Don't have much to report. Still without Internet, though that will change soon, thank Ghod. I can hardly see the laptop's screen through the glare from the sun in the Staples parking lot where I'm typing this. Sorry -- I know some of you Out There haven't seen the sun in WEEKS. Not trying to rub your faces in it. Seems like the rest of the country's getting our usual crappy winter weather....
I'm 35,000 words (about 60 pages) into writing another memoir, this time about my step-brother, who had a big impact on me back when I was 15 years old. While hanging around with him was the first time I ever got close to GIRLS(!), the first time I ever got stoned, the first time I ever committed petty theft, etc.
I'm to the point now where I just have a few leftovers to add to the main story, then will proofread it -- then will try to track down my step-brother back in Michigan, who I haven't seen since 1975 ... and see if he remembers who I am. Should be fun. When finished, this one will be shorter than my last two e-books, which might even be a good thing. One of my Faithful Readers Out There has been waiting to read The Rest of this story for more than 30 years. I hope it's worth the wait.
Am also 20,000+ words into my Strange Music Guide -- but somehow it's easier and more satisfying to remember what I was doing 40 years ago than it is to wrack my brain for my opinion on some weird music album I heard once or twice in 1979 and then traded off because I didn't like it.... But I promise the Guide will be done before this laptop gives up the ghost....
I'm also 15,000+ words into the Rock Group Novel I tried to write a decade ago -- I've got all my old material punched in here, and when the time comes I'll push it and see if it leads anywhere Good. Hopefully....
Am still playing Strange Music at work -- lots of Yes and ELP and King Crimson, The Nice and others. Grabbed a cheap used copy of Yes's YESYEARS CD box-set awhile back and am enjoying the previously-unreleased stuff. Their version of The Beatles' "I'm Down" is pretty funny ... though not as funny as the original .. and isn't it WHINY?
Am also enjoying other old Yes faves like "Every Little Thing" and "No Opportunity Necessary." Just one complaint so far: Why couldn't they fit the full 10-minute version of Paul Simon's "America" somewhere in the box? They didn't have the SPACE?
Haven't tried out "Gates of Delirium" or "Ritual" yet, but will get to them. Also have "Tarkus" back in the house on ELP's 2-disc best-of, so am building up my strength for that. It's all in the name of Research, don't ya know? The things I put myself through for you people....
More soonish....
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
#734: Lemmy at 'em!
Hey, you know Lemmy, from Motorhead? He wrote a BOOK! It's called WHITE LINE FEVER! It's really great! It's really funny! It's really easy to read! It's got pictures and everything! You should get it! You'll like it, even if you're not a Motorhead fan! And if you aren't, why aren't you?!
The book follows Lemmy through 30+ years on the road with his band Motorhead, and with his earlier bands like the notorious heavy-space-rockers Hawkwind, and with unknowns like Opal Butterfly and The Rockin' Vicars! I gotta tell ya -- I started with the chapter about Hawkwind, 'cos they've always been one of my faves! And then I read the rest of the book, which is all about hittin' the road with Motorhead! It's all right! Lemmy doesn't exactly tell you how it FEELS to be in a heavy-metal band, but he definitely tells you about all the things they did, and the craziness and chaos comes across LOUD and CLEAR. Lemmy also talks about some of the drugs he did -- he proudly admits he's a speed freak -- and a few of the many women he made it with. Not that I was keeping track or anything! Neither was Lemmy!
I also gotta tell ya that I didn't read the first chapter or two, about what little Ian Kilmister was like as a boy. To be honest, if Lemmy WASN'T born 6 feet tall, wearing black leather, with a bass in his hand and a Bad Attitude, I don't really wanna know!
I think you'll have a good time with this book! At least you'll laugh, almost as much as when you listen to Motorhead's albums! Whatta band! "Killed by Death"! Great song! Funny! "Born to Raise Hell!" Great song! Funny! "Ace of Spades"! Great song! Not too funny, though.
Not sure what this chick Janiss Garza -- the co-writer who got her name on the front cover with Lemmy -- DID other than switch-on the tape recorder, type-up Lemmy's comments, and make sure the book was sorta in English before she sent it to the publisher ... but she did a great job!
You should get the book! And you should buy some Motorhead albums, too! I've tried, but there are never any at the Goodwill store! What the fuck is up with THAT?!
...Oh, I also finally finished Hunter S. Thompson's THE PROUD HIGHWAY, a HUGE collection of his letters up through 1967, after he finished writing his breakthrough book, HELL'S ANGELS. And HIGHWAY shows clearly that ANGELS didn't make HST rich!
Best thing in the book is a series of letters to and from old-time writer Nelson Algren -- Thompson wants to quote some of Algren's stuff in ANGELS, Algren gets snippy, and HST fires back in full wrath -- it's freaking hilarious. The whole book's worth it if you're a big HST fan, but it's a LONG read....
