Pete Townshend Refuses No River (19 May 2013 05:41pm)

On this day back in 1870, one of the best arguments against the divine commands argument of morality, serial killer Albert Fish was born. Shockingly, Malcolm X and Pol Pot were born on the same day back in 1925. Pol Pot, being one of the great evil men of the 20th century, managed to live 33 years l...

I Kind of Like Donovan (10 May 2013 08:56am)

On this day back in 1838, problem brother and assassin John Wilkes Booth was born. Movie composer Max Steiner was born in 1888. Fred Astaire was born in 1899. Film producer David O. Selznick was born in 1902. Electronic composer Milton Babbitt was born in 1916. Nancy Walker was born in 1922. And Sid...

Down at the Crossroad with Robert Johnson (08 May 2013 06:42pm)

On this day back in 1884, the only person to ever drop a nuclear bomb on a group of humans, Harry S. Truman was born. He did it twice, because that was all the bombs he had at the time. Anti-communist who conservatives still worship even though there aren't any more communists, Friedrich Hayek was b...

Transubstantiation of Elvis (07 May 2013 12:51pm)

In 1992, I went to Hong Kong for the first time. I was sitting in the back of a little Irish pub. And I was pretty drunk. And in walks a Chinese Elvis impersonator in a white jumpsuit studded to the ridiculous extreme that we are all accustom to. Holding an acoustic guitar, he performs "Hound Dog," ...

Getting Soft with Bartolomeo Cristofori (04 May 2013 11:37am)

On this day back in 1852, the model for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice Liddell was born. And Audrey Hepburn was born in 1929. Criminal or glorious leader (I tend to think the two are the same), Hosni Mubarak is 85 today. Jazz bassist Ron Carter and surf guitarist Dick Dale are both 76. Cli...

It's a James Brown World (03 May 2013 05:55pm)

On this day in 1469, the great Niccolo Machiavelli was born. The Hundred and One Dalmatians author Dodie Smith was born in 1896. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir was born in 1898. Bing Crosby, who for some reason I just hate, was born in 1903. Femme fatale from The Maltese Falcon, Mary Astor was bo...

Bewitched by Lorenz Hart (02 May 2013 09:03pm)

Catherine the Great was born on this day in 1729. Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper was born in 1885. Benjamin Spock was born in 1903. And the great Indian director Satyajit Ray was born in 1921. David Suchet is 67 today. And Elizabeth Berridge is 51. But by a nose, the day belongs to the great lyrici...

Duke Ellington's Got That Swing (29 Apr 2013 04:31pm)

The Indian painter Raja Ravi Varma was born in 1848 on this day. The great French mathematician Henri Poincare was born in 1854. Publisher William Randolph Hearst was born in 1863. The Dutch artist and print maker Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman was born in 1882. Japanese Emperor Hirohito was born in 1901....

Matt Yglesias Is Confused About Songwriting (11 Apr 2013 05:28pm)

Matt Yglesias is upset that Taylor Swift's new Diet Coke commercial perpetuates unfortunate stereotypes about songwriting. He doesn't like that the video shows Swift scribbling lyrics in a notebook. According to Yglesias, that's just not the way it's done in the modern world. He claims that songwrit...

In Which the Birthdays Suck (09 Apr 2013 10:07am)

This is by far the worst day for birthday since I started this. But let's get it over with. Carl Perkins was born on this day back in 1932. Hugh Hefner, who I think is a distinctly creepy guy, is 87. Objectivist psychologist and Ayn Rand lover (as in sex, not necessarily devotion) Nathaniel Branden...

Adieu Jacques Je T'aimais Bien Tu Sais (08 Apr 2013 10:25am)

Mary Pickford was born in 1892 on this day. According to Wikipedia, she was an alcoholic. But if she was, how did she live to be 87? Really. The definition of alcoholic has really gotten out of hand when it is applied to Pickford. The great economist John Hicks was born in 1904. And another alleged ...

Lady's Day (07 Apr 2013 10:21am)

On this day in 1770, William Wordsworth was born. (I named one of my puppets after him—surely there is no greater honor.) The visionary philosopher Charles Fourier was born in 1772. The great sitar player Ravi Shankar was born in 1920 and only died last year. Alan J. Pakula, director of the ex...

