When I chose Merry Clayton as a participant on my October 1, 2015 Battle of the Bands that she recently had both of her legs amputated due to a near fatal car accident in 2014. I did vnot know she was going to be honored this month by the American Jazz Foundation with the first ever "Clark and Gwen Terry Courage Award."
I knew her because she provided the original female vocals on the chosen song for my Rocktober Battle of the Band song "Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones. I thought her own version of the song would be cool to feature.
.jpeg)
She lost the Battle to Grand Funk Railroad and Grand Funk Railroad had their day as victors wish you can revisit here.
However with all that Merry Clayton is going through and still have the attitude of "I Still have the voice" I think she deserves a post as well!
Here she talks about doing that song, Mick Jagger offers his thoughts, and a bit of just her..
Interesting trivia early in her career she worked with Ray Charles as one of The Raelettes. Her backup vocals ended up helping singers such as Pearl Bailey, Tom Jones, Joe Cocker, Carol King, Neil Young and more. If backing up The Rolling Stones on "Gimme Shelter" wasn't big enough her vocals also are featured on Lynyrd Skynyrds "Sweet Home Alabama."
In the 80s there was a movie called "Dirty Dancing" which was kind of big. Merry Clayton
is featured on the soundtrack with a song called "Yes"..
Here is a funky song called "Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow"
I didn't realize she also was featured on the Tori Amos song "Cornflake Girl" and was married to jazz musician Curtis Amy. Curtis brother is Sam Clayton who was a percussionist with Little Feat.
Merry Clayton plans to continue to sing and her voice will be featured on the next Coldplay album.
I will be back with a new post soon.
I knew her because she provided the original female vocals on the chosen song for my Rocktober Battle of the Band song "Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones. I thought her own version of the song would be cool to feature.
She lost the Battle to Grand Funk Railroad and Grand Funk Railroad had their day as victors wish you can revisit here.
However with all that Merry Clayton is going through and still have the attitude of "I Still have the voice" I think she deserves a post as well!
Here she talks about doing that song, Mick Jagger offers his thoughts, and a bit of just her..
Interesting trivia early in her career she worked with Ray Charles as one of The Raelettes. Her backup vocals ended up helping singers such as Pearl Bailey, Tom Jones, Joe Cocker, Carol King, Neil Young and more. If backing up The Rolling Stones on "Gimme Shelter" wasn't big enough her vocals also are featured on Lynyrd Skynyrds "Sweet Home Alabama."
In the 80s there was a movie called "Dirty Dancing" which was kind of big. Merry Clayton
is featured on the soundtrack with a song called "Yes"..
Here is a funky song called "Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow"
I didn't realize she also was featured on the Tori Amos song "Cornflake Girl" and was married to jazz musician Curtis Amy. Curtis brother is Sam Clayton who was a percussionist with Little Feat.
Merry Clayton plans to continue to sing and her voice will be featured on the next Coldplay album.
I will be back with a new post soon.
1 comment:
Way to go, Mike! Merry Clayton deserves her props. I have Merry featured in a post or two coming up on SDMM. She was interviewed in the 2013 documentary Twenty Feet From Stardom which I highly recommend. I used Merry's "Yes" recording in a 60 minute documentary that I shot and edited for my NLP seminar program. Thanks again for thinking about her, Mike!
Post a Comment