Because I can't play a musical instrument, maybe I hear things differently than some music bloggers out there (Crabby, the late lamented Groove Sandwich, etc). Maybe it just means I'm ignorant when it comes to writing about music.
I tried to learn how to play guitar and drums when I was a kid, but I didn't have the discipline to stick with either. I gave up without even trying to learn the piano. I just wanted to make some noise.
So I riff on a computer keyboard instead. My kids were born with all the natural musical talent, and I'll bet they hear things differently than I do, too. When it comes to musical ability, I have a tough time getting the CD player turned on correctly, sometimes. I like to think I've gained SOME discipline with my writing, but that took years, too.
In that autobiographical rock group novel I tried to write, I had myself playing bass because I thought it would be unobtrusive -- because I could hardly ever hear it, or at least never noticed it. But I've since learned that the bass is supposedly one of the hardest rock instruments to master. I'm sure any instrument that requires rhythm would mean I'd be starting from two steps back.
That's why that rock group novel will be FICTION, if it ever gets done.
Though I've been known to play air-guitar and air-drums and even air-keyboards if I've got some good music playing while I'm working, I think the most I could ever hope for in Reality would be to become a backing vocalist -- part of the chorus. I think I blend in OK, vocally. I'd never want to be a lead singer -- I don't actually think I can carry a tune with a fleet of wheelbarrows, and besides I have ZERO charisma. But I think I blend OK, and I enjoy vocal blends more than a lot of other aspects of music. Something about a bunch of people's voices blending together....
I find the vocal blends that attract me in a lot of the music I grew up on -- from Kansas's "Miracles Out of Nowhere" to Yes's "Your Move" and "Wonderous Stories," from Caravan's "Memory Lain" and "Surprise, Surprise" and "All the Way" to just about anything by the Moody Blues. Or the almost-surreal vocal blends of the middle-period Beach Boys. The Beatles, of course. Even the Turtles and (Ghod!) the Association and (yeezus) even the Fifth Dimension sound pretty great to me, vocally.
The Association's "Everything That Touches You" is sort of a little piece of heaven for me, no matter how uncool it might be. The Turtles' "Sound Asleep" and "We'll Meet Again" and "Lady-O" and "She's My Girl" are all, like, vocal masterworks. And Fifth Dimension's "Carpet Man" soars vocally, no matter how "straight" it might sound these days. To be part of an ensemble like that would be ... pretty cool, I think.
Course I'd want some killer guitar and some dynamite keyboards to go with it, too.
I thought Crosby/Stills/Nash/Young had a pretty good handle on this kind of stuff for awhile -- with stuff like "Deja Vu" and "Carry On" and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" and "Wooden Ships." But they wore it out pretty quick. The Byrds were masters of this kind of stuff, too -- the vocal blend and the musical muscle. The Temptations -- I've come to learn as I get older -- were masters of group vocals and dynamic instrumentals ... course, they had a ton of Motown producers pulling it together for them. Jefferson Airplane/Starship was always real good for great group vocals and solid instrumentation: "Good Shepherd," "All Nite Long," "Save Your Love," anything on FREEDOM AT POINT ZERO.
And Phil Spector, of course. He could make anybody sound like the Hallelujah Chorus. I'm sure my weakness for Spector is why I'm also a sucker for Bruce Springsteen's earlier, more epic "teen-opera"-style stuff ("Born to Run," "Rosalita," etc).
Just woolgathering here. Hell, I don't REALLY know how badly I sing. And I'm not sure I WANT to know. I've never even done karaoke. But whenever I dream about being on-stage, it's always off to the side, with the backup singers. Where the lights aren't quite so bright.
Anybody know any bands who could STAND me auditioning for them? Not as a soloist. As a blend. In a vocal GROUP, man. In a group.
Showing posts with label true confessions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label true confessions. Show all posts
Monday, April 14, 2014
Saturday, May 4, 2013
#661: Dating After 50 (Part 2)
OK, to recap....
The Fast One was a REALLY great kisser. But she was Crazy -- & Not in a Good Way. & the main reasons she seemed to want a guy around were for money & emotional support.
The Slow One was a nice person, but there was a lot of Mystery workin' there. One Winter night she actually called ME at work, which she NEVER did, & said -- out of the blue -- that she'd "really love to have a warm body to cuddle up with on these cold nights."
Bing-bing-BING! I gently offered to come right over after I closed the store ... but she said she didn't want that. I never really figured out what she DID want....
The 28-year-old disappeared after she came into the store one busy night & I wasn't absolutely overjoyed to see her. Besides, she had guys Her Own Age to chase after. Before that, she'd started showing me pictures of them that they'd sent to her cellphone....
Somewhere in the middle of this, an old friend kept popping up unexpectedly. She was also Just My Type, & a little closer to My Age, just passing 40. I thought she was gorgeous, & a lot of fun to talk with.
& even though her daughter's birthday inspired from me the first piece of comedy-fiction I'd written in YEARS as a birthday present -- they read it & laughed 'til they cried -- even that wasn't enough to win her over.
She finally told me very gently that -- even though she liked me -- I was WAY down her list of eligible men.
After these failures, I backed off for a bit. Like, 2 years. I started wondering if there was something wrong with me, if I expected too much, if I was misreading women. I'm famous for over-reacting, getting things wrong, making Something out of Nothing.
So I cooled off for awhile, gave up, kept to myself -- read & listened to music & wrote on this blog, & felt fairly happy. I thought I was doing OK. Maybe I was a little lonely sometimes, but I got to the point where I didn't obsess about it. In fact, I tried not to think about it at all. I thought My Life Was Good.
Maybe I was wrong. My roommate -- who had to put up with me through this -- told me at one point that I was being "insufferable." & that's a big word for him.
So I got brave, looked at my bank account, & took the plunge. I joined Match.com.
It was a fun experience, & a real eye-opener. I was only on Match for 2 months -- long enough to get WAY cynical about it. Even got a blog post out of it -- look up "2 months on Match.com!", it's worth the trouble, lotsa laughs.
I was on long enough that my Match profile/bio turned into a satire of all the women's bios I'd been reading -- poking fun at the laundry-list of requirements they had for a guy. Sure, I wanted a financially-secure, romantic, emotionally-stable, passionate mate who enjoyed long romantic walks on a moonlit beach -- who wouldn't want THAT? But the Reality was....
I was in my last couple weeks on Match when a woman walked into my work & introduced herself -- as I'd urged brave women to do in my bio, because I thought I came across better in person than in a photo.
Problem was, I didn't know who she was. Match had sent my bio to her, but I hadn't seen her profile.
She got all embarrassed -- but I told her not to be, that it was All Good & maybe we'd talk more....
I went home that night & checked Match & there she was. We e-mailed each other, & agreed to meet for coffee & talk. We met again for coffee a couple nights later, then agreed to have a picnic on my next day off -- pretty brave planning for Western Washington in the Spring.
& we've been together pretty-much ever since. That's been over a year, now.
At first it was nice just having someone new to talk with. Then it became obvious that we were very much alike in our interests & temperaments & OCD-ness. ...& then we started finishing each other's sentences. & calling each other at the same time. & making each other laugh 'til we cry. & all that other gooshy stuff that happens when you start Falling for someone.
We're very comfortable with each other, & at my age that means a lot. It hasn't been perfect, exactly. We've both got weird work schedules, & we're both a bit of a challenge to live with. There have been a couple bumpy spots along the way, but not as many as I'd expected, & nothing really Major. Mainly, I think, because the new girlfriend is a grown-up. She's very steady. That makes a big difference.
This could happen to you, too. Don't give up.
But watch out for the Crazies....
The Fast One was a REALLY great kisser. But she was Crazy -- & Not in a Good Way. & the main reasons she seemed to want a guy around were for money & emotional support.
The Slow One was a nice person, but there was a lot of Mystery workin' there. One Winter night she actually called ME at work, which she NEVER did, & said -- out of the blue -- that she'd "really love to have a warm body to cuddle up with on these cold nights."
Bing-bing-BING! I gently offered to come right over after I closed the store ... but she said she didn't want that. I never really figured out what she DID want....
The 28-year-old disappeared after she came into the store one busy night & I wasn't absolutely overjoyed to see her. Besides, she had guys Her Own Age to chase after. Before that, she'd started showing me pictures of them that they'd sent to her cellphone....
Somewhere in the middle of this, an old friend kept popping up unexpectedly. She was also Just My Type, & a little closer to My Age, just passing 40. I thought she was gorgeous, & a lot of fun to talk with.
& even though her daughter's birthday inspired from me the first piece of comedy-fiction I'd written in YEARS as a birthday present -- they read it & laughed 'til they cried -- even that wasn't enough to win her over.
She finally told me very gently that -- even though she liked me -- I was WAY down her list of eligible men.
After these failures, I backed off for a bit. Like, 2 years. I started wondering if there was something wrong with me, if I expected too much, if I was misreading women. I'm famous for over-reacting, getting things wrong, making Something out of Nothing.
So I cooled off for awhile, gave up, kept to myself -- read & listened to music & wrote on this blog, & felt fairly happy. I thought I was doing OK. Maybe I was a little lonely sometimes, but I got to the point where I didn't obsess about it. In fact, I tried not to think about it at all. I thought My Life Was Good.
Maybe I was wrong. My roommate -- who had to put up with me through this -- told me at one point that I was being "insufferable." & that's a big word for him.
So I got brave, looked at my bank account, & took the plunge. I joined Match.com.
It was a fun experience, & a real eye-opener. I was only on Match for 2 months -- long enough to get WAY cynical about it. Even got a blog post out of it -- look up "2 months on Match.com!", it's worth the trouble, lotsa laughs.
I was on long enough that my Match profile/bio turned into a satire of all the women's bios I'd been reading -- poking fun at the laundry-list of requirements they had for a guy. Sure, I wanted a financially-secure, romantic, emotionally-stable, passionate mate who enjoyed long romantic walks on a moonlit beach -- who wouldn't want THAT? But the Reality was....
I was in my last couple weeks on Match when a woman walked into my work & introduced herself -- as I'd urged brave women to do in my bio, because I thought I came across better in person than in a photo.
Problem was, I didn't know who she was. Match had sent my bio to her, but I hadn't seen her profile.
She got all embarrassed -- but I told her not to be, that it was All Good & maybe we'd talk more....
I went home that night & checked Match & there she was. We e-mailed each other, & agreed to meet for coffee & talk. We met again for coffee a couple nights later, then agreed to have a picnic on my next day off -- pretty brave planning for Western Washington in the Spring.
& we've been together pretty-much ever since. That's been over a year, now.
At first it was nice just having someone new to talk with. Then it became obvious that we were very much alike in our interests & temperaments & OCD-ness. ...& then we started finishing each other's sentences. & calling each other at the same time. & making each other laugh 'til we cry. & all that other gooshy stuff that happens when you start Falling for someone.
We're very comfortable with each other, & at my age that means a lot. It hasn't been perfect, exactly. We've both got weird work schedules, & we're both a bit of a challenge to live with. There have been a couple bumpy spots along the way, but not as many as I'd expected, & nothing really Major. Mainly, I think, because the new girlfriend is a grown-up. She's very steady. That makes a big difference.
This could happen to you, too. Don't give up.
But watch out for the Crazies....
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
#622: The poster-child for stressing-out
Late August, 1999. Two days after my 40th birthday. After taking my first week off from work in 3 years, by 8:30 am Monday I'm back at my desk, trying to pull-together the next issue of the small weekly newspaper I've been editing since May.
It's an absolutely normal Monday. There's a lot of work to do, a big pile of paperwork in front of me, & nobody did much to prepare for the next issue while I was gone. But I've been working 50+ hours a week since May, so I'm getting used to it. Everything is going exactly as I expected.
But I'm having trouble with it.
By 9:30 am I start to hyperventilate. I can't relax. My hands and arms are getting all tingly. I can't stop panting for breath. I call a therapist I've been talking to about work-related stress and marriage problems. He recommends getting out of the building and getting something to eat.
But I can't leave -- there's too much work to do. I can't push it off on my co-workers, either -- they're wrapped-up in their own work. I try eating. It doesn't help. I try organizing a long schedule of events for a quickly-approaching town festival, the one thing that MUST be on the next front page. But I can't focus. I can't MAKE it make sense. I can't even get the list of happenings typed.
I drink some water. I try to walk around a little, but my legs are all wobbly. My arms are going numb. My heart is racing. And I can't slow down my breathing.
I call my therapist back. He ORDERS me to get out of the building. But it's too late.
At noon, I ask our receptionist if she could do me a favor and call my wife. And an ambulance. I can't seem to do it myself. I can't breathe. I can't get enough air. For some reason it seems like there will be more air on the floor, so I go there.
By 12:15 I'm stretched out on my back on the office floor, still hyperventilating. My arms are numb, my hands locked into fists. My legs are cramping and folding up. I moan for someone to help me, but nobody will even come talk to me.
At the edge of my vision, I can see the head of the reporter I just hired, standing nearby, watching, but she won't get closer. I'm scaring her. I'm scaring myself. I can hear phones ringing and people talking and Monday going on, but I'm stuck on the floor alone and I can't move. I'm left to gasp and flop like a fish. I'm helpless.
Finally an EMT appears & I try to tell her what's wrong. Another EMT appears, they put me on a gurney & I'm wheeled outside into an ambulance. I notice vaguely that a crowd has gathered. My co-workers are calling my name and telling me to hang in there. My wife has appeared and says she'll follow me to the hospital.
In the ambulance, the EMTs give me SOMETHING & try to determine if I'm having a heart attack. I'm SURE that's what's happening. I'm convinced that I'm gonna die, 2 days after my 40th birthday.
In the emergency room, they run tests & try to bring my breathing under control. They have to teach me how to breathe again. It takes awhile.
When I'm stable, they admit me to the hospital & put me in the cardiac critical care unit til they determine if I've had a heart attack. It looks like I'm gonna be there for awhile.
My wife appears, and we cry all over each other. We both note the timing of this "attack," & without trying 2 make Too Big A Deal out of it, we both wonder if I've been pushing things too hard & if somebody's trying to send me A Message.
She stays for awhile, then has to leave to go check on the kids. She sez she'll bring me back something to read in case I'm stuck here overnight.
And as soon as she leaves, I'm overcome by the most intense feelings of RELIEF that I've possibly ever felt -- as if this bed, in this place, is EXACTLY where I wanted to be, exactly where I was headed from the moment I woke up this morning. It's safe & quiet here. And someone else is gonna havta run the newspaper for me.
And then I cry like a baby.
Eventually, 1 of the ER docs comes in & tells me I DIDN'T have a heart attack -- I had an anxiety attack. A nurse tells me they can prescribe some anti-anxiety meds, but they won't solve my problem -- that my problem is whatever's kicking around in my head.
Then they release me.
I take a day off to think it over, then go to work on Weds & resign as the editor. But I offer to work as a full-time reporter to make up for it. This is a mistake, but I was always happier writing full-time anyway.
I try the anti-anxiety meds, & once I get used to the "zombie effect," they're not bad -- I feel like me with all the stress removed. It's sorta enjoyable.
But the stress continues -- there's just as much, if not more, with reporting full-time. & I knew that. But this is my 1st step in moving away from my 20-year career in journalism. & it takes me 2 more years to give up & get out of it entirely.
Don't let this happen to you. If you're in a high-stress job that overworks you to the point of breakdown, get away from it. Figure out some other way to pay your bills. Don't give your life to a career where nobody keeps score. Because the things you'll lose are things you might never get back -- spouse, children, possibly your health, maybe your life. It ain't worth it.
I was stupid. Looking back, I wish I hadn't sold myself so cheap. & I wish I'd known I was living The Good Life while I was IN it....
It's an absolutely normal Monday. There's a lot of work to do, a big pile of paperwork in front of me, & nobody did much to prepare for the next issue while I was gone. But I've been working 50+ hours a week since May, so I'm getting used to it. Everything is going exactly as I expected.
But I'm having trouble with it.
By 9:30 am I start to hyperventilate. I can't relax. My hands and arms are getting all tingly. I can't stop panting for breath. I call a therapist I've been talking to about work-related stress and marriage problems. He recommends getting out of the building and getting something to eat.
But I can't leave -- there's too much work to do. I can't push it off on my co-workers, either -- they're wrapped-up in their own work. I try eating. It doesn't help. I try organizing a long schedule of events for a quickly-approaching town festival, the one thing that MUST be on the next front page. But I can't focus. I can't MAKE it make sense. I can't even get the list of happenings typed.
I drink some water. I try to walk around a little, but my legs are all wobbly. My arms are going numb. My heart is racing. And I can't slow down my breathing.
I call my therapist back. He ORDERS me to get out of the building. But it's too late.
At noon, I ask our receptionist if she could do me a favor and call my wife. And an ambulance. I can't seem to do it myself. I can't breathe. I can't get enough air. For some reason it seems like there will be more air on the floor, so I go there.
By 12:15 I'm stretched out on my back on the office floor, still hyperventilating. My arms are numb, my hands locked into fists. My legs are cramping and folding up. I moan for someone to help me, but nobody will even come talk to me.
At the edge of my vision, I can see the head of the reporter I just hired, standing nearby, watching, but she won't get closer. I'm scaring her. I'm scaring myself. I can hear phones ringing and people talking and Monday going on, but I'm stuck on the floor alone and I can't move. I'm left to gasp and flop like a fish. I'm helpless.
Finally an EMT appears & I try to tell her what's wrong. Another EMT appears, they put me on a gurney & I'm wheeled outside into an ambulance. I notice vaguely that a crowd has gathered. My co-workers are calling my name and telling me to hang in there. My wife has appeared and says she'll follow me to the hospital.
In the ambulance, the EMTs give me SOMETHING & try to determine if I'm having a heart attack. I'm SURE that's what's happening. I'm convinced that I'm gonna die, 2 days after my 40th birthday.
In the emergency room, they run tests & try to bring my breathing under control. They have to teach me how to breathe again. It takes awhile.
When I'm stable, they admit me to the hospital & put me in the cardiac critical care unit til they determine if I've had a heart attack. It looks like I'm gonna be there for awhile.
My wife appears, and we cry all over each other. We both note the timing of this "attack," & without trying 2 make Too Big A Deal out of it, we both wonder if I've been pushing things too hard & if somebody's trying to send me A Message.
She stays for awhile, then has to leave to go check on the kids. She sez she'll bring me back something to read in case I'm stuck here overnight.
And as soon as she leaves, I'm overcome by the most intense feelings of RELIEF that I've possibly ever felt -- as if this bed, in this place, is EXACTLY where I wanted to be, exactly where I was headed from the moment I woke up this morning. It's safe & quiet here. And someone else is gonna havta run the newspaper for me.
And then I cry like a baby.
Eventually, 1 of the ER docs comes in & tells me I DIDN'T have a heart attack -- I had an anxiety attack. A nurse tells me they can prescribe some anti-anxiety meds, but they won't solve my problem -- that my problem is whatever's kicking around in my head.
Then they release me.
I take a day off to think it over, then go to work on Weds & resign as the editor. But I offer to work as a full-time reporter to make up for it. This is a mistake, but I was always happier writing full-time anyway.
I try the anti-anxiety meds, & once I get used to the "zombie effect," they're not bad -- I feel like me with all the stress removed. It's sorta enjoyable.
But the stress continues -- there's just as much, if not more, with reporting full-time. & I knew that. But this is my 1st step in moving away from my 20-year career in journalism. & it takes me 2 more years to give up & get out of it entirely.
Don't let this happen to you. If you're in a high-stress job that overworks you to the point of breakdown, get away from it. Figure out some other way to pay your bills. Don't give your life to a career where nobody keeps score. Because the things you'll lose are things you might never get back -- spouse, children, possibly your health, maybe your life. It ain't worth it.
I was stupid. Looking back, I wish I hadn't sold myself so cheap. & I wish I'd known I was living The Good Life while I was IN it....
Monday, August 20, 2012
#583: Works in progress
OK, so, back when I started this blogging stuff, I thot I was gonna B this Big Prog Guy who was gonna gently ram down yer throat all this Great Overlooked Progressive Rock that I've bn listening-2 4 years, & go on&on about what a Crime it was that all this great stuff failed 2 make its genius creators in2 millionaires, etc. etc. etc. ....
& I've done summa that. But what I've discovered as I've tried repeatedly 2 Xpand my listening horizons (had another bash at that earlier this year, see below), is that I need TUNES 2 hum or whistle along with. I need LYRICS that I can screech along with. It is no longer ENUF 4 me 4 music just 2 B Strange. I gotta have something 2 hang on 2. I've gotten kinda boring in my old age.
So: True Confessions. Below is Another List of artists whose albums I have somehow never been able 2 get all the way thru 4 whatever reason. There's some fairly big gaps here, on some fairly big names that I should Know Better if I Really Am a Big Prog Guy.
Should B good 4 some laffs. & maybe you share my frustrations with summa these folks...?
* Pink Floyd -- Got all the way thru PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN about 35 years ago. Loved "Flaming," liked "Chapter 24" & "Bike," marvelled at the strangeness of the rest even tho I barely remember it now. Nobody did psych like Syd Barrett. But I never Got "Interstellar Overdrive," & "Astronome Domine" sounds way better live on UMMAGUMMA. Thot SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS was mostly noise, didn't even notice "Jugband Blues" til I heard it on the ECHOES best-of. Got all the way thru MEDDLE a few times but forget the 1st side after "One of These Days." & I've heard none of the soundtrax, ATOM HEART MOTHER, last 1/2 of UMMAGUMMA, etc.
* ELP -- Think I got all the way thru TARKUS 1nce, but a note from Rastro a coupla yrs ago told me I needta re-listen, soon as I find another copy. Got all the way thru TRILOGY awhile back, it was OK. Heard mosta BRAIN SALAD SURGERY & agree it's their best, but I drifted off somewhere in the last 2/3rd's of "Karn Evil 9," so.... Mosta the time I can't take their EGO....
* Tull -- Speaking of Ego.... I think they're great, but when they get on2 a Big Concept I usually can't take it. Have never gotten thru all of AQUALUNG (the song or the album) or THICK AS A BRICK (tho I like the opening 3 mins or so) -- & A PASSION PLAY showed me it wasn't worth the work anyway. STAND UP is pretty strong, even if I don't remember 1/2 the songs ("Back to the Family" was my fave). Better when they're funny, but HEAVY HORSES drags, & the later stuff smooths out all the rough edges so there's not much left 2 hear....
* Who -- I love these guys, & their box set taught me a lot. But I've never been able 2 make it thru QUADROPHENIA even tho I love a lotta the songs ("Bell Boy," "Love, Reign O'er Me," "5:15," "Doctor Jimmy," "I'm One," etc.) -- I actually liked the movie soundtrack more cos it was EZer 2 get thru. Heard mosta SELL OUT & would love 2 hear the rest. & I spose I should listen 2 TOMMY again. If I have to....
* Yes -- Love their early stuff but needta hear more. Their middle period I generally like better live. & the stuff from the last 20+ years I've heard none of. Got RELAYER back in the house 4 another try, & I actually got thru 2 sides of TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS awhile back. But please, not TORMATO again....
