Tag: music

Sing If You’re Glad to Be Gay

Mitt Romney let religious right activists bully his campaign over its hiring of an openly gay foreign policy staffer, Richard Grenell. After the campaign froze him out of press briefings to quell the controversy, Grenell finally quit…, with no effort by the presumptive nominee to persuade him to stay.

In the “nobody said progress was linear” department, I note that in short order:
* Joe Biden Says He’s Comfortable with Gay Marriage, a remark which sent all the tea leaf watchers to ponder whether it was a “gaffe”
* US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Supports Gay Marriage
* Despite the pleas of good Christian folks such as this guy, the voters of North Carolina voted for constitutional Amendment 1, which not only reemphasizes an already codified law, which will also complicate the lives of unmarried heterosexual couples

* President Barack Obama said:
I was asked a direct question and gave a direct answer:
I’ve always believed that gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly and equally. I was reluctant to use the term marriage because of the very powerful traditions it evokes. And I thought civil union laws that conferred legal rights upon gay and lesbian couples were a solution.

But over the course of several years, I’ve talked to friends and family about this. I’ve thought about members of my staff in long-term, committed, same-sex relationships who are raising kids together. Through our efforts to end the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, I’ve gotten to know some of the gay and lesbian troops who are serving our country with honor and distinction.

What I’ve come to realize is that for loving, same-sex couples, the denial of marriage equality means that, in their eyes and the eyes of their children, they are still considered less than full citizens.

Even at my own dinner table, when I look at Sasha and Malia, who have friends whose parents are same-sex couples, I know it wouldn’t dawn on them that their friends’ parents should be treated differently.

So I decided it was time to affirm my personal belief that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry.

I respect the beliefs of others, and the right of religious institutions to act in accordance with their own doctrines. But I believe that in the eyes of the law, all Americans should be treated equally. And where states enact same-sex marriage, no federal act should invalidate them.

Even before the President’s latest pronouncement, Arthur had noted the President’s accomplishments on the GLBT front. Meanwhile, “Speaker John Boehner decided to use our tax dollars to intervene and stand up for DOMA to deny LGBT Americans the rights they deserve.” And only last week, Mitt Romney… let religious right activists bully his campaign over its hiring of an openly gay foreign policy staffer, Richard Grenell. After the campaign froze him out of press briefings to quell the controversy, Grenell finally quit…, with no effort by the presumptive nominee to persuade him to stay. If Grenell was qualified to hold the sensitive post of foreign policy spokesman, why did Romney cave instantly to demands from radio hosts and other ignorant bigots to let him go? I find that far more telling than the bullying incident from Romney’s youth.

I’m not a single-issue voter, but on this issue, the courage and cowardice are clear.

I’ve read suggestions that Charlotte, North Carolina should be stripped of the Democratic National Convention this summer, in response to the state’s vote; whether it should or shouldn’t, it’s not going to happen. Planning national conventions take months of preparation for security and other considerations.
**
Gay Pride events, mostly in June

*God v. Gay?, where I link to an important video piece

*Mark Evanier wrote: “My friend Shelly Goldstein…on this blog, writes a monthly column for a Gay Rights website arguing for more tolerance and also some of those ‘equality’ things like marriage. When I mentioned her gig to someone once, he furrowed his brow and said, ‘She’s not gay, is she?’ No, she’s not and it’s sad that there are some people out there who can’t seem to grasp the concept of taking a stand on behalf of others, as opposed to your own immediate self-interest.”

Glad To Be Gay- Tom Robinson Band, a most significant song from 30+ years ago that’s been rolling around my head. I first heard a live, solo version on the Secret Policeman’s Ball album c. 1979.

I Talk To the Wind

The truth is, that morning, the song I was REALLY singing was Windy by the Association.