Mojo Still Working (04 Apr 2013 10:23am)

The great French director Eric Rohmer was born on this day back in 1920. And Anthony Perkins was born back 1932. Overrated, but reasonably good writer Maya Angelou is 85. Record producer Clive Davis is 81. Hugo Weaving is 53. And David Cross and Robert Downey Jr are 49. But the day belongs to McKi...

Good God Y'All (03 Apr 2013 07:28pm)

This song has been going through my head for days. It is a great one at least: Edwin Starr's "War": What a great live version: totally kick ass band. And Starr sounds great— regrettably just a couple of years before he died. ...

What's Going On This Day in 1939? (02 Apr 2013 09:57am)

Charlemagne was born on this day back in 742. Certainly, I could have named him the winner of today's birthday contest, but there is no good video of him. Buddy Ebsen was born in 1908. He only died back in 2003 at 95—outliving Irene Ryan by 25 years! The great actor Alec Guinness was born in 1...

An Apple, a Piano, and Chico (22 Mar 2013 08:29am)

The great actor Karl Malden was born on this day back in 1912. And he only died back in 2009 at the age of 96. I will always remember his performance of Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire. He is the only character in that film that I really understand; I feel like I've been in that situation countles...

Johann, Son, Rush, and Slovoj (21 Mar 2013 12:32pm)

It is quite a day for birthdays! I'm really going to have to limit today's article to those who are really worthy. The great mathematician and physicist Joseph Fourier was born on this day back in 1768. Theater producer Florenz Ziegfeld of Ziegfeld Follies fame was born in 1867. The great blues man...

Mississippi John Hurt (08 Mar 2013 12:13pm)

Other than today being the birthday of The Skipper, the only person who really called out to me was Mississippi John Hurt, the great blues and folk musician. He had a great story. He was a performer in his youth in the late 1920s. With the Great Depression he stopped doing music and became a sharecr...

Ravel and Bozzetto (07 Mar 2013 02:56pm)

A couple of actresses I like are having birthdays today: Wanda Sykes is 49 and Rachel Weisz is 43. The great Arthur Lee of the band Love was born today but sadly died back in 2006. I saw him that the Filmore not long before that. The great hero of my home town, Santa Rosa, was born on this day back...

Happy Birthday Vivaldi (04 Mar 2013 07:39pm)

Sorry for being gone all day, but I had to do some paying work and since then, I have been feeling rather ill. In fact, I still do. But I thought I would do a quick birthday post. On this day in 1678, Antonio Vivaldi was born. I have always loved his work. This started when I was rather young and pl...

Happy Birthday Lou (02 Mar 2013 09:52am)

It is March 2 and some interesting people were born on this day. The wonderful Alvin Youngblood Hart is 50 today. John Irving is 71 today. The genuinely great Mikhail Gorbachev is 82. John Cullum, the fine musical theater actor, is 83. Theodor Seuss Geisel—Dr. Seuss—would have been 109 t...

Justin Bieber's 12th Birthday (01 Mar 2013 08:49am)

Justin Bieber turns 12 today. It is the eighth time he has turned 12. He's like Peter Pan: he can't grow up. I don't know why Peter Pan couldn't grow up. In Justin Bieber's case, it would ruin his brand. I am quite serious when I say that Bieber's entire brand is being a cute little boy. This is al...

Fats Domino at 85 (26 Feb 2013 10:38pm)

This one never grows old: Happy 85th birthday! ...

Operator by Jim's Son (22 Feb 2013 10:24pm)

In late 1972, the second single from Jim Croce's first album You Don't Mess Around with Jim was released. It was "Operator" with "Rapid Roy" as the B side. I have a certain fondness for "Rapid Roy" because my father raced stock cars when he was young. But in my experience, everyone likes "Operator."...

Cat Scratch Fever (18 Feb 2013 10:10am)

I don't think you appreciated me enough. You see, I suffer to bring you stories here and man did I suffer last night! I listened to the entirety of Ted Nugent's Cat Scratch Fever. Of course, the only reason I listened to it is because Nugent is such a nut. But I kept an open mind, because I don't ex...

