I had a work study job at the NYU film school, and I spent hours in the audio transfer room, turning vinyl and tape songs into 16mm film magnetic versions that could be used when cutting film.
NYU was famous for this sort of audio/visual presentation, which was the heart of the freshman and sophomore curriculum, because Martin Scorcese, Amy Heckerling, Martin Brest, and Oliver Stone, among others, built films off this music/film integration after attending NYU.
My favorite song I heard in audio transfer was the Runaways’ Cherry Bomb. This live version is the best I’ve seen.
We got the invite to our annual Passover gathering from host/friends Mark and Debbi Berenberg the other day.
Passover has become, over the years, a wondrous event: easily our favorite holiday.
My celebrating of Pesach with Mark and Debbi, and Richard and Barbara Kweller, along with David and Lynn Shussett, began in 1978, when the seven of us (plus my girlfriend at the time) gathered at the Berenberg house, eating a killer meal which featured great brisket from Debbi, and Matzoh Ball Soup (best on the planet) from Barbara.
We were young then, and it was the bay area in the 70’s, so we smoked four joints instead of drinking the traditional four glasses of wine (symbolizing the pleasures god bestows upon us). We had no Haggadah, the book that tells the story of the Exodus, so it was up to me to relate that Charlton Heston is found by Anne Baxter in the bullrushes and comes to live with Yul Brynner, and so on.
At the time, Lynne was pregnant, so that meant the first of the next generation from this core was on its way. In fact, we had a baby naming contest which I won easily with the name “Tennis” (couple it with Shussett).
Jesse was the actual moniker said child received, though she is known as “Tennis” by the originals who were there, but now, there are children and grandchildren and the table includes roughly 46, and that includes Jesse, her husband Mike, their oldest, Lucas, and their baby, Liv (this year will be Liv’s first with us) .
The dinner, which does include a traditional Seder, and goes through the story of the Exodus, is presided over by Mark, and he keeps things mostly in control, but with so many personalities, of so many ages, and so many margaritas (Mark has a special blend, which I refer to as “Markaritas”) and bottles of wine, it is a challenge.
Add in that wonderful brisket and Matzoh Ball Soup (it really is the best on the planet) and rosemary chicken and salads: enough food to feed a small battalion.
Of course there is desert, and at this point in our somewhat comfortable lives, we are all pretty serious foodies.
A few years back, I made up a sort of hybrid cheesecake that I bring as a desert item. The crust is those great Nabisco chocolate wafers, pulverized, and the body of the cake is half cream cheese and half mascarpone, and then I drizzle chocolate/hazelnut over the top.
Whenever it is time to prepare for the making this cake, I immediately think of Satchmo, also known as Louis Armstrong.
Armstrong’s influence over jazz might not be so well known to the masses, but let’s just say that starting with his real professional debut with King Oliver and the Red Onion Jazz Babies, in New Orleans, to his iconic hits like Hello Dolly and Wonderful World recorded late during his career, Satchmo ranks among the greats and most influential to modern music.
His live recordings with Ella Fitzgerald are a regular on my CD rotation, and I say this, with everyone knowing, I am a total rocker at heart. It is just that shit is so good (there is also something wonderful in hearing Armstrong, Yo La Tengo, The Clash, Jason Isabell, and the Guess Who shuffling).
I do love this song, which is stupid, simple, and simply wonderful. It is like my desert: have two slices!
Was surprised to learn today, during the Gathering of the Remnants (illustration above), that Steve really didn’t know the Blind Faith album.
I kind of stupidly said that the riffage in this song is akin to the riffage in Led Zeppelin’s Black Dog. Nope. But I will not surrender the right to think that both are working off the same template. But the outcomes are different. And the album version is much tighter and dynamic than this perfectly fine live (but live) version.
I fell in love with the early 80s Swiss band Chin Chin a couple months ago, based on their fine album, Sound of the Westway. But you’ve surely read my rantings here, here, here, and here.
It was only after actually downloading the entire album (I would have bought it if it was available), I learned that the gals’ first recording was my nominee for greatest song of the rock era. The Crystals Da Doo Ron Ron, of which I’d only posted the Searchers version here previously.
Chin Chin’s version clearly understands how great this song is, but it isn’t a full statement. They weren’t really a band when they recorded it. It’s thrown off the way the Sex Pistols tossed off Roadrunner in their first meeting. Songs they all knew and liked. On different scales, portentous.
The Unband were a flash in the pan, leaving behind just one album and a most excellent, non-typical rock book Gentlemanly Repose: Confessions Of A Debauched Rock ‘n’ Roller. Their album is a gem, though somewhat inconsistent. If everything was as great as the great stuff, it would be top 50 material (it may have even made my top 50 – I don’t remember). I posted their fine cover of Billy Squier’s Everybody Wants You a long time ago.
This video rocks like hell and explores several abstract themes, none of which make a lick of sense to me.
When I first learned about Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe and Graham Parker, I first learned that they grew out of a scene that was exemplified by the Brinsley Schwarz band. Pub rock, they called it.
This wasn’t a little thing. But I’m surprised I have to admit that I’ve never actually listened to Brinsley Schwarz until today. So this cut jumps out. A goofy Nick Lowe. What more could you ask for?
