That's me.
I may talk big, but....
4 the past month or so I've bn playing the radio at work, nites, after I get all my side-work done & all I havta worry about is taking people's $$$ & putting on a happy face.
& it's worked.
I wouldn't say my work-related stress is completely gone, but a lotta the things about my job that useta make me crazy every single nite ... just kinda float away. Things people did that useta piss me off I now don't care about, cos I'm 2 busy bouncing around or singing along or playing air-guitar or drums 2 whatever's playing on the radio.
& sometimes I crank it up pretty loud. The louder the better. The louder it is, the less stress I feel & the louder I can screech along in 2-part harmony.
It's all good.
& it's so freakin' obvious that I now wonder why I resisted turning the radio on 4 7-1/2 years at the store.
I thot mayB it'd distract me. & that's true -- it's distracted me from some things I didn't wanna C or hear NEway.
I thot I wouldn't B able 2 focus. Well, that hasn't bn a problem, cos if I have trouble focusing I can always turn the music DOWN a bit. Actually, I think I'm focusing BETTER -- cos B4 on busy nites the store was sometimes just a massive spinning swirl of people & stress NEway....
& weirdest of all, at the end of the nite I don't feel totally dead. I still have some NRG left. I'm not totally stomped from Bing all stressed out.
It's pretty great, really. & it's so simple. How dumb could I B?
So far, nobody's complained. 2nite 1 long-time Regular told me: "Hey, having the music turned up really boosts the mood in this place!" & he's right. Why'd I put it off 4 so long?
Now, I have complained a coupla times here recently that EVERYBODY's playlist could B a little more open. But I'm 2 the point now where I almost don't care that I can hear "You Can't Always Get What You Want" 3 times in 1 nite. Or "Layla." Or "Stairway to Heaven." Or "Sweet Home Alabama." (OK, I still have some problems with that last 1....)
Sometimes it gets weirder than that. 2nite 2 diffrent stations were playing Heart's "Barracuda" about 15 seconds apart from each other. I could tune 1 station & hear the opening gtr riff, then turn 2 the other & hear it repeated again a few seconds later. It was wild. But also another Xample that playlists could B Xpanded.
I'm now bouncing around Btween 6 diffrent Seattle-area stations trying 2 find something good 2 listen 2. & it's not enuf. I joke with people who walk in while I'm scanning the dial that with Seattle radio you get "1 good song in a row." If you're lucky.
Sometimes if I get busy or get wrapped-up in closing down the store B4 midnight I'll just let the radio play -- & this has led me 2 re-hear some songs I dismissed YEARS ago. Coupla nites ago I heard Billy Joel's "She's Got a Way" & Cat Stevens's "Oh, Very Young," & they both sounded good. I hadn't heard Cat's song in possibly 35 years cos I thot it was lightweight when it was released -- but it sounded all right, especially his voice & the piano & those lighter-than-air women's choral vocals.
& there've bn a few suprises. 2nite's was The Beatles' "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" -- Njoyed George Martin's "fairgrounds" production. Coupla nites ago they played Chicago's "Questions 67 & 68," which I hadn't heard in awhile. Heart's "Mistral Wind" & "Love Alive." Stealer's Wheel's "Star." & 2nite I got 3 from The Moody Blues & cranked it WAY up 4 "The Story in Your Eyes" & "Ride My See-Saw."
I also crank it 4 oldies like Bobby Fuller's rockin' "I Fought the Law" & Zep's molten "When the Levee Breaks," Van's "Wild Night," The Police's "King of Pain" & "Synchronicity II," Talking Heads' "Take Me to the River" (if they'd play "Road to Nowhere" I'd B a happy man), U2's "Beautiful Day," or even The Crystals' "Then He Kissed Me" (I'm a sucker 4 almost all "Girl Groups"). Our store stereo actually puts out a pretty good amount of bass -- but I wish it would go LOUDER B4 it starts distorting.
But it's not just oldies. I'll crank it 4 Nickelback's "Photograph" (the best thing -- only GOOD thing? -- they've ever done) -- U KNOW a nostalgia-monger like me is just gonna LOVE that. & who does "Rockabye"? Great choruses -- makes me think of my daughter, almost brings me to tears. & is it Green Day who does the rocker with the refrain "I'm not sick, but I'm not well...."? & who does "Closing Time"? Great.... Linkin Park's "Numb" -- great angry choruses....
There's still some stuff I Don't Get. I Don't Get hardly NE REM. I don't get what's sposta B impressive about them. I don't get why local stations R STILL playing the hell outta Coldplay's "Death and All His Friends," tho I admit it grows on me more every time I hear it. & who does that song with the keyboard-fanfare opening & the guy saying "I turn the radio off/I've got my red shoes on...." Sounds like he's gonna turn in2 a superhero.... I Don't Get that 1 either. But mayB I was not put upon this Earth 2 Get It....
NEway, the radio has made my nites a little EZer lately, so I hava little more NRG 2 blog more often. Music can actually B used 2 enhance yer life. Who woulda thunk it?
If this keeps up, I might make it another 50 years....
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
Book reviews from Hell!
I've written about John Clute here B4. He is, I think, the best critic/reviewer science fiction has had since the late Algis Budrys hung-up his critic's hat in the early-'90s. U can find Clute's work in sevral places on the Net, most recently an occasional review at www.strangehorizons.com/.
I started reading Clute in the mid-'70s in THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, where he came across as a cranky smart-ass poking fun at summa the weaknesses of Olde SF. At 1st I didn't know quite what 2 think. I'd never B4 read a reviewer who so obviously pointed-out when he thot writers were Bing lazy or were falling asleep at the keyboard. 1nce I adjusted, I thot his crankiness was pretty funny.
He's still funny, but he's mellowed a lot. Since the mid-'70s Clute's worked on bigger projects like the huge & marvelous ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION, an equally huge ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FANTASY, a coupla novels, & some other things here & there. There's also a new, bigger, on-line version of the SF ENCYCLOPEDIA due 2 B unveiled SOON.
Oh, & he's put 2gether at least 4 books of critical essays. Over the past few months I've bn reading them, & they get pretty intense at times. Clute is the only reviewer I know of who is convinced that EVERY story Means Something, even the unsuccessful, lame, stupid 1's; that fiction in the new millennium is of deadly earnest importance; that stories R the way we all make sense of The Real World; & that writers in the SF/Fantasy/Horror world otta damn well B doing their best 2 find us some workable future worlds we can live in. Cos things in The Real World ain't lookin that cheery.
Sounds pretty serious, huh?
STROKES assembles those cranky early columns from F&SF, NEW WORLDS & other places. They're still cranky & funny, but after completing them Clute apparently threw crankiness over the side & focused on the deadly serious question of What It All Means. LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE, SCORES & CANARY FEVER (the most recent collection, 2009), all circle around how SF/Fantasy/Horror fiction Xpresses unease with The Real World -- what huge worries R people all over the planet sharing, & how is it Xpressed thru fiction?
U might B suprised how intense summa this gets. In Clute's view, "entertainment" is just 1 of the things that fiction does. & all of it has some kinda connection 2 the lives we live, no matter how futuristic or dark or weird. Writers Xpress their concerns, & often those concerns R on the minds of thousands -- often the underlying issues addressed could intrest the whole world.
& Clute's point is that -- in light of events like 9/11, global warming, current brutal economic realities, the desire of millions 2 escape this little puddle of paradise called The Real World -- writers of fantastic literature better write their stuff as if millions were reading every word. That's their duty.
Thank Ghod he's not pompous about it. But he's not joking when he sez a lot hangs in the balance 4 the folks who imagine what 2morrow's gonna B like.
The later collections seem 2 show that today's best writers seem 2 need more&more room 2 work out their concepts (& I thot it was just lazy editing....). Clute tackles multi-volume epics like Gene Wolfe's BOOK OF THE NEW SUN & its sequels, Dan Simmons' HYPERION novels, Neal Stephenson's CRYPTONOMICON & its sequels, huge books or novel-series by China Mieville, William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, John Varley, Michael Swanwick & many others -- & finds great, earth-shaking things in all of them. Good reasons 2 read, with an eye on the future.
The collections R usually assembled in chronological order, but almost all of them hava big finish. SCORES closes with a piece about the significance of fantastic literature in the shadow of 9/11. LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE closes with an overview of the brilliant career of the mysterious & tragic James Tiptree Jr. & CANARY FEVER closes with an obituary 4 1 of Clute's oldest friends, Thomas M. Disch (who suicided in 2008).
This all may sound pretty heavy -- it's not, always. Clute still cracks jokes. He still doesn't hold back when he thinks a writer is trying 2 sell readers some BS (there's a great negative review of Margaret Atwood's ORYX AND CRAKE in CANARY FEVER). & when he really doesn't like something -- look out.
Even when he admires a work, things can get kinda intense -- as when Clute compares the Xperience of reading Peter Straub's IN THE NIGHT ROOM 2 torture.
If you're an SF fan, U might want 2 check out this guy. I think he's great, even (as in some of his more-recent on-line reviews) when it seems like he MAKES UP words, even when he sometimes goes off-track & only he can figure out what he's saying, even when it seems like his more complex arguments circle around & disappear up his own ass. If U can imagine a young Robert Christgau reviewing science fiction novels, that's something of the effect.
Good Luck....
I started reading Clute in the mid-'70s in THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, where he came across as a cranky smart-ass poking fun at summa the weaknesses of Olde SF. At 1st I didn't know quite what 2 think. I'd never B4 read a reviewer who so obviously pointed-out when he thot writers were Bing lazy or were falling asleep at the keyboard. 1nce I adjusted, I thot his crankiness was pretty funny.
He's still funny, but he's mellowed a lot. Since the mid-'70s Clute's worked on bigger projects like the huge & marvelous ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION, an equally huge ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FANTASY, a coupla novels, & some other things here & there. There's also a new, bigger, on-line version of the SF ENCYCLOPEDIA due 2 B unveiled SOON.
Oh, & he's put 2gether at least 4 books of critical essays. Over the past few months I've bn reading them, & they get pretty intense at times. Clute is the only reviewer I know of who is convinced that EVERY story Means Something, even the unsuccessful, lame, stupid 1's; that fiction in the new millennium is of deadly earnest importance; that stories R the way we all make sense of The Real World; & that writers in the SF/Fantasy/Horror world otta damn well B doing their best 2 find us some workable future worlds we can live in. Cos things in The Real World ain't lookin that cheery.