Sylvia's Mother (10 Feb 2013 08:04pm)

Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show is best known for the song The Cover of the Rolling Stone, a humorous Shel Silverstein song about the excesses of rock stars. "We sing about beauty and we sing about truth... at ten thousand dollars a show." But Dr. Hook's first hit was almost as popular, and also a ...

Conformity on American Idol (01 Feb 2013 08:31am)

I came down to visit my sister and help her with her taxes. As a result, she tortured me by making me watch American Idol. There was an interesting woman auditioning for the show last night. She wasn't much of a singer. In fact, I couldn't catch the melody of the song that she was singing. In her de...

Krugman Challenge (26 Jan 2013 09:15am)

Paul Krugman claims, "If [the following video] doesn't make you smile, something is wrong with you." Dare you take the Krugman Challenge? Click below the fold for my reaction. ...

My Favorite Ice Cream (06 Jan 2013 12:53pm)

I was at the Supermarket yesterday, and a song came on. It was pretty typical pop—offensive only in its design to be utterly inoffensive. The singer was a typical American Idol style screecher. But the first lyrics struck me, "I want someone to know my favorite ice cream." That is basically th...

Victor Borge Plays "Birthday" (04 Jan 2013 08:38pm)

I found this via Mustang Bobby's Bark Bark Woof Woof blog, A Little Night Music. It is an early TV performance of Victor Borge doing the birthday song in various styles. It is both funny and brilliant. Watching people like Borge always makes me think of vaudeville and how it helped to develop acts....

The Tennessee Waltz (02 Jan 2013 10:17pm)

I've never been a big Patti Page fan. But I admit, she does a good job with The Tennessee Waltz. The truth is that it's an odd melody that most people mangle. I much prefer this very unfaithful version by Otis Redding: Or if I had to pick a more traditional version, I've always been partial to D...

Ray Collins (27 Dec 2012 09:04pm)

Ray Collins of the two really great Mothers of Invention albums died on 24 December 2012 at Pomona Valley Hospital in Claremont, California. He left the band because of its increasing commitment to comedy over music. Zappa did have that problem. Unfortunately, the comedy wasn't that good. And certai...

Positively Christmas (25 Dec 2012 02:00pm)

As we celebrate Christmas, the family has been listening to a local station playing holiday oriented songs. And then on came Bob Dylan doing one of the Christmas classics, Positively 4th Street. You can't get enough bitterness and anger during the holidays. Merry fucking Christmas! ...

A Decade Without Joe Strummer (22 Dec 2012 09:30am)

Ten years ago today, Joe Strummer died suddenly of a congenital heart defect. He was only 50. I always wonder about people who believe in a loving God. If God loves me, why did he take all the music that Strummer would have made for me but left all the bad law that Clarence Thomas has and will conti...

Sonny Curtis (21 Dec 2012 07:10pm)

Getting ready for tomorrow, I was reminded of the great Sonny Curtis. Here he is doing a version of his song I Fought the Law, which kind of sums up my life: an iconoclast who lost. He also wrote and sang the theme song to The Mary Tyler Moore Show and wrote Leo Sayer's hit More Than I Can Say....

Langue d'Amour (19 Dec 2012 07:08pm)

Strangely, this is one of my favorite songs. Maybe it's because I kind of like women and don't like men. That is to say: I don't really like anyone. This is especially true right now when I'm sick and can barely breathe. It is great storytelling. It is the language of love. ...

35 Years, 6 Months, 5 Days Ago (05 Dec 2012 08:11pm)

It's sad whenever someone who is not actively evil dies. So I'm sad that Dave Brubeck died. But here's the thing... He wasn't great. Don't get me wrong: he had his moments. He was a very capable jazz pianist. But Bill Evans he wasn't. But here's another thing... If I could be Bill Evans or Dave Br...

Dead Milkmen with Special Guest Mojo Nixon (01 Dec 2012 11:25pm)

In personal correspondence, I was reminded how much I like Dead Milkmen. They are what I've always thought punk was at its core: fun. All the great punk bands have much more enthusiasm than talent, and that is entirely true of them. In fact, they hearken back to early Ramones. Anyway, here are Dead ...