Back on April 27, the Albany, NY area had a WIND advisory. I’m stubborn, though, since it was ostensibly warm enough to ride my bike to a certain point (by the school on Northern Boulevard for you locals). I needed the exercise, though I required gloves and a knit cap, because, as Jaquandor wrote about the winter: “Wind can pretty much render any set of weather circumstances unpleasant.” That piece came to mind during the sojourn.

How was it possible that I was ALWAYS riding into a headwind?

I get to my initial destination, waiting for a bus. It was trash day, and a piece of recycling had fallen out. Ever get a deli platter for a party? In the US, at least, the bottom section is usually black. As it started moving around, I decided to pick it up. It would move just out of my reach, as though someone had tied a string on it and was yanking it away in a minor comedy. I finally stepped on it, retrieved it, and placed it in the recycling bin.

By this time, the clear plastic top of the platter combo, much lighter in weight, was blown out of the recycling bin, and just took off, out into the street, against traffic, at about 12 miles per hour; I had no chance of retrieving it, but I marveled at its peculiar artistry.

On the way home, it wasn’t bad heading south, but heading west was very difficult. Usually, I just take lengthy stretches in each direction, but on that day, I’d zig down one street, and zag down another to avoid an extended ride into the wind. The distance was not much farther, but I got home, unusually exhausted.

The title reference was to a song by King Crimson. But the truth is, that morning, the song I was REALLY singing was Windy by the Association; hey, it’s jauntier!

Wall of Death

“You can waste your time on the other rides
This is the nearest to being alive”

Someone I knew personally died last week; he’s the third one in 2012, and the year is only a third over. He was a guy named Nate. I knew him because he represented his agency, the state Department of Transportation, in the same way I represent mine within the New York State Data Center Affiliate program. Early on, he would speak in such technical terms that he might well have been speaking Klingon, so little I understood. But as I became savvier with the data and the terminology, he became more comprehensible. He became a great resource for me. About 15 months ago, he discovered he had lung cancer, which had been treated until the last few days when he went into hospice. He died at the age of 61. I missed going to his funeral and the shiva, though I did learn about the best kosher supermarket.

In the same Sunday obituary section was news of the death of the adult daughter of a friend of mine. A sad story.

A couple of years ago, an old buddy of mine from the FantaCo days died at the age of 47 after a stroke. I posted his obituary, which I didn’t write, online. A few days ago, his sister wrote to me. She hadn’t seen him in 30 years, did not know he died until she saw my reposted document, and wanted to know more. I got her in touch with a former employer of his who wrote to her. She wrote back with a three-page thank you.

A woman on my floor who I would see regularly had been missing for a week and a half. She mentioned that her mom just died.

Yet with all of that, or maybe because of all of that, the song running through my head is Wall of Death by Richard and Linda Thompson, from their last album together, Shoot Out the Lights.

The lyrics:
Let me ride on the Wall Of Death one more time
Oh let me ride on the Wall Of Death one more time
You can waste your time on the other rides
This is the nearest to being alive

Here’s a live version much in the style of the record.

From this article: “They approach the song’s declaration, joyfully or not, as a philosophy for living. Ideal for a pub setting, their vocals are stout. The same goes for the attitude Thompson has conjured. A world of risk and intrigue is favored over one with the comforts and predictability of an orderly life.

“A life of mystery and a hope of fortune occur when breaking from the ordinary. Thompson declares riding ‘The Wall of Death is the nearest to being free.’ He takes a dim view toward the rides (and a lifestyle) that offer a familiar outcome.”

So perhaps the lesson I’ve absorbed is to live your life to the fullest, for you just don’t know how much time you have.

My bag is sinkin’ low and I do believe it’s time

Ever since I read, a couple of days ago, that Levon Helm of the band The Band was near death, I got in a very reflective mood, fueled in part by others’ reaction to the news. One of my colleagues, who has seen him perform in recent years, was already in mourning. Another, who had seen The Band perform in their heyday, was walking around the office singing “The Weight;” “I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin’ about half past dead; I just need someplace where I can lay my head.” I’ve known this person for nearly two decades, but this was a side of him I had never seen.