Have been continuing with THE VERY BEST OF DEEP PURPLE. I'm sort of surprised how much I like them. "Child in Time" teeters on the edge of unlistenability and comedy, and then they pull it back with that great middle-break guitar freakout that I've loved ever since I heard a piece of it in the movie TWISTER and didn't know what the heck it was, though I knew who the band was. I mistakenly thought it was "Space Truckin'" -- which is great silly fun, too!
These guys were pretty freakin' great. Too bad it took me 40 years to "discover" them....
Have also been listening to The Pretenders' GREATEST HITS. Not everything I want to hear by them is on it, but it's great to hear "Message of Love" and "Back on the Chain Gang" and "Kid" and "Stop Your Sobbing" while I'm working. I've underrated "Don't Get Me Wrong" for years. I always thought it was good, but I LOVE the way Chrissie Hynde sings "Who can explain the thunder and rain/But there's something in the airrrrrrrr...."
I'm 80 pages into Ken Dryden's THE GAME, written the last year he was an NHL goalie, 1979. I was never a Dryden fan when he played for the Montreal Canadiens -- he and they were WAY too good, and they beat up my beloved early-'70s Boston Bruins too often. But everybody knew Dryden was a sharp guy. And his book -- which offers a lot of great funny stories and behind-the-scenes looks at the guys he played alongside -- is beautifully written.... However: the ending of the book is an anti-climax. Dryden never even SAYS that Montreal won their fourth straight Stanley Cup at the end of the season. Maybe it really WAS time for him to retire....
Things have changed a little around here. I currently don't have any easy Internet access -- but I'll be posting here as often as I can manage. And I've now got three different writing projects I'm making some progress on, so I'll keep you posted....
Have you bought any of my books yet? And why haven't you?
More soonly....
The book follows Lemmy through 30+ years on the road with his band Motorhead, and with his earlier bands like the notorious heavy-space-rockers Hawkwind, and with unknowns like Opal Butterfly and The Rockin' Vicars! I gotta tell ya -- I started with the chapter about Hawkwind, 'cos they've always been one of my faves! And then I read the rest of the book, which is all about hittin' the road with Motorhead! It's all right! Lemmy doesn't exactly tell you how it FEELS to be in a heavy-metal band, but he definitely tells you about all the things they did, and the craziness and chaos comes across LOUD and CLEAR. Lemmy also talks about some of the drugs he did -- he proudly admits he's a speed freak -- and a few of the many women he made it with. Not that I was keeping track or anything! Neither was Lemmy!
I also gotta tell ya that I didn't read the first chapter or two, about what little Ian Kilmister was like as a boy. To be honest, if Lemmy WASN'T born 6 feet tall, wearing black leather, with a bass in his hand and a Bad Attitude, I don't really wanna know!
I think you'll have a good time with this book! At least you'll laugh, almost as much as when you listen to Motorhead's albums! Whatta band! "Killed by Death"! Great song! Funny! "Born to Raise Hell!" Great song! Funny! "Ace of Spades"! Great song! Not too funny, though.
Not sure what this chick Janiss Garza -- the co-writer who got her name on the front cover with Lemmy -- DID other than switch-on the tape recorder, type-up Lemmy's comments, and make sure the book was sorta in English before she sent it to the publisher ... but she did a great job!
You should get the book! And you should buy some Motorhead albums, too! I've tried, but there are never any at the Goodwill store! What the fuck is up with THAT?!
...Oh, I also finally finished Hunter S. Thompson's THE PROUD HIGHWAY, a HUGE collection of his letters up through 1967, after he finished writing his breakthrough book, HELL'S ANGELS. And HIGHWAY shows clearly that ANGELS didn't make HST rich!
Best thing in the book is a series of letters to and from old-time writer Nelson Algren -- Thompson wants to quote some of Algren's stuff in ANGELS, Algren gets snippy, and HST fires back in full wrath -- it's freaking hilarious. The whole book's worth it if you're a big HST fan, but it's a LONG read....
Have been continuing with THE VERY BEST OF DEEP PURPLE. I'm sort of surprised how much I like them. "Child in Time" teeters on the edge of unlistenability and comedy, and then they pull it back with that great middle-break guitar freakout that I've loved ever since I heard a piece of it in the movie TWISTER and didn't know what the heck it was, though I knew who the band was. I mistakenly thought it was "Space Truckin'" -- which is great silly fun, too!
These guys were pretty freakin' great. Too bad it took me 40 years to "discover" them....
