Humble Pie

“Eating Humble Pie” is an expression that means to be submissive or apologetic. Its origin goes as far back as the 17th century. The lord of an estate would give the umbles (the less tasty parts of an animal) to his servants. "Umbles" in Middle English was derived from the word numble (after the Middle French nombles), meaning "deer's innards." Typically, they were made into a pie. This became associated with a lower social status.

I knew the phrase more as the name of a rock band.

1970 album

Humble Pie is an English rock band formed by singer-guitarists Peter Frampton and Steve Marriott in 1969. Often regarded as one of the first supergroups in music, Humble Pie experienced moderate popularity and commercial success during the 1970s with hit songs such as "Black Coffee", "30 Days in the Hole", "I Don't Need No Doctor", "Hot 'n' Nasty" and "Natural Born Bugie" among others.

The original line-up of members featured lead singer/frontman and guitarist Steve Marriott of Small Faces, singer-guitarist Peter Frampton of the Herd, former Spooky Tooth bassist Greg Ridley and drummer Jerry Shirley from the Apostolic Intervention.

Having been instantly labeled by the UK music press as a supergroup, the band chose Humble Pie in order to downplay such expectations.

Their debut album, As Safe as Yesterday Is, was released in August 1969, along with the single, "Natural Born Bugie"/"Wrist Job", which reached No. 4 hit in the UK Singles Chart. It is one of the first albums to be described by the term "heavy metal" in a 1970 review in Rolling Stone magazine. I always thought of them as being more "hard rock" than metal, but I'm not a critic. 

On 9 July 1971 Humble Pie opened for Grand Funk Railroad at their historic Shea Stadium concert, an event that broke the Beatles record for fastest-selling stadium concert, to that date. 

That year, Humble Pie released their most successful record to date, Rock On, as well as a live album recorded at the Fillmore East in New York entitled Performance Rockin' the Fillmore. The live album was certified gold by the RIAA. "I Don't Need No Doctor" became an FM radio standard in the US, peaking at No. 73 on the Billboard Hot 100 and propelling the album up the charts. 

By the time of the album's release, Peter Frampton had left the band and went on to considerable success as a solo artist. His live recording Frampton Comes Alive! (1976), had several hit singles, and has earned 8× Platinum by the RIAA in the United States.

The band went through many lineup changes. Steve Marriott died in a house fire in 1991. The band continued to tour and record and during 2018 Jerry Shirley (who still owned the Humble Pie name) created a new lineup that he would direct but not tour with and as of 2023 Shirley's "Humble Pie Legacy" lineup of Dave Colwell (guitar), Jim Stapley (vocals, guitar, Hammond, harmonica), Ivan Bodley (bass) and Bobby Marks (drums) were still actively touring.

Arctic and Antarctica

The Arctic Circle currently at roughly 66° north of the Equator,

defines the boundary of the Arctic seas and lands CC BY 3.0, Link

We know the "top of the world" - the northernmost area of the Earth - as that frozen area known as the Arctic. The name comes from an ancient Greek word. 

Arctic comes from the Greek word ἀρκτικός (arktikos), "near the Bear, northern" and from the word ἄρκτος (arktos), meaning bear. It has nothing to do with the Polar Bears found there but refers either to the constellation known as Ursa Major, the "Great Bear", which is prominent in the northern portion of the celestial sphere, or to the constellation Ursa Minor, the "Little Bear", which contains the celestial north pole (currently very near Polaris, the current north Pole Star, or North Star).

Ursa Major and Minor are constellations visible only in the Northern Hemisphere.

Ursa Major as depicted in Urania's Mirror,
a set of constellation cards published in London c.1825

Antarctica is etymologically believed to be the land “of no Bear,” however, the Greek is actually “άντιάρκτικός” which translates to “opposite of the Bear.”

People often forget that Antarctica is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. It is the fifth-largest continent, being about 40% larger than Europe. It is mostly covered by the Antarctic ice sheet, with an average thickness of 1.9 km (1.2 mi).

The modern name given to the continent originates from the word antarctic, which comes from Middle French antartique or antarctique ('opposite to the Arctic') and, in turn, the Latin antarcticus ('opposite to the north') which is derived from the Greek.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote in Meteorology about an "Antarctic region" in c. 350 BCE, and the Greek geographer Marinus of Tyre reportedly used the name in his world map from the second century CE. (The map is now lost.) The Roman authors Gaius Julius Hyginus and Apuleius used for the South Pole the romanized Greek name polus antarcticus, from which derived the Old French pole antartike (modern pôle antarctique) attested in 1270, and from there the Middle English pol antartik, found first in a treatise written by the English author Geoffrey Chaucer.

Counting Crows

American rock band Counting Crows came out of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. Formed in 1991, the band consists of guitarist David Bryson, drummer Jim Bogios, vocalist Adam Duritz, keyboardist Charlie Gillingham, multi-instrumentalist David Immerglück, bass guitarist Millard Powers, and guitarist Dan Vickrey. Past members include the drummers Steve Bowman (1991–1994) and Ben Mize (1994–2002), and bass guitarist Matt Malley (1991–2005).

The band gained popularity following the release of its first album, August and Everything After (1993) with its hit single "Mr. Jones." The album sold more than 7 million copies in the United States. The band received two Grammy Awards nominations in 1994, one for "Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal" (for "Round Here") and one for "Best New Artist". 

The follow-up album, Recovering the Satellites, reached number one on the US Billboard 200 album chart and reached number one in several other countries. All but one of their subsequent albums reached the top 10 on the Billboard 200 list.

The name Counting Crows comes from an old English nursery rhyme which had to do with predicting the future from the number of birds seen.  Originally the rhyme was about magpies, but as people came over to America, crows were used instead.  

The band's song "A Murder of One" has one version of the rhyme. Adam Duritz just liked the rhyme. 

"One for Sorrow" is the traditional name for the children's nursery rhyme which according to an old superstition says that the number of crows or magpies seen tells if one will have bad or good luck.

One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be told.

THE MUSIC

August & Everything After

Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings (Eco)

Films About Ghosts: The Best of Counting Crows

Recovering the Satellites

Hard Candy

This Desert Life

August Rising

Across A Wire: Live In New York City

New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall

Dead & Dreaming: Tribute to Counting Crows