Sounds pretty serious, huh?
STROKES assembles those cranky early columns from F&SF, NEW WORLDS & other places. They're still cranky & funny, but after completing them Clute apparently threw crankiness over the side & focused on the deadly serious question of What It All Means. LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE, SCORES & CANARY FEVER (the most recent collection, 2009), all circle around how SF/Fantasy/Horror fiction Xpresses unease with The Real World -- what huge worries R people all over the planet sharing, & how is it Xpressed thru fiction?
U might B suprised how intense summa this gets. In Clute's view, "entertainment" is just 1 of the things that fiction does. & all of it has some kinda connection 2 the lives we live, no matter how futuristic or dark or weird. Writers Xpress their concerns, & often those concerns R on the minds of thousands -- often the underlying issues addressed could intrest the whole world.
& Clute's point is that -- in light of events like 9/11, global warming, current brutal economic realities, the desire of millions 2 escape this little puddle of paradise called The Real World -- writers of fantastic literature better write their stuff as if millions were reading every word. That's their duty.
Thank Ghod he's not pompous about it. But he's not joking when he sez a lot hangs in the balance 4 the folks who imagine what 2morrow's gonna B like.
The later collections seem 2 show that today's best writers seem 2 need more&more room 2 work out their concepts (& I thot it was just lazy editing....). Clute tackles multi-volume epics like Gene Wolfe's BOOK OF THE NEW SUN & its sequels, Dan Simmons' HYPERION novels, Neal Stephenson's CRYPTONOMICON & its sequels, huge books or novel-series by China Mieville, William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, John Varley, Michael Swanwick & many others -- & finds great, earth-shaking things in all of them. Good reasons 2 read, with an eye on the future.
The collections R usually assembled in chronological order, but almost all of them hava big finish. SCORES closes with a piece about the significance of fantastic literature in the shadow of 9/11. LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE closes with an overview of the brilliant career of the mysterious & tragic James Tiptree Jr. & CANARY FEVER closes with an obituary 4 1 of Clute's oldest friends, Thomas M. Disch (who suicided in 2008).
This all may sound pretty heavy -- it's not, always. Clute still cracks jokes. He still doesn't hold back when he thinks a writer is trying 2 sell readers some BS (there's a great negative review of Margaret Atwood's ORYX AND CRAKE in CANARY FEVER). & when he really doesn't like something -- look out.
Even when he admires a work, things can get kinda intense -- as when Clute compares the Xperience of reading Peter Straub's IN THE NIGHT ROOM 2 torture.
If you're an SF fan, U might want 2 check out this guy. I think he's great, even (as in some of his more-recent on-line reviews) when it seems like he MAKES UP words, even when he sometimes goes off-track & only he can figure out what he's saying, even when it seems like his more complex arguments circle around & disappear up his own ass. If U can imagine a young Robert Christgau reviewing science fiction novels, that's something of the effect.
Good Luck....
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Roommates....
OK, I'm gonna B ranting & raving & bitching here 4 awhile (as usual), so if U wanna change channels right now I don't blame you.... YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
So I have this roommate, J, who I've shared a house with 4 the past 3-1/2 yrs. It's HIS house. I just rent a room here.
I always pay my rent on time, I clean up after myself, I wash the dishes & throw out the trash & mow the lawn & pick-up the mail. A few times a year I try 2 cook something without poisoning us. When $$$ gets tight I sometimes find a way 2 cough up some Xtra cash. When the washer died, my income-tax return bought a new 1. When the lawnmower died, my tax return bought a new 1. When I KILLED the lawnmower awhile back, I paid 4 the repairs. But J never seems 2 remember this.
I don't play my strange music 2 loud (& never when J's at home) & I don't make much noise mosta the time. I'm not a real social person. I read & write & play my strange music & go 2 work, & if I can B left alone with what personal time I have left, that suits me just fine.
I know I'm grumpy & moody, that I can B a challenge 2 live with. I've bn like this mosta my life. I'm probly not gonna change much now.
J's a good guy & his heart's in the right place. He's gone a long way out 4 me, more than 1nce. If I have car troubles, he can usually fix them. Awhile back when I managed 2 boil-over the car radiator & kill the car's battery at the same time, J bought me a new battery & a new thermostat. & I paid him back in full the next time I got paid.
...But he drinks. A lot. & when he does, some pretty freakin' ugly things come out of his mouth.
J thinks he doesn't drink that much. He thinks he's cut back. He only drinks 3 or 4 18-packs a week, now. & he wonders why no women will go out with him. If they heard what he sez about them when he's drunk, they'd never get NEAR him.
If anybody wants anything from J, money or a favor, all they needta do is wait & ask him when he's drunk -- they won't havta wait long, & he'll give in every time. (He was drunk when I asked 2 borrow the $$$ 4 a new computer a coupla yrs back -- I'm no saint, either. I know how things work....) He'll especially give in if the person asking 4 the favor is a woman -- he'll do almost anything 4 a little attention.
J has 1 DWI conviction on his record -- & he knows if he ever gets another he'll lose his job. But that doesn't keep him from driving 2 the store when he's had a few. If he's drunk enuf, he'll blow $300 at the grocery store, or more at Wal-Mart. It's happened more than 1nce.
The worst part, 4 me, is that he's LONELY -- & that gets worse if he's been drinking. The 1st coupla yrs I lived here, I can't remember how many times we were up til 4 am just TALKING -- J usedta B able 2 do LONG monologues about how much his job sucked, & he'd never let the audience get a word in -- he just needed 2 get the frustration out, no matter how long it took. 1 time when he was REALLY shitfaced he told me the same story about work 3 times within 10 mins....
When he's had a few, he likes 2 turn on CNN, turn it up & start solving the world's problems. Sometimes he has some really good ideas, 2. But it depends on how much he's had 2 drink. Sometimes he'll feel sorry 4 all the hungry, homeless people Out There -- & a few mins later he'll B absolutely SURE that each 1 of those hungry, homeless people R sucking up his tax dollars -- why don't they just get a freakin' JOB?! .... I could live with this, but he Bcomes such an expert, such a freaking KNOW-IT-ALL after a few drinks -- he knows everything, he's done everything, & I haven't done shit.
Awhile back when I came home from my vacation, the 1st thing outta his mouth (he was shitfaced) was: "What are YOU gonna cook for dinner?!" Then, when he didn't want what I suggested, he said: "I'm sure glad yer back, cos I'm sicka walkin downhill 2 get yer mail...." He said he thot I might not come back from vacation, or that I might come back just long enuf 2 pack my things & move out.... Clearly he was sorta jealous that I went off & hadda good time without him....
Then he suggested we go hit his favorite bar. Trust me, taking me 2 a bar is about as appropriate as me taking J 2 a bookstore or a library -- I've never suggested it. But J won't let the bar thing go, it's always in the back of his mind. He thinks it'll cheer me up. The 1 time we went he blew $140 & then blamed me 4 it.
Leave me alone. That'll cheer me up.
Awhile back we hadda couple other roommates. 1 was a balding wanna-B-biker guy who's favorite phrase was: "Everything's gonna be all right, baby...." He was here 4 a coupla months B4 he fell in love with some1 & moved out. Then we got stuck with 1 of his old girlfriends -- who promised 2 cook & clean & do the dishes in Xchange 4 a break on the rent -- & then never cooked or cleaned. She never paid her rent on time 4 over a year, & I feel like I helped feed her 4 most of that time. Finally she moved out back at the end of Feb. I won't miss her. Not 1 of my favorite people ever.
Recently J has moved 2 a new work shift, so now I see him every day, not just on my days off. 1 of the reasons this arrangement useta work is cos we hardly ever saw each other & I didn't havta deal with what an ugly drunk he can sometimes B. Now I can't avoid him. Is there some kind of law that sez you HAVE 2 converse with the people you live with?
Awhile back, J thot I should try 2 apply 4 a job where he works -- after all the ugly stories I've heard about the place, why would I wanna do THAT? & Bsides, I don't want 2 C my roommate 24/7....
A decade ago, after my divorce & after my X-wife came & took the kids away, I had a huge old 4-bedroom house all to myself.
& I thot the silence was gonna drive me crazy.
Now I'm sure that I'm never going 2 B completely happy until I have my own place & can do what I want, when I want, & not havta worry about stepping on any1 else's toes.
3 more years in Washington will pay all of my major bills, & then it's back 2 Idaho where it's quieter & where at least I've got my family & a coupla old friends I can fall back on.
I'm tired of repressing who I am & what I do, postponing what I want 2 do, & caving-in & doing what a roommate wants 2 do, just 2 keep peace with a roommate.
Who I am & what I do is actually pretty boring, so I don't C why it should B a problem.
If NE of you out there have ever been in this situation -- how'd you put up with it?
...Sorry, this is kinda depressing. I shouldn't bitch. My life ain't so bad. I thot I could get some kinda comedy out of this. ... But I don't think it's gonna happen this time....
So I have this roommate, J, who I've shared a house with 4 the past 3-1/2 yrs. It's HIS house. I just rent a room here.
I always pay my rent on time, I clean up after myself, I wash the dishes & throw out the trash & mow the lawn & pick-up the mail. A few times a year I try 2 cook something without poisoning us. When $$$ gets tight I sometimes find a way 2 cough up some Xtra cash. When the washer died, my income-tax return bought a new 1. When the lawnmower died, my tax return bought a new 1. When I KILLED the lawnmower awhile back, I paid 4 the repairs. But J never seems 2 remember this.
I don't play my strange music 2 loud (& never when J's at home) & I don't make much noise mosta the time. I'm not a real social person. I read & write & play my strange music & go 2 work, & if I can B left alone with what personal time I have left, that suits me just fine.
I know I'm grumpy & moody, that I can B a challenge 2 live with. I've bn like this mosta my life. I'm probly not gonna change much now.
J's a good guy & his heart's in the right place. He's gone a long way out 4 me, more than 1nce. If I have car troubles, he can usually fix them. Awhile back when I managed 2 boil-over the car radiator & kill the car's battery at the same time, J bought me a new battery & a new thermostat. & I paid him back in full the next time I got paid.
...But he drinks. A lot. & when he does, some pretty freakin' ugly things come out of his mouth.
J thinks he doesn't drink that much. He thinks he's cut back. He only drinks 3 or 4 18-packs a week, now. & he wonders why no women will go out with him. If they heard what he sez about them when he's drunk, they'd never get NEAR him.
