Media Center Closed Wednesday, June 19

The Media Center will be closed Wednesday, June 19 for the installation of new storage equipment. We will reopen as soon as possible, perhaps by early evening.

The library and learning center will remain open as usual.

Don't forget about streaming audio resources while our physical media are inaccessible.

The Supreme Court and an '80s One-Hit Wonder

While Tommy Tutone would appear to have nothing to do with the Supreme Court, Justice Elena Kagan worked a reference to his lone hit into a recent decision. In her majority opinion in American Trucking Association v. City of Los Angeles, Kagan wrote: "The two directly at issue here compel the company to (1) affix a placard on each truck with a phone number for reporting environmental or safety concerns (You’ve seen the type: 'How am I driving? 213–867–5309.')" Kagan was in her early 20s when Tutone scored his lone hit in 1982, "867-5309/Jenny."

You can find the Tutone song in Like, Omigod! The 80$ Pop Culture Box (Totally) (CD 21291-21297 Disc 2) and with songs by artists with similar career trajectories in VH1 Selections from 1 Hit Wonders (MP1630.18 .P66 V5 2007).

Scott Bomboy, editor-in-chief of the National Constitution Center, reports on this and the history of the song for Constitution Daily:

Justice Elena Kagan adds to the Tommy Tutone legend

Video Tutorials for Online Services

The library offers many online databases, but getting started can be confusing, and it's easy to overlook some of their more powerful features. Video tutorials from EBSCO can help.

EBSCO Publishing provides our ebook collection as well as many of our online article databases such as the Music Index, Education Research Complete and Academic Search Premier. To support their products, they have their own YouTube channel. Their tutorials range from EBSCOhost Basic Search (below) to ones on using their ebook collection and advanced features such as setting up alert services for searches.

 

RIP Arturo Vega, Ramones Artistic Director

Look at just about any list of the greatest band logos and you'll find the iconic Ramones logo inspired by the Presidential seal but featuring a bat-wielding eagle and the members' name. Arturo Vega, the band's artistic director who designed that logo, passed at age 65 on June 8.

The Slicing Up Eyeballs obituary quotes Vega from page 39 the Jim Bessman book Ramones: An American Band (ML421.R366 B4 1933):

I saw them as the ultimate all-American band. To me, they reflected the American character in general — an almost childish innocent aggression… I thought, "The Great Seal of the President of the United States" would be perfect for the Ramones, with the eagle holding arrows — to symbolize strength and the aggression that would be used against whomever dares to attack us — and an olive branch, offered to those who want to be friendly. But we decided to change it a little bit. Instead of the olive branch, we had an apple tree branch, since the Ramones were American as apple pie. And since Johnny was such a baseball fanatic, we had the eagle hold a baseball bat instead of the arrows.

Vega is also among the interviewees in Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk edited by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain (ML3534 .P54 1996).

Need your own inspiration for graphic design? Browse the shelves from NC 1833 to NC 1883.3 for books of great music posters and album cover art.

"Get Lucky"? No Luck Needed to Find Nile Rodgers

Nile Rodgers is attracting new-found attention for his work on Daft Punk's No. 1 album Random Access Memories (CD 35207), particularly the lead single "Get Lucky." The prolific and revered guitarist, producer and songwriter first rose to fame with Chic in the disco era but since then has worked with David Bowie, Madonna, Mariah Carey and a boatload of other big names.

Want to find it all in our collection? It's easier than you may realize with the hyperlinked contributors in our catalog. When you're looking at the details for any item in our collection, such as Random Access Memories, click on the link for Contributors. You'll get a full list of everyone credited. Then click on any name to find everything we own that they've contributed to. For Rodgers, that includes not just the recordings he's worked on but also a video of the 1988 clinic he did at Berklee available in the Career Development Center (CRV 57).

Library Closed Saturday, June 8

The library will be closed Saturday, June 8 due to an electrical shutdown for the entire 150 Mass Ave. building.

Regular hours will resume Sunday, June 9.

Stage Names and Other Musical Pseudonyms

June 3 marks the birthday of John Paul Jones. The Led Zeppelin bassist was born John Baldwin in 1946. His stage name, which he shares with an American hero of the American Revolution, doesn't call attention to itself in the way that Snoop Lion's or Lady Gaga's does.

It is easy enough to find out the real name of anyone with an obvious stage name, but to discover assumed identities, browse through Musical AKAs: Assumed Names and Sobriquets of Composers, Songwriters, Librettists, Lyricists, Hymnists, and Writers on Music by Jeanette Marie Drone(Reference ML105 .D76 2007). It cross-references both original and assumed names and identifies sources for nicknames such as Mr. Can-Can (Manual Gutierrez-Najera), Mr. Tin Pan Alley (Harold Gumm) and assorted other kings, queens, first ladies and godfathers.