I know what you are thinking. Ugh. The Eagles. I understand. Truth is I feel about them the same way I feel about Hall and Oates. Which is basically, I am not sure I like them, but I definitely like some of their songs.
Which is not really fair. One song, and you can dismiss, but there are four or five from each group anyway, that I know I really like (I think this is where Elton John falls for me, too). So, it is hard to really dislike a band that at least got to you more than a couple of times.
Plus, I do like just about anything Joe Walsh does, or at least has a hand in. And, it is still hard for some reason to suppress the Lebowski instinct to hate the band.
This is a really great cut, though. Very well executed. Great drums (by Henley) and the bass by Timothy B. Schmidt just plays off those staccato chops by Walsh.
I get the band may not be your cup of tea, but give this track a shot. It ain’t bad.
Lots of activity here the past few days, so I have a lot with which to catch up.
My last 72 hours have largely been at the point of some form of distraction at the Fantasy Sports Trade Association Winter Convention, which is always held in the strange city in the midst of the Nevada Desert.
It is always a lot of fun going, even though Las Vegas just seems stupid to me (on the money you spend to go to Las Vegas New York, and maybe lose gambling, you could just go to New York?) especially since I neither gamble nor drink.
This year was particularly great as our good friend Jeff Erickson was inducted into the Fantasy Writers Hall of Fame, and there is always a trip to the truly miraculous “Lotus of Siam” restaurant with Jeff and his Rotowire colleagues, Chris Liss, Derek Van Riper, and Tim Schuler.
As we were on route to one of the meals we had, I noted how the casino at the Bellagio seemed kind of dead compared to past years, and Jeff noted that Vegas was indeed hurting. He said that the next generation of adults coming up were all weaned on video games and the idea of paying to visit a place to play Black Jack or Craps when at worst you could do that online. And, at best there are any other number of games to play, for profit, or not.
So, in honor of the palate of the human spectacle the three days wrought–friendship, food, congratulations, potential economic meltdown, desperation–I tried to think of a Vegas-based tune to represent the time.
Obviously Elvis’ rendition Viva Las Vegas came to mind first, but I played some Elvis on his birthday. Then, there is Sheryl Crow’s Leaving Las Vegas. Crow’s song is actually pretty good, as is she, though it took a while for her to win me over. But, Sheryl Crow is a pretty good singer/songwriter, and even pretty strong musician.
But then I remembered the fine Shawn Colvin treatment of Viva, which was Written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, from the movie The Big Lewbowski, and that nailed it.
Though Complete Control is my favorite song by The Clash, Give Em Enough Rope is by far my favorite album by the band, as well as my favorite phase of theirs.
Rope was followed by London Calling, but by then the rawness of Complete Control became a little too polished for my taste. London Calling was ok, but for me Rope was the perfect mix of attitude and sonics and rawness.
I saw The Clash a couple of times when they toured behind Rope, and I still remember them opening once with Safe European Home, and the first chords just blasting out, and just grinning from ear-to-ear because it was soooo fucking good.
Well, when I was making Lindsay’s holiday disc, this Clash tune is another I stuck on the playlist. I had not heard it for a while, but Stay Free is just great, just like the album. Rope is now on my car’s computer, and also on my iPhone.
BTW, check out Strummer’s furious rhythm playing on this live track.
Somehow Peter invoking Dinah Washington triggered Della Reese and this terrific song for me.
The melody is taken directly from Puccini’s La Boheme (which became Rent on Broadway), specifically Musetta’s Waltz.
If you are curious about opera–which is an incredible spectacle and the best mélange of acting, singing, music, and stage production within the arts–La Boheme is a great place to start. Good story, lovely music, pretty accessible (I have seen it a couple of times, and remember, full tilt symphony was the rock’n’ roll of its day and technology).
Anyway, this song, penned by Bobby Worth is killer. I remember hearing it on the radio and being dazzled as a seven-year old.
Spent my last bullet and got the only Graveyard album I didn’t own yet, Lights Out. This song makes me wanna do the boogie-woogie.
(This video doesn’t even get the song title correct, but the pictures are more fun than looking at the album cover for five minutes. Dig that Richie Blackmore mini-solo at 2:30.)
I bought For Squirrels big label debut album after reading a pretty good Rollingstone review that noted the band had ceased due to a fatal auto accident that involved the group’s van. As part of that crash three members of For Squirrels were killed, along with the band’s manager.
Example, that disc, is pretty strong across the board. Nothing sensational, but none-the-less listenable from start to finish, and a solid first attempt. Unfortunately Example was released a month after the holocaust.
My understanding is the band was pretty good live (there were playback issues with YouTube share of the live performances, so I stuck with the album track). As for the band’s name, the apocryphal story is the band would play anywhere, anytime for anyone. They would even play “for squirrels.”
Would have been good to see how they might have developed. Gotta love a band with Rickenbackers at bass and guitar.
All these thoughts about food and adolescent bands reminded me of this tune from around 1964 by the Beach Boys.
I was a huge Beach Boys fan, at least till the British wave first hit. And, I was always enamored of Pet Sounds from first listen, which was a few years into the arrival of the Beatles and Stones.
I saw the Beach Boys live four or five times, though, during their hey day (I was at the show that was recorded and released as The Beach Boys in Concert) and their Surfin USA album was the first album I ever owned (a departure from the purchases of singles, that had dominated my life and appetite previously).
That meant that I started to buy albums as well as 45’s for a while, and for sure I got new Beach Boys albums, including Shut Down Vol. II from which I got to know this song.
By 1966, the side of Shut Down II (I think it was the second side) was on the record player spindle, along with side four of Blonde on Blonde and some other stuff I put on to hear every night as I went to sleep.
I remember liking this song a lot back then but have not thought about it for years (the food references, brought it up, I guess) but I was amazed when I listened that it is really a pretty tight little pop tune.
Pretty good words. Good Chuck Berry chords. Fabulous harmonies. Though the dullest break/solo in the history of time. I mean, Carl Wilson lays a couple of licks down during the finale: I wonder why they didn’t have him throw those in earlier?
Anyway, food, and being 14 aside, this is a really nice number from an era now long gone. I have to say too, how sad hearing this makes me in way. I posted Brian Wilson on Saturday Night Live a while back. I noted how pathetic the performance was. In deference, surely, to how vibrant this stuff is.