If anybody wants anything from J, money or a favor, all they needta do is wait & ask him when he's drunk -- they won't havta wait long, & he'll give in every time. (He was drunk when I asked 2 borrow the $$$ 4 a new computer a coupla yrs back -- I'm no saint, either. I know how things work....) He'll especially give in if the person asking 4 the favor is a woman -- he'll do almost anything 4 a little attention.
J has 1 DWI conviction on his record -- & he knows if he ever gets another he'll lose his job. But that doesn't keep him from driving 2 the store when he's had a few. If he's drunk enuf, he'll blow $300 at the grocery store, or more at Wal-Mart. It's happened more than 1nce.
The worst part, 4 me, is that he's LONELY -- & that gets worse if he's been drinking. The 1st coupla yrs I lived here, I can't remember how many times we were up til 4 am just TALKING -- J usedta B able 2 do LONG monologues about how much his job sucked, & he'd never let the audience get a word in -- he just needed 2 get the frustration out, no matter how long it took. 1 time when he was REALLY shitfaced he told me the same story about work 3 times within 10 mins....
When he's had a few, he likes 2 turn on CNN, turn it up & start solving the world's problems. Sometimes he has some really good ideas, 2. But it depends on how much he's had 2 drink. Sometimes he'll feel sorry 4 all the hungry, homeless people Out There -- & a few mins later he'll B absolutely SURE that each 1 of those hungry, homeless people R sucking up his tax dollars -- why don't they just get a freakin' JOB?! .... I could live with this, but he Bcomes such an expert, such a freaking KNOW-IT-ALL after a few drinks -- he knows everything, he's done everything, & I haven't done shit.
Awhile back when I came home from my vacation, the 1st thing outta his mouth (he was shitfaced) was: "What are YOU gonna cook for dinner?!" Then, when he didn't want what I suggested, he said: "I'm sure glad yer back, cos I'm sicka walkin downhill 2 get yer mail...." He said he thot I might not come back from vacation, or that I might come back just long enuf 2 pack my things & move out.... Clearly he was sorta jealous that I went off & hadda good time without him....
Then he suggested we go hit his favorite bar. Trust me, taking me 2 a bar is about as appropriate as me taking J 2 a bookstore or a library -- I've never suggested it. But J won't let the bar thing go, it's always in the back of his mind. He thinks it'll cheer me up. The 1 time we went he blew $140 & then blamed me 4 it.
Leave me alone. That'll cheer me up.
Awhile back we hadda couple other roommates. 1 was a balding wanna-B-biker guy who's favorite phrase was: "Everything's gonna be all right, baby...." He was here 4 a coupla months B4 he fell in love with some1 & moved out. Then we got stuck with 1 of his old girlfriends -- who promised 2 cook & clean & do the dishes in Xchange 4 a break on the rent -- & then never cooked or cleaned. She never paid her rent on time 4 over a year, & I feel like I helped feed her 4 most of that time. Finally she moved out back at the end of Feb. I won't miss her. Not 1 of my favorite people ever.
Recently J has moved 2 a new work shift, so now I see him every day, not just on my days off. 1 of the reasons this arrangement useta work is cos we hardly ever saw each other & I didn't havta deal with what an ugly drunk he can sometimes B. Now I can't avoid him. Is there some kind of law that sez you HAVE 2 converse with the people you live with?
Awhile back, J thot I should try 2 apply 4 a job where he works -- after all the ugly stories I've heard about the place, why would I wanna do THAT? & Bsides, I don't want 2 C my roommate 24/7....
A decade ago, after my divorce & after my X-wife came & took the kids away, I had a huge old 4-bedroom house all to myself.
& I thot the silence was gonna drive me crazy.
Now I'm sure that I'm never going 2 B completely happy until I have my own place & can do what I want, when I want, & not havta worry about stepping on any1 else's toes.
3 more years in Washington will pay all of my major bills, & then it's back 2 Idaho where it's quieter & where at least I've got my family & a coupla old friends I can fall back on.
I'm tired of repressing who I am & what I do, postponing what I want 2 do, & caving-in & doing what a roommate wants 2 do, just 2 keep peace with a roommate.
Who I am & what I do is actually pretty boring, so I don't C why it should B a problem.
If NE of you out there have ever been in this situation -- how'd you put up with it?
...Sorry, this is kinda depressing. I shouldn't bitch. My life ain't so bad. I thot I could get some kinda comedy out of this. ... But I don't think it's gonna happen this time....
Friday, August 5, 2011
Beginning to see the light....
I reported here awhile back that Ellen Willis's rock-criticism best-of OUT OF THE VINYL DEEPS (2011) seemed a little thin & hard 2 get in2. & dated.
& I was wrong. MayB it just needed 2 wait 4 the Right Time.
Having read a good chunk of it now, I can report that -- sure, it's dated -- there's way 2 much on Dylan & the Stones, & there's also a kinda toothless attempt 2 prove that Woodstock wasn't the Hippie Heaven it's so often been claimed 2 B down thru the years. But hey, it was the '60s.
I can also report that Willis nails some things perfectly, & there R parts that make me laff out-loud.
Ellen Willis wasn't the only woman rock critic of the late '60s/early '70s -- also writing at the time were Janet Maslin & M. Mark & Ellen Sander, & Patti Smith took a few shots at it, & there were a few others. But Willis was part of rock criticism's 1st wave, a colleague of Lester Bangs & Dave Marsh & Robert Christgau & Greil Marcus, all of whom R mentioned or quoted in this book.
Willis Bcame well-known as rock critic 4 THE NEW YORKER, & later wrote 4 ROLLING STONE & THE VILLAGE VOICE. VINYL DEEPS collects her music writing from her 1st published piece on Dylan in '67, 2 a review of Dylan's LOVE AND THEFT for Salon.com in 2001. Willis died in 2006.
Most of the book is from her NEW YORKER columns, along with other late-'60s/early-'70s stuff. There R also pieces on Creedence Clearwater Revival & Janis Joplin that she did for the ROLLING STONE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF ROCK, liner notes, etc.
But her NEW YORKER columns R sharp & funny & intimate -- there's a funny piece about Willis dancing around her apartment 2 the 1st 5 Creedence albums in an effort 2 fight off depression. There's her Xcellent long piece from Marcus's STRANDED about the Velvet Underground's Complete Works. She nails a review of Dylan's BLOOD ON THE TRACKS. There's a long writeup from Lou Reed's ROCK AND ROLL DIARY -- in fact, Reed is in this book a lot.
& tho much of Willis's work follows the Xpected stars, she covers some off-the-wall stuff 2: There's a review of Van Dyke Parks' SONG CYCLE; a long writeup on Moby Grape; a couple pieces on Mott the Hoople; & a coupla mentions of a group called Eyes & their main songwriter Ms. Clawdy.
Summa this stuff made me laff in suprise -- 4 instance a chapter on "Bowie's Limitations," where Willis claims that "Part of the problem is Bowie's material." I laffed 4 quite awhile at that 1, cos I've never been that big a Bowie fan....
I have some complaints: Willis misses the best songs on ZIGGY STARDUST & ABBEY ROAD & MOTT & some others; there is WAY 2 much Dylan & Stones & Van Morrison & Janis. (But their fans won't mind.) That Woodstock piece REALLY doesn't BITE hard enuf, tho the material's there. & there isn't enuf (4 me) about what Willis thot about societal issues apart from music. This is an intresting person, who went in2 teaching & writing about feminism after she thot she'd written herself out on rock&roll. There's a big gap at the end of this 230-pg book & there was room 4 more of what Willis wrote after 1980.
But as the 4 editors/assemblers (1 of 'em's Willis's daughter) promise, the book is sorta a time-capsule of the period. There's some good stuff here. If I find more, I'll let U know....
Wish I could say I was having the same luck re-reading Carl Belz's THE STORY OF ROCK, which I discovered as a 10th-grader in the dark bowels of the Meridian (Idaho) Mid-High School Library, while skipping PE class 17 days in a row at the end of 1974 cos I didn't wanta face the humiliation of wrestling my classmates.
1st I read Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 & CHILDHOOD'S END, then stumbled over THE STORY OF ROCK, where I was thrilled 2 discover that some1 else thot The Beatles' WHITE ALBUM was the greatest record of all time, a complete history of popular music condensed on2 2 long-playing vinyl discs....
I bought this book hoping 2 locate that long review again, & it ain't here. Or perhaps it was revised out of this Revised Second Edition. If I locate this vein of gold & somehow get transported back 2 my 15th year I'll try 2 pass the word along....
Bogged down in my re-read of 1984 at the point just B4 Winston & Julia get arrested. Can't quite bring myself 2 trudge thru the pamphlet that bad-guy O'Brien gave the 2 doomed lovers, THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF OLIGARCHICAL COLLECTIVISM. MayB I'll just skip that & get 2 the good (bad) stuff that happens in Room 101.... Along with the grim & gritty future world portrayed here (the scarcity of essentials could B straight out of a Philip K. Dick novel), I was also suprised by the sex! I didn't remember NE of THAT from the 1st time thru....
Have also lately tried 2 read Lisa Tuttle's LOST FUTURES, Thomas M. Disch's CAMP CONCENTRATION, Philip K. Dick's VALIS, little bits & pieces of Kathy Acker's best-of & Barry N. Malzberg's GALAXIES, probly some others I can't even remember. Haven't stuck 2 NE of these yet. Had no trouble finishing re-reading Thomas Harris's RED DRAGON, which isn't as painful (tho is still just as gripping) as I'd thot when I read it 20 years ago.... Also been re-reading a few fave short stories: Gwyneth Jones's "Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland," James Patrick Kelly's "Breakaway, Backdown," Gregory Nicoll's "Dead Air," Michael Blumlein's "The Brains of Rats," Terry Bisson's "Scout's Honor," Allen Steele's "Doblin's Lecture," Joanna Russ's "Invasion," Kim Newman's "The Man Who Collected Barker"....
Hottest part of the Summer here, in the mid-80s every day & warm at nite. & what's up with you-all...?
& I was wrong. MayB it just needed 2 wait 4 the Right Time.
Having read a good chunk of it now, I can report that -- sure, it's dated -- there's way 2 much on Dylan & the Stones, & there's also a kinda toothless attempt 2 prove that Woodstock wasn't the Hippie Heaven it's so often been claimed 2 B down thru the years. But hey, it was the '60s.
I can also report that Willis nails some things perfectly, & there R parts that make me laff out-loud.
