Category Archives: lawr

The Abysmal State of Government

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If the world of pop music is endangered, then our system of finance and government is on life support.

It is Memorial Day, a day we need to seriously acknowledge the sacrifices made to keep our freedoms in tact and yet just now Congress is working to make our National Parks open to corporate sponsorship. Great. “Yosemite, Sponsored by Geico” is just what I was hoping to see next time I go the the park in order to get away from…Geico commercials.

I mean, it is bad enough that when the US Government evicted the Ahwahnechee tribe from the park when Theodore Roosevelt and Congress made Yosemite government protected land in 1903 (the park moved under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service in 1916). The Ahwahnechee had only lived in the valley for what some estimate as 7,000 years, basing their life cycles, religion, and culture around the seasons in what they considered a sacred place. But, what the fuck: the government evicted the tribe, and relocated them to Florida.

That is a terrible legacy, but the real problem is our culture is so focused on who has the most money and what said funds can buy that we have sold our soul accordingly. Don’t want to wait in the TSA line? Pay to get pre-check. Wanna drive in the carpool lane alone? Pay extra to the government and you can in some states.

Both these examples might seem silly, and even benign, but in a country where ostensibly “all men are created equal,” the very statement suggests we are all content to wait our turn in the lines of life.

Hah.

Impatient, money grubbing, and confusing financial success and power with competence and the ability to actually structure and order our society in a manner that does give everyone an equal shot are the rule, and if you doubt that, try explaining Donald Trump.

In contemplating this sorry state of affairs, all I could think of was the Brains fantastic song Money Changes Everything, and I went to YouTube in search of a version by the band, but what I really liked is this great live cover by Cyndi Lauper of the song that does indeed appear on her wonderful album She’s So Unusual.

Backed by another band I dig, The Hooters–who scored a hit during the same time frame with And We Danced–Lauper does indeed deliver a tour de force performance. I wish her passion could be channeled to the rest of the country so we would fucking wake up and recognize, money does change everything, and not necessarily for the better. (BTW, check out Lauper’s kicks: one white Chuck Taylor with black laces, and a Black one with white laces. Brilliant.)

 

Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Friend: “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”

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While trashing Deep Purple earlier, I stumbled into this video (which I guess a lot of folks have seen, but it eluded me) made when George Harrison was inducted as a solo artist into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame.

It is very good, but, if you ever doubted Prince’s mastery of the axe, watch this cos he KILLS (what happens to his guitar after the solo?).

Additionally, this great little piece about how it all came about and went down, by Finn Cohen, from the New York Times, is way interesting and fun and cool.

Finally, it might be easy to say Prince was grandstanding grabbing the spotlight on a song meant to be an homage to a late and great artist, but, Harrison was inducted the same year as the Purple One and I think that gives him some license to kick out some jams.

 

 

WTF? Deep Purple?

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I admit that I don’t pay a lot of attention to who gets inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame.

As with any cluster of humans trying to determine what is good or socially relevant or important to a sport or genre or discipline, the subjectivity of said homo sapiens is always beyond puzzling to me. And, it isn’t that I don’t understand that KISS or Steve Miller were enormously popular, but neither of those artists ever put anything out as interesting or challenging as Moby Grape’s debut album, which still sounds great although the band broke up over 40 years ago meaning no group could be further from HOF consideration. (I was looking for a vid of the song Omaha and found this great and funny live bit from the Mike Douglas Show, believe it or not.)

I do, however, like watching the Hall of Fame induction concert that HBO shows after the ceremony, and when I flipped the channel on the other day to see what part of the concert was on, there was Deep Purple getting inducted.

Huh? Deep Purple, who owned two hits–Hush, and Smoke on the Water–and never released a complete album worth owning or listening to? Deep Purple over Roxy Music? Or, Yo La Tengo? Over Steve Earle, or Richard Thompson, or Mick Ronson, or Marc Bolan, or the Dolls or even fucking Turbonegro who are a lot more fun and interesting than Highway Star will ever be?

Putting Deep Purple in the Hall is like saying Mark Kotsay is HOF worthy (and, I love Kotsay, a good and steady player, but hardly one who should live in the archives among the best or most influential ever).

