Author: Roger

I'm a librarian. I hear music, even when it's not being played. I used to work at a comic book store, and it still informs my life. I won once on JEOPARDY! - ditto.

Lyle turns 50


I have a very specific recollection of the first time I became aware of Lyle Lovett. I was watching the Today Show one morning in 1989, and Lyle and His Large Band performed “The Blues Walk” and “Here I Am”, the first two songs from Lyle’s third album. Afterwards, Bryant said something like, “That’s country music?” Soon, I got Large Band, which I loved, the swing-infused side one, contrasted with the more countrified Side 2. I especially enjoyed his cover of “Stand By Your Man”, which would be used to great effect in the movie The Crying Game.

From then on, I was Lyle-obsessed. I got the first two albums. The first album features God Will, which was later covered by country artist Patty Loveless – the albums are adjoining in my collection. Pontiac is a good album, but a bit melancholy. Joshua Judges Ruth supplanted Large Band as my favorite, with the great song Church. I Love Everybody was a slightly lesser effort which came out during his Julia Roberts period, but features Record Lady. The Road to Ensenada, which is still my favorite Lyle album, features That’s Right(You’re Not from Texas).

It was a long time from Ensenada (1998) to what I felt was the next “real” Lyle album, My Baby Don’t Tolerate (2003). In between, there was a double album of covers, a live disc, a greatest hits album, and a collection of songs for which he contributed to soundtracks. Tolerate had some good tunes, especially the title track.

I’m very fond of the new album, It’s Not Big, It’s Large. I can”t say where it’ll end up fitting in my Lyle pantheon, but it’s already top 4. I think it’s enhanced by the DVD that came with the album which gave me a greater understanding of the songs.

I’ve also seen him as the closing act at the Newport Folk Festival in Saratoga Springs at some point in the last decade with Nanci Griffith, Joan Baez, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Alison Krauss, Bruce Cockburn, Marc Cohn, and Lucinda Williams. Great show! And I’ve seen him as a non-singing performer in movies such as The Player and TV shows such as Dharma and Greg.

He’s even name-checked in a couple songs, such as Mary Chapin Carpenter’s I’m Lucky.

Happy birthday, Lyle. You’ve brought me much enjoyment.

Main Releases


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Robert Goulet died recently. I actually have two Goulet songs in my collection: Sunrise, Sunset from some Columbia compilation LP and You’ve Got a Friend in Me from the Toy Story 2 soundtrack. Actually, I like them both, FWIW.

ROG

An Annual Tradition


Since it’s Halloween, and I always associate the holiday with bats, I thought I’d give my annual report on the flying mammal in our lives. Some of you may remember that we had had live sightings in our home in 2001-2005 and again in 2006

Actually, Carol saw one at school in the winter months, most unusual.

I saw one in the boys’ locker of the local YMCA back in July. I immediately went to the front desk and the center director and a custodian trapped it quite efficiently. I was razzed by my friends for leaving, but it wasn’t fear of the animal as much as fear that someone else coming into the locker room might be freaked out. It’s likely that the bat came down a HVAC vent that was being cleaned out.

My wife has unbridled optimism. Our bat last year arrived on August 1, and since we’d each seen a bat elsewhere, she figured we were safe. But on the night of August 24/25, in the midst of a return of hot and humid weather that had abated for a couple weeks, she (but not I) was awakened by something. Yes, it was another bat. As it flew into the guest room, carol closed the door and stuffed a towel under the door, and went back to bed, but probably did not sleep well. Come morning, she and I went into the room, with badminton racquets at the ready. We saw nothing until I hit my fall jacket that was hanging on the door, and down fell the bat, slightly stunned. Immediately, carol put her racquet on it, and we managed to get the beast in a shoebox, just as Lydia came into the room.

We taped up the box, I poked holes in it, and Carol eventually took it to the health department. A few days later, it was confirmed not to be rabid. But it HAD been alive, something that the person opening the box was…surprised to find. The drop-off place was unstaffed and the form we usually fill out in these cases was not there. So, oops, sorry.