* Genesis -- I'm weak on their early stuff -- FOXTROT, NURSERY CRYME, SELLING ENGLAND, THE LAMB, like that. I've gotta problem with Peter Gabriel's voice. I've heard maybe 1 track with him that I can stand, offa THE LAMB, & now I can't even remember which 1 it was....
* Bowie -- I just can't take much of his voice, tho I think he has about 4 great songs -- "Suffragette City," "Changes," "Modern Love," "Space Oddity." But I'm sure no Xpert....
* King Crimson -- I've heard almost none of POSEIDON and LIZARD, & only bits&pieces of BEAT, THREE OF A PERFECT PAIR, THRAK, CONSTRUCKTION OF LIGHT. But I'm working on it....
* Rush -- Beyond the best-of's, I haven't heard much. Think I got all the way thru FAREWELL TO KINGS about 30 years ago. & I've never heard a note of 2112, far as I know....
* Zappa -- All I've heard 4 sure is WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH, which had 3 good songs & a LOT of noise. Heard 1/2 of TINSELTOWN REBELLION. & other bits&pieces over the years. Keep hearing WAKA/JAWAKA is pretty good jazz-rock. Or was that GRAND WAZOO...? HOT RATS? UNCLE MEAT? Can't remember. & I could spend a life trying 2 find out....
* Eno -- I tried TIGER MOUNTAIN and WARM JETS & they were OK, diffrent. But I really wished they were a little less clever & a little more straightforward....
* Roxy -- I prefer the later, smoother stuff, but I really love "The Thrill of it All" & should do more investigating of their 1st 4 albums -- that Concorde-like rush they sometimes get is really thrilling....
* Gong -- I really can't take the early silliness -- tried a 2-CD best-of earlier this year. Didier Mahlerbe is a helluva sax player, & guitarist Steve Hillage & synth-guy Tim Blake add some good stuff, but I guess I wasn't stoned enuf.... & the later jazz-rock stuff can get REALLY boring....
* Tangerine Dream -- Never made it all the way thru NE of their albums. Have ENCORE in the house & listened all the way thru Side 3, "Monolight," which I still think is their best piece ever. 1nce had a really bad dream while listening 2 "Fly and Collision of Comas Sola" off of ALPHA CENTAURI. Have heard lotsa bits&pieces, but.... "Igneous" offa their THIEF soundtrack is a pretty great guitar-meltdown....
* Mahavishnu Orchestra -- I've tried 2 treat them like King Crimson without tunes but it just doesn't work. Their quieter moments R kinda nice, like "A Lotus on Irish Streams." But the only loud 1 I've been able 2 get in2 is "Awakening." & McLaughlin's solo albums seem pretty dull -- tried DEVOTION and EXTRAPOLATION, didn't get THEM, either....
* Strawbs -- I should like these guys a lot more than I actually DO: British-folk-based songs, Rick Wakeman/John Hawken/Blue Weaver on flamboyant keyboards, etc. But Dave Cousins' voice is sometimes whiny -- he's best when angry or bitter. Their CLASSIC STRAWBS has 1 GREAT side: "Hero and Heroine"/"New World"/"Down by the Sea"/"Where is This Dream of Your Youth?," but I can't get in2 the rest. Their HALCYON DAYS CD-best-of adds some more good things ("Backside," "Keep the Devil Outside") but drops most of Wakeman -- why?
* Barclay James Harvest -- I don't have enuf patience 4 their wild uneven-ness. I'm sticking with their best-of's.
Other items 4 future research: Al Stewart's PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE Side 1; Gentle Giant's LIVE: PLAYING THE FOOL, IN A GLASS HOUSE, POWER AND THE GLORY; Nektar, Clannad, Mott the Hoople, Soft Machine, Jade Warrior, Focus, Return to Forever, Mannheim Steamroller, early Journey, Kevin Ayers....
Complaints? Agreements? Please add yer 2 cents below....
Coming Soon: Reviews of Richie Unterberger's WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN: THE WHO FROM LIFEHOUSE THROUGH QUADROPHENIA, Ken Scott's FROM ABBEY ROAD TO ZIGGY STARDUST, and Jason Weiss's ALWAYS IN TROUBLE: AN ORAL HISTORY OF ESP-DISK.
& I've done summa that. But what I've discovered as I've tried repeatedly 2 Xpand my listening horizons (had another bash at that earlier this year, see below), is that I need TUNES 2 hum or whistle along with. I need LYRICS that I can screech along with. It is no longer ENUF 4 me 4 music just 2 B Strange. I gotta have something 2 hang on 2. I've gotten kinda boring in my old age.
So: True Confessions. Below is Another List of artists whose albums I have somehow never been able 2 get all the way thru 4 whatever reason. There's some fairly big gaps here, on some fairly big names that I should Know Better if I Really Am a Big Prog Guy.
Should B good 4 some laffs. & maybe you share my frustrations with summa these folks...?
* Pink Floyd -- Got all the way thru PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN about 35 years ago. Loved "Flaming," liked "Chapter 24" & "Bike," marvelled at the strangeness of the rest even tho I barely remember it now. Nobody did psych like Syd Barrett. But I never Got "Interstellar Overdrive," & "Astronome Domine" sounds way better live on UMMAGUMMA. Thot SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS was mostly noise, didn't even notice "Jugband Blues" til I heard it on the ECHOES best-of. Got all the way thru MEDDLE a few times but forget the 1st side after "One of These Days." & I've heard none of the soundtrax, ATOM HEART MOTHER, last 1/2 of UMMAGUMMA, etc.
* ELP -- Think I got all the way thru TARKUS 1nce, but a note from Rastro a coupla yrs ago told me I needta re-listen, soon as I find another copy. Got all the way thru TRILOGY awhile back, it was OK. Heard mosta BRAIN SALAD SURGERY & agree it's their best, but I drifted off somewhere in the last 2/3rd's of "Karn Evil 9," so.... Mosta the time I can't take their EGO....
* Tull -- Speaking of Ego.... I think they're great, but when they get on2 a Big Concept I usually can't take it. Have never gotten thru all of AQUALUNG (the song or the album) or THICK AS A BRICK (tho I like the opening 3 mins or so) -- & A PASSION PLAY showed me it wasn't worth the work anyway. STAND UP is pretty strong, even if I don't remember 1/2 the songs ("Back to the Family" was my fave). Better when they're funny, but HEAVY HORSES drags, & the later stuff smooths out all the rough edges so there's not much left 2 hear....
* Who -- I love these guys, & their box set taught me a lot. But I've never been able 2 make it thru QUADROPHENIA even tho I love a lotta the songs ("Bell Boy," "Love, Reign O'er Me," "5:15," "Doctor Jimmy," "I'm One," etc.) -- I actually liked the movie soundtrack more cos it was EZer 2 get thru. Heard mosta SELL OUT & would love 2 hear the rest. & I spose I should listen 2 TOMMY again. If I have to....
* Yes -- Love their early stuff but needta hear more. Their middle period I generally like better live. & the stuff from the last 20+ years I've heard none of. Got RELAYER back in the house 4 another try, & I actually got thru 2 sides of TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS awhile back. But please, not TORMATO again....
* Genesis -- I'm weak on their early stuff -- FOXTROT, NURSERY CRYME, SELLING ENGLAND, THE LAMB, like that. I've gotta problem with Peter Gabriel's voice. I've heard maybe 1 track with him that I can stand, offa THE LAMB, & now I can't even remember which 1 it was....
* Bowie -- I just can't take much of his voice, tho I think he has about 4 great songs -- "Suffragette City," "Changes," "Modern Love," "Space Oddity." But I'm sure no Xpert....
* King Crimson -- I've heard almost none of POSEIDON and LIZARD, & only bits&pieces of BEAT, THREE OF A PERFECT PAIR, THRAK, CONSTRUCKTION OF LIGHT. But I'm working on it....
* Rush -- Beyond the best-of's, I haven't heard much. Think I got all the way thru FAREWELL TO KINGS about 30 years ago. & I've never heard a note of 2112, far as I know....
* Zappa -- All I've heard 4 sure is WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH, which had 3 good songs & a LOT of noise. Heard 1/2 of TINSELTOWN REBELLION. & other bits&pieces over the years. Keep hearing WAKA/JAWAKA is pretty good jazz-rock. Or was that GRAND WAZOO...? HOT RATS? UNCLE MEAT? Can't remember. & I could spend a life trying 2 find out....
* Eno -- I tried TIGER MOUNTAIN and WARM JETS & they were OK, diffrent. But I really wished they were a little less clever & a little more straightforward....
* Roxy -- I prefer the later, smoother stuff, but I really love "The Thrill of it All" & should do more investigating of their 1st 4 albums -- that Concorde-like rush they sometimes get is really thrilling....
* Gong -- I really can't take the early silliness -- tried a 2-CD best-of earlier this year. Didier Mahlerbe is a helluva sax player, & guitarist Steve Hillage & synth-guy Tim Blake add some good stuff, but I guess I wasn't stoned enuf.... & the later jazz-rock stuff can get REALLY boring....
* Tangerine Dream -- Never made it all the way thru NE of their albums. Have ENCORE in the house & listened all the way thru Side 3, "Monolight," which I still think is their best piece ever. 1nce had a really bad dream while listening 2 "Fly and Collision of Comas Sola" off of ALPHA CENTAURI. Have heard lotsa bits&pieces, but.... "Igneous" offa their THIEF soundtrack is a pretty great guitar-meltdown....
* Mahavishnu Orchestra -- I've tried 2 treat them like King Crimson without tunes but it just doesn't work. Their quieter moments R kinda nice, like "A Lotus on Irish Streams." But the only loud 1 I've been able 2 get in2 is "Awakening." & McLaughlin's solo albums seem pretty dull -- tried DEVOTION and EXTRAPOLATION, didn't get THEM, either....
* Strawbs -- I should like these guys a lot more than I actually DO: British-folk-based songs, Rick Wakeman/John Hawken/Blue Weaver on flamboyant keyboards, etc. But Dave Cousins' voice is sometimes whiny -- he's best when angry or bitter. Their CLASSIC STRAWBS has 1 GREAT side: "Hero and Heroine"/"New World"/"Down by the Sea"/"Where is This Dream of Your Youth?," but I can't get in2 the rest. Their HALCYON DAYS CD-best-of adds some more good things ("Backside," "Keep the Devil Outside") but drops most of Wakeman -- why?
* Barclay James Harvest -- I don't have enuf patience 4 their wild uneven-ness. I'm sticking with their best-of's.
Other items 4 future research: Al Stewart's PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE Side 1; Gentle Giant's LIVE: PLAYING THE FOOL, IN A GLASS HOUSE, POWER AND THE GLORY; Nektar, Clannad, Mott the Hoople, Soft Machine, Jade Warrior, Focus, Return to Forever, Mannheim Steamroller, early Journey, Kevin Ayers....
Complaints? Agreements? Please add yer 2 cents below....
Coming Soon: Reviews of Richie Unterberger's WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN: THE WHO FROM LIFEHOUSE THROUGH QUADROPHENIA, Ken Scott's FROM ABBEY ROAD TO ZIGGY STARDUST, and Jason Weiss's ALWAYS IN TROUBLE: AN ORAL HISTORY OF ESP-DISK.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Confessions of an Amazon.com addict
Bless me Father for I have sinned. It's been ... longer than I wanna think about since my last Confession.
WHAT SINS DO YOU HAVE TO CONFESS, MY SON?
Well ... this is gonna sound kinda weird, but ... I've bought ... rather a lot of stuff from Amazon.com over the past 3 years or so ... & I'm feeling kinda guilty about it.
IN WHAT WAY, MY SON?
Well ... I see in the papers that Borders has gone bankrupt, all their stores are closing ... and those used book & record stores I used to support haven't been seeing me as much....
AND WHY IS THAT, MY SON?
...Well, cos those clever folks at Amazon just make it so gosh-darned easy to order stuff from them, ya know? I mean, you browse their site, maybe you're not even planning on spending any money, & then you see something you've always wanted & it's even available CHEAP, & then.... Well, you click, you order, & a few days later it's in your mailbox. It's addictive, really.
I NEVER ORDER ANYTHING OVER THE INTERNET. IT'S THE SPAWN OF SATAN.
I know what you mean, Father. I was a little worried about that too, at first. I was a little paranoid my 1st coupla orders, wondering if stuff was gonna get to me, if it was gonna get lost in the mail, if my charge card'd be compromised, if my identity'd be stolen -- but it's all worked out fine.
YOU HAVE TO HAVE A PERSONALITY BEFORE YOU CAN HAVE AN IDENTITY.
...Thanks, Father. And you can forget about that donation I was gonna make to the Church Fund. Can we stay on topic here? My point was the folks at Amazon are ENABLING me -- & HAVE been for the past 3+ years!
IN WHAT WAY, MY SON?
They're taking advantage of my biggest weakness, my biggest addiction -- books & music! Other people have booze or drugs -- I've got books & music ... and coffee and junk food .... But my life would be meaningless without music & books. & the folks at Amazon KNOW this!
WHY DO YOU THINK THIS, MY SON?
Because of all the great cheap stuff they list! CD's for a coupla bucks! Books for a penny! CD box-sets for $15! It oughta be illegal! With prices like they've got, it's VERY hard to resist impulse-buying until you empty your bank account!
YOU SOUND LIKE YOU'RE DOING A COMMERCIAL. AND WHY DOES ALL THIS MAKE YOU FEEL GUILTY?
Well ... I don't feel THAT guilty. I mean, we ARE out here in The Sticks. I haven't been in a Borders store in a couple of years -- the nearest one's almost 20 miles down the road in Gig Harbor. There's another one 25 miles away in Tacoma -- just half a mile up the road from that Half-Price Books store I haven't been to in a couple of years, either. And don't get me started about the REALLY GREAT used record stores all along 6th Avenue in Tacoma -- I haven't been to any of those in probably three years....
AND YOU FEEL GUILTY BECAUSE...?
Well, I'm sure they all must've been paying an employee or two based just on how much business I used to do there -- so I feel kinda responsible for Borders going under.... There was a Barnes and Noble store in Silverdale, 15 miles north of me, up until a year or two ago -- it was like they closed it when I wasn't looking. That was a nice big store, too.... The Borders store in Gig Harbor had only been open a year or two....
YOU DO STILL SPEND SOME OF YOUR MONEY IN LOCAL STORES, DON'T YOU?
Well, yeah. My favorite local used bookstore, BOOK 'EM, is only about two miles up the road from me here in Port Orchard, & I've spent a lotta money there over the past eight years or so. But they can't have EVERYTHING....
DOES AMAZON HAVE EVERYTHING?
No. Actually there's a lot of off-the-wall stuff they DON'T have. For instance, Philip Harbottle's VULTURES OF THE VOID -- a history of bottom-dwelling low-rent science-fiction publishing in Britain in the '50s & '60s -- sounds like Comedy Gold, right?
HMMM, THAT DOES SOUND PRETTY GOOD....
Not available. And some things are just WAY too high-priced: Algis Budrys' OUTPOSTS collection of book reviews and essays is priced at over $150!
THAT'S TOO DAMN HIGH!
That's what I said, Father. I'm shocked at lots of prices for books & CD's I dumped years ago. If I'd known you could get that kinda money for that junk, I woulda gone into business for myself. ... But here's the thing: Amazon makes up for the shockers with the dirt-cheap prices they've got on so much other stuff!
LIKE...?
Like, for instance, creepy forgotten horror novels from the '90s -- a penny each! Old science-fiction novels from the '70s -- a penny! Even counting the shipping costs, the total's less than what BOOK 'EM would charge me if they even HAD the books!
I SEE ... AND YOU REALLY SHOULDN'T BE READING THAT HORROR STUFF....
CD's cheaper than dirt! King Crimson's FRAME BY FRAME best-of for $15! It's nuts! Brand new Camel & Caravan best-of boxes for half-price! It's outta control! Van Morrison's ASTRAL WEEKS for $3! It's so ridiculous that even someone who's as broke as I am can pile up the stuff! It's freakin' great!
YOU'RE RAVING. YOU SOUND LIKE YOU'RE IN A COMMERCIAL AGAIN. ...AND YOUR GUILT?
Well, I know BOOK 'EM's stayed in business partly because of the amount of money I've spent there & the number of books I've donated over the years... but I feel bad that I haven't kept my money circulating in the local economy, if you see what I mean....
THAT'S SILLINESS, MY SON. AMAZON IS PART OF THE LOCAL ECONOMY. AND THEY JUST OPENED UP A NEW BUSINESS COMPLEX ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF SEATTLE RIGHT NEXT TO LAKE UNION -- THAT'S ONLY ABOUT 20 MILES AWAY AS THE CROW FLIES. YOUR PURCHASES PROBABLY ARE KEEPING SOME OF YOUR NEIGHBORS EMPLOYED. SO REST EASY, MY SON.
...I ... I never thought of it that way before. Thank you, Father.
AND MY SON?
Yes, Father?
WATCH IT ON THE IMPULSE BUYS, OK? YOU HAVE TO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY LEFT TO EAT. YOU CAN'T LIVE ON BOOKS AND MUSIC LIKE YOU DID WHEN YOU WERE 19 OR 20.... AND GOD KNOWS THERE ARE WORSE ADDICTIONS YOU COULD HAVE.
Right. Thanks, Father....
WHAT SINS DO YOU HAVE TO CONFESS, MY SON?
Well ... this is gonna sound kinda weird, but ... I've bought ... rather a lot of stuff from Amazon.com over the past 3 years or so ... & I'm feeling kinda guilty about it.
IN WHAT WAY, MY SON?
Well ... I see in the papers that Borders has gone bankrupt, all their stores are closing ... and those used book & record stores I used to support haven't been seeing me as much....
AND WHY IS THAT, MY SON?
...Well, cos those clever folks at Amazon just make it so gosh-darned easy to order stuff from them, ya know? I mean, you browse their site, maybe you're not even planning on spending any money, & then you see something you've always wanted & it's even available CHEAP, & then.... Well, you click, you order, & a few days later it's in your mailbox. It's addictive, really.
I NEVER ORDER ANYTHING OVER THE INTERNET. IT'S THE SPAWN OF SATAN.
I know what you mean, Father. I was a little worried about that too, at first. I was a little paranoid my 1st coupla orders, wondering if stuff was gonna get to me, if it was gonna get lost in the mail, if my charge card'd be compromised, if my identity'd be stolen -- but it's all worked out fine.
YOU HAVE TO HAVE A PERSONALITY BEFORE YOU CAN HAVE AN IDENTITY.
...Thanks, Father. And you can forget about that donation I was gonna make to the Church Fund. Can we stay on topic here? My point was the folks at Amazon are ENABLING me -- & HAVE been for the past 3+ years!
IN WHAT WAY, MY SON?
They're taking advantage of my biggest weakness, my biggest addiction -- books & music! Other people have booze or drugs -- I've got books & music ... and coffee and junk food .... But my life would be meaningless without music & books. & the folks at Amazon KNOW this!
WHY DO YOU THINK THIS, MY SON?
Because of all the great cheap stuff they list! CD's for a coupla bucks! Books for a penny! CD box-sets for $15! It oughta be illegal! With prices like they've got, it's VERY hard to resist impulse-buying until you empty your bank account!
YOU SOUND LIKE YOU'RE DOING A COMMERCIAL. AND WHY DOES ALL THIS MAKE YOU FEEL GUILTY?
Well ... I don't feel THAT guilty. I mean, we ARE out here in The Sticks. I haven't been in a Borders store in a couple of years -- the nearest one's almost 20 miles down the road in Gig Harbor. There's another one 25 miles away in Tacoma -- just half a mile up the road from that Half-Price Books store I haven't been to in a couple of years, either. And don't get me started about the REALLY GREAT used record stores all along 6th Avenue in Tacoma -- I haven't been to any of those in probably three years....
AND YOU FEEL GUILTY BECAUSE...?
Well, I'm sure they all must've been paying an employee or two based just on how much business I used to do there -- so I feel kinda responsible for Borders going under.... There was a Barnes and Noble store in Silverdale, 15 miles north of me, up until a year or two ago -- it was like they closed it when I wasn't looking. That was a nice big store, too.... The Borders store in Gig Harbor had only been open a year or two....
YOU DO STILL SPEND SOME OF YOUR MONEY IN LOCAL STORES, DON'T YOU?
Well, yeah. My favorite local used bookstore, BOOK 'EM, is only about two miles up the road from me here in Port Orchard, & I've spent a lotta money there over the past eight years or so. But they can't have EVERYTHING....
DOES AMAZON HAVE EVERYTHING?
No. Actually there's a lot of off-the-wall stuff they DON'T have. For instance, Philip Harbottle's VULTURES OF THE VOID -- a history of bottom-dwelling low-rent science-fiction publishing in Britain in the '50s & '60s -- sounds like Comedy Gold, right?
HMMM, THAT DOES SOUND PRETTY GOOD....
Not available. And some things are just WAY too high-priced: Algis Budrys' OUTPOSTS collection of book reviews and essays is priced at over $150!
THAT'S TOO DAMN HIGH!
That's what I said, Father. I'm shocked at lots of prices for books & CD's I dumped years ago. If I'd known you could get that kinda money for that junk, I woulda gone into business for myself. ... But here's the thing: Amazon makes up for the shockers with the dirt-cheap prices they've got on so much other stuff!
LIKE...?
Like, for instance, creepy forgotten horror novels from the '90s -- a penny each! Old science-fiction novels from the '70s -- a penny! Even counting the shipping costs, the total's less than what BOOK 'EM would charge me if they even HAD the books!
I SEE ... AND YOU REALLY SHOULDN'T BE READING THAT HORROR STUFF....
CD's cheaper than dirt! King Crimson's FRAME BY FRAME best-of for $15! It's nuts! Brand new Camel & Caravan best-of boxes for half-price! It's outta control! Van Morrison's ASTRAL WEEKS for $3! It's so ridiculous that even someone who's as broke as I am can pile up the stuff! It's freakin' great!
YOU'RE RAVING. YOU SOUND LIKE YOU'RE IN A COMMERCIAL AGAIN. ...AND YOUR GUILT?
Well, I know BOOK 'EM's stayed in business partly because of the amount of money I've spent there & the number of books I've donated over the years... but I feel bad that I haven't kept my money circulating in the local economy, if you see what I mean....
THAT'S SILLINESS, MY SON. AMAZON IS PART OF THE LOCAL ECONOMY. AND THEY JUST OPENED UP A NEW BUSINESS COMPLEX ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF SEATTLE RIGHT NEXT TO LAKE UNION -- THAT'S ONLY ABOUT 20 MILES AWAY AS THE CROW FLIES. YOUR PURCHASES PROBABLY ARE KEEPING SOME OF YOUR NEIGHBORS EMPLOYED. SO REST EASY, MY SON.
...I ... I never thought of it that way before. Thank you, Father.
AND MY SON?
Yes, Father?
