Mason Williams
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Mason Williams
Mason Douglas Williams (born August 24, 1938) is an American classical guitarist, composer, singer, writer, comedian, and poet, best known for his 1968 instrumental "Classical Gas" and for his work as a comedy writer on ''The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour'', ''The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour'', and ''Saturday Night Live''. Early life Williams was born in Abilene, Texas, the son of Jackson Eugene (a tile setter) and Kathlyn (née Nations) Williams. Williams grew up dividing his time between living with his father in Oklahoma and his mother in Oakridge, Oregon. He graduated from Northwest Classen High School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1956. It was in Oklahoma that he began his lifelong friendship with artist Edward Ruscha. He attended Oklahoma City University (1957–60) and North Texas State University for one semester, and served in the United States Navy from 1961 to 1963. Career Music In 1968, Williams won three Grammy Awards for his guitar instrumental "Classi ...
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Classical Gas
"Classical Gas" is an instrumental musical piece composed and originally performed by American guitarist Mason Williams with instrumental backing by members of the Wrecking Crew. Originally released in 1968 on the album ''The Mason Williams Phonograph Record'', it has been rerecorded and rereleased numerous times since by Williams. One later version served as the title track of a 1987 album by Williams and the band Mannheim Steamroller. History Originally named "Classical Gasoline", the tune was envisioned to be "fuel" for the classical guitar repertoire. The title was later inadvertently shortened by a music copyist. Mike Post, later famous for television theme music, was a producer and arranger for the song. Williams was the head writer for ''The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour'' at the time of the piece's release and premiered the composition on the show. Williams performed it several times over several episodes. After the piece had reached the Top 10, Williams asked an e ...
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Abilene, Texas
Abilene ( ) is a city in Taylor and Jones Counties in Texas, United States. Its population was 125,182 at the 2020 census, making it the 27th-most populous city in the state of Texas. It is the principal city of the Abilene metropolitan statistical area, which had an estimated population of 169,893, as of 2016. It is the county seat of Taylor County. Dyess Air Force Base is located on the west side of the city. Abilene is located off Interstate 20, between exits 279 on its western edge and 292 on the east. It is west of Fort Worth. The city is looped by I-20 to the north, US 83/84 on the west, and Loop 322 to the east. A railroad divides the city down the center into north and south. The historic downtown area is on the north side of the railroad. History Established by cattlemen as a stock shipping point on the Texas and Pacific Railway in 1881, the city was named after Abilene, Kansas, the original endpoint for the Chisholm Trail. The T&P had bypassed the town of Buffal ...
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The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour
''The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour'' was an American music and comedy television variety show hosted by singer Glen Campbell from January 29, 1969, to June 13, 1972, on CBS. He was offered the show after he hosted a 1968 summer replacement for ''The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour''. Campbell used "Gentle on My Mind" as the theme song of the show. The show was one of the few shows with rural audience appeal to survive CBS's rural purge of 1971, a survival made more unusual because it had fallen out of the top 30 shows that season. Reruns of the show are in the library of free over-the-top services Pluto TV and Shout! Factory TV. Nielsen Ratings NOTE: The highest average rating for the series is in bold text. Home media One full episode and several highlights of other episodes of ''The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour'' have been released on two videos and one DVD. See also * ''The Glen Campbell Music Show ''The Glen Campbell Music Show'' was a syndicated US music television ser ...
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Mike Post
Mike Post (born Leland Michael Postil, September 29, 1944) is an American composer, best known for his TV theme music for various shows, including ''Law & Order''; '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit''; ''The A-Team''; ''NYPD Blue''; ''Renegade;'' ''The Rockford Files''; ''L.A. Law''; ''Quantum Leap''; ''Magnum, P.I.''; and ''Hill Street Blues''. Early musical career Post's first credited work in music was cutting demos using two singing sisters, Terry and Carol Fischer. With Sally Gordon, they went on to become The Murmaids. Their first single, "Popsicles and Icicles" (written by David Gates), was a number 3 hit song in January 1964. Post also provided early guidance for the garage rock band The Outcasts while in recruit training in San Antonio, Texas. He was the songwriter and producer for both songs on the band's first single, released in 1965, and also arranged a local concert where they served as the back-up band. He won his first Grammy Award at age 23 for Best Instrume ...
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Instrumental
An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instrumentals. The music is primarily or exclusively produced using musical instruments. An instrumental can exist in music notation, after it is written by a composer; in the mind of the composer (especially in cases where the composer themselves will perform the piece, as in the case of a blues solo guitarist or a folk music fiddle player); as a piece that is performed live by a single instrumentalist or a musical ensemble, which could range in components from a duo or trio to a large big band, concert band or orchestra. In a song that is otherwise sung, a section that is not sung but which is played by instruments can be called an instrumental interlude, or, if it occurs at the beginning of the song, before the singer starts to sing ...
