By Sally Deering  

The story starts with two brothers and a couple of friends from Bayonne who wrote and recorded a song called Bim Sala Bim back in the 1970s. They took the title from “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” when Carson played fortune teller Carnac the Magnificent. He and Ed McMahon would say “Bim Sala Bim” as a greeting to each other.

Lou Gomez wrote the lyrics and his brother Richie Gomez wrote the melody and Ralph Cohen wrote the arrangements to Bim Sala Bim when they were in the 70s band “Hudson County”. The band eventually broke up, but the song lives on. Fast forward to 2016, Gomez finds out from a friend that Bim Sala Bim is on the soundtrack to the new Robert DeNiro movie, HANDS OF STONE.

“The group became known for its funk sound,” Gomez says, from his home in Sayreville.  “We were signed to RCA records by Warren Schatz and asked to produce some material for a compilation album and a single release. Our single was “Heavenâ€s Here on Earth” and we were told it would be released at the same time Vickie Sue Robinson was to release Turn the Beat Around. At that time we also recorded Bim Sala Bim. Forty years later I get a call from a friend that Bim Sala Bim is a big underground hit in Europe especially Greece and Italy. It was later found out that the song was bootlegged by some unknown group called Fantastic Soul Inventions who just slapped their name on our recording.”

The song was featured on You Tube, the TV show “Soul Train” and recently was heard in the new Robert DeNiro movie.

F“The irony is that we never made a dime from the song,” Gomez says. “The amazing thing is that after all this time the song lives on in discos around the world and now on the big screen.”

Gomez sings these days for the band Sounds of the Street 5 that tours all over South Jersey. He says he found out the other day that the Master which is owned by their former “Hudson County” piano player John Mulrennan was sold to Warren Schatz of RCA. But thereâ€s still a little mystery as to who owns the rights to the song, not just the Master.

“What I learned now is if you own the Master, you have the rights to distribute it,” Gomez says. “Someone in Europe heard Bim Sala Bim and John gave them permission to use the song or sold them the rights. Thatâ€s how it got in the movie. Some producer from the movie called him and said, we heard this song, we want to use a clip for the movie.”

.When asked how the rights to the song got tangled up in red tape, Gomez says,

“It was the 70s, we were glad to be working.”

Ironically, the success of Bim Sala Bim broke up the band for good.

“It started to get a lot of air play across the country,” Gomez says. “Then we all started getting carried away about the money.”

For more info on Lou Gomezâ€s band, Sounds of the Street 5, go to:

www.soundsofthestreet5.com

The post WHOSE SONG IS IT ANYWAY?Songwriter Lou Gomez’s BIM SALA BIM surfaces in new Robert DeNiro Flick first appeared on River View Observer.

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LETTING GO

FIRST ALBUM IN SEVEN YEARS

Singer songwriter Jennifer Knapp returned from a seven-year hiatus with her new album Letting Go (Gravlin/RED), released on May 11th 2010. The Grammy nominated, Dove Award winning artist is currently on a cross-country tour, which included performances at SXSW and the re-vamped Lilith Fair.

Recorded in Nashville, Letting Go was produced by Paul Moak (Mat Kearney, Martha Wainwright, and Amy Grant) and features ten intimate folk, country-tinged rock songs showcasing her astonishing straightforwardness and spirituality. 

 
In what many would consider a controversial but brave decision, a month before the release of Letting Go, the acclaimed musician publicly came out as a lesbian. And as always, Jennifer Knapp continues to speak openly and honestly. She told Reuters “If there’s any frustration, it’s trying to politely break the yoke of being asked to be something that I just can’t be, and with all humility go: ‘Just please be kind when you discover the truth.’ It’s kinda all you can do.”

 Knapp’s impressive history includes selling over one million albums with her previous releases Kansas (her debut1998), Lay It Down (2000), and The Way I Am (2001).  The Kansas-born musician toured the globe with artists such as Jars of Clay and was featured on 1999’s Lilith Fair tour.  She received critical acclaim with The Los Angeles Times calling her “a rising star” and People Magazine describing her as “an uncommonly literate songwriter.”

Jennifer went on to win her first Dove Award in 1999 for Best New Artist, scored a Grammy nod in 2002 and another Dove nomination in 2003.  With a considerable fan base, critical and commercial successes, Knapp walked away from it all at the height of her career. She explains her choice wasn’t easy but definitely necessary, “I completely had to divorce myself from the whole thing because I never really took ownership of what music meant for me as an individual. I needed to figure that out, so I really left the music business with the idea that I may not ever do it again.” She continues to explain her decision to return, “It was hard, and the whole time I was gone, it was like I had a shadow following me. I began to return to it in my own private time, getting out my guitar, starting to play and falling in love with music again without any expectations. I just wanted to play because it meant something to me.”

 After seven years of soul searching and time spent in Australia, Knapp comes full circle with Letting Go, an album of songs about inner-conflicts, spirituality, and life lessons.

Tour Dates:

August 28: Northampton, MA: Iron Horse Music Hall
August 30: Hoboken, NJ: Maxwell’s

August 31: New York, NY: Joe’s Pub at the Public Theatre
September 1: Norfolk, CT: Infinity Hall
September 2: Boston, MA: Café 939

September 5: South Boston, VA: Bistro 1888September 15: Redondo Beach, CA: Brixton

September 16: Los Angeles, CA: The Mint
September 17: San Diego, CA: Anthology

September 19: San Juan Capistrano, CA: The Coach House
September 21: Sacramento, CA: Harlow’s Night Club
September 22: San Francisco, CA: Red Devil Lounge
September 23: Portland, OR: Peter’s Room at Roseland
September 25: Boise, ID: Knitting Factory
September 26: Seattle, WA: Hard Rock Café
October 9: Baltimore, MD: Station North Arts District
October 12: Chicago, IL: Lincoln Hall
October 26: Denver, CO: Bluebird Theatre
 
Official Bio Available Here
www.jenniferknapp.com

www.myspace.com/jenniferknapp

www.twitter.com/jennifer_knapp

www.youtube.com/user/JenniferKnappMusic

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