Tag: music

November Untranslatable Rambling

gobsmacked AND flabbergasted

I lead with some heavy stuff; it gets lighter after the pic.

Read the sad tale of Bill Mantlo, former comic book writer and attorney, until a hit-and-run accident wrecked his life. Mark Evanier, linking to the article, writes: “Those who still fear government ‘death panels’ should take note of the portions of Mantlo’s story where his private insurer keeps trying to cut off all payments to him because, after all, their primary duty is to their stockholders.” Here’s the direct link to the article, and here’s Evanier’s correction to the article about the comic book process, which does not negate the insane way Mantlo has been warehoused.

But for sheer devastation, few things I’ve read actually made me weep like Jaquandor’s recollection of a particular day.

Joe Paterno and Jerry Sandusky’s Next Coaching Gig

The Beatles album artwork worth £70,000: Top 10 most valuable record sleeves revealed

How music changes our brains

The Beach Boys An Introduction to “SMiLE Sessions”, released this month. It’s great seeing Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and Brian Wilson on the same page.

Michelle Shocked – Quality of Mercy (version)

Evanier also found The Lambeth Walk as performed by Adolf Hitler and a batch of Nazi soldiers, which reportedly had Joseph Goebbels running, screaming from the room in anger. In fact, there are about a dozen versions of this song on his blog this month.

A song about Roman Emperor Constantine…sung to the tune of “Come On Eileen”. Of COURSE, it is.

SamuraiFrog linked to Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me) by Reunion. What caught my eye, though, were the initial visuals, which I recognized INSTANTLY from a commercial for Country Corn Flakes; I knew that ad by heart, I’m afraid.

American expat linguist Lynneguist, now in the UK, lists the untranslatables, those British and American English terms that don’t travel well across the pond. I made a comment, and a word I used as a jumping-off point for even more discussion.

Saucy Shakespearean Slings

Sid Melton, R.I.P. – if you watched a lot of TV in in the 1950s and later, you might say, “Oh, THAT guy.”

Maine Man’s Car Logs One Million Miles, Equivalent to Driving Around Earth 40 Times. Imagine how far he would have gotten if he’d only taken care of the vehicle.

Dustbury’s Today’s brain-cloud generator. Say What?

Mike Sterling was gobsmacked AND flabbergasted. Which is how I felt when I saw the middle item, about a new font, on Jaquandor’s page.

The Harvey Pekar Library Statue at the Comics as Art & Literature Desk — A Comics project in Cleveland Heights, OH. And Steve Bissette’s support for the same. Plus, in support of this memorial, Joyce Brabner has “coaxed Alan Moore out of the darkness wherein he dwells to video record a special message to comics folk in which he’s offering several hours– by invitation only– video conference from his home in the UK. Viewers may ask impertinent questions. Alan tells great stories.”

Bill Cosby – The Playground

Hawkeye Pierce as a serial killer

GOOGLE ALERT

Pols’ promise to themselves by Roger Green, Scottsbluff

George Harrison: 10 Years Gone

George was executive producer of Monty Python’s Life of Brian, a film I just picked up on DVD.

 

Unless I am misremembering, the first TIME magazine cover after September 11, 2001, that was not about 9/11 or the subsequent war in Afghanistan was the one announcing the death of George Harrison. I was sad that George died, of course, but I knew he was sick and not likely to get better. The top cover was the US version; the bottom one, the UK take.

This is obvious, I imagine, but one deals differently when someone dies expectedly or unexpectedly, by disease or by murder. John Lennon’s death a couple of decades earlier was a jolt; George’s was just sad.

In fact, George’s passing made me melancholy the more I thought about his contribution to the world, especially around the time of what would have been his 59th birthday the following February. He was a Beatle, of course. But he also organized the first of those superstar extravaganzas, the Concert for Bangladesh. He put out some great music as a solo artist. And he was executive producer of a couple dozen movies, including Monty Python’s Life of Brian, a film I just picked up on DVD, I liked it so much.

There was a Martin Scorsese documentary about George this year, which I haven’t seen. Here are some photos from it, and a piece from the New York Times. Also, there was an article Living in the Material World – 5 Things I Learned About George Harrison from the Scorsese Documentary, four of which I actually knew.

Other recent articles about George:
Rolling Stone magazine AGAIN did one of those 100 greatest Beatles songs. George had two in the top 10.