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Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the music industry worldwide. It was originally called the Gramophone Awards, as the trophy depicts a gilded Phonograph, gramophone. The Grammys are the first of the Big Three television networks, Big Three networks' major music awards held annually, and is considered one of the EGOT, four major annual American entertainment awards, alongside the Academy Awards (for films), the Emmy Awards (for television), and the Tony Awards (for theater). The 1st Annual Grammy Awards, first Grammy Awards ceremony was held on May 4, 1959, to honor the musical accomplishments of performers for the year 1958. After the 2011 ceremony, the Recording Academy overhauled many Grammy Award categories for 2012. History The Grammys ...
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United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of its active battle fleet alone exceeding the next 13 navies combined, including 11 allies or partner nations of the United States as of 2015. It has the highest combined battle fleet tonnage (4,635,628 tonnes as of 2019) and the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with eleven in service, two new carriers under construction, and five other carriers planned. With 336,978 personnel on active duty and 101,583 in the Ready Reserve, the United States Navy is the third largest of the United States military service branches in terms of personnel. It has 290 deployable combat vessels and more than 2,623 operational aircraft . The United States Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revo ...
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North Texas State University
The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal School," Dallas Morning News, May 25, 1901, p. 2. UNT is a member of the University of North Texas System, which includes additional universities in Dallas and Fort Worth. UNT also has a location in Frisco. The university consists of 14 colleges and schools, an early admissions math and science academy for exceptional high-school-age students from across the state, the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, and a library system that comprises the university core. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". According to the National Science Foundation, UNT spent $78.4 million on research and development in 2019. Campus The main campus is located in Denton, TX part of the largest metropolitan area in Tex ...
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Oklahoma City University
Oklahoma City University (OCU) is a private university historically affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The university offers undergraduate bachelor's degrees, graduate master's degrees and doctoral degrees, organized into eight colleges and schools and one Methodist seminary. Students can major in more than 70 undergraduate majors, 20 graduate degrees, including a JD, MBA, MFA, and PhD in Nursing, and an Adult Studies Program for working adults to earn a Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts degree. The university has approximately 3,000 students, including 1,200 graduate students. The official school and athletic colors are blue and white. History Early history Oklahoma City University began as Epworth University by local developer Anton Classen in the early 1900s. Classen was looking to begin a Methodist university in conjunction with other development projects he worked on. Construction of the school began in 1902 and ...
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Orlando Sentinel
The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune Publishing''. This company was acquired by Alden Global Capital, which operates its media properties through Digital First Media, in May 2021. The newspaper's website utilizes geo-blocking, thus making it unaccessible from European countries. History The ''Sentinel''s predecessors date to 1876, when the ''Orange County Reporter'' was first published. The ''Reporter'' became a daily newspaper in 1905, and merged with the ''Orlando Evening Star'' in 1906. Another Orlando paper, the ''South Florida Sentinel'', started publishing as a morning daily in 1913. Then known as the ''Morning Sentinel'', it bought the ''Reporter-Star'' in 1931, when Martin Andersen came to Orlando to manage both papers. Andersen eventually bought both papers outrigh ...
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Edward Ruscha
Edward Joseph Ruscha IV (, ''roo-SHAY''; born December 16, 1937) is an American artist associated with the pop art movement. He has worked in the media of painting, printmaking, drawing, photography and film. He is also noted for creating several artist's books. His works is often associated with the Pop Art movement. Ruscha lives and works in Culver City, California. Early life and education Ruscha was born into a Roman Catholic family in Omaha, Nebraska, with an older sister, Shelby, and a younger brother, Paul. Edward Ruscha, Sr. was an auditor for Hartford Insurance Company. Ruscha's mother was supportive of her son's early signs of artistic skill and interests. Young Ruscha was attracted to cartooning and would sustain this interest throughout his adolescent years. Though born in Nebraska, Ruscha lived some 15 years in Oklahoma City before moving to Los Angeles in 1956 where he studied at the Chouinard Art Institute (now known as the California Institute of the Arts) unde ...
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Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and is the 8th largest city in the Southern United States. The population grew following the 2010 census and reached 687,725 in the 2020 census. The Oklahoma City metropolitan area had a population of 1,396,445, and the Oklahoma City–Shawnee Combined Statistical Area had a population of 1,469,124, making it Oklahoma's largest municipality and metropolitan area by population. Oklahoma City's city limits extend somewhat into Canadian, Cleveland, and Pottawatomie counties, though much of those areas outside the core Oklahoma County area are suburban tracts or protected rural zones ( watershed). The city is the eighth-largest in the United States by area including consolidated city-counties; it is the second-largest, after Houston, not inclu ...
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