Ellen Willis wasn't the only woman rock critic of the late '60s/early '70s -- also writing at the time were Janet Maslin & M. Mark & Ellen Sander, & Patti Smith took a few shots at it, & there were a few others. But Willis was part of rock criticism's 1st wave, a colleague of Lester Bangs & Dave Marsh & Robert Christgau & Greil Marcus, all of whom R mentioned or quoted in this book.
Willis Bcame well-known as rock critic 4 THE NEW YORKER, & later wrote 4 ROLLING STONE & THE VILLAGE VOICE. VINYL DEEPS collects her music writing from her 1st published piece on Dylan in '67, 2 a review of Dylan's LOVE AND THEFT for Salon.com in 2001. Willis died in 2006.
Most of the book is from her NEW YORKER columns, along with other late-'60s/early-'70s stuff. There R also pieces on Creedence Clearwater Revival & Janis Joplin that she did for the ROLLING STONE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF ROCK, liner notes, etc.
But her NEW YORKER columns R sharp & funny & intimate -- there's a funny piece about Willis dancing around her apartment 2 the 1st 5 Creedence albums in an effort 2 fight off depression. There's her Xcellent long piece from Marcus's STRANDED about the Velvet Underground's Complete Works. She nails a review of Dylan's BLOOD ON THE TRACKS. There's a long writeup from Lou Reed's ROCK AND ROLL DIARY -- in fact, Reed is in this book a lot.
& tho much of Willis's work follows the Xpected stars, she covers some off-the-wall stuff 2: There's a review of Van Dyke Parks' SONG CYCLE; a long writeup on Moby Grape; a couple pieces on Mott the Hoople; & a coupla mentions of a group called Eyes & their main songwriter Ms. Clawdy.
Summa this stuff made me laff in suprise -- 4 instance a chapter on "Bowie's Limitations," where Willis claims that "Part of the problem is Bowie's material." I laffed 4 quite awhile at that 1, cos I've never been that big a Bowie fan....
I have some complaints: Willis misses the best songs on ZIGGY STARDUST & ABBEY ROAD & MOTT & some others; there is WAY 2 much Dylan & Stones & Van Morrison & Janis. (But their fans won't mind.) That Woodstock piece REALLY doesn't BITE hard enuf, tho the material's there. & there isn't enuf (4 me) about what Willis thot about societal issues apart from music. This is an intresting person, who went in2 teaching & writing about feminism after she thot she'd written herself out on rock&roll. There's a big gap at the end of this 230-pg book & there was room 4 more of what Willis wrote after 1980.
But as the 4 editors/assemblers (1 of 'em's Willis's daughter) promise, the book is sorta a time-capsule of the period. There's some good stuff here. If I find more, I'll let U know....
Wish I could say I was having the same luck re-reading Carl Belz's THE STORY OF ROCK, which I discovered as a 10th-grader in the dark bowels of the Meridian (Idaho) Mid-High School Library, while skipping PE class 17 days in a row at the end of 1974 cos I didn't wanta face the humiliation of wrestling my classmates.
1st I read Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 & CHILDHOOD'S END, then stumbled over THE STORY OF ROCK, where I was thrilled 2 discover that some1 else thot The Beatles' WHITE ALBUM was the greatest record of all time, a complete history of popular music condensed on2 2 long-playing vinyl discs....
I bought this book hoping 2 locate that long review again, & it ain't here. Or perhaps it was revised out of this Revised Second Edition. If I locate this vein of gold & somehow get transported back 2 my 15th year I'll try 2 pass the word along....
Bogged down in my re-read of 1984 at the point just B4 Winston & Julia get arrested. Can't quite bring myself 2 trudge thru the pamphlet that bad-guy O'Brien gave the 2 doomed lovers, THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF OLIGARCHICAL COLLECTIVISM. MayB I'll just skip that & get 2 the good (bad) stuff that happens in Room 101.... Along with the grim & gritty future world portrayed here (the scarcity of essentials could B straight out of a Philip K. Dick novel), I was also suprised by the sex! I didn't remember NE of THAT from the 1st time thru....
Have also lately tried 2 read Lisa Tuttle's LOST FUTURES, Thomas M. Disch's CAMP CONCENTRATION, Philip K. Dick's VALIS, little bits & pieces of Kathy Acker's best-of & Barry N. Malzberg's GALAXIES, probly some others I can't even remember. Haven't stuck 2 NE of these yet. Had no trouble finishing re-reading Thomas Harris's RED DRAGON, which isn't as painful (tho is still just as gripping) as I'd thot when I read it 20 years ago.... Also been re-reading a few fave short stories: Gwyneth Jones's "Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland," James Patrick Kelly's "Breakaway, Backdown," Gregory Nicoll's "Dead Air," Michael Blumlein's "The Brains of Rats," Terry Bisson's "Scout's Honor," Allen Steele's "Doblin's Lecture," Joanna Russ's "Invasion," Kim Newman's "The Man Who Collected Barker"....
Hottest part of the Summer here, in the mid-80s every day & warm at nite. & what's up with you-all...?
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Rastro goes Tumblr -- great stuff!
Hey, B sure & check out Rastro's new LA HISTORIA DE LA MUSICA ROCK Tumblr site at www.lahistoriadelamusicarock.tumblr.com/ -- it's punchy & funny & quick, & summa the photos he's posted R freakin' GREAT -- some of them R even sorta scary, Hank Williams Sr., 4 1....
Anyway, it's all good 2 C cos 4 awhile I thot Rastro was gonna take the Summer off. So B sure & check out his wit & musical knowledge in a new, quick & easily digestible format. Really, he does more with a photo & a few well-chosen words than I can do in a 2,000-word essay.
...& I'm not just saying this because of the great women-guitarist photos he's been posting....
Anyway, it's all good 2 C cos 4 awhile I thot Rastro was gonna take the Summer off. So B sure & check out his wit & musical knowledge in a new, quick & easily digestible format. Really, he does more with a photo & a few well-chosen words than I can do in a 2,000-word essay.
...& I'm not just saying this because of the great women-guitarist photos he's been posting....
Monday, August 1, 2011
Something Different, Part 97....
Welcome to Aug, my favorite month -- my birthday & all, ya know.
In the continuing effort 2 find Something Different musically, over the past few Sun nites while working I've bn catching bits & pieces of "Little Steven's Underground Garage," which in the Seattle area runs from 10 pm-midnight on 103.7 FM "The Mountain." I trust it's also broadcast nationwide.
Little Steven -- who if I remember right was a guitarist/vocalist, member of the E Street Band & 1 of Bruce's buddies, among other things -- hosts 2 hrs of off-the-wall rock&roll, lotsa cool overlooked or forgotten stuff from the '60s & '70s, & a suprising amount of more recent retro-sounding stuff. There's also music trivia & stories about the artists & the folks behind the tunes.
The music is all pretty great -- & there's A LOT of stuff I've either never heard before or never heard of.
The stuff that's hit me hardest so far is Julie Driscoll's "I Know You Love Me Not," which sounds like some forgotten mid-'60s Dusty Springfield tune, complete with over-the-top orchestrations; & the Shangri-La's "Heaven Only Knows," which sounds just like them. ... & Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" is hilarious!
But there's LOTS more: Obscure tunes by Bruce, the Stones, the Kinks, New York Dolls, silly-&-strange-but-good retro stuff from Sweden & Norway.... Also some old standbys like the Beatles' "The Night Before," Vanilla Fudge's "You Keep Me Hanging On" (which I hadn't heard in years), & "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (ditto).
Also, 2 name a few: Steve Winwood & Steve Cropper's "Thirty Second Lover"; Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions' "I'm a Fool for You" (which I thot was an old Smokey Robinson & The Miracles tune); Garland Jeffreys' "35-Millimeter Dreams" (which sounds like an old Van Morrison song); The Yardbirds' "Smile On Me, Baby," & more....
Steven also profiles great behind-the-scenes folks in an ongoing series called "Freaks of the Week" -- recent Freaks have included Shadow Morton, Al Kooper, Kim Fowley....
It's all really cool, 2 use 1 of Steven's fave descriptive terms. His low, kinda growly voice reminds me of The Boogie Monster, who I useta hear on Denver Oldies radio back in the mid-'80s. & some of his comments just make me laff out-loud, like when he described The Stones' "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadows?" as being "full of Freudian, Jungian psychological STUFF ... It was written by Freud and Jung, actually ... and produced by Andrew Loog Oldham, who knew both of them VERY well...." & it's always a hoot when he starts laffing....
Quite cool if you're in2 the Different -- & who isn't, with radio being what it is these days? You might wanna C if U can track it down. I'll B listening more in the future. It's certainly made my Sun nites EZer 2 get thru.... Hopefully, You Out There already know about this show & I'm the 1 who didn't get the memo about it....
More soon....
In the continuing effort 2 find Something Different musically, over the past few Sun nites while working I've bn catching bits & pieces of "Little Steven's Underground Garage," which in the Seattle area runs from 10 pm-midnight on 103.7 FM "The Mountain." I trust it's also broadcast nationwide.
Little Steven -- who if I remember right was a guitarist/vocalist, member of the E Street Band & 1 of Bruce's buddies, among other things -- hosts 2 hrs of off-the-wall rock&roll, lotsa cool overlooked or forgotten stuff from the '60s & '70s, & a suprising amount of more recent retro-sounding stuff. There's also music trivia & stories about the artists & the folks behind the tunes.
The music is all pretty great -- & there's A LOT of stuff I've either never heard before or never heard of.
The stuff that's hit me hardest so far is Julie Driscoll's "I Know You Love Me Not," which sounds like some forgotten mid-'60s Dusty Springfield tune, complete with over-the-top orchestrations; & the Shangri-La's "Heaven Only Knows," which sounds just like them. ... & Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" is hilarious!
But there's LOTS more: Obscure tunes by Bruce, the Stones, the Kinks, New York Dolls, silly-&-strange-but-good retro stuff from Sweden & Norway.... Also some old standbys like the Beatles' "The Night Before," Vanilla Fudge's "You Keep Me Hanging On" (which I hadn't heard in years), & "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (ditto).
Also, 2 name a few: Steve Winwood & Steve Cropper's "Thirty Second Lover"; Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions' "I'm a Fool for You" (which I thot was an old Smokey Robinson & The Miracles tune); Garland Jeffreys' "35-Millimeter Dreams" (which sounds like an old Van Morrison song); The Yardbirds' "Smile On Me, Baby," & more....