Old Leftists Are Sexy (29 Nov 2012 11:26pm)

Jean-Luc Mélenchon rocks. From campaigns past, but the song is great: ...

Welcome Back McCotter (21 Nov 2012 11:35am)

Now that McCotter has left Congress, I'm not sure what he is going to do. Unfortunately, he was replaced by someone as bad or perhaps worse than he is. But perhaps it is a boon to the music industry. "Conservative Rock" could certainly use the help. A year and a half ago, I wrote that Thaddeus McCo...

Linda Linda (28 Oct 2012 09:27pm)

I came upon the song Linda Linda thanks to Atrios. It is featured in the 2005 Japanese film Linda Linda Linda, where it is played by the fictional band the film is about. Here is The Blue Hearts doing the song originally: This is rock music at its best. Any band that makes you think of Wild Thing ...

Stick This! (26 Oct 2012 02:05pm)

When I was in grad school, I lived with this crazy English brother and sister Straford and Andrea Wild. (This is a different person from American Andrea English who writes Curiously Clever.) Now they are respectable with jobs and spouses, but as I recall, their last name was a good description of th...

The Legitimate Rape Song (24 Oct 2012 09:39pm)

This is an ode to Todd Akin called, Sex Education in Missouri. It is posted via a YouTube Account LiberalRhythms. Otherwise, I don't know anything about it except that it came via Digby. It's a good song. What I'm most taken with is how it sets the stage so that people who aren't up on the news (Alt...

Ode to Paul Ryan's Abs (11 Oct 2012 03:55pm)

Thanks to Black Flag: ...

10 R&B Songs From My Childhood (08 Oct 2012 09:11pm)

I'm going out of town on business for a few days. I don't know how much blogging I will be doing. Maybe a lot. We'll see. Regardless, I created this set of ten R&B songs from my childhood. When all the polls are going against you, you can always turn to this: Update (8 October 2012 9:39 pm) When ...

Dreaming of a White President (21 Sep 2012 02:44pm)

I think that Randy Newman has been lacking artistically the last many years, but he's released a new song that I really like. It has an obvious connection to Sail Away. This one is called I'm Dreaming. The whole line is, "I'm dreaming of a white President." And an AIF version of the file is availabl...

KCRW's Greatest Hits (13 Sep 2012 12:55pm)

When I was down in Los Angeles last week, my brother-in-law introduced me to KCRW, which has an all-music channel Eclectic 24. It is rather good. They play a lot of music that I don't find that compelling, but they played very little that I was familiar with, and that's always a good thing. One so...

Sixto Diaz Rodriguez (16 Aug 2012 11:50am)

Ladies and gentlemen, the Latio Bob Dylan rock god of South Africa: Here is "Rich Folks Hoax": And "Sugar Man": ...

You Do That Voodoo... (03 Aug 2012 12:19pm)

Rather than something normal like "See you later," I am prone to quoting Cole Porter at the end of conversations. And not just any Cole Porter. "You do that voodoo that you do so well." In my head, it is always said with a German accent, because I mostly know it because of the version by you know ...

Roger Miller (22 Jul 2012 12:04am)

With the right combination of artistic brilliance and full tilt self destructiveness, Roger Miller is a hero to me. A long time amphetamine addict, it was the legal and encouraged drug of smoking nicotine that killed him. At his worst, Miller was a country hack; at his best, he was smart and tuneful...

Is Bobby Goldsboro Cool? (08 Jul 2012 07:11pm)

Let me come right and say it: if it weren't for the hair, Bobby Goldsboro would be cool—or at least a whole lot more cool than most people think he is. Let's look at the facts. He got his start in music as guitarist and band leader for Roy Orbison. That's very cool. And much of his work is sol...

Pathetic Rock Journalism at Rolling Stone (03 Jul 2012 09:58pm)

Just a quick note. I was looking at The Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Such exercises are silly, of course. For one thing: of all time? There is not a single classical guitarist on the list. There is no guitarist on the list from before 1930. But okay, I'll play along. Certain th...