At this point, I am no longer interested in even seeing the live excerpts from the show, as the Hall is there with the Grammies and Oscars.

Note, it wasn’t even worth posting a Deep Purple video. We know their hits: we don’t care about the rest. Good thing the R’n’R HOF wasn’t started in the early 70’s or Up With People might have been voted in.

 

More Spotify Fun with The Stone Roses, Ace Frehley, The Mekons, and Mojo Nixon

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Not much secret how much fun I am having listening to my Spotify Weekly Playlist. Although, I would like to know the guys that program how our likes and preferences are bounced, and then built the algorithm that crunches my liking Yo La Tengo and Pink Floyd and the Kinks and Bill Frisell, and figures out that I might like the New York Dolls, or Love, or a bunch of other bands I never hinted at?

More interesting, is that over the past two cycles of songs–Spotify drops 30 a week onto a Monday playlist based on the how the company projects what I would like–I have not only loved just about every song, especially in context, but tunes have appeared that I did not know that I am sure would appeal to my Remnants mates.

I was always a Raspberries fan, and I know at least Steve and I were both fans, but how Spotify knew and dropped I Wanna Be With You on the playlist last week, though, is beyond me. But, the next track on that playlist was the ultra fantastic Love Spreads, by the Stone Roses. How that made the equation is even more obscure, though the Roses were a favorite (their debut album might have made my essential 50) but I had not thought of the band in years.

There were more, but this week’s craziness included a song by Ace Frehley, the KISS guitarist whom I would normally dismiss, but this tune, New York Groove, is a pretty good guitar driven pop tune. And, again, I am guessing Steve, who is more traditional in his music listening habits, would at least chuckle at the irony behind this.

This week also gave me a Tom Verlaine tune, Kingdom Come, I did not know and I suspect both Peter and Gene would (if they don’t already) love, and then for fun, the killer (and also new to me) Where Were You by the Mekons, a fave band of Peter’s, came blasting out.

This was with Do You Feel Like I Do, Just Dropped in to See What Condition (my Condition Was in), Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave, The Shape I’m In, peppered into the mix, along with this somewhat obscure gem from the past.

 

 

 

Obit: Lonnie Mack (1941-2016)

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lonniemackAgain the cosmic forces have struck the pop music world with the passing of guitar great Lonnie Mack.

To the casual listener, Mack might only be known for his iconic instrumental rendition of Chuck Berry’s Memphis in 1963.

But, the blues player who favored a Gibson Flying V axe fitted with a Bigsby whammy bar played sessions and influenced a generation of players including Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, Jeff Beck, and Bootsy Collins, among others, who all noted Mack’s style and attack were pivotal learnings in their own relative development as guitar gods.

Mack also collaborated, recording with Janis Joplin in a duet of George Jones’ Things Have Gone to Pieces, that featured Jerry Garcia on lap steel and Jimi Hendrix on guitar. Mack, who was the Elektra records guitar guru during the 60’s and 70’s also played bass on the first two Doors albums, in addition to his own recordings and performing over the decades.

Lesser known perhaps than his admirers, Mack was considered a “guitarist’s guitarist” and a pioneer within the music industry for his single string phrases accented by the infamous Bigsby.

Ciao Lonnie. Let’s leave you with the killer.

 

Obit: Prince Rogers Nelson (1958-2016)

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Details are still spilling in and vague, but the iconic artist known as Prince has passed away at age 57.

To say this is shocking does not do the story justice, but Prince belongs up there with Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, and the Stones in my view as a brilliant artist who had vision and who dared us to join him on his musical/artistic/spiritual journey.

As in, Prince could probably have just redone his brilliant Purple Rain soundtrack/album over and over in variations of funky rock’n’soul over the past 30 years, but he didn’t. Rather Prince challenged and reinvented himself over and over and though the results might not have been as tuneful or accessible as Purple Rain, the results were those of an artist and performer who would not be compromised, and that is the essence of art in my view.

Since I don’t know much more at this point, not sure what else can be said? I was looking for a YouTube of Little Red Corvette, my favorite song by the artist which features great and clever lyrics, a fantastic melody, and a great production, but I could not find one.

So, off to the ether with an equally wonderful tune, Purple Rain.

Cannot believe you are gone Prince. As usual, earth will miss the void you left.