Steven also profiles great behind-the-scenes folks in an ongoing series called "Freaks of the Week" -- recent Freaks have included Shadow Morton, Al Kooper, Kim Fowley....
It's all really cool, 2 use 1 of Steven's fave descriptive terms. His low, kinda growly voice reminds me of The Boogie Monster, who I useta hear on Denver Oldies radio back in the mid-'80s. & some of his comments just make me laff out-loud, like when he described The Stones' "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadows?" as being "full of Freudian, Jungian psychological STUFF ... It was written by Freud and Jung, actually ... and produced by Andrew Loog Oldham, who knew both of them VERY well...." & it's always a hoot when he starts laffing....
Quite cool if you're in2 the Different -- & who isn't, with radio being what it is these days? You might wanna C if U can track it down. I'll B listening more in the future. It's certainly made my Sun nites EZer 2 get thru.... Hopefully, You Out There already know about this show & I'm the 1 who didn't get the memo about it....
More soon....
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....
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Alternate Playlist 2
When I 1st got on the Internet 13+ years ago, the 1st thing I looked 4 was record reviews -- Bcos I was sick 2 death of the stuff I'd bn hearing over&over. Yeah I had albums & CD's, but I'd heard them over & over 2. What I wanted was some1 else's opinion about Good Stuff 2 look in2. & the 1st place I went 2 was Mark Prindle's music-review website. Which sorta Xplains how I got here 2day.
What follows is a sorta "alternate playlist" 4 mildly-adventurous radio stations. Suggested OTHER things a Classic Rock, Album Rock or Oldies station could play instead of the SAME OLD STUFF OVER&OVER. Something not 2 outrageous that wouldn't necessarily require a Program Director 2 grow a backbone. I mean, how many times can U hear "Band on the Run" B4 developing bubbles in the brain? I mean, really....
If U've bn reading here 4 awhile U probly think U already know this list. & U might. But this 1's a little diffrent. I'll vouch 4 the fact that what follows is Good Stuff. But it's strictly work by Classic Rock/Album Rock/Oldies artists. I based it on stuff I have in the house or know about, but I've mostly left off those off-the-wall prog bands that I love so much.
Also: You're gonna need a bigger fan of Bruce, Zep, U2, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty & some others than I am in order 2 supply U with Great Overlooked Stuff. I mostly can't do it. Sorry bout that. Always open 2 suggestions, tho....
Also, if I've ever heard some great-but-obscure album track played on the radio (& I can still remember it), it ain't here. Sorry Kinks fans, "Shangri-La" ain't on this list cos my current fave oldies station KMCQ played it awhile back.
Fat lot of good this list is gonna do NE1 NEway, but it makes me feel useful. Hopefully it'll B of use 2 SOMEBODY. & 4 Ghod's sake if U're in radio or programming NEwhere, drop me a line, we need 2 Talk.
Enuf of the prelims, on with the show. In no particular order then, some recommended overlooked listening:
Pink Floyd -- Flaming, Astronome Domine (live), One of These Days, One of My Turns, In the Flesh?, The Trial, High Hopes.
Zep -- Carouselambra.
Journey -- Spaceman, Something to Hide, Daydream, People and Places, Escape, Troubled Child.
Beatles -- There's a Place, Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey, The Night Before, I Need You, Anytime at All, And Your Bird Can Sing, Things We Said Today, For No One, It's Only Love, Everybody's Trying to be My Baby, Dear Prudence, Thank You Girl.
Rickie Lee Jones -- On Saturday Afternoons in 1963, We Belong Together, Living it Up.
Supertramp -- Just Another Nervous Wreck, Babajii, From Now On, Crime of the Century, School, Gone Hollywood.
Jefferson Starship -- Freedom at Point Zero, All Nite Long, Fading Lady Light, Save Your Love, Lightning Rose, Just the Same, Things to Come, Awakening.
Jefferson Airplane -- Mexico, Crown of Creation, Good Shepherd.
ELP -- Karn Evil 9 1st Impression Part 1, Hoedown, Fanfare for the Common Man.
Yes -- Every Little Thing, Looking Around, No Opportunity Necessary No Experience Needed, Time and a Word, Sweet Dreams, Survival, America, Wonderous Stories, Turn of the Century.
REO -- Blazing Your Own Trail Again.
Pat Benatar -- Wuthering Heights, Hard to Believe.
Bob Dylan -- One of Us Must Know.
Moody Blues -- Peak Hour, Evening: Time to Get Away, Twilight Tme, The Actor, Simple Game, Lovely to See You, Gypsy, Eyes of a Child Part 2, It's Up to You, Don't You Feel Small?, Our Guessing Game, One More Time to Live, You Can Never Go Home, For My Lady, You and Me, Land of Make-Believe, In My World, Meanwhile, Nervous, Veteran Cosmic Rocker, Blue World, Meet Me Halfway, Running Water, Sorry.
Queen -- Rock It (Prime Jive), It's Late, '39, The Prophet's Song, Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to....), Save Me, The Show Must Go On.
Kansas -- Journey from MariaBronn, Miracles Out of Nowhere, Questions of My Childhood, Cheyenne Anthem, Reason to Be, Back Door.
Kinks -- Apeman, David Watts, Victoria, Celluloid Heroes, Village Green Preservation Society, Dead End Street.
Rush -- The Camera Eye, Distant Early Warning, Manhattan Project, Force Ten, Time Stand Still, Mystic Rhythms (live), Show Don't Tell, Marathon.
U2 -- Twilight, Out of Control, The Electric Co.
Simon and Garfunkel -- For Emily Whenever I May Find Her, The Only Living Boy in New York, Keep the Customer Satisfied, A Simple Desultory Philippic.
Billy Joel -- All for Leyna.
Buffalo Springfield -- Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing, Broken Arrow, On the Way Home.
Byrds -- John Riley.
Turtles -- We'll Meet Again, Lady-O, Grim Reaper of Love, Sound Asleep.
ELO -- The Way Life's Meant to Be, Ma-Ma-Ma-Belle, Across the Border, 10538 Overture (live).
Alan Parsons Project -- Some Other Time, I'd Rather Be a Man, Winding Me Up, You Don't Believe.
Jethro Tull -- One Brown Mouse, The Whistler, Ring Out Solstice Bells, Fire at Midnight, One White Duck/Nothing at All, Baker Street Muse, The Third Hoorah, Back to the Family, Dun Ringill, Dark Ages.
Procol Harum -- Wreck of the Hesperus, A Salty Dog, In the Autumn of My Madness/Look to Your Soul/Grand Finale (live).
Manfred Mann's Earth Band -- Stranded, Heart on the Street, Don't Kill it Carol, Hollywood Town, Belle of the Earth, Angelz at My Gate, Singing the Dolphin Through.
Spirit ("I've Got a Line on You") -- 1984, Prelude/Nothing to Hide, Morning Will Come, Life Has Just Begun, Soldier, Aren't You Glad?
Genesis -- Inside and Out, Vancouver, Madman Moon, Ripples, Firth of Fifth (live), Supper's Ready (live), The Musical Box (live), In the Cage (live), Like it or Not, You Might Recall....
Golden Earring -- Snot Love in Spain, Need Her, Save Your Skin.
Monkees -- Love is Only Sleeping, Tapioca Tundra, Take a Giant Step, Porpoise Song, As We Go Along, Sunny Girlfriend, No Time, Daily Nightly, Your Auntie Grizelda.
Gordon Lightfoot -- Seven Islands Suite, High and Dry, Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Summer Side of Life, Ten Degrees and Getting Colder, Don Quixote.
Grateful Dead -- Passenger, Terrapin.
Steely Dan -- Any Major Dude Will Tell You, Gaucho, Third World Man.
Heart -- Rockin' Heaven Down, Sweet Darlin (live), Soul of the Sea, Love Alive.
Hall and Oates -- Diddy Doo Wop (I Hear the Voices).
Daryl Hall -- Something in 4/4 Time.
Al Stewart -- Rocks in the Ocean, Flying Sorcery, Running Man, Lord Grenville, One Stage Before, Valentina Way, Almost Lucy, Apple Cider Reconstitution, The Dark and Rolling Sea, Modern Times, Roads to Moscow, Terminal Eyes, Nostradamus.
Todd Rundgren/Utopia -- Couldn't I Just Tell You?, Real Man, Saving Grace, Song of the Viking, Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song, You Make Me Crazy, The Very Last Time.
Paul McCartney/Wings -- Medicine Jar, Let Me Roll It, Venus and Mars Reprise, Magneto and Titanium Man, Picasso's Last Words, Mrs. Vandebilt.
Who -- Slip Kid, Blue Red and Gray, Daily Records, Dreaming from the Waist, How Can You Do it Alone?, Another Tricky Day, Little Billy, Dogs, Let's See Action, The Relay, Melancholia.
Bread -- Been Too Long on the Road, Too Much Love, Down on My Knees, Look What You've Done, Truckin', He's a Good Lad.
Fleetwood Mac -- The Green Manalishi, Dissatisfied, Why?, World Turning, Silver Springs, I Know I'm Not Wrong, Brown Eyes, Angel, Big Love (live), Wish You Were Here, Straight Back, Eyes of the World, The Farmer's Daughter, One More Night, Fireflies, I'm So Afraid (live), Tango in the Night, Isn't it Midnight?, Murrow Rolling Over in His Grave.
Dire Straits -- Telegraph Road, Love Over Gold, It Never Rains, Industrial Disease, Romeo and Juliet, Hand in Hand, Expresso Love, Tunnel of Love.
Stories (they did "Brother Louie," 1973) -- Love is in Motion, Please Please, Words, Circles, Darling, What Comes After.
Blue Oyster Cult -- ETI, Morning Final, Debbie Denise, Revenge of Vera Gemini.
Blondie -- Angels on the Balcony, Victor, Union City Blue, Sunday Girl, 11:59, Will Anything Happen?, Just Go Away.
Go-Go's -- Can't Stop the World, Fading Fast, This Town, How Much More, It's Everything but Partytime, The Way You Dance, Worlds Away, You Thought, Forget That Day, Capture the Light, I'm With You, Mercenary.
Bangles -- Hero Takes a Fall, All About You, Dover Beach, Restless, Silent Treatment, He's Got a Secret, Let it Go, September Gurls, Angels Don't Fall in Love, Following, Not Like You, Return Post, Glitter Years, I'll Set You Free, Everything I Wanted.
Pretenders -- Kid, Mystery Achievement, Lovers of Today, Up the Neck, Tattooed Love Boys, Space Invaders, Time the Avenger, 2000 Miles, Hymn to Her, Birds of Paradise, I Go to Sleep, Pack it Up.