Joplin Kills Summertime Every Time (01 Jul 2012 12:02am)

Atrios just put up this video of Janis Joplin with the Kozmic Blues Band performing live in Stockholm. What's important is that she killed with this song whenever she did it: The first time I ever heard this song was her singing with Big Brother and the Holding Company on their Cheap Thrills album...

Out Pandoa's Box: Madeleine Peyroux (23 Jun 2012 01:19pm)

I was listening to my Jacques Brel channel on Pandora. I am used to a lot of (too much) Django Reinhardt and Edith Piaf. But suddenly, I was hearing Billie Holiday. Billie Holiday?! I switched over to my Pandora tab and immediately, I was face to face with... an ad for Santa Rosa singles between the...

Bad Dreams/Sweet Romance (10 Jun 2012 06:57pm)

Has pop music advanced in the last three decades? Let's look at the evidence. Here from just three years ago, is a song that, given what it is, is quite good: And here is pretty much an identical song from 26 years earlier: This occurred to me today when a motorcycle drove past me blasting what ...

Love Conquers Poses (03 Jun 2012 12:59pm)

I used to have a friend—a smart and funny guy. He is kind of an archetype to me, however. Because of his emotional unavailability, people really wanted to be around him. It was often commented that wherever he was around, you could tell he was calculated whether he might be having a better tim...

KISS Doesn't Want to Hire a Vet (02 Jun 2012 05:42pm)

I don't know where exactly I saw it, but there was a headline that read, "KISS Wants to Hire Vet."[1] My reaction was immediate. I thought, "Interesting. The most clownish band has decided to become even more ridiculous by having animals in their stage show." I couldn't have been more wrong. KISS j...

Famous Blue Raincoat (22 May 2012 09:49pm)

In a conversation, Leonard Cohen came up—in particular, his song Famous Blue Raincoat. It is my kind of song. It is written as a letter to a brother. It recounts the story of the brother cheating with the writer's wife: "So you treated my woman to a flake of your life / And when she got home s...

The Agony and Ecstasy of Mathilde (17 May 2012 12:46am)

Scott Walker is a fine musician, with interesting ideas and a great voice. And yet, when I listen to this great Jacques Brel song, I can't help but think of it as I do Pat Boone performing Blueberry Hill: As opposed to Fats Domino. Here is Jacques Brel, debuting the original song, Mathilde: Can...

Jean-Pierre Rampal Plays Francis Poulenc (15 May 2012 06:59pm)

This is arguably the greatest piece ever written for the flute. It is Francis Poulenc's Sonata for Flute and Piano. Here it is played by Jean-Pierre Rampal, the flutist the Sonata was composed for: And here is the master getting funky with composer Claude Bolling (also on piano[1]): [1] When f...

Jean Ferrandis Slums in Santa Rosa (13 May 2012 12:07am)

I am very poor. It has been many years since I have been to any live concert, much less a symphony. But I received a card in the mail alerting me to an upcoming performance by the Santa Rosa Symphony. The conductor, Bruno Ferrandis, had brought his brother, flutist Jean Ferrandis, in for the season ...

Cage Does Cage! (10 Apr 2012 10:26pm)

When I was a music major, before I learned that I was no musician, I loved John Cage's work for prepared piano. This will give you a pretty good idea of this kind of music: John Cage is best known for a piece of music titled 4'33". It consists of one or more performers sitting down at or with thei...

Conservative Rock?! (25 Mar 2012 12:15pm)

Back in 2006, National Review published Rockin' the Right, a list of the 50 greatest conservative rock songs ever, by John J. Miller (hereafter National Review or "they"). Like Christian Rock, Conservative Rock strikes me as an oxymoron. And even National Review agrees with me, starting the article,...

Speaking of French (24 Mar 2012 11:40am)

Here is a great American band who pretend to be French, Les Sans Culottes ("The Pantless"): You might also check out their hit: Allô Allô. Or buy their latest album: 'Pataphysical Graffiti. ...

