Music Monday ~ Garth Brooks is Back!

CBS recently featured a 2-hour (including commercials of course) recording of a version of Garth Brooks' one-man Las Vegas show which had been running in that glittering city for some time. He had previously been in semi-retirement for years, concentrating on bringing up his three daughters.

For me the TV show was a revelation. I've been a fan of Garth Brooks since he first shot to fame in the 1990s, even in the UK where country music was then very much a "fringe" interest, on the fringe as usual, it was one of mine. I had no idea, though, that Garth Brooks was such a bundle of infectious enthusiasm and humour!

Two hours flew past, with just the guy and a guitar taking us through his musical education, with tales of his mother's and father's input, snippets of classic songs from a variety of genres (rock, pop, blues, soul, singer/songwriter) from the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s with a few of his own early offerings. Great stuff it was, probably the best thing I shall watch on TV all holiday season!

The CBS TV programme was, no doubt, an advertising gig for GB's new 8-dic (six-CD and two-DVD ) box set marketed through Walmart for a very reasonable sum of just under $25. I might be persuaded to enter Hades (Walmart) to buy me that item - along with a couple of packets of McVitie's Digestives - English taste in cookies has to be fed, Hades or not!

If the TV show is repeated and any passing reader enjoys popular music from the 1950s onward, even if not a country music fan, do take a look - I could almost guarantee you'll enjoy!

All of which sent me digging around in my blog's archives for anything I'd written about Garth Brooks in the past, including some astrological thoughts. I found these:

The Palin/Brooks Phenomenon
and
4 Sons of Aquarius

Here's a brief recent interview with Garth Brooks, about the show.



Digging further - there's this: Brooks has something to say about politics in the USA.
Nice one Mr. B!




Cannot close without a song from him - one of my favourites "The Dance"

........And now I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end, the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance
I could have missed the pain, but I'd have had to miss the dance

MUSICAL MONDAY ~ 4 Sons of Aquarius

Four singer/songwriters with natal Sun in Aquarius are enjoying the presence of helpful Jupiter in their Sun sign. Jupiter entered Aquarius soon after New Year 2009 and will remain in the sign until mid-January 2010 when it'll slide into Pisces.

The four guys have each made news this year:



Garth Brooks (7 February 1962) has recently come out of several years' retirement to star on-stage in Las Vegas. Reports say that Garth mused that his fans might have moved on. He was wrong! Tickets for his first 20 shows sold out in less than five hours.















Robbie Williams (13 February 1974) has recently released a new album which is looked on as something of a re-launch for him, after spending some years in the doldrums, and periods of fighting addiction. It was anounced last week that Robbie will receive an award for outstanding contribution to music at the 2010 Brit Awards. He has already won 11 Brit Awards in the past, but this one is special.








Neil Diamond (24 January 1941) played to a still adoring audience at Madison Square Garden in his hometown, New York a couple of months ago, the concert was also shown on TV and there's a cd/dvd of it avalilable. His new album was released earlier this year too. I recall that Neil 'tweeted' nervously "....but will they still like me?" The answer was plain to see: "You betcha!"













And the newest star in the Sun Aquarius stable, Adam Lambert (29 January 1982), is featured singing the theme song "Time for Miracles", in the new movie "2012" due for release next month. His first solo album, since being declared runner-up in this year's American Idol, will drop on 23 November and is titled "For Your Entertainment". His album is rumored to be quite different from the "2012" song in style - more avant garde, as befits Aquarius.

Fortune has smiled on this talented and charismatic young man all year long, and continues to do so. By the time Jupiter leaves Aquarius, Adam will have established himself firmly, and will be heading for superstardom. That's one prediction I can make without the aid of astrology.

Interestingly, Adam's first album title, "For Your Entertainment" bears a close resemblance to the title of a single from Robbie's first album - "Let Me Entertain You", (from "Life thru a Lens"). All four of these guys are spectacular entertainers and a credit to Aquarius!

Below: a taste of "2012" and Adam singing "Time for Miracles" (if it isn't taken down by the copyright police.) I understand that the song was written by a husband and wife team, when the wife was fighting cancer. She has since died. That makes the lyrics even more pognant than when applied to a general "end of world" scenario.


Time For Miracles

Adam Lambert | MySpace Video

The Palin/Brooks Phenomenon

Whatever else she is (or isn't) Governor Sarah Plain is a phenomenon. She exploded onto the US scene, as if from nowhere, to take over headlines and media time for weeks, even during the worst financial crisis the country has seen since the Great Depression.



Is it significant that when Sarah Palin was born no less than five personal planets lay in one zodiac sign - Aquarius?



To my mind Palin's phenominal explosion into public perception compares to that of Garth Brooks, country music singer/songwriter, who experienced a similarly unexpected (Aquarius/Uranus) rise to fame on the popular and country music scene the 1990s. He became one of the two best-selling solo artists of the 20th century in the USA, Elvis being the other one. Brooks broke records for both sales and concert attendance throughout the 1990s. More at Wikipedia, here.
(Natal charts for both Sarah Palin and Garth Brooks at the end of this post).

In Garth Brooks' natal chart 6 personal planets lie in Aquarius.



Brooks did seem, like Palin, to come out of nowhere. I was an avid country music fan (living in the UK) at the time, and remember it all very well. Clint Black, another multi-Aquarian rose in the country music scene around the same time, but was somewhat overshadowed by the more showy and prolific Brooks.

I don't know whether this is coincidence or whether there is something special about having multiple personal planets in one sign, specifically in Aquarius. There were millions of other people born with large clusters of planets in Aquarius. All haven't been propelled to fame and/or notoriety, that much is obvious. But, what if those with the right talents find themselves at the right place and time, and with with the right people? Add the focus of a big cluster of planets in a zodiac sign related to humanity in general and the unexpected (as in Aquarius). The fairly unusual astrological line up might act as catalyst.

Maybe.

Possibly.

Perhaps.

GARTH BROOKS


SARAH PALIN