Janis Ian ("At Seventeen," 1974) -- When the Party's Over, From Me to You, In the Winter, Watercolors, Love is Blind.
Beach Boys -- There's No Other (Like My Baby), Let Him Run Wild, Please Let Me Wonder, Here Today, I Know There's an Answer, I Just Wasn't Made for These Times, Trombone Dixie, I'd Love Just Once to See You, Mama Says, Gettin' Hungry, Vegetables, Our Prayer, Cabinessence, This Whole World, Add Some Music to Your Day, It's About Time, Long Promised Road, Feel Flows, 'Til I Die, Surf's Up, The Trader, Johnny Carson, Good Time.
Three Dog Night -- My Impersonal Life, Jam, Heavy Church.
Roxy Music -- The Thrill of it All.
Madonna -- Oh Father, Dear Jessie, The Look of Love, Bad Girl.
Pete Townshend -- Now and Then, A Little is Enough, North Country Girl, Jools and Jim, And I Moved, Gonna Get Ya, Somebody Saved Me, Uniforms, Zelda.
Police -- On Any Other Day, Does Everyone Stare?, Omegaman, Secret Journey, Darkness.
Nirvana -- You Know You're Right.
Elton John -- Teacher I Need You, Elderberry Wine, Have Mercy on the Criminal, Gray Seal, Ballad of Danny Bailey, All the Girls Love Alice, Roy Rogers, Harmony, Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock and Roll), Social Disease.
Tears for Fears -- The Working Hour.
Dan Fogelberg -- Tell Me to My Face, As the Raven Flies, Someone's Been Telling You Stories, There's a Place in the World for a Gambler, Phoenix, Along the Road, Wishing on the Moon, Nexus, The Innocent Age, The Reach, Stolen Moments, The Lion's Share.
Poco -- A Good Feeling to Know, Crazy Eyes.
Aerosmith -- Seasons of Wither.
Neil Diamond -- Crunchy Granola Suite, Do It, The Boat That I Row, I Am the Lion.
Ringo -- Early 1970.
Jimmy Buffett -- Chanson Pour Les Petites Enfants.
Joe Walsh -- Rivers of the Hidden Funk.
Iron Butterfly -- Flowers and Beads.
Boston -- Hitch a Ride, Used to Bad News, It's Easy, My Destination.
Outlaws -- I Can't Stop Loving You, Devil's Road.
Hollies -- Slow Down, Romany, Touch, Words Don't Come Easy, Down River, Won't We Feel Good?
Rod Stewart -- Handbags and Gladrags.
Bee Gees -- Spirits (Having Flown).
Cyndi Lauper -- When You Were Mine.
Boz Scaggs -- You've Got Some Imagination.
Linda Ronstadt -- Party Girl, Someone to Lay Down Beside Me.
Steve Winwood -- Night Train, Spanish Dancer, Dust.
Men at Work -- No Sign of Yesterday, Down by the Sea.
Jeff Lynne -- Every Little Thing, Lift Me Up.
The Church -- Reptile.
Stevie Nicks -- Outside the Rain, Think About It.
Badfinger -- Rock of All Ages, The Name of the Game, In the Meantime/Some Other Time, Meanwhile Back at the Ranch/Should I Smoke?
Raspberries -- I Can Remember, Come Around and See Me, Drivin Around, Cruisin' Music, I'm a Rocker.
Rare Earth -- If I Die, The Seed, Someone to Love, Under God's Light.
Dave Edmunds -- Creature from the Black Lagoon.
...That's enuf 4 now, I got blisters on my fingers. More soon....
What follows is a sorta "alternate playlist" 4 mildly-adventurous radio stations. Suggested OTHER things a Classic Rock, Album Rock or Oldies station could play instead of the SAME OLD STUFF OVER&OVER. Something not 2 outrageous that wouldn't necessarily require a Program Director 2 grow a backbone. I mean, how many times can U hear "Band on the Run" B4 developing bubbles in the brain? I mean, really....
If U've bn reading here 4 awhile U probly think U already know this list. & U might. But this 1's a little diffrent. I'll vouch 4 the fact that what follows is Good Stuff. But it's strictly work by Classic Rock/Album Rock/Oldies artists. I based it on stuff I have in the house or know about, but I've mostly left off those off-the-wall prog bands that I love so much.
Also: You're gonna need a bigger fan of Bruce, Zep, U2, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty & some others than I am in order 2 supply U with Great Overlooked Stuff. I mostly can't do it. Sorry bout that. Always open 2 suggestions, tho....
Also, if I've ever heard some great-but-obscure album track played on the radio (& I can still remember it), it ain't here. Sorry Kinks fans, "Shangri-La" ain't on this list cos my current fave oldies station KMCQ played it awhile back.
Fat lot of good this list is gonna do NE1 NEway, but it makes me feel useful. Hopefully it'll B of use 2 SOMEBODY. & 4 Ghod's sake if U're in radio or programming NEwhere, drop me a line, we need 2 Talk.
Enuf of the prelims, on with the show. In no particular order then, some recommended overlooked listening:
Pink Floyd -- Flaming, Astronome Domine (live), One of These Days, One of My Turns, In the Flesh?, The Trial, High Hopes.
Zep -- Carouselambra.
Journey -- Spaceman, Something to Hide, Daydream, People and Places, Escape, Troubled Child.
Beatles -- There's a Place, Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey, The Night Before, I Need You, Anytime at All, And Your Bird Can Sing, Things We Said Today, For No One, It's Only Love, Everybody's Trying to be My Baby, Dear Prudence, Thank You Girl.
Rickie Lee Jones -- On Saturday Afternoons in 1963, We Belong Together, Living it Up.
Supertramp -- Just Another Nervous Wreck, Babajii, From Now On, Crime of the Century, School, Gone Hollywood.
Jefferson Starship -- Freedom at Point Zero, All Nite Long, Fading Lady Light, Save Your Love, Lightning Rose, Just the Same, Things to Come, Awakening.
Jefferson Airplane -- Mexico, Crown of Creation, Good Shepherd.
ELP -- Karn Evil 9 1st Impression Part 1, Hoedown, Fanfare for the Common Man.
Yes -- Every Little Thing, Looking Around, No Opportunity Necessary No Experience Needed, Time and a Word, Sweet Dreams, Survival, America, Wonderous Stories, Turn of the Century.
REO -- Blazing Your Own Trail Again.
Pat Benatar -- Wuthering Heights, Hard to Believe.
Bob Dylan -- One of Us Must Know.
Moody Blues -- Peak Hour, Evening: Time to Get Away, Twilight Tme, The Actor, Simple Game, Lovely to See You, Gypsy, Eyes of a Child Part 2, It's Up to You, Don't You Feel Small?, Our Guessing Game, One More Time to Live, You Can Never Go Home, For My Lady, You and Me, Land of Make-Believe, In My World, Meanwhile, Nervous, Veteran Cosmic Rocker, Blue World, Meet Me Halfway, Running Water, Sorry.
Queen -- Rock It (Prime Jive), It's Late, '39, The Prophet's Song, Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to....), Save Me, The Show Must Go On.
Kansas -- Journey from MariaBronn, Miracles Out of Nowhere, Questions of My Childhood, Cheyenne Anthem, Reason to Be, Back Door.
Kinks -- Apeman, David Watts, Victoria, Celluloid Heroes, Village Green Preservation Society, Dead End Street.
Rush -- The Camera Eye, Distant Early Warning, Manhattan Project, Force Ten, Time Stand Still, Mystic Rhythms (live), Show Don't Tell, Marathon.
U2 -- Twilight, Out of Control, The Electric Co.
Simon and Garfunkel -- For Emily Whenever I May Find Her, The Only Living Boy in New York, Keep the Customer Satisfied, A Simple Desultory Philippic.
Billy Joel -- All for Leyna.
Buffalo Springfield -- Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing, Broken Arrow, On the Way Home.
Byrds -- John Riley.
Turtles -- We'll Meet Again, Lady-O, Grim Reaper of Love, Sound Asleep.
ELO -- The Way Life's Meant to Be, Ma-Ma-Ma-Belle, Across the Border, 10538 Overture (live).
Alan Parsons Project -- Some Other Time, I'd Rather Be a Man, Winding Me Up, You Don't Believe.
Jethro Tull -- One Brown Mouse, The Whistler, Ring Out Solstice Bells, Fire at Midnight, One White Duck/Nothing at All, Baker Street Muse, The Third Hoorah, Back to the Family, Dun Ringill, Dark Ages.
Procol Harum -- Wreck of the Hesperus, A Salty Dog, In the Autumn of My Madness/Look to Your Soul/Grand Finale (live).
Manfred Mann's Earth Band -- Stranded, Heart on the Street, Don't Kill it Carol, Hollywood Town, Belle of the Earth, Angelz at My Gate, Singing the Dolphin Through.
Spirit ("I've Got a Line on You") -- 1984, Prelude/Nothing to Hide, Morning Will Come, Life Has Just Begun, Soldier, Aren't You Glad?
Genesis -- Inside and Out, Vancouver, Madman Moon, Ripples, Firth of Fifth (live), Supper's Ready (live), The Musical Box (live), In the Cage (live), Like it or Not, You Might Recall....
Golden Earring -- Snot Love in Spain, Need Her, Save Your Skin.
Monkees -- Love is Only Sleeping, Tapioca Tundra, Take a Giant Step, Porpoise Song, As We Go Along, Sunny Girlfriend, No Time, Daily Nightly, Your Auntie Grizelda.
Gordon Lightfoot -- Seven Islands Suite, High and Dry, Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Summer Side of Life, Ten Degrees and Getting Colder, Don Quixote.
Grateful Dead -- Passenger, Terrapin.
Steely Dan -- Any Major Dude Will Tell You, Gaucho, Third World Man.
Heart -- Rockin' Heaven Down, Sweet Darlin (live), Soul of the Sea, Love Alive.
Hall and Oates -- Diddy Doo Wop (I Hear the Voices).
Daryl Hall -- Something in 4/4 Time.
Al Stewart -- Rocks in the Ocean, Flying Sorcery, Running Man, Lord Grenville, One Stage Before, Valentina Way, Almost Lucy, Apple Cider Reconstitution, The Dark and Rolling Sea, Modern Times, Roads to Moscow, Terminal Eyes, Nostradamus.