WATCH IT ON THE IMPULSE BUYS, OK? YOU HAVE TO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY LEFT TO EAT. YOU CAN'T LIVE ON BOOKS AND MUSIC LIKE YOU DID WHEN YOU WERE 19 OR 20.... AND GOD KNOWS THERE ARE WORSE ADDICTIONS YOU COULD HAVE.
Right. Thanks, Father....
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Musicmagic
Music's always bn magic 4 me, but less so as I've gotten older. Now more & more often it's nostalgia:
...Waking up each morning during highschool 2 an alarm-clock set 2 Boise, Idaho's KFXD-AM, by far the best local Top 40 station when I was growing up.
...Hearing the radio when I was 2 young 2 know what music was or what it could B. Hearing albums like DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED and MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR when I was 2 young 2 pay attention.
...Singing "Ticket to Ride" with my cousins Jim & Anna on a camping trip when I must've been all of 6 years old. Wandering down the street in the fog of Boise Winter '65 with the chorus of "Eight Days a Week" playing over & over in my head.
...Finally discovering music & what a radio was in 6th grade -- listening 2 my classmates play great 45's at the back of class during lunchbreak: "Joy to the World" & "One Toke Over the Line" & "Put Your Hand in the Hand" & "Spirit in the Sky" & "Brown Sugar" & "Honky Tonk Women" & (yeesh) "American Woman," "No Sugar Tonight," "Knock Three Times," "American Pie," & so many more.
...Sleeping-out in the backyard in Tacoma with my old buddy Gene Goodell in the Summer of '71, us bundled up in sleeping bags & nothing but the clear starry skies overhead & the radio tuned to KTAC-AM, with the echoed sounds of "Draggin' the Line" & "I Just Want to Celebrate" & "Rocket Man" bouncing off the hillside & up in2 the sky. Camping out again later with Gene & next-door neighbor Jim Yusko -- Gene hadda flashlight with a "strobe" setting, which worked uncomfortably well during the orangutang-howling middle-section of "Whole Lotta Love," a song which STILL creeps me out ... when I'm not laffing at it....
...Me staying over at writer-friend Barry Anderson's house, where we & Paul Fritts & Mike Harvey & the Gault Gazelle would listen 2 the 1st 3 Partridge Family albums & stay up late 2 catch the horrors on "Nightmare Theatre" & moan & groan about all the cute girls we wished we were brave enuf 2 talk 2....
...Playing football in Mike Fisher's yard with Gene & Jim & Buddy Pitts & Fred & Ernie Paul & 1/2adozen others whose names I 4get, with KTAC playing in the background while we crashed in2 each other -- the 1st place I ever heard the Moodies' "Ride My See-Saw" & Iron Butterfly's "In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida" & George Carlin's AM & FM....
...Nagging my parents 4 $$$ 2 buy 45rpm singles. Nagging them MORE 4 more $$$ 4 albums....
...Having radio stations that were willing 2 play off-the-wall stuff that might not catch on: El Chicano, Mal, Casey Kelly, Chris Hodge, later Raiders singles, Johnathon King, Kracker, The Wackers, Billy Lee Riley, anything by the 5-Man Electrical Band, Poco, early 10 C.C., Steely Dan album trax, The English Congregation, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Royal Guardsmen....
...Listening 2 KFXD's weekly Boise Valley Music Survey countdown & ALWAYS getting distracted 1/2way thru it... & when I was old enuf & had time enuf 2 listen thru the 3 hours, I was 2 bored with the music 2 care who was #1....
...Meeting & falling 4 my highschool sweetheart Allison & discovering R mutual adoration 4 The Moody Blues & Gentle Giant & Janis Ian & Simon & Garfunkel & Harry Nillsson & Paul Simon. ... Hanging out alone with her on a rainy afternoon, playing the "core 7" Moodies albums all the way thru as we talked & kissed & held each other....
...Cruising thru Boise & Nampa with highschool wildman Jeff Mann as we screamed along with homemade mix-cassettes of The Best Of The Beatles & Elton John & Wings & Queen & others....
...Years of making homemade tapes -- 1st of my fave songs off the radio, then my fave trax from vinyl so I could play them over&over in the car.... Wish I still had the oldest of those tapes, which dated back to 1971 -- there was stuff on them I'll never B able 2 replace....
...3 years working in a record store from 1979 to 1982, watching as 90 percent of the music-buying public went ONLY 4 the stuff they heard on the radio, & would never try anything new or diffrent. But the OTHER 10 percent were pretty freakin brave....
...Meeting fellow writer Don Vincent & hitting all the local record stores 2gether & pulling outta the cut-out bins such forgotten greats as Gryphon, Providence, Hawkwind, Caravan, David Sancious and Tone, & much more....
...Playing Caravan over&over at top volume on the way 2 & from the record store, day after day. Cranking it way up when stuff I never Xpected 2 hear came on the radio: "A Man I'll Never Be," "Feeling That Way/Anytime," Mac's live version of "I'm So Afraid"....
...Playing The Pretenders' 1st album over&over at top volume thruout the long hot summer of 1980, knowing that no matter how angry & frustrated I was, Chrissie Hynde had gone thru far worse, & survived 2 make great music about it....
...Meeting & marrying Cyndi & having endless musical discussions/arguments with her over how much Pat Benatar a person could stand 2 hear ... how much Madonna was good 4 1 ... how much Country could a person listen 2 B4 Bcoming a redneck....
...Seeing The Go-Go's & A Flock of Seagulls with Cyndi & losing my hearing... Seeing King Crimson with Mary & wishing KC had steamrolled all of us in the audience -- they did everything BUT run over us, & we just wanted MORE....
...Making love while the stereo played Pat Metheny or Miles Davis or Nick Drake or mix tapes of off-the-wall '70s bands....
...Using music as a way 2 build me up 4 the day ahead when I was working as a reporter ... & as a way 2 bring me back down gently at the end of the day....
...Seeing my kids grow old enuf 2 sing along with the Oldies we always played on the home stereo & when we were travelling in the car. It was when I heard my kids sing along with all the words 2 The Cowsills' "Hair" & when my daughter asked me 2 put "Behind Blue Eyes" on the home stereo that I finally felt maybe I'd raised the kids right....
...Heading 4 the store with the car full of my Xtended family, singing along with that silly Eminem song that makes fun of Michael Jackson & asks you 2 scream & wave yer hands in the air....
...Singing "American Pie" karaoke-style at a backyard wedding, me & my girlfriend & her X-husband singing the verses when the folks who'd TRIED 2 do the song couldn't keep going 4 the full 8 mins ... & we didn't even have the lyrics in front of us....
...When my son was 2 years old his favorite song in the world was Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work." When he was 4 it was The Dream Academy's "Life in a Northern Town." Now he's more likely 2 point me toward something good I might otherwise miss -- like Coheed and Cambria's "The Road and the Damned" & "Feathers." We still agree on a lotta music -- later Rush, Wigwam's "Bless Your Lucky Stars," Camel, quite a few others....
...There R still songs that hit me hard emotionally, that can make me cry if I think about them 2 much: "This Woman's Work," Peter Gabriel's "Family Snapshot," Fleetwood Mac's "Silver Springs" & "Landslide" (which I 1st thot was about nothing, but which has gained a lot in meaning 4 me over the years), Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time," Blue October's "Calling You" -- most recently it happened with Kelly Clarkson's "I'm Already Gone." I can't even always tell you why. They sum up regrets I have, things I wished I'd said, years I feel like I wasted....
...I bitch about lame radio programming, but these days when I'm listening 2 Oldies I'm much more likely 2 B thinking about where I was & what I was doing when some old hit was popular ... than I am 2 B paying much attention 2 the actual song....
...Waking up each morning during highschool 2 an alarm-clock set 2 Boise, Idaho's KFXD-AM, by far the best local Top 40 station when I was growing up.
...Hearing the radio when I was 2 young 2 know what music was or what it could B. Hearing albums like DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED and MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR when I was 2 young 2 pay attention.
...Singing "Ticket to Ride" with my cousins Jim & Anna on a camping trip when I must've been all of 6 years old. Wandering down the street in the fog of Boise Winter '65 with the chorus of "Eight Days a Week" playing over & over in my head.
...Finally discovering music & what a radio was in 6th grade -- listening 2 my classmates play great 45's at the back of class during lunchbreak: "Joy to the World" & "One Toke Over the Line" & "Put Your Hand in the Hand" & "Spirit in the Sky" & "Brown Sugar" & "Honky Tonk Women" & (yeesh) "American Woman," "No Sugar Tonight," "Knock Three Times," "American Pie," & so many more.
...Sleeping-out in the backyard in Tacoma with my old buddy Gene Goodell in the Summer of '71, us bundled up in sleeping bags & nothing but the clear starry skies overhead & the radio tuned to KTAC-AM, with the echoed sounds of "Draggin' the Line" & "I Just Want to Celebrate" & "Rocket Man" bouncing off the hillside & up in2 the sky. Camping out again later with Gene & next-door neighbor Jim Yusko -- Gene hadda flashlight with a "strobe" setting, which worked uncomfortably well during the orangutang-howling middle-section of "Whole Lotta Love," a song which STILL creeps me out ... when I'm not laffing at it....
...Me staying over at writer-friend Barry Anderson's house, where we & Paul Fritts & Mike Harvey & the Gault Gazelle would listen 2 the 1st 3 Partridge Family albums & stay up late 2 catch the horrors on "Nightmare Theatre" & moan & groan about all the cute girls we wished we were brave enuf 2 talk 2....
...Playing football in Mike Fisher's yard with Gene & Jim & Buddy Pitts & Fred & Ernie Paul & 1/2adozen others whose names I 4get, with KTAC playing in the background while we crashed in2 each other -- the 1st place I ever heard the Moodies' "Ride My See-Saw" & Iron Butterfly's "In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida" & George Carlin's AM & FM....
...Nagging my parents 4 $$$ 2 buy 45rpm singles. Nagging them MORE 4 more $$$ 4 albums....
...Having radio stations that were willing 2 play off-the-wall stuff that might not catch on: El Chicano, Mal, Casey Kelly, Chris Hodge, later Raiders singles, Johnathon King, Kracker, The Wackers, Billy Lee Riley, anything by the 5-Man Electrical Band, Poco, early 10 C.C., Steely Dan album trax, The English Congregation, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Royal Guardsmen....
...Listening 2 KFXD's weekly Boise Valley Music Survey countdown & ALWAYS getting distracted 1/2way thru it... & when I was old enuf & had time enuf 2 listen thru the 3 hours, I was 2 bored with the music 2 care who was #1....
...Meeting & falling 4 my highschool sweetheart Allison & discovering R mutual adoration 4 The Moody Blues & Gentle Giant & Janis Ian & Simon & Garfunkel & Harry Nillsson & Paul Simon. ... Hanging out alone with her on a rainy afternoon, playing the "core 7" Moodies albums all the way thru as we talked & kissed & held each other....
...Cruising thru Boise & Nampa with highschool wildman Jeff Mann as we screamed along with homemade mix-cassettes of The Best Of The Beatles & Elton John & Wings & Queen & others....
...Years of making homemade tapes -- 1st of my fave songs off the radio, then my fave trax from vinyl so I could play them over&over in the car.... Wish I still had the oldest of those tapes, which dated back to 1971 -- there was stuff on them I'll never B able 2 replace....
...3 years working in a record store from 1979 to 1982, watching as 90 percent of the music-buying public went ONLY 4 the stuff they heard on the radio, & would never try anything new or diffrent. But the OTHER 10 percent were pretty freakin brave....
...Meeting fellow writer Don Vincent & hitting all the local record stores 2gether & pulling outta the cut-out bins such forgotten greats as Gryphon, Providence, Hawkwind, Caravan, David Sancious and Tone, & much more....
...Playing Caravan over&over at top volume on the way 2 & from the record store, day after day. Cranking it way up when stuff I never Xpected 2 hear came on the radio: "A Man I'll Never Be," "Feeling That Way/Anytime," Mac's live version of "I'm So Afraid"....
...Playing The Pretenders' 1st album over&over at top volume thruout the long hot summer of 1980, knowing that no matter how angry & frustrated I was, Chrissie Hynde had gone thru far worse, & survived 2 make great music about it....
...Meeting & marrying Cyndi & having endless musical discussions/arguments with her over how much Pat Benatar a person could stand 2 hear ... how much Madonna was good 4 1 ... how much Country could a person listen 2 B4 Bcoming a redneck....
...Seeing The Go-Go's & A Flock of Seagulls with Cyndi & losing my hearing... Seeing King Crimson with Mary & wishing KC had steamrolled all of us in the audience -- they did everything BUT run over us, & we just wanted MORE....
...Making love while the stereo played Pat Metheny or Miles Davis or Nick Drake or mix tapes of off-the-wall '70s bands....
...Using music as a way 2 build me up 4 the day ahead when I was working as a reporter ... & as a way 2 bring me back down gently at the end of the day....
...Seeing my kids grow old enuf 2 sing along with the Oldies we always played on the home stereo & when we were travelling in the car. It was when I heard my kids sing along with all the words 2 The Cowsills' "Hair" & when my daughter asked me 2 put "Behind Blue Eyes" on the home stereo that I finally felt maybe I'd raised the kids right....
...Heading 4 the store with the car full of my Xtended family, singing along with that silly Eminem song that makes fun of Michael Jackson & asks you 2 scream & wave yer hands in the air....
...Singing "American Pie" karaoke-style at a backyard wedding, me & my girlfriend & her X-husband singing the verses when the folks who'd TRIED 2 do the song couldn't keep going 4 the full 8 mins ... & we didn't even have the lyrics in front of us....
...When my son was 2 years old his favorite song in the world was Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work." When he was 4 it was The Dream Academy's "Life in a Northern Town." Now he's more likely 2 point me toward something good I might otherwise miss -- like Coheed and Cambria's "The Road and the Damned" & "Feathers." We still agree on a lotta music -- later Rush, Wigwam's "Bless Your Lucky Stars," Camel, quite a few others....
...There R still songs that hit me hard emotionally, that can make me cry if I think about them 2 much: "This Woman's Work," Peter Gabriel's "Family Snapshot," Fleetwood Mac's "Silver Springs" & "Landslide" (which I 1st thot was about nothing, but which has gained a lot in meaning 4 me over the years), Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time," Blue October's "Calling You" -- most recently it happened with Kelly Clarkson's "I'm Already Gone." I can't even always tell you why. They sum up regrets I have, things I wished I'd said, years I feel like I wasted....
...I bitch about lame radio programming, but these days when I'm listening 2 Oldies I'm much more likely 2 B thinking about where I was & what I was doing when some old hit was popular ... than I am 2 B paying much attention 2 the actual song....
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
About the stories....
Dunno if NE1's intrested, but "On Tour With the Little Green Men" was written back in the mid-'90s when I lived in Wyoming, & got rejected 1/2adozen times Btween then & the early 2000's, which is 1 of the reasons I felt "safe" about posting it here -- nobody's gonna publish it & pay me, tho I think it's funny enuf & diffrent enuf that somebody coulda given it a home. I sent it 2 the most appropriate magazines I could find, back when the science-fiction/fantasy market 4 short stories was 2wice as big as it is now, & I got a coupla nice notes back from them, but....
The 1/2adozen rock&roll-novel sections I posted a month ago were mostly written from 2002 onward, much of it during a period when I was unemployed & wanted desperately 2 B doing SOMETHING productive -- much of it was written before sessions & during intermissions at the bingo hall where my girlfriend worked.
The novel "stars" the dozen closest friends I had during my 5-year "aimless" dead-end-job period Btween highschool & when the Air Force dragged me away -- a period I now look back on often as "The Good Olde Days." At least 4 of my old friends know I've written about them, & nobody has objected yet, tho I imagine they'd B a little suprised 2 find this stuff posted here.
Much of the detail included in the novel sections is based on stuff that actually happened -- tho I think some of it cuts pretty close 2 the bone....
Some of those people actually WERE musicians, the rest I just transformed in2 a rock band. My idea at the time was that at least if I knew the characters & the situation I wanted 2 start from, maybe a novel'd B EZer 2 write.... I got about 25 pgs in2 it when the story ran out. It didn't seem 2 go NEwhere.
1 problem is that 2 work a story needs conflict -- & I hate conflict. Will go FAR out of my way 2 avoid it -- ask NE of my friends. The only real-life conflicts in this bunch were romantic frustrations & breakups -- I couldn't C NE other conflicts, couldn't imagine NE. Was 2 much in love with those Olde Days 2 cast NE shadows over them. Which may B why mosta what the story Xpresses 2 me is nostalgia & regret. Not Xactly good-time rock&roll.
I'm also aware that the novel TELLS a lot (thru my eyes & opinion) without really SHOWING much. The characters don't get 2 B much Byond my opinion of them. If I ever continue it, that's something I'll havta work on.
I think "Little Green Men" in some ways tells the same kinda story in a lot less space, & it probly works better Bcos it's funnier. & it was written strictly 4 fun. Hope summa that came across.
I might post more fiction in the future. There's probly some other stuff that wouldn't Cm 2 out-of-place here. Let me know what U think.
Am currently re-reading 2 novels -- Thomas Harris's RED DRAGON (as brilliant & unsettling as ever, still in awe of how Harris grabs U by the throat on the 1st pg, & I haven't re-read the book in years), & George Orwell's 1984.
What suprises me about '84 is how gray & gritty it is. At least 4 the 1st 50+ pgs it could B a Philip K. Dick novel -- like THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH or MARTIAN TIME SLIP or MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE. The low-keyness of it, the focus on avg people going thru their avg days, the scarcity of the society evoked.... I was bored outta my mind when I read '84 around age 14, & was again when I re-read it as a class assignment later in highschool. MayB I can appreciate it more now, having done my own 20-year stint in The Ministry Of Truth.... We'll C if I can finish it. RED DRAGON I don't Xpect 2 have 2 much trouble with....
I'm probly gonna B on another horror kick here soon. I wanna B jolted, I wanna B shook-up -- from the safety of my own room, of course. U might wanna get ready 4 some more horror book reviews....
I'm sure some of U would like me 2 get back 2 writing about music, that's why most of U visit in the 1st place. But it might B the wrong time 4 me. I tried 2 play some completely-new-2-me stuff awhile back & it really left me cold. But I won't B giving up. Have bn playing Oldies & Album-Rock radio during work nites more&more often lately & that REALLY helps keep me moving when the coffee won't do the job NEmore.... Will naturally update ASAP if some music really knocks me over.
Hope everybody out there is well....
The 1/2adozen rock&roll-novel sections I posted a month ago were mostly written from 2002 onward, much of it during a period when I was unemployed & wanted desperately 2 B doing SOMETHING productive -- much of it was written before sessions & during intermissions at the bingo hall where my girlfriend worked.
The novel "stars" the dozen closest friends I had during my 5-year "aimless" dead-end-job period Btween highschool & when the Air Force dragged me away -- a period I now look back on often as "The Good Olde Days." At least 4 of my old friends know I've written about them, & nobody has objected yet, tho I imagine they'd B a little suprised 2 find this stuff posted here.
Much of the detail included in the novel sections is based on stuff that actually happened -- tho I think some of it cuts pretty close 2 the bone....
Some of those people actually WERE musicians, the rest I just transformed in2 a rock band. My idea at the time was that at least if I knew the characters & the situation I wanted 2 start from, maybe a novel'd B EZer 2 write.... I got about 25 pgs in2 it when the story ran out. It didn't seem 2 go NEwhere.
1 problem is that 2 work a story needs conflict -- & I hate conflict. Will go FAR out of my way 2 avoid it -- ask NE of my friends. The only real-life conflicts in this bunch were romantic frustrations & breakups -- I couldn't C NE other conflicts, couldn't imagine NE. Was 2 much in love with those Olde Days 2 cast NE shadows over them. Which may B why mosta what the story Xpresses 2 me is nostalgia & regret. Not Xactly good-time rock&roll.
I'm also aware that the novel TELLS a lot (thru my eyes & opinion) without really SHOWING much. The characters don't get 2 B much Byond my opinion of them. If I ever continue it, that's something I'll havta work on.
I think "Little Green Men" in some ways tells the same kinda story in a lot less space, & it probly works better Bcos it's funnier. & it was written strictly 4 fun. Hope summa that came across.
I might post more fiction in the future. There's probly some other stuff that wouldn't Cm 2 out-of-place here. Let me know what U think.
Am currently re-reading 2 novels -- Thomas Harris's RED DRAGON (as brilliant & unsettling as ever, still in awe of how Harris grabs U by the throat on the 1st pg, & I haven't re-read the book in years), & George Orwell's 1984.
What suprises me about '84 is how gray & gritty it is. At least 4 the 1st 50+ pgs it could B a Philip K. Dick novel -- like THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH or MARTIAN TIME SLIP or MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE. The low-keyness of it, the focus on avg people going thru their avg days, the scarcity of the society evoked.... I was bored outta my mind when I read '84 around age 14, & was again when I re-read it as a class assignment later in highschool. MayB I can appreciate it more now, having done my own 20-year stint in The Ministry Of Truth.... We'll C if I can finish it. RED DRAGON I don't Xpect 2 have 2 much trouble with....
I'm probly gonna B on another horror kick here soon. I wanna B jolted, I wanna B shook-up -- from the safety of my own room, of course. U might wanna get ready 4 some more horror book reviews....
I'm sure some of U would like me 2 get back 2 writing about music, that's why most of U visit in the 1st place. But it might B the wrong time 4 me. I tried 2 play some completely-new-2-me stuff awhile back & it really left me cold. But I won't B giving up. Have bn playing Oldies & Album-Rock radio during work nites more&more often lately & that REALLY helps keep me moving when the coffee won't do the job NEmore.... Will naturally update ASAP if some music really knocks me over.
Hope everybody out there is well....
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
End of world set for Saturday
OK, so I was gonna do this whiny post about how most current music sucks & there's hardly anything good to watch on TV & that maybe the reason why mosta the new movies that come out are either remakes or mindless comedies or wild fantasies or chop-'em-up horror is because Real Life isn't too much fun these days & maybe most of us don't really wanna deal with it anymore....
But to Hell with all that, because The End Of The World is set for this coming Saturday, 21 May 2011, & I think if it really happens it's gonna put all our other little worries way down all of our lists.
So I wouldn't worry too much about the mortgage you can't pay or the bills you can't keep ahead of or the car that needs major repairs you can't afford, or about your failing marriage or your messed-up relationship....
Because The End is at hand. And if I were you, I'd be getting your affairs in order.
This is based on a full-page advertisement that appeared in last weekend's USA TODAY, near the back of the news section. A huge, colorful ad that it was impossible to miss. The headline said something like "JUDGEMENT DAY WILL OCCUR ON SATURDAY, MAY 21, 2011," & the ad went on to explain that the end of the world will start with massive worldwide earthquakes. One can only assume that after those have subsided, Ghod Himself will then come down & pass judgement on your lazy, worthless, sinning ass. & the rest of you, too.
I'd suggest that if you wanna get in good with Ghod, you had better get cracking.
