Beech Tree News Network

When someone posts a lot of photos, whether current, forgotten or both, on social media it’s called a photo dump.  In that spirit, you can call this column an information dump.  First up is one I gleaned from SiriusXM’s ‘80’s on 8 Big 80’s Countdown.  Queen’s classic “Another One Bites The Dust” was influenced by the ‘70’s band Chic.  Queen bassist John Deacon spent some time in studio with the band.  Chic band members said that their sound must’ve rubbed off on them.  Clearly, Deacon took some pointers from the session and “Another One Bites The Dust” was born.

Speaking of Queen, here’s a little tidbit I learned from the recent airing of Disney’s latest singalong show which featured a Disney cast of singers performing Queen songs.  I’d heard this little bit of information years ago somewhere else.  Lady Gaga got her stage name from the Queen classic “Radio Gaga”. 

This next bit of information comes to us from CBS Sunday Morning.  You know those little blurbs of information they’ll put on screen pertaining to a story and leading to a commercial? Coffee drinkers, take note.  Light roast coffee beans have more caffeine than dark roast beans. 

This one comes from the Michael De Barres show on Little Steven’s Underground Garage program on SiriusXM.  He was telling how The Who got that famous stutter on their song “My Generation”.  MDB explains that purple hearts were little purple pills you’d take in the 1960’s.  One side effect is that they’d make you stutter.  And thus, a classic part of a classic song was born.

“Islands In The Stream” is a smash hit from Dolly Parton and the late Kenny Rogers that can be found on Dolly’s 1982 Greatest Hits album.  But do you know where the title originated? I was shocked when I heard it.  I was listening to ‘80’s on 8 weekly countdown.  They take that weekend out of a specific year and countdown the songs from that time.  The week that was chronicled, the #1 song was “Islands In The Stream” by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers.  The title is from an Ernest Hemmingway novel. 

“Islands In The Stream”(1970) is the first of the posthumously published novels of Ernest Hemmingway.  The book was originally intended to revive Hemmingway’s reputation after the negative reviews of Across The River and Into The Trees.  He began writing it in 1950 and advanced greatly through 1951.  The work, rough but seemingly finished, was found by Mary Hemmingway among 332 works Hemmingway left behind at his death.  Islands in the Stream was meant to encompass three stories to illustrate different stages in the life of the main character, Thomas Hudson.  The three different parts of the novel were originally to be titled “The Sea When Young”, “The Sea When Absent and The Sea In Being.  These titles were changed into what are now three acts: “Bimini”, “Cuba” and “At Sea”.  (www.wikipedia.org).  Who knew?