Have also been listening to The Pretenders' GREATEST HITS. Not everything I want to hear by them is on it, but it's great to hear "Message of Love" and "Back on the Chain Gang" and "Kid" and "Stop Your Sobbing" while I'm working. I've underrated "Don't Get Me Wrong" for years. I always thought it was good, but I LOVE the way Chrissie Hynde sings "Who can explain the thunder and rain/But there's something in the airrrrrrrr...."
I'm 80 pages into Ken Dryden's THE GAME, written the last year he was an NHL goalie, 1979. I was never a Dryden fan when he played for the Montreal Canadiens -- he and they were WAY too good, and they beat up my beloved early-'70s Boston Bruins too often. But everybody knew Dryden was a sharp guy. And his book -- which offers a lot of great funny stories and behind-the-scenes looks at the guys he played alongside -- is beautifully written.... However: the ending of the book is an anti-climax. Dryden never even SAYS that Montreal won their fourth straight Stanley Cup at the end of the season. Maybe it really WAS time for him to retire....
Things have changed a little around here. I currently don't have any easy Internet access -- but I'll be posting here as often as I can manage. And I've now got three different writing projects I'm making some progress on, so I'll keep you posted....
Have you bought any of my books yet? And why haven't you?
More soonly....
Monday, January 6, 2014
#733: Back to Prog!
Hey out there. I'm 12,000 words into my next e-book, a guide to Strange Music to be called LISTEN TO THIS!, and I've actually got quite a few reviews/entries written already. Will also be going back through this blog over the next few days to take notes on any weird stuff I listened to and reviewed here over the past couple of years and then forgot about/gave away/traded in/couldn't wait to throw out of the house, etc.
To get me back In The Mood, I've been listening to a little Prog over the last week, like....
King Crimson -- 21st Century Schizoid Man, Epitaph, Cat Food, The Sailor's Tale, Bolero, Lark's Tongues in Aspic Part 1, Lark's Tongues in Aspic Part 2, Fracture, Red, Elephant Talk, Frame by Frame, The Sheltering Sky, Discipline, The King Crimson Barber Shop, The Talking Drum (live), Mars (live), Larks Two (live).
Camel -- Sasquatch, Never Let Go.
Emerson, Lake and Palmer -- Fanfare for the Common Man, From the Beginning, Karn Evil 9/1st Impression, Still ... You Turn Me On.
Deep Purple -- Hush, Kentucky Woman, Highway Star, Black Night, Burn, Stormbringer.
The above Crimson tracks are from their FRAME BY FRAME best-of, which I've finally had time to absorb a little of. The box set does at least clean up the pieces from LARK'S TONGUES IN ASPIC, which I always thought was a little too trebly and screechy and distorted -- or was the whole album Bob Fripp's frustrated commentary about John Wetton's super-loud bass?
For the longest time, all I could stand to listen to on LARK'S was the ballad "Book of Saturday" and the bump-and-grind classic "Easy Money." I still don't think the cleaned-up tracks on the box are the best performances of those pieces -- they sound way better on the GREAT DECEIVER box set. But the remixes/cleaned-up versions are a definite improvement.
Meanwhile, once I hear the openings of "Schizoid Man" or "Epitaph," I just can't shut them off -- I've gotta listen to the whole thing, even if I don't really WANT to.
"The Sailor's Tale" is almost good -- even if the steel/banjo-ish ending recalls the close of "Lark's One." "Bolero" is something different -- orchestrated mood-music, as if intended for a movie soundtrack. This isn't what I listen to Crimson FOR, but it's different and nice, especially the overlapping, entwining horn parts. The edited version of "Fracture" on the box gets to the point much quicker -- but I still think any version of "Starless" that drops off the earthshaking last 8 minutes is a joke....
Finally got ELP's ATLANTIC YEARS best-of back in the house, and am as annoyed at Atlantic about not including the full "Fanfare for the Common Man" as I am about Fripp cutting "Starless," or about Atlantic not including Yes's full "America" on their best-of's. The sloppily-edited single-version of "Fanfare" is a joke -- the long version should've been a prog-rock monument. It's one of their best moments. Luckily, I've also got the full version on the WONDROUS STORIES prog-rock sampler.... Am also building up my strength to tackle "Tarkus" again soon -- for purposes of the new book....
OK, so Deep Purple wasn't prog. But but but, there's their early CONCERTO FOR GROUP AND ORCHESTRA album that I've never heard a note of, and organist Jon Lord certainly had some aspirations toward art-rock, with his GEMINI SUITE (haven't heard that either) and any number of organ fills he did for Purple.
Happy to say there's LOTS of loud, obnoxious, screaming organ work on THE VERY BEST OF DEEP PURPLE. Haven't heard all that much by these guys, so maybe my education can start here. I've always been a sucker for "Hush" and "Kentucky Woman" and "Highway Star," can live with "Woman From Tokyo," and change the radio station every time "Smoke on the Water" comes on.