Todd Rundgren/Utopia -- Couldn't I Just Tell You?, Real Man, Saving Grace, Song of the Viking, Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song, You Make Me Crazy, The Very Last Time.
Paul McCartney/Wings -- Medicine Jar, Let Me Roll It, Venus and Mars Reprise, Magneto and Titanium Man, Picasso's Last Words, Mrs. Vandebilt.
Who -- Slip Kid, Blue Red and Gray, Daily Records, Dreaming from the Waist, How Can You Do it Alone?, Another Tricky Day, Little Billy, Dogs, Let's See Action, The Relay, Melancholia.
Bread -- Been Too Long on the Road, Too Much Love, Down on My Knees, Look What You've Done, Truckin', He's a Good Lad.
Fleetwood Mac -- The Green Manalishi, Dissatisfied, Why?, World Turning, Silver Springs, I Know I'm Not Wrong, Brown Eyes, Angel, Big Love (live), Wish You Were Here, Straight Back, Eyes of the World, The Farmer's Daughter, One More Night, Fireflies, I'm So Afraid (live), Tango in the Night, Isn't it Midnight?, Murrow Rolling Over in His Grave.
Dire Straits -- Telegraph Road, Love Over Gold, It Never Rains, Industrial Disease, Romeo and Juliet, Hand in Hand, Expresso Love, Tunnel of Love.
Stories (they did "Brother Louie," 1973) -- Love is in Motion, Please Please, Words, Circles, Darling, What Comes After.
Blue Oyster Cult -- ETI, Morning Final, Debbie Denise, Revenge of Vera Gemini.
Blondie -- Angels on the Balcony, Victor, Union City Blue, Sunday Girl, 11:59, Will Anything Happen?, Just Go Away.
Go-Go's -- Can't Stop the World, Fading Fast, This Town, How Much More, It's Everything but Partytime, The Way You Dance, Worlds Away, You Thought, Forget That Day, Capture the Light, I'm With You, Mercenary.
Bangles -- Hero Takes a Fall, All About You, Dover Beach, Restless, Silent Treatment, He's Got a Secret, Let it Go, September Gurls, Angels Don't Fall in Love, Following, Not Like You, Return Post, Glitter Years, I'll Set You Free, Everything I Wanted.
Pretenders -- Kid, Mystery Achievement, Lovers of Today, Up the Neck, Tattooed Love Boys, Space Invaders, Time the Avenger, 2000 Miles, Hymn to Her, Birds of Paradise, I Go to Sleep, Pack it Up.
Janis Ian ("At Seventeen," 1974) -- When the Party's Over, From Me to You, In the Winter, Watercolors, Love is Blind.
Beach Boys -- There's No Other (Like My Baby), Let Him Run Wild, Please Let Me Wonder, Here Today, I Know There's an Answer, I Just Wasn't Made for These Times, Trombone Dixie, I'd Love Just Once to See You, Mama Says, Gettin' Hungry, Vegetables, Our Prayer, Cabinessence, This Whole World, Add Some Music to Your Day, It's About Time, Long Promised Road, Feel Flows, 'Til I Die, Surf's Up, The Trader, Johnny Carson, Good Time.
Three Dog Night -- My Impersonal Life, Jam, Heavy Church.
Roxy Music -- The Thrill of it All.
Madonna -- Oh Father, Dear Jessie, The Look of Love, Bad Girl.
Pete Townshend -- Now and Then, A Little is Enough, North Country Girl, Jools and Jim, And I Moved, Gonna Get Ya, Somebody Saved Me, Uniforms, Zelda.
Police -- On Any Other Day, Does Everyone Stare?, Omegaman, Secret Journey, Darkness.
Nirvana -- You Know You're Right.
Elton John -- Teacher I Need You, Elderberry Wine, Have Mercy on the Criminal, Gray Seal, Ballad of Danny Bailey, All the Girls Love Alice, Roy Rogers, Harmony, Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock and Roll), Social Disease.
Tears for Fears -- The Working Hour.
Dan Fogelberg -- Tell Me to My Face, As the Raven Flies, Someone's Been Telling You Stories, There's a Place in the World for a Gambler, Phoenix, Along the Road, Wishing on the Moon, Nexus, The Innocent Age, The Reach, Stolen Moments, The Lion's Share.
Poco -- A Good Feeling to Know, Crazy Eyes.
Aerosmith -- Seasons of Wither.
Neil Diamond -- Crunchy Granola Suite, Do It, The Boat That I Row, I Am the Lion.
Ringo -- Early 1970.
Jimmy Buffett -- Chanson Pour Les Petites Enfants.
Joe Walsh -- Rivers of the Hidden Funk.
Iron Butterfly -- Flowers and Beads.
Boston -- Hitch a Ride, Used to Bad News, It's Easy, My Destination.
Outlaws -- I Can't Stop Loving You, Devil's Road.
Hollies -- Slow Down, Romany, Touch, Words Don't Come Easy, Down River, Won't We Feel Good?
Rod Stewart -- Handbags and Gladrags.
Bee Gees -- Spirits (Having Flown).
Cyndi Lauper -- When You Were Mine.
Boz Scaggs -- You've Got Some Imagination.
Linda Ronstadt -- Party Girl, Someone to Lay Down Beside Me.
Steve Winwood -- Night Train, Spanish Dancer, Dust.
Men at Work -- No Sign of Yesterday, Down by the Sea.
Jeff Lynne -- Every Little Thing, Lift Me Up.
The Church -- Reptile.
Stevie Nicks -- Outside the Rain, Think About It.
Badfinger -- Rock of All Ages, The Name of the Game, In the Meantime/Some Other Time, Meanwhile Back at the Ranch/Should I Smoke?
Raspberries -- I Can Remember, Come Around and See Me, Drivin Around, Cruisin' Music, I'm a Rocker.
Rare Earth -- If I Die, The Seed, Someone to Love, Under God's Light.
Dave Edmunds -- Creature from the Black Lagoon.
...That's enuf 4 now, I got blisters on my fingers. More soon....
Friday, July 22, 2011
Wanted: Alternative Playlists....
Couple of my favorite bloggers did a bit recently on radio stations that play the same songs over&over:
My buddy Rastro over at LA HISTORIA speculated that hearing the same songs repeatedly might work as "comfort food" 4 listeners in their 30s, 40s & 50s (and Ghod knows even older) who might already have 2 much on their minds. I think he could B right.
The mindset of my buddy Crabby at CRABBY'S TOP TEN SITE is closer 2 mine & might best B Dscribed as: WHY DO THEY PLAY THE SAME SHIT OVER AND OVER?!
Here's why this discussion has gotten me thinking recently:
I've started playing the radio more & more often at work lately after resisting it 4 YEARS. (I figured I could space-out just fine without any help, so why would I need the radio?) But lately I've found the radio does keep me bouncing around & DEFinitely improves my mood if it's a bad nite or the coffee just ain't workin no more.
& sometimes I turn it up REALLY LOUD.
I bounce around Btween 4 or 5 diffrent FM stations: Seattle's "Star 101.5," current hits + a few oldies dating back in2 the '90s; KZOK 102.5, Seattle's "Classic Rock" station; my fave Oldies station KMCQ; "Cafe" 104.1, which is SORT OF soft-rock; & "The Mountain" 103.5, which is mostly newer stuff + some things I can't identify.
U'd think with those 5 stations pretty close 2gether I wouldn't havta waste much time trying 2 find something good, something motivational, something I hadn't heard lately.
And you'd B wrong.
In the hours I listen, Btween 9 pm & midnight, I spend more time twiddling the knob trying 2 find something ELSE than I do actually LISTENING.
KZOK, tho I love 'em, sounds like they coulda bn programmed in some1's sleep. You can predict their "Classic Rock" playlist. They very seldom play anything suprising.
KMCQ, now that I've gotten used 2 them, seldom get 2 shocking either -- tho they HAVE played Sugar Loaf's "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You" & Gladys Knight & the Pips' version of "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" a coupla times each this week. But they R WAY more likely 2 fall back on "Billy, Don't Be a Hero," "The Night Chicago Died," & "What's New, Pussycat?" I haven't heard them repeat Small Faces' "Lazy Sunday." But they DID play Procol Harum's "Homburg" awhile back....
Cafe 104.1 has a weakness 4 Earth, Wind and Fire's "After the Love Has Gone" (great song, but NOT daily) -- but they also played Kelly Clarkson's "I'm Already Gone," which knocked me over awhile back.
"The Mountain" might play anything from unidentified acoustic folk 2 U2 or Train.
You'd think these stations with their at-least-slightly varied 4mats would give me a fairly wide spectrum of tunes 2 work 2. Maybe. But over the past coupla weeks, here's a few of the songs I've heard MULTIPLE times, without even trying....
Led Zeppelin: Stairway to Heaven, Whole Lotta Love, Fool in the Rain, Rock and Roll, Immigrant Song, Livin' Lovin' Maid (She's Just a Woman).
Derek and the Dominoes: Layla.
Fleetwood Mac: Oh Well (full version). (Wonder if KZOK thinks they're Bing brave & daring by playing this heavy-metal-blues-into-guitar-fantasia piece? It IS a classic, & Peter Green was a real strange guy....)
Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody, Crazy Little Thing Called Love.
David Bowie: Let's Dance, Young Americans. (But "Suffragette City" was nice....)
Deep Purple: Smoke on the Water. (Tho "Hush" & "Kentucky Woman" were both great 2 hear.)
Boston: More Than a Feeling.
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Sweet Home Alabama.
Paul McCartney/Wings: Band on the Run, Maybe I'm Amazed.
Foreigner: Cold as Ice.
Tom Petty: Refugee (what else?).
Pink Floyd: Another Brick in the Wall Part 2, Money.
Bob Dylan: Knocking on Heaven's Door, Positively 4th Street.
Eagles: Take it Easy, Hotel California.
Who: Won't Get Fooed Again, Love Reign O'er Me, The Real Me. (Also heard "The Kids are Alright" & "Call Me Lightning," nice suprises both.)
Rush: Limelight, The Spirit of Radio.
CeeLo: Forget You. (Is this right? It's 2 current 4 me to be sure....)
American Breed: Bend Me Shape Me.
...How'd that last 1 get in there? Anyway, don't get me wrong. It's not that these Rn't great songs ... some of them. It's just: How much is ANYONE going 2 get out of hearing "Smoke on the Water" ONE MORE TIME? Or "Hotel California"? Or "Cold as Ice"? Why's it so hard 2 try something new?