The rest of this ad -- what I can remember of it -- said that all those folks who'd previously warned us that the end of the world was coming at the end of 2012 -- you know, like Nostradamus & the Mayans & Biblical scholars down thru the ages -- they all got their calculations wrong. The Real End is coming more than 18 months ahead of schedule, & woe unto your sorry behind if you haven't been getting your stuff together.
What was the purpose of this ad, you may well ask, other than to cause massive panic among the sinners amongst us? I THINK they were trying to sell you a book that explains how the calculations about the End Times got messed up, & what you need to know B4 those End Times come to pass....
But that can't be it, because if the end is coming on Saturday, the publishers'll barely have time to debit the $39.95 from your bank account, let alone ship you the book, before the ground starts shakin....
...But they were also trying to offer a sorta Public Service Announcement: The ad urged readers to buy multiple copies of the paper & send the ad to elected officials, police chiefs, fire chiefs, emergency-response teams -- so that the public might be alerted & not be caught unaware.
Not that there's anything anyone's gonna be able to do.... Not if the earthquakes are worldwide....
Which leads us therefore unto the Day Of Judgement. & woe unto us.
Don't know about you, but I know where I'll be going. I've tried to be a good person, & I think I AM a good person. But I've lied & broken hearts & betrayed friendships & treated people badly & committed adultery -- & if I could do it all over again tomorrow I'd do it faster & more often, so obviously I didn't learn a goddamned thing. (Sorry, Lord.)
So I know I'm going to burn in Hell.
But I also know that I'll have LOTS of company.
And where will YOU be spending eternity?
Even more important -- who do you suppose paid 4 this full-page ad in USA TODAY, a newspaper with between 1 & 3 million daily readers nationwide, last I heard. I'd assume that a full-page color ad in such a publication likely costs between $5,000 & $10,000 -- pretty serious money to put down on the table if you're not Absolutely Certain that The End Is Near. & USA TODAY took the money....
So if I were you I'd get my things together. There's a bad moon on the rise, as John Fogerty once said. & woe be unto you if you are not ready when the hour is nigh.
I am NOT making this up....
...Of course I don't really BELIEVE the world as we know it is going to end on Saturday. But won't the folks who placed that ad be -- briefly -- awfully smug & self-righteous if it DOES?
But to Hell with all that, because The End Of The World is set for this coming Saturday, 21 May 2011, & I think if it really happens it's gonna put all our other little worries way down all of our lists.
So I wouldn't worry too much about the mortgage you can't pay or the bills you can't keep ahead of or the car that needs major repairs you can't afford, or about your failing marriage or your messed-up relationship....
Because The End is at hand. And if I were you, I'd be getting your affairs in order.
This is based on a full-page advertisement that appeared in last weekend's USA TODAY, near the back of the news section. A huge, colorful ad that it was impossible to miss. The headline said something like "JUDGEMENT DAY WILL OCCUR ON SATURDAY, MAY 21, 2011," & the ad went on to explain that the end of the world will start with massive worldwide earthquakes. One can only assume that after those have subsided, Ghod Himself will then come down & pass judgement on your lazy, worthless, sinning ass. & the rest of you, too.
I'd suggest that if you wanna get in good with Ghod, you had better get cracking.
The rest of this ad -- what I can remember of it -- said that all those folks who'd previously warned us that the end of the world was coming at the end of 2012 -- you know, like Nostradamus & the Mayans & Biblical scholars down thru the ages -- they all got their calculations wrong. The Real End is coming more than 18 months ahead of schedule, & woe unto your sorry behind if you haven't been getting your stuff together.
What was the purpose of this ad, you may well ask, other than to cause massive panic among the sinners amongst us? I THINK they were trying to sell you a book that explains how the calculations about the End Times got messed up, & what you need to know B4 those End Times come to pass....
But that can't be it, because if the end is coming on Saturday, the publishers'll barely have time to debit the $39.95 from your bank account, let alone ship you the book, before the ground starts shakin....
...But they were also trying to offer a sorta Public Service Announcement: The ad urged readers to buy multiple copies of the paper & send the ad to elected officials, police chiefs, fire chiefs, emergency-response teams -- so that the public might be alerted & not be caught unaware.
Not that there's anything anyone's gonna be able to do.... Not if the earthquakes are worldwide....
Which leads us therefore unto the Day Of Judgement. & woe unto us.
Don't know about you, but I know where I'll be going. I've tried to be a good person, & I think I AM a good person. But I've lied & broken hearts & betrayed friendships & treated people badly & committed adultery -- & if I could do it all over again tomorrow I'd do it faster & more often, so obviously I didn't learn a goddamned thing. (Sorry, Lord.)
So I know I'm going to burn in Hell.
But I also know that I'll have LOTS of company.
And where will YOU be spending eternity?
Even more important -- who do you suppose paid 4 this full-page ad in USA TODAY, a newspaper with between 1 & 3 million daily readers nationwide, last I heard. I'd assume that a full-page color ad in such a publication likely costs between $5,000 & $10,000 -- pretty serious money to put down on the table if you're not Absolutely Certain that The End Is Near. & USA TODAY took the money....
So if I were you I'd get my things together. There's a bad moon on the rise, as John Fogerty once said. & woe be unto you if you are not ready when the hour is nigh.
I am NOT making this up....
...Of course I don't really BELIEVE the world as we know it is going to end on Saturday. But won't the folks who placed that ad be -- briefly -- awfully smug & self-righteous if it DOES?
Friday, February 18, 2011
My brother from another mother
I have a step-brother named Jay who lives in Michigan, my Dad's son from a previous marriage. I assume he's still alive -- a Google search of his name brings up a court appearance a year ago, where he got fined $1,000 & spent a day in jail 4 what sounds like a domestic violence incident. That sounds like him, & the age & location is right.
My Dad thot he might be dead, or in prison. Neither of us know 4 sure. I don't really WANT 2 know Bcos it would take me back 2 somewhere I don't want 2 be. I haven't heard from Jay in almost 35 years.
He lived with me & my family 4 almost 9 months back in 1974-75, when I was 15 years old. He taught me a lot when I was at an impressionable age -- most of it bad. I'm sure my parents wouldn't be suprised 2 learn that the 1st few times I smoked pot it was with Jay, under pressure, surrounded by people I didn't know & didn't feel comfortable with, & all it did was give me a headache & make the power-line poles along the side of the road come at me in slow motion during the ride home.
But despite the ugly temper he got from my Dad & the fact that he got all the girls, there were times when Jay was actually fun 2 hang around with. He was a big music fan 2 -- but it had 2 B the right KIND of music, stuff he could get stoned 2, mostly: Black Sabbath's 1st, Rare Earth's ONE WORLD, Foghat's 1st, Bob Dylan's BLOOD ON THE TRACKS, Pink Floyd's A NICE PAIR -- most of these on bootlegged 8-track tapes. (Remember 8-tracks? Remember cheapo bootleg 8-tracks? You could get them at any convenience store for awhile....)
He had pretty good taste in cars, 2. Ghod knows I had no objection 2 Jay picking me up from highschool in a '62 Impala Super Sport with big wide tires on the back & the radio blaring. It sure beat walkin'.
Later he got this huge old "ticket-me red" Dodge panel van that dated back 2 about 1952 & got about 3 miles 2 the gallon. You could sleep in the back, there was MILES of space back there. But there was NO insulation in there, it was just a bare metal shell with a coupla benches along the walls, & it got COLD in there at night. ...& when the local cops 1st saw the van, the 1st thing they did was pull my brother over....
The girls loved him. With his long dark hair & dark complexion & big nose, & a pack of cigarettes rolled up in his short-sleeve shirt (at age 17) -- he looked like a hood. He had no trouble attracting attention & getting dates. While I was lucky if I could squeak out 2 words 2 any attractive girl my age. I could see how it was gonna be real quick-like. We still had some good times, tho we were very diffrent people. I was the obnoxious, innocent, worthless Little Brother. The girls hated me -- unless I could pass on a message 2 have Jay call them.
I was pretty innocent when Jay came along, & somehow stayed that way 4 a coupla more years. But he taught me a lot thru example, most of it bad: How to treat women badly, how to lie & take advantage, how 2 steal. When we were just hangin' out & workin' on his car & staying close 2 home, or going out 2 the Meridian Drive-In 4 a night of movies with the girls, it was all good fun.
But he dropped outta highschool, he couldn't hold a job, he'd clash with bosses. Money was always tight, & he couldn't leave the house without gas money, & with no job there was no gas money. So we started stealing gas. In the late summer we'd just cruise around neighborhoods at night & take gas cans outta open garages or outta the backs of boats.
This seemed pretty ballsy 2 me, the few times I did it or helped Jay do it. 1nce I remember grabbing a full gas can outta some1's garage & breaking in2 snorting laffter as I walked down the street carrying the can -- I couldn't believe innocent little law-abiding ME was doing this. & then Jay ordered me in2 the car Bcos the light had come on in the garage behind me....
The group of girls we hung-out with -- all Jay fans, of course -- often coughed-up gas money or helped scrounge 4 gas cans, just 2 have his company, just 2 get outta the house & have something 2 do.
We never got caught. It was a long time ago, & I'm pretty sure the statute of limitations has run out on this stuff by now.
But Jay started staying away from home more -- weeks went by when my folks didn't know where he was. I assumed he was hanging out & getting high with his friends whose names I'd never bothered 2 learn. & meanwhile, things escalated. Jay came back 2 the house when no1 was home, & took money. Much later I learned he'd broken in2 the home of 1 of our friends & taken anything he thot he might be able 2 pawn-off.
When Jay crashed his car thru a big cube-shaped electrical junction box, the power company called my Dad, because Jay was still a juvenile. The damage was estimated at a couple thousand dollars. & when Jay came home the next day, my Dad THREW him up against the outside wall of the trailer we were living in & SCREAMED at him.... & Jay went back 2 Michigan the next day.
My Dad & I don't talk about Jay much. Last summer Dad said he'd heard Jay had done some prison time, then after he got out he seemedta B heading in a good direction when he got in2 an ugly motorcycle accident that supposedly burned most of his face off. He hadta have plastic surgery & now apparently looks completely diffrent.
Why am I telling you all this? Not sure. I think about my teen years a lot, but I don't think of this period 2 much, cos I did a lot of stupid things. I was an idiot. A 15-year-old who thot he knew everything -- don't they all?
What outrageously stupid things did YOU do while growing up?
My Dad thot he might be dead, or in prison. Neither of us know 4 sure. I don't really WANT 2 know Bcos it would take me back 2 somewhere I don't want 2 be. I haven't heard from Jay in almost 35 years.
He lived with me & my family 4 almost 9 months back in 1974-75, when I was 15 years old. He taught me a lot when I was at an impressionable age -- most of it bad. I'm sure my parents wouldn't be suprised 2 learn that the 1st few times I smoked pot it was with Jay, under pressure, surrounded by people I didn't know & didn't feel comfortable with, & all it did was give me a headache & make the power-line poles along the side of the road come at me in slow motion during the ride home.
But despite the ugly temper he got from my Dad & the fact that he got all the girls, there were times when Jay was actually fun 2 hang around with. He was a big music fan 2 -- but it had 2 B the right KIND of music, stuff he could get stoned 2, mostly: Black Sabbath's 1st, Rare Earth's ONE WORLD, Foghat's 1st, Bob Dylan's BLOOD ON THE TRACKS, Pink Floyd's A NICE PAIR -- most of these on bootlegged 8-track tapes. (Remember 8-tracks? Remember cheapo bootleg 8-tracks? You could get them at any convenience store for awhile....)
He had pretty good taste in cars, 2. Ghod knows I had no objection 2 Jay picking me up from highschool in a '62 Impala Super Sport with big wide tires on the back & the radio blaring. It sure beat walkin'.
Later he got this huge old "ticket-me red" Dodge panel van that dated back 2 about 1952 & got about 3 miles 2 the gallon. You could sleep in the back, there was MILES of space back there. But there was NO insulation in there, it was just a bare metal shell with a coupla benches along the walls, & it got COLD in there at night. ...& when the local cops 1st saw the van, the 1st thing they did was pull my brother over....
The girls loved him. With his long dark hair & dark complexion & big nose, & a pack of cigarettes rolled up in his short-sleeve shirt (at age 17) -- he looked like a hood. He had no trouble attracting attention & getting dates. While I was lucky if I could squeak out 2 words 2 any attractive girl my age. I could see how it was gonna be real quick-like. We still had some good times, tho we were very diffrent people. I was the obnoxious, innocent, worthless Little Brother. The girls hated me -- unless I could pass on a message 2 have Jay call them.
I was pretty innocent when Jay came along, & somehow stayed that way 4 a coupla more years. But he taught me a lot thru example, most of it bad: How to treat women badly, how to lie & take advantage, how 2 steal. When we were just hangin' out & workin' on his car & staying close 2 home, or going out 2 the Meridian Drive-In 4 a night of movies with the girls, it was all good fun.
But he dropped outta highschool, he couldn't hold a job, he'd clash with bosses. Money was always tight, & he couldn't leave the house without gas money, & with no job there was no gas money. So we started stealing gas. In the late summer we'd just cruise around neighborhoods at night & take gas cans outta open garages or outta the backs of boats.
This seemed pretty ballsy 2 me, the few times I did it or helped Jay do it. 1nce I remember grabbing a full gas can outta some1's garage & breaking in2 snorting laffter as I walked down the street carrying the can -- I couldn't believe innocent little law-abiding ME was doing this. & then Jay ordered me in2 the car Bcos the light had come on in the garage behind me....
The group of girls we hung-out with -- all Jay fans, of course -- often coughed-up gas money or helped scrounge 4 gas cans, just 2 have his company, just 2 get outta the house & have something 2 do.
We never got caught. It was a long time ago, & I'm pretty sure the statute of limitations has run out on this stuff by now.
But Jay started staying away from home more -- weeks went by when my folks didn't know where he was. I assumed he was hanging out & getting high with his friends whose names I'd never bothered 2 learn. & meanwhile, things escalated. Jay came back 2 the house when no1 was home, & took money. Much later I learned he'd broken in2 the home of 1 of our friends & taken anything he thot he might be able 2 pawn-off.
When Jay crashed his car thru a big cube-shaped electrical junction box, the power company called my Dad, because Jay was still a juvenile. The damage was estimated at a couple thousand dollars. & when Jay came home the next day, my Dad THREW him up against the outside wall of the trailer we were living in & SCREAMED at him.... & Jay went back 2 Michigan the next day.
My Dad & I don't talk about Jay much. Last summer Dad said he'd heard Jay had done some prison time, then after he got out he seemedta B heading in a good direction when he got in2 an ugly motorcycle accident that supposedly burned most of his face off. He hadta have plastic surgery & now apparently looks completely diffrent.
Why am I telling you all this? Not sure. I think about my teen years a lot, but I don't think of this period 2 much, cos I did a lot of stupid things. I was an idiot. A 15-year-old who thot he knew everything -- don't they all?
What outrageously stupid things did YOU do while growing up?
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Guilty pleasures....
Due 2 Technical Difficulties, there will B no Mostly New Music Friday write-up 2day. But that's OK cos I had Something Else planned NEway.
Can't Blieve I haven't written about this stuff B4 -- mayB I have in other contexts. Ghod knows I've looked.
NEway, mayB it's something about the holidays approaching, but whenever I stop 4 a min 2 think about all the things I have 2 B Thankful 4, that automatically Cms 2 lead 2 Confessing My Sins. So here's a list of my all-time faverite musical Guilty Pleasures, some of which I still slap on the stereo now&then when the moon is full & all the planets R lined-up wrong....
& after I've Mbarrassed myself in public, it'll B YOUR TURN 2 Confess All. Don't B scared....
* The Partridge Family -- Go ahead, laff. I don't care. The Truth is the Partridges' group-chorale vocal style has continued 2 influence pop music up 2 the present day, coming down 2 us thru acts like Fleetwood Mac, Clannad & Enya, among others. Their 1st album (1970) is a solid, consistent set of pop songs including classics like "Singing My Song" & "I'm on the Road." UP TO DATE (1971) was patchy but included the gorgeous "I'll Meet You Halfway" & Keith Partridge's almost-rockin' "Lay it on the Line." SOUND MAGAZINE (1972) rebounded w/ their best work, including 2 side-closing masterpieces, "Love is All I Ever Needed" & "I'm On My Way Back Home." Their producer Wes Farrell really Knew His Stuff. But of course if U can't take Keith's huge ego....
* The Osmonds, 1st album (1971) -- NOT "One Bad Apple" or "Sweet and Innocent," both of which made me gag even back then. But this 1st album includes the startling social-protest song "Think," the dramatic "Catch Me, Baby," a version of "Most of All" that beats B.J. Thomas, & a closing medley of 4 Motown hits ("Motown Special") that definitely MOVES & is almost ... funky. & their group-vocal version of "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" beats the Hollies & Neil Diamond.
* Helen Reddy -- I could go thru life happy if I never hear "Delta Dawn," "Ruby Reddress," "Angie Baby" & "I Am Woman" ever again. But "I Don't Know How to Love Him" has a great vocal that starts out very hesitant & gets stronger & more dramatic as it goes, & "Peaceful" has a breathtaking string arrangement that clearly evokes fresh air & relaxation. Around '72 Helen also did a vicious Carole King-written death-of-a-ladies'-man song whose title escapes me & that I can't find NEwhere. NE ideas?
* Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass -- THE BEAT OF THE BRASS (1969) is an Xcellent late-'60s pop album w/ 3 classic trax: the best-ever version of The Mamas & The Papas' "Monday Monday," with horns & bells & lotsa other stuff, brilliant cos it sounds NOTHING like the original -- they coulda spaced it out 4 20 mins. "A Beautiful Friend" is more like Herb & the TJB -- a mellow, laid-back horn piece w/ a great hook. & then there's Herb's modest vocal debut on "This Guy's in Love With You," which was a #1 hit single....
* Carpenters -- They've gained some dorky-cool over the yrs. "Goodbye to Love" (great guitar!), "Hurting Each Other" & "Rainy Days and Mondays" R all Prime Melodrama, "Solitaire" only slightly less great, & "For All We Know" is a brief but charming wedding song written by 2 of the guys from Bread. I'll even put on "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" 1nce in awhile -- it's really sorta a companion piece 2 Rush's "Mystic Rhythms," ain't it?
* Bread -- Grab their 2 GREATEST HITS albums & count the classics: "Been Too Long on the Road," "Mother Freedom," "Guitar Man," "Let Your Love Go," "Everything I Own," "It Don't Matter to Me" -- & summa their album trax R stunning: "Too Much Love," "Down on My Knees," "Look What You've Done," "Take Comfort," "He's a Good Lad"....
* Neil Diamond -- His mid-'60s stuff ("Kentucky Woman," "Solitary Man," "Cherry Cherry," etc) has gained in cool over the yrs, but his late-'60s/early-'70s stuff is really great & pretty strange -- "Holly Holy," "Soolaimon," "Walk on Water," "Done Too Soon," the goofy "I Am the Lion," "Crunchy Granola Suite," & much more! 4 yrs I thot Neil could do no wrong, then about '76 or so he went 2 Show Biz 4 me. Still, I've worn out a coupla copies of his CLASSICS: THE EARLY YEARS, & I still have a copy of his fairly-wretched JONATHON LIVINGSTON SEAGULL soundtrack in the house -- I'm also 1 of the 12 people in the world who paid $$$ 2 C the movie back at Xmas '73.
* Linda Ronstadt -- MAD LOVE (1979) is about 1/2 of a good New Wave album: Her cover of Elvis Costello's "Party Girl" is intense & dramatic, "How Do I Make You" does the job, & "I Can't Let Go" is gorgeous. & her cover of EC's "Talking in the Dark" is pretty silly. Summa her singles were pretty great 2: "Long Long Time," "Someone to Lay Down Beside Me," "Poor Poor Pitiful Me," etc.
* The Bee Gees -- Speaking of melodrama, these guys always had it. I'm a sucker 4 the crashingly dramatic "First of May," thru classics like "Lonely Days" & "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," 2 later stuff like "Fanny," "Nights on Broadway," & "Tragedy." Not a big fan of the disco stuff. But "Spirits (Having Flown)" is a gorgeous calypso piece that shoulda bn a huge hit....
* Janis Ian -- She's also gained some cool over the yrs. Jeez, a few yrs back there was a science fiction anthology published based on her songs, which I think is a 1st. BETWEEN THE LINES (1974) is about 1/2 brilliant, w/ the gorgeous "When the Party's Over," the brutally honest "From Me to You," & masterpieces like the stark, brief "In the Winter" & "Watercolors." AFTERTONES (1975) isn't as strong, but includes the Xcellent title song & "Love is Blind."
* Lobo -- MayB it was my age, back in '71. Not much I can't listen 2 on his BEST OF, & he did a string of brilliant pop singles. MayB my fave now is "A Simple Man," which was never a hit but shoulda bn. & if U can find a copy of his 1st album, INTRODUCING, it's priceless. Hardly a bad track on the whole thing....
* Nik Kershaw -- HUMAN RACING is a classic, w/ the hit "Wouldn't it be Good" & LOTS of other silly stuff. My absolute fave is the loopy "Gone to Pieces," in which Nik bids goodbye 2 the human race & The Chipmunks chime-in on the choruses. Brilliant & hilarious.
* Tracey Ullman -- YOU BROKE MY HEART IN 17 PLACES shows she coulda had a whole diffrent career. U probly know the hit "They Don't Know," but "Breakaway," "I'm Always Touched by Your Presence, Dear," "I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten" & others R all great fun, & they're not played 4 laffs, either.
* Weird Al Yankovic -- U know the song satires, but how bout the brilliant "Nature Trail to Hell," "Polkas on 45," "One More Minute," "Christmas at Ground Zero," "Dare to be Stupid"....
* Go-Go's -- Their 1st 3 albums R fulla 4got10 gems: "Can't Stop the World," "Fading Fast," "Lust to Love," "This Town," "Worlds Away," "The Way You Dance," "You Thought," "Capture the Light," "Forget That Day," "I'm With You"....
* Bangles -- Shoulda been bigger. Their 1st album ALL OVER THE PLACE has a 4-star 2nd side & the 1st side ain't no slouch neither. & the overlooked stuff on their later albums still sounds great: "Dover Beach," "Restless," "Silent Treatment," "September Gurls," "Angels Don't Fall in Love," "Following," "Not Like You," "Return Post," "I'll Set You Free," "Glitter Years," "Everything I Wanted," "Where Were You When I Needed You."
Now it's YOUR turn....
Can't Blieve I haven't written about this stuff B4 -- mayB I have in other contexts. Ghod knows I've looked.
NEway, mayB it's something about the holidays approaching, but whenever I stop 4 a min 2 think about all the things I have 2 B Thankful 4, that automatically Cms 2 lead 2 Confessing My Sins. So here's a list of my all-time faverite musical Guilty Pleasures, some of which I still slap on the stereo now&then when the moon is full & all the planets R lined-up wrong....
& after I've Mbarrassed myself in public, it'll B YOUR TURN 2 Confess All. Don't B scared....