George had an Indian soul, according to his wife

The unseen GH photo album

George Harrison exhibit at the GRAMMY Museum

Borders liquidators sell off George Harrison guitar

And, of course, some music:

A couple of songs where George namechecks the Beatles:
Living in the Material World – GH
When We Was Fab – GH

Two versions of the Wilbury Twist by the Traveling Wilburys
1990 version, with lots of then-current stars
2007 version, which dumps most of them

A cover version of one of George’s best songs as a Beatle:
While My Guitar Gently Weeps by Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney, both of whom played on the original.

100 years of Chevy: music

Here’s a couple versions of the famous See the USA in Your Chevrolet commercial.

Chevrolet, the car company, is 100 years old this month. In honor of that milestone, there’s a dedicated Chevy station on Pandora.com, with 100 songs mentioning the Chevy; they are listed below.

But two fairly obvious choices are left off:

409 by the Beach Boys and Little Red Corvette by Prince. Little Red Corvette [listen] might have been left off because the Purple One can be fussy when it comes to licensing. But the exclusion of 409 [listen] is surprising.

Here are a couple of versions of the famous See the USA in Your Chevrolet commercial:
Dinah Shore – 1952
Glee – Super Bowl 2011

Here’s that list on Pandora:

99 In The Shade, Bon Jovi
All The Best, John Prine
American Pie, Don McLean [here’s The Grand Rapids, Michigan LipDub version]
Amy’s Back In Austin, Little Texas
Ball And Chain, Social Distortion
Blitz, Audio Adrenaline
Blue (Da Ba Dee) (Remix), Eiffel 65
Blue Jeans, Silvertide
Captain Jack, Billy Joel
Chattahoochee, Alan Jackson
Chevrolet, ZZ Top
Chevy Van, Sammy Johns
Chrome, Trace Adkins
Contact, Citizen Cope
Crazy About Her, Rod Stewart
Crocodile Rock, Elton John
Dare To Be Stupid, “Weird Al” Yankovic
Don’t Forget To Remember Me, Carrie Underwood
Dr. Feelgood (Live), Motley Crue
Drive South, John Hiatt
El Camino, Ween
El Tejano, Cowboy Troy
Everytime It Rains, George Strait
Fall In Love, Kenny Chesney
Family Reserve, Lyle Lovett
Fightin’ Words, Trace Adkins
Girls With Guitars, Wynonna Judd
Go ‘Head, Mystikal
Go Lil’ Camaro Go, The Ramones
Going Back To Cali, LL Cool J
Here I Am, Lyle Lovett
Here’s To You, Rascal Flatts
How Bizarre, OMC
Hustlin’, Rick Ross
I Can Only Think Of One, Dierks Bentley
I Go Back, Kenny Chesney
I Got You, Dwight Yoakam
I Learned That From You, Sara Evans
I Won All The Battles, Tracy Lawrence
I’ll Be Your Johnny On The Spot, Ween
I’m Customized, The Cramps
I’m Just A Girl, Deana Carter
I’ve Got A Rock N’ Roll Heart, Eric Clapton
If I Stay, Tracy Byrd
Jesse Went To War, Marcy Playground
Joe Rey, Fountains of Wayne
Keeping The Faith, Billy Joel
Less Than Zero, Elvis Costello
Let You Go, The Clarks
Metropolis, Trace Adkins
Miss Popularity, Jordan Pruitt
Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song), Billy Joel
Mud On The Tires, Brad Paisley
Natural Beauty, Neil Young
Neutron Dance, The Pointer Sisters [listen]
Night Moves, Bob Seger
One Bud Wiser, Gretchen Wilson
Paint The Town Redneck, J.M. Montgomery
Pickin’ Wildflowers, Keith Anderson
Picture Perfect, Nelly Furtado
Putting The Damage On, Tori Amos
Racing In The Street, Bruce Springsteen
Rapid Roy (The Stock Car Boy), Jim Croce
Real Gone, Sheryl Crow
Renegade, Tim McGraw
Repetition, David Bowie
Ridin’ In My Chevy, Snoop Dogg
Riding With Private Malone, David Ball
Right Time Of The Night, Jennifer Warnes
She’s In Love With The Boy, Trisha Yearwood
Small Town Girl, Kellie Pickler
Something On, The Tragically Hip
Song Of The South, Alabama
Still Love You, Rod Stewart
Superstar, Sheryl Crow
Suzy And Jeffrey, Blondie
Tannin Bed Song, Shawn Mullins
The Greeting Song, Red Hot Chili Peppers
Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man, Rolling Stones
Three Marlenas, The Wallflowers
Thunder Road, Bruce Springsteen
Thundering Hearts, John Mellencamp
Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift
Twentieth Century Fox, 38 Special
Unappreciated, Cherish
Uneasy Rider, Charlie Daniels
Union Sundown, Bob Dylan
Water, The Who
West Texas Highway, Lyle Lovett
When I Think About Leaving, Kenny Chesney
When You Close Your Eyes, Night Ranger
Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?, Paula Cole [listen]
Why Do We Want What We Know We Can’t Have?, Reba McEntire
You Never Know Just How Good You’ve Got It, Tracy Byrd
You Win My Love, Shania Twain
Young Blood, Rickie Lee Jones

