Long Time No See!

Or, more accurately, long time no post. October was car-aaa-zay! So I missed a bunch of stuff from October. But I'll post about it later to make up for it.

In the meantime, I have something just for today.

It's Lulu's birthday!!!!

Lulu for those of you who don't know is a singer and actress who entered the world as Marie McLachlan McDonald Lawrie in Scotland in 1948. Her biggest claim to fame was acting in the 1967 flick To Sir, With Love with Sidney Poitier and scoring a massive worldwide hit with the film's eponymous theme song (great movie, great song, in my opinion). She was also married to Bee Gee Maurice Gibb from 1969-73. The Bee Gees were already famous because of their pre-disco songs so this was a wedding of two very young celebrities; Lulu was 20 while Maurice had just turned 19 (probably already had all that chest hair though, love it!) . Today that would be kinda like Taylor Swift marrying Nick Jonas, except with one of the older Jonas Brothers disapproving because he thinks the couple is too young (as Barry Gibb did) and with Nick having a drinking problem (which is reportedly why the marriage ended). Later she married the famous hairstylist John Frieda and had a son with him before their divorce.

Lulu also sang a James Bond theme song for The Man With the Golden Gun.



And here she is covering David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World". Bowie produced the track and played the sax.



Lulu used to have a TV show in the UK and probably her most famous guest was Jimi Hendrix, who appeared on 4 January 1969. Years later, Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell recalled that Lulu wanted to duet with Jimi on "Hey Joe." (I saw him tell this story on an MTV Rockumentary of Hendrix years ago; I still have it on tape!) When she came 'round before the taping to rehearse, Jimi begged off, saying," I think we should just keep it fresh." Mitchell said that later, as the band played the song, they could see Lulu waiting in the wings about to join the group, so Jimi stopped the song. He then made a dedication to the individual members of Cream, as they had just broken up, and launched into the now-defunct group's classic "Sunshine of Your Love." Jimi enfuriated the show's producers when he kept playing even though the director was signaling him to stop. Instead of leaving time to let Lulu give her "proper goodbye" Jimi laughed and announced," We're being put off the air!" Mitchell remembered that after the taping the show's brass screeched that the Jimi Hendrix Experience would "'never play on the BBC again!' And I don't think we ever did, either. Heh heh heh!"

Yeah, Jimi really didn't want to do that duet!




Did you hear when Jimi said," Plug your ears! Plug your ears!" I love that. He gave a similar warning to the audience at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. And did you check out bassist Noel Redding's T-shirt? It looked like it said,"The Plaster Casters of Chicago." If so, that's a story for another time. Boy is that a story! Maybe I'll post it for Jimi's birthday.

Lulu on Wikipedia
Lulu's astrological birthchart
Lulu's website