* The Partridge Family -- Go ahead, laff. I don't care. The Truth is the Partridges' group-chorale vocal style has continued 2 influence pop music up 2 the present day, coming down 2 us thru acts like Fleetwood Mac, Clannad & Enya, among others. Their 1st album (1970) is a solid, consistent set of pop songs including classics like "Singing My Song" & "I'm on the Road." UP TO DATE (1971) was patchy but included the gorgeous "I'll Meet You Halfway" & Keith Partridge's almost-rockin' "Lay it on the Line." SOUND MAGAZINE (1972) rebounded w/ their best work, including 2 side-closing masterpieces, "Love is All I Ever Needed" & "I'm On My Way Back Home." Their producer Wes Farrell really Knew His Stuff. But of course if U can't take Keith's huge ego....
* The Osmonds, 1st album (1971) -- NOT "One Bad Apple" or "Sweet and Innocent," both of which made me gag even back then. But this 1st album includes the startling social-protest song "Think," the dramatic "Catch Me, Baby," a version of "Most of All" that beats B.J. Thomas, & a closing medley of 4 Motown hits ("Motown Special") that definitely MOVES & is almost ... funky. & their group-vocal version of "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" beats the Hollies & Neil Diamond.
* Helen Reddy -- I could go thru life happy if I never hear "Delta Dawn," "Ruby Reddress," "Angie Baby" & "I Am Woman" ever again. But "I Don't Know How to Love Him" has a great vocal that starts out very hesitant & gets stronger & more dramatic as it goes, & "Peaceful" has a breathtaking string arrangement that clearly evokes fresh air & relaxation. Around '72 Helen also did a vicious Carole King-written death-of-a-ladies'-man song whose title escapes me & that I can't find NEwhere. NE ideas?
* Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass -- THE BEAT OF THE BRASS (1969) is an Xcellent late-'60s pop album w/ 3 classic trax: the best-ever version of The Mamas & The Papas' "Monday Monday," with horns & bells & lotsa other stuff, brilliant cos it sounds NOTHING like the original -- they coulda spaced it out 4 20 mins. "A Beautiful Friend" is more like Herb & the TJB -- a mellow, laid-back horn piece w/ a great hook. & then there's Herb's modest vocal debut on "This Guy's in Love With You," which was a #1 hit single....
* Carpenters -- They've gained some dorky-cool over the yrs. "Goodbye to Love" (great guitar!), "Hurting Each Other" & "Rainy Days and Mondays" R all Prime Melodrama, "Solitaire" only slightly less great, & "For All We Know" is a brief but charming wedding song written by 2 of the guys from Bread. I'll even put on "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" 1nce in awhile -- it's really sorta a companion piece 2 Rush's "Mystic Rhythms," ain't it?
* Bread -- Grab their 2 GREATEST HITS albums & count the classics: "Been Too Long on the Road," "Mother Freedom," "Guitar Man," "Let Your Love Go," "Everything I Own," "It Don't Matter to Me" -- & summa their album trax R stunning: "Too Much Love," "Down on My Knees," "Look What You've Done," "Take Comfort," "He's a Good Lad"....
* Neil Diamond -- His mid-'60s stuff ("Kentucky Woman," "Solitary Man," "Cherry Cherry," etc) has gained in cool over the yrs, but his late-'60s/early-'70s stuff is really great & pretty strange -- "Holly Holy," "Soolaimon," "Walk on Water," "Done Too Soon," the goofy "I Am the Lion," "Crunchy Granola Suite," & much more! 4 yrs I thot Neil could do no wrong, then about '76 or so he went 2 Show Biz 4 me. Still, I've worn out a coupla copies of his CLASSICS: THE EARLY YEARS, & I still have a copy of his fairly-wretched JONATHON LIVINGSTON SEAGULL soundtrack in the house -- I'm also 1 of the 12 people in the world who paid $$$ 2 C the movie back at Xmas '73.
* Linda Ronstadt -- MAD LOVE (1979) is about 1/2 of a good New Wave album: Her cover of Elvis Costello's "Party Girl" is intense & dramatic, "How Do I Make You" does the job, & "I Can't Let Go" is gorgeous. & her cover of EC's "Talking in the Dark" is pretty silly. Summa her singles were pretty great 2: "Long Long Time," "Someone to Lay Down Beside Me," "Poor Poor Pitiful Me," etc.
* The Bee Gees -- Speaking of melodrama, these guys always had it. I'm a sucker 4 the crashingly dramatic "First of May," thru classics like "Lonely Days" & "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," 2 later stuff like "Fanny," "Nights on Broadway," & "Tragedy." Not a big fan of the disco stuff. But "Spirits (Having Flown)" is a gorgeous calypso piece that shoulda bn a huge hit....
* Janis Ian -- She's also gained some cool over the yrs. Jeez, a few yrs back there was a science fiction anthology published based on her songs, which I think is a 1st. BETWEEN THE LINES (1974) is about 1/2 brilliant, w/ the gorgeous "When the Party's Over," the brutally honest "From Me to You," & masterpieces like the stark, brief "In the Winter" & "Watercolors." AFTERTONES (1975) isn't as strong, but includes the Xcellent title song & "Love is Blind."
* Lobo -- MayB it was my age, back in '71. Not much I can't listen 2 on his BEST OF, & he did a string of brilliant pop singles. MayB my fave now is "A Simple Man," which was never a hit but shoulda bn. & if U can find a copy of his 1st album, INTRODUCING, it's priceless. Hardly a bad track on the whole thing....
* Nik Kershaw -- HUMAN RACING is a classic, w/ the hit "Wouldn't it be Good" & LOTS of other silly stuff. My absolute fave is the loopy "Gone to Pieces," in which Nik bids goodbye 2 the human race & The Chipmunks chime-in on the choruses. Brilliant & hilarious.
* Tracey Ullman -- YOU BROKE MY HEART IN 17 PLACES shows she coulda had a whole diffrent career. U probly know the hit "They Don't Know," but "Breakaway," "I'm Always Touched by Your Presence, Dear," "I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten" & others R all great fun, & they're not played 4 laffs, either.
* Weird Al Yankovic -- U know the song satires, but how bout the brilliant "Nature Trail to Hell," "Polkas on 45," "One More Minute," "Christmas at Ground Zero," "Dare to be Stupid"....
* Go-Go's -- Their 1st 3 albums R fulla 4got10 gems: "Can't Stop the World," "Fading Fast," "Lust to Love," "This Town," "Worlds Away," "The Way You Dance," "You Thought," "Capture the Light," "Forget That Day," "I'm With You"....
* Bangles -- Shoulda been bigger. Their 1st album ALL OVER THE PLACE has a 4-star 2nd side & the 1st side ain't no slouch neither. & the overlooked stuff on their later albums still sounds great: "Dover Beach," "Restless," "Silent Treatment," "September Gurls," "Angels Don't Fall in Love," "Following," "Not Like You," "Return Post," "I'll Set You Free," "Glitter Years," "Everything I Wanted," "Where Were You When I Needed You."
Now it's YOUR turn....
Monday, May 24, 2010
Nothing 2 read while I'm eating....
I know this isn't Xactly a world-crisis-level topic or NEthing, but has NE1 Out There ever noticed what a shocking shortage there is of books U can read while sitting up in bed eating dinner?
MayB this isn't 2 worrisome a topic 4 those of U who stare at the TV while U eat. But I'm not that sort, much of the time.
Or if U actually have a dinner table U can plop yr plate of food upon. Which I don't.
Normal rack-sized paperbacks don't work 2 well while U're trying 2 eat yr dinner in bed. Unless U pull yr knees up & sorta balance yr plate on yr belly -- then U can hold the book in 1 hand while U fork-in the food w/ the other, & stabilize the plate with yr thighs.
But what if it's a really thick rack-sized paperback? It's just freakin awkward.
Of course just about NE book will work if yr just munching a sandwich, but 4 discussion purposes here let's say U actually warmed up something in the microwave & R trying not 2 spill it while U try 2 read.
Then it gets a little hairier.
Summa my faverite books ever R those I can prop across my lap or whatever while I'm trying 2 eat, & they don't fight me or make me wish I could grow another arm & hand 2 hold the book & turn the pgs while I eat.
Large-4mat art books & refrence-style books R great 4 this. Hipgnosis's WALK AWAY RENE book of album-cover art is very good grazing reading matter -- colorful, lively, & there's some great jokes ... long as U don't choke on yr food. Roger Dean's VIEWS is even more gorgeous (more album-cover art), but there's way fewer jokes.
John Clute & Peter Nicholls' SCIENCE FICTION ENCYCLOPEDIA works equally well 4 meal-time browsing -- lotsa good info, lively opinions, & U prop it open & it STAYS IN 1 SPOT while U read.
Dominic Priore's Beach Boys/SMILE-album scrapbook LOOK! LISTEN! VIBRATE! SMILE! is also good 4 mealtime browsing -- there's plenty in it, it's actually packed full of info, & the large 4mat guarantees U won't lose yr place Btween bites.
The SALON.COM GUIDE TO CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS also gets high marks in this area, 4 its wide pgs & sprawling layout, & 4 the massive quantities of info & lively opinions within. It doesn't get boring & leave U looking 4 something ELSE 2 read 1/2way thru yr meal.
Nick Logan & Bob Woffinden's original ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ROCK also got high marks in this area -- I've browsed thru it so much over the 30-some yrs I've had it around that my copy fell apart LONG ago. Nicholas Schaffner's Pink Floyd bio SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS also gets high marks in this most-discerning, most-discriminating area of literary criticism.
David Leaf's THE BEACH BOYS AND THE CALIFORNIA MYTH & Byron Preiss's THE BEACH BOYS also get high marks in this area. So does a hardback copy of Lester Bangs' PSYCHOTIC REACTIONS AND CARBURETOR DUNG, Robert Christgau's various CONSUMER GUIDE books (my softcover copy of the '70s book fell apart AGES ago), Dave Marsh's Who bio BEFORE I GET OLD & his huge collection of 45 reviews THE HEART OF ROCK AND SOUL, Robert Draper's ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE: THE UNCENSORED HISTORY, Donald Clarke's PENGUIN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC, & just a very few others.
The 4mat is key here: The print hasta B big enuf so that even a blind guy like me can C it while peering over my dinner plate. MayB this is why art & photo books work better, but I'm more addicted 2 large-4mat non-fiction.
1 book that definitely does NOT qualify 4 this list is the ALL MUSIC GUIDE TO ROCK -- 4 1 obvious reason: The print's 2 freakin small! I can't C it from over my plate; I've gotta put my nose right in2 it 2 read the 8-point tiny type. (It IS stuffed w/ lotsa good info, tho....)
Looking at my bookshelves, I see I have NO large-4mat novels, so none qualify 4 this list. Course I don't know of 2 many novels that R published in a large, sprawling, fold-open 4mat. Not 2 many that R published 4 grown-ups NEway....
What brot all this up is I'm about 2 go warm-up some dinner, & I have no idea what I'm gonna B browsing while I eat. Nothing new, obviously.
So here's a vote 4 more large-4mat books, books that fold open & STAY THERE, books that even blind guys like me can read while trying not 2 spill dinner....
MayB this isn't 2 worrisome a topic 4 those of U who stare at the TV while U eat. But I'm not that sort, much of the time.
Or if U actually have a dinner table U can plop yr plate of food upon. Which I don't.
Normal rack-sized paperbacks don't work 2 well while U're trying 2 eat yr dinner in bed. Unless U pull yr knees up & sorta balance yr plate on yr belly -- then U can hold the book in 1 hand while U fork-in the food w/ the other, & stabilize the plate with yr thighs.
But what if it's a really thick rack-sized paperback? It's just freakin awkward.
Of course just about NE book will work if yr just munching a sandwich, but 4 discussion purposes here let's say U actually warmed up something in the microwave & R trying not 2 spill it while U try 2 read.
Then it gets a little hairier.
Summa my faverite books ever R those I can prop across my lap or whatever while I'm trying 2 eat, & they don't fight me or make me wish I could grow another arm & hand 2 hold the book & turn the pgs while I eat.
Large-4mat art books & refrence-style books R great 4 this. Hipgnosis's WALK AWAY RENE book of album-cover art is very good grazing reading matter -- colorful, lively, & there's some great jokes ... long as U don't choke on yr food. Roger Dean's VIEWS is even more gorgeous (more album-cover art), but there's way fewer jokes.
John Clute & Peter Nicholls' SCIENCE FICTION ENCYCLOPEDIA works equally well 4 meal-time browsing -- lotsa good info, lively opinions, & U prop it open & it STAYS IN 1 SPOT while U read.
Dominic Priore's Beach Boys/SMILE-album scrapbook LOOK! LISTEN! VIBRATE! SMILE! is also good 4 mealtime browsing -- there's plenty in it, it's actually packed full of info, & the large 4mat guarantees U won't lose yr place Btween bites.
The SALON.COM GUIDE TO CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS also gets high marks in this area, 4 its wide pgs & sprawling layout, & 4 the massive quantities of info & lively opinions within. It doesn't get boring & leave U looking 4 something ELSE 2 read 1/2way thru yr meal.
Nick Logan & Bob Woffinden's original ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ROCK also got high marks in this area -- I've browsed thru it so much over the 30-some yrs I've had it around that my copy fell apart LONG ago. Nicholas Schaffner's Pink Floyd bio SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS also gets high marks in this most-discerning, most-discriminating area of literary criticism.
David Leaf's THE BEACH BOYS AND THE CALIFORNIA MYTH & Byron Preiss's THE BEACH BOYS also get high marks in this area. So does a hardback copy of Lester Bangs' PSYCHOTIC REACTIONS AND CARBURETOR DUNG, Robert Christgau's various CONSUMER GUIDE books (my softcover copy of the '70s book fell apart AGES ago), Dave Marsh's Who bio BEFORE I GET OLD & his huge collection of 45 reviews THE HEART OF ROCK AND SOUL, Robert Draper's ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE: THE UNCENSORED HISTORY, Donald Clarke's PENGUIN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC, & just a very few others.
The 4mat is key here: The print hasta B big enuf so that even a blind guy like me can C it while peering over my dinner plate. MayB this is why art & photo books work better, but I'm more addicted 2 large-4mat non-fiction.
1 book that definitely does NOT qualify 4 this list is the ALL MUSIC GUIDE TO ROCK -- 4 1 obvious reason: The print's 2 freakin small! I can't C it from over my plate; I've gotta put my nose right in2 it 2 read the 8-point tiny type. (It IS stuffed w/ lotsa good info, tho....)
Looking at my bookshelves, I see I have NO large-4mat novels, so none qualify 4 this list. Course I don't know of 2 many novels that R published in a large, sprawling, fold-open 4mat. Not 2 many that R published 4 grown-ups NEway....
What brot all this up is I'm about 2 go warm-up some dinner, & I have no idea what I'm gonna B browsing while I eat. Nothing new, obviously.
So here's a vote 4 more large-4mat books, books that fold open & STAY THERE, books that even blind guys like me can read while trying not 2 spill dinner....
Saturday, May 8, 2010
My petition 4 better weather, & other stuff....
Well now, this feels just like starting over.... The sun has been out a lot more the past few days & I'm feeling a lot better. On Fri, temps actually got up 2 around 60 on the front porch. I hear that in some parts of the country (tho not the West) it's bn Spring 4 weeks -- sunny, temps in the 60s, 70s, even 80s. This wknd's sposta B nice -- I hope this time Spring is here 4 Real & this isn't just the weather softening us up 4 more clouds, rain & cold. 2 yrs ago it rained until mid-June, so who knows? Cms like I otta B able 2 complain 2 somebody about this -- the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, perhaps? U don't think NOAA does Weather Control? Don't kid yrself -- Global Warming is a hype, invented by those gov't weather boffins at NOAA. Just remember the X-Files Theory Of Reality: Whatever's going on is just a put-on 2 distract U from What's Really Going On....
...That's an OK opening, I guess. Meanwhile, I'm still thinking about going back home 2 Idaho where the sun shines a lot more often. The girlfriend & I hadda long talk about this & she thinks I should go. B4 I really go nuts. My Dad has bn welcoming enuf, but the job situation is a little unsettled, as it is everywhere. Won't do me NE good 2 go Back Home & have no way 2 pay my bills. That'll just give me something else 2 get Dpressed about.
Dad's gonna keep his eyes on the want ads & sez he'll send me a copy of the 1st worthwhile Sun paper. He & the girlfriend also think me catching a bus down there & checking-out the situation in-person when I get some vacation time in June is also a good idea. Want 2 B fairly sure about something B4 I jump & risk financial ruin....
...Hung out w/ the girlfriend 4 a coupla days, watched movies (AVATAR, THE BLIND SIDE, etc.), relaxed & soaked up some sun, & sat out in the yard while the wind blew 2 40 mph & the GF's youngest daughter cracked jokes & the GF's potential future-son-in-law worked on his car. My roommates R OK people but I needed 2 get outta here 4 awhile. So I did. & I'm grateful 2 the GF 4 bailing my ass out yet again. Thank Ghod she cares & she never gives up. I might even start checking my e-mails again....
Oh, & I've bn reading. Ian McDonald's CHAGA (1995, in the US it was called EVOLUTION'S SHORE) was, 4 mosta its length, the best science-fiction novel I've read in years -- vivid, involving, awe-inspiring, even funny. But the Nding was disappointing, sidetracking from an alien/sense-of-wonder-type story 2 a sorta replay of Arthur C. Clarke's RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA, even tho the Nding was vivid & well-told as well.
CHAGA is a sequel of sorts 2 2 earlier McDonald short-stories, the brilliant & disturbing "Toward Kilimanjaro," & the vivid tho inconclusive "Recording Angel." The chaga itself is an alien life-form, a biological package that crashes like a meteor atop Africa's Mt. Kilimanjaro, then starts ... eating the continent of Africa, replacing all the native plants w/ an environment of its own. People who venture in2 the chaga R changed -- they start mutating. They grow Xtra arms & legs, can communicate w/ animals, can alter their environment.
The book follows the adventures of reporter Gaby McAslan as she follows & tries 2 Xplain 2 the world what the chaga is like & what it does 2 people. Meanwhile, the UN cordons-off the chaga, & the country of Kenya is slowly Bing evacuated as the chaga advances by 50 feet per day. More chagas crash 2 earth in other parts of Africa, & in Ecuador, Venezuela, the Indian Ocean. When another package appears in space & Cms 2 B on a course 2 blot-out India, the UN's space program moves 2 Xplore the newest bio package up-close.
Much of this is brilliantly handled. McDonald wisely does not Xplain 2 much about the chaga, even tho the middle of the book features a long trek thru the alien forest. That environment is Dscribed vividly & colorfully, but McDonald doesn't make the mistake of Xplaining 2 Much & ruining the awesome mystery at the center of his novel. He resists NE attempt 2 Xplain What the chaga is doing & Why. & the book is more powerful as a result.
Bsides, there R some great mysteries here. There R apparently humans living -- thriving -- inside the alien forest. The chaga appears 2 B adapting 2 humans, Cms 2 want 2 help us Bcome more than we R. & Xposure 2 the chaga apparently cures the AIDS virus.
There R some problems w/ the book: The British Vista paperback I got cheap has a lotta typos in it, more as U get farther in2 the story, & toward the Nd words R dropped making it difficult 2 concentrate. There's a section in the last 100 pgs where Bad Things Happen that didn't necessarily need 2, & it Cms like McDonald was in sorta a bad mood when he wrote it. Summa this stuff is brutal. Gaby herself is Dpicted as rather selfish & irresponsible, tho probly no moreso than NE other reporter I've ever met.
But there's a happy Nding 4 just about everybody, U learn what happened 2 the characters in the previous stories in the series, & I've since learned the book has a sequel called KIRINYA that I'm now gonna havta track down. CHAGA is also WAY better & way more controlled than McDonald's 1st novel DESOLATION ROAD. At no point in this book does the plot machinery overwhelm the story -- it all Cms 2 flow pretty naturally. & at the center of the story is a pretty awesome vision. Mosta the characters U get 2 know R pretty great 2.
Somebody musta read the book -- it apparently won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award 4 best SF novel of its year, even tho 4 awhile I couldn't even tell if it was ever published in the US (I had the wrong title).
McDonald's got 1/2 a dozen other novels out there. The 1st 1/2 of DESOLATION ROAD's pretty amazing 2. I couldn't get in2 OUT ON BLUE SIX, but I might havta give it another try. & there's KIRINYA 2 track down as well....
Nice talkin 2 ya again. More soon....
...That's an OK opening, I guess. Meanwhile, I'm still thinking about going back home 2 Idaho where the sun shines a lot more often. The girlfriend & I hadda long talk about this & she thinks I should go. B4 I really go nuts. My Dad has bn welcoming enuf, but the job situation is a little unsettled, as it is everywhere. Won't do me NE good 2 go Back Home & have no way 2 pay my bills. That'll just give me something else 2 get Dpressed about.
Dad's gonna keep his eyes on the want ads & sez he'll send me a copy of the 1st worthwhile Sun paper. He & the girlfriend also think me catching a bus down there & checking-out the situation in-person when I get some vacation time in June is also a good idea. Want 2 B fairly sure about something B4 I jump & risk financial ruin....
...Hung out w/ the girlfriend 4 a coupla days, watched movies (AVATAR, THE BLIND SIDE, etc.), relaxed & soaked up some sun, & sat out in the yard while the wind blew 2 40 mph & the GF's youngest daughter cracked jokes & the GF's potential future-son-in-law worked on his car. My roommates R OK people but I needed 2 get outta here 4 awhile. So I did. & I'm grateful 2 the GF 4 bailing my ass out yet again. Thank Ghod she cares & she never gives up. I might even start checking my e-mails again....
Oh, & I've bn reading. Ian McDonald's CHAGA (1995, in the US it was called EVOLUTION'S SHORE) was, 4 mosta its length, the best science-fiction novel I've read in years -- vivid, involving, awe-inspiring, even funny. But the Nding was disappointing, sidetracking from an alien/sense-of-wonder-type story 2 a sorta replay of Arthur C. Clarke's RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA, even tho the Nding was vivid & well-told as well.
CHAGA is a sequel of sorts 2 2 earlier McDonald short-stories, the brilliant & disturbing "Toward Kilimanjaro," & the vivid tho inconclusive "Recording Angel." The chaga itself is an alien life-form, a biological package that crashes like a meteor atop Africa's Mt. Kilimanjaro, then starts ... eating the continent of Africa, replacing all the native plants w/ an environment of its own. People who venture in2 the chaga R changed -- they start mutating. They grow Xtra arms & legs, can communicate w/ animals, can alter their environment.
The book follows the adventures of reporter Gaby McAslan as she follows & tries 2 Xplain 2 the world what the chaga is like & what it does 2 people. Meanwhile, the UN cordons-off the chaga, & the country of Kenya is slowly Bing evacuated as the chaga advances by 50 feet per day. More chagas crash 2 earth in other parts of Africa, & in Ecuador, Venezuela, the Indian Ocean. When another package appears in space & Cms 2 B on a course 2 blot-out India, the UN's space program moves 2 Xplore the newest bio package up-close.