Their stuff sure does MOVE, don't it? So far, I'd say "Black Night" is a lot of fun (though do I detect a stolen riff from Blues Magoos' "We Ain't Got Nothin' Yet"? Shocking!), "Burn" has some great screaming choruses, and I don't remember "Stormbringer" much.
I'll be getting deeper into this, and will probably be kicking myself for mostly ignoring these guys for the past 40 years....
More soon -- and buy my books, will ya? My plan to have this e-book stuff pay for my retirement ain't workin' out yet....
Oh, and if you're one of the 36 people who downloaded my record-store memoir GUARANTEED GREAT MUSIC! for free around Christmas, feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you thought of it HERE. That should give us something fun to talk about....
To get me back In The Mood, I've been listening to a little Prog over the last week, like....
King Crimson -- 21st Century Schizoid Man, Epitaph, Cat Food, The Sailor's Tale, Bolero, Lark's Tongues in Aspic Part 1, Lark's Tongues in Aspic Part 2, Fracture, Red, Elephant Talk, Frame by Frame, The Sheltering Sky, Discipline, The King Crimson Barber Shop, The Talking Drum (live), Mars (live), Larks Two (live).
Camel -- Sasquatch, Never Let Go.
Emerson, Lake and Palmer -- Fanfare for the Common Man, From the Beginning, Karn Evil 9/1st Impression, Still ... You Turn Me On.
Deep Purple -- Hush, Kentucky Woman, Highway Star, Black Night, Burn, Stormbringer.
The above Crimson tracks are from their FRAME BY FRAME best-of, which I've finally had time to absorb a little of. The box set does at least clean up the pieces from LARK'S TONGUES IN ASPIC, which I always thought was a little too trebly and screechy and distorted -- or was the whole album Bob Fripp's frustrated commentary about John Wetton's super-loud bass?
For the longest time, all I could stand to listen to on LARK'S was the ballad "Book of Saturday" and the bump-and-grind classic "Easy Money." I still don't think the cleaned-up tracks on the box are the best performances of those pieces -- they sound way better on the GREAT DECEIVER box set. But the remixes/cleaned-up versions are a definite improvement.
Meanwhile, once I hear the openings of "Schizoid Man" or "Epitaph," I just can't shut them off -- I've gotta listen to the whole thing, even if I don't really WANT to.
"The Sailor's Tale" is almost good -- even if the steel/banjo-ish ending recalls the close of "Lark's One." "Bolero" is something different -- orchestrated mood-music, as if intended for a movie soundtrack. This isn't what I listen to Crimson FOR, but it's different and nice, especially the overlapping, entwining horn parts. The edited version of "Fracture" on the box gets to the point much quicker -- but I still think any version of "Starless" that drops off the earthshaking last 8 minutes is a joke....
Finally got ELP's ATLANTIC YEARS best-of back in the house, and am as annoyed at Atlantic about not including the full "Fanfare for the Common Man" as I am about Fripp cutting "Starless," or about Atlantic not including Yes's full "America" on their best-of's. The sloppily-edited single-version of "Fanfare" is a joke -- the long version should've been a prog-rock monument. It's one of their best moments. Luckily, I've also got the full version on the WONDROUS STORIES prog-rock sampler.... Am also building up my strength to tackle "Tarkus" again soon -- for purposes of the new book....
OK, so Deep Purple wasn't prog. But but but, there's their early CONCERTO FOR GROUP AND ORCHESTRA album that I've never heard a note of, and organist Jon Lord certainly had some aspirations toward art-rock, with his GEMINI SUITE (haven't heard that either) and any number of organ fills he did for Purple.
Happy to say there's LOTS of loud, obnoxious, screaming organ work on THE VERY BEST OF DEEP PURPLE. Haven't heard all that much by these guys, so maybe my education can start here. I've always been a sucker for "Hush" and "Kentucky Woman" and "Highway Star," can live with "Woman From Tokyo," and change the radio station every time "Smoke on the Water" comes on.
Their stuff sure does MOVE, don't it? So far, I'd say "Black Night" is a lot of fun (though do I detect a stolen riff from Blues Magoos' "We Ain't Got Nothin' Yet"? Shocking!), "Burn" has some great screaming choruses, and I don't remember "Stormbringer" much.
I'll be getting deeper into this, and will probably be kicking myself for mostly ignoring these guys for the past 40 years....
More soon -- and buy my books, will ya? My plan to have this e-book stuff pay for my retirement ain't workin' out yet....
Oh, and if you're one of the 36 people who downloaded my record-store memoir GUARANTEED GREAT MUSIC! for free around Christmas, feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you thought of it HERE. That should give us something fun to talk about....
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