Promoting the Concert

In general, how many days ahead of time do you plan attending an event? How has it changed with life circumstances?

There was a nice article in the [Albany, NY] Times Union newspaper on Saturday, November 5 about a concert of Mozart music taking place at First Presbyterian Church in Albany on Sunday, November 13; I will be participating. This led to some discussion about how people decide to go to events.

One parishioner thought that, while it was a great piece, it was too bad that it did not appear the day before the concert. Apparently, some people see an article on the Saturday religion page in the TU and are primed to go the next day.

Whereas I almost never see an event on that page that I have the means to attend a day or two out. Likewise, even in my single days, it was rare that I saw something that I first learned about in the TU Preview section or in Metroland on a Thursday and was able to attend within 48 hours of reading about it. An article might provide additional info beyond what I knew, but it would not be the initial inspiration for a night out.

Besides, the article published a week earlier allowed one to tweet and Facebook about it, and blog about it, especially to those who DON’T READ THE NEWSPAPER. Then other people might retweet and reFacebook (is that a word?) about it as well.

My question then: in general, how many days ahead of time do you plan to attend an event? How has it changed with life circumstances?

Anyway, it’ll be a busy weekend for me, with a dress rehearsal on Saturday and the concert on Sunday. If I’m slow approving your comments or visiting your blogs, you’ll know why.

Rock Hall Noms QUESTIONS

Beastie Boys, GnR, Chili Peppers will win. Who else, I don’t know. Donovan? King? Jett?

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame released its nominations in the last month or two. Here’s the nominating process. “Criteria include the influence and significance of the artists’ contributions to the development and perpetuation of rock and roll.” So there’s some vague line about commercial success, but also “importance”.

Invariably, there are those who kvetch about who’s not on the ballot – if I were so inclined, I’d mention the Moody Blues and Yes.

Who will get in? Who SHOULD get in?

The Beastie Boys – will get in. I have none of their albums.
The Cure – not yet, but eventually. Have a couple of albums.
Donovan – I want to get in, badly; on my ballot. Have a half dozen of his albums.
Eric B. & Rakim – won’t. Have none.
Guns ‘N Roses – mortal lock, tho, like others, there are unnominated artists who started earlier I’d like to see first. Have 2 of their albums.
Heart – eventually, not this year. Have at least one.
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts – maybe; I think Joan’s history with the Runaways raises her cred. I don’t think I have any!
Freddie King – doubt he’ll make it, tho he should, as an early influence, but I admit I have no albums.
Laura Nyro – also nominated last year, doubt she’ll EVER get in as a performer; she OUGHT to get in as a songwriter. She’d be on my ballot. I have at least four of her albums.
Red Hot Chili Peppers – I wish others had gotten in before them. I have one album.
Rufus with Chaka Khan – Chaka should; Rufus, not so much. I have one Rufus’ greatest hits, plus a couple of Chaka albums.
The Small Faces – maybe will get in. I have one or two albums.
The Spinners – I have an irrational affection; they’d be on my ballot, but they probably won’t get in. I have at least two of their albums.
Donna Summer – Nah, though I do have a mostly live double LP that was given to me in the early 1980s.
War – Nah, though I like their greatest hits album that I own.

To recap: I’d vote for Donovan, Jett, King, Nyro, Spinners.
Beastie Boys, GnR, Chili Peppers will win. Who else, I don’t know. Donovan? King? Jett?

Here are some favorites of the nominees I want to win.

Donovan – Barabajagal (Love is Hot)
Donovan – Season of the Witch
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – I Love Rock ‘n Roll
Laura Nyro – Eli’s Comin’
Spinners – Rubberband Man
Dionne Warwick & the Spinners – Then Came You

“A separate committee, composed primarily of producers, selects the inductees [for] the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Award for Recording Excellence [which] has replaced the Sidemen category.” Whatever. Still want Billy Preston.

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