Much of this is brilliantly handled. McDonald wisely does not Xplain 2 much about the chaga, even tho the middle of the book features a long trek thru the alien forest. That environment is Dscribed vividly & colorfully, but McDonald doesn't make the mistake of Xplaining 2 Much & ruining the awesome mystery at the center of his novel. He resists NE attempt 2 Xplain What the chaga is doing & Why. & the book is more powerful as a result.
Bsides, there R some great mysteries here. There R apparently humans living -- thriving -- inside the alien forest. The chaga appears 2 B adapting 2 humans, Cms 2 want 2 help us Bcome more than we R. & Xposure 2 the chaga apparently cures the AIDS virus.
There R some problems w/ the book: The British Vista paperback I got cheap has a lotta typos in it, more as U get farther in2 the story, & toward the Nd words R dropped making it difficult 2 concentrate. There's a section in the last 100 pgs where Bad Things Happen that didn't necessarily need 2, & it Cms like McDonald was in sorta a bad mood when he wrote it. Summa this stuff is brutal. Gaby herself is Dpicted as rather selfish & irresponsible, tho probly no moreso than NE other reporter I've ever met.
But there's a happy Nding 4 just about everybody, U learn what happened 2 the characters in the previous stories in the series, & I've since learned the book has a sequel called KIRINYA that I'm now gonna havta track down. CHAGA is also WAY better & way more controlled than McDonald's 1st novel DESOLATION ROAD. At no point in this book does the plot machinery overwhelm the story -- it all Cms 2 flow pretty naturally. & at the center of the story is a pretty awesome vision. Mosta the characters U get 2 know R pretty great 2.
Somebody musta read the book -- it apparently won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award 4 best SF novel of its year, even tho 4 awhile I couldn't even tell if it was ever published in the US (I had the wrong title).
McDonald's got 1/2 a dozen other novels out there. The 1st 1/2 of DESOLATION ROAD's pretty amazing 2. I couldn't get in2 OUT ON BLUE SIX, but I might havta give it another try. & there's KIRINYA 2 track down as well....
Nice talkin 2 ya again. More soon....
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Recent reading... & other stuff....
I don't wanna write about being depressed, about being sad & grouchy & angry at the whole world for no real good reason. It's just a drag for everyone.
But now it seems to be affecting my job. So maybe I don't have a choice.
My boss has been complaining to one of my co-workers for weeks about minor little things I've forgotten to do at work -- VERY minor things, things my boss can't be bothered to do herself. But she can notice and complain about them. & then she can ask my co-workers if I've been tired or grouchy, or she can wonder aloud if maybe I just don't want to work there anymore.
Understand, these are VERY minor things I've been forgetting to do. Some of them I didn't even know I was supposed to be doing. & I've been working there 6-1/2 years.
Now I'm thinking the smallest little thing I mess-up might lead to me getting fired. If everything's not absolutely perfect, then....
See, the thing is, I thought I was doing OK. Granted, I'm not the stress-fueled busy bee I used to be at work -- partly because nobody notices if I work my ass off. & also because I'm 50 & I can't multi-task 9 hrs/day anymore. At least not at this job.
But I still thot I was going above & beyond. I still do things none of my co-workers do, I still clean & stock & take care of stuff nobody else seems to bother worth. I get the job done. I know what I'm sposta do & I don't waste any time. Tho I do stop & catch my breath now & then.
Hell, on busy nites like Fri & Sat I've even started mopping the store's floors after closing, cos there's no time during the late-evening beer rushes to do it while we're open. & I'm still getting outta the bldg at a reasonable time. & I'm not stressing-out while trying to mop around drunks.
But none of that makes any diffrence. Because I'm apparently missing little things. & I'm not happy enuf. I keep getting told that. Well, it'd sure help if the sun would come out for more than 1 day at a time. If the temps would pick up just a little, if it actually felt like SPRING here instead of Feb. On the sunny days I actually feel pretty good -- today was OK, & Thurs was the best day I've had in weeks & I'm not sure why. I'm not doing anything any differently. On Thurs I woke up early & couldn't get back to sleep, so I thot I'd go out & look 4 cheap books & music. I found almost nothing, but it was still a good day, & maybe just getting outta the house helped some.
...I've been depressed for months. I didn't really even realize it until my girlfriend hadn't heard from me in awhile, invited me out for a cuppa coffee & told me I was Not Myself & maybe I should Talk To Someone about it. I did go talk to someone for awhile, but I didn't like most of what I was told: Get out, make some new friends, join a writer's group, hit the Library. I'm too TIRED 4 mosta that. & I haven't followed-up.
Now the depression is worse. I haven't even visited HERE in a coupla weeks. Just didn't feel much like communicating, as much as this blog means to me. & it means a lot.
...I talked to my Dad on the phone on April 16th, the 2nd anniversary of my Mother's death. We had a good talk. We didn't even talk about Mom, tho my Dad reminded me that the 16th is also my Sister's birthday. We just gabbed 4 awhile, & in the course of it I said I planned to take some vacation time this year cos I've got no patience left for people's BS & I needta get away from the job for awhile. We talked about jobs & wages Back Home, & my Dad said: "You know, if you were to live with me, the rent would be cheap."
At my Mom's funeral my Cousin Carol (who I hadn't seen in about 30 years) greeted me with: "So, when are you gonna move back home? Your Dad really wants you to, but of course he'll never say it."
Suggesting the rent would be cheap is about as close as my Dad is ever gonna get 2 inviting me to move back home. To Idaho. The cultural wasteland, as I've joked here. The place where 1/2 of my nostalgia comes from. Of course it's not the same place I left 30 years ago, but....
I told my Dad that -- even tho I'd love to go back to Idaho -- I couldn't swing it financially, that Wash is 1 of the few places in the country where I can do what I'm doing & keep up w/ my bills.
But that didn't stop me from adding up the numbers. ...& I think it would be damn tight -- but do-able, depending on what kinda job I found at the other end. I might even B able 2 afford 2 rent a U-Haul trailer, tho I doubt my truck could pull it the 600 miles back home. My truck can barely make it over summa the hills around here....
But I'm tempted. Really.
4 a few days I hardly thot about anything else.
However: In Idaho, they think $10 an hr is "big money." I'll take a pay cut of about 1/2 if I can find a cashiering job.
Big problem: If I do go, even if I claim my Dad is in failing health (as far as I know he's OK), my roommate will likely lose his house. I've bn helping keep him afloat 4 the past 2 years.
Other issues: There is someone here I love. We have a lotta history. But I haven't seen her since Feb, haven't talked to her in 3 weeks (haven't felt like communicating, remember?), & she likely realizes my depression is worse -- & I assume she's sick 2 death of my BS by now. & I can't blame her. If I go, that will prove that whatever we had is Over. Ghod knows I've tried to kill it enuf times....
Is that all that's on my mind? Isn't that enuf?
But I was gonna review some books....
* THE ROLLING STONE RECORD REVIEW (1971) -- This is not the Ultimate Rock Criticism Xperience I was hoping 4, but it's a lotta fun, & it's the only thing that's made me laff out loud in wks. There is rather 2 much reviewing by RS founder Jann Wenner, who was never the most fluent of writers (tho a good interviewer). But there's lotsa great early work by Lester Bangs (including his classic reviews of Captain Beefheart's TROUT MASK REPLICA & the MC5's 1st album), Greil Marcus, John Mendelssohn, Ed Ward, Jon Landau, Arthur Schmidt, Langdon Winner & other early-'70s critics. Ward has a great negative review of ABBEY ROAD that had me laffing aloud when he called George Harrison's "Something" "so vile it will probably be covered by dozens of performers within weeks and become one of the Beatles' greatest successes." & he was right about the song's popularity, if not its vileness. Now, I admit reading stuff like this may not B every1's idea of a Good Time, but if U read music reviews at all then U've already got the disease.
Among the artists reviewed: Beatles, Stones, Dylan (Marcus has an ENDLESS review of Bob's SELF PORTRAIT), Airplane, Hendrix, Joplin, Kinks, Who, Procol Harum, Move, Rod Stewart, Moody Blues, CCR, Cream, Traffic, Cocker, CSNY, Joni Mitchell, Buffalo Springfield, Aretha, Elvis, Jackson 5, Zeppelin, Beach Boys, Stooges, Van Morrison, The Band, etc....
+ Robert Onopa: THE PLEASURE TUBE (1979) -- Vivid & involving, like Bob Silverberg at his sensuous, Dscriptive best, but w/ what coulda bn the grim&scary back-story from Barry Malzberg's BEYOND APOLLO (1972). Tho the book is convincing & almost hallucinatory in its vividness, it's clear from at least 1/2way thru where it's going & there R no real suprises. & it's not a fun trip. Had bn wanting 2 read this 4 ages -- Algis Budrys wrote a rave review of it in F&SF back in '79; Onopa is still writing short pieces 4 F&SF & other magazines....
+ Norman Spinrad: SCIENCE FICTION IN THE REAL WORLD (1990) -- Mostly a pretty-good collection of reviews from the pages of ASIMOV'S SF mag, tho a piece on why Philip K. Dick's later novels R his best is new here. Spinrad is great on the economic nuts&bolts that drive SF publishing, & his analyses R solid. I was also glad 2 C the only review of George R.R. Martin's rock'n'roll novel THE ARMAGEDDON RAG that I've ever found -- tho I disagree about why that book was a failure. I wished this book was longer.
= Norman Spinrad: STAYING ALIVE: A WRITER'S GUIDE (1983) -- This really IS about the nuts&bolts of SF publishing. & if U were a working writer back then it was probably invaluable. Now it's kinda dry, tho there R good things in it. (Has NE1 ever figured out why Gregory Benford's Nebula Award-winning novel TIMESCAPE never made it on2 the Hugo Award ballot? Bcos SF fans thot the book was boring?) The best thing here is a hilarious column on "Science Fiction's Best Award for 1980." Will the winner B the sentimental old fave the Hugo Award? Or will the pro writers instead choose the brand-new Prometheus Award, presented by the Libertarian Party along w/ $2,500 in gold!?
= Alexei & Cory Panshin: SF IN DIMENSION (1980) -- The book reviews R pretty good, but I read them when they were 1st published in F&SF. Summa them still make me laff, like when the Panshins call Ursula K. LeGuin's THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS "probably the best SF novel we can hope for in this, the year of Our Lord 1590." The long pieces on Heinlein I'm gonna havta save until later -- 1 of them, a LONG piece on THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST, takes up the last 1/4 of the book. I'll keep this 4 the reviews, but I wish there were more of the daring, trailblazing, supportive, encouraging, adventurous critical columns they wrote 4 FANTASTIC in the early '70s. Wonder what happened 2 those? I don't C how they coulda bn melded in2 the Panshins' HUGE SF history THE WORLD BEYOND THE HILL....
Currently reading: GOOD FICTION GUIDE, edited by Jane Rodgers, Oxford University Press, 2005 -- If U look at this as an update of the SALON.COM GUIDE TO CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS, it's pretty solid, & I'm amazed at how many SF writers R included in it: William Gibson & Bruce Sterling, of course, Neal Stephenson, sure, but -- Michael Swanwick? Nice suprise. & Roger Zelazny's in here! Bob Silverberg! But no Samuel R. Delany?! Philip K. Dick but no Barry Malzberg? Ray Bradbury but no Harlan Ellison? Joanna Russ but no James Tiptree Jr.? Jim Thompson but no Jack Ketchum? No Kathe Koja? ... Oh, & these folks think James Ellroy's a horror writer, 2....
But now it seems to be affecting my job. So maybe I don't have a choice.
My boss has been complaining to one of my co-workers for weeks about minor little things I've forgotten to do at work -- VERY minor things, things my boss can't be bothered to do herself. But she can notice and complain about them. & then she can ask my co-workers if I've been tired or grouchy, or she can wonder aloud if maybe I just don't want to work there anymore.
Understand, these are VERY minor things I've been forgetting to do. Some of them I didn't even know I was supposed to be doing. & I've been working there 6-1/2 years.
Now I'm thinking the smallest little thing I mess-up might lead to me getting fired. If everything's not absolutely perfect, then....
See, the thing is, I thought I was doing OK. Granted, I'm not the stress-fueled busy bee I used to be at work -- partly because nobody notices if I work my ass off. & also because I'm 50 & I can't multi-task 9 hrs/day anymore. At least not at this job.
But I still thot I was going above & beyond. I still do things none of my co-workers do, I still clean & stock & take care of stuff nobody else seems to bother worth. I get the job done. I know what I'm sposta do & I don't waste any time. Tho I do stop & catch my breath now & then.
Hell, on busy nites like Fri & Sat I've even started mopping the store's floors after closing, cos there's no time during the late-evening beer rushes to do it while we're open. & I'm still getting outta the bldg at a reasonable time. & I'm not stressing-out while trying to mop around drunks.
But none of that makes any diffrence. Because I'm apparently missing little things. & I'm not happy enuf. I keep getting told that. Well, it'd sure help if the sun would come out for more than 1 day at a time. If the temps would pick up just a little, if it actually felt like SPRING here instead of Feb. On the sunny days I actually feel pretty good -- today was OK, & Thurs was the best day I've had in weeks & I'm not sure why. I'm not doing anything any differently. On Thurs I woke up early & couldn't get back to sleep, so I thot I'd go out & look 4 cheap books & music. I found almost nothing, but it was still a good day, & maybe just getting outta the house helped some.
...I've been depressed for months. I didn't really even realize it until my girlfriend hadn't heard from me in awhile, invited me out for a cuppa coffee & told me I was Not Myself & maybe I should Talk To Someone about it. I did go talk to someone for awhile, but I didn't like most of what I was told: Get out, make some new friends, join a writer's group, hit the Library. I'm too TIRED 4 mosta that. & I haven't followed-up.
Now the depression is worse. I haven't even visited HERE in a coupla weeks. Just didn't feel much like communicating, as much as this blog means to me. & it means a lot.
...I talked to my Dad on the phone on April 16th, the 2nd anniversary of my Mother's death. We had a good talk. We didn't even talk about Mom, tho my Dad reminded me that the 16th is also my Sister's birthday. We just gabbed 4 awhile, & in the course of it I said I planned to take some vacation time this year cos I've got no patience left for people's BS & I needta get away from the job for awhile. We talked about jobs & wages Back Home, & my Dad said: "You know, if you were to live with me, the rent would be cheap."
At my Mom's funeral my Cousin Carol (who I hadn't seen in about 30 years) greeted me with: "So, when are you gonna move back home? Your Dad really wants you to, but of course he'll never say it."
Suggesting the rent would be cheap is about as close as my Dad is ever gonna get 2 inviting me to move back home. To Idaho. The cultural wasteland, as I've joked here. The place where 1/2 of my nostalgia comes from. Of course it's not the same place I left 30 years ago, but....
I told my Dad that -- even tho I'd love to go back to Idaho -- I couldn't swing it financially, that Wash is 1 of the few places in the country where I can do what I'm doing & keep up w/ my bills.
But that didn't stop me from adding up the numbers. ...& I think it would be damn tight -- but do-able, depending on what kinda job I found at the other end. I might even B able 2 afford 2 rent a U-Haul trailer, tho I doubt my truck could pull it the 600 miles back home. My truck can barely make it over summa the hills around here....
But I'm tempted. Really.
4 a few days I hardly thot about anything else.
However: In Idaho, they think $10 an hr is "big money." I'll take a pay cut of about 1/2 if I can find a cashiering job.
Big problem: If I do go, even if I claim my Dad is in failing health (as far as I know he's OK), my roommate will likely lose his house. I've bn helping keep him afloat 4 the past 2 years.
Other issues: There is someone here I love. We have a lotta history. But I haven't seen her since Feb, haven't talked to her in 3 weeks (haven't felt like communicating, remember?), & she likely realizes my depression is worse -- & I assume she's sick 2 death of my BS by now. & I can't blame her. If I go, that will prove that whatever we had is Over. Ghod knows I've tried to kill it enuf times....
Is that all that's on my mind? Isn't that enuf?
But I was gonna review some books....
* THE ROLLING STONE RECORD REVIEW (1971) -- This is not the Ultimate Rock Criticism Xperience I was hoping 4, but it's a lotta fun, & it's the only thing that's made me laff out loud in wks. There is rather 2 much reviewing by RS founder Jann Wenner, who was never the most fluent of writers (tho a good interviewer). But there's lotsa great early work by Lester Bangs (including his classic reviews of Captain Beefheart's TROUT MASK REPLICA & the MC5's 1st album), Greil Marcus, John Mendelssohn, Ed Ward, Jon Landau, Arthur Schmidt, Langdon Winner & other early-'70s critics. Ward has a great negative review of ABBEY ROAD that had me laffing aloud when he called George Harrison's "Something" "so vile it will probably be covered by dozens of performers within weeks and become one of the Beatles' greatest successes." & he was right about the song's popularity, if not its vileness. Now, I admit reading stuff like this may not B every1's idea of a Good Time, but if U read music reviews at all then U've already got the disease.
Among the artists reviewed: Beatles, Stones, Dylan (Marcus has an ENDLESS review of Bob's SELF PORTRAIT), Airplane, Hendrix, Joplin, Kinks, Who, Procol Harum, Move, Rod Stewart, Moody Blues, CCR, Cream, Traffic, Cocker, CSNY, Joni Mitchell, Buffalo Springfield, Aretha, Elvis, Jackson 5, Zeppelin, Beach Boys, Stooges, Van Morrison, The Band, etc....
+ Robert Onopa: THE PLEASURE TUBE (1979) -- Vivid & involving, like Bob Silverberg at his sensuous, Dscriptive best, but w/ what coulda bn the grim&scary back-story from Barry Malzberg's BEYOND APOLLO (1972). Tho the book is convincing & almost hallucinatory in its vividness, it's clear from at least 1/2way thru where it's going & there R no real suprises. & it's not a fun trip. Had bn wanting 2 read this 4 ages -- Algis Budrys wrote a rave review of it in F&SF back in '79; Onopa is still writing short pieces 4 F&SF & other magazines....
+ Norman Spinrad: SCIENCE FICTION IN THE REAL WORLD (1990) -- Mostly a pretty-good collection of reviews from the pages of ASIMOV'S SF mag, tho a piece on why Philip K. Dick's later novels R his best is new here. Spinrad is great on the economic nuts&bolts that drive SF publishing, & his analyses R solid. I was also glad 2 C the only review of George R.R. Martin's rock'n'roll novel THE ARMAGEDDON RAG that I've ever found -- tho I disagree about why that book was a failure. I wished this book was longer.
= Norman Spinrad: STAYING ALIVE: A WRITER'S GUIDE (1983) -- This really IS about the nuts&bolts of SF publishing. & if U were a working writer back then it was probably invaluable. Now it's kinda dry, tho there R good things in it. (Has NE1 ever figured out why Gregory Benford's Nebula Award-winning novel TIMESCAPE never made it on2 the Hugo Award ballot? Bcos SF fans thot the book was boring?) The best thing here is a hilarious column on "Science Fiction's Best Award for 1980." Will the winner B the sentimental old fave the Hugo Award? Or will the pro writers instead choose the brand-new Prometheus Award, presented by the Libertarian Party along w/ $2,500 in gold!?
= Alexei & Cory Panshin: SF IN DIMENSION (1980) -- The book reviews R pretty good, but I read them when they were 1st published in F&SF. Summa them still make me laff, like when the Panshins call Ursula K. LeGuin's THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS "probably the best SF novel we can hope for in this, the year of Our Lord 1590." The long pieces on Heinlein I'm gonna havta save until later -- 1 of them, a LONG piece on THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST, takes up the last 1/4 of the book. I'll keep this 4 the reviews, but I wish there were more of the daring, trailblazing, supportive, encouraging, adventurous critical columns they wrote 4 FANTASTIC in the early '70s. Wonder what happened 2 those? I don't C how they coulda bn melded in2 the Panshins' HUGE SF history THE WORLD BEYOND THE HILL....
Currently reading: GOOD FICTION GUIDE, edited by Jane Rodgers, Oxford University Press, 2005 -- If U look at this as an update of the SALON.COM GUIDE TO CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS, it's pretty solid, & I'm amazed at how many SF writers R included in it: William Gibson & Bruce Sterling, of course, Neal Stephenson, sure, but -- Michael Swanwick? Nice suprise. & Roger Zelazny's in here! Bob Silverberg! But no Samuel R. Delany?! Philip K. Dick but no Barry Malzberg? Ray Bradbury but no Harlan Ellison? Joanna Russ but no James Tiptree Jr.? Jim Thompson but no Jack Ketchum? No Kathe Koja? ... Oh, & these folks think James Ellroy's a horror writer, 2....
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Sorry 4 the Dlay....
...I was gonna post a review of Samuel R. Delany's wonderful (& apparently mostly-overlooked) science-fiction short-novel EMPIRE STAR (& I WILL!), + I'm reading Stephen Calt's rather bitter book about Skip James & the history of the Blues, Ntitled I'D RATHER BE THE DEVIL, which was given 2 me by a local reader of this blog, & I'll likely review that.... (Among other tunes, James wrote "I'm So Glad," later covered by Cream.)
...but something else happened that swept everything else aside.
U're going 2 think I'm crazy... but that's OK, cos I AM....
Way back in 1976, when I was just getting started at this album-buying, tracking-down-yr-faverite-music stuff, at the long-vanished Little Professor Book Center in the Hillcrest Plaza mall in Boise, Idaho, I happened 2 stumble-over a thick $1.95 paperback full of early-'7os record reviews: THE ROLLING STONE RECORD REVIEW VOLUME II.
This book Changed My Life. It was full of great stuff. & the WRITING was always Njoyable, even if I didn't agree w/ the critic's views. Hilarious, in4mative, Nlightening, stuffed full of data & fiercely-argued opinions.
Upon reading it, I Bcame a lifelong fan of reviews, always tracking down more, always looking 4 more info. I read & re-read & re-re-read VOLUME II until the spine cracked & the cover fell off & the pages fell out. I taped it back-2gether & kept dipping back in2 it now & then, & it continues 2 sit on my bookshelf & fall apart 35 yrs later.
Awhile back I stumbled over a copy of the original (VOLUME I) ROLLING STONE RECORD REVIEW at an unBlievably low price ($2.99) & I ordered it. It arrived last Sat aft.
Now, understand: I haven't even read 1/2 the book yet. But the day it arrived I sat 4 an hr & 1/2 just paging thru it 2 C what was IN it:
550 pgs of reviews! Lotsa early criticism by Lester Bangs, including his views on Captain Beefheart's TROUT MASK REPLICA. The hilarious John Mendelssohn on the Who, the Kinks, Procol Harum, the Move's SHAZAM, Led Zeppelin & much more. Lotsa work by the superb Greil Marcus. Ed Ward on tons of old singles & how he 1nce wished he could grow up 2 B a radio station(!). More essays on the Middle Period Beach Boys by the Xcellent Arthur Schmidt. Reviews of all the later Beatles albums! Lots on the Stones! Tons on Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, Hendrix, Clapton, Beck, early Rod Stewart, Traffic, Van Morrison & loads more. A few Xamples of "The Review as Fiction," an approach I've fallen back on a coupla times.... "Guest reviews" by Robert Christgau & Paul Williams. & rather 2 much reviewing by RS founder/publisher Jann Wenner, who I never thot was much of a writer, tho a good interviewer....