 

The Wonderful Spotify Weekly Playlist

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My partner Diane, of all people, turned me onto an aspect of our Spotify subscription that is dynamite.

Based upon the listeners likes, the system picks out other like artists the brainchild of the system thinks will fall in line with said taste.  I know all the music streams, like Slacker and Pandora, have variations of this, but what Spotify does is simply assemble a weekly list of 30 songs that might pique the listener.

If is funny that Diane found this, since she was skeptical about Spotify, and has very specific musical taste, which means she likes what she likes and there is no explaining it or rationale and that means she likes “I Want to be a Millionaire,” “Thrift Shop,” “Purple Rain,” and “It’s a Long Way to the Top (if You Wanna Rock’n’Roll).” So, don’t ask me to try to connect the dots.

Diane found Weekly Playlist while looking for one to stream while she was at the gym, and said it was really fun. so I plugged in three weeks ago and it knocked me out.

As in I am not sure how they profile us, but they got me nailed based upon my favorite artists listed of The Kinks, Richard Thompson, Mick Ronson, The Who, Yo La Tengo, Bill Frisell, Joe Jackson, Pink Floyd, and Wilco.

So, here is the list of 30 songs for this week (Spotify seems to change the list every Monday) I streamed on my way to and from the links the past couple of days, some of which I know and love, others which are new and I dig, all of which are great.

  1. The Ballad of El Goodo-Big Star
  2. Cocaine-Jackson Browne
  3. When the Circus Comes-Los Lobos
  4. LA Freeway-Guy Clark
  5. Heroes and Villains-Brian Wilson
  6. Grass-XTC
  7. The Sky Children-Kaleidoscope (whom I saw open for Buffalo Springfield in 1968)
  8. Things-Paul Westerberg
  9. Lover of the Bayou-Mudcrutch (Tom Petty’s first band)
  10. Season of the Witch-Al Kooper
  11. Dominance and Submission-Blue Oyster Cult
  12. Girls Talk-Dave Edmunds
  13. Heaps of Sheeps-Robert Wyatt (which I did not know, really liked, and posted below)
  14. Space Cowboy-Steve Miller (and a coincidence Gene linked to it a few days back)
  15. Showdown at Big Sky-Robbie Robertson (from a killer album)
  16. Nothing but the Wheel-Peter Wolf
  17. Funky But Chic-David Johanson
  18. Next-The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
  19. Go Down Gamblin’-Blood, Sweat, and Tears
  20. Voodoo Chile-Jimi Hendrix
  21. I Ain’t Superstitious-Jeff Beck
  22. Dirty Water-The Standells
  23. I Fought the Law-Bobby Fuller Four
  24. Black Cat Moan-Beck, Boggart, Appice
  25. Turn it On-The Flaming Lips
  26. Big Sky Country-Chris Whitley
  27. Hush-Deep Purple
  28. Sweet Dreams-Roy Buchanan
  29. East-West-Paul Butterfield Blues Band
  30. Fare Thee Well, Miss Carousel-Townes Van Zandt

Perfect, huh? All over the map, and totally satisfying. And, give Heaps of Sheeps a listen!

 

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Afternoon Snack: The Horrors, “So Now You Know”

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I do love Brit pop. No question.

The other night I woke up somewhere in the middle of what should be deep sleep time, turned on the tube to ease me back into the arms of Morpheus, and in the process stopped at the Palladium channel, which is all concerts and music all the time.

As it happened, I stumbled into a long late night broadcast from Glastonbury a couple of years back, and this song and band.

I am not too sure about the band name, but this song is really nice and dreamy. And, the guitar player does some fun stuff with his 12-string on an axe that looks like he found it in a pawn shop (which is good).

Irrespective, I like this song a lot.

 

 

Afternoon Snack: The Youngbloods, “Hippie From Olema”

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As noted, because of the bigoted nature of Okie from Muskogee,  I have always had a tough time with Merle Haggard, no matter who he played with, or what he wrote.

But, this answer to Okie, by the Youngbloods was always strong in my heart and made me think there was at least an artistic “fuck you” pointed back at Merle and the song. Olema is a little town near the Pt. Reyes National Seashore, a beautiful area in Northern California.

Here you go.