It's Hard to Die in French (24 Mar 2012 11:23am)

There are few songs in the world as insipid as Terry Jacks' Seasons in the Sun. If you doubt me, consider this statistics: it is one of the top 30 best selling singles in the history of the world. Apart from this, however, there is something about this romantic notion of death that ruffles me—...

Moe's Waiting for THE Man (10 Mar 2012 07:48pm)

There was one really important band in the 1960s: The Velvet Underground. Sure, there were other great bands like The Beatles at times and The Mothers of Invention for the first three albums. And there are lots of other bands of that period that I still enjoy. Today, I would rather listen to Creeden...

Late Night Interlude: Who Does This Remind You Of? (25 Feb 2012 01:31am)

This is Laura Cantrell. She's great. But the question is: who does she remind you of? It's taken me a while to realize that her voice is identical to Suzanne Vega. Of course, she's a country singer, but the kind we liberals like—people who remind us of Nanci Griffith. Here first album, Not th...

Girl Fight! (23 Feb 2012 07:49pm)

A friend told me that she was going to punish her girls for fighting by having them write a song about sisterhood. Yes, she is a cruel woman. This caused me to do a Google video search on the phrase "sisterhood song." It turned up this. (Don't click on it!) I wasn't ten seconds into it before I had ...

Tuba Tuba Tuba (16 Feb 2012 08:50pm)

Most people think of the tuba as a slow, ponderous instrument. In fact, in the right hands (And lips!) it is as light and facile as any instrument in the orchestra. But don't encourage your child to play the instrument. Student model instruments cost about $7000, whereas you could pick up a flute fo...

The Man from San Sebastian (27 Jan 2012 10:09pm)

Like most people, I discovered DeVotchKa (apparently Russian for "girl") in the delightful film Little Miss Sunshine. And I've heard a bit of their music since then and generally liked it all. Just today, I came upon a song from their most recent album 100 Lovers called The Man from San Sebastian. I...

Al Green Not Demented, Just Asshole (21 Jan 2012 07:51pm)

Ten years ago, I went to see Al Green in San Jose. It was a very annoying concert. Green finished less than half of his songs. He would start on something, go for a few bars, and then stop the band and say, "I don't want to do that one." It happened so often, that I decided that he had some form of ...

The Meaning of Marlene on the Wall (15 Dec 2011 09:13pm)

Suzanne Vega's Marlene on the Wall was one of the great pop songs of my youth, but its meaning was always murky to me. Over the weekend, I happened to hear the song again. For the first time, its meaning became clear. It is well known that the Marlene that is on the wall in this song is a picture (...

Personal Management (30 Nov 2011 12:47pm)

I just watched D.A. Pennebaker's documentary about Bob Dylan's 1965 tour in the United Kingdom, Don't Look Back. This was the second time I've seen it; the first time was about 30 years ago. What struck me most both times was the conversation between Dylan and the "science student." During this con...

A Musical Confession (21 Nov 2011 06:07pm)

Most people I talk to tell me that they like all styles of music. Sometimes they will admit to a particular style they dislike, especially Country or Heavy Metal. Such statements have always amused me, because I know these people are fooling themselves—not that I shatter their illusions. My ex...

Justin Bieber and the End of Western Culture (12 Oct 2011 02:59pm)

As I noted previously, Justin Bieber's Baby ft. Ludacris is the most watched video on YouTube with over 630 million views—200 million views more than the next most watched video, Lady Gaga's Bad Romance, which I will come back to shortly. The thing is, I really had no idea who Justin Bieber ...

What is a Truel Heart? (02 Oct 2011 05:10pm)

Earlier today, I was listening to Elvis Presley's The Top Ten Hits. This collection included his number one hit, "Don't Be Cruel," of course. I have never been able to sing the refrain of this song anyway but, "Don't be cruel to a heart that truel." This is not just a matter of my usual silliness. T...

Kiss Me (30 Jul 2011 05:57pm)

Sixpence None the Richer had a huge hit in the late 90s called Kiss Me. And why not? It is a sweet song, well executed. But I have a hard time believing that the success of the song was not, at least in part, due to the wonderfully romantic video (no doubt indicative of the whole marketing campaign ...

