywood joke was that any week in Toledo, Ohio was a "Holy Week."

The American city of Toledo was anything but "holy" and in the 1920s and 30s it a sanctuary for gangsters. They seemed to have made a deal with the police that if the police would leave them alone, they would leave Toledo alone. To gangsters, this sanctuary was known as "Holy Toledo."

There is a larger group of "Holy ____!" expressions in English, such as "Holy cow!", "Holy mackerel!" or "Holy smoke!" all of which are used as exclamations of surprise.

"Holy Mackeral" seems to go back to the early 1800s and might have been a euphemism for Holy Mary. It has been suggested that "Mackerel" was a nickname for Catholics because they ate the fish on Fridays or that the practice of selling mackerel only on Sundays in the seventeenth century (its quality deteriorates rapidly) made it be known as a "holy" fish.

From the Dictionary of American Slang (1960):

"Holy Buckets!" Equiv. to "Holy cats!" or "Holy Mike!" both being euphemisms for "Holy Christ!". This term is considered to be very popular among teenagers, and most teens claim it is definitely a very popular phrase. It is also the common oath and popular exclamation put into the mouths of teenagers by many screenwriters, and is universally heard on radio, television, and in the movies. It was first popularized by the "Corliss Archer" series of short stories, television programs, and movies, which attempted to show the humorous, homey side of teenage life.

Incense burner

As far as the use of "Holy smoke!" according to the OED, Sir John Beaumont in 1627 writes: “Who lift to God for us the holy smoke / Of fervent prayers”. The idea being of a burnt sacrifice or incense is a metaphor for the carrying of one's prayers up to heaven.

The phrase "Holy cow!" and other similar expressions can be not only an exclamation of surprise but also a minced oath or euphemism for an actual expletive. (Not that you won't hear "Holy shit" and other literal expletives too.) As a way to avoid using obscene or indecent language, it probably alluded to the holiness of cows in Hinduism and other religious traditions. 

It was popular with baseball players going back to the early 1900s and was associated with several American baseball broadcasters. Growing up in the NY-metro area as a NY Yankees fan, I always associated it with Yankees shortstop and announcer Phil Rizzuto. He used the expression in a variety of poetic contexts. When the Yankees honored him following his retirement, the ceremony included a real cow with a halo prop on its head.

Crowded House

Crowded House, 1987 Paul Hester, Neil Finn, Nick Seymour

The rock band CROWDED HOUSE formed in 1985 after the band Split Enz did a farewell tour. Neil Finn (vocals, guitar, piano), drummer Paul Hester and Nick Seymour on bass. Finn and Hester had been members of the New Zealand band Split Enz. Neil Finn is the younger brother of Split Enz founding member Tim Finn, who would join the new band in 1990.

The new band was called The Mullanes and they formed in Melbourne with Finn, Hester, Seymour and guitarist Craig Hooper. When they got a record contract with Capitol Records, they decided to move to Los Angeles to record their eponymous debut album. Hooper didn't want to make the move and left the band. 

Their debut album produced  two Top Ten hits "Don't Dream It's Over" and "Something So Strong."

Capitol Records wanted (wisely) a new name for the band. The odd name "Crowded House" is a reference to the small Hollywood Hills house the band shared during the recording of the album Crowded House.

In 1996, Crowded House announced that it would disband and they did several farewell concerts. 

Hester died by suicide at age 46. the following year, the band re-formed with drummer Matt Sherrod and released two albums that reached number one on Australia's album chart. Then the band went inactive for several years until a revised line-up was set to tour the UK in 2020 with Neil Finn, Nick Seymour, Mitchell Froom, and Finn's sons Liam and Elroy. The COVID-19 pandemic postponed the tour.

The band's seventh studio album, Dreamers Are Waiting, was released in 2021 along with a New Zealand tour in March 2021. The band plans to tour Australia in 2022.

     

Split Enz

Image: Nambassa Trust & Peter Terry, nambassa.com, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

The New Zealand band Split Enz was very popular during the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was founded in 1973 by Tim Finn and Phil Judd, but had a number of band libeups during its existence. In the APRA Top 100 New Zealand Songs of All Time poll, the band led all bands with 8 songs. They released 7 studio albums.

In its earliest incarnation (1972), "Split Ends," was two university friends Tim Finn and Phil Judd writing original songs and their sound was eclectic and mostly acoustic. This Auckland band had Finn on vocals and piano, Judd on guitar and vocals and Mike Chunn on bass, Miles Golding on violin, and Mike Howard on flute.

After their November 1973 EMI NZ second single, "129" / "Sweet Talking Spoon Song" was when the group altered its name to Split Enz. The NZ can be seen as a reference to New Zealand.

Their debut LP Mental Notes (1975) did well on its first release, though sales were mostly in New Zealand and Australia. It hit #19 on the Australian album chart and #7 in New Zealand.

Band members came and went, breaks were taken and after a tour supporting Conflicting Emotions, Paul Hester joined on drums. Things were tense between brothers Tim and Neil (Neil having solo success) and it led to Tim's decision to leave Split Enz so that he could promote the release of his solo Escapade (1983) in Europe.

When it was decided to really end the band, Tim came back and the "Enz with a Bang" Australasian farewell tour happened in late 1984. Split Enz played its last show on 4 December 1984 in Auckland and a double album recorded on the farewell tour, The Living Enz, was released in December 1985.

Eventually, Neil Finn and drummer Paul Hester founded a new band, Crowded House. Tim Finn briefly joined Crowded House later. They also recorded two albums together as the Finn Brothers.