I don't care that the book is falling apart, that the cover & the 1st few pages have fallen off. I don't care that the book is water-damaged & that the 1st 200+ pages R all brown & crinkly, tho still readable. These things actually ENHANCE the reading Xperience....
This is absolutely the only thing that has bn able 2 jolt me outta a Dpression I've bn stuck in 4 wks.
Obviously this is a Potentially Life-Changing Xperience that must B handled in its own time, no matter what else I might have going on.
& obviously I could serve as a case-study in neurotic anticipation, or something. But that's why there's bn a Dlay here, as I've slowly Bgun 2 Dvour this huge volume....
Intresting that the goodwill generated in me by the brilliance of VOLUME II led me in2 RS's later heavily-opinionated red-covered RECORD GUIDE (4 awhile 1 of my faverite books ever 4 throwing across the room in anger & frustration), the slightly-later less-opinionated & less-impressive blue-covered REVISED RECORD GUIDE, the weak RS ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ROCK AND ROLL, & the truly thin & useless RS ALBUM GUIDE.
I'll eventually review VOLUME I, but I gotta admit that right now I'm just kinda Njoying it.
...Wonder if they ever did a VOLUME III?
...But while I'm here, I was thinking earlier 2nite at work about All-Time Fave Song Titles. I'm a sucker 4 off-the-wall or long-winded song titles, titles that make U laff, stuff like that. Mosta my faverites come from the Progressive Rock Era, tho Punk Rock & New Wave cer10ly had their share of vivid & hilarious titles....
Probly my all-time fave is "Daddy Was an Asteroid, Mummy Was a Small Non-Stick Kitchen Utensil," which if I remember right was recorded by Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera's side-project Quiet Sun. I bot their MAINSTREAM album back around 1978 or so & traded it away Bcos it was 2 dull or something. I was an idiot....
Hatfield and the North's 2 albums R full of great off-the-wall titles. Probly my fave is "Her Majesty is Like a Cream Donut," part of their magnum-opus medley "Mumps" on their 1975 album THE ROTTERS' CLUB. But the Hatfields had lotsa great silly titles: "Big John Wayne Socks Psychology on the Jaw," "Giant Landcrabs in Earth Takeover Bid," "Lobster in Cleavage Probe," "The Yes No Interlude," "Fitter Stoke Has a Bath," "There's No Place Like Homerton." I wish I could report that these songs R just as charming as their titles, but it just may B my straight-laced taste that's letting me down here....
1 of the things that intrested me about Brian Eno was his funny song titles, like "Burning Airlines Gives You So Much More" & "Baby's On Fire." Figured NEbody who could come up w/ titles like that had SOMETHING goin on....
My heroes Caravan have some fairly out-there titles, tho nothing quite like the above: "All the Way (With John Wayne's Single Handed Liberation of Paris)" ((What IS it w/ Canterbury groups & their obsession w/ John Wayne & Bob Hope?)) & "The Dog, The Dog, He's at it Again."
& I've always bn intrigued by Be-Bop Deluxe's title "Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape." Just sounds neat. Would work equally well as a movie or book title, 2....
Then there's Brand X's "Why Should I Loan You Mine When You've Broken Yours Off Already?" & its immediate follow-up, "Maybe I'll Lend You Mine After All"....
& yr fave off-the-wall titles R....?
...We could probly also compare fave off-the-wall album titles. Parliament/Funkadelic useta have a ton of them: FREE YOUR MIND AND YOUR ASS WILL FOLLOW, FUNKENTELECHY VS. THE PLACEBO SYNDROME, THE BRIDES OF DR. FUNKENSTEIN, GLORYHALLASTOOPID.... Wish I could say I've actually HEARD summa these....
& 4 some reason I can't 4get the Dead Boys: YOUNG, LOUD AND SNOTTY, & their follow-up WE HAVE COME FOR YOUR CHILDREN....
I'm sure the punk/new-wave & death-metal genres have probly bn home 2 titles I likely don't even wanna think about. But if U've got some that'R funny or shocking or vulgar or at least jarringly inappropriate, bring em on....
...& I'll get back 2 ya soon....
...but something else happened that swept everything else aside.
U're going 2 think I'm crazy... but that's OK, cos I AM....
Way back in 1976, when I was just getting started at this album-buying, tracking-down-yr-faverite-music stuff, at the long-vanished Little Professor Book Center in the Hillcrest Plaza mall in Boise, Idaho, I happened 2 stumble-over a thick $1.95 paperback full of early-'7os record reviews: THE ROLLING STONE RECORD REVIEW VOLUME II.
This book Changed My Life. It was full of great stuff. & the WRITING was always Njoyable, even if I didn't agree w/ the critic's views. Hilarious, in4mative, Nlightening, stuffed full of data & fiercely-argued opinions.
Upon reading it, I Bcame a lifelong fan of reviews, always tracking down more, always looking 4 more info. I read & re-read & re-re-read VOLUME II until the spine cracked & the cover fell off & the pages fell out. I taped it back-2gether & kept dipping back in2 it now & then, & it continues 2 sit on my bookshelf & fall apart 35 yrs later.
Awhile back I stumbled over a copy of the original (VOLUME I) ROLLING STONE RECORD REVIEW at an unBlievably low price ($2.99) & I ordered it. It arrived last Sat aft.
Now, understand: I haven't even read 1/2 the book yet. But the day it arrived I sat 4 an hr & 1/2 just paging thru it 2 C what was IN it:
550 pgs of reviews! Lotsa early criticism by Lester Bangs, including his views on Captain Beefheart's TROUT MASK REPLICA. The hilarious John Mendelssohn on the Who, the Kinks, Procol Harum, the Move's SHAZAM, Led Zeppelin & much more. Lotsa work by the superb Greil Marcus. Ed Ward on tons of old singles & how he 1nce wished he could grow up 2 B a radio station(!). More essays on the Middle Period Beach Boys by the Xcellent Arthur Schmidt. Reviews of all the later Beatles albums! Lots on the Stones! Tons on Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, Hendrix, Clapton, Beck, early Rod Stewart, Traffic, Van Morrison & loads more. A few Xamples of "The Review as Fiction," an approach I've fallen back on a coupla times.... "Guest reviews" by Robert Christgau & Paul Williams. & rather 2 much reviewing by RS founder/publisher Jann Wenner, who I never thot was much of a writer, tho a good interviewer....
I don't care that the book is falling apart, that the cover & the 1st few pages have fallen off. I don't care that the book is water-damaged & that the 1st 200+ pages R all brown & crinkly, tho still readable. These things actually ENHANCE the reading Xperience....
This is absolutely the only thing that has bn able 2 jolt me outta a Dpression I've bn stuck in 4 wks.
Obviously this is a Potentially Life-Changing Xperience that must B handled in its own time, no matter what else I might have going on.
& obviously I could serve as a case-study in neurotic anticipation, or something. But that's why there's bn a Dlay here, as I've slowly Bgun 2 Dvour this huge volume....
Intresting that the goodwill generated in me by the brilliance of VOLUME II led me in2 RS's later heavily-opinionated red-covered RECORD GUIDE (4 awhile 1 of my faverite books ever 4 throwing across the room in anger & frustration), the slightly-later less-opinionated & less-impressive blue-covered REVISED RECORD GUIDE, the weak RS ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ROCK AND ROLL, & the truly thin & useless RS ALBUM GUIDE.
I'll eventually review VOLUME I, but I gotta admit that right now I'm just kinda Njoying it.
...Wonder if they ever did a VOLUME III?
...But while I'm here, I was thinking earlier 2nite at work about All-Time Fave Song Titles. I'm a sucker 4 off-the-wall or long-winded song titles, titles that make U laff, stuff like that. Mosta my faverites come from the Progressive Rock Era, tho Punk Rock & New Wave cer10ly had their share of vivid & hilarious titles....
Probly my all-time fave is "Daddy Was an Asteroid, Mummy Was a Small Non-Stick Kitchen Utensil," which if I remember right was recorded by Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera's side-project Quiet Sun. I bot their MAINSTREAM album back around 1978 or so & traded it away Bcos it was 2 dull or something. I was an idiot....
Hatfield and the North's 2 albums R full of great off-the-wall titles. Probly my fave is "Her Majesty is Like a Cream Donut," part of their magnum-opus medley "Mumps" on their 1975 album THE ROTTERS' CLUB. But the Hatfields had lotsa great silly titles: "Big John Wayne Socks Psychology on the Jaw," "Giant Landcrabs in Earth Takeover Bid," "Lobster in Cleavage Probe," "The Yes No Interlude," "Fitter Stoke Has a Bath," "There's No Place Like Homerton." I wish I could report that these songs R just as charming as their titles, but it just may B my straight-laced taste that's letting me down here....
1 of the things that intrested me about Brian Eno was his funny song titles, like "Burning Airlines Gives You So Much More" & "Baby's On Fire." Figured NEbody who could come up w/ titles like that had SOMETHING goin on....
My heroes Caravan have some fairly out-there titles, tho nothing quite like the above: "All the Way (With John Wayne's Single Handed Liberation of Paris)" ((What IS it w/ Canterbury groups & their obsession w/ John Wayne & Bob Hope?)) & "The Dog, The Dog, He's at it Again."
& I've always bn intrigued by Be-Bop Deluxe's title "Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape." Just sounds neat. Would work equally well as a movie or book title, 2....
Then there's Brand X's "Why Should I Loan You Mine When You've Broken Yours Off Already?" & its immediate follow-up, "Maybe I'll Lend You Mine After All"....
& yr fave off-the-wall titles R....?
...We could probly also compare fave off-the-wall album titles. Parliament/Funkadelic useta have a ton of them: FREE YOUR MIND AND YOUR ASS WILL FOLLOW, FUNKENTELECHY VS. THE PLACEBO SYNDROME, THE BRIDES OF DR. FUNKENSTEIN, GLORYHALLASTOOPID.... Wish I could say I've actually HEARD summa these....
& 4 some reason I can't 4get the Dead Boys: YOUNG, LOUD AND SNOTTY, & their follow-up WE HAVE COME FOR YOUR CHILDREN....
I'm sure the punk/new-wave & death-metal genres have probly bn home 2 titles I likely don't even wanna think about. But if U've got some that'R funny or shocking or vulgar or at least jarringly inappropriate, bring em on....
...& I'll get back 2 ya soon....
Monday, November 9, 2009
Enjoying my retirement....
This past Sat nite I "celebrated" 6 yrs at my current job (cashier/gas-station attendant) -- which, I realized with something like shock, is the longest time I've spent at the same job & same location EVER. I was w/ the Air Force 4 10 yrs, but was never NEwhere longer than 3-1/2 yrs. While writing 4 civilian newspapers, I never spent more than 5 yrs&9 mo's at the same location or with the same paper.
In addition 2 Bing grateful just 2 HAVE a job under the current economy, I guess I'm getting even-more set in my ways as I get older. I guess I'm "enjoying" my retirement from reporting. Kinda. Doesn't mean I don't sometimes hate my job. It can get boring. A lot of it's really mechanical, the same thing over & over -- that's not necessarily a BAD thing. If I'm tired I can still get thru it cos I've done it so many times. Just keep moving & keep the coffee flowing....
But just when U think U've seen & heard it all, U haven't. People will always suprise U. Fri nite I had something happen that was a 1st 4 me after 6 yrs. I had a woman accuse me of Bing a racist Bcos I wouldn't turn-on a gas-pump 4 her.
I work nites. I don't switch-on the pumps 4 NEBODY I don't know, NE1 who's not a Regular or who hasn't built-up some trust by repeated visits. But this woman was in a hurry & I didn't tell her what she wanted 2 hear. I'd never Cn her B4.
I try 2 B nice 2 folks, but the occassional stress can get me, & when it gets busy I can get short w/ people just by trying 2 keep up with the pace. & on Fri nites if I can't keep up I can get buried.
This woman wanted me 2 give her a blank check while it was busy, & I wouldn't do it.
& she said: "Do you want me to pay first because you have a lot of drive-offs, or because I'm a Mexican and you don't trust me?"
I had to ask her to repeat this, because I couldn't Blieve she said it. Actually, I didn't think she was Mexican. She looked more like she came from India.
I Xplained why I couldn't do what she wanted & we worked it all out, but she wasn't very happy & I don't think she really heard me. & I don't think she'll B back. But at least she didn't threaten my job. Not that I'm worried. I didn't do NEthing wrong. & I know I've treated people far worse & survived it.
Here's the thing: I always try 2 B nice & especially polite 2 women. So much so, apparently, that sevral people have asked my co-workers if I'm gay. (I'm not, not that there's NEthing wrong w/ that, I'm trying 2 paint U a picture.) The politeness is just the way I was raised. That's the way I was taught 2 act when I'm working -- that's "professional." I've had customers ask my bosses if I'm gay just Bcos they thot I was in "too good a mood." Hey, if I'm in a good mood, it shows. & I had 1 woman customer a few yrs back tell me "You're too Ghod-damned happy." She shoulda cot me on 1 of my bad nites -- if I'm in a bad mood while I'm working, U'd better duck.
Bing a reporter & Bing a cashier hava lot in common. U take a lotta crap from people. 1 thing about cashiering -- I don't think about my job when I'm not there, & when I get home at the Nd of my shift, I still have enuf of a brain left 2 do what I want. Back when I was a reporter, at the Nd of the day the LAST thing I wanted 2 do was write. I didn't wanna think. I didn't wanna do NEthing.
Course cashiering sure ain't what U'd call "creative." Not 2 much, NEway. & probly a more "professional" cashier wouldn't let people or the stress of the job get 2 him.
1 thing I learned as a reporter is that "professionalism" is really overrated. Give me a Real Person rather than a Professional NEtime. Not sure how professionalism is sposta help U when an 80-yr-old man tells U yr milk prices R "a fucking rip-off." Not sure how professionalism is sposta help when a Regular screams that he's never shopping in yr store again Bcos he can never count on whether the station will actually HAVE gasoline or not....
I KNOW how professionalism helps when some guy apparently Xplodes in the bathroom & spreads crap all over the toilet, the floor & the walls.... I know how it helps when drunks ask U EVERY SINGLE DAY 2 give them a break on the price of their beer, when drunken women flirt w/ U when they barely speak the rest of the time, when some guy SCREAMS gibberish at U about the high price of gasoline then tears out of the parking-lot narrowly missing other cars on his way out, when U Nd-up giving-away $150 in "free" gas all in 1 day 2 people who wanted U 2 trust them.... In situations like those, professionalism gets U thru it, the knowledge that nothing's going 2 happen that U can't handle.
I'm glad I have a job, & I'm glad I have THIS job in a small town, where most people R human & not 2 rude & usually not in 2 big a hurry. The fact that they can make the SIMPLEST things immensely complicated is human nature, I guess.
I'm way less stressed now than I was as a reporter -- tho it may not sound like it. But the stresses R diffrent. They're usually face-2-face. As a reporter I was most used-2 getting screamed-at over the phone by people who didn't want news-stories written about them. I even sorta knew how 2 handle it when an interview-subject asked me if I was "a good Christian man" B4 she'd agree 2 talk 2 me -- probly still the weirdest question I was ever asked.
These days, if I'm gonna get yelled at, it's gonna happen right there in front of me. & usually, if I can keep my mood up & stay positive, let people know I'm trying 2 help them, it'll all work out. Of course some things I can't fix. & sometimes Bing FULLY AWAKE isn't actually helpful. Having a little distance from things is good.
U'd think I'd know more about how 2 handle folks after 6 yrs of this. But I don't. I just try 2 get along. I try 2 do good. I do the best I can.
I know I've bn happier since my "retirement" from reporting -- I just didn't realize I was Njoying it quite so much. Not 6 yrs' worth. It's nice 2 have a brain left when I get home. It's just 2 bad that I don't have THAT MUCH of a brain left....
In addition 2 Bing grateful just 2 HAVE a job under the current economy, I guess I'm getting even-more set in my ways as I get older. I guess I'm "enjoying" my retirement from reporting. Kinda. Doesn't mean I don't sometimes hate my job. It can get boring. A lot of it's really mechanical, the same thing over & over -- that's not necessarily a BAD thing. If I'm tired I can still get thru it cos I've done it so many times. Just keep moving & keep the coffee flowing....
But just when U think U've seen & heard it all, U haven't. People will always suprise U. Fri nite I had something happen that was a 1st 4 me after 6 yrs. I had a woman accuse me of Bing a racist Bcos I wouldn't turn-on a gas-pump 4 her.
I work nites. I don't switch-on the pumps 4 NEBODY I don't know, NE1 who's not a Regular or who hasn't built-up some trust by repeated visits. But this woman was in a hurry & I didn't tell her what she wanted 2 hear. I'd never Cn her B4.
I try 2 B nice 2 folks, but the occassional stress can get me, & when it gets busy I can get short w/ people just by trying 2 keep up with the pace. & on Fri nites if I can't keep up I can get buried.
This woman wanted me 2 give her a blank check while it was busy, & I wouldn't do it.
& she said: "Do you want me to pay first because you have a lot of drive-offs, or because I'm a Mexican and you don't trust me?"
I had to ask her to repeat this, because I couldn't Blieve she said it. Actually, I didn't think she was Mexican. She looked more like she came from India.
I Xplained why I couldn't do what she wanted & we worked it all out, but she wasn't very happy & I don't think she really heard me. & I don't think she'll B back. But at least she didn't threaten my job. Not that I'm worried. I didn't do NEthing wrong. & I know I've treated people far worse & survived it.
Here's the thing: I always try 2 B nice & especially polite 2 women. So much so, apparently, that sevral people have asked my co-workers if I'm gay. (I'm not, not that there's NEthing wrong w/ that, I'm trying 2 paint U a picture.) The politeness is just the way I was raised. That's the way I was taught 2 act when I'm working -- that's "professional." I've had customers ask my bosses if I'm gay just Bcos they thot I was in "too good a mood." Hey, if I'm in a good mood, it shows. & I had 1 woman customer a few yrs back tell me "You're too Ghod-damned happy." She shoulda cot me on 1 of my bad nites -- if I'm in a bad mood while I'm working, U'd better duck.
Bing a reporter & Bing a cashier hava lot in common. U take a lotta crap from people. 1 thing about cashiering -- I don't think about my job when I'm not there, & when I get home at the Nd of my shift, I still have enuf of a brain left 2 do what I want. Back when I was a reporter, at the Nd of the day the LAST thing I wanted 2 do was write. I didn't wanna think. I didn't wanna do NEthing.
Course cashiering sure ain't what U'd call "creative." Not 2 much, NEway. & probly a more "professional" cashier wouldn't let people or the stress of the job get 2 him.
1 thing I learned as a reporter is that "professionalism" is really overrated. Give me a Real Person rather than a Professional NEtime. Not sure how professionalism is sposta help U when an 80-yr-old man tells U yr milk prices R "a fucking rip-off." Not sure how professionalism is sposta help when a Regular screams that he's never shopping in yr store again Bcos he can never count on whether the station will actually HAVE gasoline or not....
I KNOW how professionalism helps when some guy apparently Xplodes in the bathroom & spreads crap all over the toilet, the floor & the walls.... I know how it helps when drunks ask U EVERY SINGLE DAY 2 give them a break on the price of their beer, when drunken women flirt w/ U when they barely speak the rest of the time, when some guy SCREAMS gibberish at U about the high price of gasoline then tears out of the parking-lot narrowly missing other cars on his way out, when U Nd-up giving-away $150 in "free" gas all in 1 day 2 people who wanted U 2 trust them.... In situations like those, professionalism gets U thru it, the knowledge that nothing's going 2 happen that U can't handle.
I'm glad I have a job, & I'm glad I have THIS job in a small town, where most people R human & not 2 rude & usually not in 2 big a hurry. The fact that they can make the SIMPLEST things immensely complicated is human nature, I guess.
I'm way less stressed now than I was as a reporter -- tho it may not sound like it. But the stresses R diffrent. They're usually face-2-face. As a reporter I was most used-2 getting screamed-at over the phone by people who didn't want news-stories written about them. I even sorta knew how 2 handle it when an interview-subject asked me if I was "a good Christian man" B4 she'd agree 2 talk 2 me -- probly still the weirdest question I was ever asked.
These days, if I'm gonna get yelled at, it's gonna happen right there in front of me. & usually, if I can keep my mood up & stay positive, let people know I'm trying 2 help them, it'll all work out. Of course some things I can't fix. & sometimes Bing FULLY AWAKE isn't actually helpful. Having a little distance from things is good.
U'd think I'd know more about how 2 handle folks after 6 yrs of this. But I don't. I just try 2 get along. I try 2 do good. I do the best I can.
I know I've bn happier since my "retirement" from reporting -- I just didn't realize I was Njoying it quite so much. Not 6 yrs' worth. It's nice 2 have a brain left when I get home. It's just 2 bad that I don't have THAT MUCH of a brain left....
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Mr. Know-it-All...?
MayB this will prove Nlightening.... While writing a comment at my buddy Rastro's music blog LA HISTORIA DE LA MUSICA ROCK (a really Xcellent site U should DEFinitely check-out, Rastro writes some great, often hilarious, essays -- he's at www.lahistoriadelamusicarock.blogspot.com/), I was reminded yet again of some REALLY VAST gaps I've got in my listening Xperience. Part of it's probly my advancing age, but there R a lotta acknowledged musical classics I've never got10 around 2.
There's A LOT I don't know about. As much as I might B able 2 babble about off-the-wall mostly-unheard British art-rock bands of the '70s or totally-unheard never-quite-hit singles of the early '70s, I've never heard a single Bob Dylan album all the way thru. (Who could survive it?) There R Beatles albums I've never heard all of -- SGT. PEPPER, 4 Xample. & as 4 NEthing after about 1990, well.... Xcept 4 some Nirvana, a little INXS, 2 albums wortha Coldplay & a few others here & there, U can pretty-much 4get it.
In an effort 2 whitewash this scandal, I've Dcided 2 come clean & give U a list of artists I'm ashamed 2 admit my lack of Xpertise w/, & why. I am -- slowly -- trying 2 fill-in some of these blank spots & would love some advice. If some of U out there would care 2 drop me a line & tell me why some1 is REALLY GREAT & where I should start, I'd appreciate it. I'm always intrested in reading rave reviews. In the meantime....
MOST MBARRASSING LAPSES:
Bob Dylan -- Outside of his hits & an Xcellent album track here or there ("One of Us Must Know," "Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat," "Tangled Up in Blue"), I'm pretty ignorant about Uncle Bob. I think his 1st GREATEST HITS album is mostly useful as a comedy record ("Howl Along With Bob!"), tho I'd never deny the brilliance of "Like a Rolling Stone" or the importance of Dylan as a Poet....