He noted that he played his copy of The Band’s eponymous second album, the brown-covered one, so often that his college roommates needed to switch rooms to get away from that music. He had to buy the LP a couple of times because he wore the first copy out.

I have a similar love for that album. I remember that my friend Karen turned me onto it in high school. In fact, she was the editor of the high school yearbook, and she replaced one of the pictures of the school band with a photo of The Band. Those first four albums, including Stage Fright and Cahoots, I played a LOT in college. In fact, the house where Music from Big Pink, the first Band album, was recorded was not that far from my girlfriend’s (the Okie) parents’ home.

Conversely, a couple of our young interns didn’t even know who The Band was, and I felt obliged, nay, compelled, to share this bit of Americana with them, playing some songs on YouTube, such as The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down and Rag, Mama, Rag. I told them that MARTIN SCORSESE filmed their farewell tour as “The Last Waltz.” I noted that they used to back Bob Dylan – they DID know who Dylan was. Elton John named his song Levon after The Band’s drummer, Levon Helm.

Levon, moreover, was the voice behind so many of those Band songs. I remember seeing this clip on CBS Sunday Morning back in 2007 when he was recovering from throat cancer and put out some albums, the first two of which I own, Dirt Farmer and Electric Dirt.

I only regret that I never had a chance to go to one of his Midnight Rambles, a series of fundraisers to help defray the massive cost of his medical procedures. See the unbridled joy expressed only last month as the legendary Band drummer recounts stories from his long career and rambles through two classics.

The Weight – The Band from Woodstock
Up On Cripple Creek – The Band from The Last Waltz
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down – The Band from The Last Waltz
Poor Old Dirt Farmer – Levon Helm
And in the “apple doesn’t fall from the tree” division:
I Am Waiting – Ollabelle, featuring Amy Helm, Levon’s daughter, on this Rolling Stones cover

Levon Helm, Drummer, and Singer of the Band, Dead at 71
Whip to Grave: Levon Helm, the Real Voice of America
The Band cover story on Coverville

The ubiquitous Dick Clark

“And then Dick Clark approached them, said ‘I know a thing or two. I’ll put you on a TV show and make big stars of you.'”

Dick Clark was everywhere, or so it seemed. I remember him from American Bandstand, which I watched almost every week for well over a decade in the 1950s and 1960s, and occasionally after that. That show had a feature called Rate-A-Record, from which the catchphrase “It’s got a good beat and you can dance to it” was made famous. This version of Bandstand Boogie by Les Elgart, which became the American Bandstand Theme, has several shots of Clark. Here is The Time performing The Walk on AB from 1983.

I was an avid viewer of Where The Action Is from the late 1960s, a show which, I distinctly remember, introduced the videos for the Beatles’ Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever. That show featured the group Paul Revere and the Raiders, who namechecked Clark in the song Legend Of Paul Revere: “And then Dick Clark approached them, said ‘I know a thing or two. I’ll put you on a TV show and make big stars of you.'”

Undoubtedly watched him most as the host of the game show Pyramid (initially the $10,000 Pyramid), a show I tried out for and failed to get on in 1977.

When I bought a Time-Life CD collection covering the rock and roll hits of 1955-1961, guess who was listed as the compiler?

But check out his IMDB listings as producer and host of a variety of award shows, and other specials. I did see him, early on, doing the New Year’s Eve show, though not since his first appearance after his stroke a few years back.

The New York Times story.

Here’s his appearance on the TV show This Is Your Life from 1959, where he appears with his first wife Barbara, and his eldest son.

Mark Evanier’s take.

An unflattering portrayal of Clark in the book White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s By Joe Boyd; some of the allegations seem to be contracted by others.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

From ABC News: Dick Clark, Entertainment Icon Nicknamed ‘America’s Oldest Teenager,’ Dies at 82

PLUS:
Lester Bangs on Dick Clark, from nearly 40 years ago.
Reminder: Dick Clark, not Dick Cheney, died Wednesday

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial