Author Archives: peter

Steve Miller Entered the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, and vomitted.

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I read a lot of news about Steve Miller and the Black Keys and the Hall of Fame induction that happened in my home town this past week. Yawn.

But looking at it a bit more closely there are two important streams of thought:

The Black Keys were pissed that Steve Miller didn’t really care who they were.

And Steve Miller pretty directly explained why the RnR HoF process is even stupider than those of us who only pay partial attention think it is.

So, Miller is an asshole for dissing the Black Keys and a hero for taking on the Rock ‘n’ Roll HOF foundation? I’m not sure how to do the math, but I personally give him a lot more credit for railing against the machine than I do the Black Keys dissing an artist.

Plus Joker (for Maurice):

Today is National Lineman Appreciation Day!

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I posted about Jimmy Webb’s song Wichita Lineman, or rather Freedy Johnson’s version of it, a few years ago here. But today is the day for appreciating linemen (actually it was yesterday, but close enough), this seems like a good time to take a look at the Glen Campbell version, which was a No. 3 hit in 1968 (No. 1 on the country charts).

Campbell is backed on the record by the Wrecking Crew, of which he was a member.

Reading about the Campbell version, I learned about the many other covers of the tune. Most surprisingly? Kool and the Gang.

Jazzy instrumental, hard to not think of the lyrics though it goes to a totally different place.

The inspiration for the song, according to the Wikipedia entry, was a lineman working atop a telephone pole who Webb saw while driving across Oklahoma and brooding about a failed romantic relationship. Webb imagined himself on the pole, talking to his gal, his heart breaking. Webb called the image “the picture of loneliness.”

Warren Loft’s Modern Lovers on video

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My friend Angela found a version of the Modern Lovers’ Old World today which is pretty swell. I mean the video. This is one of rock’s greatest albums, and Warren Loft’s videos, at least the three I’ve seen, capture the music’s kinetics and precision and depth. I’ll be watching the rest of them, but what better way to start than Roadrunner.

 

Obit: Merle Haggard’s Great Songs

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As a young aspiring hippie it was easy to disdain Haggard’s epic “Okie From Muskogee,” but at the same time have the Grateful Dead’s version of Mama Tried on replay on the phonograph. I actually listened to a lot of Haggard back then, he was one of the great country songwriters who escaped categorization. And Mama Tried is just a fantastic song.

This tune was Haggard’s last Top 10 country chart song, one of 71 he had in his career, from back in 1987.

This one is classic Haggard.

 

Baby Metal on Colbert

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How many concepts in one?

Lou Reed, How Do You Think It Feels

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We watched Bridge of Spies tonight. Spielberg working from a Coen Brothers rewrite. What could be bad?

It isn’t bad, but it is thematically and historically weak. Donald Trump would say, Low energy. And it’s a fine reminder about the Cold War.

But this Lou Reed song, which is a major theatrical event, trumps. (No pun intended.) Because of the guitars. (Squaring the circle, it’s from the album Berlin.)

The Diane Linkletter Story

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The day after Diane Linkletter, daughter of the tv celebrity host, defenestrated herself while on LSD (a cautionary tale of the time in my junior high), John Waters made this cruddy movie, apparently while testing sound gear. It was never released as anything and the transfer here on YouTube is clearly the result of plenty of generations of VHS copies.

For me, despite all the production value problems, Waters and his actors (including Divine, as Diane), are technically clumsy but emotionally on it. This is like rock ‘n’ roll without music and rhythmic pleasure. But at times funny.

A campy and surprisingly, to me, excellent find, a jolt to the heart of parental paranoia.

Peter Perrett, Woke Up Sticky

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This is a fantastic tune by Peter Perrett, the singer songwriter at the heart of the Only Ones. This is by his 1996 band, the One, and was released on an elpee also called Woke Up Sticky.

It makes total sense that between their like (love?) of drugs, their romantic perspectives (cut by jaundice), mastery of classic rock tropes, and ability to twist them to their visions, Perrett and Johnny Thunder would bond.

41 Years of Thunder Road

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Nostalgia, pure, simple, awesome.

Bruce Springsteen: 41 Years on Thunder Road from Phil Whitehead on Vimeo.

The Only Ones, City of Fun

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Another great Only Ones tune.

Covered by Come, perhaps unnecessarily but effectively, in a Peel Sessions show in 1993.

What’s striking about the difference between these two versions is first, Peter Perrett’s voice, which is distinctive, assertive, brash.

But also, while Come rock it hard, the original is full of production tricks. Shifts of focus, subtle volume emphases, this is record making, while Come are playing live. The only known cover of this excellently energetic and melancholy tune.