Yes, we had netting in the possible entrance points, and we THINK we won’t have one next year. I’ll let you know.
ROG

ROG

Underplayed Vinyl: Jefferson Airplane


For the longest time, perhaps into the early 1980s, I thought Surrealistic Pillow was the first JA album. Not so; Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, with Signe Anderson as the female vocalist, got all the way to #128 in the Billboard charts in late 1966. But it was the second album, with Grace Slick, formerly of the group The Great Society, that created the required alchemy. Here’s a bunch of YouTube clips – some are performance videos, others pastiches.
1. She Has Funny Cars

2. Somebody To Love (a #5 single in 1967)
3. My Best Friend
4. Today
5. Comin’ Back To Me
6. 3/5 Of A Mile In 10 Seconds
7. D.C.B.A.
8. How Do You Feel
9. Embryonic Journey (used on the last episode of Friends, I understand)
10. White Rabbit – went to #8 on the charts

11. Plastic Fantastic Lover

The album went to #3 and spent 56 weeks on the charts. I always thought the strength of this album, and of the group generally, was the strength of the various vocalists/songwriters: Slick, Marty Balin, Paul Kantner and Jorma Kaukonen.

Grace Slick turns 58 today.
ROG

ROG

Johnny Bacardi’s blogiversary

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So, Johnny Bacardi hit his blog’s fifth anniversary, then quit it. It’s a great valedictory piece, starting with the sound clip “Five Years” by David Bowie; the given names of both David Bowie and Johnny Bacardi is David Jones. Fortunately, Johnny’s still doing his LiveJournal. So, ironically, everything on this post was used in Johnny’s LJ in 2005.

Which Bob Dylan song are you?

The Times They Are A-Changin’

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I feel like I’m forgetting someone else’s blogiversary. I mean, Lefty hit his fourth, but even HE forgot that.

ROG

Autumnal

There are people who really love the fall; I’m not one of them. I did notice, however, that when the family went pumpkin picking in Feura Bush, only abut 10 minutes from the Albany city line but most definitely rural, the colors were astonishingly more vibrant than any of the pale palate I’ve experienced in the city.

But the past week also had its own specific issues. Elizabeth Naismith, a member until the last couple years of the First Presbyterian choir died a couple weeks back, but her funeral wasn’t until yesterday. Her mother and she had their own cheese shop in Edinburgh Scotland, until her mother died, then she came to the United States to take care of an ailing uncle in Vermont. She finally made her way to Albany, where at age 70, she joined a church, my church, for the first time. She was a lovely, caring woman with a slight brogue. We left an empty chair with a robe draped on it when we sang for her service yesterday. Her obit is here.

Two other First Pres choir members were in the hospital this week, and those two I knew from my previous church, Trinity, as well. After singing all weekend with a shortness of breath, he went into the hospital Monday with pulmonary embolisms (blood clots) of the lung; she had a less serious medical procedure on Friday.

I worried about my sister and niece in the California fires, though that ended up with a good outcome.

Finally, there were a bunch of kids at Binghamton Central High School in the late 1960s who were the anti-war, left of center crowd. But we were all friends as well, partying together, sometimes romancing each other. We dubbed ourselves “Holiday Unlimited”, and our theme was “A splendid time is guaranteed for all”, which we copped from some pop song.

George Hasbrouck was one those folks. He died Sunday, October 7 at his home in Morristown NJ. He was 55. No cause of death was given in the obit in The Binghamton Press a couple weeks ago. We had all lost touch with George, though many had tried; as one friend put it, “he eschewed contact.” His obit is here.

The last time I saw him was probably 17 years ago at the BCHS Class of ’70’s 20th reunion. Yet I still feel quite sad about it.

So, it was a bit of a downer of a week. Sorry.
ROG

ROG
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