Master Class with William Bennett (27 May 2011 12:07pm)

Roughly three decades ago, I went to a master class with the British flutist William Bennett—at the College of Marin, I think. The class consisted of four flute performers (three of them were professionals, just not of Bennett's caliber, and one was a college student, my age and slightly bette...

Two Songs and Counting (27 Apr 2011 01:17pm)

A very creative young man named Jonathan Mann started a project of writing a song every day for a year. This was some time ago now, and I don't think he has stopped. (You'll have to look him up—I'm not that interested in his work.) He goes by the name Rock Cookie Bottom (he has a song about t...

Box Office Poison at Mary's Pizza Shack (19 Apr 2011 03:34pm)

Yesterday while ingesting about a week's worth of calories in pizza, beer, and brandy, I over-heard my waiter mention that he had a band. Given that he looked something of thirty years old, I figured his band might actually be interesting. (Yes, I am an ageist; other than chess players and Olympic g...

Pow Wow Theater (15 Apr 2010 03:21pm)

Wayne Poehlman is a singer/guitarist that I recently discovered on You Tube. To me, he’s the kind of performer who you listen to when you tire of the glitz and the posing and the pitch-correction of what is today called music. Of course, this goes along with my recent submersion into music of the pa...

Leak (02 Apr 2010 09:24pm)

I have so much to do, especially finish my article and interview with Pow Wow (Wayne Poehlman), but I just ran into an old friend Yana Bogosian who I wrote a song with about eleven years ago. Actually, we didn't write it together. She had written a little nursery rhyme about a pipe that was leaking ...

John Stewart and Jules Shear (15 Feb 2010 10:40pm)

Many years ago, while I was in the process of flunking out of college, John Stewart gave a lecture about nothing in particular and everything in general: his life, songwriting, cars, women, performing. This was only a few years after his hit song Gold, so it was surprising that not many more than a ...

Pandora's Box (03 Feb 2010 10:16pm)

Okay, let's get this out of the way. My first experience with Internet radio was with Last.fm. And I know there are many others: Deezer.com, Mee Mix, Musicovery, Play It, Slacker, as well as many other similar kinds of services. I really liked the way that Last.fm worked, but it stopped working for ...

Elvie Thomas (31 Jan 2010 01:33pm)

Am I the only person who has noticed just how much Wikipedia sucks? (See: I won't even provide a link.) Wikipedia has no listing on Elvie Thomas and when mentioned on Geeshie Wiley's page it refers to Thomas as a man! Yes, for things that don't much matter, like Sirius Black's family background, Wik...

One Song, Two Song, Song Sung Blue Song (20 Jan 2010 01:17pm)

I have read a couple of sources that indicated that Thompson's Real has two extra songs, not one. However, from what I can tell, the original album contained 13 songs and the reissue contains 14 songs. I'm good at math: 14 - 13 = 1. It could be that I am wrong about the original album containing 13 ...

Skinny Leg Blues (20 Jan 2010 01:03pm)

My take on Skinny Leg Blues is that it is a revenge story. The singer has been raped by the man she is singing to and now she is coming to kill him. All the stuff about skinny legs and slowness put forward the idea that her revenge is inevitable: I am coming for you. The second verse lines "I've got...

Music Worth Listening To: Eric & Suzy Thompson (20 Jan 2010 12:35pm)

After Cher's 1998 hit Believe, I honestly thought I would never again have to hear digital pitch-correction used as an effect. The first time I heard it, I hated it. Every digital engineer had played around with it, but it wasn't something you allowed in public except maybe to scare kids on Hallowee...

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love (12 Dec 2009 11:00pm)

Some time ago, I stumbled upon Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love." It delighted me—it is so beautifully written. Instinctively, I picked up my guitar and quickly set it to music. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, you really need to read this poem: Come live with...

She Said "No" (10 Dec 2009 06:48pm)

What is with these "You're a loser but I love ya, babe" songs? The classic is Midnight Train to Georgia, but I'll let that one slide because it is totally kick-ass. What I have in mind is Please Come to Boston. Here is the last verse: Please come to L.A. to live forever The California life alone is...

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