Rolling Stones -- Only know the hits & a few classic album trax ("Sympathy for the Devil," "You Can't Always Get What You Want," "Gimme Shelter," etc). Bot their FORTY LICKS best-of a few yrs back in an effort 2 correct this, & it all sounds pretty good, Xcept 4 the stuff I've always hated.... & why wasn't "Street Fighting Man" a huge hit?! Hadta B the lyrics....
Led Zeppelin -- Like their lighter stuff: "Over the Hills and Far Away," "Battle of Evermore," "The Rover," etc. Can't take a lot of their heavier, bloozier stuff, tho "Immigrant Song" & "Kashmir" R both great & "Carouselambra" is a big fave. Also love the drum&bugle-corps middle-break on "Fool in the Rain." But "Whole Lotta Love" is real grotesque comedy & summa the rest I just can't hear....
Frank Zappa -- Man, he put out a lotta noise. "Directly From My Heart to You" & "Oh No" R pretty great, some others R mildly amusing ("Tinseltown Rebellion," "Montana," "Valley Girl"), but the rest I just Don't Get -- or the sloppy presentation & trashy humor puts me off....
David Bowie -- I love "Changes," "Suffragette City," "Modern Love," "Under Pressure," & he was a pretty great songwriter (tho I prefer Nirvana's version of "The Man Who Sold the World"), but I don't get the rest....
Elvis -- Who? Ever heard "Mystery Train"? Great! A few of his hits R pretty great -- "Marie's the Name (of His Latest Flame)," "Little Sister," "Promised Land" (amazing!), etc. But I was born 2 late 2 B much of a fan, as with most '50s & early-'60s stuff....
NEVER HEARD A NOTE OF:
Can, Van der Graaf Generator, Brian Eno. (But I'll B working on them....)
WHAT'S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT?:
The Band -- "The Weight" is a classic, but I Don't Get the rest. What little I've heard sounds like messy, lazy country-rock dirges.
Heavy Metal -- I'm not really qualified 2 comment about AC/DC, Ozzy, Van Halen, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath.... I sometimes wish I could get the laffs & over-the-top spectacle from them that other folks Cm 2 get, but I think most of it's just grotesque. I don't C power or awesome impact, or even comedy. Now Motorhead I can appreciate just 4 laffs....
Older Jazz -- OK, I'm an idiot. Jazz w/o amplification bores me. I just drift off. I can't find a center or a melody 2 hang on2. Byebye John Coltrane, seeya early Miles Davis. Thelonious Monk? Louis Armstrong? (Which leads us 2....)
Jazz-Rock -- The same, only moreso, & with amplification. Tho I haven't given up on Weather Report yet (their live "Bahia/Boogie Woogie Waltz" medley is AMAZING). & I haven't completely bailed on the Mahavishnu Orchestra yet, tho my effort 2 treat them like King Crimson w/o tunes hasn't paid-off so far. Return to Forever Cms mostly like a waste of talent....
Early Roxy Music -- The earliest I get hooked is w/ the supersonic rush of "The Thrill of It All." 4 some reason, I've always found their later, smoother stuff 2 B better, stronger tho mellower. But mayB it's the obvious outrage of summa the early stuff that goes right thru me. I've always thot "Do the Strand" is either hilarious or horrifying, still not sure which....
Soft Machine -- THIRD is hamstrung by the primitive 1970 recording technology & a muddy mix (I think). But "Slightly All the Time" & "Out-Bloody-Rageous" have some occasionally intresting things going on NEway. On the little bit else I've heard, clearer production woulda helped. I wanted 2 like these guys....
OTHER BLANK SPOTS:
Bruce Springsteen -- I'm the only guy I know who bot "Born to Run" when it 1st came out as a 45. & I love "Rosalita." But I've never heard a single album all the way thru, & tho I admired NEBRASKA as a concept, I couldn't actually listen 2 it....
Velvet Underground -- "All Tomorrow's Parties" is great, & I still think it would sound perfect on an oldies station following-up something like the Byrds' "Eight Miles High." But I couldn't hear NEthing else....
T. Rex -- Bot his/their 20TH CENTURY BOY best-of a few yrs back & couldn't hear NEthing other than "Bang A Gong (Get it On)" (which 4 me died from overplay quite awhile ago), & "Raw Ramp" (mainly 4 Flo & Eddie's backing vocals). & some of it's just silly!
Elvis Costello -- "What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding" is AMAZING! But I've never heard NEthing else that grabbed me, & I've never heard all that much....
Early Rod Stewart -- Summa his early stuff's great, I'm sure we all know it: "Handbags and Gladrags" (which I didn't hear 'til about 2002, my girlfriend turned me on 2 it), "You Wear it Well," "Maggie May" -- but I'm told there's lots more pre-'75 stuff I should hear & I've never got10 2 it....
Later Yes -- TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS, RELAYER & TORMATO have (2 me) 1 1/2way-Dcent song among them. After the rather-good GOING FOR THE ONE I pretty much gave up, Xcept 4 a coupla trax from 90125 ("Leave It" & "Changes")....
Prince -- Only know the hits & an occasional Xcellent album track (the pretty "Sometimes it Snows in April," "Anotherloverholeinyohead"). But who can keep up w/ him?
ELP -- Ghod knows I should love these guys, but I can only take so much of their overbearing egos. TARKUS is up there w/ TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS 4 Worst Prog-Rock Album Ever, & even their box-set best-of ain't that great. But Ghod knows when they were good they were pretty amazing ("Fanfare for the Common Man" ((long version)), "Karn Evil 9/First Impression"). I should probly 4ce myself 2 listen-2 more....
Nirvana -- Keeping their 1-disc best-of 4 "You Know You're Right," "Man Who Sold the World" & "All Apologies." Tried 2 get in2 their UNPLUGGED LIVE on the strength of these last 2 & wasn't hooked. Remember at the time I didn't get their normally-churning gtrs & screaming vocals....
Lou Reed -- Have heard VERY little. "I Love You Suzanne" was almost normal. My ignorance is really coming thru here....
Ramones -- "Blitzkrieg Bop," "I Wanna be Sedated," the marvelous "I Just Wanna Have Something to Do," that's about it. Pretty great, summa this. But I never heard enuf 2 make me a fan, I guess. & now everybody wears Ramones T-shirts, & last nite I hadda guy walk in2 the store who looked just like Joey....
Clash -- "Train in Vain (Stand By Me)," "This is Radio Clash" were both pretty good. But I never had the $$$ 4 their (back-then) cheap multi-album sets. & now...?
Sex Pistols -- "God Save the Queen" is a classic (& I still think Green Day's "Holiday" sounds just like it). But the rest...?
Most Punk -- I did not get.
Later Pretenders -- I loved Chrissie Hynde. Her/their 1st album was THE album that got me thru 1980 alive. But I don't know what she's bn doing since about 1986....
British Folk -- I know Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, Pentangle, Incredible String Band, Donovan, Nick Drake, The Pogues. But a lotta the rest I know only by reputation. Never heard NE Richard Thompson, John Martyn, Sandy Denny solo, etc.
U.S. Folk -- Ditto w/ Tim Buckley, Phil Ochs, Tim Hardin, Judy Collins, lotsa others....
Early Pink Floyd -- Xcept 4 the live version of "Astronome Domine" on UMMAGUMMA, I've gotta big blank spot from "Jugband Blues" until "One of These Days" & "Echoes." Have also heard very little of their post-Roger Waters stuff, tho "High Hopes" is pretty brilliant....
Later U2 -- Don't know what they've bn doing since about 1989. "Beautiful Day" was great, & I thot "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" was the best thing they'd done in YEARS -- Bcos it sounded like Old U2....
The Doors -- There MUST B more 2 these guys than the cheezy organ & Jim Morrison's Perry-Como-like crooning....
Deep Purple -- Love their 2 early hits, "Hush" & "Kentucky Woman," & "Highway Star" is a freakin' classic. But is that all?
Tom Petty -- Has 1 great song, "Even the Losers." Everything else he did, the Byrds did 10 2 15 yrs earlier. & they didn't whine.
Jefferson Airplane -- Sure, their 2 big hits & the classic album trax, "Good Shepherd," "Crown of Creation," "We Could Be Together," "Volunteers," "Mexico." & then...?
American singer-songwriters of the '70s -- Carole King, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell R all OK 4 awhile, then they get dull. Taylor has mayB 3 great songs. Mitchell has mayB 2. Same w/ Browne. King was always a great songwriter, tho.
Paul Simon -- Speaking of which.... Always liked his up-tempo stuff ("You Can Call Me Al," "Me and Julio," "Kodachrome"), but not sure what he's bn doin since the mid-'80s, & I couldn't even get thru GRACELAND....
Blue Oyster Cult -- I know the hits, & AGENTS OF FORTUNE has some great stuff on it. But the rest...? (I'm STILL trying 2 figure-out the title of the long, lyrical, gtr&keyboard-based ballad they played when I saw them in Boise, Idaho, in 1979 -- I haven't found it on NE of their albums yet....)
Squeeze -- ARGYBARGY's pretty great, & I keep EAST SIDE STORY mainly 4 "In Quintessence." But I got no idea where 2 start w/ the rest of their lengthy discography....
Early Genesis -- Never liked Peter Gabriel's voice all that much. & I stopped listening w/ INVISIBLE TOUCH....
Early Fleetwood Mac -- I'm not much've a blues fan (so there goes NE1 from the British Blues boom of the '60s), but hearing summa the old trax on Mac's 25 YEARS/THE CHAIN box-set was something of a revelation. Xcept 4 "Oh Well" & "The Green Manalishi," they're still a big blank 4 me up until MYSTERY TO ME....
Mott the Hoople -- Xcept 4 "All the Young Dudes" & all of MOTT, I've heard nothing else by these coulda-bn-contenders....
Jethro Tull -- I'm pretty solid on their Middle Period, sketchy on their early stuff, & have heard nothing since the fairly-awful A. I played A PASSION PLAY a few yrs back & was shocked by how dull it was. & I useta LOVE these guys....
Stevie Wonder -- Know mosta the hits & a few album trax, tho nothing since about 1986....
Motown/Atlantic/'60s R&B -- Well, I know a lotta the hits & love most of 'em....
Psychedelia -- Byond the obvious hit stuff, I ain't heard much....
Lotsa Country -- I have my faves of course, mostly women: Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Pam Tillis, some Wynonna, some Tricia Yearwood, & I like a lotta the rockier stuff. But most of it goes right thru me.
NEthing after 1990 -- With a few Xceptions. I know enuf about Nirvana, INXS, Keane, Fleet Foxes, Coldplay, Bare Naked Ladies, Alanis Morrisette, Sarah McLachlan, Norah Jones, Jordin Sparks. But who else is good who's fairly recent? Suggestions?
...By now it should B obvious why I so often write about off-the-wall art-rock bands or never-heard singles. So if somebody in this list rings bells w/ U as Bing brilliant but overlooked by me, drop me a line & tell me why. Or send yr kind donations 2.... (...lost in transmission....)
There's A LOT I don't know about. As much as I might B able 2 babble about off-the-wall mostly-unheard British art-rock bands of the '70s or totally-unheard never-quite-hit singles of the early '70s, I've never heard a single Bob Dylan album all the way thru. (Who could survive it?) There R Beatles albums I've never heard all of -- SGT. PEPPER, 4 Xample. & as 4 NEthing after about 1990, well.... Xcept 4 some Nirvana, a little INXS, 2 albums wortha Coldplay & a few others here & there, U can pretty-much 4get it.
In an effort 2 whitewash this scandal, I've Dcided 2 come clean & give U a list of artists I'm ashamed 2 admit my lack of Xpertise w/, & why. I am -- slowly -- trying 2 fill-in some of these blank spots & would love some advice. If some of U out there would care 2 drop me a line & tell me why some1 is REALLY GREAT & where I should start, I'd appreciate it. I'm always intrested in reading rave reviews. In the meantime....
MOST MBARRASSING LAPSES:
Bob Dylan -- Outside of his hits & an Xcellent album track here or there ("One of Us Must Know," "Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat," "Tangled Up in Blue"), I'm pretty ignorant about Uncle Bob. I think his 1st GREATEST HITS album is mostly useful as a comedy record ("Howl Along With Bob!"), tho I'd never deny the brilliance of "Like a Rolling Stone" or the importance of Dylan as a Poet....
Rolling Stones -- Only know the hits & a few classic album trax ("Sympathy for the Devil," "You Can't Always Get What You Want," "Gimme Shelter," etc). Bot their FORTY LICKS best-of a few yrs back in an effort 2 correct this, & it all sounds pretty good, Xcept 4 the stuff I've always hated.... & why wasn't "Street Fighting Man" a huge hit?! Hadta B the lyrics....
Led Zeppelin -- Like their lighter stuff: "Over the Hills and Far Away," "Battle of Evermore," "The Rover," etc. Can't take a lot of their heavier, bloozier stuff, tho "Immigrant Song" & "Kashmir" R both great & "Carouselambra" is a big fave. Also love the drum&bugle-corps middle-break on "Fool in the Rain." But "Whole Lotta Love" is real grotesque comedy & summa the rest I just can't hear....
Frank Zappa -- Man, he put out a lotta noise. "Directly From My Heart to You" & "Oh No" R pretty great, some others R mildly amusing ("Tinseltown Rebellion," "Montana," "Valley Girl"), but the rest I just Don't Get -- or the sloppy presentation & trashy humor puts me off....
David Bowie -- I love "Changes," "Suffragette City," "Modern Love," "Under Pressure," & he was a pretty great songwriter (tho I prefer Nirvana's version of "The Man Who Sold the World"), but I don't get the rest....
Elvis -- Who? Ever heard "Mystery Train"? Great! A few of his hits R pretty great -- "Marie's the Name (of His Latest Flame)," "Little Sister," "Promised Land" (amazing!), etc. But I was born 2 late 2 B much of a fan, as with most '50s & early-'60s stuff....
NEVER HEARD A NOTE OF:
Can, Van der Graaf Generator, Brian Eno. (But I'll B working on them....)
WHAT'S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT?:
The Band -- "The Weight" is a classic, but I Don't Get the rest. What little I've heard sounds like messy, lazy country-rock dirges.
Heavy Metal -- I'm not really qualified 2 comment about AC/DC, Ozzy, Van Halen, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath.... I sometimes wish I could get the laffs & over-the-top spectacle from them that other folks Cm 2 get, but I think most of it's just grotesque. I don't C power or awesome impact, or even comedy. Now Motorhead I can appreciate just 4 laffs....
Older Jazz -- OK, I'm an idiot. Jazz w/o amplification bores me. I just drift off. I can't find a center or a melody 2 hang on2. Byebye John Coltrane, seeya early Miles Davis. Thelonious Monk? Louis Armstrong? (Which leads us 2....)
Jazz-Rock -- The same, only moreso, & with amplification. Tho I haven't given up on Weather Report yet (their live "Bahia/Boogie Woogie Waltz" medley is AMAZING). & I haven't completely bailed on the Mahavishnu Orchestra yet, tho my effort 2 treat them like King Crimson w/o tunes hasn't paid-off so far. Return to Forever Cms mostly like a waste of talent....
Early Roxy Music -- The earliest I get hooked is w/ the supersonic rush of "The Thrill of It All." 4 some reason, I've always found their later, smoother stuff 2 B better, stronger tho mellower. But mayB it's the obvious outrage of summa the early stuff that goes right thru me. I've always thot "Do the Strand" is either hilarious or horrifying, still not sure which....
Soft Machine -- THIRD is hamstrung by the primitive 1970 recording technology & a muddy mix (I think). But "Slightly All the Time" & "Out-Bloody-Rageous" have some occasionally intresting things going on NEway. On the little bit else I've heard, clearer production woulda helped. I wanted 2 like these guys....
OTHER BLANK SPOTS:
Bruce Springsteen -- I'm the only guy I know who bot "Born to Run" when it 1st came out as a 45. & I love "Rosalita." But I've never heard a single album all the way thru, & tho I admired NEBRASKA as a concept, I couldn't actually listen 2 it....
Velvet Underground -- "All Tomorrow's Parties" is great, & I still think it would sound perfect on an oldies station following-up something like the Byrds' "Eight Miles High." But I couldn't hear NEthing else....
T. Rex -- Bot his/their 20TH CENTURY BOY best-of a few yrs back & couldn't hear NEthing other than "Bang A Gong (Get it On)" (which 4 me died from overplay quite awhile ago), & "Raw Ramp" (mainly 4 Flo & Eddie's backing vocals). & some of it's just silly!
Elvis Costello -- "What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding" is AMAZING! But I've never heard NEthing else that grabbed me, & I've never heard all that much....
Early Rod Stewart -- Summa his early stuff's great, I'm sure we all know it: "Handbags and Gladrags" (which I didn't hear 'til about 2002, my girlfriend turned me on 2 it), "You Wear it Well," "Maggie May" -- but I'm told there's lots more pre-'75 stuff I should hear & I've never got10 2 it....
Later Yes -- TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS, RELAYER & TORMATO have (2 me) 1 1/2way-Dcent song among them. After the rather-good GOING FOR THE ONE I pretty much gave up, Xcept 4 a coupla trax from 90125 ("Leave It" & "Changes")....
Prince -- Only know the hits & an occasional Xcellent album track (the pretty "Sometimes it Snows in April," "Anotherloverholeinyohead"). But who can keep up w/ him?
ELP -- Ghod knows I should love these guys, but I can only take so much of their overbearing egos. TARKUS is up there w/ TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS 4 Worst Prog-Rock Album Ever, & even their box-set best-of ain't that great. But Ghod knows when they were good they were pretty amazing ("Fanfare for the Common Man" ((long version)), "Karn Evil 9/First Impression"). I should probly 4ce myself 2 listen-2 more....
Nirvana -- Keeping their 1-disc best-of 4 "You Know You're Right," "Man Who Sold the World" & "All Apologies." Tried 2 get in2 their UNPLUGGED LIVE on the strength of these last 2 & wasn't hooked. Remember at the time I didn't get their normally-churning gtrs & screaming vocals....
Lou Reed -- Have heard VERY little. "I Love You Suzanne" was almost normal. My ignorance is really coming thru here....
Ramones -- "Blitzkrieg Bop," "I Wanna be Sedated," the marvelous "I Just Wanna Have Something to Do," that's about it. Pretty great, summa this. But I never heard enuf 2 make me a fan, I guess. & now everybody wears Ramones T-shirts, & last nite I hadda guy walk in2 the store who looked just like Joey....
Clash -- "Train in Vain (Stand By Me)," "This is Radio Clash" were both pretty good. But I never had the $$$ 4 their (back-then) cheap multi-album sets. & now...?
Sex Pistols -- "God Save the Queen" is a classic (& I still think Green Day's "Holiday" sounds just like it). But the rest...?
Most Punk -- I did not get.
Later Pretenders -- I loved Chrissie Hynde. Her/their 1st album was THE album that got me thru 1980 alive. But I don't know what she's bn doing since about 1986....
British Folk -- I know Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, Pentangle, Incredible String Band, Donovan, Nick Drake, The Pogues. But a lotta the rest I know only by reputation. Never heard NE Richard Thompson, John Martyn, Sandy Denny solo, etc.
U.S. Folk -- Ditto w/ Tim Buckley, Phil Ochs, Tim Hardin, Judy Collins, lotsa others....
Early Pink Floyd -- Xcept 4 the live version of "Astronome Domine" on UMMAGUMMA, I've gotta big blank spot from "Jugband Blues" until "One of These Days" & "Echoes." Have also heard very little of their post-Roger Waters stuff, tho "High Hopes" is pretty brilliant....
Later U2 -- Don't know what they've bn doing since about 1989. "Beautiful Day" was great, & I thot "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" was the best thing they'd done in YEARS -- Bcos it sounded like Old U2....
The Doors -- There MUST B more 2 these guys than the cheezy organ & Jim Morrison's Perry-Como-like crooning....
Deep Purple -- Love their 2 early hits, "Hush" & "Kentucky Woman," & "Highway Star" is a freakin' classic. But is that all?
Tom Petty -- Has 1 great song, "Even the Losers." Everything else he did, the Byrds did 10 2 15 yrs earlier. & they didn't whine.
Jefferson Airplane -- Sure, their 2 big hits & the classic album trax, "Good Shepherd," "Crown of Creation," "We Could Be Together," "Volunteers," "Mexico." & then...?
American singer-songwriters of the '70s -- Carole King, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell R all OK 4 awhile, then they get dull. Taylor has mayB 3 great songs. Mitchell has mayB 2. Same w/ Browne. King was always a great songwriter, tho.
Paul Simon -- Speaking of which.... Always liked his up-tempo stuff ("You Can Call Me Al," "Me and Julio," "Kodachrome"), but not sure what he's bn doin since the mid-'80s, & I couldn't even get thru GRACELAND....
Blue Oyster Cult -- I know the hits, & AGENTS OF FORTUNE has some great stuff on it. But the rest...? (I'm STILL trying 2 figure-out the title of the long, lyrical, gtr&keyboard-based ballad they played when I saw them in Boise, Idaho, in 1979 -- I haven't found it on NE of their albums yet....)
Squeeze -- ARGYBARGY's pretty great, & I keep EAST SIDE STORY mainly 4 "In Quintessence." But I got no idea where 2 start w/ the rest of their lengthy discography....
Early Genesis -- Never liked Peter Gabriel's voice all that much. & I stopped listening w/ INVISIBLE TOUCH....
Early Fleetwood Mac -- I'm not much've a blues fan (so there goes NE1 from the British Blues boom of the '60s), but hearing summa the old trax on Mac's 25 YEARS/THE CHAIN box-set was something of a revelation. Xcept 4 "Oh Well" & "The Green Manalishi," they're still a big blank 4 me up until MYSTERY TO ME....
Mott the Hoople -- Xcept 4 "All the Young Dudes" & all of MOTT, I've heard nothing else by these coulda-bn-contenders....
Jethro Tull -- I'm pretty solid on their Middle Period, sketchy on their early stuff, & have heard nothing since the fairly-awful A. I played A PASSION PLAY a few yrs back & was shocked by how dull it was. & I useta LOVE these guys....
Stevie Wonder -- Know mosta the hits & a few album trax, tho nothing since about 1986....
Motown/Atlantic/'60s R&B -- Well, I know a lotta the hits & love most of 'em....
Psychedelia -- Byond the obvious hit stuff, I ain't heard much....
Lotsa Country -- I have my faves of course, mostly women: Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Pam Tillis, some Wynonna, some Tricia Yearwood, & I like a lotta the rockier stuff. But most of it goes right thru me.
NEthing after 1990 -- With a few Xceptions. I know enuf about Nirvana, INXS, Keane, Fleet Foxes, Coldplay, Bare Naked Ladies, Alanis Morrisette, Sarah McLachlan, Norah Jones, Jordin Sparks. But who else is good who's fairly recent? Suggestions?
...By now it should B obvious why I so often write about off-the-wall art-rock bands or never-heard singles. So if somebody in this list rings bells w/ U as Bing brilliant but overlooked by me, drop me a line & tell me why. Or send yr kind donations 2.... (...lost in transmission....)
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