Course radio stations have bills 2 pay 2 -- & these days especially they probly can't afford 2 have 2 many listeners tune-out Bcos they played the "wrong" Elton John song (my pick: "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart" -- uggghhh....)
So maybe what we need isn't new song choices so much as a new format.
The kinda format that would make Crabby & I happier isn't out there right now -- a format that would allow 4 oldies from the '50s 2 the best current stuff. Hits & album trax. Rock & Pop & R&B & Soul & Disco & Jazz & Country & Folk. Could probly throw in some Rap & HipHop 2. Loud & soft, heavy & lite, electric & acoustic.
& would such a format stretch listeners' ears & tastes Byond the breaking point?
& if so, WHY?
Why is it such a problem 2 B suprised, Dlighted with something that comes outta the radio?
How about NO format? Just let some1 who's a music fan pick what goes on the air. I heard they tried this 1nce a few years back at college radio stations -- & we Nded up with a "college rock" 4mat.... & wasn't that "underground" stuff back in the '60s all about on-air DJ's picking their own stuff...?
Look, I love "Stairway to Heaven," really. It still sounds great -- at least everything from Jimmy Page's gtr-fanfare that leads in2 the meltdown solo near the end. The passion still comes across. Same with "Layla." I'll never get tired of that gtr&keyboard closing section.
But NOT BOTH of them 2wice a nite. 3 nites in a row. On 2 diffrent stations.
Zeppelin's got LOTS of other great stuff. & I don't just mean "Kashmir." It would take a bigger Zep fan than me 2 pick out some great overlooked Zep trax (I'll bet Drew over at ODDS AND SODS could come up with a list REAL fast). But I haven't heard "The Rover" in awhile, or "When the Levee Breaks," or "Good Times Bad Times"....
MayB the problem isn't the song choices so much as developing a wider-open 4mat that a radio station wouldn't B scared 2 try. MayB a 4mat that highlights the artists' work-in-depth rather than the same old classic hits.
Imagine some friendly-voiced DJ saying: "Your favorite artists .... Their greatest songs .... Now on KTAD" -- for instance....
...It's either this or I start taking a stack of CDs with me 2 work & scare the shit out of EVERYBODY....
(Sat, 23 July 11, 1:40 am -- Overnite & at work 2nite I thot of a few more songs that've bn overplayed while I've bn listening over the past coupla wks. These were added B4 I read NE comments:
Peter Gabriel: In Your Eyes.
Coldplay: Clocks.
Queen: Somebody to Love.
Madonna: Borderline, Lucky Star, Into the Groove.
Beatles: Here Comes the Sun.
Train: Drops of Jupiter.
Police: Walking on the Moon.
Bruce: Born to Run.
Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds: Don't Pull Your Love (!).
Sade: Smooth Operator.
Simon and Garfunkel: The Boxer.
...Again, it's not that some of these aren't great songs, it's just ... well, why's everything so OBVIOUS? What's wrong with Bing suprised 1nce in awhile...?)
COMING NEXT: An "alternate playlist" of great trax by classic rockers, based on stuff I've got around the house. But not the same old stuff....
My buddy Rastro over at LA HISTORIA speculated that hearing the same songs repeatedly might work as "comfort food" 4 listeners in their 30s, 40s & 50s (and Ghod knows even older) who might already have 2 much on their minds. I think he could B right.
The mindset of my buddy Crabby at CRABBY'S TOP TEN SITE is closer 2 mine & might best B Dscribed as: WHY DO THEY PLAY THE SAME SHIT OVER AND OVER?!
Here's why this discussion has gotten me thinking recently:
I've started playing the radio more & more often at work lately after resisting it 4 YEARS. (I figured I could space-out just fine without any help, so why would I need the radio?) But lately I've found the radio does keep me bouncing around & DEFinitely improves my mood if it's a bad nite or the coffee just ain't workin no more.
& sometimes I turn it up REALLY LOUD.
I bounce around Btween 4 or 5 diffrent FM stations: Seattle's "Star 101.5," current hits + a few oldies dating back in2 the '90s; KZOK 102.5, Seattle's "Classic Rock" station; my fave Oldies station KMCQ; "Cafe" 104.1, which is SORT OF soft-rock; & "The Mountain" 103.5, which is mostly newer stuff + some things I can't identify.
U'd think with those 5 stations pretty close 2gether I wouldn't havta waste much time trying 2 find something good, something motivational, something I hadn't heard lately.
And you'd B wrong.
In the hours I listen, Btween 9 pm & midnight, I spend more time twiddling the knob trying 2 find something ELSE than I do actually LISTENING.
KZOK, tho I love 'em, sounds like they coulda bn programmed in some1's sleep. You can predict their "Classic Rock" playlist. They very seldom play anything suprising.
KMCQ, now that I've gotten used 2 them, seldom get 2 shocking either -- tho they HAVE played Sugar Loaf's "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You" & Gladys Knight & the Pips' version of "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" a coupla times each this week. But they R WAY more likely 2 fall back on "Billy, Don't Be a Hero," "The Night Chicago Died," & "What's New, Pussycat?" I haven't heard them repeat Small Faces' "Lazy Sunday." But they DID play Procol Harum's "Homburg" awhile back....
Cafe 104.1 has a weakness 4 Earth, Wind and Fire's "After the Love Has Gone" (great song, but NOT daily) -- but they also played Kelly Clarkson's "I'm Already Gone," which knocked me over awhile back.
"The Mountain" might play anything from unidentified acoustic folk 2 U2 or Train.
You'd think these stations with their at-least-slightly varied 4mats would give me a fairly wide spectrum of tunes 2 work 2. Maybe. But over the past coupla weeks, here's a few of the songs I've heard MULTIPLE times, without even trying....
Led Zeppelin: Stairway to Heaven, Whole Lotta Love, Fool in the Rain, Rock and Roll, Immigrant Song, Livin' Lovin' Maid (She's Just a Woman).
Derek and the Dominoes: Layla.
Fleetwood Mac: Oh Well (full version). (Wonder if KZOK thinks they're Bing brave & daring by playing this heavy-metal-blues-into-guitar-fantasia piece? It IS a classic, & Peter Green was a real strange guy....)
Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody, Crazy Little Thing Called Love.
David Bowie: Let's Dance, Young Americans. (But "Suffragette City" was nice....)
Deep Purple: Smoke on the Water. (Tho "Hush" & "Kentucky Woman" were both great 2 hear.)
Boston: More Than a Feeling.
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Sweet Home Alabama.
Paul McCartney/Wings: Band on the Run, Maybe I'm Amazed.
Foreigner: Cold as Ice.
Tom Petty: Refugee (what else?).
Pink Floyd: Another Brick in the Wall Part 2, Money.
Bob Dylan: Knocking on Heaven's Door, Positively 4th Street.
Eagles: Take it Easy, Hotel California.
Who: Won't Get Fooed Again, Love Reign O'er Me, The Real Me. (Also heard "The Kids are Alright" & "Call Me Lightning," nice suprises both.)
Rush: Limelight, The Spirit of Radio.
CeeLo: Forget You. (Is this right? It's 2 current 4 me to be sure....)
American Breed: Bend Me Shape Me.
...How'd that last 1 get in there? Anyway, don't get me wrong. It's not that these Rn't great songs ... some of them. It's just: How much is ANYONE going 2 get out of hearing "Smoke on the Water" ONE MORE TIME? Or "Hotel California"? Or "Cold as Ice"? Why's it so hard 2 try something new?
Course radio stations have bills 2 pay 2 -- & these days especially they probly can't afford 2 have 2 many listeners tune-out Bcos they played the "wrong" Elton John song (my pick: "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart" -- uggghhh....)
So maybe what we need isn't new song choices so much as a new format.
The kinda format that would make Crabby & I happier isn't out there right now -- a format that would allow 4 oldies from the '50s 2 the best current stuff. Hits & album trax. Rock & Pop & R&B & Soul & Disco & Jazz & Country & Folk. Could probly throw in some Rap & HipHop 2. Loud & soft, heavy & lite, electric & acoustic.
& would such a format stretch listeners' ears & tastes Byond the breaking point?
& if so, WHY?
Why is it such a problem 2 B suprised, Dlighted with something that comes outta the radio?
How about NO format? Just let some1 who's a music fan pick what goes on the air. I heard they tried this 1nce a few years back at college radio stations -- & we Nded up with a "college rock" 4mat.... & wasn't that "underground" stuff back in the '60s all about on-air DJ's picking their own stuff...?
Look, I love "Stairway to Heaven," really. It still sounds great -- at least everything from Jimmy Page's gtr-fanfare that leads in2 the meltdown solo near the end. The passion still comes across. Same with "Layla." I'll never get tired of that gtr&keyboard closing section.
But NOT BOTH of them 2wice a nite. 3 nites in a row. On 2 diffrent stations.
Zeppelin's got LOTS of other great stuff. & I don't just mean "Kashmir." It would take a bigger Zep fan than me 2 pick out some great overlooked Zep trax (I'll bet Drew over at ODDS AND SODS could come up with a list REAL fast). But I haven't heard "The Rover" in awhile, or "When the Levee Breaks," or "Good Times Bad Times"....
MayB the problem isn't the song choices so much as developing a wider-open 4mat that a radio station wouldn't B scared 2 try. MayB a 4mat that highlights the artists' work-in-depth rather than the same old classic hits.
Imagine some friendly-voiced DJ saying: "Your favorite artists .... Their greatest songs .... Now on KTAD" -- for instance....
...It's either this or I start taking a stack of CDs with me 2 work & scare the shit out of EVERYBODY....
(Sat, 23 July 11, 1:40 am -- Overnite & at work 2nite I thot of a few more songs that've bn overplayed while I've bn listening over the past coupla wks. These were added B4 I read NE comments:
Peter Gabriel: In Your Eyes.
Coldplay: Clocks.
Queen: Somebody to Love.
Madonna: Borderline, Lucky Star, Into the Groove.
Beatles: Here Comes the Sun.
Train: Drops of Jupiter.
Police: Walking on the Moon.
Bruce: Born to Run.
Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds: Don't Pull Your Love (!).
Sade: Smooth Operator.
Simon and Garfunkel: The Boxer.
...Again, it's not that some of these aren't great songs, it's just ... well, why's everything so OBVIOUS? What's wrong with Bing suprised 1nce in awhile...?)
COMING NEXT: An "alternate playlist" of great trax by classic rockers, based on stuff I've got around the house. But not the same old stuff....
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